Episode 225: Kellen Keck
On this episode of The Brad and Taylor show, we sat down with Kellen Keck from City2Shore Real Estate!
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 Kellen Keck…
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Taylor: Welcome to The Brad and Taylor Show. Today, we have Kellen Keck.
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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, how are you?
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Kellen: Good. Good. Thanks for having me on!
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Brad: For sure. Well, awesome. Let’s get the show started. Tell us a little bit about you. Where are you located? What do you do?
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Kellen: Well, I’m the broker-owner of a City to Shore Port City Associates. So re-franchising City Shore National. I own an office in Manistee and then I’m also based out of Grand Rapids as well.
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Brad: Nice. I like it. So what did you do before real estate? How did you get into it?
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Kellen: I was actually a general manager from an ARDS for a long time. That’s no houses inside and out. Kinda got to be interested in doing something other than retail and figured that real estate was a, a good way, a good industry that my skill set would kind of transition easily into. So, yeah.
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Brad: Nice. So then, yeah. So did you start in grand rapids, dude? , is that where you started? Yep.
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Kellen: Yep. I’m based out of Hudsonville and live in Hudsonville, so I got started, right here.
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Brad: Awesome. So how did you start, your team, up north, I guess, cause that’s not like they’re not right next to each other where you live compared to where your office is. It,
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Kellen: I actually, we had some agents up there with some other companies that were interested in joining city to shore if we had a brick and mortar office and actually all of my family is from the Manistee area. So, we had a cottage up there. I grew up there during the summers. We spent a lot of summers at our cottage, so I knew the area like the back of my hand had a lot of contacts up there, so the opportunity presented itself. So I took it.
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Brad: That’s awesome.
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Taylor: How long were you in real estate before you decided to start your own team?
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Kellen: I got licensed in early 2015, and then opened my franchise in October of 2019. We opened the doors.
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Brad: How many team members you guys got out there?
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Kellen: So we’ve got seven up there right now. We’ve got to another one that’s gonna be taken as an exam shortly and then we’re actually meeting with one later today. , who’s been licensed for a number of years and actually moving to the Manistee area. So I’m actually meeting with her today so we could be adding yet another agent.
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Brad: That’s exciting. So what do you guys got big plans and hiring a lot more for 2022?
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Kellen: Yeah, I mean, we’re just trying to, I mean, this development that we’ve been working on out there for a number of years now, we’re finally getting that off the ground. , we kind of got that started just before COVID got shut down. Building prices kinda killed it there for a little while, but you know, as we get that going that we know that that’s going to draw a lot of attention. So we’ve been doing some training and stuff, making sure our agents know how to handle incoming leads and, and processing them appropriately to follow up with them. Cause the phone calls we’ve gotten already without having any activity up there have been pretty significant. We know once there are some structures in place if it’s only gonna escalate very quickly.
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Brad: That’s awesome. So let’s back it up a little bit when you were first getting into real estate, what was the, like, how did that first like week go? Were you like, I don’t know what I’m doing. Did you have good training right at the beginning? Like how’d that go? Are you just like, I’m not gonna do anything.
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Kellen: I made the choice. I jumped into real estate full-time. I remember I took my state exam on a Thursday, passed it, walked in, put in my two weeks notice Friday morning, two weeks later, I walked into the city to shore and said, all right, I’m here. What do I do? So I sat down. I mean, we had some training and stuff period. So the theater shore, I mean just started going through that shadowing some agents that, you know, some experienced agents. , I was hosting for a while there. I was hosting 2, 3, and 4 open houses a weekend. You know, just trying to meet as many people as I could. I mean, that’s kind of just really what started it right there.
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Taylor: How did your first transaction go? Was it smooth looking back now?
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Kellen: It was probably relatively smooth. , but during the transaction, we had a couple of hang-ups with the lender and this was pre-treated actually. So we ended up closing, about an hour and a half after we finally got clear to cloth halls. I mean, that’s how quickly it all pulled together, but it wasn’t too bad, honestly. I mean, at the time it was pretty stressful because it was my first one. But looking back now, it actually wasn’t too bad that actually wouldn’t be when my smoother ones.
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Taylor: Nice. I know the nerves can get, get to some people at that first one.
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Kellen: Yeah. It definitely was. I mean, I wanted it to go as smoothly as possible and I think I was almost overthinking it a little bit.
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Taylor: Yeah. Did you get any advice when you first started out in real estate and now you said when you joined the city to shore, you had some mentors there? Did you get any advice that stuck with you?
