Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: Just going, yeah, we. I think. I don't remember last time we had. We recorded one of these things, like, a month and a half ago. So we're behind. Our people are like. I was getting phone calls, and people were like, yo, where's the new podcast? How come you guys aren't.
[00:00:16] Speaker B: Was it that long ago? And by your. Our people, are you talking about my granddaughter Sophia? Did. Was she, like, texting you, going, yeah, pop up.
[00:00:25] Speaker A: I want to see more pop.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: Yo, I started going pee pee and poopy on the potty, and you and Ken didn't talk about it? Like, what's going on? Sophia's pissed, man.
[00:00:36] Speaker A: Yeah, well, as she should be, to be honest. Yeah, go ahead.
[00:00:39] Speaker B: There we go. Yeah, she's like, pop, Pop. I have to go pee pee. I said, go ahead, honey. So proud of you. And she's like, you're. You come with me. I was like, all right, let's go. We're going on a tour of duty here.
[00:00:51] Speaker A: Well, it's only fair you make her come with you to the gym, so you should go with her to.
To the party.
[00:01:01] Speaker B: Best. The highlight of the week.
[00:01:02] Speaker A: Yes, sir. So how's it been going down there in sunny Florida? Is it hot down there yet?
[00:01:06] Speaker B: Dude, you know what? When, When. From now on, when people ask me that question, I usually respond with, actually, we got a foot of snow this morning. Just like when people used to say to me, how are the kids? Are they getting big? I'd go, actually, believe it or not, mine are shrinking. Yeah, like, my kids are shrinking. Yeah, it's. It's like living in hell between, you know, June 15th, say, and maybe September 15th. But it's okay. There's air conditioning.
[00:01:34] Speaker A: I. I was down in Florida. I was down in Destin last week, and really, it was nice. Really wasn't bad at all. Hit the beach for about an hour, checked out the. The. The. The. The harbor. Harbor Walk down there and. You ever been to Destin?
[00:01:49] Speaker B: I haven't no.
[00:01:50] Speaker A: Really cool town. Really cool beach. Like, beautiful, beachy town. A lot a little touristy, but. But still very, very cool, you know?
[00:01:57] Speaker B: Yeah. I'll tell you, last week I was on the East Coast. I went to the Kennedy Space Station. I'm sorry, Kennedy Space Center. Dude, you want to talk about. Just wild, highly recommend going there and having a couple days there, do the tour. It's just mind blowing, man. Mind blowing.
[00:02:16] Speaker A: All the old school NASA stuff.
Yep.
[00:02:21] Speaker B: You get to sit in the same room as, you know, Apollo 11 and Apollo 13 was called. And seeing the Space shuttle Atlantis. That's just mind blowing. Like, this was in outer space. Holy crap.
[00:02:37] Speaker A: Or so they say.
[00:02:39] Speaker B: Yeah, well, you know what? Like, there was two things that I thought about when I was there. Number one was like, okay, you have scientists in there that are figuring out a way to get the Mars and a way to grow food on the moon.
And on the other side of the planet, there's a human being just hoping to be able to get 4 or 5 ounces of clean drinking. Like, that's just, like, that's wild. My other thought was, you know, they're talking about connecting to the, you know, the, the International Space Station and all this. And literally I was like, you know what, what if this was just all bs?
Like how, what do we have to prove for it? Like pictures, right?
[00:03:23] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, yeah, pictures. That's all we have. And yeah, sort of like, sort of
[00:03:29] Speaker B: like, sort of like 2.8% interest rates. Like what, what do we have to prove, right? That that actually happened, right?
[00:03:39] Speaker A: And yo, there are fewer and fewer people that have them. And like, I'm having that conversation every day. It's almost like, it's like, I don't do pre, like refis are more like funerals. We, we, we memorialize the interest rate. We talk about how good it was to us and how much we really enjoyed having it. But now it's time to move on.
[00:03:58] Speaker B: Tearing up. Dude, I'm tearing up. There's a statistic that one of the yahoos Talked about that 50% of homeowners right now have a 2 or a 3 in front of their interest rate. Another 20 have a 4 or a 5. So 75% of homeowners supposedly have one of those numbers in front of them.
[00:04:22] Speaker A: That number's dropping every day. I, in fact, I might look that up just to see where it's at right now. Because that, that's the, the reality is that they might have it. And this, I'm running this every month. They might have a 2 1/2% interest rate, but they're paying 13, 14, 15% on credit cards and you 60, $70,000 of credit card debt and they're sitting on $300,000 worth of equity. So it like it makes zero sense to hold on to your 3% rate if you have all this credit card debt at a much higher rate. When you do a blended rate comparison now, you can see what you're actually paying in your, in totality on your debt, Your, your blended interest rate.
[00:04:58] Speaker B: It's eye opening for people now, now do you feel. And I'm thinking of a, of a story that I'll tell you in a second from an old client of mine.
But do you think, are people getting that? Do they understand the math there? Are they able to go, oh, okay, I see the net picture here. Yes, I'm going to do that.
