Guru Sarah Noel with Sarah & Co Real Estate with Style

Rick Ripma: 0:00

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

Ian Arnold: 0:15

in Im Ian, Arnold part of Rick's hard working mortgage. Do you mean, I've been in the financial industry for 15 years helping customers rebuild their credit, get the best possible interest rate, and I have a passion to help you secure your overall real estate dreams. And if you're anything like me, pay your home off even faster.

Rick Ripma: 0:30

And if you have any questions on mortgages, or the Indian real estate market, please go to HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com. Or you can give us a call at 317-672-1938. That's 317-672-1938. And today we have Sarah Noel.

Ian Arnold: 0:48

No, no. See a few extra letters there, sir. Easy one

Rick Ripma: 0:53

and I know that I know. Well, I mess up most people's names. I don't know why

Sarah Noel: 0:57

everybody does. It looks like you know, it's very convenient at Christmas time. So

Rick Ripma: 1:00

yes, yeah. So I apologize. That's okay. And your with your with, there's like the Stewart HomeGroup. Correct. Okay. You have your own team team, which is

Sarah Noel: 1:12

Sarah and CO real estate with style. So Sara company, Sarah and Co.

Rick Ripma: 1:16

Okay, perfect. And we'd like to start with what were you? What did you do before real estate? Where did you grow up? You know,

Sarah Noel: 1:24

I grew up in a small town in Morgan County called Wilbur, if you blink, you'll miss it. It's it Monrovia high school. So I graduated from Monrovia High School. actually married a guy that I went to school with. We were just friends. We've been married almost 24 years. Still friends. Not really. Just kidding. Yes. Yes. Yes. He's my best friend. Yeah, we've been married almost 24 years. Our very first house together was in Decatur Township, and we just so desperately wanted to get back in that Morgan County area, you know, as we got married and started a family. So we've been in Mooresville. Now for 18 years. I think we lived in Hall for a little bit of subsidiary of Monrovia, and then moved back to Mooresville in 2006. So we've been there. Both of our kids are out of school. Our daughter graduated from Mooresville High School in 2019. Our son started in Mooresville. last two years, went to Monrovia and lived out his mom and dad's legacy there, I guess and just graduated by the grace of God this past May so Wow, that's awesome. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 2:22

Now, what's he doing now?

Sarah Noel: 2:23

He's working at a place in Mooresville. Called equipment technologies. They build Apache farm sprayer stuff. Oh, wow. Yeah. He's been there since February about your daughter. She is a bartender slash server. She is start has just started her senior year of college at Indiana University East she's doing everything online psychology major and double minor in criminal justice and neuroscience. So Wow. Yeah. So she's trying to get a big girl job now. And she's, you know, after her undergrad, and may when she graduates then she'll start graduate school and her lifelong dream is to be an adolescent therapist. And she wants to work in the prison system.

Rick Ripma: 2:56

While she's been a bartender is a good, good lineup.

Sarah Noel: 3:00

That's exactly what it was. Yeah. She said she does a lot of therapy sessions with her regular so

Rick Ripma: 3:05

I that's what I did when I was Yeah, well, I barked at it. It was a great, it's a great job. Yeah, she

Sarah Noel: 3:10

likes it. So yep, she enjoys it.

Rick Ripma: 3:12

Yeah. So then how did it go from there to into real estate.

Sarah Noel: 3:16

So I was in healthcare, I'd been in healthcare, all of my adult career started, you know, working front office answering phones scheduling, ironically enough, and this goes against HIPAA. That's how I met my broker slash owner, Stephanie Stewart. And, you know, I did that for so long, and then ran into her. Back in 2018. She kind of convinced me to do this part time, I had no desire until this year, when my son was out of school and decided to go ahead and do it. I did it part time for about a year and a half. But in healthcare, I did everything, like I said, from front office, kind of worked my way up into training and support for the electric electronic medical record system for large healthcare organization here in the city, or an MD, and then worked my way into leadership. And, you know, got into this, like I said, 2019, doing it part time for about a year and a half. During 2020, you know, the year of COVID. And realizing how hard everything was, you know, there had just been a lot of leadership changes and things like that. And I had to, you know, march 17 2020, shutdown to clinics, bring all of my providers home to figure out how to do virtual care all of my employees home to figure out how to provide and support the providers doing virtual care. And it was almost like the day that I came home, my real estate just skyrocketed and realized by the end of 2020, that I can excel and be more successful financially, personally, professionally in this industry and had several meetings and dinners and lunches with Stephanie and said, I think I want to do this and we figured out an exit strategy and a game plan. So I always say I retired from health care at the end of 2020 and started doing this full time best career decision I've ever made. Yeah,

Rick Ripma: 4:56

and you've done phenomenally well. I would like to thank thank you Oh my Wow, that's awesome.

Ian Arnold: 5:01

Yeah, thank you. So I know she's sitting in the room just so people know. So you probably owe her money or hearing a little bit, but how has she mentored you?

Sarah Noel: 5:10

Oh my gosh, she's really made me believe in myself. The things that I have been able to accomplish, I never thought were possible. Last year was a huge eye opening year for me. You know, it was my second year full time as a realtor. And just the goals and the achievements that I accomplished. Again, I never thought would be possible. And she's she's just, she's our biggest supporter. She's our biggest cheerleader. She provides training and tools we have, you know, by monthly Lunch and Learns we have industry experts come in whether it's title whether it's, you know, a representative from my bore, you know, service industry we have you know, plumbers come in, we have H fac people come in, really just our biggest supporter, our biggest cheerleader, and you know, she she's doesn't really produce much anymore because she thrives on watching us succeed. So,

Rick Ripma: 6:03

yeah, well, we find that it's having the proper mentor and the right team seems to be the way to success in real estate in this world. Absolutely. I think that that's a big change from years and years ago, when nobody had that opportunity. Right. Now they have that opportunity. And you're a living example of that you had you had a great mentor you have. And she's also awesome, because she loves cars. So you learn that if you've already got that, you know that that says everything. Yeah. Okay. So I we just find this really important. So you've talked about a little bit how has that? Well, you have your own team now. Correct? Yeah. So how have you been able to take what her mentorship which they probably still get and instituted in your team.

