Matt Laricy of The Matt Laricy Group is our most requested guest of all time! He’s a true real estate legend in Chicago, known for his professionalism, work ethic and commitment to the craft. As one of Chicago’s top brokers, Matt discusses how he started in real estate with zero clients and spent the first four years studying the market so that he could become an expert in Chicago neighborhoods. Today he’s the #2 top producing real estate agent in Chicago (out of 46k brokers). Matt discusses his journey and provides tips for anyone looking to take their production to the next level.
If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!
Matt Laricy can be reached at 708.250.2696 and mlaricy@americorpre.com.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:00
Today’s episode of Keeping it real podcast is brought to you by nest egg. Looking to add value to your investor clients recommend nest egg a Chicago based app that is everything your clients need to manage their rentals in only minutes a month. Nest Egg is the only app that gets things done at the rental including on demand maintenance, and services like tenant placement and snow removal. Also nest egg is free to use which makes your clients investments 20 to 30% more profitable. Join nest egg today by downloading the app or by visiting mistake dot rent. That’s nest egg dot rent, use promo code keeping it real to get your first hour of maintenance for free. And now on to the show.
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcasts made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris, I am your guide and host through the show. And in just a moment we’re going to be featuring a true Chicago legend, our most requested guest of all time Matt legacy. So before we get to Matt, couple of quick announcements number one, please tell a friend of every one of our listeners tells just one other realtor who could benefit from listening to interviews like the one we’re about to have with Matt, we could double our listenership and be able to offer you even more episodes. So thanks in advance for telling a friend and also follow us on Facebook visit us@facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod why? Because number one, we now have video and we broadcast all of our episodes live almost a behind the scenes recording, you can watch as we’re doing it on Facebook, but also we post an article every single day that we find online dedicated to helping you grow your business. So again, follow us on Facebook which is facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod and now on to our interview with Matt Larissa.
Right, today is a very special day on our show. We started this podcast two and a half years ago. And today we have our most requested guests of all time. Literally not a week goes by where we don’t hear it from at least one listener saying you have to have our guests on the show. So we’re beyond excited to welcome Matt legacy of the matt legacy group. Now if you’re not if you’re from Chicago you already know about Matt Lauer see, but our listeners of course are nationwide. So want to tell everybody about Matt in case you’re not familiar. Matt is a third generation realtor. He’s also the managing broker for mirror Corp real estate company that his father started. Matt also heads his own team, which is called the matt legacy group. His hard work charisma and true passion for the business help Matt’s reputation as a qualified realtor quickly rise. Some of Matt’s accomplishments are being the number two agent in Chicago. He’s labeled one of Chicago’s who’s who Realtors by Chicago agent magazine. He’s a 30 under 30 by National Association of Realtors, and he’s won the Chicago agents Choice Award for industry MVP. Matt specializes in all facets of the real estate business, whether it’s navigating the way for first timers, helping a seller prep their property for sale or providing help in the luxury market. He knows and has experienced it all Matt’s a strong believer and giving back as a board member for the Make a Wish Foundation and Matt has helped the charity raise hundreds of 1000s of dollars for children in need. He is called the hardest working man in real estate. And I live half block from his office. And every time I walked by day or night, there’s always something going on. So it’s a well earned and deserved reputation. So please Oh, by the way, visit his website at Matt literacy. group.com. Welcome to the show, Matt.
Matt Laricy 4:00
Thanks for having me, man. We appreciate it. And I appreciate the kind words and nice intro.
D.J. Paris 4:06
Well, it’s I mean, it’s absolutely true. You are the most requested person to have on the show. And I know how busy you are. So it’s a real honor for us and our listeners. So thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, yeah. Oh, and we should also plug that you yourself have a podcast and a vlog. And you can actually access that through Matt’s YouTube channel. So we’re gonna post a link to that, but you can just go to youtube search for Matt legacy. It’ll pop right up and subscribe to his channel, his vlogs they look awesome, way better than this. But they’re awesome. And you should definitely check them out.
Matt Laricy 4:34
Definitely subscribe. We appreciate that too.
D.J. Paris 4:37
Well, I would love to talk about I always ask this of all of our guests. You know, I know you come from a real estate family but we’d love to hear about how you got started and your journey into real estate.
