Join us on a heartfelt exploration as we navigate the intertwined professional paths of Robert and Austin Elder, a dynamic father-son duo in the real estate and mortgage lending arena. Our conversation spans the early days of Robert's introduction to real estate through his mother's open houses to Austin's service industry revelations and their collective hustle to rise above the industry's competitive fray. Delving into personal accounts, we uncover the essence of relational selling, the grinding work behind the glitz of successful transactions, and the genuine connections that serve as the foundation for flourishing careers.
Embark on a genuine journey through the trials and triumphs of entering the mortgage industry, especially amidst the tumults of COVID-19. The Elders' candid stories shed light on the resilience and tenacity required to break into and excel in this complex field – from confronting licensing hurdles to learning the art of conversation that closes deals. Their narrative serves as a testament to the importance of mentorship and the value of an entrepreneurial mindset that transforms each new morning into a quest for opportunity.
In the latter part of our discussion, we provide a gaze into the crystal ball of real estate, forecasting the market climate for 2024 while reflecting on the current state of affairs. The Elders lend their industry acumen to dissect the impact of interest rates, buyer psychology, and the role of social media in shaping the housing landscape. We wrap up with a thank you to our guests for sharing their journey so openly, a testament to the power of storytelling in understanding the nuances of real estate and mortgage lending. Tune in for narratives that not only inform but inspire, paving the way for your own success in these ever-evolving industries.
Key Factors Podcast is Powered by ReviewMyMortgage.com
Host: Mark Jones | Sr. Loan Officer | NMLS# 513437
If you would like to work with Mark on your next home purchase or as a partner visit iThink Mortgage.
Join us on a heartfelt exploration as we navigate the intertwined professional paths of Robert and Austin Elder, a dynamic father-son duo in the real estate and mortgage lending arena. Our conversation spans the early days of Robert's introduction to real estate through his mother's open houses to Austin's service industry revelations and their collective hustle to rise above the industry's competitive fray. Delving into personal accounts, we uncover the essence of relational selling, the grinding work behind the glitz of successful transactions, and the genuine connections that serve as the foundation for flourishing careers.
Embark on a genuine journey through the trials and triumphs of entering the mortgage industry, especially amidst the tumults of COVID-19. The Elders' candid stories shed light on the resilience and tenacity required to break into and excel in this complex field – from confronting licensing hurdles to learning the art of conversation that closes deals. Their narrative serves as a testament to the importance of mentorship and the value of an entrepreneurial mindset that transforms each new morning into a quest for opportunity.
In the latter part of our discussion, we provide a gaze into the crystal ball of real estate, forecasting the market climate for 2024 while reflecting on the current state of affairs. The Elders lend their industry acumen to dissect the impact of interest rates, buyer psychology, and the role of social media in shaping the housing landscape. We wrap up with a thank you to our guests for sharing their journey so openly, a testament to the power of storytelling in understanding the nuances of real estate and mortgage lending. Tune in for narratives that not only inform but inspire, paving the way for your own success in these ever-evolving industries.
Key Factors Podcast is Powered by ReviewMyMortgage.com
Host: Mark Jones | Sr. Loan Officer | NMLS# 513437
If you would like to work with Mark on your next home purchase or as a partner visit iThink Mortgage.
And welcome back to another episode of Key Factors Podcast. I'm your host, mark Jones, and we are powered by ReviewMyMortgagecom, the largest index of mortgage programs in the nation, and the past couple of episodes we've been giving you plenty of information, plenty of data, plenty of market tips, plenty of nuggets to help you, as a realtor, lender, prevail in this industry, especially in 2024, when we believe that things are going to start getting better, more business rates dropping, things of that nature. But today I wanted to add a little bit of flair to the show, and it's almost a double dose of flair, because we've got two incredible people that I would like to hear their story, and I'm sure you do too. So, without further ado, I want to introduce my guests today. I've got Robert Elder. Robert, how are you doing? I'm doing great. I'm doing great, absolutely. And my second guest is Austin Elder. Yes, sir, what?
Speaker 2:up Austin. How's it going? How are you?
Speaker 1:Doing good, fantastic, awesome. So I like to start the show with allowing you guys to kind of tell who you are, what you're about, how you got in the industry, all that jazz, because there's some folks that may or may not know who you are, but this is the opportunity to tell them who you are so that when they're listening to the content that we're providing, they know why they should listen. So who wants to start you?
Speaker 2:can go first, me go first.
Speaker 1:Okay, let the old man go first, he's before beauty, he's before beauty.
Speaker 3:He's more handsome than me, so you know I.
Speaker 1:It's debatable.
Speaker 2:It's debatable yeah.
Speaker 3:So you know, I got into the business basically through osmosis my mom. I grew up around the industry and saw her, you know, negotiating deals, interacting with clients. I was the kid that would roll up the flyers because of course I mean, this was you know 30-something years, no more than that. I was like 40-something years ago at that point and I'd roll up the flyers and I would hang out the passenger window and she would, like you know, have me toss them over there. I mean, luckily she loved me, if not, maybe she'd push my hands over, it's true. But you know, I always tell people that I absolutely had an unfair advantage when I had my license. When I got licensed, I theoretically had five years of experience under my belt because I already saw how to interact with people, you know the language of sales, negotiations, things like that. So I was off to the races my first year and you know, it's kind of history ever since.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know, what's even cooler is it's a concept that we had spoken about with a couple of other experts on previous episodes which is the concept of working for free so that you actually understand what it is that you're doing, you buy into the concept of it and you can actually say that you've kind of blood, sweat and tears this without the financial gain at that point.
Speaker 3:I think that's the best way to learn. 1000% yeah, 33 years later here.
Speaker 1:I am Amen and thank goodness and another thank goodness, because Austin's here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Kind of the same story Grew up around it. Right, your whole life you can't. I mean you hear escrow in the background on the phone and you get in the business and things come together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, obviously, I am on the lending side versus the realtor side, so there's a lot of things that he doesn't know, that I know vice versa, so it's always an interesting dynamic. But as far as the real estate itself, I mean, it was kind of a no brainer Seeing. I remember thinking back okay, who's? I'm serving tables in school too, and on the path that I'm going, once I graduate I'm going to make the same amount of money and making serving tables. So true, so who do I know right now that's making money? And it's this guy right here, and I guess we can go into the story as we go. Yeah, it's kind of it's been off to the racist sense.
Speaker 1:So that leads me to my first kind of question is I grew up with a mother that was a realtor and then she transitioned over to becoming a lender. She did that because my dad, being honest, didn't like her showing houses lady out there at that time. So she was like, well then, I'll get in the office and I'll sling some loans. So I got to see it, got to hear the conversations like you're talking about. But what was that like, growing up and being able to hear the conversations? Were you absorbing, were you understanding it? Because, I'll be honest, there wasn't a lot of the conversations going on in our family, with my mom doing it. But then when I started doing it, it's like that's all we talked about and the rest of my family members were like, well, you guys, shut the fuck up, I'm over this, exactly.
Speaker 2:That's my little brother, right? I don't think it is. Yeah, that's a poor Christian. But yeah, I mean, do I understand it now? Yes, back then absolutely not. Yeah, I mean, like I said, you hear the terminology going around, so you have this subconscious mind understanding certain portions of it. Okay, you close the deal. That's pretty self-explanatory.
Speaker 3:Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2:But as far as the other things, it wasn't until I really got my feet wet in the business where it's like. Then it kind of made sense and it gave me that head start, certain things I didn't need to learn the hard way, Right? Okay then, like I said, everything at one point just clicks.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But growing up around it, you see it, it's kind of interesting. You know, for my brother it's not. You know what I mean, but it's.
Speaker 1:But again for your brother, he doesn't understand it Exactly, he doesn't have anything to tie it to Like. For example, I would imagine there are many conversations that you overheard in your adolescence that, okay, they're talking right over your head, but now you're in the business and a situation would come up that, for some odd reason, our memory banks hold the weirdest things and you're able to kind of tie those two together and go. You know what? I'm not going to step on that landmine, yeah.
