ReBuilding a Real Estate Team in 2025 - Zach Castillo | HomeBase Team

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What really separates top-producing real estate agents from those who struggle to find consistent success? Zach Castillo, co-founder of The Castillo Group in San Antonio, shares his remarkable journey from physical therapy student to real estate powerhouse, revealing the strategic mindset that's fueled his decade-long success story.

"I subscribe very early that it's all about lead generation," Zach explains, cutting through industry noise with refreshing clarity. His story is particularly compelling because it began almost by accident—from persuading a college professor to pass him so he could pursue real estate to building a team that closed 50 properties worth $10 million in their first year. 

The conversation dives deep into what truly drives sustainable growth in real estate. While many chase the latest marketing trends or technology, Zach attributes his success to something far more fundamental: "I'm just going to listen to you and I applied what they said." This willingness to follow proven models rather than reinventing the wheel has been his competitive advantage.

What makes this discussion especially valuable is Zach's transparency about the challenges of team building, including the difficult lessons learned through losing team members and having to rebuild. His "prenup" approach to agent partnerships now ensures clear expectations from day one—wisdom gained through experience rather than theory.

Perhaps most compelling is Zach's evolution from defining himself entirely by his real estate success to finding greater balance and fulfillment: "If I could go back and talk to myself 10 years ago, I would say define who you are first." His practical advice for struggling agents—focus on winning just four days a week by adding one new prospect daily—offers a simple but powerful framework anyone can implement.

Ready to transform your real estate business? Listen now and discover why consistent action, proven systems, and proper tracking create sustainable success in any market condition.

Key Factors Podcast is Powered by ReviewMyMortgage.com
Host: Mark Jones | Sr. Loan Officer | NMLS# 513437
If you would like to work with Mark on your next home purchase or as a partner visit iThink Mortgage.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Yes, like I always say, if you need to cuss, just
use it the right way.
There you go.
Is there anything you don'twant me to mention?
I'm very transparent, so youcan ask me anything.
Okay, all right, good deal, Ilike it.
Jc, I'm ready when you are.
If you want to count us off,that's a good one.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Three, two, one.
Trying to become a homeowner isso frustrating.
I mean, I wish it were easy tofind out what options or things
I may qualify for there actuallyis an easier way.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
I'd love to tell you about it there is.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Uh, hold on, let me call you back.
Okay, I'm interested.
What's the catch?

Speaker 3 (00:41):
there's no catch.
If you have two minutes, I canliterally show you.
Now it's really catch.
There's no catch.
If you have two minutes, I canliterally show you now.

Speaker 4 (00:46):
It's really easy.
Sure, let's go.

Speaker 5 (00:47):
It's going to coach you line by line and have you
answer some questions that willidentify the best loan products
for you, starting with theproperty address, which is
specific to the area, whichprograms will work for you.

Speaker 6 (00:57):
It's going to guide you through a series of numbers,
loan options, and give youeverything so you can choose
what works best for you.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Well, I had no idea there were so many options out
there.
For me it was so easy, it wasso quick.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
And you didn't even have to run my credit.
I know I told you in less thantwo minutes.
Right, Did I make it?

Speaker 1 (01:12):
You did, let's go All right, let's go and welcome
back to another episode of KeyFactors Podcast Real Estate AF,
where the AF stands for andfinance, and I'm your host, mark
Jones, and we are powered byReviewMyMortgagecom, the largest
index of mortgage programs inthe nation, and on this

(01:37):
discussion I invited two guests,but only one of them was able
to join us today, so shout outto the other guests that
couldn't make it.
She'll love to see this whenit's all said and done, but what
I've been doing lately isasking ChatGPT to tell me a
little bit about my guests, andbefore I intro, I would like to
read this to you guys.
So we've got.
Zach and Mariana Castillo are adynamic duo behind the Castillo

(01:58):
Group, one of San Antonio's topreal estate teams.
Known for their experience,dedication and client-focused
approach with years known fortheir experience, dedication and
client-focused approach.
With years of experiencehelping buyers, sellers and
investors navigate the market,they have built a reputation of
delivering exceptional serviceand results.
Whether it's negotiating a deal, guiding a first-time homebuyer

(02:21):
or leveraging innovativemarketing strategies, zach and
Mariana are passionate abouthelping people achieve their
goals of real estate.
So, without further ado, I'dlike to introduce Zach Castillo,
zach how are you?

Speaker 7 (02:34):
I'm good, I'm good.
I need Chachi BT to gas me upmore.
Not bad right, that's prettygood, not bad.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
So in this discussion , since we don't have Mariana
here, it's all on you, I know.

Speaker 7 (02:45):
Fortunately, it's not the better half, right, that's
what I like to say.
It's the other half.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
The other half.
So, Zach, tell us aboutyourself.
Where did you come from?
Where did you guys grow up?
All that good stuff?

Speaker 7 (02:57):
Yeah, good questions.
I'm originally from San Antonio, okay, or not really,
originally my military family.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Try and talk into that mic, there we go.

Speaker 7 (03:05):
Perfect.
My parents are from San AntonioOkay, my dad's military.
So I was born in Lubbock, texas, and then, at the age of three,
moved to San Antonio.
I've been here ever since then,grew up through all my life in
San Antonio.
Then, when I graduatedgraduated from Warren High
School, okay, went to TexasState.
That's where I decided to goand expand my wings, but didn't

(03:29):
go too far, sure, and that'swhere I met Mariana, actually,
Y'all met at.
Texas State.
Up the street we met throughfriends.
Okay, I had a fraternitybrother who was there, my little
brother in the fraternity.
He was from San Antonio as welltoo.
He was from San Antonio as welltoo, and he introduced me to
Mariana.
Just one night I was drunk andwent up to her I was 19 years

(03:50):
old and said hey, I'm going torock your world.
Yeah, she looked at me and waslike you're disgusting, Get away
from me, that's awesome.

Speaker 8 (03:59):
Back then it wasn't really popular sliding to
people's DMs, so I slid to herDMs, yes.

Speaker 7 (04:01):
And ever since then.
That was 2008.
So it's been a long time.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Wow, yeah, for me as well, and it's funny because I
went off to college.
What year did you graduate?
College or high school?
High school, 07.
07.
Okay, I was 04.
So I'm just a tad older.
But when I graduated it waslike okay, I need to get out of
here so I can experience somestuff.
So I went over to Abilene, okay,so not too far away but, still

(04:28):
a little ways away, that I hadto make the trips to come back
and visit and act like I wastotally out of the state and
whatnot.

Speaker 7 (04:37):
Yes, but not really.
You were just down the street.
I was down the street, I was 45minutes away, so it was good
enough.
I got the college experience.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
There you go.

Speaker 7 (04:44):
And I think that's, at the end of the day, what I
was very grateful for, because Idid not do anything that I went
to college for yeah, so are yousafe to say what did you
graduate with?
I did, physical therapy was mymain focus, so it's exercise and
sports science with a physicaltherapy emphasis.
Literally.

Speaker 4 (05:03):
I tell everyone.

Speaker 7 (05:03):
That's when I found real estate.
So I found real estate when Iwas like 21 years old.
I was begging my teacher.
I remember specifically PT 3400as an anatomy class.
Wow, I knew I wasn't going tobecome a physical therapist and
I just begged the teacher orprofessor.
I said, please just pass me.
I got my real estate license.
I'm going to go sell realestate.
Yeah, I just need you to giveme a 60, which is what.

(05:24):
I needed to pass so I could walkthe stage.
I had my family coming in andwhen I got my grade they got a
60.
So I was like, perfect Boom.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
I'm going to real estate At that time, weren't
they doing that transition?
Physical therapists needed tonow have a doctorate degree.

Speaker 7 (05:38):
Yes, so I didn't know that.
I wish I would have, they wouldhave told me that.
Because then they said it wassuper hard to get in, super like
you got to know all thesethings, and that one class was
like one of the filter classes,that PT 3400.
And I knew at that moment thatjust wasn't what I was
passionate about.
I did like an internship and itwas just not fun.

(05:58):
And I also in my head I waslike I entrepreneur mindset, I
don't like the cap on my income,I want to be able to have
limitless opportunities.
And I remember asking thatperson owned that and I said how
like, how are you doing?
Like, how do you grow this?
And he shared kind of thebackend and the frustrations of
it and then I knew there wouldbe no way I could thrive in that

(06:19):
.
I didn't want to do that at all,so I just did it to just finish
off, and it sucks that I didn'tget to use my degree, but I did
learn a lot.
Oh, absolutely Just lifeexperience.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
Well, kristen, my wife.
She went to school for almostthe same thing, found out you
had to have to doctorate.
She was doing kinesiology,wanted to be a physical
therapist concept, worked at aPT clinic, all that, and then
switched over to nursing.
So she got her degree inkinesiology, then went over to
UT health science to get her BSNfor nursing and now she's doing

(06:50):
real estate and insuranceInteresting.
Yeah, right.
So yeah, now if you could tellme how I know you found real
estate then what was that like?
What was your journey in thediscovery of real estate?
That was a complete accident.

