Relationships Drive Revenue: Real Estate Networking and Business Development Strategies

Gwyn Miller (00:00)
I tell everybody this people are gonna buy you long before they’re gonna buy your product. So if you’re not selling yourself correctly, which you can sell yourself and everybody’s gonna know a fake when they meet one. So I developed those relationships just being myself. And this, I’ll give you a testimony to that. The company that I previously left, I did not take a single customer’s phone number, contact information, anything, but they had mine. And when something came up that they needed, they were calling me and I would let them know, hey, I’m no longer with that company. Let me give you the phone number. And they would say, nope, wherever you’re going, we’ll follow. So, who’s your new company? We’ll use them. And that says it all to me.

Joseph Crooms (02:09)
Hey everyone, welcome to *Investor Fuel Real Estate Pros Podcast*. I’m looking forward to chatting with you. I have a guest, her name is Gwyn Miller, who’s been doing some, making some serious moves in the real estate industry. I’m gonna let her introduce herself, talk about it from her own perspective. Hey, hey, go ahead and say hello to everyone.

Gwyn Miller (02:35)
Hey everybody, this is Gwyn.

Joseph Crooms (02:37)
All right, I think our listeners are really going to take something away from this, from how you approach the business, how you really spoke about relationships, and you know that relationships are everything, but let’s start off this way. For people who may not be familiar with your world, give us the short version. What’s your main focus these days and what markets are you operating in?

Gwyn Miller (03:01)
So our main focus right now is a lot of commercial business, but I love working in the residential realm. I carry two hats. I do business development for my company, but also a real estate agent myself. And so I’ve got my finger on the pulse of what’s going on in the real estate market and I understand the needs that are there and I love to be able to come in and support that from the other hat that I wear with my company.

Joseph Crooms (03:25)
Okay, and what hat do you wear with your company?

Gwyn Miller (03:27)
So I am the director of business development.

Joseph Crooms (03:30)
Okay, all right, so how does this tie into the real estate? How do you tie both businesses together?

Gwyn Miller (03:37)
Yeah, so Complete Home Services, we can take care of absolutely everything from the roof down. We do plumbing, HVAC, we do cleaning services, window replacement, glass repair, appliances, you name it, we can handle it. We also have an incredible arm of our business that is handyman services, which real estate agents love because we all know when we get to that 10-day inspection period and we are wheeling and dealing with buyers and sellers on those things that come up on the inspection repair and replacement proposal, we are in crunch time to get those done. So that’s where we come in handy.

Joseph Crooms (04:13)
Let’s back up a little bit to your real estate. Tell me about that career, how long, and you’re still involved. What’s your niche?

Gwyn Miller (04:24)
So my brokerage actually, they are a boutique style brokerage and they focus on luxury horse farms, which there are a lot of those out here in the Memphis area, believe it or not. I, however, don’t know a horse from, you know, a fly on the wall. And so I said, hey, let me be your residential girl. I have lived all over the country. I have purchased so many homes every time that we’ve moved. So I understand real estate. I understand what a homeowner is looking for, and then I understand the headache of selling a home.

Joseph Crooms (05:40)
What is your book of business like in that now?

Gwyn Miller (05:44)
You know, it’s kind of funny. I’ve kind of put that on a little bit on the back burner because I’m doing business development full-time for my company. But right now I’ve got four listings that are coming up. Things are kind of popping out of the woodwork. So I’m really just taking business from referrals that come my way, not necessarily driving, you know, any kind of marketing or anything for real estate, but it’s just kind of come organically to me.

Joseph Crooms (06:06)
Gotcha. I got another real quick question. When did you make this shift and excuse me for asking but when did you know, okay, I can make this shift to the full-time job or why did you make the shift to the full-time job?

Gwyn Miller (06:22)
Yeah, so I’ll give you the easy answer to that question is I got five kids and they’re expensive. And I said, you know what? What is something that I can do? Remain full-time mom and then also work and bring in some extra income. And I always had friends that were real estate agents and they loved it. And so I started looking into it. I’ve worked with tons of real estate agents in the past, obviously as a consumer. But yeah, I took the classes and I passed my test the first time and absolutely fell in love with it.

Joseph Crooms (06:49)
How long did you do it, Gwyn? How long were you on active real estate duty?

Gwyn Miller (06:55)
Real estate duty for five years.

Joseph Crooms (06:57)
Okay and when did you make the shift to your development job now?

Gwyn Miller (07:03)
You know, the market kind of shifted out here in Tennessee a little bit about a year, year and a half ago. And so I was looking for something a little bit more consistent rather than just kind of waiting on a commission to come in or to get a listing or get a buyer. I was hoping to get something that was more substanti, not substantial, but consistent as far as income for our family. So I kind started putting some feelers out and looking for a full-time position somewhere.

