Luke and Sadie Newcomer: Sell The Lifestyle

Hey folks. Welcome back to The Real Estate excellence podcast with your host. Tracy Hayes, we have the best in the house today. This power couple has an amazing story, and I'm honored to have them on the set. Their numbers will knock you off their feet, and it even goes back further, as I'm sure Luke will go in detail. But my numbers in 2019 just short of 50 million, nearly double that in 2021 nearly double that again, and you're trending again here in 2022 almost double what you did in 21 21 which is an accomplishment. Yeah. You know, with the current market conditions, they both graduated from Flagler College and dedicate their time to local charities like the St Francis house here in St Augustine. And this is a quote from their site. When they are not selling real estate, they love to spend time cooking, creating tasty dishes in their kitchen, going to the beach to surf and fetch and play with their team mascot, Louis their golden retriever, golfing or spending time exploring the oldest city, which can never end. There's always something new in downtown St, Augustine. Let's welcome the welcomers of newcomers to St Augustine, Luke And Sadie, newcomer with the newcomer group of ancient city.

Tracy Hayes  2:21  
Realty is Louise the newcomer group. No more ancient no more ancient city. Were you gonna get that off your social media? I don't know where you saw that.

Tracy Hayes  2:29  
It is on there, I guess. Well, I that as I questioned that actually I'll have to find it and send it to you. So worries. So you're, you're divorced the ancient city, yeah, and you're just a new the newcomer group. Reality is that

Luke Newcomer  2:41  
how it's just the newcomer, just number. So we were always the newcomer group at Ancient City Real Estate. And then during covid, we kind of had this, you know, we weren't in the office. We were growing. Everybody else was growing. It's just like, Okay, let's just open the brokerage and be the newcomer group.

Tracy Hayes  2:55  
Okay, well, you both now, we know you went to Flagler College. We talked a little bit about the overlap. But actually, I want, actually, I want, actually, one thing I put note in here, because I was looking at your Facebook and reading that, that quote that you have, I think on your website, is where I stole that from, okay, as they're doing, because you had all of that in your Facebook post yesterday. I know, throwing the ball with your golden retriever, he was towing you down the street on the skateboard. But also you had some food dishes in there.

Luke Newcomer  3:21  
And, you know, it's funny, I was like, as you were saying. I was like, you know, I like, check every single one of those boxes, without the exception of golf. Yes, there's really good ways right now, I think I've surfed like, 10 sessions since Wednesday, so I'm, like, surfed out and very happy with that. So and then Sundays, we always take Louis to the beach. She knows when it's Sunday and kind of starts going crazy in the afternoon when low tide kicks around.

Tracy Hayes  3:44  
Oh yeah, yeah. I have a little Yorkie we take out in the boat, and Sunday morning is our boating day, and we take him, oh yeah. He starts going nuts. He knows when I get up and I put my bathing suit on, yeah. That's, you know, there. He starts

Sadie Newcomer  3:57  
like, oh my gosh, it's time to go play. Yes, exactly.

Tracy Hayes  4:01  
All right, so let's go back. I mean, you both went to Flagler. Are you both from St Augustine? Or where did each of you come from?

Sadie Newcomer  4:07  
No, so I'm originally from Manhattan, New York. Oh, so I was born and raised, and then I came to Florida, to St Augustine to go to Flagler College in

Luke Newcomer  4:15  
2010 Yeah, and I was from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, went to Flagler College. Been here since, oh, nine. That's where we met.

Tracy Hayes  4:22  
In Love. That's it. That remind you, I grew up on Cape Cod, and I go to I went to Charleston to go to check out schools, and I fell in love. It sounds like, yeah, yeah. Same thing. You came to St Augustine, like

Sadie Newcomer  4:32  
coastal people growing up our entire lives, going to the beaches. And I think that's what we wanted to do for college.

Tracy Hayes  4:37  
I always remember I was in high school visiting Manhattan with a buddy of mine who was going to a private school in Connecticut, okay? And, yeah, visiting his girlfriends. You know, they lived, it literally lived in Manhattan. And, you know, we went to the Yankees game and all that stuff. But it's like, that's a totally different way of life.

Luke Newcomer  4:53  
You don't meet many people born and raised in Manhattan, yeah, like, when we, like, the first time I met her, I was like, oh, like, or, like, went up to visit where she was from. Like. Oh, like, you're really in the city. Like, okay, this is cool.

Tracy Hayes  5:02  
You got Queens or Brooklyn. You're

Sadie Newcomer  5:05  
actually own little bubble, too. I feel like, when I came to Florida and lived in St Augustine, like I was, like, exposed to so many things that, like, I didn't even know people did in their spare time, I was like, wow. Like, this is completely different life. I'm not

Tracy Hayes  5:17  
used to it. I had a brief stint because I was an education major where I taught school for a year in deltona High School, and I had kids that were from the city, or, you know, at least the different the fiber barrels is where it went. And they were like, it's too quiet here. They're not used because of the honking the horns and stuff that actually goes on, yeah, pretty regularly around.

Sadie Newcomer  5:37  
Whenever he tries to get me to move, I'm like, okay, it has to have street lights, and I like to be walking distance to be able to go to, like, restaurants and fun activities like that.

Tracy Hayes  5:45  
Now. So you guys are right out on St Augustine beach.

Luke Newcomer  5:48  
So we, our primary residence is on, you know, in St Augustine beach. We have investment we have a couple investment properties there. We're building there. And then our office is there, like, literally, on one streets, pretty much, like, we have a lot of properties. Like, we could walk to the office every day have the dog tell you exactly, yeah, we're heavy in St Augustine beach. That's where I we personally do a ton of business.

Tracy Hayes  6:08  
And I know lifestyle was in some of your descriptions on your website. Yeah, I talk about the Florida lifestyle because do you find you obviously, I know we deal a lot of consumers, new buyers, that are obviously moving from out of state. And you know, when you move from out of state, you might, like, you might visit the beach all the time, but you don't even realize, like, what's on the other side of what's downtown, because that week you're there, you're only in that little area. You don't realize what's going on. How do you expose some of your new buyers to all the endless things?

Luke Newcomer  6:37  
Yeah, so it's funny you say that. So when I first, like, went to school. I didn't even know World Golf Village existed until I got my real estate license. I mean, it was downtown the beach in velana.

Sadie Newcomer  6:47  
Yeah, St John's County is just massive. And, yeah, I feel like you don't know that until you get into

Luke Newcomer  6:50  
real estate. But to that question, I mean, to me, it's always been about the lifestyle, because it's, I love it so much personally, like I get to go to the beach, I get to surf, we can walk to the office, like, you get that coastal vibe, and to me, that's what makes it super easy to sell to people. I'm selling the lifestyle that I love so much. Yeah.

Sadie Newcomer  7:06  
So we actually, I think this started during covid too, with out of state buyers. We had them. We started making lifestyle videos of different neighborhoods that we really like, such as St Augustine Beach, downtown Milano, just to kind of let people know and experiencing Augustine the way we kind of do so if they're not familiar with the neighborhood, it's a great tool to be able to just send to someone and be like, Oh, well, check out, you know, all these different activities that you can do in this neighborhood versus, you know, another one, because there

Tracy Hayes  7:33  
is, I have a class I teach on community development districts, because I was on my board for 11 years, and that's what I That's what I tell the realtors, just relax. Don't get it all a hypertension, because it's a community development. If you guys ask your fees, that's a lifestyle, yeah, exactly. It's flash pads and knock at ease. That's the lifestyle they want. 1,000% don't people will pay for what they want?

