0-100: How Matt Went From Short Sale Processor to Rock Star in 4 Years

Steve Trang: Hey, everybody. Thanks for joining us again. Thank you for joining for today's show. Today, we got Matthew Potter, the short sale king of Arizona. We're gonna talk about how Matt went from a short sell processor getting all the 1% of, like, what, my $30,000 short sales

Matthew Potter: Yes. So is correct.

Steve: Yes. Dollars per transactions and how you're able to roll that out to this big time producer. So in 2017, you did over a 100 transactions for 23,000,000 in sales volume.

Matthew: So Yes.

Steve: Yes. So before we talk about that, I wanna start I just wanna share, you know, we started this show because we wanna give back to our community. We've struggled before, you know, and, we had a lot of issues when we started. And what we wanna do is kinda share our lessons so we can short shortcut the struggle for a lot of the young business leaders out there. And so all I ask is if you get value out of the show, tell a friend.

You know, either share this episode or, tell a friend or tell, a takeaway or a lesson that you got from this episode. Talk about the show, basically, you know, to, to help out as many people as we can. And, don't forget, this is live q and a. So, I got the this all up in, in our Facebook page. So if you got questions for mister Potter, post them here, and I'll be happy to get him answered for you.

So, now that we're getting started, so let's talk about why real estate. How did you get into this business?

Matthew: So super crazy story on that. I was actually going to school to be an elementary school teacher. You know, whole passion. Yes. Wow.

Thank God I I changed my I I ultimately changed the direction there. And I was studying under doctor Butler over at ASU, doctor Jay Butler, one of my biggest mentors, before even getting into real estate. And, ultimately, I was going through that, got my degree, and right when I got my degree was when the market just started tanking. Banks are gone, out of business, are being absorbed, all that. So I went for an interview at a company.

It was a short sale company up in Scottsdale, like you said, one you know? Well, actually, that one wasn't 1%. We had a little bit more there.

Steve: But,

Matthew: ultimately, myself, my wife, we didn't get more. And I was hired on the spot, started doing short sales. Next thing I knew, three, four months later, I'm closing ten, fifteen of them a month. And I'm like, alright. That's actually where I ended up meeting my wife.

We broke off, started our own company, kinda went from there. And then, what was it, 2013, I think it was? Yeah. We went ahead and branched into full time real estate, everything, short sales, buyers, sellers, investment flips, all of it. So it's definitely been a crazy crazy ride.

Nicole and I always sit there, and we're like, wow. It's been ten years. Like, it it doesn't feel like ten years. It feels like it's been, like, three or four years. So it's it's really crazy, but that was that was ultimately my route to real estate.

Steve: That's so funny. I actually wanted to be a teacher too. Actually, one of the things I wanted to be, but it was like, it just doesn't make enough financial sense.

Matthew: That that was my main struggle where I was like, I I'm not gonna be able to support myself. Right.

Steve: And that's how we met because I would be the short sell expert

Matthew: Yes.

Steve: And I would get the listing. And then I'll say, Matt, I need you to process this short sell first.

Matthew: And I I would be the expert behind the scenes. You were the expert in front of the curtain. Right. It was great. We're Wizard of Oz behind the scenes.

Steve: It was a win win win for everybody. Absolutely. So okay. So what struggles did you face when you got started?

Matthew: Getting our name out there, getting our brand out there, getting people to trust us. You know, back then, when the market was just absolute you know, it was pretty well bottomed out. Homes are, like you said, 30,000. It's hard for me to go to an agent and be like, hey. Look.

By the way, I need to take, like, you know, about 33 percent of your paycheck. Right. But you're gonna get a paycheck if you trust me and trust us, and we'll get it done. And, I mean, that's a hard sell when a lot of people aren't making any money. I mean, I remember when I sat down with you, we went to, well, originally, it was over at your old brokerage.

Mhmm. And then we went to lunch too, and you were like, okay. Look. I can see the value in this. Let's make this happen.

And I'm like, okay. And all of a sudden, you started getting much more consistent paychecks. Right. And, you know, Nicole and I ultimately, you know, we can put a roof over our head at the time. Yeah.

Steve: Well, I mean, it's a lot easier paying someone a third and making sure that I didn't have to do anything Exactly. Versus having to slam my head against the wall Yes. Dealing with that. So what other struggles did you face when you first got licensed?

Matthew: When I first got licensed, it was a totally different dynamic at that point because we were, you know, we were known as short sale processors, negotiators, whatever words you wanna use. Mhmm. And all of a sudden, it's, hey. By the way, we're not just doing that. We can run with your short sell.

We can do the whole thing. By the way, help us help you, you know, sell your house, buy a house, things like that. And, you know, it's it's even with anybody that ever changes a career

Steve: path. Mhmm.

Matthew: There's struggles. It it takes time. And, you know, it's luckily, we had the foundation there. And a lot of our agent partners that we know, not just here in other parts of the country too, it was kind of you know, they were our big support system. Yeah.

Like, yeah. You know, we trust them a 100%. They're gonna give it to you real. You're going to ultimately be happy and satisfied. So, you know, we started listing property, started helping buyers buy property.

And then from there, we just kinda started growing and helping more and more people and getting more referrals, which, yeah, that that was pretty awesome.

Steve: It is definitely. Okay. So knowing what you know today, what did you do differently when you started?

Matthew: Yes. My wife's probably smiling right now as I say this. I should have taken her advice and done what we did sooner, you know, which is convert from just the short sell processing side and open up the other avenues of helping buyers, helping sellers, not just short sale sales.

Steve: So you're talking about traditional real estate. Correct. Should've gotten licensed sooner.

Matthew: Should've gotten licensed sooner. She's a smart woman. She is. There's there's a reason that I married her. Well, there's several, but that's one of them.

I that's probably the biggest thing is I woulda just started sooner because, you know, there was fear that holds you back of, oh, oh, god. You know, I'm not gonna have a, quote, unquote, normal, steady paycheck. Well, we didn't have a normal, steady paycheck anyways. Yeah. But the way we were structured, we did.

So it was kinda like you felt a a false sense of security. And it's like, you know, take off the water wings, jump in the deep end. Let's just go for it. Right.

Steve: And you guys did I mean, you guys did made a massive impact. So, what would you say is your superpower?

Matthew: I don't know. Being able to bang my head against the wall with short cells and not have lost all my brain cells. I I guess probably the biggest thing is being able to put together the puzzle as well as still realizing that there is a human component with it. It's not like a a bank sale or an REO sale. Everybody that we help, I mean, there's different everybody has a different story.

And no nobody's story is exactly the the same, although a lot of them fall in the same box. Mhmm. So I think a lot of it is you're sitting there and you're looking at it. Okay. Still have to be, you know, compassionate, but at the same time, I have to use the number side of my brain with the bank.

Because the bank, ultimately, at the end of the day, they have no compassion. They don't care. No. They're they're not getting paid. They don't care.

They're like, that's great that, you know, your your spouse passed away a year ago. Sorry. We're gonna foreclose on you next month, and we're kind of the final line of trying to get that to stop.

