KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Always Forward Mindset in Real Estate

Episode Date: October 8, 2024

Welcome back to the Realty Funnels podcast. I'm Kevin Cahill, and I'm so excited today to have Peter Maraca from Thorold, Ontario, with us today. Peter, welcome. Thank you for having me. I look forward to having a chat and talking real estate talk. I love talking real estate talk. So tell everyone about yourself, where you're located, how long you've been in the business, who you serve. So got in the business about 13 years ago for a multitude of reasons. Got a philosophy degree. Got out of that. Obviously, there's not a lot of philosophy jobs. But I got into sales basically right away with a friend of mine's company, selling a furnace

and HVAC and fireplaces. That turned into an energy license. And I started my own little business doing energy audits. Then the government canceled the program and I had to pivot. And so I was like, okay, let me flip a house. Realized that my agent wasn't very good. And then I said, well, what do I want to do here? I like houses.

I like real estate. I like construction. And I like sales. And I like people. So I decided to jump into real estate. And really the rest is history. I kind of started off on a great foot. First year did like 23 deals.

And then every single year, just done a little bit. and a little better. I'm, Stony Creek, born and raised, was there about 33 years. I moved out to Thorold. I got my build license six, seven years ago. So I'm Terry On licensed. I built some houses out in Thorold, and that caused me to move into one of them for, you know, capital gains reasons, HST reasons, and what have you.

So that's kind of my venture that way. Our office is located in Grimsby, which is basically halfway between Stony Creek and Thorold. We basically service all of Burlington, Ancaster, Stony Creek, Cremsby, Winona, West Lincoln, all the way to Niagara region. We do mostly residential, I'd say, like 8515, but we do commercial, working on some bigger commercial deals as we speak. So definitely a fun, you know, fun adventure this real estate game is, and it kind of takes in a whole different direction.

We also do development stuff because I build houses. we look at quite a bit of that on a smaller scale with little groups put together. I got started back in 1999 because sort of like you, I got into a duplex in 1993. And then I liked renovating and updating properties. And I thought, this is a lot of fun. You know, there's a lot of opportunity here. At that time, I was in Cleveland, Ohio, not too far from the Niagara region. I felt like I could probably make a really good run of this.

And so it's similar. You know, you get into the construction aspects of it. If you like going to hardware stores, all of a sudden you are looking for like, okay, I saw some tile at Home Depot. Where could I put that tile? Let me find a house that I can do to, and then it just keeps going from there. For sure, for sure. So that's fantastic.

So you're actually doing a lot more than just working with, home buyers and home sellers, you also have the ability to build for them, which is a completely different area. Is that one of the key ways that you differentiate yourself in your local market area? Yeah, I discussed this quite a bit with my team, and it really is like, you know, I say philosophy doesn't, it didn't, like there's no job in it, but it really is everyday life, you know, philosophy is defined as the pursuit of knowledge. And so constantly thinking, tweaking, big word I use is care. And so at the end of the day, if you care about your clients, if you care about your agents, then you start to think, how can I make things easier, better, faster, and more convenient.

So for multiple reasons, I got my build license. One, I think there's a massive niche where people buy new homes and then they can't afford, for example, to put the potlights in they want or the floor they want. And so for me, I was like, well, I know what I want to make. I don't need to make, you know, endless money on the upgrades. So let's just agree to a number that I want. And then whatever upgrades you want, you can do, and I'll just charge your cost. And so it was a nice little way to kind of give clients, you know, the end result they were actually hoping for instead of most builder situations.

They can't afford to actually finish it the way they like. The other reason was, you know, okay, well, we're looking at all these houses. Sometimes, you know, you've been in the game. You show somebody 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 houses. And, you know, they can't find the one that fits. And it's like, okay, well, I have my build license now. And so obviously that garners a lot of trust. We can now look at, you know, things a little bit differently.

