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Tim Smith: An Open Mind meets Curious Soul and Discovers Anything is Possible

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Table of Contents
  1. Top Quotes
  2. Episode Resources
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Real estate Rockstar Tim Smith of the Tim Smith Group at Coldwell Banker tells his story of how he nurtured his entrepreneurial spirit starting at the young age of 13 scalping NBA tickets, to selling pool service packages while learning the ropes in real estate, to eventually dominating the coastal Orange County market.  Tim Smith is rewriting the book on what’s possible in real estate when you open your mind to greatness and remove the “thorn” that is holding you back.

Top Quotes

“Luck is a loser’s excuse for a winner’s commitment. Or it’s the intersection of where opportunity and preparation meet.”

“We’re all born and we all have this thorn in our flesh in life. We have two options in our life. We can either: build cushioning and protection around it so that nobody touches it to create pain in our life. And then we’ll even go through like extensive exercises to build apparatuses around and everybody in our lives got to make sure that nobody touches this thorn that’s going to create a discomfort. And then we’re willing to surround and we build a life trying to avoid pain, where the other option is just pull out the thorn. And like, nobody’s going to die from the pain or the discomfort, and so many people are stuck personally. They’ve stuck in their business. They just don’t know how to get out of their own way.”

Episode Resources

Teach Me How to Duffy

“Original artists Mr. Swag and Smoove da General of Cali Swag District as they learn from The Balboa Boys & Friends (influencers Myles Erlick, Trevor Flanagan-Tordjman, Zachary Burker, Hailey West, and Ashley Dane Clark) what a day on a Duffy is all about.”

Full Episode Transcript

Tim Smith: [00:00:00] luck is a loser’s excuse for a winner’s commitment, right? Or it’s the intersection of where opportunity and preparation me, you know? I would say that early. There’s always been this early interest I had in developing relationships and whether it be with, and it was, I would find people that were doing what I wanted to do and figure out how to build a relationship.

[00:00:42] Warren Dow: [00:00:42] welcome to DIGS INFLUENCERS PODCAST: the Titans of real estate. The show that provides direct access to the real estate industry’s top movers and shakers is they share invaluable insight on how to best navigate and succeed in any market. I’m your host, Warren Dow, founder and CEO of media and publisher of digs magazine, self-aware, self-assured, and self-made.

[00:01:08] Tim Smith is a man on a mission. Well, his passion for success is undeniable. It’s the daily grind and the little things that he finds most rewarding. Tim strikes the perfect balance of humor and humility in his quest to test the limits of what’s possible in real estate and he’s only getting started.

[00:01:31] His name is synonymous with the luxury coastal real estate market in Orange County. With over 2 billion and lifetime sales and leader of Coldwell maker’s number one team in California. He also makes some of the best marketing videos in the real estate industry, which has helped propel his team into a consistent top 20 ranking in the nation.

[00:01:50] Per the wall street journal. Please welcome to the show Tim Smith.

[00:01:55] Tim Smith: [00:01:55] Thank you for having me. You did say something. I just gotta change. You said one of the best filmmakers. I’m going to just going to, and I’m not going to Pat myself on the back cause it’s a team effort, but it’s the best. Sorry for all of you that are listening. You’re not watching. We don’t have enough followers. The content we’re pushing out is genius. You got to watch it.

[00:02:15] Warren Dow: [00:02:15] We’re going to get into that. Well, great. Well, welcome to the show again, Tim. Let’s start from the beginning. Are you an orange County native?

[00:02:21] Tim Smith: [00:02:21] I’m not. I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah.

[00:02:25] Warren Dow: [00:02:25] Ah, okay. Tell us about that.

[00:02:27] Tim Smith: [00:02:27] So grew up the youngest of five, grew up behind the Capitol, big jazz fan, loved the mountains, loved outdoors. Moved here February 12th, 1989. I’m a numbers guy and a date guy. There’s a lot of dates that I’ll remember forever. I’ve been in California ever since. Started my real estate career while I was in college in Utah at a prime commercial that was bought by CVRE.

[00:02:53] Spent a year there and then decided I loved real estate. I had really found my match. You know, when you just find it, it’s like the right suit. You just never want to take it off. I knew it was my suit. And so I, instead of finishing college out there, I came back out to California because I wanted to not raise or finish.

[00:03:14] I just didn’t, I wanted roots to be here, so I started working commercial real estate out here and then went to school at night, and then I got into residential in 2001 and I’ve been in residential

[00:03:25] Warren Dow: [00:03:25] school. So you’re skipping way ahead, Tim. Slow down. We want

[00:03:27] Tim Smith: [00:03:27] a full snapshot. We can jump back into it.

[00:03:30] That’s just the macro

[00:03:31] Warren Dow: [00:03:31] and go. I like that. I like that. All right, so let’s jump back. So what kind of trouble did you get in when you were a kid.

[00:03:37] Tim Smith: [00:03:37] Hmm. It was a skinny. Okay. So I’m raising a seven-year-old and a four year, a seven-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl. And really they’re raising me. I’m not raising anybody, but what’s interesting about how you parent these days is.

[00:03:52] It’s more like, it’s not really like a helicopter parent, more like a lawnmower parent. And I don’t know if you’ve heard this before, it’s like you’re in front of him trying to literally take any obstacle that could cause any pain in their life out of their way before they go there. But then if you reflect on your life, it’s like pain is the only thing that really makes us grow.

[00:04:12] But we want to shelter our kids from the pain. So. The reason I tell you that is because the one I was raised, it was a different era and I literally, like I tell my friends this all the time, and I have a seven-year-old, he just turned seven on Saturday, happy birthday bricks at eight and nine years old.

[00:04:29] I was out till like 1130. And 12 on school nights, scalping tickets on the West side of Salt Lake, which is not a great area to Utah jazz games. And I keep on trying to do the math thing and I couldn’t have been right, but I did it for five years. We moved when I was just, I just had turned 13 so 1312 1110 nine.

[00:04:53] I was doing that, and so I think the trouble that I may have gotten was not trouble from a standpoint of, yeah, I guess we kind of got in trouble, youngest of three, you know, I had three older brothers and older sister was really. We lived in nice areas, but we really never had like any discretionary income or money.

[00:05:09] So I always wanted and was finding ways to make money. And so I had a little scalping tickets, scalping business that was pretty successful.

[00:05:17] Warren Dow: [00:05:17] So those are your early seeds of entrepreneurship?

They were, and I still remember when I bought my first pair of air Jordan threes for $106 at the crossroads mall Footlocker.

[00:05:25] Tim Smith: [00:05:25] With money that I made the night before, scalping tickets. That was a pivotal moment in my life. You’re like,

[00:05:35] Warren Dow: [00:05:35] wow, this, this turns into that. So did you ever get busted though? Do you ever get like, okay, they,

[00:05:40] Tim Smith: [00:05:40] yeah, but like what can you do to like an 11-year-old little white kid being an entrepreneur and trying, and I don’t mean to make it a race thing, but it really like a little light.

[00:05:49] I mean, it just like I was, I mean, it’s like more a slap on the hands, but yeah, I got in some trouble that I’m not going to talk about as I got older because entrepreneurship can sure can be looked at as other ways in some things. So

[00:06:01] Warren Dow: [00:06:01] yeah. So what did your parents do for a living?

[00:06:04] Tim Smith: [00:06:04] My dad was in the insurance business and my mom was a stay-at-home mom, but she also cut hair.

[00:06:12] Warren Dow: [00:06:12] So that’s where you got your salesmanship DNA, huh? Insurance sales.

[00:06:16] Tim Smith: [00:06:16] Your dad put me down. I don’t know. I don’t know if it was that. I mean, that’s a good question. I don’t have the right answer for that, but I think that it was one of those things where I’d really just wanted stuff that I didn’t have, and so I had to be creative.

[00:06:29] And raising a little boy. It’s funny because I think my wife would say like, it’s ridiculous how you’re always negotiating with our son. You’re making it very difficult to live with, but I think it’s something he’s born with an alien. I think I was born with that in alien, but it’s like I was running a little, you know, I had four of my friends.

[00:06:47] We were all scalping tickets. We would make. I think there was one night we all like, we all walked away. We’re like two 50 so that’s a grand back in 1987 like that’s a lot of money for cats. A lie.

[00:06:58] Warren Dow: [00:06:58] Heck yeah.

[00:06:59] Tim Smith: [00:06:59] So it’s like those were, and I liked it. And then, you know, it’s interesting because. When I got into college, before I got into real estate, I had one of my best friends like, Oh, we need to work, construct, and this guy will pay us like 13 bucks an hour.

[00:07:11] And that was big money back then. Right. And I remember going out to this little area and we are working this construction site on weekends. And I just remember thinking, this is like the worst thing. I’d rather make no money than have to do this for eight hours a day. For 13 bucks an hour, and it’s not that I’m afraid to work, it’s just like it didn’t make sense.

[00:07:33] It didn’t come compute in my mind. I’d rather have a chance to make $1,000 in some sort of grind that I was in control of that.

[00:07:42] Warren Dow: [00:07:42] That’s what got me into sales too. I started in insurance sales at a college. I was, I mean, when I was in high school, I delivered, when I first was able to drive, I was delivering pizzas.

[00:07:50] Tim Smith: [00:07:50] Yeah.

[00:07:50] Warren Dow: [00:07:50] And I remember begging, you know, for a raise and I got like 15 cents an hour. I was like. I like made it to like $5 and 15 cents, you know? And I was like, Whoa. You know? But it’s still, it’s like those early seeds are like, I want to be in control. Of that equation, not someone else, but let’s go back to where did you go to school?