[00:05:19] Speaker A: I think they see it. I don't think they get it before they talk to someone. I think that they get it once they talk to someone. But what pushes them? Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, you know what I really want to figure out my blended rate is like, they wake up in the morning like, dude, my credit card debt is out of control.
I'm spending a thousand twelve hundred dollars a month just on credit card debt. And it's not moving. It's not getting any lower. It's pain that causes people to make these, to these decisions. Now once they, once you sit down with them and you explain it to them, a lot of times the light bulb goes off. Oh, this is actually, this could actually be a better thing than holding on to this trophy interest rate that I look at every day and polish and tell people about, you know?
[00:05:59] Speaker B: Yeah. I had a client reach out to me years ago about selling their house. And I asked them why, and they said, you know, we, we have to, we have to sell it. We've got some, you know, debt and whatever, whatever, whatever.
And I said, okay. And they said, the problem, we haven't made a mortgage payment in like four or five months. And I said, okay now. And it was a CFO of a company. And I said, why not? And they said, well, we're, we have, we're. We have to make our credit card payments or whatever, like fifty, sixty, a hundred, two hundred, whatever it was.
[00:06:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:36] Speaker B: And I said, well, why are you paying your credit cards off and not paying your mortgage? And they looked at me straight, said, oh, we, we don't, we don't want it to affect our credit.
[00:06:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:48] Speaker B: And they, they. And I was like, look, man, I'm, I'm no financial consultant, but I know there's secured debt and unsecured debt. That's unsecured debt. You could literally go bankrupt and not have to pay a word, a dollar to them and keep your house. They chose to short sell their house.
[00:07:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:06] Speaker B: And move on.
[00:07:07] Speaker A: You know what's crazy is that a lot of, A lot of times people find themselves, they, they drift into this place. They don't, they don't move there overnight. They drift into this place where each month they're using 300 out of credit card debt, 400 out of credit card debt, 500 out of credit card debt just to pay the bills and to get by and maintain a lifestyle. And they're afraid that if they stop paying the credit cards, they won't be able to borrow against their credit cards anymore. And that frightens them because they're using it to live on. So, yeah, they're like, all right, my. I could always catch up on my mortgage later, which is not, you know, obviously ill advised, but that's because they're afraid they're going to cut their credit cards and then, then they got. They got to actually live on. On what they make. You know, they're not downplaying, like, you know, financial hardship is financial hardship. I have a friend who's like, literally borrowing money to make their payments every month, you know, and it's like, all right, it's time to make. Take action. You know, I mean, like, reach out to your mortgage companies. One thing you could always do is reach out to your mortgage company. There's a loss mitigation department with every mortgage company and just say, look, here's where I'm at. You know, some of them unfortunately, like, well, you're not behind, so we can't talk to you. Which is like code for make a late payment and then we'll talk to you. At that point, you know, it's screwed. But anytime you can get with a loss, with the loss mitigation department, start working on your mortgage before you fall behind is. Is important.
[00:08:26] Speaker B: I just had another brilliant story, and I can't remember what it was.
Teams. Real estate teams, dude.
[00:08:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
What do you see?
[00:08:34] Speaker B: Yeah, there's a huge. Well, this is what I see. Unless we're talking about the Zillow flex team or we're Talking about the huge 40, 50, 100, 200 agent team that has a $200,000 a month budget for leads.
Their teams are going away.
[00:08:59] Speaker A: They're shot. Yeah.
[00:09:01] Speaker B: Really? Yeah, there's way too.
There's no value.
Like, a lot of times a team will call a team will call me and say, hey, you know, you're. I know you're a good recruiter, whatever. Would you recruit to our team? And I said, well, it depends. Recruit me to your team. And when they get done, I'm like, okay, it sounds like I'm doing the work and you're taking 40 or 50% of my commission. That's what it sounds like to me. So the value that used to be there is no longer there because we can now hire.
I was talking with, with one of my exp partners today about this and we went back to, you know, he and I've been in the business both over 20 years. And I said, you know, back when we learned about this, like teams were just sort of getting started, right. So it was this like, oh my gosh, I can join a team, I can get some leads. I have the leadership, I have the training and coaching, I have blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right.
And it's a good situation now.
Like an aging really a lot of times why agents join a team, there's, there's different reasons, but mainly it's like I don't want to do the paperwork. Oh, I can join that team. And there's a, there's an admin team that does, it makes sense now. Now you have, I, I can name five transaction coordination companies that an agent can use.
[00:10:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:36] Speaker B: So the only reason why I'm seeing now there are like the kumbaya teams of like, I just like hanging out together. I'm not looking at it as a, more of a business decision. What I'm seeing is, you know, the, the I'm thinking of a couple teams in particular that an agent goes to work for. They, once they convert the lead, in other words, get the signature, the agent's out and the support team takes over.
Now that agent depending, may only get 25 to 35% but they're closing six to deals a month.
So they're still pulling in 20, 30 grand a month, which is a great job. You know, it's pretty wild how it's changed.
[00:11:23] Speaker A: I always say that. And it's the same in the mortgage business. Like my company buys loans from me, right?
