Guru Amber Gonzalez with A. G. Realty Advisors

Rick Ripma: 0:00

Welcome to Indy's Real Estate Gurus. I'm Rick Ripma, your hard working mortgage guy and I've been in the real estate and mortgage business for over 34 years helping over 5200. Folks finance their homes, my team and I believe in custom tailored loans, not the one size fits all approach. We believe there is the best mortgage for you. And we believe we are the team to deliver it.

Ian Arnold: 0:20

And I'm yet on a part Rick's hard work and mortgage team and I've worked in the financial industry for over 15 years, helping customers find the best possible financing. I'm an expert at building credit or increasing your credit score. My passion is helping you build your financial security and your overall wealth.

Rick Ripma: 0:38

And we want to remind you for the most up to date information on Indy's real estate market or mortgages go to HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com. That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com or 317-672-1938. That's 317-672-1938. And today, we are very excited to have Amber Gonzalez here with us. Amber's a phenomenal real estate agent. Thank you so much for joining us.

Amber Gonzalez: 1:03

Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here today.

Rick Ripma: 1:05

We do appreciate it. And I mean, you do you do. Great volume. You've done a phenomenal job. What led you are well, excellent. What what did you do before real estate where, where were you born raised? What was your life like before real estate.

Amber Gonzalez: 1:22

Um, it seems like I've been in real estate forever. But I grew up in Franklin, Indiana. I've lived in Indiana, all my life. I've lived on the south side near Franklin and Indianapolis, actually on the west side of town. And now I'm located on the northeast side and Hamilton County. I went to school, I was bartending during school, and then I became a lease. I was leasing apartments and an apartment complex and became a leasing manager. So from there, I really liked connecting with people getting in front of them, leaving their families and showing them the model apartment. I did not like being tied down though to one area in leasing, where you have to be there for at least eight hours a day, and you're not being able to go out and meet people or network. So that's kind of what led me into real estate.

Rick Ripma: 2:18

So you kind of were in real estate, just a different aspect of it, like I sold new homes. So I was in real estate is just a different aspect of it. And that is very much like being a real estate agent, a piece of the job, not the entire job, right, there's a lot more to being a real estate agent,

Amber Gonzalez: 2:35

there is much more to being a real estate agent, there is much, much more. And actually, when I was leasing homes, I was looking for something more fulfilling. So I was online searching for things I knew real estate was always in the back of my mind that I wanted to be involved in in it in some aspect. So I went to New Home Builders at first that we're hiring sales agents. And one of them in particularly, I went in I did the DISC profile, which is like a personality profile. If you aren't familiar with that. He came out and he was like, Amber, you know why, like you would be great for us. I think that you have a lot to offer. I can tell you know, you'd like to connect with people and help people. But I don't see you wanting to sit at a model home eight to 12 hours a day. And I kept thinking about that. And he was right. And he was like I would if I were you get your real estate license. And I wanted to do that. That was just the thing I needed to hear to solidify it and get me going.

Rick Ripma: 3:40

Because that's a big step. Yeah, become a real estate agent.

Amber Gonzalez: 3:44

You have to take the time to take the classes and then you know, take the state exam and the national exam. And once that's over you, you get with a brokerage, and you really don't know what you're doing at that point. The classes don't teach you how to sign contracts and negotiate deals. You have to get out there and figure it out. Right. Yeah, it

Rick Ripma: 4:03

teaches you the legalities of everything it does. And that's all it really teaches you.

Amber Gonzalez: 4:08

Yes, a lot of memorization is what I was doing. So yeah.

Rick Ripma: 4:13

And then how about as so that led you into real estate? So how did you get your real estate business going as you got into it, because as we talked, that's a that's the big piece. And that's why it's so intimidating for people because it's not a salaried position, you have to get going

Amber Gonzalez: 4:28

you do you have to take that first step. And it can be very scary because if you wait, and you try to figure things out, and say, Well, I gotta get all my ducks in a row before I actually get out there and make a move, I need to build my database, I need to go to all these trainings. You're going to be behind the eight ball and you really just have to take action. So there's a lot of failing forward in real estate. Training is very important database is very important, but I do see agents getting hurt On up on just taking that first step and reaching out and calling people they know and getting in front of them and talking about what they do. So, I to get going, I started doing open houses is where I was most comfortable, like finding people and calling my sphere of influence. I was so lucky because my first customer was my dad, he let me sell one of his rental properties. Awesome. So that was a great experience to be able to figure out, okay, I can do these contracts. You know, I was getting with my broker and making sure everything was going okay. But it wasn't easy by any means. I had to figure everything out as we went,

Rick Ripma: 5:41

right? Your dad didn't

Ian Arnold: 5:42

fire you did it. He

Amber Gonzalez: 5:43

did it. Oh. It's a funny story. My dad's never been in real estate. He owned some rental properties, some investment properties. And he retired a few years ago from here and Andy. And he moved to Florida with his wife, Donna. He got there. He was retired for about a year and I think started to get a little bored. And he has joined my team in Florida. So we have an expansion team. And my dad is the lead agent down there in Florida and he's doing an amazing job. Now we're in Florida, the Greater Tampa Bay area. So kind of Clearwater, St. Pete, Indian rock Sarasota. That area.

Rick Ripma: 6:25

There's so many people in from Indiana who want to move to Florida. There's a time yeah, we get we do we do landing in Florida. And it's surprising how much you get of people wanting to go from here to there, or not as much from there to here. But you still get some of

Amber Gonzalez: 6:41

that most of us somebody yesterday that's going from there to here. She did live in Indiana, but she has a job offer here. So we're helping her find a place here. And hopefully helping her with herself there in Florida.

