February 14, 2024 • 46 mins
Meet Cindy Stockhaus, your go-to Real Estate Broker in Beautiful Central Indiana! With over 20 years of experience under her belt, Cindy has earned a reputation as a trusted and ethical expert in the field. Whether you're a Buyer or Seller, you can count on Cindy to deliver results - she's consistently a top producer at her firm! But the secret to Cindy's success? Communication and savvy negotiating skills! She understands that every real estate transaction requires careful attention and creative problem-solving and is always up for the challenge! That's why she maintains a sturdy base of loyal clients who trust her and refer her to their friends and family time after time.
Hey there, it's Michael Stockhaus! I learned everything about small business from my amazing parents - Helmuth and Theresa - who ran a successful service station for almost four decades. After moving to sunny Florida during my teenage years, I quickly found myself immersed in the world of executive management. I've held leadership positions at both Winn Dixie and AMC Theaters, while also gaining invaluable sales experience as an outside rep for a janitorial company and working as a proof consultant for Olan Mills.
To Contact Cindy & Michael Stockhaus
Call or text 317-517-8407
Email--bhgoldkey@gmail.com
https://bhgoldkey.com
Visit Our Podcast Page
https://www.podpage.com/indys-real-estate-gurus/
Contact Hard Working Mortgage Guys
https://hardworkingmortgageguy.com/
Rick Ripma NMLS# 664589
Call or Text 317-218-9800
Email--rripma@advisorsmortgage.com
Ian Arnold NMLS# 1995469
Call or Text 317-660-8788
Email--iarnold@advisorsmortgage.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Rick Ripma (00:01):
Well, today we have Cindy and Michael stock house,
which is a perfect name for realestate agents, right? It's
awesome. So we always we wouldlike to start with what did you
do before real estate? And sincethere's two of you will kind of
get city what you know what didyou do? What was your life like
before real estate? How'd thatgo?
Cindy Stockhaus (00:23):
So before real estate I actually did a lot of
things before real estate butthe main ones I was a bartender
for a while, and then I didportrait photography for a long
time. And then did that and tillwe got married and did real
estate once my son was two yearsold. I decided, of course one of
those things that most realtorssay, I'm going to make my own
(00:45):
schedule and that type of thing.
So I've been doing real estatefor 23 years now, when you
Rick Ripma (00:49):
make your own schedule in real estate, that
means you work all the timeevery day, 24 hours a day, I
made my schedule. I work alwaysI always work always, forever.
And how about you, Michael?
Michael Stockhaus (00:59):
So I've done a lot of things too. When we
first met I was a golfprofessional, which goes along
with growing up in Florida, Iguess. And then I after that I
became a general manager for AMCtheaters and was employed there
until one day we decided wewanted to go in business
together. Being Today'sValentine's Day, this is our
30th year together. Sogratulations so So you figure
(01:21):
we've been working together forthe last 12 years. We've been
married for almost 30 years. Soyeah. Wow. When you say yeah,
Rick Ripma (01:31):
I know. It's 60 years apart. I'm 60 years the
total time. Yeah, my, my wifeand I've been married 39 years,
I think almost 14 Amazing. Youlose, you lose track. You know,
you can't remember it's it's alot. Now. You both grew up in
Florida.
Cindy Stockhaus (01:49):
So yeah, I'm originally born and raised in
Florida. 40 years CentralFlorida.
Rick Ripma (01:53):
And you grew up in New Jersey and then moved to
Florida.
Michael Stockhaus (01:56):
Got shanghaied to Florida. Yes, yes.
My parents retired and took mewith them. Oh, is that what
happened? They retired. So So Igraduated from school near
what's the villages in Florida?
Okay, and went in the Gulf andthe rest is kind of history.
Rick Ripma (02:10):
Okay. And then you two met on a on a blind date? Or
I remember reading somethingabout that. Can you tell us
about that? Yeah. So
Cindy Stockhaus (02:18):
I was I was a portrait photographer Olin
mills. You guys. I remember allthe mills. Yeah. And so I had
photographed this nice oldercouple. And we were cutting up
and I'm always joking aroundwith people. And they said, we
know the nicest young man we canset you up with we'd like you to
meet him. I'm like, No, thankyou. I'm good. And they finally
(02:38):
talked me into it. So I said,well give him this free eight by
10 gift certificate, and havehim come in to be photographed.
And I thought to save place. Youknow, if he's a serial killer,
maybe I'll figure and so he camein to be photographed. So our
very first time we met is inportraits. I was taking his
pictures. So he asked me outwhen we had wine afterwards. And
(03:01):
the rest is history. Yeah. Yeah.
How much
Michael Stockhaus (03:03):
money I spent in pictures that day.
Rick Ripma (03:06):
She's a heck of a salesperson. So So then how did
you guys get into real estate?
Cindy Stockhaus (03:17):
So I had a very good friend of mine who owned a,
she was a broker owner inFlorida. And she had always told
me, Cindy, you should do realestate, you'd be great at it.
Then when my son was two, I justwanted to do something to spend
more time with him again. And soI called Dorothy and I got my
real estate license and starteddoing it from then. And then
(03:39):
when we moved, it was acorporate move for us to
Indiana. And we had severalchoices of places we they gave
us but I fell in love withIndiana when we got here. And so
once we were here, he was socorporate, but then he always
loved real estate. He always didthe back office, he was always
into it, you know, withmarketing and things. And we
(04:00):
just decided that we wanted himto do it full time to be able to
spend more time with our kids.
So that's kind of how ithappened.
Michael Stockhaus (04:05):
Yeah, that's exactly how it happened.
Rick Ripma (04:08):
Did you both do it full time here in Indy, but you
were you were you had been doingit full time in Florida.
Correct? Yeah. Okay. Are youstill licensed in Florida? No,
Cindy Stockhaus (04:17):
I kind of wish I had kept my license in
Florida. But I have a lot ofgood agents that I can refer
people to there. And so it wasjust easier to do that than to
keep to license and
Rick Ripma (04:29):
they know, the area and everything else. Right.
Yeah, that is helpful, I thinkto an expert, you know, because
you were there. But the marketschanged, hasn't it? Correct. So
it could be totally differentthan what you remember. That's
Cindy Stockhaus (04:41):
exactly right.
And I want to make sure I'mgetting them the best service
and so yeah, I know it's greatRealtors down there all over
Florida. Plus, you
Rick Ripma (04:49):
guys would have to travel down there all the time.
If you had got a license, thatwould be terrible.
Cindy Stockhaus (04:53):
Terrible. I still go down there to see my
family all the time and hedecides not to because my
family's there. So Oh,
Michael Stockhaus (05:02):
there's a reason why we moved to Indiana.
Ian Arnold (05:05):
So let me ask you this, Michael. So she's been she
was doing real estate, and thenyou, you got the itching to jump
into it. Was it hard to do? Andthen let's be honest, working
with a spouse all the time isnot always the best. So as
always our learning curve,
Michael Stockhaus (05:19):
no, she's the boss, there's no problem. Um,
you know, it was harder than Ithought in the beginning to get
going. Um, you know, I thinkI've heard this before everybody
thinks that real estate, youmake your own schedule. It's
easy. No, it's not. It's acommitment. It took us probably
when I got in the business agood three or four months to
really get going. And it workedout really well. And I was her
(05:43):
buyer's agent for years and, andI enjoy it. I love doing it
today. It's really, really funto get out and meet people and
actually help them find a home.
Rick Ripma (05:55):
So how do you? How did you get going cuz you guys
came here from Florida. So I gotto thank you were, you didn't
know a lot of people when youwhen you started your real
estate here in Indiana. And realestate is a tough business to
get going in. For the vastmajority people. In fact, three
to four months is very fast. Sowhat did you do? What was your
(06:16):
process? How did you get going?
Michael Stockhaus (06:19):
Well, so when we first got here, he was still
working corporate. So I was ableto really get my feet underneath
me and figure out, get mybearings, that type of thing.
But real estate, it is aboutpast clients sphere, that type
of thing. But also we havecoaches, so our coaches have us
(06:42):
on the phone. So you justliterally get on the phone and
start working. I mean, you juststart making calls, knocking on
doors, those types of things.
And then once you do startgetting a sphere and you start
getting past clients, that'sword of mouth referral, and when
you do a good job for them,you're gonna get more business.
So we just went from there. Andthen when he first got in the
(07:04):
business, it was kind of crazy.
The market wasn't great, but itwas good. It was okay, it was
starting to come up. And he'salways been about marketing.
Michael's always been real goodwith that. And getting in on
things when they first arestarting with internet leads,
internet ads, those types ofthings. And so he's always been
(07:28):
a little bit ahead of the curve.
And that really propelled us upas well. Plus, we work
constantly. So
Rick Ripma (07:35):
yeah, well, that's what I heard. What I heard is we
worked. Yeah, you worked. Andyou have to work now, it just
amazes me how many people getin, and they they think that
it's just going to fall in theirlap. And it doesn't work that
way. You have to put a lot ofeffort forward. That's why I
love that question. I like tohear what people actually did to
get going. So what is yourmarketing? Now? What what do you
(07:58):
think the latest are the bestarea right now to market. And
Michael Stockhaus (08:02):
so I still think talking to people and
talking to a lot of people isthe best way to market. We're 60
days into our new brokerage. Andthat's what we've had to do.
We've had to call everybody andsay, Hey, this is where we're at
right now. This is what we'redoing. You know, this is what
we've started. And I thinkthat's absolutely the best
marketing in the world. You canadvertise online, and it's
(08:23):
necessary. But I thinkespecially with COVID,
accelerated, we lost the art ofconversation. And I think it is
so important to actually pick upthe phone and talk to somebody.
And then when then you get theword of mouth going on.
Cindy Stockhaus (08:38):
I agree and I think old school is you get back
down to the roots of knocking onpeople's doors. When you have a
listing go tell the neighborswhen you have an open house
invite them, you know,personally, making calls, those
types of things. That's where itis really market yourself and
your listings. Yeah,
Ian Arnold (08:55):
I would fully agree.
I mean, there's, look, Iunderstand the younger
generation, and I'm part of thatlikes to text likes to email,
but guess what? Sometimes, howmany times have you texted your
wife or something and been like,Hey, you're saying something and
she miss reads it? Right. Yeah.
So I mean, especially whenyou're talking to clients and
stuff. I think phone calls bestbecause you may not be able to
(09:17):
see them but you can you canread their voice. Alright. Do
they sound concern? Why wasthere hesitation? Why was this?
So I think the lie as you said,communication has to get better,
even though a lot of peoplerather just text. Yeah,
Cindy Stockhaus (09:31):
that's the truth. And we have clients, our
younger generation, I mean, mykids are you know that. And I'll
ask them in the beginning, howdo you prefer to communicate?
And if they'd rather communicateby text, mostly, that's what
we'll do. But we're, I'm stillgoing to call them I'm still
going to leave them a voicemail.
And then they call me back theyactually I think crave that more
than they think they do. So ifthey're busy and we text that's
(09:54):
great, but eventually I'm gonnacall you like I'm going to so
Get a
Rick Ripma (10:00):
text can't be a book. Right? Some things we have
to communicate. Right. Take alittle more than. Yes. Exactly.
Cindy Stockhaus (10:09):
Or an emoji.
Yeah.
Rick Ripma (10:11):
Or Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's hard. And I don't know if
you guys are like this, but Iam. I don't really completely
understand texting. I do a lotof it right. But I still don't
completely understand it. And Idon't always completely
understand I don't. If somebodyif somebody abbreviates things,
I don't have time to have noidea what in the world they're
(10:31):
talking, right. I
Cindy Stockhaus (10:32):
know. It's like, you gotta take a class.
