Krista: Hey Chris, how you doing?
Chris: Great. How are you, Krista?
Krista: Great, thank you so much for being here. I'm super excited to have you and we're excited to hear you know all about your successes and and how you're going to serve our audience today.
Chris: I'm excited to be here.
Krista: I love your energy. I don't know if anyone tells you that you've got really good energy.
Chris: Yes, yes, the standing desk also helps you move around. And I'm like, you know, fired up, because I'm just my posture. I can feel the difference between sitting and standing sometimes. So I'm happy to be here. And I'm excited. You can tell right?
Krista: Yes, yes, Yes. i Whenever anybody tells me that they like my energy. I'm always like, I love that company. It's the best compliment when they tell me I've got good energy.
Chris: Someone just emailed me that the other day like you have a contagious energy about you, my friend. Like, it's great to meet you. Like I literally met this person when we talked to him once. And he's actually gonna be a personal trainer of mine. Tomorrow is our first session. And that was such a great compliment. Same thing, like you just said maybe high on the DISC profile. I love hearing that words of affirmation type thing.
Krista: Yes, yes, yes. Okay, so tell us I now I know. It's hard to brag about yourself. But I would like to hear more about you. Tell us what you do. Tell us your accomplishments and why our listeners need to listen up.
Chris: Absolutely. So thank you very much for letting me brag humble, brag on myself, hopefully, and also share a lot with your audience. So the quick story is, you know, I went to college route, I thought that was what I had to do. I studied Supply Chain Management in the business school at Texas A&M , got an oil and gas job, I was super excited about it. And I thought I was doing all the things that I was supposed to do. Because that's what I saw, right? I saw my friends, my family, everyone was telling me get your college degree, get a full time job, have the benefits the package, two weeks of vacation a year, that's probably a con but I did that in three and a half years. And I'm like, man, it's just it's not checking the boxes for me. I'm not feeling engaged. I'm not interested in these meetings. I was looking around like what's wrong with me, everyone else seems like they're excited to be here for another 20 years, I couldn't see myself doing it. And so three and a half years in, I quit my job. I fell on my face trying a few different things before I landed in real estate actually joined a house buying wholesaling company for a bit before getting my real estate license. And now I'm actually doing real estate completely virtually. I mentioned before we hit record, I moved from Houston to Denver, in March of this year, and my business hasn't skipped a beat. So I'm a podcast host a real estate expert. I love productivity. I love just meeting people and hanging out, you know, stuff like why don't I just do that and see if I can help some clients out along the way, you know. So hopefully that kind of answers the questions. I'm still figuring out what is my title? I'm like, Hey, I'm here to make friends. And if we can work together somehow, let's do it. And if not, no worries, you know.
Krista: So tell me real estate virtually and your business hasn't changed. Tell me about that. That's super interesting.
Chris: I've been really harping on that lately. Because a lot of times you were like, Okay, you're in real estate, whatever. We all know a bunch of people in real estate. But when I'm like I am in real estate, and I can close all my deals from this seat, or my standing desk. And the way that happened was we actually my fiance and I visited Denver last August, and I was finding that I had two closings the week that I was gone. And I'm like, Huh, that's funny. It kind of sparked that interest of I wonder if I can make this happen full time. Yes, yes. Right. So the gears were turning in my head and clients didn't seem to care, I still got great reviews, they had a picture of the title company, you know, I wasn't there. But I still have to post the picture and say, Hey, I was the real estate agent behind this transaction. Here's their five star review. And so that trip in August of 2020 really made us think my fiance and I, it would be great to just move and try something new. And so I put my house up for sale, I listed it myself. And a couple months later, we were actually out here. I mean, I guess five, six months later, to process to list the house, sell it move out here. And everything's virtual because I have people who are my boots on the ground.
Krista: So tell us tell us the process because I'm and people don't get weird by it. Well, you know, it's people get weird by so tell me, tell me, tell me!
