Latest / REL Freedom Podcast / Loodmy Jacques - From Port-au-Prince to Real Estate Powerhouse

Transcript

Loodmy Jacques - From Port-au-Prince to Real Estate Powerhouse · REL Freedom Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if you could do something differently, you know, what would you have done?
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, you know what?
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: If I started this all over, one thing that I would do is every year I would want to buy property.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, like thinking back, I'm like, you know, this is something crazy to even think about.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how is that even possible?
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't think it was possible, but I know again, I'm trying to do.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Real Freedom Show.
• 0:21
  Mike Swenson: We inspire you to pursue your passion to gain time and financial freedom through opportunities and real estate.
• 0:26
  Mike Swenson: I'm your host, Mike Swenson.
• 0:28
  Mike Swenson: Let's get some real freedom together.
• 0:37
  Mike Swenson: Hello, everybody.
• 0:39
  Mike Swenson: Welcome to Real Freedom, where we talk about building time and financial freedom through opportunities and real estate.
• 0:45
  Mike Swenson: I'm your host, Mike Swenson.
• 0:47
  Mike Swenson: If you want to get started on your real estate journey, check out our website, freedom throughrealestate.com.
• 0:53
  Mike Swenson: That's freedomthroughrealestate.com.
• 0:55
  Mike Swenson: We've got lots of great information on there, all of our episodes and content really with the goal to tell great stories to inspire you to take action inside of real estate to build your dreams.
• 1:06
  Mike Swenson: It's an entrepreneurial playground.
• 1:08
  Mike Swenson: There's a lot of cool stuff to be done.
• 1:10
  Mike Swenson: And so we're excited to share stories of people that are doing it.
• 1:12
  Mike Swenson: Today we have a super exciting story for you.
• 1:14
  Mike Swenson: I'm excited to introduce Ludmi Jacques.
• 1:16
  Mike Swenson: He's a real estate agent, has a team, property manager, investor, and everything in the Palm Beach area, West Palm Beach area of Florida.
• 1:25
  Mike Swenson: You came here from Haiti and had a dream and and built uh built your dream.
• 1:30
  Mike Swenson: And so excited to see how that started and what you've done.
• 1:32
  Mike Swenson: So thanks so much for coming on the show.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having me, Mike.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's amazing to be here.
• 1:37
  Mike Swenson: For the listeners, just give us a little bit to get started.
• 1:40
  Mike Swenson: Tell us about your story coming here to Florida and you know how you got started in real estate, and we'll go from there.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Of course.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so my story.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I came here, I moved here from Haiti, uh, and I moved to Florida.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: I've always stayed in Florida, and that was back in 2004.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: So that was a long time ago.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, real estate was not something that ever, you know, thought that I was gonna end up doing.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I always wanted to go into the medical field and you know, uh become a doctor, and that's what of course all Haitian parents want.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, I want you to be a doctor, I want you to be a lawyer, I want you to be an architect.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: So that was the thing.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what I grew up to know.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then as I was going to school and uh I started a reading some different books.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the first books that I read was Take and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then I ended up reading um Rich Dad Boredad.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, that kind of changed my mindset.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, wow, like if I have a business, I could actually make more money than a doctor could make.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: So that kind of changed my mindset to see why the opportunities were out there for me to build a business.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, I started from doing some different things, from doing like a catering business to doing a tax professional to uh doing credit uh counseling.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and that was around the market crash 2009, 2008.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, real estate was I walked into an office, honestly.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: I was actually looking for a job, and I'm like, oh man, I need to get a job.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: I walked in this office, and then these people say, Hey, are you guys hiring?
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I was 19.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, uh, well, no, we are a real estate office, and if you want to work here, you gotta get a license.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what do I need to do?
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: They told me what the steps are.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: I went and I got it done, and I came back.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, okay, how do I get paid now?
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: So so again, and they said, Here's your check, right?
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: You got your license, here's here's all the right.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: I wish it was that simple, right?
