The Everyday Millionaire Show
The Everyday Millionaire Show
From Passion to Partnership: The Rise of VYBE Realty
Discover how a shared passion for bow fishing led Steve Pipich and Michael Griesser to craft their real estate dream team, VYBE Realty. We promise you'll learn the secrets behind their rapid transformation from individual agents to leaders of a flourishing brokerage.
Tune in as we explore the impactful strategies Steve and Mike employed to elevate their brokerage to new heights. From understanding the power of strategic delegation to tackling the challenge of client expectations with a team-based approach, you'll gain insights into creating an efficient, client-focused operation. Their journey is a masterclass in navigating growth, balancing personal involvement, and building robust systems for sustainable success.
Did you have a moment where you were like, oh shit, I'm responsible now for this person and like, because 99 homes? It's easy to justify hiring somebody. But if you're 10 homes probably not going to be able to hire an admin.
Speaker 3:There probably isn't a reason for you to hire an admin right Like I was too late to the game with hiring help, I actually hired a buyer's agent to help service the business which was making me the money, because I didn't have enough time to service extra business because I was doing the paperwork.
Speaker 2:It's always in the conversations and even when I have like one-on-one meetings, it's never about like, sometimes, business first. It's like what makes the most sense for you, like, what are you missing? How can your business grow? And let's figure that out. Naturally, we'll align in business in some way.
Speaker 1:Group chats are amazing, like the fact that we didn't have that for so long, like there was a time where we did not have group text, we had text messages only.
Speaker 2:Single text messages and the iPhone came out and you could do it, but Androids couldn't be a part of that.
Speaker 1:It wouldn't let you tag an Android phone into the group chat.
Speaker 2:Right All right guys.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to another episode of the Everyday Millionaire Show. We're here with the Vibe Realty guys Stephen Pippage and Mike Greiser.
Speaker 3:I psyched myself out there for a second. You did Sorry. Sorry about that. We'll work on your confidence during the show.
Speaker 1:Obviously, we got Chase here. Nick, how you doing? Guys, Good. How you guys doing. Thank you guys for coming from both of you in Hartford County. No, guys Good. How are you guys doing? Thank you guys for coming from Harford.
Speaker 2:Both of you in Harford County, no Baltimore.
Speaker 1:County. Oh, Baltimore County. I thought you were in like Faulston or something. Is that Baltimore?
Speaker 5:County Phoenix. Yeah, oh, Phoenix Okay.
Speaker 1:Okay, phoenix. Yeah Well, thank you for coming down. I know it's a journey to get down here Of talk to you guys about your brokerage. You guys came onto the scene pretty strong in the last you know year or two and want to talk about, kind of how you built it, um, where you were, where you are now, um, what made you decide to build it, that kind of thing. So why don't you give us like an elevator pitch from each of you of kind of like what brought you from where you came from to Vibe to start Vibe First, then we'll break it down from there, sure yeah Oof.
Speaker 3:How did we get here? I would say honestly, like Steve and I met early on in, was it 2020?
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm yeah 2020 we met.
Speaker 3:Yeah, fall, and actually we connected over fishing or not, so I was bow fishing a lot of the time. I had run into Steve at a I think it was 30 in their thirties event.
Speaker 3:And uh he walked up to me and said, oh, you're the guy that does a lot of bow fishing, right, and I was like I do, yeah, I do a lot of bow fishing. We talked about that a little bit and Steve was like man, the next time you're going, if you have a spot, let me know I'll go. But everyone says that, you know, everyone says that. So three or four days go by and I have a buddy drop out and it's the 11th hour, like two and a half hours before we leave the dock, and I call Steve. I'm like you're up, dude, I got an extra spot. You want to come? He's like, yeah, where at? I dropped him a pin. He's like when, like 930. He's like see you there, I'm in. So right, then I knew he was different, right, because everybody says I want to do that thing, but when the opportunity presents itself, it's very rare that somebody actually takes you up on it.
Speaker 3:I think from that point forward, like we became fast friends, right, we connected on a lot of different levels.
Speaker 3:There was a lot of similarities from everything to our family life, the way we see opportunity, the way we act on opportunity, the way we've built our businesses or brands, and probably my favorite similarity is it's people first.
Speaker 3:It's always been people first, right, and it became really clear to me that that's how Steve operated in his life and in his business, which is something I've always strived for and I've always admired about Steve. So when we began further conversations about our pathways and where we were going, I don't think that we saw a clear pathway to get where we both wanted to be under the umbrella that we were at at the time, and it wasn't anything personal, it was just that we wanted to create opportunities for some of those that were in our organization and were loyal to us from the beginning and didn't really know how to do that there. So we had talked about different places or exploring other options. There really wasn't anything that was a perfect fit, and I remember, like it was yesterday, we were driving to a Ravens game and just kind of kicking some ideas back and forth and I just looked over at Steve and Steve looked over at me and I thought in my mind we just started a brokerage and about nine months later we launched.
Speaker 3:So, when you guys first met.
Speaker 4:You guys were both realtors. Did you guys both have your own individual teams?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I had a team that started organically in 2018, 2019. And it just happened through just attraction, right? So an agent, a buddy of mine, had a good business, but he saw sort of what we were doing and the small team that I had and wanted to be a part of it. We were doing and the small team that I had and wanted to be a part of it, so from the beginning, it was myself and one admin hire. And then he came on the board so we both shared an admin. A year later, I had four agents at once say hey, I want to join your team. What does it look like if I come over? Okay, great, we have one admin support. Holy shit, we're now lopsided. We need some more support. We probably didn't need more support at the time, but I just felt that I wanted to give them more value. That team eventually grew, as it in 2022 is at its peak of about 25 agents. Ian had six on staff right before Vibe became something, so yeah, for me a pretty similar story.
Speaker 3:I was solo agent from 2016 to 2018. Had a single agent raise their hand and say hey, I love what you're doing and I could use some more opportunity. Do you think that you could present me with the opportunity and it was just a perfect marriage really Cause I my business was growing pretty quickly. I was under leveraged at the time and really needed either a showing assistant or a buyer's agent. From there we hired an admin and I think before we started it was eight agents, two admin.
Speaker 4:So for the people out there listening who may be agents, solo agents, and they're looking to hire their first admin. What would you suggest, or at what point did you figure out and determine that you guys needed to hire an admin to be on your team?
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, for me it was. I didn't want to do the things that weren't making me money, you know, things that I was doing. That wasn't my pay per hour. So my, when I went full time into real estate was in 2017, I had then sold 99 homes that year for 17 million lower price point. I did have some investors which kind of drove the price point down, but I was writing my own offers, doing contract management, putting on lock boxes, attending all the things that I had to attend and then making a bunch of money.