And what I spent for what they, what they pay me for my loans to my branch. And then I have to decide, okay, how am I going to allocate those resources effectively so that I can maintain, you know, top tier client experience, delegate, you know, freeing up my time to do sales activities and still be able to offer great rates. Right. Like that's the, the, the constant balancing act. And I've seen it in the mortgage business where people, they don't allocate those resources effectively, right. Where they, like someone who's doing a certain amount a month doesn't need an assistant. Right. So if you're, if you still want to make all your commission and have an assistant and you're not close enough to justify it, that money's going to come from somewhere and you're going to have to charge Higher rates in order, in order to afford that assistance. You know, I think where there's teams, you get, you know, could share resources, economies of scale, things like that. I think there's still some value down on the real estate side too, right?
[00:12:23] Speaker B: Well, yeah. Now that goes into the second half of this conversation from this morning. I'll give you an example. The biggest real estate company in the Philadelphia area is in the city. They have about 1200 agents to franchise. It'll, it'll remain nameless. In may they closed 226 million. And this is all public knowledge, 226 million.
I know their profit because the region reports that and then they report the most profitable, the top 10. The number 10 profitable one with this company had about $20,000 of owner profit, which means this office had less than 20,000 in profit for the month of May and they closed 226 million.
So yeah. So I mean, you know, there's only a couple ways to look at that, but let's just say they were doing everything right.
You're seeing the smart remaxes, you're seeing the smart kws any franchise company. You're seeing them merging franchises together. That's what teams have to do. You've got the team of six to 10 to 12 agents, units over here that do 50, 60 million. You've got the team of that used to be 10, that's now four, doing 35, 40 million. And they're all paying, you know, a hundred thousand plus plus plus plus plus to their staff because they're good people. They don't want to let them go. The reality is they need to merge together. In fact, I'm working on a couple big team mergers right now where they're going to join us all together, work out of Conshohocken and live happily ever after because the margins just aren't there.
And that is the move, man. It's a smart, smart move. Now what do you have to get out of the way? You got to get the egos out of the way.
[00:14:21] Speaker A: I was just gonna say egos. You gotta get egos outta the way. You know, that's my job.
Yeah, yeah.
Do you think that I will tell you on our end, it's, it's starting. We're starting to be visibly apparent that technology is creating productivity without a doubly like, like one loan. Officer, assistant. Now with the right technology can service, you know, 90 to $100 million worth of production in a 40 hour workweek. Where used to be you needed one and a half, sometimes two ways to service, you know, $100 million in production because the efficiencies that are coming with the technology adjustments. You've seen that on the real estate side too.
[00:15:03] Speaker B: That's a good question, I don't think yet. At least with the agents that I'm talking to now. With that said, I'm going to say we're only about six months away because the teams that I'm working with right now. I had a conversation with one of the assistants the other day and I said, hey, look, we have to get you ramped up to sell real estate because you are positioned in every company and every team is going away like it's just going.
[00:15:36] Speaker A: You're talking about support. People need to start thinking about getting licensed. Yeah, I, I'm seeing it on our side too. I am, I think less.
[00:15:43] Speaker B: The only exception is if they are that what a great staff member, assistant team member should be.
[00:15:53] Speaker A: Yeah. On a retail mortgage side, a good processor can do. Used to be able to do 20 to 30, you know, purchase transactions a month. We're seeing that a good processor will be able to do 100. That's, that's the vision where we're headed. And when you look at it like, it's so funny that we, we look at, we look at commission as a percentage, right? Two and a half percent, 2.8%. Right. We always look at commission as a percentage. And then we look at costs as dollar figures.
We, we have to be looking at commission as a revenue line, not a percentage, and cost as a percentage of the transaction. Because if you have a $90,000 salary and you're spreading that $90,000 salary over 100 transactions or spreading that $90,000 salary Over 30 transactions, that's a threefold increase in cost because of lack of productivity. Right. And I think that, I think on the real estate side too, look, if you're a really, really, really good transaction coordinator, expect to be able to do more transactions for the same amount of money because that's where the efficiencies come from. You know, that's how we mean. That is all. That's where we're at. Princeton Mortgage right now. We are revenue driven cost per funded loan. You know, make sure that our expenses are lined so we can get the greatest experience with the lowest rates. And it's, it's looking at it that way changes everything. The old model, like, like the other lot. A lot of mortgage companies right now, they still look at like your rate is based on a set margin. This is how much you need to make as a percentage of the loan. Well, what if it's a $900,000 loan? You're telling me that I still have to go out there and charge the same rate now I got to bring in $34,000. The loan doesn't cost $34,000 to originate, but they're on a margin model. You got to bring in the same percentage on every loan.
And I think that, you know, what Rich has done is broken that model in the.
It's shattered it. It's awesome because we can be. We can be incredibly competitive when you get into those higher price points as a result.
[00:17:52] Speaker B: Yeah, I love it, man. Gotta be disruptive. One thing I know right now, things don't change. Have to be disruptive. Have to have a great mindset. Have to be extremely excellent at what you do.
