Justin Bosak – Invest in Yourself

Lindsay Favazza: Welcome to the Agents Who Crush It In Real Estate podcast. I am your host, Lindsay Favazza. Each week, I sit down with realtors who have risen to the top of their markets and we learn about their journeys, their challenges, and the strategies they’ve used to achieve their goals. 

Today, I am thrilled to have Justin Bosak as our special guest. Justin is the owner, partner, realtor of RE/MAX Revolution, one of the top real estate offices on the Jersey Shore. He personally sold an impressive 38 homes for $30 million in sales volume in 2022, but that’s not all, Justin is a team leader of The Ocean Six Group, which, last year, closed a whopping 318 deals with a total volume of $151 million. 

With over 15 years of experience in the industry, Justin has become a respected leader and sought-after mentor in the real estate community. In this episode, Justin will share his secrets to success, his favorite techniques, and his vision for the future of his team, so grab a cup of your favorite beverage, or if you’re driving, put your hands at 10 and 2 and enjoy this inspiring story. Justin, welcome to the podcast today. 

Justin Bosak: Thanks, Lindsay. How are we doing today? 

Lindsay: I’m doing great and I’m super excited to talk to you. We connected over email, and I looked at your stats and I was like, “Yes, please. I need to have him on the podcast for sure,” and we have a mutual friend, correct? 

Justin: I think we have a couple, probably. [chuckles] 

Lindsay: Probably, but Ed Stulak, who was on the couple episodes ago here now, probably a year ago now, we’re both friends with him, so that’s awesome to be able to build these connections in the industry this way. Thanks so much for joining us. I want to first start out and ask what inspired you to be in real estate, to be a realtor, what got you into this industry? 

Justin: Sure. It actually went back to a high school project at junior year, “What do you want to be when you grow up pretty much or when you get out of school?” I did the project and learned that real estate school, you didn’t technically need to go to college for. I still ended up going for accounting. I was working at that time to put myself through school though in management. I worked at McDonald’s from the time I was 16 years old. Worked myself up to management, was running a store. 

Good buddy of mine, he left for another company called AllDay Foods. We were making more money there. I was 19, 20, about 21 years old working there, figured that school wasn’t doing it for me. I didn’t like English class. I didn’t want to do the work because I was working, making decent money, and decided from there, I couldn’t elevate to a supervisor role within that company, so I said, “You know what? I’m just going to go for it. I wanted to do it. I think I’m old enough to actually start now, where people will actually maybe listen to me and want to work with me.” Went and got my license and started working with more of a corporate company. 

I was on the phones starting out, just answering phone calls. People had questions about properties and saw that there was another pod, I guess, within the company that was making more money, doing cold calls and booking listing appointments, so I said, “Let me get over to that spot.” Spent a couple months just hanging out, learning what that was, and then just elevated to that role, then naturally grew from there. 

There was a buyer’s agency, a position that opened up. I said, “I want to get out in the field and do it.” Jumped out, started doing that, and at that time, I was probably 23 years old closing like 50 homes a year for a couple of years. Not knowing if that was good or bad, I knew it was good for my company, I just didn’t have a grasp on what real estate was outside of my company. I just didn’t really pay attention to it, but those were all buy deals as well. 

I was just literally driving around seven days a week just showing homes on the fly. My my office would know, “Call Bosak. He’ll take it, he’ll close it,” and that was it because they would all get points based on my conversion. It was a pretty interesting concept. Unfortunately, that company closed right on the heels of the recession 2007. 

Again, at that time, I was just a buyer’s agent. I didn’t know how to make the phone ring. I just knew how to pick it up and how to close from there. I said, “All right, well, what am I going to do? I’m going to stay in business, I need some leads.” I actually hacked into the system because they shut it down. We didn’t have any access to any of our files and got not only all of my leads, got a bunch of my friends’ leads and said, “Hey, guys, do you still want to do this? I have all your leads. I’ll send them over to you in an Excel spreadsheet,” and we went to work. We actually created a team really before there was a team concept. 

Lindsay: That’s amazing. 2007 into 2008, everything was falling apart, and being a buyer’s agent was one of the worst things you could be at that point. Tell me, what were some of the thoughts going through your mind back then when the market was shifting? Because, obviously, it’s not 2008, as we keep telling everybody, but at the same time, we are in that shifted market. What’s similar to what you were dealing with back then to now? 