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then I started to realize, all right, this is some serious work that I gotta put in.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, fast forward to now.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, uh, I I I was a solo agent, I capped around 70, 80 transactions per year, and then I realized that I needed to have more time.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: And from there on, I started to build my own team, hired some different agents, and now we're scaling even more.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's one part of it.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, there is different levels of while I was doing that.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: I end up having some different opportunities to help a lot of Canadian investors and investors, even from my own uh country, that bought here, and I end up having to create a separate company to help them manage these properties because they're out of state.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: So that opened a whole other door of another hat that I have to wear.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it's been a fun ride, and I'll see where the future goes.
• 4:29
  Mike Swenson: Yeah, it's interesting because people out there that have just a very detailed plan of like, I'm gonna get into this, I'm gonna do this, and here's my goals, and here's my activities.
• 4:38
  Mike Swenson: And then there's a lot of people too, where the opportunity, you know, there's there's opportunity that you purposefully pursue, and then there's opportunity that just kind of comes your way.
• 4:47
  Mike Swenson: And it's it's usually some sort of combination or one end or the other on the spectrum of either you're just following the opportunity that comes your way or you're you know executing on your plan.
• 4:57
  Mike Swenson: It sounds like you had just had a lot of people that wanted to work with you, and you just kind of say yes and and it goes where it goes.
• 5:03
  Mike Swenson: But I would love to hear those earlier days in terms of finding business and getting business.
• 5:08
  Mike Swenson: Was it through kind of relationships of warm referrals, or how did that early business come up for you?
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you said something that I kind of caught my attention.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: You remember that movie a long time ago called like the Yes Men, where Jim Carrey had to say yes to everything somebody asked?
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: That that was me back then.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: I I was the yes guy.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, like anything you ask, of course.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need to know it, I'll figure it out right after it.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: But I was always saying yes.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: So that you know, that kind of you know brought me back to that moment.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so back then, I mean, honestly, I was a 19-year-old from you know, immigrated from a different country.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: So uh my referral base was nonexistent on that point.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I had to start from scratch.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: And one something crazy that I did was because I have a French last name, it's Jacques.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, we have Jacques, we have Pierre, we have Jean.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: What I've what I did back then was actually I went to the yellow pages, you know, a lot of people don't know this, but they used to deliver this thing at your house every month, it's a huge book that have everybody's phone number in there.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: So my train of thought was okay, I need to talk to people.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I had an accent, I I, you know, I didn't speak you know fluently enough.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, if I could speak to everybody that is from my country, maybe they'll be willing to work with me.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I went to the uh yellow pages, I picked up every person's name that was finished either by Jacques, Pierre, or Jean.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: And my I'm like, okay, either either Haitian or they speak French.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: So no matter what it is, we'll have something to talk about.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I started there.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: I started calling people randomly from the yellow pages, and that ended up you know getting a lot of no's.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: But that's you gotta go through those no's for you to actually get that yes.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: So it's the numbers game.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: After making enough calls, I started to have appointments, I started to meet people, I started to really understand what it takes to actually convert a lead.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then from there on, because I service one person right, they end up loving me and then introducing me to every person else they knew.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then from there on, it's just keep repeating over and over.
• 7:07
  Mike Swenson: Well, we we talked about that earlier, you know, with with me and investing, kind of building that reputation or building that resume.
• 7:14
  Mike Swenson: And and yeah, I think you found something that was relatable that you could have, you know, rapport with people.
• 7:21
  Mike Swenson: I've never heard that before in terms of lead generation stories, but I love it, and it makes total sense.
• 7:25
  Mike Swenson: It's smart.
• 7:26
  Mike Swenson: And then once you get a couple of clients, and that's the hard thing for newer agents, is you feel like it's just you're running into the wind at all times.
• 7:34
  Mike Swenson: And then once you start to get a couple clients, well, then you do a good job.
• 7:38
  Mike Swenson: They start to refer you to others, and that business builds, and it could take two, three, five years to kind of feel like that wind starts to get at your back, and it's still real estate, it's always challenging, and there's always going to be tough difficulties that you're gonna have to run into.
