Episode #53: Scaling a Productive Team with Ryan Stawasz

[00:00:00] It's easier to show up for the games than all the practice, but what really gets you good at conversating and being an effective communicator is practicing.

[00:00:11] What is the role playing? Are you wearing a shirt like Sean? Is that part of the role play? You want to look like a cowboy from Philadelphia?

[00:00:20] I mean, who's getting the deal? The guy with the cowboy shirt?

[00:00:23] True. Touche.

[00:00:24] You gotta stand out. You gotta do something different.

[00:00:26] But, uh...

[00:00:34] Welcome to the podcast dedicated to real estate, insurance, and building your business.

[00:00:40] Join us as we take you along our own business building journeys with additional wisdom from our network of local and national experts.

[00:00:49] Welcome to Bricks and Risk.

[00:00:55] Hey everyone. Welcome to another episode of Bricks and Risk.

[00:01:00] I'm Tim Garrity.

[00:01:02] And I'm Sean Mooney.

[00:01:04] Today, Sean, we have an excellent guest. Someone that I know well. Ryan Stawasz, the team leader of the Stawasz Group at Keller Williams.

[00:01:13] How are you doing today, Ryan?

[00:01:14] Doing great, gentlemen.

[00:01:15] Thanks for having me.

[00:01:16] Appreciate you.

[00:01:17] Thank you for coming in.

[00:01:18] So a little background on Ryan.

[00:01:19] Ryan leads the number one team of real estate agents at the number one brokerage in Philadelphia.

[00:01:25] Super impressive.

[00:01:26] He's an active investor himself with over 25 units in his rental portfolio and bought his first investment property in 2012, which he still owns to this day.

[00:01:36] He's passionate about winning in all aspects of life, including health, family, and business.

[00:01:42] Ryan started his full-time real estate career in 2016, and he is devoted to developing himself within the industry as someone who continues to push the envelope through innovative marketing and technology.

[00:01:54] He went to Penn State University.

[00:01:56] Sure.

[00:01:57] BS in marketing. Same here.

[00:01:59] And you're a father of three.

[00:02:01] Yeah.

[00:02:02] That's a great summary.

[00:02:03] All right.

[00:02:04] So the first question.

[00:02:06] So you're the team leader of the Stawasz Group.

[00:02:10] What made you want to start a team?

[00:02:13] So you started out as an agent.

[00:02:15] Were you on a team or were you solo?

[00:02:17] Solo from the start.

[00:02:18] Solo from the start.

[00:02:19] Mm-hmm.

[00:02:20] Didn't know I wanted a team at that time.

[00:02:23] So started, didn't even know I wanted to get into real estate.

[00:02:27] Jeremy Bowers ends up sitting me down and convincing me to quit my nine-to-five job in the Navy Yard.

[00:02:33] Nice.

[00:02:34] Not a ton of sales experience at that point, but I was passionate about real estate and investment properties.

[00:02:39] So I just wanted to get licensed to just get into the, to have MLS access essentially, to find more deals and, you know.

[00:02:48] And he's like, oh, why don't you try this full time?

[00:02:50] So I was like, all right.

[00:02:51] Hardest decision I think I ever had to make was leaving the nine-to-five, 100% commission job, no income coming in.

[00:02:59] So, and that's how it started.

[00:03:01] Any kids at this point or were?

[00:03:03] No kids yet.

[00:03:03] Okay, good.

[00:03:04] No kids yet.

[00:03:05] Smart man.

[00:03:05] Yeah.

[00:03:06] Luckily, cause it was, it was, you know, six, seven days a week.

[00:03:09] Yeah.

[00:03:09] So what was the impetus of him sitting you down?

[00:03:12] Like he knew you were involved in real estate and you know.

[00:03:14] How'd you guys get connected?

[00:03:16] I had to find a brokerage to hang my license.

[00:03:18] So you pass the test and then you're like, okay, where am I going to hang this thing?

[00:03:21] I only want to do it part time.

[00:03:22] Right.

[00:03:23] So you start asking, you know, some of your friends that you know, and I actually knew Arvin Balaji, who, who's on the McCann team now in our, in our, in the same office.

[00:03:33] And I said, Hey, would, who would you speak to?

[00:03:36] And he gave me a couple of references.

[00:03:38] Um, and sure enough, someone led me to Jeremy who was with Coldwell Banker at the time at their center city office.

[00:03:45] Um, so, you know, sat down with Jeremy and, and one thing led to another and he convinced me.

[00:03:52] I honestly, if it wasn't for Jeremy, I don't, if someone wasn't, hadn't like, it was never a consideration.

[00:03:59] That path was net.

[00:04:00] It wasn't like from a young age of been like, I want to be a realtor.

[00:04:04] I want to be a realtor.

[00:04:04] He kind of pushed you forward a little bit.

[00:04:06] Like said, Hey, that, that bug in your ear, that bug in my ear.

[00:04:10] Yep.

[00:04:10] I probably saw something too, like saw something in you is like, I think Ryan would be good at this.

[00:04:15] Like, you know, this is a team leader now.

[00:04:18] I'm sure that you just see something in people.

[00:04:21] Like, I'm sure you talk to all different agents.

[00:04:23] There's, you know, you run a very successful team.

[00:04:26] So obviously people reach out to you and say, Hey, what are you doing?

[00:04:30] Like, what do you do for your team members?

[00:04:32] Like where are you trying to go?

[00:04:33] You talk to all different people, as did I.

[00:04:35] I talked to hundreds of agents in my 10 year span at Copper Hill.

[00:04:40] And now with my team at real, it's the same thing.

[00:04:42] I'm talking to people all the time.

[00:04:44] Sometimes it's casual conversations.

[00:04:46] Just someone wants some information.

[00:04:48] Other times it's like, yeah, should we like work together?

[00:04:51] So, so we, when you talk to agents and you want to see if they're a good fit for your team, like what kind of things are you looking for?

[00:05:00] That's a great question.

[00:05:02] Um, I think there's a couple of things that come to mind.

[00:05:08] One is like their energy and, and kind of just how they approach things and, and life.

[00:05:14] And, uh, so that's just listening to them, getting to know them, um, how they talk, how they interact.

[00:05:21] And I think in anything business, you know, if you have really good energy and you're positive, and I think you can really succeed in anything.

[00:05:31] I think it's one of the keys to just, you want to get better at things.

[00:05:38] If you want to, if, if failure doesn't, doesn't stop you in your tracks, then, then you can, and, and you have the motivation to do it.

[00:05:49] And you say what you do, what you say you're going to do.

[00:05:53] Right.

[00:05:53] That's the biggest thing too.

[00:05:54] Cause as you start to talk to so many agents, you're like, everyone says there they can do this and make calls and, and go doorknock.

[00:06:03] Cause sure.

[00:06:03] In the beginning, you know, you got to build a book of business, right?

[00:06:06] So you got to build your database up and unless you're maybe 40 years old and coming from another industry and you already have this database that you can tap into.

[00:06:15] A lot of the agents we're talking to or, or, are newer, or maybe I've been in it for five years or less.

[00:06:21] So they still have to build that core group of clients that they can get referrals from that trust them.

[00:06:27] And everyone says they'll do it, but then when push comes to shove, will you actually continue to pick up the phone consistently and reach out to clients and figure out ways to provide value to them?

[00:06:37] So long story short, what am I looking for?

[00:06:40] Um, someone who's energetic, who's self-motivated, who, um, really like just wants to improve every, every day, um, in all aspects of their life, not just business.

