[Music]
Hello everyone and Welcome to a very
special episode of Selling Greenville I
say it's a special episode because we
have the Confluence of three things
happening this week well one of them
happened a few weeks ago but we're going
to celebrate it this week the
Confluence of three
things first this is our 50th episode of
the podcast done this for 50 straight
weeks and I would like to well I should
say not 50 straight weeks we did Skip
one week because of the holidays I did
preface that but we've done it for 50
weeks 50 out of the past 51 weeks and
I'd like to Pat myself on the back for
that and I would also just like to
thank you guys as the listeners for
making it worth my time for for actually
listening to this some of you listen to
it every week I really appreciate that
and a Shameless Plus
please make sure you subscribe download
rate and review this podcast I always
ask you guys to do that but I really
appreciate if you do so we're at
episode 50 but there's also two other
things that are worth celebrating here
and one of those is I have now been a
realtor for five years I back in January
I eclipsed the fiveyear Mark very few
realtors make it past year two so I'm
very grateful for all of you that have
been my clients over the years and for
anyone that's not listening has been my
clients over the years you guys have
have made this a great career for me and
I really appreciate that and
additionally this week on February
11th it is my 35th birthday so I have a
lot of things happening here all at once
and I'm excited to celebrate all of
that and again we're just going to
have kind of a fun podcast here today
where I'm just going to discuss kind of
some of the top lessons that I've
learned really over the course of my
whole life but specifically since I've
been in real estate as a realtor as an
investor and I hope that that's
helpful for you guys just a reminder as
always my name is Stan McCune my contact
information is in the show notes if you
need me for any reason I represent
buyers and sellers in real estate I also
invest in real estate and this
podcast is FOC focused on real estate
in the upstate of South Carolina or what
you might call the greater Greenville
area of South Carolina but we talk
about a lot of stuff outside of just
specifically Greenville Centric things
and some of the stuff gets outside of
specific real estate Centric things
today it's going to be broad enough that
some of these things that I've
learned some of these lessons I've
learned might apply to other parts of
your life besides real estate but I'm
going to put a real estate spin on them
and I always preface that when I
talk about real estate it really is
always local even if I don't share
specific local statistics about
Greenville or whatever you know I
have people that will ask me well what's
the market like here what's the market
like there does this apply to what's
happening over here in California or
does this apply to what's happening and
even North Carolina or Georgia and some
of the things that I say do not apply in
in those areas and so even when I'm
keeping the topic broad it's still
really centered around Greenville
because this is the market that I
know and so here we go I've got now five
years that I've been a realtor 35 years
that I've been a human and 50
episodes that I have been a podcaster
and we're going to just discuss just
have a little fun today with five
lessons that I have learned over the
years that I think will be helpful to
you guys and the first one there there's
actually a book I I'm kind of
stealing a book title here and
it's a book that's well worth reading
but one of the first lessons that I've
learned this has been really more
recently that I've learned this is your
network is your net worth it's a little
play on words there your network is your
net worth and the book discusses this
from a lot of different angles and
and I'm not going to get into that you
can read that book if you're interested
but I have learned in the years that
I've been in real estate it's really
valuable for me to network with a lot of
people and at first I I thought that I
needed to just Network to just get my
name out there I actually learned that
really that wasn't useful a lot of
Realtors they Network specifically
because they want other people to meet
them and what I've learned is that I
need to network and focus my networking
on meeting other people and when I
shifted that mindset it completely
opened up a whole new world for me where
a I'm not just you know in sales mode
all the time trying to sell people and
here I am as a realtor but secondly
it opened up these doors where I was
able to enter into new communities of of
real estate new areas of real estate get
to know more contractors and more
inspectors people that are multif family
Specialists people that are investors
that focus on flipping houses people
that focus on big developments people
that are are wholesalers and and all
these different types of people in the
industry and guess what the past year
I've gotten like multiple job offers
because as I have networked with these
people try to get to know them they're
like hey can you come and be a part of
our team and I'm not just saying when
I say job offers I'm not just saying
from other Brokers and real estate we
get that all the time in real estate
if you're a realtor a lot of real
estate companies operate like pyramid
schemes so they just want to to get
more bodies in there I'm not even
talking about that like actual job
offers from actual companies looking
to pay a salary and I have politely
turned those down because I love what I
do and it would be hard for me to work
salered office position now that
I've had a taste for for now four years
full-time of
self-employment but all that to say
my network has directly impacted my net
worth in in so many different ways there
are multiple I could tell you so many
closings over the years as a realtor
that I've had that I wouldn't have if it
wasn't for my network I can speak to
homes that I have bought and flipped and
properties rental properties that I have