Excellent practice.
Have to be able. When. When the question is asked, you have to know the answer.
You have to be able to say, hey, let's go. I just went through this training with. I mean the way, the way that listing presentations are being done right now and objection handling is being done right now. By the way, if you have to practice objection handling, your opening sucks.
So when you have a strong opening, you don't need a strong closing. There will not be an objection handler needed. However, for the ones that haven't caught up yet, this is where AI is really our friend. Yeah, right. So Ken, you want to list your house at 1.2 million? I think it's 8:50. That's what the evidence. It doesn't matter what I think the evidence is showing 850.
Instead of having that wrestling match, which I never recommend anybody to do, just say, hey, let's just, let's. Let's use AI like, do you have a preference in AI? Do you like Claude chatgpt Gronk? What do you like?
[00:19:10] Speaker A: I use just bringing the seller into the. Into the fold. Co creating the AI
[00:19:19] Speaker B: Collaborate with them. And by the way, while we're here. Right says now 9:50. Right? I was wrong. We were both off. Okay, great. 9:50. Let's talk about the marketing.
[00:19:30] Speaker A: Let's.
[00:19:30] Speaker B: Let's chat with Chat Chat put together a great marketing program for blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Fricking no agents.
[00:19:39] Speaker A: We just did a training today, a mini build. Some of the agents were on. Some of our agents were on there. We did a mini build on. On AI Deep research. I'm sure you've used deep research to build out a. A killer listing presentation. So that's going to be a big Part of our next blueprint is. Is listing presentations, relocation packages, you know, prompt engineering. You know, prompting is becoming the, the thing. But tired of talking about AI. Let's talk about something else. Let's talk about. I just.
[00:20:07] Speaker B: I want to go on record to say I did not watch one highlight, one real, one play, one game of the World Cup.
[00:20:17] Speaker A: I, I don't blame you.
Yeah. Do you want. If you're looking for somebody to argue that soccer is a real sport, you're not going to find it here. And that's probably going to piss a lot of people off.
[00:20:26] Speaker B: They used to carry my shoulder pads.
[00:20:28] Speaker A: It's. That's what soccer players were for. I heard it yesterday. There's too many guys on the field. The, the, the, the, the. The flopping is obnoxious.
[00:20:38] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:20:39] Speaker A: And it's too, too slow.
They said if you can play with a man down and not, like, lose that much ground, then it's obvious that you didn't need that many guys on the field to begin with.
[00:20:51] Speaker B: You know, God's honest truth. When my. When my kids. When my boy. I have two boys and a girl, when my boys were growing up and one of their aunts or uncles would get them a soccer ball for Christmas or the birthday, I'd throw it in the trash.
And two days later, Johnny, God's honest truth, Johnny, ready would be like, mom, did you see my soccer ball? She'd be like, no, Ed, do you know where the soccer ball is? I'm like, I was right there. I mean, I don't know what happened to it.
[00:21:16] Speaker A: There's a bunch of soccer balls on the roof in the alley. Yeah, yeah.
[00:21:20] Speaker B: And I was telling, you can play soccer if you want. We just have to change your last name. That's all.
[00:21:25] Speaker A: That's great.
[00:21:26] Speaker B: It might be a little abusive, but
[00:21:28] Speaker A: I did watch soca. I watched a couple of the USA games, and it was hard because it was in Philly. There was a lot going on, a lot of energy around it. I did, you know, kind of, you know, jump in and have some fun, but I didn't watch the final. I didn't watch much else other than that. The two. Two out of the. The USA Games. But, yeah, it's a, it's a. It's an interesting sport. Now back to. Now back to summer baseball and getting ready for football season.
[00:21:53] Speaker B: Let's go, baby. Let's go.
Yeah.
[00:21:57] Speaker A: I had a really great conversation with Rich when we were together last week, and we were talking about the cost of working with. Let's just say A low producing real estate agent. Right. If you're, if you're a buyer and you're working with a low producing real estate agent, what are some of the risks that come with working with a low producing real estate agent?
[00:22:17] Speaker B: You talk from the buyer's perspective.
[00:22:19] Speaker A: From the buyer's perspective. Buyer beware. If you're going to hire someone and you're, and you want to ask the right questions, what should be asked? And if you find out the person is not doing a whole lot of business, is that something you should, you should walk like you should reconsider?
[00:22:35] Speaker B: So let's, let's. What, what? Define what a low producing real estate agent is.
[00:22:40] Speaker A: Fair enough. Let's say two to three transactions a year.
[00:22:44] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree.
[00:22:45] Speaker A: You agree? Okay.
[00:22:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I, yeah, I would say what
[00:22:49] Speaker A: are some of the hazards come with working with someone that's only doing two to three a year or worse?
[00:22:53] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it's just common sense, man. It's like, would you have open heart surgery with a surgeon that does three operations a year? No, they, they're just not seasoned, they're not in the flow.
Everything is going to be hard for them. They don't know the go to, they don't know the contract.
