Guru Lindsay Ohmer With Century 21 Sheetz

Announcer: 0:01

advisors Mortgage Group is proud to present in these real estate gurus hosted by Rick Ripma and Ian Arnold the hard working mortgage guys, please contact Rick and Ian for all of your mortgage needs at HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com Now here's the hard working mortgage guys, Rick Ripma, me and Arnold

Rick Ripma: 0:25

everyone before we get started, I just wanted to remind you that for the most up to date information on mortgages and Indys, real estate markets go to HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com. I'm recruitment the hard work and mortgage guy and I've had the honor of working with over 5200 mortgage borrowers helping each one find their best mortgage option as a certified mortgage planner. I know my team and I can guide you through the process and help you every step of the way.

Ian Arnold: 0:52

And I'm Ian Arnold, part of Rick's hard working mortgage team and I have worked with in the financial industry for 15 years, helping people purchase what they want and working with them to build their credit and their overall wealth. But today, we have a phenomenal guru with us. We are talking with Indy's Real Estate Guru Lindsey Omer, who grew up in Hamilton County and an expert on both Hamilton and northern Marion County Real Estate. Lindsay started her real estate career as a client care specialist with Laurie Flynn Realty and has firsthand experience making sure every home buying and selling experience is as smooth as possible for her clients. Lindsay is is a mother of two small children and will always be flexible and understanding with your schedule. Whether you prefer to call or even text, whatever communication preferences, Lindsay will work with you. Lindsay has one goal to make her clients feel comfortable whether buying or selling. Lindsay will work with you every step of the process. And that is phenomenal. Well welcome, Lindsay.

Lindsay Ohmer: 2:07

Thanks for having me.

Ian Arnold: 2:08

All right. So let's start. What made you actually become a realtor?

Lindsay Ohmer: 2:15

Well, that's a fun story. So my mom is actually a realtor. My mom is Laurie Flynn. And she has been in real estate for oh my gosh, 18 or 19 years. Um,

Ian Arnold: 2:28

so he's a rookie, right?

Lindsay Ohmer: 2:29

She's Yeah, she's still she's still figuring it out. But I've been watching her. Um, my mom and I are very similar. It's kind of Kenny, my my poor dad. But when I was on maternity leave with my oldest, I really got to see more firsthand what she did. I had time to kill. I wasn't at work all the time. And I thought that it was, I really liked it. I thought I should give it a try. In my previous jobs, I had always been in nonprofits, they were fine. But my favorite part of them was always working with other people, making them happy helping them figure things out. And this felt like a better way for me to be able to do that.

Ian Arnold: 3:10

And did you like because your mom was doing it for so long? Did you actually when you're going through high school and stuff, did you work with her? Maybe unpaid, you know how that works?

Lindsay Ohmer: 3:19

Yeah, so um, she actually didn't start until I was in college. Okay, know how old I am.

Ian Arnold: 3:28

I can't do math. Yeah. Okay, only when it comes to mortgages,

Lindsay Ohmer: 3:30

right. But so she actually started with a home builder back in the day. And so I would on the weekends, go sit in their models and bake cookies and make the house smell good. But that was the most free work she got out of.

Ian Arnold: 3:47

All right. So did she train you and mentor you? Yeah, she

Lindsay Ohmer: 3:51

did. So I actually started as her client care specialist for a year. So by doing that, I got to I got to see how the process worked. I got to get to know the forms without being responsible for doing them right. I couldn't she I did everything but then she checked it all. So I wasn't going to mess up my clients work. That first year of practice, if you will, really helped me start off on a better foot. I think when I actually started selling, I was able to help my clients a little bit more because even though I was newly licensed I wasn't new.

Ian Arnold: 4:27

So you meant we mentioned your two kids so roughly what are they?

Lindsay Ohmer: 4:32

So Marlee turns eight in January and Delaney just turned five in November. So they are almost three years

Ian Arnold: 4:40

apart. Okay. Yeah minor to make them pretty close at times. But

Lindsay Ohmer: 4:44

yeah, it's nice with their both girl Well, good and bad with them both girls.

Ian Arnold: 4:49

I feel sorry for your husband. Uh, we

Lindsay Ohmer: 4:52

have two female dogs too. Oh, he's really outnumbered. They played pretty well together. Most of the time though. They didn't when they were younger, but we're in a pretty good stage right now. So it makes it easier to be able to do my work when I'm not breaking up fights all the time.

Rick Ripma: 5:07

It's weird how it moves. The kids, you know, they get along to get along then they don't get along.

Lindsay Ohmer: 5:13

I am really not excited about the teenage years. I'm already scared of I mean, my kids have.

Ian Arnold: 5:19

Well, if you think you're scared, imagine your husband right? Yeah, yeah. Two girls fighting off the boys.

Lindsay Ohmer: 5:28

They are all attitude already. So they're going to be phenomenal adults. We just have to get them there first.

Rick Ripma: 5:35

Yeah, that's, that's Yeah, yep. We didn't. I had three boys. So we didn't have much.

Lindsay Ohmer: 5:40

Oh, no. Just exciting and holes in the walls. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 5:44

Yeah. My wife was always like, God knew I couldn't handle boy girls. Boys. Because, you know, some of them though. Either. We have friends who have daughters, cause no problems to high school. But others. Like, yeah, unbelievable.

