Guru Mike Feldman with Bond Real Estate Co

Rick Ripma: 0:00

Welcome to Indys Real Estate Gurus we're recording today from advisors Mortgage Group studio here in downtown Carmel, Indiana. And I'm Rick Ripma, your hardworking mortgage guy. I've been in the real estate and mortgage business 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 best mortgage for you, and we are the team to deliver it.

Ian Arnold: 0:27

And I mean, aren't a part of Rick's hard work and mortgage team and I've worked in the financial industry for 15 years, helping people and find the best possible financing. I'm an expert at helping you build your credit or just increasing your credit score. My passion is helping you secure your financial security and your wealth over time.

Rick Ripma: 0:45

And as we get started today, we want to remind you if you have any questions on the Indy real estate market or on mortgage rates, go to HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com You can contact Ian or I from there, or you can call 3172 I'm sorry, 317-672-1938. You did it again. I did 31767 to 1938 I cannot remember my own phone number. It goodness life, life used to be easier. You only got one phone number 20. I don't know what's one, that we're also very excited today to be talking with Mike Feldman. He's a Realtor with Compass. And thanks so much for joining us, Mike, we appreciate it.

Mike Feldman: 1:25

Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure. You're,

Rick Ripma: 1:28

you do such high volume you've you've done a phenomenal job. So we really are excited to hear your story. We think the story is everything and we know it. We hope it resonates with with our listeners and that people can really get an idea of what you're like. If they have any real estate needs. What would be the best way for them to get a hold of you?

Mike Feldman: 1:49

Probably the best well, there's honestly three best ways phone so 3179655034317965503 for texts or phone calls or texts or phone call or my email address is mike.feldman@compass.com. Or you can shoot me a DM on Instagram. It's at Mike underscore bond real estate.

Ian Arnold: 2:12

And if he doesn't, if you call him and he doesn't respond within a minute, you go ahead and hit him and female doesn't respond another minute. Send him a DM Yeah, hold

Mike Feldman: 2:20

up next she says in my voicemail, you know if I don't pick up shoot me a text.

Ian Arnold: 2:25

I think a lot of people do that in voicemails now. Yeah, I mean, because text is so much easier. I can be in a meeting and somebody's yammering on as they do on meetings. And then next I know I get a text message. Oh, okay. Let me respond to them. Really the

Mike Feldman: 2:37

worst is when somebody leaves a voicemail saying, Hey, can you call me? Yeah, listen to my voicemail, then you would know just text me. Yeah.

Ian Arnold: 2:44

So before we get into you, you and your real estate, what do you what do you do before? Where'd you grow up? Yep,

Mike Feldman: 2:50

grew up right here in Carmel, born and raised here in Carmel, and then went to Indiana University for school and then moved up here. And I think this I think real estate was my fifth job I want to say out of college, so I just kind of bounced around entry level sales job from entry level sales job. And then just like most Realtors just kind of stumbled into it about eight years ago.

Rick Ripma: 3:15

It is funny how a lot of agents stumble into real estate. Yeah, not an intention. But once they get in, you fall in love with it.

Mike Feldman: 3:25

Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Like so few people, you know, go to school for residential real estate, right? It's almost unheard of. Yeah. You know, you'll you'll get the person occasionally who graduate graduates from high school and gets into real estate or graduates from college gets into real estate, but it's usually like their parents were realtors. And so they knew that's exactly what they want to do. But most realtors, even the uber successful ones, it's their second or third career. Yeah. Now what did you study at IU business management so broad as you can get, and I still had no clue what I what I wanted to do even once I graduated from from college. Okay, so you're at Kelley School? This PA school? Yeah, yeah, that's where my son Yeah, when I was PA, it took about two weeks. Okay. 201 with the with the with the beat school, and I realized that I just didn't have what it takes to put together an Excel spreadsheet. That wasn't what you want. And now that's all I do is play with Excel spreadsheets. So.

Ian Arnold: 4:22

So do you think the prior jobs helped you out be in the sales jobs? I mean, even though they're entry level, but they teach you the basics?

Mike Feldman: 4:30

Yeah. Yeah. So two jobs ago, I worked at Angie's List. And with that job, I showed up at 830 in the morning, made 100 phone calls and then left at 5pm at night. So it taught me to be really good on the phone and really comfortable on the phone and also comfortable calling people that might not want to talk to you. You know, I'm calling roofers who are 50 feet up in the air I'm calling plumbers who are underneath, you know, a kitchen sink. And so you have to be quick. You've got to be efficient and It really started to build up my confidence on the phone and build built out like my, my prospecting skills, I guess. And then from there, I, I worked for a new construction builder here in town. And that kind of exposed me to real estate sales and working with people face to face, because that was the first job that I had, where I interacted with people face to face, like everything else was just over the phone. So you know, so I got the phone skills, and then I got the interpersonal, you know, belly to belly to belly skills. And then I just kind of merged those two and real estate now.

