Brad Inhulsen from Sears Real Estate shares with us how he began a career in real estate fresh from college. He discusses that his early success was largely due to shadowing successful agents. Brad also explains “Tour Tuesdays with Brad” and how he showcases listings on social media (even other agent listings). Last Brad discusses how he has used Facebook to organize webinars during lock-down and how that has generated new leads for his business.
If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!
Brad Inhulsen can be reached at 970-584-4144 and Bradi@SearsRealEstate.com
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:00
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Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real, the largest podcast 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 speaking with 30 under 30 Winner Brad and Hilson. Before we get to Brad, I want to remind everyone, we just rebuilt our website. And I have to admit, I think it’s pretty cool. I built it. So I probably am more inclined to think it’s cool, but I would love to hear your feedback. Please find us online keeping it real pod.com. Of course you can stream every episode we’ve ever done right there. But you can also even look at all the categories of shows we do, for example, the coaching moments or learn with a lender series. And if you just want to hyper focus and binge listen, you can do it right there. So again, find us at keeping it real pod.com And guys also follow us on Facebook, we post great content specifically designed to help you grow your business every single day and just one article, we don’t want to overwhelm you. So find us on Facebook facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod and thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend and thanks for continuing to support us you know we’re doing this now for years. We’re so grateful that you continue to listen and find value in it and we’re gonna keep making more and more episodes. So thank you from our entire crew really we couldn’t appreciate it more and it gives us energy and it makes it very fun and exciting for us to continue this journey with you and now on to our interview with Brad and Hilson.
Today on the show we have Brad and Wilson from Sears real estate which is in Greeley Colorado. Let me tell you a little bit about Brad and Brad has been selling real estate since May of 2008. Right out of college he was telling me beforehand he has never had another job. So this is his entire career. From from college on. Brad was also Rookie of the Year his first year and realtor of the year with Greeley area realtor Association. Brad has also just recently received an RS 30 under 30 Award and the magazine will be coming out soon. He is involved with National Association of Realtors and is the political action protocol advisor for his congressman for all real estate issues there in Colorado. Last year, Brad had 60 transactions and 72 transactions with his team member Christian. He has a husband, a dad, Millie, his daughter just turned one over the weekend. So congratulations to Millie and family. And please visit Brad at his website which is Brad in Holson, which is I n s I’m sorry, i NHUL s e n dot Sears real estate.com and Brad uh, welcome to the show. Thanks for being on.
Brad Inhulsen 3:51
DJ, thanks for having me today.
D.J. Paris 3:54
We’re really excited to chat with you. By the way, congratulations not only on of course, your daughter’s birthday, but also on your recent 30 under 30. A win from National Association realtors, that’s a big big deal. There are 1.7 million realtors in in, in the United States somewhere around there. Now obviously most of those aren’t rookies but a good percentage of them are. So even if you beat out several 100,000 agents, which you probably did. That’s a big big award. So congratulations there.
Brad Inhulsen 4:26
Thank you. I appreciate it was a kind of a fun experience, but also one that was nerve wracking to find out also
D.J. Paris 4:35
I can imagine, but you know, obviously they they recognize you know what you’ve done thus far in your career. I would also like to go all the way back to you know, you finish college and you decided to be a realtor. Was that always the plan? Is that what you went to school for? Or was it something you decided to do after college that maybe you weren’t thinking of doing?
Brad Inhulsen 4:57
So there was actually a realist A class that I took and it was basically the federal part of the exam. And we were buying a house. It was nothing like buying a house, but it was talking about what that process looked like. Yeah. And I fell in love with the process. So I talked to my career counselor, and I said, Hey, how do I make this thing, a real life experience? So I call my managing broker. And she said, Yeah, we’re not going to she was my managing broker at the time, I just called her and said, Hey, I’d love to do an internship. She goes, Yeah, we’re not going to do that. You have to get your license first. And I was like, Oh, weird. And then I called every other company in town. And everybody said, No, and I was like, Well, I have a maybe. Right? So that’s pretty easy. So halfway through getting the license, I called her and I said, I’m about 50%. Done. Do you? Do I need to pass a test? Or like, what do you what do you need for me? Right? Seriously, you started working on that. And I’m like, you told me to. So that’s what I started doing. called me in and I did an internship kind of thing didn’t count for classes didn’t get paid or anything. But it was great experience. And I’m here today still with the same company, love the company. And I’m glad I did it.
D.J. Paris 6:16
Well, i Congratulations, that’s awesome that you took the initiative to do that. And also that you knew that you wanted to do it that early on. But then the big challenge is and for everyone listening, they already know what I’m about to ask, which is, of course, how challenging it might have been once you started. Because, you know, I don’t know about about your community. And by the way, we should mention Brad is in Greeley, Colorado, which is is a smaller community, but the county that he represents has about 200,000 people residents, so it’s it’s it’s, you know, limited in size for sure. And I can imagine, you know, for we’ve had a lot of agents on who have started early in their 20s. And they’re like, oh, man, it was really difficult finding clients, because of course, most of your friends likely are people, you know, who are your age? Probably aren’t buying homes at that point, or maybe some are, but most aren’t. And also just convincing people that you’re the right guy. Um, can you talk about, like, how you started to do that? What, what, what worked for you?
