AI Business Systems for Real Estate: Automate Marketing, Valuations and Growth

Shawn Decker (00:00)
I’m a hundred percent the underdog guy. A hundred percent. But because of my unique position, I have been able to see that there is no difference between the guy that is a millionaire and the guy that has fifty thousand dollars. They work just as hard. And honestly, I typically have seen the poor man work harder.

The difference of it is, is the rich man has a good system. And so my whole relational thing is to come in with the somebody, help them build a system that helps propel their life every day with the beliefs and information that they know have truly helped them. You know, everybody’s got a good book that that is in their brain

Quentin Edmonds (00:29)
Yeah.

Welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds, and I am indeed excited to be here today. I’m excited about my guests. Y’all know I love learning new things. I love learning from different people. We all could be doing the same thing, but because we’re different, we’re going to do some things differently, right? And so this gentleman, he has been a real estate appraiser for 24 years of experience. This gentleman has done over a billion dollars in evaluations.

So I’m I’m excited about his business. He’s adding different platforms, different things to his business so that he can expand his service to the people that he serves. And so I’m super excited. DD appraisal is the name of the business. We’re going to learn a lot from Mr. Shawn Decker. Mr. Shawn, how are you doing today, sir?

Shawn Decker (03:09)
I’m doing very good. Thank you again, Quentin, for having me on the podcast. I was really kind of intrigued and interested when I saw some of y’all’s stuff about how, you know, some of the things that y’all are doing in reference to helping businesses and getting more leads and being able to close those deals better. And especially with the real estate side. And of course, I can relate to the real estate side quite a bit. So as an appraiser for over 24 years, I’ve done a little over 12,000 homes.

⁓ and what occurred to me is when I went to translate some of that information, ⁓ I started realizing a lot of people say, Okay, well, you know, I don’t have any clients, I don’t have any testimonials, I haven’t done this. And I had to literally kind of step back and go, ⁓ man, I’ve actually had over 12,000 clients. Like, you know, cause because the website and the information starts asking you because everybody wants proof of concept. I gotta show proof, I gotta show proof of.

And really, it’s just a lack of value. And so lots of times people aren’t providing value, they’re just referencing ⁓ stuff. And so some of these things like I’ve used ⁓ in in both ⁓ coaching with people as well as public speaking is what I would call the gold roof fallacy. So if someone were to take gold and then cover the roof.

Sure, it may be worth a million dollars just because it’s gold, but if you took that same weight of gold and turned it into jewelry and different things like that, or that you put it through someone that has a specific talent or gift, and now it’s exponentially worth more. So it’s the same concept and principle with me as an appraiser, but the thing of it is, is I also mean I’ve spoken to

probably over 9,000 people personally. And what that does is it lets you systematically look at how people do things based off of their lifestyle, which their lifestyle is shown more in a home than any other aspect. If they’re disorganized, if they’re organized, if they’re clean, they’re not clean.

Quentin Edmonds (05:01)
Yeah.

Shawn Decker (05:24)
If they’re violent or out of control, it shows up in the property. So one of the things as an appraiser is the instant ability to make someone feel comfortable. And so I used to ask stuff like, Well, ⁓ you obviously see what I do every day. What do you do? And so there’s such little benchmarks where instantly what I am doing is

Quentin Edmonds (05:43)
Yeah, yeah.

Shawn Decker (05:51)
Purposely putting my value structure lower intentionally to make them feel more comfortable. So that is just a simple technique. Well, to apply that into the real estate aspect, we done the evaluations on stuff, which that means that we got into real estate coaching. So people will call us up and be like, hey, can we run this by you? We’re wanting to do some improvements. We don’t want a whole appraisal.

Quentin Edmonds (05:57)
Yeah.

Shawn Decker (06:18)
We just want some general insight on things that we’re not addressing. So I can come in as a consultant. And of course, this is where I have to come in with all my little fun disclaimers of I’m not a therapist, I’m not your coach, I’m not a lawyer, you know, ⁓ I’d you know, and so and I’m not acting as a real estate appraiser in any capacity. Okay.

And so we we literally have to say stuff like that. And it was funny because my software helps us actually help structure deals, even help me structure this podcast. And so that’s one of the great things about it is it’s given us the ability to help every single deal and also help the person structure themselves with the full system.

Quentin Edmonds (07:53)
Yeah, yeah. Man, I love it, man. You you gotta tell me where did this passion come from? This passion to help people, passion about appraisals, passion about the real estate space. Like where does the passion for what you do come from?