Sarah Noel: 6:48

So I tried to live by example. So you know, the way that she trained me to look over contracts. And when writing a purchase agreement, or a listing contract, you know, there were several times probably the first year and a half, I was full time, every single contract I wrote, I wanted to make sure I was doing it correctly. So I would send it to her or one of our other managing brokers of our Mooresville office jack, and I'm like, Hey, can you look at this, make sure I'm not missing anything. So I really handhold my team members, especially when they're brand new agents, because I tend to get a lot of the brand new agents and I'm okay with that. I really want to give them the best tools that I can give I, you know, I tell them, I'm a little OCD with looking at your contracts, because I want to make sure all of your i's are dotted, all of your T's are crossed. These are legal binding contracts, and I want you to be protected. I even get so finicky is like if something's not capitalized, I make sure they capitalize it or put a punctuation after it. So I really just I might be hard on them. But I also feel like I'm giving them the tools that they can have to be the best in the industry and not make those mistakes to learn them in court.

Rick Ripma: 7:46

Yeah, well, it's a vitally important, although people may not realize it, we see caught we see the purchase agreements all the time. Right. And that's amazing. We'll look at some of them will go. We can't believe that this. This agent did this. They didn't protect their client at all. Right? Right. The way they wrote the contract. Yeah, absolutely. It's just probably lack of training. Oh,

Sarah Noel: 8:06

100%. Yeah. 100%. And that's what I really tried to, you know, strive for my team members. And, you know, like I said, I tend to have a lot of the newer agents that come on, and my vision for them is, you know, stay with me on my team. As long as you want, I'll gladly have you, I'll keep you till the day I die. But my vision is come in, let me train you. Let me build you up. Let me give you the tools that I have been afforded to have and the training that I've been afforded to have so that one day when my baby birds ready to fly the nest, they can fly the nest and be successful as an independent agent if they so desire.

Rick Ripma: 8:36

Yeah. So are you still are you recruiting? Currently? Are you looking for people on your team?

Sarah Noel: 8:42

Yes and no. I mean, not just anybody, I'm with the right people, right? Like we you know, we are a pretty close knit brokerage in general. This year, the Stewart home group has grown by leaps and bounds. As has my team. I kind of went from a team member of one to four overnight, back in November, December. We've had a couple of changes. I just got a new team member a couple of weeks ago. I'm in talks right now with about three other people. So yeah, I'm always actively recruiting the right person, but it's got to be the right person to fit the role because you know, we do have everybody needs to get along. Everybody's got to have the right personality. So I don't just want a warm body. I want the perfect warm body. Yeah, because that matters. It does. It absolutely does. You know, we are all women I'm not opposed to having men on the team. I did have a man at one point, you know, my logo is pink and gray. So I always joke and say I hope you're strong and your masculinity because we have a lot of pink in the office which funny enough I used to hate pink and now it's like one of my favorite colors. But you know, I when I do my marketing stuff, and I have my my pop up shop setup, I always make sure we have a black and white option too. But yeah, I mean, being on and healthcare is kind of a given like, it's always been a very predominantly female industry. So I know how to handle those personalities and, and attitudes I guess for lack of a better phrase for that. But um, yeah, I mean, it really takes the right person I mean, You know, it's okay to have a strong independent personality. And it's okay to have that more passive personality, but we just need to make sure they're the right people to get along so that we are working cohesively as a team and we're producing I mean, I don't mind you not producing but it be a team player. So, yeah.

Ian Arnold: 10:16

What are you talking about being a team player? That's not That's not important?

Sarah Noel: 10:20

No, not at all. Not at all.

Ian Arnold: 10:22

So how do you describe your brand?

Sarah Noel: 10:27

You know, I have always said, and this industry, my personal opinion is, and a lot of people agree with me, it's 95% relationship building, and 5%. Selling, and it's not even really selling, it's more mentoring. So my, my motto is, I'm always going to be the kind one, I'm always going to be the professional one, I'm always going to be the one that answers my phone answers, my text messages, my emails, I'm always going to be the one that's a good communicator, when it comes to my clients, I'm not going to have you worry until it's time to worry, I try to take on as much stress as I can, so that they don't have to. And I think that comes from my healthcare background. Like I said, I came from a very large organization. And, you know, one of the things at one point, we had a whole department devoted to service excellence. And I that's one thing that I brought with me from my healthcare career is, you know, everybody's worthy of a hello, everybody's worthy of a smile. There's no sense of being nasty and hateful, there's no sense of being mean. So I want to be the ones that people look at my contracts and think, okay, they've got their stuff together, they've filled this out, right? They're easy to work with, they're easy to talk to, they're going to be honest, we're going to be ethical, you know, and just really try to put forth the best persona that we can. And it's not fake. I mean, it's, it's all real. I have real genuine people working on my team. So

Rick Ripma: 11:39

yeah, and I think that's really important. One of the things that I find is, is the, you know, in the communication, and you said, you know, you keep your keep the bad things away, as long as you can try to solve them without that right ever coming up. I think that's one of the misconceptions why people have misconceptions of what a real estate agent actually does. Because a good one keeps those things from the client. They never know that they never know the stress you went through to get them to the closing. Yeah, I

Sarah Noel: 12:08

mean, there are seriously many nights I've lost sleep worrying about my clients, because I want to take that on for them and not have to put that on my mental it's time to write.

Rick Ripma: 12:17

Yeah, well, you have the same issue. Yeah, I just had one come up. And it's, it was a it was a file that I I was pretty sure I was going to be okay on. But I was still working on something getting it from the client. And the real estate agent asked me the question, right, so I'm not gonna lie to him. Right on what? And he went off and went, it was not happy. Yeah, right. Why did you tell me sooner? Nada? Well, we're closing on Friday, just like we're supposed to. I knew it was gonna work out. I just had to get the information. Yeah. And I wouldn't have told them but they asked, right. And it's like, you're not but as as you never know, when to tell somebody that's that's the hardest part about how do you know when to when Okay, I need to, I need to bring it up.