Steve: Right. And then, I mean, there's a lot of partnerships in this industry. Yes. Maybe in in in general, but definitely, for sure, in this industry, real estate partnerships. And they generally don't work.

Right? I mean, they they fall apart. It's it's more the, the the rule than the exception. Yes. So let's talk about some of the challenges you guys had and how you

Matthew: guys overcame those challenges. We this is this is the thing that's actually very interesting. Nicole and I talk about this. We we actually were almost at a point where we had the mindset of if you're not in your desk making your phone calls, you're not ultimately gonna perform. Nicole was like, look.

I I get my job done because she kinda handled the closing aspect of it. I handled the negotiation side of it. And we butted heads really, really bad about this. This was actually prior to us ever being in a personal relationship. And it got so bad to a point that we were about to throw our hands up and just be like, nope.

We're done. Right. We're absolutely done. You know, you go do what you do. I'll go do what I do.

But then you have to sit there and you have to take a step back and you have to look at it. Am I as strong on my own Mhmm. As I am in this partnership? Like, if if we break this apart, are we still gonna be successful? And it's a resounding no.

We both know that. Right. Cooler heads generally prevailed. And it's kinda one of those things, like, even when you, you know, when you were working with us on the processing side, you liked working with Marissa. Right.

Marissa's amazing. Everybody loves working with Marissa. She she was amazing. Yeah. Then on the flip side of that, you liked working with me.

You liked working with Nicole because Nicole generally was the one that's like, by the way, it's closed. You're getting paid.

Steve: Nicole was always the deliverer of good news.

Matthew: Yes. Choice also approved. Nicole never gave you bad news. I was the guy that was like, see what happened to us. And you're like, no.

I don't wanna talk to you. Yeah. So we looked at it, and the sum of everybody together, it's a it's a huge strength. And agents don't wanna work with just me or just Nicole or just Marissa. It was all of us, you know, like, captain planet.

Our powers combined. So that that was probably the biggest struggle is, at the end of the day, you know, we're one team, one dream. We're all trying to go towards the same common goal. But, ultimately, we may all think a different way to get there. Right.

And that's the you know, that was kind of the biggest thing where it's not necessarily my way was right, her way was right. It was kind of a culmination of both of our ways, and it ultimately got us to, you know, where we wanted to be and where we're at right now.

Steve: Right. And I think, you know, looking at your guys' relationship from the outside, looks like you're really good at shaking the tree, just making things happen.

Matthew: Yes.

Steve: Right? And Nicole is really good at making the clients happy

Matthew: Yes.

Steve: And having them refer your business. So talk about

Matthew: her part her role in that. Well, the the this was a great thing about kind of that circle and even the circle today for that matter is we were always very referral based. I mean, when we started out our company, we had three transactions for a total of, like, 1,200. And we had, like, a $130,000 loan that was hanging out there. And I'm like, this is not a good business plan at all.

This is a horrible idea.

Steve: Right.

Matthew: We knew that it would take about six months to build the business and things like that. And, you know, I would work on refer generating referrals. Nicole would work on generating referrals. Marissa would. Everybody everybody would work on it.

The great thing was Nicole's job was, like, perfectly primed for asking for them or, hey. Do you have new files? Even buyer's agents that because we would always include buyer's agents on the, on the communication because, well, they may end up having a listing that they need help with. We actually got a lot of business that way. So once she got everything done, it's like three days later, her and I would get an email.

Hey. Thanks so much. By the way, my friend in my office has a short sale, and she's banging her head against the wall. Will you guys help? Right.

So it it was perfect because it was kind of everybody did their applicable part. Thus, the referrals started coming in and, you know, we went from the three transactions to I think there was one month. I just remember it was a December Mhmm. Which is traditionally a horrible month in real estate. Right.

And we ended up closing we ended up closing something like 67 transactions that month. And people were like, what? Like, you realize it's December. Nobody's moving. I'm like, well, if the bank says you have to close, you you're gonna move.

You Right. Kinda have to. So Or it's no longer approved. Exactly. Or, hey.

By the way, you're getting foreclosed on on January 3. Happy New Year. So it was like, you're right. We gotta go. So that's that's kinda how we built our business.

And now it feeds into where we're at now Mhmm. Where a lot of our business is referral. It's referral from other agents, past clients. The funny thing is even escrow officers that we worked with back then

Steve: Right.

Matthew: I I got a Facebook message the other day. Hey. My sister needs to buy a a property. I'm referring her to you and Nicole because you guys are awesome, whatever. And I was like

Steve: That's awesome.

Matthew: I was like, oh, okay. Now mind you, she's down in Casa Grande. Right. I don't do a ton of business in Casa Grande. But it was cool that she remembered us for that specific area, and I was like, heck yeah.

Yeah. We're we're totally fine helping her out. And she's like, awesome. I know she's in good hands with you guys with, you know, the way that you guys always handled everything on the short sale side. So it it's cool to see that because that's, like, you know, five, six years since the last time we did a transaction.

Yeah.

Steve: No. Definitely gotta be memorable that's happening. So, Max has a question. There's someone out there advertising stop doing short sells the old way. Have you heard this?

No. I haven't. Yeah. I don't know what that's about.

Matthew: Hey, Max. What's going on, buddy?

Steve: Okay. So I think you kinda talked about it a little bit, but let's just let's just go a little bit more. Why short sales?

Matthew: Why did we initially get into it, or why do we still focus on it now?

Steve: Yeah. The evolution. Right? So why'd you start in it, and then why are you still doing it?

Matthew: Started in it because it was either that or we were gonna have to work for the bank as REO agents. I mean, those were kinda your two options at that point. Or fly to New York, get yourself a, you know, a a hedge fund buyer, which that still wasn't for, you know, two, three years until that happened.

Steve: Mhmm.

Matthew: So more than anything, it was kinda out of necessity at the very beginning. Analytical brain. I do as well. I'm the product of two engineers, so I'm fairly normal, you know, all things considered. Except for the ADD.

You know, it is a thing. That being said, it's putting together a giant puzzle for us Right. Where I like that. Other people, you know, I don't wanna even consider doing that. You know?

I just want to I wanna focus on this. I'm like, no. Give me that. I want the more complicated, the more fun in my opinion. So I I am slightly nuts.

And, ultimately, once twenty thirteen rolled around and we activated our real estate licenses, writing was on the wall. We're starting to get some appreciation in the market. Short sale market's gonna start to dry up a little bit. And it was one of those things where people knew our name. They knew our brand.

They knew that we would close short sales. Mhmm. Whether they had been a buyer's agent on one or, you know, they'd seen they'd seen that we did. All of a a sudden, it was, well, I wanna work, you know, the traditional side of real estate, which there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But I still don't wanna just leave somebody hanging, so they started referring them to us.

Right. And that's how we kinda stayed with a real nice baseline of doing short sales.

Steve: So, you have a 178 reviews on Zillow. Yes. So what was the strategy? What was the process? Let's just start with why why Zillow?