Lindsay Ohmer: 6:01

I was I was the good kid in high school, and my husband was not as good. So it'll be interesting to see which route these to take.

Ian Arnold: 6:11

So what what do you enjoy most about selling real estate.

Lindsay Ohmer: 6:18

Um, it really, it sounds so cliche. I just really like helping people. Buying a house is one of the biggest things that you do in your life, probably the biggest purchase that you'll ever make. And they just keep getting bigger, the more houses that you buy, right until you get to a certain age, and then you can go back down. But it's just that phone call that I get to make when I tell a client that they got an accepted offer. Still, still one of my favorite things to do, it has not gotten, it hasn't gotten boring. So just helping people find this thing that is going to bring them joy, you spend how much of your life in your home, right? You go to work, you do errands, but your home is your safe space. It's where you get to go and relax at the end of the day, and you want to feel comfortable there. And it's I think it's really cool to be able to help people find that place.

Rick Ripma: 7:09

Yeah, it's an awesome, I spent 11 years with a new home builder. And it was the same way there. Although there's a little bit more process and building the house. And you know, yeah, it's an exciting, it's an exciting thing. When when you talk to people, what what would you tell somebody when they're looking for a realtor? What should they shop for with when they're looking for a realtor?

Lindsay Ohmer: 7:29

Yeah, the the number one thing that I tell people, when they're looking for both a realtor and a lender, actually, they need to find somebody that they feel comfortable with somebody that they can ask questions to, there are a lot of steps in this. There's a lot of stuff that they don't do on a regular basis that we do. And if you don't feel comfortable asking a question, that's not okay, you need to know that these people have your back that they're not going to think that you're there. There's lots of questions, I still have them. So you're certainly going to have them if you can't ask questions to somebody, if they're not going to give you their time, then that's it doesn't matter how many houses they sell. If you're not important to them, then you're not going to get what you need.

Rick Ripma: 8:11

What about that? Is there knowledge requirements? Like do you want to make? Sure I know, there's a variety of different experiences levels out there?

Lindsay Ohmer: 8:21

Yeah. I think, um, I mean, obviously, people are gonna say, the longer you've been in the business, the more you know, right? That's, that's true, just because the more that you do things, the more you learn about it, that doesn't mean that somebody that's new isn't going to be great, too. If it's somebody new, I would say, Who are they asking questions to? Are they asking questions, Jagan? Do you feel comfortable? If they don't know something, they're going to figure it out? Because you don't want a new realtor that thinks that they know everything in the world, because there are realtors that have been doing it for 20 years that don't know everything, things come up every single day. And so, yes, the longer you've done it, the more you know, the more situations you've experienced, the less often you get caught off guard, doesn't mean it's not going to happen to anybody that when So who are they relying on?

Rick Ripma: 9:07

Yeah, that's very important. The other thing I've learned is, I've seen many people with lots of years of experience time, not years of experience, time in the business and in a business, who never really learned pass the first year, right? I never changed that. So I what I'm agreeing with you is it doesn't necessarily matter how long they've been in. It's how much they learn and who they have as mentors there to help them through that process.

Lindsay Ohmer: 9:37

Yeah. And on that same note, if you've been in the business for 20 years, but you sell two houses a year, well, I've sold the same amount of houses as you in three years. So so it's not just the years of experience. It's it's the experience, but not the years. It's like you said you keep learning are you staying up to date with everything, you know, what are you doing to make sure that you're going to do to be able to do do the best for your clients. Yeah,

Ian Arnold: 10:01

we we saw something.

Rick Ripma: 10:03

Yeah, go ahead, just to that point, who is your mentor, I'm sure your mom is one of them. But yeah, the other mentors.

Lindsay Ohmer: 10:13

Um, you know, I have my mom, like I said, my mom and I have a fantastic relationship. We even when I was a teenager, it's were weird, it's fine. It worked out great for us. People will sit in a room with us will have entire conversations and not actually say complete sentences, and they don't understand how we know what's going on. So I do have my mom, and it's really easy. But I also love that where I work, I have lots of people that I can talk to you I work for century 21 sheets. So we have hundreds of agents. Some of them are newer, some of them are more experienced, some of them do more rural, some of them do more urban, we all have our different areas of expertise. And then within that we have different layers of management in the company. So I can go to another realtor, I can go up I can go anywhere I need to. So I don't have necessarily specific people, but I have plenty of people. And I really liked that it's something that I really like about where I work is that there isn't somebody is going to know the answer to my question. That's awesome.

Ian Arnold: 11:10

And make that point of how things change. No realtor has seen what we saw the last couple years. Oh, my I mean, you want to talk about changing. I mean, nobody, like you said nobody knows the answers, but nobody expected to get 4050 offers on a home, and then have to try to decide between those.

Lindsay Ohmer: 11:30

The amount of spreadsheets that I did for my clients trying to lay out all of the important parts of an offer and mark it red, if it's this or green, if it's this or leave it black and trying to like running all of the different net proceeds and trying to figure out on these three identical offers, why we should pick one over another? My goodness. And what I will say about that is so often it came down to the communication of the realtor. It helps to have realtors that once again had been in the business and no other realtors were more likely. Well, I can't say that we're not more likely. But it's nice to work with people that you know. Right?

Ian Arnold: 12:11

So if a client would like to get on get your own personal spreadsheet on what offers they accept, how would they get in touch with you?

