Stuart Jacobson and Marina Jacobson are a powerhouse team in both real estate and life. As top producers for Berkshire Hathaway, they have shown a willingness to give their clients 100% of their energy, attention, and focus. Their skills compliment each other and this interview showcases their personalities and why they’re consistently attracting new clients and getting referrals. Stuart and Marina share their exact strategies for building their business and offer amazing suggestions for brokers looking to deepen relationships with their clients.
Contact Stuart and Marina Jacobson at 847-361-5605 or MJacobson@KoenigRubloff.com.
To learn about Stu’s passion for helping children check out Be Kind Be Positive And Read.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:14
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real. The only podcast made by Chicago real estate brokers for Chicago real estate brokers. My name is DJ Parris. I am your host through the show. And I’m really excited because I just realized that we had, we’re coming up on our 50th episode. And I wanted to tell you guys spend a few minutes before we get to a great interview with the Jacobson team. And it was really might be one of the most fun interviews I’ve done so far. Because actually came down here to to our little makeshift studio and sat with us. So you’re gonna hear from them in just a moment. But I wanted to tell you guys about how this podcast started, and and why we’re doing it. So this actually goes back about seven years. So I was started with a real estate firm, as a recruiter, I still am a recruiter, and I went to a party that Realtors were having, I can’t remember exactly somewhere downtown. And I knew nobody. And I ran into this realtor who was really well dressed. He had on this like amazingly nice suit, everyone else was dressed more casually. And I just kind of thought, well, this person’s really dressed up. And he and I started talking. And he said, you know, his, he was very passionate, and I can’t remember his name. Unfortunately, he said he was very passionate about bringing professionalism back to real estate, he thought that this time there was maybe somewhat of a lack of professionalism. And again, I was new to the industry, I didn’t really know much, but he was very passionate about it. And he just kept almost banging on a table going. People need to be more professional, and he had all these great ideas. So anyway, fast forward years, and years later, the firm I’m at which we were just a little tiny firm, then now we have about 600 brokers. And anyway, our own brokers, so we have so many, they were asking, you know, especially newer brokers, wait, what are these? What are your top brokers doing? Right? Well, we have 600, but there are 42,000 realtors in the Chicagoland area. And certainly we just have a little tiny, you know, 600. And what I started doing was interviewing our top brokers even at our firm, and then I ran out of them pretty quickly, because, you know, there’s only so many, right. And then I realized, back thought back to that time where I met that broker at the party seven years ago. And not that I have an issue with professionalism. But I thought he was so passionate, he had so many great ideas. And I would really like to hear what other top producers are doing to grow their business, what advice they have for newer brokers because even at our firm, we get those questions all the time. And I also thought about one thing, which was it’s an old expression, but it has something to do that goes something like a rising tide raises all ships, right. And I sort of thought, you know, if we could synthesize the best information or the best practices from the top producing brokers, I’ll bet you that would be really useful for all brokers, right. And so anyway, this goes back to last October, I finally i By the way, I’ve been talking about doing this podcast for years. And I was telling my boss about it three years ago, he was like, Yeah, that’s a great idea. Are you actually going to do it, and then I went, No. And so finally, last October or so, I decided to do it. And I wasn’t even sure that anybody would care, quite frankly, because I just didn’t know how interesting this would be to the broker community. But it was a way to give back. Because the broker community has been very good to me, and our firm here. So anyway, we started doing this. And first few episodes, you know, not many people knew about the show. And because we have, of course, no marketing budget at all. But we started to get people passing it along. And over a maybe three to four or five episodes, we started getting a pretty nice foothold because no one had really done it in the Chicagoland area. And I can’t tell you how many people I’ve interviewed on the show who go, I had that same idea. And I’m glad that people have this idea. And I’m glad that it’s useful in here. We are now almost at episode 50. And, you know, this is something we it’s a labor of love. It’s just something that is a way to give back to the community. And it seems to