Guru Garrett VaLeu with FC Tucker

Rick Ripma: 0:00

Welcome to Indy's Real Estate Gurus. We're recording today at the advisors Mortgage Group studio right here in downtown Carmel. And I represent me your hard work and mortgage guy. I've been in mortgages and real estate for over 34 years, I've helped over 5200 folks finance their homes. My team and I believe in custom tailored loans, not a one size fits all approach. We believe there is a right mortgage for you. And we believe we are the team that deliver it.

Ian Arnold: 0:25

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 so they can get the best interest rates possible, and also helping you secure your overall wealth for the future. I have a passion in helping you pay off your home early because that's what I like to do. All right, right.

Rick Ripma: 0:45

Yep. And for the most up to date information on Indy's Real Estate market or mortgage rates, go to HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com Or you can call 317-672-1938. That's 317-672-1938. And today, we have Garrett Balu. Yes, sir. They were right. Yes, it is. It's a miracle.

Ian Arnold: 1:10

It's a miracle. And that was a little tougher last name. So I'll actually give you props on that.

Rick Ripma: 1:13

I deserve them. Thank you. I've heard everything say. And your with FC Tucker Realtors. Yes, sir. Right. And you know, you do a phenomenal job, or you wouldn't be here. Okay. So, thanks for joining us. We really do appreciate it.

Garrett VaLeu: 1:28

Thanks for having me. I'm really excited to be here. Now, one of the things we'd

Rick Ripma: 1:31

like to start with is kind of hear your background. What did you do before real estate? If you kind of give us a story behind? You know, your real estate career?

Unknown: 1:42

Yeah, for sure. I can't say it's a very exciting story, but I'll tell you what it is. You know, I actually am not a Hoosier native. I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. We a little bit well, a little bit West St. Louis in the country. So I'm a country boy at heart. And background education wise, I was actually homeschooled my entire life. That's a kind of a fun part of my education and went to Bible College. After I finished with that, I was there for just a year decided that it wasn't my my choice to stay there long term. And and I came home to St. Louis started working in actually I got a job at Sam's Club. Yeah, the goal was going into aviation. So my passion has always been aviation. I was planning on going back to flight school after I left the Bible College. And you know, I found that life took me different direction. A big part of my life is a man of faith and trying to seek the Lord's guidance on my life and some different circumstances in life started directing me away from aviation, actually, something that I had had a passion growing up for was business. And I didn't really know exactly how that would play out on my life. But I was always open to the idea of being a business owner. I've had family members who are business owners, and really looked up to them and what they did. So some opportunities came up while I was in St. Louis actually working at Sam's and getting promoted up into management into Sam's, I got an opportunity to work for a small company there. It was a really cool furniture company, they were consignment upscale Consignment Furniture Company, very small, they were just starting a second location, I got an opportunity to work with them for a while. And that was my first taste of small business. And that was a really cool part of early I would say work history and some experience I gained and really doing that for a short amount of time there. I really realized that small business was where I wanted to be eventually, I didn't know what exactly that would look like long term, but small business was definitely gonna be my passion. I got the opportunity I was, I was dating a girl from college that lived in India at the time, and I decided that I wanted to be closer to her and move here to Indy. So I got an opportunity to get transferred with Sam's Club here to a position in the Greenwood store and continuing the management route there and I was gonna use that as my springboard into whatever. Whatever life would take me as far as business that my goal was to get into business somehow. And I got here I was looking at some different avenues. I think it was the week I was here signing paperwork to get transferred over I was just kind of scrolling LinkedIn as just anything that I could find that looked like it was going to start building that passionate business and I saw some advertisement for a real estate agent with Carpenter Realtors out of Avon West office, the manager Dougie Anderson was advertising that position. I just clicked it and said, Hey, can we have an interview? I didn't. I had had some interest earlier in life of real estate. I'd seen some real estate agents growing up. But that was kind of cool what their job was I talked to them recently and said, Hey, what do you think about real estate and I like it, you should get into it. So I had that interview with him really well realized that I thought that we'd be a really good fit together really liked his attitude in life and business. And I just I just took a leap of faith and said, Hey, this is what I want to do when I moved here. So I moved here springboarded from Sam's, I worked there. I moved here in 2019 and June and worked at Sam's for quite a while. Got my license. wasn't licensed in 2020. And I got married in 2020 bought a house and 2020 20 2002 was a big

Ian Arnold: 5:06

year was a huge year.

Unknown: 5:08

Yeah, so anyway, but I use that to kind of, I got my license, like I said, in 2020, I stayed working at Sam's sport, the family and everything. And then we had our first baby in May of 2021. And I decided, You know what, that's gonna be my cut off, I'm gonna go full time in real estate, I'd already sold some houses and felt like I was kind of getting the hang of what I was doing. Definitely hadn't sold enough to think I should have made that leap. But, you know, it was a leap of faith. And I'm glad I did. And so started growing my business from June of 2021, is when things took off. Had I had a quick realization that I what I thought in real estate was going to happen definitely wasn't the case. I thought it was just going to be an easy, easy job. Get all the money in the world, you know, make good big bucks, and the business was just gonna flock in my lap. And man, I had a had a quick realization. That's not the case. Yeah. But we can get into more of that later. That's that way, doesn't it? Yeah. No, not at all.

Ian Arnold: 6:02

So what did you go to? Because you went from a toll industry? Not even really sales related to a point. But how'd you even get going?