Shawn Decker (08:06)
man, so my dad got me into computers when I was like nine. He he made me like learn Q Basic and DOS. I mean, way back, right when they first came out. And so I remember the whole hard drive had ⁓ 128 megabytes, and that was upgraded. And so ⁓ I started with that, then I ended up

Going into the military, traveled all around the world. So, of course, you see lots of things. Then I got got married, ⁓ went to school for computer network administrator after I was getting out of the service. And so then I was like, okay, well, that’s great. I was about to graduate. I had a job offer from Cisco and Sony to do A certifications and stuff. Well,

My dad had moved up to Roanoke, Virginia, and was starting at an appraisal company. And they had been working there about six months. And then my sister moved up and started working there. And my mom was now the office manager. I’m in Virginia Beach. They’re in Roanoke. And he’s like, Well, I didn’t even ask you, would you be interested in doing real estate appraisals? I was like, Well, how much does it pay? You know, and then he told me he’s like, Well, it pays about

⁓ the same at McDonald’s, but you work half the amount of hours.

Quentin Edmonds (09:27)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Shawn Decker (09:28)
And I was like, okay, or or I’m sorry, twice as many hours. He said, for the first six months. He said, so you’re gonna work for twice as many hours and get paid half as much. I was like, okay. He said, I said, well, after that, he said, Well, it’s commission based. He said, so as fast as you can work, as fast as you can get paid. I’m like, I like that idea. Yeah. And so ⁓ and I, you know, in computers, you’re basically gonna lock get locked into a four by four cubicle.

Quentin Edmonds (09:46)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Shawn Decker (09:57)
And so because of the analytical background, plus I grew up around a construction background, plus I got into the real estate, then I got into computers, and then I got back into some of that. And I actually put myself through college doing ⁓ construction. And I’ve also renovated four properties now. ⁓ I’ve took eight years to work on one.

And then did one in six months, didn’t see stuff and lost 30 grand. So, what the problem of it is, is you don’t have proper systems that will not look at it from an objective or unbiased standpoint to give you a true opinion. And so I developed the systems not only because of that, but in appraisals.

Quentin Edmonds (10:42)
Yeah.

Shawn Decker (10:47)
We have to deal with extreme analytics. And you have to do back testing, paired analysis, regression analysis, all these types of extremely complicated stuff that until recently was extremely difficult for even the largest companies to get accurate models. And so because of that, as an appraiser, we can use those elements to develop accurate models.

Quentin Edmonds (11:08)
Uh-huh.

Shawn Decker (11:15)
Well, that really helps appraisers and other guys that are in any real estate industry be able to go to banks with better information, better structures, because they can ask the questions they know, then the mathematical backgrounds run through analysis system, which gives them better structure for their deals. And so that’s kind of how it started is I was always a guy that was in the middle of a problem. So you learn.

Quentin Edmonds (11:41)
Mm.

Shawn Decker (11:43)
To fix things based off the problem. And one of the greatest phrases I’ve ever heard in my life is you get paid in proportion to the problem you can fix. So, and one of the other ones is ⁓ old Chinese man, he goes to ⁓ a train and they ⁓ tell him to look at it and they say, Well, how much is it gonna cost? And he walks around a few minutes and stuff like that, and he taps on a couple of things and taps on here, and then he goes back and he

Quentin Edmonds (11:51)
Wow.

Shawn Decker (12:12)
hits this one little pin and he says, ⁓ well, that’ll be ten thousand dollars. And they said, but you weren’t doing it but ten minutes. Well we need an invoice then. And he said, okay, well, cool. He said ⁓ $9,990 for knowing where to hit and $1 for hitting it.

Quentin Edmonds (12:23)
Mm.

Shawn Decker (12:35)
Boom. So we help people hit it every time.

Quentin Edmonds (12:38)
I love it, man. Brother, I love it. I love it. So I obviously you got some systems in place that’s really, really helpful for you. So I would love to know what so what’s one operational thing you’ve put in place, let’s say the last two years, that’s really made the biggest difference in how you run your business?

Shawn Decker (13:33)
man, ⁓ me developing this system was the fix for my business. So ⁓ it can index your entire computer, your structures, your files, look at which forms you’ve used, it can take podcast information, I can take other websites, it can scan information. If you need to do hook social media platforms, if you’re working on a real estate job and

you need it to produce the video for you that ⁓ does the walk around. ⁓ I’m actually working on one right now for a new logo design for someone else. ⁓ I’ve built apps with it. I’ve done assessment platforms, member platforms. So really depending on what your business needs, I built the system because my cost per system is about $300 a month. ⁓

For straight cost. Now, if you start getting into different types of marketing and stuff like that, it will cost you substantially more than that. So, what I did is built a system that allows people to use multiple sets of models to accomplish multiple types of flows depending on what their needs are. And so I built the system.

Quentin Edmonds (14:49)
Yeah.

Shawn Decker (14:52)
that helps the client determine where the gap in their business is so that they can leverage it.