Justin: There was less inventory back then. There was higher interest rates, obviously, back then as well, and there was what we call the liar loans back then. That was fueling the economy, and when the company closed, things were still okay. Things hadn’t collapsed just yet, so we just continued just working and grinding. Then, obviously, the collapse came, probably within six to eight months after. That’s when short sales and foreclosures came fast and furious. We just said, “Okay, we’re going to learn everything about short sales in the process and we’re going to be experts at doing that.” 

We were one of the first teams to set up a system in our area to do short sales, and we also had some alignment. We found an attorney that wanted to specialize in doing it and created a system and we went after those kinds of deals. Obviously, it took a while to close those, closings were a year or two years sometimes. You had to do four or five deals just to close it one time, but we knew that was probably 40% to 50% of the inventory for a couple of years. It was a grind. 

Lindsay: It was a grind. It’s a grind now too, but in different ways, right? 

Justin: For sure. 

Lindsay: Walk me through some of your personal approach to selling homes in a normal market. I guess that’s really never any market, but talk to me about your approach, your team’s approach. What do you train them on? Give us some of the tips that you give them. 

Justin: It’s honestly pretty easy. I had a little bit of a construction background when I was going to school. I learned about houses and I was asking a lot of questions to that contractor about literally everything about a house I wanted to know. When I would show homes as a buyer’s agent, I’d greet to clients, “Hey, how you doing?” And I’d continue to almost tell them everything that was wrong with the house. 

That was an eye-opener, I think, for a lot of people because they’re like, “Wait, whoa, what are you doing? You know what I mean, why are you telling me about all the bad things about the house?” My response was always, “You could see all the good things. I’m just telling you the things that are going to come up later on and I want to make sure that you’re making a good purchase.” 

For example, hey, the roof, the windows HVAC, where there’s leaks in the basements or something’s going on the crawl space, I’d actually get in there and take a look at it. I just knew the way I wanted to work, it was less salesy. I never wanted to be a pushy salesperson, I wanted to be more of a consultant. I just found that that worked. People liked me. They appreciated the insight that I could bring. 

The example I always give my agents is that everybody knows what granite countertops looks like, you don’t really have to say, “Oh, look at these beautiful granite countertops, buy the house. This is a great deal.” Then you’re not giving them the other information they need to really make a good decision, and the deals are going to fall apart anyway. 

I went through home inspections and make sure I asked a lot of questions to the inspector as far as what they were looking for and just learned how to set up my deals, so that way, they were airtight. Making sure that they appraised and making sure that they wouldn’t fall apart due the inspection issues because you lose a client during that home inspection process, even though it’s not your fault, you may lose them forever. You want to make sure if you work that hard to put that deal together, that that deal closes. 

True conversion, I think, comes from doing a good job on the front end and being very proactive, especially as a buyer’s agent and to make sure that client feels super confident in what they’re doing and that there’s no things that pop up later on. It’s like, “Hey, nobody told me about this. I didn’t know this was going to happen. I didn’t know about the closing costs being so high or I didn’t know that the house might not have appraised.” 

Most buyers, they’ve never done it before, so it’s up to us to really fill in the blanks, give them all the right information and educate them. I found that a lot of the agents that I know in my office just weren’t doing that. They were just going after the sale. They were looking at it as a transaction, and then it turned out, four to five years, six years later, these people came back to me, and not only were they happy to use me because they knew they could trust me, but I also sold them the best houses that were on the market, and they had a good understanding of what needed to be done to those houses in order to make them more valuable. As time went by, I was getting amazing listings because I set my clients up with amazing homes to buy. 

Lindsay: I love that, that you’re consulting, not selling. I think that that probably, like you said, over time, got you more referrals, got you more repeat business. Getting referrals from them, from their family, from their friends. It’s a great strategy to have to not be focused on just getting that sale done. Like you said, the inspection is that next step, but the next referral is also the step after that. It’s like, if you make them happy here, it’s going to lead to so much more for you. 