Speaker 7 (07:05):
It wasn't.
If you would ask me, like at 19, I would be like are you
getting real set?
It wasn't even on my radar.
I mean, I watched milliondollar listing.
That's when it was very popularthen um, which kind of ages me
because that's when it firststarted.
That's fun.
But I remember um, we had somefriends who went to a and m?
Um at college Station and wewent to go visit them and we
happened to stay at a reallycool complex that they were at.

(07:27):
It's called Aspen Heights.
Okay, eventually they came toSan Antonio and I thought there
was a cool concept.
You could rent a house but youhad the amenities of a apartment
Right, a pool, gym, all thatfun stuff.
And Mariana's dad he doesdeveloping and building.
And I said hey, well, what if Ipitched this idea to him?
What if I say hey, san Marcosis a good place to do it, it's

(07:49):
up and coming, it's growing.
We're not really up and coming,but it was it was in that
renovation time where they weretrying to become a big school
and I said this would be a greatopportunity.
So we actually found everything.
We found a piece of land, wefound a real estate agent.
We helped design the plans.
Funny enough, we pre-leased thewhole property, holy cow.
So, me and Mariana, we foundthe property manager.

(08:11):
They said well, you know, we'llhelp us do this.
And we went through and westarted selling and basically
pre-leasing the place because weneeded to have investors for
that project.
Come to find it, the investorspulled out.
Um, we had to really home allthese people about a couple
months before they're supposedto be moving in.
I was very naive.
I thought they could build awhole apartment complex in two
months.

(08:31):
I don't know why I thought that, but that was a wishful
thinking.
Yeah, but I, I the propertymanager and the real estate
agent there he was a broker andhe said you know, I asked him
for a job.
I said look, you've alreadyseen what I could do.
How about we work together andwe do property management?
I was doing all the studentproperty, so hired me on as a
leasing agent and I got toreally learn that business,

(08:52):
helped him build it and buildsystems around it, and that's
when I found out I really had apassion around it and then I
asked him.
I said, hey, well, can I get araise, because at that time I
was going to pay like 28,000bucks?
Sure, yeah, and I was only 21years old, it was good enough.
But then we were finally goingto graduate, finally get done,
and I said I really want to makemore money.
And he said I can't pay youmore in this business,

(09:13):
unfortunately.
Um, but he showed me his 1099and said but this is what I did
last year in real estate sales.
And I was like, oh, 700,000bucks, that's, that sounds nice,
sign me up.
And oh, $700,000.
That sounds like fun, that'snice, sign me up.
And he said if you're willingto do it, I'll pay for your
license.
He paid for my license Backthen.
It was very easy.
Sure, I literally just click,click, click, went through

(09:33):
classes and I got my real estatelicense like two months.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
We'll talk about that .
I'm going to add that to thenotes, the idea of it back then
it was easy.

Speaker 7 (09:42):
Yeah, it was super easy.
And then, so that's kind ofwhat started it.
And we started in San Marcos.
I did apartment locating.
Okay, that was a super easy job.
I just got to convince peopleto write my name on an
application and I got a hundredpercent rent.
Um, so I started doing that.
But eventually me and Marianawere like, okay, we're not going
to stay in San Marcos, we'regoing to, we want to move back
to San Antonio.
Sure, so that was in the fallof 2013.

(10:03):
And we found he was with KellerWilliams.
So he recommended us withKeller Williams in San Antonio.
And that's when I jumped in andsaid, ok, let's do full time
sales and do it by myself.
And so that was August of 2013.

Speaker 1 (10:16):
Holy cow.

Speaker 7 (10:16):
Almost 12 years later .

Speaker 1 (10:18):
Yeah, man.
So I guess before you even gotyour license, you were already
working on an actual real estatedevelopment project with your
father-in-law yeah, or soon tobe father-in-law at the time.

Speaker 7 (10:31):
And that's actually what my passion is I love
development, I love designing, Ilove building.
I love that part of it, and soit allowed my creative juices to
really go in there.
And since I created it, I loveto sell what I create, of course
, so then it was easier to sellat that point.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
Those conversations are always intriguing.
I have a Gilly good friend ofmine on here um quite often and
he does a lot of developmentdown on the South side of town.
Um, doing a good job of itright now and it, uh it always
gets a lot of questions from thepeople out there that are going
well, how do I get into that?
How do I I mean the first stepis money?

(11:13):
Uh, for sure that's.
That's um so in your growth,from going from leasing agent to
real estate agent and wasMariana doing this all alongside
you?
Not yet.

Speaker 7 (11:18):
So she didn't join until 2014,.
2015 ish time period.
So that first couple of monthsI didn't know what I was doing.
I didn't even know what Isigned up for.
So I signed up for like totrain with Keller Williams,
Right?
Um, I, at that moment in time,um, again 12 years ago, I was
the youngest person in the room.
I was 24, 20, yeah, 24 yearsold, Um, and every time I'd go

(11:40):
in and everyone was old enoughto be my grandparent, to be,
completely honest, or my parentsand I would get that a lot.
So I remember I didn't know whatI was signing up for and they
said you got to call people.
I was like, oh, I'm not goingto do that.
Open house is like, ok, I coulddo that, right.
And then I didn't realize Iactually had to lead, generate
and create business and leads.
So that was kind of a shocker.

(12:07):
And so then I basically justtrying to teach myself, but I
was terrified, um margaret, likeif you would have heard me.
I remember there was one momentand I it's a pivotal moment in
my life I started callingexpired listings okay and I
remember calling this person andI just kept saying, as it was
ringing, please don't answer,please don't answer, please
don't answer.
And then I it's one of thoseanswers, but it's like you've
reached the wrong number.
I was like dang you, likecompletely like I thought

(12:29):
someone was going to answer, Icalled to get a voicemail.
It was a wrong number, but Ihad all that anxiety and I
realized, dang, this is, this isscary like I don't know what
I'm doing, because I didn't knowwhen you won.
Really, I would say like once Imoved to san marcos and came, I
didn't really keep in touch withmy friends and even if I did,
my friends weren't buying homesat 24 years old.
So I just didn't know what Iwas doing.
Um, so at that moment I joineda team.

(12:51):
I joined, so I did it by myselffor about six months and
realized it was hard.
I sold two property, or threeproperties.
Two of them were pieces of landfor my father-in-law to develop
.
One turned into our house thatwe built, okay, and then one
turned into our house that webuilt okay.
And then was mariana's aunt andI helped her aunt um sell her
house, did it, you know, withina month.
So it was like a really coolwin to have yeah, my first sale.

(13:11):
Then I had another client and Ialways remember her, laura haley
.
I'll never forget her.
She made me run around thewhole city of san antonio and
she never bought a home.
She's a realtorcom oh man and,um, I just remember I was like
man, this is hard.
So I decided you know, if youtell me what to do, I'll do it,
and I get scared of people alittle bit.
So like I needed thataccountability, it was 24.

(13:34):
So I joined a team and I did abuyer, I was a buyer agent and I
did pretty well.
I mean, I think that first yearI closed about 16 deals.
Okay, really learned a lot.

Speaker 4 (13:44):
And that was in what year.

Speaker 7 (13:45):
That was 2014.

Speaker 4 (13:46):
Okay, gotcha.

Speaker 7 (13:51):
And then Mariana joined towards the end of that
year and she was like, okay, I'mgoing to.
She joined, the team we were onwas doing more of the listing
side, and eventually we came toa part where like, okay, I think
it's time that we do this onour own, and we decided to open
up the Casio group, and that wasMarch of 2015.
So we just celebrated our 10year anniversary.

Speaker 1 (14:05):
Congratulations on that Wow.
That's not an easy feat, Matterof fact, I'm going to be asking
some questions later about theprocess of building your team,
because I myself, I got in thebusiness in 2012 and the first
year my first full year I was atop producer.
I mean it was like, hey, what'she doing over there?
I was using top producer.
I mean it was like, hey, what'she doing over there?

(14:26):
I was using social media and atthe time we didn't have
assistants.
We didn't have that extra thatyou could have these days.
So it was like, well, do Istart building a team?
What do I do here?
Because there was too muchbusiness for me to handle at the
time for one person, bututilize social media and it grew
and grew.
To handle at the time for oneperson, but utilize social media

(14:47):
, and it grew and grew.
So, with you guys going throughthat process, at what point in
time did you feel like, okay,it's time to grow a team.

