Guru Scott Malcolm with EXP Realty

Welcome to Indy's Real Estate Gurus. I'm Rick Ripme, your hardworking mortgage guy, and I've been in mortgages and real estate for over 34 years. I've helped over 40 or 5,200 folks finance their homes. My team and I believe in custom tailored loans, not the one size fits all approach. We believe there is a best mortgage for you, and we believe we are the team to deliver it. And we're recording today on Riverside, so I am really fortunate to have Scott Malcolm, and he is a tremendous real estate agent out of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Uh, and one of the, this isn't the only thing I think is just phenomenal about Scott, but Scott has figured out what most agents tell me they are struggling with and that is how to control your time. So you're not working all the time. Scott, thanks so much for joining me. I really do appreciate it.

Scott Malcolm:
Yeah, I appreciate it. Thank you as well.

Rick Ripma:
And you're with EXP Realty, correct?

Scott Malcolm:
I've been with the XP now for three years.

Rick Ripma:
Awesome. And how did you, how did you, or what did you do before real estate? You know, where were you born? Where were you raised? What'd you do?

Scott Malcolm:
Yeah, a little bit about the background of me. I was born in Indianapolis. I think probably four or five years after that, my parents moved up to Madison, Wisconsin, spent some time in Madison and then in Fort Wayne, back to Madison and back to Fort Wayne. Once in Akron, Ohio for a little while as I was growing up. But I ended up going from third, fourth grade all the way up, I've been in Fort Wayne, Indiana. So

Rick Ripma:
Okay.

Scott Malcolm:
yeah, before then I went to undergrad school at Ball State. business degree, marketing, sales and promotion aspect. And I went out into the world for a couple, three years, sold, I sold, I had, I don't know, I had a number of different jobs, but worked about three years, and then I went back to graduate school in architecture. I got three years more in graduate work of architecture at Ball State again, because they had a top, where they were fourth in the country when I went back to go to that program as a graduate school student, so. got out of that and ended up working for an architect out of Muncie they had a location in Annapolis as well. This is way back in 19, gosh probably 89, 88, 1988, 89.

Rick Ripma:
I don't know why, that doesn't seem that long ago. Ha

Scott Malcolm:
I know

Rick Ripma:
ha ha ha

Scott Malcolm:
for

Rick Ripma:
ha

Scott Malcolm:
me and you it

Rick Ripma:
ha

Scott Malcolm:
doesn't at

Rick Ripma:
ha

Scott Malcolm:
all, but for

Rick Ripma:
ha.

Scott Malcolm:
everybody that I'm around, 30, 40 year olds, it does. But anyways, I found my way, eventually I worked my way into real estate. I don't know how it ever happened. I just, it's a long story, but I found myself marrying the business degree with the architecture degree and then put those together and it worked out beautiful in real estate. And the first year I tried real estate, I made more money I ever made relatively. And it was fun. It was enjoyable. So I thought, you know, I'm going to keep doing this. So here I am 31 years doing it, 28 years with one company and just last three years started with the XP. So it's been a really cool ride. Lots of things I've learned. So.

Rick Ripma:
Yeah, that's obviously that long in the business you've learned learned a bunch. And I've got to think having that architectural degree makes a huge difference and really helps you in

Scott Malcolm:
It does.

Rick Ripma:
real estate.

Scott Malcolm:
You know how things are put together, you know how things are built, you don't walk into a house that has an old farmhouse that has a hump in the floor and the second floor and things kind of fall down. You understand the structure of it, you understand what it is. So

Rick Ripma:
Yeah.

Scott Malcolm:
I think really what it does too is the inspection process. You know, everybody hates the inspection process. They don't all hate it, but a lot of them do. And that's an easy part for me. That's what I don't specialize in, but I do. I mean, when it comes to the inspection aspect of a house, how they're put together and how they're built, I can walk a client through. off the cliff of a lot of being scared a lot. I want a lot of issues because I understand how they're put together. So that works out pretty well. So yeah, it does come in. I think it also comes into play when you're, I've done a lot of new construction, hundreds and hundreds of build jobs. I don't have hundreds, but I certainly got 120, 30, 40 build jobs in my belt. Some from scratch, some at spec stage or different stages out. So that all is easy to come through with too and understand how to plan to a client, what we're gonna do and how we're gonna go through the process. So it's been

Rick Ripma:
Yeah,

Scott Malcolm:
a cool

Rick Ripma:
that's

Scott Malcolm:
journey. It's

Rick Ripma:
huge.

Scott Malcolm:
been pretty neat. Yeah.

Rick Ripma:
Yeah.

Scott Malcolm:
It's an option where you can't find what

Rick Ripma:
I would

Scott Malcolm:
you want.

Rick Ripma:
think.

Scott Malcolm:
Let's look at new construction.

Rick Ripma:
Yeah, yeah, obviously I spent 11 years in new construction with a big, big builder, uh, here in town, the Esports companies. And so I, I think it helps, but I think that architectural background seems like to me that'd be a huge help as would the new construction helping you know, if somebody needs to go that way, but, but even on a listing, how does it help you on a listing when you go into somebody's house? I'm, I'm assuming it helps even on a listing, helps both ways, both sides.

Scott Malcolm:
Yeah. I mean, I think what I look at is, you know, I built nine spec homes myself too. I didn't build any of them, but I financed nine spec homes from scratch up

Rick Ripma:
Okay.

Scott Malcolm:
back in the day. And the first couple of them, I picked out everything. I picked out doorknobs, hinges, I mean, all the way through the entire process, all the process you go through. And I know the builder I was with, I'm the finance guy, you're the builder, you build it, we'll split the profits. So I wanted to be, from my architecture background, I wanted to be involved in some of the building processes in the first two or three and then after that I'm like I'm done. You do what you do. But you would give you a book. Here's a book. Pick out hinges and you'd go into the book and there would be 16 pages of knobs and hinges. So from you know five, six bucks a piece you know maybe for a hinge or for a doorknob. Really cheap $16 ones. All the way up to $50, $60, $80 for doorknobs. It's ridiculous. And so you realize the quality levels. So I can walk into an existing house right now. grab a doorknob and tell you kind of where that stands, you know, by how it turns. I can feel quality of that, or the not the quality, or the mid-range of that, or the cheapness of that. And that's through with all the product lines you see in the entire house. So people would come to me and say, look, I have a ranch sitting here, I have a two-story sitting here, and this thing is more expensive than this thing, and they're the same size, same square footage. How

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
can that be? Well, I can tell you how that is.