Joseph Crooms (07:27)
So you’ve been here about a year now?

Gwyn Miller (07:30)
I was actually with a previous company and they I was their very first hire. They were a brand new company to the Memphis area and so they hired me to do business development. So I helped them grow that company from the ground up.

Joseph Crooms (07:41)
And how long have you been on this particular company?

Gwyn Miller (07:45)
So I just started four weeks ago with this particular company and am happier than I’ve ever been. I love it.

Joseph Crooms (07:51)
Congratulations. So tell me, how are you networking with your friends and family and friends that you have in real estate. And give me an overview of your particular company, exactly what what you’re, what businesses are you developing for them?

Gwyn Miller (08:12)
Yeah, so we have seven different brands within our company. And so I’m doing business development for all of those. So I go back to my roots, which is where I’m comfortable. I’m going to different brokerages, reaching out to the already the established relationships I had with other real estate agents and saying, this is what we offer. I know the value that we bring to the table, having been and are currently being, well, there goes my brain. It just walked out the door. Currently a real estate agent. And so I I understood the value that a company like this could bring to the real estate world.

Joseph Crooms (08:44)
Wow, that’s awesome. So let me ask you this question. Let’s move on. What, what are you focused on solving or scaling next? What do you want for your business and also keeping those relationships? What are you scaling?

Gwyn Miller (09:02)
Sure, that we still have the locally owned feel and that we’re all about our customers. And if you are calling this phone number, you’re going to get me on the phone. If I say, you know, here’s my card, I’m going to answer my phone. If I don’t, you’re going to get a text message. So I want to make sure I am maintaining those relationships and keeping that kind of small-town feel for this company, but also grow it because we have the capabilities to do very, you know, large construction jobs, windows, HVAC, plumbing, all of those. So I really want to scale that side of the business while maintaining basically the character that we’ve built on the residential side.

Joseph Crooms (09:38)
Tell me about some of the business that you do. Do you develop property managers or you develop more construction? Can you bring that to my light for me?

Gwyn Miller (10:21)
Yeah, I’ll tell you, property managers are probably some of the most difficult people to get in with because everybody’s got a guy and they’ve always used their guy and there’s no way they’re going to use anybody else. So I’m always looking for property managers. Third-party property management companies have been excellent because usually they’re not here in the area. They don’t know anybody. So I’m reaching out to them and becoming, you know, their referral partner, preferred vendor for them.

Joseph Crooms (10:49)
And what other construction companies also.

Gwyn Miller (10:52)
Construction companies, yeah, a lot of times new construction, there’s a construction company here that they basically build a box. And so our handyman arm might come in and do all the finishes or something in the home, install, you know, towel racks and ceiling fans and all those types of things. Mm-hmm.

Joseph Crooms (11:09)
What about long-term construction? Do you ever purchase land and build from the ground up?

Gwyn Miller (11:19)
We do not. We don’t do we do not build from the ground up. So we’re more of a maintenance kind of company, if if that makes sense. So we’re more of on the repair and maintenance side.

Joseph Crooms (11:31)
Thank you so much. So let me ask you a question, because… Relationships are very important. What’s been the biggest difference for you and how do you do it different?

Gwyn Miller (11:48)
So I tell everybody this: people are gonna buy you long before they’re gonna buy your product. So if you’re not selling yourself correctly, which you can sell yourself and everybody’s gonna know a fake when they meet one. So I developed those relationships just being myself. And this, I’ll give you a testimony to that. The company that I previously left, I did not take a single customer’s phone number, contact information, anything, but they had mine. And when something came up that they needed, they were calling me and I would let them know, hey, I’m no longer with that company. Let me give you the phone number. And they would say, nope, wherever you’re going, we’ll follow. So, who’s your new company? We’ll use them. And that says it all to me.

Joseph Crooms (12:26)
What is it that you would like to happen with this podcast and also with your business development and also with your real estate experience? What do you see happening?

Gwyn Miller (12:43)
Yeah, I mean, I would love to get the word out to anybody who is listening in the West, you know, Tennessee area. So Memphis, North Mississippi, Arkansas. I really would love to get the word out about who we are and what we offer. Investors, I understand it’s all about money. When you’re, you know, if you’re an investor, like, we don’t care how pretty it is and we don’t care about—it’s bottom dollar. What’s my ROI on this? They also want quick turnaround. They to buy a house, they want to get it ready, and they want to get a tenant in there. That’s a buy and hold or they want to fix it up and get it back on the market. So I would love to come alongside them and let them know that I’m not just a business developer for, you know, a Complete Home Services. I’m also a real estate agent. And so I understand where they are coming from and what the industry looks like.