Rick Ripma: 5:34

That's, it's amazing. I was in real estate sales in New Home Sales also. And it's amazing how, what a great place that is to learn selling houses, and almost everybody I know who was in New Home Sales, when they leave it, if they leave it, they either become a real estate agent or they get into mortgages. True, it's, it's what we see around us, but it is a great training ground for real estate. I'm just gonna guess a bet you when you started. You did a lot of open houses.

Mike Feldman: 6:08

Yeah, yep. Started in decided real estate. Yes. Yeah. So that's, that was one of the pillars of my business, and still kind of is, was one to two open houses almost every single week for probably a year or two at least. And that was how I got most of my first, you know, first clients was through open houses.

Rick Ripma: 6:31

And what's the process for you in an open house? Like, when you set it up? What do you do to you know, make sure that it's a successful open house and we're for both you and your your seller?

Mike Feldman: 6:42

Yeah. So it starts about three or four days before the open house most open houses, you know, on Sundays, so Wednesday or So Wednesday, Thursday, I'll do some social media ads, I'll do some door knocking can depends on what the house is in the neighborhood and, and location and stuff, but do some door knocking invite the neighbors to the open house not so they can buy the house, but they've driven past the house for the past 510 15 years, just come and be a nosy neighbor, honestly, right. But also I kind of recruit them as you know, as sales agents as well. So they can see the inside of their house, you know, of their neighbor's house, then hopefully they can call up some friends or something that you know, that they want to see live in the neighborhood, right down the street from from from their friend, then I've just kind of recruited a whole neighborhood to help sell my listing. Yes. And then you know, I always arrive to the, you know, to the open house about 45 minutes or so before it actually starts to make sure lights are on and it smells good. And everything's arranged, you know, to my standard. But I'm really like, during the open house, I'm really not that guy that has like a whole a whole spread and, you know, freshly baked cookies and water.

Ian Arnold: 7:54

I'm not going to open houses, no. Oh, my goodness,

Mike Feldman: 7:58

I'll, I'll stop by Kroger. House and lay them out. Yeah. You know, partially because, like, I don't want there to be potentially a big mess around the house, you know, from crumbs and everything. And also, like, I want the focus to be on the house, you know, not, you know, not, not the bells and whistles during you know, that are offered during the open house. And you know, that there's, I've got a ton of scripting for open houses. And it's really about conveying, you know, my expertise in real estate and the House and in the neighborhood. And showcasing my my knowledge of the markets. And that's how I connect with people. Because really like, what I think the stat is like three or 4% of houses sell as a result of the opened as a result of the open house. So it's unlikely somebody's gonna walk through the door and say, This is the first time I've seen the house, I now want to write an offer, right. But what an open house does is it creates more buzz more exposure for that particular house. And, you know, that's one reason I'm still doing open houses, you know, even eight years later, I've got a team behind me and everything. I'm still doing open houses, because hey, I think I'm pretty good at it. And B, it's creating more exposure for my seller, exposure will get more people through the door and hopefully more offers on the table.

Ian Arnold: 9:22

So for newer agents, because I know we have a lot of newer agents that listen to this. So open house doesn't isn't just for the seller, it's also for you, because people might look at a house or home just walk in and just be like, Oh, I liked this home, but I want a bigger yard and then you'd be like, let me go show you one.

Mike Feldman: 9:40

Yeah, yeah. So you know, it's doing prep work leading up to the open house of seeing what other houses are available that are somewhat similar to this house. You know, so if somebody comes in and says, I need a bigger backyard, you know, actually like five minutes down the road, there's there's a house for sale. It's $10,000 more, but it's got a great backyard. You know, I've got time after this Open House to go take a look at it. You know, and also knowing the comps in the neighborhood because you might have somebody come through and they say this house seems overpriced. And then, you know, at that point, you can say, well, actually, according to the comparable sales, the house down the street sold for X price, and it was better or it was worse. So that's, you know, based on that comp or these comps, that's how we came up with this list price, you know, and so that, you know, that kind of helps to justify the list price, you know, as you're conveying that to one of the open house visitors.

Rick Ripma: 10:33

Yeah, I think that the open house, to me, it's one of the most important things that you can do. And it really helps the neighbors, you know, and because, you know, every neighbor, like they're, I'm in a smaller community. And I think there's 32 houses, and I think I've been in two of them, right? Yep. So if there's an open house, and, and somebody lets you know, you're welcome. As a neighbor, I'm likely to go see it, but I never feel like I should go because you don't want to waste their time, especially as a mortgage person, I don't want them to think, you know, so I never go. Yeah, but you don't see anybody's house. So it's, and then if you go see it, not only could change your thoughts, because it's selling new homes, we know that the house that they look at the model is the one they want usually, right? Yep. Yeah. Yeah. So it does, it does, I can see where it helps sell the house, I can see where it helps the neighbors the neighbors get to know. And who doesn't want to know, the very first thing when something is listed in our neighborhood. The very first the buzzer goes around is what is that house priced at? Right? Yeah, everybody wants to know.

