Speaker 1: And I just felt, you know, at the end of it,
that I was, as you mentioned, a slave to the
corporation at a cost. And I felt like I had
all these creative ideas for the company and all these
great plans, but you know, there's a lot of red tape,
there's a lot of planning and hoops to jump through,
and you know, it wasn't specific to those companies I found,
you know, corporately, that's just a bit of a challenge.
And I thought, if I have these ideas, the company
loves them, but they can't seem to implement them.
Speaker 2: Could I do it in a different way or in
a better way.
Speaker 3: So you're listening to Carrie, let'sa's financial survival network where
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Speaker 4: And welcome you are listening to the Financial service Network.
I'm your host, Carrie Lutz. Hey, so you're in a
cushy corporate career, but you're never really sure because hey,
when you work for somebody else, You're a cost to
be contained, the cost to be minimized dealt with.
Speaker 5: Your job could be gone at any moment. So what
do you do? You know what you do?
Speaker 4: You beat them to the punch, You leave before they
get rid of you. But you leave for greener pastures,
which is exactly what my next guest, Ryan Weller did.
Speaker 5: Ryan, great to have you on.
Speaker 4: So you were basically working for her life, right, Yeah,
and then now you're in real estate for yourself and
doing quite well at it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it must have been a little scary at first. Huh.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I you know, going back, I started the corporate career
that I had, I had run for twenty years, so
working for some big companies. Kimberly Clark Neslie was my
last job. I was there for a decade and I
just felt, you know, at the end of it that
I was, as you mentioned, a slave to the corporation,
a cost. And I felt like I had all these
creative ideas for the company and all these great plans,
but you know, there's a lot of red tape, there's
a lot.
Speaker 2: Of planning and hoops to jump through, and you.
Speaker 1: Know, it wasn't specific to those companies I found, you know, corporately,
that's just a bit of a challenge.
Speaker 2: And I thought, if I have.
Speaker 1: These ideas, the company loves them, but they can't seem
to implement them, could I do it in a different
way or in a better way. So finally, in twenty eighteen,
I did it. I pulled the trigger and I left
the corporate world and went into the unknown and the
risk of commission only into real estate.
Speaker 5: So what do you think the biggest mistake you.
Speaker 2: Made was when I left or when I started?
Speaker 5: Well, you know once you left.
Speaker 1: Well, I think once I left, I had really put
myself in a situation where I had to figure things out.
Speaker 2: I had to make decisions.
Speaker 1: So, you know, you're in a corporate world. You have
a regular, steady paycheck. You've got a situation where all
of yourills you can plan them out, you can do
things very scheduled and methodically. But you quit and you
take a you know, a commission only job. You have
to think of things in a different way. You're running
a business now, and you know planning made some mistakes there,
you know, running your own business and having to come
up with your own financials and maybe advertising too. Much
or maybe not allocating enough here or there. I made
a few mistakes with with the finances.
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 5: So the bucks stopped with the box, the buck stopped.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, hey, it was the bucks were coming in,
but it was making sure that they were allocated in
the right places was sort of the challenge. And I
mean in the end with every failure, there's some learning opportunities.
I mean, we figured it out, but it took a
few years.
Speaker 2: To get there.
Speaker 5: You got a failure way to success and.
Speaker 2: That right, that's right, that's right, that's really.
Speaker 5: What it's about.
Speaker 4: So, hey, once you made the plunge, what was the
biggest obstacle that?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think you know, any of your listeners
that have gone into real estate have probably face this.
I mean, it's a very competitive industry. You know, it's
a market here just outside of Toronto where it's very saturated.
You know, seventy thousand agents in a market and of
that only you know, twenty percent of them make up
the majority of the sales. It's the Pereto eighty twenty
and role part of me.
Speaker 5: The eighty twenty ye rolls.
Speaker 2: The eighty twenty role.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it really in fact in real estate, it's
probably ninety ten. And you know, you're in a situation
where people have established relationships with the realtor, they go
to the ones who have the greatest marketing and advertising
out there in the market, and the biggest obstacle is
figuring out how do you become that twenty percent or
ten percent or whatever it is and get yourself in there.
