April 11, 2024 • 48 mins
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ian Arnold (00:00):
Hey, Rick, we had John wittmeyer on today for
(00:02):
nominal agent. The biggest thingI think is his background is
nowhere close to being a realestate agent. He was basically
doing landscaping had a degreein landscaping, and then and
then he'll tell you the storybut then got into real estate.
But that is just crazy.
John Wischmeier (00:20):
It is. And you know, what I liked about is is
number one, he worked. He's ahard worker. Number two, when he
got into real estate, hestruggled. And he didn't succeed
and tell his wife told him to doit differently than they were
telling him to do it. And hefigured it out what worked for
him and he did phenomenal. Hewent from from not selling
(00:41):
anything in the first six monthsto being the Rookie of the Year
in the in the in that andColumbus, Indiana. Yeah. That's
amazing.
Ian Arnold (00:49):
It is crazy on how each each person is method can
be different and you can stillsucceed. That's correct. Yeah.
So tune in to hear what hismethod was and his brilliant and
phenomenal phenomenal stories.
Welcome
John Wischmeier (01:03):
to indies real estate gurus, your ultimate
guide to the dynamic world ofreal estate in Indiana, and I'm
recruited by your hard work andmortgage guy and I've been in
real estate and mortgages forover 24 years.
Ian Arnold (01:15):
And I'm Ian Arnold, a loan officer on Rick's hard
working mortgage and we're bothwith advisors mortgage together
will empower you with expertadvice market trends is a
festival stories from Gururealtors and local experts.
Whether you're a homeowner andVesta are pro Join us as we
navigate the thriving indie realestate market now get ready to
(01:37):
unlock the doors of success oneepisode at a time.
John Wischmeier (01:42):
John wittmeyer out of Columbus Indiana and your
your brokerage is called it'sa brokerage is in homes today.
brokered by exp abrokered by exp I just didn't
want to get wrong, so I want tomake sure in homes today, so if
somebody wanted to get a hold ofyou they got in homes. today.com
(02:03):
Yes, absolutely.
That's your that's a greatwebsite now. That's easy. Yeah,
Ian Arnold (02:06):
no, that's extremely hard. How do you spell in homes
today? I just don't understand.
John Wischmeier (02:10):
Well, I know we got I can't spell. That's why
we're bad spellers. So I like tostart like, where did where did
you grow up? And where were you?
Where were you raised? Where'dyou grow up? Okay, born
and raised Columbus, Indiana.
You know, small, smallcommunities south of Columbus.
You know, my my mother is fromColumbus. My father's from
(02:30):
Seymour, Indiana. JohnMellencamp land, okay.
You know, and they sing likeJohn Mellencamp No, no, no.
Johnny Cougar.
Yeah. Johnny Cougar.
So, so you were you raised in inSeymour.
No, actually Columbus. Okay. So,yeah, my dad was the first wish
(02:52):
Meyer to come up to Columbus.
Alright, so that was a longdrive long, dry.
So you say you grew up inColumbus. Where do you go to go
to school? Where'd you go tocollege? Or?
Okay, went to Columbus East HighSchool. Okay. So Columbus has
two high schools. bitterrivalry, of course, as most
communities East has the oldest,I'll just say it live the better
(03:18):
football team. We've we've wonmultiple state championships.
That's the one he went to.
And then actually went to IUPUIfor a short, short time and then
went to Vincennes University.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I went to beIUPUI for a very short time to
okay, but then I didn't I didn'tgo anywhere else because I that
(03:41):
school was not my thing. SoVincenzo
Ian Arnold (03:45):
Well, here soon, nobody will even know what IPI
is and they go away after thisyear. Right. I heard that. Yeah.
Just
John Wischmeier (03:50):
IU Indianapolis.
Ian Arnold (03:52):
Yeah. It'll be you Indianapolis. Yeah. Okay. Well,
that's
John Wischmeier (03:55):
that's good. So you say you went to IUPUI then
you went to Vincenz. And thenyou went back to Columbus. Yes.
Okay. And what did you do whatwhat did you do and then how did
you end up in real estate?
Okay, so you know my my dad hadworked in a factory just on the
line or whatever for like 20 to23 years for who clump comments
(04:18):
No it's actually real Relianceelectric okay. So it's kind of
similar but different. Okay. Youknow, and he he had a dream of
always owning his own businessokay. And he was a growing up he
was what I call it a pickuptruck landscaper. So he would he
would work he you know, this sixto three o'clock shift at the
(04:42):
factory and then go straight tomowing, mowing yards, mulching,
you know, trimming, all thatkind of stuff. And so as a kid
growing up, to be honest, if Iwanted to see my dad, I went I
went along and worked with him.
You know, and you know, healways had this I did a revision
of, of getting out of thefactory. And I was maybe a
(05:02):
little bit of that ticket, Ididn't know what I wanted to do.
And so I was, so I said, Whydon't I go to school for
landscape design? And so thatand that's Vincent's had a very
good program for that at thetime. I think they still do. But
um, so I went and, you know, gotmy degree in landscape design
(05:22):
and all that kind of stuff, gotthe all the, you know, the
licenses for spraying trees,lawns, all that kind of stuff.
So, you know, odd fact that, youknow, today when I'm showing
homes and somebody will, youknow, you're showing a home and
somebody makes a comment about,oh, what's, what's that pretty
tree that's blooming, you know,I typically will know the name,
(05:43):
and I get some of the oddestlooks, because, you know,
they're like, Well, how do youknow that? I had to learn, you
know, hundreds of trees. Oh,yeah. You know, the, not only
the column name, but thebotanical name as well. Right.
So it's just odd fact,it's a it's a, probably a really
good background for real estate.
(06:08):
I mean, to me, landscapes, a bigpart of buying a home and what
probably vision that you have aselantech, land scape architect
helps a lot.
Sure, sure. You know, and it wassales, you know, just like real
estate, or veteran sales, youknow, just people right now,
it's a people oriented business,we ended up starting a garden
(06:28):
center, we had a nursery wherewe were growing trees, shrubs, I
had the entire landscapedepartment that we did
residential and commercial, youknow, so, so I did that. Quite,
you know, I was there probably13 to 15 years, my brother and I
ended up entering the businessas well. My wife worked with us,
(06:48):
with us as well. And, you know,at some point, you know, we, we
started investing in otherthings, and we, we started a
development company. So, youknow, just as kind of a side
project, but we, we developed ahousing development in Columbus.
Okay. And from ground zero, youknow, we bought land, and it was
(07:12):
actually in city limits that wedid, it was on larger lots like
one to three acres. And, youknow, so the transition into
real estate at that point, youknow, we hired a real estate
agent to handle sale, sellingthose lots and things like that.
And, unfortunately, at the time,I have this history of starting
(07:34):
businesses, and then theapocalypse happened. You know,
so we actually opened thisdevelopment. About a month
before. September 11. happened,Oh, okay. And so, everybody
knows what happened in realestate, right after that, you
know, there was almost nothingselling, right. Nobody wanted to
(07:55):
do anything. So, so here, wewere sitting with this, it's not
a not a small piece of dime thatyou have sitting there. And, but
you know, as time time went on,I would come home, and like,
what's my real estate agentdoing? Or he was telling me this
today, and I don't understandit. And my wife, Kimberly, being
(08:17):
Kimberly, she finally got fed upwith me asked, coming home and
saying those questions. And shesaid, why don't you go out and
take a real estate class? Youknow, figure it out. And so I,
you know, there's not that manyreal estate classes that at the
time, and, you know, it wasn'tthat much on internet and things
like that. So I took local realestate course. Okay. And so I
(08:40):
found it very easy. You know, itwas just easy to do. And then,
so then I asked her, Okay, Icompleted that, what do I do
now? And she said, Well, go getyour license if you want. And I
did that. And it just LeapFrog.
I fell in love with it, andended up transitioning out of
the family business intobasically another family
business. Because, you know,Kimberly ended up joining and
(09:03):
then now we've got children inthe business and things like
that. So it just kind ofmorphed, morphed into real
estate.
Ian Arnold (09:11):
So I have a question. So what do you do
differently? How you weretreated as a client, for when
you had a real estate agent, notknowing what's going on stuff
like that? Maybe they were usingdifferent terminology with you,
what do you do differently nowthat you are a real estate agent
for your customers? I,
John Wischmeier (09:29):
I really try to explain things, you know, and,
you know, I, you know, I, I feellike I have a good sense with
people. So I you know, I cantypically tell if somebody's not
understanding something, so Ireally try to get that
explanation down. You know, andfunny, funny thing is, you know,
(09:49):
I was probably just like atypical client, you know, a lot
of us as real estate agents, wework pretty darn hard for for
our clients and but they don'tsee what we're doing in the
background day in and day out.
And in hindsight, I had a reallygood agent, you know, it's just
probably wasn't explaining quiteas much to me, and he probably
(10:13):
was doing all the things thatneed to do in the background.
You know, I just didn't knowthat. So, so it's probably, I
think it's, you know, for anyagent out there, you know, it's
probably important to thinkabout, make sure your sellers
know what you're doing, youknow, on that day to day basis.
Yeah, yeah.
(10:34):
I started quite some time ago,years ago, calling everybody and
process and alone. Just once aweek, just to tell them
everything's going fine. Right?
Call the real estate agentscalled the borrowers and you
just tell them everything'sgoing okay. And it was somewhat
of a result of one of my agentsthat I work with. He said, Yeah,
(10:56):
I was at a seminar and theysaid, We need to call our people
once a week and just tell themeverything's okay. Because if
you don't, what builds up inyour head? Is all the negatives.
Yeah. Is that what you?
Oh, yeah. And actually, on thebeing a real tour and say, on
(11:17):
being on the lending side, as areal tour, you know, I actually
love those updates, you know, onthat weekly basis, you know, you
know, because what you don'tknow, you don't know? Right? So
just any kind of update thathey, everything's okay. You
know, is great. Yeah.
And as as a lender, the reasonwe didn't do it is everything's
okay. What are we going to tellhim? Yeah, but as a if you never
(11:39):
thought to put yourself in the,in the real estate agents, you
know, or the or that yourborrowers mindset and think,
Okay, well, if I don't tellthem, they don't know, you know,
because everything's fine. So,but it does, it makes total
sense to most agents. Once in awhile, I'll get somebody who's
not too thrilled that I callthem once a week. But the vast
(11:59):
majority of them are verythankful. Yeah. They like
especially the listing agent.
Yes, yes. You see that? Listedagents
Ian Arnold (12:07):
love us. It's funny that, like ones that we have
never talked to, we call themand then we're like, hey, we
just wanna let you know, thingsgo. They're like, Wait, why are
you calling me? Hold on?
