Rising Guru Kyle Baker with FC Tucker

Rick Ripma: 0:00

Welcome to Indy'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. And

Ian Arnold: 0:13

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Rick Ripma: 0:27

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Ian Arnold: 0:33

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Rick Ripma: 0:40

Well, we are excited today we have Kyle Baker. Look at that. I did it right. Kyle Baker with FC Tucker. And we're really excited to have your call. Your background is phenomenal. I cannot wait to hear your stories because you got to have some fantastic stories. Welcome to the show. We really appreciate you joining us.

Kyle Baker: 0:57

Thanks for having me today. It's an honor.

Rick Ripma: 0:58

You're welcome. And we'd love to hear about your background because that's what I'm I mean, I couldn't wait. Because Because of that, so could you give us you know, where you grew up, you know what you've done in the past? How you ended up getting into real estate, just give us a you know, real good understanding of who you are.

Kyle Baker: 1:17

Well, you said my name is Kyle. I'm originally from Marion, Indiana, so not too far north of here. I grew up there until high school. My mom remarried. And my stepdad at the time was in the Navy stationed at Great Lakes. So we moved to Illinois, I went to a suburb, just outside of Chicago, went there for three years of high school. And then my senior year, we moved back to Indiana. So I graduated from Marion. Shortly after that, I joined the Navy. I did that for a little bit. And then fast forward several years, I ended up finding my way down to South Carolina, I lived moved to Charleston, South Carolina, which is where I eventually met my wife. And while I was there, I kind of did a little bit of everything. Management. I mean, it's just CVS, I did some managing of personal training and gyms and things of that sort. I ran into a guy, this is kind of where the interesting part gets us here. I ran into a guy. And he asked me, he goes, What do you think about? If I give you a job, I'm like, Well, I have a job and like I'm okay, he was a he worked for an insurance company, specifically regarding bail bonds. And I had no knowledge of bailbonds at this time. I mean, outside of you know, dog, the bounty hunter, right, so I didn't know much about it. So when you come and do a ride along with us, I said, Okay, I'll go into ride long. So I go out go out one night and a Tim and one other guy and we just we go out and we go get some food fast food joint and then we've gotten sit on an apartment complex and just kind of watch for a little bit. And then I think we're out there maybe a couple hours. Not a whole lot happened like our we're gonna call the night. Like, well, that was kind of a letdown was kind of boring. So we go back and then he goes, we'll come out another night. So I got another night and it's the same case. And that night, we ended up like sneaking up on the house and kind of like looking through the blinds and we have kicking that door in and going and grab somebody and like this is crazy this. You guys, you guys pay people to do this. And so long story short, I ended up working for him for about five and a half years. I was a bail bondsman. I had a bail bond license, and I traveled the country. I was one of the pickup guys. And so if if you got bonded out and you didn't do what you're supposed to do, or you didn't go to court, or whatever the case was you violated your your bail. I was the one that was going out and finding you. And so pretty much wherever you went, I went to go find you. We're based out of South Carolina. But I mean, I went to Seattle, Phoenix, Houston, all over Florida, New York, Connecticut, I mean, I went everywhere. And so that was really fun. I bought my first house in 2018 Just as a ploy I needed a place to live. And shortly after that, I kind of got into some real estate books. My first one I feel like is, is probably similar to a lot of people, right read Rich Dad Poor Dad. And I realized that I had way too many things that were costing me money every month that I didn't necessarily need. And so I let some of that stuff go and decided I was going to get into real estate and slowly started acquiring properties after that. And so I built up three, three rental properties there. And I wanted to do real estate in South Carolina, but I traveled, you know, two, three weeks of the month. So it just didn't leave a whole lot of room for doing that kind of thing. My wife and I moved back to Indiana, late 21 to be closer to family. And we were going to do bail bonds here. I actually got licensed here. And long story short, it was not a good state for bail for various reasons. But we had to make a pivot. And so I went back to my original planning real estate. Got linked up with a Tucker agent at the academy that I do jujitsu at. And he was in Carmel. And so I came over to Carmel and it's been great ever since. Yeah,

Rick Ripma: 4:59

that It's, it's as good as stories I thought it would. So Bailey because Bail Bonds, you know, everybody knows dog, right? Yeah, that's yeah, that's where, and I'm sure it's like everything else we see on TV. It's not actually like that at all. It's not. It's not

Kyle Baker: 5:15

what we all think it is, right? Absolutely. Well, because that's where the fun is. We actually had a producer in Columbia, South Carolina, who was friends with the original producer of cops, okay, back in the day, and he wanted to run a TV show, we've had several people approached us doing a TV show. And it would just it would take so much airtime to create any type of content, because I might sit on a house for 1012 hours a day. And that could be a couple days could be a couple be a couple of weeks. It could be a month. And so just the amount of airtime that it would take. It would just be boring. Yeah. And so I think they have to fabricate those type of shows to give some more excitement to keep people engaged,

Rick Ripma: 5:53

give you an idea what it's like, but it's not actually what we think it is, which is true to life happening. Right? That right, right. Yeah. I

Ian Arnold: 6:01

think you wholly missed it. Could you imagine this guy coming after you? And then he knows jujitsu to your what? Your black belt? Aren't

Kyle Baker: 6:09

you? No, no, I'm fairly normal blue belt. Okay.