Matt Laricy 4:49
Yeah, I mean, since I was a little kid getting in real estate was pretty much all I ever wanted to do. So since I was like two or three years old, I used to go to my father’s office on the south side by Midway Airport area. We we felt like the books because back in the day, they had like little books that you would fill out for, like listings. So that’s kind of like what I did. And so I just kind of always figured I’d get into real estate. And I went to college or anything like that. But literally before I actually graduated college, I already had my broker’s license. At that time, there was only agents and brokers, you know, there wasn’t brokers, managing brokers. So then you had to be 21 to get the broker’s license at that point. So I waited till I was 21. The day I turned 21, I took the test and got my license. And then the day I graduated college, I literally hung my license up and started selling right away. And in fact, my father didn’t allow me to work at the company right away. Just said he didn’t think it would be appropriate. So I went and worked at a century 21 for about six to seven months. And essentially 21 I worked that was actually an old client on my father’s that I think probably didn’t like him. Because I was the only person that didn’t get a desk, and the entire 200 agents out of that office, like everybody has a cubicle. So that’s where I started, you know, selling and I just then I moved events in my father’s company. And that was all in Oh, six. And that’s kind of like right towards the end of Oh, six 2007. That’s kind of when things kind of started getting kind of tough in the business because you kind of start feeling the rumblings at the mark was, yeah,
D.J. Paris 6:12
you got in at a tough time. Yeah,
Matt Laricy 6:15
I mean, I decided in 2008, they didn’t want to sell on the Southside Chicago anymore. They want to take the company downtown. And that just coincides with the fact that it was like maybe middle of 2008 they don’t want to take it downtown, which, as we know, it was like pretty much when the market fell out. And my dad’s a true self that our spirit he’s like, if you want to go downtown, you’re on your own. I’m not gonna give you a he hates North siders, no offense to anybody out there, that’s north Cyrus you just like hates him. And he’s like, I’m not gonna give any money or support you with your dream on that. So I came down here, I was around like, 23 I didn’t have any money. And I didn’t know anybody downtown. I didn’t know the differences between the neighborhoods, either. I didn’t know like, what webinars or vocals man like I didn’t know, that was different. You know, I just know I wanted to sell or the big buildings were. So I came here just house my way the top. And that’s just kind of like how it started.
D.J. Paris 6:57
Yeah, I was talking to Joel Schaub, who comes on our show once a month from guaranteed rate. He’s basically said the greatest thing about you, he just goes, he just thought works, everyone, you know, and I went, Yeah, that’s pretty much it. You know, I don’t know if it’s, of course, you know, you’re obviously extremely knowledgeable, too. But outworking I know, is a big, big thing for you. Would you say that’s, is that your number one success secret? If there was one?
Matt Laricy 7:21
I mean, I’d say it’s one of them. You know, I think the biggest problem in real estate is a lot of people just think it’s easier. They watch Million Dollar Listing, and they’re just like, hey, you know, like, the guy like wakes up at 10 o’clock, and he puts on something that looks cool. And like flirts with some hot girls. And, you know, he’s got a $10 million sale. I’m like, people just think like, that’s how it is. But throughout the years, it’s it’s a constant grind. And you know, we count days off here, and we’re constantly making sure people are working hard. I think that’s important. But also, the other aspect is, is that like, I run my business, like a business. And I think the biggest problem that most Realtors fall into is that, you know, you’re afraid to let go of any power, you think it all has to be done by you. It’s all III. And you know, they don’t understand. And now that teams are kind of more popular than when I first started
my business, I think one thing that probably second most is the fact that we are able to kind of run our business like a business.
D.J. Paris 8:15
Yeah. And you know, actually, that brings us to one of our listener questions. So one of our questions because you mentioned structure, right. And Realtors oftentimes struggle, that’s not always the skill set that attracts someone to being a real estate agent, they love the freedom, they probably don’t thrive in structure, and you are a huge structure guy. So one of our listeners, Suzanne wants to know, do you have a morning routine? And if so, would you be willing to share it?
Matt Laricy 8:41
Yeah, I mean, I actually think that you have to have a structure. It’s kind of like, you know, like you, you have to have a set things that you have to do every day. So like even my assistants, my agents and stuff like that every day you do a certain task. So whether it’s Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, whatever the day is, you have certain tasks you have to do that day. But then on top of that, you then tackle whatever else comes in. So for me, no matter what, you know, I wake up pretty much at the same time, every single day of the week. Well, not pretty much every day of the week, I wake up same time I go to the gym, you know, get the stress out. And then I tried to not have if I mean, if I have to have an appointment the morning I will but I try not to have like a super early appointment because I like to get through all my leads my prospecting. And then that way, I’m done doing that. And I’ve already cleaned up my inbox at that point. So then I tackle all the other stuff that comes in because like all day long, I always get emails and calls and negotiating deals and all that other stuff. But like, every morning if I didn’t go to the gym, or it’s easy, right? Like, it’d be really easy to just be like, let’s Screw it. Let’s wake up at eight o’clock today and like sleep in and not go to the gym. And it’s kind of wake up and like it’s not gonna make that big of a difference. But that’s, that’s a slippery slope. You know, you you give up one day, then the next day you kind of slip in maybe a little bit later in the next notes 10 or 11 o’clock and that’s kind of now your normal routine. So I think it’s really important that you have structure in this business. And that’s some of the things I try to teach my team all the time this Having structure, you know, every day you have to have like, certain things you have to do. And you need to make sure that I don’t know if you have to write it down or whatever, you have to make sure you do it and check it off your list. And then you can move on to everything else. So whenever I hear people talk about like, Hey, I don’t feel like I’m busy, or I’m, like seeing a lot of success. I’m like, Well, what are you doing every day? And like, well, some days you wake up to this, and sometimes they do this. So I mean, I think routine is probably the most important things you can do to be successful.
