The Ralph Lauren Playbook For Selling Houses

Transcript

[00:00:00] You've got a seller who sure their home is worth more than the market says and you're

[00:00:05] dreading the conversation.

[00:00:06] Today's guest sold a tennis legend's estate for 12 million, which is a county record,

[00:00:11] after it was first listed at nearly 20 million with another agent.

[00:00:16] He'll give you the one question that opens up the price talk without making you the bad

[00:00:20] guy stay tuned.

[00:00:22] This episode of Keeping It Real is brought to you by Real Geeks.

[00:00:26] How many homes are you going to sell this year?

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[00:00:33] Are you spending money on leads that aren't converting?

[00:00:36] Well, Real Geeks is your solution.

[00:00:38] Find out why agents across the country choose Real Geeks as their technology partner.

[00:00:43] Real Geeks was created by an agent for agents.

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[00:01:16] Visit realgeeks.com forward slash Keeping It Real Pod and find out why REALTORS come to

[00:01:21] Real Geeks to generate more business.

[00:01:24] Again, visit realgeeks.com forward slash Keeping It Real Pod.

[00:01:28] And now onto our show.

[00:01:30] Today's episode is brought to you by corded.io.

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[00:02:51] And now, onto the show.

[00:03:06] Welcome to Keeping It Real, the largest podcast made by real estate agents and four real estate

[00:03:13] agents.

[00:03:13] My name is DJ Paris.

[00:03:14] I'm your guide and host through the show.

[00:03:17] And today, our guest is Bill Melnik.

[00:03:20] I'm going to tell you more about Bill.

[00:03:22] Bill has spent 28 years at Ralph Lauren, rising to chief merchandising officer before reinventing

[00:03:30] himself as one of Litchfield County's most recognized luxury real estate agents.

[00:03:35] Since joining Elise Harnie real estate in 2019, he has closed over 207 transactions.

[00:03:42] Totaling over 144 million in volume, including a county record, $12 million sale of tennis

[00:03:49] legend Ivan Lendles, $445 acre Cornwall estate.

[00:03:54] His corporate background gives him a distinct edge polish negotiation skills, a wide New York

[00:03:59] city sphere of influence and a refined eye for design that resonates with discerning buyers.

[00:04:05] So Bill is licensed in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York.

[00:04:08] It's a triple threat and has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times,

[00:04:12] and also appeared on Fox Business channel.

[00:04:15] I want everybody to follow Bill at his Instagram, which is Bill underscore Melnik, M-E-L-N-I-C-K,

[00:04:21] underscore real, underscore estate.

[00:04:23] Again, Bill underscore Melnik, underscore real, underscore estate on Instagram.

[00:04:27] We'll have a link to that in the show notes.

[00:04:29] No need to type it in.

[00:04:30] Welcome Bill.

[00:04:32] How you doing?

[00:04:33] I am good and grateful that you are here.

[00:04:37] I want to jump right in with your previous career at Ralph Lauren.

[00:04:42] You were there at 28 years.

[00:04:45] And the way I always think about Ralph Lauren is they don't really sell clothing or they

[00:04:50] don't sell shirts.

[00:04:50] I guess maybe it'd be these days, but I said, you know, Ralph Lauren really sold a life

[00:04:55] that you wanted to step into.

[00:04:57] And at least the way I think about that brand.

[00:05:00] And when you walk into a listing appointment now, sort of what do you see in the house?

[00:05:07] That maybe the agent before you walked right past and missed.

[00:05:12] Right, right.

[00:05:13] So you're right, Ralph Lauren was the first one to market himself as a lifestyle.

[00:05:18] A lot of the advertising was lifestyle driven and not product driven or not specific product

[00:05:24] driven, which was revolutionary in the industry for both him and Bruce Weber at the time

[00:05:28] were shooting the ads.

[00:05:29] So that gave me a different perspective on how to promote and how to market things.

[00:05:37] So not every company was doing that.

[00:05:40] I worked for the gap for a little bit of time as well.

[00:05:42] And there are marketing and advertising approach was way more product focused.

[00:05:47] So I have experience with both.

[00:05:50] But for me, in real estate now, as I transitioned that lifestyle merchandising experience has

[00:05:56] been really invaluable.

[00:05:58] So, you know, knowing the luxury customer from all those years of dealing with them in

[00:06:05] a different part of their lives, you kind of get to know what they're looking for.

[00:06:10] And they're looking for 360 degrees of lifestyle.

[00:06:15] So they're looking for the location they're looking for the cache, they're looking for the

[00:06:20] beautiful home, the view.

[00:06:22] And you have to present all of that to them in a cohesive and coherent way.

[00:06:29] Yeah, I think that's, I think that makes a lot of sense.

[00:06:31] And I didn't even think about the merchandising part of Ralph Lauren, which of course is huge.

[00:06:38] And just its visual appearance and stores, you know, how they position the clothing,

[00:06:43] they have their own shops of, well, they don't just have their own shops, they sell

[00:06:46] in a lot of different retail shops.

[00:06:49] So merchandising is everything for them in addition to selling the lifestyle brand.

[00:06:54] So I'm curious like if we think about the last listing you took just to come up with an

[00:07:00] example from the first walk through the photo shoot.

[00:07:05] So what, what did you change?

[00:07:07] So when you have a listing, how important is it for you to stage the listing, for example,

[00:07:13] or make changes to the physical attributes of the, you know, the internal part of the home?

[00:07:19] It's like, what do you take out?

[00:07:20] What do you keep?

[00:07:21] Do you leave everything as is?

[00:07:23] You're curious of your approach there.

[00:07:25] Sure, sure.

[00:07:26] So we're lucky enough to have a lot of beautiful homes that are already pre-staged.

[00:07:30] So, you know, the sellers might have had a decorator or have a great eye themselves.

[00:07:34] You know, the biggest thing for staging for me is moving around furniture a little bit,

[00:07:39] but it's really editing.

[00:07:40] It's on the edit.

[00:07:41] There can't be too much clutter, even in a beautiful home that's been, you know, already styled.

[00:07:48] You have to remove some of the clutter so people can imagine what their stuff would look like in the

[00:07:52] space.

[00:07:53] So that's the number one biggest thing I think is to remove anything that becomes kind of

[00:07:59] visual pollution from a photographic standpoint because you're just too much.

[00:08:05] And that's a different way of photographing an environment.

[00:08:09] Then if you were photographing it for

[00:08:13] editorial for a magazine or something, it has to be a little bit more real estate focused

[00:08:19] with the mix of the editorial vignettes, small corners, and so forth as well.

[00:08:25] So you get the full picture of the actual practicality of the house as well as the

[00:08:32] aesthetic and the luxury aspect of it as well.

