Guru Erik Pitner with Carpenter Realtors

Rick Ripma: 0:01

Welcome to Indy's Real Estate Gurus were recorded today from the advisors Mortgage Group studio right here in downtown Carmel. And I'm recruitment your hard work and mortgage guy. I've been in the mortgages and real estate for over 34 years, I've helped over 5200 folks finance their homes, we believe my team and I, that there is a right mortgage for you and that were the team to deliver it. I missed half of it, but keep going.

Ian Arnold: 0:25

What are you talking about? You can do it?

Rick Ripma: 0:27

Okay. You want me to keep going? Okay, so I don't know how I missed it. My team and I believe in custom tailored loans, not the one size fits all approach. We believe there is a right mortgage for you. And we are the team to deliver it better.

Ian Arnold: 0:40

That's better. You did a good job. Now it's my turn to mess up. And I'm Ian Arnold, part of Rick's hard working mortgage team. I've been in the financial industry for 15 years helping customers rebuild their credit and get the best possible interest rates for them. I also have a passion in helping you secure your future and through real estate and have your overall wealth and generation wealth.

Rick Ripma: 1:03

You're ready for me to go again.

Ian Arnold: 1:04

I'm ready for you to go. Alright, so

Rick Ripma: 1:05

I'm pretty excited today. We have Eric. It's Pitner, correct? That's correct. With carpenter real tours. And you're out of Avon. And Eric is a phenomenal agent been doing huge numbers. You've been in the business quite some time. Thanks so much for joining us. We appreciate it.

Erik Pitner: 1:21

Well, thanks for having me here. I'm excited to be here. Thank you.

Rick Ripma: 1:23

We do appreciate it. If somebody needed to get a hold of you what would be the best way?

Erik Pitner: 1:27

The best way to reach me is on my cell phone. You can send me a text message 317-345-8011 Or give me a call 317-345-8011

Ian Arnold: 1:41

Please wait till after the show because he's busy right now.

Unknown: 1:45

You can also send me an email at E Pitner at cole carpenter.com. Or send me a message through my website. That's www dot Eric pitner.com carpenter.com and putting her as py T in ER, that's correct, correct? Yep.

Rick Ripma: 2:01

And as we get started, for the most up to date All right. information on in these 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 Eric, you've been in real estate for quite some time. But what did you do before real estate?

Unknown: 2:25

Before real estate? I worked in public safety. I was a paramedic for about 22 years.

Rick Ripma: 2:31

Awesome. And before even that, where were you born raised?

Unknown: 2:38

Born in actually Lafayette, Indiana, okay, and grew up down in Bloomington, Indiana.

Rick Ripma: 2:44

Is that allowed?

Unknown: 2:45

It is allowed. My father was an auto dealer and the early 80s recession caused some dealerships to close and we relocated down to Bloomington, about seven or eight years old and so grew up there high school there, got a degree from IU, and then decided that I had enough of Bloomington, Indiana and just thumbed through the books and grabbed an apartment up here in Indianapolis and went from there. So those are do you still have auto dealers? My dad's retired now. Okay, yeah, he retired about five years ago, right after my mom passed, and he's living in Virginia now. And so I've still got some family down in Bloomington. My brother's still down there. And so it'll always be home. But that's neither here nor there at this point. So,

Ian Arnold: 3:31

so I have to get you our paramedic and now you're a realtor. How How did this even transpire?

Unknown: 3:39

Yeah, I mean, I think everybody who ends up in real estate, I think, you know, the vast majority of us, it's our second career. In January of 2018, I lost my job through some just really unfortunate events that occurred, and I spent a couple of months, you know, kind of just trying to figure out what I wanted to do, you know, living off of savings and borrowing some money and draining some form of retirement accounts until my wife said, hey, it's time for you to figure out what what we're gonna do here. So it was, you know, I was sitting with a friend and he said, you know, have you ever thought about about selling real estate? And I said, Well, you know, I tended to try and my dad had really tried to push both my brother and I away from sales jobs, because being in the auto business as long as he was he knew that what we were up against, to make money and sales. And so here is my basic, why don't you give a try, you know? And so, I actually had a my cousin's husband was an as an agent with Carpenter, and I gave him a call and I said, Hey, I'm thinking about doing this and I went down and met with him and the managing broker of our Kaline road office and and they said all the right things. And so I got my license in June of 18 and hit the ground running in August and I sold 23 or 24 homes My first year and just really haven't looked back, so, so you're very happy you made that choice. Yeah, I mean, obviously, it's paid off well, and so it's, it's, but it's one of those things where you come to a crossroads in life and you realize that, like, what you've known for a long time isn't going to be a part of your future. And so you get to make some decisions. And so my wife and I sat down, talked about it, and, and it's ended up working out. Okay, so yeah,

Rick Ripma: 5:25

I find that it always works out. Okay. I mean, I've I'm quite a bit older, new, I'm guessing. And I have just found that it always works out. Okay. So not that that makes it any easier when you're running through, you know, problems. But I think that I think it makes a big, you know, if you just accept it like you did, and you move on, it works out. But how did you getting getting started in real estate is not the easiest thing in the world. So how did you do? How did you get going so quickly? What did you do what?

