Episode 186: Jon Ferguson

On this episode of The Brad and Taylor Show, we have Jon Ferguson from Production Realty!

To watch the full episode, check it out on YouTube below. In the meantime, here’s a transcript of the conversation…

Here’s what you missed from Jon Ferguson…

00:00:00:14 –> 00:00:04:00

Taylor: Welcome to The Brad and Taylor Show. Today, we have Jon Ferguson.

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Brad: You’re listening to The Brad and Taylor Show, a podcast that inspires entrepreneurs to pursue their passions. We’re sitting down with some of the best to learn how they got started and some lessons they learned along the way.

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Taylor: Hey John, how are you? 

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Jon: Hey guys, how are you doing?

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Brad: Good. We’re doing good. Well, let’s get this started. Tell us a little bit about you. What do you do?

00:00:23:18 –> 00:00:26:15

Jon: I’m a realtor with Production Realty here in Jackson, Michigan.

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Brad: Oh, nice. So how’d you get into real estate?

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Jon: Oh, that’s a long story. That’s a long story. Most of these stories are long stories, but it was fall of 2019. I found myself in Corporate America, banging my head on the glass ceiling really. I was in a position where, you know, it was a lot of hours, not on my terms and I just thought I could do more. And I have a broker who’s a great friend of mine and he proposed, well, you know, why don’t you do this? And you know, I’d been thinking about it for a while, but it was really his prompting that I really took seriously and just thought, you know, I’m going to take a gamble on me and I hadn’t looked back. It’s been great.

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Taylor: Awesome. Yeah. How’d that transition go for you from the corporate world to being a real estate agent? I know that’s a bit big of a difference right there in that transition.

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Jon: It is. Yeah, it is. It wasn’t that bad for me.I had to definitely, you know, be ready for a check not to be coming in right away. So there was definitely some prep work that needed to take place. You need to have a nest egg, you need to have something there to make sure that your bills are being paid while you’re essentially building your own business from the ground up. So the transition was motivating. I’d say that that’s it. I still have a mortgage, I still have bills. So you better put all of your time into this. And that’s what I found myself doing. You know anybody that gets into this will really tell you all of your time, in the beginning, is going into real estate. You know your profession is real estate. What’s your hobby is real estate. What do you do as soon as you’re done with real estate, more real estate, you really have to be busy, set up a good plan, set up a good timeline of what you want to accomplish, and really work towards meeting those goals.

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Taylor: Yeah. How did your first transaction go?

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Jon: My first transaction was actually really, really simple, which is crazy because that’s normally not the case. I lucked out and I had a small cash transaction, which you know, takes really zero time, so I wasn’t dealing with things like lenders and inspections and all of that. It was a really good starter transaction to get me to the table for the first time. And the great thing about that is, you know, I was brand new and the clients were wanting somebody that could spend a lot of time with them, they were into home flipping. So they wanted to look at, you know, a million properties that weren’t that great and get something for a pretty small amount of money and turn it into something that could be sold for a larger amount of money and be brand new. I could give them all the time that they wanted. So it’s actually been a really, really good thing because my first clients have turned into tremendous friends and I think we’ve done well over 10 deals together since. So I still talk to them all the time. I will be talking to them later today. 

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Taylor: Oh wow. Awesome. Good job with it. You know how to build that relationship then and keep it going.

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Jon: Yeah. That’s super important. This entire industry is really about building relationships. If you’re going to survive, that’s what you do.

00:04:35:08 –> 00:05:01:28

Taylor: Yup, exactly. You know how it works. Speaking of those, I know you mentioned they had seen a bunch of properties in the beginning when you were first working with them and I’m sure you’ve seen a bunch more since then with those same clients since you’ve seen the flip homes, what property have you been to that maybe you wouldn’t want to go back to out of all of those events? Which one sticks out? I know you have to have one, at least one in there.

00:05:02:20 –> 00:05:41:09

Jon: Yeah. There was a property that I looked at with them probably my first year in real estate. And I didn’t even want to walk inside the place and we got like two rooms into it and we all decided it was probably best that we didn’t walk any further ahead of the place because, between the smell and the creaking on the floor, we were either going to pass out or fall right through into the basement. So yeah, we passed on that one. But I will remember that as probably the worst property that I’ve walked through.

00:05:42:08 –> 00:05:59:05

Taylor: On average, I know this market’s a little crazier than typical that we’ve seen in the past, but on average, how many homes do you think you show clients before they get the one that they are looking for? Maybe you guys put an offer on quite a few, but how many do you go through before you get the one that you take to closing?