be helpful for people. So I’m super grateful that it has struck a chord. And I’m grateful that we have all these wonderful top producers who are willing to talk to us and spend time out of their insanely busy days. I mean, we have producers, some of our people we’ve interviewed close a deal like every two and a half days. They’re too busy to do this show, but they still do it. So we’re so grateful for everyone who’s participated, most importantly to the people who listen because if nobody was listening, there’d be no reason to keep going. So as a as a thank you to you, we’re gonna keep going. And also we hope that you continue to share this podcast with anyone else in the real estate professional field, whether they’re Chicago or anywhere it really probably applicable to anyone in the country or even internationally about how to grow their business and some best practices. So thanks for listening to this long introduction. I know it’s a little bit boring if you’ve been listening from the beginning, you already know this, but I just wanted to share it for all the new listeners out there. So please pass this along to other brokers in your in your office or other brokers you meet out in the field, anyone who’s eager to learn how to better grow their business, we’ve got some really exciting new features we’re going to be adding to the show in the next month or two. So I’ll talk about those in a future episode. But for now, we’re gonna get onto the Jacobson team. Oh, so by the way, you can always listen to every episode we’ve ever done on iTunes, Google Play Anywhere podcasts are served, or you can visit us at keeping it real pod.com stream directly from our website, visit us on Facebook, look for keeping it real podcast that’s us and chat with us. Tell us what you like tell us what you want to hear more of this is for you. This is not for me listening to my own voice is for me making sure I give you what you need. So thanks so much for being a listener being part of the show passing it along and onto our interview with the Jacobson team.
Right today on the show I have a very special episode because we have the Jacobson team are in studio which is great because I’m so rarely get to have guests actually sitting here in studio. So this is this is a lot of fun for me and they are huddled around as microphone with me. So we’re here for the very intimate setting. We have Marina and Stuart Jacobson from from Berkshire Hathaway and they are out in the in on the North Shore. And they specialize out in that area as well. So I’m going to first introduce Marina. So welcome to the show. Thank you. And also Stewart say hello, how are you? Alright, great. And they traveled all the way in from from Northbrook. So we really appreciate it. We’re real tours. That’s true. You’re all over the place. And we were talking offline that my mom is a Northbrook, born and raised of native so anyway, so Marina, I want to start with you because we move to Stuart. So tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got involved in real estate.
Marina Jacobson 7:15
Well, it was a little bit of a journey. And that’s how I actually met my husband in the real estate class about 30 years ago. And I just moved from Boston. And my mother said, You must be a realtor. And I said, Mom, I really don’t want to be a realtor. She says I’ll pay for the class, and you’re going to be a realtor. So I took a class and met Stuart and we start dating and going out and we skipped a lot of real estate classes, got married, had a baby, and I opened a totally different business. I went into a nail shop beauty salon, clothes, nails, jewelry, and loved it and had it for a number of years and then sold it. And my mother says again, you gotta go in the real estate business. So I said, Okay, take gonna take a five day course, if I pass, I’m in real estate business. So I took a five day course. And I pass. And I’ve been in real estate business and for about 16 years, and always was Berkshire Hathaway, which used to be Kenny constraint, started in Glenview. And I’m still there and love it and love my clients. And when I started, the business was booming. So I just started in the business. And then as soon as I started getting clients, all of a sudden, the market tanked. But I stuck around and build up a clientele. And a lot of them became my friends to refer me more friends. And so here I am,
D.J. Paris 8:50
I should mention also that they are a top producing team. So this is a really, really exciting for us and our listeners, as soon as Stuart Tulsa Marina told us some of your story, but tell us about yourself. Well,
Stuart Jacobson 9:01
