Theo Fulger: Focused and Driven

Tracy Hayes  0:52  
Hey, welcome back to The Real Estate excellence podcast. Your host, Tracy Hayes, another best of the best on the show today in 2021 he did 69 transactions for 26 million. Yep, this young man is on fire. Recently recognized as Jack's real producers magazine today, we will dig in to find out what makes him tick. What's his secret sauce? He was a collegiate athlete playing Division One soccer. He's highly motivated. Has an extreme work ethic. He is scoring a lot of goals each and every month. He's a top producer at the DJ and Lindsay team. Let's welcome Theo Folger to the show. Thank you. Thank you, Theo. Appreciate you coming by, of course, and for people out there watching as many of my guests. I've never met Theo, I do my research online to find out as much about him. So I'm learning here, as our watchers are seeing here on Facebook Live, and then obviously we'll go out on Apple podcast here next Tuesday. So for that, so, as I always like to start off the show, where are you from? 

Theo Fulger  1:50  
So I was originally born and raised in Norway. My dad was in the Air Force, so there was a bit of back and forth. I lived in New Mexico for a while when I was five to seven, back to Norway. Stayed in Norway till I was about 12. Then we moved to Gainesville so that my sister could go to UF and be closer to my father's side of the family. Kind of been back and forth from Gainesville and Jacksonville ever since college, basically, right, right.

Tracy Hayes  2:13  
 Norway's interesting. I've told this story before on the show. I had a couple of when I was in high school. They were two girls, twins, came over from Norway. They were great basketball players. I was fortunate. The interesting thing my little touch in Norway for five minutes, well actually, probably a couple hours, was flying to Sweden, not Yeah, Sweden when I was in high school. And for some reason, I don't know what it was, but when we stopped in Norway, they said they had to do some repairs on the plane or something, and, and so we were delayed a little bit, and they're like, don't take any pictures, so I don't know what was going on at the airport at the time. You know? I was like, Well, you know, okay, all right, kind of weird, yeah, from that standpoint. But that must have been somewhat interesting. Do you speak the language a little bit, or do you retain some of it?

Theo Fulger  2:58  
 Yeah, I speak Norwegian fluently. I still have my mom and my whole mom's side of family over there, so try to go back every two to three years, whenever I cool, yeah, cool, yeah. So you well, your dad was in the Air Force, but you weren't there because of the Air Force. You're there because your mom's from there, right kind of so my dad met her in Norway when he was stationed there. So kind of combination of both, I guess, okay, okay, I guess. 

Tracy Hayes  3:23  
Well, obviously, you know, most people probably don't know that we, well, we have installations all over the world, but exactly, yeah, interesting, interesting. All right, so Gainesville is simply because your, your sister was your, assume, an older sister, 

Theo Fulger  3:35  
yeah. So my dad's from Lake City, okay, which is about 45 minutes west of here, yeah, then probably an hour north of Gainesville. So my dad wanted to move back to be closer to family. My mom said, no way we're going to Lake City. So the next best thing was Gainesville, and they had UF there as well. So my sister could go there. Interesting, yeah, she's satisfied with Gainesville. Yeah. Okay, all right, interesting. So you're 12 years old. You're in Gainesville. 

Tracy Hayes  4:04  
I mean, was your sister an athlete too? She did. She just, no, I was only athlete in the family somehow, but she was more of a academic scholar, right, yeah, right. And, well, I know that Europeans love soccer, so I imagine you probably started playing soccer when you were in Norway. Was kind of a Yeah, I started playing soccer when I was very young, when I was probably five, right? Yes, I have a good friend of mine. His daughter's going to IMG for soccer, and her mother is Swiss, yep, so she has played on the Swiss, I think it's under 16 team, something like that. And they were playing in Iceland, nice, and they were streaming it, so I logged in. And, of course, this is, you know, it's just obviously indoors. Yeah, do they have a lot of facilities like that? Norway is that good part of the year you're playing inside? They do. Because in Norway, they play soccer year round, basically, because soccer and basketball are the biggest sports there. But soccer they play year round.

Theo Fulger  4:59  
And, of course, during winter time, it's snowing outside, so they have a lot of indoor facilities.

Tracy Hayes  5:04  
Yeah, that's that, I think a lot of Americans, well, I guess if you live in Minnesota, we probably would relate to that. Yeah, I grew up in the Northeast. It's just you went with the seasons. Yeah, it's fall, was football and soccer, and winter, you played basketball or hockey, and that's and then the spring you could play baseball right there, but those, those climates there, so you were at UNF well, you transferred, you went, you started at University of Florida fire. So you were doing track.

Theo Fulger  5:32  
I started running track at UF my freshman year. It was cool, but it kind of felt like I was still in high school, because I went to high school in Gainesville, so I kind of wanted to get away. I missed playing soccer a lot as well. So I just basically started reaching out to some coaches in Florida. Started sending out my my tapes so that they can see me play soccer. And then I had some coaches come out and take a look at me play in person as well. And then I got some scholarship offers that way

Theo Fulger  5:58  
cool, cool. So you buy your sophomore year. You're at, I'm a UNF, yep, okay, yeah, so I think I didn't write down your major. I think it was public relations, yep, communication, which is a big thing of what we do, actually, and but were you was real estate, even a vision at this time, when you're playing, what would you would you see yourself doing post college, you know, while you're

Theo Fulger  6:22  
so I wasn't really sure. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do in college. And I think that's a common theme with a lot of people when they're in college, oh, yeah, they go to college because they're told that's what you're supposed to do. So then you're kind of chasing this paper, but you're not really sure what you want to do, right?

Tracy Hayes  6:37  
It's a maturity time. I think now it's more of a maturity, yeah, you completed four years of a regiment, and you completed it

Theo Fulger  6:44  
living on your own and stuff like that. Yeah. So, I mean, in college, my passions were, I like to work out a lot, so I think that's kind of what I felt like I wanted to do, do some personal training and stuff like that, which I did end up doing as soon as I graduated college. You got some personal training? Yeah. So my first job out of college, I got as a personal trainer. I was doing that for about a year, and then my buddy who worked at Merrill Lynch, he was like, hey, working at Merrill Lynch in the back office, you should come do it. You'd be great at it. It's not rocket science, and it's a good company, lots of good benefits and stuff like that. So I was like, why not? So I got the nine to five at Merrill in the back office, doing that while I was training on the side as well. What kind of work were you doing at Merrill? So we were basically helping the financial advisors and the their assistance with, like, paperwork, improving paperwork.

Tracy Hayes  7:39  
It's ironic. I was just talking to someone on Monday. We're talking about how they they were 22 years old, and someone reached out to say, hey, come over to Merrill. You know, we got something for it. Now, that's how she got into mortgages, because she was got into that, that department, yeah. So you're, you're at Merrill. You're feeling this nine to five. You're doing some personal training on the side. Yep. I mean, obviously you're, what, 2324 years old at this time? Yeah, I was 2023 okay, well, you know, just kind of just going with the flow. Yeah.

Theo Fulger  8:08  
So I'm a very, like, ambitious person, once I kind of get a hold or master, one thing I'm always looking for, like, all right, well, what's next? What can I do next? Yeah, I'm the same way, and I've always been like that. So after working in the back office and doing personal training for a year, I was very intrigued by the stock market, by the financial advisors, kind of their work and stuff like that. Figured I like to work with people. I was basically in a call center. So I figured, well, I like the stock market. Like money, so I learned how to start making trades and stuff like that, right? So they basically had a position there where they would pay for you to get your series seven and 66 so I studied, I got those two certifications and then or licenses, and then I took a new role at Merrill as a Financial Solutions advisor, which is kind of like a phone based financial advisor, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So kind of learn how to trade, learn the advising portion of that as well. Kind of increase my knowledge in that sense.

