Episode #161: Feeney Talks with Rob Perriello

#BeAGoodFriend and check out episode #161 of #FeeneyTalksWithFriends featuring Robert Perriello.

It was great to talk with my #friend, Rob! 

Rob is a Real Estate Agent for Century 21 All Points Realty.

We talked about:
Podcast sponsors (minute 1)
Rob’s top 5 movies and podcast #160 (minute 2)
Anthony Ireland episode #74 (minute 3)
Rob is a #GirlDad (minute 4.30)
Rob and Feeney taught together at Kingsbury School in Waterbury  (minute 7.30)
Mission of Friends of Feeney (minute 11)
Growing up in Waterbury (minute 13)
PE teacher or Gym teacher? Real estate agent or Realtor? (minute 15)
Explain a “real estate agent” to a 3rd grader (minute 16)
Switching from PE Teacher to Real Estate Agent (minute 18)
Rob was the #1 Real Estate Agent for Century 21 from 2018 to 2022 (minute 20)
Rob sold 108 houses in one year (minute 21)
3 Keys to being a great real estate agent (minute 23)
House sales: First, Last, Best, Worst (minute 25)
How can Feeney be a real estate agent? (minute 33)
Where will you be in 5 years? (minute 36)
How is the market in West Hartford? (minute 37)
There are only 19 one-family homes available in West Hartford (minute 41)
Why is it blind bidding to buy a house? (minute 43)
Rob’s podcast, “Mindset Talks” (minute 49)
Houses for sale on Rob’s Instagram (minute 51)
Rob’s YouTube Channel, “Living in West Hartford” (minute 53)
Rob’s JCC Championship Basketball Team (minute 54)
Thank you cards from Cricket Press (minute 56)
Uncle Joel (minute 58)
Closing remarks and Ryan’s Softwash (minute 1.00)

Podcast Sponsors: 
Directline Media - www.directlinemediaproductions.com/
The Fix IV - www.thefixivtherapy.com
West Hartford Lock - www.westhartfordlock.com
Keating Agency Insurance - www.keatingagency.com
Goff Law Group - www.gofflawgroup.net
Parkville Management - www.parkvillemanagement.com
Luna Pizza - www.lunapizzawh.com/lunas-menu
PeoplesBank - www.bankatpeoples.com
Float 41 - www.float41.com
Maximum Beverage - www.maximumbev.com
Sally and Bob’s - www.sallyandbobs.com

Creators and Guests

Host

Eric Feeney

After teaching for nearly a decade at his alma mater in Waterbury, in 2014, Eric Feeney began teaching at Wolcott Elementary in West Hartford. Shortly following, Sam Sohn, the father of one of his students, passed away suddenly from a heart attack. He left behind four beautiful children and a loving wife, Nancy Wallace-Sohn. Eric saw first-hand the toll this took on the family as they navigated their way through this unthinkable tragedy. The following year, Rashad Collier Sr., another father of a student in Eric’s class, passed away in Hartford as a result of gun violence. Rashad left behind two fantastic children and a loving wife, Denise Villegas. The impact of these tragedies weighed on Eric and motivated him to build an organization that could provide assistance for similar situations. With that, Friends of Feeney was born. In 2019, Friends of Feeney Inc. became an official 501©(3) nonprofit organization, allowing more funds to be raised and expanding the range of services provided to children and families in need. Today, over a decade since Eric’s idea to build a community organization dedicated to supporting our friends in need, Friends of Feeney has burgeoned into a reputable and recognized organization capable of providing financial and resource support to numerous families and individuals across greater Hartford and beyond. Through this work, an incredible community of children and families has been recognized, who care for and appreciate each other’s kindness.

Producer

David Chmielewski

David started his video career in the early 1990s working on video crews as an independent contractor for such companies as Martha Stewart Living, IBM and Xerox. After graduating Southern Connecticut State University with the degree in Corporate Communications, David continued his video production career and accepted a position at WFSB in Hartford, CT. Within a few years the news and production studios became his charge and David designed, installed and maintained the televisions sets for the various programs at the station. At the end of 2013 David founded DirectLine Media, a video production company that specializes in creating memorable and compelling video content for businesses.

Editor

Stefania Sassano

Stefania's acting journey began as early as the fourth grade, where she took on the role of Scarlett O'Hara in a stage production of Gone With the Wind. This early experience sparked a lifelong passion for the arts. With a background in musical theater fueled by her love of music and singing, Stefania stepped into larger roles, such as Fraulein Kost in Cabaret during her sophomore year at the University of New Haven. This performance earned her a nomination for the prestigious Irene Ryan Acting Award at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival—an honor she would receive again in her junior year.

What is Feeney Talks With Friends?

Eric Feeney talks with #friends! Eric is the founder of the nonprofit organization Friends of Feeney. Their mission is to help children and families who need assistance after heartbreak and tragedy. www.friendsoffeeney.com

All right, all right.

Feeny talks with friends. Episode 161.

We're at maximum beverage.
What a good friend.

What's up? Rob up.

Eric, we go way back. Rob. We do.

This is Rob Perriello in the building
we're at.

Maximum beverage mentioned that.

I want to thank some sponsors.

We got

maximum beverage,
direct Line media, Parkville management,

Brook golf law group, people's
bank, Keating agency, insurance Fix,

fix, Ivy float, 41, Luna Pizza,
Sally and Bob's.

Let's just start.
It's a lot of support, right?

It's an a great,
I'm a third grade teacher.

You know that, we go way back teaching.

So, it's great to, in the West
Harvard community to get so much support.

So I want to thank you for being here.

Thank you for your donation.

And I'm really excited to talk with you.

Where do you want to start?

And I and your podcast, I'm grateful
you brought me on.

Yeah. Sit down and talk.

So I got some cards we could start.

We'll mix them up. Realtor. Okay.

Girl. Dad. Kingsbury.

Jake.

That stuff.
We have a comment. Right? Right.

Isn't that cool?

Everything else.

This is 161.

Go back and check out 160 Max and Jake.

Awesome podcast.

Do you like movies you like?

Can you give us your top five?

Or you hit me with that?

All right.

I'm going to go.

I'm going to go Ace Ventura. Oh, classic.

I go with that one.

I'm going to go to Major League.

Oh, Willie Mays, Hayes Hayes, Ray Finkle.

Oh, let's go, let's go to Naked gun.

Oh, naked gun, Lieutenant Drebin
yeah, man.

I'll do some classics.
Let's see some later in life.

Those are like, young.
Yeah, those are classics.

Go back to any time,
you know, rewatchable.

Let me think.

Let me think. It's,
you know, I'm the girl you said girl.

That's.
I'm gonna go. Oh, that's a good one.

Kids in the family.

You can't
you can't go wrong there. And nice.

Oh, man.

Let me think, trying to hit something
that's not not comedy.

We talked last fall.

Did you see sinners? Did not.

Did you see Frankenstein?

Did you see?
I don't like I don't do scary.

Sounds like it.

Because you're all comedy so far,
you're like me.

Train dreams.

And one battle after another.

And, so we went in depth on 160
about those four movies.

So go back and if you like,
if you saw those four movies,

it was all for
I was prepped and ready for the podcast.

My two guests,
Max and Jake, both gave me two.

I watched them, with Neil, a girl dad.

So it's a good bonding experience.

Sinners was great.

Oh, yeah.

If you had to pick one, that's the one.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

It's about twins. It's, there's a little.

I want to give anything
away, but takes a turn.

No, I'm very excited to talk with you.

You're the second best basketball player

that I've had on this podcast
from Crosby High School.