Rick Ripma: 6:53

That's awesome. Well, you

Ian Arnold: 6:54

also get the snowbirds a lot here too. Once you the people reach a certain age. They're like, You know what, I'm retired or even the people now they can work from home. Let's go spend half I'll spend the winter down in Florida. So yeah, so that's kind of nice.

Amber Gonzalez: 7:08

I have a friend that I've helped probably sell like five properties to they do investment property. So they live in Fountain Square here. She is so tired of the winter. And we are currently looking for a place in Florida for her and going to list her place in Fountain Square. So there is a lot of back and forth between India and Florida. So as great

Rick Ripma: 7:26

you can work with one agent. Yeah, right. Yes. Just that that makes it very

Amber Gonzalez: 7:30

convenient. very streamlined. Yes.

Rick Ripma: 7:32

And I've noticed that seems like there's more and more agents that are being multi state licensed.

Amber Gonzalez: 7:39

I've seen that too. Yeah. And I think it's a great idea if you can manage it. The expansion teams are huge. And I'm excited to see where we can go with that. I want to get some other areas in Florida as well with our team. That way we can take over some more

Rick Ripma: 7:56

area. How many people do you have on your team in Florida?

Amber Gonzalez: 8:00

Two right now we have to and we're currently hiring. So we have been just this last year we started at last year. So we've been just making our systems and our processes in the foundation for Florida. Really well. So it's a well oiled machine. And we can just plug people in so they can start and just catapult you know, into success with real estate there.

Rick Ripma: 8:20

Are you keeping your dad under control?

Amber Gonzalez: 8:21

You know, sometimes sometimes, yeah. No, he is great. He is like my sounding board. It's so fun to be able to work with him. I'm going down there to Florida, here in a couple weeks. And we're going to do some meetings and we're going to have some fun, he's going to be able to see his grandbaby that I had that's three months old. And I mean, we're very blessed to be able to do it together.

Ian Arnold: 8:45

Awesome. So when she meets at Fun will be after she lectures him that he needs to sell more home. But you gotta have it in line. Alright, let's go to lunch now. So when you got into the business, did you have a mentor? Or Did anybody help you? Hey, these are the steps to go through.

Amber Gonzalez: 9:03

You know, when I started, I wish I would have had a mentor that I really leaned on, I kind of started and our office was in some transition and I did not jump into like a mentor ship in 2016 or 17. I really said I'm going to take this real estate thing and see what I can do with it. And I did find a mentor our broker at the time her name was Anne ruble, she helped me and was coaching me a lot and that did help my success significantly. I wish I would have joined a team when I started because I would be so much I would have been further faster, right? I instead that I can do this on my own and I did and I did do it successfully. But it took a lot more time and if I would have just jumped in and had a mentor it would have went a lot faster.

Ian Arnold: 10:00

So what was one of the biggest hurdles starting up, you had to go through?

Amber Gonzalez: 10:06

Oh, mine was getting out of my own way, I would say, I was very shy when I started, which isn't great for real estate. I had to learn to be confident in myself. So I wouldn't have been able to sit here with you guys having this conversation with video cameras on me before I would have been so nervous of what really helped me I think, to Keller Williams Office offers a program called Bold, and it's building our life by design. And it is an amazing program that really helped me get more confident and more comfortable speaking with people, meeting people, and that felt like I was out, selling them, like just building these relationships, and I have something that can help you. And if it's not me that can help you, I'm going to point you in a direction of someone that can. Yeah,

Rick Ripma: 10:55

having mentors obviously matters. But having a process that works is a phenomenal thing. And I think that's one of the things I really went, you know, with somebody at Keller Williams, they've been trained, if they've been through Keller Williams, some of the other companies same way, they're trained very well, they're, they're given the, what they need to succeed.

Amber Gonzalez: 11:15

Yes, we have a lot of tools at Keller Williams that you can plug into, it's just knowing which ones in which way you want to go with it. So sometimes it's trial, and seeing what fits your personality. And what you like to do best is which, what I teach my agents, hey, we have all these avenues that we can, you know, go in, but we're gonna dig down deep, figure out what you like to do. And that's where you're going to be successful. And we're gonna help you find it and figure out the best way to do that. So you can leverage your time and still do a great real estate business

Rick Ripma: 11:45

and that but they have to work the process. That's the other processes, so important. You have people the process, if they won't work it, it doesn't make any difference, what you have to do, you got to do those things. Otherwise, you don't have the success. There

Amber Gonzalez: 11:57

are a lot of people that that want to learn how to do something and you do, you know, share that information with them. And they don't start right. So that's correct. That's going back to that first fleet. Yeah, yeah. In the boat program helped me not be afraid to do things like that.

Rick Ripma: 12:12

When I got when I started in my first real job out of school, was I was a new home new car sales, I was in car sales. And that was one where you had to learn how to do it, you know, and they and you saw so many people who wouldn't put forth the effort to learn what to do. Right training, all right there. But and it was a new car sales also. And this the same thing. Those who flourished. Learn the process learned how to sell, right,

Amber Gonzalez: 12:43

yes. And there's yeah, there's a system and it's systematic for a reason. And, you know, I meet people that want to skip steps because they want to jump ahead, and it doesn't work. So we wanted to but it doesn't like you have to go through this systematic process. And you don't have to invent the will. Right. We've done it for you.

Ian Arnold: 13:04

Yep, I know. We are coming up on the break. So what if somebody wants to get in touch with you? What's the best way

Amber Gonzalez: 13:09

so they can reach out to me? My name is Amber Gonzalez and I'm a realtor here with Keller Williams. My cell phone number would be the best way. It's 31724680663172468066. And you can find us anywhere on social media or online at AG reality. advisors.com.