They don't know that the right thing to do is go. Let's look at the contract. They're probably going to be emotional because they're scared, they're fearful because there's no way that they can really know what they're doing during a transaction.
[00:23:29] Speaker A: So I mean, everybody's got to start somewhere. Like, like, yes, everyone's got to start somewhere. And the question is like, you know, if you're, if you're a buyer and you're out there, do you, should you look at the number of transactions as a, as one of the ways to determine whether or not they be someone to work with. And let's go to the flip side of the coin. What's, what are some of the hazards of working with someone? You go online, you're like, wow, they did 160 transactions last year, something crazy. What's the risk?
[00:23:57] Speaker B: Yeah, well, all depends. And it depends on what the client needs, what they're looking for.
It also depends on the agent. And I think like, after I said that, it's like, it all depends. And what I mean by that is, you know, the question I always ask agents is, tell me why I should hire you as my buyer's agent. Tell me why I should hire you as my listing agent. And if they can't rattle something off then you're. You're not. You're not prepared. You. You don't practice enough.
[00:24:36] Speaker A: What about. Are you going to have another person manage the transaction after we go under contract? And if so, can I meet that person now? Do you think that happens enough?
[00:24:46] Speaker B: Yeah, it. This is. This is what? This going to the want. Did you have a lot of coffee today? You're firing off an awful lot of questions, dude.
An awful lot.
[00:24:58] Speaker A: We haven't talked in a while. These are the rattle around.
[00:25:01] Speaker B: I feel like I'm. I feel like I'm backed against the wall at ODonnell's Tavern on Garrett Road, not Little Alley, man.
[00:25:08] Speaker A: You're. You're an elite. You're an elite athlete at this, man. I. I got all the confidence in the world that you're going to be able to manage through this, dude.
[00:25:16] Speaker B: It's.
[00:25:16] Speaker A: It's.
[00:25:17] Speaker B: I live in Florida. It's 3:20 nuke too. It might as well be midnight, dude. We start getting ready for bed around here now, I bet. You know, so if this is what I would suggest, no matter what, and, And I do this all the time with, with, with everything.
Hey, let me know the last three human beings that you work with, I want to call them and see what
[00:25:42] Speaker A: their experience was like. That's good. That's really good. Because that, that could be. That can cut through the noise on both sides of that spectrum, couldn't it? Yeah.
[00:25:50] Speaker B: Yep. That's. Yeah, that's what I would do. Yeah.
Something. Yeah. I mean, I could really get into this and dissect it, but, you know, there are top, top, top producing agents, teams, hundreds and hundreds of transactions that, you know, move smooth as silk. And. Yeah, once the, Once the. The head honcho, the rainmaker secures the listing, you may not hear from them again. And a lot of times that's good. That's a good thing. Depending on how well the team is structured.
[00:26:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:31] Speaker B: But let's just talk in general.
In general, the question should be, okay, I'm looking in Ridley Park, I'm looking in Broomall. I'm looking in Westchester. I'm looking in Downingtown.
What. What are some of the things. Things that I should be looking out for? What's something that I don't know about that you know about? Because you're the expert, right? So in like the.
[00:26:57] Speaker A: The.
[00:26:58] Speaker B: The easy answers would be something like, you know, if there's an uno, what you can. What they look for in the UNO, is it the mailbox numbers or is it $20,000 in concrete? Yeah, you Know, uh, I, they just have to be, you have to really vet them fairly as a local expert.
[00:27:20] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that's a, that's a, it's a, it's a, it's not an easy thing. That's why I brought it up because, you know, there's, you want to, you want to know what. I think that's what it calls out. You want to know what questions to ask when you're getting ready to hire someone. And what's important about this is the agents are listening, is that you need to know what questions you think they're going to ask. You need to be able to have those answers all ready. And if, if, if I were talking to a real estate agent, I might ask, you know, what questions do you prepare for on every single listing, listing agreement or listing presentation? What questions are you preparing for? With every single buyer console, you should already know the questions that are going to be asked and have your answers lined up. You know, at least the framework of all of it. I, I know I get all the, I know what questions people are going to ask. I know they're going to ask, what's the rate, what's my payment, what's my cash out of pocket, what programs are getting, you know, do I have to put 20% down?
And then a lot of times I'd be like, hey, I've only been in my job for six months. Is that a problem? You know, like, I know the questions that, that, that people are asking. That comes from the at bats. It comes from, from, from, from doing it for, for 24 years. To see that thing I put on Facebook, that, the reputation map that I built out.
[00:28:26] Speaker B: No. Oh, I have to look at it.
[00:28:28] Speaker A: You have to check it out. I was sitting in the car.
[00:28:30] Speaker B: I think I, I think I unfriended you because we haven't been together for about a month and a half.