we That’s how, that’s how we met. And and I was in the entertainment business. And I was purchasing looking to purchase a condo downtown where I was living in old town. And I said to my accountant, let’s take a real estate class. So we don’t need a broker to buy a place so I don’t need a broker. And and, and I said and we’ll meet women. Sure. And, and sure enough, first day, I met Marina, we ditched the rest of the course. Fell insatiably in love and, and then she opened this business as she mentioned. And when she sold the business, she went back into real estate I remained in in, in the entertainment business as a humorist and an emcee and doing a lot of auctions for foundations. And we, when she started to become more and more successful She said you need to get your license. And I said, I don’t know if I can pass this test. And so she said, you have to do it. So I went, I got my real estate I over studied, I passed it. And, and she has been my boss. And I continue in the entertainment business, which is such a great addition to being a real tour because it’s all about entertaining and bringing a lot of comfort to to the clients and
Marina Jacobson 10:29
added to say Stewart takes out a lot of buyers for me, and they always say is to taking us out next time. Oh my god, we found out where Al Capone you still live in where we you know, Stewart loves those little inner for me I love Yeah,
Stuart Jacobson 10:43
I love you know, I love to research the neighborhoods that I’m showing people. So it’s not all about the kind of the house, the home, it’s about the the area and and he I’m seeing the neighborhood so they go I want to live here. Right? So
D.J. Paris 10:59
what a lot of what a great story. So she is she’s your your real estate boss and your and your your other bosses, she is
Stuart Jacobson 11:06
my boss, and she used to be my wife, and now she’s my partner. You know, so when people you know, call her so she’s my partner, and always laugh,
Marina Jacobson 11:16
they say, Well, you know, my partner Stewart will take you out and then we’re shocked to
Stuart Jacobson 11:20
find out, you know, because eventually it comes up that you know that and they’re they’re kind of surprised that she may do so you know?
D.J. Paris 11:30
Well, it’s always good idea to marry up this guy.
Stuart Jacobson 11:32
Oh my gosh, absolutely. Absolutely wonderful.
D.J. Paris 11:35
Read it. Tell us a little bit about about your philosophy or how how you work with clients. You know, I know our our broker, our listeners are always eager to hear what are the top producers doing right. So I know, it’s not always some magical formula that you have. But what you were talking off off air about this and talk more about
Marina Jacobson 11:55
the most important thing first, I answered my phone. So I think this is the most important a lot of times I hear from clients. You know, it’s interesting, I made three phone calls. You’re the only one who answered. Yeah, people find you on the internet, people find you through marketing and through advertising. So you spend all this money on marketing yourself, and then you don’t answer your calls. And I hear that all the time. So I think that every realtor should really as much as possible answer the phone. So that’s what I do. That’s like the thing I try really hard to answer my phone every time it rings. And so and I also use my I guess I understand we always been in the service business before real estate. And now in real estate and NDI you have to understand what your clients want. And sometimes you have to figure out what they want and that they don’t even know they want. So I’ve been a single mom, I’ve been divorced, married, and I immerse three times Nana. So I understand that. On the different times in the life, people want different things. So especially, you know, when somebody’s buying the first house, I love love selling the first house because they just, they really need a mother who knows real estate business, and Who Gives them advice and tells them pros and cons of the home, they will make the decision. So obviously, there’s no perfect home. So you kind of pick your poison, sort of. But here’s all the positive things about this home, I think, and then all the positive, or the negative things that I think and then think that one day in 10 years, you’ll probably going to go sell this home. So I would like you to buy a home that it’s going to be much easier to sell in 10 years. So I think you know those, that’s my philosophy and
Stuart Jacobson 13:54
and we never say no, no matter when a client calls and we’ve she sent me out she’s pushed me out of bed at 1am Sir. And in fact, several years ago, one of our wonderful client of ours. New Year’s Day we had gotten in about 4am than that morning, and we got a call at 7am and who wanted to see a property he called a half a dozen people. Everyone said I’ll call you back sir and we’ll do it later today or the next day. He called Marina Marina said absolutely we’ll show it to you and what time do you want to go he said in the next two hours before we we literally got out of bed showered went to show him we ended up buying him a selling them a home
Marina Jacobson 14:40
selling him a home and then he referred many clients he just wrote me most amazing email the other day you know for another transaction we’re going to do with him and you wonderful guy and you know Yeah, we did a lot of bids and became friends. He just lost his wife so happen And he wanted to move from the city closer to be with his son. So you become friends with these people and you really feel for them. Interesting. We actually went to a memorial service for his wife. Oh, yeah. So it was it was just so