Unknown: 6:13

In real estate? Yeah, yeah. So while I was still kind of doing the part time real estate thing, I definitely didn't have any clear direction of what I was doing. It was more of, you know, Doug Anderson was awesome. He was kind of teaching me how to at least do part time real estate at the time, because he knew I had a full time job commitment, but he's like, you just need to talk to people. And that's the biggest thing that's gonna resonate with my business in general, as I learned and develop this business is talking to people is everything. This is a people business. So at the time, when I was working part time, it was just anyone I ran across at work, even customers, things like that, I'd start handing cards to don't tell Sam's Club. Yeah, you know, and I started getting a little bit of business from that I, you know, a couple, a couple co workers, I ended up having a couple church people I've of course, was we're in a small church. But I've noticed a couple of deals out of that, you know, but talking to people was really the beginning, I didn't have the biggest I think struggle that I've that I've faced in real estate from the very beginning here is just not knowing anyone, I knew a very small group of people, some co workers, a few people at church, and that's about it. And then my wife's family, and not having that book of business is definitely a little hurdle. But I had to quickly overcome it through some creative methods, and really just still comes back to talking feet, which people, but I've had to build that that book of business ground up.

Rick Ripma: 7:28

Yeah, it always takes that no matter. You know, obviously, it's a little harder if you don't have the big group, a sphere of influence here. But I always find people. And you may find this that people kind of cut off their sphere, more than they should, in other words, people in St. Louis, and you know, lots of people in St. Louis may have people that are going to be moving to Indiana, and you can help them, but they don't want to they say, Oh, I shouldn't contact those people. But the reality is, should they contact those people?

Unknown: 7:58

100% Yeah, that's a really cool opportunity, especially in Carpenter, we have a really cool organization beings that were part of an organization that allows us to have a good referral network, as well as some other organizations that I've become a part of, I have partnered with agents from all over the country and all over the world that I'm able to refer people to I've actually done, had a couple of friends from St. Louis, and even acquaintances from here in Indy that had family in St. Louis, that I've been able to refer deals to, and they had, there's an amazing agent out there that takes care of St. Louis deals for me. So yeah, absolutely. It's a really cool opportunity to help people, not just in Indiana, but really all over the place.

Rick Ripma: 8:37

And that's a benefit too, because, you know, they're going to somebody who knows what they're doing their high quality real estate agent, a guru that you know, is going to take care of the the your friend, your client, and because they're representing you,

Unknown: 8:51

yeah, absolutely. I mean, there's so many agents to choose. And any any market you're in, I mean, what are we here in Indiana, there's over 9000 agents, that's the hard to pick one of the 9000. Or more than that St. Louis is the same thing. And for me to be able to know what I'm looking for in an agent that to help my friends there is huge when I can call my friends I hate this person is going to do what I would do if I was your agent, right? So really help you get your goals done. It's exciting to bill to have those people and resources.

Ian Arnold: 9:14

So like you said, there's roughly let's say, 9000 real estate agents in here in India. So how would you or how do you try to separate yourself? When you're when you're trying to talk to a client? What do you do differently?

Unknown: 9:27

Yeah, that's a really good question. So I would like to say that the things I'm going to say I do to separate myself are just my own invention, but I can't take the credit. You know, I've had some risk taken. Yeah. That's a really good mentors. Like I said, Doug Anderson, Vicki Peters over there, as well as I just I got involved with Mike ferry coaching organization and hired a real estate coach pretty early on, I realized I needed some really hard coaching to make this business work. And so through those things, I've learned several things that I've implemented and there's really made my business successful. So I would say first off is I've transitioned my business a lot to really trying to sustain my business through listings. So I will, of course, work with buyers, I love working with buyers. But I feel like where I have really built, a lot of my skills are working with listings. And so I would say a lot of this conversation will go that direction. I feel like that's the one that I've built my business on. And so kind of list Alas, the mentality I've learned. And when it comes to setting myself apart, is when I started that listing process, I think I do think is very different than a lot of agents do. So first off, we have a conversation with whoever call calls me or I call them, they say they want to sell a home, I'm going to first have a very strong conversation have a lot of questions, I'm gonna ask him a question based salesman, I tried to find out what they want, and to see if I can help them. So find out their motivations, find out if it's a good time for them to do the moves they want to make. So once I have those questions in order, then I set that appointment for the listing appointment, I'm going to be dropping off a pre listing packet, I want to keep our meetings as short as possible, they have a busy life, they don't want to be sitting all night talking to a real estate agent. So I actually put everything that we're going to talk about ahead of time and a pre listing packet. The comps are already in there, the printer market analysis, you've got a net sheets already in there, we've got contracts, everything's in there, I put it into the night before I say, hey, take a look at this, and we'll meet tomorrow when we meet. And then one thing that I have in there that I really think sets me apart is I have a listing plan of action. So one thing I realized is a lot of agents, I feel like go out this business a little bit willy nilly, and not exactly having a concise streamlined method of doing real estate. So I wanted to as early in the business started a real method of how every listing I was going to take I was going to make sure I sold it. And so I set up this what's called a 21 point listing plan of action. It's a written plan that I provide in that pre listing packet, and it lets them know have a confidence even before I get there, hey, this is the act of things he's going to actually do to sell a home. Because I feel like there's a lot of passive ways that we are using in our business to sell a home. You know, of course, putting it on the MLS is a huge resource a lot of agents with a lot of clients that they have portal set up to go to see those homes. And that's, that's an amazing resource, I cannot downplay that. But that's only one aspect of how a house can get sold. And I using all those passive resources, like the MLS, and syndicating instead of catering to all those other websites. I use those passive things, but then I also take a much more active approach to selling real estate. And that is laid out in that listing plan of action, I do a lot of do a lot of prospecting calls. So when I take a listing, they'll see that I talked to all the neighbors around them find out who they may know who wants to move into that area, you want to believe how many times a neighbor knows someone who'd want to move there. So I take that approach, as far as talking to the neighbors, I talked to my sphere, let them know about a see who they know. And I do reverse prospecting, I'm talking to the agents that have portal setup for houses that fit in that, see what they might have as far as as far as a buyer who want to want to see the house. So I take a much more accurate approach, that listing plan of action, I think sets myself apart. And then the other thing is, when I go in the listing appointments, again, a lot more questions, I really am trying to find out what their heart of the issue is not just me, plotting on them, or putting on them what I think needs to happen there. But a big part of it is actually really just educating. I take an education approach, when the comparative market analysis comes out. I really try to vary step by step, walk them through that process and educate them to what their home was worth a lot of confusion there. I find because I spend a lot of my business on expired listings. That's how I bid my built my business. And what's interesting is when I walk in the door on a lot of expired listings, there's frustration, there is a lot you got to get through to help them realize, okay, the goal was still to move. And let's make that happen. But what I find is when we get to pricing, because pricing usually had a big issue of why that house expired for sale. I find out that when we get down to looking at the comps, I'll say okay, here's the comps. What do you think the house is worth based upon these comps? And usually their answer is pretty close to what I'm thinking is based upon the data. And I'll say okay, so how did we start where we did originally when those lessons because we're way different now? And the answer usually is they didn't see comps originally or they just the agent has walked in the door and said, Here's how much your house is worth. And they tried to sell it. It wasn't the right and the seller wasn't running that train. And so I try to make it to where we're educating them making them make the decisions and go on from there.

