5 Game-Changing Insights on Real Estate Marketing with Rob Thrasher

Dylan Silver (00:01.068)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. I’m your host, Dylan Silver. And today on the show, we have a real estate involved engineer who has done quite a bit in the marketing space as well. We were talking before hopping on about building out an MLS and marketing and many other topics. Robert Thrasher, welcome to the show.

Rob Thrasher (00:24.758)
Hey, thanks for having me, Dylan. I appreciate you very much.

Dylan Silver (00:28.366)
I always like to start off at the top, Rob, by asking folks how did they get involved in the real estate space?

Rob Thrasher (00:35.81)
Yeah, so I kind of joke and I say, know, I never really chose real estate, but it seems to keep choosing me over and over again. Our first experience was like me and my team built an MLS for a local county up here in upstate New York, which believe it or not, there are counties in this state who do not currently have an MLS system.

Dylan Silver (00:59.918)
How are they putting homes up online? Are they using someone else’s MLS?

Rob Thrasher (01:02.018)
you

Yeah, question. they do have an MLS here in more of a central area Utica, New York Utica Oneida in Rome. They do have their MLS here So yes, they actually actually some of them would pay to use the MLS even though it’s next door It’s not really where their property is but other than that they would they would struggle they were while they were failing They were failing before they had an MLS

Dylan Silver (01:33.858)
So were you a real estate guy? you do investing? Or did they know you from other projects?

Rob Thrasher (01:40.788)
So we did, we handled a lot of data, MLS data. So we were more like data packagers and data handlers. And as you know, the MLS has a really tight, tight hold on that data. But some of the local newspapers up here had access to the data. And so ultimately what we did was really kind of behind the scenes, we actually helped transfer

transfer that data for people who were in the MLS in the Utica, New York area, but also didn’t have the capabilities to take that and to merge it into their newspaper ads and stuff like that. So we were kind of data people for the MLS teams.

Dylan Silver (02:23.884)
Now, this is an interesting niche to be in because if I compare this to what you’re involved in today with, you know, growing the marketing and the media presence, it’s almost two different sides of your brain. You got the engineering and then you got the marketing. But really, that’s what an MLS is. It’s how do we market this to people and how do we technically execute on that? Do you ever feel like it’s two totally different worlds, the engineering and the marketing?

Rob Thrasher (02:48.13)
Yeah, yes, the answer is Undoubtedly the answer to that is yes very much. So I still to this day struggled to try to explain things

Whether it’s internet marketing, it seems to me it’s been around long enough. Most people should really kind of get it, but they don’t. And of course, yeah, of course, as you know, that changes market to market. Some markets are more savvy, but no, it’s two different languages. And sometimes I’ll find myself connecting with that side of the brain.

and understanding how this side’s not gonna get it. And a lot of my writings and stuff that led to me doing what I’m doing now, just the pure marketing side, were really because I knew how to put it down, put pen to paper, if anybody still does that, probably not, put the words down into a document, like a technical document, so that others can understand what the heck am I saying. But it’s always a struggle.

Dylan Silver (03:43.832)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (03:47.392)
I mean now people are going to be translating their tech jargon through chat GPT into normal person speak. They’re going to be like, how do I explain this to a lay person? What it is that I’m doing? You know, one of the interesting things when I think about how to get information out there and when I think about an MLS specifically,

Rob Thrasher (04:00.067)
Yes, yes.

Dylan Silver (04:09.534)
is as we saw, I’m a real estate agent in Dallas and of course with the NIR settlement changed a lot of things for a lot of people. And you have a lot of people who maybe don’t think they need a real estate agent, but then also if you don’t have a real estate agent, then you won’t have access to the MLS to my knowledge in most areas. So when there was no MLS and when you were in these areas where people was there a lot of for sale by owner or where people still going to real estate agents was, what were you seeing?

Rob Thrasher (04:37.97)
Actually, that’s a great question. The FISBO thing, For Sale by Owner, was pretty prominent. One of the local newspapers, I didn’t get permission to say their name, but it has to do with homes, and it’s a paper that basically goes out to all the different businesses and such. They were making a good profit by capitalizing on this, For Sale by Owner. They basically became…

the MLS for a lot of these smaller, you know, small entities. And it’s hard to sell, you know, as well as I do, it’s hard for me to go to my dad and say, no, you really should have this listed here. You really should do this. And your dad goes, huh? Like, you know, not my dad necessarily, but when you go to people and it’s our parents’ generation, they don’t think they need any of that stuff. And sometimes they don’t. I guess they’re right sometimes.