Speaker 2:Right yeah.
Speaker 1:So, robert, what was it like for you having a son that, at the time, probably wasn't interested in what you were doing? You know he's like. I need some new shoes.
Speaker 3:It was never about what they wanted to do or what I wanted them to do. I should say you know, I just wanted to be some type of good influence, as best as I possibly could as a father, you know, so they could see that you know you have to work. You want the big house, you want the cars, you want the watches, whatever. You know you have to work Absolutely. That stuff just doesn't come free and I know that there were a lot of times when they were much younger where I wasn't around, right, and then, when he was a baby, my then wife gave birth to him. 15 minutes after his birth I was back at the office. Yeah, I mean, that's the reality.
Speaker 1:You know you're there, You're there, absolutely.
Speaker 3:You're in the grind, You're exactly correct and it's a double-edged sword. You can say, oh my God, so it's the best thing ever being self-employed and it's also the worst thing ever, right? But you know, I had to, over the years, really figure out my dynamic, and it's taken me decades.
Speaker 1:No I believe it.
Speaker 2:I know that.
Speaker 3:I'm not perfect by any starts of the imagination, but I just hope that I was, you know, a good influence at the end of the day, more work ethic than anything else.
Speaker 1:I love that Christian has that work ethic you know too, and he's seeing it and he does, he's got a ridiculous work ethic. So, Austin, this is a question more for me personally because, just like Robert mentioned, I'm in the thick of things. I've got businesses. A lot of my time is spent in creating, in working.
Speaker 2:I'll be honest.
Speaker 1:I put in the hours and I am always in the back of my mind thinking what are my kids going to think when they're older? There's two sides of the coin. If this all doesn't work out well, then obviously they're going to think I'm a dumbass. But if it does, is that enough to make up for the time missed? And I ask you because, I mean, you're the closest reference I have to something similar to what I'm doing in my life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, that's a great question. I mean, absolutely, Like you said, if things don't pan out, okay, maybe that's not the best example, right, we kind of gravitate towards the people that are succeeding.
Speaker 1:Successful yes.
Speaker 2:And case in point right here. So you see that you see the hours, the long nights, the tough conversations and in that moment you appreciate it right. You know it is what it is. Maybe you're missing out on the dinner, a game, whatever it may be. But I think when it comes to your own experience, my experience, when I have a long night, when I have shit that's just blowing up, you think back to okay, I've seen this before, I've seen the tension. Okay, how do they handle it? Do they just completely blow up? In some cases, maybe it is what it is.
Speaker 1:Sometimes it's allowed, man. Yeah, sometimes you blow up what is needed.
Speaker 2:But you know shortly thereafter. Then what do you do? Right? What are the questions you're asking? How are you, you know, in the day when you really what it is is problem solving?
Speaker 3:Yeah, right.
Speaker 2:And when you see somebody who that has something come up like that, you see them immediately, you know, do something. And then, right after that problem solved, let's figure it out. And you start to see that and you're like, why don't I do that?
Speaker 1:Oh no, you're right and like this. What I'm more so asking is there were times, just like you said, when certain things could not be attended. Same here. I mean, there's got to gymnastics meet. I've got a client that I've been trying to get on the zoom call for a while. Honey, I can't miss this one. She understands, and I do spend plenty of time explaining to the kids why I'm doing it, so that they understand once we get to that point. It's rainbows and unicorn type concept, but we're still not there. Did that help shape you? Was there any kind of animosity towards it or was it something like you know what? It's not affecting me in a negative way because, let's face it, Robert still had time to spend with you guys. It's just not the same as somebody working a nine to five. They come home after 5.30 and they get to turn it off. We don't get to do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean. So it's interesting you say that, like the whole nine to five, I mean right, the second I was born, he's off to working. So I've never been in a situation where you know, he's ever been like okay back way, you know, way back, when dad used to do this. Now he doesn't. I've never had that reference point, gotcha, so it's never been weird to me. My mom's always been around.
Speaker 2:So that's you know, had that not been the case then maybe it's a different story, right? But as far as my dad goes, you know, you understand. Like you said, they tell you what it is, and then there are those times when they do show up.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's not like they never show up. So when you see that it's like, okay, he's doing his things, he's participating when I'm doing mine Correct, there's really nothing else to complain about.
Speaker 1:Man, it gives me a lot of hope. Yeah, I mean it because, like you said, if you don't know any different, like oh man, dad, you used to be able to yeah, no, it's always been this way.
Speaker 3:It's funny, I've never thought of it that way. I mean because, as a parent, in the back of your mind, you're like you, absolutely, you're worried, yep, but he just said something that literally I never thought about. I've never been the nine to five, right. I've been self employed since I was 21,. You're 20 years old, yeah. So yeah, without that reference point, it's probably a mute subject and that that might Now granted, if I were never around.
Speaker 1:Right, different story yeah, that would be a different story, different story, but I also believe a far stretch. But I believe that if you were never around, this does not happen. No, sure, in my opinion. Agreed I just, we are creatures of habit. We tend to gravitate towards what our upbringing brings, we are the circle that we hang out with, et cetera, et cetera. So I mean Austin. Without you saying it or knowing it, I'm sure you know it there's totally a ton of Robert in you.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's not even a question. Yeah, so and.
Speaker 1:I'm just hoping that my kids same concept, at least one of the two. You never know. But yeah, that is something that I battle with, in the sense that I give a lot of time to this and the people exterior? They have no clue, nor is it their priority to care. It's my priority to make sure that the family is in line, the kids understand why we're doing it and hopefully they, like you, pull some nuggets that they can apply later in life when they're adults. You know Totally. So on to the next stuff. I mean, right out the gates, why'd you go lending versus real estate? Well, yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1:I remember.
Speaker 1:And before you answer. My mother was in real estate, then flipped over to mortgage Me. I was selling cars at Toyota. Bernie became the finance manager there. I liked it. Why? Because the money. I didn't like what I was doing. I didn't like that I had to upsell and et cetera, et cetera, to make good money. So I was seeking something else. I always wanted to be the realtor. I went, took all my real estate classes, got to the end and went that's not for me, this isn't for me. So I asked my mom hey, what do you think about the lending side? At the time she had already done her time and was a processor for a high producing loan officer and said you know what, let's, let's. I think that is the right move for you. Yeah, took the classes, test et cetera. Boom, the rest is history. But what helped you make that decision?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember, yeah, no, I remember sitting down at.
Speaker 1:Because I saw Robert this whole time and I was.
Speaker 3:I'm curious what part of the story is going to tell because I got a story we were I had dropped out of college without telling my parents, without telling them.
Speaker 1:Without telling them. We were clueless. Okay, now question before that yeah, were they paying for it or were you? Oh, no, they were paying for it. Oh my Jesus. Okay, keep going. I wasn't too far in this is too, so I didn't feel too bad.
Speaker 2:But the check cleared right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, cool Sure.
Speaker 2:And so I remember, you know, dropping out telling my parents. Actually I didn't tell my parents. This is when I was going to tell my parents.
Speaker 3:Okay, okay, and I sit down with my dad eating tycoon flats.
Speaker 2:Okay, favorite place Subplug it. It's amazing, best burgers in town and we're sitting down and you know I remember I shaved my face and everything you know. Like this is this is it? I'm getting serious Right and I'm sitting down with them and I'm basically telling him hey, I dropped out of school, I wanted to get in real estate, I want to join the team. He's telling that story and then why, why?
Speaker 1:did the, what did the five fingers say to the face? He says no. He says no. Okay, he says no. You know, I'll help you do your own thing for sure. If you want to go solo, join another team.
Speaker 2:But yeah, you're not, like, you're not joining my team. You're not joining my team. Honestly, I don't blame you for that. It took me after being in the industry and I was like I'm not joining my team.
