Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Tyler Lopez, Owner of Lopez & Lopez, REALTORS®

Episode Date: July 2, 2024

Co-founder, Owner & Chief Sales Executive of Lopez & Lopez, REALTORS®, Owner Operator www.MLSListing.net, full-time Real Estate Agent, long-term cash flow rental investor, Fix & Flip analytics coach, Independent Team Owner, Real Estate & lending coach/mentor/leader, Entrepreneurial Consultant & outside-of-the-box mentality enthusiast.Focused on personal client relationships with and eager will to creative investing within Residential Resale Properties, Tyler is creating and implementing the “second sale” within Real Estate, alongside the “Client for Life” philosophy. Featured in Apple News & GritDaily’s Top 10 Real Estate Agents Arizona, MSBA Service Firm Of The Year 2023, Tucson Real Producer’s Spotlight Cover Feature 2020 & 2023, America’s Best Real Estate Professionals For Arizona Teams by RealTrends.com, graduate of the CORE Training, INC, ranked “10 Best Real Estate Agents” in Arizona 5 years in a row from RisMedia, & part of the coveted Circle of 1926 Platinum Level within his resale company @ Long Realty Companies for 5 consecutive years. Common introductions from Tyler will include “To provide everything you didn’t know you needed” within all aspects of Real Estate, mentoring, & personal development.Tyler’s “Why: To be paid for he knows and not what he does.Lopez & Lopez, REALTORS® Mission Statement: Investing in the future of our clients through giving, grace, & gratitude.Career Sales Volume: +$300,000,000 through 2023.Graduate from The University of Arizona in Business Management, Communication, & Latin American Studies, while spending 12+ years in the Hospitality Industry. Amassing over 1,250 career transaction sides, Tyler’s credibility, and expertise overflows well over volume alone. By Leveraging critical knowledge in Real Estate, he continues to propel his sales team into the top-ranked agents nationally, let alone Arizona.Additional accolades include Top Contributing Sales Agent for Long Realty 2018-Present, Vice President Of The Executive Council within the company, 2020, 2021, & 2022 Best Property Buying & Selling Agency from Build.com, Americas Best Real Estate Teams Arizona 2022, Zillow, UpNest, Homelight, & Top 10 Real Estate Agents In Arizona Published by Apple News & Grit Daily 2023.Learn more: https://www.mlslisting.net/Elite Real Estate Leaders Podcasthttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/elite-real-estate-leaders-podcastSource: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-tyler-lopez-owner-of-lopez-lopez-realtors

Welcome to the Elite Real Estate Leaders Podcast, brought to you by Trailstone Insurance Group, bringing you interviews with the best real estate and mortgage professionals, empowering you to understand the current trends in the housing market so that you make the American dream your reality. Enjoy today's episode. Welcome to the Elite Real Estate Leaders podcast. Today we have with us Tyler Lopez, who's the owner of Lopez and Lopez Realtors. Tyler, welcome to the program. Thank you.

I appreciate you having me. Hey, so I want to dive into what you do, how you do it and who you do it with and how you serve and who you serve. But get it started a little bit with your story and your background and how did you get into the real estate industry? Yeah, sure. Well, I'll tell you, everything was initially happenstance. I tell people I didn't grow up with money, but I kind of knew better than to ask for money. So really what that came from is the desire and the need to want more and build a life for yourself. So I'll tell you, once I graduated college, I didn't know that I had an option to not go to college. But I'm sitting at this table and my great aunt had passed away and I'm sitting at the table with a bunch of ladies and they're giving me a bunch of good advice. And turns out they're all the corporate people. for long realty and high up in Berkshire Hathaway. So it really, it was really a good place, a right place at the right time, and real estate just happened to be the first paycheck I got with a, with a comma in it. In 2000, there really wasn't anybody to help and develop a career or mentorship or anything like that.

