Episode 178: Alex Chaar
On this episode of The Brad and Taylor Show, we sat down with Alex Chaar from Chaar Realty (Rich 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 alex chaar…
00:00:00:14 –> 00:00:03:16
Taylor: Welcome to The Brad and Taylor Show. Today, we have Alex Chaar.
00:00:04:04 –> 00:00:15:01
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.
00:00:15:01 –> 00:00:16:01
Taylor: Hey Alex, how are you doing?
00:00:17:02 –> 00:00:19:10
Alex: Hey Brad. Hey Taylor. I’m doing wonderful. How about you?
Taylor: We’re good!
00:00:19:28 –> 00:00:24:05
Brad: Doing good. Well, let’s get this started. Tell us a little bit about you. What do you do?
00:00:25:12 –> 00:01:01:09
Alex: So first and foremost, I’m a husband and a father of two beautiful children, a four and a six-year-old boy and girl. Outside of my family and hobbies, I work full-time as a real estate professional. I’m under the umbrella of Rich Realty, but I have my own team, which is Chaar Realty. I serve mostly in Western Wayne county as well as in Oakland, Washington.
00:01:01:09 –> 00:01:03:16
Brad: Awesome. How long have you been doing real estate?
00:01:04:22 –> 00:01:09:26
Alex: Good question about coming up on around eight, eight years, eight to nine years.
00:01:09:26 –> 00:01:10:14
Brad: What’d you do before that?
00:01:11:26 –> 00:01:54:27
Alex: Honestly, I grew up in the south, came up here in Tennessee. I came up here in high school, graduated, and went to U of M, sorry, when I graduated high school, I went to U of M, got a degree that was a combination of IT and marketing. I did more a nine to five types of work under some companies here in Southeast Michigan. At one point I just wanted to change space and I’ve always liked real estate and decided to jump in and never looked back.
00:01:55:03 –> 00:02:02:15
Brad: I like it. So when you decided to make the switch, did you jump full-time into it or did you kind of casually go into it part-time? How did that go?
00:02:03:07 –> 00:02:39:25
Alex: It was full-time. It was full-time. Yeah, I like to do my research before I take such a big leap and I spoke to some professionals in the industry and they said they can barely keep up and serve their clients while working full-time. So part-time wouldn’t do me or my clients any service. I decided I would hold off until I was a hundred percent sure I could cut the corporate rope and jump in full-time.
00:02:40:02 –> 00:02:48:18
Brad: Yeah. So how did you make that shift? Was it a long time? It sounded like it was probably more like a long time planned out.
00:02:49:05 –> 00:03:46:20
Alex: Okay. It was, so I got the bug, the self-employed bug, if you will, while I was in corporate. I honestly just wanted to do something where I felt like I was serving the end-user or a person, that I’m helping out versus serving the company. Both are good. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with one way or the other. I’m just a people person. I enjoy interactions with people and I want it to feel like I had a direct connection to it. It just gave me satisfaction to feel like I had a direct connection to help folks out. So I thought of different options that I could do like a quote and quote self-employed business. And I’ve always been interested in real estate. I kept talking for a couple of years to real estate professionals and finally said, this is the right path for me and just jumped in.
00:03:47:02 –> 00:03:57:26
Taylor: Nice. When you were talking to everybody trying to make that decision, am I going to go here? Am I going to stay corporate? Did you get advice that maybe just has stuck with you throughout the first couple of years, or even until now throughout the whole time?
00:03:59:24 –> 00:04:01:10
Alex: Real estate related?
00:04:01:10 –> 00:04:09:27
Taylor: It can be anything. It doesn’t have to be. Yeah. Did you get any advice that was kind of just like, yes, this is what I’m going to do, and this is how I’m going to do it. I’m going to stick with it.
00:04:09:28 –> 00:05:01:28
Alex: Sure, sure. I guess I’m going to try to split this into two parts, maybe a kind of personal life advice and real estate advice. Should we take it that way?
Taylor: That’s perfect.
Alex: All right. So personal advice, there’s a couple of things that are always on my mind whenever it comes to just dealing with life and it’s helped me tremendously. One is just having a good perspective, remembering what really matters in life. Our health, our family, our friends, our time, these things are irreplaceable. I focus on those and give them their true value. We have ups and downs in life. You can have a car accident or lose some money on an investment or miss an opportunity.
