Episode 154 Transcript: Perry Green
This week on The Brad and Taylor Show, we have Perry Green from Legacy Realty Professionals, Inc. To watch the full episode, scroll down to see it on YouTube. To listen, head over to Apple Podcasts!
In the meantime, here’s a transcript of the conversation…
00:00:00:10 –> 00:00:03:17
Taylor: Welcome to the Brad and Taylor Show. Today, we have Perry Green.
00:00:04:00 –> 00:00:14:04
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.
00:00:14:18 –> 00:00:15:20
Taylor: Hey Perry, how are you?
00:00:16:13 –> 00:00:17:27
Perry: Good. How are you guys doing?
00:00:17:29 –> 00:00:23:01
Brad: We’re doing good. We’re doing good. Well, let’s get this show started and tell us a little bit about you. What do you do?
00:00:24:03 –> 00:00:41:05
Perry: For a job, I sell a real estate commercial and residential. Pretty much all over the place. I drive a lot and I also do some real estate investing. I also have a side business teaching CPL classes.
00:00:41:22 –> 00:00:43:18
Brad: Nice. Nice. Where are you located at?
00:00:44:18 –> 00:01:13:10
Perry: I live in Fenton, Michigan. We have an office in Fenton and Davidson, it’s my broker’s office. I should say. I’m in training to get my broker’s license. I don’t have it yet. We’re licensed for Michigan and then we have an extensive referral program. Our companies help people buy and sell stuff from California to Florida to Italy. It’s literally all over the place.
00:01:13:20 –> 00:01:17:01
Brad: Nice. That’s awesome. So when you were younger, is this what you had planned for your future to be an agent?
00:01:20:07 –> 00:01:48:18
Perry: Has any real estate agent ever answered “yes?” No, I was a lot like other kids. I was going to be an NBA player or a professional dirt bike rider. I didn’t practice enough to do either of those. I didn’t realize that’s how you had to do that. When you’re a dumb kid and you just want to do something without the work, you don’t realize the value in it.
00:01:48:26 –> 00:01:55:17
Yeah. I think that’s how all kids are though. Even when I ask my kids, they always say, I want to be something I’m like, okay, we got to put it there.
00:01:55:17 –> 00:02:06:28
Yeah. This wasn’t the plan. I really like it. I really enjoy it. I could probably extend your podcast to about three and a half hours telling you all the different jobs I’ve had.
00:02:10:02 –> 00:02:10:24
Brad: What are a couple?
00:02:11:18 –> 00:02:35:24
Perry: Well, I started out working at a local amateur Motorcross track. So that sparked the interest in dirt bikes, and they’re just tons of fun. A banker property manager more recently.
00:02:36:21 –> 00:02:43:06
Brad: Nice. Oh yeah. So, that’s probably how you got into real estate. So what job were you at when you decided you were going to get your license?
00:02:44:00 –> 00:03:27:17
Perry: So I was actually teaching CPL classes full time when I decided that. If you’ve ever dealt with anyone, or if you yourself, haven’t gotten the real estate investing bug, it’s almost like going to an Amway and drinking the Kool-Aid like, you’re just like, you just get into it. And you’re all excited. So I have a good friend that is in that position and has been for over a decade. He was always saying, “Hey, move out here to Iowa and do real estate investing with me and blah, blah.” I’m like, ah, I don’t really want to move when I don’t really want to do real estate investing. And then, I was a banker for five years, found out I didn’t really want to keep doing that, left there to work for his property management company.
00:03:28:03 –> 00:04:40:03
Did that for two years from home and then started doing the CPL classes on the side when I was there. And then, we had some changes in our household that would take too long to get into, but essentially, I needed to do something that didn’t take up all my weekends. So from that point, he started talking to me and a couple of other friends about creating a group to do investing in multifamily out there in Iowa, which, for most people, you probably don’t start with your real estate investing in a different state. You wait until you know what you’re doing and have more capital first, but with his property management company being out there and, you know, having boots on the ground and his expertise and, uh, him being, you know, an owner and the stuff that made sense. So, we started looking at doing that and how to put that together. And at the same time, I kind of needed another job here that didn’t take up all my weekends. So I was like, “I always thought being a realtor was kind of interesting.” I had a background at that point in property management and banking, which kind of complimented, you know, this role. So, I went and got my license and that’s how I got going.
