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Join us as we take a deep dive into the real estate market with insiders in the industry.
022 Transcript
00:00:02:04 - 00:00:17:02
Steve Luther
Who's the person you have to be to, you know, be at that level? And is that a person you want to be? I think, you know, unfortunately, a lot of people don't really have a good idea of who they are and who they want to be. And you have to work every day in getting a little bit closer to that person you want to be.
00:00:17:02 - 00:00:26:18
Steve Luther
And all the other stuff will work itself out.
00:00:26:20 - 00:00:49:05
Michael Conrad
Welcome back to the Business of Homes podcast. I'm Michael Conrad, and today I have Steve Luther with Chord Real Estate here in Nashville. With me. And we have been having a great conversation offline. Probably should have recorded it all about just being in the business a long time, hitting niches going, Why? What's the future? Just so many different things.
00:00:49:07 - 00:01:07:21
Michael Conrad
And it definitely showcases that you, Steve, have an incredible amount of experience and knowledge to share and you've been building teams and brokerages for a long time and you're not stopping. And so I'm curious to hear where you've come, where you're going, what you doing and all of the above. So thanks for being here today.
00:01:07:23 - 00:01:11:00
Steve Luther
Well, thanks for having me. Yeah, I appreciate it.
00:01:11:02 - 00:01:36:07
Michael Conrad
When we first connected, one of the things that really struck me about your experience was that you were just very aware of real estate as a business. And that's really the crux of this podcast, is that we're looking beyond the day to day transactions, even the nuances of the contract, how we help buyers and sellers, all of these things are wonderful and important.
00:01:36:07 - 00:01:58:03
Michael Conrad
However, there is a business behind it all a plan, a plan that you have to execute and audience You're going after. You have to maintain certain guardrails and you have to think about panels and all those things. And it's more than just going out and being a pretty face. And let me tell you, two pretty faces right here, you and I, my friend.
00:01:58:03 - 00:02:20:05
Michael Conrad
Holy cow. So if you're not watching us on our YouTube channel, go check it out. Yeah, this business is done so differently. And when you got in, you said, I'm already aware of these sort of common ways to do it and I want to do it a little differently. Tell me about that sort of initial ideas of going different early on.
00:02:20:06 - 00:02:44:15
Steve Luther
So early on, I've been doing this like 22 years, so it's been a long time. But you can tell from the gray, you know, I come from an entrepreneurial family. My my father had several businesses when I was growing up. My brother is, you know, has had several businesses. So the idea of being a business owner is always kind of been there.
00:02:44:17 - 00:03:14:13
Steve Luther
I actually started out when I got out of college and it so I was a tech guy. I did that for about ten years, went through the dot bomb, had a bunch of stock options that were worth anything anymore and thought I'd do something different. And, you know, I bought and sold several properties. I'd moved to different parts of the country and decided I was going to get into investment property.
00:03:14:15 - 00:03:36:10
Steve Luther
So I bought a few investment properties and thought, you know, the real estate agents I've dealt with over the years aren't really very techie. I think there's an angle here that, you know, I could do things a little bit differently, a little bit better. So I kind of brought a lot of my I.T. background into real estate early on.
00:03:36:12 - 00:03:52:23
Steve Luther
You know, I was half of my business was coming from online leads. There was no one doing it back then. I mean, this was early 2000, so the Internet wasn't even really a thing until like 95, Right? So, you know, real estate online wasn't really much of a thing.
00:03:53:01 - 00:03:56:10
Michael Conrad
How are you getting leads online then?
00:03:56:12 - 00:04:20:15
Steve Luther
You know, it was there were there was no social media back then either. So it was a lot of, you know, banner ads and that kind of thing. You know, just just getting exposure on on various websites that people were aware to. There's a lot of email marketing, that kind of stuff, you know, not really extremely different from what we're doing now other than social media.
00:04:20:17 - 00:04:27:00
Michael Conrad
And it was just early. There just wasn't like the saturation at that time, you know? Yeah, email marketing actually kind of worked a little bit.
00:04:27:02 - 00:05:00:20
Steve Luther
Yeah, yeah, yeah. When no one is competing for leads online, they come pretty easy. So that was the initial iteration. As I got into it, a lot of the training was, you know, around kind of working up in price point, you know, getting into luxury price point and things like that. And also charging premiums on commission. And I hated that concept and both of those concepts.
00:05:00:20 - 00:05:35:23
Steve Luther
For me, it was like, you know, you never know where someone is in their life, where they're going to be. Everybody should be treated very well. Doesn't matter if they're, you know, buying a $100,000 condo or or a $10 million, you know, mansion. So, you know, I had a different philosophy on how that should go. And I didn't like the idea of having variable commissions and trying to upcharge, you know, if you're going to to a luxury buyer, a luxury seller, you know, they can afford a little more.
00:05:35:23 - 00:05:40:23
Steve Luther
So let's, you know, add on a little bit and I just never sit right with me.
00:05:40:23 - 00:05:58:01
Michael Conrad
It's like you're never going to know who's going to be talking at the dinner party, comparing notes on things. That sort of variable pricing is always makes me a little nervous because, yeah, it feels like the price. The price. The price. Right. But I know the airlines disagree, but yeah, I agree with you on that. Yeah.