Speaker 7 (14:56):
From the day one.
So when we decided, okay, we'regoing to build a team, we made
that commitment, we're going tobuild a team.
We're not going to be just realestate agents.
The way my brain works, I'mvery systematic and more of like
an operations guy than it is onthe, like, sales side, sure, um
?
So through that I was like,okay, I'm going to build the
team.
Um, we were keller williams, sowe, that was the model.

(15:17):
The team model was what we werekind of ingrained into our head
.
So from day one I said, okay, Iknow I'm not supposed to do
paperwork.
We didn't have a lot ofbusiness coming in, so we worked
our butts off to say, okay,let's get business.
And within 30 days we hired ourfirst assistant Wow, some
college girl that we just said,hey, we need part-time work,
eventually turned into likefoolish part-time work, sure,

(15:38):
sure.
And we said, okay, this iswhere we're going to go and we
just started adding in peopleand adding in admin and leverage
that route.
And that first year, betweenMarch of 2015 to the end of the
year, december 2015, we me andMondiana closed almost about 50
properties $10 million in volumeand we knew, okay, we need
another agent to help us.

(15:59):
And so then that year, in 2016,we started building the sales
side of our business and wehired our first agent recruit,
which is actually she's stillwith us today.
How cool.
Her name's Daryl.
She's our operations leader andnow she's not doing sales
anymore, but she's doing andhelping us run our team.
But yeah, she came in almostnine years ago and that was our
first hire and we decided OK,from there we're going to start

(16:21):
building.
And we just started buildingand adding and following the
model.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
That's awesome.
Now I I've been speaking withmany different team leaders, uh,
uh, owners of uh, real estategroups, et cetera uh, especially
on the mortgage side as welland there comes a time in a
team's growth process to whereyou either lose some team
members, you add more teammembers, you find out that

(16:47):
that's maybe not the right fitfor that position, so you move
them to the other side of thetransaction the selling side, or
on the marketing side, etcetera.
When you guys were goingthrough that let's call it
growth trajectory that you wereon, what was the, I guess, most

(17:08):
important thing for you guys tohone in when you were seeking
out new team members?

Speaker 7 (17:14):
Yeah, great question, I mean, and I think a lot of it
.
I'll say I didn't know it atthis time, but we started
building as the market wasgrowing.
Okay, so that's one thing.
I retrospect if you would havetalked to me six years ago when
the market was doing pretty well.
That's one thing I retrospect.
If you would have talked to meright six years ago when the
market was doing pretty well andit was on that good growth,
yeah I you'd be talking to adifferent zach I did.
I was very egotistical, Ithought I was pretty the shit.

(17:36):
I thought I knew everything, um, and I wrote the market.

Speaker 1 (17:39):
If it means anything, you are the shit I appreciate
that.

Speaker 7 (17:43):
but I learned and I said there's like going by, like
wow, I'm a badass.
And then I realized, okay,there's some things I learned.
And I realized I learned thatthe wrong way.
And also it was in my twentiesmy upper, like late mid to late
twenties.
I didn't know what I was doing.
I got to a point where I wasbuilding, I just was testing
things.
But I learned so much duringthat time and I would say what I
, what I was looking for, werepeople who were like me.

Speaker 8 (18:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (18:05):
I was very lucky and very grateful that I found a lot
of people who were driven moneyhungry.
They wanted, they love successand they're highly achievable
high, high achieving people.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (18:14):
So, as we were bringing them into our world to
us, it was like you sellautomatically, like 18 to 24
homes your first year.
That's just what we do.
Like that was the Castillogroup.
That's who TCG was.
You come in, we help you makemoney.
I remember Daryl being a partof the world.
She's like I want to go toLondon Perfect, let's create it.
Put it on the dream board andbam, within a year she was in

(18:34):
London.
She bought her Louis Vuittonpurse, got her Mercedes and we
were very big on helping peopleachieve that goal.
A lot of early people.
They bought their first homes,they got their cars, they got
everything.
We were very big on it.
So we're very high productionbased people, yeah.
So when I was looking forsomeone, I was looking for
someone who said, yeah, I wantto close two, three, four homes
a month, said, perfect, let's,let's do this.

(18:54):
Yeah.
So that was the people we werelooking for and we were lucky
that we found some good people.
Some of them now they're, youknow, they have their own team
or they've separated, butthey're doing great things now.
Um, and I think that was one ofthe things I'm the most proud
to say to be around those people, because nowadays you don't
find that many high achievingpeople, and I think I just was

(19:14):
in this lucky spot where we gota good group of people.

Speaker 1 (19:18):
Um, now I've realized they don't exist as often and
I'm glad you said that becausethat that is uh as often, and
I'm glad you said that becausethat that is uh becoming a
reoccurring topic on this show.
Um, and it is the the level ofexpectations not meeting the
level of drive and hunger andpassion and fire that it should

(19:40):
have to have.
The expectations that thesenewer agents have coming into
the industry yeah, very true.
Before we talk about that, Iwanted to ask a question
regarding the team or teammembers that end up going off on
their own.
I'm good friends with a coupleof folks Andrew and Gail being
one of them that, just likemyself, we've lost team members

(20:03):
for them going off to do betterthings and, in our opinion, it's
almost as if we go into thisknowing that that is not only a
possibility but it's highlylikely for that to happen.
Yes, that being said, what areyour thoughts when that comes
about?
I mean, is it one of thosesituations where you let them

(20:24):
know how to off board from theteam?

Speaker 7 (20:27):
That's a great question and it beforehand it
was.
I was in La La Land.
Everyone's going to stay withus.
They're going to stay with usforever, yep.
Um, I have a had a coach lastyear who amazing coach.
She's changed the way that weoperate our business.
Um, she brought into me the lawof three and she's like the law
of three is you're going to haveyour top third, your people who

(20:47):
are automatically your NavySEALs, those are the people who
need your most attention.
You're going to have yourmiddle third.
Those are the people that paythe bills.
Yeah, then you have your bottomthird.
You ignore your bottom third,and it sounds rude.
I didn't have that bottom thirdas much, or that middle third

(21:11):
as much.
I had all the top third and Iwas like, okay, this is cool.
So I didn't know of this law ofthree, I didn't even.
There's a lot of people call itdifferent things, but the
concept is like 80-20.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
So when they told you that, that it didn't really
click, then it didn't.

Speaker 7 (21:23):
And she's like you're gonna figure it out, and I said
okay yeah and eventually, Iremember I told her I was like
you're right, you're, I have toplan, for one out of three
people will leave, um, and maybesometimes two out of three.
We have to be okay.
So I didn't have thatexperience at the beginning.
We did have some turnaround,but it was also I would see
other teams and I never thecomparison side would come up
and oh, I don't want to be therevolving door, I don't want

(21:45):
people coming in and out.
And I remember there was acouple of people I would be like
, yeah, we don't want to be likethem, we don't want to be like
them.
Well, we ended up being likethem and so I think what I
learned from that was I wish Iwould have known that in the
beginning and have thatexpectation.

(22:08):
As I'm getting, I'm in rebuildmode.
Luckily I have so muchexperience, so much knowledge.
That's made this rebuild easier.
But also frustrating, because Ihad to acknowledge one out of
three won't make it.
Yeah, and it's sad.
But I also share that with myagents.
I let them know, you know we,we might not be a good fit,
that's okay.
We won't know until we'reprobably three, four, maybe six
months in.
It's true that it's not a goodfit.

(22:29):
So now, in our agreement, onething that I'm doing now that I
didn't do is I'd send it to you,mark, and just let you read it,
and if you had much like aprenup Really Like I learned
that 10 years later was we'resigning a prenup.
So when somebody gets inrelationship or partnership with

(22:50):
us, I'm now sitting down withthem, walking them through that
and I'm saying this is whatwould happen if we don't stay
together.
And I want you to be aware ofthat because that is the most
important part that everybodywants to know what's going to
happen to my leads.
Will I get paid?
Can I work the business?
We're going to have thatconversation day one and we're
going to sit down and talk aboutit.
I'm not going to let youinterpret it a different way

(23:11):
that I interpret it, which Iinterpreted the way the lawyer
wrote it.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
Yes, yeah, yeah, and I'm also very grateful that you
mentioned that, because that initself is a key factor that I
want to hone in on regarding theexpectation and not just
expectations, but the level ofexpectation and the depth that
you see into the future thatyou're crossing off.
All of these would be, could besituations that more than

(23:38):
likely are going to happen, anda lot of folks out there, like
you said, go into it withrainbows and unicorns thinking
this is all going to be peachyfor the next rest of our lives,
till we retire, and that's justnot the case.
Realistically, I myself havehad to rebuild multiple teams,
the Mark Jones team, especiallyin this last let's call it phase

(24:01):
chapter season of real estate.
We were all high on our hogs for20, 21, 20, and some of 22.

