[00:00:10] Speaker: All right. Hello, everybody. This is Matt Rine with All Roads Lead to Real Estate. And I am here with a fabulous guest who's very special to me. And that might be because he's my son. We refer to him as Charlie. His name is Charlie. So welcome to the Daddy's podcast.

[00:00:38] Speaker: Say anything. Just like that. Ask me. Hello, dad.

[00:00:45] Speaker: There he is. By the way, he is the least nervous kid in the world. That's why I brought him. And so we'll see how this goes, everybody. But I thought it would be an interesting person to go. I have I have an itinerary for today, but I wanted to start it because Charlie has a firsthand view, right? You know, an interesting perspective on what it is I do every day.

[00:01:08] Speaker: And so really, the topic of this podcast is going to be all about just thinking of real estate. So if you're considering getting into this business, if you're considering a either a part time or full time career in real estate, this is going to be the podcast for you, because I can't tell you how many times and how many conversations, phone calls. I just had another one. The reason I thought of this particular topic is because just a few days ago,

[00:01:34] Speaker: A past client of mine who has since moved out of state called me and a very successful man in his own right in his career and wants to switch. And it's just so fed up with corporate America and everything else that he's wants to go into his career. He loved working with me, said, and he's like, you know what, I'm going to I'm going to go for it. And so we talked for about an hour and a half, I think, or right there about about everything.

[00:01:58] Speaker: And afterwards, I said, man, I wish I had just recorded that in this studio because boy, that would have worked out well. And so I just wrote down a bunch of the topics we discussed, what I share with him, and I'm going to share it with everyone here. So it's really designed for that. And so I wanted to bring my my boy Charlie with me and get talking to him. So we just finished up your school year, did we not? Yeah, we did. So, Charlie, let's start off with your first name.

[00:02:28] Speaker: [Personal details omitted from the public transcript.]

[00:02:50] Speaker: Does he love me? That's true. That's very true. It's because I love you. So you're [age omitted]. And so since you've been born, daddy's just done this. You don't know. I've never done anything else in your mind. So I was just super curious for those that might have families or want to have families, how it could impact

[00:03:09] Speaker: uh what they how they have a family life and what their time at home could look like and feel like and i don't know if you have a [age omitted] in your world but they don't have a filter they're going to tell you exactly how it is um we walked into the studio and something he said to our host immediately is our house isn't this clean um so he just he keeps it real so uh i wanted to ask you charlie first off um what's your favorite sport we've got to let everybody know you a little bit basketball

[00:03:39] Speaker: basketball and who's your favorite player? Steph Curry. And who's your favorite team? The Golden State Warriors. That's pretty good. And so what would you say is your favorite car? A Tesla. Why is that?

[00:03:57] Speaker: Because you have it and it goes really fast. Yes, but we're very cool Nice, we're very responsible. But yes, it's uh, yeah, it's fast. We go zoom zoom, right? Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty awesome So I want to ask you what does your dad do for work? Do you know what I do? Do podcasting like this Yeah, is this what I do? This is how I make money for the family or what else do I do?

[00:04:23] Speaker: You work on the theater. Uh-huh. Go to your office. Does dad, is he in real estate? Does he sell houses? Yeah, I do. Yeah. What does that mean? I don't know. You don't know. Okay. Well, that's good that you don't know what I mean, what it means in my opinion. Um, and so do you think what I do is important or not really? Yeah. Why? Because if he didn't have money, you wouldn't be alive. Well, okay.

[00:04:54] Speaker: I got that. And so do you know that we bought a house? Do you know what kind of house do we live in? I don't know. Yeah. So we bought a house. So I helped us buy that house. And that's what dad does every day. Dad goes out and helps other families buy homes and he helps them sell their house. And that's what I do. So I helped us find our house and buy our house. So do you like your house that you live in? Yeah. That's what daddy does. He gets to help other families and other kids and parents get to buy a house and live in it.

[00:05:25] Speaker: So that's what that does. So when you think about, I guess how much daddy works, do I work a little bit or a lot? A lot. Like how do I, do I work like all day or like, do I get home before you eat dinner? All day. How many times do I get to eat dinner with you? Every day.

[00:05:46] Speaker: I do? No, just on the weekends. Yeah. I don't get to eat dinner with you during the week, but I get to do weekends. And so have you ever helped me do work at all? Yeah. What do you do? Go to your office.

[00:06:04] Speaker: Yeah. That's awesome. Yes, he goes to my office. You've gone on showings. You've helped me show houses and open doors and help people through, haven't you? Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's pretty cool. Well, what's interesting to me, Charlie, as I talk to you is that you're kind of unaware of what I do. I really thought you knew every little detail with what daddy does. Do you know when you were little, you would follow me around and you would pretend you're on the phone and you would just start talking just like I was? You would do that for like a half hour or an hour. Yeah.

