Episode #74: Why do consumers assume real estate and insurance agents are all the same?

[00:00:00] In one year I remember seeing that Geico spent a billion dollars. Just on advertising. A billion. But what happens is they spend a billion. And then someone else is like, man, if they're spending a billion, now I got to spend a billion. And if their messaging is 15 for 15 less or whatever theirs is, now I got to do that.

[00:00:27] Now I have to outdo them. It's like a dog eat dog. So they're 15 and 15, hey, give us 10 minutes and we'll save you 20%. Right, right, right. Yeah. Welcome to the podcast dedicated to real estate, insurance, and building your business.

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[00:02:10] Hey everyone. Welcome to another episode of Bricks and Risk. I'm Tim G. I'm Tim G.'s co-host, Sean Mooney. P? P. Sean P. If you guys are unfamiliar, the reason we call him Sean P is because his middle name is Patrick. Paul. It's Paul? Yeah. I thought it was Patrick. Oh no, it's Patrick. Just like your son is six? Six. No, he's not. He's eight.

[00:02:41] That was the joke. All right. What are we getting into today? Today we're going to be talking about consumers and why there's an assumption in consumers' world as to maybe why it really doesn't matter which real estate or insurance agent you use. Yeah. And how they're kind of all the same, doing all the same things. Like almost thinking like real estate's a commodity. Yep.

[00:03:10] Real estate agents are commodities let's say. Yep. They all have licenses. It doesn't matter who I work with. Yeah. Also insurance I believe more so. Sure. They look at it as like insurance is a commodity. Yeah. And it doesn't matter if I work with this company or that company. I might as well just go with the one that I think is going to give me the lowest cost, the lowest rate, the lowest whatever. Yep. So give me your own perspective on that.

[00:03:38] Why do you think there are people in this world who think that let's relate it to insurance? Yeah. That doesn't matter where you get your insurance, coverage is coverage and cost is cost. Yep. Just go shop like three companies, five companies, 10 companies and just pick the lowest one. Yeah.

[00:03:59] So I think the main driver in that when we're talking about insurance is just the amount of advertisement on the TV. Interesting. On social, wherever you turn. The only thing that gets advertised when it's insurance is just 15 minutes will save you 15%. Right.

[00:04:28] Do you know any statistics by chance of like how high up insurance is in like the TV advertising world? Are they like one of the highest payers for TV ad space? Because like, for example, like residential real estate companies don't really advertise on the TV. Neither do agents. Here's the one indicator to give you some sort of reference point. Okay.

[00:04:54] I think this was recent in the last couple years that I saw. The number one most expensive keyword for Google AdWords was auto insurance. Really? You couldn't pay a higher premium dollar. Out of all keywords. Any, any. Whoa, that's really interesting. Yeah.

[00:05:23] So now they're really fighting. Yeah. For this big pie of ad space. Yeah. How do we get a piece of that pie? Yep. That's interesting. Yep. Okay. So back to what we were talking about. Why do you feel like the consumer, it just says it really doesn't matter who I work with, whoever gives me the lowest payment, I'll probably just go with them. Why do they think that? Yeah. Well, they're hit over the head.

[00:05:53] Like it's just, they, the advertising is just dictating. How they should look at it. Yes. Interesting. Yep. So I think that that's the, the, the, the force behind it is the level, the amount of money that goes into the messaging, the advertising, the marketing of all insurance. Cause once one does it, you know, in one year, I remember seeing that Geico spent a billion dollars.

[00:06:22] Oh my God. Just on advertising a billion. Wow. But what happens is they spend a billion and then someone else is like, man, if they're spending a billion now I got to spend a billion. And if they're, if they're messaging is 15 for 15 less or whatever theirs is now I got to, I got to do that. Now I have to outdo them. Right. It's like a dog eat dog. So like they're 15 and 15.

[00:06:52] Hey, give us 10 minutes and we'll save you 20%. Like, they're just, you know, right. So I think the vast majority of money in ad is, is on a singular message. When it's advertised. Um, so I think that that's plays into the, the psychology of people when they think of insurance and being a commodity.

[00:07:17] So it's like the insurance industry is, is basically controlling the narrative of the media, let's say how people absorb, uh, advertisement for insurance companies. They're like, we want to control what's being said. What's important to you, Mr. or Mrs. Consumer regarding insurance. They're driving consumer behavior. Yeah, exactly.

