Episode 226: Joel Horst

On this episode of The Brad and Taylor Show, we sat down with Joel Horst from Bellabay 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 Joel Horst…

00:00:00:08 –> 00:00:14:09

Taylor: Welcome to the brand Taylor show. Today we have Joel Horst. You’re listening to the Brad and Taylor show podcast, inspires entrepreneurs, just 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.

00:00:16:02 –> 00:00:20:25

Joel: Hey guys, thanks for having me. Of course. How are you doing? I’m doing great. How are you guys

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Taylor: Doing good? Doing good. Well, let’s get this show started. Tell us a little bit about you. What are you doing? Where are you located?

00:00:26:16 –> 00:00:43:26

Joel: I am currently a real estate agent in grand rapids, Michigan. Um, I’m also an investor, so I have two properties. Um, nothing big looking to scale that up, but mainly I do grand rapids. I live right downtown. So, um, yeah, very centrally located, you know, Wyoming, Granville.

00:00:44:04 –> 00:00:48:23

Taylor: Awesome. I like it. So let’s back it up a little bit. What do you want to be when you grow up?

00:00:49:25 –> 00:01:35:09

Joel: Okay, so I have a, actually a good story here. And when I was young, actually I was born in the Netherlands. Um, so my whole family, we immigrated to the United States when I was about six or seven years old. And so my whole family they’re all split up all over the world, but my entire youth life has kind of been interesting because of that. Um, but I feel like moving here has played a big part in like me deciding what I want to do. And I feel like the move for my parents. I mean, it was kind of just like, let’s move to the United States. Let’s do this, we’ll figure it out when we get there, we’ll make it happen. I feel like that has kind of initiated something in me to always like never dream too big, but also be willing to try new things even though if there’s a risk involved.

00:01:35:28 –> 00:02:28:07

And so figuring out what I wanted to do has always been kind of challenging. Um, I think for that reason, because there’s so many options and a funny story with this is when I was in high school, I actually took a career pathways test and I tell this story all the time, just because it’s, it’s, it’s just interesting. So I answered all the questions very honestly. What do you want to do? You know, are you going to do something hands-on do you want to, um, do something that’s salesy or this or that and answered it very honestly, just cause I wanted a realistic answer and I wanted to not fake it of things I didn’t want to do. So at the end it told me, um, that my best bet would be to be a garbage truck driver. And so in high school, I mean, I was like second year in high school, I was probably like 15 years old.

00:02:28:23 –> 00:03:41:05

And at that point I was, I kind of felt defeated because for the entire high school, maybe college degree come out to, to aim for that just didn’t seem right. Know, I mean, I’m sure that’s a great job and I’m sure some people enjoy it and honestly I’m sure it’s, I’m sure it’s a good spot to be. Um, especially nowadays, but at the same time for a young kid, it was just kind of defeating. So from there I just, you know, left high school and I didn’t go to college right away. I ended up going to GRCC later on, but I tried a whole bunch of different things in between. So, um, I went to be an electrician. I did that for about two years and I was a cook for a while and I just kept job jumping, um, kind of aimlessly, but I ended up starting a small business doing vehicle wraps and graphics. So that’s what I did prior to real estate. Um, we did that for about four years and, you know, just wrapping cars, doing branding for people, um, getting out in grand rapids. So one of the big things that we did was the spectrum health bridge, you know, the one that said, um, yeah, what did that say again? I forgot

00:03:42:15 –> 00:03:43:23

Taylor: We were talking about that. I’ve seen it

00:03:43:23 –> 00:04:06:29

Joel: Though. Yeah. It’s been done quite a few times. So that was like an instant installation that we did. We did big stuff like that. We did like the Griffins arena, a whole bunch of cool things and it was, it was awesome. Awesome to be a part of that. But at some point, you know, I just transitioned into real estate about a year and a half, two years ago. And I have been here ever since. So that’s my long, what did I want to do sport,

00:04:07:05 –> 00:04:07:26

Taylor: But that’s

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Joel: All I got.