Speaker 2:But I would come home, my wife's like, hey, we have dinner plans at 9pm or, sorry, 6pm, and I would say, well, I have an offer to write. Can you give me an hour to write this offer? Get it out to the client, and she would say, yes, but then that would then continue right. So it impacted my home life and so in September of 2017, just after I went full time in the business, I hired my assistant. I got married in October 2017, went on my honeymoon and she was by herself, and that is when I kind of saw the full value of what they offered, because I wasn't able to unplug completely in my honeymoon. We never can, but I was able to an extent to where I could get my time back, and so all the things that wasn't worth my pay per hour I had her do, and things I didn't enjoy, Things.
Speaker 1:I don't want to do. I do feel that you know it's easy to say, oh, it's not worth my time per hour. But think about not selling 99 homes. What if you were selling 10 homes? When does that person that is, a new agent that maybe had a good first year, he sold 10, 15, 20 homes, whatever made some money but doesn't have a track record of selling 20 homes a year so they might be scared to hire somebody and take that responsibility of like hiring? Did you have a moment where you were like, oh shit, I'm responsible now for this person and like, if I don't produce, like, was there a time where you were like nervous about that?
Speaker 1:because 99 homes, it's easy to justify hiring somebody, but if you're 10 homes probably not going to be able to hire an admin, so you can't say, oh, I'm not going to do this because I don't want to.
Speaker 3:Well, I would say 10 homes, there probably isn't a reason for you to hire an admin right Like. I was too late to the game with hiring help, and the reason I say that is because I actually hired a buyer's agent to help service the business which was making me the money, because I didn't have enough time to service extra business because I was doing the paperwork.
Speaker 1:Now your buyer's agent. Were they on a salary or are they on a commission split?
Speaker 3:Commission split, Commission split, yeah, team leads.
Speaker 2:And what they say is an MRE model is you should hire two assistants before your first buyer's agent. You should hire two helpers. And there's a difference of luxury versus leverage. Luxury is like I don't want to go cut my grass because I want to stay on the couch and watch TV. That's luxury. Leverage is hiring somebody so they can do things for you, so you can go out and get more business. They should be making you money.
Speaker 2:There's a complete difference in that, and you're right. I mean, if you're doing two contracts a month, like in my opinion, you don't have enough business to where you can justify a hire. You can use a pay per transaction where they're doing things for you. It's one option. Or you can join a company similar to what we have at Vibe, where they can align and have all the support services without having to pay someone and train them, keep them accountable and have that responsibility in your head of like man, if I don't produce, then I got to pay this person's salary. Or have that conversation of hey, I can't afford you anymore and we didn't want to have that.
Speaker 1:Right, and that's what in other businesses that don't have a commission split model, like in property management or in construction, you kind of just have to hire somebody and pay them, no matter what, whether things are good or bad With what you guys got, at least with your buyer's agent it's you eat what you kill, kind of thing. So I think that's an easier kind of pill to swallow. So you're saying that the first hire should be basically admin assistance and then go for the buyer's agent. So until then you're the buyer's agent.
Speaker 3:So until then you're the buyer's agent, you're the one that's taking on those deals or even admin, and then even after that you could do a showing assistant, right Somebody?
Speaker 2:you pay per showing because that sucks up a lot of your time as well, yeah, and that's how I operate my business now is I? I'm very much in production still Cause I it. I got this business because I do enjoy it. I like their relationships, I like the drive of having a plate that's overfilling. So I have showing assistants, agents in our company that are showing properties for me, for my clients in different counties, and so they have responsibilities to jump into group messages and a person requests a tour. They're helping out. Of course I'm involved because I want to stay connected to that person. I just can't be in numerous places at one time. So for me it's I'm still in production, but I'm leveraged to the point where I just I have the help and I'm still able to kind of enjoy myself.
Speaker 1:Now, how do you deal with the and I've asked this to a number of agents and we've got a number of different answers. But how do you deal with the person that says, well, I don't want to work with your showing agent, I hired Steve Pippage, I want to work with you because you clearly, if they work for you, you clearly know more right, so I want to work with you. How do you overcome that like obstacle?
Speaker 2:like obstacle, like so for me. I want to do, ideally, the first tour with them myself. You know I want to. I want to build the rapport, reconnect with them. It could have been a friend from me growing up, a person I went to school with, a person I used to work with. So I want to reconnect with them and if it's in my neighborhood or you know where I can go, I would want to go Right.
Speaker 2:But very early on I have the conversation of and it's never my showing assistant, it's my sales partner, right. So this is my partner. When I'm not available, they will go out and tour homes with you and I, very early on, bring them in the conversation, right. And so what I want that person to do is now have an identity with my clients so they introduce themselves as well of like, hey, this is so-and-so, I can't wait to meet you this Sunday. I look forward to seeing you or seeing these properties and they honestly probably do a better job than I can because they're very much in those conversations and building the rapport and consistently they want to see them win and I'm here just more giving guidance and consulting from the back, just being a quarterback.
Speaker 2:So I don't think there's any kind of pushback. There are times where I may have a friend that says hey, there's two agents that I know very well. This person is going to be with me as the doctor, right, and this person's with me. You know, here and there, like I want you to be with me the entire time and there's the same conversation with. I go to a meeting or sort of appointment with you and I tell you that I'm a single agent and you're going to have me the entire time, versus Nick may have a team and you're not going to get Nick the entire time. The same, I guess, analogy of going to a doctor's appointment when you go in you don't talk to the doctor to get, get you know, to take your blood pressure or to get your weight or to take your follow-up appointment that's always somebody in place. So explaining like that to them, I think they can understand and appreciate, and you know I try to be there as much as I can.
Speaker 3:Though you know I think steve hinted to it, but it's all about the introduction, right, and most of the people that are using most of my clients and I'm sure it's the same with Steve they know we're busy, right. They know that we're doing a lot of different things, and the way that I've always said it and it's 100% true is I never want to be the reason that you don't make it to the showing, right, because my schedule, my calendar, gets filled up very quickly. If I have someone to support me in that role, when it was highly competitive and houses were going on the market Friday and you, you know, if you didn't make it in the weekend, you weren't getting in. If my weekend was booked up with other activities but I had a showing assistant or a showing partner that could meet you Friday, saturday or Sunday. That was in your best, that was your best option, right, it was everybody's best option. And then I'm still there to review the contract, I'm still building a report with the agent, I'm still submitting the contract and negotiating on your behalf.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's. It's so important to have those conversations with people, though, because then it would avoid avoids the people's thinking that you did like a bait and switch. Right, we're just like. And in the contracting space too, a lot of the big question I get is like are you going to subcontract this out? Are you going to do this yourself? And people like the fact that we have employees that are doing this and we're not just hiring some other company to come in and sub. So I always find it interesting on how different agents that have teams and have people doing the showings and stuff like that kind of overcome that objection, because I'm sure that there are times where people feel a certain way If you're like hey, I'm Steve, I'm the, I'm your agent, but now here's this other person to walk you around and I'll be there when I collect the check.
