Guru Don Harrington with Harrington Home Team Along Side FC Tucker

Ian Arnold: 0:01

Rick, we had Don Harrington on, he was a fantastic guest. What did you pull out of that?

Rick Ripma: 0:08

Well, first I, he's 30 years in the business. Yes. So he has tremendous knowledge about the business. But he's really, it's beyond that. He's just a, he's a really good person. And he has a, you know, with all the knowledge he has, he understands how to take care of customers, how to do business, and then how to how to balance his business in his personal life.

Ian Arnold: 0:33

Yes. One of the thing you did forget is he knows one of the one of the best beaches in the world is so if you're wanting to find out definitely tune in to the full show.

Rick Ripma: 0:44

Yes. And he also knew is he knew his phone number, which I did. Well, that's nothing new. Welcome to India's real estate gurus, your ultimate guide to the dynamic world of real estate in Indiana, and I'm recruited by your hard work and mortgage guy and I've been in real estate and mortgages for over 24 years, and I'm in Arnold, a loan officer on brakes hard working mortgage, we're both with advisors mortgage together will empower you with expert advice market trends is a festival stories from Guru realtors and local experts. Whether you're a homeowner, investor, or pro, join us as we navigate the thriving indie real estate market.

Ian Arnold: 1:24

Now get ready to unlock the doors of success, one episode at a time.

Rick Ripma: 1:31

While today we have Don Harrington Don is a FC Tucker agent. He's a guru, and he has you do phenomenally well, you've been in the business for a long time. 30 years enabled 30 years in a row. So you may not even remember this first question, but what did you do? Like Where'd you grow up? What did you do before real estate today? What was your life like?

Don Harrington: 1:54

Yeah, born I've been in Indiana all my life was born up in Valparaiso in February so yep, yeah, I grew up in then in Hebron, which is actually south of Valparaiso. And then came down earlier in my life to the east side, went to school, then on the Near South Side at IPS schools, and then eventually ended up in the prairie township area and graduated from Prairie marine high school down there. And, yeah, I got into sales well as paperboy so I really got into sales. And that was fun. i If only I would have known how to spend money as far as making money too. But it didn't figure that out until later. But yeah, so I was in sales, being a paperboy. And then as soon as I graduated high school, I started at a shoe store called Tom McCann over Oh, yeah, sure. Action square. Yeah. So they were very well known. And so I enjoyed working over a Washington Square and selling shoes. And I, I tell people that I learned everything I needed to know about sales from selling shoes. I had a great manager, he told me this about features and benefits and how to present people with the item they have. And if they want it, that's for him. So but yeah. And then, gosh, I've done I've done so many things. And my wife, we've been married for 12 years, and she will hear about something that I did for a job which are like going, I hate it never stops. I have just done so many different things and try different things in so someone we're sales someone we're not. And so yeah, but I enjoyed it. And then yeah, did they answer your question? Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 3:35

What did you want to do when you were when you were a kid? Like what? What was your dream job when you were a young kid? Yeah.

Don Harrington: 3:43

That's funny, because I always had trouble answering that question, because my life was kind of chaotic. And so I never felt like I could dream really so. But I always pictured, like, you know, being a firefighter when like a typical boy would. That was one of those that seemed very interesting to me. Yeah. Instead,

Rick Ripma: 4:00

he wanted to be a tick tock dancer. Yes. came out. He wanted to be a tick tock dancer. So we got to really encourage him to Yeah, does he talk dancer,

Don Harrington: 4:11

don't you think? Okay, I'll film you today.

Rick Ripma: 4:12

See, there you go. Yeah,

Ian Arnold: 4:14

we got there's a movie called White Men Can't Jump. Well, there's also one called White Men Can't dance. And that's

Don Harrington: 4:19

so surely you can do that the floss or something like that. Right? No, that's coordination to them. Yeah, yeah. So

Rick Ripma: 4:25

so how did you What drove you into real estate you did all these these other jobs, which I'm sure gave you a lot of the, you know, the ability to be a great agent like you are. So but what what was it? What was the motivating factor to get into real estate? Yeah,

Don Harrington: 4:41

I really kind of stumbled into it accidentally. I had. I wanted to just do property management or rental properties, really flipping wasn't that big of a thing back then. And so that's the reason I got into it. And it wasn't long from starting the real estate that I found out out there. I loved it. Because I am such a I enjoy people and being with people. But I also like, just helping people serving people. And so it just was this beautiful fit for me. And so I was successful from pretty much from day one. I did all the things he needed to do to start business and just kept rolling and rolling, rolling. And it's been that way. I mean, even I mean, I've survived the crash of Oh, 809. And

Rick Ripma: 5:27

yeah, yeah, so, yeah. So you, you did everything, I want to key on that you did everything you needed to do to get going. And it's a hard industry to get going. And, and I think, I think 30 years ago, it was actually a little harder than today. Because there were no teams for the most part, you didn't have people helping you. So what did you do? What were the what processes did you do? What were the things that you did that got your business off the ground?

Don Harrington: 5:52

Yeah, you know, what's interesting is, and maybe by not having people tell me what to do, I started figuring out things like, if I had a listing, and I sold that listing, it just made sense to me that I would go ahead and call that buyers mortgage guy to check up on and make sure this pre qualification was good to, you know, ask some questions. And then through the process, I still followed up with them, you know, and so I was doing things that I just did assume that the buyer's agent was doing their job. I just made sure every piece was always moving along. So no matter what side I was on, and so I think that looking for that kind of, I guess, details kind of helped me to make sure that deals got closed. And yeah, I think that was, if I think back to real estate and what I did back then I did the open houses that I needed to do, and following up with the people, but establishing rapport with people and really getting to know what their needs were, I think some of those things, just listening to people really helped me.

Ian Arnold: 6:55

Yeah. So I always like to ask this question to people who've been in the industry for a while. So what has changed from the time you started, and to now, in real estate, wow.