Unknown: 5:54

Well, I mean, I owe a lot of credit to my former managing broker, Morris Lucas, who's now at exp real estate, who sat me down and said, Hey, how much money do you need to carry family? That's what we need to start first, let's figure out the dollar amount that you need. And I told him a number at the time he I remember him laughing at me saying that's such a low, unrealistic goal for you. I said, Well, that's what I need right now. So here's the plan, here's what we're going to put in place, here's what you need to do, every day day in and day out, to build a business. And to build your database and, and get in touch with people get in front of people. And he said, If you do that, you'll be alright. And I said, Okay, I'll see you tomorrow at eight. And I can remember, I mean, literally, my first six weeks in real estate was, you know, 1011 hours a day of just really talking to anybody and everybody that I've ever met in my life, you know, hey, great news. I'm excited to let you know your new career in real estate who do you know, and it was like, if I had your number, Rick, but I didn't have Ian's, hey, I don't have any his number, Ricky might give me his number. And then he ends the next call. And it's just name and so 90, and I need your name, I need your address and your email account, you know, so now I'm just building this database. And so just day in and day out, and I mean, I had a lot of good people in place at that office to kind of keep me motivated. You know, it's like, I catch you wandering up and down the halls. Yep. What are you doing? Get back on the phone, you have nothing else to do? What else do you have to do? Like, you have no deals going, you're brand new, like, you've got to go find deals, right? And I didn't have a choice, because my wife wasn't gonna give me very much time before. She just said, it's time to get a real job because this isn't working out. So 75% of my business was my first year with people I'd never met before. Awesome, because I didn't have a bunch of people saying let us know. And you know, so now as the years have gone on, of course, yes. Those people you talk to your one. So we're not ready yet. And you're too. And they they send you a referral. And then all of a sudden, oh, by the way, we're ready now and right. Thanks for staying in touch with us. And yeah, and so it's a people business. And that's, I mean, I looked at it like when I was working in public safety. People had problems, they called me to help. I had to ask them some questions, figure out what was wrong for you to best help them. And I'm just doing the same thing. Now when it comes to buying and selling real estate people haven't I got a problem. How can I help you? And I'm in that's really what I what I view our biggest our big thing is we're, we're in the people business for and helping people. So

Rick Ripma: 8:15

yeah, we are and without, without prospects, or any of that. I mean, you without the phone, you have to do that. Right.

Unknown: 8:24

Right. Right. My number one job is to build inventory every day, right? Because I'm, I'm a direct salesperson, and unlike a car lot, there's not 75 trucks, and I just gotta go sell the guy, one of these 75 because he walks out, he drives up and says, I gotta buy a truck today. Right? And so if I don't, if you don't have anything, if you don't have any inventory, you don't have anything to sell, right? And so it's that mentality that I was brought up with that, like, you know, hey, great, you took a listing. Great. That's, that's good. That's what you're supposed to do. And then it pended even better. Now you're out of business, right? And that's a hard thing to accept from, yes, as a new agent, because you're just really excited about everything. But then you also can't get caught. You know, rocking that baby for 30 days. That might not close, right? And we've got about a 24% fall through rate in the market right now. Which one and every four deals, the first contract doesn't make it a closing. So you got to be able to continually generate new leads generate it fill the pipeline every day, and nonstop every day. I mean, I say start every day at zero like it didn't sell anything yesterday.

Rick Ripma: 9:30

Yeah, I think it helps, though. Like for somebody who did what you did, you got into the business, and then you worked your tail off. And you did the things that a lot of people don't want to do, right? They don't want to make calls. They don't want to call do cold calls. They don't want to do those kinds of things. But to get going, that's just part of what you have to do. Right, right. And so when it slows down, you still have that skill and ability because there's people who I've talked to many people I won't call i They just flat out won't do it. And it makes such a difference. So I in our business now, Ian and I both were in the car business. So and if you can't tell, we like cars. So and that's a business that that you sit there and they come in, right? But this isn't like that. Carpenter doesn't say, here's a line of traffic, here you go, right, right, you have to go out and

Unknown: 10:20

get out. And it's a really list. I mean, I've got three, any real estate agent has got three options about how they find business, they can wait for it, which the vast majority do. And you'll do a handful of deals every year, just because people, your friends and family that you know, right, you know, you can buy business. And there's all kinds of places out there, they'll sell you leads Zillow, and realtor.com. And those places and they'll sell you a big pile stuff. And you'll spend a whole lot of time sorting through it trying to figure out who can actually sign a contract, right? Or you can go find it. And if you can get a system in place where you find business every day, then you can essentially predict what your income is going to be. And you can reproduce it every day. Yeah, you know, the, the, the random phone call, that's a sale for a house isn't predictable. You didn't, it's not like you said, I'm gonna put my phone calls me today, because I know today is going to be the day somebody's gonna call me. Right. And that's okay. But for me, I need to be able to predict every month, you know, where my business is going and how much I'm generating. And I, you know, as I tell our newer agents, I don't ever want to be in a position when my wife asked me when my next commission check is coming out, I can't help her an answer. Yes, that's my and that's as simple as I break it down to that simple part. You know, so it's real estate, it is an infinite game, right? It's gonna go on forever. Right? And, and realistically, it's up to you to decide at what level you want to participate in it. And every any level is fine. You know, I mean, any level is fine. I'm comfortable doing, you know, 35 or 40 a year, sales a year, some people that's a month for them, and great for them, and good for them. But the only person I'm competing against as myself, right. That's a great thing to understand. Yeah. And if they only want to do three or four, you're good for them, too. Right? You know, yeah, that's okay. And that's okay. Yeah. But what you can't do is, is want to do 50 with the work mentality of three. Right. And that's, that's the biggest, I think that's the biggest thing for, for what most agents get frustrated as they think that they think that the people who are selling the high volume of real estate, that it just comes easily, and they're not putting in a lot of work to make it happen. Right. And they really are behind the scenes, they have to you have to. And I always say that, you know, the, one of the biggest drawbacks is people think that work is a noun and not a verb, right? It's a place they go and not a thing they do. So they say, Oh, I went to the office today. Yes. Okay. And what you do there? Well, I had a deal. Okay, you had a deal. And so what you sent a couple emails or typed up an inspection response. And that took you what, 30 minutes of your day, right? You know, as I said, and so I look at it with our newer agents, just like if, if I if I was going to hire you, and I said, come into the office, I'll show you how to talk to 200 people. And when you get to 200, come to me, and I'll hand you a $7,000 Check. Would you do that? Oh, yeah, of course, I would do that. So why aren't you? Well, it because it's the fear of rejection. And we don't know what to say. And I'm always like, well, I don't care if a total stranger hangs up on me. Yeah. What's the worst thing that's ever happened to you on a cold call? Yeah, that you get yelled at, and I hang up? And guess what? They're not mad at me. Right? They're mad at the process. Yeah, they're mad at the process in the event of somebody calling them and feeling like, they were being sold something, right. And at the end the day, I'm just not, I don't even feel like I'm selling them anything. I'm just saying, Hey, we ever thought about moving right. You're trying to help out? You never thought Have you ever thought about moving? Did you know what the neighbor's house sold for? Are we aware of that? Yes. You know, because people are talking about real estate all the time, every day, and you're foolish to think that they're not. And the worst thing you can do as an agent is to not talk to somebody because either A, you're afraid of being rejected or be their friends and family, you know, you don't feel comfortable asking them for the business. And then so what happens is when you don't talk to him for six months, you hop on Facebook, and they're super excited that they bought or sold real estate. And you go I cannot believe I bought a house and they didn't call me. Well, when's the last time you talked to them? Like a year ago? But what's the what? They've forgotten about you? You're right, that you weren't Senator, you weren't. You weren't front of mind you they just totally didn't even. And then and then if you talk to them afterwards, they'll say, Well, I forgot you were in real estate. So is it that is that their fault or yours? It's your issue? You know, so if you're not asking for business, you're going to be out of business. Yes. So well, let's