have that I would not have if it wasn't
for the fact that I put in the time to
network and to to get to know people
that were operating in these different
spaces and you know I if you've
listened to my past episodes that I
did kind of around the end of last year
beginning of this year where I discussed
some of the health problems I had last
year there was a real moment in there
where I wasn't sure I was going to be
able to to continue as a realtor
because I had to go six months
without driving and I wasn't sure if
that was going to be just my new
lifestyle where I just wasn't going to
be able to drive and if that was the
case I don't think I would have
wanted to to continue as a realtor at
least in the space that I've been in
and so I knew I was confident even in
that moment hey you know what I've got a
network here I'm pretty sure based on
the fact that I've gotten job offers and
whatnot I could find another career
probably similar to what I'm doing or
whatever that I could transition into
thankfully that didn't have to happen
thankfully I got cleared to drive
several months ago I've been driving
now for well it's basically been
another 6 months where're we're coming
on as well the anniversary of a of a
very big seizure that I had in February
of last year that that caused all of
that this podcast isn't about that
though it's about lessons that I've
learned and the your network networking
with people not just for your own
benefit to try to sell yourself but in
order to learn from other people I have
found that to be really valuable and now
I'm starting to realize that there's a
lot of people in my area that like I
used to know like years ago maybe I went
to college with them or whatever and
I've not gotten together with them in a
while and I'm now starting to try to
go through that list as well and just
you know just say hi and and we need
that more than ever as well in this Co
era where we haven't gotten a lot of
social interaction I want to try to
get as much of that as possible from
these people that have had a meaningful
impact on me in the past so your network
is your net worth and honestly it's it's
much much more than that that's
something that is worth the time
spent focused on here's lesson number
two if time is money your pace of life
or your pace in something is your salary
if time is money your pace is your
salary and in everything in life there
is a certain Pace that we're comfortable
with just like there is a certain amount
of money that we're comfortable with
right we we need a certain amount of
money to come in every month or every
year in order to justify by the
lifestyle that we live and there is a
certain pace of Our Lives that we
really expect and want in order to fit
with the lifestyle that we want and so
your pace is kind of like your salary
and the time is money
equation
and I I think that this is so crucial
like I had a day not too long ago
where it was it was a really long day
and it wasn't a bad day it was just a
long day and I got home just
exhausted and it reminded me of when I
used to have a salaried position I used
to feel like that every day and I was
like my gosh I don't miss that pace
this is a different type of pace I can
operate at my own pace and And if every
day if as a realtor every day felt like
that I would just have to dial it back
at that point and and find something to
cut out thankfully I don't have to I
don't have to worry about that I go up
my own pace I'm not one of these
realtors that you know on a day where I
don't have a whole lot lined up I'm
going into neighborhoods and knocking on
doors and and cold calling a bunch of
people and bugging them that's not
the way I operate I operate at a
different pace a pace that I'm
comfortable with a pace that I enjoy
sometimes there are days that are busier
than that pace sometimes there are days
that are not as busy as that pace and
and I would prefer okay we need to pick
up the pace a little bit but all of
this from a real estate
standpoint obviously that has a lot of
bearing on on you and your career and
you know a lot of other things but from
a real estate standpoint there are a lot
of ways that this impacts the way
you think about real estate so for
instance from the standpoint of homes
that you invest in or properties that
you invest in there are so many
different ways to skin the Cat in real
estate there are so many different ways
to make money in real estate I keep
finding
new ways that people are making money in
real estate but they all have a
different pace to them you know buying
rental properties there's a certain Pace
to that there's a certain Pace to to
flipping homes there's a certain Pace to
doing subject twos there's a certain
Pace to wholesaling all of these things
there it's a it's a different type of of
lifestyle and a different type of pace
that is required to accomplish what's
needed to be accomplished in those
different things and I've learned over
the years that some of those things I
don't enjoy for instance I don't tend to
enjoy major major house renovations I
just don't some people they love that
they're energized by it that is a pace
that they love and so having a big
project like that to them is as
energizing as having a big salary even
though their their your time is money
but remember it's not so much just
having a bunch of time that you can just
spend doing you know whatever you
want just sitting on the couch for some
people having a project or having
structure in order some basically
something laid out for them that they
can do with that time that is more
valuable than just having empty time
right and it just depends some people
really like to have the empty time for
some people buying up a bunch of rental
property and having passive income like
that's the dream and they can just sit
there and you know
whatever whatever happens happens
they watch Netflix you know sip on a
cocktail whatever the case may be for
some people that is their ideal
lifestyle you need to think about how
you perceive the time is money equation
because it's going to be different for
other people it's not just more free
