February 18, 2025 • 44 mins
The primary focus of this podcast episode is the continuous journey of learning and adaptation within the real estate industry, as articulated by Richard McDonough. He emphasizes the necessity of embracing change and fostering relationships amidst the evolving landscape of real estate, highlighting his belief that agents must remain proactive and engaged. Richard shares insights from his unique career trajectory, which includes an extensive background in luxury yachts and competitive skiing, ultimately leading him to real estate. He reflects on the importance of leveraging technology and social media while maintaining authentic connections with clients. This conversation offers a profound exploration of the intersection between personal growth and professional success in the real estate sector.
From Freestyle Skiing to Real Estate Success: Richard McDonough's Journey
The dialogue unfolds as Richard McDonough, a seasoned real estate professional, shares his profound insights into the intricate dynamics of the real estate market, particularly in the picturesque setting of Stillwater, Minnesota. As a fourth-generation resident, Richard articulates the deep-rooted connections he has with the community, emphasizing the significance of relationships in real estate. He recounts his experiences, which range from competitive skiing to navigating the luxury yacht industry, illustrating how these diverse backgrounds have enriched his understanding of client relationships and market nuances. Richard's trajectory from luxury yachts to real estate exemplifies a journey underscored by adaptability and a commitment to continuous learning, vital traits in today's ever-evolving market landscape. He reflects on the importance of embracing technology, particularly social media and AI tools, as essential allies in enhancing client interactions and business efficiency. Richard's philosophy of being proactive rather than reactive in the real estate business resonates throughout the conversation, offering listeners not just a glimpse into his professional life but also practical advice for navigating their own paths in real estate.
Takeaways:
- Continuous learning is paramount in real estate; one must constantly absorb new information and experiences.
- The essence of community engagement is vital in real estate, fostering lasting relationships is key to success.
- Real estate agents often overlook the significance of following up with clients after a sale, which can impact future business.
- Adapting to technological advancements, such as AI, can significantly enhance productivity and efficiency in real estate practices.
- Effective real estate practices should transcend mere transactions; they require a strategic business mindset and consistent effort.
- Balancing traditional relationships with modern technology is essential for navigating today's competitive real estate landscape.
Links referenced in this episode:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You just can't stop learning,in my opinion, and you have to take
it all in. And I went to NINJAtraining last year with, you know,
Larry Kendall in that programbecause I'm starting to feel that
you almost got to go fullcircle and really focus on the, the
relationships that we have.
(00:21):
You're listening to the RealEstate Sessions and I'm your host,
Bill Risser. With nearly 25years in the real estate business,
I love to interview industryleaders of up and comers and really
anyone with a story to tell.It's the stories that led my guests
to a career in the real estateworld that drives me into my ninth
year and nearly 400 episodesof the podcast. And now I hope you
enjoy the next journey. Hi,everybody. Welcome to episode 379
(00:47):
of the Real Estate Sessionspodcast. As always, thank you so
much for tuning in. Thank youso much for telling a friend. Today
we're going to head up north.Yep. We're going to Minnesota, actually,
the Minnesota Wisconsinborder. A little area called Stillwater.
Right. A part of the St. CroixValley. I'm sure you all know about
it. You're going to know a lotmore about it after this episode
with Richard McDonough.Richard's with Sotheby's International
(01:09):
Realty. I was introduced toRichard through a mutual friend,
Anthony Malafronte. A lot ofyou know him as well, and we're going
to have a lot of fun withRichard. He has a fascinating backstory.
I think you're going to enjoythis. Some things are going to be
covered here that have neverbeen covered in this podcast before.
So let's get this thingstarted. Richard, welcome to the
(01:29):
podcast.
Well, hello, Bill. I'm happyto be on.
It's going to be a lot of fun.You know, I, I, I know, I know you
through Anthony Malafrante.We'll chat about that a little bit
later. And as I'm sittinghere, we can see each other. And
I'm in Florida and you're inMinnesota and you have a toque on
or a beanie, whatever you wantto call it.
I have a beanie today. Thebeanie is very typical for me in,
(01:54):
in the winter. Although thisyear we've had an unseasonably warm
winter and I haven't beenwearing it much. As I was telling
you earlier, I've only had toshovel snow once this year.
Wow. Now, when you sayunseasonably warm, what is the temperature
right now?
Well, today it kind of cooledoff. So today the temperature, and
even for today, even thoughit's cooled off, it's warm. We're
(02:16):
in the mid to high 30s whichnormally this time of year would
be more like in the 20s. Andyesterday the high was 53 and the
day before it was 57.
I know you're, we're going totalk about where you're located,
but it's, it's, you're rightthere in the Minneapolis area, just
east of it over towards theWisconsin border. That's you're way
(02:38):
up there. You're supposed tobe. Don't you get the wind chill
factors in the minus 30s and40s sometimes?
Oh, easily that. Yes, easily.And the actual temperature in the
winter time can be, you know,20 below or a daytime high can be
11 below zero. And that'sbefore the wind chill. So this year
it's, it's been so weird. It,January was super long with no snow
(03:03):
and cloudy skies and fog. Itwas, it's really, really strange.
So it's really messed up a lotof local businesses and it's, it's,
it's weird. I don't know ifit's global warming or what it is,
but it unseasonable. Althoughon the plus side we're lucky because
other coasts, Florida, theEast coast, California, they're just
(03:26):
getting slammed. And soMadison, Wisconsin is 200 miles from
here about. And they actuallyhad a tornado there last night.
Wow. Okay. So there's. Thingsare going nuts right now up in the,
in the northern plains. Yeah,we'll have to. That's, that's amazing.
Well, Richard, I love to findout, you know, from my guests where
(03:50):
they grew up. And I think you,you know, you're in Stillwater, Minnesota.
Correct. Which is right on theborder with Wisconsin. Is that where
you were born? Were you bornand raised there?
Yes, I was born and raisedhere in Stillwater. We're on the
beautiful St. Croix riverabout 30 minutes outside of Minneapolis
St. Paul. And actually I'm afourth generation. Stillwater. Right.
(04:12):
So our family has a longhistory here in the what we call
the St. Croix Valley.
And I heard, I think, I do alittle bit of research. The St. Croix
drops into the Mississippisomewhere in kind of on the border
there, am I right? Prettyclose, yes.
It's about 20 miles south ofhere and it's an interesting transition.
(04:33):
You can literally see thesparkling blue waters of the St.
Croix river flow into themuddy Mississippi. There's actually
demarcation line that saysclear as day.
Wow, that's cool. I think for,look a lot of us there might be some
people Listening and go,really? The Mississippi's in Minnesota.
I'm like, yeah, I think that'sthe headwaters. That's where it starts.
(04:54):
And obviously ends up in NewOrleans. Yeah. Good. It sounds to
me like where you live couldbe people commute into the city or.
Or is it more of a place thatpeople have second homes? How would
you describe the Stillwaterarea, the St. Croix Valley?
Well, the Stillwater area inSt. Croix Valley is. I wouldn't necessarily
call it a bedroom community.We're home to Anderson Windows, which
(05:18):
is one of the foremost windowmanufacturers in the world. We can
be a bedroom community to 3Mis 20 minutes from Stillwater, Target
corporations, 30 Medtronic. Sowe have a lot of great corporations
nearby, and then we have a lotof other very successful businesses
in the Stillwater area aswell. So it's truly not just what
(05:41):
I would call a suburb, butit's a beautiful small town and we
still have that essence ofbeing a good, great small town.
Yeah. And I'm sure that the.The people that live there and like
you who grew up there wouldlove to keep that. That small town
feel, right.
Yes. Although I will say itwas interesting, you know, on a real
estate side, when I got intoselling real estate here, I thought
(06:04):
I'd be selling to my friendsand family. Well, a lot of my friends
don't move. I have friends whohave general. Relationally, that's
a tongue twister. Lived in thesame house. It's been handed down
to different kids within thefamily. So a big source of my business
is people moving out andmoving into the area because they
(06:24):
love what we. What is offeredhere from a sense of community, the
schools, things to do. I mean,the St. Croix river, which I mentioned,
it's one of the narrowestnational parks in the country. It
was the. One of the first tworivers that was designated as National
Scenic Waterway. So there's alot of protections on that river.
And we're consistently part ofbest small towns in America. Good
(06:49):
Morning America was here lastsummer. We are home to the World
Snow Sculpture Competition.It's just a great place to call home.
Yeah, that's really cool.Growing up in San Diego and then
living in Phoenix for 17 yearsand now being in St. Petersburg,
Florida for the last sevenyears. We have a lot of snowbirds.
(07:09):
Right. It's been a part of mylife pretty much growing up. And
Minnesota, that wholeMinnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan area,
they could go either way. Theycould go. They could. Sometimes they
go to Arizona, sometimes theygo down to Florida. And I Know that
we have that term calledsnowbirds. And look, I don't think
it's a bad term. I just thinkit just means these are people that
have two homes. Is there areverse for that? Are there people
(07:32):
who actually. Where they grewup and where they live is where it's
hot or steamy and they'reescaping up to your way? Yeah. First
of all, is there a name forthem? And you must work with those
sorts of clients.
You know, I'm starting to workmore and more with them, but we really
don't. Yeah, most people areknown as snowbirds for leaving, but
(07:54):
not so much for coming here.And that might be because a lot of
the. The folks that you'retalking about are going to some of
the lakes farther north fromhere. However, we are starting to
see more and more people, andI'm actually selling homes to those
people that are callingStillwater and the St. Croix Valley
their summer home.
Yeah, that's great.
But we don't have a name forhim yet.
(08:15):
We got to come up with that,Richard. I think that'll be great.
I think that would be awesome.We have to come up. We'll talk about
that later after the show. Soborn and raised 30 minutes from Minneapolis.
I'm just going to hope andassume that you're a fan of the Vikings
and the Twins and the T Wolvesand the North Stars when they used
(08:35):
to be there. Am I right? Ordid you get. Did you get pulled over
to that Wisconsin side ofthings at all?
Oh, no. True blue Minnesotan.Supporting the sport teams, which
sometimes can be very, veryfrustrating. I've been fortunate
to have attended a lot of thegreat competitions, or I should say,
(08:58):
games. I was at the WorldSeries when Kirby Puckett hit the
grand slam home run. I wasalso there then the following night
when we won the World Series.I think I was at both World Series
championships. I was at thelast game at the old Met center for
the Minnesota Vikings when weplayed outside under. Under Bud Grant
(09:21):
and Fran Tarkington. Andbasically people came there with
wrenches and took the place apart.
And then people were draggingseats out behind them, right?
Oh, yeah. We were in theprocess of hooking up a telephone
booth to. To a pickup truck,and the police came by and said,
you probably don't want totake that.
(09:45):
So you just quietly unhookedit and moved on. Right.
We just backed away and walkedaway. Yes. Yes, very much so. Again,
there are times when it's beenvery frustrating to be a Minnesota
sports fan. We've been soClose so many times, especially with
the Vikings and, you know,even with the Timberwolves. But our
(10:05):
time will come. I'm sure theDetroit Lions are feeling that a
little bit this year, but Ithink our time will come and it's
great to see all the peopleget behind our sports teams and so
on. And I mean, we've neverwon the Stanley cup. And here we
are, the state of hockey, youknow, we've won the.
(10:26):
It's just amazing, right?
Yeah. It was because ofMinnesotans that we won the gold
medal in the Olympics, beatingthe Russians. We can't seem to win
the Stanley Cup.
So there are a lot of peoplethat are going to be rooting for
Minnesota when they do getthere. There's not. They're not like
the Cowboys or the Yankees orthese other teams where everybody
just hates them. Yeah, there'sgoing to be a ton of support nationwide.
(10:49):
Right. So you'll have a lot oflove. I think that's going to be.
That's going to be a big pieceof it. So.
Yeah.
And I'll tell you what, Ican't imagine what it's been like
growing up with the divisionyou're in in football where it's
packers, okay, Lions, okay,whatever, but Bears as well. I mean,
that, that, that black andblue, right, that had to be a brutal,
a brutal division to be a partof over the years.
(11:12):
And it still is. I mean, thoseare hard, hardcore rivalries in all
of sports. I mean, it's justamazing. And then, of course, I was
fortunate enough to be, I canremember the, you know, the purple
people leaders. And I mean,those guys didn't have bench heaters.
They didn't have Bud Grantmade those guys stand out there in
(11:34):
the freezing cold. I mean, itwas hardcore football back then and.
But yes, those rivalries arestill today, as, I'll say, as fresh
as ever.
All right, that's cool. Allright, well, we gotta talk about
real estate a little bit, soI'm gonna move off of this because
I could sit here for the nexttwo hours and we're talk sports,
(11:56):
but so you head off tocollege. I think if I look remember
right from my research, youactually crossed over the state line.
You went to school over inWisconsin. Do I have that right?
Yes. Oh, I had a little bitmore of an unusual trajectory through
college. I did the eight yearplan and that was due to. I was a
competitive freestyle skier inhigh school and then I went left
(12:20):
school to ski a couple wintersand then I left school and I started
working on which also began myfirst career after college, and that
was working in the luxuryyacht industry.
Wait a minute, Richard. Ican't believe I've had lunch with
you. I've had a couple ofmeetings. We sat down and chatted.
Freestyle. Competitivefreestyle skier. First of all, I'm
(12:42):
going to try to do my best todefine what freestyle skiing is.
It's crazy. People doing flipsand stuff off of moguls and just
going nuts off ramps andstuff. Is that what I'm thinking
about? For freestyle?
Yes.
How many surgeries have youhad, Richard?
None.
Wow. Okay. Awesome.
(13:02):
I dislocated a shoulder and Ibruised a sternum. That's the extent
of my injuries.
How was that shoulder goingback in? That feel good?
Yeah, it still, I, I afterthat. And it was at a national competition
in Copper Mountain after thatfall. And I made the highlight reel
though, by the way, after thatfall, I've never been able to throw
(13:23):
a baseball the same.
Do you still skirecreationally today?
Oh, yeah, I do, I do. Youknow, it was actually interesting.
When I was working on theluxury yachts, there was like a 10
year period where I didn't skiat all. And then a friend of mine
got me back into it and so Ido go. I haven't gone in a year or
so, but it's kind of likeriding a bike. And the funny thing
(13:47):
is, is it's one of thosethings where I never tell anybody
I'm a good skier. I had thisone friend, asked me to go meet him
out west and I think after heasked me, he didn't think I'd go.
And then he's going, God, canthis person even ski? And then I
get out there, I go, okay,where are we going to go? And then
(14:08):
the next thing you know, youknow, we're out there shredding.
And I know you golf a lot.It's like all of a sudden having
this guy come golfing with youand you have no idea he's a scratch
golfer. So. But I guess eventhough I won a lot of trophies and
a lot of competitions, one ofmy best highlights in my skiing was
(14:29):
we were doing some, what iscalled cat skiing, where a snow cat
takes you up in your powderskiing. And when a snowcat. Because
everyone's always trying to,you know, impress the snowcat guides,
the people that are guidingyou. And when a snow, when a guide
tells you you're a good skier,I think that's a nice feather in
your cap. Wow.
(14:50):
So, just a couple questions.Yes. I got to the Low intermediate
level of a skier, maybe in mycareer before my wife blew her knee
out in Brian Head, Utah. Andthat just ended it for all of us.
This is going back to the 80swhere. Where I could look, I could
get down anything, but I wasgoing to go side to side, you know,
all the way to one end, to theother if it was really steep. But
(15:10):
then when it got a little lesssteep, like, I could function and
do. All right. You're tellingme, like, if I put. Took you to a
place where you had to drop in10ft before you really even hit snow,
you're like, yeah, no problem.I'm just gonna drop in. I'm gonna
go do this thing. No big deal.
No big deal. Even. Even at myolder age, no big deal. Yeah.
(15:31):
That's awesome. Okay, well,that's very cool. And so now. Now
yachts.
So I worked on privately ownedluxury yachts in the, you know, basically
we. We. I was on the eastcoast and Bahamas and I worked for
one family that we'd actuallywould bring the boat up the Mississippi
river back here to Stillwater.
(15:52):
Wow. And then that. You didthat for 10 years?
I did that for 10 years, yes.
There are yachts here. I walkby them every morning. And there's
one called the Debbie Loo.That's massive. It must be four floors,
I'm guessing, because one'sbelow water and then you can see
the other three up above. Andso you had your own quarters. You
lived on the boat? Yes, yacht.I shouldn't say boat. And you helped.
(16:17):
Was there a chef on the boatas well? And is it really. How big
was the crew?
So the largest yacht I workedon was 125ft. We had a crew of six.
So we had a chef, a captain. Iwas the first mate, so I was right
below. And then we had anengineer, and then we would have
a stewardess. So. And theengineer took care of all the mechanical,
(16:40):
of course, the chef, captain,myself and the stewardess. And we
would help out each other,especially we had guests on board.
You know, I would help outwith the stewardess and even the
engineer, you know, makingsure the guests, everything is. They're
attended to and so on. We. Idid not work on many charter boats.
(17:01):
I only worked on one boat thatwas in charter, and we did not charter
that much. That's a wholedifferent ball game. I preferred
to work for, you know,families, old money per se, because
they would treat us a lot better.
Is that family still around inStillwater, the family that you worked
for? I imagine someone's still there.
Yes, they are. It's kind of aninteresting story. My, I didn't get
(17:25):
the job because of my father,but my father was also general counsel
for this family. And it's, itwas the Hubbard family and they developed
satellite television. Andthere's. They're celebrating, they're
celebrating 100 years inbroadcasting this year. So it's quite
interesting. Family. And thenI'm kind of holding out, but I worked
(17:46):
for two years for someone thatwas in the construction business
in New York City. And you cantake that for what it's worth.
Oh, Nelly. We, we will leavethat for another show. Okay, well,
(18:06):
we'll talk later. All right.So somehow the world of luxury and
yachting and all this greatstuff is going to transition into
real estate.
Yes.
How's that happen?
So I was getting to the pointwhere even though I had my captain's
license and I've been workingon these boats, I didn't see that
(18:28):
as being a long term careerpath for me because it's a great
occupation, but your life isdefinitely not your own in that situation.
It's changed a lot now wherethere's a lot more. You'd be three
months on about and threemonths off. There we were full time,
we were year round. We, youknow, we would get time off. But
really you're at the beck andcall of what the owner is, wants
(18:50):
to do with the boat. So I'mback in Minnesota. I'm starting to
look at homes and I know whatI want. I want to, you know, know
one level home and in stillwater. And I'm, I'm, you know, called
off a sign of one property.Then I'm working with this agent
and it was kind ofinteresting. The only thing that
was consistent was we keptseeing her listings. We didn't see
(19:15):
the houses that I want, but wekept seeing her listings so she could
get both sides of it at thesame time. I was getting interviews
for jobs and it wasinteresting. I, I'd get interview
introductions from thechairman of the board of the company.
Right. With HR and some ofthese jobs I was very capable of
(19:35):
doing, but I'm sure the peoplehiring thought, well, this is coming
down from the top. He'sprobably going to take my job. So
I would not get a call back orI wouldn't get the job. So all of
a sudden the light bulb kindof goes off and I kind of said, you
know, I think if this personcan sell real estate and make a living
(19:56):
at it, I think I Can. And so Igo and interview. At the time, there
was not the big teams. In theteams like we have now, we had the
major brokers and inMinnesota, the major players at that
time back in the mid-90s wasEdina Realty, which is, was now the
first company that BerkshireHathaway purchased. Coldwell Banker,
(20:18):
and Then of course ReMax,Keller Williams, exp Real. None of
that was on the horizon atthat point. And it was interesting
with my first interview, themanager goes, are you okay with unusual
hours? I'm kind of going,what? What's unusual? And, and so
(20:39):
I go, yeah, that won't be aproblem. At least here I know I'll
be home every night. And atsome point, so I get my license,
I go to. I chose Edana Realtybecause of its, its history as being
a family owned company. It wasstarted by Emma Rovic back in the
1950s and here was a mom whowanted to make some extra money and
(21:03):
get a piano for her family andwow. Edana Realty is, you know, at
the time I started, there wasalready at, you know, 2500 agents
and growing in 40 offices. AndRon Peltier was the president at
the time who went on to bethe, the chairman and president of
(21:23):
Home Services of America. Andit was, it, it was a great company
and it's still a great companytoday. And, and so that was my start.
And it was also interesting.We had a downtown Stillwater office
and, you know, bricks andmortar. And I still feel very strongly
about that whole concept.
Tell me, how are the firstcouple years? I mean, it's, it's,
(21:46):
it's, you know, at least youknew the area. You knew you had a
sphere, right? That helped,I'm sure.
I, I had a sphere, yes. Had avery. I had a sphere. Probably the
biggest thing for me was in,in our friend Anthony talks about
this all the time. You got todo the work. What most agents I see
(22:09):
don't do is they don't look atthis from day one as the business.
They get their real estatelicense, I'm a realtor. And they're
all transactional in theirprocesses. They're waiting for the
phone to ring. They're waitingto see what happens next. They're
not really planning so muchfor their future. I was fortunate
(22:31):
in that when I dropped intothe office and we call it Cubeville
or whatever you want to callit, my space was right outside. The
top agent within that office,she always kept the door open. I
kept my door open. I listenedto what she was doing. I watched
what other people were doingand I just, you know, did the work.
(22:52):
Even if I had nothing goingon, I would show up to the office.
For example, I got myWisconsin license as well, because
we're right on the border.Just by happening to be in the office,
this guy calls up and says, Ihave two properties I want to look
at in Wisconsin. Is thereanyone that can show me these properties?
Because the agents won't callme back and I'm going to buy one
(23:13):
of them. I got in my car and Iwent, sold the guy the house. He
bought one of the houses. Andagain, just, yeah, you know, to this
day, I still do open houses. Istill feel it's so critical to be
at the office and I feel it'svery critical to keep learning every
single day.
(23:34):
I see that in you. I see that,you know, in the conversations we've
had, the times I've had achance to sit down and have a chat.
But I also know that there's.You've definitely embraced what's
new. You, you're not, youknow, you're talking about these
older, I'm gonna say oldschool things but, you know, face
to face kind of contact that aRealtor has to have. But you're in
(23:56):
heavily involved. Whenwebsites and social media and that
sort of stuff came around, myguess is you were right there going,
this is going to be important.I need to figure this out.
Yes. And it was interesting. Ikind of fell into it, Bill. And how
I fell into it. I'd gonethrough a divorce and the divorce
I went through, we were ahusband and wife team. And, you know,
(24:18):
I was freaking out at first ofwhat's that going to do to our image
that I'm getting a divorce?And it's no longer Richard and Kelly
McDonough, but now it'sRichard McDonough again as a real
estate agent. And there was atime at that first year that I kind
of checked out, but theneveryone was at the Rah Rah meeting
and it was the first time inwhatever years that I hadn't been
(24:39):
to the, you know, topProducing Agent Award that as you
know, most of us agents arevery competitive as well. And my
background is beingcompetitive. Edana Realty is known
for having great speakers. Andthey had this guy by the name of
Chris Smith there. And at thetime, this is when Chris Smith and
(25:00):
curator had just had started.And I called them up and I was talking
to their salesperson and hewas interviewing me as much as I
was interviewing him. And itwas one of those situations where
I couldn't afford not to doit. And I, and I, you know, dove
right in. And I would sayCurator was one of the first true
(25:22):
innovators in that whole ideaof having a stunning website combined
with an awesome social mediapresence. And my business went from
$79,000 that year. And I thinkthis is 2009 and I'm not a big one
for bragging with numbers, butI just want to illustrate the power
(25:43):
of social media and technologywent from 79,000 to the following
year of 485,000 in GCI as asolo agent.
Wow.
And that doesn't include.
Wow.
The extra stuff I had to giveaway because I couldn't handle it
all because.
(26:04):
Right.
That's when, you know, we werethat, that we were like shooting
fish in a barrel because wehad landing pages. We had a, you
know, see, I was with FollowUp Boss, who that was. You know,
I think I've been with followup boss 10 years and they've been
around for maybe 11 or 12, butit was just a great platform and,
(26:27):
and that's where I metAnthony. And because of that growth,
the next year I spoke at theircan, you know, their excellence event
and then meeting other peoplelike Judy Weiniger, Katie Lance,
now moving forward, Phil M.Jones and even to Ryan Sirhant, John
Sheplak. You know, you just,you just can't stop learning, in
(26:51):
my opinion. And you have totake it all in and, and do what works
even to the point of in somerespects going full circle now. And
I went to NINJA training lastyear with, you know, Larry Kendall
in that program because.
Yep.
I'm, I'm starting to feel thatyou almost got to go full circle
and really focus on the, therelationships that we have because
(27:14):
there's a lot of noise outthere with, with all the social media
aspect of it and you forget tomake those calls and those connections.
Yeah, I like, you know, thesecommunities you talk about, they're
really, I don't think they'reunderstood enough or used enough
by a lot of agents. Right.Like the information that you get
(27:36):
from that curator group andsometimes curator group is slightly
different than some of thepeople in the Follow Up Boss or slightly
different than the film,whatever it is. I think those are.
You're like that and it reallylike a shining example of why being
connected there is going tohelp your business. Absolutely.
So much. I mean, because Ioftentimes and I think it's getting
(28:00):
better, but because of thecompetitive nature which in my opinion
I've always felt that there'senough business for everyone in any
and all markets. But becauseof that competitive nature, oftentimes
we don't share enough withinour own sphere with. And when I say
sphere, I'm talking about mypeers as agents and companies within
(28:20):
the, the marketplace that wework in. If we just shared more and
helped each other more, itwould make it that much easier. I
mean, part of our inventoryproblem is our own fault because
agents who are transactionalare saying, yeah, we have nothing
to sell. And so they don't,they don't, you know, have the proper
(28:41):
speech. And not that it's asales speech, but really talking
about how the market is.Because right now we have an inventory
problem not because ofinterest rates, it's because we don't
have enough properties to sell.
It seems to me, especially inyour world, and that's what you do,
is you educate and you helpand you commiserate and you do all
(29:02):
kinds of different things withyour customers. Having those. The
right thing to say at theright time is invaluable.
And then the other thing I'venoticed, and I'm very guilty of this,
the follow up after the sale,there's a big lack of follow up after
the sale. And again, I saidI'm guilty of this. So I think I'd
(29:25):
be retired now if I would havejust done a little bit better job
of it, of following up withall. I mean, don't get me wrong,
I love, I love selling realestate and I love working. So I don't
know if I would retire and Ithink my wife would be crazy if I
was home every day, all day.But anyway, it's interesting how
after the sale we do notfollow up like we should and stay
(29:47):
in touch with our clients likewe should and we feel that they're
just going to use us againbecause we did such a phenomenal
job the last time.
Well, that, that leads to aquestion, Richard. What, what, what
percentage of your businesstoday is referral? Repeat, right
versus, you know, leadgeneration that's going on with the
sources you use?
(30:08):
I've been looking that at thata lot lately and it's a lot more
than I realized. And that'swhere I need to focus more. I'd say
it's probably a good 60% of mybusiness, maybe even 70 is referral
or repeat business. And thenthe other 30 is lead generation.
(30:28):
And in some respects it's dueto having a quality website and spending
the time and energy, you know,with having a Google presence I've
been really thinking a lotabout this lately and I'd love to
hear your opinion on this too.And although we're going to see a
big shift with homes.com Ihear they've, they've spent ungodly
(30:53):
amount of money coming up forthe super bowl and all these events
and they've, they've reallyturned into a big player in the search
aspect of it. But at thispoint, my two cents is people search
for homes on Zillow and theysearch for agents on Google.
I would completely agree withyou. Right. I think the lack of energy
(31:16):
that agents are putting intothat Google business profile, which
is like the holy grail ofeverything you're doing for search,
it's got to start there. And,and that leads to a lot of other
places, right? Because now,especially in a smaller market like
you're in, I would call itsmaller, I think that's fair. You
know, those local service ads,if they're there and when they get
(31:39):
there, that kind of stuff isgoing to matter. And I know that
that's all being, you know,you have tools that are helping you
get to those places, butthere's, I just don't understand
why on a Google post feedthat's not flowing with content about
the business. Right. Likeeverything you put online anywhere
about the business, it betterbe in that Google business profile,
(32:00):
because that's what Google'sgoing to use. It's part of that algorithm
to make sure, wow, all thesepeople are living these reviews about
real estate and he's postingabout real estate and it's all about
still water and here comes allthat love, right? It's, it's, it's
the answer.
It's so, so true. You, ifyou're posting something to, and
you have to be careful, it'snot the same as, you know, that's
(32:23):
where you have to be socareful today. And I think, really
think about what you'reposting from a content standpoint
because it's interesting. Withour business, our industry, we've
really created a lot of noisefor ourselves with the, with the
selling of being on socialmedia. I mean, you have to do this,
(32:44):
you have to do that, theomnipresence, all that. And then
it's like, okay, sign up forour free template and we'll give
you all these templates forwhat you should post and, and so
on. But at the end of the day,it needs to be real and it needs
to be informative. And sobecause it's amazing, you know, we
talk in our jargon And a lotof times people don't know what the
(33:06):
hell we're talking about.Don't know what you know, because
one of the biggest thingsright now in our market, you know,
it's that coming soon listing.It'll show up on mls. But what does
it mean and why can't I go seeit right now? So a little education
(33:27):
with that aspect of it. Butyeah, it's, it's interesting to see
what is going on in themarketplace right now and especially
with some of the big teams andsome of that aspect as well.
You know, you've never had ateam. It's never been a part of what
you wanted to do. You. Itseems like you're very comfortable
being Richard.
Well, no, actually I've gonefull circle, Bill. I, I left Edina
(33:51):
Realty in 2018 and I startedmy own brokerage.
That's right.
And that's right. And Istarted my own brokerage. It was
called RM Realty and it wasmore from a standpoint of, yes, that's
my initials, but it was, wekind of used the tagline room. RM
is the abbreviation for room.So room to buy, room to sell, room
(34:12):
for information. And I had aMain street bricks and mortar business
in downtown Stillwater. Lovebeing downtown. Still love being
part of the community. That'svery, very important to me. It was
amazing, the walk ins that wewould get and we still do. I mean
I did, I think we did like $2million worth of walk ins. Just people
(34:35):
walk in and we want to buy ahouse in Stillwater. And. And then
I had a cross transaction withan agent with our local Lake Sotheby's
affiliate and, and hementioned to the, you know, the powers
of B about me. And then theystarted talking to me and the next
thing you know, they made mean offer for my brokerage and, and
(34:58):
I, it was kind of, you know,it was one of those things where
I, I hadn't really thoughtabout selling it. But the recruitment
thing is a, that's a hard,hard, never ending process. And when
I talk to them more and moreand I love being an agent and learning
about that. Sotheby's brandwas amazing. And so we came to terms.
(35:21):
They, they wanted to move.They were on the western suburbs
of the Twin Cities. Theywanted to move to the east side where
there is a lot of luxuryproperties. But you know, again,
luxury is not a price point.It's, it's kind of an experience,
as we know. And so we came toterms and I went from being a Broker,
owner, back to an agent again.And I'm, I'm loving it. And, and
(35:43):
I really underestimated the,the power of that brand, Sotheby's
International Realty. And thenthe addition to that is Sotheby's
the broke the auction house. Iget a much different vibe when I
had some of my card and itsays Sotheby's on it than I ever
did with the Diner Realty orRM Realty. I mean, people kind of
(36:06):
go, oh, it's a little bit ofan aha moment. And I was really surprised
about that. I was not preparedfor it, quite frankly.
So, Richard, I know you're atechie guy, and so I have to ask
the question, are youexploring that brave new world of
AI? Are you using some ofthose tools out there?
(36:29):
Most definitely. I'm loving AIagain. I've actually been using it
for, I'll say the last fouryears because I also now one of my
tech partners is Y Lopo. Andas you probably know, Y Lopo for
the last four years has Raya,which has been an AI text, text communication
(36:52):
assistant for us as agentswith new leads coming in and so forth.
It just went live literally aweek ago. I now am part of their
AI voice and their AI voice isamazing as far as following up with
leads, because I'm guilty ofit too. We do not follow up with
our leads enough via phone andjust staying in touch with our folks.
(37:15):
So the AI voice I just isgoing to see as being a game changer.
That could be a podcast initself. Just. It's amazing. You cannot
tell that this is a digitalperson on the other end of the phone.
You cannot tell. Not at all.And then one step further, AI with
ChatGPT. I've been using thatfor. For months. I've been a ChatGPT
(37:39):
plus subscriber from day one.And, you know, that's made my life
so much easier for astandpoint of, you know, writer's
block, copyright and all thatthing. I will share this though,
you know, because I'll justput in there, this is what I want
to say. Put it out there.Then. Then it, you know, gives it
back to you. And then I'llgive it to. I'll have my wife and
(38:03):
or office manager look it overand they go, this is great, but you
need to dumb it down, Richard,because that's really. Doesn't sound
like you.
Said in a loving way. It'ssaid in a loving way, I'm sure.
And I'm not. I. I took the Itook the critique and they were correct.
(38:26):
It. It didn't sound like meand. But it does really, really help
as far as making things flow alot better and hit the, the top points
that you want to and alsoinclude things like SEO or you take
one. Okay. I want this post tobe for Instagram, I want this Facebook
(38:46):
and I want this post to be forLinkedIn. And those are all three
different platforms, but it'sbasically the same message just tailored
for those three platforms. Andit just helps immensely from that
standpoint. I wrote one theother day where they even added emojis
and all that for you. So Ican't say enough about, you know,
(39:07):
how it has helped me frombeing a, now a solo agent to be that
much more productive andgetting through things quicker and
making it, you know, mybusiness that much better.
I've heard lately some peopletalk about using AI on your mls,
(39:29):
like Imagine, because you'reallowed to pull some data from the
mls, right? You can pull dataand you can take that data and you
could create a prompt thatsays, look at this data and give
me a report or give me a graphor give me a chart. And it's. You're
reaching those levels now whenyou're. Because now it's only looking
at data that's true andaccurate. Well, it's true and accurate
(39:50):
as everyone's input the data.Right. But it was very interesting,
I thought, oh my. Because Iuse AI on my podcast, but it's just
listening to the episode,doing a transcript and pulling out
quotes and doing all thisstuff. Because when you use ChatGPT
in the real world and you knowthis, you've got to double check
it a little bit, make sureit's not saying something weird.
(40:10):
Right.
But imagine, yes, the MLS dataand you using it as a tool.
I haven't gone down that roadyet because basically with chat,
GBT plus, you know, it's, it'sdated back to what, 2022, 2023. So
I don't know. And so it'scurrent in that regard. I'm not sure
(40:30):
how current it is from astandpoint of up to the minute data,
but I'm thinking if you do putthat data in there, yes, you should
be able to do that. Canva isone of the graphic software companies.
I think you can take AI, Canvaand AI with this data and put it
together. I personally, I lovedata and I think that's again, where
(40:55):
we can help our clients. I useAltos Research and you know, I use
their reports and they havethe graphs and everything right there.
So yeah, that's what I've beenusing from, from that standpoint
to be much more accurate.Aside from what are the MLS's give
you for, especially in ourarea, it encompasses a 13 county
(41:17):
metropolitan area, which iswestern Wisconsin. You know, it's
like it's a big area when youthink of 13 counties here in the
Midwest. But then we havemicro markets within that, as you
can imagine.
Right.
The price point on the westernsuburbs is a lot different than the
price point here in the St.Croix Valley.
Well, look, Richard, this hasbeen fun. This has been great. I'm
(41:39):
going to ask you the samefinal question I've asked everyone.
I think you know the question.It's what one piece of advice would
you give a new agent just getting.
Started to really treat thisas your own business. Think of it
from a standpoint that youjust bought a Subway franchise and
you need to keep the doors open.
Very rarely assumed orfollowed that it's a business. I
(42:00):
think, you know, that that's,that's so critical in thinking about
even long term. You know, youhave built this database of people
who like and know and trustand love you. And somewhere down
the road you said you didn'twant to, you know, give up working,
but maybe you just work withthese 10, but maybe you find somebody
(42:21):
to help you with the rest andit turns into annuity, right? Exactly,
exactly. You just have thispassive income just flowing to you.
And that's the great thingabout this business. It can be that
so easily. The entry to realestate is way too easy. And that's
why I didn't tell you this,but when I was in high school, I
(42:44):
was a garbage man for fiveyears. You know, I collected garbage.
I worked on the back of thetruck before school. This is basically,
no, this is high school intocollege. You know, in the summertime.
And to this day I tell peopleI got more respect being the garbage
man than I do today being areal estate agent.
(43:06):
On that note, Richard, true,I'm gonna ask you how, if someone
wants to reach out to you andcompare garbage men and realtors,
what's the best way for themto get in touch with you?
The best way to get in touchwith me is either through any of
the social media platforms,which maybe Facebook or Instagram.
My email isrichard.mcdonough@lakesmn.com or
(43:31):
my website, richardmcdonough.com and I'm, you know,
if you're an agent, you're outthere working, happy to help. And
I think, you know, it doestake a village and it takes all of
us to make our business andour industry that much better.
Richard, this has been ablast. I really, I really thank you
for your time today.
You're welcome.
We are going to talk a wholelot more about skiing. I just. That
(43:53):
is unbelievable. And I can'twait to sit in a room with you again
and have another conversation.Thanks so much.
You're welcome, Bill. I reallyenjoyed this, too. And you have a
great day.
Thank you for listening to theReal Estate Sessions. Please head
over to ratethispodcast.comrecessions to leave a review or a
rating and subscribe to theReal Estate Sessions podcast at your
(44:16):
favorite podcast listening app.
You just can't stop learning,in my opinion, and you have to take
it all in. And I went to NINJAtraining last year with, you know,
Larry Kendall in that programbecause I'm starting to feel that
you almost got to go fullcircle and really focus on the, the
relationships that we have.
(00:21):
You're listening to the RealEstate Sessions and I'm your host,
Bill Risser. With nearly 25years in the real estate business,
I love to interview industryleaders of up and comers and really
anyone with a story to tell.It's the stories that led my guests
to a career in the real estateworld that drives me into my ninth
year and nearly 400 episodesof the podcast. And now I hope you
enjoy the next journey. Hi,everybody. Welcome to episode 379
(00:47):
of the Real Estate Sessionspodcast. As always, thank you so
much for tuning in. Thank youso much for telling a friend. Today
we're going to head up north.Yep. We're going to Minnesota, actually,
the Minnesota Wisconsinborder. A little area called Stillwater.
Right. A part of the St. CroixValley. I'm sure you all know about
it. You're going to know a lotmore about it after this episode
with Richard McDonough.Richard's with Sotheby's International
(01:09):
Realty. I was introduced toRichard through a mutual friend,
Anthony Malafronte. A lot ofyou know him as well, and we're going
to have a lot of fun withRichard. He has a fascinating backstory.
I think you're going to enjoythis. Some things are going to be
covered here that have neverbeen covered in this podcast before.
So let's get this thingstarted. Richard, welcome to the
(01:29):
podcast.
Well, hello, Bill. I'm happyto be on.
It's going to be a lot of fun.You know, I, I, I know, I know you
through Anthony Malafrante.We'll chat about that a little bit
later. And as I'm sittinghere, we can see each other. And
I'm in Florida and you're inMinnesota and you have a toque on
or a beanie, whatever you wantto call it.
I have a beanie today. Thebeanie is very typical for me in,
(01:54):
in the winter. Although thisyear we've had an unseasonably warm
winter and I haven't beenwearing it much. As I was telling
you earlier, I've only had toshovel snow once this year.
Wow. Now, when you sayunseasonably warm, what is the temperature
right now?
Well, today it kind of cooledoff. So today the temperature, and
even for today, even thoughit's cooled off, it's warm. We're
(02:16):
in the mid to high 30s whichnormally this time of year would
be more like in the 20s. Andyesterday the high was 53 and the
day before it was 57.
I know you're, we're going totalk about where you're located,
but it's, it's, you're rightthere in the Minneapolis area, just
east of it over towards theWisconsin border. That's you're way
(02:38):
up there. You're supposed tobe. Don't you get the wind chill
factors in the minus 30s and40s sometimes?
Oh, easily that. Yes, easily.And the actual temperature in the
winter time can be, you know,20 below or a daytime high can be
11 below zero. And that'sbefore the wind chill. So this year
it's, it's been so weird. It,January was super long with no snow
(03:03):
and cloudy skies and fog. Itwas, it's really, really strange.
So it's really messed up a lotof local businesses and it's, it's,
it's weird. I don't know ifit's global warming or what it is,
but it unseasonable. Althoughon the plus side we're lucky because
other coasts, Florida, theEast coast, California, they're just
(03:26):
getting slammed. And soMadison, Wisconsin is 200 miles from
here about. And they actuallyhad a tornado there last night.
Wow. Okay. So there's. Thingsare going nuts right now up in the,
in the northern plains. Yeah,we'll have to. That's, that's amazing.
Well, Richard, I love to findout, you know, from my guests where
(03:50):
they grew up. And I think you,you know, you're in Stillwater, Minnesota.
Correct. Which is right on theborder with Wisconsin. Is that where
you were born? Were you bornand raised there?
Yes, I was born and raisedhere in Stillwater. We're on the
beautiful St. Croix riverabout 30 minutes outside of Minneapolis
St. Paul. And actually I'm afourth generation. Stillwater. Right.
(04:12):
So our family has a longhistory here in the what we call
the St. Croix Valley.
And I heard, I think, I do alittle bit of research. The St. Croix
drops into the Mississippisomewhere in kind of on the border
there, am I right? Prettyclose, yes.
It's about 20 miles south ofhere and it's an interesting transition.
(04:33):
You can literally see thesparkling blue waters of the St.
Croix river flow into themuddy Mississippi. There's actually
demarcation line that saysclear as day.
Wow, that's cool. I think for,look a lot of us there might be some
people Listening and go,really? The Mississippi's in Minnesota.
I'm like, yeah, I think that'sthe headwaters. That's where it starts.
(04:54):
And obviously ends up in NewOrleans. Yeah. Good. It sounds to
me like where you live couldbe people commute into the city or.
Or is it more of a place thatpeople have second homes? How would
you describe the Stillwaterarea, the St. Croix Valley?
Well, the Stillwater area inSt. Croix Valley is. I wouldn't necessarily
call it a bedroom community.We're home to Anderson Windows, which
(05:18):
is one of the foremost windowmanufacturers in the world. We can
be a bedroom community to 3Mis 20 minutes from Stillwater, Target
corporations, 30 Medtronic. Sowe have a lot of great corporations
nearby, and then we have a lotof other very successful businesses
in the Stillwater area aswell. So it's truly not just what
(05:41):
I would call a suburb, butit's a beautiful small town and we
still have that essence ofbeing a good, great small town.
Yeah. And I'm sure that the.The people that live there and like
you who grew up there wouldlove to keep that. That small town
feel, right.
Yes. Although I will say itwas interesting, you know, on a real
estate side, when I got intoselling real estate here, I thought
(06:04):
I'd be selling to my friendsand family. Well, a lot of my friends
don't move. I have friends whohave general. Relationally, that's
a tongue twister. Lived in thesame house. It's been handed down
to different kids within thefamily. So a big source of my business
is people moving out andmoving into the area because they
(06:24):
love what we. What is offeredhere from a sense of community, the
schools, things to do. I mean,the St. Croix river, which I mentioned,
it's one of the narrowestnational parks in the country. It
was the. One of the first tworivers that was designated as National
Scenic Waterway. So there's alot of protections on that river.
And we're consistently part ofbest small towns in America. Good
(06:49):
Morning America was here lastsummer. We are home to the World
Snow Sculpture Competition.It's just a great place to call home.
Yeah, that's really cool.Growing up in San Diego and then
living in Phoenix for 17 yearsand now being in St. Petersburg,
Florida for the last sevenyears. We have a lot of snowbirds.
(07:09):
Right. It's been a part of mylife pretty much growing up. And
Minnesota, that wholeMinnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan area,
they could go either way. Theycould go. They could. Sometimes they
go to Arizona, sometimes theygo down to Florida. And I Know that
we have that term calledsnowbirds. And look, I don't think
it's a bad term. I just thinkit just means these are people that
have two homes. Is there areverse for that? Are there people
(07:32):
who actually. Where they grewup and where they live is where it's
hot or steamy and they'reescaping up to your way? Yeah. First
of all, is there a name forthem? And you must work with those
sorts of clients.
You know, I'm starting to workmore and more with them, but we really
don't. Yeah, most people areknown as snowbirds for leaving, but
(07:54):
not so much for coming here.And that might be because a lot of
the. The folks that you'retalking about are going to some of
the lakes farther north fromhere. However, we are starting to
see more and more people, andI'm actually selling homes to those
people that are callingStillwater and the St. Croix Valley
their summer home.
Yeah, that's great.
But we don't have a name forhim yet.
(08:15):
We got to come up with that,Richard. I think that'll be great.
I think that would be awesome.We have to come up. We'll talk about
that later after the show. Soborn and raised 30 minutes from Minneapolis.
I'm just going to hope andassume that you're a fan of the Vikings
and the Twins and the T Wolvesand the North Stars when they used
(08:35):
to be there. Am I right? Ordid you get. Did you get pulled over
to that Wisconsin side ofthings at all?
Oh, no. True blue Minnesotan.Supporting the sport teams, which
sometimes can be very, veryfrustrating. I've been fortunate
to have attended a lot of thegreat competitions, or I should say,
(08:58):
games. I was at the WorldSeries when Kirby Puckett hit the
grand slam home run. I wasalso there then the following night
when we won the World Series.I think I was at both World Series
championships. I was at thelast game at the old Met center for
the Minnesota Vikings when weplayed outside under. Under Bud Grant
(09:21):
and Fran Tarkington. Andbasically people came there with
wrenches and took the place apart.