Rick Ripma:
Yeah.

Scott Malcolm:
There's a lot more expensive to build ranches, a lot more of a foundation,

Rick Ripma:
Yes.

Scott Malcolm:
a lot more of a road line. And so people don't get it, but from all the background you have in the architectural world, I think that's really where that comes in to analyze houses. What, am I going to sell your house or am I going to help you buy a house? I can kind of analyze the house and what it is that I'm actually helping you look at. What are you actually seeing? Because we do it every day and most people don't do it every day. I mean, they do it once every

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
four or five, six years or whatever it is, and they're not used to being in this game. So they look upon us as professionals to help guide them in that process. And so the more you can bring to the table on information, help to make a better decision. the more comfortable they feel, the more they trust you. So.

Rick Ripma:
Yep. And you've done it. You said you've been in the business for 31 years. So you have a huge, a great background. You probably sold thousands of homes, I'm guessing. And

Scott Malcolm:
Yeah, we're in there. We're close, yeah. We're definitely

Rick Ripma:
yeah,

Scott Malcolm:
in there.

Rick Ripma:
that, that's, that's phenomenal. And that's, that's a, that puts you in an elite company, right? I mean, there's not a lot of, a lot of people have done that. And

Scott Malcolm:
Yeah.

Rick Ripma:
I'm guessing even less in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Scott Malcolm:
Yeah, well, you know what? I look at it, it's a whole other thing we can talk about today. I look at it as almost an embarrassment.

Rick Ripma:
How come?

Scott Malcolm:
I'll throw a twist into you here. So I will start with this. I'll start with we, I look at this industry as really one of the coolest industries to be in, right? We're helping people move into homes where they're gonna raise children, have families, they're gonna cry, they're gonna laugh, they're gonna do all this personal stuff in a home. It's really personal. And we get to help them go achieve that. Build them or sell them and buy them, buy new ones for them, help them through the process. And on the other hand, this is the worst business to be in. I've said that a million times. This is the best business to be in because you get that gratification of what you're really trying to sell. I'm not selling pens, I'm not selling

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
bottles, I'm selling homes. It's a big ticket item, it's a lot of cost, and it's an emotional situation for most people when they live in those homes. So on the other side, it's the worst business to be in. So spending all these years with one company and I ended up managing. They had four offices, they had about 120, 130 agents, and they had four offices that they had. And I ended up managing two of those, and one just briefly for a year. But managing those offices and watching my agents, you know, 14, 15 agents, 12 to 16 agents, somewhere in there, go out and help people do what we just said, do the coolest thing ever, is help them get into a home, watch them work every night and every weekend. That's the worst part of this business is the time that you put in to exchange to get the money.

Rick Ripma:
Yes.

Scott Malcolm:
Everybody exchanges time for money no matter what job you're in. Most jobs are 8 to 5. You know 8 to

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
5 I exchanged that amount of time based and sometimes it's 7 to 6 or whatever but it's basically that time frame and sometimes you have shift hours and they do different things but people don't say you don't go to a job and say hey the normal job hour here is 16 hours a day okay. That's just the way we do it 16 hours and you're going to do most of that on the from the afternoon all the way to the evening, 9 o'clock, and you're gonna do most of that on the weekends. And nobody would like, oh, that's cool, I'll take that job.

Rick Ripma:
Yeah.

Scott Malcolm:
So, and there's no insurance and there's no pay scale and there's nothing there to protect you, you just gotta go after it. So I think the worst part of the job is that, is the fact that I would watch my big agents and big, you know, in Fort Indiana's 12, 15 million, 18 million, you're a big dog, you're making big money, watch those people, you know. get burned out. I mean at one point or another five, six, eight years in whatever it is there's everybody reaches a burnout level. I mean because really we work when the public doesn't work.

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
We do. They all go to work, most of them are eight to five and then at five o'clock they get home they feed the kids whatever they're going to do, change clothes and then they want you to come over and look at their house seven thirty or they want to go look at houses at seven or seven thirty especially in the summertime. So that whole process just pulls people agents right out. They got it, they got it. be available whenever the client wants to be available. Usually that's nights and then the weekends are not working. They're not going to work on the weekends sometimes. Most of them

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
aren't. You're gonna work Saturday and you can't make a living with one client. You gotta have multiple clients at a time. You're shuffling four or five, six people around and you're trying to accommodate Monday night, Tuesday night, Tuesday night to Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and then Saturday, okay, let's go, go, go. Sunday, you got an open house, you got the people before, got the people afterwards. They wanna meet about a bill job. It just goes on and on and on. And so it's not a healthy environment

Rick Ripma:
Yeah.

Scott Malcolm:
to... even for decades and decades, you know, so I think that's really what I wanted to, you know, kind of talk to you about today or talk with

Rick Ripma:
Yes.

Scott Malcolm:
you about is that concept. That concept is how do we as agents, real estate brokers live a life that we don't work every night and weekend. When I first started, there's a thrill to the hunt, right? We're in sales and we

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
want to help people. We want to be there for them no matter what. I am, you can count on me. I'll be there. And so that puts you in that position where they say 7 o'clock, 3 o'clock at night, you say yes. If you say no, then like, well, geez, you know, then I'll get somebody else. I'm not going to

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
wait on you. And so I've watched all my agents go to this point of burnout. And then my big agents would come in like usually about June, maybe July.

Rick Ripma:
Okay.

Scott Malcolm:
And they would sit there and they would just, the guys want to fight. They're like, I can't take it anymore. This is ridiculous. I, you know, I'm just, something's got to give here. and then the women would come in, they'd get mad too, and then they'd start choking up, you know, like I just can't keep this pace. I just can't, I mean, I can't, I will, but I can't, I don't like, so, but they'll never say that in public, you know, and they'll never

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
admit to that. And I always said, you know, people say, well, he's really successful, she's really successful. I always say, well, they go to the spouse and find out what that success looks like. Because in this industry, Rick, we give out awards for production. It's a production business. You

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
got to do a certain amount to pay your broker. You got to do that. I get that. But we give awards and accolades and all this stuff to people who produce really big numbers. And it takes a bunch of effort, energy, and mass amounts of time to produce those numbers.

