Journey to #1 Broker - What Hustle in Real Estate Looks Like w/ Matt Laricy

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:07] Speaker B: Welcome to the Real Estate Chicago style podcast. I'm your host, Joe Smazel. I'm a multi family broker at Intero Realty. I own and operate some small apartment buildings on the north side of the city as well. Today I'm joined by Matt LaRousy, leader of the firm that bears his name and the number one realtor in Chicago in terms of done deals and volume. [00:00:30] Speaker A: Yep. [00:00:30] Speaker B: Matt, welcome to the show. [00:00:32] Speaker A: Thanks for having me on. [00:00:33] Speaker B: How many realtors are there in Chicago? [00:00:36] Speaker A: 16,000 in downtown and there's 42,000 Chicago land. [00:00:41] Speaker B: So do you, you smell the roses every now and then that you're at the top of that? No, it's a lot of people. Why not? [00:00:48] Speaker A: It's cool now, like, we'll finish number one. And like, I remember we finished number one because the last two years are the first times we finished number one in both categories. In fact, we're the first person, from what I know, to finish number one in all four categories. So buy side, sell side, overall transactions and dollars sold. So you know when that happened the first time, like in 23, I was just like, all right, well, the clock resets because, like, you find out like January 2nd. So I'm like, well, it doesn't really matter. And like, we're all like, we were joking around, like, we're all going to go to Vegas to, like, celebrate. [00:01:18] Speaker B: You're like, I don't have time for Vegas. [00:01:20] Speaker A: I opened up an expensive bottle of wine. I drank it that night while answering emails. I was like, all right, you know, we're three days in now. This means January 3rd tomorrow, so we have to get moving. [00:01:30] Speaker B: You've always had kind of that, that angst for that desire to like, do the next thing. [00:01:35] Speaker A: I want to be the best. [00:01:36] Speaker B: Yeah, but you're the best. Yeah. So. [00:01:38] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, but you always push yourself. There's always something. I mean, it's not like we're like, we're not blowing away the competition. I mean, like, every year that we've won, we've barely won and every year that we lose, we barely lose, you know, so it's not like we're doing 100 million more than the next guy. [00:01:54] Speaker B: So you're, you hate the losses more than you, like the wins. [00:01:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't really care about winning. I expect to win. That's what I look at life like, I expect like I'm a winner. Like, I woke up winner. I feel a winner all the time. Like winning to me comes naturally because I work for it. Like, I don't I don't, like, think winning is going to get handed to me. I think, like, I could get anything I want because I'm willing to work for it. I didn't grow up in, like, a good environment. I'm saying, like, I just have that attitude. So when I lose, it makes it that much worse because, like, I expect to win. So when I don't win it, I get. I get so mad because, like, I should. I should be winning all the time. [00:02:23] Speaker B: Are you competitive about other things other than real estate? [00:02:25] Speaker A: I mean, I. I just want to be the best. Anything I do. I mean, I think it's about, like, what I care about. Like, me and you start playing basketball. [00:02:30] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't. [00:02:31] Speaker A: I could give a. Because I'm not good at basketball. [00:02:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:33] Speaker A: I can't play. [00:02:33] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:34] Speaker A: You know, so, like, I think I. I want to be the best at things I care about. [00:02:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:37] Speaker A: You know? [00:02:37] Speaker B: Yeah, I get that. All right, so anybody, if you're listening to Chicago Real Estate podcast and you don't know Matt Larsey, I don't think you're very plugged into Chicago real estate, but by way of background, Matt has closed over 7,000 career transactions with over 2 billion in sales volume. No gray hair. Very little gray hair. At least. Miraculous. [00:02:59] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:02:59] Speaker B: I mean, yeah, I. I've got a lot. He's very well known on social media. 40, 000 followers on Instagram alone. I know he's got big audiences on the other platforms as well. And what I like about you, what I admire about you, is you're very direct. You clearly have an unrelenting work ethic. And we'll talk a little bit more about those two things, but we'll start with some, some rapid fire questions first. How many parking tickets do you get a year? [00:03:30] Speaker A: Oh, Jesus. I'm averaging two a week. [00:03:33] Speaker B: Two a week. That's a pretty aggressive clip. [00:03:35] Speaker A: Like, that's, that's an average. [00:03:37] Speaker B: Because that's only when you get caught. [00:03:39] Speaker A: I mean, well, the thing is, like, parking girls know me too. Like, what's up, Mr. Tesla? God damn it. They give me PTSD every time I see him. Because it's like now it's like 70 bucks a pop, right? So you're looking $140 a week, you know, and then. And that's, that's on a low side because, like, you know, the fire hydrant ones are 200. The parking, the yellow zones 150. So, yeah, my main assistant job, Jamie, on Friday, she just, like, clears out the parking tickets and now they got the speeding ones over here. The speeding cameras? [00:04:06] Speaker B: Yeah, dude. [00:04:06] Speaker A: Like, I got those coming up. I probably clocked. [00:04:09] Speaker B: Your thing doesn't click when there's a camera coming up. [00:04:11] Speaker A: No, I'm looking at 30, probably a year minimum. [00:04:15] Speaker B: Yeah, well, you can't get booted. It costs you a lot of money to get booted with your. [00:04:20] Speaker A: Well, we just. That's why your appointments. That's why I pay them every Friday. [00:04:23] Speaker B: What'd you listen to on the way here? [00:04:26] Speaker A: I didn't listen to anything. [00:04:28] Speaker B: Or were you just peace and quiet? [00:04:29] Speaker A: You know, it's weird. Like, I think something else says that's like, what serial killers do. But, like, sometimes you don't listen to anything at all. Like, nothing. [00:04:36] Speaker B: Like, blood on your collar. [00:04:37] Speaker A: Like. Like. Yeah, I'm just. Like. I'm just. I don't know what it is. Like, I'll realize I'm not listening to anything. [00:04:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:43] Speaker A: Like, I plan a lot on the phone a lot. [00:04:45] Speaker B: And then I space out and like, there's nothing. There's no music on in the car. It's like. And then I'm like, you're a weirdo for not listening to any music when you have five minutes. You could have just like, chilled out for a minute. Listen to some country, whatever. [00:04:57] Speaker A: You got four kids, so it's like, you know, like, sometimes, like, it's just nice to have silence. [00:05:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:05:01] Speaker A: I mean. [00:05:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:05:02] Speaker A: And I don't even remember. That's the things. Like, I don't realize until, like, later I'm like, fuck, I just drove an hour and I don't know what happened. Like, you know, like, space out. [00:05:11] Speaker B: Yeah. And you don't even know a single thing that you thought about during that period of time. All right. What's your favorite Chicago pizza place? [00:05:19] Speaker A: Chicago pizza. I'm a. So I'm a tavern style guy. Like, I like true Chicago. It's like Southside Pizza. [00:05:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:05:25] Speaker A: So, like, what's it called? [00:05:28] Speaker B: Vito Nick. [00:05:29] Speaker A: I like Vito Nicks. But there's another one, Ros Angeles in Evergreen Park. 95th. [00:05:34] Speaker B: Okay. [00:05:35] Speaker A: Yeah. ROS Angeles Palermo's, then Vito and next. [00:05:37] Speaker B: Okay, cool. So coffee shop. [00:05:40] Speaker A: I'm a Starbucks guy. Blonde roast. Yeah. [00:05:43] Speaker B: That's only in Chicago, right? [00:05:47] Speaker A: I hate. I honestly, I hate, like, this. This, like, trendy coffee stuff. No, I think it tastes like mud water. I always try. [00:05:55] Speaker B: I like the sport of going to a place, though. It makes. Because I don't go to bars really anymore. I'm old and lame and, like, so my way, like, seeing the city a little bit. Like. Yeah. Going To a coffee shop. Look at me, like being social, you know, I don't really like. I'm not like a aficionado about the coffee. [00:06:08] Speaker A: I don't know. I always say sour to me. [00:06:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:10] Speaker A: Blonde roast just tastes good. I like, like coffee. So they always have dark roast coffees at those places, which I hate. Dark roast? [00:06:15] Speaker B: Yeah. All right. Starbucks. Well, if Starbucks business takes off, we know that it's because of this episode. [00:06:23] Speaker A: I drink a lot of coffee. [00:06:25] Speaker B: Are you an early bird or a night owl? [00:06:27] Speaker A: Both. So I get up at like 4:30, 4:45. I go to bed around midnight. So yeah, that's both. Yeah. [00:06:33] Speaker B: You live in the city or live. [00:06:34] Speaker A: In the suburbs now? I live in Hinsdale. [00:06:35] Speaker B: Okay. [00:06:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I got a place. My, my place here is now an in towner. [00:06:38] Speaker B: Okay, cool. So best under the radar Chicago restaurant. [00:06:43] Speaker A: I don't really eat out. Yeah, like ever cook? I cook. [00:06:46] Speaker B: Do you do the cooking? [00:06:47] Speaker A: Yeah. Every night? Yeah, like I'll get home at like 9:30 and I'll cook like a full meal. Last night you might be a serial killer Dinner. [00:06:54] Speaker B: I think you are. [00:06:54] Speaker A: Yeah. I woke my wife up, like made her come down and eat. She went back to bed. I cleaned the who kitchen, then got back in the computer. I did it every night. [00:07:01] Speaker B: You like cooking because it gives you this like. And in our business it's a lot of like intangibles and cooking I found from. I like to cook too. It gives me like a, you