Ian Arnold: 13:32

Man, she just she knew exactly what to say. All right, Rick, let's see what you can do. How would they get ahold

Rick Ripma: 13:38

I think it's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com of us? That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com or 317-672-1938 31767 to 1938. You know, what I should do is put a thing up behind the camera so I can read it. Oh, I really remember it.

Amber Gonzalez: 13:53

Oh, how neat. Would that be?

Rick Ripma: 13:56

Like six years? The Thick of that right? Come on.

Ian Arnold: 13:59

All right. And after the break, we'll find out what is Amber superpower? I love superpowers. Especially Superman's Yes. All right. Welcome back from the break. Before we get into what is Amber's superpower? Let's do question or the week. The question of the week is sponsored by Hey, Rick, and he had the hard working mortgage guys, where we believe in helping and supporting you and your realtor by sending constant updates on your loan process. Contact us today at HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com for any of your any questions that you might have. So what's the question of the week? Oh, are you ready for this? I am positive. You may have heard this last week answer it. What was your first car?

Amber Gonzalez: 14:42

My first car? It was a Toyota Corolla.

Unknown: 14:46

So that's a good car.

Amber Gonzalez: 14:48

Yeah, my first car what I thought was gonna be my first car was a Geostorm and it was purple. Um, and I thought it was the coolest little car right? I love the color and you My parents thought it wasn't a very safe car for me. So we got the Toyota Corolla. And it was really good car. It went forever.

Rick Ripma: 15:08

Yeah, it was last a long time. It did. Yes. Yeah, that's it. Is there a different car that's more memorable or do you have good memories of that car?

Amber Gonzalez: 15:19

I have good memories of that car. There was another. I don't know. Okay. I honestly don't know what kind of car it was. It was like an old smoke bill. Like my the Toyota wasn't working and I had this Oldsmobile. That one is memorable, but not for good things. Because when I like put it into drive or neutral, sometimes like steel, like there was smoke that came out of the shifting gear. Oh, that's normal.

Rick Ripma: 15:42

Don't worry about that. Yeah, of course, between Toyota and Oldsmobile, right.

Amber Gonzalez: 15:50

Yeah, young and those cars was a lot of interesting times.

Rick Ripma: 15:54

So why, who was driving the Geostorm that they didn't give you?

Amber Gonzalez: 16:00

Oh, my cousin got that car. So I was not very happy because I really liked the Geostorm.

Rick Ripma: 16:05

But safe enough for him or her? Yeah, I

Amber Gonzalez: 16:08

guess. I just made sure they had more experience driving the means they were a couple years older. I just

Rick Ripma: 16:15

always found it funny when I would, you know, you'd have a family bring their their son in to buy a car, right? Yeah, first car, and they go, we just want the cheapest thing on the law. What do you got? They buy, you know, a junker. They'd bring their daughter in a year later. And they're buying a brand new car. Oh, my goodness. I just always found that funny. But I want to get on to the super power. Because I want to know if you have Superman superpowers, or what superpowers or power that you have.

Amber Gonzalez: 16:43

Okay, so I think my power would be connecting people and just getting to know them. I feel like people can call me and be in a very, not great mood. I had somebody this week that called and I was like, Hey, how's it going for the first time and they're like, I'm just, they couldn't even get out the word frustrated because they were so frustrated, and that they were in real estate transactions. And they weren't having success. So that was my first conversation with them. By the time we got off the phone, she was laughing and super excited again, to start looking for a place before that she was fed up and done. So I think just connecting with people finding out, Hey, what's going on, and then showing them the solution to how to solve it. I mean, that can make or break your relationship and your day, right, she ended up being in such a happier mood. So I think that's my superpower, even though I'd like to be able to like read minds or something.

Rick Ripma: 17:36

But yeah, that would be that would be great. Or fly,

Amber Gonzalez: 17:39

fly, teleport,

Rick Ripma: 17:41

oh my gosh, that would be able to leap tall buildings on

Amber Gonzalez: 17:45

this podcast and like Bali or Oh, yeah, Maldives or something.

Rick Ripma: 17:49

Yeah, that would be, you know, what we should do is green screen that we could look like,

Amber Gonzalez: 17:54

I'm down, I'm

Rick Ripma: 17:57

gonna paint the walls green.

Ian Arnold: 18:00

I think that's really great that you can calm somebody down, because people don't sometimes you don't think about how stressful somebody can be going through the real estate process. Because with you, you probably you've been through countless of these. And when you got a customer that's only been through maybe one if that and then up to let's say, four or five most average person doesn't buy and sell homes all the time. So yeah, there's a lot of things that can come up. So

Amber Gonzalez: 18:27

yeah, I'm selling, you know, between, like, 4050 homes myself a year. So we've been through a lot of transactions, and we've seen a lot, but there's always something new, and it is a little bit of a roller coaster ride. So we set the expectations with our clients ahead of time, and we tell them how the process is going to be and we update them constantly on what's coming next. So their emotions and their standards are set. They know what's coming. They're not getting hit with all these surprises. And it really helps. Yeah,

Rick Ripma: 18:57

they don't like surprises, do they? No, no, it does. And there's there are things that can be a surprise, right?