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
So I wouldn't take away anything from my big producers or anybody's big producers. They do. They put in the hours, and they haul it, and they do it, and they get burned out, and they get mad, and they don't like it, but they'll get over it in a few weeks. They'll be back on the trail, and they're hunting out again. And so. So it's an industry crisis to me. And it's always been, I think it's always been like that. And so you look at the spouse and how to go. Spouses, a lot of them just say, hey, you know what, this is the industry that my husband or my wife's in. This is the way it works. This is the way it goes. You just have to say, okay, you buy in and you let it go. You just have to understand. I don't think that there is other ways to do it. You don't have to do that, but most of them do. And most of the industry, real estate brokers are in. It's good to the end of the year. you know, chess is all out at the end of the year. And I got, I did 18 million or 16 or whatever the number is. I made $450,000 or whatever it is. And we give you accolades for that. Now you go in the backside and like, I spent every night and not every night, but a lot of weekends and a lot of nights chasing down, helping people. So I always say that too. Friday night comes, you had dinner planned with your wife and two other couples or your children. And your call comes in 730 for a $500,000 house. They want to see it 730 Friday night. And you already had your plan set for a couple of weeks. So 20, it's a 15K check. What are you going to do? The majority of agents will probably say, honey, I'm so sorry, I had an opportunity here. I got to go take care of this person. Versus basically saying, no, I'm going to go ahead and I'll hop out tomorrow or whatever it is. So that's what I've seen over the 28, 30 years is people just running and running and running and running. And with the buying of leads, which is changing and morphing right now, but that put everybody into just even more of it. Now, now, now, now, you got to go. So to me, Rick, there's two factions. There's an abundance mentality that business can be done through, and mentality, a state of mind, and there's a scarcity mentality. And I would say 90 plus percent of agents work in a scarcity mentality, not because they choose to, it's just that's what the industry presents. You're working off of social media platforms, you're working off of advertisements of some type to try to track people to you, or you're buying leads of some kind. know and so all those methodologies tend to trying to attract people to come to you and they're and when they come to you you've got to respond. You can't say well gosh sorry I spent all this effort energy to get you to come to me and then I got dinner 730 on Friday night with my daughter I can't go with you sorry. You can't you're gonna like okay yeah I spent this effort I got somebody I always say spiderwebs you put spiderwebs all up something hits vibrates and you got to go after it. It's an opportunity. So the abundance mentality that I've learned to live with over the years and half my career has been in the scarcity mentality and half my career has been in the abundance mentality which is working by private recommendations and that is a whole other world. That is completely the opposite of what I used to do and what most agents do is working by private recommendations only. Now I do only, a lot of agents don't do only. I mean I 100% do not work off the street if I call it and I mean I can prove the point I drew a line that's saying to my family, to myself, and my health, and my wife, and everything years ago. And how much that line means something to me is I remember last summer pulling up to my office here and a call comes in to my car and I was in a mood so I thought I usually don't take calls if I don't know that my name's not on there because I don't do advertising, I don't advertise out there in the open market. So I hit this number and the lady said, hey, we got your name from off the internet. We saw the website that you had and you have experience and you've been around a while and we'd like to use you. We're moving back from Texas to Fort Wayne and we'd like to use you and we're price range. You went right with about 750 to 850 and we'd love to have you help us. I didn't even hesitate. I was like, gosh, so you got my name off the website. Yep, okay, so you know what? Please, please, whatever, don't take this wrong. I've committed to my family and my wife that I would work by private recommendations only. and said, you really haven't been recommending me, but I have an understudy that does excellent, excellent work. And if you wouldn't mind, I'd recommend you to him, and I will be on the backside making sure that he's taken care of you well. Would that be okay? And she said, sure, that'd be great. And so he landed a 744, and not that the numbers matter, but I mean, he landed a big deal, and he had a big

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
check, and I didn't take anything from it. I said, just, it's all yours, you take care of it. And she was fine on the backside of all that, so it worked out well. But I'm willing to let go of that. I don't care if it's a million dollar deal, it's a $30,000 check. I'm willing to let go of that because I know my life is more in control, it's more calm, I don't do a lot of nights and weekends. There's a whole systematic approach to this whole thing but I think when you work by prior recommendations if you can get that going and there's a whole methodology behind that, you got trust. Every relationship starts with trust. You

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
and your spouse, your best friend, you and anybody, you and your teacher, the professor, everybody, it's all trust. So when you work off the street, you know, the social media platforms and well, I think that stuff's cool. I mean, it's a whole module. That's a whole world in that world. Not just social media, but the buying of leads. There's a whole system how they filter that back down and the teams are built and the whole thing's cool. But that whole atmosphere creates a 50-50 shot. To me, I look at it and watch my agents do it. They are. They're creating all these pieces to try to get someone to come to me. and it's a 50-50, I don't know you, you don't know me, I saw a little bit about you, I'm calling you to help me in some way, you know, buyer, seller, bill. So you're still 50-50, I'm gonna go meet you, we're gonna try to start a relationship, I'm gonna try to start from scratch and build some trust and so that you believe in me and then I can help you do what you wanna do. Whereas on the other side, I try to create an environment through working by prior recommendations that you call me and say, can you help me? And then I end up. going through a consult. I already have some trust because John said to call you Scott and so now I got, I got at least I start with some little element of trust which is zero from the other side. It's like I don't know you, here I do know you a little. Somebody said you did a good job so I got this much trust. Then my whole thing is I bring into a buyer consultation or a seller consultation. 1000% I will never ever and I haven't for years work with you if you do not agree to sit down with me with a consultation. The market's moving fast. Everybody says you can't do that in the market and move fast. I've done it every single time all five years it's been going crazy I've done it every single time. Because they've recommendation the recommendation says hey I think you're worth you know spend some time with you've been