Speaker 3:Well, it was really tough for me to make the transition, honestly, into using that type of leverage, because I can remember being a newer agent and being kind of the backup guy, like getting the follow-up phone call, like yeah, you know, we used this person before but they tried to pawn us off on somebody who doesn't know anything. So, because we know you, we'd rather just go ahead through the process with you. So when I got to a point where I needed to utilize this type of leverage, it was with a lot of care that I came up with how I was going to make that transition because, like you said, you never wanted to feel like a bait and switch. Right, it's just someone supporting myself so I can do a better job for you.
Speaker 1:And I asked that question selfishly because I have the same situation with Chase, where I'm dealing with this investor, maybe for several months, doing their construction project, and I pitched to them that I'm the full service which we are, but then I say Chase is the agent. It's like, well, who is it, you know? And people like, people wonder, like this guy that we're about to list, for he asked me what the structure is. I was like, listen, you don't want me doing that part because he's going to dedicate all the time to that.
Speaker 1:Where I have to dedicate to your next project or to whatever. So it is something that people typically they want to talk to, whoever's you know in charge. So I feel like you have to put that other person in that position to be in some sort of charge or calling them a partner or whatever it is, to make those, to kind of overcome those objections.
Speaker 2:And bring them in as early as possible, have the conversation. So they're known, they have an identity, they have a role, and you could say that they're hiring you but they're getting chased for free, right? So you're getting two people for the price of one, and so yeah, so if you bring somebody in half with a transaction, they're going to feel they got pawned off.
Speaker 3:They're going to Well. I also think it's important that you stay available right, and you communicate throughout the process and you know exactly what's going on every step of the way. It's like you say with the contracting business you're not the guy hanging the drywall, but you know when he's done, you know when they're going to start finishing you know when paint starts right and you have to to properly manage that.
Speaker 3:So if they do come back to you, the client, and say, hey, ryan, when does paint start, you're not like, uh, you know, I have no idea, right, so you have to stay up to date, even with contract to close. We run into that because the admins do a wonderful job. So there might be a hiccup right now while we're on this podcast that I don't know about, but the first call when I get out of here is to my admin saying, hey, what's going on with?
Speaker 3:these contracts so that I know who to follow up with first and I'm aware of what's going on in those deals, because you never want to have where you follow up with a client or return that call first and they go hey, what do I do about this deposit issue? And you're like, what deposit issue? So you have to stay kind of in the fold, if you will.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean. For me it's a lot of group messages, so texting is the highest form of group. Group chats are amazing the fact that we didn't have that for so long Chase. You might be a little young but there was a time where we did not have group text. We had text messages only single text messages, oh okay, then the iPhone came out and you could do it, but Androids couldn't be a part of that. It wouldn't let you tag an Android phone into the group chat Right now, you guys are both iPhone guys right.
Speaker 3:Correct. Good, good, I saw Nick's not on.
Speaker 1:No, we've had these conversations before on the podcast. We're not going to bore everybody with how poor Nick is.
Speaker 4:So you guys started Vibe. You guys decided to come together. You had your own teams at one point, came together, created Vibe, you said 17 months ago, and you've already grown it to 128 agents. Yeah, so what did that process look like from the beginning and starting it and creating, you know that brokerage to growing it to where it is now?
Speaker 1:And I guess how many agents came with you when you originally started? Because you had a team and you had a team, yeah, what was that? A starting number to where you are now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a highs and everyone came over and there was some on my team that felt like they were losing something because we were collapsing the team into the brokerage it was formerly the SP Home Team but now Vibrillity because I wanted them to have their own identity and own brand. So we had about high 20 agents, 25, 27 agents and about seven or eight on the support staff side and you know, from the beginning it was a lot of just getting acclimated to each other. So we had like kind of like a rollout party, us to sort of like meet each other. This is why we're here. This is the big vision, this is where we want to go and this is why we're doing this. And I mentioned it before that every person in the company so far has been through attraction, has been an inbound lead, that they want to be a part of the culture and something that we're building. And it isn't about us. If you look at our org chart, we're not even on the org chart as leaders. So we're very much in the agent pool. Of course we're leadership and give direction, give vision, but our operations team runs the company right.
Speaker 2:So where we've gone to now? 120 agents and about 25 people on the support staff side. It's just been through. Okay, where are our holes? And we're very much in touch with like every week. Okay, what are the opportunities, what are the weaknesses, what are the threats and how can we grow through this? Right, we're constantly pivoting and trying to look for the next, how to grow, the next level. So we have, you know, department heads and they talk constantly and if you look at our work chart, it's very much. It's high support, high leverage, and they're all in alignment with each other.
Speaker 1:They all communicate and they're all in alignment with each other. They all communicate yeah, I was going to say so. Like with you both being in production, there's other things to running a brokerage than selling houses. So how do you manage those people while you're still managing your production?
Speaker 3:We've been really, really, really lucky to put the right people in the right seats Really lucky, I mean. I think the short answer to Nick's question is quickly and very messy, that's. That's sort of how it grew, Um, it was constant, pivoting, and we've been really really lucky that the department heads that we either had in place previously or ones we hired when we started vibe, um, they shared in the vision and they shared in the energy and they were just willing to kind of put their best foot forward and we've a lot of collaboration right, Because everybody's kind of come from real estate backgrounds but they've been in different offices or at different franchises, so just everybody pulling their knowledge and just being open-minded right Like a lot of just mutual respect in the leadership at vibe. And no matter who brings an idea, like we vet it and if we think it's a good idea we run with it.
Speaker 1:Did you ever have a moment where you thought you were growing too fast?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was a fear that we don't want to grow too fast, and then our operations team is getting bombarded with questions and challenges and then it's messy. We wanted every person to come to the company to have that experience of like, holy shit, where I came from, why wasn't I here 12 months ago? Right, and we get those conversations now. Uh, and they're excited to talk to people. So, you know, we have a lot of agents in our company now that are being brought over by agents in our company because of how much they can advocate for us. And that's where it makes you feel good, right, we're not having a cell, it's just they're sometimes coming to our company. We're not even having a conversation with them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that, that and that could be a gift and a curse too, because what we've we've experienced that in our companies, where we've gone through these big ebbs and flows, we've grown super fast and then the systems start to get strained and you could feel it as a as a leader, as an owner, that the staff is stressed, like that you could feel and see that there's mistakes, silly mistakes being made because you're probably putting too many things on their plate, and then you as an owner, as a leader, as whatever you want to call yourself, has to be able to pull back the reins or completely rebuild whatever system may have just broke, because 30 agents is different than 50 agents, is different than 100 agents. And do you guys have like meetings that are specifically talking about like, what is the capacity that we have right now? Can we bring on another team of 50 people? Can, and what does that look like? Cause everybody always talks about like scale, scale, scale, but at what cost? Right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's important to think about that because, like Steve said, everybody that we've recruited up until this point has been an inbound, inbound caller, inbound lead and, honestly, the reason for that isn't because we're lazy guys and don't want to recruit or don't have the relationships. It's because the systems were constantly strained Right and so we lost the ability very quickly to be proactive and we were reactive for a very long time which I think most businesses that's how it goes.