know, there's a beginning, a middle, you know, eat it at the end. There's this like immediate satisfaction. [00:07:15] Speaker A: It's a, it's that one second satisfaction you get for what you made. Yeah, I like the process too though. Like I like the journey of cooking. I like the steps. It's. It calms me down so I enjoy it. Yeah, I like wine too. So like, you know, have a glass of wine with it and that's it. [00:07:30] Speaker B: Those things go well together. What's a word that your colleagues. One word that your colleagues would use to describe you? [00:07:36] Speaker A: Relentless. [00:07:37] Speaker B: Yeah. Favorite intersection or corridor in the city. [00:07:42] Speaker A: I can say the absolute worst favorite was at Six Corners. Whatever it is, it's like the worst. You're there forever, no matter what. It's like every time I have an appointment near, there's a different perspective. [00:07:53] Speaker B: You could take on that too. [00:07:54] Speaker A: But like I want to like murder everybody at that point. I'm always behind. It's four to six o' clock. I got an appointment right there. And it's like a 30 minute drive. To go like 10 seconds. [00:08:04] Speaker B: I should have prefaced this. This is a positive Chicago podcast. So what is your. [00:08:10] Speaker A: There's no positive streets in Chicago right now with traffic. [00:08:12] Speaker B: You don't have a favorite corner for other reasons other than traffic? [00:08:14] Speaker A: No, I could, like, drive, like, blindfolded around the entire city and not have to, like, use navigation and like. No, I. I had. Right now, there's no street. That's good. Nothing's peaceful right now. [00:08:27] Speaker B: All right. Hates this, hates all the city. If you were a NASCAR driver and you could pick three sponsors for your car, what would you pick for the Matt Lyricy? Oh, shabby. [00:08:40] Speaker A: It would be some, like, wine brand. Some. Some. Some big wine. Something in Napa Valley. For sure. [00:08:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:08:46] Speaker A: And then I would do the Moet company, Hennessy company because they own, like, a bunch of, like, high end champagne. It's also, like, wine based. [00:08:55] Speaker B: Yeah. Got a theme. [00:08:57] Speaker A: And then I would do Starbucks because I drink a lot of Starbucks, you. [00:09:00] Speaker B: Know, so you kind of got the. I think that there's, like, a home good sign that, like, you know, you could put in your, like, whatever day starts with coffee and ends with wine type of thing. Yeah. All right, man. Tell us a little bit about growing up. Lead us to how and why you got into real estate in Chicago. [00:09:20] Speaker A: Yeah, I was born in the south side of Chicago by Midway, and then, like, my family grew up in Palos, so I grew up in Palos Park. We were the first house in the subdivision called Mill Creek, which is by Sandbrick High School. So that's where I grew up. [00:09:32] Speaker B: To Sandberg. [00:09:33] Speaker A: Yeah, I went to Sandberg. I was. I was originally enrolled at Marist, which is a Catholic school. My brother went there and I played hockey growing up. And I was really good. Not like, great great, but, like, really good by, like, most people's standards. So I played in middle school for the high school team, and then they fired that coach that was running the team. So then I was gonna go to Stag and I played a game on Stag, and they're so terrible. I was like, this is like, I can't do this. And then I went to Sanbrick because I heard of the team, Illinois coach. So I went to. And I could walk to Samri, but all my friends went to Stag. Cause I went to a. I went to a school where all my best friends were at. We were at Pillow south, and all of them went to Stag because they all tied to Stag. My house was across the street from Sandbrook. We were zone Stag, but There's a weird law in Illinois that if you're within a mile of the school, you have to be able to go to that school. So my dad called and got that subdivision to be able to go to Sandbrook or Stag. So I was in that cut. So I was like, I'm gonna go to Sandberg. And I didn't know anybody at Sandberg, so that's what was my hesitation. Because, like Stag, it would have been like super popular. I knew all my friends and I was like, fuck it, I'm just gonna start over, go to Sandberg. So ended up going there, obviously, met people, good student. No, I'm a C. I ride that CD range. [00:10:43] Speaker B: I was like, C's teetering on a B, everyone. [00:10:45] Speaker A: You know, I would always get A's in history, like, Ace, Ace, 100%. Oh my God. I could write any book you want. I could talk history all day. But I like a history, a plus history, everything else, Cs. But yeah. So I mean, my whole life though, I always want to get in real estate. So my dad owned our company. He started in 1978, 79th and Pulaski. So when I was a kid, I would go into his office and I'd, you know, back in the day, 79th, Pulaski wasn't as bad as it is today, but like there was a white cast was on that corner. So I would always like walk. He'd give me money and like you'd be like five years old. You'd walk there to the White Castles on your own. You used to build into this back in the day. [00:11:21] Speaker B: It's like the 80s, freedom, like five year old Matt with five bucks. And it's probably like three bucks. [00:11:25] Speaker A: Yeah, it would be like $3. Yeah, you get $5 over there. Crazy. My dad would go nuts on you. So, you know, I go there, I'd sit and that. That would probably be the time I would see my dad was like going into the office and this was like, you know, 80s, early 90s, smoke filled, old school office. But I was like, this is what I want to do is like, you know, sell houses. So every class ever took. Growing up, I always wanted to get into real estate. So, like, I knew since I was like 2 or 3 years old, like, this is what I was gonna do no matter what. And I never wavered from that, not once. That once they say, well, I was gonna do something else or I wanted to be this. It was always like, I'm just gonna get into real estate. And I would do you know, like, you get things from teachers, like, what's your report to, like, build a business or something like that. So everything would be about, like, real estate. I have still have old pictures of me, like, drawing my dad's logo of, like, want to change it up, etc. So, like, that's just what I want to do. [00:12:10] Speaker B: What made you gravitate towards it when you were a kid? [00:12:12] Speaker A: I don't know. Maybe your dad doing it. [00:12:14] Speaker B: There's something. [00:12:15] Speaker A: Maybe my dad did it. Yeah. And honestly, I don't have a good relationship with my dad either. So it's not like. Like, we're like, we talk all the time. [00:12:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:12:21] Speaker A: Probably the first real conversations I had with my dad was my mom died when I was 25. So, like, up until then, like, I didn't really. Like, we didn't really talk to him. Not that, like, he was like a bad person. He's just. He's 64250. He's got a temper. You know what I mean? Like, back in the day, you got hit. You know what I mean? Like, you know, like, nowadays people are kind of wimps now. I don't hit my kids. I know somebody's gonna say, like, you hitting your kid now? I wanna go to jail. But, like, you know, back then, you know, you got slapped, you got spanked, you got beat up. Like, it's just normal. You get hit by other people's parents. Like, you know what I mean? Like, you'd come home, be like. You'd be like, hey, like, Frank's dad hit me. And my dad would be like, what the fuck did you do? You know, like, they're not yelling. Could you imagine today? Your kid came home, was like, oh, my friend's dad hit me. [00:12:54] Speaker B: You ever coach any of your kids? [00:12:55] Speaker A: No, they're not there yet. [00:12:57] Speaker B: I pinch. I pinch it for basketball. And I'm like, it made my. I mean, I felt like my kids were such good listeners after that. I'm like, you guys. [00:13:05] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I'll never forget. I. My coaches used to hit us. Like, I had a baseball thrown at my head. One time I got knocked out by one of my coaches. Like, knocked out. You can't do that now. Could you imagine? You came home and your kid was. [00:13:17] Speaker B: Like, we've gone too soft. Yeah, that's good. But we've gone too soft. Somewhere in between is right. [00:13:22] Speaker A: Yeah, but I mean, like, I grew up in an environment. I would say, you know, it's. It wasn't like, terrible, but I mean, like, you know, it was Just probably. I wouldn't say, like, loving is what I would not want to. I remember my wife was like, in a loving family, you go there like, oh, wow, this is like. What do you mean? You guys are all hanging out. You know what I mean? [00:13:37] Speaker B: Like feelings. [00:13:39] Speaker A: This is weird. Yeah, we don't see each other, but like, so like, even with that, I think it was just something ingrained in my DNA because my grandpa was in real estate and I just found out, I didn't even know this, but my great grandpa was in real estate as well, so technically it makes me a fortune, you know. But like, for. And I talked about this in a blog the other day, is like, how like back in the day, like medieval times, before that, like, your family would do something and people would come from all over the world, be like, you make the best swords. [00:14:02] Speaker B: It was like, how the last name a lot of times. Yeah, yeah. [00:14:05] Speaker A: So it's like. And that's been ingrained in our DNA and I think in some ways that still exists. I know it sounds crazy, but I do think that, like, if we've done this for like tens upon thousands of years and like all of a sudden last like 150 years, we just started doing it how we wanted. I think, like, for some people, like, it's just. It's ingrained you. So, like, I just knew that was what it was going to be. So when I graduated college, before I graduated college, I was already had my real estate license. And when I graduated, you can either be a real estate salesperson or a broker. [00:14:33] Speaker B: Yeah, the different, like strads of license. [00:14:35] Speaker A: Yeah, now it's everything. Now it's managed broker. Broker. But I got my broker's license because right when I turned 21, I waited to be able to get it. That's when I took the