00:05:58:04 - 00:06:25:22
Steve Luther
So that was kind of the first iteration of what eventually would become called. You know, I was able to convince my business partners to to jump in on this with me. So this was my way back in like 2008, 2009, I had this idea of starting a sports and entertainment brand. You know, no one was really doing that at the time there.
00:06:26:01 - 00:06:50:22
Steve Luther
There weren't sports and entertainment divisions at every brokerage firm. There was one girl in Florida that was doing something around sports and entertainment, but that was pretty much it. So I thought to be a great idea to launch that brand and Music City and eventually expanded to other sports and entertainment markets. Of course, Ashley speaks fluent Japanese, so we dealt with a lot of international clients as well.
00:06:50:22 - 00:06:52:22
Michael Conrad
That's your wife and she's your partner and a realtor.
00:06:52:22 - 00:07:15:12
Steve Luther
Yes. Yes. She's she actually are managing broker. And so the way international people like to be treated is very similar to how you would want to treat a rock star. You know, that was kind of the concept of it is we wanted to create this concierge experience and a lot of people throw out the word concierge as well.
00:07:15:14 - 00:07:45:09
Steve Luther
And that was another thing we had been very early on to talk about. But in our mind it was more like the concierge at the Ritz-Carlton or, you know, four Seasons or whatever, where, you know, you can go to them for pretty much anything. You know, they'll be able to help. So we try to do, you know, things like, you know, if we see somebody celebrating a an anniversary at a resort in Mexico, we want to have chocolates waiting for them when they get there has nothing to do with a transaction.
00:07:45:09 - 00:08:17:18
Steve Luther
It's just about being a part of of, you know, our clients lives and making them feel like they're important because they are. So that was kind of the iteration of Chord. I knew early on that I didn't want to be the the doer necessarily for, for two too long. So I had always had it in my mind to, you know, build a business around it, grow a team and kind of got lucky.
00:08:17:19 - 00:08:33:16
Steve Luther
I'm more of the strategy guy. Ashley is very much the operational doer person and our other business partner Van is, is kind of the feeler. So he makes everything feel good. Okay Works on the experience. That's that's his title as the chief experience officers.
00:08:33:16 - 00:08:36:01
Michael Conrad
I love that. Yeah yeah, yeah.
00:08:36:03 - 00:08:38:00
Steve Luther
You should interview them too. I mean.
00:08:38:02 - 00:09:08:23
Michael Conrad
I, I feel like this concept of building the experience, building a team and having a process, it. I don't feel like it's a, it's a natural leap for a lot of folks that go into real estate. Real estate somehow has become more of a I practice profession. It's something that I do. It's a profession that I do. It's I practice real estate, etc..
00:09:08:23 - 00:09:52:04
Michael Conrad
You know, we're borrowing the language from, you know, attorneys and doctors, you know, and these are high skilled, high value professionals, you know, But there is and always really has been maybe and sort of not everywhere, but a a benefit to building something larger than you, you know, this idea of of multifaceted specialization is only possible when you have a team and to really fully, I think, curate an experience, you also typically need more things going on that is possible with a team and much harder by yourself.
00:09:52:06 - 00:10:34:00
Michael Conrad
And I think I've said on this podcast before, but it's worth saying again in real estate, because it's such an individual high volume industry that curating the experience that is unique to you or your brand or your company is so insanely important because it cannot be replicated. It is literally the only thing that cannot be replicated is the experience that your company, your brand, or you are providing almost everything else really just boil down is a service that can be performed by another service practitioner.
00:10:34:02 - 00:11:02:16
Michael Conrad
And so, you know, there's a number of folks in the dentistry and the doctor and the lawyer world. All those people have woken up over the last 25 years to realize, who cares that I am this high skilled, high value practitioner professional? If I can't extricate myself out of the day to day, if I can't extricate myself, you know, for a month or two months at a time or seasonally do different things like I'm actually a slave to my own practice.
00:11:02:18 - 00:11:16:13
Michael Conrad
And of course, you know, some people have valued that differently over time. Maybe the older generations didn't mind that very much. But you know, a lot more of your 50 and under crowd is wanting more freedom than the traditional practice is allowed.
00:11:16:15 - 00:11:29:16
Steve Luther
Well, I think a lot of small businesses, at least initially, they kind of start out as its practitioner. Yeah, they know their skill, Right. And that's across the board. That's not just.
00:11:29:16 - 00:11:32:05
Michael Conrad
Real estate can trust since I can trust you. Yeah.
00:11:32:07 - 00:11:54:11
Steve Luther
So they know their skill and they kind of get into it and they really don't have any concept of sales and marketing and, you know, finances and watching the panels and all that stuff. It's a lot. It's a lot. And so, you know, it can be overwhelming for for a lot of people that that really are just focused on developing their skill.
00:11:54:13 - 00:12:10:12
Steve Luther
You know, you really have to get into the very minor details of standard operating procedures and you got to record everything. You got to make sure it's repeatable by by someone else. You know, they can just go through a checklist.