00:05:02:11 –> 00:05:56:24
I can replace a car. I can do other work, work harder and make some more money on an investment or look for other opportunities. But my time, I can’t get back, my health, some things are hard to get back. Our relationships with our family and friends are sometimes hard to mend once we’ve lost a chance to spend time and build those. So just having that perspective, that helps give me peace of mind. There’s a book by Richard Carlson called, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, and it’s all small stuff. Essentially it was just a book that was about trying to stop the little things from taking over your life. So I try to do that. It gives me the peace of mind that gets those around because I try to stay in an overall good mood even through the ups and downs of life.
00:05:57:16 –> 00:06:57:28
So that’s kind of more life advice. That’s just something that I always fall back on. Work advice, always put your client and customer first, do everything related to what helps your client or customer as your number one priority, and everything else will follow. It’ll quickly become evident what you can do in your business to improve your processes to create a better experience for clients. The money will follow. You know, obviously, a lot of people do their business, focusing a little bit on money. Some people become doctors just to make money while others will do it just to help others. The idea is to put your customers and clients first, everything else will follow whether it’s the business success or everything else starts to come into order. If everything you do is based on customer and client satisfaction and the best results for them.
00:06:58:06 –> 00:07:07:28
Taylor: Yeah, absolutely. Is that a piece of advice that maybe you got when you first start out in real estate? Or is that something that you may have just learned as time went on in the real estate business?
00:07:09:15 –> 00:07:30:28
Alex: My father used to own his own business and it’s something that my father had talked about early on before I even got into real estate, but it really struck me as being extremely important once I actually got into it.
00:07:31:26 –> 00:07:41:07
Taylor: Yeah, those relationships are key. So over the last couple of years, what is the worst property or showing that you think you’ve been to? Do any of them stick out?
00:07:42:09 –> 00:08:43:01
Alex: Oh yeah, for sure. During the years after the 2009 downturn, I went into a home that had been vacant for years. It had the worst case of mold I had ever seen, the wood floors at all worked, buckled and popped that place, from all the water exposure that they’ve had in for who knows how long, every surface was grey or thick black because of the mold. About three minutes of time I spent in this house, I ended up with a four-day cough because of the spores that I breathed in, just really held onto my lungs. My client, who was an investor, didn’t suffer from the same situation. That’s where I learned how sensitive I was to mold. But this house, the whole thing was just falling apart. I don’t think it was safe to actually walk in.
00:08:43:13 –> 00:08:43:23
Taylor: Yeah, it doesn’t sound like it.
00:08:45:11 –> 00:09:04:29
Alex: Yeah, yeah. But I did learn that my sensitivity to mold now helps me when I walk into a basement. A lot of folks want to know if their basements are dry. I’m realizing that my nose can pick up on mold quicker than other people. So that helps me at showings just to kind of know now.
00:09:06:29 –> 00:09:22:13
Taylor: That’s good, I mean, it’s not good that you have a sensitivity to it, but it’s good in the sense that you can help out your clients that way they want to know your cycle. Let me just go down there real quick. I can tell you real quick. Did the investor end up buying that house with mold?
00:09:22:28 –> 00:09:34:29
Alex: No. I don’t know why he spent so much time on it. That was a teardown, the house that should have been considered or listed safely on the market.
00:09:35:12 –> 00:09:42:05
Taylor: If you could start all over today with all the knowledge that you have, what is one thing that you would do differently? What’s one thing that you would change?
00:09:43:11 –> 00:10:55:10
Alex: Hmm, good question. You know, both the things I guess, that we get right in the mistakes that we make in our past. I mean, both of those are needed to build our character or knowledge base or our wisdom that we’re applying in the present day. So I don’t, I mean, sometimes you need some of those mistakes and things, you need to experience those. But if there’s one thing that I’d do differently, when I graduated from the University of Michigan and started in the corporate world, had I known I was going to end up in real estate, I would have loved to dabble in real estate in one way or the other, whether it’s through investment. I know I wouldn’t have probably been a great idea to do as a real estate agent part-time, but at least maybe I’m shadowing a real estate agent to learn the ropes, or maybe just do some investment properties, but just to get into real estate back then would have started building up my knowledge base early on.
00:10:55:13 –> 00:11:02:25
And that would have set me up to when I did finally pull the trigger and then go full-time to real estate with an already built foundation.
00:11:03:16 –> 00:11:12:00
Taylor: Yeah. And speaking of you, I’m kind of rewinding here a little bit, going back to the beginning when you first started in real estate, how did you get your first transaction and how did it go for you?