Amber Gonzalez: 19:03

Yes, there can on inspections, appraisals. Timeline of the transaction, right? We have a buyer that we thought was pre approved and all the sudden, you know, they're they're having to change their jobs, or they put something on a credit card, even though we have told them like, hey, we let's not do that. So we have to navigate a lot, a lot of moving pieces and just keep everybody Hey, it's okay, we're going to find a solution. And we're going to get to the next point of the process. Yeah,

Rick Ripma: 19:37

it is kind of it always amazes me, I think because we're, I'm in the business. So it's like, you know, if you're going to finance something, to me, it's like a natural thing. You wouldn't just go out and spend you know $50,000 on a new car without talking to the people that are financing you and say Hey, is it okay if I buy this car

Amber Gonzalez: 19:59

right? You would think that everybody would think that way. But everybody doesn't know that. So I've had three people, I think over my 1314 years of real estate that went out and bought a car during the transaction, even though we have it wrote down like do's and don'ts of you know, buying a home, and that's part of it. It's critical point, they get excited, and they're in that car lie, and they think they can do both. I don't know. I don't know. And the car people tell

Rick Ripma: 20:25

them. Don't worry about it's five. They want to sell the car, but they don't have any idea. No. Fortunately, a lot of people call us before they do that. Yeah, they do. Yeah, then you can figure out if it is going to actually affect it. Because it's not that you can't do it. We prefer you don't, you know, but you got to look at it and make sure if they're barely qualified, it could kill that kill the deal. But if they're just right, you really have to see it all.

Amber Gonzalez: 20:49

Yeah, you as their lender can check out their whole profile and make sure this is okay. Or oh, no, we just need to wait until we get to that closing date.

Rick Ripma: 20:57

At the very minimum, it's going to create a lot of additional work for the for the borrower. They got to document everything now.

Amber Gonzalez: 21:04

Yeah, yeah. And for trying to get all this paperwork in for their timeline. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 21:10

And I think it was, I think it's a critical piece too, for a real estate agent, to be able to calm people down. Because there's so much emotion through the process. So ISIL, new home, so we had six months or eight months of working with somebody. And it's amazing how the ups and downs people go through, and it's just in a much more condensed timeframe. When you're buying a house.

Amber Gonzalez: 21:38

Yes. Yeah, that's true. It's, yeah, it's very emotional. You'll see people at all levels.

Rick Ripma: 21:44

But yeah, you have the type of personality. I can see why you're so good at it. Because you're, you're a calming personality. You don't you know, it seems like you don't get too excited about things you keep your emotions out of it. But you're, you just seem to have that. That the way you are, is just calming.

Amber Gonzalez: 22:01

Okay, thank you. Yeah, I try to be I think I can get more happily excited then down and like upset. Because I know if we get hit with something I know there's always a solution. We can figure it out.

Ian Arnold: 22:13

Yeah, she just put together now you should have seen her the grocery store yesterday, her hair was like all over the place. Yes, your hair is always all over the

Rick Ripma: 22:22

body first thought was I think when I have a bad day, I called her.

Amber Gonzalez: 22:27

Give me a call. Today was a

Rick Ripma: 22:29

bad day. I don't know why just it was it was just, it was middle of the week. Day. It was just, you know how you go home was it was a weird day.

Amber Gonzalez: 22:37

Yeah. She just have to take a little break. And yeah, good outside, it's what I do.

Ian Arnold: 22:44

So when somebody is looking for a real estate agent, what, what should they look for?

Amber Gonzalez: 22:50

Okay, so there are a good amount of things that you should look for in a real estate agent, the number one is communication. Because they are going to be your ally, they're going to be your number one go to resource during the transaction, and you need them there to help guide you. That's why I love having a team because not only do they have me, they have our other team members that have the knowledge that I have now, to help them as well. So communication, somebody that you like to talk to and like to work with, because you're going to be on the phone with them and on emails and meeting them a lot. So you want somebody that you trust that you like, and that can communicate well.

Ian Arnold: 23:31

And also understand when you fall asleep at your desk, because you've been up with a three month old?

Amber Gonzalez: 23:37

Yes, I've I'm on a lot of coffee these days. I do have a three and a half month old, baby. So it's been a little bit different. But it's about a whole other goal. You know why sell real estate is to now fund her life. So yeah, I mean,

Rick Ripma: 23:55

that's you have you want a life like that, right? That's what everybody wants you but not everybody, but you want a family and you want to have a good career. And you have a phenomenal career. And now you have great family. So yeah, you got it all go on. Right? Yeah, yeah. So how do you manage that? How do you manage the, you know, for you now have a baby. So how do you manage that inside your real estate? Well,

Amber Gonzalez: 24:17

I'm trying to figure it out. No, it's actually, you know, it's new. It's exciting, because I love it. And I have a good support system at home. So that helps a lot. Luckily, now, after COVID, we all have zoom. So I can do a lot of meetings on zoom as well as get out and show these properties and go out and meet new clients. So it's kind of fun. It's fun to connect with people in another way. I think the baby actually may be bringing more people to me, honestly. Right, right. Yeah. Well, you

Rick Ripma: 24:51

get you have something in common with other people. Yeah. Everybody loves a baby. I mean, I don't know if anybody who doesn't like baby I know.

Amber Gonzalez: 24:59

Right? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. There probably

Rick Ripma: 25:01

are. But I don't I don't remember any. So you I'm sorry. No, you're good. You have a team in Florida. But you have a team here also. So tell us about your what is your team makeup here? What does it look like?

Amber Gonzalez: 25:13

Our team here we have a few agents on our team. We have a couple of support staff. So listing manager, TC transaction coordinator admin, and we meet in the office. And we also do our meetings over zoom. So we have agents strategically throughout Indianapolis. So we're not only on the north east side where our office is located, we have a keystone office in a fishers office. We are on the south side on the west side. So we have somebody close by that can help if you see a house that you like, there's somebody there that can go and show it. So that's fantastic. Yeah, yeah. So I'm trying to build, you know, a team that can reach out to anyone, the same with like, our age groups, and what people are liking to do. We have some agents that really want to focus on luxury, some that are investment properties, or with retirees like 55 plus communities. So is that

Rick Ripma: 26:11

new to real estate? Because I've been in a long time, and I don't remember that being the case, even 1012 years ago, or maybe it was starting then. But certainly 20 years ago, I don't remember agents, most agents focusing and really, which I think is brilliant, really, but focusing not that they won't do the others, but focusing on one type

Amber Gonzalez: 26:33

kind of niching down. I think it's more and more, I think you're right, yeah. So but as I talked to agents, it usually comes out while I'm trying to get to know them, who their demographic is and what they like doing. So it is sports, their kids sports, like that's who they're going to be reaching out to, if it's church, you know, like what groups and people do you like, because they're going to be, you're going to be a magnet to them.

