The Everyday Millionaire Show
Ryan Greenberg and Nick Kalfas are two Maryland based business owners and investors. Ryan and Nick discuss topics such as basics of financial literacy, building businesses, investing, and real estate. This podcast is for people looking to achieve financial freedom.
The Everyday Millionaire Show
How the Top 1% Agent in North America Grows His Real Estate Portfolio – Keith James
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In today’s episode we are joined by Keith James, a top 1% agent. Keith shares his insights about what it takes to manage a top producing real estate team. We dive into social media, strategies for hiring, and much more!
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The Influencer Life
Speaker 1When you're like an influencer right , you're just putting out the best part of your life , basically , but they're not seeing the . You're seeing the tip of the iceberg , but they don't realize there's a mountain underneath the water , and all the stuff that you had to go through and all the struggles and all the shit . And you know all the late nights , early mornings , whatever they don't think , most people don't do a good job of showing that .
Speaker 3I tell people , instagram is kind of like a highlight reel . It's all of the wins . You know , every top , your top 10 of sports center . Every time you're posting something right . But what about the man ? I struggled with this ? Like , I posted something the other day when I bought my first house , I had a 580 credit score and about $75,000 in student loans and all of my clients know that . Like that , buy real estate . Because I tell them , like this is where I started , this is where I'm at right now . You don't have to start where I'm at . That's not even a real thing .
Speaker 1It's not a real thing . Welcome to the Everyday Millionaire Show with Ryan Greenberg and Nick Calvis . Alright , guys , welcome back to another episode of the Everyday Millionaire Show . We are here with Keith James , our second reoccurring guest . Second guest yeah , glad to be here , man . Awesome man . It's always a good time here in BPCon partying . I mean , we met last year and it's always a great time , man , thanks for coming on .
Speaker 3No , thank you for having me , man . I love what you guys are doing . It's an honor to be on the show and tell my story . Yeah , so I appreciate it , man .
Speaker 1What's life been like ? Man Keith James blowing up selling a bunch of real estate Like tell me about it , what's going on ?
Speaker 3Man , it's been fun . Man , it's been fun . You know we've been growing . We just launched Coalition Filly . Actually , we're launching it as we speak right now . I'm going through the process . You know , our main hub is in Washington DC . We launched Richmond at the end of last year , which is super cool . So we're growing a team . We're growing on the investment side . We closed on 100 units earlier this year . Nice , we closed in the city of Roosevelt , georgia , which was cool to be able to , you know , do that for friends and family . And , yeah , growing Asian count as well . So just trying to , you know . Also , we've been speaking a lot , which is super cool , to go out and tell our stories and talk about the model , talk about investing , talk about wealth building . You know our mission be the bridge to our community for all things real estate , lifestyle and wealth building , and so we're really really living out each one of those pillars right now .
Speaker 2What are some of the steps you have to take to open up another team in a different area ?
Speaker 3Yeah , first of all , you got to have a brand that the market center believes in . I think that's first and foremost . When we started coalition , one of our goals were to create an opportunity platform for other agents , other teams , to be able to come in and be successful . Right , we believe that every agent you know is the mayor of their community . Right , we don't . We're not the you know three headed monster up top and come in and you know , come under us . And no , you're not under us . We partner with you . We want to be the platform , we want to be the sole that you come and stand on and grow . And so the brand , that's super important and a proven concept of winning .
Speaker 3I think , too , you know a lot of things . A lot of the stuff that we tell , a lot of stuff that we say when we're recruiting is you know , come , be a part of the mission . You know , don't come and cause . You see a bunch of somebody selling a hundred homes a year . You come for me , like , really believe in our mission , and that's something else we talk to market centers about as well .
Building a Brand and Delegating Responsibilities
Speaker 2So can you break down ? For those listening who maybe haven't seen your previous episode with us , could you break down just briefly what you do and what coalition is ?
Speaker 3Yeah , yeah , yeah . So coalition , we are a real estate sales team . Since 2019 , we've sold over 1500 homes , over $650 million in real estate volume and , most importantly , we facilitated over a million dollars a charity . So we help people buy , sell and invest in real estate and we also facilitate money to charity as well . And we also teach about investing and wealth building . We host seminars . We host a lot of wealth building seminars and , yeah , my role per se I have two business partners with coalition . My role per se is just selling real estate . You know , they try to make life as easy as possible for me so I can sell a bunch of real estate and drive revenue and also meet with vendors and partner with partners , with vendors , so we can be successful as well .
Speaker 1So I want to quickly go back to what you were talking about with branding . Yeah , I have like an interesting kind of just theory or question to work through and I've had this issue where , like in my business contracting right People don't know my business's name . They just know Ryan Greenberg is a contractor .
Speaker 2So , what it like for you . Like Keith James , you have .
Speaker 1Keith James brand . How do you separate that or combine that with coalition so people start recognizing coalition and not Keith James ? So maybe one day Keith James doesn't have to work as coalition's leader ?
Speaker 3Yes , yes , yes , man , you know it's funny , ryan , like I talk a lot of , I talk a lot right now , like that's the topic of conversation in our leadership meetings , right ?
Speaker 3Because a lot of people when they come and clients per se , they want to work with me , they want to work with me and you know I love my clients , like I love , I love the game , like I love selling real estate , I love helping people get to the closing table and things of that nature .
Speaker 3I think it's more so of a I do , we do , you do , you know , bringing people with me when I'm doing that buyer consultation , bringing people along with me and my showing specialist when they're showing properties and just showing from a branding standpoint on social media , because , as you know , like for myself , I get a lot of business from social media . So just continuing to promote our agents and continuing to promote the work that they're doing as well , because you know , it's kind of like you know , one band , one sound , at one point it's going to be a time where they're not going to be able to call them and talk to Ryan , right ? So if you kind of step out on faith now and it's sometimes it's really stepping out on faith , like , hey , you're going to take this call instead of me , right , you're going to work with this person instead of me because they can best fit you for what you're trying to accomplish . Right , and you got to set the expectations , too , in the consultation when you're meeting with them .
