Guru Peter Stewart with Peter Stewart Realty

Rick Ripma: 0:00

Welcome to Indy's Real Estate Gurus. I'm Rick Ripma, your hard work and mortgage guy and I've been in real estate and mortgages for over 34 years I've helped over5200 folks finance their homes,my team and I believe in custom tailored loves not a one size fits all approach. We believe there is the right mortgage for you, and we are the team to deliver it.

Ian Arnold: 0:21

And I'm Ian Arnold part of Ricks hard working mortgage team. I've been in the financial industry for 15 years helping customers rebuild their credit to help them get the best possible interest rate and I have a passion helping you secure your overall real estate dreams and even helping you pay off your home even faster.

Rick Ripma: 0:36

And if you have any questions on India's real estate market or mortgages, please go to HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com.That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com, or you can call 317-672-1938.That's 317-672-1938. And we're really excited today to have Peter Stewart. And Peter has a,I think, a very fascinating story. He's got a lot of experience. They've done a lot of different things, which I think is very interesting.Thanks so much for joining us.We do appreciate it. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate the opportunity. And you have a company now it's called

Peter Stewart: 1:10

Peter Stewart Realty. Okay. I said small independent brokerage. I'm a managing broker and owner just a small boutique Residential Brokerage here based in Carmel.

Rick Ripma: 1:18

Awesome. And we'll get into that in a minute. But before real estate so what what was your Where'd you grow up?What did you do before real estate?

Peter Stewart: 1:26

Yeah, give a quick background. So born and raised in Indianapolis went to North Central went to IU. As soon as I graduated college, I wanted to get the heck out of Midwest for a little bit. So I ended up out in Los Angeles and Santa Monica specifically had some friends and family out on the west coast. So landed out there and actually went right into the entertainment business now on the cold below the line.So behind the camera, I started work for Paramount Pictures, and I was the executive assistant to the production finance, guy in production finance, who oversaw basically the budgets for the television shows that they were producing. So started there and then ended up getting into accounting, I was a payroll accountant. So basically, I was the person who cut all the checks for a lot of people on television side of things for Paramount. And specifically I was the accountant or the payroll accountant for the everyone hates Chris show, which on the CW Network for all six seasons that that was out based on Chris Rock's life. So yeah,so I was I was I was not a CPA,but in accounting, and that got really boring after a while. You know, it's, it's, it's, I enjoyed it, because I'm a numbers guy. I like you know,I'm very logical thinker. So from that side of it, it fit me well. But there's a ceiling in that job, you can be the best account in the world, you're only gonna make so much money.And it is the same thing over and over week after week after week. So I got very bored of that. And one day, we're just having a conversation with my wife's cousin who was a realtor in Long Beach, and she saw the blues like, hey, you know what,you'd be really good as a real estate agent. And I never really considered that career before,even though my family's in the business. My grandfather was actually the president of the Board of Realtors here back, I think that was back in the 50s.And he used to own a few apartment buildings. So there's some of that, in my bloodline,so to speak. My two uncles, one was an agent in Seattle, and one was an agent in San Diego, too.So again, familiar with real estate and had it around me a little bit, but never was thinking about being an agent.And she said that it kind of just sparked something in my brain. And I was like, you know,I'm ready for change and do something different. So I said,okay, and I went get my license,and ended up in real estate. So it's sort of just a random kind of random conversation that that sparked that. Of course, it happened to be in 2009. Or excuse me, 2008. I started Oh,wait, you know, when I decided to get my license when the market was crashing, so very interesting time and everyone was telling me I was crazy. You know, what are you doing? You're getting into an industry that's imploding right now, but ended up working out very well for me a lot opportunity kind of start on the ground floor.

Rick Ripma: 3:57

And did you start out in California? Yes. Yeah. So

Peter Stewart: 4:01

I was I was in Los Angeles from 2003 to the end of 2014. So I started right the beginning of 2009 as an agent out there, Keller Williams Realty.

Rick Ripma: 4:09

Okay, so you you started in the height of the break the, when everything just right at the bottom of the rubble. Yeah. And then you did it in California for five years.And then you moved.

Peter Stewart: 4:23

Yeah. So at the end of 2014, we moved back to to Carmel I was born in Indianapolis, but yeah, moved back here and then just basically transition the business here and started over really high, which is a tough thing to do, because I was just at that point in my career out there we're getting a lot of momentum are doing very well. I mean, I just the last year,we're there to close 25 million in sales personally, which was a that's pretty good amount. You know, I know it's California prices, but this was also 2014when they weren't quite as high as they are today. But just really getting going in the career and I had to basically put the plug on it and restart everything here.