Ian Arnold: 27:01

And as somebody wants to get ahold of you or your team, how would they do that?

Amber Gonzalez: 27:04

So my name is Amber Gonzalez and I'm a realtor with Keller Williams Realty, you can get a hold of me at 317-246-8066. That's my cell phone, or find us online at AG Realty advisors. Awesome.

Ian Arnold: 27:19

And Rick, how are they get hold of your I

Rick Ripma: 27:22

go to hard working mortgage guys.com That's hard working mortgage guys.com or call 317-672-1938. That's 317-672-1938. If you go online, you can get all of our contact information there. So you can contact us at the hard working mortgage guys.com.

Ian Arnold: 27:37

All right. And this is the end of the radio show. So if you need to tune in the podcast, I go to India's real estate gurus. All right. Hey, welcome back. And if this is where you've selected from the radio, you selected the right spot. So good job, pat yourself on the back. Yeah. All right. So Amber is still here. She didn't run away. So thank you for staying. I mean, spent a long time but still here. Awesome. So one thing I always think is a very good question is What's your most memorable deal

Amber Gonzalez: 28:09

than this? The most memorable deal, trying to think of what that would would be? There's so many. I think the ones that stick out to me the most are the ones where people are usually renting or trying to find that next place. Because it can be overwhelming to feel like you're living paycheck to paycheck, and helping those people figure out, hey, there are loan programs that will fit your needs. Here's a great lender. And let's see what we can do. Let's make a game plan and find you that perfect home. So you can start building some equity. I think

Ian Arnold: 28:47

that's a very good point. Because what we find out is, a lot of times people always think, Oh, I must have 20% down? Well, no, you can do as little as three and three and a half. And there's also programs to help you get there. And it's interesting. When you're talking to first time homebuyers. They don't understand there's a lot of options out there.

Amber Gonzalez: 29:06

Yeah, there are so many options. And a lot of people are afraid to start digging into it and to see what that looks like to be able to purchase a home because it's the unknown, and they're afraid. So being able to be there, like rock and their cheerleader and say, you know, we can do this. We've helped so many people before you and don't, you know, don't worry like there is a program and there is a way we can get around this and figure out how to get you into that home.

Rick Ripma: 29:33

Right? Sometimes you can do it right away. Sometimes it takes a little time but you need to you need a team to help you get through that because if you're new to it, you don't know so like for us the first thing we do if there's credit issues is we're going to run the credit and then we run a system and they will tell us do this do this do this right effect and but if you need major credit repair, then you have to go to a credit repair company which we have also, but we try it always to do the first piece because it's less expensive. It's much quicker. And and even if somebody has good credit, sometimes if you can just give them great credit, and it's very easy sometimes right? They get a lot better option they get they get lower rates, right,

Amber Gonzalez: 30:16

right. Yeah, that can make all the difference, it can make all the difference on you know, your long term financial situation. And the short term on if you need like that extra bedroom or a little bit bigger of a yard, I'm talking to somebody Tuesday that was in the same scenario, they are in a limited price point. And we've been out looking at places, and it's just not what they're looking for. So talking to them, and I was like, let's just dig in deeper, let's have you talk to a few more people see what we can do. And now she can buy a $50,000 Higher home than she wants thought. And it puts her in a totally different home, that she's going to be super happy with

Rick Ripma: 30:56

what I love what you do, and that you help make a plan. And I because I think it's vitally important. It's one of the things if, if I get it soon enough, I will work on also it's like you have to have a plan. And here's what we have to do. Because it's why I said we'd like we believe in custom tailored loans. It's because there isn't a one size fits all right, yeah, yeah, you have to understand and then you have to say, Okay, here's here's going to be your best option. Now, for the vast majority of people, it may be a conventional loan, but you shouldn't just run there.

Amber Gonzalez: 31:29

Right? Right. Yeah, it might not be the best fit for you. And you got to

Rick Ripma: 31:33

look at it. And also it could change by time. You know, as markets change, it could change what you want to do. Like for a while, it was very difficult to get an FHA loan,

Amber Gonzalez: 31:44

you know, accept that, that. Yeah, yeah.

Rick Ripma: 31:46

And so you have to figure out other ways. People, I'm sorry,

Amber Gonzalez: 31:50

no, you're fine. We had to get very creative, very creative. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 31:53

And a lot of people don't understand that. a first time homebuyer on FHA needs three and a half percent down, but you can go on a conventional for 3%. Down, it's actually lower. Yeah,

Amber Gonzalez: 32:02

right. Yes. There's so many people that don't know that. Yes, they don't,

Rick Ripma: 32:05

they don't. And then there's programs, I don't think they're the greatest programs, but we offer them and meaning that that to get what to get the benefit cost you quite a bit. But Indiana housing, you have no money that you know, or that they'll loan you the downpayment, those kinds of things. And for the right people, it gets them in a house. And that's why they have to get with somebody

Amber Gonzalez: 32:25

that especially a local lender, because a lot of lenders that are not local, don't know the programs we have here locally. So I find that a lot too. And they're, they're like, No, nobody's ever told me about that. They didn't say that could be an option. And so to guide them to somebody that's very knowledgeable and will communicate and really dig deeply is very important. Right?