D.J. Paris 10:24
Yeah, I had on years ago, I had a Josh Weinberg who’s Of course, Tommy’s partner, Tom, he’s a real close friend of yours. And Josh, I’m sure as well. And they I asked them this is back when I just started the podcasts, didn’t know what to ask people. And I said, Hey, what are your what are your goals for next year? And I had Josh on the show. And he, he sort of laughed, and he goes, Yeah, we don’t really think like that. We think about discipline. And he said, one of his disciplines was Tommy, and this is a few years ago, but it’s probably still true. He said, We have Tommy has to meet one person a day that he hasn’t met before and pitch what we do. And he goes, if we if he does that, we’re gonna hit all of our numbers. And I just love that, that they have those, you know, even however many years they’ve been in business, they still do the basics, the fundamentals.
Matt Laricy 11:05
Right. I mean, that’s, that’s it, I think, the power of routine for everyone the most powerful things you could use to be successful in this business?
D.J. Paris 11:12
Yeah, I would love to talk about, you know, your team hasn’t just been successful. You’ve had a meteoric rise, you’re at the very top of the mountain in Chicago. That doesn’t happen by accident. And, you know, what would you attribute in addition to having, obviously, incredible discipline, and structure? What else do you think is has really taken your team and you to the top?
Matt Laricy 11:32
Well, I mean, I think knowledge is power, you know, so like, let’s face it. So people forget my first year in the business, I did zero to one sale, I think it was like, that’s it nothing. My second year in the business, I did one sale. My third year in the business, I did two sales. But my fourth year in the business, I did four sales. So pretty much in the first four years, I think I made a total of like, $30,000 in four years. I remember at that point, I’m like, 25 ish years old, okay. And I’m living at home in my parents house. Okay, I got dumped by some chick I was dating for a couple years. So I’m depressed and lonely at home with no sales in the worst real estate economy we’ve ever seen. And, you know, you’re also guys, you’re trying to pick up on checks, you’re like, Hey, I’m 25 a little bit home. And I’m in real estate, like how well do you think that went over to anybody you met, you know, make no money. So like, you know, like, okay, loser get out of here. So like, it’s really easy to get down on yourself. And, you know, a lot of people see me and they’re like, well, you’re young, you got so successful so quickly, but they forget, like, those four years are probably the four worst years, but best years of my life to because it, you know, helped build some character, you know, brings you down to realize that, like, you do have to work hard. So what I was saying during those years, is that I knew I wouldn’t get rich in money during those years. So I didn’t care that only had a sale. Yeah, that didn’t discourage me at all. What I always said is that, like, you don’t get rich and good market, you get rich in bad markets, right? So I can get rich in money, I’m gonna get rich and out. So when this market turns, I’m gonna know every single thing possible about the market. So what I would do is I’d drive down here first thing in the morning. And like I said, I didn’t know what River North to go colts, or I didn’t know there was a Wicker Park, like, I had no idea that these were neighborhoods, like we’re not cultured on the south side. Okay, so like knowing all this different shit. So I would get down early in the morning. And I would walk the neighborhoods literally with a paper map. And I would draw out the neighborhoods, and I’d walk into buildings and ask them if they’re rentals or sales buildings. And if it was a rental or sales, if it was rental, I’d walk right now, because I knew that you want to make it big and rentals, you’d only make it big and sale. So if it was a sales, I would drill the doorman trying to ask them, you know what this stuff was, and like, try to figure out what the building was. And if it had a name, I put the name down. So when somebody said like, Hey, this is the Montgomery, you know, like, I knew what that next like before people be like, Oh, I live in X building. The fuck is that? Like, is that a neighborhood that I missed? You know, so I mean, but I did that. And you have to remember when you wake up, and you don’t have enough money to pay for gas to get down to the city, and you don’t have any sales, it can be a pretty discouraging day, and it’s freezing cold out like it is saying you’re like, Hey, I’m gonna go downtown and walk in here. But it’s to figure out what I’m gonna know about it, you know, but I mean, I was partial, what I did try to know is like, so, you know, I tried to memorize the neighborhoods. After that, and go back to the South Side office, and I drill my dad, I would sit in the office, literally, he’d always put on a pot of coffee at like, 6pm and be like, Well, I’m gonna throw another pot on, drinks on with me. And I’m like, Yeah, I’ll sit here with you. And I’d sit back there, and I’d have fucking nothing to do. And I would just listen to him answer the phone call and see what he said. And then when he hang up, if I didn’t know, I’d say, Why did you say that? Like, what does this mean? What is the title? You know? Like, why did you negotiate this way? Like, what’s a better routine? So like, I would just ask every question I could. And that also at that time, there’s these things called computers. So anytime, like, I like I would read any article or do anything I could, like, just try to research so I was like, I kind of spent those four years it’s like a college, like education, like trying to really figure out learn every single thing I could. So when the market started to turn like I can answer any question, I mean, not offending business, but I knew everything.
D.J. Paris 14:56
Isn’t that amazing that your dad really set you up to succeed by Not making it easy for you as far as helping you grow your business.