So when we walk into a house, it's like, hey, we can remove this wall. We can open concept this place. You know, we can redo the brick. We can change literally. We can create a whole new house here. So essentially our own little property. brothers type you know type gamut here and so that you know is the care I have for the clients but also for my agents right so my now my agents I teach them to leverage what I do and what we do

and so when they go and show houses instead of them showing 100 houses they can narrow that down to 10 15 20 and you know it's going to give them and their clients more opportunities to find something that works for them. It's interesting what you mentioned about customizing even a brand new home. Lisa and I are currently in our summer home near Seattle, Washington, and it was a brand new home. We just had it built. We closed on it just about a month ago. And we could have upgraded the countertops and the flooring, but we didn't like what the builder was offering. Plus, it was an $80,000 our package to upgrade. And we're like, well, we don't like the flooring.

They're not going to give us the option of doing granite. They only want to do quartz and we want granite. So we bought the home, immediately tore out the carpeting, tore out the thin sheet vinyl flooring. And then we hired flooring company to come in here and put in beautiful luxury vinyl plank. We popped out the cheap laminate countertops. We have the granite coming any day now. And all of the upgrades that we really wanted are costing us about $22,000 rather than the $80,000 package that the builder was trying to get us to buy, which we wouldn't have wanted. So you're really nailing it.

You're solving a real niche need. Yeah, that was the goal. Definitely, it's served us well so far. Been able to help a lot of clients with that process and just, you know, continuing to try to evolve and add to our repertoire as best we can. to, you know, stay ahead of the game a little bit. Tell me a little bit more about the Maraca group. You mentioned that you've got a group. You're focused on providing for them.

Tell me a little bit about how many people you have when you put that together, where you are in that stage. Yeah, so it was kind of organic. And I really, I never intended to kind of start a team. I was just running like a maniac. And, you know, at some point I was like, I need help. And so then I added one agent and I said, hey, listen, I just need some help, you know, open houses, some showings. I can't do it all.

You know, let's work something out. And that worked out great for a while. But I outgrew that situation. And I said, you know what? I need an admin. You know, and we got an admin. And I was like, I need more help. And then that's kind of what, you know, blossomed into the Morocco group.

And so now I have. You know, it's very kind of in its, at some point I plan on writing a book, a business as a baby. And, you know, my personal real estate career is an adult at this point. The Maraca group is, you know, probably, you know, a young adult. It's still has a lot of work that's needed to allow it to thrive and grow. and I'm constantly tweaking things. So, you know, new systems, new CRMs, new everything. But we have, you know, a rock star agent Brandy who's with us.

And she's kind of been my right hand for the last two years. And she does a ton of, you know, a ton of work on the back end to help make things flow and go. you know, Hanish is on the team as well. He joined about six months-ish ago. He's actually a professional golfer as well, so it's pretty cool to have him on the team. He, you know, he helps my golf game a little bit.

And, you know, we get to have some jokes about that. And obviously, he's a great realtor as well and Mike Hill as well. And so there's four of us right now active. and yeah so definitely enjoying it looking to grow it a little bit more we don't want to have too many agents but you know we have a nice family dynamic with you know enough enough help for now but you know as we tweak some systems probably looking to add one or two agents in the very near future just because i think i have 15 16 listings right now with another five five or six on tap. And so need some help to leverage some of these. But yeah, one step at a time.

I love it. And that's just a fantastic growth story. I can't wait to read your book, A Business is a Baby. I mean, that to me makes perfect sense. It resonates immediately. I think a ton of people will find that to be a valuable resource. I want to give an opportunity. If anybody is in the Niagara region and is interested, let's put up your website, maraca group.ca, so that if anybody wants to reach out to you, of course, they can. And that's spelled M-U-R-A-C-A-G-R-U-P.C-A. And that way, if anybody is interested, they can reach out to Peter and

create an opportunity to connect. Yeah, I appreciate that. The other thing that kind of differentiates us, speaking to somebody who's been in Florida a while, I have, as I mentioned you, some development of Florida have some short-term rentals there. And so, you know, I think that there's a, it's a very tough in our neighborhood area to buy a rental property. The cash flow does not really work.

But, you know, as I've seen, there's places around the world, Florida being one of them, that it does and can work. So happy to help people with the transition. I like especially, you know, there's a lot of snowbird. that live in Canada that we'd love to help. You know, not only do you end up with an investment property, but you actually end up with a vacation home at the same time and potential for a retirement home.