Rick Ripma: 32:48

They have to ask a lot of questions. Yeah, just be prepared for that. Yeah.

Amber Gonzalez: 32:52

Makes some people nervous. But the more honest and open you are, the better we can help you.

Rick Ripma: 32:57

But I'm sure you have to do the same thing. When you're when you get a customer, when you get a client who's looking to buy a house, you have to ask a tremendous amount of questions to help them get to the endpoint that they're happy with.

Amber Gonzalez: 33:10

Exactly, exactly.

Rick Ripma: 33:11

If I now have huge, you know, positive reasons, you know, what do they call recommendations? Reviews? Do?

Ian Arnold: 33:21

People still recommend her to

Rick Ripma: 33:23

that review?

Amber Gonzalez: 33:23

Thank goodness they do. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 33:25

Yeah, I like a recommendation.

Amber Gonzalez: 33:28

We'll take them if you guys want to give us

Rick Ripma: 33:31

you close so many houses. It's amazing to be able to do that volume. I mean, it's it that is 40 to 50 homes a year, right?

Amber Gonzalez: 33:42

I was doing that with no, no admin support. So no transaction coordinator, no admin, no marketing person. I know I was burning the candle on both ends. So I was working from sunup two way past sundown. And it was fun, like I did really enjoy it. But at some point, you have to sleep.

Rick Ripma: 34:05

It's not good for you, if you don't know. But it

Amber Gonzalez: 34:07

was so fun. It was so fun building it meeting so many people and getting them to the point that they wanted to that it didn't bother me to be working all the time. Now I have a three and a half month old. So I am teaching other people how to do that as well, how to build leverage how to go through our systems and processes. And, you know, they can do the same volume of business but in half of the time,

Rick Ripma: 34:32

right. And it's important because you need your time, but you're you if you did the job, which you did, then you can teach somebody to do the job because you know how to do it and you can make sure it's it stays under your the way you want your team to be.

Amber Gonzalez: 34:49

Yes, right. Yep. We all want to be doing things the same way. So they're getting the same high level of service no matter who they're talking to. Yeah,

Rick Ripma: 34:57

that's huge. I think So what do you find? With that you have a team now, what do you find you're spending most of your time on as a real estate agent, not your three and a half.

Amber Gonzalez: 35:10

I'm really talking with my team, I'm, I'm there chatting with them every day, doing trainings with them changing, you know, real estate's ever changing. So we're investing in our time, learning the market, staying up to date with it, learning new technology, finding great people and then connecting them. So I'm talking to my agents constantly, as well as my clients. So time blocking is huge. I block out certain points of my day for my agents for my clients. I'm just working in the business more, too. So thinking, Okay, I got to set this time of day. And I have to think about how can we do things more effectively? How can we help more people, instead of just being driven by the tasks that have to get done every day? Because we get in this momentum, where we think, you know, we have to go, go, go, and we don't stop and look inside our business. And I think that's really important. And that's changed my business a lot.

Rick Ripma: 36:14

I think time blocking, and I'm someone who fought it for years. Yeah. And now that I do it, it's absolutely one of the most freeing things that you can possibly do you know exactly what you're going to do. Like my personal trainer today said, so what do you got a busy day? I said, Yeah, a 30. I got a I got a call it not at 930 to 1130. I, I mean, it's like he's like, Well,

Amber Gonzalez: 36:38

how do you know exactly my calendar? Color? Yeah, like Hodeidah? Yeah, exactly what

Rick Ripma: 36:43

you're doing. It's beautiful. And because of that, you don't get those times, which is what I would run into. I don't know if you did, where it's like, okay, I know, there was something I wanted to do. And I got 30 minutes to do it. But I don't remember what it is. Now. It's like, it's in my calendar. It's not the calendar, it doesn't get done. You better put it I have to put it in there. My team has to put it in there.

Amber Gonzalez: 37:03

Yeah, it's on the calendar. It doesn't exist. That's right.

Rick Ripma: 37:07

You have your baby in there, I

Amber Gonzalez: 37:08

hope. And I do. I do. She's in there. Yeah, I live by my calendar. So and it's nice, because time blocking, too, you have you have a scheduled focus time on one thing, and you don't let anything interrupt that and you protect that time. And then you go to the next thing. And instead of being drawn back and forth, back and forth, we are not really finishing anything. You are focused in on the one thing that you need to be focused in on during that time. And the

Rick Ripma: 37:36

reason I wanted to hit on that is I think it's really important for people who are who aren't doing that it can really help you get so much more done in the same amount of time you

Amber Gonzalez: 37:45

can we've created a system within our team, because it's so important on how to time block with examples and how it can save you so much time.

Rick Ripma: 37:53

Well, it has to help that you do it. So you can teach it and they can see that it works. Yeah, right. I mean, without any help you were closing 50 loan or 50 homes a year without any help. Correct. That's incredible. Thanks. Yeah, a tremendous amount of time

Amber Gonzalez: 38:10

it Yeah, it was a lot of them doing like social media marketing, you know, early in the morning, before I can make phone calls and send out emails with people thinking that I'm crazy sending emails out at 2am. And then at nighttime, finishing up contracts and setting up for the next day coloring my next day out. So

Rick Ripma: 38:28

so how do you mark it like how do you how do you do that? How do you bring to do that much volume, you have to do a good job of bringing people win? Yeah. And so what is your plan? How do you do that?