• 7:51
  Mike Swenson: But yeah, that's great.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you this, Mike.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: It took me two years to get my first deal.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: So it wasn't an easy process, it was a lot of door knocking, it was a lot of no's, and it was a lot of I'm not interested, but that didn't stop me because I knew that.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I had one of my coaches that gave me this example, and I always think about it whenever I'm I'm making you know calls, and this could be even if I'm prospecting for a new business or I am following up with clients, is that imagine you're in a room and then they tell you, you know, they'll blindfold you and there is a thousand shares.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: One of those shares have$20,000 under them.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: How many of them are you gonna turn before you get that$20,000?
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: And it no matter if you stumble and you hurt yourself, you've blindfolded, but you will do your best to calculate this is 99, 1,000.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: So you get to that because you know out of that 1,000 touches, one of them will turn into clients.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: So whenever I'm making those calls, and for somebody thinking that a thousand calls is a lot, and on a daily basis, every morning from eight o'clock until 11 o'clock, I call at least you know, a hundred dollars.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: So that is non-stop every day.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the same mindset that I have that you just gotta keep going through these obstacles because you know you will get to that$20,000.
• 9:16
  Mike Swenson: Two years to get your first client, like for people that say, Oh, you know, oh, you're so successful now, and and you've got all these great things, they don't see what you had to go through to make that happen.
• 9:28
  Mike Swenson: And that's the part that gets glossed over in all the podcast interviews and all the highlight reels, because it takes time for that business to to blossom.
• 9:36
  Mike Swenson: And so kudos to you for continuing to push through because what ends up happening, and this is why I love doing the podcast, is people quit and they go back to outside of real estate, you know.
• 9:47
  Mike Swenson: And and the thing that bothers me is people will treat this, especially like as an agent, as a sales job, and it's like, well, I was successful in sales or successful in my previous industry, you know, I gave it six months in real estate, and so it what didn't work out, so I'm gonna go back to my other thing.
• 10:04
  Mike Swenson: And that the reality is you're missing all the future opportunity because you're comparing year five in sales or year 10 in your previous industry to your first six months in real estate.
• 10:16
  Mike Swenson: And for you, that that it took time to build that momentum, and so you can't sell yourself short of what is year 20 in real estate look like because of year one in real estate, and you didn't give up.
• 10:28
  Mike Swenson: And so, in a lot of ways, my mindset is always um, you know, they always ask the question, how long are you willing to give, or how long are you willing to do something until you give up?
• 10:37
  Mike Swenson: And and that the right answer is, you know, if it's the right thing, yeah, you keep going until you succeed.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you believe it and never quit.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you know, like you said, I I I'm listening to what you're saying, and it's true.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: So whenever somebody's looking at you now and what you've accomplished, they always see all the success and and think you start from there.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I can give you so many examples of how, you know, I've got nose doors closing on me.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Where, you know, again, I I remember I was driving this car that was uh Chevy Lumina 2000, 1995.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: I went to this guy's house and he was on the phone.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: I was following up with him, he was an expired listing for I don't know, months.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: Where I was calling him, and then finally he's like, All right, fine, I'll get you, uh, I'll get you.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, do you have a buyer?
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Of course they asked me, like, do you have a buyer?
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I was able to convince him.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: I went there and then I went, I went to the property.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: And um I as I'm pulling into his driveway, it was a guy that's very meticulous on Harry Keps driver.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then my car was an older car, it was a blue, uh, had like green uh uh side mirrors, and the guy just rushed out and tell me, like, get out of my driveway.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what's going on?
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's like your car's gonna leak in my driveway.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, well, so you know, like they already had that prejudge in there.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: So what I did to fix that, whenever I would go to a listing appointment, I know my car was all beat up, I would park a few blocks back, and it's like, oh, where are your problems?
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, Well, I'd like to canvas the neighborhood to see how the other houses are before I get to yours.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: So they don't see my car anymore.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, like whatever obstacle life tools are in you, you just have to find a way instead of it you letting it keep you down, just adjust yourself and keep moving forward.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, that that that that is my mindset in everything that I do.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's just yeah adjust myself and keep moving forward.
• 12:20
  Mike Swenson: So, talk a little bit about going from solo agent to team, because where we're gonna go with this conversation is building multiple streams of income.