Oh, okay. All right.

There's a lot better. Yeah.

Who is who is that? Anthony Ireland.
Oh, yeah.

You know, aren't I?

I'm not personally but I as a Crosby alum

of course I've seen him play
and he's an exceptional player.

Yep. He's episode 74 Crosby.

So you went to Crosby High School.

You're about the 10th best JC player
I've had on the podcast.

Haha I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

I might want to see that. Yeah.

Crosby. Yeah.

So Ty's been on episode 22 and 50.

Legend. Yep.

Evan Gilchrist 55, Scott Scotty Mack,

lefty, 22 and 50 Andy Erling point guard.

So I played in a couple seasons,
so I don't know.

Okay, okay.

John Deckers, old school 65.

Rabbi. Do you know the rabbi? Yes.

Great player.

So you're behind him?

Yeah. He's he's better than you.

He's 64.

He's a awesome guy.

He's one of my favorite teammates
of all time.

Ben Fuchs, big guy.

138 Eric Brown 40.

Okay.

Brad Raisin 53.

He's an old school guy, too.

So those are guys from the league
that been on the but on the pod.

Yeah. You're an exclusive club, right?

All right.

So where were we going with this?

All right. Pluck one.

Game show.

Girl. That girl. Dad.

All right.

Yeah.

So you have two daughters, right?

Yeah, I have two daughters.

What did you do in your life
to get two daughters?

I'm kidding.

Hahahahaha!

No, no. That's awesome.

I heard that you're the coach.

Yeah. So ten and 12.

Selfishly, I'm lucky
because they're in the basketball right

now, so I'm right in that way.

Well,
I can add it to it. And yet coaching.

Coaching where I can
and it's it's a lot of fun, man.

It's a lot of fun. Cool, cool.

I heard you had experienced
a bad ref recently.

Whoa, whoa.

I didn't say anything.

What do you mean? What do you mean?

Yeah.

So, yeah, Thai refs and, I go.

That's a common theme
from a lot of parents there.

Ty, what's going on here, bud?

He's got to get the whistle
a little more active.

I don't know if it's broken up.

Yeah, the people out.

I don't know if he's trying to.

Get that.

Come on.

So I, love it.

No. It's great.

So that's great coaching the kids.

And, nothing better than being a girl dad
being a parent number one.

But being a girl, dad's extra special.

Like we have that in common
hundred percent, man.

Anything else you want to share about?

Girl? Dad.

Mona. Melanie.
You know, it's just fun, man.

I saw you go ahead early in the morning
bringing them to the J.

Get that hoop in.

So you said the hoop
and they were there before school.

Do this thing.
We do 100 shot today, right?

It's just a little.

It takes about six,
seven minutes. Doesn't take long.

And I only know that because
they challenge me on a 1 to 1 shot.

Today
I was like, listen, we're going to time it

because this doesn't take very long.

But the cumulative effect of that
yeah a couple of years is very impactful.

Right. So we timed it.

It takes like six seven minutes,
you know, for one of the girls to do it.

And so yeah sometimes we go
depending on the schedule.

Sometimes we'll go in early morning like
530 and then run into you a few times.

Nice, nice.

Sometimes you go after school,
but they're good man.

They you know what?

Know what's fun about it?

It's it's like an activity
you do together with exactly anything

you can do with your kid
that, like, you both enjoy.

You know what I mean?

That's that's special.

You gotta you gotta take whatever it is.

I 100% agree.

Do they make the 100 shots?

You just shoot 100 shots. 100.
So it's not 100 makes.

We're not there yet.

What we have at it is now.

They got a now it's not just shooting
now they got to add a little ball before.

Oh wow. Okay let's do it.

But yeah listen Steph Curry that's it's

all time on task
but yeah time on task though.

You know it's gonna that'll pan out.

So good luck are they.

Who are they hooping for

the town or for travel team
or they do West West Hartford travel.

Great.

You know there's so many great things
in this town.

Yeah.

No matter what sport you play,
they have so many choices.

But, Yeah. Travel league.

Shout out to Jim O'Sullivan.

You know him?

No one's.

He runs the West Hartford girls Travel.

What's the what's the name of the flasher?

Magic. Magic.

Yeah.

So, Brendan McClay,
I think, used to be there.

His his daughter Claire. Is that Connor
now? Cool.

But he talked very highly of as well.

Yeah, it's a great program.

So that's what they're,
they're into right now this time of year.

Yeah. Cool. Cool.

All right.

Flip a new one.

So new topic new topic.

Kingsbury.

Kingsbury. Yes.

So I attended Kingsbury as a student

and I taught there as a teacher
for nine years.

Third grade.

I think it was 2004

to 2014 ish, 2005 ish.

You know, the school year run by Mrs.

Jerell was my fifth grade teacher.

She was the principal.
She was the principal that hired me.

So. Yeah.

When when were you there?

I met my guy.

Rob was the PE teacher.

This is amazing. That full circle.

So that was my first.

That was my first year teaching
and and I was the head teacher.

So I think I was at that school like
three days a week and four days a week.

And I was in another school

a couple days a week
because they used to break them up.

Yep. And, I was teaching in the hallway.

Yeah, yeah.

The hallway.

That's where the gym was down
by the kindergarten.

Right as a space, you know?

And, there's a giant cement pillar
in the middle of the room, and,

but we knew we had to do that.

Was it your first year, though, right?

I think I think you were already there
maybe a few years before I.

That makes sense.

But what year?

So you're probably 2008 or probably

like, oh, six or 7 or 8 somewhere.

Not right. Yeah.

Teaching in the hallway.

Man, I remember that.

That's terrible.

Yeah.

I text, Emily Summa for some.

I'm like,
did she go to Crosby with you? You did.

We were really good friends.
Absolutely. On my.

Hey, give me some stories, some tidbits,
some anecdotes about my boy Rob.

She she goes to me nothing. Nothing.

And then I got another guy.

He sent me something.

You want to hear it?

You want to hear who it is, what it is.

So I'm like, give me something.

He goes, his birthday, July 15th.

He lived in the east end of Waterbury,
and one of his high school nicknames was.

Parallel.

Oh, that's my last name.
Parallel Perriello.

I don't know who's that.

That's not right. I was like,
that's the worst.

That's top secret.

This is the worst. Mario. You know Mario.

Yeah, yeah, he's a good dude.

Yeah, that's my guy.

Yeah.
We were in the National Guard together.

I know he went to Crosby.

He recently DJ at our toy
drive at Luna Pizza.

Great guy.

He went to canton.

His daughters go to Cannes.

He was the veteran speaker.

He ended up talking about
friends of Feeney during it.

And the principal to pit Bo knows me.

So they started
talking and just, you know,

networking in the spiderweb.

Yeah. How all these dots connect the older
dude the older you get.

You know, I remember when you I didn't,

you know, I moved to West Hartford
maybe 9 or 10 years ago.

And I had
of course, known you from Kingsbury.

I think it was only a couple of years
there.

Yep. I'm driving around town
when we first moved here,

and I see all these stickers.

On people's cars, you know,

like.

And then sure enough, I see you at one of
the parades or something at Eric Beatty.

I'm like, oh my God, it's
just a dude from Waterbury that I.

Yeah, my first year teach it like such
a small world, you know what I mean? Yep.

I hear that a lot. The stickers,
the magnets.

You have one on your car,
I think you. Yes we have.

We got on. My kids have them on
their whiteboards in their room.

Okay. It's good, good, good.

Be a good friend.

Get them out there.
But they're everywhere.

Be a good friend. That's.

Hold the door.

