Guru Sean McDonough with FC Tucker

Rick Ripma: 0:00

Welcome to India's real estate gurus, your ultimate guide to the dynamic world of real estate in Indiana, and I'm recruited by your hard work and mortgage guy and I've been in real estate and mortgages for over 24 years.

Ian Arnold: 0:13

And I'm Ian Arnold, a loan officer on Rick's hard working mortgage. We're both with advisors Mortgage Group together will empower you with expert advice market trends is Bestival stories from Guru realtors and local experts.

Rick Ripma: 0:27

Whether you're a homeowner and investor or pro, join us as we navigate the thriving in the real estate market.

Ian Arnold: 0:33

Now get ready to unlock the doors of success. One episode at a time.

Rick Ripma: 0:40

But we are excited today to have Sean and I'm going to I'm not going to pronounce it right Shawn, how do you pronounce your last name? McDonough McDonough? Yep.

Sean McDonough: 0:48

There you go.

Rick Ripma: 0:49

McDonough. I don't know why I can't remember that. But I apologize. You're with FC Tucker. Yes, sir. You've been in the business for

Sean McDonough: 0:57

Lebanon half and a half years.

Rick Ripma: 0:59

And you've done phenomenally well. You're an awesome agent, you're a guru or you wouldn't be here. Thank you. So we're really excited to have you and talking with you and learning about you. It's it's exciting. So before real estate, where did you grow up? What did you do? Where do you go to school?

Sean McDonough: 1:14

Yeah. So I grew up in Arlington Heights, Illinois, which is northwest of Chicago. Spike Schaumburg, everybody. Sure. For some reason, I made the mall there till I was 18 left for college, bounced around the big 10 ended up at IU. Funny story about that I went down to visit a friend. And on Sunday getting ready to leave. I was sitting with her and several of her sorority sisters not wanting to drive back to Iowa six hours. I think it was like, oh, we should move here. Oh, yes, I should move. I don't know anybody. And well, I stayed until the next day and she comes home work. She goes Oh, I found your roommate. Oh, we're serious. Charlie, I found your roommate. So I met the guy anyway, we fast friends. We're still friends today. He lives right behind me. And so I ended up moving down to Bloomington getting into IU for my you. Actually my first job was insurance with anthem. And then that led to a different insurance company. And finally, they ended up getting rid of their medical health insurance department. And they laid everybody off. And we always joked they had a fantastic outplacement. So we always thought it was a great place to get fired from severance was good. And they had an outplacement and it was so the how I worked my way to real estate is the lady who was I called her career coach, for lack of a better term, but she was a Tucker agent. And so this was 2011. So we just come out of the recession. And she had taken the job with this company in this outplacement company, just to make ends meet with the market being down. And I said, Well, the only thing I want out of this is to take that test that tells you what you're going to be when you grow up. It says the Myers Briggs, I'm like, sure. That's what tells me what I'm going to do. So I took that and there was a ton of stuff on it. But one of the things was real estate, and she goes, Oh, I'm a realtor. I'm with FC Tucker. And she, they're really excited and passionate about it. And she goes, I tell you, what, do you know when we're done here, go down the street. We're right down from our Keystone office. She sent me over there. She had me get a book by recruiting director at the time, Lynn Davis. And so went home read that took an aptitude tests. Manager from the Carmel office called me up and said, Hey, if you ever want to talk real estate, come on in. So I did and he was awesome. And like, Yeah, I mean, something I want to do. My neighbor was a realtor. Actually, there's three of us in our calls the SEC. Really? Yeah. Another Tucker agent, and then the neighbor that I was referring to has his own brokerage, but I'm like, boy, he seems to be home and I have, you know, time and spending with his kids. Yeah, real estate debt. Seems like you got all this time.

Rick Ripma: 4:39

That's not what I know.

Sean McDonough: 4:42

That's so much as we know, but yeah, anyway, that's how I stumbled into it, so to speak, and been loving it ever since.

Rick Ripma: 4:52

So that's a tough time to get started back in 2011 2012. Yeah. So what did you do to get started? How did you how did you make make it work?