[00:28:34] Speaker A: You know, I don't blame you if you go. So I was sitting in the car and I'm thinking I was, I was at a closing and the agent, the listing agent, I was doing the buy side for that agent on the next transit was like a little domino effect. It's like three people in, in one transaction that were all kind of all tied together. And I was fortunate that I was doing the mortgage for, for all of them. And I started thinking like there was more to that. Throughout the course of the, the month, there was a lot of transactions where I knew the listing agent, you know, and as a mortgage person, when you've been in the business for 24, 25 years in your market, you begin to. Not only are you well known, but you begin to. To know the other players in the market. And we were sitting in a settlement a week and a half ago, and the listing agent turned to the buyer agent said, just you remember, like, the reason we accepted this offer was because Ken was doing the mortgage. And I was flattered. I was, you know, and I don't. Here's the funny thing. I know the listing agent. I know him well. I coached one of his kids. I never really worked with him before because he's got. He's got his guy and that's okay. But he accepted that offer because of who was doing the mortgage. Sure. And it was like four other examples of that this month. And so I just started talking into, you know, my, my phone while I was waiting, and I was like, you know, got a chat. Build it out on a map so I can see it.
Dude, it was pretty cool. It was really, really cool. You have to check it out.
[00:29:56] Speaker B: I'll have. I will def. I wrote it down. I'm definitely going to check it out.
[00:30:00] Speaker A: I might do it every month from here on out. Just look for those, those examples where the connection and the reputation are, are what was paramount in, in making all these things happen.
[00:30:12] Speaker B: Yeah, I just started coaching and I just recruited a newer agent.
You'll be hearing from him.
And he was asking like, well, loan officers. Like, how do I know a good one? How do I know which one? How do I. And I said, the first question you want to ask a loan officer is, tell me about your team. What assistant do you have? Tell me if I'm off base here. Tell me about your processor. How long you guys been working together? How many loans do you close a month? Like, what should I expect from. For, you know, callback time, you know, what's the best way to communicate with you?
And you know, because what. You know, you can have the face of a company, right? Like the loan officer or the team leader or whatever. But, man, unless you're doing three loans a month, like, you're only as good as your team.
[00:31:06] Speaker A: Yeah, right. Yeah. There are some guys that are able to do three by themselves. Anybody, anybody could do three by themselves. But yes, you start getting into the 8 to 10 range and you don't have the right systems in place, the loan officer will burn out. The loan officer will go and fits and starts with his energy. He'll be superstar. And this is good loan officers. A good loan officer will be a superstar one day and it does the next just because they can't manage it all. You know, I've seen really, really good loan officers who don't want to invest in their business.
Who they. They leads. Leads just like, come and go. That voicemail that was left three weeks ago, and they're like, I never called this person back. It's a voicemail just sitting in their inbox. So. So I think that, yeah, you know, the questions you want to ask your loan officers, very straightforward, is, you know, if you're a realtor, how do you, how do you manage your leads? Right, to make sure nothing falls into cracks. How do you prefer to be introduced to people?
What's your, what's your process for handling my buyers? I've had success with realtors developing relationships over the years. Just kind of not role playing, but like, okay, sit down. I want to share with you exactly how I handle your buyer from the time I get the lead to the time they get to the settlement table. And when they can visualize that and they could see that what's cool about it is once they see it in action, they realize that nothing is an accident. Right? Like, oh, this is how he does it. He told me exactly how he does it. But if I don't know how I do it, if I'm just like, yeah, you know, you send me lead, I talk to him at some point, I figure out roughly how much they could afford board and hope they come back to me and we'll close eventually. Like, that's not a system. You know, that's not. And oh, by the way, I'll buy your Zillow leads. Like, there's loan officers out there think that they don't really need to do a real good job because they'll just buy Zillow leads. And that's. Unfortunately, that's how you end up up and down and then out. Eventually you're just out.
[00:32:56] Speaker B: Yeah, and there's, you know, that's, it's. As you, as you're are talking, I'm thinking about what most of my day really is. And it's usually a higher producing real estate agents that they've got all that stuff taken care of. They know what they're doing there. They're making. I'm helping them make bigger decisions, helping them create bigger strategies. But like, every once in a while, I'll get a call where somebody's like, hey, I'm thinking of joining Black company. And I'll be like, okay, this is, this is the deal that you will get and tell them you Know my cap's going to be here. This is going to be the fee. This is going to be the thing.
This is what I want in my term and termination. If I leave listings, go with me.
And it is.
I can't tell you off the add this up, but I know it's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars a year that I save real estate agents because I just know. And it's all being fair. I'm not, I'm not being a jerk to the brokerage, but especially like a newer agent that might save, come out of the gate and done three or four million or more. They're not going to know what that royalty fee will do to their bottom line. They, they won't know to look at the independent contractor agreement. I'll bet you if you, if you, you probably have 10,000 agents in a database. If you were able to call all them and say, hey, can you show me your independent contractor agreement? They'd be like, I think I signed one, but I have no idea where it is. About 99.9%, right?
[00:34:43] Speaker A: I believe that.