Chris: It's funny, because I think 2020 really helped everything that's been going on the world. Everyone's moved to zoom or online calls, right? So it's, it's not a crazy thing to say, hey, instead of me stopping by your house to do a listing presentation at your kitchen table? Why don't we just do a zoom call, I can share my screen, I can record it. I can send you the links and all of that stuff. And honestly, I've been doing my listing and buyer presentations. No questions happened. Like it never comes up. Are you in in the state? Are you in the town? Are you in Houston at all? I do tell people I don't want to like slide it, you know, under the rug and just be like, Hey, by the way, I'm actually not living there. So I do kind of add that at the very end. But after I kind of blow their socks off with the presentation, show all the reviews, the happy clients and pictures of Viet closing when I was in town. I kind of mentioned Hey, minor detail, you know, I want to be respectful of you and your time. If this is a deal breaker, let me know and I can connect you with someone in town. And usually they're already like committed and bought in by the time I even bring this up. Right. So when I mentioned Hey, I actually moved to Denver back in March. still have closings? Look, here's some recent closings on the map. My clients are all very happy process has, you know, the process hasn't skipped a beat. If this is a concern and you want someone who's more local who can handhold I can definitely make that introduction. But if that's no big deal, I'm still happy to review the inspection report with you let you know of anything we should address and still negotiate on your behalf. So that's kind of how I've overcome that hurdle. It may also help with the demographic many of my clients are millennials like me. I've done transactions where it's only been one phone call, it's been all text messages or Instagram DMS, and people just can't even believe it. My my real estate friends who've been in the industry for decades, they're like, Man, I don't know how you do it, Chris, like you young guys, you're just always on the phone. And you don't even talk to your clients. You don't cold call or anything like how do you do it. And it's been all attraction marketing. So it really isn't as big of an objection as you would think once you present and show the value.
Krista: So, um, so is it mostly listings or buyers … or both?
Chris: It's been more listing heavy this year, actually, which gives me even more leverage, right, because I don't have to go show houses. But I can also talk about the process of how do I help buyers? If I'm out there? I'm sure that's a question.
Krista: Yes. So first of all, so you you just let them know. And then you have your team go out and get the pictures and the photos and videos and all that kind of stuff in your you know, do you insert yourself in the video by being in front of a green screen and getting on video to for the for the houses,
Chris: I do not actually do the the green screen in the videos and everything. But I'll have a photographer kind of my system and the process is okay, I have a listing presentation, we talked about the house, if possible, if I can get any pictures that they may have that of the house right now, I kind of got these ideas from being in the wholesale business where they buy ugly houses type thing. So you look at the pictures of the house. And you can get a pretty good idea like in five or 10 minutes of Gosh, this thing needs work. It needs paint carpet, the blinds are dated or wallpaper in the kitchen, right you can get a pretty fairly good estimate of what is needed. Or man this is immaculate. We don't have to do really anything just clean. They do a virtual a virtual walkthrough with you. Sometimes Yeah, we can do that if they're on a zoom call on their phone. But if they're just at their desktop, I don't really expect them to take their computer around. But yeah, many of them actually have photos. Or they can take quick photos and just upload it to a dropbox folder that I share. I have the business plan. So I'm like here, you don't have to pay for Dropbox. If you have it, which a lot of people do, just upload it to this folder or in Google Drive. And so I've just really been leveraging technology to get a quick snapshot of what does the house look like? Does it need anything, let's set expectations if it looks like it's a little rough, you may need to put some money into it or if you want to sell it as is it's going to have to the price is going to have to be adjusted accordingly. So once I have someone go out there but the lockbox up on the door, usually the super lockbox, or if it's like an investment property, I may do a combo lockbox because you know it already needs 50 grand and work like yeah, we're a second hand type thing. Yeah, and a lot of people are against those but it's going in and out a lot as well. There's like 50 showing sometimes I had one one house recently that had 80 offers and like 70 Something showings It was insane that house was just getting in and out with neighbors are like what is going on here? Wow. And that was another one I did virtually completely so that was probably kind of funny to see. But once you get the lockbox up on there many photographers who've done this a long time they have access to the realtor lockbox is they can schedule the appointment through showing time or whatever services that you use. So really, it's get someone out there who is licensed ideally and has access to the property get pictures if the seller can't do it for me. So I know what the house looks like, put the lockbox up from there, the photographer can schedule a time to get the photos. And other than that, it's just putting the listing on active and sticking the sign in the yard. And having a real estate agent who maybe works with you or wants to capture those leads, post open houses show the house for you represent a possible buyer if there are any leads coming in. So that's you know, listings equals leverage. We've all heard it before. That's I don't know how you can you know, leverage more than that.