[00:07:40] That that's really the gist of it is if we spend a billion dollars, we know that we can kind of make some changes on. We can tell people how to think. Yeah. That's interesting. Yeah. All right. So let's take that. That's more like the generality of like, insurance, why people think, a lot of people think that way.

[00:08:00] How, can you give a personal example from like Mooney insurance brokers, where this is really like come into your life, like with a client, either like competing for a client or like hearing something from a client that you're like, man, it's so true. That narrative or that stigma that they're just telling them how to think. Oh yeah. I mean, that happens every day. What I was punching up on my phone and this, this is literally came. Is it taking long because it's a droid?

[00:08:30] I want you to read that. Just, just, just read. I don't ever. Okay. And take the names out. All right. So it says, I don't ever want to leave Hanover. That was the best experience I ever had with an insurance company. Okay. So. Explain that. We had a claim and this guy was like blown away. Okay. Right. By how it was handled. Yeah. Gotcha.

[00:08:58] Like, like imagine someone saying, Tim, I never want to leave you. Like you have me for life. Right. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that there's a narrative out there as to what people are driving, what's the messaging and trying to drive consumers as it's, it's the price. It's the, everything's just a commodity. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter who your insurance company is.

[00:09:28] It doesn't matter who your agent is. Right. Right. But the flip side of that is this. And I know it to be true because I see it every day. Mm hmm. Your carrier matters. Yep. Your coverage matters. Your, your premiums matter. Um, your service on, on the, on a retail level with us, your agent matters. Yeah. Right.

[00:09:52] And so we're often in this tug of war, um, with clients to try to, to, to show them that, you know, these things do matter. Yep. Right. It's not just about, oh yeah, you can go over here and save 10%. And so it's always been a struggle for us because you're trying to combat that billion dollar marketing campaign. Right.

[00:10:20] That's trying to tell people otherwise. Right. So here's Mooney over here saying, it's not just about price. And then you have this lizard that's saying, yeah, it's all about the price. Right. Yeah. So it's just, that's just what we deal with every single day. Isn't he a gecko? A gecko. Is a gecko considered a lizard? Uh, yeah. It's like all rhombuses are squares, but not all squares are rhombuses.

[00:10:49] Um, what, what was the, right. Yeah. What was the, I think the example you have given before on other episodes of Bricks and Risk is you had said, we want to be your advocate. Yep. So if you want to be someone's advocate, you're like, you'd said like, it's kind of hard to get that message across like in a very direct way. Yeah.

[00:11:14] And it's probably because they're getting a lot of direct messaging. Yeah. From more people than you in different, like throughout the entire day. It could be on TV. It could be on, you know, it could even be they're watching something on YouTube and a commercial comes on. Cause you get commercials on YouTube now. Well, here's an insurance commercial. Here's another one. You know, we deal with real estate people. We deal with mortgage people, transactions, new home buyers. Right.

[00:11:43] And so people reach out to us and it was, it was recent where someone was like, Hey, you're, you're taking longer to get these quotes back than the, than this other person. Okay. And I'm like, yeah, it's because I care. It's cause you're thorough. Not even thorough, but it's, I, I've built a reputation around getting the right coverage and the right policy.

[00:12:07] And I could fire a quote back at you in 10 minutes, but if that gets canceled in two weeks, then now I look bad. Now you look bad. Right. And so I have, I hold myself to a little bit higher standard where I want to make sure they're in the right place. And we've talked about it before.

[00:12:34] Sometimes it's paying a higher premium to avoid an inspection or, or, you know, so I have to make sure that that client is in the best possible position because our reputation, you know? And so, so we're basically sending this application out to all these carriers, all these carriers. Sometimes now it goes to underwriting and they're doing the aerial inspections prior to, we have to submit additional paperwork.

[00:12:58] And so I'm trying to clear all those hurdles so that when I go to your client, I'm saying, Hey, I got it all. Here's the proposal. Yeah. Everything's been vetted. Everything's been, but that's the way that we do it. But to counter that is they get a quote in five minutes and they're like, well, why are they taking so long? They shouldn't take that long. You know what I mean?

[00:13:20] It's like, so not only are we combating that, um, that war on like price, price, price, but now we're combating against another agent or someone else that's saying, you know, they're taking too long. It doesn't matter. You know where, where they just don't care. You know, if that, if that blows up on the backend, it's like, that's someone else's problem. Right. Right. So that's just a different, another layer of what we're having to contend with, you know, on a day to day basis.

