Have you ever wondered how successful real estate agents find their footing? This episode brings you an in-depth conversation with a top real estate agent, sharing his incredible journey from acquiring his license to closing his first deal. The inside scoop on his lead generation strategies will surely offer you new perspectives on the future roles of real estate agents.
Starting a career in real estate can be a daunting task. Our guest discusses the challenges he faced and the secret weapon that propelled him forward - his background in sales and marketing. He opens up about his wife's unwavering support, and the strategic decision to onboard two transaction coordinators, a game-changer for his career. You'll be intrigued by how his background in sales and marketing became a valuable tool to navigate the competitive real estate market.
The episode further delves into the balancing act of running a successful business while juggling the responsibilities of parenthood. How do you build a team that's just the right fit? Our guest stresses the importance of passion and skills when selecting team members and the necessity of a competitive compensation package or a big vision to entice them to join. He shares his experiences of maintaining a level head in emotionally charged scenarios, and the vital lessons he's learned over the years. Tune in for an inspiring and truthful discussion about managing client expectations, realities of real estate, and harmonizing work and family life.
Have you ever wondered how successful real estate agents find their footing? This episode brings you an in-depth conversation with a top real estate agent, sharing his incredible journey from acquiring his license to closing his first deal. The inside scoop on his lead generation strategies will surely offer you new perspectives on the future roles of real estate agents.
Starting a career in real estate can be a daunting task. Our guest discusses the challenges he faced and the secret weapon that propelled him forward - his background in sales and marketing. He opens up about his wife's unwavering support, and the strategic decision to onboard two transaction coordinators, a game-changer for his career. You'll be intrigued by how his background in sales and marketing became a valuable tool to navigate the competitive real estate market.
The episode further delves into the balancing act of running a successful business while juggling the responsibilities of parenthood. How do you build a team that's just the right fit? Our guest stresses the importance of passion and skills when selecting team members and the necessity of a competitive compensation package or a big vision to entice them to join. He shares his experiences of maintaining a level head in emotionally charged scenarios, and the vital lessons he's learned over the years. Tune in for an inspiring and truthful discussion about managing client expectations, realities of real estate, and harmonizing work and family life.
Speaker 1:
did construction a lot with my dad.
Speaker 2:
What type of construction was it?
Speaker 1:
Like handyman painting, finishing basements, little bit of everything residential though and then started my own painting company. That was just me and that was interesting. And then got picked up by a larger painting company out of Reston and just did sales for them. And that's where I really learned a lot more about sales and kind of did that for four years or so, did pretty good and just knew we were having kids, had to do something different because it just got boring kind of. You know it was like a conveyor belt and wanted to do something bigger. Always thought real estate was kind of the next thing, so just jumped in and how many years ago was that Last May Last.
Speaker 2:
May, okay, so you got in when it was still good-ish right.
Speaker 1:
Everybody was saying it was terrible.
Speaker 2:
Last May.
Speaker 1:
Mm-hmm. I mean it was like, yeah, it was May was probably fine. I was gonna say it was probably right at the end of the good times. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:
That's what we'll put it.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
So how's it been, then, for the last year and a half for you since?
Speaker 1:
Well, so I went and took my test two days after my son was born.
Speaker 2:
Okay, how many kids do you have now? Three, three okay.
Speaker 1:
So, anyway, we haven't officially announced that yet, but we're about to Okay, probably like tomorrow. Okay, so we have the twins will be four in February and then Teddy will be two in February, okay.
Speaker 2:
So you got your license right after he was born.
Speaker 1:
Mm-hmm. Well, it took the test, yeah, and then it took however long to actually get it back, and then I had left my other job a few months prior because I hate studying, and so I knew if I wasn't like full-time studying then I'd never get around to it. So after that, it took about seven months before I got my first deal, so it was like getting pretty stressful, I'm sure it was yeah, and that's yes, yeah, it was nuts.
Speaker 2:
How did you get that first?