Krista: Yes, exactly. Okay, so then do you like you do you do zoom and review the list like the request for repairs and inspections and the offer negotiation and meet in person that way or it's just over the phone?
Chris: Absolutely. So a lot I push a lot of people to do zoom if possible, because I really love that I can build so much rapport, you know, face to face. You and I are talking here right now, for example. And the way I've seen it as in person obviously is the best you can see them shake hands hug because of this environment in this world we lived in a lot of people still are like, Hey, I'm more comfortable working from home. I don't have to leave the home office. I don't have to meet you at a Starbucks or anything. So zoom has been my primary thing for especially those larger documents listing agreement. What does this mean? Let's go through it all together. But typically I asked what do you prefer? Let me know. Here's the listing agreement. Here's all the docs if you want to review it and sign it, if you have any questions, let me know if you want to schedule another call. We can do that too. And most of the time they're like okay, it's straightforward. I just signed it. No call needed, right but but I'm always available. If you have any Concerns let's jump on a zoom call or phone call. And I'm happy to address them. But most most times, they just send me the text. Just signed all the docs. Everything looks good.
Krista: Wow. Because you're because you are dealing with a lot of millennials. So that makes a lot of sense. Yes. Millennials are wanting to, to do it that way.
Chris: Do it really quickly. I don't wanna talk to anyone don't call me, you know?
Krista: Yeah, yeah. Good. Okay, so what's your so obviously, Zoom is one of your technologies that you like, but what would you say is your best technology that you use the most in real estate?
Chris: Great question. So I actually the personal trainer that I have a session with tomorrow, I just converted him as well, I'm sure you've, you've heard of this, or you use a booking software, I think it was a different one than I used. But having a booking or scheduling software, if you have appointments, and you're in sales, I've been using Calendly, religiously for probably two years. Now. The premium plans like 11 bucks a month, or $10.83, or something crazy low. As simple as it sounds that has changed the game for me, because now everywhere on my websites, my social media, the bottom of my email signature, it's like click here to schedule a call with me. So I don't even really have to answer my phone anymore. Because I get 10 Spam. I was just posting this on my store, I get so many spam calls. I sometimes enter thinking how maybe it's a lead? No, it's spam. It's someone selling me on auto insurance, right. And so when I have people scheduled through Calendly, it pops up on my calendar. And I'm like, Oh, cool. Buyer presentation Wednesday, Lee's listing presentation on Thursday. And I have all the information without having to sit there for 10 minutes asking, what's the address of the house? Why do you want to sell? It's all filled in? Right? So Calendly has been the biggest game changer for me. And I actually scheduled my first training session tomorrow with Calendly because the trainer is like, dude, this changed the game. I was doing this all manually before.
Krista: Haha. That's awesome. That's awesome. All right. Okay, so I noticed on your website, you have like a productivity thing that you give out? Because you talk about that for me? Do you know Mind Valley? So Mindvalley they have like millions of followers. And they did this survey asking people what is the main thing that they wanted to, you know, help with in their life and productivity and accountability? Was the they said hands down, like the most super high, which I know to be true for my students as well.