Don Harrington: 7:07

That's huge. Because first of all, cell phones were just coming into the scene. So matter of fact, my Bohr had just got the first computer. So it was called Boris. And it was like a very digitized format. To search for homes, there was no pictures, because they still had when I was in the business, the book that so to look at houses yet to go to the broker and look through the book, which was come out every two weeks. And it was the size of well, people probably don't want phone books are but it was size of two phone books, pretty much. You didn't have lock boxes, were just coming into play. So you would have to sometimes still go to the brokers office that had a listing, get the key from them, Go show the house and then take the key back to them. So man, there's so much you only had a fax machine, you really didn't have things being emailed in the scanning was not around. So there's a lot of things have changed, you know, Docusign. And I think now, things like DocuSign or dot loop where you could have somebody signed something and never have to ever be with them. They could be in another state where you know, back then you had to handwrite contracts, and you had to physically go to them and have them sign stuff. And so

Ian Arnold: 8:19

yeah, yeah, a lot. Yeah, I think the like you said, DocuSign I think that's probably been the hugest one specially in our industry is I you go on vacation. Hey, I need to send out this disclosure. Right? And he's out the sales contract. You can easily do it. You never leave the beach? Yes. Then go and be done with it within 30 minutes. Yeah,

Don Harrington: 8:39

that's right. Yep. I've sold a house while I'm in Florida. I sold a house had both sides of it. That transaction while I was on a mission trip in the Dominican year ago, so yeah, things like that are just, yeah, crazy. Yeah, which you can do now. All right.

Ian Arnold: 8:54

So what do you love most about being a realtor? You've been doing it for 30 years. So yeah, hate

Don Harrington: 9:00

really, I just don't like I would you know what, it's helping people, you know, I am blessed with an opportunity to deal with and help them with one of the biggest transactions of their life. And so to take that seriously, and then help them through that, you know, I had a young couple towards the end of last year that while we were working on looking at houses, she was pregnant, then we had to stop because she had the baby and then we got to find a house for them and so they get to start their new life with this baby in a new house and so times like that are just mean money. It's above money, you know, so I don't ever work. It's funny I don't ever eat the look to see what I'm getting paid on something until it's time for closing. I have to look at the closing statement. Make sure it's right. Because money is like secondary to helping people

Ian Arnold: 9:52

that would always that story was basically my wife and I like literally, she just we were we put an offer on a house she goes into labor. Were at the hospital. And I had the inspection that next morning, so later the wife she's in a hospital. I tell her parents, like, you say to her, I gotta go, I gotta go to with the inspector to look at this house. Yeah. And it was like, so when you're telling me that I'm like, Oh, I can see as my Yes. I don't recommend it. Because your wife cannot help you move stuff when you're moving at that time when you have a baby. So you're put in the wrong place with

Don Harrington: 10:23

yours? Yes, yeah. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, we've been a part of people's lives because that's life. Right? Yeah. To be part of that. It's just amazing to me. Yeah. But

Rick Ripma: 10:34

and it's stressful to have a baby. And it can be stressful.

Don Harrington: 10:37

But I hear that it is. Yeah,

Rick Ripma: 10:39

I've Well, I've had three and the girl now. So I don't remember as well as I used to. But it seems like it was pretty stressful. Especially that first one was it

Don Harrington: 10:48

is yeah, my back my firstborn was Hancock Memorial. And I remember that day, it was me it was crazy outside weatherwise. And I was driving her from south side to Hancock County Memorial Hospital. And I remember being on the highway for the backseat hold her hand. And she was talking about being careful drive. And I say, and she didn't know if I was driving 90 miles an hour. Because I did not want to deliver this baby. So I'm on the highway. Yeah, heading out there. So yes, it is stressful. Yeah,

Rick Ripma: 11:16

yeah. Driving 90 miles an hour, holding on somebody's hand and making sure you don't. Because if you hit anything, you will be delivered. I will drive. You know, none of us want to do that. No, those are the horror stories we hear. So what what would you say your superpower or superpowers are?

Don Harrington: 11:39

I would, I would say listening, the joyful side of things. I always have a great attitude. I see problems with finding solutions for them. I pretty much think anything can be figured out. So I might give me the pieces of the puzzle. And I'll put the puzzle together. And I have a there's something about how I talk to people that is trustworthy. And so they feel like they can talk to me. I've had people share something with me that they finish it up by saying, I've never told anybody about that. I'm like, Well, thanks, you know, but yeah, you're just, there's something about that. And that people want to be with me feel comfortable around me. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 12:26

Yeah. Cuz if they will tell you everything. You can't do your job. Oh, yeah. Correct. You know, it's really important that somebody feels comfortable with you enough to tell you everything because even little details matter. Yeah. Their little likes or little dislikes. Make a difference.

Don Harrington: 12:43

Yeah, yeah. I always tell people I said, Let's out, you find out what they like, as far as looking for a home for somebody wants to whatever the HGTV shows have talked about or whatever. But you get into a house and the reality and you start talking to them about the house and you listen to them, and you find out what they really what's important. So I get to be with them. And that first time in the house with a buyer usually tells me everything I need to know. Okay, yeah. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 13:10

I guess that makes sense. Because they're they're in the house. Now. They're now they're pointing out what they like don't like that type of thing. Absolutely. Yeah. And I'm sure they talked about the neighborhood the area all that for most people figure that

Don Harrington: 13:21

out. They figure that out? No, oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, you let them kind of figure it out and deal with that part of it. If there's something outside like, that looks like it might be a detriment or something like that. I'll point that out. But yeah, it's just an interaction with them, that we have a good experience. And I learned a lot. Yeah, yeah. It's