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
you're good at what you do. I will give you the 45 minutes even though I want to go see the house right afterwards that's fine it's fair enough. So that consultation has some trust in it and all I got to do is get that consultation it's all about you it's all about what is it you want to accomplish what are you trying to achieve what's your dates have you been to the Lenders have you. Do you know what the lender's differences are? We talk about all the things in the market conditions and how it's looking, set all the expectations out correctly. And then I'm trying to take that trust from here to here. Once I get this trust, you trust me that I'm gonna do the right thing for you and I'm listening to what you want, then I'm going to go ahead and take that and I can lead. I can lead you through, you wanna go buy a house? I can lead you to buy a house, but you gotta follow my lead. I've done this a thousand times. You've done it five or six maybe, I don't know, in your lifetime. I've got a good feel for it especially the market conditions we've been in the last five years so I need to lead you. I need you to, when I suggest these are the four things you could do or here's the best thoughts and wanting to achieve what you're trying to achieve they usually will follow it and that's harder to get when you get off the street. You got a 50-50 they trust you a little they don't know you just try to build it and then when you get to the offer and they're telling you this is what I want to do and you're like I'd be better if we did this or maybe we have two options on doing it this way and that's not what I want to do I want to do this. Oh okay. You just don't have as much influence off the street when you're trying to build trust from scratch versus working with that recommendation piece that there are some trusts, you need to do the consultation correctly, get good at them and get a heart to heart going a little bit there at the end of the consultation and get this thing to trust this trust up where now I can help lead you what you want. So that's kind of really, and then you're like, my clients don't call me and say, hey, 730 on Friday night, I want to see this house. They never do. They would call me up and say, you know, hey Scott, I saw a house. When's a good time that we can get over to look at it? I know the market's moving fast. You know, I say, let me call the agent real fast and see if they're actually going to make a decision tonight or not. You can always get bid on that. There's always, but you handle that during the consultation. I lay out the expectations of the consultation, the market moving fast. We may not be able to see every house that we want to get to. It may be sold before we can get there. I mean, that's just the way that it is right now. So I don't like it, but That is where the reality is. I mean, you can't be available 24-7 every single second that somebody decides that they want to pull you into their life, that you got to drop everything you got going right now and go. And that's just impossible to think that way. So, but again, if you're working off the street, somebody else will.

Rick Ripma:
Yeah,

Scott Malcolm:
Somebody

Rick Ripma:
that's right.

Scott Malcolm:
else will drop everything they got going and they will go service that client no matter what, especially the bigger the client, the bigger the check, the more the motivation is to go now. And so that has always plagued our industry, I think. You

Rick Ripma:
Yeah,

Scott Malcolm:
know, that people

Rick Ripma:
I think

Scott Malcolm:
are willing to just jump and run.

Rick Ripma:
it's a tough thing. I want to find out more about it, but if somebody wanted to get a hold of you, maybe your team or maybe an agent has a question about this. What's the best way to get a hold of you or your team?

Scott Malcolm:
It's my phone number. It's my call and leave me a voicemail. I can tell you all about that too next. 260-705-6500 that's my cell and that's only people use that cell typically our clients so I'm good with that and just leave a voicemail. I always tell my clients too in the consultation look I drew a line in the sand too years ago several different lines. One was when I'm with a human, I'm with a human. I don't carry this thing with me. I don't carry this thing around with me. I'm not one of those people, I've learned, to not look at this. If I'm with you, I'm with you. Because I've lost two brothers that were, I'm a family of, I'm the bottom of seven kids and my oldest sister was 81. So time is precious, time you can't get back. Once it goes, it goes. You can never, you can't do it. Everybody gets that. And so I am with the human, I'm with the human. I'm showing hows, I'm showing hows. I am not checking my phone. I never have my phone at closings. I never have my phone at showings. I have to carry my phone up to the door sometimes because they want to use the app. And if I do, I do. And then I put it back in my car. Or I turn it off and put it in my pocket. I don't even like that. I've gotten so used to not carrying my phone. So my clients know that though, because I'm working off recommendations. I'm working with a calmer clientele and they trust me. And so I say, if you call me, I'm not able to pick up. It's because I'm with somebody, I'm in a meeting, I'm trying to help another person. So please feel free to leave a detailed voicemail and I will definitely always get back to you. I will never not. So don't think I, because he didn't pick up. I explained that in the consultation. It's up to the correct expectation out. And so all my clients know to leave voicemails. They leave voicemail for me and I always listen to it and I always get back to them. So in the worst case, I'll get back to you tomorrow. You take away the sense of urgency when you get off the scarcity mentality. You do. You take that whole thing away. All the atmosphere leaves and the new atmosphere comes in where it's, hey, trust. and there's patience and we understand the market's moving fast but yet we need to do the right steps. We need to sit down and talk

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
about what are you trying to accomplish and can we actually can I actually help you? I mean there's times I have conversations and I feel like I can't help you. I'm not in a position to help you the way you need to be helped. It's not always a good match.

Rick Ripma:
Right. Yeah, yeah, it makes total sense. And the people, I've only had a few that really are in that abundance mentality

Scott Malcolm:
Mm-hmm.

Rick Ripma:
where they just, you know, and it does, it makes, it eliminates a lot of stress and everything. I don't know. Everything always works out.

Scott Malcolm:
In the overall big picture of life, it's time. The

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
most precious thing is money in the beginning. You need money. You gotta have money to buy a car, a house, and raise kids and put them through college. You gotta get all that money going. I get it. But then once you get enough money going, then it becomes time. I want my time back. That's the most successful people I know. That's the ultimate end is, can I get my time back? I've got plenty

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
of money. I can raise money. I can make money. I know how to do it, but I want my time back. I don't want

Rick Ripma:
Yeah.

Scott Malcolm:
to spend all this time to get this much money, you know? And that's the age old question is where does it start and stop? Where's the balance? And that's what most in the beginning, you don't even care about the balance. You just want to get the career going and get the clients going. But I think once you learn to work off your database, which I think I listened to your podcast last week from last week, I do call my clients. That's the only, I get fed whatever my clients feed me. Whatever my past clients in my database feeds me by me calling them and checking on them is what I get. That's my income every year. and anything comes off the street I give it to other people. I don't work it

Rick Ripma:
Okay.

Scott Malcolm:
off the street stuff. Sign calls I don't do. I rarely, it has to be a special exception for me to double pop a property. You know I mean to be on the selling side and the buying side both

Rick Ripma:
Right,

Scott Malcolm:
I have to have

Rick Ripma:
right.

Scott Malcolm:
really good feeling about the whole thing for me to go down that path and walk that line. It's rare but I mean I've done it but it's got to be a certain circumstance that makes sense for everybody involved that I would do it.

Rick Ripma:
Yeah,

Scott Malcolm:
And so

Rick Ripma:
so tough.