Justin: Absolutely. The younger buyers, or they’re always bringing the uncle or the father to come during the inspection, that’s the first time you’re meeting them. I’d always form a nice bond with them as well. Again, because I did a good job, they weren’t walking into a house that was falling harder. They said, “This is great and you know what you’re talking about.” They felt more confident, I guess, referring me in the future because their parents signed off on, “Hey, this guy knows what he’s doing.” 

Lindsay: That’s awesome. Winning over those parents are always the [laughs] hardest right there. 

Justin: Winning over everybody. Even with the kids, I would hangout with the kids and talk to the kids and give the kids some treats and stuff. I’d carry kids through houses. I’d babysit kids so that their parents could look at the houses. Anything and everything that I would need to do to make clients comfortable, like I’m game, I’m open to it. 

Lindsay: How did you manage to do those things, still be able to sell 50 homes or whatever numbers you were hitting during those days, and then on top of that, be able to have a life, or did you not? Did you have to figure that out as you went? How did you balance it all? 

Justin: It was tricky. Usually, I would take off like on a Wednesday because I was working all weekend, and I was up late at night chasing deals and attorney reviews and emails and following up with mortgage guys and stuff like that. I want to say probably in 2014, 2015 is when we hired our first assistant. Then, shortly thereafter, we created the transaction coordinator role. 

Those are things that we had in our previous company. Once we put them into place, things started opening up. It was a grind. I didn’t have a life. There’s no sugarcoating that. With that, you learn, and then you find out that maybe I don’t need to do all these tasks where I can get help because I was also the marketing coordinator. I love doing marketing and advertising. I’m very specific on how things look, but at the same time, I had to learn to give direction and have somebody else work on it for two or three hours and maybe just come in and give some edits. That takes me 10 minutes to do, and then pay somebody, and then trust that they can learn the process and maybe template the process. 

That’s how we were able to scale not only the team but to scale our office because we have an office of 160 agents, we did 1,300 transactions last year at an office and 560 million. The mentality was, how much is your hourly worth? What’s your wage? How do you get a raise? The key is bringing in staff and employees. If you think that you’re worth $50 or $100 an hour, you got to look at, “What am I doing? If I’m doing marketing and advertising, is that $100-an-hour task?” 

The $100 an-hour task is going out and getting listings and negotiating deals and meeting clients. That’s where you get the real value. If you can bring in key people around you to take on that $10 pass, $20 pass, $30 pass, you’ll find you can buy your time back. When you can buy your time back, you can be way more productive efficient, and then have a life. 

Last year, I swear to God, I feel like I worked less than I ever have before. Took off mostly every weekend. Once in a while maybe, I’m working with one buy-side client that’s also maybe a listing, and that was it. That’s a couple of hours maybe on a weekend because there’s usually high-end buyers. I’m not showing 10 houses or 20 houses to those people, it’s only a couple. 

It’s understanding how to manage your time, how to be effective. I felt like last year, I just breezed through, honestly. It’s, again, being productive and efficient. I’m still working, I’m still connected, but I’m not up late at night chasing things and worrying about things because my staff has been in place for quite some time now. I can just trust that they’re going to just get the job done, which is great. 

Lindsay: It’s amazing. Get the right people in the right seats and the boat’s all rowing in the right direction. [laughs] 

Justin: It’s taken a step back to take a step forward is what I always say. It’s that extra money that you’re going to think you’re going to make, all right, reinvest it back into your business. Reinvest it back in a people, this is a long-term game. If you’re getting into real estate, this isn’t a short-term thing, so pay yourself a little less. Why pay more in taxes? Reinvest back in your business. It’s gotten us to the point where now we own the office that we’re actually in. We’re paying ourselves rent. 

We have 160 agents because we built the system and the processes. Could I have made more money and had more things during the process instead? Absolutely. At the end of the day, I want to retire. I don’t want to be a realtor at 60 years old. Just me personally. Nothing, obviously, against people that are doing it because a lot of people at that age, that’s their second career. 

I want to be actually buying properties, investing in properties, and doing it for myself or doing it on a higher end. I also do a lot of new construction sales. I’ll always probably be doing new construction in some capacity, but it’s really, what are you comfortable with? Where do you want to lead your life? Have a long-term goal. I know when I’m 50, I really don’t want to do residential anymore. I don’t. 

