Realtors in RVs - Alysia Stern with Mark Loomis

Welcome to Episode 1 of Realtors in RVs with Alysia Stern. This is where we take the show on the road and shine a spotlight on the incredible professionals who make our communities stronger. Inside the RV, the conversations are real, the stories are inspiring, and the laughter is always free flowing. From real estate to life lessons, this series is all about the people behind the business.

Realtors in RVs is more than a podcast. It is a chance to give back, build relationships, and showcase the journeys that shaped some of the most successful professionals in our industry. We talk about the wins, the struggles, the lessons learned, and what happens when the workday ends and real life begins. Every guest has a story worth telling and we are honored to tell it.

Our first guest is Myrtle Beach real estate legend Mark Loomis. With decades of experience, a passion for mentoring agents, and a reputation built on integrity and results, Mark has helped shape the Grand Strand real estate community. His knowledge, leadership, and commitment to the industry have made him one of the most respected names in real estate. You will not want to miss this conversation with a true professional who has seen the industry evolve and continues to lead by example.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:16

I dragged him in. I said, Mark, we're gonna go camping. We're gonna go do Realtors in the RVs. And he said, yes. So today's episode, we got the legend, Mark Loomis, coming on Realtors in RVs today. Hey guys, we're not in the studio now. We're in my RV. Welcome to another episode of Realtors in RVs. So here we are. I am with the legend. Okay, so I started real estate eight eight years ago. I became real estate in New York. I became a real estate broker in New York. And then when we relocated down to South Carolina, I got my license right away. And I knew I wanted to help everybody because I was selling homes back in New York and I was people were coming down here and I couldn't help them. I didn't have my license. But I was actually starting the relocation process with my New Yorkers uh before I even had a hand in it. I was just listing their house and selling it, and they were coming down. Well, as soon as he came down, I got my license and I started selling real estate. And a name came before I even joined Innovate Real Estate. I had heard about Mark Loomis. Mark Loomis is one of those seasons agents for 30 years in the industry, 30 years this year, right, Mark? And we call him the legend. Whenever so I came in as a newbie, as soon as I joined um Innovate Real Estate, I knew if I had a question, if I had a problem, no shame, no guilt, I was to call Mark Loomis because you know everything. Like everything. So that was a pretty long introduction, but welcome to uh Realtors and RBs, Mark Loomis. Welcome to the show line.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Thanks, Latin. I appreciate you having me on. It's a pleasure. I had to help any time.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Yeah, thank you. Okay, so let's talk about why you have the title The Legend. The Legend. Loomis the legend.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Well, that's news to me, but I'll take it. I'll I'm not sure I'm not that bubble. Um but thank you. Um the way it started is I started at 24 years old. Okay. I went to college uh up in the upstate of South Carolina. I knew up since nine years old, I'm gonna be a lawyer. My grandfather was a New York State judge. He was a lawyer and got our judgeship in New York State. Um, I I told him probably in middle school, I said, I think I'm gonna be a lawyer. So he retired in 1976. So then he gave me the next Christmas, he gave me his judge's robe and his gavel from when he retired. I'm like, oh, nothing but some pressure. Now I gotta be a lawyer because it so I go to college, gonna be a lawyer. At the LSAT, applied to law schools. Yeah. And three weeks before I graduated college, I said, I can't do this. I can't do it. So I called my mom, and luckily she's the coolest mom ever. Um, and she was like, Okay, what are you gonna do? I was like, I have no idea. Now I've been waiting tables in the summertime, like everybody in movie. That's my spending money at college because I got a full ride, so that was my spending money.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Um and I said, Well, I'm gonna come home and wait tables and I'm gonna figure it out. So there's 10 years of I'm gonna be a lawyer in the toilet. So I'm starting basically fresh at um, well, more than that, but 22 years old, I'm like, what am I gonna do? So I waited tables um for about a year and a half, and I uh I waited tables, I made the cash money, you get a little addictive to it. We partied a lot, and after about a year, I'm like, you know what? This is cool and all, but there's no future in this. Okay, I I I can't work for somebody else. I'm having trouble with them giving me kind of stupid demands, you know. The manager's like, you know, when it's slow in the off season, we want you to clean the clean the refrigerator. I'm like, that's not my job. I'm a server, I'm not your cleaning crew. Right, you know, so I realized real quick, I was like, you know what? I'm probably not gonna tolerate authority very well. And about again, about a year, year and a half in. So in the summer of 96, a buddy of mine, a couple years older than me, and I'd waited tables with him previously at another restaurant a few years before that, and then I'd kind of lost track. But I'm at the restaurant, we we stopped serving at 10 o'clock at night. He walks in about 9 45, but I happen to he but he comes in in a business suit and two gorgeous women, one on each arm. And I'm like, Yeah, and I'm like, what's going on? So, long story short, I finish out, I I go say hey to him, and I'm like, hey, let me let's catch up in a few minutes. I'm about finished with my shift. So we did. And I went over and talked to him, and long story short, I said, What are you doing? He goes, Oh man, I'm selling real estate now. I started about a year ago with one of the C21s around here, and man, it is great. And I was like, Really? What does that entail? So he quickly told me, you know, basically you're an independent contractor, you know, you follow the law, but you have your freedom to do what you want to do, and blah, blah, blah. You know, kind of the glamorous side and didn't get into the details about all the nitty-gritty, you know, 11 o'clock at night contracts and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

But same phone calls.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

That's the overall gist was, okay, I that sounds like me. I get to be my own boss. I answer basically to myself, and you know, to the brokerage to some extent, and you know, keep them in line and keep it legal, but I answered to myself. I said, that sounds like something. So anyway, I went home, checked it out, and uh like a week later I enrolled in school because back then, this is how long ago it was, you only had to do in South Carolina one week of class.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

One week?

