A Blueprint for Thriving in Real Estate with Tony Long

Achieving Success Through Discipline

Speaker 1 0:08

Hey , welcome back everybody to the Secret Sauce podcast . I am joined today with Tony Long , who's a real estate agent , who runs Long Real Estate Group and is also pseudo responsible for bringing real brokerage to the Kansas side of things .

Speaker 2 0:25

Did I say that right In the Missouri ?

Speaker 1 0:26

side In Missouri side . Okay , awesome , tony . The reason I want to have Tony on today one he's a friend , but he's also really really good at real estate runs a really , really great team . And how much , just to quantify it , how much business did you do last year , 2023 ?

Speaker 2 0:48

I don't know volume-wise . I probably should . I could find that number , but we sold 132 homes last year and last year it was me , chad , david , we had four agents on the team at the time at 132 transactions . So I never track volume , I just track transactions actually got it , but doing a lot of business .

Speaker 1 1:09

Uh , family guy , you got four kids all under seven , four , three and three yeah , uh , yeah , youngest or twins .

Speaker 1 1:17

Uh , you got a full , full plate , but you still managed to get a whole lot done . And when we were talking about like , what , what , what would be defined ? How could we define your secret sauce what , what , what would be defined ? How could we define your secret sauce ? Uh , what really kind of stood out in my mind when we were talking was how disciplined you are , and so that was what I really wanted to dial in today get more in the details on just how disciplined you are . Uh , because I think it , it is your secret sauce . Um , so let's just jump into that . If , uh , if , you're good with it , have you always been super , super disciplined , or is this something that you've learned over time ?

Speaker 2 1:52

Something I learned over time , so I've only done . I was in . We'll talk about discipline . I was in college for seven and a half years at Kansas State University . I didn't take any breaks .

Speaker 1 2:02

And you're not a doctor . I'm not a doctor , I'm not an engineer .

Speaker 2 2:04

I'm a realtor I don't even use that degree but wasn't very disciplined in college , as seven and a half years will tell you . Graduated from K-State , moved here , worked for Enterprise Rental Car for maybe five months and then got into real estate . Getting into real estate , I worked for Steve and Nancy Summers that ran Realty Executives at the time . Steve Summers is a very disciplined man . Actually he's probably one of my three mentors that I would say that has been mentored my career . Pretty much . Very disciplined person . I got discipline from him . And then , after working for Steve and Nancy , I worked for Group Odell for a very long time . Dan Odell is disciplined as well , so I learned kind of discipline from him and then I've just increased my discipline as more responsibilities came on and more stress came on . We'll say that yeah , yeah .

Speaker 1 2:57

So let's dive into what we mean by discipline , but it starts super early in the morning , right ?

Speaker 2 3:03

Correct Now . I used to not be an early person or early morning person . I've always been a hey at the office by nine o'clock . That was something that , uh , when I worked for group Odell , we needed to be in the office making our calls , uh , touching our CEO or SOI , so um . But then as I've gotten kids , more children and all that kind of stuff and more life , I've learned that for me to get what I want to get done for myself , I need to wake up early . But it's real early . We're talking 4 am every day , 4 am every single day , and then no BS .

Speaker 2 3:40

I know people say people are always like I can't do that . I'm like , yes , you can , you just have to be disciplined enough to not scroll . I mean , most people out there can go to bed at 9.30 or 10 o'clock . That's what I'm usually in bed by 9.30 , between 9.30 and 10 o'clock . If you don't stay up and scroll on your phone through all the social media and waste your time and just go to bed . You can wake up at four o'clock in the morning and yeah , it takes some time . But then that's where discipline and I mean I don't like waking up at four o'clock , it's just now , I'm into them . I can just do it actually , so I'm also a very big morning person . But I also think the people that are like I'm not a morning person , those are the people that are staying up till 12 o'clock watching Netflix or doing stuff they probably shouldn't be .

Speaker 1 4:30

Yeah , you've conditioned yourself to be a morning person , like I was never a morning person . I don't get up at four , I get up at five , 15 every day , and I thought I was doing good until I talked to you . Uh , but I can't go to bed when the sun's still shining , like you either . Uh , no , but I mean I 4am is is crazy . Did you just think like that 5am club and you wanted to one up that , or what ?