Ian Arnold: 6:11

But still, I mean, he would take somebody down quick. I had

Kyle Baker: 6:15

long hair and had a big beard and kind of fit that role. I cut my hair a couple of months ago, my wife finally said, I think I think it's time to fully transition into the real estate role. And I had already cut off my beard. But yeah, it was definitely a look that you had to have a look. You did? Yeah. Because it's a danger. That's a dangerous job. It definitely can be. You definitely can be. And, and look

Rick Ripma: 6:39

matters. 100% real estate looks matters, right? They do. They do? Yeah. Same thing. So yeah, I just think it's, and but you're in the Navy, too. So you you've had a good background of, of, you know, doing some interesting jobs. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. That's, that's awesome. So then you wanted to be in real estate. Now? Do you still own real estate? Investment Properties?

Kyle Baker: 7:02

I do. So we had three, I had to sell one, early 22. Because the bail bond thing was taking so long to get established that we kind of ran out of money. So I sold the least performing one. And we still currently hold two and then our primary residence here as well. Awesome. So my goal is to continue to build those here as well. Yeah,

Rick Ripma: 7:23

that's awesome. I think that's a really good. It's a good great thing for real estate agents to do we had because a lot of the agents were asking us, you know, could you have financial planner, we they wanted to know more, because you know how it is for for real estate agents, as you are, you know, there's so much taxes is a big deal. You know how to invest some people. I had one of the agents on, she said, I don't even know how to buy a stock. I'll show you, I'll tell you how to do that. But why don't we have a financial plan around? So we had a financial planner on it? And he said, which I thought was brilliant. Now he's a financial planner gets nothing from selling real estate, right? He said, Well, if they're a real estate agent, the very first thing they should do is invest in real estate. Yeah, absolutely.

Kyle Baker: 8:02

I mean, you have all the tools. So my property manager, I have a property manager down there because I have, I wanted to own real estate, I did not want to be a property manager, that's a full time job in itself. And it worked out well, because my real estate agent in South Carolina is also property manager. So the person I bought them with is the person that does all the managing, she finds the tenant, she screens them, she handles all of the day to day, if something breaks, she comes to me and says, Hey, this is how much it's gonna cost. Well, she had I actually talked to her and doing investing as well. So it makes it makes no sense that you wouldn't you have all of the tools, you have the MLS, you have the property management experience, you have access to everything, it doesn't make sense why you wouldn't and now she's built up her portfolio to think she has two investment properties now as well. That's awesome.

Rick Ripma: 8:46

Yeah. So do you work a lot with people buying an investment property? Or do you work? Like, what is your niche at this point, or you may be so new, you don't have a niche, you

Kyle Baker: 8:56

know, coming into this, I thought I was gonna go the investment route because that's what I enjoy. That's kind of what I understand. And I'm not by any means an expert in all of those realms, because there's so many different caveats to that, but I really thought that would be the the area I'd go I haven't necessarily found that niche yet. Most of my people have either been family, friends or first time homebuyers. What I found with investors is it's a little more cut and dry it's a little bit more about the numbers and so I haven't had a whole lot of good experience yet going that route. Now I do have some people that I'm you know kind of working with it's just if you see something let me know that kind of kind of thing. But as of yet I haven't dove into that. Well

Rick Ripma: 9:38

you have the experience. You may not have worked with an investor yet that's that's buying but you are an investor who's bought correct you own rental property. So you know rental property. And I know there's a lot of investors out there but there's also a lot of first time investors who would like to be in real estate there's there's some huge reasons to buy real estate

Kyle Baker: 10:00

Oh, absolutely, absolutely. And I think that the easiest one that a lot of people do for their first investment property is their primary residence. So rather than selling that, and using those proceeds to buy the next one, if you're able to buy the next home, and it's still within your monthly price range, then keep your old property, turned that into a rental, and then buy the next one. And then a couple of years down the road, you can do the same thing. So the way I got into it was a little bit more, not as Orthodox. But it was the only way that I could find that works for me, I didn't have a whole lot of funds. And so I bought this first two properties VA, I lived in each of them for a year. So after 12 months, I went in bought the second property, put a tenant, the first one lived in the second one for a year, bought third property after that put tenant in the second the next one, that way, I got owner occupied financing without having to spend, you know, 20 25% down, and I could put the tenants in it. Now the math has to make sense. So it's a case by case scenario, but that seems to be what worked for me the best. So

Ian Arnold: 11:04

you're somewhat new to Indiana, because you were out and everything for a while. So what did you What are you doing to get your name out there? I know, that's probably the toughest thing for new agents,

Kyle Baker: 11:15

it's definitely the toughest thing. Because there's so many different avenues you can you can spend all the money in the world looking for people, you can do it more organic, that might be a slower way. What's worked for me is just talking to everybody, everyone I talked to gets a business card. Everyone that I talked to knows that I do real estate, whether it's through shirts that I wear, or just casual conversations, something that's kind of funny, but I always make sure if I'm talking to one person about real estate, and I know other people around I will purposely speak a little louder. Because other people will overhear that, oh, I didn't know your real estate agent. Because you know, especially now everyone wants to know what the markets like, Hey, how's the market? Hey, because they want to hear all it's terrible. It's not bad. It's, you know, they want to hear the worst. And when you respond with something other than it's, I'm not gonna tell them it's bad because it's not. And other people kind of chime in on that, like, Oh, they're, you know, they listen in and you can reach more people that way. So for me, it's just been talking, letting everybody want to know what I do. And as far as social media, I know, there's a whole lot of strategies involved with social media. I don't see social media as gaining new clients there. Certainly, you can do that. I use it as a reminder. Because it people forget what you do in an in a heartbeat. And so if I can remind people, Hey, I'm gonna steal real estate, they might not mean they need me today. But you know, tomorrow, the next week, the next year, Hey, Kyle does real estate we need we need an agent for this or that.