Matt Laricy 15:04
He didn’t do anything. Like, No, I’m just kidding. I’m just kidding. Like, you know, it was tough love for sure. You know, I think he kind of helped pave the way to make sure that like we weren’t brought up silver spoon fed or anything like that, you know, I’m sure. He’ll never tell you we did anything, right. So he pitches every day about everything he still runs, technically runs the company. But, you know, I mean, I think that’s the biggest problem too, is like we were brought up in tough love. My guys are brought up that way too. But we’re in a PC society today. I feel like you know, realtors nowadays are set up to fail. I mean, honestly, because we’re not where everybody gets a trophy. Everybody’s gonna win. And whenever there’s pushback, I see, I tell people all the time, probably the biggest reason why I think I succeed more than other people’s because I want it more. Honestly, you’re the ideal and like, the people will be like, Okay, well, it doesn’t someone’s gonna work out. It was nice trying to work with him, like, wait a second fucking work that were 5000 apart, like, let’s make this work. But go back and talk to your guy, pick up the phone, we can make this happen, you know, and then like next, you know, builder like, Oh, my God, they came up like, can you believe it? We have a deal. Like, Yeah, no shit, because you call him back the second time. Like, I will tell you that that happens once a day, literally once a day. And you know, we’re in a society nowadays, where when the going gets tough people get going, like, they don’t want to work for it. Think about when you talk about the market. People are talking about the back half of the year. They’re always like, Oh, my God, it’s a different market right now. Can you believe it? It’s so tough. It’s like what you mean, it’s so tough to like, I show my clothes like 10 times, like 10 times, the real estate was never designed to sell in two or three days in the market. You know, you got to work for the people who want to work for and trying to make deals happen. They’re the ones that are successful.
D.J. Paris 16:32
Yeah, boy, that is that could not be better said. Absolutely. Right. And I think that shows in, in your work ethic, and also just how determine I saw you speak in an event. I can’t remember six months ago or so for Chicago, real producers. And there was a panel and the panels. Great. And you were up there. And somebody had asked a question about when you give up on a lead. And different people have different answers when once they tell you to buzz off or whatever. And you were like, why would you ever give up on a lead? And you said, I don’t care if it takes five years? I can’t wait for that person to become a client.
Matt Laricy 17:05
Right? I mean, I mean, I, when somebody tells me even like they like it’s a cold lead, you’ve never met him before. Like, oh, you know, we decided just to rent Well, guess what fucker, I just put you in my quarterly photo, every single quarter for the rest of your life, you’re gonna get an email or a call from me. And you know what I would say that every single quarter, I get at least five to six more sales from those people that people would have just thrown away. And guess what, six sales extra? Maybe that’s an extra 50 G’s in our pocket, right? And then that person who bought now they’re like, Oh, I love this guy. They’re gonna refer me to three other people. Right? So that’s technically not just like six more sales, it’d be an extra 20 sales a year. And one of the things I always tell people it’s like Derek Jeter like, you know, I mean, singles and doubles, keeping the game. You keep getting these little wins here and there. And here and there. It’s not about getting a $2 million sale, you get a bunch of little ones. Those add up. And that’s what builds your network. And I’m sorry to cut you off. No, no,
D.J. Paris 17:52
I cut you off. You’re absolutely right. It is singles and doubles all day that wins wins the game. I would love to ask a few questions here. Our audience was kind enough to write in because you’re obviously such a legend here in Chicago. Let’s see normal
Matt Laricy 18:06
guy trying to see like everybody else. That’s all.
D.J. Paris 18:09
Yeah, well, look, I that is, you know, we’ve done 130 Some of these episodes, all top 1% producers, and, you know, they all really you know, all boils down to wanting it more. And so I think you’ve just saying that was was so important to our listeners. And also what’s great too is your first four years, you didn’t have a ton of immediate success, yet. You just kept going and now you know if it was if it all went away tomorrow, you can rebuild it again. That’s what’s so amazing.