Speaker 1Yeah , I think you know it's one of the things that I see and makes me think about this over and over again is like , for example , somebody like you , you got 20,000 plus followers on .
Speaker 2Instagram right .
Speaker 1How many followers does your business page have ? Oh man , 9,000 .
Speaker 3Okay so it's half Half right so .
Speaker 1I see a lot of people that have a lot of followers , you know . You see some people that got 100,000 , a million followers , but their business has 5,000 followers and that's a big problem because they're only branded personally and not their business . So when people call , they're expecting you and I'm trying to make it so they expect the company .
Speaker 3Exactly , and I think over the last couple of years , we've done a great job of telling the story of the company . Right , you got to tell your story of the company and when you're telling that story , you got to include other people Like , for example , my right hand guy is Angelo Industries . He's my showing specialist , he's my lead showing specialist . Everybody knows him because when you see us on social media , you see us together all the time at the closing table . Right this to the point now where people , when we meet in the consultation , they already know like because of the referral and because we have a referral based business as well , I'm sure it's your business as well they know that he's going to be the person that's showing properties and what I say in that consultation is that he showed properties better than me and I'm not lying , I'm telling the truth . He's shown over 6,000 homes in two years . He shows properties better than me , and what he's going to do he's going to do a mini inspection for you every time you walk into a property .
Speaker 3He has abilities and capabilities that I don't have , and that's the beauty of a team because in the market right now and buying homes , you have to have such an amazing skill set to sell real estate right now . Can't anyone just be an agent right now , right , and if I'm showing properties , I have no time to go negotiate the contract . I have a proven concept . I have a proven . The most important thing is you getting to that table , holding the key on my Instagram page , and when we do that , I have the concept to do that . And if you want to accomplish it at a high level , you need to come work and be a part of my concept . That has been proven .
Speaker 1Yeah , and that's huge man , because you don't wanna get stuck doing that thing , and I think a part of it too is training your clients a little bit too Absolutely . On my property management side , like I'm not good at looking for documents on our app Folio , so they text me and they say , hey , can you send me the lease ? I'm like , well , have you called the office , right ? Have you called Jocelyn ? Have you called Cody ? I'm not really capable of . I could , but it's not gonna be fast for me to find this thing . You could call my office and then I'll call the office , and you just gotta keep telling them that . So then the next time that they need something , they don't call me , they call the company .
Speaker 3Yeah , one thing I would say about that too . So in a listing presentation , in a buyer consultation , when I first meet with a client , we have a packet on who does what and who does what , and we have the headshot and we have the title Me , I'm the managing partner . I'm gonna negotiate your contract , we're gonna talk strategy , right , all communication goes with me . I have a transaction coordinator . Anything paperwork wise , anything calendar wise , anything appointment wise whether you have to go to the property , you go talk to that person , right , that's Tracy Allen best in the country too , by the way . Angelo , if you wanna see the property , if you wanna get out to see the property , if you wanna see properties , that's Angelo , and we're all in a group chat together , right . So you talk about training the client like .
Speaker 3You have to set that expectation in the first meeting . You're not the person to call for paperwork . That's not what I do . So we're on the same page with that . And also , too , you have to find people too that you really we believe in our people , the agent on our team , we truly believe in them and we tell them when they're coming on board . This isn't easy , the work that we've had to put in to build this brand like it was just me , harrison and Ryan and two agents when we started , right ? So we've built this brand over time and if you're gonna come and be a part of it , the client comes first . The client comes first and you have to be able to take yourself out of your shoes and put yourself in your client's shoes , because they don't know what they don't know , right .
Speaker 2And I think it goes for any business like delegation is probably one of the most important things . There's only so much one person can do and as I'm growing my rental portfolio and I used to you know the way I would market these rental properties for rent and deal with all of the inquiries . Like I'm putting all that to my assistant just to give my time back to focus on the more important things in the business to keep it growing .
Speaker 3Yeah , yeah . The one thing I see as business owners that hurts that process of like why don't call me for this ? Is that sometimes they're afraid to let go of certain things . Right , because who's gonna do it better than ?
Speaker 2you . That's the biggest thing . That's the biggest thing .
Speaker 3But like once you're gonna start to know you gotta get out of your own way , that's it . You gotta get out of your own way .
Speaker 1You gotta know what you're good at , you gotta know what you're not good at , and then put yourself in the position to be able to hire that person to do that job .
Speaker 3And that's hard man . That's a skill set in itself . Like getting out of your own way .
Speaker 1So for you with hiring agents now right , Like three of us , this is the hardest time in real estate that we've had in our careers .
Speaker 3Yeah , yeah , High rates low inventory .
Speaker 1What are you doing to hire agents ? You're recruiting agents . What are some of the things that you're looking at that's like this is one agent that I need to have , or this agent I don't think he's gonna fit our mold 100% .
Speaker 3You have to be hungry , humble and coachable , Like those three things .
Recruiting and Onboarding Real Estate Agents
Speaker 1How do you meet somebody and talk to them and know that that's gonna be their profile ?
Speaker 3You gotta ask the right questions , you know . So , when we are bringing on agents , it's not one meeting and oh , we like you come on , it's a process , right , we're quick to hire , we're slow to hire , quick to fire , right , like that's the process . And so we're probably having about three to five meetings before that agent actually comes on board . And also , too , we have a 30 , 60 , 90 day process to where we're not even announcing them until 90 days have passed , like hey , congrats on joining the team , right . So it's kind of like dating , right , you gotta have to date them first .
Speaker 3Right you have to know before you put the ring on them , like , okay , is this gonna be a right fit for you ? And asking those questions , vetting you know what's important to you . What do you see yourself in three years ? What do you need help with right now ? Show me your business plan . Show me your tax returns . How much money do you wanna make ? You know , what do you wanna do on the ? Do you have any aspirations of doing any nonprofit worker ? Giving back Like we're asking everything , man ?
Speaker 3Like be vulnerable , like we're gonna tell you about our struggles . This is what we're struggling with right now as a company , and as soon as you break that barrier down and be as transparent as possible , that's when you can get to okay , we think this may work for you . We have this motto . Or we don't think we're the right fit for you . But you don't know that until you ask the right questions and be vulnerable in these conversations , because a lot of times people are so quick to join and merge , and this is the same process myself , harrison and Ryan did when we started coalition . It was like an eight month process of us coming together and really launching the company . So you gotta be transparent .