Rick Ripma: 13:38

interesting to me that when I sold new homes for the builder, I remember distinctly, I had a real estate agent come in with our client. And we had a lot it was a it was a corner lot. And the agent said, you don't want a corner lot. Nobody wants corner lots. You just don't want that. Okay. So they should, okay. I mean, 10 minutes after they left, another customer came in with a real estate agent. The agent goes, Oh, they have a quarter lot. That's the best lot in the neighborhood. It's so funny how, how the experiences we had can taint us Yes. To what what it is. And the reality is, and both those agents were fairly young, inexperienced, not really young, necessarily, but inexperienced. And I learned that you don't what I think doesn't matter. Right. Yeah, you know, it doesn't matter. Well, and

Don Harrington: 14:27

that kind of goes back to what I said earlier about the pros and cons, you know, the features, the benefits. And so there's, there's, there's there's pros about a corner lot. And there's, you know, cons about it. And so my job is is to point out both of those, and then let them make the decision, right. Yeah, I'm the educator, and they make the final decision. Yep.

Rick Ripma: 14:45

I agree. 100%. With that I, I live on a cul de sac. And I'm at the end of the cul de sac. And it's that's because that's what I wanted, right? I sold new houses, and I knew enough about what I wanted, right? So that's what I ended up with you And But everybody's different and and we have people who love the corner lots we have people who love, you know, on the main drag we don't have a big neighborhood but they like everybody's different. Yeah. And it's and they all the houses sell that's the other thing I learned selling new homes. All houses sell eventually. Yes. There's someone for every lot right there. Yeah, someone for every lot every house. Yep, everything sells eventually. So you have to find the one that works for you. Yeah, there's a right for you.

Don Harrington: 15:27

Yeah, you know, just painting. A good realistic expectation for people I think helps it out. Because sometimes they come into a transaction having never bought a home before and they have this maybe unrealistic expectation. And so if you can lower those in the sense of just making it more reasonable. You know, I'll ask them, what's your dream home look like? I asked them, What are the basics that you need at home? You know, if you have that baseline to work from, you have a lot easier chance to find out exactly what they're looking forward their hierarchy

Rick Ripma: 15:55

of needs and what we call it. Yep, yes. Yep.

Ian Arnold: 15:57

And would you say you're the best person to find somebody's house?

Don Harrington: 16:00

Absolutely. All right.

Ian Arnold: 16:02

So if you're the best person to find somebody's house, what would be the best way they can get in contact with you to find that? Perfect. I'm

Don Harrington: 16:08

glad you asked that question. My phone number 317-590-7944. And I'm at dawn at dawn sold me.com. Whoa, what was that email again? Because that was hard. I know. It's tough. And it dawn at dawn sold me.com

Ian Arnold: 16:26

can get easier in that?

Rick Ripma: 16:27

No, I can't get easier now. But they can also get a hold of us at HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com. That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com. Or you can give us a call at 3176. Not 67231767260. It is 67231767 to 1930. I knew I was going to do that. I kept thinking, I like to think of as my own my own cell number 317-672-1930. I don't want to give my cell number out. But Ian doesn't like it when I do that. No. He wants He wants calls to

Ian Arnold: 17:00

see I remember things so people want to talk to me. I

Rick Ripma: 17:04

remember a lot. The important thing. Yeah, exactly. I remember the important thing. All right. Currently, my numbers not important.

Ian Arnold: 17:15

All right, done. So we're gonna take a sidestep from real estate. Okay, let's get to know you more. Okay. So if I take away your phone, you cannot work whatsoever. What did we catch you doing for fun for 24 hours?

Don Harrington: 17:27

I probably would be on the beach. Probably one of the places. My wife and I go, we can get away. And I mean, just to be able to leave my phone up in my condo, and to be able to enjoy time on the beach. And yeah, if I had 24 hours to do that I would be in heaven. Yeah. And yeah,

Ian Arnold: 17:45

what beach? Do you find your favorite? Yeah,

Don Harrington: 17:48

it's, I'm afraid to say it because most people don't know where it's at. And they might be more people going down there. But there's actually on the panhandle of Florida is a place called navabi. Yes.

Ian Arnold: 18:00

Just so you know. Uh, yeah. Grew up. About 30 minutes from Pensacola. Oh, okay. So I know exactly. You're talking about white sand. It's beautiful. We're not helping them here. Yeah. It is. You know, nobody still goes there. I still preach it. Nobody goes. Everybody thinks Miami is the best

Don Harrington: 18:19

mic that yeah, sir. So yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's so as no commercialism there it's just one bridge going over there. And the only other way you can get to it from Pensacola Beach driving down the coastline when we go over the other bridge. Yes, yes. But it's a beautiful Yeah, beautiful place. So that's we've been going there for 12 years now. So

Ian Arnold: 18:37

it's actually in when people actually when you do research, Pensacola and slash Novar is one of the best beaches because it has that white sand there's hardly any shells that you're stepping on as you're going through there. Yeah, but like you said it's nice

Don Harrington: 18:53

and it's like a 20 minute drive to Destin to have all my the dinners and stuff like that so yeah, it's it's a little piece of heaven actually. Beautiful boardwalk also, yes. Yeah. keep selling it tag on a few edit that out.