Because when you started, you know, I remember I was telling you, screw Zillow. They're terrible people. Yes. You did. So you went ahead and ignored your broker's advice and has obviously cut out dividends.

So let's talk about that.

Matthew: It it it's helped a little bit. What so we did get a little bit lucky with CELA. Uh-huh. We actually did, and I'll get to that part of it. More than anything at the time, Redfin was still kind of in its infancy doing its thing.

Mhmm. Trulia was a separate brand at that point. You had realtor.com, but nobody really went to it. Zillow was all the rage. It's where everybody went.

Right. And I remember we were starting god, terrified of the payment on this for, you know, impressions or Yeah. You know, that's what they call them. It was something like $420 a month or something like that. And I'm like, oh god.

That's a lot of money. I'm like, we can't afford to do this. We can't. And, you know, Nicole's kinda look looking at it, and she's like, yeah. You know, that's, that's a pretty healthy budget.

So we pulled the trigger, and we went for it. And luckily, because we started listing a lot of short sales and, ultimately, friends started buying homes, selling homes, things like that, we started getting a lot of contacts off of that because of what was known as, an exclusive listing, which was, you know, our information would be the only information that would show up. Right. So we started getting a lot of contacts, way more contacts than Nicole and I could ever handle. So we ended up expanding our team to help make sure that, you know, the people that are contacting us are getting taken care of.

Mhmm. But from there, we ultimately got grandfathered in because one of the things is, there are times that I will procrastinate. Zillow reps will call, hey. You know, we wanna sell you more impressions. And I'm you know, you get into a little bit better spot.

And you're like, oh, okay. I could spend that. I could spend that. No problem. Well, I kept kinda putting it on the back burner.

So we're set up with 25 exclusive listings on Zillow, which is great because that means only our contact information is in front of those 25 listings. So they're gonna contact us and reach out to us. And from there, it's kind of mushroomed and exploded. Right. And it's made it's made us go from, you know, mom and pop shop to, hey.

You know, we have three other agents on our team, you know, couple transaction coordinators. Like, I mean, we, you know, we got a nice little solid team. Yeah. And from there, you know, a lot of people contact us off Zillow. We work with a lot of them, and we ultimately close a lot of them.

So it was I oh, no. You know, most of these people are looky loos. I'm like, well, if you're looking for a if you're looking for a house, Zillow is the biggest website right now. Right. There's probably a good chance you're gonna start there before you do anything else.

They're gonna contact someone. It might as well be you. Like, at least get get your foot in the door Mhmm. Before maybe they go to, you know, their mother's brother's uncle's cousin or, you know, go call somebody off the sign.

Steve: So I know one of the challenges that, you know, some of these agents agents have is getting the reviews. Yes. You have a 178. Yes. Let's talk about that process.

Matthew: How do you make from my mother. No. I'm just kidding. That works.

Steve: Hey. That's a strategy. I'm just kidding. That's a strategy that would work.

Matthew: If Zillow is watching this, they're not. They're all confirmed. Yeah. Literally, what we do and, you know, there's some people that will review us. There's some people that won't review us.

Mhmm. You know, some people aren't reviewers. Right. Once a transaction is closed, whether it's a buy side, sell side, we always like to try to, you know, follow-up. And we get them on a follow-up schedule, and, generally, we're calling them or seeing them in person several times a year.

Yeah. Once it closes, literally just send a nice little email, you know, congrats on your on your closing. We hope that you were happy with the service that we provided. Would you take, you know, a couple minutes to write a review for us on Zillow? If you don't, my broker will fire me.

Steve: Mhmm.

Matthew: So no. I really don't put that part in there. That's literally what we do. And I would say out of every 10 that we send out of that, I'd say probably eight will review us.

Steve: Right.

Matthew: Like I said, there's always a couple that just aren't going to. So you're, like,

Steve: a debt collector then on those

Matthew: other two? Like, what are you doing? No. Honestly, I'll I'll forward over an email again, and I'll I'll give a phone call and just be like, hey. I just wanted to see if you had a chance to, you know, read my email.

Mhmm. Just wanted to see if you, you know, had time to do a review and make sure, ultimately, you are happy with everything. Right. Because, generally, somebody's not gonna give you a a review, especially since it, you know, it literally takes two minutes. Mhmm.

Maybe there was something that you were unaware of during the process. And if there if there was something that they weren't happy with, well, let us know so that we can try to make it right for you. So, generally, if they haven't done it after I've talked to them a couple times

Steve: Mhmm.

Matthew: I'm like, you you know what? They're just not a reviewer. It's not a big deal. You know? I'm not gonna I'm not gonna sit there and, you know, show up at their door and be like, hey.

By the way, I've already logged on. I've created a username for you. Can you go ahead and do it?

Steve: I mean, it's not a bad thing. So, I see. So Facebook. I mean, I would say you're doing a lot a lot of business from Facebook. And I would say also that you're every broker's nightmare.

I think it's either every month or every other month. I say, hey, Matt. Knock it off. Or maybe you shouldn't say those things. So and in many ways, you're like a young Russell shot.

So so let's talk about that.

Matthew: What do you think is the strategy? To be fair, it is on my personal page, though. As a as a

Steve: realtor, are they really person of ages?

Matthew: No. There's not because they keep everything public. Yeah. The the thing that I've actually found about it is it appears most people appreciate it, where it's you know? And my wife and I always joke around.

We're real tors. We're, you know, all caps, real. Because at the end of the day, connecting with people is the most important thing. Yeah. It it is.

Well, you know, on whatever level. You can't just sit there and cram real estate down their throat twenty four seven and expect them to reach out to you.

Steve: Mhmm.

Matthew: They're they're gonna sit there and be like, god. This guy's annoying. Hide, unfollow, block, whatever it is. Right. So, you know, we like to do a nice mixture of literally everything in our lives that goes on.

Family, school, business, funny stuff, not so funny stuff, things that are debatable. Mhmm.

Steve: Yes. Yes. Debatable. Yes.

Matthew: I've I've had a couple statuses that have had over 400 comments on them, and I'm like, kinda broke the Facebook button on that one today. But, yeah, more more than anything, and this is the thing that's kinda cool, is and in no way whatsoever am I saying one way is right, one way is wrong. More often than not, all of our clients, even if it's somebody that we met and I've only known them a couple weeks and been working with them, I add them as a friend on Facebook.

Steve: Really? I

Matthew: do. The re the reason why is, ultimately, at the end of the day, I want them to I want them to see that it's not a show when I'm out with them. That, you know, I do like to have fun. I like to goof around. Yes.

I have serious moments as well. My wife would probably like me to have a couple more serious moments, but it is what it is. But I like them to know that look. You know, you didn't pay an admission to a show. This is this is how I am.

This is how my family is. This is how my kids are, the dogs. I mean, everything down to the turtles and I don't know. I think we have a fish or oh, no. That's right.