Speaker 1So yeah , with all that , like people are right now , like agents are falling off the map . They gotta be right . When you're recruiting agents , do you want them to come from another brokerage so they have some experience , or do you want them fresh so you can coach them the way you wanna do it ? And then , like , what kind of infrastructure do you need when you hire these people ? The girl that we had on before , brittany , she wants to hire 500 agents this year . Well , what kind of infrastructure do you need to do that ? It's crazy . So what are you thinking about , like , when you see this agent they just came from long and foster or whatever . Or you got a new guy that's real hungry but he's never sold a house or never been attached to a brokerage 100% .
Speaker 3So you gotta be flexible with both of those people types of agents , right . And you have to be very transparent with the new agent and really help them understand , like right now , what's really going on in the business , because a lot of times they see social media and sometimes they can get blind spots by social media . It's not what you really see on social media . So , bringing them in the fold and shadowing , so we have a process . It's kind of like a buyer certification process . I don't care if you've sold five homes , I don't care if you sold 15 , 20 homes . You kind of have to .
Speaker 3This is the coalition way and basically you have to shadow a certain amount of buyer consultations , right . You have to do a certain number of showings with our showings , shadow a certain number of showings with our showing specialists right . You also have to shadow a certain number of inspections and you have to do a number of house previews before you can really take on it , before we give you a lead . Like , if you go to corporate and I have a corporate background , we had , I used to work for 3M and when you go to corporate , they're not just gonna give you a $10 million territory , they're not gonna do that you have to go through a training process for a year , like they make you go through it for a year . We give you a 90 day time frame . We give you some grace in that right , and until you do all of those things , that's how we can for sure trust you with . Hey , here's a client , take them and run with them .
Speaker 2Yeah , how many agents do you interview who you don't bring onto the team ?
Speaker 1That's a good question , oh , man , I guess like a percentage wise .
Speaker 3Yeah , and just to be like I'm not fully , I bring on agents but I'm not fully a part of the onboarding process as I direct the operations and my business partner , Ryan , but I would say on average maybe it's like 50-50, . To be honest with you , Like , we have conversations with agents and some agents are not about the grind and it's just . You can easily see that , okay , yeah , I just want leads . If you just want leads , we have leads . We have over 20 , like 40,000 people in the database that needs to be called . We got them . But if that's the first thing you're saying , you just want leads , probably not the right fit .
Speaker 1And how do you feel about agents that are working another job right and they're just getting into it ? Cause I know we interviewed James Weisskirk . He's like the W group they only hire . They have a very specific thing to hire . What's that for you , you know ?
Speaker 3we used to be the team that wouldn't hire dual career agents , but sometimes we forget , like I was a dual career agent when I started right , I'm actually doing a dual career class .
Speaker 3I'm starting to teach a dual career class right now .
Education and Growth in Real Estate
Speaker 3If you're hungry , humble and coachable and understand cause , we have a lot of government employees that are agents in DC and they work from home , they work remote . If you are about the grind and you're willing to put in the work that it takes remember 30 , 60 , 90 , you gotta be vetted . We can see that in 90 days . Then we'll hire a dual career agent . Yep , we understand too . We let them know because there's splits involved . We let them know like we have a high demand of clients . We have a big referral base , spear referrals . When you're bringing , when you're a dual career agent , you have to have the capacity to manage clients , and so you're not gonna be able to get as many clients In real estate . It's an unfair business . You're not gonna get as many clients as the guy that's over here selling 50 homes a year if you're selling 15 or 20 . And it's okay to sell 15 or 20 . But just know like , consider it most agents are selling one Exactly or none .
Speaker 3Exactly right . Yeah , but it goes back to yeah , I like selling real estate , this is my passion . I'll sell up my personal business and I'll sell 105 homes this year . Right , but that is not everyone , and it took me time to build up to that , so to speak .
Speaker 1So , as you're hiring agents , talking about the infrastructure of your business to safely scale and get more agents , what does the other hires look like ?
Speaker 3Yeah , you need a recruiter , you need a director of operations right , and sometimes , when it comes to you also need systems too , like automated systems , like we use a system called JotForm where people can fill out a form and it goes into our database an agent , and they go into our database and we can see , like , what they've done right and we reach out to them , set up a meeting . So those systems are very automated systems are very important as well and your director of operations has to be on it , like our director of operations . She's on it , like she's , you know , crossing the T and doting the I and making sure that you know these appointments are being set . We use something called a KPA , which is a it's kind of , it's a Keller Williams Key performance .
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah , yeah it's kind of like Tony Roberts , but it's a .
Speaker 3Keller Williams base , where it teaches you and helps you learn what type of a person you are when it comes to real estate sales and where you are like on the on the disc profile , so to speak .
Speaker 1So what's something that's coalition is doing that's separating you from the other teams that are selling a lot less , and what do they have to do ? Like , just right now we got a competitive environment . It's real tough , Like what's one thing Keith's like we gotta do this now because this is it's separate us .
Speaker 3More education . I think we're like we're an education based team , like we lead with education , and you know I still go to some of the new hire agent training classes that they have because I wanna know , like , what's going on , what's new , am I missing something ? So we really spend a lot of money in training our agents and educating our agents and coaching our agents , and I think , too , a lot of people don't spend money on that . They rather go spend money on leads and Zillow and things of that nature and not really investing like the training that their team actually needs to be successful , especially in a market like this , because this is not an easy market to sell real estate in . And so I think for us , we've stayed true to who we were and continue to educate . Like I'm at bigger pockets right now learning right , go to you know , build how we go to metrics mastermind with Ben Kenny out West in Arizona and Brian Gubernic Like we're investing in education and being able to bring that stuff back to our team is super important .
Speaker 2How important is it to educate your clients on real estate investing ?
Speaker 1It's super important . Well , Keith , you're like famous , for you sell them a residential home and then the next call is them investing in real estate . That's absolutely .