test. So when I graduated in 06, I literally hung my license up at a different company because my dad wouldn't let me work for him right away the day I graduated college. So I already said I literally started working the day after I graduated college. [00:14:56] Speaker B: I listened to your most recent podcast, Matt does one. I'm sure a lot, a lot more people than listen to this. Listen to Matt Larsi live and you're talking about clear cooperation, but at the end you were talking about how we share this perspective. You wish that it was harder to get your real estate license. Yeah, I totally agree. I think that there, if we raise the bar on the quality. Not quality, like the knowledge base you have to have and how serious you have to be about it. Like, you know, we, you know, to. To different extent sometimes, Brian. But you have. You get. You get used to having, like, to defend your profession. Defend that this is, you know, something that you're serious about and that you do full time and you work hard at, because there's a lot of people that don't. And I wish that it was a lot harder to get your license. [00:15:40] Speaker A: Well, I mean, like, I don't think at 21 years old, I should then, like, that day when I graduate college at, you know, 2022, I shouldn't be able to get a $10 million sale on my own with no help. Like, that's like, who am I really, like, doing well for? I mean, yeah, I'll get paid, but, like, that's why people hate real estate agents. But, I mean, you look at when I mentioned there's 42,000 agents. I'll give you a good example about, like, how bad the agents are in general. Right. The fact. So we started a team in Hinsdale. Okay. So that's DuPage County. Okay. So we're number one in Cook. Okay. [00:16:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:16:10] Speaker A: You know, but in DuPage, it's a different county. Okay. I looked it up. I think there's around 4,000 agents DuPage. So we've done a few. We've done about four deals in DuPage total. Okay. It's about $4 million. So I thought it'd be cool to be like, hey, we brag. We're number one. Let's brag about how shitty we're doing and, like, watch the journey as we climb and see, how does it take two years, four years, three years, six months? How long does it take to be number one? Right. [00:16:33] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:16:33] Speaker A: In that area. So I looked up the numbers, and. [00:16:35] Speaker B: I'm thinking that you were number 3,000 or whatever. [00:16:38] Speaker A: Yeah, we're number 122. And I was like, wow, like, there's only 121 better people. Like, and I've literally put, like, negative. Like, we've turned down business up until, like, maybe two months ago of, like, working in those areas. So it's like, you know, that this is zero effort. 122, like, nothing, like, just a few sales made it there. Which means that, like, most people are gonna run into the, you know, if there's, you know, let's call 4,000 agents, the, you know, 3,890, you know, that are just terrible or. [00:17:06] Speaker B: Or you have to work with them on the other side of a transaction, or your customers do. [00:17:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:11] Speaker B: You know, like, because if they have the house. If you know, their, their aunt owns a house and the aunt's trying to do the niece a favor and nephew or whatever a favor. And then it's, it's not just that like the aunt can make her decision on whether or not she wants to deal with that person. [00:17:27] Speaker A: Right. [00:17:27] Speaker B: The whole deal, everybody involved has to deal with that person. And it's this, you know, it's similar in other professions where they're stronger and weaker but there' if there was more barriers to entry, the whole transaction and the whole experience of real estate transaction would be a lot better for the consumer. [00:17:45] Speaker A: Yep. [00:17:46] Speaker B: Or the prospective consumer and the housing market in general because the transactions are being handled by professionals as opposed to people who are doing it half ass, you know, or you know, just like not even full time. [00:18:00] Speaker A: Well, I mean that's, that's the problem. That's what the app, the average consumer when they talk about that, hate realtors. I'm like me too. That's how we say it's like me too. I hate them too, you know, like, because like there's in my, like for me downtown, I'd say like 250, 300 brokers I think are really, really good, you know, but there's 16,000, right. So like if you walk out your door, you're going to walk into probably five. I've never met anybody that doesn't know at least 10 brokers. Like minimum, minimum, you know, like low side, you know. And it's like we still get their friends because like they don't want to work with them because they don't really do it. Like I think you should not be able to do a sale for four years meaning on your own. It's like you get real estate license, you have to work. Like I could work under you with a man, four years. [00:18:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:36] Speaker A: You know, I can't negotiate the deal myself. I could bring in the business. I could do like a lot of showings, negotiation, transactions you have to sign off on. Right. So I think that would make us go. And I also think part time agents should not be allowed. I just think it should not exist. You know, you can't have a second job. You know, you can't be a part time doctor. Right. Like how many doctors, you know, do a heart surgery? Right. And then they also moonlight at working as a cashier at Whole Foods. Yeah, right. Like I don't know anybody that does that. But like, you know, so people say, well that's harsh. You're taking away jobs. Like okay, well also this is most probably 95% of transactions is the biggest asset that that person owns. [00:19:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:13] Speaker A: So the biggest asset somebody owns, you're going to allow it to somebody who's like, being a part time cashier now. I'm not knocking that person for doing it. I'm saying, like, at a certain point, like, you got to take a leap and do it. And unless we hold ourselves to a higher standards, like, the public is only going to not like us as much. [00:19:26] Speaker B: Or there can be a progression within their career. It's like if somebody could say that's harsh, and you say, all right, well, if they want to be in real estate, earn your stripes first. You know, work under somebody, find a mentor, learn the business. You know, like, when you start in real estate, you have to approach it a little bit. Like, all right, this is like grad school a little bit. You know, you have to learn. You know, you take this kind of vow that you're making less money that you could in another profession at the beginning. [00:19:46] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:47] Speaker B: And you have to learn for a while. And once you learn enough to launch, you know, usually most people have some sort of progression, like here and other places, there's like kind of a mentorship progression where you're like, all right, you know, you've done 10, you know, in our. We probably have. I'm sure we have lower transaction velocity than you. So Maybe you do 10 deals this and, you know, enough where you can have less hand holding but, like, less tutelage through the way. [00:20:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:20:10] Speaker B: You know, but it doesn't happen that way. And, you know, the consumer is the what. [00:20:15] Speaker A: The consumer sees that and then they, you know, they deal with something that's bad or like, you know, there's just blatant lies in our industry. Everybody says they're number one. I joke because, like, I'll go on interviews all the time, but, like, well, I do sell them. Because the first question before I even take my shoes off and I go on like a listing moment, is like, how old do you know this building? Like, do you do a lot of sales? Yeah, I'm like, well, I sell the most. I've sold like 30 units building. I'm like, you know, if that's all you care about, like, I'll just keep my shoes on. I'll send you a listing agreement, we'll be done. You know, I always joke, and I say it like a polite way, like joking about it, but it's like, you know, for some reason, and I get it. Like a lot of people, that's what, they care? [00:20:43] Speaker B: People don't know that already when they call you and show up? [00:20:46] Speaker A: Some people don't, you know, not everybody does. You know, we get recommended and people don't read all the shit that we send ahead of time. Yeah, but my point is, like, everybody will put. And I get brochures in the mail all the time, too. It says I'm number one. And then you look in the thing is like number one in app properties between the months of like, you know, January and February at this time for this type of price, and it's all, like, minuscule. You gotta get on a magazine when. [00:21:03] Speaker B: There was a full moon. [00:21:04] Speaker A: But I do think that, like, they should regulate that. Like, I think that, like, you know, if I finish number five this year, then I'm number five. Now, honestly, if you got 46,000 agents in Chicago, it's still a great feat. I think your top hundred, technically speaking, it's always good. But I'm saying, like, just the blatant lies about, like, there's nobody regulates this. Like, I think there should be fines. If you make up stuff, they should fine you. And I think getting your license should be harder. And I think maintaining your license should be harder. [00:21:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:26] Speaker A: You know, and like, the, the, the general pushback is that, well, you know, if there's less people, the NR makes less money, right? Because you pay dues. And I said, well, listen, I would spend 10 times as much, okay, to keep my license, okay? But think about this way. I'll have 10 times more business because there'll be 10 times less agents. [00:21:43] Speaker B: I mean, the transactions are still going to happen. I mean, like, get more transactions. Yeah, you are. But like, I'm saying, like, the marketplace, like, more agents doesn't really, like, stimulate more sale velocity, right? I mean, the number of houses are gonna sell, right? [00:21:57] Speaker A: Yeah. But what I'm saying is that the reason that there's no, like, they don't