Yeah. And I'll do I submit thatyou'll text me something with a
burger. And I'll think okay,I've no idea what that is at the
Google it. Yeah.
Rick Ripma (10:42):
Yeah. Well, yeah, that's, that's the beauty and
google anything. I think it'sinteresting that that, you know,
it hasn't changed. The numberone thing you can do for
marketing is you get on thephone and you talk to people.
That's exactly what you meetpeople. And you, you have to
(11:03):
build. That's how you build yourbusiness, right? It's how we've
always built businesses. That'sexactly
Cindy Stockhaus (11:08):
right. It even when you're shopping, or you're
eating dinner, or you're doingstuff during the day, I always
usually have my nametag on. Andpeople want to talk about real
estate. I mean, that's whateverybody does. And they see
that and they'll say, Oh, hey,how's the market? Or, you know,
just, you know, questions, andyou have to talk to people every
day, my coach, I have a certainamount of people I have to talk
(11:29):
to every day. And you know, if Idon't, then she's gonna yell at
me.
Ian Arnold (11:34):
So let's go into this. So just really quick, how
long have you been in thebusiness? 23 years, 23 years?
And you still have a coach? Ido? And how does this coach help
you? And now let's elaborate alittle more. How does the coach
help you throughout yourprocess? Wow.
Cindy Stockhaus (11:49):
So a good coach. And she is, she's been
doing this for 30 years,probably. But she keeps me on
track, she makes sure that Ihave my goal set and both long
term and short term. And thenshe keeps me on track. She's
always wonderful advice,especially with us open in the
brokerage, different things thatwe need to think about. As we're
(12:12):
doing that, she's always roleplaying with me as well, to make
sure that I am knowing thequestions to ask and those types
of things. She's just supersmart. So it just mainly, it
keeps me on track. And alsoshe's in Chicago. So the other
thing that I love about it isreal estate, always when there's
(12:34):
changes, of course it ebbs andflows. And it, the changes start
on the coasts, and then theymove the way into us in the
middle of the country. So she'salways keeping me on what's
going on. So I can let myclients know, if there's a
change in the market happeninggood or bad. She's gonna say,
okay, sending my West Coastpeople, my East Coast people,
this has started happening, andI can kind of forward that to my
(12:57):
clients. I
Rick Ripma (12:58):
think that's one of the beauties of having a coach
is that they talked to so manypeople that they can really,
they can take the best of whateverybody does and get in and
train you in that. That's
Cindy Stockhaus (13:10):
exactly right.
Because she coaches clients allover the country. And so I'm
really have my finger on thepulse of what real estate's
doing everywhere. Yeah. Whichhelps us here.
Rick Ripma (13:19):
Plus, if you're really good at making phone
calls, and you say, Well, yeah,this is what I do. And this
really works well. She's gonnapick that up, and she's going to
tell her client, and, you know,Texas, yeah, this this is really
working for some of my client.
Try this. And it really does. Itmakes a big difference. You
learn a lot by having a coach.
Oh,
Cindy Stockhaus (13:37):
it's the truth.
Yeah. And she does. She gives metips. You know, this person's
doing this. This is what hesaid. These are the materials
that he's using as far asmarketing. It's wonderful. Yeah,
Ian Arnold (13:47):
yeah, the thing that I really think it's vital, or
vital is one of those,especially younger agents that
are like, Oh, I can do it. Yeah.
But you need to coach, you needsomebody to sit there and mentor
you. And that's the reason I wasasking how long you've been in
there, and you've been in there23 years, and yet you still have
a coach, because things areconstantly changing. And you
never know what so let's, who'syour coach Michael?
Michael Stockhaus (14:12):
No, I'm the boss. I've got a coach too. I've
got a management coach. And shespends a lot of time working
with me on recruiting andworking with the brokerage
numbers. And also she's coachingpeople across the entire country
in Canada. So again, I'm in theknow of what's coming down the
pipeline because it doesnormally move in from the coast
and there's normally a two tothree week delay so we have time
(14:34):
to prepare for it. And I thinkone of the other benefits of
coaching is it gets you thinkingbigger. And I mean it's
sometimes you just see thelittle world you're around it
opens up your horizons and youthink bigger and your goals
become bigger. What you wantbecomes bigger. You talked about
going to Florida, why don't wantto go to Florida, I want to go
to California I want to go toHawaii, what do I have to do on
(14:57):
a daily basis to get myselfthere and on the weekly coaching
calls. That's what we discussed.
And it just keeps you growingand growing. You're never too
old to learn.
Rick Ripma (15:07):
Yeah, I agree with that. Everybody.
Michael Stockhaus (15:09):
Everybody looked at you when when that got
said?
Rick Ripma (15:12):
Well, that's because I'm a learner. I'm sure that's
exactly what it
Ian Arnold (15:16):
was. Well, here, if you wanted to learn, let's do
this. So somebody is wanting toget in contact with you to find
out what they have questionabout real estate buying,
selling or anything like that?
How can they learn the best wayto contact you? That
Cindy Stockhaus (15:28):
is a wonderful question. Thank you for asking.
So we are Better Homes andGardens real estate Gold Key, my
number, the number to reach usis 317-517-8407. And I'm
answering that call most most ofthe time is
Rick Ripma (15:45):
that a call in text both call or text and the number
is what I can't remember, I'mall
Cindy Stockhaus (15:52):
about learning wants to learn my stop
317-517-8407 Perfect.
Rick Ripma (16:00):
And to get a hold of her I got a
HardWorkingMortgageGuys.comThat's
HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com. Oryou can give us a call at
317-672-1938 31767 to 1938. Andthat is just a call that does
not allow text written answertext.
Ian Arnold (16:16):
So that's the reason why we do that. All right, so
Rick Ripma (16:19):
I can answer I just can't read.
Ian Arnold (16:23):
All right, so we're gonna take a sidestep. So let's
get know more about you guys. Soif I have to take away your
phones for 24 hours, you cannotwork whatsoever. What do we
catch you guys doing for fun?
Cindy Stockhaus (16:35):
Gosh, so spending time with my kids
they're grown when they'rearound is always a priority. Of
course. We are foodies. That's agood thing and a bad thing. So
we love finding really cool he'she's got a nose for it like he
can find the coolest talkbackrestaurant that you would never
(16:55):
find that has the absolute bestfood. So that's probably what I
would say one thing and readingwe're both readers so we read a
lot. Yep, and
Michael Stockhaus (17:05):
I think as we've been in the business
longer we've realized thatsometimes we do have to take a
break from our phones and wewill shut them off and we will
put them aside now we're nervouswhen we do that. We're
absolutely nervous when you putit aside because you never know
what's going to happen but thereis a time and place that you do
need to to take some time so
Cindy Stockhaus (17:24):
travel is good.
I love love love to travel Imean all over everywhere this
country of course but the worldtoo so we have the thinking big
thing we have things on ourcalendar of where we want to go
my daughter and I especially sotraveling is huge. Okay,
Ian Arnold (17:38):
so since you brought up the whole food thing oh
what's a good hidden gem aroundhere? Somebody will need to try
Cindy Stockhaus (17:46):
Oh my gosh probably on that guys. There's a
few so that place downtown thathas the soups it's right on the
circle. It's like the soup Nazi
Ian Arnold (17:57):
What is the name of Seinfeld reference?
Cindy Stockhaus (18:00):
Right on the circle around the corner from
potbelly sandwiches. So good.
They have the best soups inthere.
Michael Stockhaus (18:08):
I'm going to tell you that I will my hidden
gem is always Ruth's Christhere's nothing like a good
steak nothing like a good steak.
You know and honestly if you goup and down the the downtown
just about every place you gohas something good and something
different I mean, I can walk inany restaurant in the world and
find something that I want toeat
Cindy Stockhaus (18:31):
Brown County is a go to for us hard truth. Yes
if you haven't been there mygosh the food is amazing they
have of course they make youknow the liquor in the in the
beer and everything there soit's really good place to work
Rick Ripma (18:45):
as hard truth because I we go to Nashville a
lot.
Cindy Stockhaus (18:48):
Well, it's so it's they've got two of them.
There's one in Franklin as well.
Okay, but the one in Nashville alot more fun. If you type in the
distillery it's not downtown. Soit's gonna be in. I've never
seen it. That's exactly right.
It's in the woods. So if youtype in hard truth because they
you can take a distillery tourwhile you're there as well. But
if you're gonna go especially inthe weekend, make a reservation,
(19:09):
because it gets really packedwhere they have live music and
it's really cool place. Yeah,
Ian Arnold (19:14):
I will say this. I would agree with you Ruth's
Chris. Phenomenal. I mean, youthink you've had a steak and
then you go there and you haveone. Yeah, you you spend you
spend your pocket. Don't get mewrong, but you will that taste
you'll want to have it all thetime. It's so good.
Rick Ripma (19:30):
Yeah, as a vegetarian, I don't eat there.
Sounds a personal issue. But Ido I this is kind of a offshoot
of a different another podcastwe did and one of the guys one
of the ways he he did he reallyexploded on social media. And he
did coffee shops. He did reviewsof coffee shops. And when you
were talking about therestaurants I thought man, you
(19:50):
guys should do reviews ofrestaurants. He's really good at
finding restaurants and then hehad over a million hits of VIP
million views on one of hisvideos. was one of the coffee
shops. Oh, wow. And he said, hesaid, That's how he did. And
it's just, you just go in andask and they say yes. And then
you just do a real quick video.
He said it's works phenomenallywell, anyway, just an idea of
you when you werein my places that say yes, yes.
(20:17):
He said coffee shops say no. Andhe's like, I don't understand,
because he improves theirbusiness people go there,
because he has a lot of peoplefollowing. You know, social
media is great. But it's not allabout real estate. It's about
the other things. And that'swhat that's I have found that
nobody cares really that muchabout mortgages. What they care
about is the other stuff you puton, you know, the, this more
(20:39):
stupid things. Everybody likesthat.
Cindy Stockhaus (20:44):
Yeah, that's the truth. That's, that's the
truth. It's fun stuff.
Rick Ripma (20:47):
Just it's just a bizarre situation. All right,
Rick. Yes,
Ian Arnold (20:50):
I'm waiting to hear this.
Rick Ripma (20:52):
I'm gonna let you answer your favorite or asked me
if you're gonna let me ask myfavorite question. Yeah. Okay.
Well, I'll start with Michael.
So what is your what would yousay your superpower or
superpowers are,
Michael Stockhaus (21:02):
I'm extremely patient. I can work through any
problem in the world or anysituation in the world, because
I'm just that patient. And thatpatient learning that patient in
training, when you train people,and when you're coaching and
mentoring people, especiallynewer agents in the business,
you just have to have patience,things don't happen as quickly
as we want them to. So thatwould be my superpower.
Rick Ripma (21:26):
So are you bringing on new agents? Is that one of
the things that you're you'rebuilding a team? Yes,
Michael Stockhaus (21:31):
we're bringing on new agents and
bringing on agents and likeeverything else, we have a
certain amount of knowledge inthe beer business and certain
that matter of experience thatwe'd like to really pass along
and sit and coach and mentorpeople. And it does, it does
take time. And it does take alot of effort, not on my part
because I enjoy doing it. Butlike you said earlier in the
agents part to really work. Thisbusiness is not easy. It's not
(21:54):
for the faint of heart.