Ian Arnold: 19:09

But best time to go is during July or July Yeah,

Don Harrington: 19:16

I want to tell you when I usually go

Rick Ripma: 19:19

I haven't. We used to do Florida a lot we did this year again but we always went to Fort Myers Beach. And we'd go in July we go in you know when kids are off school and what late March early April but then we went July 4 One time is one of the best vacations we ever had because on the beach it wasn't that hot now you got outside of the beach it was terrible. Yeah, but I probably the only other thing that was not very good you and you're probably much more familiar with ASEAN is the water was like bathwater It was no

Ian Arnold: 19:56

it can get worn

Don Harrington: 19:58

off like that. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 20:00

I much preferred the pool with that. Yeah,

Don Harrington: 20:02

yeah, time of year we go. It's still comfortable to get in. It feels good. It's warm. What's nice about the Panhandle as is because it's a little bit north. It does have a little bit cooler. So plus it's not as far to drive if you're driving. Yeah, it's a lot easier as well. But half Yeah. Be there. Yeah. Yeah. That

Rick Ripma: 20:17

you can't get we went to get a roll with it. See, this is what you do to me. It was on the other side. The other side, not not too far from Orlando. And I mean, it was like an 817 hour drive. It was a long, long drive. Yeah. Yeah. You

Ian Arnold: 20:37

don't realize how long Florida is? Yeah. Until you go down to like the Orlando or Miami area? Yeah. Goodness. Yeah. The state never ends. Yeah. If you're anywhere traveling, you would always say Alabama never ends. Yeah. I mean, that's for everybody on the east of the Mississippi River. On the west, then you're saying Texas, but

Rick Ripma: 20:58

Texas along State? Yes, Texas is it took us. We were in the very southern tip of Texas. It took the same amount of time to get to the northern tip of Texas as it did to get from there to Indiana. Yeah, yeah. It's and that's just as wide. Yeah. Yeah.

Don Harrington: 21:13

When you drive across the top of Texas, it's amazing how you like my son is he's an F in the Air Force. It's actually a firefighter mentioned firefighters earlier. He's a firefighter in the Air Force. Been there? 16 years. And he was in Texas for training sometimes. Yeah. Training camps. Yeah, yeah. Well, he graduated went to Lackland. But he was going back there to another area for some other kind of special training. And I was talking to him on the phone. And I said, How long have you been on the road? He's been in Texas for like, I don't know, it was at that point, 45 minutes or an hour. And so like that, I was talking to him. And he was still like, you know, 30 minutes later. So I got TSA. I have another team that, you know, miles ago in Texas.

Rick Ripma: 21:53

It's unbelievable. Holy cow. Yeah, it is. It's a big state. It is. Alright, so I

Ian Arnold: 21:58

do have a question. So a little birdie told me you're on the board of what is it? The new life with limbs life with limb. So

Don Harrington: 22:07

let's talk about that. Okay, yeah. New Life of limbs. Actually, a buddy of mine. James golf owns a prosthetic company down in downtown Annapolis down on Meridian Street. And about 10 years ago, he wanted to go to third world countries to do prosthetics. And so he started a company called New Life claims. It's a nonprofit, and new life with limbs went to Haiti, and they've been to Sierra Leone, over in Africa. And then in 2020, everything was shut down, couldn't do anything. And then we were looking for some place to go Syrian was not safe to go to. And so because of another friend, we ended up in the Dominican. And at that point, I joined him on that trip, and I fell in love with the mission. It's beautiful. But we go over there. I'm actually leaving next month for another a be my fourth trip. And, yeah, we have a pastor over there. We work with people that are missing muesli legs, a lot of them someone from accidents, moped accidents, those kinds of things, or circle accidents, but a lot of it is health, like diabetes, and that kind of thing, too. So, but we work with the pastor over there to get names of people. And we usually within a visit, we say about 50 to 60 people, and we put legs and arms on him. Wow, that's awesome. It is amazing. I tell you. The first time I went over there, I mean, I watched a guy come in, in a wheelchair missing a leg. And that same day, he walked out of there, and I was hooked. I mean, that's just Yeah, it's like a miracle kind of level, you know? So

Rick Ripma: 23:38

yeah, so what that does for them? I mean, you

Don Harrington: 23:41

should see their face. I mean, they just light up because they have a new lease on life. Yeah, I mean, the new life with limbs is this really what it is, that's a new life for them? And so to experience that I was hooked, and then he asked me if I would be on the board. And so I am actually the president of the board. Really? Yeah, yep. And then I'm doing all kinds of fun things i Luckily, I've learned how through my bore, doo, doo doo golf outings and those kinds of things, because sit on the board for months outside my board. And so I just put my first golf outing fundraiser together this last year and gonna be doing another one to raise some money for it. So I was

Rick Ripma: 24:18

wondering, how do you other than golf outings is how else do you guys raise money for Yeah,

Don Harrington: 24:22

just general donations and reaching out to different people. The golf outing was a big one. And then last year, and we'll probably do again in this fall, we did a variety show where we did a one of my clients actually is an amazing magician. And so he came in did hit that. And then we had a couple of different people come seeing, and then the one pastor who connected us to Dominican as a comedian, so a clean comedian, but, and so he's got some friends too. And so we had a variety show, and we raised money doing that, too. So those are our two biggest events. And we are talking about doing a 5k coming up. Oh wow. And 25 too, so. Okay,

Rick Ripma: 25:01

so like if you need a dancer dancer we've got Yeah, it show. Yeah. Variety. So there you go. Gotcha slotted.

Ian Arnold: 25:07

Okay. All right. So now we're going to take a second. What's the best work numbers from I can reach you at best

Don Harrington: 25:13

phone number? Yep. Ever for the last 30 years? 317-590-7944.

Ian Arnold: 25:20

All right. You said that for 30 years, there's no way that cell phone number has been around for 30 years. Yes. Yes.

Don Harrington: 25:25

Yeah. Well, you know what, let me back up. Probably 2828. Yeah, okay. Yeah, I did. I was thinking that when I first joined, they didn't have their cell phones around at all. And it probably about two, three years later. So you're right. So 27 years. That's a long time to have a phone number. They Oh, yeah.

Rick Ripma: 25:44

I've had my cell number this I gotta be near that I got when I was working for the builder. Okay, you know, so well over 24 years. I don't

Ian Arnold: 25:53

mind wanting one. I got mine in Oh, three freshman year of college. Okay. And yep, still the same one. And it's interesting, because the jobs I've had and stuff like that, especially in cars I've, I've gotten where people call me goes, Hey, are you still in the car industry? I'm like, No, I've been out for a couple years. You're like, Oh, I'm looking for a car. I'm like, Well, let me see what I can do to help. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's weird. But so people still call? Yeah. But they might need a mortgage. that always comes up and follows in the absolutely, yeah, yes.