John Wischmeier (12:14):
I'm not used to this, right? No, it's fantastic.
I love that.
Ian Arnold (12:18):
So what what has given you the passion to keep
this going?
John Wischmeier (12:25):
At I'll mention my wife again, because she,
Kimberly has basically said, Idon't, I don't know, if I ever
want you to retire. You know,maybe slow down. But, you know,
not retire, you know, I have abrain that never stops. And so
I'm always, you know, I'm alwayslooking for, you know, what,
(12:47):
what are we doing? Well, today,that what do we need to be doing
tomorrow, that still working sixmonths from now a year from now?
So it's always, it's alwayslooking forward? And I think
what drives me, you know, withjust keep going in real estate,
you know, the, it's an, it's anever changing piece. You know,
(13:09):
you know, it's like this year,you know, there's a lot of
agents that are up in arms withchanges that are happening on
the real estate sector, youknow, and, you know, nothing's
passed his law yet, on that onthat national piece. Looks like
it could, but um, you know, it'sjust another changing piece.
It's just being a professionallearner. You know, you may have
to learn a little bit differentverbiage do a different form,
(13:31):
stuff like that. But it's, it'sjust business. Yeah,
you have to figure out how tosell it. Yeah. Right. Right. And
how to do that. That's one thingI've actually working on very
diligently so that I can giveagents something to help them
sell it. Yes. Because it's good.
Because a lot of its financing.
I mean, it's how it's going toaffect financing. But just like
you so we don't actually knowwhat it is. Because it's not
(13:53):
done yet. So we think we knowwhat's going to happen. Right?
But it's, it's a difficultthing. And it's funny, you're
the same way as I and my wife.
She got she knows I'll neverretire I'll slow down. But I can
I'd be I couldn't do it. I gottaI gotta have something to do. I
got to have reasons to get upevery morning and work towards
things right. So I completelyunderstand that. So you, you
(14:15):
started the the landscapecompany, you did that? You got
into real estate. And and thatand I don't think you started
with exp. So how did you? Wheredid where did you start? And how
did you end up with exp?
Actually, only when I started inreal estate, the top company in
(14:39):
town at that time, it's changedover years, of course, as it
does everywhere, but since thecentury 21 office, that was the
top brokerage in town and gosh,they were founded in like 1950
Wow. And so I didn't even Iprobably should have interviewed
some other places, but I didn'tI just went in and talk to them
and started working. Okay, youknow what they, the one thing
(15:04):
that was in hindsight, and Ireally try to work with this
with any agents that are werecoming on board with us, you
know, what they, and that was20, over 20 years ago. You know,
they basically said, okay, here,you know, send some note cards
and call, here's some cold calllist. And I am terrible at cold
(15:28):
calling. I am the absolute worstnow, you know, like, if there's
a, if there's a problem with atransaction or something, I'm
perfectly fine talking withsomebody, but just to call, call
somebody out as far as a coldcall.
Not your thing. I'm terrified.
Yeah. And that's okay.
So I actually sat there, I hitwas probably six months in, and
(15:52):
I hadn't sold anything. I wasfloundering. And I was basically
telling Kimberly, hey, I shouldprobably I think I made a
mistake, I should probably justmaybe exit exit this business.
And, you know, she said, youknow, being Kimberly, she said,
Well, why don't you do somethinga little bit different than what
they're telling you to do. Andso, you know, I really started
(16:14):
watching the top agents, andwhat they were doing and started
researching a little bit more,you know, I probably had started
prior to that six months, but,and then that, and then, all of
a sudden, that second half ofthe year, things started
clicking, you know, just bylittle, it's like that one
degree shift, you know, shiftedand ended up by the end of the
(16:36):
year, I was Rookie of the Yearfor the region, and it just
snowballed from there.
No, so what did you change? Andwhat what what is it that worked
for you? Because one of my oneof my things that always have
been after I after I learnedsales, so I've been in sales my
entire life, 40 years, right? Myentire adult life, so over 40
(16:59):
years, but I noticed that peoplewould tell you, you know, you'd
watch somebody who's really goodat what they do, then they'd
become the manager, and theywould tell you what to do, which
wasn't what they did. Right?
Right. Yes. That because that'swhat everybody tells you what to
do. So they don't want to tellyou what they did. They want to
tell you what everybody tellsyou because they think that's
the right thing, even thoughthey didn't do it that way.
Right. So So what did you changethat worked for you? So if
(17:22):
somebody's out there, they'refloundering. They don't want to
make cold calls. What did youdo? What was the change? But
a couple things, a couple ofthings, probably, you know, one
is, what I, what I noticed realquickly is the average agent did
not treat it like a business.
And so I started actually, trulymapping out planning and just
treating it like a business,then I really dove in, you know,
(17:45):
I had a really good sphere thatI hadn't tapped into, right. And
so I, I dove into working onthat sphere, and actually
attending events and getting myface out there. You know, like,
we have a really good Chamber ofCommerce in Columbus. And so
attending their events andthings like that, and what I and
(18:08):
then also, somebody invited meto a BNI group, and that that
ended up snowpack. I think itwas good for about 6 million in
production per year. Wow. Youknow, so it was a really good
group. So just two or threethings like that, you know, just
really catapulted but it wasjust, it wasn't that big of a
(18:31):
shift. It was just, you know, Icall it FaceTime, you know, like
getting out, like so manyagents. It's like, their secret
agents. Yeah. You know, and theydon't go to they don't spend the
time to go to events and thingslike that. And, and it's not,
you know, you're not going tothings like that to tell
everybody you're in real estate.
(18:54):
That if you just get thatconsistent, Martin, pitch
marketing, you know, justgetting your face out there. I
think that's yeah, that playedhuge benefits for me, because
ultimately, it's a peoplebusiness. Yes, that's really
what it is. Right? All
Ian Arnold (19:07):
right. So somebody's listening to this. And they have
question about whatever trees intheir backyard that they're
about to sell, or they just wantyou to not have do cold calls.
And they they have questionswhether they buy or sell it, how
they get in touch with you.
John Wischmeier (19:21):
Best way is, of course, calling and call text or
the email,what's the best phone number?
Best phone number is812-344-3480.
So a 123443480 a lot of foursand eights in that that's good.
Yeah, there is.
It's good. You picked that oneout on purpose. It's a good it's
a good number. And then are theycan you said they could
(19:45):
call or text with that? Theycan. They can go online. They
can email me at John at in homestoday.com Or just go to in
homes. today.com And we have areally interactive website.
Yeah, that'sthe You do I went on it. It's
it's an it's such an easy I lovein homes today, it's just very
easy. And you can get a hold ofeither I had hard working
(20:06):
mortgage guys.com That's hardworking mortgage guys.com. Or
you can give us a call at317-672-1938. That's
317-672-1938.
Ian Arnold (20:18):
All right. So, before we get into one of my fun
questions, I got anotherdifferent question for you. So
if somebody were to drive byyour house right now, how would
their lane How would yourlandscape look like? Does it
look good?
John Wischmeier (20:31):
I'll say okay, okay. Yeah.
Ian Arnold (20:35):
What would you do differently?
John Wischmeier (20:37):
Um, take, take more time to actually spend,
spend time we have I spend moretime with extracurricular
activities than probably in myown life. It
takes it takes time to makeyou're either you hire somebody
to do it, or you're right.
Ian Arnold (20:53):
He has a college degree in this. I know he can do
it.
John Wischmeier (20:57):
Well, why don't you guys still have the
landscape company? No,no, actually closed about four
years ago. Yeah. My dad had beenin it 30 years and decided to
retire and my brother was doneas well.
Okay. So so you don't have themto have come to take care of my
yard for Right. Right. Yeah. Tocut your own yard.
Yes. Okay. I don't. All right.
Well, I'm funny thing is my mymom and dad. They're in their
(21:21):
early 80s. They know they have amanicure three acres. Okay.
Yeah, they've lived there since1963. Wow. And they're still out
there. You know, mowing thegrass. They have. I don't know
how many yards of mulch peryear. They're spreading
themselves. Wow.
Yeah. Yeah, I was thinking todayon my way in, I thought, you
(21:43):
know, I haven't cut grass andforever, but I think when I
retire or when I slow downbecause I'm not going to retire,
but when I slow down, I mightbuy a nice good riding
lawnmower, and just cut my owngrass. That's a few years off,
but I might I might not but I'mjust an idea cuz I got an acre
and a quarter. So okay, it takes
Ian Arnold (22:00):
quite a bit.
Alright, so. So you since youdon't do your own landscaping,
alright, so what do you do forfun?
John Wischmeier (22:08):
For fun? I cycle. Oh, okay. Ride it ride a
bicycle. Awesome. That's, that'sprobably if, if I had any
pastime, it's it's a hobby.
Alright. So
Ian Arnold (22:19):
go ahead. Do you meet with a group or? Yeah,
John Wischmeier (22:22):
typically a couple times a week with a
group. I, I work out five, sixdays a week. You know, a lot of
my like, through the week, I maybe just on my indoor trainer.
And, you know, I can I mean,like, like this morning, I put
in 1011 miles. And then I can dosome work as I'm sitting there.
(22:45):
So I'm returning emails andstuff like that. There's a
really good Wednesday nightgroup that that meets up, we'll
do about 30 miles on a Wednesdaynight. And then on Saturday
mornings, I meet a group andwe'll we'll do anywhere from 50
to 100 miles.
Okay, so I love to ride. And nowI have an electric bike. I have
(23:07):
an electric bike that requiresyou to pedal or it doesn't go
right so it's not not one thatlike a motorcycle. It's it's it,
but it allows me to go ride 60Miles like that, right where I
couldn't do it otherwise. So Iwas so but I've looked and tried
to find it looks like there's areally good path for riding in
Columbus or there's a good areais
(23:30):
yeah, so. So Columbus, you know,they've got miles of people
trails, okay, they've made aconcerted effort to try and
connect the entire city withpeople. Okay, now, I ride with a
crazy group that we like goingwest wild, west and southwest to
like Brown County. Okay, becausethe guys I ride with, we like to
(23:52):
ride hills. And so we seek outthe hilliest train basically
that we can find. I dotwo on my electric bike. Yeah.
Yeah, otherwise I don't want toHill anywhere anywhere in sight.
So you go so I prefer to ridethe roads, but I thought there
was like a, I thought I waslooking and there's some
phenomenal trail long trail thatgoes through is it just their
(24:13):
normal paths? Is that Yeah, it'speople trail system. And we're
also fortunate that down inColumbus, you know, we're right
next to Brown County State Park.