Sean McDonough: 5:01

Well, I was fortunate enough to Carmel Well, Tucker in general, but I think the Carmel Office specifically is very good with training and offering options to their agents. And so one of the, she's our managing broker or one of our managing brokers now, but she was a big Brian Buffini fan, if you will. So I sat down with her, and she explained the working by referral and how to stay in touch and what to do on a daily basis. And so I took the training course for it, and it gave me a roadmap of like, alright, well, here's the people that you can't, here's the people that you write your notes to, and your Popeyes and just the relational aspect of the business, which I loved, like, I get to, like, talk to my friends and have them helped me build my business. This is fantastic. To me, obviously, there's more that goes into it than that, but that aspect of it just totally spoke to me. So really, that was that was it? You know, getting having that roadmap with the Buffini company and working by referral. So yeah, kind of launched from there. And then, you know, I did open houses and call everybody in my sphere. And you know, just put my name out there that hey, no longer with insurance and doing real estate. And I'd love your help. And,

Ian Arnold: 6:38

yeah, so what do you think do an insurance first, how do you think that benefited you switching over to do real estate?

Sean McDonough: 6:47

Well, it was a thankless job. And no phone call ever came through with oh, this is someone that's going to be thanking me for, you know, approving their surgery, it was the only ones that were denied, and I get it. But every phone call was just as brutal. Who do you think you are? How do you sleep at night? You know, I have someone wants to tell me they hope someone in my family gets cancer and is terrible. But that put me in a position to like handle any difficulty that would come up in a real estate transaction. We know there's no life and death in real estate, right? Sometimes it feels that way. Right? There's a lot of emotion, yes. But there's really no life and death situations with real estate. So having that background of like troubleshooting and problem solving and the customer service aspect of it tied really well. I felt with serving my clients and helping them solve their problems and working through difficult parts of the transaction and

Rick Ripma: 8:08

Yeah, but there's nothing like getting yelled out and told that you're, you know, they hope somebody in your family.

Sean McDonough: 8:13

No, I've never had a client tell me Yeah, help someone my family gets canceled. Yeah, I don't sleep at night and yeah, no, never. I actually get phone calls. Oh my gosh, thank you so much for helping us get the house and you know, so yeah. What's the

Rick Ripma: 8:32

relationship? Absolute real estate's a relationship?

Sean McDonough: 8:35

Not a lot of relationships, insurance? No, no.

Ian Arnold: 8:38

All right. So now I just got we got to find some person to have called and just cussed them out really quick as a client. That'd be kind of funny.

Sean McDonough: 8:46

To see how I still react

Ian Arnold: 8:49

well, hold on.

Sean McDonough: 8:50

Flashbacks.

Rick Ripma: 8:54

Yeah. Do you deal with that every day all day long. That would be

Sean McDonough: 8:57

well fortunately wasn't daily. It felt that way. Sometimes it was just I don't know you did. You did the best you can, you know, you explained your reason for the decision that was made and most of the time it just got escalated to our medical review department, nurses, medical director people and I'd be the same way and like, you have no medical background, how are you? How you doing this? And the check sheet you know, did they meet those two they have this and you've read medical records. It was fascinating having a biology degree from IU. I found the whole medical aspect of it. Fascinating but you're just compartmentalized it. Yeah. One thing that if I miss anything about that corporate world because sometimes the Alright, it's five o'clock, you know, you walk out the door, you turn, you turn it off until 9am The next day with real estate there really? Isn't that shutdown? It can be if you let it, you know, 24/7, which I think would burn people out pretty quickly that, you know, just being able to shut it off when you walk out the door.

Rick Ripma: 10:27

So let's go to a more positive. Yes. What's your what would you say is your you enjoy most about real estate?

Sean McDonough: 10:36

thing I enjoy most is probably cliche, I truly enjoy the houses, the older the better. I love the the old woodwork. And then this is weird. But I think if you don't have at least some enjoyment of driving, this probably isn't for you, either. About how much time you spend in the car, but I enjoy driving around seeing new places. I like I had a client, she wanted me to show her a house a couple of weekends ago. And we got out there. And then we found out that they just accepted an offer. And she's like, Oh, I feel so bad. I wasted your time. I'm like, Oh my gosh, no, I've never it was not new pal. I hadn't been out in that area before. It was, you know, it kind of got my day started on the weekend. And I appreciated the the new experience of why I didn't know this neighborhood is before and why this is a nice neighborhood. And, you know, learning it from that. And obviously, you know, helping her but she felt like she wasted my time. I'm like, No, absolutely not. This is you know what, I've enjoyed spending more time at home with my kids that morning. Sure. You know, I wish I would have known it sold before I left the house. But we didn't. So whatever.