Stuart Jacobson 15:16
now we go to a holiday party. Yeah. Yeah. And we, our clientele is is so diverse, which most agents, you know, I mean, that’s not an unusual thing to be in this business. But, but the appreciation of being invited to to their their home and their religious ceremonial, and they’re the way they Christian their homes, and to be involved in that, and with their God and their ministers, and you learned so much, and you you profoundly assimilate more and more into their culture. And it’s just a
Marina Jacobson 15:53
blessing ceremonies of homes, sure that we had no idea. Well, like I
D.J. Paris 15:58
do in the Polish tradition, they’ll sometimes throw loose change in rooms, right, you know, and, and I didn’t know that until my friend married a woman who was Polish I was walking them through as they were buying a house and the mom was good, right? Throwing pennies. What’s your mom doing on your polish? At the most? So I didn’t know. So yeah, there’s lots of cute things. And it’s nice to just be witness to that. And it also gets you closer to the for those
Stuart Jacobson 16:23
people, right? Yeah, the cultures are so diverse. And then we go to just to show up it we go, we sincerely and truly are so excited to be part of that. Because it’s just not like a client. It’s we want to be intimate with the family. Well,
Marina Jacobson 16:38
you find out a lot about people, their financial situation, their relatives, their relationship with their relatives, and in laws on both sides, the weird family members.
Stuart Jacobson 16:48
Right, right. Yeah,
D.J. Paris 16:51
I want to ask you about some of your service work, that that isn’t necessarily real estate related, because you have a side thing that you do, but I think service work is so important. So tell us a little bit about that.
Stuart Jacobson 17:02
Well, I do a I started out in high school as an entertainer, a humorist, a an MC, a fundraiser, MC. And several years ago, when my granddaughter was born, who is now 10 years old, I started writing songs. I’m a comic song writer as well. And I’ve gotten airplay, and comedy radio shows. And when she was born, I knew she learned how to tie your hair and comer comer here and tie her shoe. So I started writing songs about being kind positive and reading. I live it every day. And Marina has a testimonial after 30 years that this is how I roll wakes up every day on the bright side of the sun. There’s always one out there and I say today is going to be a beautiful day. And I live it. So I started writing the songs and when she went to kindergarten, I was invited to perform for her kindergarten as a show and tell sure which turned into a school assembly and which turned into a lot more assemblies by once the team so now I do a show it’s a motivational kid show very engaging, very interactive, fun, called the stew show, be kind be positive and read. And it is and I go to schools, I go to libraries, I do festivals throughout the country. And And if ever there was a time that kids need and adults, you know I want a kid I say it’s you know it’s Shel Silverstein meets Art Linkletter sung by Bob Dylan I love it and and I don’t promote real estate at the show is short for these teachers and administrators and it is all about you know the message Sure. But it just but of course our clients know what I do sure and it adds a layer of credibility that and the sincerity that we have for people and for kids let and let’s promote that website. So it is www thus do show th e s t u show or www be kind be positive and read in fact if you i ABC the Windy City live just did a feature on me last week as a four star Chicago
D.J. Paris 19:19
and we will post a link to that but I’m sorry. We will post the link to the websites and also that that that new that that that wonderful while the ABC piece
Stuart Jacobson 19:28
and thank you for thank you for including that Oh, it’s you know, the whole the whole point of this is helped me spread this message or and yeah, I
D.J. Paris 19:39
would I just wish more people read in general to get started to as a child probably getting that habit. But it’s there’s some crazy statistic and this is about 10 years old. So it’s probably gotten worse. But it was like the average American reads less than one book a year. It was like less than one book. And I was like really and you No, a lot of people just don’t read. And it’s, you know, you can gain a lot of knowledge by hearing from others. Absolutely, we have a policy here at our office in management, and we don’t strictly enforce it. But the intention is for all of us to read a book every couple of weeks, we don’t always accomplish it, but we try. Right? So it’s, I’ve learned a lot just by reading from others. But,
Stuart Jacobson 20:21
you know, the more friends you’ll have, that’s true, too. You know, it’s,
D.J. Paris 20:24
you know, and the more educated you’ll be right.