And I think part of the reason I was able
to leave the corporate world was that I realized there
was a bit of a niche in our local market
in that there wasn't a lot of someone taking the
position of a market authority providing insights in the market,
providing honest advice on different categories within the marketing. And
I saw it as an opportunity in our market. And
I had learned that from my corporate career because I
often represented brands that were the market authority in their
own category. So it was something I had picked up
and realized there was a gap for it and went
for it.
Speaker 4: So lack of branding, the average realtor, especially the ones
have been at it for a long time, don't get
the fact that you're actually a brand.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's crazy to think, but I'd say a good
portion of this job, fifty percent of this job is
a brand. Yes, you're selling houses, but it's more about
i'd say, more so about your brand, getting yourself out there,
getting people to trust you, getting people to know you.
And we did that through education, simply providing information to people.
Speaker 4: So in this field, and I will confess, I'm recovering
attorney also a license realtor in Florida.
Speaker 5: Though, Okay, I don't do.
Speaker 4: It for a living, you know, I just sell my
own stuff, and on occasion someone will beg me to
do it for them, and.
Speaker 5: That's the only way they have to beg. They have
to get down.
Speaker 4: On their knees and beg me to do it because
I just have no patience for it. But I'd never
deal with buyers, yeah, because anytime I deal with buyers,
I have buyers remorse.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: But with that, you know, I do enjoy the process
of it. I like looking at homes and checking it
out and seeing their weaknesses, their strengths, you know, all
that good stuff. Hey, what do you what do you
look for when you take on a client.
Speaker 1: I think I look for someone that is interested. They
came to us, So, for example, We have a lot
of people that come to us from cold call. So
we do a lot of marketing in our market. We're
on the radio, we do a lot of online presence,
We have social media, we do newspaper or all kinds
of stuff online print, and so oftentimes the clientele that
comes to us is someone that probably aligns with one
of those things. They read an article we wrote, or
they hurt us on the radio, and so we are
unique in that. And i'd encourage any of your listeners
that are you know, in real estate, that are trying
to figure out how to get more business is try
to convert yourself from looking for clients to clients coming
to you because they trust what you're doing, they trust
the information you're providing. So we look for clients that
are like minded to us. We look for clients that
appreciate what it is we do and the value that
we offer, and what we don't look for and what
we don't often attract our people who are looking for
the best, the cheapest deal.
Speaker 2: What we tend to attract our.
Speaker 1: People who want the service, they want the higher price,
they want the marketing that's going to bring people into
their house. They want someone who can negotiate for them,
and they come to us after they see that we
can provide these things for them.
Speaker 4: So okay, hey, tell me about the first client you're fired.
Speaker 2: Oh man, well, I can tell you.
Speaker 1: Uh it was there was one not long ago that
is indicative of some of the things that we've we've
done here. And it's I mean, it's it's usually the
same story. You provide them insights and advice. It always
comes down to, okay, i'm listing your house. Let's talk
about the list price. And a situation where the client says, well,
let's let's it's the realtor's least favorite words, which are
let's test the market. And it's a situation where you've
got a seller who says, well, I know what the
market value is, but let's just see if we can go.
Speaker 2: Five percent higher than that.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, when you put the house on the market,
you say to them, well, look, okay, we can try that,
but let's have a plan B. Because you know you
are above market value. There's no significant reason why someone
would pay above market value in this market. And you
list the house and it sits, and it sits, and
then they refuse to reduce the price.
Speaker 5: It's my fault fault, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, despite the fact that I've done all the marketing
I could possibly do for the house, the fact that
I've you know, staged it for them, the fact that
all these different things we've done with runt open houses,
We've done everything, and I still can't bring it a buyer.
And you know, you talk about a plan B in
the price reduction and they say, no, I'm not doing that.
Speaker 2: You should be able to sell this house. That's why
we hired you, you know. I mean, in the end,
you just come down to I wouldn't call it.
Speaker 1: I mean, I wouldn't tell them that I was firing them,
but I would say to them, I've done as much
for you as I can. There's nothing else that I
can do for you. Unfortunately, you know, if you need
another realtor to help you with this, because I can't do.
Speaker 2: It doors all.