Right. So there's tons ofmountain bike trails there. You
know. I'm fortunate my daughterand son in law. I also own a
bike shop in Columbus. Oh, theyjust opened one up in Fountain
(24:35):
Square. Oh, really?
Jeffersonville? Wow, okay.
Ian Arnold (24:39):
Oh, let's, let's let's do a little endorsement.
What's the name of the company?
The
John Wischmeier (24:43):
bicycle station.
Ian Arnold (24:44):
Okay, so check that out.
John Wischmeier (24:45):
Yes. The bicycle station. Yeah. And so do
they sell electric bikes or Oh,yes, they sell everything. Yeah,
I think electric bikes areamazing. You know, it's it's
bringing so many people Pourinto cycling, you know that, you
know, just like, you know, theguys I ride with Yeah, we ride
(25:07):
pretty darn fast. And you know,all that stuff that the electric
bike, you know, for somebodythat normally couldn't keep up
all of a sudden, that changesthe game, right? You know?
Yeah, my son. He's he doesIronman guy, so he rides
Chicago, and but I can ride withhim now. I could have never
(25:28):
ridden with him before because Ican't ride 2025 miles an hour
for for 50 miles. I can't evenon my electric bike do that. But
but that's awesome, because it'swhat a great bonding experience.
Yeah, your son? Yeah,it's phenomenal. Yeah, yeah, it
makes all the difference. So I'mgonna get back to real estate a
little delicate. So one of myfavorite questions is, is what
is your what would you consideryour superpower superpowers?
(25:54):
superpower is just basicallytreating it like, and I've
already mentioned this treatingit like a business. And just
being that professional, youknow, you know, a lot of people
say this treat others like youwant to be treated, that, you
know, get getting yourself outthere. You know, a, it's not
(26:14):
that. It's not that I'm betterat showing a home than another
agent. It's, you know, you wantme though, when it comes time
for that negotiation, that thecontracts, you know, think
things like that, you know, it'sa, because in today's
environment, it's it's writingcontracts that that can win.
Right, you know, and so knowingas much as you can,
(26:36):
yes, yeah, that makes in thisenvironment, when there's a lack
of inventory, you got to doeverything you can to stand out
in your in your offer, right?
And I'm sure and Columbus,everybody knows who you are.
Yes, that helps a lot to to geta real estate agency and an
offer coming from somebody theyknow they like, and I can
already tell your, yourdemeanor, and your the way that
(26:59):
you are is easy to work with.
And I think that's a big I thinkit's a superpower. Because I'm
sure you don't seem like you getyou know, something bad comes
up, you just handle it. Youdon't. You can't you don't get
your emotions involved. So whichhelps the right.
Yeah, your customer, right. Youknow, a mentor. Early on in my
(27:22):
real estate career. Said simplewords, never want the
transaction more than yourclient. And I I've lived with
that all the way through. It'sjust keep a keep a level level
head. If you're, you know, ifyou some have somebody ready to
jump off the edge of the cliff,you're there to talk them off.
Right. Soyeah, and it's that I think
that's one of the areas that anagent really shows their worth.
(27:45):
Because that's, that's, youknow, if you have somebody who
also gets upset, it's going totake a lot of times minor
situation and make it into amajor situation.
Ian Arnold (27:57):
What are you talking about? I want the real estate
agent and family to jump offCliff they're going with because
you're gonna grab hold. I justthink if I'm going somebody else
who's coming with me, take yourwife with you. She won't like
that. So, how so your family?
Are they now in real estate? Orhow does this all?
John Wischmeier (28:20):
Yeah, so my, I have a wife and two sons and
working in our, we call it thewishmaker group. Yeah, so my
wife, my wife, and one of mysons are licensed and my other
son is in currently gettinglicensed.
Ian Arnold (28:38):
That's awesome. So who's the boss? You are your
wife?
John Wischmeier (28:44):
Actually, my son Zane is the boss. Oh,
Ian Arnold (28:49):
totally switch. You
John Wischmeier (28:54):
know, we had a in our previous brokerage. And
so Zane was actually our statemanager. And so he the way his
brain works, he loves dealingwith the MLS, the state laws,
all that kind of stuff. I likedthe sales portion. I don't like
sitting there just reading and,you know, things like that. So,
(29:16):
you know, he was basically theone answering a lot of the
questions. You know, he's he'sgot that mentality where, gosh,
if even if an agent or a clientis having a real problem, you
know, and sometimes agents haveproblems with another agent or
signing. You want Zayn on yourside. You know, he is he has
that calm demeanor and can justreally calm a tense situation
(29:41):
down. So, so when I say he's,he's the boss, you know, he's,
you know, he wasThat's awesome. Yeah. Does it
does it cause him some struggleswhen he's trying to tell his mom
and dad what to do? No,yeah, no problem telling me.
Ian Arnold (29:58):
Do you have an issue? Listen, that was my Next.
John Wischmeier (30:01):
Because kids have trouble listening to their
parents. I know thatyeah, you know, because we've
we've raised very strong willedchildren. So, you know, even my
oldest son, Ashton, that's,that's getting licensed. You
know, he's, he's very good onthat marketing piece and stuff
like that. And, quite frankly,they know, way more than I do on
the technology piece. You know,I would, I would be remiss to
(30:23):
say that I know more, right, youknow, yeah, you know,
Ian Arnold (30:28):
and all future girlfriends or wives have to
know they had to get in the realestate business. Now. That's the
family that
John Wischmeier (30:35):
may be better that they aren't, they just
never know. So So what is yourdream of where this your your
business goes?
Okay, so I'll just say, I, firstoff, I chuckle with the word
dream, because our pastbrokerage, it was actually
called Dream. And the dream wasactually owning multiple
(30:58):
offices. And of course, withthat you need agents to support
the office, you know, so thatthat was the dream, you know,
through COVID, and things likethat, it's, it's very hard.
First off, getting agents ononboard, and then getting enough
agents that actually wake up towin every day, you know, because
(31:19):
you need to, you need a fairnumber of sales. And so, so that
was that was the strugglethroughout just getting people
to treat it, like a business andthat consistency piece, things
like that, you know, the dreamnow, you know, family business,
but, you know, we have, youknow, agents in our office, you
know, I've got one one agentcandy, I mean, we call her
(31:45):
family, that she she reallyhelps keep me on track. She's
such a such a good person, that,you know, it kind of reminds you
daily, you need to keep up, keepup with that, you know, and be
that be that good person toeverybody. You know, Dream
moving forward, though, youknow, not having the complete
(32:05):
brokerages. It's like Zayn, forinstance, instead of just being
bogged down on that managerialside. Now, all of a sudden, you
know, he's out there having fun.
Now he's, he's in thattransactional piece, not quite
as much stress, you know, thingslike that. So, so we can really
grow that end, Ashton gettinghis his license, he's going to
(32:25):
really grow into that commercialpiece. You know, I'll say Ashton
was born with that gift of gab.
So, you know, if he, if he wason here, you'd probably never
get him to shut up. Yeah, hejust has that deck. So anyway,
(32:46):
you know, he's, he's gettinginto that commercial in there.
That and that's why dope,especially in Columbus, that's a
wide open space. Okay. Um, so,you know, I'm, I'm really
stoked, you know, have a, Ialready do some commercial, but
it's, you know, it is hard as areal estate agent to be
successful in residential andcommercial, you know, to
(33:08):
different animals. Yeah. So, soI'm really, really pumped to get
to get him going fully, fullyengaged on that. You know, my
wife, Kimberly, you know, she'sgot, she worked with me, almost
from the start at the nurserygarden center. You know, she's
always been, you know, kind ofthat support person. And so, so
(33:28):
now, you know, she gets tostruggle with three distinct
personalities between ZaneAshton and I, and just
supporting, supporting thatpiece. Let's
that's got to be a lot of funfor her to ever have her husband
and her and two of her kidsthere. Yes. Yeah. That's a big
deal.
Yeah, no, yeah. I think I thinkshe loves it. As long as she
(33:49):
contain our, our strong willedpersonalities. Yeah, yeah.
Well, she probably can't she'smom. You're not gonna mess with
her. She's your wife. Right?
You're smarter than that.
Ian Arnold (34:04):
All right. So I'm Ashley again. somebody's
listening to this and they wantto get in touch with you whether
to talk real estate, whetherthey're talking about cycling
now. Or they're living downthere in Columbus and they want
to ride with you. How can theyreach out?
John Wischmeier (34:19):
Okay, definitely call me 812-344-3480
or hop on our website in homes.
today.comYeah, I love that and homes
today. It's just awesome. And toget a hold of the inner I got a
hard working mortgage guys.comThat's hard working mortgage
guys.com Or you give us a callat 317-672-1938 31767 to 1938.
Ian Arnold (34:43):
All right, so we're gonna take a little pause again,
we like to ask the question ofthe week. So what was your first
car? A Plymouth
John Wischmeier (34:51):
Duster?
Ian Arnold (34:52):
Okay, what?
John Wischmeier (34:54):
It was a 72 Oh, that's a good one. Yeah, green.
Yeah, green bought it when I was14. What size motor?
Just a six cylinder. Okay, itwas a I think what was it called
a slant six? Yes.
line six. Iremember those. Yeah, it ran
forever. You know, I I thinkwhen I bought it it already had
70,000 miles on it. I bought itoff my uncle. You know, I know
(35:14):
I'm not supposed to be drivingon the road at age 14 But we
lived out in the countryactually had a a stock car race
shop a quarter mile up the road.
Oh, really, that they raised myparents took me to the stock car
races every Saturday night. Butand I was taught as a youngster
because my grandparents livedquarter mile up the road. And
(35:37):
they had us the Circle Drive onthe farm. And so I was taught as
a youngster though, when youhear those race cars starting up
and coming down the road becausethey basically use that as a
test strip. Okay, you know thatI hit the field. You know, get
off get off the road. Okay, Ispent a lot of time going back
and forth to my Yeah,grandparents, but I basically
(35:58):
taught myself how to drive justgoing back and forth. up to my
grandparents.
Did they soup that car up? Imean, did you did you? No, no,
no. I mean, you had a you had ashop right there that I know
that I want to help. Right.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But that sixcylinder. I mean, even back
then, the cars didn't have a lotof weight. So you didn't didn't
take as much horsepower. No, no,to get them to get them going.
(36:20):
But that would be fun. So so nowthey had a you said your your
grandparents had a circulardrive? Was that it? Was that
like your little on race track?
