KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Real Estate Success Stretegies with Jordan and Mike Hill

Episode Date: June 13, 2024

Hey, everyone, Glenn Sanford here, founder of EXP Realty, and this is the expansion podcast. And today, I'm really excited to talk to Mike and Jordan Hill. They're out of Salem, Oregon, been in real estate, you know, four and a half years. I like the phrase, born and raised, EXP Realty. Jordan and Mike, welcome. Thank you. Thank you for having us. We're excited to be here.

So obviously, based on your background, EXP was the first and only brokers that you've been part of. How did you get started in real estate and how did you end up at EXP? Well, I started out in 2018 when there were 11,000 agents. I started out as staff as an onboarding specialist. And I got licensed during that process. and I enjoyed almost four years on staff. I tell everyone I miss it every day.

And but then it was actually two years ago today that I stepped down from that role and we started our team, Hilltop Property Group. Oh, awesome, awesome. So, you know, going from the staff side to actually being an active agent, now were you were you licensed back in, back in 2018 then or did you get licensed after being on staff?

I got licensed afterwards. I had maybe explored being on the Oregon broker team. I didn't end up being on the broker team, but I got licensed, you know, looking at that as a possibility. So I became licensed in 2019 and hung my license with EXP in early 2020. Awesome. And Mike, what was your background? background and what ended up getting you into real estate?

Well, for me, I have a background in IT. So I was working with the state and federal government. I'm an Army National Guard. So that's how I picked that up. And once COVID hit, I had a little bit more downtime. And Jordan had already got licensed at that point. And she had a couple of transactions rolling along and she needed a little bit of help. So it turned out that I was the big helper.

So yeah, so I got licensed. probably about nine months after her. And I only intended on just helping her, you know, kind of supplementing time. But once I helped my first buyers ever, I was hooked and I couldn't stop chasing that high of helping people and well, and flexibility of my own schedule. Well, awesome. So obviously getting started, you know, obviously a couple of years. ago, you've got COVID going on, a lot of things happening. How did you build your initial business?

What has been your business and how are you lead generating? How are you building your clientele? Tell me a little bit about how you run your business. Yes, so it definitely morphed over the last four years. I, of course, started out nights and weekends. So I depended on, depended on, depended on him during the day while I had my corporate job. And so it turns out he was amazing with relationships, with the people. That's where he's best at. And so I ended up working kind of during my time, more operations and systems and processes. And so by the time I stepped out of my staff role, that's kind of how we started our team. We got an agent to help us with buyers. And I was doing more systems operations and he was out there on the front lines helping helping clients and all that.

Yeah. So as far as like lead gen goes, we're completely organic. We don't pay for leads. Relationships are a big part of our business. So being a veteran myself, I help a lot of VA buyers and sellers. And yeah, we just do a lot of the things we already do, hobbies and interests and you know we just meet people along the way okay now um systems oriented what's been kind of your how are you organizing do you have a preferred CRM do you do you how do you stay in contact with the people that are so you're building into your database so we do do use KB core um we'd be silly to not it's a great yeah it's a great great great So he and I, we have all of our database in there, whether they're from farming, more of a cold follow-up where we set them up on that automatic drip campaign.

When they're warm and hot, like he and I work together on those, making notes for each other and moving them along the pipeline. When they're active, like active, getting under contract and we're in it all day for them. At that point, I bring them to Trello because he and I have some transaction assistance. So all four of us are deep in Trello helping those clients that are under contract. Okay, awesome. So I'm a huge Trello fan. In fact, I'm looking at a couple of different icons on my speed bar here, which are Trello boards. What's your normal?

What's your workflow in Trello? I assume you're moving it from sort of left to right as you're kind of moving it to closed transaction. But how do you organize your Trello board and how does that sort of solve for extending the use of the various technologies and platforms? Yes. So my favorite part is the template. So I have a buyer template and a seller template. Those are the two that we use most frequently because they're all organized with our checklist. And tying in what items are related to our transaction coordinator, what items are related that Mike and I do, or our transaction assistance. So everything's on there.

So when we get a new buyer or seller, we just create a card from that template. And it's laid out beautifully. We just customize it to that client. So really, we don't miss any details that way. Okay. And do you have specific columns there in your template? or is it as a group of tasks that you can then sort of share and just sort of move left to right? How does that look from a template perspective?

So far, it's actually pretty simplified at any given time. As far as under contract or making offers, we have maybe 20 cards going out of time that at any time they could get under contract or they are under contract. And so we actually do more organization by labels to where we can click on it. And our labels are very easy to see. They're all color-coded. And that way we know which ones are under contract. And we dive into those a couple times a day.

And then the ones that have offers out. So essentially, we just have a buyer and a seller column. And it works great for us with the labels. Okay. And do you have one board per client? or is it one board for all of the buyers and one board for all of the sellers? They're actually, both buyers and sellers are on the same board. We have other boards.

I use one for kind of the systems and processes as well. That's kind of my happy place. Mike just does the transactional side of things. He's the one with the boots on the ground. Okay, awesome. So you mentioned relationships. How are you out there building, building relationships so that, you know, ultimately they end up, you know, eventually being clients?