SPEAKER_00 5:17

One week. I went to Fortune Academy. Uh, that was the big one at the time. And I went Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, like 8:30 and 5 with a lunch break. Friday we went and did class in the morning, went to lunch break, came back and took our little exam. And of course, they teach you to pass that.

SPEAKER_02 5:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

As you know, because the real estate exam doesn't actually tell you how to sell real estate, it just gives you definitions. You know, what is a mortgage? What if it doesn't teach you anything? You be this it's like any seller job. You either kind of have it or you don't. Not everybody can do it. You know, again, I'm I'm I'm not a chemical engineer because I'm not good at that. I stay in my lane, but I'm I'm good at what what I do. I know how to talk, I know how to think. You know, that that wanting to be a lawyer, that critical thinking skills, reasoning, deductive reasoning, and you know, taking a pause, slow down, thinking about things. It has helped me solve, you know, difficult situations. How do we do this three days before closing? What do we figure? So instead of spazzing out, I come up with a solution. But all right, so I digress. But that's what I do. So I said, Oh, that sounds good. So anyway, I went to class, passed my school exam. Then you have to go get back then, you had to go interview with a company and get hired, and they had to sponsor you, and then you went and took your state exam. So long story short, I checked out the big ones, I checked out the caldwell bankers, the the remaxes, all the big boys. And then I went to an independent, small company, only had seven agents, mom and pop run. Yeah. He's been in business almost 20 years. And I was like, hmm. This again, I went to Waffle College, which at that time only has 1,300 people. I'm better at smaller environments like that. I'd go to a 30,000 school. You know, my friends went to USC uh Gamecocks or Clemson University. My son's at Clemson right now. Yeah, he loves it, but that wasn't my jam. So I'm always used to kind of maybe you could call it big fish small sea. Yeah. That's kind of how I thrive. So I chose the smaller company and I got in there in '96, and this was my training. I got my I got notified that my real estate license had been delivered to the office because nowadays it's just digital. You can switch companies now in 10 minutes, and your license is automatically transferred. But by that, I had to mail it. So I did my exam about eight, nine days later, they called me and said, Hey, we have received your license. You're free to come into the office now. So I come in. I now I'd gone in the office a couple days before just to get to have the office manager show me, like, here's how you use the fax machine. If I know what a fax machine is, um, it's attached to a copier. I got these old school things, right? That people don't even know anymore. But showed me how to use the basic equipment. Um, so anyway, I go in, I start, uh, I I she shows me that. I come back a couple days later and they go, so I walk in and I'm I got my suit on, I'm looking, I'm ready to sell real estate. Um, and they take me to the back of there and they just have a wooden desk. They have an old phone with like 12 lines on it, and they have an MLS book.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Not not to give me like a phone book.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

The book.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

The book.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

That was like they gave me an old wooden desk, telephone, and a wooden uh and a uh uh MLS book, and they go, good luck. That was my training.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

About 10 minutes later, the receptionist rings back and goes, Mark, you have an ad call on line three. And I look over to a guy named Jeff. I'm still friends with him today.

unknown 8:16

Yeah. What do I do?

SPEAKER_00 8:18

What do I do? He's like, answer the phone. Somebody's calling about a piece of property. I'm like, I'm just I'm like, okay. And I pick up the phone. Thanks for calling about the company. This is Mark Lingis. How can I help you? And off we went.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

That was it.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

That was it.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

But uh, but I I wanted to have that conversation because today you have some right after the pandemic boom, everybody thought, real estate is so easy. Like, we have that form, we're gonna get in. Now all of a sudden, computers, laptops, now you have to have all this stuff. You started with a shirt, a tie, and a and a phone book, and an MLS book, right? No AI, no Facebook, no Snapchat.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

No, no, no TikTok. After two years, I got I was hot stuff back in '98. I'm gonna tell you what. I had a few closings and I got me a cell phone. It was about this big. What was it? Nokia was about this big the battery, it was like this big, it had the flip on it, had the orange lights that barely showed up, and you barely got reception. I had to basically be standing on top of a mountain on my left foot, angled to the degree, angled it towards the sun, and pray that the wind didn't ship, and then you can get. But I had it. And it impressed people because you're like, what's that? Because you know, yeah, it wasn't ubiquitous like it is now where everybody carried these $1,200 computers in our pockets, right? That was hot stuff.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

Yeah, boy, it's hot stuff.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

But you know, it was like a dollar fifty a minute, so you only used it like that's a nine phone. Oh god, yeah. Only if you needed to absolutely positively save something. It was not like, hey girl, what's up? It was like, uh, Mr. Client, this is happening, I'm gonna fix it for you. I'll coin morning. Click dollar fifty, you're not doing it, you know. So it was so much different. So I've gone, it's kind of like our grandparents back in the day who were born in the 1890s and they lived through the industrial revolution and the invention of cars and all this stuff. I feel like I've kind of done that in my third year with real estate.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Exactly. Now we didn't have not there was nothing electronic, right? Now I'm saying we. I started eight years ago, but my husband started uh now he's about 20, about 23, 24 years, so almost as long as you and he would talk the same thing. He started in Brooklyn, Queens, and he would have his suit, he'd do the door knocking. Till today I still love door knocking. Really? Unless you're in an HOA community, I love door knocking. Did you door knock back in the day?

