Good Neighbor Podcast: Union
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Residents of Northern Kentucky! Based in Union, KY....The Good Neighbor Podcast helps the residents of Northern Kentucky get to know local business owners as people. We allow the business owners and influencers in NKY to tell the stories of how they started their business and why. We hear about their families, their personal interests and why they love living in and serving resident of Northern Kentucky!
Good Neighbor Podcast: Union
Rob Courts' Insights on Real Estate and Community Impact
Discover the intricate world of real estate through the eyes of Rob Courts, a dedicated realtor making waves in Northern Kentucky and Greater Cincinnati. Join us as Rob, a pivotal figure at Platinum Partners Home and Property with EXP Realty, unveils the highs and lows of guiding first-time buyers and sellers. With support from his diligent team, including Cylee Morrison, Caylee Auer, and transaction coordinator David Maines, Rob shares the rewarding moments of witnessing clients achieve their real estate dreams. You'll learn the value of having seasoned professionals by your side to navigate the unpredictable terrain of real estate transactions, making those complex processes smoother and more manageable.
In our conversation with Rob, we also explore the unique challenges realtors face, such as managing probate in estate sales and ensuring seamless client experiences. Rob provides a vivid analogy of real estate agents as ducks, calm on the surface but working tirelessly beneath. He praises local mortgage experts like Ken Prost, Tim Eickhoff, and Corey Grace, who play crucial roles in successful property deals. Wrapping up, Rob opens a window into how his community involvement and family life are intertwined with his professional journey, offering a personal touch to the narrative. Whether you're a seasoned buyer or just getting started, Rob’s insights are sure to resonate with anyone interested in the real estate sphere.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Mike Murphy.
Speaker 2:Thanks, charlie. Thanks for the introduction again for episode number 57, hard to Believe, but my guest on episode number 57 is a local realtor, a friend of mine named Rob Quartz. Many of you know Rob, some of you don't, those of you that don't are about to. So Rob is. He's a really good guy and I'm proud to be his friend, and he's a helper in the community. So he's not just doing real estate, but he's working within the community on some charitable endeavors. We'll talk about those things as well. So, without further ado, rob, introduce yourself to the listeners and tell us who you are, what you do and where you do it.
Speaker 3:Sounds good. I appreciate it. Like you said, my name is Rob Quartz. I'm with the Platinum Partners Home and Property team. We are, with EXP Realty, been in business since 2016. So coming up on nine years now, licensed in both Kentucky and Ohio, so able to help on both sides of the river. You know focus mainly in the Northern Kentucky Greater Cincinnati area, but we've went as far south as Lexington, as far north as Dayton, far west as Louisville, to the far east Winchester, ohio and everywhere in between. So yeah, Okay.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, you'll go wherever you need to, as long as you're licensed, correct?
Speaker 3:Yes, sir.
Speaker 2:The real estate game is a competitive environment, and so, yeah, you got to do what you got to do.
Speaker 3:Absolutely yes, you do.
Speaker 2:So let's see, I've met well, I haven't met in person some of the people on your team, but I've talked to them. You seem to have good people helping you out, and so I want to make sure, when we talk about the good work you do in the community, that you shout out appropriately people that help you do what you do. So who's on your team?
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. My team consists of myself as the team leader, and then I have Kaylee Morrison, and Kylie Auer are two agents that are on my team, and then we have David Maines. David is our admin, our transaction coordinator. He does all of the back end paperwork, all that kind of stuff for us. But myself, kaylee and Kylie are the three licensed agents on my team.
Speaker 2:Okay, out of all of you, who's the smartest?
Speaker 3:Definitely not me. I will say that Definitely not me.
Speaker 2:Good answer. You know what side your bread's buttered on. Exactly, exactly right you know what side your bread's buttered on. Exactly, exactly, right, cool. So do you have a particular specialty within the world of real estate?
Speaker 3:So our team, we help both buyers and sellers, you know. So we are willing to help either one Me personally, um, me personally. So for me, I think your specialty relies and depends on what do you enjoy the most, what do you get the most out of? Uh, and for me personally, there's two types of people that I absolutely love helping, um, and that's first-time buyers and first-time sellers.