Rick Ripma: 12:07

And it wasn't great for her either. Because she didn't know Yeah, absolutely. Anybody shouldn't

Sean McDonough: 12:12

leave her current place and drive out there. So,

Rick Ripma: 12:15

but it's good that you look at it, and you're you you realize I'm learning everything, you know that when I stop saying I'm learning a new area, whatever it is,

Sean McDonough: 12:24

yeah, absolutely. What you know what the I think the biggest thing that I love about this is nothing is ever the same. You can sell the same house, but a different person. And it'll be a totally different transaction every single time. There was a lady that's been in the business for a really long time. And I remember like first couple of weeks, months, maybe that I was with Tucker. She came by all the new people. And I'm like Oprah when like, when do you know everything? She goes? I don't know, because I haven't hit that point. And her just telling me that with all her years of experience is like, oh my gosh, well, I need to stop beating myself up and just like enjoy the ride and know that you're not going to know everything because it's always changing. There's always new forms new laws, you know, every person has their you know, on personality, so everything's different. She was great.

Ian Arnold: 13:29

Yeah, so you mentioned that you liked the older homes with the older woods. So what describe what one of your best ones you've shown or even sold

Sean McDonough: 13:42

well, oddly enough it the client that I was just talking about she bought a house down in the meridian Kessler area and hurt they updated the interior so the woodwork was painted which is is fine.

Rick Ripma: 14:04

Or you didn't have to really think that's fine.

Sean McDonough: 14:09

That come across to you. Anyway, she has this porch this full length porch that runs across the front of the house on like such porch and V is is covered it's got the big, wide round columns and just a quiet street in the meridian Kessler area. This is every time I stopped by your house like can we sit on the porch?

Rick Ripma: 14:37

I love front porches Yeah, it's got me about it. But we added one to our house. It's 40 feet long and wow. Well 10 feet wide. is nice beautiful change though. We have like a shaker box. By type house you know, it's just it was a straight up there was just a little stoop out front. change the entire look and write that Yeah, man. that made it a nice, nice, sorry about that. Don't need to hear about my house. But now Now, those four levels I agree.

Ian Arnold: 15:07

So if somebody has an older house or wants to look at one or just wants to talk real estate, how do they get in touch with you?

Sean McDonough: 15:13

Well, the easiest would be to shoot me a text. You know, 317-313-6297 is my cell phone number, or they can send me an email, which is just my first initial s and then last name, McDonough MC do and ough at talk to tucker.com. I'm on Instagram, Facebook. So both of those are talking to Sean Realty. They can search that and send me a DM that way. They can talk to Sean and they can talk to Sean Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 15:52

Or they can call or text 317-313-6297 Yes, sir. Just want to make sure I had the right number. And to get a hold of you enter I go to a hard working mortgage guys.com That's hard working mortgage guys.com Or you can give us a call at 317-672-1938 It's 317-672-1938.

Ian Arnold: 16:11

All right, Sean, let's get up real estate. Let's get to know you more. So I take away your phone for 24 hours so you cannot work. What do we catch you doing for fun?

Sean McDonough: 16:21

Oh gosh. Having add I do a lot of things. Fishing, love to fish. We got a pond in the back of the house. So my son and I will go out there and fish There's surprisingly a large number of bass real in this pond. Yeah, I was. I went on a fishing trip to Wisconsin with my dad and brother one year and you know, we spent four days out on this beautiful lake caught like to fish and then I came home and started fishing this pond and went a long way but eight hours drive and did this. I was lovely. But like I get what five minutes to the back of the house and got more fish. But fishing I love to cook back in the in between the insurance and landing in real estate I looked into culinary school really becoming a chef someone quickly turned out someone who was a chef quickly talked me out of that. It's like if you want to spend any time with your growing family I wouldn't recommend being a chef there's so much long hours and and all that but I love to cook play my drums play guitar, walk spend time family. Oh yeah.

Ian Arnold: 17:46

So what's your favorite thing to cook?

Sean McDonough: 17:49

Oh, favorite thing I love well one of the reasons I've loved cooking or learned to cook is I wanted to learn how to make my favorite dishes instead of going out to restaurants and you know kind of a way to save money at the time but I love Creole Cajun food jambalaya gumbo Now much of a baker there's too much measuring and specificity. Faking that? I don't I don't do well with so I I'd say Cajun is probably my favorite. So

Ian Arnold: 18:33

alright, so when you throw in something together because I'm coming over, all right, because I grew up down south and I'm used to doing the curl dad's doing all that stuff and doing the cage and stuff. So whenever you're doing it call us.

Rick Ripma: 18:47

I gotcha. All right. You obviously like spice.