Mike Feldman: 11:44

Yep. Yeah, yeah. Then they come in and they look around and they're like, my house is better than this house and they're listing it for this price. Yeah, I might be able to get $25,000 More from my house than you know, than the house that's currently for sale. Yes. So then you just kind of got a new lead out of it.

Rick Ripma: 12:02

Yeah. All right. Valuable.

Ian Arnold: 12:04

All right. I know we are coming up on the break. So Mike, how would somebody get ahold of you?

Mike Feldman: 12:09

Three ways, phone number 317-965-5034. Or you can shoot me an email mike.feldman@compass.com or you can follow me or shoot me. A DM on Instagram. It's at Mike underscore bond real estate.

Ian Arnold: 12:26

And Rick, how would they get ahold of your I

Rick Ripma: 12:28

go to HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com or call? 3176729? Tene 38. That's 317-672-9030. Yet I was scared to say it. I knew it. But I was scared to say it.

Ian Arnold: 12:41

You would think after roughly what 50 shows easily with that phone number. You should easily get that. Yeah, that's

Rick Ripma: 12:47

why I wrote it down right here now.

Ian Arnold: 12:51

All right, so after the break, we'll find out what is Mike superpower.

Rick Ripma: 12:56

Thanks for listening to indys real estate gurus. The girls we interview share valuable insights. They reveal their strengths, personalities and how they will work for you. While we hard work and mortgage guys secure your best mortgage. Real estate gurus work hard to they avoid problems the amateurs don't see. They listen. They find unrealized opportunities. If you're buying or selling a home. A real estate guru is a valuable asset. If you've even think if you're even thinking about buying or selling your home, keep listening and definitely call one of India's real estate gurus.

Ian Arnold: 13:31

Hey, welcome back when the break. Great news is Mike still here so we can get to you asking him the hard questions. All right, so But before we get into what is his superpower, it's time for question of the week. The question of the week is sponsored by Hey, Rick and I the hard working mortgage guys, where we believe in helping you and supporting you and your realtor by sending constant updates on your loan process. Contact us today at HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com And we can put your mortgage plan together. All right, Mike. Here's a hard question. What was your first car?

Mike Feldman: 14:06

A 1999? Acura Legend.

Rick Ripma: 14:10

That's a good one. Yeah. What does everybody have good ones and I had to drop a gremlin.

Ian Arnold: 14:14

Well, I betcha his lasted more than a week. Probably.

Mike Feldman: 14:19

Maybe nine months. A little bit longer than we'd been. What? I was pouring more money into it than it was worth. Yeah. Did you enjoy the car? Loved it? Yeah. For the first couple of months. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 14:33

You're gonna pour more money in it? Yeah. Yep. What was your favorite card that you've ever had?

Mike Feldman: 14:39

My car right now. And Audi Q seven. Oh, yeah. Awesome. I love it. Yeah. Yeah. It's been it's been wonderful.

Rick Ripma: 14:45

Yeah. That's that's a that's a great vehicle. Yeah, my I have friends that have have Q. Okay. They got all the Q Excuse me. Yeah, that's all that's,

Mike Feldman: 14:54

I think there's four different views now at this point, and they're

Ian Arnold: 14:57

all it's all Q for the SUV and then it goes on numbers and it goes by the bigger number the higher the bigger size Correct? Yeah, yeah. Same thing they do with the cars or A's and the sports cars or SS.

Rick Ripma: 15:09

Yeah, yeah, we are not in the car. Yeah.

Mike Feldman: 15:12

Yeah like back in high school I knew every single making model of everything that was on the road and really yeah traveled around the country going to all those shows and everything you know subscribe to Motor Trend all that but these days you know I can recognize a car and you know give you some details about it. But I'm not not a car guru anymore. Whatsoever

Rick Ripma: 15:31

the time? Yeah, we used to have in high school do No, no. Get more things on

Ian Arnold: 15:36

our mind. We do. Yeah, you know, it's bad. Like I go to basketball early in the morning. Yeah, and I'll see headlights behind me. And just by the headlights, everything else completely dark. And I can tell you who's behind me.

Mike Feldman: 15:46

I'm able to do that with cop cars. Yeah. So that's, that's what it becomes handy.

