My Golf Source
Attention Golf Enthusiasts! Level up your golf game with hosts Darren Penquite and Noah Horstman, PGA as they keep you up to date on the latest trends, equipment, training aids and more. Learn tips and tricks from PGA Professionals to lower your score and grow your love for the game of golf.
My Golf Source
The Intersection of Golf and Business Success
When golf and business converge, magic happens. This episode dives deep into that powerful intersection with special guest Adam Rutledge, owner of Rutledge Real Estate and a portfolio of successful businesses throughout Southern Oregon.
The conversation kicks off with hosts Darren and Noah discussing the recent US Open at Oakmont, marveling at JJ Spawn's game-changing 60-foot putt and the notoriously challenging course conditions that frustrated even the world's top players. They share their own recent golfing experiences before welcoming Adam to the show.
Adam offers fascinating insights into how he leverages golf to build authentic client relationships that drive his real estate business. "I make sure that I can take care of my clients and spend good time and build solid relationships and friendships with clients through golf," he explains. "That just helps secure business and create loyalty." His perspective on business ethics is equally compelling, as he shares stories about prioritizing client needs over commission checks – a philosophy that has earned him lasting loyalty and steady referrals.
The trio explores current real estate market trends in Southern Oregon, with Adam providing a detailed overview of golf communities in the region, from Eagle Point properties in the mid-$600,000s to exclusive Rogue Valley Country Club listings reaching $2 million. For golf enthusiasts considering relocation, Adam highlights Southern Oregon's impressive array of courses within an hour's drive, including several hidden gems.
Between business insights, the episode delivers plenty of laughs with stories of memorable mishaps on the course, from hitting balls backward to accidentally playing the wrong green. The conversation wraps with an exciting announcement of a new partnership offering Rutledge Real Estate clients a complimentary Golf Garage membership.
Whether you're a business professional looking to enhance your networking skills, a golf enthusiast considering a property near your favorite course, or simply someone who appreciates the value of authentic relationships, this episode offers valuable takeaways and entertaining stories. Connect with Adam at rutledgerealestate.com or by calling 541-SOLD to explore Southern Oregon's golf property opportunities.
Welcome to the MyGolfSource podcast. Welcome to MyGolfSource. I'm Darren and I'm Noah. Us Open just wrapped up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it did. Did you watch that putt at the end?
Speaker 2:I saw the replay of it because I kind of gave up trying to watch it live because it was going to start then. It wasn't going to start then. It was going to start then not.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we were here at the Golf Garage and we were playing Op 36 match. I missed it too, and I saw it on the replay. It was a amazing putt, once in a lifetime game changer for JJ spawn, 60 footer at Oakmont. Have you ever been there? I've never been there. Um, we'll post a picture that I have from 2016, where I took my elite Academy to Oakmont. Hardest course in the.
Speaker 2:U S from what everybody says man.
Speaker 3:there's two courses that stand out Quail Hollow and Oakmont as the two biggest, most diabolical golf courses on tour in my mind.
Speaker 2:So let's talk about Oakmont for a second. It's a par 70?.
Speaker 3:For the Open it's a par 70. For the members, I believe it's a par 72. So they lengthen.
Speaker 2:For the Open it's a par 70 playing at close to 8,000 yards. Yeah, it's out there, that's nuts 300-yard, par 3, 301.
Speaker 3:Longest in US Open history. It beat its old record by a yard.
Speaker 2:Then didn't they do they have like a 475-yard par 5?
Speaker 3:5-0-5.
Speaker 2:I think they have a couple of those usually yeah yeah, short wedges Like yeah Wedges in for number two on a par five. Yeah, probably you're a lot of white shambo, seriously.
Speaker 3:Well, what was crazy? Was just Bryson make the cut? Yes, no, no, did he miss it? I think Rory barely. Rory made it on the line barely, and then Bryson did not yeah, uh, but did you see the anger issues that they all had?
Speaker 2:a little bit just, it was probably the coolest thing to watch how frustrated they were getting, because that would be like your average golfer playing like eagle point well, they get on these wicked fast greens rolling at like a 14 and then it starts raining and then it's slow, super slow, and it's kind of hard to adapt to that so quickly well, and the greens are running at 13 or whatever us open speed and then once they get soft, they're still firm underneath and they're just ripping back.
Speaker 3:So with the slopes and the speed they're at, it's literally just you would think they could attack the pins, but they can't because they're Sunday pins.
Speaker 2:No, they'd hit such a great ball near the back of the green at a backup. You know it looks like it's going right at the pin and then roll off the front of the green. Yeah.
Speaker 3:And then wait, then 30 yards down the approach. You know, I was kind of hoping there would be a playoff because I don't know if you know this but in the U S open you have an 18 hole playoff the next day. So back when tiger beat, uh, oh gosh, why is Rory? It's not Rory. Um, oh good, at uh, torrey Pines he had an 18 hole playoff when, right before he had knee surgery and they went like additional holes after that. So, like playoffs are so fun in the open, it's one of the only ones you have to play the next day tiger one, of course he did good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was 2008 when was the last major tiger one?
Speaker 3:masters in oh boy 2017, no 20 shoot 2021. I should know this.
Speaker 2:I'm alive.
Speaker 3:I don't, but it was the masters.
Speaker 2:Okay, and it was fairly recent.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it wasn't too long ago. I feel like it was within the last five years. Chat GPT.
Speaker 2:Come on now.
Speaker 3:I know I'm looking it up.
Speaker 2:When was it? When was it?
Speaker 3:Masters, tiger woods. Uh yeah, I'll come back to you on that one, but uh no, I the us opens one of my favorite events. It's so challenging and the golf courses are set up um the most brutal of any major, so I just think it's so cool.
