Business Innovators Radio - Found in Translation: From Interpreter to Realtor, Serving the Spanish-Speaking Community

Episode Date: August 8, 2023

In this episode of the Agents Lounge Podcast, hosts Nathan Gaylor and Francisco Bermudez Jr. sit down with Ezequiel (Zeke) Quijano, the owner and broker of QK Homes, to discuss his journey in the real estate industry. Zeke shares his unique background in technical sales and how he made the transition to becoming a successful real estate professional.Throughout the conversation, Zeke offers valuable insights and advice for both seasoned agents and those just starting out. He emphasizes the importance of effective communication, organizational skills, and problem-solving abilities in the field. Zeke’s diverse experience in sales and translation services has shaped his approach to real estate, allowing him to serve a wide range of clients, particularly in the bilingual community.Zeke also dives into the role of social media in real estate marketing and lead generation. He highlights the power of social media platforms in reaching potential clients, but also stresses the significance of personal interaction and phone calls in building relationships.As the discussion moves towards market trends, Zeke shares his thoughts on the current state of the industry. He predicts a surge in demand as interest rates drop and pent-up demand drives more people to enter the market. Zeke’s expertise in understanding market trends and using tools like Redfin and Mortgage Rate Daily make him a trusted resource in the real estate market.Through Zeke’s personal anecdotes and professional insights, listeners gain a deeper understanding of the intricacies of the real estate industry. Whether you’re a seasoned agent or a first-time homebuyer, this episode offers valuable takeaways and inspiration to navigate the world of real estate with confidence and success.Tune in to this episode of the Agents Lounge Podcast to hear Zeke’s journey, advice for first-time homebuyers, and his unique approach to serving the bilingual community. Gain valuable insights and learn how to navigate the ever-changing real estate industry from one of its most accomplished professionals.https://www.qkhomes.net/About Ezequiel (Zeke) Quijano:A seasoned realtor and interpreter, Zeke shares his journey from being trained as an interpreter to finding success in the real estate industry. With a bilingual background and a deep understanding of the Spanish-speaking community, Zeke has built a thriving business catering to this demographic. Join us as Zeke discusses the challenges and joys of working with Spanish-speaking clients, the ever-changing housing market, and the importance of effective communication in real estate. About The Show Sponsor:The Agents Lounge Podcast is proudly sponsored by Airtegrity Comfort Solutions, your trusted HVAC experts in San Antonio, TX. With a commitment to exceptional service and top-notch comfort, Airtegrity is dedicated to keeping your home or business cool in the scorching Texas heat.Visit their website at https://airtegritycs.com to discover the range of services they offer. From professional air conditioning installations to reliable repairs and maintenance, Airtegrity has you covered. Their team of skilled technicians is equipped with the knowledge and expertise to handle all your HVAC needs efficiently and effectively.Whether you’re looking for a new system installation, need repairs, or want to schedule routine maintenance to ensure your HVAC system is running smoothly, Airtegrity Comfort Solutions is just a phone call away. Reach out to them at 210-446-0105, and their friendly staff will be ready to assist you.Experience the comfort and peace of mind that comes with Airtegrity’s exceptional HVAC solutions. Trust their reliable service and enjoy the benefits of a well-functioning heating and cooling system. Visit their website or call them today to schedule your next HVAC service. Airtegrity Comfort Solutions, your go-to HVAC experts in San Antonio, TX.Agents Lounge Podcasthttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/turbopassusa-podcast/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/found-in-translation-from-interpreter-to-realtor-serving-the-spanish-speaking-community

Welcome to the Agents Lounge podcast, where we talk all things real estate with the industry's top performers. Join us as we dive into the inspiring journeys of successful agents and uncover the secrets to their success. Whether you're a seasoned agent or just starting out, we've got the tips and tricks to help you navigate the world of real estate. Brought to you by Eritectady Comfort Solutions. So grab a seat and join us in the Agents Lounge. Welcome back to another episode of the Agents Lounge podcast. We have a guest with us today. Zeke, how's it going?

It's going great. Thanks. How are you doing it? I'm doing just fine. Zeke is the owner and brokerage broker. Broker. Yeah. Excuse me of K&Q homes.