Pick up trash,
give compliments and be charitable.

You know, donate to friends of Feeney
or a nonprofit close to your heart.

So that's our motto.

It's it's a very general and broad model,
and it's easy to get behind.

It's not

you can't say it swings one way
or the other.

Be a good friend. Drive like a friend,

say hi, pick up trash, you know, and,

people have seen them in Hollywood,
California.

It's crazy.

What's that?

Outer Banks, I get people like.

Oh, I pulled up to a spot in Florida.

So you got some.

You're right.

Like, it's so simple. Like,
it's like a simple great.

Cause it's like, no matter who you are,

you almost can't help
but get behind it, right? Yeah.

It's so, so cool.

So. Yeah, it's our.

Well, Friends of Feeney is a nonprofit.

Our mission is to help

children and families that need assistance
after heartbreak or tragedy.

So that's where we raise money
and give back to those that have,

displacement because of a house fire
or loss of a loved one

or some chronic illness or, you know,
some sort of surgery or something.

So, yeah, we, we hope those three things
and we just helped our 140th family,

provided over $275,000.

Now all volunteer.

That's amazing
because I started officially 2019.

So we're on seven years. That's amazing.

Yeah, it's not too long.

Yeah.

My first year teaching in West Hartford
at Wolcott School,

one of my students lost her dad.

So we helped the family.

Yeah, but we use GoFundMe.

But go fund me taxes the recipient
and takes a portion of every donation.

So I was like,
oh, if we start a nonprofit, families

could just go in no way.

Yeah, yeah. They take like,

if you give 6% or something,
so you give a family a hundred bucks.

GoFundMe has taken six bucks,

so I don't know, Go Fund Me really
wins in a lot of these cases.

Like if they're

not to bash GoFundMe but but that's
what kind of spurred.

Yeah.

So then yeah the next year
one of my students lost

his dad got shot,
killed in Hartford at a boxing event.

So I was like, that's it.

We're definitely doing something.

That's what really that first family. And.

And then we've been helping
families ever since. Good,

good old Kingsbury School, Waterbury.

We try to mention Waterbury
every podcast too.

So this is

you grew up there as well, right?

Yeah, yeah.

So I went to Kingsbury
North in and will be okay.

We are not the.

Besides I was Rotella okay

little trailer truck

and I Wallace middle school.

Yeah okay.

Yeah.

Rotella is up by East Mountain now.

It's a magnet school.

So Rotella is like
by the time in mountain.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Now it's in like a magnet school.

They redid it,

but at the time it was like these, like,
it was literally like like a shed.

Yeah. Yeah.

When I went there,
what's the bar over there?

I, I just went for,

no, that scoreboard was like, on town
on, main road.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Shoot. Good wings.

Yeah.

But, Crosby, what year were you at
Crosby? 99.

Okay, I was 96.

That will be close. Yeah, yeah.

No, it was great.

And how long were you at Kingsbury?

I think it was 2 or 3 years.

I was 2 or 3 years.

I taught that for 11 years total.

Kingsbury was 2 or 3 years.

And then eventually I got to Bunker Hill
and I was there full time teachers.

I want to do a lot of these inner cities.

You know, the teachers are going
from one school to the next.

I remember I used to have like hula hoops

and balls in the back of my trunk,
you know what I mean? Yep.

And then when it was like, it was like
you made it once you had your own school.

Yeah, yeah, yeah,
you can put your stuff in the closet.

That's how they do it.

It was hard for to kind of like,
pay your dues and work.

You got to bounce around a little bit,
and then, like you

said,
you made it when you got your own school.

Is that how you. They have their own
gym teacher.

Those are like the private schools
or like the veterans.

The good, you know. Yeah. Right. So

but yeah.

How does that compare.

Let's talk about the transition
I don't know.

That's obviously
we're going to flip that card next.

So let's get right into it.
The real estate.

Oh funny.

So what's the difference week is
are you a PE teacher?

Are you a gym teacher?
Are you a real estate agent?

Are you a realtor?

That's good. Let's let's talk about that.

So I mean, that's the politically correct
stuff, right?

I mean, technically
you're a physical education teacher,

but I'm always one like, all right,
look, let's focus on what matters.

Like the name.

The title is not really as important
of like, what you do each day.

Right.
So I don't get caught up in the titles.

Technically,
it's supposed to be for that teacher.

Yeah.

Real tour real estate agent.

That one's kind of similar.

Real tour is you're a member of a board,
an organization that you pay dues to.

It's like an extra

layer of,

training or what have you.

Yeah.

Again, at the end of the day, it's
what are you

what are you able to do for your client
in that moment?

Your title is not going to make or break
your skill set in negotiation

to get your client.

Cool, cool. Are you a realtor?

I am a realtor.
Are you a real estate agent?

But if you ask me, hey,
what do you do for a living?

I would say I sell real estate.

I'm a real estate agent.

I wouldn't say I'm a I'm a realtor.

Okay. Okay, okay.

Very cool. All right. Good to know.

And then I teach third grade,
so please explain.

If I was a third grader, explain to it.

What does a real estate agent do?

It's simplest terms.

We help
someone move from one home to another.

You know, it's

a lot of people don't realize it's
legal to do it, but it is one of

the most stressful thing you can do.

You know, starting a new job.

You know, having a child,

move in is each one of them, you know,
and, people do it maybe 2 or 3 times

in their lifetime, and you don't think
too much of it until you're,

you know, you're you're in the process,
you know? So,

you know, something that I think
any good real estate agent tries to do

is to really be the calming force
for that client.

You know, we do it every day, so
sometimes it becomes second nature to us.

But remembering that person
were taken through the process,

it doesn't do it every day.

And some of the steps
can feel very stressful.

And helping people bring

it down and put it into perspective
and explain,

you know, options next process
from there to really help them.

Okay.

So you're like a guide. Yeah.

What inspired you to do that?

Because you made a switch.

Big switch.

So let's talk about the switch
and why and how.

Yeah. Yeah.

So I was teaching for 11 years.

I had a two year old at the time,
and my wife was pregnant

with our second daughter.

So I had my license, for a few years
prior.

Real estate license, just to get into
investing in reading some books.

That's what initially caught my interest.

So through that process
kind of got more and more into it.

And I got to the point
where we were having

our second child that I
it wasn't enough time to do it.

All right. I'm talking,
you know, I have two kids.

How how great that is and how much energy
and effort goes into it,

you know, having two careers
on top of that.

It's like not, you know, feasible,
especially with young kids.

So, I had to make a choice and,

you know,
it it just kind of took off for me.

It really,

I guess, caught my interest in a way

where you could take real estate
in so many different ways.

Where me being a teacher is hard
because it's it's a lot of the same thing

every day. Yeah.
The kids are are different.

And it's great. It's rewarding.

But as a teacher, I was I was literally
teaching the same subject every day.

So I got to the point where I didn't think
I was given the same value as a teacher,

that I was like early
in my teaching career.

As it got,
I got a little bit more monotonous for me.

Okay.

Where the real estate was,

it was just captivating me,

and it was something that I felt like
I can keep working on and grow.

And, and I finally said,
I have to make a choice.

I went that direction.

Cool.

What year was that move?

It was about 12 years ago.

So like 13,013 ish.

Yeah. Very cool.

And now we're with the number one century
21 agent in Connecticut.

Yes. From 2018 to 2022, four years
running.

Number one.

Yes. Now,
is there only one real estate agent that,

So no, it's been good, man.

Century 21 is a great organization.

And honestly, they're one of the biggest
reasons I was able to make the switch.

I had mentors and coaches that I remember.