Dylan Silver (05:14.402)
art.

Dylan Silver (05:27.672)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (05:35.744)
I mean, this brings up a different pivoting a bit here. There’s this generational gap in understanding between, you know, I’m a millennial and then my parents are baby boomers. And we have two totally different perspectives on real estate because from what I understand, know, interest rates were high in the 80s, but people were making money. And also, you know, now when you compare it to now, we were talking before hopping on the show, you know, for effectively a starter home.

a middle class home in the area that I grew up in, need like a combined household income of $220,000 a year. Well, you how college graduates going to afford that? But just the dichotomy, the schism between what reality was for my parents’ generation and what reality is for people, know, Gen Z-ers leaving college right now is just two totally different worlds.

Rob Thrasher (06:27.648)
Yeah, there’s no doubt about that, Dylan. I gotta tell ya. And I’ll be straight with you, I’m probably your parents’ generation. So that shows you what a amorphous is, you know? It shows you where I’m at. But I get it. I tell people, look, when I was in high school, this is no joke, when I was in high school, I was in eighth grade at what’s called a riskini elementary school here in this town. And I was in the eighth grade.

when we got our first computers, seventh grade we got an Apple, but nobody knew what to do with that, so we use it as an anchor on our boats. I literally have seen and understand both sides of this, that’s why I think I’m a good person to put it down, put it on paper, again, I don’t know, your generation doesn’t probably know what paper is. kidding with you buddy.

Dylan Silver (07:21.656)
We have notepad on our iPhones, Rob.

Rob Thrasher (07:24.552)
Yes, it’s called no pen now, right? So every once in a while I will get out one of these that’s called a pen. I like to see it on paper sometimes. It’s, know, it’s like, like I said, it is my generation. And luckily, you know, for a lot of people who are in my generation, I know how to speak to speak, talk to talk, so to speak. So

Dylan Silver (07:35.775)
Hahaha

Rob Thrasher (07:53.568)
Yeah, it’s a big, it’s a big, it’s huge. It’s a huge difference from this gen, from my generation to yours is a huge chasm. That’s a big deal.

Dylan Silver (08:00.556)
Now, what’s also interesting, and I actually got into real estate for that reason, because I was renting and I was just trying to see, how am going to buy a house? And I was realizing, it’s going to, I have to have everything in a row. I’ve got to make sure everything is doing this. I’ve got to get promoted. I’ve got to make more money. So many things have to line up savings, of course. And I said, this is pretty hard. Let me figure out this real estate game. And that’s what got me into real estate was because of how tricky it was. And I perceived it to be.

And when I think about, you we talk about like a generational gap here. One of the things that comes to mind is this idea of there’s going to be so many baby boomers who are retiring, right, and they’re going to have businesses and they’re going to have property and someone else has to come in and take over that property. So actually, I don’t know when it’s going to be. I think it’s probably happening now. There’s going to be a huge opportunity for my generation and other people to assume these businesses and this property.

Rob Thrasher (09:00.064)
Yeah, I mean, I couldn’t have put that better myself. That was well said. And that’s one reason why I’m still hanging on like the cat with the one claw up here. I got more money to make, Dylan.

Dylan Silver (09:09.998)
Ha

Dylan Silver (09:13.998)
You’re like, I’m not giving up yet. We’re not leaving yet. We’re not leaving.

That’s right, that’s right. The longer you hold onto it, the faster you see the compounding. I do want to pivot a bit here, Rob, and ask you about getting into kind of the tech world, the engineering world. You mentioned, you know, didn’t see the first Apple computer until eighth grade or around there. What was it that made you decide, hey, I’m going to go be a tech guy?

Rob Thrasher (09:27.426)
Yes.

Rob Thrasher (09:44.29)
You know what it was it was this thing called GW basic have you heard? Yes Dylan that was one of the first languages is there like a language

Dylan Silver (09:50.615)
Is that like a language?

Dylan Silver (09:57.642)
Okay. It’s like C++, but different.