Taylor: That’s awesome!
00:04:40:11 –> 00:04:50:16
Taylor: I know being kind of out of state for those investment properties, you probably haven’t walked through too many of those, but out of the ones you have walked through here, what’s the worst one? What do you think the worst property is?
00:04:51:00 –> 00:05:46:26
Perry: I’ve been in some places that were destroyed, like abandoned water, damaged, smelly like that, but probably the more interesting was this one out towards Lansing. I’ll say it was a 4,000 square foot ranch with a full basement. And so some of the basement hallways were literally 50, 60 feet long. It had a three or four-car garage on one end of the ranch. And the other end had a really big pole barn, like at least 40 by 58 feet. If I’m remembering correctly, it could be a little off anyways, it was a hoarder’s house and it was so full of stuff, but it wasn’t dirty. So that was really kind of an odd combination. Like most horror houses I’ve been in are kind of gross, but this one wasn’t. At one point we’re walking through the basement, you walk through a door into this room and there’s like, no floor.
00:05:46:26 –> 00:06:16:22
And then you look around and you realize it’s poorly lit down there, there is an endless pool, and this thing is like 10 or 12 foot deep and it’s empty. Just really weird, you walk into another room when there’s like 10 box fans sitting there, you know, like just, just weird stuff. You walk into another room when there are like five or six flat-screen TVs, new in the box. So I guess they just enjoyed like, you know, this home shopping network or something.
00:06:17:25 –> 00:06:20:08
Taylor: Did you end up having clients who bought that home?
00:06:20:27 –> 00:07:01:07
Perry: No. An agent in my office had it listed, so I got a showing for it off of a floor call. The people that I took to it were like, eh, and then they didn’t buy it, you know, they thought about it and they thought about doing it to live in, they thought about trying to flip it, but at that point, they didn’t want to. The seller didn’t want to come down far enough on the price. Later on, my coworker ended up selling it. I believe our office is real good at building relationships. So, they eventually ended up helping her get rid of it.
00:07:01:10 –> 00:07:07:26
Taylor: Nope, exactly. When you first started in real estate, is there any advice that you have gotten that stuck with you throughout the years?
00:07:08:26 –> 00:07:46:05
Perry: It’s hard to remember specifically. My broker is a true servant leader and he teaches that and embodies that. We’re both Christians. I don’t come to preach to people, but if they ask, I’m happy to chat about it. He really lives the way I believe you’re supposed to live, whether it’s in front of people or not, he is who he says he is, he does what he says he’s gonna do. Just his teaching and guiding and showing how valuable it is to serve people.
00:07:48:05 –> 00:07:53:26
Taylor: That’s awesome! What kind of goals do you want to accomplish finishing out this year and kind of going into the next one?
00:07:54:26 –> 00:08:40:11
Perry: Have you heard of Grant Cardone 10 X? Okay, so I read that a while back. I don’t remember how I got to my goal specifically right now, but this year’s goal was 10 million. Depending on how the chips fall at the rate I’m going, I might fall a little short, but last year’s goal was 3 million. I’m past that now. For most people, it’s one thing to talk about it and to hear it, but it’s another thing to do. It doesn’t matter how many dollars you sell if you’re not serving and helping people.
00:08:40:11 –> 00:09:19:01
It’s a lot easier to track if you, because you don’t really have a meter, it’s not like a video game. Like I served this many people this month or whatever. So, you track that in dollars closed, or however you do it. For right now, I’m, I’ve got a couple of bigger listings, which is a blessing to have, but those usually take a little longer, especially commercial stuff. So, we’ll see where it falls, but I’m really happy with where I’m at. I’m further, much further than I was last year. So, we’ll see how it goes.
