Bet On Yourself with John Casey | Episode 122

Number one hundred and twenty two. This episode has special meaning to the three of us because it was our Phi Gamma Delta (aka Fiji) chapter number at La Salle University. Queue in John Casey; a good friend, as well as a successful entrepreneur. What started out as a cushy sales job a decade ago turned into John going all-in on himself. 100% commission, no guaranteed deals. Dive right into this B&R business banger as Sean & Tim extract gold from a guy who made a smart bet and won!

Big shout-out to our show's loyal and dedicated sponsor: Property Management Redefined. John Sacks and his property management squad love our show and continue to support our mission of helping people through podcasting!

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Until next week, keep learning and keep growing!

** Episode Shout-Outs **
→ Phi Gamma Delta: https://phigam.org/
→ Episode Sponsor, Property Management Redefined: https://gopmr.com/

📲 Contact Info 📲
→ Sean Mooney, Mooney Insurance Brokers: www.mooneybrokers.com/
→ Tim Garrity, The Tim Garrity Team: www.timgarrityteam.com/

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Be confident and bet on yourself. And then you also said like consistency. Why that? Why that for a tip?

SPEAKER_00 0:06

I mean, I think I I think we talked about the bet on myself. You know, I left a good paying job to start from scratch. I mean, that's why when you have a great opportunity, it may not be the best timing, but bet on yourself and and and you know, you can be successful.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

Welcome to the podcast dedicated to real estate, insurance, and building your business. Join us as we take you along our own business building journeys with additional wisdom from our network of local and national experts. Welcome to Bricks and Risk.

SPEAKER_04 0:44

This episode is brought to you by Property Management Redefined. PMR is not just managing properties, we're creating partnerships that build long-term success for property owners. John and his team can be reached at manage at goPMR.com or by phone 267-753-6005. Tim. Yes, Sean. Who's a good client for PMR?

SPEAKER_02 1:12

Property management redefined is looking for property owners who value three things accountability, reliability, and a results-driven approach. You want to maximize returns, but still provide client and tenant satisfaction.

SPEAKER_04 1:26

There's a lot of property managers out there.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

There are. What does PMR do really well? Biggest thing is they're seamless and they're worry-free. So with that approach in mind, it allows the property owner to put their trust in PMR and know that the results will be there. The other thing I think a property owner is really going to value because they do it so well is that they have a local expert team, boots on the ground, managing your properties and your tenants' expectations every day so that you feel good about your investments.

SPEAKER_04 1:56

We have millions of listeners out there. Tens of millions. If they want more information, how do they find PMR?

SPEAKER_02 2:03

Right here, guys. Take good care of you. I'm Tim Garrety. And I'm Sean Mooney. Today, Sean, we have one of our homeboys on local guy, super successful businessman, John Casey, Senior Vice President of Mortgage Lending at Guaranteed Rate Affinity. How are you doing today, John?

SPEAKER_00 2:36

What's up, everybody? Thanks for coming in.

SPEAKER_02 2:38

Welcome into the show. So a little background on John. John's a native of Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, and started his mortgage career 22 years ago, assisting with real estate and relocation clients. He prides himself on providing superior customer service while guiding his clients through the entire loan process. As a 13-time Presence Club Award winner, super impressive, his number one goal is making the mortgage process as simple as possible. One of the finest to ever graduate from LaSalle University. Duh. He walked away with a BA in communications. John currently lives in Lafayette Hill with his wife Kristen, eight-year-old daughter Liliana, and Greyhound Oliver. In his spare time, he enjoys coaching Lil's soccer team and playing golf. He's also a passionate Philadelphia sports fan. Alright. I'm gonna give you a softball here. Do the Flyers make the playoffs? Yeah. Not not that soft.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

The Flyers are not making the playoffs. Okay. They're gonna be a point out.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

So I know you can play and you can play well. So so why golf? How'd you get into golf?

SPEAKER_00 3:46

So I golfed when I was a kid. I gave it up for 10 years. You know, when you're in college, you don't have money to play golf. We didn't have money to play golf. We barely put our nickels together to get our booze. Basically. Um and then after college, I was like, I wanted to be active, I wanted to play sports, but I didn't want to I didn't want to play soccer anymore, didn't want to play baseball. You don't really can't really get a pickup game of baseball. True. Right? Yep. So I picked the sticks back up, and uh, it's just something where it's an individual sport. You know, you can go out and I was like, I'm not gonna get hurt by doing this. You know, I'm not gonna not gonna break a leg. Uh you know, fast forward, I mean I I did hurt myself last year, but I'm back out. Um Wait, where did you play when you were a kid? Uh we played all over. All over. Uh yeah, I played Westover. The same courses that are around today. Skip back, Westover, Jeffersonville. Yep, yeah. You know, I played at the old uh Plymouth Country Club, which is 1912 now.

SPEAKER_03 4:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Um yeah, those courses, these courses have been around for 30, 40, 50. You forgot Walnut Lane.

SPEAKER_02 4:48

Oh, yeah. Shout out to Walnut Lane, Roxboro.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

Roxboro Country Club.

SPEAKER_02 4:53

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

I love it.

SPEAKER_04 4:54

30 pack off. Me and McCann used to play at Walnut Lane, and we would bring a 30 pack and we would get on the tee at one. And we we nobody watches you play there. So we literally would play 18, and then if we had any beer left over, we would just restart at one until the shout out to Pete McCann. And then when the 30 pack was gone, then we would stop playing it. Like, like it's time to go.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

All right. So when you're young, when you're young playing something like that, and the reason I asked this question is because like you know us, like all the boys from college, like none of us are really any good. I mean, Mooney's good, but most of us didn't play growing up, which is kind of why I asked. So when you were playing growing up, like were you playing with family, were you playing with friends? Like, what got you into it like at such a young age?

SPEAKER_00 5:37

Yeah, I mean, I guess, you know, I golfed with family, couple of my buddies golfed. Um, but I think it's a really good discipline for kids these days. Like, you know, where it's it's again, you're in you're standing on that T-box by yourself, you know. You got to swing the golf club. You know, you're not help on a baseball field or soccer field, you're one of nine or one of twelve eleven. You know, you're just part of the team and you're not the focus. With golf, you're the you know, it's you're you're the all and all. Yeah, you're the only you're the only one. And I think like you see, like when you see the Ryder Cup, those guys are playing as a team. They love that because they don't do that.