Quentin Edmonds (15:01)
⁓

Shawn Decker (15:01)
I just happened to have about 20 or 30 different projects and things I have worked on over the years. And I needed something to be able to work on a bunch of different platforms in multiple different directions and be able to keep brand and content information together.

Quentin Edmonds (15:15)
Yeah.

Man, yes sir. So there ⁓ putting the system, building the system is the operational thing that has put you on this course that you’re on. I love it, man. What’s next for you, Shawn? Like what’s what’s the next real goal? What are you looking to solve at scale next?

Shawn Decker (15:29)
So

⁓ one of the things is is we’re trying to push this out to 200 different businesses specifically. And one of the things of it is is it’s kind of a simple concept. People say, okay, well, you know, why would they do that? Well, if with our system on average, you would say probably twenty five hundred dollars a month in some of your social ⁓ or SEO marketing stuff.

For being able to analyze what information, especially if you’re able to tie in your Facebook or Metas. So for example, I didn’t actually start pushing social media content until ⁓ April 15th is when I originally started pushing it. ⁓ I didn’t actually start really publishing much of it until ⁓ about 30 days ago, and we are 34,000 percent up.

So now that the reason is is we didn’t have it much. But the point of it is now is we easily get two to five hundred views on most of our stuff. ⁓ several are at thousands, and we have just got started really in the last two weeks. And I just now pushed my new marketing campaign out yesterday. And so I do a lot of things very ⁓ upfront with people. I don’t try to go, you know, I’ve done this and this and this.

So we just started this side, but what people don’t understand is basically I’m switching over to helping other real estate agents. ⁓ I’ve helped realtor offices already integrate some of this stuff to specifically help speed up and get better videos, more specific market commentary for their post.

Quentin Edmonds (17:21)
Yeah.

Shawn Decker (18:03)
One client had us they ran it through some system stuff, it started looking at what they had been posting, had them took their specific phrasing and brands, re rewrote it to their context, and then helped them publish it, and immediately they started getting more sales. And so it it’s just little things that

Quentin Edmonds (18:11)
Mm-hmm.

Wow.

Shawn Decker (18:28)
It’s a value principle. It’s not necessarily an issue of that you’re not providing it. It’s that you don’t even see what you’re providing.

Quentin Edmonds (18:39)
Mm. Mm.

Shawn Decker (18:41)
And so, you know, for example, a 26 year old, we started with he he started at the time he was doing well, 22 years old, and he was had a probably about 10 clients charging about $150. that went on for about two years. Well, in about 18 months, he now charges five thousand dollars.

For three months and he has over 50 clients. So he does about a little over $10,000 a month. And if he signs with another company, or let me rephrase that, not if he signs with the company, but if they pass his information the rest of the way, he’ll probably be doing over $200,000 a month by the end of next year. So he’s doing phenomenal. ⁓ We’re also in partnership with another company.

Quentin Edmonds (19:25)
Wow.

Shawn Decker (19:31)
⁓ our our proposal software was offered in ⁓ Las Vegas for kayak bass fishing, which is the largest ⁓ bass fishing company. So we done some market proposal stuff for them, their closing deals for it. So we’ve just noticed that this really helps different businesses. And so we’re trying to get other businesses, of course, to implement our stuff. So the difference is is what what are we providing different?

Is an entire system built off of the structure, both personally, time management, people, influence, numbers, knowledge with a structured background of someone that’s valued things literally for a living, that literally also worked in the community. And I mean, we’ve done rescue mission stuff, hunters for the hungry. I’ve done media, all these type of things. And it’s really just because I want to help people.

help businesses and my fun is is watching them, you know, 10X their business or 10X their hours back at their house so that they can spend some time with their family.

Quentin Edmonds (20:34)
Yeah. Well, you just walked me right into the question I want to ask you. It is about relationships. So what is your philosophy on building healthy business relationships? And what are some of the business relationships that has served you well or that you still hold on to that continue to serve you well?

Shawn Decker (20:49)
man, I’ve I’ve met really some of the best networkers and pastors and coaches and you know when when you’re literally in the industry, you know, you you asked me the question earlier of who are my mentors. Well, when you flow within the circle of mentors, they will stay on your ass. Yeah, they will absolutely not be okay with you dragging it.

And not doing some stuff. And so, but I also noticed that people weren’t on the same page about information. So we build an assessment platform for that. And so that way, people that take the assessment, they see where they stand, they can have someone else take it. And because they’re the same matrixes, that it helps that. So then also it helps provide AI skills for the person. And this is just on the $29 membership.

Yeah. So and this is on Value To Victory. So we provide ⁓ assessments and relational, but we can also come into the company and do assessments based off of our proprietary style with what they want to maximize in their company, have it done anonymously so that they can get real data to try to help their company in the flaws.

Quentin Edmonds (22:13)
Yeah.

