Greg McDaniel: A Censored Real Estate Freedom Conversation from Mr. Uncensored
LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE ON:
If you know Greg McDaniel, you know he's not afraid to share his thoughts and opinions in an uncensored manner. After all, he's the co-host of Real Estate Uncensored, a top podcast focused on marketing and sales in real estate. He's never met a microphone or a camera he didn't love. Growing up in real estate and learning his dad, who has been in the business for over 50 years, Greg decided to take a different path after high school before circling back to real estate a few years later. He launched his business focused on cold calling and door knocking to the point where his shoes completely wore out and hasn't looked back. Now 20 years in the business himself, he's regularly taking multi-million dollar listings in and around his area of Walnut Creek, CA. Greg shares his path and the wisdom he's gained along the way, as well as his heart for helping others succeed too!
In this episode, hosted by Mike Swenson, we discussed:
- Greg has spent a long time in real estate, his dad was actually in real estate for over 40 years
- Greg has been an agent for 20 plus years. He's done coaching, he's done training. And he also is the host of Real Estate Uncensored Podcast
- Greg got his start in real estate doing door knocking most of the time. He door knocked in cities like Alamo, Danville, Walnut Creek, Concord, Pleasant Hill, and San Ramon, along the 680 corridor.
- Greg has almost 1000 episodes on his show. Then they are top 10 rated, and they never spent a dime in marketing, because the popularity spread by word of mouth because of his humor and entertainment
- He's also been working on training materials. He has a listing program that gets a 93% conversion rate.
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro and overview on Greg’s career
05:43 - Over the 20 years, how sales changed Greg
10:26 - How Greg values his customer and his time
15:26 - When He decided to shift gears
18:25 - How he discerns good and bad information
26:38 - What Greg’s future looks like
39:25 - What Greg's Financial and time freedom looks like
Links In This Episode:
Greg's Company Website: http://mcdanielrealestatesystems.com/
Real Estate Uncensored Podcast (Youtube): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0H2WkhUrZeUXxa2FxG8IyQ
Real Estate Uncensored Podcast (Apple): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/real-estate-uncensored-real-estate-sales-marketing/id1010493715
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Full transcript here:
Mike Swenson
All right. Welcome, everybody to another episode of real freedom stories today, we've got a great guest for you, Greg McDaniel. And Greg has spent a long time in real estate. So his dad was actually in real estate. So he's been an agent for 20 plus years. He's done coaching, he's done training. And he also is the host of real estate, uncensored podcasts. So a long time of experience a lot of lot of information, a wealth of information. And we just love to have him on here and share his story in real estate. So welcome, Greg. We're so excited to have you.
Greg McDaniel
Mike, what's up buddy? Hey, I'm honoured and blessed to be here with you. Thank you so much. I truly appreciate the opportunity to kind of share with your listeners and kind of rock out with some of my 21 years in business. My father has been in it for 50 years, that's a five zero by the way, in three different states top producer in every single state i He brought me on to his team. And you know, I've just been I've been blessed to sit at the feet of masters when I was a snot nosed 21 year old, didn't know anything from anything. And I was able to learn so now my gift to the to the to the industry is to give back as much as humanly possible. So super glad to be here, brother.
Mike Swenson
Thank you. Well, why don't you just go ahead and get started and share a little bit about how you chose to get into real estate. I mean, obviously, like you had mentioned your dad was in it. Maybe if you want to talk about you know some of your experience as a kid but but at some point you had to decide real estate is is the career that I'm going to pursue whether it was intentional or haphazard. Why don't you just talk about kind of your your entry into your personal career in real estate?
Greg McDaniel
Oh, man, it's a short question. long answer. I was in college, I got a doctorate PhD and MBA in drinking drugs and girls. Two years into college, I had a solid d minus average. And my parents said nope, pulled the ripcord and I was out. So I went from LA back up here to San Francisco, the bay area where I've lived for majority of my life. And I started working in a warehouse. And my dad looks at me and goes, Greg, are you sure this is where you want to be? And I said, Well, yeah, because all my friends were working there. And now we joke about the fact that, you know, the the guys who owned the warehouse are actually my best friend's dad, right? His brother. And so they created a grunt, grunt, grunt, grunt, grunt, grunt grunt grunts position for me, and I'm like, Ah, my office is in the basement with no lights. Gotcha.
Greg McDaniel
Like, Dad, this is BS. He chuckled. He's like, Okay, come on, in. Let's start doing this. And then I started then I started working with buyers. And, you know, as the as it progressed, I'm not gonna fill you in on all the boring details. But now I list 5 million, 3 million, 2 million. I'm working on a 10 to $12 million listing on a consistent basis because of the, you know, the relationships I've made in the reputation that I have here in the area. But yeah, it's it's it is a definitely a progression. But that's kind of some of my backstory.
Mike Swenson
So So you started so you were working for you're on your dad's company, right. So you did the buyers and he would take the listings.