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Kellen: Probably not one piece that really sticks out because there’s, I mean, in real estate, there are so many moving parts, so I mean, you kind of have to compartmentalize everything that you get, but you know, I think the one thing that really stuck out to me as is kind of once I got myself situated and I was doing a multitude of things from, you know, email follow-ups with leads, setting up drip campaigns through our contact management, I was basically told, you know, just keep your nose down and keep grinding. , you know, it will come together. So, I mean, even though, you know, a few months in, and there were some frustrations as things weren’t happening as fast as I would like, I just was told again, keep doing what you’re doing, you’re doing the right things. And, you know, eh, shortly thereafter is when all of it kind of came back around and things really started to click and, you know, pretty much from then on, I was carrying multiple pending files at one time. And yeah, I mean, that’s, that was probably the biggest thing is, is just keep going on the right things. Yeah.
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Taylor: Would you turn around and give that same advice to the new agents coming on your team?
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Kellen: A hundred percent? I mean, that’s the one thing that I preach right now. , we’ve been doing some training classes in the evenings with our agents and that’s the, probably the, one of the biggest things that I’ve been stressing is, is, you know, hey guys, I’ve lived it. I know it works, keep doing this. You guys are doing the right things. , and it’ll come together and we’re starting to see that now with a few of our agents where things are kind of starting to come around and things are kind of clicking for them now. And you can kind of see that kind of aha moment as, as everything kind of comes full circle. So it’s cool.
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Taylor: That’s awesome. Since 2015, what has been the most memorable home that you’ve been to? Which one sticks out the most and it couldn’t be a bad experience if you want to share or a good one.
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Kellen: There was one, probably the coolest home that I’ve been to, honestly one I have under contract right now. And that actually you guys shop is the one with the whole indoor pool and hot tub. I mean, that’s probably one of the coolest properties. , I mean, I’ve had some others where they’re, they’re big, massive houses, you know, 7,800 square feet on seven acres. I mean, those are cool. I’ve also had somewhere I’ve walked through, it was a hoarding situation and you had about an eight-inch wide path through stock, to be able to get through and see what it is. So the tunnel, Well, there are a few that stick out for various reasons.
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Taylor: We call those last one, the scratch and sniff homes where you walk out and you feel like you have to shower.
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Kellen: Oh yeah, that was the reason that masks are required. And that was even pre COVID.
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Taylor: Exactly. I know we talked a little bit about growing your team here in the next year. What other goals do you have in place for 2022?
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Kellen: Probably another secondary location for my office. I mean, that was one of my goals when I opened it, is that I wanted to, to continue to add offices just as my network grows, I know that, you know, what I can offer as a broker and you know, what we have at city shore. I know that there are a lot of agents that could be interested in what we have. So that’s probably my next goal, where that location is, is kind of yet to be determined. I’ve been eyeballing a few different places over the last few weeks, but, kind of letting the natural growth dictate where the next office is.
00:08:44:23 –> 00:08:51:24
Taylor: Yeah. That’s exciting. You got another hole. I like it. I like it. What is your favorite book you’ve read?
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Kellen: Well probably we’ve been doing so as franchise owners a while back. We were all tasked with reading this, this bulk. It was called the culture solution. , and it’s a leadership book kind of designed around building a positive culture. You know, I’ve always considered myself a pretty good leader. I’ve been in leadership positions basically. I mean, well for a long time, in business basically since my early twenties. So I think I’ve harbored some pretty good culture in the past at a, you know, even before I get into real estate, but this book really brought up some really cool points and kind of how to create that positive culture, you know, leveraging the skillsets of the agents on your team, you know, what they can bring to the table, and just allowing the growth. I think we’ve done a good job already at the city to shore, harboring that. And I think, that’s one thing that I’m trying to push out towards. My team is figuring out where their skills are and how we can kind of leverage those skill sets to grow even further. So that’s a cool blog. That’s probably been one of my favorites as of recently.
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Brad: I like it. Well, that’s awesome. How can people get ahold of you?
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Kellen: My cellphone’s never more than about two feet away from me at any given time. So that’s honestly the easiest, so text message, email, text message. And the phone is usually the fastest I’m kind of old school. I actually still like to talk on the phone.
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Brad: I liked it. I like it. So what’s your, what’s your phone number?
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Kellen: My cell phone (616) 648-2067. So that’s honestly the easiest.
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Brad: Oh, perfect. I like it. Well, Hey, thanks for coming on. Sharing your story with us today.
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Kellen: Yeah, yeah. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me on guys.
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Hello. Hello. Are you there? Are there, are there, Hey guys, we just wanted to thank you for listening on either a podcast or on the YouTube video here. If you guys wanted to subscribe, that would be awesome. That would mean a lot to us. If you guys could give us a five-star review as well, that would be amazing. And we’ll see you on the next one.
Check out Kelle:
City2Shore Real Estate
www.kellenkeck.realtor
Facebook: @c2sportcityassociates
www.portcityassociates.com
Facebook: @kellenkeckrealtor
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