Brad Inhulsen 7:19
Well, the first thing I did was I made sure I kept the facial hair, because that didn’t make me look a little bit older. It’s
D.J. Paris 7:23
very smart way to get started when I love getting one years old. So
Brad Inhulsen 7:26
a lot of people are looking at this 21 year old, like, does he have a clue what he’s doing here. But it was really good. Being able to sit down with people I really learned at the beginning, that a lot of people no matter how old they are, they have no frickin clue what the heck they’re doing. And so having somebody that can partner up with them, take the time. And I think the time is the biggest thing. And especially now, when we’re gonna be doing this socially distancing. Sure thing, we need to be able to spend more time with people and say, Hey, this is how the process works. And here’s the step by step. I hate the word hand holding. And I tell everybody that too. I hate saying hand holding, right? That’s what you need to handhold them through the process. So I literally just did everything. So I did open houses I did the cold, or the knocking the I didn’t do a lot of cold calling.
D.J. Paris 8:18
But so your way when you say knocking, I want to I want to pause for just a moment. So you would knock on random doors that you did people you didn’t know,
Brad Inhulsen 8:26
well, we call it the five by five or however you want to call it. So if you were doing an open house, you’d go five house. All right, and then basically canvass the area. Hey, I’m holding your neighbor’s house open this weekend, if you want to come take a look at it, because you’re a nosy neighbor. Come on by, I’d love to see you.
D.J. Paris 8:44
By the way, I want to pause for a second because Brad just said something really, really important. So he would work in open house, whether it was his listing or someone in his office, he would say please let me do your open house at any they would let him do it. And then in order to get people to show up one of one strategy and I want to ask Brad what percentage of Realtors in his area do this the five by five, Brad basically said, you know, I’m gonna knock on the neighbor’s door say hey, by the way, this Saturday at 10 or whatever, I’m going to be hosting an open house. We’d love to have you come by if you’re interested in just seeing, you know, and Brad’s right, neighbors are extremely nosy. And you know whether or not they’re going to buy the home three doors down is pretty unlikely, of course. But what a great opportunity for Brad to be like, Hey, by the way, if you need help with anything else, so this is such a great strategy. And I’m curious, Brad, because we have had over well over 100 guests on the show and only one other than you has talked about knocking on neighbors doors. I imagine 99% of Realtors probably don’t do that. What a smart was that successful for you to help drive some traffic in the door?
Brad Inhulsen 9:52
I can’t say that I’ve counted the number of closings that I’ve gotten from it, but I can tell you that it’s helped me be top of mind awareness. And I borrow and to be in front of people. I think most people well, I don’t I can’t say that for sure. But I feel like a lot of people can say, oh, yeah, I know who Brad is. They may not know me personally, but they know who I am. Because I do everything, even if it’s the stuff that our office is a sponsor on. So we have oil and gas, chili cook off, we make this big thing of chili. And we have shifts that agents are there, why try to be there for the biggest chunk of it? Because sure, no one, someone’s going to come up and say, You know what, I actually do need to sell my house or I do want to buy a house. Yeah, I’ve had a lot of that for sure.
D.J. Paris 10:38
You know, that’s really that’s really smart is is getting involved in your community, you’re not only involved in your community, you’re also involved in your local association, you’re involved in the National Association as well. And you know, that, of course, is something we can chat about. But I wanted to so you were getting started you did you just basically ask other realtors in your office? Can I do an open house for you is that before you had your own listings? Is that what you did? Oh, yeah,
Brad Inhulsen 11:03
absolutely. And there were people who just, there’s some nurses, they still are there, the open houses aren’t as good. And obviously, we can’t be doing them right now. Sure. They didn’t want me doing all the open houses. So there were there were weekends, where I would do five open houses a weekend, I would do three on Saturday and two on Sunday, and they would be hour and a half to our open houses. But they paid for me to be in the paper. And I got to be there and all those buyer leads that came in,
Unknown Speaker 11:30
I guess yours. Yeah, yeah. And
Brad Inhulsen 11:34
I never sold those houses. It was I was worse, to get the buyers were walking through the door, to sign up with me.
D.J. Paris 11:43
It’s such a great idea. And now that this is something that the vast majority of our guests have stated, which is they said beg and plead other agents in your office, if you can do host an open house for them. And you might have to beg and plead a few different times. We’ve had guests on the show who have said, you know, if somebody asks me once I say no. And they asked me to like three times, and I’m like, okay, they’re serious. But But this Brad just brought up the best, really the strongest point, which is, you know, he might not have actually found a buyer for that property. But now he has a list of people to follow up with, who, you know, obviously will be buying a property somewhere at some point. And just I couldn’t agree more. And feel like that’s such such a strong, strong idea. Talk, can you talk a little bit about so so you’re you’re younger, you’re doing open houses? And were when you started? Were you working mostly with buyers with sellers? You know, what, what were How did it work for you?
