Episode 1 - Investor chat: Terry Thayer Talks Tech

Welcome to Episode 1 with real estate investor, business coach, and e-commerce automation expert Terry Thayer.

In the podcast's inaugural episode, Terry and Jordan discuss the main purpose of technology in a real estate business: data. Not just how you collect it, but how you use it to better understand your business and accelerate growth.

"There's so much data you can collect by using the right technology. And that's how you truly grow a business - through data, KPIs, knowing what works, and what doesn't." - Terry Thayer

Skip tracing data to find the right contact. Comp tools to help you shape your deals. Team performance data to train individuals to improve. CRM systems to bring it all the data together and provide a collaboration space so everyone is working from the same data... they cover it all! 

Plus, Jordan and Terry talk about Terry's journey from manual systems to automation, the importance of following up (and how the right technology can support it), and how to manage a virtual team to make better human connections. Plus, Jordan grills Terry on the "Fast Five" questions to give you the quick tips and advice you need to grow your real estate investing business.

To meet Jordan and Terry in person, sign up for TAB Retreat - Sept 24-Oct 1, 2022. Use code SMRTPHONE for $500 off.  https://products.tabtribe.com/tab-retreat


About Terry Thayer
Terry has had an entrepreneurial spirit since he was in elementary school, selling anything he could. He started his career as a Carpenter and then in 1997, he opened his first business as a contractor. In 2002, he became a real estate investor and has been in love with the industry ever since. Up until 2012, Terry always did things "the hard way"; that's when he discovered the power of mentorship and financial education. Terry spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on coaches who taught him the importance of delegation and systems. To this day, he continues to invest sizable amounts of his own money on personal development for his family, his team and himself. Of the five 7 & 8 figure businesses he owns, he works less than 5 hours a week total in the businesses. Not because he's "lazy", but because he is so efficient that any more time spent in the office would be wasteful. Most of his time is spent coaching his team to be better, coaching other entrepreneurs how to avoid the mistakes he's made over the years, strategizing and looking for his next big opportunity. Terry specializes in earning more money in less time, and he's ready to share his secrets with the world.

Find out more at terrythayerii.com or follow him on Instagram at @terrythayerii

About That Real Estate Tech Guy Podcast
That Real Estate Tech Guy is the only podcast focused on helping Real Estate Investors make better technology decisions to close more deals and make more money. It is your weekly chance to explore how technology can help your real estate business explode. Informed by decades of REI and technology experience, Jordan gets into the details with seasoned tech and real estate industry leaders to bring you the lessons you need to get ahead. Learn from guest successes and failures, get the inside scoop on the next big trends, and always walk away with actionable ideas to build faster, better, and more profitably.

Interested in being a guest? Head to thatrealestatetechguy.com and let us know!

Transcript

Transcripts are Automatically Generated Using Otter.ai


Jordan Fleming  0:01  
I can tell you one thing. Technology is the single most important aspect of every business that has successfully scaled.

Announcer  0:10  
Each time for that real estate tech guy. It's your weekly chance to explore how technology can help your real estate business explode. Each week you'll hear from real estate investors who have been there and done that and find out their favorite technology tips. Listening is Jordan speaks with tech companies and learns about new technologies and new ideas that will help you scale your business. And now join your host Jordan Samuel Fleming, CEO of smart money for this week's episode. All right, let's

Jordan Fleming  0:41  
kick this off with episode number one my co pilot for today on the that real estate tech guy podcast is Terry Thayer. Terry is pretty much everything. I think at this point. I mean, there's not much Terry doesn't do within the real estate space. I'm gonna actually leave it to the man himself to give a little introduction on to the main things he's doing right now, Terry, thanks for joining us.

Terry Thayer  1:06  
Hey, Jordan, thanks for having me. First and foremost, yeah, I mean, what we're doing, we're in all things real estate. So we've got our market acquisitions company doing wholesaling or buying or because we have our own pot of let's call it real estate, repeat picks them off. And as rental properties, we were flipping some of these properties, we don't flip too much, that much right. This minute, I have a bunch of different creative type of ways that we take down deals, we have a new construction company rebuild about 30 million plus dollar homes every single year in North Carolina, Raleigh, Raleigh, North Carolina. And then we have the rental company. And we're actually shifting right now we're in the process of shifting some of these long term rentals into short and mid term rentals is our newest journey that we're getting ready to launch in the next couple of weeks.