Ian Arnold: 12:47

So for you should get on the whole social media, do your tick tock, do some jujitsu break some boards or something like this is what I do for you. I see it really working for you. Yeah, exactly.

Rick Ripma: 13:01

We don't have him run our marketing.

Ian Arnold: 13:05

We should? I

Rick Ripma: 13:07

don't know. I find it interesting. So. So you use social media to keep in front of people, which I think is one of the most important things because I agree 100% People forget what you do. And it's very frustrating when you have a great friend that you talk to all the time, and they go use a different real estate agent. And when you say something, they say I forgot. Or they come to

Kyle Baker: 13:31

you excited, like hey, guess what I did? I just bought a house or like, congratulations, thanks. Awesome.

Rick Ripma: 13:38

Oh, I forgot. But you got to stay in front of them, you got to make sure they remember because in the end, the excitement, sometimes they forget, they do. Yeah. 100%. And they probably they think of you, especially when you're new at it, they think of you as what you were correct what they knew you as they don't think of you as a real estate. So you gotta stay in front of them. And you already have a pretty good, loud voice. So when you talk even louder, you're letting everybody know, in the whole area. That's that's the goal. I have a quiet voice. So I don't have that problem. I think that's, I think that's really a brilliant thing to do and keep cuz you got to, you have to let people know, because you wouldn't believe how many people we talked to who they'll say, wow, you know, I don't want to I don't want to tell everybody you know, they really don't want to get themselves out there. They're afraid they're gonna offend somebody. And that people want help. And like you said, right now who is not interested in real estate, right? Either they own a house and they want to know what's going on, or they want to own a house and they want to know they want to know what's going on. So everybody wants to know what you know. Exactly, exactly. That's it's a I think it's a brilliant

Ian Arnold: 14:47

so somebody is actually wanting to get know what's going on in the market. How would they even get in touch with you?

Kyle Baker: 14:54

So my cell phone number is 317-315-7324. You can call text or my email is Kyle dot Baker at talk to tucker.com.

Rick Ripma: 15:05

you can get a hold of Ian or I at 31767 to 1938. And That's 317-672-1938 That is a call no text, or you can go to HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com. You can look up all our information from there.

Ian Arnold: 15:20

Alright, so what we're gonna do is we're gonna step outside, we're gonna take a little break from real estate. Okay, we're gonna find out a little bit more about you. What do you do for fun? Well,

Kyle Baker: 15:30

we've kind of already touched into it a little bit. jujitsu, you know, I did some bodybuilding and powerlifting non competing, but you know, I took it pretty serious for a long time, you know, 1314 15 years, something like that. Most of my adult life, and then I made this transition over to to jujitsu, partially because of the bailbonds. And I thought that, you know, I never had an issue, but you run across somebody who knows something, and then you're going to have, you could have a potentially big issue. So that was fun. It was something completely foreign to me. Leave your ego at the door. It was I mean, I was 275 pounds at the time. And I would have guys that were 150 140 pounds, just wipe the mats with me. So it was very humbling. And it was cool to to learn something brand new again. And so a lot of my time is dedicated to jujitsu. If you ask my wife, it's probably a little bit too much time. But outside of that, we have my wife and I have two, two big dogs and so we'd like to spend a lot of time with them. We just went out and took some family photos yesterday at the park and so we like taking them on walks and hiking and stuff like that. What kind of dogs they are part Great Dane their their dad was a full blood Great Dane and their mom was a full blood. Belgian Malinois. So they look like big mouse. They're, they're big, big dogs. Yeah, are well, so the dad was considered a small Dane, he was probably 150 pounds. And then the mouths are about 6065 pounds. And so our mail is about 115. The females about 95. Okay,

Rick Ripma: 17:05

lovely. Thanks, Sue. realize how little they were super,

Kyle Baker: 17:09

super smart, giant lap dogs there. They've been the best dogs we've ever we've ever had.

Unknown: 17:14

So I have to ask because I've thought about it. And we talked a little before the show that next my kids swimming, Taekwondo flies, and I was thought, Oh, that'd be kind of cool for my son to do. I was like, and then every once awhile, let's be honest, we all watch Karate Kid. And

Ian Arnold: 17:27

we're like, hey, maybe that's you? So was it weird going in there as an adult going in there brand new.

Kyle Baker: 17:33

It wasn't for me. And you know, so I started in South Carolina. And I feel like the only reason I got into it is because this jujitsu gym was attached to a gold's gym that I had a membership at. And one of the walls into the academy was glass. So you could see in the class while you're working out, and I told my wife was like, Man, I really want to go in there. Try it, because I looked at stuff like Krav Maga before and I went in and talked to the gym, but I was traveling too much. It didn't really make sense. Well, at this stage, I was home more. And so I was really just dragging my feet. Because you know, you don't know anybody. You don't know what you're doing. You don't look stupid. And so when we were leaving the gym one day, I saw one of my co workers who works in the insurance office, when I met him, he was in the bail office writing bail. Then he got promoted. And he was in the actual corporate office. I saw him walking out and say, Hey, Patrick, I didn't know that you did jujitsu. So how long have you been here and he's a couple of months. He's like, You should come in and try it. And so now I knew somebody and so he I went in, so when you go next, and so I went in with him. And I met the professor. And he was great. And he's a Brazilian, you can understand about every third word, he said. But it was great. It was it. They're so welcoming. You know, I think some people talk about martial arts being like a family. And it really is, it's like a second family. And you know, they will, they will pick you up and they'll teach you everything. And it's as long as you don't have that ego and you don't go in is, you know, the crusher and you know, it's it was it's great. And then we came here I found a gym here as well, the same environment. And it's it really is like a family. I

Rick Ripma: 19:03

bet you if you go in as a crusher, and you think you're gonna do something, they take that out of you pretty quickly.

