Hello everyone and Welcome once again to
another episode of Selling Greenville a
real estate podcast all about Greenville
South Carolina the greater Greenville
area I your host Stan McCune realtor right
here in lovely Greenville South Carolina
trying to endure the pollen season
that we have every year at this time I
sneeze as soon as I open the front door
or the back door or any door and I
end up going outside I am ready for
some rain to wash the poen away but
nonetheless the weather outside has been
phenomenal notwithstanding the yellow
stuff all over our cars and plants and
everything else but yes that is
Greenville and this is one of the things
that we have to deal with we take the
good with the bad but here we are and
here I am recording this podcast here
we're getting towards the end of April
we're almost in May and just a reminder
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etc it's all there for you guys I hope
to hear from you today we're going to
be talking about this is of of course
everything I discuss is filtered
through the lens of Greenville and the
Greenville Market but this is going to
be more of a big picture type of podcast
not not some of the things that we've
done recently where we're talking more
specifically about the Greenville Market
this is going to be a more General
podcast talking about mindsets
towards real estate in general and
the the main idea is the idea of
focusing on processes versus focusing on
outcomes now I want to preface this on
where I came up with this idea this
isn't isn't an idea that that I
suddenly you know had a revelation for I
didn't even read about it although
I'm sure there are books that discuss
this before I was actually in a web a
part of a webinar last week with
Alabama football coach Nick
Sabin and He was discussing this as it's
something I just came up multiple times
in the interview and and the interview
by the way was not a football interview
it was a business
interview and they were interviewing
him just to get his insights as a
successful business person in the
football World obviously college
football coach particularly when
you've been as successful as Nick sabbin
has there's a lot that those guys have
to do you know all the recruiting and
teaching and coaching and and drawing
up plays and constantly evolving
their mindset and all sorts of different
things that go into that and the thing
that kept coming up was that Nick Sabin
said that he always teaches his players
and his coaches and everyone else that
they focus on outcomes they don't sorry
I'm getting it backwards they focus on
processes they don't focus on outcomes
and what he meant by that was when they
play a game or when they have a practice
or whatever it is that they end up doing
if a player makes a catch and and makes
what's quote unquote a great play but he
does it the wrong way maybe a receiver
runs a route poorly but ends up scoring
a touchdown on that
route they aren't
celebrating the the
touchdown in terms of how the coaches
approach it the coaches are looking at
it and saying you locked into this you
did it the wrong way we need to improve
this this is not going to cut it when
they win a game if they win a game
but they don't play well they don't
focus on the fact that they won or the
fact that they lost they focus on how
they did if they lose a game if they
lose a game and but they played really
really well obviously they're going to
focus that on that but they're always
looking at the processes looking at what
happen and he said that when they go
into a game they aren't talking about
winning or losing not setting goals for
trying to to get a certain number of
points or or a certain number of wins or
to even make it to the college football
championship or to win the championship
or anything like that they have a
gazillion processes that they're working
on each player has processes that
they're working on each coach has
processes that they're working on and
they're trying to refine those processes
to get them perfect and the thinking is
if if all of the processes are perfect
then you can basically guarantee that
the outcome will be the outcome that you
want and ultimately in football the main
outcome that you want is to win but all
of these players there also a lot of
them that go to Alabama are as well
trying to make it potentially into the
NFL or or trying to get coaching gigs or
whatever the case may be so there's a
career aspect to this as well that
they have personal outcomes that they
want to happen for for for them and some
of the coaches as well they might have
career outcomes that they're looking for
as well that they might want to you
know try to work their way up the ranks
or potentially get a gig in the NFL
there's all sorts of things that are
going on there but they don't focus on
the
outcome I mean like I said he went to
the point of saying we don't even talk
about winning a game we talk about
executing on the field all of these
different things that we're trying to do
and that really got me thinking I
thought that was really profound that
really got me thinking does this have a
real estate context how can I apply this
to me as a realtor U which I'm not going
to focus so much about in in this
podcast but it it has very profound
implications for me as a realtor
specifically in in real estate and
and I'll I'll just kind of mention this
and then we'll back away like I said I
don't want to focus on this but
here's what you always hear right when
when I get you know Brokers that are
calling me or people that want to meet
with me want want to talk about want
to talk about real estate try to recruit
me for their team whatever the case may
be it's always how many closings a year
have you had how how many what is the
amount per closing that you're
making on your commission how what
what is your GCI that's the term that
you you always hear what is you know
how much how are you able to to raise
your transactions from say $200,000
per transaction well you need to raise
that up to $300,000 on average per
transaction etc etc there's all these
it's it's a lot of throwing around
numbers trying to set all these goals
trying to do all these things and it's
almost all outcomes oriented almost all