Luke Newcomer  7:55  
Yeah, absolutely. They want

Tracy Hayes  7:57  
to go live out in the beach. They got to pay extra for it. All right. So you guys meet in college, you

Luke Newcomer  8:03  
start dating, yeah? Class, this is the whole story. So we met in college, my bottom line guy, yeah, yeah. It kind of sets a big stage as far as how we got to where today. So when we met in college, I went up north, was working in a restaurant and then also working for a landscaping company. With my buddy's company. We moved back down to St Augustine to open a restaurant, and we were about to open the doors with the location everything. We got a really bad car accident. This was, I guess, back in 2014 Yeah. Anyway, got hit by a car. Not good over here together. Yes, okay, T boned. Anyway, we were on Sadie was in the hospital for about two months, multiple surgeries. Was out of work for about a year. I went, was working kind of part time at a restaurant just to get through, burned through a lot of our savings during recovery. Sadie was watching a lot of HGTV. Obviously, that's not real life. I've got a small background in renovating houses with my dad. Our friend Taylor, at the time, had gotten her license, who's actually on her team now. And she was like, You guys could get your license. So we kind of did that. Went all in on it, and had found a lot of success very fast, and have been building a team ever since the

Tracy Hayes  9:09  
were you guys married at this time, at two that we were freshly engaged, freshly engaged in the accident. Because I remember when you were talking at the landmark event several weeks ago, and you mentioned the accident. What I mean, share with us the mindset of, you know, tragic she's in the hospital for, obviously, even, you know, a couple of days is one thing, but couple of months, that's, yeah, you're really, you know, setting yourselves back. Luckily, you're young and you're, you know, financially, you can recover, you know, with time, which you guys obviously did very quickly. But I mean, what kind of reset your mindset? I mean, what do you guys dig back and what you're doing today? Or, you know, some of the things you learned during that time of, I mean, real tragedy.

Luke Newcomer  9:50  
I mean, well, I think Sadie and I pulled totally different things out of it, collectively, because it affected both of us very differently. But for me, it was like, huge perspective. I'm like, okay, you know, we just. Lost a lot of time as far as where we thought we were going changing courses, just like I don't want to ever be backed into a wall like that again. So I've always had that perspective of hardship. And I think a lot of people haven't had to go through something like that, which, until you go through something challenging, you really never know what that's like, right? And I think

Sadie Newcomer  10:14  
it forced both of us to grow up a lot faster than you know, probably we were even thinking like we ever would, just because we did have to deal with something, you know, that was so traumatic

Tracy Hayes  10:24  
and, well, I imagine, like, helping once in the hospital, you're spending How much more time in rehab.

Sadie Newcomer  10:29  
So I was actually in the hospital for two weeks, and then I was doing rehab for probably, like, a year and a half afterwards. And, I mean, it's still, like, continuous to this day, yeah, where, like, you just, you obviously want to, like, keep your body into top shape.

Tracy Hayes  10:41  
You're post college. You mentioned going up north and then coming back. What are you doing? You following him, or what? So I

Sadie Newcomer  10:47  
Yeah, I'm a year younger than Luke, so I was still at another year in college. After I graduated, I moved up to Delaware, where Luke was living, and we spent the summer. We were just like, bartending, you know, we were gonna save up some money and travel afterwards. And being from New York. When the season ended there, I was just like, oh my gosh, it is so quiet here. Like, I don't know how I'm gonna spend my whole entire year here. So frequently we were talking about moving back to New York, and we started lining up jobs, looking for places to live. And I think Luke quickly realized that wasn't a great place for him to live, either. So then we both kind of decided, all right, we both really like to live in St Augustine.

Luke Newcomer  11:23  
Back to what we know, yeah,

Tracy Hayes  11:24  
well, well, the I grew up on Cape Cod, very seasonal Memorial Day, Labor Day. It's pretty much ghost town. Yeah, I when in the 90s, I lived outside DC, and a girlfriend I had, she had regularly been doing it with her friends. Were renting a house, I think was Rehoboth Beach. Oh, yeah, that's my parents live. Yeah, that's where we were. And, yeah, I mean, it's like, okay, it's Memorial Day. Everyone out there. Well, Labor Day. That's it. The weekends are packed. And then for the regulars, obviously there's people staying during the week, but the weekenders from this, from DC out there, and yeah, you've got to get what you can bartending or whatever, and get back. But yeah, they always said that, yeah, the quiet time wartimes When, that's when all the everyone became an alcoholic. So you in 2016 you go to ancient city building. What leads you? Did you guys go together? Or this happened?

Luke Newcomer  12:13  
Yeah, so times. How do you get started? It's kind of funny. I said so. So we went to Ancient City Real Estate. I think we, like, reached out to a couple different brokerages. We knew nothing, okay, absolutely nothing. Didn't have friends in it. We didn't have anybody old enough that we knew that we'd be buying real estate. We kind of just went in pretty blindly. And we got super lucky. We reached out to a couple people. I failed my license. What I think the test was three or four times, pretty embarrassing, but, like, I'm okay saying that now it's, you know, they got it before me. So she started laying the groundwork, yeah.

Sadie Newcomer  12:41  
And I think I sent a couple of emails out,

Luke Newcomer  12:44  
Oh, yeah. Took once, yeah, Scotty less than me, took it one time. She was fine, so she passed first. And I think put some feelers out. And one of the first people to reach out was DJ Lindsay. They were, DJ was the broker of Ancient City Real Estate at the time, and they were, I mean, they're some of our best friends today, but he was such a great mentor for me personally, because it was like we were just getting back in the workforce. They were growing a huge team at the time, but not what they had today, right? And, you know, I was just like, hey, like, what can we do to just get ahead as fast as possible? Because we just spent the last two years recovering, and I'm trying to get super far ahead right now, right? So that's kind of how we ended up there. Call us right away. Is like, you can join them. They're like, Oh yeah, you guys just be a team. Like, you know, you go to lunch together. It's a lot of fun. Like, okay, what's that mean?

Tracy Hayes  13:26  
Yeah, from an because one of the biggest themes that I have all the top agents is education, yes. So you this is a situation where DJ reached out to you, felt you connected with him, excuse me, connected with him and followed him. Where we talk a lot with, like, a new agent coming on, taking some time, because some brokerages are made for new people, some are not. And you gotta what was DJ giving you at that time to to ramp you up as, I mean, someone is totally green. So for me, which is, I think he still does today.

Luke Newcomer  13:57  
Yeah. So for me, I mean, he was like in production, didn't really understand how to run a team himself, either, and I wasn't even thinking team. It was more just like, okay, Sadie and I will go on appointments together and just like, kind of work with one another, and it's turned into something large, but I'm a big guy. Of like, actions speak louder than words. And like, he was always at the office, always making phone calls, always learning more about the market, and it's just like, okay, so I should just imitate what he's doing. Put my own spin on it, and it's kind of the side wall effect. We went heavy on online leads. That's how we build our business. I'm still heavily in production today. I think this year alone, Sadie and I will personally do 75 million those are all from online leads in the past that have now turned into great clients and referral partners. So we don't really do on lead online leads anymore for ourselves, but we generate those heavily for our team, because that's how I build it. And now we've got people like Taylor on our team, who still takes online leads, but her repeat and referral business is through the roof now that she's been with us for, you know, I guess, almost four years. So do we? I think

Tracy Hayes  14:51  
you would agree with this. We live in that it's not Lancaster, Pennsylvania, right? Someone doesn't move in, you know, and probably is not going to move out unless their job moves. Yes, people come here. Oftentimes, they personally will change communities, maybe move up in a house, or move from one community to another sometimes and within a very short period of time, a year or two. But then they're also referring in their friends. Yes, the people who they did hang out with in Lancaster, Pennsylvania or Manhattan and said, hey, you need to come here. They're visiting. Like, yeah, we'd like to come and do you know, hang where you guys are at, and those referrals are there from it. So it's a little different market and

Luke Newcomer  15:30  
very different marketing. You're spot on with that, because a lot of people too, as we know in Florida, where you're buying a secondary home, which is huge for us, vacation rental properties, secondary homes is a big part of our personal business outside of the team. And you know, those people are looking in all sorts of different markets. I mean, they could be looking on the panhandle, they could be looking in Georgia, South Carolina. So reflecting back to that following up with these people. Yeah, we've sold so many homes where they're like, man, honestly, we wanted to be over here, but you just called us and followed up all the time that it was a no brainer to move here, because you're the most accessible person, interesting?

Tracy Hayes  16:02  
Yeah, you're finding Most of the clients have that kind of flexibility that it's not working. Are we working with a lot of remote people working remotely, or retirees? What do you especially out at the beach area? What are you seeing out what do you

Luke Newcomer  16:13  
see out there? Little bit of everything, honestly, not a ton of remote workers in that sense. But we just kind of got in with some really good customers that we resonated well with. And we'd sell, you know, we'd sell them a house back in 2017, 18, and it's like they'd get themselves up on an Airbnb property. It's like, it's doing so well to get another one and another one, and then eventually they made it their primary residence, and they're semi retired.