Lindsay: That’s your goal. That’s what’s driving you to get a team that can do it for you, that can do it, and that you can train, and that you can step into the roles that you want to be in. Talk to me about your marketing strategies. What has worked for you over the years? What’s working now specifically? What are some of those things that you guys are not willing to give up because you know it’s going to help? 

Justin: Investing in your community. That’s a huge thing. We did two-page mailers with market data and pictures of the houses that we would list and mail that out to anywhere between 1,000 to 1500 homes. I was an investor in that community. I lived there as well. I decided, at some point, I think in 2009, I’m going to coach my son in baseball even though I didn’t have a lot of time. I said I’m just going to do it. 

Then I found from there, that time that I thought I was losing because that’s a lot of Saturdays, it’s a lot of nights doing that, that I was meeting more people. I was meeting other coaches. I was meeting other parents, and I’d never marketed or advertised myself with a capacity, but they would just obviously naturally talk about what are you doing and you were there and they would ask questions, and then all of a sudden, you’re doing deals with new people that you’re meeting, which is great. That was the first thing. 

Then going to church, they found out that I was in real estate and wanted me to be on building committees. I helped, volunteered, and did that. That led to different things. I had the marketing going on, you had some volunteering going on, then my daughter played softball. Coach did that same thing, and it ends up just you start doing the things that you want to do, and then you start meeting people, and then they say that, “Okay, this person knows what he’s talking about,” and you’re just there. 

It came to the most recent thing where we decided to sponsor a special needs field. My youngest son who is nine, at the time he was four or five, he has autism. We decided to help build this special needs park, $6 million park from the ground up. We took a sponsorship role. We’re paying $8,000 a year before it was built just to contribute and then asked me to be on the board. Then, all of a sudden, the vice president. Now, I’m the board chairman of the entire foundation. I’m on the board with just major figures that you would never be able to be in a room with, honestly. The heads of hospitals, the heads of marketing and advertising for the biggest hospitals in the state. It’s been super cool. 

Then, obviously, we’re doing a ton of social media. That’s always been huge. We’ve been on Facebook since 2012 before you could actually even pay for advertising. We built that up. Marketing there. Instagram, I’ve been doing TikTok recently. TikTok has been really good. You do all those things and you do it within that community and it’s a foundational approach. You build it almost brick by brick. Then that foundation’s very strong because you’ve got a good tie with that community. It takes time though. Most people think like, “Oh, I can just send a couple of postcards and then they quit after three months.” Again, long-term strategy. 

We use a company called Real Marketing. They’re exclusive when you do use them, and then you just compound it. You do a website. You do the social media, and then those are just different layers and you’re just spending more money. We were spending more money than we were making when we first started. It probably took about a year and a half to break even on that stuff. It was knowing, spend the investment, put the money up, and then eventually, it’ll come back. You’ve got to do a good job too when you get those opportunities. 

Lindsay: A lot of what you said at the beginning, it’s the volunteering and being coach and things like that. Those are, in a way, they’re networking opportunities, like you said, they’re going to get to know you as a person first, which is who they want to work with. They don’t want to work with that robot salesperson. They want to work with someone that they know, like, and trust. If they are getting that trust already, and then that tried and true question, “How’s the market, Justin? How’s the market?” That’s one of those first questions that you get, and then you roll into your spiel. 

Now, you’ve got clients coming in from something that you did as a side thing to help the community. That’s amazing, and props to you guys for being so involved in the community because that’s really great. I hear a lot of realtors talk about, like, “What can I do?” It’s like, “Do people know you within your street? Do people know who you are, or do they only get your postcards and they don’t see you around town, or they don’t see you in their community? They don’t have you helping them shovel their driveway.” There’s just little things like that that you’re human and you’re helping, and then that builds trust with people. I think that’s so amazing. 

What advice do you give to your team when they’re starting out? New agents that join your team starting out. What is it that you put them through some training program? Do you have certain things that they have to– metrics that they have to hit? It sounds like you guys are very closely looking at numbers and things like that. What are some of those things that you do with brand-new people on your team? What are some of the advice and tips that you’re getting them to go after? 

Justin: Yes. We have some mentors on the team that help with the newer agents coming on board. We set them up, and there’s a referral fee, obviously, for that when the new agents are coming on board for that assistance, but they’ll help you through your first five or six deals. They’re going to tag along with you. They’re going to understand what an appraisal looks like on a deal that you’re doing. They’re going to come along with you on one of your inspections to understand what that looks like. 