Rob Thrasher (10:03.65)
They used they used gw basic to make a lot of the ones we use now C++ I don’t know where we’re at C++3 I don’t know where we’re at with that to be honest. I haven’t done any coding in quite some time, but Yeah, I mean I mean You know as fast as computers are as much as they do as much as you cut you talk about C++ All that was built on something 20 years ago and ultimately when you pull it all apart. It’s the same thing It’s just way faster

Dylan Silver (10:09.538)
Okay.

Dylan Silver (10:33.56)
So did you walk me through some of the schooling that you went through and what the process was like back then and then getting into the tech world back then, was it like booming and lots of jobs or was it very niche and difficult to find jobs in the tech world?

Rob Thrasher (10:47.894)
on

was very niche, it was very difficult. And matter of fact, what I did was in 1984, in my 11th year of high school, I signed up to go into the electronics portion of the United States Navy. And that was where I really gained a huge advantage over top of all my other people, my peers. I skyrocketed up through that and it was just natural for me. Mathematics and science, whatever, call me a nerd, I’m just a nerd, what can I tell ya?

So I did go into the military. I ended up coming out of the military as a cryptologic technician is what it’s called. And boy did I kind of strike gold with that. That was what kind of forged me from that point, like in the late 1990s where I was just a tech, like I say, was a techno nerd. That’s all I can say.

Dylan Silver (11:28.673)
Hmm.

Dylan Silver (11:41.976)
Let’s talk about going going from military to to civilian leave the military. And at that point, you’re thinking, OK, I don’t know if real estate was anywhere in your mind at that point. But were you thinking, OK, I’ve got to go find work. I’m going to go scale a company or I’m going to go build. What was your mentality at that point in time?

Rob Thrasher (11:46.134)
Sure.

Rob Thrasher (12:02.178)
Yeah, that’s a great question. So my transition from military to civilian life basically was, well, it was a close friend of mine. I grew up two doors from him up here in upstate New York. He’s also my cousin. And him and I have been partnering on and off for the past 40 years. And he told me to go to this website called yahoo.com.

Yeah, you’re laughing right? And when I went to that website, I scrolled and scrolled and scrolled and I called him back and said, we can do better than this. These guys don’t look like they’re trying. That was my transition over to the internet side of things. I actually use the internet, which I was not aware of when I was in cryptology. We actually used the original, it was called ARPANET.

That was the thing that people that wanted to get online, like colleges and institutions and whatnot, they piggybacked off of a military installation called ARPANET.

Dylan Silver (12:51.63)
Hmm.

Dylan Silver (13:02.968)
So did you build a better version of Yahoo? Did you compete with Yahoo at that point?

Rob Thrasher (13:09.514)
Not so much, just used that knowledge and I kind of banked it until, so that was roughly like 1992-ish, 93-ish. 96 I started really kind of looking closely at Alta Vista and Infoseek, if anybody remembers those names, because they had their own algorithms, you know, before Google. So I started looking at how the results come back and before you knew it, people were searching for…

for terms like search engine marketing, search engine optimization, and me, Rob Thrasher, was coming up at the top of the list every time. That’s how I got New York Times gaming. So we never really competed with them, we just used it to the advantage of our customers who wanted to be up higher in the search listings.

Dylan Silver (13:39.82)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (13:56.012)
And so was real estate something that you sought out because you were saying, well, this is going to be an opportunity or will people come into you in real estate saying, well, how do we show up higher in search? have these homes.

Rob Thrasher (14:05.51)
Yeah, great question. So kind of both of those things, we were there. People started to know our name a little bit, which was nice. And they asked us, can I get my house is for sale, can I get it? I said, well.

as an individual, looking at five, six, seven thousand dollars for like custom work, it’s not gonna pay you back. So we didn’t do that, but we did start working with a company up here. They still have a paper, I forget the name of it, but it’s a Holmes related magazine. They do a lot of Fizz Bowl for sale by owners, and they do some of their own search engine marketing. And I started working with them, I was writing articles for their business journal, and it just kinda, I don’t know,

transformed into somebody said hey we don’t have a an MLS out here it was Herkimer County right near us you know like 10 miles this way and I didn’t yeah they said we would like to have an MLS can we do that and we said I don’t know how much money can you raise you know that’s my first question show me the money we can do anything you need right so they did

Dylan Silver (15:03.404)
Dovus and MLS, yeah.