Speaker 7 (24:14):
And then it's like holy cow, what happened?
That's when leadership, myleadership skill, had really
challenged me.
And there's one quote Iremember going back to and I've
heard it before multiple timesbut your business grows to the
extent that you do, and duringthat time I remember like I
wasn't growing.
During 2015 to 2020, I was on.
I was spending hundreds ofthousands of dollars on coaching

(24:34):
, investment classes, seminars,everything.
I was seeing that return comingback.
So it was all about growth mode.
When I thought I was there, Iwas like, oh, I'm good and I
wasn't investing as much as Idid before.
Now, this time I am back inthere.
I mean I'm completely investedin becoming the best leader,
best real estate agent, bestfather, best man that I could be

(24:55):
, because I'm happier that route, I will say to go into that
route.
I didn't have kids yet.
My daughter's going to comeuntil 2018.
My first one and our second one2021.
So during that time period itwas I was a little bit blessed
that I just went all inAbsolutely, and I appreciate
that, because I don't know how Iwould do that, because it's a
struggle today, a big struggle,but luckily I have experience

(25:16):
that makes up for that.

Speaker 1 (25:17):
Absolutely.
Now, I don't know how old thegirls are, how old are?

Speaker 7 (25:21):
We got a six-year year old and a three year old
who's almost, who thinks she's13.

Speaker 1 (25:24):
They all my gosh so, um, the idea of and this is
totally left field, but youbrought it up the idea of being
a high volume producer, a highachiever, a runner and a gunner,
um, like myself concept, I getit.
It is difficult and even goingOK is do we want to have kids or

(25:50):
do we want to?
It's a hard decision,absolutely.
Then, when it happens, it'slike a shock.
Now everything changes.
What the heck do we do?
The same thing that you weredoing before, but now you've got
a different priority.
That that is needing to beadjusted.
Once you guys had the kids, youknow, and after that, did life

(26:12):
get better, easier?
Was it more of a?
My level of drive is here.
Now I'm on a new level typeconcept.

Speaker 7 (26:21):
Good, I mean it was.
I think the hardest part was wehad kids, then we got hit with
COVID, so that was also oh,that's right Impact, so 2018,
then bam, we had 2020 COVID.

Speaker 1 (26:32):
And then it was busy, busy, busy, yeah, and it was
busy, busy and 2020.

Speaker 7 (26:35):
And then it was busy, busy, busy.
Yeah, it was busy, busy.
And then we had Zara.
She came in 2021.
So both my daughters areadopted, so she came in in 2021.
And I remember I was like, okay,how do I make this all work?
And I think the biggest thing Ialso want to do is like they
are my priority.
Yeah, my business is mypriority too.
But I had to reassign a newrole of my world and I realized

(26:55):
that in the beginning I was realestate, Like if you ask me
who's Zach, Zach is the Castillogroup with Mariana.
Like we were real estate agents.
I've changed that completelynow being a father.
But I remember watching JasonKelsey did a documentary and I
forgot what it was on, and Iremember he said something that
I resonated with and he says I'ma husband, I'm a dad, I just

(27:19):
happen to be a professionalfootball player.
He's like, but this is who I am.
So, like you see his house andyou saw everything he was in, I
was like you're just a normalfamily man, dad, Like you know,
like they're one of the realestlike families I could see.
And then he said I happen to bean NFL football star, I mean,
one of the best.
And that stuck me and said youknow, I need to identify who

(27:42):
Zach is, because I didn't knowwho Zach was.
And then I happened to run thisreal estate company, Right and
I.
That took me a little while andas COVID came in and and all
that was parenting and being allthat it allowed me to look
inward Didn't also help.
That's when my team was fallingapart too.

Speaker 1 (27:59):
We were seeing everything.

Speaker 7 (28:00):
And I said, okay, I have to really focus on myself
and figure out who I am.
Because I was in hustle culture.
Nothing against it, I think youknow it got me to where I was.
But if I could go back and talkto myself 10 years ago, I would
say define who you are.
First, because I wasn't happythat first round, sure, this
second round, business isn't asit was before, but I'm happier.
Life is different.

(28:21):
Yeah, life is different, and Ithink my daughters did allow me
to, they challenged me toactually think about that.
Yeah, without them I don'tthink I would have thought about
, I think I would still be thategotistical.

Speaker 1 (28:30):
Totally different perspective.

Speaker 7 (28:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
So it's funny that you mentioned that.
That's another thing that Iwant to hone in on, and I too
went through that who am I phase?
It was probably, oh, I wouldsay, right around the twenty,
twenty one ish.
Business was booming.
I at that time I'll be honestwith you guys out there, as I

(28:55):
always am didn't want to be seenas Mark Jones the mortgage guy.
I just I'm more than that, guys, don't you know?
I'm an entrepreneur, I'mfounder of Review my Mortgage,
I'm doing all these other things.
But at the ground level it wasMark Jones, the mortgage guy, or
the branch manager or thewhatever you want to call it,

(29:15):
the leader of the group.
And at that time I was goingthrough a lot of soul searching
to go OK, what is it thatdefines me?
So to speak.
And I think it almost goes backto what we developed in going
through the process of becominga top producer that hunger.
You are a successful personthat is willing to work harder

(29:37):
than the next guy to achievewhatever it is that you're set
out to do, and a lot of folksout there don't believe have
that mentality as they go intothis real estate journey.

Speaker 7 (29:49):
Yeah, I don't think so and I think that's hard and I
also get it.
It's a weird business because,yes, people come in, they say I
want the flexibility, I want tobe able to be my own boss but I
always go back to them and Itell them I said, look, that's
perfectly fine.
And then I teach a lot of peoplein our market center and a lot
of coach, a couple real estateagents.
But I think the biggest thingthat I'll go and people like I

(30:10):
want to make 100k everyonealways says that 100k, yeah, say
perfect.
Let's review what you've done,like the last month.
If you were to pay someone asalary of $100,000, which would
you know, let's just say $9,000,$8,000 a month Would you pay
yourself that money today,knowing the work that you did?
That's a great question andpeople would be like, no, I

(30:31):
wouldn't.
So why are you asking for ahundred thousand dollars?
You're not acting like ahundred thousand dollars.
And I think that's one of thebiggest is some people show up
as a $2,000 person a month.
That's okay.
I don't want 2000 month people.
I want people who want to makea hundred thousand dollars.
So they come and they show uplike that.
Yes, there's flexibility and Idefinitely get that, but the

(30:51):
flexibility comes with the price.
I do get to pick up my daughter, I do be able to go, I'm able
to go to events and things ofthat, but at what cost?
Well, there's a cost of.
Sometimes I am working untileight, nine o'clock at night.
Sometimes I do have to take alate phone call or, on a
Saturday morning, get up becausethat's when my client needs me
or that's when my agents call measking a question.

(31:11):
There's, there's a cost to it.
I'm okay with that cost, CauseI do love the freedom.
That's right.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
And and a lot of to add to that.
I believe a lot of folks umtend to skip over the hard work
piece to it.
Um, despite what took place inyour journey, all the while you
had to put in, the effort youhad to put in the hours.
Uh, to put in the hours.
Uh, who was it?

Speaker 7 (31:36):
uh, steve collins talks about the actually my
dad's or my family's first realestate agent?
No way, yes, I've known himsince he's like he's a long time
ago.
He is a stud.

Speaker 1 (31:45):
I've had him on here before and it was just like talk
to me more please oh he, he'sso good he hit you with some
powerful, powerful words and andhe.
We talked about the, the powerof, I think it's like 10,000
hours or something like that.

Speaker 7 (31:58):
Oh yeah for mastery.

Speaker 1 (31:59):
yeah, there you go and folks like us forget about
that concept.
Why?
Because we've already gonethrough the idea of becoming the
expert in our craft.
We fell in love with it someway shape or form that allowed
us to mush forward through thetough times or push further than

(32:19):
the next person that you'recompeting with, so to speak, and
a lot of folks that are notonly getting into the business
but also have been in thebusiness have never pushed
themselves as hard as maybe thenext person that is considered a
top producer expert, andthey're looking around right now
going where's all the business?

(32:40):
Well, there are phases in thisbusiness.
You could have been the mostsuccessful top producer in 2020,
2021, even 2012.
Who cares?
It's about the next day and thenext day.
So until you put in that workto build the team, to lose
people, to lose sleep at night,to lose hours with your family,

(33:01):
et cetera, do you even deserveto have the residual type aspect
of this industry?