[00:06:54] Now we tend to focus more on the investment side of things.

[00:06:57] So if that agent has a liking to the investment size, I think they would be a better fit for our team than others.

[00:07:04] Um, versus someone who says, you know, I don't want to own a rental property.

[00:07:07] Not that you can't be successful on our team, but those are the conversations we like to have on a daily basis.

[00:07:12] Yeah.

[00:07:13] Um, so those are, those are a couple of things.

[00:07:15] I think there's some like logistical, uh, things as well.

[00:07:21] I don't think if you live 45 or an hour away from us, you're going to be a great fit because I think a lot of the past,

[00:07:27] the power is, is coming into the office and being around those conversations.

[00:07:32] Right.

[00:07:33] Um, or at least that's what I've seen for the agent to have come onto the team and double or triple their business from where it was prior to coming onto the team.

[00:07:42] So.

[00:07:42] Awesome.

[00:07:43] Yeah.

[00:07:43] All right.

[00:07:43] So here's a good question.

[00:07:45] So you're the team leader.

[00:07:46] You started as a solo agent.

[00:07:48] Are you still practicing full time and leading the team?

[00:07:52] Are you kind of like giving some of your business away so you can focus a little bit more, you know, on the business and not be like so much in the day to day?

[00:08:01] Like what, what does it look like for you and your team?

[00:08:04] It's it's right now.

[00:08:06] It's a little bit of both.

[00:08:07] Yeah.

[00:08:07] Right.

[00:08:07] So, uh, burn the candle at both ends.

[00:08:10] Yeah.

[00:08:11] It's, it has to be really, if you're, you know, a business owner, you start off doing everything.

[00:08:15] And then as you grow, you solely outsource things, um, to, to replace your lower productive activities.

[00:08:23] So part of that was I brought on a director of sales who was my first hire as a buyer's

[00:08:29] agent and his name's Alex.

[00:08:31] And I think when you join the say was group, you're really getting the two headed monster,

[00:08:37] which is that you get me who has the sales experience, right?

[00:08:42] Um, from nothing to, I think my best year as a solo agent was like 25 to 26 million.

[00:08:49] Phenomenal.

[00:08:49] Um, which was, which was, which was me.

[00:08:52] That's insane.

[00:08:53] Hustling.

[00:08:53] That's insane amount of volume and time and energy to get to that amount of volume.

[00:08:58] Yes.

[00:08:58] And, and it's hard to sustain that, you know, unless you raise your average price point because

[00:09:03] I was doing 55, 60 transactions a year on my own.

[00:09:06] So it was, it was just a lot.

[00:09:08] And so I got to that point where I was like, okay, I can't, I don't want to do this.

[00:09:12] Maybe I could, but how do I start?

[00:09:15] You know, the team said, okay, I want to grow a family.

[00:09:20] I want to have a balance of my time.

[00:09:23] And to do that, the team makes sense to me.

[00:09:26] Right.

[00:09:26] So I also realized that I'm not going to be available from five to 7 PM or maybe on weekends

[00:09:32] when some of the team might need me.

[00:09:34] So that's where Alex comes in as, as he's helping to train the agents to answer phone

[00:09:39] calls, to, to go through some of the nitty gritty and I can focus on higher level stuff.

[00:09:45] So I think as our, as our team continues to grow, my production continues to go down and

[00:09:50] it probably won't ever be zero because I just enjoy still doing it, but I always practiced.

[00:09:56] It's always good to practice to know what, you know, you're talking about, but it definitely,

[00:10:02] it's going to go like this as, as we, over the next, you know, two to three years.

[00:10:06] And I think it'll probably float out of maybe you can tell me, but maybe float around like

[00:10:11] 5 million where you're just doing some personal deals, family, friends or whatnot.

[00:10:16] Yeah.

[00:10:17] And managing the team.

[00:10:18] And managing the team, right.

[00:10:20] Yeah.

[00:10:20] So then that time just gets allocated to.

[00:10:22] 30, 70, 70, 30 on flip.

[00:10:24] Exactly.

[00:10:25] Exactly.

[00:10:26] I mean, do you have other agents or is it just yourself?

[00:10:28] Yeah.

[00:10:28] So me, uh, in my office, uh, a main lead sales guy and then a service, you know, office,

[00:10:34] uh, manager who kind of does all the servicing billings and all stuff.

[00:10:38] Sweet.

[00:10:39] But initially it was me, you know, doing it all.

[00:10:42] Yeah.

[00:10:42] And then I'm like, I can't, you know, so now like most of the new business coming in

[00:10:46] the door is just right over to him because it's just so much more that I have to do.

[00:10:51] Right.

[00:10:52] I don't have the time.

[00:10:53] So, uh, for me, it's kind of was a hundred percent, 80%, 60, you know, 60% and kind of

[00:10:59] will it down from there.

[00:11:01] Very cool.

[00:11:02] Yeah.

[00:11:02] Nice.

[00:11:03] So with, um, with you guys, uh, growing and getting, you know, hitting all kind of like,

[00:11:10] you know, leader lists and all of that.

[00:11:12] Do you get a lot of agents reaching out to you?

[00:11:17] Like I want to work with this team cause they see, you know, your, uh, successes with real

[00:11:23] estate.

[00:11:24] Hmm.

[00:11:25] Do people reach out to me directly?

[00:11:27] Like, or other people on your squad.

[00:11:30] Hey, you know, I know, I know Alex.

[00:11:32] So yeah.

[00:11:33] Referrals basically through the team.

[00:11:35] And I guess like, are you, you're getting more attention, right?

[00:11:38] The more you grow, the more successes you find more people reach out.

[00:11:42] And, and I guess, do they think like, oh, well, if I'm with this team, I'll just do,

[00:11:47] you know, so much more.

[00:11:49] Right.

[00:11:49] I think there is, is there that perception that people have incorrectly or correctly

[00:11:54] that, oh, if I just move over here, it'll be better for me.

[00:11:58] I'll make more money.

[00:11:59] My life will be better.

[00:12:00] I think it depends.

[00:12:01] Like it's a, a very like different world to navigate when you use, there's so many teams,

[00:12:09] right?

[00:12:09] There's like the one agent who's bringing on his first or him or hers bringing on her first

[00:12:13] agent.

[00:12:14] And then there's the, the, the big, you know, mega teams that have 50, 75 agents on.

[00:12:20] And it's kind of like, where are you in your career?

[00:12:22] And what, what do you think you need to take that next step in growth?

[00:12:27] And some agents are just okay, are okay.

[00:12:31] They've been doing $10 million for the last, you know, 10 years.

[00:12:33] And that's all they, that's, that's where they want to be.

[00:12:36] It's a good living.

[00:12:36] That's what makes them happy.

[00:12:37] It's a good living.

[00:12:38] And then there's other agents that are like, Hey, I've been stuck at 10.

[00:12:41] How do I get to 15?

[00:12:43] Right.

[00:12:43] Is this what I need?

[00:12:45] So I think the agents to answer your first question.

[00:12:49] Yes.

[00:12:50] People reach out to me on social media.

[00:12:52] Um, I would say it's a low majority of them that I think are actually a good fit for our

[00:12:58] team.

[00:12:59] Um, which is probably like anything with, with sales, right?

[00:13:02] You have to make so many contacts till you really find a good fit.

[00:13:05] But, um, people that come to our team, I think enjoy a smaller team atmosphere.