My wife said that I can buy a snake. I'm just kidding. She didn't. So we actually get tagged in, like, a lot of people's posts about, hey, hey, you know, I'm looking for a realtor, might wanna buy. We'll get tagged four or five times by mutual friends.

Next thing I know, there's a message. I would say, generally, probably once a week, either an agent or a friend, a friend of a friend on Facebook reaches out, via Messenger and is like, hey. Wanted to see if you could help out. You know, will you, you know, can you help out? And it's yeah.

Sure. Let me know what time that we can talk, and then let me know a time that we can sit down. Like, a friend of mine from high school Yeah. She she reached out to me on Messenger yesterday. Mhmm.

I'm sitting down with her tomorrow at 11AM. We're gonna discuss, what we can do to help her out.

Steve: Awesome.

Matthew: So Facebook, it's a it's a great tool if you leverage it.

Steve: If you leverage it correctly. And you do a really good job. You get tremendous engagement. I mean, there are some things, like, why does this have a 100 comments?

Matthew: Yes. Blue cheese. Yes or no? I had, like, a 146 comments on that, and Nicole was like, no. No.

And I'm like, the answer is yes.

Steve: The answer is no.

Matthew: The answer is yes.

Steve: I will get it right now. So alright. Right now, you know, the rage is wholesale and flipping. That's, you know, obviously, part of our movement, the real estate disruptors. And we're trying to create this marriage between, you know, traditional realtors and flipping and wholesaling.

Yes. So, obviously, you've gotten into this game very recently as well. So some people might wonder, how are you finding your opportunities and deals?

Matthew: I'm in a unique position. I think I could say that for most of my life. Yeah. Especially with a lot of short sales. Lot of investors, wholesalers, things like that, they'll actually refer them over to us.

Mhmm. And they're like, hey, this person needs help. We wanna try to give them a solution. Can you go ahead and, you know, work the short sell? Yeah.

Sure. Talk to them, get everything lined up, up, and we go ahead and go from there. The one thing that I've learned is everybody's numbers are different in in this in this world with Right. Wholesales, flips, things like that. There's some people that are very, very conservative with their numbers.

There's other people that are very, very liberal with their numbers.

Steve: Mhmm.

Matthew: And I'm like, wow. Okay. Yeah. Sure. That's what you wanna pay.

That yeah. That'll work.

Steve: Right.

Matthew: So that is one of the one of the sources of, business is actually our short sales. That being said, we'll never personally purchase our own short sales because that's it's a serious conflict of interest

Steve: for us.

Matthew: I I'm not gonna do that to a homeowner where it's like, hey. They'll accept our offer, but, by the way, the bank needs you to bring 5,000 to closing. Like, that's just not right.

Steve: Right.

Matthew: So, like I said, a lot of times investors bring bring us things like that. The other thing is, attorneys, landscapers, other agents. You know, we had another agent actually call us and was like, what do you think about this property? He's like, this is the price I want. And I'm like, deal done.

Don't even need to see it. Yeah. And he's like, are you sure? And I'm like, yep. I know the comps.

We're good. So you think that being the short sell king leads you to other opportunities because the relationships

Steve: you've created being the short sell king? It's

Matthew: that that's what it is. It at the end of the day, this

Steve: is

Matthew: a relationship based business. It is. The, you know, the larger your sphere, the larger amount of opportunities that you're gonna have. It's just it's literally that simple. You know, if you know three people, well, you're only gonna be able to help three people.

You know, 3,000 people, and they all know, you know, know, a 100 people each

Steve: Yeah.

Matthew: You're gonna be busy for a while.

Steve: You're gonna get a lot further. And so that kinda goes on to my next point because you are, you know, you're still the number one guy for short sales in Arizona. Yes. Indeed. So congratulations on keeping that crown.

Matthew: Thank you. Thank you.

Steve: But we were also laughing. Like, it's it's not even a third

Matthew: year business.

Steve: Yes. It's So let's talk about how you leverage short sales to be to to do a 100 transactions last year.

Matthew: Well, it's it it really is kind of a funny thing when you sit there and look at it because I mean, if you look at most agents' business back in 09/20/1031 Mhmm. Short sales are REOs. Yeah. I mean, it really was. There nobody had equity.

Even if your even if your home was paid off, you didn't have equity. Mhmm. Then all of a sudden, you know, people's numbers started to morph. When we first came in, I mean, we were 65 ish percent short sales

Steve: Mhmm.

Matthew: And then, you know, couple other things here and there. Now we're yes. We're, you know, number one for short sales in Arizona. And, you know, we still crank out, you know, 20 to 30 a year, which, you know, it doesn't sound like a lot, but it is a lot when you That's still a lot. It's a lot.

It it is. But the rest of it has kind of been, one of those things where word has gotten out. Let's go ahead and, you know, hey. Let's buy a home. Let's sell a home.

The other thing that's super cool for us is a lot of the people that we helped with short sales, they're starting to cycle through now as being able to buy again. That's nice. And that's where, where we're getting business too. Like, our good friend, Henry. Alright.

He's ready to buy right now.

Steve: Is that is he I got a Ryan O'Shea Duggan's.

Matthew: Yes.

Steve: Is that that's Henry's son? No. No. No.

Matthew: No. Ryan do you remember there was a property

Steve: over in Glendale.

Matthew: It was in Glendale. Uh-huh. And you I had contacted you, and I said, luck. I need you to buy this house at this number.

Steve: And you

Matthew: were like, I don't like that number. I'm like, but if you buy it at this number, we're good. Everything's done. We're free and clear. And he's and you were like Ah.

Steve: Yes. Okay. Then I'm good with that number.

Matthew: I I'm good with that number. And I'm like, excellent. Excellent. So that's another opportunity, networking right there.

Steve: Cool. Alright. So yeah. What's up, Ryan? Yeah.

So that's, that's cool. Hey. Hey, Ryan. Alright. So the other thing was, you know, you've gone through this whole process.

What's the greatest you've learned from and this doesn't even limit it to just real estate. What was the greatest lesson you've learned?

Matthew: Oh, man. Oh, I've learned a lot of lessons. I've learned a lot of lessons. Life will come at you fast. Yeah.

You better be prepared for it. Things can change at any given moment. Perfect example, cruising along in business. All of a sudden, Nicole and I started dating, couple kids. You know, she Mhmm.

She had a couple kids. All of a sudden, boom, she's pregnant. We have Cooper now. Boom, she's pregnant again. Unfortunately, we lost Noah back in September.

And then final boom, She's pregnant right now with Olivia. So, you know, literally in the last what is that? Four years, I think, we've been together. Yeah. It's gonna be four years.

Fast. Yeah. Wow.

Steve: I'm not sure. Is life moving fast? I think it just might be a

Matthew: It it might be a it's the ADD thing. You know, it's one of those where just know that life's gonna give you its purpose Uh-huh. When the time is right. Like, honestly, if Nicole and I, at the very beginning, when we knew each other, if we would have tried to go into a personal relationship, I think we would've survived. But I think there would've been a lot more heartache, headache Mhmm.

Struggles in business, personal life, things like that.

Steve: Alright.

Matthew: From the real estate side of it, anything can happen at any given moment. Like, literally like that. It it will change, what's the quote, in a New York minute. Yeah. Things can change like that, where, oh god, you know, where's my next transaction gonna come from?

You know, maybe maybe you haven't been working your lead sources as hard as you're supposed to. Mhmm. Two, you get a phone call where, hey, by the way, I'm relocating from California. I need to buy a primary and three rental properties. And you're like, okay.

And I'm back on the grind. Yeah.

Steve: Let me clear my calendar real quick.

Matthew: Yeah. Just you just let me know when you're gonna be in town.

Steve: So what great lesson are

Matthew: you learning right now? To enjoy it all. The the as corny as that is Mhmm. To enjoy it all. Enjoy the highs.

Enjoy the lows. You know, at any given moment, your business can be stripped from you. Right. It it can. Anything can happen.

I know agents that have made foolish decisions, and literally their licenses were revoked. And it's all gone now for them. And I just sit there, and I look at it realistically. Like, where I am in my life with everything, my wife, my kids, my family, my parents, our real estate investments, just everything

Steve: Mhmm.

Matthew: Like, in no way whatsoever do I want real estate stripped from me tomorrow or for everything to change and everybody would be like, oh, no. Don't don't ever use Matt to buy a house or sell a house. It's it's nice to have the foundation there and to truly enjoy it. Like, that's the thing. Like, kinda like I was telling you, I let all of our all of our potential clients, like, come on.

Enjoy enjoy Mhmm. Our life on on Facebook because, ultimately, I really do enjoy I enjoy my life a lot. Like, yeah, there's days I'm stressed. You know, you're you're tired. You're grouchy.

You're pissed. Whatever.

Steve: Yeah.

Matthew: Like, that that's just life in general. But at the end of the day, I'm like, wow. I'm like, man, I I got a lot to be thankful and grateful for.

Steve: For sure. And I think that's something that, you know, experiencing growing up, you know, being an immigrant and having both my parents work six to seven, eight hours a week, I never got to have, you know, dad come to the basketball game, whatever. And so for me, that I try to remember that to be present with the kids, with the family.

Matthew: And I

Steve: was we can't. We're not perfect.

Matthew: No. No. You never are because But we do

Steve: the best we can.

Matthew: Here's a perfect example. Our daughter, she had a three night Peter Pan play thing.

Steve: I don't know. That was fantastic.

Matthew: Yeah. She's she's in, what I I don't even remember what class this was. Yeah. Maybe it's just play. I don't know.

First night, ultimately, we couldn't attend. And, you know, opening night jitters and all that, I was like, I'm like, she's gonna be like, oh, it was terrible. Second night, my mother-in-law came over. And with Cooper I mean, I love my little dude. He's amazing.

But, man, he's a handful. And you try to take him there, he's gonna be doing doing doing doing, bouncing all over the place. So Nicole and, my mother-in-law went and saw the play, came home, showed me videos and pictures and all that. Yeah. I could tell, like, I can read my daughter like a book.

Mhmm. She was sad that I I wasn't there.

Steve: Yeah.

Matthew: And I'm like, oh, god. That cuts me to my core right now. I'm like, I'm like, okay. I had a closing that Friday. I had to do a closing.

Nicole had an appointment at 5PM. Mhmm. It was just a whole thing. And this thing started at seven. Luckily, Nicole got home literally at 06:45.

I'm hopping in the car. I drove there, got there, you know, snuck in. And then after the show, you know, she's got this look on her face. She's like, oh my god. And I'm like, I told you if it was possible, I would come.

You know, sometimes things come up, but I really did wanna be here. So she was super excited about that. And then five minutes later, she's like, can I go spend the night at my friend's house? And I'm like, there we go. Perfect.

Yeah.

Steve: She's still a teenager.

Matthew: Of course.

Steve: So so Max has a question. So besides systems processes, would you consider your network your biggest asset? And what do you do to keep leveraging that network?

Matthew: Well, actually, you and I had a conversation about this, staying in front of people.

Steve: Mhmm.

Matthew: You you have to do it continually. It's something you can never you can never slack on it. You can't. People have to know what you do. You know?

It there's times I'm sure people are tired. They're like, oh god. Okay. Yeah. You sold a house.

Good job. Or, oh, okay. Yeah. Short sales. But people need to know that.

Because if they don't know, what you don't know, you don't know. They're not gonna call you. They're not gonna text you. They're not gonna email you.

Steve: It's not their job to keep you top of mind.

Matthew: Exactly. It's not. And, ultimately, it's my it's no different than look at it this way. If if you were making a thousand phone calls a day and getting 10 contacts out of that and listing one home every single day, you're doing amazing things. Having a great life.

Yeah. Like, you're doing really, really solid. If you take four months off from that, I can guarantee you, you are not doing the same exact thing every single day. Right. You're not just listing a property every single day unless your referral game is super strong.

Yeah. So being you know, using your network, like, I've worked with Matt. I've worked with Max before. Max has sent me referrals. I actually, helped him get a property.

Mhmm. Nicole and I helped him get a property as well. He did nice and solid on it, and that makes me happy. Yeah. You know, if if I'd never met Max, the likelihood of any of that ever occurring, you know, is not gonna occur.

Steve: Right. And, you know, I I

Matthew: have you to thank for that, actually.

Steve: Yeah. I know. He was a great ISA until you left me. Yeah. I know.

Jerk.

Matthew: Yeah. I kinda miss him. Maxwell's have lunch, buddy.

Steve: Alright. So how has how has failure shaped your life?

Matthew: Well, fail. First attempt in learning. Uh-huh. It's that simple. Because if you fail at something, it's not that's the end.

Right. It's you found the way that doesn't work. Mhmm. Go find the way that does work. I'm gonna be honest with you.

The first time I ever did a short sale, I did not have a clue what the hell I was doing. Literally, they're like, call Wells Fargo and call god. Well, my first transaction I ever did was Wells Fargo on the first mortgage, Wilshire on the second. Wilshire is not around anymore in case you didn't know that. And I'll never forget this guy.

The property was in Florida. There was a hurricane, a flood. Like, it was just a freaking nightmare. That being said, I failed at least 18 times on that transaction. Mhmm.

Like, literally, there were 18 different buyers that we could have closed with. I didn't get one of those to stick. Yeah. Part of that was the market just kept taking a dump. It was, oh, okay.

We're under contract at 01:20. Oh, by the way, the house next door just sold for $40. And I'm like, so don't you wanna just buy this one? Right. So I I think it makes you more resilient as a person.

It does. It it it helps you into a growth mindset. Because if you're not growing, like, you're you're stuck. You're complacent, which I always wanna be growing. Right.

I don't I don't wanna just be like, oh, okay. I'm you know, I know everything about this topic. No. You never know any everything about a topic. It just never happens.

Steve: Well, I mean, that's one of our core values. Right? Growth.