Scott Malcolm:
I'm not so I'm not Those agents that look at me like you're so, it's ridiculous that you give stuff away. Why would you? Cause I got my time back. My

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
evenings and my weekends were pretty good. I don't spend a lot. If I spend time on a night or weekends cause I'm choosing to do it cause the circumstances prevails that I have to, you know, I've chosen like, we can make another exception, but you know what? I'm saying let's just go do this. Let's get it done right now. And usually it's all Saturday morning. I try to shut down by one, you know? Even if a house pops up in the market at four o'clock, I'm... They're seeing it, they're calling me, I'm calling the agent, going what are you up against? What are you gonna do? Are you gonna shut this thing down at six o'clock tonight or are you gonna go till Monday or Sunday? What are you up against? And then I'm trying to advise my client, I say, you know, we got time on Monday to go look at this or we got time on Sunday to go look at this. So,

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
yeah, it's just

Rick Ripma:
Yeah.

Scott Malcolm:
a calmer, calmer when you work off your database and the database respects you. It's a respectful business. I think they're a thing you get out of this is they respect your opinion, they ask you what you think and they go with your guidance. I mean, I think we are professionals. I mean, we are. You're coming to me saying, hey, I wanna invest three or four, five, six thousand, eight thousand dollars, eight hundred thousand dollars in the market. That's what you're asking me to do, is help you invest that kind of thing in the market. My job is to guide you in that best possible way to get the best return on that, over the long haul, the short haul, whatever it is you're up against. So I think that's why we should take it. I take it seriously. It's not something we wanna do nights and weekends. I don't think it's, would you go to a stock broker, you know, to take $400,000, 730 on Thursday night? to a

Rick Ripma:
No.

Scott Malcolm:
stockbroker, hey, or Saturday afternoon at 4 o'clock when you're watching a ball game or what, no. So I think elevating ourselves to think of us as professionals, we're licensed by the state of Indiana, accountants and doctors, attorneys, we're all real estate brokers, we're just saying thing, we have to go get a state license to operate. And so if you start elevating yourself to think that way, you're not just this, go, go, go, open the door for me, I'm going to tell you what I want to do. I'm going to tell you how it works, and I'm going to tell you what I want to write, and I'm just how it's going to go. This is the data, this is what I want. That's hard, that's difficult, it's hard to do. And that's what you start out doing. And then as time passes, you learn to build database, you learn to get some respect, you learn to get trust, and when trust comes, you can lead them down the path, and they'll take your suggestions. And they're not going to make you jump and run. They're going to understand you have a family, you have a life, and we respect you. So we will work with what you can do. It's

Rick Ripma:
Yeah,

Scott Malcolm:
a really cool thing.

Rick Ripma:
it sounds like one of the big things is you set the expectation upfront.

Scott Malcolm:
You do.

Rick Ripma:
Is that important?

Scott Malcolm:
That's the consultations. Every one of those consultations. That's why when I first get you, like people call me and say, I got your name from John. And I'm really looking for us two points, I'm a blah, blah, blah. But you know what? I try to stop them. I do stop them. I say, you know what? Honestly, John gave me your name. He recommended you to me. And the way to honor John and to not let John down is for me to have a consultation with you. Sit down with you for 45 minutes or so. And let's go over what it is you're trying to accomplish. Does that make sense? Does that make sense to you? And they all go, yeah, no, they don't want to, but sometimes they're like, yeah, no, all right, we'll do it. And every time when I get to a consultation, I've got two pages, three pages of written up material that I've walked them through. They're glad they did. They're glad they took the time to sit down and really get a perspective on everything that's going on and what the big plan is and what we're gonna do, how we're gonna accomplish what you want. You can't call an attorney up and say, write up a lawsuit, I'll sign

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
it. You have a problem, you come in and sit down and let's talk about what your problem is and we'll see if we can solve it for you. we'll see if it's worth taking on a case or not. Some people threaten to sue people like, you gotta get an attorney that agrees with it, or sees it the way you see it, and willing to go down the path with you. So same thing with real estate, they wanna go buy something, well let's sit down and talk about what are you trying to achieve, and do you have the money, and all the things that you put into this to find out where it is, if you can help you or not. There's people you can't help. And

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
so you avoid a lot of the wasted time, a lot of energy. by having the consultation and in the consultation you set the expectations as to how you work. I tell them how realtors work and how I don't work the way realtors work because you go all damn day, I don't say damn, but you go all day

Rick Ripma:
Hahaha!

Scott Malcolm:
at your job working 8 to 5, spending energy and time and energy, are you still sharp at 5 o'clock as you were at 9.30 in the morning or 10? Are you on point like crazy at that time? Some people are not people, I get it, but the bulk of humans of the world goes off the time clock of night and day. And as

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
we get closer to the evening, we get less sharp. All the problems I used to try to solve for my agents, most of those mistakes are made on the contract or made in statements, miscommunication, came in the evenings, came on the weekends when they're already kind of burned out, they want some time to relax. I say this too, Rick, well then why didn't, why did in the economy of the United States of America and the eight to five job, why don't we work seven days a week? Why don't we? We don't. Somebody said Monday and Friday is a good time to stop. Monday start and Friday stop. and give you two days. What's the two days for? Whether to rejuvenate, to relax, to have some downtime and then key back up for Monday. That's not the way realtors do it. Realtors would think, no, it's 724. I'm available all the time and I make mistakes all the time. And you're tired and you're trying to handle the largest transaction of their life at 8 o'clock or 10 o'clock or whatever it is at night because you can't say no to them because you're working off the street, you haven't been able to get to your database and get that thing you know, well oiled and bringing referrals to you that trust you and then make that thing, that whole world is a whole different world to live in. And that's what I love to cultivate everybody to do but I've already tried to teach 60 some people to do it and nobody will do it. The one thing that I do when I call, I'll say, hey Rick, Scott Malcolm. I'll say, so how have you guys been doing? If they pick up, good, good, good. How's the house? We are in the business of selling houses.