Sean McDonough: 18:51

Love spice. That's what I figured last place to get trying to learn more Thai cooking. My daughter loves Thai. Her and I have a we'd love just trying different Thai restaurant so I try to learn how to make that so she and I can share that more often. And yeah, so yeah,

Rick Ripma: 19:11

I'm not much of a cook. But I've always found that fascinating that people who are cooks many times don't want to bake. And people who bake. They don't want to cook. I find that happens a lot.

Sean McDonough: 19:24

My wife's like that. She's the baker. She'd rather bake than then cook She jokes. She goes well I can you know make a mean frozen lasagna. comes out of the freezer. She's awesome. But no, she's a great, great baker. She makes a chocolate cheesecake that I request for my birthday. Oh my god, it's fantastic.

Ian Arnold: 19:45

Yeah, see there you go. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, good combination. Yeah. Absolute to have you absolutely

Rick Ripma: 19:50

perfect. Well, what would you say you're getting back to business a little bit. Your superpower superpowers are

Sean McDonough: 19:58

my superpower Well, I used to be flying, but then I ripped my cape. Oh, hate it when I I think my superpower is just making people feel at ease I bring humor might have picked up on that bring humor into things, which I think with real estate that can be, you know, emotionally charged. We talked about that earlier, just bringing a little levity to the situation. I feel just one creates a little tighter bond with my clients and I and well, when they're at ease, I think they can think clearer, you know, helps remove some of the tension and the the emotion that people try to drive because, you know, it's not really facts and figures for everybody. A lot of it is just the emotional aspect of it. And if you can take away maybe some of the negative emotions, it helps them process things.

Ian Arnold: 21:08

It also it because I do I do the same thing. I joke around all the time. It actually lets people's barriers down quicker. Absolutely. And I find that that makes people be able to come more relaxed a lot faster than Hey, let me tell you about me and it just just doesn't work that way. People want to have

Sean McDonough: 21:28

fun, right? Yeah. So yeah,

Rick Ripma: 21:33

I'm not much of a jokester, though. No, you are not. It's not my it's not my style. But you he's always doing something.

Sean McDonough: 21:42

I'm picking up on that. Yeah, you gotta watch out for him. already invited himself to my house. Yeah,

Rick Ripma: 21:48

exactly. That's, that's what I'm talking about. Right there.

Ian Arnold: 21:50

Hey, somebody had to do it. I just had to step in.

Rick Ripma: 21:54

This is like the 17th person You said you needed to be invited over. Do you guys not eat enough at your house?

Ian Arnold: 22:00

No. We just had my kids are six and eight. They have five food groups. Spaghetti, tacos, pizza, and like hotdogs. We don't fade. Now. I want something fun. He like Cajun I love Cajun you don't get a lot of that especially up here.

Rick Ripma: 22:17

Can't you put Cajun on hotdog.

Ian Arnold: 22:19

You can I

Sean McDonough: 22:20

don't know how it'll work out you Fe and

Rick Ripma: 22:23

I don't eat me. So I wouldn't know that. I'm just saying

Ian Arnold: 22:25

plustek Plus I hear his wife makes a mean sheet cake. And if I can get her make one another day. Maybe opposite of his birthday. He gets to a year. Just on his birthday. Like the

Sean McDonough: 22:37

will your thing. And barbecue I did barbecue like the barbecue.

Rick Ripma: 22:43

Barbecue. Come over

Sean McDonough: 22:45

for barbecue you

Ian Arnold: 22:46

smoke or do you? What do you do?

Sean McDonough: 22:48

I have a smoker. Yeah. A Pellet Grill.

Ian Arnold: 22:50

That's what I want to

Rick Ripma: 22:52

smoke. What are you talking about?

Sean McDonough: 22:57

I pause there. Yeah. pellet. I love the pellet grill. So yeah, barbecue, Cajun. And then I don't know, I'll something will catch my eye. And I'll try to figure out how to make it or Google it or whatever. So

Rick Ripma: 23:16

you've been doing this 11 years. So we're gonna get back, tend to get back, wants to go you know, he wants to have fun. Sure. The end just wants to have fun. I think that was a song or something. He just wants to have fun. But you know, you've been you've been doing this for 11 years. You've seen a lot of changes in the market. You've seen things you know how everything changed. What do you what are you looking at in the future right now? What do you what do you what is your crystal ball tell you is going to happen or what do you think's going to happen in the future as it relates to real estate? how things are going to change? You know, what, what do you have to go on?