Speaker 2 4:58

It was um , I work out at five 30 , my , the CrossFit class I take at five 30 , uh is at five , 30 . So it was always a up by four , 45 . Uh , but then as my kids have gotten older , gotten up earlier , and some of that I also wanted to do extra work before that . So then four o'clock just became my number . So every morning my watch vibrates at four o'clock . I have a backup , my phone . I know on a recent podcast you were like , hey , put your phone away , my phone will ring at four , 10 . That's like the emergency , like if that rings . Also , truth be told , I don't want my phone to ring because that will wake up my wife , um , and that's not good for anybody . So my thing is to try to get up when this vibrates .

Speaker 1 5:38

So , Tara doesn't get up at four .

Speaker 2 5:39

No , she does not . The twins usually get up somewhere between 5.30 , 5.15 to 5.45 . So , but , like it was going to be , I my wife , takes care of the kids Tuesday , thursday , I have them , or no . Sorry , so sorry . I take care of the kids Tuesday , thursday , saturday , sunday . Tara takes care of them Monday , wednesday , friday in the morning . That means just getting up with them and some of that and to get into the routine of always doing that . So most people would have said , okay , well , if you don't have the kids , you can sleep in and some of that . But I was like , nope , I'm going to get up and then , instead of , I don't go to CrossFit on Tuesdays , thursdays , because I go wake up the kids , I still want to get a workout in . So on Tuesdays and Thursdays I'll get up and do a run and do my pushups and all that kind of stuff so that I'm back home before the twins get up .

Speaker 1 6:30

So your morning routine is like 4 am to 7 am , right 4 am .

Speaker 2 6:35

If I do CrossFit it's 4 am to . I get home probably around 6 am , 45 am , 7 am and then if I do my running routine tuesday , thursday , saturday , sunday , up by four . I'm usually back at the house by 5 15 . I'm done with everything by 5 45 so tony also owns a crossfit gym .

Speaker 1 6:52

I should have said that when I was talking about how busy he is . He didn't think he was busy enough . So he's a co-owner of a crossfit gym , too funny story about crossfit .

Speaker 2 7:00

Um , I've known chad a very , very long time . Uh ch , chad was part owner of a CrossFit gym . How long ago was that ? That's probably ?

Speaker 2 7:09

like 13 years ago and when he bought into the CrossFit gym , I made fun of him religiously , almost daily actually at the time we were at KWOP I'd walk by your office to get to my office and I would say , man , that's a cult , you guys are meatheads . Made fun of him for a very , very long time . I'd walk by your office to get to my office and I would say , man , that's a cult , you guys are meatheads . Blah , blah , blah . Made fun of him for a very , very long time . And then fast forward , I got into it , I love it , I'm addicted to it , and then became an owner of it , not really by accident , but my real estate business had a lot to do with owning the CrossFit gym . And now I own a CrossFit gym and I retract everything I ever made fun of you about .

Speaker 1 7:52

And I don't anymore , yeah , amazing . So you said you're pretty much disciplined to the point where it's boring .

Speaker 2 7:58

Yeah , I think there's a . I listen to a podcast . I'm a big podcast listener . I listened to a podcast on somebody that they were like you need to get into a routine , but your routine almost makes you bored . My routine is the exact same . Knows it's because I'm not in a good mood If I'm out of my , if I , if I don't get to work out or if I don't um , yesterday real hosted a breakfast so I needed to get to the office by eight to let the caterer in and had a bunch of stuff . So I I missed out on some of the stuff I normally do and my I was , my day was ruined and I was in a bad mood all day long , all day long . So my routine keeps me in a good mood and if I'm out of my routine I'm in a bad mood got it , so you're .

Speaker 1 8:53

It's boring to the point where you literally I think this is nuts , but you literally listen to the exact same thing every morning like a . You don't listen to a new , different podcast every morning sometimes , but every morning you listen to the same audio clip . It's like a motivational .

Speaker 2 9:08

I listened to him , so Chad made fun of me when I said this .

Speaker 1 9:12

but I'm going to continue to .

Speaker 2 9:14

I

Building Business Habits Through Personalized Interaction

Speaker 2 9:15

listened to . There is a uh , a one hour motivational speech on Spotify called kill your laziness , and actually the rock is like the logo for it . Um , and all it is is a bunch of motivational speakers with some really music in the background , but the message that each one of those speakers is is saying I personally think it pertains to me and my business and my personal life resonates , so it resonates fully to me .