[00:13:49] Well, it's funny. I can't remember who said it. One of our insurance guests before had put it this way, that if you go to one of the larger big box insurance companies, you have to fit within their program. So it's like, they have one program, let's say for homeowners insurance or auto insurance, you have to fit within that. Yep. And that's, it is what it is. Yeah. But an insurance brokerage such as yours, your job is to fit the insurance program with the client. I have lots of different programs.

[00:14:19] It's not just one. Yeah. I have five right here. This one offers this to you, but it doesn't offer that. This one's offers this to you, but it doesn't offer that. This one offers this and it offers that. I think we're going to put you here, Mr. and Mrs. insured client. And the reason I'm putting you here is because not only is it competitive on price, but the coverage for your particular home or your particular car is that much better than any of the other ones I looked at.

[00:14:49] It's like Tinder. Yeah. Go ahead. Explain that. So like with Tinder, you're sizing up the one person and seeing what their needs are. Tinder happened after I was married. So I don't know a lot about it, but I'll let you explain it. I am very well versed in the Tinder verse. Okay. Tell me all about the Tinder. So you have your profile and what Tinder is trying to do is trying to match this person up with another person.

[00:15:18] So they're looking at all of your subjectivities that you have. That's your points. Right. And then they're trying to find the person that's going to align with you. Mm hmm. They're not saying, hey, Jim, you need to do this to, to, to do, to meet this person. Jim, go find a person like this. They're saying, no, Jim, hold on a second. Jim, stay the way you are. Yeah.

[00:15:45] And we're going to find someone that aligns with you. So, so with insurance, it's, here's your home. Here's the year built. Are we doing the car with, okay. Okay. We're doing the car and the home together. Oh, okay. When was the electric time? When was the roof? Okay. Hey, this carrier is going to be perfect for you. Yeah. Yeah. Do you know what's funny? Like you had mentioned before, you're like, I kind of wish I didn't name the brokerage after your name. You're like, I kind of wish I had a different name.

[00:16:15] You could call it Tinder insurance brokerage or Tinder insurance brokers. Tinder. Because then everyone's going to make that parallel between Tinder and Mooney. And they're going to be like, yo, I get it. He's going to give me the insurance just like Tinder would give me the guy or girl. Isn't that interesting? I wonder. I just renamed your business for you.

[00:16:42] I'm going to go to GoDaddy today and see if Tinder insurance is available. Tinder insurance.com. Just see. And you know what? Just buy the domain. Don't even rename your company. Just redirect the domain. Yeah. To Mooney. Tinder insurance? Dill. How clever. Dill. Can you mock that up for us?

[00:17:12] Like. In some way. Yeah. You know, you know, it's our vibe by now. Like. Tinder insurance.com. Getting a little off track here. All right. Let's talk about it from a real estate standpoint. Yeah. All right. So in real estate, for example, why do I think this would happen in real estate where someone would just say, look, if I'm a buyer would be the easy example. Yep.

[00:17:41] Buyers, I feel like are more flexible as to what agent they work with because one, they've probably never done it before. Even if they've done it once before, they're kind of like, look, this is just about you like being my guide and getting me to where I want to go in like less of a formal way. Yeah. Yeah. On the selling side, you know, they've already bought real estate guaranteed because that's why they're selling. So they're going to be more experienced than a lot of buyers. Plus they have probably a lot at stake. They have equity in the property.

[00:18:09] So choosing the right listing agent to a seller probably seems like a little bit more important on face value than choosing your buyer agent. Yeah. And the reason I make this example is because there are so many people in this country who are realtors, who have real estate licenses and who subscribe to the National Association of Realtors. They're members. Almost one and a half million the last time I heard. It's probably gone down since then, but. Yep.

[00:18:35] There's so many people and a lot of them don't really write any business at all. If, if maybe a transaction in a year, which means that the average consumer probably knows a couple people in real estate, people who have a real estate license. You're a realtor. Yeah. And I may make this example. I've called it the cousin Bobby example, just cause it's nice and catchy.

[00:19:00] And the reason I use the cousin Bobby example is because if you're a buyer client and let's say you're 25, you're 30 or the latest statistic I heard the average age of millennial buying a house is up to 38. 38. That's right. Let's say you're 38. You're buying your first house and you go to your parents or your siblings or your aunt, your uncle, your grandparents, whoever. You're like, hey, is anyone in the family have a real estate license that can help me? They're like, oh, cousin Bobby.