Brad Inhulsen 12:40
Yeah, primarily, I was working with buyers, and I still love working with buyers today. They just seem to be more fun. There’s more energy that way versus let’s just get this done. Let’s move forward here. But with that, I got to, I’m gonna backtrack a little bit. So sure, no, that wasn’t an issue there. But for others out there, our office works in a weird way. We have a lot of collaborative agents in our office, it’s not the end that part of what I like about our office versus some of these other bigger ones, because we’re not always competitors. We are collaborators. So we, we want to make sure that everybody’s doing well. So I sat down with a lot of agents. There’s one agent in our office who’s phenomenal at open houses, I got to watch him interact with people, high, high, producing Listing Agent and office, I got to sit with him. I got to go with another lady on some showings. And I’ve literally take in piece together little parts of each of those agents, and said, Well, I don’t like everything that that person did. And there’s nothing against them. But I just technique, but I pulled the things I liked. And I think that’s where I am today, and who I am today is just a little bit of every buddy. And if you have the ability to sit down with somebody and pick their brain, do it.
D.J. Paris 14:02
Yeah, and I couldn’t agree more. And this is such a great time to start developing or furthering those relationships with other agents, whether they’re in your office or maybe other offices, and they’re still willing to sit down with you and you know, maybe they’ll let you sit down on a phone call or a Zoom meeting or eventually when we’re all back to you know, doing things in person maybe they’ll let you you know, host an open house or watch them host an open house like Brad saying, watch and do a listing presentation. I mean, I have found and Brad, I imagine you you’ll agree that it’s shockingly a lot of top producers who really are too busy. Be like yourself you’re too busy to to even you know spend time on our show, but But you found time, but I imagine what you find at least it’s been our experience with all the guests we’ve had that they tend to be very open when somebody says I would love to pick your brain or I’d love to get a sense of How you do things? And you know, they’re number one, it’s very flattering. And then number two, you Why Why try to reinvent the wheel when there’s somebody who’s already really good at something that maybe you aren’t yet. And you can just take, as Brad said, the best parts that fit in with your personality and your brand, and then utilize that.
Brad Inhulsen 15:21
Well, you’re not asking for their secret sauce. I mean, you’re just asking for the ability to sit down with them and say, what are some things that you do different? You know, what are you willing to share with me? I mean, really, I’m not asking for your secret ingredient, because there is no secret ingredient you brilliant, how are you know, talking to people? How are you interacting with people? That’s way more important than a script? I mean, I can say the same. You and I can have the same script. And we can say it two different ways. And it could hit with one and it could mess with the other, or whatever. But it’s not it’s not a secret sauce, you guys.
D.J. Paris 15:57
Yeah, we had on the number one agent in New York recently, he’s done 3 trillion in transactions is somebody say number? And I said, How did you do that? When he because he first got started, he really knew nothing about real estate. And he got all of his listings on a cold on cold calls. He said, If you got somebody on the phone, and he’s not that salesy, he’s he’s a very just nice guy. And he said he had about a 70% conversion rate if he got somebody on the phone, who was selling their property, this is in New York City. And maybe New Yorkers are a little bit more acclimated to phone calls stuff. I don’t know. But either way, I said, that’s incredible. And he kind of went, I guess he goes, I don’t think I did anything unique or special. But wouldn’t it have been great to hear some of those phone calls? Because, because yeah, and what I find is, and again, this was the number one producer in New York, he had time to be on our show, you know, these top producers who you think are too busy. They’re probably not getting as many flattering calls, like wow, I really admire you. Could I spend could I take you to coffee or and right now maybe a virtual coffee? But But can I just buy you lunch? Or? Or can I just sit in and talk to you for a few minutes, I have some things I’m trying to do in my business. And you’re really good at this. And I would just love to pick your brain about what works and what’s worked for you and and you’ll find that a vast majority of the people you reach out to are so honored and flattered that they’re going to want to spend time with you. Would you agree?
Brad Inhulsen 17:26
Absolutely. I’d spend a lot of people who I didn’t think would give me the time of day and yet they’re like, Yeah, let’s go. Let’s go do that. That’s no big deal. And you know, what’s, what’s it cost me to bait spend 2030 bucks for lunch? And yeah, give me some pointers, some advice are willing to even just sit down and talk with me. Pretty awesome.
D.J. Paris 17:45
I agree. And I think and really cheers to you for doing that. And it takes a little bit of courage and and you’re gonna get some noes are going to be people that just say, I mean, we ask people to be on our show. Most people say yes, almost everyone does. But a few people are like nah, and we just go okay, well, you know, no big deal. We’ll just, you know, find someone else. But I want to I wanted to talk specifically or get your thoughts on networking, because I know that was really important. And I know you’ve talked about that networking with other realtors, Networking in Your Community Giving back and being part of various events. Is there anything else that you recommend? Like for example, are you now had when you were first starting out? Did you also reach out to everybody you knew made sure they know you were a realtor. What other types of networking sort of worked for you?