I walked into my broker's office and
I was like, so I want to quit teaching.

I'm going to I'm going to do it.

And they're like, you know, you can't
just quit because you need a plan.

Like you
can't just jump off the cliff, right?

So they really helped me, set me down,
make a plan, help guide me through that

plan, early in the process so that I had
the confidence to, to make that switch.

Yeah. Gee. That's good.

So, yeah, just some contact information.

You could be reached at CT Homes
by Robert at gmail.com.

Yeah.

You want to share your phone number?

Yeah.

[phone].

That's the best line. To reach,
reach me at.

And you have offices in West Hartford
and Stamford.

Yeah. West Hartford. Stamford.

We also have Southington. Avon.

But primarily, you know, those are the two
that I would talk about it.

And then you have, Perriello.

Realtor.com. Realtor.com. Yep.

Realty. Excuse me.

And then you show your license number.

So as a nonprofit, they say it's good
to share our n number or,

identification number.

And you share your license number
on the website, too. Just. Yeah.

To show, like you're legit.

You know, what's interesting
is, like, this day and age, there's

so many scams out there. Right?

And, I think whenever you're working
with someone in the business world,

having some type of,

you know, authenticity to what they do,
which is really important,

especially in a big transaction,
like when real estate

and then how many, how many houses
do you think you sell like a month a year.

Yeah.

So my my best year was 108, 108 houses
in one year.

In a single year.

Oh on average 60, 70.

Geez, 100 houses.

Now lawyers get like 33% of the case.

Is there a number for realty
or is that agreed upon prior,

or is it, is it one realty?

Is it or do you make that percentage
yourself or everyone get the same?

Good question, good question.

So you know lawyers are negotiable to

any real estate
agent is negotiable at some level.

Right.

They have their fee based on the value
they provide.

You know, the marketplace,

there is no standard.

And that was what a lot of this
big lawsuit was about a couple years back

or a year and a half ago or so back is,

lawyers, authorities.

The government wanted people to know
that, you know, real estate agents

don't have a set fee, right?

Anyone you go to provide your own service,
their own value,

and you as the consumer,
you know, get to make that choice.

So any realtor that telling you,
oh, this is the standard fee.

Everyone charges the same. That's
that's not accurate.

You want to sit down with the agent,

look at what they provide
compared to some others.

Compare the results. Right.

That's just like anything else.

You know

someone that has great results
might charge different than someone that's

that's the first time right.

And and you want to factor all that
in as a consumer and make a decision.

Okay. Great.

Oh so
we do something on Friends of Feeney.

And Feeney talks with friends. Excuse me.

What are three keys
that make you a great real estate agent?

053 key.

So one, I think being a teacher
really, really helped me.

It's for a couple of reasons.

So one, one key would be that educating,

a student in a child, the same principles
apply to an adult, right?

No one wants to be told to do anything.

I think you, as a teacher,
when you tell your third graders,

if you say,
if I don't get very far, right,

you got to ask them questions,
you got to educate them,

and that gets them to buy in
and do the right thing.

Right.

So having that understanding as a teacher
and bring it into

the world has really helped me.

To, I would say patience as a teacher,
you you've got to be patient.

Right. And, easier said than done.

But yeah, I

parent right.

That's the thing.

Especially like early years, I would joke

like my first couple of years, I don't,
you know, I wasn't a very good relatable

one thing that I would
I was good at is I was patient.

I would listen right when you're talking,
instead of me telling you,

I would sit there and listen and really
hear what the client wanted to accomplish.

And then I would backpedal
and try to make that happen. Right.

So I think patience is really important.

And the third one, again

related to teaching
is everybody learns different, right?

Same thing with adults. It's
not just a kid thing. Yeah.

So I can't approach each client
with the same

rigid way or each home sales situation.

Right?

I have to be versatile in the way
that I do not only deal with people

like the way I market properties,
every property's not going to have

the exact same approach.

So I think that versatility,
understanding, we all learn differently,

all that came from teaching.

And I think that those are things
that have helped me. Great.

All right.

Good listener.
Patience and being versatile.

Yeah. Cool. Yeah.

Teaching teaching listening comes up
it almost

when I ask three kids any profession
career being a good listener

always comes up so keeps that good.

Oh another game.

Let's do your house sales.

Do you remember your first, last,
best or worst?

Your first one?

Your last one?

Most recent, your best one
and maybe your worst one.

Something going wrong or missing? Okay.

And your situation of selling, selling
or buying a home okay.

So let's start with first. Sure.

Because that's
the one that popped in my head

when you were
when you're going through that.

So the first I remember,

so being at being a good real estate
agent, you have to

you have to get out there
and talk to people.

And that that was uncomfortable for me.
I'm more introverted. Right.

So like this whole idea of, like,
put yourself out

there was something that was
is still uncomfortable.

But, in the early years especially, so,

you know, door knocking is I think you go
knock on people's doors

certain neighborhoods,
you give them some value,

you tell them about

what's going on in the market,
you know, you see if they need any help.

Right.

So I remember early on in history,
first couple of months, knocking on doors

and I knock on this older gentleman
door and, you know, he's really gruff.

What do you want?

And I shared a little insight
about the market.

Ask him if he

if he's thinking about selling his home
and what a lot of people do is, you know,

they'll they'll politely decline
or shut the door or whatever you guys do

next time.

And this guy was like, yeah, come on.

Is this like it caught me off
guard. I was like, whoa, okay.

So he comes, he invites me in.

I'm there's like an hour we're talking.

And it was I didn't really know
what to say at that point.

But, long story short,
you know, I, I met the guy,

signed him up to sell his home, marketed
the home, sold it.

It was a home that at the time,
a few other agents had it.

You know, sometimes

if you if you don't have, like, this
cookie cutter, all updated home, sometimes

agents write it off.
They don't want to deal with it.

This guy was a smoker.

The whole house smelled like
I didn't care.

I was like,
I was so excited to invite him in.

Right. But,

so, you know.

But I got after him,
we sold it, and, it was just

it gave me the confidence to keep going.

Great experience, great guy. And,
where was it?

Southington. Oh, nice.

Wow. So you just go in and you say, hey,
you want to sell your home,

and you just continue the conversation,
you end up selling that house.

And that was.

I would tell him something, you know,
that was happening in the market, like,

you know, a couple homes that sold
in the neighborhood, what they sold for.

See if he had any questions.

You know,
if you plan on moving in the future

and he's here, he's moved to Las Vegas
in his situation way back when.

But, Yeah. Cool.

Worked out.

That's all
you need to get the ball rolling.

You need that
first ball to go in the hoop.

I talk to my daughters
all the time. Just get miss a couple.

That keeps you once one goes in.

Yes, I agree, I, I do like a couple public
speaking and talk.

And sometimes I'm like, I just need that
first laugh or that first.

And I'm like,

yeah, yeah.

Because after a while you get up there
and you're like, yeah, okay, keep going.

Never just be persistent. Right.

Numbers play the numbers.

Like, listen, some are not,
you know. Well, that's okay.

The ones that are supposed to work, work

first, last, best, worst.

Oh, we're doing them all.

Okay. Oh, okay. Okay.

So first I was my first.

You can go out of order.

Whatever comes to you.

Worst.

Okay.

Best.

Let's go. Best.
So this was. Let's go best.

It was one of my,

It was one of my first higher end sales.

And it was actually in West Hartford.

So this was
when I was living in South East.

I wasn't even living
in West Hartford yet. So,

for a
brokerage had sold a home in the area.

So same thing
I was calling call the Neighborhood

and just letting you know about a home
we sold.

