Learn the Business: How Ron & Dawn Rusin Built Their Brokerage

Ron: Learn this business before you do it. Don’t try learning as you go along. Take as many classes as you can. Learn how to assess a house. This is somebody’s biggest investment they’ll ever make.

Lindsay: Welcome to another exciting episode of Agents Who Crush It In Real Estate. I’m your host, Lindsay Favazza. Today we have a powerhouse couple joining us, Ron and Dawn Rusin. Ron and Dawn have been in the real estate industry for decades. Bringing with them an incredible wealth of knowledge and experience. Having owned and operated their own brokerage for years, they made a bold move last year by selling and stepping into a new chapter of their careers. They have transitioned well, and are now making waves and helping their office thrive in the vibrant Fall River and Bristol County markets.

Ron has been heavily involved in the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and MLS PIN, holding numerous leadership positions and really driving change in the industry. Together, Ron and Dawn are not only real estate experts, but also dedicated community leaders, deeply engaged in the Fall River area and beyond. In today’s episode, we’ll dive deep into their journey from being successful broker owners, to the decisions behind selling their brokerage and how they’re continuing to crush it in real estate today with their newfound freedom. I say freedom, because that’s a joke in real estate, right?

Get ready for some valuable insights and lessons that will help you elevate your real estate game. Welcome to the podcast today, Ron and Dawn.

Ron: Welcome, everybody. Thank you.

Dawn: Hello.

Ron: We’re so excited to have you. I feel like a couple of weeks ago when the light went off in my head, I’m like, I have to have Ron and Dawn on. This is amazing. I’m so glad that we were able to make this work. Thank you guys so much for carving out some time. You’re so tan. You just got back from Greece, right?

Ron: Yes.

Lindsay: I can’t wait to hear more about that.

Ron: We’re pretty excited about this.

Lindsay: Let’s start at the beginning. When did you get into real estate? How did each of you guys get into real estate? How did you meet? What’s the story here?

Dawn: Why I got into real estate was because I had young children at the time and I liked it was a flexible schedule and I can make my own hours. I always loved real estate anyway. That was just the perfect match for me to get into the real estate business. Then Ron and I met in the real estate industry. It’s a long story, but we actually knew each other when we were in middle school age, but we never really connected at the time.

Lindsay: Oh, that’s so funny.

Dawn: He was actually my newspaper delivery boy that used to deliver newspapers to my mom’s house. Now looking ahead, we never really even talked to each other at the time, but 30 years later, or more than 30 years now, we had a broker business and now we’re married.

Lindsay: That’s so cool. Ron, when did you start in real estate?

Ron: Basically, I started in construction from I would say ’83 to ’87 and ’87, I started to go full-time into real estate. The first year, my goal wasn’t to be a real estate salesperson. My goal was to own all the real estate in Fall River. I wanted to be a property owner. That was my main goal. Then after buying a few properties, I decided that, you know something, why don’t I start selling them? I obviously was doing property management rentals. Then I decided that I was going to get into real estate and basically work for another gentleman who really trained me, trained me to make sure that I trained every day.

In 1991, I actually opened my own office after four years of being in real estate. I started Ron Rusin real estate back then and had Ron Rusin real estate from ’91 to ’97. Then in ’97, we decided to go into a franchise, which we stood at for 25 years. That was basically in real estate how I– And it was when I was 12-years-old, like when Dawn was saying I was delivering papers, one of my favorite comic books was Richie Rich. I wanted to be like him. I grew up in a very poor environment, lived in a housing project. We didn’t have a lot. I decided that I want to be Richie Rich and Richie Rich became rich by selling houses. I wanted to own houses and then eventually sell them.

Lindsay: That’s so cool. When you had your own brokerage back then, and then decided to go to a franchise, what was the thought process there? Can you take me to that time? What made you get to the point where you said, you know what, maybe I could use some big name behind our brokerage to take us to the next level. What was the thought there?

Ron: I feel that we had– First, I think I made a mistake naming it Ron Rusin Real Estate Inc. For some reason, it just wouldn’t kick off the ground because of my name, because everybody came in and asked for Ron Rusin, and it wasn’t of help to any of the agents in the office. That was one of the reasons why we took it over. Plus just to have a big name behind us. We did look at all the franchises, and the one we decided to go with, we did stay with 25 years, it was a great franchise. It had a lot of training. Everybody knew the franchise. That’s why I think it really helped us.