00:09:19:13 –> 00:09:23:13
Taylor: What’s your favorite way to market yourself and kind of stay in touch with your clients that you have?
00:09:24:00 –> 00:10:17:15
Perry: Face-to-face in-person, networking things, relationships with friends, family, past coworkers, past church members, current church members. I don’t want to pick on the digital age too much I do know how to use a computer and I used Facebook. I’d imagine you probably don’t have a lot of people on here that don’t have a current Facebook account. I’ve been off since that for about a year. I’m coming up on a year of not being on Facebook and every salesperson that calls me can’t believe that and blah, blah, blah. But in-person communication has so much value. That is, it’s a lost thing in our society, I think, or about to be, maybe it was lost 20 years ago. I don’t know, but I like dealing with people and being face-to-face with people.
00:10:17:16 –> 00:11:22:12
I get blessed with such a high quality of clients, people that are friendly, kind, logical, intelligent, loyal. So, it’s I hear so many horror stories of, “well, I got these leads, but then they ditch me for someone else,” or, “I show them 10 houses and then I was not available on the spot. So they call someone else,” you know, that’s fine, that’s totally fine. And I’m not blaming the people that called someone else or whatever. It’s a hot market, you gotta move, you gotta be ready. And if you don’t have someone to help you out, that’s kind of your problem and your fault. Personally, I like people. And so I go to networking things. I go to different meetings routinely and I’m blessed to have a few different sources of people that send me referrals on a relatively routine basis. So I just really enjoy that. And I also like it because most of the leadership or successes you read are you going to tell you if you’re doing the exact same things as everyone else, that’s probably not the best thing.
00:11:23:03 –> 00:11:29:15
Taylor: Yeah. Building relationships is huge in this business, as you know, and making those relationships face-to-face is going to make them stronger. Yeah.
00:11:29:28 –> 00:12:02:16
Perry: And it’s so much more enjoyable. It’s just so much more, it’s more fun. There’s more substance to it. You know, when you treat people right, they like you and you like them and you build that relationship and then you hang out together and it’s like your friends are your clients. That’s how I feel about what I do. And then that’s why I like what I do because it doesn’t feel like a job. I feel like I go hang out with friends and I show them houses and I helped them sell their house or their business or whatever. So that’s my favorite part is the people.
00:12:02:25 –> 00:12:12:03
Taylor: Yeah. And I’m sure over the years too, you’ve helped them get their second homes or maybe even their children when their children are ready to move out, you’ve helped them get a home. So, that sounds good.
00:12:12:13 –> 00:12:21:03
Perry: Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. Now I’ve only been at it for just under five years. So, I’m not quite to that second generation yet. I’m old enough to have been doing it that long.
00:12:23:11 –> 00:12:26:24
Brad: If you could start over today, what is one thing you would change?
00:12:28:02 –> 00:13:13:03
Perry: I would have started doing this right away. All this stuff I was just babbling on about, I would start doing all that stuff more and sooner. I would have started meeting with people more. I did that a lot in the beginning and I think that’s what helped me get going quickly. I really just enjoy it. Some people say, “I’m not a salesperson.” I don’t feel like I’m selling anyone. Anything. Am I going to talk you into spending $200,000 that you don’t want to spend or $500,000? I wish I was that good of a salesperson, I guess, but it’s just how you lead people. You try to keep them going in the right direction.
00:13:14:09 –> 00:13:26:08
Taylor: I heard someone say before that being a real estate agent is almost like being not only a friend but a therapist. So you’re there for them, not only for that sale, but you’re there for that person.