And this woman, really nice,

really nice woman. And,

because, again, something
when you're calling people like this,

you know, a lot of people who, you know,
and which is fine, I get it.

We're strangers reaching out,
but this woman was just super nice.

We had a great conversation.
She was planning on moving.

Invited, invited me over, and,

I needed to sell the house, move
to Pennsylvania.

And, you know, it was so nervous.

I was so nervous because it was my first
major sale, you know, and a lot of agents,

you know, kind of get in their own head
with that.

You know, our home is a home.

The process is often very similar,
no matter what, what price range.

And, but you get a bigger cut,

you do get a bigger cut,
which is because that's your percentage.

That's where the nerves kick in. Exactly.

And it's and again,
it's unchartered territory.

Right. It's
something you're on your comfort zone.

It's something you haven't done before.

So you know just long story short.

Sold the home.
Everything went really well.

Communication was well, she was happy.

And, Yeah, man, it just felt good to,
you know, do something that you see some

other veteran agents doing at the time,
I was younger, earlier in my career.

And it was another stepping stone for me
that I would say is, is one of the best

because, it was it was like another notch

that, another area of growth,
like within the career.

Even though I have established myself
a little bit,

it was another area of growth
that kind of helped build confidence.

Now comparison where I was comparing who.

But like,

are you like,

tiers of realtors, like JV tiers,
you sell this kind of level house,

then you go to varsity,

then you then you hit the NBA
and you're selling big time homes.

It does it work that way or you obviously
dabble up and down or are you in

how does that work?

So I think it's more of a mindset thing,
you know,

and I think this is probably the same
in almost any business profession.

Again, at the time
that that meant a big deal to me.

But now looking back,
that I sold homes like to this day, like

if your home's worth $100,000,
you even help help you, right?

And if your home's worth 2 million, great.
I'm gonna help you. Then.

It's the exact same process.

Like when I wake up, I'm
going to do my job, by the way.

Right? What?

Even if nobody comes to sell their home,
I'm still going to make my calls,

which I will do
my daily activities. Right.

So I think having that mindset,
is the difference between varsity JV.

I think having that mindset is your,
you know, professional year to year

MBA mindset. Right. Gotcha.

And, you know, the high school mindset
is probably you're you're still learning.

You're selling houses.

You're a little bit intimidated
by certain situations.

Right?

You know you could hit a three,
but you're playing the big game.

You nervous and you're
you're not shooting.

You're passing. Right.

Yeah. So
yeah I think it's more of a mindset thing.

And it comes with time like any anything.

Yeah. Interesting. Yeah.

Now do you have a worst in your last house

that you sold your most recent
I have worst, I have, I have.

Yeah.

I mean, listen, sometimes for the worst
was to say that sometimes it doesn't.

You don't click like, you sit down
and meet with someone you know,

you have a good interview,
you think you're on the same page.

You try to get everything out
you can to prep,

and then you get in the, in the weeds and,
and all of a sudden

expectations

or questions or the way someone thinks
the process should be done

isn't isn't aligned as it is
when you when you first meet

like you think you know someone.

And so you get in there sometimes and

and again this is a

you're usually with people two, 3
or 4 months, right.

When you list the house,

you know,
even if you sell it, they want it.

There's a pending process. Right?

Okay.

You're you're talking
to these people often. Right.

So if you're not clicking in here,
you're butting heads.

It can be, it can be tough.

So, I've had a few of those and,

you know, I would say each
one's made me better because what I what

I really try to do over the years, now,
when we work together, I

always say, listen,

you know,

one of three things are going to happen
right when we meet today.

One, you're going to list your home
with me, right?

It's going to you may decide
not to list your home with me.

That's okay. Two, three.

I may decide not to take the listing
because we absolutely

want to be on the same page together here.

If not,
there's a lot of great realtors out there.

If we're not perfectly aligned, it's not.

Let's not get into this.

Let's make sure you're in here
with someone that's aligned.

Because, yeah,
you can be with each other a while

and you want to make sure
what I do is what you expect, right?

So I try to do a really good job
of sharing what I do

now to make sure that the other side
knows what to expect.

Is that all right? All right. Okay.

And in your most recent home.

Most recent home,
I just put one under deposit on 169

Arnold out here in town to family.

Oh. Did you post that on Instagram?

It was on Instagram.

Yeah. Six days ago.

Yes it is to 549.

Look at you man.

Did my research into Arundell.

But that's my next question.

Teaching and real estate.

A lot of people do that with the summers
off, weekends, afternoons.

What do I got to do to be a real realtor?

Do you vouch for me?
Can you just open up the books?

It's not that simple.

So, you know,
you have to take your coursework.

There's a couple different ways to do it.

There's some online options.

There's some in-person options.

You can, you know, pick
the one that best suits your needs.

Once you take the coursework,
you have to take a test.

Test and state test.

And then once you pass the test, then

you have to align yourself
with with a brokerage or a team.

So yes, at this point, I am

at the point in my career where, you know,
there's been people that have helped me.

So I, I've been growing my team
over the years

trying to share a lot of the things
that helped me get started early on

with realtors
who coming into the business,

or even realtors
who are feeling a little stuck

because, you know, with the inventory low,

it's it's
challenging out there for a lot of agents.

So, really coaching them up
and mentoring them with the systems

that I've used over the years
to do you have how big is your team?

We have eight agents, right.

So do they kind of work under you?

They do those eight work under them.

Do you
get like a percentage of their sales?

Yeah, absolutely.

Because they're your team. Yeah.

So my goal with them is to teach them
we have weekly coaching calls.

We do business planning.
We do quarterly check ins.

We do call days together.

Well, we're in there helping each other.

So agents
you know, environment matters, right.

Like I bring it back to basketball.

You know, there are great players on bad
teams and their skill sets going down.

Then there's average
players on great teams.

Those great players bring them up. Right.

Same thing in real estate.

Like I'm putting together

a group of agents
that can bring each other

up, want to grow together
and create a good environment.

They can all help each other
and grow their career.

That's good teaching.

Also professional development,
I hear, I hear

100% like the best is when you ask
a teammate, a colleague, a teacher,

a friend is like,
hey, what's working for you in your class?

Something I haven't thought about.

She suggests something and I'm like, oh,
let me try it.

It works. I'm like, thank you for that.

Because sometimes
you just stay in your lane.

You're just like teaching.
And, you know, it's good to

have that open discussion.

Nothing stays the same, right? Yeah.

Whether you're teaching.

So in real estate
the world is changing, right.

You learn how real estate sounds like.

So to just kind of,

you know, be a lone wolf in anything.

Yeah.

How long have you been doing it now?

Since 2011.

13. So 12 years on my own.

On my own.

Nice. Nice.

Where do you see yourself in five years?

Oh, I'm going to be doing this
for a while, and,

it's something different every day.

I there's not really a ceiling
on what you can do.

Yeah.

You make your own hours, right?

I can I can coach my kids.

I can, you know, grow my team.

I can help my clients.

I'm really
enjoying because I was a teacher.

I'm really enjoying this teaching
and leading other agents piece.

And I also like that
because I still sell real estate.

It's not just, some talking head
that's telling you what to do.

I'm actually doing what I teach
so they can see that at work.

So I think there's a lot of synergies
right now.

And I'm just enjoying them.

Know, I think, you know, probably be
in the same situation just hopefully

with a few more agents
to help by that point.

How big do you want your team
optimal number?

I'm not I'm not focused on a number.

I'm focused on

the agents themselves.

So if an agent is motivated
to grow and coachable,

I feel motivated, not coachable.