Stuart Jacobson 20:27
You know, one of the things I teach for to kids, and but it is so essential in our business as real estate agents, is I asked the kids, how many of you like to be liked, and of course, every child likes to be liked, right? And then I follow up with how many of you go out of your way to be liked? And half the hands go down? Right? And the key to success is you have to you want to be a great violinist, what do you do you practice, you want to be a great baseball player, you want to be a great realtor, you practice, you want to be a great person, you have to practice.
D.J. Paris 21:02
You know, I’m going to pause here, because that is so important. And I just was it’s very timely, you bring this up, I was listening to a very prominent psychologist who’s also used to be a Harvard professor talking about a parent’s main responsibility. And I thought this was very interesting was to rate to raise their children so that they are liked, and it does it. And he says, I don’t mean they should change who they are to fit in. But they should learn how to be liked. Because if they are liked, life is so much better and easier. He goes, You know, we all like to think, Hey, I’m just going to be myself and too bad if anyone likes it. And he goes, that’s a nice thought. But the reality of it is, if you are liked, life is just much better for you and you can be liked and still be an individual.
Stuart Jacobson 21:48
It is so simple. It is so simple to be like but you have to be conscious, yes, all the time until it becomes habitual. Yes. And if everyone did something nice for people every day, we’d have the happiest, safest, kinder countries. And in fact, they open up with a song called I like to be light, where I get everybody engaged in the song I Love and but it is it is so important. When I take out clients. Prior to going to the client, I say, you know, what am I going to do to get these people to like me, right? And, you know, just be kind and positive. Ask them about that. Listen to them. Yeah, and Marina does the same. It’s, you know, and
D.J. Paris 22:34
it comes from a genuine place of interest, sincerity. Yeah, you guys are genuinely interested. And I am, I think, you know, you can’t fake it anyway. Because people can sniff that out real quick. Right, right. It’s my job at my firm is I recruit realtors. And what I always try to do is to be the guy who doesn’t actually, you know, say you need to come work at our firm, because quite honestly, no one wants to hear that. And everyone’s doing that anyway. And so I always go, this is identical. Tell me about you. And I can, I’ll see if we think it’s a good fit. But you know, it’s I think it’s so important. You guys, obviously you’re doing that with your clients, you genuinely getting to know them. And because you’re sincerely interested. And you know, I wanted to also bring up, I were just before we started recording, you were telling me, you guys are talking about a story. Somebody had just called or you were talking about how you get really excited to give information about neighborhoods to really do the research so that you can be this knowledge center. But you’re just talking about a story. I forgot. Somebody just called you looking for something.
Stuart Jacobson 23:33
When I started, Marina had started, okay, she became very busy very quickly, and kind of pulled out into
D.J. Paris 23:40
my life. This is a great source. Yeah, what would you have gotten? You just
Stuart Jacobson 23:43
got my license that week, and two years ago, 16 years, and I was ready, you know, but I had no knowledge. So I you know, as I was mentioning a newbie, yeah, I was a newbie, so I took telephone time. You know, we’re in
D.J. Paris 24:00
Florida. Back when that was a thing. On the floor
Stuart Jacobson 24:03
calls Yeah, really? Yes. We don’t do it. But we there are legions right. But great way to cut your teeth. Yeah, totally. Yeah. No, no. So So anyway, so I took floor call, and I get a call. This is a great, I love this stuff. I get a call. And a guy calls me up from Oak Park, and he has a bungalow. And he says to me, I’m looking for a broker who specializes in the sale of bungalows. And I said, today is your lucky day. I said it just so happens. My name is Stuart bungalow. Jacobson. Right. He says, I want to meet you. I said, Give me his address. He said I’ll see you I think it was that night. We went there. I call Marina I said Marina, I have no idea what to do. What’s the finite you know what I said Archie Bunker. Well, that’s a bungalow and and the you know, and I said and Marina was fairly new, but she was already you know, she was already Yes. immolating into the world of real estate and doing well. And so I said, Come with me, sir. And so she comes with me. And we do a presentation. And you know, I go, I know nothing about real estate. So, you know, I see a path, I see a child, you know, I want to know about their, you know, there’s a movie, and we’re going to Australia or somewhere that
Marina Jacobson 25:22
still does interviews. This is how he talks and he interviews.
