How Real Estate Relationships Helped Michael Scanlon Build a 440-Deal Team

Michael Scanlon (00:00)
this is not the typical approach, but I’m also not a typical agent. grew my business without being mentored. don’t.

really know what I’m doing, but I’ve been able to grow my business to where my team did 440 deals last year. And when I go to listing appointments, I don’t, I don’t bring paper. don’t, I don’t, you know, bring up listing presentation. People think that I’m crazy when I do that.

Quentin (01:55)
everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Q Edmonds, and I am excited to be here today, have another fantastic guest. And, man, this guy knows how to grow organically. And I love it. I can’t wait for us to get into, you know, how he grow his background, where he’s at now. And so I really know.

that we’re going to be able to glean some really, really good experience and information from this gentleman. So I’m just so excited for us to get a chance to talk to him. So I’m going to introduce you all to Mr. Michael Scanlon. Mr. Michael, how you doing today,

Michael Scanlon (02:35)
Do it awesome Q. It’s really good to be here with you. I really appreciate you having me.

Quentin (02:40)
Absolutely, man. I’m so glad you’re here. I appreciate you being here. know, Michael, I can’t do this without you, sir. I can’t do this episode without you, Michael. So I appreciate you being here, man. You know, I can’t flip. I can’t go from both sides. You know what saying? So I need you, man. And I’m really glad, glad that you’re here, sir. And listen, man, I’m in tight. I like to dive in. So I would love for you to tell the people what’s your main focus these days.

Michael Scanlon (02:46)
Ha

Quentin (03:05)
If you don’t mind, give us a little bit of an origin story, kind of how you got into the space that you’re in. Like we love origin stories. And man, tell them what part of the world you’re in, because I believe that matters. And people love to know where you are, you know, geographically anyway. And so, wish you’re up to your origin story and where you are. Michael, you have the floor,

Michael Scanlon (03:23)
All right. ⁓ Yeah, so I am in Chicago, and the surrounding suburbs do anywhere within like 75 miles of Chicago and run a team out here. ⁓ Also,

an investor, ⁓ and both, ⁓ both of those kind of got started around the same time. So, ⁓ just to dive into my, my origin story, I decided, you know, after a long history of some other things, I worked with kids with autism, then got my MBA, ⁓ was going to be, you know, in stock market finance and, ⁓ decided that the numbers to me were better in real estate and decided to get into that. ⁓

And I thought I was just going to do it for my own investing purposes. And so I started that 2019 into 2020 and, uh, you know, realized that there were a lot of people that also needed help as I was figuring out how to invest myself, realize that there was other people who needed that same kind of help. And so as I learned the game, I tried to stay one step ahead of everybody else and, uh, eventually grew both kind of together, grew my own portfolio and grew my real estate business to where I’m at now.

Now I’m running a team of 28 people. ⁓ We help investors and residential clients, but our main focus is investors, residential and commercial, to do both sides of it, mainly multifamily, mixed use. And I’m still investing for myself as well.

Quentin (04:54)
love it, man. I love it, sir. Thank you, man. Thank you for the journey. Thank you for telling us where you are now, how you kind of got there, and actively listening. So as you were talking, I was writing some things down. So I’m going to kind of just summarize some of the things you said, and then I want to make a statement, ask you a question. And so I love, you’re an investor.

But you you come from a different background. Like you used to work with kids with autism. mean, hats off to you, man. I have a special place in my heart for work like that. So thank you so much for you knowing that. ⁓ You got into investments and you realize people need help with learning how to invest. And so you got into that. And so, you know, you kind of grew to business. And then now that you’re in the business, you do commercial and real estate, really helping investors out. And so that is that a pretty good summary of the things that you said?

Michael Scanlon (06:32)
yeah, I think you’re spot on there. what we like to do is we like to genuinely help people.

