Guru Andy Ludlow with The Ludlow Group

Rick Ripma: 0:00

Welcome to Indy's Real Estate Gurus. I'm Rick Ripma. Your hard work and mortgage guy and I have been in the mortgage business and in real estate for over 34 years I've helped over what 5200 folks finance their homes. My team and I believe in custom tailored loans, not a one size fits all approach. We believe there is the right mortgage for you. And we believe we are the team to deliver it.

Ian Arnold: 0:24

And I'm Ian Arnold part of Ricks hard work in mortgage team. I've been in the financial industry for 15 years helping customers find the best possible financing. I am an expert at building credit and increasing your credit score, I have a passion in helping you create a generation wealth through your real estate.

Rick Ripma: 0:41

And I almost forgot to say we are recording today from the advisors Mortgage Group studio right here in downtown Carmel. And as we get started, if you have any questions on real estate in the Indies, real estate market or mortgages, please go to HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com Or you can call 317-672-1938. That's 317-672-1938. And today, we're really excited to have Andy Ludlow on in here with exp Realty. Right. It's correct. Thanks for joining us. We appreciate it. Happy

Andy Ludlow: 1:16

to be here. Thanks for having me.

Rick Ripma: 1:17

You know, what's your best contact information? If somebody wants to get a hold of you?

Andy Ludlow: 1:21

My phone is with me. 24/7 I think I sleep with it even it's 317-372-6147.

Rick Ripma: 1:28

All right, perfect.

Ian Arnold: 1:29

So Andy, how, what do you do before you get in real estate?

Andy Ludlow: 1:33

I mean, so I did a few different things. So I was actually a mail carrier for quite a while for from 98 to 2011. So about 13 years, and then worked by my on my own with selling things on eBay and Amazon. So had online e commerce and then got into real estate. I've been in real estate for 20 years, I've had rental properties, flipped homes and been licensed for the last eight.

Ian Arnold: 2:00

So is your motto. Rain? No, no rain? No sleep? No hell and keep you from delivering something like that.

Rick Ripma: 2:08

Yeah, that's your body. Right? Every male

Andy Ludlow: 2:11

why I got out of it. Yeah, I've had seven knee surgeries in the back surgery. It was time to I know we're gonna retire from there. So it was time to move on.

Rick Ripma: 2:18

Yeah. Because that's kind of the goal, isn't it? You spend, what? 20 years and then you can retire.

Andy Ludlow: 2:23

But when I started it was you had to go a little bit longer. If I were to stay, I think I could have retired in about eight or nine years from now. But that's probably not happening. I know you

Rick Ripma: 2:34

already had all those surgery. No, yeah, no, it's not. What do they do for that? Do they take you off the routes? If somebody did stay or Yeah,

Andy Ludlow: 2:42

you'd have to find something to do inside the office. And it just wasn't appealing to me. It was starting to move. I think it was honestly in hindsight, I think it was the Lord working things out to get me out of state. Yeah, because I had wanted to do this since I was in high school. Okay, and I just didn't because I had a kid early on and then wanted to get the the it was scared me to do the 100% commission. But then I kind of got pushed into it. And I was selling things on my own. I was working on my own. So the natural next progression was jumping into selling and real estate and it's been good for me.

Rick Ripma: 3:14

How did you make that final decision? Okay, I'm going to I'm going to do what I've wanted to do since high school. How did you get past that barrier? Because that's a big barrier.

Andy Ludlow: 3:22

Right? I so I've got a driver personality. So I definitely just I jump in feet first. And I figure things out as they go. I did do the the I forget. It's like streamline class, okay, where instead of it being stretched out over going to evenings are a couple of days a week. I did it in 11 days straight. Oh, yeah. So I just pretty much jumped in, head on. And from there, as soon as I got licensed, it was hit phones and start getting business.

Rick Ripma: 3:50

And that was gonna be my next question. But you kind of answered a little bit. What did you do to get going? You hit the phones? Yeah, exactly.

Andy Ludlow: 3:55

Yeah. So things were different eight years ago, even than what they are today. That's the phones are a lot harder now in my opinion than what they were. We used to be able to I used to be able to sit there pretty much all day and have nothing but an endless stream of expireds for sale by owners. Lot of people weren't calling back then. So it was I didn't have any other business going on. So it was just start calling people and get used to rejection pretty quick. And then it's when those yeses come that you kind of have to stop yourself especially early on. So wait, did they say yes? Yeah, okay.

Rick Ripma: 4:30

I better I better stop and

Andy Ludlow: 4:33

I want to listen to what you're saying.

Rick Ripma: 4:36

Well, you know, we get in habits. That's the issue. Yeah. It's easy.

Ian Arnold: 4:41

So did you start with exp? Or who do you start with and

Andy Ludlow: 4:45

yeah, I actually started a Carpenter Realtors. It was good as far as the training goes, and I really appreciate them to that point, but I feel like each brokerage offers something a little bit different. It just as I started earning more and doing more on my own. It wasn't, I didn't have quite the need to get some of the training and things. I think for newer agents, a company like that is a really good fit. But for me at the time, it was time for me to be more much more independent.