You don’t ever want to have your first deal. This is the first time you’ve ever done any of these things. It’s just getting that experience, but we’re part of Zillow Flex, and we’ve always paid for leads through Zillow. We have a program pretty much where they jump in and you take some of the old leads, you’re going to scrub them, and we’re going to role play, and you’re going to learn how to talk on the phones and how to set appointments and do things like that and how to follow up and how to set up campaigns. 

We use Follow Up Boss right now. I think we might switch over to kvCORE at some point, but to be able to use systems and understand the process before you actually go out there and start meeting with clients. The team aspect is great because there’s a lot of camaraderie. We have group chat where you can drop any question you have. Even if some of our experienced agents haven’t run into something, they just drop a question real quick or you need some coverage on something. Somebody can cover you for an inspection or appraisal and it’s a good vibe. 

We do team outings as well, but for the new agents, I think the most important thing is the more volume you can do upfront, the better chances of survival are in this business. A lot of agents that might be amazing agents if you started out and you only did two or three deals, but you could have been an amazing agent, but you just didn’t have the ability to hang on. A lot of people end up getting out of the business. We teach you, “All right, we’re going to have open houses. You’re going to sit for us and for other agents in the office.” That’s going to be a great way for you to talk to people and to learn how to create a relationship from the ground up. 

You’re going to do rentals, and I think rentals are a great way to be able to do your first transaction and build up a client that a lot of agents don’t work with rentals and they feel shuffled around. When they find a good agent that’s willing to take care of them, guess what? Rentals are always, for the most part, short-term, a year, two years. Guess what? You’re going to be able to get them to your mortgage guy. They’re going to get pre-approved. You’re going to put together a plan so they can buy. 

Imagine you do five or six of those on top of doing a couple of deals within your first couple of months. You’re paying your bills, you’re learning the process and you’re setting up future deals for yourself. They are also probably the ones that are going to refer you out more than anybody just because, again, it’s so tough to find somebody to help you with a rental. Most people just end up doing it on their own, but it is good to have an agent to help you. It’s just tough to find somebody that’s willing to. 

Lindsay: There’s a lot of legal reasons to that in laws and regulations. I’m sure you guys have some of the similar ones here in New Jersey that we have up here, but that also scares a lot of agents away from it, but for the most part, like you said, they’re future buyers. It’s a great way to get in with them for sure. 

How do you stay current on the latest trends? Who do you follow? What pages do you follow? What things do you do to know what’s going on in the market? What data do you look for? What information do you seek out? What are the things that you’re doing to keep on top of all of it? 

Justin: I’m always looking at the monthly reports, and those come in through my MLS and just to check what’s the inventory, what’s the sales price ratios, and is the market up or down. I don’t look even just year over year, I look month over month. I’ll go back over the past six months. Right now, in New Jersey, we’re down anywhere between 30% to 40% inventory over the past- 

Lindsay: Two. 

Justin: -six months, which is huge. That means that it’s a trend now. It’s not just a blip. Understanding that so you know how to talk to people about what’s happening in the market because a lot of buyers and a lot of sellers just have misconceptions about what exactly is going on and having the ability to teach them and let them know that, “Yes, you might think that the interest rates are hurting the market, but because of the low inventory, prices are going to trend up and here’s why.” Then being able to show them, “Here’s what’s happening in the past, and this is why I think for the future, this is a good time to sell.” You have to be able to explain that to somebody. 

A lot of agents, I guess, just don’t even invest in learning or understanding. YouTube, I follow Think Media. Sean Cannell is a great guy for social media. He is a lot more kind of a YouTube more than social media. Ricky Carruth, a guy that I’ve known for about six or seven years, I’ve met him in person, hung out with him in New York City, which is not far from where we’re at. He’s the real deal. When I first heard him, because I was on a podcast and he was on like right after me, I was like, “Wow, this guy gets it.” Because he has the same approach where he’s more of a consultant. I’m not here just to sell you. I’m here to just help you, that’s it. 

Meet Kevin was a guy early on that was really big into real estate. He’s on YouTube. Now he’s more of a financial. Big financial guy, more so than real estate, but he is getting back into real estate. Who else? Ryan Pineda is a good guy to listen to. He’s on YouTube as well, as well as socials. Ed Stulak’s cool guy to follow on TikTok. 