Speaker 1:I don't blame you for that. It took me after being in the industry and opening my own branch and having my own PNLs. It took me several years to work with my mother. To be honest, I ended up hiring her on et cetera, et cetera, but it's tough to work with family in business. To be honest, yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2:And then, like anybody in the mortgage industry, you kind of just get into it by accident. I feel like you, you know you meet people and you kind of drink the Kool-Aid. It was a shot in the dark, Right. It interested me and I kind of got just got too deep into it where I was like this is it? I actually do enjoy it. I'm pretty proficient at it.
Speaker 3:Let's see how we can take it.
Speaker 2:Oh, you can toot your own horn.
Speaker 3:Let's get the real deal. He was doing like I don't know the processing power of like seven other people he was giving them himself.
Speaker 2:Fucking animal. I mean it's humble beginnings. I mean I started off. You know well, I check the full story or no? Give me that, yeah. Okay, this is long form yeah.
Speaker 1:So I don't want sound bites, I want the whole thing and I'll hold the sound bites 100%. So I getting into this business, obviously I go, and my first company I worked with was Align.
Speaker 2:Mortgage. Yep, I get the opportunity to work with Align Mortgage on condition that I pass my loan officer test. Makes sense, because I'm going to be a loan officer, sure, well, okay, so you're around it. You get to see some of the osmosis, but it was going. You still didn't have an understanding of it. Well, this is the thing. So it's like I'm going to be a loan officer, I'm going to be a loan officer. I'm going to be a loan officer. I'm going to be a loan officer, I'm going to be a loan officer.
Speaker 1:So you're around it.
Speaker 2:You get to see some of the osmosis, but it was going. You still didn't have an understanding of it. Well, this is the thing. So it's during COVID, everything's shut down. I'm stuck at home. Well, okay, big problem. I have no idea what the lingo is. I don't understand the flow of the transact.
Speaker 1:I don't know anything about it.
Speaker 2:So I'm taking the 20 hour course, of course, whatever right.
Speaker 1:Like oh man. Brother you're not the only one.
Speaker 2:We've had many, many, many people yeah it's a hard test.
Speaker 1:Now I will tell you I made an 88 on the first time.
Speaker 2:Thank you, adderall. Yeah, and it's crazy. It's crazy and I should you not go, and I take it two more times and I fail by one point.
Speaker 1:That's frustrating. Jc, that remind you of anyone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's tough, it's rough. And at that point I'm thinking okay, is this really it? But I'm too close. I'm too close to give up and I'm calling them every time I'm failing, saying hey, I'm right here, we're ready for you, just do your thing. But that third time you and I both know you got to wait a good amount of time after that.
Speaker 2:And I can't wait a good amount of time. So I call them up. I'll be receptionist, I'll scrub toilet. Whatever you need me to do, I'll do it. Well, maybe file set it. We'll get you an interview for file set up, which?
Speaker 1:is great Because you get to see every single file that comes through there and learn the basics of what it is the order outs, order H-O-A, all of those things. That's perfect, Keep going.
Speaker 2:And so I go to that interview and I'm just getting grilled. If you fail it three times, this is business for you. And here I am thinking is it, Is it for me?
Speaker 1:Well in your defense that test really has nothing to do with what we do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's exactly like real estate.
Speaker 2:So I'm still shaking like dog red faced I mean Chris kind of walks in and starts live streaming the interview.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 2:He did.
Speaker 3:I'm like is this normal?
Speaker 2:No, but it was an interesting time. I ended up starting off in set up.
Speaker 2:I have no idea what I'm doing, I'm just doing a little bit of a cat and wearing appraisals and doing all that stuff and I'm just kind of like, minding my own thing, do what I need to do and keep in mind this during COVID. So once it really starts to come in, they're like, oh okay, he's doing his thing, let's give him 20 more loans. So here I am, doing all this stuff, and then two months later, okay, we're getting ready to set up. Either you're going to be a closer or a processor. Well, from the people I was speaking to, processor makes more sense in that chain. So, okay, cool, your processor now. And here's three loans. Figure it out.
Speaker 1:There's really not too much training or anything, but it is what it is.
Speaker 2:Here's a contract. Here's some pay stubs.
Speaker 3:Okay, now what?
Speaker 2:Just submit it to underwriting. Okay, cool, here we go.
Speaker 1:Submit it. That is probably and just by chance, Because had you passed that test, that wouldn't have happened and you wouldn't have gotten to see as much as you did so quickly.
Speaker 1:You would not have seen any of that until you got your first loan to be honest, and even when you get your first loan, you still don't know what you're doing. You send it to the setup, they do that for you. Processing, they do that for you. You would still be on the path of knowing what loans are and how to put them together. No, 100%.
Speaker 2:It got to the point where, like I said, covid, things are really coming through. Well, okay, we don't have that many processors, let's just give this kid everything we got.
Speaker 3:They were inundating him.
Speaker 2:Here's, and it's not just okay, let's get Nevada, florida, every single. So I'm having to learn on the fly. Okay, this is a community proper state, this one's not. This is where you get the taxes for this.
Speaker 1:You can't just go cat and no, it's crazy. Other states are pretty weird.
Speaker 2:They are very weird. I'm working like four different time zones, Hawaii being one of them. I'm pretty much around the clock, which is a pain, but it helped me learn. Okay, this is really what it takes to be in this business and this is what you need when certain things come up, and it got to the point where it was like, okay, now I'm getting phone calls from loan officers asking me questions about the loans that they're going to have will fly Right, and I'm thinking these guys don't know this. How do they not know this?
Speaker 1:Them being able to have passed that test, got thrown right into it and have been relying on people like yourself to help guide them. So that's why I talk about it quite often when you've got somebody that is a rock star on social media, but you ask them a lending question, they have no clue.
Speaker 2:No idea.
Speaker 1:And there's half and half. Some will say, I don't know, let me get you the answer. The other half, and it's probably more than half, will lie and that's the sad thing, but it is the true thing. Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so that's how it was. I would dig through guidelines and just figure everything out. So when I, when they came to me, like you said, I'd rather I'd either have the answer or I knew exactly where to find it. Yep, so when that happened I was like, okay, they kind of like me, slide me a hundred under the table you know, close the deal, whatever it may be.
Speaker 1:Bring those days back, please.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and so I was pretty happy about that. But then that six months came up, I had to pass my test and I was ready to hit the races. But here I have this big pipeline, sure, right. So we worked through it, we worked on transitioning over to LA. Then eventually, lo right, okay, I had to fast forward. You know, I worked with multi-state again, kind of dealing in different states and stuff like that. That was an amazing experience just seeing, you know, a lot of deals come through that I didn't necessarily need to source just yet, sure, but I was able to work, talk to the client, do all that amazing stuff with talking to the agent title, all the stuff. So you're like you're in it but you don't have too much, I guess, investment as far as needing to get the lead Right, but you're still working it. Yeah, you can't close it, it's still on you. It makes sense.
Speaker 2:Right, so you get that experience. You know, then I'm okay. Well, I kind of want to do this for myself now. I know all the back end if somebody throws me along. I know exactly how to do it. Now I just want to go and do my own now. Yeah Right, so fast forward.
Speaker 1:Why.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just want to. I mean, why? Why?
Speaker 1:sit there. I know the answer why?
Speaker 2:sit there when he's sending deals to other people, it's time to make some money. Exactly. Exactly, I want to get paid you know, At that point I had already bought my first house with the salary that I had.
Speaker 1:Heck, yeah, man Okay Smart move.
Speaker 2:I don't need to buy a house so I can go be 1099 or whatever. I need to be commissioned. So at that point I was like, okay, let's do it. Yeah, let's do it. I know I know what. Like I said, I know all the back end, I know how to, you know, get the loan done. Sure, I just need to start getting loans myself now, absolutely. So I go on that journey. I end up going to Gold Financial, worked there for a little under a year and that was kind of my first year, you know, just self-generating, sure, Doing what I need to do, right, talking to agents DMing me, and that's kind of where you know how do I set myself apart. And that's where the content stuff came in. Well, we're not there yet, yeah, so Skirt.