[00:06:33] Speaker: Do you remember doing that? Yeah. That was pretty fun. Do you know any other words that aren't yeah? Yes. You're a tough interview, I'll tell you that.

[00:06:49] Speaker: They're a tough interview, but they say, uh, who else? Who else is a tough interview? Um, I don't know who I can't remember. There's a few celebrity types that are challenging. Um, but yeah, you're, you're a tough interview, my son, but I'll tell you, I love you. And, um, so.

[00:07:06] Speaker: Basically, what I was trying to get through is how much what I do for a living influences my home life. And what I would say if I had to characterize it, it's it's all encompassing. It all becomes the same. So I'm actually very proud that he doesn't perceive what I do at home as working all the time. I would hope not because I try to shut it off the best I can. But it is really virtually impossible because of timelines, deadlines.

[00:07:33] Speaker: in the nature of the business in which we're in. And so it kind of all bleeds together, whether you're on vacation or whether you're just at home on a Saturday evening, Sunday evening, trying to eat dinner with the family. It's going to bleed in to a certain extent. And I think what I'm most proud of now that I have three little babies at home, it's that I do my best to still produce a lot, but at the same time shut it down and try to have help and

[00:08:02] Speaker: and not make it all about work. As someone told me when they first started in the business, when I first started that they said you don't want to have your kids think your cell phone is more important than they are. And I try to live by that. You can't help it entirely, but I really go out of my way to not make that the case. So do you think my cell phone is more important than you, Charlie? No.

[00:08:26] Speaker: Good. Good job. Well, you're going to help me as we go through. So I'm going to get right into it. So in terms of if you're thinking about getting into real estate, what would I say to you? If you had called me up personally, just like I had a past client do.

[00:08:42] Speaker: what would the you know the general sage advice be and so the first thing i asked him believe it or not is why like i want to know the whys and your why better be pretty good if the why which you typically hear is i don't know i love houses i love people well that's going to be challenging to keep that up over the long haul if

[00:09:03] Speaker: The only reason could be I love houses and people because while those are integral parts of what we do, that is certainly not everything. Everyone's driven by something else. I hope it's not simply money, but it's going to be challenging to keep up the pace of this career without really digging deep into your own whys. For me, if I had to think about my whys, I think it's because

[00:09:28] Speaker: I can't think of another career where I could truly create my own business and create my own world. I mean, it's really, I've created my own little world that I get to live in and real estate is such that depending on your taste and what you want to do, you can make it all about what you feel comfortable with. If you want to build a huge business, you can build a massive business, a billion dollar business. If you want to do this part time, you can do that.

[00:09:57] Speaker: And so that's a really interesting part of this career. And I don't sit in an office all day, which to me was exceptionally important. I said, where can I make great money for my family? And I get a diversity of places to go to. And for me, it's specifically people. That's my favorite part. And I get to learn about people in a much more intimate

[00:10:21] Speaker: way than I could through any other career that I have access to readily. By the end of it, I get to know a ton about your family dynamic and about your fears and about what you collectively love to do together. You get to really

[00:10:39] Speaker: have a much more, I guess, dynamic and deep relationship with other people. And so that's what one of the reasons why it inspired me to even do this podcast is because I'm going to continue to bring guests on that I've had the chance to get to know really well through this experience. And I've learned to appreciate and want to share that with others. So that to me is my big why. It's a combination of things, but I think that's the best reason I can explain it.

[00:11:05] Speaker: And so the next thing after going over wise would be in terms of savings can you make this possible for you and your family and you know the i guess the younger you do it and or the earlier you can do it in your your.

[00:11:20] Speaker: career or life path, it's easier. So in the sense that you have hopefully less bills, right? You have less things that you are required to sustain yourself on a daily and or monthly basis. And so when you have a huge outgoing expense that you have to deal with either a massive mortgage, multiple mortgages, student debt,

[00:11:47] Speaker: You know, you name it, cars, tuition for your kids, it can be challenging. So I would advise you to take this leap if this is what you want. Take it as quickly and as early as you can after going through the rest of this. It'll just make life a little bit easier for you because in the beginning, it is challenging. That is for sure. You are not going to get paid for a while, which is always the advice I would say. Ideally, you have a minimum of six months

[00:12:13] Speaker: of savings. So if you earned nothing for half a year, could you still survive? And could you still eat? And could you still pay your bills? If that's not the case, I'd encourage you to live as modestly as you possibly can, save up, be prepared, read, do all the things you can so when you hit the ground running, you're rolling. But I wouldn't go full time until you have at least six months in savings. That's just the best advice I've been told and I used to continue to share.

[00:12:39] Speaker: with others. So how are we doing so far, Charlie? Good. Doing pretty good? You're not asleep yet? No. Okay, you're doing a good job. Thanks.