[00:13:12] Yeah.

[00:13:12] We're, you know, we're very close.

[00:13:15] We, we hang out together outside of work.

[00:13:18] We are kind of like a family and we're very cognizant of how big we're going to grow this

[00:13:23] and what that dynamic is going to be like because, um, right now.

[00:13:28] Because you could lose some, right?

[00:13:29] So if you're there on your team because of the close knit nature of your group and that

[00:13:34] changes, right.

[00:13:35] Then you run the risk of, well, we could lose someone because of the culture changes, the

[00:13:40] vibe changes, you know?

[00:13:41] Yeah.

[00:13:41] You would know, right?

[00:13:42] So maybe you started with five, 10 and then you had 50 and I'm sure the dynamic from 50

[00:13:50] to 10 was, was very different.

[00:13:52] And was that, yeah.

[00:13:54] Was that good, bad, indifferent?

[00:13:56] Yeah, it was good.

[00:13:57] Um, and this will bring up another question that I wanted to ask for you.

[00:13:59] So like when we first started Copper Hill, it was, you know, me, my brother, Ryan Garrity

[00:14:04] and my friend Andrew Janos started from scratch and we're all just practicing full time.

[00:14:08] We're like, we were practicing for this brand.

[00:14:11] Why don't we start our own brand and start to build a brand?

[00:14:14] You know, we can, we can, you can build a brand on a team, same thing.

[00:14:18] And you can shift your team in different ways.

[00:14:20] You could shift the team into an independent brokerage.

[00:14:21] You could do all sorts of things.

[00:14:23] We looked at it at the time I had a broker's license, lower barrier of entry to start a

[00:14:28] brokerage, low startup costs.

[00:14:31] And we just said, even if it's just the three of us, we're still making more money than where

[00:14:35] we were.

[00:14:35] That was how we looked at it.

[00:14:37] Yep.

[00:14:37] What happened after that, Ryan, was it just grew organically.

[00:14:40] It was friends of friends.

[00:14:42] You know, we took anyone and everyone, you know, anyone that came our way.

[00:14:45] We're like, sure.

[00:14:46] Oh, your license.

[00:14:46] Yeah.

[00:14:47] You know, Bill, you know, Sally, like, come on in.

[00:14:49] And then what we started to realize was like expectation setting.

[00:14:53] But people would come in there like, well, why don't you dish off any leads?

[00:14:56] And we're like, well, we're more of a teach to fish philosophy than feed fish.

[00:15:01] And I'll teach you everything I know because, you know, someone kind of taught me to fish.

[00:15:06] But then when I learned how to fish, I had food every day.

[00:15:09] And that kind of like you as a solo agent.

[00:15:11] So once you learn how to fish, you can show other people how to do that.

[00:15:14] But it has to be the right people.

[00:15:15] So then it would go to like 15 and back to 10 and like 20 and like 18, like 26.

[00:15:21] Like it was just like all over the place.

[00:15:23] But once we lost a couple people, probably like, you know, your four, your five, we were very clear on who we were and what our value was.

[00:15:35] And that was really teaching people how to fish, how to be a successful agent through relationships, content marketing, you know, touch points, that system.

[00:15:44] And then on top of that, think about, you know, earning some income through the right title insurance relationship.

[00:15:50] Think about buying rental units to build wealth.

[00:15:54] Like think about think about starting a team, because once you get too busy, once you get to where someone like you got, then you can bring some people under you and we will show you how to do that because that's what we've done.

[00:16:06] So we very much we taught by application.

[00:16:10] We led through example.

[00:16:11] This is what we do.

[00:16:12] So this is what you get.

[00:16:13] Someone says, well, I want to do like an open house on Saturday, open house on Sunday.

[00:16:16] I'm like, our agents like doing their own open houses.

[00:16:19] It's part of their lead gen.

[00:16:20] So we don't have all these opportunities every weekend.

[00:16:23] You know, we had opportunities from time to time, but don't expect that.

[00:16:26] So we also didn't really pay for leads.

[00:16:30] So this is a question I want to ask you for your team structure.

[00:16:33] Is your team structure more like the feed fish?

[00:16:36] Like we get leads in and I want you to service leads and have a conversion ratio and turn those obviously opportunities into deals.

[00:16:46] You teach the fish, which was everything I was just saying, or is it more of like a hybrid?

[00:16:50] Like how is your team structure?

[00:16:52] What's the value?

[00:16:53] It's very similar to what you just described, which is teach to fish.

[00:16:59] Yeah.

[00:17:00] Because that's how I started.

[00:17:01] I said, you know, I don't have a ton of money.

[00:17:03] So I'm going to go knock on doors.

[00:17:05] I'm going to pick up the phone and I'm going to exchange time for money.

[00:17:09] Right.

[00:17:10] And that's and in growing, you know, we started sprinkling in some paid leads there.

[00:17:15] Yeah.

[00:17:16] It's certainly not our main lead source.

[00:17:19] Maybe 10% of our business comes from there.

[00:17:22] And that's really just a.

[00:17:25] I don't know if thank you is the right word, but hey, let's sprinkle these in.

[00:17:29] You know, we want to reinvest some of that money into here.

[00:17:31] So if these are if these are bottom of the funnel leads and you guys can close them quicker, then I'm happy to to try to help grow your business because that's essentially what it's doing.

[00:17:42] It's going right to the agents, but really we want to we want to teach to fish and then teach to what to do with that money.

[00:17:50] Right.

[00:17:51] Exactly. Yeah.

[00:17:52] We don't have retirement plan.

[00:17:53] We don't for a case.

[00:17:54] I mean, we could we could create we could throw money in a for a like I got a financial planner for you.

[00:17:58] Yeah.

[00:17:59] But here are some opportunities.

[00:18:00] But, you know, it's good to diversify.

[00:18:03] And if you're in real estate and you're not investing in it, like.

[00:18:06] Right.

[00:18:07] How are you guiding your clients every day on on what they should do?

[00:18:11] So I think what really one of the keys that has made me successful is just continuing to buy those rental properties and being a landlord and learning the ins and outs of the product that we're selling, which is which are homes.

[00:18:26] Right.

[00:18:27] So until you really understand how to build a home from scratch, whether it's a rehab or a new construction property, like how do you know what to look for and what's a concern for your client?

[00:18:38] And how do you advocate for them during an inspection or if you're a seller getting your house ready to list and we're doing our first walkthrough?

[00:18:47] What what things are worth us dumping money into and what's the cost of that getting it ready to list?

[00:18:53] And, you know, should should we just leave that old roof alone and put it on the market and see what happens?

[00:18:59] And, you know, spoiler for you sellers, it typically doesn't pay to to replace a roof before you go to list because every now and then you get a buyer that comes in and they waive inspections.

[00:19:10] Or they're like, hey, I'm not concerned about the roof.

[00:19:12] I don't care because the roof hasn't leaked even though it's 30 years old.

[00:19:15] So that's not a dollar for dollar.

[00:19:17] Right.

[00:19:18] It's not paint, right?

[00:19:19] Paint, you spend a dollar, you get two dollars back.

[00:19:22] Exactly.

[00:19:23] But these are you don't know that until you really get good at knowing your product.

[00:19:29] So it doesn't matter what you're selling.

[00:19:30] Right.

[00:19:31] Like you got to know the ins and outs of your product.

[00:19:33] And I think, unfortunately, a lot of realtors don't spend the time to get to know that or maybe don't know how to.