Jordan Fleming  1:57  
Oh, I'm gonna follow up on that. And of course, the other element you've got going for you that's in the real estate space is the TAB - the absolute best. And not only do you have a mentorship program, but you also got the event coming up in September of 2022, I'm going to be there, smrtPhone going to be sponsoring it. Tell us a little bit about TAB and the TAB  event.

Terry Thayer  2:20  
Yeah, absolutely. So we're going to be in Jamaica this year, it is the second time we've done this in Jamaica, the sixth event that we've done, and actually is gonna be the final one that we're opening to the public, we're gonna keep this close within our internal mentorship and, and mastermind moving forward. But yeah, we typically get a couple 100 real estate investors from all over the country, down there for an entire week. And it's not just an event, it's like most events, why 80% what I call the classroom, and you've got you know, 20% of networking, we've completely flipped it for the days for the hours is the event, the production, all that stuff. And the rest of the time is going to be network and we require all of our speakers and sponsors to be there the entire time to be available. So it's not like that whole thing where somebody gets up on stage, you know, speak wave, and then they're gone. You never get to see him. We this is real, you get to connect with these people. And you know, be at the swivel bar, haven't lunch, dinner, go on excursions. So it's a really good event as far as not just the networking, the learning, but experience vacationing. That's a complete write off, of course, because you're doing it for your business. So yeah, man, it's just a really good event. You were there last year. We're excited to have you again there this year.

Jordan Fleming  3:37  
Yeah, well, and I will, you know, I'm gonna put all the links in the podcast page and description to make sure you guys have a chance to sign up. I will say personally, I've been to a lot of events, I've worked a lot of events, and I've sponsored events, spoken at events, all those sorts of things. And I loved that what I love to have, because the structure that Terry just outlined means that the relationships you form go a lot deeper, right? Like I still am chatting on WhatsApp to people I met at TAB last year. And it's just like it's just relationships having you know, stuff. It's just, you know, but I'm seeing deals flyer, I'm seeing people because they built a relationship. They're reaching out saying, Oh, you're in this market, I've got something for you. And I think... I have not seen many events that that do that level of relationship building. And I think to have is as you

Terry Thayer  4:31  
and as you witnessed after Monday after boat day, everybody's best friend;  it's like everybody was known each other for years and years and years. So it's a good way to connect with people and like you said business relationships. I just learned a couple months ago, I was talking to somebody and they told me they went to the second TAB of the second TAB Retreat that we did four or five years ago whenever that was. They said that they a group of them got together and they created an accountability group and Today - to this day, still -they still meet, they still hold each other accountable, they still have conversations as a group, which I thought was pretty cool.

Jordan Fleming  5:09  
That's, I think that's a testament to the structure, right. So I'm excited. And I will put all the TAB information. In the podcast, I recommend it to everybody. Because even if you use the link up with a podcast and get a little discount on it, as well, it's worth its weight in gold. And it's definitely worth getting there. But for now, we're going to dive into what we're here to talk about, which is real estate and technology, because, as you know, and I'm one of the reasons I'm coming to TAB again, is to speak about the the kind of thing that everybody says they love, but nobody takes seriously enough to do it well, although 95% of time, and that is, you know, I over the last 15 years, I have helped businesses scale. And over the last eight, a lot of them real estate, because technology is the is a bullet that you can fire and really, really like charge of your business, if you take it seriously, and if you implement it properly. So if we think about your, you know, like the wholesaling business you got now, you know, technology is a key part, what's been your kind of if you think about your journey, as an investor, you know, I know a bit of your story, but how has your understanding... has your... I shouldn't lead you... has your understanding of technology evolve, and how important it is or not to be fair.

Terry Thayer  6:29  
Massively. I got into the real estate business in two, okay, so 20 years ago, got into real estate business. It wasn't until 2017, that I started using a CRM, and a phone system, and all these other different things. Put it this way, I used to have a team of VAs, that I would send them over addresses and they would manually skip trace, like back then right, I didn't even have... I would buy data. And you know, sift it out, send it over, and they're over there skip tracing for numbers, so that we can call them and try to take down deals. So massively massive, massive growth since 2017. And the importance of it is, it's, it makes a huge difference from one one piece to another. So we're really picky on exactly what we're using to get our results. 

