February 10, 2025 • 34 mins
What happens when a top 1% real estate producer with over four decades of expertise decides to share his secrets? Meet Roger Malech, a revered real estate veteran and fifth-generation Santa Clara County native who has not only mastered the art of real estate but has also balanced his career with a passion for philanthropy, family, and hobbies like motorcycles and baseball. Roger invites us into his world, sharing how creative solutions and unwavering integrity have been his guiding principles, even during challenging high-interest periods. Discover how Roger's journey has been about much more than just property transactions—it's about learning from failures, adapting to change, and understanding that real estate is a means to an end, not the end itself.
We further explore the intricacies of real estate transactions, diving into the complexities of assumptions and "subject to" agreements, with Roger offering valuable insights from his extensive career. As he reflects on his decision to step back from the industry, Roger underscores the importance of prioritizing life beyond mere financial gain, a lesson many strive to learn. The episode also highlights the significance of genuine relationships, as Roger illustrates how building a supportive network and forming lasting friendships with clients can create a thriving cycle of trust and referrals. With the support of his business partner Christina, Roger's story is one of balancing professional achievement with personal fulfillment, encouraging listeners to enjoy the journey and find joy beyond just striving for success.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
And welcome back from Hawaii too, by the way.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Thank you.
Yeah, it was a good time.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Amazing.
Yeah, I love Hawaii.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yeah, it's fun.
There are a lot of chickens onKauai.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
There are more chickens than palm trees.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Welcome to episode number 53 of Now Making Moves in
Real Estate.
Today we are joined by a realestate powerhouse, roger Malik,
a fifth generation Santa ClaraCounty resident with over 40
years of experience helpingbuyers and sellers achieve their
dreams.
He's a master negotiator withdeep market expertise.
Roger's motto is experience,integrity and action.
(00:58):
This is evident in every dealthat he does.
We love this kind of stat inour little group.
He's a top one producer, 1%producer worldwide, a Realtor of
the Year winner and has beenvoted Best Realtor in Morgan
Hill four years in a row.
Beyond real estate, roger isdedicated to philanthropy,
(01:19):
family and adventure, passionsfor motorcycles, fishing and
baseball.
I'll have to talk more aboutthat.
For sure.
Today we're diving into tricksto creating longevity in the
business, open-endedinterviewing and the power of
integrity in business.
So let's meet Roger.
Welcome, roger.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Thank you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
We're excited to have you.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
I've been looking forward to this for a while now,
thank you, thanks for having me.
We're excited to have you.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
I've been looking forward to this for a while now.
Thank you, yeah, we're gladyou're here, and we do need to
give a shout out to ourcolleague, lenny Sharp, because
you're friends with Lenny.
Tell us a little bit more aboutyourself and your connection
with Lenny as well.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
I met Lenny years ago at a church here in Morgan Hill
.
They lived in Morgan Hill andsince then we became very
quickly became friends he andTeresa, and my wife Sarah and I
have become friends and we'vetraveled together.
We've stayed at each other'shouse.
When they come to Morgan Hillor the San Jose area, they
typically stay with us, stayedat each other's house.
When they come to Morgan Hillor the San Jose area, they
typically stay with us.
I've actually hired Lenny acouple of times to do my real
(02:28):
estate in Oakhurst and Mariposa.
He actually sold something thatCourtney dumped on me.
No, we love it.
I'm kidding, that's my humorcoming out.
So, yeah, no, lenny's a greatguy and has become a really good
realtor after many years inhigh tech and then getting into
(02:50):
real estate later in life.
So very, very proud of him, forwhat he's doing is kind of his
second go round in his twilightcareer here.
So it's kind of nice.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Yeah, it's been fun to see his trajectory.
I think this year he is on fire.
I think his Bible is higherthan his best year ever and
he'll close it all by March, Ibelieve.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Not surprised, not pretty good, and one thing I
know about Lenny is he will notstop in March, even though it's
just, it'll keep going, and soit'll be a phenomenal year for
him, I think.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Well, he had you as a mentor, which let's dive into
that a little bit more.
I mean over four years in thebusiness.
That's a long time.
You've seen a lot of differentchanges in the industry.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
I've seen a lot.
It's been 43 years this Apriland I've closed a thousand two
transactions so far.
So you know it's 25, about 25 ayear, which is a decent amount.
And when I started, interestrates were the week I started
interest rates were 20.5% and ofcourse that was the height and
(04:06):
then they dropped about 18,stayed at 18 for a while.
I didn't know any difference,but we did do a lot of sales.
Back then I did a lot ofcreative things, like lease
options.
We did some sales with what wecall wraparound financing, or
back then, before the lawchanged, you were able to sell a
house and leave the loan inplace without the danger of it
(04:31):
being called due by the lender.
That changed shortly after Igot that business.
So yeah, we did a lot ofcreative things.
I think it helped me later inlife to put transactions
together in a tougher market,right.
So I think I've been through atleast three cycles.
Maybe we're in the fourth cyclenow, I don't know, but it's
been the ups and the downs andhow do you transcend those big
(04:57):
swings, right?
And so I've learned a littlebit.
Certainly I've made quite a fewmistakes.
I think it's interesting.
I think when you read bios,it's very interesting that
they're all the positive things.
I just think it'd be almostlike a Saturday Night Live skit
if you did a bio of all theother things, right?
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Can you imagine Roger Malick couldn't make his house
payment for three months in arow and realized that a great
way of coping was to drinkhimself to sleep every night?
Roger claims having atransaction fall through going
home, throwing up and taking anap at 4 in the afternoon and
sleeping all night.
(05:38):
You know what I'm saying.
So we all have those kinds ofstories, right?
So, with 42 years of thebusiness, you have to know every
anyone who knows human natureknows that it's.
It hasn't all been rosy and I, I, I was thinking and praying
about what, roger, what do youhave to share?
(05:59):
Really, what do you have toshare right now?
This, this guy who's been inthe business since before we had
the internet, right?
What do you have to share?
And I think the biggest thing is, there's a lot of failures in
this business, and they willtrain you to be a better realtor
, to be a better husband, father, friend, business person and
(06:22):
maybe, more importantly, to be amore whole person in life as a
whole, because, let's face it,real estate is a means to an end
, but it's not the end itself,right?
So you know, that's maybe whatI've been focusing on the last
10 years is what do I have togive back to the community as a
(06:46):
whole?