Tracy Hayes  9:07  
So you're going through, you're just advancing in the place that you're at, yep. I mean, where does that? Where does that end up leading? How long you end up spending in a Merrill? So because you don't have a LinkedIn account, so I don't

Theo Fulger  9:19  
know this stuff, yeah, I get that all the time. People do search you.

Tracy Hayes  9:23  
I will highly recommend it, because obviously, you know, we're here in Florida, people, people will Google you, yeah, they're talking to you on the phone, like, Who is this guy? And they going to Google you? Yeah, LinkedIn is a good way to show them.

Theo Fulger  9:33  
Hey, exactly. So I did that for about a year, and then that was they were about to put into effect Department of Labor new regulation, which was gonna affect basically our job a lot, because we dealt with a lot of retirement accounts. So there was a lot of uncertainty in my role. I was up for promotion, but then they did, like a promotion and hiring freeze. I was like, What am I doing? Yeah, do I just sit?

Tracy Hayes  9:57  
Sounds like a lot of mortgage companies right now? Yeah. I'm like, do I just sit around

Theo Fulger  10:01  
and hope for the best, or do I take action? So I started taking some action, putting some feelers out there. I had a buddy who got a really good role at Citibank, and he was like, same spiel. He was like, Hey, should come over here, like you do really well at it. Great job. Great company. So I was like, why not? We're basically at a standstill at Merrill. So I took a position at Citibank as a business analyst. It was quite a transition because, of course, in college, I didn't have a finance or business background, right, public relations background, so it was a really big transition, basically learning all the Excel

Tracy Hayes  10:37  
and keep our time. I apologize, you're fine. Just learning. I try to keep it under an hour. If I don't track it, I will be here for two or three

Theo Fulger  10:46  
hours, right? Yeah, good. So it was a big transition, kind of learning that role, because it was brand new to me, and I ended up being there for about two years. It was a great job, good pay for my age and stuff like that, but it just wasn't really fulfilling. I remember calling at my one year mark at Citibank. I remember calling my dad, and I was like, just not happy doing this. I need to figure something out. Like, I need to figure out what I can do that's gonna be lucrative and kind of be fulfilling on the personal level as well. Yeah. Like, the help

Tracy Hayes  11:15  
that's it's important, yeah, you learn that with age, yeah, for sure. And then the sooner you learn that, yeah, long I think, well, the longer success you'll have, exactly.

Theo Fulger  11:24  
So that's kind of where I learned the lesson, where it's not always about money, because if you're working a job, that's great pay, but you're not happy on a personal level, then, like, it's really hard to keep on going to work every day, right? So I stuck it out for another year, because that's what my dad told me to do. Sometimes you got to do sometimes you gotta swing it one more time, exactly. So I stuck it out for another year, saved up some money to where I could basically take a year off and not have to worry about anything. So I ended up putting in my two weeks. When I put in my two weeks, I kind of took a month off just to relax and kind of refocus and recenter myself. At that one month mark, I started getting antsy. I was like, I what am I going to do now? I need to figure something out. I need to start working again.

Tracy Hayes  12:08  
So I started, because right now, how old are you right now? I mean, this point, I'm about 26 Yeah. So your experiences and when things have what you experienced a lot, obviously, at Merrill Lynch doing that stuff. There's a lot of, you know, John Brooks, you know he was in that, in that background, at your age and so forth, working in the financial sector and but we only know what we know, right? Yeah. I mean, unless your your parents are a real estate agent or, you know, you know we, I think we tend to see we only know what you know. As we grow up, you know what our parents were doing as a career, maybe some friends, or whatever, we kind of get a feel. So that's kind of what we know. But there's so many things out there to dabble into, and it takes some time and find those things that align with you. Yeah, like you said, you have to be personally satisfied. Yep. And you know when you said you were working in the call center, I could say I could see why he's got out of the call center. Because I don't, I don't. You're the kind of guy who probably wants to get probably wants to get out and

Theo Fulger  13:04  
get Yeah, be about right, yeah, yeah. So after about a month of just traveling and taking some time off, I started doing some research, trying to figure out, like, hey, what can I remember Googling, what how to grow generational wealth. And one thing that I found in common with everyone was real estate. So getting my real estate license has always kind of been in the back of my mind, so that was kind of the trigger to push me to go to real estate school. So I went to real estate school, got my license, kind of got into real estate, and it's been really good ever since.

Tracy Hayes  13:37  
So Well, I apologize because I'm I want to make sure my technology is working. So I am obviously one of my biggest focus on what you're saying. So who introduced you? Where do you get the just the introduction to real estate, like, hey, you know, let me it was just, you know, somebody or just, it

Theo Fulger  13:53  
was just me doing research online, just doing research online. And then I found a real estate school got my license.

Tracy Hayes  14:00  
So was it the lifestyle or the money? I mean, what? What initially gathers your interest of the it

Theo Fulger  14:06  
was helping people make one of the biggest financial decisions of their life, basically

Tracy Hayes  14:12  
just kind of some of the stuff you were doing at Merrill Lynch, that mindset of helping them with their money, correct? Now you're seeing it. You could do it with

Theo Fulger  14:19  
so but in real estate, and more on a personal, involved level, it's more gratifying in real estate than it is over a phone, helping someone place a trade, you know, and then you

Tracy Hayes  14:30  
got all these compliance things, like, you can't really, like, lead them over there, you know, there's only so much you say, Guys, I talked to these guys on the phone. I I've got some accounts at Merrill Lynch, and, you know, I said, Well, hey, I want to roll it over. I got this account. I want to, you know, what can we do? And they're, like, very they don't want to say much. Yeah, they don't want to say much. Yeah, like, they're guiding you, and you're trying to, like, get some actual advising. Yeah, it's kind of like an attorney, right? Like, well, you could do that, but if you do this, this could happen. Yeah, exactly, what do you want to do? They have to be careful about what. They say, yeah. So you what real you go to, like, Watson, or where do you go to? Real estate school?

Theo Fulger  15:06  
It was a school around here somewhere off of Bay Meadows. It was Florida School of real estate. Was the name of it. Yeah, I did, like a seven day course. Ended up taking my tests. I passed the first time. So that was good, yeah. And then, not gonna lie, I was a little lost at first. When I got into real estate, I joined one brokerage. It was a, to me, kind of hands off approach, and I'm a very physical I need to see it

Tracy Hayes  15:29  
to like, well, you're 26 years old. You probably haven't owned your own house yet, right? Exactly, yeah, yeah. So this is a very popular subject I really like to talk about, because I hopefully, you know, we've got a new agent listening, or another young person, you know, you know. And because there's a, there's some really great real estate agents out there that are killing it, that are sub 30 years old right now, and they just, they just get it, and they're out there running with it. So that initial brokerage you go to, where did this someone that just called you and just went over and just kind of signed up? Or how did you actually get introduced to them?

Theo Fulger  16:02  
I had a friend. I had a friend that was over there, and he was like, Hey, man, you should he was doing pretty good. And he was like, Hey, you should come over here. We have some great tools. So I did. I ended up going over there. I was there for like, two months, three months, maybe, didn't really have any traction. That was so I got my license in September 2019 I believe, right? So I was there dilly dallying for about two, three months. Wasn't really getting any traction there. Ended up leaving that brokerage in like, December, I believe, and then I joined the DJ Lindsay team.