SPEAKER_00 10:31

I've never door knocked.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

No.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Because the way I got started was this like every agent, my first year or two. Yeah, I chased every lead. It could be a mobile home 30 miles out on East Land, it could be an oceanfront condo, oceanfront house, a regular single family home, a duplex, a multifamily, whatever, because we've got it all here, right? I mean, this market, the one thing about Myrtle Beach is we are so buried because we're a coastal resort area. We've got everything from six million dollar ocean homes to sixty thousand dollar mobile homes 40 miles away from the ocean front, horse farms, mansions, mix mansions, regular homes, and everything in between. So we can literally, I tell people joke me, you tell me within a reason what you want. We probably got it within 40 miles of here.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

Right? Now we don't have horse farms on the ocean, obviously, but I can get you.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

I wish we did. Oh that's my dream. A horse farm on the ocean.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

There you go. We'll make it happen. Um, but anyway, so that's why. So I after about a year, I said, okay, I again I know myself and I learned very quickly. I am I'm a guy, I'm a dude. Um, I am very analytical. I'm that side of the brain. I'm math and science. Okay. Um. Yeah, basically. Um, you know, asking me decor or or or how to match the curtains with this. I'm like, no, you picked the wrong guy. I'm math and science. So talking to the owner and broker in charge of the small company I went with, he'd been selling for years, of course, and he did a lot, he'd work a lot of investors. So I started talking, I was like, well, that's my jam. I can do numbers. Yeah. You know, and so I got into it. So we started doing like oceanfront condos because unless you're looking to buy it as a primary residence, which very few people are, majority of people looking to buy them to have not only a place on the beach front, but also a rental income source. So it's numbers, right? How much does it generate versus the HOA does your payment, blah, blah, blah. Is there going to be positive cash flow, negative cash flow potentially, blah, blah? It's all numbers, which a lot of realtors are good with or don't like because a lot of salesmanship is more language, persuasion, like, oh, can't you picture yourself on this back porch overlooking this lake with your iced tea at 6 30 watching the sunset? Guilty. That's a no, but they but that is selling homes is an emotional buy because it's primary, you know, you're going to be raising your children there. The school districts are important. You know, that kind of stuff is not invalid. You have to look at that. However, when you go to Oceanfront Condos, you wipe all that out and it's a different genre. So I tell people it's like, look, you know, when you're in a restaurant, somebody goes, Oh, is there a doctor in the house? Well, there's probably lots of doctors, but is there a type you need? Is there a PhD doctor? Right. Or is there an actual medical doctor who can save you from choking, for example, right? It's the same with real estate. Everybody goes, Oh, I need a realtor to help me do this, or to buy up to I'm gonna buy a restaurant and a massage parlor and a house and something else in a rental property. Not most agents can't handle that. That's commercial rescue. I definitely could not. And it's three distinct different markets.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

You could, I feel like you could.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

I don't do commercial because I stay in my lane. So what I said is I can do residential. Now we moved here um when I was eight years old. So I'm not native, I'm just real damn local, as I tell people. Uh, because I've been here, you you'll be hard pressed. You I I dare you if you've even met somebody who can say they're born and raised Ory County.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

I know.

SPEAKER_00 13:29

You you can't.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

I know.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

I can do it on less than two hands, and I've been here 46 years.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

Oh wow. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

45 and a half years, and I can count on that, even in high school.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

So we're about the same age then.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

Yeah, I'm 53.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

Okay, me too. Well, well, I'll be 53 in July.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Okay, so we're a year apart.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

Yeah, but that's it. So I said, you know what? I'm gonna, this is my jam. So I that's how I got started with Oceanfront is somebody mentored me, my broker, he, you know, helped me out there, and then I said, okay, I this is what I like, so then I dove into it. So then I started just unsolicited, just going to visiting buildings, right? So you go to this building and they got one bedroom, two bedrooms, and three bedrooms, you look at them and you learn them. So as you look at 10 or 12 buildings, look, they're all facing the ocean. They're not like custom-built homes where every single house is different. Your neighbor's house is completely different from your house, and you're only 50 feet away.

SPEAKER_02 14:13

Right.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

In these buildings, the condos are the same. So once you start learning them, um, and I was like, okay, and I have a pretty good worthless jeopardy memory, right? Ask me what I had for dinner two days ago. Can't even remember. But tell me about a building go 1983. I'll start rattling off for a half hour everything you need to know, the special assessments they had, uh, how the rental income is and and and how many is usually on the market and blah, blah, blah. Yeah. I can give that. Right. So I have that kind of worthless memory. So it's paid off that I can memorize and remember. And the more you rent them, of course, the more you see it, right? Um, just like if you show somebody's house three times and those three buyers don't buy it. Well, you're pretty much an expert now. You're like, oh, I got a house that might work for you.

SPEAKER_02 14:47

Right.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

I know the buildings.

SPEAKER_02 14:48

Right.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

So I just work on that. And once you start selling these and selling them over and over, it's great. And the the best thing I found about it was, you know, I started at 96 and it's slow, right? We're we're post-tech boom, kind of the the interest rates are eight and a half percent. Um, and it's a little slow, but of course I'm slow because I'm getting out of the gate, right? But I get going and I my one of my first about a month later, within the first two months, I sell six complicated seats. And one of them, one of them was a three-bedroom ocean front condo. I had my first ocean front condo sale, and I thought I was hot shit. It was a hundred and twenty-three thousand dollars.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

Three-bedroom overlooking the ocean.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

So that condo's about six hundred and fifty thousand today.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Uh, and they still own it, actually, they won't sell it, but that's okay. But that was hot stuff. So my sales were like $38,000, $63,000. I mean, those were good sales. Yeah, you know, it's all relic sales today, you know. But ages today, they they find that hard to believe. Like, really, bought a condo, two-bedroom condo, four bunch, and those $38,000. Yeah, you know, older and dated, but yeah. Yeah, so the market has shifted and so I've gone through all of that. Yes, you know, I sold my first doser of front house two years in the business, and I again I I got like accolades, like walking into the office, they're like, oh look at the hundred and ninety-five thousand dollars.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