Sort of? That's what I wasthinking. Okay. I know you
brought up for a reason I justwanted to make use it
for what it helped me learn todrive on the snow and ice. Yes.
(36:41):
You know, going, going around incircles. Yeah,
I took my kids, when it was thefirst decent snow we had when I
taught them how to teach themhow to drive. I made them go out
and we've gotten a parking lotand they slid the car all over
the place. Because I believethat one of the reasons that a
lot of kids have problems in thecar die is because they
(37:02):
overcorrect. They don't know howto do it when they get out of
control. So I've taught my kidshow you handle a car when it's
out of control. Yeah, I thinkthat's smart. So it probably
helped you. Yeah. So did youever actually race? No, no. Even
with the the race track thereand everything? Yeah, we have we
have a real estate agent that hebrought out. But Rob Kibler.
(37:24):
Yep. Okay. Yeah. He announces,at a lot of the races all over
the country. Okay. Yeah. Even athis own. I don't remember
outdoor world TV show? I don'tknow. Okay. Great guy.
Ian Arnold (37:39):
All right. So I like to hear stories. And since
you've been in the business fora while, I guarantee you have
some. So what do you think wasone of your most interesting
transactions you've had?
John Wischmeier (37:50):
Oh, my gosh. My brain actually went to showings.
Actually, more thantransactions, I think some of
the things that you walk in onat a showing can be a little
surprising. Let's
Ian Arnold (38:06):
go keep going. Tell us.
John Wischmeier (38:09):
Yeah. So let's see one time, walked in. There
was a homeless person in there,and basically hiding in the
closet. And you're basically youopen up the closet, you see the
person in there, and there,there's freaked out as you
actually and I just kind ofbacked away and just got the
(38:31):
clients out out of the home.
Little little tents for for amoment. Yeah. You know, I showed
a, you know, maybe I shouldn'tbe saying this on air, but
showed showed a home. Andluckily, I went upstairs first.
And I opened up. You know, itwas supposed to be vacant, but
(38:51):
they still had a little bit offurniture in there. And
basically opened up the bedroomdoor and somebody I think they
were passed out because theydidn't hear a thing, but
completely in the buff.
Ian Arnold (39:10):
I mean, it's kind of, we laugh about it. But if
for real estate agents,especially and I'm gonna say
let's say a female walks intosome of these houses, it'd be
pretty. Oh my goodness. Yeah. So
John Wischmeier (39:24):
I was glad I walked in on that. First. Yeah.
My niece is a real estate agentin North Carolina. And she post
once a week. I don't rememberwhat they call it, but
basically, different things thatyou see and showings, okay, you
know, just not not people doingyou know, by the last one was a
(39:45):
room that was just totally fullof guns and the guy had a loader
and he had, you know, cleaningequipment and I don't know how
many guns he had on the rack,but, you know, above all the way
across about 2530 rifles, youknow, just They're all locked,
safe, but, but it's just coolthings they show and she gets a
(40:06):
lot of business off of that justas people want to see what it
is, you know, the differentthings I don't know, if they're
all things she she sees, or ifit's just things she finds and
then puts them out there, butit's really interesting to
something that's kind of cool.
So, as you as you look at yourbusiness, where do you see it
going? Now, I know you've gotyour son coming in, and he's
(40:27):
gonna do commercial? And it'skind of like the last question,
but where do you see yourbusiness going?
Really only up, you know, it's,it's, it's, it's exciting, you
know, because I, I kind of tookwith our last business, I kind
of took a step back and wasn'tselling as much, you know, I was
(40:49):
just getting the normalreferrals in, then, you know,
things like that, you know, Ithink I still had past couple
years 13 to 15 million inproduction each year, but you
know, that just past clients andreferrals coming in. So it's,
it's pretty exciting, though,here this past few months, that
we're getting back into it, andkind of letting Ashenden Zane
(41:10):
kind of drive the technologyside. And some of the things
that's out there, right now, asfar as just getting our name out
there, you know, we're, youknow, I was on the, on the phone
with them with him this morning.
And, you know, just talkingabout the lead gen, and just
from the new platforms thatthey're doing right now, the
leads that were just coming inovernight. So, you know, the
(41:31):
growth factor, it really has meexcited.
So when you if there's somebodylistening that let's say they're
new to real estate, or thinkingabout getting into real estate,
what what piece of advice, wouldyou give somebody brand new into
real estate are thinking aboutgetting into real estate?
(41:51):
First, I think the first thinggetting in, because so many
people get into my opinion, theyget into real estate, because
they either watch HGTV, or theythey liked when they purchased a
home that they they liked allthese pretty homes, and they
thought it was glamorous, youknow, and, and they thought it
(42:12):
was easy money, you know, that,wow, my agent just made, you
know, 1000s of dollars on thattransaction, you know, then
agents getting into thebusiness, you know, in mortgage
is gonna be probably know, notthat much different. But um, you
know, on the on the real estateside, then they, they go take
the class classes, and the entrylevel on real estate is not that
(42:34):
hard, you know, you take aclass, take a, take a couple of
tests, and you're done. Youknow, the, but then they get in,
and they, they get a businesscard, and they think, oh, all my
family and friends were going tocome running and you know, it's
not the case. So, you know, youknow, being a new agent, you
have to first off embracetechnology. You know, you have
(42:56):
to wake up every morning. Andlike I say, when you have to
work every day, you can't workpart time and expect full time
paycheck. Right? You know, and,and a lot of people a lot of
agents think they're workingfull time, but their cash, if
they truly broke it down? Arethey actually are you actually
(43:18):
working couple hours a day,right, you know, and they're
probably not even doing that. Soa lot of them think that, you
know, they want so bad to havesuccess, but they're just not
doing those things that, youknow, embracing that technology,
getting out in front of people,you know, sitting sitting in an
office, you know, maybe it usedto be the 20 years ago, maybe it
(43:40):
was the thing to do that now,you got to be out in front of
people. Yeah,real estate special a mortgage
the same way. You know, justlike what you said you what you
did to get your business as youstarted getting out. Yeah, and
every agent we've talked to, andwe've had a lot of people on the
show. They, they say the samething. Now some of them get out
(44:00):
in front of people with socialmedia. But but but they also get
out in front of people.
Physically, right. It's bothand, and of the two, it seems to
me like it's most important toget out physically in front of
people. It helps to get out onsocial media, you embrace
technology. So do you do muchsocial media?
(44:22):
Yeah, I'm, I'm probably onsocial. Well, I'm on social
media a few times a week. Okay.
Yeah. Because Because, yes, it'sjust one. Like for a new agent,
it's, it's free. You can writein, it's not like you have to
create new post every day,things like that. It's it's
sometimes just, you know, gosh,just ask the agent, another
agent in your brokerage whenthey get a new listing and just
(44:44):
share it, you know, I mean, butit's that it's really the
consistency that a lot of peoplefail on. Yeah. And
it doesn't always have to beabout real estate. No, in fact,
a lot of times the things thataren't real estate do better.
We've had agents on one of themto cough Shop. And he had over a
million views on on a coffeeshop another one did something
(45:05):
else to I don't remember what itwas, and they had like 3 million
views. I mean, and picked up,you know, views are nice, but
they don't really matter if theydon't translate into sales
better. They translated intomore followers, which then will
translate into sales becausepeople are doubt, you know, you
get a million people probablywouldn't all from your area.
Right, right.
Ian Arnold (45:26):
But it's all about staying in front. I mean, let's
be honest, nobody wants to hear,Hey, I just sold this house,
Hey, I just list this house,Hey, I just did this. But or if
you go, Hey, I listed thishouse. And then two days later,
Hey, I just visited thisrestaurant. Oh, this was
phenomenal. I mean, you stillare in front of the people. And
that's what it's about. And it'sthe same thing you were
mentioning earlier, when you'relike, hey, when I go all these
(45:48):
places, I'm not going out thereand say, Hey, I'm a realtor.
Hey, I'm a realtor. You're justgoing out there. Hey, how's it
going? How's your wife and kids?
How's this? And if they do getHay House real estate? Yeah. So
let's talk about that a littlebit. But you're not pressuring
them. Right? So, all right. Sosince both your kids have gotten
into real estate, and this mighttie in, I will tiny bit to what
you just said. But what words ofwisdom have you given your kids
(46:10):
work hard?
John Wischmeier (46:15):
Now, I agree.
That's all that's,I mean, it's really just, you
know, luckily, my whole familyis, you know, we wake up every
morning motivated. We don't haveto go to seminars to get
motivated. It's, you wake upevery morning, you know, you,
you start working you work out.
(46:36):
You know, there's, there's allthose pieces. So, so I that
words of wisdom, you know,they've already got that piece,
which is a very good first step.
But then then it's just working,working hard, but work smart.
And I don't even have to tellthem that really, because, you
know, they embrace thattechnology piece, where
you kind of raised them thatway. I mean, you were it sounds
(46:58):
like your dad was that way,right? And so was it your dad or
your wife's dad? The way my dad,your dad who's still cutting
grass at 80 years old. And, andI mean, so they had great
mentors to see and then learn itfrom them. And then they were
smart enough to learn it. Yes.
That's awesome.
Ian Arnold (47:18):
All right. So somebody's listening to this.
And they want to contact youabout buying selling a home,
maybe even going out and findingwhat tree works best with their
landscape. How can they get intouch 100 mile ride, 100 mile
ride?
John Wischmeier (47:31):
Really 100 best first step to contact us is
go to our website in homestoday.com. You can scroll to the
bottom, there's a QR code, andit has a really awesome search
app. links directly to themultiple listing service. I read
the reviews we get is they a lotof clients like it better than
(47:52):
Zillow.
Yeah, that's awesome too. AndI'm not a big fan of Zillow. So
I anything you can do to get goto someplace that is, it
actually gives you betterinformation. And and it's not I
don't know, I just think it'sset up better. Yeah, I agree.
100% and to get a hold of BNR Igot a hard working mortgage
(48:12):
guys.com That's hard workingmortgage guys.com Or you can
give us a call at317-672-1938 31767 to 1938. And
please follow us for more indiesreal estate gurus.
Ian Arnold (48:24):
And reminder if you have any friends, family or
coworkers looking to buy, sellor refinance let us know the
Lord. Happy to help you. John,thank you for joining us on our
show. It's been a pleasure. Thishas been awesome. We appreciate
it. Yep. And maybe in a yearwhen we have both your sons and
here we can hear the realstories Okay.