And I think it's more about boy, do not get too focused on the
failures.
They will, you know.
The flower will grow out ofthat, that cow pie, right.
So let's focus on that.
I don't know how we got there,but we got there well, you know
generations in the business.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
You certainly could have given up, especially with.
You know the trying behind thatyou described with the high
interest rates, and so youcertainly could have given up.
What do you?
What do you?
What made you stay in the game?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
I love the business.
I think I love almosteverything about it.
When I was younger I loved itmore.
I love the challenge.
I love the friends I met.
I love the relationships.
I love the freedom.
Although it's almost a misnomerin real estate they say that if
(07:50):
you're not careful, real estatewill suck the life out of you.
It'll take everything you haveto give Any kind of sales maybe.
I love the money.
I love the whole way it'sstructured, the whole thing.
So failure was not really anoption for me.
(08:11):
I did have safety nets.
I was able to borrow money frommy dad to make ends meet for
the short while.
You know when times were tough,things like that.
So it's just too fun for me.
It was too fun to give up Now.
(08:32):
And aside, I just want you toknow that I've decided to hang
it up this year, not becauseit's no longer fun, but because
I have other fun things I wantto do.
That real estate would maybecramp a little bit.
(08:53):
So I have the benefit of beingable to retire after all, this
time with the means to have apassive income that can allow us
to do that.
But boy, the biggest thing Iwill miss is the fun and the
friends in the business.
(09:13):
I'm trying to figure out how doI just show up to an office
meeting and a tour meeting everyWednesday?
Anyway, with that being said,there's not a lot about the
business I don't like.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
I was going to say you're going to be riding off on
your motorcycle, huh.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
A lot of that, yep, a lot of that.
I got 10 grandchildren.
My wife still likes me, sowe're going to spend a lot of
time together and I've got booksto write and poetry to do and a
lot of things that I think aregoing to require me to be a
little more still than I am now.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Well, congratulations on all that, because not a lot
of realtors plan for retirementin a way that they can really
retire, and so it sounds likeyou've been able to do that.
I mentioned passive income.
Maybe you could share with ourlisteners what you've done to
(10:19):
have that safety net while yougo ride motorcycles and hang
with your wife and grandkids andrhyme.
People don't necessarily planfor that in this business, so
what have you done?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
A lot of well.
First of all, I believe thatreal estate is the best
investment you can get into.
I'm sure people have made moremoney in other things, but for a
realtor to invest in realestate is natural.
You see something, you buy it.
It's a good deal.
(10:54):
The Airbnb thing happened.
I ended up buying two Airbnbs,I think within a year of each
other, one in Mariposa, one inOakhurst.
I've got a lot of other realestate.
Real estate gave us the abilityto retire with a decent passive
(11:14):
income.
I'm very busy managing thoseproperties and we've got include
all the partnerships, quite afew partnerships 20 or 30 pieces
of real estate.
Some of them are minorpartnership interests, but I
ended up being either on theboards or the manager of all of
(11:35):
those and so that's a lot of fun.
And that's one of the reasonsit was easy for me to choose to
retire was because I still getto dip my feet in that pool of
the real estate investment game,which I love.
We'll probably end up doingsome flips.
We've done flips, I like flips.
I like development smallsubdivisions.
(11:59):
Now in California with SB9, Ithink it's so ripe for little
two-lot splits in areas that arecovered by that overlay.
A lot of people don't know whatthat is.
Look up SB 9, Senate Bill 9,and you'll see that in many
areas you could take one lot andsplit it into two lots without
(12:19):
all the ho inheritance thatallowed us to just add to what
we'd already done, and so that'sI'm going to say fortune or
(12:41):
blessing.
That wasn't earned.
And I worked every day in realestate, probably six days a week
, for 40 years.
There's a lot of sacrifice.
You know that, and we didn'tspend a lot of money while we
were making money.
I think that's a key, becausethe average realtor probably
(13:03):
spends 110% of what they make,because next year is going to be
that much better.
And when you have a little dip,you learn very quickly ooh, wow
, I should have saved more.
I should have saved more, Ishould have invested more, I
should have set aside more.
Somehow.
I love buying real estatebecause it requires you to save.
(13:24):
Oh, the house payment's due.
I got to pay that.
I can't lose it.
So instead of taking that tripor buying that new car or
motorcycle or whatever, you gotto put money into the rental.
So I think it's a goodlong-term plan.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
I could not agree more.
One of the rentals he boughtwas our very first Airbnb.
My husband and I we love that.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
We love that.
And we actually were able topartner with friends who had
never had rental real estatebefore, but always wanted to but
were afraid, and so we wereable to partner with them and
they're happy we're in the game.
Real estate's long-term yes,we're in the game.
(14:13):
Real estate's long-term.
That was absolutely unknown inthe 80s.
When I got in the business.
Come the 90s or even late 80s,people thought it was a
short-term investment.
But it's not.
It has to be long-term.
If you think you're going tobuy, then sell in two or three
years and make a lot of money,you might get lucky, but chances
(14:36):
are you're going to pay yourclosing costs and be left
wondering what happened.
So think of it as long-termright.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
That's good advice.
I kind of want to circle backto something you said early on
about creative financing.
I was curious in your market ifyou or any of your agents have
done any of those subject toloans, because we haven't seen a
lot of that in our area and I'mvery curious about them.
I think Kyle did one recently,but I'm not very knowledgeable
(15:05):
on it.
Are you, regis?
Speaker 2 (15:08):
I've done quite a few of those.
Initially they were the lendercould not call the note due and
payable.
That was within the first yearof my career, and then that
changed.
It was the Welland Campdecision.
I forget which decision it was,but anyway it gave the lender
the right to call the note dueand payable.
(15:29):
Okay, so you either can do aformal assumption, which
typically you do with a VA or anFHA, but if you're doing a
subject to, what that means isthe borrower is still on the
hook for the loan, but theproperty is the collateral.
(15:52):
And if you transfer title fromthe borrower's name to the new
buyer's name, there's an issueyou've got to deal with.
One person's on the hook, butthe other person's property is
up for collateral.
And so there's ways to dealwith that, so I've done them.
The most common way is to dowhat we call a wraparound or an
(16:14):
all-inclusive trustee.
They are legal, they areethical.
Unless you buy a piece ofproperty and get a loan with the
intent of doing that, thenyou're committing lender fraud,
which is something I would neverbe a part of.