Speaker 7 (33:10):
Yeah, and it is a hard thing that it's.
It's an iceberg effect, youdon't know what's under the
water.
You just see what's on top.
And I remember, like this,everyone like, well, I want what
you have and I want what you do, and you know people don't know
that it.
When we first started, it tookme like three years to finally
approve me and my dad to get araise.
We were on a salary even thoughwe were selling because we were

(33:30):
investing back into ourbusiness, absolutely.
And then I remember we wereokay, we're finally gonna enjoy
the fruits of our labor and wewent hard and we had a great
life and we kept going andpeople were like we want that
and I said, yeah, but this wasfive years of work, exactly, and
going in of.
Also, we very big on ourfinancial thermostat of like
setting what do we need to do?

(33:51):
Mariana, she is a killer.
She's a killer real estateagent.
She loves it and, like thismonth alone, she's our top
producer five closings thatshe's going to have this month
and.
I'm just like dang.
When the market is slow, you'restill consistently about five
deals a month.
People ask how do you?
How does she do it?
And I'm like she just hustles,and I know hustle is just the

(34:14):
easy way to say it.
But where she works herdatabase, she works her
relationship.
She follows up when she saysshe will.
She connects well with people.
She understands that it's aboutfinding the next deal.
Yes, you know, when I earn aclient and I have to service
them, that's awesome, but Istill got to go find my next one
.
Every day.
It starts from zero.
That's right, and we got to bealways focusing on who's next,
who's next, who's next, andwe've just always thought that

(34:35):
way.
So I think that does help.
Um, it's one of my worst thingsthat I hate about myself.
It's also one of the bestthings I hate about myself.
I'm never settled with what Ihave.
Like I always want more, but Isay that in a healthy way.
Like I go and like I want morefor myself and other people,
sure, but if I don't havesomething I'm chasing, I can't
like it's just not fun,absolutely so.
For her and I it's always okay.

(34:55):
This is great.
What's next?
Let's keep going.
Um, in the meantime, now we'reenjoying what we've done.
That's one thing I didn't doand now I'm enjoying everything
that we do work and I'm verygrateful what we have.
But, yes, I do want to stillkeep going.
It's still building and it'ssomething that I've learned that
that's okay to keep wantingmore.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
Absolutely.
And now that you've gonethrough the lumps of top
producing building a team,losing a team, rebuilding a team
you have the perspective thatis a lot different, that allows
you to take a bird's eye view onwhat you guys are doing, that
gives you the permission to havethe life, if that makes sense.

(35:35):
You know where you can injectit, you know where you can't,
whereas, let's say, somebodythat has not put in the work,
they'll continue to take thosebreaks to go to the family event
.
What have you?
And then wonder why they don'thave production or where's the
next prospect coming from.

Speaker 7 (35:53):
Very true.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
Does that make sense?
It does.

Speaker 7 (35:54):
And I, well, I'm very bad at my delivery.
So I always will say like whenI there's times I go back in
conversations like man, I shouldhave said that differently, but
my intention was that, like youcan't let off your foot off the
gas, you got to keep going.
Now I would say it more in arude way, but very direct.
But it's true, Like I, it's notthat I don't celebrate
successes, I just know itdoesn't matter until it closes.

(36:17):
Like at the end of the day it'snot closed.
So you need to keep going,cause what if it doesn't close?
I've had deals fall apart theday of closing oh, absolutely,
and it's just like crap.
Now that's not my only deal.
I have a lot of other deals,but still I don't like not
hitting my goal, so that pissesme off if I don't hit my goal.
So I go back and I realize Iconstantly, always have to
replenish what I'm doing andevery day is zero, like I can't

(36:40):
just be like.
I got it Even this week.
I'm starting this new thing ofwinning the day and making sure
every single day I'm addingsomebody into our database that
wants to buy or sell or join ourteam.
Today is Tuesday.
I'm still at zero.
I've lost Monday and I losttoday.
I'm still in the process ofgoing.
It's like okay, can I just winmore than I lose?

Speaker 8 (36:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (36:59):
And that's something our coach brought into us last
week and I it really took it,blew it out of my head.
I was like, okay, all I got todo is win more than I lose.

Speaker 1 (37:06):
Are you using any kind of trackers or anything
like that?

Speaker 7 (37:08):
Um, really, it's a simple tracker Win by.
Oh no, we're not using that.
It's just more like a poopemoji if I lose or a money emoji
if I win.

Speaker 4 (37:17):
I like it.

Speaker 7 (37:18):
We're starting to incorporate that in our team and
say, okay, did we add somebodyto the database?
Because if we're doing thatfour times out of the seven,
we're winning the week, right.
So that's really kind of justhelping us make it simple.
Sure, and I think, going in yes, we have to constantly go, but
it's like football and you go inthe playoffs.
You can't win last week's gameand walk in like, yeah, we
scored all these points andwe're walking in.

(37:39):
No, you're walking with zeroClean slate.
So you got to start all overand you got to win more than you
lose.
And now in our playoffs, ourgoal, when we hit the
championship, did we hit ourgoal?
And so just changing thatperspective allowed us to look
different.
But it's also for people.
It's this business you have towin every day.
So if you got a new clientyesterday awesome.
What are you doing today to getanother one?
What are you doing to getanother contract?

(38:00):
Are you moving people down thepipeline?
And there's the great thingabout our business there's a lot
of different cycles and phases.
There's your current clients,there's the clients you just
acquired, there's people on yourcontract, there's your leads
there, lot of different ones,but you got to focus on the lead
measures that are going to getyou those lag measures.
And I I just subscribed veryearly that it's all about lead
generation and I'm just thatannoying guy when people give me

(38:21):
, hey, well, this isn't working.
I was like you're not leadgenerating enough.
And they don't like that answer.
And it's, you're just not leadgenerating enough.
Now what I learned is I builtit off cold calling.
Sure, it's prospecting the hardway the hard, the hard way, the
hard way.
I didn't realize there areother ways, but it's still the
same thing.
If I do an open house and getleads, I still got to call and
prospect.

Speaker 1 (38:38):
Well, let's put it this way you don't do an open
house to not get leads.
I mean, that is the intent ofit.
And there's a lot of folks outthere that will do an open house
and say, okay, I had great foottraffic, great, how many of
those turned into a prospectthat turned into a client that

(38:58):
is now under contract?
Well, none of them.
Well then, what are you doing?
You're doing something wrong.
You wasted a Saturday.

Speaker 7 (39:00):
Absolutely, and I think with my daughters it's I'm
choosing to do an open housethan spend time with my
daughters.
Absolutely, and I'm okay withthat decision.

Speaker 4 (39:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (39:09):
However, I'm not okay if I don't show up and I do bad
.
There's been times where I'mlike I just freaking, wasted my
time, that's right.
And if I go home and I myaudience finds out I wasted my
time she's going to be mad.
Hey, we like we're, we're inbusiness together, we're
partners and in life and inbusiness.
But when she goes out, it'slike, okay, great, you're going
to go out on that appointment.
Okay, are you going to getright an, she's like you didn't

(39:30):
close it.
You didn't get the listing.
And I'm like, no, and I givesome stupid excuse, that was
just because I lost and I wasn'tstrong enough to close the deal
.
But now I'm going into those,I'm like I'm not not closing
this because I could have spenttime with my girls or I could

(39:50):
have done X, y and enjoy thismoment.
Now that's the perspective Ilook at.
So if I'm going to do it, I'mgoing to make sure I walk out of
there with that listingagreement, that buyer
representation.
I'm going to win thatopportunity.
Or I've done everything that Iknow that I can sleep good at
night.
Tell my family hey, I did theabsolute best I could,
absolutely, and that's all I cando, because not everyone's
going to say yes, but if I didthe absolute best, I'm not going

(40:12):
to get mad at myself, right?

Speaker 1 (40:14):
And I think it has a lot to do with the mindset of
the failures.
So, for example, you don't gettoo, too excited when a deal
closes, and that's not becauseyou don't feel that excitement,
it's just.
That was the intention.
Yeah, I set out to prospectthis person.
I now have them as a client, Inow have the buyer's rep

(40:36):
agreement or the listingagreement, and the goal was to
sell this property or sell thema property.
We did that, so now the nextthing that I have to gauge my
progress on is where's my nextprospect coming from Exactly?
That's more important or moreappeasing and gratifying for you
as a top producer, I wouldimagine, just like myself than

(40:58):
the deal closing.