Stuart Jacobson 25:26
So, so anyway, so after an hour and a half, two hours, we became we had coffee with them, we may have had wine, we became very close. And, and they said, you know, we’re interviewing about six agents, and brokers, they were called agents that they’ve interviewed some, I think they interviewed some and they were interviewing more, and we’ll get back to you. And I left and I said, Marina, tomorrow morning, first thing in the morning, we’re gonna get a call, and they’re gonna say you’re hired. And, and sure enough, the following morning, they called and said, How could we not hire you guys? Now, and I’m not saying that as an eagle, you know, anything more than we were just so sincere and excited to get that call? Sure. And to help them you know, sell this place. Sure. It meant so much that that this home stood historical, that nobody just turned it into it just another neighborhood home. And, and we did it and we sold it. Well, Marina sold it, you know, Marina, you know, Marina sold it.
D.J. Paris 26:33
That’s what a great story. And, and, you know, look, everyone’s got to start somewhere, too. Right. And everyone has a first client. Right. And and I you know, I think too, that oftentimes new new brokers get really worried about you know, their first client, oh, my gosh, and of course, why wouldn’t you be worried? Right? And then I think, yeah, but if you explain to somebody, ultimately, if you explain, hey, you know, there’s going to be times where you might ask me something, I’m going to check with my team just to make sure I’m giving you the right answer. You know, that way it alleviates a lot of the pressure to know everything on day one, which you’re not gonna know anyway.
Marina Jacobson 27:06
Well, my first client, I never forget, I’ve made a phone call out of now that you mentioned first time I know. My first time I made a phone call from a newspaper you know, by for sale by owner Oh, I remember when to call, so called. And those are tough calls. Those are tough calls. So called and turned out to be he was a builder. Well, he wasn’t really a builder, but he built that was his first house. He decided to go into construction business this guy, and now it’s his first house and you build this house. And he didn’t do such a great job. But it was a bit it was a nice big house. And it wasn’t is you know, the his days wasn’t but anyway, I got the listing. I got the listing I you know, I called my brokers that you have to come with me. I’m so stressed out I’m so nervous. I’m going to this appointment. Oh my god, we have to get this listing. And the guy was trying to negotiate the commission and everything but we got the listing. Yeah, we got the listing and I did so many open houses there and it was so busy, the price was really good. And the place was really big. And that’s what at that time people want it and so this these people walked in the door make a long story short, I was turned out to be a dual agent now my first agent all the Commission’s Well, you know how they all negotiate all the stuff, but I was happy there was a dual agent and I could work something out and help everybody because after inspection, the problems they Well, it wasn’t a problem with the house actually, the outside foundation I don’t even know how to explain it was a little bit higher the base of the around the house. So when I came the next day after the report, the owner of the house, the builder was trying to chisel foundations to make it like and I didn’t now I know new construction really well. I’m like, I know this is maybe not this is a little high, but I’m not sure if you should be chiseling this foundation.
D.J. Paris 29:14
Oh, that’s why but
Marina Jacobson 29:17
these people still live in that house and that client my first client is still my client. Isn’t that him? Yes. Yes. It’s still Michael we still talk calls me every year on my birthday. My friend on Facebook. So we and we’re still good friends. Let me commercial property
D.J. Paris 29:34
amaze. Yes. How do you guys stay in touch with your clients so after the sale transactions over what do you do to stay in touch?