Ian Arnold: 14:41

do this. If somebody was one wanting to do some business, how would they get a hold of you?

Unknown: 14:45

Well, they could just give me a call at 317-345-8011 Or they could text me at that same number for a faster response 317-345-8011 to get

Rick Ripma: 14:56

a hold of Ian or I, it's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com that's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com You can look up our contact information there. Or you can call us at 317-672-1938. That's 317-672-1938 Did I forget something I always forget. You know what? He looks at me like? I mean, did I forget it? I don't have it. We're paying for our ad or you go, my ad is not gonna run today because I didn't. Well, hopefully

Ian Arnold: 15:27

you don't fire us.

Rick Ripma: 15:29

I might have to. Ah, oh, we're in law suite. We're

Ian Arnold: 15:33

not gonna get fired. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 15:35

Thanks for listening to Indy's real estate gurus. The guru's we've, interview share valuable insights. They reveal their strengths, personalities and how they'll work for you. Well, we hardworking mortgage guys, security, 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 buying or selling a home, a real estate guru is a valuable resource. If you're even thinking of buying or selling a home, keep listening and definitely call one of India's real estate gurus.

Ian Arnold: 16:08

All right. So let's take a sidestep from the real estate part. If I had to take your phone right now and turn it off for a full entire day, you cannot do any work. What would you catch yourself doing?

Unknown: 16:19

Well, I probably hanging out my kids and my dogs. And we're more than likely probably Eagle Creek Park, because I live right up the street from there. And so or I be on the hunt for a nice bottle of bourbon somewhere. It's a terribly expensive habit. But I enjoy sitting around the fire at night and relaxing. And I it's funny, you mentioned that because I hand out a schedule to all my clients, both buyer and seller clients because I have a written schedule. Because I'm a business owner, I feel like it's really important to have a written schedule. Because subway does so why wouldn't you? And so on my on my schedule, it says right there that after seven o'clock at night, unless we're negotiating an offer that's got a deadline, I'm not I'm not taking any business calls. And that's was harder for my wife, I think, than it was for me because the phone would ring and she see who it was like that's a client. And so and so you need to take that call. I said no, I don't. So it's probably some third party vendor title, company inspection lender issue that they can leave me a voicemail, and they know because they have my schedule that I'm not gonna answer the phone. And I'll call him back first thing in the morning because I've got that built into my schedule for

at 7: 17:26

38am When I returned those phone calls from from after hours. And I think it's important that you do that. Because, you know, for me personally, if I answer the phone at eight, then the next one's at nine. Next one's at 10. And I have to keep my schedule because I have to be well rested, I think to perform at a high level. And that's really not, for me not really negotiable. And that's okay. And I've had clients who who are they'll, they'll I'll get a voicemail. And I'm like, Hey, I know it's after hours. And I didn't expect you to take the call. But I had asked this question what was on my mind, give me a call back in the morning, right type of thing or text message means the same thing, hey, don't respond to this because I know it's family time. And so they respect those boundaries. And it works out good that way. So but

Ian Arnold: 18:09

yeah, but that's something nice that, once you've done so much, you understand that something most things are not. I got to respond in three minutes, you understand that? Hey, look, it's seven, eight o'clock at night. If I respond at nine o'clock in the morning, everything will be just fine. No, like you said, though, what did you say? You said, hey, look, sometimes there are time sensitive things. Right? All right. So you understand that, which is awesome. Because hey, look, just because it's five o'clock, I'm home doesn't mean I shut off everything.

Unknown: 18:39

Right? Right. And you mean it's in realistically, I mean, I probably take as many incoming calls and text messages between five and 630 that I do doing them because I understand people are at work and they can do that kind of stuff. But for me, it's just important, important to let people know that there is a schedule, and there's a time and if I don't take your call, there's a reason that I'm not taking your call. I'm not just ignoring you. And I'll get back to you. But I think that's one of the biggest complaints that I think the public has, I think the biggest complaint that people in the industry have is just a huge lack of communication. And text messaging has made things so impersonal that, you know, I just I'm more of a phone call guy, I'd rather just talk to you on the phone, it's a better way to build relationships, it's a better way to do business. It's a better way to get business or there's all kinds of options out there and and like I said, I don't claim to be an expert on other social media experts and who were are killing it on Instagram and Tiktok and Facebook and good for them. And that's all great and stuff, but that's not really who I am. Whether I get there some days as a business grows and diversifies and you bring on more people on your team, you know, I don't know but I'd rather just what's your number on some column? You know? Something else so my wife and

Ian Arnold: 19:54

I we take our kids on all the parks and all the trails and Eagle Park Eagle Creek we've gone several times It is interesting how many deer there are there. Yeah, yeah, you get shocked? And how close you actually become, I think we were like 1015 feet away from a deer and it just staring at us. And I'm like, Oh, you don't see this every day?