Matthew: Yes. It's like

Steve: the day you stop learning is a day that you're just dangerous to everybody

Matthew: around you. No. You you've you've ultimately thrown in the towel. Yeah. And, yeah, that is a very dangerous mindset of, well, no.

I already know this. Mhmm. No. No. You don't know anything because it can all change the next day.

Steve: Chet loves that comment. First attempt in learning. Okay. So what book have you read that everybody should read?

Matthew: Am I allowed to cuss on this thing?

Steve: I officially, we have this as a clean show on iTunes. I submitted everything as clean.

Matthew: Fair enough. Oh, but I I know what

Steve: you're talking about. We just gotta put an apostrophe in there.

Matthew: Yes. You you know what book I'm talking about. It's The Subtle Art of Not Giving an f. Right. My amazing broker over here, Steve, decided that he saw this title, didn't even read anything about the book.

Mhmm. Nothing. He saw the title and immediately had it shipped from Amazon to me and my wife. Yeah. It said, this book reminds me of you.

I don't even know what this book's about. And, of course, we had a good chuckle about it. Nicole read it first. I read it second. And it's not necessarily, you know, you're a rogue badass or anything like that.

Mhmm. It it's not that's not what the book's premise is. The book's premise is the less you care about the stuff that doesn't matter. Like, you know, the stupid stuff that doesn't matter. Like, at the end of the day, like, you know, for me, you know, just for me, like, I I wear the same outfit every day.

Like, to me, I'm sorry. Like, clothes are clothes. Like, they cover me great. I don't really care about that. That doesn't mean that, you know, fashion's not important.

You know? It's not a part of whatever. But I'm a real guy. Like, hey. I wear a polo shirt, and I wear tennis shoes.

I'm sorry. I do. To me, that's one of the things, like, don't get caught up on that. Get caught up on the important stuff, your family, your kids, your business, helping your clients. You know?

If think about about it this way. If I had to put on a three piece suit every time I went and showed a home, which we live in Phoenix, so thank god I don't have to do that. Right. But if I had to do that, especially, say, there's a property that's a hot commodity, and there's eight other agents that went over there in their flip flops and, you know, their t shirt Mhmm. And they've already spoken to the listing agent.

Listing agent said, give me an offer at this. You're good to go. Well, I've ultimately hurt my client by being caught up on something that's ultimately not important.

Steve: Right. For the situation.

Matthew: For the situation. Exactly.

Steve: Yeah. And my favorite part my favorite chapter in that book was, when he's talking about going to Russia.

Matthew: Yes.

Steve: He's talking about, boy, like, you know, you wanna see directness. Yeah. Go visit Russia. I've had no interest in going to visit Russia. After reading that book, I was like, well, maybe we we wanna go check it out.

See how direct and real

Matthew: I'm gonna be honest with you. Russia's not on my bucket list. Yeah. But then again, you know, there is a certain like you said, there's a directness there. Mhmm.

There is a legit directness of this is what it is. No frills.

Steve: Well, no one's got time to waste. No. They don't. Are we gonna work together or no? We're not gonna we're not gonna work together.

There's no time for feelings.

Matthew: It's cold outside. Let's go.

Steve: Tim Reagan's got a great question. How do you measure your growth professionally?

Matthew: Wow. Alright, Tim. He come in with the questions today. Yep. I guess from that aspect, are we looking at production?

Probably, like, production. We're just

Steve: gonna go open and end this one.

Matthew: Okay. Well, we can roll with it. I look at it I don't I don't necessarily look at it as a transaction based thing. I really don't. I look at it as care that's been provided to the clients.

Mhmm. Are we helping more people? Yeah. Are more people happy, you know, with with our service? What what is, you know, how are they reacting to working with us?

Are we also, are we getting more referrals? Because usually referrals are a real good litmus test of whether or not, you know, you're doing well for your clients or your clients really don't like you and okay. Well, whatever. We pick this guy. We gotta use somebody.

Yeah. Alright. We signed our closing docs. Breathing. Yeah.

Alright. Thanks for the keys. See you later.

Steve: Yeah. I think that's a great point because the I I think there's two things two metrics we can look at. We can look at, their reviews.

Matthew: Mhmm.

Steve: I mean, are they giving us five star reviews? If they give us five star reviews, we're doing things right. Yep. And the second thing, I think, is the, the referrals. Yeah.

There's no greater vote of confidence than the than the referrals.

Matthew: And the and this is the this is the other thing that's funny about the reviews. I've only gotten one bad review on Zillow, which this is the funny thing to me. At first, I was super upset about it, and I was like, you know what? Everybody gets a bad review Hollywood movie, even if it's, like, critically acclaimed. They're not.

So I was like, you know what? It is what it is. I had one bad one. And then, ironically enough, she actually updated it, like, three days later to a five star review. Oh.

But here was the kicker. Zillow took that review down, and they left up the one star. And I was like, I'm not even gonna fight it. It's not even worth it.

Steve: So what have you done that everybody should do?

Matthew: Well, I can't say marry my wife. So

Steve: I mean, we moved to Utah. I think this is No.

Matthew: Po dope. We're not we're not going that we're not going down that road. God, I don't know. I wouldn't say I've really done anything that that is I don't know. That's spectacular or, I don't know.

I guess, go on vacation. There we go. Everybody needs to go on vacation. Doesn't matter. At least once a year,

Steve: go on vacation. Do it. Do it, Steve. It's a big number. That's a that's a major commitment.

Hey.

Matthew: Nicole and I are going on, well, technically, two vacations this year. Yeah. It's a major commitment.

Steve: It's for,

Matthew: like, three days.

Steve: Why do you think most people fail? Fear.

Matthew: Yeah. Honestly, it's fear. At the end of the day, I was taught by I was taught by one of my other mentors who actually, we've helped her buy and sell, I think, three or four homes now.

Steve: Mhmm.

Matthew: Fear stands for f, because it's a clean show. Mhmm. Everything's all real. You start to get into that mindset of, oh my god. Oh my god.

I don't have a steady paycheck. Crap. My electric bill's overdue. I need to sell a house now. Mhmm.

That's what ultimately leads to to failure. Right. I I really do think that a lot of it is fear. Sometimes it can be fear of success too. Yeah.

I I've seen that with people before where I'm like, god. You know, you would kill it in this business. Like, I I know you would. It's like they get into it. It's like they shoot themselves in the foot.

And I'm like, don't overcomplicate, you know, a a situation. You know, ultimately, if your client likes you and they wanna work with you, they're gonna work with you. Right. And, you know, the rest of it is just guiding guiding them and making sure that you're working in their best interest, getting them, you know, the best deal possible. So I would definitely say that fear is the biggest, you know, biggest thing that's gonna drive failure.

Steve: And I think that, you know, that fear of success is is a real thing because we've had some friends that we know that, man, like, they're hitting their stride, and let's see how they can screw it up. Like, it's so painful It to witness because they feel like they don't deserve it in some manner.

Matthew: I don't know if it's, like, a subconscious thing. Maybe it's something from an upbringing or something like that. But all of a sudden, they're like, you know, you're just getting there, and it's like, oh, man. I can see what you're about to do, and I'm excited for you.