Jordan Fleming  7:23  
And, you know, I think a lot of times the focus for technology when I hear you know, when I talk to real estate investors, a lot of times they're they're they you know, the word that speaks to them or jumps off their tongue is CRM, right? That it's just they just say CRM Oh, my CRM, right? And, and, you know, setting aside what what they mean by CRM, the CRM is an integral part. But it's not the only part. You know, technology can take, you know, a huge place in the lead generation aspect in the facilitation of closing and contracts and all that. So we'll get to CRM in a moment. But aside from the CRM piece, what are kind of what are some key things that maybe you didn't realize the technology would hit so hard on, but has proved to be the case?

Terry Thayer   8:16  
Yeah, I mean, it's, again, like, when you're a one man band, I mean, it's one thing, right? I mean, you can kind of get away with spreadsheets, you can kind of get away with using your cell phone and things like that, right. But if you're, if you're thinking about the long game, if you're thinking about the end, you're not going to be that one person band, right? And as you grow, and as you evolve, that was my biggest mistake is I have all this data and all these different things in so many different places. And as we start to grow and expand to build a team, and first of all, you can't run a team off spreadsheets, you can't run a team and hold them accountable off of just using their cell phone. Right? There's so much data that you can collect by using the right technology. And that's how you truly grow a business is through data through data, KPIs. And that's how you can shift how you can you know, whether you're doing good or why you're not doing bad, or why you're not doing good, sorry.

Jordan Fleming  9:12  
And it was something I'll pick up as well on what you're talking about data, you know, that ability to collaborate. And work is you know, as you say, one man band, you can you can operate on like old school Rolodex almost, you know, and pen and paper, but the moment you start to scale up, and most people I know, get into business for themselves are looking to scale very, very few people I know got into real estate to really do very little. Most people want to scale. So that collaboration element how how does that kind of fit as well, from a technology point of view?

Terry Thayer   9:50  
You mean with the team? Yeah, collaboration

Jordan Fleming  9:51  
with your team? I mean, because that's a you said you can't really build a bigger business with spreadsheets. Explain to me a bit about how kind of collaboration comes into it.

Terry Thayer   10:01  
So for example, I mean, it's like, you know, I'll hit a couple of points you mentioned about CRM, CRM, you've got your your data coming in there, right? We connect our phone system to the CRM, we can see all the recorded calls or in our, in our CRM, any kind of text messages in our CRM. Now, if we talk about, you're even even talking within each other, we can all that stuff could be done in one place. So we can collaborate, right? But then it says, How do I know if somebody is doing what they're supposed to be doing? How do I know that with their talk time is how many know how many? How do I know how many dials that they're doing? Right? That's, that's one thing. Here. Here's another thing, okay. So we have if you have a lead generator, lead intake person, and where it's a lot less than you want to do is hang up the phone, and then have somebody else call them back. But to be able to pass that off, and be able to do a live transfer with directly from that person to a closer lead into HR closer. Like that's huge. Because it's we don't have to chase and try to get get it while it's hot, we get it while it's warm. And then a closer can go ahead and close it. So I mean, the list goes on and on and on about just being able to put them on hold and, and listen to the conversations. And there's a lot of cool features that really help us lock down deals do better.

Jordan Fleming  11:25  
Absolutely. Now, I'm gonna get into the CRM word, because everybody talks about CRMs. I don't think a lot of people understand CRMs. But that's coming from a guy who built CRMs for 15 years, and I get, you know, I sort of get like, I get tired of hearing people talk about it without doing it. But one of the things that I've always heard from real estate investors is follow up, follow up, follow up, right, like the wind is in the follow up. And, you know, for me, when I think of a way technology can really impact the real estate investment business. The follow up, you know, if I was gonna put right up towards the top, it would be no lead left behind sort of mentality and making sure you don't drop anything out, making sure you don't just let something go cold, because it's not organized. How do you like? What are your thoughts around follow up? How important it is? And how maybe, have you seen technology? You know, help with that? Or maybe you're not doing enough of it? I don't know. Like, what are your thoughts on that?