Speaker 2Can you like break down that process that you do with your clients ? Absolutely yeah .
Speaker 3So , going back to education , kind of understanding , like , okay , what can real estate do for you ? Like , you want to buy this home right . And I always tell people the best investment you can make is buying your first house right , and what type of leverage that creates for you . So when I'm talking with clients , what I like to do is ask them where do you see yourself in five years ? And that kind of gets the question open to okay , are they even open to buy more real estate ? But what happens ?
Speaker 3A lot , even the people that don't even think they're going to buy multiple homes in five years , once they buy their first house and we get that great deal for them and they look up in six months to eight months and the house next door sold , you know , $40,000 higher than what they bought their house for . And they kind of call me like , hey , keith , is this real ? Like properties are appreciating like this . Like , is this what's going on ? Like , absolutely . And also , too , when we do that deal and they find out , okay , I didn't have to bring as much cash to the table , so I maybe can repeat this model again .
Real Estate Investing
Speaker 3Now I'm famous for like my thing is buying your first property with a separate interest , basement right or buying multifamily properties , like that is something that I really like . Talk my clients and a lot of them rent out basements and so they repeat that model to where I got clients who have like five homes now in two years , seven doors in three years you know , and they're cash flowing and they're making money .
Speaker 3And I also like to tell them that 90% of the millionaires , 90% of your billionaires right now , got their wealth from real estate . 90% of the wealthiest Americans got their wealth from real estate right now . So , there's no need to reinvent the wheel .
Speaker 2Yeah , that's super important . I mean investing in real estate and having that passive income for the future is definitely something that people need to realize and , like you said , they maybe don't cross that realization until they do that by that first primary house and realize like , oh , this house just sold for this much more than my property , let me buy another one and just keep that first one as a rental property .
Speaker 3And you know , I think a lot of people also too , don't you hear all this stuff , a lot of real estate gurus saying you can do this , you can do that . You know , but what's really real ? Something I like to do is I like to host home buying seminars in my investment properties . So I come , I have them come out to look at what I paid for the property , I show them my closing documents , I show them my appraisal and I also show them the work that I'm gonna put into the house . And I do that before I renovate the property and I bring them back in after .
Speaker 2It's like a mastermind class .
Speaker 3You know and they can now see okay , you can go to your 401k and get $15,000 , $20,000 to pull out and not get a 15% penalty , because if you pull from your 401k for anything else other than real estate , you'll get a 15% penalty . They're kind of telling you they're giving you , they want you to buy real estate Like you're , and you're getting matched up to 6% with your 401k . That's leverage for you , that's cash that you didn't know you even had . And a lot of clients come to me they don't know that . They're like wow , I don't even have to touch my savings .
Speaker 1Well , they also think that they have to . I think they have to pull that money out instead of the idea of borrowing against it . Exactly , I think that's a big thing that people don't really understand , and why having assets like real estate is so important ? Because that's something that you can use as leverage to get the next thing .
Speaker 1And there's no other things in the world that the bank is trying to give you . You know all that money for for free , the game man , you gotta know all the rules . You gotta know all the rules . You gotta know all the rules . If you don't know the rules , then you know you're at a disadvantage . And I feel like a lot of people , just regular people , they just don't know the rules of the game . 1000% yeah .
Speaker 3I give my clients books to read , Like the book that changed my life . As everyone knows , I talk about it a lot is Rich Dad , Poor Dad , yeah . You know , when I read that book , you and every other .
Speaker 1Exactly .
Speaker 3You know , a month after reading that book , I went and bought my first house yeah , like for my first duplex and I started buying it in the neighborhood I grew up in , because people like me wasn't buying real estate and I wanted to show them . We didn't always have to be tenants , we can also be landlords .
Speaker 3And that was super important to me and I think a lot of times , like you said , like people don't know what they don't know , but it's so many rules out here that it's not . We don't talk about that enough . Like where is this information at ?
Speaker 2And there's so many different strategies . Even people that think about I want to get started in real estate , they may just not even get started because there's so many different things that you can do and you know , pertaining to maybe wholesaling or flipping or buying hold or just a hold tail or any other real estate strategy . It's like , just think about what you want to do , create a plan and then just do it , just focus on one thing . If you don't like that , then just try to do something else in real estate .
Speaker 3I get that all the time . People call me and they say I want to get into real estate . All right , but what part ?
Speaker 1What part . You want to be a lender . You want to be a landlord , yeah , yeah , you know .
Speaker 3Well , you know I was watching Instagram . Okay , let me tell you what . All you've been doing in real estate , like you know , go shadow , go be in a princess for somebody Like you really have to get the experience Like creating like a rotational program . That's what corporate America does . They have a rotational program that you can go work over here for 30 days . You can work over here for 30 days and find out what you like , don't ? Be , so quick to just , you know , jump out there .
Speaker 1Yeah , I also think I was talking about this before and I accidentally , one of the project managers that I hired recently started as my driver . Like , I hired this guy who's a friend of mine who drove me around . The reason I did that so I can work on my hotspot I had my laptop . We'll talk about this laptop situation .
Speaker 2What is a laptop ?
Speaker 1But I would work on my laptop and I would go to check on projects . I would go to show a property and he would be there with me every single day , seeing me do it , seeing me do this , meeting the person , knowing who the vendors are . And one day I needed a project manager . I'm like this guy knows everything that I've been doing . He just turned into a project manager , no training needed , no nothing . He's been watching me for the last six , eight months and that's like somebody can go and offer .
Speaker 1Actually , we had an intern that called me . I taught a little seminar financial literacy seminar for high school athletes . So I went there , talked to this group of kids . One kid came up to me after and he's like I really want to know more , I want to learn . So he called me the day he graduated . He texted me and he's like hey , I want to work for you this summer . You don't have to pay me . Wow , he's like I want to work for you , I want to learn everything that you know . I'm like , ok . So we brought him into the office . We ended up paying him .
Speaker 2I can't not pay the kid .
Speaker 1But he's going to college and stuff . We hooked him up , bought him a MacBook . He took it upon himself to come and offer to do whatever we told him to do . He would stuff envelopes , he would audit our leases , he would do whatever . And now this kid is 18 , in college , knows almost more than most real estate investors and winter break he's coming back .