Joseph Crooms (13:30)
Thank you for sharing that. What is the name of your company?

Gwyn Miller (13:40)
So we are Complete Home Services here in Memphis. And like I said, we have seven different brands. One of those is electric, but it only serves one county out here. The rest of them are our plumbing, our HVAC. We do residential cleaning. We do some commercial cleaning. In the Memphis area, some of our ladies don’t like doing commercial cleaning because it’s after hours and it’s late at night and it’s dark, and they just kind of rather not be out there. We have a full-service handyman division that is incredible. These guys aren’t just handyman. They are craftsmen. Their work is excellent. They’ve actually done work on my personal properties before. I actually have a listing coming up and they did the work there and it was beautiful. And then appliance, which a lot of people don’t offer. There are not many appliance repair people. You know, you’ll call a Lowe’s or a Home Depot and they’re like, Yeah, you gotta, you know, go back to the manufacturer to get that fixed. They really don’t offer those services. So to be able to offer that is amazing.

Joseph Crooms (14:36)
I’m curious, how much book of business have you carried over from your real estate?

Gwyn Miller (14:43)
From real estate, you know, I would have to actually go in and run a report and see what all because there’s so much of, you know, so I’d get a text message from somebody and this is what we need and I’ll get it off to the right person and get them booked. And so I gotta be very, very honest with you. I don’t have an exact like number for you on that. I I would have to run a report and look back through our system and and see, okay, this is everything that’s coming through real estate.

Joseph Crooms (15:46)
So what I meant by this, what is your volume of prior real estate? You said you’d left it alone, but where did you leave it alone? Where did you leave it at?

Gwyn Miller (15:56)
Where did I leave it at? I mean, so I was in the top 100 producers here in the Memphis area. And so I was doing I think I wanna say last year, I think I did 3.5 million in sales is where I was at.

Joseph Crooms (16:12)
Wow, wow. I’m not even actually sure what that translated into on a monthly basis.

Gwyn Miller (16:17)
I was a busy girl, I’ll say that.

Joseph Crooms (16:21)
I can see why your company may have hired you. When you was on the interview, what did you tell them you can bring to the table?

Gwyn Miller (16:31)
I told them I’m bringing myself and like I said people are going to buy you before they buy a product. I said I also told them that I’m very careful about my reputation and where I hang my hat. So I did a lot of research on this company before I went to work with them. And I said if you’ve got a good brand and you do excellent work, I’m happy to come represent you. So I I told them, I said, I’m a gimme, and I’ll actually—I’m gonna tell you the truth, I was actually poached. And so they knew what I was doing at the previous company. They saw the volume and everything that I had brought in and the growth that happened there. And so they asked me to come to business development for them.

Joseph Crooms (17:08)
And what do you think? So, um, did you tell them that I have a network of people that I already know I can go develop right away? Is that how you approached it?

Gwyn Miller (17:20)
I did. In fact, I showed them exactly how much volume I did in. I mean, you can say business development and you can say sales. They’re kind of six of one, half a dozen of the other. But I showed the revenue that I brought into this company just on my own. We weren’t doing any marketing whatsoever. In fact, I was given a marketing budget and nowhere near touched it every single month because everything I was doing was relational and a lot of it was on social media as well, which is completely free. So yeah, I showed them the revenue that I had brought in in such a short amount of time and they loved that.

Joseph Crooms (17:53)
Gwyn, this has been unique. I’m sorry we’re running out of time. But we can’t fake relationships in this space. All right, before we wrap up, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, Gwyn, maybe collaborate, learn more what you’re doing. What’s the best way to reach you? You can repeat it twice.

Gwyn Miller (18:14)
Perfect. So I am gonna I don’t even know what this saying is. Put my money where my mouth is, and I am going to give you my personal cell phone number because when I say I answer my phone, I answer my phone. Yeah, my number is 901-468-5231. That’s 901-468-5231. Or you can reach me by email at [email protected]. So it’s G-W-Y-N, dot M-I-L-L-E-R, at N-B-L-Y-H-U-B dot net.

Joseph Crooms (18:49)
Tell me name of your company one more time.

Gwyn Miller (18:51)
We are Complete Home Services, we are a Neighborly company.

Joseph Crooms (18:54)
Sounds good. Well, good. Thank you. Perfect. I appreciate your story, your perspective. We need more people in the spaces like here doing the right thing, doing it the right way, but helping a lot of people and bringing businesses together because that’s what you are really about. As for those of you tuning in, I know you got some value from this, so make sure you subscribe. We got more conversations coming from operators just like Gwyn Miller, make sure you reach out to her. So we’re doing real things and helping real people. So we’ll see you on the next episode of *Investor Fuel Real Estate Pros Podcast*.