Sarah Noel: 12:56

Well, in a perfect world, after closing, because they don't even need to know that we had those issues, just know that we got to the closing table, I made it work. But obviously, you know, if I get to a situation where I'm never going to be dishonest with my clients, or with any other agent or lender that I'm working with, but you know, I try to figure out and problem solve on the back end, how can we do this? So I try when it's time to come to them? I try to come to them with okay, I want to tell you something, you know, this, this is kind of an issue. It's a hiccup. But these are the solutions that I think we can come up with, what do you want to do? What what out of option A, B, and C, which one do you prefer? And if there are no options, then you know, we I involve the experts who you know, mentor me so Stephanie or jack or, you know, Lindsey, our managing brokers or owner and you know, we figure out a solution. So, nine times out of 10, we can make it work,

Rick Ripma: 13:45

there's nothing harder than when you have no solution for it, I do the same thing. You gotta go find a solution for whatever it is, yeah, go find a solution. And then you can it's a lot easier

Sarah Noel: 13:54

and even in healthcare, you know, working with all of the physicians over the years that I've worked with. That's kind of always how I was, how I was brought up, I guess in management and healthcare was you know, if you have a problem, that's fine. I don't mind telling me the problem, but come to me with a solution before you present the problem to me. So I always would try to find a solution before I would bring that to my providers or my senior leaders or you know, anything like that critical.

Ian Arnold: 14:17

So there is a problem though. We have a problem right now. Okay. People don't know how to contact you. Oh, what is? That's a huge problem, so let's give them a solution. Sure. What's the best way?

Sarah Noel: 14:27

I am a huge texter, I answer my phone. I don't mind talking on the phone at all. My number is 317-987-8135 You can call text my email. You'll find on the website link. Again, my numbers 317-987-8135

Rick Ripma: 14:45

And to get a hold of Ian or I, go to HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com where you give us a call at 317-672-1938 It's 317-672-1938. And thanks for listening to indys real estate gurus the Guru's we interview show are valuable insights they reveal their strengths, personalities and how that work for you. While we hardworking mortgage guys, secure your best mortgage, real estate agents and gurus, mostly real estate gurus work hard to see I mess that up and sorry, they avoid problems the amateurs Don't, don't see they listen. And they really 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 India's real estate gurus

Ian Arnold: 15:29

CMS of all the time, so at least let you have one or two show finally. Alright, so we're gonna take a sidestep from real estate. Let's get to know you more. Okay, so let's take away your phone for 24 hours after you get off the floor in a fetal position crying. What do we catch you doing for fun?

Sarah Noel: 15:46

You know, I used to always say fall was my favorite season. And it is. But we're at a point in our life where our kids are older. Obviously, they're not in sports or travel sports or anything anymore. We have a boat, we have a camper, we keep it a campground down in French Lick. And that's kind of our summer. I love being on the water. You know, this 100 degree day is going to be awesome. I wish I were on the water, you know, letting it be awesome. I just I really enjoy vacationing, I love the beach, I love the lake, anything like that. I probably will have a huge anxiety attack. If you take my phone away. My husband would tell you I can't survive without my phone. And he's kind of right. But yeah, just anything as far as like I love vacationing. I do love spending time with my family. My kids are obviously older now. 22 and 18. So you know those those few weekends that they come down and bring their friends I thoroughly enjoy it. So that's kind of that's kind of my perfect day is just get me on the boat. 100 degree day perfect Son, let me float on a raft and just enjoy music and a couple of drinks. So

Ian Arnold: 16:48

So here in a couple of years, once the kids are fully gone, they're moving to Florida, I can see it.

Sarah Noel: 16:54

I don't know my in laws live in Florida for about six months out of the year. And they swear it's too hot in the summer. So you know I have I have a younger brother who's he's about nine years younger than me. So he's got younger kids. And my mom's kind of getting up there in age. I don't know that I could quite move away from them. But I could definitely see a vacation house on the beach, for sure.

Rick Ripma: 17:14

You're the first person that I've ever talked to I think that says they like 100 degree weather.

Sarah Noel: 17:18

Only when I'm in the water.

Rick Ripma: 17:21

Like, is there gonna be 100 today?

Sarah Noel: 17:24

I think the heat index is going to be like 110 Oh, perfect.

Rick Ripma: 17:27

Yeah, I'm glad I'm inside. Yeah,

Sarah Noel: 17:29

I mean, you know, like I said, I only like it on the water. But I try to tan as much as I can. So get give me the sunscreen. Give me the hat. Yeah. I feel like I'm pale for this time of year.

Rick Ripma: 17:41

You're not You're taking there's pale. So we're gonna get back to real estate. Get away from ena back to real estate. What would you say your your superpower superpower. Wow, you asked this is your favorite question. No, it is. And I didn't see this is what happens when you get old

Ian Arnold: 18:03

old timers. It's old. But it was about to be put out.

Sarah Noel: 18:11

Yeah, yes. When I was in high school, I took a vocational class at Ben Davis. It's called Health Occupations. And I remember arguing with the teacher like it's not Alzheimer's. It's old timers. She's like, No, Sarah, it's Alzheimer's. It's like nah, that's not what my mom said.

Rick Ripma: 18:24

Well, I kind of like his old time right now. Right? Let's go with that. Yeah. So what would you say your your superpower superpowers are?

Sarah Noel: 18:32

Um, gosh, that's a tough one. Because you know, you don't really think of yourself as having a superpower. I guess I have the gift of gab. I mean, I think all realtors love to talk. And you know, we love to talk about ourselves sometimes. But when you ask us something like that, and put us on the spot, it's a little difficult. I mean, I'd like to think that my superpower is I tried to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, I try to be compassionate. And I feel like I have a good read for people. So I guess that would be kind of and I'm intuitive. I can sit and talk to somebody for five or 10 minutes and kind of get an idea of how I need to change or camouflage myself to fit what they're looking for and what they need. That's one thing in this industry, you have to be a chameleon. And I think I'm pretty good at that. So

Rick Ripma: 19:13

yeah, because you have to you have to communicate in the way they want to be corrected when you want to make sure people understand that's not a bad thing. It's

Sarah Noel: 19:20

a great thing. 100% Yes,

Rick Ripma: 19:22

you're you're trying to adjust to the be the best for the customer. Yeah, yeah. It doesn't mean that your personality, those things change. It's just that you're just really letting them communicate into them the way they want to

Sarah Noel: 19:34

be writing and communication style, right to like, how do you know if I'm working with somebody who is of a more veteran generation, they may not want to text they may want to pick up the phone and call they may not want a phone call at eight o'clock at night. They may not want a phone call on a Saturday or Sunday. That's part of being a chameleon. I'm going to play off of what they need and what they want and do the best to provide that service to them.