Rick Ripma: 5:15

If you see people come into the business, what would you recommend to somebody? What should they do to get going? Because you said, like, right now there's, there's no expireds, because homes don't make it that far. Right? He

Andy Ludlow: 5:27

was hopeful there was gonna be more expireds this year, but it's just not turning out that way. It's really not. Things aren't like, as it's really different. Right now, I think we're kind of I feel like we're kind of in a transition period, even this year, even with, I mean, the markets really kind of taken off because of pricing that again, but the inventory is really low. And there's a lot more agents now than what there were 810 years ago, a lot more. So I think some of those are probably gonna drop off. But I think that if somebody would attach to a company that would support them or a team, and really get in involved in it, the ones that I've seen that, that have succeeded, and you can tell after a while, who's gonna make it and who's not, are the ones that really have a need to succeed. For me personally, if I if I didn't sell a house, my kids weren't eating, right. So it's really a big motivator to you know, your call. And so you get something you're coming in on Saturdays, you're working Sundays, you're doing everything you need to do people that don't necessarily have to do that. And it seems more like a hobby. They tend to fall on the wayside. And unfortunately, yeah,

Rick Ripma: 6:27

yeah, it is so much. A motivator matters, right? Oh, yeah. And then it helps to have like, like, have a team, that you have mentors, when you're brand new, especially to have people who can help you and guide you. So you're also doing the right things.

Andy Ludlow: 6:42

Yeah. And there's, I think, early on, when people are starting out, I was fortunate because I had at least I had one of the really close friend Michelle McKnight, a carpenter that kind of guided me to there. So that's the only place I was going to was Carpenter, because I didn't want to just be handed a phone and told Good luck. I wanted that training, I wanted to learn, because you don't know what you don't know. And I think that's one thing with the experience that they're really working on now it because we've bringing in a lot of people, for newer agents, they really have to have somebody there with them, showing them what to do guide them. And we've got a mentor program. And they've really tried, they've seen that that the model works for the more the agents that have more experience. But then the newer agents, they really need that guidance.

Rick Ripma: 7:25

And do you have a team? Yes, I

Andy Ludlow: 7:27

do. It's a small team. I'm not sure exactly what direction it's going right now. Because I do want to reach more people and my business I'm seeing it's, it's not like it was when I started out, we were in the office, you have that office atmosphere, some of the teams are that way. But as I've been with the XP for a year and a half now, more and more, everybody's doing things online with people's schedules. And then since COVID, everyone's gotten comfortable doing zooms, working remotely doing things online, that may be where it goes, because I can actually scale that up versus the traditional team where I'm working with just a handful of agents or, and I've never wanted a big team anyways, because of that.

Ian Arnold: 8:13

So do you feel like the technology is helping connect people a little bit more like with Zoom calls with people working from home? Or would you rather a rather few more people in the office with me?

Andy Ludlow: 8:27

It's that's fun. That's why you asked that, because we've had some turnover, I go to the office every day. So I do have office space. But we've had some turnover with different people in and out of offices, we've got four offices, there's another team and one and then there's to the left. So really, it's just been myself and my team in there. And right now the team's only two other people. So it's been kind of quiet. So there's pros and cons to it, I guess. But we that's when I've kind of noticed too, that you can get on Zoom meetings, and we do a lot of Google meats. And to me that feels anymore. It feels the same as as we're sitting here in front of each other. It's just, I think we've all just gotten comfortable with it.

Ian Arnold: 9:07

I would agree there. I think the one thing that sometimes like if you're a new agent, I think you need to be in the office.

Andy Ludlow: 9:14

I would agree with that. That's a good point. When I started that was one thing. And that's one thing I always promoted a lot to was telling people, even if you're not doing anything come in, because in that Ole Miss office atmosphere, you're going to hear people doing deals, you're going to pick up on things. You may hear a phone conversation, there could be a lot of things that I learned a lot just by making sure I was there every single day.

Rick Ripma: 9:36

Right? It's not just hearing you hear it and then you can go after they're done and say Hey, what did you do that for? Why do you say that? And you can learn because it's not. There's so much involved in what we do as call us salespeople, but it's even just just building those relationships. You have to say the right thing at the right time, in the right way. You know, initially not as simple as saying, you know, hear say this every time well, it's not that simple.

Andy Ludlow: 10:05

Well, I think we've really I think we this what I kind of what I meant with that shift is when, you know, 2030 years ago, realtors had all the information I that was before my time, or by longer now where they had the books, you had all the access to the keys. Now with the internet, with Zillow, the information is already out there. So we're not really holding the keys to all that information anymore. And I think we've kind of switched from, we're not really selling people we're not really holding on the information to now or we are more advisors, like you guys talked about with the mortgage company advisors mortgage, right, that it is more advising people because there are things that they most people aren't selling houses on the regular like we are that we can actually walk them through. And we can see where there's weaknesses, or we can see where there's things that let's go down this route, or maybe this is a better fit for you. You know, there's there's a lot that goes on a transaction that can help a client out and put them in a really good spot.

Ian Arnold: 10:58

I agree. And I think a lot of sales jobs have become more an advisor role. I mean, for instance, I Rick and I both came from the card industry. Mine was much closer to today's time, but no question, but we know save the Internet has changed it. People do the research before they even step into the place they're wanting to buy something from so then it's just like, Alright, so what are you looking for? Do you think this will meet your needs? What needs and try and do that? But it's a different ballgame for salespeople?

Andy Ludlow: 11:28

Yeah, I agree. 100%?