Rick Ripma (21:55):
And having a mentor, a good mentor. And a good
management team makes all thedifference in the world. Every
agent we've talked to on on inthese real estate gurus. Maybe
not everyone, but the vastmajority of them said the
difference in them making it wasthey got on the right team. They
made it they were floundering.
They got on the right team. Theylearned what to do. Right. You
know, and they had, they hadthis mentor and this mentor and
(22:18):
this mentor and that made allthe difference. That's the
truth. Yeah. So Cindy, whatabout you? What's What would you
say your superpower superpowersare? That's
Cindy Stockhaus (22:27):
a great question. Um, I would say, the
gift of gab. I love to talk topeople. I love to meet people
and find out about them and talkto them and just work with them.
So I guess it will be my mytalkative. I'm expressive. So
being expressive is mysuperpower. I can literally
(22:51):
leave the table in therestaurant and go to the
restroom, come back, and shewill know everything about the
people at the table next to us.
Amazing.
Rick Ripma (23:00):
Yeah, you know, it's amazing to me, because I don't
that's not me at all. Either.
Right. Yeah. But it's but it's ait's a great, you know,
superpower. It's a great thingto be able to do.
Ian Arnold (23:10):
Well, I love it.
Yeah. No, she just loves thewhole. And here's my business
card.
Rick Ripma (23:19):
And I don't think that's why she doesn't know why.
Cindy Stockhaus (23:21):
I can't help it. It's just natural. And
whether people like it or not.
That's the way it is. He's usedto it now.
Rick Ripma (23:28):
We can help it.
Yeah.
Ian Arnold (23:32):
Well, I would agree, though, talking to different
type of people in differentcircumstances is a huge power. I
mean, I can talk to people, nomatter what type of life you are
in just the way my family andeverything is. But I've been in
sales, military life, and I'veseen other people and I tried to
train them. And they are sohesitant. And I'm like, like, if
(23:53):
you're selling a car lot,customer walks in their lot.
They're afraid to go out thereand talk to the person who just
came to see them. And I'm like,no, no, if you can't do that,
how can you do anything else?
They're
Cindy Stockhaus (24:04):
there to buy a car robbery.
Rick Ripma (24:06):
They are absolutely
Ian Arnold (24:08):
the same thing.
Somebody walks into your officeand you can't get up and say
hey, how's it going? What? Whatbrings you in? Something's
wrong? That's exactly it is agift to be able to just randomly
just turn around. Hey, how areyou guys doing? What's going on?
So I fully agree with yoursuperpower.
Cindy Stockhaus (24:23):
Oh, thank you.
And I think it's a gift learningabout people meet new people. It
truly is a gift that is Yeah,
Rick Ripma (24:29):
I agree. That's actually why I really liked the
podcast because I love hearingpeople's stories. It's it's the
stories that that are sointeresting to me like how you
guys met that those things arejust really interesting. So
Ian Arnold (24:41):
you mentioned hiring people and everything. So let's
get into this. What type of whattype of characteristics or type
of people are how do you look tohire?
Michael Stockhaus (24:51):
Well, we know from coaching that the best type
of agents and amiable person andthat's what you're really
looking for. You're lookingsomeone who's amiable who can
get along With people who's notscared to talk to people, and
not scared to get out there, andI guess it's almost like a
politician press the flesh, youhave to be able to be personal
and have to be able to talk topeople. Otherwise, you're really
(25:12):
going to struggle in thisbusiness, you can get all the
internet leads you want, you canget all these things for to you
and for you. But eventually, youdo have to talk to somebody, and
you have to meet them. And Ithink that's, that's one of the
things that I stress when I whenI talk with agents, is I want to
make sure that they're really,really ready to go out there and
talk with people. And anyone canbe the real estate expert for
(25:33):
whoever they're talking to.
Everybody wants to know what'sgoing on with the market.
Everybody wants to talk aboutreal estate. So that's what you
have to be willing to do on adaily basis. Yeah,
Rick Ripma (25:43):
in real estate is, it's one of the beauties I
think, of real estate iseverybody. If you're you're
thinking of buying, you'rethinking of selling, or you own
a home, or you rent, you want toknow what's going on in real
estate right now.
Cindy Stockhaus (25:55):
That's the truth. It's so personal, like
it's one of the most personalthings that anyone has in their
life. And to add to that, whatwe're looking for, for me,
positivity positive, you I can'thave someone who's negative all
the time, like in your typepersonality, I really want
positive people. Because culturein our brokerage is huge. And we
(26:20):
want people to be just, and noteverybody's going to be rah rah
rah every day, you know, wetotally get that. But on a
general basis, a positiveperson. And honestly, even if
someone is not a total peopleperson like you to not want to
be a total people person, we canteach you and train you how to
(26:40):
be a people person when you needto be because sometimes it's
like you're onstage and you needto smile, and you need to talk
and and then it starts comingmore naturally. So yeah,
Rick Ripma (26:51):
I did it. Like You I started in bartending. Oh, yeah.
And as a bartender, you had toyou had to learn to talk to
people you did. That's exactlythe reason I got into it years
ago was so I could get out of myshell. Yeah.
Ian Arnold (27:03):
One of the there's a movie called sing. And it's
awesome. Because I told my kidsthis I go, you'll be nervous to
do anything until you firststart. And he tells the girl on
the stage, because she's sonervous to get just start. As
soon as you start. Everythingopens up. So for instance, you
got somebody nervous to go talkto him, I just say hello. As
soon as you say hello, nervesdrop, they're gonna say hello.
(27:26):
And then the conversation juststarts.
Cindy Stockhaus (27:27):
That's exactly good. Why not like that. So
every time somebody is
Ian Arnold (27:31):
like talking about that, that vision always pops in
my head. So what do you thinkthe two characteristics of
people that succeed in realestate,
Cindy Stockhaus (27:42):
oh, my gosh, you have to be self motivated.
Because you are your own boss,truly, you are an independent
contractor. So you have to getup in the morning, get up early
enough to exercise get yourmorning ready, and you have to
show up. Because it is work andyou have to treat it like a job.
(28:03):
You have to treat it like youare punching in the time clock.
So self motivated. Someone whois flexible with their schedule,
because it you are going to haveto be flexible when be ready
when buyers want to buy andsellers want to sell. So those
are two probably the big.
Michael Stockhaus (28:23):
I can't answer it any better than that.
Rick Ripma (28:27):
To me, it's it's that that ability to work, okay,
get up early, get to work. Andwork is is critical. And it's It
amazes me. And maybe maybe I waslike that. I don't remember ever
being like that. But maybe I waslike that, but I don't I don't
understand people who don't theygo, they don't work. They kind
(28:48):
of treat it as, okay, I'm a realestate agent. But you know, I'm
gonna go do this, I'm gonna godo that. And they don't. And
during those times, you couldactually do real estate, right?
Because you're talking topeople, but they don't. And they
don't know why they aren'tmaking
Cindy Stockhaus (29:01):
it. No, it's the truth. The realtors that I
see that, you know, get uparound eight Have some coffee,
they might be in the officearound 10 ish. You know, those
are the ones that don't make itand there's a lot that don't
make it. And unless you treat itlike a job and you have a
schedule and you have goals andyou get up every day, put your
(29:22):
you know, get everythingtogether and you're at your desk
no later than eight o'clock.
You'll do well, you really well.
So when do you guys get up? Sohe gets up earlier than I do. I
get up at six, he gets up at 530and then do exercise gratitude,
write in a journal. Look at mycalendar, make sure I have
(29:43):
everything that I need. And andthen we're at our desk everyday
by 730.
Rick Ripma (29:48):
So yeah, I think I think part of that is because I
get up at four or earlier justdepends. And I but I have a
process in the morning. Yeah,and you have a process in the
morning. You Yeah, it's amazing.
How much have you said, youknow? Well, you gotta learn. I
spent some of that timelearning, because there's nobody
bothering me. There's, it's, uh,I don't know what a wonderful
time the morning is
Cindy Stockhaus (30:11):
yes. And I have not always been a morning
person, being a bartender,you're definitely you're three
o'clock in the morning person,but you're not. So you have to
adjust. But it's the truth, thatquiet time. And that time that
you have to get your thoughtstogether to learn to read, do
whatever you're going to do andget your thoughts together for
the day is so important. It'svital. It really is.
Ian Arnold (30:33):
I find it because I wake up early, and then I get my
kids up and everything. But it'snice that I can go ahead and
start working. I can set upthrough our CRM system, emails
or text messages I want to goout, but I don't send them out
right, then I put it on, hey,send at nine o'clock or send at
10 o'clock, right? So I'mworking guess what's not
happening. I don't have phonegoing off. I don't have
(30:54):
processors calling me andunderwriters calling me for all
this stuff. It's just me time Ican quickly work get a lot of
stuff done at a lot faster pacethan all the phone calls run it
Cindy Stockhaus (31:03):
that is so true. It is your time to really
get yourself get your bearings,not only your mindset, because
mindset is huge with real estatewith anything you do. But you're
gonna have ups and downs. Hesaid it's not for the faint of
heart. So you have to have theright mindset going in. And that
really gives you time to getyour mind right and get your
mindset going. Right.
Michael Stockhaus (31:24):
I don't know how many mornings she wakes up
to Ed my light on the phone, meexercising or Jocko wick lead or
some kind of just somemotivational speaker, you know,
self help, because it reallydoes set my mindset for the day
and make it stronger. Yeah,
Ian Arnold (31:39):
really does. All right. So with your calendars
and everything I know you lookat them every morning, I want
more people's phone numbers andtheir names on there for you to
call them or email them. Sowhat's the best way to get in
touch with you? That's
Cindy Stockhaus (31:52):
a great question again. So you can text
or call the numbers317-517-8407.
Ian Arnold (32:01):
And that's call
Rick Ripma (32:02):
or text call or text and what was the number again, I
still can't remember. That
Cindy Stockhaus (32:06):
is three write this down. 317. everybody that's
listening write down317-517-8407
Rick Ripma (32:15):
All right, it's my goal to remember that I haven't
written down somewhere hereright here in front of me. We're
taking a test later, so I'll beable to remember next time, and
to get a hold of me and her Igot a
HardWorkingMortgageGuys.comThat's
HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com. Oryou can go to 317 or call 31767
to 1938. It's 31767 to 1938.
That's a call no text. All
Ian Arnold (32:38):
right, so I got a good question. And one question
of the week we ask every singletime so so hard one. So first,
we'll start with Michael. Andwhat was your first car in
Michael Stockhaus (32:49):
1974? Opel Manta?
Rick Ripma (32:52):
Oh, really? An Opal?
Yes. Amantha. All those aregood. Yes.
Michael Stockhaus (32:55):
It was great.
I would do 75 miles an hour if Istood on it. Yeah, they weren't
fast. But they look nice. Yes.
Yeah. That was my first car.
Yeah. Do you?
Rick Ripma (33:04):
Are you a car guy or not? Really? Not. Not really. So
it was just a car to you. It was
Michael Stockhaus (33:09):
my dad gave me his car to drive and I was at
16 I was darn happy to have it.
Ian Arnold (33:15):
All right. And Cindy, mine's
Cindy Stockhaus (33:18):
a little bit different. I have five brothers.
So trucks are the thing. So Idon't even know what your truck
it was one of my brothers boughtit for me. And it was a one ton
truck. Standard shift stickshift didn't have a bed and my
feet barely reached. So I wouldhave to like bend down a little
bit when I was shifting thegears and scared my brothers to
(33:41):
death. I had that for probablysix months and I gave it back to
him. And I went out and boughtmyself a Nissan Sentra.