Ian Arnold: 14:14

If somebody would like to get one of those packets for them and meet with you. What's the best way they can get a hold of

Unknown: 14:20

you? Yeah, they can give me a call. So my number is 317-746-0616. They can also text me at that number 317-746-0616 They're also willing to Will they can also email me

Garret VaLeu: 14:39

email it's easy to say yeah,

Unknown: 14:42

at G volu. That spelled g v a l e u at cole carpenter.com.

Rick Ripma: 14:49

And to get a hold of Ian or I, go to HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com Or you can call 317-672-1938 317 Seven to 1938. And thanks so much Evans, this information is phenomenal. I think you've given, especially on how you do a listing. It's a 21 point plan that helps that walks it down the path. And I mean, there are agents that their biggest plan is to put it on the MLS. And not that it doesn't work. There's a lot of agents, but isn't absolutely it's probably why a lot, sometimes not. different markets are different sometimes. That's all you have to do. Right. Right. Right. There are markets that way. However, it doesn't hurt to do well, all the work that you do, in order to sell a house even in a very hot market.

Unknown: 15:45

Yeah, there's there is a lot of work to be done. And I would say in a hot market, you know, house is probably going to sell, as long as it's reasonably priced, it's probably going to sell no matter what. But a lot of factors can come into that depending upon how much activity I spent really trying to market it hard. Could be maybe they get a few less offers. Maybe the terms aren't quite as much as they would like. So my goal is even though Yeah, when we're in an amazing market, like 2021, your offers are going to come in my goal is now okay, how are we going to make the best offers? How are we going to make my seller, the absolute most happy in this transaction? And so using some extra ways to market the property and get that property out there to more buyers? Is my goal.

Ian Arnold: 16:22

And do you use any social media? Or what do you use to help advertise that property?

Unknown: 16:28

So I definitely do. Carpenter is awesome in that they provide a lot of that stuff already prepackaged ready to go in my toolkit that I have with them. So whenever I have a listing, it immediately is going to go out on what's called boost by home spotter. They boost that out to all kinds of social media outlets and stuff. So that's all happening in the background. So we do do social media, I can't say that I built a lot of my business upon social media, but I use that as a resource. It's another passive way that we get the home out there. So absolutely.

Ian Arnold: 16:57

I mean, but that's one of the nice things is about social media and the way they do advertising and everything. You don't have to have, let's say 100,000 followers or friends. I mean, you could do advertising and it just goes out to anybody you don't know, just in a certain

Unknown: 17:12

area. It's absolutely amazing to see good, I get the reports back on those booths things. And I'll see, okay, how many viewers he's got. And I mean, 1000s upon 1000s of views over just like, because anytime we do an open house, it'll we'll do an open house boost out there to social media. And just over a two day period, there will be I mean, sometimes over 10,000 views on that ad, which is amazing. Yeah,

Rick Ripma: 17:33

it is. It is amazing. And it's it's obviously one of the pieces that you can use 100%. What about the fact that you've been in the business while you've done extremely well? And so you know, a lot of agents does it help to have that network of real estate agents, when you're going to list a home,

Unknown: 17:49

it dies, it dies. That's one of the things that I was also on that that 21 point plan that I use that it talks about how that I do a lot of agents, Agent Marketing. So in my office, I've got we've got a very powerful office over at Avon West, some really powerful listing and buying agents. And so that's one of the best resources, I have to immediately be able to tell them about these listings that are common or as soon as they hit the market, and also the other agents that I that I deal with letting them know about these listings. So absolutely.

Rick Ripma: 18:15

I've always heard it was and I when I was in New Home Sales we used to have there's an agent that we work with a lot. And for some reason, he always sold the houses very quickly the specs that we put up, and that was his number one way of doing it is a network. It was a network. Yeah, he had a huge network. Yeah. So what would you say your superpower or superpowers are?