time it's is what type of time and what
type of pace that your life is oriented
around this also impacts for instance
the type of home that you buy I I
talked about this extensively in an
episode that I recorded called your home
is your lifestyle but this is a big
Revelation that I had not too long ago
where it was like you know what people's
lives are so intertwined with their
home your pace of life is directly tied
to your home where you're located you
know if you're in downtown
Manhattan and that's where you live that
impacts your pace of life versus if
you're in like LandrSouth Carolina
right you've got a different pace of
life just based on the the people and
the the businesses and everything around
you but also your pace of life is
impacted if you have to drive a long
distance to work if you have to to take
your kids a long distance to the school
if you're you know in a neighborhood
that has a lot of things going on all of
these things impact your pace of life
could be good could be bad you need to
to consider that because your time is
money and your pace of life is your
salary you need to determine what pace
is the most rewarding for you and
that's what I've really really
learned a lot particularly since I've
I've been a realtor over the past five
years here's lesson number three you
need to differentiate between what you
like and what you love now that may
seem obvious on the surface but here's
why I don't think it's very obvious a
lot of us pivot from something that we
hate into something that we like or love
but because we are our mind is skewed by
what we hate we then lump in all of the
things that we like and love together
without really distinguishing between
the two of them for instance if you're
coming out of a really deflating
career if you have a job that you you
just hate every day you clock in you're
just like I just want this day to end
and every single day drags by like that
you get a new career opportunity or
maybe you start thinking about real
estate let's take it in a real estate
Direction you start thinking about you
know what I could be a realtor I could
be self-employed
being a
realtor it might not be the perfect
thing for you or maybe there are parts
of real estate maybe you want to maybe
you're like you know what I'm going to
be a full-time real estate
investor that can mean a lot of
different things because there like I
said there are so many ways to skin the
Cat in real estate but you're like you
know what anything would be better than
what I'm currently doing and you may end
up settling for something that you like
but you don't love and that might just
be because you're desperate to get out
of what you hate but it could also be
because you haven't really thought
through differentiating what you like
versus what you love and this is
something I've had to learn this ties in
with the last point I made but this is
something I had to learn as a real
estate investor that you know those big
projects there are aspects of big
projects big flipping projects and
whatnot that I like but I I definitely
don't love them
and I would say the the distinction
between liking and loving liking
something is something you find
enjoyable or rewarding or pleasant but
it has some things that you several
things that you'd rather not have to
deal with where whereas something that
you love is something that's rewarding
and enjoyable and pleasant and really
doesn't have a whole lot of downsides it
it's going to have maybe a a a downside
here or there there might be a a point a
stressful Point here and there but
it's it's different it is a different
type of thing altogether and it's really
important to to distinguish between
those things and and I try to help my
clients when they're looking at homes
too when they're buying homes to to
think about it from this lens as well
you know one thing is very common people
that are moving out of maybe their
starter home or maybe a rental into
into another home often times those
people in those starter homes are
rentals don't have some basic things
like a laundry room or like a pantry or
something like that and they'll go into
another home and they'll be like oh my
gosh look at this Pantry this is amazing
and it's just a very basic pantry and
maybe they go into another home and it's
like a they have a Pantry in there and
it's like this full walk-in pantry and
it's like everything that they need well
that depending on how important the
pantry is to you which to some people
that's extremely important like that's
something you interact with every single
day that's probably more important
than people realize you need to be
taking that very seriously like yes I'm
coming from a home with no
Pantry that doesn't mean that I should
just settle for any home just because it
has a tiny Pantry in it maybe I need to
to be looking at a home that I love that
has a a pantry that I will be that will
make me happy every time I open it that
will be a pleas pleasure to stock that I
will never run out of room with those
are the types of of things that you need
to be thinking about and make sure that
you differentiate between what you like
and what you love because you need to be
comparing those things to each other you
need to be comparing the things you like
and love to each other not the things
that you hate with those things ignore
the things that you hate focus on the
things that you know that you have a
positive affinity for and now start to
think more clearly do I like this or do
I love it and separate those two things
into the two categories because hate
obscures proper thinking so we want to
we want to not focus on the things that
we dislike focus on what you like and to
figure out which of those things you
actually
love the fourth lesson that I've learned
is the hard things in life and of course
real estate change constantly here's
what I mean by that the hard things in
life and real estate change
constantly when I first started real
estate investing the hardest thing for
me was getting the money to do deals
and there were a lot of deals back then