Back in the day.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

Back in the day, that house is about 1.5. So it's just weird. Like when I took so when I'm training agents and I tell them this, like, really, you know, you blow their mind, you're gonna talk about an MLS book. I know. Yeah, they don't know what that is. Like, oh, you have no clue. You know, have no clue what you're gonna pay you. Um, but when you explain it to them, like when I when I teach classes, sometimes somebody'll ask about this or that, and I say, and I'll break down into like, let me let me go through the process from how we used to do a sales contract, and I'm not gonna do it here because it takes like 10 minutes. But it's they don't understand. I had to fax it to my client, they had to fax it back to me, I then fax it to another agent if the people even had fax.

SPEAKER_02 16:37

Yeah, I see.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

If they even had facts, you had to fax it to my work, I can sneak in a f you know. Crazy. It would take it, it took me up to two weeks sometimes to get contracts under contract because by the time you now, once you fax it back and forth four times, and then you fax it to your your seller and they fax it back to you, you can't read it. So we still have to overnight mail it to everybody, get it done, get it back, and god forbid there's a correction that needs to be made. Or two weeks later, like, oh, we got to give the buyers a thousand dollar credit because of the home inspection results. Yeah, now we have to do that all over again. And agents today are just you know, especially a lot of them, not even just younger folks, because everybody of every age is getting into real estate, right? Start 60, start at 20 or 18, done that. Exactly. We have everybody here. We have 18-year-olds and we have 65-year-olds starting out, but especially in the younger crowd, because that's what they're born and reared on. That's all they know. So they it it you ought to see enough. When I teach these classes and I explain this to all like deer and headlights, like I cannot believe this is not real life. There's no way you sold real estate that way, because to them they think you sell like three properties a year.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

Right, right, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

So I even remember when the tech boom hit, when when the 2000s, I remember 1999.

SPEAKER_01 17:40

Oh, yeah, I'm sort of why'd you get it?

SPEAKER_00 17:43

Not only were there everybody concerned about computers and the internet shutting down the whole world, but all the talk around was at that because that's the same time the internet's booming, right? Right? And everybody's like, wait, it's gonna put realtors and people like that out of business. That's the this because everybody thought it was gonna be like the sci-fi movies, right? We can just Google everything or like Back to the Future, right? We're gonna have TV screens that do whatever for you, cook your dinner and pop it. And and of course, we I think we just got the flying sneakers a couple years ago. But it only took 40 years, but anyway. Um, so it's just amazing the things that just have occurred. I mean, it kind of blows my mind with these agents, and I said, no, the the technology is not going to take over us, it's going to make us more efficient. Like y'all said, because I can't appreciate it because you don't understand. I hand wrote contracts, right? We didn't have dot loop and in on all these. I had to hand write contracts and send them out. Agents find it that there's no way. And so it's just cool to see, and now they understand that yes, technology, like every time, like everybody's fighting AI now or doing this, you have to roll with it in this business because your consumers, your clients, everybody else is using it, and you're just gonna go left behind.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_00 18:52

You don't have to become a tech expert, but you got to do enough to know how to do things or you know, use your phone and fix a contract real quick, right? Because the technology is there and it's not hard. If my stuff old ass can use it, that's what I tell they y'all can figure it out.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Right, exactly. Now I love the way you say well, one would probably because the technology wasn't there, but you went out and you looked at the properties and you learned them. We still need to do that today. I still need to change that, yeah. I can't stand the new agents that come on, and I'm sorry, I don't mean to like uh you know offend anybody. Yes, you can't sit behind a computer, you can't hide behind a keyboard, right? You still have to get out there and learn your product, learn your area, walk it, feel it, touch it, talk to other people about it, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:39

Yeah, coming from a a server background, yeah, which is sales, and so I used to I'm I'm not trying to sound bad, but I have I I don't do anything half-ass. Right. If I'm gonna go wait tables, I'm gonna go wait tables, right? And I used to show up and I would make a lot of money because people I learned really quick, like I worked at certain, you know, nice, nicer rest, decent nice rent, right? You know, jurors place a bra weight in the beach, whatever. But you know, like a hamburger would be ten dollars, but I'd get you to put we also had like 30 toppings, you know. So I'd get you to make that into a double bacon mushroom Swiss cheeseburger for $17. I knew how to upsell nicely, and this, and so that was where I got my salesmanship from. And so I would train these servers after a couple of years. Like TGI Fridays, I worked there for a while, they made me a trainer. And so I would teach classes and I'd train these people, and I'm like, hey guys, learn this memory, uh memorize this menu. And now, if you work it, if you're ever been a TGI Fridays, it's like damn cheesecake crap. It's like a 12-page memory or 12-page menu. And I was like, I don't care, you have to memorize it, and next week I'm cruising you. I'm gonna cruise you on two of the ingredients in one of the pots. Like, you better memorize it verbatim, you better learn it because that is what you're selling. Yes, and when somebody comes up, we're well, you know, you're in a church selling, hey, what's this restaurant? What's good? If you don't know how to respond, exactly. I'd be like, I what are you in for? You want uh you're in the mood for steak, pasta, uh light fair barber, what are you in the mood for? Oh, that and then you pick one. You already have it. Oh, you want that option? Oh, that is the bank, and then that's how you sell it. Not the most expensive, not the softest, but you learn how to sell right and and and do things. So when I'm training agents now, and I'm like, guys, have you ever and it's Martel Beaks, most people have quite hit tables or done some sort of work at a retail store, they've done some sort of entry-level customer service, right? I'm like, guys, this is the same thing. You work at Ulta, learn everything in the store, and then you can sell it when somebody walks in, hey, can I help you? Yes, I'm looking for a zone. Oh, let me take you to that, you know, and you go to and you look professional, and they're like, oh, you really know what you're doing. You're right. The problem is real estate's a bigger menu, especially here, you know. Even from agents who don't do North Carolina, South Carolina, all that, like me, I just do Orient, Georgetown County, basically, but that's still 2,000 square miles. Yes. People don't think about it. It's like, but yes, that's why things like that's why I specialize in OceanCrump and condos, because once you go into them, you do it for a year or two, you've pretty much learned it. You've memorized your menu. And then all you do is just keep up with the changes, which is just normal. You know, if they have a special assessment and you hear about it. Make a phone call to the HUA and say, okay, what's going on? So now you know.