Brad Inhulsen 18:31
Yeah, when I got started, I let anybody in everybody know that I was in real estate because you honestly have no idea who knows? Someone that’s looking right now. So I did a lot of that I did a lot of the printed newsletters. I’ve sent printed newsletters to even my friends who are renting. I have a friend that was from college. They bought a house shortly after college and he has continued to refer me all the time. And I think it’s part of because I do the newsletters. I think it’s not everybody reads the newsletters, but sometimes like Oh, more junk in the mail from Brad even better. Sure. Junk. They’re like junk bread trash. That’s okay to meet your mother me at all, because you still saw Brad’s face come in the mail. And it was a little touch. That’s all it really was.
D.J. Paris 19:22
I yeah, I am such a big fan of that. And there are some training systems that are also supportive of that. I know Brian Buffini, his his training system, they call them items of value. But basically, you know, the idea of sending a printed you know, we all know this as we’re listening as every other realtor has a electronic newsletter right now those we know those don’t get read either. And I guess they’re better than nothing. I mean, I guess it doesn’t hurt. But the idea of sending printed material is is not that common anymore. And perhaps right whether somebody reads the newsletter or not isn’t really the point. I mean, hopefully they read it but it really doesn’t matter because it’s branding. They’re seeing Brad’s name, even if it’s two seconds before they go, I’m not interested in this this month. But hey, that was nice of them to send it and it certainly keeps your name your name in front of them. And we all know from from, you know, advertising and marketing 101 that repetition is, is what wins the game. So how long have you how often do you do newsletters? Are those monthly? Are they every other month? We shifted it
Brad Inhulsen 20:25
up a little bit. We were I was doing newsletters every month. And then I just was like content and coming up with new stuff. It’s a lot. Alright. But then we found another program that I’m gonna forget what it’s called. I’m so sorry to be a great shout out. But anyways, they send coupons. Boomerang, they send coupons in the mail. And yeah, all I pay for is the printing and the postage, they finally love that. And all I do is send it in the mail. Here’s my list. And they’ve got all kinds of companies up and down the front range of Colorado. And so my person happened to be in Denver, let’s say, well, they just did they get the Denver Cooper shirt. That’s kind of cool. But it’s a great touch. And that’s way better. We do that every month. Because it’s I think it’s if we do it every month, it’s like 82 cents a person.
D.J. Paris 21:17
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And you’re basically spending, you know, 12 bucks a year per person. If just one of those people buys a home, it pays for the entire year, I’m sure for all all. And of course, more than that is going to reach out. And, boy, that’s great. I’m so glad you mentioned that. I wasn’t familiar. So everyone check out boomerang to see if they service your area as well and have a ride those coupons. I’ve never heard of a realtor doing that. I think that is so smart. And also think about
Brad Inhulsen 21:48
something of value, something that people can use. And they’re not going to just be like, Oh, it’s a newsletter? Well, this is something you can actually, I think one time while before Chicago shut down around the country. There was like $10 off if you spent $25 or more. I was like that’s a good coupon. Someone called me and said, How are you affording this right now that is a lot of money. It’s like a coupon. It’s not, I’m not paying $10 for pizza, you guys.
D.J. Paris 22:14
But but but that’s it’s a really, you know, it speaks to a much bigger point, which is to say, think about consistently adding value, like what can I do? Of course, not, you know, look, if putting a news out a newsletter is awesome, too. And I don’t want to take away from that, because that does provide value, a coupon is going to provide value to most people. You know, a real estate newsletter is going to provide value for people that are interested in real estate at that moment. And again, it’s branding, even for people that aren’t interested, but a coupon is very well appreciated. And, you know, we sort of live in a coupon world now. Anyway, mostly electronic coupons. But we all before we you know, hit purchase at whatever retailer online, we’re going to be searching is there a coupon code? And Brad, you know, and I think it’s just very cool to have, you know, so also to support the local community by providing these coupons, especially, of course, right now, when a lot of the you know, retail shops and restaurants are, you know, struggling. But that’s that’s such a smart idea. You know, I’d reminds me, Brad, I’m going to just hijack just for a moment. There’s another company that I want to give credit to, that I really should reach out to, to be a sponsor on our show. But they’re called Happy grasshopper, they do something kind of similar. I don’t know if you’re familiar, but what they do is they so they took the email newsletter, and made it a little bit more fun. So for people that are doing email newsletters that we know, nobody reads those, but you know, that’s not really the point of having them, they’re still good to send out. But what they did is they said nobody reads these, let’s make them more fun. So what they do is I think it’s every three weeks, they’ll come up with a couple of fun, Wacky News Stories, depending on what time of the year it is. So right now it’s in May. So I don’t know, maybe there’s funny Memorial Day stories or whatever. And every couple of weeks, you go into your portal and you say, okay, they have like five stories they go, which one do you want us to send out, and they have nothing to do with real estate. They’re just funny, weird, wacky stories. And then they send out an email on your behalf saying, hey, Memorial Day, Happy Memorial Day is coming up, I found this really funny article that you should check out. And that’s it. And then they put a link to it. And I love it because everyone loves a funny wacky little story. And so if you’re looking for email, newsletter options, check out happy grasshopper they’re, they’re really cool and fun, just kind of a different take on the same old boring newsletter, which I like. But yeah, so So thank you for boomerang. That that tip. That’s, that’s awesome. I hope our listeners check it out. I want to talk to you about something you do called tour Tuesdays, which I have we were talking about this before we got started. I am so impressed that you do this and I really want to spend some time on it. So can you tell our listeners what that is?