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
So I have contractors, I have plumbers, electricians, I have flooring people and painters and roofers, and I have all those people that when somebody calls me to fix the house up, I bring all my people in or whatever I need and then give them bids and if they say yes, then we go through and we fix the house up, ready for sale. I've carried those, I had a coach one day, you know, years ago, I've had three different coaches, but the one coach, they're like, why don't you tell all your clients that? You're in the business, that's what you do, you sell housing. So you've got contractors that fix up houses to sell, why don't you just offer that to all your people all the time? So that's what I do. That's my icebreaker when I call my clients. I was, look, I got carpenters. I name them. I name all the stuff off, all of them. I name five or six of them. And then just saying, look, spring's coming. If you need carpet, you need painter to paint the house, you need anything, let me know. I'm an option for you. I'm a resource. As opposed to you just asking around. You could ask me. I have contractors that can help you. Maintain your home as you live there. It's a great idea to do. In case something comes up someday, you want to sell. So that's the concept. And so I say, how do you need anything for the house? And then I always sit there and say, you know what, you already know this, but I work off private recommendations only and have for years. And so if you know anybody at work, church, you gotta know if they go to church or not, coworkers, neighbors, and family. If you have anybody in those circles that's thinking about selling or buying this coming spring or summer, let me know. I'd love to help them and I promise you I will do an excellent job and I will not let you down. And so that's it. You just say, do you need any help keeping your house maintained? I have contract, I can help you. And then secondly, you give and then you ask. So and I get people say it on the spot, Scott, I do have a friend at work, he just talked about it and he's thinking about it, I'll have him give you a call. So it's pretty cool when you can work that methodology. I don't even, so I don't, my whole budget for advertising is like this. I mean I don't,

Rick Ripma:
Yeah.

Scott Malcolm:
I have attorney friends and the same thing. They grew up, their whole, the whole industry of attorneys never advertised. It was shunned upon. You would not,

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
you had to go off your own reputation. as an attorney firm and you went by recommendations only. You never, it was taboo to go out there and advertise. It was like oh my gosh, you're embarrassing the whole market. But you know they've all gotten acclimated now to that so

Rick Ripma:
Yes.

Scott Malcolm:
but welcome people. It came from that idea that you don't advertise, you don't have to but you have to ask. You can't just assume that you did a great job and people are going to come to you. That is never true. It's true but it's not the full truth. The full truth is you have to work at proactively going after getting referrals to come and produced to you. If you don't actively pursue it, it's just trickling. Everybody I've ever talked to, I work by referral. Everybody works by referral. Everybody gets referrals. We all do. And that's a great thing. And everybody will admit, those are cleaner and easier to work with than off the street where

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
you have to try to get that up. So it's another world to try to cultivate. And if everybody did it, it would be, that's where the abundance comes in. I don't have to go out there and fight on the street, convince you to work with me, work with me. Well, what comes in next is, well, then you're 6%. Can you do it for 5%? You're a commodity at this point. You're not. I

Rick Ripma:
ride.

Scott Malcolm:
don't really know you that well. And you're doing marketing. You do all this marketing. You do all this marketing. OK, how about, can you do it for 4%? I got him doing it for 5%. So that's what happens. Also, now you're chopping the money down. Now you're working for less

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
than you really are. And I hate that. I've had such good agents in my office over the years that I've had to do it for 5%. you know, come in and say, hey, I'm going to this house. It's a really beautiful home, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'll say, so what are you going to charge? And I know this agent's excellent. They got, you know, decade and a half of experience. They know how to handle inspections. They care, a lot of agents care. Most of the agents that are industry care, let me know, balk at them, dude. They really care about taking care of you. But they just know how to navigate a contract. They know how to navigate an inspection process. They know how to navigate the entire deal. And they're good at it. And I know they're good at it because I've been coaching them, and not coaching them, but I've been watching them produce, you know, for six, seven, eight years. I know in my office there's ages that more experience, less experience and yet you can come out of school, get your license and go charge 6%. I mean, I cannot, we can't say all that stuff but you charge the same amount of money somebody's charging after they've been in for 15, 20 years.

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
That's not, I don't believe

Rick Ripma:
Yeah.

Scott Malcolm:
in that. I've never believed in that. An attorney with five years experience does not charge the same amount

Rick Ripma:
No,

Scott Malcolm:
per hour as somebody that's got

Rick Ripma:
you're

Scott Malcolm:
30

Rick Ripma:
right.

Scott Malcolm:
years or 20 years or 50. He does not. And why is that? It's the experience level of the attorney can walk you through a lawsuit and keep you off the cliffs. He knows how to, he's got experience with that. He's gone through that cliff many, many times. Walk right up and not going to get you in there. Same with real estate transactions. They're easy when they're easy. Everybody can do an easy one. It's when it gets tough and something goes skewed and something goes left and something doesn't work. Then the experience comes in to keep that expectation set correctly and keep everybody going down the path the right way and eventually getting to where we need to all go with closing tables. So that's where I think experience matters. I think working the referral system really, really works better for your life and for experience levels of helping other agents and then trying to teach that to other agents is tough.

Rick Ripma:
Yeah.

Scott Malcolm:
It's just tough. They want to go and have fun. They want to go run fast and I get it. I did too. But at one point I got tired of running fast and I thought I need to run smart.

Rick Ripma:
No, it's probably a little scary too. But one of the things you said that I find a lot, it's not just real estate agents, but in a lot of sales industries, it's asking for referrals. And most people, or not most, there are many people who just are uncomfortable asking for that referral.

Scott Malcolm:
Absolutely.

Rick Ripma:
And it shouldn't be that way.

Scott Malcolm:
Especially

Rick Ripma:
How does somebody

Scott Malcolm:
after you

Rick Ripma:
get

Scott Malcolm:
spent

Rick Ripma:
over that?

Scott Malcolm:
three

Rick Ripma:
Yeah.