Announcer (48:42):
Went on MLS NUMBER 33041 returns in MLS number six,
six we're finding your normalNMLS number is 1995469 equal
housing opportunity somerestrictions apply
Hey, Rick, we had John wittmeyer on today for
(00:02):
nominal agent. The biggest thingI think is his background is
nowhere close to being a realestate agent. He was basically
doing landscaping had a degreein landscaping, and then and
then he'll tell you the storybut then got into real estate.
But that is just crazy.
John Wischmeier (00:20):
It is. And you know, what I liked about is is
number one, he worked. He's ahard worker. Number two, when he
got into real estate, hestruggled. And he didn't succeed
and tell his wife told him to doit differently than they were
telling him to do it. And hefigured it out what worked for
him and he did phenomenal. Hewent from from not selling
(00:41):
anything in the first six monthsto being the Rookie of the Year
in the in the in that andColumbus, Indiana. Yeah. That's
amazing.
Ian Arnold (00:49):
It is crazy on how each each person is method can
be different and you can stillsucceed. That's correct. Yeah.
So tune in to hear what hismethod was and his brilliant and
phenomenal phenomenal stories.
Welcome
John Wischmeier (01:03):
to indies real estate gurus, your ultimate
guide to the dynamic world ofreal estate in Indiana, and I'm
recruited by your hard work andmortgage guy and I've been in
real estate and mortgages forover 24 years.
Ian Arnold (01:15):
And I'm Ian Arnold, a loan officer on Rick's hard
working mortgage and we're bothwith advisors mortgage together
will empower you with expertadvice market trends is a
festival stories from Gururealtors and local experts.
Whether you're a homeowner andVesta are pro Join us as we
navigate the thriving indie realestate market now get ready to
(01:37):
unlock the doors of success oneepisode at a time.
John Wischmeier (01:42):
John wittmeyer out of Columbus Indiana and your
your brokerage is called it'sa brokerage is in homes today.
brokered by exp abrokered by exp I just didn't
want to get wrong, so I want tomake sure in homes today, so if
somebody wanted to get a hold ofyou they got in homes. today.com
(02:03):
Yes, absolutely.
That's your that's a greatwebsite now. That's easy. Yeah,
Ian Arnold (02:06):
no, that's extremely hard. How do you spell in homes
today? I just don't understand.
John Wischmeier (02:10):
Well, I know we got I can't spell. That's why
we're bad spellers. So I like tostart like, where did where did
you grow up? And where were you?
Where were you raised? Where'dyou grow up? Okay, born
and raised Columbus, Indiana.
You know, small, smallcommunities south of Columbus.
You know, my my mother is fromColumbus. My father's from
(02:30):
Seymour, Indiana. JohnMellencamp land, okay.
You know, and they sing likeJohn Mellencamp No, no, no.
Johnny Cougar.
Yeah. Johnny Cougar.
So, so you were you raised in inSeymour.
No, actually Columbus. Okay. So,yeah, my dad was the first wish
(02:52):
Meyer to come up to Columbus.
Alright, so that was a longdrive long, dry.
So you say you grew up inColumbus. Where do you go to go
to school? Where'd you go tocollege? Or?
Okay, went to Columbus East HighSchool. Okay. So Columbus has
two high schools. bitterrivalry, of course, as most
communities East has the oldest,I'll just say it live the better
(03:18):
football team. We've we've wonmultiple state championships.
That's the one he went to.
And then actually went to IUPUIfor a short, short time and then
went to Vincennes University.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I went to beIUPUI for a very short time to
okay, but then I didn't I didn'tgo anywhere else because I that
(03:41):
school was not my thing. SoVincenzo
Ian Arnold (03:45):
Well, here soon, nobody will even know what IPI
is and they go away after thisyear. Right. I heard that. Yeah.
Just
John Wischmeier (03:50):
IU Indianapolis.
Ian Arnold (03:52):
Yeah. It'll be you Indianapolis. Yeah. Okay. Well,
that's
John Wischmeier (03:55):
that's good. So you say you went to IUPUI then
you went to Vincenz. And thenyou went back to Columbus. Yes.
Okay. And what did you do whatwhat did you do and then how did
you end up in real estate?
Okay, so you know my my dad hadworked in a factory just on the
line or whatever for like 20 to23 years for who clump comments
(04:18):
No it's actually real Relianceelectric okay. So it's kind of
similar but different. Okay. Youknow, and he he had a dream of
always owning his own businessokay. And he was a growing up he
was what I call it a pickuptruck landscaper. So he would he
would work he you know, this sixto three o'clock shift at the
(04:42):
factory and then go straight tomowing, mowing yards, mulching,
you know, trimming, all thatkind of stuff. And so as a kid
growing up, to be honest, if Iwanted to see my dad, I went I
went along and worked with him.
You know, and you know, healways had this I did a revision
of, of getting out of thefactory. And I was maybe a
(05:02):
little bit of that ticket, Ididn't know what I wanted to do.
And so I was, so I said, Whydon't I go to school for
landscape design? And so thatand that's Vincent's had a very
good program for that at thetime. I think they still do. But
um, so I went and, you know, gotmy degree in landscape design
(05:22):
and all that kind of stuff, gotthe all the, you know, the
licenses for spraying trees,lawns, all that kind of stuff.
So, you know, odd fact that, youknow, today when I'm showing
homes and somebody will, youknow, you're showing a home and
somebody makes a comment about,oh, what's, what's that pretty
tree that's blooming, you know,I typically will know the name,
(05:43):
and I get some of the oddestlooks, because, you know,
they're like, Well, how do youknow that? I had to learn, you
know, hundreds of trees. Oh,yeah. You know, the, not only
the column name, but thebotanical name as well. Right.
So it's just odd fact,it's a it's a, probably a really
good background for real estate.
(06:08):
I mean, to me, landscapes, a bigpart of buying a home and what
probably vision that you have aselantech, land scape architect
helps a lot.
Sure, sure. You know, and it wassales, you know, just like real
estate, or veteran sales, youknow, just people right now,
it's a people oriented business,we ended up starting a garden
(06:28):
center, we had a nursery wherewe were growing trees, shrubs, I
had the entire landscapedepartment that we did
residential and commercial, youknow, so, so I did that. Quite,
you know, I was there probably13 to 15 years, my brother and I
ended up entering the businessas well. My wife worked with us,
(06:48):
with us as well. And, you know,at some point, you know, we, we
started investing in otherthings, and we, we started a
development company. So, youknow, just as kind of a side
project, but we, we developed ahousing development in Columbus.
Okay. And from ground zero, youknow, we bought land, and it was
(07:12):
actually in city limits that wedid, it was on larger lots like
one to three acres. And, youknow, so the transition into
real estate at that point, youknow, we hired a real estate
agent to handle sale, sellingthose lots and things like that.
And, unfortunately, at the time,I have this history of starting
(07:34):
businesses, and then theapocalypse happened. You know,
so we actually opened thisdevelopment. About a month
before. September 11. happened,Oh, okay. And so, everybody
knows what happened in realestate, right after that, you
know, there was almost nothingselling, right. Nobody wanted to
(07:55):
do anything. So, so here, wewere sitting with this, it's not
a not a small piece of dime thatyou have sitting there. And, but
you know, as time time went on,I would come home, and like,
what's my real estate agentdoing? Or he was telling me this
today, and I don't understandit. And my wife, Kimberly, being
(08:17):
Kimberly, she finally got fed upwith me asked, coming home and
saying those questions. And shesaid, why don't you go out and
take a real estate class? Youknow, figure it out. And so I,
you know, there's not that manyreal estate classes that at the
time, and, you know, it wasn'tthat much on internet and things
like that. So I took local realestate course. Okay. And so I
(08:40):
found it very easy. You know, itwas just easy to do. And then,
so then I asked her, Okay, Icompleted that, what do I do
now? And she said, Well, go getyour license if you want. And I
did that. And it just LeapFrog.
I fell in love with it, andended up transitioning out of
the family business intobasically another family
business. Because, you know,Kimberly ended up joining and
(09:03):
then now we've got children inthe business and things like
that. So it just kind ofmorphed, morphed into real
estate.
Ian Arnold (09:11):
So I have a question. So what do you do
differently? How you weretreated as a client, for when
you had a real estate agent, notknowing what's going on stuff
like that? Maybe they were usingdifferent terminology with you,
what do you do differently nowthat you are a real estate agent
for your customers? I,
John Wischmeier (09:29):
I really try to explain things, you know, and,
you know, I, you know, I, I feellike I have a good sense with
people. So I you know, I cantypically tell if somebody's not
understanding something, so Ireally try to get that
explanation down. You know, andfunny, funny thing is, you know,
(09:49):
I was probably just like atypical client, you know, a lot
of us as real estate agents, wework pretty darn hard for for
our clients and but they don'tsee what we're doing in the
background day in and day out.
And in hindsight, I had a reallygood agent, you know, it's just
probably wasn't explaining quiteas much to me, and he probably
(10:13):
was doing all the things thatneed to do in the background.
You know, I just didn't knowthat. So, so it's probably, I
think it's, you know, for anyagent out there, you know, it's
probably important to thinkabout, make sure your sellers
know what you're doing, youknow, on that day to day basis.
Yeah, yeah.
(10:34):
I started quite some time ago,years ago, calling everybody and
process and alone. Just once aweek, just to tell them
everything's going fine. Right?
Call the real estate agentscalled the borrowers and you
just tell them everything'sgoing okay. And it was somewhat
of a result of one of my agentsthat I work with. He said, Yeah,
(10:56):
I was at a seminar and theysaid, We need to call our people
once a week and just tell themeverything's okay. Because if
you don't, what builds up inyour head? Is all the negatives.
Yeah. Is that what you?
Oh, yeah. And actually, on thebeing a real tour and say, on
(11:17):
being on the lending side, as areal tour, you know, I actually
love those updates, you know, onthat weekly basis, you know, you
know, because what you don'tknow, you don't know? Right? So
just any kind of update thathey, everything's okay. You
know, is great. Yeah.
And as as a lender, the reasonwe didn't do it is everything's
okay. What are we going to tellhim? Yeah, but as a if you never
(11:39):
thought to put yourself in the,in the real estate agents, you
know, or the or that yourborrowers mindset and think,
Okay, well, if I don't tellthem, they don't know, you know,
because everything's fine. So,but it does, it makes total
sense to most agents. Once in awhile, I'll get somebody who's
not too thrilled that I callthem once a week. But the vast
(11:59):
majority of them are verythankful. Yeah. They like
especially the listing agent.
Yes, yes. You see that? Listedagents
Ian Arnold (12:07):
love us. It's funny that, like ones that we have
never talked to, we call themand then we're like, hey, we
just wanna let you know, thingsgo. They're like, Wait, why are
you calling me? Hold on?