00:11:13:11 –> 00:12:26:15
Alex: Oh gosh, I was set up with a mentor at the office I was in, which was a Remax office at the time. I essentially shadowed him and he would semi-hand me off to clients that had maybe some simpler transaction to handle. He was always there to help guide me through the process and that helped me a lot to learn the ropes. Honestly the first, I would say the first real lead that wasn’t just like a lead that came from the office would have just been something where I believe it was a friend that needed a house. One of my best friends needed a house. And I helped them look for it and walk them through the full transaction. Them being a friend that thankfully was patient with me when I didn’t know something. I don’t just say I don’t, and it’s okay not to know, but just, it took me some time to research and get the correct answers. So that was a great way to just start out with an early transaction.
00:12:26:25 –> 00:12:33:08
Taylor: Yeah. Did the transaction go smoothly? I mean, the friend sometimes it’s kind of, there’s more pressure.
00:12:34:06 –> 00:13:07:11
Alex: True. Oh yeah. With the immense immense pressure, the mentor is a must. I think you have to have someone to really fall back on whether it’s a really great and available broker, some brokers are better than this than others, or a mentor in the office that you’re connected with. If you’re starting out, it’s really good to have someone that isn’t going to be bugged by you constantly asking questions. Cause it’s really important that you do, obviously you’re dealing with a big transaction for a client. You’ve got to make sure you get it right.
00:13:07:27 –> 00:13:12:15
Taylor: I know you mentioned you have a team right now too. Can we talk a little bit about your team, how many people do you have right now?
00:13:12:18 –> 00:13:42:07
Alex: Yeah, so honestly it’s a growing team. Essentially, it’s a two-person team and we’ve got a third one that might be joining. He is just in the process of taking his exams right now. So he’s new under Chaar Realty. I realized that I’m gonna do better for myself and for my clients in a team environment than I am by myself. So I decided that I wanted to go down that path.
00:13:42:17 –> 00:13:50:29
Taylor: Yeah. That’s awesome. What’s one thing that you look for when you’re looking to bring on someone to your team? What’s one characteristic that you’re looking for in that person?
00:13:53:14 –> 00:15:24:03
Alex: Good question. I want them to, if they care about the customer or the client, they’d genuinely care, they would be willing to take on whatever might be necessary. It’s not one thing, it’s a lot of things. It’s good character, it’s honesty, it’s timeliness, it’s good communication. There’s so much stuff that goes and just building a really big knowledge base about the industry and continuing your education so that you can navigate the immense amount of unique challenges that each deal brings. It’s not one thing, but if you genuinely care about your customer, you’re gonna care to become better at all the different stuff that you need. So really it’s if one thing, I want someone that would care, not purely someone that’s just looking for a job. I don’t think real estate’s right for that. There’s a lot of things where you can be a little bit detached from your work and still be good but here, you’re fully involved when it comes to real estate. Your heart gotta be in it every step of the way. I think that’s a big value and obviously good work ethics has to come along with that and then everything else can follow.
00:15:24:24 –> 00:15:37:04
Taylor: Yeah, absolutely. I know you mentioned timeliness earlier, your time’s very important. Do you time block or how do you make time for everything going on with this crazy market right now? How do you have time for it all?
00:15:38:23 –> 00:16:43:27
Alex: I sometimes feel like I don’t, the family definitely will tell me that I don’t always have enough time. I don’t get to spend as much time as I’d like with the family and kids. That has its ups and downs. Right. In my nine to five, if I have a two o’clock soccer game for my son on a Tuesday, I can’t go to that. I can’t leave my work to go to that easily. Here, I can plan for that. Obviously, I’m not going to do it every time, but at least there’s a chance. So it comes with pluses and minuses, but at the same time at work, I clock out at 6:00 PM, 5:00 PM. And I’m done for the evening. With real estate, at 11:30 at night, I’m up working on a purchase agreement. It’s a give and take with real estate. But yeah, I do. I definitely do block out my time. I use my Google calendar. Every time I have an appointment or something I want to work on, I just block it out on my calendar. And if I don’t do that, it would be just absolute chaos. So yeah, you have to manage your time very well, then we will stay.
00:16:44:20 –> 00:16:47:06
Taylor: Awesome. Well, before we go today, how can people get a hold of you?
00:16:48:10 –> 00:17:15:10
Alex: They can email me or reach me through my cell. They can call or text me. My email is alexnchaar@rich realty.com or call and text me anytime. My phone number is (313) 610-1200.
00:17:16:04 –> 00:17:18:18
Brad: Awesome. Thanks for coming and sharing your story with us today.
00:17:18:18 –> 00:17:21:08
Alex: Absolutely. Thanks for having me on.
00:17:28:28 –> 00:17:43:29
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 Alex Chaar:
If you loved this episode subscribe so you never miss one! Want more Brad and Taylor content? Head over to our blog.