Matt Laricy 18:36
I lived at home till I was almost 27 years old. I didn’t give a shit. You know what I said to myself, I said like every dollar I saved, I put back in my business. That’s the other thing is I reg invest in myself. So like instead of spending 2000 hours a month downtown showing off, they’re like, Hey, I got money, blah, blah, blah, I think give a shit. I don’t give a shit if everybody thought I lived on my car. I wanted to be successful in the business and I was willing to sacrifice everything to make that happen. So every dollar made, I thought myself so I’m gonna put that right back in there. It’s like a lot of people talk about like how we got big on Zillow, right? Everybody’s like, oh, man, that guy got big as a Zillow blah blah. I’m gonna tell you a good story. What happened with that? In 2010 I want to guaranteed rates holiday party and Mark Martini Ranch was called Okay, now it’s Pacific Standard Time. Okay. And I was locked up with five agents in the city. I won’t tell them when they were in that worship these guys man fuck, I’m gonna go up there. I don’t know who they are. But they don’t know me. And I’m like, Hey, what are you guys doing for advertising? And like the one guy’s like, I’m on bus boards and you know, billboards all the shit. I’m in CS magazine and all this, like, what are you doing? I’m like, well, there’s this company that got created. It’s called Zillow. And there’s another one called Trulia. And like, I played around with their algorithms. I saw what they did I think they’re doing really well and I put my life savings on the line and I think this might be big. And everybody laughed at me and they’re like the internet like What the Why like nobody’s going online searching for homes like what do you guys I was like, Are you guys idiots like, this is huge. No, like, you’re never make anything blah, blah. They laughed at me and like, honestly, I walked I left the party after that because I was so embarrassed about like, how they made me feel. And I just thought to myself, you know why? If I’m going to keep trying at this, I’m gonna keep trying to tech route and see if they pick up, you know where it takes me like, here I am. But I’ll tell you what those websites first came out. That’s the differences that I invested my money in technology that other people felt would never work. And I did that all throughout my career, you know, and I still do that today, when I, when I see an opportunity, I think something’s going to take off, I invest my money with it. It’s it’s not, you know, John’s money, or I don’t get money from compass or some of these other, you know, places to give me money. Because my own hard earned cash, I invest in myself to see if something’s gonna work. And for people out there listening, you have to know is that like, you got to take chances. If you believe in enough, and you’re gonna work on it, then do it. But if you don’t believe in it, don’t put the money into it, because you’re gonna fail it. That’s the problem with agents is they don’t, you know, they go half and a half out. And they’re like, I can’t believe this isn’t working. It’s like, well, you didn’t give me your all, you know, and that’s the most money.
D.J. Paris 20:47
And I mean, I don’t know any realtors, that that only did a handful of sales in four years who are still in the business, right? Like, that’s the difference between you and everyone else is you just stuck with it, you knew it was gonna work, eventually, and you became an expert. And that was really, really important, as I don’t know how many brokers even become experts anymore.
Matt Laricy 21:05
I think the problem is, as soon as I talk about that, now is that a lot of people get their license, and they have got a great network, you know, and they did really, really well. But when when it gets tough, and I deal with these agents all the time, like how do you not know what a closing cost is? How do you not know what this sounds like? People actually don’t know, I say, you have to learn this stuff now. Because when the market turns, which it will, you know, I’m not saying it’s gonna get to oh, wait, but it’s gonna get a little bit worse. What’s gonna happen is you’re not going to be the expert. People are like, Why am I going to work with that? You know, so you have to educate yourself, every single day, you should be reading something, make sure that you’re ahead of the curve. So you can always be educated on the market.
D.J. Paris 21:39
Yeah. And that actually brings me to one of our listener questions, who said, how do you think this is anonymous question. So how do you feel the real estate market will be affected? If the Republicans win the presidency? Or if Democrats take office? Do you feel there’d be a shift in the market?
Matt Laricy 21:55
Yeah, I think there’ll be a huge shift. If the Republicans win office, the markets can be phenomenal, it’s business friendly, things are gonna keep going the way they’re gone. We’ll have four great years. If the Democrats win the office, I think it depends which one does. And it could affect the market. It’s not doom and gloom. Okay, there’s three branches of government. But I think the market probably won’t be as strong as it would be. If Republicans in office and if you look, statistically speaking, the housing market is typically better with Republican in office, it is, you know, people have more money, and you
D.J. Paris 22:22
don’t care what either way, right? Like, as far as you’re gonna be able to grow your business regardless,
Matt Laricy 22:27
I own a business, you can’t have a political opinion in my mind, because if you’re like Republicans, half the people hate you. And if you like the Democrats, if people hate you, I mean, like, honestly, depending on who gets an office, everybody’s gonna have to make adjustments on their business. And that’s just the way it is.
D.J. Paris 22:41
Yeah, I saw you speak once at an event and somebody was asking about cash. Where do we think the markets headed and you were like, I don’t really care because I will find opportunities no matter what I find, you know, you were they were saying in the winter it’s it’s slower and you were like, it’s not slower for me in the winter. Like I’m just as busy.
Matt Laricy 22:57
Well, that’s the problem is people forget like, you know, people keep saying and now they’re like oh my god this January is different than other January’s. It’s different. Like no shit. It’s not different. We’ve been more seasonal because these rents we’ve been the most rent heavy city in the country for the last couple years in a row. So guess what, January, February, a better number months and July and August. So when you’re slow October, December, the reason you’re slow is because like everybody gets his calls, like, I want to scorch and deal you want to deal. Let’s talk in October, I’ll follow up with you every single week until October. And when October comes in these deals pour in, that’s when we’re going to die. So that’s where from October, December, I crushed it in sales, with investors, my deal seekers, you know, that’s it, you just have to plan your business or your people want a 2 million our house, but you know, they want it at 1.8. Okay, well, I can get that for you in October. I can’t get it for you. In February, when there’s 50 people looking at Samos.
D.J. Paris 23:40
That’s well said. Okay, Roberto asks, What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made while growing your business? Because he would like to avoid it. He says Thanks in advance.