Unknown: 20:11

No, actually, my wife and my wife hit one. It's been like six or seven years ago on 56th Street and pulled her car out. But either way, but yeah, there's they're coming back and numbers, they had a controlled hunt a few, you know, because they were just two years ago, and they were in and whether or not you agree with that or not, but if you if you're in the park every day, and you see the, because they don't have any predators, he saw that, you know, you gotta keep the population, well, there was a lot of sick deer because there's just not enough food on the food. So, but anyway, that's neither here nor there on my discussion about deer population control

Rick Ripma: 20:43

would take over, they would take over the park, and they didn't do something. But I want to, I want to highlight what you were talking about. Because there are so many agents who struggle with setting boundaries and time. And having that that time off in the evening. It's amazing how many we talked to, it's weekends and evenings that they struggle with. So what you're saying is you set the time you communicate that just like a store, here's my hours, this is what is my hours, and you have set schedule. So they know if I if I call you at 830 at night, or if I text you at 830. At night, I don't expect anything back from you until the morning when you when you do all that between 730 and eight is what your time is right? Correct. Yeah, so So any, any agents and we have a lot of agents, listen, anybody who's looking for that, that's what you're saying is you just have to set what it is and tell people and be reasonable. And also understand if there's emergencies that goes out the window? Yeah,

Unknown: 21:45

yeah, I mean, what it comes down to is, if you are truly wanting to sell real estate at a high level, and, um, you know, 2530 or more deals per year, you have to be able to control your time, right, and manage your time. And if you can't manage your time, you'll find you're just scrambling, and at the end of the day, you'll be exhausted. And you'll have nothing to show for it. Other than a whole lot of work and a whole lot of time away from home and a whole lot of scurrying and a whole a whole lot of everything. You know, so my Saturday and Sunday schedule is by appointment only on my schedule, and I don't, I don't mind working on weekends, and I understand, especially if you're working with buyers that you may have to work weekends, you know, because you can't control you know, the market when you're working exclusively with buyers. And we can get to that if you want about how that goes. But yeah, I mean, so but, you know, if, if you call me at 10am, on a Saturday to see a house at noon, you're probably going to have to have somebody from one of my offices, you know, hey, well, we're gonna have somebody from our Carmel office or our Greenwood office, or wherever we're gonna meet you there, right, because they live right around the corner, right and, and they've got the time to do it. And so but that's in so that's, you know, I tend to try and work more on the listing side, because I can control my time and I can control my income. And when the past couple of years in the pandemic, it was just, I mean, if you were working with buyers, you had zero ability to control your schedule, because you had to jump and move is second something hit the market, you know, regardless of what time it was. And then even if you did that you were the 25th one there anyway. So you know, so it didn't matter, but But yeah, I look at it, that I'm a small business owner. And so I have to control every aspect of, of being the person who generates the income for the, you know, the business, you know, capital for the businesses as I look at it, so I just can't imagine not having a schedule. And, and that's one of the, you know, I, I hear it all time and I hear from new agents, why did you get into real estate? Well, I wanted to have the freedom to make my own schedule, which if you have that approach in that mentality, what you're gonna end up with is the freedom from an income because you're gonna find every reason in the world not to go to work and generate business. And that's our number one job as a as a real estate agent, right? You gotta go to work, you got to generate business every day. But you'll find a reason you'll find Oh, well, because somebody is always going to want you to go to lunch. And somebody's always going to want you to take the kids at a dentist's at 10 in the morning, and somebody's gonna want you to go to the grocery store. To you know, and, and those things just you have to be able to, to, you know, work and still work. Yeah, you have to what you have to do a sell those sell people around you on accountability, and that it's not a job, like any other job, you can't just leave them all day, right? Because as soon as you start doing that, then your your entire approach to your day is oh, I've got all these other things going on. I can't I can't do that. I can't, I can't make time for that. And it's like, you've got we've all got the same amount of time every day, right? It's just how you how you choose to use it, you know, and so, I've said for and I'll go to my grave believing that there's a direct correlation between the cars in the parking lot over Real estate office and the names on the sales board. Oh, right, we're producing every day. And even if you're just there by and you're just absorbing stuff by osmosis, you're hearing what's going on in the market, you're hearing what other agents are doing to be successful. You're hearing what we're having to do for buyer clients as we shift back towards a low inventory market and how to be successful and to get them under contract. And you're just learning. You know, it's an I approach real estate, like anything else, it's, it's, it's always learning, there's always more, I never know enough, I can never learn more, I can never, you know, I never say well, I know everything now. Because every student says you do, there's gonna be a dose coming by chin. And, you know, because the public believes that every person who's a real estate agent works 40 hours a week and sells $10 million a year and knows everything about real estate. And it's far from that. Right. So, which is for a million reasons, which we don't need to get into, because everybody has a right to do run their business as they see fit. So but but that's just you know, I you know, we're back to this, you guys see the numbers and and the markets always shifting and changing. So I feel like I owe it to my clients to be involved in it every day. Yeah, to understand what's going on. And, you know, how are you know, what's selling? What isn't selling? What's, what do we need to do for buyers? What do you do for sellers? How do we, how do we price property rights so that it sells so it doesn't sit? And how do we convince sellers to to, you know, to take with properties actually worth versus what they think it's worth and all those types of things. So,

Ian Arnold: 26:30

as somebody who's looking to buy or sell their home, how would they get ahold of you,

Unknown: 26:34

they would give me a call at 317-345-8011. And for a faster response, they can text me 31734 or 58011. And if they want to shoot you an email, ie Pitner at call carpenter.com and Pitner is

Rick Ripma: 26:49

PID ner.