SPEAKER_02 22:03

Right.

SPEAKER_00 22:04

Right. You can advise your sellers if they call and you advise your buyers. But anyway, that's my jam because it's fast paced. I also found out that those a lot of investors tend to turn their properties. It's kind of like selling stock, right? They don't have a time frame, it's just when the time hits.

SPEAKER_02 22:17

Right.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

They're prepared to own it and rent it out. Now, if I call them two years later and say, hey, that condo you bought for 140 two years ago is worth 300,000 today. Do you want to sell it? And if they say yes, then that's I but that's how you put the same thing. So now you have to know your inventory. You have to keep up. If you don't have a good CRM, you might as well just quit the business.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

Right. Exactly. You need a CRM. I learned that the hard way. Well, you have to. It's yeah, back in New York, my I did the same thing. I joined a boutique uh real estate and she started with the CM. And I am I'm stuck in 1984. I still have a black and white speckled notebook. I stack them, I get them at the Dollar Tree, and I take notes. I write my clients' names, I like everything, and then I was falling behind. I was falling behind. And Gina, Gina Lala, who's the best broker that I could have had to start in who take a DC, she was like, Alicia, you have to really use we had uh Lion Lion Desk. Lion desk. You have to start using the CRM. You're you're getting too big, you're gonna pull behind fast. And sure enough, I started pulling behind, and then I said, damn it, I thought I could start my real estate career in my black lights like a little book. Like I've done my entire life. And I couldn't. I had to start learning CRMs. I had to start roving into the digital, but I still like the door knocking, I still like the mailers, I still like the hammer notes, I still like the old school, I still like the eights and the nineties way of doing business, being honest.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

I still do handwritten thank you notes.

SPEAKER_01 23:41

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 23:42

Just a card, and then I look, guys, it takes me literally two minutes. But it but I handwrite, I don't AI them. It I call, I don't know, this thing called a pen. Yeah. And that and I write, you know, hey dear Lisa, thank you so much for trending me with it. Yeah, yeah, I'm doing that with every pen and the polygraphy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:58

Oh, I should with your spoiled across.

SPEAKER_00 24:01

No, my mom, my mom said I should have been a doctor. She was a nurse for years, but she said I should have been a doctor with my terrible life.

SPEAKER_02 24:06

But I try to make it out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:08

But I still bet. So look, like I tell people, and the the problem with real estate today is it's so overwhelming because we get hit up, you know, we all get 50 emails a day from every product supplier. I'll make your life easier. I can do this easier. I'm like, guys, I promise you, ignore all of that noise. You need to look, call me old school, whatever. Do I have TikTok? No. Do I have Instagram? No. I have Facebook index. And my word of mouth and my personal marketing.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

So you have referrals that you've gotten over the past 30 years.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

That I mean that doesn't hurt. Look, I mean, most I I I you know I can get 20 deals a year just from without doing anything. I just land at the beach, right? Because people will call me because, you know, again, but they also know, right? I built a brand, but they also know that I don't sugarcoat shit.

SPEAKER_02 24:53

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 24:54

Okay. I'm not, I even joke to say I'm not a salesperson. I am a real estate advisor. I'm going to give you the good, bad, ugly, indifferent, and everything else you probably don't want to know about a property. And you're a big real adult. You have to be over the age of 18 to buy real estate, which makes you an adult. You can make your own decisions. I'm happy to help you every step of the way. But, you know, I'm I'm going to tell you everything I can, whether you like it or not. You know, again, you have to be true, and that's that's hard. And I hate to say it, but for younger people in this generation, that's one of the hardest things to do is to have those hard, like, oh my God, these people called me, they bought a house three years ago for $350. I ran the comps and it only shows the house worth like $330. And falling, like it's not even like this market's changing now. Yes, and they don't know how to do it. And so what do they do? And the seller says, I want to list it for $400, and they're like, Okay, we'll list it then. I'm like, stop doing that. One thing I teach agents, I said there's only one word, it's the shortest word in the English language, and it's only two letters, but it is the absolute number one, without a doubt, by a thousand miles, the absolute hardest word for any realtor to say. And it is No. That's it.

SPEAKER_01 25:54

It's not. And I have a hard time saying no. When I have a seller gas, it's it's hard when they're like we want to list it 50,000 over. And I'm like, Well, here are the comps, the last five exact same square footage in the same building, all that soak for 50,000 under. It's so hard, but Alicia, but now now I have to pay a realtor fee. Now I have to do this, now I I put only furniture, I invested so much. Okay, and I'm I'm guilty of that. I'm being very honest. And it's and my husband tells me all the time, he says, So Alicia, you're doing them the biggest disservice by being nice. Be being more honest, stop being nice.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

My model that I picked up probably about five or six or seven years after I got started got rolling was nice but firm.