• 12:28
  Mike Swenson: Yeah.
• 12:28
  Mike Swenson: And for a lot of people, building a team, right?
• 12:30
  Mike Swenson: You're doing everything yourself, and then eventually you find some sort of support, you know, some sort of admin support, probably.
• 12:37
  Mike Swenson: And then, you know, maybe you you pick up another agent or two and and you're slowly looking to build a bench around you so that it's not all dependent on just you, but kind of talk about that process of going from solo agent to starting to build out a team and where that goes.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: A little quick background there.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I've been doing this for about 17 years now, and I wish that actually I started earlier to do that because I never taught myself to be able to do that part of being a team owner.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: I always saw that I'm an agent, I'm a solo agent, everything had to be reliant on me to do, and everybody needed to work with me, but that is not true.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you if you create a system and if you have a way of tracking what you're doing and you keep understanding what your hour what what your value is per hour, you can actually understand what you can delegate for somebody else to do.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: So first thing that I did to before I started hiring people and growing it to scaling to where it is now is about two years ago I started all this.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: And every every time that I go into the office, I put a timer, and every 10 minutes, I write down what I just did for the past 10 minutes.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: And as I'm tracking this, I look back to it.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm and at the end of the day, I'm like, okay, how many of those actions that really needed to be something that I had to do?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: And was it really income producing for me?
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, spending a few hours checking emails, you know, spending a few hours replying to DM, you know, that's not really something that I had to do.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: So then I started separating those tasks and then delegating them to other people to do, either a virtual assistant, either uh my you know, transaction coordinator.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then I was freed up more time so that that way I can go and do what I'm good at, which is meeting clients, going to listing presentation, doing bio consultation, and then bringing in more business.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: That was the first part.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: The second part of it now is now that I had that understanding of what you know it took for me to delegate on that side, and I was creating more business and I had more leads coming in and I had more listings, I realized that I was letting a chunk of leads that were buyer transaction slip away.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: So then that's when I started recruiting for buyers agent to help with managing these leads coming in.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: So everything is a step-by-step, nothing comes up overnight.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: It, you know, I grew, I made mistakes, and of course, and then I grew from there and I grew, and then you know, from where we are now.
• 15:13
  Mike Swenson: And building a team takes time and patience too, because you know, you think about you talked about your first two years as an agent.
• 15:19
  Mike Swenson: If you're bringing on a new agent, right, they're it takes them time to learn things, and they're not going to be able to learn how to do a transaction until they get a transaction, and so then it takes time to get a transaction, and so unless you're bringing on experience agents, but yeah, I mean it to build building a team is tough, but now you're at a spot where you're starting to build some momentum outside of yourself, and you've got agents you know bringing some business into the team, and that'll continue to grow because yeah, two years into it, you still got still got a long way to go, I'm sure, and where you want to go.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the exciting part for me.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: So that whenever I get a new challenge, is is always the exciting part.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I know I'm gonna make mistakes, I know I'm gonna screw up, but it's fine.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's the best way to learn, is you gotta fall so you can know how to get up.
• 16:02
  Mike Swenson: So talk a little bit about kind of how the property management piece come in as we're talking about, you know, building other pillars and building other streams of income in in terms of you've you've got your real estate business, but now got some people wanting property management, and and how did that form?
• 16:17
  Mike Swenson: Are you looking to get started or scale in real estate investing but don't know your next step?
• 16:21
  Mike Swenson: Are you overwhelmed thinking about finding deals, analyzing deals, doing due diligence, and managing properties on top of it?
• 16:28
  Mike Swenson: Go ahead and push the easy button and invest with us.
• 16:31
  Mike Swenson: Real estate investing is what we do full time.
• 16:33
  Mike Swenson: We've done dozens of deals with hundreds of doors.
• 16:36
  Mike Swenson: We have the knowledge and experience to hand pick the best deals that most investors can't find.
• 16:41
  Mike Swenson: We've got large off-market deals all the time where you can hopefully find returns and economies of scale that you just can't find on your own.