[00:08:09] Tim Smith: [00:08:09] So college or college? I went to, I started at a school, a college in Utah, and went there for a year. And then I came back here and I transferred to Cal State Fullerton. And I literally went at night and I got my degree. And I don’t mean to poopoo education. But I really have some strong feelings about academic obsolescence.

[00:08:27] I have some strong feelings about how some of the greatest people get put into the system, and that system really stifles any originality. It stifles innovation, entrepreneurship. So some of the people that I think could make the biggest impacts and differences never really get out of the Harbor if you will.

[00:08:46] Warren Dow: [00:08:46] So how are you going to deal with that with your own kids?

[00:08:48] Tim Smith: [00:08:48] Well, so I’m going through that right now. I mean, it

[00:08:50] Warren Dow: [00:08:50] really, is it going to be college or no college or

[00:08:52] Tim Smith: [00:08:52] literally dealing with it right now because we’re in private school, which I promised I would never do. And it’s like I can already feel in the infancy how they really want you to fit like this style.

[00:09:03] And when people that are. Outside thinkers are outside the box. They’re really, it’s one of those things where that’s where kids are impressionable and if they don’t have the confidence to trust their own voice, like they may never really nurture that. And I think the thing I’m so grateful for, I was kind of a free-range kid.

[00:09:23] Like, I really feel like that, and I think that like right now it would really be borderline. I mean, that’s dangerous. Like you can’t let you, I would never let my kid do something like what I used to do, like coming home at 1130 on a school night. Right, right. Like in like, I didn’t just a totally different paradigm, but I’m so grateful for the latitude I had because it really, you know, the seeds in my opinion of greatness.

[00:09:49] Are cultivated within those experiences, and I had those experiences and I’m really grateful for him, you know?

[00:09:57] Warren Dow: [00:09:57] Very cool. So, okay, let me ask you one last little question about youth. When you were growing up, did you have any like early career aspirations? I K I want to get into this profession or that profession?

[00:10:12] Or did you just know you were kind of bouncing around with this entrepreneurial sort of nature.

[00:10:16] Tim Smith: [00:10:16] So there’s two. It’s funny because I don’t think, and I’ve done a few of these, I’m becoming a more aware of my path now that I watched my son’s path. And one of the things that I remember as a kid, I always wanted to be out making friends with people that were older and doing stuff to the extent, like at one point, one of the guys that played for the NBA or for the Utah jazz.

[00:10:40] Would come pick me up before the basketball camp and drop me off. Like so unusual that, you know, at 25 28 year old is picking up a kid, taking a basketball camp, but my son’s like the same way. Like he like is attracted to the people that are older doing, and he’s just like, dad, can I go with them? And I’m like, ah, I don’t think so.

[00:11:01] Like I don’t know about that. So there were some really early seeds that were cultivated for entrepreneurship and there was a lot of confidence. It’s like, if I didn’t have the money, if I didn’t know a way to get something, I’d find one. And like I’ve always said in my group that, you know, they always say no until they say yes, but it’s that way with anything in life.

[00:11:20] It’s like when there’s. A door closes, you just have to look for the window. And I still remember the first time when this really was a lesson me, Brandon Adams, and Ralphie Cunningham finished basketball practice, and we were like third or fourth grade on the Westside. Our ride didn’t come, and so he walked over the salt palace and we’re trying to figure out how we can get a jazz game and in those stadiums where it’s snowy.

[00:11:45] They have like the outside area where you can go in, but then you still have another area. You have to give him the tickets so that the people outside aren’t getting cold. So we could get into the stadium. We just couldn’t get into the arena. So we were just walking around in circles looking for open doors, looking for up in, and they both came and saying, we’re not going to get in.

[00:12:03] I’m like, well, what else are we gonna do? So we just kept on walking around looking, and then all of a sudden some guy was running in late with two kids that, Hey, do you guys need to take it? Like, yeah. So he gave us a ticket and we looked at the ticket and it was a floor seat, and I don’t know what floor seats were then, but we immediately walked out, scout the ticket, and then bought three tickets and went, and it was like this huge, like, like who thinks about going to a basketball game without tickets?

[00:12:31] You just don’t, you don’t have tickets, you don’t go. So that was like an early lesson. And sometimes. Even though it’s natural for me to, you know, when there’s obstacles, look for another way. I remember that lesson and I really challenged myself, set myself up to, or, you know, set up experience that would cause me to grow because I know where there’s a will, there’s a way, and my son just has it and we talk all the time.

[00:12:57] It breaks in. The thing I love about you is when. When you can’t figure something out or you can’t get what you want, you’re always trying to find another way. And that can be an exhausting thing for a parent. But I love that about him.

[00:13:09] Warren Dow: [00:13:09] That’s a great story. And some people would say, Oh, your Tim’s a lucky guy.

[00:13:13] That’s his luck. You know? He just, you know, it’s not you create your luck, you created the, you created the opportunity.

[00:13:20] Tim Smith: [00:13:20] For that to happen. Right? It’s like the saying, luck is a loser’s excuse for a winner’s commitment. Right? Or it’s the intersection of where opportunity and preparation me. The second part was the question that you said, you know, I would say that early, there’s always been this early interest I had in developing relationships.

[00:13:40] And whether it be with, and it was, I would find people that were doing what I wanted to do and figure out how to build a relationship. And I grew, I learned very early. That the best way to connect with somebody is just to ask them to be interested in their story. And when they’re, when you’re truly, genuinely interested in people they want to share and they want to reciprocate.

[00:14:02] And so in cells, like I know cells can seem so complex sometimes and like you have all these techniques and I’m all about strategies for cell and how to do better and scripting and role-playing. But at the end of the day, it’s a relationship. And I’m truly, genuinely interested in people. And when you’re interested in people, it only helps cultivate itself.

[00:14:23] I’ll give you an example. When I was first in my early real estate career in California, I still have that same thing. I had to make money, I had to pay my bills. I didn’t want to take out student loans. So I put on a list kind of if you go back and like, it’s really kind of thinking, grow rich, all the things I wanted in a job.

[00:14:43] Right? And so I wanted to work summers and weekends. I wanted to make what people would make full-time. I didn’t really have the time with school to go and start really cultivating or cold calling. So I wanted to have warm leads and I put all these things down and I literally said, I want to make six figures.

[00:15:01] Right as a sophomore in college while I’m working, you know, an internship making no money in real estate. And one of my friends from high school calls me, he’s like, Hey, what are you doing? Come and interview with me. And I’m like, I don’t want to sell pool fences, pool safety barriers. Like come on, like I’m not doing that.

[00:15:18] Right. Cause you always have that idea, this is how I want to make my money. Yeah. But if you’re really clear on your intention and you’re open, not attached to the outcome, but open to the outcome. So I interviewed with them. I’m like, this is interesting. So basically he had the largest pool safety barrier company in California, and they basically set up all of the appointments for their sales reps in the summers.

[00:15:45] It was super busy. You’d go on five a day, and in the winter is you’d work weekends. And I’m like, so what started out as like resistance and this is why like don’t be attached to the outcome. Be open to the outcome, right? Because you never know. I got really intrigued and I’m like, well, what are your, so then I started saying, well, what are your guys making?

[00:16:02] He’s like, and they were making like these were like all adults with families, career guys that were doing this business. And they were making salaries that they could raise a family on. And so I’m like, can I look at their numbers? Like, yeah, sure. We were like, you know, one of my best friends. So we started looking at his numbers and I started thinking, okay, if they go on 30 appointments per week, and I started doing the math, that was the only thing I was ever good at in school.

[00:16:26] Math. And simple math and maybe more complex math. But I realized if I was above average, I was going to make somewhere above 80 grand a year and work the schedule I wanted. So I started doing that and it was fantastic. It was like exactly what I wanted, 30 appointments, but think about this. I’m an impressionable kid that’s trying to figure out what I want to do, and I have 30 appointments a week with people that have kids in a pool.

[00:16:50] And that want to put a safety barrier on right there. You’re like layering like these are kind of interesting people, and so I took this as an opportunity or a. A education for me to interview people of what they were doing and the, you know, a couple of funny things. One guy that I just sold a house for last year, it was a record and shady Canyon I met 24 years ago when I sold them a pool safety barrier.

[00:17:14] Warren Dow: [00:17:14] Full circle. That’s,

[00:17:15] Tim Smith: [00:17:15] it’s like crazy, right? Crazy. But going back, I forget the question that you were asking. I got plenty more. Don’t worry. No, but what, what brought me to that question.

[00:17:23] Warren Dow: [00:17:23] Just early career as a youth aspirations, like if you had any really,

[00:17:26] Tim Smith: [00:17:26] so I don’t remember my point. Maybe I’ll come back to it.

[00:17:29] But anyway, so that was a really interesting thing. But like setting the intention, getting it, and then that was a fantastic career for me to do until I got through this. Oh, I remember I was talking about cells so. I learned like as I was truly interested in their story, I always got the sell. And so the average guy was like closing 40% I got up to 60% you could play with your commissions, but I learned that like the key to closing the sell for me is if they would tell me about their life and their story every time they would buy it from me.

[00:18:03] Now sometimes they’d grind me and I’d have to match. But it was like there was this rapport. And so I learned from a young age that like developing relations is listening and really caring and we’re in the service of people no matter what you do and when you are hashtag like service squad, whatever.

[00:18:20] That’s truly how you can get what you want in life and it’s helping others, you know?

[00:18:25] Warren Dow: [00:18:25] Indeed. Jay Abraham has this whole, the preeminence strategy. I love Jay Rameys. Have you heard of Jay?

[00:18:31] Tim Smith: [00:18:31] Oh, of course. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:18:33] Warren Dow: [00:18:33] And he’s got a great saying. He says, if you want to be interesting. Be interested. And it’s another, another way of saying, well, you just said

[00:18:39] Tim Smith: [00:18:39] over and over, you know, and if there is a billboard, it’s like literally the billboard should say to get what you want in life.