So I didn't know that things like that were available. So my history comes from a lot of self-taught, a lot of mistakes. But a lot of a really cool career and a really good life. I've sold 100 houses every year all the way up to 206 for the last seven years. I hired my business partner and now my wife, Tana Lopez, about 10 years ago now, and now we're close to over 300 million in total volume. And yeah, we've got a team of 10 people and we're all very close, very client and culture-based focused. And our whole team motto is giving grace and gratitude.

Nice. You know, you mentioned the word mistakes, and we don't have nine and a half hours on this podcast to talk through all the mistakes that I'm sure you've learned from and made. But what are a couple of the key ones that you can point to and pinpoint to say, you know what? Here was a mistake that came up. Maybe it was my fault or not, but I noticed this mistake. Here's what I learned from it. Yeah. You know, I believe most people that want to be high-level salespeople will take good advice and they'll still do it their way and try to do it.

better than it was before. So I developed this whole coaching system, and I've been coached by the core training for the last eight years. If anybody's ever heard about the core training, it changed my life. Doubled my income every year for six years straight. And now we're close to 75 million. Anyway, what I'm getting at is what I missed in my career was the development that you have to have from making no money all the way up to $100,000. That's like the benchmark. That's where people think that they're at the spot where they can pump the brakes.

Now, what they don't understand is $100,000 is not nearly enough. They need to be at that $250 mark to really build a different life. Then from $250 to $1 million and above, it's a completely different system. But to wrap, what I'm talking about is that $0 to $100,000, I coach complete mindset. Stop asking yourself for permission to want more. And that's essentially what's in the way. Now, to get from $100,000 to $250,000, it's entirely time management. It is entirely time management.

Every single second of every single part of your day, The lesson that I learned within time management that can wrap that, the middle part of all of this up, is that I dwell on my problems the same that everybody else dwells on their problems relevant to my income. So if something is going to ruin my day, I know how much money I make per hour. And typically if somebody else lets it ruin two or three days in relevance to what we make per hour or what we make per year, I spend about the same amount of time with it. Now, to get from $2.50 to a million and above, it's all leverage. So these three progressive stages are really essentially based on every mistake that I made. And a handbook that is based on my entire set of principles that before I hire anybody, they have to abide by them. They have to agree to all 20 of them and go, I know where you're coming from, Tyler.

That makes all the sense in the world. You know, time management is kind of like grasping at the wind and trying to catch a slippery pig because it's almost like you cannot manage. time. But I know I know what the culture talks about, you know, time management. It kind of makes me think of two things. So I want to get your thoughts on this. I've always said that, you know, you need that to-do list so that you can manage your time. But it always seems like that to-do list never gets to done. And I've heard a speaker before say, you really should start with the not to-do list. So what are your thoughts on having some things like, you know, here's my, you know, my not-to-do list or here's my non-negotiables. I must always do these things. I must never do these things because it ties into

time management, doesn't it? Yeah, absolutely. This is my nine-a-hour conversation. So I'll get on stage and talk to, I travel the country talking about this stuff and having 20 minutes to go through a nine-hour lesson is crazy. But I will tell you very simple in the way that I say it is you divide them up between A, B, and C priorities. And there's thousands in different books. I do it in my way. So A priorities have to be first. Those are the things that make me money to. Then I have B priorities that will make me money this week. And then I have C priorities that will make me money this month. And then I get a very, very easy visual on how to prioritize the best way to do everything wrong. So people to keep you on track in order to do that and know the actual priority of are you doing this thing to look busy or to make money. And we're very, very clear within our team on what that looks like and even the optics of what that looks like. That's awesome. And I think that you said the word visual. I'm a really. visual person. So I always like to like for instance, I work in Outlook for my calendar. And when I put appointments on my calendar, I code them when it's a revenue generating activity. I code it as green.

And I can look back, you know, several years ago and go, look, there's a lot of non-greens. And now all of a sudden there's like green all over the place. And it really does keep you focused on, you know, what are some of those lower producing things that have to get done. But if you were to make that list of the things that you personally should not be doing because you know your hourly rate. What is that assistant, that virtual assistant, that other colleague that should be doing it, not you? It's does it, does it make me happy or does it make me money? And it has to be the end of that.