Tracy Hayes  16:33  
So that time period, if you were looking back and or you had, you know, another person saying, I want to get in the real estate, yeah. What would you recommend to them to avoid not saying it was, you know, obviously you sometimes you have to see the other side to realize what you have on this side. I think you use a nice analogy in that podcast. I was listening something about the grass growing, yeah, you know What? What? If you're coming out of real estate school, or, obviously, today, these people, soon as they sign up for real estate school, the brokers are already calling them, right? Yep. So what would be your advice that you would give somebody that's getting started do some due diligence?

Theo Fulger  17:08  
Yeah? So my advice would be to speak with someone who is successful, someone who's going to be honest with you, not just try to rope you into their brokers put another body with you, yeah, and someone that can mentor you. If you have a good mentor, I think that'll shave off a lot of years on the learning curve in real estate, 100%

Tracy Hayes  17:33  
Yeah, yeah, hanging out with some successful people and learning and, you know, listen how they talk, how they handle themselves, yeah? But then you also, you know, obviously, the, the obvious thing is, the the stories, you know, every transaction is a different story, yeah, you know, in our business, I mean, you know, every you know, it may be, yeah, it's just another house for half a million dollars. But the clients different, their attitudes different. They're from, whether they're from New York or they're from India, as we have a lot of our Indian Pakistani friends here in the area, you know, they handle things differently. Some people, it's just, oh, it's just, you know, hey, it's just a house. To other people, like, that's their their nest, yeah, that's, that's, you know. Some people, I always find it funny when I you know, these young people buy their first house, like, Oh, this is gonna be a forever home. Yeah? Not likely. No one, no one lives in their house 30 years anymore, like there's so many people that just move here locally. I know I'm friends with Pete and Brenda, two men in a truck, and they tell you how often they move people from neighborhood, and in the five or six years, moved them two or three times. Yeah, they changed neighborhoods. So yeah, but it's important you that advice. So I was actually talking with Heather stracy on the on Monday on the podcast, how important it is that you as the new real estate agent, even though you don't know anything, you need to actually interview the broker, yes, and not the broke brokers interviewing you because they want to make sure you're not going to bring poison into their bring poison into their office. They should be doing that and understand what really you need to like like you were saying that, how you want to do your business.

Theo Fulger  19:10  
Yeah, I think it's important for you to interview the broker to make sure it's a good fit for you and your lifestyle. If it's like a full time, like a full time gig at a brokerage, then, of course, it's going to be tough for you if you have three kids, or if you're still in college or something like that. So I want to make sure that's a good fit for you, and that you're not getting yourself into a position that's going to make it even harder on yourself, because most brokers will will take anybody with a license, and yeah, they just, hey, you

Tracy Hayes  19:37  
know some friends, you'll probably sell a couple houses, because they know, obviously, I'm sure you went to the class, and they probably they probably the first thing in the first five minutes. I told 80% of you aren't, aren't even going to be doing this in two years. Exactly. Yeah. So the just running the bodies through, but important in if just take a sits around the subject and cap this around, is, you know, what are some important things, and it may. Be questions directly that you may have asked, but you're interviewing that broker, if you were restarting today, knowing what you know, what are the questions that you're that you would, you know, ask that broker, or even agents that work for that broker, that would match with your personality, your work ethic, your

Theo Fulger  20:17  
some of the questions I would ask is probably how much like, mentorship or information do you guys have available for me? What kind of structure do you guys have? Like, how many hours are expected to work a day and stuff like that?

Tracy Hayes  20:32  
Well, I mean, I mean, we'll get into DJ and Lindsay because they do something well, as many agents do a lot of different things. You know, 70 plus agents, top producers I've had on the show. They're all doing something a little differently. You know, you got CC Underwood and Christina Welch. They got teams, but they run their teams totally different. Yeah, you know, you got Melissa Ricks, who is just a machine, and she's got four assistants behind her, not Realtors for assistants behind her. Or, actually, I think five. Now she's, she's added people on, but so they do things a little differently from that, from that standpoint. So when you say, you know, talk about what hours, most of these brokers out here like it's your business do what you want to do, right,

Theo Fulger  21:12  
correct, yeah. But then you have some teams that do have office hours and lead shifts and stuff like that. Something that's important to fully understand that and make sure that that works with your own schedule.

Tracy Hayes  21:24  
So leading into the DJ and Lindsay and there's other teams that have that very structured situation, because obviously people come a lot of times from a w2 job. They're working nine to five or whatever it is, not totally grasping the whole self employment, yeah, part of it, and understanding is like, Okay, you got to show up. No one's making you show up, but joining a DJ and Lindsay team, or, like I said, I mentioned Christina Welch, and they have a very structured, hey, for the first whatever you know, 90 days, whatever that time period is, you're going to come in and from nine to five, and this is what your day is going to look like. We're going to train, we're gonna train, we're gonna make calls, we're gonna do this, we're gonna do that. How important do you think that is for especially a lot of not just, I want to use young but it's not necessarily that. I mean, there's some agents that come out of corporate America, and they're so used to the, you know, more or less clocking in and clocking out. Yeah, they're used to that structure that they need that structured environment to get their business off the ground?

Theo Fulger  22:22  
Yeah, so I think that's very important. I think that's a big misconception with people whenever they get into real estate, because they only see the glamorous side on Instagram and Facebook, and they don't really see what the successful people would do on the back end. Yes, because you don't really see anybody like post the grind or the failures for that. Hey, we've been

Tracy Hayes  22:43  
sitting in here making phone calls for three hours

Theo Fulger  22:47  
fun about that. So that's a big misconception that a lot of people that come from a nine to five have where they're kind of like, okay, yeah, I can work two hours a day and, like, make good money and just be happy. It's just you get what you put into it, right? So me, I'm a very structured person. If I wake up late, my day is basically like your rambles because, yeah, because I'm already scrambling trying to get this done, and I got to get this done. So I'm a structured person. I love waking up in the mornings, going to the gym, working out, doing my prospecting, and then showing in the afternoons, evenings, and stuff like that. Like that's and then more follow ups after that. That's what I have found. Is the secret sauce for me, right? Is consistency with that? But, yeah, I think it is important as a new agent, if you are coming from a full time job, to have that structure, to ramp up your business as fast as possible.

Tracy Hayes  23:39  
You know, it's like, we're using the analogy, you know, grass grows where you water it, right? Yeah? And if it was so easy, everyone would be doing it. And now we talk about all these people are licensed, but the reality is, yeah, it's just because their license hasn't expired yet. There's only a really small percentage of highly successful agents. We know there's a lot of part timers, which, you know, in when I was growing up, a lot of the realtors were wives of, you know, us, you know, their husband was that stereotype. Their husband was already successful. They just got into real estate, and it just grew because they were just there. And, you know, they had, you know, where they had that kind of safety net because their their spouses has a salary over here, and they got, got into it, and now it is more of a business. DJ and Lindsay has made it, has structured that business. I think in my I don't know the inside workings, and that's what we're tap into you a little bit, is you know, you want to plug in to a machine and learn this business very quickly and get off because that's the important thing. It's like, yeah, it's like, losing weight. If you don't start losing weight initially, you give up on the diet pretty quickly, right? Yep. And if you're not getting those sales within a reasonable period of time, putting some money and feeding your feeding your family, you're like, I gotta move on to something else. Yeah, right. So to plug in. To a system like DJ and Lindsay, my perception have created. And like I said, you really get your get you off to a great start, because you've only what three years now is my third year is your third year? Yeah, and your first year. I heard you had 30 sales.