Unknown: 18:36

It's a good question. I think it goes back to what I was saying earlier about just educating I don't know if it's a superpower, but it's just something that I've learned that's worked the best for me is not trying to railroad a transaction. But just asking questions and giving some education. Like I said earlier on the on the expired listing stuff, there's a lot of educating that needs to be done there a lot of finding out what the motivations still are. So education as far as that goes. And then we because we're talking about a lot about listings, we'll go to the buyer side, because I do work with a lot of buyers. Education is really important there when it comes to winning a deal, especially in these crazy years that we've had in the last couple of years in a really hot seller's market education to letting them know, Hey, these are what it's going to take for you to win this house. My doing some background research on finding out what things the seller wants from talking to the list agent, knowing the market knowing the numbers really well, because something that I was going to talk about earlier and I forgot to was how important it is for when you're choosing an agent is to choose one that knows their numbers knows the business knows the market conditions that they're in, because when I'm taking a buyer out to a house and they want to run an offer on it, they're looking at me to tell them hey, what do I need to write on this contract to get this house we love this house. We saw three other people walk out of these houses and when we walked in there, we're just looking at it. This is really scary. And it's and I take that responsibility very Egg that I need to be able to say, Hey, this is what I think is going to put you in the best position to win this house. And a lot of that comes down to me knowing what the market is at the time. Something that I saw really interesting. Back in 2022, we know that kind of mid 2022, we had a major change in the market. Yeah, interest rates started hiking, everything, everyone kind of backed up and got scared all of a sudden of what the market was going to be. And so we saw listings all of a sudden, sitting on the market for once, you know, they weren't selling in two, three days, I had listings that for me, it looked like there wasn't a long time when they were on the market 30 days. You know, it's crazy, historically speaking. But you know, sellers are starting to get scared about 30 days. And what was interesting was, you would have some agents that would still come in on those listings that were on there 3045 days, and we'd have no offers for that whole time, we'd have some showings and things. But then they would come on right as an offer, like it was peak 21. And they put cash over appraisal clauses, and they'd put waived inspections and all this stuff. And I'm sitting there, of course, on the list side, my sellers absolutely elated. Right, nothing on myself. Wow, it's interesting that, that that buyer, unfortunately, is probably doing a little more than is needed to get this house, right, basically, because probably that agent isn't super aware of what's going on in the market. So we've got to be we've got to be knowing our numbers. And that would be I would say something that I was a superpower and that I really focus on those numbers. I'm an analytical person, unfortunately. And I look at the numbers way too much.

Rick Ripma: 21:20

Well, you know, to that question, you've kind of answered what I'm going to ask in that. But I hopefully a little bit more in depth. If you had somebody, for whatever reason, you can't help you can't refer somebody to him, you and they want to list their house wherever it happens to be. And they're in or you're going to interview real estate agents. What should they look for in that agent? Beyond the the analytical piece that knowing their numbers, things like that? Is there anything else they should look for questions, they should ask to make sure they're learning who this agent is, so they hire the right person?

Unknown: 21:54

100%. So a couple things. One would be, as I kind of mentioned earlier, you want to at least know that the that that agent has a plan to sell the home, that they're not going to just do the bare minimum. So look for someone that's got some sort of plan, ask them questions, what are you going to do to sell my home? And and and hope that that agent has a real answer there? Other things are I would recommend interviewing agents, don't just have one phone call and say, Okay, you're hired. I mean, I would love that. That's awesome when that happens, but I think for the sake of a client, they need to make sure they're, they're going to work with someone one that they mesh with on just a personal level, getting in front of someone is really important, knowing Hey, can we work together, and then also knowing what their process is. And that really goes to one of my pet peeves in the businesses, you know, everyone knows a real estate agent. And sometimes there's real estate agents, maybe you know, if I'm a seller, my answer real estate agent, and that agent may be an amazing real estate agent and great, that'd be a person to use. But maybe that air hasn't sold a property in the last three years. But you feel like you have a duty to still hire her for the business. And yes, she would appreciate that. But is that going to do you the best on your seller home. And so even when you're dealing with friends and family, even though that can be a great resource, still interview them. So make sure they have a plan. Because you would hate to be the one that goes on the market and expires just because you hired an agent that wasn't exactly tight in the market, knowing what they're doing. Alright, so

Ian Arnold: 23:14

let's get to know Garrett a little bit more. Okay, so I'm gonna take away your phone till you can't work for 24 hours. Oh, boy. What do we catch you out there doing besides curled up in the fetal position because you don't have your phone? What do we catch you out there doing for fun? Well,

Unknown: 23:32

I love my family. My wife, we have our daughter and we have one on the way come in. And she's coming in September. So I would say that, probably at minimum just hanging out at the house. We don't get a lot of time to be honest. And we go take hikes a lot. We love hiking. The two year old is now getting the point she can go do some stuff. So definitely hanging out with family. And then if it was just me, and we left the family at

Ian Arnold: 23:57

home, I was excited. Whoa, hey, he has a wife, a daughter. And what I just heard was another one on the way he needs guy talk.

Unknown: 24:09

I probably I'm a huge sports shooter. I'd love shooting I'd be at the shooting range probably. I love biking. I'm a leather worker. I'd like leather working so I don't know. There's too many things I would try to fit it but are you saying I don't have to do housework during that time or honey do lists or

Ian Arnold: 24:25

look. Do any of that. Yeah. None of that. Okay, so you said you've worked with leather and stuff? Yeah. So what's what what would you be your prize that you've made?