Matt Laricy 23:50
I mean, I’ve made more mistakes, and I could count on my human being just like everybody else, I make a mistake every single day of the week, it’s probably more than one a week or one a day, I probably the biggest one that cost you the most is maybe hiring wrong. You know, there’s some times I make a hire where I kind of know in my gut that it’s not the right move, but maybe I’m kind of desperate at the time. So I take them on, and I take a chance and then I realize like really quickly, they’re not the right fit, and then I’m fucked because it costs you a lot of cash. And then you have to find somebody else. So that’s probably the biggest mistake that cost me.
D.J. Paris 24:21
They say, fire fast, hire slow, right? Something like that. Yeah, I
Matt Laricy 24:25
agree with that. All right.
D.J. Paris 24:27
This is a kind of a silly question, but Rianne I think it’s Rianne. hopefully I’m pronouncing that right asks about your blue suits, saying do you always wear blue suits because you love the color blue? Or is it a branding thing?
Matt Laricy 24:38
I started wearing blue suits because the suit guy went to set he thought it would look good and blue. So I bought my first custom suit was blue. And then after that, I kind of liked that it was different. I felt everybody always were brown or black or gray. And I was like let’s just get these obnoxious blue ones. And as I liked more, I started getting more blue color suits so that we had different ones to wear. That’s it. We have a dress code, my office all my guys who wear suits and ties at all time. So you got to if you work seven days a week, I’d have enough variety in the next you know, for the people out there. Yeah,
D.J. Paris 25:10
I’m always shocked at how so many Realtors dress so casually. I think
Matt Laricy 25:15
it was ridiculous. I do I think everybody listening out there to wear a suit and tie. I mean, you don’t see anybody going into a board meeting and in like, you know, khakis and like a T shirt and trying to win $100 million in business. Now I get it, like we’re not pitching $100 million. But like, I’ll tell you, I probably get two to 3% more business a year because I wear a suit and tie. Like if it’s between me and somebody else, I’ll win it just solely the way I’m dressed.
D.J. Paris 25:38
No question about it. And it’s kind of like, you know, we think other professions like if I went to see an attorney, and if they weren’t in a suit, I’d be a little disappointed and I might not trust them as much.
Matt Laricy 25:48
Yeah, I mean, 100% agree. Yeah. Okay, this
D.J. Paris 25:51
is this a good question. And I suspect I know your answer, but I’m curious to hear it. So Charles asks, With the advent of discount brokerages like Redfin, of course, being the most obvious example. Have you seen this impact your business, if at all,
Matt Laricy 26:06
it’s grown my business, I would say, I think there’s a lot of people, it’s great, because like, a lot of my buyers will go out with them, and then realize that like, they don’t know what they’re talking about. And then they’ve gotten to hold narrowing down for me, like they start with like, 30 years. Now they want one area and they want like one house and like this one popped up, can we see it and I show them one place, and they buy it? It’s phenomenal. And on the sell side, it’s like, they’ll think they want to go a cheaper route. I’m not just naming one company. There’s a lot of companies out there, of course, I realized that wasn’t the right route to go. So then they’ll take us on and we’ll get it more of a realistic price. And it’s easier for us. So I mean, there’s going to be different people that like different things. That’s why they make red cars, black cars, blue cars, everybody’s got their own opinion, there’s no right answer, there’s no wrong answer. Some people will look at as a discount, I just look at as a different personality. That’s it. You know, for me, I don’t see it as a threat. I know what I charge and value, I bring the table, I never degrade any agents or any company. A lot of people do it to us quite often on listing appointments. But I always say that it’s an I’m not here to tell you why I’m better than XYZ. I’m here to tell you who I am and what I can offer. And if you like me, then let’s roll with it. And if not, I wish you the best and I hope whoever gets to listen gets a sale. Like that’s it. That’s how you have to live your life. If you live your life with hatred towards the other agents, you’re going up against companies and you worry about that your business is gonna be affected.
D.J. Paris 27:23
Well, that and it’s called a cooperative commission, you might run across that person in a future deal
Matt Laricy 27:28
that people do business you run into enough that doesn’t make sense like that and other people.
D.J. Paris 27:32
Yeah, 100% Agree. Okay. Lucy asks, I would love to get your opinion about ibuyers. Just for our audience real quickly, I’m sure pretty much everyone knows what that is. In case you’re not I by no means an instant buyer. So somebody goes onto a website, they get an instant offer on a property. And, you know, it’s obviously become quite popular. What are your what’s your take on I buyers?
Matt Laricy 27:52
I think it’s a fad. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think it’s a fad. I think, you know, right now the economy is unbelievable. It’s literally the best economy America has ever seen. The market is unbelievably hot. A lot of realtors who’ve only been in the business last six, seven years like Man Real Estate’s great, it’s never bad. Well, guess what? Like we are in fictitious waters right now. Like naturally the way October December was last year for a lot of people out there that were crying complain about the market that’s normally like how the normal market is okay? It’s like, it’s always like really tough. So when you buy 3000 homes and just pay tax assessments, mortgages, or whatever it is, and they’re not moving really quick, what are the I buyers going to do that? What are they gonna do when they can’t sell in two seconds, I’ve never met anybody that wants to buy something that’s like super overpriced. So if they have 3000 homes that they’re just sitting on, and we’re now in a point where, you know, average market time goes from, you know, 30 days in an area and Deborah, they’re buying and it goes to 300 days, and they have 3000 Those, like how well that’s gonna work for you. Technology disruptors will come into an industry at all times, whenever the economy is very, very good. But when the economy gets bad, how much is it gonna affect? It’s like commission, like a lot of people thought commission was gonna go down, right? And that when the market was booming, like things were selling in 24 hours, you would get a lot more people asking you for commission reductions. Well, guess what, now that market time is up. I have more people will say like, they’ll pay me more if I sell faster. Yeah. So it’s just like, I mean, there’s just a fat for sale by owner.com was the biggest threat to humanity in real estate in the 90s. How that works,
D.J. Paris 29:23
right? Yeah, great point. Yeah, everyone thought that was that was going to replace realtors, I, yeah.