Speaker 4: Hey, so it's kind of like breaking up with a
significant other. Yeah, but the best way to do it
is say not that you're the wrong person for me
to you or I can't stand you anymore. It's like, hey,
I'm just not the right person for you, right, It's
not you, it's me. Yeah, exactly, that's right, and.
Speaker 2: They get it, and they were they were okay with it.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, position that way, they get it,
and their house still hasn't come back on the market since,
so they've taken a break.
Speaker 5: Ye, they'll be back. They always come crawling back, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll see, We'll see what they do.
Speaker 1: But I think that handling it professionally, as opposed to
just pushing a piece of paper and saying you're fired,
is potentially leaving the door open for them to come back.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: So what about like the saw that your first loss
is your best loss, your first price. Often your first
offer is your best offer. It's always been the case
for me, but I don't know.
Speaker 2: Yah, it often is, Yeah, it often is.
Speaker 1: And we're when we're in a situation in our market
here where we're moving, we're teetering on a balanced market
here where there's lots of room to negotiate. Conditions and
contingencies are still part of offers. Oftentimes we say to clients,
you know, if you get an offer out of the
gate and it's reasonable, odds are pretty good, it's the
best one you're going to get. Because the longer this
house sits on the market, the more likely it is
you're going to have a buyer come in and try
to negotiate with you. So we do follow that philosophy
is the first offer is your best offer. Sometimes the
first offer is really terrible, but you try to negotiate
it to be better, right, And sometimes time is of
the essence. I mean that if you can get an
offer in day one or day two, it's an indication
that you're pretty close to the right price.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you never you know that the first offer
could be your last offer too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I've had. I have one right now that
I'm dealing with.
Speaker 1: I had a list in it in May, had an
offer in the first five days, and we didn't take it,
And here we are at the end of August, still
sitting on the market. So it does happen. I mean,
they didn't take it in that case because the buyer
dave him the lowball offer on day five, which was
not really a reasonable request.
Speaker 2: But still, you know, it's the only offer we've had.
Speaker 4: Hey, sometimes it's the best offer in town, so you
got to go for it. So Hey, looking back on
your experiences now, seeing how well you've done, what advice
do you give other people who are in similar we're
in a similar situation to you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think there are a lot of people out there.
Speaker 1: I know when I was in the corporate world, there
were a lot of people out there that were in
similar roles to me who felt like they were just
in a day to day slug going into the nine
to five in their office, not wanting to They wanted
to do more, but they were in a position where
they just didn't feel like they were accomplishing much. And
I say to those people, really think about what matters
to you, and really think about your skill set. Because
what I didn't realize in my corporate job was all
the skills that I had.
Speaker 2: I had a lot of skills.
Speaker 1: I had a lot of Nestli for example, the last
company I was at, We're great.
Speaker 2: We're a great.
Speaker 1: Company for teaching entrepreneurial skills. I didn't know it at
the time, but when I left the corporate world and
got into real estate, the skills were transferable.
Speaker 2: I kept those skills.
Speaker 1: Negotiating, planning, storytelling, all of those things were really beneficial
to me. So I'd encourage anybody that it's in a
corporate job that wants to leave us. Take a look
at your skill set and take a look at what
it is people tell you you do well, and see
what you can transfer that to you, because oftentimes your
skills that you have in your corporate job are transferable
to something that you can manage on your own time.
Speaker 4: Kind of like the skills you get in the military. Yeah, yeah,
they can be real helpful.
Speaker 2: All right, you don't realize it, but they are.
Speaker 5: All right, Hey, why don't you tell us how we
get in touch with you? How we connect with you
on the web.
Speaker 2: Yeah, our website.
Speaker 1: I work with my wife Beth, and we are at
Beth b E t H and Ryan dot Ca Beth
and Ryan dot Ca.
Speaker 4: All right, the link is in the show notes of
this interview on Financial Survival Network dot com. While you're there,
please sign up for your free newsletter. And if you've
got a question for Ryan or myself, you're looking for
a little help, you need a little further motivation to
do the deed, send me an email kl at Kerrie
lets dot com. Ryan, been a pleasure, Thanks so much
for stopping by.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Kerry, Thanks for listen to carry Letz's Financial
Survival Network. Your solution to today's trying times. For the latest,
go to Financial Survivalnetwork dot com. Financial Survival Network now
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