Speaker 3:I mean, augusta, we know what that looks like it's ever changing if they do something to the course, but it's nothing crazy. And then you get to PGA Championship and you know it's going to be difficult, but yet again it's nowhere near what the US Open is. And the British Open is relative because those golf courses aren't necessarily long over there, like they're not going to make St Andrews any longer, but it's all about the weather. So it's about what you get and the conditions you get to play in and the wind, yeah, the wind over there is nuts.
Speaker 3:Oh, masters tiger woods not playing in 2025. Well, chat, GPT didn't help me.
Speaker 2:Not working out well for you huh. I introduced you to chat GPT like a month ago. I think I was life changing. He was in love, he was like any.
Speaker 3:Anything I send to you from now on that's business related goes through chat gpt first. It's my editor. I might have to change one or two things.
Speaker 2:So, speaking of we you got us set up to play um rogue valley country club on friday. That was fun it was fun. You play good I played better than I did the week before at Shasta Lake Resort.
Speaker 3:What was different about it? The lesson I gave you.
Speaker 2:Well, the course was more open, a little less hilly a lot less hilly, the views though, at Lake Shasta are incredible, or Mount Shasta Resort on that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, well, yeah.
Speaker 3:Mount Shasta Resort has cliffs that your ball goes down and then you lose your ball forever.
Speaker 2:And trees that are as big around as your car. Isn't that why you bought the Kirkland balls? I did, and I bought four dozen and I think I went through at least two dozen of them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and they're a third of the price.
Speaker 2:So we still thought from our A quarter of the price.
Speaker 3:Well, no, so Quarter of the price? Well, no, so they must have heard our podcast, because I went in there.
Speaker 2:They were $26.99 a dozen, so now they're only half off at our Costco. $26.99 for two dozen. Costco doesn't sell anything by the dozen.
Speaker 3:I'll take your word for it. I didn't touch them. I walked by and I was like Darren was wrong $26.99 for two dozen. That's a quarter of the price In 2019,. Tiger Woods won the Masters Tournament at Augusta National, marking his 15th major championship. I knew it was close More than five and a half years.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:How's business? It's actually going really well.
Speaker 3:I'm surprised how busy it is, considering it's been between like 80 and 90 degrees, which is pretty good golf weather it's been like in the seventies, this week, yeah, that's five, six days, father's day bays were booming, and even recently, I feel like we're like 50% full most days, which, talking to a lot of friends that have similar facilities um, as far as number of bays go, you know, they're not that busy in the summer. So I think we're doing the right thing. Our player development's about to take off, and what's cool about it is we can do it year round. So I think this is just kind of the start of what's going to be great, and we are.
Speaker 2:We have proven the burger concept Told you that Smash burgers are off the charts? Yeah, yeah, charts, yeah yeah they're.
Speaker 3:I usually try to eat at least one a day.
Speaker 2:When he's here, maybe two they need to put two buns for one smash burger though, yeah, we actually get those buns special um from a provider.
Speaker 3:They're very difficult to get. You can't get them locally and um chef chasen tested a bunch of stuff and just said these are the ones. So now I'm really happy with him. So we're gonna actually do a build out. We're um getting everything bid on right now. Equipment um just got the electrical looked at and I'm hopeful that you know, in the middle of august to early september the latest we have full-time smash burgers at the turn. Eat at the turn is what ch Spackshirter said yeah, I love it.
Speaker 3:It's awesome Um, and then sushi is the next step. So just trying to grind. Never thought there'd be a food in the golf garage, didn't really necessarily think I wanted it, but it's a necessary and we're bringing in a lot of new golfers because of the food. So excellent, excellent, who's our guest today? So today we're really, really fortunate to have um, one of the best realtors I know and business people for that matter in Southern Oregon. It's obviously a friend of both of ours and um. He's also a student and a member at the golf garage, so I thought it was only you know. It was probably a good time to do it because he called in for a question. Let's back up, right.
Speaker 3:Oh, that was like a couple of months ago he called in for us, and so it was one of those where, after we answered the question, I kind of thought you know what? It'd be really fun to bring somebody on the show.
Speaker 2:He says I hit my driver way too good. Good, what can I do to be worse and not not embarrass my friends?
Speaker 3:yes, well, actually I just fit him for a club. So, uh, I'd like to introduce you to adam rutledge, the owner of rutledge real estate, and he also, uh, I think you have a side business of building houses and like five other llcs, yeah, yeah we got.
Speaker 1:We got a handful of things going on. That's awesome. So you have a side business of building houses and like five other LLCs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, we got. We got a handful of things going on. That's awesome. So you have, you know you, you buy and sell real estate, represent buyers and sellers. You build your own properties, yep, and you buy properties for investment, both commercial and residential.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then we've got the property management division as well as the gym at 45 at 45.
Speaker 3:Is that a franchise? Yeah, and it's not just a franchise, like that place is hopping all the time.
Speaker 2:How do you play golf?
Speaker 1:Golf garage.
Speaker 2:Sometimes it's 20 minutes.
Speaker 1:You know I can pop in. I don't have to deal with tea times or meeting anybody, so that makes it super convenient.
Speaker 2:Hammer out nine holes in 40 minutes, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. I uh have been starting to work on my game a little bit, and it's not about, you know, a three hour run at hitting a thousand balls till you get blisters on your hands, but just doing it daily, consistently, and so I'm able to do that. Just, I keep my clubs in my truck. If I have a free half hour, I pop in, hit some balls and then keep going in my truck.
Speaker 3:If I have a free half hour, I pop in, hit some balls and then keep going. Yeah, it's awesome. I would just say that let's go back to how we met, because when we were teaching up at the country club, you were a member up there at the time and a few of your friends had taken some lessons from me, and I don't actually remember I think it was Ryan Girodat, maybe that actually made the intro, or or Mike Eastman, one of the two, but they're all taking lessons. And then, you know, here comes Adam and you know it was all about the driver. It was all about that I can't get my driver airborne and I used to hit it good, but then I got this other driver and I broke that one and they gave me. They gave me this shaft up at the country club and like there's all these things going through and I'm just like, all right, cool, what well, tell me a little about yourself.