[00:18:46] Whatever that is, go help others get what they want. And I guarantee you’ll get what you want. Absolutely. You know?

[00:18:53] Warren Dow: [00:18:53] So let’s go back into, let’s start, how did you get into real estate? We touched upon it, but like, when did you. Officially start selling real estate. What’d you get? Your license? And when we were like

[00:19:04] Tim Smith: [00:19:04] official, so I, I mean, I don’t know if there’s ever an official start date, right?

[00:19:08] But I S I worked at two commercial brokerages fairly unsuccessfully. But still in the lesson, I would say is there’s so many people that are getting into real estate. Real estate is not a part-time job. Nothing’s a part-time job. It’s like outliers. Anything you do for 10,000 hours, you become an expert.

[00:19:25] The quicker you can expedite that, the better. So if you’re thinking about getting in real estate, just drop everything, burn the ships, and do it. Right. If that’s, or whatever it is. It’s like there’s something about the commitment, right? Yeah. It’s like the, like the movie with Tom Hanks. What was that movie, Forrest Gump?

[00:19:41] Everything he did, he excelled that cause he would just commit to it. There’s some principle that in life, but it’s like, so I kind of stumbled around in commercial real estate selling pool covers and it was kinda tough to get really motivated when I was making like 180 to 200 grand a year selling pool covers working.

[00:19:57] 30% of the time, but I liked it and I saw myself long-term into it. So I got serious about commercial when I finished college, and then we had a client and my brother at the same time that both had houses they wanted to sell, and I was kind of intrigued. And I think honestly when I was selling a pool cover, one time I went to appointments in palace Verde and I’d love to go back and figure out who this was, my neck of the woods, and I was literally went to an appointment to meet with somebody.

[00:20:24] I remember at the time, it was probably late nineties this young guy drives up in like a Chevy Yukon, which was like the cool car, and he was the realtor on the house and they were selling it. And I remember seeing him thinking, Hey, I like that. I like his style. I could see myself doing that. And I just remember that for the first time right now.

[00:20:41] So I’d love to know who that is. So if you’re listening and you’re there, I remember you. I no idea. Late nineties so anyways, so I. Had those two opportunities and I was in commercial and had some experience with commercial, and when I went to talk to my broker, Hey, do you care if I do some residential deals?

[00:21:00] I know, go ahead. So I did them and I just fell in love with it. Like I literally, there was so many things about it that fit me and I think that we could go into a hole. Episode about what fit me, but it just really fit and I really could get into it. So I spent six months from that time when I did those transactions to jump in, I wanted to make sure that I joined the right person that would help me with relationships breaking the high end.

[00:21:24] So I interviewed with a bunch of different agents, found one Ron malar, who is still my dad of real estate, and he’s still in the business, and a great friend. Worked with him for two years and then started the SmithGroup in 2003.

[00:21:36] Warren Dow: [00:21:36] Wow. So the first two sales, those are your first two sales. Yup. No, what you’re talking about.

[00:21:41] Okay, so prior to hooking up with Ron, did you strategize and run number and be like, Hey, I’m going to focus on. Luxury coastal, I’m

[00:21:50] Tim Smith: [00:21:50] going to, yeah, so I did and I, there was a really a lot of thought that went into it, and going back to that pool cover job, I’m like, what do I want to do? Like I wanted to be in high-end.

[00:22:00] I didn’t really have any high-end relationships. I literally moved to Irvine from Utah and then from Irvine to Sianna. So we had no high-end relationships. So I decided that’s. I went through and I figured out who the top 10 agents were based on production. I went and interviewed with a bunch of them and I felt most covered with Ron because at the time he had sold, he and his partner, Kevin had sold the Huntington beach pavilion down on PCH in Maine in Huntington.

[00:22:26] Like, that’s good. There’s a little commercial, so I’ll do that. And so, yeah, it was, it was very well thought out. And the funny thing is, is that at the time I had stuck with the pool cover job. They had made me an offer. Which was, I mean, it was way too much money. Don’t leave, don’t leave too way too much money, and there’s no way that, now, in retrospect, I probably should have taken it for the money, but in retrospect, looking over the, you know, the 20 years forward from that, there’s no way they could have continued to pay that amount based on kind of market cycles.

[00:22:58] So it was the right decision, but I really ended up giving up a lot of money and a great gig working in the commercial real estate thing because I saw myself doing this and I took the time and then jumped in.

[00:23:10] Warren Dow: [00:23:10] So before Tim Smith Group, what was your first one? How much business did you do the first year?

[00:23:15] As a full-time residential real estate agent.

[00:23:17] Tim Smith: [00:23:17] I don’t, I mean it’s funny cause I remember of all those numbers and I’ve quoted them, but for some reason they’re lost on me now. But the one thing that I remember, Ron and Kevin really focused on Newport beach, but I was like, let’s go sell anywhere. And I remember seeing some discomfort when I took Ron to a listing appointment.

[00:23:37] In Ladera ranch, which was coming and Hills and then Tustin ranch estates. And I could tell he’s like, nah, I don’t know. This is a little, I mean, this is out there. I’m like, just go with me. Like when you say it, they’ll list with you. And so finding a mentor, joining this bit of finding a mentor that helped can help you not only get up to bat, but get on base is key.

[00:23:58] And I didn’t care if I had to split 50 50 with them. Like it made sense cause I never would have got those opportunities. And there were times when both of us were be going out to these listing appointments that I would get that were outside of Newport beach. Neither of us had any idea what the values were, but it’s like when he said something, I mean he had sold 100 million the prior year.

[00:24:16] People would listen. I’d get the list, we’d get the listing I’d work at, I’d split it. And it was a great relationship.

[00:24:22] Warren Dow: [00:24:22] So note to all new agents or aspiring agents, what Tim just said, which is profound, and that is. Don’t go it alone. Associate yourself with people who have been there, done that. 50% of something is better than 100% of nothing.

[00:24:37] Tim Smith: [00:24:37] And I would say, I would say with that really like there’s so many people that get into residential real estate that are shortsighted. It’s like it’s a cancer. And so there’s just not a lot of people that are playing the long ball. You gotta play the long ball if you want to sustain and have a great business.

[00:24:55] And ultimately you can’t do it alone. Like I don’t know how any new agent can compete against me and my group or the Lesher group or some of the other big groups, the King group, Stan, you can’t, there’s no way nobody’s going to give you a shot. So your education, if you’re added on your own, is going to take 10 years.

[00:25:12] Where if you’re at it with a big agent and you, I mean, you all want, you get what you pay for. I mean, people only value what they pay for and really like. One of my favorite quotes is you plant the seeds of greatness in the daily grind. No team leader is going to have some magic bullet. If you’re not willing to do the daily grind, put that uniform on every day.

[00:25:34] You just shouldn’t be in this business cause that’s what it takes. And you got to like the daily grind. It’s not a daily grind for me. I actually am envious of my agents that can go knock doors every day. Like I see some of the Instagram stories of my competing groups and they’re out knocking doors. I love knocking doors, like being with the people, like connecting with the people and is like, I love that.

[00:25:56] And it just like, it doesn’t make sense for me to do that at this point. Yeah.

[00:26:00] Warren Dow: [00:26:00] You have to evolve and

[00:26:02] Tim Smith: [00:26:02] listing appointments. I have so many referrals. It’s just like I have too much business there to do that. But I miss that there’s something just wrong. There’s just, it’s just raw and dirty

[00:26:12] Warren Dow: [00:26:12] and like that’s the building of it.

[00:26:14] All the brick by brick. So when did you first said it? The

[00:26:18] Tim Smith: [00:26:18] seeds of greatness? That’s not my quote. That’s Adam Grant. One of my favorite books I’m reading right now is original. He’s a teacher at Warren, which is one of the greatest MBA schools in the nation, in the world, but it’s like, great guy, big fan.

[00:26:32] Warren Dow: [00:26:32] Cool. I want to write that down before I leave today. I’m going to read that. Why don’t you sell your first home over 10 million bucks?

[00:26:39] Tim Smith: [00:26:39] I don’t know. That’s a great question too. Like I should have those answers, but it was,

[00:26:44] Warren Dow: [00:26:44] what would you, do you remember like when you first said it couldn’t meet, it doesn’t have to be 10 but like the first home that you went like, Holy, Holy crap.

[00:26:51] Sold a

[00:26:52] Tim Smith: [00:26:52] finally, it was, it was, it was few and far between. So kind of the way it went, 2001 to 2008 everybody did. Well, it was like dealing drugs, like it was the cocaine Cowboys in Miami. Like anybody could sell homes. And like, I still remember. One of my high school friends, which I had no business buying homes between 2001 and 2007 but one of my high school friends is like, Hey, I got four homes and I’m going to buy this house in Corona Del Mar.

[00:27:21] It’s 1,000,006 20 and I’m like, how are you getting these loans? He’s like stated income, bro. I’m like, do you even have a job? He’s like, no. Like they were giving people my money, this shit. But what’s funny about that is I wish I had the. Fortitude to go back because most of those people that were aggressively getting homes weren’t smart enough to make it through the downturn or didn’t have.

[00:27:43] It’s like, I wish I could go back and say, Hey, do this, get out, save it, and then go double down during the whatever. But it’s like. Those were like the really good times, and I think I did a fair amount of deals over five and 10 million there, but then 2008 happened and that was one of those pinnacle points for a lot of agents.

[00:28:03] And it was, I was a weak agent, like just flat out week. I had a bunch of listings and I wanted to really deem myself kind of the mid-century modern or the modern guy where I had all these listings and it was like about how I wanted it to look. But then one day my assistant comes to me and she basically said, you can pay your rent.