Rick Ripma: 11:31

Yeah, I just I just find it very interesting. Because I like it better today. I need to because I like being in more of a, you're you're you're a partner with them not trying to sell them something. Yeah. And so, I know, for us, we're it's all about education. You know, we want to make sure they they're educated and what's available and why and why this is better than not better. Why that? What what is the positives of this? What's the positive this? So they can make the correct decision? Because we don't make the decision for them. They make the decision, but we have to educate them so they can make a decision. A very informed decision for themselves.

Andy Ludlow: 12:09

Yeah, housing industry is really different than pretty much anything else. I mean, if I'm selling somebody, a $5 widget, I can probably talk them into that. Yeah, and then they're gonna give you $5 They're gonna be gone, right? The housing it, if you talk someone into a home, there's going to be buyer's remorse, you've got a whole 30 to 45 day process that they're going to go through that you're gonna have a struggle the whole time. So I pride myself on. I'm not trying to sell you something here. I'm trying to get you what do you need? What do you want? What's the best way to get you there and help you out financially, even in that process? And just getting to the end result?

Ian Arnold: 12:45

And how would somebody get a hold of you if they wanted to talk about real estate with

Andy Ludlow: 12:49

you? Yeah, my cell phone's gonna be the best way is 317-372-6147.

Rick Ripma: 12:55

I got it. Wow, all the V inner eye, it's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That'sHardWorkingMortgageGuys.com. Or you can call us at 317-672-1938. That's 317-672-1938. I'm proud of you. Thank you. I feel good about myself.

Ian Arnold: 13:12

I'd give you a gold star. But I don't know if you're ready for this next portion.

Rick Ripma: 13:15

Well, that's always a problem because I never am ready until you remind me so you know, I was doing so well. And now you have to bring that up. Thanks for listening to these real estate gurus that gurus we interview share valuable insights. They reveal their strengths, personalities, and how they'll work for you. While we hardworking mortgage guys, secure your best mortgage real estate gurus work hard to, they avoid problems the amateurs don't see they listen, they find unrealized opportunities. If you're even thinking about buying or selling a home, keep listening and definitely call one of India's real estate gurus.

Ian Arnold: 13:54

Alright, Andy, so what do you think is one thing you learned you learned early that or later that you wish you would have learned earlier

Andy Ludlow: 14:04

and learned later that I wish I would have learned earlier? Probably to keep working even during the times when you have pendings when you have deals going on? Early on, I don't think I built that pipeline that I did that I do now that you know you can have 10 pending properties. But if you're not trying to build that down the road business that's going to dry up pretty quick. And then you're going to do what we call it Poor purchasing at really good months and then things are gonna die off. And you know, anytime we start with everybody's in a different spot in the process where they're gonna buy or sell. But for me when I get something, you know, we're 3060 90 days out from a paycheck every single time so that can get a little bit challenging. The Nova another thing I think a lot of people don't talk about, especially early on is the financial side of it and being able to manage your money properly. Because that's some Nothing that's very different than that. I think that a lot of people come into the real estate business thinking that it's like a regular nine to five job, like it's an employment, you really are running a business, right? And that's where people need to maybe change that mindset a little bit. And, you know, be a little bit more proactive. And you know, you're have, you may have a fantastic month here. But things can dry up pretty quick.

Rick Ripma: 15:25

It can change very, very fast. So it always has been interesting to me that, because it can take some time, especially when I was a new home sales. So now you're talking to six month timeframe, you could be just so busy and making no money, right? And then six months later, you're doing nothing and you're making lots of money. Because all those all that work you did ahead of time. And like you said, The key though is is to keep it as consistent as you possibly can.

Andy Ludlow: 15:52

Yeah, schedule is really important. If you know that you've got to if you have to prospect, lead follow up during certain times of the day, that discipline you just have to keep doing it. Even if you're killing it having a great time. You still have to keep doing it. Yeah. I mean, deals fall through all the time, too.

Rick Ripma: 16:06

Yeah. Isn't that one of the hardest things? Oh, you're killing it. You're doing grace.

Andy Ludlow: 16:10

You want to break and want to stop for a minute. You're like, Alright, let me breathe. Yes, it is. You need to schedule in those breaks too.

Rick Ripma: 16:17

Yes. Yeah. Yeah, that's that is a weakness. Um, I, I don't I don't do. I don't tend to do that. And then it catches up with me. And it's like, oh, my gosh, I'm tired now. You know? Yeah. Well,

Andy Ludlow: 16:31

that's that time was slipped by real quick. And next thing you know, if you look back and you spent worked every day for the last six months,

Rick Ripma: 16:38

yeah. And the older I get, the harder it is. Yeah. Why do you think that is? I think it's because Ian's here. Yeah, I think no, no,

Ian Arnold: 16:46

no, it's old man. Get off my lawn now.

Rick Ripma: 16:51

Kids can get on my lawn. I never know. It's it's just it's just I, you know, it's it's a great question, because I'd never thought about why it is. I've always been that way. Number one when it's slow. And right now, in our industry, for mortgage people, it's slow, right, because there's not many refinances going on, and there's not. And there's, what did we see? There's, there's what 75% Of the listings that we had last year, at the same time, they were down 20. That's

Andy Ludlow: 17:24

weird as markets I've ever seen. Yeah, it is such a strange market right now.

Rick Ripma: 17:28

And I had somebody contact me over the weekend. And they said, Hey, we didn't get the house. This is the real estate agent telling me hey, they didn't get the house. We we offered on two houses. And one of them, they all had multiple offers. And one of them went for 40. Grand over less. Yeah.