Sean McDonough: 23:52

Well, I always tell my clients I don't have a crystal ball wreck. So you're putting me in a tough spot here. Okay, we do without your crystal ball. Alright, well, without the crystal ball. Really I trust on experts. Like you guys. My understanding is rates are supposed to drop next year. Be back most experts think so most experts think that there'll be back high fives. So what we've been talking about at Tucker is, you know, is that going to being bring back the feeding frenzy that we had 2020 2021 Where there's 20 offers on a house. You know, people are going way over list and we're back to that. That craziness. So honestly, not really looking forward to going back to a feeding frenzy like that. If it does what's going to happen? Well, yeah, I think if rates drop that low, you have all those buyers that have a great interest rate currently, and don't want to look and go oh great. They're what update a He ate and three eighths or something today, out there. Yeah. I mean, who wants to jump from a 3% to eight. So I think a lot of sellers are holding off on listing their homes. And if we go back to those 5%, it's like they're predicting, I think those sellers, you know, three to five percents a little more doable for him like it by the rate down to closer to that three if they wanted to. So I think a lot of sellers will come off the fence with the lower rates, buyers who got priced out of the market with the higher rates are going to flood back in so I can see another, you know, 2020 or 2021. situation. So which, you know, if you're a listing agent and a seller, thumbs up, you know, if you're a buyer, no one ever thought about the other side of that must be so easy to throw a sign in the yard and boom, it's sold? Well. Not really. I mean, there's the hours of work that go into getting the house ready and all that just on the list side. But on the buy side, you're like, Well, okay, that's the fifth house we wrote an offer on and you know, he had to leverage himself to the hilt and give up inspections, and, you know, all these things that buyers were were doing, basically waiving appraisals and appraisal gap. So it was tough for them. And I don't think anybody really talked about that side of the market, when things were going gangbusters.

Rick Ripma: 26:45

So it's really good for those sellers. Really tough on the on the Oh, yeah, buyers is tough on. But it's tough. I think it was tough on the selling agent, not that it was hard to sell the house. But when you get 20 offers, you have to dig through 20 offers and you have to, you have to help your seller understand what's your best offer, because it's not always the highest price. Now. It can be something else now. But going along with that. Part of the reason I asked to ask the question isn't, that's why I think today is a great time to buy a house. Yeah, because yes, rates are higher. But if we go back to that feeding frenzy, people were it absolutely blew my mind, people were willing to pay 7080 125 or more over 125,000 over list price. But they don't want to pay 8% over 3% You know, because there aren't 3% still a record low that we'd never seen before in the history of ever. Okay, right. Yeah. So nobody should expect it to go back there. And nobody can tell us for sure. It's going to be lower. Right? We, the experts are all telling us. That's what they think's going to happen. So, so if it does happen, I tell people this if it does happen, and you buy today, and yeah, you may be over a percent, you're gonna be in that range, whatever it happens to be, but that's where you're at. If they go down, you can refinance it. If they go up. You got a great rate. Right? Yeah. Right. Because it's lower than everybody else is getting. Yeah. So but when you look at the market, and like you said, you look at the market and you look at the what's going on, and you look at inflation and all that. Everything points to we should have lower rates. In fact, I don't think rates should be where they're at today. I think they should already be lower, but the Feds keep doing things to hurt that but I think that's actually helping buyers right now buy if people would just realize this is a great time to go buy a house. A lot less competition. Yes. And there's still houses there's not a huge amount of houses, right. But there's still houses, they're a lot more than there was last year. Yeah. So there's their houses, it's a great time to buy so I just think it's a really smart thing for people to do. And they just need to know it's this is a good time.

Ian Arnold: 28:56

Yeah. And you don't buy a house buy because of the interest rate you buy the house because you want to get equity. Right? That's the whole thing is equity. Equity. Equity is the same thing that people say it's not first place first time you ever buy a home it's about location, location location is because of equity. Yeah. So

Sean McDonough: 29:18

yeah, but it you know, it was kind of a sticker shock. Yeah, this is not in the market. You know, last June it started the fall on the rates first jumped up there and people they adjusted and we had a fairly normal Spring this year. We're you know, houses were going pretty quick. You know? Yeah, yeah. I've

Rick Ripma: 29:39

ever gone really quick. Yeah, I mean, days on market was ridiculous.