00:04:09:19 –> 00:04:12:03

Taylor: Well, we need to know one thing. Did you at least drive a trash truck?

00:04:12:27 –> 00:04:14:02

Speaker 3: The same thing?

00:04:16:26 –> 00:04:20:02

Joel: I’ve never been asked that before. No, I didn’t. I should’ve. I should’ve given.

00:04:20:27 –> 00:04:25:00

Taylor: Hey, you never know. Hey, maybe you wrapped one, so maybe you drove one around. So I had a desk. Hey,

00:04:25:07 –> 00:04:27:07

Joel: There you go. I definitely did grab a few.

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Taylor: There you go. I like it kind

00:04:29:29 –> 00:04:32:27

Speaker 3: Of played full circle in that sense then. Yeah.

00:04:32:28 –> 00:04:35:25

Joel: Oh for sure. I definitely got to be kind of part of it. Yeah,

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Taylor: It was funny. So how did you get into, like you talked about you, like, when did you like decide that you wanted to go to real estate? Like what was like, I want to go try that. What

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Speaker 3: Was that transition point for you?

00:04:47:11 –> 00:05:36:26

Joel: That’s a great question. Um, actually, so while I was doing the small business, I bought my first property and what I did is I bought a four bedroom, two bathroom houses, single family home. And it was just me. I was single, I wasn’t dating anyone and it was in color bill. And what I did is I moved in and immediately realized it’s way too much space for me. So I called all my buddies up and said, come on over and live with me. I got a ton of space. Um, fill the house up, actually put an egress window, the basement added a fifth bedroom. And so then I had four other dudes living with me. So it was us five and it got really hectic. I’m not going to lie. I had like no personal life because I never wanted to be there. So I wouldn’t ever have people over because it was already packed.

00:05:37:11 –> 00:06:43:16

And so it was always just like out working pretty much. And um, I ended up moving out of that property and moving in with my, with my friend and renting that property out. So once I was already accumulating a bunch of rent from four other tenants, you know, my mortgage payment, it was less than, um, what it, what the total amount of income was mine. So that was when I kind of learned about real estate investing and I kind of got intrigued by it because I was like, holy cow, like it almost took this payment to acquire like this passive income. You know what I mean? It’s like the cost of cashflow, really. So from there, I kind of got hyped about real estate investing and I’ve got hyped about real estate in general, but I didn’t really want to buy more rentals without having an easy out, which is not something I believe in because easy out is never something I rely on, but getting a real estate license kind of helped would help me be able to juggle properties or if I needed to offload one or two, it’d be okay.

00:06:43:26 –> 00:07:51:06

And I finally wanted to acquire more. That would be great. So it was kind of just that, that inspired me. Maybe I should just get my real estate license. And then once I had the license, I started, you know, kind of transitioning out of my business and then with COVID we did slow down. I mean, honestly, we were so busy all the time, but it’s slowed down to the point where I thought, you know what now is my make or break moment I need to exit before this picks back up again. Cause I started to feel really stuck in that hopeless, you know, because once you get good at one thing, it’s like, is this what I’m going to do for the rest of my life? Like, am I good at anything else? Or if you get so good at one thing, am I ever going to be able to make this kind of income doing something else? You know what I mean? So it’s like, it’s kind of like the corporate ladder in a way where you make it to some certain rank, but if you hate it, it’s going to be harder and harder to get out. Every time you climb the ladder step to another level. So it was crazy, but you know what I did it and the first year in real estate was, was, um, it was great. I’m super happy by it.

00:07:51:29 –> 00:07:53:20

Speaker 3: How did you get that first transaction?

00:07:54:14 –> 00:08:24:24

Joel: The first transaction? So I actually spent one year during my small business at a different brokerage and I, they, it was all about, um, your personal sphere and reaching out to all of them, you know, we’re working with them, but honestly I didn’t want to reach out to any of my personal sphere. Cause I had no idea what I was doing. I felt like, so it was kind of like I was uneasy about it cause they didn’t want to ruin my reputation to all my own people right off the bat. But you know, I don’t want my friends telling your friends don’t use Juul on your realtor.