Speaker 2:Yeah so we'll stop there, but that's where the genesis of that.
Speaker 1:So, that being the case, now that you have transitioned into your own realm, your own master of your destiny, in my opinion, because we eat what we kill, right? And you wondering okay, I've seen all of the loans coming through here, how the hell do I go get business? And I'm going to pause there to ask Robert back, when you had started in the real estate side of things, you reached, I guess, a point where it was like, okay, I'm on my own day one. What was your plan on capturing business? Because they did not have social media?
Speaker 3:No, it was so different back then. That's actually. That's a phenomenal question, because I get often asked you know, what did you do when you started? I worked, my ever-loving ass off. Absolutely. Yep, I mean. So. I started at Dominion Associated Realtors, so I was the backup agent to the backup agent, I think seven other of the big agents, including my mom. She was one of the big agents and then there was two backup agents and I was the second one in command.
Speaker 3:So I was like the lowest person on the totem pole. So if one of the main agents couldn't take floor duty, kind of like car sales.
Speaker 1:Sure, sure, the ups, yeah, the ups exactly.
Speaker 3:Then boom, I would go in there. Well, you know, I was 20 years old, no kids, no married, no girlfriends like I, just wanted to make money. I didn't even own a car, right, I was dating someone at the time that I'd borrow her car to go to appointments and stuff like that. So I found myself working those leads like 50, 60 days straight. Then I take a day off or something yeah.
Speaker 3:And then boom, and then I would do another stint. Well, within that first year I think I sold I don't know like eight or nine million dollars, which back then?
Speaker 1:That's a lot of coin. That was a shit, absolutely. It was huge.
Speaker 3:And. But what I figured out was it took me 35 contacts to make a transaction. So, I figured that out, like innately, I didn't have some guru on YouTube, you know telling me hey these are conversion rates or whatever.
Speaker 1:You didn't have coaching classes that I didn't even know what a coach was.
Speaker 3:You know none of that stuff. My mom didn't even teach me this. I'd like I just figured out like, okay, I met X amount of people. I'm seeing a trend here. Right, I just need to meet more people. Yeah, so that was it. So I learned early on relational selling. Yeah, that was my thing, and it's been my thing from then until now. It's the best.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm very much into relational selling. Yes, I do marketing and social media stuff like that, but at the end of the day I want to get belly to belly, belly to people. So my goal was just meet as many people as I can every single day of the week, all the time I'm always on great concept, you know so it's like when I walk out the door I make sure that I'm presentable enough.
Speaker 3:You know, I'm relatively clean, shaven. Whatever my hair is, I smell good. I don't look like, you know, I just woke up or anything. Why? Because I never know if I'm going to see an interact.
Speaker 1:my first client, that's right.
Speaker 1:So when I meet people, man, and just the craziest Well that's one thing that I've always respected about you and our time that we've been friends you and Stephanie and I've known this about both of you is you guys put in the work? Yeah, there is no. Yeah, people see it on social media and they think that for some odd reason, that it just gravitates to you B S. You guys make the calls, meet with the people, you shake the hands, you kiss the babies, and I haven't known any different from you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, I mean, it's literally being that politician, You're the mayor of your city.
Speaker 1:Yeah exactly, and I guess, the concept of you understanding right away, without somebody telling you okay, go buy marbles, and every time you make a call and then there's a no, put the marble on this one. Now, you know how many knows you get before the yes. Yeah, that is powerful in itself because you're self motivated. I mean, for some odd reason, maybe you saw your mom doing it.
Speaker 3:I don't know why. I've had this mindset for years and I don't know where it came about, but every day I wake up unemployed.
Speaker 2:That's it.
Speaker 3:I wake up, alarm. The alarm doesn't go off because I beat the alarm, like today.
Speaker 2:I was up at the lock in the morning.
Speaker 3:I'm unemployed. Yeah, I need to make a paycheck today. What can I do to make a paycheck? And so right now I'm negotiating a one point near $2 million property. That'll be my paycheck for the day, that's right Guess what Tomorrow? I'm unemployed again.
Speaker 1:Resent, that's right, you know it's pretty simple concept.
Speaker 3:It really is.
Speaker 1:And why make it any more difficult than that? I don't know.
Speaker 2:But you are correct.
Speaker 1:I mean I've been speaking a lot about going back to the basics, and I mean it.
Speaker 3:I mean, I'm right now. People need to go. You need to go back to basics right now, and this gravy trains over.
Speaker 1:And unfortunately for many in the industry that got in in the last let's call it three years, they don't know what the basics are, because it was just shooting fish in a barrel. Now that barrel is a pawn and they're down at the very bottom. Maybe they're procreating, who knows, but they're just not at the top and easy to find. But they are there, you know. So, knowing that about Robert, did you guys know? Or did you ever ask like, okay, how do I start with the getting of the business? Or did you go straight to social media? What was?
Speaker 2:that Well, I mean, you see, you see, has the relational selling. I mean everybody I would meet. Oh yeah, I know Robert too.
Speaker 3:People that say they know me but I really don't know them, but they know of me yeah that's.
Speaker 2:That's one thing I quickly learned is like okay, then the follow up questions. Okay, how do you know? How do you know?
Speaker 1:him.
Speaker 2:Correct, right. And that's where you kind of figure out okay, no, this person's, you know, somebody knows him well or he's got no clue.
Speaker 1:Correct, he's got no, they know of.
Speaker 2:Yeah but in that you know you start to realize, okay, like he said, after someone, you know certain amount of people. That's when you start getting to okay, if I, if I work with certain amount of agents, this is certain amount of deals I can expect when I follow up a certain amount of times, you know whether that's. You know, several times a week. If, when I do this, when I do that, like you said, you start to figure it out and it's that figuring it out type of thing, and once something sticks, we might have something here.
Speaker 1:Correct when.
Speaker 2:I, when I make a video like this, it works. When I send a text like this, it works when I send a video text like this it works.
Speaker 1:So you start to realize, okay, this is what I'm going to do and you're taking note of these things that I love, and there's many people that go through this and still don't comprehend that there are different ways to do the same exact thing, and those different ways dictate whether or not you're going to get it or not, yeah, does that make sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like a B testing. There you go, yes, so as you moved into the sector on your own, jumping on social media just like I did 13 years ago, I'll be honest, I was one of the first and I can say that proud. Yeah one of the first to post the closing pictures. I didn't have the key back then, but it was something that when I did it the first time, I didn't get very many likes or views. Yeah, then the second time, not very many.
Speaker 2:It's not a thing yet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, fast forward. And now, all of a sudden, I'm tagging the people that I actually closed. Yeah, and it's not my people that are liking, it's their people. Yeah, I'm thinking, fast forward, fast forward. Now I don't even have to post that picture, I'm the one being tagged in those pictures. Yeah, that's getting shared and commented. So now I'm looking in the feed People that are interested. Boom, okay, heck, yeah, now I've got business coming that I didn't even Adopt you know.
Speaker 1:and then I went okay, how do I turn this even more so without social media? Well, guys, invite me to your house woman party, I'll bring the keg and I'll meet the people that are there.
Speaker 1:So, that happened for a little while and it worked. But you'll find that there are many different Ways in a day that you can acquire at least a conversation that opens up the doors to other conversations. You know now, when you were at Gold, when you were at Aligned and now at rapid, was there any Mentorship within there? Because I know Robert can only tell you from the real estate aspect and what he knows of the mortgage side. I'm sure he knows a ton about mortgage but still not a lender, right?
Speaker 2:I'm not the nitty gritty guidelines. No, not at all.
Speaker 1:It reminds me of Marcus Loffy, andy Hilger these guys. Yeah no, they. They know what I do, but they can't tell you the guidelines. Always make sure that they check back before they give that information for sure for sure.