Brad Inhulsen 24:53
Yeah. So primarily every Tuesday and sometimes we recorded on Monday so there’s the behind the scenes there for But we go in, we find property that’s active on the market, we try to make sure that they’re not under contract. And I bought a little gimbal, from Amazon or Best Buy. And it helps study the camera. So I’m not shaking all over the place. And it takes me probably 20 minutes, it takes me longer to probably set everything up turn lights on open doors, than it actually takes me to do the tour Tuesday. So I literally have a selfie stick basically. And I’m Yeah, about the property. And it’s another way to push it out there. Even if it’s not my listing, I do this. So I get permission from the agent and the seller. And just make sure they’re okay with me putting it on my page. And I give them a shout out that says, hey, this advice so and so from our office, and we walk through the property, that’s really all it is. I’ve had people I have literally sold the house because of that I’ve actually sold because of that. And people saying that was kind of cool. I’m actually ready to start looking again now.
D.J. Paris 26:01
So so let’s go through this process, because I want to make so even if it’s not your listing, you’ll reach out to the list agent and say, Hey, I would love to do a virtual showing to all of my my social followers, I want them to see this particular property. Does the does the list agent? I know you’ll do it for your own as well. But does the list agent also want to be part of it? Or do they say okay, just go do it. And
Brad Inhulsen 26:25
I did that with a commercial property. They wanted to be a part of it. They’re like, Hey, you’re doing today, it’s kind of fun. Can we do our commercial property, we’ve got three suites we want to sell. So two of the three in the building, which was pretty cool. That’s pretty cool. They sent me a referral for it, too. I was not expecting that part. But literally, we did this long video, it was at the very beginning of me to actually doing it. So there’s three of us like standing in front of the camera, like we’re super close. And people are just listening while someone’s talking. And it was awful. But people were impressed with actually walking through the property, seeing the what the office space look like. People love it. So most people don’t want to be a part of it. But they’re like, Yeah, go ahead and promote my listing, get it sold. That’s all I care about.
D.J. Paris 27:13
Right? Oh, I love that. And so you’re just reaching out to now, even if they’re agents at a different office doesn’t matter to you just a property you found interesting been doing
Brad Inhulsen 27:23
people from our office, just Sure, great relationships that way. But if anybody in the northern Colorado area that wants me to do a tour Tuesday for them, just send me a text or give me a call, I’d love to do it for you.
D.J. Paris 27:35
Well, I can’t imagine anyone wouldn’t want you to do that. I mean, it is free advertising for their property in a platform that might not be getting a lot of attention for that listing unless they’re doing their own virtual tours and promoting it on Facebook and Instagram. And we should mention Brad does that he promotes it on Instagram, IG TV, Facebook, he puts it on YouTube and blasts it out. And now over time, he’s developed fan base of people who want to see these properties. And it’s gotta be just a lot of fun to,
Brad Inhulsen 28:07
well, we had our stay at home order, I had some people who were like, seriously, the stay at home, you can’t go to your tour Tuesday, what’s going on here and like, I literally am not allowed to go out there. So you’re gonna have to wait until the state opens back up again for us to do that.
D.J. Paris 28:22
I love that. I think that is really smart. Just out of curiosity, is there are there any other realtors in your area doing that same sort of thing? Or? Or is it as far as you know? Is it really just you?
Brad Inhulsen 28:33
I don’t know anybody who’s doing it themselves, like I do. Because I literally am standing in front of the camera and I’m talking about the property. I know people do virtual tours and stuff. You photographers are doing that and you got the the music that’s going in the background and yeah, like those, but at the same time, I love to be able to go through. And I’m I make sure that when I’m doing it, it’s not perfect. And if I screw up, I’m going to keep going because people want to know that you’re a real person. Yes, I am a human. And I don’t know if you guys know this, but I make all kinds of mistakes. So I let people know about that.
D.J. Paris 29:10
Yeah, that’s absolutely right. I think there’s a lot of us who might be listening thinking, Oh, I’m not comfortable in front of a camera. And I what I will tell you is very few people are ever comfortable in front of a camera. I’m not comfortable in front of a camera. I can’t speak for Brad. But I mean, I’m really not. And I don’t think people need you to be polished and perfect. They just want good content. And if you’re walking through a house and genuinely getting excited about various aspects of it and providing good information, whether there’s a you know, a mistake or whether you know your trip walking backwards through the kitchen or whatever, I mean, those those are the best parts of videos anyway. So I’ve always felt that, you know, the more polished I mean, look, if you’re a professional broadcaster and you have, you know, a television show or something Okay, me Be that’s a bit different. But I think you know, for everyone thinking, Oh, I’m not comfortable. It’s like turn your phone around, go through a listing, try it one, send it to five friends and say, Hey, was this interesting was this you know, if you want really feedback, but really just the key is just keep doing it be consistent. I mean, we’ve done this podcast for years, I didn’t know what I was doing when I first started. I don’t know that I’m any better now quite honestly, I honestly I don’t I don’t know that I’m good at this. But But I think the content is good. And I think for for maybe that’s maybe the only reason that people listen, it’s for you know, these interviews with people like Brad. So I want to encourage everyone now that we’re probably stuck at home more in most of the country, you’re likely less mobile than you were prior to the pandemic, you have this opportunity to learn how to get at least a little bit more comfortable through zoom meetings, learn how to turn your phone around and and you know, if you have a listing, that’s that’s vacant, maybe go do a dry run, go do it and send it to a few people and find out, you know, is this worth posting? Is this okay? And, and they’ll give you feedback?