Lindsay Ohmer: 12:20

They can call me at 317-490-7223 If you have kids and like to text because kids are very loud and screaming in the background, often texting is great too. Or you can email me, I'm just gonna spell that whole thing because it is so many letters, guys. It's loh M E R at C two, one s c h e tz.com.

Ian Arnold: 12:44

And if you are listening on the podcast, just go down to the bottom of the description and I'll have it all listed there too for you and how to get a hold of us. Hard working mortgage guys.com That's hard working mortgage guys.com for your mortgage needs, right. Yep. And I won't spell all that out for you.

Rick Ripma: 13:03

Hopefully I tried to pick it try to pick something that was easy, right? Hard working mortgage guy. Mortgage is tough. Yeah, misspell mortgage,

Lindsay Ohmer: 13:10

I can see that. Well, and people mispronounce real it or I, it's I don't really know who came up with English language. It's a little tricky.

Ian Arnold: 13:21

Well, you went through the you had the young kids and I have a young kids. Well, it's going through and oh, no, that's a silent letter. Why will you be silent letters?

Lindsay Ohmer: 13:30

I don't Yeah. Thankfully, I was actually a journalism major. So English and reading and writing. That's my jam. But when they bring home their math homework, and I'm like,

Ian Arnold: 13:42

Yeah, let's let's learn this together. So tell me about the team you have assembled. And so do you still work under your mom's company?

Unknown: 13:53

Oh, yeah. So we actually um, when she started it

Rick Ripma: 13:53

That's awesome. Do you have does your team work was Laurie Flynn Realty. I had been with her we just rebranded together so like if your cat somebody else it sounds like in 2022 and we're now Lori and Lindsay Holmes. Just I you know, I do a lot more now. It's it's pretty cool to be a part of the Yeah, we'll take care of it so that you're always somebody's company and not just helping my mom. And then last fall, we were actually lucky enough to bring on another realtor that works always everybody's always been taken care of your clients are with us. Her name is Anne and we just absolutely love her. She fits right in she can have the same non conversations with us and it's great having her too and has three small kids I've got the two my mom has me and I'm a whole adult so she babysits a lot so that we can go and do do the work that we need to do we can go show houses we can get our paperwork done. Between the three of us somebody is usually next to a computer so we can we make it happen. It's we all have our own individual clients, but we all work together to make sure that everybody's client's needs are being met as quickly as possible. always Yeah.

Lindsay Ohmer: 15:05

And on the off chance that that my mom or aunt can't help, then we, you know, once again I work with hundreds of other agents, I'm friends with them, we all help each other out. So there's never a reason that our clients would not get to see a house that they wanted to see.

Rick Ripma: 15:21

Yeah, that's, that's awesome. What key activities would you recommend a realtor invest their time in?

Lindsay Ohmer: 15:28

You know, that's a funny one, I I think that you need to find the thing that you enjoy doing. And do that. I, I like working out. So I go to my gym every day. But I've been there for four years, people know that I sell houses. It's not because I advertise or where Lori and Lindsay homes tank tops every day. It's because I get to know people. I love my kids. So I am invested in their activities. I spend a lot of time at their schools and in their belay and Girl Scouts and all of these things. But those aren't things that are work for me, because it's things that I enjoy doing. By doing that I get to meet a bunch of people, and that can do nothing but help my business. But if you're trying to do things just because they help your business and they don't bring you any joy, it is going to be hard, you're not going to like it and people aren't going to like you because you're going to be cranky when you're doing it. I say the same thing about social media, I love social media, I came up in the time of Facebook. So social media is easy for me. I get a lot of clients from social media, people come to me all the time and say, Well, I'm not on Facebook, so teach me how to do it. No, if you're not on Facebook already, then that is not your thing. And that's okay. It doesn't need to be your thing. Go find your thing and do your thing. Well,

Rick Ripma: 16:46

yeah, you know, that's amazing. Because I years ago had a loan officer who loved to play golf. And he goes, I want to I want what do you want to do in life because I want to play golf every day. I said, go play golf. Every day, go play and go and but just make sure you're playing with other people and you're talking to him, you get to know him. Exactly

Lindsay Ohmer: 17:04

key. Yes. I think that that. For me, relationships are what this whole thing is about with my clients with meeting people all of it. I am lucky that I truly like other people. I am definitely I'm a person that likes to be around people. I was talking to some potential new clients the other day, and I was asking about his job and how we got to where he was from or where he is from where he was. And he was like, Oh, it's a long story. You don't care? And I was like, No, but I do. I think it's so interesting. The more that I can learn about you, the more that we can then build a relationship and the better relationship we have, the better I'm going to be able to help you because I understand you more right?

Ian Arnold: 17:44

So what is one obstacle you think you've had to overcome when you first became a realtor

Lindsay Ohmer: 17:51

children

Rick Ripma: 17:53

you never overcome them. You kick them out.