Shawn Decker (22:14)
And to maximize wherever they’re losing value. And that is really our ultimate goal is if they’re content creators, is ⁓ I even because I’ve written books, I’m not the best writer. I was a high school dropout. I failed English. Now since then I’ve got ⁓ theology or you know, a bachelor’s in theology, a master’s in Christian counseling. I’ve written one book and I have another book coming out.

my first book was called Running for Miracles. And really it was just the story of my life and why I shouldn’t be here. And so I’ve had a lot of that in my life. So and because of those relationships, I’ve done things.

Quentin Edmonds (22:47)
Mm.

Shawn Decker (22:59)
I didn’t believe I was capable of.

Quentin Edmonds (23:01)
Mm-hmm.

Shawn Decker (23:01)
And I’m a hundred percent the underdog guy. A hundred percent. But because of my unique position, I have been able to see that there is no difference between the guy that is a millionaire and the guy that has fifty thousand dollars. They work just as hard. And honestly, I typically have seen the poor man work harder.

The difference of it is, is the rich man has a good system. And so my whole relational thing is to come in with the somebody, help them build a system that helps propel their life every day with the beliefs and information that they know have truly helped them. You know, everybody’s got a good book that that is in their brain or or

Quentin Edmonds (23:30)
Yeah.

Shawn Decker (23:51)
Quotes or specific teachings, and you can literally take that information and add it into the structure to help your business think according to those principles. And so, for example, it took a 14-hour seminar, finished it up, and turned it into the second book. Now, people want AI to do everything for them.

Quentin Edmonds (24:03)
Yeah.

Shawn Decker (24:14)
They don’t want to review, they don’t want to double check, and they don’t want to check to see if AI is wrong because AI lots of times is a hundred percent designed just to tell you yes. Not designed to check you, and that’s not good relational. It’s not good for relationships. People are going on there asking relational advice, they’re asking business advice, all sorts of stuff.

Quentin Edmonds (24:26)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Shawn Decker (24:41)
And so I actually have a ⁓ a legal structure for me set up in it. Again, we don’t give legal advice. We just system. Okay, so it can point out stuff. Well, I was trying to structure a deal for a church, and the way I wanted to try to structure it would reduce overall tax liability. My own system flagged it, says you can’t do it this way, but you could do it these two other ways.

Quentin Edmonds (25:08)
Yeah, yeah.

Shawn Decker (25:09)
AI would tell you, yeah, go ahead, do it this way. ⁓ yeah, you’ll make all sorts of money. It’ll be fantastic. Next year you’re in law. And so that’s one thing is we we really try to build stuff that helps people in every aspect to keep their relations on track and stay in track with other businesses and creators and podcasters and to stay authentic on their brand while helping people. I love it.

Quentin Edmonds (25:34)
Yeah. Man, listen, ⁓ we could talk for hours. I know we can, but man, time is wrapping up. I want you 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, sir?

Shawn Decker (25:49)
⁓ go to valuetovictory.com and that is V-A-L-U-E-T-O-VICTORY.com. ⁓ or you can also go to shawnedecker.com and you can visit me on there. We also have several other sites such as ⁓ SBA Digital Solutions. That is my sister company, ⁓ Sandy. And then, of course, if you go on to Value To Victory, we have members portals, coaching portals.

⁓ and also I will ⁓ give you a link if you would like that you’ll be able to post into the comments that they if they heard anything, that they can come to us and then of course if they sign up or stuff like that, that we definitely want to make sure that you get credit for that as well.

Quentin Edmonds (26:34)
Love it. Love it. Well, listen, man, I want to say three things to you sincerely. First, thank you for your time. I think time is our most precious commodity. So thank you, man, for giving us your time. ⁓ secondly, man, thank you for your story. Thank you for your authenticity. Thank you for your integrity. I believe stories plant little seeds, and we never know when those seed is gonna take root and when it’s gonna grow, but the seed is still there. So I thank you for coming planting some real seeds today. Lastly, man, thank you for your mindset.

Thank you for the way you think and bringing that mindset to this platform. I greatly appreciate you coming on today, sir.

Shawn Decker (27:05)
Thank you so much. again, Quentin, it was such a pleasure. I think y’all are doing some really cool and fun stuff and I really appreciate for ⁓ again the opportunity and look forward to all the additional guests if I’m able to help them more.

Quentin Edmonds (27:19)
Yeah, yeah. Well, listen, ⁓ y’all heard Shawn. His information is in the show notes. You heard what he delivered. Please get in contact with him. Let him help you out. Let him help your business. But definitely make sure you’re subscribed here. Cause I promise you we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people just like Shawn. So, Shawn, I say thank you again, sir. And everyone else, absolutely. And everyone else, y’all have a fantastic day.