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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Michelle Kesil speaks with Bob Thompson, a seasoned short sales real estate agent and growth coach. Bob shares his journey in the real estate industry, focusing on the intricacies of short sales, the importance of mentorship, and the challenges he has faced. He emphasizes the need for real estate professionals to build strong relationships with investors and the significance of personal growth and coaching in achieving success. The conversation also touches on the lessons learned from past experiences and the importance of adapting to individual strengths in the real estate business.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Bob Thompson (00:00)
You know, when I talk to and coach new agents, know, they always want to go into a certain niche. And what I’ve discovered is the niche finds you. So I went full time in 2007. Rolled into 2008 and every listing appointment I’m going on, everybody is underwater. You know, so essentially they owe more than what their house is worth.So it wasn’t something I chose to do, it was out of necessity and it became a matter of, okay, well nobody knows how to do it just became this massive, massive thing to where…
it’s just blew up from there over the years.
Michelle Kesil (02:07)
Hey everybody, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil. Today I’m joined by someone I’m looking forward to chatting with, Bob Thompson, who’s been making serious moves as a short sales real estate agent and growth coach. So, excited to have you here today, Bob.Bob Thompson (02:26)
Thanks for having me.Michelle Kesil (02:28)
Of course, I think our listeners are going to take something away from how you’re approaching the short sale business as well as your experience working with investors. So let’s dive in.Bob Thompson (02:40)
Awesome.Michelle Kesil (02:42)
First off, for those who may not be familiar with you and your work, can you share what your main focus is?Bob Thompson (02:48)
Of course, like I said, my name is Bob Thompson, also known as Bob the Agent Online. I have been in the industry 20 years. I am a growth coach. I am also a mentor with REOX, which is a group of real estate agents that specialize in bank owns. In addition to that, I have been involved with short sales for the better part of 20 years. So I have done tutorials and podcasting and things of that nature when it comes to short sales.Michelle Kesil (03:19)
Awesome. And can you expand on what short sales means for those who might not fully be aware?Bob Thompson (03:26)
Of course, essentially what a short sale is that the bank agrees to take a lower price than what is owed on the property. So in other words, if we’ve got a house that let’s say the folks owe $3.30 and the bank accepts an offer for $2.75, then that means that the owner is absolved of any additional debt, including in most cases the tax debt, and they’re able to move forward.You have to understand that most short sales are caused by either job loss or divorce. And let’s be honest, a lot of times those can go hand in hand. So I think they’re a benefit for the average consumer because a short sale only sits on your record for two years. You can purchase another property after those two years and a foreclosure sits on your record for seven years. So it’s advantageous for a seller if they’re in that type of situation to go that direction.
The other thing that’s advantageous is if you’ve got a good agent that understands short sales, on the investor side of that, a lot of times you can get a good deal because you can get the inside track to that particular property. And typically if things run the way they’re supposed to, you’re gonna get a good deal on it and then of course you can flip it and move forward from there or turn it into a rental property, whatever you see fit at the time.
Michelle Kesil (04:47)
Awesome. And are you operating in a specific market?Bob Thompson (04:52)
Essentially, I can operate anywhere in the state of Virginia as a licensed real estate agent, but I typically handle most of what I would say Hampton Roads, which is Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Virginia area, Williamsburg, Chesapeake, things of that nature. ⁓ Hampton Roads is quite well known to be a military market. So we have a lot of folks coming and going, and sometimes we end up with situations to where folks have been transferred to another location.and they can’t sell their house for what they owe and sometimes they can’t even rent it for what they owe so then they have to go, you know, that different direction.
Michelle Kesil (05:32)
Awesome. So what made you choose short sales as like your niche?Bob Thompson (06:27)
You know, when I talk to and coach new agents, know, they always want to go into a certain niche. And what I’ve discovered is the niche finds you. So I’m literally, you figure, I went full time in 2007. I was a chemist for nine years and I left that and went full time in real estate. Rolled into 2008 and every listing appointment I’m going on, everybody is underwater. You know, so essentially they owe more than what their house is worth.So it wasn’t something I chose to do, it was out of necessity and it became a matter of, okay, well nobody knows how to do these things, we’re in uncharted territory, let’s be honest, I’ve gotta eat in November, regardless if it’s February, I’ve still gotta eat November, so let’s start taking these on and it got to the point where it just became this massive, massive thing to where…
You know, when I left my first brokerage at the end of 2010, I had 50 different short sales on the books at the time. And it just became, you know, a daily part of my activity to where I became recognized as the short sale guy, especially in this area. And it’s just kind of ballooned and blew up from there over the years.
Michelle Kesil (07:40)
Awesome. What do you feel are some of the main keys that have made the biggest difference in allowing your business to be able to grow and run smoothly?Bob Thompson (07:55)
So I would say two things and I learned this early on and it was like a lightning bolt so I always try to pass it on. I was sitting there with my first broker. This has got to be the first part of 2008 and we’ve got a we’ve got a property that I can’t seem to sell and it needs to come down on price and I’m arguing with him about the price on this and he finally looks at me and goes. He says why are you arguing with me. He was like who’s the expert here. My name is on the door.I’m paying for all of this. This is my leads, my company, my everything. And it’s like the light went on. It’s like, good Lord. Sometimes you have to listen to people that know better than you, whether you like it or not. It’s kind of like, I’m not going to argue with my mechanic. Now I’ll get a second opinion, but I’m not going to argue with him because he knows best. It’s the same thing with the plumber. You don’t argue with the plumber. You can get a second opinion, but you’re not the plumber.
And we all do it. I think just as human beings, we do it. You know, a lot of us, let’s be honest, as guys do it on Sundays when we’re arguing with the football coach on, I can’t believe he, I mean, it’s, and I find myself doing it. And I’m like, I can’t believe he ran that play. He should have done this. Like, I know what I’m talking about. got, I got it. I made it to rec football. have no more, no business running my mouth about that, but yet we just do it as humans. So I think the biggest thing is a listen.
to folks that know better. The other thing is if you enjoy doing something, so if you’re a real estate investor or you’re a real estate agent, if you don’t tell people you do it, you can’t do it anymore. So you’ve got to sing it from the rooftops. If I worked at Walmart, I could work my eight hours, come home and never be seen from again. No social media, just me and my family and I walk away. But because I sell real estate, because I’m a coach, because I work with a ton of real estate investors,
I’ve got to put my nose out there, put my name out there and say, here I am.
Michelle Kesil (10:34)
Yeah, definitely. That’s important. So you work with investors as well. Can you explain how that process goes for you?Bob Thompson (10:45)
I think for me, a lot of it is I need to know that the investor is serious and they’re ready to move forward because every real estate agent, whether they tell you that or not, we have our core five to 10 real estate investors that we choose to use because we know they’re going to get the deal done. We know we can be blunt and honest with them about the property and they can make an adjustment from there. I liken it to.If you’re just telling me you’re a real estate investor, but every time I send you a property, you try to give me some $50,000, $60,000 low ball offer, you know, dad, going, well, that’s not going to work. I’m not going to accept that offer because it doesn’t make any good sense. And I also know that I’m going to get higher offers from other, from other investors. You’re not serious. The other thing is if you just talk about it all the time, but you won’t pull the trigger because everything I bring you has got a problem.
That’s not the problem. The problem is that you’re playing pretend. And if you’re going to pull the trigger, you got to pull the trigger and be serious about it. So I think that’s the two biggest things is new real estate investors under need to understand that they’ve got to be serious. You’ve got to give me a feeling of confidence that I can start moving you up on my short list because every real estate agent has that short list. We have those people that I can call right now.
so and so needs to sell their house, ⁓ they need to sell it, this is the price point, we’re looking at, this is what it’s worth, what do you wanna do? That’s great, Bob, let’s write it up and get it done. Simple as that, it’s not that complicated.
Michelle Kesil (12:23)
Yeah, absolutely. Are most of your investors like within the Virginia region or they’re coming from out of state?Bob Thompson (12:31)
It depends. Most of the time they’re going to be fairly local, but we’ve also had periods to where we had companies that were coming in the area and were buying up property. And I’m okay with that too. I think a lot of people feel like, the, investors are buying up all the property. No, the investors are buying up property that you can’t buy because you can’t get a loan on it and it’s beat all the heck. So you want an investor to come in and buy that property because they’re going to rehab it.Yes, they’re going to make a profit as well they should, but they’re going to flip it. They’re going to put it back on the market and then a nice new family is going to move into that house as opposed to it sitting vacant for six years because nobody can get a loan on it in the first place. So I think it’s a good thing and it can be a blend. I’ve worked with some really strong companies that were very easy to work with. And then of course, obviously I’ve worked with a lot of investors that I have a personal relationship with and
that it plays a factor into that depending on the property and depending on what’s going on at the time.
Michelle Kesil (13:32)
Yeah, absolutely. That makes sense. So what are you most focused on solving or scaling to next in your business?Bob Thompson (13:44)
For me, I’m super invested in coaching. I’ve been coaching since about 2019. In 2017, I had my best year ever. And then in the beginning of 2018, I had a heart attack number one, heart attack number two, and then a quadruple bypass. And it occurred to me at the end of all of that, that I needed to start giving back to the industry that had been good to me. So after recovering from the bypass and quite honestly being completely broke, I started to really push into the coaching.and it’s important to me.
Michelle Kesil (14:26)
Yeah, amazing. Can you expand on the type of coaching and the type of clients that you serve?Bob Thompson (14:34)
Of course. So I do a combination of one-on-one coaching. Typically it’s going to be in a mentor mentee situation. And then also at the company that I work for, Legacy Group International, we also do group coaching. We do a morning huddle every day. I am in charge of the script this practice on Fridays. And in addition to that, I’ve also reached out, I’m doing a bunch of other podcasts. I’ve got a short sell webinar getting ready tobring that back out into the world and some other things of that nature. quite honestly, when young investors or new investors, I would say, want to sit down and pick my brain, I’m happy to do that too, because I think it’s important to give new investors an opportunity to grow and move up to the front line, as it were.
Michelle Kesil (16:07)
Definitely. So let’s say a new investor comes to you, what would be some of the advice that you would give them as a starting point?Bob Thompson (16:15)
I would say number one, let’s figure out what you can and can’t do. Do you have a background in the industry or do you have a background in a industry that’s close to it? So let’s say maybe you were a contractor or maybe you’re still a contractor and you want to move into purchasing. Are we looking at flipping or are we looking at renting? Obviously it’s going to take more money if you’re renting. So for flipping, do we have our money situation lined up? Are we?borrowing money from our uncle’s cousin, are we doing a hard money loan, and what do the numbers need to be for the flip? And are we willing to do what I would say an easy flip if, let’s say something doesn’t need a whole lot of work and we just put a little spit and polish on it, and maybe flip it to another investor to where they can finish it if it is something that’s a little bit more complicated. And then we’re also gonna talk about where we wanna be. Are we?
We don’t want to buy something just to buy something. Sometimes we’ve got to have patience and wait for the right deal to come along. So that plays a factor in it as well.
Michelle Kesil (17:25)
Yeah, absolutely. And are you an investor yourself?Bob Thompson (17:30)
Yes, haven’t quite honestly, I haven’t bought anything in a while. I’ve been so busy and wrapped up with my other things, but I, that’s actually how I started is I bought rental property, but I fell in love with the process. And quite honestly, I wasn’t a very good landlord because I was way too nice. And like a lot of investors, I tried to do it myself, which is where I made the Cardinal Sin was I’m trying to run my own rental properties and that never works.So I eventually at the time let those properties go. I sold them to another investor and really focused on the real estate portion of what we do day in and day out. And quite honestly kind of found where I belonged in the world as it were with real estate. I will definitely jump back into the real estate investing. My problem is I don’t like to buy properties that are brought to my attention because I feel like I have an unfair advantage and I think it’s better for the client.
for me to go, okay, I’m gonna pass this on to somebody else. Yes, I’ll make money off the commissions and if they flip it, I’ll make money off that commission, but I don’t wanna just outright buy the property because a lot of times I want that client to know that I did my absolute best for them and got them the best value that they could get.
Michelle Kesil (18:48)
Yeah, absolutely. So what are some of the goals you have for where you’d like your business to move towards?Bob Thompson (18:57)
So again, like I said, realistically, I’m really trying to expand this year on coaching. would ⁓ like to have, you know, I’ve got a few folks right now that I’m coaching. I’d like to add many more to that list. Again, we’ve got a whole, got another, I’ve released one book. I’ve got another real estate book getting ready to come out. And we’re gonna be doing some good webinars this year on short sales. I’m gonna expand on the script this program.excited of course I’ve been with Legacy Group International powered by EXP for about a year and a half we’re going to continue to build that so just got a whole lot of fronts you know I’m not getting any younger so I’m really you know trying to trying to cram as much good fun stuff in as I can over the next few years
Michelle Kesil (19:45)
Awesome. What is maybe an obstacle or a challenge that you’ve overcome in your career that looking back on hindsight you wish you had the knowledge on?Bob Thompson (19:59)
I would say I wish I had had multiple streams of income. And I say that from somebody that crushed it for many years. And like I said, in 2017, I had my biggest year and I was on top of the world, rolled into 2018, bought a new car, bought an RV, enjoying myself, enjoying my life, and really thought I was prepared if something went wrong. And when something went wrong, i.e. the heart attacks and the bypass,I was not as prepared as I thought I was. And if I had had residual income coming in at the time, then I would have been better off. But let’s be honest, if you, in my situation, if you don’t work, you don’t, you don’t get paid. And that’s what I ran into. And very quickly I ran through my savings. I ran through my credit card. I ran through everything that I had. And by the end of 2018, I was completely flat busted broke. So that’s where I think that I would have
I should have been investing then, regardless of everything else, I should have had multiple streams of income. I should have been, you know, I thought I was prepared, but I probably should have had an outside person look at what I was doing and go, okay, well, what can I do better? Well, Bob, you need to throw some stuff over here because if this happens, you can cover it. You you kind of get to a point when you’re successful that you think you know everything and you think you’re good to go.
I kind of got into that rut of that and it ended up costing me. So I would say that would be the biggest thing is that I didn’t know everything and I wish I had had the multiple streams to cover me when everything hit the fan.
Michelle Kesil (21:40)
Yeah, definitely that makes sense.So what are some of the ways that you mentor people? that just agents?
Bob Thompson (21:55)
It’s a combination of things. So it’s agents, it’s folks that are transitioning perhaps from one job into another or, you know, and I don’t like to use the term life coach. think it’s, I think the, the, for me, the term would be growth coach. It just depends on figuring out what the holdup is. So a lot of times we have, we have things that keep us from moving to the next level, whether we’re scared to, or whether we’re surrounded by negativity and we feel like we can’t make it.Or, you know, sometimes we’re working our butt off and it just, we just haven’t gotten there yet. You know, I think a lot of coaches and agents and I’m seeing it a lot lately. They talk about mindset and they play the whole, well, you got to get up at 5 a.m. and get an ice bath and do 15, you know, this and that that’s garbage. And that’s not where it’s at. Sometimes you can just work really hard and you’re just not succeeding. And maybe you just need to keep pushing.
and keep going. And that’s the biggest part is the not giving up process. Or maybe we tweak one thing in the middle. There is no universal truth to success. It doesn’t exist. It never has. And quite honestly, it pisses me off when I see coaches doing that type of stuff. Not everybody’s made to get up at 5 a.m. I’m 53 years old. You’re not getting my happy butt up at 5 30 a.m. You’re not getting me in a ice bath. It’s not happening. And
I know a lot, especially young people, that what I’ve talked to them about is when are you most active and moving? Okay, so if you’re really motivated between let’s say four and seven in the evening, well then make four to seven your time period to make your phone calls, to do a lot of the things that you need to get done, because that’s when you’re at your best. There’s no reason to be up running around at eight a.m.
if you don’t feel it and it just doesn’t work for what your lifestyle is or let’s be honest, a lot of folks have kids and they have to maneuver their day around the children and there’s nothing wrong with that. Not everything has to be done between nine and five and sometimes you’re just not going to be able to go, well, it’s 11 o’clock. I’ve got to go do my phone calls for an hour. It doesn’t work that way. If the baby’s taking a nap, you can’t exactly be yelling and screaming on the phone.
for an hour. That’s just not realistic. So I think a lot. So that’s what I focus on a lot of is, is how do we set your individual parameters? How do you lean into who you are to be the best that you can be?
Michelle Kesil (24:22)
Yeah.Yeah, amazing. Thank you for sharing that.
Bob Thompson (24:36)
No problem.Michelle Kesil (24:38)
So before we wrap up, if someone wants to reach out, connect, learn more, where can people find you?Bob Thompson (24:45)
So most of the time they can find me at BobTheAgent.com, BobTheAgent on Facebook, on the TikTok. I have a reoccurring TikTok that I do every Friday so they can find me on there. It’s the Wu Tang rant of the week. Typically you can also reach me at WhatBobThinks.com but I’m fairly easy to find. BobTheAgent’s a whole heck of a lot easier to find than Bob Thompson. Because let’s be honest, there’s not a more generic name in the world than Bob Thompson so.If they pull up Bob the agent, they will be able to find me. And I’m one of those people, I’m always happy to get a phone call, get a text, by all means reach out to me on Facebook or the socials. Happy to help out wherever I can.
Michelle Kesil (25:28)
Perfect. Appreciate your time and perspective. Thank you for being here.Bob Thompson (25:33)
Thanks for having me, I appreciate it.Michelle Kesil (25:35)
Sure. And for those tuning into the show, if you got value, make sure you’ve subscribed. We’ve got more conversations with operators like Bob who are building real businesses. We’ll see you on the next episode.