[00:19:29] Cousin Bobby's a realtor. You didn't know that? Oh no, no. I didn't know that. I'll talk to cousin Bobby. And then you call cousin Bobby. You're like, hey, cousin Bobby, can you help me buy a house if I want to? Yeah. Yeah. Let's do it. I'd love to help you. We've known each other forever. Where are you looking? Oh, I'm looking in this neighborhood. I know that neighborhood. Yeah. I'll take you to that neighborhood. I'll show you what's on the market for sale and then I'll help you buy a house.

[00:19:54] So a lot of people, they'll just like ask within their network and say like, who do we know who's in real estate? And most of the time I feel like they feel like they're obligated to work with family. Because here's the other example I'll make. If you don't work with cousin Bobby and it comes time for the holidays and you go to some event with your family and then cousin Bobby's like, hey, how you guys doing? They're like, good, good. We just bought our house. Oh, you did?

[00:20:25] Who'd you work with? Ah, we worked with Sheila. All right. You know I have a real estate life. Oh, you know what? I could have helped you with that. And they're like, oh yeah. Now there's this big, awkward moment. So I feel like there's people who almost feel like it's like an obligation. Let's call it a loyalty thing. Let's call it a family thing. Let's just call it. I don't feel like getting into it with cousin Bobby thing to just go with cousin Bobby.

[00:20:54] Whether cousin Bobby has sold a hundred houses or zero houses, let's go with cousin Bobby. And I make that example because most buyers in particular don't vet their real estate agent properly, probably similar to insurance. They just get this messaging from all angles, from TV, from internet consumption of like YouTube or podcasts or whatever, music.

[00:21:20] They're watching something, you know, maybe they subscribe to a premium service, but it has commercials. Yeah. And all they do is hear this messaging with Geico. So we had- 15 minutes, 15%, right? Is that what it is? We had a client reach out the other day. Not a client, a prospect. I said, hey, I want to make a move, you know, look it over. And he had auto home umbrella coverage. And he was with a big box insurance company. Okay.

[00:21:50] And I'm looking over the paperwork. You're like, is it the lizard dude? Yeah. It wasn't. It was Chad or whatever his name is. Okay. Yeah. And I'm looking it over and I said to him, I said, hey, your homeowner's policy only has a hundred thousand of liability. Whoa. And you have an umbrella.

[00:22:16] But a requirement of the umbrella is that you are required to maintain at least 300,000- Oh, wow. Of liability on your home. I said, you're paying for this umbrella, but you have no umbrella coverage. Right. So you're paying for something that technically doesn't exist. Because if you had to file a claim, when push comes to shove, they're like, you're not covered. Yeah. You can't do that. You didn't meet the requirement.

[00:22:42] So literally, we see this stuff every day. Right? Yep. And so it's part of the conversation is trying to have people understand that, yes, price is a consideration, but you also want to be working with someone that understands these products.

[00:23:09] I'm not even representing who you're with right now. Right. But if you look under the umbrella policy, it's going to say that they require a $300,000 limit. All right. So that's really helpful. And thanks for drawing that parallel. Going back to the cousin Bobby example. So let's use that as kind of similar. They would not know that they're in trouble with their coverage until something goes wrong. Right. Okay.

[00:23:36] So the family member says, sure, we'll work with cousin Bobby. Yep. Bobby's great. Bobby's nice. He's professional. He dresses sharp. You know, he knows how to open lock boxes without getting too sweaty. You know, he rolls into the house. He knows how to dig the hole to put the sign in the front yard. He's got the six shears. He's like, and he's literally going through the house. He's got them. What do you think? Oh, look at these 42 inch cabinets. Oh, this. Do you know the school district here?

[00:24:04] Oh, the property taxes on this one are lower compared to like a half mile away in the different townships. So he's talking a good game. Okay. Then they find the property. Bobby writes it up. They start their inspections. Okay. Bobby's never done this before. So now they get to their inspections and the roof needs to be replaced. And they have an inspection contingency, which means the buyers have leverage. Yeah. If the negotiation doesn't go the way they want, then they can cut bait, get the deposit and walk away.

[00:24:34] And then when they do their inspection, they go to Bobby and they're like, well, this house needs a new roof. It's going to be like 25 grand. What do we do? And he was like, yeah, I don't think you're going to get 25 grand from these people. Maybe we can ask for like 2,500. How's that sound? Yeah. And they're like, well, what if we have to replace the roof in a year? You know, I just think the deal is going to fall apart if he asked for 25 grand. So my advice is 2,500. And there are so many instances.