Speaker 3:Well, I played baseball, I grew up here and I used to own coffee shops and I did this and I'm just like holy cow, dude, you do a lot Like you are like me and you're on steroids at some level and you're a lot better looking, of course. But oddly enough, I think it took about six months and we got you hitting some butter cuts, we cut down the driver and all of a sudden it clicked and I'm like you need to feel this. I'm like I don't I can't tell you what to feel, but just feel this, adam and all of a sudden I think I was just really hard on you and you just started grinding on it and that was such a fun day. I'll never forget it. It was in the original garage at my house, oh yeah, and you were hitting them out there 270 and you didn't even need like, you didn't need a driver first of all.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, do you remember to play in a tournament with me a couple of years ago and he shows up to the tournament, throws his golf bag on the back of the cart. We drive out to the first hole and I'm going, dude, where's your driver? He's, like Noah said, I couldn't bring it.
Speaker 1:I'm like dude, we have to use three of your drives.
Speaker 2:What are you going to hit? And he gets out this two iron and he just smacks the crud out of this two iron. There's so much to say right now, so hold on a second.
Speaker 3:Back up. I think I've mentioned this story on the podcast, maybe after Adam called in, but the first time we played golf together. There's two reasons for this, but the first time we played golf together he's 160 yards out at the club, on hole number one, and he grabs the pitching wedge. I'm like, yeah, okay, is that enough? Club the dude hits it over the road on the fly 200 yards At 160 yards yeah. So I'm just like, oh okay, so if that's the case, then your 7-iron is going to go about 210.
Speaker 2:And the guys in our group at the time. Couldn't you need a bag full of wedges?
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly the guys in our group at the time could not hit it over 200 yards with driver. So I just told him. On the third hole I said, hey, hit seven iron. Your goal is to out drive these guys the entire round. How do you think that's going to make them feel? And sure enough, first drive pound seven iron out drives their drives. So I'm like, there you go. That's your new club until you can learn to move up.
Speaker 1:It was awesome yeah, and I've kind of vacillated since got good at driver and then had a baby, didn't golf as much, so now I'm back needing your help to remember how to hit the driver again.
Speaker 2:And it's funny how it works when you're hitting your driver. Well, you suck with your wedges. Yeah, when you're chipping and putting good and hitting your short irons Well. Your woods are just out of commission. It's kind of hard to bring it all together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, isn't that? No, like the, the driver, you're swinging up, and then your irons, you're swinging down.
Speaker 3:So I've I found that to be true. Yeah, I would just say that the biggest difference is you have a ball teed up with the driver, right.
Speaker 3:So tour players ultimately hit a degree and a half down on driver, but your average golfer is hitting up on it. Long drive guys try to hit up on it. So it's neither here nor there. I just think trying to get somebody to do something the same right. When somebody says I want to be more consistent on the golf course, or if you said, hey, I want to hit my driver more consistent, I would literally just say, okay, define consistency. And then there's a pause because they weren't expecting the question. They just thought that I knew what consistent meant.
Speaker 3:I have no clue what it means in a player's eyes. It might just mean that I want to hit one out of 10 up in the air. It might mean that I want everything to be a butter cut down the middle. I don't know Right. So there's a. There's a lot to it. Once you find out what they're after, then you can help them get there. I think that's a lot in the same business too, like you're creating goals for somebody and then my job is to keep you accountable after that. Pretty easy.
Speaker 1:I found the quality of the questions you ask has everything to do with it. Like to your point, what? What? People tell me all the time they want a good deal. Well, what's a good deal to you?
Speaker 2:Is it?
Speaker 1:a quick closing. Is it a view?
Speaker 2:Is it a low price per square foot? Is it a good neighborhood being in, you know, being affordable, where you're comfortable with the payment and getting what you want all at the same time? Yeah, it's all about the questions.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, that's really good and congratulations. I've been noticing that the Instagram's been blowing up with all these closes from your property group recently. You've been getting after it and a lot of things on the market again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, we finally got it turned on. First quarter was a little slow, not anymore. We're going to do an entire year's worth of business in the next like three months.
Speaker 2:That's awesome, Congrats man, where do you see the market going in the next three years? Staying hot.
Speaker 1:We're starting to see inventory stack up here locally, especially over a million bucks. So it's been flat Nationally. I think it's gone up 4% a year since 22. We're selling houses in 2025 for the same price we sold them in 2022 here, so I think it's going to remain flat. 2022 was nuts. Yeah, that was. That was bonkers Bidding wars.
Speaker 2:And so people were overpaying 30,000 over asking price on the first offer Been on the market for two hours, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, darren's just having a heyday shooting everything, and again and again. So yeah, that's what I think flat. The market probably can't go down much because the cost of construction has continued to increase and we still don't. We're not building enough for the demand. So you've got this weird place where it's expensive to buy but it's more expensive to build and you don't want to rent because your landlord 78% of landlords are going to raise rent this year and every year.
Speaker 3:So yeah, just how much can you raise your rent in this state?
Speaker 1:uh, in this state it's maxed at 10 every year, every year but you start doing that you do the math on that, you're 1800. I mean that's not bad on the part of the owner.
Speaker 2:No, no, I mean, we rarely raise it that much. What is it in california, do you know? Is it capped at like three or four percent?
Speaker 1:or you know, I don't know what rent control is in california.
Speaker 2:I think it's when you paying $8,000 a month rent for a 1200 square foot house. 10% a year is a lot of money, yeah.