Speaker 7 (41:00):
Yeah, my favorite part and I look at the sell
cycle ends for real estateagents is when they sign an
agreement with you, Like that'struly they got to that, because
the rest you can control a lotof it.
But once they say yes, it'sreally weird.
People change after they signthat agreement.
They're not as crazy, they'renot as interviewing you and
grilling you and on your assabout everything.
When they hire you it's likeeverything goes away, yeah, and

(41:22):
now they trust you.
To me that's the more excitingpart.
So when they hire me, I'm verybig on that experience, because
now I just got to deliver, whichI know I can't because- 10, 000
hours you've done there yeah,and a lot of it too.
We've built our team around that.
So our, when people partnerwith us, our agents it's like
just get them to sign with you,we'll help you, take care of the
rest.
We have admin to help you, wehave marketing like we'll take

(41:44):
care of the rest.
I just need you to get them tosay yes gotcha and so everything
we're focusing on is okay justget people to say yes, because
if I get a new client everysingle week, well, I should.
I should sell 30, 40 homes,absolutely.
All I got to do is let themfollow the process and if they
don't, I have enough people thatI should still sell 30 homes.
That's right.
So it's just the way I've kindof focused on and like right now

(42:05):
, my main goal is can I get anew client and then every week,
can I get a new contract?
They're not all going to close,but that alone, if I'm only
working 40 weeks, hey, that'sgood enough business for me.
I'm sure it's good enough forbusiness for a lot of other
people, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (42:17):
It is yeah, and I guess.
One last question before wedive into some current events
and what's going on with themarket but what would you
attribute you guys' success as ateam to the most If I had to
pick multiple things leadership,prospecting, et cetera Because

(42:38):
from what I gathered thus far,you're not doing anything crazy
out of the ordinary doingpromoting TikTok videos and on
billboards or anything like that.
So what is it that adds that?

Speaker 7 (42:52):
That makes it?
Yeah, that's a great questionand it's weird I guess this
isn't my answer.
I think it's because I am sooperations-based and systemized
and model-based.
You tell me it works.
I'm gonna run the model.
I'm like, yeah, that works.
So I've followed a lot ofmodels and I've followed other
people who've been as successfuland they say do this.

(43:12):
I've learned to just say whatif I just do what they're
telling?

Speaker 4 (43:17):
me to do.

Speaker 7 (43:17):
Because most of the time people say no, I don't want
to do that.
I'm going to try to do it myway.
And I've learned with my team.
I would tell them what to doand they don't do it.
I'm like why do you think I'mtelling you this?
Like, do you think I'm justtelling you this?
Just to tell you.

Speaker 1 (43:30):
So you're saying it's not just me that?

Speaker 7 (43:32):
No, it's not just you .
And so then?
But then I also put that mirrorin front of me and say, well,
if they're telling me this too,right, why am I not doing?

Speaker 8 (43:39):
it.

Speaker 7 (43:39):
Good point and I said , okay, I'm just going to
subscribe to what people aretelling me to do, and so that
was from the beginning.
So when people said, build ateam, okay, build a team, all
right, you have agent help youwith that.
And I think, as I go back, Ialways had a coach, a business
coach, and I had accountability.
So if I go back, I had somebodywho was feeding me the models
and systems.

(44:00):
I was the person that I'm justgoing to listen to you and I
applied what they said.
I didn't do it a hundred percent, but I had some type of
playbook or some type of guide.
If I'm trying to do this my own, you're wasting time because
people have done it beforehand.
Might as well just follow,because they're leaving the
breadcrumbs for you anyways, andI'm very big on that when I
teach people like I will tellyou everything I do, right, it

(44:22):
is up to you to actually take itand apply it.
It's not easy, all right, it'ssimple, but it's not easy.
But I do know if I just followthe model, then I'm good.
So I leave a lot of the successto having a coach and following
and having a model that Iactually fell in love with and
follow.

Speaker 1 (44:37):
That's awesome and from my perspective, basically
what you're saying is you havethe ability, unlike many, to be
able to work on the business,not just in the business.

Speaker 7 (44:51):
Yes, I don't have to work a lot in the business.
I think people think about that.
I can work two to three hoursin my business, which is lead
generating, going on anappointment a day and really I'm
focusing a lot on the business.
How I tell some people and Idon't mean it rudely but if I
can sell homes and run my team,run my business, I'm up at.

(45:23):
You know, we have power hours,I have power ups, all these
things, all these meetings,one-on-ones, and I'm still able
to sell two, three homes a month, then you have no reason that
you can't either.
The only difference is mydatabase.
I have a history of it, correct, but anyone has a history of
their database is just actuallyfollowing the plan and putting
in place, which that's thehardest part.
It's boring to do that.

(45:43):
I know it's not fun.
I try to make it fun, but I knowit.

Speaker 1 (45:47):
And that is the tough part of this business that is
the part that you get the mostrejection.
That is the part that takes themost time and it's daunting at
times when you're someone thathas never been in sales or never
had to justify their value to astranger in many cases and get
told no, today I got told no, Ihad a great person who joined,

(46:10):
who's going to shadow our teamtoday.

Speaker 7 (46:12):
We had a great conversation and he's like oh, I
decided to go somewhere else.
I'm like what?
And I'm like this sucks.

Speaker 8 (46:18):
And.

Speaker 7 (46:18):
I'm like this is, it's the conversion rate.
Everyone talks about it and I'mlike well, crap, okay, yeah,
but I'm mad at myself because Ididn't hit my goal that I talked
about winning day.
Did I add another person to thepipeline?
No, I haven't.
So that's what I'm more madabout, not the fact that he said
no, it's the fact that I put myall my eggs in that basket.
Yeah, so I go back.
Okay, as long as every singleday, I can add one new person to

(46:39):
my pipeline, which I did.
Add him to the pipeline.
He's still a nurture for us.
There you go.
However, like that's where I'mactually more mad at, because
you know, if I lose a deal orsomething, I'm mad because I
don't have something to replaceit.
Right, if I had something toreplace it, which I remember
during covid times, I was likeoh a deal loss whatever no
biggie, no biggie.
We got like 15 more comments if,but the truth of it, that's a

(47:01):
different feeling, when you knowyou have a good pipeline and
you know you have it, and sothat's the reason why we get mad
at ourselves, because we knowthe things we're not doing that
we should do, which it's in themodel if you follow the model
and you don't have to do it ahundred percent.
So for everyone who's listening, don't go a hundred percent in.
You could just do it 70%.
Yeah, that's better than whatyou're doing today.

Speaker 1 (47:20):
Well, there's a lot of folks that ask me and I'm
sure you get the same kind ofquestions is what is the key to
success?
What is the thing thatseparates you?
How do you get your business?
Where does it come from, etcetera?
Where does it come from, etcetera?
And for you out there listening,zach filled you in on something
a moment ago that is gold theidea of not finding and this

(47:43):
sounds cliche, but not findingthe one thing, but doing all of
the things to make sure that,hey, if I'm going to determine
if open houses is going to workor cold calling expired listings
, you got to find your niche.
You can't just dive down thishole with one way of getting
business and think that you'regoing to be successful.

(48:04):
Now, not all of those work foreveryone, but they do work all
of the time, if that makes sense.
It's like we all start with thebasics and I mentioned this
quite often when it comes towell, what's working for you now
?
And I tell my loan officers, Ijumped back in at the beginning
of this year into producing andnow I've got a bunch of loans

(48:26):
five, six million, seven millionin the pipeline.
They're like well, what are youdoing?
The basics.
Calling my database Literallycalling the database, returning
the phone calls, doing doing theopen houses all of the things
that I'm telling you guys to do.

Speaker 7 (48:38):
I'm doing a lot of them which is crazy to think
because one.
I appreciate you for sharingthat, because I think there's a
lot of team owners and peoplejust like you and I had to jump
back in production and I youknow a lot of the masterminds I
go through.
I'm hearing that constantly.
It's like I'm having to jumpback in production, to have to
jump back in production.
And I remember there was a timewhere getting out of production

(48:58):
was like the golden land.
It was like you got to get out,let everybody else do it.
And then I realized why did Istop producing, like I'm
actually good at it?

Speaker 1 (49:05):
I thought the same damn thing.
I had the conversation with myoperations managers.
We both were like you nevershould have stopped producing.
I know I, you never should havestopped producing.
I know, I mean that phone call,mama.
I made it and I picked it backup a couple of years later, Mama
, I got to go back into it.

Speaker 7 (49:19):
Well, then I realized , OK, I'm going to approach it
differently, I'm going to do themodel I'm going to.
If I'm telling my agents to do,I'm going to do it as well too.
So I've been playing the modeland then going through.
It's not fun, but I know itworks Right.
And I know all you got to do isjust follow the database
Absolutely.
And the database isn't justpeople, you know, it's leads,
it's whatever.
And we've built a huge databasein our 10 years where I go in

(49:43):
and like all the business I wantis in that database.
I know it's there.
I just have to actually do thejob.

Speaker 1 (49:49):
You got to work it.
I just got to work it, peopleout there didn't have problems.
They wouldn't have us to solvethem.

Speaker 4 (50:02):
I mean, it's like what?