Rick Ripma: 5:00

So how did you get going in either or both places?What What kind of processes did you do? What What? What did you do? What was your work like to get to the point of 25 million live in California. So

Peter Stewart: 5:14

I first started,I was just by myself, I would just immerse myself in the office, I would go there every day, even when had nothing to do. And I would sit there all day, I would network with other agents. And really what I was trying to do at first was,basically get their business at the busy agents didn't want. So networking, sometimes I do open houses for them. And then either good listings that were in neighborhoods I liked. So I did a ton of open houses as well, I think the first year, I did like42, open house. Wow. I mean, it was nearly every weekend,sometimes Saturday and Sunday.And I had nothing to do I had no business, no clientele. So that was my way to kind of immerse myself in it and meet a lot of people. So that was number one.Doing that, and also do some floor time, if anyone's familiar with for time is essentially when a call comes into a real estate office, let's say someone's driving by property,they see a sign that sign has the office number on it, they call that number, the receptionist basically will transfer that lead to agents that are working the floor sitting there in the office,which usually means the newer agents so caught a couple of those calls, got a little bit of business out of that as well get some from the open houses. But after about four months, I was doing okay. But I was in one of the weekly office meetings and the number one agent, the time that I'm one solo agent, Richard Sherman, and one of the meetings had raised his hand said, Hey, I need someone to show this property later today and common opportunities to realize, hey,this guy is super successful.He's my age. He's always I'm always hearing about his closings and all his deals. So I raised my hand said, I'll do it two weeks later at a $1.1million cash deal under contract for that buyer. Wow, that was a buyer that he had worked with forever, couldn't convert them.And I did. And it was after that we basically formed a team. He was again, solo agent at the time, I was his first official buyer's agent. And I worked with him to grow that team. Last year he closed I want to say it was like $350 million. He's one of the top agents in the country's on the top 100 For Keller Williams worldwide. So very successful. And he's been my mentor. And this whole time really, but point is so teaming up with a very successful agent who had too much business was a key there. Because again, he can only handle so much. So I became his buyer's agent, he sent all the leads, he didn't want to me and I've just worked them out.Again, when you're younger, you know, no kids, I wasn't married at the time. I just sat there and made a ton of calls and just, you know, hit the ground running as best I could to grind out as many deals as I could. So that's what that's what kind of got me going. And Richard because of the business he was doing, he was able to put a lot of money into like Zillow leads and things like that back when I thought the Zillow leads were actually quality leads. So we'd get a ton of internet leads. And I would just, you know, I would work them, right. And eventually, of course, you start closing more deals, you start getting referrals, repeat business, etc. So by that five year mark, I was at that point where I had some momentum and kind of my own personal career,even though I was working with his team, you know, I had worked with enough people at that time to where the volume of business was ramping up quite a bit for me. And then and the plan at that point was I was eventually going to basically replace Richard as he is Keller Williams teaches what's called the seven levels looks like a triangle.Okay, the top of that level,basically your name is on the sign, you're collecting checks while you're in the Bahamas, or do I have the full functioning team under you. So I was going to eventually work up to be sort of the CEO of his team. But again, life didn't take me all the way there, unfortunately. So when I came back here, I made the decision to join a highly successful team right away. I mean, I knew the business I didn't need coaching from that perspective, but I didn't know this market. You know, all the little different nuances. Real Estate, of course, is generally the same everywhere. But of course, there's nuances for each local market. And I knew the area's pretty well but I didn't know the real estate side of things here. So I wanted to get on the fast track. I didn't want to go through that really hard grind on my own again, because once is enough for me. And so I joined a team here again a team that was doing a lot of business and I was their buyer's agent for about eight months wasn't a great fit for me just personality clashes and, and things like that didn't work out. So after that I said you know what I'm I kind of that got me jump started a little bit here. And then I just said, I'm off on my own. And then I just broke off from the team and did my own thing ever since. And I'd say two years after that is when I left Keller Williams and went independent and informed Peter Stewart Realty.

Rick Ripma: 9:33

So kind of what I hear I think is interesting is because the perception of what people have of what real estate is like is that you go out you show houses, you make all this money, you have beautiful cars and all this. What you just told us is it takes a tremendous amount of effort. It takes a you really it's it's most of it's behind the scenes, is that right?

Peter Stewart: 9:59

It looks like the ice For if you're seeing that photo where you see the tip sticking out of the water, but you didn't just humongous chunk underneath the water. And that's, you know, it's it's old adage for, like, you know people who are successful. That's what you only see that little bit.But it took you know, it's not an overnight success, it took me10 years to get there. So yeah,there's a lot of work on seeds,especially you want to be successful and shows like,channels like HGTV and whatnot really kind of messed up the perception of what an agent does. They did make it look very glamorous. Oh, yeah, you get to hang out the friends network and socialize all time and make millions of dollars like, not quite and most people don't realize, I don't know the exact statistic, but I my opinion 10%of agents make about 90% of the money, right? There's a very small, elite group that actually makes real money, where the rest are not as successful or productive. Many of them are poverty level. Yeah, that's the average agent sells six homes per year. Right. And you look at our average price point around today. For India, it's about275, median price, let's say 3%.Commission, six deals, that's not very much money, or expense.Yeah, that's $40,000 or so before. Yeah. All the expenses,self employment tax, etc. So,yeah, that's why there's not a90% failure rate in this business and understeer. Yes.Crazy. Yeah, it's it's bad.Yeah. People always think real estate is easy. They don't realize how hard you actually have to work. When we get those easy deals. Once in a while.shirt. It happens, right? But what you don't see is for that one easy deal, the 10 other ones that I spent six months on today. But yeah, it required a tremendous amount of effort to really get things off the ground. I mean, there were several times where I worked every day straight for months.I'm not that's no exaggeration,I'm talking full days for months at a time grinding things out.Just to get started. Yeah,

Rick Ripma: 11:41

that's what you have to do to get started, you have to work and that's I want to I wanted to call that out. And because so many people have a misperception of what it really is. And they learned quickly,though, yes. But you know, I would like to keep them from getting in the business with the wrong perception. Yeah. Or, you know, if, if somebody wants to come in, and they just think that they can just come in and they're going to be super successful. They don't have to do anything. That's a problem. I think they need to know that. So either they don't waste their time, or they come in with the right. Understanding. Because I've had, we've had plenty of people come to sit down, and they had that perception when they came in. And they're,they're like, Well, you know, I wasn't going to work weekends,and I wasn't going to do this.And I wasn't going to do that.And guess what, I have to do all that. And then I was okay. But it's no different than if you started the store. Yeah. You can't just not go into the store.