Sadie Newcomer  16:35  
Yeah, we work with a lot of people that it's like a second hope for them. So that's why they're not back to, like, what Luke was saying, like, married to a certain area, they're kind of, I want to explore my options and see, like, what's the best fit. And then, you know, typically, like everyone, whenever they come to St Augustine, they fall in love with it, because it's such a special place that, you know, they want to continue to do more and more business there, or move there full time themselves. All right,

Tracy Hayes  16:57  
so I want to just wrap up on, I always split my shows in two House, the personal little bit of background on you, and then digging into your team in the second half type of thing. You know, guys, how you guys do business Flagler College. I mean, you guys are very young. What did you learn, if anything? So much, yeah, so much. What are some of the principles? I mean, did you catch it? Or it might be just networking, I don't know. What did you get out of attending Flagler that you still kind of, I

Luke Newcomer  17:20  
think Sadie and I have probably very different but similar answers. So for me, personally, I went to school for business, and the thing that resonated with me is because I hated school growing up such a waste of my time, but what I love failed to test, yeah. So what resonated Flagler was the only college I applied to just to keep my mom happy, and I literally Googled colleges that are affordable near the beach, and this one popped up. I did early admission. I got accepted, never went and looked at the place until school started. So I drive down, I'm like, This place is awesome, and had an amazing experience because a lot of my professors came from the real world, so I resonated with that. It's like, okay, you're telling me this stuff not because it's in a textbook. You're telling it because you actually had success. And it's a smaller college. So a lot of the people that I had classes with, I had them with from freshman year to senior year, became some really good friends. So like, I mean, our group of friends is all pretty much from Flagler College, and hung around. So it was very tight knit to me, and very niche in that sense, which was an amazing experience for myself. Yeah. I mean, one

Sadie Newcomer  18:21  
of Luke's professor has even married. Professors even married us and, yeah, just this year. Yeah. So what's really cool about that school is that, I mean, it is so small that you really get immersed within the community very quickly, like, even just business owners and like, where you go, who you see, like, day to day, it's like, because

Tracy Hayes  18:36  
you're walking down the street getting lunch, yeah, whatever. Also, like,

Luke Newcomer  18:39  
after you're you there's not enough room to live on campus anymore, so you literally have to go live within St Augustine. Yeah, you move into the community neighborhoods and yeah, and something cool on that. So with Flagler College, I don't even know if I've like told anybody, but I go back and I look at how many people we've sold houses to that were associated with Flagler College, or alumni. We've done over $70 million dollars in real estate transactions within Flagler College alumni. So yeah, talk about that, paying tenfold for your tuition.

Tracy Hayes  19:08  
Well, we must believe in a higher being, because he just blindly came to Flagler, I don't know. Oh, how interesting. So yourselves, though you're leading a team. Yes, you went to Flagler, very respected institution, and so forth. But what do you guys stay or who you listening to? Because I know Luke, you mentioned you do listen to podcasts a lot, or there's certain people that you like to listen to, or listen for some person for a couple months, and then maybe change direction. What keeps you guys sharp to lead your team and be out in front of much clients that are probably 2030, years older,

Luke Newcomer  19:44  
yeah, and that's actually most of the people we work with are older, retired, have a strong business background. I'd say that I resonate really well with business owners versus maybe that w2 employee personally. But outside of that, I mean keeping ourselves sharp. I'm a huge podcast listener. I love bigger podcast. Buckets. Love listening to Tom Ferry but I'm not, you know, I don't discriminate if somebody that I trust gives me something to listen to. I'm wide open with it. And we coach with with Tom Ferry network. Greg Holt house has been our coach since day one. We've been coaching with them now, I think, for about five years. And nobody likes to get a lot of real estate conferences, go to conferences and what's going on, read a ton of books. I mean, that's pretty much what consumes my life. So much info is boxed

Tracy Hayes  20:24  
and off a little bit with that, because almost every successful person, I wouldn't say every single person on the show a lot of because I didn't ask everybody this question. But coaching, how important is it when you reach a level where you can afford it to if you're looking to bust through a lid, which I think a lot of people, all of us, reach at some point, to get that coach or maybe that mentor, if it's DJ, how important is, you know, Tom Ferry has added to your

Luke Newcomer  20:49  
I think it's super important. I mean, it's the people that you get to meet through it, the country, that are doing something similar or more than you. It's everything. And I would also say, I mean, so many people, they just want to do it themselves, and they have a very like, closed minded sense of it all, where I'm just, I want abundance. I mean, truly, you have to be coachable. What Got You Here Won't Get You There. It's a great book. I mean, I live by that because this the market's constantly changing. The way you do business is constantly changing. And if you don't have somebody that's holding you accountable or sharing you know, their technique and strategy, you're just, you're setting yourself up for failure. In my opinion, I'd say you can't. Not mean you everybody should have some sort of coach or mentor.

Tracy Hayes  21:26  
Let's get, say, get your input in here. Since Luke is doing all the telecom because you guys do split up your business, he's doing more of the front end. You're doing more of an operational Yeah, I kind of run the back of the house. So how is this coaching giving you a wider perspective? To me, the coaching that I've gives me, like, whether the coach had for podcasting or is, like, opened my eyes. This business is a lot bigger than what you see, yes, last time, yeah, in that one office you've been working in, and it opened to what has it helped you? Because the most important area, I think, is the operational

Sadie Newcomer  21:55  
for Luke and I, especially with us, we kind of just get, like, so caught up in, like, the day to day operations of our business that we, you know, sometimes forget, of like, the bigger picture items. And I feel like our coach has always done a really good job of, like, bringing us back to reality, and like, regrounding us about, like, Hey, these are, like, your main pillars. Like this always has been for you guys, like, refocus on it, and, you know, make sure that like that is still like, something that you're focusing on every single day

Tracy Hayes  22:21  
because you because you can get up, or you guys get paid when the deal closes. Obviously, we get paid on month ends. Okay, what'd you last month? You get paid for it, yeah, and you get into this, you know, just hey, the next one, and you're not looking 10 closings down the road, or a

Luke Newcomer  22:33  
lot of accountability on focusing on your business, not in your business.

Sadie Newcomer  22:37  
Yeah, I think that has been the biggest part of coaching. I know we we got our coach in the first place just because we were feeling like there was so much going on. And, you know, we were like, you know, we're doing all of this stuff, but we just feel like we're running around like chickens with our heads cut off. It's like, how you know, this isn't sustainable what we're doing. And I feel like, you know, having the coach telling us, you know, it's okay to feel like this, but like you can also, you know, change X, Y and Z in your business as well. Was really helpful to help us grow and get to where we are today.

Tracy Hayes  23:05  
I like that statement. Feel like this, yeah, the thoughts go through our heads. Can we do this today? Hey, it's not as good as last month. Is this normal? And you need to confide? Yeah, have that.

Sadie Newcomer  23:18  
I mean, we're all in business for ourselves at the end of the day that, you know, it's hard to have people that you are able to bounce these ideas off of. I'm lucky that I have Luke to do that with on a day to day basis. But can definitely be hard.