Greg McDaniel
Yeah, so I was able to take listings, but I didn't know how to take listings. So I sat and listened to him. And I was told this funny story like one of my first days in the office, I was all doodad it up just like him comb my hair to the right and have my polka dots shirt on had my khaki pants had my penny loafers of pennies in them, just like him. And they said this weird word. They said escrow what in the heck is in escrow? This is a foreign topic. And so I was able to learn from him. And as I got better, I predominantly worked with buyers because they just didn't have the knowledge to work with sellers. But he was great. I'm grateful enough gracious enough to take me on listing appointments with him. So I would sit there and I just I didn't say Dan thing I just sat there, right. And so then I then I started taking my listings. And then I then I started doing both sides. And it just grew. But yeah, it was, it was an interesting couple of years in the very, very beginning, but so grateful to sit and learn from people. That's why I love podcasting, we can now learn from everybody at one time.
Mike Swenson
So then real quick in terms of kind of sales. How has that changed now over the 20 years for you? Are you kind of cherry picking what you want to do? Are you referring stuff out to people or I know you talked about how you've had a big a big influx in business here this year, because you told people that you were going to be done doing sales yourself? So kind of chat about what the last couple years and where you've been at with that?
Greg McDaniel
Yeah, so I do cherry pick on what I want to work with. You know, there are there will definitely be some clients when they call me up. And I'm not seeing this as an egotistical thing at all. I just say, look, I prior prioritise my time, a little bit more than I used to cut back when I was younger, I would say, hey, look, yeah, I'm three 367, you know, 365 24, seven. And if I'm not, you know, if I don't pick up my phone, I'm either asleep or my phone's, you know, out of power. And when either I wake up with the phone gets more power, I'll call you back. And people just railroaded me, they just ran me over like a freight train. And I didn't respect my time. And so now I will choose to work with certain people and not choose to work with certain other people. And the script is very simple. And again, it's not an ego thing. I just, I just know where my value is, right? I know, I know, my perfect client, they look like and so not look like gender or ethnicity just like real geographical. Right? Yeah. Cuz you go run around and be a real estate Whoa, and work at any location. Like I turned down our listing from my my own girlfriend, a $1.75 million listing in San Francisco.
Greg McDaniel
Why did I turn that down? I don't know, that market. And I prioritise my time. Was that having to go out and learn that again? So I said, You know what, not a problem, babe, I'll just help you by something. She said, Okay. Not a problem. So as we keep going through this stuff, I just think when it comes down to to understanding where and how you progressing your business, what do you like to do? Do you like buyers? Do you like sellers, a lot of people think I'm crazy pants for liking buyers. But it's like an Easter egg hunt, I go out there, I get to work with the buyers, I was out showing property the other day, it's like a little kid like they get so excited, like, Oh my God, look at the pantry. Or look at this or check this backyard or you know, once all my sister's new property, they got my sister brother in law there for kids, but 10 acres big a big old house up in the foothills, and you should have seen their excitement. So
Mike Swenson
You know, I tell people that real estate's an entrepreneurial playground, because you can choose what you want to do. And if business is slow, or incomes a little bit lighter, and you do need to lean in and take on more clients you can. And if you have a lot of clients and you're and you're valuing your time more, you can always refer business out. And if you do it in a respectful way to them and say, Look, I'm probably not the best person for you at this particular time. You know, my my friend agent over here actually is going to be the best one to take care of you. They respect that and so so you get a chance to kind of upsize or downsize your business based on how busy you are, you know what, what's happening in your life where your incomes at. And that's the beauty about being in real estate is you can flex up and flex down depending on where you're at. As you go and so 20 over 20 years here, there's times where you decide to take on more. there's times where you decide to refer out more and it's totally up to you.
Greg McDaniel
Well, yeah, I mean, cuz I the old adage is there's riches and niches right? When I was doing my door knocking, like you talked about like you made some of the main cities that we work in an Alamo, Danville, Walnut Creek, Concord, Pleasant Hill, and San Ramon, those are the kind of well, the 60 corridor, right. And I mean, I don't talk so much like I knew what people are eating for dinner on certain streets, I called so much mean, they got a new mean by my voice. And I was good in those niches. Now, if you took me down to San Jose or Fremont or Milpitas or San Francisco or Daly City, man, I need a GPS to get there. So I think referrals is probably one of the best means of making income because you can get you with all the leads, you can buy now that we can generate everything else, you can become a referral agent, and just collect 25 to 30% on these things all day long, and then pay an admin or a VA in the Philippines or something, just a track where these agents are with their clients. You keep dishing these bad boys out, you're gonna have money coming in. And guess what? You can go sit your butt down by the pool, drink of Martini, or Margarita, whatever your flavour is, we're just a cup of tea, and just enjoy life. So yeah, there's a there's a huge, huge value in referrals.
Mike Swenson
Yeah. And I think what a lot of people don't understand is the value of your time. In that case, you know, where, especially early on agents think like I have to chase everything all over the place. And what they may not realise too is. If you're deciding to make an extra 30 minute drive somewhere, it might be an unmotivated buyer. And so it's actually costing you time it's costing you business to chase everything in anything. And if you find a general spot that you want to be in, and you find other partners that you can refer business out, it's actually going to help you grow faster. Because you can turn down the stuff that's that's not in your zone, which is going to allow you to work more inside of your zone, which is going to help you get to that niche point to where you can, you can earn more money and your dollar per hour is going to go up
Greg McDaniel
100% I mean, a lot of people that their energy vampires and our time suckers, they will they will bleed you dry just because they want to feel like a pretty, pretty princess. And they want to be shown to all these nice homes. Look, make sure to pre approve guys, talk to the lender, get a letter from them, make sure that they're actually qualified, understand their timelines and wants their needs, their desires, and then make a decision on what you want to do. Also, when you work in fake figure, an area you want to work in. This is one of the things that I've studied for years, is your turnover rate. And so your turn to rate obviously, all you intelligent human beings know what that is, but some of you it might be new, it's just how what's the percentage of the properties in the area that sell in a given 12 months? analyse your condos, townhouses, single families multifamily is two to four units, then you look at everything individually, figure out where you can market to who you should market to.
Greg McDaniel
That way you can like, like you're saying, like, you can either go up in production, or maybe slow it down a little bit, depending on what you want to sell. And every one of these different areas are going to shift and be different. So I found that, you know, in our marketplace, you know, the single families are about 6% turnover, right? In the city. I live in a city called Walnut Creek in Walnut Creek. I then turned around and I'm like, I was working with one of my new agents on my team. And I said, Well, okay, I mean, that's not good. It's not great. So we analyse condos, townhouses, and then we went to multifamily up to four units motif, up to four years, those thinking things were moving out of 12% turn every every 12 months. I'm like, okay, changing route, and we shifted course. But yeah, niches, you know, produce riches and just understanding where you want to work now, don't work, where it's pretty time, don't work in your neighbourhood, analyse the numbers, the statistics, look at what's going on, and then analyse it consistently and persistently, because it's going to shift. Like we just went through an election right? Now, what was it like in December, or November?
Greg McDaniel
I don't, I didn't analyse your market. Now. What are we in March, it probably has shifted a little bit. But always be watching the matrix. That's a true wealth and always be nimble. Never be because success is rented. It's not owned. Here's what I mean by that. So if you're newer in the business, or getting in this game, understand the fact the agents that are dominating certain marketplaces are in certain arenas, but they're going to be out of the game. At some point, you can step into their shoes, all you have to do is be ready for when the coach says, okay, you're in pal go. It's because you're ready to rock and roll. That's that's how you really make money in real estate, my humble opinion. But Mike, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Mike Swenson
Well, I was gonna quit go back to what you were talking about in terms of turnover. You know, I tell people the last house that I lived in, when we moved in there, it was a it was a new construction home in 1977. I think we bought it in 2013. And it was the original owner that lived there. Right next door to us was another home that was built at the same time, and they had the original owner in there, across the street, same thing, original owner, and then the house next to them. I think they had lived there for like 15 years. So I tell people, it's it's what seen is a solid neighbourhood, the price point was pretty solid. But yeah, if there's no turnover, you know, we, we do better when there's more transactions happening, right? Because there's more opportunities.
Mike Swenson
And so I said you could door knock my neighbourhood, you could be the best agent in the world, the most knowledgeable agent in the world. But if nobody wants to move over the course of 20 years, then there's no business to be had there. Outside of referrals, you could pick up those referrals but it's probably better to spend your time to go find a neighbourhood where it's kind of the move up neighbourhood you know, maybe 678 years old after new construction and now they're looking to move on to their next home. So you've got to analyse its its average sales price, but that turnover piece is so important because you could door knock that neighbourhood 30 times a year. And if nobody's moving, nobody's moving, you know?
Greg McDaniel
Exactly. And that's it again, like guys don't just guys and gals, when you're when you're buying or selling properties, and you're trying to get into the listing game, don't just say oh my god, I just want to work my neighbourhood because I like my neighbourhood. Yeah, that's why you like your neighbourhood sort of a lot of other people. Let's go find places that people are trying to get out of. So like the first time buyers go to middle buyers, the middle wires go you know, by the you know, their crown jewel, the crown jewel either good goes back down to the middle buyer after the kids go to go to college, or they're gonna go down to the bottom tier, and probably buy some investment property. So you can market each one of these we have to speak the right language to each one of these different arenas. You can't talk to the first time homebuyer and say, Hey, want to go buy a $20 million house or a $20 million house people like hey, you want to buy $100,000 condo know that you're speaking the wrong language. So just learn how that goes and you Money will just come out of your ears.
Mike Swenson
Yeah, yep. So now Okay, so in your real estate career, you know, I know that you have some other things that you've been working on. So kind of when was that spot where you decided, Okay, maybe I want to shift gears a little bit, you know, you've you've got coaching, you've got training that you do, you've got the podcasts that you've do, kind of walk me through that time when you're like, Okay, I want to, I want to add on to what I'm doing here in real estate.
Greg McDaniel
Sure. So there was a day. So I've always worked on my father's team, right. Since day one. We've always had a private office, which means we're always had the closed door. So the conversations and everything that we had behind the closed door, I thought were very normal real estate conversations, came to realise it was a very high level conversation of scripts, techniques, tactics, marketing, you know how we operated the whole thing, right? I was just normal. Well, it wasn't. So I walk out my office one day, it was my past brokerage, you know, overheard a conversation. And I was just like, what the Dang. So I walked around like, Wait, is this what you guys are talking about? No, yeah. I said, No, no, no, no, don't do that. You're gonna yourself in a lot of trouble. Do this, this, this, this and that. But make sure you check with our broker and our controller. They went and check with them. And they're like, Oh, my gosh, that was like spot on. I'm like, Holy mackerel, I may have something here. So I was working with a company still, I'm working with them right at this moment. And they helped me put videos out to my database.
Greg McDaniel
And so I talked to my then coach over this company, and I'm like, hey, his name is Matt. Mike. Hey, Matt, do you want to do a podcast with me? He's like, yeah, it was about six years ago. And I didn't know he's gonna ask me the same thing. But I beat him to it by by a week. And so he asked me why do you want to do this? And I said, because I believe with the people I've been running with my career I can give back to this community as much as humanly possible and I can pivot it also fulfil the narcissistic, you know, desire of mine to be on camera, because I've loved being on camera. I don't know. I just, I've always wanted wanted to want to do right. So my boy, so I can give back to people. I can kind of scratch my own itch in regards to being on camera and kind of doing that. And, you know, we started producing the podcast, and Matt just kind of looked at me goes, are you sure you want to do this? I said, Yep. 100%. And so we started, we never looked back, we almost have 1000 episodes now on our show. been one of the top 10 rated. And we've never spent a diamond marketing just because you spread by word of mouth because of humour and entertainment education. And people have literally been told by hundreds and hundreds of people. My gosh, Greg, thank you for your podcast.
Greg McDaniel
This is one episode of this one person just changed my business. And I'm like, I'm so unbelievably humbled. I mean, it's just unbelievable. But yeah, walking on talking those agents, that was the first time that my mind was kind of shifted like, Okay, this is where I'm gonna pivot. This is how we're gonna coach this, I'm going to train this is how I'm going to, you know, get back with the podcast and speak around the world. And I never asked for a dime from anybody. I mean, anytime I speak, I asked him for asking for $1 just like, right off, right? And then I go, but yeah, pivoted that one day. Never Forget it.
Mike Swenson
So what would you say to somebody then? You know, there's, there's lots of coaches, training organisations out there, there's a wealth of information. How would you help somebody discern what's what's good information? versus what's bad information?
Greg McDaniel
That is a powerful question. in there, there's a new app, you I'm sure you're on a called clubhouse. It's addictive as all get out. There's a lot of false prophets out there. There's a lot of people just fluffing up their tail feathers trying to be all big, big and show showing on big I call them big hat, no cattle, because you vet them out research, these individuals take a look at who they are, take a look at their reviews mean, are good. They have a good reputation. Are they actually spitting content is bringing value to you or it is popping up or tail feathers are making themselves look good? Are they driving the lambos? And the big houses and you know, all this other thing? Or are they going back and they're taking the money and they're like, Oh, my good friend, his name's James Rembrandt. He's the aka the Zillow killer. We'll take a look at this guy, he runs a boot camp cost $197 for this boot camp, right? It's five days long.
Greg McDaniel
You know, he does without the money, get to the children's hospitals. Batman speaks truth, I would follow him in the battling day of the week because of his action. So you look you're going to you're going to follow some people that aren't going to be 100% correct. But fact check as many people as humanly possible, vet them out. Look what other people are saying, you know, have they been doing this for two months, or they've been doing it for 20 years. There's a couple of individuals male and female, that I that I know that I've watched them come up in their careers, and I've actually helped each one of these individuals, and they spit a lot of nonsense, and they they're great at marketing. They're great at marketing. They're just not speaking truth.
Mike Swenson
You need a brief pause for episode we'll get back to in a second. This is Mike Swenson, are you looking to get more out of your real estate career? Are you looking for tools and systems and ways to build wealth so that you can have the financial freedom that you desire? I have a vision to create 20 millionaires over the next 20 years. And I want to do that for you. If you're interested in learning more about that programme, and how I can help you reach out to me at Mike at real freedom. COMM that's m i k, e. r e l. f redom.com? Thanks.
Mike Swenson
Well, I think too, there's there's a discerning process that happens to as you're listening to people if you're looking for themes, right? Just because so and so has a postcard that works really great. You know, a lot of times people think, well, if I just had that postcard, now my business is gonna take off, you know, you got to you got to look for the principles, you got to look for the consistency and what's what's repeatable in your market as well. And a lot of it is it's the mindset, it's the habits. It's the tactics that you use. It's not it's not necessarily like, what is my flyer look like? Or what is my mailer look like? And it's doing it consistently, right? It's, it's not chasing shiny objects, because if we all chase shiny objects, we could feel busy, but it's not going to necessarily do production for us.
Greg McDaniel
It's it's not in you nailed that on the head. You know, in real estate agents were perceived as you know, we're dressed up in a nice dress or the nice suit, we're driving the Mercedes or the BMW or even caviar and Champagne for lunch on a Wednesday. You know, we make millions of dollars and all we do is put a sign in the yard. hard stop. Now. Here's the reality. we're stressed out. We're gaining weight. We're not spending time with our, with our loved ones. We probably eat at our desks for the most part, especially with COVID you know, in a bag lunch, or you go to the supermarket, you stay up late, you don't hang out with your friends or family on the weekends because you don't have times out showing or listing properties. And that's the unfun, unseen unsexy part of real estate. I mean, I've done almost 500,000 cold calls in my career. I was knocking out between 507 150 phone calls a day.
Greg McDaniel
And guess what, is that sexy? Absolutely not. I would do 250. Go take a break, do 250 then do cold call and then do door knocking then do follow up then do handwritten letters every single day if I wasn't if I wasn't with a client. So yeah, it is persistent, and consistent activity. So could you be posting on social media and doing social media videos? Yeah, it's a great way my friend Stevie Han, when I first met her five or six years ago, she was so afraid of her camera, she wouldn't go near it. She had a girlfriend to drink a bottle of wine together to go do their first video, I laughed my rear end off because I was hilarious. But now this girl gets between 80 to 85% of her business from from video and from social media. So is her marketing on the phones? No, she's doing it in a different manner.
Greg McDaniel
But whatever lane you choose, make sure you stay consistent on it. If the guy who gets hit and gets knocked down doesn't get back up, guess what? You'll lose. But if you crawl your butt back up, dude, you will always flippin win. Like I was telling you off air. I took about two plus months off from working out. And girlfriend told me well, Greg, I remember when you're a little bit better shape. And I'm like, oh my gosh. And I'm like, Well, guess what, Greg, you didn't stay consistent on you're working out. You were paying the consequences now. So guys, you have a decision. Either you're consistent and persistent with your marketing and prospecting and like Mike was saying, don't go home, you know, shiny object, find your lane, stay in your damn lane. And then just a consistently at it, you will be incredibly successful. Just it might take a little time. So don't get discouraged. Do you think I got discouraged when I was doing 500,000 cold calls, I got told no and got told eff off more times than I can count. But on the other side, I met more nice people than I do did rude people.
Mike Swenson
Well, and that's the that's the trap that people fall in is, you know, there's does pretty much all lead generation work. Yes. You know, I could send 1000 recipe cards to people and one person might call me back and say, Hey, I got this awesome recipe card. You know what? I'm actually looking to sell my house. And you and then and then that leads you to think like, Oh, well, now I just need to send more recipe cards out. And so the tricky trap for agents is there are stories of success using a lead gen source. The question is, is it the best lead gen source the best use of your time and money? And ultimately, is it something that you can do? You know, we always tell people if if cold calls, not your thing. That's okay. You have to go find your thing though. You know, you can't say well today I'm going to do this tomorrow. I'll do that tomorrow. I'm going to do that. You have to pick a lane and so find something that fits your personality. Find something that fits your your passion and guess what, there's always going to be a part Real Estate, where you're just gonna have to do something that you're not super excited about doing. So if it's not cold calling, that's okay. But you got to pick a lane. You can't just bounce from lane to lane the lane and expect to have consistent business.
Greg McDaniel
Yeah, I mean, when I started the business 21 years ago, I mean, there wasn't social media. I mean, they're barely like working cell phones. I mean, this isn't a prehistoric days of technology. And so guess what my idea was to be out of the box. So I tried everything out of the box that could possibly work. I mean, I, my team always makes fun of me for it. But my lane is just weird. That's my lane. My lane is weird. And so I mean, I, I've delivered over 70,000 coasters like you'd see in a bar coasters to a local bar and a couple bars, got a couple of deals from that. And they said, Well, why don't we I said, Why did you call us the guy was like, I'm putting my beer on your face for the last six months.
Greg McDaniel
We had 214 foot moving trucks or their heads about this big. And I talked to our team to getting got multiple deals from that, you know, just the laundry list goes on and on of crazy, but it's just find it, find something that's different, but consistent and just go after it and never say sorry, I had Zeon x bead, you know, little members or box little car things. had his eye on x b everyone thought I was nuts. We know what I wrapped that full thing with my face and my team image and everything else. Dude, I had so many people just saying oh my god, I saw you driving down the road the other day. And in my head. I'm like, I haven't had that and almost a year. Okay. But it's memorable. So just be memorable, be consistent, be persistent. And never say sorry for anything that you course be moral, ethical, and, uh, you know, above the board. Don't be weird. Don't Don't lie, like not that kind of weird, but good.
Mike Swenson
Right. So talk to me then a little bit more about your future. And what you're looking to do. I mean, you're as exciting as real estate is as fruitful as it is. You know, there's a period where we always want to talk to people about having the wind at your back versus feeling like you're running into the wind. And so it might be you know, picking up additional streams of income. It might be finding, you know, new ways to leverage your time, whether that's being more efficient with your time or leveraging it out to other people. How do you assess where you're spending your time now and kind of where you're looking to go here in the future? Okay,
Greg McDaniel
great question. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff that's going to be shifting. I'm stepping. Over time I say this, the universe kind of slaps me but I'm trying to step out of active production. I have the shot glass, the coffee mug, the biggest ball, I am the sweatshirt. So I have I have my all my awards and everything else. So where I'm trying to go is I want to, I have a programme, a training programme called listing sell, like crazy. And a 10 hour course my friend Bernice Ross and I who I produce, you know, content for Inman news every week with her, she and I put this together it is I'm not bragging, she's the one that really kind of did it, do this thing. We have a listing programme in there that gets a 93% conversion rate every single time if you just follow what we're doing. So I'm going to step into selling that.
Greg McDaniel
For my company. I want to start working and getting more people into my company that I'm currently with my current brokerage, I have a VA. Her name's Heather out of the Philippines who's managed and trained by a company called clever lead spelled with a K. And they do a tonne of lead generation, we do geo fencing, text messaging, when we get a 40 to 70% return rate response rate on every single campaign. My VA Heather will then go and you know, follow up with them. She just setting appointments for me now doing recruiting for my current company, like we talked about. So yeah, and then I'm also getting into, but I'm learning right now I partner with a guidance horse trading with him. But he's teaching me how to buy properties from their tax liens, delinquent taxes and how you don't have to wait two to three years with this stuff. He's He's come up with these topics all over the world. And I'm like, really? He's like, yeah, Greg, you can go buy a four or $500,000 home, you know, for like 50 grand. What?
Mike Swenson
Are you kidding me more about that? Yeah.
Greg McDaniel
Oh, he bought a property for $50,000. This is his biggest 150 grand now it's that night. This is not gonna happen every time. And it was worth $3 million. Guess what he did? He turned around and sold it back to the current owners at one and a half million dollars. They when government gets the money, you just wouldn't make one and a half million dollars. And I'm like, teach me Yoda. I need to learn. I need to learn. And so I'm getting into that more and more just to build my own portfolio. I want to buy, you know, 14 to 20 homes this year, kind of using that method. Helping people get out from underneath that stuff. So a lot of stuff. I mean, the future is shifting. I see real estate as a whole really shifting with Amazon with Zillow getting in, while these major corporations they're all they're all there. They all see the value that multi billion dollar industry was the number one to get into. And California they decided to try to turn this into w nine employees not attending that 1009 you know, independence. Thank God that didn't pass. But I mean, it's it's all a shift. And what are you saying, by the way, I'm curious to hear what kind of what you what you're seeing,
Mike Swenson
What I think is really important for people to understand is these companies are going to come in, they're going to have a stake in what I've always learned us is having an abundance mentality, right? Yes, there will be opportunities out there. For people in real estate, it may look a little bit different, you might have to adapt a little bit. And yet at the same time, it's not like somebody like Zillow, or it's not like, someone like Amazon is going to come in and soak up every opportunity and every lane in real estate, right? Because you've got, you've got production, you've got coaching and training, you've got investing, you've got buy and hold, right? Like, you could still be a landlord, if if a company came in and took all the sales away, you could still be a landlord and make a tonne of money and be very successful in real estate.
Mike Swenson
So I think a lot of times agents, you know, run with pitchforks and, and tar and feather and think that the whole world's gonna end because something disruption, something disruption related is happening. And the reality is, is you may have to cut you may have to adjust, tweak some things, you probably have to get sharper, right. So we always have to stay, keep our side as sharp as possible because the the the people that are going to fall out when there's disruption or change are going to be the the bottom quartile or the bottom half of people and so you always are going to have to get better but but it's not like the world's gonna end tomorrow because a new disrupter has come into play. You know, I've been in real estate for seven years, there has been a lot of disruption in seven years. And I'm still here, I still have a job. I'm still building wealth for the future and building my future. It's okay, you know, like, we don't have to have this the you know, that the whole world's gonna go to hell in a handbasket next year because this new technology or this new company came into the space.
Greg McDaniel
Yeah, no, I 1,000% agree with you. I remember before you got into it, this is when Zillow just came onto the market, right? We were at we're at an open house. And I remember I can drive you to this house, right? And my dad is sitting there I'm there with doing the brokers tour with him or caravan, whatever, wherever you guys are, you know, the vernacular you're used to. And we're sitting there eating some sandwiches and all the agents are gathered around my dad, because he's like the OG when you know, back then he wasn't what do you think about what's gonna happen? are we all going to be out of business because they all thought Zillow was gonna put us out of business. Guess what did not happen is Zillow, we're gonna come in and they're trying to compete with us. Yep, get a knockout of all of your reviews that you built years and years and years of Zillow reviews, yep, killed that. But is that gonna kill your business? You know, we went through an election cycle, I don't care if you're the left or the right, the middle, don't care. Here's the thing. One side was really ticked off at the other side, because it didn't go the way they want it, right. And here's the thing, I after listening to people complain and moan, I really kind of set up and I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna wake up in the morning. And there may or may not be a new individual in the White House. But that does not affect my personal business. So guys, when it comes to just doing your business, don't worry about anything out there.