Speaker 1:
So the first one was actually I started off with my first listing. That one was tough. So I mean, all in all, I think it took like 45 days to sell, so not that long, but it felt like forever. I was holding open houses every weekend for that one and that's where I met my first buyer. He walked in, we hit it off and then five days later he was on our contract on a place.
Speaker 1:
And then Closed, I think, in 12 days. So November had two closings. That was the first, you know deals and then December they had seven, six or seven. It's kind of just been non-stop since then.
Speaker 2:
Okay, so so now. So you sold his house, or sold him a house in five days. How's it been since?
Speaker 1:
It's been non-stop this year. So far, I've 30 closed and a few more pending.
Speaker 2:
That's not normal, by the way.
Speaker 1:
No, no, but I'm glad that it picked up. I mean, I'm very competitive and if there's something in front of me that I just, you know, keep going. Yeah, I kind of figured from hearing from a lot of people that their biggest issue is like lead flow. I figured let me solve that first and then I'll worry about Dealing with them after you do anything that you feel comfortable sharing.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah, competitive.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, no, well, so when I first started off, there was an agent that you should probably talk with. She's awesome, chrissy Cruz. She's like one of the top agents that Pearson Smith, and she would just hold these trainings where she would like give everything away, and then she'd say you know, I'm perfectly fine telling you all this because 95% of you are gonna do it, yeah so yeah.
Speaker 1:
So I do a lot. I yeah, yeah. Well, I started off doing open houses like every weekend for months. My wife hated it because you know the kids were there and I was gone all weekend, but that had some success with that. Do some paid lead sources, some paid at closing lead sources, a lot of actual agent referrals, because I always post whenever under contract or sold and so other agents see that and Reach out and, you know, send clients as well. I've had lenders send clients and Then started doing YouTube like six months ago and we've closed for from there so far and I work with the others.
Speaker 1:
I just talking about the local area. So I mean another agent, he's kind of like the brains behind the scenes and everything. We just pick different cities close to where I work, because I'm in the Shenandoah Valley in eastern Panhandle in West Virginia and so we just pick different cities and you know, kind of go over pros and cons living there. The one that's actually, I think, brought three of those four closings Was our like reasons why not to move to us. Virginia video, which a lot of people you know.
Speaker 2:
I do that, all that, yeah, where my clients cuz they like no, I don't want to talk about that. I'm like you have no idea it works.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that was almost got 50,000 views or coming up on that, and almost everybody that I talked with that says you know, I reached out from YouTube. I always ask what video? And they say actually was that one. So that's been interesting and I think it's pretty much the bulk of it.
Speaker 2:
That's awesome. So the nice thing is about those YouTube videos are gonna keep working for you, right? I always love paid leads myself, but if you're not paying, you're not getting owned, so yeah it's like you've got to take that into account. And then I love the fact that you're consistently networking with other professionals, other agents, mortgage loan officers In terms of, like, looking into the future. How do, where do you see the Real estate agents playing a role in the transaction? Do you think it's gonna change at all or is it gonna?
Speaker 1:
No, are you like alluding to that lawsuit thing with NAR?
Speaker 2:
No not really just kind of overall I have heard about it, but no, it's overall with AI, with, you know, technology with I don't think so.
Speaker 1:
There's always. It's such an emotional transaction for a lot of people, and so there are people that you know buy and sell a lot of houses that aren't agents. But they understand the process and it's not an Emotional thing for them whatsoever. So for them it absolutely makes sense to just cut out the agent. Go to a you know, an attorney, have them draft things up, because essentially they're being their own agent. But for the majority, people that are buying a house to live in, we're selling their childhood home or the house they raise their kids in. It's very emotional, and so I think having that you know, face-to-face connection and somebody to advocate for you, I don't think that's gonna go away.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, now that's, that's good cuz. I know there's Okay right now for you. Things are going well. For a lot of agents they're not and I think which I might be 100% wrong it's because interest rates have got people kind of not wanting to move out of their interest rate, Obviously inventory economy, people not knowing what's really going to happen. When do you think if you think this at all that's going to shift or change? Get out your little.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, crystal ball, yeah, I have no idea what I've been banking on is. I heard someone say I don't even know if this stat is true or not, but it gave me motivation, so it works. They said that three out of every 100 people have to move at any given point. So the interest rates if they have a bunch of equity and their interest rate is low, it's not going to matter, because they have to move and so it's getting in front of those people.