[00:19:40] And that's what we also part of like education.

[00:19:43] Right.

[00:19:43] So I think you need to we focus on education, on on really knowing the contract, which is the agreement of sale, because in Pennsylvania, at least and we're licensed in South Jersey.

[00:19:55] And although they have the three day attorney review period, a lot of people just don't use attorneys.

[00:19:59] So we are in a way an attorney like we are are guiding our clients on a 14 page contract that is very black and white on what you can and can't do and when your deadlines are.

[00:20:13] So the better, you know, the product, which is the contract and the house is, I think, the better you can guide your client, which means the more referral business you're going to get.

[00:20:22] And that's the last thing I would say is how do I build a referral based business?

[00:20:25] Because you can go out there and hammer doors and cold call and you could do that forever because make a lot of money to and make a lot of money.

[00:20:32] But there's there's easier ways to do it.

[00:20:35] And that's to to gain the trust of the people you've already helped so that they refer their friends and family.

[00:20:41] And now your business shifts from 100 percent, you know, brute effort in the pavement to to 75, 25 to 50, 50.

[00:20:51] And and that's kind of where my business is at right now.

[00:20:55] It's it's it's mostly referral based.

[00:20:57] So I'm not I'm not having to go out there and and fish per se in my eighth year of real estate.

[00:21:04] And that's what we're trying to teach the agents to do.

[00:21:06] That's awesome.

[00:21:07] You're a heavy investor.

[00:21:09] Do you most your clientele is investors?

[00:21:11] Is that what you were saying earlier?

[00:21:12] A good majority of it is not all of them.

[00:21:14] We certainly help people who are looking for their forever home or but but, you know, every home is an investment, whether you want to admit it or not.

[00:21:22] Um, whether it's analyzing what's market value so that in three to five years, you know, when you come back to us and you want to sell it, that you didn't overpay for it.

[00:21:33] Um, or if it's considering, you know, I bought my first home.

[00:21:38] I've got this low interest rate.

[00:21:40] Should I sell it or should I turn it into a rental property?

[00:21:42] Like as a realtor, we should know how to analyze that ROI and say, hey, this is simple math.

[00:21:50] This is your this is your return.

[00:21:51] This is the capital you have into it.

[00:21:53] This is what your rental is going to return to you per year.

[00:21:56] Can you get a better return on capital by putting this into another investment?

[00:22:01] And how much stress is it causing you?

[00:22:04] And, you know, you can throw it into an index fund and hopefully get your, you know, eight to 10 percent a year.

[00:22:10] Um, or what I found is a lot of people who bought their first home in the last three to seven years is that home probably because of the low interest rate is going to give you closer to a 15 to 20 percent return.

[00:22:22] So you shouldn't sell that unless you really just don't want to be a landlord.

[00:22:26] Right.

[00:22:26] A lot of times we're like, hey, I would keep this if I were you.

[00:22:29] Like I know a good property manager in the event you don't want to be a landlord.

[00:22:33] Like it's seriously like a lot of what you just said really hit home with me, too.

[00:22:38] Like buyers and sellers assume they assume they have to redo the roof, fix the bathroom, you know, change the floors in order to sell it.

[00:22:46] They just assume that it's like, oh, it's old or I don't like this color.

[00:22:50] Like everyone likes these hardwood floors.

[00:22:52] And then it's our job to come in and say, like, well, listen, if you put 25K into the roof, there's no guarantee you're going to get it back.

[00:22:59] But per your point, you're like you put, you know, four or five K into the paint.

[00:23:04] We can do the ceilings, the trim, the wall, do your whole house, maybe some exterior work.

[00:23:09] You might get 10 to 15 grand back because it looks beautiful.

[00:23:15] So we're really there to let people know what they should and shouldn't do for best bang for their buck, let's call it.

[00:23:23] But a lot, I don't want to say most, a lot of real estate agents just want to get deals done.

[00:23:28] Oh, this is what you want to get?

[00:23:29] Yeah, yeah, fix your roof.

[00:23:30] Yeah, the roof's kind of crappy.

[00:23:31] Go ahead and fix it.

[00:23:32] And then they list, then the list price is almost like requisite of like the fact that they just invested all that money into the property.

[00:23:41] And it's like, well, you're overpricing a listing now for a new roof.

[00:23:45] I hate to tell you, the buying public expects the roof to work, whether it's never leaked or whether it's brand new.

[00:23:53] Again, perception is reality.

[00:23:54] Some people will care and some people won't care.

[00:23:56] And again, maybe there's a tiny leak.

[00:23:58] They're like, fine, just give me 5K for the roof and then I'll deal with the leaks for the next five years.

[00:24:02] Like, that's what some people want to do.

[00:24:04] So I think that's very smart for you to like always want to advise.

[00:24:08] Like, you're there to give advice.

[00:24:10] It doesn't mean they have to take it.

[00:24:12] Like, they may say like, Ryan, I can't sleep if I don't do this roof.

[00:24:16] Okay, do the roof, but don't say I didn't warn you.

[00:24:19] You know, we might not get it.

[00:24:21] And then the ones who don't get it, which have probably happened to you as well as for me, they're like, you're right, I shouldn't have done that.

[00:24:26] Which again, still works out well for the relationship.

[00:24:29] They're like, I made that decision.

[00:24:31] I shouldn't have done that.

[00:24:32] But I still want to work with Ryan again because he told me not to do it.

[00:24:36] And it's like, that's really what builds that trust.

[00:24:39] Not telling the truth.

[00:24:41] Yes.

[00:24:41] Just like wrap up that.

[00:24:42] Right?

[00:24:42] Like, just if you're honest, if you like to help people.

[00:24:45] Yeah.

[00:24:46] But give your honest opinion.

[00:24:47] I might not get it right 100% of the time because I'm a human.

[00:24:50] None of us do.

[00:24:51] But, you know, if, where I was, where was I going with that?

[00:24:58] Yeah.

[00:24:58] I mean, honesty pays.

[00:25:00] Yeah.

[00:25:01] Yeah.

[00:25:01] Trust.

[00:25:02] Trust and honesty and caring, right?

[00:25:04] Right.

[00:25:05] Like, not everyone, unfortunately, there is a low barrier to entry to get into real estate to get a license.

[00:25:11] And not everyone has your best interest in mind.

[00:25:14] So hooking up with the right people is key.

[00:25:18] And, Sean, I think your first question was, is it just investors?

[00:25:22] No, it's not just investors.

[00:25:24] It's friends, family.

[00:25:26] I would say, like, half of my business is investors and the other half are your normal resale or buying new construction.

[00:25:35] I had a buddy from high school.

[00:25:36] We just got under contract up in Sellersville, which is north of Lansdale, Half Hill, where we grew up.

[00:25:41] And, you know, having a good agent, we negotiated a $26,000 seller's assist into that offer, which in this market is not easy to do.

[00:25:53] But it's like, if you understand the levers of the agreement of sale, then really, you can, you know, we can change anyone who has a license.

[00:26:04] You can change people's lives.

[00:26:05] Like, these are, this is like serious money that can set them up for the future and their kids up for the future by understanding these financial levers and playing within the rules.

[00:26:17] So, it's, it's fun.

[00:26:20] And that's, there's nothing like, you know, getting that, like going to the closing table with a seller and you got 30 grand more than you discussed when you sat down with them the first time.

[00:26:33] And you're like, damn, we knocked it out of the park on this one.