00:12:10:16 - 00:12:38:03
Michael Conrad
As ops friends of you who are listening as soaps are the backbone of a real business. And I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that you can define as a percentage of how much are you a real business by how many soaps do you have that define everything that you do. Imagine yourself getting hit by a truck or getting a harebrained idea to go become an Alaskan fisherman and you need somebody else to do all the stuff that you do professionally.
00:12:38:09 - 00:12:57:13
Michael Conrad
If it's not written down in a little binder, you know you're not a real business. You own a job. And I this is very familiar to me in the trades that I come from. You know, a lot of folks sort of are accidentally fooled into believing, Oh, I started a business. Well, you started a job for yourself. And I think that's great.
00:12:57:14 - 00:13:24:10
Michael Conrad
That's what America is built on. But at the end of the day, like it's not a business. And so slowly growing more of those standard operating procedures, you know, is so, so important. And I mean, the truism, they say, is if you want to sell your business and have it be valuable enough to actually be sold to another person, then you have to have this sort of this Bible or this binder or this book of soap is right.
00:13:24:12 - 00:13:46:19
Michael Conrad
But then if you don't ever sell, you just have the soaps and it makes your business awesome. So it's like, no matter which way you want to go, you need that. But I think we're even ahead of ourself because you brought up something earlier offline that is so key in this. And that is and in fairness, folks, I'm not even sure I asked myself this question appropriately when I started growing.
00:13:46:19 - 00:14:07:13
Michael Conrad
And I you know, I think that's fair, that we don't always do it in the correct order. But sure, do we know why do we know why we want to grow if we want to go from high value practitioner to become a business? You said you didn't want to be in the day to day. I was saying the exact same thing 12 years ago when it was just me.
00:14:07:13 - 00:14:15:04
Michael Conrad
I don't want to just be doing the day to day every day, but I have to know why. And I don't know if everyone's asking themselves. I don't know, even if I had an answer for that.
00:14:15:05 - 00:14:37:19
Steve Luther
Well, I think it goes a little deeper than just the lie. It's also, you know, who's the person you have to be to, you know, be at that level. And is that a person you want to be? I think, you know, unfortunately, a lot of people across the board, not just in real estate but across the board, don't really have a good idea of who they are and who they want to be.
00:14:37:21 - 00:14:52:08
Steve Luther
And you have to work every day getting a little bit closer to that person you want to be and all the other stuff will work itself out. But yeah, I just think there's a there's a little bit of a disconnect for a lot of people because they don't take the time to think, Who do I really want to be?
00:14:52:10 - 00:15:16:03
Michael Conrad
Who do I want to be? What is this all about? What is the meaning of life? The truth is I had a minor sort of crisis at the third quarter of last year when I was facing that exact question because the company and the companies that I've been building and growing for the last 12 years haven't exactly ended up where I thought they would be.
00:15:16:05 - 00:15:45:23
Michael Conrad
And I'm saying, well, to get to the place I thought I wanted to go, I think I have to be a different person and I'm not sure I want to be that person. I think that was the crisis I was in. I was saying, well, who do I want to be moving forward? And so I think, you know, just these conversations with guys like you and this podcast and the work that I'm now doing is more in line with who I want to be in the future and where I want to be going and it's taken me a long time to get there.
00:15:45:23 - 00:16:16:03
Michael Conrad
So I guess we'll give some forgiveness to anyone who also put cart before the horse on this. But you know, growing the business is a key and it certainly wasn't very popular in the past in real estate. It's growing in popularity. All these different versions of boutique brokerages and teams and whatnot. And so what are what are you doing to sort of set your company and you and your brand apart to to continue this sort of journey into brand building and business building?
00:16:16:05 - 00:16:41:18
Steve Luther
I mean, so every everything that we look at in terms of, you know, how do we improve our service, you know, how how, how can we tweak things to make things better? It's all built around What's our client experience? You know, there's a lot of teams that go out there and they have agents that are dedicated to buyers and agents that are dedicated to sellers, and you kind of get shuffled from one to another depending on where you're at in transaction.
00:16:41:20 - 00:17:06:07
Steve Luther
I never liked that model because I felt like from the client's perspective, you know, they build a relationship to someone. There should be continuity of that relationship. So, you know, things like that are of, you know, the thing, the things that we consider, you know, what's the impact of the client? Yeah, maybe we're going to get some more efficiencies out of something, but what's the experience going to be?
00:17:06:09 - 00:17:12:04
Steve Luther
And we want to provide the best experience that we can. And that's that's really everything we focus on.
00:17:12:06 - 00:17:32:16
Michael Conrad
This is such a hard thing. And I think a lot of folks who are real estate agents listening to this podcast are facing this exact question, and that is how do I increase the value of my client's experience? I'm almost certainly going to need tools. I may need other people to assist me with this. I'm going to need more time, and that can be very difficult.
00:17:32:16 - 00:17:57:11
Michael Conrad
You may not have more time to give in bringing other people in. You may alter the flavor of the experience sort of tools are costly, you know, you have to learn them. And so this is very difficult to increase the value of the experience, but also maintain this sort of relational integrity to one person. This is hard. This is super hard.
00:17:57:13 - 00:18:07:18
Steve Luther
And I think that's that's probably been a big driver of teams because you've got to have people that you can leverage to do different elements of the business.