John Wischmeier (12:14):
I'm not used to this, right? No, it's fantastic.
I love that.
Ian Arnold (12:18):
So what what has given you the passion to keep
this going?
John Wischmeier (12:25):
At I'll mention my wife again, because she,
Kimberly has basically said, Idon't, I don't know, if I ever
want you to retire. You know,maybe slow down. But, you know,
not retire, you know, I have abrain that never stops. And so
I'm always, you know, I'm alwayslooking for, you know, what,
(12:47):
what are we doing? Well, today,that what do we need to be doing
tomorrow, that still working sixmonths from now a year from now?
So it's always, it's alwayslooking forward? And I think
what drives me, you know, withjust keep going in real estate,
you know, the, it's an, it's anever changing piece. You know,
(13:09):
you know, it's like this year,you know, there's a lot of
agents that are up in arms withchanges that are happening on
the real estate sector, youknow, and, you know, nothing's
passed his law yet, on that onthat national piece. Looks like
it could, but um, you know, it'sjust another changing piece.
It's just being a professionallearner. You know, you may have
to learn a little bit differentverbiage do a different form,
(13:31):
stuff like that. But it's, it'sjust business. Yeah,
you have to figure out how tosell it. Yeah. Right. Right. And
how to do that. That's one thingI've actually working on very
diligently so that I can giveagents something to help them
sell it. Yes. Because it's good.
Because a lot of its financing.
I mean, it's how it's going toaffect financing. But just like
you so we don't actually knowwhat it is. Because it's not
(13:53):
done yet. So we think we knowwhat's going to happen. Right?
But it's, it's a difficultthing. And it's funny, you're
the same way as I and my wife.
She got she knows I'll neverretire I'll slow down. But I can
I'd be I couldn't do it. I gottaI gotta have something to do. I
got to have reasons to get upevery morning and work towards
things right. So I completelyunderstand that. So you, you
(14:15):
started the the landscapecompany, you did that? You got
into real estate. And and thatand I don't think you started
with exp. So how did you? Wheredid where did you start? And how
did you end up with exp?
Actually, only when I started inreal estate, the top company in
(14:39):
town at that time, it's changedover years, of course, as it
does everywhere, but since thecentury 21 office, that was the
top brokerage in town and gosh,they were founded in like 1950
Wow. And so I didn't even Iprobably should have interviewed
some other places, but I didn'tI just went in and talk to them
and started working. Okay, youknow what they, the one thing
(15:04):
that was in hindsight, and Ireally try to work with this
with any agents that are werecoming on board with us, you
know, what they, and that was20, over 20 years ago. You know,
they basically said, okay, here,you know, send some note cards
and call, here's some cold calllist. And I am terrible at cold
(15:28):
calling. I am the absolute worstnow, you know, like, if there's
a, if there's a problem with atransaction or something, I'm
perfectly fine talking withsomebody, but just to call, call
somebody out as far as a coldcall.
Not your thing. I'm terrified.
Yeah. And that's okay.
So I actually sat there, I hitwas probably six months in, and
(15:52):
I hadn't sold anything. I wasfloundering. And I was basically
telling Kimberly, hey, I shouldprobably I think I made a
mistake, I should probably justmaybe exit exit this business.
And, you know, she said, youknow, being Kimberly, she said,
Well, why don't you do somethinga little bit different than what
they're telling you to do. Andso, you know, I really started
(16:14):
watching the top agents, andwhat they were doing and started
researching a little bit more,you know, I probably had started
prior to that six months, but,and then that, and then, all of
a sudden, that second half ofthe year, things started
clicking, you know, just bylittle, it's like that one
degree shift, you know, shiftedand ended up by the end of the
(16:36):
year, I was Rookie of the Yearfor the region, and it just
snowballed from there.
No, so what did you change? Andwhat what what is it that worked
for you? Because one of my oneof my things that always have
been after I after I learnedsales, so I've been in sales my
entire life, 40 years, right? Myentire adult life, so over 40
(16:59):
years, but I noticed that peoplewould tell you, you know, you'd
watch somebody who's really goodat what they do, then they'd
become the manager, and theywould tell you what to do, which
wasn't what they did. Right?
Right. Yes. That because that'swhat everybody tells you what to
do. So they don't want to tellyou what they did. They want to
tell you what everybody tellsyou because they think that's
the right thing, even thoughthey didn't do it that way.
Right. So So what did you changethat worked for you? So if
(17:22):
somebody's out there, they'refloundering. They don't want to
make cold calls. What did youdo? What was the change? But
a couple things, a couple ofthings, probably, you know, one
is, what I, what I noticed realquickly is the average agent did
not treat it like a business.
And so I started actually, trulymapping out planning and just
treating it like a business,then I really dove in, you know,
(17:45):
I had a really good sphere thatI hadn't tapped into, right. And
so I, I dove into working onthat sphere, and actually
attending events and getting myface out there. You know, like,
we have a really good Chamber ofCommerce in Columbus. And so
attending their events andthings like that, and what I and
(18:08):
then also, somebody invited meto a BNI group, and that that
ended up snowpack. I think itwas good for about 6 million in
production per year. Wow. Youknow, so it was a really good
group. So just two or threethings like that, you know, just
really catapulted but it wasjust, it wasn't that big of a
(18:31):
shift. It was just, you know, Icall it FaceTime, you know, like
getting out, like so manyagents. It's like, their secret
agents. Yeah. You know, and theydon't go to they don't spend the
time to go to events and thingslike that. And, and it's not,
you know, you're not going tothings like that to tell
everybody you're in real estate.
(18:54):
That if you just get thatconsistent, Martin, pitch
marketing, you know, justgetting your face out there. I
think that's yeah, that playedhuge benefits for me, because
ultimately, it's a peoplebusiness. Yes, that's really
what it is. Right? All
Ian Arnold (19:07):
right. So somebody's listening to this. And they have
question about whatever trees intheir backyard that they're
about to sell, or they just wantyou to not have do cold calls.
And they they have questionswhether they buy or sell it, how
they get in touch with you.
John Wischmeier (19:21):
Best way is, of course, calling and call text or
the email,what's the best phone number?
Best phone number is812-344-3480.
So a 123443480 a lot of foursand eights in that that's good.
Yeah, there is.
It's good. You picked that oneout on purpose. It's a good it's
a good number. And then are theycan you said they could
(19:45):
call or text with that? Theycan. They can go online. They
can email me at John at in homestoday.com Or just go to in
homes. today.com And we have areally interactive website.
Yeah, that'sthe You do I went on it. It's
it's an it's such an easy I lovein homes today, it's just very
easy. And you can get a hold ofeither I had hard working
(20:06):
mortgage guys.com That's hardworking mortgage guys.com. Or
you can give us a call at317-672-1938. That's
317-672-1938.
Ian Arnold (20:18):
All right. So, before we get into one of my fun
questions, I got anotherdifferent question for you. So
if somebody were to drive byyour house right now, how would
their lane How would yourlandscape look like? Does it
look good?
John Wischmeier (20:31):
I'll say okay, okay. Yeah.
Ian Arnold (20:35):
What would you do differently?
John Wischmeier (20:37):
Um, take, take more time to actually spend,
spend time we have I spend moretime with extracurricular
activities than probably in myown life. It
takes it takes time to makeyou're either you hire somebody
to do it, or you're right.
Ian Arnold (20:53):
He has a college degree in this. I know he can do
it.
John Wischmeier (20:57):
Well, why don't you guys still have the
landscape company? No,no, actually closed about four
years ago. Yeah. My dad had beenin it 30 years and decided to
retire and my brother was doneas well.
Okay. So so you don't have themto have come to take care of my
yard for Right. Right. Yeah. Tocut your own yard.
Yes. Okay. I don't. All right.
Well, I'm funny thing is my mymom and dad. They're in their
(21:21):
early 80s. They know they have amanicure three acres. Okay.
Yeah, they've lived there since1963. Wow. And they're still out
there. You know, mowing thegrass. They have. I don't know
how many yards of mulch peryear. They're spreading
themselves. Wow.
Yeah. Yeah, I was thinking todayon my way in, I thought, you
(21:43):
know, I haven't cut grass andforever, but I think when I
retire or when I slow downbecause I'm not going to retire,
but when I slow down, I mightbuy a nice good riding
lawnmower, and just cut my owngrass. That's a few years off,
but I might I might not but I'mjust an idea cuz I got an acre
and a quarter. So okay, it takes
Ian Arnold (22:00):
quite a bit.
Alright, so. So you since youdon't do your own landscaping,
alright, so what do you do forfun?
John Wischmeier (22:08):
For fun? I cycle. Oh, okay. Ride it ride a
bicycle. Awesome. That's, that'sprobably if, if I had any
pastime, it's it's a hobby.
Alright. So
Ian Arnold (22:19):
go ahead. Do you meet with a group or? Yeah,
John Wischmeier (22:22):
typically a couple times a week with a
group. I, I work out five, sixdays a week. You know, a lot of
my like, through the week, I maybe just on my indoor trainer.
And, you know, I can I mean,like, like this morning, I put
in 1011 miles. And then I can dosome work as I'm sitting there.
(22:45):
So I'm returning emails andstuff like that. There's a
really good Wednesday nightgroup that that meets up, we'll
do about 30 miles on a Wednesdaynight. And then on Saturday
mornings, I meet a group andwe'll we'll do anywhere from 50
to 100 miles.
Okay, so I love to ride. And nowI have an electric bike. I have
(23:07):
an electric bike that requiresyou to pedal or it doesn't go
right so it's not not one thatlike a motorcycle. It's it's it,
but it allows me to go ride 60Miles like that, right where I
couldn't do it otherwise. So Iwas so but I've looked and tried
to find it looks like there's areally good path for riding in
Columbus or there's a good areais
(23:30):
yeah, so. So Columbus, you know,they've got miles of people
trails, okay, they've made aconcerted effort to try and
connect the entire city withpeople. Okay, now, I ride with a
crazy group that we like goingwest wild, west and southwest to
like Brown County. Okay, becausethe guys I ride with, we like to
(23:52):
ride hills. And so we seek outthe hilliest train basically
that we can find. I dotwo on my electric bike. Yeah.
Yeah, otherwise I don't want toHill anywhere anywhere in sight.
So you go so I prefer to ridethe roads, but I thought there
was like a, I thought I waslooking and there's some
phenomenal trail long trail thatgoes through is it just their
(24:13):
normal paths? Is that Yeah, it'speople trail system. And we're
also fortunate that down inColumbus, you know, we're right
next to Brown County State Park.