Then you're committing lenderfraud, which is something I
(16:38):
would never be a part of.
So you know it's rare.
Typically I've done it withfamily members or super good
friends, because I get nervouswith other people.
Because here we are bringingpeople into something where it's
right for a problem.
The buyer doesn't make thepayment, the seller who wants to
be released of the propertyhe's got his credit, he's got to
(17:01):
.
He got his credit at risk.
So he ends up either having tomake the payment or you'll look
a buyer and it can be a messright.
So I don't recommend it.
I would say for certain dealsit works.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
For highly qualified individuals on both sides
sellers and buyers I guess wouldbe to lower the risk.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Yes, for sure, and a lot of communication.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Okay, so let's say I'm selling a house for $500,000
and I owe $250,000.
You want to come in and buy itfrom me.
As a subject to, you would needto make up the difference in
the value versus the loan.
For the cash down payment Iwould stay on the loan, but you
would be making payments and I'massuming I would have some sort
of proof of that regularly aspart of the contract.
(17:52):
Yeah, until it's paid off orrefinanced or sold.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Yeah, on a straight subject too.
That's exactly how it works.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
And the lender has the right to call that note due
because title has transferred.
So the biggest risk is thelender says give me the money
and then the buyer has to figureout how to come up with that
additional $250,000.
The reason people do subjectdues right now is because the
interest rate on the old loan is3.5% and the new loan is 6.5%
(18:24):
or 7%.
So you have to make sure thatbuyer can qualify.
I think you should make surethat buyer can qualify for a new
loan, yeah that makes sense, incase it gets called due.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Okay, thank you, because there's been a lot of
talk about it and had a clientask about it recently and I was
up front.
You haven't seen a lot of aboutit recently and I was, you know
, up front.
You haven't seen a lot of themaround here and that I have to
do a little more research andhearing about water, exactly.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
I used to manage a branch for a large commercial
brokerage, a large nationalcommercial brokerage, and they
would not allow us toparticipate in these.
And I get why it makes sense.
There's certainly risk that Now, when we had all those low
(19:13):
interest rates all those years,we never heard of them.
Why would we right?
But I got to tell you.
I just did an FHA assumptionFor the first time I've done an
assumption in maybe 30 years$700,000 loan on a million six
property and it was at 3%interest rate.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
So it took 90 days but the buyer qualified and we
were able to do a straightassumption.
90 days, but the buyerqualified and we were able to do
a straight assumption.
So that's a pretty cool thing.
And if someone has an FHA loanany agent has an FHA loan on a
listing and it's low interestrate.
Check into the assumability ofit.
I think it's a huge marketingbenefit to advertise that,
(20:02):
especially with a higher balanceloan.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Exactly Because it's kind of like the subject to
where the buyer would have tohave enough down to cover the
difference in value to the loan.
You would think it was amazing.
Yeah, Think about thedifference in that payment of
what it would have been from 3%to maybe 6.5%.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
I think it's $2,000 or $2,500 difference.
It's huge.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Wow, that is huge Congrats.
That's a win.
Well, it doesn't really soundlike you're going to retire.
I'm sorry, this does not soundlike you're actually going to
retire.
I think you know.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
My brain's not.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
I don't know about that.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Well, it's going to happen.
Many people can't believe it.
I've had more than one persontry to talk me out of it.
They can't believe.
You know, I built a businessthat in an agricultural term I
have an orchard with a lot oflow-hanging fruit, right, that's
kind of what I've always wantedand I got there and now I'm
leaving and they just can'tbelieve it.
(21:04):
What I've always wanted and Igot there and now I'm leaving
and they just can't believe it.
And the truth is, I've come tounderstand that there are things
in life um greater than or moreimportant than especially given
the season of life than thanearning money or selling real
estate or doing whatever it iswe're doing.
(21:26):
And it wasn't an easy decision,right?
But once I made the decision, Iasked myself three questions,
and this is getting.
I wasn't intending to talkabout this, but I think that's
where this talk is going.
First of all, I said, if I wonthe lottery tomorrow, would I
(21:47):
stop working?
And the answer is yes, in thesense that I wouldn't sell real
estate, because the difficultpart of real estate is dealing
with unhappy people orstruggling to get this deal
closed.
I would not want to do thatanymore, right?
So the answer is yes.
Number two do you have the meansto retire financially now,
(22:09):
which is a rare thing, I realize, and so, fortunately, we were
there.
So, yes, I, we have the meansto retire and have the same
lifestyle we have now?
Yes, we do.
And number three was a big onethat took me about three months
to come up with.
Cause I?
I kept wrestling with this, andthat was if you received a
diagnosis or your wife receiveda diagnosis, would you be sorry
(22:31):
you didn't retire earlier?
A diagnosis, and that's inquotes, that's you know the
biggies, right?
You have a time.
Someone tells you how long youhave left to live.
I would simply be sorry Ihadn't retired earlier.
Regret that.
And so, once those three wereyeses, it was then an easy
decision.
Am I retiring too early?
(22:53):
Quite possibly, but I'm notretiring too late.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
That's what I was going to say.
You can always be a yack.
You can always work again ifyou decide.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Yeah, and I think there's other ways to do a
similar thing and make in realestate and not deal with the
transactions.
I think there's other things Icould do.
You mentioned other investmentopportunities and flips and
being involved in the.
I love the mystery and thepuzzle and the Rubik's Cube of
(23:29):
real estate.
It has never ceased to thrillme.
Everything about it thrills me.
I'll stay up until 2 o'clock inthe morning working on a deal
that just doesn't seem to makesense, but there's got to be a
way it works, and so I think Ihave the benefit of starting in
(23:51):
that really rough market wherewe had to do that, I mean lease
options.
Who needs to do lease optionsright, using easements instead
of subdivision, lot lineadjustments, lots that you can't
, can't build on.
Well, if there's a lot nextdoor, maybe you can buy the
place next door and do a lotline adjustment and you've just
created equity and value fromsomething that is legal and
(24:16):
anyone could could do with theright knowledge, right?
So anyway, all that is stillvery exciting.
I don't see myself at that atall knowledge right.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
So anyway, all that is still very exciting.
I don't see myself at that atall.
Well, I think we can relate tothat with our, our merge with
the xq really, 20 years in thebusiness.
I was also looking for a what'snext and different ways that
you know we could diversify andthat's not just staying in
production indefinitely.