SPEAKER_02 6:12

Yeah, that's not their thing.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

It's not their thing.

SPEAKER_02 6:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

Um, and I just like I just like the discipline of golf and the and the respect. You get quiet, you know, you mark your ball. There's just certain things that you could teach kids about life on the golf course, which you can on the baseball field, the soccer field, the football field, um, the etiquette of golf, you know, the discipline that you have to have.

SPEAKER_04 6:34

We played everywhere, like kind of like you were all over the place. We would play Alvathorpe. Alvathorpe being. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

Shout out to Alvathorpe, Admonton Township. Where is it?

SPEAKER_04 6:42

Uh I mean over my way. And then we would play Woody's.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Oh, uh I was just talking about that. Yeah. Somebody was like, I I'm a nurse there at Jefferson. I'm like, you took my golf, you took my my childhood away. You know, you had the par three, the the chip and putt, and then you had the the the the the 18 holes in the back that you would sneak on and play. And yeah, I mean, if you wanted to spend a full day on the golf course, you could go to Woody's and be there for like about eight or nine hours. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:10

Well, golf too. The other benefit with golf is networking. I mean, that like it's so good for business.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

It's I mean, there's no other I mean, how many times you and I sat in a golf cart and just BSed for four plus, five plus years? Seriously. Hours. I mean, you're stuck with whoever you're sitting with on the golf course in that golf cart. You're you can't get away from them.

SPEAKER_02 7:29

Yeah. Yeah. You're getting to know each other, you're you're talking shop, talking about life, you know, whatever it is.

SPEAKER_04 7:34

Playing with Hill at Commonwealth, watching him throw nine irons at trees. I mean, shout out to Dave Hill.

SPEAKER_02 7:42

All right, so uh put that in. All right, so here's here's a good one. So, like, this is more today. So, depending on who you talk to, 2026 is either great time to buy, yep, or bad time to buy. Who's saying great time to buy? I mean, there's plenty of people. So, so give me your opinion. So, you're you're looking at it from the mortgage side of things. You know, interest rates have been a big subject of conversation for the last few years, ever since like 22, basically, is when they started going up. Um, what's what's your opinion of the market today?

SPEAKER_00 8:13

So, I think, I mean, I I'm a big proponent of you're gonna buy when you're ready, right? Rates are gonna be what they are. Um, but here's the thing like I I'm stressing now, especially our area, inventory is so tight. Yeah, rates are still elevated. We had a dip for seven days a couple a couple weeks ago. Yeah, it's not stopping buyers, right? There's offers going out, there's 10, 12 offers on certain properties. Values in this area, I'm not talking about in general the whole country, I'm talking about specific local to us. Yep. Values aren't going up. Or the value's not going down, they're going up. When rates drop, if if rates get to five, seven, five, five and a half, the market is gonna be flooded with the buyers that are at 3% now. They're gonna be able to absorb now.

SPEAKER_02 9:01

They can move.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

They can move. They don't want seven, they don't want maybe six and a half, right? They'll take five and a half. Yeah. Five? Absolutely. Oh, yeah. When that happens, what's gonna happen? You're gonna have prices are gonna go up, competition's gonna be stronger, you're gonna get back to the waived appraisals, you're gonna get back to no inspections. It's gonna be like COVID again without COVID, hopefully. So my pitch to buyers, like, get in now. Yes, your rate's gonna be elevated, but no, a year, two, three down the line, we're gonna refi. And you have that equity, and that house you just paid $750 for is now gonna be worth $850.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

What's interesting about now, it's like, I don't know the exact stat, but um resale inventory is like in an all-time low. Meaning the home that someone's lived in for 25 years, 50 years, 100 years, people aren't selling those right now. Mostly because they're owned maybe by like baby boomers, probably a majority of them. Maybe the mortgage is paid off, or they have a two and a half, three and a half percent interest rate. So it's interesting that you talk about like what would happen if rates go down low. Because if rates do go down lower, and that person with the three and a half interest rate is like, I'll I'll go buy something else because I can stomach it now. There's so many buyers just waiting for that baby boomer resale house in the neighborhoods that we live in. We live in established neighborhoods, so like they're not really building a lot of new construction because there's nowhere to build, there's no land. So the homes that exist are the homes that have been there for like 50 years, 75 years, and that's what these buyers are waiting for. So I find it interesting you make that point. You're like, that's gonna make things go up even more.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

I mean, I can tell you, my neighborhood, they're buying houses for six, seven hundred thousand to bulldoze them.

SPEAKER_02 10:46

Yeah, I know it's crazy. It's crazy. And they're and they're building like million and a half, two million dollar homes. Correct.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

And the one thing I see the the most in the last 12 months is guess who a lot of the sellers are on a lot of my deals? States. People are dying of the houses. Yeah, yeah. That's when they finally go to the market. Yeah. Wow. It's wild.

SPEAKER_02 11:07

Yeah, it's completely wild. That's that end of the market. They're just they're at that age, and that's the only way the house comes because it's like on the market.

SPEAKER_00 11:14

When you talk to somebody who's like 65 or 70 years old, that you know, they've been in their house for 30 years, it's like, well, where am I going? Yeah. If I'm going to Florida, you know, yeah, if they go to Florida, great.

SPEAKER_02 11:24

Around here, it's not that it's not as common as people think.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

I took my mom, I took my mom, you know, 10 years to be like, all right, I know where I want to be now, and I found a house. Like it was like right before COVID, and I was like, you know, her household in a day, because you know, it was at, but it was like, I didn't know she didn't know where she wanted to go. So she stayed in a 3,000 square foot home with her dog for 15 years longer than she should should have.