Speaker 1:I think you want it to whether you know it or not, right.
Speaker 3:Like you, you want to lose that ability at some point. But you also have to have the foresight to slow down and realize, look, we have to slow down for a little while before we can speed back up because there is that stress on the organization, right? So you got to level on your people a little bit and you got to figure out where are we weak, who needs support? How do we get them support and how do we rebuild these systems and ramp up for that next big push?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that part is so hard to get control of, as somebody that is like entrepreneurial, that has goals and like likes money obviously, and you see it, and it's so easy to see in the short term, like, oh, we just keep, we can keep growing, we can keep growing, and you don't. Really it's easy to just put on the blinders and just not pay attention to a lot of the small issues that then will turn into bigger and bigger and kind of snowball snowball issues. So I think that's one thing that you know. If you're starting a business, like just for advice, you should have those check-ins with the people and make sure that, like, are you okay, right? You know, like you're the admin, you're the whoever, you're the bookkeeper, the person who sweeps the floors, like if there's too many people at the office, the cleaner might be overwhelmed. Like just you know a crazy example the office, the cleaner might be overwhelmed. Like just you know a crazy example.
Speaker 1:But all of those people you need to be checking in, because what we've had happen that has not, I don't want to say, destroyed us, but has put us in a very stressful situation is when you have that high level person that then leaves and now you're thrown into, uh, back into the the mix of things, right, like we had somebody leave a high level property management person and we had to.
Speaker 1:They were doing all the owner payouts. I didn't know how to do owner payouts, like I was approving them, but I didn't know how to go into the system and do it. And then, like through triage, you hire a consultant, you do this, we, we did it, we figured it out. Now we're, you know, two or three months in now and it's back to normal. But you do go through these crazy ebbs and flows of like happy and on track and then too busy and then not busy enough. So when you guys have that, you know, in mind, do you have quarterly goals or annual goals that you're trying to hit for your growth, or do you like just goals or annual goals that you're trying to hit for your growth, or do you just roll with what you got coming in?
Speaker 3:Right now, I'd say that we're in a place where we're being very proactive about rebuilding systems and making sure that we're intentional with our goals and building the systems so that they can withstand that capacity. That's something we didn't get an opportunity to do before. So, like you just mentioned with coaching or consulting, right that we're going to some higher level people and saying, all right, these are truly our goals over the next 12 or 16 months. Here are our systems. Here what we know our weak spots are. Why don't you play around with some numbers and some metrics and figure out does it make sense to keep going in this direction and how quickly can we do it without losing those high level people? Just to touch on something, I mean, you're right, you have to go back to the people, at least your top level employees all the way down to the people that are sweeping the floors or cleaning the offices and that's something that I had never done before in my business and I don't think that you really had either.
Speaker 3:And we've just gotten. We've been really fortunate. Our director of ops is so amazing at that. Yeah, so amazing at that.
Speaker 1:That and that is um, when you have that person, it's like truly life changing, right. And that's like the first time you hire an assistant. You're like, oh, wow, like I could breathe again. Yeah, and that's like the first time you hire an assistant. You're like, oh wow, like I could breathe again. But in what happened to me and now I'm backtracking and figuring it out again it's like we this year had two very high level people in our company leave and that made me really reflect on maybe this is too much. Maybe we need to take and look at the jobs Like is this job the right job for us to take?
Speaker 1:Does if this person says I have 50 houses this year to remodel, but I know I'm only going to make a five to 10% net, maybe that's not. Maybe it's good to say no too. I think the power in saying no sometimes is it's hard like to do as an owner. But and you? And why? I ask that? Because the way you guys have grown to not have a lot of and I'm sure you have internal issues that people don't see but like to not have things kind of blow up in your face is truly amazing, because 100 fucking agents is a lot of people, 125 agents a lot of people to answer to or to you know yeah, like that's a lot.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we've never even had a heated argument. Yeah, that's amazing in itself.
Speaker 2:We've had some disagreements, and just this conversation of like this is what I think and like one of us is like you know what you're right, like this, and then we just collaborate on that.
Speaker 2:So, and internally, of course there's going to be you know, every system's not perfect, every employee not perfect but we've yet to lose one staff member, not one that has left, and I think it's because we're aware of where they are and we have great department heads that are in conversation with the people that are beneath them Not beneath them, but like to work with them, and so we're constantly aware of where that is. And I think now we are still skilled to grow right and just like an agent does, as their business grows, they hire a buyer's agent or they hire somebody else to kind of help them with their showings and with our department heads, as we continue to grow, we don't need another department head right next to them. That person can do their job and give direction and vision and call the shots. It's the help they have to support them that is going to free up their time and let them, like you said, let them breathe and then they can let them grow.
Speaker 4:So obviously on a brokerage you want to make money. How did you guys determine your commission splits? Thinking of you know you guys want to make money as a business, but also thinking of the agent and obviously they want to maximize their commission as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, great question. So both of us had a team prior to that and you kind of have an idea where team splits and commission structures are in the whole, always be in line where the competition is, but give a tremendous amount of value and leverage. So we have monthly P&L meetings, we're reviewing the numbers and of course there are slower times of the year between November and February and you sometimes go in the red during those months, but it's the busier months. That kind of make up for those times. And the vision was that we knew in the beginning we're going to be very high expense, high salaries, and tech is not cheap either and as we grow that is going to turn right. And of course the bigger opportunity is the businesses within the company. You have all the small businesses that also support the bigger is the businesses within the company. You have other small businesses that also support the bigger vision and goal and as we grow that number is just the upsides 100% there.
Speaker 2:So we've done, of course, guerrilla-type marketing and checking where other companies are and knowing about what their margins are and their splits and what's being offered. And some it's like man, it's a no-er. Why would you be there? You know that here's so much value. And, of course, sometimes they don't know until you have the conversation. So I think that, well as you know what we offer, what we're doing and the compensation model we have, is it's got to be the best in our local market.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's one of the most aggressive and I think that we, you know obviously our local market yeah, it's one of the most aggressive and I think that we, you know, obviously money is always a concern. It's always at the forefront of the conversation, if you will. But we also knew that in order to scale this, we were going to have to front load our expenses right, and the reason for that was because we wanted department heads right. So that was the first target. Like, we want people that are going to be here for the entirety of this journey.
Speaker 3:So it was very expensive, it was a massive undertaking and it took a long time to begin to scale and start to see that profit margin get to the number that we knew it should be. But we were understanding of that as well. Like, we knew, like in this first year it's going to be tough because all of our original hires are our most expensive employees. So now, as we talk about ramping up and say it's doubling again is the goal, all the next hires, they're only 50 or 60% of the salaries that we have now. So as we scale and the numbers go up, the margins get so much better.
Speaker 1:So can you go through a couple of you said department heads. What are some departments out of brokerage?