[00:08:36] When even though your luxury clients usually do have really beautifully done interiors

[00:08:45] and different fixtures and all sorts of wonderful, beautiful parts of the house,

[00:08:51] if there's something that you're like, that is not like a weird wallpaper or something that

[00:08:56] they think is beautiful and lovely, but maybe doesn't translate to the entire population of

[00:09:01] potential buyers. Do you have those tough conversations or are usually able to work around it?

[00:09:08] I'm just curious.

[00:09:09] Yeah, absolutely. So and most of the sellers are open to it. They ask your opinion,

[00:09:16] but in some rooms the kind of white paint goes the wrong way.

[00:09:21] You know, it needs to be appealing to a broad spectrum of people.

[00:09:26] You know, also when we give advice to our clients who have already bought houses and they're

[00:09:30] doing renovations and so forth and they ask, are opinion and what's the best

[00:09:36] thing they could do now that's investment in their future sale of the house?

[00:09:40] You know, I suggested them to make it beautiful and make it quality, but when you remove all your

[00:09:46] stuff from it, all the high end fixtures should be relatively neutral, neutral stone, some neutral

[00:09:52] trim paint, all that kind of stuff. So and then, you know, anyone's stuff looks good against that

[00:09:58] background. Yeah, that's a really good point. And and I'm sure there's times where you look at,

[00:10:03] you know, countertops that haven't been updated in 20 years just because, you know,

[00:10:08] they homeowners didn't need to. And I imagine sometimes you have to have those conversations like,

[00:10:12] hey, it might make sense to swap out, you know, this, this granite for, for courts or different color

[00:10:19] or imagine even big, big changes like that I'm sure have happened.

[00:10:24] Yeah, it is. And you have to sometimes an old neutral colored countertop is better than a new

[00:10:30] pink one. So, you know, it's he also has to balance it with what will, you know, you're selling

[00:10:38] an expensive home. A person means is going to come in and look at it and they might just be

[00:10:44] replacing it anyway. So it's all that balance. Yeah, that's true. I guess when you're dealing in

[00:10:49] luxury space, there's probably more of a readiness to make those big changes even after the sale

[00:10:56] because they might have designers or people that are kind of come in anyway and make all sorts of

[00:11:01] changes. So you've said before that buyers, they're not, they don't buy square footage really what

[00:11:08] they're buying is frontage, which is views and an experience you can't really replicate. So a lot of

[00:11:16] agents that I talk to believe the comps are the comps period and where does the lifestyle story

[00:11:24] stop working and the price per foot actually wins. I'm curious where that shows up.

[00:11:30] Okay, well, there's a lot of adjustments to be to be made to be made in these situations.

[00:11:36] And it's very funny. I'm dealing with a few New York agents, New York City agents right now

[00:11:41] as clients who have a hard time getting past the square footage. So, you know, we have different

[00:11:47] things up here. We have Lakefront. You know, that could add $2 million to the property right away

[00:11:53] just for a small lot. You know, big mountain views could add, you know, millions of $2 million

[00:11:59] to the price right away. Pools for instance, get $200 to a quarter million to the price of the

[00:12:06] property. Location, whether the property has a lot of acreage, is it usable acreage, is it

[00:12:14] about in conservation lands, can people build around you and ruin your view. All that has to be

[00:12:20] taken into account. So it's a much more complicated equation than just doing square footage.

[00:12:26] And if you don't know that you're coming in from an outside market, somebody from New York City is

[00:12:32] moving out to the sub, moving out to Connecticut. They might, the agent might not know any of this.

[00:12:38] And so you that have to educate them, I imagine. Yeah, yeah.

[00:12:43] Yeah, you have to, you have to be educated on the new, new answers of the, of the community and

[00:12:50] of your market. So for us, you know, views, conservation land, mountains, lake frontage, pools,

[00:13:00] these are all things that, you know, add to the value of the home.

[00:13:06] You know, I was thinking about this as you were just talking about the particulars of your market and

[00:13:12] how a lot of that isn't so obvious in looking at comps, whereas it's really the experience of

[00:13:19] the individual agent who is working market. I'm wondering if that really helps stave off AI.

[00:13:30] Sort of consumers going direct to AI or really exclusively relying upon AI for pricing or, you know,

[00:13:38] offers. I imagine a lot of that information AI hasn't figured out yet how to

[00:13:44] to get a grab all of that data, put it into a readable format. So I imagine I'm just thinking out

[00:13:50] loud, have you found that that's the case that like AI really just can't yet know all of that.

[00:13:57] And so it really makes you super valuable, whereas a lot of agents who maybe don't have that kind

[00:14:02] of knowledge about their local market may be in trouble because AI can do a lot of that. So I'm just

[00:14:07] curious if that resonates. Absolutely. It does. And even, you know, younger agents or newer agents

[00:14:15] I would advise them to be careful how much they use AI. I mean, I'm finding some people are

[00:14:20] every email they're responding to, you can tell they use AI. It's really the worst.

[00:14:26] And it's such a turn off, especially for a sophisticated buyer. So, you know, having that local

[00:14:32] knowledge, I think that the buyers are smarter than you think and they don't like the, you know,

[00:14:42] uniformity and the no personality and the canned answers of AI. And you can recognize it now

[00:14:50] in my all the way. I actually think it's also, you know, we talked about this briefly before we

[00:14:55] started. The advantages of being in a boutique or a non-national real estate firm. You know, it feels

[00:15:04] more authentic to the buyers and you're considered the hometown hero or, you know, the real expert in

[00:15:10] the market. Yeah, I agree. I think that's, it's really nice because we hear so much about how AI

[00:15:17] is replacing or certainly has the opportunity to replace lots of different industry jobs. And

[00:15:25] not just necessarily lower level jobs. And so it's nice to hear that, hey, I still can't do what,

[00:15:32] what really successful agents do. And hopefully never can. So I have a question. This is kind of

[00:15:38] putting you on the spot. And I'm not going to give you a lot of detail here. So I'm curious

[00:15:41] just to get your overall thought. So let's say somebody listening, one of our listeners has

[00:15:46] a $450,000 three bedroom house. They're about to push live, you know, in the next week or so.

[00:15:55] So no lake, no 200 year old barn, nothing super interesting and unique. Just a just a regular old

[00:16:02] three bedroom home, $450,000. What would you say is the Ralph Lauren move? What's the first thing

[00:16:09] they should do that you would recommend just kind of thinking back to your Ralph Lauren days?