Speaker 2:I mean, really as far as mentorship, I mean I had learned, at least in my processing stints, you know where to get the information that I need it. Right, I think, really, as far as the mentorship when I got to, okay, self-producing, yeah, is what. What are the actions? What are the conversations? How do they look like when certain things come up? How do you handle it from the front lines? Because you don't see that really, when you're, you know, doing the loans in the back, you don't see how the conversation is delivered to the client when, right, okay, maybe we need to do this, maybe we need to do that, you don't. You don't understand how to Gracefully put those conversations if you need to right.
Speaker 2:So that's where I would lean on some of the senior LO's, lo's over there, and not only there, but other companies as well. You know, I, I putting the content out. You have other people reach out to you, right, great connections and whatnot, and doing that you get unbiased. You know perspectives were okay. Well, let me bounce this idea off you. What do you think? What?
Speaker 3:you know.
Speaker 2:So it's, it's. It's cool to see that Nico Cho, who was multi-state, out of mind Super, you know, mentor for me being able to see okay, this is this, is this is how I do things, good guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, the industry, as long as yeah he's amazing, and so you know people like that leaning on them, you know asking them questions when certain things come up. That's kind of been how it is. Like I said, it wasn't really for guidelines, it wasn't really like, okay, is this gonna work? No, it's. It's really just like, okay, this happened, what would you do? Right, right, okay. Well, how does that conversation look? Should I, should I call the listing agent first, get the? But who might? Because it can like the?
Speaker 2:communication aspect is the biggest piece Correct when you're on the front line. So it's like, okay, how do I do it the best way? How are the top producers that obviously One come across these challenges and two obviously resolve them? How are they doing it Right? And so once I see how they're doing it, that's how I'll do it.
Speaker 1:Well, tuesday go ahead.
Speaker 3:I was gonna say that's super cool, that, and of course I don't know y'all's industry.
Speaker 3:But, that's awesome that there's the collaboration that goes on Within the industry, just like, for the most part, within our side of it. So, for example, that large house that I'm negotiating right now actually came from an agent here in town who follows me on social media and says, hey, I'm really not comfortable doing this, I don't have the marketing budget. You're the one with the experience, you know I'm getting them something on the back end and I trust you to get this. So, on the front end and that's an honor, right, humble then someone would do that. And it actually happens quite often, absolutely when I get people reach out to me and I'm more than happy to help them. But many other times in situations like that, I'll have agents that there are different brokerages and like, hey, man, man, I've got this challenged, what's your opinion? Right, and even though I'm in the thick of a lot all the time, I'm honored that they reach out to me, right, and I'm happy to help as best as I can, because it's like paying it forward man.
Speaker 1:I'm. There's a plenty for everyone here and I think that. So I had two points from what you were mentioning. That was actually one of them, so I'll come back to that. But you mention you don't go to the the folks out there. Yeah, guideline questions.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I love that because you'll see in Certain groups people will hey, I've got this scenario with this loan, etc.
Speaker 2:Etc. And they're just gonna underwrite it for you. Yeah, and they're my yeah. I mean, maybe it's great Let me.
Speaker 1:Let me get this straight when you get the answer that you're looking for. You're gonna snip that and put it in the Frickin file or what no you got to go find it in the guideline. So I'm glad that you understand that concept, because that's one thing that I told my loan officers is do not ask Underwriting questions in a in a social media setting. Why? Because one you look like an idiot. Yeah okay, two, we're here for that.
Speaker 1:And three, even if you found the right answer, you can't use a snippet of the guy Of what they said as your guideline back for the underwriter yeah, now coming back to the collaboration piece, I think that is something that has evolved in our industry because, I will tell you, when I first got into this industry, it was not like that. Yeah, the concept of somebody reaching out to Robert to get his opinion, to get his help on a situation unheard of the conversations that, for example, I speak to many lenders across the country for collaboration, different companies, different facets.
Speaker 1:Yeah and I feel like that is happening more and more. Why, I don't know. Maybe more people are understanding that. Hey, there is plenty of business that goes around and social media is a weird place to where my crew is not the same as your crew. Yeah, so if I post this content, I could literally post the same content, or he could post the same content. Yeah, different people are gonna see it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, sure.
Speaker 1:And it doesn't take anything out of my pocket, right? That makes sense. What was that saying that that I would go by, which is you lose Nothing at all by someone else winning. Somebody else winning, yeah, literally takes nothing from you, from you, right? And I think that goes a long way, but for some odd reason it's happening more and more and it feels pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah because the concept of this show is to be able to have that melting pot of unbiased, unfiltered free flow of expert information. Yeah, I'm not gonna ask you, austin, how to finance a vehicle. Yeah you know what I mean? Yeah, I'm gonna talk to you about what you do best. So, going into this next segment of this discussion, what's up with the content, bro? That's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm doing fantastic, thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I Don't always have the time to put and I'll be honest all those reels that you see that's all AI, yeah, yeah, I'm not even joking. I've got it all streamlined, this episode, once we're done with it. Yeah, we put the audio together. I throw that in, ai cleans it up, then I throw it over here and then AI clips it. I've streamlines.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I need my time yeah.
Speaker 1:When we first started this, it was like three hours each episode after the fact post production. But with yours it's very relevant. Mm-hmm, it's catchy. You've found a niche. For what is I appealing to them? Like putting the cash there. Yeah that gets people.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't care what you're saying, they're gonna go. Oh, wait a minute yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Good job, right yeah. Now, before I ask that, because that could be a longer conversation, robert, are you taking any nuggets from your son?
Speaker 3:Oh, hell, yeah, I mean, he's crushing it he is absolutely crushing the social media thing. So when I got back into the game years ago, it was Facebook.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. And so what do you mean to me? There's only still Facebook. I know exactly. We're all huge, and and so when I got back in the industry.
Speaker 3:I reached out to my dear friend Craig Owen and I said you know what has changed? And he told me all this thing, social media, okay. So I dove into it and at that time, dude, I mean I was crushing Facebook. Yeah, all organic Five to eight million dollars a year in business now.
Speaker 3:It's nowhere near now. You've got, you know, instagram and you've got tick, tock, mm-hmm, all these other things that are really evolved, and when I saw him take off with his social media, I was like, okay, cool, I just let's see what he does with it. Yeah, he's been committed to it Absolutely like an animal. I mean, I have business people my age yeah, 53 that called me up and said, oh my god, I learned something from your son today. I'm following him now all the time. He's got great content, he's got a good message. He makes it easy to learn, and so I started watching what he does and how he does it. He does have a gift to teach, yes, in an entertaining way that keeps your attention, and it's it's it's short and concise, mm-hmm, it's, it's a gift, because it's hard. Not a lot of people can convey a message Correct in a very short period of time because we have attention spans of gnats, yep.
Speaker 1:Yeah, eight seconds. Yeah, more or less. And it's funny that you mentioned Craig Owens, because if they had social media, back in the day, craig and I played in a uh, what was it? Redneck golf tournament.
Speaker 3:Oh, you must have hair back there, right.
Speaker 1:Dude, we were wearing wigs and dresses. Yeah, it was me, kendra Ray. I love you, craig.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that would have been our viral post me and him walking off the golf course with our anyhoo.
Speaker 1:So with your content, the way that you portray it, I believe that consistency, number one, is the most impactful thing, and you're not doing it in a way that is, uh, corny, you know, because corny typically works faster. If you, you post a funny video or something, I mean most of my videos, because I don't have the time to be able to put into it. Mm-hmm, we're taking a clip from somebody else that was funny and then adding myself to the end of it which worked.
Speaker 3:It's. Yeah, I remember when you were doing it right.
Speaker 1:It worked real fast and it was like okay, Now I know I can come back to that when the time comes that I can put time into it, yeah and then once AI Came into the play, because taking an hour episode and finding content, clipping it, putting it, but it was just too much. Yeah but I was able to get like two out in the time that I have the edge in the cake. The educational piece is what is super difficult in our industry and I say that because mortgage is not sexy by any means.
