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Show Summary
In this conversation, John Rummel discusses the intricacies of obtaining a real estate license in Western New York, highlighting the financial and time commitments involved. He emphasizes the importance of setting realistic expectations for new agents, particularly regarding the timeline for receiving their first paycheck after closing a sale. Rummel warns against overly ambitious attitudes that can lead to disappointment and failure in the competitive real estate market.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
John Rummel (00:00)
If somebody wants to sell a house and they interview two agents and I go in and I’m this and I talk and we talk about this, that and the other thing and we hit it off and then I show them what I can do for them. And I create that rapport upfront because I bond with them and it’s genuine. And then the other guy comes in or gal, woman and says, here’s what I’m going to do. This is our marketing plan. I’m with XYZ company.And this is our internet site, even though I showed them that. And this is our Facebook and this I’ve showed them all that. And they don’t build a relationship more than likely. Who’s going to get that listing? Me. Build the relationship. It’s the key.
Erika (02:10)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host Erika And today I’m excited to be joined by John Rummel. He’s been shaking things up with his company Signature Real Estate Services. It’s so good to have you on the show today, John.John Rummel (02:26)
Thanks, Erika. Good to be here.Erika (02:27)
Well, I’m excited to dive right in. know, John, let’s start with your story. How did you get started in the real estate world?John Rummel (02:36)
You know, I, I teasingly tell people, Erika, that, you know, you’re never going to believe how long I’ve been in the business. And I, I say, I started in November of 1989. Then I pause and I say, well, that’s where you’re supposed to say no way with how you look, you could never have been in the business that long. But, um, yeah, I started in what I call the real estate stone ages, 1989. For those that remember back to them, um, I looked it up. We didn’t have fax machines yet. We didn’t have the internet.or as we teasingly call it, the inner web. We are on ML books where any information you got for a house that was going up for sale, it was already on the market two weeks before you even knew about it unless you saw a sign. So 19 November of 1989 is when I was licensed as a real estate agent for the first time and the only time. And it’s just progressed, obviously, since there. But yeah, the real estate stone ages is when I started.
Erika (03:28)
And then, you know, talk through your journey more with where you ended up today because you do have your own company now, which is really awesome.John Rummel (03:38)
It’s fantastic. Yes. So, you know, it was, it was quite a beginning in Western New York, Buffalo, where, where I’m licensed and was licensed originally. The average sale price when I started in real estate was $70,000, $70,000 for a really nice house. So I was in real estate sales. did great my first year. I’m not afraid to talk to people. My whole key to success was I made 25 contacts.Every day. And this is back in the day where you could call people. didn’t have call waiting. They didn’t call screen. Everybody answered their phone. You know, they might have had an answering machine in their house. So 25 contacts a day was the start of how I got this thing going. Sold in one real estate office for three years. bought my first house when I was in my early 20s. Moved closer to that location. So I sold real estate for five years and I said, well, you know, maybe there’s more to this. And I met with the owner of the company and said, I’m kind of burning out. You know, I’m a young.
20 something guy here, all I do is work. ⁓ Have you ever thought about management? I said, well, not really, because I looked like I was about 14 years old ⁓ when I was in my early 20s. And he goes, don’t worry about that, we’ll get you trained. And it really progressed from there. He listened, he sat with me, he put me in a leadership program. ⁓ I was appreciative for what he was attempting to do and did do for me and grew that into managing.
one office and then another office and over a 17 year career in management with that one company, I managed 13 different offices.
And I became quote unquote, the fix it guy. We’ll do corporate speak here, Erika. If an office is underperforming, you bring somebody in to help them, right? That’s that was my role. How it turned out many times is I would become the manager of that office over and over and over again. So.
Sales, management of one or two or three offices at a time, parlayed that into opening up a region for that company, which was great. We built offices. mean, I didn’t even know what, they said, all right, go build an office over here. And we’re gonna do triple net lease. what’s the gross rent rate and figure all these things. And I had no idea what any of those things meant. But I figured it out. I said, okay, okay, nod my head. Yes, yes, yes. Then I would call.
You know, my mentor, another gentleman in the company say, what did he just say? Cause I had no idea about rents and leases and all that stuff. So I was on the job training, ⁓ open up a region, which was great. Came back, got recruited to another company, yada, yada, yada. Here we are 37 years later, after about 30 years of being with two major big family owned companies, GMVP and all that said enough and started Signature Real Estate, which has been amazing.
about six and a half years ago.
Erika (07:12)
That’s fantastic and running your own agency, what would you say sets yours apart from the rest?John Rummel (07:20)
The biggest thing we have now is the internet. It’s leveled the playing field. ⁓ Before the internet, you had to have somebody to write all your ads. You had to have somebody to answer your phones. You had billing and accounts receivable, accounts payable. It was so labor intensive. I can run it, my team and my agents, along with my partner, ⁓ we have 15 real estate agents. selling a decent amount of houses and we can run it withfive hours of admin time per month. Because everything’s automated at this point. So, you know, having the small boutique company that has a great website that has all the tags and meta tags and Facebook and Instagram and Tik Tok and all those things, which I’ve had to learn over time because, know, remember I started with, there weren’t even fax machines yet. Okay. I learned to type on a manual typewriter. you have, have you, Erika, have you ever seen a manual typewriter?