Speaker 1 (50:03):
do we do.
Well, go find somebody'sproblem you can solve and there
you go, there's a paycheck.

Speaker 7 (50:08):
Very true and so, yeah, I mean it's a different
approach and I'm excited aboutthis new journey because I'm
coming in.
I still actually want to sell aton of real estate.
That's awesome, but I want to doit efficiently.
I had a vision as going as likehow do I build a real estate
team so big and so good enoughthat I would also want to house
my business there?
Cool, and that's basically whatwe're building here Now.

(50:30):
It's called Homebase, as werebranded it, and the main goal
is let my home base take care ofeverything and I can work on my
relationships.
I can run multiple business orrun multiple roles.
It's just let me show you howto do it.
But I got to.
Also, I can't preach what Idon't do, and so I follow it.
My database is on it.
I get graded on my databaseevery single week.

(50:50):
I'm not as high as some of myagents, and I know that, but I
will give myself a pound back.
I grew by 16% based on my scoreyesterday, but that's little
things we've put in place.
It's like, okay, let's justwork on the database, get doing
that.
And if our coaches say, just dothat and you'll be successful,
right, okay, well, I'll just dowhat you're telling me.

(51:10):
Why say no?
If you've proven it to becorrect?
I love that.
So that's, that's kind of thenew era.
I'm just saying yes andsubscribing and I'm also being
careful what I say yes to now.

Speaker 1 (51:16):
That makes sense.
Protecting your time Matter offact, I learned that, gosh, it
had to have been maybe eightyears into the business.
My coach told me hey, I'mgiving you permission to say no.
I'm like, what do you mean?
Yeah, your time is valuable.
There's just some things thatyou have to say no to.
Not everything, not everyoneyou can help.
Oh, okay, light bulb.

(51:39):
Then it was like okay, now I'vegot a little bit more time to
do more of the things thatactually do move the needle.

Speaker 2 (51:52):
Jc how are we doing on time?

Speaker 1 (51:52):
53 minutes in.
Okay, we've got probably aboutanother 10 minutes or so.
So, with that being the case,if you want to throw this
reference up, jc, I've got acouple of things.
So I'm going to preface thisnext quick conversation on the
following, and for those thatare listening and not viewing,
I've got a red fin up at it'sSan Antonio, texas market data.
Let's see here.

(52:13):
It says the San Antonio housingmarket is somewhat competitive.
Homes in San Antonio receivedtwo offers on average and sell
in around 73 days.
The median sales price in SanAntonio was $250,000 last month,
down 3.9% from last year.
The medium sales price squarefootage in San Antonio is at

(52:34):
$151, down 3.5% from last year,showing the median just under
250, number of homes sold 849,and medium days on market.
So I want to play this quickvideo and then we'll comment
about what's going on in themarket, what we're seeing and

(52:57):
what we're doing to stayrelevant we're doing to stay
relevant.

Speaker 4 (53:06):
According to the National Association of Realtors
, existing home sales dropped toabout 4 million in 2024.
That's the lowest since 1995.
So what can buyers and sellersexpect moving forward?
Well, we've got real estatebroker and president of our New
York, stephanie Birkin, herewith the answer Steph, good to
see you, good to see you, al.
Okay, so let's start withmortgage rates.
Where are we right now, and canwe expect them to drop at all

(53:30):
this?

Speaker 8 (53:30):
year.
Yeah, so, just like you said,we've been through a tough year.
I'm feeling optimistic about2025.
Okay, the rates as of thismorning were in the high sixes 6
, 8, 7, 5.
I think we're going to be.
We've been hovering above 6%.
We've dipped into 7.
I do think that they're goingto ease a little bit.
But I really want people toadjust their expectations right.

(53:53):
Plan for 7, because we've seenthem there.
Be pleasantly surprised by 6.
Do not hold out for 3.
That 3 number I just don'tthink that we're seeing again.
And I just want to make a notequickly that the mortgage rates
don't directly track what theFed is doing right, so they're
more impacted by the 10-yearTreasury.
So when you see these headlinesFed's cutting rates, fed's

(54:15):
cutting rate it's much moregradual in terms of the impact
for the mortgage rates.

Speaker 4 (54:20):
Okay, so how does this impact inventory and does
it favor buyers or sellers?

Speaker 8 (54:25):
Yes.
So we see that rates affectpricing.
So does supply, and demand.
Inventory is really tight rightnow.
Why?
Because a lot of homeowners arelocked in to this sub 4% rate.
They don't want to give that up.
Buyers have a lot of pent updemand because it's still an
unaffordable market right.
So what we're going to see iswhen these rates ease a little
bit and supply is freed up bysome new construction.

(54:47):
I don't think that's going tofundamentally change the market,
but it's trending in the rightdirection.
That will help demand.
That will help loosen up supply.
We're seeing these small,steady improvements that are
going to get us back to a normal, stable market.
So don't think drastic changes.
Think small, steadyimprovements.
That to get us back to a normal, stable market.
So don't think drastic changes.
Think small, steadyimprovements.
That will get us back to behindus is the worst of it.

(55:08):
We've turned a corner.
We're going to get more normaland stable.

Speaker 3 (55:11):
All right, come on down the line here, all right.
So, as buyers are continuingtheir hunt, what are some?

Speaker 8 (55:16):
tips to keep in mind.
So I know it sounds simple,laura, but you have to
understand your finances and alot of people don't.
It's a new year.
Go through the motion as ifyou're getting a mortgage.
It'll make you get organized.
You can figure out what youhave in liquidity in cash, what
your credit score is and thenwhat you can afford.
Right, you want to look forthese assistance programs FHA,

(55:37):
va.
It helps you not just with downpayment but with your closing
costs and, as we know, buying.
Anybody who's been through it.
It's so personal.
Understand what you want andwhat you need and educate
yourself on the market.
And also, it's never too lateto start saving, especially for
my millennials and my Gen Zersout there.
Every check that comes in, takea little bit off of it and put

(55:58):
it into savings.
And buyers are lookingdifferent now, laura.
We're seeing more cash buyers.
People are forgoing thefinancing process or having it
be more delayed.
The median age is 38.
Now People are waiting a littlebit longer.
We're seeing more female singlebuyers.
It's outpacing the men buyersand warm up the process to stand
out.
It's personal right.

(56:19):
They're two humans, so warm itup to stand out as a buyer.

Speaker 1 (56:22):
Okay, so JC, you can kill that.
There were some good thingstalked about there.
That was the first time I hadwatched that clip, so it's
always like oh shit what arethey going to say on this?
USA Today, and a lot of timesit's a lot of fear mongering
this case.
I think that was pretty goodadvice all the way around.
The one thing that I dorecommend to those listening

(56:47):
that are maybe home buyers,renters, et cetera, is to get
off of the media only becausewhen they do these things like
this, they're talking about theindustry as a whole and real
estate is local.
It does not matter which marketyou're in, guaranteed it's
different than the next market.
Um, that being said, zach, whatdo you think about what's going

(57:09):
on in our market in San Antonio?

Speaker 7 (57:11):
Yeah, no, I will say I'll commend her because that's
a really she.
She talked very well and gavehope for people, and I think a
lot of people have always talkedabout fear.
But I think, going in, um, alot of people don't want to talk
about real estate.
They don't want to talk aboutyou know, we're I mean, we call
people all the time and they'relike, oh, I don't want to talk
about it, I'm not ready.
I think the biggest thing thatcan take away is put that fear

(57:33):
away and just talk to someoneabout it.
Um, our mission at our team isdelivering the dream of
homeownership through anexceptional real estate service.
One person, one home at a time.
Love it With that.
I want to sit down with you, Iwant to talk with you.
If it doesn't make sense foryou to buy, it doesn't make
sense to buy.
However, if you want to buy,let's leave with a plan, because
I can give you a plan.

(57:54):
It's up to you.
It's like a model with realestate.
It's up to you if you do it.
But I'm here and I have thatknowledge and that expertise
that I could tell you exactlywhat you need to save, how much
it's going to cost.
Here's roughly what it mightlook like.
We don't know, this is today'snumbers, but at least give you
some information and at leastgive you a plan.
Absolutely, I think a lot ofpeople, when I hear that, just
talk with a real estate agent,talk with a mortgage officer,

(58:15):
and say this is what I want todo, how can I do it and is it
possible?
I think it's more possible forpeople than they realize.
But what I do, love that youput on there put your wants and
your needs.
We might not get everything wewant.
Right now, house prices havegone up.
I think that's just theunfortunate part.
I mean, it's great.
Equity is growing, but ouraverage San Antonio person can't

(58:37):
buy the average home or eventhe median home right now.
That's correct.
But one thing I do know and Itrack the market very well one
out of three homes is newconstruction.
New construction is leading alot of our sales.
That's right.
They as well are bringing ourvalues down.
If you look at existing homes,they actually prices are pretty
stable and a little bit growing,but they're not moving as
quickly because new constructionis actually down on their

(58:58):
prices.
They have something we normalhumans can't provide.