And when you do that essentially well and you're methodical about it, you can get off work at two, three o'clock in the afternoon. It doesn't matter because you've done your job and you've done your best up to that point. That's good enough. Everything in our business is very, very structured on a daily basis. It is three face-to-face meetings, one break bread, breakfast, lunch, or dinner, 14 outbound phone calls asking for business, one event, a happy hour, something with five or more people. And we do that every single day.

And two videos per week. That's not a daily thing, but it's two pieces. So if somebody comes into my office and they're a sales agent, if they can get these 20 things done in half an hour, by all means, go ahead. But if you don't have the results, then we go back to time management and go, are you just doing these as a task or are you doing these to to make money, which leads me to the basis of what I think a lot of companies fail to see is that most people are working for you out of obligation, not opportunity. So folks that work for me and my agents who are my best friends in the world are

100% clear that my time for them is more important than their time for me. So I have to be like a hawk over them because I know how easy it is to get distracted. That's the accountability and leadership part. It's like the mindset when you were describing that. It makes me think of people just checking the box or punching the clock. Oh, I did my three, this, seven, that, 14, this. And yeah, we got it done. But if you don't do it with the right passion, enthusiasm mindset, you may as well have not even done it in a sense.

You know, I know you'll get some benefits still. But it makes me think of the word balance. So, you know, you can structure yourself and 14 or 38 things per day yourself until, you know, know, 9 p.m. So where do you advise your team to have that balance towards like, okay, you got your stuff done and it is 2 o'clock? Turn it off. Go out and do something fun. Hang out with the family. Go do something else. And let's hit it again tomorrow because you can't have that pedal to the metal all the time or else you're going to burn out. I feel most people have gotten so soft that they forget how this natural response should actually go. It doesn't matter.

If you're tired and you're broke and whatever, I've got a system and a process and a script for absolutely any of it. And I've mastered all of them. So two things, when people want to leave early, come late, whatever it is, skip events or any of it. If you're broke and tired, the only thing you ever need to be focusing on in the first place is to raise your price point and your conversion rate. And the thing is, if you don't know what either of those are, that's when you get stuck playing on Facebook and trying to check your bank account in the middle of the day because there's nothing in it. It's crazy how most people will cower and then they will cry when they get even a little bit tough. It's really difficult for me to see eye to eye with people that haven't put in the work or done the things that seem unbelievable. When I had to learn them when I just don't see myself as any sort of things don't happen to me.

They happen because of me. And that's just Alan Watts and all these guys that I've always listened to my entire life just speak to me in my head over and over. again, which is where I got all my principles from. Yeah. I love hearing your mindset. I think that's a great piece. And I'm hearing all these different pieces that you're talking about. So it seems like these are vehicles for your, you know, remarkable growth in such a short period of time. But what I'm really wondering is how much of this success would you attribute to the culture within your team? We wouldn't have a team if we didn't have a culture. And I, you know, I would probably make twice as much money if we didn't have a team. So I'm in this to pay my bills and teach people how to build a legacy.

So you're working in a job out of obligation. You're working at a career out of opportunity and you're building a legacy out of your thoughts and your vision and your progress and your mindset that needs to be developed over a very long period of time and not just a very quick personality or salesmanship change that, you know, when people get into real estate, they go, I'm not a salesman. then find a different job. That is crazy to hear. I completely agree. If you're not there to sell, you know, what are you doing? But in reality, if you examined that statement, that person is saying that because it's the cliche, use car salesperson, what's going to take to get you in this car right this minute fitting the square peg in the round hole. but in reality true selling is listening and asking questions and finding out the needs and then

presenting options and seeing if there's a fit and then being so passionate about your product or service that you know that you are the best choice only choice and then you don't let people easily off the hook so if they gave you that one or two objections you're not going to go okay fine but it is teaching and educating and then just creating that relationship so yeah don't sell don't be pushy but do everything else like like what i'm sure you you you teach and coach your agents. Absolutely. And it almost feels like maybe your company's culture is kind of shaping the way that you

approach coaching also. Would you agree? It's my focus of coaching. I believe, and I am different. I stopped asking myself for permission a long time ago. And I personally believe that is the number one factor. And I know I've said it three or four times, but when I stopped asking myself for permission, I stopped sweating all those little things that get in the way.