Okay, those arms come up, right? But you know, the internet has leveled the playing field. That’s the biggest, it’s what it is.
Erika (08:26)
And John, in your market, what opportunities and challenges are you seeing?John Rummel (08:31)
Well, the opportunity ⁓ I see in two different ways. So we have our customers and we have two sets of customers. Customers are my agents. First off, I have to service them. They have to like me. They have to know that I’m will get back to them, that I have knowledge and I can help them grow their business. And then our other customers are the buyers and sellers out there. So growing each base is is it’s hard. mean, you want to recruit agents over to your company. We want toGrow organically with brand new agents, which we do and we train them. But then you want to recruit agents from other companies who maybe not feel that they’re appreciated where they’re at, bring them to signature and grow from there. And then the other side of it is using social media and signs on the ground and boots and people’s center of influence to grow their buyers. Our agents need to have more buyers and we can help them in that. And they also need to find sellers. I was taught long ago, the lister is king.
If you have that listing, that sign in front of the lawn, you own real estate. So the more signs we can have in the ground for signature real estate for our agents, the better we all are. I mean, I like to call it dual branded. right. Signature is a great brand, but each of my agents is their own brand also. So we combine them. You’re stronger. OK, so that’s what we try to do is help them grow their brand along with signature real estate. And everybody’s successful in the end.
Erika (10:29)
Yeah, yeah, that’s wonderful. when it comes to helping those agents, is there any advice that you could pass on to our listeners, like newer agents? How do you help set them up for success?John Rummel (10:45)
You know, when I talk to people about getting into real estate, I preface it with saying, look, I’m going to tell you some things that, you know, that are going to sound like I’m a Debbie Dowler. OK, but it’s the reality of the business where this is this is my personality. This is this is not for show. This is how I talk. I’m not Italian, but I still use my hands. And it’s important to realize it’s hard to get going in this business. All right.I don’t, I want to set you up for success, but you have to realize if you sold a house after your license in Western New York, it’s about a 16 to $1,800 process to get your license. Okay. Between New York state fees, your classes, the association realtors, the MLS, all of that. And if you sell a house in your second month in the business, so now you’ve been in the business for three months, you still don’t get paid for another two and a half or three months in Western New York.
because the closing time. So you start July 1st, you might get your first paycheck January 1st. That’s the hard part, but that’s the reality of it. So you have to go into it with realistic expectations. And if you do that, you have a much better chance of success versus saying, I’m going to be the best agent ever. I’m going to get in this business. I’m going to be number one. And there’s nobody that’s going to top me. Those people tend to not make it. The people that are realistic.
not pessimistic, realistic, are the ones that do make.
Erika (12:11)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I’m sure as you know, John, forming, you know, those relationships and connections in real estate is so important too, especially when you’re starting off. What kind of advice do you have for people there?John Rummel (12:24)
I love that you brought up the word relationships because it’s not about who has the best website, who has the best tick tock, who has the best Facebook. This is still a relationship business. Perfect example is, you know, the younger Jen. I have an 18 year old son and he is a great speaker because since birth, I’ve made him become one because it’s a lost art almost, which to me, this is what I do. When I started, it was on that phone.We made phone calls, but you have to be able to speak to people. You have to answer your phone when it rings when you don’t know what the number is. You you have to be able to speak to people. When somebody comes into the office, you don’t give them the deer in the headlight look. Everybody’s experienced that when you walk into an office and maybe the reception, somebody looks at you like, what are you doing here? You’re a place for business. So be outgoing, be as much an extrovert as you can, but be able to speak to people. That’s the key thing. It’s about the relationships.
If somebody wants to sell a house and they interview two agents and I go in and I’m this and I talk and we talk about this, that and the other thing and we hit it off and then I show them what I can do for them. And I create that rapport upfront because I bond with them and it’s genuine. And then the other guy comes in or gal, woman and says, here’s what I’m going to do. This is our marketing plan. I’m with XYZ company.
And this is our internet site, even though I showed them that. And this is our Facebook and this I’ve showed them all that. And they don’t build a relationship more than likely. Who’s going to get that listing? Me. Build the relationship. It’s the key.
That’s it. That’s you will get more listings and more buyers if you build that relationship. And so we didn’t even talk about that, Erika, ahead of time. It’s the most important thing is that relationship.
Erika (14:09)
Absolutely.we talked about, you know, newer agents starting off, we talked about networking, but we haven’t really talked about, you know, any tough times yet, which with your experience, I’m sure you have a story or two, you know, was there a time that a deal went sideways?
John Rummel (15:07)
How much time do we have? How much time do we have? OK. So,yeah, the wars of real estate, which which it’s not war. mean, life is challenging enough. But I started November of 89 and I’ll give you I’ll get up to the really the biggest one of all. But I started in November of 89 making phone calls. January of 91 was the first Gulf War. Real estate stopped. Real estate stopped in Western New York, where I was licensed and licensed.