Peter Stewart: 12:33

No, and you're the opener. You're the closer you're the cashier you're the janitor. You're especially we started small. You're your everything. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 12:39

So it's it's vitally important that that they have that. So if somebody wanted to get a hold of you for any real estate needs, buy, sell, what's the best way to get ahold of

Peter Stewart: 12:47

you? Sure. I'd say go straight to my website,Peter Stewart, realty.com.Stewart spelled Ste W AR t all my contact information is right there. You can read a little more about me, etc. About your cell phone, email, whatever works that you have text, it doesn't matter to me, but if anyone wants to reach me directly on my cell phone, it's Area code 317-450-9202 going to3174509 to 02 or on the website,Peter Stewart realty.com

Rick Ripma: 13:14

Okay, so Peter Stewart realty.com Yes. All right, perfect. And to get a hold of the inner I go to HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com Or you can call 317-672-1938.That's 317-672-1938. And thank you so much for listening to Andy's real estate gurus. The guru's we interview share valuable insights they reveal their strengths, personalities and how they'll work for you.Well, we hard working mortgage guys secure your best mortgage real estate gurus work hard to,they avoid problems the amateurs just don't see they listen and they find unrealized opportunities. If you're buying or selling a home a real estate guru is a valuable asset. If you've been thinking of buying or selling a home, keep listening and definitely call one of Indy's real estate gurus.

Ian Arnold: 14:00

All right, Peter. So we're gonna take a side tour from the whole real estate thing. Let's find out. If I take away your phone from you, you cannot work and I know you're in the fetal position for at least30 minutes to an hour. But for the next 23 hours, what are you doing for fun?

Peter Stewart: 14:16

So if I had to summarize myself, it's three main things that are important to me in this this will answer your question. So number one is family, my kids my wife, that is my top mission in life My top priority is being with them essentially. Being a father being a husband, so I spend my time with them. I mean, if I if I retired today and got all the money in the world, I would spend every waking second with my kids as much as I could much of their stand me because they're in the young age right now six and nine and I know in a few years here, things are gonna change quite a bit if they're anything like I was as a teenager. It's not gonna be pretty for a while unfortunately, I'm sure that I know my daughter for sure gained my defiant attitude but number two, fitness and nutrition very important to me. You know your body is at Temple, you keep that up, you keep it going. It affects every aspect of your life. So I'm very dedicated to fitness work usually works out six times a week. For the most part, a lot of fitness events,things like that. So play with my kids get a good workout in,get a good meal, and then work will be the third thing so obviously I'm taking that off the table hanging out with my kids get a workout and eat a good meal. I'm happy outside of that sit on a beach somewhere and enjoy some sunshine.

Rick Ripma: 15:26

So what would you say you you you do a workout event or an event what what what do

Peter Stewart: 15:32

you do? I mean yeah, so I my interest shifts here and there but I do a lot so I've always worked out for last20 plus years been relatively dedicated, but about three and a half years ago. I really stepped it up and kind of leveled up on that side of things. So marathon I do a lot half marathons like this year, I think I've ran five of them so far this year.Triathlon, not not Iron Man's yet but more like sprint level triathlon duathlons. So a lot of running events trail running big into the obstacle course racing.So if you've heard of Spartan Races, like I just did one the the Indiana one like actually called the Cincinnati one, but it was a perfect north. The perfect north slopes, which is in Indiana. The what is it called? It's like a ski.

Ian Arnold: 16:19

You don't realize Indiana has hills? Yeah, I did that course my wife and I did it probably about four or five years ago. Yeah, you didn't realize Indiana has many hills when you run that. Oh, yeah,

Peter Stewart: 16:30

that'll change your perspective about Southern Indiana. So a lot of those types of things again, so triathlons,running events, trail events,obstacle course races. I love. I love that. And so my basic training is usually a mix of weightlifting and running for the most part to prepare me for

Rick Ripma: 16:47

those. It takes a lot of time my son's done one full Ironman he did Lake Placid a few years ago. And now he's doing ultra marathons.

Peter Stewart: 16:57

Oh, he's gotten to the ultras. Yeah, good for him. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 16:59

But it's the time it takes. I mean, your time can be the one thing he does not have.And when he did that he wasn't married yet. Now he's married,but he didn't have kids. So, you know, now he's doing the ultra marathons with, but doesn't take as much time to train for one event as it does for three. But I respect anybody who can do that. I think there's something mentally wrong with that. But you can't help but respect people who can do a marathon a marathon.