Scott Malcolm:
or four months with them getting to know who they are. I always call back after. I let them get there for about a month. I'll tell them hey in about a month I'm going to settle in and I'll check on you and I just call. So I've had to say I want to call them because what if something went wrong. It's exactly what you want to find out. You want to find out what went wrong if something did and then jump right in that run as fast you can right at that and try to say

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
what is it, what can I do to help? What can I do? You know if it ends up being you. You learn from that and you don't do that again. You don't put yourself in that position next time. You don't. So I always call a month later, then I'll call six months and then I'll put them in my rotation. My rotation, I call everybody every spring and every fall. I go through calls and I write notes to people. I do all the handwritten note files, the phone call. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me. If I could ever help you for anything you need or any contract or help, let me know. It's such a simple system and it's so inexpensive to run. And the relationships you get with all your clients is fulfilling. I mean, you know their kids to some level, you know who's going to college and who's not. I call log. I sit right here at this, at this, my office and I make my four proactive calls every morning, Monday through Thursday, and I'll make my little notes on what the conversation was. I'll write the note the next day, comment about something that we talked about, and then I go on to the next four and into the next four and you start getting depth of, a depth of relationships. Once you get depth

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
of relationship, they learn to trust, trust you even more and more after you've already spent three, four months with them. That relationship just kind of keeps going, but you're not bugging them. everybody said, well, I'm not going to bug my clients. I'm not going to beg for work. Well, then go off the street. I mean, that's it. Go back out

Rick Ripma:
Yeah.

Scott Malcolm:
the street, do your thing and run your run your nights and weekends and go on vacation and stay on the phone because you get you know, everybody go on vacation, they stick calling, they keep working. That's what they do. That's you have that option. And that's what 90% of the ages take. They take the option of just because at the end of the year, I think they want to get up and say, look at me.

Rick Ripma:
Yeah.

Scott Malcolm:
I did

Rick Ripma:
Ha ha ha.

Scott Malcolm:
a million. I'd rather make less than that and then still have a really good living, but yet still have a life that I can spend my nights and weekends mostly with my family and doing what I need to do, go on vacations and not have to work all the time. So that's why I say it's unhealthy. It's the best place to be in, it's the worst place to be in, unless you can control it. The only way to control it is to work by private. For me, my best way to control it is to work by private recommendations. And you have to look at how to work that system to get that up and run. That's an 80-20. All the other ones are 50-50. You don't know each other, you're just taking a shot. I'm spending money, energy, effort trying to get this all going. It's really cool, it's fun. And when they come to me, it's I don't know you, it's a 50-50. When I do all my energy, which is just making calls and building relationships and going deeper each year with relationships, I got an 80-20. I bet you by the time they come to me, it's an 80% chance they're probably gonna stick with me after I have a consultation

Rick Ripma:
Gross.

Scott Malcolm:
for sure. And so then I put 20% of the energy and they get 8% of my efforts. I put 20% effort, put in all the energy and I get 80% production. put 8% of all the effort in to get 20% production out of it. It's just a neat way to go. It's a smart way to go. I think it's just I wouldn't do it any other way. I think the other thing I'll speak real quickly about is finances. I don't know if you know, but it's close to 70% of all real estateers across the country in the United States of America are behind in taxes or catching up on taxes.

Rick Ripma:
I'm not surprised. I hear

Scott Malcolm:
It's seven out

Rick Ripma:
agents

Scott Malcolm:
of 10,

Rick Ripma:
talk

Scott Malcolm:
I don't know.

Rick Ripma:
about it.

Scott Malcolm:
Yeah. They're always behind taxes because we get paid the whole chunk and we maybe haven't had closing and we're budgets like, we don't even have a budget, but you know, the amount of money we need is like this. And so they're using that and they'll catch up. And so that's an indicator right there that we also have a mentality of we have to chase these checks.

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
I'll take this. I need the money because I'm not good

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
at money. I don't want to say that and nobody wants to admit that but they're not. They do not know how. I remember going to a lady and I said look I'm gonna lay my pride down and I'm gonna tell you right now that I can make good money and I don't know where it goes. I'm one of those guys gonna be embarrassed to say that and I said it. I don't know where it goes. I do but I don't. So I gave her my budget. She goes, so I shorter my budget everything that I owed. She goes, Scott this is not a budget. This is just what you owe. This has nothing to do with the budget. I'm like what? She goes, you have a dog? You said you have a dog, he gets haircuts? You say you go to Foam Depot on the weekends and buy stuff for the house, you fix up things? I mean, none of that's in here. So I spent several months trying to, every penny that comes in for commission checks, you should know where they all go out. Where does every one of these go out? I know they come in, I see the big check come in, and I take taxes out of that, and then I put, I do, I cut it up into nine different accounts and I can control everything. I have really true budgets now for spending account, for business account, for personal account. and more, investment accounts and everything else. But until I could control money, I was still chasing checks. Even in my own business of doing my personal recommendation business, I still was trying to make sure that I was, that money, I needed the money. And when I started really getting into this, trying to really just work off private recommendations only, nothing off the street at all, that's the same day that I said I need to finance, I need to understand every penny. So that's... That made me calm down. And the whole thing got under control. So now my business is under control, my finances are in control, and life is easy. And I don't, if I don't sell something for three, four months, I don't really care. I do care, but I don't care. It doesn't matter. I'm not having to put up with people who treat me poorly. I usually sniff that out right in the consultation. That's why I do the consultations partly. Just, you know, if they're not gonna trust me, and if I can't get trust with you, I can't work with you. It's just flat out the way it is. I just can't.

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
because it's going to end up being a nightmare. I've seen too many red flags go up and I know what a red flag looks like. I have one, then I have two. I'm going to probably just back out. But that whole life gets simpler and easier when you can control your life with your business, you control your finances. Nobody does. It's hard also to teach that too, is how to control finances. Nobody wants to listen. Control

Rick Ripma:
Well, it sounds like that's first.

Scott Malcolm:
a million. Oh, duh. Yeah, I think so too.

Rick Ripma:
Right?

Scott Malcolm:
It would be if you can control a hundred bucks, you can control a thousand. Control a thousand, you control 10,000, and you control a million. So... Yeah, you should know, but nobody does. They don't teach it. I mean, a true budget is really complicated at first, and then once you get it understood, there's multiple budgets, not just one. There's always holes in the boat. I always say there's holes in the boat. The boat's trying to go in this dragon water. And so, you know, the last hole usually is spending, personal spending. Just what do you spend money on when you go and get a coffee? Where'd all those pennies go? And I remember my wife and I adding up the first time going to dinners, when I first started this, years and years ago. $847 we think was averaged in going out to eat in a month. You know, just going to nice places to eat on Saturday night and Friday night and going out on Saturday afternoon and Sunday and maybe Tuesday night we'll go out

Rick Ripma:
Hahaha

Scott Malcolm:
and you know. And that's just blowing to eating, you know, which we still blow money eating, but not to that level anymore. So even though we have now we could eat more, but we just choose not to. We put those things towards real goals and real things that are going to try to get us to financial dependence.