Quentin (06:38)
Yeah, yeah, I love it, man. And so, Michael, I have this statement that I make where I say destiny has no wasted moments, right?

meaning that no matter what we go through, momentum is building to the people that we are now. And we borrow from each iteration of our life. Like we borrow from the journey. We borrow from the failures, the success. We borrow from the times when our craft is getting, you know, really honed and really getting, you know, shored up. it’s just, it’s an amalgamation of moments. And so, I would love to know about your journey to get into where you are now. What has the journey taught you about yourself?

has taught you discipline, stick to it, to it. there’s resilience, like what is the moment’s taught you about yourself, Michael?

Michael Scanlon (07:22)
Yeah, I mean, I think you’re right on with all of that. I’ve taken a lot of what I’ve done in the past and borrowed from it to kind of be where I’m at now. ⁓

played rugby for 20 years. and I, I think the discipline with that, you know, and I played what I think is pretty decent level. I played in Australia for four years. And that was while I was working with kids with autism. So, you know, the discipline to, you know, work out, you know, during the season, four days a week, and then go to training right afterwards and, you know, eat what I’m supposed to eat and train like I’m supposed to train. Well, at the same time, I’m working with

Quentin (07:35)
Hmm.

Michael Scanlon (08:02)
two to six year olds with autism, mainly two to four on early intervention. And so, you know, I learned discipline from rugby. I learned work ethic from rugby. learned patience and kindness from working with kids with autism. I learned how to have very unfortunately hard conversations sometimes with parents. So I go to tell a seller that their house isn’t worth what they think it’s worth.

That’s not nearly as hard as having a conversation with the, you know, the parent of a child with autism that is confused about why their, their kid is not, you know, making progress and why they need to go into the center that I used to work in and, trying to tell them, you know, ways that we can and maybe can’t help, ⁓ you know, and then I was fortunate that I ⁓ made a little bit of a pivot and I got my MBA and, I was always a math team nerd, ⁓ but you know, really

advancing my degree, specializing in finance, you know, all of that has kind of come together to where I can analyze deals. can talk to sellers and not have an issue with, you know, how to navigate that conversation. And, know, the discipline that it takes to, you know, grind in a business where you’re really never off the clock. All of that, I think, is borrowed from my past.

Quentin (09:22)
Man, thank you, sir. Thank you so much. know, I’ll tell people part of my work, you know, yes, I’m a podcast, but part of like my work, I would say my calling is to make space for people to be known, seen and heard. I believe everybody deserves to be known, seen and heard. Yeah, you may not agree with everyone, but creating space for people to be seen. And that’s why, you know, some of earlier work you talked about,

Michael Scanlon (09:46)
Let’s see.

Quentin (09:51)
it hits close to home because I believe if we slow down enough to see and hear

people, we may start to understand and really communicate on a different level. And I know, you know, some people, you know, it’s hard for people to slow down, but I think what you, you know, some of the, you know, working with kids with autism, I think.

It really shows your level of slowing down and making people known, seen and heard. And so that’s why for me, that hits close to the vest, close to my heart. And that’s what I like to do here. I think I told you earlier, I like to create space for conversations. This is not just an interview. This is a space for us to learn about you and what you do. So thank you, man, for walking us through the journey and sharing some of your past of how you got to where you are now, man. I really appreciate it.

Michael Scanlon (11:13)
No, of course. And I think what you just said is super important for, anybody that’s listening that happens to work in real estate, because

this is not the typical approach, but I’m also not a typical agent. grew my business without being mentored. don’t.

really know what I’m doing, but I’ve been able to grow my business to where my team did 440 deals last year. And when I go to listing appointments, I don’t, I don’t bring paper. don’t, I don’t, you know, bring up listing presentation. People think that I’m crazy when I do that.

Like my partner, Jake, I run a team with a guy named Jake. He’s very organized. He’ll do that stuff for me. It’s exactly what you just said. I go there. I asked the seller, how long have you lived in this home? Like tell me about your family.