Rick Ripma (33:50):
So big big change from the truck but that truck no
bad.
Cindy Stockhaus (33:54):
No bad. Yeah, no, it was a one ton truck with
no bed. stick shift. It washuge. And it was just it was
crazy. I love driving it. Imean, I really did. I did love
driving. It sounds fun
Rick Ripma (34:05):
to me. Yeah. You can tell I'm a car guy. So I like I
like cars. I like old trucks. Ilike all that stuff. I
Cindy Stockhaus (34:10):
like cars too.
So goals when he says think bigon my dream board which is
really important to 69 MustangConvertible is what I want. You
know I would do a 67 but I thinkthe 69 I like the body the best
so that's on my dream board.
Yep.
Rick Ripma (34:27):
What what motor Are you do you care? What kind of
motor? No, I
Cindy Stockhaus (34:29):
let my brothers figure that out. I want I'm more
worried about the color. I wantit to be powder blue with a
white convertible top.
Rick Ripma (34:36):
Really? Yes. I have a friend with that exact car.
No. Yeah. Oh no. It's a 69convertible Mustang. They
rebuilt the whole thing. It'sthe it's the I may not be
exactly powder blue. It's theit's one of the blues that they
have. It's a light blue. I'm notgood with colors.
Cindy Stockhaus (34:57):
My brothers would want you to say what kind
of in Unit has Yeah, that's whatmatters. Yeah. And so I just
wonder what color it is.
Ian Arnold (35:05):
Throughout the motor, you have to get Michael,
that guy's number here before weleave here, because they got a
big anniversary coming up. He'sno pressure. Okay. All right. So
we all know how real estatereally affects the family. So
your kids are older now. So howhas real estate affected your
guys's family?
Cindy Stockhaus (35:27):
So my son is a realtor. He is 20 He's gonna be
25 I can't believe it. He lovedit. He loved doing it. I mean,
so they when people would askhim, he got his real estate
license straight out of highschool, 18 years old. And people
would say how long have you beendoing real estate? And he would
say, since I was two, because hewas always with me doing stuff
(35:49):
and he loved it. So he stillloves real estate. My daughter
is the flip opposite of that.
She wants nothing to do with it.
She's going to she's at Indianastate right now going to school.
And she's going to I think, gofor her law degree. So she's
going to finish her criminalcriminology and then do that.
And she
Michael Stockhaus (36:09):
remember our phone number, we need help.
Cindy Stockhaus (36:12):
She wants nothing to do with real. I said,
Well, you know, you could be areal estate attorney. She's
like, No, no, no, thank you.
Yeah. So
Michael Stockhaus (36:20):
now in saying that with her, when I take a
phone call, and she's in thevehicle with me, she goes, you
know that you did really good onthat phone call. I like what she
did. So she knows. She knowseverything that we do. And she
actually grades us. So that'sit's kind of nice to have
another coach in the car withyou. Around. That's
Ian Arnold (36:34):
helpful. Yes. It is interesting is we have some
people that kids jump right intoit. Other kids are anti it and
will never touch it. Then youhave the kids that say they're
anti yet. Seven, eight years goby after they get out of
college. They come on backbecause they understand and they
start to realize, Wait, a nineto five or a nine to 10 Depends
(36:58):
on I mean, lawyers don't havethe best hours. Let's be honest.
That's the truth. So and thenyou're like, wait, I can make my
own schedule. I still justtalked to people. Wait, maybe I
should get back into it. Maybe Ishould do that what my parents
did. It's
Cindy Stockhaus (37:11):
the truth. And the crazy thing is she's been
around so much so long. We canbe having a conversation and
Mike will say something to her.
I need to ask your mom about 123Main Street and she'll say, is
that the short sale? Or is thatis that the one that's whatever?
And she'll know, you know, dothey have a first ride on that
one? And she knows everythingabout it. So she could do it?
Rick Ripma (37:32):
Well, she's obviously smart enough to I
mean, she Yeah, it'd beattorney. She's got she's got
the brains, too.
Cindy Stockhaus (37:37):
He's a smart cookie. Yeah,
Rick Ripma (37:38):
you have to. So what I know with the start of this,
you're kind of getting up andgoing. You've been in real
estate for a long time. So whatare you most excited about in
this startup?
Cindy Stockhaus (37:50):
Oh my gosh, probably. I for me, I don't know
about him. But for me, it waspartnering with Better Homes and
Gardens real estate, that wasincredible. They've been doing
homes in the way people live inthem, you know, the lifestyle in
them for 100 years. And so justthe culture with them again,
culture is really big for us. Sothey're one of their taglines or
(38:15):
they like to say mottos is bebetter expect better. And I love
that I want to. For our clients,it's an experience, right
customer services, everythingand communication. But also
having those extra tools, thosetypes of things I'm super
excited about and giving agentsa little something different in
(38:38):
the area, because there's notanother Better Homes and Gardens
real estate and it is a littledifferent. So we're excited
about that for me.
Michael Stockhaus (38:45):
Oh the for me, because I'm the I'm the
nerd. The back office systemsare the best I've ever had the
the CRM, the website, thecommunication, that the system's
all talking to one another. It'sgreat. I don't have to flip
systems, I don't have to go outand spend more money on
something that I want to workbetter. It's all there that the
(39:05):
the social media marketing, it'sjust it's awesome. It's just I'm
so glad we partnered with them.
It's just for agents is just anawesome, very robust system.
Rick Ripma (39:15):
So what does your team look like right now?
Cindy Stockhaus (39:19):
So of course, it's him and I, I am the listing
agent more or less. And I alsohave my designation with the
Institute for luxury homemarketing. So I'm a member of
their guild selling homes. Overa million but over 600,000
Really. And then my son and hisbest friend, both are full time
realtors, and they're on ourteam. They are buyer's agents,
(39:42):
they do listings as well,especially my son because he's
been around it for so long. Butthey really like working with
buyers and they have theirfriends who are at that age now.
They're all getting married, andso they're really having a good
time. So it's the forest andthen Michael is the managing
broker of our office and so hedoes all that Back Office
recruiting, hiring all paperworktype of stuff. You know,
Rick Ripma (40:04):
he's a nerd.
Michael Stockhaus (40:07):
But you know what, it's fun. I think that's
the underlying thing. And it'slike this today. This is fun.
You're all of this culturethrough showing up to work, you
got to have fun with it. Andthat's what it's really become
for us opening this brokerage.
It's so exciting. And every dayis just, it's fun to do this.
Cindy Stockhaus (40:25):
We also have a full time assistant, Mercy shout
out to Mercy.
Ian Arnold (40:29):
She's not part of the family.
Cindy Stockhaus (40:30):
No, she kind of is. I mean, we love her. But
yeah, so that's a must. Youknow, when you get busy like
this, you have to have it. Yes.
So how
Rick Ripma (40:38):
much fun is it to have your son working with you?
Cindy Stockhaus (40:44):
Right, it's amazing. To me, I have my
husband and my son that I workwith 24 hours a day. So there
are times for both of us. We'rethere like, I know, behind my
back, we got to give your yourmom me, she's getting on my
nerves. Like, let's send her toFlorida so she can see her
brothers. Let's just say, Mom,don't you need to go to Florida.
(41:06):
And so and then for me,sometimes you know, you need a
right. But honestly, it'samazing. When I when it gets
down right down to it, we'rereally close family. And I tease
with stuff like that. But weknow each other so well. And so
sometimes there's not a lot ofcommunication that needs to
happen. It's kind of a welloiled machine. And Kenny to my
(41:27):
son's best friend, he grew up inour house on weekends and
things. And so it's actually alot of fun.
Ian Arnold (41:34):
So, the good news is we know who the favorite child
is, in real estate.
Cindy Stockhaus (41:41):
I don't know my daughter, she's got Mel, she
keeps us all in line. She hasbeen an attorney her whole life.
She's a no nonsense kind of gal.
So she's kind of the boss whenit comes down to Gee, I wonder
where she got.
Ian Arnold (41:58):
All right. So when did this last question because I
like to hear story so and beenin business for over 23 years. I
guarantee you have some stories.
But what if Would you considerone of your most memorable
transactions?
Cindy Stockhaus (42:13):
Gosh, there's been so many I
Michael Stockhaus (42:15):
know there's been so many. And there's so
many things that happen I cantell you on numerous
transactions when I've left myphone in the house, and I've
already locked the lockbox, I amcrawling through doggie doors to
get my phone so I can so I cango get the key back out or I can
go get my phone or I can go getwhatever I've left in the house.
So there there may be on aRingCentral camera somewhere. A
(42:38):
picture of me going through adog is
Rick Ripma (42:41):
a teachable moment.
Michael Stockhaus (42:43):
never learned mowing down you put it back in
your pocket.
Rick Ripma (42:47):
That's it my wife to hear that.
Cindy Stockhaus (42:51):
Really, um, you know, I guess probably one of
one of the ones that comes tomind is she actually she's an
attorney, client of mine, wewere going to see a house and we
pull up to the house and youknow, the signs in the driveway.
The owner walks out meets us andintroduce himself. He had a
really odd name. But he said, Ididn't have a showing today. And
(43:13):
we thought, Oh, well I have iton my schedule. He's like,
That's okay. You can see thehouse. And we walk in and it was
just the strangest house. It wasbigger than anything we had seen
before. But it had all thesejust odd things. Like it was
just weird. So then we leave,and we get out she goes you
know, I don't think I would buythat house even though it was
(43:33):
bigger than anything else wehad. And we go around the corner
and it was the wrong house.
There's a house with the stlisted by the same company two
doors down. Oh, wow. And so youknow, we had another showing
that day. Was it better? And waybetter way. She didn't end up
buying it. But it was it was ourfirst adventure. We had several
adventures with her. She's a lotof fun. So yeah. So
Ian Arnold (43:57):
messages to new agents double check the address.
The address. That's exactlyright. Was
Rick Ripma (44:02):
that before we had GPS where he could check
everything? No.
Cindy Stockhaus (44:06):
I think it just threw us off because his name
was Mr. Sandman. And he came outmedicine. He said that we
thought he was joking. And hewasn't. But he was so nice. He
really was very nice. And so wedidn't even check the address.
We're like, Oh, he's so nice.
And we go in and it was just itwas funny. So wrong address.
Yeah.
Rick Ripma (44:22):
I can see me doing that. I understand what
happened.
Ian Arnold (44:27):
Yeah. All right. So if somebody wants you to show
him the correct house, andeverything, what's the best way
they can get in contact with youguys?
Cindy Stockhaus (44:36):
So our phone number text or call 317-517-8407
Rick Ripma (44:43):
it this time because I gotta written down and I got
317-517-8407 I'm so proud ofyou. Write something down? You
can remember. That's exactlyright. He can learn he can
learn. Yeah, well, barely. Andto get a hold of the inner I got
a hard working mortgage guys.comHardWorkingMortgageGuys.com
That'sHardWorkingMortgageGuys.com Or
give us a call at 317-672-193831767 to 1938. And please follow
(45:09):
us for more indies real estategurus. A
Ian Arnold (45:12):
reminder if you have friends, family co workers
looking to buy, sell orrefinance. Let us know. We're
more than happy to send youMichael, thank you for joining
us on our show. It's It was apleasure having you guys on.
Michael Stockhaus (45:21):
Thank you.
That was a lot of fun.
Cindy Stockhaus (45:22):
Thank you so much for having us. That was
fun, guys.