Chris: Absolutely. So I love productivity, I did mention kind of in passing, I studied supply chain management. And I do think while I did not really enjoy the corporate environment, and it wasn't for me, it did play a role in me just doing things more efficiently, more effectively. You know, if there's 10 steps in the process, we would do like a spaghetti diagram on the shop floor and be like, you know, why are we going there, and then the machinist is going over here, he's crossing over the whole place. Or even in a gym, for example, if you got stuff all over the place, and you got to walk across the gym 20 times to get your workout in, you're wasting minutes here and there, right. So efficiency has always been very important to me. And it made sense in my real estate business to kind of use the same logic, like, Hey, we're going to do showings, I'm not going to show you a house on the east side of town and then switch town, you know, switch sides of town, I want to optimize, optimize even the route that we're going on, so that it is the most optimized, and I'm not wasting any more of your time or my time than I have to. But the productivity guide really just talks about a couple of things that I do just to, you know, stack tasks. For example, if you have to go somewhere, like drop off your dry cleaning, which I know a lot of people probably aren't even doing that much of anymore. If you got to do that, and you got something else right next to it, try to align them with each other, right? Knock them both out, instead of getting your laundry, then going right back where you were to do something else, two hours later, you're kind of wasting time here and there. And we all do this, right? We all have little inefficiencies. We do things repetitively, that really five minutes here, 10 minutes there, it adds up. And then you're like, oh my gosh, I have no time. I never have time to do this, I don't have time to work out. I don't have time for massages, like you just wasted three hours in your day. If you optimize that, you'd have the time to do stuff, like get a 90 minute massage once a week or every other week if you want to. And for anyone who watches my stories, you're like, Chris, do you even work because I'm getting deep tissue massages. And I, I just got back from the chiropractor, like I'm really trying to dial in my health and wellness. I have the meeting with the trainer tomorrow, because most of my real estate business has been automated through systems like Calendly and through real estate agents who show properties to my buyers. I'm just doing that initial call and kind of being a console consultative person along the way until the property closes.
Krista: So then, so you give the virus 100% to the people that are showing them for you.
Chris: Exactly. And a lot of times I know the productivity guy kind of has a couple other things as well. But I just the way I think now, there's a book that I can recommend who not how if you've ever read that one. Anytime something comes to me, most people kind of default to gosh, okay, I got to do that. I'm going to do Yes, right. How do I do this? It becomes a problem. And I just default now after that book to wait, this is not my expertise. I should not be spending my time doing this who can do this who on my team or do I have a virtual assistant in the Philippines who can just take this three hour project off my plate A perfect example is this like shirt. This is Chris Bella real estate. I don't know, it's kind of hard to see it. And I didn't even make the shirt. I told my assistant, hey, I want a shirt that just as Chris Bella real estate that I can wear on calls, she designed it ordered it shipped it to my house added to the bill. It took me two minutes to type that out in Asana. And she did the rest, right? Yeah, I just approved it afterwards. So for the buyer agent thing, I did split commission on a dealer too, because I'm like, Okay, let's work together, you help with inspection and go to the closing and all of that. And then I realized, like, you know, there are showing agents who are willing to show properties for $25 A house for per hour. And instead of me doing a 6040 split or a 5050 on a $10,000 commission, I could just pay them 200 bucks to show a couple houses, and then maybe pay them one more time to go out there and meet them at the inspection, right and kind of be the liaison. And so for 100 or $200 We're under contract on a property right off to split the commission at all, if that kind of makes sense. So I realized that I can do everything remotely, including a call with the inspector and the buyers while they're there.
Krista: Nice, nice. Oh, yeah, that's, that's pico Alicia, that's going oh, that's that's a that's good. I can't even Trump you I, I have sold you know, several 100 homes and I've never talked to the seller or buyer over the past four years.