push back on this is because, like, if you get your license and you don't do a sale, right, you pay your fees, you're still paying AR fees, you're still paying Chicago Association Realtors fees, you're still paying your company some sort of fee to be there. So everybody's making money whether you sell. In fact, most companies don't want you to sell because they're making money with you or without you. Like, you're paying that cut. You know, not every company just lets you hang your license for free. There's, there's fees involved. And those fees, let's say, you know, Insurance or something like that. It may cost the company $200. They charge you 1,000. So they're making 800 bucks off you. You get 50,000 people working for you at $800 extra. Pop. Think about how much extra you're making a month. Right. So it all comes down to money. That's all they care about. [00:22:36] Speaker B: Well, so, like, the folks who are totally dormant but paying their fees are profitable, and then the folks on the totally other end of the spectrum that are at the upper echelon of these however many agents you said are profitable, and the people in between, there's probably, like, there's obviously carrying costs if you're going to the office utilizing staff, utilizing space. Utilize. So it's like, those people are probably the worst in the band of, like, profitability for. [00:23:00] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So, But I mean, that's just the thing. I, I, When I think about, like, where the agent stand is. And again, I'm not knocking agents. I just think people should take the, the business seriously. Anybody's ever had a problem with me, it's just because, like, I, I don't have any patience for dealing with amateurs. Like, people just completely lie to your. I dealt with it this morning before I came in here. I was getting yelled at by, like, screamed at by somebody. They were blatantly lying. I was like, listen, like an agent. Yeah. And I blew up on her. And she's like, oh, you're such an ass. I'm like, whoa, let's just back this up for a minute. You called me up, I said, hello, and you started screaming at me instantaneously. And like, I always tell people is like, the problem is, is that, like, I'm a bigger dick than you are if you get me going. I'm like, I'm trying not to get there. I'm a nice guy. I'll give you two punches, you get two free hits. But the third hit, like, you're gonna find out that I hit really hard and I have a really bad temper. So, like, that's what happens. And people go. And then they hang up. Like, I've never been talked to like this. Blah. It's like, okay, well, you literally just said I was an asshole. And I just used bigger words than you. Right. That were like, a little bit more probably that most people never say out loud, but I'll say them if you come at me. And then, like, I'm the jerk. But it's because people lie about stuff. [00:24:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:03] Speaker A: It's the only business where you can lie to somebody's face. Hey, I got an offer on the place. You guys can offer. Oh, you actually. Then I found out you didn't have an offer. And then there's. You can't get in trouble for that either. You just make up that you have an offer. [00:24:14] Speaker B: You haven't gotten numb to some of that stuff. Like, as busy as you are and as successful as you've been, you and just like, who cares what that person thinks? [00:24:22] Speaker A: No, I know because they get me going. It's like you catch me at the right moment. I mean, listen, I'm negotiating 15 deals today, right? [00:24:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:28] Speaker A: I get somebody calling me up and starts yelling at me about, you know, start John about something. [00:24:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:32] Speaker A: Like, yeah, I'm going to light you up a little bit and I'm going to make you remember that, like, you know, they're. You know, I won't know you in five years from now because 95% of people drop out and you'll be serving my kids McDonald's french fries. So, like, you could yell as much as you want at me, but, like, you're not going to get under my skin about it. [00:24:46] Speaker B: Is that why you wear a suit and tie every day? Show everybody how serious you are about business or what does that represent to you? [00:24:51] Speaker A: So to me, when I started getting more successful in the business, I started wearing express shirt. Remember Express or structure? Structure. [00:25:00] Speaker B: No, it was both, too. [00:25:01] Speaker A: Structure first, but when I started going, it was structure. So I wore a structure. [00:25:04] Speaker B: That's how you're doing it when you go to. For us? [00:25:06] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, well. And so I was like, well. [00:25:09] Speaker B: And they're all freaking like, teal. [00:25:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:25:11] Speaker B: You know, it's like weird shades of purple and stuff. [00:25:13] Speaker A: Early 2000s, I was wearing. I started wearing that when I was 22. And I was like, well, because I saw. I. So I started working at central to my own pro team when I got my license. Okay. So my dad was like, you can't work here because, one, I don't want to train you, and two, like, you don't just get to, like, come here. My dad's like. [00:25:30] Speaker B: Like a nepotism thing. Yeah. [00:25:32] Speaker A: Yeah. But his best year ever was 15 million total. Okay. So it's not like he's like the most successful guy. It's just like, it was like a moderately successful real estate agent. But, you know, when I went into Century One Protein, they wanted you to wear, like, these gold jackets with the name tags. Okay. And this was still going on back then. And I was like, oh, this is kind of stupid. And then I saw Everybody else was wearing like jean shorts and like polos. And I was like, well, this isn't what I want to know about for either. So I was like, well, I'm going to start with like dress shirt and dress pants, you know. And then like after about a year, I went to suits. [00:26:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:00] Speaker A: And I did suits because I thought, you know, hey, we look more professional this way. And then eventually, when Mickey Hobson, my brother in law, started work for me in 2013 or 12, in 2012, he started working for me. He's from South Africa. He shows up in a tie. And I was like, what the. This guy's not gonna upstage me. [00:26:15] Speaker B: He's big time in me. [00:26:16] Speaker A: Yeah. And he's just like, he's like, you look so sloppy with that open. And then I was like, you know what? I kind of do. So then I was like, I was literally. He said it. He told me I looked sloppy and I was like, honestly, I like, instantly was like, God, he's right. So from then on, the minute he said that, I enforced the suit and tie dress code. And like now you have to wear a suit and tie. Everybody that works for me has to wear suit and tie. It's an automatic firing if you ever get caught without it. [00:26:36] Speaker B: I appreciate that. I mean, it sets the tone. [00:26:39] Speaker A: Well, it's. First off, I think it's, it's a lost art now. And I could tell you that I probably get no joke. And this is a low side estimate, probably 10% more listings a year. And you gotta remember we do maybe 200 something listings. So we're talking like, you know, big numbers, a good amount of listings. And they'll be like, hey, all things, things were equal. The girls showed up in like pretty much like a club outfit and you showed up wearing a suit and tie. And we were just like, you know what? We like you guys both equally, but like, we just thought you were more professional. [00:27:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:27:10] Speaker A: You know, and I always tell people like, you know, I get it now with the tech bros and all this other stuff, people wearing sweatshirts and stuff. But like, to me, you go in a boardroom on a pitch, if you're dressed professionally and somebody else isn't, they're gonna choose a guy that's more professional every time. Now, do I lose business over it? 100%. But I think we win way more than we lose. [00:27:28] Speaker B: Yeah. It's interesting. When I started, it was at Mark, a company called Marcus and Milch have in a suit and tie every day. [00:27:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:34] Speaker B: And I've since, you know, not employed that on a daily basis. [00:27:38] Speaker A: Yeah. We're not in a suit and tie today. We could turn you back around, though. [00:27:41] Speaker B: You know, it's possible. Here's my thing. Like, I appreciate it. I get it. I understand. I also. I don't. I don't know you. You know, we talk. Maybe we talked in the past. Maybe I don't really remember, but. [00:27:51] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:52] Speaker B: I know your brand before you came in here. [00:27:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:55] Speaker B: And a suit and tie is very consistent with your brand. [00:27:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:59] Speaker B: And when I'm at an apartment building and we're showing an occupied building and, you know, I found it that I prefer not to dress like that, you know, for other reasons, you know. [00:28:11] Speaker A: Sure. [00:28:11] Speaker B: And. But I think that dressing up is a lost art in business. And I think it's even more like. It's even. You stand out more today if you're doing it. [00:28:22] Speaker A: I think we're, like, the only ones in the city that wear suits and ties. I don't know anybody else that does. And there's a couple of guys will start doing it for a little bit. [00:28:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:28:29] Speaker A: When they start getting in. Because they'll, like, follow us or something. And they'll like it. They drop out of it really quick. [00:28:33] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:28:33] Speaker A: There's everybody that comes working for me always says that, like, oh, that's one of the things they think is going to be a problem. And then, like, two days in, they're like, one, I always know what I got to wear so I don't have to, like, worry about it. And two, like, people notice. And in fact, this new guy just took in Hintail. It was great. He goes. He was really against it. He was really mad. And