Ian Arnold (45:25):
Thank you. Hey, Rick, we had Michael and Cindy
stock house and today phenomenalagents, married couple. I mean,
it's interesting how they gotinto the business and then now
they're flourishing. What wasyour biggest takeaway?
Rick Ripma (45:42):
My biggest takeaway was, even after all these years,
they still have a coach and theyand they are still there
working. They get up early. Theyget into work, they're at work
by 730 They work all day. Theythey take it seriously it's a
job to them that they love to doand that I think that's that is
(46:02):
something that makes a bigdifference and especially when
you're getting going butcertainly after all the years
they still are doing that. Yes.
Ian Arnold (46:09):
If you are thinking about whether you need a coach
or don't need a coach, you needto listen to this because they
will go into the reasons whythey have and they've been in
the business for over 23 years.
So they will talk to you and letyou know the reasons why. Tune
in to hear Michael and Cindy
Well, today we have Cindy and Michael stock house,
which is a perfect name for realestate agents, right? It's
awesome. So we always we wouldlike to start with what did you
do before real estate? And sincethere's two of you will kind of
get city what you know what didyou do? What was your life like
before real estate? How'd thatgo?
Cindy Stockhaus (00:23):
So before real estate I actually did a lot of
things before real estate butthe main ones I was a bartender
for a while, and then I didportrait photography for a long
time. And then did that and tillwe got married and did real
estate once my son was two yearsold. I decided, of course one of
those things that most realtorssay, I'm going to make my own
(00:45):
schedule and that type of thing.
So I've been doing real estatefor 23 years now, when you
Rick Ripma (00:49):
make your own schedule in real estate, that
means you work all the timeevery day, 24 hours a day, I
made my schedule. I work alwaysI always work always, forever.
And how about you, Michael?
Michael Stockhaus (00:59):
So I've done a lot of things too. When we
first met I was a golfprofessional, which goes along
with growing up in Florida, Iguess. And then I after that I
became a general manager for AMCtheaters and was employed there
until one day we decided wewanted to go in business
together. Being Today'sValentine's Day, this is our
30th year together. Sogratulations so So you figure
(01:21):
we've been working together forthe last 12 years. We've been
married for almost 30 years. Soyeah. Wow. When you say yeah,
Rick Ripma (01:31):
I know. It's 60 years apart. I'm 60 years the
total time. Yeah, my, my wifeand I've been married 39 years,
I think almost 14 Amazing. Youlose, you lose track. You know,
you can't remember it's it's alot. Now. You both grew up in
Florida.
Cindy Stockhaus (01:49):
So yeah, I'm originally born and raised in
Florida. 40 years CentralFlorida.
Rick Ripma (01:53):
And you grew up in New Jersey and then moved to
Florida.
Michael Stockhaus (01:56):
Got shanghaied to Florida. Yes, yes.
My parents retired and took mewith them. Oh, is that what
happened? They retired. So So Igraduated from school near
what's the villages in Florida?
Okay, and went in the Gulf andthe rest is kind of history.
Rick Ripma (02:10):
Okay. And then you two met on a on a blind date? Or
I remember reading somethingabout that. Can you tell us
about that? Yeah. So
Cindy Stockhaus (02:18):
I was I was a portrait photographer Olin
mills. You guys. I remember allthe mills. Yeah. And so I had
photographed this nice oldercouple. And we were cutting up
and I'm always joking aroundwith people. And they said, we
know the nicest young man we canset you up with we'd like you to
meet him. I'm like, No, thankyou. I'm good. And they finally
(02:38):
talked me into it. So I said,well give him this free eight by
10 gift certificate, and havehim come in to be photographed.
And I thought to save place. Youknow, if he's a serial killer,
maybe I'll figure and so he camein to be photographed. So our
very first time we met is inportraits. I was taking his
pictures. So he asked me outwhen we had wine afterwards. And
(03:01):
the rest is history. Yeah. Yeah.
How much
Michael Stockhaus (03:03):
money I spent in pictures that day.
Rick Ripma (03:06):
She's a heck of a salesperson. So So then how did
you guys get into real estate?
Cindy Stockhaus (03:17):
So I had a very good friend of mine who owned a,
she was a broker owner inFlorida. And she had always told
me, Cindy, you should do realestate, you'd be great at it.
Then when my son was two, I justwanted to do something to spend
more time with him again. And soI called Dorothy and I got my
real estate license and starteddoing it from then. And then
(03:39):
when we moved, it was acorporate move for us to
Indiana. And we had severalchoices of places we they gave
us but I fell in love withIndiana when we got here. And so
once we were here, he was socorporate, but then he always
loved real estate. He always didthe back office, he was always
into it, you know, withmarketing and things. And we
(04:00):
just decided that we wanted himto do it full time to be able to
spend more time with our kids.
So that's kind of how ithappened.
Michael Stockhaus (04:05):
Yeah, that's exactly how it happened.
Rick Ripma (04:08):
Did you both do it full time here in Indy, but you
were you were you had been doingit full time in Florida.
Correct? Yeah. Okay. Are youstill licensed in Florida? No,
Cindy Stockhaus (04:17):
I kind of wish I had kept my license in
Florida. But I have a lot ofgood agents that I can refer
people to there. And so it wasjust easier to do that than to
keep to license and
Rick Ripma (04:29):
they know, the area and everything else. Right.
Yeah, that is helpful, I thinkto an expert, you know, because
you were there. But the marketschanged, hasn't it? Correct. So
it could be totally differentthan what you remember. That's
Cindy Stockhaus (04:41):
exactly right.
And I want to make sure I'mgetting them the best service
and so yeah, I know it's greatRealtors down there all over
Florida. Plus, you
Rick Ripma (04:49):
guys would have to travel down there all the time.
If you had got a license, thatwould be terrible.
Cindy Stockhaus (04:53):
Terrible. I still go down there to see my
family all the time and hedecides not to because my
family's there. So Oh,
Michael Stockhaus (05:02):
there's a reason why we moved to Indiana.
Ian Arnold (05:05):
So let me ask you this, Michael. So she's been she
was doing real estate, and thenyou, you got the itching to jump
into it. Was it hard to do? Andthen let's be honest, working
with a spouse all the time isnot always the best. So as
always our learning curve,
Michael Stockhaus (05:19):
no, she's the boss, there's no problem. Um,
you know, it was harder than Ithought in the beginning to get
going. Um, you know, I thinkI've heard this before everybody
thinks that real estate, youmake your own schedule. It's
easy. No, it's not. It's acommitment. It took us probably
when I got in the business agood three or four months to
really get going. And it workedout really well. And I was her
(05:43):
buyer's agent for years and, andI enjoy it. I love doing it
today. It's really, really funto get out and meet people and
actually help them find a home.
Rick Ripma (05:55):
So how do you? How did you get going cuz you guys
came here from Florida. So I gotto thank you were, you didn't
know a lot of people when youwhen you started your real
estate here in Indiana. And realestate is a tough business to
get going in. For the vastmajority people. In fact, three
to four months is very fast. Sowhat did you do? What was your
(06:16):
process? How did you get going?
Michael Stockhaus (06:19):
Well, so when we first got here, he was still
working corporate. So I was ableto really get my feet underneath
me and figure out, get mybearings, that type of thing.
But real estate, it is aboutpast clients sphere, that type
of thing. But also we havecoaches, so our coaches have us
(06:42):
on the phone. So you justliterally get on the phone and
start working. I mean, you juststart making calls, knocking on
doors, those types of things.
And then once you do startgetting a sphere and you start
getting past clients, that'sword of mouth referral, and when
you do a good job for them,you're gonna get more business.
So we just went from there. Andthen when he first got in the
(07:04):
business, it was kind of crazy.
The market wasn't great, but itwas good. It was okay, it was
starting to come up. And he'salways been about marketing.
Michael's always been real goodwith that. And getting in on
things when they first arestarting with internet leads,
internet ads, those types ofthings. And so he's always been
(07:28):
a little bit ahead of the curve.
And that really propelled us upas well. Plus, we work
constantly. So
Rick Ripma (07:35):
yeah, well, that's what I heard. What I heard is we
worked. Yeah, you worked. Andyou have to work now, it just
amazes me how many people getin, and they they think that
it's just going to fall in theirlap. And it doesn't work that
way. You have to put a lot ofeffort forward. That's why I
love that question. I like tohear what people actually did to
get going. So what is yourmarketing? Now? What what do you
(07:58):
think the latest are the bestarea right now to market. And
Michael Stockhaus (08:02):
so I still think talking to people and
talking to a lot of people isthe best way to market. We're 60
days into our new brokerage. Andthat's what we've had to do.
We've had to call everybody andsay, Hey, this is where we're at
right now. This is what we'redoing. You know, this is what
we've started. And I thinkthat's absolutely the best
marketing in the world. You canadvertise online, and it's
(08:23):
necessary. But I thinkespecially with COVID,
accelerated, we lost the art ofconversation. And I think it is
so important to actually pick upthe phone and talk to somebody.
And then when then you get theword of mouth going on.
Cindy Stockhaus (08:38):
I agree and I think old school is you get back
down to the roots of knocking onpeople's doors. When you have a
listing go tell the neighborswhen you have an open house
invite them, you know,personally, making calls, those
types of things. That's where itis really market yourself and
your listings. Yeah,
Ian Arnold (08:55):
I would fully agree.
I mean, there's, look, Iunderstand the younger
generation, and I'm part of thatlikes to text likes to email,
but guess what? Sometimes, howmany times have you texted your
wife or something and been like,Hey, you're saying something and
she miss reads it? Right. Yeah.
So I mean, especially whenyou're talking to clients and
stuff. I think phone calls bestbecause you may not be able to
(09:17):
see them but you can you canread their voice. Alright. Do
they sound concern? Why wasthere hesitation? Why was this?
So I think the lie as you said,communication has to get better,
even though a lot of peoplerather just text. Yeah,
Cindy Stockhaus (09:31):
that's the truth. And we have clients, our
younger generation, I mean, mykids are you know that. And I'll
ask them in the beginning, howdo you prefer to communicate?
And if they'd rather communicateby text, mostly, that's what
we'll do. But we're, I'm stillgoing to call them I'm still
going to leave them a voicemail.
And then they call me back theyactually I think crave that more
than they think they do. So ifthey're busy and we text that's
(09:54):
great, but eventually I'm gonnacall you like I'm going to so
Get a
Rick Ripma (10:00):
text can't be a book. Right? Some things we have
to communicate. Right. Take alittle more than. Yes. Exactly.
Cindy Stockhaus (10:09):
Or an emoji.
Yeah.
Rick Ripma (10:11):
Or Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's hard. And I don't know if
you guys are like this, but Iam. I don't really completely
understand texting. I do a lotof it right. But I still don't
completely understand it. And Idon't always completely
understand I don't. If somebodyif somebody abbreviates things,
I don't have time to have noidea what in the world they're
(10:31):
talking, right. I
Cindy Stockhaus (10:32):
know. It's like, you gotta take a class.
Yeah. And I'll do I submit thatyou'll text me something with a
burger. And I'll think okay,I've no idea what that is at the
Google it. Yeah.
Rick Ripma (10:42):
Yeah. Well, yeah, that's, that's the beauty and
google anything. I think it'sinteresting that that, you know,
it hasn't changed. The numberone thing you can do for
marketing is you get on thephone and you talk to people.