Brad Inhulsen 31:02
Well, and like you said, you’re gonna suck the first time. And every time you get better and more comfortable. And it is what it is. I mean, I love when people say, Well, I don’t look on the camera. Well, just so you know, if you don’t want good on camera, you don’t look good in person, either. That your face is your face.
D.J. Paris 31:19
Yeah, yeah, just do it. Like if people don’t really care what you look like what they care about is is is this helpful? Is it good, good content. And this really, I’d like to segue, Brad into the other thing that you do virtually on a consistent basis, which is your, your Facebook Live, your mini webinars, the webinars you do for customers, can you talk a little bit about that?
Brad Inhulsen 31:40
We just started that with all the COVID stuff. So we’re still working out all of our bugs. And I’m literally sitting in front of my computer. And this is what my Wednesday we do a Wednesday video with random Christian and my business partner, Christian does coffee with Christian on Fridays. So we’re just trying to do different things, how can we get in front of people, because I love to be face to face. And I can’t do that right now. So we want to be able to be in front of people and providing other content and making sure that people know that we’re still here, we’re still working. And that there’s houses that are ready to be bought. And let’s go so on.
D.J. Paris 32:17
Well, I also before we move on from this, I also want to make sure that anyone listening who wants to watch Brad and Christian do these can do that. Because not only are there you know, buyers and sellers and renters that that would want to watch this, but also a lot of our listeners want to see what you’re doing. We were talking about this earlier is like learn from people who are already doing it. So what’s the best way that somebody could get in, get access to these Facebook Live videos,
Brad Inhulsen 32:48
so are it’s on Facebook, so you can either go to it’s facebook.com/brad in Holson real estate, or you can go brad.in Holson on Instagram, and I post them up on the Instagram on Instagram too. But yeah, or shoot me an email or text and I think you’re going to provide all my information, probably in the comments below or something like that later. So I’d love to if you can’t find it, shoot me a text and I’ll send you the link.
D.J. Paris 33:16
Yeah, I think that’s such a smart thing to do. And I wanted to ask now and I don’t know how Colorado RS real estate deemed essential. Are you able to work or what are the rules right now?
Brad Inhulsen 33:28
So masks and gloves are required at all appointments and showings. So everybody needs to have that we are for a while we were able to we kind of were shut down where the loophole was you have to put the property under contract and then you can do your inspection on the property in person. But as of May 27 I believe the day was we’re back 100% So gloves, still masks and everything like that, but I don’t think that’s going to be part of the future, honestly.
D.J. Paris 34:02
Right. Yeah. Are you are you what are you doing? Obviously, I know you’re back. But what were you doing to stay busy? Obviously, you talked about you know, the Facebook live webinars, obviously, your tour Tuesday’s probably shifted a bit or had to be put on hold until until you’re able to get back out. What were you doing while you were really just stuck at home? Are there any like where you’re reaching out to clients? How are you staying active during that time,
Brad Inhulsen 34:28
I printed off a list and I started going down a list now not everybody heard from me the first week, but I think I have I’ll have to go back to the list one more time just to make sure I hit everybody. But I’ve had a great chunk of my clients. And literally I’m just seeing if they need anything at the very beginning. I made a joke picture we had my wife has this display cabinet with a window and it’s full of toilet paper. So I was talking about how some people have a gun safe why have a toilet paper safe and And I actually had somebody who said, Where are you finding toilet paper. And so we were able to actually go bring it, it was an older person. Yeah, we were able to bring her toilet paper. So different things like that just checking in on people. Because I told some people this too, as soon as the stay at home orders happened, there were a lot of jobs that were lost in the northern area. Three clients of mine lost jobs, and then two others backed out. So I mean, I had five things under contract at that time, that just didn’t work out, which is fine. But it was things that we wanted to start being able to take care of people. There are some sponsorships that we were going to do this year that the events have gotten canceled, we now have the funds available to help people in that way. And so if you’re if they needed food, or if they needed toilet paper, I mean, that literally was something that somebody needed, we were able to do that for a while, and still are.