Tracy Hayes  23:30  
I think the, you know, they talk about people win the lottery, right? They a lot of them, they're done, or a professional ball player soon as they they re they retire. A lot of times. They're broke, not short, short after and as a mentor told me one time, it's your aptitude level you can only make either what you feel you're only allowed to make, because I think a lot of us have that, oh no, we're not worthy of making that much more money, or Sure, so forth, that the coach helps you break through that it increases your aptitude level. It expands your horizon. And now I think the success that you guys had, any real estate agent and I anywhere would go, would look at your numbers and go, Oh my god, you guys, yeah, and I do that, yeah, for real isn't it? Yeah? Times it's awesome. Yeah, the referrals come in and you're like, oh my goodness, look at it. Look what I'm happy you're probably, I'm sure, you've changed many lives of the agents that work

Luke Newcomer  24:24  
with you and vice versa. I mean, our team not to get ahead, but I mean an incredible group of people, yeah, and we're very select. I mean, we're always hiring and wanting to bring it, but very selective who we actually do bring on, because the culture that we have is unmatchable in this marketplace, probably throughout the country, in my opinion,

Tracy Hayes  24:42  
talk about because here's one of the biggest challenges I'm talking to agents, is making that first hire, yeah, that first transaction coordinator, or whatever. When did you guys start feeling that like, hey, we need to just,

Sadie Newcomer  24:53  
basically, it was all very organic, yeah? Which I feel

Luke Newcomer  24:57  
like is we got to a point where we were just. Slant, yeah. I mean, like the phones wouldn't stop ringing. We're bringing in more leads than we really needed to be bringing in, and Sadie's always done. The main reason I think contracts so well together is because we each stay in our own lane and don't really tell each other how to do it. But then, when we started bringing in so many leads, we brought in Zach, who's still with us today. He was our first hire, and he, you know, started bringing buyers. Who then, yeah, as a buyer's agent, we just start bringing in buyer's agents. So we never really made that assistant hire until probably about two or three years in, because Sadie was doing so much of the admin work on top of going on the appointments with me. So it was always it felt right, but it's so hard to find the right people. Yes, that was our biggest problem, and we've been fortunate at our transaction coordinator, Debbie. Everybody knows Debbie. She's been with us for a while. She was a transaction coordinator for another agent at the time when we brought her on, and it was the worst deal of our lives. I mean, the level of just incompetence on the other side. Was embarrassed. I was embarrassed for him, but Debbie was like, the only constant thing there. And I remember just like, I called her, said, Listen, you should not be working there when you're fed up with them, because I know it'll happen soon. Call me because we really need a transaction coordinator. I think, like, a month or two went by and she was like, hey, like, is that still open? I'm like, Yeah. And she's been with us ever since. Everybody loves her, and she keeps her deals organized. I mean, she's managing anywhere from 40 transactions at a time, yeah, by herself, by herself, wow, yeah, that's a lot of load, yeah. And so she actually only, I mean, we haven't

Tracy Hayes  26:19  
hired her and assisting it, yeah, hopefully she's listening

Luke Newcomer  26:24  
that she's been with us a long time and just amazing. You were gonna say something.

Sadie Newcomer  26:28  
So she actually only manages the team's transactions now. And then, Luke and I, we have our assistant, Bailey at the office, who does ours.

Tracy Hayes  26:35  
So so as I counted, you roughly have about, at least on your website, roughly about 10, even. And then you have your assistant, and then the one action data for everyone else to make up the team. Yep, how do you mentioned earlier in previous conversations, like you were talking about, how do you guys, as a married couple? Yes, stay in your lane, because there's got to be times where there's frustration. A deal is going sour. So an operation she wants to take someone's head off because something didn't go right.

Luke Newcomer  27:01  
It's usually me that wants to take some dark drive figure to Sadie. I'm like, I'm like, the boys. I'm like, let's take Sandy's the voice, and she it's, I don't know how I do it without Sadie. And I think Sadie feels the same way. So we get that question all the time. They're like, I could never work with my significant other. I'm like, I don't know what I do, because I'm good at, like, maybe three things, and then I'm a big idea guy, and then Sadie kind of organizes it and implements it and executes it. So yeah, it works really well. And I think we would really like this job. We like real estate as a whole. So for us, like, Sure, the workday is wrapped up, but we're still talking about things that are going on with work. Or shop does come home. Yeah, shop comes home. But it's not like you're talking you know, sometimes there are times when it's like, Okay, I'm done talking about this. Let's make some dinner, crack open a bottle of wine and just turn our phones off.

Sadie Newcomer  27:50  
I mean, I also think that real estate as a career is a lifestyle more than anything for anyone. So even if you are a single agent who doesn't have a partner like you are ultimately still talking about it at the end of the day, or like, it's on your mind, or something like that. So really, it's great to just be able to, like, talk about it with one another, know, actually, like, what's going on and how to you?

Tracy Hayes  28:11  
I think the real estate industry in a whole is because we almost have to live our jobs. It happens on Saturday. It happens on Sunday afternoon. Monday mornings are probably, well, Monday mornings is, you know, hopefully the offers in Monday afternoon, you're getting something. But it is 24/7 Yeah, that people are going. It is because it's motions and, you know, obviously things are accepted. Things have to happen. Every customer, from alone, wise, is completely different, yeah, you know. And we're, you know, working through that. When you're, you know, in coordinating inspections and so forth. So, yeah, you have to make it, make this business a lifestyle and enjoy it. Yes, we

Luke Newcomer  28:46  
have a lot of fun, but it's like, you know what? If we're drinking margaritas on Saturday afternoon and something has to come up, it's like, well, let's just handle it really quick. Not too many margaritas, but to that point too setting expectations, not just with your customers, but also the team member. I mean, on top of us managing, we'll do personally, 80 plus deals. So when you're doing that many deals, and then you have 13 people you're responsible for, it can be really overwhelming at times. You know, setting expectations with people, telling your customers, hey, 630 I'm a real person. So like, if it's not urgent, just send it in an email. I get to my office at 745 I can take care of it then, right? And when, once we started doing that, that didn't mean the first two years, we said yes to everything. That was hard to get to that point. We always wanted to be that person was like, Call me anytime. It's like, I don't want you to call me at nine o'clock at night. So we started setting really clear expectations and how we operate with our customers and also our team. And that brought us, in my opinion, a lot of just clarity on how we want to live our lives.

Tracy Hayes  29:40  
Still, that's such a good point. Yeah, we like saying, just call us at any time. But yet those things, we know it's nothing's gonna happen tonight. Yeah, the reality is, you can't do anything drop me an email. I mean, there's times I'll be talking to someone if I say, Hey, can you're in front of your computer right now. I'm out and about. Can you just shoot me an email? Because when I go back, I can look at my emails and I won't delete the email until I. Completed the task or whatever I need to do.

Luke Newcomer  30:02  
But as the agent, you know the ones that always say, Hey, call me anytime you said they can do it. And now you resent this person because they're literally doing what you said you could do, but you don't realize it's like you might have to work with these people for a year. So like, let's set some boundaries up front, so that when they want to break those boundaries, you can say, hey, remember when we talked that I don't work Sundays unless I have at least 48 hour notice. Or, hey, it was after 630 I told you, that's my family time. So I

Tracy Hayes  30:27  
think we, we started the business. We're new. We just want to be so accessible to anyone, because we don't want anyone

Luke Newcomer  30:34  
to come up with an excuse. And you should be, you know, yeah, when you start, when you get

Tracy Hayes  30:37  
started, and then you got to start setting those parameters as business. The next two subject. I want to talk about recruiting agents, which I imagine you guys do at some level, and talk about that. But one of the big things that you follow DJ, you guys have a high volume you mentioned it buying the lead generation. And what is it that you're doing at the newcomer group, which obviously is, you know, a cornerstone to your success, as it is, a cornerstone to anyone's success is how good they're at prospecting and obviously getting leads. However they're getting, what are you guys doing there? And just really just flow in to a pitch to why someone should talk to you about their interest in getting or real estate or coming over to the newcomer.

Luke Newcomer  31:13  
I'll dive into that one. Yeah, that's like, kind of what I do. First off, I don't know why agents try to trash what. There's not a bad way to get business, whether it's online leads, door knocking, open houses, mailers, you should be doing it all. There's no wrong way to get business, in my opinion, as long as it's profitable. And a lot of people just love throwing money into a fire and burning it up just to, like, have the numbers they want to have. We're really strategic with it. I am huge on conversion. Our conversion with online leads for Zillow specifically, is anywhere between 10 to 15% conversion, which is huge. I think the industry average is like 2% Yeah. So that starts with kind of laying down the fundamentals of what we expect, our minimum expectations.

Tracy Hayes  31:52  
Why do you think it's that high? Why do you think you're that successful versus the industry average?