Peter Stewart: 17:29

That was very challenging to have, it's unbelievable when I started that kind of this journey was in September 2019. At that time, I pretty much had never run more than about a block at a time. I did some CrossFit when I was younger, but there's very little running and maybe the mile, but I would walk most of that anyway. So I had a long way to go to build up to and I did a first marathon I are the only one so far was the monumental marathon in November 2021. So it took me two years to build up to that we had a lot of dedication,and consistency and a lot of time commitment. But I'm assuming you're getting to how do you make that work? Question or how to set it in? Yes, it's difficult. Prioritization is key. And you gotta wake up early, really, when you're busy with work and kids, I have to wake up at 5am and get my workout in early. And when I was training for triathlon, I had to get up at four. So I could make it to the pool by five to get my hour swim and be back by 615 630to get the kids up and take them to school and start my normal day. So most of its early morning workouts, and then I will carve out an hour, two hours on the weekend, usually Saturday mornings, like my time to get a workout in or whatever training I'm doing that day, but it's a big commitment. It depends on what you're doing as well. And last year, I hiked did the Mount Whitney hike, which is a 14,000 foot plan. It's one of the tallest peaks kind of in the country and is obviously famous for popular hiking over the top and back. It's 22 mile round trip, it took me over 16 hours.Like it doesn't sound that hard,but it's actually very challenging. And so training for that. I'd have to drive down to southern Indiana on Saturday,but whose national forest and for for six, eight hours plus down there by myself training and then to come back so it's I have to miss all of Saturday for about two months straight. To get prepared for it.

Rick Ripma: 19:13

I disagree with you.It does sound challenging.Doesn't sound that challenging.Does that sound challenging to you? 22 miles and 1400 feet?14,000 feet? Yeah, yeah, that sounds extremely challenging.Whoa,

Ian Arnold: 19:26

they were just complaining about playing the NBA Finals in Denver, where it's mile high. So it sounds like you're just playing one basketball game. Yeah. Couple hours. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 19:37

Those guys aren't in good shape.

Ian Arnold: 19:41

So I do have to ask.So since you came from Lausanne or California, is there a big difference between real estate selling there in real estate selling here besides price?Sure. Great

Peter Stewart: 19:51

question. Yes and no, I mean, of course, yeah,price is the big one. But that of course the general process works the same. It's just it's a much more competitive market out there. I mean in 2012 So example, you know, the last couple years here, arguably the busiest seller's market,strongest seller's market we've ever seen. Absolutely. Real estate went up approximately 30%in 2020, in two years from 2020to 2022. In 2012, in LA prices went up 30%. In that year alone,it was crazier there in that year than anything I ever saw here, which benefited me tremendously because I learned how to survive in a ultra competitive market, you know,riding competing against 20 3040I saw I had one property it was83 offers on out there. Well,that I mean, that's just too many, that's too many,especially because they're their paperwork is this thick, you know, there's way more documents than we have. I feel real sorry for that selling agent has had a lot of paperwork 1000s of documents to go through but so the competitiveness and the level of sophistication, there's a lot of very smart well educated, sophisticated sharks in the real estate business out there. I mean, the good gravitate from all over the world. So again, as it was challenging at first, but it benefited me because I basically cut my teeth on the best of the best. I mean, I interacted with multiple of agents. So like million dollar listing, you know, suppose guy's selling ridiculous amounts of real estate that's holding conversation looks a lot of smoke and mirrors there. But yeah, it'll It's Hollywood was yeah, that way. But yeah, so that's one big difference. And just the way the market like India, I can cover all of Indian surrounding know all these areas very well. It's a large city,but has a small field and I can get from one side of the city to the other in 45 minutes. LA is very personal, it's humongous.It's gigantic, and getting from one side of town to the other at the wrong time of town will take you four to five hours.Sometimes that limits your business. So it becomes very niche and very local, like, Oh,you're the Santa Monica guy.You're the downtown guy. You're the mid city guy. You're the valley guy. So very niche, a lot of people would have these specialties, you know, and you come over. And if I'm going to sell in Koreatown, it's like this little community and no one knows me because I don't sell there very often. So it's sort of hard to break in there. So some some subtle differences like that. But really, the price thing was, is the main one that everyone's well aware of.

Rick Ripma: 22:16

Yeah, it's it's always amazing to me because for like, we always see numbers for for mortgage people. And it amazed me, there were people I was speaking at a conference and everybody want to talk about their numbers and you can't compete in Indiana with somebody from California.

Peter Stewart: 22:37

No, no, no, no,when you're talking dollars now,the number of transactions Yeah,little

Rick Ripma: 22:43

kill them. And number. I did like three times the transactions. And they'd be they'd beat me by like two times. Yeah.

Peter Stewart: 22:50

And it's, it really opens up your eyes to and you're there of what real wealth looks like. Because if we think hero Carmel is rich area, this has nothing. You know, your rich here if you have a $700,000house 700k Over there is an entry level piece of junk today.I mean, homes in Compton,arguably one of the worst parts of the country are selling eight$900,000 today. It's wild. Yeah,that again, here what $900,000gets you a gorgeous new custom house, and one of the best neighborhoods safest neighborhoods in the country.Right. So it's vacillated. And because it's so large, you'll go in the neighborhood, you're like, okay, everything in this neighborhood for as far as I can see. Many square miles,everything here is million dollars plus, like the amount of wealth there is. It's staggering.

Rick Ripma: 23:38

Is that why that we had so many people from California move, move here or invest here recently?