[00:16:16] Oh yeah. Well, first off, the photographs are going to be key as we know and selling the house. So

[00:16:21] walking through every room that you're going to photograph with with a different eye, the angle

[00:16:26] where the camera is going to be and what it's going to look like in terms of, you know, how the

[00:16:30] furniture could lay out in the room. Is there too much crap in the room? Does it need to be edited?

[00:16:36] Do you need to change the angle of the chairs to make the room look bigger or look more,

[00:16:42] you know, complete? You have to you have to go through the house with that eye. And is the paint

[00:16:50] looks much? Do they need a, do they need a little bit of a touch up on the paint? Is the fireplace

[00:16:55] clean? You know, yeah, is the trash can out of the picture? You have to do all that kind of basic

[00:17:02] stuff. Yeah, I think that that is a perfectly stead. And it's really as you're telling me this,

[00:17:10] I'm hearing craft a story with the photos and craft and you know, the story being what sells the

[00:17:19] only if the price isn't fighting it, of course. So let's actually talk about a listing that you

[00:17:24] had that really tested this harder than any other, which was I've been Lendel's estate, you know,

[00:17:31] first one on the market, 2014, before your time at, you know, at just under 20 million and it's sold

[00:17:37] in in 2024 for 12 million. And that still is the county record. So that's still an amazing price.

[00:17:43] And so where did you come into that story and what was the conversation that actually got the

[00:17:53] the listing sold? Like what was it that you did that you think made all the difference?

[00:17:59] Well, when we initially launched our version of the listing, we definitely came in and,

[00:18:07] you know, took new pictures and and and freshened up the listing. It was already an existing entity

[00:18:13] on, you know, in the community because I've been out there for quite a long time. We added the

[00:18:20] addition of drone photography, which for an estate like that is great. You know, we had the

[00:18:27] I just want to pause you. So it did not have drone photography. Crazy. Yeah. So that was that was one

[00:18:36] of the things. And you know, drone photography has become very popular like seven or eight years ago

[00:18:42] whenever this yeah, that's true. You're right. It wasn't as big as a big a part of the equation as

[00:18:47] it is now. But that that helps tremendously because the estate was over 450. You know, we had the

[00:18:55] benefit also of having a known architect who people were also interested in. Plus the name recognition

[00:19:02] of Ivan Lendel who actually allowed us to do a video of him talking about the house and how much

[00:19:10] he loved it and raised his children there and so forth. So that was also a very good marketing

[00:19:16] tool that we're able to use to sell the house. Yeah. Boy, and I'm curious if the interviewing him and

[00:19:24] making that part of the overall package was the previous maybe agents hadn't done that. And what

[00:19:30] a brilliant idea because of course you he's you know, he's one of the greatest tennis players of all

[00:19:37] time. Yeah. So that you know, but for this for this listing and even listings in Arna's grand

[00:19:43] is this there's something that I found that is very key and it's very basic partnerships. So,

[00:19:50] you know, I partnered with my broker who's the other agent on this, you know, we worked on this

[00:19:56] as a team. I partnered with other local agents and even let agents on New York City who might

[00:20:03] have clients for this and you know, you partner with them, you know, you build kind of a team

[00:20:09] to sell it because everyone wants to sell a house for $12 million. And to think that you could do

[00:20:15] it on your own is also, you know, you just don't have as good as a shot if you're working as a team

[00:20:23] to do it. So that kind of outreach to other to other agents on a personal level with a phone call,

[00:20:29] look on the MLS and look at who is the top Asian and Grennitz. I know that person, call them up and

[00:20:34] ask him if they have any clients for the house. Yeah. And looking to see who has sold homes,

[00:20:42] you know, near that price point and calling those agents being like, because you're right,

[00:20:49] there's just not a lot of people who are just waiting for $12 million homes to hit the MLS.

[00:20:54] Yeah, you have to go out and find the buyers oftentimes or at least find the agents that have the

[00:21:00] buyer. So I imagine, yeah, you probably did call a lot of agents in New York City and other parts of

[00:21:05] Connecticut and just for like, hey, you might not know about this, check this out. You've got people

[00:21:09] that may want this. Exactly. That yeah, that's what people, a lot of agents don't understand about

[00:21:16] luxury is a lot of times you got to find the buyer for the listing agent. That's a thing. It's

[00:21:22] about your contacts, your sphere of influence, know who you know, ultimately it was another agent

[00:21:27] from a different county in Connecticut who brought the buyer, but you know, it was it was a great

[00:21:34] experience. So in, you know, you've said the best advice you ever received in real estate was to

[00:21:41] manage up, down, and side to side. So can you tell us a little bit about what you meant by that?

[00:21:48] So that was actually advice I got in my previous, in my previous life. So I had the benefit,

[00:21:55] I managed a whole team of business people and I had managed a whole team of creative people. So

[00:22:01] what you learn is that you, there's, there's a, a management style that you have to have that

[00:22:08] is again, 360 degrees. You need to learn how to manage your boss, how to talk to your boss, how to,

[00:22:15] you know, prepare for a meeting, to get your point across, to manage the way you communicate. So

[00:22:22] that's something people don't think about. You know, you have to have that skill set, you know,

[00:22:26] of course you have to manage the people that report to you, which requires a different tone and

[00:22:31] a different set of skills to do that. And then you also have to manage side to side. So,

[00:22:39] you know, managing side to side is really the most beneficial thing that translate into

[00:22:44] real estate because side to side is your clients and other agents. And basically they're the ones

[00:22:50] who are going to get, they're going to make the deal happen. They're going to put money in your

[00:22:55] boss. So, you know, how you speak to them, you know, your reputation in the community and in

[00:23:05] real estate, these are all very important things, how you show up. And if you show up, I mean,

[00:23:10] it sounds so basic, but some people just don't show up, take too long to return a call. These are

[00:23:16] all things that were ingrained into me. Maybe it's generational as well, you know, on how you did

[00:23:21] business. And, you know, it's often the most basic things that make it happen. It's not like some,

[00:23:29] it's not some magic trick. It's it's being there and being present and, you know, being open and

[00:23:39] communicating. Yeah, I agree. I've been doing the show for eight years, 800 some episodes. And

[00:23:45] I keep waiting for the magic trick. I ask, like, what's magic trick to being successful and people

[00:23:50] like the fundamentals, you know, it's always the fundamentals. So I, I, but that's, but that's

[00:23:57] what's great about it is those are the things that we can all practice and get better at. And it's

[00:24:03] like going to the gym and, you know, I have a trainer and the, the trainer's like, okay, time to do

[00:24:08] pushups. I was like, I already knew I was supposed to do pushups, but was I doing the pushups? No,

[00:24:13] you know, so it's not so much the special secret exercise that only she knows, because that doesn't

[00:24:18] really exist. But it's the getting getting the fundamentals. And so, so curious going back to,

