Unlocking Real Estate Success: 5 Strategies for Agent Resilience

John Harcar (00:02.048)
All right. Hey guys, welcome back to our show. I’m your host, John Harcar, and I’m here today with MadDog Mike Hobbs. Never talked about that, that, that nickname, but we’ll go over there in a minute. and, with Mike, we’re going to talk today about not only his journey in business and in real estate, but how he’s helping agents really grow their business. remember guys, that investor fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers. I mean, kind of all real estate entrepreneurs at two to five X their business.

And we do that by providing resources and tools to grow the business they want to have and in turn live the life that they want to live. So Mad Dog, welcome to our show.

Maddog (00:39.31)
Thank you, thanks for having me, I appreciate it.

John Harcar (00:41.388)
Yeah, I’m looking forward to hearing you talk about your experience and helping agents. But before we do all that, why don’t you give our audience a little background on you, you know, kind of how you got into business and real estate and where you are at today.

Maddog (00:55.214)
Sure, I was bartending and bouncing back in the day. I played D1 ball.

on scholarship and what do do when you get out of college? You continue to do the things you were doing to get you through school. after my scholarship ran out, was bouncing bartending and a guy came in tipping really well and he says, I said, what do you do? And he says, I’m a mortgage banker. didn’t even know mortgage had two T’s in it. So I said, hey, that sounds great. Let me come down and interview. So I did, got a job, knocked it out of the park, took off, started my own business many years ago, became one of the larger mortgage brokerages back in the old days before 08 and continued to go. then after the crash,

I started a law firm, not an attorney, and people are to ask, well, how’d you do that? Well, I partnered, air quotes right now, partnered with an attorney, a retired judge out of LA, and we started a law firm. ran it. It was hers, of course, legally, but I ran it. The modality for it and the infrastructure was mine. We set it up and we helped people save their homes. We did that for a number of years. I also had a sports management firm where I was a partner and represented NFL athletes. I reinvented myself. I did a lot of different things after the collapse, but I had a real estate firm, and when I did the real estate

firm we started it

Maddog (02:05.98)
with the board they were going to be bored me because what they thought I was doing was unethical I teach ethical or wasn’t couldn’t define it long story short is had to take my brief that I wrote up to the attorneys of the state of California and they found for me and we still do it so I teach that as well that’s something I teach under rebel realtors coaching and that’s a Son of an offshoot from rebel realtors radio I did that for a number of years had radio for 20 years on and off

John Harcar (02:32.747)
Okay.

Maddog (02:33.564)
Long story short is yeah, that’s how I got my start. Right now I own Chem Financial. We’re a mortgage brokerage. We’re powered by Summit Lending. We love what we do. I’ve got partners that collectively we have in the business of real estate, legal and mortgage. have 116 years collectively, mine’s at 40. And we’re just passionate about what we do. Helping real estate agents really grow their business. Also helping clients realize the dream of owning a home and what that means to them.

John Harcar (03:01.56)
Mm-hmm, awesome.

Maddog (03:03.608)
Focus is really helping agents find listings and also find buyers.

John Harcar (03:09.296)
If you’ve ever watched any of my podcasts, I go backwards. D1, where’d you play?

Maddog (03:14.362)
I played at Long Beach State. are undefeated now for 22 years in a row. We’ve never lost a game. They got lumped football. Got rid of the football program 20 years ago, so we haven’t lost. Yeah, was a 49. Yeah, but we haven’t lost the game in 22 years, so I can say that.

John Harcar (03:20.056)
Why don’t we say, what sport? Football, okay, yeah.

Right. I was wondering, I’m like, wait a minute. I grew up in Orange County, Southern California. yeah. So OK.

That’s true. So what were you doing in college that you said you kind of do what you do when you get out of college? What was that again?

Maddog (03:44.732)
Well, in college I got into pre-med and that’s why I worked in the NFL. was working in my own firm doing medical pro-call analysis. I still have friends with analyzing what the doctors do and things like that. So do that, fun, for family, friends, what have you. But did that and then I got into mechanical engineering, didn’t like that and I jumped into business, graduated with business and then went back got another degree from the University of Ashford. Ashford University, I got that in 2017 in electronic marketing, so e-marketing.

John Harcar (04:11.416)
Wow, okay. then where so real estate came in how just from that one guy with them, you know about the mortgage banker

Maddog (04:18.074)
Yeah, I joined a company, Premco, Pacific Real Estate Mortgage, and it was part of Pacific Savings Bank. Went by the way of the dodo back when the RTC took over from the Home Loan Bank Board at the time when the other collapse happened. And I was in the beginning of that with the RTC coming in, Resolution Trust Corporation seizing all the banks and closing down on a Friday night, reopening with a different name and a different modality and different staff. On a Monday, that was kind of crazy time.

mid 80s early 80s and then moved into Developing my business as a producer for a couple other companies running some companies And then I started my own company and did that for 18 years and then the collapse awake. Yeah What I see my From okay, you want to see my scars from wait, I’ve got them ours. Yeah, what scars

John Harcar (05:05.784)
How did, what was it? What’s that?

Yeah, do you?

What tools or things did you use mindset wise when you were pivoting all these different times? mean, was there something that kind of kept you on the right path?

Maddog (05:27.452)
Yeah, I’m considering writing a book called There’s More Gas in Your Tank because in my lowest time, my bankruptcy at one point, I was one of those guys you read about or saw. My bankruptcy, personal bankruptcy, I rarely talk about it but I’ll do it with you here because I trust you, you’ve got a kind face. My bankruptcy was a little over $10 million so I was one of those guys. And I was in the fetal position for about six months. And I’m an old D1 baller working in NFL so I got a lot of, know, my parents, wonderful,

upbringing my sister and I just my parents and my sister and I and I started thinking what would mom and dad think of me you know what would happen I’ve got only one tattoo here that I have and it’s a tribal band I didn’t get it in college during that time I got it recently or not too long ago but it’s same colors like drums which I was a worship team drummer and it’s same colors like drums tribal red and black and also is the Thorn of Crowns for Jesus Christ our Savior I wear it here and I wear my mom and dad’s wedding rings

John Harcar (06:24.376)
Mm-hmm.

Maddog (06:27.292)
either side. They’ve passed, God rest their soul. that, the music, church, my walk in faith and family brought me out of that fetal position and I got back to what I do, which is I build companies. I help people grow. I support people and I just had a passion for it. And I got disenfranchised with lending because the collapse was horrible. As anybody that went through it knows. And I decided to go into other ventures and that’s where I went into

starting a firm and doing other things, sports management, started a real estate company. I’m not a good real estate agent, so I’ve got my license, I’ve had it since the 80s, but practicing, and I never did, but then I did start to. And then I bounced back into lending again and started this company here with Carla Durheim, my partner, and one of the co-founders as well, Kelly Ross, and the three of us said, let’s do something completely different. And I don’t mean it just in the sense of saying different,

But we actually do. We provide benefits others don’t in the industry and it’s a lot of fun.

John Harcar (07:33.032)
So what did you like or dislike about being a real estate agent or selling houses?

Maddog (07:37.532)
I don’t play well with people. not a kumbaya guy. I’m a…

John Harcar (07:42.21)
Harry, what do mean?

Maddog (07:43.814)
Kumbaya, you gotta go out there to all the gala’s and you gotta hug your neighbor. Hey, great listing, hey, so wonderful. I’m the guy that goes, no, screw you, I wanted that listing. I’m not the guy that shows up at all the gatherings for real estate agents and we all lift each other up. I’m the guy that starts his own company and runs it and just goes out and tries to crush and dominate and win all the listings, all the buyers, because I’m consumer facing. And you know, that sounds a little malish and aggressive.

John Harcar (08:12.918)
Ngh.

Maddog (08:13.81)
Mab dog does too, but let’s talk about where the mad dog story came from

John Harcar (08:17.752)
I’m about to say that was gonna be my next question about this mad dog nickname.

Maddog (08:20.028)
That will help some clarity. I just don’t play well. I’d rather be in lending because I don’t have to go and hang out with my competition. In real estate, if I’m in a Keller Williams office or a C21, I’ve got to kind of be engaged with the office and everybody else. And I’m just not that guy. I want to play competitively. So Mad Dog came from many years ago, out with my bands. I’m a drummer and a rock band. And we were out at campsite with our kids that were younger. And the traders were all

lined up like this and I was playing catch with my daughter. Couldn’t see down between two, but a dogfight ensued. The kind that just sends blood curdling down your spine. You know a dog is being murdered by another dog. Ran past my daughter and I rounded the corner between the trailers and there was a dad hitting a rotwiler, 125 pound rotwiler, over the head with one of those metal camping pail buckets, hitting it on the head and it was murdering their family bulldog, which was tied to the tree between the trailers.

John Harcar (09:13.24)
Ugh.

Maddog (09:20.402)
The mom and the two little kids were huddled, you know, in fear against the steps to the trailer. I ran by them instinctively, got behind the Rottweiler, grabbed it by its back legs and hurled it out through the campers down the hill. I ran to the back of the camper, stood there, tried to go by me one way, then the other, getting back to the bulldog, and I punched it in the head and took eyes on me. I got down, widened my stance and my arms, and I got down about two feet from it, gave up.

the biggest deepest guttural growl and just scared it. It ran out chased it found a sheriff got those people evicted found a veteran a vet that happened to be nearby and a camper and came over and passed it to Bulldog. The Bulldog lived. My bandmates nicknamed me Mad Dog.

John Harcar (10:08.684)
That is so cool. just literally fought a dog.

Maddog (10:13.048)
I did. Yeah.

John Harcar (10:15.192)
I love it. Man, that’s such a nickname. All right, so.

Maddog (10:18.735)
And real quick, it means, and you can’t see my sign behind me, but in my office here, it’s got the big logo as a mad dog, and underneath it, because it sounds masculine and kind of scary at first, but what it stands for, is I was just explaining this to Mary a little bit ago, she’s in my office today, but it stands for, it’s part of a feminist ethic, which is one of my favorite ethics, which comes from childbearing, and it stands for an ethos of care, placing others’ well-being above my own. And that’s the way I was raised, and that’s where that moment

of putting myself in jeopardy with a 125 pound Rottweiler for the benefit of others well-being. So that’s what I do in my business, my family, my life.

John Harcar (10:55.544)
Right? Right.

John Harcar (11:01.321)
So what does your business look like now? I I know you mentioned you have the Kim Financial. Are you still doing real estate?

Maddog (11:07.172)
No, I don’t. still have my license but it’s inactive. I just hang on to it. you get… Yeah, yeah. I own a couple of rentals right now. I used to own 15 at one time and those went by the wayside in 08 but I don’t want to talk about that.

John Harcar (11:11.8)
Do you own any real estate, any rentals, any type of investment properties?

John Harcar (11:24.076)
Yeah.

Maddog (11:26.192)
But yes, I own a couple of rentals right now and have a residence and have a lot of fun stuff. And we just, we rebuilt. And so that’s why the book, think, will be, there’s more gas in your tank. It’s the iconic aspect of coming out of the fire and coming back. And I think that’s what God wants us all to do. I think that we all have hardship in life. faced with uncertainty, but I think we have to find a way to…

John Harcar (11:43.511)
Yeah.

Maddog (11:52.992)
Climb to that place again that we know we can be and do better Excuse me. So that Hmm

John Harcar (11:58.902)
What prompted you to write the book?

Did you just see a need in things that you just needed to share or what prompted it?

Maddog (12:06.812)
I haven’t yet, but it’s something I do want to do because I think it’s… No, one sec. My story is so diverse and I think there’s a lot of… Sorry, I’m choking all of a sudden. There’s bits that people might gain or glean from my experiences on what not to do, what to do, how to climb back, how to come out of those terrible places and be successful.

John Harcar (12:09.381)
okay, I thought she said he did, okay. I thought it was on their way.

John Harcar (12:20.726)
Okay.

Maddog (12:33.028)
Company now is a small brokerage and there’s five of us in it and we do quite well and we just really boutique, take care of people.

John Harcar (12:42.68)
All well, let’s talk about our topic today about how you help agents grow their business. mean, what are some of the things that agents are doing wrong in trying to grow their business?

Maddog (12:49.404)
Excuse me.