Speaker 3:My brother's in New York city and the co-op fees and everything else. It's more than a lot of mortgages and you're living in a dungeon. It's crazy. I don't know Well that that's exciting. And are people buying on golf courses? Because I know you just sold one out on 16 at Eagle Point? Yeah, I believe, and I know you do a lot out at Eagle Point. Is that kind of the up-and-coming area, do you think in Southern Oregon, or is there some other stuff you're seeing?
Speaker 2:I think it has been for a few years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, gosh, we sold 50 new builds in Eagle Point over the past couple years, a touch more affordable than like Medford proper and with the expressway going in, you know the commute got cut by 10 minutes, so it's really not that far out anymore. And yeah, golf courses are always in high demand. You know we got people that want to be on water, so rivers, lakes, golf courses. They want something that is different from, like, your standard.
Speaker 2:Right, something exciting when you have something pretty out your back out, your backyard view, where they're not going to be building more houses.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Interesting. I read an article in the wall street journal a couple of weeks ago I think it was wall street journal and there's a higher instance of Parkinson's and other types of cancer for people that live on a golf course. You know, cause all the chemicals they use to keep the grass green. So depending on how those studies come out, that may change how many people really want to. Yeah.
Speaker 3:So that's interesting.
Speaker 3:My best friend is a superintendent at the country club and what's odd about that is the chemicals have changed a ton.
Speaker 3:So we've talked about this a lot and ultimately, I think the Golf Course Superintendent Association and all those other bad chemical companies and all that stuff are probably going to come in and squash that pretty quick, which will probably help your cause too, because most of the things dissolve. People don't realize what they're using and how soluble they are. And again, I don't want to get into that, that's not my specialty, but I was always nervous about that, just because my wife has a lot of food allergies and she wanted organic garden, and so we do all these things to try to make it nice, and then I'm putting, you know, herbicides down on my grass, which is 10 feet away, and all this stuff, and it's like, end of the day, it's getting watered in, it's going to dissolve into that soil anyway. I mean, it's just over time. If you're spraying Roundup nonstop, yeah, that's totally different. I mean that's, those are. Those are some harsh things, pesticides, stuff like that. But yeah, I'd be curious to see that report when it comes out.
Speaker 2:You know it's funny. I have four young kids who play around in the yard and I wanted to kill my entire backyard so I used roundup weeds to grow back. I'm like, okay, I don't want to put this chemical down anymore. So I went out and I bought a freaking flamethrower.
Speaker 1:Sportster backyard.
Speaker 2:And it's talk about satisfying. It's as satisfying as pressure washing.
Speaker 3:It was amazing. You could have just taken, you know, got some gasoline and lit a match.
Speaker 2:Dude, I have a, karen, who lives on the other side of the fence in my backyard.
Speaker 3:Define that. What are you doing?
Speaker 2:It's not a burn day. I'm like shut up, woman. I'm not burning a burn peril here, I'm just burning weeds.
Speaker 3:So thinking of golf houses, real estate business, how does that all tie together?
Speaker 1:Because I think I know why I built Golf Garage but I'll share with that later.
Speaker 2:You know, for me, I make sure that I can take care of my clients and spend good time and build solid relationships and friendships with clients through golf, and that just helps secure business and create loyalty and keep those relationships strong. I've also met several new clients, picked up many new clients on the golf course before, and so it's a great place to get to know people. It's a great place to get to know people. We were talking about taking people out for job interviews onto the golf course.
Speaker 2:You get to know their character. You get to know their temperament. You get to know how they are under pressure, Even if they're a bad golfer. You get to know how they handle their liquor if that's applicable in your golf game, it's just a place to kind of allow people to be unfiltered with each other adam you, you and I played in a lot of charity tournaments together and shot all-time record low scores this year I think we shot in the 40s and scrambles twice, like you use it mulligans, yeah, and the one of them the other one was was 40 bucks a pop.
Speaker 3:Not a problem, no, done. But what do you think like, why do you use it? Because you're sponsoring everything you know. Obviously it's nice to get your name out there, but, like, what do you see as the main driver for you in golf?
Speaker 1:Good question. So sponsoring a lot of that is supporting the causes. I'm on multiple boards of directors and so there's an expectation that you donate. And then, in that you know, there's the networking component and, to Darren's point, you learn a lot about people and the. The golf community is a good one to be involved with because typically if you have the time and the and the resources to golf, you're, you're kind of our target audience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you know you can afford to buy and sell and yeah, and we just found that it's it's a good community to be involved in for multiple reasons. Plus, it's fun. You know, it's like if you're going to spend money, you might as well spend money in something you want to be involved with, and so it makes sense for me to sponsor a golf tournament and then get to play in it and then, with Noah on the team, we get to win them.
Speaker 2:And for business-to-business partnerships. You know somebody's out spending time on the golf course and they can afford to do that. Their business is stable, their business is successful and they're doing the important thing of making time for themselves. That means they're not going to get too burnt out on their business and they're going to be around for a while to work with you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they've got a business that can sustain without them being involved 24 seven. So it's actually a business as opposed to like a job.
Speaker 3:Without, without question. That's a good point.
Speaker 1:I struggle with that, though. Yeah, me too.
Speaker 3:I think we all do. I mean, ultimately, as owners, you're only going to you're going to be the best at what you do and you're trying to create other people to care about it as much as you do. I think that's the most difficult part. But you know, like when you look back at like the golf side of all of this, it's all about building relationships right so you're trying to figure out, hey, should we invite this person over for dinner?
Speaker 3:Right, that's probably what would happen, right, 100%. So you're trying to figure out, hey, should we invite this person over for dinner? Right, that's probably what would happen, you know, whatever, but golf's been around since the 1400s plus, right, and it's always been a gentleman's game, so to speak, and you can say a ladies right, ladies and gentlemen, and so you know, my rule of golf garage is be nice. We've talked about that and there's all these 40 pages to be nice on the back end on the website and how to be nice.