[00:34:44] Speaker B: And there's, there's a lot of money in that stuff, man. A lot of money. So the reason why I bring that up is right now we are in a position that as brokerage owners, operators and agents, we have to step it up so that we are winning the Academy Award every day with what we do, how we treat our teams, how we treat our people. Knowledge base technology, AI. How do we. Wow. I used to call it the seduction of recruiting. Like, how do we seduce people into, like, oh my gosh, this is. I will never do business with anybody else. This is how it's done, man. There's a lot going on. And you see the other side of it is, I mean, now, now you got me on a roll. I think I'm waking up. I think I took my afternoon nap. There is so much opportunity for real estate agents out there. I was guilty of looking at the agent Tampa Brie and going, oh my gosh, let me do some research on her.
She's the funny agent that talks dirty. A lot of times be like, look at this house in West Palm Beach. Yeah, I know, I know Jeffrey Epstein stayed here before, like that kind of stuff. But when you look her up, like her production, she sells like one or two homes a year, and you're thinking, what a fraud. She's one of the smartest real estate agents in the business because she leveraged her real estate license to teach marketing, and she's got about A thousand people paying her a pretty penny a month as a subscription where she makes more money per month than almost every agent out there. It. Yeah, it. So what with that, why I'm bringing that up is there's so much. I mean, I'm just. I look at the. The things that an agent, any agent can get paid on right now. It's unbelievable. Unbelievable.
[00:36:56] Speaker A: Literally.
[00:36:57] Speaker B: Okay, so I'm just. I'm thinking of an agent that is joining us. He has joined us. He is a coaching company. He gets paid as coach. He's a speaker and trainer. He gets paid to speak. He sells real estate.
Right. He's got a mortgage affiliation. He is title ownership and revenue share.
[00:37:21] Speaker A: That's. Yeah, that's six.
[00:37:22] Speaker B: And. And you have agents out there that are still, still getting paid. One dimension. They're with one dimensional companies. Like, they are done. And I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I forgot. Investments.
[00:37:35] Speaker A: 7.
[00:37:36] Speaker B: He gets paid seven ways from his real estate license.
[00:37:40] Speaker A: I'm telling you, it's the, the, the, the. The real estate and mortgage business is the greatest. It's the greatest industry in the world. I say it all the time. It's the greatest industry in the world.
All right, let's switch gears. What book are you reading?
[00:37:53] Speaker B: I am. Dude, I am so proud of myself.
I am.
I had a staff meeting a couple of weeks ago. It was with my staff, which is myself, Sophia and Johnny.
Johnny must have had too much to drink that day because all he did was slobber. I'm like, dude, you're one now. You should be able to contribute.
So I am.
I just finished this.
Into the Magic Shop. A neurosurgeon's quest to discover the mysteries of the brain and secrets of the heart. Sky Michaels recommended this.
It's really good. Did you. I'll send you the podcast that Mel Robbins did with Dr. Doty.
[00:38:36] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:38:37] Speaker B: He is one of the most beautiful, peaceful men that ever lived. And he just passed away, man. It was really sad. But I'll send you the podcast. He's a beautiful soul. However, I am rereading Seth Godin Purple Cow.
[00:38:50] Speaker A: Purple Cow. Okay.
[00:38:52] Speaker B: I am rereading. Decide. I know you and I talked about this one last year.
[00:38:57] Speaker A: Yeah. But I don't have that. I never got that one. I have to make a mark. I have to make a note of that, as.
[00:39:02] Speaker B: Could you lie to me and say, I just ordered it? You never order it.
[00:39:05] Speaker A: Now,
[00:39:08] Speaker B: wealthy and well known, rereading it, making these notes and the book of coaching.
[00:39:14] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:39:14] Speaker B: I am into rereading Everything right now,
[00:39:17] Speaker A: I like that doesn't mean. Yo, pull that last one up. Let me see those tabs. Yeah, yeah, that's great. That's great.
[00:39:24] Speaker B: I should have just highlighted the whole book.
[00:39:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:27] Speaker B: And this is a big boy book, but this is the Team of Rivals.
The political genius of Abraham Lincoln.
That dude, from what I read and see, he was like the most incredible strategist, influential president, really ever.
[00:39:51] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:39:52] Speaker B: So it's. I'll be done this.
2032, 2033.
[00:39:57] Speaker A: That's a big boy.
[00:39:58] Speaker B: Yeah, and the words are really small, Ken.
[00:40:01] Speaker A: And there's no pictures at all, I bet.
[00:40:04] Speaker B: Not one.
[00:40:05] Speaker A: Not one.
[00:40:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:06] Speaker A: You can't even use your crayons. This is what I'm reading right now, recommended by one of my customers, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits. And I am rereading the 12 Commitments of Leadership.
Maxwell, that.
Is that downstairs? I think that's downstairs. I'm getting ready to leave for Ireland, so I want lots to read on the plate. So.
[00:40:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:32] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:40:32] Speaker B: When you go sleep?
[00:40:33] Speaker A: What?
[00:40:33] Speaker B: When are you going to Ireland?
[00:40:35] Speaker A: I see here about 45 minutes.
Get out.
[00:40:40] Speaker B: Nice, dude.
[00:40:41] Speaker A: Yeah. Now we're, we're headed to the airport about 5 o'. Clock.