Matt Laricy 29:29
And the real estate agency, I bar all that stuff. It’s evolving. It’s changing. I think the people who do it part time and don’t take the job seriously. I think a large portion of real estate agents in the next 20 years will be gone because it’s been such a thing where like, Hey, I’m gonna get my license two to three deals a year sheets and gigs. It’s cool, right? I think that type of stuff is going to start to change and what I call more like bottom feeders that get a couple of deals a year are gonna be off the table. And I think people are gonna look at more as a profession, which I think is only good, I think it’s gonna make the bigger agents people bigger.
D.J. Paris 30:01
Yeah, I couldn’t agree with you more. All right, Tim asks, do you specialize in only a certain area of the city or do you also work in the suburbs? And should I as a new broker in this person’s in their first year should they specialize in one area or try to do try to go wherever the listings take them
Matt Laricy 30:19
specialized and we mostly specialize in this like what I call the downtown markets which is like South above like Lakeview and then north Center West Loop restaurant, all that stuff. So when I first got my business, I would go anywhere, I would be in like Orland Park up to like Skokie this outside. Like we’re like anything that would come in. I took it like Hungry Hungry Hippo, right? Like all the businesses that get the more the better. And then I realized that like, I didn’t know what happened the street over and like people were kind of like, I kind of felt like I was chasing commission. So like now if I get something suburbs, I refer it out to certain people in certain areas, the suburbs I give to and it’s just like me like and I, if somebody’s like, why don’t want to use you because we’re buying him or something. And suburbs like asset agent, like how many places have sold in this building last, like 10 days, I can tell you everything about everything there is about the market here. Can I tell you what’s happening with NACA today? I’ve never been better with that in my life, like how the fuck am I supposed to, but I could change the commission up there. So like I always say figure out where you want to be own it, specialize in it, know everything you can know about it, and then maybe expand to another smaller region that’s right next to it. So it’s kind of like building an empire. But you don’t want to go too far, where you can’t maintain the balance of the Empire you have.
D.J. Paris 31:21
Yeah, and it takes years, right? Like, it’s certainly you’re in River North, your your offices there, it takes a ton of time takes years to really get that knowledge. And then you become so incredibly valuable to people who want to live in those immediate areas that no one really can compete with you.
Matt Laricy 31:36
Rome wasn’t built overnight. You know, everybody wants that instant gratification these days. I mean, it’s gonna take a long, long time to do it.
D.J. Paris 31:42
And then one last question. So we’ve got, I don’t know what percentage of our listeners are brand new to the business, but we get a lot of new new brokers. So we talked about discipline structure, becoming an expert, taking your time treating it like a business. Is there anything else that you would coach a new broker on to start doing? Maybe it’s a daily discipline? Maybe it’s just something to start working on. But But what’s what’s sort of keeps your, you know, would you recommend somebody to keep their eye on the prize
Matt Laricy 32:10
structure in your day, first off, making sure that you do the same thing all day, every day, like, every day you do, you have to do XYZ, no matter what, you know, and then educating yourself on top of that, and making that part of your routine of being like every day, like, for me, personally, I read five articles a day about the market every day no matter what. So I can always say in tune, you can’t be like, Oh, this happened. But that’s why we tell people like the Wall Street Journal doesn’t need to tell me what’s happened in Chicago. I’m like patting them on the front lines. I know what’s happening here better than they ever would dream to know about it. But that’s because I educate myself all day, every day, these new people out there, take every class, you can take every webinar, you can listen to every podcast, you can read every book, whether you agree or disagree with it. In take all that information in, you could formulate your own opinions later on. The main thing right now is to actually understand what the hell you’re doing. Like don’t worry about the sales, we always thought the sales are a cherry on top, like if I got to sell that be awesome. Like, yeah, make a couple bucks to survive. But like, I was blessed enough to have parents who had like a house that I could live at, but like still like, to me the money I never give it I still today don’t give a shit about how much money I make. I care about having sales and educating myself on what’s happening in the marketplace. You know, I just I think that’s a big problem for new new agents. Everything they know about is like, don’t talk to me about what your GCI is what you know, there’s a lot of the companies are like, what’s my GCI gonna be if I do this, who gives a shit with your money, I can tell you, my GCI is because you want I don’t give a shit. I don’t give a crap about how much money I’m making off per deal. I care about making sure I do the best fucking job. And I know everything there is about, you know, the market and what’s going on out there. And that’s what you should be more concerned about the moral about what you put in your pocket. And every new Broker, I need probably the person that tells me how much money we’re gonna make first year. So the first thing I tell him, I’ll tell you right now, if you ever heard my competence, the first thing you do, I will leave that meeting right away. I cut meeting short so I just get up and I’m like, this isn’t a good fit.