• 16:47
  Mike Swenson: The best thing is it's 100% passive to you for less capital than you put down trying to acquire a property on your own.
• 16:54
  Mike Swenson: Don't let this year go by before you don't make the leap, add to your portfolio, or you just did an analysis by paralysis.
• 17:01
  Mike Swenson: To find out more, visit freedom throughrealestate.com and click on invest.
• 17:06
  Mike Swenson: You can book a call and learn more there.
• 17:08
  Mike Swenson: So get to scaling your portfolio now with us by your side.
• 17:11
  Mike Swenson: That's freedomthrurealestate.com and click on invest.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so that started back, you know, when a lot of the we had a lot of buyers, our international buyers, Canadians and people from from my home country that were buying homes here.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: And that was again, that wasn't really something that I even had a conversation with them.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Their mindset was, hey, I'm buying this, I can just put a tenant in there, and then everything's gonna run smooth.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, you and I know it doesn't work that way.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: There is a lot of things that, you know, you need to be present, you need to have somebody to help you.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: So then they end up reaching back to me and say, hey, can you help me with this?
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because I have a tenant that is, you know, either not paying on time or um they're not responding to you know what they're supposed to do, or you know, I have a problem in the property and I need you to be able to go check it out because I'm out of town, I'm you know, I'm in a conference where I'm busy, you know, can you do this?
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, because I'm a nice guy, I'm a yes guy.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm the yes man.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, sure, of course, you know, it's 11 o'clock at night, I'll go check it out for you.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, that ended up being something I was doing, you know, as a nicety for them.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: But then I realized that, you know, after I did this for them, they told their friends, they're like, hey, yeah, you can call this guy, he's gonna do it for it.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: And 10, 20 people started calling, like, all right, this is you know, tracking my time, like this is not making sense.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: So then I started building uh a portfolio where I'm like, I'll tell them, hey, this is a service that I offer and this is what I charge for it.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: And to be honest, like I thought that they were gonna say no, but then when I broke it down to what is it that I would do for them, they were so happy for it.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: And that's one thing that a lot of agents should understand that what we know and what we have access to and what we can do has value.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't explain it to your customers, they're never gonna understand that they could hire you to do this.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have a client that bought an investment property, you know, offer them that service.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Say, hey, I can help you manage this.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, if this is good with your brokerage and and your team, making sure that's okay, check that first.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: But if they're okay with that, yeah, offer that service.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then that's for me, the way I saw it is I'm like, this is one way for me to stay in touch with those clients.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: So when they decide to sell, they're gonna be using me again.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: So that that was initially my thought.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then, and then yes, that ended up working where in the future, like we were I I have clients that have been with me for over 10 years now and have bought, sold, got a townhouse to now buying a single family house, then buying a multifamily home and now looking for commercial buildings.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I have been through the whole process and creating that relationship, adding value to I am their go to person.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: So as they're growing financially, it also assisted me to grow financially, and then we're just doing life together.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: So That that is, you know, everybody that I work with are like family.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: They're not just a number for me.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: They're people that I talk to every day.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, we hang out and you know, we we love working together.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:11
  Mike Swenson: Well, and I think as an agent, it's incredibly smart to do that because so many people, you know, if the average person moves every seven years, what are you going to talk about for the next seven years?
• 20:22
  Mike Swenson: You know, other than, hey, you looking to sell?
• 20:25
  Mike Swenson: No, okay, great.
• 20:26
  Mike Swenson: And you can do client events, you can, you know, find ways to stay in touch.
• 20:30
  Mike Swenson: And and yeah, a lot of the people you'll develop relationships with and get to know their family and that sort of thing.
• 20:36
  Mike Swenson: But when you can find legitimate ways to add value over those next seven years, and it could even just be referrals, right?
• 20:43
  Mike Swenson: For other vendors if they're looking for updating their home or landscaping services, like things like that.
• 20:49
  Mike Swenson: Um, however, if and and that's what kind of initially attracted me to working with investors is like, oh, they're gonna buy property maybe once a year, maybe once every two years instead of every seven years, and there's more ways that you can build those relationships.