QK homes. Oh my goodness. I'm dyslexic. I'm sorry. Some people read OK homes. It's like, no, it's a Q. OK homes would be a good one too. It would be, yeah.

And I am your host, Nathan Gaylor, co-host Francisco Bermudez Jr. Hello. So let's get the ball rolling. If you had any superpower for one day, what would it be? Oh, wow. The ability to get people to answer their phone when you call them. Wow, that is. That would be the ultimate superpower, yeah.

Oh, so we have before, I've asked a question just a couple of times, but that was the most original one I've heard so far. Like, answer your phone. You have no choice. Why are you looking at me sick? That's the one I would pick now, too. I'd probably change it. But yeah, we've gotten flying, I think, is a very common one.

And I think Vanessa said to read people's minds for a day. Right? I'm not sure I'd want to do that. You know, I could find some scary stuff in there. Yeah. Whatever, Tweet they're out. All the demons. Yeah.

And you get to really figure out how much people actually fib. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. All right. So I guess, Zique, just maybe walk us through a little bit of what you did before QK. What did you do for maybe a previous job? Were you translating? In my previous lives?

Your previous lives. In my previous lives. All right. Well, they said, I have a degree in electrical engineering, but I've never practiced it. But I've always been in technical sales. From my first job, I used to sell wire and cable and stuff like that. I eventually had merged into software. Then, you know, the economy tanked in, what, 2008, 9, 10, eventually they got laid off.

And I was like, man, I need work, right? At that point, my parents had had a translation in interpreting business for a few years. And, you know, like most parents would do it. Like, hey, son, how are you doing? Do you need money? I need work. It's like great. So he trained me as an interpreter because we've been bilingual since we were a little.

I'm originally from Mexico, so Spanish is my first language. I speak Spanish at home all day, every day, always had with my parents, whatnot. But I've been here since I was 11, so our English is pretty good. So he started this translating business, this interpreting business. And so he trained me as an interpreter. I started working with that. At that time, one of my daughters was playing soccer. And I was pretty good friends with a guy who's real estate.

state who was another dad on the soccer team. And I asked him, look, you know what? I'm into translating now. Do you have any clients for Mexico who may be here trying to buy a house or whatever? And says it was like, no, I don't speak Spanish. I'll translate for you. It's like, well, don't be dumb. Why don't you get your license?

Come work with me in instead of making whatever per hour and translating, you know, you can earn, you know, several thousand dollars in commissions. Let me think about that one. Okay. So that's how we got into real estate. Yeah. I got my license and initially you have to work under a broker, right? You can't just start your own business.

And time went on and I started getting experience and more experience. Eventually got my broker license and then I broke off on my own and I opened up KUK home. So I'm an independent local broker here. A realtor. Most people know the word realtor. Yeah. Yeah. So do you prefer to work with the Spanish speakers?

Just whoever comes knocking? It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. As long as they speak either English or Spanish. and if not, I know a bunch of interpreters who could translate for me. Yeah. But it doesn't matter to me as long as this people who need a buyer sell, you know, I'm willing to work with anybody.

Yeah. Interesting. How do you feel your experience doing sales in the, was it a computer industry or software industry, helped you get started towards real estate? Interesting question. I don't think I'd ever been asked that, before.

There is nothing directly, but it taught me to get organized. Certain skills, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, organizational skills. Of course, people's skills and being a problem solver and being able to get, to help people get what they need, right? But it really taught me how to get organized because the sales process is really different when you're selling, you know, software to, as a distributor, selling software to a company who's going to resell it to an end user and it's, you know,

commercial grade software, it's different than, you know, getting an individual to buy something. In this case, you know, it's a big personal investment. And the other one, it's a business investment. So just the sales process is totally different. But what's really common, I think, in all sales jobs is one, you realize that regardless of the industry, it's always a people business. And secondly, you know, it taught me to really to learn how to organize my processes. okay yeah that's a you're coming at me with or us with a lot of uh very like we we hear some

kind of common answers uh sometimes and everything that you're saying so far is just like uh you're you're coming from a different background uh different experience like getting into your realty business which is really cool yeah uh we've ran into a lot of teachers that's what Francisco used to be a teacher. I think the first two or three real estate agents that we had come on were previously teachers. It was very interesting. Was social media around when you started? Or was it a powerful tool like it is?