So anybody looking snowbird or, you know, anything in that realm, happy to help look at some international options as well. I think that you're right on about that. We had so many clients who are Canadians from Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, of course, Ontario, Quebec, but even as far away as British Columbia, they're coming down to Florida because Florida is this amazing, unique real estate market. You have this subtropical climate connected to the United States by interstate highways and air transport systems, protected by the U.S. military, purchasable in U.S. dollars. There's nowhere else in the world like Florida.

And yes, it can be an incredible investment opportunity and a direct path to wealth through real estate. So I think you're spot on. I fully agree with you. It's my second home and it's somewhere I love and I really want to put some more roots in. So definitely a cool place to be and like all the things for all the reasons you mentioned and more. Absolutely. I mean, it's a great place. So many of our Canadian friends would come down in like November-ish.

maybe they would come down right after Christmas and then they'd head back up after Easter and I don't blame them. It's starting to get hot in Florida. That's why Lisa and I are in the Seattle area right now at the end of May. It's a great real estate market and it's smart for you. You know, you just extend your real estate market by adding Florida to the mix. So I think it's a no-brainer. For sure. And a little cool story. Tell me about the shark. The shark that's tattooed on me a couple days ago is actually a shark that I dive with in Florida. It's actually a picture of a lemon shark that I've dove with a few times down in Jupiter. There's a great company, Emerald Charters. They literally go out daily with these sharks. There's lemons, bowls, tigers, hammerheads,

and you just are free-flowing with these absolutely beautiful apex predators that are extremely majestic and completely misinterpreted as like evil. But, you know, they're actually beautiful, pretty chill creatures. So, yeah, that's the story of this guy. Another reason why I love Florida, I get to dive and golf literally every single day of the year is possible to go diving and golf in Florida. So, yeah, beautiful place to be. It is. And I've seen a lot of videos lately of people diving with sharks. And the sharks are just, I don't want to equate them to dolphins, but they're curious like dolphins. You know, they're, and they're, they're totally misinterpreted.

You know, they're misunderstood and feared, of course, you know, which is just a lot of our popular culture has created that. But then you get in the water and you see barracuda, you see dolphins, you see sharks, and you see all sorts of huge fish. These are God's creation. You know, it's just amazing to be able to spend some time there. Yeah, and it's, it is. It's like, you know, there's, I'd say, you know, whatever, seven, seven to eight billion people in the world.

There's at least a billion people that enter the ocean every year of that billion people. I would say, you know, a good percentage of them are in the ocean every single day of the year. So you're talking billions of encounters a year of ocean and person meeting. And, you know, there's only 50 attacks a year. Yeah. And on top of the 50, it's. tax there's typically only one to two deaths a year versus, you know, coconuts kill like 130 people a year. So, and then you got mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes kills like millions a year. So, you know, we're worried about the wrong things. You know, you got a better chance to getting struck by lightning three times than getting bit by a shark. Of course. No, it's just great. I'm glad you enjoy the waters down in Florida too. That is fantastic. For sure.

So tell me a little bit more about your. business and you staying in your strength zone, you know, like if Peter Maraca could just do what he wants to do all day and hand off everything else, what would you focus on during your day? So this kind of goes, this kind of goes back to my book at some point, but that's the goal, you know, it's, I'm trying to, I think John Paul Getty said it. I'm not sure. Somebody, somebody smarter than I told me, do what you're good at and hire others that are good at what they do. or you will be doing things you hate and you will not do very well at it. Can I do, you know, detail-oriented stuff, back-end stuff?

Absolutely. Is it my strength? No. My strength, I'm a, you know, I just read a good book. It's called Surrounded by Idiots. And it's really, I think the title is just a hook. But it's basically the four different color personalities. and it's red, yellow, green, and blue.

And it really explains, you know, who you are. And we're all a little bit of all. But I'm like 90% yellow, red. You know, I'm an extrovert times a million. I really get fired up, meeting, talking, shooting a breeze of people. I care way more about the relationships than the detail. and, you know, knowing that is a huge asset for yourself, but in business to be able to know who you're talking to and know how to talk their language, even relationships, you know, knowing how to talk to your team and what works for them. But my strength is that, you know, learning, talking, socializing, growing, anything on that side, I am great at it, being very creative.