Speaker 2 9:41

I can . I can recite it through and through like there's . I listen to it every , I run to it because it's one hour long . And then when I get to the gym at about 4.15 , I do a pre-workout before people start showing up , because sometimes I do have to coach at 5.30 . Chase , that walks in about 5.15 every single morning and you can tell when he walks in the door he's just like this dude's listening to this again . And it's now the point where he's just like oh , here it is , and I joke . I'm like it's going to make you better , man , it's going to make you better . Is that part of the clip ? No , probably . But yeah , I listen to the exact same . It motivates me and I don't know the the message of it . I know I send it to you . What they talk about is pretty much how I run my business and live my life .

Speaker 1 10:30

So well , I think that's the key . There is just like find your thing . Like for anybody , it doesn't have to be that clip , but find something that resonates so much with you right , that motivates you , that gets you in the zone right , that gets you kind of vibrating on a higher frequency . Like you said , your day's off . If it doesn't do it so for you , you know that that's going to put you in that zone and it affects the rest of your day .

Speaker 2 10:51

Correct , and it's also like trying to get into habit building . I mean , it's a habit now , but most realtors don't have habits and we have a job , that is , we don't have set hours , and what's bad about that is we don't have set hours , that these realtors , every single day can be different and when you're , every single day is different , which is great . But if you don't have some sort of regimen in your day , you're going to like I always , I joke with realtors .

Speaker 2 11:21

If you're at Macy's at two o'clock on Tuesday shopping , you're probably not selling any houses Like I think that it is a . It's unfortunately you have realtors that quit their Cerner job or their job with Sprint or whatever , because they're like I don't want to work for the man anymore . I'm tired of working at eight to five and I'm like , well , you're going to work for lots of bosses If you have clients one and then two . You're not eight to five , and I'm like , well , you're going to work for lots of bosses if you have clients one and then two . You're not eight to five anymore , you're going to be eight to 10 sometimes or all that , and it's just more of trying to get . I treat the real estate as it's my business . It is what brings money to my household , it's what feeds my children , so I need to be working at it all the time pretty much so what does that look like in like a normal day ?

Speaker 1 12:10

what are some things that you do business-wide , business development wise , I know like you make the same video . You do the same videos every day . You do the same calls every day .

Speaker 2 12:21

So it's it'sed as time went on . But , starting in January , I watched a clip on an agent that said hey , I'm not big on social media . I'm not a big social media person . Emily , my marketing gal does all my social media , but I normally am not good behind a camera , even though I probably look pretty good on this camera right now and I watched a video of a guy that was like if you're not good on a camera , start sending videos to your clients one-on-one for their birthdays and special events . So in January I started that every day I have birthdays I mean a database as big as ours , there's always a birthday a day and then purchase anniversaries , so then I will send them a video of me just saying good morning , chad . Today's a special day . I've morphed it as I I started . It just used to be hey , chad , it's tony . Uh , I'm the dude that sends another dude a video on their birthday , wishing them happy birthday . Uh , now I look up whose famous birthdays are that day I used this the other day .

Speaker 1 13:25

Actually , mary made fun of me , but I used it the other day , yeah and it's .

Speaker 2 13:30

and so get back to routine . I , when I get to the office , I do not look at my email . I try to stay off my phone and as soon as I get down , I do my birthday card . So we send a birthday card to everybody with a scratcher ticket and then I do my birthday calls , my purchase anniversary calls , and then I do my check-in calls . And that is now morphed . My check-in calls used to be a call , a text , an email . The system I use tells me , like you need to send them a text , you need to send them an email , no-transcript that now I do .

Speaker 2 14:13

My check-ins with people are usually via video . So it's not your birthday , it's not your first anniversary , but it's like hey , chad , it's Tony , just wanted to say hi , check in with you , hope everything's good with the house . If you need anything at all , you need a plumber , handyman , electrician . I want to be here to help you . If you want to know what your house is worth , please let me know . I'd love to send you a quick video , cma , of what your house is worth , and then I usually will then promote whatever we've got coming up . So we've got a dumpster day coming up , september 21st . So I always chime in that , hey , we've got dumpster day coming up , you've got a postcard in the mail . It's just more of a reminder .