00:08:27:23 –> 00:09:32:02

So I actually came across Bella bay Realty, um, Jake Farr, he’s, he’s our team leader. So I joined a team and with the team you get leads and you get, um, you know, we get calls all the time on properties and the calls are all calls are kind of unique because we, you never know it’s a, it’s a make or break right off the bat. You’ve got to make first contact with them. You gotta have a good first conversation that you gotta make it to the appointment. Once you’re at the appointment, you really gotta sell yourself because they could call another property and work with another agent just like that. And so from there it was good because you know, I, I probably destroyed that first interaction with the first 5, 10, 20 people, but I at least not practice doing it. You know, there’s probably people out there that thought that Joel guy, I don’t ever want to see him again because I didn’t didn’t seem like I knew, but over time you pick it up and you get more confident and you know what, after that first transaction, so that was over. It was probably over a year and a half ago now. But once I got that first one, it was great. So

00:09:32:24 –> 00:09:48:13

Speaker 3: That’s awesome. I know you said you didn’t want to reach out to your, to your close friends, just because you worried about that reputation kind of being ruined, ruined that, knowing what you’re doing at first, did you ever get to sell your friends that you, that were renting from you, their homes yet? Did you actually,

00:09:49:20 –> 00:09:59:25

Joel: Paul? I think they’re all still renting. That’s exactly. I hope at one point they did. Cause that was a great landlord. I’ll give you that. So

00:10:01:04 –> 00:10:04:14

Speaker 3: That was a pretty smart move though. I mean, you’ve got the space.

00:10:05:21 –> 00:10:23:18

Joel: I mean, it was awesome, but you know what? I’m still renting out the house now and now we rented to a single family. So the whole business aspect of it has changed and it’s under property management now. But over time you learn all these things, but you literally have to start somewhere. It’s like, you just got to try and you’ll figure it out. You know what I mean?

00:10:24:00 –> 00:10:36:00

Speaker 3: You got to jump in and then figure the rest out later. Commit first When you first started in real estate, did you get any advice from your team members when you first joined?

00:10:37:03 –> 00:11:16:12

Joel: Yeah, so we had a lot of like, um, we had a lot of phone call like dialogues that we’d have to do together. So my team leader and I would go back and forth on the phone call. It’s like, what do you say when you first pick up the phone? Like, what are they expecting? And a lot of times it’s just about getting that first appointment set. You know, once you have the appointments that it’s okay, you can prep, you can get to the property. But a lot of times when people are calling, um, we don’t have the property in front of us, you know, because if they’re just calling me and I’m making a lunch, it’s unlikely that the property of they’re calling back, I haven’t pulled up on my computer for a lot of times. It’s we want to go see this property, you know, are you pre-approved from there?

00:11:16:16 –> 00:11:42:20

We go see their property. Um, but aside from that, with training, what I did on my first deal actually was as soon as my client said, he wanted to write an offer, ask them the basic questions, wrote it down, said, I’ll give you a call in about 10, 15 minutes. Went back to the office, met with my team leader, said, here’s the deal. I need to write an offer and we’re going to go through it together. And you know what, we locked it down and it was an amazing thing. And from there the rest is history.

00:11:43:00 –> 00:11:47:04

Speaker 3: Awesome. Do you have any advice that has stuck with you throughout the years?

00:11:48:00 –> 00:12:41:21

Joel: I do actually. Um, so when I was working my small business, there was a, I had a mentor that actually owned a small business in grand rapids and he did a very similar thing. He actually contracted our business to do a lot of the installations and he has given me so much great advice over the year that over the years that it’s just like all stuck with me. I’ve been writing it down since and um, some of the big ones. So one piece of advice that I live by is we’re freed by our choices. And that’s something that I’ve kind of like branded my social media with as well, because it’s so easy to feel stuck where you’re at. It’s like, no matter what, whether it’s like, if you feel stuck financially or if you feel stuck in your career or in a relationship, it’s literally like we have one choice and like we’re one choice away from making an entire change.