Rick Ripma: 19:55

Yeah, that's funny because I didn't think about it, but it's actually actually very accurate that Not wanting to call or text on evenings and weekends? Because we weren't. I mean, my generation kind of is, but I have some friends are a little older and they are, they are not. And they do not want know that they don't want that at all. Yeah, I never thought of that. That's, I should I have to implement that. Yeah, thank

Sarah Noel: 20:18

you know, you're welcome. I had a, an elderly couple move up here recently, from out of state. And, you know, we we worked together for almost two years. And we wrote several offers. And we all know how hard it's been to get offers accepted over the past couple of years. And I remember the first couple of times, I called him on a Saturday, and he's like, why are you calling me and I was like, because I have an update. Like, I don't care. It can wait till Monday, go spend time with your family. And it's like, okay, and that was awesome. Yeah. And the coolest thing about him when they finally closed after almost two years, and they actually are my neighbors now, which is even funnier. They bought a house from a young couple who had two young kids and I have pictures of him at the closing table playing with little figurines and cars. That's probably one of my favorite stories. They're the cutest couple.

Ian Arnold: 21:00

I will say this. It's interesting. The amount of respect and leniency you get you give as you get older, it's just like you said, I mean, that guy is sitting there playing with your kids playing with cars while you're doing everything else. Because they've been there. They raise the kids. They Alright, my kids sick. All right, I gotta go to work. What do I do? Well, I mean, all the situations are bringing my kid to work day. Yeah. So it's, it's very interesting. And I saw it with Rick, especially when my kids got sick and COVID I'm like, Hey, like, I gotta be home. I gotta do this. In breaks. I get I've been there. I know. You're gone.

Sarah Noel: 21:38

Yeah, yeah, it is. And you know, this is, the beautiful thing about our career is we can be flexible like that. You know, if you're punching that clock Monday through Friday, eight to five, sometimes it is difficult as, as a working parent, whether you're working dad working mom, because mom can always take off work and dad can always take off work. So yeah, absolutely, you know, flexibility. I think if there's one positive that came out of COVID, it was the ability for more people to be able to work remotely, so that they can stay home and give the Gatorade and the chicken soup to their kid as they're, you know, trying to break that fever. So

Rick Ripma: 22:07

that seems to slowly be changing. It seems like more and more companies are starting to bring their people back in. I wonder how that's gonna affect things where other people bought farther away from work or, you know, we had a lot of people I think, move in from California, and we're working remotely. Yeah. So you wonder what's going to happen? And that those situations, yeah, how that'll affect our mind.

Sarah Noel: 22:28

Yeah, it makes me wonder if they'll just find new jobs. I mean, potentially, you know, because that's such a huge desired thing right now, like my daughter, like I said, at 22 Trying to find her first big girl job, you know, that's a key thing for her because she's been remote school online for two years now. And she's like, I want to find a work from home job as like good luck. They're not as available as they were three years ago.

Rick Ripma: 22:49

I don't know how you were, I don't know how you do school. From from all I could never have done that. I couldn't, I couldn't do it from from his classroom. I would have never gone if it was unlawful. I

Sarah Noel: 23:01

actually did. I did my I have my associate's degree, I did that while working in health care to you know, better my position there and did 100% online, and I didn't think she could do it, you know, because when COVID shut down, she went to Franklin College or first two years. And, you know, her freshman year when they shut everything down. She She tanked and, you know, got put on academic probation and didn't want to go back. And now she's rocking it. I mean, she's got like a 3.82 or something like that. So it's crazy. Yeah,

Rick Ripma: 23:27

it's just change and things change.

Ian Arnold: 23:30

So what, what is something you learned that you wish you would tell a newer agent?

Sarah Noel: 23:37

If you don't know the answer to something, don't make it up? Tell the tell your client or whomever you're working with, you know, I'm not sure. Let me get back to you and try to seek out that answer. And that's been my whole career, whether it's health care, whether it's real estate, whether it's whatever, don't, don't make up something be honest and truthful, because that's going to earn respect more than anything else.

Ian Arnold: 23:58

Did you just make that up? I did not. I did not

Sarah Noel: 24:02

know that's kind of my motto. That's how I live. I mean, I will always say if I don't know the answer, you know what? I'm not sure. That's a great question. Let me get back to you on that. And I get follow through, right. Don't just say, I'll get back to you and then never pick up the phone and call follow through. So

Rick Ripma: 24:14

that's the key. Yeah. It's incredibly helpful. If you don't know the answer, just tell people you don't know the answer. But if you don't get back, then you're done. Yeah, absolutely. I think I think there's people I know there are that will ask a question that they know the answer to just to see if your answer an

Sarah Noel: 24:33

accurate response. Yes. Yeah. I agree with that. Yeah. Because I do that. Yeah. I don't necessarily but ya know, i They're definitely people do. Yeah, I mean, you know, respect is a huge, huge thing in this industry. Your reputation is a huge thing in this industry. And I never want to be known as somebody who's a unethical, be dishonest or see just doesn't care because that's not me as a person and you know, I will do anything and everything in my power to keep my reputation strong and then and respected.

Rick Ripma: 25:01

So one of the biggest things we see very, very big struggle for brand new agents is getting going. It's how do they get going? What did you do? What do you teach your people to do to get going, when to just get into the business?

