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Show Summary
In this episode of the Investor Fuel podcast, host Michelle Kesil speaks with John Taylor, a seasoned real estate broker with over 30 years of experience. John shares insights into his journey in the real estate industry, the current market dynamics, and the challenges faced by agents and buyers alike. He emphasizes the importance of maintaining a positive attitude, educating clients, and building strong relationships. John also offers valuable advice for new investors and discusses his future goals in the real estate space.
Resources and Links from this show:
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- Investor Fuel Real Estate Mastermind
- Investor Machine Real Estate Lead Generation
- Mike on Facebook
- Mike on Instagram
- Mike on LinkedIn
- John Taylor’s Phone Number:(971) 409-7962
Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode
Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
John Taylor (00:00)
Follow up with every lead until they buy, die or file a restraining orderfollow up’s key, but if you’re new and you’re looking for money, network. If you’re looking for ⁓ opportunities, network.
Most people give up
the first six months in their career
never give up
these things take time
things build up to where there’s more consistency.
Michelle Kesil (01:52)
Hey everybody, welcome to the Investor Fuel podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil. Today I’m joined by someone I’ve been looking forward to chatting with,John Taylor, who’s been making serious moves in the real estate brokerage and investing space. So really excited to have you here on the show today, John.
John Taylor (02:15)
Thanks for having me and I’m excited to be here as well. Thank you.Michelle Kesil (02:19)
Awesome, yeah, I think our listeners are really going to take something away from how you’re approaching your business and yeah, just all of your expertise in the industry that you have. So let’s dive in.John Taylor (02:35)
do it.Michelle Kesil (02:37)
Awesome. So just first off for people who may not be familiar with you and your world, can you give the short version of what your main focus is?John Taylor (02:48)
Yeah, so I’ve been a real estate broker since 1992, helping buyers and sellers.sell homes. You know as a broker I also had my own brokerage for a number of years from about early 2000s till about 2018. I had a pretty good size boutique brokerage here in Portland Oregon. You know about 50 agents kind of at our peak and I sold that company in 2018 just to
kind of step away from the management of a larger team and just to pair back a little bit and kind of work with past clients and work on, you know, I doing some flips and some different things, so just kind of to pair back from that. I sold my company in 2018 and now just have my license at that company and have a very small team now, just going at a little more reasonable pace, working with a lot of past clients and doing.
kind of things and so and as far as focus I you know pass clients ⁓ investment properties and I work with a handful of investors helping them as well and I work with a lot of builders and developers so I’ve ⁓ done a fair amount of ⁓ development land as well as helping them sell the final finished homes as well so a little bit of everything
Michelle Kesil (04:18)
Amazing. Yes,love that. So are you only operating in the Portland market or what markets are you operating in?
John Taylor (04:22)
Yeah.Yeah, Portland and Southwest Washington, which is Vancouver and that area right across the river. We’ve done some investment stuff over there.
Michelle Kesil (04:33)
Awesome.Great. Yeah, so what has been like the key to keeping this business running smoothly?
John Taylor (04:50)
boy, what’s been the key? I don’t know that it’s always running smoothly. It’s real estate, right? And so there’s a lot of ⁓ ups and downs. And I think the key for me is just,Michelle Kesil (04:55)
Right.John Taylor (05:48)
you know, keeping, trying to keep that positive attitude every day and keep things kind of even keel, even when things are blowing up, because there’s a lot of fires that we have to put out every day and we’re dealing with a lot of different people. So being able to just kind of…keep on that even even line you know and not having too big of highs too big of lows or getting too upset over you know things that happen because they almost always work out the way they’re supposed to and so that’s one of the the biggest keys to me and then just consistency and hard work and so yeah those will be the key things for me.
Michelle Kesil (06:32)
Yeah, absolutely. So what are some of like the biggest challenges that you see in your brokerage or working with clients?John Taylor (06:46)
Yeah, I think the biggest challenges right now are just ⁓ interest rates and people just.there’s not a lot of urgency in the market and so buyers are very picky and you know they’re out there where there’s a lot of pent-up demand which is exciting for when rates go down and things kind of loosen up but right now buyers are very picky and they’re sitting on the sidelines unless the perfect house comes out and so if the perfect home pops up then they’ll come out and we’ll get some activity on a listing or you know
⁓ But, ⁓ you know, it has to be perfect for some for the buyers to get off the fence right now. ⁓ And, you know, any one little thing goes wrong during inspection, buyers seem to be pretty jumpy. We’ve I’m seeing a lot of homes coming back on the market more than I’ve ever seen in my 33 years.
And so that’s kind of an interesting dynamic. And then you have sellers that are sitting on the sidelines as well. So we have this interesting market where we still have low inventory, but we also, know, so prices are holding somewhat steady, but buyers are still kind of taking their time, even though there’s low inventory, there’s not a lot of sales going on. the overall sales have been slower. And so that’s that’s interesting. And buyers are, excuse me,
sellers are just sitting on their hands because most of the homeowners right now are sitting on an interest rate of 4 % or lower. And so it’s like, why would I move and go into a 6.5 % or 7 % interest rate? And so that’s kind of holding this inventory low. sellers, unless they absolutely have to sell or not selling and…
you know even if they try there you know if they don’t get their price we’re seeing a lot a lot more sellers than ever just pulling their house off the market if it doesn’t sell so there’s you know they don’t if it doesn’t sell no problem pull it off the market and we’ll try it again later and so we’re seeing a lot of that so the urgency just isn’t there right now
Michelle Kesil (09:00)
Yeah, that’s an interesting dynamic to be in. of like, what do you feel is something that maybe agents or brokers or investors can do in order to, yeah, like work with this interesting time period that we’re in with the market.John Taylor (09:21)
Yeah, I think we just gotta keep putting one foot in front of the other, you know, as always in any business, especially during challenging times. I think educating ⁓ clients, know, educating buyers that waiting isn’t going to help. Because, you know, if rates go down, prices are gonna go up. And so they’re not gonna, if they’re qualified and ready to go, I would say…You know, now is the time to buy. Homes are always going to appreciate over time. You know, there might be little dips here and there and some anomalies, but over time homes historically have always appreciated. And so,
know, I think just as brokers.