00:05:59:22 –> 00:06:57:22

Jon: Um, wow. You know, that’s so spread out, you know. I’ve had clients where we’ve looked at three properties and we’re set to go and that’s a great scenario to be in, but I’ve been with clients where I think it depends on the client. If they really have to move and they’re really in a time crunch situation. I think good or good enough sometimes obviously we try to find, you know, the perfect match, but I think that’s a pretty subjective statement. I’ve had clients that are great in the home that they’re in. They just need something bigger or they desire something more. I’ve worked with them for like 11 months with showings every week. You kind of become a friend of the family at that point. So it really just reaches across the spectrum. I think the couple that I show the most amount of houses to, we were well over 25 houses. 

00:06:58:29 –> 00:07:04:14

Taylor: Especially in the market we’re in now. It’s like a guy going so fast too. If you’re not there immediately.

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Jon: Yeah. It’s really quick right now. Sometimes you show them a house and you just see how fast they’re going and you’re kind of pointing at them that this house is as well. I don’t know. I didn’t like the, and you’re just thinking, okay.

00:07:25:09 –> 00:07:27:11

Taylor: All right. That one’s probably already gone.

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Jon: Yup. Yup. Yup. And I’ve had it happen where that remorse happens in this current economy where they’re like, well, is that how it’s still there? I’m like no.

00:07:39:03 –> 00:07:41:07

Taylor: Two hours after you said no. Yeah.

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Jon: Exactly. Exactly.

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Taylor: Do you have any advice that you were given that has stuck with you for the first couple of years?

00:07:51:27 –> 00:09:12:19

Jon: You know, I’ve been trying to think of one thing that stuck out to me and everybody will give you advice. Everybody’s quick to give advice. I think the overall theme of all is don’t quit, don’t stop. Sometimes you’re going to have a roster of clients where they’re bigger deals and it’s going really, really well. And then you close all those and then there’s a lot of smaller deals. I think probably the most valuable thing that I’ve ever heard is don’t look at numbers, look at people. Every client is just as important as every other client. You know, you can have somebody looking at a quarter-million dollar houses. You can have people looking at half a million-dollar houses. You can have a new home buyer that is going after their first home. And they’re approved for, you know, 70,000, right. There is no difference in the client. It’s all-important to each one of them. It’s vitally important to each one of them. They’re all excited to take that step. You know, whether it’s the next step or the first step, and you really have to respect the fact that they’re trusting you to be the person that guides them into that. And so I don’t look at numbers. I look at people.

00:09:13:23 –> 00:09:41:20

Taylor: Awesome. Yeah. I know building those relationships is key too. And you mentioned with your first clients that you had, you’ve already been able to maintain that relationship with them. It’s exciting when you, maybe you haven’t had this yet because you’re still kind of newer, but when you have your first clients in a couple of years, maybe they’re going to have their second home or something like that. So they’re going to reach back out. And then I know you mentioned, it’s kind of like a family at that point where you’ve been just showing homes after home. So it just continues to grow.

00:09:42:12 –> 00:10:05:22

Jon: Yeah. Yeah. I have one client right now that I dealt with one of my first clients. They called last week and they said, the family’s growing, we’re going to be looking at another house they’ve had, they’ve had a couple of children since we bought their original homes. So I’m looking forward to getting back to them. Yeah. Yeah. That’s super exciting. Yeah.

00:10:05:23 –> 00:10:14:01

Taylor: Yeah. That’s so exciting. Then maybe even down the road, who knows maybe when their kids are grown and they want to have their homes, you’re going to be there.

00:10:15:15 –> 00:10:36:13

Jon: Yeah. No, it’s great. It’s cool working with families that way too. I just did a deal where I had some clients that were looking for a home, we found their home, guiding them through it and now her dad is having me help him find a home right now. So working with the generations right now. 

00:10:36:28 –> 00:10:42:05

Taylor: That’s so cool. What kind of goals do you have to finish out the rest of this year and as we go into next year?

00:10:43:03 –> 00:11:38:08

Jon: Finish strong. You know, I look at things quarterly and I think that’s a really healthy way, especially for new agents, but even all agents too, to look at what they’re doing. I like to look at the quarter, what I’m doing in the quarter, because that allows me if it’s been a tough quarter, it allows me to push the reset button, just step back, breathe and say, okay, here’s what I want to accomplish in the next three months. And so I just want to finish out this year with a really strong quarter. It’s already going pretty well. Doing that pipeline work is insanely important. You know, working on the next quarter, during this quarter, at least lining stuff up or making those relationships that are going to turn into something. So I just want to finish up this year with a strong pipeline going into 2022 and close the things that I have on the table right now. That’s really the big goal.