And then people were draggingseats out behind them, right?
Oh, yeah. We were in theprocess of hooking up a telephone
booth to. To a pickup truck,and the police came by and said,
you probably don't want totake that.
(09:45):
So you just quietly unhookedit and moved on. Right.
We just backed away and walkedaway. Yes. Yes, very much so. Again,
there are times when it's beenvery frustrating to be a Minnesota
sports fan. We've been soClose so many times, especially with
the Vikings and, you know,even with the Timberwolves. But our
(10:05):
time will come. I'm sure theDetroit Lions are feeling that a
little bit this year, but Ithink our time will come and it's
great to see all the peopleget behind our sports teams and so
on. And I mean, we've neverwon the Stanley cup. And here we
are, the state of hockey, youknow, we've won the.
(10:26):
It's just amazing, right?
Yeah. It was because ofMinnesotans that we won the gold
medal in the Olympics, beatingthe Russians. We can't seem to win
the Stanley Cup.
So there are a lot of peoplethat are going to be rooting for
Minnesota when they do getthere. There's not. They're not like
the Cowboys or the Yankees orthese other teams where everybody
just hates them. Yeah, there'sgoing to be a ton of support nationwide.
(10:49):
Right. So you'll have a lot oflove. I think that's going to be.
That's going to be a big pieceof it. So.
Yeah.
And I'll tell you what, Ican't imagine what it's been like
growing up with the divisionyou're in in football where it's
packers, okay, Lions, okay,whatever, but Bears as well. I mean,
that, that, that black andblue, right, that had to be a brutal,
a brutal division to be a partof over the years.
(11:12):
And it still is. I mean, thoseare hard, hardcore rivalries in all
of sports. I mean, it's justamazing. And then, of course, I was
fortunate enough to be, I canremember the, you know, the purple
people leaders. And I mean,those guys didn't have bench heaters.
They didn't have Bud Grantmade those guys stand out there in
(11:34):
the freezing cold. I mean, itwas hardcore football back then and.
But yes, those rivalries arestill today, as, I'll say, as fresh
as ever.
All right, that's cool. Allright, well, we gotta talk about
real estate a little bit, soI'm gonna move off of this because
I could sit here for the nexttwo hours and we're talk sports,
(11:56):
but so you head off tocollege. I think if I look remember
right from my research, youactually crossed over the state line.
You went to school over inWisconsin. Do I have that right?
Yes. Oh, I had a little bitmore of an unusual trajectory through
college. I did the eight yearplan and that was due to. I was a
competitive freestyle skier inhigh school and then I went left
(12:20):
school to ski a couple wintersand then I left school and I started
working on which also began myfirst career after college, and that
was working in the luxuryyacht industry.
Wait a minute, Richard. Ican't believe I've had lunch with
you. I've had a couple ofmeetings. We sat down and chatted.
Freestyle. Competitivefreestyle skier. First of all, I'm
(12:42):
going to try to do my best todefine what freestyle skiing is.
It's crazy. People doing flipsand stuff off of moguls and just
going nuts off ramps andstuff. Is that what I'm thinking
about? For freestyle?
Yes.
How many surgeries have youhad, Richard?
None.
Wow. Okay. Awesome.
(13:02):
I dislocated a shoulder and Ibruised a sternum. That's the extent
of my injuries.
How was that shoulder goingback in? That feel good?
Yeah, it still, I, I afterthat. And it was at a national competition
in Copper Mountain after thatfall. And I made the highlight reel
though, by the way, after thatfall, I've never been able to throw
(13:23):
a baseball the same.
Do you still skirecreationally today?
Oh, yeah, I do, I do. Youknow, it was actually interesting.
When I was working on theluxury yachts, there was like a 10
year period where I didn't skiat all. And then a friend of mine
got me back into it and so Ido go. I haven't gone in a year or
so, but it's kind of likeriding a bike. And the funny thing
(13:47):
is, is it's one of thosethings where I never tell anybody
I'm a good skier. I had thisone friend, asked me to go meet him
out west and I think after heasked me, he didn't think I'd go.
And then he's going, God, canthis person even ski? And then I
get out there, I go, okay,where are we going to go? And then
(14:08):
the next thing you know, youknow, we're out there shredding.
And I know you golf a lot.It's like all of a sudden having
this guy come golfing with youand you have no idea he's a scratch
golfer. So. But I guess eventhough I won a lot of trophies and
a lot of competitions, one ofmy best highlights in my skiing was
(14:29):
we were doing some, what iscalled cat skiing, where a snow cat
takes you up in your powderskiing. And when a snowcat. Because
everyone's always trying to,you know, impress the snowcat guides,
the people that are guidingyou. And when a snow, when a guide
tells you you're a good skier,I think that's a nice feather in
your cap. Wow.
(14:50):
So, just a couple questions.Yes. I got to the Low intermediate
level of a skier, maybe in mycareer before my wife blew her knee
out in Brian Head, Utah. Andthat just ended it for all of us.
This is going back to the 80swhere. Where I could look, I could
get down anything, but I wasgoing to go side to side, you know,
all the way to one end, to theother if it was really steep. But
(15:10):
then when it got a little lesssteep, like, I could function and
do. All right. You're tellingme, like, if I put. Took you to a
place where you had to drop in10ft before you really even hit snow,
you're like, yeah, no problem.I'm just gonna drop in. I'm gonna
go do this thing. No big deal.
No big deal. Even. Even at myolder age, no big deal. Yeah.
(15:31):
That's awesome. Okay, well,that's very cool. And so now. Now
yachts.
So I worked on privately ownedluxury yachts in the, you know, basically
we. We. I was on the eastcoast and Bahamas and I worked for
one family that we'd actuallywould bring the boat up the Mississippi
river back here to Stillwater.
(15:52):
Wow. And then that. You didthat for 10 years?
I did that for 10 years, yes.
There are yachts here. I walkby them every morning. And there's
one called the Debbie Loo.That's massive. It must be four floors,
I'm guessing, because one'sbelow water and then you can see
the other three up above. Andso you had your own quarters. You
lived on the boat? Yes, yacht.I shouldn't say boat. And you helped.
(16:17):
Was there a chef on the boatas well? And is it really. How big
was the crew?
So the largest yacht I workedon was 125ft. We had a crew of six.
So we had a chef, a captain. Iwas the first mate, so I was right
below. And then we had anengineer, and then we would have
a stewardess. So. And theengineer took care of all the mechanical,
(16:40):
of course, the chef, captain,myself and the stewardess. And we
would help out each other,especially we had guests on board.
You know, I would help outwith the stewardess and even the
engineer, you know, makingsure the guests, everything is. They're
attended to and so on. We. Idid not work on many charter boats.
(17:01):
I only worked on one boat thatwas in charter, and we did not charter
that much. That's a wholedifferent ball game. I preferred
to work for, you know,families, old money per se, because
they would treat us a lot better.
Is that family still around inStillwater, the family that you worked
for? I imagine someone's still there.
Yes, they are. It's kind of aninteresting story. My, I didn't get
(17:25):
the job because of my father,but my father was also general counsel
for this family. And it's, itwas the Hubbard family and they developed
satellite television. Andthere's. They're celebrating, they're
celebrating 100 years inbroadcasting this year. So it's quite
interesting. Family. And thenI'm kind of holding out, but I worked
(17:46):
for two years for someone thatwas in the construction business
in New York City. And you cantake that for what it's worth.
Oh, Nelly. We, we will leavethat for another show. Okay, well,
(18:06):
we'll talk later. All right.So somehow the world of luxury and
yachting and all this greatstuff is going to transition into
real estate.
Yes.
How's that happen?
So I was getting to the pointwhere even though I had my captain's
license and I've been workingon these boats, I didn't see that
(18:28):
as being a long term careerpath for me because it's a great
occupation, but your life isdefinitely not your own in that situation.
It's changed a lot now wherethere's a lot more. You'd be three
months on about and threemonths off. There we were full time,
we were year round. We, youknow, we would get time off. But
really you're at the beck andcall of what the owner is, wants
(18:50):
to do with the boat. So I'mback in Minnesota. I'm starting to
look at homes and I know whatI want. I want to, you know, know
one level home and in stillwater. And I'm, I'm, you know, called
off a sign of one property.Then I'm working with this agent
and it was kind ofinteresting. The only thing that
was consistent was we keptseeing her listings. We didn't see
(19:15):
the houses that I want, but wekept seeing her listings so she could
get both sides of it at thesame time. I was getting interviews
for jobs and it wasinteresting. I, I'd get interview
introductions from thechairman of the board of the company.
Right. With HR and some ofthese jobs I was very capable of
(19:35):
doing, but I'm sure the peoplehiring thought, well, this is coming
down from the top. He'sprobably going to take my job. So
I would not get a call back orI wouldn't get the job. So all of
a sudden the light bulb kindof goes off and I kind of said, you
know, I think if this personcan sell real estate and make a living
(19:56):
at it, I think I Can. And so Igo and interview. At the time, there
was not the big teams. In theteams like we have now, we had the
major brokers and inMinnesota, the major players at that
time back in the mid-90s wasEdina Realty, which is, was now the
first company that BerkshireHathaway purchased. Coldwell Banker,
(20:18):
and Then of course ReMax,Keller Williams, exp Real. None of
that was on the horizon atthat point. And it was interesting
with my first interview, themanager goes, are you okay with unusual
hours? I'm kind of going,what? What's unusual? And, and so
(20:39):
I go, yeah, that won't be aproblem. At least here I know I'll
be home every night. And atsome point, so I get my license,
I go to. I chose Edana Realtybecause of its, its history as being
a family owned company. It wasstarted by Emma Rovic back in the
1950s and here was a mom whowanted to make some extra money and
(21:03):
get a piano for her family andwow. Edana Realty is, you know, at
the time I started, there wasalready at, you know, 2500 agents
and growing in 40 offices. AndRon Peltier was the president at
the time who went on to bethe, the chairman and president of
(21:23):
Home Services of America. Andit was, it, it was a great company
and it's still a great companytoday. And, and so that was my start.
And it was also interesting.We had a downtown Stillwater office
and, you know, bricks andmortar. And I still feel very strongly
about that whole concept.
Tell me, how are the firstcouple years? I mean, it's, it's,
(21:46):
it's, you know, at least youknew the area. You knew you had a
sphere, right? That helped,I'm sure.
I, I had a sphere, yes. Had avery. I had a sphere. Probably the
biggest thing for me was in,in our friend Anthony talks about
this all the time. You got todo the work. What most agents I see
(22:09):
don't do is they don't look atthis from day one as the business.
They get their real estatelicense, I'm a realtor. And they're
all transactional in theirprocesses. They're waiting for the
phone to ring. They're waitingto see what happens next. They're
not really planning so muchfor their future. I was fortunate
(22:31):
in that when I dropped intothe office and we call it Cubeville
or whatever you want to callit, my space was right outside. The
top agent within that office,she always kept the door open. I
kept my door open. I listenedto what she was doing. I watched
what other people were doingand I just, you know, did the work.
(22:52):
Even if I had nothing goingon, I would show up to the office.
For example, I got myWisconsin license as well, because
we're right on the border.Just by happening to be in the office,
this guy calls up and says, Ihave two properties I want to look
at in Wisconsin. Is thereanyone that can show me these properties?
Because the agents won't callme back and I'm going to buy one
(23:13):
of them. I got in my car and Iwent, sold the guy the house. He
bought one of the houses. Andagain, just, yeah, you know, to this
day, I still do open houses. Istill feel it's so critical to be
at the office and I feel it'svery critical to keep learning every
single day.
(23:34):
I see that in you. I see that,you know, in the conversations we've
had, the times I've had achance to sit down and have a chat.
But I also know that there's.You've definitely embraced what's
new. You, you're not, youknow, you're talking about these
older, I'm gonna say oldschool things but, you know, face
to face kind of contact that aRealtor has to have. But you're in
(23:56):
heavily involved. Whenwebsites and social media and that
sort of stuff came around, myguess is you were right there going,
this is going to be important.I need to figure this out.
Yes. And it was interesting. Ikind of fell into it, Bill. And how
I fell into it. I'd gonethrough a divorce and the divorce
I went through, we were ahusband and wife team. And, you know,
(24:18):
I was freaking out at first ofwhat's that going to do to our image
that I'm getting a divorce?And it's no longer Richard and Kelly
McDonough, but now it'sRichard McDonough again as a real
estate agent. And there was atime at that first year that I kind
of checked out, but theneveryone was at the Rah Rah meeting
and it was the first time inwhatever years that I hadn't been
(24:39):
to the, you know, topProducing Agent Award that as you
know, most of us agents arevery competitive as well. And my
background is beingcompetitive. Edana Realty is known
for having great speakers. Andthey had this guy by the name of
Chris Smith there. And at thetime, this is when Chris Smith and
(25:00):
curator had just had started.And I called them up and I was talking
to their salesperson and hewas interviewing me as much as I
was interviewing him. And itwas one of those situations where
I couldn't afford not to doit. And I, and I, you know, dove
right in. And I would sayCurator was one of the first true
(25:22):
innovators in that whole ideaof having a stunning website combined
with an awesome social mediapresence. And my business went from
$79,000 that year. And I thinkthis is 2009 and I'm not a big one
for bragging with numbers, butI just want to illustrate the power
(25:43):
of social media and technologywent from 79,000 to the following
year of 485,000 in GCI as asolo agent.
Wow.
And that doesn't include.
Wow.
The extra stuff I had to giveaway because I couldn't handle it
all because.
(26:04):
Right.
That's when, you know, we werethat, that we were like shooting
fish in a barrel because wehad landing pages. We had a, you
know, see, I was with FollowUp Boss, who that was. You know,
I think I've been with followup boss 10 years and they've been
around for maybe 11 or 12, butit was just a great platform and,
(26:27):
and that's where I metAnthony. And because of that growth,
the next year I spoke at theircan, you know, their excellence event
and then meeting other peoplelike Judy Weiniger, Katie Lance,
now moving forward, Phil M.Jones and even to Ryan Sirhant, John
Sheplak. You know, you just,you just can't stop learning, in
(26:51):
my opinion. And you have totake it all in and, and do what works
even to the point of in somerespects going full circle now. And
I went to NINJA training lastyear with, you know, Larry Kendall
in that program because.
Yep.
I'm, I'm starting to feel thatyou almost got to go full circle
and really focus on the, therelationships that we have because
(27:14):
there's a lot of noise outthere with, with all the social media
aspect of it and you forget tomake those calls and those connections.
Yeah, I like, you know, thesecommunities you talk about, they're
really, I don't think they'reunderstood enough or used enough
by a lot of agents. Right.Like the information that you get
(27:36):
from that curator group andsometimes curator group is slightly
different than some of thepeople in the Follow Up Boss or slightly
different than the film,whatever it is. I think those are.
You're like that and it reallylike a shining example of why being
connected there is going tohelp your business. Absolutely.
So much. I mean, because Ioftentimes and I think it's getting
(28:00):
better, but because of thecompetitive nature which in my opinion
I've always felt that there'senough business for everyone in any
and all markets. But becauseof that competitive nature, oftentimes
we don't share enough withinour own sphere with. And when I say
sphere, I'm talking about mypeers as agents and companies within
(28:20):
the, the marketplace that wework in. If we just shared more and
helped each other more, itwould make it that much easier. I
mean, part of our inventoryproblem is our own fault because
agents who are transactionalare saying, yeah, we have nothing
to sell. And so they don't,they don't, you know, have the proper
(28:41):
speech. And not that it's asales speech, but really talking
about how the market is.Because right now we have an inventory
problem not because ofinterest rates, it's because we don't
have enough properties to sell.
It seems to me, especially inyour world, and that's what you do,
is you educate and you helpand you commiserate and you do all
(29:02):
kinds of different things withyour customers. Having those. The
right thing to say at theright time is invaluable.
And then the other thing I'venoticed, and I'm very guilty of this,
the follow up after the sale,there's a big lack of follow up after
the sale. And again, I saidI'm guilty of this. So I think I'd
(29:25):
be retired now if I would havejust done a little bit better job
of it, of following up withall. I mean, don't get me wrong,
I love, I love selling realestate and I love working. So I don't
know if I would retire and Ithink my wife would be crazy if I
was home every day, all day.But anyway, it's interesting how
after the sale we do notfollow up like we should and stay
(29:47):
in touch with our clients likewe should and we feel that they're
just going to use us againbecause we did such a phenomenal
job the last time.
Well, that, that leads to aquestion, Richard. What, what, what
percentage of your businesstoday is referral? Repeat, right
versus, you know, leadgeneration that's going on with the
sources you use?
(30:08):
I've been looking that at thata lot lately and it's a lot more
than I realized. And that'swhere I need to focus more. I'd say
it's probably a good 60% of mybusiness, maybe even 70 is referral
or repeat business. And thenthe other 30 is lead generation.
(30:28):
And in some respects it's dueto having a quality website and spending
the time and energy, you know,with having a Google presence I've
been really thinking a lotabout this lately and I'd love to
hear your opinion on this too.And although we're going to see a
big shift with homes.com Ihear they've, they've spent ungodly
(30:53):
amount of money coming up forthe super bowl and all these events
and they've, they've reallyturned into a big player in the search
aspect of it. But at thispoint, my two cents is people search
for homes on Zillow and theysearch for agents on Google.
I would completely agree withyou. Right. I think the lack of energy
(31:16):
that agents are putting intothat Google business profile, which
is like the holy grail ofeverything you're doing for search,
it's got to start there. And,and that leads to a lot of other
places, right? Because now,especially in a smaller market like
you're in, I would call itsmaller, I think that's fair. You
know, those local service ads,if they're there and when they get
(31:39):
there, that kind of stuff isgoing to matter. And I know that
that's all being, you know,you have tools that are helping you
get to those places, butthere's, I just don't understand
why on a Google post feedthat's not flowing with content about
the business. Right. Likeeverything you put online anywhere
about the business, it betterbe in that Google business profile,
(32:00):
because that's what Google'sgoing to use. It's part of that algorithm
to make sure, wow, all thesepeople are living these reviews about
real estate and he's postingabout real estate and it's all about
still water and here comes allthat love, right? It's, it's, it's
the answer.