Ian Arnold: 26:50

Correct. That's pretty, that's pretty

Rick Ripma: 26:52

nice and easy. So I spelled it if I spell it, anybody can spell it. Okay. We all know that. And if you need to get ahold of the Ian or I, go to HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com. That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com. Or you can call us at 317-672-1938. That's 31767 to 1938.

Ian Arnold: 27:11

All right, so now, let's get into the question of the week.

Rick Ripma: 27:14

I've been waiting for this one I know this one should be really, really good. Why is dad was a car dealer?

Ian Arnold: 27:20

Oh, I thought you were about to say Model T I'm like, wow, really? You're gonna throw that? I don't think

Rick Ripma: 27:25

that way. Thanks.

Ian Arnold: 27:28

All right. The question of the week is much about Hey, Rick and I the hard working mortgage guy, where we believe in helping and supporting you and your realtor through by sending constant updates through your loan process. Nobody likes to live in a black hole, because dangerous thoughts always enter a black hole. So don't Don't be left in the dark contact Rick and I at HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com Alright, so here's the question. What was your first car?

Unknown: 27:53

My first car was a 1976 Buick Skylark. Okay. It was a big Green Hornet. It was a green. Oh, it was great. It's green. Okay.

Rick Ripma: 28:04

Did you have a fond memories of that car?

Unknown: 28:06

It was my first car. Yeah, it was my first car. But my dad to this day still has a 1957 Buick Roadmaster. Oh, that his dad gave to him for his 18th birthday. And he still has and so he's had it ever since. And in the trunk of this car. He has every service record, every speeding ticket and any penny he's ever spent on that car, or in binders in the back trunk of the car from the day he owned it to today. Wow.

Rick Ripma: 28:34

I thought it was a body.

Unknown: 28:37

Who knows? Nice, you can put you can put Yeah,

Ian Arnold: 28:40

if he hit a deer with it, the deer is probably back there too. But

Unknown: 28:43

it has air conditioning, power steering. That's so rare back then. And it's all original except for the eight track tape deck that he added to it. And the front windshield, which got busted out. We were living in Franklin, Indiana, I was about five or six years old playing baseball on the street and a kid had hit the baseball through the garage window close garage window and broke. Oh windshield, which they had a special order from California and I'm gonna say it was something stupid like and, you know, it's been 1980 1981 I want to save like a $1,500 when she Oh, Ma and the parents were just of course, livid. Because when they found out what the bill was for this kid who hit the bait? Yes. Anyway, yeah, but everything else is all original on it. So it's got new tires. But other than other than that, if you've been allowed to drive it one time I was and that was just a few years ago. I think I was 45 or 46 years old. For the first time I got to drive. Really?

Ian Arnold: 29:31

Yeah. You said drive it. You don't mean you just backed it out of the garage.

Unknown: 29:35

I mean, like Rain Man, like slow in the driveway. No, like in the neighborhood. Don't just let anybody drive a car. I mean, I literally was was 4546 years old. I think before he let me drive it.

Rick Ripma: 29:46

Wow. That's crazy. But actually it's not. I understand it and it's normal. It's actually people who aren't into cars. Wouldn't know that. But it is. So many people I've talked to Oh yeah, my dad had this guy. I was not allowed to drive it.

Unknown: 29:58

It's baby blues guy WhiteWalls Oh, it's about 27 feet long and thinking that I mean, you put eight adults in the back seat easily. So yeah, because I don't build them like that anymore. And that's a true statement. Yes, a sled did not, you know, at the time was pretty groundbreaking 150 horsepower, you know, big block or something like that. And so, but anyway, so they

Rick Ripma: 30:16

couldn't get much horsepower out of those cars. But the gas was not as good as our gas either. Yeah. So

Unknown: 30:23

yeah, he actually tried it. He actually tried to sell it after my mom passed away. And my my brother and I stepped in and vetoed that. Oh, good. Said. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. Yeah.

Ian Arnold: 30:32

Worth a lot of money. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Because the brothers are like, Hey, we're gonna fight over this later.

Unknown: 30:38

Now. I'm trying keeping the family as long as I can. So

Rick Ripma: 30:41

I think they're just saying, you know, we would like to drive it. More than one,

Unknown: 30:46

I still don't know, I still don't know this dad. My brother's driven. I don't know.

Rick Ripma: 30:49

Is he older, younger? Twin brother. Okay. Okay. So your dad didn't know which one you drove it. So, back to real estate? As much as I don't want to? What is your superpower superpowers? Would you say?