Theo Fulger  25:15  
I did 36 sales my first year,

Tracy Hayes  25:17  
which is crazy for any agent to have that many units in, or transactions in their first year, and then, let alone, you double it in the second year. Yeah, you know, they're in with that. And so now you have done over 100 transactions the average agent. It takes probably five or six years to do that on with just the average agents as just, kind of just trudging through doing eight, nine, you know, if they're lucky, they get a deal a month, yeah. And so now you're at bats of just, yeah. So you just advanced your career. Now you have options, Yep, yeah, as I heard you talking on the other podcast, you know, maybe a team. I don't know what, what? So what's your vision? Now, after having this couple years of success,

Theo Fulger  25:59  
that's a good question. I'm still trying to figure out kind of what my next step is. I have gotten into some real estate investing. I bought my first, I bought my first, I guess, two units, a duplex. Oh, cool. Back. Hard to find. Yeah. Where'd you find that? At East side of Third Street in Jack's beach. Oh, so I got a good deal on that one. Yeah, as a keeper, yeah, yeah. So started doing that. Definitely plan on focusing more on the real estate investment side. Still, of course, servicing my clients to the best of my ability, yeah, like that. But having this side gig, you know,

Tracy Hayes  26:34  
well, I imagine, and because my next, my next question will be, you know, what? What is DJ and Lindsay doing for personal development, and I can already tell if they're not helping you with it, or guiding you, or sending you in the right direction, you're doing yourself. And that's you've got to set up those, you know, those passive forms of income, yeah. And, you know, obviously you're in real estate. And everyone will tell you, every rich person has real estate in their portfolio somewhere, at some level or not, yeah, you know, and we're in an area where we're so short of housing, rents high, because there's just supply and demand. And that's brilliant to find a duplex that is like gold. I mean, that's, you know, the Find a multi family unit is just huge. So, so leading it, what were you just, are you just a natural person to go after personal development? Or has DJ and Lindsay kind of enhanced that for you? What? What do you do to? You know, stay sharp. You know, especially as a young person, because a lot of times you're dealing with people might be twice your age and they're looking at, oh, you're a young guy. You know what you're talking about. Yeah. What do you do to?

Theo Fulger  27:38  
I'm a very, I need to know type person, I need to know all aspects of what I'm doing. So I know a lot of people, realtors, they'll kind of get the deal under contract and then pass it off to their transaction coordinator. I made sure to learn the lending side, the title side, the full thing. So I really have a full grasp on what is going on with my deals, right? I think that people can tell that I know that whenever they speak with me. So I think that is kind of one thing. I've always, I've always been like that. Always want to know, want to know how things work.

Tracy Hayes  28:11  
Well, you're not, you're not interfering, but you want to be updated, correct? So you're in the know. And I think it's important from the loan officer side to we know in the people that I follow, in the in the loan officer, loan world, obviously, you guys want to close on time. Real Estate's close. That's given, right? Yeah, close on time, communication during the process, yeah? And that's an exact you're telling me, that's what your need is, and that's what, that's what the other is you want to be, you want to be updated. Let us, let us know, hey, where we're at, what's going on, yeah, hey, this one's a little hairy. We, you know, don't breathe on it. Have those conversations to some of the loans, but you want to know, and it's important for anyone, anyone out there in the real estate agents that are watching or loan officers are watching your team. You're working together as a team. And we know stuff happens. Yep, with these Tracy, you've done enough transactions to know, yeah, yeah. And tomorrow there'll be another situation, yeah?

Theo Fulger  29:04  
So my big thing that I tell a lot of new agents is make sure that you learn at least one new thing from each deal to kind of build your arsenal of understanding and knowledge, because every deal is different, yeah, but you can always find, and you can always find one new thing to learn that way you learn how to recognize it for your next deal, like, for example, when you're working with the FHA buyer, and this is kind of part of the having the knowledge, if you're working with the FHA buyer and they're looking at a house that was just flipped 30 days ago, you already know you can't buy this. There's a seasoning period we have to wait. So that's kind of a part of educating yourself and kind of avoiding putting yourself in sticky situations, if the house, if the roof is 20 years old, danger, the seller's disclosure, yeah, you already look the insurance, it's gonna be hard to get. Yeah, insurance like parameters have changed. They used to go based off of how much life is left, but now they go based off of how old the roof is. So once it hits that 15 year mark. It's gonna be hard to get insurance Yeah, so do you want to get in this situation, or do we need to go find a home that's better for you?

Tracy Hayes  30:05  
100% I think I see it often from the lending sector. You know, we get these things. And really, now, from what the insurance company tells me is that 10 years, they're already, after 10 years, you're already narrowing down the insurance companies you have, yeah, over 15, there's only a few, and obviously you're going to pay for that, yeah. So, yeah, when you're out on that listing appointment and look at the roof and go, I just want, you know, you want to be well aware of smart buyers gonna look at that, and they're gonna, you know, come back at you for it, yeah, it may look great and not have any leaks or anything, but because of its age, exactly, you know, those insurance companies know they look up that stuff.

Theo Fulger  30:41  
Yeah? And insurance is getting harder. Getting harder and harder to get, so I think it's really important as agents to watch out for that and kind of prevent your buyer from spending all that money on inspections and appraisal just to basically have to go back to square one again.

Tracy Hayes  30:55  
Or no, yeah, especially you or you mentioned FHA buyer, just someone who may not have a lot of cash. Yeah? You know, someone may buy that. I want to buy that house a, yeah, the roof is no problem. I'm going to replace the roof. I want you know they're, they've got the cash to do it, yeah, but yeah, knowing you're knowing your your client, and where they're at financially, and directing them to a house that's not going to put them in a in a situation, yeah, where they're basically paying a lot for insurance because the roof age, and then they're going to have to replace the roof eventually. So they've already been paying an extra couple $100 a month for the insurance. Now they got to go buy the roof, and then they're really in a pinch.

Theo Fulger  31:28  
Yeah, exactly. And I would never, I would never want to put anybody in that situation, because I've seen it happen to other people. I've seen people get in that situation, and that can set them back years dying, yeah. So I'm always very diligent when it comes to the finance part. I work hand hand in hand with the lenders to because that I used to do, I used to have these financial conversations with people

Tracy Hayes  31:50  
so you're comfortable with it. So that's, that's a great asset right there, because I know a lot of agents are afraid to have the financial conversation with them. You know, I ask, you know, how much, how much cash you actually have available to you to do? Yeah, there's a down payment, but then you got closing costs. There's other factors you have to put in that's

Theo Fulger  32:05  
kind of like my forte, like going over monthly expenses, because lenders will approve you for more than you need to spend, spending, right? So that's when you need to get down to the nitty gritty and be like, All right, let's talk about your expenses, like your utilities, car payment, whatever. Just make sure that you're comfortable with this monthly payment. Because I know you can't. You can do higher but if something happens like we need to make sure that you have three to six