he goes, I walked in to pick up my kids in the suit and tie. He said, everybody started looking at me differently. Like, people are coming up to me asking, like, how the new teeth. He's like, out of nowhere. I was like. Because, like, here's the difference is that, like, I. When I walk into a place I haven't been before and I walk in a suit and die. Like, people look. They're not. They're just not used to seeing it anymore. [00:29:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:29:07] Speaker A: Like, even right now, downtown, nobody wears them. I go in the suburb in a suit and tie. Like, people are like, what is this guy, a fucking celebrity? You know? I mean, like, like, you know, like, people just don't know what's happening, you know? [00:29:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:29:17] Speaker A: And to me, it boggles my mind because, like, if you look at, like, old airplanes, right. Like, when they were traveling, everybody was in suits and Ties, you know, they're all in their proper and now we're just all wearing Lululemon and sitting back. And I just think personally that if I'm going to sell you the biggest asset of your life or I'm going to help you like buy the biggest ass of your life, that I should take the job, you know, serious and be more professional for you. That's my opinion on it. [00:29:41] Speaker B: I like it and I get it and I think it sets a tone for you. So you're the number one realtor in Chicago. I understand that you don't really smell the roses about that. It's not the way you're hardwired, but I'm. But I'm sure that there are, that you have goals in your business and the way that you approach your day and approach your profession and approach what you do, I know that's a big part of your life. So what, what goals do you set when you're, when you're number one in how things get measured for you? [00:30:11] Speaker A: Well, first off, the lion at the top of the hill is always got people trying to climb that hill. So you have to defend your hill always. Right? Because there's always. [00:30:20] Speaker B: So one goal is staying at the top, correct? Yeah. [00:30:22] Speaker A: You know, because you can't get complacent. I think the biggest problem. And you'll see this like, even probably in your own industry for like, you know, commercial aspect. You see guys start coming out of nowhere like, this guy's pretty smooth talking. He's good, he's a hard worker, good looking guy, just knows his stuff really well. Doing the studying, you know, studying the books. Well, he knows his stuff, starts crushing it. You're like, oh man, this guy's gonna be competition for a long time. You know, you start thinking that you see him do well, builds a team. You start seeing him take the foot off the gas. You start seeing him in Instagram notifications all the time. Next, you know, five years later, you're like, why is he not in the rankings anymore? [00:30:52] Speaker B: Cozy. Yeah, a little cozy. [00:30:53] Speaker A: Well, if people get complacent, right? So like they, and I always say is that like, you know, you can't take advantage of last year's success to take advantage of today. Right? So like, I always got to know that, like, I'm only as good as my last at bat. So if I'm not crushing today, that means I'm not a better version myself, right? So each and every day I have to wake up as a better version than I was the day before. And every day I wake up like a man on the mission because, like, I'm in it to win it. [00:31:14] Speaker B: What are you working on? What are you working on? On a daily basis to improve, to make sure that you continue the mesh in the mission to, to get better every day and to stay at the top. So what are, like, little things that you employ? Is it time management stuff? Is it, you know, things about your, your marketing that you're using? [00:31:32] Speaker A: So first and foremost, I always try to be efficient. I'm really big on efficiency. I clock watch all day. So like, even like as. As little as, like, I got up today, five minutes late, okay? And like, that has ruined my day, okay? Because I keep clock watching. I'm like fucking five minutes out of the shower behind. I'm five minutes behind this because I have everything down to like, literally the minute. So I have to do up, okay? So like, that's so, to me, it's like all day long, I look at where can I cut, what can I cut out of my day to be more efficient, to get more business, so what can I lose? So again, like, even sitting down here for this, it's like, what do I have to cut today? Like, what, zoom, what buyer's appointment do I have to miss today to be here? Right? Because I have to cut something every hour is booked. So that's the biggest thing I look at first and foremost is efficiency. [00:32:13] Speaker B: We can cut it five minutes short if you want to get you back to equilibrium. I don't know how long you budgeted for, but we'll just tell me five minutes before we'll wrap and then, you know, you're back on track. [00:32:22] Speaker A: My point is those, like, efficiency. [00:32:23] Speaker B: I've been a smart guest, but I get it. [00:32:25] Speaker A: I do think that, like, you have to think about efficiency. And then I always think, think about, like, what can I do to improve, to be better, right? So, like, probably this doesn't happen daily, but at least once every few days. We don't get hired for a listing or we get fired from a buyer, fired from a seller, or a deal dies and the people just go away and somebody's out there. I've only been fired like once this year. How do you get fired? It's like, you know, you're doing 500 plus transactions. You're going to lose a lot more, you know, than you would if you don't. Right? So I ask, what did I do wrong that I could do to improve on in the future? [00:32:53] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, dude, it still sucks, you know, when you when. That you have that. You know, when a deal goes, well, it closes. But you're already so far past that in your head where you're like, you're. You're in the minutia of, you know, in your case, hundreds, in my case, dozens of other deals at the time. You're like, I'm like, so wrapped up in something else. I don't. And you, like, kind of work yourself out of the job too. [00:33:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:33:19] Speaker B: But when a deal either, you know, a transaction under contract dies or a listing doesn't get the offer activity that you expected, and there you reach a point where there's finality to it without it closing, you feel like you let. I feel like I kind of let the people involved in that deal down. And I'm like, I, like, I failed on that deal. You know, at some point in the process, we failed. And it sucks a lot more than the. It feels good when they, when they end closing. [00:33:50] Speaker A: Losing a deal is the worst feeling in the world because, like, you've done all this work and then nothing comes of it. People hate you then for it. They'll never use you again as much as you. You think they like you. [00:34:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:34:00] Speaker A: You didn't close the deal. They hate you. That's the way to look. [00:34:03] Speaker B: Yeah. They hired you to close it down. [00:34:04] Speaker A: And you didn't close it. You know, so, like, you know, you let those people down. You let yourself down. Most importantly, like, now as I've been getting older and I got kids and stuff like that, it's like. And you know, sometimes I get a seller like, well, you know, I don't think you were pushing hard enough, blah, blah. And I try not to bark back, but, you know, every now and then I do. It's like, yeah, listen, like, I only get paid if you close. So I spent thousands of dollars marketing this place right out of pocket. I'm paying my staff thousands of dollars on my own pocket. I'm missing my kids grow up in front of my eyes to work on this, only to then 2 months later get paid 0. Where I could have literally just sat on my fat ass watching Netflix eating potato chips and made exactly the same amount. [00:34:41] Speaker B: Dude, that's true. [00:34:42] Speaker A: Than this. I actually, I'd be making more because I would have had my time back and my money back. [00:34:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:34:46] Speaker A: So yeah, I didn't. I didn't push. So it's like a lot of times with. And I say that to people who are. Every now and then you meet people who are just very difficult people. Yeah, they're Just naturally combative people. [00:34:56] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:34:57] Speaker A: And personally to me, the best way to deal with it is like, let me break down exactly what I give up to do this for you. Like, you do realize that, right? Like, you told me you couldn't call me earlier because of what? Oh, it was your kid's birthday, right? Oh, that's why you didn't call me. Did you know that right now it's my kid's birthday and it's 8 o' clock at night, I'm at my office and I missed this whole party because I had to sit here and talk to you. Did you know? But remember earlier you couldn't talk to me because of that Whose priorities are in line? Right? So like, don't tell me I'm not pushing hard enough. [00:35:27] Speaker B: That person subordinates your priorities because you're the service provider, but you're human still and you got a family. [00:35:32] Speaker A: But I think some people, a lot. [00:35:34] Speaker B: Of draws on your time. [00:35:35] Speaker A: Correct. And I'm not saying like, I'm like bitching or moaning about, that's the life I chose, I'm fine with it. But I'm saying like every now and then there's some people who are just very combative and they just, they look at realtors as like, we're just like terrible money suck people. All we care about is cash. Like, and I blame the Netflix and for that. But like those are the people that when you reminded to them honestly that they become your best clients when they're like, I didn't think about it like that, you know. [00:35:58] Speaker B: Yeah, you, I saw a post, maybe you did it at the end of last. When did you have your competition for days in a row? [00:36:05] Speaker A: Oh, so I do that every year. I count days off every year. [00:36:08] Speaker B: All right, give us, give us the rundown. [00:36:11] Speaker A: So, so you, on a weekday, anything before 6:30 at night is considered a half day. So if like