D.J. Paris 35:56
Yeah, I think that’s that’s such a good, such a good suggestion that, you know, we we have to realize even now, and in other parts of the country where we’re still completely locked down, Chicago is eased a little bit, but still, we’re 90, some percent of people aren’t going back to the office. So there’s, you know, this, this thing that we have to remember that people are lonely, some people are lonely, and certainly are alone, they may not have other people living with them, or they, you know, they may not have be as connected to friends and family, they may have lost jobs. Financially, they may be struggling, there’s just a different level of stress that existed today that you know, a lot of people are experiencing. And so I’ve said this on pretty much every episode over the last month or two, which is to say like, even just like Brad was saying, the art of the act, right? Not the art the act of simply just reaching out and saying, How are you doing? Is is a very, very powerful thing to do. And also, not many, you know, we always think people are getting a lot of those kinds of phone calls, but probably not unless it’s friends and family, probably not hearing from other real estate agents, or just any other professionals. So this is a great opportunity. And Brad did exactly the right thing, in my opinion, which is he just went on his list of his sphere is contact list. So I’m gonna call everybody see how they’re doing, see what they need.
Brad Inhulsen 37:22
Yep. And there is another agent who I’m really good friends with. He’s not a residential broker. But we he used the word depressed one time. And that was a hard thing for me to hear. And so that person’s been on my list. And you know, our colleagues, too. You guys are needing help, too. Because there’s a lot of people who want to spend time with people and are not I’m an I’m a huge extrovert. And me being stuck at home right now is the worst. So I wish that I could go do all my networking events again. I wish that I could just go give someone a handshake. I mean, I haven’t checked, I haven’t given anybody a handshake in months now. Yeah, different things like that. We are all missing out on and like, a simple text or a quick phone call is awesome. Huge.
D.J. Paris 38:13
Yeah, I just signed up for a thing. And I hate to even say it because it might sound like I’m bragging. And I assure you I am not. But I just thought I’d say this because I had never heard of it. Somebody suggested it to me. And I thought I should share it because everyone else may be interested is I just signed up for this was in the Chicago area. I imagine they have this stuff nationwide in various forms. But it was like an adopted senior citizen thing. So you think like, well, who might be some of the loneliest people out there right now are our seniors 10, especially if they’re living in certain facilities where friends and family have passed on or just don’t live nearby or aren’t close, you know, emotionally or whatever, you know, you have a lot of lonely seniors. And so I signed up to adopt sort of adopt a senior, and I’ll be doing zoom meetings with with them a couple times a month. And it’s it’s not a tremendous amount of time. And obviously, for those listening, you know, I don’t practice real estate personally. So there isn’t any direct benefit for my business to do that. However, you know, if I was a practicing realtor, I would imagine that by you know, volunteering, giving time, especially during this pandemic, people are going to find out what it is you do, and especially if you’re somebody that you know, everyone has to live somewhere. I imagine that you know, even if it’s a senior, they might say oh, by the way, my you know, not that that’s you wouldn’t be doing it for this reason. But oh, by the way, my grandson is looking to buy a home and can you help them or so there’s lots of opportunities to give back right now. And and to connect with people who may be otherwise lonely, whether it’s your clients, or you know, volunteering, and I encourage everyone now that we have just a little bit more time than we normally do. Just you know, think about how you can use that time to make somebody feel a little bit less alone.
Brad Inhulsen 39:58
Right. I love that.
D.J. Paris 40:00
Yeah, I do want to hear your story. We were talking about this offline. And I want to hear your your story about it. Because it’s not that it’s a funny story, per se, although it is humorous, but more really about your willingness to go above and beyond for a client. Can you talk about the story where you helped a client move as they were selling their property?
Brad Inhulsen 40:20
Yeah. So I had a client who was Colorado is a cable funding state. I don’t know if Illinois that
D.J. Paris 40:27
way. You guys are? I don’t know. Can you explain what that means?
Brad Inhulsen 40:30
So literally, as soon as you’re done signing the documents, and the money is there, you can take possession of the property? Yeah, yeah. Where’s that? Okay. Um, so I wasn’t sure if you guys were like California or not on that. But literally, we had a closing at, I think it was one o’clock. And I think we actually moved it back a couple hours. Anyways, this lady did not have all of her stuff out of the house. And so I went and got my truck. And we moved her into this storage unit. And she had another storage unit that was full of other stuff. And I said, you need to go rent, another storage. There’s so much crap in there. But we were able to make it work. It was the most unprofessional I’ve ever been at a closing I was in jeans and a T shirt. And I was sweating. I think I had a hat on same time. It was the worst and most unprofessional closing I’ve ever been to. But we got her moved out of the house finally. And she wanted to bring her dog in because it was a little bit colder outside and she didn’t she got there, which
D.J. Paris 41:28
I totally get. Yeah, well, she’s moving. Yeah, she
Brad Inhulsen 41:32
was like a greyhound. It wasn’t just like one of those small purse dogs or anything like that. It was a bigger dog friendly and great. Well, during the process, the dog must have gotten stressed. And I think he eat a rock or something. upset his stomach. You in the closing room in front of God and everyone. It was awful. So we’re all just sitting there, and we’re looking at each other, like, Who’s gonna clean up this mess? So then yeah, right, I get up, I’m the one that gets up because I’m in my work clothes. already dirty. I’m already dirty. So I might as well go pick up the cue from the dog. So now, my title rep always asks me, are we bringing a dog into the closing? Because we need to know if we need to have some extra napkins or towels there so that we can clean up your mess or whatever.
D.J. Paris 42:18
Wow, that that’s, that’s amazing. That was were You were you representing the buyer or the seller representing the seller.