As we've mentioned on manyepisodes, it's hard to get off
that treadmill sometimes.
So congrats like it's veryexciting for you, roger.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Thank you, congratulations to you.
I think that's a great parallelanalogy, I agree.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
So real quick, before we go do you have a team that's
going to be able to, thatyou're going to refer your
business to, or what's themakeup of your organization?
Speaker 2 (25:12):
When I was gosh fairly early in my career, I
listed it.
I listed one investor owned 28condos in Morgan Hill and I
competed and got the listings,which was like such a thrill
Well, how does one guy do 28deals?
So I ended up hiring anassistant, and that was in 1987.
(25:36):
And since then I've always hadan assistant, and my most recent
assistant I call her a businesspartner, because assistant
doesn't even come close todescribing what she does.
So her name is Christina.
I'm referring all my businessto Christina.
Christina will probably partnerwith another agent or maybe
(25:56):
have her own assistant.
I don't think there's any way wecan do the kind of or they can
do.
See, here we go, we right, I'mstill in it.
There's any way they could dothe kind of business that I
think they will be able to dowith referrals and their own
means without help, and so maybetwo of them work together to
close 20 to 30 deals a year.
(26:18):
And then I feel good with myclients being taken care of and
my friends, because most of myclients, 99% of my clients have
become friends and 50% of myfriends have become clients, and
so it's a friend game and oneof the things I wanted to make
sure anyone listeningunderstands if you're new in the
(26:40):
business or even been at it fora while.
Change your mindset to doingtransactions or making sales.
Change that to making friends.
When I go on a listingpresentation, you know what my
number one goal is Make a friend, make a connection.
So when I can see them atSafeway and say hey how are you
(27:00):
guys doing?
Whether I get the listing or not, I think that takes a lot of
pressure off.
I think it's how we're wired ashumans I want to be surrounded
by friends, and if those friendschoose to do business with me,
great.
And if they don't, we're stillfriends.
That's okay, right.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
I still prefer someone to you.
That's how I always look at ittoo.
I might not be serving thisbuyer today, but rest assured
I've done an overwhelmingly goodjob and developed a connection
and relationship with thisperson that, at minimum, they
would feel comfortable inreferring their friends and
(27:40):
family to me.
So it goes past the people thatyou may or may not be able to
serve.
You need referrals.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Yeah, and it seems to take the pressure off because,
especially when you're newer oryou don't have any business or
you're struggling, I've got togo out there and make a sale,
I've got to hold an open houseand I've got to pick up a buyer
and you can sense it, right,People can sense it.
It's like they say dogs cansense it.
Right, People can sense it.
It's like they say dogs cansense fear.
(28:08):
I think buyers and sellers cansense that kind of.
I need it right, and if you'rethere, hey, I'm just here to I
had a friend once who she was inreal estate.
She was a top producer and herhusband was a United Airlines
pilot and this was back in the80s.
He was making big, big, bigmoney for the 80s and she was
(28:29):
doing really well.
And I said, Pat, what is yoursecret?
I was a kid.
What's your secret?
She said you know what mysecret is?
I don't need the money.
I said how's that a secret?
Because people smell.
If I did, I thought but I doneed the money.
What do I do?
She said fake it, Make a friend, Just make friends.
(28:50):
Okay, and that actually washuge.
That's probably one of thereasons I didn't get out of the
business, because I wasn't donemaking friends yet.
Right, so you know, good,Overnight I become wealthy.
No, Not.
So you know, good, overnight Ibecome wealthy.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
No, not by any means.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
You know it was a rough go for a while, but I can
tell you this regardless of howit ends, the journey has been
such a blast, such an incrediblefun time, even the dark times.
I had a woman who stood by me.
I have kids, grandkids, friends, pastors, and I was like it has
(29:33):
been the most incrediblejourney I could ever wish for,
way greater than I would everhave hoped for.
I never thought about that andlooking back now at 64 years old
on the last 43 years, wow, whatan incredible blessing it was
to live this life with thiscareer thing.
(29:58):
It was to live this life withthis career.
I'm going to say more than 50%of those years were escrow to
escrow behind on bills, but itwas unbelievably fun.
I was able to separate the needwith the living.
Anne Lamont you guys know her,she's a writer.
(30:21):
She wrote something.
She actually quoted someoneelse, I forget who she quoted.
She said as we get older we gofrom striving to being and we
must all learn that there's atime to set aside striving and
take up being.
And in the striving I think Ilearned to be a little bit and I
(30:45):
love that, that the be present,be with people, enjoy life,
take trips here and there.
It's not all about the realestate deal, right, all about
the real estate deal when I wasworking.
Guess what it's all about work.
I still show up at 8.30 everymorning to the office until
(31:06):
maybe sometime in June when thatdoesn't happen anymore.
But when I'm home I want to behome, so I'll either turn off my
phone.
I haven't worked weekends in.
I don't know how long I haven'tdone open houses in 15 years.
When I had kids at home, Iwould always say I'm home for
dinner every night.
Some nights I would go back outfor a listening presentation,
(31:29):
because back then we didn't haveany other way to do it.
We had to meet with them inperson, and they were working.
Nobody was working at home, sowe had to meet with them in
person and they were working.
Nobody was working at home, sowe had to meet with them either
on the weekend or after hours.
So those boundaries are really,really, really important.
We've talked about longevity alittle bit.
That's how you get longevity issuper clear defined and
(31:52):
boundaries that you hold.
Fast to boundaries that youhold fast to.
It might be something like Iwill only work one day a weekend
, or I take Mondays offregardless.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Well, roger, I so appreciate you coming on and us
getting to pay tribute to youand your 43 years in the career
as a realtor.
I think it's amazing what Iheard and you can tell me,
michelle, what you heard.
But to sum it up, have fun,make friends and set boundaries,
and then you're going to sether success.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
I think that's about as close as you can get to a
boiled down version.
Yes, I so appreciate you guyshaving me on and letting me
share.
I have a deep love for thisbusiness and the people of this
business, and now I get toinclude you guys as my friends
(32:50):
and I appreciate what you'redoing.
I think it's very helpful forpeople who are wondering what's
this about.
Be yourself.
Everybody's personality isdifferent and you're going to
find a niche that works for yourpersonality.
Don't try to be exactly likeyou know whoever you're
following.
Right, we have our own thing.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Well, I hope you have a great retirement party.