[00:28:23] Or you can pay me but you can’t do both this month. And I was like, what? Like like slam on the brakes. Right. That’s a sketchy. And I used to not pay bills cause I don’t like to pay bills cause it makes me feel rich or poor. I don’t like that emotion change. I don’t like that. I want to just always perform at the same level.

[00:28:39] So I would take those external triggers out that could create bad performance and saw like that was one of those big things. Went to a Tom Ferry one day seminar and I decided I got to get into coaching and I started coaching with Tom. And it was kind of my born again day and then 90 days, literally for 90 days I didn’t do any transactions and I had never had a 90-day dry spell before I started coaching.

[00:29:02] So Tom, like you are a terrible coach at first. Now. I’m kidding. It was the times. But the real interesting thing was is I was weak and like what would happen is the sellers, if you think we’re in this market, that’s just like literally the trajectory was straight up. Then overnight it was free-falling, and so what are the conversations you were having with sellers?

[00:29:24] It’s like, Hey, you’re one of 62 homes on the market in this price range. Like we got to get a more aggressive. The first response was always frustration for them. And at that point I wasn’t strong enough to not take responsibility. So I’m like, okay, we’ll do this. We’ll go do that. I would try to fix a problem and they would always say, well, you need to market more.

[00:29:44] But now in retrospect, it’s like, no. What we needed to do is have an honest conversation. We needed to get in front of the market and the people that did got out, the people that didn’t, I saw some of the most successful people that I knew kind of lose everything.

[00:29:57] Warren Dow: [00:29:57] So when you say weak, Tim, you’re saying.

[00:30:00] Just tell me more about, cause I’m on. So like when you say you were weakened

[00:30:05] Tim Smith: [00:30:05] without an effective strategy, you’re really a weak agent. And I had an inclination and I had a gut feeling that we were going into some very difficult times. So

[00:30:15] Warren Dow: [00:30:15] you were on cruise control kind of

[00:30:16] Tim Smith: [00:30:16] thing with cruise control, but it’s like, I didn’t really like.

[00:30:19] What do you do? And really, I think I wanted to avoid the confrontation of those tough co and the pain and not just the pain, the rejection, man. Okay. Right. I didn’t want to be rejected. I have my own childhood issues that I don’t want to deal with and not being enough and not being wanted and this and that.

[00:30:36] So like actually going and sitting in front of clients saying, Hey, we either drop the price or I’m out. Because like, I can’t do this though. We’re in a free fall. You either get in front of the market and I take my resources and assist you and your role. You’re either a seller or you’re not. But today we’re going to decide if you’re a seller, we’re going to do what it takes to sell.

[00:30:55] If you’re not, I’m not your guy anymore. And so that’s what I just wasn’t prepared. I gotcha. Okay. And that’s what Tom did. He gave me like this perspective and I went back to that intentional, make a list, and I started assigning, Hey. Why do I want to be in this business? I want to serve. I want to serve my clients and I want to make money.

[00:31:15] I want to make a lot of money. And I think people have this like idea that it’s bad to make a lot of money. Like I still want to make a shit ton of money and it’s not, so I can go buy boats and yachts. It’s so I can have freedom to do what I want to do, so I can buy rentals so I can give a back to miracles for kids crossroads, the wooden floor.

[00:31:34] Like, I want to make an impact. And it’s tough to do that when you can’t even pay your bills or you’re strapped. Like I see it with the charities that we’re a part of, and I want to make a shit ton of money and I want to make an impact and I want to leave a difference. But I just wasn’t strong and I had a hard time.

[00:31:48] And so getting into coaching and reframing, and I still remember because basically, we went through this. And Tom was new in his career. I don’t think Tom had all these great solutions. I remember we were sitting there and he’s like, let’s go through your clients. And I don’t know, I think at the time I probably had 25 listings.

[00:32:05] We went through my client list, and I think when we basically just like a, I mean this is just. This is not rocket science. It’s like 25 listings right now. How many of those sellers are real sellers? I think there was like two, so what are we going to do about it? And I’m like, I don’t know. We’re just going to hope the market changes, blah, blah, blah.

[00:32:25] All this, all this bullshit, you know, is is you know better, but you just don’t want to have this tough, don’t want to get to the truth. Right? And so I still remember, he’s like, we basically, it’s like, okay, Fisher, cut Bay, all these clients. And I still remember when I was going to my first, it’s like, go through the list, get rid of the dead weight, and then try to find sellers and opportunities because.

[00:32:47] In a good or bad market, you just have to be on the side of the people that are selling or buying. Right. And like in, so there’s all these lessons I learned, but I still remember going to this door in shady Canyon to meet clients, to basically break up with them. And I’ve never been. Good at those conversations, or maybe not good as the word.

[00:33:05] I’ve done anything I can even death to avoid conversations like that and in cells when you’re trying to get a yes to go and cancel, it’s like, I mean, you don’t do that. It’s like forbidden, right? So I still remember going to the, do I get out of the car and then I called Tom, I can’t do this. Like I literally can’t do it.

[00:33:22] He’s like, just go in there. And just have the conversation. It’s time. It’s either you or them. Right? So I went and sat down with them and we basically had this really direct conversation. No fluff, no bullshit. And I remember it went so smoothly. We ended up canceling the listing, which was fine, but all the things I was afraid of.

[00:33:43] Just didn’t happen. And how empowered I felt of giving my a listing. I gave them an opportunity to reduce the price to where I thought it would sell. And they said no, and that was okay. And I let them go and I know what happened with those people. Those people ended up short selling their house. Wow. And now I can go in there and I can have those conversations.

[00:34:07] I mean, the thing that I really love about the business now is I don’t control the market. I know in the market shift, the market shifting right now we have listings that are getting no showings, and I felt like they were priced right and before, I couldn’t say I was wrong before I would just keep on telling them things like, we’re going to get it sold.

[00:34:26] Even in my mind, I knew now I can just say, you know what? I was wrong. The market shifted. I thought we could shoot for higher. I love to set records. It was the wrong thing for me to do, but if you want to sell, this is where you need to be. So are you a seller at that number? And they’re like, well, no. Okay, so we’ll, do you want to rent it out?

[00:34:44] Then we’ll know. Well, then I think we have to talk about how our relationship’s going to go because I am in a point where I have to be positioned with real sellers. And that’s a hard conversation to have. And a lot of times it’s a rejection thing and everybody feels weird about it, but I’m in this business to serve and to sell.

[00:35:03] Warren Dow: [00:35:03] Yeah. It’s a big differentiator because let’s talk about the market. That’s a great story because it obviously helped give you a foundational sort of level of confidence and understanding of what your true job is in this space. You know, to serve them and to put their needs first and no matter what the outcome, just communications our greatest tool, use it wisely.

[00:35:24] Right?

[00:35:25] Tim Smith: [00:35:25] For sure. So

[00:35:26] Warren Dow: [00:35:26] getting back to the market, where are we at? I mean we’re, we’re at the end of a typical 10 year cycle,

[00:35:31] Tim Smith: [00:35:31] right? We’re beyond that. So

[00:35:33] Warren Dow: [00:35:33] where are

[00:35:34] Tim Smith: [00:35:34] we at? Can tell you where the market’s going is like wrong. Right? Cause I remember in 2004 I’m like, this can’t go up anymore. Do you remember feeling that way?

[00:35:42] I don’t know if you remember, but I remember like. Like the stated income loans, all of a sudden like this can not keep ongoing. And it went for another three years. So what I can verify is that we’ve been on an uphill. Kind of run since 2013 we’ve seen a couple little bumps, you know, election 2016 last year we saw a huge slow-down inventory increase.

[00:36:06] The outlook for this year looked pretty grim starting in January with 45% higher inventory than last year as sells, volume down, pricing down. But then we’ve had three interest rate takedowns. So we’ve seen this resurgence. At or below inch, you know, inventory levels where we were last year in my marketplace.

[00:36:24] Orange County, coastal. That’s what I’m an expert. I don’t know about the other stuff, so. It’s still good, but it’s like in my gut, in my heart of hearts, and what I know is next year is going to be a tough year. And you know what? Could I be wrong? For sure. But I remember that I felt this way in 2008 and 2009 and I wasn’t very good at communicating it.

[00:36:46] And so I. I ended up because I knew something and I felt strongly about it and not articulate. I ended up not serving the needs of those clients best cause I think I could have helped those people get out and actually have a win instead of the huge losses they took. So it’s the same way now. And it’s like a lot of things I just know and I feel, and we have a different pulse.

[00:37:08] I sell from, you know, seeing Clemente to Huntington Harbor and we have. At any given time, 60 70 80 listings. So we have a real pulse on all the markets, and I start to see the little things that are not just triggers or indicators that I think are subtle nuances that are, that are really our communication and answers of where the market’s going.

[00:37:30] So, but does anybody know? Nobody knows

[00:37:32] Warren Dow: [00:37:32] what’s your listing? And you can say 60 70 listings. What’s your, what’s your inventory level at right now in terms of. Is that $1 billion,

[00:37:39] isn’t

[00:37:39] Tim Smith: [00:37:39] it? Now I think it’s probably somewhere around, you know, half a billion in inventory right now.

[00:37:44] Warren Dow: [00:37:44] It’s crazy to think those numbers when you start, right?

[00:37:47] Like having a billion, there’s like people in West LA that have over 2 billion

[00:37:53] Tim Smith: [00:37:53] inventory,

[00:37:54] Warren Dow: [00:37:54] like listing inventory. It’s like. It’s just

[00:37:56] Tim Smith: [00:37:56] mind-boggling. The better question is, is of that half a billion in inventory, how much is sellable in the next 30 days? That’d be a good question.