Speaker 2 14:48

The reason the video has been so like what I use all the time to the point that people probably hate that I talk about it so much is I've never had someone not respond back to that text . You can always text somebody a happy birthday and they'll give you a thumbs up or whatever . It is now a video . So they're seeing your face . You're giving them a message . They're not going to get that from anybody . I always joke with agents . I'm like call your clients on their birthday , they're not going to get that from anybody . Like , I always joke with agents . I'm like call your clients on their birthday . They're not going to answer their phone . Leave them a voicemail message because I know on my birthday the only people that call me are my grandmother and my mother and my father . But like what if their realtor called them ? Like their doctor's not calling them and some of that . So the video is just kind of a one-up , I one up . I also just try to make it funny . I try to make them laugh .

Speaker 1 15:35

Yeah , so let's talk about that for a second Cause I said I used it and then we changed topic . But you , you look up who's famous person birthday like a couple of famous people .

Speaker 2 15:43

And then I always say I'm like Chad , today's a special day , my friends , today is Wilt Chamberlain's birthday . And then I'll I'll usually pick like funny people , pretty much Um , kenny Rogers truth be told , his birthday was like Wednesday he's deceased . Rip , kenny Rogers . But I literally was like today would have been Kenny Rogers birthday , uh , but he died , uh . And then I'll say but also , today is your birthday . So I wanted to wish you a happy birthday . I hope you have an amazing day .

Speaker 2 16:10

Um , I usually chime in like hey , if it's , if it's the wife , I'm always like hopefully you know Chad has bought you something expensive . And if you didn't , you know what you have ? My , uh , my advice to go out and buy yourself something expensive . And da , da , da . But I always you'll get somebody to respond back Like you know what , thank you , I am going to tell Chad I'm going to buy some myself something expensive . Or I always like joke , if it's raining outside , I'll point to the outside . I'm like it's gloomy as hell in Kansas City . Hopefully you're somewhere better . And you'll get someone who responds back like , yeah , we're in Costa Rica for my birthday . I'm like awesome , good job .

Speaker 1 16:40

So Well , it just shows the extra effort , like I . What I loved about that is when you bring up whose birthday . It was right . It shows the extra effort you took to go look that up and it is a custom message that they're not like oh yeah , he just it doesn't feel like you do it to everybody .

Speaker 2 16:54

Correct . No , no , and it's , it's one-on-one . I change it up all the time and then , like , if I know them which I know every all my clients I usually will chime in something that has to do with them . Um , so it's . It's also . I've had more people respond back with I can't believe you have time for this , like cause they know , like most of my people know , that I have two businesses , I have four children and all this kind of stuff , and it's like they're literally like this guy's taking 30 to 45 seconds out of his time to make this video to me . It's yeah , and then research who's who else's birthday .

Speaker 1 17:27

It was like it shows effort , correct . I'm sure it's way more impactful than sending a message on Facebook .

Speaker 2 17:33

Well , like purchase anniversaries , Like people , I will meet people that I did not sell them their house , but they'll ask me a real estate question and then I'll get to know them , kind of nourish that relationship . I will find out their birthday and I'll find out their purchase anniversary and I will message them on their purchase anniversary and say , hey , Chad Actually it's usually hey , Chad and Amy . Today's a special day . I bet you probably don't know what today is , but today is your anniversary . I say this verbatim Today is your anniversary . And then I'll say , no , Chad , it's not your wedding anniversary , so be calm on that .

Speaker 2 18:06

Today is your eight-year anniversary of being in your home . So congratulations for being in your home for eight years . And I'll say I know I didn't help you sell your house , but you and I both know I'm a better agent than that agent , because they're not going to call you on your purchase anniversary and they're damn sure not going to send you a video , so that's why I'm your new guy . If you ever need anything , let me know . I've got the plumbers . I might go into my spiel .

Speaker 1 18:30

I love how you work humor into it and just like you don't take yourself too seriously I mean that's my secret .

Speaker 2 18:36

My secret sauce has always been be yourself . Be professional when you need to be , but be yourself . And I mean I , I joke with people all the time . I use profanity I on those videos sometimes and they just that's . That's me , and I like to bring humor into pretty much anything I can .

Speaker 1 18:55

So I love it , but I mean , when you talk to different agents they're like do you really do that every day ? Like there's no way you do that every single day . And now we get back to the discipline piece Like those little touches , discipline every day is how you grow a big business .