No, it definitely wasn't as powerful of a tool as it is as it is now. I think, man, when I started real estate, I probably had a LinkedIn profile, maybe a Facebook account and that was it. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, and I think you ask anybody who's in their early 50s, you know, that's probably what we were doing in the latter part of the 2000s. Yeah, because I feel that, especially with you all that are a little bit older than most of the younger real estate agents, I feel like you all are very good about having a system in place. And I feel that I've met a lot of young realtors that all they want to do is social media. And it's like, well, it's not really that. That's not just the way to, it really works.

Like there's other ways or there's other ways to generate leads or referrals besides social media. So what are your thoughts on that? Well, social media can, I think there are two important avenues to getting leads on social media. One of them is, you know, somebody comes into the business and says, okay, you know what, I'm here to make money, but I'm broke right now. A lot of people spend hundreds, thousands of dollars on leads. They go to Zelo and they buy leads or they go to Realtor.com, buy leads. On social media, you can get a business account on Facebook, on Instagram, and you pay for advertising and whatnot.

But it's also, social media also allows you or presents tools that allow you to advertise for free. Yeah. Simply, you post, you post for free. So it's a way to get leads, whether if you've got a budget, if you can spend some money on it, go for it, you know, and your exposure will be greater. But if not, you can always reach out to your sphere of influence and make friends on, whether it's on Instagram or TikTok or Facebook for free. Yeah.

But of course, there are other late generation techniques. There's the phone, you know. And here's the thing, though, ultimately, this is where I think a lot of the newer, younger agents may think differently. You know, social media, it's easy, man, because I don't have to have that personal interaction. eventually you do. Eventually you're going to have to talk to somebody, right? So I use the phone a lot and I call people.

Cold calling? Sure, why not? I'm not afraid to talk to anybody. And I know that I'm going to have to talk to him in the end anyway, so why not start the conversation? You know, when you talk to somebody is when you really find out if you're compatible, if you like him, if they like you or not. Yeah.

So that happens. I feel like social media in general, it's really, really good. The best business comes from word of mouth, I would say. I don't know if that's even like really arguable in my opinion. But like Facebook, if you have some clients, it's good to have them on your business Facebook. So like it keeps them, if you're consistently posting a couple times a week or whatever it is, you're going to be in their mind more often rather than if you weren't. Right.

So if they hear something that comes up and they, like, their AC breaks, right? So somebody that follows an Aerectuary Facebook page would be like, yeah, actually, I've had this company come out for us before. Let me, you know, do a referral that way. Yeah, that's marketing, advertising 101. When you have a business where you depend on top of mind, whenever the moment happens when they need your service, you want to be the first person they talk to. Yeah. So what you guys are doing is perfect. creating that top of mind awareness, oh, I need AC service.

Let me call integrity. Yeah. It's right there. Right, right. And that's what I, of course, I try to accomplish. Oh, I'm thinking of buying something. Let me call Zieg. Yeah, right, right, exactly.

So you mentioned that you do most of the communication over the phone. So tell us about a time that you had a challenging situation and how you overcame it. How did you help the customer reach their goal? It could be buying a house or selling a house or... So this is like one of my favorite topics. So is there like when you hear what is a very quick memory that comes up to you when I mentioned a difficult situation that you've had in the past, maybe a customer or maybe just a buyer or seller?

And like just kind of walk us through it, like the whole process of dealing with it. Sure. Sure. And this is, okay, man, I can take like five real quick. Yeah. But here's one that I think is pretty common among realtors, right? Most of the time we're dealing with a couple who wants to sell a house or a couple who wants to buy a house. One of the things that I'm always telling my clients when I start getting mixed signals from one from the other.

It's like, look, you guys have got to work this out. Get on the same page. Before you tell me what you want to accomplish. Because you're telling me you've got to have a five-bedroom house. And you're telling me you're okay with three as long as you got to pull. And she's like, I don't want to pull. Like, okay, so tell me what to look for. Yeah, yeah.