Rick Ripma: 15:51

superpower. Yes. No superpower. Yeah, yeah. What, uh, what would you say your superpower superpowers are

Mike Feldman: 15:57

besides recognizing cop car's headlights? That's right. Good question. So, you know, I wish I could say I could see through walls, or I could fly. And that was my superpower. But the awesome. Yeah. I would say one of my superpowers would be marketing of a real estate, but more importantly, marketing of of listings. And fine, you know, taking a unique listing or a difficult listing and figuring out a way to market it. And drawing attention and, you know, in the right ways to the property, I think is something that I really kind of lean into and is definitely a strength of mine. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 16:40

i It's so important. That somebody if you're listing a house, you know how to market it. It's a lot more involved than just putting it on the house. I call it the MLS, but it's a DLC now. Right? Yeah. Yeah. But just in case people don't all know. So what What all do you do? Like? Obviously, you put it on the BLC? But that's a piece of it. Yeah, that's yeah. And then, because cuz I have seen, there's certain certain agents I've seen when I was selling new homes. And there was one in particular, that when you gave him a listing, he sold the listing right now that he didn't necessarily physically sell it. But he got he marketed it in such a way that he was, it was far superior than what I saw from I don't know what he did it just that his his they sold. Yeah. So what is it that you do to make, you know, to make sure it gets out there? And get sold? Yeah. So

Mike Feldman: 17:35

there's, there's a couple of different layers to it. So 98 99% of buyers see how for the first time online, you know, so you've got to have the best photography. And I'm, you know, I've been with my photographer for seven years or so. And I think that they're the best in the industry, nationally known, you know, they've been publicized and multiple, online and digital publications, photography, and videography as well, you know, so yeah, you can absolutely, especially in the past couple years, the market that we've been seeing, put a sign in the ground. Heck, you can take a couple iPhone photos, and it'll sell absolutely right. But is it gonna sell for top dollar? Yeah. And so it starts with starts with photos, and then doing a video as well, for pretty much all of our listings, no matter what the price point is, we do a video, there's some videos that are a little bit more basic and simple. Starts With Me saying a little bit, you know, little something about the house on the outside of the house, then B roll on the inside. And then I'll say a little something, you know, outside the house to kind of wrap things up. So that'd be like a 32nd to a minute long listing video. There's other listing videos that I've done, where they're five, six minutes long, of me kind of giving a tour of the property. Then there's other listing videos I've done like there's one that I did, I had a listing last year, it was 8000 square feet or so. And before we staged it, you know, the house echoed. And there are a lot of empty rooms and a lot of just big empty spaces. And so, you know, I knew that I wanted to do something unique for this listing because it was a one point almost $7 million listing so I knew I wanted to do something big and unique. So I actually hired a ballerina to like she's you know, she's pretty naturally well known and the ballerina world like I've never heard of her. You're not

Ian Arnold: 19:32

I can see you too to

Mike Feldman: 19:36

actually be pretty funny video. So I hired this ballerina and got my videographer and she did her twirly, you know all the stuff that ballerinas do. She did that throughout the entire house. Really showcasing like the space that it has and you know Ballerinas are kind of associated with elegance and luxury a little bit. And so this was a look you know, high end luxury home Oh man, so I kind of combined the two of like, you know, showcasing her talent as well as kind of marrying like the, you know, the the, the ballerina image of, you know, high end sophistication into those listening video. And it turned out phenomenal. Like, I still want one of my favorite listing videos. So it's like the the videos is to be able to tell the story about the house that you can't see in the photos, because photos are, you know, I think it's two dimensional, a video would be three dimensional, and so it shows it showcases parts of the house that you can't tell in the photos. So good photo, good video, you know, that's, you know, that's the standard. And also having a really good digital presence from, you know, from posting on social media, you know, both like the, the professional photos that they're taken, as well as just doing like raw Instagram or Facebook stories, you know, showcasing the house like not from a professional viewpoint, but from like, the unfiltered raw viewpoint of kind of like a selfie almost, you know, so, posting on social media, YouTube as well. And then using the right hashtags, and like, there's a whole science behind how to post and when to post and, you know, how to, you know, tag different companies in that post. And so, so yeah, so you know, having a really good social media presence, and also having a real, really good digital ad presence as well. So that's something that we're experimenting with quite a bit these days is putting something up on YouTube, and then running ads on YouTube, to the specific demographic who would be more likely to purchase, purchase that listing, you know, so it's kind of thinking of, of the avatar for that buyer of that listing, and then catering the marketing around them. And so you know, that that's all from a digital perspective, but once people get inside the house, then then they also have to be wild when they're inside the house, you know, so, myself and my team we really pride ourselves on, on advising our sellers to, you know, to do certain things that we know, they're gonna get an ROI on, you know, so whether it's like making improvements to certain aspects of the house, down to the very small things like taking a magic eraser throughout every single surface of the house, and getting like a little kind of trim paint touching up like the little tiny nicks that you see just from normal wear and tear of a house, touching those up and really kind of decreasing that, that lived in feeling in the lived in look of a house. And you know, decluttering depersonalizing, but not completely depersonalizing. There's a lot of realtors that will say, take all your personal photos off the walls. You know, we don't want any buyer to to know who you are, or, you know, to, you know, to see any of your personal photos on there. For me, I kind of have the opposite, you know, approach to it. Like, if it's a family home, then, you know, most likely like the buyer is going to be a family. Right. And so if they see that a family is living there, and they're happy and they're loving living there, then they're going to be able to envision their family living there, you know, a little bit easier than if they're just staring at blank walls everywhere, right? You know, so it's kind of personalizing it a little bit and kind of tugging at the emotional strings of you know, of the buyer. You know, so that's all that all goes into the prep work of, you know, the house and I'm, I'm pretty, you know, I, I'm pretty diligent on making sure that before I put a house on the market, it's up to my standard, you know, because sellers are always going to want to put their house on the market not spend a single dime to put on the market. But I go in houses for a living, like, I, I know what a house looks like, if it's gonna get you know, if it's more likely to get multiple offers, or there's houses I walk into, and I'm like, there's no, there's, there's no mystery why it's still on the market now. Because you know, it's in bad condition, or they should have done, you know, it's dated or whatever. And so, you know, it's really kind of advising the sellers that like, this is what I do for a living. And I know what it's going to take to get, you know, to get top dollar for your house, then, you know, ultimately it's up to them if they want top dollar for their house. And are they willing to do what it takes to get top dollar for the house? Nine times out of 10 people want the most most amount of money for the house. every once awhile you'll get the seller that just says I want a quick sale. Money's not not you know, not important, but I just want a quick sale. Sure. And that's that will approach that sale differently. But most people are gonna want top dollar right and you know, I know what it's gonna take to get top dollar for the house. Yeah, well,