Luke Newcomer  31:56  
Almost three times, because we have, like, truly minimum expectations and standards for our team, and you are trained heavily on how to handle those leads and following up. A lot of people have one call and they're like, they don't want to talk to me. It's like, call them 15 times, get in front of them. So we have from nine to 11 Monday through Friday. Our team is in the office. We're following up on these online leads, the leads that are coming in people are assigned to. So instead of floor duty, we have lead shifts. So that person that's on lead shift is going to be taking leads from eight to 1212, to four, four to eight, so 12 hours out the day, and that person's assigned to it. So I mean, you could get a multi million dollar lead, or you could get a, you know, $50,000 lot lead, but our agents are getting anywhere from 20 to 30 leads every single month that are coming in from online leads, not on top of just the agent referrals or incoming leads from other sources sold influence. So it's structured and making sure everybody's following up. Because the reality is, like it's gonna take 90 days for that lead to become a customer into a sale, and sometimes it takes longer than that. So I would say that we follow up aggressively. I mean, you follow up till they buy

Tracy Hayes  33:00  
or die. Now that's, I think, Well, you mentioned some people word despise or don't agree with your aggressive lead by Yeah, it's because they just aren't comfortable. Yeah, with the phone, it's just like, cold calling or whatever. There's some people that will do it. You have no problems. Put, set the dialer, and they're lit, you know, they're waiting to take next call. Some people can do it. Yes, other people don't like to do it, so they got to prospect a different way. In finding that way, when you're recruiting these agents, or I assume you're setting this expectation, yeah, this is how if you want to be successful, like the two of you are. This is how we did it. I'll show you that we already

Luke Newcomer  33:40  
might have saw them that right away. I taught them out of joining the team. Yeah, like, I don't want you to join because the main reason when people do leave our team, our attention is incredibly good, but the main reason people leave is usually because it's more work than they were expecting. So I just try to tell them, like, hey, like, you got to do all this stuff, and if you don't do it, you can't be on this team. But the amount of opportunity we create if you cannot fall into two deals a month, I don't think you're literally just not trying. That's how easy we've set it up for our team.

Tracy Hayes  34:07  
The training you mentioned that give us a snapshot of what it I started my career at Quicken Loans. We spent the first 30 days, this is call center stuff in a training to learn what mortgages were. And then after 30 days, we were on the floor, and we're taking calls. And at that time, you didn't have to be licensed, but in a handful of states, so you know that dialer is going or actually at that time, when I first started, you had to sit there and you're clicking that little icon on the screen, and it was dialing for you, and then you move to the next lead, and you clicked in the dial for you. It takes a mindset, it takes a focus to get there. So what are some of the things that you're taking these people never really, probably envisioned it being done this way. They've obviously come on the team. But what are some things you train them to be successful there?

Sadie Newcomer  34:51  
Well, so we have about, like, a two week like period for training, right, or onboarding right when someone comes onto the team, and that's really just to get them familiarized with, like, our. Systems and taking, like, a deep dive into you know how to use these tools every day at the level that you know is effective in order to have a successful real estate transaction. And after that, we also have a mentorship program. So for the first three deals that a new agent does on the team, that they have a mentor team lead, perspective of someone you know, if they are not sure what's going on, if they kind of are second guessing, like, you know, any choices that they're making that they have that right hand man, they're guiding them throughout the whole process,

Tracy Hayes  35:29  
and that can continue if they want.

Luke Newcomer  35:31  
Oh, yeah, because, I mean, Sadie overlooks almost every single contract in the team, and she's right. We're very accessible there, and it's like, we don't want people this is to me, yeah, we do a lot of volume, but we are so in demand because of our authenticity and our brand that I care so much about the process and the transaction, and it's such a big deal, and I think agents forget how big of a deal it is for that buyer or seller. So we want everything to be as tight as possible on our end,

Tracy Hayes  35:58  
because you are doing a large volume, your agents are doing more like DJ and Lindsay, their average agents doing a lot more than an average agent out there. And you can lose perspective when you are doing volume like that.

Luke Newcomer  36:10  
When you're making 50 to 100 calls a day and you're doing all these deals, it's easy to ignore the importance of what's actually going on, right? And that's something we try to never let off on our team, because it's, you know, it is a big deal. It should be celebrated. It shouldn't just be like, what's next? And we preach to our teams. I'm a big advocate of until you got 100 deals under your belt, you're a rookie. I don't care how long you've been doing it for. You need 100 deals under your belt, and then you really understand the process. But that's once you get those 100 deals, and you actually treat those sales like gold, those people will love on you forever, and they'll tee you up for the easiest deals of your life and make the best introductions to you.

Tracy Hayes  36:47  
All right, so to me, the you know, the agents out there, the naysayers of the way, because the amount of online leads and the aisles and so forth that you're saying probably are losing, and I think this is the linchpin of what, at least me being an outsider, the linchpin here. You've got all these calls coming in. How do you stay focused to go with your brand, as you just mentioned, the authenticity and how we're gonna we're gonna get into that in a little bit, but the blend into that next part of this. How do you do that with that volume and keep them focused on going that little extra, putting that little extra spin on it, the authenticity, the personalization, whatever word you want to put on it to really win that customer. How? What are you teaching here? What are some of the things you're doing, whether it's a

Luke Newcomer  37:30  
script or just a process? And that's a great question. That's like a hard one to answer on that's why it's the linchpin,

Sadie Newcomer  37:37  
the word that you're looking for. We want to be their local market expert, yeah, that's it. We want them to come to us for everything about everything when they move to the area. We want them to come to us about where to go eat, what handyman they need. I need a new roof. Who should my roofer be? We want to really be the person that they lean on heavily.

Tracy Hayes  37:56  
So how do you express that when you got them on that phone the first time from that online. So that's the script.

Luke Newcomer  38:02  
How do you get this is the script. I don't care how the lead comes in. You go for an appointment within the first sentence. Okay? So when that lead comes through, it's just like, hey, Tracy, I saw you're interested in 123, Main Street. What time today would you like to see that book the appointment? Get off the phone. Now, if they're out of state, you start building that rapport. And my favorite line that I preach to the team, because I do mean this is, I don't care if you're going to buy today or two years from now, I just want to be that person that you come to when you need something, right? I'm not a pushy salesman. I love sales, but, like, I'm not the guy that's like, You got to move right now. Let's do this right now. It's like, no, let's learn a little bit about what's important to you and then put the timelines in place to actually implement a strategy that works for you, because this is not a one size fits all business. And the minute you take your commission, get rid of your commission. Breath for these people and come off as a normal person, you become very in demand.

Tracy Hayes  38:51  
Amba, don't tell me, show me Yes. So based on what you said, Sadie, that you want to be how do you get that across? Maybe that person called in, they go see 123, Main Street. How do I actually show them on that all purpose?

Sadie Newcomer  39:06  
Well, I think that does come with time and developing the relationship, like

Luke Newcomer  39:09  
following up, follow up, checking in, you know, like, if they're coming into town for a couple weeks, give them three restaurant recommendations and then call them two days later, say, maybe, yeah, it's like, Hey, did you go to that restaurant I told you about? Did you get the steak I told you about? Like, doing those little things are a huge deal. Or who develops the relationship? If they're up north and it's beautiful down here, send a screenshot of the weather, like it's 80 and sunny. Like, when are we doing this? Get really personal with them. Understand that they have dogs. I mean, I've, you know, I'll send them pictures of my dog, like people I don't even know. It's just getting in front of them and just learning what they care about. Going back to action. Speak louder than words. Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care, right? They don't care that you're the number one sales team or that you sold all these properties. They just want to know how you're going to treat them. So we go deep with that kind of stuff, and that's dedicating time to follow up with these people so

Tracy Hayes  39:58  
that you guys answered so the. Those listening, you're creating this, you're already offering, hey, here's some great restaurants. Have you seen have you been down to the Pirate Museum, whatever it is you're creating, or been on this tour? You need to take it, bring your friends and family, and already creating that. Now, obviously those are going taste the steak. Yeah, they're like, hey, knows where he's talking. That's it. And he thinks of you when he's eating it, or she does. Yeah, what is your act when you when you guys are out there? Are you actively recruiting, or agents are coming to you? How? Or, I mean, what's your overall vision for the team? Are you looking to get the 20 agents

Luke Newcomer  40:34  
over time? You know what it's you might have a better answer than me. It's not about how many agents we have. It's about the quality. You know, right now, we do need more agents, but it's not like, you know, we're going to go out of business tomorrow if we don't meet that demand. I probably get three to five agents that reach out to me every single week, but I'm not setting up active interviews with them, like for us, it's just the quality of people

Sadie Newcomer  40:56  
and the culture. I mean, in the culture, the agent, they have to be full time. They have to come into the office Monday through Friday, nine to 11 in the morning. You know. So there are certain things that they need to meet in order to want to be on the team and prosper on the team. Get up and get your business going. Yeah, pretty much, yeah. You know. I mean, everyone at the team like they get along great, you know. They all hang out with each other. On the weekends. They bounce ideas off of one another. You know, it really is a team environment there, and collaboration, you know, that's important to us as

Tracy Hayes  41:24  
well the agents that you have now. Or the were they all? Are they? Were they all rookies? Or, I mean, not rookies to 100 Yeah. Have you got a mix that have transferred most, or newbies like you guys work?