00:12:42:06 –> 00:13:50:29

You know, if it like with a relationship it’s easy to say, we’re the career, we’re one choice away from a different career. And like going from a small business, I, I felt so trapped. I had all the certifications to do installations and we had a good team. We had the whole process down and it was so tough to get out of, but I literally just needed to decide and just making that choice has probably so much more happiness. Another person. Yes, exactly. Another piece of advice that I have, um, this is actually out of one of the books or podcasts. I honestly could never find it back, but it goes like this all conditions and circumstances are a result of a level of thinking. And if we want to change the circumstances, we must change the level of thinking responsible for it. So that’s awesome. Goes hand in hand with that other one, but you know, we just, we really just need to figure out what that underlying factor is. That’s making us unhappy or making us unsatisfied and move on with it. And I have one more, not, not to keep you all

00:13:52:26 –> 00:13:53:09

Taylor: Go for it.

00:13:54:15 –> 00:14:53:05

Joel: This other one is that it’s basically the concept that it’s all risky and that the minute we were born, things got risky. And if, if we think that taking or if we think that trying is risky, then wait until you get to the wait until we get the bill for not trying. So it’s like, it goes along with like business, it goes into investing. It goes with marriage, like investing is a great example. So imagine if someone said investing is risky, imagine how risky it is to not be investing. It’s just, it’s crazy if you think about it and the end of this whole, this piece of advice goes, um, if you think you’re going to get out alive, think again, because it was risky there, we got the day we’re born, but we’re all going to die anyway. So we might as well try. Right. There’s, there’s literally impact on not trying. So

00:14:53:18 –> 00:14:57:13

Speaker 3: Exactly. Do you have a favorite book that you’ve read?

00:14:59:02 –> 00:15:53:21

Joel: I do. Um, one of my favorite books is take the stairs by Rory Baden. Um, this is actually one that was recommended to me by my mentor back in the day. Okay. And this, you know, it’s, it’s all about not taking the easy out. And so like if we think about it like an escalator and a stairway, obviously we, we should take the stairway. Well, generally speaking, it doesn’t matter, but in business and in anything else, like sometimes the easy out isn’t the way to go and that we should really be pushing ourselves to like our maximum intensity. Um, if we, if we want to reap the benefits of, of a successful life, um, that we, we have to, we have to accept the way things are, even if they’re difficult and get through them rather than trying to find the shortcuts, because the shortcuts lead to like a longer hard run

00:15:56:02 –> 00:15:57:12

Speaker 3: In a lot of situations.

00:15:58:03 –> 00:15:59:10

Joel: It is, isn’t it.

00:16:00:01 –> 00:16:02:19

Speaker 3: Okay. What was that book called one more time? I don’t think I’ve read that one.

00:16:03:14 –> 00:16:07:06

Joel: I called take the stairs and it’s by Rory Vaden. Okay.

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Speaker 3: Nice

00:16:08:21 –> 00:16:14:00

Joel: Rule. Just about being committed and getting, getting through it. So that’s awesome.

00:16:14:07 –> 00:16:17:15

Speaker 3: Nice. Well, before we go today, Joel, how can people get ahold of you?

00:16:18:21 –> 00:16:32:13

Joel: Um, everything is branded as Joel, horse realtor. So, um, Instagram, Facebook texts me, uh, 6 1 6 7 1 7 2 4 6 5. And email is Joel Horace [email protected].

00:16:32:22 –> 00:16:35:00

Taylor: Awesome. Hey, thanks for coming today.

00:16:35:17 –> 00:16:36:25

Joel: Thanks for having me guys.

00:16:43:17 –> 00:16:59:15

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 Joel Horst:

Bellabay Realty

bellabayrealty.com/our-locations/joel-horst/

Instagram: @joelhorstrealtor

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