SPEAKER_04 11:47

So is that mentality killing it? Like, if there's the person that's sitting here that we want to buy or we're thinking of buying, and oh, we're gonna wait for rates to come down, or we're gonna wait for this. Like, that's the worst mindset you can have right now.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

Exactly. Because you wait, and that house that you saw for 500,000 at a six and a half percent interest rate now goes for six fifty and your rate's five point seven five, the payment's probably the same, yeah, if not more. You're not gaining any ground. You're not getting no, you're getting that's why I'm like, get in now and build your equity, build your worth from from now. I mean, the best time to buy a house a lot of times is in in in chaos or when in times where it's not great, you know. Yeah, yeah, it was great to buy a house when where rates were three percent and you know, values were just skyrocketing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:40

Do yourself a favor. Like, I was kind of in that we were I was looking for like what three years or something. Easily. Yeah. And so like I was probably like seven and I just blacked out for the first four. I was like, we'll wait, we'll wait. And then it came to a point where I was like, I'm waiting for something that's not coming. Correct. Yes, correct. You're like waiting for a crash, and everybody's like, crash is coming, the crash is coming.

SPEAKER_02 13:04

Or you're waiting, you're like, when's that one deal gonna pop up that's perfect for me that just happens to be price right? It doesn't exist. Or or they say, like, oh, I'm waiting for the correction.

SPEAKER_04 13:12

The correction around here.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

Or I'm waiting for the deal. Yeah. Waiting for a deal.

SPEAKER_04 13:16

You're you're what you're losing, and I gave you that example of we bought in November, it's it's March, they just sold up the street, and it's like higher. Yeah, and it's gonna go higher. Right, you know, it it's this thing where people kind of psychologically think they're like waiting for the better deal, but they they should be deciding just to make the move and do it today.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

And you seem okay, right?

SPEAKER_04 13:44

You did it, you're good, you're living.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

I don't know if he's okay.

SPEAKER_04 13:47

I mean, define that.

SPEAKER_02 13:49

Yeah, it depends. I feel guilty every day trying to help him out. Um, all right. Well, that what's interesting about that too is that like so again, as important as interest rates are, I feel like the interest rates right now are more important for unlocking the inventory. Because again, if someone's like, hey, I've been renting since I was like 22 years old and I'm 35, and maybe I have a significant other, maybe I have children, maybe I have three dogs, it doesn't matter, maybe I'm single. But the fact that you've been renting for like 13 years, you have to start to wonder, okay, if I'm paying $2,250 a month in rent and I just keep doing that year after year, like I have a need. Like, I want to go plant my feet somewhere. And as long as you're gonna plant your feet, I my general agent advice, if you want to call, is like if you're gonna stay somewhere for seven to ten years, you kind of can't lose for the most part. Few reasons. Potential appreciation, paying down your principal, tax benefits, you know, maybe you had some savings over your rent, or even if you didn't, it doesn't matter if it's the same. And when you do those things over a seven to ten year period, you're going to build equity. So even after seven years, like, I need to get out of here, why'd I buy this house? Even if you if let's say the market completely crashed or whatever that happened in 2008, 2009, even if that happens, you can still rent your house. Like, or you can refire your mortgage if rates have come down. Like you are in control when you buy a house. So if you know you want to own and you've been renting for five years, 10 years, 15 years, like the best time to buy was yesterday. Because if you do that, you're finally committing to the number one way to build wealth in the US, which is owning real estate. And that year after year, it always happens because it is. You make money lots of different ways.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

Um, and I mean to that point, I think over the last hundred years, I think seven of those years there was a decrease in value. Yeah. And it hasn't been there's been one in like the past like 25 years. Even even through the even through the crash, like it's so 93 years you're on the plus.

SPEAKER_04 15:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

I mean, think of it this way if you're paying $2,500 in rent over a three-year period, you're paying your landlord almost a hundred a hundred thousand bucks. Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy. You're making renters make zero benefit. Landlords make are renters make landlords rich.

SPEAKER_02 16:11

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

So shout out to the landlords out there that are are are making their money.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:18

Great business model.

SPEAKER_02 16:19

All right, so this kind of plays into like our theme. I mean, we're like a small business entrepreneurship show. So as a mortgage originator, I would assume you're 100% commission. Right. Correct. Okay. You you've been doing this over 20 years. Over 20 years. Yep. All right. So, and we like to get a little tactical. So, like for you building your business over uh, you know, 20, 20 plus year period, what are some of the things that you do that help you stay in the business that long and continue to, you know, part of the president's club? Like you've had a lot of success in the mortgage business. Like, what are some of the things that you do to build your business?

SPEAKER_00 16:56

So my story is a little bit different. I've been in the business for 22 years, but not all in the same. Like, I've been originary for 22 years, but for the first, what is it, 14 years, I was in a call center. That's right. Yeah. So I worked at a call center and I had the leads came to me. Inbound, yeah. Inbound calls.

SPEAKER_02 17:14

Yep. So you're just you're servicing the top of funnel stuff.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

Yeah. So just, you know, I called it making shoes in a factory. We just worked and just kept grinding just and just and and work. So it wasn't like a real relationship business. It was just like it was more of like a numbers game. Yeah. Okay. But then I was like, you know, I need a new challenge. You know, I was, I was I quite frankly, I was bored. I I didn't want to just drive to an office and sit there and just you know, I could have done it the rest of my life. Yeah, had a good living, whatever. But I wanted to bet on myself and take a challenge. Like, I wanted to go out in the in the field and and and do it on my own. So I got a good opportunity, I mean a great opportunity. My wife's pregnant. I was like, I knew what I was gonna do what I was getting into. You're going out. I literally left in 2017. I had not one ref agent referral. I didn't I didn't know when I started, yeah, nothing. I built it from the ground up all the way. I love it.

SPEAKER_04 18:07

So wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. All right, so back the horse up a little bit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

What like yourself. Yeah. Yeah. Here we go, folks.

SPEAKER_04 18:20

Well, I you know, I know the move, I know like, you know, but now we're getting granular on what this was. What was so great about the opportun so so you're making X, yeah, making a good, steady living. You're okay. Show up and grind. So now, and and you gotta talk me through the math on this, but like this is I know what I'm making, and like year after year you can kind of pencil in what you're gonna just be by the way of the loans. Yeah, I mean, I mean with a r within a range.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

Yeah, I mean, I was I was in inside you had a very small base salary to keep the lights on, and then everything else commission.