That's all I'm thinking.
My wife has a retirement partyso's all.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
I'm thinking It'll be Brian White's life as a
retirement party.
So yeah, it will be, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
All right.
Thank you, roger, it was apleasure meeting you.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
It was a pleasure.
You guys Thanks a lot.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Go and our YouTube station Now Podcast for Real on
YouTube.
Make sure you subscribe andfollow.
If you want to drop anycomments to Roger or us, we will
definitely make sure to respondand give us a review.
We appreciate it.
Yes, Bye for now.
Thanks, friends.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
Thanks, guys, you.
And welcome back from Hawaii too, by the way.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Thank you.
Yeah, it was a good time.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Amazing.
Yeah, I love Hawaii.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yeah, it's fun.
There are a lot of chickens onKauai.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
There are more chickens than palm trees.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Welcome to episode number 53 of Now Making Moves in
Real Estate.
Today we are joined by a realestate powerhouse, roger Malik,
a fifth generation Santa ClaraCounty resident with over 40
years of experience helpingbuyers and sellers achieve their
dreams.
He's a master negotiator withdeep market expertise.
Roger's motto is experience,integrity and action.
(00:58):
This is evident in every dealthat he does.
We love this kind of stat inour little group.
He's a top one producer, 1%producer worldwide, a Realtor of
the Year winner and has beenvoted Best Realtor in Morgan
Hill four years in a row.
Beyond real estate, roger isdedicated to philanthropy,
(01:19):
family and adventure, passionsfor motorcycles, fishing and
baseball.
I'll have to talk more aboutthat.
For sure.
Today we're diving into tricksto creating longevity in the
business, open-endedinterviewing and the power of
integrity in business.
So let's meet Roger.
Welcome, roger.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Thank you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
We're excited to have you.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
I've been looking forward to this for a while now,
thank you, thanks for having me.
We're excited to have you.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
I've been looking forward to this for a while now.
Thank you, yeah, we're gladyou're here, and we do need to
give a shout out to ourcolleague, lenny Sharp, because
you're friends with Lenny.
Tell us a little bit more aboutyourself and your connection
with Lenny as well.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
I met Lenny years ago at a church here in Morgan Hill
.
They lived in Morgan Hill andsince then we became very
quickly became friends he andTeresa, and my wife Sarah and I
have become friends and we'vetraveled together.
We've stayed at each other'shouse.
When they come to Morgan Hillor the San Jose area, they
typically stay with us, stayedat each other's house.
When they come to Morgan Hillor the San Jose area, they
typically stay with us.
I've actually hired Lenny acouple of times to do my real
(02:28):
estate in Oakhurst and Mariposa.
He actually sold something thatCourtney dumped on me.
No, we love it.
I'm kidding, that's my humorcoming out.
So, yeah, no, lenny's a greatguy and has become a really good
realtor after many years inhigh tech and then getting into
(02:50):
real estate later in life.
So very, very proud of him, forwhat he's doing is kind of his
second go round in his twilightcareer here.
So it's kind of nice.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Yeah, it's been fun to see his trajectory.
I think this year he is on fire.
I think his Bible is higherthan his best year ever and
he'll close it all by March, Ibelieve.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Not surprised, not pretty good, and one thing I
know about Lenny is he will notstop in March, even though it's
just, it'll keep going, and soit'll be a phenomenal year for
him, I think.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Well, he had you as a mentor, which let's dive into
that a little bit more.
I mean over four years in thebusiness.
That's a long time.
You've seen a lot of differentchanges in the industry.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
I've seen a lot.
It's been 43 years this Apriland I've closed a thousand two
transactions so far.
So you know it's 25, about 25 ayear, which is a decent amount.
And when I started, interestrates were the week I started
interest rates were 20.5% and ofcourse that was the height and
(04:06):
then they dropped about 18,stayed at 18 for a while.
I didn't know any difference,but we did do a lot of sales.
Back then I did a lot ofcreative things, like lease
options.
We did some sales with what wecall wraparound financing, or
back then, before the lawchanged, you were able to sell a
house and leave the loan inplace without the danger of it
(04:31):
being called due by the lender.
That changed shortly after Igot that business.
So yeah, we did a lot ofcreative things.
I think it helped me later inlife to put transactions
together in a tougher market,right.
So I think I've been through atleast three cycles.
Maybe we're in the fourth cyclenow, I don't know, but it's
been the ups and the downs andhow do you transcend those big
(04:57):
swings, right?
And so I've learned a littlebit.
Certainly I've made quite a fewmistakes.
I think it's interesting.
I think when you read bios,it's very interesting that
they're all the positive things.
I just think it'd be almostlike a Saturday Night Live skit
if you did a bio of all theother things, right?
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Can you imagine Roger Malick couldn't make his house
payment for three months in arow and realized that a great
way of coping was to drinkhimself to sleep every night?
Roger claims having atransaction fall through going
home, throwing up and taking anap at 4 in the afternoon and
sleeping all night.
(05:38):
You know what I'm saying.
So we all have those kinds ofstories, right?
So, with 42 years of thebusiness, you have to know every
anyone who knows human natureknows that it's.
It hasn't all been rosy and I, I, I was thinking and praying
about what, roger, what do youhave to share?
(05:59):
Really, what do you have toshare right now?
This, this guy who's been inthe business since before we had
the internet, right?
What do you have to share?
And I think the biggest thing is, there's a lot of failures in
this business, and they willtrain you to be a better realtor
, to be a better husband, father, friend, business person and
(06:22):
maybe, more importantly, to be amore whole person in life as a
whole, because, let's face it,real estate is a means to an end
, but it's not the end itself,right?
So you know, that's maybe whatI've been focusing on the last
10 years is what do I have togive back to the community as a
(06:46):
whole?
And I think it's more about boy, do not get too focused on the
failures.
They will, you know.
The flower will grow out ofthat, that cow pie, right.
So let's focus on that.
I don't know how we got there,but we got there well, you know
generations in the business.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
You certainly could have given up, especially with.
You know the trying behind thatyou described with the high
interest rates, and so youcertainly could have given up.
What do you?
What do you?
What made you stay in the game?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
I love the business.
I think I love almosteverything about it.
When I was younger I loved itmore.
I love the challenge.
I love the friends I met.
I love the relationships.
I love the freedom.
