982: What Do You Hate About Real Estate? Stop Doing It! – Irving Gomez

Aaron Amuchastegui  00:32

Real Estate Rockstars This is Aaron Amuchastegui. Today I get to interview Irving Gomez Irving’s with Novell real estate from Denver, Colorado, I reached out to Irving myself to ask him to come on the show because he is one of this year’s 30 under 30 realtors that have been designated for through the realtor community as one of the guys that’s out there really, really exceeding in the class. Irving, thanks for joining me.

Irving Gomez  00:54

Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here.

Aaron Amuchastegui  00:57

Yeah, the of course, the I love being able to reach out to the guys, especially the guys and gals that have been getting awards out there being successful in the space. So you guys can share some of your nuggets with everybody else. So what’s it like in Denver, Colorado right now?

Irving Gomez  01:12

Oh, well, the market is insane. It does seem to be kind of shifting a little bit, at least from what people have seen. But I haven’t really noticed that yet. To be honest, I still have clients that are bidding way over to be able to get a house and still seeing about, you know, 10 to 15 offers on a property. So it’s it’s crazy.

Aaron Amuchastegui  01:32

So even as it’s slowing down, you’re seeing 10 to 15 offers on properties out there. The in his life, his life kind of back to the way it was in 2019. Or you have a pre 2020 out there. Is it? Is it mostly open? Is it half open? what’s what’s everybody’s kind of feeling about just the lifestyle?

Irving Gomez  01:50

Yeah, no. So here it is pretty back to normal. A lot of people, majority of the people you can see that aren’t wearing masks anymore, which is kind of nice to see people smiling and uncanny. Not not nodding back at you, you know, when you go to the grocery store. As far as like real estate goes, we still have restrictions as far as showings, you know, you can only do 15 minute time slots. Some people do ask that you still wear their mask inside their homes, which we respect. So you know, it’s about 5050 when it comes to that.

Aaron Amuchastegui  02:19

Interesting. So when did you get your license?

Irving Gomez  02:22

So I got licensed in October of 2016.

Aaron Amuchastegui  02:26

And what made you get into real estate?

Irving Gomez  02:29

Um, well, it was one of those decisions where I was really unhappy at the current career that I was at. And I was reading a lot of self development books at the time. And the one question that always came to mind was, what are you good at? And I was always like, what, what am I good at? You know, I’d sit there and talk to my wife, because she knew I was unhappy where I was working at. And so we kind of just sat there and talked and she’s like, she even came up with it. She’s like, you’re really good at communicating with people. And I was like, Okay, yeah, but how am I going to use that? You know? And she’s like, Well, what about real estate? She’s like, you know that I see another time, we were kind of thinking about buying a house. We didn’t end up buying one later. But at the time, I think that’s why she thought about it. And she’s like, I just feel like you actually listened to people, you know, you you listen with intent, and then answer you’re not it doesn’t seem like you’re coming up with what you’re going to respond with in your head while they’re talking. She’s like, it seems like you’ve listened to them talking. And then you pause and then you say what you have to say. And so with that, I think I transitioned in I was like, Okay, I was like, let’s, let’s give it a try. I’ll get my license, and then we’ll see where it goes from here.

Aaron Amuchastegui  03:41

He said, What am I good at? And you’re wondering, you’re like, how is that? How does that transition? I can communicate with people? How does that transition into a job that pays the bills? So did you decide to get into real estate in 2016? And the and what was it like your first couple months? Did you did you join a team? Did you join a brokerage? What was your success like to get started?

Irving Gomez  04:00

So I went to a school and in that school, they always said, you know, go out and you interview brokerages as well. Like don’t just go and annual license like see where you want to be? Well, I heard of novella, which actually used to be the Bookshare group. But the reason they changed the number is or the name is because people would get mistaken with Berkshire Hathaway, which has nothing to do with Berkshire Hathaway. You know, it was just that little independent boutique brokerage and it still is there’s about 15 of us in there, which is nice. And so when I interviewed them, that’s kind of what attracted me to them to be there. And you know, today I can still call my managing broker. And he is always there. So, you know, I When interviewed, and then when I started, it was tough. It was rough. I still remember to this day. It took me about eight or nine months, been in the business to get my first deal. Wow. Yeah, and I remember on the seven month That time, I remember, I was just sitting there, and my wife is like What’s wrong? And I was like, I don’t know if I can do this. And I’ve never been one to give up. You know what I mean? Like I’ve like anything I’ve ever done, I’ve been full heartedly into. And even real estate, like I went into real estate saying that I didn’t want to do this part time, I wanted to do it full time, because I know people need my attention. People need me. And that’s the opinion I had on it myself, right? I was like, I don’t want to give them half of my time, I want them to have my full time. So at that seven months, I was just like, I don’t know if I can do this. And my wife’s like, you know, what, how about this? She’s like, give it another month or two. And she’s like, if not, then let’s revisit maybe the idea of you’re getting a part time job and continuing. Now, I was like, okay, you know, let’s, let’s, let’s try that. Let’s see what happens. And sure as heck on that nine month, I got the first deal. And ever since then, it’s been a snowball effect. And I think everything that I had done within those nine months, led up to that snowball effect.

Aaron Amuchastegui  06:02

Yeah, like building up building. And I think that’s pretty common. It’s pretty common for real estate agents to say they were working really hard, they’re working really hard. And then as soon as they kind of broke the curse, as soon as they unlocked, that it all started unlocking, because a lot of those relationships you start to build are the actions you start to take on month one, month two, month three, especially in a normal market right now is a strange market. Yeah, 2016 2017. That’s a normal market where you may have to talk someone six or seven times before they hire you to help them buy a house where they hire you to help them sell a house that you talked about early in industry, you’re doing a lot of door knocking. Correct is that was that your primarily primary thing you were doing those first eight or nine months?

Irving Gomez  06:41

So I first started the first four months Actually, I did a lot of open houses. And I didn’t like open houses. And I remember sitting down with one of the higher producers there at our brokerage, he kind of became a mentor. And he’s helped me a lot actually being where I’m at today. I sat down with him. And I’m like, I don’t know what I’m doing. Like, I think I’m doing it wrong. And he’s like, well, what are you doing? And I was like, I’m doing open houses on Friday, Saturday, Sundays, and he’s like, and you like that? I was like, No, he’s like, then don’t do. He’s like, stop wasting your time doing things you don’t like. He’s like, what do you like, I was like, I really do like approaching people and being in front of people. And he’s like, Okay, he’s like, Well, what about door knocking? Have you ever considered door knocking? And I said, I mean, I’ve considered it but I didn’t know if you know, it was, it’d be a good thing to do or not. So him and I sat down and came up with a plan. And he’s like, let’s find the neighborhood that you think is gonna fit, you know, where you want to be where you’re gonna walk, and you’re okay with walking and being around. And that neighborhood is actually where my parents live. And so he said, Okay, let’s take the average price point, what’s an average price point? Now I was like about 500,000, where they’re at. And he’s like, Okay, he’s like, so the statistics is, if you go and knock 100 houses, you’ll talk to 10 people, and out of those 10, you’ll get the one. He’s like, so you know, let’s break it in for this, let’s just break it in terms of let’s say a commission of 500,000 is 16,000. He said, for every 100 house, let’s break it down. And that’s $160. He’s like, so look at it as you’re getting $160 closer, and closer and closer to where you need to be. And so now, you know, that’s kind of the approach I take on mostly everything.

Aaron Amuchastegui  08:27

Real Estate Rockstars this is Aaron and we just stay for a quick commercial break. So during 2020 and 2021, the real estate market completely changed. There’s so much competition in the market, so many people trying to buy and sell houses. But there’s hardly any supply hardly any product, or anyone willing to list their homes. It’s time for every agent out there to become a hybrid agent investor to be able to reach out directly to homeowners to try to get them to sell or list their house. We’ve got a new website, go to lead propeller calm. And you can set up your own investor buyer website in just minutes. You’ll set up your own URL, set up phone numbers help go through the leads, help reach out to people that aren’t listing their their property currently, and have them fill out a form that says hey, I want to sell my house. And then as an agent, you can go through and make them a hybrid offer. You can tell them hey, I think your house would sell for $220,000 on MLS, but I can either write you $180,000 cash offer right now, or I can help you fix it up and you’ll listed for 220,000 on MLS. These are buyers that are looking for quick cash offers. 10s of 1000s are submitting these forms every single day. And they’re skipping the listing process that so many of you guys out there are such good agents. It’s a great opportunity to get that lead and help them maximize sales price for their home. Again, go to lead propeller calm and think about signing up for your own investor site. So buyers will start reaching out to you, asking you to make an offer on their home. So when you’re going up to knock on that door, people have that fear, or they’re getting ready to go knock on the door. And they’re saying, like, you know, you never know when it’s gonna be the good one or the one where it’s where someone really tells you to go away or something like that. Then your mindset was you knew that every 100 doors, you were going to get a deal. So every time you knocked on a door, it was just like getting paid 160 bucks? For sure, yeah, whether they answered it or not. And so mentally, mentally more prepared to keep going. So you could try to push through as many doors as you could during the day.

Irving Gomez  10:29

Definitely, yeah. And I mean, you know, at the time, like, when you first get started, you’re trying to do all these other things. But it’s like, I put my energy into that. And I was like, Okay, this is what’s going to take my attention, this is what’s going to help you build. And I was trying to do at least 200 to 300 doors a day.

Aaron Amuchastegui  10:44

So let’s break up. So when somebody goes, door knocks, what were you saying when they answered the door. So I love that idea that you found a neighborhoods that this is a neighborhood that I’m going to just focus on. So you knock on the door, they answered the door, they see you standing there, what do you say?

Irving Gomez  10:58

So the first thing that I would always tell him is, Hey, I’m not here to sell you anything. I want to give you valuable information. And they would be thrown back right by that. And they’re like, Whoa, what, what are you talking about? No, you know, it’d be like real estate, I want to let you know, like what the houses are selling for here in the market, or here in your area. And then I would hand them the sheet with comparables comps in the neighborhood that have sold. And then they would look at it and then they’d start like, Oh, yeah, I did see that house. And, you know, did you do you know, information about that or not? And I’d be upfront, I’d be like, No, I don’t. But if you want more information, I can definitely let you know about it if you want to give me your contact information. And so that’s kind of how and also, you know, you got to remember this is at the beginning when I first started. So at times, I would get stumped and wouldn’t know what to say. But being out there knocking on those doors made me better at real estate and like learning how to communicate and what people want to know. And you know what to tell them?

Aaron Amuchastegui  11:55

Yeah, and figure out what their common questions are going to be like, you didn’t know what the answers were, you didn’t know what the common question was gonna be, until you see you knock on the door. And you would say, hey, I’ve got this CMA here, I just want to drop it off. So you’ve got some information. And if you want me to follow up, we can look at the end. So and you do that for months and months. And then you can see that was your first deal, a result of one of those door knocks.

Irving Gomez  12:17

So it wasn’t actually it was a close friend of my wife’s and but I did actually get deals from that. But they weren’t the first deals it was more of those ones are the ones you know, there’s a cold lead, so you got to follow up, you got to stay consistent with them. And then that’s when they turned.

Irving Gomez  12:32

Yeah. How many deals Have you done in the last 12 months? So in the last 12 months, I’ve done 26 deals?

Aaron Amuchastegui  12:38

And what’s the average price point?

Irving Gomez  12:40

The average price point is about 450 to 500,000. Okay,

Aaron Amuchastegui  12:43

so you still kind of in that in that market you looked at early on? The Are you mostly a buyer’s agent and mostly listing agent?

Aaron Amuchastegui  12:50

So it’s about 40%, listing 60% buyers? How about when you started? When I started, it was heavily buyers for sure. Alright, he started as buyers and you were able to transition? How would you say? What was your biggest ability to be able to transition from being just a buyer’s agent to also a listing agent? Was that some of the clients you’d represented before? Or is it just you got more confident in in in your resume? Well, how did you get started get more listings?

Irving Gomez  13:14

Um, I think it was just being more confident my resume, I did actually help people at the beginning, like a lot of my listings were people that I didn’t know and people that were moving out of state. So that helped out a lot. But now it is getting to that point where it’s like, half of my listings are people that are turning over, right, they’re selling their house to upgrade to that bigger one, especially with the lower interest rates and how the market is right now. They want to take advantage of it because they’re like, if we can go up and pay you know, $200 extra more but get a bigger house. Let’s do that instead of refinance.

Aaron Amuchastegui  13:46

Yeah. Where do you get most of your buyer leads now? How do you how do you find those buyers?

Irving Gomez  13:50

So a lot of them aside from you know, the sphere of influence is my social media. I get a lot of traction on social media.

Aaron Amuchastegui  13:57

What sort of stuff do you talk about on social media to come in right now social media is the answer for so many different things people are getting out there. Do you have a certain you know, format that you follow a certain train followers or just getting yourself out there and people reach out to you?

Irving Gomez  14:10

Yeah, no, it’s just getting out there. The one that really does it for me a lot is Instagram on Instagram. I post a lot of like, you know, homes that have sold testimonials. I do a lot of personal stuff as well like I put my family my cell phone there. Um, so I tried to mix it up and then on my stories, I do get on my stories and I talk a lot and I also just kind of show like my day to day and what’s going on.

Aaron Amuchastegui  14:32

So if you were gonna go back now so now you’ve been in the business for four years, five years you’ve done how many houses have you sold every button sold since you’ve been in the business to know that I do not know. I mean, if you’re averaging 20 years maybe you’re maybe you’re up around 100 give or take the What advice would you give yourself as a new agent if you’re going to go back and tell yourself when you got started? Hey Irving, this is this is what you need to know. Because you know a lot now and you had you had a rough start so like what what would you have told you yourself different or the same? What would you What advice would you give yourself?

Irving Gomez  15:04

Um, something a little different that I would have told myself that I do that I still do every year this, you know, when I do sit down and do my business plan is set attainable goals. Because I remember at the beginning, when I first started, you know, some people were like, make your goals a little crazy. So that hopefully you can at least get within 10 to 20% of their right. And I did I set my goals like way high, and I didn’t even come close to it. And when you don’t come close to something that you put down as a goal for me, I was just crushed it soft. And it was kind of it was not not fun to see, you know, go back and look at your business plan and be like, Well, I’m not even 50% to where I want it to be.

Aaron Amuchastegui  15:46

That makes it so I’ve heard that too. I’ve heard people say like, hey, do you want to make a million dollars say that you want to make $10 million? Because then if you only make a million, you’ll still be happy. You’re saying it wasn’t like that for you? If you said you want to do 40 houses if you only did five or six, you weren’t grateful for the five or six. It was like Why? Why even have a goal? Exactly. So you would go back and tell yourself to have realistic goals to focus on? And then what practice Do you take to make sure that you’re working toward those goals? Or what do you what metrics do you use? How do you how do you make sure you accomplish your goals?

Irving Gomez  16:18

Yeah, so every month I actually at the beginning of the month, I sit down and look at my business plan and then see okay, what did I do last month? How far away? Am I from like, say if I wanted to do 30 houses? Where am I at? How many more? Do I have to do? You know, how many people do I have to call who do I have to go see in order to get to that goal?

Aaron Amuchastegui  16:38

Real Estate Rockstars This is a commercial break from our podcast sponsor house folios. We’re in real estate to find the next big deal, right? We want to find the deal, make money and then turn around and do it all over again. It can be frustrating having to search through 1000s of properties trying to find that Goldilocks property that is just right for your investment goals. That’s why we’re here to tell you about house folios house folios is a management software for single family home investors that makes it simple to find good deals, get financing, and manage your property portfolios, all from one platform. They’re an all in one app that lets you easily search for properties both listed and unlisted. Analyze numbers based on your specific assumptions and provide resources to get you through underwriting and closing. This is a feature we like most you can track your numbers at multiple levels want to see the returns on a specific property in seconds check, how about an entire portfolio of properties you’re looking to buy check, and being able to present these properties to investors to become the go to real estate agent for their investment needs. How awesome is that? managing your investment properties has never been easier. The best part it’s affordable plans started just $29 a month 29 bucks unlocked the tools to manage your entire investing cycle all in one place, check it out at house folios.com And if that’s not enough, house folios is giving our listeners a special rate on an entire year of house folios just 99 bucks. So instead 29 bucks a month. 99 bucks for the year head on over to house folios.com forward slash RV rockstars to sign up again, head over to house folios comm forward slash RV rockstars to get an entire year of house folios for only 99 bucks. So what are your goals for the next year? Or what are your what were your goals for 2021? And how are you? How are you lined up right now on those?

Irving Gomez  18:19

Yeah, so for 2021 was to increase at least by 20% of what I did last year. So last year, I did 17 houses, I think it was 17. And then right around almost 7 million. That’s what I put on that 30 under 30 magazine. Um, so 20% of that I think it came out to like 20 houses or something like that, and then closer to like eight and a half or 9 million. And I’m already at what I did or if not more than what I did last year. So I’m on track to hit that goal. Yeah,

Aaron Amuchastegui  18:51

it’s it’s amazing right now with even though it is tougher to find the properties, you know, there’s there’s so much less supply out there. The people that are succeeding are continuing to have these record years. So right now you’re writing offers for buyers you’re writing offers against 15 other people, what’s your best trick to get your offer accepted right now?

Irving Gomez  19:11

Honestly, I think it is for communication. And the other thing too is not writing a sloppy offer. Because I’ve talked to several agents, you know, who get 15 2025 offers. And now like it’s terrible, and I mean even me on my side with my listings, it kind of sucks having a file through all those offers. And then you just look at all these sloppy ones and you’re like, well, this one would have been a good one but I have to go back and counter only 10 different things that weren’t filled out correctly.

Aaron Amuchastegui  19:41

So the sloppy part you mean that you’re referring to just an offer that isn’t that has blanks that’s missing things that were that wasn’t specific. What about the communication specifically? Like what if an agent right now is struggling to get their offer accepted? What advice would you because you said communication is key. What would you tell them that they need to be doing? Every offer every attendee right an offer,

Irving Gomez  20:02

definitely call the listing agent after your clients have told you that they show interest in the property that they want the house, call the listing agent ask all the questions like, as far as you know, do they need to rent back? What is their most important thing? How quick are they looking to close, because sometimes, you know, people think that these people are wanting to close as quick as possible. But some people want 45 days to close. So if you’re putting in an offer, we’re closing in two weeks, but they really want 45 days, and that automatically already kind of throws you out of the rank. So asking all those questions up front. And then also, the thing that I do a lot is I go back to my lender, and I say, Hey, we’re putting an offer on so and so property, here’s the agents information, go ahead and give him a call. But I’m also going to cc you in the email when I send over the offer so that you know when it goes over, and then that they know that you’re there as well.

Aaron Amuchastegui  20:53

So the you’re asking them what they want, you’re calling that listing agent, you’re linking, you’re bringing the lender into the conversation so that way they know the person is qualified and the lender will also kind of help pitch your client today, for sure. Do you think there’s a What do you think is the biggest problem in the real estate industry today? Do you think there is a problem in the real estate industry? And what would you do to fix it?

Irving Gomez  21:14

I do, I do think and I think it the big word that I’ve used lately is sloppiness. It’s just been so sloppy as far as like how we were just talking about contracts. This year, I’ve actually had four or five clients that have came to me from other agents that they were working with, aren’t listening to what they’re asking for aren’t giving them what they’re wanting. And I think that’s also due to experience. You know, there’s so many people that have their real estate license right now. And this market is just tough, it is tough, it’s nasty, it’s brutal. And I think maybe more education would help with that, or making it somehow because I mean, to get your real estate license. Honestly, it’s not that difficult.

Aaron Amuchastegui  21:58

It’s such a low barrier to entry. That’s the beauty of it, right? Like the low barrier to entry is you don’t have to spend four years in college, you could actually learn to be an agent instead. And you can make a good amount of money. If you work really hard. And you’re able to learn that I think that other key is having mentors and people that will point out to you and say, Hey, you need to write this offer different, or you miss this, or just that sloppiness that you’re referring to, I think, yes, with how many agents are out there right now. And with how hard that they’re working. I think that they’re lazy is the wrong word. But I think there’s some times where you’re writing 10 offers or 20 offers for a client, and an agent, maybe the first 10 offers don’t even get replied to. Yeah, so then they’re like, you know what, I’m just gonna, I’m just gonna put an offer out there, I’m just gonna put the dollar amount on there. And I’m not even gonna fill out the rest, because hopefully we get close enough this time. So I think I think some of the sloppiness is as a result of people being discouraged. Yeah. What would you tell other agents in that case? Like, well, if they’re if they’re just being if they’re being sloppy for that, what advice would you give them?

Irving Gomez  23:00

How would you say slow down, I know this market, like, I feel like when this market first started in February, like everybody was just go, go, go, go, go. I think just slow down a second, breathe, look at what you’re doing and actually look it over like I look, I still look at my contracts like four or five times before I even send it to my people to get signed. And then when they sign it, I still look it over like once or twice again, before I send it over to the listing agent. So I think just slow down a little bit.

Aaron Amuchastegui  23:27

I think so I think it’s great advice. I think I think your advice is saying that the offer needs to be strong, the offer needs to be clear. Sometimes agents will take your call, sometimes they won’t. But if you do have a good clean offer, if you go through that extra effort. With that, you’re going to have a better chance. So the Japanese skills that you’ve done over the last couple years that were that you didn’t do your first couple years that have really increased your increase your amount of sales.