• 21:04
  Mike Swenson: And and I remember somebody telling me, what if you just had you know five clients that would buy 20 properties in a year eventually, versus you know, a big database of thousands of people.
• 21:16
  Mike Swenson: And it's like, oh, for me, I'm an introvert.
• 21:19
  Mike Swenson: That makes sense to have fewer relationships with more people buying more property.
• 21:24
  Mike Swenson: And so that's kind of how I got into the investor side.
• 21:26
  Mike Swenson: But yeah, for you, there's so many people out there that aren't offering what you're offering, and so you get to check a box that you know other agents can't check just by being willing to do that for them.
• 21:36
  Mike Swenson: So it's incredibly smart.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I I think that um every agent, even if you're if you're listening now and you've had past lines that you've sold homes to, as you're doing your follow-up calls, you know, just saying that you can offer that service, you'll be surprised.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm thinking right now of some conversation as I was going back in my database to tell people that I did that, and they were surprised.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like there were people that actually bought single family houses for me, never told me that they had another investment property.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: So when I said, hey, I could do that for you, they're like, Oh, by the way, I have this condo, you can help me with this.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: And you would be surprised how welcoming because they already trust you, they know what you can deliver, and then they cannot using you.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: And that is, if again, that is a way to solidify that relationship for future business because these people that are owning uh, you know, this condo or this townhouse, if you do great buy it when they're buying something else, they'll be using you when they sell it to buy something else, you will be the person that they use to do it.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: So it's yeah, it it's it's something that I think every agent should actually offer.
• 22:38
  Mike Swenson: And how did that go for you?
• 22:39
  Mike Swenson: Or kind of what were your initial steps for finding people to help with your property management side?
• 22:45
  Mike Swenson: Is it leasing agents?
• 22:46
  Mike Swenson: Is it you know building a great vendor network of you know, repair people that you can call, or kind of how did that develop as as it started to scale for you?
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: When I first started, I I didn't have a structure.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: This was again because it was more of like, yep, hey, I guess I have to figure this out.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so uh you know, I didn't have a good website where you know tenants can go in and pay their rent or log their tickets and pay their rent online.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I didn't have that.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I did an old school, you know, book and paper and writing things down.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: So as I grew now, I did more.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: But first thing that I did is very simply, I I would when I when I would go to Home Depot, I would meet different people.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and again, I I talked to them.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: I was present on everything because that was a knowledge that I didn't have.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I didn't just give them the job to do, I was present at the property as they're doing it, asking questions and learning.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: So then I can see what's happening and who's good and who's bad.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then as this progressed, then I started creating a list of people that I would recommend continuously and then trust that they could do the job.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: So that's how that vendor list created.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: And now that I have my agents that will work with me, so one agent on my team, his main role is to handle um the leasing part of it.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I have one dedicated agent that is managing the tenants coming in, moving out, going to walkthroughs and things like this.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: But before that, I'm a workaholic, Mike.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I would I was the guy that was in the office at five o'clock in the morning, and I'm still in the office at eight o'clock at night.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't recommend it to everybody, but that's how much work it took for me to be, you know, to get everything done.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: And and you know, I never wanted to feel that a client will say, You promised me this, but you didn't deliver.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: And and you know, my reputation is key.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you can see on Google I have over 300 five-star reviews because I I want to, when you meet me, that I go above and beyond in what you expect every time.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: So that's how it started from building that and now having those agents to handle a you know all the unions, because we have a lot of unions now.
• 24:55
  Mike Swenson: Well, that's such a great value add as an agent coming on your team.
• 24:58
  Mike Swenson: Because I think about, you know, when I was on Teams on the admin side and we'd bring on new agents, I would say, you know, you you've got when the new agent joins the team, they're happy and excited, and it's the honeymoon period, but eventually that clock starts ticking of when's some money gonna hit my bank account, right?
• 25:14
  Mike Swenson: Yeah, and it takes time.
• 25:15
  Mike Swenson: And so if you can manufacture a win, either like a co-listing or a you know, co-rep or something, it's like they need to get money in their pocket.