[00:12:48] Speaker: And so we already discussed about goals, but I would encourage you to think about what your specific goals are as it relates to real estate. Do you have an income goal? And don't get confused with realtors that talk about volume. I sold a million, I sold five, 10 million, whatever, however many millions they say they sell. It's kind of irrelevant in a way. It's a matter of what they get to keep.

[00:13:12] Speaker: And so I can generate a lot of income, but what do I get to keep? And oftentimes, that's why you can't really necessarily believe what you see on Facebook or Instagram, because no one's gonna share their details regarding their actual business. So it's important to understand what your income goals are and then have a coach, have a mentor, have someone review it with you and actually figure out what the logistics are and the number of transactions and the volume necessary in order to hit your income goals.

[00:13:40] Speaker: Um, and with that, I would encourage everybody who hasn't read it to read it. It's the millionaire real estate agent MREA. It's a red book sold everywhere. It's not new. It's probably 15 years old by now, but it's the best foundation to real estate that I've ever.

[00:13:56] Speaker: Red and so it's not really Sexy in a sense that you know that the titles might suggest it's more going over You know the first third or two-thirds of the book is all about how you think how to how our thoughts will influence the outcome that we have in this business and So if you're a high D, so you're very direct like I am I just want to skip all those pages and go directly to well, how do I build the business and

[00:14:23] Speaker: what you'll learn through other people that have performed really well is that you cannot skip that. In fact, read it two or three more times because that's gonna be the biggest driving factor on how well you do in this career. And so get that book, MREA. It's pretty, I think, pretty fantastic. And there's a million others to read, trust me. There's no shortage of people trying to sell realtors things and seminars and you name it, it is out there. They are out for your money. But that's where I'd start.

[00:14:53] Speaker: Next thing is I'd start researching database, and so it's a CRM. It's the first thing I'd invest in, and that's a client relationship or a customer relationship management software, and there are millions of them. There are some very, very inexpensive ones, some that are very expensive. I currently use a system called Chime, so you can look that up.

[00:15:15] Speaker: three or four different ones over the years, top producers one that I used. Brian Buffini has a great one. So I love Brian Buffini. He's funny as hell and he is, sorry about that Charlie. He's very funny and he's got a great sense of humor, but it's all about relationships and about referrals. He's a referral based business.

[00:15:37] Speaker: And so I'd encourage you to look up Ryan Baffini specifically, lots of free stuff out there. And his CRM is about 50 bucks. It's quite good. And so the reason I bring up that first is because your business is really predicated on how well your database is and how well you nurture your database. And all that means is everyone's got a database. It's called a cell phone. So if you have your cell phone, you're going to download all of your contacts into that.

[00:16:03] Speaker: and into that CRM and you are going to sort them and you are going to start to nurture and reach out to them, let them know you're in the business. And so getting that figured out and entering all that information in is the absolute most important part of the process in the beginning.

[00:16:19] Speaker: and you'll learn scripts and what to say to folks, but you gotta have the database to start. And by the way, you can do this while you're still having a full-time job or doing other things, right? This is a lot of the pre-work you can do prior to going full-time. Next, you're gonna try to investigate what's called a 36 touch program. That is basically how do you touch on the folks that are in your database. And the most important touch is a phone call. It's saying hello, continuing to be involved,

[00:16:45] Speaker: and you want to add to your database consistently on a weekly basis, if not daily, and grow your database. I've had a business coach since I started in real estate. It's very expensive to do that, but it's been, I just think, imperative for my personal development and growth

[00:17:05] Speaker: Because no one out here is teaching this, and no one that's good is going to teach it for free. And because if they're successful, their time is very valuable. And so you can get help. You can have mentors. But I'd still encourage everyone to eventually look into a coach. There's a lot of them out there. I've had multiple different companies. I've had Brian Baffini. I've had two or three other companies I don't want to mention. Tom Ferry and a few others. But I'm now in what's called Maps Coaching. And it's through Keller Williams.

[00:17:34] Speaker: I've been in there for years and years. I've had multiple coaches over the years. Everyone has a different perspective, but it's been valuable to me.

[00:17:44] Speaker: The next thing I'm going to describe is how to actually learn the things you need to learn, and it's not through a license. So if you think you're going to get licensed and you're going to learn anything, I hate to break it to you. You're not. I never did. And I even have a broker's license. I went and took a much longer course after a certain number of years. In Maryland, it's three years. You can get it sit down for a broker's license and take a six month course.

[00:18:06] Speaker: You learn a little bit more there, but not the practical things that you're going to need to build a business and actually earn money and represent clients really well, in my opinion. That's just the basics. Get your license and then you need to investigate how do I learn. There's only two ways to do it, everybody. You either get a mentor who's willing to

[00:18:26] Speaker: Take the time necessary to teach you everything that practical things usually you pay that person roughly twenty five to fifty percent of your. Checks until you get up to a point where you feel comfortable or you can join a team and teams weren't as prevalent years ago when i started this business.