Speaker 1:Real estate is the sexy side for sure. You know what I mean. What is it that, I don't know, inspires you to continue down that road versus going the easy route of the corny stuff? Does that make sense?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean like anything, you know, you look at the people who are crushing it in this business and then you look at the people who have been doing it. Yeah, you separate that been doing it and the people who are now turning that curve, Correct. And you know, these newer LOs, these these COVID LOs, whatever it may be.
Speaker 2:what are they doing? The ones that are really hitting it. And you know, you start to see, OK, there's this guy on Instagram. Ok, he's pretty cool. Ok, this is what he's making. This is how he's saying it, whatever it may be. Ok, can I emulate that? Can I make it better? Yeah, right, Is this actually getting in business? And you look at the page and you see, you know, OK, he's, he's he's getting this got some folks Exactly.
Speaker 2:So it's like, ok, I might, I might want to do that, so you see that, and you're like OK, well then you get into the action mode. Ok, how do I do it? Sure, OK, get a camera, get a tripod, say something, if, if anything, just you know, just pick it up and make the video. Right then, right there.
Speaker 2:That's how it started for me and it kind of slowly evolved into OK, you know, I see this one video. I really like the way that it is, because I mean I always look at it from. Ok, this is, this is getting my attention. Why is it getting my attention? Right? Even if it's not mortgage, even if it's, you know, Alex Ramosy, or you know Discovery Channel Pulsion, whatever it may be, ok, what is it that got my attention? What do I like about it? What would I pull from it? Would I remember about it? How do they shoot it? And then can I do that for mine, right? So when you see that, you start thinking, ok, ok, I've made a couple like this, let me try to make it like that. And then eventually you get to the point where it's indistinguishable from those other people as far as the format, but it has your message instead of theirs I love it and your own personality instead of theirs. And that's really what I think gets people invested in you, because at that point you're building a brand.
Speaker 1:And I think that that's very powerful to say and to be honest about, because I think folks out there that are not doing this and what's holding them back from doing it is the concept of oh, but I don't know what to do, I don't know what to say, I don't know what content, and for me, for you, same thing. We go and see what others are doing and let's not try and recreate this wheel. Let's just make this wheel better and more personalized to what we do, absolutely.
Speaker 1:You know, obviously you have to be willing to hit record to be able to put those wheels into motion and get the criticism positive or negative, yeah, but then after that keep going.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know that that's a tough, tough task, or ask for that so with you, Robert, since because I've seen more wheels coming out and I'm seeing you guys are able to do the sexy and there's obviously more views when it comes to sexy. But is that converting to business for you guys and are you grateful in seeing Austin jump out to the races to do that, which helps motivate you to continue to do more?
Speaker 3:He entirely motivates us for sure. I mean not because he's my kid or anything like that Like he's he's putting in the reps and he's seeing the fruits of the results of those reps. So it is motivating. Because then it's like, well shit, why am I not doing this? Right, you know, I can find the time I've got. What I think I struggle with is like I think I've got so much in here that I don't think anyone really wants to hear it, but at the end of the day, truthfully, they do want to hear it. I mean, I've 33 years, thousands of transactions in my head, correct, to me it's not that big of a deal, but to that newer agent or the consumer it is a big deal. So I have to kind of retrain my brain to be like OK, you know what I do need to describe this situation. I need to walk people through it, right? The funny thing is, as much as people might think, I'm an extrovert, I'm actually an introvert.
Speaker 1:I really am, you know. You know it's funny is I've come across gosh where this will be episode 72 or 73, something like that. But I would say, for the most part, the folks that I have on the show to the public, they believe we're extroverts for sure, because we're able to put the show on, we're able to not be afraid to put the content, the transparency out there. But I would much rather be doing my thing.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, let me alone dude. So we went to have a training session with Ryan Sir Hunt. Ok and $20,000 to be up there for a weekend. Yeah, and I had the honor of sitting next to him at dinner, so it was Ryan next to me, stephanie in front of me and Ryan's wife, and she was sweet totally getting along with really, really great energy.
Speaker 3:And I learned Ryan 1000 percent is an actor. He was awkward when he was not on Right. It was so weird because he talks about that in his book. Yes, and the moment, you know, I would try to interact with him and he was. He was almost kind of that, that, the Ricky Bobby like I don't know what to do with my hands kind of thing.
Speaker 3:It's super nice guy, by the way. I mean it's like I really enjoyed the time with him, but the moment he was on he was on a switch. Oh yeah, and it's like that taught me. It's like I have to be on.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And so I'm on all day long, but then when I get home, I'd like to be home, I'd like to be chill.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I relate to that, so so much, and I'm sure there's others, others that same thing. It's like when we have to be on it extracts so much out of you, yes, and we're not talking about I'm tired physically, no, no, I'm mentally, mentally.
Speaker 3:Zost, because you know we're doing so much in our head.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, I'm mirroring this customer. I'm now listening to this customer. Now I'm giving advice, now I'm doing the song and dance.
Speaker 3:I mean, it's all day and so this is what Stephanie and I talked about the other day. It's different when you're an agent or an LO, for example. That maybe only does you know that the average agent in San Antonio only sells between three and five houses a year. Yes, if I were selling between three and five houses a year, guess what I could be on all the time. It wouldn't be a big deal, I wouldn't be tired, I wouldn't be mentally stressed. But we're not. You know, during COVID we were selling three houses a week. Right, we're exhausted, absolutely, you guys are processing Continuously.
Speaker 2:It's like in the paint, in the paint, in the paint, it's like you are working your asses off.
Speaker 3:It's very different. So it you know I need my me time. Yeah, my downtime.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Have you gotten to that spot yet, Austin?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Already.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, I mean, I can relate Totally, get it.
Speaker 3:Totally, totally. We were in New York in December and there were a couple of times where it's like I respect him now because he's like, hey, you know what? I need to break away for about an hour.
Speaker 2:I've got some stuff to do, I'm like that says a lot about someone his age.
Speaker 3:You know to have that level of responsibility because I remember when I was his age I was still parting. You know, just admit it, austin. How old are you man?
Speaker 1:23. 23. Yeah, no, I wasn't partying still at that age, but I did all my partying early, which allowed me to respect and and cherish the fact that I was in the position to make these kind of decisions. For sure, okay, my friends are doing that, but I know if I do this, I will be ahead. And I had to continue to tell myself that. And, lo and behold, worked out. You know, now it's like OK, when friends go out, who's the one paying, who's the? You know, but yeah, that that's. That's. It's, I guess, important for people to understand and know that we are human.
Speaker 1:At the end of the day, if you're working or sending a customer to you guys, they're going to get the hundred percent Once the relationship let's say realtor to lender. After a little while you can kind of bring your guard down and be honest with them and say, hey, I'm spent, yeah, I will get to that, because this is not at the top of the docket. That needs to be done right now. But in the beginning, when you're building those relationships with realtors they, you don't need them to think that they're.
Speaker 1:You're the only agent. I work with you know so that's, that's tough, but it's cool that you were able to kind of grasp and adopt that concept. Many people still are trying to figure that out. Yeah, they really are. How are we doing on time? Let me check this. Ok, we're good. So now that we've talked about the come up the journey, how you got into it, what content, what creation looks like, we know that you can teach an old dog new tricks and we can potty train the young ones Right, this is true.
Speaker 1:I want to talk a little bit at the end here about the market, what you guys are seeing, each, each little bit of episode, because these are weekly. I want to bring in some of the expertise and what you guys are seeing, because everybody sees something different and it's not wrong or right.
Speaker 1:It's just our experience, robert, you being in more so the luxury aspect of things. Matter of fact, we just recorded one yesterday and Marcus Loughy mentioned that higher dollar properties are still selling and there's still multiple offer at their price right, and he asked me why. I think that is Well, I know why. The people that buy those houses have their shit together. That's why they understand what real estate does. If they are financing the home, they understand that that's just the rate for now. Yeah, they put a little bit more money down. They get the concept of killing the P principle. You don't have to really go in depth on breaking down the figures and getting them to wrap their head around how finance works.