Speaker 1He's going to work for us during winter break . Summer break next year he's going to work for us . He already has a login to Appfolio . He knows how to audit the water bills , like . There are so many things that he knows that he's at an advantage , because all he did was call and ask can I come hang out with you for free ?
Speaker 3Well it , sounds like he's hungry , humble and coachable , which is what we look for in people these days . So that's kind of huge and a lot of people are not willing to kind of put in their work . A lot of people want what you have , but they're not willing to put in the work that you put in .
Speaker 2That's big . I mean , that's a lot of people . Yes 90 , 95% of the population . They just think it just happens they ? See it online on social media and they're like I'm going to get into that and they don't see the behind the scenes stuff .
Speaker 1They don't man , I mean like Well , I don't think a lot of people do a good job of putting that out there too . When you're like an influencer , right , you're just putting out the best part of your life basically . But they're not seeing the . You're seeing the tip of the iceberg , but they don't realize there's a mountain underneath the water and all the stuff that you had to go through and all the struggles and all the shit .
Speaker 2And all the late nights , early mornings , whatever .
Speaker 1Most people don't do a good job of showing that .
Speaker 3That's so true , I tell people , instagram is kind of like a highlight reel . It's all of the wins , every top you're on the top 10 of sports center , every time you're posting something right .
Speaker 3But what about the man ? I struggle with this ? Like , I posted something the other day when I bought my first house , I had a 580 credit score and about $75,000 in student loans . And all of my clients know that . Like that buy real estate . Because I tell them like this is where I started , but this is where I'm at right now and the same can go for anyone . I put that out there first because I want them to know that you don't have to start where I'm at .
Speaker 2It's not even like that's not even a real thing .
Speaker 3It's not a real thing . It's not a real thing , right ? And even with agents you know like . Well , how did you sell 20 million your first year in real estate ? Well , I studied so hard Like I took an eight day real estate class to get my license . I shadowed my business partner , harrison Beecher and Ryan Butler . I was their showing specialist when I started out . I did a book . Who a rental rentals before I did my first deal because rentals I was learning how to talk with clients . I was learning like handling objections and things like that , and not many people are willing to go in and do rentals first .
Speaker 1And I also think it's . You know it's kind of sad to say , but , like in business , not everybody's created equal .
Speaker 1Like you don't have the sales skills that somebody else has , you're not gonna be as good Like . You have to know your role . If you're not good at talking to people and selling people on these ideas and these dreams , then maybe you should go into something on the backend or something that you don't need to be the face and you got to realize that . Like we said , get out of your own way and you know you might not be Keith James , even if you did work as hard as you did , you might not make 20 , you know , might not sell 20 million first year Because it's just not the same .
Speaker 3You're not the same , but yeah , you can't have a team full of LeBron James . Like , lebron needs role player , right . Lebron needs a shooter . Lebron needs somebody that can handle the ball Sometimes . You know what I mean . Like , lebron needs somebody that can throw it into the post . It's gonna give you 10 and 10 every night , right . Somebody has to rebound the ball and when you're making up a team , you need all of that , right ? You're gonna have your star player , that person that he's gonna know where his spot is , get to his spot , where he can shoot . I was a basketball player , I'm a Hooper , right , and if he's getting to it , if your star player is able to get to his spot and shoot the jumper , that he knows how to shoot , he's gonna be successful . If that star player is not getting to that spot and not shooting , you're not driving revenue . If you don't have the systems on the backend to support your people , you're not gonna be successful . So you need those systems .
Speaker 1We recently had a guest on Brad Dwin who wrote a book how to use chatGPT in real estate investing . Have you implemented anything with AI in your investing or in agent world ? One thing that I've been doing for my rentals and for some of the sale listings that I've had property descriptions that's big .
Speaker 2Yep , that's what I use it for .
Speaker 1You go into chatGPT say , have a two bed , three bath town home , bubble bot has new kitchen grant account tops and this thing eloquently writes you a beautiful property description , then you could tell it , shorten it up a little bit , make it a little bit longer . Have you been doing anything like ?
Speaker 3that , absolutely . We've actually started with property descriptions . That's what the first thing we started with , and then we started with captions and write-ups for our events . So we do a lot of events for our client base , our past clients , and so we started writing up descriptions . I recently just tested it for a job description as well .
Speaker 1Yeah
Technology's Role in Business Efficiency
Speaker 1, I've done that too .
Speaker 3ChatGPT will write out the job description for a certain hire that you're looking for . I think it's interesting . I also use chatGPT for some captions stuff . I kind of try to break it down to make it sound like me , but it's very interesting , man , and the time that it takes that I think for me . I don't have a lot of time to be writing captions . I don't have a lot of time to kind of figure it out , so I've definitely been using chatGPT for things like that .
Speaker 1It clears up some mental bandwidth . You don't have to think about the cute words to use in the description .
Speaker 1Now you could just type in the facts , yeah , and it pops up with the write-up . It's great and I'm excited to see what else is coming down the pike with this technology . And what else can it do for us as agents , as investors , as business owners in general ? And how can it ? It's sad to say , but how can we get that to bridge some gaps without hiring extra people ? Or it's going to take people's jobs . Eventually . There's going to be jobs created from it , but it's going to take people's jobs too .
Speaker 1And as business owners , we have to be on the ball , because the company that comes up after us , that does it better than us , has less employees , less overhead , their costs go down , they can charge less . Now we're at a disadvantage and I compare it to like there's a guy I go to the gym with and he has a similar business . He does restoration , construction like fires , water and stuff like that , and we always talk and a great guy , we compare a lot of stuff right . And I look at his business . He does similar revenue I think a little bit less than me this year Way more employee base , way more admin , because he's an older guy . I don't think he's done the research or the education on how to implement this technology .
Speaker 1When I show him my Dropbox , I'm like my whole life is right here and it's on my laptop . It's on my iPad . I don't need to have a person filing papers in my office and now you've got to pay somebody $15 , $20 , $30 an hour , and if they're filing papers and the other company , your competition , is using Dropbox . Well , there's not a comparison there . You're going to lose out because you're paying money for something that's already existing . That's automated .