Speaker 2:Yep, so our director of operations she is the one that's sort of quarterback in, I guess, the other departments and so director of finance, director of transactions, director of listings, director of marketing, director of CRM and our broker, so, and within those it just goes deeper. Right, listing department listing manager has two listing coordinators. The director of marketing has a guy that does graphics and a person that does video. Director of transactions they have about eight different transaction coordinators that work with them. So they're more just giving like leadership and like advice and just being there as a coach and answering questions. And they're still in production, they're still doing in the weeds, right, but they're very much like just being, I don't know, giving some guidance to those people.
Speaker 4:I don't know, just giving some guidance to those people. How did you?
Speaker 2:learn, or maybe you already knew it. The model of a brokerage as you just described it, with all the different roles that each director has, so like where I came from, was Keller Williams, and they taught you how to truly build a business, and as you grow you always want to do more things. You figure out what you're lacking and who it's always like who's in the seat, you know, and initially you know I couldn't afford all these hires as a team. It wouldn't make sense to. But then the reason why the brokerage is also creative is because other teams wanted to join sort of what the SP home team was doing at the time. But they already had a brand, already had a team, already had you know, join sort of what the SP Home team was doing at the time. But they already had a brand, already had a team, already had you know, some sort of identity. They didn't want to join the team, and I get that, whether it's ego or whether it's that like I understand.
Speaker 2:So when Vibe was created, I had just folded the team into the brokerage and that then allowed us to hire more people because we can now support a bigger pool of agents. So I mean, keller Williams was a significant impact and I have. You know, I've spent. I did the math actually recently. Since 2017, when I hired my first coach, I've spent over $200,000 in coaching, and that's not my phone calls, only that's. It might be my director of operations, director of sales, they may have had those calls as well, but we're all in alignment together. So I think that your income is directly tied to, like, your self-development, and your self-development is also tied directly to your income.
Speaker 3:And for me it wasn't as easy. I started at a hundred percent shop, so I kind of just had to figure it out as I as I went Right. So I started coaching early on. Once I got out on my own, it was really, really lonely Like this can be a really lonely business if you're a solo agent with no admin Right Um, so coaching became a huge part of my my weekly mission, I guess, if you will and then it was just reading podcasts, talking to guys like Steve and building relationships with guys like Steve.
Speaker 3:What are you doing? How are you leveraging? You know, here's how I'm feeling in my business. What's the best way to get away from this negativity and turn it into positivity? Um, and, like Steve said, I think that that was what made this us uniting, makes sense. Was Steve really needed a director of ops and I really needed a listing coordinator? Like that was my biggest gripe from my teammates was like we need someone to help more thoroughly with listings and Steve needed help managing all of his departments. So when we sat down and we started building out a loose org chart, it was like, well, wow, I don't have to hire anybody and you don't have to hire anybody. We already have this organization. It just needs to be merged.
Speaker 2:It was a perfect marriage, honestly. So before this actually happened and we made the brokerage pivot, we had his director of operations. Her name is Kelsey. We had her in my team as an undercover agent almost almost undercover admin and our team thought that she was supporting our team and growing our company. What they didn't know was the at some point soon we were going to start a brokerage and she was going to lead the team in that way. So she was able at that point to kind of see our culture, get to know some people, get some rapport building with, with the agents. And then, naturally, when you come in and when you bring somebody in at that kind of level, it's sometimes hard to because they have to align with all the agents. They have to align with all the other admin staff and department leaders. But it's been really good man, it's been really good.
Speaker 3:She was instrumental in making this as seamless as it was because she already had all the you know. She already knew everything, the ins and outs of my entire business. She's been there since nearly the beginning, um, but to already had one-on-ones with everybody and knew, like everything about their family, their business, their complaints, in and out of the business, what, what needed to happen for them to you know, to stay in in our brokerage. So just really instrumental.
Speaker 2:I'm reinforced to all the time too. I tell her, you know, in the email she sent, she has never been, I think, a leader of a company outside of, like the leader of the White Oak Home Group. But she is a true natural born leader, just cares about people, you know, has feelings and, will, you know, put herself the whole. You know leaders, you last. That is her motto.
Speaker 3:But I think that's across the board here, right, and I've said that early on in this conversation was like that was one of the things that made me admire Pip very early on was I could see it was about people, right, it was never Steve, steve, steve, and I like to think I'm the same way, I think Kelsey's the same way and I think everyone that's in a department head position feels that way. Like when we have conversations, it's never, like you're not going to believe what the agents did today. It's like we goofed up and this is how we need to fix it Right, like there's a lot of humility in the leadership at our company.
Speaker 1:Actually Phil said something. You asked a question last week when Phil you said something about how do you know what did you say?
Speaker 2:Yeah, nothing because, yeah, you can't teach it.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, they just naturally come into that role and people naturally attract and follow those people. If you come in and say I'm the leader, right right, right, people typically don't want to. You know, associate with that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they turn a corner and they go talk to the, the real leader, about how big of a tool. You are Right, exactly, and that's.
Speaker 1:I thought that was some of the cool things that Phil said. That was one of the things I was like, yeah, that makes a lot of sense to from somebody that was like a public school teacher to owning companies like you just fall into it and you just like have to think about the people, because if you don't do it, people first, they leave, and it's all about the people and that's what I think. People that want to be, the want to be, I guess, leaders or whatever, don't? They think about themselves first? Right, but you're, you can't. It's impossible to be a leader if nobody's following. Yeah, so I thought that was.
Speaker 2:You know, it's, it's always the conversations and even when I like one-on-one meetings, it's never about like, sometimes business first. It's like what makes the most sense for you, like what are you missing? How can your business grow? And let's figure that out. And that's your whole line of business in some way. And it's the same conversation with you of their I wouldn't say subordinates, but one of like their, you know, colleagues is like how can I help you and support you? Never looking at an angle of like how can I save a buck? Or how can I throw more on your plate, like how can I free up more of your time? Or how can I make you happier? You know it's a natural born, I think, trait that over time you've built. You know it's never about themselves and they always put themselves last.
Speaker 3:Well, I think you genuinely have to care about people to truly help them, right, Because Steve just made a good point. It's like I sit down with the agents all the time and we'll have a one-on-one and it'll be. The conversation will be all right, Mike.
Speaker 3:Well, you sell this many houses and you have this business and there's this many rentals, and you manage your portfolio and the flips and all these other things, and the first question I always ask is, like do you really want to do all that, though, or do you think because I'm doing it, you have to? Like, is there true happiness at the end of that pathway for you? Like, instead of talking about what I do and how I've accomplished it which I'm happy to do I'd almost rather hear from you where do you want to end up? And then help you create the path to your goals, Because you shouldn't compare yourself to me, Just like I shouldn't ask Ryan right now, how many houses do you flip, and he says 43. And then I feel like a dud because I'm only going to do 15, right, Like that's not fair to me, or you? Right, it's all about my goals, what my capacity is and what I'm doing it for. What's the reason I'm doing that? For you know 15 houses gets me to that goal. I shouldn't worry that you're doing 45.