Andy Ludlow: 17:45

And nobody expected that this time this year.

Rick Ripma: 17:48

Well, I kind of told everybody that I didn't I didn't want to say yes, this is what's gonna happen. But to me, it was it was fairly. Our inventories, the inventory inventory is so is so low that when and we were buyers are still there, that with low inventory, even with higher rates. And I think rates are coming, I think it's gonna get worse. Yeah, I still think this is a better time to buy than it's going to be, or an easier time to buy that it's going to be in about four or five,

Andy Ludlow: 18:17

I really didn't start seeing the bulk of the multiple offers until the last two or three weeks that you start seeing really APR started. And then everybody came out of the woodwork. I think everybody's gotten used to those rates now. And see, and I'm just comfortable with them. And they are what they are. And I think people are waiting for a crash. They were waiting for the rates to come down. Let's not happening. You know, we got a whole another group of buyers jumping back, right.

Rick Ripma: 18:39

And what they saw in rates going up, they went up very, very quickly, a little quicker than we normally see. But rates always go up faster than they come down. And people don't have that experience to know that that's what happened. So they think and oh, that went way up. It's going to come down that I saw something. I'm sure you saw it too. And it was 71% of the people out there wants five and a half percent or less. rates aren't there.

Ian Arnold: 19:08

I want under two. So I don't know. I'd rather under two and five. But

Andy Ludlow: 19:14

unfortunately, that's what's been some of that the inventory issues. You have people that have those three or 4% rates that don't want to get out or that you don't want to sell their house. And we're just building another perfect storm here.

Rick Ripma: 19:25

Yes, I agree. And it's going to be very interesting how this plays out. Yeah,

Andy Ludlow: 19:30

the pricing is what it is. It's just it's a weird market. I still I know I wish I could have more confidence when I talked to my clients when I'm being honest with them. This is one of the strangest markets that I've seen just trying to pinpoint because years past you know that you know, it's crazy things are going wild but right now, if a house is priced right and it shows Well it's good and multiple offers. If it's overpriced even a little bit and then it sits there for a little while. It makes it there for a long while for whatever reason. And then it obviously if it's In refer condition, we're just not seeing buyers that want to do any type of repairs. Like we did you know, even, you know, my our age group, my age group, that we would go in there and fix up houses. Nobody really wants to do that nowadays. So there's

Rick Ripma: 20:12

the opposite what you're what I hear is there's opportunity there for people, if somebody wants to buy a house, if they'll come off the fact that it has to be perfect, because we have lending programs that you can make it perfect. Yeah.

Andy Ludlow: 20:24

I think a lot of people, I think that that is a good point. There are I think a group of buyers that think that they that this goes to my point of it being such a weird market, that people are thinking because everybody has a little different perception of the market right now. Some people think that I can't get into it because the rates are high. Well, they're really not traditionally, right. Historically, they're right about where they normally are. Or they think that I, you know, I'm going to get multiple offers, that may not be the case, they won't come down on that price. It's overpriced, and I'm gonna go look at it. You don't know that may not be the case. So there's, there's a lot of opportunity out there for sure.

Rick Ripma: 20:58

Yeah. And really, there's always opportunity in the market. It always amazes me to talk to different people like yourself, and all of a sudden, you hear like, like what you said, there's now a lot more agents in the business. I noticed that every we talked to a lot of agents, and it was like, they all started either, right around 2008. Or about 2019 and paths in between there. I know agents start I'm not saying Pete nobodies. But it was it had to be much slower. Because we don't, there just aren't that many of them out there that we run into anyway.

Andy Ludlow: 21:35

Yeah. That's interesting. Yeah. I mean, things there was an opportunity in 2008. Yeah. And then to that 2019. I think everybody kind of caught on to it. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 21:45

Because to this day, it was a bad but I don't think it was a bad. It was a tough time. But the there was quite a few agents that started of course, there were some we had one the other day, and he said of all the people he started with, you know, he looked around a month later, and they were all gone. He was the only one still sitting in the office, you know? Yeah. But, but but I think the other part of that is it takes work. But when I said opportunity, what I mean is if somebody is if somebody wants to buy a house, there are houses that are sitting, and what you're what I heard you say if you can correct me if I'm wrong, is that a lot of the reason they're sitting is either they're overpriced, or they need work. Yeah. So if somebody's willing to do the work, they should be able to buy a house at a lower price. I would agree with that. Yeah. And so then there should be and you're not bidding, you're not you're not in it. That's what

Andy Ludlow: 22:31

that's the strangest of the market, is that you'll have those homes that are still getting those multiple offers. And then something that's, I would say is fairly similar. But maybe it went on the market a month ago, that people it's this herd mentality sometimes. And then people are just not wanting to jump on a house or they think there's something wrong with them. They miss something. Yeah, it's it's very weird. Very,

Rick Ripma: 22:51

that's Yeah. It's interesting.

Andy Ludlow: 22:53

I like weird. And, you know, I

Rick Ripma: 22:56

think that's also why they need a guru real estate agent. Yeah, part of why they need you. That's that

Andy Ludlow: 23:03

invite, that's the advisor role that we take on? Yeah, we can guide them through it. I'm confident that no matter what the market is that I can walk anybody through at night. I like the challenge of the different markets. I like to be able to get creative and think outside the box and find ways that others may not do it, to help my clients out.