Speaker 3Big time , big time . Yeah , technology is so important in business right now and if you're not getting acclimated with what systems and technology systems that are you using for technology to run your business efficiently , you're going to fall behind , especially right now , in the world of inflation . Everything is more expensive , you've got to pay people more , the cost of goods is growing up like crazy , and if you're not getting on that and also to what he should be doing , he should have someone following you around . That's another thing . If we see people that are doing certain things , we ask hey , let's set up a coffee , let's set up a mastermind , we'll pay you to learn more about your system .
Speaker 2But I think , at the same time there's certain companies and , like I said , he's a little bit older who are like stuck in the old ways of doing things to where ? They don't even think about that , and even if somebody presented it to them , they may look at it as something they don't want to do .
Speaker 1So time to talk some shit right now .
Speaker 2We're talking shit .
Speaker 1So Nick Calfis has built an amazing over 90 unit portfolio . This man doesn't own a laptop , he doesn't use a laptop . He thinks that having a laptop is unnecessary in business . So we have to convince him otherwise . This man is using his phone for everything that he does .
Speaker 2Yeah , I just think .
Speaker 3Talk to me . I want to hear more about that . We got to hear a lot about that , yeah .
Speaker 2You know you guys are so used to doing that and I'm not used to doing that to where it's like everything that I need to do I can do right on my phone . My phone is a computer . You guys can't answer phones on your laptop and also you have to pull out your laptop . I can be driving on the road , responding to emails , typing up contracts , leases , whatever I have to do , and you guys can't do that if you have to pull your laptop out , you got to pull over the side of the road .
Speaker 2You have to make sure you have internet , Whereas the phone automatically has . The internet has everything you need to do right on your handheld device .
Speaker 1But yeah , yeah , yeah , Uh-oh . I compared it to . You got two guys . The goal is to dig a hole . The one guy you give a shovel and the other guy you give a backhoe . Who are you going to bet on ? You want to dig a bigger hole faster . Oh man . Right ? How many hours a day use your laptop , Keith ?
Speaker 3It's funny now that he's saying what he's saying , probably an hour and a half on my laptop a day hour and a half .
Speaker 1Okay , now follow up question . Yeah .
Speaker 2I have one too . Have a follow up question .
Speaker 1If you had to do all of that stuff that you're doing on your laptop , on your cell phone , how long would it take you ?
Speaker 3It'll take me probably three hours , three hours .
Speaker 1There it is , mic drop , hold on .
Speaker 2Can you elaborate on any of the tests that you do ? That may take a little bit longer , that you're doing on your computer , that you can still do on your phone .
Speaker 3Yeah , I think , for example , we use Dot Loop . You're kind of familiar with Dot Loop , right ? I got the app right on my phone , all right . The app is one thing and it's not as user friendly as on the laptop for Dot Loop . So if I'm trying to reshare some stuff , it's kind of hard to do it or edit quickly before my admin , like instead of telling my admin to do it if it's like eight o'clock at night .
Speaker 2That's not the only issues that Dot Loop has in general . Sometimes when you send a contract to two people and one person opens it , and then there's like a whole freaking thing that goes on Right . However , there is an option to not use the app and just go right to your browser on your phone and pop up the whole webpage . That way too it is .
Speaker 3I've been doing that more and I think a lot of it is just making sure it's done correctly on the laptop . Another thing is too BrightMLS . Being able to look up BrightMLS app sucks . So being able to look up properties and say , hey , I'm going to send my client a list of properties right now that's under 450,000 , three bedrooms , two baths the laptop you can just . It takes me three minutes , two minutes to do that , and on my phone it'll probably take me 15 or 20 when you have to scroll up . But I will say he has a point on the phone . I just think that being more the efficiency of making sure it's done correctly the first time from the laptop , it's easier to do so .
Speaker 1Because you can see the whole document I'm a huge and attachments too , I use Gmail
Laptop vs. Phone Efficiency
Speaker 1.
Speaker 3What are you using for ? I use Send an email Yahoo . Okay , you use that Yahoo Like .
Speaker 2Attachments are great .
Speaker 3Files Like your file .
Speaker 2I have a harder time with my Gmail attaching larger files than I do with the Yahoo . Really , 100% , yep , interesting , wow , okay .
Speaker 3What about your mail app ? Is it ?
Speaker 2It's just the Yahoo Mail app .
Speaker 1He's a Green Text guy . You can literally oh .
Speaker 3You're an Android guy . Oh my God , green bubble guy .
Speaker 1So he's got an Android and no .
Speaker 3Tell us about the whole conversation , man . No cell phone , no laptop you can't even know . You mute his mic . You can hear me .
Speaker 1That's what Apple does .
Speaker 2man , we have to separate you now because you can't be in our group chat . Look , the conversation was whether or not a laptop is useful in all instances .
Speaker 1Well now , it got worse because now Keith found out that you not only not have a laptop , but you've got an .
Speaker 3Android ? Yeah , I guess my question is and I wish I could I was talking with my right hand , angelo , about this . He was saying Keith man , when you go on vacation , you really don't even have to use your laptop . And while I am finding , though , I am using my laptop less and less and less , and I don't think it's because of you don't need it , but you have people in the other back end .
Speaker 3Yeah , I think I have more leverage nowadays than versus the phone , but you do have a point . You do have a point and that's a podcast conversation too , by the way . We need to write that down . Yeah , laptop versus phone , yeah , being more efficient what about when you're , I guess , man , you got to send a long email .
Speaker 2On my phone . Everything , every email I send is always on my phone .
Speaker 3Yeah , what about when you're running analysis and stuff like that , like I guess , like performers and stuff like that ?
Speaker 2For analyzing a new deal . Yeah , analyzing a deal . I literally just analyze it in my head or in a calculator .
Speaker 3I may need to have him come speak to the team on efficiency on your phone by using an apple , because on our team you can't even be in the group chat if you have an Android .
Speaker 1You can't send pictures or videos . I got to send videos to .