00:18:07:18 - 00:18:08:18
Michael Conrad
You mean like specialists?
00:18:08:19 - 00:18:09:10
Steve Luther
The specialists.
00:18:09:10 - 00:18:11:12
Michael Conrad
Sure, yeah, totally.
00:18:11:14 - 00:18:23:15
Steve Luther
You've got to have someone that's doing the marketing stuff on the back end. You've got to have someone that's managing the paperwork on the back end. You've got to have all these moving parts because you just it's hard to do it on your own.
00:18:23:16 - 00:18:38:06
Michael Conrad
You're meaning support structure, not necessarily like, oh, they're a buyers specialist or they're a commercial specialist or whatever you're talking about. Like the overall the flesh and skin and bones that surrounds the whole concept.
00:18:38:08 - 00:18:39:19
Steve Luther
Definitely. I mean, yeah.
00:18:39:21 - 00:18:56:12
Michael Conrad
Totally. No, I mean, that is in certain sectors of the market, I think that there's more and more people who are starting out two years or less and have experience or who are already saying, Oh yeah, I need a support team, I need someone helping me here, and there's services and freelancers and these sort of things that step in some places.
00:18:56:12 - 00:19:12:15
Michael Conrad
But you know, that conversation wasn't happening ten years ago, 12 years ago when I was getting in, I don't know, about 20 years ago either. But the market in Nashville has been on a really steep hockey stick sort of upward tick, you know.
00:19:12:16 - 00:19:47:09
Steve Luther
But but all of this is where as a piece come into play, you've got to have your experience so well-defined and a standard operating procedure that you can give pieces of it to specialists to take care of that. You know, the the difficult thing about scaling is how do you maintain your quality? Because the bigger you get, the more quality tends to suffer, you know, And the other side benefit too, I suppose, you know, yeah, you, you would have a sellable business, but things come up.
00:19:47:11 - 00:19:52:00
Steve Luther
You know, I was in the hospital for four and a half months and.
00:19:52:02 - 00:19:53:01
Michael Conrad
Things come in.
00:19:53:01 - 00:20:12:12
Steve Luther
You know, and, and I had, I had a very long recovery after I got out. But because we had our procedures so well defined, you know, Ashley and I were out of pocket for six months. We, you know, we, I was unconscious for a lot of it. So but we we kept getting our paycheck.
00:20:12:14 - 00:20:12:22
Michael Conrad
And.
00:20:13:00 - 00:20:24:23
Steve Luther
Things kept going. The business kept running. And you know, we are so appreciative to the team for stepping in and and making things happen. But a lot of that was because there were very defined procedures.
00:20:25:01 - 00:20:50:12
Michael Conrad
Boy, that is worth way more than the Mercedes or the flashy Instagram photos. You know, that can kind of attract a lot of people to real estate is the sustainability of earning through thick and thin. That's so key. I think that's a way better goal than, you know, I hear most of the time.
00:20:50:14 - 00:21:22:15
Jake Hall
Hey, everyone, it's Jake, director for the Business of Homes podcast. I hope you've been enjoying today's episode, starting with Steve's beginning in I.T., an early online marketing Why standard operating procedures are so important and focusing on who you need to be to succeed in your business and if that is truly who you want to be. When we return, Michael and Steve dive into the connective tissue between having the technical knowledge and having the relationships, knowing your worth when entering the real estate field and connecting yourself with a great community.
00:21:22:17 - 00:21:41:18
Jake Hall
You don't want to miss it. Don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram @thebusinessofhomespod, where you can interact with us and see some great bite sized pieces from all of our episodes for you listeners out there. Did you know our entire podcast are filmed and are on our YouTube channel? Check it out next time you want to see our amazing guests tell their stories.
00:21:41:20 - 00:22:00:20
Jake Hall
And are you currently watching this episode in video format? Don't forget to follow us on your preferred audio streaming service to take us with you on the go. Lastly, do you have any feedback or one to suggest someone for the show? Email us at thebusinessofhomespodcast@gmail.com. Please enjoy the rest of today's episode with Steve Luther.
00:22:00:20 - 00:22:05:18
Jake Hall
Let's get back to it.
00:22:05:20 - 00:22:30:21
Michael Conrad
Well, you've made it through and you've tested those soaps, but the world is changing fast and it's way different than when you got in or even post-recession. Wasn't that an interesting time? And so what are you doing now to continue to shake it up, keep things fresh and by keep developing that brand so that it's super relevant to the modern consumer?
00:22:30:23 - 00:22:31:15
Michael Conrad
Mm hmm.
00:22:31:17 - 00:22:55:22
Steve Luther
You know, you're always looking at best practices of other industries. What are other people doing? What things can we incorporate into real estate, water, things we can do to improve the experience? You know, new tech that comes along your you can't implement everything. You've got to kind of look at it and see, okay, how much of a disruption is this going to cause versus the benefit?
00:22:56:00 - 00:23:20:04
Steve Luther
So, you know, it's just a constant research mode. And that's a big part of what I do is, you know, just trying to keep track of what's coming down the pike in terms of tech. You know, what what are other industries starting to implement now? You know, we've looked at a lot of things over the years, beacons and all kinds of stuff that are not really done in real estate much.