outcomes oriented and very little of
the time are they focused on processes a
lot of these at least locally a lot of
these real estate people that are
successful they they I'll grant them
that they're successful but they're so
focused on outcomes and for me I do try
to be more process focused and I do try
to think more about improving myself as
a realtor trying to do all these
things in in my daytoday life in
terms of how I run my business trying to
improve my business each and every day
so that eventually that results into
some outcomes that I would like
and ultimately you know I have to make
money in this job and so there are
different things that I believe that if
I keep working on processes that I'll
I'll get to those outcomes but you guys
don't want to hear all that unless
you're looking to become a realtor which
I recommend not doing not at this
time at least this is the hardest
time really outside of perhaps the
you know Great Recession back in
2008 2009 this is about as hard of a
time to to make a living as a realtor as
there has ever been outside of some
of those major economic recessions and
depressions whatnot but what you guys
want to want to hear is how does this
apply to me personally and I and I think
that there is a for those of you
doing real estate investing or
interested in real estate investing
there are some very profound
implications for a process oriented
approach versus an outcome oriented
approach and I've already alluded to
this but I think first off you hear a
lot of Real Estate Investors they talk a
lot about money goals and they talk a
lot about
I want to make this much money in
real estate I want to have this much
passive income from my rental properties
coming in I want to close this many
deals etc etc and I think for
starters I think particularly when it
comes to money that's an outcome and
there are a lot of things that you can't
control in that and there are going to
be some years that are going to be great
years and some years that aren't going
to be as good just because of just
the randomness and the fluctuations in
the market that come and go and so I
think that one of the implications of
of this approach is that we shouldn't
focus on money goals in real estate
investing don't focus on money goals
Focus rather on
understanding things better for instance
understanding real estate expenses
better come up with spreadsheets and
things like that to have a very
detailed model my my best investor
clients they have things like this a
a spreadsheet where they can just plug
in numbers for a rental property for
instance they can plug in a purchase
price Plug in you know the estimated
rents different types of of expenses and
all of that and they can go ahead and
just calculate immediately and know
without really doing a whole lot more
research to know if something is an
interesting deal to them or not and I
have my own models like this that I use
and that I can share with people but
everyone is a little bit different you
know that you have to account for risk
tolerance you have to account for
you know appreciation that we talk
frequently about oftentimes properties
that are stable appreciating assets
that don't require a ton of you know
Capital that you have to keep pumping
into it often times those don't bring in
the the most cash on cash return but
they might be the best long-term
Investments so so you have to to
consider all of these different things
and the the more you educate yourself on
that that's a process you can educate
yourself on that and better understand
that and try to to become a more
knowledgeable investor is a better way
to spend your M to spend your time and
to spend your efforts than to to come up
with an arbitrary money goal okay this
is what I'm going to do well how are you
going to do it just like a football team
we're going to win a game and we're
going to work hard to win it well okay
that's that's great that's very
inspiring but what are the processes
that you're improving in order to win
the game if you're going to invest in
real estate you have to think through
those process is think through all the
different pressure points what are all
the different things that need to to
come together in order for you to make
money in real
estate another great thing to educate
yourself on is just the market market
rent for instance educate yourself on
what are some areas that rent well
that don't rent as well what are some
areas that disproportionately rent well
for instance they might have cheap
housing but the the rent it still
rents very well in that area where
are the lines in terms of okay it makes
sense to get a two-bedroom or
three-bedroom or a four-bedroom house
what are the differences in terms of a
price points for purchasing those homes
and also price points for renting them
and then how does that influence your
decision- making in terms of what to
invest in whether you choose to focus on
two bedroom Properties or three bedroom
Properties or bedroom properties
whatever the case may be is there a
market that has pent up demand for
one of those things you know there might
be a glut of two bedroom properties on
the market for rent that that will
end up with higher vacancy rates whereas
there's hardly any four bedroom
properties I'm just starting that out
there hypothetically I'm not saying that
that's the case I'm just talking in
terms of hypotheticals these are the
types of things that that you can
educate yourself on and a big part of
being process oriented in real estate is
to always educate consistently educate
yourself and so rather than being like
okay by the end of this year I want to
have made x amount of money from real
estate investing or or whatever the case
may be instead say every week I want to
have educated myself more on this one
thing or maybe every every week I want
to network with one real estate person
and try to learn one thing from that
person that is a process that will in
the end it will result in you having a a
good real estate outcome in in some way
ultimately I would say as well don't
you don't want to focus on the number of
flips or the number of rentals that you
have again that's an outcome you say