Why are you moving? Like, genuinely want to know like this house is filled with memories. It’s going to be hard for you to move like, you know, or you’re just an investment property, whatever it is. Like, I want to know who you are, why you’re, in this position. And then from there, I can best figure out, you know, how we can work together, how I can help you, you know, what are your motivating factors? And that comes from really getting to know them. And I think that sellers appreciate that. And I get most of the listings.

from appointments that I go to because they can tell that I genuinely care. I’m not treating them like a presentation or, you know, something on a piece of paper. I’m there to meet them. At this point with the amount of deals that I’ve done, I can find cons for their property. I can figure out the value. That’s the easy part. The hard part is figuring out what is best for them and

you know, how to interact with them in a way that makes them comfortable and makes them feel like they’re working with somebody who has their best interests in mind.

Quentin (12:57)
You just hit on the word, sir, feel. People rarely remember what you said, but they remember how you made them feel. And another thing, so let me add to that too, communication. I love how you say you meet with people in person, because communication has a 55-38-7 rule. 55 % of what we communicate is body language. 38 % is tone. And 7 % is actually the words that we say.

And so if you are as authentic as I believe you are, when you talk to somebody, you’re communicating with your body language, with your tone, and only several percent of what you say. But you’re communicating in a way where it makes them feel safe and makes them feel heard and makes them feel seen. And this is why when you walk away with somebody, it’s almost like they’re hooked. They’re bait and hooked. Not that you’re trying to do that, but it’s like, yeah, this guy gets me. He gets it. And so, yeah, it makes so much sense to me now.

Michael Scanlon (13:56)
And I think that there’s a there’s an I think it’s an 80s song, Hold On Loosely by 38 Special. The idea is regarding relationships. But it basically says if you hold too tightly, you’re gonna you’re gonna lose what you’re trying to get. And I think that I’m very fortunate that I have, you know, done a lot of things that you know, I worked with kids with autism and moved to Australia and played rugby over there. And then I got my MBA and, and I’ve tried to succeed at

at everything that I’ve done and I’ve worked hard to do so. Um, but if it all falls apart tomorrow, I am confident that I can figure something else out. And with that comes the liberty to, you know, go to somebody and not have a scarcity mindset. You know, I can have this abundance mindset and say, Hey, listen, I don’t need your listing. I want to help you. You know, there’s a lot of people that go in there and like, I need this listing, I need the paycheck. And then they end up.

scared and they end up doing things that are in their best interest rather than the seller’s best interest or your buyer’s best interest. I don’t need that. I was in a negotiation two weeks ago selling an office building and we got a pretty low ball offer. We’re actually under contract on it now. We ended up getting them up like $175,000 and I just straight up told the agent, I’m not going to push them on this. I know what the fair value is and I don’t need this commission. So we’re going to find that fair value.

Whether your buyers want to reach it or not, we’ll sit on the market if we need to and find another buyer, but I’m not going to push them because I don’t need to. And that is very important. Whether you actually do need it or not, that’s how you were able to then, you know, do what’s best for your client and find what’s best for your client is having that mindset.

Quentin (16:19)
man, you remind me something one of my mentors said. It says, you know, when you steward something, stewarding it is not holding things too tight because if you hold something real tight, notice that nothing else can get into your hand. And if you hold it too tight, you won’t release what’s in your hand when it’s time to release it. So he was like, instead of trying to steward things, holding it like this, actually hold it with balance, right? That way at any given time it can be taken out.

and something else can be put in. And so I love how you talked about, listen, I’m going to try to a fair value and listen, either they can accept it or we can take it out. And if I, if I’m like this, something else will come right back and get put back in my hand a new opportunity. so, yeah, I love that, man. I love the way you think, brother. I love the way you think, man. Love the way you think, Yeah. Let me ask you, brother, what’s next, sir? What’s next for your business? What are you looking to solve or scale next?

Michael Scanlon (17:07)
I that. I love that man.

So we’re growing, we’re continuing to grow. you know, I think that growing in terms of volume is something that we’ve been doing really well lately. ⁓ and that’s just come as a natural part of our business. So our transaction count is, you know, quite high. We, do a lot of transactions, but a lot of, you know, I’ve only been in the business for six and a half years at this point. ⁓ and so doing the volume that I’m doing is good. ⁓

But the transaction count is, like I said, very, high. But what’s naturally starting to happen is that as our investors that bought five, six years ago are suddenly turning into sellers, their properties have appreciated. They’re selling their properties for way more than they bought them for. So that same transaction I did five years ago has gone up a couple hundred grand in value.