Luke Newcomer  41:36  
Are we gonna most everyone that has joined our team has been newer, but a lot of people have been with us for a while. So like perfect example, we have this team member, Elizabeth. It's, I think it's her first full year in business. She's already at $14 million in closed sales first year in the business. And then we have someone like Taylor, who's been with us now, I guess for four years. She's got well over 100 deals under her belt. She's already sold 30 houses this year. So it's like we've got seasoned agents, but the newer agents that are coming in get to learn from the people that have kind of been doing this longer. I would love seasoned agents to join. That's kind of what we're focusing on more, because training newer agents is a lot of work, and it's very time consuming. I mean, anybody that's a single agent that's been doing this and grinding for the last five to six years and once that consistent of lead flow, deal flow and support, to me, it's a no brainer. And I

Sadie Newcomer  42:25  
think we're getting a few more agents, more recently too, that have kind of been in the business for like, a year or so, and looking for a little bit of a change.

Tracy Hayes  42:32  
Well, they reach a lid. I talked to a lot of the podcasts. You list them, they reach a lid, and then they're looking to move to another bridge. And the people that have that w2 mindset, nine to five, that can take their having volume is not an issue with them. They want to be successful. They're just trying to like, some people can create their own path. Some people need the path created to it. Yeah, and they'll run the path. They'll run the play perfectly.

Luke Newcomer  42:56  
And I think, I mean, I genuinely believe you're either going to be on a team or you're going to have a team, and there's not a right or wrong way to have a team. I mean, you could be one person with three admin two, showing assistants, or you could have a team like Sadie and I's, or a big team like DJs. But to say that you're gonna do it all yourself, I truly believe you're setting yourself up for failure, right? You can't just do it all yourself anymore. The consumer expects way too much, and the consumer deserves way more.

Tracy Hayes  43:20  
Not if you plan to go to the beach, yeah, exactly time you just you mentally can't take it. And how important that? As you know, you guys are still young people, and I mentioned Billy's book here. I wanted to read that. Yeah, he talks about getting up in the morning, he goes for his walk, but he takes 20 minutes where he doesn't listen to anything, because he'll listen to a box. But he takes 20 minutes where he doesn't listen to anything and lets his mind catch up. You mind catch up. Do you guys find that as business owners, now that you get you need to, like, step out, yeah, go walk, go down, walk to the beach or whatever, and really just let your mind catch up. How and how important it is to you have to look at your business from 30,000 feet. And yes, you know, let things fall in the in the into your thoughts.

Luke Newcomer  43:59  
So yes, I think we both have different answers on that. Definitely we need to, just like, unplug more than we should. Nothing's really ever that important that needs urgency. But I think urgency is important in this business, so I'm pretty good about just setting that boundary of what we talked about. It's just like, Okay, I'm done dealing with this. And then in the mornings, like, Yeah, I'm not trying to dive right into work the first time.

Tracy Hayes  44:21  
Well, you say, you say, you go home and your entire you literally shut off the phone. Yeah, I'll turn it off some guess, or put it on silent. So you maybe go check it later, because the messages will pop right up, but you got to check out, yeah, because you're leading a group of people that, if you're so in the trenches all the time, you never actually step out and say

Sadie Newcomer  44:38  
and to be intentional, like, with whatever you're doing at that point in time, like, if you're going to be working, like, be intentional with your work if you're going to be, you know, working out. We sat

Luke Newcomer  44:46  
down and turned our phones off for this. Yeah, I have 100 text messages, but, like, it can wait. We send time aside to do this.

Tracy Hayes  44:53  
I like Melissa Rick. She says, during the day, if you want to get old to her, you have to text her, because if you call the phone, it's. Assistants kind of get that call, yeah, so she, because she's going, she is the front person, and she's doing what she's doing there, all right, so here's some key things that we have, and I get each of your opinions here. We round up. We talked about education, but even the new ages, they're not getting all their education from you. What are you? What are you setting them on direct passing. Hey, I want you to listen, because I'm sure Tom Ferry's books are sure. Are you recommending that? Hey, I want you to listen to a, b and c. And how important isn't to go over to the board and take the classes that are being offered by the other senior but well, it's about how to read the contract, or all the different things that are offered there. Not just for your CE credits. You got to level up your education 1,000%

Luke Newcomer  45:40  
and a couple. There's a couple answers to that, because I'm huge on education. You know, first off, with Tom Ferry, we actually have our team in coaching with us. We have we're on a higher platform. So they meet with Greg or coach twice a week without us there once a month, and then I run workshops every other Wednesday, or we talk about sales training or contract writing. And do all that. We're constantly sharing different podcasts that we're listening to a lot of team meetings every Tuesday, team meetings every Tuesday. And it's like the stuff I'm sharing is not things that I personally believe. It's like I'm pulling it from outside people that are doing even more than what our team's doing. Yeah, and it's a collaborative effort. In that sense, I'm always trying to personally sharpen my skills and share as much as that knowledge as possible with our team and vice versa. I mean, we learn so much from our team, I want

Tracy Hayes  46:21  
to go back. Said you mentioned earlier, everyone nine to nine to 11, Monday through Friday. Everybody's in there, yeah, and then you're you've got your sales meeting on Tuesday. Showing up is a common theme, I'm sure, when you label that you have to be in the office every morning at nine o'clock Monday through Friday for some of these new ages there. I don't want to do that. Yeah, I want to stay at home in my pajamas. And they're missing out, obviously, on the opportunity. But then it relieves you of being frustrated, because we are human. We have emotions, and someone joins the team, and when someone leaves the team, you kind of feel a little bit, you know, goes with you. You feel sorry. Hey, was it me or was it them? And, you know, that type of thing. But the importance of, in this, in your case, for your on your team, to show up to the team activities, because you guys do drive that culture. Yeah, and how important is showing up, if an agent's not part of, obviously, your team, but showing up to these events, getting the, you know, there was a seminar that's going on, how important is

Luke Newcomer  47:14  
showing up? It's everything. I think. It goes back to asking, how we educate our team. It's like when everybody's at the office making the calls you're learning from one another. You know, someone's on the phone, handling an objection. It's like, Oh, I heard that. That sounded really good. I'm gonna try it with this person. So to me, I think, you know, I always try to lead by example. So I try to always be that first one there, last one out. I still prospect like crazy, and there's nothing above or below what anybody should do on that team, from taking the trash out to going on a multi million

Tracy Hayes  47:41  
dollar listing appointment. Let me ask you, what is your I think we all get our own natural highs off different things that we do. Yeah, what is does winning that customer's

Luke Newcomer  47:53  
confidence I'm a deal job, like, by the time the closing comes in the checks process, like, I'm over it. The next one, best story ever, or at least for me personally. So I closed a $4.2 million Listing this year, which was one of four that ever sold on the island. And I got that listing by cold calling through a customer who bought, like, on a four or five properties from me through a 1031 exchange. He was like, Hey, are there $4 million houses in here? I'm like, not really. I was like, but where's the address? He's like, right here. I'm like, give me their number, just like, I don't even, I don't even know her. I'm just like, I won't tell her. He gave it to me. Yeah, I get the number. I know exactly where the house is. And to be true, I wasn't trying to get business out of this phone call. I'm just talking to as many people as possible. Creates really cool opportunity. And I remember I called these people out of the blue, this lady answers. I'm like, Hey, I just want to tell you. To tell you I love your home. Like, I'm not kidding. I drive by it every Sunday. We go have lunch at commander's, and I always say, I love that house because it's so well maintained. I said, if you ever want to give me and my wife a tour, I'd love that. Said, yeah, why don't you come over like tomorrow? Okay, so we rock up to the house. They give us this tour. It's a beautiful house on the ocean. I mean, gorgeous. Everything about it. You can tell they love it. Yeah, we sit down and said, Hey, I asked everybody this, at what price are you a seller? And you know, they put a pretty big number out there. I'm like, I don't know. I don't think I'm anybody for that. So we do a lot off market.