Speaker 3:That first-time home buyer that has, you know, no clue of what they're doing. They don't know what they're getting into. Seeing the transition from the first time that we meet and you'll walk through what the whole buying process looks like to the day that they close and they, you know, they get the keys and they smile on their face, you know, walking into that home and just seeing their eyes light up because they know they just walked into their new home. That's what gets me. And the same goes on the selling side.
Speaker 3:That first time seller, you know they've never done this before. Maybe they didn't have the best, you know if they used a different agent and they didn't have the best experience with that agent, and you're coming in, you're saving the day of hey, listen, that's not how this is supposed to go, let's go through it the way that it's supposed to happen. Let's go through it the way that it's supposed to happen. Or if it was one of my previous clients that they were the first, they were first time homebuyers. Now they're selling and they're going through the first time again and just the whole transition of just again, just walking them through the process and seeing them going from I know nothing at all of what I'm doing to I just bought or sold a house and it's an amazing feeling being able to help them do that.
Speaker 2:So when you help them in the moment, these newbies, I guess it's kind of nice for them to feel like they have you, as sort of it's almost like if they have a brother or father in the business. So they feel like they have a leg up on you know anybody else that's bidding on that house or trying to sell a property or whatever. So yeah, I can understand that. Of course, you know, when we're passionate about something, we enjoy seeing it through the eyes of others, and seeing it through the eyes of somebody who's seeing it for the first time is always fun.
Speaker 3:Absolutely 100%.
Speaker 2:It can be very frustrating too, I mean, things don't always go very smoothly, no, they don't as we would like them to in real estate transactions, and that's why people hire professionals. If you're trying to do it on your own, you have that moment of realization where you're like dang, what was I thinking?
Speaker 3:Yep, yes, you do.
Speaker 2:Because you don't know what you don't know. So we hire people like you, because you know what we don't know. You know what we don't know. Do you have any particular stories or instances of maybe like a favorite client or a favorite deal that's happened or maybe one that's maybe even gone bad and you've learned lessons from it that you get to carry forward into your profession?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, probably my favorite client. I love all my clients, don't get me wrong. I love them all. But going back to what I love, and so I was helping one of my clients. She was 53 years old and she was buying her first house ever. Just that process, and this was back in 2020, 2021 when the market was stupid, crazy, insane. You're getting multiple offers, you're losing out on on five different houses because there's been 20 different offers and they were all cash and they're waving inspections and all this other nonsense, right? Uh, well, this particular client. We finally got her the house that was absolutely perfect for her. It was right down the street from her parents and just seeing the smile on her face, um it it is again. It goes back to this is what I do. Why I do what I do is all for the clients and seeing their, her face, that light up that she had just it made it all worth it, you know and it wasn't a big transactions by any stretch of the imagination.
Speaker 3:Yo excuse me, um, I think it was like 120 000 home that she bought, but it didn't matter because that was her home, right, that was. It was everything to her that's her, her dream exactly, exactly right. Yeah. So seeing her dream become a reality just it made it all worth it. On the flip side, some challenging there's there's always a flip side, isn't there?
Speaker 3:I have a couple actually that are going on right now that are a little challenging, okay, and it's nothing that the buyers are doing or that the sellers are doing anything like that. It's all your back end stuff that you're dealing with. Like one of them, we're waiting for probate, it's an estate sale or was an estate sale. We're waiting for everything to be finalized before they can purchase their new place, and it's just a whole lot of waiting and and hey, you know updating the clients hey, here's the latest that I've heard. Uh, or updating the, the um, the other agent, you know. Hey, here's what's going on. I appreciate it and just you know being empathetic and thinking the other side of you know we appreciate your patience. You know we're trying to get this thing done as quickly as we can but unfortunately it's out of our hands. We're just kind of waiting. It's a big waiting game, so there's definitely some challenging ones out there, for sure as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one thing I've noticed in the world of real estate is there's a lot of moving parts. A lot of those moving parts are behind the scenes that the people who are trying to buy or sell don't see. They don't think about those, and those are the things that you'd never stop thinking about. So you're trying to sleep at night. It's two in the morning and all those what ifs are swirling around in your brain.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah, and I think the best analogy that I've heard about real estate agents are we're kind of like ducks or like swans or geese that you see just floating along the river or the lake or the pond and all you see is just the pretty and just the hey, we're just, they're just coasting along, but underneath those feet are just going your mile a minute and just paddling and everything. And that's our job as, as age, real estate agents. If we're a good real estate agent, you as a client shouldn't know about all the stuff on the back end. Unless it's, unless it really truly is going to impact the, the, the transaction, then really it doesn't matter about all that other stuff. Um, that's going on. You know, that's for us to handle, for us to to take care of, and you guys just see the hey, we just sold this property or we just bought it.