Unknown: 24:36

Oh, let's see. I made a holster I really like again. I said I'm in this sport. Should they give me a date? Let's see. I think that's probably I really liked that holster I made so yeah,

Garret VaLeu: 24:48

so what do you what do you shoot? Handgun

Unknown: 24:51

rifle. skeet shoot. What's your gun of choice? gun of choice. Um, I really like the just for you know, I'm a I'm a proponent of concealed carry and stuff six hour 365 is a great gun to carry everyday with me so

Rick Ripma: 25:06

Okay, yeah, just curious. I like Kimber arriva Oh, I love Kim micrograin gun to kit one day when

Unknown: 25:12

I'm as successful as you I can afford them

Ian Arnold: 25:16

you got till next year

Garret VaLeu: 25:19

and then you said you bike. I do. Motorcycle by oh no bicycle. Okay. Yeah, like road biking. Okay.

Unknown: 25:26

It wouldn't look like I've done it recently.

Rick Ripma: 25:29

I have the ride I ride. Yeah. In the summer as much as I can. Yeah, I'm not a cold weather rider. I'm a warm weather weather rider. So I was I ride to work once in a while. But yeah, but it's, it's been so tough because the weather's either freezing in the morning and then good at night or so. And I'm sometimes kind of lazy so I don't

Unknown: 25:49

I hear that. But racquetball I love racquetball. If anyone knows how to play, racquetball hit me up. I'm looking for Racquetball Player.

Rick Ripma: 25:56

Sorry, yeah. Are you really good? I can play. Okay, that's good. Because I'm not I bought a racquetball player. But I know I've played with people who are really good. And it's almost impossible to play with.

Unknown: 26:07

It's funny. It just seems like it's a dying sport. I can't ever find anyone that

Ian Arnold: 26:11

Pickleball is what you need to get into. No doubt yet. I see the old age people out there. And I'm like, should I should I, it could be kind of fun, but

Unknown: 26:20

But it's too intimidating. We brought, my wife and I were on a cruise this last in February. And we had never played pickleball before. And an older couple that was on the boat convinced us to come learn to play pickleball with us, and they kicked our tail. So it's too intimidating.

Rick Ripma: 26:34

Pickleball is fun. Just so you know. It is not just for older No, it

Ian Arnold: 26:38

is not. But but when you pull it apart, who do you see playing is a older recive I'm not saying you shouldn't be aggressive. But I'm just saying the

Rick Ripma: 26:47

reason is, is because you can play as an older person, you can play pickleball where it's very difficult to go play tennis anymore. And you know, it's

Unknown: 26:56

just it's a cool sport. I definitely like learning it was like I understand the appeal. Yeah.

Ian Arnold: 27:01

Blanton All right, so if somebody is wanting to go either play racquetball with you, maybe even go skeet shooting, and then talk about real estate shooter. Yeah, yeah. It goes, bang. Yeah, I understand that. How would they get ahold of you?

Unknown: 27:19

Well, they can call me at 317-746-0616. Or they can text me at that same number 317-746-0616.

Rick Ripma: 27:30

And to get a hold of the inner eye, it's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com You can contact and get all our contact information there and contact us from there. Or you can call 317-672-1938. That's 31767 to 1938. All right,

Ian Arnold: 27:46

and now we'll do the question of the week. And the question that week is sponsored by a recognized the hard working mortgage guys, where we feel that sending constant updates to you and your realtor throughout the loan process is a valuable support because nobody likes to be left in a black hole. And we don't allow it here. So if you'd like to black coal, I'm sorry. We are not the people for you. Alright, so what was your first car?

Unknown: 28:09

What was my first car? A red Toyota Matrix?

Ian Arnold: 28:14

He still drives it today that Toyota doesn't know what it is still driving.

Rick Ripma: 28:20

His his daughter is going to be driving

Ian Arnold: 28:25

I don't know it's longevity. I had a pretty big wreck with early on. Yeah. It's still moving though.

Rick Ripma: 28:30

Do you have a soft Spartan, soft part in your heart for that car? Or is it just I love that guy hook? Yeah. Is that what's your favorite car you've ever had?

Unknown: 28:41

I haven't had a lot of cars. Okay, um,

Rick Ripma: 28:46

oh, that one. Okay. As you can tell, I'm a little into cars. So I'm

Unknown: 28:49

not the car guy. I'm sorry. I I drive a Subaru right now. I love my Subaru.

Ian Arnold: 28:53

Alright, got a car guy.

Rick Ripma: 28:56

Which Subaru

Unknown: 28:57

Forester Okay, yeah, it's great for this country properties. You gotta run around out there. Yeah. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 29:03

Yeah, they're, I mean, they're dependable, too. They're like the Toyota. They're great. Great. Cars.

Unknown: 29:07

Love the all wheel drive system. It's good car.

Ian Arnold: 29:08

Yeah. So what would you consider one of your most memorable deals? No. Wow.