Lindsay Ohmer: 17:59

You know, that's a joke. But it's true. My kids are still little they I can't leave them at home. Finding, finding the balance between getting care for them being with my clients being able to spend time with my family in an emergency, if I have to take my kids, that's one of the first things that I tell all of my clients is I've got kids, I've got a ton of great babysitters. But if you want to see a house and I can't get someone, they're gonna come. If that's not okay with you, then I'm not your realtor. And that's okay. But I would rather my kids who are relatively well behaved, hang out while we see this house that you want to buy instead of you missing this house. And then we're keep looking and you're just cranky the whole time because you didn't get to see the one house that you wanted. So for me really learning how to balance having a unique career with hours that are atypical, and being a mom, people think that it's so easy to be a realtor, you get to set your own hours. And to an extent Yes, but my hours are when my clients aren't working. Most of my clients work eight, five, right, so I'm busy in the evenings. I'm busy on the weekends, I don't get to go to every soccer game. Thank God I don't really like soccer. But that was truly one of the one of the hardest things for me.

Ian Arnold: 19:18

No, I understand. I went through the same thing. But yeah, I mean, trying to find time for the kids and everything and like you said is with realtors and even us is we're getting a phone call seven o'clock at night. We need to get pre approved. And then sometimes I gotta look at my kid. I'm like, Hey, pause the video game. I got that he has to go work right. And he understands that and everything which is nice. But it's the same thing. I mean, like you said weekends are huge for realtors and stuff and yeah, and all the sports and stuff kids get into so yeah, I would say definitely you have to basically have that discussion with the whole family early so that they understand what's going on. What's what's going on. on what can possibly happen?

Lindsay Ohmer: 20:02

Yeah. And I think I'm lucky to I started when my oldest was only one. So they've both grown up with this. To them, it's normal. But I still have to try really hard to make sure that they know that they're important. And I don't get to do everything. But it's so that I can do other things. And then we just have to find the balance

Ian Arnold: 20:19

and make sure there's charged, the tablets are charged up. Gotta have the tablets.

Lindsay Ohmer: 20:24

My kids know if you're not watching it, it belongs on the charger. Yeah, that's right. And if you don't do that, then it's not my fault later when your tablet dies.

Ian Arnold: 20:34

So how have you used technology a little differently than your mom has? Whether it's social media, drones, stuff like that?

Lindsay Ohmer: 20:42

Yeah, I'm, I am. So my stepdad was in it. So I grew up with computers, I have a really good understanding of the basics of them. My mom will call me work or not work related. She'll be on some website that I've never been to in my entire life, and asked me how I do something on it. And I am driving. And I say, Well, go look like probably there's going to be a drop down here, here. Okay, you found that what is that? What are the options? Okay, click on that one. It's just pretty intuitive for me. So it's easier for me to do things. And on that note, we often even though we're a team, we'll split up the work in a way in our admin work that that works to our strengths. She grew up in the time of not having GPS. So when we're doing client gifts, or we want to go visit a bunch of clients at one time, she's the one that's going to lay out the map and tell us which is the best way to go, I'm going to do it in Google Maps and get mad when I have more places to go, then they're gonna love me in our addresses, she can just do it. But on that same note, I can do computers in my sleep. If there's an offer that has to get done quickly, even if she is sitting at her computer, she'll call me because I can type so many words a minute without even looking and parent and get it done in two seconds. And my mom's phenomenal at what she does. We just both have different strengths. And so we really work together to to utilize those.

Rick Ripma: 22:19

That's it's amazing. Because when I when I was going through junior high, they they really wanted you to take typing, not keyboarding typing. And I thought it was the dumbest thing. When am I ever going to use a typewriter? Right? And now it's everything in my all of my boys. In fact, when people think, Oh, you shouldn't let your kids play those games on all the time and all that? Well, it actually increases typing skill phenomenally by playing the games on a keyboard. My kids are incredibly fast. And it's just amazing how fast these kids out. Did

Lindsay Ohmer: 22:53

they ever take a keyboarding class because I'm so curious with the kids Marley's in second grade, she got given a Chromebook her like second day of kindergarten, but they don't teach them how to type. It's just what they do. So I'm curious how that's going to. You know, when I was in high school, you had to learn Qwerty and your hands go on the right keys and the same as the typing class that you took years prior? And I don't think they teach that anymore. I'm just curious. He did

Rick Ripma: 23:19

have to take a keyboarding class. Okay. The one I'm taking as my youngest. And at that time, this was in junior high, he was at 135 words a minute. And the type the instructor is I can't help you. You're faster than I am. Yeah. But I think the problem is, if you don't get it early, they've already developed the bad habits. Yeah. So you have to get it early. You have to get them. I would think you'd have to get them early. And that's,

Lindsay Ohmer: 23:45

that's because we do so much on computers and typing is so much of what I do. And my kids are just wildly impressed because I'll sit and have a whole conversation with them while I'm typing another email because also mom brains can do two things at once. I don't care what science says that multitasking. Mom brains are special.

Ian Arnold: 24:05

Yeah, my dad talking about the bad habits. He's been a computer programmer his whole entire life. My dad will turn just turned 60 When he programs and when he types on the computer. He uses the pointer fingers but he's been doing it for so long. He cannot do the whole hands he just pet and he doesn't really fast. But it's just he's one of those bad habits. Yeah, like when we say bad habits, but I mean he's okay with it works great.

Rick Ripma: 24:32

But, you know, that's the issue is you get so used to it. Yeah, it's it makes it difficult. And now, there's so many shortcuts. That's my, my youngest son when he was at IU. He said kids would just stand there and watch him on the computer because, like, I'll ask okay, so I'm in Excel. And he goes, he goes I only know the shortcuts. He goes, I don't use I don't type in Excel ever. Yeah, they just know the shortcuts. Yeah. It's amazing what they can do. And it's not. I mean, there are lots of kids. Like, that's just amazing. And how fast that is. Where if you're fast, I'm probably more like your mom. I'm slow. You know, so it helps to have somebody

Lindsay Ohmer: 25:16

know how to do it. Yeah. Huge.