• 25:23
  Mike Swenson: Well, leasing as as a as an agent is a great way to get something in their pocket so that they start to stick a, you know, be a little bit more sticky to the team.
• 25:32
  Mike Swenson: And so, and yeah, that's a great value add.
• 25:34
  Mike Swenson: So you're able to pair two great things together that are really helping each other instead of building things in two separate silos, they're really working well together.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, I'll blow your mind even more for this.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: You ready for this?
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know what tenants become after they move out?
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: They become buyers.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: So that is another way that we provide value.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: So we do this thing where we know each tenant's birthday or moving anniversary and stuff.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: So actually, we send them emails to wish them happy birthday.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, six months as they're making their uh, you know, moving, if they're moving to the new place, we want to be the person that assists them to move to the new place.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: So if they're look taking a buying, we want to be that person that they come to our team to help them move.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: So these are different opportunities because we're in a contact sport.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: So the more people we have a way to offer our services, the higher chances of us trying to actually bring more income to the to our to our company.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I always tell every agent on my team, like have the conversation, ask.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: You never know.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like any opportunity we have to offer our services, we always take it.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: Always.
• 26:41
  Mike Swenson: Well, then talk a little bit about you know adding in adding another piece to the puzzle here, you becoming an investor yourself and adding your own rental properties.
• 26:48
  Mike Swenson: I know that kind of came with the management side too.
• 26:51
  Mike Swenson: Talk about your your journey as an investor.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: Man, that is that is a story.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: So as I'm starting again, remember, I'm the yes man, right?
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: So whenever I talk to somebody, so in my office, I wanted to hang out with everybody that was making, you know, working in the business and making money because I didn't want to be in the office and then you know, I'm hanging out with the people that are not closing any deals.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: So my thing is that I'm gonna be working, I want to hang out with the people closing 10, 20, 50, 100 deals.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: So one of the guys that I was hanging out with, he was actually unvoluntary mentor because he didn't want to have me part of his team.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, I'm just gonna stand next to you all day, see what you do, so I could do it too.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: So one of the things he was telling me, and this is you know, one of those nights we're at the office, and then he's just like, you know, parking, and then I and I asked him, like, you know, if you could do something differently, you know, what would you have done?
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, you know what?
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: If I started this all over, one thing that I would do is every year I would want to buy property.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, like thinking back, I'm like, you know, this is something crazy to even think about.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how is that even possible?
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't think it was possible, but I know again, I'm trying to do that.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: So as I'm talking to people, as I am making phone calls to expires, to for sell by owners, to you know, apps em c owners, when an opportunity came up where I saw there was value in a property, and this person is telling me, Hey, I really need to sell this property because I got this property inherited, and then I don't want anything to do with it.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: This is the offer that I'm looking for as a realtor.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, okay, let me see if I can come up with that money.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: And and I did, and I bought one, and that one was a house that needed a lot of work.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: And like luckily, I was single.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, all right, I'll just sleep in the couch and it doesn't matter.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: And that was a condo.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then from there on, that condo, uh, I ended up meeting another investor that actually had another condo in the same area, and then she's like, Hey, I don't want this condo anymore, I don't like the association, and I want to move out.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I'll buy it.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: And that was my second one.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it wasn't really something that I intentionally dig to find, it was something that because I had the open-mindedness to do it, and I kept my ears open for opportunities to come up, and I never said no to anything.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: I always took my time to analyze it.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: That came through multiple things.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then at property number five or six, people started to recognize who I was.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, easy to deal with.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: I close the deal on time.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: And and I the best part is also I told people what I did.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I told other agents that, hey, if you have an opportunity, you know, let me know if you have a property that you're looking to sell quickly, let me know.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then other agents started calling me before they put the property on the market.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, it had to say it multiple times.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't talk to one agent, I would put an email together and send it out to 50 agents that I know that were doing multi-family home.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, hey, before you put something on the market and have to deal with many showings, give me a call.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: And and I came through.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how it started from six, seven, ten, eleven, fifteen, seventeen now of different buildings that we own.