00:11:39:12 –> 00:11:48:22

Taylor: Do you have any recommendations on how to balance going into, let’s say the next quarter while you’re still focusing on your clients that are right in front of you right now?

00:11:49:25 –> 00:12:53:15

Jon: It’s yeah, it’s again, it’s those relationships. I never, ever over promise and under deliver. I will never do that. And so when, when I’m speaking with people, I tell them, you know, Hey, I’d love to be, you know, your realtor and you will definitely be a priority to me. Every client of mine is a priority to me. But you know, if you’re just busy, busy, busy, and you can’t give them that A-plus effort, I have a frank conversation like, can we hold this off? Do you have to put this up right now? or do you have to buy right now? You know, either way, on the seller side or the buyer side, if it’s a yes, then you try to find time, but I hate to ever, ever, ever turn down business, but I’ll do that before I start giving a C plus effort to my entire roster instead of A plus effort that they deserve.

00:12:53:26 –> 00:13:46:28

So the balance can be tough and you really just have to be disciplined and it falls back on that you might have a lot of deals that are big money, and then you have a lot of deals at the same time that isn’t so much and some people want to make up for that. And I can understand that. I always look at the people first, am I juggling too many clients? If I get to that point, it doesn’t matter. You know, what the price tags look like. If I can’t give you the attention you deserve, I just say, I’m sorry, I can’t. I’ll make a referral or you know, put them in the hands of somebody I trust or see if they want to wait like a month or six weeks or whatever, and be the first thing on my list for as soon as I have an opening in my schedule. It’s a tough balancing act. It really is.

00:13:47:08 –> 00:14:13:26

Taylor: Yeah. You’ve gotta be good at multitasking, but it’s really great that you already recognize that when your plate’s full. That way, you’re not getting overwhelmed and your clients aren’t feeling left out or anything like that. So, yeah. It’s awesome that you recognize that. I don’t think a lot of people necessarily would right off the bat. If you could start over today with all the knowledge that you’ve learned since 2019, what would you do differently? What’s one thing that you would change?

00:14:15:01 –> 00:14:16:27

Jon: Um, true.

00:14:19:29 –> 00:15:17:23

I wouldn’t have stressed so much in the beginning about the little things because I really focused on how every single component of the industry has equal importance and it doesn’t. People are always people and you hope that people are going to be good and good to you, and you’re going to be good to them in return. But I wouldn’t stress out so much about stuff. I think there were, um, clients that I lost and we, we all lose clients. It happens. Um, I think some of the things that I did initially, and just trying to be so much of a people pleaser in the beginning. I think the mistake a couple of times of not having buyers sign buyer agency forums with me like I am your realtor and I’d show like five houses.

00:15:17:24 –> 00:16:17:00

And then they call somebody else that had a sign in the front yard of a house they really liked. And that agent ended up selling them the house. And you know, I get mad about it, but really get mad at myself. You know, the agent didn’t technically do anything wrong. And I don’t think I educated my client on the fact that, Hey, I’m your realtor. Like, I’m putting time into you, my resources. I’m your guy. And when they went to somebody else, it was just, Hey, it’s just because this is the house I wanted. And I called this person. And I think sometimes I think with the majority of people, I don’t think that’s done with any malice. I think it’s innocent enough. I just probably should have done that a lot better. So probably my client consults, educating my clients on what I do for them and what that entails and our partnership, I would have done a lot better job at that in the beginning.

00:16:17:14 –> 00:16:21:09

Taylor: Yeah. Before we go today, how can people get a hold of you?

00:16:22:06 –> 00:16:44:26

Jon: Jon Ferguson at Production Realty. So my email is [email protected]. And then you can always reach out to me at 5 1 7 8 1 2 4 9 0 1. That’s my cell. It’s always on me. If you need real estate, you have real estate questions, they are nice. Give me a call.

00:16:45:02 –> 00:16:47:07

Taylor: Awesome. And you are in the Jackson area, right?

00:16:47:25 –> 00:17:04:23

Jon: I am. I’m in Jackson county. I serve Jackson county. I mean, I do business in Washington on that listing in Wayne right now. I have Hillsdale Mentawais away. I’m licensed in the state of Michigan and I’m willing to help anybody in the state of Michigan.

00:17:05:08 –> 00:17:08:21

Taylor: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story with us today.

00:17:09:05 –> 00:17:10:20

Jon: Thanks so much for having me guys.

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Check out Jon Ferguson:

Production Realty

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