Sarah Noel: 25:14

Sure. Follow through a is huge. We're very fortunate that with our brokerage, we, you know, we get a lot of company provided leads. I remember, in my many, many dinners and lunches with Stephanie, before I decided to do this full time, one of the things that she said repeatedly to me that I constantly tell my team, my top producing agents are in the office every day. So I try to always at some point during the day, be in the office, because even if you're not doing anything actively just being around your peers, and hearing the commotion, and just seeing everybody in action, it's going to motivate you, you know, when you see somebody and you look at their production board, and they've got $3 million pending, you know, and that brand new agents, like I just really wish I could get there, well, you will, but you got to put in the work to get there. I always say it's good money, it's not easy money, you can't treat it as a part time position and expect full time pay. You just have to put in the work. And I think being present, going to as many trainings as you can, as many opportunities that are out there, whether it's from our brokerage or just you know, the divisions of different motherboards across the state. You know, just networking getting getting out there to know your industry experts. So I think that's huge.

Rick Ripma: 26:26

Yeah, I have a, my personal trainer is actually becoming a real estate, he has just started, he has a person who kind of is mentoring him. And he was saying that he's looking for all those types of things he's going to, he said, I found the seminars I can go to, and they teach me this, and they teach me that. And I think that's incredibly valuable. Because you got to you got to feel comfortable in what you do. And you get leads and your team is able to get leads. If somebody doesn't have that what what kind of thing can they do? Or with maybe better question when they have a lead? What do you do with the lead? Because maybe I think people may not even know what what do you do with Yeah,

Sarah Noel: 27:04

so you might be asking, and not to toot my own horn, but a little bit of the lead guru right now, because the one of the lead streams that we have, I've actually been appointed as kind of training on, you know, and their website registration leads, right, like, we all have have to have those somewhere. You can't just touch them one time, you can't just call them one time, you've got to reach out 6789 times. I always tell them be a stalker. Who cares if they yell at you and hang up. You're not calling them as a cold call out of the blue, they've registered, they're looking for information, provide them that information. Try not to sound like a salesperson, when you call just say, Hey, I saw you were looking at this house on 123 Main Street, how can I help you? What questions can I answer? You know, somebody that doesn't have the benefit of having leads, you know, sphere of influence, right? Like I tell all of my new people. Same thing that was taught to me when I first came into this part time, even, you know, at least 50 people that you can get their addresses, start your database, you need to be sending the mailers if you have their phone numbers, call them, shoot them a text message, hey, just want to let you know, like I've just gotten into real estate partner with, you know, partner up with a lender and see if they'll do a mailer for you a postcard like introducing yourselves by neighborhoods to farm, you know, make a flyer and go throw fliers in mailboxes to say, Hey, do you want to know what your home is worth? You know, just all of the traditional things you do have to put in the hard work. You know, maybe not back in the, you know, before my time going to go and physically knocking on a door. There's nothing wrong with that. I've done that. I've gotten response from that. But yeah, I mean, I think you just have to put in the hard work. And you know, the biggest thing is, and I'm not great at social media, I wish I were better i i do every Friday I do a video called My Feel Good Friday. So that's my claim to what I do on social media and I try to share others posts and things every now and then. Or post things out every now and then and share my colleagues, you know, new listings and stuff but market yourself on social media. We're in an era right now where that's huge social media is huge, even Tik Tok. You know, I literally just started following on Facebook, a realtor that I found in Las Vegas who I follow her tick tock channel and she's awesome. I love her to know she's cute as can be and she's just fun and happy go lucky. So market yourself get out there. You know, send those mailers call your sphere email your sphere if you have their email addresses, send them the postcard send them Christmas cards, you know, send them colts calendars, whatever the case may be. You know, my past clients I every year send a Christmas card and I throw a lottery ticket in it. So just something kind of fun to do to keep my name at the top.

Ian Arnold: 29:37

So if somebody is wanting to get a lottery ticket after they purchase a home from you or sell how would they get in contact with you

Sarah Noel: 29:45

317-987-8135 Call or text again 317-987-8135

Ian Arnold: 29:54

To know now what there's a lottery ticket though do they have to split it with you if they went big? I wish

Sarah Noel: 29:58

but you know they're not going to tell me That's probably how they come back to me and say, Okay, I've got a million dollar budget and I'm gonna be cash. That would be a beautiful thing. That would be a beautiful. That's how they give it back. Exactly. That's,

Rick Ripma: 30:10

that's why I don't give a I could never give tickets away because I could I would kill me if I gave away. You know, $350 million ticket.

Sarah Noel: 30:22

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you probably wouldn't know because chances are they're gonna live in Indiana.

Rick Ripma: 30:26

Yeah, they probably the chances are very great there. Yeah. I mean, it's like one in 300. Right. But right. Yeah, just that you know, that just that thing to get a hold of Vienna, Ian or I go to HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com. That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com. Or you can give us a call at 317-672-1938. That's 317-672-1938.

Ian Arnold: 30:46

All right. And now we'll do the question of the week. And the question that week is sponsored by Hey, Rick, and I have a hard working mortgage guys, where we believe in helping and supporting you in your realtor by sending constant updates to the loan process. We don't like living in a black hole. So we do not allow you to live in a black hole. Alright, so here's a really tough question. Oh, Lord, to be honest with you. I wish we could have your boss on here. Have you on this for this question, but we'll leave it like that. Okay, what was your first car

Sarah Noel: 31:11

was a 1986 Mercury links that I would argue was read but had an orange hue to it. And it was a four speed manual.

Rick Ripma: 31:20

So you argue it's red because you didn't want to admit it was orange? Correct. So you're in luck. As for me, I I have trouble with orange. I can't even really see most orange colors.

Sarah Noel: 31:32

I swore it was red. Yeah, that's how you doing? Yeah,

Rick Ripma: 31:35

yeah, that's good. Link. So yesterday, the person had the same car. Right. What next though? It was.

Ian Arnold: 31:43

They had a jeep and a Mini Cooper.

Rick Ripma: 31:45

Yeah, they had now but I thought somebody had had I thought they had the mercury links and that they had the Ford Escort or something

Sarah Noel: 31:51

like that. Well, they were the same. The same car. Yeah. Mercury links Ford Escort, same car. So essentially,

Rick Ripma: 31:57

I remembered little cars. But there was a first car. My wife and I bought together. Yeah, it was a pretty nice little car.