Speaker 3:I also shouldn't resent you for doing more than me. Right, I should try to understand your process and your, your train of thought and like how you got to where you are, and if I'm decent with you and you're decent with me, then we can create some sort of leverage to help one another. Right, and that's kind of how I've operated across every facet of this business and it's worked really really well because there's great people doing whether it's rental properties, property management, flips, selling real estate right, like collaboration is really what's kind of changed my trajectory.
Speaker 1:And I want to kind of transition now because I kind of know you guys because of investing, not necessarily because you were my agent or anything. So in the investing world, right, you guys have you do your own investments right Now. Are you, when you are you pulling that into the brokerage at all? I know we spoke a little bit like off air about that Are you hiring agents to help with your investing or are you keeping those two things completely separate?
Speaker 2:We're teaching them how to invest themselves.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, I guess the question I should have specifically said because, like, when I'm looking for agents to come help, what we're, what our vision is, is, is that we want them to be investors, right, um, so they understand, so they can truly help an investor buy and sell. Because if I was an investor from somewhere and my agent hasn't bought or sold any rental properties or doesn't hasn't done a flip, I probably wouldn't want to work with them. You know, um, so are you guys? How are you guys using the brokerage to leverage your own investments?
Speaker 3:Spit, that stat you usually say about agents.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So it's wild to kind of think, and in the suite of conversation we first launched the teams together was that the mission and vision was to create the idea around investing, because we know as agents that there's no pension for us, you know, once we retire, and so we wanted every agent in the company to have at least four properties they own, hopefully free and clear, that when they retire that's their pension, right, there's a retirement package for us. And it's surprising that a lot of agents and myself included, when I got in the business, I didn't own my home, I rent it, and only 70% of agents own their primary residence and only 9% own at least one investment property. So how can we change that? How can we change and create what you hear people talk about generational wealth? How can we actually show you how to do that? And so that's when we've brought and it's attracted a lot of agents that now have become investors into our company.
Speaker 2:How to do things, that what is investing, what is wholesaling or assignments, what's a novation? What's how to fix and flip, buy and hold different creative financing, raising capital, calling your database and your people that have high net worth of like hey, I have a pathway for you to make 9%, 10%, 11%, 12% of money I wouldn't say guaranteed, but it's protected by an asset versus in the stock market. You can't touch it and you're making maybe 9% a year, which is great, but you may lose money, right. But if you can raise capital, we have a pathway for you to make 10% of money with very little risk. So it's just like showing them the different ways that you can use the investment tool through real estate to build for one your credibility with your own database, but show them the pathway for actually making wealth.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it does. That stat. I've heard something similar to that stat before on whatever social media I saw it on. But it is like a staggering number of people that have never done the thing themselves, right, and they're now telling other people how to do it when it's their biggest transaction, typically in somebody's life, mm-hmm. And the person who's never actually even done it 70 them, you said 70 don't own their primary or only that's correct only 70 own their primary residence.
Speaker 1:So there's 30 of agents that have never done it for themselves, right, and they're gonna go do it for somebody else it's like being a p teacher can't climb the rope right that's right, good analogy well played.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, it's the same conversation. So, like last year, 2023, 47% of agents didn't sell one home right. 70% sold less than three. So the ones that are not owning their primary residence yes, are probably those people you know, but it's staggering.
Speaker 1:So I guess, to go on to that, do you feel like the the new change in um nar rolls and all that stuff is going to wean out, or is weaning out, some of those agents that are not producing? Because I do. I find that statistic to be a little crazy sometimes, where you have these people that are paying a lot of times to have their mls to be you have to pay to be an agent. We can list the stupid things you have to pay for century lock agent.
Speaker 1:We can list the stupid things. You have to pay for Century Lock, whatever, and they're not doing a single deal. Do you think a lot of those people are going to go away or do you think this is something that, because I feel like there was a fad where people would like I'm going to quit my job and sell real estate and that, like, was a huge thing that happened- or I'm just going to sell real estate, right.
Speaker 3:Like maybe I'm a younger person and my wife's a bartender or vice versa. It's like she works nights. I mean I don't really have much to do. My friends are starting to buy houses Like it's easy money, right, and I've had family members say to me hey, you know, we're going to sell our house in the next couple of years. I think I'm going to become an agent. That way, I don't have to pay any commissions and I'm like, first and foremost, I'm an agent. Like what a terrible thing to say. And number two, it's like they don't really understand the costs that are associated with being an agent. Right, it's a couple thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 3:Now, I think that over the last especially 2020 through 2023, there was just so much business that wasn't really happening before. You didn't have to build the types of businesses that we've built. It was just like there was just so much business that wasn't really happening before. You didn't have to build the types of businesses that we've built. It was just like there was so much opportunity that everybody could have been a buyer right. Money was so cheap and people saw opportunity to get the house that they thought was maybe of their wildest dreams, you know. So I saw so many people. I think I can think of 15 people offhand that got their license in 2020. And I'm sure they made decent money over the last couple of years. But I also know in the last 14 or 16 months, 14 of those 15 have not sold a house. So how can you justify paying that few thousand dollars a year? I don't think you can. So I think that makes a lot of room.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean for them just to have to learn the changes, what's going on. I think it's becoming a challenge because a lot of them are also dual career agents and are not taking the time, whether the broker just not educating them or giving them the resources, or they're not engaged in that environment. They're just not understanding what's going on and surprising. I had a listing about a month ago and I had maybe seven offers on the property. Four of those offers came in without a request for compensation to the buyer's agent, so they literally had no idea and had I accepted their offer, they would have been working for free or their client would have been paying their commission. So they're just not in the know and it's going to take one of those hits and unfortunately it's going to happen at some point in the know. And it's going to take one of those hits and unfortunately it's going to happen at some point, and hopefully not a large, hopefully not a large sale, because they're going to have that pain point and realize now they messed up.
Speaker 3:I think we had nine people raise their hands and say, hey, we want to be onboarded or at least have the conversation to come over to Vibe during the month when all these changes were taking place and we were actually asking them being proactive because it was tough when the broker's level, like, are we doing enough to educate the agents? Right, because we know everybody's nervous and we want to make sure they're prepared, but also comfortable, because it's two different things, being prepared and being comfortable. We were asking each agent that we were talking to hey, what is your broker doing to prepare you for the upcoming changes? And then after the fact hey, how did you guys prepare for the changes that just took place? 90% of the agents we asked had no idea what we were talking about. They were in the business actively selling real estate. They had no idea that these changes were coming or had just happened. I mean, what does that tell you? I mean it's insane.
Speaker 2:It was like 18% of agents had no idea lawsuit was happening, no idea which is pretty embarrassing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's embarrassing for the broker that's why I don't even tell people that I'm a realtor, because it's almost like it's got like a negative, like condensation, and it's like, oh, oh, yeah, you're a realtor. So is my aunt, my cousin, her cousin, her sister and everybody else in the fucking world.
Speaker 3:I actually started saying all things real estate.
Speaker 1:Because it's pretty true, you know, at this point, it's like the rental portfolio, flipping houses, the brokerage.