Rick Ripma: 23:21

It's just a bizarre it's, but if people will get solid guru agents, they can get through this. And they can get through it. Well, yep. And and so when somebody is looking for an agent, what is what would you say they should look for? What kind of personality or traits or characteristics they should look for in an agent? Look, before they hire?

Andy Ludlow: 23:45

Yeah, I'm, the experience is definitely important, especially right now, but somebody that has, that's gonna take care of the client first. I know a lot of people can say that. But you should be able to tell fairly quickly, when you're talking to them, somebody that you can trust. So I think a lot of people use their family members. But you know, sometimes you can't really trust your family members. But I find it somebody that is service first that is taking care of their clients, above all, above all else.

Rick Ripma: 24:13

Yeah, that's critical. Well,

Ian Arnold: 24:16

you hit someone up pretty, pretty easy. They need to search for an agent called AMD Lulu. Quick and easy.

Rick Ripma: 24:27

But it's funny because he and he and has, you know, we've all had family that you you. You trust you don't trust, right? Yeah. And and you have it. I never think that way. I just think that if it's family, they're probably going to use family. But sometimes you don't want family to know you're busy. And you know, and those kind of things. I always find it interesting because we get that mortgages a lot, right? They don't want us to know nobody wants to everybody and other finances. And then the reality is we do it every day. I can't remember anybody's finances. In fact, if it's a family, if I can avoid looking at it, I don't even look at it. You know, I just tried to I avoid it. My wife laughs because friends or family will tell her Hey, we're financing with Rick and sugar. Really? Because I don't tell me though, right? That's my opinion. It should be. Yeah. So as you as you are, you have a team. So as you hire somebody, or look for somebody for your team, what do you look for?

Andy Ludlow: 25:30

They, so they really need to be coachable. That's one thing. If somebody comes in and knows everything, I mean, they're gonna really struggle, no matter who they're with. Have an integrity, being honest, there's that whole having some trust that if they trust the process, and they follow through on the process, that they're gonna have that success. There's you can cut corners in this business, or and I've seen people do it, they usually don't last very long, or get a really bad reputation. So I mean, those are, there's the integrity and somebody's personality is going to be a big, big piece of it. And then definitely, they need to have a reason why they want to do it. Because if it's just to make money, that you're probably not going to do well either. I mean, you can for a little while, but you'll burn out. You won't be able to get through the ups and downs of it.

Rick Ripma: 26:13

And are you looking to hire currently are you looking for to add to your team

Andy Ludlow: 26:17

somewhat. So with exp, we have a little bit different setup, with our downline, and that is something that they have with the mentor program. So there's a few different ways that I'm looking to go. If I have someone in my downline, I can help them and not have to be 100% responsible for them. And I can really kind of push them in that direction. One thing for me that I've wanted to do because I see an industry a lot is that people are, agents don't want to be quite as forthcoming with information, especially on teams or certain brokerages, they want to hold back on some of the information because they know that if an agent has this information, they may leave either that team or that brokerage. So I want to be as upfront with people as I can. I'm not as I can't, I just am. So then I can just someone has all the information that I was held in the dark on some things that I wish I would have known earlier than when I figured them out. So I'd like to be that that person to help people on the way there. And if I have somebody in the downline, it does allow me to reach out to people that are no different sides of the town, they don't have to really come in at the office. Then we can meet over zoom. You know, I we meet as a team once a week, and then have individual training throughout that as well. That's awesome. Yeah.

Ian Arnold: 27:32

And if somebody's looking to either talk to you about buying or selling their home, or if they just want to talk to you about real estate possibly get into how they get ahold of you.

Andy Ludlow: 27:41

And phone number is gonna be this way. It's 317-372-6147.

Rick Ripma: 27:46

Can they text or call they can text or call? What's your preference?

Andy Ludlow: 27:50

I really don't have a preference, if you call answer unless I'm talking to somebody else. A lot of people don't like to talk anymore, but I can text with the best of them. That's good.

Rick Ripma: 27:59

And to get a hold of Ian or I, it's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com. That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com or 31767 to 1938. That's 31767 to 1938.

Ian Arnold: 28:11

And remember to subscribe to India's real estate gurus. Now let's get into let's do the question of the week. And the question of the week is sponsored by Hey, Rick and I the hard working mortgage guys, where we believe in helping and supporting you and your realtor by sending constant updates through the whole loan process. Nobody likes to be left out in the dark inside of a black hole. So contact us and we'll be more than happy to keep you in the loop with everything going on. So So the question I have for you, what was your first car?

Andy Ludlow: 28:39

Like this question? As a 1976 Ford Torino, baby blue. Yeah. That was a beast. Yeah, well, it's

Rick Ripma: 28:49

different for Torino. What not what Starsky and Hutch draw? Yeah,

Andy Ludlow: 28:52

but I think it was a different model because this was more this was the old grandma car it literally was the car that the grandma drove to the church on Sunday. Oh really? Yeah, I think I paid like $1,000 For it was a great car. I love that thing. I blew it up though. By driving away I mean it's a V eight so we get up go it was all front end obviously had a back seat but that front end was was it was crazy but I mean you could hit bumps and you wouldn't feel it was driving through Beech Grove Park probably going too fast to hit a speed bump and the battery jumped and hit the top of the hood and it shot the electrical oh really do that? Yeah it caught on fire right there and that was all that was all she Wow Yeah, that's

Rick Ripma: 29:35

not I had that battery secured down. No.