Even better, yeah. Now my brother he acts as me and my video content, my traction based marketing, just like, has people calling us and so it's awesome. Yeah, yeah, it's a man it got to a point where the year I left real estate, I sold 154 homes. So when I go into coaching and I was like, just it was so much just so I was just tired, you know? And that was not what the team it was like me and an assistant and a transaction coordinator. So you don't you know how crazy it can get this I'm gonna title this the virtual real estate and 100% real virtual real estate agent.
Chris: Yeah, I think someone else had titled this like how to close deals without ever leaving home on my head like that title because it's a coffee shop I can do from Denver, I can do it from Indonesia. And another book that was very influential was a four hour workweek if you've ever read that one, just the digital nomad, you know, laptop lifestyle. I love that idea of how do I make my business in a way where I can close deals anywhere in the world and help people that way. I'm not tied to a certain market for you know, I've been here for 20 years, I can never leave because my whole business is here and everything would dry up. Right? That's not the case, because I kind of shifted the paradigm. So I really encourage other people out there to just change the way you're thinking, you know, maybe you're thinking too small, you're thinking something's not possible, which is resulting in you never even trying.
Krista: Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yes. Okay, love. I love I love it. Um, yeah, I would have if you would have told me that you could do even like that virtually. When I first started, I realized I tell you no way, no matter of being resourceful and thinking about things in your right, there are plenty of agents out there that will sell that will work for $25 an hour, you know that. And for them, that's great money, or they're trying to get extra, you know, so yeah, yeah. Are they at the same company? As you?
Chris: Yeah, most of them are the same company. My brokerage is based out of Houston, I still I kind of just hung my license with them. And I've kept it there. And they got over 700 agents, and there's always, you know, new and excited and motivated people who are trustworthy and all the things that they check all the boxes, right? I need someone who's actually trustworthy, they're going to show up on time, my clients not going to text me saying, Hey, we're here, no one else is here, in my, you know, showing agents sleeping in or something, I can't have that, because that reflects poorly on me. So I have a handful of people that I know like and trust. And I'll text you know, in priority, the first person who's always there for me, I'll text her if she's not available. I go to the second person, I really have two or three that show houses for the majority of clients. And it's a who not healthy, right? Who can do this for me? Because obviously I no longer physically can't I'm not there.
Krista: Yeah. So what do you do with the rest of your time?
Chris: I try to figure that out. How do I make more purpose, right? I don't have any children or anything. I am recently engaged. And we have two cats and a dog. But honestly, I work probably five or eight hours a week. I want to work more. But the way I see it is I put my social media marketing hat on. I mean, they're doing podcast interviews, creating content, engaging on Facebook groups or different LinkedIn, you know, pages or posts because until someone DM's me saying, Hey, Chris, I have a real estate question or, Hey, what's my house worth? I want to sell it. What do you think? What do you recommend? Until that happens? I'm really marketing, you're in that marketing role until at the attraction comes in and someone sends you that message and that's what I put on my real estate hat. Here's the Calendly link, schedule a call. Okay, Thursday, we're going to talk about selling 123 Street in five months when you're ready to make that transition and where are you going next to right. So that's what I've been doing my time. I mean, I've been doing floatation tanks, sensory deprivation, working out with a trainer playing spike ball that's like a new little hobby. I do a lot of stuff for fun, but I want to make more impact. And that's kind of where I'm trying to figure out Do I do some free coaching sessions or do a group coaching or mastermind? I'm not I'm not being too strict about it. Right? I kind of mentioned earlier, I'm just here to have fun, make friends and see what happens.
Krista: Yes, yes. You're not sure. I love that I love I love that, um, for people to find you for the it's they can go to chrisbellow.com. Correct. And there's the productivity hack in there. You can see his productivity hack, hack and download that from him and learn more about him and his business. And you are out of Dallas. Correct?