Amber Gonzalez: 38:41

So we, of course, like work our database, we have calls with everyone, where we're reaching out to them a couple times a quarter, at least via the phone, they're getting emails, we're doing client events, so we can bring people together, which is my favorite thing to do, right? We're just having a party for our clients. And we try to mix it up. So it reaches maybe families, maybe young adults, older adults, so different things that we're doing to bring people together. And then to find more people that we don't know, we love to get referrals from people we've used. And we're reaching out on social media a ton. So we calendar, our social media, we time block it, and we try to calendar it at least a month ahead. So we know what's going out. Of course, if we are going to an event that pops up, then we take something out and put something else in there. But we're always trying to stay in front of our audience in front of our customers in all the avenues that we can these days which there's so many

Rick Ripma: 39:43

Yeah, there are do you have somebody who does the social media for you? Are you do you do that yourself? So

Amber Gonzalez: 39:49

I used to do it all myself. But now I do have someone that helps with the posting of it. So if I'm obviously doing a story on social media, or creating a video I'm doing that. Sometimes I have them put it together, but they're doing like our daily posting. And then I go in and approve everything and send them ideas throughout for the next month. Because that's

Rick Ripma: 40:11

that's time consuming social media is not that expensive. Yes. But it's very time consuming.

Amber Gonzalez: 40:17

It can be very time consuming. It can be very time you got to think of the ideas. You're constantly evaluating what you're putting out there. And it needs to be something people want to see. It can't always be like, I sold this today, I attended this. It needs to come from value. Yes.

Ian Arnold: 40:33

And you got to remember, every time we do a video, if you do, yeah, do it like 10 times before you get the right one.

Amber Gonzalez: 40:38

Oh, no. We do our videos and we send them out. Yeah. Because I feel like a lot of our agents, they get hung up in taking a video and redoing it and taking a video and redoing it and never putting it out there. And guess what, if it's never out there, it's not going to work. So let's just get it out there. So when I say

Rick Ripma: 40:56

getting it out there is more important than having it perfect. In fact, I mean, if it's terrible, you want to redo it. But yes, okay. You always think we're all terrible.

Amber Gonzalez: 41:04

Yeah, that's the problem it is and the more you're uncomfortable, you're going to start getting comfortable doing those things. So yeah,

Rick Ripma: 41:12

yep. I did some that earlier this week. And when I went to send it to my social media person, I was I was listening to it. And it's one I decided I had to redo it because it was terrible. And when I listened to was like, that wasn't terrible. Yeah. What was I think it was fine.

Amber Gonzalez: 41:29

It was good. They could have just sent that out. Yeah. So she got both were our worst critic sometimes.

Rick Ripma: 41:34

Yes, we are. Yeah, it's it's harder to do that on your own than I think your way is a is a great way to do it. Get it out.

Amber Gonzalez: 41:44

Yeah, just send it out. It's not gonna hurt anything.

Rick Ripma: 41:48

Right? What's like, here? We're not perfect. You know, we make plenty of mistakes, but we just keep going. Yeah, we hope nobody notices human you make mistakes? All I do. Sure.

Ian Arnold: 41:59

So when we're talking about so, newer agents, what do you think it has? No, there's a high turnover rates, especially with real realtors? Uh huh. Why do you think a lot of them fail?

Amber Gonzalez: 42:11

I do think it is not linking up with people that are doing it successfully already. I think if you do get with a great mentor or on a great team, you're going to succeed if you plug into their systems and processes, doing it on your own, it can be overwhelming, because there's so much that you're learning, you're learning how to build your database, you're learning how to work your database system, you're learning how to do your website, you're negotiating. There's just so many things, if you plug in with somebody that has the systems and the processes already, and you follow those, you are going to be successful.

Rick Ripma: 42:52

That's very good advice. Yeah. Cuz it's critical.

Amber Gonzalez: 42:56

It is it is. And it sounds so simple. But for some reason, yeah. People want to go the hard way they want to, they want to start out on their own. But in reality, you link up with people that are doing it, you figure out what works for you out of those systems, and you make it your own. Yeah,

Rick Ripma: 43:13

I always tell people, when you first do it, you have no right to change it. Yeah. Okay. Well, I want to make up my personality. I don't care. You have no right to change it. Yeah. Because you don't know what you're doing yet. And the reason why it's working and what's not working? Yes. And what did they cut out? The parent that's working absolutely every single time, every time they cut out that because that's the hardest

Amber Gonzalez: 43:35

part. Yeah. You know, asking the tough questions. Yes.

Rick Ripma: 43:39

For us, we ask for referrals. Right? Well, that is the first thing somebody will cut out because I don't want to ask for referrals. I don't ask for referrals. Well, how do you get them? If you don't ask you don't get? They don't know that you want them then Right? So you have to ask. So it's like, but it's the first thing inexperienced person will do? And if you think about a referral, it's good for us, obviously, right? It's good for us. But is it also good for that customer? It's good to get somebody like you to be their real estate agent? Of course. Yeah. Yeah. It's critical. So why would you not ask, you know what I mean, don't get it. But you would think that that would be

Amber Gonzalez: 44:22

they feel like they're bothering them by asking and you're not you're helping them. And by not helping them you're doing a very big disservice they could get with an agent or a lender that doesn't know what they're doing and lose a lot of money and a lot of time, yes,

Rick Ripma: 44:36

and be misled or led down the wrong path, or they didn't get the service that you offer. Correct. Right. And I think that's I think that's critical. I

Ian Arnold: 44:44

think one things people can also take, if you make it more of a fun thing, after a little while, like Rick and I always have ours and the way we do it. Well after a little while people go yes, yes, I know if I know any friends, family co workers looking at buyers They'll refinance contact you like, hey, great, I'm

Amber Gonzalez: 45:02

glad you got it. Second there, you have it down.