Speaker 3:Being a real estate agent, it's just. I'm in real estate across the board.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's kind of what I say too, Because you almost need like a differentiating factor. You don't want to say like I'm a realtor, it's almost.
Speaker 4:I don't even know what the comparison is Right, right, right, yeah, yeah, how has the real estate sales in your business changed in the last year with the higher interest rates? Did you have less buyers, less sellers? What did that look like for you guys?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean we're still a little more buyers than we are sellers. Um, so we'd definitely had some some months where we saw a change in the number of sales. Um, it's still the same conversations with our clients about where rates are, where rates are going to go. By now you know where values are. They're going to go up. When rates come down, you refinance. Everybody's telling these things.
Speaker 2:We have seen that it's an interesting time because inventory has been increasing a little bit and still have values, but demand is down. Last month, in September, was our business month as a brokerage. We sold 142 units for about $50 million in business. That's a significant number compared to what else I'm hearing in different brokerages of where their volume is. We haven't really we're not cutting back expenses. We're not taking things away from the agents because the market's slowing down. We're not taking things away from the agents because the market's slowing down.
Speaker 2:I think that 2023, there's 3.9 million sales going to happen this year if it goes the way it's projected to now, which is the lowest number since 1996. So I think 2025 is going to be a great year. I've been telling clients of mine that I think right now might be the cheapest you'll see real estate ever in the history of real estate. It's only going to go up. Of course, we didn't see the 50 basis point increase that happened a couple of days ago in the rates. We didn't see that happening, but I think this is still a great time to buy and where values are, they're only going to go up, have you?
Speaker 1:started, though you have seen, stuff is sitting on the market for a little bit longer.
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely, buyers have become a little bit picky, I think. Just back to the last question, I mean myself and even as the brokerage, it's been consistent, but there hasn't been like those big breakout months, right. Like usually historically in my business like I'll have two or three months that are just huge, massive months. That hasn't happened to me this year yet. It's been steady, which I guess I'm fortunate for. But I've definitely more conversations with people who are willing to wait and even if they see a property that they really like.
Speaker 3:They're pickier than they've ever been Right Like, and we see it a lot on the flip side, where we're putting out these renovations that I believe are stellar renovations, we get wonderful, wonderful feedback. But I had one recently great area, great schools, great neighborhood, fantastic flip 37 showings all positive feedback, not one negative feedback, and we got one offer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and it's wild. Sometimes you can look at a house and think you have a price right for the condition, how it shows. And it's wild sometimes you can look at a house and think you have a price right for the condition, how it shows, and it's not selling. You have no reason why, if you're a mortgage broker and somebody comes in with a 570 credit score, you can say, unfortunately, you don't qualify for this type of loan because you need to have a credit score of X. When you go to list a house at a certain price and you think for sure it's going to sell here, we're multiple offers and nothing comes in after three weeks. It's like I really have no idea, but the market's telling us something, right. So it's either the price is not matching the condition or something needs to change.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, and everybody's sort of looking at what they've done in 2020 and 21 and 22. Like these numbers that I had, I'm having a down year. Now, of course, there were artificial years and people get down on themselves and of course, my business is down this year compared to last year, which was down compared to the year before that, but it's really just where the market is. You know it's not any reflection of, like your success and I've had to sell, you know, the same home four times sometimes. You know it used to be about a 10% fallout rate because buyers would have issues with inspections, financing, appraisal, but recently it's been a lot of just like cold feet. Sometimes they'll go through the inspection period, which now they changed the contract to where you don't have to give an inspection report and give the seller a chance to answer repairs, make repairs. You can walk away for no reason and we're seeing sometimes two weeks into the contract they're backing out because of an issue, whether it's the HOA contingency or home inspection contingency, when really it's because they just have remorse.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think this year was interesting too, because it's the first year we really saw true seasonality come back. Like the last four years, there's been no seasonality. There's never been a slow period right like people were still looking at houses. December 20th, right, and people were still looking in houses the first day of school and the last day of school, and in july, I mean just last year we we listed one for chase.
Speaker 1:It had like four offers in three days. It was the middle of the winter right it was like.
Speaker 5:I don't know when it was, but it was you guys could probably spit some facts out too, but like my average days on market last year, was seven days on market.
Speaker 2:It's insane. Yeah, yeah, that's, that's where the market is yeah, and I think too, a big part.
Speaker 5:We've talked about it, but, like the election year, rates kind of coming down. People are trying to say, oh, I'll just wait until rates get a little bit better. But right, you know what you guys just talked about 2025 is going to be a crazy year. I don't care who wins the election. I don't care what side of the pool you're on. The problem is is that when rates start dropping and buyer demand increases and we can't build houses, fast enough?
Speaker 2:Yeah, what's that going to do to house prices? Yeah, of course, increase.
Speaker 1:I think a lot of people are just just trying to speculate. But in this business it's so hard because real estate doesn't. It's not like the stock market where things just fall out the bottom Right, like 2008, was a long time coming. You know. It's not like something that just explodes and happens. It's it's state by state, it's region by region, like we were.
Speaker 1:I was looking yesterday, I was in the Florida group chat that I'm in with my buddies down there and like that market down there has taken a massive hit and they have. Now they were selling these new construction homes for a hundred K over. Now they're offering a hundred K seller credits and they're giving them 4.5% interest rates, like the DR Hortons or whatever. You know those people that are buying down these people's 30 year rates and all that stuff has been, you know, for the last. If you ask somebody last year, like you can't buy a house in Florida. So you know, and it's just been ramping up, ramping up and now it's finally starting to cool down. But it didn't just explode, you know, it didn't just go to zero.
Speaker 3:You're seeing that same thing. Like I own an ocean city and we're actually selling that property now. But I mean, even over the last 18 months, like what I'm selling for today, it's still a great deal. I'm still very happy with the terms, but had I pulled the trigger 14 months ago, I would have made about another 13 to 15%. Right, so values fell 13 to 15% for my property over the last 14 months in ocean city. That close. But it's a second home market. Yeah, right, central maryland is so well insulated. I mean, yeah, we took a little bit of a bath during 2008, but not compared to florida, not compared to vegas?
Speaker 1:yeah, not really not compared to anywhere else and this area specifically here in anne arundel county. I'm I've been here since 2019 and I'm learning just because of the government. We have have the NSA, we have DC's 20, 30 minutes away. We have so much insulation where people aren't really affected, like jobs are very, very stable here that the values have just stayed pretty strong.
Speaker 3:Well, and that's at play. But even on the contracting side we have so many government contracts and government vendors and there is multiple layers of insulation and I think this little 30-mile section of Central Maryland is really strong.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you could see it in just trends throughout the years. If you go back to 2008 and you see some of the mid Midwest markets that got just completely obliterated and here you, you know, maybe you see a 10% dip in this neighborhood and you look at a similar neighborhood, similar price point in the Midwest or in Florida and some of those hype markets, it took 30, 40% hits and those those people really got to take in a bath. Um, what else you guys got anything else left for these guys, For Steve and Mike. I usually have like a whole like printed out sheet and organized, but today I did not.