Tracy Hayes  32:30  
months so many times, especially from the lending side, you get the question of, well, how much can you get them approved for? Well, like I said, I can get them approved, probably for more than what they're, it's gonna put them in a situation, especially they're, you know, maybe, maybe they're fortunate at the time that they, you know, they sold the other house, so they had some cash and they paid off all their other debts. Well, then I can approve them for that much more home. But now they have that, that home is they're sucking all their income every month, yeah? And then they start running up their credit cards, and now they're in that bind. Or, you know, they love to go out and buy that car. You know, as young people as I'm sure, you know, yeah, we always wanted the fancy cars. You get older, you realize that car doesn't get you what we wanted it to get you. Just, we need to get from A to B, right? But within our within our income abilities, if you're making a lot of money, yeah, you can go and buy that nice BMW, Mercedes, or whatever that is, or whatever. But, you know, if you're not, you said you got to have that six months. Are you putting away the money into your financial vehicles? You know, you know, putting the money pre tax that the government allows you to to put away. And so that's one of the questions that I well, especially with young people like, Oh, we're gonna pay this off. Like, are you fully funding your retirement accounts? Are you doing? Oh, no, no, no. Okay, so you're gonna pay off your house. And, yeah, you have equity, but you have no vehicle over here that's hopefully growing, yeah, lately that, you know, a 401, K went down. But other, you know, as you know, all the different investment vehicles they can put them in. Yep, put them in, and they're not, they're not making the money work for them, yep, is what it comes down to. You know, I have such a low interest rate because, obviously, I was in the business and the rates got so low, I'm like, Why should I pay extra? I need, I need. I'm putting into my kids college fund. I'm putting it in, you know, in those other vehicles. Yeah, right now, because the rate is so low that I have on the mortgage. Why should I rush to pay it off? Exactly that doesn't I can't chew the door. The door doesn't taste very good. All right, we've gotten some good stuff so but do you do you follow anyone? I try DJ and Lindsay. I know they're part of the What's that gentleman's name? Tom Ferry. Tom Ferry. That's it. Tom Ferry. I know they're very involved in Tom Ferry stuff and so forth. Do you follow anyone? Do you follow Tom or read his books or listen to his podcast, or any others?

Theo Fulger  34:46  
Or honestly, I don't, and it's probably bad that I don't, but I'm very big on self educating, so I'll pick up a book and start reading or just research online and stuff like that. I don't really have anyone that I follow.

Tracy Hayes  34:57  
There is a ton of stuff on I mean. YouTube is amazing. The amount, you know, because I'm almost everybody's podcast is is on there. So you can go in there and clip out what you want to, want to hear, and so forth. I The new loan officers. I try to direct them, you know, because of my experience. But there's many ways to do it. Like you said, you're going in and kind of biting off pieces. I listen to, you know, some loan officers and what they're doing. But I do bounce around because, obviously I do podcasts, so I want to hear what other people are, how they're doing their shows. So I also am picking up, hey, what's this loan officer doing over in Texas and so forth. And you pick up little tips and tricks, you know, little things like that. So yeah,

Theo Fulger  35:37  
so I would say I do that too. I always call my lenders and my title team to kind of chat with them if there's any changes coming, like, for example, the Hometown Heroes program that you just came out with in June, that's huge. That's going to help a lot of people, like EMTs, firefighters, policemen, even just

Tracy Hayes  35:53  
fielding the questions, because you're going to get the questions you they may not actually qualify for it, but you're going to get the questions, and you want to sound

Theo Fulger  35:59  
somewhat intelligent, exactly. So I'm very up to date with that. I'll reach out to my lenders. Be like, Hey, what's going on? What's new, what's changing. Same thing with title company as well, right? So that's kind of my how I educate

Tracy Hayes  36:09  
myself, surrounding yourself by successful people. You're reaching out. I mean, I've had some great people on the show. I want to I'm going to call out Stevie Hahn. That was what she told me she did. First thing she did. She didn't have a DJ and Lindsay team at the time, because this is five or six years ago or seven years ago. She's been in real estate, but she went and had coffee appointments with the loan officers, with title companies, with home inspectors and so forth, to understand what their businesses are. Because it's important the your client, your buyer or seller, they're going to use these services. You want to obviously tell them what's going to happen when they open that door, yeah, and guide them through. It just makes the transaction that much smoother, right? Yep, and looks like and then, so when there is, I think you'd agree. So when there is a bump in the road, because you are so knowledgeable, because you're already educating them, saying, yeah, if you do this, this is going to happen. Or, you know, hey, this is what I recommend the home inspector. This is how it's going to go down. Then also, there's a bump in the road two weeks in the transaction, and you come back and say, Well, this is how we're going to handle it. Yeah, you're like, Oh, well, he already gets he already already everything else he's already told us has already, like, happened the way he explained it. Yeah, you're able to recover that person and get them back

Theo Fulger  37:21  
on 100% it builds credibility, showing that you have the knowledge and kind of getting ahead of the situation, right? I've had homes or deals where I tell people, I'm like, Look, this inspection report is going to come back bad, and there's still, I want the house, want the house, right? Inspection report comes back bad. They look at me, and I'm like, I already told you this was gonna happen. Yeah?

Tracy Hayes  37:42  
Right. You know, what's your opinion so? Well, have you been doing mostly buyer side? Have you done some listings

Theo Fulger  37:48  
or, yeah, I've been doing a mix of both. I would say probably. My first year was probably about 90% buyers, and then second year was probably about 60% right? Yeah, so I'm evening out, yeah.

Tracy Hayes  38:01  
I always call this the when your listing is like little traps. You set the little traps around and then they come to the traps, versus you having to find them and bring them to the trap, right? Yeah.

Theo Fulger  38:10  
So the listings are gold, right, coming for the gold. It's completely different. The buy side is completely different from the sell side, which I learned pretty quickly. So it has its pros and cons. I like working with both,

Tracy Hayes  38:23  
what's your opinion on and I don't know if, I don't know if you do this in your business, but I know some, there are some realtors do, because we were talking about the home inspection, and, of course, obviously, the last year, well, crazy, it's been, you know, people are buying a home, even though there's a bunch of stuff on the inspection report, and they'll either hopefully negotiate some but figure I'll just fix it when I own the house, because, you know, it's just the demand is so high, yeah, but as the market starts to normalize, back probably when you first started, 19 pre listing inspections, actually, when you are adding that value to the seller by going and getting that inspection done and then fixing all the things so there are no excuses for the buyer, yeah, when they get that report, because it should be pretty

Theo Fulger  39:03  
clean, Yep, yeah, just to touch base on that. So yeah, the past two years, you could basically not do anything to your home. Put it on the market, and you're going to have 15 offers just because the rates were so low. It was just a frenzy. People were like, did not care about the report. People were waving their inspection report, waiving everything. They just wanted the

Tracy Hayes  39:21  
house because the rates were so low. Now that they're in the lack of inventory correct, now that

Theo Fulger  39:26  
the rates have started to normalize some I'd say it's still very competitive in like the 400k and below range, because there's a lot of cash buyers there. But 400k and up buyers can shop around now they can be more pickier. So I think it is to answer your question. The listing agents responsibility to, I wouldn't say, you have to go get in pre inspection, but I would say, as a listing agent, you need to walk around and at least tell them, hey, this needs to be fixed. This needs to be addressed, touch up, paint here, there the obvious, yeah, the obvious stuff. That way you're kind of getting ahead of the obvious stuff. Stuff, and then you're also saving your seller the money on the inspection, because the buyer is going to get an inspection regardless. I don't think I wouldn't let my buyer just trust a seller's inspection. I'll be like, you need to do your own due diligence. Get your own inspector in there. So I think as a listing agent, walking through, having a thorough listing appointment, really getting to learn the property, understanding the property is enough, right?

Tracy Hayes  40:21  
Yeah, right. Because we have seen where people are in the last because of the lack of supply, make an offer on a home, and then while that inspections being done, they're all They're still looking at other homes, because that's not ideally the home they want. It's the best one at the moment. Yep. And all sudden, the following Friday, another one goes out there. Oh, and then that list, then that inspection comes out, and, like, they got all the excuses now to get out of that deal.