Speaker 3:But you're ultimately trying to figure out how to create these relationships, build your network up, and I would just say life in general is about the relationships you build anyway. So it just goes hand in hand and allows you to be successful. And when somebody has something they can talk about with you and it's something similar like golf, because you're both on the course it just makes it that much easier to let your guard down and maybe have a relationship sooner than you would If you went to a meeting in a boardroom. You don't know anything about that person, um, and I think that's kind of the whole point. It's kind of the same idea of like if you go to a restaurant you order an appetizer to share, because that feeling of eating off the same plate builds that instant bond with somebody and helps you build the relationship faster. Golf does that in the same way.
Speaker 2:Absolutely and take it one more step. Instead of with clients, potential clients or business partners um or employee retention, you know, take your employees.
Speaker 3:Well, it's like memberships, right?
Speaker 3:I mean, we do a corporate membership at the golf garage for a reason and we make some pretty awesome deals for bigger businesses. Or if a like I had the nurses association come out and we had 150 nurses from Providence and Rogue Valley medical center here. So I just had a text with them today and we were talking about how do we collaborate, what do we need to do to get more of them in that are non golfers, like what do you think the discount needs to be? So all I need to do is say, hey, buy one membership and now, because you're a member, let's figure out how to be. So all I need to do is say, hey, buy one membership and now, because you're a member, let's figure out how to collaborate so your counterparts can come into the golf garage, use the space, become golfers, they join.
Speaker 3:For me, as a business person, it's it's a no brainer, but from a standpoint of growing the game of golf, it's just like invaluable to be able to create those bigger partnerships. And we're in a small community, but we have everything in Medford that most other places have in general, and I think that there's a lot of small business. So we have to pull together and work together and collaborate in order for everyone to be successful.
Speaker 2:So Adam sells real estate, a lot of which is on golf courses. You own the golf garage. How many people do we see spending time at the golf garage that Adam can network, that you can network with, that you can gain business from that? Currently live on a golf course that might at some point want to sell their house?
Speaker 3:No, so that's good and I'll let Adam speak on this in just a second, but Adam is. I want to talk about Adam for a second. So when I was building golf garage, adam was my realtor, and this is the kind of guy he is. The person that I worked with on the project was also a realtor. He was able to get me a better deal on the property commercial space, mind you like a good chunk of change for any realtor. And because of that, adam stepped away and actually said you need to work with him because it's going to save you money.
Speaker 3:We didn't have a contract at the time, but it wasn't the point. I would have stuck with Adam no matter what, and so because of that, I'm going to send Adam as much business as I can, and I have sent him some business that you know. That's the goal, right. So anybody that does something like that is the kind of person I will always work with, and I think that's kind of the whole point of what we're talking about is those relationships and what are you willing to sacrifice? He never had intention that I was going to give him anything in return for that, but because of that, he was the first person I thought of when I had a student and, um, you know, knew that they were in commercial and they were looking for something, and I said, hold on a second, I've got the guy for you and you closed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:That was an interesting one.
Speaker 1:I wrote that offer at a cabin in the snow on Christmas Eve. I remember, oh my gosh. But yeah, to Noah's point. So you know I'm here for a long time. You know not, not here to to make a killing off any single person. So then, when you you know, in business in general, when you have, you're taking the long approach. You want to do the right thing for people, even if there's a sacrifice in the short term, because that's that's how you build a back. Yeah, it's how you build a relationship, you know, just like that's how you get to know someone when you're golfing, if you're spending four hours, five hours with someone, you learn a lot. Or when, when a deal comes up and it's like, dude, you're going to be better off without me in this transaction because I'm unnecessary, you know. And that's better for Noah. And yeah, never expecting anything, but yeah, it's definitely had a good return.
Speaker 2:You just earned a whole lot of respect and loyalty.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just doing the right thing, you know.
Speaker 2:And I'll say, in our interactions I get to. I have the very unique perspective of hearing realtors interact with their clients. Yeah, you do, and Adam's approach is not a salesman type approach, it's a friendship type approach where you just have an honest conversation and sometimes those conversations are not the easiest conversations to have Amen to that.
Speaker 2:But you have the guts and you do it. And being an owner of a larger brokerage, where you have, you know you have a team of well over a dozen people showing up to a property and seeing the owner of the brokerage in there with the mopping floors and cleaning counters and wiping down windows and flushing toilets. You know it goes a long way to see that example being set. Where I don't see that, I have a handful of clients who are really good at that, but I would say the majority do not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's interesting. You know I try to do. Does it make sense? Right, so we can. I could be a pain in the butt and say, hey, we need to reschedule Darren and we need to get a cleaner out here to wipe this up. But here I am able bodied, you know, I'm above nothing. So, yeah, if I need to scrub the toilet so Darren can get his job done and I can get my job done and we save the seller time, Then we just do it.
Speaker 2:And make them more money. Because it's a proven fact that houses will sell for more money when they're presented better Right. Houses will sell for more money when they're presented better right 100 and if a house sells in 60 days for 35 000 less than what it would have sold, you know, when you put in 1500 a work and a little bit of elbow grease I mean the the amount of money that that cuts off of your commission is insignificant. But the amount of money that cuts out of what the homeowner puts in their pocket at the end of the transaction is huge. And being able to just do that little bit of extra work to do right by that homeowner is is commendable and and important. And that's what's going to gain, you know gain loyalty.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So, going back to you know, our membership and what Adam was saying earlier is that, you know, golf does have a different socioeconomic um, you know, as a golf pro, I'm trying to break that barrier, right, I want everyone to learn the game. I think that's really important. But ultimately, at the end of the day, from a business perspective, when you look at our membership class, um, many of them are multi homeowners, right, so they have their vacation or whatever, and they have another club right or whatever that looks like for them.