SPEAKER_01 26:36

Nice but firm. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 26:38

Now I don't have to yell it and cush it, but here's the deal. I'm gonna present you the facts. I'm gonna show you the cop, I'm gonna show you the numbers, and then if you basically I'm gonna show you, I'm gonna show you that two plus two, and you're supposed to say equals four. And if you don't, then I know we're not on the same page. We're not biding, we're not jacking.

SPEAKER_02 26:53

Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

Because the numbers don't lie, right? The numbers don't lie, and I and it doesn't matter. I mean, you know, real estate markets go up and go down, you know, and that's why, like as realtors, we are part-time everything. Yes, you know, we're we're we we tend to be a jack of all trades, a master of none, and that's where we get ourselves in trouble is we want to be an electrician and a plumber and an attorney and a judge and you know, and a psychologist and a sociologist, and 12,000 other jobs. And we do have to do a little bit of that, you know, because our job is to hold deals together. We are the ones that are making these deals happen for both sellers and buyers, but it can be very difficult because you've got all different personality types. I mean, you know, throughout a day, we could deal with you know the type A, B, C, and the all four brands in the day, and it's only three o'clock in the afternoon. That's about four or four hours to grab.

SPEAKER_01 27:35

I know, and that's why he's calling me. I'm like, is it five o'clock? Oh my god, yes.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

Oh, yes. So it can be done, but it is, you know, it's a fun job because it's fast-paced and rewarding, but you have to know your inventory and you and pick a few things, right? If you love door knocking, door knock. If you don't love door knocking, guess what? Don't door knock.

SPEAKER_01 27:53

Don't do what you got left.

SPEAKER_00 27:54

It's like it's like, all right, I need to lose some weight, which you know, I lost 65 pounds.

SPEAKER_01 27:58

I know, you look amazing.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

Because I finally, you know, back in 2024, two years ago. You know, I'm my kids are grown now, they're both adults, both in their early 20s. Um, I got divorced happily seven, eight years ago. Um we won't get into all that, but long story short, for 10 years, I was Mr. Mom. I was everything. So I worked out of my home office, um, got the kids up at six in the morning, got them ready for school, made their breakfast, made their lunch, took them to school, took to soccer practice, baseball, uh, uh tennis, baseball game, everything from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. every night, made the dinners.

SPEAKER_01 28:26

And you put yourself last.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

Put myself last, and I still sold real estate from the home office and paid all the bills just to be broke at the end of the year. And so a couple years ago, I'm sitting there going, okay, I'm short, and I'm fast, and I smoke, and I'm like, not good. So, and I and I finally at that conference, at the Innervate's first conference in March of 24, I don't know, and I even told Juck, I said, I don't know what happened. Nothing in no big way, but in my car ride home, I was like, what am I doing? This is I now literally put in all this work, raised my kids, done my built my career up, and now I'm basically you know 49, 50 years old. So like 5150. I was like, I have the rest of my life and I do whatever I want. And I choose to cigar be lazy and fat. I was like, this is not acceptable. This is not the guy that I was, this is not the guy that I am, and I'm not doing this anymore. So I really drove home. So and I said, I'm gonna chain smoke all the way home. Cigarettes. And I did. I chain smoke to burn myself out. I came home, I threw my cart in my trash can, poured the bacon grease over it and the trash so I would not be tempted to do it, throw up, threw out all the food in my fridge. I have a weight set that I've looked at for years, and I got uh a little hint for everybody. Looking at your weight set will not cause you to lose weight.

SPEAKER_02 29:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:31

I tried, trust me, I tried for like 12 years. It doesn't work. So I said, let me start lifting those. So I just started eating better, less calories, more protein, it's everything you're supposed to do. And guess what? If you actually do that shit, you can lose weight.

SPEAKER_01 29:46

Consistency is key.

SPEAKER_00 29:48

And so that's it. But that has helped propel me after 28 years, now 30 years. No, that's helped propel me. Now I'm as motivated as I was when I first started. Nice. I started. I got burnt out in 2011. After 15 years, the market, you know, was going down, and I took kind of a year off. Um, and then at 24, 25, I didn't take time off, I just reworked my schedule. My mornings became for me to take care of myself. I get enough rest, I work out, I eat properly. Then my mind is right, and now I'm ready to focus and take care of my clients. So you don't have to work this whole philosophy, you gotta work 10 hours, 12 hours a day as a realtor. No, you can work two hours a day if you're super efficient, and maybe some days you will work more, but you need to work officially because the lie is this: yeah, we show up at the office for eight hours, but you know, we plant the computer, and then you talk to somebody stops by your office, and hey Alicia, that party last night was green, oh very good. And the next thing that was 30 minutes. So you are you working or not? You actually do a couple hours' work if you're in an office or you're in an environment like that. So, but you have to be disciplined and do it. So, like we said earlier, sales is not for everybody, not just because whether you know how to sell or learn product or whatever. You have to know how to be genuine and you have to know how to be yourself, and that's the hardest part is everybody tries to sell too hard. They read scripts. You can read the scripts, but you better memorize it and turn it into it's like don't plagiarize, right? Like, don't copy the I can't do scripts. I can't do scripts. I never have. I I tried one time, somebody, I was like, that sounds stupid. I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna be mean. If people don't like it, that's fine. There's eight and a half million people on the planet. You don't have to like me.

SPEAKER_01 31:16

Yeah, it's okay. My husband bought me this huge, I think it was the Tom Ferry scripts book, and he had it printed out from me when it first started eight years ago, and I was cold crawling reading scripts, and I'm like, this doesn't even sound like me. Like, yeah, people are gonna be like, Alicia, who are you? Like, who is this? I'm like, Alicia, no, it's not. Who the hell is this?