Theo Fulger  40:48  
Yeah. So, like I said, people are shopping around now because inventory is starting to tick back up, because people aren't getting away with grossly overpricing their home. Like they were

Tracy Hayes  40:58  
right a couple months, some are still doing it. Yeah,

Theo Fulger  41:01  
so inventory is going up. Buyers are now able to shop around some as a listing agent. I think it's important to keep those timelines really tight, right, to avoid that situation. Yes, people will back out.

Tracy Hayes  41:12  
Yeah, buyers remorse, or whatever. You give them too much time to think yeah about it, they and then, of course, they'll get every naysayer and talk to every negative person they can find,

Theo Fulger  41:23  
exactly, the parents, yeah, yeah, exactly. But then on the buyer side, as well as a buyer's agent, you want to explain to your buyer like, let's not go under contract just because this is available. Let's make sure that this is the right what I tell my buyers is, I don't personally, it sounds weird, but personally, I don't care what house you buy, I just want to be the right house for you, right? So if this house is in the right house for you, let's not put an offer in. Let's not waste time. Let's find the right house for you, because just throwing out offers like that is wasting everyone's

Tracy Hayes  41:53  
Yes, it's gonna take a lot of people off. I literally had one agent tell me they had they basically fired their client after 25 offers over a period of two or three months. Yeah. And literally, in the couple of them were accepted and then they backed out. Yeah. So he's like, I'm done. If that that's too much work. Yeah, the things that you guys got to go through to actually just, it's not like, Hey, I got a client wants to buy. They want to offer you $500,000 for the home. You have to actually go, you know, go and create the contract and and submit it and sell yourself.

Theo Fulger  42:24  
Yeah, hey, I know what I'm doing. This could be a smooth transaction. You guys have nothing to worry about, right? And then you look crazy whenever your buyers back out. So I think I'm very good at having those honest conversations with my luckily, I haven't really had anyone like that, but I've seen other people, right? That happened to them. So I think it's very important to have the honest conversation with them and say, Hey, what are we what are we doing wrong? Why do we keep on backing out? Do I, like, need to educate you more on the financial decision that you're making. Do i Are you not ready to

Tracy Hayes  42:55  
find that comfortability because of maybe your time at Merrill Lynch, we're because I, like I said, a lot of agents will tell you they are a little bashful and having that conversation with them, yeah, to kind of, you know, drill them down a little bit to find out, to avoid this.

Theo Fulger  43:10  
Yeah, I do. I think it's because I do have, I've literally had the conversations with, well, how much money do you have? Where else do you have accounts? What are we working with? So I do feel very comfortable having that conversation, but I think it's important to portray why we're having the conversation. We're having this conversation to make sure that you're making the right financial decision. I'm not just asking you how much money do you have? Just to ask you because I want to know. It's because I want to make sure that I'm putting you in the right position. Yeah. And then also let you know that I used to deal with this, like numbers, money, this is what I used to deal with, right? So I have experience

Tracy Hayes  43:42  
that you're on the team, you're, you mean, your team with that buyer, yeah, or seller, your your team. And you need to know everything, yeah? Because stuff will come up. And we know everybody's got dirty laundry. We know, you know, you know everyone's got some sort of skeleton in their closet. Yeah, we all screwed up and done stupid things in our lives, exactly. We're humans, right? So that's happening when you actually sit down and get real with people in a polite way, obviously, but because you're working on their behalf, yeah, we want to represent them to make them happy, and that's the reason why you're having these conversations, exactly.

Theo Fulger  44:15  
And that's kind of what I tell people. I tell them that I'm on your team. The more honest you are with me, the easier it's going to be for me to help you, to get to get you into that right home. And it's kind of like, say we're on a team, two people, and I'm playing cards, I'm playing blackjack, but if you don't tell me what we're playing with, then I'm basically playing blind. Yeah. So yeah, that's kind of the analogy I use. Yeah.

Tracy Hayes  44:37  
Let's transition over a little bit, because you I don't know if there's a well, I don't know what the proper word for it is. DJ and Lindsey has come in the area in the storm. You guys talked about a little bit in the podcast. I was watching with their in house podcast team there. What's the gentleman's name? Todd. Todd. I periodically listen to what he's got there, because I've been wanting to get DJ and Lindsay on the show, so maybe you can, you know. Hopefully good at good words and and Travis Tracy, I know Travis when he started Christina Welch's team, very new. He's come such a long way I'm proud of we he finally did friend me on Facebook, and I have asked him to come on the show, and he didn't respond. So hopefully, hopefully, you know me talking. He's busy. But one thing I've learned, and I and I tell people, I'm going to write a I need to write a book, because all the stories, you know, everyone's story is a little different, and where they came from and how they you know, what they're doing. There are a lot of common themes in the top producers, though, but what I've learned also is how many different ways this business is done. And DJ and Lindsay have taken a very, I'll say, a bold approach in it, and for you as being part of that, part of that machine, if I can use that analogy that they've created, you've taken someone with just three years experience, you have over 100 transactions now, by the end of this year, I Think your goal set was 100 on if you're, yeah, well, you'll be, well, you'll be very close to it, assuming you do at least what you did last year, and just in just three years, and the at bats and how important it is to you know how you've advanced your career and your experience to compare to Other people might have been in the business 10 years and don't have that many transactions under their belt, and the way that that's just the way they've chosen to do to do business. A lot of people want to defend the real estate agent, but it's your choice to work there, correct?

Theo Fulger  46:34  
Yeah, I think it's a great place to work if it's a fit for you. If you're like me, and you like to grind and you like to put the hours in and you like to be successful. I think it's a very good fit, right, yeah. But, like I said earlier, it's not for everyone, right? Yeah, yeah, 100% I mean, if I were to start a team, I would definitely want some type of structure to make sure that people are ramping up as fast as possible, because if you have employees, you want to make sure that they're efficient and right doing good, right? And that's just how I would model my team as well. Other teams may not want that. They might

Tracy Hayes  47:06  
just and correct me if I'm wrong here. From what I see on the outside, there's a lot of in whether you're a mortgage loan officer or a real estate agent, there's a lot of companies out there to want to sign you up and put you on their thing, but they're not willing to invest up front to well, let's see. Let's see if you do some deals, and I'll help you with that. Where it seems like DJ and Lindsay are putting I'm sure they're not bringing anyone on. They're doing very good interviews and breaking you down. Make sure they're bringing on the right person that's going to fit. It's not 100% but hopefully they're getting, they get better and better at each person they bring on, but they're investing in you of quite a bit, whether you're from the leads, the training, you know, the facility, all the things that they have to put you in the best possible position, yeah, when they bring you on. So they're putting a lot of their resources up front

Theo Fulger  47:54  
for you. Yeah, I would say they probably have the best Mentorship Program in town or in Florida. And it's kind of Yeah, so they choose to invest a lot into their agents. And yeah, it's just, if you invest in your agents, they start ramping up faster, then you're gonna

Tracy Hayes  48:08  
what would you say? I mean, not exact figures, but I mean, I see a lot of young people like yourself there. I do know there's also successful agents. I've seen that I know from other brokerages, because I met them years ago there that have also come in, that are a little older, and you'll have families or whatever, they've worked at another brokerage for a couple years and come over and but percentage of, like, very new, which you were very, you know, you were only three months in the business, three, four months in the business. You, you know, fairly green, still coming in. So how many? How many of the I always go back to my when I got to college, I sold cars, and they obviously had 22 years old. The old dude in there was calling me green, pea green. So how many? How many? How many? What percentage you think are at DJ and Lindsay to come in, totally green. Don't know anything about real estate. And then you these other kind of experience agents that actually fit the program that they've got going on and want to be involved in that, or how they're running be involved in how they're running their business.

Theo Fulger  49:03  
That's a hard question. I don't think I could really put a number on that. I'll probably say that more are green than experience, right? Yeah, right.

Tracy Hayes  49:11  
I think because I was obviously watching the podcast, I want to phrase this the right way, and I want to say something, I think what they're doing is a business model, and they're running it, and they're running it very well, and obviously from the numbers and obviously your success. I mean, you look at it, you imagine if you stayed at that other brokerage, you probably would have got out of the business,

Theo Fulger  49:30  
probably, yeah, but I feel like every brokerage is a business model. I feel like they've just found out a really good way to run it.

Tracy Hayes  49:36  
Yeah, it's again, not for everybody, but again, are you still running? You know, what's, what's like, say, the someone coming in green today joined DJ and Lindsay. What are some of the expectations that they should have? Like, Hey, there. You better be there at nine o'clock and you're, you know, for the first 90 days. What are some basics of things that, or expectations that they set?

Theo Fulger  49:56  
I would say some of the expectations. I don't know exactly what the times are now. Because I'm more experienced, have to go to training and stuff like that. But as a new person, I would say they probably need you to be there from, I'd say, nine to 11 or nine to 12 for prospecting, and then whatever trainings they have throughout the day as well.

Tracy Hayes  50:12  
How important are those trainings to your I mean, how important have they been for your I think they not necessarily their trainings, but education in general, in the business I got tipped on a little earlier.

Theo Fulger  50:22  
I think education in the business is very important, because that's what's going to help you ramp up. That's what's going to set you apart from the other agent. Because let's be honest, every agent can do the same thing, every mortgage broker can do the same thing. They can close the deals. Every title company can get the deal to the closing table. So I think the education is very, very important, because that's what's going to set you apart from the agent next to you, right?

Tracy Hayes  50:48  
How we talk? A good percentage of the people coming in are green, and obviously they don't know anything, you know, like I said, most of them don't even own their own house. How important is the education and just simply their confidence when they're talking? Or, you know, actually do get someone on the phone.

Theo Fulger  51:02  
So I think knowledge and education is going to you can hear it in people's confidence levels. If people know what they're talking about, they come off as more confident. If they're kind of iffy, then you can, you can literally hear it in people's voice. So I think that is a very way, a good way to bridge the gap from green to experience, is that knowledge right there? Because if you there's a new person on the team right now who has not been doing real estate very long, but he has educated himself, and he sound if you were to hear him on the phone, yeah, yeah. And that's what people want to hear. That gives people the reassurance that even though this person is green, he knows what he's talking about, right?

Tracy Hayes  51:39  
Because these is, we talked about getting your LinkedIn account going. People do Google you Yeah? And, I mean, we can go on state website and see how long you've had your license. I mean, it's not that difficult. It's all public record. It's out there, yeah, from that standpoint. So we'll just kind of, we already talked about the, you know, your first three months with that previous brokerage, you know, but just as a real estate agent in general, you show up at DJ and Lee, what are? What are some some things that you personal struggles or challenges that you had, you know, maybe it's getting out of your comfort zone or something, but what are some things that you really had to work on yourself, to improve on? Because I'm sure it just wasn't all sunshine and roses.

Theo Fulger  52:17  
Yeah, I think just getting to know people, understanding that everyone is different, because I am a very fact and transactional based type person, I'll tell you,

Tracy Hayes  52:31  
Hey, your bottom line guy, what it is? Yeah, the

Theo Fulger  52:35  
numbers work, so let's do it. But there's a lot more that goes into that. There's a lot more emotions that go into that, especially you kind of touched on this earlier, like, for sellers, for example, like, this can be where they lived for 30 years. This can be where they raised their family. So to them, it's not just a numbers game. To them, it's like, this is a new chapter in my life. Yeah, I'm leaving this old one and I'm starting a new one. So there's a lot of emotions that go into it, which I wasn't really aware of before I got into real estate. So that's something that has been a learning curve for me, because, like I said earlier, everyone is different. You have some people that are just like, numbers make sense, do it, and then others that are like, this is where I grew up, right? Like, do this.

Tracy Hayes  53:18  
So. Or the buyer that goes in the house and is like, Oh, I don't like it because the walls are painted blue. Like, okay, well, we can paint the walls

Theo Fulger  53:26  
exactly something that's very minuscule to someone might be huge to someone else, they might not have an extra three grand to pay, like, to paint the house and stuff like that. So it's just really like getting to know your buyer or seller on the personal and emotional level.

Tracy Hayes  53:41  
So you had, you had to find yourself, you had to slow down a little bit to be that little more personable, yes. So that's something you had to teach yourself, because I'm the same way. Empathy is not my strength, and so I have to, like, slow myself down. Yeah, instead of like, oh, yeah, it makes sense. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. You know that they do. They're gonna go through with it. It's just, they just need a, you know, yeah, a few more minutes,

Theo Fulger  54:03  
100% I think patience. That's one thing that I've gotten a lot better at, because everyone is going at different paces, transactional. People are start to finish pretty fast. Yeah, other people need a little bit more nurturing, little bit more empathy, understanding. So, yeah, what?

Tracy Hayes  54:19  
What would you say would be when you showed up a DJ in Lindsay, in like, I don't know if it took you a few minutes or it took you six months, but you're like, I'm home. This is, this is like, I can excel in this space.

Theo Fulger  54:34  
I would say after I closed my first deal, that's when I was like, All right, where I need to be. I'm excited. There's so much to learn. Like I told you earlier, I like to learn. I like to know. One thing that keeps me captivated with real estate is there's so much to learn. Everything's different.

Tracy Hayes  54:53  
Like now it was different being new too, and you were doing so, you know, 30 transactions your first year. 69 last year. So obviously, last year, you had times where you were handling probably three or four different buying, selling situations

Theo Fulger  55:09  
at 22 at one point in time, I had 2022

Tracy Hayes  55:12  
actually, yeah, we're actively looking and you're spending time with trying to through the week and so forth. Yeah, was what did? What did you have to do. How much did you rely on DJ and Lindsay and their team and their, you know, your support team? Yeah, to get through that. How important

Theo Fulger  55:29  
was that? So it's very important to have a very good transaction coordinator, because there's no way that I would be able to handle 22 files on my own. Yeah. But then on the flip side, it's also very important to make sure that you are still the lead on the deal and that you know what's going on. So the way I explain it to my customers is that, yes, I have a transaction coordinator who's going to handle all the admin and stuff like that, but I'm always in the background overseeing everything, making sure that everything is on track and that you are comfortable with what's

Tracy Hayes  55:58  
going on. So how do you I mean, you had 22 transaction. So, you know, maybe you have a certain time of the day or certain day of the week that you're gonna reach out and update. But I mean, how do you, how do you juggle 22 balls at the same time my CRM?

Theo Fulger  56:13  
I have, I have certain days take good notes. Yeah, I have certain days that I check in with my listings and then with my buyers, I'm pretty active with them, always checking in with them, making sure that everything's on track. So that kind of just happens on it.

Tracy Hayes  56:28  
So some of that, I mean, just, you know, some of them are probably making a phone call, depending on the update. Some of them just a text message or an email. How do

Theo Fulger  56:36  
you It depends on what their communication style is. Some people like emails. Some people like talking on the phone. Some people like texting. So I really adapt to what that person likes. Yeah, kind of text you, if you don't like the text, I'm going to call you, yeah? So it's really, I've

Tracy Hayes  56:50  
done entire refinances and stuff, literally through text message. Yeah?