[00:25:04] And I've been on the listing side where the other agent is just trying to get things done. Yeah. They just want to get it done. And that's fine. Like, I get it. You're new. I wanted to get things done when I was new, too. Like, people just want to get their feet wet, just like Cousin Bobby. The problem is it's going to be at the expense of the buyer clients.

[00:25:26] So the reason I say don't feel obligated to work with anyone, whether the family, friends, neighbor, you know, parent of one of the kids that your kid is friends with. Kindergarten teacher who sells real estate over the summer. Like, you should really be careful about who you're working with and why. Just like you had said. Don't just go with State Farm or whoever or the lizard company because they got a lot of ads out there.

[00:25:56] And it sounds like it's going to go to their website. Their website's beautiful. You know, you're filling things out. It's a piece of cake. You called someone on the phone. They were super nice. Oh, we'll have that over to you in an hour, Sean. No problem. You get it. You're like, boom, this company is great. How professional does this look? We're going to have coverage before the end of the day. Yeah. And then three months later, they have a liability claim. They're like, yeah, that's you don't have the right coverage. You're like, didn't you sell me the coverage? Yeah.

[00:26:25] Like, this is the reality. So the reason we're talking about this episode is I think and I can give I'll give a personal example. Okay. I actually worked with a family member recently, and we were trying to find them a house in the inner suburbs. This was in the last year, year plus.

[00:26:45] And it was very hard to do just because they wanted to live in these great little neighborhoods with great schools, with quiet streets, close to the city, close to family, close to their jobs. That's what they wanted. And every time we would go out and see something that they liked, there'd be five other offers, 10 other offers. I think one had like 35 or something crazy. It had to have been Mable Glen. Could have been. That we just kept losing. So like, here's a great example.

[00:27:13] It took two years, basically, to finally get them after, I don't know, seven or eight failed offers to get them exactly to where they wanted to be. But the example I'll make of this is that after that first failed offer, they were like apologizing to me. They're like, oh, we're sorry. Sorry, we wasted your time on this one. You know, sorry. Sorry that we wanted to make an offer when we knew there were 35 offers and we weren't willing to really go over ask.

[00:27:42] Like, they were like apologizing. Yeah. And I literally said to them, I was like, please don't apologize. This is the process. And this is where you're at right now. You're wanting to buy in these areas where there is way more demand than there is supply. Yeah. So my advice for the next one, put your best foot forward. You know that if you put your best foot forward and you don't get it, you're not going to be upset because you're like, I'm not, I wouldn't have done that anyway. Yeah.

[00:28:10] And it took literally like seven or eight offers and they were just so polite. They're great family members. And they just had said like, oh, we're so sorry. This is taking so long. We're so sorry. We're dragging you out on a Saturday. And I would just keep saying that. I'm like, please don't be sorry. This is what we have to do to get you where you want to go. Like you can only spend so much money. You can only look at so many houses.

[00:28:33] And I've been through this with many people, but the people in my industry who really care, they realize no matter what I'm doing with them, it's a marathon, not a sprint. It could take us five years to find the house. It might take us five hours. You could go out with someone on a Saturday. There's plenty of inventory. You put in an offer, it gets accepted. And by the next day, you're like, boom. Yeah, that was great. So it goes both ways. But just like with you, someone might come to you as a referral and it's a piece of cake. Yeah.

[00:29:03] Like they're like, that was so easy. But then there's other people that come to you for a referral and it's like pulling teeth. It's no one's fault. It's just a difficult thing to get done. Yeah. That's the situation they're in. Yeah. So I just find that interesting. Hey, everyone. This is Tim, your favorite bricks and risk co-host. But don't tell Sean. I hope you're enjoying this episode and I'll get right back to it in a moment. Our audience grows through word of mouth.

[00:29:30] So if you would please take a moment of your time and give us a review on the platform you're on, that would be fantastic. Please also help spread the BNR word by sharing your favorite episode with a friend. We greatly appreciate your time and trust. Now, back to the show. All right. So I'm going to ask you a question specifically as a consumer. Yeah.

[00:29:57] So as like a buyer in real estate, why does it matter? Like what is it to you about choosing the right agent? Because there's obviously the example I just gave, you know, plenty of people in real estate. Yeah. I'm sure you have family or even like neighbors in real estate. My mom. Yeah. She does real estate. So it's like, you know, even your mom. Yeah. Um, what, what is it about? How would you look at it as a consumer?