D.J. Paris 33:49
Yeah, yeah, I mean, look, you know, knowledge is power. And for every one of our listeners, I always recommend to I’m not a Producing Realtor myself, but we interview a lot of them for our show. And, and so I always say you should be terrified of somebody who’s better than you. And you absolutely should be because Matt’s and his team is going to come in and blow you out of the water if it’s a listing presentation. So you need to up your game. So you need to spend those four years really upping your game so that you can compete with the big boys and girls of course, but you need to be able to compete and if you can’t immediately articulate your knowledge. You know, guys like Matt are gonna come around and crush you and not that Matt’s looking to crush you, but he’s just going to have a better
Matt Laricy 34:31
technically I am. I like competition and I want to try to be the best in the business. I’ll tell you when I was trying to up in common I would take the first five guys that obviously gameofthrones sure you know and it would count tell the people that you want to kill every night before she went to bed I would look at the top five guys and be like, these are the guys who want to take down like all day every day like what can I do to better myself to be better than that? You know? And then immediate like in a bad way like I feel like a bad people. I mean, these guys are unbelievable rock star people. You know guys and girls. I’m just saying for me personally If I knew to be the best, I had a beat the best. So how would I beat the best? Well, I have to be better myself. These guys aren’t at the top because they suck. They’re the top was the best in the game. So every night like Game of Thrones, I’m saying like their names like, this is what I’m gonna do to try to bring them down. And I would think about it, I had a plan of attack, I didn’t just go off the seat of my pants being like, oh, let’s try to do this today. Like these new people, you have to take the job seriously, if you hold yourself to a serious matter, the people you meet are going to do that as well.
D.J. Paris 35:24
Yeah, and just the sheer amount of knowledge you have on the current markets and what you see future trends going you just make adjustments you you don’t, you don’t even worry about where things are headed. You just notice where they’re headed and adjust the business accordingly. It seems
Matt Laricy 35:38
like it’d be scared about it. You just gotta know that like, Hey, if you have to also think five steps ahead. Like if you know, like, hey, like, I know, this is gonna be a tough end of the year. It’s a presidential election year. Chicago doesn’t perform all that yet. Well, I know August in December is gonna be a bloodbath. So right now I’m already preparing for now today. So that August, December, I’m not held with my pants on I’ll be prepared. I’m going to crush in August number because I know I’m gonna do it next year we succeed.
D.J. Paris 36:01
Yeah, well, you know, I think that you’ve said it all. What a great, what a great conversation. I want to make sure everyone listening. You want it if you want to see, by the way, a great website as well. There’s a lot of just terrible realtor websites out there. Matt Larose has one of the best ones, maybe the best one I’ve ever seen. Visit Matt literacy group.com. You can see exactly what a good website and I love the fact that it’s not, there’s not too much information on there. It’s really concise. It’s clear, it’s a good example of how to promote your brand, which of course, obviously, you know how to do
Matt Laricy 36:31
that, you know, the one thing we did with that was that we didn’t put listings on them and the only company that doesn’t have listings on our website. And what I said is because there’s so many different websites out there nowadays with with listing on there, I said that like why not promote who you are. People want to know who you are, they’re hiring you. So let that be seen. And that’s what we built the website around.
D.J. Paris 36:48
And no one cares about your listings anyway. They care about you, right? I mean? Yeah, yeah. So that’s, that’s good. Because a lot of right, I always say that if like if you’re a realtor, and you’re just posting ads, or not ads on Facebook, but we’re doing posts on Facebook bragging about your your most recent listings, like, I don’t know, the Pete, most people care, but they want to know what you’re all about. And the website does that. And then also listen to us, listen to his podcast and watch his videos on YouTube, Matt literacy project. So I’ll be sending out to all of our listeners in the notes for this episode, you’ll be able to link directly to that. And again, Matt, true legend in Chicago. So grateful that I know you don’t have time to do this, and you did it. Anyway, it’s a real, real honor for our listeners on behalf of the listeners and viewers. Really, really appreciate it real quick, guys, before we go. If everyone out there tells another realtor who could benefit from listening to interviews or watching interviews like the one here with Matt, we’ll be able to double our viewership, we’ll be able to do more episodes for you. So please tell a friend about our website. And on on behalf of Matt and myself to all the listeners. We really thank you appreciate your your support and continuing to, to watch our episodes and listen. So Matt, thanks again. Really appreciate your time. This was great. Yeah.
Matt Laricy 37:58
Thanks, guys. Thanks for watching. You know, we’re always here if there’s any questions in the bottom comment.
D.J. Paris 38:03
Awesome. Thanks, man.
Matt Laricy 38:05
All right. Thanks.
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify
