January 30, 2024 • 48 mins
Matt Murray, our president, and founder, shares his journey into the realm of real estate. With his recent acquisition of a real estate license, Matt's insights are not just informative—they're transformative to the success of Murry Enterprises. Delving into the depths of his strategic partnership with Team Ferris at REMAX Concepts, we uncover the profound impact of strategic alliances and his diverse expertise in the real estate world.
Matt's unique perspective as a contractor turned realtor adds an extra layer of depth to our chat, illustrating the seamless synergy between construction and selling properties, and how controlling the sales timeline can amplify success.
We wrap up with an exploration of the dynamic team structures and market trends as we step into 2024. Matt's experience in custom home building and development offers vital insights for navigating this competitive real estate market. This episode is a goldmine of knowledge for anyone eager to ride the waves of change and thrive in the real estate industry.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Murray Minute Edition, a series in the
state modern with MurrayPodcast, where we dive into
custom home building, roofingand home inspection topics with
one of the members of our team.
Sit back and enjoy the ridewith your host, matthew Taylor.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Thank you everybody for joining us on the Murray
Minute Edition, a segment of theState Modern with Murray
Podcast.
Welcome to our first episode of2024.
I am joined here today with ourpresident and founder, Matt
Murray.
Today we're going to starttalking about all things real
estate.
Thanks for joining us today,Matt.
We appreciate you, man.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Yeah thank you, man.
This is big time.
I know it's a busy day for you.
You got a clothes can coming up, so thanks for fitting me in.
It's kind of weird to be aguest on my own podcast like the
second time.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yeah, dude.
Well, the first one we did, man, it skyrocketed.
Yeah, we were getting calls,emails, everybody about it.
Yeah, you're good at it, dude.
Thank you, I appreciate you,man.
Well, let's just get right intoit.
Man, can you share a bit ofyour background and why you felt
it was important to obtain yourreal estate license?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yeah, I think the overall goal here is to share
that.
I got my real estate license,which I think we might have
mentioned on a few other ones,but we've never done a real
segment about that.
So now that I'm kind of fullspeed ahead, I thought it would
be good to get it out there.
But no, you know, I wasthinking about this.
I tried not to script this toomuch and go through all the
answers, the questions and theanswers.
(01:17):
I wanted it to be live.
I'm a little nervous to do that, to be honest with you.
But no, I think everybody inthe company knows and a lot of
people that in the real estateworld have known that about 12
years ago my ex-wife was goingto get her real estate license
and so she studied for a whileand she was going to do it and
then when she decided not to doit, we had another employee in
(01:40):
the company at the time that wasgoing to do it and then that
got handed off to somebody elseand then, fast forward, it was
going to be Megan and then shejust got too busy and then
finally it was just you knowwhat you know through.
I think I hit on this beforewhen I was sitting at so many of
my son's sporting events, wherebaseball was one of them this
(02:00):
summer, it was just so much timeinvested at the fields in
between games before games, warmenough for games after games,
and I was just like God, I wantto be doing something other than
just checking company emailsand the old adage I say that
people think it's funny becauseI have kids and I work so much I
got bored.
I did On the weekends, I gotbored, and so I was just like
(02:22):
you know what I'm going to do it, let me do it.
And so I just decided to do itmyself.
But we've always, historicallyspeaking, needed one.
You know this dates back to 12to 15 years ago.
We knew, with our involvementin the Custom Homes industry and
the Roofing industry and thelarge part that realtors play in
the success of our companiesand expanding into other avenues
(02:45):
in the real estate industry, weknew we needed to have somebody
in our company that was arealtor.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
So that's kind of par for the course with you, though
, man.
If you really think back to allthese conversations that I've
had with you I mean even off,Mike, you know, at the end of
the day, it's like you're cutfrom the cloth.
If you're going to ask somebodyto do it, you're going to do it
too, and that's kind of whatthis ended up as right.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yes, yeah, same with home inspections.
I don't ever want to asksomebody to do something that I
can't do myself or wouldn't domyself.
I am starting to realize thatthat can be an Achilles heel,
right.
I always just want to go do itmyself and I just don't have the
time or the capacity to do that, and a lot of times there's a
(03:29):
person with a better fit forthat certain type of project,
such as demo work and groundlabor.
I shouldn't be out there doingit myself.
Now I have a much larger role Ineed to be playing, but no, it
is.
I got licensed as a homeinspector myself and now as a
realtor, and that's part of thereason I joined a team.
You know I don't need to bebogged down with doing the
(03:50):
paperwork and the listing,agreements and stuff like that.
So it was just a great fit tojoin a team and let them kind of
do that stuff while I'm kind ofmanaging the company here.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yeah, no, and I'm sure it's in one of these list
of questions, but, like you, Ikind of like to keep this fresh
and just a conversation piecewhen are you hanging your real
estate license, matt?
Speaker 3 (04:08):
So I hung it with Team Ferris at Remax Concepts,
so I'm still learning how to saymy new title.
Whenever, you know, my phoneauto fills in this is Matt
Murray with and it saysCustomums, roofing, inspections.
And now it's like I'm trying toteach you how to say you know,
remax Concepts, team Ferris,ferris Realty.
No, but everybody knows I havebeen a comrade, a business
(04:34):
partner confidant of SusanFerris is for many years, dating
back to the first house I everbuilt.
She sold the first house I'veever built and she's just been
there through the years.
You know, there's been some upsand downs in the real estate
industry and some change andshe's always been there.
Even when we weren't using herto, say, list all of our
(04:57):
properties, she was still in thebackground, being my moral
compass, her family's, largelyin the medical field, being my
advisor in medical field andfinancials.
And I always tell people I havetwo people that I rely on,
which is my banker, marlon Lyon,and Susan Ferris, and typically
if I have a real estatetransaction, including
(05:18):
purchasing this building thatwe're in, if I get the green
light from them, I jump.
You know, because they'rereally protective of me and my
money and our company andthey're usually the ones saying
no, and if I can get a greenlight from both of them, it's
like let's go.
So I just thought it was proper, it was a good fit and I wanted
(05:38):
to pay homage to her for whatshe's done for me throughout the
years.
And Jenna Ferris is actuallythe team lead with them now and
you know Susan's kind of etchinginto retirement a little bit,
so Jenna her daughters is takingover the team lead for that.
What does Susan think of?
Speaker 2 (05:57):
that, obviously, I know that's probably been her
goal, right, leave the legacybehind and all that.
But like that's kind of likeyou.
You know, once you step back,it's going to be almost hard for
you to do to be so hands-on andthen take that step back.
What's it like for her so far?
Speaker 3 (06:12):
You know, I think she's really enjoying it.
I think she has.
I haven't asked her thatquestion, but if I can gauge it
correctly, she has this littleslice of retirement where she is
handing off the legacy and thenshe also gets sucked back in
and gets put back in the middleof things.
And I still like to lean onSusan on bigger transactions.
(06:36):
So I'm always calling her, eventhough Jenna's my team lead.
I call Susan a lot and have herhelp me with ideas and thoughts
and stuff.
And Jenna goes.
She does a lot of the stuffthat I wish that I could do, a
lot of the forward thinking andgoing to conventions and
researching and doing that stuff.
So Susan will have to step inand manage the day to day.
(06:58):
But no, I think she loves it.
I think the idea for her wasonce Michael, her husband,
retired, to retire and to spendmore time with him on the road
and stuff.
And I think she's getting alittle bit of that but also is
still having to manage some ofthe stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
So Delegating man.
That's like the hardest thingfor me so far that I found in
this project management role islike you said at the start.
It's so easy just to be like,oh no, I know what I need done,
I'm going to go do it, passingthe buck a little bit and
learning the delegation of yourrole, man.
That's been my biggest learningcurve here.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
It is, man.
It's so tough, and I had somecoaching a business coach and a
life coach that helped me manyyears ago with that Colorated
submarine from nonfinan.
הא too, umagus, you know me, Idon't think I'm above anybody,
right, and I'm not.
We are large in part, you know,decision by committee here.
(07:54):
There's no pecking order.
I'm not above anybody.
If you guys are going to get alot, go out and demo, and you
need help, demo, and I'm rightthere with you, man.
But I did have somethinginstilled in me that helped a
lot and that was trying to takea one year of what your company
made and your leadership in that, and then trying to decide what
(08:16):
you're worth per hour and so ifeverybody in the company can
think about that, and then youlook at the per hour rate of
each position, so to speak.
So if I'm worth 150 bucks perhour, I need to know that, and
when I'm going to demo a job,rather than having a $20 per
hour demo guide do that, I'm at150 bucks an hour.
(08:38):
So is that the best use of mytime, right, you know?
So I always try to look at itlike that.
I'm not above anything, but ifI can be doing a task that
really is like leading thecompany and doing books and
buying lots and the leadershiptype activities that pay 150
bucks an hour.
Should I be out doing somethingthat's 20 bucks an hour instead
?
So there is a trade off,opportunity, cost, right, and so
(09:01):
I try to look at it from thatperspective a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
And what I used to when you put it like that, that
makes the perfect sense right.
Where am I best?
Exactly when the company Yep.
So you've spent some time nowwith the real estate team.
You've spent some time out, youknow, purchasing lots and
looking at what's up and coming.
If you were to have to chooseand I don't want to nail you
down, but if you had to choosean area of real estate that
(09:25):
you've enjoyed so far, like whatareas of the types of
properties would you say thatyou want to specialize in?
Or if you were to go off onyour own and not be with the
Murray, what would Matt Murrayhimself want to specialize in
with real estate?
Speaker 3 (09:38):
You know that's crazy , probably be tackling a lot of
questions here, but it all tiesinto it.
What's exciting for me ishelping people.
I don't think many people knowthat we don't have a terribly
huge portfolio of flippinghouses, but we've always been
flipping houses throughout theyears and so it's always been on
(09:58):
our radar something we're doing.
And so for 15, 16 years I'vealways been presented with flip
opportunities, investmentopportunities, rentals, and I'm
always breaking down.
You know if you have to buy itfor this, what you're after.
You know value after remodelvalue, what are you going to
sell it for.
You know put in spreadsheetstogether of costs, operating
(10:21):
cost, static overhead, all thatstuff.
So it's always everything we'vebeen doing for 15 years has been
real estate involved, andthat's fun for me.
And helping Maria right nowwith her buy and sell and just
going through the numbers andmaking sure that people make
sense of the numbers and knowall that's going to be coming
(10:46):
out of the sales price and wherethey're going to net and gross.
That's fun for me.
Just because I, as I'm gettingmore and more involved, I'm
maybe starting to realize howmuch experience I do have and
how in the weeds we have beenover the years, and so being
(11:07):
able to give a slice of thatexperience to other people has
been amazing.
So it's fun and I'm excited.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
It's like all roads led to here you know what I mean
.
Right Does it feel like thatfor you too.
Yeah, it does.
That's crazy, yep, all thenumbers that you've been digging
into just going back to theroofing side with dad, right?
Yep, like that, bookkeeping hasalmost led you into this real
estate stuff, man.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Yeah, so the only reason we really did it like we
were talking is just because wewere doing so much in-house, and
so to be able to keep thatpiece of the pie in-house you
know, buying lots, selling lots,buying houses, selling houses
it just made sense to havesomebody in-house.
You look at a lot of largerbuilders and a lot of larger
(11:52):
companies, not even just inLincoln but throughout the
United States.
They all have an in-houserealtor.
Whether it's a family member,an employee, a friend, they
always have somebody in-house.
And so we always knew we neededto do that and I thought that's
where it was going to go and Ithought that was the end of it
was just I was going to use myreal estate license to just
(12:14):
service Murray Custom Homes.
And you know, after I startedgoing through that process and,
you know, just telling theleaders of the company that I
was getting my real estatelicense, just a lot of their
avenues opened up.
You know, what I kind of reallywasn't thinking about during
that time was the number ofpeople, the number of clients,
(12:37):
that come to us and build withus and then they're asking the
salesperson that they're talkingto or the project manager we
have a house to sell.
When should we sell it?
Who should we use to sell it?
And we were just handing thatoff and so not having control of
that, so to speak, of thattimeline when they list it, how
(12:58):
much they list it for, becausethe sell of our house that we're
building for them is contingentupon them selling their house,
and so we weren't having controlover that and so they were
either listening it too high orthey weren't selling it fast
enough, they didn't list it atthe right time.
So now being able to hopefullyplay a part in that for these
clients and having a little bitmore say in that process and I
(13:25):
think it'll help both of us,right, because now I have a
little bit of skin in the game Imean, if I make a bad call and
tell them to list their housefor too high or not to list it
soon enough, I think I'll havesome.
I'll give them some leniency onthe custom home side of the
house we're building for them,because I steered them in the
wrong direction.
But no, it's just, it'sdefinitely just widening our
(13:48):
play in the field, right, samewith home inspection just
continuing to evolve andcontinue to grow within our
field.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
You could almost place it back into the
homeowner's lap of like.
Why not, right?
Because I'm sure you've had ahorror story or two of the
contingent of being sold on thishome.
So let's go and playhypothetical.
What happens if we're donebuilding Shannon Chestnut's
house and yet the other houseisn't sold yet?
I mean, that can create adisaster, right, it sucks.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
It sucks.
It happens all the time.
I mean it's happening with theclient right now.
It happened December 28th withthe client.
You know, a lot of thosemoments are lay in bed and pray
and trust in God, but when youget into the weeds, no, it does
suck.
And what I have found that doessuck about it is, once again,
(14:39):
not knowing that they asked us,you know, at the forefront, if
we had anybody or anything likethat.
And we probably did refer themto a couple of people, but they,
you know, they went withsomebody and we were just
completely unattached with thatdecision.
And then it comes down to, hey,we have your house done, you
know, you can move in onDecember 28th.
(15:01):
And they're saying, well, shoot, I thought you guys knew that
we had a house to sell and ithasn't sold yet, so we can't
close on your house, and so it'sjust, it is, it's a.
Then it's getting a hold oftheir realtor trying to figure
out what needs to happen.
I mean, on this lasttransaction, we almost
considered buying their house tomake the deal go through.
But it was like a contingentwho.
The offer on that person'shouse was contingent and they
(15:23):
had an offer on their house.
That was contingent, so it wasso deep it was, I would have to
have went like four clients backand bought their house to make
everybody else's go through, andthe house just wasn't marketed
at the right price and theywouldn't accept the right price.
But no, that sucks, and sothat's.
That is a large, a large partof what I'm really excited about
(15:44):
is being involved in thatprocess and and helping with
that.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Yeah and that and that and keeps everything in
house here.
We're not sending you to realestate agent A or B to make sure
that we can complete your househere.
I mean, our job is to buildyour house Right and if you guys
love it and it hits all yourwants and needs, we don't want
to have to worry about realestate agent C selling house A.
I mean, let's just get you intoyour new home, exactly.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
And, and you look at the growth pattern of a lot of
larger companies throughout theUnited States Linnar, a couple
of the big ones come to mind,but they it was.
It was interesting to me howthey they went about growing
their company into themulti-billion dollar giants that
they are, and and it wasgrowing within their field.
Um, you know, at some pointit's hard to you know, at some
(16:32):
point it's hard to you to biteoff more of the pie, so to speak
, than what you already have.
Say we have 25% of the whetherit's 10%, 20%, 25% not trying to
sound like we have that much,but I haven't ever ran the
numbers but say we have 25% ofthe pie of any given trade here
in Lincoln.
(16:52):
Say it's roofing, of theresidential roofing market.
We have 25%.
We've busted our butt.
We have a full-time marketingteam to get us to that point, to
get to 28% or 30%.
That's a large investment.
The amount of money that we payfor keywords for roofing Lincoln
, nebraska, is substantial.
It's highly competitive and tobite off another sliver of pie
(17:16):
would be extremely difficult.
And so it comes down to okay,how do we go down that path of
trying to bite off more of thepie to fight with the apple
roofings for more keywords inthe white castles, or could we
look at growing within ourindustry, and so that's kind of
where I have been in my businessmindset for many years as to
(17:42):
why we have offices in Houstonand Omaha and Grand Island and
Houston, and that's where I'm atand that's kind of why we
started the Home InspectionDivision and that's why now I'm
a realtor is you hit itperfectly with a one-stop shop,
and so that's what these othercompanies have done is when you
walk in the door and you want todo a custom home, they're your
(18:03):
one-stop shop, they are allthings custom homes.
They are your appraisal company, they are your title company,
they are everything.
And so it's going to be fun andinteresting to see where we go
in the next five or 10 years.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
We met with Chamber of Commerce last week and shout
out to Shannon over there attheir office.
She was a huge help.
But she told me hit threetarget audiences.
Find your three targets rightand then try to hone in on those
three instead of being so broad, and try to take over
everything and not take over Isaid that wrong.
Try to have a monopoly oneverything.
(18:41):
Hit three and really craft onthose three.
That's yeah, man, I learnedfrom you throughout these Murray
minutes than probably anythingelse throughout the day.
Man, just kind of picking yourbrain on the future and how you
got here.
So let's flip the script.
Melissa Taylor, my wife comesinto Matt Murray.
Why not selling her so much?
Because I know we're not intothis to be competitive.
(19:03):
We just want another avenue forour clients.
But why would she choose you?
Speaker 3 (19:09):
You know that's a good question because one thing
that does ping me about.
So I'm in a lot of realtorgroups right now and this isn't
local.
I'm in a lot of nationwide andworldwide realtor groups.
I found it interesting as weare evolving.
When I say we, now that I'm arealtor, I'm using that as we.
But the realtor world ischanging.
(19:30):
I think most of the publicprobably know about a huge class
action lawsuit that was broughtagainst the real estate
commission and a whole bunch ofbrokerage firms and just about
the verbiage and how commissionsare charged and stuff like that
.
So it's been very unique for meto kind of be involved in it
now.
But to be in the back seat andto you had to have a broker's
(19:50):
sorry, a real estate license toget on a lot of these real
estate forums that I'm on and tosee these people talk about
this and to see how it's goingto change the real estate world
is very unique and I'm excitedto see where it goes.
It kind of scary, to be honestwith you, but I try to stay on
top of what's going on.
But we have a wonderful teamaround us and that is why I
(20:15):
signed with who I did so.
A is.
You know we have a wonderfulteam.
We have a transactioncoordinator.
We have a piece of the pie thatfits every different aspect.
I'm not going to try to beinvolved in every transaction.
That's why I did join the teamI have.
You know, I have my full-timejob here running Murray, but you
(20:37):
know I don't think there's toomany realtors in town that have
the experience that I have.
You know I, custom homebuilding is a lot of.
You know, being part of thedeveloper world and buying lots
and selling lots.
And if you, you know when webuy a lot we don't just you know
(20:59):
blindly, you know, take a penand place it on a map and decide
that's where it goes.
It's in the weeds of decidingwhat's happening in that
neighborhood, what's coming aretheir schools is located near a
fire station.
You know what's the resale value, who's in the neighborhood, who
are the other builders, what'sit going to sell for, what's the
long-term projection, five-yeartenure it's a lot.
(21:21):
It is a lot and I've been doingthat for 15 years now, and so I
think there's just a lot ofdifferent ways that I look at
real estate, maybe just frombeing involved in the custom
home world and buying andselling like we do.
That not a lot of otherrealtors have, but I think when
I was going back to what pangsme is a lot of realtors will get
(21:46):
their real estate license andthen they'll post on their
Facebook page or whatever thatthey're the best realtor in town
.
The most knowledgeable, is likeyou literally have one month of
real estate experience, which Iknow.
I'm green on the transactionside, but I'm definitely not
green on the process and theknowledge.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
It's just like coaching man.
I've said it since I startedabout eight years ago I don't
want to be the smartest one inthis room.
By no means necessary do I wantto have all that.
I want to surround myself withthe people that know what
they're doing.
I know what I'm doing, but Iwant to surround myself with the
people that have been doing itfor 10 years.
I can't come into this tomorrowand say, all right, Matt, hire
me.
You want 10 years of experience, but how am I going to get that
(22:30):
unless I surround myself withpeople like you guys in the team
?
I want to talk about trends,man.
What should people be aware ofthat's coming, or the way
everything goes in waves?
There's trends coming in 2024,I'm sure it might be interest
rates or whatever.
What should people be aware oflooking at the year coming?
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Let me rewind for one second.
I was thinking about this theother day because I'm going
through my first by processright now.
It's fun, but as I was part ofit, I was like wondering why I
wasn't more nervous, because itwas the first time I'd done it
and I was writing an offer formy client buying a house.
(23:08):
And then I was dealing with therealtor and they were trying to
change stuff and we werecountering and it was what I do
every day.
I stand between person A andperson C and I'm person B and I
have a little bit of skin in thegame, but I'm, at the end of
the day, we're just themiddlemen, right, as a custom
(23:30):
home builder, we're trying topair the best subcontractors
with the client's interests.
And when we're talking to theclients, we're kind of talking
on behalf of our subs, becauseour subs have questions and they
say you can do this, you can'tdo that, and then we're trying
to tell our clients that nicely,and then we're trying to take
the information that our clientsgive us and we're trying to
(23:51):
relay that to our subs.
Here's what the client wants,here's what they don't want.
And at the end of the day,you're just a middleman, and the
success of our company, everycompany that I run is how good
of a middleman can we be?
Same with you.
You're just doing the exactsame thing that I just said and,
as the owner of the company,that's what I'm doing.
(24:11):
I'm just trying to hire the bestpeople that are the best for my
clients and our clients, and,at the end of the day, it's
every day I find myself that'swhat I do.
I have open-door policy, butthat's what I'm doing.
I'm taking something that thePM has a problem with and taking
it to the homeowner, takingsomething that a subset and
(24:32):
issues that we have with thesnowstorm, for example.
I'm trying to explain it to thehomeowners of what the concrete
guys are saying they can andcan't do.
Well, you can do this, youcan't do that, we'd recommend
this, we'd recommend that, butthat's all I was doing.
I was in between my client, whohad the date that they wanted to
close and their purchase price,and you have the seller over
(24:54):
here and their realtor, and soit was just another sliver of
what I do with on an everydaybasis, and it was definitely not
a new experience for me, and itmade me realize.
I didn't know if I'd be excitedabout buying and selling for
other people because, like I wasstating for, the idea was I was
just going to do the customhome stuff, so I really wouldn't
(25:16):
be working for a client.
But it was fun.
It was fun advocating forsomebody and fun just making.
I realized that there was a lotof times throughout that process
that if you didn't know whatyou were doing, it could have
fell through.
And that's a kudos to a lot ofthe realtors that have had
success in Lincoln, nebraska,because they're how do you say
(25:40):
it?
People person.
They are people people, no, butyou get what I'm saying they.
Real estate is so much abouthow to fix problems, cure
problems and keep people headedin the same direction, not let
them get off track, and that'swhat we do here.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Well, you kind of got your juices turned in again,
probably like fired up again.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
It was fun because I'm kind of removed from that.
You know, in the Murray I'veremoved myself for that.
So it was fun, it was veryinteresting and exciting and
yeah, and you know, I treated itas though we were dealing on a
multimillion-dollar trainsaction and it was fun.
But no, back to the trends.
(26:20):
Repeat that question for me?
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Yeah.
So if somebody's coming intoyou, you've been doing this for,
like you said, 15 years.
You've seen the ups, you'veseen the downs.
What can somebody look forwardto?
Good or bad, that's coming into2024, as far as what the trends
look like and I know you'reguessing, so everybody listening
, this is a guess, right whatare we looking to For trends?
Trends in 2024.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Well, I think we'll continue the trend of acreages.
Everybody's wanting to urbansprawl, get outside of town.
We're going to continue thetrend of backyard oasis.
Everybody wants a pool,everybody wants to spend an arm
and a leg on their backyard,which I totally get at me too.
But it's just crazy how it wentfrom two or three years ago
(27:06):
People would completely run outof money and whatever pennies
they had left they'd spend ontheir backyard, and then now
it's like the first thing wetalk about, the first allowance
we put on their budget sheet iseither their pool or retaining
walls or you know what I'msaying their ponds.
So I think that's going tocontinue to be a trend.
I still don't see us gettingaway from the open floor concept
(27:26):
.
About a year over the last twoyears we've seen in larger
markets kind of get away fromthat a little bit.
We're a little bit here inLincoln where we're closing off.
One of the trends that I'vebeen seeing, especially with my
wife being the designer, is Iwas against it at first but I'm
kind of coming around to it iswhen you walk in on these open
floor concepts, you walk in thefront door and you walk right
(27:48):
into the heart of the house.
You can see the kitchen, youcan see the living room, you can
see down the hallways.
And I think people arerealizing they don't like that
If you have somebody step inyour front door that you don't
know, do you want them seeingbasically your entire house?
And so they're kind of creatingsome festivals a little bit
sectioned off from the mainportion of the house.
But I still think we're goingto stay with the open floor
(28:11):
concept for the foreseeablefuture, just with families and
kids.
I think people have entertainedthe idea but just can't wrap
their heads around why or howthey would like that.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
The big windows too.
I mean, yeah, man, now I'mseeing what you're saying.
Like you walk into the frontdoor and you're looking into my
privacy.
Yeah, everything, yeah, dude,you throw some theater windows
on there and now you're seeingit from the outside.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
Yeah, exactly, and also you know it gets back to
you have to have your house kindof completely clean and your
dish is done, just for somebodyto knock on your door and step
in your front door, they'reseeing your living room, your
kitchen, your dishes, yourcooking space, and so, like I
said, I was against it at first,just because of the amount of
square footage and the extrawalls it took to kind of create
(28:57):
a little vestibule.
But I'm kind of coming aroundto the idea.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Yeah, this has to be so crazy for you I'm pausing the
notes that we have Like lookingback, man just walking in every
day.
This has to be surreal for you.
I can't like wrap my mindaround what your thought process
is right now, because it wasjust roofing, and then it was
custom homes, and then it wasrestoration, and now it's real
(29:21):
estate, and I know you havegoals for 2025 and beyond.
So it's like every day you walkin here.
Let's go back to when youwalked into my office, for
example.
You knew I was frustrated thismorning because I'm dealing with
something and all you did waspop your head in.
You all right, and we talked,and now it's the handle, the
situation's handled.
This has to be surreal for you.
The whole real estate thinghelping other real estate agents
(29:43):
not wanting to compete withthem, but just be another avenue
what's every day like for MattMurray, the person dude?
Speaker 3 (29:52):
You know what's crazy when you say it's been 15, 16,
17 years.
It is true that every day'sdifferent and I love that right.
I think I'm in a differentmindset, in a different world
today than what I was in lastyear, and I love that.
I thrive off of that.
But I'm headed more towardsgetting out of the weeds and
(30:15):
that's what I want.
I want to be able to give backto my employees, not only
financially but my being.
I want to be here for you.
I want to be able to do more ofwhat I did this morning walk
around and take the temperatureof the room and take a
temperature of the office anddecide what we need to do and
sit in with people.
(30:36):
Because, historically speakingand kind of still, my day pretty
much operates probably a lotlike yours does.
It wakes up to a fire and thenI'm putting fires out all day
and I never get a breathe and Idon't get time to be a boss,
right, because I'm still in theweeds.
It's just answering emails andputting out fires all day.
(31:00):
But I'm getting more towards aslice of my day being top level,
high level, rather than in theweeds, and that's what the goal
is for 2024 is to kind ofcompletely get me out of the
weeds, shift Kevin into more ofa senior PM role that I'm kind
of assumed right now and thenhelp Tom with expanding roofing,
(31:21):
help Tori with expanding theinspections, decide where I'm
going to go with my real estatelicense and all that stuff.
But that's what I thrive in.
I thrive in creating companiesand growing companies.
Starting the inspections had mefired up and then it just went
right along with my real estatelicense and that has me fired up
(31:42):
.
But I want to get into the.
When I'm headed into the office, what excites me is helping you
guys.
How can I make your day easier,how can I answer questions, how
can I better your day and whatsucks and why I think I did get
(32:02):
a little burned out over thelast three or four years and why
I'm a little frustrated is Ithought I'd get to that, to the
place quicker of getting out ofthat, and I'm not.
I mean, still it's when I'mheaded into the office I'm on
the phone putting out fires.
When I walk in the office, I'min my office, closed door,
putting out fires and answeringemails and stuff, and it's not
(32:23):
what I want to be doing.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
So I think you're, but, like you said that the last
time we had you in here for theMurray Minuteman, you're
getting the personnel right,like, and you don't want to.
I think you mentioned it on airand if not, I'm sorry, but it's
you don't want to reactivelyhire, right, you want to
proactively hire, and so I thinkthat's you know, and I can see
(32:46):
how that would be frustrating.
That takes time and you'regoing through interview process
is now I hear it every day, soit's like you're going to get
there, okay, so let's, let'sback up and let's get back to
our sheet before I hold you upmuch longer.
So let's take my, my family,for example.
Right, I'm just going to throwout random numbers.
Let's say, back in 2020, we gotdown at a 2.3%, right, and now
(33:08):
I'm guessing from readingthrough some emails we're
looking around the 6% gettingback down for this year.
How can myself, being a secondhome buyer or whatever, how can
I navigate this competitivemarket?
But, like, if I come into youand I'm like Matt dude, I don't
know what to do, like, how can anew buyer navigate this
competitive market and whatresources do we have?
What resources do you have?
Speaker 3 (33:30):
Well, that's a far reaching question.
I'm still trying to answer thatquestion myself of how I
adequately help people because,historically speaking, like I
said, I am very cautious.
I don't I don't pull thetrigger on any deal unless I've
had it signed off on by multiplepeople and the numbers look
(33:52):
tremendous.
I'm low risk and so trying tonavigate how I'm going to help
clients and allow them to pullthe trigger when I might not
agree with it or whatnot.
But I'm surrounded by the best,I think in Lincoln the bankers,
multiple bankers, multipletitle companies, multiple
(34:15):
financial advisors.
So I definitely leaned on a lotof people in my past and will
continue to lean on them for myclients.
I don't I don't always thinkthat I have the best answers,
but I know there's somebody intown that will.
So there's multiple differentavenues and different questions
(34:36):
that come with whether youshould do it, where you should
do it, how much to sell yoursfor and all that stuff, and so
I'm excited to be able to getinto the weeds.
So that's kind of what I'mhaving troubles with is, when a
client comes to me, are theyjust wanting me to blindly write
the offer for them?
And they've already done thelegwork and they're at peace
(34:57):
with their decision.
Or are they wanting to lean onme for my expertise and I'm a
nerd, I'm a math guy, I'm anumbers guy, I'm a spreadsheet
guy Are they wanting to lean onme for that and let me get into
the weeds with them and decideif it's a good decision and what
price they should offer andwhat the numbers look like and
what they're going to need tosell their house for?
So you know, I'm kind of stillnew to this, I'll admit it, but
(35:18):
I'm excited to help people.
I'm excited to help people.
I'm excited for people to cometo me and say help us, help us
make a decision on what weshould do, where we should go,
what we should buy.
You know, I've been doing thatfor my employees actually for 10
years, maybe for Tom Kevin,where they should build a house,
(35:40):
when they should build a house,all that stuff.
So it's going to be fun to seewhere this goes.
I'm excited to extend from mynetwork of intelligent beings
here in Lincoln to my clients.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
For anybody that's listening.
When is the ideal time forsomebody that's on the market to
come to you?
When would you like to see themthrough your doors?
Speaker 3 (36:07):
Earlier than they probably suspect, right.
So it really just depends onpeople's situations.
But and this is forecasting youknow a lot of people think
spring market.
But when you get to springmarket it's probably going to be
back to a hot market and that'smultiple offers, that's houses
(36:28):
going quick, and so if you'rewanting to buy and you're
wanting to be in by spring, nowis probably the time you need to
do it, right?
But if you're wanting to sell,the answer is different.
You know it depends on whereyou're at what price point.
You know, if you're still inthe twos to threes, you can sell
now.
I mean, the one that we boughtlast week was on the market for
(36:49):
two days and we think we'reprobably going to be able to
sell her house in under sevendays.
So it just really depends.
I mean, if you're in the fivesto sevens, the answer is
different.
If you're in the above amillion luxury home, we're soon
going to be in that boatourselves, personally trying to
sell our house.
We've been up for two yearsthis May, so we're navigating
those waters too, but justreally having to sit down and go
(37:12):
through all those answers andquestions and everything, but
the sooner the better.
Yes, that is yes.
Yeah, there's.
I've been confronted with acouple of people that need to
sell by March in order to make adeal that they have pending go
(37:33):
through, and I'm like we shouldhave been talking about this
months ago, right, like we needto go, we need to jump and so,
yes, the sooner the better.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Let's talk challenges before I get you out of here on
to your next meeting man, whatchallenge?
What the biggest challenge thatyou've seen in the short time
that you've been a real estateagent so far?
What's the biggest challenge orchallenges that you foresee
coming?
Speaker 3 (37:58):
You know that's that's.
That's tricky.
That's a good question.
A lot of what we're dealingwith and, like I said, when I
say we, it's the real estateindustry.
I know I'm new, but I've beenfollowing it for pretty
intensively for a while now.
The changes that are coming areare on on the on the surface,
(38:20):
major right.
How the real estate industryand the real estate commissions
are going to deal with thischange remains to be seen.
They appealed the decision andthey're you know, every local
branch is kind of dealing withit a little differently.
In a nutshell, what they'retrying to say is, as a seller,
you can't charge the buyer'scommission.
(38:41):
You can't charge the seller orthe house, the buyer's
commission, right?
So when we sell a house, we saywe're going to charge X percent
, whether it's 5%, 6%, and thatpercentage includes the
commission for the buyer's agent, right?
And what they're saying is thatthat's no longer allowed.
That's that's deceiving, Iguess is the proper word.
(39:03):
Anyways, this is a way tooinvolved to get into.
I'm probably misspeaking, butit's a huge thing that they it
was a class action lawsuit witha lot of people, a lot of major
players, billion dollars lawsuitKeller Williams, remax was part
of it.
The real estate commission waspart of it, and, and they lost
the judgment just went throughlike a month or two ago, and
they're appealing the decision,but it's it's.
(39:24):
It's supposed to, like I said,on the surface change the game,
but the way I see it going isit's just a a, a verbiage change
in the contract, right, likejust letting them know.
Now, though, that this lawsuitwent through.
We can't do it this way.
We have to do it this other way, and so I'm I'm kind of really
(39:44):
hoping that's the way that itgoes, and and it doesn't put a
whole bunch of people out ofbusiness and put buyers, agents,
out of business and so on andso forth.
But it it it's a little tricky.
I have never thought aboutwanting to capture leads or
anything like that in the realestate industry, like I said
before, and to to hit on itagain, as it was just playing on
(40:04):
using my real estate licensefor for us, for for Murray, and
so I'm not really for sure howit goes.
I really just want to figure outa way for me to be the best
representation for the peoplethat I can and I now realize
that with the number of peoplethat you know, analyzing our
past clients over the last twoor three years, realizing how
(40:27):
many of our clients come to uswith a house to sell and they
don't have representation,realizing the position that I'm
going to be in to sell those, Iwant to really starting to, I
guess, get a little nervous andanxious about making sure that I
am the best for them.
Because, like you said, I thinkit's a great fit.
It's a one-stop shop.
They come to us, they'retrusting us to build their house
(40:48):
and they're trusting us withthe timeline and when we're
going to finish it.
You know why not use us and letthat play into the timeline and
financials and everything.
So it's a great one-stop shop,but how do I ensure that I'm
doing them the best servicepossible and my team is doing
them the best possible, and sothat's kind of what I'm anxious
(41:10):
about coming up.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
Yeah, I saw on a Facebook post somebody.
It was on one of the LincolnMarket areas and they were
talking about hey, we're lookingto build.
Who should we go with thecomments?
That stood out right away wasMurray.
Speaker 3 (41:23):
I saw that too.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
Yeah, dude, it was wild and you start digging into
it.
They treat us like people, notlike a number.
You know why?
Not, murray?
And my answer is always becauseyou get to work with us.
If I'm going to build a house,if I'm going to sell or buy, I
want to be treated like I'm aperson, not just a number or
client, you know that's crazy, Idon't know why.
Speaker 3 (41:44):
I think that I saw that last night at like six
o'clock and I was up middle ofthe night thinking about that.
I was so like I had mixedemotions when I saw that, just
because in custom homes so muchshit can go wrong, you're
completely custom building ahouse and expectations can be
different.
(42:04):
All these things that I'vetalked about in the past can be
different, and getting to theend of an eight month, seven
month, 10 month build and stillremaining on good talking terms
with that person is extremelyhard.
I mean, you're spending theirmoney and it's like you're
marrying somebody for eightmonths that you don't know and
usually by the end of the buildit's kind of like get the f out.
(42:26):
You know you've been involvedin our life for this long and
ready to be done with you,regardless of how good you are
and how good we did.
Sometimes that's just how itends.
But to see that was so amazingand I just I thought about how
you get yourself to that placeof still being a positive
(42:47):
referral after you go throughone of the most stressful events
that you know.
They say that it can be otherthan divorce and marriage, but I
think that you hit the nail onthe head.
It's just we freaking care.
You know we care so fuckingmuch, almost to a detriment, and
our clients not any of ourclients are just a number.
(43:07):
You know we might be buildingmultiple homes but everyone gets
so much attention and care andif we do mess up, you know shit
happens.
You know it sucks, because youknow we don't own the
subcontractors, we don't owntheir companies, we don't own
their employees and so naturallywe don't have control over how
(43:28):
they handle themselves and whatthey do.
And everybody's human andsomething's going to happen.
And it's how you navigate that.
And we care, we care, we wantto make it right and hopefully
that resonates with our clientswhen we're done and I know that
they're probably like you know,get the hell out of here.
I'm done with you, I want toget back to my marriage, but
hopefully they have that levelof respect that we cared and we
(43:51):
took their project serious andthey weren't just another number
.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Bro, you hit it on the head, like you care, to a
fault, right, like it's, it's.
It's something that I've that Italk to my wife about
constantly.
I'm like I, why?
Why?
Why am I like this?
You know, like, why is it?
Why is it bothering me atmidnight?
Or if I hear an emo go off at 430 in the morning, like why do
I jump?
Like why and it's not just this, it's coaching, it's being a
(44:16):
family, it's my, my kids Like I,is it some?
Kevin's perfect example?
Right, our lead PM.
He's a perfect example.
Like.
It doesn't get to him to thepoint where you can physically
see it, but he's constantly justgoing right.
So it's like you know, it's ahappy medium, yes, but at the
end of the day, I wouldn'tchange who I am for anything
because it's it's got me hereyou know, yeah, that's.
Speaker 3 (44:39):
You know it's crazy, I'm probably running over, but
it's why you know we didn't needto hire when we hired you and
it's why we're practicallyhiring another person like like
us.
You know, culture fit, and it'sa biggest thing, I think.
Throughout COVID and ourgrowing, we hired a couple of
people that weren't, you know,great culture fits, great
experience wise, but not culturefits, and I've realized that I
(45:01):
need to hire a culture fit basis.
It's because I find people likeyou and I have to take people
like you and and try to have you, because you're like me and
Kevin was like me where you careto a fault and you can't shut
it off, and it ran me ragged.
And I appreciate, though,because now I just have to teach
(45:23):
you guys how to like turn itdown a little bit.
You have to set boundaries, andyou can't be jumping at your
phone at 430 in the morning.
You know you got to be therewith your family and you got to
get your sleep, but it's hard toteach that if you don't have it
.
I'd rather you have too much ofit, and then I can kind of turn
it down a little bit and learnyou how to compartmentalize than
(45:43):
the other way, and so, yes, I'mglad I'm hiring the right
people Going back to yourwrestling days.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
right, I can't bring that dog out of you.
I can tame him, but I can'tlike bring that out.
Absolutely Final thoughts.
Man, I know we've had to havemissed something, anything.
Speaker 3 (45:59):
No, I'm just excited.
I'm excited to.
You know, the more I realize itit's kind of taken a life of
its own.
And you know, what I said sixmonths ago or two months ago on
air might be different thantoday because, you know, truly
honestly, I just was planning ongetting my real estate license
to just do the transactions thatMurray Customs Homes has and
(46:21):
not really act as a realtor, soto speak.
But maybe I'm starting to findout that that might be hard,
like with Maria calling me andasking me to buy her a house.
Now I'm a buyer's agent.
I got to go do an inspection, Igot to go, you know.
Now she wants me to list herhouse, so we're going to list
her house, and so I'm realizingthat it might be tougher than
what I thought to just operatein that one capacity.
(46:43):
But it's also really exciting,especially with our inspections,
our home inspections, becausethat is large and part driven by
realtors in town, and that'sanother reason I wanted to get
it is, I respect a lot ofrealtors in town.
They are the driving force of alot of businesses, whether they
know it or not.
They are, whether you're doinga couple of transactions a year,
(47:04):
multiple transactions a year,your rentals and the words out
of your mouth mean a lot.
They meet and talk to a lot ofpeople.
Their reach is far, and so I'vealways known that and so maybe
starting to realize that I'mgoing to acclimate into the real
estate community a little bitmore than what I originally
(47:26):
thought, and I'm excited aboutthat, excited to go to the
events and get to know them and,I guess, become part of them.
I've been following it a lotand I'm hopeful that it ends
that lawsuit, ends in a good wayand doesn't affect too much of
the real estate world.
But it's going to be fun.
(47:47):
It's going to be fun.
Speaker 2 (47:48):
I think the real estate world, lincoln and the
surrounding areas are a betterplace now that Murray and Matt
Murray real estate agent areinvolved in, and I think only
thing that happens from here iseverybody goes up, everybody
gets elevated because you're apeople, person, man.
Thank you, I'm Matt Murray.
Everybody thanks for tuning into this latest episode of the
Murray Minute Edition.
(48:08):
I appreciate everybodylistening.
I look forward to keeping youupdated, matt.
I look forward to getting youback on the pod for the next
couple of weeks.
Stay tuned for our next episode.
We'll be live at Glacier Till.
Thanks everybody.
Speaker 1 (48:19):
Thank you for joining us on this episode of Stay
Bothered with Murray, the MurrayMinute Edition.
If you have topics you wouldlike us to discuss, please email
us at info atMurrayCustomHomescom or message
us at MurrayCustomHomescom.
Welcome to the Murray Minute Edition, a series in the
state modern with MurrayPodcast, where we dive into
custom home building, roofingand home inspection topics with
one of the members of our team.
Sit back and enjoy the ridewith your host, matthew Taylor.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Thank you everybody for joining us on the Murray
Minute Edition, a segment of theState Modern with Murray
Podcast.
Welcome to our first episode of2024.
I am joined here today with ourpresident and founder, Matt
Murray.
Today we're going to starttalking about all things real
estate.
Thanks for joining us today,Matt.
We appreciate you, man.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Yeah thank you, man.
This is big time.
I know it's a busy day for you.
You got a clothes can coming up, so thanks for fitting me in.
It's kind of weird to be aguest on my own podcast like the
second time.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yeah, dude.
Well, the first one we did, man, it skyrocketed.
Yeah, we were getting calls,emails, everybody about it.
Yeah, you're good at it, dude.
Thank you, I appreciate you,man.
Well, let's just get right intoit.
Man, can you share a bit ofyour background and why you felt
it was important to obtain yourreal estate license?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yeah, I think the overall goal here is to share
that.
I got my real estate license,which I think we might have
mentioned on a few other ones,but we've never done a real
segment about that.
So now that I'm kind of fullspeed ahead, I thought it would
be good to get it out there.
But no, you know, I wasthinking about this.
I tried not to script this toomuch and go through all the
answers, the questions and theanswers.
(01:17):
I wanted it to be live.
I'm a little nervous to do that, to be honest with you.
But no, I think everybody inthe company knows and a lot of
people that in the real estateworld have known that about 12
years ago my ex-wife was goingto get her real estate license
and so she studied for a whileand she was going to do it and
then when she decided not to doit, we had another employee in
(01:40):
the company at the time that wasgoing to do it and then that
got handed off to somebody elseand then, fast forward, it was
going to be Megan and then shejust got too busy and then
finally it was just you knowwhat you know through.
I think I hit on this beforewhen I was sitting at so many of
my son's sporting events, wherebaseball was one of them this
(02:00):
summer, it was just so much timeinvested at the fields in
between games before games, warmenough for games after games,
and I was just like God, I wantto be doing something other than
just checking company emailsand the old adage I say that
people think it's funny becauseI have kids and I work so much I
got bored.
I did On the weekends, I gotbored, and so I was just like
(02:22):
you know what I'm going to do it, let me do it.
And so I just decided to do itmyself.
But we've always, historicallyspeaking, needed one.
You know this dates back to 12to 15 years ago.
We knew, with our involvementin the Custom Homes industry and
the Roofing industry and thelarge part that realtors play in
the success of our companiesand expanding into other avenues
(02:45):
in the real estate industry, weknew we needed to have somebody
in our company that was arealtor.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
So that's kind of par for the course with you, though
, man.
If you really think back to allthese conversations that I've
had with you I mean even off,Mike, you know, at the end of
the day, it's like you're cutfrom the cloth.
If you're going to ask somebodyto do it, you're going to do it
too, and that's kind of whatthis ended up as right.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yes, yeah, same with home inspections.
I don't ever want to asksomebody to do something that I
can't do myself or wouldn't domyself.
I am starting to realize thatthat can be an Achilles heel,
right.
I always just want to go do itmyself and I just don't have the
time or the capacity to do that, and a lot of times there's a
(03:29):
person with a better fit forthat certain type of project,
such as demo work and groundlabor.
I shouldn't be out there doingit myself.
Now I have a much larger role Ineed to be playing, but no, it
is.
I got licensed as a homeinspector myself and now as a
realtor, and that's part of thereason I joined a team.
You know I don't need to bebogged down with doing the
(03:50):
paperwork and the listing,agreements and stuff like that.
So it was just a great fit tojoin a team and let them kind of
do that stuff while I'm kind ofmanaging the company here.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yeah, no, and I'm sure it's in one of these list
of questions, but, like you, Ikind of like to keep this fresh
and just a conversation piecewhen are you hanging your real
estate license, matt?
Speaker 3 (04:08):
So I hung it with Team Ferris at Remax Concepts,
so I'm still learning how to saymy new title.
Whenever, you know, my phoneauto fills in this is Matt
Murray with and it saysCustomums, roofing, inspections.
And now it's like I'm trying toteach you how to say you know,
remax Concepts, team Ferris,ferris Realty.
No, but everybody knows I havebeen a comrade, a business
(04:34):
partner confidant of SusanFerris is for many years, dating
back to the first house I everbuilt.
She sold the first house I'veever built and she's just been
there through the years.
You know, there's been some upsand downs in the real estate
industry and some change andshe's always been there.
Even when we weren't using herto, say, list all of our
(04:57):
properties, she was still in thebackground, being my moral
compass, her family's, largelyin the medical field, being my
advisor in medical field andfinancials.
And I always tell people I havetwo people that I rely on,
which is my banker, marlon Lyon,and Susan Ferris, and typically
if I have a real estatetransaction, including
(05:18):
purchasing this building thatwe're in, if I get the green
light from them, I jump.
You know, because they'rereally protective of me and my
money and our company andthey're usually the ones saying
no, and if I can get a greenlight from both of them, it's
like let's go.
So I just thought it was proper, it was a good fit and I wanted
(05:38):
to pay homage to her for whatshe's done for me throughout the
years.
And Jenna Ferris is actuallythe team lead with them now and
you know Susan's kind of etchinginto retirement a little bit,
so Jenna her daughters is takingover the team lead for that.
What does Susan think of?
Speaker 2 (05:57):
that, obviously, I know that's probably been her
goal, right, leave the legacybehind and all that.
But like that's kind of likeyou.
You know, once you step back,it's going to be almost hard for
you to do to be so hands-on andthen take that step back.
What's it like for her so far?
Speaker 3 (06:12):
You know, I think she's really enjoying it.
I think she has.
I haven't asked her thatquestion, but if I can gauge it
correctly, she has this littleslice of retirement where she is
handing off the legacy and thenshe also gets sucked back in
and gets put back in the middleof things.
And I still like to lean onSusan on bigger transactions.
(06:36):
So I'm always calling her, eventhough Jenna's my team lead.
I call Susan a lot and have herhelp me with ideas and thoughts
and stuff.
And Jenna goes.
She does a lot of the stuffthat I wish that I could do, a
lot of the forward thinking andgoing to conventions and
researching and doing that stuff.
So Susan will have to step inand manage the day to day.
(06:58):
But no, I think she loves it.
I think the idea for her wasonce Michael, her husband,
retired, to retire and to spendmore time with him on the road
and stuff.
And I think she's getting alittle bit of that but also is
still having to manage some ofthe stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
So Delegating man.
That's like the hardest thingfor me so far that I found in
this project management role islike you said at the start.
It's so easy just to be like,oh no, I know what I need done,
I'm going to go do it, passingthe buck a little bit and
learning the delegation of yourrole, man.
That's been my biggest learningcurve here.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
It is, man.
It's so tough, and I had somecoaching a business coach and a
life coach that helped me manyyears ago with that Colorated
submarine from nonfinan.
הא too, umagus, you know me, Idon't think I'm above anybody,
right, and I'm not.
We are large in part, you know,decision by committee here.
(07:54):
There's no pecking order.
I'm not above anybody.
If you guys are going to get alot, go out and demo, and you
need help, demo, and I'm rightthere with you, man.
But I did have somethinginstilled in me that helped a
lot and that was trying to takea one year of what your company
made and your leadership in that, and then trying to decide what
(08:16):
you're worth per hour and so ifeverybody in the company can
think about that, and then youlook at the per hour rate of
each position, so to speak.
So if I'm worth 150 bucks perhour, I need to know that, and
when I'm going to demo a job,rather than having a $20 per
hour demo guide do that, I'm at150 bucks an hour.
(08:38):
So is that the best use of mytime, right, you know?
So I always try to look at itlike that.
I'm not above anything, but ifI can be doing a task that
really is like leading thecompany and doing books and
buying lots and the leadershiptype activities that pay 150
bucks an hour.
Should I be out doing somethingthat's 20 bucks an hour instead
?
So there is a trade off,opportunity, cost, right, and so
(09:01):
I try to look at it from thatperspective a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
And what I used to when you put it like that, that
makes the perfect sense right.
Where am I best?
Exactly when the company Yep.
So you've spent some time nowwith the real estate team.
You've spent some time out, youknow, purchasing lots and
looking at what's up and coming.
If you were to have to chooseand I don't want to nail you
down, but if you had to choosean area of real estate that
(09:25):
you've enjoyed so far, like whatareas of the types of
properties would you say thatyou want to specialize in?
Or if you were to go off onyour own and not be with the
Murray, what would Matt Murrayhimself want to specialize in
with real estate?
Speaker 3 (09:38):
You know that's crazy , probably be tackling a lot of
questions here, but it all tiesinto it.
What's exciting for me ishelping people.
I don't think many people knowthat we don't have a terribly
huge portfolio of flippinghouses, but we've always been
flipping houses throughout theyears and so it's always been on
(09:58):
our radar something we're doing.
And so for 15, 16 years I'vealways been presented with flip
opportunities, investmentopportunities, rentals, and I'm
always breaking down.
You know if you have to buy itfor this, what you're after.
You know value after remodelvalue, what are you going to
sell it for.
You know put in spreadsheetstogether of costs, operating
(10:21):
cost, static overhead, all thatstuff.
So it's always everything we'vebeen doing for 15 years has been
real estate involved, andthat's fun for me.
And helping Maria right nowwith her buy and sell and just
going through the numbers andmaking sure that people make
sense of the numbers and knowall that's going to be coming
(10:46):
out of the sales price and wherethey're going to net and gross.
That's fun for me.
Just because I, as I'm gettingmore and more involved, I'm
maybe starting to realize howmuch experience I do have and
how in the weeds we have beenover the years, and so being
(11:07):
able to give a slice of thatexperience to other people has
been amazing.
So it's fun and I'm excited.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
It's like all roads led to here you know what I mean
.
Right Does it feel like thatfor you too.
Yeah, it does.
That's crazy, yep, all thenumbers that you've been digging
into just going back to theroofing side with dad, right?
Yep, like that, bookkeeping hasalmost led you into this real
estate stuff, man.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Yeah, so the only reason we really did it like we
were talking is just because wewere doing so much in-house, and
so to be able to keep thatpiece of the pie in-house you
know, buying lots, selling lots,buying houses, selling houses
it just made sense to havesomebody in-house.
You look at a lot of largerbuilders and a lot of larger
(11:52):
companies, not even just inLincoln but throughout the
United States.
They all have an in-houserealtor.
Whether it's a family member,an employee, a friend, they
always have somebody in-house.
And so we always knew we neededto do that and I thought that's
where it was going to go and Ithought that was the end of it
was just I was going to use myreal estate license to just
(12:14):
service Murray Custom Homes.
And you know, after I startedgoing through that process and,
you know, just telling theleaders of the company that I
was getting my real estatelicense, just a lot of their
avenues opened up.
You know, what I kind of reallywasn't thinking about during
that time was the number ofpeople, the number of clients,
(12:37):
that come to us and build withus and then they're asking the
salesperson that they're talkingto or the project manager we
have a house to sell.
When should we sell it?
Who should we use to sell it?
And we were just handing thatoff and so not having control of
that, so to speak, of thattimeline when they list it, how
(12:58):
much they list it for, becausethe sell of our house that we're
building for them is contingentupon them selling their house,
and so we weren't having controlover that and so they were
either listening it too high orthey weren't selling it fast
enough, they didn't list it atthe right time.
So now being able to hopefullyplay a part in that for these
clients and having a little bitmore say in that process and I
(13:25):
think it'll help both of us,right, because now I have a
little bit of skin in the game Imean, if I make a bad call and
tell them to list their housefor too high or not to list it
soon enough, I think I'll havesome.
I'll give them some leniency onthe custom home side of the
house we're building for them,because I steered them in the
wrong direction.
But no, it's just, it'sdefinitely just widening our
(13:48):
play in the field, right, samewith home inspection just
continuing to evolve andcontinue to grow within our
field.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
You could almost place it back into the
homeowner's lap of like.
Why not, right?
Because I'm sure you've had ahorror story or two of the
contingent of being sold on thishome.
So let's go and playhypothetical.
What happens if we're donebuilding Shannon Chestnut's
house and yet the other houseisn't sold yet?
I mean, that can create adisaster, right, it sucks.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
It sucks.
It happens all the time.
I mean it's happening with theclient right now.
It happened December 28th withthe client.
You know, a lot of thosemoments are lay in bed and pray
and trust in God, but when youget into the weeds, no, it does
suck.
And what I have found that doessuck about it is, once again,
(14:39):
not knowing that they asked us,you know, at the forefront, if
we had anybody or anything likethat.
And we probably did refer themto a couple of people, but they,
you know, they went withsomebody and we were just
completely unattached with thatdecision.
And then it comes down to, hey,we have your house done, you
know, you can move in onDecember 28th.
(15:01):
And they're saying, well, shoot, I thought you guys knew that
we had a house to sell and ithasn't sold yet, so we can't
close on your house, and so it'sjust, it is, it's a.
Then it's getting a hold oftheir realtor trying to figure
out what needs to happen.
I mean, on this lasttransaction, we almost
considered buying their house tomake the deal go through.
But it was like a contingentwho.
The offer on that person'shouse was contingent and they
(15:23):
had an offer on their house.
That was contingent, so it wasso deep it was, I would have to
have went like four clients backand bought their house to make
everybody else's go through, andthe house just wasn't marketed
at the right price and theywouldn't accept the right price.
But no, that sucks, and sothat's.
That is a large, a large partof what I'm really excited about
(15:44):
is being involved in thatprocess and and helping with
that.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Yeah and that and that and keeps everything in
house here.
We're not sending you to realestate agent A or B to make sure
that we can complete your househere.
I mean, our job is to buildyour house Right and if you guys
love it and it hits all yourwants and needs, we don't want
to have to worry about realestate agent C selling house A.
I mean, let's just get you intoyour new home, exactly.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
And, and you look at the growth pattern of a lot of
larger companies throughout theUnited States Linnar, a couple
of the big ones come to mind,but they it was.
It was interesting to me howthey they went about growing
their company into themulti-billion dollar giants that
they are, and and it wasgrowing within their field.
Um, you know, at some pointit's hard to you know, at some
(16:32):
point it's hard to you to biteoff more of the pie, so to speak
, than what you already have.
Say we have 25% of the whetherit's 10%, 20%, 25% not trying to
sound like we have that much,but I haven't ever ran the
numbers but say we have 25% ofthe pie of any given trade here
in Lincoln.
(16:52):
Say it's roofing, of theresidential roofing market.
We have 25%.
We've busted our butt.
We have a full-time marketingteam to get us to that point, to
get to 28% or 30%.
That's a large investment.
The amount of money that we payfor keywords for roofing Lincoln
, nebraska, is substantial.
It's highly competitive and tobite off another sliver of pie
(17:16):
would be extremely difficult.
And so it comes down to okay,how do we go down that path of
trying to bite off more of thepie to fight with the apple
roofings for more keywords inthe white castles, or could we
look at growing within ourindustry, and so that's kind of
where I have been in my businessmindset for many years as to
(17:42):
why we have offices in Houstonand Omaha and Grand Island and
Houston, and that's where I'm atand that's kind of why we
started the Home InspectionDivision and that's why now I'm
a realtor is you hit itperfectly with a one-stop shop,
and so that's what these othercompanies have done is when you
walk in the door and you want todo a custom home, they're your
(18:03):
one-stop shop, they are allthings custom homes.
They are your appraisal company, they are your title company,
they are everything.
And so it's going to be fun andinteresting to see where we go
in the next five or 10 years.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
We met with Chamber of Commerce last week and shout
out to Shannon over there attheir office.
She was a huge help.
But she told me hit threetarget audiences.
Find your three targets rightand then try to hone in on those
three instead of being so broad, and try to take over
everything and not take over Isaid that wrong.
Try to have a monopoly oneverything.
(18:41):
Hit three and really craft onthose three.
That's yeah, man, I learnedfrom you throughout these Murray
minutes than probably anythingelse throughout the day.
Man, just kind of picking yourbrain on the future and how you
got here.
So let's flip the script.
Melissa Taylor, my wife comesinto Matt Murray.
Why not selling her so much?
Because I know we're not intothis to be competitive.
(19:03):
We just want another avenue forour clients.
But why would she choose you?
Speaker 3 (19:09):
You know that's a good question because one thing
that does ping me about.
So I'm in a lot of realtorgroups right now and this isn't
local.
I'm in a lot of nationwide andworldwide realtor groups.
I found it interesting as weare evolving.
When I say we, now that I'm arealtor, I'm using that as we.
But the realtor world ischanging.
(19:30):
I think most of the publicprobably know about a huge class
action lawsuit that was broughtagainst the real estate
commission and a whole bunch ofbrokerage firms and just about
the verbiage and how commissionsare charged and stuff like that
.
So it's been very unique for meto kind of be involved in it
now.
But to be in the back seat andto you had to have a broker's
(19:50):
sorry, a real estate license toget on a lot of these real
estate forums that I'm on and tosee these people talk about
this and to see how it's goingto change the real estate world
is very unique and I'm excitedto see where it goes.
It kind of scary, to be honestwith you, but I try to stay on
top of what's going on.
But we have a wonderful teamaround us and that is why I
(20:15):
signed with who I did so.
A is.
You know we have a wonderfulteam.
We have a transactioncoordinator.
We have a piece of the pie thatfits every different aspect.
I'm not going to try to beinvolved in every transaction.
That's why I did join the teamI have.
You know, I have my full-timejob here running Murray, but you
(20:37):
know I don't think there's toomany realtors in town that have
the experience that I have.
You know I, custom homebuilding is a lot of.
You know, being part of thedeveloper world and buying lots
and selling lots.
And if you, you know when webuy a lot we don't just you know
(20:59):
blindly, you know, take a penand place it on a map and decide
that's where it goes.
It's in the weeds of decidingwhat's happening in that
neighborhood, what's coming aretheir schools is located near a
fire station.
You know what's the resale value, who's in the neighborhood, who
are the other builders, what'sit going to sell for, what's the
long-term projection, five-yeartenure it's a lot.
(21:21):
It is a lot and I've been doingthat for 15 years now, and so I
think there's just a lot ofdifferent ways that I look at
real estate, maybe just frombeing involved in the custom
home world and buying andselling like we do.
That not a lot of otherrealtors have, but I think when
I was going back to what pangsme is a lot of realtors will get
(21:46):
their real estate license andthen they'll post on their
Facebook page or whatever thatthey're the best realtor in town
.
The most knowledgeable, is likeyou literally have one month of
real estate experience, which Iknow.
I'm green on the transactionside, but I'm definitely not
green on the process and theknowledge.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
It's just like coaching man.
I've said it since I startedabout eight years ago I don't
want to be the smartest one inthis room.
By no means necessary do I wantto have all that.
I want to surround myself withthe people that know what
they're doing.
I know what I'm doing, but Iwant to surround myself with the
people that have been doing itfor 10 years.
I can't come into this tomorrowand say, all right, Matt, hire
me.
You want 10 years of experience, but how am I going to get that
(22:30):
unless I surround myself withpeople like you guys in the team
?
I want to talk about trends,man.
What should people be aware ofthat's coming, or the way
everything goes in waves?
There's trends coming in 2024,I'm sure it might be interest
rates or whatever.
What should people be aware oflooking at the year coming?
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Let me rewind for one second.
I was thinking about this theother day because I'm going
through my first by processright now.
It's fun, but as I was part ofit, I was like wondering why I
wasn't more nervous, because itwas the first time I'd done it
and I was writing an offer formy client buying a house.
(23:08):
And then I was dealing with therealtor and they were trying to
change stuff and we werecountering and it was what I do
every day.
I stand between person A andperson C and I'm person B and I
have a little bit of skin in thegame, but I'm, at the end of
the day, we're just themiddlemen, right, as a custom
(23:30):
home builder, we're trying topair the best subcontractors
with the client's interests.
And when we're talking to theclients, we're kind of talking
on behalf of our subs, becauseour subs have questions and they
say you can do this, you can'tdo that, and then we're trying
to tell our clients that nicely,and then we're trying to take
the information that our clientsgive us and we're trying to
(23:51):
relay that to our subs.
Here's what the client wants,here's what they don't want.
And at the end of the day,you're just a middleman, and the
success of our company, everycompany that I run is how good
of a middleman can we be?
Same with you.
You're just doing the exactsame thing that I just said and,
as the owner of the company,that's what I'm doing.
(24:11):
I'm just trying to hire the bestpeople that are the best for my
clients and our clients, and,at the end of the day, it's
every day I find myself that'swhat I do.
I have open-door policy, butthat's what I'm doing.
I'm taking something that thePM has a problem with and taking
it to the homeowner, takingsomething that a subset and
(24:32):
issues that we have with thesnowstorm, for example.
I'm trying to explain it to thehomeowners of what the concrete
guys are saying they can andcan't do.
Well, you can do this, youcan't do that, we'd recommend
this, we'd recommend that, butthat's all I was doing.
I was in between my client, whohad the date that they wanted to
close and their purchase price,and you have the seller over
(24:54):
here and their realtor, and soit was just another sliver of
what I do with on an everydaybasis, and it was definitely not
a new experience for me, and itmade me realize.
I didn't know if I'd be excitedabout buying and selling for
other people because, like I wasstating for, the idea was I was
just going to do the customhome stuff, so I really wouldn't
(25:16):
be working for a client.
But it was fun.
It was fun advocating forsomebody and fun just making.
I realized that there was a lotof times throughout that process
that if you didn't know whatyou were doing, it could have
fell through.
And that's a kudos to a lot ofthe realtors that have had
success in Lincoln, nebraska,because they're how do you say
(25:40):
it?
People person.
They are people people, no, butyou get what I'm saying they.
Real estate is so much abouthow to fix problems, cure
problems and keep people headedin the same direction, not let
them get off track, and that'swhat we do here.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Well, you kind of got your juices turned in again,
probably like fired up again.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
It was fun because I'm kind of removed from that.
You know, in the Murray I'veremoved myself for that.
So it was fun, it was veryinteresting and exciting and
yeah, and you know, I treated itas though we were dealing on a
multimillion-dollar trainsaction and it was fun.
But no, back to the trends.
(26:20):
Repeat that question for me?
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Yeah.
So if somebody's coming intoyou, you've been doing this for,
like you said, 15 years.
You've seen the ups, you'veseen the downs.
What can somebody look forwardto?
Good or bad, that's coming into2024, as far as what the trends
look like and I know you'reguessing, so everybody listening
, this is a guess, right whatare we looking to For trends?
Trends in 2024.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Well, I think we'll continue the trend of acreages.
Everybody's wanting to urbansprawl, get outside of town.
We're going to continue thetrend of backyard oasis.
Everybody wants a pool,everybody wants to spend an arm
and a leg on their backyard,which I totally get at me too.
But it's just crazy how it wentfrom two or three years ago
(27:06):
People would completely run outof money and whatever pennies
they had left they'd spend ontheir backyard, and then now
it's like the first thing wetalk about, the first allowance
we put on their budget sheet iseither their pool or retaining
walls or you know what I'msaying their ponds.
So I think that's going tocontinue to be a trend.
I still don't see us gettingaway from the open floor concept
(27:26):
.
About a year over the last twoyears we've seen in larger
markets kind of get away fromthat a little bit.
We're a little bit here inLincoln where we're closing off.
One of the trends that I'vebeen seeing, especially with my
wife being the designer, is Iwas against it at first but I'm
kind of coming around to it iswhen you walk in on these open
floor concepts, you walk in thefront door and you walk right
(27:48):
into the heart of the house.
You can see the kitchen, youcan see the living room, you can
see down the hallways.
And I think people arerealizing they don't like that
If you have somebody step inyour front door that you don't
know, do you want them seeingbasically your entire house?
And so they're kind of creatingsome festivals a little bit
sectioned off from the mainportion of the house.
But I still think we're goingto stay with the open floor
(28:11):
concept for the foreseeablefuture, just with families and
kids.
I think people have entertainedthe idea but just can't wrap
their heads around why or howthey would like that.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
The big windows too.
I mean, yeah, man, now I'mseeing what you're saying.
Like you walk into the frontdoor and you're looking into my
privacy.
Yeah, everything, yeah, dude,you throw some theater windows
on there and now you're seeingit from the outside.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
Yeah, exactly, and also you know it gets back to
you have to have your house kindof completely clean and your
dish is done, just for somebodyto knock on your door and step
in your front door, they'reseeing your living room, your
kitchen, your dishes, yourcooking space, and so, like I
said, I was against it at first,just because of the amount of
square footage and the extrawalls it took to kind of create
(28:57):
a little vestibule.
But I'm kind of coming aroundto the idea.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Yeah, this has to be so crazy for you I'm pausing the
notes that we have Like lookingback, man just walking in every
day.
This has to be surreal for you.
I can't like wrap my mindaround what your thought process
is right now, because it wasjust roofing, and then it was
custom homes, and then it wasrestoration, and now it's real
(29:21):
estate, and I know you havegoals for 2025 and beyond.
So it's like every day you walkin here.
Let's go back to when youwalked into my office, for
example.
You knew I was frustrated thismorning because I'm dealing with
something and all you did waspop your head in.
You all right, and we talked,and now it's the handle, the
situation's handled.
This has to be surreal for you.
The whole real estate thinghelping other real estate agents
(29:43):
not wanting to compete withthem, but just be another avenue
what's every day like for MattMurray, the person dude?
Speaker 3 (29:52):
You know what's crazy when you say it's been 15, 16,
17 years.
It is true that every day'sdifferent and I love that right.
I think I'm in a differentmindset, in a different world
today than what I was in lastyear, and I love that.
I thrive off of that.
But I'm headed more towardsgetting out of the weeds and
(30:15):
that's what I want.
I want to be able to give backto my employees, not only
financially but my being.
I want to be here for you.
I want to be able to do more ofwhat I did this morning walk
around and take the temperatureof the room and take a
temperature of the office anddecide what we need to do and
sit in with people.
(30:36):
Because, historically speakingand kind of still, my day pretty
much operates probably a lotlike yours does.
It wakes up to a fire and thenI'm putting fires out all day
and I never get a breathe and Idon't get time to be a boss,
right, because I'm still in theweeds.
It's just answering emails andputting out fires all day.
(31:00):
But I'm getting more towards aslice of my day being top level,
high level, rather than in theweeds, and that's what the goal
is for 2024 is to kind ofcompletely get me out of the
weeds, shift Kevin into more ofa senior PM role that I'm kind
of assumed right now and thenhelp Tom with expanding roofing,
(31:21):
help Tori with expanding theinspections, decide where I'm
going to go with my real estatelicense and all that stuff.
But that's what I thrive in.
I thrive in creating companiesand growing companies.
Starting the inspections had mefired up and then it just went
right along with my real estatelicense and that has me fired up
(31:42):
.
But I want to get into the.
When I'm headed into the office, what excites me is helping you
guys.
How can I make your day easier,how can I answer questions, how
can I better your day and whatsucks and why I think I did get
(32:02):
a little burned out over thelast three or four years and why
I'm a little frustrated is Ithought I'd get to that, to the
place quicker of getting out ofthat, and I'm not.
I mean, still it's when I'mheaded into the office I'm on
the phone putting out fires.
When I walk in the office, I'min my office, closed door,
putting out fires and answeringemails and stuff, and it's not
(32:23):
what I want to be doing.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
So I think you're, but, like you said that the last
time we had you in here for theMurray Minuteman, you're
getting the personnel right,like, and you don't want to.
I think you mentioned it on airand if not, I'm sorry, but it's
you don't want to reactivelyhire, right, you want to
proactively hire, and so I thinkthat's you know, and I can see
(32:46):
how that would be frustrating.
That takes time and you'regoing through interview process
is now I hear it every day, soit's like you're going to get
there, okay, so let's, let'sback up and let's get back to
our sheet before I hold you upmuch longer.
So let's take my, my family,for example.
Right, I'm just going to throwout random numbers.
Let's say, back in 2020, we gotdown at a 2.3%, right, and now
(33:08):
I'm guessing from readingthrough some emails we're
looking around the 6% gettingback down for this year.
How can myself, being a secondhome buyer or whatever, how can
I navigate this competitivemarket?
But, like, if I come into youand I'm like Matt dude, I don't
know what to do, like, how can anew buyer navigate this
competitive market and whatresources do we have?
What resources do you have?
Speaker 3 (33:30):
Well, that's a far reaching question.
I'm still trying to answer thatquestion myself of how I
adequately help people because,historically speaking, like I
said, I am very cautious.
I don't I don't pull thetrigger on any deal unless I've
had it signed off on by multiplepeople and the numbers look
(33:52):
tremendous.
I'm low risk and so trying tonavigate how I'm going to help
clients and allow them to pullthe trigger when I might not
agree with it or whatnot.
But I'm surrounded by the best,I think in Lincoln the bankers,
multiple bankers, multipletitle companies, multiple
(34:15):
financial advisors.
So I definitely leaned on a lotof people in my past and will
continue to lean on them for myclients.
I don't I don't always thinkthat I have the best answers,
but I know there's somebody intown that will.
So there's multiple differentavenues and different questions
(34:36):
that come with whether youshould do it, where you should
do it, how much to sell yoursfor and all that stuff, and so
I'm excited to be able to getinto the weeds.
So that's kind of what I'mhaving troubles with is, when a
client comes to me, are theyjust wanting me to blindly write
the offer for them?
And they've already done thelegwork and they're at peace
(34:57):
with their decision.
Or are they wanting to lean onme for my expertise and I'm a
nerd, I'm a math guy, I'm anumbers guy, I'm a spreadsheet
guy Are they wanting to lean onme for that and let me get into
the weeds with them and decideif it's a good decision and what
price they should offer andwhat the numbers look like and
what they're going to need tosell their house for?
So you know, I'm kind of stillnew to this, I'll admit it, but
(35:18):
I'm excited to help people.
I'm excited to help people.
I'm excited for people to cometo me and say help us, help us
make a decision on what weshould do, where we should go,
what we should buy.
You know, I've been doing thatfor my employees actually for 10
years, maybe for Tom Kevin,where they should build a house,
(35:40):
when they should build a house,all that stuff.
So it's going to be fun to seewhere this goes.
I'm excited to extend from mynetwork of intelligent beings
here in Lincoln to my clients.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
For anybody that's listening.
When is the ideal time forsomebody that's on the market to
come to you?
When would you like to see themthrough your doors?
Speaker 3 (36:07):
Earlier than they probably suspect, right.
So it really just depends onpeople's situations.
But and this is forecasting youknow a lot of people think
spring market.
But when you get to springmarket it's probably going to be
back to a hot market and that'smultiple offers, that's houses
(36:28):
going quick, and so if you'rewanting to buy and you're
wanting to be in by spring, nowis probably the time you need to
do it, right?
But if you're wanting to sell,the answer is different.
You know it depends on whereyou're at what price point.
You know, if you're still inthe twos to threes, you can sell
now.