[00:30:27] Like how would you vet people or not vet people? Like what's your honest outlook on it? Um, so my inclination always in most things in life is to, so, so vetting by way of, you know, referral. Right. And, and try to like go to some people that I've known and not necessarily for a name or something like that.

[00:30:54] But, uh, if it were real estate, you know, oh, you just sold your house, you know, six months ago. How did it go? Who'd you work with? Right. How did it go? Okay. You work. Okay. Was it good. Yeah. So, so I know that they bought a house like close by where I want to live. Right. Um, in the, in the similar, uh, price range. Yep. Um, with similar circumstances, like, oh, they, they live here and their kids go to school with Mike. You know what I mean?

[00:31:23] So I would try to find like a parallel. That's something that someone landed on and completed that process that would be similar to mine. And so I would want to like use them as, oh, you know, how did it go? Who did you use? That sort of thing. Like you respect them. Yeah. And you're trying to figure out, okay, tell me about your experience because I'm obviously going to listen to what you have to say. Yeah.

[00:31:51] And have you ever had the example of like talking to someone within your network, whether it's real estate or something else and you're like, oh, how'd that go? And they're like, that was awful. Yeah. I didn't have a good experience. Yeah. Uh, a bunch of times. Yeah. And so, and it's not even, sometimes it is the, is the specific person or contractor or, you know, whatever.

[00:32:14] Um, but sometimes it's not like sometimes, you know, like going through the process of buying a house. Right. And you're like, you lose this house, you lose this house. And then you're like, all right, well, um, maybe I'll buy a lot. Yeah. And build. Maybe that's the easier. I'll change it up. Yeah. Instead of competing for the resources that everyone's competing with. Yeah. Maybe I can find something where there's not as much competition and I'm willing to get my hands dirty, let's say.

[00:32:44] So I actually did that recently. Um, if you can believe it. I could definitely believe it. So there was that house that sat on the river. Yeah. Yeah. Over in Maple Glen. Uh huh. And it was a lot for sale. I think it was. Yeah. Like 150 or 200 gram, something like that. Yep. So they were building a house. Um, that was on the other side of Maple Glen, but like where I'm at, uh, they were building a house like up the street. So I pulled the court documents and I found the guy's name.

[00:33:14] Who's building the house? Yeah. Like the builder or the actual owner? Uh, the owner. Okay. So the person who's having the house built. Yeah. For them. Yep. Okay. Cold email. Okay. Reached out to him. How'd you find the email? I'm just that good. Okay. I believe it. Um, maybe I'll give Dil the email. Yeah. Yeah. We'll do Mooney's, uh, email stalking, uh, tactics on it. So I found it. And my premise was like, Hey, uh, I know you're just got done with this, this house build. Um, you're in this township.

[00:33:42] I'm thinking about this scenario over here. And it's like, like what? Give me the details, right? The good, the bad, the ugly with just purely dealing with the township. Okay. Because I wanted to know like, yeah. What's, what's your experience been like? Yeah. Cause you're right there and I'm potentially going to be right here. Yeah. So tell me. And he kind of laid it out. Like this was good. Builder was good. And then there were a couple of hiccups that we weren't expecting that he kind of like mapped

[00:34:12] out as well. Oh, wow. Yeah. So was it overall like not that complicated of a process? It wasn't. Okay. Yeah. Was he working with like an experienced builder in the area? Yeah. Type of thing? Yep. Someone who does like custom homes or whatever? Yep. Did he have any thoughts on the lot that you were interested in? I didn't get into details about like specifics on, on my end about like, hey, what do you think about this?

[00:34:35] I was just kind of more feeling him out or trying to just get feedback on, on what that process would be if I was to do that. So what did you, uh, what was the end result? What'd you learn? The end result was I didn't want to live on the river. Uh, I didn't want to listen to crick sounds at night while I go to sleep. But it, it, the way he mapped it out though, if it wasn't on the river, it would be like,

[00:35:04] ah, this would be something I'd entertain, you know? No way. Yeah. Did he, did he agree that that lot being where it is, it's like pretty much impossible? No, I didn't even get in the deep, like there was no, yeah, there was no conversation about like, Hey, what do you think about this? It was more just, Hey, give me feedback on your experience from the start to the finish of this build in this township. It's like, what are your thoughts on no basement and building on pylons like they do at the shore? Yeah. What if I build my house like that?