Irving Gomez  23:53

I guess I wouldn’t say skills, but maybe I’ve gotten more involved in my association. Okay. So I’m actually here today, this is where I’m sitting at because after this, I have a class for the Leadership Academy that I’m doing. But I’ve gotten involved with him on part of ccic, which is the charities and community involvement committee. We do a lot of donations around the community hear all down in the southern part of the Denver Metro area. And yeah, I think those have been like the big key key ones is just actually getting involved in doing something.

24:22

So you started getting involved with your local, local realtor Association, and the and how has that benefited your, your business?

Irving Gomez  24:30

I think people just see that I’m out here doing good deeds and doing good stuff. And you know, people love to see that. And again, like I said, I post all that stuff on my social media and I get a lot of feedback on there from that. And that’s how not necessarily you know, like the people that are on there. praising me are the same people who are sending clients my way.

Aaron Amuchastegui  24:52

Real Estate Rockstars This is a commercial break from our biggest podcast sponsor we have right now rent ready. It can be fun getting a new real estate Feel, it can be tough managing your properties after the fact, especially if you’re long distance investing or trying to manage multiple properties by yourself. That’s why we’re here to tell you about rent ready. Ready is a property management software that not only makes it easier to manage all your real estate deals from one platform, but they also have the best customer service support in the biz. They’re an all in one app that lets you easily manage properties, collect rent, lists, units, screen tenants, sign leases, all from your phone or computer. Imagine all of your real estate doors right in your pocket. How awesome is that? The best part, it’s so affordable one flat price for everything, unlimited properties, tenants and support with a real life, human. And I have to add in there, that’s a new business model that not a lot of people are doing. There’s like this freemium model where people say, hey, you can try this. But as soon as you grow, it’s gonna cost you a lot of money, or they kind of punish you, when you get too many emails on your list or too many, they aren’t going to punish you and you grow, they’re not gonna charge you more. When you get 10 2030 rentals, they’re gonna charge you the same when you have two or three as they will when you have 50 or 60. Do you have a nice fixed costs, all software all in one place? Check it out rent ready, r e n t r e vi.com. And if that’s not enough, rent rate is giving our listeners a special code you can use to get a whole year rent ready for just $54 use code. RO ck sta our 50 that Rockstar 50 instead of for rent, raise annual plan at rent ready calm. Again, r e n t r e di.com with code Rockstar 50 to get rent ready for only $54.

26:40

To get clients that way, then then I’ve heard a lot of people say just by getting involved with their local Association, that helps cut through a lot of the noise too. If you’re writing an offer against 15 or 20 other people there, they at least recognize you or they’ll at least take your call. Because it’s less the agents also have a tough right now that you know, 20 people sending them offers and calling them I see why they’re also having a tough time and what they’re supposed to focus on what they recognize you think there’s gonna be more likely to take your call?

Irving Gomez  27:08

Yeah, yeah, no. And that helps a lot. Because, I mean, for example, I took these clients out at the beginning of this month to go look at a property. And it’s actually with an agent that I’ve done previous deals with, and she’s awesome. She’s amazing. And we have a good friendship, too. We, you know, we still talk off business stuff we hang out. And we submitted an offer on her property, and we didn’t get it. But she literally right after that texted me and said, Hey, you know, this is the only reason you didn’t get it. so on so forth. But she’s like, there’s this other agent that I know, listing the same exact house right down the street. Here’s his number column. I’ll call him and tell him you’re calling him and how great you are. So I mean, she called him I called him right away. And she’s like, hey, he was like, Hey, I was expecting your call, go look at the property, let me know. And we got it under contract. He got

Aaron Amuchastegui  27:56

under contract before it went out those relationships are key, the either a software or phone apps or things like that, that you’re using right now that are that you think are really helpful in your business.

Irving Gomez  28:08

Yeah, so for me, I don’t know if you’ve heard of it. But a home bot, I use home bots a lot.

Aaron Amuchastegui  28:13

To get the kind of the update of yours, your your home values, things like that.

Irving Gomez  28:17

Yeah, and it’s a little bit more accurate than Zillow, which is what I like. But then also what I like is I get emails of my people that are interactive with it, right. So when it sends out the monthly email of, Hey, this is your property value, I can see who’s actually going and looking at it. And they can also request an updated CMA. So the one thing that I’m doing with that is, when I see people who go on there to check, I automatically get on the phone and either call them or text them or whatever, I know that person likes to check in and be like, Hey, I saw you were looking at your value. What are you thinking? You know, are you thinking about refinance? Are you just browsing just to browse? And then that leads into what’s next?