[00:24:24] to the, to the Ivan Lundle, a state, you know, what I'm curious about and not to talk about his

[00:24:31] personality at all, because I don't know it. But, you know, this is somebody who was told I'm assuming,

[00:24:38] you know, long time before you came on board that the state is worth this. And then, you know,

[00:24:44] it wasn't. And so, or certainly wasn't able to find a buyer at that level. And so,

[00:24:50] are those tough conversations to have with, you know, somebody as famous and as, you know,

[00:24:58] you know, respected as that is that are those tough or are people in those positions usually like,

[00:25:03] I get it. Yeah, we have to make, you know, we have to make adjustments. It's always tough, even

[00:25:08] for a house that's $500,000. Yeah, sure. It was no different. I mean, they're very,

[00:25:14] they're very smart people. The Lundles, and who's to say, I mean, honestly,

[00:25:20] the house was, you know, maybe worth that to an insurance company or, or, or worth a lot more than

[00:25:29] what we sold it for to an insurance company or to someone else in a different market. You know,

[00:25:34] when I'm finding in general, are the biggest states or big homes with lots of outbuildings and

[00:25:39] three caretakers, cottages, and so forth, even people who can truly afford it and they want

[00:25:44] something that's grand don't like that much. You know, I always go back all the big estates in

[00:25:51] Newport, Rhode Island, they're all museums now because even people who can afford it and want to,

[00:25:58] you know, have a bigger home or something luxury don't want something that's that big.

[00:26:04] They don't want to take care of 465 acres. Right. You know, so it's just not for everyone. I mean,

[00:26:11] you're, you know, your buyer pool is much smaller. It's not just people who can't afford it who

[00:26:18] are looking for real estate. It's someone who wants something that big. Yeah, yeah. And I think

[00:26:24] you're right too. You were saying that the conversation is really no different to no matter

[00:26:29] what the price point is. And you're right because we all have an emotional attachment to our homes.

[00:26:34] It's very common for even people in our industry who do what you do or what I do, which is

[00:26:41] more behind the scenes, but to overvalue our own properties and to think all they're worth more

[00:26:46] than they are. So I know this is something that happens where an agent might inherit a listing

[00:26:53] or rather pick up a listing after it didn't sell with a previous agent. And now they have to make

[00:26:59] that uncomfortable conversation. And, you know, the seller might still be attached to that number

[00:27:04] and feeling like the previous agent really didn't do a good job. And it was that's the reason why

[00:27:09] it didn't sell when it might just be the price. So I'm curious about like, how does that conversation

[00:27:16] go at the kitchen table? Like how does it start? How do you, because it's a delicate conversation,

[00:27:21] and it certainly requires empathy and finesse and understanding. So I'm just curious of how you

[00:27:27] sort of approach the, I think we might need to talk about price to any of your clients.

[00:27:33] Well, you know, in the situation where you're taking over a listing for someone else,

[00:27:38] it's almost a little bit easier. So you'd probably start off with the question,

[00:27:42] who set the price? Did you or any agent based on comps or did you? And often it is,

[00:27:48] you know, I did. And then you're like, based on what? But you also have all the time the house has

[00:27:55] been on the market to give the example or to remind them that the market is speaking. It's not me

[00:28:03] or you in this case, and they may not be the comps, but the market is telling you it's not

[00:28:09] worth what you, you know, the current price. So that's a great way to open up the conversation.

[00:28:17] And then if you have comps to show with that, it's, you know, that's great. I mean,

[00:28:22] some of these really big estates, there aren't comps. So, you know, it's, it's an emotional thing.

[00:28:29] And that's, that conversation is much harder to have, because if you don't have any information

[00:28:33] that hasn't been that type of history in your area, you're working on pure emotion, which you can't

[00:28:39] really reason. That's very true. Yeah. So bringing in data, bringing in supporting

[00:28:47] evidence and finding out the history of why it was priced, where it was. So let's, let's talk about,

[00:28:57] you know, getting the seller to the right price we just talked about. But first you have to get the

[00:29:01] listing. And you started in your 50s in this business with zero real estate contacts, which I think

[00:29:08] is an amazing story. So, you know, or part of your story. So I know you told digital journal,

[00:29:15] a lot of your friends were going through the same thing, leaving their corporate careers,

[00:29:20] you know, around the same time you were. And tell us, was it difficult, leaving Ralph Lauren,

[00:29:26] and then transitioning into real estate? Was, was that, was it a natural transition? Or was it really,

[00:29:31] oh my god, because you had been doing that almost 30 years? Is it really like fish out of water?

[00:29:36] I don't, I don't really know what to do for, for the first year or so.

[00:29:40] Absolutely not natural. So I wasn't, I don't think it, in the first, in day, you know,

[00:29:46] first weeks and months, not even thinking about it or open to it. So, um, when you're doing something,

[00:29:53] for the first couple of months, you're kind of like detoxing. And I was in a situation where the

[00:29:57] company was downsizing. So there's a lot of layoffs happening, both layoffs that I would have to do,

[00:30:03] and, and then my peers were going through. So it was a tense time at the company. I also,

[00:30:09] you know, I couldn't work for a year. So I could interview though. So I was interviewing within

[00:30:17] the field, but I found that it was a time where things were changing very rapidly. You know, you also

[00:30:25] get to a point in your career that maybe someone is younger and maybe they will be willing to do

[00:30:31] your job for less money. You know, that's, that's what they don't tell you in business school.

[00:30:36] That happens to you in your 50s. I mean, it happens a lot. You're excellent.

[00:30:41] Yes, I'm like, when this was happening to me, I was watching what was happening around me,

[00:30:46] even friends in different industries. I'm like, someone should write a book on this. I mean,

[00:30:50] this is, this is, this is something. So, um, I, I, I still do have an apartment in the city,

[00:30:59] and I had the weekend house up here in Lichfield County. So I started spending a lot more time

[00:31:05] up here. My husband's still working in the city. He's still does. So we're kind of splitting up

[00:31:11] the week like that. Um, and I kind of came upon it by accident. I got a friend of mine in the community

[00:31:20] asked me to meet, meet Elise. Um, honestly, I did not have a very high opinion of real estate agents.

[00:31:27] Sure. Coming from my industry, I thought there were kind of like bottom feeders. But, um,

[00:31:32] I, it was a very fortuitous that I met them and the company, you know, Elise and her mother,

[00:31:39] her mother started the company, you know, a number of years ago, and they really do. You know,

[00:31:45] there are things as a tradition of trust, and they really are seen in the community as the,

[00:31:50] you know, the real estate agency with character and trust. So that really came through.