I still gotta pack. You know the deal. Yeah, my wife and kids. My Caitlyn's coming with me. Bella's already there, so we're, we're, we're going, but we're not going with her. Like, that was very clear that we were not to go near her or wave to her if we see her, or like pretend like we don't know her. Of course, my 17 year old told
[00:41:04] Speaker B: us I have a new favorite coaching client, that we're doing our thing. Like you and I are right here, right? And he moves in his house and we're going over whatever, you know, listing, presentation, whatever, and I look behind him and I go, hey, is that Tommy fucking Shelby behind you? And he goes, there's a picture of Thomas Shelby behind him. And he's like, yeah, man, I'm obsessed. And I'm like, dude, you are now my favorite. I might not even charge next month. Like, and I call me Blinders fan.
[00:41:35] Speaker A: Are you. What's that? Are you a big Peaky Blinders fan?
[00:41:38] Speaker B: Oh, I am the Peaky Blinders dude. Are you kidding me? I am the Peaky Blinder.
Oh, my God.
[00:41:46] Speaker A: Lazy Blade in that hat.
There it is.
[00:41:51] Speaker B: That's it, baby.
[00:41:52] Speaker A: I don't know if I'm.
[00:41:53] Speaker B: I don't know which one. I think I'm Tommy.
[00:41:55] Speaker A: You just, you could have just came out of central casting for that. For that show. With that. We go right there.
[00:42:00] Speaker B: There we go. Yeah, I got the tat on the neck, man.
[00:42:04] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, the show. Big fan.
[00:42:07] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I may have to watch it again. You know, they're. They're continuing it, but of course without Tommy, because he got killed in the movie.
[00:42:16] Speaker A: Oh, whoa.
What if people didn't see it and
[00:42:21] Speaker B: people didn't see it? They're losers. And I'm going to ask them to not watch our podcast. If you didn't see it yet, I don't even want to be friends with you.
But anyway, yeah, he's my new favorite coaching client right now.
[00:42:35] Speaker A: Nice. Nice. Yeah. So it sounds like you got a full plate. All right, well, let's. Let's wrap this thing up, man. It's. I know it's a Wednesday. It may not be a Wednesday when people listen to this. Or maybe it is a Wednesday when people listen to this. What's your favorite thing to do on a Wednesday?
To keep your.
[00:42:52] Speaker B: Go to the beach.
[00:42:53] Speaker A: Yeah. You like to be. Are you like a middle of the week rest guy or so?
[00:42:58] Speaker B: My. Yeah, my week is front loaded all the time. Mondays, bonkers. Tuesdays, bonkers. Wednesdays start to tail off. Thursdays are a couple of little thingamajiggers. Friday is like creative day. It's like the Google day. I get to do whatever I want. I don't have any appointments, and I just get to create things. I get to work on things. I get to have free time. I usually go to the island and work for three or four hours and. Yeah, it's a good day.
[00:43:33] Speaker A: I like that. That's kind of why I do a lot of creating on Fridays, too. I leave a lot of white space on Fridays for that, you know, because you do. You wear two hats in this business. You have to create and you have to execute, and it's not the same energy. It's just. No matter what anybody says, it's not the same energy. It's like, you know.
You know, it's. It's.
I don't know how to describe it, but creating and executing require two different. Two different energies. So can't do them both on the same day or at least at the same time. Yeah, for sure. Cool. All right, well, it was great catching up with you, man. We're gonna get a bunch of great clips out of this one, hopefully. Are you liking the consistency of our clips that are going out?
[00:44:11] Speaker B: I love it. I love it.
[00:44:13] Speaker A: Is my guy tagging you in them?
[00:44:15] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:44:15] Speaker A: All right. Good. Yeah, I think we've gotten some, some, some decent ones over the last couple weeks too, so.
[00:44:20] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, no doubt. Yeah, they're, they're great. They're fun. I love them and have a blast in Ireland, brother.
[00:44:27] Speaker A: Thank you. Yeah, it's gonna be fun. We leave here, like I said, we're about 5 o' clock and we gotta drive the dog down to my mother in law's and then hop on a plane and you know. What time's your flight?
[00:44:35] Speaker B: Seven or eight o'? Clock?
[00:44:36] Speaker A: Yeah, 7:30, I think. Eight o'. Clock.
[00:44:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
So six and a half, seven hours.
[00:44:41] Speaker A: It's five. Was it seven hours? Seven hours later, five hours back, I can't remember, but. But yeah, it's direct flight from Philly to Dublin, so.
Nice.
Gonna be fun.
[00:44:52] Speaker B: Yeah. Hey, how about have a pint of Guinness for me?
[00:44:55] Speaker A: My doctor said that Guinness is good for cholesterol. I don't know, it's what he told me, so.
[00:45:00] Speaker B: It's very good for cholesterol. I drank a lot of Guinness in my day and that's why my LDL is about 190.
It's still good.
[00:45:09] Speaker A: Nice. I appreciate it.
Let's. Yeah, let's not let too much time go by before we record another one.
[00:45:16] Speaker B: Yeah, Sounds good, brother.
[00:45:18] Speaker A: I'll see you, bro.