SPEAKER_00 31:37

And especially now and today, they're gonna go, oh, she just that's an AI bot. She just plugged in and it's not even her, she doesn't even have the time to pick up the phone and call me personally. Yeah, that's the problem is technology is good. I'm not dogging any of it, it has its functions, but we tend everybody in this business wants to go faster and harder and and more and more and do more. If you sell 30 million a year, well, now I want to sell 50 million a year, and once you reach 50, then I want to reach 75. I know. And I'm like, guys, when's enough? I know I will tell you this job will burn you out. I've been through it once already, and I'm 30 years in, but I've had a mental shift and a physical shift. And so now, because I'm more confident in my ability to meet my goals, right? Little 12-year-old me lost 15, 18 pounds as a little kid. Well, chill up and I said, I don't like it, and I did it. And I feel like I lost that willpower in my 30s and 40s, and it's nice to have it back, and it's and it's nice to know that you still have that force, that drive. So even in 30 years in real estate, like, you know, you think you're getting burned out. Oh now I'm not. Now I'm fired up. Okay, so I've been listening to the last three, four weeks here, uh, a few million bucks, and I'm you know, as soon as you get back at it, and again, talking about the CRM, again, guilty. When you have your CRM, you have to keep up. I have a database with about 2,000 people that I've had for 28 years.

SPEAKER_02 32:52

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 32:52

I thought I was doing okay, but now like in 21 and 22, it was fast-paced. Okay, and I forgot, like, I literally got a call a couple weeks ago from one of the clients, and I didn't have them in my database. I sold them in 201 or 22, whatever. I was like, look, they I for it was so fast-paced, I didn't but now keep in mind, I'm solo agent. No, no assistants, no TCs, no nothing. Yeah, um, I did have a TC and assistant back in the day, back in 2004, 586. Um, but I realized because of my kind of OCD and the way I do it, and it's me. Like it would take me just so long to tell my assistant, hey, I need you to call my client and tell them X, Y, and C from the home inspection that they were gonna handle it by A, B, and C. Or I could just pick up the phone and call my client and do it myself. Yeah, right. Like she's good, she was great at her job, but as it got more and more, she was great at handling the closing paperwork, but the detail work I couldn't do. Yeah, and I was like, well, and now as technology comes along in these companies, like innovative, you know, we have closing coordinators, we have people who process our paintings and stuff. So you can be solo with a company like ours. Yeah, you can be a team. Exactly. So it's not bad. It's whatever your jam is. Everybody's like, oh, well, there's what's a team. Should I be a team? No, if you want to be on a team, be on a team. If you don't, give it a give it a try. Because it's kind of like playing, like I play tennis. Doubles tennis is equally as hard as singles, but it's not physically as demanding to per se. Singles tennis is super hard. You're the only one chasing that ball down. I played both, and I still play today.

SPEAKER_01 34:13

I don't do pickleball, I don't do tennis.

SPEAKER_00 34:15

I don't know pickleball, but I've been playing tennis uh for about 11 years. But that's the same thing, right? It's it's it's not any easier, but it's different, right? And that's what people understand. But yeah, I'm guilty of the CRM. Like, I have to clean up my database. So my goal this year is to get in here. And then and this is what you'll find is as well from experience as well. Once you make that maybe like, okay, I'm gonna start calling whatever, 25, 50 people a day, right? Or whatever. Just just a touch base. How you doing? Are you alive? Do you still want to buy? Whatever. What'll happen is you'll reach four or five people because I tried it a couple years ago. I was like, all right, I got committed, I'm gonna start doing it. And like the third time, yeah, I'm wrong, I'm right. Yeah, we're actually thinking about listening. Glad you called, picked up like a half a million dollar listing.

SPEAKER_01 34:52

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 34:52

Call a couple more calls later. You were actually back in the market now, it's been a few years, but yeah, we're coming down next month to buy, and yeah, we would have to. I got busy. Yeah, so I stopped and then got and then I lost, I was like, oh my god, so now I've you have to make a commitment, right? Yeah, made that commitment. You stop calling your database and you deal with the burden. And then maybe you get back to it and get a few more leads, and then you forget again. So instead of doing this in six months or a year, it may take five or ten if you're not disciplined, which I'm disciplined at selling, but I'm not disciplined with my database. So that's on me because we have to keep that up because that's your goal finding. That's where you're gonna find your future client. So the longer you're in the business, if you do the hard work up front, get that CRM, keep it clean, keep your name out, you know, use these AI like Real Scout, keep your name out in front of people, put a home valuation search on their home in Tennessee, even though they're buying in Myrtle Beach that, you know, so that once a quarter, once a month, whatever, they see your name. It doesn't matter if the estimation's even right. They'll call you. I client called me last month and go, I got this automatic. It says my BS, my house is worth this. And I'm like, I don't care. I'm laughing. He called me.

SPEAKER_02 35:58

He called me and I said, Hey, don't worry about it.

SPEAKER_00 36:01

I'll check into it. Your house is actually worth you know 1.6. Yeah, it's all good. But they call. So it's but you got to keep the database off.

SPEAKER_02 36:08

They don't come out of nowhere.

SPEAKER_00 36:10

I mean, a listing I just put online this past week, it's my fault. I sold him this luxury condo seven years ago, and I didn't stay in touch with him. Luckily, he found my name and number and called me and said, I'm ready to list, and we listed the condo for $5,000.

SPEAKER_01 36:25

So well, nice.