I can problem solve very, very well. Put me anywhere in any room, I'm happy to shoot the breeze. But not my best strength would be data entry or if I'm being dead honest. I haven't typed an offer out in years. You know, I have admins and even for my agents. You know, I have I have admins that typo offers literally from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for my agents. And if they have to stay on late, they will. And that there's a little bit of a bonus to them. But, you know, I try to make my agents life as easy as possible. Somebody again, smarter than me

told me seven years ago, said, only do things that require your license. If it doesn't require license, hire somebody else to do it. And, you know, that was a pivotal change for my business. I went from, you know, grossing somewhere in the 200s to the 400s in a very short period of time. And so, yeah, that would be my strength is the business, the structure side of it, the fine-tuning of it, the problem-solving of it, the socialization, the negotiations, that's my fun zone. I love it. And, yeah, I agree with you 100%. If there's an activity that somebody else could be doing for 15 or 20 bucks an hour,

go back out there and focus on that stuff that brings you $200, $400 an hour. And then the whole question is, well, how quickly can I get rid of as much of that stuff? And it takes a little mental time to think through all those components of your business that are bogging you down and not making you extra money and probably not your strength zone and probably somebody else's strength zone. and then all of a sudden you've got time back to spend with family or with your passions or, you know, any community outreach that you want to be doing, anything charitable, you can get that time back that you otherwise would have just been wasting doing stuff that other people could be doing for you at a far more affordable rate. Absolutely. Something that is like a balancing act. One of the most challenging parts of business is knowing when to grow, can you afford it, is it the right time? But it's something that you, like you said, it's, it's absolutely essential.

It's the goal of every entrepreneur to get that business to a place where you have some of your time back. So, yeah. And I would, you're just asking a little question, you know, when can you? My experience coaching thousands of agents over the years is that it's now. If you're even thinking it now, you know, do what you can, slow everything else down so you can focus on expanding your capacity. through other people. Smart. Let me ask you this.

If there's something that you know now that you wish you had known when you started in real estate, what might that be? I wish I knew about EXP. I wish I knew about EXP when I first started. I spent a lot of money, a lot of money with, you know, a different brokerage. that being said no i i just i think i wish i was able to um hire faster trust uh myself and my ability to lead faster um you know i waited a long time to really start that process uh i never gave myself the kudos or the confidence um that i i know i have but i didn't you know, it wasn't quite in the mindset of, hey, I'm going to be a leader.

You know, and really like the last two years or so, I've had some big growths, which have given me the confidence that, hey, you know what, I do have the ability to lead. I do have a lot to offer, a lot to teach. I've been doing it at a very high level for a lot of years. And so it's nice to get into it. that mindset and comfort zones and have people around me that are absorbing it

and seeing them thrive at this point. It's such a, you know, you know, rewarding thing. It's more rewarding than doing your own deals. When I see somebody on my team do a deal or do a big deal

or use something that I've taught them and they've really like amplified it, I'm just like, wow, this is, you know, this is great. So, yeah, I think if anything, just trusting myself more starting faster to lead and have a team so that I can get to that next chapter. You mentioned something that I completely agree with, and that is any time that I have helped

another real estate agent succeed, I find that to be about the most gratifying work that I focus in on. I had a new agent, brand new to the business. He had just moved to Florida from Colorado. So he was Air Force veteran. So he was really good at seeking a direction and taking command. And if I told him to do something, he would just go out and do it. And he crushed it in his first year.

His first 12 months, he earned over $232,000 of GCI. And then he's like, now what? I'm like, all right, let's increase your ad spend. let's increase your exposure in your local market area. Second 12 months, he earned $374,000. And he was still sort of trying to figure out what addendums do I use. What amendment do I need for this situation? But it was so gratifying to see a young real estate agent just really thriving.

Of course, he was coachable. He was military, so he was used to taking direction. And he was fine with his ego being low to the ground. and yet it was to me one of the most gratifying experiences I had coaching a new agent. That's amazing to hear, and I think you nailed it on the head. Ego is a killer. And so, you know, I've been in this business 13 years. And am I confident?

Absolutely. Do I believe I'm probably one of the best negotiators around? Absolutely. But do I think that I have a shit ton more to learn? and then I can constantly, constantly learn more, absolutely. And so, you know, I tell my team that all the time, I said, if I'm willing to read books, you know, one of my mantras on the team is like,

you better be willing to learn or I don't want you around. And so, you know, if you're not willing to read books, if you're not willing to, you know, ask for help and drop that ego, you're not coachable. And so for me, you know, I made it 15 months ago. I started to read a book a month. And so, It's helped me quite a bit.