That's exactly what you meetpeople. And you, you have to
(11:03):
build. That's how you build yourbusiness, right? It's how we've
always built businesses. That'sexactly
Cindy Stockhaus (11:08):
right. It even when you're shopping, or you're
eating dinner, or you're doingstuff during the day, I always
usually have my nametag on. Andpeople want to talk about real
estate. I mean, that's whateverybody does. And they see
that and they'll say, Oh, hey,how's the market? Or, you know,
just, you know, questions, andyou have to talk to people every
day, my coach, I have a certainamount of people I have to talk
(11:29):
to every day. And you know, if Idon't, then she's gonna yell at
me.
Ian Arnold (11:34):
So let's go into this. So just really quick, how
long have you been in thebusiness? 23 years, 23 years?
And you still have a coach? Ido? And how does this coach help
you? And now let's elaborate alittle more. How does the coach
help you throughout yourprocess? Wow.
Cindy Stockhaus (11:49):
So a good coach. And she is, she's been
doing this for 30 years,probably. But she keeps me on
track, she makes sure that Ihave my goal set and both long
term and short term. And thenshe keeps me on track. She's
always wonderful advice,especially with us open in the
brokerage, different things thatwe need to think about. As we're
(12:12):
doing that, she's always roleplaying with me as well, to make
sure that I am knowing thequestions to ask and those types
of things. She's just supersmart. So it just mainly, it
keeps me on track. And alsoshe's in Chicago. So the other
thing that I love about it isreal estate, always when there's
(12:34):
changes, of course it ebbs andflows. And it, the changes start
on the coasts, and then theymove the way into us in the
middle of the country. So she'salways keeping me on what's
going on. So I can let myclients know, if there's a
change in the market happeninggood or bad. She's gonna say,
okay, sending my West Coastpeople, my East Coast people,
this has started happening, andI can kind of forward that to my
(12:57):
clients. I
Rick Ripma (12:58):
think that's one of the beauties of having a coach
is that they talked to so manypeople that they can really,
they can take the best of whateverybody does and get in and
train you in that. That's
Cindy Stockhaus (13:10):
exactly right.
Because she coaches clients allover the country. And so I'm
really have my finger on thepulse of what real estate's
doing everywhere. Yeah. Whichhelps us here.
Rick Ripma (13:19):
Plus, if you're really good at making phone
calls, and you say, Well, yeah,this is what I do. And this
really works well. She's gonnapick that up, and she's going to
tell her client, and, you know,Texas, yeah, this this is really
working for some of my client.
Try this. And it really does. Itmakes a big difference. You
learn a lot by having a coach.
Oh,
Cindy Stockhaus (13:37):
it's the truth.
Yeah. And she does. She gives metips. You know, this person's
doing this. This is what hesaid. These are the materials
that he's using as far asmarketing. It's wonderful. Yeah,
Ian Arnold (13:47):
yeah, the thing that I really think it's vital, or
vital is one of those,especially younger agents that
are like, Oh, I can do it. Yeah.
But you need to coach, you needsomebody to sit there and mentor
you. And that's the reason I wasasking how long you've been in
there, and you've been in there23 years, and yet you still have
a coach, because things areconstantly changing. And you
never know what so let's, who'syour coach Michael?
Michael Stockhaus (14:12):
No, I'm the boss. I've got a coach too. I've
got a management coach. And shespends a lot of time working
with me on recruiting andworking with the brokerage
numbers. And also she's coachingpeople across the entire country
in Canada. So again, I'm in theknow of what's coming down the
pipeline because it doesnormally move in from the coast
and there's normally a two tothree week delay so we have time
(14:34):
to prepare for it. And I thinkone of the other benefits of
coaching is it gets you thinkingbigger. And I mean it's
sometimes you just see thelittle world you're around it
opens up your horizons and youthink bigger and your goals
become bigger. What you wantbecomes bigger. You talked about
going to Florida, why don't wantto go to Florida, I want to go
to California I want to go toHawaii, what do I have to do on
(14:57):
a daily basis to get myselfthere and on the weekly coaching
calls. That's what we discussed.
And it just keeps you growingand growing. You're never too
old to learn.
Rick Ripma (15:07):
Yeah, I agree with that. Everybody.
Michael Stockhaus (15:09):
Everybody looked at you when when that got
said?
Rick Ripma (15:12):
Well, that's because I'm a learner. I'm sure that's
exactly what it
Ian Arnold (15:16):
was. Well, here, if you wanted to learn, let's do
this. So somebody is wanting toget in contact with you to find
out what they have questionabout real estate buying,
selling or anything like that?
How can they learn the best wayto contact you? That
Cindy Stockhaus (15:28):
is a wonderful question. Thank you for asking.
So we are Better Homes andGardens real estate Gold Key, my
number, the number to reach usis 317-517-8407. And I'm
answering that call most most ofthe time is
Rick Ripma (15:45):
that a call in text both call or text and the number
is what I can't remember, I'mall
Cindy Stockhaus (15:52):
about learning wants to learn my stop
317-517-8407 Perfect.
Rick Ripma (16:00):
And to get a hold of her I got a
HardWorkingMortgageGuys.comThat's
HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com. Oryou can give us a call at
317-672-1938 31767 to 1938. Andthat is just a call that does
not allow text written answertext.
Ian Arnold (16:16):
So that's the reason why we do that. All right, so
Rick Ripma (16:19):
I can answer I just can't read.
Ian Arnold (16:23):
All right, so we're gonna take a sidestep. So let's
get know more about you guys. Soif I have to take away your
phones for 24 hours, you cannotwork whatsoever. What do we
catch you guys doing for fun?
Cindy Stockhaus (16:35):
Gosh, so spending time with my kids
they're grown when they'rearound is always a priority. Of
course. We are foodies. That's agood thing and a bad thing. So
we love finding really cool he'she's got a nose for it like he
can find the coolest talkbackrestaurant that you would never
(16:55):
find that has the absolute bestfood. So that's probably what I
would say one thing and readingwe're both readers so we read a
lot. Yep, and
Michael Stockhaus (17:05):
I think as we've been in the business
longer we've realized thatsometimes we do have to take a
break from our phones and wewill shut them off and we will
put them aside now we're nervouswhen we do that. We're
absolutely nervous when you putit aside because you never know
what's going to happen but thereis a time and place that you do
need to to take some time so
Cindy Stockhaus (17:24):
travel is good.
I love love love to travel Imean all over everywhere this
country of course but the worldtoo so we have the thinking big
thing we have things on ourcalendar of where we want to go
my daughter and I especially sotraveling is huge. Okay,
Ian Arnold (17:38):
so since you brought up the whole food thing oh
what's a good hidden gem aroundhere? Somebody will need to try
Cindy Stockhaus (17:46):
Oh my gosh probably on that guys. There's a
few so that place downtown thathas the soups it's right on the
circle. It's like the soup Nazi
Ian Arnold (17:57):
What is the name of Seinfeld reference?
Cindy Stockhaus (18:00):
Right on the circle around the corner from
potbelly sandwiches. So good.
They have the best soups inthere.
Michael Stockhaus (18:08):
I'm going to tell you that I will my hidden
gem is always Ruth's Christhere's nothing like a good
steak nothing like a good steak.
You know and honestly if you goup and down the the downtown
just about every place you gohas something good and something
different I mean, I can walk inany restaurant in the world and
find something that I want toeat
Cindy Stockhaus (18:31):
Brown County is a go to for us hard truth. Yes
if you haven't been there mygosh the food is amazing they
have of course they make youknow the liquor in the in the
beer and everything there soit's really good place to work
Rick Ripma (18:45):
as hard truth because I we go to Nashville a
lot.
Cindy Stockhaus (18:48):
Well, it's so it's they've got two of them.
There's one in Franklin as well.
Okay, but the one in Nashville alot more fun. If you type in the
distillery it's not downtown. Soit's gonna be in. I've never
seen it. That's exactly right.
It's in the woods. So if youtype in hard truth because they
you can take a distillery tourwhile you're there as well. But
if you're gonna go especially inthe weekend, make a reservation,
(19:09):
because it gets really packedwhere they have live music and
it's really cool place. Yeah,
Ian Arnold (19:14):
I will say this. I would agree with you Ruth's
Chris. Phenomenal. I mean, youthink you've had a steak and
then you go there and you haveone. Yeah, you you spend you
spend your pocket. Don't get mewrong, but you will that taste
you'll want to have it all thetime. It's so good.
Rick Ripma (19:30):
Yeah, as a vegetarian, I don't eat there.
Sounds a personal issue. But Ido I this is kind of a offshoot
of a different another podcastwe did and one of the guys one
of the ways he he did he reallyexploded on social media. And he
did coffee shops. He did reviewsof coffee shops. And when you
were talking about therestaurants I thought man, you
(19:50):
guys should do reviews ofrestaurants. He's really good at
finding restaurants and then hehad over a million hits of VIP
million views on one of hisvideos. was one of the coffee
shops. Oh, wow. And he said, hesaid, That's how he did. And
it's just, you just go in andask and they say yes. And then
you just do a real quick video.
He said it's works phenomenallywell, anyway, just an idea of
you when you werein my places that say yes, yes.
(20:17):
He said coffee shops say no. Andhe's like, I don't understand,
because he improves theirbusiness people go there,
because he has a lot of peoplefollowing. You know, social
media is great. But it's not allabout real estate. It's about
the other things. And that'swhat that's I have found that
nobody cares really that muchabout mortgages. What they care
about is the other stuff you puton, you know, the, this more
(20:39):
stupid things. Everybody likesthat.
Cindy Stockhaus (20:44):
Yeah, that's the truth. That's, that's the
truth. It's fun stuff.
Rick Ripma (20:47):
Just it's just a bizarre situation. All right,
Rick. Yes,
Ian Arnold (20:50):
I'm waiting to hear this.
Rick Ripma (20:52):
I'm gonna let you answer your favorite or asked me
if you're gonna let me ask myfavorite question. Yeah. Okay.
Well, I'll start with Michael.
So what is your what would yousay your superpower or
superpowers are,
Michael Stockhaus (21:02):
I'm extremely patient. I can work through any
problem in the world or anysituation in the world, because
I'm just that patient. And thatpatient learning that patient in
training, when you train people,and when you're coaching and
mentoring people, especiallynewer agents in the business,
you just have to have patience,things don't happen as quickly
as we want them to. So thatwould be my superpower.
Rick Ripma (21:26):
So are you bringing on new agents? Is that one of
the things that you're you'rebuilding a team? Yes,
Michael Stockhaus (21:31):
we're bringing on new agents and
bringing on agents and likeeverything else, we have a
certain amount of knowledge inthe beer business and certain
that matter of experience thatwe'd like to really pass along
and sit and coach and mentorpeople. And it does, it does
take time. And it does take alot of effort, not on my part
because I enjoy doing it. Butlike you said earlier in the
agents part to really work. Thisbusiness is not easy. It's not
(21:54):
for the faint of heart.
Rick Ripma (21:55):
And having a mentor, a good mentor. And a good
management team makes all thedifference in the world. Every
agent we've talked to on on inthese real estate gurus. Maybe
not everyone, but the vastmajority of them said the
difference in them making it wasthey got on the right team. They
made it they were floundering.
They got on the right team. Theylearned what to do. Right. You
know, and they had, they hadthis mentor and this mentor and
(22:18):
this mentor and that made allthe difference. That's the
truth. Yeah. So Cindy, whatabout you? What's What would you
say your superpower superpowersare? That's
Cindy Stockhaus (22:27):
a great question. Um, I would say, the
gift of gab. I love to talk topeople. I love to meet people
and find out about them and talkto them and just work with them.
So I guess it will be my mytalkative. I'm expressive. So
being expressive is mysuperpower. I can literally
(22:51):
leave the table in therestaurant and go to the
restroom, come back, and shewill know everything about the
people at the table next to us.