Speaker 2:that's what you, as a client should see from your agent, in my opinion so all you know, although those things are happening in the background that they're not always aware of, buyers and sellers still have a right to know what's happening. So I would, I guess what I'm thinking is communication is key and you just you have to communicate with your client so that they understand options and expectations and things like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely yeah, like I said, I mean, if it's something that's impacting the transaction, then absolutely 100%. Our job is to hey, relay, hey here's what's going on, just so you know we got this or we have that going on can do and not have to involve the client then yeah, I mean, we just take care of it and call it a day.
Speaker 2:It's usually the biggest financial transaction of somebody's life and no matter how many times they buy or sell a house or land or whatever, it's always a big deal. Always a big deal, 100%, absolutely. So on the financial end of things, good real estate I'm sorry, good mortgage brokers are like gold.
Speaker 3:Absolutely 100%.
Speaker 2:So do you have any local mortgage brokers that you would like to shout out that maybe you've had particular success with?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely yeah. We partner with a ton of different mortgage lenders in the area and to me that's the key is that last part in the area, because a lot of clients will get online and they'll just get approved through whoever, and it's fine, we can can make it work. But having a local lender that knows the area, knows the market, knows hey, you had you can do the river city funds, or you can do kentucky housing or um ohio, you know, and financing with that no down payment, um, that makes a world of a difference. You know some of the different lenders that we use Ken Prost Ken's probably our number one that we use. He's awesome. Tim Eickhoff at Stock to Mortgage is awesome. Corey Grace at Guaranteed Rate he's awesome as well. We have a ton and I'm not just saying that we only stick with those. We use a ton of different lenders, but I would say those three are probably our top three that we know, hey, when we see that pre-approval letter from them we know that's a good client.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, those are all names I recognize. Those are all people that I know personally or have met All great people, and they've been in the business a long time, absolutely, and they know all the nuance of all the programs available to your clients here in this region. So, yeah, that's kind of why I wanted to make sure you got to shout them out, because they sometimes end up being the big hero in the story 100%.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like I said, if you're working with a lender that you don't trust, it's hard. And again, I'm not saying that those are the only three. There's plenty more that we use that are phenomenal and do a great job. Those just happen to be, like I said, just the main top of mind people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I get it. Yeah, there are some great. I mean, yeah, we, we can do an entire show the tom frepin.
Speaker 3:You know there's a. There's a ton of of different lenders that we use that just do a fantastic job absolutely so let's depart a little bit from the business.
Speaker 2:I know you're a family man, so talk about your family. Let's shout them out. Who do you call family?
Speaker 3:Absolutely yeah. So I have a girlfriend named Jen and between the two of us we're a blended family, so we have five kids. The two of us, we're a blended family, so we have five kids. That's a lot. It is a lot. They keep us busy. They range from the youngest just turned eight to the oldest is 13 and everywhere in between. So they keep us busy, they keep us entertained. They do sports. We have volleyball, we have soccer, flag football, yeah, yeah, you name it, and they're getting us. They get us going.
Speaker 2:I remember those days and it was a never ending battle to try to figure out what school you're supposed to be at at what time, on what day. Excuse me, yeah, yeah, getting into teachers and your, your, your, your rear end goes numb.
Speaker 3:So there are many days where we divide and conquer and you know, hey, you're going, you're going this way, I'm going that away, I'll meet you somewhere when it's all said and done. Or you know, there's, yes, there's been many a days where we've had to divide and conquer and, hey, you know what? I missed your game this week or last week. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna go to your game this week. Sorry, I went to yours last week. I'm gonna miss it this week. You, you, just you do the best you can, right, you know, that's all.