[00:38:05] Warren Dow: [00:38:05] Okay. I just ask it.

[00:38:07] Tim Smith: [00:38:07] I don’t know.

[00:38:07] I’d have to, we’d have to do a deep dive, but I don’t, I’m not sure.

[00:38:12] Warren Dow: [00:38:12] So you’re known for something in particular besides being successful and who you are, and that’s these killer videos that you make. You’ve been a pioneer in the industry really, of taking. Sort of the property video, the listing video, the typical pan show, the features and blah, blah, blah, and to really a mini-movie sorta cinematic.

[00:38:33] Experience. Let’s start with you. You want to spend 50 50,000 on a video, right?

[00:38:38] Tim Smith: [00:38:38] I think there’s been a couple of though we’ve spent, we’ve had some big budgets on. Yeah, for sure. So

[00:38:42] Warren Dow: [00:38:42] how did that, well, let’s, before we talk about that, what was the first video that you ever did

[00:38:46] Tim Smith: [00:38:46] at the time? Like there was something I always had about film and video.

[00:38:50] Like I’ve just always loved it and I’m always searching out for like a unique selling proposal, a competitive edge. Right? Like I’m always looking for a competitive edge. And I, I mean, the one thing that I know in my heart, like I know this, that there’s nobody that can really serve as clients. Like I can, like we can, when we’re performing on all cylinders, I get the, not every transaction’s going to be the same, but we really are great at what we do and we’re more interested in the clients.

[00:39:22] So. That assumption has really helped me. What does that mean in my

[00:39:27] Warren Dow: [00:39:27] business? Is

[00:39:29] Tim Smith: [00:39:29] that marketing from soup to nuts? What are the cylinders?

[00:39:31] Warren Dow: [00:39:31] So they all, so I

[00:39:33] Tim Smith: [00:39:33] would say the three buckets are number one, outreach. Like what is outreach? And I knew that film and video was going to be the future, and that was 10 years ago when we first did it.

[00:39:45] And the reason. That we started doing it. We had some connection to some people in LA, but the films, you know, I got in a helicopter and flew around and did this because I thought, Hey, this is interesting. It’s an interesting brand. We had these connections, great friends that helped us, but we just couldn’t deliver them fast enough or.

[00:40:03] Cost-effectively enough to make it work. And so we, you know, we do these things and it takes six or eight weeks to deliver. Well, you know how a seller is, when they want to list their house, they want to film, it’s six to eight minutes, right? So like, that didn’t always work. So just over the years, we’ve just cut our teeth and figured out ways to create content and deliver.

[00:40:21] And now it’s like we have like these systems, you know, the three buckets are number one, outreach or marketing. So anybody can create great content. I don’t think it’s as great as ours. Anybody can create films. I don’t think they’re as creative. I don’t think they are done as well. Like if you look at the, just the, the film quality that we’re doing with the cameras, we’re using, nobody in our space is doing it for all you film buffs that aren’t watching.

[00:40:48] I want you to watch and give critique as, but creating the content is like outreach. 1.0 getting it out is 2.0. And not only does that take expertise, but that takes huge resources, both money, and human resources. And I would say that 90% of my competition, even if they. We’re willing to do it. They couldn’t figure out how to do it effectively.

[00:41:16] And I mean, it’s really been a process because when we really started doing some of these digital solutions, because we were, you know, what really happened is we were creating these films. I felt like we should have millions of views on and nobody was watching them. So I’m like, well, how do we get it in front of people?

[00:41:30] So we started just looking at all these different solutions, which costs money. It takes time. And then we started finding some solutions. I still remember one day we were looking at the analytics and we went like a hundred times more visitors to our site within a couple of days with these digital solutions.

[00:41:47] And then a thousand times. And I was like, Whoa. But what was weird is a phone wasn’t ringing. So I’m like, wait a second, we’re getting, you know, we’ve gone a hundred or a thousand X on visitors and views, but we’re not getting any real leads like, and I’m spending all this money to do it, and you’re going to the businessmen if it like, there’s no ROI, you can’t do it.

[00:42:07] But then I started looking at it and. It started with views and then they re-engage. So then I realized, well, these are our leads that are going to call you always, right? So you need to have an in-house sales team that’s catching and pitching. So that costs money too.

[00:42:22] Warren Dow: [00:42:22] I look at it more like this to him. I looked at it more

[00:42:23] Tim Smith: [00:42:23] like this is an important key because it’s like this all evolves and so I could have stopped and said, I just can’t afford it.

[00:42:29] Or I could have, well, there’s another hurdle. All these leads that are coming in, they need to be incubated, they need to be cultivated well. I need to have an in-house sales team. So we have people pitching and catching while now we have all of those things and nobody else has them. So we are actually extracting and finding buyers for our properties that are outside of our marketplaces and bringing them there.

[00:42:51] And we’re doing it through digital solutions and through great marketing, incubation, and sells to get those. You know, we call it big fish, light tackle. We’re trying to get big fish on light tackle, and we’re trying to do in a way that’s scalable. So, so that’s the first part is the outreach and the marketing.

[00:43:08] And that’s one big bucket. And that takes expertise, money, time, energy, all of the above. And then the second piece to that is how our team functions. You have to have a team that supports that and it’s like, I am very clear, I don’t remember what year it was. In 2014 1516 the wall street journal came out and basically this huge like shift.

[00:43:32] It was like this inflection point. I don’t even know if that’s the right word for it, but from one year. From last year, this year, teams grew by 42% in sales volume and individuals shrank by like 19% so there’s a 63% Delta in growth. And it was clear because how can a solo practitioner agent compete against me when we have 12 salaried admin executives helping to support us in our listings and in-house sales team, an outbound sales team showing agents all these things.

[00:44:07] They just can’t. I mean, it’s like a team always outperforms the individual, and that was the year that the data supported it. And now it’s grown to even show that the statistics are effective. Teams will always outperform it, an individual.

[00:44:21] Warren Dow: [00:44:21] So the paradigm has shifted. And do you think it’s will only accelerate?

[00:44:25] Right? It’s not going to go back.

[00:44:26] Tim Smith: [00:44:26] Well, I think there’s people that are going to have business and continue to run their solo practitioner business, but will they be growth? No. Will they be next decade? Will they still be dominating? Not a chance. Like there’s no chance you can already see that companies are buying teams instead of buying brokerages.

[00:44:45] So it’s like, you know, you can see when, when there’s an ROI on it, that’s when you know that’s a direction it’s going. And having an effective team and an effective culture is not an easy thing. It’s just not, it’s like very challenging, but it’s fun. It’s like a family, you know?

[00:45:02] Warren Dow: [00:45:02] But I thought real estate was easy, Tim, you just get your license and you start making like 5 million bucks, make cool videos.

[00:45:07] And it isn’t it that, isn’t that how it works? For sure. So let’s, we gotta talk about the Duffy video, cause it’s worth talking about. How’d you think of that? How did that come?

[00:45:18] Tim Smith: [00:45:18] I mean, so really, I don’t want to take credit where credit’s not do, so we have a crew and creative team that they’re always coming up with ideas.

[00:45:26] But the one that’s really doing is my partner in the production company who makes legitimate films and movies, and he’s a great friend. Um, he just, I mean, he’s the King ideas. He’s the creative and it’s just like, we come up with these ideas, we vet them out. Like we were talking about a listing right now, and we have these couple ideas, and I’ve just was.

[00:45:43] Laughing at how funny these are ideas are. But like now we’re getting hundreds of thousands and millions of years, but I feel like my Instagram, based on the content, I mean, we’re pumping out some great content and I feel like if people saw we should have a hundred times more Instagram followers than we do because I see what other people are doing.

[00:46:02] But. The ideas are just amazing and they’re not cheap. Like, who spends $20,000 on a listing video? Right? Like, I just like love to do. I love to make my sellers happy. We love like when people, you know, I still remember one of my class in college when marketing is done effectively selling becomes superfluous with great content, snackable, sharable content, great films.

[00:46:27] It really is the case marketing becomes, or selling becomes superfluous when marketing is done correctly. And so the teach me how to deputy filmed the whole goal, the whole job of that film is we wanted every agent in the United States to know about that house and you think, well, why do we want that will?

[00:46:45] Because. We know that the buyer that’s going to be willing to pay the most for our properties here are not from Newport beach. They’re not from our orange County. Some of the times they are, but it’s going to be somebody from nationally and internationally. So how do we create this splash? And I still remember in that first weekend when I was getting.

[00:47:04] Emails and texts, and I was really nervous to launch it because the seller really didn’t know what we were doing, and it was, it was unconventional to say the least. Yeah, and it was met with a lot of really strong opinions. Like strong where I couldn’t sleep at night and strong, where love-hate, and the seller was like, what’s going on?

[00:47:26] There’s two people in there. Duffy’s on my dock at two in the morning blaring, teach me how to deaf. He yelling, Tim, come out and dance with me.

[00:47:37] Warren Dow: [00:47:37] So

[00:47:37] Tim Smith: [00:47:37] it felt like it, you know, it was like, is this going to be a success or failure? But then. What happened is like that first weekend, I think the wall street journal picked it up.

[00:47:45] New York Post picked it up and then it just went from there. We had over 50 I think there’s 55 or 56 national and international media sources that picked it up. Everybody in real estate knew about it. You know, I’ve gone on to talk a lot about doing out-of-the-box marketing. And it really worked because in the end, on a 10-month transaction of a record sell to buyers, we’re competing.

[00:48:08] So a multiple offer situation, which we try to guarantee, which you can never do, right? With great outreach, it gives you a better chance of getting multiple offers. Both buyers, not from California. Both buyers were connected to the house through that film. And if you remember the film that had very little to do with the house

[00:48:26] Warren Dow: [00:48:26] right.