Right. So there's tons ofmountain bike trails there. You
know. I'm fortunate my daughterand son in law. I also own a
bike shop in Columbus. Oh, theyjust opened one up in Fountain
(24:35):
Square. Oh, really?
Jeffersonville? Wow, okay.
Ian Arnold (24:39):
Oh, let's, let's let's do a little endorsement.
What's the name of the company?
The
John Wischmeier (24:43):
bicycle station.
Ian Arnold (24:44):
Okay, so check that out.
John Wischmeier (24:45):
Yes. The bicycle station. Yeah. And so do
they sell electric bikes or Oh,yes, they sell everything. Yeah,
I think electric bikes areamazing. You know, it's it's
bringing so many people Pourinto cycling, you know that, you
know, just like, you know, theguys I ride with Yeah, we ride
(25:07):
pretty darn fast. And you know,all that stuff that the electric
bike, you know, for somebodythat normally couldn't keep up
all of a sudden, that changesthe game, right? You know?
Yeah, my son. He's he doesIronman guy, so he rides
Chicago, and but I can ride withhim now. I could have never
(25:28):
ridden with him before because Ican't ride 2025 miles an hour
for for 50 miles. I can't evenon my electric bike do that. But
but that's awesome, because it'swhat a great bonding experience.
Yeah, your son? Yeah,it's phenomenal. Yeah, yeah, it
makes all the difference. So I'mgonna get back to real estate a
little delicate. So one of myfavorite questions is, is what
is your what would you consideryour superpower superpowers?
(25:54):
superpower is just basicallytreating it like, and I've
already mentioned this treatingit like a business. And just
being that professional, youknow, you know, a lot of people
say this treat others like youwant to be treated, that, you
know, get getting yourself outthere. You know, a, it's not
(26:14):
that. It's not that I'm betterat showing a home than another
agent. It's, you know, you wantme though, when it comes time
for that negotiation, that thecontracts, you know, think
things like that, you know, it'sa, because in today's
environment, it's it's writingcontracts that that can win.
Right, you know, and so knowingas much as you can,
(26:36):
yes, yeah, that makes in thisenvironment, when there's a lack
of inventory, you got to doeverything you can to stand out
in your in your offer, right?
And I'm sure and Columbus,everybody knows who you are.
Yes, that helps a lot to to geta real estate agency and an
offer coming from somebody theyknow they like, and I can
already tell your, yourdemeanor, and your the way that
(26:59):
you are is easy to work with.
And I think that's a big I thinkit's a superpower. Because I'm
sure you don't seem like you getyou know, something bad comes
up, you just handle it. Youdon't. You can't you don't get
your emotions involved. So whichhelps the right.
Yeah, your customer, right. Youknow, a mentor. Early on in my
(27:22):
real estate career. Said simplewords, never want the
transaction more than yourclient. And I I've lived with
that all the way through. It'sjust keep a keep a level level
head. If you're, you know, ifyou some have somebody ready to
jump off the edge of the cliff,you're there to talk them off.
Right. Soyeah, and it's that I think
that's one of the areas that anagent really shows their worth.
(27:45):
Because that's, that's, youknow, if you have somebody who
also gets upset, it's going totake a lot of times minor
situation and make it into amajor situation.
Ian Arnold (27:57):
What are you talking about? I want the real estate
agent and family to jump offCliff they're going with because
you're gonna grab hold. I justthink if I'm going somebody else
who's coming with me, take yourwife with you. She won't like
that. So, how so your family?
Are they now in real estate? Orhow does this all?
John Wischmeier (28:20):
Yeah, so my, I have a wife and two sons and
working in our, we call it thewishmaker group. Yeah, so my
wife, my wife, and one of mysons are licensed and my other
son is in currently gettinglicensed.
Ian Arnold (28:38):
That's awesome. So who's the boss? You are your
wife?
John Wischmeier (28:44):
Actually, my son Zane is the boss. Oh,
Ian Arnold (28:49):
totally switch. You
John Wischmeier (28:54):
know, we had a in our previous brokerage. And
so Zane was actually our statemanager. And so he the way his
brain works, he loves dealingwith the MLS, the state laws,
all that kind of stuff. I likedthe sales portion. I don't like
sitting there just reading and,you know, things like that. So,
(29:16):
you know, he was basically theone answering a lot of the
questions. You know, he's he'sgot that mentality where, gosh,
if even if an agent or a clientis having a real problem, you
know, and sometimes agents haveproblems with another agent or
signing. You want Zayn on yourside. You know, he is he has
that calm demeanor and can justreally calm a tense situation
(29:41):
down. So, so when I say he's,he's the boss, you know, he's,
you know, he wasThat's awesome. Yeah. Does it
does it cause him some struggleswhen he's trying to tell his mom
and dad what to do? No,yeah, no problem telling me.
Ian Arnold (29:58):
Do you have an issue? Listen, that was my Next.
John Wischmeier (30:01):
Because kids have trouble listening to their
parents. I know thatyeah, you know, because we've
we've raised very strong willedchildren. So, you know, even my
oldest son, Ashton, that's,that's getting licensed. You
know, he's, he's very good onthat marketing piece and stuff
like that. And, quite frankly,they know, way more than I do on
the technology piece. You know,I would, I would be remiss to
(30:23):
say that I know more, right, youknow, yeah, you know,
Ian Arnold (30:28):
and all future girlfriends or wives have to
know they had to get in the realestate business. Now. That's the
family that
John Wischmeier (30:35):
may be better that they aren't, they just
never know. So So what is yourdream of where this your your
business goes?
Okay, so I'll just say, I, firstoff, I chuckle with the word
dream, because our pastbrokerage, it was actually
called Dream. And the dream wasactually owning multiple
(30:58):
offices. And of course, withthat you need agents to support
the office, you know, so thatthat was the dream, you know,
through COVID, and things likethat, it's, it's very hard.
First off, getting agents ononboard, and then getting enough
agents that actually wake up towin every day, you know, because
(31:19):
you need to, you need a fairnumber of sales. And so, so that
was that was the strugglethroughout just getting people
to treat it, like a business andthat consistency piece, things
like that, you know, the dreamnow, you know, family business,
but, you know, we have, youknow, agents in our office, you
know, I've got one one agentcandy, I mean, we call her
(31:45):
family, that she she reallyhelps keep me on track. She's
such a such a good person, that,you know, it kind of reminds you
daily, you need to keep up, keepup with that, you know, and be
that be that good person toeverybody. You know, Dream
moving forward, though, youknow, not having the complete
(32:05):
brokerages. It's like Zayn, forinstance, instead of just being
bogged down on that managerialside. Now, all of a sudden, you
know, he's out there having fun.
Now he's, he's in thattransactional piece, not quite
as much stress, you know, thingslike that. So, so we can really
grow that end, Ashton gettinghis his license, he's going to
(32:25):
really grow into that commercialpiece. You know, I'll say Ashton
was born with that gift of gab.
So, you know, if he, if he wason here, you'd probably never
get him to shut up. Yeah, hejust has that deck. So anyway,
(32:46):
you know, he's, he's gettinginto that commercial in there.
That and that's why dope,especially in Columbus, that's a
wide open space. Okay. Um, so,you know, I'm, I'm really
stoked, you know, have a, Ialready do some commercial, but
it's, you know, it is hard as areal estate agent to be
successful in residential andcommercial, you know, to
(33:08):
different animals. Yeah. So, soI'm really, really pumped to get
to get him going fully, fullyengaged on that. You know, my
wife, Kimberly, you know, she'sgot, she worked with me, almost
from the start at the nurserygarden center. You know, she's
always been, you know, kind ofthat support person. And so, so
(33:28):
now, you know, she gets tostruggle with three distinct
personalities between ZaneAshton and I, and just
supporting, supporting thatpiece. Let's
that's got to be a lot of funfor her to ever have her husband
and her and two of her kidsthere. Yes. Yeah. That's a big
deal.
Yeah, no, yeah. I think I thinkshe loves it. As long as she
(33:49):
contain our, our strong willedpersonalities. Yeah, yeah.
Well, she probably can't she'smom. You're not gonna mess with
her. She's your wife. Right?
You're smarter than that.
Ian Arnold (34:04):
All right. So I'm Ashley again. somebody's
listening to this and they wantto get in touch with you whether
to talk real estate, whetherthey're talking about cycling
now. Or they're living downthere in Columbus and they want
to ride with you. How can theyreach out?
John Wischmeier (34:19):
Okay, definitely call me 812-344-3480
or hop on our website in homes.
today.comYeah, I love that and homes
today. It's just awesome. And toget a hold of the inner I got a
hard working mortgage guys.comThat's hard working mortgage
guys.com Or you give us a callat 317-672-1938 31767 to 1938.
Ian Arnold (34:43):
All right, so we're gonna take a little pause again,
we like to ask the question ofthe week. So what was your first
car? A Plymouth
John Wischmeier (34:51):
Duster?
Ian Arnold (34:52):
Okay, what?
John Wischmeier (34:54):
It was a 72 Oh, that's a good one. Yeah, green.
Yeah, green bought it when I was14. What size motor?
Just a six cylinder. Okay, itwas a I think what was it called
a slant six? Yes.
line six. Iremember those. Yeah, it ran
forever. You know, I I thinkwhen I bought it it already had
70,000 miles on it. I bought itoff my uncle. You know, I know
(35:14):
I'm not supposed to be drivingon the road at age 14 But we
lived out in the countryactually had a a stock car race
shop a quarter mile up the road.
Oh, really, that they raised myparents took me to the stock car
races every Saturday night. Butand I was taught as a youngster
because my grandparents livedquarter mile up the road. And
(35:37):
they had us the Circle Drive onthe farm. And so I was taught as
a youngster though, when youhear those race cars starting up
and coming down the road becausethey basically use that as a
test strip. Okay, you know thatI hit the field. You know, get
off get off the road. Okay, Ispent a lot of time going back
and forth to my Yeah,grandparents, but I basically
(35:58):
taught myself how to drive justgoing back and forth. up to my
grandparents.
Did they soup that car up? Imean, did you did you? No, no,
no. I mean, you had a you had ashop right there that I know
that I want to help. Right.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But that sixcylinder. I mean, even back
then, the cars didn't have a lotof weight. So you didn't didn't
take as much horsepower. No, no,to get them to get them going.
(36:20):
But that would be fun. So so nowthey had a you said your your
grandparents had a circulardrive? Was that it? Was that
like your little on race track?