Andy Ludlow: 29:38

Well the thing was so big I think you could have crawled in here much to

Rick Ripma: 29:44

the mechanic talk to the other days is what he did like he said I remember when you could get in that yeah, you get inside that the the engine bay and work on the car. Now you can't even get your hand between the car and the and the in the engine

Andy Ludlow: 29:58

was all steel too. I mean, you couldn't. It took a lot to hurt that thing. Yeah, I was driving to work one day on, again near beach grove. But I hit some ice and just kept sliding until I hit a retaining wall. And it bounced it so hard and I thought for sure I'd like shattered that whole side. It didn't even scratch it. did absolutely nothing. I probably messed up the wall more next to the car. It's

Ian Arnold: 30:22

interesting, though. You take the old cars, their bodies lasted forever. The engines not so well. But the bodies lasted forever. Now you get cars that their injuries lasts forever. And one little ounce of sand hit your car and the front bumper falls off.

Andy Ludlow: 30:35

Everything's falling apart around you reach outside the window to open your door.

Ian Arnold: 30:40

Can I get both those years mixed together?

Rick Ripma: 30:42

How many? How many people have we talked to where we asked that question, and the car is blown up or burned up? How many people had one she her car died? She left it on the side of the road.

Ian Arnold: 30:56

Yeah, but usually your first car is not the cream of the crop. Usually it's that cheapo that you had to buy. Just here's $500 All right, let's go buy it. Yeah,

Rick Ripma: 31:06

it's why I love it because it was an inexpensive car. And yet most of us, me included love that first call. Yeah, it has a

Andy Ludlow: 31:16

taste of freedom. Yes, that real freedom that you know I can go anywhere I can do anything. Yeah,

Rick Ripma: 31:22

yeah, I was before I had before I could drive. I got a bicycle. I bought my own bicycle. And I thought that was it. Yeah, I don't know if I got on my bicycle after I got my driver. Point killed the desire to ride Yeah,

Andy Ludlow: 31:37

I had paper routes growing up. I've been working since I was six. But yeah, I think that when I got my license and I was able to drive I was driving the paper routes that I used to ride the bike on.

Rick Ripma: 31:49

So So that brings up a question I guess so obviously paper route then your your mail carrier that all that's kind of similar. How did what you learn doing like mail carry? And how did that? Did any of it transfer over into real estate?

Andy Ludlow: 32:05

Um, I made a little bit some maybe some smaller things. I feel like I can find an address. Because the streets are are numbered on north and south. And I don't know how many people nowadays know that. And then just knowing some of the areas because of that. I started off I was if anybody knows where Brightwood is. Yeah, I was my first and I was in Lynwood. And then in Southport, so no those areas really well. You talk to a lot of people during that time as well, when you're out there carrying Millward the face of the post office so that they would talk to us all the time. So you build some of those relationships? And I guess that would be helpful as well. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 32:44

Yeah. I just I figured there had to be a way I just didn't it couldn't connect it. So that's, that's,

Andy Ludlow: 32:50

I think every kind of every job we all have kind of leads to where we are. Yes, it does a day. There's something that happened along the way, even like, even carrying mail with having the paper routes. I was delivering stuff I was remembering. Well, you're basically file and stuff in people's mailboxes. Yeah.

Ian Arnold: 33:06

So as soon as when you switch from doing the post office to doing real real estate, did you'd go to your old route and be like, Hey, I now do real estate. I do real estate you hit every one of those houses? No.

Andy Ludlow: 33:18

Well, let me think there. I'm trying to think if there's any, like people I knew that I actually sold for there's some there's some letter carriers that I worked with that are clients and some of their family members. So that was that was beneficial. I don't think I'd have to go back. And so a lot of homes. I don't I don't think I had anybody on my route. But I probably should have.

Rick Ripma: 33:40

Yeah, a couple of weeks before he leaves, he's dropping off fly.

Andy Ludlow: 33:44

Oh, there was a bit of a gap there because I left the post office in 2011 and got licensed 2015 Oh, yeah.

Rick Ripma: 33:51

Yeah, yeah, that makes a difference. Yeah. And then that four years is when you were by selling eBay, Amazon. Yeah. A lot of people have done that. Was it? Was it good at the time? Or?

Andy Ludlow: 34:01

Yeah, I think nowadays is a little bit different. Because it used to be able to find things in the stores that you couldn't find online, and you'd find it cheaper in the stores. So you could sell it for more online. And there's enough apps and things out there. Now that that's not it's not as easy to do today. As then.

Rick Ripma: 34:19

So what would you say your superpower or superpowers are

Andy Ludlow: 34:23

superpowers? You had mentioned this. It's one of those things that you don't want to it's a humble brag that it sounds weird until somebody else says it to you. And it's serving others. I think that is my superpower because I do enjoy that. I mean above all else, my philosophy is is that I'm going to serve them. I'm going to help them through it and then a natural end to that I'm gonna get paid. I'm not really thinking about my pay during that process. And I just know I trusted the end of that it's going to come about so if I put everyone else's needs first. Mine's just naturally going to have And at the end of that, right, like I said, I don't like saying that, because it's almost like bragging about how humble you are. And that just doesn't quite Yes, it right. Yeah. But

Ian Arnold: 35:11

the whole thought process. And Rick and I've had this conversation because we basically do it too, is if you take care of people, don't worry about the money, you take care of people, the money will come.