Rick Ripma: 25:19

Yeah, I'm actually pretty good. Yeah. Until I see, like, people like you and my son and other people are really good.

Lindsay Ohmer: 25:27

We just have different experiences growing up, right. My mom is, is good at what she does. I just have been doing it longer, right? Yeah, I'm sure you're the same way with your son. He's probably better than I am. He's 10 years younger than me. So he's been doing new stuff longer than I have. Right? It doesn't instantly change. It

Rick Ripma: 25:46

does matter. Yeah. When you grew up, and now that like you said, they're just hand him a while your kids have always in their hand. They're always. And it does make a difference by they're not scared of it at all. No. And that's what I noticed. Like, my, like my parents when they were alive. They never learned it, because they were scared of it. They're always scared. My wife is kind of that way, she's always scared she's gonna make a mistake, or cause a problem. So it's just,

Lindsay Ohmer: 26:12

and we know that there's very few problems that you can't fix.

Rick Ripma: 26:15

If it says you're going to delete everything, and you don't want to delete it, don't hit yes, hit no.

Announcer: 26:25

You're listening to in these real estate gurus with Rick Ripma and Ian Arnold, to hear the conclusion of this interview, go to hardworking mortgage guys.com and hit the podcast tab. Branch NMLS number 33041. Rick Ripma NMLS number 664589. And Arnold's NMLS number is 1995469. Equal Housing opportunity, some restrictions apply?

Unknown: 27:01

Well, first off, thank you for joining us, Daniel. I appreciate it. And I just was curious, how did you come to find out about Rick Ripma and advisors mortgage? Well, I was looking for a mortgage for myself for a brand new home that I was building. And I wasn't sure the direction to go, I didn't have anybody in mind. So I kind of just spoke to whoever I could speak to, I got their number. And everything seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. So I went with them. The thing I liked the most about Rick and his advisors mortgage is that I could go and upload things online. And I didn't have to always be on the phone with them or sending them documents or trying to look for certain things that I needed to get the process going. Which was really great for me, I had a processor named Mark Coleman, who really helped me out in making sure I had everything I needed. Because I I didn't know the first thing about having a mortgage. So it was awesome to have so much help. I think probably what I've benefited from the most is really just the understanding that sometimes I would get busy. And maybe I forgot to upload a document or I forgot to do a certain part of the process in a timely manner. And they would get right back with me. And it wasn't like a, hey, we really need this right now. It was always Hey, just wanted to make sure you still remember that we need this. Well, you don't get that too much. In this day and age, it seems like most people are either, you know, very demanding of something they need from you. And they need it right now. And, and I agree. I've seen that in Rick's attitude with us over the last 10 years that he's very patient, but also helpful to get the right things he needs. So, exactly. In conclusion is Rick Ripma and advisors mortgage, somebody that you would use in the future and or tell your friends and family about? Absolutely. And I just want to thank them for all the effort they put in to help me find my dream home.

Announcer: 28:53

Ranch NMLS number 33041 Rick Ripma NMLS number 664589 equal housing opportunity,

Rick Ripma: 28:58

some restrictions apply. I'm Rick Ripma, you can go to HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com

Ian Arnold: 29:02

All right, so back on topic here painful, that's fine. All right. But so what's good, what is you think the main reason people succeed or fail as a realtor?

Lindsay Ohmer: 29:17

Hmm. Well, so many ways that I could go. Um, you know, I think one of there's a couple things that are all kind of related. I think one of the things that that happens to people is they think that they can do real estate part time, and you can't, there's too much to learn. You assume that your family members are going to buy houses from you the day that you get your license. They're not they already have realtors that they've worked with for 15 years that already know what they're doing. There's there's all these misconceptions that a lot of people have when they start and if you don't overcome those quickly, you're not gonna make it, you have to be ready to work your butt off eight to five, or whatever the hours are, I don't work eight to five, whatever the hours are. But you have to work you have to prospect you have to it's not just going and showing houses, it's not just setting people up on searches. It's not the paperwork gets. It's all of the work that leads up to it so that you can get to a point where that's all you do. My mom and I are really lucky that a lot of our business is referral based. So we don't have to do quite the prospecting. But if we don't do any, then that's going to dry up too. So you always have to be doing the work. And people will get comfortable, they'll get complacent. And you can't do that.

Ian Arnold: 30:40

So how do you guys keep the referral business is I always say is the best business? Absolutely. But how do you stay in touch with your clients that you've sold the house and stuff like that?

Lindsay Ohmer: 30:54

Yeah, and I think, um, I think one of the things that helps us is, like I said, we're both very relationship based, it's not a transaction for us, we hope that you are going to be friends. We're a family, we want you to feel like part of a family. So we do stay in touch, we ask about your grandkids, or your cousin who lives in California that had something weird happening. But we also we really liked doing events. My mom and I are fun, we'd like to have fun. We every summer we have a petting zoo and ponies come to our office and invite all of our clients, we do Halloween events, we had a Christmas party, we just have lots of events that we invite our clients to we try to do something for everybody. Everything that I just said was kid based, but that's because I have kids. So those are the ones that I do the most of, but we'll have events at Cooper's Hawk. We just try to stay on top of people's minds and have fun and just have I mean, if you refer me, that's great. But if we're friends, then that's even better.