[00:35:34] Could I get above the river? Yo, I wonder if that lot is still for sale. We should, I should just, I should just buy it. And then we could just do like a mini series on the podcast about that. You know, do you know what we do? We could even trace how far down this little creek goes and see if we can build a dam. And then you don't have a problem anymore. I bet you that Creek goes down to the, it's weird cause there's a house on this side and there's a house on this side.

[00:36:02] So I'm like, how bad could it be? Yeah. But then the taxes on the new bill, the flood insurance, if you're there, when the flood insurance would be too bad if you put it up, but probably something you still have to. So, um, but just that is one example of how I kind of would vet or kind of like look for feedback given different scenarios. One, one point I put here and thanks for sharing all that is like, sometimes I feel like when

[00:36:29] people are talking about an agent that helps them buy a house or like, don't they just like open doors and like write paperwork? Like how hard is that? Yeah, that's it. I know how to open a door and an attorney could write my paperwork. Yeah. So what's the difference? Yeah. Why am I working with him or her? Well, yesterday in the office, we had a client. He's, this is, um, a client that's going to be selling his house and moving. And he called us and said, Oh, I'm not using, I'm going to sell my house.

[00:36:59] It's a hot market. I'm not using real estate agent. I go, I mean like for sell by owner. Yeah. And I go, well, sounds good. Sounds good. What you're saying, but you could be leaving money on the table. And he's like, why? And then I kind of went through like the whole scenario. You're like, don't take my word for it. Take Tim's. Yeah. I mean, please reference episode number 37.

[00:37:26] Um, but, uh, sometimes, you know, people have to, people have to, uh, you know, at least try it. Right. And if it doesn't work, then I think, you know, we just released Tom tools episode this morning. Yeah. What's up, buddy? How are you? Hey Tom. And, uh, I don't know the exact stat that he dropped on there, but he had said for sale by owners within like around 60 days, a large, the high majority of them. 60, 70% or something. Yeah.

[00:37:55] They, they turn into listed properties on the MLS. Here was another interesting stat. So like, you know, sometimes not to get too off track, but you know, sometimes these people say I have like a pocket listing or I have like an exclusive listing. This is only within my brokerage. It doesn't have a sign. It's not on the MLS. That was that neighbor's house down the street from me. Yeah. It went up, but no one knows about it.

[00:38:21] And I read something on, uh, exclusive listings the other day. It was talking about, um, why they're not the best thing for sellers. The one thing that was interesting was that 90% of exclusive listings end up going on the MLS. Yeah. Which meaning, meaning there was, it was, it was less than 10% of all listings start out as exclusives, but then 90% of them go to MLS. So what is it? Maybe a couple points, two, three points maybe are actually exclusive.

[00:38:51] And that's just a whole different type of ball game. That's not normal American homes. Yeah. That might be like more of the luxury, like the high end. Yeah. Um, I just found that interesting. Yeah. But, uh, all right. What would you like to know from me from the insurance standpoint? So like the commoditization, like how do you think that the consumer looks at, you know, specifically, like how would I look at it? Yeah.

[00:39:20] Kind of similar to you for like most things that I do in life that I consider important. I would consider insurance to be important, you know, buying a house, like financial planner, like. Protecting your most valuable asset. Yeah. You know, schools like protecting my family, you know, care, all the, all the different things, you know, babysitters. Um, I would say with insurance being an important part of protection for me and my family, I'm just like you.

[00:39:47] I usually go to people I know and I'm like, Hey, who do you know? Do you know anyone who, who does this? Yeah. You know, for whatever, whatever I'm trying to do, if I don't know them already. Right. Obviously I know you, but if I didn't, that's probably where I would go first. Yeah. But again, sometimes people go to their network and they're like, Hey, who do you know? They're like, I don't know anyone. And then they're like, all right, then I have to go search. Yeah. So let, let, let, if we just take those off the table for us, right, let's go back and do it.

[00:40:16] So then you go, so what's your, what's your second step? I would say my second step, I'd probably be doing some Google searches, you know, homeowners insurance, flower town, Pennsylvania. Yep. I'll be trying to like understand who in my area is going to pop up and why. And obviously I know the internet, so I'm going to see all the paid ads at the top. I'm going to be like, those are for the suckers. Yeah. But I'll go down a little bit and see who's leading the SEO search. Maybe I go to page two if I'm feeling adventurous. Yeah.