[00:31:54] Um, they had a, at that time, it was before, right before COVID a few months. So there was kind

[00:32:01] of a camaraderie in the office, which I also missed from the corporate world. Um, and they really

[00:32:07] encouraged partnerships within the office, which was very appealing to me. It was also a great way

[00:32:13] for me to learn the business from experienced people. But, you know, some of the top agents there

[00:32:19] for me at the time, right there at the time, you know, gave me that advice. Like, you know,

[00:32:25] it's a lot easier physically on your body and emotionally to work on it in a team. I mean,

[00:32:33] when you're going to someone with a offer that's 20% off the list price and you have to deliver

[00:32:39] that to your clients, having someone else to do that with is it, it's nice. Or, you know, going in

[00:32:45] for the conversation about a price reduction or coming into a listing appointment as a team,

[00:32:51] it really, I think it, I think it really adds value. Yeah. And just certainly, I mean, you were

[00:32:59] used to working on teams. You at Ralph Lauren, I'm just, you had a huge team. And, and so, yes,

[00:33:05] you're used to having camaraderie being able to bounce ideas and just grab other people's experience

[00:33:12] and leverage it. And what I also like is you've also said that you've never seen yourself as a

[00:33:18] salesperson. And, you know, we're talking about relationships staying in touch, one relationship

[00:33:24] leading to another. And, you know, tell us about that actual system when it comes to your real

[00:33:33] estate business. So, you know, how often are you prospecting? Are you working exclusively by

[00:33:40] referral? How are you staying in touch with your sphere? Just give us some of the highlights there

[00:33:45] because people always want to know like, how does he actually not that, yes, you're doing an amazing

[00:33:50] job for the client, they're your client. But then the sales over, what are you doing to stay in touch

[00:33:56] and, you know, do your best to hopefully get some referrals along the way? Yeah. So, you think

[00:34:02] if yourself is like a, a, a concierge to the community because people are coming up here, a lot,

[00:34:07] some know about the area. Some don't. You know, our market is second home buyers from New York City,

[00:34:16] a little bit from Boston. And then there's this whole prep school culture up here that really drives

[00:34:22] the economy. I mean, we have Hotchkiss, Southbury School, Burkskiss School, Indian Mountain where people

[00:34:28] move up here to, you know, sometimes it's internationally to be closer to their kids while they're

[00:34:36] in more than school. That would have never occurred to me because I always think like the people I

[00:34:41] know that went to boarding school were domestic, you know, people. So they would just, you know,

[00:34:47] their parents would go and see them from time to time. But they, yeah, that didn't occur to me.

[00:34:50] But yeah, international students and even some domestic people probably do get a second place or

[00:34:55] move out there just, yeah, never occurred to me. That makes sense. It's also a difference in

[00:34:59] generation of parents like in my, I didn't go to prep school, but in my generation of my parents'

[00:35:04] generation, if you sent your kid away to go to school, there was a reason. Like, you know, they're,

[00:35:09] they're, they're going to be independent and, you know, get that part of their personality figured

[00:35:15] out. Now it seems like people spend the big box to send kids to a boarding school, but a few weeks

[00:35:22] or months in realize they want to be closer to their, their child. And they buy a second or third

[00:35:28] home in order to be up here for, you know, homecoming weekends,

[00:35:34] sure parents weekends. Maybe the kids having a hard time as semester and they're going to be

[00:35:37] there. So they, they like to have that. Now there's also this whole phenomenon happening up here

[00:35:44] that's very interesting. They're, I don't, sometimes they're not second home buyers, they're almost

[00:35:50] buying a cold primary. So for instance, maybe one of the parents is going to continue to work in

[00:35:56] the city, you know, it's two hours straight shot that he can commute, or she can commute back and

[00:36:01] forth to the city for three or four days a week. And maybe the other parents stays here,

[00:36:05] whether kids go to Indian Mountain School, which is a private great school up here, or something

[00:36:10] like that. So you can't really think of it. Look for their needs as a second home. They need a

[00:36:16] second primary home because they're using both of their domesils as, as primary homes.

[00:36:22] And after the sale, because, well, we know, and I maybe luxury even has different stats, but the

[00:36:29] average person buys or moves their ones they own a home like every seven to 11 years somewhere in

[00:36:37] that neighborhood. And you've got, you know, I imagine a lot of time too between purchases or

[00:36:44] listings or or buy side deals. So how do you stay in touch, you know, after the sale with your clients?

[00:36:51] How do you keep your name? It's some degree rattling around in their heads at least a little bit.

[00:36:57] Yeah, I mean, it's not bad, especially the clients that you click with is to stay in touch with

[00:37:04] them, you know, often you become friends or, you know, I'm involved in the community up here as well

[00:37:10] on the Sharon Land Trust. So that's a great way to reach out to your clients like, hey, do you

[00:37:16] want to participate in this or this event is coming up. I knew you were interested in, you know,

[00:37:22] the Affordable Housing Committee there. I'm going to fundraise or you want to, you know, there's

[00:37:25] ways to keep in touch with your clients or as simple as just having a drink or dinner with them.

[00:37:32] That's actually very important. You know, especially people that have school-aged children in this

[00:37:39] market with schools, they often recommend you to their friends or family. Oh, sure.

[00:37:46] For a similar experience. So you have to keep the relationship to life.

[00:37:52] Yeah, and it must be that must be the really fun part of the job too because

[00:37:55] there isn't really any stress. You know that person's not buying or selling anytime soon. You're just

[00:38:01] deepening your relationship with them in whatever way makes the most sense. So I've interviewed

[00:38:08] hundreds of agents and maybe one of somebody might be listening right now and I think it's a reasonable

[00:38:14] thing to think is saying like, well, Bill had it easy. He had a Manhattan Rolladex for almost 30

[00:38:21] years at Ralph Lauren. I'm not saying you did, but that might be someone's thought. And, you know,

[00:38:26] hey, my sphere is my cousin, my old manager at this crappy job I used to have. So for somebody like

[00:38:33] that who, you know, and I don't know if you had a huge Rolladex because you moved areas. So maybe

[00:38:39] that didn't translate. But first of all did that translate. And then second question. So after that,

[00:38:45] what would you say to somebody who said, maybe I just moved to a new area? I don't really know

[00:38:49] anyone or I just don't have a huge sphere. What would you recommend they do? I'm sorry, two questions.