00:23:20:04 - 00:23:48:17
Steve Luther
But, you know, we look at them to see if, okay, is there a is there a scenario where that makes sense for us? Is that going to be too much of a disruption? Right now? You have to figure out the implementation plans and all those things. You know, it's it's not easy, but you just have to keep plugging away and just focus on how can I make the experience just a little bit better, you know, in terms of services that you offer.
00:23:48:20 - 00:24:14:22
Steve Luther
You know, there's very little that you can do that's proprietary. It's really more about I've got a great experience that I deliver and part of this is you're you're building a personal brand. People need to have a connection with you on an emotional level beyond, you know, just, okay, I know how to build out a contract because a lot of people, a lot of fell out of contract.
00:24:15:00 - 00:24:35:19
Steve Luther
So there has to be, you know, some some kind of relationship. And I think you're you're kind of seeing the market sort of splinter in two directions. You've got you know, there's all those of the world that want to turn it into a transaction where it's all very cut and dry. And for some people that'll, you know, that'll be fine.
00:24:35:19 - 00:24:39:05
Michael Conrad
That'll be just a simplified experience. Yeah, I'll.
00:24:39:05 - 00:25:02:13
Steve Luther
Just go fill out my stuff online and eventually I will, you know, take care of all that stuff and you know, and it is what it is and it, you know, they don't care about the experience. That's fine. But there's going to be a big segment of the market. And I think, you know, the smaller brokerages, the smaller teams that have figured out that experience are going to do well with that segment of the market.
00:25:02:18 - 00:25:22:14
Michael Conrad
Yeah, I, I do see a necessary amount of changes. You talk about this idea that it's not just enough to be able to know how to fill out a contract. But the other side of that interesting coin is it's not just enough to have relationship. Like a relationship is no doubt important yourself.
00:25:22:14 - 00:25:23:11
Steve Luther
And you ought to feel.
00:25:23:13 - 00:25:52:05
Michael Conrad
Wise, you know, to say that. But it is the connective tissue between having the technical knowledge and experience required and the relationship. And these can't be sort of dual represent. They actually have to be connected. You have to be able to know how best to fill out your contract, to negotiate for your clients because of the relationship that you have with them and because the relationship you have with them.
00:25:52:05 - 00:26:23:21
Michael Conrad
You need to know how best users. And so that is that connective tissue I think is really hard because there is definitely feast and famine times in this business as many businesses that tends to have people pulling punches around, creating that sort of connection. Connective tissue I'm talking about specifically, I think I see it most often in well, I don't know if I'm going to advise my client for that because that jeopardizes our personal relationship or I'm not going to We're too close.
00:26:23:21 - 00:26:55:05
Michael Conrad
I don't think that that is like that's too shrewd or, you know, that's too intense or whatever it is. And so I think sometimes we get nervous about not getting to the end, and it has us pulling punches on either our technical skills or our relational connectivity. And so, yeah, I think the more we can do to educate ourselves and then be really focused not just on likes and on shares on Insta but actual real relationship.
00:26:55:07 - 00:27:25:15
Michael Conrad
And I think that we're we're also in a like, like a postmodern version of real estate age because like you talked about email marketing back in like the, the early aughts or whatever, everything feels like it's really been done and kind of maybe overdone in the marketing and classic relationship building things like if someone sends me another email with a recipe in it, I'm going to like poke someone's eye out.
00:27:25:17 - 00:27:38:04
Michael Conrad
And if someone like sends me like a really basic CMA for a zip code, you know, I don't know. It's just it's not cutting it any more. And there's so many services that will just give you that juice anyways.
00:27:38:06 - 00:27:39:15
Steve Luther
Everybody's got a podcast now.
00:27:39:17 - 00:28:14:05
Michael Conrad
Everybody's got a everyone has got a podcast. That's right. And so I think what we have to do is really, again be looking at the world around us and saying, well, what is everybody else doing and how do I be different? I still think that advertising and marketing for the last like 150 years is still the undercurrent. The same chord we have to hit, pun intended is be different, be unique, be relevant, no doubt, but be different, be unique, stand out.
00:28:14:07 - 00:28:16:19
Michael Conrad
And so I think that's really hard.
00:28:16:20 - 00:28:44:11
Steve Luther
You know, I think I think it's also important that you understand that you have worth. And, you know, I see so many newer agents that come into the business that, you know, just it just feels so scared about things and don't have that confidence. You know, this business changes so quickly now for me to have 22 years of experience.
00:28:44:13 - 00:29:12:03
Steve Luther
Okay. Yeah. I mean, there's there's something to be said for that. But, you know, if you get in and you do the research, you can do the same things that I can do, you know. And then interesting, you know, it's not like you just kind of popped into existence yesterday. You're like, you've got life history, right? And there are elements of of your life that, you know, you can incorporate into your business to make you a little different.
00:29:12:05 - 00:29:41:07
Steve Luther
When I talk to Van initially about joining me, you know, he was a music business guy like 25 years. But a lot of what he did was around brand consultation for for artists, you know, and that was an easy thing to transition into real estate because that's a big part of what we're doing when we're selling a property is we're we're sort of building this package around this this, this property, you know, how do we package it up for the audience?