Kyle Baker: 19:08

They do they do. They could take a small female and humble you very quickly.

Rick Ripma: 19:13

My my youngest son, he did eight years of Taekwondo. And the place that he did it out the guy was at was a Korean, and he had taught the Korean military and I mean, he was he was a he was a tough man. Yeah, right. But more than the fighting, you know, all that. My son credits that with his six a lot of his success today because of the discipline and and the things he had to learn with Taekwondo and with with martial arts. Absolutely. It's a huge benefit to people. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And so you've done it for how many years? Couple years.

Kyle Baker: 19:55

So I'm about to, I did like six months in South Carolina. I tried to doing it and bodybuilding at the same time, which was just It was brutal. I made maybe one class a week. Just because I was trying to recover. My joints were always sore. I was too big. I was lifting too heavy. So in six months, I maybe had 30 classes. I started here and February of 22. So I'd say it's been about two years or so.

Rick Ripma: 20:21

So you've done your blue belt now. Correct. Right. So that's what the third belt or fourth belt

Kyle Baker: 20:27

second second belt? Yes. Okay. It's a long it's a long journey in jujitsu. Yeah,

Rick Ripma: 20:32

they all are. Yeah. But you know, you and I were talking about it earlier today. And it was like, you know, some of the places they just kind of pass you along, and it's not, but you're, you're at some place that actually, you're learning it. And it's probably much better for you.

Kyle Baker: 20:47

It's great. I picked this specific school because of my professors lineage. He goes all the way back to the Gracies, which a lot of people know from UFC one. He was in California, and started jujitsu in the early 90s. He was the first blue belt in Indiana. And there's, there's talks of it's pretty probable, nobody knows for sure, it's pretty probable that he was the first person to ever have a stripe on his belt in jujitsu. Because early on, they didn't have stripes, they didn't have all the colored belts, it was just, you're a white belt, if you're a student in your blue belt, if you're an instructor, and then they had to change that a little bit, to show the progression kind of give you you know, something to strive for, because you won't be a white belt for forever, right. But I picked him because of his lineage. And it's been it's been great. He's, he's a retired engineer. And so the way his mind works, he really breaks things down. So you spend more time learning versus the other school is great. I learned how to survive because I was just getting beat up all the time. But, you know, with the language barrier, it's a little bit difficult to understand, and I might spend, you know, 1520 30 minutes on the move. And by the end of my con i really don't know if I got this yet. I got time to spar. We're here. There's a lot of time really spent on dissecting things kind of like the engineer mind. It's been really good.

Rick Ripma: 22:10

So where is your I call the dojo but I don't know if that's what they call it an

Kyle Baker: 22:14

academy. It's you're in Carmel. Oh, so I'm in Indianapolis Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and the BJJ at 100/16 and Rangeline. Okay, okay.

Ian Arnold: 22:23

And he thanks you for the advertising

Rick Ripma: 22:26

Well, I mean it's it's an interesting thing and it's talking good about the school so I thought we should at least

Kyle Baker: 22:31

well it's nice because it's a you know, there's a couple different people that that want to get into it. One is you know, the head bashers they want to go out there compete, and I competed three times last year. So you can definitely do that at this academy. But they teach Gracie Jiu Jitsu was, which is more self defense jujitsu. So it deals with strikes, it deals with more things that would happen like in a street, street fight, self defense type scenario. And as you progress, you learn more, you can do more sport jujitsu, stuff like that. But a lot of people like that, because it's, it's pulled back a little bit. We don't want people coming in and getting hurt on their first or second class and then never coming back. We want them to keep coming back. So you can go as easy or as hard as you want. It's really new person friendly.

Rick Ripma: 23:16

Yeah, that's good. So I'm gonna get back to real estate. And which is hard for me. Well, let's, uh, what what would you say your superpower or superpowers are as it relates to real estate.

Kyle Baker: 23:31

So I don't, I don't know if it's necessarily a superpower. But I feel like I'm a very outspoken person. I talked to everybody. I think I got that from my dad. I used to laugh when I was a kid. Because, you know, we go into Walmart, or, you know, a super supermarket. My dad would talk to somebody for 3045 minutes. And by the end, like, who was that he was, I don't know. Because I remember the face. Well, he taught me. He coached me all coming up as a kid through sports. And so he knew a lot of parents. So he knew a lot of people and he had his own business. But he wasn't really good with names. And so you know, we kind of laughed as a kid like, oh, I can't go anywhere. My dad, he knows everybody. Well, I find that as I get older, I might not know everyone, but I talked to everybody. You know, I might be just last week, we're at the grocery store. And I was trying to grab yogurt. And there's a little lady in front of me. And somehow we struck up a conversation about yogurt. And I was like, Can we just go so no matter where I'm at, I find myself talking. And then it usually translates back into real estate just because I again, I want to let everybody know what I do. Because you never know who who needs help buying or selling or who they know. And so I feel like my superpower is just talking to everybody just being really talkative.

Rick Ripma: 24:40

Now when you when you talk to somebody like that, are you able to get their contact information so that you can keep in touch with them?