[00:18:46] Speaker: Yeah, so that really isn't something I ever considered at the time. Boy, do I wish I did that because I think I could have learned substantially faster. I'd be so much further ahead today if I had that information years ago. And so I'm biased. I think I would be interviewing teams if I had to start tomorrow and I would try to figure out the pros and cons. What is the what are the pros of the big, big teams?

[00:19:09] Speaker: They have systems, they have processes, they have maybe even coaching platforms for newer agents. That's what bigger teams could offer. Smaller teams usually offer more one-on-one time with bigger producers, so you can learn directly from someone that's in higher levels of production rather than someone who's just trained like a trainer.

[00:19:29] Speaker: And so if that's your personality type, you want to go directly to someone that's in the field, you might go with a smaller team. And so it's going to feel different and look a lot different depending on which team and which personality and.

[00:19:41] Speaker: all of that. So it's just whatever fits you and what your goals are and your personality and who the individuals are you want to be around. But that's probably what I would have done. And what I'd encourage everyone to do is figure out if there's a team that makes sense for you, go that route and you're not committed to it forever. But that's where I would start. And then as you get better and you learn and you learn, you can choose to go on your own or build your own team or do any number of things this this career allows. It's not cookie cutter, but that's where I'd start.

[00:20:13] Speaker: And then after I did that, I personally signed up for every class I could possibly find. I know through Keller Williams, it's a massive training organization and that's what they ultimately hooked me and why I ended up switching to them years ago was simply because of the level of classes. They have a class for everything and I took everything multiple times.

[00:20:33] Speaker: And so, to me, a learning and training organization was very compelling, but there are other brokerages now that have a similar model, so you can learn a lot from other brokerages like EXP, even smaller brokerages in whatever your geographical area happens to be. They'll have training sessions, and so you can look into those, but just sign up for the classes, and I take them all.

[00:20:56] Speaker: I would. I took a ton of them and I think, you know, you don't remember every detail, but you take notes and they all stack on top of each other to help formulate a basis of knowledge that you can take and carry forth. Right, Charlie? Yeah. It's so unusual to have you staring at me while I'm trying to talk. I love having you here, though. Thanks, buddy. You're welcome. He's doing good, guys.

[00:21:23] Speaker: After that, I would talk about expectations. So he was describing when I was in a conversation, what are the expectations I should have to be realistic when I first get started? And so to be realistic, I would say your first time you're even going to have a chance to get paid.

[00:21:41] Speaker: is about 60 to 90 days out. Once we get a ratified or accepted contract, either buyer or seller, which by the way can take several weeks, if not two or three months, depending on how timid you are and how many contacts you're making and so forth, it takes another roughly 30 days to reach the settlement table.

[00:22:03] Speaker: add that up guys, it could be at least 60 days, 90, it could be more. And so if you join a team and they have lots of opportunities very quickly, you can get into production much more quickly. You could get your first check in 45 or 60 days, but I wouldn't expect it any faster. And once again, you do not want to make this career decision and life choice

[00:22:24] Speaker: and only have 30 or 60 days of savings and immediately have to go and beg your boss for a job back again or something. Just have the savings or the access to be able to live for a period of time before doing this. Trust me, the number one thing I discuss with someone new is always, can you make this happen without hating the choice you've made because of money?

[00:22:46] Speaker: Finances rule the world. It's just this is not a fun career when you don't have a dollar to market, a dollar to eat. I've seen it over and over and over again where people have to leave and try to come back because of money. So please don't ignore that. Next is it relates to splits.

[00:23:06] Speaker: So be comfortable knowing how to interview teams and brokerages. And I think it's hilarious that people, well not hilarious, I guess that's a bad way to put that. I just think it's very fascinating, maybe is a better way to say it, that when people that are just starting in real estate, they come thinking it's an interview and they're dressed up in the suit and tie looking fresh, looking good. And they think that they're being interviewed by the broker.

[00:23:32] Speaker: And that's not really how this works, everybody. The reality is you're an independent contractor when you're a real estate agent, so you can choose to work where you want and they can't dictate your hours. It's more or less your right yourself employed. And so what's happening is they're trying to make sure you're maybe a cultural fit.

[00:23:52] Speaker: and that you would be someone that has more positives than negatives that's really essentially all they can do but typically you will take very little of their resources up so most folks will hire you in terms of a brokerage teams a little bit different.

[00:24:10] Speaker: Teams will interview you because you absolutely have to be a fit for the culture and fit for production standards that they might have. They don't think you can sell a minimum number of homes for their team and consistently do it. They might not bring you in. It's just not worth it, potentially. But if you're just trying to be an independent agent in a brokerage, trust me, you're interviewing them. It's not necessarily the other way around.