[00:38:54] Yeah, sure, sure, sure. So I think for younger or less experienced agents, depending on their

[00:39:04] financial needs and, you know, how well they're set up, they have to consider having a second job

[00:39:09] at first. I mean, if you have savings and you could count on not having a lot of income for the next

[00:39:17] year to 18 months, great. Otherwise, save yourself a lot of stress and so forth and, you know,

[00:39:25] get another job. In my 20s, I could have never done it. So my contacts did translate often. And I

[00:39:36] think a great way now to, and this is kind of obvious, but also very effective, is to start

[00:39:44] social media, branch yourself, you know, separate that in your personal social media as a real

[00:39:51] estate person and then, you know, go to town on that. I mean, it should be a balanced page featuring,

[00:39:58] you know, things you're doing in real estate as well as things about the area, you know, things about

[00:40:07] the amenities and, you know, the trail systems and distance to the train and stuff like that,

[00:40:16] kind of like bringing those stories the way together in a natural way on your social media. And

[00:40:24] it's actually, you know, it's a good way to be creative as well and to style yourself.

[00:40:30] Yeah, I agree. And, you know, this idea that you can't do real estate part-time, sure, there's a,

[00:40:36] there's an argument that can be made for that absolutely. And yet, someone's financial situation

[00:40:42] may trump that entirely and they write, they may need a second career or second job to bridge the gap.

[00:40:49] And what I always say is, you know, those are people you could not maybe, maybe you sell homes to

[00:40:56] your coworkers or you don't, but those are can be people that are out there looking for business

[00:41:00] for you. If they know like and trust you already as your coworker, you could be, they could be your

[00:41:05] advocates saying, hey, you know, so and so in the cube next to me, if you hear anybody saying they

[00:41:09] want to move, can you please introduce them to me? You know, that can be just a great marketing strategy

[00:41:14] while you're working at other job. And I'm, it's definitely takes a while. So I think you see a lot

[00:41:21] of people in our industry that it's, you know, it's later in life or it's after a different career.

[00:41:29] And often you, you know, I learned to take my sphere of influences and my relationships to my

[00:41:35] last career and move and my skill sets and move them into into that one. So I'm sure there's other

[00:41:40] careers that people feel confident and, you know, they're able to execute that as well. But make

[00:41:46] no mistake if you're coming in as a young agent, it's or without that background, it's a little more

[00:41:53] difficult. So you had to prepare. Yeah, and you had mentioned some of the worst advice that you'd

[00:42:00] received for real estate was to turn everything over to AI. So where exactly is the line?

[00:42:07] In other words, what do you let AI do and what are things that you do not use it for or that other

[00:42:14] agents might? Yeah, I mean, for for research, it's great, you know, on your area for aggregating

[00:42:24] MLS reports for doing descriptions on a brochure that's mostly okay as long as you, you know,

[00:42:33] read it and take it back a little. I mean, yeah, and it's got to sound, it's got to be in your

[00:42:39] voice as well. In your actions. Don't do. Yeah, exactly. And like I've had little shacks that,

[00:42:46] you know, they were describing as palatial mansions and estates and stuff that, you know, is not,

[00:42:52] it's not it's not good for it's for that kind of stuff. So you have to you have to learn to

[00:42:56] edit it and instruct it to take it back. But when I find people are using it like they're for

[00:43:02] everything, including answering every email, or they're running it through chat GTP, they're,

[00:43:09] you know, phrasology and their texts for every email, that's a turn off for people. It's a turn

[00:43:15] off for buyers, it's a turn off for other agents, it doesn't, it feels like you're really kind of

[00:43:20] checked out a little bit. So you have to be careful. And I think that, you know, the whole key to

[00:43:27] being successful is to come across as known your market and, you know, known the nuance,

[00:43:33] it's all about nuance. So and chat or any AI doesn't pick up on that. I mean, that's why even

[00:43:40] Zillow and our community, people are like, hey, my estimate says this. I'm like, yeah, I don't look

[00:43:46] at that because they don't take into account the nuances of the area or the community.

[00:43:52] Which often, like, I live in the city here in Chicago and assessments are actually fairly

[00:44:00] accurate because we don't have as much nuance because that's where, you know, big metropolitan city.

[00:44:07] I imagine New York City has has similar, you know, sort of not that zestaments are ever all

[00:44:13] that accurate. Thank goodness they're not. That means the agents are still important. But, but

[00:44:18] probably, yeah. So and that's probably a great opportunity for you. It's probably, you're probably

[00:44:23] super grateful that they're not accurate because it allows you to really shine with your experience,

[00:44:29] your homework, your professionalism. Like, no, here, let me, let me show you how I actually come up with

[00:44:36] comps and, and yeah, so I imagine that's a wonderful thing in a way. Although certainly if somebody's

[00:44:42] no, but Zillow says this and then you're finding out that obviously be difficult.

[00:44:48] I want to, I want to go back to something that you had said that I should have pushed a little

[00:44:53] harder on because I, I loved it and I just realized I didn't. So this was the sort of the distinction

[00:44:59] between a co-primary buyer, which or rather, yeah, a second home buyer versus a co-primary buyer,

[00:45:09] and sort of explain like why, so forget about, we're in Chicago, you know, there's lots of other

[00:45:17] markets that that I think you can make that argument that that's kind of an important thing to think

[00:45:21] about. But tell us the difference between second home buyer and co-primary buyer.

[00:45:26] Okay, so this is all a phenomenon that's happened post post COVID. So during, you know, I was

[00:45:33] only involved in real estate for a very short time and then COVID came, which was like an explosion

[00:45:37] and opened up this whole market for me as well as every other age and up here. There was, you know,

[00:45:43] in the next year after COVID prices were up 30% from what they were and this this place was a

[00:45:50] a secret that a lot of New Yorkers didn't know about. And so in addition to that, we have the

[00:46:02] school market, which I talked about. So a lot of people came up here, bought our rented houses

[00:46:07] for COVID. While they were up here or for separate reasons, they discovered the private schools.

[00:46:16] And at the same time, they had lives and jobs mainly in the city. So what's come about in the

[00:46:28] last few years, which I actually identified this phenomenon is of yes, you have the second home

[00:46:36] home buyers, but there's also this different subset of people who need a second primary.

[00:46:43] You know, it has to be set up with all of the amenities they need as a primary, not just a cabin

[00:46:54] on the lake with great views. They need to be on Zoom calls, maybe two people at once. So you

[00:47:01] have to have great Wi-Fi, two different offices. You know, their kids need the full, you know,

[00:47:09] bathroom situation. They need nice big kitchens that are that are already renovated because they

[00:47:15] want to move in right away and not do any work. They don't have time because, you know, they're managing

[00:47:20] the two locations and their job and so forth. So it's kind of a different thing. You know, it was

[00:47:27] funny during that whole explosion number of years afterwards. I started calling with my clients.

[00:47:34] I started calling this the anti-habitants because, you know, it's the real country. It is beautiful.