you go to dinner at 6:00 or 6:15, but you work from like 8 in the morning until then, it's considered a half day. Now people may be like, well you know, that's pretty intense because if they Woke up at 7, work from 7 till 6:15, how can you count it? It's like, well, here's the thing. It's that like most people in our industry can only go up from 4:30 to 7. So like you mentally check out at 6:15 and if you do a 6:30 dinner, which a lot of people do, and I count, I call you on it, there's commute time. So if your dinner starts at 6:30. That means you didn't leave the office at 6:30. Yeah, that means that you probably left at 6 or 6:15. So that's a half day, a weekend. Saturday, Sunday is before 4:00. So if you got your kid's soccer game at 3:30 and you take off, then that's a half day, right? Holidays count as days off. If you take off the holiday, birthdays, you got to go to the doctor, you have an emergency room situation, whatever it is, those are days off because you're not working. And I count those. And at the end of the year, if you have too many, you get fired. [00:37:09] Speaker B: And people, how many is the. What's the bar? [00:37:12] Speaker A: I think each person. [00:37:13] Speaker B: What's your goal? Put it that way. [00:37:14] Speaker A: So for me personally, it's always 20 or less every year. Okay. Which is like almost impossible. And I'll tell you, anybody out there is like, I could do it. [00:37:21] Speaker B: I think you're a serial killer. [00:37:23] Speaker A: But if you count the major holidays, you know, you just go right off. Major holidays, January 1st, that's the first day. If you take that day off, okay. Then you got, you know, was it Easter? If you're, you know, Catholic, Memorial day, Labor Day, July 4th, you know, mother's Day, Father's Day, if you got a birthday sometime between there, Columbus Day, if you want to throw that one in, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Christmas Eve. Now we're at, we're at what, almost 12 right there. That's before you even counting anything else. [00:37:51] Speaker B: That happens on the weekends, whatever. [00:37:52] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I had a kid this year and the kid came, it was 1:18 or something like that in the morning was emergency C section. And when you have a C section that, you know, you got to keep your wife up the whole time to make sure she's not bleeding and stuff like that. So we got finally up to a room around 6:45. And my wife's like, I'm exhausted. They take the baby for a little bit and she's like, I'm. I need to sleep for a couple hours. I was like, you know what? I'm up. I was going to go to the office. I want that full day off. I went to the office that day, so. So I didn't get a full. [00:38:19] Speaker B: So anybody that's coming for the number one spot has got some work to do. [00:38:24] Speaker A: Well, you can't beat me because you can't beat my work ethic. You know, like the reality is, and that does make me sound like a cycle, but it's like also like. And don't get me wrong, I'm an extreme example of that. I don't hold all my guys to be like that crazy. But like, the reason I hold days off accountable is because, like, I compared to dieting right people, like, how did I gain weight? Right? And like, I don't know what you eat this week. It's like, I had a sandwich, you know, I had a piece of pizza. I'm like, oh yeah, what you put on the sandwich. Oh, you had salami with mayonnaise on white bread. It's like, okay, well like that adds up. You eat 12 of those a week. All calories count. So like, and then next, you know, when you gain weight, it's like, well, let's dissect your diet. Then you're like, oh, this is how I gain weight. And it's the best way for me to describe it because it's like, here's what happens. At the end of the month, I get an agent. Like, well, I don't think I had a good month. Like, I blame you. Like, oh, you blame me? Okay, well, like, you were at dinner at 6 o' clock on Monday. Wednesday you had another dinner. Friday, another dinner. Saturday, had the kids soccer game. Sunday you had, you took the whole day off for graduation. You know, it's like, and you add it up, it's like you took 18 days off this year or this month, right? There's only 30 days in the month, this month. So it's like you only work 12 days. [00:39:20] Speaker B: Beauty of real estate, when you use it to your advantage is you just, it you get out, we put in, you know, I mean, it's really like, it's a low overhead business in, in comparison with other businesses. And it is incredibly straight line with effort and production and it's accountability, man. [00:39:38] Speaker A: Like, our industry, it's like we talked about earlier, is the only industry in the world you have no boss. You literally have no boss. There's zero boss and there's no accountability. And all people care about is like, well, they'll make money. So with my agents, I always say it's like, I don't need your money. I actually don't make money off my agents. Like, I need you for time. I need to utilize you for time. And that's fine. If you can't give me the time you need, that's fine too. But like, don't come crying to me later if you didn't make any money, because I give you, like, if you can't make a lot of money work for me, that's on you. That's literally like you can't make 200 plus thousand. That's on you. That's your problem. Okay. That's not mine. I give you the opportunities. Yeah, but don't come cry me later because then I dissect your days off and then I could show you why you're not making money. [00:40:15] Speaker B: What, so when you look at your brokers that are making money producing very successful versus those that don't make it, is it as simple as work ethic? [00:40:24] Speaker A: I think, I think. [00:40:25] Speaker B: What other characteristics would you add to those two? [00:40:28] Speaker A: I have different agents that work for me. Like, right. I got some guys that are really good at working business that comes in and they don't have to sell themselves. They're like, I want to like kind of like we do what we call them splits or something like that where they're, they're good with like me working the business. They're kind of like the number two guy, really good number two guy. [00:40:43] Speaker B: Like they're great work ethic element their support, but they're awesome and they crush. [00:40:47] Speaker A: It and they make a lot of money for that. And then I got other guys that are just great at like, they don't want to support, they just want to go out and kind of do their thing at their speed, you know. So like those are the guys that could really count down because if they have a bad year, it's like this is why, you know, you took 50 days off. [00:41:01] Speaker B: You would kill. Yeah. [00:41:03] Speaker A: So, but again, it's, it's not for, it's not for me to be to. Because I got, I went viral on Reddit for this comment that I down LinkedIn when I. Because I think I did like 16 or 18 days off last year and people like that's not a bragging thing and blah, blah. It's like, well, at the end of the day it's like also how many people brag that they're super successful but then they don't work? And it's like, so I believe actions speak louder than words. Like, I'm not sitting there telling you I'm the best in the world, but I'm not working behind it. I'm like, hey, I'm still sitting there at nine o' clock on a Sunday because that's what you have to do to win. [00:41:36] Speaker B: Well, I would also say it's not bragging if you're as. Look, what you see is what you get. That's how you are. I mean, that's who you are. You're direct You're a matter of fact, you don't really give a shit what other people think about what you're about to say. So you can't have it both ways. You can't. I mean like you're not bragging. It's not really like a self promotion thing. It's just that you're open and you're telling people that's how you do it. [00:42:00] Speaker A: Right. [00:42:00] Speaker B: And, and I, and you're not telling me to, that that's the only way that you can do it. It's the only way to live your life. The only way to be a broker somebody else. [00:42:08] Speaker A: It's not for everybody. [00:42:09] Speaker B: You want to do it, that's your life. It's, you could, you could do it. And this is the, this is the, like, this is the goal that you have and you're unrelenting and getting there. [00:42:19] Speaker A: My point is, you know, I'm not saying every in the world needs to think like this. What I'm saying is if you work for me, this is part of the requirement of who we are as people. [00:42:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:28] Speaker A: And if you don't like it, that's, there's a billion. Listen, anybody listen to this that probably gets to this point is gonna be like, I would never work there. Great. I'm not looking for you. [00:42:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:36] Speaker A: Like I'm looking for guys that like give their heart and soul to be the best. Like go ask Michael Jordan. Go play with Michael Jordan. Say, you know what, I'm gonna, I'm gonna half ass the third quarter, but I'll pick it up at the very end of the fourth quarter. You think he's going to let you on the team. He'd kick you off the team. He had the same type of mentality. Any winner, any person who's ever changed anything in their industry has had that type of mindset. And that's the difference between winners and losers. And you will never understand people like that or myself. I'm not saying you personally, but people that hate on is the fact that like you'll always be tier three or tier four players and that's great. I only want number one players working for me personally. That's, it's my business, that's the way I'll do it. [00:43:08] Speaker B: Yeah. No, I'm not here to tell you you're wrong either. [00:43:13] Speaker A: No, right. [00:43:13] Speaker B: I respect it. You know, one thing that I've noticed about your business compared to, you know, I think in real estate some people chase like the bigger, shinier deal and I just see you hammering out deal flow you know, $500,000 deal, $700,000. You do bigger as well. I know, but I've gathered that you've maintained the discipline to continue to like hit those. I don't know if you consider them like singles or doubles or it's just a very down the fairway stuff. You haven't outgr own or like thought that you're too good for that