SPEAKER_04 18:54

So so to leave that where you're gonna be like, hey, now you're going to go start as an originator, and it's all dependent upon relationships with zero leads, right? Technically. Zero leads, zero referrals, right? Zero agents. So that decision, like how did you make that decision and what was so much better about the was it the up the potential upside on that versus what you were doing previously? So it's kind of twofold. Some of some people, some of our listeners out there would call you crazy.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

And watchers. Yeah, I mean, it was a cra I mean, and think of it, my wife was pregnant and she wasn't working. That's not that's not good. So um yeah, I mean, I got the opportunity, but I was like, listen, I could stay in my job and just be not happy and be stuck to a desk and and and needed to be in an office. You know, uh the opportunity I was gonna have was gonna be free, it was gonna be a lot more freedom to do, you know, what I wanted to do, not needed to be in a certain location, you know, from this to this. Um but at the time I was working for PH and Guaranteed Rate Affinity was acquiring PH. Yeah. Um, so I knew that guaranteed rate affinity. I forgot about that.

SPEAKER_03 20:15

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

The name guaranteed rate, you know, the the the whole company uh is huge in Philadelphia. Yeah, it's cool. And I was gonna get an opportunity to have that name back to me. And I knew a lot of the agents that didn't support PHH, that was gonna go away. Yeah. And all the problems of why you didn't want to use PH. Really good point. Uh I was like, well, that's gonna disappear in three months. So the baggage that So I got in six months before the merger, yeah or the acquisition, not the merger, and I built those relationships. And the only like if I had to take an agent to lunch and the only thing they said, well, I hate the appraisal department at PHH, well, perfect, it's going away in three months. Give me an opportunity. So for six months I took agents to lunch. I got I sat in their office, I learned their kids' names, I learned their wife's names, I learned I I I learned what they liked. Right? And yeah, what's big in this business is like, yeah, we're talking mortgage, we're talking real estate, but like I try to not talk a lot of shop. You know, I try to talk about like, hey, you want to go golfing or you want to how's how's it? How's Cindy? How's how's this? Or how's how how is your kid's basketball game? Like, right, you know, you scroll through Facebook and you see like, oh, there was a basketball game this weekend. Like, so that's what I did for like the first few months, and just you know, I negotiated with PHH, like, hey, I gotta, you gotta give me a little bit so I can build. Because like I'm like, I'm not gonna sit here and not make any money for six months. So, you know, so we did, and we just we built it and I did events and we did, you know, it was it was started from the bottom and we just we just kept growing it.

SPEAKER_02 21:48

Yeah, talk about all right, so it started out like you're in your first year. This is twenty fourteen, this is twelve years ago. No, twenty seventeen. Twenty seventeen, I'm sorry. Um so let less than ten years, and you're getting started. You're going one to one. You're going belly to belly. You're trying to meet people, get to know them, develop a real, true, genuine relationship with them, with the hope that, hey, maybe they'll consider me uh for their clients' mortgage options in the event you know, someone's buying a house, let's call it. Let's fast forward to like today. So, like, let's let's take events, for example. Like when you're doing an event, it's not it's not one-to-one. You might have 10 people in a room, might have 100 people in a room. What kind of things are you doing for like events that help to obviously strengthen what you have, but also keep the lead gen flowing, moving forward?

SPEAKER_00 22:38

So, I mean, with events, I like to keep them. I don't like the hundred people events, right? I like the you know, five to fifteen to twenty. Nice. Because, you know, I like to I like to invite people that number one, I do business with. Yep. Keep that, you know, keep those relationships. Bring on people that I want to do business with.

SPEAKER_02 22:56

Yeah, invite like a two or three in that you're like hoping to build.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

And I like I say, you know, to some of my top agents, like, hey, bring a friend, like bring somebody that you we don't do business with.

SPEAKER_02 23:05

Great idea.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

You know, and then it's more, you know, it's more personable. You know, you have a hundred person events, great. You're not gonna talk to a hundred people.

SPEAKER_02 23:13

No, you won't even get to like 80% of the room.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

You know, and and if you invite like like I'm a big proponent of like, don't invite just like like a whole office of people. Like, you know, be selective on who you're who you're who you're targeting, you know, and and you know, events work better that way. Yeah, at least in my opinion.

SPEAKER_04 23:32

Yeah. I mean, we talked about it too. It's is your preference, my preference. I I don't like the big event types. It's just you get lost in it. You can't really find your way. You you're you're you're talking to someone, but but you see all these people, so you're now you're just trying to get to that next person where it's like, if there's 15 people, you can touch 15 people. Oh, totally.

SPEAKER_00 23:57

And that person you've invited that's one of 15 feels more important than one of a hundred. Correct. Yeah, it means a little bit more. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:04

I can go either way. Um, I probably prefer small because I'd rather like both of you, I'd rather like get to know people rather than just go shake, you know, 20 hands, get 20 business cards, and go home and put them in my contacts. But I do like, I like big events in the sense that I'm just so curious about people in general that like if I go to a big event, I might really meet five super random people that I would never meet. And, you know, me too. I'm just I just think I'm I'm used to that. I used to do a lot of stuff like that. When I first got into real estate, I was going to these like 100, 200 person networking events. And uh I kind of enjoyed it. I don't know if I enjoyed it from the sense just like the energy in the room because it's like it's kind of cool. You know, maybe it's like an MC or there's like a you know, a buffet, or like you just bump it, you turn around, you bump into someone new. Um, so I did like it from that. But now, you know, almost 47 years old, I'd say I prefer it that way. 10 people, 15 people, and the people that you either already do business with or the people that you know really well, and you're like, I would love to like do business with you. So I think that's super powerful. Um also here's another one for you. So one thing you said that you love to do uh is help good people get financing for the American dream, which is home ownership. So doing this over 20 years, you know, talk about why that has become one of the things that you love most about business.

SPEAKER_00 25:34

Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, I sell, you know, interest rates for a living, you know, but it's more of like, hey, I I sell John Casey for a living, right? It's more of like, hey, I put my arms around you, you know, you're making a huge financial transaction. You gotta feel comfortable. And at the end of the day, when you sit at a closing table with somebody and they're crying and they're hugging their parents for the first time, yeah, like it makes you feel good. You know, you you help somebody achieve their dream. Yep. You know, and I think we take that for granted a lot of times, you know, because for us, it's like, all right, well, it's on to the next one, it's on to the next one. You know, you're you're only as good as your last deal, right? Um, but it's just it's to see that, you know, at the end of the at the end of the process of people being happy, you know, and it, you know, I find it to be good. It feels good.