So sometimes that's really one of the most common difficulties is trying to make sure that everybody's on the same page. Because ultimately, you want to get into it. You want your clients to get into a house to where they're both going to be happy. Yeah. But initially, you know, there's a few things that I tell them, look, you've got to understand there's this thing called that, I call it the 80-10-10 rule. You've got to find a house that meets 80% of your wants and needs. 10% of them is something that you can change with time once it's yours. And 10% it may not be, but you know what?

Fine, I'm willing to live with it. I'll put up with it. Because if you want the perfect home, the perfect home for her, maybe a little bit different than the perfect home from him. And if you're not going to buy a house until you find the perfect home, you're not going to buy a house ever. Yeah. Even when you build it yourself, a custom home, it always happens, man. You move in and then a week later or a month later, a year later. And I wish that crap.

Exactly. What did I think of putting that window over here? Man, we should have gotten the wider doors. You know why? We should have gotten a gas stove instead of an electric. Oh, we should have, should have. So the perfect house just doesn't exist. So think in terms of an 80, 10, 10%.

80% it matches your wants it needs. 10% you're willing to change. 10% you're willing to live with it as is. And getting them to understand that, and they come together as to what. But at that 80% is, that's probably one of the biggest challenges. Once they figure it out, then it's smooth sailing because now we all know what we're looking for. Yeah.

And knowing him, I've known him for probably about 10 years, and his communication skills are great. Like, even in the soccer field, when we would be refereing, like, his mentoring, the way he communicates. Yeah. Like, that always amaze me because I feel like communication is not my strong key because to me it's like I want to do something and then I want to be. I rather text people. Yeah, yeah. Especially because I have so many things going on. But whenever, like, for example, Sikh, I can tell that his energy,

he carries sound over the phone, and you can just tell that he probably has a lot of training. Yeah. Honestly, yeah, so it's the way that you, your diction is almost militaristic in the way that you describe things. I don't know if you've ever got that before, but. Never, never heard that before. That's your one. Yeah. It's not like overbearing by any means, but it's just very collected, I would say.

So, yeah, I don't know, a compliment for you. So maybe for some of our listeners, I don't know how often it's probably, I would say, honestly, you're the realtor. I'll let you describe it. But first-time homebuyers, if there are any listening, do you have any advice for them, just if they're looking to getting into a new home or first home? Yes, a couple of things. First thing is, call me, right?

Call you. And I'm not saying that just because, hey, I want to get your business, but because there's a lot of stuff that goes into it, if you're going to be a first-time homebuyer, that you don't know what you don't know. Yeah. And it's a lot easier to get guidance and create a roadmap up front and then go through the steps, right? Make sure you've got this. Make sure we've got that. Make sure you've got money in the bank. And let's talk to a lender.

Let's get you pre-qualified. If you can't qualify, let's find out why. Let's see what we can do to fix that, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Let's create a game plan. because this is something that also tell a lot of people buying a house is not the same as you know what I'm going to go buy me a pair of jeans today yeah and I can go to three stores pick up the ones that okay they fit let's move on I go to the cash register and I'm done buying houses are really really there's a lot of moving parts I was going to see it really complicated it's not complicated but

there's a lot of moving parts and it requires a lot of preparation if you're a first time home buyer what are my options do I want a brand new build house do I want an existing house do I really need what I think I need, do I not? And I think that having that conversation up front is going to help clarify some things. Sometimes it scares people, to be honest. It's like, oh, crap, I didn't know I was going to have to think about all of that. I thought it was going to be easier. But I'd rather make sure that people understand the process up front.

And on my website, I created a little document. It's called Zeke's Guide to Buying a Home. Six-page PDF, big print. So it takes you 10 minutes to go through it. but it'll give you an idea of the steps to go through. So my advice says, call me, let's talk about what you want, why you want it, and we can create a game plan for you. Don't go into it thinking, I'm going to go look for homes online first.