Kyle Baker: 24:47

Sometimes, I'm not overly pushy it you know, you kinda have to read the room you have to read their, their, you know, body language and stuff like that. I usually give them a card. Because if they're not Ready now, I don't want to be over pushy and you know, feel like I'm pulling out information. I'd rather have them reach out. But if I feel like they're engaging, and they actually might have an interest for this, then yeah, well, we'll exchange contact information for sure.

Rick Ripma: 25:14

I just you give them your contact information I do for sure. At least Yes, yes. It just seems like I don't know, as I sit here and think about I think is like, Okay, well, what do you have to do is figure out what you could say that, you know, what you could do that would be interest to people that they would say, yeah, get sent me that, then do you have their contact? Exactly. Now? Is there some way to do that?

Ian Arnold: 25:34

Exactly. We're talking about yogurts. And he goes, You try that brand? You give me a call? That's good. And that's there you go. Yeah, that's it. So when you're, when you're out there, how are you? I know, you're talking to a lot of people. But is there any words of wisdom people have given you to try to get get more people or just to housing, how to talk to people.

Kyle Baker: 26:00

So the thing that stuck with me the most, and it's actually from a previous guest of yours, he's actually out of my office, is be willing to do the things that other people are not to set yourself apart. Because, you know, there's hundreds, if not 1000s, of 1000s of Agents around. And so and everyone knows real estate agent, everybody knows, if you don't know that your parents know, or your aunt knows, or, you know, everyone knows real estate agent. So you got to figure out how am I going to set myself aside from the masses, and so be willing to do things that other people are not, and maybe that's, you know, cleaning gutters, maybe that's driving to see this property, that's an hour and a half away, whatever the case is, find out what most agents are not willing to do, and do that thing.

Rick Ripma: 26:44

You know, that's, that's true of life. 90% of the people aren't willing to, you know, in any, in any business, it's like 90% of aren't willing to do. That's why the or maybe even 95. That's why there's only 5% that are really successful. Right, right? Well, that's because they do the things that the 95% won't do. Right. And that's what he's saying that's it's a, that's a brilliant way to go about life, not just real estate, and it sets you apart and people appreciate if you clean their gutters, that's got to be it's like, you went over and above everybody expects you to be able to sell my house. Right? Right, and to take care and to do it in a timely fashion and hopefully, negotiate and do those things. But when you do something above and beyond it, really it really cements your relationship. Because aren't you really in a relationship? Business? Not really real estate?

Kyle Baker: 27:35

Oh, 100%. It's definitely a relationship business. Because they can find 100 other people who will who can do the same transaction is you they might not do it as good. Or they may. And so it really is a relationship business. People want to work with people that they know and trust. And they like,

Rick Ripma: 27:50

yeah, you know, it's funny, because what you just said is it took me a long time to realize that I wasn't the only great loan officer.

Ian Arnold: 27:58

Okay, no, there's me.

Rick Ripma: 28:01

You know, you think that you are you think that you're, and then and then as you get out and about and you start meeting near go, wow, there's a lot of really good. So most of the time, what we think sets us apart doesn't really set us apart that much. We you have to come up with these other things that that really do set you apart. Yeah. And it's what it's really what you do more than anything else. I think. I think that's that's what to me is is the is the differentiator is what do you do that separates you? What do you do like that? Others don't? Correct? What do you do that the 95%? Don't do that? That's, that's a big deal. So I'm sure because of the type of person you are that you have mentors? Who are your mentors, and what have you and kind of assets but, you know, what have you learned from from the mentors that you?

Kyle Baker: 28:54

Well, so the the person that I previously referenced, I would consider one of my mentors. And it's just learning every day, how I can be better, what I can do better, you'll run into issues because there's no way to prepare for everything. There's so much that can that can happen within real estate. And so learn learning as much as you can, trying to go above and beyond and just trying to be trying to be the agent that you would want as an agent I've had on both sides of the equation. I've had really good agents and I've had really bad agents. And I'm trying to learn from both of those what I should and should not do. And so just trying to follow in those footsteps of of my mentors.

Rick Ripma: 29:36

What do you think sets you apart that way? Like, so what is it that they asked us different? So the ones that did a bad job? What did you learn from them?

Kyle Baker: 29:49

You it's, in my opinion, it's all communication. It was poor communication. And it was difficult because we were moving from out of state and I had I not already bought several property's beforehand, I don't think that it would have this deal would have gone through fortunate for my wife and I kind of knew what to expect and what to go through. But there's a lot of people who, you know, maybe this is the first time purchase, or maybe they bought their house 30 years ago, and now they're buying their second one knock, I don't I don't remember what's, how this process works. So it all comes down to communication, keeping in contact, letting them know what's going on, what they need to do what they can expect next. It's all communication, because it is it's a relationship business, like we talked about earlier.

Ian Arnold: 30:31

Yeah, it's a big difference. Because especially in my wife and I are in this stages, we bought our first home, we've only lived in this home. But now we've somewhat outgrown it. So now we're looking trying to decide what are we going to do? But like you said, there's big differences. Now we got to worry about selling our house? Or do we stay in rent? Do we do this? What do we do we have equity? Do we need to pull out equity of this house to put it down for the new one? There's a lot of things like you said, unless you've done this numerous times, things change.

Kyle Baker: 31:02

Absolutely. Especially nowadays in the market. Because you know, previous in a quote unquote, normal market, you might have three, four or five months to decide. Now, it's like you need to make up your mind before you before you see the house as if this is the one is this going to be the one we need to pull the trigger. Now that's changed a little bit in the last handful of months, things have slowed down a little bit with the interest rates ticking up. But you know, it's we don't have as much time as we did before. And that's another issue trying to explain that to a client. I don't want to make it seem like you have to buy this house. But if this is the one and we miss out on it, I don't want you to be upset. I just want to let you know everything the possibilities,

Ian Arnold: 31:39

right? So I want you to give all the possibilities to every single person. So what's the best way somebody get in contact us whether you're looking to buy, sell, or just talk real estate?