Rick Ripma: 31:53

Yeah, that's awesome. If somebody needs to get a hold of you, they won't have any real estate needs or questions. How would they do that?

Lindsay Ohmer: 31:59

They can give me a call at 317-490-7223 Okay, what was that number again? 3174907 to two, three, perfect.

Rick Ripma: 32:09

And if you need to get a hold of en en or i It's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com. And we're going to be going to the podcast now. Yes, the podcast. But you know what we're gonna we'll start with the question of the week. All right, the question

Ian Arnold: 32:25

of the week is brought to you by advisors Mortgage Group, where we fit your mortgage to fit your needs. Contact us today at HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com. So here's the hardest question. I'll ask you today. Are you ready for this?

Lindsay Ohmer: 32:39

I am a little nervous.

Ian Arnold: 32:40

What was your first car?

Lindsay Ohmer: 32:42

Oh, that's easy. It was a green Toyota Camry. Okay, that I technically had to share with my grandma. Wow. She didn't go very many places so worked out okay for me. So

Ian Arnold: 32:55

as soon as she needed to go somewhere you had a tiger pretty much okay. Knows Cambridge know that it'll last forever.

Lindsay Ohmer: 33:04

So my family I don't remember who it started with. But my family brought bought that car when it was brand new. I got it as a hand me down when I was 16. I drove it until I was 23. Maybe had over 200,000 miles on it. We gave it to my uncle. And he kept driving it for years after that. You can't go this is not an ad but you can't go wrong with Toyota.

Ian Arnold: 33:32

You're preaching to me both mine are I had good luck from the start. And I've never looked back. Yeah, it'd be hard. Yeah. Now, if Toyota wants to sponsor us, you can contact as a hard working margin. But yeah, I will fully agree with you. Yeah, I love my Toyota's and I have 154k on mine. And my son is seven and I'm thinking, oh, we'll turn eight here in a couple months. But I'm like, alright, and if I can keep this car for another seven years, I can just give it to him. And I want to buy him then I can buy myself a nice car. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 34:07

And all you have to do is keep it for seven.

Ian Arnold: 34:10

I know that's or the garage.

Lindsay Ohmer: 34:14

Do you have a three car garage? I need one. I might. Oh, okay.

Ian Arnold: 34:19

There we

Rick Ripma: 34:20

go. I would Yeah. See, there you go. That's how you

Ian Arnold: 34:27

go to Christmas parties and the petting plays if she gets to bring my kids to the petting zoo. There we go. sheeps

Lindsay Ohmer: 34:34

goats, bunnies, chickens. We have a lot of fun.

Rick Ripma: 34:38

It sounds like you hit a real sore spot with him that needing that three car garage

Lindsay Ohmer: 34:43

for seven years he absolutely needs a third Parker

Rick Ripma: 34:46

I wonder if he needs a basement?

Lindsay Ohmer: 34:48

Oh probably most people with kids need basements. Yeah, I do sell and guys also I know that's not northern County. But

Ian Arnold: 34:57

so speaking of that, so you did I know We mentioned the very start, they just like Hamilton County. But where do you branch off towards? I know, I'm not saying you're gonna go to Fort Wayne every day,

Lindsay Ohmer: 35:08

right? Yeah. So I mean, I will go where my clients are, if I get a referral for somebody that's, you know, down in Greenwood, that's fine. I'm happy to do it. Obviously, I prefer I know more about Hamilton County in northern Marion County. It's where I grew up. It's where I spend my time every day. But I'm also really smart, not afraid to ask questions, so I can learn about anywhere. And if I don't feel comfortable learning about somewhere, or if I think that it's too far away, or I'm not going to be the best person to help you that I'm absolutely going to tell you that.

Rick Ripma: 35:39

Because I have people to refer them to right now. Sure.

Lindsay Ohmer: 35:41

Yeah. So I've got clients south of Greenwood over, you know, mccordsville, Avon, you name it. We've got a client there, but I definitely do most of my business in and you know, Carmel, Westfield fishers Noblesville little bit of Cicero, Arcadia, Atlanta area, but

Rick Ripma: 36:02

we tend to do business where we're located. Yeah,

Lindsay Ohmer: 36:04

it's where you know, people, it's where, you know, things is easier. And I think we've picked up on the fact that I like things to be easy. Yes. Yep. Sounds good.

Ian Arnold: 36:13

But it's also the way we meet people is a little different. I mean, like you said, you're gonna go your kids dance play phase, you're gonna go, Alright, kids have swimming, you're gonna go there, you're gonna go, you're just so you're gonna meet people that roughly live around that same area. So unless you find somebody online, or for instance, the radio or the podcasts is a little different because you reach a broader spectrum of people. But yeah, like you said, it's you run when you run into people, they're usually gonna be in that similar area.