Amazing.
Rick Ripma (23:00):
Yeah, you know, it's amazing to me, because I don't
that's not me at all. Either.
Right. Yeah. But it's but it's ait's a great, you know,
superpower. It's a great thingto be able to do.
Ian Arnold (23:10):
Well, I love it.
Yeah. No, she just loves thewhole. And here's my business
card.
Rick Ripma (23:19):
And I don't think that's why she doesn't know why.
Cindy Stockhaus (23:21):
I can't help it. It's just natural. And
whether people like it or not.
That's the way it is. He's usedto it now.
Rick Ripma (23:28):
We can help it.
Yeah.
Ian Arnold (23:32):
Well, I would agree, though, talking to different
type of people in differentcircumstances is a huge power. I
mean, I can talk to people, nomatter what type of life you are
in just the way my family andeverything is. But I've been in
sales, military life, and I'veseen other people and I tried to
train them. And they are sohesitant. And I'm like, like, if
(23:53):
you're selling a car lot,customer walks in their lot.
They're afraid to go out thereand talk to the person who just
came to see them. And I'm like,no, no, if you can't do that,
how can you do anything else?
They're
Cindy Stockhaus (24:04):
there to buy a car robbery.
Rick Ripma (24:06):
They are absolutely
Ian Arnold (24:08):
the same thing.
Somebody walks into your officeand you can't get up and say
hey, how's it going? What? Whatbrings you in? Something's
wrong? That's exactly it is agift to be able to just randomly
just turn around. Hey, how areyou guys doing? What's going on?
So I fully agree with yoursuperpower.
Cindy Stockhaus (24:23):
Oh, thank you.
And I think it's a gift learningabout people meet new people. It
truly is a gift that is Yeah,
Rick Ripma (24:29):
I agree. That's actually why I really liked the
podcast because I love hearingpeople's stories. It's it's the
stories that that are sointeresting to me like how you
guys met that those things arejust really interesting. So
Ian Arnold (24:41):
you mentioned hiring people and everything. So let's
get into this. What type of whattype of characteristics or type
of people are how do you look tohire?
Michael Stockhaus (24:51):
Well, we know from coaching that the best type
of agents and amiable person andthat's what you're really
looking for. You're lookingsomeone who's amiable who can
get along With people who's notscared to talk to people, and
not scared to get out there, andI guess it's almost like a
politician press the flesh, youhave to be able to be personal
and have to be able to talk topeople. Otherwise, you're really
(25:12):
going to struggle in thisbusiness, you can get all the
internet leads you want, you canget all these things for to you
and for you. But eventually, youdo have to talk to somebody, and
you have to meet them. And Ithink that's, that's one of the
things that I stress when I whenI talk with agents, is I want to
make sure that they're really,really ready to go out there and
talk with people. And anyone canbe the real estate expert for
(25:33):
whoever they're talking to.
Everybody wants to know what'sgoing on with the market.
Everybody wants to talk aboutreal estate. So that's what you
have to be willing to do on adaily basis. Yeah,
Rick Ripma (25:43):
in real estate is, it's one of the beauties I
think, of real estate iseverybody. If you're you're
thinking of buying, you'rethinking of selling, or you own
a home, or you rent, you want toknow what's going on in real
estate right now.
Cindy Stockhaus (25:55):
That's the truth. It's so personal, like
it's one of the most personalthings that anyone has in their
life. And to add to that, whatwe're looking for, for me,
positivity positive, you I can'thave someone who's negative all
the time, like in your typepersonality, I really want
positive people. Because culturein our brokerage is huge. And we
(26:20):
want people to be just, and noteverybody's going to be rah rah
rah every day, you know, wetotally get that. But on a
general basis, a positiveperson. And honestly, even if
someone is not a total peopleperson like you to not want to
be a total people person, we canteach you and train you how to
(26:40):
be a people person when you needto be because sometimes it's
like you're onstage and you needto smile, and you need to talk
and and then it starts comingmore naturally. So yeah,
Rick Ripma (26:51):
I did it. Like You I started in bartending. Oh, yeah.
And as a bartender, you had toyou had to learn to talk to
people you did. That's exactlythe reason I got into it years
ago was so I could get out of myshell. Yeah.
Ian Arnold (27:03):
One of the there's a movie called sing. And it's
awesome. Because I told my kidsthis I go, you'll be nervous to
do anything until you firststart. And he tells the girl on
the stage, because she's sonervous to get just start. As
soon as you start. Everythingopens up. So for instance, you
got somebody nervous to go talkto him, I just say hello. As
soon as you say hello, nervesdrop, they're gonna say hello.
(27:26):
And then the conversation juststarts.
Cindy Stockhaus (27:27):
That's exactly good. Why not like that. So
every time somebody is
Ian Arnold (27:31):
like talking about that, that vision always pops in
my head. So what do you thinkthe two characteristics of
people that succeed in realestate,
Cindy Stockhaus (27:42):
oh, my gosh, you have to be self motivated.
Because you are your own boss,truly, you are an independent
contractor. So you have to getup in the morning, get up early
enough to exercise get yourmorning ready, and you have to
show up. Because it is work andyou have to treat it like a job.
(28:03):
You have to treat it like youare punching in the time clock.
So self motivated. Someone whois flexible with their schedule,
because it you are going to haveto be flexible when be ready
when buyers want to buy andsellers want to sell. So those
are two probably the big.
Michael Stockhaus (28:23):
I can't answer it any better than that.
Rick Ripma (28:27):
To me, it's it's that that ability to work, okay,
get up early, get to work. Andwork is is critical. And it's It
amazes me. And maybe maybe I waslike that. I don't remember ever
being like that. But maybe I waslike that, but I don't I don't
understand people who don't theygo, they don't work. They kind
(28:48):
of treat it as, okay, I'm a realestate agent. But you know, I'm
gonna go do this, I'm gonna godo that. And they don't. And
during those times, you couldactually do real estate, right?
Because you're talking topeople, but they don't. And they
don't know why they aren'tmaking
Cindy Stockhaus (29:01):
it. No, it's the truth. The realtors that I
see that, you know, get uparound eight Have some coffee,
they might be in the officearound 10 ish. You know, those
are the ones that don't make itand there's a lot that don't
make it. And unless you treat itlike a job and you have a
schedule and you have goals andyou get up every day, put your
(29:22):
you know, get everythingtogether and you're at your desk
no later than eight o'clock.
You'll do well, you really well.
So when do you guys get up? Sohe gets up earlier than I do. I
get up at six, he gets up at 530and then do exercise gratitude,
write in a journal. Look at mycalendar, make sure I have
(29:43):
everything that I need. And andthen we're at our desk everyday
by 730.
Rick Ripma (29:48):
So yeah, I think I think part of that is because I
get up at four or earlier justdepends. And I but I have a
process in the morning. Yeah,and you have a process in the
morning. You Yeah, it's amazing.
How much have you said, youknow? Well, you gotta learn. I
spent some of that timelearning, because there's nobody
bothering me. There's, it's, uh,I don't know what a wonderful
time the morning is
Cindy Stockhaus (30:11):
yes. And I have not always been a morning
person, being a bartender,you're definitely you're three
o'clock in the morning person,but you're not. So you have to
adjust. But it's the truth, thatquiet time. And that time that
you have to get your thoughtstogether to learn to read, do
whatever you're going to do andget your thoughts together for
the day is so important. It'svital. It really is.
Ian Arnold (30:33):
I find it because I wake up early, and then I get my
kids up and everything. But it'snice that I can go ahead and
start working. I can set upthrough our CRM system, emails
or text messages I want to goout, but I don't send them out
right, then I put it on, hey,send at nine o'clock or send at
10 o'clock, right? So I'mworking guess what's not
happening. I don't have phonegoing off. I don't have
(30:54):
processors calling me andunderwriters calling me for all
this stuff. It's just me time Ican quickly work get a lot of
stuff done at a lot faster pacethan all the phone calls run it
Cindy Stockhaus (31:03):
that is so true. It is your time to really
get yourself get your bearings,not only your mindset, because
mindset is huge with real estatewith anything you do. But you're
gonna have ups and downs. Hesaid it's not for the faint of
heart. So you have to have theright mindset going in. And that
really gives you time to getyour mind right and get your
mindset going. Right.
Michael Stockhaus (31:24):
I don't know how many mornings she wakes up
to Ed my light on the phone, meexercising or Jocko wick lead or
some kind of just somemotivational speaker, you know,
self help, because it reallydoes set my mindset for the day
and make it stronger. Yeah,
Ian Arnold (31:39):
really does. All right. So with your calendars
and everything I know you lookat them every morning, I want
more people's phone numbers andtheir names on there for you to
call them or email them. Sowhat's the best way to get in
touch with you? That's
Cindy Stockhaus (31:52):
a great question again. So you can text
or call the numbers317-517-8407.
Ian Arnold (32:01):
And that's call
Rick Ripma (32:02):
or text call or text and what was the number again, I
still can't remember. That
Cindy Stockhaus (32:06):
is three write this down. 317. everybody that's
listening write down317-517-8407
Rick Ripma (32:15):
All right, it's my goal to remember that I haven't
written down somewhere hereright here in front of me. We're
taking a test later, so I'll beable to remember next time, and
to get a hold of me and her Igot a
HardWorkingMortgageGuys.comThat's
HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com. Oryou can go to 317 or call 31767
to 1938. It's 31767 to 1938.
That's a call no text. All
Ian Arnold (32:38):
right, so I got a good question. And one question
of the week we ask every singletime so so hard one. So first,
we'll start with Michael. Andwhat was your first car in
Michael Stockhaus (32:49):
1974? Opel Manta?
Rick Ripma (32:52):
Oh, really? An Opal?
Yes. Amantha. All those aregood. Yes.
Michael Stockhaus (32:55):
It was great.
I would do 75 miles an hour if Istood on it. Yeah, they weren't
fast. But they look nice. Yes.
Yeah. That was my first car.
Yeah. Do you?
Rick Ripma (33:04):
Are you a car guy or not? Really? Not. Not really. So
it was just a car to you. It was
Michael Stockhaus (33:09):
my dad gave me his car to drive and I was at
16 I was darn happy to have it.
Ian Arnold (33:15):
All right. And Cindy, mine's
Cindy Stockhaus (33:18):
a little bit different. I have five brothers.
So trucks are the thing. So Idon't even know what your truck
it was one of my brothers boughtit for me. And it was a one ton
truck. Standard shift stickshift didn't have a bed and my
feet barely reached. So I wouldhave to like bend down a little
bit when I was shifting thegears and scared my brothers to
(33:41):
death. I had that for probablysix months and I gave it back to
him. And I went out and boughtmyself a Nissan Sentra.
Rick Ripma (33:50):
So big big change from the truck but that truck no
bad.
Cindy Stockhaus (33:54):
No bad. Yeah, no, it was a one ton truck with
no bed. stick shift. It washuge. And it was just it was
crazy. I love driving it. Imean, I really did. I did love
driving. It sounds fun
Rick Ripma (34:05):
to me. Yeah. You can tell I'm a car guy. So I like I
like cars. I like old trucks. Ilike all that stuff. I
Cindy Stockhaus (34:10):
like cars too.
So goals when he says think bigon my dream board which is
really important to 69 MustangConvertible is what I want. You
know I would do a 67 but I thinkthe 69 I like the body the best
so that's on my dream board.
Yep.