Once I find the house I want, then I'll contact a realtor. That really doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It's like saying, I'm going to wait until I get sick before I go see a doctor instead of looking for, you know, let me rephrase that. let's say I want to lose weight, but I'm going to wait until I've got a weight-related problem. Yeah. Before I see a doctor, instead of looking for a personal trainer right now, they can help me do what I want and avoid the pitfalls. Yeah, yeah.

Or, you know, you hear some knocking on your engine and you're like, oh, just wait until I'm stranded on the side of the road. Exactly, right. Instead of calling you guys that are tearing and say, hey, what I needed to make sure my AC doesn't fall apart. Right. You know, on a monthier, by week, your, whatever basis. Right. Yeah, that's a good point. Education, very important.

How do you, I know like no one has a crystal ball, but how do you forecast the foreseeable like next year or so as far as markets? And how do you stay informed about it? Just the market trends and everything. Okay. There's a bunch of tools. Actually, they're available to the public if you know where to look and you care to look for them. Yeah. It's like more, do you have like a personal favorite, like a go-to, like a favorite tab on a computer or something?

I do. I've got a couple. One of them is Redfin.com. Even though Redfin is a broker, also it's a brokerage and technically they're my competitor. They're nationwide and they compile information from all of the MLS systems across the U.S. And they've got a lot of really good information that will indicate market trends, everything from the number of homes that are on the market. to medium price trends over the last six months to six years, whatever, number of sales, number of, I mean, they've got something like 20 different graphs you could look at. So I use that to get a lot of market information to look at trends. For example, well, that's one.

Another favorite of mine is mortgage rate daily because I can see exactly what the mortgage rates are doing. And right now that's a pretty hot topic. Yeah. Oh, yeah, for sure. interest rates. So if one of the other little plug here for my weekly newsletter, I'd send out a weekly newsletter a lot of times I put in images from those websites indicating what the trends are,

both locally and nationally, and what rates are doing because I think it's important for people to stay informed of what's going on. So those are the two sources that I use. And if you want to get on my weekly newsletter, let me know and I'll be happy to add you. That sounds awesome. But those two are the ones that I use. That's what I see as far as trends. What am I seeing in the foreseeable future?

I think that there's a lot of pent up demand right now. A ton of people want to buy houses, particularly millennials. Yeah. Right? Between the mid-90s and early 2000s, a lot of people were born, right? I don't remember the figures exactly. But Realtor.com and the National Association of Realtors did a study. They did some surveys.

And something like over 80% of millennials, say they want to be homeowners in the next few of years. Yeah. But right now they can't because interest rates are so high and because inventory is so low, there are just simply no houses to buy. So if we look at trends on what's going on, I think that once interest rate drops,

a lot of people are going to come on the market to buy. Yeah. Right now they're not buying because interest rates are really high. The other thing that's affecting is that low inventory. Yeah, what's going to entice more people to start selling? When interest rates go, if I want a house right now at 3%, in interest and right now if I sell and I need to buy something else like man my next mortgage

is going to be at six and a half no way I'm selling right now because it's going to be just crazy stupid expensive for me to buy my next one yeah right so when interest rates go down I might be more willing to sell now because it's not going to be as painful for me to buy my next home yeah yeah right so I think that prices are going to continue to go up for those two same reasons right which is a reason for you to buy now if you're thinking about buying maybe not sell now but if you want to buy now. Because when inventory is really low, a lot of people want to buy,

and there's very few houses, prices go up just basic supply and demand. Yeah. And also, when you have interest, it's whenever they do come down, whether they come down or inventory goes up, that pent-up demand is going to show up and say,

I want to buy a house, and that's going to continue to keep prices high. Nationwide right now, we're already at the same price level as we were last year. Okay. We started off a little bit lower year-over-year-over-year than last year. Nationally, those two curves are already crossed. locally here in San Antonio, we're still a little bit below what home prices were at this time last year, but the trend is going up.

So houses are just going to get more expensive from this point going forward. Do you see more people becoming at that age where they want to buy a home increasing, or do you feel like more people are moving into San Antonio? I'm not sure about what flow of people into San Antonio looks like. I know people are coming here. I just don't have the numbers. But I think it has more to do with the number of people simply that are. getting rid of it by a house for whatever reason. Yeah, I'm not sure about San Antonio's numbers either,

but I did see a statistic on Austin, and it's, you know, San Antonio is always a little bit lower than Austin's, as far as those stats go. But last year for 22, 150 people an hour moved to Austin. That's ridiculous. Right. That's just nuts. Yeah, exactly.