Speaker 2:
Those three.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and if you're three out of 100, if you're in a city with 200,000, then that's a lot of people. Good odds, yeah. And so I don't know. I think there's a lot of real estate agents and there's a lot that I think get into it, thinking it's an easy thing, that have no sales experience, no marketing experience, and they just think they can just jump in and it's going to be easy. If I didn't have the experience that I had, where I was meeting with people every single day and just trying to find out what their pain points were, what they cared about and seeing if what we provided was a good solution for them, and so those conversations come naturally, and so it just makes it easy for me, when meeting with people, to build that rapport and then we continue working with each other, whereas a lot of people, if they may meet with someone once and then kind of fumble a little bit and then the person's going on and working with someone else.
Speaker 2:
What did you want to do when you were a little kid?
Speaker 1:
I think the first thing that I wanted to do was be a firefighter.
Speaker 2:
Why.
Speaker 1:
I just thought it was cool. I liked fire, I liked seeing them running into the building and carrying people out being the hero and yeah.
Speaker 2:
Do you feel like you kind of get to do that now as an agent?
Speaker 1:
Not really. It's a little different. It's nice knowing that I'm helping make something that's huge for a lot of people go smoothly and then also being very competitive. I genuinely want, if I'm on the buy side, to get the best deal for my clients and really negotiate hard for them, and then if I'm on the listing side, then getting the most money for my clients, and so whenever I'm able to, they say we're happy with this and then I get this.
Speaker 2:
It's always nice to be able to buy that. I've got a surprise for you.
Speaker 1:
Yeah. Yeah, I had one last month where they'd been putting in offers and not getting them because it was what they wanted everybody wants out in, like Frederick County, and so it was kind of tough. And then there was one that had been sitting for a little while and they loved it. He said if we can just get 5,000 seller credit for $5,000 back, we're happy. And I called the listing agent, pushed for 12,000 and she came back and said okay, I'll do 12,000. So I called him up and was like hey, man, sorry, we weren't able to get the 5. And he was like we got you 12. And so they were just ecstatic about that I'm excited about that yeah.
Speaker 2:
That's awesome, very cool, all right. So how does your wife feel now that like, and kids feel like because that's seven months is a nice long lead time, like does she back you up?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, she's been very supportive the whole time and I think that's been huge because I mean, seven months is a long time and I was working rentals, which are difficult because it's driving around everywhere and then it's kind of tough to support a family if you're just working rentals.
Speaker 1:
But she believed me the whole time, and when I finally picked up, then time became more of an issue, because I look at it like I don't want to be the bottleneck, and a lot of clients that I worked with said that they were previously working with someone else, but they just kept dropping the ball to the point where they moved on, and so for me, I never want to be the one that everybody else is waiting on, and so I try to answer the phone quickly.
Speaker 1:
If I know there's something in front of me, then that's what I'm focusing on, and so that kind of made things tough, you know, with the amount of time spent away from home, and so I brought on some support. I have two transaction coordinators that I work with. That that's been a game changer. I had an assistant and I'm trying to find someone else, but not as one at a time. I'm kind of taking that part slow and I'm trying to just build up like a small team around me so that way I can have more time with the family, especially since number four is coming in April.
Speaker 2:
Are you like? Are you like, oh my gosh, I'm so excited. Are you like, oh my gosh, I've got like a lot more responsibility on me now.
Speaker 1:
How do you?
Speaker 2:
process that with number four coming on. I'm not sure if I'm on a team.