Ian Arnold: 29:46

It's the same thing that happened in Oh 809 non electrical talk about it is similar to houses how you had an issue, but what happened with gas prices? They went from $2 to$5. So what did you buy? They do they freaked out. And all SUVs and everything. No, you dealerships would not buy him, because nobody would buy him. Everybody went to cars and everything that Now was it about a year ago, gas prices shot up to like $4. And what people do nothing. We became used to it. Yeah. And that's the whole thing is, it's just one of those things. But as we all know, gas prices, they dropped down slowly. So with interest rates, but guess what, if you buy your perfect house, then what you can always refinance. And you don't have to worry about like you said, you don't have to worry about 20 other offers and trying to beat out 2119 other people.

Sean McDonough: 30:39

Yeah, yeah. And that was a tough part of it. Those years, so.

Ian Arnold: 30:44

So I want somebody because you're an expert, you're a guru. I want somebody to be able to contact you and get all their housing needs, whether they're buying selling, or they just want to find out what's their best options. What's the best way then contact you?

Sean McDonough: 30:58

Well, again, I would say shoot me a text 317-313-6297 Second best way would be an email. So first initial s and McDonough MC DONOU. GH at talk to tucker.com. All right,

Ian Arnold: 31:17

and to get a hold of Rick or I go to HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com or you can contact us at 317-672-1938. See, it's not that hard, Rick?

Rick Ripma: 31:27

It's not that hard. That's because you have the note over there. Okay, there's no mystery here. No, there's not No, Matt. There's no magic going on. You should remember the number, but then I put the light in front of it. Now I can hardly see it. So I have to do it by memory. All right,

Ian Arnold: 31:45

well, then I'll do this by memory. Okay, this helps you out. We'll do the question of the week. And this one is gonna be tough for you.

Sean McDonough: 31:52

Okay,

Ian Arnold: 31:53

what was your first car?

Sean McDonough: 31:54

My first car was an 84. Crown, Vic.

Rick Ripma: 31:57

Whoa. An old police car. Look wise,

Sean McDonough: 32:01

we'd look like Yeah, yeah. It was the civilian version of the old police car. Yeah. Nicknamed the barrel bus, which the barrel bus is the story for another time, but

Rick Ripma: 32:12

okay. You're not gonna tell us.

Sean McDonough: 32:14

Whether could be kids listening. Okay, we probably don't

Rick Ripma: 32:17

want to hear that. We, you know, it's funny. Everybody tells us the really juicy stories off air. Well, so So do you have fond memories of that car?

Sean McDonough: 32:31

I do. Yeah, well, yeah. I mean, you know, first car you always remember. Yeah. I remember I walked it. My dad's like, Hey, I got something to show you. And so walked out. I was a sophomore in college, I think at the time and so I walked eight it was parked in the driveway. And he goes, Hey, let's go for a drive. And so we're we're driving it and the front. So the right front was this kind of smashed in. big as a house. And we're driving around he goes, What do you think I'm like? Yeah. All right. Why are we in this car? Dad? Where's your car? He's like, Oh, this is yours. Like, why really? So suddenly, the smashed up front end didn't matter any more. And the fact you know, was a grandma or whatever didn't matter anymore. I'm like, Oh, this is mine. So yeah, drove that into the transmission dropped.

Rick Ripma: 33:30

Yeah you know it's funny every every almost every first car has a really good story about how it how it was no longer there their car.

Sean McDonough: 33:40

Emotionally, I was only a few houses away from my folks coming back to Bloomington. Transmission went out. I had first and reverse left. And I'm like,

Rick Ripma: 33:48

that's hard to drive on that way. Yes.

Ian Arnold: 33:56

It had been interesting to drive down the interstate. Just shift it in reverse to go. Driving fast and people waving at him.

Sean McDonough: 34:05

That'll get you pulled over. I don't know the sun where you go.

Rick Ripma: 34:09

It's hard to drive backwards fast. Yes, you better get a lot of practice because it is not the same as driving is not

Sean McDonough: 34:15

something I want to practice. Oh, I

Ian Arnold: 34:17

watched him do it in all these movies. It's not that hard and must not be.

Sean McDonough: 34:21

But eventually they whip around and drive the right way. So yeah, that's

Ian Arnold: 34:28

Oh, but I also saw on TV we're real estate's easy to sell to and all you do is go to dinners and drink. So

Sean McDonough: 34:35

though you don't forget to play golf. Oh, yes. Yes. Yep. Yep.

Ian Arnold: 34:39

See, you make me real estate agency.