Speaker 2:So relatable, so relatable, we've all been there.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Part of what you're doing professionally involves, especially in your profession, community outreach. So there are some things I've known you to be involved in and there's some things that you're probably involved in that I have no idea about. So what are a couple of things maybe that are top of mind that you're particularly proud of in terms of some of your community givebacks?
Speaker 3:Absolutely With us. So there, like you said, there's a wide variety of different things that we do. Probably the number one thing that we do that doesn't necessarily go recognized or that a lot of people don't realize is part of our commission, part of our whenever we close a transaction, we donate a portion of that to different organizations. We've done the children's hospital Be Concerned. There's a wide variety of different. Merry Christmas to All. We do a toy drive for Merry Christmas to All. We partner with Big Blue Moving. We do that. Every end of November, beginning of December, we'll do a toy drive for them. We have an exciting event coming up in June that's going to be a little fundraiser for Protect for Paws that we're working on getting all the final, all the details finalized for that. That should be a lot of fun.
Speaker 3:Yeah, to me. I mean you have to be involved with your community. You have to put back, you have to. You're not put back but you have to get back. You know, with our kids being in sports, to do a ton for the, for the different. You know youth, you know sports, know sports, football, you know soccer, whatever. Um, try to be involved with the community. We do it. Uh, an easter egg hunt. Um, for the last few years we started that and started doing that. Um, yeah, it's we. We enjoy giving back to our community because we know without our community we're nobody, and so we we try to, you know do the best we can to give back, you have to enjoy it, because it's hard work.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, there's a lot that goes into it, but you you've got a lot of help along the way. You know. I know that you've got a lot of local business partners. I have a lot of the same people in my life. We have a lot of those same people in common and we all kind of work together on the same team to help do good in the community. So it's it's more than just our, our business that makes us money. It's making sure that we're giving back, as you say. Giving back, as you say, and that can come in so many ways shapes or forms, mm-hmm. So I would say, gosh, we've. We've done a pretty good job of covering a bunch of different things in a short amount of time. But before we sign off, I always ask is there anything else you can think of that? Maybe we haven't covered that you want to make sure you cover? Um, I don't think so.
Speaker 3:I think we haven't covered that you want to make sure you cover? I don't think so. I think we pretty much nailed it. I think that I appreciate you having me on taking the time to speak with me. If anybody's out there and they're looking for a good real estate agent, we're always welcome to taking in more clients. I know that everybody knows 15 different real estate agents and we get that and we understand that and that comes with the business. But again, we're always looking to take on new clients. So if you know anybody, we're happy to interview with you.
Speaker 2:If somebody is listening to this or watching the video and they say, dang, he's like a pretty good guy, I'd like to work with him, how do they reach out to you?
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. There's a couple of different ways. Obviously, we have Facebook, we have Instagram Platinum Partners, home Property Team on both of those, and then we also have our website Our website's homesingreatersinciniticom. You can definitely go on there and check out all the different houses that are for sale, whether it's in Kentucky, ohio, it rides out to pretty much wherever in the greater Cincinnati area.
Speaker 2:I don't know that I've ever known a realtor who's been afraid to give out their cell number.
Speaker 3:Absolutely Definitely. I'll happily give out my phone number as well, if you want that Definitely.
Speaker 2:Tell us right now, while we got you, tell us your cell number. I'll make sure it gets put on the. You know it gets written out on the podcast stuff too. But I mean, just tell us how do they reach you? Absolutely.
Speaker 3:My phone number is 859-240-0263. You can call. You can text. Either way is perfectly fine with me, Whatever is easier for you.
Speaker 2:Good answer. Good answer. All right, brother, I think we've completed our podcast. Podcast number 57 is in the books for me and I'm glad to have you as part of it.
Speaker 3:Absolutely Well. I appreciate it again. Thanks a million for having me on and taking the time to speak with me. You're welcome.
Speaker 2:So, everybody out there, thanks for joining us today. If you want to buy or sell, you go see Rob Cortz, platinum Partners. He just gave you his cell phone number, but I'll make sure that it's written in the comments wherever you see this podcast, and I'll get it pushed out there in our community, everywhere. And until next time, everybody, this is the Good Neighbor Podcast. So, everybody, be good to your neighbor and we'll see you again on the next Good Neighbor Podcast. Bye, everybody.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast union. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNP unioncom. That's GNP unioncom, or call us at 859-651-8330.