Sarah Noel: 32:03

Yeah, I loved it. I loved it until I didn't. What happened to it? I traded it in for a 1995 Saturn sports coupe.

Rick Ripma: 32:12

Okay, sometimes finding out what happened to it is some of the most interesting part of the first car.

Sarah Noel: 32:17

Oh, I traded it. I remember I was laying in bed one day, you know, because as a teenager you want to sleep in and I had graduated high school midterm. So I hadn't officially walked in, got my diploma. And I had went to the Saturn store in Greenwood and found a 95. It was white little sports coupe, five speed manual, cutest car in the world. And I was like, oh, I want that car. And I remember I was probably 10 or 11 o'clock the next morning, and my dad calls me and he's like, do you do get the car? And I was like, no, he's like, What are you doing? I said, I'm in bed. He's like, how are you ever gonna make it in this life? If you just sleep your life away? And you're never going to know if you don't? Unless you get up there and sign papers. I was like, okay, came home with it that afternoon.

Rick Ripma: 32:56

Well, that's great. But so. So he was kind of teaching you also not to sleep, you know, early to bed. early to rise. My

Sarah Noel: 33:03

dad was a huge early riser. Looking back up. There's one thing I regret all of those Saturday and Sunday mornings that he would get me up at seven to go to breakfast, and I didn't do it. I wish I had some of those back. But yes, very much an early riser.

Rick Ripma: 33:14

Yeah, it's hard to see the future, right.

Ian Arnold: 33:17

So you got to start early. That's what I've done with my kids. So I play basketball Saturday mornings, and I get up at 530. So they'll get up with me. We'll go play basketball at 630. Now, they usually run around with a couple other kids. But afterwards we go get doughnuts. Oh, yeah. So that makes them want to go every single time.

Sarah Noel: 33:32

Yeah, I went my son 18. Like I said, I still, every morning, my alarm goes off to make sure he gets up and goes to work. My husband's like, why are you doing this? He's 18. I was like, I know, but I don't want him to get fired. And I have to pay his bills.

Rick Ripma: 33:48

My wife would say that's, that's because I'm a mom, you wouldn't understand because I'm the mom,

Sarah Noel: 33:54

I get that. That's true. That's true. That's true.

Rick Ripma: 33:56

I think she uses that just like can't argue.

Ian Arnold: 34:00

Probably so possible has any your kid shown interest in real estate,

Sarah Noel: 34:05

um, my son, more so than my daughter. I'm very proud that they tell me all of the time how proud they are of Me. My whole family will tell you they've seen a difference in me since I've done this full time that I'm just a happier person. My daughter, you know, like I said she wants to be an adolescent therapist and work in the prison system. She wants to save the world and I believe she will. My son on the other hand, he wants to make as much money as he can as quickly as he can. We were actually having this conversation last night. Yes, he has shared interest in wanting to get his license more to be on the investment side of things. His plan last night as he shared with us as he wants to save some money and buy a house just to rent. So he can still live with us for free as much as he can as long as he can. And then you know once he kind of starts making money then buying more rentals. I'm like, well, more power to you. I don't want to be a landlord but if you can do it go right ahead.

Ian Arnold: 34:57

So what would your exact response for him living with you forever just right now,

Sarah Noel: 35:01

my kids can live with me forever. I don't care. Just means my grandkids will live with us.

Ian Arnold: 35:06

That's that's the mom responded is a dead response. Yes. Yeah, get out.

Sarah Noel: 35:09

Oh, what's funny is a friend of mine who actually works for another brokerage is her own brokerage. She has like the perfect multigenerational house right now and had a broker's open this week. And I've shown the house a couple of times. And I was telling my son about it last night, and I was like, this would be perfect. He's I was like, you and your sister and her boyfriend can live upstairs. It'd be like your own private apartment. He's like, Oh, I'm not living with them. Like they're slobs and my husband's like, pot meet kettle.

Rick Ripma: 35:35

It's, it's interesting, though. So your son wants to get into investment property. And I was listening to somebody, I can't remember who it was. But they were saying that one of the best ways to get to wealth is buy a house, living it to yours, make it a rental, buy another house, living it to yours, make it a rental. And after 10 years, they said you'd have a million dollars in assets. But you don't really but you know, it's still a it's a good idea. And having a rental property, I think is a phenomenal way to to long term end up in wealth. Sure. So I'm sure you have some helpful words for him on how to buy a rental property, are there ways things that you look at or a certain type of property somebody should look at to make it a rental property?

Sarah Noel: 36:22

I mean, for me, personally, I've got a couple of investor clients right now, one of them, we're actively searching, and they're from out of state, so they're really relying on me to be the boots on the ground. And they appreciate that I tried to do as much research as I can. So obviously, you want to look at the area, right, like, is it a better, you know, high producing rental environment geographically? You know, I think for them, ideally, they're looking closer to college campuses, I always think that's a good idea. Because you can pretty much always keep that full. Right, you can always keep it leased out. So I think that would be the biggest thing for me. You know, you don't want to overpay for a rental property, obviously, and, you know, now may not be the best time but yet we're starting to see the market shift. So I think that's a good thing. And I think there's definitely still opportunity out there for investors who want to get into leasing properties.

Rick Ripma: 37:05

And I think it depends too on the type of on the type of rental you want. For instance, some people want you know, they're looking at the long term investment with an increased cheersing in value, that's a lot of their income is going to come off of equity. Right? We're other people. Like I was talking to a friend of mine who is an agent and he has he has these timeshare, not timeshare, what are those things that Airbnb, Airbnb? And I can't think today, Airbnb, and he's and that's what he does. And he and he does really well doing Airbnb, me that would scare me to death. Don't worry about each, you know, am I gonna get enough people and each each month, but bottom line is real estate is a great investment.

Sarah Noel: 37:46

Absolutely. Yeah. I actually sold a property last year that had an Airbnb on property on the southeast side of Indy. And you wouldn't think that it was a great area. But I mean, they were making 20 to$30,000 a year in income from their little cabin Airbnb. So yeah, great opportunity.