Rick Ripma: 24:54

everybody's a different situation, right? Yeah. So Oh, yeah, that's why it's that way. So why here is number one and you have a very detailed plan. Yeah. And number two, you're very innovative. Try to be Yeah. Yeah. to hire a ballerina to show off the space. To me that's extremely innovative.

Mike Feldman: 25:15

Yeah. Here's something that you know, I go ahead. I'm sorry. No question. I honestly can't remember how I thought of it. I do draw a lot of inspiration from other agents that I follow on social media. They're all in you know, big markets like LA, New York, Miami. But yeah, with a ballerina one. I think that was, you know, I was just thinking of some way to showcase the space that the House has. And it just kind of dawned on me one day, I guess. It's incredible. And there's another way where I hired a husband, wife, actor, actress, and got a Bentley and had like, my seller had a Bentley. So we use the Bentley in the video. And we really kind of showcase the lifestyle that comes with buying this house, which is a luxury townhome downtown. And so yeah, we just kind of created a it was like a three minute long video. It was it was almost like a movie. And in a way we showcase them like having dinner downtown. And then they drove the Bentley north to the Townhome. And then we showed them like coming into the door into the townhome and then going up to the rooftop terrace for a glass of wine and really kind of showcasing not just the house, but the lifestyle that comes with buying that sort of property. Wow,

Rick Ripma: 26:36

that was incredible. Well, we are running out of time on the radio show. So if some how would somebody get a hold of you if they had any real estate questions?

Mike Feldman: 26:43

Yeah, so the best way three best ways would be my phone number. So 317-965-5034 Email mike.feldman@compass.com or Instagram Mike underscore bond real estate

Rick Ripma: 26:57

awesome. And because I'm so good at it, if you need to get a hold of me and her i It's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com or 31767 to 1938. That's 31767 to 1938.

Ian Arnold: 27:10

All right, and you're listening on the radio tune in for the rest of the podcast or slash radio with Mike Indy's real estate gurus. All right. Welcome back to India's real estate gurus. We still have Mike here. He started running out the door. Rick tackled him, but he's back in his chair now. All right. So here's the question, I always like to ask, What's your most memorable deal? Hmm,

Mike Feldman: 27:38

good one. Well, my most memorable is kind of my most notorious and that was where it was a renovated home and got some buyers for it. Before it was, it was completed. And so I was representing both the buyer and the seller, which is something that you know, I do a couple times a year and closed on the house. And there there's some craftsmanship, things that, you know, that the buyers notice about the house, and the buyers decided to come after me instead of coming after the guy that the sellers, who are also the guys that renovated the house. And so like, you know, there were shelves that fell down. So they actually thought that it was my fault that the shelves felt fell down and not the contractors fault. So they came after me legally. And you know, instead of going after the contractor does it, you know, it didn't go anywhere? Because it's not like I wasn't gonna put them up. But that was my most memorable but not Not, not, not in a good way.