Speaker 1 (59:03):
They have the capital , they have all the benefits and
the features and the rate andthe rate, everything You're
right.

Speaker 7 (59:08):
Yeah, so I think it comes into just talk with
someone about it, because youjust don't know what you don't
know and just don't shut theconversation.
I think right now we're a timewhere rents and mortgages are
very similar.
Yeah, I would rather be puttingmoney towards something that
could potentially grow andversus being an apartment, and
I'm still settling.
If you're in an apartment oryou're in a rental, you are

(59:29):
probably still settling,absolutely.
So if you're okay settling, whydon't you settle with a home at
the exact same price?

Speaker 1 (59:35):
That's such a great point and a powerful concept in
it.
Um, because a lot, a lot offolks tend to allow fear of
finding out or fear of askingthe how question overcome them
versus just hey, get it all outthere.
It doesn't mean you have tomove forward.
But she mentioned somethingthat if you are considering

(59:58):
going through the mortgageprocess or buying a home, start
pretending like you are and alot of folks really don't
understand what that evenentails.
So, that being said, reach outto a realtor, reach out to a
mortgage lender that can atleast give you a blueprint.
Hey, I don't need to pull yourcredit or anything like that yet
.
If this is what you're wantingto do, here are the steps.

(01:00:20):
This is what we look at, and alot of times it goes by CIA
credit income assets.
That's what we want to look at.
Matter of fact, we made a funnyvideo real today, with my loan
officers.
Talking about it was like arecreation of the Maury Povich
show.
The results are in, and that isa lie.
The idea of a lot of people notapplying because they think

(01:00:42):
student loans are going to keepthem from being able to qualify,
or a poor credit score is goingto keep you from qualifying, or
not having a down payment Allof those are myths.
Given the situation.
The goal is to find some goodadvocates that can give you that
right information, guide you,be the light that's guiding that
path, so to speak.

(01:01:03):
That being the case, I mean Iknow there's a lot of folks out
there that are having some toughtimes in real estate, whether
you are with a team, individualagents, mortgage lenders out
there.
I want to ask the last andfinal question to you, zach.
What would you recommend?
What would you give them in wayof some type of advice to get

(01:01:26):
them back on track, or on trackto begin with?

Speaker 7 (01:01:29):
Yeah, I would say, have a really good business plan
.
I know it's very cliche, easyto say, but I believe that the
first step to even self-masteryis one where am I going?
What is the goal that I want toaccomplish?
Again, people will tell me$100,000 is what I want to make.
Let's be real.
You know, I'll start bringingthat number down.

(01:01:50):
Say, if you walked away with 60, would you still be fine?
Like, yeah, I'd still be okay.
What about 50?
Yeah, I could do 50.
What about 40?
Nope, can't is 40.
We need to be around there.
Let's just get there.
I think, yes, I'm all aboutdreaming big, I'm extremely
about dreaming big, but whenit's this market and it's hard,
it's what is really needing tohappen.
Yeah, if you only need to clear$5,000 a month, okay, that

(01:02:13):
might be just one closing.
Where are you at?
And we could do.
You know, in my team I do themath backwards.
That's, and tell you exactly howmany people you need to have
for that, then it's saying, okay, then I need to get to that
number.
But if you're constantlyshooting for 100K and you're
never even getting close to it,that's not a real goal.
And I think we just have to bereal with ourselves and say what
does this need to look like?

(01:02:33):
And understand and subscribethat it's going to take 90,
maybe 120 days to see thoseresults.
And I tell this to so many ofthe agents that do,
unfortunately, leave me and theyleave during that first three
months.
I said, man, if you would havejust kept going on, you would
have seen the fruits of yourlabors.
But it does not come untilmonth three or four when you
start seeing it, that's right.
But I would go back into thelast thing is focus on winning

(01:02:56):
your week, winning more than youlose.
You got seven days out of theweek.
Can you win four out of thoseseven days?
And in those four days can youadd one new person to your
database that's thinking aboutme wanting to buy or sell in the
next 12 months?
If you do that, every singleweek, you have 200 people and I
call them nurtures 200 peoplethat are wanting to make a move
in the next year.
If you only have a goal ofselling 12 or 20 of those,

(01:03:18):
you're golden.
So if every week you can justadd one or four people and do it
one a day and the reason I sayone a day, it's because you want
to win four days out of thethree.
Yeah, because there are dayswhen, more than you lose, you
just win more than you lose.
If you do that, you'reeventually going to make it to
the playoffs and you'll hit yourchampionship, which is your
goal.

Speaker 1 (01:03:35):
Absolutely.
And, that being said, for thoseof you out there that are
listening and this resonateswith you the first step in
taking this is to make sureyou're tracking what you're
doing.
There's no way to actuallychange the plan if you never
wrote the plan down to beginwith and you're just flying by

(01:03:57):
the seat of your pants.
It's almost like the idea oftaking an individual dart to
shoot at a dartboard or grabbingall the darts dart to shoot at
a dartboard, or grabbing all thedarts and throwing them at the
dartboard and hoping that youhit the bullseye.
It's one of those things that abusiness plan, your activities
tracking, gauging the results atthe end of the week, month,
whatever it may be, to determinewhat needs to change.

(01:04:18):
Do I need to turn up or downthe level of activities that I'm
doing so that I can get to theresults that I sought out to
achieve?
Bottom line right.

Speaker 7 (01:04:28):
Yeah.
Last thing I would add on thatit's you know I use this analogy
to a lot of people when I saythis is like me going to my
doctor and saying, hey, here'sall my issues, I'm tired, I
don't feel well, my back ishurting, all these problems.
And they say, all right, let'sget a blood test.
I'm like, nope, I don't want ablood test, just tell me what's
wrong with me.
The doctor is going to tell me.

(01:04:57):
I can't tell you what's wrongwith you if you don't go do the
activities which I need yourblood to get, the examples to be
able to say, okay, what iswrong with you're doing.
It's unable to be coachable andshow you an action plan because
you don't even know what you'redoing, and be honest with
yourself and say, hey, I'm notdoing what I'm supposed to do.
At least you acknowledge that.

Speaker 1 (01:05:11):
So Amen to that.
Well, Zach, this has been agreat discussion.
I'm saying thank you for havingme yeah.
I mean, we've been neighborsfor quite some time now, the
first time we're having adiscussion like this.
So maybe we'll have you back onwhen Mariana can, uh can, join
us.

Speaker 7 (01:05:25):
We get some insight from the better half.
Yes, you'll probably get moreof her raw moments.
I love it.

Speaker 1 (01:05:31):
No, it was.
This was great.
Um, again, thank you forjoining me on this discussion.
Those of you out there, um, Iappreciate the continued support
and, as mentioned and uh, andas committed to, I promise to
continue to bring you guys topproducing experts in the field
of real estate, mortgage lendingand entrepreneurship, so that

(01:05:52):
we can continue to share ournuggets Because, at the end of
the day, it doesn't do us anygood just living in our brains.
These are experiences, theseare trials and tribulations that
we've been through, and ourgoal is to help you in any way,
shape or form, not step on thesame landmines that we have
already.
That being said, guys, I willcatch you on the next one.

Speaker 2 (01:06:17):
Trying to become a homeowner is so frustrating.
I mean I wish it were easy tofind out what options or things
I may qualify for.
There actually is an easier way.
I mean I wish it were easy tofind out what options or things
I may qualify for.

Speaker 3 (01:06:23):
There actually is an easier way.
I'd love to tell you about it.

Speaker 2 (01:06:27):
There is a hold on.
Let me call you back.
Okay, I'm interested.
What's the catch?

Speaker 3 (01:06:32):
There's no catch.
If you have two minutes, I canliterally show you now.
It's really easy.
Sure, let's go.

Speaker 5 (01:06:38):
It's going to coach you line by line and have you
answer some questions that willidentify the best loan products
for you, starting with theproperty address, which is
specific to the area, whichprograms will work for you.

Speaker 6 (01:06:48):
It's going to guide you through a series of numbers,
loan options, and give youeverything so you can choose
what works best for you.

Speaker 2 (01:06:53):
Well, I had no idea there were so many options out
there.
For me it was so easy, it wasso quick and you didn't even
have to run my credit.

Speaker 3 (01:07:00):
I know I told you in less than two minutes.
Right, did I make it?

Speaker 2 (01:07:02):
You did, let's go.

Speaker 3 (01:07:04):
All right, let's go.