type of deal. Yeah, but you still do a professional video. You still clearly like execute the assignment with a high level of professionalism. So why do you think that you've continued to maintain that focus, maintain that you know, kind of strata of product as part of your business versus only saying, hey, I'm only going to do million dollar plus deals because I've been doing this for so long. That's just like I'm too good for anything. [00:44:10] Speaker A: So I'm like the only agent I know of that's like up there that will still crank out these little ones, you know, they'll usually pass them off complet to people. But like to me, first off, like Chicago is like a 4 to $600,000 city as a whole. You know, that's the bread and butter for the city. So to me, first off, like, I'm not in this business to make money. I'm in this business to be the best what I do. And if money comes, great. But like I don't chase money, I chase being the best. Right? So like each client to me is like this is a relationship business. I want to be the best for my clients. Like I don't care about the price point, I don't care about what I make. That's not what I, I don't look at like, oh, if I sell, this is what I take home. I never, I never look at that really. In fact like I don't even look at what I make a year. I couldn't even tell you what I make a year because I don't look at it, I don't care. I literally could give a shit. Like I don't care about the aspect of money. I don't like, I don't get jealous if somebody's got something more expensive than me. Like that's not what like drives me. Like what drives me is like being the best at my craft, you know? And like, hey, money's kind of just like something that comes in which is great, but like the four to six hundred thousand dollar sales, it's like average sales is what keeps the lights on because there's so many of them now. These what I call them home runs. So like you want compared to baseball, it's like singles and doubles will always keep you on base. More often you're on base, more often you score. The more often you score, the more often you win. The more often you win, the more times you take home championships. Right. So it's like that's the way you kind of look at it. And like, I think the biggest chink in our armor is that the perception is we don't do any like multi million dollar sales. I'm a top five person in the city for multimillion dollar sales every year. [00:45:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:45:30] Speaker A: But the problem is, is that like I'm gonna see how things shake out, but I'll probably close 60 properties this month. Okay, so out of the 60 properties, 15 of them are above a million and a half. Right. So that's great, right. If I just post I did 15 million half plus sales, a few of them are above $3 million. I'm a rock star. [00:45:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:45:49] Speaker A: But the problem is if I'm going to do, you know, 60 sales, 45 of them. [00:45:52] Speaker B: Right, that's the problem. [00:45:54] Speaker A: But I'm saying the perception of what some people would be like, yeah, well, he's only doing two to six or what? It's like, well, fuck, yeah, I'm closing, no joke, 10 properties in the next two days that are 600,000 or less. Well, it's like, okay, but if you add those all up, guess how much money that you sell to. Like if you want to look at it that way. So it's like to me, it's like the business that comes in is what we're going to work, I'm not going to like. And I love when agents tell me, well, I'm only a luxury agent. Like, okay, just so you know, I got somebody that has a $700,000 sale they want, you know, probably sell in a day, but your luxury won't take it. Don't watch what they do. I'll sell, I'll sell, I'll sell. You know, so it's like, I'm not going to bullshit somebody. Tell them. It's like, I think we, I think I crush in luxury, you know, and I think we crush in low end stuff. And with a luxury every now and then, I'll go, I love it when I go on a listing appointment for a luxury place and people talk shit. And they'll say, well Matt doesn't do any high end sales. And they'll be like, you want to know who says I'm like I don't care who says it. They're like, well, what do you have to say? Like, they, you know, rumor has it that you don't know luxury. I said, okay, well, I got a few four million dollar places. I own a shit ton of stuff. I have a big portfolio. I know what's happened in the stock market. I could talk about any high end thing you want to talk about just out of curiosity. I don't know who it was, but unless it's like maybe three or four other people that you're interviewing, like, do they even own their own place? [00:47:06] Speaker B: Yeah, those people wouldn't talk shit. You know that. It's not right. [00:47:09] Speaker A: But I'm like, I'm like, do they even own their own place? They have an expensive property? Like, do they even know what luxury is? So it's like, you know, that's my point is that like a lot of people, you know, give off this perception of what they have. But the reality, it's like how people look at the city, it's like the reality is very different. So I think it's important to always work all assets of the business because to me, I operate my business like my stock portfolio. I'm not putting all my money in Apple. Apple's doing great. But if I put it all on Apple and Apple goes down, I'm fucked. Yeah, but if I got money in Apple, I got money in bonds, which took a hit, right? But like, or if I got it in, you know, Vanguard, whatever it is. [00:47:41] Speaker B: You know, is that part of the impetus of starting the suburban office? Just a little diversification. [00:47:47] Speaker A: So for me it was like, you know, we gave out $250 million in suburb sales in the last 36 months. [00:47:52] Speaker B: That's a good reason. [00:47:52] Speaker A: And then, and you know what really pissed me off, what made me really get going on this thought, is that like I was giving it to these agents and then all of a sudden these agents were requesting showings on my listings. And I call them up, I'm like, what the hell? I'm like, I just gave you a 4 million. I remember this one person, I gave a 4 million dollar place in the North Shore, like it was at slam dunk. Sold. First day of the market, the person was begging me to sell for them. And I was like. And I said to him, I said, listen, like, I know this will probably sell in a day. I've never been up here. I don't even know where this is. You know, it was like kennel, one of those. But I was like, I've never been up there. Like so like I'm like, yeah, it'll sell on the day and yeah, I'll make a shit ton of money. But like, it's just, I don't, I don't want to like put my name on something, I don't know, you know. So I gave this person, they get the sale and then like a month later they request like showing one of my like 2 or $300,000 listings. I was like. And I come up, it's like, well, this is a good friend, Bob. I was like, that was a good friend of mine, you know, like, you know. So like, and I kept seeing that happen. I was like, this is so stupid. So now we're, we'll have an office in Winneca pretty soon. But like that's why we did it. Like that's one of the main reasons. [00:48:54] Speaker B: Yeah, just you have such a funnel of inventory. [00:48:57] Speaker A: Well, listen, it's Chicago, right? So you sell somebody a four to six hundred thousand dollar place, they get knocked up, you know, they're about to have a kid, what do they do? They're like, I'm gonna go to the burbs, right? You know, and then we firm out, we get the four hundred thousand dollar sale in the city, they buy a million and a half place in the suburb. Yeah, that happens 50 times a month. [00:49:13] Speaker B: Have you always, if you always been kind of like independent brand, I mean, I'm sure you've gotten a lot of outrageous offers to join the big firms. Have you always done your own thing? Since I started Century 21, I guess. [00:49:25] Speaker A: But yeah, I worked at Century 1 protein for almost a year. And it's funny because my dad sold the guy his first place that owned the company. So like I never, he never really gave me a chance. I was the only person in the whole company didn't have a desk and. [00:49:40] Speaker B: What do you mean you just had to stand up? [00:49:42] Speaker A: Yeah, I would have to wait for somebody to walk out, then I could like sit in their seat. Otherwise I could sit by the door like on like a chair, like this, but without a desk. I would just have my like notebook. It was really awkward. But like that was the only company I worked for that wasn't at my dad's company. I haven't really ever been approached up until maybe a month or two months ago. But like otherwise I've never been approached really ever. Really. [00:50:06] Speaker B: People, people figure too big to settle in. [00:50:09] Speaker A: Nobody's ever asked. And I mean I wouldn't go anywhere but like, I'm dead serious. [00:50:12] Speaker B: Like I mean I guess I believe you because you're. [00:50:15] Speaker A: But I think maybe people just know that like I'm with my dad or something like that, you know, like. Like I don't know. I. It's. Yeah. It just hasn't happened honestly. Wouldn't go like for me to go somewhere else to me wouldn't make any. I always say like well what can you really offer me? So I talk about that openly a lot. Like maybe that's why too because people like I just heard like you know there's no way. So like I just wouldn't. I don't see what a big brand can do. Right. Like the whole point of going to a company is a brand. [00:50:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:50:40] Speaker A: It's like I built the brand. So like well then what else do you have for me? [00:50:43] Speaker B: It's like you like to do things your own way. [00:50:44] Speaker A: Correct. [00:50:44] Speaker B: You like to. You know, it's maybe if you go to one of those big companies they, they take. Take a little bit more offense to your work ethic type post and you don't want anybody to answer to or. [00:50:56] Speaker A: Yeah like the way we talk is very aggressive. So like. [00:50:59] Speaker B: Yeah, like I don't need not really big company language. [00:51:02] Speaker A: Yeah yeah yeah. Corporate. Yeah corporate big box is not going to go well with us. [00:51:07] Speaker B: How you doing on time? I know you got. I know you're. [00:51:10] Speaker