Rick Ripma: 28:45

I would have thought they'd have gone after the contractor obviously leaving seller. Yeah. And if they had an inspection, maybe the inspector although they did

Mike Feldman: 28:53

inspection, yeah. So but the real estate

Rick Ripma: 28:55

agent that's, uh, that that doesn't connect in my mind. I don't know how they can. I

Mike Feldman: 29:00

don't know if there's any precedent about them going after the real estate agent successfully,

Rick Ripma: 29:05

which is why it didn't go anywhere, right. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So do you have any positive a positive one? That was a really good transaction that you have a great memories?

Mike Feldman: 29:14

Yeah. So my very first Million Dollar Listing, it was a $1.4 million house I think. And we put it on the market, maybe seven days later got got an offer. And the buyer of it was a very well known racecar driver. And we're kind of going back and forth on price a little bit. And buyer came back with a price that wasn't quite acceptable to the seller. But the seller son was a big race car racing fan. And so he said, my seller said we'll accept that offer if you provide a sign racing helmet for my son like as a part of the negotiation. And so of course the the buyer did agree to that because it didn't cost him anything. Right. And so like as a part of the purchase agreement, there was a signed IndyCar helmet. That's awesome. Yeah. Oh,

Ian Arnold: 30:09

you put eight needs to one for him. One for me

Mike Feldman: 30:12

got to mention. Yeah. There should have been one for me. Yeah. So that was that was unique and pretty memorable. I don't think I'll ever negotiate a racing helmet into a purchase agreement again,

Rick Ripma: 30:24

that's it got us pretty innovative to figure out a way to make it work for everybody.

Mike Feldman: 30:28

Yeah, yeah. Like, you know, something like that. I don't know, like 500 bucks or so if you go down to a sports memorabilia type of store. But you know, to the seller, I met a lot more than just, you know, yeah. than that to his son. It meant a lot that he was, you know, he got this signed, personalized helmet from a really well known driver. Right. Yeah, that's, that's cool.

Ian Arnold: 30:52

If you can get that most other places. Now. I mean, we have so many racing companies here, that it's not too hard. But I mean, you go to Iowa, I'm sorry. But I don't I don't see too many racecar drivers no

Mike Feldman: 31:06

way out there. I don't think so proud about Iowa for

Rick Ripma: 31:12

That's not nice. So when, if somebody is out looking, let's say hire a real estate agent to list their home? What traits or characteristics should they look for in the agent?

Mike Feldman: 31:26

No question. So I think that duration in the industry, relatively means nothing. So there's a lot of people that say, I will work with an agent that, you know, it's been in the industry for 1015 20 years. You know, there's plenty of agents that I know, that have been in the, in the industry for 30 years, but they average to sell three homes a year. And so, you know, I think that experience definitely plays a factor. Absolutely. And knowing the ins and outs of deal knowing the contracts really well, and how to market a house properly, that something that you get from experience. You know, I think choosing an agent that, that knows the community and knows that neighborhood really well, is really important. You know, and especially in like a more urban area, like, like Indianapolis, not so much in the suburbs, but especially in an urban area where the difference between one street and another street could be $100,000. Right, or even more, you know, there's houses down in Meridian, Kessler that are a million dollars, and then four blocks away, that same house would be $500,000. Right. And so knowing the nuances in the differences between neighborhoods, that's that I think, is really critical. Really knowing how to market a house and you know, beyond what I think is, should be the standard, you know, perfect. You know, there's so many realtors out here that, you know, they, they, they promote, and they they market themselves as, you know, as as agents who are professional agents, because they use professional photography. And to me, I'm like, Yeah, that should be a standard. You know, that's like a doctor saying, I sterilize my hands every single time before surgery. It's like, yeah, it's kind of should be expected. I hope so. Yeah, exactly. You know, so going beyond just what a traditional realtor should do, you know, I think is is important, especially if you have a, either a really high priced house or a unique house or whatever, you know, whatever unique means being able to market it to as many people as possible, but also, the right people, you know, is really important, like you have a million dollar house, probably not gonna market it to a first time homebuyer right now, There absolutely are some first time homebuyers who can't afford a million dollar house. They're the exception right now. You know, I'm biased, because I've been seen, but working with an agent that has a team I think, is critical. There are absolutely some agents, you know, some solo agents that are phenomenal agents, and I don't want to knock them. But I think that they're kind of the exception as well. So working with an agent that has a support staff or has a support system of some of some type is really important because you know, an agent shouldn't be a jack of all trades, like we should specialize in a couple of things. Paperwork, like I'm not that good at, like and organizing everything. Like that's why, you know, I have a whole admin team on, you know, on our staff is to handle that paperwork, same principle behind like, there's doctors and nurses, doctors can go into the you know, the surgical room for one hour and get the job done. And then for the next three hours, the nurses are, you know, are taking care of everything else. Two very, very important roles. But without nurses, doctors won't exist and without doctors, nurses wouldn't exist. And so, working with somebody who who has, you know, who had As a team to help mark the house, and, you know, if that agent is at a town, and somebody wants to see the house, having somebody on their team to show that house, I think is critical. And, you know, it also shows that that agent has, you know, treats their business, like a business, you know, again, if, if you don't have an assistant, or if you have a staff, then you are the assistant you are, you know, you're the runner, you are like you do everything. And so, you know, having, you know, having that support system, I think is really, really important. You know, when when choosing a listing agent,

Rick Ripma: 35:36

so when you're talking about team, so what does your team look like? What is your makeup?