Speaker 1:
Yeah well, I mean we've already got our hands full. So I keep hearing that. Yeah, and they're pretty close in age. So I mean starting with twins. And they came almost two months early, so they were born at 31 weeks. They were in the NICU for a month and a half.
Speaker 2:
It's good training.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah, theirs was tough when they came home. They both would wake up every hour on the hour and so-.
Speaker 2:
At least it was at the same hour where they rotate, same hour.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, thankfully. So, having that as a first experience, number three Teddy felt super easy for the most part and I feel like number four is gonna be pretty easy too, but we'll see.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, no, kids are such a blessing, but I know when you're an entrepreneur and you already feel time starved it is always a difficult thing to try to balance.
Speaker 2:
So, in terms of looking into the future, you're growing your team right now. How do you make sure that you've got right fit people on your team, Because you are a I don't know, not necessarily a hustler, because some of us kind of got a derogatory team I like the word hustler but, like you know, very competitive, willing to do whatever it takes. Do you look for that same thing in your team members or how do you assess a good fit for you?
Speaker 1:
So I have to really be impressed. So the way I found the transaction coordinator I work with now is she was. This was before I had any help and at that time I had six deals going on at one time and like a handful of buyers I was working with as well. So I was, like you know, going nuts. And it was helpful because she was on the other side of the transaction and she would ping me every day asking for things and but I would take forever to get back to her, and just the consistent follow up and I mean just her overall demeanor, she really impressed me. So I reached out to the listing agent afterwards and was like, hey, you know, is she working with other people? And she's like when you say that she's actually just asked me for a referral for you know someone else to work with. So we talked. She says she doesn't usually work with agents this fresh into it, but she would make an exception for you, Yep because that's what I was like.
Speaker 1:
I have five going on right now. You can take all or for it, I guess, and so she like. Basically, long story short, I look for is someone that doesn't need a whole lot of training. I want to find someone that is already impressive, because from working for myself at the painting company and trying to scale that, I learned that training and management is not one of my strengths at all, like at all. So it makes it tough to find people, because anybody that's already that good usually doesn't need to make a switch. So now I'm keeping an eye out for either like a really good, like type A, organized, like admin help, or potentially thinking of like partnering up with someone that has that kind of demeanor.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so that's smart and I think a lot of entrepreneurs are like that. They don't want to manage, they're in it because they love the vision and the creation and the like, the building.
Speaker 1:
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:
And that everybody can build people.
Speaker 1:
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:
That's like its own special skill set, that. So then you know we look for people that are pretty much ready to go straight out Mm-hmm, you know, right when they join, but then, like you said a lot of times, they're not seeking opportunities. So you really have to have either a nice compensation or a big vision to get them to want to join.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and I think with real estate there's like it's definitely not nine to five. You have to really care, because, I mean, there's plenty of times where you know you could really hurt a transaction by not answering, by not, you know, really staying in the weeds with it and keeping a hand on it, and a lot of people fumble just because they're like, okay, this is good. Now let me focus on something else. Yeah, and so for me, I have to know somebody's gonna genuinely care and, you know, do what they gotta do.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, all right. So, in terms of before we wrap it up here, do you have any crazy stories or anything that you don't have to like? Name names, obviously, but more of like I learned so much from this experience.
Speaker 1:
Well, the most recent one. It's not really crazy, but, starting off, whenever I would see agents list a house and then when it's sold, if it's sold for significantly less, you know I'd always be like man, why would they, you know, go in and overprice it or you know it would always be thinking negatively of the agent, at least for that. You know transaction. And recently I'd got my biggest listing yet and you know the seller was insisting on listing significantly higher than you know any cop supported. But at the same time it's like I don't wanna just tell them no and find someone else to do it. So it sold a closed Monday for significantly less than listed. And so it was just realizing that. You know, at the end of the day the client steers the ship. You know they make the decisions and you know I can try and teach and, you know, influence the way that goes, but there's only so much that I can actually do. So it gave me a little more empathy for other agents that you know maybe I would have thought negatively of.