Rick Ripma: 38:01

I heard. I'm still looking into it to understand it. But I heard that there's a movement going on right now where people are putting on like a tiny home on their property next to their normal home or putting so that they can rent it out like that. And a lot

Sarah Noel: 38:17

of people that call that want to look at land to either a put a camper on it and live there, which you know, a lot of land, you have to be cautious about the covenants, conditions and restrictions. And yeah, I've been hearing a lot of that lately to where people are just calling up wanting to spend a few $1,000 on land and put a couple of tiny houses there. And I mean, I You never know, you never know

Rick Ripma: 38:36

when you can't do it in the neighborhood. But it seems like like my neighborhood, I could actually do it in because we don't have a we don't have a vision as long as you know, county, let it let it go. But it does seem like if somebody especially somebody who may be struggling to make their payments, I'm like that you put something in there where all of a sudden now you're getting 1000 $2,000 a month. That can be that can Yeah, that can make a big change for people. Yeah. Anyway, I just thought was an interesting thing that that seems to be starting, and they never start in Indiana. It doesn't seem like

Sarah Noel: 39:07

anything ever started. We're always the last to do everything.

Rick Ripma: 39:11

It does seem that way. So is there anything that you're just super proud of in your in your business?

Sarah Noel: 39:18

There's a lot that I'm proud of. I'm proud of myself for building a team. I was so adamant about not wanting to be part of a team or be on a team for the first couple of years I was in this. And then it was approached to me you know, last summer like, Hey, I think you should join a team. I think that you would be really good at that. I'm proud of my team members. I'm proud that yes, I'll give you my one defining point. So this past January, when I left my job in health care, my husband had a very stable job. You know, when I first talked about leaving, he was like, oh, no, you can't you have a stable paycheck and you carry yourself and the kids on insurance. And I'm like, Yeah, but let me let's talk about this. Like let's say I don't show him my money or he doesn't know what I make. So he didn't know so I sat down and told them and he was like, okay, we can really talk about this. So, you know, he carried us on insurance, you know, he's he made a pretty good salary. You know, we basically deferred last couple of months I worked in health care lived off of his salary, I banked everything that I made just to make sure we could if I didn't have sales for six months, fast forward to this past January, and this was a company he thought he was going to retire from. Things happen, kind of like the analogy that I give a professional sports team, if the team's doing poorly, who do they let go? The head coach. So he was let go. So, you know, your immediate thought is, oh, my gosh, what are we going to do? Literally didn't skip a beat, he didn't work for six weeks. And I will tell you, and you're gonna laugh, but the only things I didn't do was get my nails done and have my housekeeper come. Other than that, like we paid our bills, you know, we we still live. And that's something that I'm very proud of is that we were able to make it and not skip a beat where five or six years ago, maybe even three or four years ago, we would have been stressing we would have gotten behind on bills, we wouldn't have known what to do for you know, health care, whatever. I just got a short term, high deductible plan to cover emergencies paid out of pocket for everything else. And we still survived. And I didn't deplete everything. So that that's a huge defining moment for me, that lets me know that I made the right career decision, and that I can support. You know, my family if God forbid, something happens again.

Ian Arnold: 41:18

Yep, my husband's retired now.

Sarah Noel: 41:20

He absolutely. Absolutely. I don't think

Rick Ripma: 41:23

they're old enough.

Ian Arnold: 41:27

All right. So I want to hear some stories. So what do you think your most memorable deal was?

Sarah Noel: 41:32

Oh, I've had a few. Gosh, most memorable deal. That's a tough one. Because the one that I can think of I don't know, that I can share publicly. It's not bad. I just, you know, there was I Okay, I can say this. Diplomatically, I had a high profile client that I did not know, was high profile. It wasn't until I was helping them do some decluttering in the house. And I met them through a friend, they were related to my friend had known this friend for five or six years, never heard a word. As we're looking through the house, this client says something along the line of oh, I need to get rid of that. Because nobody needs to know who I am. And I'm like, What do you mean, who are you? So you know, I went out and Googled it. And I was like, Oh, my gosh, I cannot believe I've known that this person's family member for six years and had no idea. So that was kind of cool. Because you know, and that just goes to show that I help people, no matter your price range, or your status or whatever. But you know, 10 years ago, he was a very high profile person. I didn't know who they were, or he was. So that was kind of a memorable story for me. I remember calling Stephanie my broker as soon as I left, like, You're not gonna believe that she's like, Shut the front door. I was like, I'm serious.

Rick Ripma: 42:51

That must be a realtor thing. Shut the front door.

Sarah Noel: 42:53

Yeah, exactly.

Rick Ripma: 42:57

So what would you see your You're killing me? And I can't think today. I know your team. You have you? Have? You said

Sarah Noel: 43:08

four members, your team do? Yeah, for? And like I said, I'm actively talking to a couple of other people. So by the end of the year, I could have five to six,

Ian Arnold: 43:16

and then count our son about to come in that Yeah. Well, I don't want him on my team.

Unknown: 43:21

Any somebody? Somebody that cannot mom him? Yes,

Rick Ripma: 43:25

exactly. So what are you looking at towards the future?

Sarah Noel: 43:29

Um, you know, we talk about investments. My brother's a police officer, once he gets his 20 years, and he'd like to be done being a police officer. And you know, my husband, we are getting to the age where we can kind of think about retiring, I always said, I retired from health care. So I'm on my retirement plan. My 10 Year Plan is I would like to retire my husband. You know, there's not a lot of people you go directly in business with, but I would my brother and his wife. And I'd like to get into flipping properties. That's kind of you know, what I would like my retirement plan to look like, obviously handle the real estate, part of that and have my brother and my husband handle the, you know, construction part of that. That's kind of my 10 year plan. You know, I can always pivot and readjust if I need to, but that's kind of what I looked at in the future. I think as real estate agents, we never truly retire. You know, we can go into referral. But are we ever really, truly retired? So

Rick Ripma: 44:21

the everybody I've talked to, that's not in their m&a, even even the ones who have tried, you just don't? They can't. And it's like, I people are calling at what I'm thinking of specifically says people keep calling me and what am I going to do? Not not? Right? I'm going to take care of them, right? They've been my client forever. I'm going to take care of money and it's not. It becomes a lot less work. I know what I wanted to ask, because you talked a lot about what I'll call misconceptions of real estate. One was your talked about how hard somebody has to work because I think it's interesting how people get that they just have misconceptions of what a real estate is. does. So what are what do you see those misconceptions are? From a, maybe from a new agent point of view? Like, what did they miss, they just have this misconception about when they come into real estate, what they're actually going to be doing.