Peter Stewart: 23:44

Absolutely. A huge portion of my business, at least from the investment side of things comes from California.And yes, number one, there's no cash flow there anymore hasn't been for a long time. It's just too expensive. And rents and prices like price increases did not track with rent increases,you know, prices went up, double rents did not double. Okay. So there's essentially I mean, I know there's, this is not an absolute, but there's no cash flow in California. And anyone who has property or who bought in the last, you know, 10 plus years has probably a tremendous amount of equity to then want to do something with it. So yeah, a lot of that money shifts to the Midwest because that's this is where you can find cash flow,where you know, $200,000duplexes, that's super cheap to them for California for I mean,you can't buy anything for 200k Maybe a small dilapidated garage somewhere that's about it seems very cheap to them as well. We have tons of money flowing in from California here.

Rick Ripma: 24:34

Yeah, that's I noticed that that and it's a lot it's a lot of cash by God cash,but I've worked with some that are coming in from California.And that's it's always it amazed me how many people were mostly investors. But there were also I heard agents tell me that oh,yeah, that house sold it sold for 150 over and they paid cash and they're out of California.And to them it was so cheap.They couldn't pass it up even though they were paying more 150over list price.

Peter Stewart: 25:01

Yep. And there are Yeah, there are a lot of people moving here as well. I think they've realized the quality of life here is it's fantastic. Yeah, I mean, what you get? Yeah, California has got its pluses but it not to digress too much. But like the reason I moved from LA number one, we just had our first child and I wanted to give her kind of wholesome Midwest upbringing,but to me just a better place to raise kids. Yeah, Los Angeles was very dangerous. And this is a lot of parts of California as well. The a lot of local news of things that happen there. Don't make it to the national news.You don't see how bad it actually is. And a lot of people want to escape that they realize the, you know, there's a lot of drugs, there's a lot of crime law, homeless problems, and many, many cities out there.very congested. You've got small, there's a million reasons. And you come out here like wow, for 400 Grand i can get what a newer house here in this amazing area that safe, I can go to a park and not have to worry about a bunch of crazy homeless people chasing you're screaming at me or I have to worry about just some random person doing a very violent act.Like as an example, the last year we were in LA, there were three murders within a mile of our house. Wow. Yeah. And we live in a nice area and Marvis that's two miles from the beach right behind Marina del Rey,nice area at the time, you couldn't buy anything for under700,000 Which again, California prices is relatively affordable,but in the grand scheme of things that's still not very cheap. Right. And yeah, three murders in the last straw was I came home from some showings on a Saturday at four o'clock. I'll never forget this. Open the windows cracked a beer looked at my wife like okay, you know,what, what are we going to do now it's four month work. All of a sudden, pop, pop, pop, pop,pop pop up. My wife looks at me she goes was that fireworks?Honey, I'm from the Midwest like, those were gunshots. That was that was not fireworks, we walk outside, we were three houses down from the bikepath Marina del Rey bike that take you straight into the marina,who's to walk it all the time.It's a nice, it's like the moon on here. Basically, we walk out we saw as people gathering go,Look, person laying on the street on the sidewalk right in front of the house covered in blood, all these people standing around, and there's a drive by shooting. And that person actually survived. But I talked to some neighbors and turns out the night before the son was murdered at that house. And then it dawned on me, I woke up at2am because the helicopter was right overhead. But it's so common there, I didn't really think anything. Six days out of the week, the helicopter would be above just, that's la life for you, you know, here, if that happens, people are going to lose their minds, because it's not normal. But so that was the retaliation shooting for for that murder. So we were just about to walk on that bike path,you know, and we can pick, you know, my daughter, my dog, my wife, one, any one of us could get hit by a stray bullet. So that was sort of the final straw. But things like that happen all over California all the time. And we just don't hear about these crazy stories. I mean, yeah, the we all have our problems go down to 10th and rural or 13th. And post here in Indianapolis. And you might catch a stray bullet too. But it's not quite as pervasive as it is in a lot of parts of California.

Ian Arnold: 27:50

Yeah, the one thing that I've thought it was always funny is and you probably got this quite a bit is when somebody moves from a larger city, whether it's either Atlanta or LA, wherever, and they move here and they're like,hey, look, I want to be close to roughly about 45 minutes from work. I want to be here. And they're like, wait, I can go from here to there in 45minutes.

Peter Stewart: 28:09

And I have the exact conversation because like LA would be okay, what time of day, where are you going? Where are you coming? From? What time of day, what day of the week,and then you determine, Okay,you can't go by Oh, three miles away. I can Oh, it's this long.We'll take it because it can be10 minutes, it can be three hours. Here. You're right. And I tell everyone because of our freeway system. And because of our grid city on the streets running north, south, east and west, you can get anywhere,anytime, day, any day of the week, within 45 minutes. Like so it doesn't pigeonhole you into any one area like a city like LA does. Yeah, you work on the west side, you're living on the west side. You know, you you work you're living downtown, it's Yeah. So it really opens it up here and and allows access to the entire city very easily.

Ian Arnold: 28:49

All right. So if somebody is looking to talk about real estate, whether to buy, sell, or just talk to you how to get ahold of you.

Peter Stewart: 28:57

I'd say the best way you can go to my website,because you can go directly to a direct message through the website. It's also got my cell phone and my email address right there. www dot Peter Stewart realty.com. And Stuart is spelled Ste W AR T the correct way. Yes, yeah. Well, I like

Rick Ripma: 29:16

to get a hold of Ian or I go to HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com Or you can call 317-672-1938.That's 317-672-1938. All right.