Sadie Newcomer  49:14  
They're kind of stumped by that question too. They're like, Oh my gosh, no one's ever asked us that before. Like, so,

Luke Newcomer  49:18  
like, I don't know, two or three weeks go by, we send them flowers. Thank you for their time. The very next day, and two or three weeks go by, and she calls us, hey, we want you to come sell our house. And out of that, we got this amazing sister. Just weeks later, like, two weeks later, they're like, Hey, we talked about it. We're gonna move back to South Florida, get a place in the mountains. And she's like, wouldn't you come sell her house? And it was just like, game on. And they hired us going back to we're not pushing people with commission breath, like I genuinely just wanted to see the house because I love the house. And, you know, I asked her why she hired. She's like, you guys are all in she's like, You didn't push us to sell. It wasn't anything like salesy. She's like, you just have that reputation, and you came from a place of service and value, as opposed to getting a deal. And luckily, we got a deal out of that. We got. Got another multi million dollar listing out of that, and we got multiple deals out of that one listing. So I'm all about picking the phone up and calling as many people as possible, because it takes one person to change your business.

Tracy Hayes  50:11  
That's an amazing story, because we talk about now, obviously the beach community is a very tight people say, what do they say? Something, you go on the island, you don't come off the island.

Luke Newcomer  50:20  
I hate it. Don't make me big deal coming out here for me, but the any

Tracy Hayes  50:26  
agent who's living in any of these subdivisions can have that same type of interest.

Luke Newcomer  50:31  
Well, we do all of St Johns County, and we have these types of scenarios all throughout the county. It's just that story is cool because of the price point, but we have hundreds of those stories just like it, all throughout St Johns County, right? Those are opportunities in any type of market.

Tracy Hayes  50:46  
And it's, it's beautiful because inventory is low. And I was thinking, you want to everyone's, that's what everyone's are. Oh, well, the inventory is going up a little bit. Okay, a little bit. But it's not like it was before, and now you got to battle the interest rates, because now people are and I think one of the, I think you would agree with this one I've been telling people this one recently is I had it literally on Friday. I think this is the reason why they backed out. Was when you start getting up in the higher hundreds to a million plus, those buyers are looking at their investment accounts, yes. And when their investment accounts are not doing well, they don't feel well, yeah. And so they start double thinking, buying those value homes, their market, their investments are doing well. You're all in, yep, no problem. But the great thing about is, create your own inventory. Get on the phone, like you said. So if you live in a subdivision, you're going buy some nicer houses, which, you know, you have buyers for, yeah, make a phone call,

Luke Newcomer  51:36  
go talk, knock on the door. I mean, to that point too, most of our I mean, we work with that higher end customer. My average sales price is a million dollars plus. Though there's a level of sophistication that you need to bring to the table when you're talking to these types of people and resonate with and the one thing we found a lot of success with is having really strong agent to agent relationships. Look, there's one agent in particular in our market, him and I have done probably over 10 million together this just this year alone, most of them off markets. So if you know, know an agent that lists a lot of property in a specific area, call them up and say, Hey, I've got a buyer looking for X, Y and Z, and they're gonna be like, Hey, I'm about to list this property. They'll do the deal before we go to market. Blah, blah, blah, or I got

Tracy Hayes  52:13  
a couple on the edge, yeah, not sure what's going on. Maybe if we make an offer, they might.

Luke Newcomer  52:17  
So those are the types of deals that we source through a challenging inventory market, and we're still doing that today. So those off market opportunities are everywhere. In my opinion, getting creative for your customer,

Tracy Hayes  52:29  
you only talk about pre show, but as many as there are agents here, there's that many ways to do this business. And if you're operating there's single agents that just like to go out and work their circle of influence. My wife's that way. She works, you know, we she works her little thing down in King and bear, because we're in the latter condos. We got units there. And, you know, people come and go and rent when he runs you but if you're want to run it as a business, because you're, you've, you're waking up every day and you're like, Okay, I've got a team. And this is a business who's in there, but that's the change of lead show. So as they jump out of the camera, they're listening is, you're running your business every day, and the business is how you've got you're a matchmaker, right? If you're running a dating business, you've got to find not to be guys and girls, right? Guys are single and girls are single, and that want to meet people, and you got to put them together. Them together. You got the one side who wants to buy houses, and there's low inventory, well, you've got to get on the phone. And I think this is what 99.9999 are not doing agents. Is calling select people say, You know what, I got someone who would actually probably really like your house. Are you interested? You know, they're not taking that and I mean, how many phone calls is it doesn't you're not calling hundreds a day. You call on a few a week, or whatever, just but you're keeping

Luke Newcomer  53:49  
it moving. And I think the important, like, one big takeaway from that is, and sorry for the phone going on those lead shifts. So it's definitely noon. But the one thing that I pulled from that is so many people wake up and they want to be they're motivated, right? And they're like, manifesting all this great stuff. And it's like, that's temporary. Being really disciplined always outweighs motivation, because it's like, I know when I wake up from 911 I have to make my phone calls, whether I'm in the mood to do it or not. You got to do it, as opposed to I'm really in the mood to make my calls. Well, then you may have the might have had these great conversations, but then two weeks go by and you weren't motivated to make the calls, and those people went out and have already transacted so there's so much money in the follow up, in my opinion, which we make our team. First person

Tracy Hayes  54:30  
that said that, yeah, we've all heard that in any of these industry events you're going it's all in the follow up and staying top of mind being disciplined. You know, that's why a lot of people, they try to leverage social media to stay top of mind. It's a lot easier than texting them to pop up on their social media feed.

Luke Newcomer  54:46  
I've been friends with everybody that we sell houses to, so that way they get to see out there doing business or doing normal things like cooking and traveling and going on vacation. But I do a ton on my personal social media. If you follow Luke dot newcomer, especially on Instagram. And you know, I'm always sharing everything that we're doing, because I want to stay in front of people as much as possible, right, right?

Tracy Hayes  55:05  
Showing up you've mentioned DJ, because one of the common themes, the last big common theme, is surrounding yourself by successful people. And I think, just to recap, and if you want to add anything to it, obviously, DJ is very successful. He's in your circle, your your immediate circle there, you're following Tom Ferry. You're not hanging out. You know, he doesn't live in town, but I'm sure you see him and go to events and yeah, you're listening to his podcast. You're involved with him. You're in his system, yeah, how important has that been to your overall successes in running the business, surrounding yourself by high level people. I mean, I

Sadie Newcomer  55:41  
think it's everything, because you're able to bounce those ideas off of them and kind of see what they're doing to be successful. And, you know, take what you want and leave what you don't to see what works best for your business.

Luke Newcomer  55:52  
I know that too. Like, you know, it's not just about people who are successful. I also think it's like, how they are as humans, like some of our best friends. Maybe they don't have mega businesses, but it's like they're amazing parents, they're amazing spouses. They set a good example. That's just another circle, yeah. So it's like a person circle. All of that stuff, in my opinion, correlates with business and personal life. So, and

Sadie Newcomer  56:11  
I don't think it's only business. I think it is lifestyle as well. Of just, you know, being well rounded, and you know how your everyday life goes,

Tracy Hayes  56:20  
people like to be around, well, they like to be around attractive people, positive people that are, you know, involved as you guys are. And I think that's one of your high level of attractions, is you guys are out there. You're doing it, yeah, you're involved in it, and you don't you're reaching out, you're helping others. You're, if you had a thief day in the week, you'd definitely be losing it.