[00:40:42] Um, but I want to start looking my, doing my own research. Okay. And let's say one of the first, the top three, cause again, the, the little fish in a big pond can sometimes get to the top if they have the right SEO. And it's like ABC insurance does insurance in flower town. So I click on them. Oh, nice website. I start looking. Oh, decent reviews. Yeah.

[00:41:07] So probably my mindset would be like, first, I'm going to do some due diligence, some searching on my own to find someone with a decent reputation that I can see online. Yeah. But it doesn't mean I'm going to call ABC insurance and get someone who's experienced Right. At what they're doing. What if ABC insurance has 50 different agents working at their brokerage and 80% of them are brand new? Yeah. And they just, how do I get, how do I get policies written?

[00:41:38] They're telling me I got to bring in new clients. They found us through our SEO. Let me get Tim some insurance. Yep. So, and I think me, how I would judge it if I didn't know anyone would really be like, you know, what's the service like from the person I'm dealing with? And then bottom line, how much does it cost to get insurance? And if I'm like iffy on it, I'd probably be like, all right, who's next in line? Yeah. Maybe I'll call someone else and get an insurance quote from them and get a different feel.

[00:42:04] So I would probably say like a normal person who doesn't have a contact is probably going to go through some kind of process of elimination, either through searching for things online, getting quotes, and then understanding how much things cost. I'd say if you're not as frugal as some, you're probably going to hold your hat more on like how polite was the rep? Like how good was the communication? Like how buttoned up was the approach? And just put trust in the fact that this is a fair number.

[00:42:34] I like how the experience is going. So I'm just going to go with it. One other thing. So I think another popular, depending on what the service might be, but I know that down the shore we don't have a lot of like connections of like knowing people on the island and brigantine. Yep. So when we are like looking for like we had an attic fan or we needed some tile work done or something like that, I often go into Facebook groups.

[00:43:04] Oh, you want to go to like the local chatter and see what people are saying. Look for the same name over and over. First degree, like, and so I'll go into a group and I'll do is cause you can search inside groups. So I'll go to a group, search inside a group like electrician. Smart. And then it'll tell you like, all right, here's a question that someone asked about an electrician. So you get in there and then I'll get two or three names and then take those two or three names where people have gotten work done.

[00:43:30] And then kind of like level two as to like, all right, where are they online or you know what I mean? So it's almost like rather than you do the basic search on Google, let's say, because that could just be that's a pay to play. Right. Or strategic, whatever, however you want to call it. You would say, no, no, no, let me go to the brigantine like, you know, network. Right. Resident network, whatever it is, community. Yep. Let me go in there and let me see what the locals are saying. Yeah, because here's the other thing too is. That's smart.

[00:44:00] Sometimes they'll actually describe, I'm looking for my scenario. Yeah. So like sometimes they'll put in, like, let's just say, I don't know, fence guy, right? Or girl. Girl, guy, fence guy, fence girl. And if they did that same exact thing, like I did a whole perimeter fence with a vinyl and that's what I'm looking for. Yeah. Then I'm like, oh, wow, like they just did that.

[00:44:29] Now I got a recommendation. Yeah. I know they do stuff locally on the island. Yep. And they do the kind of fence that I want. So then you would like, you'd probably take that and then you'd put that into search engine. Yeah. Or chat GPT or whatever the hell people use these days. And you'd say, what does it look like online? What are the reviews like? What is the web? Do they even have a website? Yep. Which can sometimes be like a red flag. Yeah. Even though my website is taking me about a year. Yeah.

[00:44:57] So that's another way that I might go about it. Doing, trying to find someone who's in that same position and what was the solution and how was the outcome using that provider. Very cool. I like that approach. Yeah. It works. All right. Good stuff, man. Why don't you go ahead and shut us down? So if you'd like to find out more information about the show, you can find us on all the socials. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram. Insta.

[00:45:28] For the kids. If you'd like to email the show, questions, comments, whatever. Bricksandrisk at gmail.com. If you're looking for new insurance, go to tindersurance.com and you can get competitive quotes and friendly service. Awesome. Appreciate it, man. Well, that's all we have for this one, folks. Thank you for tuning in again to another episode of Bricks and Risk. See you on the next one.

[00:45:56] Thank you for joining us on another episode of Bricks and Risk. Our goal is that you walk away with one or two valuable nuggets, and we greatly appreciate you sharing your time with us today. You can find all BNR episodes on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and anywhere else you get your podcast content. Until next time, keep learning and keep growing.