Terry Thayer   12:24  
Yeah, no, we preach it every single day I over 95% of the deals are taken down through follow up, like a cave, well, over 95 I don't even know what the number is. It's pretty much pretty much every deal, right? Occasionally, you get one call closes, somebody calls in close redo everything virtually over the phone. So by far, like we have a whole system, you know, with the whole hot, cold, hot, warm, cold type of list. And then and just constantly like okay, if it's hot, we're working, at least until we get that thing in contract. If it's warm, we may want to follow up with them. You know, once a week or something, just keep keep pushing that whole thing. If it's cold, it might go on depending on how cold it is. We might put it in anywhere from a two to six month follow up. But until that property sells, it's always a lead. Even if they go they want us to go on Don't call me anymore put me on a do not call list. Like we'll call 'em. You know, six months later, they won't remember it was that so call them.

Jordan Fleming  13:27  
Since we're smrtPhone I gotta I gotta distance myself from that! What if the FCC are listening? Gonna get me sued here. The point though, the real point is the follow up is the key. And, you know, if you're looking at you know, I talked to a lot of new investors, and they're asking about what should I look for in a CRM, right in real estate CRM and and the first one for me is, what is the follow up? What is the automation and workflow? That means you won't drop anything? Right? If you if you do that, as Oh, the only thing you do for the first three months, make sure that is in place. I would say you're off to a running start on that. Now you see new people time? I mean, how much do you think, you know, how much do you think the follow up mentality you're describing? actually gets put in? Like, how much do you think they actually believe in it?

Terry Thayer   14:21  
Not enough. I mean, I have people in my mentorship program that I've just kind of beat it in their head until they finally like, oh, yeah, you're right. You know, they start seeing that and they're just taking on new leads every single day like it is. It's if you want to grow a business, if you are an extra that no lead left behind. We talked about that all the time. There is no reason for it. So yeah, I mean, it's super important. I think it probably gets implemented, I would say probably 20 25% of the time, meaning 20 to 25% of people actually implement and go hard and have a good solid follow up system.

Jordan Fleming  15:00  
Wow. And so and I mean, listening to that, you know, if there was, what if I'm a real estate investor? And I'm thinking, What's one thing I always try and distill things down to just a couple of action points, because, you know, you give people 50 things to do, and they're gonna be like, you know, they're gonna freak out, and they're not gonna be able to execute any of it, you give them one, two or three things to do, and they're going to be able to focus on them. So, you know, for me, the follow, you know, implementing a good follow up structure, and an automated follow up structure so that you're not using manpower to do some of the basics, you know, would be key. Now, when it comes to follow up is the purpose, you know, as a non real estate investor, you know, is half the purpose of the follow up, just to keep you in their, in their consciousness. Like, are you just trying to buff it along? So it's like, when it comes time to sell, they're like, "oh, yeah, this guy?"

Terry Thayer  15:55  
Well, though, that's one that's top of mind. Right top of mind, awareness (TOMA), that's one, but people's circumstances they change. Right? We may talk to him one day, and everything's fine. Next day spouse passed away, kids decide to move away a divorce. It could be if they their job moved. I mean, they lost their job they can't afford I mean, the list goes on... COVID! right? The list goes on and on and on, and on. And on. So it's like, just because it was No, today, that means No, not right now. Right. And so we just need to constantly follow up and be have recovered state. Here's another scenario, what just happened with massive inflation, right? A year ago, we can only offer down here, right? A year later, like, we can actually offer them what they want, probably even more. So it just depends on how savvy they are, they've moved with it, the inflation, their number moved with inflation, that it doesn't work. But if their numbers stayed about the same, they ...we lock down a lot of deals during that time using that follow up strategy.

Jordan Fleming  17:00  
And, and really, I think that's such a great point of the fact that the circle... you know, I think we assume a lot about people based on a compensate, you know, I assume I know everything about this person, because I've had a chat with them, and they're not interested in selling right now. But as you pointed out, that is not necessarily going to be true forever, it's not even necessarily good to be true to for the rest of the week. So by not kind of, you know, you know, the lead is there, until that lead is well and truly dead, ie the house is gone from them, you know, you know, or they've, or they, you know, done something drastic, really, you're giving them the opportunity to use you as well. 