And then that same investor might be doing a 1031 exchange. If people aren’t familiar, that’s a way to do a tax deferred exchange from selling one property and buying a new one. ⁓ A lot of our sellers are then doing a 1031 exchange into obviously a much higher price property because that’s how 1031s work. so, you know, getting our volume up and focusing on bigger things while I train my agents who work for me.

to do the same kind of stuff that I was doing five or six years ago. So we’re trying to grow, you know, our transactions and our volume. then, you know, on a personal level, I have my first child on the way. ⁓ and so I am probably done buying new properties. I don’t want to say never. ⁓ so my focus now is, you know, I’ve got at this point, even after six years, I’ve got units worth about $11 million, you know, grown from

nothing. And, you know, I want to start paying those down or paying them off. You know, I want to be able to, you know, spend more time at home. I don’t want to be absent, you know, when the baby comes or absent in general for my wife now. ⁓ And so I was in a growth mindset for a number of years and I was able to grow quite fast.

Quentin (19:21)
Mm.

Michael Scanlon (19:35)
And now I want to transition that into increasing my cashflow by paying off properties and using my commission income and the income from the properties to do so. So I’ve got dual goals, both from my business standpoint, from my personal investing standpoint.

Quentin (19:47)
Yeah.

⁓ man, the more you talk the more I like you sir. I love the way you think man. My wife, she has a saying that I have adopted. She says, Quentin, your presence is a present. Your presence is a present. And that puts me in a state of mind to tell me how valuable my presence in my home is to my family. So I love the way that you want to get your time back so that you can be present.

with your family, man. I know enough people don’t think that way. So thank you for that perspective. I appreciate that. And that’s, that transitions me right to a word I want to ask you about and get your perspective on. Cause you got partners, you have a team. I think I wrote down, I think like 28 agents, new baby on the way. So I want to hear your perspective on this word relationship. When you hear the word relationship, what comes to mind for you, Michael?

Michael Scanlon (20:53)
I think that that’s the most important part of real estate, honestly. It’s the most important part of life in general. We can’t go about life alone. I you can, but I just don’t think that that’s the most fulfilling way to do it. ⁓ And I just think that these relationships that we create are what makes things matter. ⁓ And then in real estate, just from the perspective of having a successful business,

The relationships that I created years and years ago, you I mentioned that office that we’re selling that came from a relationship that I created five years ago from an agent who only does residential and referred it to me, you know, because she needed help. It’s a high school friend of hers whose dad owned it, who passed away. They needed help. She’s like, I trust you. I don’t trust anybody else. We have a relationship that is long standing at this point, you five plus years.

She trusts me because of the relationship that we’ve created. And over five years, I forged that relationship by being genuine. ⁓ And that has led to so much more business, I think, than being business minded. I’m not great at running a business, to be perfectly honest. People will think that that’s crazy because of the volume that we’re doing. But most of the business that I have has come as a result of relationships that I created.

So many listings that have come from, you know, things that came about six years ago, we’ve got, we’ve been doing a couple hundred listings a year for an institutional seller. ⁓ that came as a result of a relationship that I created in 2020. ⁓ it, there’s just, there’s so much stuff that comes from a relationships as long as you’re genuine with them. I’m not doing it to necessarily get business. I like meeting people. like knowing people. like helping people.

But the more that you give, the more that you end up receiving.