Speaker 3:Correct.
Speaker 1:So what are you? That being the case, what are you seeing out there?
Speaker 3:We're seeing so, admittedly. So we're a bit different you know we carry anywhere from 30 to 40 listings at a time. So between two people that's a lot of inventory, but it gives us a really good gauge and pulse on what the market is Sure. So, admittedly, when rates were at eight plus percent, dude it was dead.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was very very.
Speaker 1:Everybody was scared.
Speaker 3:Everybody was quiet. I wasn't scared, don't get me wrong.
Speaker 1:No buyers sell. Oh yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, 100% fearful. No me. All I was doing was stacking more inventory because I know that the market's going to turn.
Speaker 3:Always does, and I want my store shelves full of inventory to be able to sell and, like agents, would see us at the office and Stephanie's you know, grinding on the phone, me doing this and talk. But what are you guys doing? We're like we're stacking this stuff because it's going to turn Absolutely. And so when we were in New York, you know, for Christmas vacation, that's when rates started going down.
Speaker 3:Dude, all of a sudden I started seeing you like ping ping showing or cross showing, cross showing, crossing on Christmas day. We had like three showings on Christmas day, I believe we had three showings and I was just like, ok, it's turning.
Speaker 3:You know, rates are coming down. I think people are starting to really understand. Ok, this is just the reality of what it is. This past weekend we had 29 showings in two days on our, you know, roughly 35 to 40 listings right around there. Two offers came in and we're about to negotiate the third, which is what we're doing right now. Sure, you know. So movement is happening. I this is me, my opinion and I work. Yes, I work off of data, but I work off of my gut just because I've been doing this so damn well. Yeah, I feel very, very bullish about 24, but buyers better be damn careful and not miss that window of opportunity, because there's that be that window where it's really going to switch Correct and they're going to be screwed again.
Speaker 1:I have to believe wholeheartedly in what you just said. I am bullish as well, just simply, and I am using the data in this just simple, pure logic supply and demand.
Speaker 3:That's the simplest thing. It's like people don't get that. It's like then you just don't understand.
Speaker 1:You don't understand, right? If you're limited on supply, which we are check, and you've got hundreds of thousands of people that are sitting on the fence, I mean, between you and I, we've probably pre-qualified hundreds of people in the last year, right, where are the closings?
Speaker 1:Yeah they're still waiting, right, and as soon as they feel comfortable in their mind that rates have dropped enough, or what have you, they're going to come to the realization that, oh shit, the prices are going back up again and I don't have the money to pay over an above list price.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's already happening on the East Coast and West Coast. So I of course talk to agents all over the place because, just like you have relationships, I do too. West Coast, all of my buddies we're in multiple offers again. Wow, yeah, there's on. It was not real trends. There's an economic thing that we've fallen is just missing my brain right now, but there was a chart of the United States and it did show that in the central area, texas included, kind of going up to North, you know Oklahoma and whatnot we do. We are seeing more inventory Right On the East and West Coast. It was nothing, it was like some 30 days, and over here we're sitting on about four-ish months, anywhere from three to four months which, in the grand scheme of things, is still not a true healthy market, not at all. It can turn very, very quickly and I feel once we get to that rate, whatever that magical rate is Correct, it's off and it's I don't know.
Speaker 1:It just boggles me in and I want to get your take on this. Even though you haven't been in it as long, you still are able to kind of put connect the dots in regards to why is it? There's a special rate when it gets to five and a half, because even at five and a half, that same customer could qualify. At six, six and a half, yeah, but in their mind, I believe, it has a lot to do with social media, the media itself and being able to Bragg to your friends. Yeah, to be honest, because I remember when everything shot through the roof, rates were at 3%. It was like we don't even have to post. I've got buyers that are like, yeah, I got a 3% rate. Yeah, what does that mean to you? Yeah, you know, but what are your thoughts?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I mean, it's the same. It's the same thing. You know I were. I'm having conversations with clients that I talked to months and months last year. Oh yeah, right, and it's. It's funny there's they're starting to see that and and when you look at it, it's actually kind of rates haven't moved that much from where we're a year ago.
Speaker 2:It's that little spike in the middle right there of them, yeah and and they see that and they're like, okay, well, it's come down this much since then. Are we gonna see another market like we saw on COVID? Because we're. I mean, I had a client this morning, so been offer, didn't win that offer, right, right, that other, the other person buying it, went.
Speaker 2:Higher, yeah, better, better offer right and so it's like, okay, now that client's gonna come back, regroup right. Okay, we need to be a little bit more serious. The market is not gonna let us, like it did two months ago, do 50k under ask for full closing costs. You might get that on a new bill, but you're not gonna get that on pre-owned right.
Speaker 1:Now, why do you get that on a new bill?
Speaker 2:I mean it's all built in they it's all built in.
Speaker 1:You're wise cat, they yeah it's that.
Speaker 2:That's another conversation in and of itself, that's another hour, yeah but but I mean, at the same time it's, it's definitely picking up from from where it was two months ago. And, like I said, those conversations with clients that were in the past, like you said, they see those headlines, they, they, even even if they're not in the market, they see oh, they're at seven now I feel a little better because I didn't buy out right. Oh, they're at eight, oh, I feel good, yeah. And then they come back in versing, sure, and they're like okay, I think I need to jump, I think I need to jump in now I think this is time right.
Speaker 2:And they, they all know you can write finances. It's not something you need to explain to them. What they need to know is okay, am I getting a good deal, you know, based on what the market is? Am I getting a good deal to jump in now and Be in it long term? Correct, that's the biggest thing. You don't want to jump in at eight or whatever may be, even though you can refinance. Correct, like you said, you want to brag to your friends and say I think that's it rates.
Speaker 2:rates were at eight, but I got a six point five.
Speaker 1:Yep, it's that's all, it is some odd reason. I think that has a lot to do with it and they're skipping over the, the, the baseline.
Speaker 3:You're building equity, yeah right, I think there's just been that challenge of also the sellers who missed the boat, yep and their friends, of not necessarily about their rates but bragging that they sold it for 50 grand over and didn't have to do any repairs and all that other stuff. So it's like it's like two things and where that intersection is, that's where we're trying to find them. The, those smart people now, absolutely, because the people that are buying right now.
Speaker 3:I'm just gonna say they are the smart ones, right? They're the ones that are not gonna be regretting it, correct? You know, four or five months from now, when shit really gets crazy?
Speaker 1:You're gonna get crazy. Yeah, let me ask you, austin, and then this is gonna parlay to Robert. But in those cases, like you explain, customer submits their offer. They get smoked by somebody else. Are you Having the conversation with your realtor or are you bypassing the realtor if you know they're not having the following conversation Directly with the buyer? Yeah, that you guys need to be serious.
Speaker 1:Oh, no percent not a a market to where your. It is not a buyer's market. Yeah, and despite what people think, just because you can now get a little closing call Does not mean you can pencil, whip them and get $30,000 on the price. And you're submitting these offers. I'm giving you the approval letters At the end of the day. Do you really want to be in a home or not? Yeah, I mean, are you the one having that conversation, or are you coaching, or are you doing?
Speaker 2:both, I mean, I think it comes from both sides, right, you obviously regroup with both the buyers agent and that client and you, okay, you know, obviously, this didn't work.
Speaker 2:This is what we're gonna need to do. Huh, right, and maybe it's the house, maybe it's listed. In this case, the house was listed for a day, sure, and the client wanted to really get in. Yeah, and you know, okay, we're not gonna do that, we'll be a little bit more aggressive. Sure, we'll see what happens. Obviously, that in pan out. Maybe we need to target houses. If that's what you really want, yeah, that's your deal breaker. Maybe we need to look at house that have been in the market for a little bit longer. Correct, right, maybe there's a reason for that. Maybe that needs to be negotiated in. Right, you have those conversations with the client. They're well aware, at least they should be, and so when that opportunity comes up, ever, everybody, you know, moves at the in unison and it's not some weird miscommunication, oh, but you said this, I said this, this is no ever, ever, ever, ever.