Mike Feldman: 35:41

Yeah, so right now I've got two agents on my team. And then I have two support staff. So I've got a director of operations. And she, she also, the I changed her title, depending on who I'm talking to. Yes. So she's a listing coordinator, if I'm talking to a seller, she doesn't really interact with buyers a whole lot. But you know, for my seller, she handles all the marketing and executes on everything, she puts the listing in the MLS, she handles the disclosures, and really making sure that you know, the house is looking as good as possible from a, you know, from a marketing perspective, then she does a lot of behind the scenes stuff as well with just pouring into our database, general marketing stuff for geographic farms, or sending emails and an E newsletters, things like that. I've got a transaction coordinator that, you know, once a buyer or seller gets on the contract, she you know, she coordinates all the paperwork and closing and everything. So, so I've got those two, and then then the two agents, they don't, you know, I don't really I don't look at them as working for me by any means. They all you know, they both run their own separate business. But, you know, again, I'll send them leads here and there. But it's definitely not what I've built my business off of. But yeah, I'd be I'd be looking to grow. But right now, there's just three agents and to support staff right now.

Rick Ripma: 37:07

Yeah, but it's important for those those agents to have somebody like you as a mentor, because you've been through it, you've done this a long time you sold new homes, also. So you have a great background, and you have a ton of knowledge. So it's important for new people, or inexperienced people, I think even sometimes for experienced people to have others around them. Yep, who can? Who can help, it helps, I'm sure you even have times when you're running, you're talking to somebody and they and they are kind of you can you can bounce things off of somebody with equal experience, he'd come up with great answers, right? It's huge.

Mike Feldman: 37:43

Yeah. Yeah, you know, like, there are a couple, there's a couple of different reasons why I started the team. But one is because the first couple years of me being a realtor, like I screwed up a lot, like, and I will get into situations where I would have no clue where to turn. And so I kind of wanted wanted to provide a space, you know, provide, provide a vehicle so that somebody can get in into the industry, whether they're brand new to the industry, or 234 years into the industry, and they can avoid making the same mistakes that I did. And, you know, they would have somebody who if they get into a tough bind, they will know exactly who to turn to. And back when I was a solo agent, like, there also be a ton of agents who come up to me and ask for advice, or, you know, how do I market a house, for example, and I'd be the first one to give all my secrets away. And, you know, I tell them everything that I knew, and then they take it and run the opposite direction. So I figured, you know, if I start a team in, be able to coach and mentor, but kind of keep it in house so that everybody benefits from it. You know, it's going to you know, it's, it's going to rise all the ships. And so, yeah, you know, it's, uh, you know, running a team is really, really difficult, but it's, it's incredibly rewarding. And, you know, like you said, just being able to turn to somebody, you know, when you are in a bind, that's, that's really invaluable. My, there's an agent on my team recently got it got into a situation with a seller that got really delicate, and she had no clue how to handle this, this particular situation that had to do with inspection stuff and contracts and everything. And so she, you know, she basically brought me on board and, you know, I, you know, guided and advised and, you know, and afterwards, she was like Mike, I would have had no clue how to handle this situation. If it wasn't for you in it, you know, that kind of validated. One of the reasons why I started the team was to be a support system, and to be a coach or mentor.

Ian Arnold: 39:50

That's awesome. So what is one thing that you think new agents struggle with because we know there's a high A turnover with agents. I think somebody said within the first five years like 87% Drop, yeah, so since you're training people and everything, what do you think, is the most struggle,

Mike Feldman: 40:12

they have a lot of struggles, I think, you know, most of them have shiny object syndrome, and they want to reinvent the wheel. So they think of these new marketing ideas that they think is going to be fantastic. And they do it in a false flat. And every once in a while, like a new marketing idea, or a new way to get a client works. But sticking to the basics of, you know, open houses and cold calling, and just figuring out a way to have more real estate conversations, essentially. That's what's always going to work. And so, you know, agents, not wanting to do what's proven to have worked over the past 100 years that people have been selling houses, or past 5000 years since there since the first house, I guess. And, you know, also like Not, not spending their time in the right areas, you know, there's so many agents these days, that they'll spend hours and hours perfecting their email signature, or hours upon hours, perfecting their their logo, and, you know, you know, they'll just spend spend their time in areas of the business that doesn't actually get them business, that they mistake activity with productivity. And that's something that, you know, I'm guilty of everybody's guilty of, but especially new agents, you know, they'll they'll go to, you know, three speaking engagements a week, and they'll have lunch with realtors, and they'll do all these things that they think is going to get them business, but it doesn't. And so, you know, they'll look back on their, say 40 Hour Workweek. And they've been busy that the whole 40 hours, but you know, an actual income producing activities they've maybe spent an hour doing. So I think that's probably what most agents get in trouble doing is that they're not spending time and the right areas. So