Speaker 3:They've sold a business or they have, you know, been business owners at multiple businesses, right, and I think that, at the end of the day, real estate is one of those investments that will always continue to grow, no matter where you're at right. The dirt doesn't get cheaper, we know that, and it's Adam's job to find the right fit for that person. And so what I love about it and why I've never, ever thought twice about anybody going to you, adam or I have a couple other friends too, but, like, ultimately it's because I know that you're going to find out what's best for them, and that's the number one thing for me, because if I refer someone to you, that looks bad on me if that wasn't a good relationship too, and so it's always going to be one of those things. I mean, we had that, that family in here the other day and you went right up to them and started talking to them randomly. You know, mom was in here and you were, and you were saying hi and stuff, and I think that it's just one of those things that how much business will they send to you now, even though you don't even know it.
Speaker 3:That's the craziest part, like when I build a new golfer. I don't know what that's going to create in the golf industry as a whole. That could be $500,000 over the course of their lifetime. That could be $2 million. I don't like if they buy a house at a club. Right, that's a $1.5 million investment to $2 million investment, plus 250,000 initiation, plus, plus, plus at a high end.
Speaker 2:How much was that Right right?
Speaker 3:right, right. So let's say 3 million off the bat if they're at a high end private down in Palm Springs or Florida.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Right, you come here right. That could be, though, like the differentiator at certain clubs of if they're profitable or not. So it's really cool to say that the golf industry drives so much more than just the golf industry. It's driving a global economy at a lot of levels, and people that don't play golf they wish they did play golf a lot of them.
Speaker 2:And the reality is is when you work in a stressful job. Like you know, most successful realtors have go through their fair share of stress and long days, long hours. You know a lot of interesting and challenging dynamics with people. Golf is a place to kind of unwind and let go. I'll get away from it for a little while and kind of recharge. And I think that goes to say you know that. I know it certainly works in my business. It's important because I need to get away, I need to just stop.
Speaker 3:I'm not going to lie. No, no, no.
Speaker 2:It's in a totally different world.
Speaker 3:No, no, no no.
Speaker 2:What do you do to get away from work?
Speaker 3:I love golf. So I'm going to Tennessee tomorrow and we'll talk about that later. But what are you going to do in Tennessee? Family reunion and I'm going to say this because everyone asks the question. I do not have family in Tennessee, so my, my, my aunts and my uncles have always put family reunions together every year and it's in a different place in the country, usually East coast, so it goes round. Robin, my dad's side's like seven, you know, seven fold. So I wanted my kids to meet all of the extended family before these family reunions stop, which will probably happen the next couple of years. So we're going to Nashville, going south a little bit, and we're going to tour Jack Daniels I'm excited about that I was going to just ask you what thing are you looking forward to the most?
Speaker 3:I'm excited about that. I don't even drink Jack Daniels Like I'm just well, maybe, oh yeah, yeah, I'm just well maybe.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, yeah, I'm excited for the tour. I've never actually done any sort of a whiskey tour and it's a family-friendly tour, so like my kids can go too, which is kind of odd. And then, um, it's at a state park, there's a golf course. I'm going to rent clubs. I'm going to try playing golf with rental clubs. It's gonna be awesome. Um, and then, uh, go to Nashville for a couple days and just kind of see the sights. And for christmas my mom said she was going to watch the kids so kimberly and I could have a date night in nashville. Because I don't, we don't do get like, we don't need gifts anymore, it's like this just hang out. But this will be a vacation, ish. But the real vacation is november. I'm going out of the country to mexico first time, to Mexico, where and this will be you know what I can't tell you it's Cancun, somewhere. My wife found the resort. We're going with four other friends that have kids that are the same age, and that's where it's at yeah.
Speaker 3:East coast. Yeah, you've been there. A bunch of Adam right, yeah, oh yeah, do you like Mexico? I love Mexico.
Speaker 1:Yeah, real estate in Mexico coast, west coast. Yeah, we've. We've done both, both sides, you know, the Gulf side and the Pacific side. I've never been to Hawaii though Me neither. And then people tell me don't go to Hawaii, it's too expensive. I'm like all right, well.
Speaker 2:Dominican oh savage. When I lived in Southern California, we'd do a lot of shopping. We'd go to Tijuana to buy liquor.
Speaker 3:No, you go get some fish tacos.
Speaker 2:And steroids. That too, yeah, we didn't do that.
Speaker 3:What are steroids?
Speaker 1:Got the little picture of the horse on them. You know those are the good ones. This is okay, let's go.
Speaker 3:Wait, wait, wait, what I was trying to say earlier yeah, exactly what I was trying to say earlier is if you want a good time on the golf course, you get adam rutledge on your team. I have never laughed so hard in my life, and then probably there's been three journalists.
Speaker 2:No steve first might give him a run for his money when I was was playing with Steve. When I was playing with Steve, he shanked his driver hard to the left and pounded this deer right in the back of his head.
Speaker 3:I beg to differ. Happy Gilmore did that no more than an hour ago, sir. So here's the deal, because that movie's coming out soon, hey, so Adam throws his ball on the tee box when he has an iron in hand. Everyone else has got driver, the rows it on there, no tea, and just fricking hits it two 30 down the middle Like it's the strangest thing I've ever seen. So that's funny. But the funnier thing was this has happened twice Now, once the Eagle point and a scramble, and I don't remember the other course where he straight hammers a ball, I mean swings out of his tail and the ball goes backwards. Yeah, we still need to look into the physics of that. I've never in my life seen anything like it, where it goes up and backwards and then spins. It was awesome.