00:29:41:07 - 00:29:57:20
Steve Luther
We're trying to get this to you and make it look its best. So that was a very easy transition of skills from one very different industry into into real estate. So I think a lot of it is just mindset and doing the work, doing the research.
00:29:57:20 - 00:30:25:01
Michael Conrad
Doing the work. That is a I'm glad you said that because there's a there's a Raps component to this place. You don't get to run the marathon without like running the 100 feet, right? I mean, you got to put the time in. And real estate has a funny sort of magical allure around it of feeling like it's super accessible to anyone and anyone can do it.
00:30:25:03 - 00:30:44:12
Michael Conrad
And the sort of the ironic paradox is that's both true and not true somehow at the same time, like literally anyone could do it because it is based on so many soft skills, relational skills, instead of like hard skills. Like, do you know how the brain works to do brain surgery? And so, yeah, I guess everyone can do it.
00:30:44:18 - 00:31:10:05
Michael Conrad
But also it's spoiler alert, it's a lot of work, right? You got to put some sort. And so if you are feeling fresh and don't know your worth like what you were talking about, I think we have. But to look at other industries out in the world and say, well, what do people with lesser experience with more of a nervous disposition, what do they do?
00:31:10:11 - 00:31:39:09
Michael Conrad
You know, a apprenticeships and partnerships and teams? I think this is one of the reasons why teams have become very popular too, is we can go get that experience from others. And, you know, I don't I'm not here to sort of say if the legislature should require there to be a more complicated licensure process to require apprenticeship that's common in other industries to avoid low skilled practitioners, so to speak.
00:31:39:11 - 00:31:52:04
Michael Conrad
But, hey, you know, the the the brokerage is not just where you hang your license and get your compliance. As I mentioned in pass. It shouldn't be it shouldn't be.
00:31:52:05 - 00:31:53:12
Steve Luther
The a lot of them can be.
00:31:53:13 - 00:31:54:11
Michael Conrad
Can be that way.
00:31:54:11 - 00:31:55:07
Steve Luther
That's a Schenley.
00:31:55:13 - 00:32:17:21
Michael Conrad
It should be a place where you get learning and experience and you feel like you can still have the training wheels on and no one's going to laugh at you. So yeah, that, that is really hard. And the ever increasing awareness of like the world of investing and generational wealth and real estate that HGTV and Instagram has given us means we have a wider group of practitioners now.
00:32:17:21 - 00:32:43:08
Michael Conrad
And so what we usually had sort of the natural, organic, who knew what and how to do what process, you know, was limited because of people knew about it. You know, we now have a much wider group of people know about it. And so that goes all the way back to the beginning of Chord and you trying to create this team that's I'm guessing just from knowing you a little bit is not just one that's like, All right, cool.
00:32:43:08 - 00:32:46:08
Michael Conrad
Thanks for joining. Good luck out there.
00:32:46:10 - 00:33:06:00
Steve Luther
Yeah. I mean, you know, not to get too religious, but, you know, we kind of see it as it's like a life group. You know, we want to we want to do life with with our people. You know, we want to we want to celebrate them when when good things happen and we want to be there for them when you know, they're there is a downturn for whatever reason.
00:33:06:02 - 00:33:34:22
Steve Luther
You know, I think that's kind of how you have to look at it. The people that just become a number at a brokerage, it's just I hate it. And that's why we you know, when we talk about expanding, we talk about maintaining our boutique feel. So we want a small office in different markets. I don't I don't want to have hundreds of agents because if I can't know them personally, they don't know me personally.
00:33:35:00 - 00:33:38:07
Steve Luther
I, I just that's just not for me. That's not who I want to be.
00:33:38:09 - 00:34:02:03
Michael Conrad
I think the speed of real estate, specifically the technological sort of influences combined with the fact that it was a bit of a gatekeeping industry once upon a time and like eons passed where you couldn't buy a house without an agent. It was just really, really hard. And because all that stuff really isn't true anymore, we have so much disruption.
00:34:02:03 - 00:34:32:16
Michael Conrad
The technological field, I, I mean, the bold PSA right here, I'm not sure real estate should be practiced alone, like at all. Like I think that the solo practitioner has less and less relevance to the modern landscape these days without what you're talking about, relational connectivity to some sort of like group. And that could be like group, big group, small boutique, you know, whatever size, but that communal piece of it.
00:34:32:16 - 00:34:48:12
Michael Conrad
Oh, I feel like it's the thing that makes you relevant as an agent. And without it, it just feels like, I don't know, man, you're going to lose relevance sometime in the near future. Quick Because you're right, 22 years of experience is amazing. Until It's just super not relevant to them, right? Yeah.
00:34:48:14 - 00:35:15:03
Steve Luther
Yeah. It's it's extremely difficult to be a solopreneur. It's just there's only so many hours, right? You know, we've done a lot of coaching over the years. One of the coaches always, you know, talks about there's 24 hours in a day. But, you know, if I've got ten people, then I've got 240 hours in a day. Right. To compete against your 24.
00:35:15:03 - 00:35:36:02
Steve Luther
So, you know, you have to kind of look at how can I leverage people, how can I leverage technology? You know, I think A.I. is going to continue to transform every industry, you know, So there's going to be elements of things that transition to tech. But you've got to you've got to have people that you can plug into your processes to.