well in five years I intend to have 20
doors well that's great that's very
ambitious but again how are you going
to do that like you can't just speak
that into existence you have to actually
come up with a way to to do that
and so again what why how why don't you
focus on educating yourself on for
instance construction learn more about
construction you know what in real EST
State you can never be too educated on
construction buy a book watch YouTube
videos say you know what every day I'm
going to watch 15 minutes of YouTube
content on construction I'm going to
start with plumbing try to understand
Plumbing as well as I can then I'm going
to go to electrical try to understand
electrical as much as I can listen
you that will pay dividends for you you
will have so much knowledge that you'll
gain from that and again it won't
replace actually like doing some of the
work and and by the way don't think that
you know everything just because you
watched a few YouTube videos I can
always tell when I have my you know
my armchair electricians or whatever and
they're like you know well that GFCI
doesn't look you know like it was
hardwired correctly and might not be
grounded because I don't exactly see the
way this blah blah blah BL
and you can always tell when when
someone starts throwing around words but
it's like they don't exactly know
what they're talking about I just
actually I just met together I just
met with a guy recently that was looking
at selling a property and I was
interested potentially in buying it or
or previewing it for some clients that
might be interested and I could tell
right away that he was he was way in
over his head in terms of this property
was a property he intended to flip
himself and then you know he had a
reason why he said that he wasn't able
to do that I think he wasn't able to do
it because probably he had a partner
that he was depending on to actually
do the work and that partner couldn't do
it or perhaps he realized that he
just didn't know what he was talking
about cuz he was like saying all these
different things about you know
throwing around these construction words
and I was like yeah yeah you don't know
what you're talking about of course I
didn't say that to him but like I would
ask him questions be like well what do
you think about what do you think
about this what do you think about the
fact that you know that this part of the
house is kind of sagging and you know
he didn't really have answers to a lot
of these questions and just kind of
seemed kind of perplexed by it all
but he would he would throw around the
jargon and throw around some words
listen don't don't be that guy all right
educate yourself but also realize that
that it's still armchair knowledge but
that armchair knowledge can help you it
can help to prepare you for for
flipping houses it can help to educate
you if you have an electrician that
comes in and starts trying to rip you
off it can you might not come back at
him or her and say no you're ripping me
off you might say well here's what I
think here's what I understand how this
works what are you telling me and and
how is this different than than what
I've heard
again educating yourself on on the
market so construction is a great thing
to educate yourself on another
process educating yourself on on the
market we've talked about that
networking we've talked about that I
think it's a great idea to try to make a
process make it a process to just
network with as many people as
possible to to try to improve your
network who you know and and to make
that a wide range of of people and
you know what you might have to buy them
you might have to have a budget for
buying coffee for people and that's
totally fine it's a realtor I'm used to
having to do this so if it's the
first time you've ever heard of this
idea you know that just know that
there's a lot of us that have had to do
that for a while obviously building
your credit that's that's a great one or
or saving money these are great
processes these are the types of things
figure out a plan for okay I am going to
save this much money every week or this
much money every month I'm going to do
these steps to build my credit I'm going
to start paying off this maxed out
credit card I'm going to start paying
down this student loan whatever the case
may be different processes like that
if you focus on those things and as
you're accumula in all of these
different processes as they all come
together just like a football player
that's working on his route running
that's working on his speed training
that's working on weightlifting that's
working on catching the ball that's
working on building chemistry with the
quarterback doing all these different
things working on on you know chip
blocking on the outside whatever the
case may be as they're doing all these
different things all of those things
come together on game day and it's like
oh wow this guy can play he can play
because he has worked on all these
different processes and now guess what
the outcome is going to is going to it's
all going to come together and so if you
have all of these different processes
that you put together and and you're
working on this eventually it will all
start to click it will all start to make
sense you'll figure out what
you need to do in order to take that
next step in real estate and then that
next step will turn into another Next
Step as you continue to refine those
processes and those steps will start to
acre to the point where hey guess what
now you do have an outcome now maybe you
have a little portfolio of properties of
rental properties and maybe they're
bringing in passive income or maybe
they're doing this or maybe they're
they're doing that maybe you you've
figured out a way to to flip houses that
that you know is a little bit
unconventional who knows there are all
sorts of things but this is how I
have really cut my teeth in this
industry is that I had to learn early
on that there were some things that I
wasn't good at in terms of
flipping houses and different real
estate stuff and this predates when I
became a realtor because I was doing
that stuff well before I became a
realtor and so I had to to to take a
step back be like okay I I start the way