Dawn: A lot of brand recognition. For new agents that we’re trying to hire, they instantly had the name behind them. That’s what attracted agents that came to our office.

Lindsay: You weren’t a team model. You were trying to be independent. You were trying to bring in agents with their own books of business at the time.

Dawn: Yes.

Ron: Exactly.

Lindsay: That makes a lot of sense.

Dawn: Actually we hired a lot of new people too that we trained. We trained a lot of new agents, brand new agents that just got their license.

Ron: Yes. We basically started an office with me, Dawn and one agent. Then we grew very slowly, because we wanted to grow where it was all top professionals. We had mostly between 17 and 23 agents and we were doing over a hundred million in real estate. It wasn’t a lot of agents, but it was quality agents. That’s what we always strived on. We did every training program that was available. Me and Dawn, we’d learn a program that we’d teach to our agents. We went to every convention, get as much knowledge and bring it back to our agents. Our main focus was making sure our agents was getting the training they need so they can be the great agents we wanted.

Lindsay: Take me through your careers now, you’re broker owners, were you still selling during that time? How is your business changing over those years as well?

Ron: That’s one of the big reasons why we decided to join Lamacchia because we were selling brokers. I was also not only selling, but I was managing the office. I was taking care of all the closings, doing the accounting, we’re doing the marketing, doing everything now that Lamacchia is now doing for us.

Lindsay: Plus you were trying to sell.

Dawn: Also trying to sell. Ron always was doing more than I was because he was not just selling, he was doing new construction, and redeveloping land and things like that. I was in the office more than he was, but it was tough being selling brokers and also trying to manage your own book of business.

Lindsay: Yes, for sure.

Ron: I’m a salesperson. I love being a salesperson. I love selling. I love this business. I love handling challenges. The more the challenge, the more you’re going to do in life. Then I also did– Like I said, we built a lot of houses, a lot of condo complexes. I did a lot of flips. We owned a lot of real estate ourself. We were definitely investors. I was doing investments for over 35 years. We pretty much sold them in the last three years. We still have a few, but most of them have been sold now.

Lindsay: You were wearing a ton of hats.

Ron: Yes.

Dawn: Exactly. As realtors, what was, I guess, your biggest key to success? I feel like with you guys, knowing you now, that a lot of it had to do with just your ties within the community. I’d love to hear from both of you, what’s been successful for you to grow in your own personal business, not necessarily the brokerage, but your own personal business and get more sales over the years?

Ron: I feel we were always big networkers. We did a ton of advertising, billboards. We really built our names. My name is– The last name Rusin, where both of us have, was known for real estate in the Fall River area. Like I say, when I said we did training, we knew everything. I don’t care which program came through from 1980s Tom Hopkins, until the present, Tom Ferry, Brian Buffinis, and training like that. We learned them all, and we went out there and did it. We’d have one Friday night where we had date night. We made sure we had date night, but the rest of the nights she called me, says, “Are you coming home for supper?” I’m like, I got a 6:00, 7:00 and 8:00. I guess not.” It was good that she was in the business because she understood the business.

We did work a lot. We put ourself out there. We made sure we had always time for our clients. We go on a lot of vacations, we go away a lot, we always had a house in Florida and our phone was always on. We always made the time and let them know that we’re here for them. They realized that we were working on their behalf. Eventually, your sales grow and grow. We have probably seen both of us about 3,000 sales under our belt. We pretty much just roped those 3,000 people and their connections.

I’m on a boys fellow, I’ll be the chairman of the board next year. On every single committee that you possibly think of, like the Realtors, MLS Penn, I’ve been a treasurer for like the last 20 years and also was a chairman of board for a few years. Dawn does a lot with Rotary. Dawn does a lot with Forever Paws and a lot of charitable foundations. We were just at one for the YMCA last Friday night, where, we see all people out there and they know that we sell real estate. It’s getting your name out there and really doing what you’re supposed to be doing. If you’re doing good and they like you and trust you, you’re not going to worry about your business.