[00:24:33] Speaker: And the things I would ask, you got to talk about the money. So I want to know who gets paid from my hard work and how and what the splits are and do they increase over time? And so splits is just a matter of if I get a paycheck, where does it all go? Explain it to me. It doesn't ever cap. So you'll get to learn. And that's why you have to interview multiple brokerages. Do not just select the brokerage that gave you the license. You know, all these brokerages have

[00:25:00] Speaker: uh, classes where you can get your CE credit, your continuing ed and or your initial license, uh, hours. And most people like me, I signed up with long and foster because they had the class. And so as soon as I took the class, I thought, okay, I guess I'll sign up.

[00:25:15] Speaker: And they got me. And that's why they do it, everybody. So was that the smart thing to do? I just had no one to tell me. I didn't know anything. And so now that I've experienced it, I would say I would have taken my course, had my hours, got my certificate. And before I placed it down in a brokerage, I would have interviewed multiple brokerages in my geography.

[00:25:35] Speaker: and ask tough questions, figure out who's the producers, what teams are available that I could join, and get to know the splits, the money, what resources and support will you have for me. Basically, who can get me the furthest of the next 12 to 24 months would be my primary concern. I'm less concerned with can I maximize every penny in the first year or two. I'd much rather take opportunity for me to grow and develop

[00:26:02] Speaker: first and then make sure it's fair compensation, but I'm more concerned with that when I'm new than maximizing every dollar from transactions that I don't really have yet because I'm new. Ask about money, but that's to me secondary to who has the best opportunity for me to grow and learn.

[00:26:24] Speaker: That leads me to the next concept that I wanted to talk about, and that's prospecting versus marketing. This is really important to understand, everybody, and it's in the Millionaire Realist at Aging book, but I mention it here. Prospecting versus marketing. Charlie, do you have any idea what either of those happen to be? No.

[00:26:44] Speaker: Okay, I'm going to tell you because if I if charlie can understand and I ask him to repeat it Then anybody who's not in real estate is going to hopefully understand it. So charlie. Let's do this together. So When you market to someone it's just like you have a billboard or you have an art Like you just you're putting your stuff out there. You're marketing trying to get someone to call you You might not know them. It's just putting it out there. That's marketing, right? You can buy advertising things like that

[00:27:13] Speaker: And prospecting is when I'm picking up the phone call and I'm reaching out. People say real estate is a contact sport. I have to contact people and I'm adding people to my database. I'm seeing how I can be of value and what needs are out there. Do you need contractors? This is what I'm doing. Who do you know that might be interested in buying or selling or making a move this year or investing in real estate? That's me doing work prospecting out.

[00:27:40] Speaker: And so we'll see if Charlie understands the differences now. So Charlie, what's the differences between marketing and prospecting? This is tough. Do you have this in first grade? No.

[00:27:55] Speaker: That's tough. Well, you didn't in college, Charlie. They have courses on this in college. So it's tough for him. So maybe I didn't do that great a job, but maybe if you're listening to this, you understood. But the reason I bring it up and I want to beat this into the ground is because we want to be prospecting based and we want to be marketing enhanced. So if I'm new, I am not spending all my money marketing myself. That is crazy.

[00:28:22] Speaker: That is designed for teams that are more established. They have a budget for this. In MREA, guys, there is a chart of accounts, and you'll learn based on percentages of your gross income what's allowed. And so if your gross income is $0, I started yesterday, you don't have a percentage for marketing. And so if you came in from another career and you have money, seed money, and you can start tomorrow,

[00:28:48] Speaker: I would challenge you that you need to earn that marketing dollar. What I would say is you need to prospect. You need to be making calls. You need to go through your entire Rolodex. Go to your kids' organizations or their ball clubs. You need to get yourself out there. Be of value and know something. Know the market. Know what's happening. When someone talks to you, you can really

[00:29:12] Speaker: sound like you have something to offer and prospect, and then add people to your CRM, your database, and continue doing that, and over time, you will earn the right to market, and you can market yourself through a million channels. I've had people on this podcast, I've had one of the largest account representatives from Zillow. I market with him, I have a massive budget with him each month. I did not start that way, I started with a tiny, tiny budget. I think I started with $350 a month.

[00:29:39] Speaker: maybe 500 a month. It was really, really small. And I would get one or two contacts a month. That was it. It was horrible. And you don't get much of a return because I had such a few opportunities. So all year, you get one closing. You get one opportunity for the year because it's a numbers game. And so now I pour a lot more into it because I need, as a result of my business expenses being so high, I need to generate a lot of business to break even.

[00:30:08] Speaker: And so once again, do not get too nervous or and I still I tell myself this, I just see others that are in huge production, much, much bigger than either I am or even ever intend to be. And you realize that that's not all profit.

[00:30:24] Speaker: So they could sell millions and millions of dollars a month of real estate, but maybe their break even is quadruple what mine is. And so it's not all profit. So it's the same thing with me. I saw quite a few homes and it's not all profit. My numbers continue to grow that I have to do to break even.