Rick Ripma: 26:23

And I just want to point out that the reason he can remember his phone number is he had it for almost 30 years. Okay. So it's not my problem with my memory. This guy had it for so long. I can't possibly forget it. But if you want to get a hold of me in our I got a HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com I don't tend to forget that one HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com Or you can call 317-672-1938. That's 31767 to 1938. All

Ian Arnold: 26:51

right. Before I get to the question of the week, I got a good one for you. Okay, so what would you consider one your most memorable stories? Or transactions? Wow.

Don Harrington: 27:04

I can do the most bizarre Yes,

Ian Arnold: 27:06

we love Yes. No, no.

Don Harrington: 27:11

You know how? Well I had an extra actually good friends of mine. And we were going to show them a house. The listing agent did not tell us that there was a cat in the house. And so we got there, this cat greeted us with this most evil back raising kind of like growl, if you will of a cat. And you know how dogs when they want to scratch her behind the kind of go across the carpet or whatever. So this cat decided to do that position. But as it went across the carpet, it was leaving a streak. And yeah, it was just it was evil. And we literally like closed the door and left. I have never I never you knew a cat did that, let alone make a mess while it's doing it? Yeah, yeah, that was was one of my most bizarre ones. So yeah, probably my most memorable ones when I was chairman earlier where I had a great couple had their house listed right before I did my mission trip. And while I was there, they called me up and said, Hey, I think we got somebody that's interested in that. And there were parents living next door. So one of my agents helped me out and when I showed it to them and stuff, and I ended up having both sides of it while I was in the Dominican and that that story right there. And they both are my friends I bumped into to the sellers down at the dentist just last week. Yeah. And they're just elated. And both sides are just wonderful when they even talk with one another and steps. That's nice.

Ian Arnold: 28:38

Yeah. Yeah. So the funny thing is, I bought to ask you who bought that house, but you said they didn't end up doing it. But because what happened is my parents were at closing for their house. And the The owner told him Hey, look, there might be a cat there. I think my my ex wife just left it there. We haven't been there for a couple weeks, you might want to check. My parents were livid. They hurry up and signed ran into the ER ran drove drove to the got food got water and hurry up and got to the house and found the cat there inside the in the house. And then they kept like they kept the cat. So the cat then they just said that until that cat passed. It was a cat house until it was until the ones that passed then it became their home but it's a different connotation

Don Harrington: 29:23

with it, doesn't it? Yes. It's

Rick Ripma: 29:27

it's parents are little, you know. So yeah, the question of the week, yes.

Ian Arnold: 29:35

Oh, all right. Okay, this would be the hardest question. Oh, okay. What was your first car

Don Harrington: 29:40

65 Ford Falcon.

Ian Arnold: 29:42

Wow.

Don Harrington: 29:43

It was actually left to me for my grandmother. I saw I had it at 14 I think wow. So yeah, I may or may not have drove it. Before I had my license to deliver newspapers.

Rick Ripma: 29:55

I'm sure you didn't know. I mean, none of us would do something like that know what size motored have, you know it

Don Harrington: 30:01

was like 170 or something? Oh, yeah. What? 65 So it was small there was so much room in the doghouse that you could crawl on either side of it through it. I mean it just okay. Yeah, little engine and yeah, I had big dreams. Yeah. If I were to want to get a car, you know, like, like, what's my car to get down the road would be to get another 65 Ford Falcon and fix it up the way my dreams were back when I was on it. Yeah, yeah. So What color was it? It was a gray. And before I was done with it, it was the primer, primer. Burgundy. But you got to prime I was heading to the Yes. What color were you hadn't? I was a candy apple red. Okay. Yeah, that was popular. It was on the day. Yeah. Yeah. The

Rick Ripma: 30:47

apple red is very, very popular. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What's been your favorite car that you ever had? Or was that it?

Don Harrington: 30:57

I probably was it. I mean, I've had a lot of different cars. I had a little Chevy Chevette of the two door with a four speed. And I think most people didn't know that a four cylinder could go that fast. I kind of was it was like I was driving for the movie with all the Cooper's

Rick Ripma: 31:18

Cooper. Oh, The Italian

Don Harrington: 31:20

Job. Yeah, I kind of felt like I was on a chase with The Italian Job. When I would drive that thing. It was a lot

Rick Ripma: 31:25

of fun. But it's funny how little cars can be a lot of fun. It can

Don Harrington: 31:29

it had a rusted out floorboard. But it was carpet over there still. And so you know how to get the little pebbles from the bottom of your shoes. Yep. So those will be on the floor. And I would be driving and when I saw a puddle, I knew what would happen. So I would go through a puddle and it would smack the bottom of the car and pop all these pebbles and stuff up here and it would you know, shower my basketball. It was a lot of fun.

Rick Ripma: 31:54

You don't have that car anymore.

Ian Arnold: 31:55

I don't. Yeah. So there's one thing I've learned. He has Leadfoot I do. I do

Don Harrington: 32:01

Guilty as charged. There's a reason why I don't have any my real estate stuff on Mike vehicle. Yep. Yeah,

Ian Arnold: 32:08

I understand that. Yeah. Yeah, I

Rick Ripma: 32:09

know. I look at people who do that they put. It's like, there's no way I could do

Don Harrington: 32:13

it. Yeah, yeah, you cut me off. I'm so much better than I used to be.