Speaker 2 19:09

Correct , correct and that . But that's why I will tell people , like , do this , I'm just asking you to do this . Or then they'll say , well , I don't have their birthday . I'm like then call them and get their birthday or look on Facebook or whatever . But if they could just set aside 15 minutes to do that , it will build it . But then what happens to all realtors is they get to the office , they open up their email , they get engulfed in whatever emails in there , or they start scrolling on their phone and looking what other realtors are doing and all this kind of BS where , if they just shut everything off , focus on that , then after that focus on something else and go from there .

Speaker 1 19:46

Yeah , I do think you got to shut everything else down . Take all the distractions out of it if you're

Daily Success Habits and Efficiency

Speaker 1 19:50

going to do it . Well , what else are you disciplined about ? So you say you say you've got some like a card that you look at or some things . You say you're like affirmations or something yeah , um , got it from another podcast .

Speaker 2 20:02

This is something that's been going on for a while . I've got a sheet of paper that is on my garage door , it's on my bathroom mirror , it's by my desk . It's literally just a bunch of things . Actually hold on , it's a . It's a I add to the list sometimes , um , but it's just things that I to win . Like there's a book called win the day that there's certain things that I need to do every single day to consider it a win . So , and some of the stuff is things I need to get done . But then there's things that I just need to remind myself of .

Speaker 2 20:35

So the first on the list says you are not normal . Wake up at four o'clock , run and work out . Then there's certain workout things a hundred sit-ups , a hundred push-ups , all that kind of stuff . Stay off your phone . I put I am grateful for this life . Be where your feet are . So that means wherever I'm at , that's where my feet need to be . I need to be listening there . Love and support Tara . That's my wife .

Speaker 2 20:57

Invest in and love my children . Invest in means I was very bad at always being like oh , I want this shirt and buying that shirt . Invest in my children is more of like hey , stop buying stuff for yourself by investing in my children . So instead of buying that shirt , I will get Lucas a new baseball glove or something like that . Eat healthy , no drinking , 10,000 steps a day and enjoy your day . So some of those things are just more reminders to myself , like I think a lot of realtors or a lot of people in general right now need to be grateful for what they have , and I just have to be reminded of that , because there are days that suck and you're like God , I hate this , but it could be way freaking worse . So just be grateful for what you have .

Speaker 1 21:44

Yeah , no , I love that . I mean it goes along with the concept of just like gratitude every day . But to focus on the things that you do have , not the stuff you lack , Correct Right , Because if you focus on the stuff you lack , you start just trying to fill a void . You start buying random stuff and next thing you know you've just got a bunch of stuff .

Speaker 2 22:02

But yeah , that's something I just put it wherever I know my eyes will see it . So , bathroom mirror it's by the garage door , right before I walk out to leave the house , so I see it there .

Speaker 1 22:22

I used to it and it just keeps me accountable , I mean people will make fun of that because it's like to some people it sounds corny or whatever , but like it legitimately makes a difference you see it so many times a day , keeps you on track , keeps you accountable to those things . Little stuff like that , I mean . It's not . You haven't built your business because you are wildly different . Correct , correct .

Speaker 2 22:39

No , I just do the , I just do traditional real estate . I literally people are always like well , how do you sell so many houses ? I'm like I just take care of my people . I don't care about perfect strangers . All I care about is my past people and if I can take care of them , they will take care of me .

Speaker 1 22:56

But you do it systematically , right . You do it with a process and , like anybody can say , yeah , I take care of people , but if you don't have a system or a process for it , you take care of people when it's convenient .

Speaker 2 23:08

Correct .

Speaker 1 23:09

Right , yeah , and it's not when it's convenient . That's all you focus on .

Speaker 2 23:12

Correct , so that's all you focus on . Correct , so it is no matter if I'm busy or if I'm slow , I do the exact same . I still fall , with the same amount of people every single day and do that .

Speaker 1 23:23

So it's uh , I mean , I've got some stuff that I'm going to take away from that , that I'm going to start like the card that like actually have that card with the stuff that's important to me , quite a few things actually . I'm not going to start getting up before I don't think tony , but I love it , man . Uh , let me ask you a couple questions real quick and then I'm going to get you out of here , okay , um , I'm going to spitball some questions at you . If you , right now , if you had a magic wand and you could change one thing about your business , what would it be ?