Terry Thayer   17:42  
Yeah... somebody's going to buy that property at some point in time. Right? I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say, I'm not selling I'm dying in this property. And then you know, within six months a year we're buying the property, right? In a lot of it has to do with the whole "know, like and trust", right, you call them once we're cold calling, if we're cold calling them you know, it's cold call PPC, inbound, outbound. But if you've got a outbound type of marketing, they have times they don't even know that they didn't even have a thought that they even wanted to sell. So now you're planting the seed and then you have to nurture that seed. If you planted a seed and walked away and didn't didn't water it, and you didn't, you didn't give it sunlight, it's never gonna grow. So it's exact same thing here. But people like oh, they said, No, I'm never gonna sell this house. I'll die in this house type of thing. And then they give up. Right? Yeah, we I look at as I'm like, Look, I read work every lead. Like if we don't get this, this deal, this lead, we don't lock this down. We don't do something with this lead. We're not eating tonight.

Jordan Fleming  18:52  
And I love that idea of, you know, of, of cold call, you know, planting the seed of the idea in their heads. Like they may not even a thought but it's on as, but they didn't even realize the opportunity that they could get, you know, a quick out with cash in their hand and take a massive headache off their hands, you suddenly plant that seed in the heads and the you know, and suddenly they're like, oh, geez, maybe I maybe I moved to Florida and stop experiencing the winters in fuckin, you know, Pennsylvania I have a maybe a better climate.

Terry Thayer  19:27  
Exactly, exactly.

Jordan Fleming  19:29  
So now, I mean, obviously, you know, you know, we talked a little bit about phone systems and you know, full disclosure, Terry's team does use smrtPhone which is my company, but I what I'm really wanting to ask you know, I on phones when specifically because you're doing you know, we kind of doing cold calling and follow ups on the phone. I find that you know, training and quality control is one of the sort of critical things around, particularly something like that. Phone, when you're when you're talking about talking, speaking to people on the phone, mannerisms, language, attitude, you know, all these things come into play, which don't necessarily if you're sending an email, right or or, or if you're sending a text, how do you, you know, What's your thinking around, you know, the the way, the best ways to train people, and maybe the best ways to make sure they're continuing to do it keeping that quality up.

Terry Thayer   20:30  
Yeah, of course. And this actually, when we had a virtual team that's really went into play. And this was really a critical piece was in your system, we could whisper or listen to in on the call, so we could listen to it on the call, we could whisper to them, barge into the call. They can we could be sitting there talking to him on Slack or something saying, Hey, tell him you're going to bring your manager in. And then boom, we just barge in a call, but we could assist them by having conversations with them, telling them hey, say this, Hey, say this, Hey, say this, and to train them. Like it's working that muscle for them when they know exactly what words to see. Or say. And then here's the magical part. When you're telling them what words to say. And then all of a sudden, it works. Wha bam, like, you know, it gets a win a boost of dopamine with it, right? So it's like, they remember if you say it like this, boom, you get the result. So love how you can listen, listening, whisper or whatever the word is. 

Jordan Fleming  21:32  
Listen, whisper, and barge, you got it.

Terry Thayer   21:35  
I am saying the word right. Whereas Listen, whisper and barge into the call. So I think that that's huge for training. And then not Not, not only that, like we have a new guy right now, Carl is in the process of training. So he will he's put them through a training program for a couple of days. Get them on the phone. And guess what happens on every single phone call, they're all recorded, right? Get some get some on the phones. He's like, look, just drive fall trips, fall, scrape your knees, bump your head, you know what I'm saying? We're gonna come back. And what he's doing is, you know, three quarters that a day goes by he starts listening to some of his calls, finishes up some more in the morning, and then writes down notes. And then he'll sit down with that person the next day and be like, hey, look, you did this. Don't do like this, do like that. Like it just again, same thing, but we're not doing it live. But we're listening to recordings and being able to use it for training. And then the flip side, we can use those exact same recordings, and do voiceovers or stop them and say, Hey, he said this, we wouldn't say it like this, we'd say it like this, right. And then also good calls, like this is exactly how you do it. Right, use those good calls for trainings. So I think it's critical to be able to have something like that in order to properly train people.