Unknown: 29:15

In that it was a problem deal

Ian Arnold: 29:18

or a good your choice? I mean, sometimes a problem deals are the fun ones. All right. Well,

Unknown: 29:23

I think this is a story that I've told that most people get shocked with. You know, I think in this business, you learn to start setting boundaries at some point. You know, there's the point of view being someone's agent, and then maybe you can go beyond that sometimes too much. And I would say this was once that I went too far and probably helped a little too much. But it's still a fun story. It was my very first listing. Definitely was excited, man. It was it was it was a big moment in my career. And so three days before the house was supposed to close this was it was being bought by an investor and their big thing was the house had to be empty, of course and the appliances left behind that needed left behind and three days before I drove past all the moving everything out, I was like, Okay, we're on good. walked inside said hi, they were moving everything great. went by the next day, the day before closing, it happened to be a neighbor's house, it was real convenient to be there. Anyway, so I went past the next day just to kind of run through a quick checklist to make sure everything was done. I walked in the door, and the house is still filled with furniture. And I'm trying to figure out what in the world they moved out the day before. And I'm sweating because I'm like, I tell the seller, you know, all this has to be gone by like tomorrow at noon. And he's like, I don't want any of it. I was like, Well, that's all supposed to be gone. I told you. It's got to, they're not buying stuff. And so he's like, I don't want any of it. I was like, Okay, well then take it to Goodwill, right? I don't I don't want to get a U haul. I was like, You gotta be kidding me. So I was like, you really don't want any of it. And you really don't care if you make any money on it, right? He's like, No, I just want to sell the house and I want to leave it all I want to not deal with it. So I had the splendid idea of going through the house and taking a picture of every item in the house and putting it on Facebook marketplace for free. He was cool with that. I was like maybe we'll see what happens. Well, I tell you what, don't do that. Within minutes, my phone is absolutely blowing up. And everybody I tell you, Indiana, Hoosiers must love free stuff. Because the it was blowing up I'm coming there is it available isn't available. And and I'm like, Oh, what have I just opened up a can of worms. And so I call my wife and like, bring a computer. Come over here. Log on to my Facebook. I need you to help because I tell you what, between we were at that house from 5pm That night until two in the morning by two in the morning that house was empty.

Rick Ripma: 31:35

Yeah, but that's that's a lot. But man think think he didn't have to. He didn't have to move it. He didn't have to do any of that. It's all gone. That's what it

Unknown: 31:43

was all gone. Yeah. It's all gone. The funny. The funniest part of that story was though, in the end, throughout working that whole day looking at that house, helping them with this stuff. I totally missed the fact that when they did move the day before, they took the refrigerator that was supposed to be there. And they and they took it across town. And I realized that like two hours before possession was supposed to be given over. And I was like, where's your fridge? And he's like, it's in Danville? I'm like, No, it's gotta be here. So he was a little uncooperative. And so at this point, I was determined the house was gonna sell so I went and rented the U haul, picked up the fridge and brought it back up. Wow. Yeah. Don't Don't expect me to do this on the next listing ever again.

Ian Arnold: 32:22

So is that somewhat normal? Like something like that happens like people leave stuff or because when I bought my house, one reason I asked Is the guy at the closing table. He goes, Hey, look, I got some stuff still in the garage. You I got the garage door open. I'll put it in the mailbox. I just I've worked as soon as we're done here. We're going right there to pick that up. And it will be done. And I was like my mind thought was like, yeah, yeah, you're alright, let's go ahead and do that. No, I'll be I'll be there in about two hours. So

Unknown: 32:49

I would say it is pretty common, even like, I just closed one. On Friday, that was the same thing. They had said everything was done. And then I show up for closing, like, Oh, we got a few more things we gotta go get I'm like, okay. But yeah, it's overwhelming when you move. It's funny how many things start coming out of the closet? Sure. Like, I don't know, I had that. And all of a sudden, it's just a lot to move. And it's common that some stuff gets left behind. We try our very hardest to make sure everyone's happy with what's gone and not but Yeah, unfortunately. Yeah, it's,

Rick Ripma: 33:18

the longer you've been in a house, the more stuff you tend to have. It's amazing how much stuff you can have. But so there's I know, there's something called off market real estate off market homes. Is that something you deal with? Do you ever and I guess it's maybe I should explain what I'm asking. Maybe it's different than what you're thinking I homes that are that people want to sell, but they don't actually have them on the market? Or maybe they do maybe maybe they're for sale by owners? You know, I'm talking about

Unknown: 33:49

this. Okay, so two sides of that, I guess. Part of it would be I would say that would be a little bit of a trick question for me, okay. Because you know, we have we have ethics, we have to follow and sign off on with my board everything. And one is that we don't do what's called pocket listing. So we can't really have a listing, but not share it with the rest of the market to the MLS system or things like that. So we do have to be pretty careful on the standards of practice we take Now thankfully, Carpenter, we put a clause in our in our further conditions that allows us to at least even before a house that goes on my bore, we're able to do a little bit of like through our chatter system, like a day before or whatever I think I don't know exactly how it works, but we can share it that way. But overall, it's got to be on my horn. It's got to be out to the market. We can't do pocket listings. There are for sale by owners definitely are a thing and I list for sale by owners quite a bit. It's just the same process we follow if I go and list the house, I have to have it on the MLS within a certain amount of days. To out to the market. It's got to be fair to everybody. What about

Rick Ripma: 34:46

if you knew somebody wanted to sell their house, but they don't want to list it?

Unknown: 34:50

Yeah, so like, if I knew it, I don't have an actual listing contract with them. Yeah, for sure. I have it in the back of my head. And if I run into a buyer that I'm like, Oh, that would fit really well for their system. Asians will do what's called a one time showing agreement and they're allowed. So I can just say, Hey, I'll tell my buyer, hey, I have this property that they thinking about selling, they'd be willing to let you come take a look at it, we could maybe do a deal there. And everyone signs a one time showing agreement for them to be able to see it. And yeah, we can we can do that.