Lindsay: He’s fun to follow. 

Justin: He’s younger generation, so he’s dancing and stuff. He doesn’t mind showing off a little bit on TikTok there, but yes, it’s just really finding people that you can align yourself with. I feel like my authenticity is more like these people. Don’t fake it. Just because I’m telling you these people, that doesn’t mean that they might be the right people for you because you may be completely different from who they are, but you’ve got to dig deep and do some research and find, like who are some people that are maybe ahead of me or doing something different or know things different than what I know. Then spend the time to invest and consume their content and see how things are working for them. Those are guys– again, when Ricky Carruth, when I first met him, he wasn’t that big, and now he’s huge. To be able– 

Lindsay: Shocked how many followers he had, because I hadn’t heard of him before. I came across his page and I was like, “Wow, this guy’s really good.” He has a lot of similarities to our broker owner, Anthony, the one that is on our Crush It In Real Estate page and all of that. I was attracted to that because I was like, “Wow, they’re so similar.” Then I looked at his follower count, and I’m like, “Whoa, how did I not know who this guy was?” Has that been more recent, you think, that he’s had that breakout? 

Justin: Yes, the last two years, he really just went all in. It takes a while. His coaching program was free to start, and he was spending probably $150,000 a year on this coaching program that wasn’t giving him any more money back. He was just building his social media platforms, but because it was a free program, the community aspect of that Facebook- 

Lindsay: Huge 

Justin: -which was huge, and there was other people helping out, and he was consistent. If you want to learn how to cold call, consistency is there. Ricky Carruth, he knows how to do it. You may do it a little bit differently depending on where you’re at. I couldn’t do it in the same fashion because I’m in the New York metro area, and people would be like, “Who cares about the weather?” 

The concept of making the calls and the personality that he has, a little different, but still, there’s a lot of things that if you listen to the calls, that you can pick up and learn and how to be consistent and how to come up with a program and how to put them into a CRM and a drip campaign and an email, that’s all the stuff. 

It’s like, all right, just take your vibe and then take his system, and you could actually make it work because he was the number one agent for RE/MAX in Alabama for a long time and just crushing it. Now, he’s at the point where, again, he’s not doing as much real estate anymore. He’s doing coaching, he’s doing speaking. He’s all over YouTube and Instagram and Facebook, and now he’s getting into TikTok too. 

The social media platforms are huge. I can tell you, I started the TikTok just within the last year, and I’ve gotten way more views on there than Instagram or Facebook, so it’s just really figuring out your tribe. That’s with everything, then trying things. Just like I tell a lot of my agents, you actually have to want to learn why you want to do it, and then take the time to actually research it. Don’t come to me and ask me all these questions about how you do this. All this information already exists. If you want to do it, take the time researching on YouTube, and then if you want me to help you push the buttons or whatever, come in. You have to understand that social media is a game changer and it’s here to stay, and it’s only getting bigger and better. 

Lindsay: It changes every day. You do have to learn on your own in a way because if you don’t, you’re not going to know what happens when it changes five minutes later, [laughs] so I always tell people I’ll– I have a course on the Crush It online training center that we have, where I specifically did it for realtors, but I’m like, ”This is basic guys. It’s basic to give you what you need to know to start.” Then after that, just start clicking buttons, and if you post something, delete it, if you have to. It’s like, ”Just test it out.” 

Justin: They’re like, ”Oh, I’m afraid I’m going to post.” I’m like, ”Who cares? Nobody cares. You don’t even have that many people following you.” 

Lindsay: The same thing is, too, if you post it, actually might do something, especially if you screw it up. [laughs] That might actually get more views. All right. I want to talk about your goals, your goals for the future of you and your team. I know you mentioned a little bit before about how 50 is that cut-off for you and you want to be able to do more new construction, and you want to be able to do those things. Dive in a little bit deeper on what your goals are for you and for your team. 

Justin: Yes, so right now, the goal’s expansion. As always, that’s an easy one. We’d like to get at least two more offices. We have two currently. The team, I’d like to see doubled in size within the next two years. We have the systems in order to scale it. They are really crushing it. A lot of times too, we have some of the agents that jump on the team that ends up jumping off. The good thing is that they come to the office. They’re still here. They never leave, but the growth on the team over the last year has been absolutely insane. 