Lindsay: I think a lot of people think to themselves, a lot of Realtors or like new to the business people think, well, I don’t have kids. I don’t have a family yet. It’s hard for me to get my name out in the community. That’s not true. There’s so many opportunities. You guys, your kids are grown, right?

Dawn: Yes.

Lindsay: But you’re still doing the things that you always did within the community. That doesn’t stop you. There’s a bunch of things that you could do, whether it be charity work, whether it be getting involved. Whether it be getting involved with, like you said, MLS Penn or the associations, things like that, to just keep yourself involved within the community. It does sound, it goes back to what I said in the beginning, like you guys are so vested within the community that it’s hard not to know who you are, even if they’ve never bought or sold a home with you,

Ron: I understand that, because I started this business when I was 21-years-old. I’ve been in business for 38 years. Even when I first started, I was calling my high school buddies. I was calling, my list of– You had to find your database back then. You go look at all your family and friends and try to get referrals from them. Just go out there and do open houses, other people’s listings. When you’re young and you’re new, you have to work harder. You do other people’s open houses. You hope you find a buyer here or there.

Then all of a sudden you start advertising. Back then we didn’t have social media. You have social media, which you can look like you’re the king of real estate and you haven’t even sold a property yet, because I see some people actually doing that. Social media, it wasn’t present when we first started and we had to do it through advertising books. We spent money. We did training. We did the things– I started off $18,000 in debt when I started my office and that was a lot of money back then, but I was always willing to put the money and do training.

Lindsay: I love that. What is it today that’s different? You mentioned the difference between back then and the way that the market was. What’s the biggest change in you guys’ mind versus 20 years ago, as far as the business goes?

Ron: I see the biggest change is the amount of paperwork. Back then we’d go to closing, they signed 12 papers and they’re pretty much done. Now the paperwork is incredible. It seems like the government is getting involved in how they want us to do business. It’s just a lot more work. I got to be very, very careful because there’s lawsuits happening all the time, which we really didn’t hear of when we first started. There was nobody looking to sue you for something. Now, if you say the wrong thing, accidentally, something that was passed on to you, you can be sued for no reason whatsoever.

Dawn: Also, what I think is– Back in the day when we got in real estate, we had beepers. We didn’t have cell phones. We didn’t have a MLS online. The client depended on us as a realtor to come into the office and we had to show them the listings, because the listings weren’t available online. Today’s age, everything is available in their fingertips. You have to show value more. You have to show why you as their real estate advisor shows all the benefits for them to work with you. That’s a big change right there.

Lindsay: Yes. Huge change. What is it that you guys both love about real estate? Top of your list, right? What is it that you’re like, I could do without this? I would assume paperwork just based on what you just said.

Ron: Really annoying. I love people getting ahead in life. I like working with investors. Especially young kids who are trying to get where I was able to get and help them do that. I love doing that. Especially when somebody has to sell a house and you have to work really hard. I’m talking about markets in ’91 and ’92, where nobody was buying houses and people were going to be foreclosed on and you had to work. I love those deadline issues where you have to really work hard, and you see how happy they are at the end that you really helped them. That’s what I love.

I love somebody who’s like– You see a husband and a wife, or a boyfriend, girlfriend, partners, whatever, look at each other’s eyes after they just closed and they have said, this is the best thing that ever happened in their whole life. I love that feeling [crosstalk]

Dawn: That’s the biggest thing for me too, is I work a lot with a lot of first-time homebuyers and I am so excited like it’s happening to me, when I see how excited. I tell them all, I say, “It’s like getting married. You’re going to be very excited and very nervous at the same time. You’re going to have to hurry up and get things done, then you’re going to wait and there’s going to be things going on behind the scenes that you’re not going to know about.”

I just had one the other day and I made it special for them, had balloons and champagne for them. They were so excited. They’re like, “I’m so happy. I can’t believe we got a house.” That’s one of my best pleasures of doing real estate.

Ron: As I say, in this business, I had a gentleman from, I think he was in New Jersey. He was from New Jersey who actually called me from a CRS, on a CRS, and called me and said, “I have this niece and nephew. They want to come up here. They want to buy something. Will you help them?” I didn’t know them. Then we met them and 60 days later, we closed on a house with them. It’s an amazing thing how, when your name gets out there enough that people just call you and Dawn did a fantastic job working. She works more with buyers than I do, I’m mostly with sellers. Except if my sellers want to buy, then I’ll work with them. I pass off a lot to her. I’m just not a buyer’s guy. I’m not a buyer’s person right now. I’m definitely–

Lindsay: She’s the nurturer. Buyers take more of that nurture.