It's so, so true. You, ifyou're posting something to, and
you have to be careful, it'snot the same as, you know, that's
(32:23):
where you have to be socareful today. And I think, really
think about what you'reposting from a content standpoint
because it's interesting. Withour business, our industry, we've
really created a lot of noisefor ourselves with the, with the
selling of being on socialmedia. I mean, you have to do this,
(32:44):
you have to do that, theomnipresence, all that. And then
it's like, okay, sign up forour free template and we'll give
you all these templates forwhat you should post and, and so
on. But at the end of the day,it needs to be real and it needs
to be informative. And sobecause it's amazing, you know, we
talk in our jargon And a lotof times people don't know what the
(33:06):
hell we're talking about.Don't know what you know, because
one of the biggest thingsright now in our market, you know,
it's that coming soon listing.It'll show up on mls. But what does
it mean and why can't I go seeit right now? So a little education
(33:27):
with that aspect of it. Butyeah, it's, it's interesting to see
what is going on in themarketplace right now and especially
with some of the big teams andsome of that aspect as well.
You know, you've never had ateam. It's never been a part of what
you wanted to do. You. Itseems like you're very comfortable
being Richard.
Well, no, actually I've gonefull circle, Bill. I, I left Edina
(33:51):
Realty in 2018 and I startedmy own brokerage.
That's right.
And that's right. And Istarted my own brokerage. It was
called RM Realty and it wasmore from a standpoint of, yes, that's
my initials, but it was, wekind of used the tagline room. RM
is the abbreviation for room.So room to buy, room to sell, room
(34:12):
for information. And I had aMain street bricks and mortar business
in downtown Stillwater. Lovebeing downtown. Still love being
part of the community. That'svery, very important to me. It was
amazing, the walk ins that wewould get and we still do. I mean
I did, I think we did like $2million worth of walk ins. Just people
(34:35):
walk in and we want to buy ahouse in Stillwater. And. And then
I had a cross transaction withan agent with our local Lake Sotheby's
affiliate and, and hementioned to the, you know, the powers
of B about me. And then theystarted talking to me and the next
thing you know, they made mean offer for my brokerage and, and
(34:58):
I, it was kind of, you know,it was one of those things where
I, I hadn't really thoughtabout selling it. But the recruitment
thing is a, that's a hard,hard, never ending process. And when
I talk to them more and moreand I love being an agent and learning
about that. Sotheby's brandwas amazing. And so we came to terms.
(35:21):
They, they wanted to move.They were on the western suburbs
of the Twin Cities. Theywanted to move to the east side where
there is a lot of luxuryproperties. But you know, again,
luxury is not a price point.It's, it's kind of an experience,
as we know. And so we came toterms and I went from being a Broker,
owner, back to an agent again.And I'm, I'm loving it. And, and
(35:43):
I really underestimated the,the power of that brand, Sotheby's
International Realty. And thenthe addition to that is Sotheby's
the broke the auction house. Iget a much different vibe when I
had some of my card and itsays Sotheby's on it than I ever
did with the Diner Realty orRM Realty. I mean, people kind of
(36:06):
go, oh, it's a little bit ofan aha moment. And I was really surprised
about that. I was not preparedfor it, quite frankly.
So, Richard, I know you're atechie guy, and so I have to ask
the question, are youexploring that brave new world of
AI? Are you using some ofthose tools out there?
(36:29):
Most definitely. I'm loving AIagain. I've actually been using it
for, I'll say the last fouryears because I also now one of my
tech partners is Y Lopo. Andas you probably know, Y Lopo for
the last four years has Raya,which has been an AI text, text communication
(36:52):
assistant for us as agentswith new leads coming in and so forth.
It just went live literally aweek ago. I now am part of their
AI voice and their AI voice isamazing as far as following up with
leads, because I'm guilty ofit too. We do not follow up with
our leads enough via phone andjust staying in touch with our folks.
(37:15):
So the AI voice I just isgoing to see as being a game changer.
That could be a podcast initself. Just. It's amazing. You cannot
tell that this is a digitalperson on the other end of the phone.
You cannot tell. Not at all.And then one step further, AI with
ChatGPT. I've been using thatfor. For months. I've been a ChatGPT
(37:39):
plus subscriber from day one.And, you know, that's made my life
so much easier for astandpoint of, you know, writer's
block, copyright and all thatthing. I will share this though,
you know, because I'll justput in there, this is what I want
to say. Put it out there.Then. Then it, you know, gives it
back to you. And then I'llgive it to. I'll have my wife and
(38:03):
or office manager look it overand they go, this is great, but you
need to dumb it down, Richard,because that's really. Doesn't sound
like you.
Said in a loving way. It'ssaid in a loving way, I'm sure.
And I'm not. I. I took the Itook the critique and they were correct.
(38:26):
It. It didn't sound like meand. But it does really, really help
as far as making things flow alot better and hit the, the top points
that you want to and alsoinclude things like SEO or you take
one. Okay. I want this post tobe for Instagram, I want this Facebook
(38:46):
and I want this post to be forLinkedIn. And those are all three
different platforms, but it'sbasically the same message just tailored
for those three platforms. Andit just helps immensely from that
standpoint. I wrote one theother day where they even added emojis
and all that for you. So Ican't say enough about, you know,
(39:07):
how it has helped me frombeing a, now a solo agent to be that
much more productive andgetting through things quicker and
making it, you know, mybusiness that much better.
I've heard lately some peopletalk about using AI on your mls,
(39:29):
like Imagine, because you'reallowed to pull some data from the
mls, right? You can pull dataand you can take that data and you
could create a prompt thatsays, look at this data and give
me a report or give me a graphor give me a chart. And it's. You're
reaching those levels now whenyou're. Because now it's only looking
at data that's true andaccurate. Well, it's true and accurate
(39:50):
as everyone's input the data.Right. But it was very interesting,
I thought, oh my. Because Iuse AI on my podcast, but it's just
listening to the episode,doing a transcript and pulling out
quotes and doing all thisstuff. Because when you use ChatGPT
in the real world and you knowthis, you've got to double check
it a little bit, make sureit's not saying something weird.
(40:10):
Right.
But imagine, yes, the MLS dataand you using it as a tool.
I haven't gone down that roadyet because basically with chat,
GBT plus, you know, it's, it'sdated back to what, 2022, 2023. So
I don't know. And so it'scurrent in that regard. I'm not sure
(40:30):
how current it is from astandpoint of up to the minute data,
but I'm thinking if you do putthat data in there, yes, you should
be able to do that. Canva isone of the graphic software companies.
I think you can take AI, Canvaand AI with this data and put it
together. I personally, I lovedata and I think that's again, where
(40:55):
we can help our clients. I useAltos Research and you know, I use
their reports and they havethe graphs and everything right there.
So yeah, that's what I've beenusing from, from that standpoint
to be much more accurate.Aside from what are the MLS's give
you for, especially in ourarea, it encompasses a 13 county
(41:17):
metropolitan area, which iswestern Wisconsin. You know, it's
like it's a big area when youthink of 13 counties here in the
Midwest. But then we havemicro markets within that, as you
can imagine.
Right.
The price point on the westernsuburbs is a lot different than the
price point here in the St.Croix Valley.
Well, look, Richard, this hasbeen fun. This has been great. I'm
(41:39):
going to ask you the samefinal question I've asked everyone.
I think you know the question.It's what one piece of advice would
you give a new agent just getting.
Started to really treat thisas your own business. Think of it
from a standpoint that youjust bought a Subway franchise and
you need to keep the doors open.
Very rarely assumed orfollowed that it's a business. I
(42:00):
think, you know, that that's,that's so critical in thinking about
even long term. You know, youhave built this database of people
who like and know and trustand love you. And somewhere down
the road you said you didn'twant to, you know, give up working,
but maybe you just work withthese 10, but maybe you find somebody
(42:21):
to help you with the rest andit turns into annuity, right? Exactly,
exactly. You just have thispassive income just flowing to you.
And that's the great thingabout this business. It can be that
so easily. The entry to realestate is way too easy. And that's
why I didn't tell you this,but when I was in high school, I
(42:44):
was a garbage man for fiveyears. You know, I collected garbage.
I worked on the back of thetruck before school. This is basically,
no, this is high school intocollege. You know, in the summertime.
And to this day I tell peopleI got more respect being the garbage
man than I do today being areal estate agent.
(43:06):
On that note, Richard, true,I'm gonna ask you how, if someone
wants to reach out to you andcompare garbage men and realtors,
what's the best way for themto get in touch with you?
The best way to get in touchwith me is either through any of
the social media platforms,which maybe Facebook or Instagram.
My email isrichard.mcdonough@lakesmn.com or
(43:31):
my website, richardmcdonough.com and I'm, you know,
if you're an agent, you're outthere working, happy to help. And
I think, you know, it doestake a village and it takes all of
us to make our business andour industry that much better.
Richard, this has been ablast. I really, I really thank you
for your time today.
You're welcome.
We are going to talk a wholelot more about skiing. I just. That
(43:53):
is unbelievable. And I can'twait to sit in a room with you again
and have another conversation.Thanks so much.
You're welcome, Bill. I reallyenjoyed this, too. And you have a
great day.
Thank you for listening to theReal Estate Sessions. Please head
over to ratethispodcast.comrecessions to leave a review or a
rating and subscribe to theReal Estate Sessions podcast at your
(44:16):
favorite podcast listening app.
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