SPEAKER_02 26:21

Hey everyone, this is Tim, your favorite bricks and risk co-host. But don't tell Sean. I hope you're enjoying this episode, and I'll get right back to it in a moment. Our audience grows through word of mouth, so if you would please take a moment of your time and give us a review on the platform you're on, that would be fantastic. Please also help spread the BR word by sharing your favorite episode with a friend. We greatly appreciate your time and trust. Now, back to the show.

SPEAKER_04 26:54

We said in the in the one episode we talked about was being uh a chapter in someone's book and and how powerful that can be. And this is like the biggest moment of their life for a lot of these people, first-time homebuyer, like especially. And for you to be able to orchestrate and make it happen. And I'm sure there's been scenarios where stuff could have fallen through, right? Or, oh, is this gonna deal gonna get done? Or this thing came up, I don't even know if we'll be able to close. And you to be able to like come in and ensure that happens, that's like such a pivotal role in that moment that it gives a little bit more meaning and definition.

SPEAKER_00 27:42

Yeah, and especially as the like the ones that are like the the buyers that can maybe you know they come to me and say, Hey, I was declined from another lender. Oh, yeah. Right? And you're like, all right, well, let's figure this out. You know, you got a 583 credit score, you're gonna have to go FHA, you're gonna have to manually be underwritten. I said, but we'll make it work. Yeah. And when you go to the closing table with people like that, that's impactful because they were told no. Yeah. And you got them a house, and they're gonna give you a hug, and they're gonna, you know what? They're not gonna, you know, call you to refi, they're gonna call you, they're gonna tell every person that they know in their sphere of influence, hey, call this guy because he got he got it done for me when people told me no.

SPEAKER_04 28:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:20

You know, I always say any Joe Schmo mortgage lender can do a 20% down conventional loan with their eyes closed. And trust me, I love doing 20% down conventional loans. You know, I could do them in five days.

SPEAKER_02 28:31

Lot less headaches. Anyone out there?

SPEAKER_00 28:33

Yeah, add to Casey. But it's the ones that come to me and they have the the mediocre to pour credit, and they're they're they're they're getting their next paycheck to to get enough money in the bank to make the financing work and and the and their dreams work, those are the ones that are more impactful in my eyes.

SPEAKER_02 28:51

Totally. You know, they're like, you know, you introduce them to like PHFA, or you start telling them about grants, or you start telling them about you know, six percent seller assist, unlike FHA. And these people thinking, you know, maybe I need 30,000, 50,000 to buy a house that need like 20, you know, 15 depending. And and that that's huge, man.

SPEAKER_04 29:13

Um so what is it? Uh can you talk a little bit about because obviously the guaranteed name is is big, big around here, but specifically with you, yours is a little different with uh affinity. Can you talk to us about that in terms of the relationship between yeah, what's the difference?

SPEAKER_00 29:30

Sure. So in 17, we were so we've had a joint venture with Anywhere real estate since 2004. Anywhere was just purchased by Compass Holdings. So now Compassing three or four months ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't even think of that. So now so when when so to since 2004, PHH had a relationship with Anywhere. PHO or sold to Guarantee Rate Affinity. So to 2017, think of it this way Guarantee Rate of Finney is 51% owner, anywhere is 49%. Yep. So it's a joint venture with Anywhere, okay, which now is Compass. Right. So when I do well and I do, you know, well for the offices, you know, they're compensated. You know, they they they make the profits of what we do. Yeah, you add to the bottom line. We add to the bottom line. Um, which is huge in this market now because you know, with agent splits and you know how you know tight everything is, like, you know, you're making money off your answer early services, you know. Um so that's really the biggest difference. I mean, it's the same technology, it's the same, you know, uh, you know, underwriting system, it's the same, you know, we we work off of the same, you know, um system. It's just that my company has a relationship with now it's compass.

SPEAKER_04 30:48

Yeah. Have you seen anything change over the last three, four months with that acquisition? Or is it everything What's the vibe been like?

SPEAKER_00 30:56

I mean, for us, it's not I mean business as usual. Business as usual. Yep. You know, um, like right now I have access to uh a couple banker offices. I have a couple of one in Conchi, one in Old City. You know, will I have access to the you know, an office and you know, say a compass in Chestnut Hill that might come down the pike. I don't know. Um it's still new. Yeah. Um but for us, I mean, I think, you know, when you're adding a more agents to the, you know, to the family, so to say, I don't think that's a bad thing. More opportunities, more opportunities.

SPEAKER_04 31:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:28

Um, all right, so here's a question. So you had like a JV with Anywhere. Anywhere is now part of Compass. Do you think that like was the JV across like the country with anywhere? Yeah. So there was guaranteed rate affinities like all over the US?

SPEAKER_00 31:44

Yeah, so there's there's it was back when the NRT was formed in 2004.

SPEAKER_02 31:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:50

So like there's there it's not it's not like in South Dakota, right? Right. Gotcha. So it's like it's like part, it's like, you know, shout out to Amy Stockberger. There you go. You know, Chicago, Philly, you know. They pick where they want to be. Major metrics. You're up up into Boston, you're down all the way down to Florida into Miami, you're in Texas, you know. Gotcha. You're in, you know, uh Missouri, you're out in California. So like yeah, I mean, we're we're we're we're nationwide, yeah. But the presence is is a lot bigger in certain certain markets for sure.

SPEAKER_02 32:19

What's your opinion? Do you think the guaranteed rate affinity JV that anywhere had? Because Anywhere had uh a lot of debt. And I I remember a lot of industry people were saying like when Compass acquired uh Anywhere, they were adding like a ton, a couple billion worth of debt to their balance sheet, but they're still getting they're getting tons of agents, tons of market share. Do you think the guaranteed rate affinity thing was attractive to them when they were doing that? Because Compass didn't really have any kind of in-house financing before that.

SPEAKER_00 32:51

So what's ironic off what's ironic is they Compass actually had a uh joint venture with Origin Point, which is another port another wing of guaranteed rate. No way. Which is I didn't even know that. Yeah. So like, yeah, exactly. You don't know that because there's you there's not a presence here. There's a presence like out in California and like a little bit in Chicago.