Ron: Exactly. There’s no doubt about that.

Lindsay: How do you guys do this? Do you guys partner? Or, is it really like your own books of business, but then you help each other when you need to? How does that dynamic work for you guys?

Dawn: Yes, pretty much is, we both do our own book of business and we help each other when needed. There’s some listing appointments that I get the call with someone that I knew or a referral from somebody I knew and I feel like it’s an investor kind of thing, it’s multi-families. I’ll say, “Ron, why don’t you come with me on this one?” Then if he gets one and it’s an elderly lady or somebody that’s very timid, he’ll say, “Dawn, come with me on this one.”

Ron: Because my voice can be very– Making people nervous, especially like nice retired ladies. Sometimes I get too excited and they’re like– I can see it, like their hair stands and I’m like, what did you just do to me?

Lindsay: You’re too much excitement for some people.

Ron: Yes. I’m a very strong D.

Lindsay: For sure. Your voice, is one of my favorites. Literally the reason that we’re here today is because I heard your voice on a recording and I was like, “God, I want to talk to him on a podcast.” It’s so awesome.

Dawn: On the part when you said the least things that we don’t like, I don’t like when I have to tell a buyer that they went $10,000 over asking and didn’t get the home. That kills me.

Lindsay: It’s so hard. It’s happened so much in the past couple of years, hopefully that will start to diminish a little bit. That’s the whole idea. Then comes a whole slew of other problems.

Ron: Now we say that real estate doesn’t sell.

Lindsay: Or they don’t have the money to go up, or they can’t sell it after spending more. For sure. What is it that you guys would say is your key to success? I know you mentioned before, as far as like, having that special date night or whatever. How do you keep work and personal separate? Because, as a couple, it’s very hard to be in this business together. I bet you, we have a lot of people listening who are in that same dynamic, their partners, but also, live together and so on and so forth. What is it that you guys think is truly the key to success? What advice would you give to other teams that are married or in a relationship?

Ron: We’re very competitive. She’s competitive, she won’t say she’s competitive, but it’s only when she beats me, we find out how competitive she is.

Lindsay: Is there gloating involved? [crosstalk]

Ron: There was one year in 2004, she beat me, and I still haven’t heard the end of it yet and it’s been 20 years later. We are very competitive. We love helping people. We also, at the same time, make sure that if the grandkids have a game or grandkids were picking them up, we set time aside for our personal life. For our kids too, even though our kids are what? 39, 35 and 30, they still need our attention most of the time, and so we spend some time with them. Our life has where we can do extra special things for them. It’s a nice, nice feeling.

Lindsay: For sure. What would you say? What’s your advice?

Dawn: It’s a good thing when you’re both in the same business, because you understand the scheduling. That’s a good thing. Then it’s a bad thing when you’re both in the same business, if you’re around of each other too much. You need the break. Not only we have date night, but we also have– He’s got the boys night and I got the girls night. You need that also. That helps. We have a lot in common. Like he said, we both were raised in a housing project. We both came from nothing. We have a lot in common that way, where we know we’re working hard and we play hard. It works.

Lindsay: You guys definitely enjoy yourselves. It’s very obvious, you guys are doing those vacations, you’re spending time. I know you have family in Vegas, right? You have a grandchild in Vegas, so you guys are going on-

Dawn: Two now in Vegas.

Lindsay: Two. Oh, my gosh. Even more reason to get on that plane. It must be very nice to have that person to share it with. Like you said, you get in a fight at home because the dishes weren’t clean, now you’re bringing it to work. There’s a weird dynamic there to have to balance that. That’s good.

Ron: It is very challenging. There’s no doubt about it.

Dawn: It can be challenging.

Ron: I’ll just smile. [laughs]

Lindsay: It could be challenging the other way, too. Like you had said before, Ron, if your significant other isn’t in real estate, then they don’t understand what you’re going through. Then they don’t understand that you have to be working while you’re on vacation, or that you have to be doing calls on the weekend or something like that. That can cause its own problem. You manage it the best you can.