Speaker 2 23:52

um , I love my business , I love my team . It's like family pretty much . But if there was one thing , he sent me these questions ahead of time , so it's good that I actually got to think about this . I need , I need to eventually hire a what I would like to call a care bear , um , which is a someone that their only job is to search my SOI for events , pretty much like opportunities . Yeah , cause I mean I tell people all the time I don't look at social media .

Speaker 2 24:26

My goal always is to keep my social media activity down to a total of maybe 30 minutes a day . That's Instagram and Facebook . I'm rarely on Facebook , but I don't follow realtors . I only follow my SOI and then people that motivate me or whatever . But what happens is I use social media to find out like hey , has there been a death in the family ? Did their son score their first soccer goal ? But what happens with that is I look through that and human nature . You get off track where I want to find someone that can actually just be like hey , log into my Instagram and look through all my clients and give me three , three tips , three , three people that I need to reach out to , to actually pretty much unreasonable hospitality too . I do that , but then I always take a screenshot so that I don't forget about it . But I need almost somebody to do a little bit more of that .

Speaker 1 25:28

You could hire a VA for that pretty easy .

Speaker 2 25:29

I know , and don't get me wrong like I've got Emily and my sister Amber . Emily's my marketing coordinator and Amber is my transaction coordinator . They do already a lot . Emily does a lot to me and most people would say , well , you could have Emily and Amber do that . Their plates are already full . Sure that it would be nice to have that , or I also . I joke about this and I've joked about this for many years .

Speaker 2 25:52

I want to eventually hire a driver about this for many years . I want to eventually hire a driver . I want to hire an older guy that literally shows up at my house at 8.30 , parks his car in my cul-de-sac , gets in my car and I get in the back seat and he drives me wherever I need to go . That is so thoroughbore problems , but there's so much work I could get done when I'm driving . Right now I'm surprised I haven't gotten a car wreck already for how much I'm on my phone when I'm driving .

Speaker 2 26:22

But if I had a driver and I also think it would be so badass to actually have to show houses to buyers , which people will find weird that I think all agents should be having their clients in their car . Agents have gotten so far away from actually taking their clients , which don't get me wrong with the new NAR settlement and us showing our value . Having your clients in your car , showing them houses is the best way to build a relationship with them , learn more about them , to where . After it's done , they're like , oh my God , I missed looking at house with Tony , but if I had that driver I would sit with them . This driver would be like , hey , we're going to one , two , three main , and then he'd take us and then I can actually like one-on-one focus with them . It would be game changer .

Speaker 1 27:07

Game changer . You've been watching too much Ryan Serhan .

Speaker 2 27:19

I think . Does he have a driver ? Yeah , but it's New York City , I think everybody can drive , correct . But also Dungarung on a tangent . But Ryan Serhan is like when people watch that show on Netflix it makes me throw up because it just makes real estate look bad ?

Speaker 1 27:27

Sure , it just makes real estate , because you've got to focus on all the drama .

Speaker 2 27:29

Correct , but I will say this Having a driver , there's so many calls , emails , text messages . I could get done and not worry about dying if I wasn't driving my car .

Speaker 1 27:40

I've thought about the same thing . Actually , I was like man , people would make fun of me for that a ton , but it would actually be very efficient , oh my God . And I also think it wouldn't be that expensive .

Speaker 2 27:49

There are so many older retirees that are driving the little minibuses for the retirement homes . What about just getting a cliff ? Hey , cliff , be at my house at 8.30 . Yeah , have him wear a driver cap , yeah and don't get me wrong , some days Cliff's just going to be hanging out playing solitaire on his phone . But when I'm like Cliff , saddle up partner , let's go , it'd be great . It'd be great , that's what I would say . Either hiring a Care Bear or hiring a driver .

Speaker 1 28:17

Well , you're not too far off from a driverless car to handle that for you I also think a great tool to level that up would be get a Sprinter van , put it with a TV inside and you can sit with the customers inside a Sprinter van showing them like , hey , here's the house we're going to look at , right , and have that kind of all lined up . That would be a crazy experience , Correct , Correct . So I like that idea . We got to talk more about that , All right , Before I let you go . Tell me if you were to move , if you were to move to a new city or state right now , how would you and you started from scratch , you didn't know anybody how would you dominate , like get to a point where you're dominating in that market ? This ?