Rick Ripma: 31:50

The best way is my cell 317-315-7324 Call text or my email, Kyle dot Baker at talk to talk.com and to get a hold of ena I got a HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com. You look up all our information there. Or you can call us at 317-672-1938. That's 317-672-1938. Good

Ian Arnold: 32:14

job, sir.

Rick Ripma: 32:15

I got it right.

Ian Arnold: 32:16

Yes, I'm proud of you. Thank you. All right. So we'll get into the question of the week. So I'm kind of curious on this one. What was your first car?

Kyle Baker: 32:26

My first car for the brief couple of weeks ahead. It was a 1989 Toyota Camry. We had I got all of the interior replaced. I bought this like leather kit from eBay. Had a pollster put all on there. It was looking good. And then the engine went out. So shortly. Oh, well. Well, you

Ian Arnold: 32:45

said Toyota. Yeah, that does not happen to Toyota's. Typically

Kyle Baker: 32:50

not. I must have just got the one. Yep, yeah. Well, I'm a fan. I liked them. I think it had close to 200,000 miles at the time. So it definitely lived its its life. I know they can go a lot longer than that. But for whatever reason, one I had didn't last that long. So shortly after that, I got a Toyota Sebring convertible.

Ian Arnold: 33:11

Nice. Well, they

Rick Ripma: 33:12

probably didn't somebody didn't take care of it. If I didn't change the oil or something like that. Because they don't break. No,

Kyle Baker: 33:19

typically not. Typically not.

Ian Arnold: 33:21

Yeah. So let's get into it. So is your would your wife do she real estate? Or what's she doing? Already? Told you? She's

Rick Ripma: 33:29

a firefighter. She's in? Okay. You can answer that question. I don't know why he doesn't listen to me.

Kyle Baker: 33:35

So my wife is a current recruit for the Noblesville Fire Department. She's currently going through the academy. They're getting close to the end of their fireside, that'll go through the end of the year, and then they'll start EMT next year. So I think they're aiming to finish the academy around mid March.

Ian Arnold: 33:52

So you got to be honest on this question on this answer, who would be more willing to run in for the into the fire you or your wife?

Kyle Baker: 34:00

Well, I would say I would do it, but I don't really know what I'm doing. So I'm probably putting more people in danger. We'll leave that to hurt

Ian Arnold: 34:09

yourself. Yeah. Well, you were the Navy. So I didn't know what job and stuff because my father, my stepfather was in the, but he was a firefighter on the ships. Oh, nice. So he would easily run in there. So yeah,

Kyle Baker: 34:22

I mean, I would I would run in but you might have two victims.

Rick Ripma: 34:27

His wife wouldn't let him run. Yeah, he doesn't know what he's doing. No, none of us should go into a fire. You know, I guess there could be a certain situation where you feel obligated like your your kids in the bedroom and you gotta go get them but yeah, absolutely. Still a lot of times they they rescue him and you die because you went into the fire. Yeah, cuz

Kyle Baker: 34:44

I have no idea what I'm doing. I ventilate the house and make it worse. Yeah, you don't want me in there?

Ian Arnold: 34:50

No, no, just either. Hey, just go in there and start kicking down doors. Yeah, well, you

Kyle Baker: 34:55

would that's probably what I would do, but it would make the fire worse, because you're ventilating it. Yeah, you actually want to close As the doors so he knows more than we do. That's why I'm not a firefighter. I listened to stories like, Man, this sounds awesome. But then you get in all the medical stuff, which is majority of the firefighter job, especially for numbers little their firefighter EMTs. And so a lot of the job is medical and like, I could do the fire stuff. That sounds fun. The EMT stuff. I'm out.

Rick Ripma: 35:21

Yeah. Yeah. So as it relates to real estate, what have you what has been the biggest surprise to you on what you thought real estate would be? And what it actually is?

Kyle Baker: 35:34

I didn't. I mean, I think to an extent, I realized it was kind of a counseling profession, I didn't realize how far that went. Because it's not just buying and selling. It's you deal with all types of, of issues. Good and bad. It's more counseling, to make sure that they're making the right decision, make sure this, this is the correct avenue for them. There's a lot that goes into it that I didn't necessarily realize, you know, like I'd said, I bought several properties. But I feel like I was pretty easy. You know, I'm looking at properties and said, This is the one we'll go look at it. What do you think, cool. This is the price, let's buy it. That's not necessarily the case. With a lot of transactions. There's a lot of hoops to jump through and a lot of different avenues to go. It's there's a lot of counseling involved. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 36:25

It's amazing to me, because I always feel the same way that you just said, I feel like I'm pretty easy. I just go, like, if I want to buy a car, I just go I find a car or buy it, right. I'm sure the people I shop thought I wasn't easy. But the where I bought the car, they thought it was really easy, because I found the right car. Right. Right. And it's probably, to me, that's how I do house too. You know, I find the right one, I buy the house. Right? I have to find the right one. And, and but it takes, I think it makes a difference on who you have as your real estate agent. You gotta have somebody who listens. And one of the things you said, I think, you know, is is critical. And that's communication is everything, everything. And if you communicate, it's not just you communicating with them, but you listening to what they have to say, we talked about that, I think before we started is listening matters greatly, because you have to listen to what they say, so that you can then help them, you know, find the right property for them. Correct? Correct.