Speaker 3Facebook or WhatsApp . Yeah , yeah , I got to DM you to get a video , man . No , I think no , no , I think I think Android has something .
Speaker 2Now , where I can , I can send you guys an attachment and it'll open up as a clear video , versus how it used to open up as like a blurry video .
Speaker 3Really it's not scratchy anymore . I haven't seen it yet . I haven't seen it .
Speaker 2It goes through like Google photos or Google videos when I send it . It's like an attachment now . So Android has come a little bit farther than they were .
Speaker 3Man , you know this is super funny , like interesting right now . Like I am trying to use my laptop less . I will say that because , like me , I'm going to go all the time I'm on the road . I'm on the phone like different conversations . I talk to 30 people a day at least and I'm trying to use my laptop as less as possible and I think a lot of times we get handicapped too . I'm just so used to bringing that laptop out because it's comfort and it feels good versus using the phone , but I've been actually trying to use my laptop a lot less , yeah .
Speaker 2So I think , Ryan , I think you are so used to using it that it's so hard to comprehend or wrap your head around going back to thinking , the days where you never had a laptop , which probably was . I mean , I used to have a laptop , like you know , in high school and a little bit of college , but I never had a laptop when I started my real estate business .
Speaker 1And for you you know you're doing . We're in slightly different businesses too , like if I'm writing an estimate and I got to look at plans on one screen and then have my estimate software up on the other screen . If I'm tabbing back and forth on my phone , it's going to take me a year .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 1But I'm just , I got this screen pulled up here .
Speaker 3I got this screen pulled up here and I can just work through it . I do agree .
Speaker 2Depending on your business .
Speaker 3I'm interesting Like tell me , man , this is cool , what are you ? What is the most efficient thing your phone can do , that your laptop can do for you ?
Speaker 2Everything . I don't have a laptop , so I wouldn't know .
Speaker 3Oh , you don't even have a laptop . That's what I'm saying .
Speaker 1It doesn't even have one Wow .
Speaker 2Everything that you guys can do on your laptop I can do on my phone and I do that and I build my business that way . Wow , I have Excel sheets that I log . Everything I have you know Google Word documents .
Speaker 3Yeah .
Speaker 2Like I said , the emails , I can do everything . Attachmentsloose write contracts , wow yeah .
Speaker 3How do you , what about ? Like so so I have to use Zoom to do consultations . My phone .
Speaker 2If I have to minimize it , I can still be in the corner and I can still go through my phone to go to anything I need to . If I'd have to respond to anything . What about sharing your screen , though I never had to do that .
Speaker 1I don't typically host Zoom meetings , okay , yeah . Yeah , his business is a little different , like you know . It's definitely easier for him to get away with not using it .
Speaker 3But you know for you're not selling . You're not selling anymore , right yeah ?
Speaker 2I still got a license , but I just okay .
Speaker 3So you're just building that portfolio . Okay , yeah , I can see that that's actually pretty cool , though . Cool though I like that .
Speaker 1It is . It's cool , but it's a cool topic to talk about because you get around a bunch of people .
Speaker 2Ryan's pissed .
Speaker 1I don't have one though I can tell a little bit . Be nice and maybe Christmas will come and you'll have a nice new laptop . But it's just . You know , it's interesting because we talked around a bunch of people and everybody looked like what the hell ? Like how do you operate without a computer ? Like that's crazy .
Speaker 2That's literally all right , wait a minute . So that's literally like somebody who's just once again investing . Looking at you , looking at all of us , like how the heck did they get to that point ? And that's the same thing , right .
Speaker 2It's like you started here , whereas , like I , just I didn't start with . You know , I don't have a laptop , obviously , and I just that's just what I'm used to doing all the time , and you guys are so far advanced with opening your laptop every day for your day to day business that you just can't bring yourself back to that when you first started , similar to like where we're at now . It's hard for us to think back where we first started , like it's hard to wrap myself around . You know my head around when I first , you know when I was thinking about buying my first property and like you know all that stuff .
Speaker 2I mean , obviously I still remember , but it's , you know , so far back there that it's like you know when someone's first starting out like and they mentioned like they don't know what the term hard money is or something like
Reflections on Careers and Giving Back
Speaker 2that .
Speaker 3It's like you know , I often look back to my corporate days and I think to myself how did I do all of this stuff for so little money ?
Speaker 1money . I was a teacher , dude , oh my God .
Speaker 3I did it for way less than you . Yeah , you did . Oh my God . Teachers oh my God , yeah , I do that a lot . I look back and I had a friend and he was telling me about that and a client she also . She's also in sale . I got a friend . He's in pharmaceutical sales and I have another friend . She's in pharmaceutical sales and they're like coaches as well . They sell , they have a quota to hit and they're coaches and get this . Now they have to coach agents Well , I call them agents their team members , right , right To go in and sell these products into these , to these doctors , right ? So they have to go on sales calls with them . They probably spent about 20 hours a week during this coaching , along with having to hit their sales goal . They only get a $5,000 stipend for coaching these , their team members . That's it , it's a $5,000 stipend .
Speaker 3I was like in the real estate world , you would get equity , you would get 5% of every deal they did , you should , you know , and they sell you on . Well , you can , potentially , if you do this , you're gonna move up in the corporate world , move up for what you know $10,000 , $15,000? . So I often looked back on that and was like cause I coached and I was moving up the corporate ladder . And I think to myself , like I did all that and you have to really know your work right Cause I didn't know grass was greener on the other side . When I got presented with the opportunity to sell real estate , I was like , isn't that commission based ? Like I have a W2 job , why would I want to go do that ? And now I understand that grass is green on the other side and I'm just making sure I water that grass .
Speaker 1I think the big thing that's for me is like there's no ceiling Right and I think in teaching I could have been the best teacher in the world or the worst teacher in the world .
Speaker 1I would have made the same exact amount of money and for me , like you know , I'm not gonna discuss like numbers or anything , but there was a couple of months where I was teaching and I made more money that month than I did the entire year teaching . Oh yeah , and I'm like , why does anybody do this ? And I'm like , I love teaching , I love the kids , I love coaching , I love that job , but like this is so demotivating that I know for a fact I can be the best at this , right , and this is how much I'm gonna make . This . Is it for that forever ? They tell you the teacher scale .