What's been sort of your, I guess, we'll say that what's been working the best for you? It's just doing the things that we already like doing. So I'm a big pickleball guy. I play a ton of pickleball. So I get to meet a lot of folks in that realm. I'm still an Army National Guard, so I have my drill weekends, so I connect with a lot of people that way. Really, just things that we enjoy doing or have to do, we make sure that we're intentional about the relationships that we're building. And we just wear our real estate gear or EXP gear, whatever that is, and it doesn't have to make the conversation awkward.

And then the question always comes up, how's the market? How's that going? And so it's all really just organically generated. Right. So as somebody asks you, how is the market? What's your response? Well, we learn this from Russ, actually. Russ, he does a lot of, he helps our team quite a bit.

But getting their information to get them hooked up on a newsletter to let them, obviously so you can get their contact information, but then they can get the information that they're looking for as well. So you don't have to drown them in sadness or whatever the market. markets doing at that time, you know. Right. Yeah, well, we're, you know, we've actually got a lot of Tom Hopkins materials in here from, and he's, of course, a sales trainer from the, you know, the 80s, 90s, early 2000s, but his phrase is, unbelievable. That's his phrase. You know, when people ask, how's the market? Unbelievable because it covers you every, either way.

That's good. Yeah. Yeah. That sounds like. We love bringing that, yeah, that positivity. into it, you know. But yeah, and then on the scope of relationships, it's funny, a couple of regional rallies ago in Seattle, Jordan actually connected with Austin Chevron, who I know you're familiar with. And Austin has a very similar model as far as what he coaches. So from that relationship that was built at that regional rally, our team now team coaches with Austin and his group at Chevron coaching.

Okay, awesome. And I know I got to spend some time with him. He is really big on accountability. And how has that impacted your team? I assume, and this is just based on a conversation I had with him a few weeks ago at another regional rally, maybe three weeks ago. But he was talking about that word very purposefully. And so I assume that that plays a role in how you guys run your team. Yeah, you want to speak on that a little bit?

Yes, so absolutely. So we are definitely, you know, inspired by how he raises leaders on his team. That's very in line with our, with us and our values and what we believe is right for us. So yes, so in raising leaders in our team, whatever that might mean for them, no matter their personality, no matter their experience. part of that is teaching them how to not only choose to be held accountable, but also holding each other accountable and us accountable. It's important for us to lead by example. That's part of being a good leader. And so, yeah, so we all, we're very connected. We have not only a workplace chat, but we're connected on Zoom and in person as well. And we do. We hold each other accountable. Where are you

at, you know, hop on the call, you know, all of that. And so, and then as leaders, we hold many goal setting sessions with them to check in with them, hold them accountable as well. So we're just really in tune to where they're at and where they're going. Awesome. Now, what does your team look like? You know, how is it structured? I know it sounds like you've got some support staff, but, And it sounds like maybe Mike, you're doing a good chunk of the business, but it sounds like you've got other agents on the team. Yeah. So I do a lot of our personal production stuff. Jordan does a lot of the team leading and running types of things.

So it's funny, since we met Austin, our team, we had a ton of people on our team. And once we implemented the things that we learned from Austin, there was. really went from a big team of just people existing on the team to no accountability no accountability we're you know because we just wanted to give give give and uh without getting anything in return you know and uh since we restructured we have eight people on our team now but they are they're they're the right players on the team um because yeah it's just and they're all producing agents they're all They all want it. They're all a great culture fit and they all want to be held accountable. You can't be held accountable if you don't want it. So it's been a great, a great thing for us.

Awesome, awesome. So, you know, last question, you know, if there was a piece of advice you can give to EXP agents, what would it, what would it be? So for me, and just anybody in life, really, I would say, find a mentor, whether it's in real estate or in life, find somebody that's doing things at a higher level than you and reach out to them and get mentored. And on the same token, find somebody that is just a step behind you that needs that mentorship that you can pour into because you can't, you can't grow if you're not forced to grow if you're not helping somebody else. So it's, everybody's bringing each other up. Yeah. And, and, and, And mine would be to leverage the tools and technology.

I mean, EXP is the most cutting edge, you know, as far as technology and tools and resources for us. So to use that and leverage that, but also not be afraid to go back to the basics of running your real estate business. You know, spending that time building relationships, following up, you know, following up has been huge for us. Now that the market is different than it was when we started, following up, we would not be successful if we did not figure out how to follow up effectively for the first time. But, you know, those basic things, they can feel monotonous. So just starting our day off right, starting it motivated, podcast books, and just finding the joy in that and being around other people that find that joy in those things. So it's that balance that really creates success. Well, excellent.

Well, good stuff. Hey, congratulations on your success in the business. Obviously, being born and raised at EXP. You know, that's, you know, really cool that you've kind of built up in a fairly short period of time into that icon, now building a team. You've got the structure. You've got the coaching. You've got the accountability. You've got the right team members, the right mindset.

So thanks for sharing today. And Jordan, Mike, if there's a place where people can follow you, where would that be? Yes, so of course, you know, reach out to us anytime on workplace. But our Instagram handles are really similar. Mine's Jordan Hill real estate. And yours is Mike Hill real estate, right? That's it. Yeah.

And then you can follow our team at Hilltop Property Group as well. Yeah, we'd love to see everybody on there and reach out anytime. Awesome. Well, good stuff. Thanks again. And thanks everyone for listening. And Jordan and Mike, thanks for being on today. Thank you for having us.

Appreciate it. Awesome.