Rick Ripma: 32:19

The older we get. We're like, no, let's

Don Harrington: 32:21

be wise. I'm just like a little bit more patient. My wife has been working on me. So how she Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Rick Ripma: 32:26

So you might want to talk to my wife and maybe she can help my wife learn to help me get in there. Yeah, I struggle with sometimes

Don Harrington: 32:34

I listen to softer music. It kind of mellows me out in the car, okay. Because if I put something on like an AC DC, and you know, something that's driving, my foot drives soccer,

Rick Ripma: 32:43

so I should listen to rap.

Ian Arnold: 32:47

It's like when you leave the movie there you watch like Fast and Furious movie or Italian Job. And then you get out. You're like, oh, I can race my car. Let's go. Yeah,

Don Harrington: 32:54

I didn't used to be a NASCAR fan. So I'd watch a lot of NASCAR. And so I thought drafting was normal on the highway. So

Rick Ripma: 33:00

yeah, a lot of people think that driving a car on the road is the same as racing. It's completely different. It's those guys actually know what they're doing. That's true. That's

Ian Arnold: 33:09

true for 65. Drafting is legal.

Don Harrington: 33:11

It is legal. Is it as loop just like a big round? See? So yeah, I had to drive

Rick Ripma: 33:15

on that today. Because I had car problems. And there was there was actually a state trooper sitting there. I mean, it's it's ridiculously cold. And he's sitting there monitoring traffic, which shocked me I never Wow. And everybody, I couldn't understand why everybody was going 55. And that's why

Don Harrington: 33:34

well, that was the whole purpose. He probably wouldn't have told anybody. Okay, probably

Rick Ripma: 33:37

what Yeah, yeah, you're right. Down the way too cold to get out there. So what is there something that in your business that you're really proud of, or excited about?

Don Harrington: 33:49

You know, my business is probably 90% referral. And I love the fact that I just have that much repeat business. And so that just makes me feel good. It's a compliment to me, because a lot of I've done yeah, and that or that somebody would refer me. So yeah, that's probably something that I'm most proud about. I am I've won an award for the five star Professional Award for 12 years in a row. And I enjoy that one because it is based off of surveys to affiliates and past clients. So it's not just a war that you hit numbers or whatever, that numbers has never really driven me as far as awards. And mehrfach I've never really had you'll find those anything like that all my stuff. But that one there I'm proud of just because of who is surveyed to help me win that. So yeah, that's awesome.

Ian Arnold: 34:41

All right. So you have the Harrington home team, right with FC Tiger. So when you're hiring somebody for your team, what do you look for?

Don Harrington: 34:49

So funny thing Harrington home team has always been just me. Oh, yeah.

Rick Ripma: 34:57

For him.

Don Harrington: 34:59

Yeah, I do have an assistant that works for me part time. He does all the math are administrative stuff that I know I'm not good at. But I it's always been me and I looked at it as I team is the mortgage people I'm working with my title people that I work with, and the, you know, different list of inspectors and those kinds of things. And so collectively, hopefully given them a good experience, and it's like, it's teamwork, because we're all kind of working for hopefully the same goal. I have just as of this year, I did hire someone on my team. That's a young man. And so your question was what I look for? Yeah. By the way, he's like an answer to prayer after like, four or five years, I just been trying to find the right person, I was looking for someone that would be similar to me and faith and, and passion for people. You know, the, what was important to them was not just making money. And so that those are the probably the big things. A learner, someone that's willing to listen, and actually implement that it seems like so many people are distracted so easily today. And so to find someone that will actually listen, and then implement the some of the things that you're saying, I will, because I have been doing for 30 years, I figured I got something to give. And so it'd be nice to have someone that actually would listen and take that stuff to heart.

Ian Arnold: 36:19

You know, I liked when you talk, you're like, look, the money doesn't matter. You take care of people, and that's been Rick and I are philosophy from the get go is, look, if you just take care of people, the money will come. Absolutely Don't Don't worry about that. Yeah, just take care of people. Yeah.

Don Harrington: 36:33

One of my, when I have newer agents in my office, it'll come around and stuff, they might ask me, like, any advice or whatever. And I always tell them, treat it like a job show up every day. I feel like you need to have an office to come to, if you're just someone that's working out of their home all the time. I don't, I think it's very hard to be connected enough to be really successful. But that might be old school. But the other one is just do the right thing. And you'll never go wrong. And so you're always doing the right thing and not looking for money. Just how you can take care of those people, you'll you'll always be successful.

Rick Ripma: 37:07

Yeah, I have found a very much like what you're saying, I found that for me, I just, I have to come into the office. I can't work I can, I can work at home a little bit. And I and the weekends. I love having I have a space where I can go do things, which is really nice. But for me to focus, the problem I find people have is if they are working from home, and if they have something they have to do they do it. Okay, yeah. But if you have calls you really should make, but you know, the something else comes up or you go and do you just don't focus on your job like you do when you go in. Some people do that we've had people who have no problem doing Yeah, I can't do it. Yeah, I'm not that discipline. So for me, it's just not a good, it's not a good

Don Harrington: 37:58

fit for especially if you're a newer agent, I think there's there's so much you can learn from being in the office or listen to other people or listening to conversations or having somebody right there that you can ask a question for, you know, or two. And so I think I don't know, I think there's an element that is missing in this business of people learning, because everybody's trying to work remotely.

Rick Ripma: 38:20

So what's one thing that you wish you had been told or you had learned right, from the start? That took you maybe a while to learn?