A: I got about five minutes. [00:51:11] Speaker B: Okay. Two more questions. [00:51:13] Speaker A: Okay. [00:51:15] Speaker B: How do you manage to stay active on social media while. And I find it like interestingly active, you know, a little bit of levity, a little bit of humor. [00:51:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:51:24] Speaker B: While having a crazy meeting call, you know, video conference showing etc schedule. [00:51:31] Speaker A: So we try to plan things that we would do that could work into social. [00:51:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:51:36] Speaker A: But like I would say like the last maybe eight months or so. She really took a really good stride for it too. Is like I kind of took a little bit more control of it in the sense of being like just be a lot of people we've had in the past try to kind of like tone us down a little bit more because you know we could be aggressive in some things. [00:51:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:51:52] Speaker A: And I would see a lot of the stuff like this isn't who I am. I would never write that. I would never say that. You know you have people manage your social. Because I just don't have time to like post this stuff and so like we've especially even like property tours and stuff like that that we did like. [00:52:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:52:04] Speaker A: This year we've gained more than we've ever gained ever. And it was solely because. And We've, I've. I'm now averaging 100 leads a month from social. Our listing, just our listing page. 100 leads a month. It's my, my second highest producing lead thing a month. [00:52:21] Speaker B: What's the best platform for you now? [00:52:23] Speaker A: It's TikTok and Instagram to property tours. It was never like that. And the difference was is that I said, listen, I'm so sick of watching people just walk through these places. They're scripted, they say, hey, here's the thing, and I would have a script before I got there. And they give it to you and they like, look cool walking around and do this stuff. And you're like. I'm like, I don't. This isn't. And this year, at the end of last year, I'm like, I'm just not doing this anymore. I'm like, this is so stupid. It's not who I am. Like, I feel like I'm wasting my time. [00:52:47] Speaker B: It is totally played out. [00:52:48] Speaker A: I'm like, I'm just gonna walk through a place. How I show it. I'm just gonna talk. How I talk. I'm gonna say exactly. I'm like, you get, this is what they do now. They take their iPhone out and I'm like, it's going to be one take. I'm going to walk through here one time, I'm going to say how, how I normally say it and let's just see what happens and then cut it up the best clips you could get. And that's crushed it. So I think it's about authenticity. [00:53:06] Speaker B: Yeah. You've also done a good. Like I saw your thing from a week or two ago where you put, you know, you, you said, oh, you live in Chicago. You must, you must eat at so many great restaurants and you're eating like PB&J sandwiches, whatever, on your way to appointments out of a Ziploc bag or something like that. So that sort of thing is authentic. [00:53:29] Speaker A: Right. [00:53:30] Speaker B: But it's still on brand. [00:53:31] Speaker A: Right. [00:53:31] Speaker B: And I appreciate, like, as somebody who didn't really know you, I appreciate that you bring a little bit of humility to it. It's not just like, here's my new 3 million dollar, you know, apartment in Gold Coast. Let me show you around. It's like, I don't give a fuck. I have seen that video before. [00:53:47] Speaker A: But that's my point is that like, especially this, just the last like eight months, it says like, we kind of just cut the strings off. Just like we're just gonna act how we act. [00:53:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:53:55] Speaker A: And like, get as much. And we would do that before, but it would be like more peppered in. And I felt like the ones that we pepper in were always getting the most views and like, people gave me a pushback that, like, you know, you get canceled for some of the things you say. I'm like, honestly, if somebody doesn't like me for it isn't. They just won't use us. [00:54:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:54:08] Speaker A: But guess what? Like two. Two out of ten people may not like us, but eight will still like us. [00:54:11] Speaker B: I think this, I think the, the raw, the honest, the direct today is like in a world that's gotten very sensitive, very filtered, very, like censored it, it makes you stand out more. [00:54:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:54:27] Speaker B: And I think it, like, it's like when you can't. When you, when you watch the Office, you watch reruns. [00:54:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:54:32] Speaker B: Watch tv. [00:54:32] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:54:33] Speaker B: If you ever allow yourself to watch the rerun of the Office, you're like, oh, God, this is really funny. Too bad they couldn't say any of these things. When the, you know, the whole show is making fun of everybody. Nobody's safe, you know, and the, the main guy is very self deprecating is the bumbling, you know. [00:54:49] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:54:50] Speaker B: White guy, boss. That's the biggest idiot of the bunch, you know. [00:54:53] Speaker A: Yeah. So can't do that anymore. [00:54:55] Speaker B: You can't. And it's a shame. So I appreciate the authenticity. All right, last question. Aside from the traffic, which I know you're wound up about in Chicago, you're obviously, you've chosen Chicago as a place to, to live, to raise your family, to run your business, to invest. Like, what do you love about the city? [00:55:16] Speaker A: I think we have the best skyline in the country. I, I just, to me, like, I love the energy in the city. When you come down here and like, you're walking around the city, like you could just feel. [00:55:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:55:27] Speaker A: Like, the energy and like, to me, like that I feed off that, you know, and like, it just like gets me motivated. Just seeing all the people seeing, like, just like, you know, I don't know what it. I can't describe it, but just something about it is. Gets me going. You see the boats, you see. I even like when you see the trains and stuff going around. Like, it's just like really, it just makes you feel, like, alive, you know? And that's what I love about the city. [00:55:48] Speaker B: You know, the, the, the city does have an undeniable energy that. And I think the more you spend time in the city, more you get to know the city, the more you understand all the connectivity between the train coming in, the skyline, the buildings downtown, like, the people in the restaurants, it's all, like. It's all one ball of wine. [00:56:07] Speaker A: It's all interconnected. [00:56:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:56:08] Speaker A: I just think some people. I think the city's lost its way the last couple years, and I think that's been the problem with people coming down here. So, again, I think it's more the perceptions versus reality. We had a couple bad years. We got bad leadership right now. That's like affecting the city in a negative way. [00:56:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:56:22] Speaker A: But I do think that, like, you know, every now and then you enter a bad relationship, and guess what? You go find a new girlfriend the next time, and you have a better relationship after that. And I think. [00:56:31] Speaker B: And you appreciate her more. [00:56:32] Speaker A: Right. [00:56:32] Speaker B: You know, and I think that's part of what the city's gonna see. [00:56:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:56:35] Speaker B: I think that everybody. You know, there's a very low approval rating for current administration. [00:56:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:56:39] Speaker B: And I think next time we have a chance to vote, people are gonna care about voting. [00:56:44] Speaker A: Have to vote. Gotta get more people out there. But I do think. I do think that when people ask about this and, like, you know, I. I do a lot of nationwide and, like, worldwide stuff where people like, well, how can you live there? It's like, listen, the city's awesome. It's unbelievable. Like, bad rap right now lately in some categories. Memorial Day didn't do us any favors, which has happened, like, recently, like, on nationwide news that was brought up and stuff like that. But, like, overall, I don't think there's a better city in the country than Chicago. Cities have always had issues, et cetera. I call Chicago a poor man's Manhattan. We get everything they got, but we're on a cleaner scale. People are cooler. Sports teams are better. You know, like, much more affordable. Yeah. It's more affordable. Our teams are going to get better. Hopefully. Big year for the Cubs. Hopefully this year, you know, bears could maybe break 500. [00:57:29] Speaker B: You know, dude, if the Bears you want to run, I mean, the city is going to be buzzing. [00:57:33] Speaker A: But when. When, like, if the Cubs started going to the playoffs so you could see how much the city changes. [00:57:37] Speaker B: Oh, when I. When I first moved to Chicago is when. Well, I guess I had been here for a couple years, but the Blackhawks had kind of like four. Four years in a row where. [00:57:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:57:47] Speaker B: And this. It was when I was young, went to bars. Like the Bar Energy. [00:57:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:57:52] Speaker B: When the Blackhawks were making a run. Was out of this world. And even during the day, there was just so much buzz about. And stuff. The city loves to kind of like rally behind that. [00:58:01] Speaker A: We're blue collar, hard working, like kind of like grind type city. Yeah, that's just what we are. We're a Midwest state. That's why we can always beat all the other big cities. City works like, you know. Yeah, that's it. [00:58:11] Speaker B: So I appreciate making time to do this, man. [00:58:13] Speaker A: Thank you, man. [00:58:13] Speaker B: It's fun. Appreciate to know you. [00:58:15] Speaker A: Yeah, you too, man.