There was over 5,000 real estate agents within a year. There was only 3000. I survived and I was brand new. Then we had a second call for then we had a dot com crash. And then we had a recession. There’s all these things, but the big one six and a half years ago was COVID. We just started signature real estate six months prior. Amazing timing. It was unbelievable. You couldn’t even show houses during the start of COVID. You couldn’t even go to your office.
unless you are essential personnel. And that’s just what it was. mean, my office is on a pretty busy street for those familiar with Western New York. It’s Niagara Falls Boulevard. It’s busy. And I teeteringly said, if I get pulled over, I’m going to say I’m essential personnel because I had to check the mail. OK, I wasn’t. But I went to the office on a busy, busy, busy street. Tens of thousands of cars a day. We may have seen one car drive by every minute. It was unbelievable. So starting a real estate company when we had two or three agents,
I had an admin full time, myself, my partner, rent, utilities, all of that stuff that was going to continue. And that’s what happened during COVID. And you know what? Sat down with my partner. We had a little cry saying, holy crap, what are we going to do? And we met up the next day and we figured it out. So there’s always a way if you look at it instead of burying your hand because head in the sand, that doesn’t work. Okay. We had a little pity party for about
15 minutes and said, let’s meet tomorrow and figure this out. And we did.
Erika (17:01)
That’s awesome. Well, with all that you’ve done, John, what’s next on the horizon here?John Rummel (17:08)
Oh, so excited. I there’s a huge connection between Weston, New York and really Florida, because we we need to get out of this cold. And as you as you start to grow and you start to mature, I’ll call it. You might get a little bit tired of our long winters here, which which they are. I mean, I grew up with it. I’ve always skied. I’ve always enjoyed the outdoors because you might as well embrace it. You can’t fight it because this is what it’s going to be every.December, January, February, March. That’s what it is. So what Signature Real Estate has done myself, my partner, Cheryl Schaefer, we’ve ventured off to the West coast of Florida. We’re licensed from on the Gold Coast of Florida, which just, just like a Tampa. Tampa is really the main part, but it includes Clearwater on the high side and Fort Myers down on the low side. And that’s Pinellas County. So the connection between Western New York.
And Florida, which we can certainly refer you anywhere, but I’d rather be down there to help you find a house or sell your house ⁓ during the winter. go down right now every four weeks. I fly down, which is, which is kind of a luxury. It’s kind of nice. Okay. But it makes me be able to survive. And I said, well, I’m doing this all the time. Might as well get licensed. And it’s, it’s, there’s a lot of inquiries, a lot of questions, you know, Florida residency, all those things. We have an attorney that, that I can refer people to that.
They’re licensed in Western New York and Florida. So they understand the residency requirements. I can give you the basics, but I’m like what people say when they talk about money. I’m not a CPA. I’m not giving you advice. I will refer you to the person that knows the exact rules that six month rule. There’s more to it than just that. So it’s, it’s exciting that that opportunity between Buffalo and
the West Coast of Florida. It’s a two hour and 20 minute flight. It’s same time for me to drive to Syracuse, New York from Buffalo. I can be in Florida. I’d rather no offense to Syracuse. I’m just using it as a trip down the thruway. ⁓ But it’s exciting to be able to get to Florida so fast. ⁓ And once people are down there, there’s so much to do. There’s a ton to do up here if you embrace winter. There’s ton to do in Western New York. But the whole connection.
I can’t wait to grow it even more between Buffalo and the West coast of Florida.
Erika (19:28)
That’s awesome. Well, John, if someone listening today wants to connect, learn more, collaborate, maybe they’re in New York and they want to move down to Florida, get a property down in Florida.John Rummel (19:41)
Or, you know, maybethey’re in Florida, they want to move to Buffalo, right? Don’t laugh. I did it. I lived in Fort Lauderdale and I moved back to Florida after college. It’s kind of worked out pretty well.
Erika (19:44)
Yeah.It sure is. Well, how should they reach you, John?
John Rummel (19:55)
You know what? Easiest way. ⁓ we have a huge social media campaign going on right now. you just go on Facebook or Instagram or Tik TOK Cheryl and John Cheryl’s my partner for some reason. I was voting for the John and Cheryl show, but that didn’t work out. I don’t know. Maybe you would know why Erika. They say the woman’s name first is what works better, but Cheryl and John, if you go Facebook, look us up there. ⁓ Instagram and Cheryl underscore.and underscore John, or if you put in Cheryl and John, it would show up in certainly TikTok, but signature real estate services. you know, the whole, just type it in because there are other signature companies out there. There’s one in California. But so we’re signature real estate services. Got to be specific there, but just go on Facebook and type in Cheryl and John.
Erika (20:44)
Well, John, was great having you on the show today, sharing your story and your expertise.John Rummel (20:51)
All right. It was a great time. Look me up. Love to do it again.Erika (20:54)
Awesome. And for our listeners, if you enjoyed this episode, make sure that you’re subscribed to the Real Estate Pros podcast. We’ve got more conversations lined up with pros like John, who are out there building fantastic real estate businesses. We’ll see you on the next episode.