[00:26:35] And what does 30 grand more in someone's pocket do for them?

[00:26:39] Like, dude, that's, that's a year of college.

[00:26:42] That's a car.

[00:26:44] That's a lot of things.

[00:26:45] And your commission's like 15 grand.

[00:26:47] They're like, Ryan just doubled.

[00:26:49] I paid him 15.

[00:26:50] I made 30.

[00:26:51] And it's like, I say this all the time on, on rentals.

[00:26:54] Like someone's been renting their own property themselves, whatever for like five.

[00:26:59] It was the first home they ever bought.

[00:27:00] They're like, I'll just deal with it.

[00:27:02] I'll throw it on Zillow.

[00:27:02] It costs no money.

[00:27:03] I'll screen the tenants.

[00:27:04] I'll get a lease from LegalZoom or my attorney friend.

[00:27:07] And we'll just write up a lease and then I'll rent it.

[00:27:10] And then they come to like one of us a couple of years later, five years later.

[00:27:15] I'm sick of dealing with this thing.

[00:27:17] Can you help me?

[00:27:17] And I'm like, yeah.

[00:27:18] I'm like, well, what are you getting in rent?

[00:27:19] And they'll be like, I'm getting like 1500.

[00:27:21] I'm like, probably get like 1800.

[00:27:24] And they're like, really?

[00:27:25] And I'm like, you don't have to do anything.

[00:27:27] They're like, okay.

[00:27:29] And I'm like, now again, I'm listening.

[00:27:32] I'm going to make 1800.

[00:27:34] But guess what?

[00:27:34] I'm going to double the amount of money you were getting before.

[00:27:38] You know, now you're getting 3600 more than you were getting before I take 18.

[00:27:40] Now you're up 1800 a year.

[00:27:43] And that's, that's really when you get into the financial piece of real estate.

[00:27:47] I'm not a numbers guy myself, but I'm good enough with them.

[00:27:51] Like I was in the mortgage industry for a while.

[00:27:53] And I do investment development myself to at least let people know, hey, here's some simple

[00:27:56] math.

[00:27:57] Like, is this something that makes sense for you?

[00:27:59] And if so, I think we should do it because otherwise you can just keep running yourself

[00:28:03] and saying, I hate doing this.

[00:28:06] And I feel like I'm like saving money by not working with an agent.

[00:28:10] Hey everyone.

[00:28:11] This is Tim, your favorite bricks and risk co-host.

[00:28:15] But don't tell Sean.

[00:28:16] I hope you're enjoying this episode and I'll get right back to it in a moment.

[00:28:20] Our audience grows through word of mouth.

[00:28:22] So if you would please take a moment of your time and give us a review on the platform you're

[00:28:27] on, that would be fantastic.

[00:28:29] Please also help spread the BNR word by sharing your favorite episode with a friend.

[00:28:35] We greatly appreciate your time and trust.

[00:28:38] Now, back to the show.

[00:28:44] So one thing I wanted to talk to you about, talk to you about too, is, you know, you're

[00:28:49] married, you got three kids, you're running this big team, you got 25 rental units.

[00:28:55] Let's talk about routine.

[00:28:57] So one of the questions we asked were like, pick a topic and you picked routine, which I

[00:29:02] love.

[00:29:03] Um, so here are a couple of things.

[00:29:06] So like routine is a fantastic way to stay focused and it helps keep us consistent in

[00:29:12] real estate.

[00:29:13] Um, how does routine help you in real estate?

[00:29:20] Or what is the routine?

[00:29:22] Do you have a specific, like, all right, Mondays, Wednesday, Fridays, we're doing calls in the

[00:29:26] morning.

[00:29:26] Marketing, schedules, things like that.

[00:29:30] Like, what is it about routine that helps you in real estate?

[00:29:33] It's really, it's everything, right?

[00:29:35] Because what I've learned through real estate is that there's a formula that works and you

[00:29:40] can apply that formula to any business.

[00:29:42] And, um, for, for real estate, you know, the most important thing, the lifeblood of your,

[00:29:49] of your business is having conversations just like we're doing now and talking to new people

[00:29:54] and existing clients.

[00:29:56] And, and if you're, if you do all the servicing in real estate and you don't make time to meet

[00:30:05] new people, whatever, wherever, whatever avenue that's through your business is not going to

[00:30:10] grow.

[00:30:10] So, so I think just, you know, we're really big on, on Google calendar and that's what

[00:30:15] we use religiously.

[00:30:17] And, um, as far as routine goes, really it was kids that prompted me, you know, I've always enjoyed

[00:30:23] going to the gym, working out.

[00:30:26] And once you have kids and they start waking up at six, between six and seven, um, you're

[00:30:33] like, okay, when am I going to work out?

[00:30:34] That's when I worked out.

[00:30:35] I'm either going to work out like during the day or, or for me, it's in the morning.

[00:30:40] So, you know, typically my alarm goes off at four 20 and then gym opens at five.

[00:30:46] So five to six 15, you're in the gym and then, uh, you're coming home, showering, getting ready

[00:30:51] and then dad mode and, and then dad mode until eight 30 when, you know, you drop them off

[00:30:57] at daycare.

[00:30:58] Um, we have two really little ones that are still home right now.

[00:31:02] Uh, and then into the office by, by nine.

[00:31:05] And this has certainly changed over time because when I remember when I didn't have kids and,

[00:31:09] you know, I was the first one in the office at, at seven 30, eight o'clock and I was role

[00:31:13] playing with either, either people in my coaching program or, and I was doing that Monday through

[00:31:20] Friday, sometimes twice a day.

[00:31:22] So, you know, that's one.

[00:31:25] And it's funny because I've been, I've been preaching this to my, to my team and, you know,

[00:31:32] it just hasn't been one of those things that stayed consistent is the role playing because,

[00:31:36] you know, it's easier to show up for the games than, than all the practice, but what really,

[00:31:42] you know, gets you good at conversating and being an effective communicator is practicing.

[00:31:47] And, um, what is the role playing?

[00:31:50] Like, so is it, um, are you wearing a shirt like Sean?

[00:31:53] Is that part of the role play?

[00:31:55] You want to look like a cowboy from Philadelphia?

[00:31:57] I mean, who's getting the deal?

[00:31:58] The guy with the cowboy shirt or true.

[00:32:00] Touche.

[00:32:01] You got to stand out.

[00:32:02] You got to do something different, but, uh, it's, it's practicing.

[00:32:06] It's practicing, you know, what to say.

[00:32:09] And it depends on who you're talking to, right?

[00:32:11] Because for real estate, there's different avenues of finding business.

[00:32:15] There's, there's the people that you know, and there's the people that you don't know.

[00:32:18] And then there's people that have tried to sell their home and were unsuccessful and they might

[00:32:23] be a little bit pissed off because their last agent couldn't get it done.

[00:32:26] So you're, you're, you're really going a wide spectrum in my mind.

[00:32:31] When you initially said that, I thought like, oh, well, this person's selling a home and

[00:32:35] where this is the conversation we're going to have, but you're not saying that you're,

[00:32:38] you're saying like, how do you build, how do you find the lead?

[00:32:42] The conversation to finally, the conversation to talk to investors, you know what I mean?

[00:32:47] So it's, it's, uh, a lot more than just a singular type of.

[00:32:52] Yeah.

[00:32:53] There's, it's a, yeah.

[00:32:54] It depends on where are you focusing your business, right?