[00:47:43] It is, it's still a two hour commute, but it doesn't have all the pretense and it doesn't have

[00:47:50] eight people walking abreast on Main Street in East Hampton. We don't have that on Main Street in

[00:47:55] Salisbury. It's much more understated. There's a real like, there's that whole factor to it. So

[00:48:04] I think that that mindset of people wanting to be up here in a place where they really can relax

[00:48:10] and they can really experience nature and have, you know, and have waterfronts like they do in

[00:48:16] the Hamptons in a different way as really helped grow the market up here and certainly my business.

[00:48:24] When you and your husband moved up there, what, in 2013? Is that do I have that right?

[00:48:29] We did. So we were consumers first. So, you know, we came up here for 24 hours and I put,

[00:48:37] I never had been here and I put a bid in an house, you know, the next day, which now that I do

[00:48:41] real estate seems very irresponsible. But thank, thank God, it worked out for us. So we love

[00:48:49] our house. We have one of the oldest houses in Sheridan, Connecticut. You can see behind me the

[00:48:53] fireplace is from 1739. And this is, yeah, this is one of the type of houses we have up here. We

[00:48:59] have these antique colonial like some of them are older than the country. And then we have some

[00:49:05] newer built houses as well. You and Stephen were really co-primary buyers before there was a name

[00:49:13] for co-primary buyers. That's right. I mean, our needs are different than a lot of other,

[00:49:17] because we don't have children. So our needs are a little bit different. And so it did work out.

[00:49:23] We still do have two primaries because we have our apartment in the city.

[00:49:27] Well, what's in what's great about that is you understand the co-primary at least, you know,

[00:49:33] certain, you know, yeah, for, for phenomenal. But you, but you can relate to that and you can have

[00:49:39] conversations of, hey, I have a similar sort of, you know, our family is a similar situation. I know

[00:49:45] it, you know, you just can relate to those people more. I was a person looking for a second

[00:49:51] home from the city. And this is why I picked this area, you know, it was a complete surprise to me.

[00:49:58] It's pristine. The land trust, the land preservation, the lakes. I didn't know about any of this.

[00:50:04] And at the same time, a big benefit to being up here is that you're minutes to the train station,

[00:50:10] which is the last stop on the commuter train to New York. So I can drop my husband off at

[00:50:16] seven o'clock in the morning on Monday and he could be at his desk by 915.

[00:50:23] Yeah, that's, it's amazing. And cheers to him for doing the two hour commute.

[00:50:30] I do it too sometimes. Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure you do. So county real estate has problems that like

[00:50:40] here in, you know, Chicago and New York City, of course, never sees. So I love this story.

[00:50:46] Please share it with us about how you lost a deal to a beaver. So tell us. Tell us how it.

[00:50:52] Well, I think it was last year we had gone through, we had gone through, we were under contract,

[00:51:01] or we were, we had signed a contract. We're going through inspections. And from the time the

[00:51:08] people came last to the time they came for their inspections, this was in the winter. A beaver came

[00:51:15] on a very small stream on the property, built a beaver dam and started flooding the front yard.

[00:51:22] So the people were from the city and not used to things like beavers. They're also from out of

[00:51:29] the country so they really didn't know what a beaver was. And it blew the deal from us. So I just,

[00:51:34] you know, I contrasted to that my old job in being in the city, you know, talking about ordering

[00:51:41] cashmere sweaters and now I'm in the country and I just lost a deal to a beaver.

[00:51:49] Did the, did the place eventually, the place. The thing that I didn't know about, there is a beaver

[00:51:56] trapping season. So this was in November. You can't trap beavers, trap beavers until December 1st.

[00:52:04] And they're relocated. So there were several weeks that we had to wait. That kind of was it

[00:52:09] months. But after that, we eventually trapped the beaver. We undid the dam and someone else bought it

[00:52:17] soon after that. So it has a happy ending.

[00:52:21] I love that. And when it comes to, you know, I was thinking about you being in this

[00:52:27] still relatively newer market or at least one that's certainly becoming more well known.

[00:52:33] And you have all these parents who are sending their kids to these very, you know, prestigious

[00:52:40] schools for their kids and certainly expensive schools. And they, like you were saying now they,

[00:52:48] I guess, yeah, in the past, you know, parents would usually just send the kids to schools and then

[00:52:53] see them in holidays and things. And now a lot of them are considering and even moving into

[00:52:58] the area to for, you know, as a maybe their primary or co-primary or certainly just a second or

[00:53:04] third home. And I imagine since they are new like you were before you put an offer on, you were

[00:53:11] there 24 hours, I imagine there's a benefit. Maybe it's not a benefit. I'm trying to think about

[00:53:17] they don't know an agent in the area. Like you didn't, I'm assuming didn't know an agent when you

[00:53:23] were going to put an offer in. So is that is that a benefit or does that make it harder because you

[00:53:28] have to sort of get to them first? Or I know you mentioned like people at the school parents might

[00:53:33] introduce you. But for somebody that maybe isn't connected to other parents at the school,

[00:53:38] still as a kid there is looking for a place. How do they, how do these people find agents?

[00:53:43] Social media. I mean, that's that's really probably the number one way people are finding me.

[00:53:51] Several times a week. So I don't even have like I'm not one of these people who has 50,000

[00:53:57] followers, you know, I just have, you know, 3,000 of the right followers. So, you know, that's important.

[00:54:06] If you're a social media page, it doesn't have that kind of, you know, activity or that kind of

[00:54:13] engagement. It's okay upfront because the people that you that that you get are the important

[00:54:21] ones. They're the ones who are looking for a house or want to sell a house or a friend of people who

[00:54:27] just did that who could be your next customers. So social media is very important. I actually think

[00:54:34] that it's the most important thing. So, you know, when you're a real estate agent,

[00:54:42] when I worked at Ralflorn it was about marketing the company. When you're a real estate agent,

[00:54:47] you have to market yourself. So, you know, it's one thing that your agency is marketing

[00:54:55] itself and it's agents to a degree. They're not going to, there's no agency who's going to market

[00:55:02] you like you're going to market yourself. So, do some research on who's effective in your marketplace

[00:55:10] or even in the country who's doing this. A lot of people with, you know, 100,000 followers are,

[00:55:18] they have a big investment, you know, with stylists and videographers and content creators and so

[00:55:24] forth. You don't have to have all that to get yourself a valid and interesting and compelling

[00:55:32] social media presence. So, just do the research and find out what you're attracted to.

[00:55:37] So, try not to make it too egotistical with being totally egotistical and see what happens.

[00:55:46] I mean, it gets going pretty quickly. You know, in that, you have to start having some wins to

[00:55:51] talk about on your social media page. So, they should go in coordination with each other.