Aaron Amuchastegui  29:00

So I bought a house a few years ago, I got added to the home bought database. So I get this email that said, Hey, your house that you bought on this street in Leander is now at this value, we think you have this much equity, would you like to refinance? Would you like to sell that sort of thing? So if you so you have the option, put someone in the database? So do you only put them in the database after they buy or sell a house? Or do you put do you put like prospects in the in the database? Like how does that part work for us?

Irving Gomez  29:27

So we’re usually when people sell their house, I put them on or by the house, I put them on there, but you can put in buyer prospects as well. And it sends him updated data within the zip code of what they’re looking at.

Aaron Amuchastegui  29:41

So once you have a customer, it’s kind of a way to stay top of mind for somebody, you help them buy a house, they get in there every month, they get a little email, and 12 months from now, 18 months from now they click on it and they go, Oh, wow, my house is worth $100,000 more than I thought it was. You can see that then you get to reach out to them and say Hey, are you thinking about buying right now I saw that you’re trying to get updated. You know, valuation on it. Yeah, I think that’s I think that’s a pretty brilliant software to get to kind of automate conversation and it goes bigger over time, right? Especially if you’re just putting in the people that you’ve done deals with, how much do you pay for that? Does the lender pay for that? How much is it? Yeah,

Irving Gomez  30:14

so we split it actually, it’s with a lender of mine, and then me, and it’s about 25 bucks a month. So it’s not even that expensive at all to take stay top of mind on your clients. Yeah.

Aaron Amuchastegui  30:26

So the one of the kind of the things the monitors that I think you you live by helps you in real estate is the can be yourself. Now, a lot of people have a lot of people say that a lot of intellect means a lot of things, a lot of different people. But what does that mean to you?

Irving Gomez  30:39

To me, I think it’s just honestly, with all the noise is going around, and like social media, right? Because I follow a lot of other realtors as well. And I see a lot of cool things that they do. But I’m like, I don’t know if that would be like me my style, right? I don’t know. Because then if people would start seeing that stuff, they’d be like, wait, what is Irving doing? or Why is he doing that? So I think it’s more just cater to be who you are. And the people will be attracted to that.

Aaron Amuchastegui  31:06

If somebody was gonna get started on social media right now. And they were like, Irving, I want to go get started and on Instagram, what are two or three posts? I should go? Do? You know, what are the what are the first two or three types of cars that people are like, you know, showing a road parks or like, you know, housing prices? So what are the what are the first two or three that really helps people get started?

Irving Gomez  31:26

I would say I think the one thing is definitely be on your story. I think if you’re on your story, like talking to people, that one’s more appealing, because people like interaction. And I think Instagram built that that way so that as soon as you open it, like the stories are the first things you see at the top, so that you start clicking through those. And then I think definitely posts like about yourself. And the other thing too, is, you know, if you do have testimonials, or if you have open houses that you’re doing or things like that, or information, just things that are that people are going to take with them and not just garbage.

Aaron Amuchastegui  32:01

Yeah. Yeah. So the story so and with an agent that could be Hey, I’m out showing a house right now. I’m looking at a house right now, hey, we wrote an offer, you know, or any other personal stuff? Do you mix all of your personal stuff in with your business stuff?

Irving Gomez  32:17

Yeah, so like, you know, this will be on my story saying that I was being able to be a part of this. And then when I go to that leadership class, that’ll be on there. And then probably when I drive down to my parents to go pick up my son, I’ll probably do a little something down there with the family, my son probably running around. Yeah, I just kind of just switch it all together. But also, the big thing, too, I think when people get started is the one thing that I would do a lot is go to the new build communities. You know, familiarize yourself with that, know where they are, what are they building? Again, that’s something great for when you’re brand new, and you don’t have like a lot of stuff going on. Try and make yourself busy with things that are important, right? So that you know that stuff, when you come across that opportunity.

Aaron Amuchastegui  32:59

What’s your favorite part about real estate? Right? Like you’ve been in it for five years, now you’re getting more and more involved, I can tell that this is a career for you, and you’re going to be sticking with it. But what’s what’s the part that makes you the most excited about what you do?