Kyle Baker: 37:24

Correct. Because the last thing you want to do is, you know, they tell you, these are my needs and wants, and then you show them something that that is not on that or it's something that they said, hey, well, we have to have, you know, a finished basement. And then you show them something that's unfinished or doesn't have a basement? Well, now it's showing them like, is this guy even listening to me this is these are critical. And I think what you said about listening, I think so many people just think about what they're going to reply with and they forget to listen. Yeah. And it's it's very important. So

Ian Arnold: 37:56

we all start new jobs, we all learn some learn the hard way sometimes. So what is one lesson you think you've learned?

Kyle Baker: 38:05

I'm sure there'll be many more to come. i One, one transaction in particular. I forgot to have the, as his addendum signed, they were selling the house as is I forgot to get it signed. We had the inspection, the inspection didn't go well. My client said, Hey, like, we're probably not interested in this property. I said, Okay, well, with the as is addendum, it's great. Because we can, we can just back out of this, we'll just send over like, Hey, we're gonna send a release, or send over the release. And the agent was like, well, because you didn't give us an opportunity to fix the issues. We're going to keep the earnest money. So Oh, you guys wanted to sell it as is. And so I didn't even think to submit like, we want all these things fixed, knowing that they weren't going to fix them. Long story short, I had to bite the bullet, we end up compromising, they kept happening, earnest money, my clients got the other half back, and I ended up kicking in the first half because it wasn't their fault that that happened. It was my fault. And so lessons like that, I'm sure it won't be the last one. But lessons like that is, you know, to be cautious and really analyze everything, even if it's even if I thought I was doing the right thing. But going back and doing everything by the book,

Ian Arnold: 39:22

you know, I mean, it's just one of those things that we all make mistakes. And guess what happened and I tell my kids this, as soon as you make a mistake, it's actually great. Because now if you're smart, you'll never make that mistake ever again.

Rick Ripma: 39:37

No, and I talked to agents all the time. Like, oh, yeah, that one time I had to buy a dishwasher. I had to buy a refrigerator. There's always that type of story and like I won't do that again. Yeah, yeah, I sold new homes. And I bought a dishwasher. And I bought a garage door opener. Yeah. Yeah, everyone has that story. Yeah, because it's a big there's a lot to do and there's a lot to learn. When you're brand new, and you and the only people who don't make mistakes are people who don't do anything correct. And and I think our society is it's a problem because we all think society says you aren't supposed to make any mistakes, which is absolutely ridiculous. We all are going to make mistakes. It's how you react to it, like the way you reacted, proves what you how much you care about what you do. Right? You said, I did this? I'll make it

Kyle Baker: 40:30

right. Correct. And I think that goes a long ways with the clients too, rather than me shifting the blame, like, oh, well, this agent, you know, they didn't do this, right, because my client would have known. They don't understand the intricacies of this. But rather, I came and said, Hey, look, I messed up, this is what's happening. I'm gonna make it right. But this is exactly why this happened. Right? Yeah. And then you gain a client for life from

Rick Ripma: 40:52

Oh, yeah, definitely. And I'll tell everybody else. Exactly. And it's, but you have to suck it up and, and be willing to eat the income. Right? But it's, it's the right thing to do. And that says a lot about you and your character, you did the right thing. And that's not there's a lot of people who don't do that. That's, that's a big, that's a big deal. That's a big reason why somebody should use you for real estate agent, because you do the right thing in a situation like that. I think that's huge. So for for like let's say a first time homebuyer. What do you see as the value of that they receive from buying a home over time, not just financially, but maybe mentally and any other ways? What are the benefits of somebody but somebody received by buying a home?

Kyle Baker: 41:41

Well, so I've had a lot of people that are first time homebuyers this year. And so I've had the privilege of kind of explain this to a lot of people. The first and the first and most obvious is, is equity, you're building equity in something versus just giving it to an apartment complex or some landlord. You're you're creating lifelong, maybe not lifelong, you're creating equity that you're keeping. And whether that's you keep it in the property, whether that's, you know, five years down the road, you want to sell it and you want to move somewhere else. And then also your property is appreciating, so you have an asset, versus a liability, that apartment complex or that condo you're renting or house you're renting is a liability because it doesn't gain you anything other than a place to live in. A lot of people need that, obviously. But if you have the ability to purchase, now you do take on some extra tasks, now your maintenance is on you. But the as long as you buy the right property, and then the right place that far and above outweighs the the other things, right. And so I think that equity and the appreciation, and then just a place to call your own, you know, you're an apartment complex. It's like, oh, I want to paint this wall this color I want to do I want to make these built in bookshelves or I want to tile the floor, like you're limited on what you can do. And even if the complex lets you do it, do you want to spend money on something that's not yours? So it's a place to call your own? Yes. So

Ian Arnold: 43:08

let's take this a step further. So what does it mean? Because you've own rental properties. So if somebody's in their first home, and they're like, oh, let's possibly transition? Can I written this out? What does he do having a rental property one or two? And not? No, not? Not number wise, but what does it do for somebody? Well, it

Kyle Baker: 43:30

gives you a lot of options. And so the way I view my rental properties, they don't cash flow a lot, yeah, get a couple 100 bucks, you're not going to get rich from a couple 100 bucks, I don't view them as that I view them as my retirement, you know, in 30 years or less, those will be paid off. And then that income will just keep coming in. Because people will always need a place to rent, it's always going to be there. And along with that appreciation. The rents also go up, that's just a fact of life, but I get tax benefits for it. So there's a lot of benefits to having a rental. But for me, I view them as a long term play because there's there's several different avenues you can take, as I'm sure you know, some people will, you know, do flips and they see the money now. I'm not really interested in going that route as of yet. I would potentially like doing that in the future to fund more long term. I'm more in the long term play. I would like those to supplement my retirement. And so then at that point, I can do whatever I want to do versus having to happen to go to work and do what I have to to pay the bills.