The issues that we start to deal with when we get out of our own way seem to be adult decisions. And when we talk about salespeople that we hire, I found out that bad salespeople are not buyers themselves. They don't purchase anything and that's why they stay broke. So when you've got all the cool things and you respect salespeople and you take every cold call that calls you, hey, Tyler, I'm looking at your place at 1, 2, 3 North Street. Could you consider an offer? I say yes every time and see what their pitch is. I think the people and good salespeople need to understand the relationship in communicative dialogues, the relationship. You know, interested people are interesting people.

That is the number one way to sell. People don't ask you any questions. The last time anybody asked me how my day was, it was probably three or four years ago. And that's okay. I don't care. That's so funny that you bring that up because my spouse gets mad because I will entertain the pitch at my doorstep because I kind of just want to hear what they're going to say to me. I think it's very interesting how different people sell. So I'll give them five minutes and listen to it.

This is where the big growth really comes from. Step one, building a real estate career is that you have to learn how to sell your lender. And you guys might know this. The aspect of getting somebody to talk to a lender is the sell. That is the hardest thing to do. And we need to get excited. Oh, my God, you're going to talk to my lender. He's the greatest guy ever.

We're going to build this little triangle. If you trust me, you'll trust him. He relies on me. But what gets missed is that the lender needs to sell the real estate agent also. I can't believe you found Tyler. He is a godsend. You hit the jackpot. Let's get through this simple, silly little pre-qualification letter so you can get back to

change in the world with him. And when you have that back and forth, you start to build that culture. You start to build your personality. And it's very easy to target bigger, more wealthy and more affluent clients that are going to do business with you because they see how you treat other people and they treat your business partners that they want to partner. with you, right? Right. And it kind of feels like to me, like, I feel like maybe you had one coaching philosophy and it's kind of evolved over time. And I am curious about the evolution of that coaching philosophy. Sure. The first real quote that I started off when I started writing and developing a lot of personality was to do it, do it right? And it was very literal. Where it was like,

what's stopping me? Well, you just got to do it. I do it. Okay. I'll do it tomorrow. No, do it right now. And so when I got through that gap and started to gain, which is a great book, by the way, I started to be paid for what I know instead of just what I do. And then that started a really, really good relic that I went, oh, my God, I'm going to start buying investment properties. The sky is the limit. My God, if I'm making these big moves, the people who I rely on can't wait to bail me out. And it was really cool how these things started happening.

So I developed the habit of getting started. And that was very, very, I guess, I wasn't looking to see who was paying. paying attention. And I think that that had a lot to do with it. So when I started developing a lot of this coaching mentorship and how to run meetings and like I have breakfast every single morning with a different partner group and anybody on my team is invited to come with me. It's at 745 and our team meetings at nine so they can come with me, bring somebody, I'll pay for them. And then we still do happy hour at the end of the day too. So there's always just an excuse and a reason and a necessity to be on the phone that most of the time when you're coaching people, especially, oh my God, especially

real estate agents, they love to hear what they learned and tell their people that they went to work today. I don't really talk about the philosophy of counteroffers and this listing and this price. It's how are we going to change the industry to make sure that we remain relevant when AI takes us out. Sure. That's a you. You didn't say if. I like that, yeah. It's inevitable. And I use so damn good at it. And when I realize nobody's paying any attention to it, I just laugh.