Don Harrington: 38:32

It's a tough one. And isn't tough one actually. I don't know if I've ever really thought about that. I would think that some of the stuff I just said, because it took me a while to learn that, you know that, that if you just keep showing up every day and working hard, that that's all you got to do. And you'll be successful, that you're treating it like a job, some of those things that I learned along the way, I think it'd been good for people to say that earlier. You know, doing the right thing has never been patches at the core of who I am. I mean, I'll be glad if I had to give up a commission to make some stuff, right. I'm gonna do that. So. But knowing that now, knowing that if I had to do some of those things, just to do the right thing, and that is I'm still gonna be okay. That probably would have been good to hear too. Yeah,

Rick Ripma: 39:24

yeah. Yeah. It's tough because when you're new, you're you're you're really trying so hard. And the money is a little more important to you when you're brand new sometimes. And it's hard to realize that you're better off just saying, Okay, it's all gonna work out. One thing I don't know about you, but when I look back at my career, and it all works out, it does somehow someway. Yes. You know, you lose it, you lose a job or you aren't happy where you're at. And the next thing you know, you're at someplace you love. Yeah, I mean, it's just, yeah, you and I struggle. It sounds like you did it with patients. Yes. And if you do just have patience. Yeah, it's amazing what will work out for you? Absolutely.

Don Harrington: 40:04

Yeah, yeah, I have learned in life, this is one of those life lessons. And again, this is more of a spiritual element. But there's this thing called patiently prayerful, where, you know, I want something, desire something, I, I, if I made it work in my own power, I can make it work and it would work out. But if I've been patient, and just kind of prayed about it and being patient, then it will be not only provided, but it's better than I could have done. And that's happened to me so many times, whether it be from my wife to my home than I have to the vehicle, whatever. And it's been, it always works out if I'm just patient. Yeah, takes

Rick Ripma: 40:44

patients it does. And that's not easy for us. And it's hard to actually in this. I do a lot of reading and listening to podcasts. And it's amazing. All this. Everybody talks about how little patience we have in today's world. Yes. And how little a bit what you talked about, which is, you know, you focus on your client. That's, that's something that is vitally important. People don't feel like they're heard today. Because while you're talking to them, they're looking at their phone. They're it's you just have to pay attention to people.

Don Harrington: 41:15

Yeah, yeah. You know, younger people, I just when you said that, one of the things that I encourage people to do, like where they go, if he looked at my phone, it's upside down here on this desk. And it's like when when you go out to eat with somebody, especially if you're with your wife, you better not even have around but this turn it up, side down. So that way that little notifications and stuff are not grabbing your attention. You know, I think we are so ADHD is what it is whatever, on a lot of those things. I don't have sound I don't have my sound on my phone. I don't have sound on my computer. I think that that that Dean is evil, because it distracts you we're not we're not made to multi focus, right? It's like when someone says I'm a good multitasker. And it's like going, you know, your brain just switches back and forth easy. Because we can't do things at same time. They've

Rick Ripma: 42:07

done studies on it. And there is no such thing by task. And when you switch, and then you switch back, you don't start in the same place that you stop. That's another problem. And multitasking is kind of a misnomer. It's not really true. It is

Don Harrington: 42:24

what I read. Yeah. And I think the dinging of the phones and the computers are the same way. Because it no matter if you do it or not, it just it distracts you it takes you out of your your

Ian Arnold: 42:33

phone, you could be having a conversation. And as soon as you hear that ding you'd be like, Wait, is that a customer that just called me? What are they doing? And you're trying to have a conversation and let's say with your wife or something what your mind is there? Yeah, and not here. Absolutely.

Don Harrington: 42:45

Yeah. And then now they got the watch and song. Oh, yeah. So even if you had a silent you have something that's like it's almost like having a taser around your neck. Because it's got this irritating, distracting kind of thing going all the time. So yeah, there was the funniest

Ian Arnold: 43:00

thing is is they there's actually a thing called phantom vibration. And is when your foot you have your phone in your pocket, and you just think it's going off. Oh, yeah, every little thing like you just regular walking, you don't feel a thing. But your mind says, Oh, you gotta hurry up and check your phone. You gotta check your phone. It's crazy. Because then somebody told me that and I was like, and I was like, Wait, let me see. So then I started trying. I'm like, wait, I do. You do sense that and it's just it's just weird. Yeah.

Don Harrington: 43:27

So when you said you were asking questions earlier about if I had my didn't have my phone for 24 hours? I'm like, That's habit. Yes. You know, because there's nothing except for someone dying. That would be that important. Right? And that that's why I have voicemail. That's one of the things I tell people you have voicemail for a reason, you know, or they can text you and it'll be there. Right? And so it's not like, it's not like rocket science where someone's gonna blow up if we don't respond right away stuff. So we're

Rick Ripma: 43:53

not a doctor. We're no, we don't get to the hospital and save their life that you know, yeah, there's nothing is that important?

Ian Arnold: 43:59

What's your favorite quote about

Rick Ripma: 44:00

phones? My favorite quote? Yep. I don't know. It's my favorite quote.

Ian Arnold: 44:05

Well, my phone's always available. Yeah, that's right. You can always leave a message or a text.

Rick Ripma: 44:11

I like iPhones always.

Don Harrington: 44:14

I'm not. Exactly yeah,

Rick Ripma: 44:16

I do the same thing as you I do have an Apple Watch. But I leave my phone on silent. Apple Watch has done wonders for me for not because I leave my phone on silent. It never rings. It never dings. It never does anything. The watch may sometimes gets a little irritating when it when it vibrates. Because it's on it's on silent too. But I find as much because it really I can't actually read it because I can't see well enough to read those anymore. So I never look at it even when it goes off. Then why do you have it? Because now I know I got a message. So when I get done, I can then go see what's there. But it says I mean it's been for me it's been you know, everybody's a little different. Once I got rid of the sound on my phone, it's it's done one Are

Don Harrington: 45:00

you talking about there's a I don't know, it's almost like a piece that's been not cleaned back. You know, like your your piece was robbed. And now you're claiming it back. Yeah, you might phone it nighttime. I plug it into my I have a small office at my home and my phone gets in there. It's not in my bedroom. So I can't hear any vibration or in a mindset

Rick Ripma: 45:21

bind stays downstairs. Yeah, my phone stops probably earlier than most people want it to. But I have to go to bed. I get up very early and I have to go to bed. So my phone stops going at eight o'clock at the at the latest. Yeah. And I just don't don't ask It's cost me deals once in a while because somebody doesn't have the you know, they don't wait, and they do something. But if I don't have my sleep, what what good is that it's you know, sleeps vitally important for

Don Harrington: 45:48

lives. You know, you just said something that reminded me going back to that question about, like, if somebody went told me this earlier on, and that is, is that it's okay to not get some deals. And I've had some times where it's something I was kind of, like, why didn't I get that? And I look at those as like going, You know what, I probably shouldn't have had that one anyway, for whatever reason, you know, because you're not supposed to have everything.