I started was that I had money and I had
a little bit of real estate knowledge
and I wanted to find a way to make the
money work with my real estate knowledge
and I had a few successes and I took my
lumps and then I realized okay I need to
take a step back and to focus on some of
these processes and so I actually did
that and so I actually without
realizing it applied some of sabin's
logic early on in my real estate days
now that I understand what that logic
was I think now I can do that even more
and do that even better but in real
estate investing I think it's a very
valuable way to think about it now if
you're not a real estate investor if
you're an owner occupant it's a little
bit different right because at the end
of the day if you're looking for a
home to buy you do have to be focused on
outcomes you can't just be like well I'm
just going to focus on all these
processes and then all of a sudden I'm
going to find the house that's perfect
for me it it's doesn't quite work that
way when you're when you're buying a
house for yourself but I do think
that there are some shades of this
logic that can be helpful so for
instance I would say don't Focus so
much on if you're looking for a home to
move into don't Focus so much on
arbitrary metrics an arbitrary metric
would be I need to be in this area for
this price I I get that a lot or I
need to we need a house that is 1,800
Square ft in this section of
Greenville and it needs to be less than
$200,000 and and I'm just like which
Greenville are you planning to move to
is this Greenville you know Arkansas
Greenville North Dakota I don't even
know if there are green bills in those
areas but like you know a lot of people
will will throw these arbitrary goals
out there that that simply aren't
realistic and so part of it again I
I've focused a lot on education but I
encourage my clients they need to
educate themselves on the market so so
the simplest way to do that is just to
start looking at what's on the market
and a lot of my clients they've already
started doing that by the time they
reach out to me but I also help them
with that that's something I get them
set up on an MLs search and they can
start seeing what's on the market with
actually in their price range by the way
don't look at what's on the market right
now you have to track it every single
day because when things are selling as
quickly as they are right now what's on
the market right now is really not
indicative of of much of anything
outside of the fact that there's just
not a lot of inventory you've got to
track it every single day to educate
yourself you need to to be looking
at you might need to look at what was on
the market I've had to do this before by
the way for some of my clients I've
had instances where I've had clients
that are like we're looking for this
type of house but we're really picky we
don't know if this type of house exists
at our price point and it's and
sometimes I'm able to just be like yeah
it doesn't you're going to either
have to to change your criteria a
little bit or go up on the price or
whatever the case may be but sometimes
oftentimes if my clients are
reasonable and and they're somewhat
educated on the market
often times it's kind of like well
maybe it it depends on on some of your
subjective criteria whether we can find
that house or not and so I've had some
instances where it's like I I basically
do the search for them okay we set up
the whole search here's what you want
here's what you're looking for now
there's not a whole lot available right
now but why don't we go back six months
let's look at what's come on the market
the past three months or the past six
months that fit your criteria but that
has sold and let's look at that and see
okay are you seeing any homes here that
look interesting to you if you do that's
good that that means that probably in
the next 3 to six months we will find
homes that will fit what you're looking
for if you don't that's a really bad
sign so that's another way a a little
outside the box way that you can also
kind of reverse engineer education on
the market is by looking at what has
sold in the past now you don't want to
go too far back because you know I
wouldn't go P go much farther than 6
months back because the data is going to
be skewed at that point but that's
one that's one way that you can educate
yourself on the market another one
with regard to this focusing on
educating yourself and and different
processes versus just arbitrary metrics
is thinking through the actual Financial
impact of your move so this is
particularly true when a lot of people
just have kind of like a number in their
mind they're like I can't pay more than
$250,000 for house but they don't even
necessarily know like what that
translates to in terms of a per month
mortgage payment and they might also not
know like how how do property taxes
factor into that how does homeowners
insurance factor into that if they
are at a Crossroads where they're trying
to decide whether want to rent or
whether they want to buy they probably
haven't extrapolated okay here's how
much money I will have spent on rent
versus how much money I will have spent
on a mortgage and what that means in
terms of my net worth 15 or 20 years
from now after having done this and
the fact that rent payments are going to
keep going up whereas a mortgage payment
stays flat and actually could go down
if you pay pay it down to 20% and then
get rid of your PMI that's a great
way of really of starting the process of
looking at a home is making sure you
really understand all of that and trying
to educate yourself as much as possible
on all of that trying to stay up to dat
on where mortgage rates are going
what they are right now what they have
been what that means for the future all
sorts of of different things
extrapolating and looking at what might
happen if you wait a few years what
where is the market going sorry if you
hear that plane going overhead as
I've said before I'm right by the
airport so we get some loud noises
around here but you know maybe you're
like I don't know if I want to buy
right now maybe I want to sit this one
out and just wait and see if the market
calms down and it's like okay the market