Sarah Noel: 45:14

I think that a lot of new and green agents, and this may go along with age two, because I look at my son, for example, not to keep bringing him up. I think they think it's easy money, and we're gonna get rich really, really quick. And you don't have to put in a ton of work. I think a brand new agent maybe comes in and thinks, you know, my first month, I'm going to close three houses. And it takes time, like, right, it takes time. You've got to put in the work, you've got to build your pipeline. It's just it's not easy. It's not easy money. It's the best career I think I could ever imagine myself being in. If you would have asked me 10 years ago, what your dream job I probably would have said, I'm going to retire in health care. And by far, I'm so much happier now. And that's not a dig at health care. And, you know, I loved everyone that I worked with, I loved my providers, I loved my staff, my teams. I love the connections that I made. But it's not easy money. It's good money. It's not easy money, you've got to work hard for it. You can't come in once a week and make three or four phone calls and think you're going to be a millionaire in the first three months. That's just not possible. Yeah, maybe it is if you sold a multimillion dollar house right away. But again, you're still

Rick Ripma: 46:22

I mean, what I one of the worst things I've seen happen is somebody does that they do they do well, right off the bat. And then they go spend all their money on all this expensive things. And then they it doesn't sustain itself, right? Because markets change.

Sarah Noel: 46:38

Yes. And you have to change with the market. Yes. And it goes

Rick Ripma: 46:41

up and down and your sales go up. And I've been in sales, my entire life sales go up, sales go down, you know, markets change, market goes up, markets go down, there's some things you can do about it. But there's, if the entire market crashes, you can do better than most, but you probably aren't going to be where you were right.

Sarah Noel: 46:57

Yeah. And you have I mean, you have to continually educate yourself if you're, you know, in a place that you're not getting those continuous tools and, you know, meetings and educational seminars or whatever, find your way to find that or you're not going to make it because you don't know how to shift and change.

Ian Arnold: 47:13

Yeah, I think the biggest thing I think Rick pointed out a little bit is a lot of people if you're not used to being commissioned, you don't understand that you're not it, you're not guaranteed a paycheck next week, or the following week, or the following or in our business the next month,

Sarah Noel: 47:27

right? Yeah, and that's, you know, that's a big expectation you have to set with a new lender or a new agent. As you know, even if you go under contract today, you're looking at 30 to 45 days before you get a paycheck. And real estate's not cheap either. Like you know, you have more fees to pay, you have you know, transaction fees to pay, you have marketing fees to pay, you know, you've got to get your your promo items every you know, ordered and everything. So it is an investment, but it's also a big return on investment too. Right. But yeah, and taxes, everybody forgets about taxes, put money back for taxes, don't make that mistake to where you're scurrying. Come March or April, not knowing how you're going to pay your taxes.

Rick Ripma: 48:06

Yeah, that's a huge one. Yeah. Anybody who is self employed, that's

Sarah Noel: 48:09

a huge one. Yes, you've

Rick Ripma: 48:11

got to put it back. You should pay it quarterly. You know, we actually did a, because I had a lot of agents asking, so we did a podcast with a financial planner. Yeah. And that's what they talked about. Yep. was part of what they talked about. That's interesting, too, that one of the things they talked about was, you know, I said, so what, what about investment? What should they do? Because I've had lots of them asked me that. And he said, well, the number one they're in real estate, they should buy real estate. You know, that's, that's a great way to invest their money, you know, that doesn't benefit him. But he really believes if you're in real estate, that's what you know, that should be part of your investment strategy. Yeah. Sounds like that's part of your investment strategy.

Sarah Noel: 48:46

Well, and you know, to Ian's point, you know, you get your first paycheck, and let's say it's five or $6,000. And, I mean, I'm guilty. I like my luxury things. But you know, that brand new agent may run up to Keystone at the crossing, and go meet my friend Sarah at the Louis Vuitton store and spend$3,000 on a purse but they're not, that's not sustainable. You've got to learn how to re budget your money, you've got to factor in your annual fees that you have to pay. Just be smart about it. Find yourself a mentor, you know, even if, like I said, you're a small brokerage with nobody else, they're just your managing broker. If your managing broker is not able to mentor you find a partner find someone who can help guide you who can help mentor you, you know, not only how to do your contracts, but you know how to handle those financial situations how to budget your money, so that come you know, March and June when you have to pay your mobile fees, you're able to do that.

Rick Ripma: 49:35

So a lot long term.

Ian Arnold: 49:36

Yes. I want you to mentor and guide your customers to either buy or sell their home or on come on your team. So what's the best way they can get in contact with you

Sarah Noel: 49:46

call or text me at 31798781353179878135 and the company again is the Stewart home group Stewart home and my team is Sarah and company are Sara and Co. founders are out of Mooresville. Yes. Mooresville Plainfield and we just opened to Martinsville office. Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah. So, but I've been known to sell as far south as Columbus. I've driven to Santa Claus to show houses and I've sold as far north as Warsaw. So I go anywhere. Yeah, well, that's, I may refer you out but for the most part, I go anywhere.

Rick Ripma: 50:21

And 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. And please follow us for more indies real estate gurus

Ian Arnold: 50:34

and reminder if you haven't friends, family, co workers looking to buy sell or refinance? Let us know we more than happy to help you. Sir. Thank you for joining us on our show today having me it was a pleasure in the stories I like to rent NMLS

Announcer: 50:45

number 33041. Britain's NMLS number 6645 819. Arnold's NMLS number is 195469 equal housing opportunity some restrictions apply