Rick Ripma: 46:13

Yeah, it goes, it goes to exactly what we said. It always works out. It does. It always worked out. And and for me, I want I take it where I you know, I want to take care of people just like you do, and I want to take care of them. And so when I can't do that, that's that's bad. But the reality to me is I learned, you have to learn by what happens, right? And so these people do that. So then it's like, okay, the problem is, nobody should be calling you at eight o'clock 830 at night to get a pre approval on a house. They just saw. Yeah, yeah, that should have been done long before that. Yeah. Because if there is any issues, you're going to issue a pre approval. That's no good. Yeah, right. You need time, and you need to do it correctly. My belief is you need to have an underwritten. That's the very best you underwrite them, so that when you give a pre approval, it's underwritten. Yeah. Now you have hardly anything to wait on. Yeah, right. Yeah. And you can't do that at eight o'clock at night. Yeah, you can't do that on the weekend. So you should be doing that ahead of time. Absolutely. And I don't understand why people don't do that. Do it ahead of time. Be

Don Harrington: 47:20

prepared is it is, is a lot of times the reason because maybe they haven't been educated enough by their their agent to say, No, you need to get this done now. So we know exactly. I

Rick Ripma: 47:34

think I could definitely

Ian Arnold: 47:35

I'll answer this question. Okay. Because when I first started searching for homes, I did the same exact thing. I literally thought I was like, Alright, my wife and I wanted to get a house. So what we did is we got online, found an agent. I mean, we didn't know anybody. So we just found one online. It was like, alright, she seems nice. Let's call her we did it and like shortlist show houses. Now she would have said, Hey, your first step is to get pre approved. Oh, okay. Yeah. Well, she did it and why maybe she thought we already were whatnot. But we had no clue. I mean, I mean, I know some people go to their ask a bunch of questions. We were just like, hey, look, we're tire written. Let's go by Yeah. And so we went out looked at houses, she goes, Well, how much are you approved? Approved to? And I'm like, we haven't? What do you mean? And I go, I know we can we have great credit. We have money down. We're all that stuff and just goes, I don't know, you gotta go talk to a mortgage person first and get I'm like, oh, so that ended. So we like looked at four houses that day or something like that. So before that conversation even happened? Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 48:39

So yeah, yeah. But you weren't ready to make an offer? Well, we could have. But yeah, you can make an offer without it. No. Yeah. And it's just vitally important. I wanted to bring it up. Because it's one of those things that it's like, people need to know. Yeah, you don't wait, you get pre approved ahead of time, the better the more and not too early. You know, there's timing. It's not. And so if people call me it's like, well, we're not gonna buy for six months, well, then this is a wrong time, unless you have issues that we want to fix them. But otherwise, you got to wait. Yeah, but But you don't wait until you find a house. You you want to do it several weeks before you go looking for a house. And my opinion is you want it underwritten. So you need to leave, you know, a few extra days. You know, it takes about worst case, probably five days to get an approval with an under underwriter. And I say that because if somebody's self employed things like that takes a little longer than somebody who's not, but that's vitally important. Yeah.

Don Harrington: 49:37

Well, you know, and I'm telling them that as their representative as a buyer's agent that I need to know not only if they're qualified, but what kind of loan they need. Do they need some assistance and help? You know, there's a lot of things within the purchase agreement that I need to know ahead of time, right? To be able to properly represent them and so I kind of use that as this why is this important? Yep.

Rick Ripma: 49:56

And come up with strategies, you know, is is it the right thing? Trying to get the seller to do a sell or buy down? Or is it? You know, what's the best strategy, you can take somebody on a permanent buy down, you can take somebody with a little extra, they can get a little money from the seller, and they can buy more house and have the same payment by using some points. But they need to know that they need to be taught that they need to be shown that and you have you can't do that an hour before you have to put on a pre approval letter together. It just doesn't work. Yeah, I'll get off my high horse.

Ian Arnold: 50:28

All right. Well, since you guys went on that tangent. But Don, I want all these people you have wealth and knowledge, and you know what you're doing out there? I mean, you've only been doing it for only 30 years. I mean, goodness, don't you get 35 years come on? Well, let's help you get to 35. Okay, if somebody wants to talk real estate with you, whether it's either buying or selling their home, or they just have questions, what's the best way they can get a hold of you? Yep,

Don Harrington: 50:55

they can call or text me at 317-590-7944 or they can reach out to me through my website at dawn at dawn somi.com Or email me at dawn at dawn somi.com That's it around Yeah, you did. Okay. Yeah. You don't have a dawn at on your websites. All right. Yeah. Website is done. So me.com and email dawn at dawn sony.com. Yeah. Okay, go. And

Rick Ripma: 51:19

to get a hold of the Ian or I go to HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com Or you give us a call at 317-672-1938 is 31767 to 1938. And please follow us for more in these real estate gurus don't want you to miss any of the shows.

Ian Arnold: 51:36

And reminder if you have any friends, family, coworkers looking to buy, sell or refinance. Let us know we more than happy to help you. Don, thank you for joining us on our show. It's been a pleasure having you.

Don Harrington: 51:45

Thank you guys. I appreciate it.

Announcer: 51:46

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