Sort of? That's what I wasthinking. Okay. I know you
brought up for a reason I justwanted to make use it
for what it helped me learn todrive on the snow and ice. Yes.
(36:41):
You know, going, going around incircles. Yeah,
I took my kids, when it was thefirst decent snow we had when I
taught them how to teach themhow to drive. I made them go out
and we've gotten a parking lotand they slid the car all over
the place. Because I believethat one of the reasons that a
lot of kids have problems in thecar die is because they
(37:02):
overcorrect. They don't know howto do it when they get out of
control. So I've taught my kidshow you handle a car when it's
out of control. Yeah, I thinkthat's smart. So it probably
helped you. Yeah. So did youever actually race? No, no. Even
with the the race track thereand everything? Yeah, we have we
have a real estate agent that hebrought out. But Rob Kibler.
(37:24):
Yep. Okay. Yeah. He announces,at a lot of the races all over
the country. Okay. Yeah. Even athis own. I don't remember
outdoor world TV show? I don'tknow. Okay. Great guy.
Ian Arnold (37:39):
All right. So I like to hear stories. And since
you've been in the business fora while, I guarantee you have
some. So what do you think wasone of your most interesting
transactions you've had?
John Wischmeier (37:50):
Oh, my gosh. My brain actually went to showings.
Actually, more thantransactions, I think some of
the things that you walk in onat a showing can be a little
surprising. Let's
Ian Arnold (38:06):
go keep going. Tell us.
John Wischmeier (38:09):
Yeah. So let's see one time, walked in. There
was a homeless person in there,and basically hiding in the
closet. And you're basically youopen up the closet, you see the
person in there, and there,there's freaked out as you
actually and I just kind ofbacked away and just got the
(38:31):
clients out out of the home.
Little little tents for for amoment. Yeah. You know, I showed
a, you know, maybe I shouldn'tbe saying this on air, but
showed showed a home. Andluckily, I went upstairs first.
And I opened up. You know, itwas supposed to be vacant, but
(38:51):
they still had a little bit offurniture in there. And
basically opened up the bedroomdoor and somebody I think they
were passed out because theydidn't hear a thing, but
completely in the buff.
Ian Arnold (39:10):
I mean, it's kind of, we laugh about it. But if
for real estate agents,especially and I'm gonna say
let's say a female walks intosome of these houses, it'd be
pretty. Oh my goodness. Yeah. So
John Wischmeier (39:24):
I was glad I walked in on that. First. Yeah.
My niece is a real estate agentin North Carolina. And she post
once a week. I don't rememberwhat they call it, but
basically, different things thatyou see and showings, okay, you
know, just not not people doingyou know, by the last one was a
(39:45):
room that was just totally fullof guns and the guy had a loader
and he had, you know, cleaningequipment and I don't know how
many guns he had on the rack,but, you know, above all the way
across about 2530 rifles, youknow, just They're all locked,
safe, but, but it's just coolthings they show and she gets a
(40:06):
lot of business off of that justas people want to see what it
is, you know, the differentthings I don't know, if they're
all things she she sees, or ifit's just things she finds and
then puts them out there, butit's really interesting to
something that's kind of cool.
So, as you as you look at yourbusiness, where do you see it
going? Now, I know you've gotyour son coming in, and he's
(40:27):
gonna do commercial? And it'skind of like the last question,
but where do you see yourbusiness going?
Really only up, you know, it's,it's, it's, it's exciting, you
know, because I, I kind of tookwith our last business, I kind
of took a step back and wasn'tselling as much, you know, I was
(40:49):
just getting the normalreferrals in, then, you know,
things like that, you know, Ithink I still had past couple
years 13 to 15 million inproduction each year, but you
know, that just past clients andreferrals coming in. So it's,
it's pretty exciting, though,here this past few months, that
we're getting back into it, andkind of letting Ashenden Zane
(41:10):
kind of drive the technologyside. And some of the things
that's out there, right now, asfar as just getting our name out
there, you know, we're, youknow, I was on the, on the phone
with them with him this morning.
And, you know, just talkingabout the lead gen, and just
from the new platforms thatthey're doing right now, the
leads that were just coming inovernight. So, you know, the
(41:31):
growth factor, it really has meexcited.
So when you if there's somebodylistening that let's say they're
new to real estate, or thinkingabout getting into real estate,
what what piece of advice, wouldyou give somebody brand new into
real estate are thinking aboutgetting into real estate?
(41:51):
First, I think the first thinggetting in, because so many
people get into my opinion, theyget into real estate, because
they either watch HGTV, or theythey liked when they purchased a
home that they they liked allthese pretty homes, and they
thought it was glamorous, youknow, and, and they thought it
(42:12):
was easy money, you know, that,wow, my agent just made, you
know, 1000s of dollars on thattransaction, you know, then
agents getting into thebusiness, you know, in mortgage
is gonna be probably know, notthat much different. But um, you
know, on the on the real estateside, then they, they go take
the class classes, and the entrylevel on real estate is not that
(42:34):
hard, you know, you take aclass, take a, take a couple of
tests, and you're done. Youknow, the, but then they get in,
and they, they get a businesscard, and they think, oh, all my
family and friends were going tocome running and you know, it's
not the case. So, you know, youknow, being a new agent, you
have to first off embracetechnology. You know, you have
(42:56):
to wake up every morning. Andlike I say, when you have to
work every day, you can't workpart time and expect full time
paycheck. Right? You know, and,and a lot of people a lot of
agents think they're workingfull time, but their cash, if
they truly broke it down? Arethey actually are you actually
(43:18):
working couple hours a day,right, you know, and they're
probably not even doing that. Soa lot of them think that, you
know, they want so bad to havesuccess, but they're just not
doing those things that, youknow, embracing that technology,
getting out in front of people,you know, sitting sitting in an
office, you know, maybe it usedto be the 20 years ago, maybe it
(43:40):
was the thing to do that now,you got to be out in front of
people. Yeah,real estate special a mortgage
the same way. You know, justlike what you said you what you
did to get your business as youstarted getting out. Yeah, and
every agent we've talked to, andwe've had a lot of people on the
show. They, they say the samething. Now some of them get out
(44:00):
in front of people with socialmedia. But but but they also get
out in front of people.
Physically, right. It's bothand, and of the two, it seems to
me like it's most important toget out physically in front of
people. It helps to get out onsocial media, you embrace
technology. So do you do muchsocial media?
(44:22):
Yeah, I'm, I'm probably onsocial. Well, I'm on social
media a few times a week. Okay.
Yeah. Because Because, yes, it'sjust one. Like for a new agent,
it's, it's free. You can writein, it's not like you have to
create new post every day,things like that. It's it's
sometimes just, you know, gosh,just ask the agent, another
agent in your brokerage whenthey get a new listing and just
(44:44):
share it, you know, I mean, butit's that it's really the
consistency that a lot of peoplefail on. Yeah. And
it doesn't always have to beabout real estate. No, in fact,
a lot of times the things thataren't real estate do better.
We've had agents on one of themto cough Shop. And he had over a
million views on on a coffeeshop another one did something
(45:05):
else to I don't remember what itwas, and they had like 3 million
views. I mean, and picked up,you know, views are nice, but
they don't really matter if theydon't translate into sales
better. They translated intomore followers, which then will
translate into sales becausepeople are doubt, you know, you
get a million people probablywouldn't all from your area.
Right, right.
Ian Arnold (45:26):
But it's all about staying in front. I mean, let's
be honest, nobody wants to hear,Hey, I just sold this house,
Hey, I just list this house,Hey, I just did this. But or if
you go, Hey, I listed thishouse. And then two days later,
Hey, I just visited thisrestaurant. Oh, this was
phenomenal. I mean, you stillare in front of the people. And
that's what it's about. And it'sthe same thing you were
mentioning earlier, when you'relike, hey, when I go all these
(45:48):
places, I'm not going out thereand say, Hey, I'm a realtor.
Hey, I'm a realtor. You're justgoing out there. Hey, how's it
going? How's your wife and kids?
How's this? And if they do getHay House real estate? Yeah. So
let's talk about that a littlebit. But you're not pressuring
them. Right? So, all right. Sosince both your kids have gotten
into real estate, and this mighttie in, I will tiny bit to what
you just said. But what words ofwisdom have you given your kids
(46:10):
work hard?
John Wischmeier (46:15):
Now, I agree.
That's all that's,I mean, it's really just, you
know, luckily, my whole familyis, you know, we wake up every
morning motivated. We don't haveto go to seminars to get
motivated. It's, you wake upevery morning, you know, you,
you start working you work out.
(46:36):
You know, there's, there's allthose pieces. So, so I that
words of wisdom, you know,they've already got that piece,
which is a very good first step.
But then then it's just working,working hard, but work smart.
And I don't even have to tellthem that really, because, you
know, they embrace thattechnology piece, where
you kind of raised them thatway. I mean, you were it sounds
(46:58):
like your dad was that way,right? And so was it your dad or
your wife's dad? The way my dad,your dad who's still cutting
grass at 80 years old. And, andI mean, so they had great
mentors to see and then learn itfrom them. And then they were
smart enough to learn it. Yes.
That's awesome.
Ian Arnold (47:18):
All right. So somebody's listening to this.
And they want to contact youabout buying selling a home,
maybe even going out and findingwhat tree works best with their
landscape. How can they get intouch 100 mile ride, 100 mile
ride?
John Wischmeier (47:31):
Really 100 best first step to contact us is
go to our website in homestoday.com. You can scroll to the
bottom, there's a QR code, andit has a really awesome search
app. links directly to themultiple listing service. I read
the reviews we get is they a lotof clients like it better than
(47:52):
Zillow.
Yeah, that's awesome too. AndI'm not a big fan of Zillow. So
I anything you can do to get goto someplace that is, it
actually gives you betterinformation. And and it's not I
don't know, I just think it'sset up better. Yeah, I agree.
100% and to get a hold of BNR Igot a hard working mortgage
(48:12):
guys.com That's hard workingmortgage guys.com Or you can
give us a call at317-672-1938 31767 to 1938. And
please follow us for more indiesreal estate gurus.
Ian Arnold (48:24):
And reminder if you have any friends, family or
coworkers looking to buy, sellor refinance let us know the
Lord. Happy to help you. John,thank you for joining us on our
show. It's been a pleasure. Thishas been awesome. We appreciate
it. Yep. And maybe in a yearwhen we have both your sons and
here we can hear the realstories Okay.
Announcer (48:42):
Went on MLS NUMBER 33041 returns in MLS number six,
six we're finding your normalNMLS number is 1995469 equal
housing opportunity somerestrictions apply
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