Rick Ripma: 44:33

One of my favorite customers. She was a real estate agent. But mostly what she did is she she owned rental property. And she was probably when I first met her she was probably in her mid 70s And she had like 2025 rental properties. She owned them all free and clear. And and what impressed me most is she was still going into those houses and working on the home. Oh, wow. I mean, she had she had more flexibility, because she had always done it. You know. And so it's, it's not only the money, you know, she had she had the retirement and it's the security that it gives you. But she loved she gave her something to do. She loved doing it. Her family all did it together. They were just, they're really great people. I don't kind of lost touch with her, but just a phenomenal person. And it's interesting, because when you pay off that house, I mean, think about what's happened in the last last couple of years and the appreciation of our house and we were talking appreciation, I did want to clarify that so people understand. It's not only that your house increases in value, you also pay it down. Correct. And so if that's where you're you know, both ways. Are you getting your you're building up a nest egg that way? Absolutely. Right. So it makes a huge difference. If you think about if you own 15 homes free and clear when you're retired. And they're each bringing in, you know, $1,000 a month that's$15,000 a month in income above and beyond your Social Security and everything else. So it's a huge that's a, that's a huge deal, gives you a lot of freedom gives you a lot of freedom. One of the guys that I do jujitsu with. He owned a big construction company. And he's since retired from that and he owns a lot of real estate, he owns single family duplexes. He owns

Kyle Baker: 46:21

self storage, he on some mobile home lots. And he's just he's able to do whatever he wants, he doesn't have to go clock in and clock out. He can go to the gym and go to jujitsu, he still is very active within his rentals, and he's in the in there, doing the leases, doing the repairs and stuff like that. But he doesn't because he wants to he doesn't do it because he has to write and that's that's what I think real estate can bring you is just the freedom.

Ian Arnold: 46:45

So I want you to get this knowledge out to everybody. So what's the best way so I'm gonna get a hold of you if they want to talk real estate.

Kyle Baker: 46:52

The best way is through my phone 317-315-7324 Call or text.

Rick Ripma: 46:57

And to get a hold of ena I got a HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com. Or you can give us a call at 317-672-1938. That's 31767 to 1938. And follow us for more indies real estate gurus and

Ian Arnold: 47:12

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. I want to thank you for being on our show. It's been a pleasure having you on. And Rick will say this too. We should just do one show that we just talked about all the times you had to go outdoors.

Kyle Baker: 47:29

My wife wants me to write a book. I'm just not very. I've tried to and I think it would be successful just writing a couple each chapter being a different story. But yeah, I think that'd be interesting.

Rick Ripma: 47:40

Well, you know, if you'd like like, chat GPT Yeah, you can now do it with your voice. I don't know if you knew that. But yeah, so you click on it. As long as you pay a paid version, I don't know about the unpaid. And then you could just say what you wanted and then have it rewrite it, you could probably write a book and edit it out. It's amazing what I'm really into chat GPT

Kyle Baker: 48:04

it's crazy. If I could touch on one more topic, we have time. There's a new program that I'm getting involved with. I had a meeting with him last week went over all the all the intricacies of it. And I'm looking to set it up tomorrow if you guys ever heard of homes for heroes? Yes. So I'm getting involved in homes for heroes to kind of wait to get back to the heroes, and that is first responders, active and veterans, military, health care workers and teachers. And this gives them kind of a thank you. When you buy yourself, you receive a portion of that proceeds back in the form of a check after closing. I said as a thank you. And then a portion of that also goes to a nonprofit to to assist families that are in need. That's a great program. I think so too.

Rick Ripma: 48:50

I mean, that's, that says a lot about you to get involved in it. It's it's a phenomenal program.

Kyle Baker: 48:54

And I think it goes back to doing things that other people aren't willing to do. I'm not sure how much people know of the program. But all of that fund is comes directly from me. It comes from the proceeds of the commission. And it's just a way to say thank you and to give back. And so that's something I'll be doing here in the near future. Yeah. Is that maybe tomorrow? Yeah, I just thought about before I came in here, I set up the phone call for tomorrow. Awesome to get that rock and roll. And so I sat through, it was about an hour, hour and a half last week. Learn all the intricacies of we have a family friend that does it down South Carolina, and her whole business is around veterans. We have a program here in Tucker, that's limited to veterans, which I think is great. But I like the homes for heroes because you have access to veterans, first responders, teachers and health care workers. Yeah,

Rick Ripma: 49:45

you can help them out. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. It means a lot because a lot of them can then buy a house. Yeah, where they couldn't before. And now I know there was there was something going through Congress or Senate. I don't I And I lost track of it. I don't know if it passed or not ought to look that up that that for that for that program that they were going to improve it. Oh, I hope it went through but I lost track of it. Yeah, to medical issues and I lost track of it.

Ian Arnold: 50:14

Alright, so I'm gonna do this one more time. So if somebody wants to talk to you about that program, how would they get ahold of you? The

Kyle Baker: 50:23

best way to contact me is through my cell phone. It's 317-315-7324 My email is Kyle dot Baker at talk to tucker.com All right, and thank you, Kyle. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. This is great. Your

Rick Ripma: 50:37

stories were everything I thought.

Announcer: 50:40

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