[00:30:43] Speaker: And so it's just what I'm reminding myself, but it's still being prospecting based marketing enhanced. It's about as important as I could ever tell you. And and so if you're listening to this and you might be a pest.

[00:30:56] Speaker: client or anybody in my world, and even if you're not necessarily in my world, heck, if you're listening to this, you are in my world. I'm not exactly a major podcaster yet, but I would encourage you to reach out to someone like me or me and get some additional tips and find out where to start and be prepared and ask questions and learn and read. I just think the worst thing we can do is just get excited over hearing things or seeing things online.

[00:31:26] Speaker: Just quitting your job and starting and then realizing oh my lord. This is hard

[00:31:31] Speaker: And it is. I'm not going to say this is an easy career, nor am I going to say it's an easy one to consistently produce. That's why there are thousands and thousands of new agents every single year. And the top 100 or top 500 agents stays pretty darn consistent. You know, I go to the top 500 producer events. It's the same people every year, pretty much. And it's the same people that have the same

[00:32:00] Speaker: intentions, the same ability to treat this like a job. And if you think it's the flexibility and I don't really have to work for anybody anymore, that is the opposite of what the truth is if you want to produce at a bigger level. And so I'd encourage you, even when I had no clients, brand new, I went to work. I was at work at normal hours. I was before 9 a.m., 8 a.m., I was there.

[00:32:23] Speaker: I worked all day and I checked out at a normal job, just because I had left corporate America. I was used to that. And so I did not stay at home in my sweatpants and wait for the phone to ring. If that's your plan, it's going to be almost impossible. And so I think just treating it like a job, the people that show up, the people that are in classes and are reading and are asking the questions and are making the contacts, they're the ones that make it.

[00:32:50] Speaker: And it's worth doing if you're willing to put in that work. And so that's the best, that's the best advice I think I could give. That's, you know, am I missing anything over here, Rebel? I like to ask you now, now that I feel comfortable with you in the studio. No, actually, right around the middle, I actually had an idea for maybe a full episode about like

[00:33:18] Speaker: How do you operate a proper business, real estate business, now that you have a team and all of that? Like you were saying, what kind of softwares do you recommend and what softwares have you used before and why you stopped using that software? Yeah, the operation, day-to-day operation.

[00:33:37] Speaker: At the end of the day, like they say, ideas are explorative. It's execution is everything, no? And execution is where the actual money is done and the business and the wealth is done. And we all have great ideas and maybe even the personality to be a great real estate agent, but at the time of execution,

[00:34:02] Speaker: Like you say, maybe you're losing all because you're really productive all your your revenue now in execution costs. Yeah, and I I think it's funny the more I you know, the more I've learned the more courses I continue to have gone to over all these years.

[00:34:22] Speaker: What hit me is that I used to, I'm a big nerd, I've always been a nerd, I've been a straight A student forever, and it's a personality trait more than it is an intelligence factor, and I just wanna be prepared, and so I would prepare, prepare, prepare, and I would hardly ever actually do anything. And so I would research, for example, these CRMs, these database management software, I would research them for so many hours, I could tell you so much about them,

[00:34:50] Speaker: weeks would have gone by and I didn't do anything. And I just realized the best software, for example, is the one that you will use. And so you don't have to necessarily spend a ton of money. And so I used to be with Brian Buffini. They have something called referral maker CRM. And if I was starting a business by myself, I was a solo agent. I'm telling you right now, I'd save you a lot of effort, a lot of research. I would probably just go for Buffini CRM.

[00:35:19] Speaker: because that is how you build a referral-based business, and you can prospect with it. It'll show you who to call, when to call them, and why, basically. It'll give you an idea of what to say. And that is so useful, and you can spend unlimited amounts of money and create. I eventually created my own website. I created so much

[00:35:41] Speaker: And I don't even have it anymore. If you look up Matt Ryan group.com now, it's not I didn't design it and build it personally. I hired someone third party and like built it with other with my actual CRM as the foundation and a website just goes on top. And I paid someone to make it look at least pretty. Right. Whereas before I did a full custom website and spent like five or six, seven thousand dollars to make it look pretty. But it had none of the feature set behind it.

[00:36:08] Speaker: To execute a business and so I now use a company called chime and there are several out there, but I don't know any that can do as much as chime and uh and real geeks uh Name kind of suited me. So I use real geeks for years and that's another great one. That's like 150 a month

[00:36:27] Speaker: But you're going to have to pay something. But that's why I said a Bafini $49 a month software program would probably be great up until probably $10 million a year in production. And then now I have inside salespeople, I have assistant, I have administrative professionals that need to access each file and each client. And you can't do that with Brian Bafini or these other CRMs. They don't have the accessibility

[00:36:54] Speaker: To do all of that so it grew those platforms but it. When you're new who cares you don't have all these people like just have something that's just. Has all the basics easy to use and as a nice app on your phone and so that's how that's what i would say and finding the who's you gotta have a great accountant.