Doesn't matter what I tell you, right?
So that's probably not the right fit.

But if you're motivated
and you're coachable,

that's that's the type of agent
I want to be around

and that I think, can benefit
from being around others that are similar.

Very cool.

Not having a good team means a lot.

And then why West Hartford

and what what's the
what's the market in West Hartford?

What's going on?

What brought you here and how's it going?

So teach and man my wife.

So my wife was a
teacher is a teacher in West Hartford.

For a long time at the time,
our kids were young,

and they were going to daycare up here
because it was closer to her work.

Right. You could try to bring them up.
That was a lot.

We live in Southington at the time,
so it was funny because I didn't want

there.

This is fine.

You know, she really wanted. So I said,
all right, let's let's try it.

I was open minded
now that we're here, man.

So I wouldn't go back, right? Me too.

I was so hesitant. Yeah.

And now I'm like, best move
I've ever made.

Met my friends at the J.

Very close to my school.

Get to run back into you.

You know, it reminds me a lot of Waterbury
because, like, everything's close,

and there's no matter what you're into
hobbies, there's.

There's something for everybody.

So. Yeah. Culture.
So many different. Like.

And it's all close.

Like, you don't have to drive 20 minutes
to have to get somewhere.

Yeah, yeah.

And your community agreed.

It's. Yeah. Very diverse. I love that.

What makes

houses in West Hartford
stand out above surrounding towns?

Yeah.

So there's a lot of good
surrounding towns.

You know, the valley in general
is always pretty popular,

I think, from what I hear,
just people say,

you know, it's the things to do that we,
we just talked about.

It gives people like that Boston,
New York vibe with the center of town,

you know, all the places to go out to eat.

Yeah.

Everything is,

school systems are always ranked
pretty high, which is important to people.

And I sure there's, there's a lot of, it's
not even just public schools.

There's a lot of private schools
like, all in this.

There's a lot.

Yeah. Colleges. Right. Yep.
So much business around us that,

you know, the location I

think plays just a big factor
in some of the other stuff we mentioned.

It's right in the middle of New York
and Boston, right?

Yeah.

You know, so it's it's
kind of got a little bit of everything.

And I see Hartford's growing.

I just saw something in the news or

it's like the prime spot to,
to move to now Harford, Harford County.

And again this is depending
on where you read online.

But, you know, the county in general
is the number one county

according to a lot of these follow
Realtor.com polls in the United States.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Went up. Cut. Sorry. Yeah.

Our price point.

You know, anybody
that's lived in Connecticut,

you know,
we feel like the prices are expensive.

It's just human nature or taxes or,

you know, people
that to think those are expensive. Yeah.

But if you look at some of the surrounding
states, the new York's in Massachusetts,

they come here and our prices

and our taxes are oftentimes
depending on where they live, cheaper.

So these people see a lot of value here.

And they yeah,
they come for that reason too.

How many times have you had
someone come from New York

or Massachusetts buy a house sight unseen?

Waive the inspection.

Just throw the down payment and move.

I heard that was happening a lot
during Covid.

True or false I mean a lot is a
is is a great word you know.

Does it happen. Yes.

I would argue not a lot.

You know
most people still want to see them.

You know what I mean?
It absolutely happens.

And I would, you know, argue
a lot of the people,

I'm sure not everybody
that buy a home that way.

I feel like in hindsight when you talk,
because a lot of my clients,

you know, I don't just talk to them
when they sell their house.

I keep in touch, checking with them
throughout the years.

And, and a lot of the people that,

you know, have bought homes
that way, you know,

felt like maybe, maybe that wasn't
the best, you know, choice.

So I, I would caution people
to be careful that,

but yeah, I would say
that's not a lot here and there. Yes.

Definitely not a lot of

cool, cool website two
I put in, I put in, I signed in my,

my Eric Feeney 12 at gmail, got an email.

I got my house.

I know how much I could sell my house for.

I'm making money. There you go.

I'm making a lot of money.

But where am I moving?

Is the question
the that everybody I wish I

there's only 19 single family as of today
the podcast.

There's only 19 single family homes
for sale in West Hartford.

Geez, 64,000 people
that live there, right?

So that's why

if you're selling,
that's why that price is great, right?

Because it's supply demand

only 19 $0.19.

I mean, just condos,
people talking single family 19.

And I heard
we're like the 19th best place to live

in the United States or something
crazy or Connecticut.

They're, you know, again,

depending on what you're looking
usually there in West Hartford

is number one in Connecticut behind
some of these websites that rank those.

And I typed in the website in century 21,
All Points Realty.

Lucie, the support agent goes, hi there.

Did you find what you're looking for?

And I was like,
oh, that's really nice, Lucy.

I didn't follow up with Lucy,
but good job Lucy.

No. Great website.

You know what's,

what's all Points Realty like?

What's the name? All Points Realty.

Is there a reason for that? Yeah.

So that's the, great broker.

I work for our family.

And brokerage.
Ryan and Kelly, their brother and sister.

Their mom started the brokerage
first for years.

So that's their brokerage.

They created it.

I don't know exactly why
they took that name. Gotcha.

But they have 11 offices.

They have two down in Florida,
11 in Connecticut, two in Florida.

So they're they've really built
a great, brokerage.

They like, make it.

Cool, cool.

All right.

So on your Instagrams,
we talked about Aaron Dale.

It's been on
that post happened six days ago.

Is that how sold under deposit.

Under deposit for 549 or more.

So we can't say That's right.

But it did go under deposit,
you know, within the first couple of days.

So yeah.

And then you can't tell.

Why is that. Oh, let's talk about that.
That's a great one.

When two people are bidding on a house.

Yeah.

People go 20,000. Over 10,000 over.

Why can't you say,
hey, this guy has it at the house for 550?

If you want it, go more. Yeah.

Why does it blind bidding. So recovery.

Yeah.

So you're going into some fair
housing stuff like that, right.

Gotcha.

Why is he favoring that person versus
someone else?

Is there a particular reason?

Because you're giving inside source
that information to the marketplace.

Right. Okay.

So that's why a lot of agents do hire.

It pays the best.

And now you also want to you know
it's the seller's ultimate decision right.

Like we're we're advising the seller.
We're pretty we're presenting everything.

But then the seller is going to go ahead
and make the decision to.

So, you know, there is no
and this is what's frustrating

to a lot of people out there.

There's
no set rules to how a seller has to go

about doing a multi offer situation,
or even do one.

You know, we've had situations where,
you know, the homes on the market today.

A great offer comes in right away

and we have you know 79 Jones coming up.

And we tell the seller like it's
probably best to let the marketplace

come in and do a highest and best.

And they just say no. You know what?
I don't want to play with this.

I want that first offer. Right. Whoa.

And then okay. You can't.

That's their decision. Right. And then
but they're losing money.

Possibly. Yeah.

And then there's other situations where,
you know, most situations where a seller,

if you got a lot of showings
coming up on interest,

you're going to do a highest and best

and try to try to give everybody
a chance to build up.

Right.

So now the buyers,

some buyers

like to wait to the last minute
to be the last one,

because they don't want to feel like
they're being shopped around and,

and others want to be first
to see if the seller will just take it.

Right. So
there's all this, behind the scenes stuff.

And because every seller is different,
the most important thing

that an agent can do
is ask questions to the other side

to learn what that seller,
yeah, is going to do.

Don't just assume everything
is going to be the same because it's not.

And that's what creates

a lot of frustration
against a lot of consumers really angry

because they feel like they're treated
unfairly just because there isn't a set.

What about writing?