Greg McDaniel
The Navy SEALs have a thing called the three foot rule. They can control anything within three feet of them, that's their control zone. Think about this and actually big built because when they when they learn how to do rock climbing, that's how they talk about it because they can get within three feet, you know, to get the next hand grab. So think about it like this. Don't worry about what these people are going to do. You just knuckle up and just put your nose to the grindstone. Never look around. We don't care what Bob's doing down down down the office. Okay, screw Bob. You know, it's all about you. Can you can you do better than you did today. And if you can get up you can do one more phone call one more door knock or you can post you know, one more something interesting on social media to get the attention then do your messages back to them, build the rapport, gain the relationship, go from online to offline as fast as humanly possible. And just build your database and stay in front of them and be relevant. Screw Bob doing that. I guarantee you he's not doing that. Not in the level you're doing it. So stop, stop caring guys, it's all about a look at me mentality. But if you if you give back to people and you ask them one question like, is this Mike? How can I help you grow your business? What does your perfect client look like your your perfect customer look like? I do a lot of calls a lot of doors and a lot of social media. I want to be a referral source for you at zero cost basis. I just want to see you and your family live the best version of life so what how can I help you grow your business? What would that mean to you if someone did say that?
Mike Swenson
It would mean a lot and it means you care. And I think that's where at the end of the day the relationship wins. You know if if you want to help them succeed, and you show that you earnestly care for them. And, and and your kids go to school together, you're in a social club with the other parents like, those relationships are gonna win. And the thing that I've always believed too is somebody else doesn't have to fail for you to succeed. Because it's a big enough, it's a big enough ocean, right? Where the number one agent in your town could still stay the number one agent. And you could still double your business next year or triple your business or quadruple your business. Now, if you're, if you're number two by one transaction, if you get an extra transaction, you'd now become number one.
Mike Swenson
And they wouldn't be number one, but but there's so many agents out there. Like if I were to pull my zip code, probably 60 to 70% of the transactions or even more are done by agents who have a onesie twosie have I sold this one house and I sell a house in another city in another city. So all of those people, if I took an extra 10 transactions or an extra 15 transactions, or 50 transactions in my zip code, they could still go find other deals. So that's where I think the the abundance mentality is somebody else doesn't have to fail in order for me to succeed. And we can still all win, and we can all make money together and be successful. It does mean I have to lean in it does mean I have to do work. And yet just because one person or one large company comes in and and takes market share doesn't mean I have zero market share. Now,
Greg McDaniel
I do you if you saw me looking down, I was writing down a quick name. And it was a client of mine. About a year and a half ago, they called me up. And because I had been staying in relationship with them for last night. At that point, it was 16 years or 20, something like that as a long time. I sat down with him at his coffee at his breakfast table on a Saturday morning at eight o'clock. I never do. I never work on the weekends. But for this guy because he's a past client and in a friend I did. And I said, What's going on man? And he gave me the lay down of kind of what's going on how we just couldn't afford to be in the home anymore. You're just eating through everything. And I said, Well, what if I could help you stay here? Like, would you be okay, if I could help you stay here and you don't have to move? And he looked at me goes?
Greg McDaniel
Well, wouldn't that mean you don't get you know, the listing in the buy side of our new house. I said it's exactly what that means. But let me see if I can have some lenders call you and see if we can get you refinance and keep you in the wife and the kiddos here in the house. He said why don't you do that? I said because you come number you come first. And so we tried, we ultimately he couldn't afford it. So we did sell his house, it was our 2.1 and we bought him a 3.1 point three $5 million dollar property. And he he in this is where it comes from being kept from caring, right. He and his wife were sitting there and we're finalising the paperwork week later, right after the lenders are calling him. And they say well, gosh, Greg, you know, thanks so much for really caring about our family said guys. You know, my family, of course, they said, Well, do you think you can help us sell our investment property and buy another one too? And I'm like, hold up, we're gonna get four transact in my head. I'm gonna get four transactions by trying to cancel one. And they said, I'm like, why would you guys do that? Because you you truly want to care. You want us to care.
Greg McDaniel
And so like you said, everything comes from the mindset of excess. I mean, we are there's so much you could not handle the amount of business if you got everything you do not any level of service and go to the floor. let some other people get some get some cheddar to It's okay. Then you help those people and then you work with the other agents and most when I first got in the business, I thought every agent was evil. I'm like, oh, they're coming after my side of the pie. Then I understood that. Nah, man. They're great humans. They're phenomenal human beings out there and just trying to make their way in the world. So yeah, the mindset of bounty is something where I live and I think I've loved that you live there too, man. That's awesome.