might calm down a little bit but
historically What would that even mean
would that even mean that that you
would be able to find what you're
looking for in two years how much higher
will prices have gone during that time
how much higher will mortgage rates have
gone during that time based on what
we've seen historically so there's all
sorts of of different things here that
you can educate yourself on to focus on
rather than creating just an arbitrary
goal or throwing out there an arbitrary
number you can put all these processes
into place and then and and and start
focusing on these things and and
bettering yourself and and being a more
educated buyer or seller so that when
the time comes you have all this data in
your head you know exactly what you need
to do I would say as well don't focus
on how challenging the market is and
saying we need to be moved by X date you
know I hear that a lot as well and
obviously are some some deadlines we
can't just throw deadlines out the
window and just pretend like there
are you know no
deadlines but there are things that
you can do rather than stressing
yourself out about I got to be out of
here by by this date do things to
improve yourself make yourself a more
attractive buyer if if you put there are
way there are processes that you can do
to then ensure that you're able to to
meet the deadline that you want as your
outcome so saving more money for a down
payment for instance that makes you a
more attractive buyer taking steps like
I said to improve your credit Shameless
plug finding a realtor that understands
how to write an attractive offer these
are things that pay dividends for you
down the road to to ensure that you
actually are able to meet those goals
there it's not like these goals are just
out there and it's like we just got to
somehow meet them no there are things
that you can do in order to set yourself
up for success in Meeting those goals
and you need to focus on setting
yourself up for Success more than you
need to focus on the goal I would say
as well you don't want to focus on how
your local market is changing as you
prepare to sell again not necessarily an
outcome but it's kind of an offshoot of
this same logic don't focus on how the
local market is changing as you prepared
to sell a lot of people are like well if
I wait a year how much more will my home
have appreciated or is it possible to
depreciate or you know will it become a
buyer Market will become more of a
seller Market blah BL blah blah no don't
listen as you're getting ready to move
as you're getting ready to sell your
home there are so many things that you
can be doing that are are going to help
your home to sell regardless of what's
happening in the market focus on those
processes decluttering everyone everyone
that is selling their home needs to
declutter I don't care who you are I
don't care how minimalistic you are you
have clutter and you need to declutter
okay that will save you a lot of stress
down the road maybe have someone look
at your house whether it's a realtor
maybe a friend that's good with
construction or whatever the case may be
and just nitpick different things
different things that you've just gotten
used to you know we all get used to that
weird you know we got that faucet that
just drips all the time and it doesn't
you know it takes a while for the hot
water to get to it and it's a slow
draining sink and all these different
things and and you just get used to it
but those are things that when you sell
a house they they can be very stressful
things they could be things that that
are a turnoff to buyers they could be
things that derail a
transaction and so walk through your
house with an open mind maybe with
someone else and and start to work on
those things start start improving those
things you don't need to dump a ton of
money into the house a lot of these
things are very very cheap I find and
people have just gotten used to being
without them you don't want to be
that person right you just go ahead and
start knocking those things out and you
know what if the market swings and it
becomes more of a buyer's market if your
house if you have done all these things
to your house and improved it it's
going to make your house stand out
compared to the others and you're going
to set yourself up more for success I
always tell people look at your house
and think about what are the negatives
here we want to flip negatives into at
least neutrals but if you can flip a
negative into a positive that is awesome
so if you can take that leaky faucet
that old leaky faucet that's
gross okay you can clean it up and make
it stop leaking that turned your
negative into a neutral but if you do
the cheap repair of just replacing the
faucet and putting a nice you know a
higher end faucet that's not an
expensive thing to do you just flipped a
negative into a positive that that has
just added way more value to your house
than that faucet cost you and so
you want to turn negatives into neutrals
you want to turn and into positives
when possible and turn neutrals into
positives these are things that if
you're focusing on all of these things
rather than you know stressing out about
about what's going to happen with the
market or or what's my neighborhood
doing you know that person down there
they I think they're going to foreclose
and they've got a crappy roof on on on
their house that looks like it's about
to cave in and how's that impacting my
home value
listen block block that out and focus on
what you can be improving on your
property and most of the time everything
will turn out all right and that's it
that is kind of where I've been thinking
with all this again a more of a big
picture type of thing but hopefully it
gets your wheels turning how can you how
can I I be more process oriented than
outcome oriented if you are process
oriented the outcomes will come you will
get those positive outcomes at some
point but there are so many things
that you can do along the way I hope
that was helpful for you guys let me
know if you have any thoughts or any
questions I am here if you need me
please reach out all my contact
information is in the show notes hope
you guys have a great rest of your week
[Music]