Irving Gomez  33:14

I think honestly, like, it’s still be still talking to the people that I’ve helped build, that I’ve helped buy houses, I still reach out to all of my clients that are near and dear to me. Because at the end of the day, they are the reason that I’m that I am where I am, right? Like the 30 in the 30s. Amazing and all these awards are great. But I think at the end of the day, like the biggest award for me is that I’ve helped those individuals achieve that goal. that once was a dream that they didn’t know was attainable. And I have came across that a lot where people were like, We don’t really have a lot of money saved. We don’t know if we can do this, but we’re paying like 20 $500 a month in rent, and I’m like you can do it. I know you can. Why don’t we just come in, sit down? Let’s kind of go through everything. I’ll bring my lender in, you know, talk about finances. And I think you’re going to be surprised and to find out that you can actually afford a house.

Aaron Amuchastegui  34:13

Yeah. So if a client asks you Irving, if they say hey, is now a good time to buy or not what do you say?

Irving Gomez  34:19

I say definitely it is I know it’s crazy, the markets insane, but it’s only gonna keep going up. So right now is the best time to try and get you into something before prices get a little out of reach.

Aaron Amuchastegui  34:32

Then what do you do to set expectations with buyers when you first start meeting with them? Like, like, let them know there’s going to be 15 or 16 offers on a property? what’s what’s that first kind of meeting like to say, hey, yes, it is a great time to buy and we got to get your house now or you might not ever get a house. But also it’s going to be hard. What’s that conversation?

Irving Gomez  34:51

So I do within what’s called a buyer orientation. I go into the office and they these buyer orientations usually take about an hour to an hour and a half, just because they’re full of crap. Right, this is their first house that they’re gonna buy. And they want to know everything. So I bring him in, and I just kind of go over everything. And I lay expectations out and I say, guys, I know you’re super excited, I’m excited for you, this is going to be fun. But I also want you to know that this is going to suck. And then they look at me and they’re like, you know, eyes get all big. And now like, yeah, like, wait,

Aaron Amuchastegui  35:21

what Doc, I’m gonna get my head.

Irving Gomez  35:23

And I’m like, you know, but then but this is why I’m like, this is kind of where we’re at, you’re in this price range. This is what we’re seeing in this price range. This is a neighborhood that you want to be in, this is what we’re seeing in this neighborhood. So you’re probably going to go up against anywhere between 10 to 20 offers, they’re going to be about this high, you know, you’re you can compete. And if you want to compete, and you like the house, I think we should go all in. But if not, then let’s not waste our time, and go find you something else. And yeah, and people do really appreciate that. Because when we get out there and they lose that one or two or three, they were like they they get excited, right? Because they put in an offer and they’re like, they think they’re gonna get it, they think they’re gonna get it. But in the back of their mind, they know the possibility that it’s not going to happen. So when it doesn’t happen, they’re not as devastated. And that’s how it was with my clients that just lost that first offer. The first time we put it in, they were like, well, we knew we knew what we were going up against. And you know, we thank you for that.

Aaron Amuchastegui  36:21

Yeah, at least they you know, and sometimes that to learn for themselves too. So you can say here’s what i think but I’ll do whatever and then they get to learn through a few houses and Okay, this is our process. It’s been awesome. Good to talk to you Irving. I can see why you got why you got the award I think your personality is, is fun, I can tell that you you love your clients, you love real estate and the more and more getting involved, it makes sense why you got picked for realtors 30, under 30 there any last pieces of advice that you would you’d give everybody out there anything you think that all real estate agents need to hear?

Irving Gomez  36:51

For the people getting started, know that it is going to be hard. But if you keep pushing, and you keep doing everything right that you’re supposed to do, you’ll make it I mean, I’m a I’m an example, it took again eight to nine months for me to get my first deal and here I am almost five, it’ll be five years in October and I won one of the biggest awards possible that I never thought would ever happen. And yeah, just just don’t give up. If this is something you really want to do. Don’t give up. If you’re gonna go in go in full heartedly for sure.

Aaron Amuchastegui  37:25

That’s awesome. Irving, some of our listeners are probably gonna want to reach out to you they’re going to ask you for some advice. They want to see how you do it. They’re gonna want to get some scripts for door knocking things like that. What’s the best way for them to find you?

Irving Gomez  37:35

They could email me that’d be great. So the email is Irving I RV i n g dot Gomez je OMEZ at novella living.com.