Although it's almost a misnomerin real estate they say that if
(07:50):
you're not careful, real estatewill suck the life out of you.
It'll take everything you haveto give Any kind of sales maybe.
I love the money.
I love the whole way it'sstructured, the whole thing.
So failure was not really anoption for me.
(08:11):
I did have safety nets.
I was able to borrow money frommy dad to make ends meet for
the short while.
You know when times were tough,things like that.
So it's just too fun for me.
It was too fun to give up Now.
(08:32):
And aside, I just want you toknow that I've decided to hang
it up this year, not becauseit's no longer fun, but because
I have other fun things I wantto do.
That real estate would maybecramp a little bit.
(08:53):
So I have the benefit of beingable to retire after all, this
time with the means to have apassive income that can allow us
to do that.
But boy, the biggest thing Iwill miss is the fun and the
friends in the business.
(09:13):
I'm trying to figure out how doI just show up to an office
meeting and a tour meeting everyWednesday?
Anyway, with that being said,there's not a lot about the
business I don't like.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
I was going to say you're going to be riding off on
your motorcycle, huh.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
A lot of that, yep, a lot of that.
I got 10 grandchildren.
My wife still likes me, sowe're going to spend a lot of
time together and I've got booksto write and poetry to do and a
lot of things that I think aregoing to require me to be a
little more still than I am now.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Well, congratulations on all that, because not a lot
of realtors plan for retirementin a way that they can really
retire, and so it sounds likeyou've been able to do that.
I mentioned passive income.
Maybe you could share with ourlisteners what you've done to
(10:19):
have that safety net while yougo ride motorcycles and hang
with your wife and grandkids andrhyme.
People don't necessarily planfor that in this business, so
what have you done?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
A lot of well.
First of all, I believe thatreal estate is the best
investment you can get into.
I'm sure people have made moremoney in other things, but for a
realtor to invest in realestate is natural.
You see something, you buy it.
It's a good deal.
(10:54):
The Airbnb thing happened.
I ended up buying two Airbnbs,I think within a year of each
other, one in Mariposa, one inOakhurst.
I've got a lot of other realestate.
Real estate gave us the abilityto retire with a decent passive
(11:14):
income.
I'm very busy managing thoseproperties and we've got include
all the partnerships, quite afew partnerships 20 or 30 pieces
of real estate.
Some of them are minorpartnership interests, but I
ended up being either on theboards or the manager of all of
(11:35):
those and so that's a lot of fun.
And that's one of the reasonsit was easy for me to choose to
retire was because I still getto dip my feet in that pool of
the real estate investment game,which I love.
We'll probably end up doingsome flips.
We've done flips, I like flips.
I like development smallsubdivisions.
(11:59):
Now in California with SB9, Ithink it's so ripe for little
two-lot splits in areas that arecovered by that overlay.
A lot of people don't know whatthat is.
Look up SB 9, Senate Bill 9,and you'll see that in many
areas you could take one lot andsplit it into two lots without
(12:19):
all the ho inheritance thatallowed us to just add to what
we'd already done, and so that'sI'm going to say fortune or
(12:41):
blessing.
That wasn't earned.
And I worked every day in realestate, probably six days a week
, for 40 years.
There's a lot of sacrifice.
You know that, and we didn'tspend a lot of money while we
were making money.
I think that's a key, becausethe average realtor probably
(13:03):
spends 110% of what they make,because next year is going to be
that much better.
And when you have a little dip,you learn very quickly ooh, wow
, I should have saved more.
I should have saved more, Ishould have invested more, I
should have set aside more.
Somehow.
I love buying real estatebecause it requires you to save.
(13:24):
Oh, the house payment's due.
I got to pay that.
I can't lose it.
So instead of taking that tripor buying that new car or
motorcycle or whatever, you gotto put money into the rental.
So I think it's a goodlong-term plan.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
I could not agree more.
One of the rentals he boughtwas our very first Airbnb.
My husband and I we love that.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
We love that.
And we actually were able topartner with friends who had
never had rental real estatebefore, but always wanted to but
were afraid, and so we wereable to partner with them and
they're happy we're in the game.
Real estate's long-term yes,we're in the game.
(14:13):
Real estate's long-term.
That was absolutely unknown inthe 80s.
When I got in the business.
Come the 90s or even late 80s,people thought it was a
short-term investment.
But it's not.
It has to be long-term.
If you think you're going tobuy, then sell in two or three
years and make a lot of money,you might get lucky, but chances
(14:36):
are you're going to pay yourclosing costs and be left
wondering what happened.
So think of it as long-termright.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
That's good advice.
I kind of want to circle backto something you said early on
about creative financing.
I was curious in your market ifyou or any of your agents have
done any of those subject toloans, because we haven't seen a
lot of that in our area and I'mvery curious about them.
I think Kyle did one recently,but I'm not very knowledgeable
(15:05):
on it.
Are you, regis?
Speaker 2 (15:08):
I've done quite a few of those.
Initially they were the lendercould not call the note due and
payable.
That was within the first yearof my career, and then that
changed.
It was the Welland Campdecision.
I forget which decision it was,but anyway it gave the lender
the right to call the note dueand payable.
(15:29):
Okay, so you either can do aformal assumption, which
typically you do with a VA or anFHA, but if you're doing a
subject to, what that means isthe borrower is still on the
hook for the loan, but theproperty is the collateral.
(15:52):
And if you transfer title fromthe borrower's name to the new
buyer's name, there's an issueyou've got to deal with.
One person's on the hook, butthe other person's property is
up for collateral.
And so there's ways to dealwith that, so I've done them.
The most common way is to dowhat we call a wraparound or an
(16:14):
all-inclusive trustee.
They are legal, they areethical.
Unless you buy a piece ofproperty and get a loan with the
intent of doing that, thenyou're committing lender fraud,
which is something I would neverbe a part of.
Then you're committing lenderfraud, which is something I
(16:38):
would never be a part of.
So you know it's rare.
Typically I've done it withfamily members or super good
friends, because I get nervouswith other people.
Because here we are bringingpeople into something where it's
right for a problem.
The buyer doesn't make thepayment, the seller who wants to
be released of the propertyhe's got his credit, he's got to
(17:01):
.
He got his credit at risk.
So he ends up either having tomake the payment or you'll look
a buyer and it can be a messright.
So I don't recommend it.