Mike Swenson
All right. So talk a little bit about kind of financial and time freedom. Here's as you think about your future between now and in the last day, whenever that is for you. You know, what, what would you see happening because of what you've built in your real estate career because of the knowledge that you've gained? The different streams of income that you have in place kind of what would would financial and time freedom look like for you?
Greg McDaniel
Financial Well, I'm very over the top right. And so my whole ideas that I want to put Well, I want to put out a significant amount of people in the company that I work with. And that would net me a I mean, again, astronomical numbers don't judge a player Okay, hate the game. I want to put I want to get somewhere in the probably 20 to $40 million a year in passive income which is extraordinarily affordable and I know I can get there cuz I have assassins set up in different places that are helping me get there. And then when it comes to time, you know, my thing is I'm working. And this isn't a weird, but I'm working more productively from my bed. And so I'm enjoying my time just kind of not rushing so much. So I've made a deal with myself and 2021 years is 2020 was a dumpster fire and we didn't know what the heck was up and what the heck was down, right? We're like, okay, Whole New World, what the heck's going on?
Greg McDaniel
So I said, you know, I'm gonna do one thing a day? Is it going to be no one thing successfully? So is it going to be set up a showing, acquire a new buyer, am I going to prospect and get a listing appointment, I'm not going to do follow ups. But I'm gonna do one thing successfully every single day. And after that, my time is mine. I can go for a walk to the park and go see the ducks. I can go head over to the grocery store and get a sandwich. I can sit on my button, watch TV, I can do follow up calls of friends and kind of check in with them. A lot of people mental health wise, they're a little bit on the slower side at this moment just because of what's what's going on in people's personal lives. And so my one thing, it is tremendously. It is tremendous to give yourself that one task. And again, a lot of people are going you're crazy, Greg Mike. Okay, cool. No problem. I mean, that's just my version of time freedom at this moment.
Greg McDaniel
So yeah, there it is. And then just selling my course and building my people in my team that we discussed to get that certain level of income. I have a note on my whiteboard is my girlfriend wrote it. So she wrote here. And it's an inside joke that we have, right? Because we were anyways, I'll explain that later. She said make enough Zimbabwe dollars. So Jackie can be a part time, in quotes, full time naked housewife. So she worked part time. And I'm like, that motivates me more than anything right there than anything else out in the world. Because, you know, we get up at 430 in the morning to get her out the door so she can be at work at seven. Right? Yeah, how much she hates that. That's my motivation. That's why a crush. That's why keep pushing because I need to get to that quote right there.
Mike Swenson
Mm hmm. So yeah, there it is. And I can speak like when when my wife got to where she didn't have to work full time, and she could work part time. Like that was, that was a significant achievement for me, because I felt like okay, now she's gaining some time freedom back, you know, and so we've got three kids. And so now my kids get more of mom, versus a nanny or babysitter, whatever we had lined up at the time. And so that's the quality of life piece. And so, you know, there will be a day where, where she won't have to work. And so that's those, it doesn't have to be overnight. It can be we say success is sequential, you know, but but it's nice to be able to kind of check those boxes off as you go. So I love you sharing your story for like that. So. So for those folks that have you know, heard your story, Greg, and it's resonated, how can folks reach out to you and get a hold of you? And, you know, what else would you like to promote here?
Greg McDaniel
I just want to promote what you're building. I love your mindset. I love where you're coming from. I mean, you come from a heart of gratitude, I can feel that. I mean, you're in the course of this interview and our pre show. So I just want to support you as much as humanly possible. If you guys like what I'm putting out, you know, go ahead and just follow and subscribe to my podcast called real estate uncensored. There is a lot of cussing on it. I am the uncensored version. So
Mike Swenson
This is more of the censored version of the real estate uncensored.
Greg McDaniel
Yes, I'm so proud of myself. But we have almost 1000 episodes. We're on YouTube. We're on every streaming podcast site that out there. So we're out there and take a look at us. I'm not the smartest man in the room. The guests that I bring in who they they drop knowledge bombs, like it's a it's their job, like a mic. I'm taking notes as fast as possible on some of these shows. Follow me on Instagram, Greg McDaniel, R e. u for real estate uncensored. And then Greg McDaniel on Facebook, send me a DM on either one of those platforms. Love to get in touch with you guys. And you see me in clubhouse, make sure you say hi and follow him in, you know what's joining the conversation together. But thank you, Mike. I really appreciate it, brother. Yeah, there it is. That's how you get hold me.
Mike Swenson
All right. Thanks so much. We appreciate your time.
Greg McDaniel
My pleasure, brother. Thank you.
Mike Swenson
This is Mike Swenson. Are you looking to get more out of your real estate career? Are you looking for tools and systems and ways to build wealth so that you can have the financial freedom that you desire? I have a vision to create 20 millionaires over the next 20 years. And I want to do that for you. If you're interested in learning more about that programme and how I can help you reach out to me at Mike at real freedom. COMM that's m i k e at RELFRE do m.com Thanks