[00:32:57] Cause I'm not, I'm kind of blanketing things like for sale by owners.

[00:33:01] You can call them and try to convince them that you're the best, um, agent for the job

[00:33:06] of selling their home, even though they think they can do it on their own.

[00:33:08] Yeah.

[00:33:09] There's an expired listing, which tried selling with an agent might be a little bit disgruntled

[00:33:14] with agents.

[00:33:14] So you got to know how to communicate with them and how to, how to explain your value.

[00:33:20] Um, or if it's an investor or developer, right.

[00:33:23] Which is a pretty savvy person when it comes to real estate.

[00:33:27] You know, if you just got into the business, those probably aren't the people that you should

[00:33:31] be targeting because you don't understand unless you know more than you.

[00:33:35] Yeah.

[00:33:35] And yeah, they're, they're probably very experienced.

[00:33:38] And unless you came from that world, you might not know it, but there's language to, to how

[00:33:43] to communicate with different groups of people and how to do it more effectively.

[00:33:48] And certainly not in a way that's deceptive or, but just, just how to, how to talk and connect

[00:33:56] with people.

[00:33:57] You're practicing how to do that.

[00:34:00] And the more you practice how to do that, the better you get at it and more comfortable

[00:34:04] and the more comfortable you are.

[00:34:06] And a lot of it might be just be confidence.

[00:34:08] Right.

[00:34:09] Yeah.

[00:34:09] And knowing what to say and how to explain a certain process.

[00:34:13] So, you know, you hear yourself say it enough times, you get pretty comfortable saying it

[00:34:18] natural.

[00:34:18] And then when it becomes natural, you, that's where you find the confidence, right?

[00:34:22] Because then it becomes second nature.

[00:34:23] Yeah.

[00:34:24] I mean, I don't know, is this a thing in the insurance business or, or, or not so much?

[00:34:28] It is in the podcast.

[00:34:29] For sure.

[00:34:30] There is a, there actually is an outfit that does role playing as a service.

[00:34:35] So they will, you know, work with you.

[00:34:38] They'll do, you know, tape calls, conversations.

[00:34:41] They'll do have like go shopping.

[00:34:43] So they'll have people like call in and then grade you and then review and do that.

[00:34:47] So it's definitely a thing that some agencies utilize because it's, especially cold calling

[00:34:55] too, is very uncomfortable to kind of try to start that.

[00:35:00] And then to, but, but it all comes down to reps.

[00:35:04] Like you said, if you do something that's uncomfortable, but you do it a hundred times,

[00:35:10] it may not be that uncomfortable after doing it that many times.

[00:35:15] You know, it's funny.

[00:35:16] So when we started this podcast, um, this was November, I think it was November of last

[00:35:21] year, 2023.

[00:35:23] So we just jumped into it.

[00:35:24] Okay.

[00:35:24] First episode.

[00:35:25] This is what we're talking about.

[00:35:27] And we, and we did it.

[00:35:29] It was like 20, 25 minutes long.

[00:35:31] Yeah.

[00:35:31] One take pretty good.

[00:35:33] Yeah.

[00:35:33] So then we're like releasing our episodes.

[00:35:35] We're like, we don't want to release the first one first.

[00:35:37] We want to save that almost as like a lesson.

[00:35:41] And so we released the one we had maybe like 15, 20 episodes before we released one because

[00:35:47] we had some reps and we're like, let's go with this one.

[00:35:50] This is a good, like first impression.

[00:35:52] And it was like kind of funny.

[00:35:54] So we're like, that's, we want this to be entertaining.

[00:35:57] And then we were releasing those episodes.

[00:35:59] The first three we ever did.

[00:36:01] And, and I named it without even saying anything to you.

[00:36:04] I was like, let's just call them the OG apps.

[00:36:06] Like these are the original ones that we did in our first session, which was three in one

[00:36:11] shot.

[00:36:12] And I released that maybe like 15 and like 20 and 25.

[00:36:16] And I'm like, look, now you can see, you saw these other 15 and they're like, good.

[00:36:23] Then you see this one.

[00:36:24] You're like, Oh, that seems a little like, you know, amateur.

[00:36:28] And then I did two more.

[00:36:29] And it's like, even this, this is a great example.

[00:36:31] Like we've gotten better at this because we get to talk to more people, good people

[00:36:35] like you who have lots of things to add helps us have better conversations, ask better

[00:36:40] questions, which actually brings me to the next one.

[00:36:43] This is my brother, Ryan came up with this because he's glass half empty, just like Mr.

[00:36:47] Mooney over here.

[00:36:48] And I'm glass half full.

[00:36:49] Um, so one of the questions we asked are like, you know, what has been like a biggest, one

[00:36:54] of the biggest struggles in business.

[00:36:56] And you said getting started as a real estate agent, you know, being new and being a hundred

[00:37:01] percent commission based.

[00:37:02] Yeah.

[00:37:03] Like, I'm sure that's jarring memories of like when you got in and realizing solo agent,

[00:37:09] no team, you know, fall on your face to like figure this thing out.

[00:37:14] Like, what was that like?

[00:37:17] Well, when you, when you were talking about that conversation with Jeremy, like I imagine

[00:37:22] you to a table and him being like, yeah, so there's like no like pay.

[00:37:27] It's just a, just commission.

[00:37:28] Right.

[00:37:29] Right.

[00:37:29] And you're like, why would I do that?

[00:37:31] Yeah.

[00:37:32] I got to pay where I am.

[00:37:34] Yeah.

[00:37:34] And, and especially, especially code of anchor, which at the time it was more about training

[00:37:40] and education, which is what they were offering me.

[00:37:42] Cause I was like, I don't know what I don't know, but what, what I said.

[00:37:47] And I don't know if I was just lucky to have this within me or my parents taught it to me,

[00:37:53] but I was stubborn enough to say like, I can't figure it out.

[00:37:57] I'm just going to keep going and kind of having that blind faith.

[00:38:01] You're not going to give up, which I, yeah, I'm not going to give up.

[00:38:03] And, and I'm just going to figure it out.

[00:38:05] I'll just, I'll just fail until I figure it out.

[00:38:07] And, and there was a point in time where I want to say I had like 18 to 20 grand in my

[00:38:12] bank account when I started and it was down to like three grand and you're like, yeah.

[00:38:18] And I've been doing it for six months or so.

[00:38:21] And I'm like, all right, like you're going to do this or are you going to go back to the

[00:38:27] corporate world?

[00:38:28] And, or am I going to, do I need a loan from my parents?

[00:38:33] And sure enough, like I was always just like, all right, I don't know what I don't know.

[00:38:38] I need to learn from, from people.

[00:38:39] So I just, I did the things that other successful agents were doing and I just continued to do

[00:38:45] it consistently and you know, at the time my, my goal was 20 conversations, new conversations

[00:38:53] or 20 conversations a day, which is a hundred a week.

[00:38:56] It's a lot of conversations.

[00:38:58] And I said, what's one of the best ways to get those conversations?

[00:39:02] Um, and I said, door knocking.

[00:39:04] So on top of staying in touch with the people I did know, which wasn't that many people,

[00:39:10] cause I was new to the business.

[00:39:11] I didn't have past clients to tap into, um, you know, I tried out calling some for sale

[00:39:17] by owners and they're telling me to F off because they can sell it on their own.

[00:39:21] How much is your commission?

[00:39:23] I don't want to pay you more than, you know, 3% or 4%.