I mean, the one that we boughtlast week was on the market for
(36:49):
two days and we think we'reprobably going to be able to
sell her house in under sevendays.
So it just really depends.
I mean, if you're in the fivesto sevens, the answer is
different.
If you're in the above amillion luxury home, we're soon
going to be in that boatourselves, personally trying to
sell our house.
We've been up for two yearsthis May, so we're navigating
those waters too, but justreally having to sit down and go
(37:12):
through all those answers andquestions and everything, but
the sooner the better.
Yes, that is yes.
Yeah, there's.
I've been confronted with acouple of people that need to
sell by March in order to make adeal that they have pending go
(37:33):
through, and I'm like we shouldhave been talking about this
months ago, right, like we needto go, we need to jump and so,
yes, the sooner the better.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Let's talk challenges before I get you out of here on
to your next meeting man, whatchallenge?
What the biggest challenge thatyou've seen in the short time
that you've been a real estateagent so far?
What's the biggest challenge orchallenges that you foresee
coming?
Speaker 3 (37:58):
You know that's that's.
That's tricky.
That's a good question.
A lot of what we're dealingwith and, like I said, when I
say we, it's the real estateindustry.
I know I'm new, but I've beenfollowing it for pretty
intensively for a while now.
The changes that are coming areare on on the on the surface,
(38:20):
major right.
How the real estate industryand the real estate commissions
are going to deal with thischange remains to be seen.
They appealed the decision andthey're you know, every local
branch is kind of dealing withit a little differently.
In a nutshell, what they'retrying to say is, as a seller,
you can't charge the buyer'scommission.
(38:41):
You can't charge the seller orthe house, the buyer's
commission, right?
So when we sell a house, we saywe're going to charge X percent
, whether it's 5%, 6%, and thatpercentage includes the
commission for the buyer's agent, right?
And what they're saying is thatthat's no longer allowed.
That's that's deceiving, Iguess is the proper word.
(39:03):
Anyways, this is a way tooinvolved to get into.
I'm probably misspeaking, butit's a huge thing that they it
was a class action lawsuit witha lot of people, a lot of major
players, billion dollars lawsuitKeller Williams, remax was part
of it.
The real estate commission waspart of it, and, and they lost
the judgment just went throughlike a month or two ago, and
they're appealing the decision,but it's it's.
(39:24):
It's supposed to, like I said,on the surface change the game,
but the way I see it going isit's just a a, a verbiage change
in the contract, right, likejust letting them know.
Now, though, that this lawsuitwent through.
We can't do it this way.
We have to do it this other way, and so I'm I'm kind of really
(39:44):
hoping that's the way that itgoes, and and it doesn't put a
whole bunch of people out ofbusiness and put buyers, agents,
out of business and so on andso forth.
But it it it's a little tricky.
I have never thought aboutwanting to capture leads or
anything like that in the realestate industry, like I said
before, and to to hit on itagain, as it was just playing on
(40:04):
using my real estate licensefor for us, for for Murray, and
so I'm not really for sure howit goes.
I really just want to figure outa way for me to be the best
representation for the peoplethat I can and I now realize
that with the number of peoplethat you know, analyzing our
past clients over the last twoor three years, realizing how
(40:27):
many of our clients come to uswith a house to sell and they
don't have representation,realizing the position that I'm
going to be in to sell those, Iwant to really starting to, I
guess, get a little nervous andanxious about making sure that I
am the best for them.
Because, like you said, I thinkit's a great fit.
It's a one-stop shop.
They come to us, they'retrusting us to build their house
(40:48):
and they're trusting us withthe timeline and when we're
going to finish it.
You know why not use us and letthat play into the timeline and
financials and everything.
So it's a great one-stop shop,but how do I ensure that I'm
doing them the best servicepossible and my team is doing
them the best possible, and sothat's kind of what I'm anxious
(41:10):
about coming up.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
Yeah, I saw on a Facebook post somebody.
It was on one of the LincolnMarket areas and they were
talking about hey, we're lookingto build.
Who should we go with thecomments?
That stood out right away wasMurray.
Speaker 3 (41:23):
I saw that too.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
Yeah, dude, it was wild and you start digging into
it.
They treat us like people, notlike a number.
You know why?
Not, murray?
And my answer is always becauseyou get to work with us.
If I'm going to build a house,if I'm going to sell or buy, I
want to be treated like I'm aperson, not just a number or
client, you know that's crazy, Idon't know why.
Speaker 3 (41:44):
I think that I saw that last night at like six
o'clock and I was up middle ofthe night thinking about that.
I was so like I had mixedemotions when I saw that, just
because in custom homes so muchshit can go wrong, you're
completely custom building ahouse and expectations can be
different.
(42:04):
All these things that I'vetalked about in the past can be
different, and getting to theend of an eight month, seven
month, 10 month build and stillremaining on good talking terms
with that person is extremelyhard.
I mean, you're spending theirmoney and it's like you're
marrying somebody for eightmonths that you don't know and
usually by the end of the buildit's kind of like get the f out.
(42:26):
You know you've been involvedin our life for this long and
ready to be done with you,regardless of how good you are
and how good we did.
Sometimes that's just how itends.
But to see that was so amazingand I just I thought about how
you get yourself to that placeof still being a positive
(42:47):
referral after you go throughone of the most stressful events
that you know.
They say that it can be otherthan divorce and marriage, but I
think that you hit the nail onthe head.
It's just we freaking care.
You know we care so fuckingmuch, almost to a detriment, and
our clients not any of ourclients are just a number.
(43:07):
You know we might be buildingmultiple homes but everyone gets
so much attention and care andif we do mess up, you know shit
happens.
You know it sucks, because youknow we don't own the
subcontractors, we don't owntheir companies, we don't own
their employees and so naturallywe don't have control over how
(43:28):
they handle themselves and whatthey do.
And everybody's human andsomething's going to happen.
And it's how you navigate that.
And we care, we care, we wantto make it right and hopefully
that resonates with our clientswhen we're done and I know that
they're probably like you know,get the hell out of here.
I'm done with you, I want toget back to my marriage, but
hopefully they have that levelof respect that we cared and we
(43:51):
took their project serious andthey weren't just another number
.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Bro, you hit it on the head, like you care, to a
fault, right, like it's, it's.
It's something that I've that Italk to my wife about
constantly.
I'm like I, why?
Why?
Why am I like this?
You know, like, why is it?
Why is it bothering me atmidnight?
Or if I hear an emo go off at 430 in the morning, like why do
I jump?
Like why and it's not just this, it's coaching, it's being a
(44:16):
family, it's my, my kids Like I,is it some?
Kevin's perfect example?
Right, our lead PM.
He's a perfect example.
Like.
It doesn't get to him to thepoint where you can physically
see it, but he's constantly justgoing right.
So it's like you know, it's ahappy medium, yes, but at the
end of the day, I wouldn'tchange who I am for anything
because it's it's got me hereyou know, yeah, that's.
Speaker 3 (44:39):
You know it's crazy, I'm probably running over, but
it's why you know we didn't needto hire when we hired you and
it's why we're practicallyhiring another person like like
us.
You know, culture fit, and it'sa biggest thing, I think.
Throughout COVID and ourgrowing, we hired a couple of
people that weren't, you know,great culture fits, great
experience wise, but not culturefits, and I've realized that I
(45:01):
need to hire a culture fit basis.
It's because I find people likeyou and I have to take people
like you and and try to have you, because you're like me and
Kevin was like me where you careto a fault and you can't shut
it off, and it ran me ragged.
And I appreciate, though,because now I just have to teach
(45:23):
you guys how to like turn itdown a little bit.
You have to set boundaries, andyou can't be jumping at your
phone at 430 in the morning.
You know you got to be therewith your family and you got to
get your sleep, but it's hard toteach that if you don't have it
.
I'd rather you have too much ofit, and then I can kind of turn
it down a little bit and learnyou how to compartmentalize than
(45:43):
the other way, and so, yes, I'mglad I'm hiring the right
people Going back to yourwrestling days.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
right, I can't bring that dog out of you.
I can tame him, but I can'tlike bring that out.
Absolutely Final thoughts.
Man, I know we've had to havemissed something, anything.
Speaker 3 (45:59):
No, I'm just excited.
I'm excited to.
You know, the more I realize itit's kind of taken a life of
its own.
And you know, what I said sixmonths ago or two months ago on
air might be different thantoday because, you know, truly
honestly, I just was planning ongetting my real estate license
to just do the transactions thatMurray Customs Homes has and
(46:21):
not really act as a realtor, soto speak.
But maybe I'm starting to findout that that might be hard,
like with Maria calling me andasking me to buy her a house.
Now I'm a buyer's agent.
I got to go do an inspection, Igot to go, you know.
Now she wants me to list herhouse, so we're going to list
her house, and so I'm realizingthat it might be tougher than
what I thought to just operatein that one capacity.
(46:43):
But it's also really exciting,especially with our inspections,
our home inspections, becausethat is large and part driven by
realtors in town, and that'sanother reason I wanted to get
it is, I respect a lot ofrealtors in town.
They are the driving force of alot of businesses, whether they
know it or not.
They are, whether you're doinga couple of transactions a year,
(47:04):
multiple transactions a year,your rentals and the words out
of your mouth mean a lot.
They meet and talk to a lot ofpeople.
Their reach is far, and so I'vealways known that and so maybe
starting to realize that I'mgoing to acclimate into the real
estate community a little bitmore than what I originally
(47:26):
thought, and I'm excited aboutthat, excited to go to the
events and get to know them and,I guess, become part of them.
I've been following it a lotand I'm hopeful that it ends
that lawsuit, ends in a good wayand doesn't affect too much of
the real estate world.
But it's going to be fun.
(47:47):
It's going to be fun.
Speaker 2 (47:48):
I think the real estate world, lincoln and the
surrounding areas are a betterplace now that Murray and Matt
Murray real estate agent areinvolved in, and I think only
thing that happens from here iseverybody goes up, everybody
gets elevated because you're apeople, person, man.
Thank you, I'm Matt Murray.
Everybody thanks for tuning into this latest episode of the
Murray Minute Edition.
(48:08):
I appreciate everybodylistening.
I look forward to keeping youupdated, matt.
I look forward to getting youback on the pod for the next
couple of weeks.
Stay tuned for our next episode.
We'll be live at Glacier Till.
Thanks everybody.
Speaker 1 (48:19):
Thank you for joining us on this episode of Stay
Bothered with Murray, the MurrayMinute Edition.
If you have topics you wouldlike us to discuss, please email
us at info atMurrayCustomHomescom or message
us at MurrayCustomHomescom.
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