[00:37:13] Speaker: You absolutely, it's essential. I should have put this down. You have to treat it like a business as such, separate all your expenses, have a corporate credit card. You can do it like a DBA, doing business as, and create an account. So I used to have Matt Rhine real estate as just a doing business as, and I just kept it separate. I opened a separate savings, separate checking. I have a tax savings account. That's a huge one I never even talked about. Way to go, Matt.

[00:37:41] Speaker: uh, be prepared for taxes people. Um, but have a separate everything. And so I had a separate corporate a card. So when I fueled up my car, when I paid for these software, the trainings, everything was separate. And it was really simple. If it was groceries with the family, that's personal. My other credit card came out for everything that was business. It kept things straight. Um, but I will mention this taxes.

[00:38:06] Speaker: The number one way people go down after they start to get in production is taxes because you might not be used to paying quarterly estimates. And I can tell you it bit me even this year. So I certainly still don't know at all. I had a heck of a year last year, my best year, and I thought my CPA was preparing me, making my estimates. Let me tell you, he was off by a massive amounts like

[00:38:33] Speaker: six figure over six figure amount he was off by. And I had to cut that check in April on top of my other quarterly estimates for this year. And it did not feel good. And thankfully, I am conservative enough where I'm not spending every dollar that comes in. But that comes back to being, you know, cognizant of the fact that you need to have a buffer. And I also have read a book called Profit First.

[00:38:59] Speaker: which I also encourage everyone to read in Profit First describes putting everything into buckets. So when you get a check, let's say you get a $10,000 commission check, you don't put it all into your operating account and write checks from it because you're going to get everything missed. So I put things in 20% in the tax savings account. You have another percentage. It could be 5%, 10%, 15% into profit.

[00:39:21] Speaker: And you do that first, by the way. That's why it's called profit first. And then you do tax savings and everything else, and your operating account has the leftovers. And you build your business on what's left over, not over the gross number. And so you have to know the numbers or you will eventually owe the tax man so much money you can't come out and you have to get a job.

[00:39:41] Speaker: and even successful people, I almost screwed it this year because of, and I have CPI, I pay a fortune for these CPAs, and it still happened to me. So being prepared for this is exceptionally important and understanding that if you make more money every year, which I'm grateful, every year since I've been in business, I've done better than the year previous. And so my tax bill has always gone up.

[00:40:04] Speaker: And so it's a privilege to pay taxes. Everyone tells me that. So I'm trying to be calm. It means you've made money. But boy, does it change your outlook on how the government spends money when you start writing big checks. And I know don't pay as much as some people. I get it. But still, it's much different than when I was W-2 and it was taken out in advance.

[00:40:25] Speaker: It's a whole different ball of wax. You can't just put it into a singular account and say think that's all your money because it is not your money. The government will get theirs. But that's why I said read profit first and make sure you understand the numbers. And like I said, the Millionaire Real Estate Agent book is a fabulous book that has the chart of accounts. You can become

[00:40:47] Speaker: very aware of the business side of this prior to ever selling your first house. And maybe there you can increase the likelihood you might be around for a little while. But so I don't know if that helped. Did that answer the initial question? Yes, yes. Basically, what I understood is you have like the basis of your web pages. So it's like a big CRM with a nice stuff.

[00:41:13] Speaker: Most of them are, so when you go on to a website, a local agent's website, it's gonna, it's called forced registration. They're gonna squeeze you after you see a home or two, and it'll force you to register. And I've had every name under the sun, some are hilarious by the way, like.

[00:41:29] Speaker: Some people are very ignorant on those signups because they're like, I'm not giving you my information. But the reality is everybody does it for a reason. If you get 50 registrations, at least a couple of them are real. And so they're not going to do it. I still do it. And I still get I still get transactions out of it. So but I still get a lot of fake names and numbers. But that's predominantly what you'll see out there. And, you know, some people have two websites. One is like a sexy, you know, business card.

[00:41:58] Speaker: So if you search for them, it looks really beautiful in the front. It looks lovely. I know some agents here. I don't want to mention their names, but they're really good agents, but they don't do online business. And so it's just a sexy business card. That's it. And that's good for them. I built my entire business

[00:42:16] Speaker: through online leads. So my business model is I need that data and I can organize it. I can rank people. I have so many thousands and thousands of people on my website. I have hundreds of people coming there every day. And so you need to know who's more active, who's saving, who's sending it to their friends. You can see all the analytics on your website. Mine does.