Jordan Fleming  22:48  
Yeah, I remember one of the things that I really loved I listened to one of the investors speak about how he, you know, he had a team of probably 10 or 11 callers. And he was saying that every week, they go one of their, you know, their acquisitions manager, whoever it is, go combs through the calls, and picks out two really good calls and two really bad calls, and get and puts them in front of the team, not as a way to shame the agents, because it's not about that. But it's about having the team then listen to them together and point out the good and point out the bad. And, you know, so rather than you kind of become the schoolmaster where you are, you know, projecting to them, you're getting them to say okay, guys, you know, tell me a bit about what's good. And what's bad about these, I thought that was a really clever way of doing it.

Terry Thayer   23:38  
I actually used to do that once a week as well. We had a big team, we would we would take root take one good one bad. And we would just be like, I didn't say pick out because it was pretty damn obvious. Which one was that? Which one was good, but it was like, What could this person have done better? We would run through it for, you know, 2, 3, 4, 5 minutes, and then stop it and then you know, pick it back up? And how can we and we would literally coach that person on how to be better. But a lot of times it was like, you know, I mean, just like someone could just literally have a bad. It's like their memory erases. It's like they just had a bad call. Like they locked down three deals a day before, but then they act like they don't know what to do next.

Jordan Fleming  24:21  
Absolutely. You know, it's so funny. One of the things that I also you know, before we move on to the the Fast Five questions, which are coming up, I had one observation about that, and, and I wondered about what you thought about it. I feel like sometimes we don't train people to listen enough. Because I've listened to calls where you if you're a good salesperson, you hear that? You know, you hear those cues of where to guide the conversation and you pick them up and then sometimes when you listen to those calls that you lost, you're sitting there going this person was gonna set like he was They were ready, and you didn't listen properly.

Terry Thayer   25:03  
I know.

Jordan Fleming  25:06  
Listening, you know, training people to listen is an important part. I'm just curious.

Terry Thayer  25:11  
Oh, 100%. Listen 80 talk 20 Is the whole deal what we're trying to accomplish, but it's like, you say that but same time it's this. If you drive in, drive a conversation properly, all you're doing is like you're pitching. Right? You're pitching. You're trying to keep the ball on their side of the court. You're trying to keep talk about hockey. I think you play hockey, right? You're in hockey, right? You're trying to keep the puck on their side of the water. In their the zone. Yeah. Right. Right. But but you're trying to keep it on their side as much as possible. And the way you do that, you ask better questions, and then get them talking. So therefore, a lot of times, if you do it, right, they will sell you on why you should buy their property.

Terry Thayer   26:02  
Absolutely, yeah. Well, I said this to my team, the other day, we were doing some training for my, my success team. And, and I said, look, think about it at its most basic level, if you go to a bar, and you know, on a first date with someone, and that person is only talking about themselves and projecting at you, and never asking you a question. Are you going to be interested in speaking to this person? Or are you you're going to dump them at the appetizers? And it's not that dissimilar, right? I mean, you gotta make you try to generate a conversation. You're, you're not trying to just throw them into a pitch.

Terry Thayer r  26:40  
Yeah. So true. So True. listening to some of these calls. You talking about this, it's like, actually makes me laugh. I can think of many, many calls that I listen to. And I'm like, they're literally telling you, yes, they want to do the deal. And you're not even close in it. And I'm like, Just close it. And then they got off the phone with them. So So then another closer we get on the phone, I'll close that deal. If someone already didn't close them,

Jordan Fleming  27:06  
 I've seen it so many times when I've been helping people like get you know, get this system set up. You listen to those recordings, you just like, I couldn't close this in my sleep. Are you kidding me? He's basically saying take my house from me. Right? All right. All right. Well, let's I'm gonna shoot right into the real estate tech guy Fast Five.  These are five questions that everyone's gonna answer on this podcast. Because I'm always curious as to you know, what the different people think. So, Terry, I'm gonna shoot in number one. What tech product has had the biggest impact on your business?

Terry Thayer r  27:42  
I have to pair it. I mean, phone system and CRM, those two pieces don't exist without a business doesn't exist. Without those two pieces. I mean, it didn't it never ran properly. Prior to that.