Speaker 2:That's weird. Yeah, at the country club last week we were playing hole 16, par five. I couldn't tell from the tee box whether it was a dog leg left or a dog leg right, and I thought it was a dog leg right. So I hit my ball way out to the left. I go to my ball. I can't see the actual green. I see a green and I get my range finder. I'm 276 yards out from a dude's cart who's parked on the cart path in front of the green. And then there was a bunker and then there was a green. So the green was probably about 280 285 out. And my son says, oh yeah, there's the green. Do you want to wait till they clear? And I'm like, yeah, right, I can't reach them. I grab my three wood and I hit it out there. I fly the cart, I hit the back of the green side bunker and tick these people off a little bit.
Speaker 3:I played up on them.
Speaker 2:Best three wood I've ever hit in my life.
Speaker 3:It's called 86th.
Speaker 2:And then I'm stoked other than the fact that I think these people are going to be upset that I played up on these people. And then Logan drives by and says you idiot, that's not the green you're going for.
Speaker 3:Oh wait, what Did you go for? All two? Yeah, and I made it. Nice.
Speaker 1:Good man.
Speaker 3:Did you hit your shot?
Speaker 2:off two to 16 to 16. No, I picked up my ball like a little coward well, and took a drop where my son was that's really smart.
Speaker 3:The rules of golf do not allow that, sir. I know that's funny, that's a. That's a good one.
Speaker 2:I got a story on hole two I actually hit a really good shot right to the green I was going to be on and two on a long par five and it was the wrong green.
Speaker 3:Hey, you ready for this?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I'm caddying for someone on hole two. I think it was a Southern Oregon and they asked for a nine iron and I said, yeah, yeah, no problem, handed it to him, just hit it right at the flag. It looks good, it's going up. It's going up. It's going up 50 yards over. Looked at the club, put it back in the bag. It was a six iron. Oops, luckily.
Speaker 2:I've done that. It's where my nine iron was supposed to be.
Speaker 3:Luckily this person got up and down and I didn't get in trouble, but that was pretty, pretty, pretty scary when you're a kid.
Speaker 2:I can tell the difference between a 9-iron and a 6-iron.
Speaker 3:You would think that person would have noticed you. I'm going to blame it on that. Mine wasn't a 9 and a 6.
Speaker 2:Mine was a difference between a 9 and an 8. And I thought something felt a little weird, as I'm standing over the ball with my 9-iron and I oversaw the green. And then I went to put it back in my bag and I want to put it back in the hole, my nine iron sitting in the hole. I'm like what the heck did? I just hit and I look at it it's my eight iron.
Speaker 3:Hey, so I got something for Adam. So, founding member at golf garage Darren, so are you? We got our one year anniversary coming up on seven, 11, baby Slurpee day. What should we do for the one year? Get the one year Get a Slurpee machine. Is it a daiquiri machine or a Slurpee machine? Daiquiri.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just got to make sure we did this. I used to work at Dutch Brothers in college and they have the freeze machine right, so it's basically a Slurpee machine. We decided to make margaritas, so we did half margarita mix and half tequila.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what you want to hand out to people into their cars or driving through the drive-thru One 16-ounce of those puts you down?
Speaker 3:That's illegal, Adam, so make sure you add water. We forgot about the water part. Is that like jungle juice, where you decide to get a watermelon, you fill it up and then you're like? It doesn't taste bad it's fine, and the next day you wake up and forgot where you were at Standard right, oh oh, I'm the only one. Just you, little buddy. Could you imagine that drive-through?
Speaker 2:daiquiris.
Speaker 3:They do that in New Orleans, they do that in Texas and you can have an open container in New Orleans. Your friends can actually drink in New Orleans, not in your car though, yes, in your car.
Speaker 2:You can have an open container in your car in New Orleans, so, as a driver, you can have one, you just can't drink it.
Speaker 3:That so, as a driver, you can have one, you just can't drink it.
Speaker 2:That's like being on a golf course, but on public streets.
Speaker 3:Right, but you can't drink it as a driver till you get home. So you can order your drive-thru daiquiri, but you can't have it. But your passengers can all drink in the car with you. I mean honestly, that should be legal everywhere.
Speaker 2:And they probably have less DUI-related fatalities in other states with stricter laws. Most likely it's normally the case, yeah.
Speaker 3:Anyway, we're not going there. No, we're not going there. This is a family friendly podcast.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly, well, good.
Speaker 3:Adam.
Speaker 2:Vacations are coming up and yeah.
Speaker 3:How do we get ahold of you, adam, if anybody wants to use your services, buy a house commercial rental properties. Adam, if, uh, anybody wants to use your services by house commercial um rental properties, building like all the above, right, yeah, fitness.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, uh, easiest is our website five, four, one soldcom, um, and then you can get everything you need there. You can reach out to me, you can reach out to our management division, yeah.
Speaker 2:Where's the hottest neighborhood? Biggest bang for your buck right now. Biggest bang for your buck neighborhood.
Speaker 3:Anything that I'm selling.
Speaker 1:Well, we've, we've got a couple. So on a little bit higher end, um, like Cedar landing where the Cedar links, golf course, used to be there's, there's a, uh, quite a few new builds up there.
Speaker 2:You're next to the woods.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my, my neighborhood Weird. Uh, there's some new builds over there. They're a pretty great price and then for a little bit lower price point. Uh, hayden homes is building off of Delta waters and they just keep going and going. I mean you can get a new house in the mid fours.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know we got or 10,. You can go buy a brand new one the same size for 20, 30,000 more warranty and everything too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yep Golf course. Is anything affordable on the country club here?
Speaker 1:Or do you got to go out?
Speaker 2:to Eagle point for that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean Eagle point. You're going to be in the mid sixes to the mid sevens and then country club. Uh, I not sure.
Speaker 2:Mid sevens to two mil.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I think there's one lot on black oak that's still around, but I think they want an arm and a leg for it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I photographed that house, yeah, backs up to the golf course, little private golf cart shed you know what they're asking for that one course? I don't know. I'd have to look it up. It's a cool house. It's big house, huge yard, great pool, nice, you know, amazing entertaining yard, um, very updated kitchen, living room, and then everything else is pretty dated there's a house just by us.