Speaker 3:Well, I'm a Libra.
Speaker 1:One more we always do this at the end. We try to get some personal and business goals from our guests. This at the end, we try to get some personal and business goals from our guests. So how are you guys, um, you know, setting yourself up for goals this year or I guess it's the end of the year what? What's your 12 month kind of outlook?
Speaker 5:It's a great question.
Speaker 3:Um, honestly, man, this year I've spent a lot of time, or a lot more time than usual, thinking about my personal goals, right like my kids are getting a little older and my youngest is about to turn four, my oldest is eight, about to be nine um, and, as I'm sure you guys can attest to everybody's sitting up here and even chase it's like it's really easy to kind of put the blinders on and run really fast in one direction or a hundred different directions and forget about everything to the left and the right, and I'm guilty of that, really guilty of that, and it hasn't caused massive issues in my life, but it's definitely something that I'm recognizing and kind of want to make up for. So I've been a lot more intentional with my time, especially with the kids and the wife, like my immediate family. So I'm going to be a lot more intentional with my goals and what I want to accomplish with them over the next 12 months or into 2025. Cause I've never really made that list.
Speaker 3:Um, professionally, I'm pretty happy with where I am, like I'm content, right Like I've it's taken me nearly 10 years to get here and figure out, like, what my motivations are, what makes me happy and how much time I'm willing to put in. So it's not that I'm going to stop pushing, but I'm really happy with the way that the rental portfolio is building and kind of subsidizing some revenue or income with the flip business. I really like that that angle. Um production, I'm happy with where I am, so I'll probably just utilize any push next year to kind of help build up another agent that's trying really hard and maybe doesn't have that opportunity.
Speaker 3:Um, and then, as far as vibe man, I just elon, keep it going to mars, baby, yeah, that's good, yeah, same.
Speaker 2:I mean, for me it's it's uh, focused on leveraging myself and my business. My personal business is always going to be there. It's always going to grow. I don't market. What's wild is that I don't lead generate. I don't block time off my calendar and call people and have drip campaigns. It's all been through word of mouth or through referral or just knowing me as a person. So I live a very much like a lead generation lifestyle. I'm constantly he knows this I say no to very little, if anything at all. So I'm constantly in every event or hanging out with friends doing something. So for me it's leveraging my time through agent or company that has been helping me sort of take myself out, like you mentioned before, let me breathe and then grow and that'll grow itself organically, and then focusing on the growth of the brokerage through agent count and helping agents grow their personal business, grow their investment portfolio, which then will give me my time back to be with my family.
Speaker 2:I have a four-year-old and a one-and-a-half-year-old and I've been very intentional and mindful of and mindful of when I come in the house, like not being on the phone Right Cause my son is now four and he still does it now of when I come home, daddy, daddy, I run to you and give you a big hug, but at some point, like that won't be there. And I've started to see that now, like it wasn't there as much as it was before and I don't want to lose that. And I know at some point, unfortunately, that just goes right, we can't control it. And then, just being intentional, when he asked me, hey, daddy, can you play with me? It's like, yes, I may be looking at my phone for something, but like always acknowledging him and putting it down and like being where he is.
Speaker 2:You know so a lot that in my wife and I just, you know, putting things on our calendar and holding that true of date nights, because you need those as well. Yeah, this business is there's always. You know the drive to have more rentals and more rentals, and we're all blessed to have the business that we have and where we're going for the age that we are. But at some point, like you know, we can't be number one. You know we can only be one number one. So it's just being like happy with where we are and lifestyle we have and and winning together. I enjoy doing things with people that I like and friends with, and, and uh, I mean, that's what. That's what it's about, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, I think the personal life stuff is so, so important. Like, uh, chase and I are training for this iron man race right now and that has taken up so much of our time and pushed together. Like this morning we were up at 4 30 in the morning we were running, sprinting hills and there was five of us there and nobody questioned being there. And it's like this group of guys, like all, have this goal that we can all do and it's all personal. There's no monetary, it's negative monetary like it. You know it has nothing to do with money but it's something that keeps driving that you know. Inner competitiveness that you have.
Speaker 1:So I think that focusing on personal stuff when when the business is doing great, like my health was not doing great. Right, I got my business to a certain point, but I was treating my body like shit. You start drinking more, you're going to more events, you're doing this, you know, you're eating whatever and truly like all the money in the world couldn't have made me happy, because I wasn't happy, like looking in the mirror it was like 50 pounds heavier and just you know, from the outside you think, oh, he's got a business he's like.
Speaker 1:but the personal life is really what matters, and I think that a lot of people miss that. So, all right, what do you got, chase? You look like you're about to say something.
Speaker 5:Mm. Hmm, I'm not sure if that's the right word.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure if that's the right word.
Speaker 5:I'm not sure if that's the right word. I'm not sure if that's the right word. I'm not sure if that's the right word.
Speaker 4:I'm not sure if that's the right word.
Speaker 5:I'm not sure if that's the right word mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm yeah, and, like bro, for me I get seasonal depression.
Speaker 2:This time of the year between like November and February, like daylight savings time comes. I get depressed, bro.
Speaker 1:It's like do you want me to solve that for you? I got some mushrooms too, so I had that really big issue. You buy a house in Florida, you buy a boat, you keep the boat in Florida for the winter and you have to go down there and decompress.
Speaker 3:Or you make friends with somebody that already pulled the trigger on all of these things. Yeah, yeah yeah, I'll text you. You guys have my number.
Speaker 2:So it's a goal of my wife and I this January. So we have a nanny and she has been a lot of personal leverage at home, but she is having a child and she is taking her maternity leave in January. So for the whole month of January we would love to live in Florida and we're going to work. My wife has a very demanding job and we have two children. Her father is down in Venice, so to be with her family, her cousin, in Tampa, and just be somewhere where the sun is shining, like that's a goal of ours and if we can make it happen, it stays lighter later.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's warm, yeah, I swear like there was winters, that I was like miserable, just it's dark, it's cold. And now I go, pretty much what my schedule is. I'm driving down the day after Christmas or the day after that, and then I stay there for a week and then every other Thursday I fly out. I go every other Thursday to Sunday and I'm there for four days. I'm here for four days and back and forth, and it has changed your life because you always have something then you're looking forward to. You could come here and you can grind for those seven days or whatever that you're back and then you go and you can still work. You still like, we still work. We took Chase was down with me, we took meetings, we did. You know we still work, but you get to enjoy the warm weather, the sunshine, the little bit more light that you get, because that shit is brutal.
Speaker 2:The winter here is brutal.
Speaker 1:It sucks.
Speaker 2:It's melancholy is what it is All right guys.
Speaker 1:Well, we appreciate everybody listening and looking out for this episode. We have another event coming up, October 24th, 6 to 9 at CVP's. Hope to see you guys there Be there, yeah, all right To the.