[00:39:26] And I'm telling them, no, you got to hire me for six.

[00:39:28] I'm telling you like, this is what you want to do.

[00:39:30] And I converted, I did.

[00:39:32] So it's expensive with me and you already hate me.

[00:39:34] Yeah.

[00:39:35] Like just some great stories of like one of my, one of the Fizbo's I did convert was ended

[00:39:40] up being one of my best clients and one of my best referring clients.

[00:39:45] So you just, you just, you never know where someone's going to, who's going to come back

[00:39:51] to you and what impression you're going to leave on them.

[00:39:53] So, you know, I always looked at it like, I'm not bugging someone.

[00:39:57] There's people out there that do need my help.

[00:39:59] And I know in my heart that I'm here to help and I'm good at my job.

[00:40:04] Yep.

[00:40:04] And if that doesn't, if you don't need my service at that time, that's okay.

[00:40:10] Because you would be surprised three, four, five years later, those people, you left a

[00:40:16] lasting impression on them when you knocked on their door, you said, Hey, I'm Ryan.

[00:40:20] I'm a local agent.

[00:40:21] I live in the neighborhood.

[00:40:23] I want to help people.

[00:40:24] Yep.

[00:40:24] Who do you know that might need help, uh, buying or selling in the next year?

[00:40:28] I don't know anyone.

[00:40:30] No problem.

[00:40:31] I really appreciate that.

[00:40:32] You know what?

[00:40:32] We throw a block party every year.

[00:40:34] I want to invite you out to it.

[00:40:35] Do you mind if I grab your email?

[00:40:37] Perfect.

[00:40:37] That starts the relationship.

[00:40:39] Right.

[00:40:39] And, and they remember you because you were different or you cared or, you know, you ask

[00:40:44] them something about themselves.

[00:40:47] So you just have to, if you, if you take a hundred conversations a week and you do that

[00:40:51] 50 times, 50 weeks a year, that's 5,000 conversations.

[00:40:56] Like this, this, in any sales game, I imagine it's, it's, you're not going to see the payback

[00:41:03] in one or two months.

[00:41:05] So there's a lot of shiny objects, but if you do that for two years straight, you have

[00:41:09] 10,000 conversations.

[00:41:11] Believe me, there are going to be people that need your help and you, it's your job to figure

[00:41:16] out which ones are worth spending time with, which people already have people that they

[00:41:21] know and trust.

[00:41:22] Right.

[00:41:22] Like if I knock on your door, I'm going to ask you if you had a question related to real

[00:41:28] estate, who would you, who would you go to?

[00:41:30] Right.

[00:41:31] And if you say my brother, I'm not, unfortunately like it's, you're probably like, unless you

[00:41:36] need help finding an investment deal or something, cause you, your brother doesn't help that.

[00:41:40] It's probably not worth us, you know, staying in conversation because you're in a tight relationship.

[00:41:45] So I'm not going to step on anyone's toes.

[00:41:47] Yeah.

[00:41:47] And I don't want to be honest with me.

[00:41:48] Exactly.

[00:41:49] So I just need to find the people that don't have that relationship yet.

[00:41:52] Yeah.

[00:41:52] And the beauty of real estate is most people will buy a home in their lifetime.

[00:41:57] So in some capacity, they will probably need you versus I guess, selling a product that

[00:42:01] not everybody needs.

[00:42:03] Same with insurance, right?

[00:42:04] If you're buying a home, you need insurance.

[00:42:06] So I love these, these service-based industries.

[00:42:11] Yeah.

[00:42:11] So yeah.

[00:42:12] That's great.

[00:42:12] One of our episodes we interviewed Mike McCann and he had so many great little nuggets.

[00:42:18] Yeah.

[00:42:18] One of the nuggets he said that kind of brought me back to what you were just saying, he started

[00:42:22] selling vacuum cleaners door to door, the expensive ones back then.

[00:42:26] He was making some crazy money when he was young, but he was just like a total hustler.

[00:42:31] And his mentor at the time used to say, if I can do it, you can do it.

[00:42:37] And I think what you were just saying was also like, well, I'm not going to stop.

[00:42:42] It's a numbers game.

[00:42:43] You're thinking about all these conversations.

[00:42:45] Like eventually I'm going to connect with the right person or people.

[00:42:50] In that time, I'm also going to get better at conversating with people, like having these

[00:42:56] conversations.

[00:42:57] It's just like what we were talking about with this.

[00:42:58] It's like you get better at it by doing it.

[00:43:02] And we're, we're like approaching 50 episodes.

[00:43:04] So 1% of podcasts have 50 episodes or more.

[00:43:09] Wow.

[00:43:09] And the other 99 have less.

[00:43:12] And someone dropped that to us right in the beginning.

[00:43:14] We're like, well, at the time we're like, we already did like 20.

[00:43:18] So we're like, okay, we're like almost 50% of the way there.

[00:43:21] So you think about that stuff.

[00:43:23] And that's why we love doing the show is we love letting people know, although it's

[00:43:29] hard, it was brutal for you.

[00:43:31] You starting your insurance brokerage, brutal.

[00:43:33] Like same thing for me.

[00:43:35] I got laid off from a big builder.

[00:43:36] I loved my job, love the company.

[00:43:39] And I lost my job because they wanted me to move.

[00:43:41] And I said, no.

[00:43:42] And that was a huge lesson for me at 30.

[00:43:45] So for me, I was just like, you know, it was the same kind of thing.

[00:43:48] I had a couple of people that I knew in real estate.

[00:43:49] I'm like, if they can do it, I can do it.

[00:43:52] Because I knew I wasn't going to give up.

[00:43:55] So I think that's fantastic advice.

[00:43:57] All right.

[00:43:58] Shifting a little bit.

[00:44:00] So you own rental units.

[00:44:03] Like what got you into not only real estate investing, some people flip, you know, they

[00:44:07] buy homes, they flip it, they get cash, they do it again.

[00:44:09] Yeah.

[00:44:09] But you're holding on to your units.

[00:44:11] Why did you start buying rental units?

[00:44:15] Just build generational wealth.

[00:44:17] Yeah.

[00:44:17] I looked at the successful people and I said, all right, what are they doing?

[00:44:22] And I don't understand the stock market, but I like real estate.

[00:44:26] I like to build.

[00:44:27] I always have as a kid.

[00:44:28] And lucky for me, my uncle was in the real estate business.

[00:44:32] So at 24 in 2012, you know, I said, hey, I've saved up all my cash until this point.

[00:44:44] I got 20 grand in the bank.

[00:44:46] If you see an opportunity, let me know.

[00:44:48] And, you know, he called me up in October maybe of that year.

[00:44:52] And he's like, he lives up in Allentown, has his own insurance business up there.

[00:44:59] And he said, hey, my buddy's passing on this.

[00:45:02] It's a good deal.

[00:45:03] It's a four unit property in Bethlehem for 180,000.

[00:45:07] Maybe they were asking.

[00:45:08] And I was like, okay.

[00:45:09] And I was like, how much money do we need?

[00:45:11] That's what one house costs.

[00:45:13] This is horrible.

[00:45:15] This is 2012, four apartments.

[00:45:17] And I'm like, all right.

[00:45:18] I think I was living in Pittsburgh at the time, right out of college.

[00:45:22] Yeah.

[00:45:22] Working for Dick's Sporting Goods out there.

[00:45:24] And I was like, all right, how much do we need?

[00:45:26] He's like, we need about 40 grand.