[00:48:27] Yup. No, it’s a great, it’s a great marketing story. I can go on and on, I’m a marketing guy. I love marketing. I can go on and on, but what’s interesting about that, it’s not so much will the video ROI or what was the sort of response and how many views and all that, you know, these are all investments in your brand.

[00:48:46] And in building Mindshare and all roads lead back to the Tim Smith group, right? So it’s less in my mind how these things are performing individually and what’s happening sort of tertiary to the actual asset performance. It’s more about the bigger, the more of these videos you put out, like 200 of these videos, you’ve got like over 6,000 subscribers on YouTube.

[00:49:07] You’re known for this. Now, this is your signature channel. This is completely propelled and accelerated your brand. You know what I mean? So it’s a branding play more than a, let me be a video real estate guru play,

[00:49:22] Tim Smith: [00:49:22] right? Yeah. I mean, for sure. I mean, it’s definitely done a lot of that, but one of the things I was just thinking when you were saying it’s like.

[00:49:29] I want to have 600,000 followers. And it’s not like an ego thing, but it’s like, what are you waiting for, man? I ain’t know. Hey, 2000 bank day, bank day, that’s 2020 bank. They may day. That’s going to be my year. It’s gonna be my family’s year, my kiddos year, but it’s going to be living our best life and when you’re living your best life.

[00:49:47] That means you’re doing great things for people. You’re doing all the things that you want to do. You’re breaking out your best ideas, you’re drinking your best wine, taking your best trips, taking your big risks. But I would just say like, it just goes to show, cause I don’t want to say that. And there’s so many people that are creative and so many great people, my team and in the industry.

[00:50:06] But it’s just a fun thing. And there’s just like so much opportunity if you’re willing to take a risk, whatever it is in life. Right? So many people are just stuck and they get stuck for whatever reasons. And it’s like, you know, I read a book, the untethered soul, which I’m a huge fan of personal growth, but it talks, there’s a chapter, it talks about how we’re all born and we all have kind of this thorn in our flesh in life, and this thorn our flesh.

[00:50:32] We can, we have two options in our life. We can either. Build cushioning and protection around it so that nobody touches it to create pain in our life. And then we’ll even go through like extensive exercises to build apparatuses around and everybody in our lives got to make sure that nobody touches this thorn that’s going to create a discomfort.

[00:50:53] And then we’re willing to surround and we build a life trying to avoid pain, where the other option is just pull out the thorn. And like, nobody’s going to die from the pain or the discomfort, and so many people are stuck personally. They’ve stuck in their business. They just don’t know how to get out of their own way.

[00:51:14] And I just don’t think it’s as complex. And I think that a life is waiting for each of us if we’re willing to really look at that and be honest and open about where we’re at and take big risks. And I want to take huge risks and I want to make bigger films. I don’t want to be a one-hit-wonder and I want to have, I mean, there’s just so many things that I want to do.

[00:51:34] I just passed my 44th year, which feels kind of like halfway for me. Even though I’m going to live to be 126 sure. But, but halfway. So it’s one of those things where I want to, the next 40 years, I want to make a big impact and a big difference.

[00:51:48] Warren Dow: [00:51:48] Big go. You’ve already made a big impact. I mean, you and your team.

[00:51:52] Is always top 20 right. In terms of

[00:51:55] Tim Smith: [00:51:55] Wall Street Journal, last probably five or six years ago. And you,

[00:51:59] Warren Dow: [00:51:59] you’ve been doing over 250 million every year pretty much, right?

[00:52:03] Tim Smith: [00:52:03] 500 is it 500 well, I mean, the average to the last three years, we’ve done over 400 yeah. Between four and five minor detail.

[00:52:10] Warren Dow: [00:52:10] A couple of hundred

[00:52:11] Tim Smith: [00:52:11] million, 10 we’re probably closer to three or 4 billion, but whatever. It’s okay.

[00:52:15] Warren Dow: [00:52:15] Oh, that’s awesome. It’s just these numbers become crazy at

[00:52:19] Tim Smith: [00:52:19] the represent people that we can serve, not just money. So I want to make sure that I’m distinguished that because a lot of real estate, but these are people we serve.

[00:52:28] We’re servants. Yeah. So these are opportunities to connect with people.

[00:52:31] Warren Dow: [00:52:31] All the success you’ve had. In this space? I mean, what are you most proud of if you, if you were to retire today and said, what are you most proud of? Like you walking away? What, what is that?

[00:52:42] Tim Smith: [00:52:42] Wow, that’s, uh, that I don’t know that I can answer that question.

[00:52:46] Like, effectively right now, what am I most proud of. I dunno, I need to come back to that question. Maybe that should be on the blog post. This

[00:52:55] Warren Dow: [00:52:55] will be the or take, or do they call it the, uh,

[00:52:58] Tim Smith: [00:52:58] behind the scenes after, I mean, I’m proud of like the people in my life. You know, one of the things that I was really thinking, it’s like, I love to have experiences, but I’m GRA I’m really proud and happy for the people that are in my life, my family, my kids, my wife, but just all the people that I work with, my clients.

[00:53:16] Like life’s about people, you know, and this is a side note, but we as a family, try to like get when we can travel, go travel on. We went to beliefs for a Thanksgiving, which I want to do some adventurous stuff, which isn’t always, you know, it’s not always great for little kids. But I just remember that my two favorite parts of the trip is one, watching my six-year-old now, seven-year-old son connect with different people.

[00:53:41] There is one day we were driving out to go like kayaking or something and he was in the front seat of the car and we’re in one of those open like a Jeeps. And he’s sitting there talking to Desmond. Desmond was probably a 30-year-old guy that was driving a sale on a tour, and he was explaining every time he got in the car, he wanted to sit with Desmond.

[00:54:01] And I was like me and like they were homeys and like, I love to see my little boy being homies. And then the other thing is. We’re going on this trip, which we’re totally prepared, and we were going into monkey river and we got on this little boat that was crazy, and there was two other families, and we’re going into this storm.

[00:54:17] We had to take this boat 30 minutes in the ocean up to this river. This is the longest river and beliefs that comes down and meets the ocean. And we’re headed into the storm, and the other two families were totally ill-prepared. We had our stuff on, and I think we’re all kind of uncomfortable and we get in a storm and it’s like a torrential downpour.

[00:54:35] And I’m like deflecting my kids. And I look over and I see this other family that’s sitting on the seat across from me. And he was their husband, wife, their son, and then his mother. And she was probably in her seventies and she was literally just sitting there taking this storm. Like with her face into a closing her eyes.

[00:54:56] And I just started laughing. It was like Claire said it was 80 85 degrees and everybody on that boat starts laughing hysterically and it was pretty tense, right? Cause it’s like, what can you do? Like even our raincoats didn’t. And I just think like life’s about experiences. Like I want to have these experiences.

[00:55:12] I’ll never forget that and I don’t think anybody on that boat while, and my wife and I laughed so hard and left

[00:55:18] Warren Dow: [00:55:18] the name of Christ and print on your

[00:55:19] Tim Smith: [00:55:19] left, an indelible impression on my soul. So I love to travel and see what the world,

[00:55:24] Warren Dow: [00:55:24] so you love to experience in your career too. What do you think is the biggest mistake?

[00:55:28] Failure. Did you have any like bad, like, Oh man, I screwed that up or I really. Made a bad decision or was there any moment that,

[00:55:37] Tim Smith: [00:55:37] I mean, I, I can just think of thousands. So it was like one thing that I’m just thinking of, the way I wanna answer that question is like, you never really want to focus on your failures, right?

[00:55:49] But I’m actually, you want to learn 2020 I’m going to actually go and I’m going to put like my highlight reel of failures. And instead of having like a support group, I want to have a group that challenges me. It’s like, let’s just get honest about who we are, our weaknesses. Because it’s like the more you embrace what it is and you grow thick skin, you can only grow.

[00:56:09] And this, it’s about growth. And I want to grow. And I know there’s things that get in my way. And I think if you ask my team after they said all the nice things that they’d probably say, because I’m their boss, I know they all have some probably really good. Thoughts about how I can improve, how I could be better if the metrics to serve what I’m doing, what are my blind spots like we all have blind spots and I have tremendous blind spots in my family, in the business, and so I don’t want to like, I don’t want to just, you know, I remember I drove this car in high school that literally it made so much noise that I would just turn the radio up so I didn’t have to hear the noise.

[00:56:48] But damn, like that car was going to break down and did break down. It’s like, I want to do that in my own life. I don’t want to turn the radio up and like avoid all the shit that I shouldn’t be avoiding.

[00:57:01] Warren Dow: [00:57:01] It’s back to that thorn, right?

[00:57:02] Tim Smith: [00:57:02] I want to, I want to pull the phone out. I want to embrace it, man. I want to move on.

[00:57:06] I want to live that life. You know, and you can’t do it and there’s this growth, but the untethered soul, amazing book

[00:57:12] Warren Dow: [00:57:12] on that. Definitely want to check it out so. How competitive is the OSI market? I mean, we, I live in, I live in South Bay and we cover, you know, South Bay and Westside from Malibu, basically from PV all the way through Malibu and Beverly Hills.

[00:57:26] And Willa. And LA and South Bay, super competitive, different markets, but like, how’s the OSC comparatively speaking? Is it like,

[00:57:34] Tim Smith: [00:57:34] it’s competitive? And it’s funny because I, the, you know, I do the daily hot sheet. If you don’t know what that is, is listening. It’s like you look at what’s new listings, backup pending, sold.