Speaker 3:That's across the street from the country club on hillcrest that I think they're asking a million or 1.14, and it's 1950 just did a house it's crazy did a house not too long back on South, did a couple houses on South Foothill.
Speaker 2:One actually was in the fours because it was like stepping into a 1970s time capsule. I remember that one, you know, and it went pending immediately for that price point because somebody could put $40,000, $50,000 into that and have a ton of equity. Yeah, for the location of that ton of equity, yeah, for the location of that. I mean seriously, shag carpet, wood paneled walls and the appliances in the kitchen were straight out in 1970, but I did that in brand new condition oh, it's crazy
Speaker 1:it was nuts they all still work yeah, and they all still worked.
Speaker 2:And then I just did a house on what's that fairway circle, fairway loop, um, that has this nice gazebo out over the golf course, big pool deck. Uh, that house is gorgeous, but I think they want one, seven for it, 1.7 for it there's also that cool little subdivision across hillcrest from the country club is called the reserve.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they've only built one house on that so far. Right, yeah, things like straight out of bursada ranch. It's a beautiful house it's like man that is central oregon with the way the fence is done with like the u-posts. Yeah, the the reserve would be a cool spot. If you're going to build, I can hit a wedge for that from my house you could.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's just down, I'm on, I'm on top of the world, baby, just hit it down the hill I was photographing a house not far from yours and I flew the drone over your house.
Speaker 2:That was a couple years ago I sent you the pictures, that's right you did.
Speaker 3:I was going to say you're spying on me.
Speaker 2:Huh, this is where Noah Horseman lives.
Speaker 1:I'm going to post this online if you don't pay up Little GPS coordinates.
Speaker 3:That's trouble right there.
Speaker 2:Look at his pool in the front yard.
Speaker 3:How cool is that? Well, it didn't used to be a pool, it used to be a deer magnet. We pulled a deer out of the pool when we renovated it in 2019. Like, literally, and then we had to refinish it. Was it dead? I hope so.
Speaker 2:I mean, the problem was swimming around and you wanted to help it out.
Speaker 3:We had a 10,. We had a 10 yard dump trailer and we filled that thing up 10 times with all the debris in that yard. So so the gentleman that we bought the house from passed away and they went into HUD and we outbid our friend Mark Wilson on the house by about 10 grand. And we're halfway through like the reno on this thing and we're gutting it and talk about 70 shag. We had tiger stripe carpet in one of the rooms but we wait.
Speaker 3:We get out there and we're in the house and all of a sudden I look out, I'm like talking to my cousin, like Damien, what is that? We get out there and we're in the house and all of a sudden I look out, I'm like talking to my cousin, like Damien, what is that? Like I don't know. And you just see this hairball floating in this nasty pool. And we go out there and, sure enough, there's a probably three 400 pound deer before it's wet. Oh, just hanging in there. So we had to fish that thing out, threw it in the back of the 10-yard dump, piled debris on top of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah we definitely took that one. It's 100 degrees outside.
Speaker 3:Well, we took it to the dump and we didn't get a fine, so thank you. Past rogue disposal new owner. So I'm safe to say that on the radio.
Speaker 2:So if you're looking at moving to Southern Oregon and if you're a golf fanatic, it's a great place to live because, seriously, within an hour, we've got Country Club, we've got Centennial, we've got Eagle Point, we've got Stone Ridge, we've got Quail Point, stuart Meadows, if you like, the nine hole courses, we've got band and dunes, which is only a couple hours away. We've got running why, which is an hour and 10 minutes away, best course in the valley best course training facility for golf in the nation 1400 courses.
Speaker 2:That's open 24 7 for members, and we got a deal for everybody too, and we got a lot and we got a lot of great inventory on the market.
Speaker 3:Yes, so here's, here's the deal you ready. So Adam and I partnered up and anybody that closes on a house with Adam Adam. Yes, with Rutledge real estate gets a month free membership to golf garage Awesome Game on.
Speaker 1:So we got a certificate is going to be printed on gold paper.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, yes, golden rod.
Speaker 1:Paper, not real gold. We can't afford that.
Speaker 3:Yet.
Speaker 2:Maybe. So we've got to draw people to the area because it's really a great place for golf, it's? I mean, I'm from Santa Barbara, California, so it's hard to say that the climate here is great.
Speaker 1:I think it's pretty good. You get four seasons. I like the hot summers, we get a little bit of snow in the winter and you have a real fall and a real spring and the real fall and real spring are the most ideal time to be golfing, oh man. Yeah, hands down. I mean shoot, we used to get our snowboard gear on and uh golf all winter.
Speaker 2:Those, uh, those golf carts, they do go in the snow. Any um big news, business wise, business endeavor wise, Ooh let's see, Not particularly.
Speaker 1:We're just, we're just plugging along. We stay consistent. You know, I think that's the biggest thing is we show up to work every day. We're always looking for good deals for our clients. I just finished. So every Tuesday, we update all of our sellers good news, bad news or no news. So just finish those updates and yeah, we're just going. So we're growing at a nice steady pace and we just like doing the right thing.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Yeah, adam, thanks for joining us, man.
Speaker 3:Yeah, man, yeah, thanks Adam.
Speaker 2:We've been talking about this a while and finally made it happen.
Speaker 3:We were pretty excited about it. All right so golf ball fitting underway, a lot of good updates. We're going to get into some club fitting next and some drivers. I think that's kind of the next big deal.
Speaker 2:I want his shaft.
Speaker 3:I bet you do. It's going to cost you yeah.
Speaker 1:This went wrong.
Speaker 3:We're done.
Speaker 2:See you next week.