Ian Arnold: 29:29

And before we get into question of the week, I do have one other question for you.So what separates you from other realtors out there? What do you think separates?

Peter Stewart: 29:38

Great question.So number one, my experience so that to me is what really sets a lot of agents apart. Your experience is not yours in the business because that doesn't matter. You could be in the business 30 years, if you sell one house a year. You're not a very good agent, you know, but if you if you've been in business five years and you sell100 properties a year, you're killing it and you're doing something right. So number one,you know I've been the business50 You In my 15th year at this point, sold, about $200 million in real estate at this point, a lot of experience a lot of transactions. And I have experience in two markets, many agents to me, I'm not the only one, of course. But again,coming from LA, that hyper competitive industry, can I learn from some of the top agents in the world as it cut my teeth on them. So gave me a very strategic advantage and given a lot of skills that well equipped me to survive these market shifts, and thrive actually in the shifts versus kind of having to ride the roller coaster like many other agents have had to do. Another thing that separates me is that I'm also an investor,I've been investing real estate since 2011, is when I bought my first rental property. So I've got 12 years, I own real estate in four different states. So I'm a remote investor too. And I've done a lot of things in that investment space, from flips to rentals, some land development,and on the rental side, long term and short term rentals. So a lot of experience with investors. And I've been working with investors my whole career as well. And that is, oddly something that very few real estate agents do. It's a niche that I've kind of gravitated towards and taken a hold of,because it was an underserved market. So I see real estate from not just the kind of emotional side of, oh, I raised my kids here, and somebody's going to school district, but I look at it from a true investment potential in perspective as well.

Rick Ripma: 31:24

Yeah, I think it's vitally important if you're going to buy rental property to have somebody who understands rental property and understand because buying it is only a piece of it. That's a long term.Most people it's a reasonably long term investment, whether you're flipping it or or whatever, you need somebody who knows how to do that. Yes. On Your Side,

Peter Stewart: 31:43

you'd be amazed at how few agents really do any type of investing. And not that many agents even on their own home dirty little secret, kind of scary, but there's there's a lot that do not. But on the investment side. Oh, yeah,you're right. It's a it's a totally different language. I mean, yes, the general process offer writing showing homes kind of works the same but a lot it's way different speak a completely different language, when you're talking to an investor and how you're looking at the property analyzing it versus traditional owner occupant. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 32:09

And then you have to understand how to manage it,because that can be done. Yeah,yeah, absolutely.

Peter Stewart: 32:14

And you need all those resources for your your team in place. So they always talk about in the investing side, as you're building your team, the agent, the property manager, the lender, the contractor, etc. And I help I help my clients do all of that.

Rick Ripma: 32:25

So what would you and I, it may kind of be similar to what Ian just asked, but what would you say your superpower superpowers are?

Peter Stewart: 32:32

Excellent question. Well, boy, you're gonna stump me here, I should prepare for that one. Well,

Rick Ripma: 32:40

actually, I think you've kind of answered it would number one, what you just said on what separates you is kind of some of your superpower. Yeah,

Peter Stewart: 32:46

having having that experience. And that knowledge definitely sets me apart from a lot of agents for those obviously stated reasons.Number two, one of the differences for me is that I actually really enjoy love real.So I'm very passionate about and you hear people kind of give you lip service by saying that, but I truly think about and look at real estate everyday. I mean,all my chips are in the real estate basket, I don't have a side hustle, I don't have another business, I don't have stocks 401k I don't have any that everything I do goes into real estate, I live Eat, sleep,breathe real estate, seven days a week, when I'm driving on a road trip with the kids go down to Florida or something. That's all I basically do is I'm looking, I just my brain is always looking at homes, looking at areas like I just am always analyzing it thinking about it.I'm very interested by it. So yes, this is a job in that sense. But it is more than that to me, because I'm actually truly interested and 100%invested in it. So you know,it's very important, not only is the foot put food on my kid's table, but that's the family business on the rentals, you know, property management, not property manager, but the other rentals and things like that.And that's gonna be my legacy passed on to my kids. So it becomes very, very important to me. Whereas some people it's more just that a job. It's the thing they do for 95 or whatever and they go do something else afterwards where I feel like I'm it's called a lifestyle,essentially, it's not a job to me, it is a lifestyle. So that is not something I find in a lot of people, they they treat it more as truly a job.

Rick Ripma: 34:15

And not just as a get I mean, I'm just from what I've noticed is I think, number one, you are extremely professional. You have tremendous knowledge, part of that because of the 15 years,but a lot of people have 15years experience and don't have a lot of knowledge.

Peter Stewart: 34:30

Right that Oh,yeah. built them every day.Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 34:33

So it doesn't just because like you said, years of experience only matters if you do Volume Two and have done a lot. So and I think you're an extremely good communicator,which I think is extremely important when somebody's looking to buy or sell a home

Peter Stewart: 34:49

the communication piece. Thank you for that. I appreciate it. And that is one of the things I've noticed early on in my career and I always strive to do a very good job of is the communication piece.because that is is huge for many, many reasons. But it's amazing and how many agents are actually very bad at communicating to me agents I call to get information on a property, I have clients write an offer, and I don't get a call back at all, I'd follow up three, four times, you know, I send offers to agents, nothing back. I have to keep, hey,what's going on? hounding them honey? Like, it's ridiculous how bad it actually is. And then you start thinking, well, this is why 90% agents fail. Yeah,they're very bad. And I've gotten a ton of business because Oh, hey, I called three other agents. No one got back to me,you did? Or hey, I put out this inquiry, you got back to me in five minutes, the other guy took two days to get back to me, I'm gonna hire you. So I gained a lot of business by being very responsive and having a very high level of communication with my clients and open communication to because people want to know what's going on.They're probably making the biggest purchase or biggest sale that their lives. They're trusting me with it. And you know, this is not their industry, they typically don't know the process. And so, yeah,educating them and keeping that communication going throughout the processes is huge and very instrumental in getting to where I am today.