Rick Ripma:
Yeah. Well, we're running out of time. Go ahead.

Scott Malcolm:
Good. Well, when you first said, you know, you've been 30 or some years, I always kid about that. Nobody retires in this business either.

Rick Ripma:
That's

Scott Malcolm:
This

Rick Ripma:
right.

Scott Malcolm:
is not a common business to get to 60 years old and say, I'm good, because you didn't know how to control money. You couldn't control your clients. And so it's out of control. And then you just work till you can't. It's common in the industry is to work till you just can't anymore. And I don't, I don't like that either because you have deals with older people and I'm getting there. But you know, you ask them three questions and then they come back with an answer or two. No, no, no, no, I get to watch you slowly not be a sharp slowly

Rick Ripma:
Yeah.

Scott Malcolm:
deteriorate little by little by little And you probably had just at one point you just can't even be serviced to your client anymore You're just too old. You're 87 years old still trying to do something So that's why I say, you know I think the early we can teach people money the early we can teach them to get into their own Own abundance mentality with their own clientele which gives them respect which then you can control everything life gets clean It gets simple it gets easier and you can put a plan together to retire and stop working for 40, 50 years.

Rick Ripma:
Yeah.

Scott Malcolm:
Get out of this business. We want exit strategies, and that's what part of the XP does. He gives us an exit strategy.

Rick Ripma:
Yeah. And

Scott Malcolm:
So.

Rick Ripma:
we never got the XP cause I wanted to, cause I know that's

Scott Malcolm:
That's

Rick Ripma:
a big,

Scott Malcolm:
okay.

Rick Ripma:
big piece of it, but, um, and it's funny cause my son who is in, he's in finance in Chicago. He told me one, one time I, I, it's, I can't remember what it was. It was college or something. And he goes with dad, your problem was you didn't have a good exit strategy. That's why I'm not paying you back. Yeah, that's

Scott Malcolm:
Yeah,

Rick Ripma:
exactly

Scott Malcolm:
or none. No extra. Yeah,

Rick Ripma:
it.

Scott Malcolm:
and

Rick Ripma:
You don't do an exit strategy.

Scott Malcolm:
then the EXP came along and said, we do have a couple of extra strategies for you too. So I think you can have your own. I mean, I have one too, and I've been putting money with a financial advisor, and that's all going along. But, you know, the more financially independent you become, there's nothing wrong with being financially independent. Being able to live off your own means,

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
you know. That's a good thing. There's nothing

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
wrong with that. And we all want to try, we all should try to strive to get there, to get off of the pieces. and a third party is going to pay us.

Rick Ripma:
Right.

Scott Malcolm:
As long as we work with them, they'll pay us. Here we work for ourselves. And at this time, the market says, we want you to do this versus trying to work off recommendations, you can control this environment that you've got. I think that's another thing. We'll do another podcast maybe someday, but there's more to talk about. But yeah, there's a whole nother strategy. But overall, I think just working by referral is calmed my life down and made my life way more. We spend two and a half months in Florida. I still work down there. I designate days that I'm going to work. and hours that I'm gonna work on those days. I'm gonna put those earbuds in, I'm making calls, I'm talking to my clients, and I'm building relationships. I'm putting them in the computer, I mean, I'm making my notes, and I'm writing cards. That's what I do. I don't have to react to something that comes in right away. I can just say, hey, I'll call you tomorrow. Let's set up a time for 45 minutes Zoom call. Let's talk about what it is you're trying to do. I do my consultations on Zoom. Then I have boots on the ground here that can actually do the physical work of getting them in the house, although I'm on the camera. They do take the phone then and put them on the camera, and then I walk through them with them.

Rick Ripma:
Yeah.

Scott Malcolm:
So it's still pretty cool.

Rick Ripma:
Yeah.

Scott Malcolm:
Cause I'm not

Rick Ripma:
With

Scott Malcolm:
working

Rick Ripma:
some.

Scott Malcolm:
off the shelf. It says if you don't take this call, somebody else will. I don't have that issue.

Rick Ripma:
What's amazing is that what you do, it's not easy, but it's simple. Right?

Scott Malcolm:
Yes, what's simple to do is also simple not to do.

Rick Ripma:
Yes. And you know, you call people and there's so many people who won't call people, even their ex clients, they won't call. I don't, I don't understand it, but we won't get into

Scott Malcolm:
They're

Rick Ripma:
that

Scott Malcolm:
just

Rick Ripma:
now.

Scott Malcolm:
nervous or scared, what do I say? And I said,

Rick Ripma:
Yeah.

Scott Malcolm:
that's what you say. You say, look, we've got contracts that can help you. Would you like anything? Let me know. You gotta be specific too. The more specific you can be, the better off you are. But yeah, if anybody wants to call me, call me, leave a voicemail, I probably won't pick up right away. I'm doing from one day to the next, but overall, I would love to talk to agents

Rick Ripma:
Okay,

Scott Malcolm:
about how

Rick Ripma:
perfect.

Scott Malcolm:
to control your life, how to control your business,

Rick Ripma:
What's the

Scott Malcolm:
and

Rick Ripma:
best

Scott Malcolm:
form

Rick Ripma:
number

Scott Malcolm:
an exit

Rick Ripma:
to

Scott Malcolm:
strategy.

Rick Ripma:
get a hold of yet?

Scott Malcolm:
You have a 260-705-6500. You can text me on that or call me on that.

Rick Ripma:
All right, perfect.

Scott Malcolm:
Yep,

Rick Ripma:
And

Scott Malcolm:
Scott Malcolm.

Rick Ripma:
to get ahold of ENRI, go to hardworkingmortgageguys.com. That's hardworkingmortgageguys.com, or you can call 317-672-1938. It's 317-672-1938. And please follow us so you don't miss any Indies Real Estate Gurus. And Scott, thank you so much for joining us. I was really excited. I really wanted to hear your story, and it was better than I thought.

Scott Malcolm:
Great, I appreciate it.

Rick Ripma:
So this was awesome. We really appreciate it. Thank you.

Scott Malcolm:
Thanks Rick, appreciate

Rick Ripma:
All right,

Scott Malcolm:
it.

Rick Ripma:
thanks. Everybody have a great day. Thank you. Hold on, don't, don't, I got to.