Ian Arnold: 45:05

But it is nice because then they they know what's coming. And you can make it more of a joke. Yeah, you know, I'm

Amber Gonzalez: 45:11

calling. And they know they do. And they mean, if you've done a great service for them, and you've done a great job, they're not going to be shy to refer you to your friends and family. Like you're saying, like it's helping their friends and their family, without telling them. They could go to somebody that yeah, really could hurt their success in the real estate transaction.

Rick Ripma: 45:32

I know for me, I am. I'm the one people call for referrals. They call me I mean, friends, family, my, you know, my, my neighbors, everybody, that it's if they need somebody, they call me. Because I know so many people.

Amber Gonzalez: 45:49

I had somebody texts on our group chat in our neighborhood today and asked if we knew anybody that had a gutter cleaning, and I had, you know, three people I immediately sent them to like that. So it's connecting people.

Rick Ripma: 46:01

Yeah. And the beauty of that is because you have three, and you send them out, if all of a sudden one of them falls down. You get rid of that one. And you don't refer it anymore because I had a guy. Exactly. They were great. And then they weren't. Yeah, that happens

Amber Gonzalez: 46:15

a lot. A lot. We are constantly changing over our recommended vendor list always. Because sometimes they're great. And then sometimes it gets some new people and they're not so great.

Rick Ripma: 46:26

Right? And you don't want it's a reflection on you. Yes, but I know real estate agents are always high rep. You know, everybody. If you if you work with somebody, almost they almost always call you for recommendations for anything they need on their house.

Amber Gonzalez: 46:41

Yeah, yeah. Because we're always working with you know, stagers and carpet people and roof people windows. So the list goes on. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 46:49

Yeah, well, actually, what happens if somebody calls me and I don't have somebody? I either just happened. I call a real estate agent.

Amber Gonzalez: 46:57

There you go.

Rick Ripma: 46:59

I say, Hey, listen, who do you have that does this? And then that's, that's who I recommend? Because the agent? I mean, I know if you're if you're recommending them, yes, they're good. Yeah. Right. I know that.

Amber Gonzalez: 47:12

Yeah. And if we, you know, one time, my client says they didn't show up or, you know, they overcharged us $2,000 or whatever the case like, Okay, well, I'm gonna call that person see what happened, and then not going to be recommending them anymore. Yeah, you always have to call him because there's, sometimes there's something

Rick Ripma: 47:30

there's two sides of a story. Exactly. Right. Yeah. And, and there can be misunderstandings and things like that. But you can't recommend somebody that doesn't do the job. And, and, and stay in good graces with your clients. Right. Right. So you have to do that. Yeah, I think that's great. What, what are, what are you most excited about, as you look like for the rest of this year,

Amber Gonzalez: 47:53

I am most excited about growing our team. So we really love laid the foundation down for it and got the systems and processes in place. And now I'm just start ready to plug in other agents and just watch their success. I thrive on helping people. So when I set my goals, they always seem to be about helping other people as well. That is what fuels me and keeps me going. So I'm just really excited about adding people to the team and watching how we can grow their lives and our customers lives. But

Rick Ripma: 48:28

yeah, yeah. Because you affect so many people.

Amber Gonzalez: 48:31

Yeah, it's like a domino effect. And it's really fun to see when it starts going and working. And, you know, the the smiles and the the happiness and the it's just really neat to see.

Rick Ripma: 48:46

Well, there's so many things when somebody buys a house. It's amazing when you start thinking about it number one, you know, it builds a lot of equity. They they build their wealth, right? Number one, because I'm in mortgages in finance. So that's high on my list. But it's a huge thing. Yeah, it is a huge thing. But you think about you put them in a name, they end up in a neighborhood. Now, the people they meet are in all in the neighborhood, right? And all those people, their kids go to school with a certain place, they probably end up getting married to somebody because of where they I mean,

Amber Gonzalez: 49:20

that is wild to think about. Yeah, that is it affects everything it does. matters, what you what school, they're going to where, you know, they're going to the grocery store, who they're gonna encounter.

Ian Arnold: 49:32

So you guys saying we're a little puppet tears, and we're just playing with people. I want you to move over here.

Amber Gonzalez: 49:40

Yeah. Yeah, it's really fun to like, put the puzzle together and figure out what they're looking for because sometimes they don't know and you just ask the handful of questions and all of a sudden you've laid out the game plan for them. And it's like, okay, it sounds like this is what you're saying is That's correct. And their lights go off like, yes. Like that is exactly what I want. And then we get on the ground and we go find it.

Rick Ripma: 50:09

You're a lot like a coach then because that's what my coach does. I mean, I think I know what I'm doing. I've done it a long time and everything else, but it's amazing what the coach, elicit they go, why don't you try this? It's like, why didn't I think of?

Amber Gonzalez: 50:22

Yeah, it is funny when you? Yeah, you start doing things and you're in it and you can't think outside of what you've always done sometimes and you need an outside opinion like a coach or a mentor. Yep.

Rick Ripma: 50:32

Well, on that note, we're running out of time. What is the best way for somebody to get a hold of you if they have any real estate needs?

Amber Gonzalez: 50:38

Well, my name is Amber Gonzalez. I'm a realtor with Keller Williams. You can call me on my cell phone, which is 317-246-8066 and you can find us online at AG Realty advisors.

Rick Ripma: 50:51

Awesome. And if you need to get a hold of Ian or I, it's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com or 317-672-1938. That's 317-672-1938 and please follow us so you don't miss an episode.

Ian Arnold: 51:05

And a reminder if you know anyone looking to buy sell refinance, that are friends, family or coworkers, contact Rick right and we'll be more than happy to help them. Thanks for joining us

Announcer: 51:14

have a great day went into Lesson number 3041 MLS NUMBER SIX we'll find it in MLS numbers 195469 equal housing opportunity some restrictions apply