Lindsay Ohmer: 36:44

Yeah, absolutely. And it's just for everybody, it's easier to work with people that are closer, I can get to show you that house a lot faster, which means that I can show you more or I can squeeze it in and less time. We can. But that's once again, not to say that I won't make the time. Right. I was talking to some potential clients last week, and they asked, you know, what were my preferred, you know, how many clients do I like working with, and I like to work with about two or three, because then I know that I can dedicate the most amount of time to them. But sometimes I have more than that. And that doesn't mean I dedicate less time to my clients, it means I dedicate less time to myself and my family. And so they were kind of shocked to hear that but that's I try not to overwork because it harms me, not you, I'm gonna make sure it doesn't hurt my clients, you're not gonna not see the house. We'll figure it out. But I tend to like my kids most days, at least. I like to, I like to try hard to keep that balance.

Rick Ripma: 37:41

Or some days, you're ready to just go show house, right?

Ian Arnold: 37:44

Like, how many you have a kid I gotta go. So what are you known for? Like, like, what?

Rick Ripma: 37:54

works? Well, so I got another way to say it. A lot of times that what's your superpower?

Lindsay Ohmer: 38:07

Well, my kids think that I have eyes in the back of my head. Please don't tell them. I don't.

Rick Ripma: 38:11

Somehow you do all my wife had them too. I somehow had to do my mom had them. I don't know how but they somehow Adam.

Lindsay Ohmer: 38:19

I think my superpower is probably making people feel comfortable understanding people, knowing what they're trying to say when they can't quite figure out the words to say it. And really helping them feel at ease.

Rick Ripma: 38:39

I can tell that you're a people person, very, very much a people person. And you're and you and I think the other thing is, it's very obvious you care about others, which I think is sometimes a struggle when when you talk to somebody and they say the right things, but they don't actually give you that feeling.

Lindsay Ohmer: 38:57

Yeah. One of my very best friends I joke that she's my co parent. My husband has a great job, but it's not very flexible. So she'll help me out a lot when I have to go show houses. Her favorite story to tell is that when she first met me through our other mutual friends, she was like, Who is this person? She is a lot why are you friends with her? And I am a lot but in such a good way. And once you get to know me, you know that my a lot is genuine and caring. And I just get that excited about finding things out about other people. And if you don't know me, it can come across as very in genuine. But I just think other people are fascinating.

Rick Ripma: 39:37

They're well, you know, it's funny, because that's why we do this show. We are very interested in the stories and the stories like you've told and other agents have told us. It's just extremely interesting to hear those stories. Especially the to me It's always fascinating to hear how somebody ends up in the business. There's so many I don't think we've had one it's the same story. No, not even close to Same story, everybody's different. One of them he got in because a friend of his couldn't pass the test. They said, You got to come take this class and take the test. He had no intention to become a wrestler. But he loved it got the friend, he didn't make it. Well, let's just just how

Lindsay Ohmer: 40:16

it is to be fair, guys, nothing on that test. Actually, that's that's doesn't teach you at all how to actually sell houses. I, we shouldn't really rework that class. Well,

Ian Arnold: 40:25

I think a lot of those tests, like my wife was working on her CPA, and it's the same way. And when you talk to a CPA, you know what CPA stands for, right? can't pass again. It's just one of those things, even our tests that we had to take, and Rick and I were talking about it for a little bit is, it's like, if we were to retake it, we'd be like looking at it. And we're like, that's not real world stuff. Sorted.

Rick Ripma: 40:51

Well, they're trying I'm sorry,

Lindsay Ohmer: 40:53

I was gonna say I did learn a really cool math trick in my class that I still use. That's the best thing I got out of that though. It's not even for like real estate math. It's just math. Math, should teach the high school math teachers the trick, they might know it now. But the best thing I learned in that class,

Rick Ripma: 41:10

well, most of those tests are muscles classes are more about we're, you know, you can't do this, you can't do this, you can't do this. Here's why you and this. And those, those people who do those kinds of things aren't gonna learn that they shouldn't offer class and those people who would never do those things. Didn't need to know that right. But there aren't about teaching us how to be better. Real estate agents, loan officers. That's not what it's about.

Lindsay Ohmer: 41:36

They teach you how to not break the law. Yeah. When the law is a thing that is like, people do that.

Rick Ripma: 41:41

So yeah, what? I just find it interesting that they don't think they're gonna get caught.

Lindsay Ohmer: 41:48

It is, well, I guess it's 2023. Y'all like you're gonna get caught? I don't understand. I don't either.

Ian Arnold: 41:57

All right. So where do you see the market? Especially? I mean, Indiana is a different market. Where do you see it going? In the next few years? Do you have any idea oh, hypothesis, goodness,

Lindsay Ohmer: 42:11

gracious. Well, I already like where it is now compared to where it was a year ago. Um, so where we're at there's, there's still even though things have calmed down, we still have more buyers than we sell than we have houses. There are theories that rates are going to stabilize. Hopefully, they're starting to do that they might even go down a tiny bit. We're not ever going to get back into the twos tell me if I'm wrong, but

Ian Arnold: 42:38

I wouldn't say never but highly unlikely, right? Crazy

Lindsay Ohmer: 42:41

unlikely. But houses are still appreciating. So even though rates are going up, so our house prices, so it's still cheaper to buy today than it's going to be next year? And if it's not, then you refi you couldn't probably help them out with that. Right. So especially in our area. I don't see house prices depreciating anytime soon, they are certainly appreciating less quickly than they did for the last two years. That's okay, guys. We're also not overpaying for them in quite as much now as we were. And overpaying is such a silly word, right? Because it's just in terms of how fast it's going to appreciate. If you pay 10 grand over? Well, you probably made that up in two months, where three years ago, it would have taken a year. So it's not that big of a deal. But luckily, those aren't conversations that we're having to have anymore.