SPEAKER_02 33:11

So like more of like a smaller uh JV than like what would correct.

SPEAKER_00 33:15

And I and I think, you know, this is my own personal opinion that like Robert Refkin saw that and saw like the value in in us.

SPEAKER_02 33:22

Oh, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 33:23

So, you know, which is a lot bigger than Origin Point, and then there's title that goes along with that as well. Yeah. So, you know, I think a lot of the you know, yes, the agents and and acquiring the you know, Cobalt Banker and Century 21 and you know, better homes like was great, but he saw he he sees value in in and definitely mortgage for sure.

SPEAKER_02 33:42

Yeah. It's awesome, man. We'll see how it plays out. Very cool. Yeah. All right. So the three of us have known each other for like over 25 years old. Couple years. Which is which is crazy. Wild. And I didn't even ask you this yet. This is almost back to the golf question. Like, how did you even get into mortgages like over 20 years ago? Like what what brought you in?

SPEAKER_00 34:02

So newspaper ad? No.

SPEAKER_02 34:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 34:04

So uh Craigslist? So as my bayou said, I was gonna go to be communications, and quite frankly, I wanted to like be in like sports journalism. Big sports guy. Yeah, big sports guy. Should have talked to Cush. You should have.

SPEAKER_02 34:17

Well, maybe I'll just watch Cush and Shout out to Andy Cushman.

SPEAKER_04 34:20

Didn't he write for like the Trenton Carrier Times or something? He did.

SPEAKER_02 34:24

He did some good write-ups. He wrote up about my brother Pat's band back in the day. Back up. Shout out to Pat Garretti.

SPEAKER_00 34:35

So I kind of so I pivoted, right? So we were doing my uncle worked for uh the title company, and I was like, Can you get me an internship? You you want to get an internship at the mortgage company? So I was like, Yeah, great. I was like making like, I don't know, $15 or $18 an hour, more than what I could have been making.

SPEAKER_02 34:52

Like So it started out as like internship. You're like, oh, this is some serious money.

SPEAKER_00 34:55

So like young. So it was 2001, and I'm interning, and I'm sitting there in the summertime, and I'm talking to these guys, and they're like sitting there and they're just like, you know, coming and going, and they're like, you know, we're making a lot of money, and you know, yada, yada, yada. So I was like, all right, so I I continued the internship. Like, I literally worked there the entire time I was at LaSalle because it was like it was beer money. Yeah, you know, but I was like learning that's good beer money, right? It's good beer money. But I was like learning the system. I would ask a lot of questions, so I was kind of teaching myself. And you know, I I graduated, you know, I did the four and a half year plan. I stayed on the extra semester. I was not. So January rolls around, and I'm like, well, what am I gonna do? And I get a phone call, and they're like, Do you want to do you want to start a training program to be an originator? So it's January, and I'm like, well, I got nothing else to do. Sure. You're gonna pay me. Know what you're doing. Yeah, you're gonna pay me 40 grand to sit in a training class for four months? Sure. Okay. So I sat in a training class for four months. They taught me how to sell mortgages, they taught me the the the ropes, and literally I somebody posted something on Facebook the other day, and I was like, damn, I was like, it's my anniversary too. I said, I hit the sales floor April 1st, 2005. Wow. So 21 years is actually being a refrigerator. So it was like, and then I just hit the ground running, and I'm like, all right, I linked up with a couple guys, and like, you know, and that was back in the day when you're doing like stated income loans and state asset, and I was like, what, whoa, whoa, what are we getting into?

SPEAKER_03 36:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:24

And like we never did like the the the countrywide of the world. The CISAs and the Ninas? Yeah, yeah. So, but yeah, I mean that's that's how it kind of started, and that's you know, and now I'm like 20 years later, they're like, people like, do you like it? I'm like, you know, this is my career. I'm not getting out of it. Yeah, you know, I'm not starting an uh another business. I'm not You're not going back to sports journalism. I'm not going back to sports journalism, not becoming a professional golfer in the Corn Ferry Tour. Nope. Um, yeah, I mean this is it. But here's the thing, and and I and this is this is a a part that I that I would I'd love to hear you guys' feedback. Like, so I'm 43 years old, or soon to be 44. Yeah. I go on these presidents club trips. Yeah. Right? I'm still like the fourth youngest originator at these trips. No way. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 37:09

Oh, they're they're national trips.

SPEAKER_00 37:11

Yeah, we we usually have about 150 people with spouses. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:14

So you talking one out of 150 nationally is pretty pretty friggin' good.

SPEAKER_00 37:17

So, you know, let's just say there's five guys that are younger than me. Damn. And they're like in their 30s. I'm like, so you don't go to you don't go to you don't go to LaSalle, you don't go to temple, you don't, you don't go to these schools and be like, you know what, I want to be a loan officer.

SPEAKER_04 37:31

Yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_00 37:32

Not typically. Not typically. You don't take classes other than you know, persuasion.

SPEAKER_02 37:36

There's no loan officer, there's no mortgage major in college.

SPEAKER_00 37:39

Yeah, you don't, yeah, you don't take a mortgage. So like it's not like we're a dying breed, but we're an older breed, right? There's so many guys I know that are in their 60s, originating loans. You know, they can't wait to get out. I would I would love to mentor like a young kid coming out of college or somebody that's young and teach them the ropes because you don't there's no four four-month training class anymore. You know, you just kind of have to hit the ground. But like it's one thing that I've been the last 12 months, I'm like, listen, I need to find somebody that's younger that wants to do like TikTok videos, you know, that wants to run the open houses. You know, this stuff that I can't, you know, I don't have the bandwidth to do. Yeah, you know, love to find that person.

SPEAKER_02 38:18

Well, do you know what's cool about that? So I recently started connecting with the new dean of the business school at LaSalle. Yeah. It's a good dude from New Orleans. And uh connected with him and talked to him about some of the business majors. He's really looking for like alumni to come in, like in my field in real estate. I'm sure he'd be very interested in mortgage. Because again, they don't they don't offer that at the school, but they're very viable careers. They're very entrepreneurial careers, they're sales driven, they're marketing driven, they could be management driven depending on how how big you get.