Andy Ludlow: 35:22

And the more people you take care of the more money you're Yes. But

Ian Arnold: 35:25

the ultimate goal is, no matter if it's a house for 50k, or a house for 1,000,005. Does it really matter? No, because you're going to treat the people the same. Yeah. Just treat people the right way.

Andy Ludlow: 35:36

Absolutely. Yes, it makes the golden rule. I would if I'm, if I were, if all I could afford was a 50,000 $100,000 house, I would want to be treated with respect and treat it the same way, as someone that's buying a million dollar property. So I treat everybody exactly the same, because they're just as important. Yeah. And a lot. Everybody is really ultimately the same anyways.

Rick Ripma: 35:55

Yeah. And the other part is, if you treat everybody, like they should be treated, you know very, very well, you take care of them, you do everything you can for them, you're worried about them. And that's where your business grows and comes from. Yeah. Right. Because you can't spend your entire life doing cold calls, I guess you can, but it's a that's a tougher way to do it.

Andy Ludlow: 36:16

I don't enjoy it. And I don't do it to the degree I did early on, because that was the whole point was to do it early on build the business. And then you want those referrals you want those repeat customers. So you don't have to do that as much. Right? Yeah, it's

Rick Ripma: 36:29

vitally important. Yeah, I always looked at it as kind of, you know, I'm trying to climb a mountain, it pushing the snowball up a mountain kind of as well, how I looked at it. And, you know, you push it up, and it's tough. And then when you get over a hill, and it rolls down, and things are going great. And then you hit the bottom of the hill. Now you got to push up again, and you're always working. At some point, though, you get to the top. Yeah. And when you get to where you want to be, and you've done all the right things, then you're going down the mountain and everything goes really well. Not that there aren't still some times it slows down. But everything works out. Yeah,

Andy Ludlow: 37:00

that is a good analogy. And I I do not call quite as my anywhere near when I used to. I mean, it would be six, seven hours a day for that first year. And now it might be six or seven hours a month. So when things do get slow, I'm definitely keep in touch with clients, past clients, if that's more of it, keeping those relationships alive. More important to them. Yes. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 37:24

They're more they're more productive calls. Yes. And don't your clients love it? When you when you contact them? As long as it's not too often? Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. They enjoy hear from you, because you're important to them. And you build such a great relationship with with them.

Andy Ludlow: 37:38

Yeah. And I don't call asking them for business as much as provide, I always try to provide some sort of value to them. And, you know, give them some update on the market. Or maybe I heard something about their neighborhood. I'll give them something along those lines. And I just hey, is letting you remember, I'm in real estate. Yep. And that's about it. Well, I

Rick Ripma: 37:56

know that in my neighborhood, I don't know your your area may be the same way that everybody if there's a house that goes up for sale, everybody wants to know how much what it is. And everybody wants to know what it's sold for. So to me, and I'm surprised agents don't do this anymore. But there used to be agents that would, you know, they would take an area farm area, but they would always keep the update, and maybe still do. It's just not my neighborhood. And they keep people updated all the time. That's valuable. One of the guys I worked with, he actually sponsored that for the for the real estate agent. And he said it was extremely valuable. He got like, you know, he got lots of leads off of it, because people care about that information.

Andy Ludlow: 38:35

Yeah. I don't know that people do that quite as much like you said, I think it's because it does take some time to build up in that farm. I will call neighborhoods that when I do call I call. It's just listed just sold calls over expireds and fizz bows right now. Because it's it just tends to be a little easier conversation. But maybe that's something I need to get busy doing again. And maybe they look

Ian Arnold: 38:56

it online. That's what I was gonna say, look, the information is already there. Yeah, cuz you can basically just get an estimated value pretty darn quick. We're back in if you'd say 2004 2005. That information wasn't fully available. So it was probably easier for real estate agents go hey, look, just so you know, this house over here just sold for 204. And you're like, Wow, really? I wonder what I can get for mine. And then so raise the buzz. And now I can type in 30 seconds like, Oh, my house roughly appraises for this?

Andy Ludlow: 39:27

Or they already sold the house was for sale. Yeah. Now. Yeah. Even on Zillow and realtor.com really tough.

Rick Ripma: 39:35

It's from when they sell it to when that shows up as is a different time and so to know what it's sold for, but then it's actually closed yet. So I don't know. I just find I think there's a lot of people who look it up but there's also a lot of people who just they want they never do so getting something that says oh, that's what it was. Could be. I don't know. I don't know if it could be valuable or not. Seems like yeah, we've

Andy Ludlow: 39:54

talked to a lot of I think everybody's kind of a different spot on that. Like my parents had been in their home for I think almost 40 years now. So they were shocked when they started, they would see houses down the street, selling for two or $300,000. Like, what? There's no way that they're gonna get that and it's sell. And I'm like, Mom, you have no idea. Right?

Rick Ripma: 40:12

Yeah, changes.

Ian Arnold: 40:13

So what would you think one of your most memorable deals was?