Speaker 3:it's on the same it's a team.
Speaker 2:We all know what the client's goal is right right and this is what we need to do. If we can't get that done, then we need to get with the client again and readjust. Okay, this is the monthly payment we want. This is the cash to close we want. If we're not ticking these boxes, the clients gonna get mad. If they're gonna get mad, they're not gonna want to buy house right. You know how that goes right.
Speaker 1:So setting that expectation in doing that, that's the reason why I asked that is you will find, and I'm sure you have, where agents are scared to have that conversation with them at the fear of losing that buyer. Yeah like you're not working for me. Yeah no, I'm being real with you. You're trying to actually buy a home. This is the mentality, yeah, the mindset, this is your expectations that you need to have.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And if they're not able to have that conversation, are you Confident enough to be able to go hey, buyer, let's, let's just have a conversation, and now I'll relay that to your realtor, etc. Etc. Because on the flip side you've got sellers and I know you work with a ton of sellers for years, now that I Call it the conversation. Yeah, in your instance, I know there is no hesitation, no matter the dollar amount of the property, to find out if your client is really serious about moving this property.
Speaker 3:I want to know at the get-go Yep, I mean, are we doing a deal or not? Because you're hiring me correct for my experience and for me to be honest with you? Yes, I don't, I'm not gonna sugarcoat anything. There's no greats black or white and it's either. You're gonna listen to my Experience right and my best judgment on your behalf because you are my fiduciary, and if you're not, then maybe you just know more than I do and I've literally had conversations. I'm not coming across cocky because I'm like I am the person that will fall on the grenade for my clients, my clients who really know me and trust me. You know they trust me implicitly. Bill, for example. I've made him a ton of money. He will never question anything, but he knows that I have his best interest, absolutely. Then you have that client is like well, but I mean I've sold two houses in my life and I'm like, okay, well, I sold you know, two, two hours ago, correct.
Speaker 3:What is? What are you trying to do? You know more than me, right? It is a challenge, because some people just don't want to hear, and sometimes maybe I'm just not the agent for them, and then I think that that I'm totally cool, that's a great point that you bring up, in the sense that maybe I'm not the agent for them, because your time is valuable and I believe you earn the right to have valued time.
Speaker 1:You're an expert in what you do and it is, in many cases, a waste of that time when you are working with someone that has their own expectations that don't align with their goals. Yeah, and I believe for any agents that are out there listening to this, you've got to at least be confident enough to believe in what you're selling and that Service that you're selling, that product that you're selling. It's yourself. So, at the end of the day, if you don't believe in yourself enough to stand behind what you're preaching, you know, man, maybe they're all not the right for sure, do you know? Yeah, so, yeah, I that's. It's just something that I think a lot of agents are struggling with at the moment the fear of, especially on the listing side. They're gonna list it because the seller believes their home is worth this much because X amount happened. Well, we're not in that market right now, correct? Are you able to have that actual conversation with them to bring them to reality? And what I mean in reality is Comparables within X amount?
Speaker 3:of radius. We actually have. We have data now. Yeah, we actually have data in full disclosure. When COVID started happening, yep, I had to retrain my 30 plus years of thinking because nothing made sense. We did not have data right and they were a couple of listings that I did not get right because someone else Bought into the right and you know when. At that point I didn't see it yet. But I learned very quickly. Yeah, something's changing, there's a change in the tide, and I told Stephanie and so we had to like we were winging it, man, I mean it, we were. It was like the Wild Wild West until until we got the flow. And then we're like, okay, cool, all right, we can run with this. And then now, now there's data Absolutely. And you know, stephanie's like a huge data nerd and I'm a second degree data nerd.
Speaker 3:I'm biosmosis yeah but it is, you know, good that we can go back. I mean, like last night we're at a listing appointment. They thought it was worth one five. We're like it's one three. Here's the data. Yes, this is, this is what's going on.
Speaker 1:and once they looked at okay, one three got the list sense yeah, and you can back it up with that hundred percent. Oh man, so there's been some good stuff talked about in a short period of time here. Quickly, what do you think 2024 is gonna look like? Austin?
Speaker 2:I think it'll take off.
Speaker 1:It'll be good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it'll maybe not be a, you know, a repeat of cove it, but I think we'll see a little bit of some similarities. That's oh, I haven't seen that and you know, no, no, no billers paying one percent or whatever. Maybe. I don't know if it'll get to that, but you'll see. You'll see signs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I Definitely agree with that logic. The comment about COVID we won't see another COVID unless another COVID. And with the election coming you never know. So never say, never always.
Speaker 3:Robert. What do you think, man? I I think it's gonna be a great year. I'm super bullish about it. I feel it won't be unless we see another COVID. Yep, don't think it's gonna be to that level, but I think it's gonna be a hell of a lot better than 23 Mm-hmm. I think people really need to buckle down, though, on their skillset. Yeah agents, lenders, everyone in the industry. You, you really need to know what the hell you're doing right now.
Speaker 3:This, this is, this is game time for the pros. That's, the pros are playing, the pros are winning. Yes, you know those agents that are not investing in their skillset learning scripts. You know Putting money yeah into their, their career and their gift and what they do. Dude, we're gonna eat them up.
Speaker 2:I, I don't and I don't and I don't care right like.
Speaker 3:I'm here to win.
Speaker 1:I'm here to win for my clients, yep, and so we're investing in ourselves, and this year it's gonna pay off and I actually believe that the last year was the time for you to sharpen your craft on your presentation, work on your skillset, educate yourself in, in engulf yourself in your process to fine-tune it. But that time has passed.
Speaker 3:It's go, oh yeah, oh yeah that that that time passed four months ago.
Speaker 1:That's right, that's exactly right now we're in the game. I have to agree with that, and we're gonna see plenty of agents not being able to make it. Oh yeah, plenty of lenders. We're already seeing it. You're seeing the data on renewals license renewals have dropped tremendously. I'm like Finally yes there needs to be a cleansing. Yeah, because in my opinion, the onesie twosies. You're doing your customer a disservice. Thousand percent preach. So is there anything else that you guys want to add to this before we close it out?
Speaker 3:This was fun.
Speaker 1:I'm bad I think a lot of folks learned a lot about you guys that they may have assumed. Maybe they thought it was just handed to you. I absolutely love, austin, the fact that you went through all that shit because I haven't handed him anything I wish.
Speaker 2:I wish he had bar the bars that I thought he had you know, the bars that my Didn't really think that, for he didn't have, you know, 10 bars a month.
Speaker 1:Oh no, oh no maybe, maybe one a quarter, if that now what I would recommend is getting those houses and asking to do open houses every Week. Yeah, because that's where the buyers are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know this is.
Speaker 1:You know what I got it? Yeah, you know, because you said it on this show that I'm responsible enough to take care of them.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, Handed him nothing. I believe that.
Speaker 1:I believe that, and I think that's the way that it should be, because then you can eventually call yourself the expert. Yeah this wouldn't hand it to me. I mean, at the end of the day I work my ass off, yeah, and for anybody to take that away from you, shame on them. Yeah, but in time you'll show them. Yeah, you know that's the same with me. I'm writing my story still Okay.
Speaker 1:Well, gentlemen, I want to thank you for being transparent and showing the folks out there what real people you are and the ability to I don't know turn what we may all think is a a movie into real life. Yeah, truly so. Thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 2:Yeah of course, for the folks out there listening.
Speaker 1:If you got something from this, I want to make sure that I continue to tell you to share this shit like it subscribe. You never know when a conversation like this is gonna hit home for somebody. You never know that the insight that is added in each of these journeys Could help you in some way or another. And we don't provide this to try and get over on folks. We do this so that our entire industry can kind of level up at the same time and hearing it from experts. So I've got nothing else and, with that being said, guys, we will catch you next week on the next one. Peace.