Luke Newcomer  56:38  
What I think Sadie and I both do so much without expecting anything in return. Yeah, just being nice goes such a long way. And just not even having to try to be nice, like, Okay, I'm just gonna do this if I get nothing out of it, great, that's okay. Just doing things without expecting anything in return pays really big dividends. This is the big

Tracy Hayes  56:54  
question, what's been your biggest mistake just talking

Sadie Newcomer  56:57  
about, yeah, I don't know if, like, if I like, would pinpoint, like, a big mistake or anything. I mean, I think you know, when you know challenges come up, it's all about, like, how you handle them and how you can learn from them and better yourself from them more than any well, like, there's nothing that sticks out to me that was like, Oh man, like you're

Tracy Hayes  57:18  
sitting in a circle of other, you know, Tom Ferry's put a circle of top agents together, you and DJ, and maybe there's four other people around the country. What would you tell them not to do?

Sadie Newcomer  57:26  
Probably not. I was gonna say our biggest mistake, maybe, was not hiring an assistant as quickly as we did.

Luke Newcomer  57:32  
Yeah, I went. We made I mean, I'm much faster than we I don't really have any regrets on how we've done everything. I just wish we did it all faster, right? I wish someone sat me and I was like, you need to do these hires now. You'll be really grateful for it, and hire for where you're going, not for what you need. It really resonates with myself, but yeah, just making those hires sooner.

Sadie Newcomer  57:52  
Yeah, I think our biggest mistake was thinking that we could do it all ourselves for so long, and holding on to that, versus just letting it go and

Tracy Hayes  57:59  
trusting in someone, or, you know, taking the due diligence of hiring, which Billy, you know, you'll get out of there. And really, probably a great guy that I would actually probably call and have lunch with, you know, and talking about how he hires the right people and how he does his due diligence. Because that's, but that is a very common theme of all the greats, you know, I wish I bought that house three years ago. Yeah, yeah, it's the same thing. I wish I had that transaction coordinator a year.

Luke Newcomer  58:23  
I think the biggest thing is just overthinking things, because then it's just like, Just do it. I mean, the like, literally, what is the worst thing that's gonna happen, going just buying that house? I mean, we've bought a lot of real estate in the last two and a half years, and I just wish we figured out how to get started even sooner. So that kind of stuff.

Tracy Hayes  58:40  
You guys are way too young. Tracy, I should be thinking that not you. Let's just, I want to round up, and then I just go into my standard last couple questions, my two minute warning questions, but give your spiel, and I'd like to just you from both of you, give about 30 seconds. Why should an agent be calling you guys? And we touched on a lot of things, but let's summarize it up here. When you say, Why should an agent be why shouldn't agent, why should an agent join the team? Really wants to move them to another level. What is the newcomer group going to, you know, obviously, because I really feel people go to employers, or they go to a brokerage because they see a value that they're going to get from it. Sure, right? So what is your what is giving you the operational pitch? Sadie, of what support you're going to give

Sadie Newcomer  59:21  
them from the back Yeah. So as a newer agent, or even as a seasoned agent, that we have all the systems, you know, we have a really sophisticated CRM system. We use dot loop for our transaction management. You can access that, you know, anywhere there's even an app on your phone. You can pull up anything, write a contract on your phone, even if you need to. And then you also have so much back end admin support from all of us that you're never alone throughout a transaction, trying to figure out, you know, what are my timelines? You know, have I missed this deadline? Kind of thing that there are so many people doing your checks and balances with you throughout the entire process that, you know, the one thing that you should focus on is, once you get someone under contract, you should just try and get another. Customer under contract for something else.

Tracy Hayes  1:00:01  
So it's a fun Luke. I'm really good at the front end. I love that initial conversation, winning the people over and getting them, at least on my team. They're following me around and look at house, whatever the front end. If I'm really good at that, what is it that you are going to do for me to make my life easier. Which are you going to offer that service? Or Luke comes in, he's like, super front end, so I want him on front end all day long. Oh yeah, yeah. I'm saying, Are you going to be able to give him that back office support? Double check that contract really quick, correct it, whatever it needs to be, whatever. Tracy, are you going to take it from there? 1,000% Yeah.

Luke Newcomer  1:00:41  
And I would own this to that question, I want to be clear, like, we're definitely not for everybody, yeah. And part of that question, before I answer is, like, what are you going to do for us? Because we're not just in the business to just grow people. We want them to bring some sort of value to the team as well. But you know, you're saying, Hey, this is what I want to focus on. I'm very big on it's like, okay, let putting the splits aside what the day looks like. It's like, what do you want to do? Tell me that, and then I will do everything in my power to get you to where you want to go and what you want to do. Not everybody wants to make $500,000 a year. Or they think they do. They think they do. So they have to put the Exactly. And some people are like, Look, I just, you know, I want a little bit more time back for my family. Well, that's great, guess what, because we have assigned times, and you can manage the phone so you can actually customize how your week needs to look, you know, whether you need those Saturdays off to take your kids to the game, or whatever that might look like, bringing people's times back and kind of some structure and accountability we can do. I mean, it's not a one size fits all, and not everybody's the same on our team.

Tracy Hayes  1:01:37  
Some a lot of the conversations I've been having recently is spent doing what you do, doing it well, 10 Xing, yeah, you know, whatever that is. And I think too many people are trying to be, you know, jack of all trades. Yes, you can get yourself stripped in where you're not actually doing the money making that. You're too busy back you're doing this other stuff that isn't making you the money. And you go, good month, bad month, good month, bad month. And you're, you know, in this, even

Luke Newcomer  1:02:01  
this, I mean, sitting on this podcast. I mean, how many people talk about doing a podcast, spend all this money and time getting it up and running, and then don't just do it consistently, like you're doing right? So, you know, it goes back to what you just said. It's just like getting people focused in on the money making activities and things that they're committed to doing, because so many people just want to do it all, and then they do everything inefficiently, right? And then match with the people that are going to do the administrative and handhold, appraisers and all, we are the perfect fit for somebody that wants to prospect, go on appointments, negotiate deals. I mean, all should be thought about. We're going

Tracy Hayes  1:02:32  
to wrap up. Here's my two minute warning questions. You guys have a lot of things, but I'm going to make you narrow it down to one. What is your most if you could do only this on Sunday morning, what would it be? What's your favorite thing to do here down at the St Augustine beach on Sunday I can expand it to Northeast Florida, because maybe you like to go kayaking on the st John don't know what is, if you just could able to do one thing, because you guys do a lot of this stuff. So what

Speaker 2  1:02:58  
is, what's your favorite man? That's hard. I'm gonna say, go to the beach, just hang out at the beach. Yeah, it's right there. Weather's perfect.

Luke Newcomer  1:03:05  
I'm gonna say, waking up, getting to surf, cruising into the day with some coffee, and then maybe having a tea time later in the day. Yeah, truly, just having an uninterrupted Sunday, right? Is perfect, in my opinion. We're pretty simple people from that standpoint, for hanging out, but like,

Tracy Hayes  1:03:19  
and of course, a good meal, yeah, probably a couple good meals. Is it more important who you know or

Speaker 2  1:03:24  
what you know? And why? Sadie? I think it's what you know, what

Luke Newcomer  1:03:29  
you know for sure. See, I think it's who you know. Yeah,

Tracy Hayes  1:03:31  
I was gonna, I could have answered for him, exactly. That's the visionary and the integrator. I think that's the mesh. And because I brought this up and we talked about it before show about the amazing couples that we have in the area that are working real estate together, and they clearly are, one is a visionary, and one is an integrator. The Cotton Team, Caitlin is the visionary, Josh is the integrator. And brings it down to it. And I see that with the two, and I think

Luke Newcomer  1:04:00  
it works. Well, both couples want to do the exact same thing. That's like, I would say that's toxic. It's like, let's figure out what the roles are and run with it, especially if you're going to grow and scale and

Tracy Hayes  1:04:08  
bring people on. I think the what we just talked about, the great success finding out what you do, you know, like you said, you have narrowed down. Just like you're you and I are very similar. We're good at a couple different things. Just let us on the add one, you know, let us go out. And I'm like, No, let's rain it back. She's got a bigger picture. Let her carry the ball the first 80 yards, we'll get it to cross the goal line. Guys, I appreciate you coming

Luke Newcomer  1:04:32  
on today. Thanks for having us a ton of fun. Thank you. Thanks for doing this great podcast. Everybody should be listening to this.