Marina Jacobson 29:41
Um, okay. So you know, a lot of clients become Facebook friends or just friends and you see them in the neighborhood and you I always send out I do touch base with all of them through newsletter. Sure I send out you know, every year new year’s card, I always send a little gift with it. Sure. I always do. I’ve done pies, when people would come to the office and actually pick up a pie for Thanksgiving because this way you actually get to see them. Oh, good point. So we’ve done I’ve done that. And I always send a card and I always reply, I you know, so good
Stuart Jacobson 30:23
paste, by the way. Yeah, really Scott’s in northern Wisconsin. Yeah.
Marina Jacobson 30:28
And so yeah, so this is, this is the way you know, kind of, it’s, it’s really hard. It’s really, it’s really a challenge. And you like people, like when you become friendly, but not everybody you go out for to drink with dinner, but we do, which we do try to do that and send out cards and news,
Stuart Jacobson 30:48
or social media, or Facebook, especially, you know, I’m always attaching.
Marina Jacobson 30:52
So all my clients becomes to Jacobson because Phil writes on Facebook, and
Stuart Jacobson 30:56
I write and I, you know, I write songs about New Years and about, and, you know, I have, you know, kind of a, my own spin. I keep it right down the middle, though it you know, but, you know, I keep it entertaining. So they really get to know us more intimately than just, you know, coming to their home or anything like that, I think. But it’s all it’s all about a positive message. So people and they, they want to hear a positive message. Yeah. They don’t want to hear, you know, people complaining and they want to hear, you know, they want to hear good stuff.
D.J. Paris 31:29
What’s funny, I just interviewed somebody just yesterday that the episode isn’t live yet. So by the time this goes live, that one will have, but he’s the gentleman said something very, very interesting. And, and you guys would definitely agree with this. But he said, you know, you always have to be having just a slightly better day than your client. In other words, he goes, if something goes wrong, you can’t freak out as much as the client phrase, right, you have to be just a little bit less freaked out, right. And in genuinely, you know, because you have to reassure them, you have to make sure that you this is all going to be handled, we will take care of this, you know when something goes wrong, and if things go wrong all the time.
Stuart Jacobson 32:05
You know, one of the greatest lyrics ever read back in the 1940s, which should be everybody’s mantra, written by Johnny Mercer, I’m sure you’ve got to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative latch on to the affirmative, and don’t mess with Mr. in between. So when we have clients that are having a bad day, I say repeat after me. And they become so engaged in those little four lines, a lot of texts and tweets, and then I ended up will you send me that? You know, so I texted to them? And by the next time I see them, they’ve had it memorized. And that’s all it takes? Yeah,
Marina Jacobson 32:40
well, it still says T shirts for the kids, it says, Be
Stuart Jacobson 32:44
Hi, the positivity read. So I take out clients, sometimes, a lot of times, you don’t see the client again, but if they have a child with them, who’s you know, my show is K through five, you know, I like to give the key, you know, it’s like, I can give them a business card, or I can give them a t shirt, and the really nice T shirts. And it’s not like, Okay, you guys, you have to call me, I just, you know, helped me spread this message. Sure. And, and yeah, so it’s,
Marina Jacobson 33:12
you know, when then goes back to a lot of money, people spending, the most amount of money they spend is in the home. So you have to also set expectations, a lot of times of what to expect from you goes through the beginning to the end of the transaction with them. And you really tell them what to expect the positive and the negative and what could happen because everything happened, you were you were
D.J. Paris 33:35
telling me that you you say this is my opinion. This is this is the truth of the situation right now. And that’s really important for you, you said whether they you know, what they do with the information is up to them, but you’re always that’s part of your expertise is here’s what I know. Right? And here’s what I think about this.
Marina Jacobson 33:52
Yeah, right. Right. I almost always walks through the house and I always, you know, I have long many years of experience of selling old homes, new homes, and, and set expectations. What do you expect a new brand new house? And what do you expect in the house that’s been around for, you know, 30 years, 40 years, and you don’t expect it to be like a brand new construction obviously. So, you just and what could happen during inspection and how to negotiate that then, you know what to ask for and what not to ask for because, you know, you might lose the house. So, you know, all these things.