[00:45:27] I was like, okay, I have 20.

[00:45:28] I can, so that was our first investment and learned a ton from that and just built on it.

[00:45:38] It was just slow growth trying to buy a property a year.

[00:45:41] And just, I was doing everything at first.

[00:45:45] So I was managing the tenants.

[00:45:47] I was finding new ones.

[00:45:49] And then I moved back to Philly.

[00:45:51] Bringing the contractors in for turnover.

[00:45:52] Bringing the contractors in.

[00:45:54] I think we were doing the turnover ourselves.

[00:45:56] I was driving to Bafflehem from my parents' house to show for every showing.

[00:46:03] Talk about like brutal.

[00:46:07] They don't show up half the time.

[00:46:09] Yeah, if they don't show up.

[00:46:10] But then you learn, right?

[00:46:12] Then you ask these qualifying questions.

[00:46:14] Screen, screen, screen.

[00:46:15] You say, I'm not going to go up there unless I've touched base with you within an hour to know that you're actually.

[00:46:20] So you learn and you build out systems and processes and that's how it starts.

[00:46:27] Yeah.

[00:46:27] That's awesome.

[00:46:28] Do you ever envision being done with real estate and having like, I don't know, 100 units or 200 units or something like that?

[00:46:35] Giving up the sales game?

[00:46:36] Done with what?

[00:46:36] Real estate sales?

[00:46:37] Yeah.

[00:46:38] Is that even on your radar?

[00:46:41] As of right now, no.

[00:46:42] I think I'll always like enjoy the.

[00:46:45] Sales game.

[00:46:46] The negotiating that goes on.

[00:46:49] Yeah, and people.

[00:46:49] It's a people business.

[00:46:50] Finding that deal and yeah.

[00:46:51] And helping people.

[00:46:53] But, you know, right now the goal is to build the team up big enough and then continue to build the rental portfolio.

[00:47:02] And if at some point in time that rental portfolio can provide that, then maybe.

[00:47:08] But at the very least, you know, I'll leave my kids with a nice nest egg and really to pursue what they love to do.

[00:47:17] That's the ultimate goal in my eyes is to give my family the gift of financial freedom.

[00:47:24] So that they don't have to do something for a dollar.

[00:47:28] They can go do whatever makes them happy.

[00:47:32] And a lot of people, unfortunately, I think, do things, you know, for a paycheck.

[00:47:36] And it might not be what they're necessarily passionate about or love to do.

[00:47:40] But that's one of the benefits of real estate is I think it can provide you that financial freedom.

[00:47:47] Nice.

[00:47:48] Yeah.

[00:47:48] All right.

[00:47:49] So the quote that you gave us, I thought was pretty sweet.

[00:47:52] If you ain't first, you're last.

[00:47:55] Why did that, when we asked that question, why did that one stick out?

[00:47:59] Honestly, I'm not a big quote guy.

[00:48:01] So that wasn't even a, that was a hard question to answer.

[00:48:04] Like I just.

[00:48:05] We like quotes.

[00:48:06] Quotes don't stick in my head.

[00:48:08] Yeah.

[00:48:09] So, but that one has always really just at this point, I don't think you have to be first.

[00:48:18] But I think striving for that will lead you to be 1% better every day.

[00:48:25] So it's an inside joke with me and my buddies.

[00:48:27] That's always kind of just been like pushing each other just to get better.

[00:48:31] And I think there was a time where I came from a place where I want to be number one and I

[00:48:37] have to be number one.

[00:48:38] But as you mature and stuff, you realize that it's, it's more about the journey and, and how do I just get a little bit better every day versus like, I got to do everything I can to be number one.

[00:48:52] I certainly don't, I'm not at the point where I, I need to have a hundred agent team and be the biggest team to be happy.

[00:48:59] It's, it's more of financial and time freedom.

[00:49:03] What makes me happy?

[00:49:05] People I'm working with and going into the office with every day.

[00:49:08] And, and how do we just continue to get better?

[00:49:12] And that's in all aspects of life.

[00:49:13] That's not just, that's, that's health.

[00:49:15] That's business.

[00:49:17] That's, that's your finances.

[00:49:18] That's your relationships.

[00:49:20] So, um, you know, I want to, I want to learn from my team too.

[00:49:25] And from other people and, and just be the best person that I can be.

[00:49:29] So, um, awesome, man.

[00:49:31] My son was in a soccer tournament over the weekend.

[00:49:34] Yeah, I know.

[00:49:35] I know you're a big soccer fan.

[00:49:36] I love soccer.

[00:49:37] I can't get enough.

[00:49:38] Um, but he said to me, he goes, dad, he, he got a, a medal.

[00:49:45] He goes, dad, we get to keep, I get to keep this medal.

[00:49:49] And I was like, oh yeah.

[00:49:50] He's like, yeah, because if I got second, I'd have to throw it away.

[00:49:55] Oh, wow.

[00:49:56] So like, you know, they give all these stupid trophies to like.

[00:50:00] Is this Brendan, I'm assuming?

[00:50:01] Yeah.

[00:50:01] Yeah.

[00:50:02] How old is he?

[00:50:03] Eight.

[00:50:04] And, um.

[00:50:05] Um, but like they get these stupid things and I'm like, you're not keep that.

[00:50:09] We got to throw that out.

[00:50:10] Cause you got like fifth place in like a six man tournament.

[00:50:13] I'm like, that doesn't count.

[00:50:14] You got to get rid of that.

[00:50:15] You don't want him to stack up a lot in his room?

[00:50:17] No.

[00:50:17] So this one, they actually won the tour.

[00:50:19] He's like, dad, we get to keep our medals.

[00:50:21] I'm like, you sure do son.

[00:50:22] Oh, that's awesome.

[00:50:24] So this is really your quote.

[00:50:25] That's it right there.

[00:50:26] I love it.

[00:50:28] All right, man.

[00:50:29] Well, before we shut it down, why don't you tell listeners and watchers where they can learn

[00:50:33] more about you and everything you got going on?

[00:50:36] Appreciate that.

[00:50:37] Um, Instagram's probably one of the platforms in Facebook that we're most active on.

[00:50:42] So, um, it's just my name, Ryan dot stay was S T A W A S Z. Um, shoot me a message.

[00:50:50] My, my, my cell phone number is on there.

[00:50:52] You can Google us realtors and find us.

[00:50:54] We have websites, but, um, we can't hide.

[00:50:57] We're, we're, and for that reason, you know, we're very, I'm very approachable.

[00:51:01] So whether it's, um, Instagram, uh, Facebook, LinkedIn, wherever you can find me, it's just

[00:51:07] Ryan stay was, um, or if you want to shoot me an email at Ryan at TSG dot homes, uh,

[00:51:14] you can do that as well.

[00:51:15] Very cool.

[00:51:15] Awesome.

[00:51:16] Great chat, man.

[00:51:18] Well, that's all we have for this one, folks.

[00:51:20] So thank you for tuning in again to another episode of bricks and risk.

[00:51:24] See you soon.

[00:51:26] Thank you for joining us on another episode of bricks and risk.

[00:51:31] Our goal is that you walk away with one or two valuable nuggets, and we greatly appreciate

[00:51:36] you sharing your time with us today.

[00:51:38] You can find all BNR episodes on Spotify, Apple music, YouTube, and anywhere else you get

[00:51:45] your podcast content until next time.

[00:51:49] Keep learning and keep growing.