SPEAKER_00 38:48

And let's be frank, they can be very lucrative.

SPEAKER_02 38:50

Super lucrative. And I think it's good to uh yeah, I think that would be a good connection. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 38:56

I'll I'll I'll but the other thing too is what you had mentioned was you don't go into school to become a loan officer, right? No, you're an insurance agent. Right. But it really is just what you're exposed to. You I got exposed to it. You got exposed to it, and it became a career. As did I. So I guess it's just the thinking of if you can get someone young and get them exposed to it, it may or may not, it might turn into a career, it might not, but there's an incredible opportunity, especially with all of these older people bailing out in the next 10 years. Just think of the opportunity that's going to be in front of people. Correct. In your field, insurance, same thing. In your field, in my field. And so, like, what a great time for a young person to come in, get started, learn the business, and have this amazing road in front of them with all like what's the number of insurance uh real estate agents that are over, I don't know, 60.

SPEAKER_02 40:07

It's like 70 plus something like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:12

You know, it's probably the same. It is statistical numbers in your field, same as mine. It's like if you can just get the exposure, and maybe it's maybe it is like an internship. Hey, yeah, give me 10 hours a week, run some social, learn the business a little bit, and then they and they like it, and it turns into something.

SPEAKER_02 40:32

That's good stuff. Um, so one thing we also like to talk about is biggest struggle. You said your biggest struggle was time management and distractions. So why that? What what about like time management or like getting distracted from from keeping control of your time as has been such a struggle for you?

SPEAKER_00 40:50

It's not so much I mean the the the distractions are you go sit in an office, right? You have a real estate agent that wants to come in and talk for 45 minutes. Yeah. And I got 15 deals I gotta deal with and they're working on one, right? And you can't sit there and say, hey, you know, I gotta get back to my day job here because you want to you wanna talk and you wanna, you know, that's more of the distractions like getting pulled to lunches, things like that, where it's just like inner office distractions. Inner office distractions, you know, even like you know, just just getting distracted by, you know, uh, you know, a negative email that comes in, and you've got to just jump on that and you get just you know, you gotta put a fire out, you know, things like that. Like, you know, I I should do a better time of uh of like blocking certain times out where I'm like, all right, listen, I'm I'm gonna focus on this or I'm gonna focus on that. I just more willy-nilly it where I'm just like, all right, you need this, you need this, you need this, and I'll just get it done.

SPEAKER_03 41:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:40

You know, I think, you know, I've been at I've done a better job of like setting boundaries of like, all right, if that phone call comes in at 9 30, it can wait till the morning. Yep, you know, um, or that email that comes in at 10 o'clock. But I think just, you know, that's what I meant by distraction. Just like, you know, getting pulled.

SPEAKER_02 41:58

Yeah, it's like uh even if you had something on your calendar and said, I should be doing this right now, let's say it was some kind of marketing activity, and then you're like, but I always have deals going on. There's always agents flowing through the office, like there's always like water cooler conversations to be had. So it sounds like your your setup too also plays into the distraction of of your day, where it's like you're in an office with like multiple people, you're you're a relationship guy, you're obviously catching up with everyone. Like, how you doing? How was your weekend? Or, you know, the weather, whatever it is.

SPEAKER_04 42:30

And it's not a it's not a big, it's not a big thing. It isn't, but it is. So it is it is a tremendous difficulty. And I I probably share a lot of the same things that you have, is like, I mean, you get a text, you get an email, the phone's ringing. Like, like, given your day, there's so many uh landmines or so many um activities that are occurring at at one time, and it's like trying to manage and trying to prioritize, like, okay, these three emails come in, like, okay, okay, I gotta get this one. I'm push these two. Like, it's a constant, right?

SPEAKER_00 43:07

Like you like, I was coming in here today and I'm on my phone with my assistant, and I'm like, Can you send this pre-approval? I'm texting a guy that you know he didn't see a $5,000 lender credit on his CD, initial CD. I'm like, it'll be on the final C like. I did like five things in like 30 seconds right before I walked in here, you know? That's why That's what I mean. I that's why I won't buy an Apple Watch. Oh, because I'll tell you. I'm like, my phone dings enough, my computer ding's enough. I'm like, I need I don't have there's too many dinging. I'm like, yeah, you never said I mean never said never, but I mean, here's the thing everyone's got their struggle.

SPEAKER_02 43:37

That is not a struggle of mine personally. It's just not it's just not how I'm wired. I'm more than have as many friends as we do. I know I'm more of a loser.

SPEAKER_00 43:45

So but I know I know that because every time I talk to you or you would do a lunch, the guy puts it on my calendar like in two seconds. Like to me, I'm like, oh damn, puff's got it real well today. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_02 43:57

No, it's like you know, you struggle with something like that in my Struggles different, you know. It's like we all have our struggles. Um, all right. Here's here's another good one. Your tip for listeners and watchers, the bricks and riskers be confident and bet on yourself. And then you also said like consistency. Yeah. Why that? Why that for a tip?

SPEAKER_00 44:18

I mean, I think I I think we talked about the bet on myself. You know, I left a good paying job to start from scratch. I mean, that's why just just remember in life, there's no when you have a great opportunity, it may not be the best timing, but bet on yourself and and and you know, you can be successful.

SPEAKER_02 44:35

Here's a good question. Yeah. Knowing that you were in the industry for a while, you had the internship at LaSalle, then you were working, you know, inside sales, basically, like Lee Gen, called Lee Gen. How hard do you think it would have been to hop into the guaranteed rate affinity opportunity if you didn't have all that previously? Do you think your mindset would have been a little bit different? Just you personally.

SPEAKER_00 44:59

I mean, the knowledge I had when I left, because like when you're working in, you know, when you're working inside, like I talked to thousands of people and saw thousands of reps, scenarios. A lot of reps. You got you're like, it's like, you know, you you're you're taking batting practice at baseball. Like you're just getting all those reps and you're seeing all those things. And I always say, like, man, I thought I saw everything until this one today, you know, but I saw all that. So like when you're doing, you know, in 2012 I closed 512 deals. Oh my god. 512. Yeah. Right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:30

There's only 365 days in a year.