Speaker 2 28:56

is a very good question . Get to a point where you're dominating in that market . This is a very good question . So there's been multiple times I've thought about why don't we just pick up my family and we'll move to San Diego or whatever ? And then I always think like , oh my God , I have this huge database , I have this business here . If I was to let's just say I move to San Diego , if I up and move to San Diego right now , I would he sent me this question ahead of time so I had time to think about it I would probably join the team I actually probably would

Shadowing Successful Agents for Mentorship

Speaker 2 29:21

.

Speaker 2 29:21

Where I'm at with my business , I would find out who the top 10 teams in San Diego . I would join there . I would pretty much go in and interview . I'd interview them . Then I'd pretty much go to the team leader and be like I'll do , I would pretty much be his minion , his or her minion . I'll do whatever you want me to do .

Speaker 2 29:47

And then I would probably hold as many open houses as possible , to the point where I don't open houses used to be very big for my business back in the day . I don't do open houses now , but if I was to move to a new . I would literally strategically do open houses . I would strategically look at , okay , within the last two weeks , what price range does all of our showing services actually provide ? You can do range to see what houses are being shown , what prices are being shown . I would look and where's the bulk of showings happening and I would strategically book open houses in that price range and then show up to like I do the work of doing that open house door knock ahead of time and then when I'm at the open house , I probably have five other similar houses to that one , so that when , excuse me , chad and amy walk in and they don't have an agent , I would say , hey , if you're looking at this house , you might want to look at these five , and if you want to , I get done here .

Speaker 1 30:41

Spread your vans out back . You want to hop in and go see them . Correct , correct .

Speaker 2 30:44

But open houses . But I would possibly because going into a new market , like if I moved to San Diego , I don't know the streets , I don't know the neighborhoods , so I would need someone that I could mentor to do that . I know , when I got into real estate I did okay my first three years . I didn't do awesome until I worked with Group Odell and I had the luxury of sharing a 10 by 10 office with Dan Odell . My back was always to him , so I heard him on the phone , I heard what his print I wouldn't say script , but how he talked to clients , how he worked . I learned that and so if I went , if I moved to San Diego , I would just find somebody and I would literally be their shadow . If they're okay with it , I'd be their shadow until I'm ready to get rolling .

Speaker 1 31:35

I love that . The reason I asked that question is because new agents right like just another way to like . What advice would you give a brand new agent that doesn't have a past database right now ?

Speaker 2 31:45

I tell agents all the time like find , find the biggest producer , and ask them like , hey , can I shadow you ? I will keep my mouth shut , I won't say a word , but I just want to be your shadow . And what they all like , all of them say like I've had people come to me and be like , hey , I want to , I want to shadow you . I'm like all right , sounds good . I'm here in this office at nine o'clock . Be here and they'll do it for one day and then routine . They don't . They don't show up again or they're like oh , I've got this going on , I've got this going on , or whatever . Like I just I showed up , I listened to Dan . Every I was Dan's shadow for I went to listing appointments with him , I went to buyer appointments with him , I went to showings with him to just hear what he said , and then I learned that .

Speaker 2 32:34

So I would just tell a new agent you need to find a mentor , a good mentor . Find someone that you think is a good person , is running a good business , and be their shadow Wherever they're at and , if they're okay with it , be in their backseat when they're showing houses . Just see what they do on a day-to-day basis . There's a lot of people that come to me and say I'm thinking about getting into real estate . I'm like , come hang with me for a week and then make your decision . Most people , if they hung with me for a week , would say , oh my God , this is so much fun . Or they'd be like , no , I don't want to do this .

Speaker 1 32:59

You're going to have them come over and wake them up at 4 am . Sleep in your guest bed , but I mean if you're not .

Speaker 2 33:05

Don't get me wrong , if you're not waking up at 4 o'clock , you still need to be waking , like some of these realtors . It seems like every time I get contracts or whatever , it's always after five o'clock . I'm always like , what do these people do during the day ? But it's like you get realtors that are like oh , I woke up at nine , I woke up at 1030 . I woke up and I watched the news for a while . I'm like don't watch the news , number one . But they have no regimenimen , they have no systematic approach . This that I just don't think will last a long time . Maybe I mean there's probably some people that don't have a system that it works .