Dylan Silver (15:13.773)
Yeah.

That’s right. Come on. What was it? Cryptologist. Cryptologist.

Rob Thrasher (15:20.642)
And so Cryptology goes back to when The YouTube or what was it? You 257 I think the submarine that was a Nazi submarine. We took equipment off that it was called enigma and We won the war because we got to that equipment and we still

To my knowledge, I don’t know this for sure, they’re still using this similar cryptology methods in the military.

Dylan Silver (15:55.926)
And so was basically, you know, reversing their signals in effect, right?

Rob Thrasher (16:02.656)
Yup. Yeah. Yup.

Dylan Silver (16:05.206)
I think in a civilian concept, there’s a lot of overlap, I think, with what we’re seeing right now with currencies and crypto. We talk about crypto, right? And you talk about being able to have a decentralized currency. And I think a lot of people are looking at that. But then also we’re looking at AI. And AI, tend to think, I didn’t mention this to you before, Rob, but I’m in a software engineering boot camp.

Rob Thrasher (16:15.276)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (16:33.292)
And from the time that I started a year ago to now, it’s almost like you don’t need to ever look for things like syntax errors or anything like this because AI does it all for you. Like there’s no real grinding away like there used to be.

Rob Thrasher (16:49.182)
So on that note of AI, my actual YouTube channel is 99.9 % AI. I like to tell people like this, like I’ve got producers and writers and authors, but it’s all one, it’s all AI. And then I’m the director, I put it together, I look at it, boom, I publish it. Almost exclusively AI, ChatGPT, which I am a…

an esteemed plus member if you will only cost me twenty you know

Dylan Silver (17:20.528)
yay. That’s right. They got one that’s 200 bucks a month. I don’t know if it’s printing gold or what it’s doing, but it’s doing something.

Rob Thrasher (17:27.478)
Ha ha ha!

doing something. So yeah, so what happened since I started with AI about like six months ago and like I told you earlier, I’m at 8.5. Sorry, I just checked this morning. I’m at 9 million views in the last 28 days and that’s almost all my knowledge from search engine work combined with my AIs. That’s all it is. Everybody can do this. I had a question. Somebody said, do you feel like you’re cheating by using an accent? No, you can go buy it too. Everybody has access to it. You can do a lot of what I’m doing for free with you.

Dylan Silver (17:55.5)
Yeah.

Rob Thrasher (17:59.317)
GPT.

Dylan Silver (18:00.526)
I imagine people were saying the same thing, do you feel like you’re cheating? And you probably remember this, I remember this, when you’re using like graphing calculators, do you feel like you’re cheating? You you’re doing it all on the calculator. And then when things evolved, I don’t know if you ever heard of a program called Wolfram Alpha, but there was this program that was like doing calculus in like the middle 2010 timeframes. And people were saying, well, that’s kind of cheating, you’re not doing it by hand. So then now, I mean, now we’re so far beyond that.

Rob Thrasher (18:24.034)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (18:29.772)
Now it’s like, you know, well, at what point do you just kind of throw your hands up and say, well, if you can’t beat them, join them, I’m just going to get a certification in AI. That way I’ll be able to keep up with the Joneses.

Rob Thrasher (18:30.07)
Yeah.

Rob Thrasher (18:41.696)
Yeah, in a nutshell, that’s what I would have said too. You said it just exactly the way I would describe it. And am I cheating when I use computer programming? Was I cheating when I programmed the robot to pick and place the parts? I don’t call it cheating if you want, but I’m ahead of the game. Yeah, right.

Dylan Silver (18:56.748)
Yeah, processes, systems. We are coming up on time here, Rob. Where can folks go if they want to reach out to you or if they want to learn more about your YouTube channel or get in contact with you in any way?

Rob Thrasher (19:01.836)
Okay.

Rob Thrasher (19:09.846)
You can Google my name, Rob Thrasher. Thrasher is spelled like the hockey team, as well as the magazine, T-H-R-A-S-H-E-R. That’s all you gotta search. You can do it in YouTube or Google, wherever you wanna go. There I am, whether you want me or not.

Dylan Silver (19:24.012)
Rob, thank you so much for coming on the show here today.

Rob Thrasher (19:26.37)
Tell him thank you,