Stuart Jacobson 34:30
You know, I could just jump in here just to you know, undulate my wife a bit because you know, you know, she you know, we talk about a lot the sincerity and the fluff and everything like that. But of course you have to be an extremely detailed person absolutely successful. And she is extremely, extremely detailed, knowledgeable, stays on top of seminars, and whatever new is in marketing or spends a lot of money on marketing to be a everywhere. And so, so by that time, you know, when you meet the client, you’re working with the client, they know that not only are you You know, you come with a smile, but you’re very sincere. And you’re very smart. Yes. And, and that is where she really, really excels, that she’s extremely smart. And what she doesn’t know. She says, I don’t know, and I will find us. And it’s still after 33 years, 29 years of being married to her. It still amazes me that, that she continues to be smarter than me.
D.J. Paris 35:39
Well, I, but I don’t mind. No, I don’t mind. I am. My girlfriend is absolutely smarter than me. And I love that too. Right. Right. And very, seems very similar, more detail oriented, more organized. Right. But, but anyway, that’s wonderful. And I don’t think it’s any. I don’t think any listener at this point is wondering why you guys have been so successful. It’s all pretty clear. But so I want I think we have said it all. What I want to do is make sure if there are any buyers, sellers, renters, ambassadors, anyone out there that is interested in getting in touch with you guys to have them, you know, to represent the them as clients, what’s the best way that a client can reach out to
Marina Jacobson 36:19
you 847-361-5605 And your website is Marina Jacobson, homes.com
D.J. Paris 36:30
Marina Jacobson, homes, plural homes, and I’ll put that in the description as well.com And then what’s the best email to reach 3g
Marina Jacobson 36:37
Guys? Marina, Marina Jacobson, homes.com
D.J. Paris 36:40
Easy enough. And so let’s plug your, your, your
Stuart Jacobson 36:44
because the past doesn’t read. You can reach me either F does to show.com or be kind be positive and read.com. And it’s my phone number is 847-921-7766. And for the first 10 people that call me just because they listened and by the way we’re having you’re so good at what you do. Oh, I wish I don’t know if people can see you. But you have like this, this smile. It’s like I can see why you are successful. No, no and I say that sincerely. But I’ll give the first 10 People that say you know we heard you on the radio show. I’ll send them a t shirt for their child, their grandchild,
D.J. Paris 37:28
whoever that is very jealous. So so definitely reach out to the Jacobson team and get your child a free T shirt. Yes. So thank you guys so much for being on the show. You guys are infectious, in a good way. Infectious positive way. The reason I’m smiling is you guys are smiling too. And also your foot away from me so it’s you guys aren’t infecting me with your good energy. So thank you so much for being on the show. It was an honor they and by the way I want to mention we’re in Lincoln Park they drove in from from from Glenview Northbrook area and we really appreciate that
Stuart Jacobson 38:04
so now we got to have you get you back to North well that you think it’s so far it’s
D.J. Paris 38:08
i Well, this is this I live a mile down the street I’m on I Live In work on the same street so it’s highly spoiled. And but but I know I get out to the suburbs quite a bit but
Marina Jacobson 38:20
enjoy the city. We love it. We come down for dinners and lunches. You know we’d love it
D.J. Paris 38:25
when my when we moved down. So we moved on to curio when I was six and I’ll just I’ll end with this. I know we’ve tried to wrap up but my we moved on to Peoria and you know, I just started I actually went to kindergarten in Glenview and then moved out to to pure Illinois, Central Illinois. My mom said impure is a lovely town. It’s fine. We my parents had been there ever since. But my mom says it’s not in Northbrook. It’s, you know, she she she you know there was there she was a little letdown. Not she loves Peoria but she you know, she had to love what a what a lovely area of Chicago is is the North Shore. So yeah, it’s it’s hard to beat
Stuart Jacobson 39:00
I think professors at the school. They’re your parents. Your you
D.J. Paris 39:05
know, they’re just, yeah, my mom’s in women’s fashion and my dad is in paper loud anyway. Yeah, but, but anyway, guys, thank you so much. Thank you. All right. All right. Well, we’ll see you guys next time. Yeah.
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