I think it’s herd mentality and so one of my favorite books is the Purple Cow. If you’re not standing out, you’re invisible. I talk about distinctive competency, which is something that says how can you be the best agent in the vertical? Meaning, if you’re in a sea of 2,600 agents in your county, for example, how do people recognize you? How do they find you? The Purple Cow book …

is predicated upon the author seeing a bunch of cows driving somewhere in a country and seeing all these cows go by. They’re beautiful. They’re cool. They’re great. Black and brown cows are brown cows only. But if you had a purple cow, they stand out. So a sea of real estate agents, how does the consumer actually know? So I teach distinctive competency, which means finding the emotional, tangible benefit that you provide. Not your what you do, because every agent will tell you what they do. I’m going to sophomorically describe it. But hey, I people buy and sell real estate.

benefit. The benefit is that thing that says when you cross over that threshold, this is your home. It’s more than just shelter. It’s an emotional attachment to community, a legacy, your family. That’s what they want. So most agents don’t know how to articulate that to the consumer so that they stand out. They go into a negotiator, I’m honest, I’m ethical, I’ve been in the business forever, look at all my trophies, hey, you’re starting me because I got a lot of trophies.

John Harcar (14:13.506)
Pfft.

Maddog (14:14.3)
The parity on that once I have my high school trophy when I was team captain of my football team and I go, you know, I do all my trophies. I’m on a bunch with all, you know, eight million, blah, blah, whatever. And I go through them, oh, and here’s the most important one that should make you decide to want to use me. It’s when I was the team captain of my high school. Who cares? The consumer doesn’t care. So we focus on.

creating a brand that can articulate an emotional, tangible benefit to the consumer, your why, not the what, but why, and then be able to describe that better than they can even understand it and get it to a place where they do consume it and they want it. And you let it stand out. You are different than any other real estate agent. And it’s just, I’m passionate about that. I love doing that. It’s just fun.

John Harcar (15:03.338)
What other ways do you help agents grow their business?

Maddog (15:10.18)
Primarily in coming in and coaching, talking to them. I think that the industry itself has gotten caught up in loans and so most loan officers want to go out and talk about a new loan problem. Let’s do DPA loans, let’s do renovation loans, let’s talk about this. Hey, you know you can do 4 % down on this one, da da da da. Well, an agent…

They want to know a little bit, but they don’t really care. They’re not going to get in the weeds. We have so many guidelines. changing all the time. really, stay in your lane. All you need to know is where I’m at. Call me. We’ll solve all those problems. Let you stay in that side of the kitchen. I’ll stay on this side of the kitchen. Together, we’re going to prepare an incredible meal. really think that helping them understand my job is to go one level above them, not be down here going, hey, do you have a buyer I can call?

loan officer, I do loans. Mine is how can I get you a buyer because I don’t eat if you don’t eat. So I think it’s incumbent upon me, I think my fiduciary is to go a layer above you and help you get buyers and sellers and that’s what I focus on with agents.

John Harcar (16:04.866)
Yeah.

John Harcar (16:15.032)
Okay, so you help them grow their buyer and seller. Okay, that’s very cool. Do you help them in the marketing and branding piece itself? You know what mean? Do you help them how to, okay. Yeah.

Maddog (16:22.448)
Yo, yeah, that’s me, that’s me.

That’s what we’re talking about. I focus on the branding. So I sit down with multiple sessions. I’ve been working with one client. She’s written a whole new program on selling real estate on selling property. It’s completely different than anybody else does and it attracts people. I spoke with a group of potential sellers. She picked up a listing just the other night last week from it because it’s so unique and different than anybody. doesn’t speak the language of sales. It mocks really the industry predicated upon the

use of the term marketing and this is what I do with agents and I interview and I say hey pretend I’m sitting in the living room, you’re sitting in the living room Sid, I’m gonna sell my home and maybe you and two other agents go give me your speech and they’ll go to a place where they’ll use the term marketing it takes about 60 seconds maybe 45 and they’ll say marketing I go stop stop you stop right there you got me marketing okay what’s your marketing mix and how did you come up with it what do think happens John they know there’s no answer they don’t know what a marketing mix is

John Harcar (17:19.704)
They freeze.