SPEAKER_00 45:33

Correct. Yeah. So like when you scale it back, and like I don't I I certainly don't do 512 deals, but like I feel like like my bandwidth, like that's where I've been driven from. Like, yeah, I have the bandwidth to do a couple hundred deals where like I don't need to hire somebody else. Like I can I I have the ability to do it. Um but I think if I didn't have uh you know that opportunity before the guarantee rate, you know, not seeing those opportunities how that's something structured, like yeah, that to me is like the stuff that's second nature now. Like it's like all right, as soon as I talk to somebody, it's like, all right, we need to go this way, this way, or this way. Like my brain just does it. Yeah, you know, which was helpful.

SPEAKER_04 46:18

And there's less and less of those I've never seen this one before.

SPEAKER_02 46:22

Oh. You never know.

SPEAKER_04 46:25

You never know.

SPEAKER_02 46:27

All right, your quote is awesome. It's a little lengthy, so give me a minute. Nothing in this you're gonna say it or he's not saying it.

SPEAKER_00 46:34

Okay. He's got it written down. All right.

SPEAKER_02 46:36

Even though I don't need it. Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not. Nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not. Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not. The world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan Press On has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race by our good friend Calvin Coolidge. Now, without the audience really knowing why that was your quote, why was that your quote?

SPEAKER_00 47:11

So, Mooney's wearing purple today.

SPEAKER_02 47:13

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 47:14

This is episode 122 for all listeners and watchers out there.

SPEAKER_00 47:18

That has meaning. So 122, should I explain the meaning? Sure. Yep. So we're at a fraternity called Five Gamma Delta or Fiji. Fiji. Tim was my pledge educator. We're coming up on 25 years this week of getting in the fraternity, which is crazy in itself. Yeah. Um, episode 122 was special to me because that was our chapter number at Nashals was 122. So I saw Moon like last week or two weeks ago, and I was like, Yeah, can we make this happen?

SPEAKER_02 47:46

Out with another Fiji. Doug Robinson, shout out to Fresh.

SPEAKER_00 47:49

We're having dinner tonight, Fresh.

SPEAKER_02 47:51

Alehouse.

SPEAKER_00 47:52

Yeah, Alehouse. That's right. Reservation at 5 30. Booth.

SPEAKER_04 47:57

Not bar time.

SPEAKER_00 47:59

But that, but, but that slogan is the is the Fiji mantra. Um you know, that was instilled in us in college. Um, and it's it still lives in my brain every day. Um, you know, there's a you gotta be persistent in life. You gotta be persistent in this business, you know, because listen, I get know a lot, you know. We all get know a lot, you know. I found a better rate or I've I found cheaper insurance, or I have a their fee was a hundred dollars cheaper. Yeah, I have a realtor that's gonna do it for two percent. Well, great. Yeah, you know, are you gonna get that service? Right. You know, so persistence, you know, you you gotta stay after it, you know. The world is full of educated derelicts, you know. We know that. Yeah. Shout out to Mooney.

SPEAKER_02 48:38

Shout out Mooney. Shout out to Sean P. Mooney.

SPEAKER_00 48:41

Um, but yeah, it's a it's a great quote to live by. And I think I I think the three of us at this table, you know, to an extent, still live by it. Hell yeah, man.

SPEAKER_04 48:48

Uh, it was interesting too seeing uh Kelsey post that up when he did that. Yeah. Um, which was interesting because I'm like, I had to take a double take there.

SPEAKER_02 48:58

Shout out to Jason Kelsey.

SPEAKER_04 49:00

Good job, Jason.

SPEAKER_02 49:01

Dude, awesome conversation. Loved every minute of it. So before we shut this one down, why don't you let our listeners and watchers know more about you, where they can find you and everything you got going on. And if you brought anything with you that you'd like to share with Tim. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:15

Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, we got we got goodies? We got goodies. Yeah, we got hoodies.

SPEAKER_00 49:20

You always got to be branded in this in this world. Um, so I brought you guys a couple things. This one's for Tim. Yeah. Sizes can be exchanged out.

SPEAKER_02 49:27

All right. It's a it's a it's a ticket to Pine Valley. This is that uh Wiener Bekiner I've been waiting for. I brought this from Mooney. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 49:35

All right, a little bag there.

SPEAKER_00 49:38

Cool, little lunchtime suds. But yeah, you always gotta be branded. Uh, you can see my my cell phone, uh 610-5050769, john.casey at guaranteed at grate.com. Uh you can find me on Instagram at John Casey IV and uh John Casey on Facebook.

SPEAKER_04 49:59

So what's your NMLS number? So that is my license number.

SPEAKER_00 50:04

What is it? It's 5219. Oh, quiz. So so to that point, so 5219. Yeah. So right now, I believe they're in the two million to three million numbers. Oh, damn. So you can tell how long and how ancient I am. I was one of the first 5300 people to be licensed. Wow. It was in the great state of Florida. How about that? So Florida was because of the melt. Yeah, because licensure only started like licensure started uh when was that, 2008? 2009. Yeah. So I had to go get tested. I sat in this room for Florida, and I was like, there were questions that I was like, what in God's name is this? Yeah, when they were like, you passed, I was like, perfect. Yes. And then like, and then every state was like, all right, you got to get license, you got a license. So so yeah, so that's the I I laugh, and like some of my agents will be like, look at his MLS number compared to somebody you're talking to. Like, it's kind of like putting me as like an OG.

SPEAKER_04 50:57

Very similarly, there's Pennsylvania insurance uh licensing, and you get your Pennsylvania license, and then there's a national uh license number that you carry, and it's for different things. But uh recently someone was like, yo, that's not your license number. I'm number one. The format, like so mine's like like a four-digit number, and now they're like six or seven digit numbers, and they're like, nah, that can't be right. I'm like, that's right. That's right. We're old, yeah, we're old.

SPEAKER_02 51:24

That's me. All right, that's all we have for this one, folks. Thanks for tuning in again to another episode of Bricks and Risk. See you next week. Thank you for joining us on another episode of Bricks and Risk. Our goal is that you walk away with one or two valuable nuggets, and we greatly appreciate you sharing your time with us today. You can find all BR episodes on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and anywhere else you get your podcast content. Until next time, keep learning and keep growing.