Rick Ripma: 36:08

Well, I would say for anybody out there listening,who is looking at hiring a real estate agent, if they won't communicate with you, before you work, start working with them,you shouldn't probably be working with them because it's not going to get better once you hire Oh, it's going to get worse the

Peter Stewart: 36:26

big red flag in the beginning. Yes, absolutely.

Rick Ripma: 36:28

You got to have communication. Yes.

Ian Arnold: 36:30

Well, speaking about communication. Go ahead. Let's get into the question of the week. I figured you might.Alright, the question of the week is sponsored by Hey, Rick and I the hard working mortgage guys where we believe in helping supporting you and your realtor by sending constant updates through the loan process. We do not like living in a black hole so we do not allow you. Alright,so here is the question for you.What was your first car?

Peter Stewart: 36:52

first car was a1989 Honda Accord. It was a two door white car I bought it was all tricked. I had the rims had a spoiler had the stereo system.I was the coolest guy ever. With my little four cylinder 110horsepower, you know, little rice burner. So yeah, that was the first one. Yes,

Ian Arnold: 37:13

but it probably still runs today.

Rick Ripma: 37:15

My but I want to know because I know you're a car guy. So I want to know what was your most your favorite car the best car you think you've ever had?

Peter Stewart: 37:24

Great question and that was my 1975 Chevy caprice classic convertible. I bought it when I was 19 Right when I was down at IU. It was gorgeous. Some older woman had had it in the garage. I bought it with 49,000 miles. It had been sitting in the garage for20 plus years. It was mint.sparkly blue exterior white pleather I think is real other white the white guts as they say that car was a head turner. It was awesome. It looks so pretty.Got so much attention and looks convertibles even fill the top down and to cruise around on those nice summer days in Bloomington. A lot of fun with that one. I really regret selling it.

Rick Ripma: 38:05

Yeah, we all there's always cars this car guys would go man, I wish I had that one back.

Peter Stewart: 38:10

Yeah, one day,I'll probably go buy another one and restore it. Because they seem to be hard to find these days. I mean, I look around occasionally. But yeah, that was a real fun one. And if I had to choose a second one, I did have a Pontiac Firebird formula at the end of college, especially what I sold, the convertible to get because convertible required a lot of maintenance. And as a broke college kid. I couldn't deal with that. So I needed something more modern. And that was fun, too, because that was six speed stick shift and did have the 5.7 liter V eight and it had a lot of power. Yeah,that's fine. I mean, it was 300horsepower, which to today's standards are not much but for a20 year old kid, you know, with a stick shift. Yeah. And what year was it? That was a 95.

Rick Ripma: 38:51

So that was a lot of power back in 1995.

Peter Stewart: 38:54

I bought it was a95 model. I bought it in 2001Yeah,

Rick Ripma: 38:59

that's still I mean,cars were getting there, but they were still not. I mean three and a horsepower even today is considered pretty decent horsepower. It's just not the killer, no power of the demon that you and I were talking about. Exactly.

Ian Arnold: 39:14

Well just think about it here soon. You get to put your kids to their first car and you get to go through theirs and decide what so just you can either pick something fun or something. Hey, here's a $500car

Peter Stewart: 39:28

my wife and I had a conversation so they are they're not going to get new but they're not going to get the complete beater either because I can afford something for them that's safe and reliable. That's the most important thing but they're definitely not getting anything fun that earn that I'm not getting anything too fast.You know, I don't know Honda,newer Honda Accord or something like that's probably where I'd go with them. But safety is going to be the priority.

Rick Ripma: 39:49

I can tell you for my me. It did not matter. It was fun. Oh yeah. And I had to drag you to grab one. All right, and it was still fun. Yeah, freedom.All

Peter Stewart: 40:00

right, four wheels. That's all you need. Who cares? As a as a teenager? Yeah,it didn't really matter. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 40:06

It's cars or I like cars.

Ian Arnold: 40:09

Yep. So we just started a new series. Still about real estate, but we're doing up a new agent. Literally.She just got her license in April. So she just right now learning the contracts trying to get her name out there. What words of wisdom? Do you think you would have for him? Her name is Lexi.