All right. I like to ask this question of everybody, and I’m sure with the amount of experience that you guys have, you have a pretty good one. What is the craziest story that’s happened to each of you? Or maybe you have a combined one, but what’s the craziest real estate story that you guys both have?

Dawn: [chuckles] I wasn’t expecting that one.

Lindsay: There’s usually someone has something where they open the house and there’s someone making out. There’s something like that. Everyone, I feel, has those stories.

Dawn: You want to tell the funny one, about hiding the guy?

Ron: The what?

Dawn: We have a lot. The funniest one is when the husband and the wife are getting divorced and they hate each other. That’s the worst.

Ron: Oh, Yes. That’s a good story. You do that one.

Dawn: [chuckles] One time I had a closing at my office. The wife said she wouldn’t be in the same room as the husband, so she was leaving. The husband wasn’t supposed to come for 20 minutes. I saw him because we could see from the window of the parking lot that he was coming in. I tell my husband, Ron, I said, “Hey, the next guy that’s coming in, you got to hide him. You got to hide him because she came back in and she forgot something.” I say, “They can’t see each other. They can’t see each other.” Ron said, “Okay.” The next guy that comes in, Ron is like, “Come with me.” He was tiptoeing, following Ron. He goes, “Where are we going?” He goes, “Your wife’s over there. We’re going to hide from your ex-wife.” He goes, “I don’t have an ex-wife.” He had the wrong guy.

[laughter]

Ron: She made me bring someone into a private room and say, “Stay here.” I still haven’t even told him that was his ex-wife. He just believed me and came with me. Then he goes, “What are we doing?” I said, “You’re ex-wife is in the other room.” He goes, “I don’t have an ex-wife?” [laughs]

Lindsay: Meanwhile, was the ex-husband walking in? Because that would be awful. [laughs]

Dawn: It just happened that somebody else came in before the guy I told him to hide.

Ron: In the end it all worked out.

Dawn: That was a funny one.

Lindsay: You also went above and beyond to make sure that your client’s needs were met. That’s a sign of a good realtor.

Dawn: That was one of the funniest ones.

Ron: One time, she made me– We’re going out for dinner and she goes, “I want to go by this house that we just did. There’s water coming out of the basement window.”

Dawn: Oh, that was a funny one, too.

Ron: Then we go by the house and then we see it, there’s a pipe broke in the basement. Now the water is four feet high.

Dawn: It was an out-of-town seller.

Ron: Out-of-town seller and it was freezing out because that’s why the pipe broke. I decided to go there, and I decided to go into the basement and shut the water off myself. Freezing, soaking wet, went there, went underwater, shut the valve off and did it. We’ve done some crazy, crazy things.

Dawn: Ron was going down the street, the town called and it was like, “Oh, no.”

Ron: There’s even a funnier one. One time we’re at a for family, and we’re going down the basement, and the guy is in front of me, the seller is in front of me saying, “I’m going to get the light.” It was dark. It was me, him, and Dawn was a little far behind us. All of a sudden, I feel a rat go on my foot. Then the light goes on and Dawn sees the rat. She looks at it and goes, ah and runs up the stairs. [laughs]

Lindsay: You’re like, “Maybe just leave the light on.” [laughs]

Ron: I can probably tell you about 100 stories.

Lindsay: We could do a whole series, I’m sure, on all the stories. It’s a typical day in real estate for you guys. That’s the thing, asking even that question, you’re probably like, “I don’t know. Do we really have–?” Because you have to really think, because there’s so much stuff that happens.

Dawn: You start thinking about one story, you think of another story. Like, “Oh, remember that story? Remember this one?” [crosstalk]

Ron: You thought the guy was– He had a videotape. Some crazy. He had blood all over his– He was a nurse or something.

Lindsay: Wait, what?

Dawn: I got nervous one time because I went alone to an appointment and when the guy entered the door, he had scrubs on that had blood on it. I was alone myself in the house thinking, and then I saw the house. It was like, toy scan everywhere. I said, “Do you have a wife and your kids?” He goes, “Oh, no, she left me and she took the kids.” I was like, “Oh, okay.” [laughs]

Lindsay: He’s like, full-turn, she’s in the basement. Like [crosstalk]

Dawn: Then I was trying to keep aware just in case. Then I said, “Okay, I’ll get back to you on the market value.” He goes, “Don’t you have to see the basement?” I’m like, “No, I’ll come back next time.” [laughs] I just felt so uncomfortable.