00:35:36:04 - 00:35:44:14
Steve Luther
Every agent should have a transaction coordinator. You know, that's a that's a no brainer. So even if you're a solopreneur, you should have a transaction coordinator.
00:35:44:14 - 00:36:15:15
Michael Conrad
Yeah. Consider how many superheroes have sidekicks. I mean, it's obvious. Yeah, No, you're right. I think that similar to the way we think about different technological skillsets like Photoshop or whatever, you know, as, Oh, that has a benefit to my team in X, Y and Z ways. You know, they a I influence is going to be sort of a high skilled individuals like Adobe skilled individuals will become team players and will leverage that tool to benefit, you know, the company.
00:36:15:15 - 00:36:35:13
Michael Conrad
And and I think that, you know, we are all subject to looking at the Taylor Swift's and the Beyonce's and all the Instagrammers and the famous you know real estate people and saying, oh my gosh, they have the same 24 hours a day that I do. I need to work harder. It's like, well, hold on. They have a bunch of people behind the scenes that are probably posting their stuff on Instagram.
00:36:35:13 - 00:37:05:15
Michael Conrad
So like, just remember that there's a lot more underneath the water than you're seeing. And, you know, connect yourself with a good community, a girl. I like that. I think that the same hole in our heart that we're looking to fill in the sort of the spiritual side of our life and that communal relational side that we get in, say, a church format is the same one we need to fill in a business format, but they don't need to be the same thing.
00:37:05:15 - 00:37:28:05
Michael Conrad
You're not trying to fill business for, you know, spiritual, but you need the same. I mean, those are all connected, right, as humans trying to like make it to the world. And so that's a very wise reminder for any listeners here that reach out. Every single one of these guests that I've had on this wonderful podcast would probably love to speak to you if you're listening or would love to talk with you or chat with you.
00:37:28:09 - 00:38:04:04
Michael Conrad
And if you have questions, you should take this as your invitation, myself included. And so, yeah, I, I want us to push the industry more in this direction. I think team is best. I like that format and I'm obviously bias. I have a team but I would agree that's I think we're we're probably going more and I think tell me if you agree I think the consumer is either already caught on or is catching on and is saying to themselves, oh, I want to work with the team.
00:38:04:06 - 00:38:24:05
Michael Conrad
There's no doubt people out there that still love that individual relational solopreneur kind of thing. But I think there's enough bad consumer loss of trust around like the truck and a truck for the trade. So I better work with like a good sized company to make sure that I'm protected from that. I think that bleeds into real estate to a little bit.
00:38:24:05 - 00:38:30:13
Michael Conrad
And they say, I probably want someone who like has some people around them in some format. Do you agree with that?
00:38:30:15 - 00:38:52:02
Steve Luther
I do. I will say, though, it kind of gets back to your standard operating procedures. You've got to make sure you're very clear on the experience you're delivering. You know, I think unfortunately, a lot of times when a consumer works with a team, they think they're going to be working with the face of the team.
00:38:52:02 - 00:38:53:06
Michael Conrad
Oh, yeah.
00:38:53:08 - 00:39:15:06
Steve Luther
And, you know, yeah. And it feels like a bait and switch. So you have to be very clear on what the experience is that you're delivering and what are the specific procedures to deliver that experience so that they don't feel like you've, you've done a bait and switch on them. You know, obviously there's things you do for your, your closest friends that you can't do for her.
00:39:15:07 - 00:39:35:10
Steve Luther
Right. Because there's just there's so much time in the day. But, you know, for the most part, like you don't want me, you know, being the one that has to go out and do X, Y, Z, Right. Because I don't I don't do it every day anymore. So the person that I have doing X, Y, Z for me, they do it every day.
00:39:35:10 - 00:39:37:18
Steve Luther
Yeah, they're better at it than I am.
00:39:37:18 - 00:39:54:06
Michael Conrad
So that's tough that, that is a for a lot of folks. I think that's a tough pill to swallow, myself included, to say like I'm willing to admit out loud in a public format that I'm not as good at X. When I built my reputation on being good at X, you know, of thing. And that like time is a mitigating factor here.
00:39:54:06 - 00:39:55:09
Michael Conrad
And so that's tough.
00:39:55:09 - 00:39:57:05
Steve Luther
You got to check your ego as a leader.
00:39:57:05 - 00:40:06:00
Michael Conrad
Yeah, totally. And you can't be too humble. Oh, I'm just terrible. You know, everyone out there, like, doesn't doesn't want to work with you then.
00:40:06:01 - 00:40:07:12
Steve Luther
Well, I'm not saying I can't do it.
00:40:07:13 - 00:40:42:10
Michael Conrad
Yeah, Yeah. I think the the gathering of these resources, whether it's an internal team, whether it's a group of freelancers that you sort of build sort of a crack sort of group together that you can accomplish your goals or whether it is more tangential in a larger format, whether it's like a boutique or even larger brokerage. In some respect, I feel like the future is a super high Rolodex and high value and high customer service experience.