There's so many great books out there on everything. And, you know, even hiring a coach is something that I did for a while, looking to do again shortly. It's something that, you know, I think, again, no matter how successful you are, there is always, you know, a place for help, coaching, and guidance. And so, you know, the best athletes in the world, I tell them, have coaches. and more than one. You know, they have sports psychologist coaches. They have nutrition coaches. They have fitness coaches.

They have swing coaches. They have endless coaches. So like, you know, same as us. We need coaches too. We're not special. And so, yeah, I think you nailed it right on the head, drop the ego. And there's a whole world and wealth and knowledge to be learned. I love watching documentaries like The Last Dance, talking about Michael

Jordan and oh my gosh and then you think about the the US Olympic basketball team and they're all I think in Barcelona having a great time and they come back from the restaurant and they see Kobe Bryant coming back from the gym they didn't spend another night out on the town they're like if Kobe is doing it we're going to get into the gym and work out we've got to we can't let Kobe be better than us. So we've got to get out there and do it. But you think about like Michael Jordan, you know, flexibility coaches, strength coaches, diet coaches. And then, of course, he had financial advisors and people coaching him in all other aspects.

And then Phil Jackson was just the team coach. Yeah, exactly. I think it's fantastic. And then you talk about one of your agents. Is it Amish? Anish. Hanish. Hanish. So is he on the Canadian tour?

So he was professional and on a tour. He went to the University of Virginia, full scholarship there. And he is now continuing to compete. But he's working on getting his tour cards again. So hoping to actually help him with that in any type of way possible. Pretty cool to see this guy's like, it's fun. the golf with, I promise you that. My father spent most of his adult life as a caddy on the PGA tour.

Oh, really? Yeah. And so he had a lot of regular players. He would caddy for one guy exclusively for years, and then that guy would either retire or lighten up his schedule, and my father would carry with other people. And he helped a lot of young guys new on the tour. it is so exciting to see a young player develop on the PGA tour. And my father loved it because he's like, Kevin, I'm watching inside the ropes.

There's no better place to watch golf than inside the ropes. Absolutely. But you think about these professional athletes who are competing for million-dollar purses every week, and they don't want to have a trunk slammer on Friday afternoon. They want to be playing Saturday and Sunday. So they're grabbing additional coaches. They're talking to people. My father would show up at the golf course with his player hours before the round.

The player would be working out at the driving range, the putting green, typically spending more time practicing, typically four times more hours a day practicing than competing. It's wild. And that's how you have to do it if you're going to compete at the highest level. And you think of all these real estate agents who the only time they practice anything in their business is when there's money on the table. They never spend any time practicing when there's not money on the table. You're absolutely right. I tell my new agents or any new agent I speak to, say, oh, you know, how do I be successful?

And I said, work. I said, why don't have any clients? I said, work. You know, I did a video on it yesterday. It's like, stay busy. And Brandy's like, well, that's a. very fluffy and I said I understand I said but the point is you know stay busy read books on socialization negotiation anything you can on how to understand people and how to be better at working with

people you know on top of that look up every single listing in your neighborhood become an absolute expert at that go and preview some of these listings see if there's any flip opportunities them to some clients. Hey, I saw this property. I think that there's, it's a depressed property. I think we can make some money here. Go meet business owners. Hey, how are you doing? I just wanted to introduce myself. If you have any needs, blah, blah, blah. If you want to renew your lease, give me a shout. It costs you nothing. You know, literally like there's so many things you can do, read the millionaire real estate agent 28 times. You know, there's endless things for you to do to fill your day with real estate. And that's the number one thing. It's hard as entrepreneurs,

because we don't have anybody holding you to something. You have to be intrinsically motivated to say, you know what, I want to hit these goals and then work towards it. And so I always tell them, like, don't be like, my phone's not ringing. Your phone's not going to ring. Ring it. Start calling people. Hey, how are you doing?

Just want to mention, you know, I'm in real estate. Hi. Go do open houses. Door knock. There's so many things we can do to meet people and talk to people. we're in the relationship business, not in the sales business. And so if you can meet people, talk to people, gain people's trust, they're going to help, you know, you're going to help them on their journey.