Lindsay: Did he not explain the blood that was like–

Dawn: No. I just felt very uncomfortable.

Lindsay: In his mind, he’s just like, “Yes, I’ve got blood in my straps. I’m a nurse. What do you want me to do.”

Dawn: It got worse. He had a camera facing the bed, and then there was nobody in the house. His family left. It was a scary one. It was very scary.

Lindsay: You don’t even want to think about what the heck that was about. That is crazy. We’re already at 26 minutes, which always flies by, and you always are like, “What? How did that happen?” My last question to each of you, and you can’t cheat and use the other person’s answer, so you can’t do that. What is your biggest piece of advice? What’s your one thing that if anyone walks up to you that’s in real estate and asks you, you’re like, “This is what you need to know.” What is the biggest piece of advice that either of you guys would give to someone?

Ron: Well, I feel there’s not one piece of advice. It’s a whole– You have to learn this business before you do it. Don’t try learning as you go along. Take as many classes as you can, learn how to assess a house. This is somebody’s biggest investment they’ll ever make. You can list it $50,000 below, and they just lost $50,000 in earnings that they earned over the years of owning the house. Go out there, learn this business, know how to do it before you do it. I wish I would have done that more.

We did CRS, we did GRI, we did all the programs, and we probably did it eight years in. I wish I would have done before I even started. Dale Carnegie, public speaking and human relations, I would have done that earlier. There’s a lot of things I wish I really would have learned this business and then went into the business. That’s probably the biggest thing I could bring out.

Lindsay: That’s your advice, is really don’t stop training, is really what it comes down to, because start from the very beginning and never stop, because you still, to this day, are training. You’re still doing things to learn and to better yourself. That’s great advice. All right, Dawn, you can’t cheat.

Dawn: Don’t be a secret agent. When you get in real estate, let everyone know that you’re a real estate agent. Show people that you care. Don’t have that, they call it commission breath. I’ve had people that I say, “You know what? I don’t think it’s a good time for you to sell right now, or I don’t think you should buy this house,” because it was totally not in their best interest to buy the house. Also show that you care and give good service. You stay in business because you get repeat business and referrals from their friends and family.

Ron: How to stay in this business is make sure they like you and trust you. You have to really go out there and set a name for yourself. Dawn, she’s more of a– How can I say it? She’s a salesperson.

Lindsay: Say it nicely.

Ron: [chuckles] Her heart is much bigger than her mind when it comes to sales. She puts herself involved on every sale. People really, really like that. Like I say, when I work with mostly D personalities, they just want to get it done, and that’s what I do. That’s probably another thing, too. I can remember a story, a secret agent is where I walked into, and you’ll see it, Lamacchia now. Even before it was my brand I had for franchise, I went into a Best Buy one time and says, “Oh, we’re thinking about selling our house.” That happened to be one of my best friend’s mother I didn’t even know about. He was already in contract with me to sell her house. He said, “I’m going to see if my mother wants you to sell our house.” Then I meet them there, put it both together. Sold her house, sold their house, and they bought a house together. By just having the shirt on and saying you’re in real estate.

One of the other things is learn your stats, know what’s going on in this business. Because everybody loves real estate. They love talking about real estate. If you look intelligent and you know the numbers, they’ll remember you. When they go out and they’re at the soccer field, they’re like, “I’m thinking about selling my house.” Wow, I met this guy, Ron Rusin, he talked real estate. He knew his numbers. This is the guy you should call.” Maybe it’s somebody I just met in an elevator for five minutes. Little things like that.

Lindsay: Tell me what that pitch is. I said it was my last question, but you just made me think that I’ve got to ask this. What’s that pitch? If I’m in the grocery store, Ron, we got two minutes, we’re standing in line. I say to you, “Oh, you’re in real estate. That’s interesting. How’s the market, right?” That’s always the question that someone asks. What’s your answer to that?