Andy Ludlow: 40:16

Man? I mean, they're, they're all memorable. One that I won't get into all the details on it, but I've picked up one probably I was probably only about 30 deals into my career that I was able to. It was actually a friend from the post office that he wanted. He wanted a House wanted it really bad. Well, the, the agent he was working with before, they were trying to get them at the house near a lot of work. And they're trying to get him in with just a traditional mortgage. And I don't know why they didn't try was a two or 3k. Yeah, I don't know why they didn't try that at all. But that was one of the I was able to get it back together. And they got the house. They're still in it today. So that was a good one, just being able to come in and pick up the pieces. And they've been a fan since so it's been a good one.

Rick Ripma: 41:05

They probably really appreciate what you did for him. Yeah,

Andy Ludlow: 41:07

yeah, that's awesome house too. Yeah. Yeah. What it was

Rick Ripma: 41:10

it shows you the difference between having somebody who knows what they're doing. Yeah. Right, and cares about them and listens, and then goes, Okay, this is going to be a better option. Yeah. Cuz they

Andy Ludlow: 41:19

had told them that. There's no way you can't get it. It's just impossible. The mortgage is done, and they were wanting to go find something else. And then they said, I just found out I was in real estate, and gave me a call and we gotta take care.

Rick Ripma: 41:31

Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome. So what does uh, and I know, there's no normal day, but what would an as normal day as possible be for in the life of a real estate agent? If somebody's looking to get into the business? What would they? What would they think it's gonna happen?

Andy Ludlow: 41:47

Well, there's not a normal day. But I people need to have a schedule, if they're, if they want to do and they want to get serious about it. And then start now and it's going to be different than where I'm at in my career. Now, your mornings, you need to be prospecting, or that's calling friends and family calling people you don't know. depend on what they want to do. You've probably got a couple hours of that in the morning. And then as you build that up, you're gonna have your lead, follow up. afternoons are for appointments, appointments and showings, you're going to be working probably the weekends. i My schedule is hectic right now. And it's just part of the part of the deal. I, I try and take the weekends off as much as I can. But I know my Saturdays and Sundays are basically by appointment. So if somebody wants to do something on a Saturday or Sunday, we're playing it out. I'm not just jumping on a weekend at this point. But it took a long time to build up to that roster.

Rick Ripma: 42:42

Yeah, you can't just start the business and do that. Now.

Andy Ludlow: 42:45

You you're gonna be working weekends. Yeah. And nights. Yeah. And I take two nights that are my late nights, because there are people that have to have, you know, eight o'clock appointment. My Tuesdays and Thursdays are usually it for me.

Rick Ripma: 42:55

Yeah, well, yeah, that makes sense. Well, I came out the car business. I don't know if it still was this way when you were in it, but they had late nights. Yeah. Because there's people who need to come in after, you know, five o'clock, right? So you gotta be there.

Ian Arnold: 43:08

Late nights every night. It's a late night. Nowadays. It was like eight o'clock every single night. It's one reason why I was like, Alright, I gotta I gotta think of something a little different. Well, the housing

Andy Ludlow: 43:18

in the mortgage and mortgage and real estate realtor side. It's such a weird thing, because I've tried to work through the wintertime and you're gonna have deals going on when it's cold out. But in years past, I always bumped my head against the wall, I get frustrated, because things aren't going on. But we really are cyclical business. I mean, that's something we just have to understand. So if I'm going to take some time off, I'm trying to take it off November, December, maybe January, and then February through October, I'm going to be out there hustling and do as much as you can during that time because that's your that's going to be your bread and butter. That's when most people are buying houses. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 43:54

My problem this is this is my my problem with all of that is that if it's slow, I got to work to get it going. Yeah, if it's busy, I got to work to keep up.

Andy Ludlow: 44:03

It's a different work though. Because a lot of my business that came in February and March was from working in Denver in October it's just I've got to wrap my head around that not get frustrated and different work.

Rick Ripma: 44:16

So you and I have the same problem that's what I that's a different work and you and you should when it's that way you should be able to walk away and take a little bit of time off.

Andy Ludlow: 44:25

Yeah, right gonna forgive yours. Everybody knew it. Yeah, I heard the analogy and I have to remind myself so maybe this will help you is the when you're chopping down the tree. If you keep hitting it, you're gonna make that axe hit dole. If you don't stop and sharpen that. It's once you do sharpen that again, you're gonna be a lot more effective. Oh, yeah. So taking a little bit of time off is really good. As beneficial marks the tree down faster and does Yep, you go back in and you're ready to go. And

Ian Arnold: 44:50

so when you do take a little bit of time for yourself, what do you catch yourself doing?

Andy Ludlow: 44:55

Still working somewhere else? So yeah, I'm

Ian Arnold: 45:00

sure Bert. Yeah,

Andy Ludlow: 45:02

no, we do. We do like to take trips. They sometimes they are around real estate going to different seminars and things. But I actually like we'd go hiking or we'll take some small trips just to get out of town for a little bit, we go to Florida a lot. And if I can just sit there and do nothing for a week, that's some of the most enjoyable just grab a book and try and just shut your brain off for a few days or something is really good. Yeah, very helpful, tough to do sometimes,

Rick Ripma: 45:31

if somebody needed to get a hold of you for any real estate needs, or maybe they want to talk to you about coming into real estate and how would they get ahold of you? What's the best way

Andy Ludlow: 45:39

phone number they can call me or they can text me 31737 to 6147

Rick Ripma: 45:44

Perfect, 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 31767 to 1938

Ian Arnold: 45:57

Good job and reminder for any if you know any friends, family or coworkers looking to buy sell or refinance contact record, I will be more than happy to help them

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