You're not selling them anything. And that really is the key, in my opinion. I agree with you completely. And obviously we could talk all day about this type of stuff. As a real estate broker, I would often have an agent come in to my office, sit down with me, and you say, Kevin, I'm just struggling. I don't know what to do. and I would share with them a very simple concept that I learned years ago,

which is the 10-5-15-5. And the 10-5-15-5 is go out every day and meet 10 people. Just expand your network, meet 10 more people. Reach out to five people you already know. Just check in, build the relationship. Say hello, let them know you're thinking about them. Send 15 note cards, who, to the people that you just made. and the five people that you just spoke to,

just say, hey, it was so great to connect with you. Nobody's getting handwritten note cards anymore, so that will stand out. But even just a handwritten or personalized text or email will stand out as well. And then preview five homes every day. At the end of the week, you've previewed 25 homes. You know your local market area.

You're not going to be surprised. Deer in the headlights look when somebody says, hey, did you see that new listing over there? on Main Street. You're going to say, well, which one is it? Is it the gray cedar-sided colonial or is it the red brick Georgian? And they're going to realize, okay, this guy's an expert on my local market area. Whenever an agent would come in and I would share with them that concept, one of two things would happen. Because I'd say, let's reconnect next week. Let me know how everything goes. They'd either come in next week and I'd say, so how'd the 10-5-15-5 go? And they'd be like, oh, I knew you're going to ask me about.

that and I didn't get to it. You know, I had this, that. I said, great. Then this is going to be a short meeting. Go out and meet 10 new people, reach out to five people, write 15 handwritten notes, and preview five homes. I'll see you in a week. Or they would call me up and say, Kev, can't meet. I'm busy with clients. I picked up somebody when I was out previewing homes. I ran into somebody at the grocery store. I don't have time to meet with you this week. I'm like, good, then you're no longer struggling with. I don't know what to do. Exactly. Great stuff. Well, then I recently, an agent was saying to me, I'm doing all that. I'm like, well, then step it up 20%. Do the 12-6-186. Yeah, exactly. And they're like, what do you mean? I'm like, do more of it. You don't have to

rethink it. There's not some magic formula that's easier. This is it. Go out there. Master your local market and be a networked professional who knows people. 100%. Well, I love it. Well, this is fantastic. Peter, let's give everyone an opportunity to connect with you. We already shared your website, which is moroccagroup.ca.ca.com. What's the best email for people to reach out to you?

Peter at moroccagroup.ca.com. Okay. And again, for those listening on any of the streaming platforms, that's Peter at. M-U-R-A-C-R-O-U-P-C-A. And then what's a good phone number if people want to reach out and give you a call directly? 905-9-6-1-1871. Anything else that you want to share before we head out?

You know, I'm a big quotes person. Me too. Let's hear one. I'll leave you with two. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. So be bold, be brave, do things, mess up, keep going. On my other arm, I have Sempe Avanti, which means always move forward in Italian. That's my background.

And then the other quote I'll leave you with is saw it today with Edison. I haven't failed. I've only found 10,000 ways that don't work. And so, yeah, you know, it goes back into keep trying, keep plugging away. And eventually you will become an expert and everything will come into fruition for you. I fully agree. And you know, the Edison and Ford Winter Estates are in Fort Myers, Florida. So if you're ever over on the West Coast, I would highly recommend that you check out the place where Edison, Ford, and even Harvey Firestone would spend their winters in Florida.

And I love that. I actually, I have a T-shirt. I'm not wearing it today, but it's one of my favorite T-shirts for just doing work around the house. And it's a light bulb. And it says, I have ideas I haven't even thought of yet. And the whole notion is if you simply persevere, if you just keep moving forward, then the success is inevitable. Now, if you move forward faster, if you get the right people around you, if you're in a great environment, if you've got great leadership like Peter, who would be a phenomenal leader to any agent who's considering looking for an opportunity in that Niagara Falls region of Ontario, I believe speed of the leader. speed of the pack. So the environment that you're in can make a massive difference.

I fully agree with you. Well, Peter, this has been an absolute pleasure getting to know you a little bit better and having some time with you. Thank you so much for taking time to be with me.