Unknown: 31:05

I think I am honest to a fault. And I tell my clients that My number one job is to tell you the truth, no matter how hard it is, for me to say it or are just getting, how hard it is for you to hear it. And that comes, you know, regardless of the situation, pricing or an issue that happens in the transaction, because bad news doesn't get better with time. I'm probably over the top, when it comes to, you know, generating new leads and talking to people and, and it's just an expressive personality, I think coming out. But at the end of the day, I'm not necessarily a superpower, other than I just am confident that I'm good at my job. And, and I continue to learn every day, and I'm surrounded by some really good agents in our office and our company. And the industry as a whole. I mean, I mean, obviously, there's, I think there's like 1200 brokerage firms and my board now, which is just an ungodly number is 9000 agents. And, and in, again, your thoughts on that are for another day. But it's funny, because you start to see the same names over and over and over again, is new listings happen and new sales happen and you look down, you look at the agents, and it's like, oh, okay, okay. Okay. So it's like anything else? I mean, like, you know, 10% of the people doing 90% of the work, right? But I try, I'm always I went to a new listing workshop last week that I probably didn't need to go to, but I picked up a couple little things out of that. And so, for me, it's always like, How can I do better? How can I surround myself with people who are doing more who are doing better? And that's not just real estate? That's any business? That's life, you know, you are the sum of the five people you hang out with? The most? Yes. And so, you know, do you as soon as you're the most successful person in the room, you've got two choices, you can stay there, and those people will eventually bring you down to their level, for a million reasons. Or you can go find a room where you're now the least successful person in the room, and learn from all those people who have more to have more to teach you about, about doing the job. And so, you know, we've got a company president has been in the business for over 40 years, our regional manager has been in the business for almost 30 years, most of the team at Carpenter, the senior management team has got 30 more years or more years in the business. And they're just they're always just a phone call away. I mean, I would ask, you know, your Who else, you know, and what are their job? Does an independent contractor have the personal cell phone of the president of the company, probably, and in the president of the company volunteered that to you, on your first day of career, start training.

Rick Ripma: 33:37

Really, wow,

Unknown: 33:38

if you need anything, call me. Here's my personal cell phone number, here's my email address. If you can't get an answer from your manager, if you have something happening, give me a call. I mean, that's it. That's the kind of support that we get. It's awesome. And I just can't imagine being a new agent not having, you know, obviously, you're free to go work for wherever you want. And I had a friend and past client who came in last week to talk about maybe getting his license. And I said, you know, go interview three or four, five companies before you decide where to put your license. But make sure you got the support that you need. Because I couldn't imagine being a new licensee and like, here's your desk, here's your phone. And by the way, you owe us a desk the next month, even if you're not selling anything, right, get to work type of thing. And not having a system in place to have an education department have a training department have a marketing department. And so many things that are in that are provided to me that I don't like that are hands off stuff. Some of those like social media stuff that we do that is automatically generated. I don't have to worry about that. It goes out every day. It makes it look like I'm super super busy, which I am but it's even more so it's even worse, you know, and that's all automated, so I don't have to worry about that kind of stuff. So but that's, that's all good stuff I get.

Rick Ripma: 34:46

That's awesome.

Ian Arnold: 34:47

So do you ever called the owner?

Unknown: 34:49

I mean, I see him but quite a bit. He's in our North Meridian office and he sat in on the listing workshop last week. He's his office doors 90% of the time his doors open. He's, you know, a big advocate for especially as we've gotten to the switch over to this new MLS service, BLC, whatever you want to call it, and there's hiccups in it, and I understand and so he's been a big advocate for us to help get things back to where it doesn't become a distraction and becomes much easier to navigate and stuff. But And the funny thing was, I can remember like, so I met him in Dave cabinets as our president CEO, I think everybody knows that. And I obviously I met him at career start in August of 18, I think. And then we had in January of 19, we have our sales rally every year, you know, man, and so here I am this brand new guy, I think I had done one or two deals in the first five months, you know, and he knew me by name. And 650 agents, and he Wow. And he walked up knew my name,

Ian Arnold: 35:42

hopefully, for good reason. Yeah, yeah.

Unknown: 35:45

That's, you know, that's the kind of leadership to me and place that like, you know, they and so it feels like family, and we have good support. And even though even though it's a big company, by numbers, it doesn't feel like a big company, if that makes sense. You know, I mean, because we got the ability to go to, I can make an appointment and schedule with a client, any of our offices, it makes it so convenient. You know, I I know I'm in my home, my home is in Brownsburg, and my home office is in Avon, I do a lot most of my business and Hendrickson Boone Hamilton counties, and but if somebody in Greenwood, I know needs to buy a home, or, Hey, I can just call that office Hey, well, I've scheduled conference room, one of our Southside offices, you don't want it, you have to come on with me, I'll come to you. So makes it nice to have the ability to do that and work in all those offices if you got to stop and to do paperwork or hop on a computer, and to have all that ability to judge great. So yeah, that's fantastic.

Rick Ripma: 36:33

So with with Carpenter, or in your office, do you have do you have a team? Or is it? Are you?

Unknown: 36:40

I currently do not have a team? I need a team.

Rick Ripma: 36:46

Well, you're doing a lot of volume for somebody all by themselves. Yes, you? Yeah,