Rick Ripma: 34:42

Yeah, that's how it works. Right. I know. That's what everybody's been on. Sad. Yep. Yeah, they just take the call with a golf course and sell the house. Yeah, set up three showings. The only takes three showings, right? Yeah, if that. Oh, yeah. You know, I saw another I saw a show the other day and it was they just Got one house and bought it. Like, I didn't think any of the shows did that. It's like, you gotta you gotta show him three houses and then they buy one of them.

Sean McDonough: 35:07

Yeah, you got to fill out the head of our time slot. Yeah. So like they're the extra two houses in there.

Rick Ripma: 35:13

So within that vein, so what are some of the misconceptions people have what a real estate agent actually does?

Sean McDonough: 35:20

Well, you know, the misconception of wheel drive Cadillacs. With the and I think

Rick Ripma: 35:28

here's as a Rolls Royce. I saw your drive share.

Sean McDonough: 35:33

Like that. And I think back in the day was it Glengarry Glen Ross kind of perpetuated, that, you know, coffee's for closers, and everybody drives a Cadillac. But what Well, I think the biggest misconception, at least that I hear is, oh, it's easy. I want a set of friends that tell me that all monkey can do it. Okay, did you just call me a monkey? You know, you just saw a sign in the yard. And, you know, the house sells that quick. In fact, I think we shot ourselves in the foot with posting on social media, I sold this in two hours, we had all these offers and way over list and which was true, but it was the end result of several hours, if not days of work, that went into getting that house ready to sort of, you know, securing the client and talking them through all their options and staging the home and getting the photos and helping them declutter and, you know, it's the, the public sees the sign goes in the yard and the house sold in a day. But there's so much more that went into getting that house ready than just putting the sign in the yard. So

Rick Ripma: 37:01

I don't know why people look at most things that are that we sell. I've been in sales my entire career started out in car sales. Weird, huh? And you know, people think, Oh, they just walk in and buy a car. That's not the way it is. Yeah, you know, it's not and most people don't like the car salesman when they walk out. You know, they're they've, they've got a barrier up. And I sold new homes for builder for 11 years, and is nowhere near as much of that bear. You know that that barrier that they put up, but it was still none of it sold itself. And you can always tell the people like yourself who are the Guru's the volume and things that you do is because you're better at it. It's not easy, but I think it's somewhat of a compliment. When somebody says, Oh, you know, monkey could do it. To me, it's like watching the Olympics and watching the skater. Right? Yeah. And it's like, well, I could do that. Then you go get on skates. You can't even stand up. Right? Yeah. And, and a proof of that, to me is in the first five years 90% of all real estate agents

Sean McDonough: 38:08

fail. Yeah. I mean, it's just a crazy number.

Rick Ripma: 38:11

Yeah. Which is crazy. Which tells you it's not easy, right? So when somebody successful like yourself, there any any new agent or anybody looking at should listen, in any anybody looking to list or sell their house, they should, you know, they should listen to the people like you. Cuz, you know, and, and it's unfortunate that they have a perception that it's that easy, because it's not.

Sean McDonough: 38:34

Yeah, yeah.

Rick Ripma: 38:38

Yeah, it's like growing hair. It's not that easy. No.

Ian Arnold: 38:44

I beg to differ. knocking on wood.

Rick Ripma: 38:48

For some people.

Sean McDonough: 38:49

Yes. You're lucky man. It's not,

Ian Arnold: 38:53

oh, if I had to become a guru, it wouldn't be a hair grow. And I choose a different profession.

Sean McDonough: 38:58

Well, a dear friend of mine, she. She said, Boy, you must be a thinker. Why is that? Because? Well, you don't have any hair.

Unknown: 39:09

Well just say yes. So yeah,

Sean McDonough: 39:12

I think it was a compliment. But yeah, so I was I was a deep thinker. I thought my hair. I like how not my hair away. Apparently. I like how he

Rick Ripma: 39:22

says to take care of apps. Yes, it's very easy. And when I go workout and I walk out, you know my money. Yes. Yeah, shave it yourself. Yeah. Yeah. It's a beautiful thing. So, alright, so

Ian Arnold: 39:39

if you haven't noticed, we're gonna get off. Relate? No, I cannot. But I'd like to hear stories. And in the 11 plus years, you've been a real estate. I guarantee you have some stories. So I least want to hear one. Good one. One good one. Yep. What like what are your most memorable All transactions?