[00:55:58] And just curious, another social media question. So, what type of content are you, and maybe there's

[00:56:04] different types of content, you know, that you're putting out there. And whether it's, you know,

[00:56:10] certainly different mediums like whether it's short form video on Instagram, TikTok, you know,

[00:56:16] Facebook or perhaps or even YouTube or LinkedIn, really. Or maybe it's still images and, you know,

[00:56:24] maybe it's about your personal life or what you do outside of the job or maybe it's showing you

[00:56:30] on the job. So, how do you, how do you think about social media content? Like, what are you most

[00:56:37] focused on the type of content that's working for you? Right. So, I have a separate page for my

[00:56:43] personal. Sometimes the content relative, I'll post it on both, but it really needs to be real

[00:56:49] estate forward. So, the most effective posts that I do are considered listing posts. What people

[00:56:58] are most attractive to in this area is just, you know, what you'd think of as the country fantasy

[00:57:05] of a New Yorker or a colonial house. It's an antique. It's beautifully styled and as a book in the back.

[00:57:12] And you can see the pool like, what's the real estate fantasy? Even if we have a great house,

[00:57:16] it's not that it doesn't get as many clicks or likes on it as something that is that. So, just

[00:57:24] keep in mind your market and what people are looking for and what they're tuned into. Secondly,

[00:57:30] pictures of people doing things always are more compelling than of just pictures of houses.

[00:57:40] So, you need to mix them in. Maybe you do a picture of closing day with yourself with

[00:57:44] in combination with the pictures of the house. Maybe you go to an event in your community and take

[00:57:51] pictures of people being there to show your your your your your your ties to the community and knowledge

[00:57:57] of the community. You know, I'm on the land trust. So, we had an event a couple weeks ago. I made

[00:58:05] that a big part of of of my social media content for for a few posts that week. So, it's it's just

[00:58:13] all of this stuff that comes together that shows that you do real estate in the area. You're the expert,

[00:58:20] you know things and you know people and that's that's what you need to consider and just do some

[00:58:25] stuff initially in practice and see what kind of response it gets. You can always take it down

[00:58:30] and then consider your page. You need to curate it if something's you look back on it and like

[00:58:34] maybe that's not so great. Take it down. Yeah. Do you ever consider doing content maybe you do

[00:58:43] this content? Do you ever consider doing like video content where you explain co-primary versus

[00:58:48] second home? Because that that seems really interesting to me. I I don't know how easily that would

[00:58:54] get to the people you wanted to get it to. But I don't know. I'm curious if anyone's doing that.

[00:59:00] I didn't do it in the video format. I was interviewed. I think it was in city buzz where I talked

[00:59:05] about co-primary homes. But once you get one of these newspaper articles often like I the anti-hampton

[00:59:15] thing came out and then that's great. That's great. I called me to to do it. So just get yourself out

[00:59:21] there even if it depends on your money for it. It's a good way to get yourself you know in the

[00:59:27] other rhythm. I see you doing I see opportunity as a marketing guy. I see lots of opportunity for

[00:59:36] you to explain anti-hamptons. I think that's its own hashtag that's its own videos. I see I see

[00:59:43] that as a real major win just because it's your term and you I think you could get some a lot

[00:59:51] of mileage. I just a lot of you could have a lot of fun with that one really. No it's true. It's

[00:59:55] showing that's all part of branding yourself. Yeah. Yeah. Well here I've got some homework for our

[01:00:01] audiences. We near the the end of this episode. So here's what I want everybody to do. This is

[01:00:06] based on some of the conversations that we we've been having with Bill here is I want you to do this

[01:00:12] before the next episode and this is going to help you deepen relationships with with your previous

[01:00:18] clients. So I want you to pick five favorite past clients and for each one I want you to write one

[01:00:24] sentence about the life they bought or the lifestyle they bought not the house they bought. So just

[01:00:31] write one sentence about the lifestyle the life that they now have in this home and then

[01:00:37] you know talking about things like what their Saturdays might look like they're commute their

[01:00:43] kids school and then text each of those people this week with that bring up that one sentence or

[01:00:50] call them and say hey I was just thinking about you and X and this is you know this is something

[01:00:58] that agents typically don't do they might call and ask you know how is everything going but I think

[01:01:04] lifestyle questions are really important and interesting to people and I know my wife and I talk

[01:01:10] about this all the time we we actually talk and not from a real estate perspective just like we live in

[01:01:15] this really fun neighborhood in the city and then we talk about our lifestyle like what do we want

[01:01:20] our lifestyle to be how often do we want to go out do we want to be able to walk home from a Cubs

[01:01:25] game you know things like that and we we can do those things now and we realize like wow how cool

[01:01:30] is this and you know it's only us talking about it but it would be great

[01:01:35] not I was my own agent on when I bought this condo but if the other agent being like hey I saw

[01:01:39] you went to a Cubs game last week did you walk home I bet you did and how cool is that that you

[01:01:44] get to walk home I because I was talking about that what they're like how cool is this you know and

[01:01:48] and that's I think a great way to stay in touch with spear so everybody listening do that come up

[01:01:53] with something and and if you don't know what the lifestyle is that the person has since moving

[01:01:59] and ask them say how's your lifestyle changed and you know those are great conversations so do

[01:02:04] that as great way to stay in touch with people I want to thank Bill on behalf of our audience for

[01:02:10] spending an hour with us he is a busy guy and he has a busy life and a busy business and he took

[01:02:16] time out of his his his week for this we we honor you for that thank you gave so many great insights

[01:02:24] strategies tips really amazing so on behalf of Bill and myself too we love the audience and want

[01:02:31] to thank the audience too because you're the reason we can continue to do this show you're the reason

[01:02:35] we have sponsors and we have a team in place to help build these episodes so thank you if you

[01:02:41] want to help us continue to support our show aside from continuing to listen which is always the

[01:02:46] best way second best ways by telling a friend think of one other agent that needs to hear this great

[01:02:51] conversation that we just had with Bill and send them a link to the episode we are everywhere

[01:02:56] podcasts are served we also have our own website where you can listen to things if even if you're

[01:03:01] not a podcast person straight from our website just google us for easy to find and let another

[01:03:06] agent know about us we would appreciate that and I want everybody to follow Bill on Instagram

[01:03:11] which is Bill underscore melnik underscore real underscore estate link to that in the show notes

[01:03:17] along with a link to bill's website so you can see what he is all about but follow him on instagram

[01:03:22] see what he's doing to attract clients because he's saying that is a huge success for him so see what

[01:03:29] he's doing and maybe emulate it in your own market Bill thank you once again and we will see everybody

[01:03:36] on the next episode thank you that was fun

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