Unknown: 36:50

it's it is. And I'm really at the point where I need to probably look at bringing some help on. It's just I have a hard time delegating, because I set high expectations for myself, I'm my biggest I'm my biggest critic. I mean, I'm my biggest critic. And, and, you know, even though I had a really great year, last year, and I look at myself, and I think, man, I could have done more I could have shouldn't have, I should have done more. It's like, well, no, maybe you did as much as you could by yourself. Because at some point, you just have to there becomes all that busy work of working in the transaction, right? You know, that ends up just chewing up your time and, and I found myself one day last, I think last May or June, I had like eight or nine, pending, and in like three weeks, you know, and so I just found myself one afternoon, I'm like, Okay, I'm just gonna sit down real quick, and knock out this stuff, like, go and look up and six o'clock at night. Yeah. And then I look back, and I'm like, this is all just busy work. I should be delegating all this stuff. This is all stuff that I, you know, I should be in. So I need to look at doing that we've got I mean, obviously, it's carpenter provides us with an administrative assistant, or actually, our office actually has to because we do so much volume, you know, to help manage some of that stuff. But yeah, it's time to probably look at hiring a transaction coordinator. And or I'd love to hire a buyer's agent. Not that I don't love showing property, but somebody who's got more time in order to do that kind of stuff. Because when you do listings, you you control your time, right? I mean, I set a listing appointment, I know what time I'm going over the house, I'm take the listing and, and then my wife expects the contract to get signed if I'm going to miss dinner. And so but with buyers, you don't have that ability to control your time, and you're reacting a lot. And so, you know, we've got a couple of new agents that are doing really, at least their everyday learning and wanting to learn and probably approached one of them about helping me with buyers. Just because it gives you so much more freedom and and you'll end up doing more business because you'll have more time to do that. It helps. So yeah, and it helps everybody it helps everybody out upset new agent out to get some experience that helps the buyers to have somebody who's freely available all the time to do that, and I don't know, probably seven or eight times this year, I've had to pay another agent to show property because I just can't get there. Right and I can't be can't be in Carmel and an Avon exact same time or Thursday afternoon at four o'clock. So I'm gonna I'm gonna take the listing appointment every time I do have a twin so well, yeah, so he's, he's a, he's a fine my financial advisor and he's, he's in sales to him. So I think that was the other one of the other big things too is that when I was a new agent feeling down on myself, and I have my dad and my brother who my dad was 50 years in sales, my brother's got about 27 or 28 years as a financial advisor. You know, having them to kind of, you know, light the fire and put a foot you know where to quit feeling sorry for yourself as a sales, you're either gonna, you're either gonna get used to this, you're gonna have to get out of it, because it's not going to change no matter how long you're in it. And that's what you know, and I tried to share that with our newer agents because it was told to me and career starters that you know, nobody owes you anything. Nobody owes you anything and people that you people that you know, that you swear up and down, would never hire another agent or go with another mortgage company or go with whatever they will. They will. They will because if for whatever reason they feel like they shouldn't do business because they don't want to make friendship and business or they feel like you know, oh, well they're they're too busy. You know No, and that was my case a couple of times, you know, he's way too busy to help me. So I'll go, you know, or, or for whatever reason, I mean, or they just don't want you to know their financials or anything, but it's or they just, or the average person knows five or six agents, and they had a relationship with an agent before you got your license, right. And so it's a numbers game, it's sales, right? And so you have to have the mindset to be like a dog, I say, I should kick some grass over a lawn, you know what I mean? Because it's just gonna happen. And then we have to be able as agents to be the calming voice. And the biggest thing, the biggest struggle, I think, is that you have to emotionally detach yourself from the outcome. Yes, the deal is not about you. And it might not close, and there might not be anything you can do about that. But if you can stack seven or eight or nine deals together at a time, boy, it's a lot easier. Yeah, when one falls apart, versus notice you're only one when it's your only one. And you've spent all and you spent all 30 days, rocking that baby to closing and then the buyer, I had last year had a buyer lose their job. Um, it was my listing, but the buyer lost their job two days before closing. That's tough. Yeah, but if so there's nothing you can do about that. But if you can have more deals going because your everyday generating new ones versus just working on the one you got, then it's a whole lot easier to replace that. You know what I mean? That's the biggest drawback. I think that's the biggest hardest thing as a new agent, and congratulations, you got your deal. Where's the next one? Yep. Because otherwise, you're gonna get even if it does close, let's say you get to closing 30 years later, you get your check. Okay, now you've paid your broker. Now you've paid your government. Because the more you make, the more they take. And now you've paid your bills. And now you've got a little bit leftover. And you did nothing that 30 days to generate the next one, because you're just so caught up in working the one you had, right? Boy, that's tough. You know what I

Rick Ripma: 41:45

mean? That's going to limit you and how many loans how many houses you can sell? Or, or

Unknown: 41:50

right? Because you can't replace the time, right? And you You lost those you lost time, by your own accord by your own choice. And so right in my office on my wall, in big letters that says start every day at zero. Yeah, and you have to have that approach, you know, and people like, Oh, look at all that. Look at that wall falls from plaques and stuff from your broker. I said, yeah, the only only one that matters is the next one. Right? You know, and if so, people say how many deals do you need? Just one more? That's right. Just one more. Always just one more. It's always about the next one. And so you just and that's your has to be your approach, in say any sales job not just real estate mortgages, insurance? Yep. Is finding the next candidate. Find the next person. Next person to help? Yeah, we're panning for gold guys. Right, right. We're doing everyday we're just paying for gold on the phone on the internet on email panning for gold asking people who they know, we find a nugget, then we got to figure out is this real gold or fool's gold? If it's fool's gold with throw it away and go back to the path, it's real gold though he maybe we got something here. That's one. But the problem is you find the one and then you sit on your desk and you stare at it for a month. Instead of paying in the next day for another one, then you always gotta be when your income is gonna be, like a roller coaster. Here we porpoise and you can't you and so I don't want to live like that. Right? You know, the goal is to have a real estate business that pays you like a real job every two weeks. Yes, that's the real, that's the real goal. Right? And that's the thing is that agents don't understand like, do you understand what a nice income you can have on a nice living you can have for you and your family by doing two deals a month. Right? And they go, they don't understand that. Like, it's that and they think because I think they have to do 100 When you don't, I mean, in this market with the sales prices the way they are, you can make a really nice living doing 25 or 30 deals a year, a really nice living, which is only two a month, right? That's one every other week. And there you don't start at 100. You start there. Yeah, you have to go through that. But if you believe in your mind that you can't put together one deal on 80 hours a week of work, then we you either aren't willing to learn or you're not willing to do the work we teaching you to write I mean, it's really all comes down to you that's really listening to what it is one deal. Right. And 80 hours of work time. Yep. will make you a good living.