Steve: Right.

Matthew: And then it's like, oh, okay. Wait. No. And I'm like, well, why'd you just jump off the cliff? All you had to do was make sure you had your little paraglider thing on and just go.

So

Steve: So, yeah, that's a very good point. Is there anything that keeps you up at night? Besides the kids? Yes. Besides the kids.

Matthew: My wife will say definitely not because, you know, I laid down in bed, and five minutes later, I'm asleep.

Steve: Five minutes? Yeah. Man, I'm, like, five seconds.

Matthew: Yeah. Well, I I pretty much I pretty much hit the pillow, and I'm done. No. Because I I've learned, especially over the last year last year, we had a pretty tumultuous up and down year. It it was rough.

All different types of things with, our son, my father, business relationships. I mean, just kinda when it all comes, it all comes at once, and it was just all tearing us in all different directions. I've learned, and it took me a long time to get to this point in my life, and this is probably the thing that I'm the most grateful for and happy at this moment. Control what is in your control and what's out of your control. You have to just let go.

Let, you know, let god, your higher power, whatever it may be. Let them do their thing. And whatever's gonna be is gonna be. Now, that's not saying roll over, you know, and throw your hands up. Oh, no.

You know, I can't I can't make phone calls anymore. You know? No. You can make phone calls. Yeah.

You you can still work, but it's it's ultimately one of those things of what's gonna happen is gonna happen with regards to certain certain situations, and you need to not stress or worry about that. Because the other thing that I've learned is, and this was a big lesson that we took away from last year, is there's others around you that are still depending on you, whether it's kids, business partners, colleagues, associates, things like that.

Steve: Mhmm.

Matthew: You if you're stressed and you're not able to kinda be the best that you can be, that's a disservice to everyone around you. Alright. So, you know, nothing really keeps me up at night. You know, I've kinda gotten, I don't know, Zen mastery with that, except for if I eat too much spicy food right before bed.

Steve: Or Taco Bell. Just start with a Taco Bell.

Matthew: Yeah. I know.

Steve: But I think there's something in there. I think the serenity prayer is one of my favorite Yes. Sayings. You know, I can't go off the top of my head right now, but that

Matthew: Oh, I got I got it if you want. Alright. Go ahead. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Right.

Steve: Yep. Yeah. Okay. So how does so this is a question. It was how does a gargoyle like you land a babe?

And I really feel like you don't need to answer this question because I feel like that was a really strong sales game, and it just really speaks to your sales skills and a long, long, long sales game.

Matthew: Oh, yeah. No. I've, I've I've been a salesman since I was nine years old. I started selling used golf balls out of the backyard of my parents' house. Right.

It was 25¢ a ball, $5.05 for a dollar. Man, there were some day hey. There were some days I was making $60 on on summer break, but I I'm definitely very, very lucky and blessed, that this gargoyle here, was able to land, such a babe like Nicole.

Steve: You are blessed. I could tell you. I mean, she definitely I don't know what she was thinking.

Matthew: So Yeah. I know. I I totally I totally duped her on that, and thank god that I did.

Steve: So Ryan's got a question for you. So what are your feelings on the market turning more towards renting versus buying in certain areas?

Matthew: Well, you are seeing it in some in some areas where, I've started to notice, you know, some buyers have said, I don't see the value in that. Mhmm. I think what the biggest aspect of that is right now is inventory. Yeah. It it's an inventory thing.

And the major reason behind that is builders haven't been able to acquire and build fast enough. Mhmm. The other aspect of it is, going back to the short sell days, there's massive hedge funds that are holding on to a lot of property right now. Right. They're starting to slowly leak some of it out, but it's mostly the stuff that

Steve: But they're buying right now too.

Matthew: They're buying right now too. So, I mean, you kinda you really have, like, a catch '22 there. Yeah. It's not like it was in 2011. I mean, you had nine hedge funds to go choose from.

Like, which one will close in twenty four hours? Mhmm. But that being said, I think that once rents start to push up a little bit more, the, quote, unquote, value of buying because I'm working with several buyers right now Mhmm. Where, oh, my rent is, you know, 2,200 a month. I'm gonna buy this house, and it's 1,700 a month, which $500 a month to me like that, I'm sorry.

I see value there. I do. But I think their their biggest thing is, and this is one of my biggest gripes probably with our industry, is they watch HGTV. Mhmm. So they expect everything to look like Joanna Gaines just designed it or, who are the other people?

Nate and Jeremiah and the Property Brothers and all that. So they're, you know, they're I know way too much about HGTV.

Steve: Yeah. You do have no idea who these people are.

Matthew: Yeah. Well, actually, some of them are they're pretty legit. Yeah. I think that I think that's the biggest thing. It's an expectation thing.

And one of the things that works really well for us is we're able to kinda show them, like, look, you can have that, and it doesn't cost nearly as much as you think it does. Right. Like, it's you sit there and you look at it like, oh my god. This is gonna be $80,000 to remodel this house. Now it's actually, like, 24,000.

Steve: I've seen some of the things that Chet

Matthew: can do too on a budget. So Man, the the man works miracles.

Steve: Yeah.

Matthew: He does. I I would we're super lucky and grateful that Chet is on our team because I'll call him up. I even call him up for advice on ours. I called him the other day, and I'm like, if it had a backyard that was landscaped, would you have sold it to that lady? And he was like, no.

But I will tell you this. You need to you need to finish the landscape there. And I'm like, fair enough. I will take your advice.

Steve: So given going back to Ryan's question, do you have any concerns about the renting and mark and and the buying in these certain areas affecting your business model in any way?

Matthew: No. The the reason why is, ultimately, one way or another, homes are gonna be purchased Yeah. Whether they're purchased for rental purposes, you know, owner occupancy.

Steve: Right.

Matthew: They are. Ultimately, at the end of the day, what's what's causing what's causing, you know, the multiple offer situations, things like that is literally just a lack of inventory, especially quality inventory.

Steve: Yeah. A

Matthew: lot of the things that you look at, you're like, if you drop $40,000 off that price, I will buy it, and I will put the money into it, and I will turn around and sell it for this as a quality product. So that's, you know, that's kinda one of the things. And, again, it goes back to condition from HGTV. Right. Everybody everybody sees that, and that's what they want.

Want. So one thing I haven't brought

Steve: up here, so let me just bring it up here, is, you know, one of the reasons I think you guys get some of your referrals is because a lot of your transactions, short sells aside Yes. Are seamless. Yes. And I think part of that has to do with your your your lender partners, your title partners. You wanna talk about that?

Matthew: Yes. We this is this is the thing that we are very, very grateful for. When we first started, like I told you, that magic number was $420 for Zillow Mhmm. Which dude, that's like a car payment. Well, especially at the time, that was a car payment.

That was my first car payment now that I think about it, actually. An amazing lending partner. I was like, look. Here's the deal. Can you help out?