I would say for certain dealsit works.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
For highly qualified individuals on both sides
sellers and buyers I guess wouldbe to lower the risk.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Yes, for sure, and a lot of communication.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Okay, so let's say I'm selling a house for $500,000
and I owe $250,000.
You want to come in and buy itfrom me.
As a subject to, you would needto make up the difference in
the value versus the loan.
For the cash down payment Iwould stay on the loan, but you
would be making payments and I'massuming I would have some sort
of proof of that regularly aspart of the contract.
(17:52):
Yeah, until it's paid off orrefinanced or sold.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Yeah, on a straight subject too.
That's exactly how it works.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
And the lender has the right to call that note due
because title has transferred.
So the biggest risk is thelender says give me the money
and then the buyer has to figureout how to come up with that
additional $250,000.
The reason people do subjectdues right now is because the
interest rate on the old loan is3.5% and the new loan is 6.5%
(18:24):
or 7%.
So you have to make sure thatbuyer can qualify.
I think you should make surethat buyer can qualify for a new
loan, yeah that makes sense, incase it gets called due.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Okay, thank you, because there's been a lot of
talk about it and had a clientask about it recently and I was
up front.
You haven't seen a lot of aboutit recently and I was, you know
, up front.
You haven't seen a lot of themaround here and that I have to
do a little more research andhearing about water, exactly.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
I used to manage a branch for a large commercial
brokerage, a large nationalcommercial brokerage, and they
would not allow us toparticipate in these.
And I get why it makes sense.
There's certainly risk that Now, when we had all those low
(19:13):
interest rates all those years,we never heard of them.
Why would we right?
But I got to tell you.
I just did an FHA assumptionFor the first time I've done an
assumption in maybe 30 years$700,000 loan on a million six
property and it was at 3%interest rate.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
So it took 90 days but the buyer qualified and we
were able to do a straightassumption.
90 days, but the buyerqualified and we were able to do
a straight assumption.
So that's a pretty cool thing.
And if someone has an FHA loanany agent has an FHA loan on a
listing and it's low interestrate.
Check into the assumability ofit.
I think it's a huge marketingbenefit to advertise that,
(20:02):
especially with a higher balanceloan.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Exactly Because it's kind of like the subject to
where the buyer would have tohave enough down to cover the
difference in value to the loan.
You would think it was amazing.
Yeah, Think about thedifference in that payment of
what it would have been from 3%to maybe 6.5%.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
I think it's $2,000 or $2,500 difference.
It's huge.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Wow, that is huge Congrats.
That's a win.
Well, it doesn't really soundlike you're going to retire.
I'm sorry, this does not soundlike you're actually going to
retire.
I think you know.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
My brain's not.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
I don't know about that.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Well, it's going to happen.
Many people can't believe it.
I've had more than one persontry to talk me out of it.
They can't believe.
You know, I built a businessthat in an agricultural term I
have an orchard with a lot oflow-hanging fruit, right, that's
kind of what I've always wantedand I got there and now I'm
leaving and they just can'tbelieve it.
(21:04):
What I've always wanted and Igot there and now I'm leaving
and they just can't believe it.
And the truth is, I've come tounderstand that there are things
in life um greater than or moreimportant than especially given
the season of life than thanearning money or selling real
estate or doing whatever it iswe're doing.
(21:26):
And it wasn't an easy decision,right?
But once I made the decision, Iasked myself three questions,
and this is getting.
I wasn't intending to talkabout this, but I think that's
where this talk is going.
First of all, I said, if I wonthe lottery tomorrow, would I
(21:47):
stop working?
And the answer is yes, in thesense that I wouldn't sell real
estate, because the difficultpart of real estate is dealing
with unhappy people orstruggling to get this deal
closed.
I would not want to do thatanymore, right?
So the answer is yes.
Number two do you have the meansto retire financially now,
(22:09):
which is a rare thing, I realize, and so, fortunately, we were
there.
So, yes, I, we have the meansto retire and have the same
lifestyle we have now?
Yes, we do.
And number three was a big onethat took me about three months
to come up with.
Cause I?
I kept wrestling with this, andthat was if you received a
diagnosis or your wife receiveda diagnosis, would you be sorry
(22:31):
you didn't retire earlier?
A diagnosis, and that's inquotes, that's you know the
biggies, right?
You have a time.
Someone tells you how long youhave left to live.
I would simply be sorry Ihadn't retired earlier.
Regret that.
And so, once those three wereyeses, it was then an easy
decision.
Am I retiring too early?
(22:53):
Quite possibly, but I'm notretiring too late.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
That's what I was going to say.
You can always be a yack.
You can always work again ifyou decide.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Yeah, and I think there's other ways to do a
similar thing and make in realestate and not deal with the
transactions.
I think there's other things Icould do.
You mentioned other investmentopportunities and flips and
being involved in the.
I love the mystery and thepuzzle and the Rubik's Cube of
(23:29):
real estate.
It has never ceased to thrillme.
Everything about it thrills me.
I'll stay up until 2 o'clock inthe morning working on a deal
that just doesn't seem to makesense, but there's got to be a
way it works, and so I think Ihave the benefit of starting in
(23:51):
that really rough market wherewe had to do that, I mean lease
options.
Who needs to do lease optionsright, using easements instead
of subdivision, lot lineadjustments, lots that you can't
, can't build on.
Well, if there's a lot nextdoor, maybe you can buy the
place next door and do a lotline adjustment and you've just
created equity and value fromsomething that is legal and
(24:16):
anyone could could do with theright knowledge, right?
So anyway, all that is stillvery exciting.
I don't see myself at that atall knowledge right.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
So anyway, all that is still very exciting.
I don't see myself at that atall.
Well, I think we can relate tothat with our, our merge with
the xq really, 20 years in thebusiness.
I was also looking for a what'snext and different ways that
you know we could diversify andthat's not just staying in
production indefinitely.
As we've mentioned on manyepisodes, it's hard to get off
that treadmill sometimes.
So congrats like it's veryexciting for you, roger.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Thank you, congratulations to you.
I think that's a great parallelanalogy, I agree.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
So real quick, before we go do you have a team that's
going to be able to, thatyou're going to refer your
business to, or what's themakeup of your organization?
Speaker 2 (25:12):
When I was gosh fairly early in my career, I
listed it.
I listed one investor owned 28condos in Morgan Hill and I
competed and got the listings,which was like such a thrill
Well, how does one guy do 28deals?