Rick Ripma: 35:13

I mean, just it doesn't seem to me that necessarily be the greatest way to sell your house, you're better off listing it, because that opens it up to a lot more people.

Garrett VaLeu: 35:24

Yeah, I think that the power of the market is really big. The only time that I could see that situation is a good I wouldn't say monetarily, it's always great. But sometimes, circumstantially, it works out, well, maybe, maybe they are in a position where they've already they're needed to go buy a house, but they're afraid to put their house on the market, because they're afraid it's gonna sell before they find something. And so they're kind of sitting there in limbo, and someone else is sitting there, and they can give them as much time as they want after they purchase it for them to live there. So circumstantially, there can be some reasons to do something like that. But overall, if you want to make the most money in your home, it needs to be on the market and on the MLS system. Yeah, yeah. So if I can actually go into that a little bit more, because I do for sale by owners have been a large portion of my business. I talked to them find out exactly what their needs are, if they really want to sell if they're serious. For some reason. You want to believe this, but people put their home up on Zillow, sometimes for sale by owner and they don't actually have real motivation to sell. It's odd. But the people that actually want to sell it. A lot of times those that I've listed, they ended up making netting more money than they were going to do on their own. And that's a very common thing I find. So I've seen that too. For anyone that's listening that you know, is thinking about doing a for sale by owner, at least, interview a realtor, see what the realtor says about the price, try to find out what that would look like. And it's amazing how when you open that up to the market, how the offers come in, and it's just a much better deal and all together. And also, you don't want to go through the pain of dealing with other showings because we have that all set up for you guys. You know, we manage the showings, we manage the liability that can come with listing and things like that. So there's a there's a something big to say about selling with a realtor.

Rick Ripma: 37:00

And I know this isn't exact is not an exact comparison. But to me, when you list your home, it's an I love auto auction. So to me, it's kind of like an auto auctions. It's basically you've listed your home, but it's kind of an auction because people can everybody can come look at it. And then everybody can make bids on it. 100%. Now it's not everybody standing there together. But that's how it works. And I have found that an auction gets you the most money.

Unknown: 37:26

Yeah, yeah, remote. It's totally that because this the conversation that I have with sellers all the time when I'm educating them on prices, we do not set the price of our home, or we set the price of what we want. But until a buyer comes and makes an offer on your house. So we Eric Pitner always talks about in our office, he he says the phrase until someone is had made an offer in your home, the seller still the highest bidder on the house. That's right. And that's a real thing. So when you're dealing with an off market property or for sale by owner property, you may have only a very small percentage of buyers in the market actually willing to bid on the auction per se, right, versus you open it up to 10,000 realtors and all their clients, and that's a huge buyer pool. Right makes a huge difference.

Rick Ripma: 38:06

Yes. The more people you have, you know, and the other part is really they're all pre qualified. So yes, yeah, usually they're all pre qualified, or you're only gonna look at the offer anyway. Exactly. But all it takes in an auction is two people who want it. Yep. Right. That's all it takes just two people. So if you have your house listed, and two people want it, the price tends to be higher, because everybody's percent trying to you know, they want they want the house. And it also there's a mental thing that happens where and I think we've seen this in real estate really quite a bit the last couple of years now, you know, when it was really, really hot. And I think that's coming back is where sometimes it became more about winning the bid and winning the house than it did about the house.

Unknown: 38:49

Did you see that? We saw some crazy stuff for sure. You know, the most I can't tell you all the motivations behind some of the offers I saw on these houses or I even had to write sometimes for buyers. But there was just some insane offers. I know especially up here more on the north side of the city. I heard some crazy stuff and houses selling for$100,000 over list price. I mean, that isn't that's crazy. Yeah, it's crazy. But what's cool is how amazing the Indiana market is, though, in general, how the even people that you know maybe had to use that cash over appraisal clause or whatever back a couple years ago. Um, most of them are pretty much backup even with the market already. Market has appreciated so well. So if there was a fear at all then of being upside down your home, typically that's not something that you have to worry about at this point. No, the markets caught up.

Rick Ripma: 39:33

And you can tell our market is really a good solid market. Because the amount of out of state investors who come here to buy homes,

Unknown: 39:42

you would not believe it, man the daily calls I get from investors, either wanting me to help them buy homes or looking at the homes I have listed. It's a lot.

Rick Ripma: 39:50

Yeah. And that tells you how, what a great market they've picked out Indiana.

Unknown: 39:55

Yeah, so I learned a little bit more about that because I had an investor from New York County Actually they were wanting to buy multifamily homes. And they found out that or they've done the calculations and if you know, like cap rates or anything, the Midwest, but specifically Indiana has like the best cap rates of the whole nation right now. Oh, really. So that's why a lot of national money or outside of the state is wanting to come in investor because you can make the most of your money here.

Ian Arnold: 40:18

Right. So what would what is cap rate for people who do not know? Yeah, so

Garrett VaLeu: 40:22

your cap rate is a calculation that figures out basically what your return on investment is going to be. It's a calculation of the price minus the carrying cost of the property. And then a division done, I forget the exact formula in my head. But it basically comes with a percentage a lot of like investors are looking for usually a cap rate of a really good cap rates, like seven to 12%. Anything outside of that anything below that's not really worth investing in and most investor standpoints, but the problem is, in most other states, Florida, New York, a lot of the other states right now that have been previously good investment states, their cap rates are down and like the twos to fives, and so it's just not worth their money.