00:40:42:11 - 00:41:07:05
Michael Conrad
And like, obviously, I think that's because I've built a slew of vertically integrated services that you can just sort of plug in too, right? And so but I see more clients saying yes to their real estate entrepreneurs like yourself who say, Oh, I can help you in this and this other thing, or let me help you walk through this whole multi-faceted experience.
00:41:07:05 - 00:41:21:22
Michael Conrad
And I can help you to every piece the client saying yes to. I see more yeses in those real estate sort of vertical integrations like what you're talking about. And yeah, that's where I think we're going.
00:41:21:23 - 00:41:46:03
Steve Luther
Yeah, I would agree. I mean, I think whether we form a business around it or not, you're kind of one of the first people to have that interaction with, with the customer. And so they're going to ask you like, well, who needs to do this and who needs to do this? He needs to do that. So you're making those connections anyway, right?
00:41:46:05 - 00:41:55:15
Steve Luther
So, you know, if there's a way to build a team around that and and, you know, offer a one stop shop, you know, there's a lot of value in that.
00:41:55:17 - 00:42:19:10
Michael Conrad
And there is a very real psychological effect where people love an educator, people love a guru. We kind of know those things. But the psychological fact is this accidental social debt where if someone comes to you and is willing to overcome the awkwardness of asking you a question, can you help me with this? Do you know someone with this?
00:42:19:15 - 00:42:45:19
Michael Conrad
What about this? Do you know you know this? And you're able to provide a real answer. You have entered into an accidental little social or they have entered into a social debt where they are now in your debt. And so they feel a very subtextual sort of compulsion to repay that debt in some manner. They might say thank you or they might try to do business with you or they might send you a thank you card or whatever.
00:42:45:19 - 00:43:18:08
Michael Conrad
And so that can be not in a machiavellian sort of way, but in a in a genuine sort of way that can be useful in business to be the person that knows the right answers to the questions. And it doesn't mean you have to be Wikipedia. You can still use Wikipedia, but giving away our currency in real estate of knowing who the right people are to go to because we fear that if they do a bad job, it's going to reflect on us when we give away that currency and don't make those recommendations.
00:43:18:10 - 00:43:29:17
Michael Conrad
I think we really sell ourselves short because the clients desperately want it, because they just don't know the answers more and more and more and more these days.
00:43:29:18 - 00:43:43:03
Steve Luther
You know, to that point, I, I, I've always I don't like the idea of, okay, I'm going to give you like three names. Like what is what does that like? I can you know.
00:43:43:09 - 00:43:44:22
Michael Conrad
I'll give you three names. The top three results are.
00:43:44:22 - 00:43:54:12
Steve Luther
Google, right? Like I can Google that. Like if I need something done, I'm not going to randomly pick one of three. I've got one that I'm going to use.
00:43:54:12 - 00:43:58:15
Michael Conrad
Pretty sure Alexa is already listening and she's already going to serve them up to you, right?
00:43:58:15 - 00:44:15:11
Steve Luther
So like, why wouldn't I just say, well, you know, if it were me, this is this is who I would use. Now, that puts the onus on you to actually, you know, have a relationship with that person and know that they're going to represent your brand. Well.
00:44:15:13 - 00:44:16:05
Michael Conrad
I know the right word.
00:44:16:06 - 00:44:19:00
Steve Luther
Extension of your brand to vet them. Right. Of course.
00:44:19:01 - 00:44:37:07
Michael Conrad
That requires responsibility by and you've got to put the work in. Oh, I've got to understand why title attorneys even exist so I can know the right one to have be my friend, you know, kind of a thing. Or what's the difference between an escrow state and a title, say, blah, blah, blah. Like, we got to know those things.
00:44:37:08 - 00:44:56:01
Michael Conrad
And it's such an interesting little balance to walk because real estate bills itself as a I don't need to know those things profession, but you very much do to survive. So if you want to do any more practicing of real estate beyond day one, you have to know those things to get today. One, you don't have to know those things well.
00:44:56:01 - 00:45:16:03
Michael Conrad
Hey Steve, this has been really great to end to hear your thoughts on this is only confirmation that we're both going in great directions. And I'm super glad we got a chance to talk. And for folks here to get to know you, please give Steve and Chord Real Estate a look online. Follow them and keep an eye on all the things that they're doing.
00:45:16:08 - 00:45:38:05
Michael Conrad
Got some new ideas and projects that you'll certainly want to keep track of. And folks, hit subscribe. Stay with us. We are delivering amazing stories each and every week for folks all around the national metro, but it's relevant really everywhere. So this is the Business of Homes podcast and we'll catch you next time.
00:45:38:07 - 00:46:02:09
Jake Hall
Hey, everyone. Jake, again, director for the Business of Homes podcast. I hope you've enjoyed today's episode. A huge thank you to Steve Luther for being a part of the podcast. Go follow him on Instagram @scluther and @chordrealestate and let him know how much you enjoyed their story. Don't forget to subscribe on your preferred listening platform and make sure to follow us on Instagram as well.
00:46:02:09 - 00:46:14:13
Jake Hall
@thebusinessofhomespod. Do you have any feedback or want to suggest someone for the show? Email us at thebusinessofhomespodcast@gmail.com. Thank you again for listening and we'll see you soon.