Rick Ripma: 44:06

Yes. Yeah. But the work is all the prospect and everything to get that that's what they tend to forget that you got a prospect, you got to do the calls like you did. Well,

Unknown: 44:16

yeah. I mean, you have to as a newer agent. Now eventually, you'll get to the point where you've done that for enough years, that you've got a book of business in a database big enough and a referral network big enough that you're getting a large volume of your deals, by people calling you, right, and that's happened in my neighborhood, I spent, our Director of Training said, you know, you'll sell real estate to the people that you know, and the places that you live, you know, if you want to sell a $2 million home, you either have to live in a community of $2 million homes, or have a network of people that can buy $2 million homes, right? That's, that's the facts. That's just the reality of the situation. Your odds of being a new agent and walking and being able to create that business on your own aren't impossible because nothing's impossible except for dribbling a foot While they're just not real, so I sat down looked at my neighborhood and I'm like, There's 40 homes that sell a year in this place. Wow. A Goldmine in my backyard. I mean, so I just started right then. My first I would just stop my car a couple blocks away from home and knock on 10 doors every day the other day. Awesome. Introduce myself, Hey, by the way, I live in the neighborhood. Here's my car. If you have any questions about real estate, any questions about the value of your home? Let me know. And then we've got a corner lot. So we sit out there when the weather's nice but and talk to neighbors. I sponsor the bounce house at the picnic, everyone's pool. And then my wife hates it because like if we're walking the dogs, everybody stopped. I mean, she's like, this guy's washing his car. You gonna stop talking to him? Aren't you? Like, of course I am. Why wouldn't I? You know what I mean? And so now and so that was the first you know, and so it took me about six months of that, before I generated my first listing in the neighborhood. But last year alone, I did four and a half million dollars worth of sales from my, from my neighbors. That's awesome. Yeah, buy, buy and sell, buy and sell sell. Now we're gonna sell our house, we're gonna buy another one. I had one where they sold their house and bought another one. And another neighbor bought their listing and then sold her house. So it was four deals from talking to one neighbor. So And yesterday, my phone rang about five o'clock, hey, I need you to come on my investment property. I live on a loved one block over the one I'm closing tomorrow. Right? It's five houses down from I've never, I never been in before my entire life. Yeah, but I've got a presence. Now I do a neighborhood Facebook page, and I do a social, you know, a real quick market update on every month, first of the month, just here's what's for sale, here's what's under contract, here's what sold. And then I'll do a link for a free CMA or, you know, lower inventory flyer or yesterday or yesterday was all about taxes, how you probably got your tax bill, I got some questions about it. And I had some sticker shock. Let me know, you know how I can help. I'll help you answer those questions about you know, what's going on and, and the phone rang? Hey, why don't why don't my property taxes go up? Well, you know, and have you been paying? Have you been paying attention to what houses are worth? Do you have any idea what your house is worth? Like? I had no idea really what his house was? Wow. Hadn't it wasn't paying attention? You know that? Rick? I mean, you get

Ian Arnold: 47:06

when you're not thinking about it, you people don't your house? And you know, are you thinking about

Unknown: 47:10

it? How many people don't even know what they owe on their mortgage? Yeah, I got no clue because almost all of them, either they're paying a note either paying no attention to it, or it's an automatic withdrawal or the spouse is taking care of it. And they've got no idea. That's true. Because I'll ask is, as part of our pre listing packet, I want to put together a net sheet to show them, you know, what you're gonna walk away with, because that's what 99% of people care about is how much they're gonna make, and how soon can you get that money for them? Right? You know, they'll tell me a number and then we'll go pull mortgage and the mortgage company is way off. And then they're mad, you know, it's like, well, going up, your numbers went up to your numbers, I can't help the fact that you owe way more than what you said you did. You know. So. But yeah, so I mean, I worked I worked my tail off generate business in that neighborhood. And now and now it just pays off. Not one that's come with me stuff now. Right? You know, it's come. Yeah, you know, and so and twice last year, people called me to list their homes, they were under contract with their next home with a different agent didn't use them to list their property. That's an awkward conversation to have. Right? Yeah. Hey, congratulations, your offer got accepted? When can I come over and list your home? Well, about that. We're gonna call the neighborhood expert to do it. And so now that it's taken about three years to get there, and I think that's, I think that too, is one of the big biggest hurdles for newer agents is they expect the instant gratification. It's not there. And it's just they don't realize that how much actual work it is. I mean, I'm working. People was like, Oh, you're making way more money? Didn't public safety? I said, Well, yeah. But I said, you'd be surprised about how many hours I'm putting in, right, you know, at the end of the day, right? I mean, least initially, you know, I've started, you know, last year was a lot fewer than your three, which, you know, and so, you know, you're able to, you know, I was because there were no weekends off whenever I knew it was like, we had open houses back then. Because we had inventory, right? I'd be doing I do to us every every Sunday to open houses, right, you know, noon to two and three to five every Sunday. But out there out there out there out there, which I had to do. Yeah, because you've got to get the exposure. And you got to, you know, because people are going to hire who they know and who they respect and who they see. And, and, you know, now the you know, last year, a lot of referrals and more referrals this year, and so that those referrals come from past clients, because you've taken good care of them and, and but you can't expect all that right away. I mean, that's not there are obviously some first year agents that just knock it out of the ballpark. And the funny thing is, is a lot of them you don't ever they have a great first year and then really and then that tail was tells me off so but I think I think the last number I saw was like 75% of agents quit in the first two years. Yeah, I

Rick Ripma: 49:36

know. It's crazy.

Unknown: 49:37

I mean, just absolutely insane. So if somebody

Rick Ripma: 49:39

has, they want to list the home, they want to buy a home. What is the best way to get a hold of you? The best way

Unknown: 49:45

to get a hold of me is on my cell phone 317-345-8011 And if you need a quick response, send me a text 317-345-8011

Rick Ripma: 49:57

Perfect. And to get a hold of Ian or I, it's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com Or you can call 317-672-1938. That's 317-672-1938 And a reminder

Ian Arnold: 50:10

if you know any friends, family or coworkers looking to buy, sell or refinance, contact Rick or I will be more than happy to help you

Rick Ripma: 50:16

and follow us for more indies real estate gurus.