that was back in 2013 I mean it wasn't
in the recession we were out of the
recession by that point 2012 we
really in the housing market at least
obviously the the e economy had
recovered at a different pace but the
housing market really didn't start to
recover until
2012 in this area and by by 2013 it
was it was definitely on the
upswing and there were a lot of deals
out there and the hardest thing for me
was just to to finance those deals well
guess what for a variety of reasons
that's not that hard anymore it's pretty
easy for me to get money and part of
that is again my network part of that is
is that I have more money now than I had
back then part of that is the economy is
better and banks are looser and all of
that but now the hard thing is to find
the deals and and that's one of the hard
things that wasn't a hard thing in 2013
that's a very hard thing now there are
not very many deals out there back then
you could you know find a home that had
been on the market for half a year give
it a lowball offer and then you had a
pretty decent chance of getting it you
could flip it and make decent money and
you know you didn't even necessarily
have to do a whole lot my point is
that this is a constantly changing thing
when I became a realtor things were hard
when I first started that are easy now
now things that were easy to some extent
back then are harder it changes over
time and you need to be to be flexible
and adaptive to that to understand that
as you change as a person and as the
markets change as the economy changes as
the world changes some things become a
lot harder or a lot easier and you need
to as much as possible stay stay up with
that and be realistic with yourself if
you're having a hard time doing
something that you thought was easy
in the past you could be likely to force
it and then find yourself doing
something that you regret you could find
yourself you know well I've talked about
this in the past but
when house flipping was easy in 2013
then a few years later I started really
trying to focus on it like a lot more
fulltime and I started doing deals that
weren't good deals I was forcing it
because it was like man well this was so
easy just a few years ago and I've
been going at a slower Pace why is it
when I try to to increase the pace of
this again now we're overlapping with
the pace discussion we just had but why
is it when I try to increase the pace of
this that
I'm I'm finding that it's a lot more
difficult well a lot had changed during
that
time and I needed to adapt my strategy
and I have now it's it's even harder now
to flip houses than it was back then but
i' I've become more successful now than
I was back then and that's because I've
learned a recipe that works for me now
other people have a recipe that works
for them that I would never even
approach and that's just again going
back to the pce of discussion it's just
not something I'm comfortable with
but at some point the recipe that works
for me now probably won't work or maybe
I'll need to to reconfigure that recipe
mix up the ingredients a little bit you
need to be able to be honest with
yourself and to constantly re-evaluate
if something's not working okay what do
I need to do to change or maybe
there's just a different Market that you
need to Pivot to if you if we're talking
about real real estate that was what
I did for a time I I pivoted to rental
properties and that's what got me into
multif family and and rental properties
and and that's become a major part of my
business I've
helped both myself acquire a lot of
those properties I've had a lot of my
clients over the years acquire a lot of
small multif family properties and that
was just a result of me reassessing what
I was doing and saying you know what
this isn't working let me try this and
see if this works oh it does work okay
why does it work work and then in in
that constant state of reflection and
reassessment I've found more and more of
those types of niches like that and more
and more things that work and that's a
very important thing to consider because
the market and my lifestyle and my skill
set and
whatnot that I have right now and that's
happening right now will not be the same
in 5 years and we see one thing I've
seen in
the several years that I've been
involved in real estate and the five
years that I've been a licensed realtor
is that people come and go there were a
few big names in town just a few years
ago that you never hear from now why
because they got too aggressive they
overextended themselves and now guess
what they have lost the shirt off their
back as people as as the saying goes
as people like to say and you you can't
let that happen you've got to make sure
that you are realistic with yourself
that you stay ahead of yourself and
ahead of the times as much as possible
use technology to its fullest extent as
technology becomes available and change
as the times change all right number
five last but not least on the lessons
I've learned over the course of my
life specifically over the course of the
past 5
years and and I've already alluded to
this a little bit but identify your
limitations and seek help or Ed or seek
help or education to offset them let me
say that again because I kind of
stuttered there identify your
limitations and seek help or education
to offset them here's what typically
happens when people have
limitations they either don't realize it
and then they go out and they get burned
they're not realistic with themselves
they think oh I can do this
I can be a real estate developer and
they don't have anyone around them
helping them they don't have any support
system they just got a lot of cash you
know maybe they they had someone drop a
lot of cash on them they're like well I
can definitely do something with this
and they don't have a realistic view of
their
limitations and so then they go out and
and they end up spending a bunch of
money they end up losing a bunch of
money and they end up getting burned
that's that's really bad you need to
ident identify your limitations and then
you can get help from other people in
your network that's why your Network's