Speaker 1You could go online and see whatever teacher's making it's a public scale , and this is what that , to me , was like . It's like such a sad thing to look at , like God damn , we got 20% inflation and I got a 1% raise .
Speaker 3And they should be getting paid more than some business Business owners , more than corporate sales people , like they are teaching and teach . A lot of people think teaching is nine to five . My wife is an educator . Like teaching is not nowhere near close . Sometimes she puts in more hours than me and I'm like that's a lot .
Speaker 1It is Especially with kids , you know . Yeah , now it's crazy . So let's talk some numbers before we wrap this up . What's your team projected this year to sell , yeah , yeah , what's Keith James projected to sell ? Yeah , and what's next year look like for your goals ?
Speaker 3Yeah , man . So we're on track to do about 295 units this year . I'm on track to do about a buck 10 , 110 of those units Next year . We wanna have around 30 agents on our team . We want to sell about 350 homes next year .
Speaker 3And we wanna launch in two other markets as well , besides Philly and Richmond . Besides Philly and Richmond , I honestly wanna sell that's real estate , to be quite frank with you . So if I can find like five killers man to come on a team that can kind of , you know , take business away from me , because I wanna be able to go to these market centers like Philly and Richmond and get them up and running so we can be successful in those markets as well , because there's a lot of opportunity , you know , just outside of the DMV in real estate and kind of putting our brand in different areas . It's kind of a cool thing to do and that's kind of like my passion , and my passion has become more of , you know , helping our agents build wealth as well .
Speaker 1That's very important . Yeah , yeah , you gotta bring the people up with you . You know that's the big thing . You gotta give them a chance to do it . You know what you're doing Because , again , it's demotivating for somebody to not to think that they can only do X amount .
Speaker 3Right , right , Like you said , it's no ceiling , right . And I also feel like if we're not giving back , you know , and that's another pillar of our business is , you know , giving back ? If we're not giving back and bringing people up with us and teaching them the way , then honestly like , why do it ?
Speaker 3You know , I wanna find , you know , people that I can go back . So , on my nonprofit , we take kids to Africa , we take kids out of these hoods . Next year we're going to Brazil and that's my nonprofit work , you know . We take about 10 and 12 kids a year and just really showing them the environment outside of their neighborhoods is important For me . That's bigger than any cell that I can make or any deal I can close right there . You know , and I think the more I can do with that and also , too , with that , like I'm teaching them real estate , I'm teaching them tools , I'm teaching them how to build wealth , I'm giving them books to read and things of that nature , and that's super important to me . And what I find a lot of times is sometimes you can get burnt out in this business man .
Speaker 3And you gotta really have a big big Y of why you're doing what you're doing . But if you stay locked in on you know that thing over , and , over , and , over and over again , sometimes you can get burnt out . So you need other avenues and I call it like other therapy sessions you can go to to just kind of clear your mind and be successful . Yeah , yeah , having hobbies and all that kind of stuff .
Speaker 1It's important , it's important and that like going back to the teaching thing and like nonprofit and stuff like that , you really didn't like teaching man . No , no , no , no . I'm actually about to talk , I'm about to change my tune a little bit . So the one thing that I loved about teaching is that kid that comes back five years later and you see the development and they talk to you about what you did to change their life .
Speaker 1You know , like I had kids that I was teaching in ninth grade this was like 10 years ago that are now in their 20s and coming up and they got job . They were , like you know , dickhead in high school and now they got real jobs . They're driving around nice car . They're doing all these things and part of that was like my touch on them to like . We did this together Like we you know , and that's cool , Like doing that stuff .
Speaker 1it's so meaningful and it feels so good that that's what keeps you cause . The money is great , yeah for sure . But after a certain amount , like what are you doing ? That's what I feel like . You see , all these people you know the billionaire's wife's doing like charity , you know , starting charities and stuff like that , like that is the ultimate goal . But when the money is not the thing that you're thinking about , it's like what can I do with that money to like change people's lives ? And that's super cool .
Speaker 3That's super important . I mean , you know , on that same book , that every real estate agent probably read Rich Dad , poor Day . You know he talks about it a lot . But I think too , you know a lot of times when we're not doing that , that piece right there , how are we getting our cups filled ? You know cause we're emptying our cups out a lot . You know we're dealing with properties that you know need a roof replacement . We're getting a call from the tenants you know we're dealing with , you know , clients and things of that nature , and we're taking on a bunch of energies that we don't even realize a lot of time , you know . And so we're pouring out of our cup a lot . But you got to do things to fill your cup up and if you're not doing that , man , you're going to get burnt out so quick in this business and you got to make sure you're continuing to invest in yourself and get your cup filled as well . Yeah , hell yeah .
Speaker 1Well , keith James . Thanks again , man . It's always a pleasure . I appreciate it . Can't wait to party tonight . Hey , let's do it , man , it's going to be a good time . Anybody listening from Maryland ? We are hosting an event , the Everyday Millionaire Meetup , on 1026 , october 26th , 6 to 9 at the point , and Towson should be 100 , 150 people there . It's going to be a good time . It's always fun . We always give away some money , some things . It's good stuff , man , and yeah , have a good time .
Speaker 3Yeah , man Can I .
Speaker 1I want to plug , yeah .
The Link Mastermind in Washington DC
Speaker 3November 28th we're doing a mastermind called the Link Mastermind in Washington DC . We're bringing in about 30 agents to mastermind . We're going to open up the books and show you how to build wealth , talk about tax strategies and things of that nature . Go to thelinkmastermindcom or you can go to my Instagram page at Keith James Realtor and also our team Instagram page , coalition Properties , to get more details on the Link Mastermind . But it's going to be super cool . We're going to have agents that are 8 million and above talking about wealth building and we're going to have people come in and teach classes and things of that nature . But this is the first inaugural the Link Mastermind that we're going to put on , so super excited about that Put on your calendars .
Speaker 1Yeah , all right , man . Thanks , keith . Thanks so much , man , yeah .