I want to move to Austin to open a business over there. But I told my wife last night. You told her last night. Not on the podcast. What we're doing in my house or do I get the right realtor for you, man. I'll refer you to the right guy. But be prepared to pay a pretty penny. It's getting to be one of the most expensive markets in the country.

It's just a little L.A.'s, yeah. Yeah. Mr. Seek, you also work with a lot of bilingual clients. What type of background are they? or how do you get to meet them? Or what would you advise to any real trust trying to target them? Because I do target a lot of Spanish-speaking customers, but I want to see how you do it.

I don't market specifically to the Spanish speakers, right? But for example, a lot of my contacts on Facebook are Spanish speakers, and they all know that I'm real estate. So how to market to a bilingual... I feel like there's a lot of communities, right? There are. There are. But the thing is, I don't target specifically bilingual communities or specifically the Spanish-speaking community.

But a lot of times I'll post something in Spanish, right, just to see if it generates interest. Most of my Spanish-speaking clients come from referrals. And that's whether it's a business manager or somebody, a couple, whatever, that they own a business in Mexico and they want to move over here. They've been referred to me through title companies and real estate attorneys, all the way to a construction worker, a guy who does construction, who does construction. He's a business owner that he worked for who does plastering. He referred him to me.

It's like, hey, man, you know what? I've got cash in and helped me buy a house. I'm like, sure. So a lot of the Spanish speakers that come to me, come to me through referrals more than my marketing. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like most of my Spanish speakers, customers, it's because they know that I speak Spanish.

Yeah, exactly. And some friends that I have that speak Spanish were the ones who refer to me or my golfing buddies or soccer buddies that speak Spanish. Oh, Francisco. He'll do you do that. Yeah. And then I don't have a technician. That's funny.

But yeah, I think a lot of, there's a lot of people from El Paso, Brownsville, even at El that speak a lot of Spanish. Yeah. And I want to do business in Spanish. Question for you. Do you find that Spanish speaking or let's say people from a Mexican culture have a different way of doing business than Americans do? The way that they interact with the company, because I see it in real estate. What do you think?

Yeah, I mean, I feel that the way it depends on what part of the country they're from. because some of them, they see the value in the trades, whereas some of them really don't see the value, and they're just like paying a labor. Yeah, I agree. But if you provide the right service and they see the quality and they see the value in the service that you provide, it's going to be very similar to an American customer.

But if they know that they're paying you for a service and they're buying your service at a premium and you're not delivering, then that creates a problem. Sure. Yeah, but I feel that once you do a very good job for them, like the amount of referrals that you'll get from them, it's going to be a lot because those people, they're having dinners together, they're getting together to go out, play soccer, go to church together. I mean, it's a community and they stick together. Right. But if you do them right, like, once you do one, like, you're going to do their whole family and friends.

That's the ultimate. That's what I'd love to see. You know, somebody, somebody, so, hire me to sell a house, and then they're in, then they're in terms. entire family costs me to sell their houses. That's ultimately what I'd like to see. Yeah. That's a good point that he just made them like traditionally they're just more family oriented and more if they have a good experience, they're going to refer you.

Yeah, like even like Sikh, if we were neighbors, like he would be treated like family. Yeah. And they would say how to each other every day. Probably see him like be at his house every other day or every other weekend. But probably be looking over each other. So I was like, what are you cooking, man? Yeah, right. You're part if you're growing.

What are you cooking? Yeah. So it'll probably be like a WhatsApp group and everybody would be getting together. Yeah. That's cool. Zeke, do you have any hobbies outside of, what do you do in your free time if you have any? I know you said you're busy on the weekends now. When you get some free time, what does leisure look like for you?