Chris: I was based out of Houston, but I actually just moved to Denver, Colorado and there are a lot of people are moving there. It's crazy how much that area has just expanded like crazy. So if you if you are thinking about moving to Colorado, or you know somebody is selling or buying you can refer Chris that's for sure. Also in Yes. Or the way I've been telling people like my little my little one liner on my BIOS or I can help you buy or sell real estate anywhere. Yeah, girl in Seattle, I've got a call with someone who wants to buy in Utah. And so a lot of people limit themselves to their little market. And then someone buys a house in like New York. And they're like, I could have gotten a referral for that. Right. So I'm capturing those as well, by just adjusting my marketing message saying, hey, for any questions come to me first, I will connect you to the expert in that area. So I can get a little slice of that pie as well, as well as connecting them with someone who knows what they're doing.
Krista: Oh, absolutely, absolutely. Yes, yes, yes, yes. How I used to now I give the referrals to my students, they know they're the most apt to take care of it right their marketing skills. But if I don't have an agent in an area, that's a student, I just look on Zillow looking for their reviews, how many homes they've sold, see how often their reviews are and exactly and all that to really and then I interview multiple ones to sort of match who can be the best will be the best person for them with a personality as well, because that's a big thing. If you have a driver and you have someone who doesn't really answer their phone or doesn't want to be like closed, you know, using quotes for clothes, that's not going to be a great match. So you want to make sure you match their DISC profile. Or if this person's laid back, and hey, I'm not really in a rush, like put them with an agent who can handle that instead of like calling three times a day like hey, let's go find houses. Let's go look at houses, you know, it's gonna stress them out. So really matching that personality, like you said, I think that is the secret to referral success.
Krista: Yes, absolutely. Okay, this has been great. I love it. Okay, so I always end up every podcast with ask if you can give your best advice for their business or personal to our listeners, what would you give?
Chris: My best advice, and this is how I have so much time these days to do whatever I want. Whether it's volunteer or play Spikeball, or go on a three hour massage, is to draw lines and create your perfect schedule. This is an exercise that I did I really recommend everyone go there and write your perfect day down take up one or two pages, what is your perfect day look like? What time are you waking up at if if you don't want to take calls at 8am block that out on your Calendly or your booking calendar. No one can book me until one or 2pm in the afternoon. So that I have all morning to be creative and think and ride my bike and take my dog out on a 30 minute walk or two hour hike. I can be flexible with those things. And so if you know what your perfect day looks like, you can build that into your schedule. And be very strict with that. Because otherwise you're gonna find, man, I wanted to go do this thing on Friday, but I got three calls. I can't do it. It's gonna happen every week. If you don't let people book you on Friday. Oh, I have no appointments on Friday. I'm gonna go on a three hour hike. Right? You can have that flexibility. And you can make the time because here's the punchline, if you never make the time you'll never have the time right? You'll never find it.
Krista: That's so true. If you never make the time you'll never have the time and the good stuff always comes up. There's always stuff that comes up right so I always say you need to learn to say yes, what you should say yes to and say no, you should say no to exactly those crisis's become your own.
Chris: Right, right. essentialism is a great book for that to learn how to say no, you know how that filter don't just automatically say yes, a lot of us are yes, people I was as well. But now I'm like, you know, actually, no, I'm not gonna say yes. Or maybe and then change my mind two weeks later, because that actually just doesn't align right. So I'm sorry, but I can't do it right now.
Krista: I love it. Okay, Chris, thank you so much, everyone. We really appreciate you being here. I love your energy level gratitude, the virtual ag you never have to leave your house, you're still selling houses and working with buyers and sellers. I just love it. So everyone remember, we've got our two day live event kind of go to Chris demacia.com forward slash the number two days live. That's Chris demacia.com forward slash number two days live. For our two day live it we get 15 hours of coaching from me directly on digital marketing and how to stand out as the go to authority in your area. And remember, I really appreciate you spending your time with me. Thank you so much where it means the world and action is where the money is made. Listening is great. You've got to take action. And I'll see you next time and I hope you are just as fired up as I am Chris, thank you so much.
Chris: Thank you Krista. I appreciate it.