[00:57:43] And I literally look at it and every time I see a listing that we didn’t get, which is 90% of them, 95% of them, I’m like, no. No. Or I see guys knocking doors. Kevin Sturtevant out, always looking hip, knock on doors and like damn him. But it’s like, I know that right now, that’s not where I’m at. And we’re doing a ton of business.

[00:58:04] Right? So, but it’s competitive. And you know, the funny thing is, is like. There’s not any people that I compete with I don’t like, and I’m finding that like, even though it is a really good competition and it’s fun to compete, there’s some great agents and there’s some great people in this business. I mean, you have to be to be on the top.

[00:58:23] Warren Dow: [00:58:23] Is it frenemies or is it like. Hey, we can coexist,

[00:58:27] Tim Smith: [00:58:27] but no, I think for the most part, I would say 90% of the people in the business, like I, yeah, I’m like, I’m happy for their success and I couldn’t always feel that way and half the time, like I feel like it’s our business to lose, so when we lose it, it’s because we weren’t persistent enough.

[00:58:43] Like in real estate. It’s funny how so many people like, ah, I just don’t want to bug people. Like what are you talking about? Bug people, like the people that are getting the listings. I have this belief that if I were to call you every day, 10 days in a row, and you didn’t call me back, that you really want to talk to me, you’re just super busy like I am.

[00:59:01] So you haven’t had a chance to get me back, so it’s never going to stop me or deter me from calling you again. And once I get you, I’m like, Oh, I’m super stoked. We finally connected right. Which may not be the case, which they may be screening me out dodging me. But it’s like change your belief system about stuff because like persistence is the key and the problem.

[00:59:20] Why more people aren’t persistent cause they don’t believe they’re the best. When I’m persistent, it’s like I really feel like people were going to be doing a disservice if they don’t choose me. Yeah. Like I, I give them the best chance to get the most, every seller deserves to have. The highest price and sell the house the most quickly.

[00:59:38] I give you the best chance. So sellers, I want to meet with you and agents. If you don’t feel that way, well, you better figure out what your unique selling proposal is or your competitive edge to get there because otherwise, I’m going to get that listing

[00:59:51] Warren Dow: [00:59:51] and a few. Yeah, and then in, that’s a great, great thing to say and.

[00:59:56] And agents out there value what you do because if you don’t, neither will the person sitting across from you if you’re in it to sell on your sale, you know it’s not gonna work out as planned. Listen to Tim Smith, he’s got some words of wisdom, and call him right anytime for some

[01:00:12] Tim Smith: [01:00:12] absolutely

[01:00:12] Warren Dow: [01:00:12] some guidance as long as you’re not in his market because to cold list or refer San Diego or Santa Barbara.

[01:00:20] So let’s talk about the industry real quick. You’re with Coldwell banker?

[01:00:23] Tim Smith: [01:00:23] Yup.

[01:00:25] Warren Dow: [01:00:25] You’ve heard of this little company, this new little company that’s been bouncing around called Compass. I’m just curious, have they approached you.

[01:00:32] Tim Smith: [01:00:32] I don’t want to get on my bandwagon with this cause I’ve done it in the past.

[01:00:35] Warren Dow: [01:00:35] I don’t.

[01:00:36] I’m unaware of it.

[01:00:36] Tim Smith: [01:00:36] So the bottom line is I love Coldwell banker. Coldwell Banker has been great for me. I’m a loyal guy. I know that Coldwell banker gives me the best tools to service my clients and give them the best results. That’s why I’m at Cole Baker. I love our leadership. I love our company as a whole.

[01:00:56] But I’m all about, I’m a seller’s agent, and if I think that there’s better tools somewhere else, I’d look at them. I’ve just yet to find those.

[01:01:02] Warren Dow: [01:01:02] The Tim Smith group is the brand, right? So no disrespect to the brokerage, any brokerage, but you’re doing the transaction. You’re, you’re the one sitting at the, at the kitchen table, negotiating and right.

[01:01:17] And serving.

[01:01:18] Tim Smith: [01:01:18] How important

[01:01:20] Warren Dow: [01:01:20] do you think as this industry transitions and transforms, is that brokerage cache?

[01:01:25] Tim Smith: [01:01:25] I think the brokerage is huge. If you use the tools and if you’re interested in using all tools, if the goal is every seller to get the most, or it’s really every seller to get the highest net proceeds because sometimes you have to spend money to make money, right?

[01:01:39] So you may have to remodel your house, do whatever. But whoever can give you the biggest and best outreach and the best support and systems is going to give you the best chance of getting the most eyeballs, which turned to showings, which turned to offers, which hopefully can be a multiple offer situation.

[01:01:56] So I think the brokerage and their tools and their leadership and everything is hugely important to my business. For sure. So could I get that somewhere else? Yeah, I think so. Is it any company that’s there right now? I don’t think so. Could I do that on my own? Yeah, but it wouldn’t be with, I would be giving up a lot to do the same thing and really the right, like right now I’m Ninja, easy breezy.

[01:02:21] I can transition. I can audible because the systems of support, the companies, they’re like, I don’t want to take on anything that’s going to keep my eyes off. Getting my sellers, our, you know, our clients the best opportunity to sell or buy. So that would be my long answer to a short question.

[01:02:40] Warren Dow: [01:02:40] iBuyers real G, which owns Goodwill, right?

[01:02:44] Colon maker. They just got into the iBuying space. Everyone’s in and out. In Keller’s, in a Redfin and now Zillow, obviously, you heard, you know, several offers and now I think this is made an announcement plus last week. Zillow offers is an OSI in LA. What are you hearing out there

[01:02:59] Tim Smith: [01:02:59] from your clients or what you hear?

[01:03:01] Anything?

[01:03:01] Warren Dow: [01:03:01] I mean, it’s, I think traction.

[01:03:02] Tim Smith: [01:03:02] I don’t want to spend too much time on this, but I think it’s, our marketplace is so different than like Temecula Riverside where I think they’ve been more effective at doing that. I think people are going to come in here and do it however. We talked about this in our team meeting.

[01:03:16] Anybody that comes and says, Zillow, I’m going to buy your house. Guaranteed. I’m going to sell that house for more. Cause if somebody’s buying it, it’s just basic principles of business. If they’re buying it, they have to buy it to make a margin. I’m going to be able to get a seller more than they’re going to be able to get somebody paying.

[01:03:36] Now, I used to think that it was every seller’s objective to get the highest price. It’s amazing to me how few of my clients, that’s actually their number one objective. And the reason I know that it’s like, well, we don’t want to do the work. We don’t want to do this. We don’t really want to put our house on the market.

[01:03:52] We don’t want to go through the show. And you say, okay, so you don’t want the most for your house. Let’s just call a spade a spade. So I think they’ll be successful, but I don’t think it’s going to be tremendously successful in coastal, like high end markets. It’s very hard to analyze. You can’t do it through any automated, like.

[01:04:08] You know, assessment, evaluation. Most of the people don’t know the subtle nuances of why you should or shouldn’t buy. I think people are going to get hurt. They’re not going to make the money. I mean, I worked for a lot of developers that are professional speculators and they even get hurt and they’ve done dozens of projects in these areas and they’re still making mistakes.

[01:04:31] So guys coming in fresh from Temecula doesn’t seem like. They’re really going to have success, nor are they going to be competition for us.

[01:04:39] Warren Dow: [01:04:39] All right, we got that. All right, good. So enough real estate for a minute, Tim. Let’s have a little bit of fun. This has been fun though, right? And we’re having fun.

[01:04:47] We’re digging this time, so this is a rapid fire.

[01:04:51] Tim Smith: [01:04:51] Finish

[01:04:51] Warren Dow: [01:04:51] the sentence for me. If I wasn’t in real estate, I would love to.

[01:04:56] Tim Smith: [01:04:56] Play in the NBA if you could. What’s more realistic on an NBA basketball team?

[01:05:01] Warren Dow: [01:05:01] Nice. Oh, we’ve got to talk about Mark Cuban, who you sold the house to

[01:05:04] Tim Smith: [01:05:04] in a little whirlwind. I’m going to own a basketball team March 20th, 2027 but

[01:05:09] Warren Dow: [01:05:09] if you could invite three people to your dream dinner party, who would be there and what would you serve?

[01:05:14] Tim Smith: [01:05:14] Wow, that’s interesting because it’s changing by the moment, but I would say just like three authors, I’d want to go Adam Grant, Tim Ferriss, and Oprah right now. I think those would be interesting. And then the other one, and what would I serve? Probably something V Anish you know, I don’t know. The truth is like, I’d rather do an activity with them than go and eat dinner.

[01:05:37] Oh, he’d be super fun to go do something together where we all could kind of participate and get out of the norms.

[01:05:43] Warren Dow: [01:05:43] I got an idea, man, that

[01:05:45] Tim Smith: [01:05:45] Hey, Howard stern would be amazing.

[01:05:47] Warren Dow: [01:05:47] Yeah,

[01:05:48] Tim Smith: [01:05:48] he would be amazing. Yeah.

[01:05:49] Warren Dow: [01:05:49] He’s underrated as an interviewer and sort of as a, just a,

[01:05:52] Tim Smith: [01:05:52] yeah.

[01:05:53] Warren Dow: [01:05:53] You know, a media juggernaut. What’s a guilty pleasure that’s worth every penny.

[01:05:59] Tim Smith: [01:05:59] Right now. Williams-Sonoma. Peppermint bark. Oh. Like every year, this time of year eight comes out and like everybody gets it as gifts and I get it for myself and like, dude, I could, I could dust one of those tens. Literally at night. I got home the other night and my kids were like before dinner and I went and.

[01:06:17] And it’s like you got to get like a mouthful to get the full taste and right before dinner I’m like literally opening it up like I’m a drug addict and like try to get the plastic open and hide it from my kids cause we don’t want to disrupt dinner. Malfoy on those. That would be my guilty pleasure. I know.