Maddog (17:24.302)
Exactly. But you know what’s funny? Is they use the term marketing. So what real estate does, it’s not their fault because nobody’s actually gotten them out of this. It’s business as usual. That’s the way we’ve always done it, consumes the real estate industry. So it’s helping them find a way to break away from the herd and talk differently. And it’s talking in the term of marketing, not in sales. And they conflate advertising and marketing.

always. It’s always completed. And so I help them speak a different language, have a different vernacular. And frankly, because do ever see Spinal Tap? That old movie? You ever see it? Where the guy has the Yeah, of course. But you know, he has the amp and he says it’s a better amp than anybody’s because it goes to 11.

John Harcar (18:02.466)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Long time ago, but yes.

John Harcar (18:11.073)
Right.

Maddog (18:11.74)
It’s just a potentiometer. It’s just got numbers. You could put 12 or 13 on it. So a lot of agents think they have a better amp because they can turn it to 11 or 12 or whatever, but they’re all the same. And so what we do is we create a distinctive competency by showing the consumer there’s something else other than this conversation about…

marketing that’s not true or advertising that’s conflated with marketing, we give them a vernacular away from sales to marketing. Marketing vernacular. And that then creates a distinction between them and any other agent.

John Harcar (18:47.19)
I love it. Through all this time and your years in business, what do you contribute your keys to success?

Maddog (18:56.54)
walk in faith, God, as I told you before, at the lowest point, God was there for me. I really believe that I have God winks all the time. try to make the best decisions to God. Mom and Dad, upbringing, I, Mom and Dad, near to me, I had your fairy tale upbringing and my sister and I always talked about that. We were just lucky. And I look at them and I talked them all the time and I do that. And I think also sports, sports for me was huge. So I was a high level athlete. was a competitor and I got beat.

hell a lot got a lot of and you can’t tell but I’m still a big guy I’m 67 years old but I can still out spread a 30 year old and I’m in the gym all the time I lift weights I just stay healthy and it’s the way I stay competitive mentally by being physically so what got me through was those three things walking faith mom and dad my upbringing and then my competitive edge and in really being an athlete I know what it is to be in the last two minutes down by

you know seven points and you’re hurting and bleeding and it’s bad I want to win.

John Harcar (20:00.504)
Yep. I love that and I appreciate that so much. I played football all the way up through. I did a walk on at San Diego State, but then I hurt my knee. But yeah, I think that sports in anybody’s background really develops that just that muscle to fight. I appreciate you coming on and sharing all this stuff. If there’s some people out there that want to get in touch with you, talk a little bit more about what you’re doing, maybe talk about some lending.

Maddog (20:11.27)
Nice. Let’s dance.

Maddog (20:17.615)
It does.

John Harcar (20:29.24)
which you really didn’t get to go too deep in. How do they get in touch with you?

Maddog (20:32.54)
Yeah, it’s themaddogstory.com. So, the mad dog, just like it sounds to these, themaddogstory.com is my website. That’ll link you to Chem Financial, which is my company. You can also go to chemfinancial.com, Chem for chemistry. Our relationships are…

Our chemistry builds great relationships. So can go there and find out more about us there. But the Mad Dog story is great way to find out more. You’ll also see me reenact that story of the Rottweiler there.

John Harcar (21:06.722)
I’m gonna go check it out after this now that you told me that story. was on the site a little bit earlier, but I didn’t go that deep because I was trying to do it in between podcasts, but yeah, I’ll check that out.

Maddog (21:14.652)
There’s also a great testimony. Everyone should see it. It’s unsolicited. Now I will tell you that it is my mother, but it is unsolicited, testimonial about what a good guy I am and what a good kid I am.

John Harcar (21:26.21)
Well, hey, Mad Dog, I appreciate you again coming on here, sharing all this knowledge. Guys, if you’re out there listening and you enjoyed it as much as I did, reach out to Mad Dog and see if he can help you, whether it’s your agent business or maybe even some loans. Mike, thank you again. Guys, hope you had a great show. We’ll see you on the next one. Cheers.

Maddog (21:47.11)
Thanks, John. Bye-bye.