Ron: It depends. Are you a seller, buyer, or investor? Now I want to find out what they’re looking for. It’s always you ask a question to a question to get to the point they’re trying to ask you. As a salesperson, we need to know that. We know that, so if they’re looking to buy, I say, well, it depends on where the market is. If it’s a seller’s market, it’s a buyer’s market. If they sell, I’m thinking about selling, I say, wow, this is the best market ever for selling. Depending on again, what time it is. If you’re a buyer, then you say, listen, this is good about buying right now. Investing, no matter what time you invest is a good time to invest. You’ve got to go own real estate. You find out what they’re looking for, then you deliver it to them.

Lindsay: I love that. That’s awesome. That was a great last nugget for everybody. Anything that you guys want to share before we close today?

Ron: I think one of the things that, I changed from Lamacchia, and I want to give some–

Lindsay: Yes, please, we didn’t get into that.

Ron: I think one of the biggest reasons why I changed, again, we were in franchise for 25 years. We love the franchise. We’re not saying nothing bad about franchise, but it was another five year agreement we had to sign in. We didn’t know if we want to do it five more years. We decided to open up a private. We went from the franchise Right Choice to Right Choice Real Estate. Then I get a call from Anthony and he says, “Hey, I have nine people who want to start an office down here.” I said, “Great, have them join my office” He goes, “No. He said, I want to start an office.” I said, “That’s great. Have them join my office.” He goes, “No, no. I’m starting an office down here.” He says, “I would rather join you than compete with you.” I said, “Okay.” He says, “I’m not looking to retire. I’m not even close to ready yet.”

He says, “Okay, why don’t you come up here and just look at my systems.” I’m like, “Okay, I’ll do that.” I went up there, looked at his systems and I’m like, “If he comes down here and my agents don’t leave, it’s going to be a challenge.” I felt at this time, it was the best thing for our agents, after seeing the training you do, all the services you have, the numbers you’re drawing. Just in the last four months, Lamacchia Realty has closed 1 billion,15 million in sales. They helped 2,012 people achieve the American dream. That is amazing. That is what I’m looking for. I’m looking for my agents to have everything at their fingertips.

You can train five days a week if you want at this office. It’s just amazing what they have to offer. Then if you even decide that I’m not getting enough business, the leads they have, if you want to go on leads. In our office, two of the top agents here are on leads and they’re doing the leads and they’re accomplishing huge numbers from it. This is why when we see what they have to offer, we realize– Dawn, you can say it.

Dawn: I think the biggest thing too, for us, we were wearing all the hats and we could–. We just got back from Greece, we would never have been able to take that 8, 10 day trip to Greece when we were still broker owners and selling brokers. We used to just do like weekend trips, like Thursday through Monday, that was it. We felt so much at ease knowing when we were away that everything was getting taken care of here with the agents, with the closings, with all that. That was a big burden off our shoulders.

Lindsay: For sure.

Dawn: We get along better too because of that.

Lindsay: That’s one of those hats that you can take off and now you don’t have to worry about it. It takes a lot of that burden off of you guys. That’s awesome. Thank you guys so much. I didn’t want this to be a Lamacchia plug, but that was a good little plug right there. I like it. We’ve been so lucky to have you guys join us too. It wasn’t that Anthony also didn’t want to comp– We don’t want to compete with you guys, because you guys were so strong in the market and it just made sense to combine efforts and now we’re stronger than ever. I just really appreciate you guys and thank you so much for being on here today and taking time out of your busy days to be a part of this. I really appreciate it.

Thank you all for listening, for watching. If you’re watching on YouTube. For listening when you get your podcasts, we really appreciate you too. Please, if you want to be a guest on the podcast, send us an email at info@crushitinre.com, or send us a message on social media on our Crush It in Real Estate on Instagram page. Anything like that, please make sure to reach out. We’re happy to have you guys as guests. Until the next episode of Agents Who Crush It in Real Estate, we’ll see you guys later. Have a great day. Thanks everybody.

Ron: Perfect. Thanks, Lindsay. Bye-bye.

Dawn: Bye.

Speaker: Thank you for tuning in to the Agents Who Crush It in Real Estate podcast. If you enjoyed today’s episode, share it with your friends and colleagues and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform. If you’re interested in being a guest, email us at info@crushitinre.com. Thanks for listening. Don’t forget to Crush It In Real Estate.