Quentin (22:52)
Why are you dropping these gems, man? Oh my goodness. Like, you’re kind of stopping me in my tracks, you know? So I quote a proverb here and it says, when you refresh others, you in return will be refreshed. And I just believe in that concept. If you refresh others, you in return will be refreshed. When you help and service people, it got to come back to you. And so, you said so many things.

that just really not up. And I think some people, we’ve got so caught up in business models that we kind of forget business started with character. Like there was a time when credit didn’t exist. People made business decisions and agreements on handshakes. Your word was your bond. So, so much of business was built on core character principles. Now, we got so much going on. You try to sell this strategy and that strategy, but at the

Michael Scanlon (23:32)
Yeah. Yep. ⁓

Quentin (23:51)
or of that is the character of what it is that’s being presented. It’s the honesty of it all, the integrity of it all, the consistency of it all. It’s your word, your bond. Cannot trust what you’re

saying. know how people say, you know, they want to do business with people they like, know, and trust. So trust like and know. Like so much of business comes down to character. And so when I hear you talk, man, I hear your character shining through, man. So Michael, man, I appreciate you, Michael, for the dimes that you’re dropping today, sir.

Michael Scanlon (24:18)
No, and I love your mindset. think we’re, in lockstep on that. And it’s just, it’s really refreshing. mean, so far, there’s been an awesome conversation because, you know, a lot of times

You know, when I talk about real estate, it’s so purely business. And I think that this aspect of it often gets overlooked.

Quentin (24:35)
I appreciate you saying it because I, you know, I tell my audience because I’m not the only person. People don’t have to listen to me, you know, but if you’re going to come here, one of the things I want to be overstated, not understated, but overstated that at the center of your business is you. You are at the center of your business. And so we can talk strategies. We can talk about different other things, but what about you? What about your mindset? What, what, know, what about your makeup? You got a growth mindset or a fixed mindset? Like.

Michael Scanlon (24:55)
Be fucked,

Quentin (25:03)
It comes down to you. You’ll find the right strategy if your heart is in the right place. You’ll find the right mentor. You’ll find the right connection if your mind is in the right place. And so I love to talk about the center of the business, which is the business owner, you know?

Michael Scanlon (25:17)
Yeah, no, absolutely.

Quentin (25:20)
Yeah. Listen, man, I appreciate you, sir. Listen, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you,

Michael Scanlon (25:32)
I’m pretty much everywhere. My team is called the Axon Group. So we’ve the Axon Group on Facebook and Instagram, ⁓ Michael Scanlon Realtor on Instagram. ⁓ I think Michael Scanlon Realtor on Facebook probably, or you could email me, [email protected]. I work for EXP Realty in Chicago. there’s a lot of different ways to find me. If you Google me and you look at the face, you can’t miss me.

Quentin (26:02)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Michael, I keep trying to say Mike. You ain’t give me permission to say Mike. So Michael, I’m sorry, sir. I want to say three things to you sincerely. First, thank you for your time. I think time is our most precious commodity. And you’ve highlighted that because you talked about how, you you want to start paying off things to get your time. And so I think time is our most precious commodity. So, sir, thank you for your time. Secondly,

Thank you for your story. I believe stories have a way of planting seeds in people. We may not see the growth, but the seed is still there and that seed can curry and it can grow long, long past this conversation. So thank you for your story. Lastly, man, thank you for your mindset. Thank you for the way you think, sir, and bringing that mindset to this platform. I greatly appreciate you being on my.

Michael Scanlon (26:56)
No, I really appreciate you having me. You know, I’ve been on podcasts before and like I said, a lot of times it’s business oriented. This has been one of the most fun ones I’ve ever been on because, you know,

Talking to you having the same mindset, I think that so many people will love hearing about the way that we think and the way that it is beneficial to think. so this has just been awesome.

Quentin (27:22)
I appreciate you, sir. I appreciate you, man, so much for coming on. And just like I said, said it at the top and I’ll end it here. I couldn’t have this without you. I literally could not have done this without you. So I appreciate you, man. Thank you so much, ⁓ man. Absolutely. So listen, y’all heard Michael, please look into the show notes. His information is contact information is there. Get in contact with him, but definitely make sure you are subscribed here because I promise you.

Michael Scanlon (27:37)
Awesome, thank you.

Quentin (27:51)
going to continue to bring up amazing people just like Michael. So sir, I say thank you again. And everyone else, you’ll have a fantastic day.