Our younger generations that are asking me for advice, I can't believe how good they are at TikTok and Snapchat and whatever they use their phone for. And then you ask them to do something on a computer and they go, oh, my iPad does that. You never tell me how to use a computer. And just my only response now is, yeah, don't worry about it. Nobody is ever going to ask you to use a computer anyway. So it doesn't. Don't even bother. You know, Tyler, you said something.

something a few minutes ago that stuck out to me. You said, people don't ask you about your day, but you don't care. And the don't care stuck to me because it made me think about all these books out there like how to do this without worrying about what people think of you. So trying to please everyone is a losing proposition. And I think that that mindset probably ties into some of the ways you coach people because while you do need to do a great job and do it right and do it right now, so that you please your mortgage lenders and your clients and all of that. Where is the line of not trying to please everyone at every single moment because you are going to run yourself ragged at that point? This is because that I know that people often think that having a conversation is asking for advice.

People always, they always talk to you to respond or their chance to speak, not to respond. So you often sit there and go, hey, how's your day? And you start telling them and you realize they don't care. And why would I go into massive detail with what I know and how advanced I am in my career and how much I want to help people to sit there and try to convince them that they should care about what I say and then in turn hurt my feelings when they don't. So I'll tell them, but I don't, you know, it's not, it's not waiting around for a response of like, was that good? Did you like what I had to say? It's, well, you heard it and you get to, I don't care whether or not that you respond to it or how that makes you feel. I'm just very confident in what I do. I think radical transparency, everything that Ray Dalio has ever written about that is groundbreaking. And I know the 20 minutes is coming up. Tia outwitting the devil is a, is a, by Napoleon Hill is a Bible for our younger generations to teach them how to behave. I will tell you that. And that's really my first step of how to conquer that.

I love that recommendation. Actually, I've heard of it. I haven't read it. So that's next to my left. I can listen to it once every two months now. Awesome. Yeah. So, Tyler, on your website, your tagline says everything you didn't know you needed. Is that something where obviously that is you don't know what you don't know? But how does that tie in? What are some of those things that people don't know that they actually need?

Sure. So one of the things I've solved in real estate is knowing that as a primary listing agent, and I've got 35 listings right now and usually care anywhere from 25 to 40. But what I'm getting at is the one of the biggest issues while being a listing agent and being the forefront of that is that I'm relying on other buyers agents to bring their clients and know everything I know about that house. So everything you didn't know you needed is an agent and a client going to a house and pulling up some of my QR codes and my listings and my marketing. So when you open these links and these cards, it's not just loose papers on the countertop. It's QR codes and a full comprehensive packet from everything that you could possibly ever imagine that you would want. want to know about the house that I know about the house so that I can generate offers based on

everything sellers or I'm sorry, buyers know up front versus submitting an offer on, hey, what do we know about the roof? What if it needs to be replaced? What is the ACs? So we disclose everything up front and have conversations with agents and teach them how to sell the house to their client if there's any discrepancy on them liking it or not liking it or not giving them feedback. I just, we teach agents how to be better agents. And that's something that I know 100% sure on every single appointment. Sellers and our clients don't know the most important part is our relationship of other agents in our market. So how can I make every agent's job easier so they want to work with us more? That's spectacular. And that is like the ultimate Bob Berg go giver if you've read that book.

You know, let me provide value. Let me go above and beyond. And where other people stop, that's where I start. And I just think that that philosophy and your mindset and your culture that you're describing and building here just as attractive for, you know, team members to come work with you or buyers and sellers to come work with you because they know that that carries over to what they're doing. So I would just like to say thank you for coming on. This has been spectacular. And if someone is interested in learning more about what you guys do at Lopez and Lopez, what's the best way that they can learn more and reach out and connect with you. I need everybody to click my website as much and as often as possible, MLS listing.net. I was very lucky to get it and I'm doing everything I can to really blow it up.

But you can find me on The Best Way.tv on YouTube. That's where I put a lot of my training videos and things that I'm speaking about and marketing and things I'm experimenting with. So yeah, either one of those. Excellent. Well, Tyler, thank you so much for coming on today. It's been a real pleasure chatting with you. You're very welcome. Thanks, guys.

I appreciate it. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Elite Real Estate Leaders podcast. brought to you by Trailstone Insurance Group. To learn more about the topics mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes, visit www.org.com.