Jordan Fleming  27:54  
Absolutely. What is the biggest mistake you've made with technology in your business?

Terry Thayer  28:00  
Not having those two pieces. That's got to be the biggest mistake.

Jordan Fleming  28:06  
I'll take it. What is your best advice on how to integrate technology into your business?

Terry Thayer  28:13  
How to integrate? First and foremost, you just need to know the right products. And I mean, for us, I'm a big fan of Salesforce, we use Left Main and pair it with, with smrtPhone. And I think honestly, it's the best for me, I've used multiple different CRMs and a handful of other phone systems prior to meeting with you. And it's like you just have to a find out what the best technology is. And be use it implemented. Figure out here's here's a big tip. A lot of people will get a CRM and they don't even learn what it does, or get a phone system. They don't learn what it does. They don't know all the different pieces. And it's like they're using 10% of it. Like I still feel like we I feel like we use a lot but I guarantee there's a whole lot more that we can be really doing with with those two pieces.

Jordan Fleming  29:08  
I preach, man, I say that time and time again, and at TAB I'm going to be saying it over and over over again to anybody who will listen . Stop using it.. take a little bit of time and invest it into getting these things rolling. And you will roll like what I've said so number four, what's the one thing that you wish you had known when you started your real estate business? Step one.

Terry Thayer   29:36  
Honestly, it takes Okay one thing you want to know the one thing I wish I would have known that you can skip you can get skip tracing done with a skip trace company instead of manually doing it. It wasn't till probably 20 It wasn't till 2017 Till I learned that.

Jordan Fleming  29:55  
Oh well. I'm gonna add a couple skip tracing companies on the podcast. I've already got a few scheduled in. So that's, uh, that's gonna be a good. I'll make sure I mentioned that to them. And finally, this last one, I think you've answered a bit of it in the first question, which was if someone was just starting out, we think about your mentee, you know, people you're mentoring right now. And you had to give them three technology products that they should bring on first, I'm guessing CRM and phone system are going to be wanting to 

Terry Thayer   30:23  
Yeah, and a comp tool.

Jordan Fleming  30:27  
A comping tool? Okay. Yeah, but why explain just a bit about why that one is.

Terry Thayer   30:32  
Because it's like, everyone thinks that you needed to be a realtor, and you need to have access to the MLS, we have access to the MLS, I used to have access in MLS and every mark, all the markets have to there's five of them in North Carolina, you said access to all of them, I just have access to one, I'd never renewed any of the other ones, my local like this city that I live in Raleigh, that only gives you part of the data. And we used to run off... we used to run off of prior to have an MLS access, we would run Zillow and county data. Like it's such a waste of time without the right comping tool you get the right comping tool. It's going to give you all that data in one place, save you a tonne of time, simplify it make it so much easier to train your people.

Jordan Fleming  31:14  
That is a phenomenal answer. And, and I've learned something new today, which is very helpful is Terry, I want to thank you, first of all, for being on the inaugural podcast. You know, you and I go back a number of years now and it's I can't wait to see you at tab as we close out. You know, let's Can you let us know where people can find you the mentorship, everything that they need to find you and then I'll put those links in the podcast description.

Terry Thayer r  31:41  
Yeah, sure. So first foremost, I don't know if I set a date and TAB Retreat is September 24. Through October 1 Right here, we're in 2022. So that's the dates for the 2022 events. To reach me Instagram. It's always easiest. And it just Terry Thayer ii. 

Jordan Fleming  32:06  
Absolutely. Well, I'm going to put the links to Terry's Instagram in the podcast, I'm going to take put links to the TAB retreat, along with a code you can use to get a bit of a discount on it. I really handle heart can't recommend it enough. I'll be there, we're sponsoring it. That's how much we believe in it. And I'll be speaking at it as well. Terry, thank you for taking the time. Oh, man, and I will see you in like almost a month and a half.

Terry Thayer   32:31  
Yeah, like almost, but to almost Yeah, exactly a little better than a month and a half. I'm looking forward to Jordan, thank you for your support.

Jordan Fleming  32:39  
I appreciate it. Take care.

Announcer  32:45  
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Transcribed by https://otter.ai