Sean McDonough: 40:02

Oh gosh. Well, I think my most rewarding story is clients that we're we're looking at rentals. And I asked him, Why are you looking at rentals? Have you thought of buying? And they said, No, we hadn't. And so I connected him with a lender and that lender sat down with them. And turns out that, yeah, you would be eligibility qualified for an FHA loan. So what that was a victory just right there in itself. And so we, we went looking at houses and we ended up getting my house and we got the offer, accepted. And then it turns out, they had a back tax issue that they took care of, but it took for ever configure for the government to, like, clear it for them. And this guy, bless his heart. He every day, he was down at the IRS downtown, everyday checking, declare, to declare to declare to declare, and I'll never forget, I was driving for 65. And the wife called and she said, Shawn, I still get emotional. Shawn, you're never gonna believe this. It cleared. We we got it off our record, and we can move forward. And that closing just the joy and the tears in their eyes when the seller handed them the key is, yeah, I'll never I'll never forget that one.

Ian Arnold: 41:48

That is awesome. Yeah. And I think one of the points that you made at the start is you said they didn't think they could afford a house or even qualify. It is shocking when you actually talk to people that how many people don't realize they can purchase a home? And they just don't realize they can? Yeah, what I saw a stat the other day is in 2022, only 65% of Americans actually own their house. Everybody else rents. You're almost saying one and N are like half the population doesn't. They rent they may pay someone else's mortgage. Yeah, that is crazy. But as we all know, more people can afford to buy a home than that. Would they? Know?

Sean McDonough: 42:37

Right? Yeah. So they were so excited

Ian Arnold: 42:42

that but that is crazy. Every single day going down there?

Sean McDonough: 42:46

Yeah. And yeah.

Ian Arnold: 42:48

I don't know if I can do that.

Sean McDonough: 42:50

It's great. It's not that hard to get to but cash every single day to to drive down there and then stand in line and talk to

Unknown: 42:58

the IRS and touch

Rick Ripma: 43:01

the rest of it I can deal with. All right, yeah, IRS every day, every day might decide to look into me or something I'm gonna tell you know, who knows,

Ian Arnold: 43:08

you would think after a few days a person therapy, it's like, let's just clear that. So this guy who won't stop come,

Sean McDonough: 43:13

I think they were first name basis is like, step forward. Right? This way, he got you.

Rick Ripma: 43:19

So so when you look at that, because you talked about the investment, you know, they want to invest in a house. When you when somebody buys a house like that, what are they? What are they accomplishing? What does that do for them in their life by buying a house?

Sean McDonough: 43:35

Well, for those folks, specifically, just that sense of accomplishment, you know, going from, we didn't even think we could qualify and afford to buy a home to where now home owners I think was just fantastic. For them on so many levels, and it was really it was neat. If I'm recalling correctly, one of their, their things they were bless their hearts, they were so easy to work with. Cuz their needs were they didn't really know like, everything that was available to them. And they're like, well, we just, you know, we'd like a spare bedroom for our daughter that has a closet. And like a walk in closet. A closet. Like we can do that. Yeah, it was. So achieving that again was this you know, life changing form. So now they're still they're still in the house and their daughter she was I don't think she was even in high school at that time. Now she she's graduated college and she's got a job down in Texas and

Rick Ripma: 44:56

awesome. meant a lot to you too. Oh my gosh, y'all meant a lot. Oh yeah, you got you're able to help them.

Sean McDonough: 45:01

Yeah. And just going along that journey with them and the highs and the lows and experiencing all that in the bond that created with us. You know, going back to what I love about this, it's that lasting friendship and bond that you create with your your clients as you work through a transaction.

Ian Arnold: 45:26

I want more people to have that bond with you. So what's the best way somebody getting hold of you?

Sean McDonough: 45:31

So phone number, shoot me a text or call? I guess there's there's a phone app on my phone 317-313-6297 Or they can shoot me a quick email, Shawn. More actually s McDonough so s and then MC dono ug H at talk to tucker.com

Rick Ripma: 45:54

so it's Sean McDonough. 317-313-6297. Collar tax. Yes, you're with FC Tucker. Yes, sir. Yep. And if you need to get a hold of Ian or I, go to HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com Or you give us a call at 31767 to 1938. That's 31767 to 1938. And please follow us for more indies real estate gurus

Ian Arnold: 46:19

and reminder if you have any friends, family, coworkers looking to buy sell refinance, let us know we'll be more than happy to help you. Sean, thank you for joining us on our show today. It's been pleasure having you on

Sean McDonough: 46:28

oh my gosh, thank you for having me. It

Ian Arnold: 46:29

was great. And I think you have one of the best memorable transaction so I love that story.

Announcer: 46:34

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