Theo Fulger  56:54  
Some people are like, don't call me. Just text me, yeah, yeah. And all it takes is Two Minutes to call check in. Hey, just calling to check in. Everything's on track. Do you need anything? No, okay, great. I'll be in touch soon,

Tracy Hayes  57:07  
because I mean to be able to successfully 22 transactions at the same time. This goes back to anyone in the business, you've got to branch out. And whether, you know, obviously DJ and Lindsay, I'm sure they have, they have a team of transaction coordinators that Travis is running. You know, if you're an individual agent, how important is, like, when you start doing that kind of stuff, you've got to have, you got to have some assistance. And it's, and that's one of the biggest challenges that I see with agents that are kind of out there, I want to say, on their own, but is like they come to a point where they reach the lid, and for them to do any more, which they can physically do more, they've got to actually hire somebody, yeah, to be that, to handle that admin stuff and take that load off, because there's, there's, like you said, all that stuff that you don't see a real estate agent doing, yeah, that person needs to be doing, because there's a huge back end, yeah, you know, following up with past clients, you got to do that, because you just got to keep your business moving forward. Yep. Otherwise you're up, down, up every other month, because you're the of the lack of doing one part of the business,

Theo Fulger  58:06  
yeah, prospecting or whatever, following up with past clients, prospecting new clients. You have to constantly be doing that because, like you said, you don't want to one month not close a deal the next month have 10 deals closing. So you want to find that perfect balance where you're basically your level going through.

Tracy Hayes  58:21  
There's a reason why the market, who's been the most influential

Theo Fulger  58:24  
person, your career most influential, and we

Tracy Hayes  58:27  
talked about a preacher, doesn't have to be real estate career, which because, obviously you've been an athlete, high level athlete, so, you know, as a coach or, I mean, Dad, I don't know what,

Theo Fulger  58:36  
that's a good question. Most Influential. I mean, I have to give Brittany Nolan, who was my mentor, lots of props. She was, hands down, the best mentor. She helped me out.

Tracy Hayes  58:49  
She's a young person too, right? Yeah, yeah, she's she is she 30? I think she's younger than me. Oh, okay,

Theo Fulger  58:55  
but she was a really good mentor, hands on training. I would probably say she's been the biggest influence on my real estate career thus far.

Tracy Hayes  59:04  
So you mentioned that right off the bat was having a mentor, so that's pretty probably a DJ, and Lindsay, the first day you walk in, they they're going to assign you to somebody that they think you're going to match with. And yeah, and work with. And how important it is, because every top person I've had on here has had somebody you know, whether it's that person who brought them into the business, or another older real estate agent in the office, they can pick their brain on yeah and so forth, and how important that is and getting your career going. Yeah? We talked about education, while the mentor and surrounding yourself by successful people. I think you know, your office has a lot of successful people, people you're all moving and grooving in there. It seems, Lisa, the numbers I go, I imagine there are some people that probably having some problems, but there's, there's a lot of buzz going on. So, you know, in DJ and Lindsay are very involved, like you said, with Tom Ferry and so forth. And I imagine that's spilling over. So all the successful people is where they're but the one common theme. Same, and I don't think we talked about it completely, and maybe mentioned it briefly, is consistency. What do you feel that you've been doing consistency? Maybe not from the start, maybe something you hey, I picked it up six months ago, and I started doing it is now, just moved my business even a little bit more. But what do you do? Consistency? You know, daily, weekly, monthly. That you think is just, you know, you would tell any agent this is what they got to do everything.

Theo Fulger  1:00:24  
Everyone always asks, well, what is it that makes you successful? And I think it's doing everything. It's not you can be if you're really good at one part but not the others. I don't think you're going to have as much success. But if you can do everything consistently, the waking up in the mornings, going to the gym, prospecting nine to 11, going out on showings, 12 to six, following back up with people. After that,

Tracy Hayes  1:00:48  
you block your time. Yes, you're very regimented. This is what I'm doing until, you know, whatever four o'clock in the afternoon or whatever you're doing. So it starts with your, you know, obviously the alarm going off, and the first thing you're going to go work out. Because next year, you know, I had Shelby Florence from Compass, and she said she if she doesn't get that workout in the morning, her whole day is screwed up. Yeah, that's her like thing that she has to do. Consistencies, get up and go and go work out.

Theo Fulger  1:01:15  
Yeah, I think time blocking is very important, because at least me, I can get very distracted if I'm not focused at one task, at a hand. So a way to get me focused is looking at my calendar. All right, from 12 to three, this is when I'm going to do showings I do that. Or from nine to 11, this is when I'm just going to do follow ups. That way it keeps me from doing other things, looking up properties or something like that, you know.

Tracy Hayes  1:01:38  
So yeah, because you can easily get all the different things.

Speaker 1  1:01:41  
Yes, 100% All right, we're gonna wrap up because we're right

Tracy Hayes  1:01:46  
here in an hour, probably a little bit over here. What's your favorite thing to do in Northeast Florida?

Theo Fulger  1:01:52  
My favorite thing to do in Northeast Florida, I asked

Tracy Hayes  1:01:55  
this question, because we sell lifestyle here. Would you agree you sell it's Florida lifestyle people come here because,

Theo Fulger  1:02:02  
yeah, yeah. I would say the fact that we can go to the beach in February, that we basically have the beach year round. We get one week of cold weather, which is in January, usually, yeah. But other than

Tracy Hayes  1:02:13  
that, a couple days it reaches freezing, we might have covered the plants, yeah.

Theo Fulger  1:02:18  
I would say that's like one of the, one of my favorite things to do is that we can always wear shorts, yeah, go to the beach here.

Tracy Hayes  1:02:24  
I stated before slate Cole slate said, people are starting to find out about our little gym here in Northeast Florida, because we do have the river. We do, you know, you can go hide, you know, the all the different beaches, all the way up to the Georgia Line, yeah, and, you know, down the Palm Coast, all the different things, whether you want to go to Old Town, whether you want to go to a Jaguars game, or whatever. It's just so many things to do here. And those who want to head west and find some cheaper, larger lots will keep heading west. You might find that towards over Lake City, right? Yeah, something for everyone here. Is it more important who you know or what you know.

Theo Fulger  1:03:00  
I'm a big fan of who you know, just because touching on what we spoke about earlier, like hanging around successful people, mentors and stuff like that. That's typically how people get plugged into various roles and stuff. So I'm a very big fan of who you know, but I think it's also important to we

Tracy Hayes  1:03:19  
got to follow it up with confidence. Yeah, you gotta be follow you Yeah? The who you know, because it was as you were saying, I was thinking, yeah. I mean, the who can oftentimes tell you what you need to know, and then you can go, go do that, right? Yeah, you show up in Brittany's telling Britney's your mentor. And I'm sure there's a couple things she told you, yeah, to do that you weren't even thinking about doing. But she's like, No, you need to. You need to go take this class or whatever it

Theo Fulger  1:03:42  
is, yeah? So I would say who you know will get you through the door, what you know will help you

Tracy Hayes  1:03:46  
stay there, yeah, and be successful. Well, Theo, I appreciate you coming on today. Thank you for having me. Thank you. I hope my Facebook Live worked. If it didn't, hopefully it's recording the video, and we'll get it out that way. Yeah, definitely. But I appreciate you. Thank you