I always want to live in West
Hartford is my I have a family.

Yeah. You butter up with a letter?

You guys, do you suggest that?

Have you fair housing stuff, too?

I don't let you get yourself
in a lot of trouble, or you can't do that.

You're not supposed to.

Do not really do it. Yes.

Oh, because it happens.
People do it all the time. And sellers,

some sellers will take with their heart.

Oh, they have a family.

I want a family to move into my house.

Well,
but again, that's a fair housing thing

where they can actually get themselves
into trouble.

The seller will get in trouble for that.

You could if you're discriminating

when you're selling,
you know, religion etc..

Right?

So when someone's coming
in, you got to clean offer

on one side that's significantly better
price terms, everything.

Then you have an offer that's
a little less with this fancy letter.

Technically, you know, I'm not a lawyer.

This gets into lawyer stuff,
but as an agent, I advise against that

because, you know,
technically that, the person

maybe you have
a, you know, if they didn't,

I thought that was like the the move.

Yeah. No, that's the move.

I said, do people do it?

Absolutely. People do it.

And, you know, it's just because
they put it right in with the offer.

So know, I mean, you have to legally show
the seller what you have, so it's

you can share, but people are going to do
what they're going to do.

Yeah.

But I always advise we,

we play straight up and cover our basis
because you don't want a nice thing.

You want to do it.

Be in your home for a couple of years
and have something come up like that.

You know what I mean?
Let's, let's, let's do it right.

Wow. Yeah, that'd be a terrible story.

That'd be a worst.

If. Yes.

Can they be like,
all right. Sorry. You wrote a letter.

You got to go. Wow.

What about now?

I still remember
my girls are just turned 17,

so I've been in the house
17 years, and we, like,

signed the paper around the phone
speakerphone with the lady

and my mother in law's crying,
and it was like a huge day.

This was like, I'm moving.

We moved because of close to walk in park.

There was a school.

We had a beautiful
backyard is our first home.

You know, we had so much work to do, but,
you know, and then the lady was like,

I don't know if we talked to the woman

or I don't know what happened,
but it was a while ago.

But it was a special day.

So you get to be a part of everyone's
special day.

Like it's like someone's wedding.

That's their special day.

A birth of a child
buying a home. It's a big deal.

And it's for all people.

It's one of their biggest
financial investments.

So there's a lot
there's a lot riding on it, right.

That you want to make sure we're

protecting.

You know.

Now was that
did you go straight from Waterbury today.

So. Nope.

I went to southern Connecticut state,
met my wife okay.

We we rented an apartment in New Haven.

Okay. So she was teaching in Milford.

I was driving to Kingsbury from New Haven,
found out where having pregnant with.

She was having twins.

We're like,
all right, we're going to move.

We looked at Cheshire, West Hartford,
and the wife was like, number one rule.

We're not moving to Waterbury.

I said, honey, okay, I respect that.

And I was like,
I don't want to move to West Hartford.

Those guys that places
that you had messed up and you lost.

Yeah. And here I am.

But now we're both exactly very happy.

Very happy.

You weren't teaching in West Hartford
and you lived here.

So then I moved across the street
from my house.

Is doctor
K, the principal of Orchid School.

He's been there for 25 years.

It's like people at the.

My neighbor Kathy was like,
that's the principal.

You might want to talk to him,
maybe get a job.

I'm like, hey, doctor
K, I paint your house, I mow your lawn.

Joking, because I already got someone
for that, because people

leave me notes on cars, my car for a job.

Well, former teacher, former students
come back, I want to teach there.

And then one day, finally, he's like,
I got good news.

Bad news, good news.

I could get you an interview.

Bad news. I'm retiring.

So I was like, all right, I'll take it.

And I interviewed, got the job,
he retired.

I never really worked for him,
but he's an amazing human being.

Amazing principal.

He had twins.

I had twins, so we kind of connected.

Got me the job.

Him in my 13th year again.

My commute is one minute.

Best school in town I love it.

I'm not biased.

So yeah.

Real estate.

All right.

So do you have a podcast?

So, yes,
I have a podcast called Mindset Talks.

It's okay.

YouTube life, not an official podcast
where I do interviews.

And, as I mentioned earlier with you,
I believe

mindset is we'll talk about key sports.

People talk about me

and you played in the JK,
but we're talking about business.

Like what's going on up there
I think I think really matters.

You know.

Yeah I think a lot of people struggle.

We all struggle with that. Right.

And so like
open it up and find out what works people

and how we, we keep those thoughts
positive mindset talks. Yes.

And is that the one you have clips of
on Instagram with the mic in front of you.

Yeah. Hoodie tie I don't think I tie.

Yeah I got

no I was one on Pinterest with the with
the black hoodie, black hoodie, declutter.

You had a

suit and tie
on but you're talking about the interest.

Good news talking to agents.

Lighting is important. Yeah.

27 Amber place in Waterbury.

That was on the East End on December 19th.

Did that sell? That's still on the market.

That's a good buy for 24,
if anyone's interested.

Amber place, East End.

Your kids will go to Crosby and Wallace,
where I grew up.

Housing park? Yeah.

The rich was hustlin beat on one of them.

That was pretty cool.

This one was really cool,
and I thought I was like, oh,

A woman sold her house in December
but left the Christmas tree

lights up, and, you suggested
take them down or suggested put them up.

I said leave them. So, yeah, leave them.

And I'm mental ownership.

That person had this.

What I mean with people in December,
January every year, you know,

like if someone has to move their

they say people think, well, you know,
let's just wait for the snow to melt.

I got all these Christmas decorations up.

Nobody wants to see my home that way.

But what I learned is it actually makes it
a little more warmer.

Right?

Yeah, it makes it a little more enjoyable
to walk through.

So she she this lady, this is one of
the most decorated house I've ever seen.

It was in Essex.

You know, the village
there. Really nice area.

Has all remodeled the house.

And she has beautiful
Christmas decorations.

Like,
let's just wait till after Christmas.

I I'll take them all down.

I said, trust me.

Let's just leave them up.

Let's get the market in there.

If I'm wrong, we can take it off later.
But sold in a week, people.

The woman that bought it said, you know,
the deciding factor was that

I saw how it could be decorated
in the holidays.

And I pictured myself doing that
every year. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

You know, people are just more.

Your boy Mario largely used to sell cars.

Okay.

And the trick is,
when you're driving the guy in the car,

he's selling, he's selling you the car.

He's like, oh,
what radio stations do you like?

He starts presenting the radio
while you're driving.

So the guy's like, oh,
my radio stations are already set.

I feel myself comfortable in the car.

They saw the Christmas trees.

They felt comfortable.

Yeah. Very cool.

Did they did three Pilgrim
Road, West Hartford.

So 535.

We just closed Cottonwood Road, Newington.

That one is still under deposit
pending sale.

Man, you're killing it. Killing it.

Anything about you think we missed
about the real real estate?

Because we got to talk JC real quick.
We haven't flipped over that last one.

I think the only other thing
you know, for West Hartford,

if we're talking West Hartford specific
real estate,

I have my YouTube
channel is living in West Hartford, okay.

Where I

because we
get people from all over the country here.

I take them through,

you know, homes
that are on the market here.

I take them through market
update every month

to try to keep people up to date.

So even if you're not,

necessarily in the market, you just kind
of want to keep up to date from afar.

It's a great place
to go for for information.

All right.

What was that again?

Living in West Hartford,
living in West Hartford.

So after you subscribe to Feeney Talks

with friends, subscribe
to Living in West Hartford.

Let me get you one of those two.

Now, this is great.