Rick Ripma: 42:17

it's the income producing pieces they need to do. This is just my guess, from being around people and being in sales my entire life, is the reason that they do these other activities and don't do the income producing activities is because they don't like to do the income producing activities. And so they avoid them. And they do the things that don't produce any income. But they're more fun to do.

Mike Feldman: 42:39

Yeah, yeah, people. You know, they, they know what, what has to get done. But like you said, it's not fun, right. And so they would rather stay in their comfort zone. And not step outside of their comfort comfort zone. Because growth and comfort can't exist in the same space. It's other, you know, if you're comfortable, you're not growing. And if you're growing, there's a lot of uncomfort that comes with that. And they're just not willing to step outside of their comfort zone in order to grow.

Rick Ripma: 43:10

Yeah, I can tell you what I've learned is, and a lot of it from people like you, you, you lay it out really well is number one, you have to do the things you don't want to do not and I'll say you have to cold call. Okay? Now, you don't necessarily have to cold call, but it is a tried and trued absolute piece that works if you do it and force yourself to do it. Yeah, right. I think you have to have mentors, you have to have somebody there to support you. And so I think that's another real big piece of what of what has to happen. But if you're not willing to, to get out of your comfort zone and do the things like you were used to calling because you were calling 100 people a day, right? Yep. Every, every real estate agent I've talked to that came from that background where they called, they come into real estate or mortgage and they call they become successful. Yeah, I think it's absolutely one of the pieces. They got to know who to call those type of things. That's where a mentor comes

Mike Feldman: 44:11

down to know what to say and all that. But yeah, that's a very good point. That's, that's where a mentor comes comes into play or a coach or anybody to guide you or that you can look up to.

Rick Ripma: 44:21

Yeah, it's are you looking to hire people? Yeah. Are you looking to grow your team? Yeah. What do you look for when you're when you are looking for somebody? What do you traits? Are you looking somebody

Mike Feldman: 44:31

that really, truly wants to work? And, you know, there's professional interviewers out there, you know, so they say all the right things and they know what to say and how to say it. But then when it actually comes down to like, doing the daily activities to be successful. They'll fall flat. And so somebody who is you know, whose back is up against a wall, you know who is You know, says I don't have a choice but to succeed, and I'm going to do whatever it takes to get there. You know, like, like, whatever their definition of success is, whether it's selling, you know, 12 houses a year, or 100 houses a year. For me, like, I don't want to a part time realtor, because I think that my team's value proposition is, is more than just what a part time realtor would want. I want people who want to be the top, you know, who who want to be the best, and who want to succeed. And so I really just want somebody who is a really hard worker. For my team, we do a lot on social media. So somebody who, you know, has a decent social media presence, or at least knows the ins and outs of social media is something that is definitely important to me, and for the rest of my team. Because again, like that's a huge value proposition for us. And if that's not something that you know, that you're going to pour into, then we're probably not the best team for you. So yeah, so And I'd say those two, those two traits are probably the top ones. So if somebody

Rick Ripma: 46:14

wanted to get a hold of you, maybe they want to be on your team, or they have real estate questions that want to talk about real estate, what's the best way to get a hold of you?

Mike Feldman: 46:21

Three ways. So one will be Call me or text me 317965503 For shoot me an email mike.feldman@compass.com or you can follow me and shoot me a DM on Instagram. Mike underscore bond real estate.

Rick Ripma: 46:37

Yeah. And one of the differences between Mike and I is he remembers his phone number. Yes, he's better at that than I am. Yeah, because I

Mike Feldman: 46:44

have one that I've had that one for 15 years. Sounds like you have 20 I find it

Ian Arnold: 46:50

she's right. I'm waiting for a real estate agent give out their address and somebody just knock on their door Hello. Like that'd be a

Mike Feldman: 46:58

purchase agreement for 930 at night. From Porsche. Alright, have the bottle of scotch Let's

Ian Arnold: 47:05

go.

Rick Ripma: 47:07

If you need to get a hold of here, I HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com Or you can call 317-672-1938 317-672-1938. Please follow us so you don't miss any more of our mistakes.

Ian Arnold: 47:22

And reminder if you know any friends, family or coworkers looking to buy sell or refinance contact record I will be more than happy to help them. Thanks so much for

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