[00:42:38] Speaker: And so I can then rank them, and then I can have someone on the team calling them daily to see which one's the most active. Because someone could be saving your search a year ago, use it every day for two months, and then disappear. And then a year later, they pop up and they save five houses, or they click a button that says, I'm curious what my home's value is. You better get on that. And if they're clicking on your dumpy website as an agent, as nice as mine is, it's still a piece of junk compared to like Redfin or these other big sites that are

[00:43:07] Speaker: you know, huge budgets. So you better get on it before someone else does. And, and in this business time, you know, is of the essence. And so you have to stop them in their tracks and offer value and, and try to, you know, stop the scroll or else they're going to be on 10 other websites. And they are anyway. Um, most people are on multiple sites. Stop the scroll. That's a good sentence I never heard.

[00:43:29] Speaker: Yes, you have to scroll. You do. And then my whole goal is to get someone off of all those sites and say, I'm going to create a perfectly safe search for you. I'm going to take care of you. And what Zillow and all these other big national sites don't have are local insights. I know these schools. My kids go to these schools. I've been here my whole life. I've lived in all these counties. Right. That's our value as realtors. I add a piece of knowledge that you're not going to get on a big box website.

[00:43:57] Speaker: Stop the scroll. But once again, you can do this. You can get websites out there that are so inexpensive and don't think that it's all that important, quite frankly, because your friends, family, even people that know you, they're not going to your site to search for homes, typically. They're going to the big sites.

[00:44:16] Speaker: But you better be aware what they're doing and then create a save search for them. That typically is on the MLS, which is the multiple listing service. You can save it there. It's a very good site. Every realtor has access to it, and you can build the business that way.

[00:44:33] Speaker: So, but I'm trying to keep it relatively short. I don't want to drag this on too long because I could talk about this for five lifetimes. It's and then we can have an episode on every single specific piece. And I might do that over time because just the CRM could be an episode, just the accounting side, how not to lose your shirt and sell your house and how not to overspend. Because once you start selling homes, your bank account can go up dramatically quickly. And then you realize, oh, my goodness, I don't have a closing for three months.

[00:45:03] Speaker: or you're so busy servicing the couple, you know, pendants you have, that you realize, I haven't tried to find the next opportunity in 30 days, 60 days. So then these close and you're sitting at home staring at yourself again. And that happens all the time. So being, you have to consistently prospect, set a time to do it typically in the morning and be making calls and contacting people every single business workday.

[00:45:29] Speaker: Because if you don't and you don't find a way to do that, your business will slow down and or stop. And that's the challenging part. That's what makes this. I like houses and people. That's that's what changes is like, oh, I have to have habits that of of highly successful people and integrate these habits in my daily existence. Yeah. And that's that's the big challenge. That's that's what took me. And I don't know how many years to figure that out. And I'm still not perfect at it. I know people that are much more disciplined than I am.

[00:45:59] Speaker: And so I'm working towards it. I'm a work in progress, people. We all are. That's right. Well, Charlie, I have no idea. Charlie, you watch podcasts, and you watch not necessarily podcasts. What do you watch? You watch YouTube. Who's your favorite person on YouTube? My favorite show or my favorite person? Either one. Ninja Kids. You love Ninja Kids. So when I told you you were going to be on this podcast,

[00:46:26] Speaker: What did you think it was gonna be like? Did you think it was gonna be like this or was it gonna be like Ninja Kids? This. What is this like? Is this super boring? No. It's cool. It was cool? Yeah. Did you learn anything? Sort of, sort of not. Yeah. Well, tell us one takeaway that you had from today. What do you mean? What's a takeaway? So tell me one thing that you remember. What's a takeaway? What's the one thing you remember? Do you remember anything specifically that I said?

[00:46:57] Speaker: Usual houses Okay, that's pretty good That's pretty good. Yeah. So Charlie you um, I'm gonna bring you back here maybe next year and we're gonna compare This interview to that one and we'll see how you've changed Does that sound like fun? Yeah. Yeah, this is a pretty studio. Yeah. Yeah. What's your favorite part of the studio?

[00:47:22] Speaker: everything all that stuff over there the guitars there's so many guitars in here that's what you don't see in this camera we're like in this wilderness setting and over there it's all these cool guitars but i'm way too nerdy and everyone can look at me and just go like that guy's never played the guitar there's no way that's authentic maybe we'll do that next time

[00:47:44] Speaker: But that's it. So that's the big wrap, everybody. And I'm going to get deeper into this as we continue to go through the podcast. But I wanted to share the general thoughts. It's more or less what we talk about when someone calls me and says, I'm thinking about getting the business. That's more or less it. And then we start right. The individual conversation is how how what do you want out of this and what would your life look like based on your goals and what you would like to make of it?

[00:48:10] Speaker: And clearly, we can't do that here today, but that's the basics. So hopefully that was useful for some of you guys out there. And I think that's it. I think this will wrap it up. Is it a wrap, Charlie? Yeah. Very nice. All right. Well, thanks, everybody. And I'll see you next time on the podcast.