[01:06:33] Warren Dow: [01:06:33] What’s your favorite band?

[01:06:35] Tim Smith: [01:06:35] I don’t have that answer right now. There’s just so many, you know?

[01:06:38] Warren Dow: [01:06:38] All right. Give me one.

[01:06:39] Tim Smith: [01:06:39] I like Bazi right now. I had a little nephew that was staying with me this summer, staying with us the summer and like all his little hipster music. I kind of got into. And then I like rap a ton and it’s like, I kind of feel like the guy from the office, if you ever saw that movie where he’s rolling up and he’s like literally listen to hardcore rap and he looks over and he turns it down.

[01:06:57] Like I like that. I like rap does something for my soul

[01:07:01] Warren Dow: [01:07:01] to deal. And where do you live?

[01:07:03] Tim Smith: [01:07:03] We live in Dover shores.

[01:07:04] Warren Dow: [01:07:04] Dover shores and what? Describe your home to the

[01:07:08] Tim Smith: [01:07:08] single story. 2300 square feet. Decent size law. Modern, like it’s modern. And then we have a place down in Monarch Bay that’s mid century modern, which we kind of use.

[01:07:18] We just bought as an investment because we’re going to flip it and then we end up staying there and it’s just like, we love the single story, mid century modern vibe, and there’s a beach club, so he spent a lot of time in the summers and weekends down there. Awesome. What do you do for fun? Whatever my kids want to do, man, like I got the perfect son.

[01:07:34] He is totally into just having fun, likes to ride motorcycles, ski basketball, like I’m having a great time with them. My little girl, she’s a blast, you know? So it’s just like, we love to travel, we love to do whatever, but I’m excited for my kids to get older now. Cause now my boy is really into the things that I’m into and like, it’s super fun for me.

[01:07:54] Warren Dow: [01:07:54] What’s a typical day look like for you? What time do you wake up? What do you do?

[01:07:58] Tim Smith: [01:07:58] Wake up at five five 30 try to get some sort of mind, right? Whether that’s meditation, reading, podcast, whatever. If you can get some exercise, body right heart right, and then either do some planning in the morning or have done some planning the night before.

[01:08:13] Take the kids to school, connect with the kids, go work, and then, you know, come home and do the same thing and hopefully plan a trip in between there. What do you like to travel? Just wherever. And it’s like the kids are travel age now, so it’s like we’re going to New York the day after Christmas through new years, which we’re super excited about.

[01:08:29] We just went to police, so we’ll see. Like, yeah, I think there’s a lot of trips. We’re really excited that we could, that we could take.

[01:08:35] Warren Dow: [01:08:35] Tell us a funny, can’t believe it happened. Real estate story.

[01:08:39] Tim Smith: [01:08:39] I know, I know. I’m Jamie. I have so many of those stories. Oh, this was kind of funny. David is Spino. And I, he’s one of my agents that he, you know, knocks a lot of doors.

[01:08:50] We went to a listing appointment in San Juan Capistrano and we met this older gentleman, I don’t know how old he was, probably in his eighties and he was giving us the tour of the house and it took him literally four or five minutes to get out of his car. And so then we were doing this tour and we start by going through the garage.

[01:09:08] It’s subterranean go in the house and we’re kind of going through and I’m like this core and like literally I’m thinking, I mean one thing I am maniacal about my schedule. It’s like we only have a certain amount of hours in the day, and so it’s like. There may have been a little impatience. And so he was going to reach for the door and I was went to like help him with it, but what I did, instead of helping him, I pushed a further away.

[01:09:33] So he reached for it and as he reached for it, it wasn’t there and he started falling back and he starts going,

[01:09:41] Warren Dow: [01:09:41] Whoa. Oh no.

[01:09:43] Tim Smith: [01:09:43] So I grabbed his wrist and my left hand, like David grabbed his bag. He falls into David’s arms. We put him back up and keep on going on the tour and like, I literally threw the rest.

[01:09:54] I mean, I almost started crying cause I was so, it couldn’t have been funnier. And it was like SU, I felt bad like this, you know? But it was like super funny. No harm, no foul, but stuff like that was all the time. But the, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa.

[01:10:07] Warren Dow: [01:10:07] Yeah, it was, what’s your favorite city in the coastal sea? Like fate favorite.

[01:10:14] Area, I should say.

[01:10:15] Tim Smith: [01:10:15] I don’t have a favorite, but I could give you a lot of reasons that are my favorite for different reasons. Like right now, I think the trajectory, I’ve always really liked the peninsula. Trajectory wise. Investment wise, you’ve seen that there’s been a revival and values have really gone up.

[01:10:30] I think Dana point’s the next, like sleepy city that’s going to really take off

[01:10:34] Warren Dow: [01:10:34] and this was gonna be the next question. All right, cool. What about new development? Is it. Is it slowing down? Is it speeding up? Is it in between here? Like is there a lot of new dev?

[01:10:42] Tim Smith: [01:10:42] No, I mean we’re slowing down, but you’re just going to see a lot of readaptive use in fill projects and with the new legislation, which we could talk in our, you know, the, the starting in 2000 and granting quarters and all that.

[01:10:54] Yeah, so the accessory dwelling units, which is crazy for California, if you don’t know about that, call me because like. You can literally build two of these accessory dwelling units in any property. And it’s, you don’t have to subordinate to the city or to the HOA, which is going to be a problem for a lot of people.

[01:11:11] And then the rent control, you know, the tenant protection act, these things are kinda changing some stuff. So it’s like, yeah, it’s interesting.

[01:11:20] Warren Dow: [01:11:20] Good deal. So let’s get some closing thoughts. Tim, what two pieces of advice would you give your younger self.

[01:11:27] Tim Smith: [01:11:27] I mean, there’s just like there. Okay. So the one thing would be.

[01:11:31] Learn from others. There’s a quote, something like wise men learn from their own mistakes. Super wise. Men learn from others’ mistakes, like learn from other’s mistakes. There’s a million people you can talk to. You take the time and the other thing is don’t avoid like the details. Literally take the time to figure out the details, do your work and going back to it.

[01:11:52] It’s just like. I’ve always been good about like kind of the seeds of greatness are really found in your daily grind. Figuring out what your daily grind is and just do it. And it’s like nobody wants to get up and go to the gym every morning at 5:00 AM. It’s just, they don’t. But the guys that are super buff, they do, but I think they’d rather sleep in.

[01:12:11] Everybody kind of

[01:12:12] Warren Dow: [01:12:12] works, but it’s just like,

[01:12:13] Tim Smith: [01:12:13] just like get comfortable doing what’s uncomfortable. Stop being such a. You know what I’m saying? Like being so soft, right? Pull the thorn out

[01:12:21] Warren Dow: [01:12:21] Pull the thorn out. That’s the theme of our podcast.

[01:12:23] Tim Smith: [01:12:23] Be honest and put that uniform on and do it like I get it. Nobody wants to do this shit, but do love it.

[01:12:31] Like, you know, the one thing that I would say being with people in my team, we have a fantastic team, but I would say in life there’s a quote that I really like. It’s either you’re either the problem or you’re the solution. Right? In life, don’t be the problem. Be the solution. And you can just see it with people and people in teams, like the people that are focused on solutions and not being the problem and not being the center of attention.

[01:12:57] It’s like they’re the ones that you want to work with. It’s light, easy, breezy, right? And so in life, if you’re the problem.

[01:13:04] Tim Smith: [01:13:04] Stop being the problem

[01:13:04] Warren Dow: [01:13:04] I preach that to my team

[01:13:06] Tim Smith: [01:13:06] Stop being the problem, be a solution. There’s so many opportunities for us to look outside ourself if we just stop focusing on ourselves.

[01:13:16] Yep.

[01:13:17] Warren Dow: [01:13:17] All right. Last question. What could you tell our audience that would, they would be super surprised to hear about you or know about you? I didn’t know Tim Smith…

[01:13:27] Tim Smith: [01:13:27] I don’t know. I think we’d have to talk longer. Like these aren’t going to be good questions.

[01:13:32] Warren Dow: [01:13:32] All right. We’ll have to do that next one next time then.

[01:13:33] Yeah. Well, I want to thank you, Tim Smith for—

[01:13:36] Tim Smith: [01:13:36] —one more word of advice. Okay. Okay. So when you’re making goals, put a date to them. It’s just a dream otherwise, and too many people have these like just exhausting dreams that they’re never going to do. And the problem with like dreams and goals is they’re never achievable if you’re trying to figure out how to do them.

[01:13:56] It’s like the way you get out of the how is you put a date on it. And if you put a date on it and you have the right intention, whatever that is, the world and the universe has a way of supporting you. So I would say to everyone, this podcast, make it a goal today and put a date sometime in 2020 when you buy an investment property.

[01:14:19] I don’t care if it’s a barn. In Iowa and it costs $3,500 just do it. Anybody can do it. Everything’s figureoutable, but put a date on it because I promise you, in 20 years, if you do this once a year, you’re going to thank me. But ultimately there’s gonna be some headaches. There’s gonna be some challenges, but that’s going to happen whether you buy properties or not.

[01:14:41] So you might as well be buying properties so that somebody else can pay off the mortgage and you can play monopoly in life. It’s fun. Do it. That’s

[01:14:51] Warren Dow: [01:14:51] awesome. Well, thank you, Tim Smith, for sharing your story with us and continued success to you and the team, and let’s do this again soon, shall we?

[01:15:11] And that wraps up this episode. Thank you for tuning in, and we hope you found some value. Please share, subscribe, and leave a review. Find us on iTunes and your favorite podcast provider. Until next time.

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