Speaker 2:
It's funny. I actually was talking to an agent a couple of weeks ago and that's something that I had said. I said oh yeah, or like when the agent overprices the house, and he actually said hang on a second, wait. A lot of times the reason why that's overpriced is because the client insists on it. We guide them, we show them the comps, we make our suggestions, but at the end of the day it looks so, as easy as it is to reflect poorly on the agent, unfortunately, you know, we probably have said our piece instead.
Speaker 1:
Mm-hmm, that's too much, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:
So yeah.
Speaker 1:
And then one last wild one. That was a few months ago. So, like, whenever I have a buyer like I don't use, I may Google the house to see if anything pops up, but it's nothing in depth that I'm like researching every house that they get under contract and I don't know if many agents that do that anyways, and so I had done that with this house. You know, just putting Google didn't see anything. And then, uh, when we went there and looked at it, there was this like Kind of looked like Like a shrine people put up if you buried a pet, you know, like just a little thing in the driveway. And I asked the agent about I was like I did like the dog die or something, what's this about? And he's like, oh, I don't know. You know, I'm not sure what that's about.
Speaker 1:
A day before closing the guy talks with his Sister-in-law and she like really looks into the house and then I guess, on like the second page of Google, it showed that there just been like a double homicide in the home, like the previous month. And so the listening agent was definitely aware yeah, definitely aware that that's what that was about. And so at one point, you know he was like I don't know, I may want to pull out of this. You know it's ridiculous. He didn't tell me, even though, virginia, you don't have to, yeah, but he ended up buying it as happy with it. But it was just one of those like that's not what I expected you to tell me when he called me the day before close.
Speaker 2:
So it wasn't a. There was nobody buried there. No, like a remembrance. You would think that they could have taken that with them.
Speaker 1:
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:
Just yeah, that's crazy. Oh my gosh, that is a crazy story.
Speaker 1:
Everything else has been pretty, pretty smooth.
Speaker 2:
You know what's interesting about you? Who photograph it up is you're a very, not an emotional, but very, very composed, happy, sad story. You can't really tell. You're very. What, if that's a really good thing when you're working with emotional Situations, right, like being able to keep your closer and, yeah, react.
Speaker 1:
It's funny. I've heard that a few times and I think, like I was telling my wife. Actually I kind of understand why some agents are may come off as very blunt and I think it's because, after you know, for some people this is like a one-time thing in their life and so every little you know speed bump is this massive thing whereas you know, if you do a decent amount of transactions, like, yes, every deal is different, but a lot of things you know you know it's gonna be okay.
Speaker 2:
Don't worry about it. Mm-hmm, you get emotional.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and so in the beginning I would definitely get, you know, crazy worked up if you know something popped up and seemed like it was gonna kill the deal, and just you know, go nuts trying to figure it out, whereas now it's like, nope, we're gonna, you know, be able to solve this, or if it's not something that could be solved and we're gonna have to, you know, do something else.
Speaker 2:
That's what your client needs. Mm-hmm, they need that.
Speaker 1:
They even kill no beating around the bush. You know I always tell people like, yeah, you know, I ask for permission to be just, you know, bluntly honest with them with what's going on. And then also, you know, I like to tell people, I kind of like to tell them how I work beforehand, because I know sometimes, like I can maybe not be blunt, but you know, just say it how it is. And so I just like to let people know like, hey, I want to move at whatever speed you want to move at. If you tell me when we meet that you're looking to move in a month, then I'm gonna go at that pace. If at any point you change your mind, please let me know, because other people have then felt like I'm trying to push them into a home when I'm just going off of what you told me. You know.
Speaker 2:
We've got two weeks to get you into this house. We need to move.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, when they're thinking like oh, actually now I've got four months, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah no, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:
Thank you so much for being a guest here on the alamon show. It was great learning a little bit about you. Congratulations on the upcoming fourth member of the team and yeah, just thanks for being here.