Yeah. No problem. Like, not even a question. Mhmm. He he believed in us.

We believed in him. Right. His business has grown exponentially. Our business has grown exponentially. And, you know, our this is the thing that was really interesting when when we broke out into traditional real estate.

We knew a ton of escrow officers across the valley Mhmm. Because we worked other agents' short sales. So some wanted, you know, this escrow officer, some wanted this. Someone wanted this. So we saw the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything in between.

So we knew where the good ones were, and then we were like, new. Right. So our our escrow officer that we use I don't know. Am I allowed to name drop? Sure.

Carrie Persons over at, Magnus Title, is amazing. That being said, she she ultimately makes it so I don't have to sit there and check on what's going on. Right. Well, what is going on? Has a buyer come in to sign?

Has a seller come in to sign? Any of that. It's done. It's gotten to the point, like, a lot of buyers agents even on some of our transactions are like, hey. I really like this escrow officer.

I've been looking for somebody. You know? Do you think that she would work with me? And I'm like, well, considering the fact her job's to do escrow, yeah, I'm pretty sure she would work with you. She'll find a way.

And and, you know, the the thing is and especially with a very competitive market Mhmm. You know, everybody has their their favorites.

Steve: Yeah.

Matthew: Well, whatever it may be. That being said, there's a lot of escrow officers that we've worked with, like I said, from the short sell side Mhmm. Where, you know, if if if it's gonna come down to, you know, this title company versus that title company is ultimately gonna make or break a deal, you you don't you don't let your clients lose out on that. Same thing with with lending partners for that matter as well. But the, you know, the cool thing is, like, a lot of times, all of a sudden, the escrow officer will reach out to us and be like, holy crap.

It's you guys. We love working with you. I'm like, well, you know, it's been a couple years, but, yeah. No. That's great.

Steve: So and I think part of it too is that, you know, when you first started with Mike Mhmm. And then you've added Kari to the mix and you worked with Carrie, I think that you guys able able to provide a tremendous experience for your clients Yes. Where everything's smooth and there's a lot less stress.

Matthew: Well, exactly. And the other thing is because we you know, I know everybody, like I said, has their partner. Like, this is my partner. This is my number one. This is who I use.

One of the things that I've definitely learned, Nicole Zenona from Day Damn one, been beating me over the head with it, and I just I finally started listening. Not every person is gonna be that fit for that client, and that includes myself. There's times I'm not the guy. Guy. That doesn't mean Chet's not the guy or Coz isn't the guy or Cindy is the gal or Nicole's the gal.

Mhmm. It's just it it's not a one size fits all industry. It's not that way. So it was one of those things where we looked at it and we said, okay. Who are the people that we trust, that we know are reliable, that we know aren't gonna make stupid, foolish mistakes, and ultimately provide a good experience all around?

Because when you're buying a house, the last thing thing you wanna do is when I show up to give you a key, you sit there and you're like, this experience sucked. The loan officer was terrible. The escrow officer didn't even sign me. You know, I I had to, you know, go meet somebody at a a Starbucks, you know, in freaking East LA. Yeah.

You know? That's not a good experience. You wanna provide a good experience. So that's why we sat down and looked at it and said, okay. You know what?

These these are are our partners. These are who we we can stand behind these referrals. Because, you know, I would like to think, if I'm giving you the name and number of somebody, I'm standing behind that person. And that means I've worked with them. That means I've seen their production.

That means I've seen what they do and how they treat their clients, and I think you're gonna be happy with them. So that's why we set it up where it's, okay. These are these are the partners. Let's go ahead and rock and roll.

Steve: And I think there's a great lesson in there too with Carrie. You know, we were able to convince her to, you know, join Magnus. And there's that no matter how awesome someone is, there's a pretty good chance someone's underappreciating them. Yep. And so that was she's a great reminder.

Absolutely. And also a reminder, appreciate everyone you got around you. Absolutely. See. So Max has one other question.

What is one thing you can tell new entrepreneurs, especially in real estate today, that helps you to stay focused when you got started and to not compare your process to others?

Matthew: Ultimately, at the end of the day, that goes to oh god. I think it was Albert Einstein

Steve: Mhmm.

Matthew: Said, if a monkey and a fish are side by side Is

Steve: an Einstein quote? I haven't heard this before.

Matthew: I think so. I don't quote me on that, though. If you if you sit there, it's essentially about standardized testing and how there's not there's not one proper way to ultimately do anything. There's real there's really not, except for maybe math. That being said, if you sit there and you judge if you judge a fish on its ability to fly, I think is what it was, or climb a tree Mhmm.

That fish is gonna believe it's stupid its whole life. Right. So at the end of the day, don't compare yourself to somebody else. Somebody else may have a ton of backing behind them. They may have a lot more tools at their disposal than you do.

The most important thing is do what is in your what is in your capability. If you've grown to the point where your capabilities are all being utilized and it's taking a 100%, partner with somebody. Grow with somebody. Right. Do something like that.

At the end of the day, that's what Nicole that's what Nicole and I ultimately did. We we had grown to max capacity. And I'll never forget, I sat down with you and you were like, okay. By the time you leave this meeting today, you hire Marissa. Mhmm.

You have to bring her back as the transaction coordinator, or you and Nicole are capped. You can't do anything else. And I'm like, you know, I was I'll be honest. I was pissed when I left that meeting. I'm like, man, he doesn't know what he's talking about.

I called Nicole, and we sat there. Man. We were looking over numbers, and we're like, oh my god. And then literally an hour later, I called Marissa, and we had the conversation. And Marissa called and quit her job, like, literally right then.

And she's like, alright. I'll start tomorrow.

Steve: That's good. So, yeah. I think I'm I would agree with Maximus when he says the perfect answer. So, we're gonna wrap this up. So if someone wants to get ahold of you, what's your website?

Matthew: I was gonna bust, like, a totally funny one, but it's probably not a good idea. Short sale guru, guru,.com.

Steve: Yep. And so if your homeowner is struggling Yep. Right, dealing with issues with your payment, so reach out to Matt. If you're an agent, Matt's gonna pay you a handsome 30% referral fee.

Matthew: 30% all day.

Steve: No questions asked.

Matthew: No questions asked. I don't care if it's I don't care if it's a $30 property or it's a $3,000,000 property.

Steve: And it's true because I send you those $30 properties.

Matthew: Yes. You have.

Steve: And if you're an investor looking at property with no equity, Matt's happy to try to get you off or accepted.

Matthew: Yep. That's that's what we do. I would say probably four to five times a month, we're we're reached out, by different investors in the Valley that are like, hey. We wanna buy this. There's no equity at all at any position.

You short sell? I'm like, yeah. Sure. You know, as long as it's a legitimate reason.

Steve: Right.

Matthew: Which nine times out of 10, you know, if you're in foreclosure and you're underwater, there's usually a legitimate reason behind it.

Steve: Absolutely. So that's it. So thanks again, Matt. And, you know, for you guys, if you like the show, tell a friend, share this, let people know about it. Until next time.

Thanks, guys.