00:13:27:06 –> 00:14:20:18
Perry: That is true sometimes. That’s a really good point because sometimes when you’re so busy trying to figure out how much you can spend or how much you need to make off your house, and you’ve got a million things going on in life, it’s so convenient to have an expert there that can just take you by the hand and say, “Hey, this is what we need to do on the house front. I got this covered for you, relax. This is how it works. This is what we’re going to do. This is what we need to watch out for.” They really appreciate it. I got a tiny bit of that at the bank as a banker. But at the end of the day, obviously the obvious differences, I was part of this huge thing that treated people like numbers and that morphed over time. And it just got to a point where it wasn’t the way I wanted to be operating. So, this is all the pluses and none of the minuses for them all.
00:14:21:10 –> 00:14:31:13
Taylor: Yeah. And I know at the beginning of our conversation here, you mentioned you drive a lot, being an agent, you drive all over all the time. Do you listen to audiobooks or anything when you’re driving?
00:14:32:17 –> 00:14:35:21
Perry: I’m hooked on audible and I listen to a lot of podcasts.
00:14:36:04 –> 00:14:38:08
Taylor: What are some of your favorite ones that you listened to right now?
00:14:38:29 –> 00:15:55:15
Perry: Right now, I listen to a lot of Jocko Willink. He’s written a handful of leadership books. The first one I believe was Extreme Ownership. He’s written some kids’ books, he’s a retired Navy seal. Very consistent and interesting guy. I’m interested in military stuff. So, sometimes they’ll be talking about former special forces, former Vietnam, former Korean war guys, or, you know, people that have had amputations. Just getting that perspective of how they fought through and survived and honoring those that didn’t come home. It’s just a huge part of our country. Servanthood, you know, I can’t remember the exact verse, but, it’s John, I believe John 15, 13. “There’s no greater love than to lay down your life for your friends.” I’m botching that but that’s the gist of it. Yeah,
00:15:55:27 –> 00:15:57:20
Taylor: That’s awesome. What’s that podcast called?
00:15:58:10 –> 00:17:00:10
Uh, Jocko, J O C K O Jocko podcast. Years ago I was involved in, I jokingly refer to it as a “pyramid.” I still have friends in those businesses. I’ve got nothing against it. They’re fun and great for some people and not for others or whatever. Anyways, once you get into reading and growing, and self-development, that’s one of the benefits that you typically take with you, even if you don’t stay in that type of business. So since that, I’ve always liked to read and try to grow and all that stuff. The most important part is execution, right? If you can learn all this stuff, it doesn’t mean anything if you’re not able to execute it. And I feel like his information has helped me go more from theory to execution than anything else I’ve ever come across. It’s really good. Like I’ve listened to a lot of stuff, his is top-notch.
00:17:01:07 –> 00:17:03:28
Taylor: Before we go today, how can people get ahold of you?
00:17:05:04 –> 00:18:07:17
They can call me. 810-7634 is my phone number. I do have a website, even though I’m not on Facebook. I haven’t sworn that off. I might have someone create a page for me for business purposes or whatever I might, but right now, I just really enjoy not having it. It’s much more positive and fun and I can keep the stuff negative off of it. So anyway, Perrysellshouses.com is my website. I just found out a couple of days ago, I had a security issue, like a security certificate, you don’t have the SSL or whatever it is in the beginning, I’ll have that fixed. So I don’t know, maybe by the time this is aired or whatever, it will be totally up and running. It is up and running, you just have to click past that. Your computer’s going to say, “you’re about to do business with the Taliban” or something bad, something horrible. That’s not true. That’s the friendly neighborhood realtor.
00:18:07:27 –> 00:18:11:20
Brad: Yeah. Oh yeah, for sure. That’s awesome. Hey, thanks for coming on and sharing your story with us today.
00:18:12:04 –> 00:18:13:24
Perry: Yeah, of course. I appreciate you guys having me.
00:18:17:29 –> 00:18:36:00
Hello. Hello. Are you 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. And 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 Perry Green:
Legacy Realty Professionals, Inc.
https://for-sale.legacyrealtypros.com/idx/agent/122324/perry-green
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