So I ended up hiring anassistant, and that was in 1987.
(25:36):
And since then I've always hadan assistant, and my most recent
assistant I call her a businesspartner, because assistant
doesn't even come close todescribing what she does.
So her name is Christina.
I'm referring all my businessto Christina.
Christina will probably partnerwith another agent or maybe
(25:56):
have her own assistant.
I don't think there's any way wecan do the kind of or they can
do.
See, here we go, we right, I'mstill in it.
There's any way they could dothe kind of business that I
think they will be able to dowith referrals and their own
means without help, and so maybetwo of them work together to
close 20 to 30 deals a year.
(26:18):
And then I feel good with myclients being taken care of and
my friends, because most of myclients, 99% of my clients have
become friends and 50% of myfriends have become clients, and
so it's a friend game and oneof the things I wanted to make
sure anyone listeningunderstands if you're new in the
(26:40):
business or even been at it fora while.
Change your mindset to doingtransactions or making sales.
Change that to making friends.
When I go on a listingpresentation, you know what my
number one goal is Make a friend, make a connection.
So when I can see them atSafeway and say hey how are you
(27:00):
guys doing?
Whether I get the listing or not, I think that takes a lot of
pressure off.
I think it's how we're wired ashumans I want to be surrounded
by friends, and if those friendschoose to do business with me,
great.
And if they don't, we're stillfriends.
That's okay, right.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
I still prefer someone to you.
That's how I always look at ittoo.
I might not be serving thisbuyer today, but rest assured
I've done an overwhelmingly goodjob and developed a connection
and relationship with thisperson that, at minimum, they
would feel comfortable inreferring their friends and
(27:40):
family to me.
So it goes past the people thatyou may or may not be able to
serve.
You need referrals.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Yeah, and it seems to take the pressure off because,
especially when you're newer oryou don't have any business or
you're struggling, I've got togo out there and make a sale,
I've got to hold an open houseand I've got to pick up a buyer
and you can sense it, right,People can sense it.
It's like they say dogs cansense it.
Right, People can sense it.
It's like they say dogs cansense fear.
(28:08):
I think buyers and sellers cansense that kind of.
I need it right, and if you'rethere, hey, I'm just here to I
had a friend once who she was inreal estate.
She was a top producer and herhusband was a United Airlines
pilot and this was back in the80s.
He was making big, big, bigmoney for the 80s and she was
(28:29):
doing really well.
And I said, Pat, what is yoursecret?
I was a kid.
What's your secret?
She said you know what mysecret is?
I don't need the money.
I said how's that a secret?
Because people smell.
If I did, I thought but I doneed the money.
What do I do?
She said fake it, Make a friend, Just make friends.
(28:50):
Okay, and that actually washuge.
That's probably one of thereasons I didn't get out of the
business, because I wasn't donemaking friends yet.
Right, so you know, good,Overnight I become wealthy.
No, Not.
So you know, good, overnight Ibecome wealthy.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
No, not by any means.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
You know it was a rough go for a while, but I can
tell you this regardless of howit ends, the journey has been
such a blast, such an incrediblefun time, even the dark times.
I had a woman who stood by me.
I have kids, grandkids, friends, pastors, and I was like it has
(29:33):
been the most incrediblejourney I could ever wish for,
way greater than I would everhave hoped for.
I never thought about that andlooking back now at 64 years old
on the last 43 years, wow, whatan incredible blessing it was
to live this life with thiscareer thing.
(29:58):
It was to live this life withthis career.
I'm going to say more than 50%of those years were escrow to
escrow behind on bills, but itwas unbelievably fun.
I was able to separate the needwith the living.
Anne Lamont you guys know her,she's a writer.
(30:21):
She wrote something.
She actually quoted someoneelse, I forget who she quoted.
She said as we get older we gofrom striving to being and we
must all learn that there's atime to set aside striving and
take up being.
And in the striving I think Ilearned to be a little bit and I
(30:45):
love that, that the be present,be with people, enjoy life,
take trips here and there.
It's not all about the realestate deal, right, all about
the real estate deal when I wasworking.
Guess what it's all about work.
I still show up at 8.30 everymorning to the office until
(31:06):
maybe sometime in June when thatdoesn't happen anymore.
But when I'm home I want to behome, so I'll either turn off my
phone.
I haven't worked weekends in.
I don't know how long I haven'tdone open houses in 15 years.
When I had kids at home, Iwould always say I'm home for
dinner every night.
Some nights I would go back outfor a listening presentation,
(31:29):
because back then we didn't haveany other way to do it.
We had to meet with them inperson, and they were working.
Nobody was working at home, sowe had to meet with them in
person and they were working.
Nobody was working at home, sowe had to meet with them either
on the weekend or after hours.
So those boundaries are really,really, really important.
We've talked about longevity alittle bit.
That's how you get longevity issuper clear defined and
(31:52):
boundaries that you hold.
Fast to boundaries that youhold fast to.
It might be something like Iwill only work one day a weekend
, or I take Mondays offregardless.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Well, roger, I so appreciate you coming on and us
getting to pay tribute to youand your 43 years in the career
as a realtor.
I think it's amazing what Iheard and you can tell me,
michelle, what you heard.
But to sum it up, have fun,make friends and set boundaries,
and then you're going to sether success.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
I think that's about as close as you can get to a
boiled down version.
Yes, I so appreciate you guyshaving me on and letting me
share.
I have a deep love for thisbusiness and the people of this
business, and now I get toinclude you guys as my friends
(32:50):
and I appreciate what you'redoing.
I think it's very helpful forpeople who are wondering what's
this about.
Be yourself.
Everybody's personality isdifferent and you're going to
find a niche that works for yourpersonality.
Don't try to be exactly likeyou know whoever you're
following.
Right, we have our own thing.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Well, I hope you have a great retirement party.
That's all I'm thinking.
My wife has a retirement partyso's all.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
I'm thinking It'll be Brian White's life as a
retirement party.
So yeah, it will be, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
All right.
Thank you, roger, it was apleasure meeting you.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
It was a pleasure.
You guys Thanks a lot.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Go and our YouTube station Now Podcast for Real on
YouTube.
Make sure you subscribe andfollow.
If you want to drop anycomments to Roger or us, we will
definitely make sure to respondand give us a review.
We appreciate it.
Yes, Bye for now.
Thanks, friends.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
Thanks, guys, you.
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