Brad Inhulsen 42:24
I was represent. Okay, so
D.J. Paris 42:25
you’re representing her? Yeah, I imagine even if you were representing the buyer, you might have still helped out because you probably
Brad Inhulsen 42:30
would have I wouldn’t have been happy about it. But I probably would have jumped up and done it.
D.J. Paris 42:34
Well, I mean, I think that that just goes to show you know what Brad’s willing to do for his clients. And probably no surprise, I advertise that stuff, though. Brad is not willing to help you move any further, he has done that luck. No, but But I, I do love that you did that. Because I think that is a real feather in your cap for the amount of dedication. And you’re probably like, well, if I don’t do this, this is going to screw up the entire closing. And everybody loses in that scenario. And so now, you know, I’m going to just, you know, bite the bullet, and then I’m going to show up to the close, the closing, sweaty, and you know, unprofessional attire, but hey, look, you know, I got to close it, and then you’re going to also help out at the closing when there’s another challenge. But but really, and I know that that that likely will probably never happen again. But I think it really well. But it really demonstrates your level of professionalism. And probably also those kind of stories are why the National Association of REALTORS has, you know, awarded you that 30 under 30, which is a huge, huge big deal. And I want to say obviously, you’re doing a lot of things right. And really, you’ve given so much value on this podcast, we’ve talked about a lot of things even from just as simple as hey, by next time you have an open house, knock on some doors in the neighborhood and let people know. Yeah, and and then also from from the mailers and just going above and beyond and also thinking about how you can contribute How can you how you can help whether it’s you know, the the people in your community or in Brad’s case he does that as well as make sure that Colorado’s Bill lobbyists and Congress people are working to help Realtors stay employed and and doing all of that and you’re just somebody who’s a shining example of active involvement in your industry as well as your community, and probably no surprise and why you’ve been realtor of the year and 30 under 30. And you have all these these accolades and I know you’re very humble person, but it is truly impressive. What you’ve accomplished in a relatively short amount of time and for as young as you are. It’s It’s really amazing. So what I’d like to do to to wrap up is Brad, you we said this earlier, but we didn’t get specific is if there are any buyers, sellers, renters, investors, anyone looking to work with us Hop agent in in Brad’s area. And Brad, can you talk about the communities you serve the areas specifically?
Brad Inhulsen 45:07
So primarily, I’m in Weld County, which is the northeast part of Colorado. So that’s where I specifically am. So if you guys know where Fort Collins is, I’m east of Fort Collins. I do go into Fort Collins and Loveland, but not as often as I am in Greeley. So my bread and butter is in the Weld County area, too.
D.J. Paris 45:27
And if anyone’s out there who would like to work with with Brad directly? Or if you’re an agent who may want to just get some advice? You know, what’s the best way someone should reach out to you?
Brad Inhulsen 45:40
Yeah, you can send me an email. Brad the letter i at Sears real estate.com. And Sears kind of like Sears and Roebuck, but not the same thing. And you could call me 970584414 For call text email, I’m pretty available. And I’m happy to help in whatever way possible because I want everybody to be better.
D.J. Paris 46:02
Yeah, that’s that’s such a that really that last thing you just said, you want everybody to be better, I think perfectly encapsulates your, your personality. And, and maybe maybe that’s the secret to your success, or certainly one of them is just contributing your you’re big into contributing. And I think that’s, that, personally is something I’m a huge fan of, as well. So on behalf of the listeners, I want to Brad, I want to thank you for being on our show you you’ve given extraordinary amount of value, lots of great tactics and strategies about how agents can grow their business. And also, it’s just fun that your energy is great. And obviously you you know, your excitement and personality really come through. And I’m going to start checking out some of your, your Instagram videos as well, because I we have 700 Realtors at our firm. I don’t know that anyone does anything like that. And I want to say you guys need to do these because obviously for you know, they’re having a tremendous success. So on behalf of the listeners, Brad, thank you for your time today. Also, on behalf of Brad and myself to the listeners, we want to say thank you for continuing to listen and support our show. Before you sign off. Everyone listening, we just asked you to do two quick things. One, please think of one other real estate professional that could benefit from hearing this particular interview with Brad and send a link over to the show, you can send a link right to our website, which is keeping it real pod.com We just completely rewrote rebuilt it from the ground up, it’s much easier to find things or just you know, have them pull up a podcast app and search for keeping it real well. Some will pop up. Second thing is please follow us on Facebook you can find us@facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod or to search for keeping our own podcast. And the reason for that is not only do we of course promote all of our episodes there but every single day, we find an article that’s written from some website online, specifically written to help agents grow their business. It’s the only things we post our episodes and articles to help you grow. So hopefully we’re providing value there. So again, facebook.com forward slash keeping real pot, Brad, thank you so so much. This was a real pleasure. I’m excited to continue to watch your growth in your local community. And also I imagine, you know, we’ll be seeing you in other committees at the national level. And I seem feel like you know, there are lots of really cool things coming for you. So congrats on all your success and thanks for being on the show.
Brad Inhulsen 48:21
Thanks for having me. I really have enjoyed my time today.
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