Peter Stewart: 40:30

Okay, so for Lexi? I mean, number one, it depends on what she's trying to do with her business. You know,is this sort of side thing? Is this her full time thing? Does she have a spouse that, you know, is the breadwinner, and she just needs very little money to keep herself busy? Or is this like, you know, her career that she's going for. But to get going, where's the wisdom number one training. So if you're with any that, I recommend starting out with one of the big brokerages first, I think they have amazing training, Keller Williams is known for their training. In fact, when I was still with them, they were the number one training organization in the world, like across all industries, they were known in price for their fantastic training. So you know, I know all the brokerages have some kind of training program there.So that number one and the education piece of it getting up to speed on things because when you get your license, they teach you all the theories and whatnot. But in reality, you only apply about 5% of that into the business and of the trading side of things, once you get into a brokerage is going to teach you the real day to day ins and outs, lead generation follow up all the scripting, all that kind of stuff. So I'll definitely do that. And I think a great path if you don't have a huge network of people that you can maybe rely on to get those initial sales going, you know,kind of the low hanging fruit friends and family. Definitely teaming up with a high producing agent and get on their team become a buyer's agent. Because you'll get fed leads, you get trained, you get up to speed.And it's kind of a fast track into jumpstart in your career.

Ian Arnold: 41:52

That is awesome. I mean, everybody needs to especially first start and use those words of wisdom. So it's nice to hear. So I do I do like to ask my favorite question. So what's your most memorable deal?

Peter Stewart: 42:05

Most memorable deal? Well, that would be I can't divulge who this was. But I did work with an A list celebrity when I was out there.They are very, very well known.You know, like, Tom Cruise level, not Tom Cruise, I wish it was. But they I showed them a bunch of houses. So that was I was happy. They didn't buy anything, just to be able to meet them and go to our homes with this person was amazing.But they ended up buying. It was only for a half million dollar house, they were moving from a much larger home kind of downsizing as a $40 million deal in Sherman Oaks. That was probably my favorite one. It was I mean, obviously commission was good too. And all that I did have to share it with another agent. We're kind of double teaming them. But that was probably my favorite. And then really my first one I mean that my partner Richard at the time,I'll never forget, he told me he's like after the close. He's like, don't get used to that.There. It's not like that.Because again, it was cash to be closing over a million bucks. So of course me I'm like this, this is easy, awesome. TV, and get that Lamborghini ordered next week. And obviously the reality the market hit hit me wasn't quite that way. But it was very wise of him to tell me that.Yeah, they're not all that easy.But it was it was just an awesome kind of initiation and jumpstart into the industry to have success like that right off the bat.

Rick Ripma: 43:25

Don't you think that's one of the things that really hurts a brand new agent is they if they earn money right away? Many of them I think that's why they end up out of business. They go spend it.Yeah, that's not what you should do. doesn't just keep rolling.

Peter Stewart: 43:39

No, no, yeah.When you switch to 100%,commission based type? Job.Yeah, it's a totally different mindset. They gotta be very careful because it can be a roller coaster, especially in the beginning. And you got to save every penny, that the next deal you need. You don't know where it's coming from, you don't know when it's going to land. And yeah, until the day it closes, that money is not in your pocket. That's right,

Rick Ripma: 44:00

though. So what is your team look like? So as

Peter Stewart: 44:03

I keep it very small, bare bones, it's just myself and my assistant, Linda.This year, I'm going to look to expand and bring a buyer's agent onto the team as we're getting to a point where I can only handle so many transactions. And I would like to start building a more traditional team so I can say not remove myself from the business start taking a step back. I mean, still to this day.This is no lie. That's not exaggeration. Since I started in this business, I've not taken a full day off yet. Now, that doesn't mean I'm talking you know, sometimes I'll sit down and you know, 30 minutes, 60minutes, emails, easy stuff, you know, in my underwear and you know, whatever on the couch and a laptop in Florida on the beach. But I've never for 24hours, turned it off and not worked not one day. So eventually building that team to get some people in place to where I can start. You know, I don't have to work the nights and the weekends quite as much and eventually build that seventh level to where again,it's my name on the sign and you know, I'm on the beach somewhere collecting those checks. That'd be nice because it's hard working seven days a week and and being kind of on no matter what, no matter where you go,because the business lives and dies by me right now. Right? But yeah, so it's just me and my sister, Linda. And there's

Rick Ripma: 45:08

always something to do. Always.

Ian Arnold: 45:10

Yep. So I think we should give them a goal. Let's lock them in a closet. Take away his phone, and he's bigger than us. So you're, you're gonna go first on this one, right?

Rick Ripma: 45:22

Not my idea. I don't even think it's a good one so far.

Ian Arnold: 45:26

All right, then if we if we're not going to take him away from business, let's give him business. What's the best way we somebody can reach out?

Peter Stewart: 45:33

directly on my cell phone? Area code?317-450-9202. Again, that's317-450-9202 struck to me.You're not going through any answering service not going through my system? That is my personal phone. I will answer I don't answer leave me a message.And I'll get back to you soon as I can. I can answer all of them.But no, no, I'd like it bad.Yeah, absolutely. Or you can text me too. That is absolutely fine.

Rick Ripma: 45:55

And to get a hold of the inner I go to HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That'sHardWorkingMortgageGuys.com Or you can call 317-672-1938.That's 317-672-1938. And thank you for joining us. And please follow us for more indies real estate gurus

Ian Arnold: 46:13

and reminder. If you have any friends, family,coworkers looking to buy, sell,refinance, contact us and we'll be more than happy to help you.Peter, it's been phenomenal having you on the show and their stories. I love them.

Peter Stewart: 46:24

So yeah, really appreciate it. Yeah. Hey, I could talk all day about this.Alex, I'm very interested in it and you're happy to share. I appreciate the opportunity to have me out here and it was great chat with you guys as well. Well, we appreciate

Rick Ripma: 46:34

it. Thank you.

Announcer: 46:35

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