Rick Ripma (34:27):
What what motor Are you do you care? What kind of
motor? No, I
Cindy Stockhaus (34:29):
let my brothers figure that out. I want I'm more
worried about the color. I wantit to be powder blue with a
white convertible top.
Rick Ripma (34:36):
Really? Yes. I have a friend with that exact car.
No. Yeah. Oh no. It's a 69convertible Mustang. They
rebuilt the whole thing. It'sthe it's the I may not be
exactly powder blue. It's theit's one of the blues that they
have. It's a light blue. I'm notgood with colors.
Cindy Stockhaus (34:57):
My brothers would want you to say what kind
of in Unit has Yeah, that's whatmatters. Yeah. And so I just
wonder what color it is.
Ian Arnold (35:05):
Throughout the motor, you have to get Michael,
that guy's number here before weleave here, because they got a
big anniversary coming up. He'sno pressure. Okay. All right. So
we all know how real estatereally affects the family. So
your kids are older now. So howhas real estate affected your
guys's family?
Cindy Stockhaus (35:27):
So my son is a realtor. He is 20 He's gonna be
25 I can't believe it. He lovedit. He loved doing it. I mean,
so they when people would askhim, he got his real estate
license straight out of highschool, 18 years old. And people
would say how long have you beendoing real estate? And he would
say, since I was two, because hewas always with me doing stuff
(35:49):
and he loved it. So he stillloves real estate. My daughter
is the flip opposite of that.
She wants nothing to do with it.
She's going to she's at Indianastate right now going to school.
And she's going to I think, gofor her law degree. So she's
going to finish her criminalcriminology and then do that.
And she
Michael Stockhaus (36:09):
remember our phone number, we need help.
Cindy Stockhaus (36:12):
She wants nothing to do with real. I said,
Well, you know, you could be areal estate attorney. She's
like, No, no, no, thank you.
Yeah. So
Michael Stockhaus (36:20):
now in saying that with her, when I take a
phone call, and she's in thevehicle with me, she goes, you
know that you did really good onthat phone call. I like what she
did. So she knows. She knowseverything that we do. And she
actually grades us. So that'sit's kind of nice to have
another coach in the car withyou. Around. That's
Ian Arnold (36:34):
helpful. Yes. It is interesting is we have some
people that kids jump right intoit. Other kids are anti it and
will never touch it. Then youhave the kids that say they're
anti yet. Seven, eight years goby after they get out of
college. They come on backbecause they understand and they
start to realize, Wait, a nineto five or a nine to 10 Depends
(36:58):
on I mean, lawyers don't havethe best hours. Let's be honest.
That's the truth. So and thenyou're like, wait, I can make my
own schedule. I still justtalked to people. Wait, maybe I
should get back into it. Maybe Ishould do that what my parents
did. It's
Cindy Stockhaus (37:11):
the truth. And the crazy thing is she's been
around so much so long. We canbe having a conversation and
Mike will say something to her.
I need to ask your mom about 123Main Street and she'll say, is
that the short sale? Or is thatis that the one that's whatever?
And she'll know, you know, dothey have a first ride on that
one? And she knows everythingabout it. So she could do it?
Rick Ripma (37:32):
Well, she's obviously smart enough to I
mean, she Yeah, it'd beattorney. She's got she's got
the brains, too.
Cindy Stockhaus (37:37):
He's a smart cookie. Yeah,
Rick Ripma (37:38):
you have to. So what I know with the start of this,
you're kind of getting up andgoing. You've been in real
estate for a long time. So whatare you most excited about in
this startup?
Cindy Stockhaus (37:50):
Oh my gosh, probably. I for me, I don't know
about him. But for me, it waspartnering with Better Homes and
Gardens real estate, that wasincredible. They've been doing
homes in the way people live inthem, you know, the lifestyle in
them for 100 years. And so justthe culture with them again,
culture is really big for us. Sothey're one of their taglines or
(38:15):
they like to say mottos is bebetter expect better. And I love
that I want to. For our clients,it's an experience, right
customer services, everythingand communication. But also
having those extra tools, thosetypes of things I'm super
excited about and giving agentsa little something different in
(38:38):
the area, because there's notanother Better Homes and Gardens
real estate and it is a littledifferent. So we're excited
about that for me.
Michael Stockhaus (38:45):
Oh the for me, because I'm the I'm the
nerd. The back office systemsare the best I've ever had the
the CRM, the website, thecommunication, that the system's
all talking to one another. It'sgreat. I don't have to flip
systems, I don't have to go outand spend more money on
something that I want to workbetter. It's all there that the
(39:05):
the social media marketing, it'sjust it's awesome. It's just I'm
so glad we partnered with them.
It's just for agents is just anawesome, very robust system.
Rick Ripma (39:15):
So what does your team look like right now?
Cindy Stockhaus (39:19):
So of course, it's him and I, I am the listing
agent more or less. And I alsohave my designation with the
Institute for luxury homemarketing. So I'm a member of
their guild selling homes. Overa million but over 600,000
Really. And then my son and hisbest friend, both are full time
realtors, and they're on ourteam. They are buyer's agents,
(39:42):
they do listings as well,especially my son because he's
been around it for so long. Butthey really like working with
buyers and they have theirfriends who are at that age now.
They're all getting married, andso they're really having a good
time. So it's the forest andthen Michael is the managing
broker of our office and so hedoes all that Back Office
recruiting, hiring all paperworktype of stuff. You know,
Rick Ripma (40:04):
he's a nerd.
Michael Stockhaus (40:07):
But you know what, it's fun. I think that's
the underlying thing. And it'slike this today. This is fun.
You're all of this culturethrough showing up to work, you
got to have fun with it. Andthat's what it's really become
for us opening this brokerage.
It's so exciting. And every dayis just, it's fun to do this.
Cindy Stockhaus (40:25):
We also have a full time assistant, Mercy shout
out to Mercy.
Ian Arnold (40:29):
She's not part of the family.
Cindy Stockhaus (40:30):
No, she kind of is. I mean, we love her. But
yeah, so that's a must. Youknow, when you get busy like
this, you have to have it. Yes.
So how
Rick Ripma (40:38):
much fun is it to have your son working with you?
Cindy Stockhaus (40:44):
Right, it's amazing. To me, I have my
husband and my son that I workwith 24 hours a day. So there
are times for both of us. We'rethere like, I know, behind my
back, we got to give your yourmom me, she's getting on my
nerves. Like, let's send her toFlorida so she can see her
brothers. Let's just say, Mom,don't you need to go to Florida.
(41:06):
And so and then for me,sometimes you know, you need a
right. But honestly, it'samazing. When I when it gets
down right down to it, we'rereally close family. And I tease
with stuff like that. But weknow each other so well. And so
sometimes there's not a lot ofcommunication that needs to
happen. It's kind of a welloiled machine. And Kenny to my
(41:27):
son's best friend, he grew up inour house on weekends and
things. And so it's actually alot of fun.
Ian Arnold (41:34):
So, the good news is we know who the favorite child
is, in real estate.
Cindy Stockhaus (41:41):
I don't know my daughter, she's got Mel, she
keeps us all in line. She hasbeen an attorney her whole life.
She's a no nonsense kind of gal.
So she's kind of the boss whenit comes down to Gee, I wonder
where she got.
Ian Arnold (41:58):
All right. So when did this last question because I
like to hear story so and beenin business for over 23 years. I
guarantee you have some stories.
But what if Would you considerone of your most memorable
transactions?
Cindy Stockhaus (42:13):
Gosh, there's been so many I
Michael Stockhaus (42:15):
know there's been so many. And there's so
many things that happen I cantell you on numerous
transactions when I've left myphone in the house, and I've
already locked the lockbox, I amcrawling through doggie doors to
get my phone so I can so I cango get the key back out or I can
go get my phone or I can go getwhatever I've left in the house.
So there there may be on aRingCentral camera somewhere. A
(42:38):
picture of me going through adog is
Rick Ripma (42:41):
a teachable moment.
Michael Stockhaus (42:43):
never learned mowing down you put it back in
your pocket.
Rick Ripma (42:47):
That's it my wife to hear that.
Cindy Stockhaus (42:51):
Really, um, you know, I guess probably one of
one of the ones that comes tomind is she actually she's an
attorney, client of mine, wewere going to see a house and we
pull up to the house and youknow, the signs in the driveway.
The owner walks out meets us andintroduce himself. He had a
really odd name. But he said, Ididn't have a showing today. And
(43:13):
we thought, Oh, well I have iton my schedule. He's like,
That's okay. You can see thehouse. And we walk in and it was
just the strangest house. It wasbigger than anything we had seen
before. But it had all thesejust odd things. Like it was
just weird. So then we leave,and we get out she goes you
know, I don't think I would buythat house even though it was
(43:33):
bigger than anything else wehad. And we go around the corner
and it was the wrong house.
There's a house with the stlisted by the same company two
doors down. Oh, wow. And so youknow, we had another showing
that day. Was it better? And waybetter way. She didn't end up
buying it. But it was it was ourfirst adventure. We had several
adventures with her. She's a lotof fun. So yeah. So
Ian Arnold (43:57):
messages to new agents double check the address.
The address. That's exactlyright. Was
Rick Ripma (44:02):
that before we had GPS where he could check
everything? No.
Cindy Stockhaus (44:06):
I think it just threw us off because his name
was Mr. Sandman. And he came outmedicine. He said that we
thought he was joking. And hewasn't. But he was so nice. He
really was very nice. And so wedidn't even check the address.
We're like, Oh, he's so nice.
And we go in and it was just itwas funny. So wrong address.
Yeah.
Rick Ripma (44:22):
I can see me doing that. I understand what
happened.
Ian Arnold (44:27):
Yeah. All right. So if somebody wants you to show
him the correct house, andeverything, what's the best way
they can get in contact with youguys?
Cindy Stockhaus (44:36):
So our phone number text or call 317-517-8407
Rick Ripma (44:43):
it this time because I gotta written down and I got
317-517-8407 I'm so proud ofyou. Write something down? You
can remember. That's exactlyright. He can learn he can
learn. Yeah, well, barely. Andto get a hold of the inner I got
a hard working mortgage guys.comHardWorkingMortgageGuys.com
That'sHardWorkingMortgageGuys.com Or
give us a call at 317-672-193831767 to 1938. And please follow
(45:09):
us for more indies real estategurus. A
Ian Arnold (45:12):
reminder if you have friends, family co workers
looking to buy, sell orrefinance. Let us know. We're
more than happy to send youMichael, thank you for joining
us on our show. It's It was apleasure having you guys on.
Michael Stockhaus (45:21):
Thank you.
That was a lot of fun.
Cindy Stockhaus (45:22):
Thank you so much for having us. That was
fun, guys.
Ian Arnold (45:25):
Thank you. Hey, Rick, we had Michael and Cindy
stock house and today phenomenalagents, married couple. I mean,
it's interesting how they gotinto the business and then now
they're flourishing. What wasyour biggest takeaway?
Rick Ripma (45:42):
My biggest takeaway was, even after all these years,
they still have a coach and theyand they are still there
working. They get up early. Theyget into work, they're at work
by 730 They work all day. Theythey take it seriously it's a
job to them that they love to doand that I think that's that is
(46:02):
something that makes a bigdifference and especially when
you're getting going butcertainly after all the years
they still are doing that. Yes.
Ian Arnold (46:09):
If you are thinking about whether you need a coach
or don't need a coach, you needto listen to this because they
will go into the reasons whythey have and they've been in
the business for over 23 years.
So they will talk to you and letyou know the reasons why. Tune
in to hear Michael and Cindy
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