So quickly do this squad
look, we're going to put a boom up.

We got a boom. You're ready for the boom.

Ready for the boom.

We got here.

Boom squad.

You know that squad? Yes.

It's a great group of guys.

You want to go left to right,
tell the squad or what do you got?

I say

okay, okay, so we got Hines Aaron.

Good.

Rich three point shooter as Aaron

Jeff Brand Simpson.

Oh, man. Good.

He does it all. Three bodies down low.

Rob and Horner.

Oh my God. Right. You ever play.

So you had Horner Rob he and Jeff.

That's like they call this
the Ty stop and team right here.

Yeah we we
we we try to give them trouble.

You can only tie.

Woke up with a stiff neck
that day, though.

That's what I did.
You hear? I didn't hear it.

I found that out today.

Oh, okay. Told him I was coming on.

He said. Fun fact,
they beat us in the championship.

I woke up with a stiff neck.

Couldn't look up until game time.

No one knew that.

Listen, you can only hope.

You can only hope to slow down, right?

He's going to get 20 regardless.
You just hope he doesn't.

Yeah, but Jeff Brand's a great supporter.

Great friend.

Yeah.

He put together a squad together
and he's a good coach man.

Kept everybody.

He kept us all together and positive.

And that was a good group of guys
and really did the best.

Yeah, Simpson's a great guy.

Horner doesn't stop that. Guys.

Great defender, great athlete.

You know he can.

He hit a free throw though.

That was a
yeah they should have done the hacker.

Yeah I don't know.

Your entire team is free throws.

You know
we're not the best free throw throw.

Maybe error free throw shooter.

Yeah. We're not the best Jeff Brandes.

All right. Yeah. He's good.

Oh, I got some.

Thank you. I have a
thank you card for you.

So this is for Rob.

Rob, check it out.

Good.

Oh thank you, Curtis from Cricket press.

Why don't you read it to everybody I know.
All right.

Let's take a look here.

I got another one of these.

Oh. Okay

Laughs being a good friend in a podcast

get thanks for being a good friend
and a podcast guest.

Your donation was very generous
and thoughtful with gratitude.

There you go. There you go.

That's from Cricket press and I got some
thank you cards.

Thank you.

Writing a handwritten note.
I suggest every podcast.

Write someone a letter. Write some of the
thank you card.

Tell someone you're thinking of them,
not in email or text.

Handwritten is the way to go.
So we've help a lot of families.

And this is some,
thank you's that we have received.

Christ was born our our family is
sincerely grateful for your donation.

There are four people in our family
I husband, two children.

Thank you again.

That was one.

This was a great one. Just for my aunt.

Thanks for inviting us over
for Thanksgiving.

It was so nice to see everyone.
It was a wonderful array of food.

Sorry I couldn't stay for the cake.

Nicole did an amazing job
cooking and organizing everything

and that was for my Aunt
Jill and Uncle Louis, I love them.

This is the

Sons the Sunflower Kids program at Cmbc.

Thank you for the ongoing support
and generous donations.

We appreciate it.

The team doctor, Carrie Moss,
and a lot of other people signed it.

All the nursing staff
we helped with socks, shoes and like,

gift cards and stuff for the kids
and the nurses there.

Thank you, friends of Feeney,
for the thoughtful gift to blank.

We are so appreciate it.

Unexpected. Mom was so overjoyed.

Thank you again
and thank you for helping this family.

This was a Hartford teacher. Heard of us.

One of her students lost their dad's,
reached out, met the woman, the moms.

She was so thankful crying.

But thank you notes go a long way.

So there's my thank you for you
write someone to thank you card.

Be a good friend.

Thank you for being a guest.

This is Sally and Bob's.
You ever been? Yes.

It's a gift card for you.

Great. Bob.

Thank you.

Oh, kind of a couple events here.

Oh, bring the kids.

February 21st.

It's a Saturday, 30 bucks. It's 90s day.

We're doing a group outing.

We did 100 friends last year.

We'd love to have you pink flamingos
given us,

had neon headbands and wristbands
right next to our office.

They're great. Pink flamingo.

Oh, yeah?

Yeah, you're over by Luna pizza.

Yeah, there's.

We have to offset one by one,
but next to win a pizza pink flamingo.

And one for me to have in our.

Oh, cool, cool.

And then subscribe to the newsletter and,

subscribe to the newsletter.

I lost my train of thought and podcast.

Oh, do you ever, I lost my
uncle this week, so I just want to share.

Do you have a special uncle
that means a lot to you?

For that, you know, I mean, I'm sorry.

Yeah, yeah.

He had health challenges of recent, but,
he's in a better place.

And, just thinking of Uncle Joel.

He got me into wrestling.

I still remember watching Hulk

Hogan slam Andre the Giant, WrestleMania
three, and Naugatuck, Connecticut.

We had to get the cable box from Comcast,

drive it to Naugatuck to watch
WrestleMania 50 bucks and bring it back.

Just thinking of Uncle Joel.

He was the smartest guy I knew.

He he had the,

like, almost Albert
Einstein equations on his chalkboard.

He just read every book
and just so smart and, he's missed.

So I just want to.

We're going
to dedicate this podcast to Uncle Joel.

Anything I missed?

Any recommendations?

Final closing thoughts?

Anything?

Anything. Oh, my gosh.

Well, not a recommendation, but I guess

just,

an appreciation for what you do.

Like I was thinking on the way over here,

like, the amount of energy and effort

it takes for you,
your teacher, your dad, you know, to.

As a business owner, I know what it takes

to, like, run a business,
get the business out there.

Right.
And you're doing that every day for these.

For these kids. Like the marketing,
the podcast.

Like, all this takes time and you're here
and you're present during it.

That's that's amazing. Thanks, man.

Thanks a lot of good stuff
I appreciate it.

Let me know. Cool.
Oh what did you just say?

Anything I can do to support.
Do you want to buy a winter hat?

We got two styles of winter hats.

We got the Feeny beanie,
and we got the cuff one.

I think I'm more off the cuff.

20 bucks. PayPal, cash app, Venmo.

But we appreciate you. Get them out.

We we have a square app.

You heard it here, folks. Rob.

He's buying one.

And we got a couple guests
that want to meet you.

Ryan.

Come on over at eight.

This is Ryan soft wash.

Ryan McGinnis is in the building.

And my friend Addie from Mrs.

Green's class.

This could be a good connection. Yeah.

Great to meet you.

Yeah, you really do. Right.

You guys all right?

Come on.

Come on to Mike
and tell us about your favorite teacher.

Who's your favorite teacher?

That's green.

Mrs. green, go ahead,

Miss Green.

Mrs. green, I know Mrs. Green.

Do you know, I miss

I work with her husband.

Mrs..

What's what's so good about Mrs. Green?

She's nice.

Did she go to your show,

miss? Yeah. Family with.

She went to the Nutcracker? No.

You weren't in the Nutcracker? No.

So, Mr.

Green peanut show you a Christmas Carol?

Christmas carol.

Oh. It's close.
Nutcracker Christmas carol.

All right.

Christmas. See, I was on to something.

This is their first time
in a cooking wine.

Oh, yes.

I'm like, this is an adult store.

I said cooking no cooking oil, boy.

Oh, yeah, we cook with oil.

Did you ask my sweetie
who he's talking to?

Who's your favorite PE teacher,

Mr. Joseph?

Mr. Joseph,
my guy Rob was a PE teacher too.

We're going to

we're going to connect Rob and Ryan,
want to say be a good friend on three.

We're going to count to three. All right.

On three of say
be a good friend. One, two, three.

Be a good friend.