Rick Ripma: 41:00

Yeah, because they've been they've you know, they've also increased in value tremendously. But it's been tough on switching subjects a little bit, actually a lot. There's so much misconception about what a real estate agent does, what the job is, what what do you, you know, what are those misconceptions that you see? And or? Or how do you see the job? What is it that people should, should do or are no

Unknown: 41:27

misconceptions? I think one misconception getting into the business, the misconception of just having a terminal flow of business that's on the side of that. But on the consumer side, I would say one of the misconceptions is that like that we control the price of a home, because that's just not the case. Kind of like what I was saying earlier, the buyers control that. And I feel like a lot of times that sellers get mad at agents when the agent has to come and talk about a price reduction. When it's not really the agents desired, the agent gets paid on a percentage of the home the price of the home sold. So it only benefits the agents because it's a seller for the most money possible. But the reality is when the market is saying your house is listed for too high, and the market doesn't want to buy it, when they've got to come and be honest with that seller. It's not really the agents fault. Now the agent needs to have the responsibility of trying to price it right in the beginning as much as possible. But sometimes that's inevitable. So that's a big one, that the agent is fully responsible for the price the home sells for.

Garret VaLeu: 42:25

Yeah. And obviously it's the market. And one of the big problems is if somebody's overpriced is there humbly, so that's what I've seen here recently, homes are selling very quickly. But if you ever price your home, it doesn't sell

Unknown: 42:37

and it will not so something that I found really important to again, back to education, it's really about education. For me, I'm listing appointments, I like to try to deal with as many of the, the problems that I know normally come up as much as possible at the first meeting we have. And like I said, price reductions is a big thing. Unfortunately, that's a reality that has to happen sometimes. And I tell them in the very beginning, after we've gone through the whole comparative market analysis, we've we've together figured out a price that we think is perfect for this house. But then we talk the worst case scenario because I want that out on the table. I want them to know listen, it's not me that's deciding whether or not this house is going to sell it's a market. And we've got to be attentive to that. So I talked about a price reduction is usually the best way to get a house to sell if it's not selling. And I talked to them about the National Association of REALTORS put together a while ago a kind of really good standard. And this is what I tell them is that I believe it's National Association of REALTORS don't hold me to that. But I think that was who had put this study together that if a home was on the market for two weeks, and you get no activity on the house whatsoever, no showings no offers, you are at least 10% high on your price. Really, you don't have to have your house sit on the market for six months. And know if you're overpriced. It takes two weeks to know in most normal markets. Now. Now if we're talking 2007, or something, that's a whole different story. But in a normal market, like we're in. And if you're on the market for two weeks, and you've had a few showings, but you had no offers, or maybe some lowball offers, they say you're at least 5% higher on your price. And so I find it so much easier to be on the same page and on the same team with the seller when I explained that to them right there. And then I say hey, listen, here's the price we're going to try to sell this home for in the very beginning. I believe this is right, according the market, the market is ever changing. And we got to stay abreast of that. And so if two weeks from now, when I could I call them every week and I give updates every week to my to my clients. On that two week call, I'm going to have to give you an update on and I'm gonna have to be truthful to your hiring, hiring me to be truthful. I'm here to tell you what I think the market is telling us. And if we've had one of those conditions have in place, I'm gonna say Hey, this is by going to be saved my suggestion to you, you're in charge of this train, you're going to tell me whether or not we're going to do it. But I and I walked in through those numbers, right? Then I say, hey, 10% of this price right now would be this. And so we have that conversation there. And that usually helps a lot.

Ian Arnold: 44:38

It's nice that you set the example and what's going to happen up up front, right, so they know what to expect.

Unknown: 44:45

Well, a lot of it again, a lot of my job is drawing out motivation. Because most of the people I work with don't know me. We've just met over the phone. Usually I don't work with a ton of people. I don't have that sphere that I know. And so there is a bit of I feel like that trust that You have to build slowly as you learn and work with these people, especially in that first meeting. And sometimes people are a little weary to really put their whole hand their whole cards out on the table for their agents. And so a lot of my job is I've got to slowly learn that motivation and find out. So if if we get to a point to where houses, we know a price is going to list that. But then reality is it's possible that we may have to make a 10% price reduction on the road. And I tell them, hey, this is that number that that may look like down the road? How would that affect you guys? Would you sell the house for that price? And if they say absolutely not, well, then we know that where's the real motivation? Are we moving just for the money? Are we moving because we need to move? Right? Definitely a conversation that's important to

Rick Ripma: 45:35

have makes sense. So if somebody does want to list their house or they want to buy a house, what is the best way to get a hold of you?

Unknown: 45:41

Best way to get a hold of me is give me a call and my number is 317-746-0616. Or you can text me at that same number 317-746-0616 I also answered my emails promptly. That email is Jeeva Lu spelled g v a l e u at called carpenter.com.

Rick Ripma: 46:06

And to get a hold of ena I go to HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com Or you can call 31767 to 1938 31767 to 1938. And follow us for more indies real estate gurus

Ian Arnold: 46:21

and Garrett we'd like to thank you for your time today. It's been very education educational that was the word I was looking for. So thank you,

Unknown: 46:30

thank you for having me. This

Ian Arnold: 46:31

was a lot of thanks for joining us we appreciate it. A reminder if you know any friends family or coworkers looking to buy sell refinance, contact Rick arrive and we'll be more than happy to help you.

Announcer: 46:40

Branch NMLS number 33041 NMLS number 6645898 You know Arnold NMLS number is 195469 equal housing opportunity some restrictions apply