Then just long term, I’m not sure, I know I want to own buildings. I know I want to be more of a commercial– I don’t want to say broker, but I want to deal more in the commercial space, but helping build out and develop, but do it for myself, not necessarily selling, so eventually, it leads to a sale. Yes, I have a friend that’s doing really well in the syndication space. That’s obviously a big thing. Maybe, eventually, I get into that, but for now, I’m still looking at things almost year to year. 

I don’t know where I’m going to end up. I know at the time when I’m 50, I know that’s when my son’s going to be pretty much graduating high school. I know my goal is to probably spend a lot of time with him. Being able to manage project, consult project, but knowing I’m going to be hanging out with him. Most likely, that’s– wherever it goes, I’m consulting, maybe I’m speaking, coaching, who knows but– 

Lindsay: Maybe you’re coaching him. Maybe he’ll follow in your footsteps. You never know. 

Justin: Yes. 

Lindsay: [chuckles] Parting words for our audience today. This is an amazing episode. I know they’re all going to get so much out of it, and I really appreciate you taking the time. What are some parting words that you have for the audience? It’s filled with agents who are at all different levels of their business, and they just want to know like, they just want some parting words to go, “Yes, that’s what I need.” [laughs] What kind of things would you say to those people? 

Justin: Yes, invest your time. Instead of driving around listening to music or whatever, invest in listening to podcast. Invest in Audible and reading books on Audible. Download something called Blinkist, which is cliff notes of books that you can listen to as you’re driving. Just invest in yourself. I tell my agents a lot of it, and a lot of times, everything that we’ve done to build this company up was really ideas that I didn’t create. These were things that I heard and learned from different podcast guests, and it didn’t matter at what level they were at, whether they were bigger or whether they were smaller. 

Taking the time to actually learn every single day, I think you get no more value from– you can listen to your broker or listen to your friend at the brokerage. You’ll never be able to download all the information that’s out there from all the people that are willing to share it from across the country and learning things that maybe somebody’s doing not in your town or not in your county, that somebody’s doing in another county and finding success, and then all of a sudden, you’re the first one to do it. 

I know we were the first ones to do photography and drone and video in our market, and I have to lead that. I have to be the cutting edge, and now, I’m trying to get my agents to do it, and I have to make it simple, and I have to template it with my videographer to package it and do it cheap and make sure the turnaround time’s good. Yes, video is another thing. Obviously, as I’m speaking about it, that’s huge. You have to be able to show up on video, and don’t worry about what you look like. Don’t worry about what you sound like. 

There was a time where I was uncertain about it. I didn’t really want to do it, but once you start doing it and see the success of it, and you get conversations, to me, it’s reverse engineering conversations. I don’t have the time to make phone calls anymore, but what I do is I spend a couple extra dollars when I’m marketing a property, where I want to market a location or something in the community, and I post it. Then that leads me to the conversations that instead of me having to make calls, people are actually calling me. 

Again, if anybody has any questions, you feel free to reach out to me and feel free to reach out to really any agents that you follow. Most realtors, no matter what their success, they will respond to you. They will take, take the time to speak to you. I have agents from all over the country that have reached out to me, and I’ve spent hours and hours and just talking to them about what they need to do, and then when they get stuck, they’ll shoot me a message and ask me opinion. I’m more than happy to help out. I love it. 

Lindsay: That’s amazing. Thank you for that offer. I guarantee, there is going to be plenty of people that reach out after this. We have a very active community, and I’m sure they’ll be doing those things. We will make sure in the show notes to put links to all of your stuff, and then that way, they can reach out to you wherever you’re at or wherever they’re at. Thank you again, Justin, so much. I really, really appreciate you taking the time to speak with us today and for sharing all of your knowledge with our audience. 

Justin: Anytime, Lindsay, thanks for having me. 

Lindsay: All right, everybody. Whether you’re a seasoned veteran or a new agent just starting out, you’ll find valuable insights and inspiration from our guests. Go back through all the episodes and explore stories of many successful realtors. We will see you next time on the Agents Who Crush It In Real Estate podcast. Bye-bye.