Speaker 1 33:46

But to

Navigating Buyer Referrals in Real Estate

Speaker 1 33:47

that point . This is a true story . This year I had an agent set up a appointment , a lunch appointment with me at noon , and he no-showed . And he texted me an hour later and said I'm so sorry , my alarm didn't go off , it was a noon appointment and his alarm didn't go off and that was the reason why he didn't show up . Uh , yeah , so I I agree with you totally . Uh , tons of nuggets in this thing , man , I really really appreciate it . Uh , if somebody wants to come shadow you , how do they get a hold of Tony Long ?

Speaker 2 34:16

You can find me anywhere . Email is Tony at soldbylongcom . Website is soldbylongcom . And then I think my social media handles at soldbylong is our Instagram and my personal . I don't even know what my personal Instagram is .

Speaker 1 34:33

We'll put your info in the show notes . I got a bonus question , tony . I think a lot of agents right now are struggling with this . I get a ton of agents that ask me or tell me hey , I'm trying to refer people to you but they're already pre-approved . So I'm sorry , next buyer , that is not pre-approved , though I'm definitely going to send them your way , or I'm trying , but they're pre-approved , so I know that that doesn't matter to you necessarily , right ? You take a little bit more control . So how do you navigate that discussion or that situation without feeling like you're rocking the boat ? When somebody comes to you , they're already working with a lender . How do you make sure that they are taken care of ?

Speaker 2 35:16

One always have buyer meetings , always have a buyer meeting , sit down with them and I go through the process . My buyer meeting takes about an hour and a half but we talk about lending big in there . Now a lot of buyers ask lending questions and I joke hey guys , I sell the houses , I don't finance them . But I answer as much as I can . But I always say have you been pre-approved ? And they'll say yes , and it's always they'll give you a name or whatever . I always follow that up with do you know them ? How did you get their name ? How did you find them ? Or whatever .

Speaker 2 35:49

If it's a family , oh , my dad , blah , blah , blah . I don't want to step on their toes because usually they've been referred to me . So I don't want to be like , oh , you should talk to somebody else , um . So I usually kind of tread lightly on that , but I always do say like guys , if you want a second opinion which I think is a very good idea , especially in the market that we're in right now , it's always good to get a second opinion Um , please , let me know . Um , I would love to give you someone that I know love and trust . And then I also kind of chime in with hey , I don't know them . That's what's funny is sometimes you'll get the .

Speaker 2 36:23

You write an offer and the agent calls and will say , hey , I see that your buyer's pre-approved through Chad Treese . I don't know him . And you're like , yeah , he doesn't know you either . Like it's the biggest insult ever . But I will usually say , hey , I don't know that lender , but they're probably great . But the person I know . There's a lot of hiccups , there's a lot of things that can go wrong during the transaction . I know this person will get it done and then also very , very much take care of you . I also will also bring up like hey , have you met with this person face to face ? And they're

Building Trust in Real Estate Financing

Speaker 2 36:52

like no , we've just talked on the phone . I'm like this is one of the biggest financial decisions you will ever make .

Speaker 2 36:57

You need to meet with this lender , just like you're meeting with me . I always joke . I'm like you're meeting with me . You're giving me an hour and a half of your time to meet with me so I can run you through this , so you can trust me . You need to meet with that lender face to face and the guy that I give you will want to meet with you face to face to tell you how to use your money the best .

Speaker 2 37:14

Because most of these people are like I got pre-approved 20% down and well , that's it . They also think like , oh , I've got a 5.9% interest rate . I'm like that was 30 days ago , that's not your interest rate . Now they don't know that , but it's only because it was just a quick phone call and then a pre-approval in the mail or email . I'm more of like you need to meet with someone and talk about what's the best use of your money . Maybe 20% down is not the best , maybe they've got a different loan program . So I tread lightly , I don't . I mean , I always say , hey , I would love for you to get a second opinion , but I also don't want to kill that relationship If it's like , hey , it's my brother .

Speaker 1 37:52

Yeah sure .

Speaker 2 37:53

But if it's like , hey , I just walked into Commerce Bank and I got pre-approved , I'm always like , okay , I'm going to need you to call somebody else and kind of go from there . But it's also , if I do , that the lending question or the lending talk usually is after I've talked about the entire real estate process from start to finish . So by that time they're like this guy knows his stuff , I trust this guy . So then it's like , whatever you tell us to , I wouldn't say whatever you tell us to do , we're going to do . But it's more of like I've gained their trust and they've seen that I'm a human being , that I care about them , that hey , whoever I give you is going to care about you as much as I care about you .