It depends. Usually hang out with family and friends. It's usually just hang out time. Yeah. I used to be in the soccer world. That's where I'm at Francisco. right used to be a referee uh don't do that anymore uh but i miss it but you know barbecue's at friends houses we'll have people come over to our house sometimes we spend a lot of weekend sometimes

just chilling at home yeah you know doing your artwork fixing this fixing this fixing that whatever i'm visiting my mom yeah uh family oriented yeah yeah pretty much it's too hot to be outside but you know what though i really don't mind the heat i don't mind doing three hours of yard work even on a saturday afternoon i'm i'm okay with that But it is hot. Yeah. There's no denying. As long as there's a couple of cold ones in the fridge, we're good, you know.

Yeah, undeniable. I also feel the same way. I will just be outside to sweat because it makes me feel like I accomplished something and burn some calories. You know what? That's true. And sometimes that sense of accomplishment, even if it's, hey, I bought the yard today, it's something useful. Right. But my wife and I, we're homebodies.

We would like to just hang out, whether it's in our house or at our friend's house, whatever. We don't go out a whole lot. Yeah. We like our house. Yeah. So, you know, I'm almost done at interrogating you. I appreciate the conversation. But to close on a high note, do you have a particularly memorable deal that you've done with, like, a customer?

Do you have, like, a returning customer that you have just, like, went above and beyond, and they won't work with anybody else besides you in the future? Yes. Yes. And this is, here, this is, in case you guys have any. anybody who is thinking about doing a real estate deal and they don't live here. Long time ago, this guy named Patrick calls me since he found me online. And we kind of hit it off over the phone a little bit.

Remember my superpower? I wish I could get people to answer their phone. Well, he called I answer. And we kind of hit it off. And he later said in one of his online reviews that he had talked to several realtors because he was moving here from Nevada to San Antonio, job related. I eventually helped him buy a house, sight unseen. The guy never saw the house in person.

Keen his wife didn't see the house in person until the day they pulled up with her U-Ha. Oh, man. Pressure. Yeah, but you know what? He really enjoyed the service. I think that the quality of the service was good enough for him to later say, you know what, Zick, we're going to rent this house. I want to buy another one.

Can you help us? Duh, yeah. So let's do that. And we found him another house. Later, they wanted to sell the first. house. Well, Zeke, you know, we want to sell the house over there by wherever, you know. So we sold that one. Later, A, we want to sell this one and move that one. You know, overall, I did five transactions with them. Their last one was when a fortune, they had to move to Ohio. And also, you know,

that is very unfortunate. Yeah, with Patrick and Chrissy. But, you know, first, we get to be good friends. And that was a repeat customer. Five transactions. Help them buy, help them buy, help them buy, help them sell, help them buy, sell and then sell the very last one. Wow. And also my very, very first real estate client, after I got my license, was a couple from Montereig, from Mexico. They went to a bank here. They told their bank guy, their loan officer, that they wanted to buy a house. He called my broker.

The other dad on the soccer team is like, hey, Neil, I've got a couple here. They want to buy a house. It's like, okay, great. But they speak Spanish. He said, oh, no, I don't speak Spanish. But I've got this brand new agent. That would be me. I got this brand new agent here.

I'll bring them along. Well, this was 11 years ago. To this day, you know, I've helped them buy their condo, sell their condo, buy the house where they live right now. And we're really, really good friends. They're very close friends of ours. First deal. My very first deal, and 11 years later, you know, we're still very close friends.

Wow. That's awesome. It sounds like you had a good connection there, your referee buddy, right? Yeah. So he's one that kind of got you. Well, no, this wasn't a referee buddy. He was another dad on my daughter's soccer team. He was just some guy, another dad on the sideline.

Oh, okay. Awesome. Yeah. But he's the guy who told me, you know, instead of translating for me, why don't you go get your license and you can make some money getting commissions with him? He's the one that said, come along, man. I'm going to get you your first client. That's amazing.

Yeah, yeah. It was very, very cool. I'm very grateful for that. Zeke, thank you for coming by. We appreciate you. loved it. Thanks for having me, guys. I appreciate you as well. You've been listening to the Agents Lounge Podcast, brought to you by Air Eritory Comfort Solutions. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or to listen to past episodes, please visitagentsloungepodcast.com.