SPEAKER_00 36:26

But that's I mean, I'm like, I'm I even today, like even that again, a couple weeks ago, I'm sitting here 30 years in going, that's fact. You're that's not good. Get your act together, Mark. So I even have to kick myself in my ass. Probably once a quarter. Yeah. You know, yeah, uh, but it used to be about once a every couple years, now it's once a quarter because the you know, the older you get, you want to like get closer to retirement.

SPEAKER_02 36:47

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 36:48

But this job is good, the park is good, this is a great area. I mean, nobody feels sorry for us, right? We're out here in sunshine.

SPEAKER_01 36:54

Nobody, guys, and we're sitting in my and we're sitting in my RA. Now, I have if somebody wants to get in touch with you, what is your email? What is your phone number? Shout it out to everybody.

SPEAKER_00 37:03

Yeah, sure. It's uh I'm Mark Loomis with Innovate Real Estate here in Myrtle Beach. My cell phone, you can call or text, is 843-333-3568. Uh, you can email me. It's my name. It's Mark M-A-R-K Loomis, L-O-O-M-I-S, and then M-B, like Myrtle Beach. Mark Loomis M B at Gmail.com.

SPEAKER_01 37:25

Thank you, Mark. Now, I one of the things that everybody, not just I, everybody loves about Mark is we have like a on our, I guess uh, we have a South Carolina private Facebook page for all of the agents out in South Carolina. Mark is the go-to for all the new agents. He was for me. I mean, I've asked him several questions. I've had issues, I didn't know the answers. Mark guided me on where to find the facts, where to get the answers to, and he's so good with all the new new agents. He gives back with no strings attached. And Mark, I want you to give back now three tips for new agents how to help them succeed in 2026. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 38:03

Um get your mindset right. Dedicate yourself to doing real estate. Okay. You need to have that work-life balance. Okay, if you start working 80 hours a week, that's going to be fun for about four months, and you'll probably make some decent money, and then you're going to get burned out. You better learn that work-life balance early if you plan to have a long career in real estate. Okay. Number two, pick your market. Do you want to be a commercial real estate agent? Do you want to be a residential agent or condos like I do? Whatever you want to do, but you can't be the jack of all traits, master of none thing is not going to work anymore. Okay, that's why in the health field you can say doctor, but they're all specialists, right? You got a problem with your foot, you do not go to a cardiologist, right? You go to a podagist. That's what you need to do, right? I am the condo guy, or whatever you want to call it. That's been proclaimed to me, but pick your niche, right? And then number three is stay organized, slow your brain down, especially when you're talking to clients. They, if you talk too fast, you sound sales, just talk to people normally. Get rid of your scripts, get rid of that crap. Know your product and talk to people like they're human beings, like you would want them to talk to you. Just sit back, give them the facts, answer their questions. If they're wrong, politely tell them they're wrong, and show them the numbers. But stick to your guns. Okay, if you have to and learn to say no, you have to say no every now and again. It's okay. I promise you, I've said no more than I've said yes lately on listings and things like that. I would rather be the second or third listing agent. They will usually get it by then. So that's it.

SPEAKER_01 39:40

Okay. Now, quick question. You know Bunch OV? Yeah. Living on the crowd? Like you ready? One, two, three. Tommy used to work on the talks. Unions being I shy. He's down on his look. It's too. So tough are you.

SPEAKER_00 39:59

You do it. I don't know. I know the song. I don't know the word. Can put me on the spot. But you're a better singer anyway. I do not sing. I have a deep voice, but I do not sing.

SPEAKER_01 40:06

So dude, I'm dancing my way through life. I read two. Let's do an 80 song together, really quick. Let's end the show. Give me give me a song that we both now. What do you mean?

SPEAKER_00 40:15

I don't know. Give me another one. Um I don't, I don't, I'm bad at music lyrics. That's the only problem. Like, I know songs, I know bands and lyrics, but I don't know like uh bands like who's saying like 80s. I'm good with 80s.

SPEAKER_01 40:25

Yeah, Michael Jackson. Thriller.

SPEAKER_00 40:27

Yes, this is thriller.

SPEAKER_01 40:29

Thriller.

SPEAKER_00 40:32

I don't know the rest.

SPEAKER_01 40:33

I don't know the rest of you there. All right.

SPEAKER_00 40:34

I'm dancing through every day. I mean, that's how I am now, right? That's how I do. I do not let anything get to me for more. We laugh, we dance, and that's another thing I tell ages. Smile.

SPEAKER_01 40:42

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 40:43

Laugh, right? Don't let this get to you. Look, guys, at the end of the day, it's real estate. Okay? This is not life or death. If there's a problem at nine o'clock tonight, it'll still be in there at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning. It's not the medical field where somebody can literally die if you don't get to the hospital at the doctor, you know, we need you to save somebody in 30 minutes. That's not this, and this is how we treat it sometimes. But we that's what I say. Back off, slow down, just have fun. The more fun you have, because this is a fun job. Yeah. Right? Yes, there are tense times, there are stressful times. I'm trying to save a deal today with an issue, but hey, we've been dealing with for three days. We're going to solve it today. And I think we got everybody on stage. It's good. It will work out. Just stick with it. But laughing, dance and smile while you're having fun.

SPEAKER_02 41:23

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 41:24

You are going to love this job. I've been here 30 years, um, and I'm planning on at least another 15 or 20. So I'm happy to be here.

SPEAKER_01 41:32

Comment below with a song from the 80s. Mike and I are gonna do a duet. Do we love? And we'll get Mark to sing a little louder and some other marriage. Comment below with a song from the 80s. And thank you, Mark Loomis.

SPEAKER_00 41:44

Thank you for having me. Thank you, Lisa. Appreciate you.