important or educate yourself more
but there's another way that that
pendulcan flip and that's that people
can become too conservative they can
they can assume that they have so many
limitations that they can't really do a
whole lot of anything and they get among
other things paralysis analysis that I
like to refer to they just get kind
of Frozen in place they'll they'll
say you know I want to I want to flip
houses and then they'll look at some
houses and be like I don't know what
to do and then they just never get into
it they don't end up doing the house
flips they don't end up ever buying a
rental property and they get stuck and
what happens is they are too
conservative because they are too scared
they're operating in fear of their
limitations and and so they're just
Ultra conservative is their response to
it well that's not a good response
either you'll you'll never end up
learning you'll never end up progressing
you'll leave money on the table you'll
you'll make all sorts of mistakes that
come out of the mistake of over
identifying with your limitations and
becoming too conservative so you have to
strike that balance between being too
aggressive and ignoring your limitations
and being too conservative because
you're scared about your limitations
here is a better route when you
identify your limitations you should
start conservative but with the goal of
of becoming more aggressive and working
your way into more confidence and the
way you do that is by again
conservatively taking on jobs that are
taking on deals that do stretch you a
little bit but you know that you have
the ability via your network via people
you know maybe it's contractors maybe
it's Realtors maybe it's other people or
that you have the ability to self teach
yourself you have avenues for Education
where you can learn how to fill in the
gaps in your knowledge so that your
limitations are less
limiting and and and so this is what you
have to do you have to identify those
limitations and then either rely on
people to help overcome them or educate
yourself and find a way to educate
yourself in order to improve on those
limitations and then as you improve on
them you gain confidence you don't just
stay conservative you start to build in
in your strategy in becoming a little
bit more aggressive you know I'm at the
point now where if I walk into a house I
can say yeah I'll buy this house for
this amount of money I could do that I
don't need to have inspectors come and
look at it and do all sorts of due
diligence when I first started
looking at property flipping houses and
whatnot I had all sorts of inspections
done and all sorts of due diligence I
don't do that anymore because now I know
that that's not a limitation for me now
there are some times where I there will
be a project where it's like you know
what I have a lot of limitations I have
a lot of gaps in my knowledge for how
this would work I'm just going to
pass on that this what it would take for
me in order to to do this is not
interesting for me because I already
know how to be successful in a way
that's comfortable for me so so I
don't want to to take on something that
then again going back to the to the pce
discussion something that would kind of
alter my lifestyle and and cause me
stress I I know a way to make money in
real estate that doesn't stress me out
that allows me to enjoy my life and to
spend time with my family and those are
the things that I'm doubling down on at
this point but it took me a while to
figure that out I had to try a lot of
different things in order to do that I
had to start with some things that I was
uncomfortable with but I knew I had a
support system in place to help me with
those things and then as I gradually
worked my way up it became more and more
apparent okay this is what I'm good at
this is my Niche and sure there's a
possibility that I could Branch out into
other niches and find other things that
that I'm good at that maybe would be
even more profitable but you know what
I'm I'm comfortable right now and I
enjoy what I'm doing and I'll continue
to try to educate myself and if as I
educate myself I discover more things
that I can be doing which I almost
certainly will then I will
incorporate those things but for people
that are just now starting or or that
are trying to break into real estate
investing or or whatever the case may be
or maybe even people that are are
looking to just buy a home to move into
think about what your limitations are
what your concerns are and don't just
let that you let that you
need to assess whether there are ways
that you can overcome those limitations
and not let them you and just
shut you down find ways to overcome
those limitations think through
realistically okay I might be limited in
my knowledge about this or I might be
taking a bit of a risk but I can hedge
that risk I can hedge those limitations
because I know these people that can
help me or I have this support system in
place or I'm getting an education on
construction via doing this project with
this person or whatever the case may be
there are ways to do that so that you
don't just get stuck in being Ultra
conservative and never being willing to
to take a risk that could improve your
life so those are the five lessons that
come to mind that I've learned over the
years your network is your net worth if
time is money your pace is your salary
differentiate between what you like and
what you love versus what you hate the
hard things in life in real estate
change constantly and identify your
limitations and seek help or education
to offset them those have been
incredibly valuable lessons for me I
hope it puts the bug in your ear helps
you to start thinking about what are
some ways that those lessons can be
valuable for you and again if I can
help you with real estate in any way
possible let me know my contact
information is in the show notes please
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that I really appreciate those of you
that have until next time I hope you
guys stay safe and I'm going to be
partying enjoying my 35th
[Music]