Rick Ripma: 43:30

Right. And really, if you hear the thing about the rate is it shocked everybody because they went up quickly. They went up very, very fast. But back before the rates went up, in this, I'm just throwing out something you have a four $450,000 home on the market. There's 20 offers on it, and the person pays 500. Right? Today, there's a $450,000 house on the market. And there's only a couple offers, and you may even be able to negotiate off the price. So the Save it's it's not like you the rate is going to going to destroy everything because the rate Yes, it's a little higher than it was. But the cost of the house isn't you're not you're not fighting all these other people to buy the house. Right. And so it actually is actually better. We say you you date the rate you marry the house. Absolutely no. And we 100% agree rates. I believe rates are coming down. I believe that in the next eight to 12 months, we're going to see better rates. But when that happens, what's going to happen to the housing market, it's going to go back maybe not 100% back to where we were because that's that was but it's going to move back much stronger seller's market and you're going to be in the same position. So you're actually better off today. buying the house, taking the little higher rate waiting the six months after you close to refinance it, or whenever the rates get you know from six months On rates get down to where it makes sense. 100%. It just it makes total sense. And there's lots of ways there's, there's different financing programs to make it work easier. There's lots of ways to do it. So that's that's what we think we think the rate is going to be coming down. Yeah. And

Lindsay Ohmer: 45:15

I think all of that is there's so many people that would sell their house, if they had somewhere to go, Well, we have options again, still not enough, but you're not competing against 50 other offers. And because rates have gone up, we have more serious buyers. We don't have people that are just looking and they're throwing it in. Because why not? If we can get that for that price? Why don't we try? That's not here anymore. We have people that really want to buy a new house they have to move doesn't matter what rates are, it doesn't matter if it's December or July, things happen in life, and people have to buy and sell houses. So don't be afraid.

Ian Arnold: 45:53

Especially right now. I think net right now would be a good time for especially first time, because you're not like last couple years. First time was you were dead in the water most of the times because people were over bidding. A lot of times were first time homebuyers did normally don't have that excess cash, like somebody spent this had three or four homes. So I think especially right now is Yeah, go ahead and also buy the home that you want, don't have to go don't have to bid on 20 different houses to try to get that one house. Find your house and then you can easily refinance or like, right now I'm in that what I call starter house, where I have two young kids, and we're now my wife and I we go to the store, hey, we're going to look at trying to buy some Where are we going to put this? Yep. Okay, so now, where are we going to go where? So now if you have bought that house, alright, now I have equity in this house. Now No, sell it, buy another house. And that's that's the easiest way, especially right now, first time homebuyers. Because you get a lower rate later, you get a bigger house, everything and then who knows is maybe your payment be the same because interest dropped, but now you got egg more equity put down on that new house, right?

Lindsay Ohmer: 47:08

We had. It's actually one of my mom's clients. So I don't remember the specific ages. But he bought his first home, it was an $80,000. Home, he bought it when he was 19 years old. He is in his third house. He has acreage, he has the house of his dreams in the middle of nowhere, because this is what he wants. And he's like 27 years old, because he started young. And that's how you make the money. That's how you build wealth. That's how you get the equity so that you can move up. And so that's the other thing that we tell first time homebuyers is this isn't your forever home. Yes, you need to like this home, you need to still feel like it is your happy place that you come home to. But it's not your forever, it's very unlikely that this is going to be your forever home. Right. So let's talk about what your expectations are and how we can adjust those and help you actually find something that's going to make you happy and you're not going to be angry, upset, sad, whatever, during this whole process. Let's make it fun.

Rick Ripma: 48:05

And if somebody is looking to be made happy in the house, how would they get ahold of you to do that? They can just

Lindsay Ohmer: 48:11

give me a call at 317-490-7223 Awesome. And

Rick Ripma: 48:15

what was that number?

Lindsay Ohmer: 48:16

174907223

Rick Ripma: 48:19

I always think it's better to repeat it a couple times. So people it's yeah,

Lindsay Ohmer: 48:23

it's because of your age. And I mean that so nicely. It

Rick Ripma: 48:26

is it is i What was that number.

Ian Arnold: 48:30

But what is it? There's a commercial that they talk about? What the old? Do you get to know you don't have to repeat your number? It's on their phone? Yeah,

Lindsay Ohmer: 48:39

you call them back? What did you do wrong? I didn't like no, you called them. You should just text text to me guys. It's so much easier.

Rick Ripma: 48:47

It's funny how everybody's different. And you have to figure out what what somebody wants. What Yeah, prefer text call email. Yeah.

Lindsay Ohmer: 48:55

Well, that's the thing that I always talk to people about to I have my default. But if that's not yours, then then let me know. And I'll make sure that I do what yours is because you need to be the one that's comfortable in this process. But

Ian Arnold: 49:06

yeah, and if you did miss that number or you want other contact information or email or even recognize it will be down in the description. Yep. And go

Rick Ripma: 49:15

to HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com If you need to get a hold of ESRI. And thank you so much for joining us today. We appreciate it very much.

Lindsay Ohmer: 49:24

Thanks for having me. This was fun.