• 30:00
  Mike Swenson: You know, I remember early on when I first got into real estate full time and was with Keller Williams and went to conference with Gary Keller.
• 30:08
  Mike Swenson: And, you know, Gary talks about, you know, if somebody asks you to list a home, you should first think about should I buy this house?
• 30:15
  Mike Swenson: Right.
• 30:16
  Mike Swenson: And and kind of have that mindset of an investor.
• 30:18
  Mike Swenson: And yeah, most of you know, a lot of them, it's not going to work out or it might not work out.
• 30:22
  Mike Swenson: But if you have that mindset of can I pick something up along the way, because you know, I'm on a team and I always talk about how so many agents just aren't wired to think about the entrepreneurial side or the investor side of real estate.
• 30:35
  Mike Swenson: It's I'm just selling houses, just like I'm selling copy machines or I'm selling widgets somewhere else.
• 30:42
  Mike Swenson: And it's like, no, there's so much more opportunity here.
• 30:44
  Mike Swenson: And and you went from individual agent to building a team that works well with the property management side to being an investor all at once just by looking at opportunity and saying yes to it and picking it up versus thinking, oh, my job is to sell houses to clients, and that's it.
• 31:02
  Mike Swenson: And so you're building something big just by being open-minded and taking a little bit of time to connect some dots here.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, that's how it is.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: And and again, that's that's one thing that I wish that you know, they explained to Agent that you're not just you know helping other people make money, you should also think about yourself and your future and own your own legacy in the future and take those opportunities before you buy.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll tell you that silly.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: There's one property that I purchased was I brought a client to the house and they said they didn't want it.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, this is a great deal.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, no, we want to see some more.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then the the deal was like so good.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: I reached out to the agent.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, hey, listen, like my client doesn't want this property, but I want to buy, like, what could you do?
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, hey, this is the number that the seller is looking for.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: Can you come up with this number?
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I'll figure it out.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, I I I end up making it happen.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and now I mean that another part of what I do now is I am actually I lend people also in a way that if they're looking to acquire a deal and I know the deal and I know the area, I want to be partnering up with them as well to try to get the deal done because I somebody had to do that for me for in the past for me to acquire the zil.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to create that same opportunities for other agents and other investors.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like, hey, I got this great deal, and I just cannot put everything together yet.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll be willing, I'm the yes guy.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be willing to listen and see what we can do together to make this happen.
• 32:33
  Mike Swenson: What an amazing story.
• 32:34
  Mike Swenson: I I just love it.
• 32:35
  Mike Swenson: It's it sounds simple.
• 32:37
  Mike Swenson: I know it's not simple at all, and you do a ton of work to make it happen, but you just pick little things up along the way and they start to they start to work well together.
• 32:46
  Mike Swenson: And now you've got multiple businesses in the real estate space, and they help feed each other and work with each other and build a a nice database of clients that you'll just continue to have new and new opportunities come up.
• 32:58
  Mike Swenson: And so just really excited to hear your story and and thank you for sharing and and I'm sure the listeners are as well.
• 33:04
  Mike Swenson: For for people that want to reach out to you and and learn more or contact you, how can they do that?
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, our corn is always open, uh, 561-678584.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: We can also check our website.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's my first name, last name.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's LudMe Jacques.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's L-O-O-D-Like David M Y J A C Q U E S dot com.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: All their contact information is there.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: Check us out, give us a call.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be happy to have a conversation.
• 33:33
  Mike Swenson: Awesome.
• 33:33
  Mike Swenson: Well, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story.
• 33:35
  Mike Swenson: And and hopefully for our listeners, yeah, you they were inspired to take some action, right?
• 33:39
  Mike Swenson: And and do something because you're 20 years into this, you know, roughly, you weren't like that on day one, and it took you two years to find that first deal.
• 33:48
  Mike Swenson: And so, people that want to get started, you know, we always talk about what's the two best times to plant a tree 20 years ago and today.
• 33:55
  Mike Swenson: So we I couldn't do it 20 years ago, so do it today, find a way to take some action um to be able to move forward.
• 34:01
  Mike Swenson: But thank you so much for coming on the show and turn our story.