educating clients that now is the time. If they’re qualified to buy, buy. If you have to sell, then obviously get your home on the market and there are buyers out there. Educating clients, I think, is probably the biggest thing right now and a challenge for sure.
Michelle Kesil (11:04)
Yeah, absolutely. So let me ask you this, what are you most focused on solving or scaling next?John Taylor (11:15)
Yeah, right now I’m just kind of rebuilding my team and you know, I’ve paired way back and now I’m kind of building back up. you ⁓ know, just kind of trying to.revamp all of my marketing and making sure that the, you know, number one, the marketing for the clients that I have. And so I do have a number of clients that are past clients or builders or investors or some of my own properties and making sure all of that is marketed properly. And then kind of ramping up things from there to for the generation to add more deals to the pipeline.
Michelle Kesil (11:51)
Yeah, amazing. Love that.John Taylor (11:52)
That’s kind of what we’re,that’s what we’re working on right now. Just getting those systems, you know, 100 % dialed in and like I mentioned before, just always trying to improve things. So making those systems better, making the communication better, making the marketing better and ultimately a better experience for every client that I work with.
Michelle Kesil (12:13)
Yeah, absolutely, that is important. So every operator I know has a moment or many moments in their business where things are more real, maybe a deal goes sideways, or you have to make a fast pivot. Would you mind sharing one of those moments that you’ve experienced and how you overcame it?John Taylor (12:38)
A fast pivot, ⁓ boy. Yeah, mean, there’s always, every day there’s something new. That’s kind of the exciting part about this business and challenging and stressful. ⁓you know, I don’t know that this was a pivot, but just had to kind of deal with it. I just had a client that, you know, very last minute that decided it wasn’t the right property for her, which was great. I, you know, I was representing her as a buyer’s agent. I wanted her to make sure she was comfortable with the property and, know, at the last minute she just wasn’t. And so, you know, she called and said, you know, I know I’m probably going to lose my earnest money, but I just, this just doesn’t feel right. And that was the day of closing. So that’s always a,
a challenge and a disappointment and trying to work through that and so.
You know, I just had to assure her that she was worried I was going to be mad. I’m never mad. These things just happen. Ultimately, I was happy because I would not want, you know, I would not want her to be unhappy. Had she bought the property and you know, after talking through it with her, just, you know, and she just gave me all the reasons why she just didn’t feel comfortable. And so ultimately, I guess the pivot was after talking through it with her and understanding where
she was coming from, I felt really good about it. Even though it’s always disappointing when a deal falls through, but.
Michelle Kesil (14:07)
Yeah.John Taylor (14:09)
because of that and she’ll be a lifelong client and she’s a friend and so we want her to be happy ultimately. so that the pivot was it turned, you know, went from disappointment to, yeah, I’m actually happy that this didn’t go through for her. I felt really bad for the listing agent and the sellers. ⁓ But they got their earnest money and I believe they had a backup offer. So I’m pretty confident it will resell even though it’s super disappointing for everybody when those thingshappen.
Michelle Kesil (14:41)
Yeah, absolutely. And it just shows. Right? Right.John Taylor (14:43)
Yeah, I mean, ultimately it’s not about me, right? It’s about the client. And so that was kind ofthe lesson in that for sure.
Michelle Kesil (14:51)
Yeah, yeah, the client is the one that is making the decision in the end and yeah, relationships are above all.John Taylor (15:42)
Yeah, I mean that’s how I’ve built my business and I’ve been at it for 33 years. I plan on being in it for another 33 years, God willing, and it’s 100 % about relationships.Michelle Kesil (15:56)
Yeah, so when it comes to growing your relationships and building your network, what do you feel has made the biggest difference for you?John Taylor (16:09)
Building the network, yeah, think it’s just consistently prospecting, I guess, when you’re new, right, you’re prospecting for new clients.letting everybody know your sphere, which is small when you start, and letting everybody know that you’re in the business and just doing those things of open houses and making the calls and you know, the agent that makes the most or has the most conversation is the one that wins and does the most deals and so it’s just a consistent prospecting every day and building that and now you know, I’ve been lucky enough to be in this business for so long.
that I have a ton of past clients and my sphere of influence is much larger of course than when I started and so staying in touch with all of those ⁓ people ⁓ you know via my database and you know everybody goes on to a newsletter they get a newsletter whether they read it or not most people probably don’t read newsletters but some do and either way they get that so I stay in touch I try to stay in touch with phone calls and ⁓
face-to-face visits when I can and those kind of things. So just nurturing those relationships and staying in touch with people and I think makes all the difference.
Michelle Kesil (17:35)
Yeah, definitely that’s important to nurture those people and to continue to connect with them. Relationships are everything in this space. Awesome.John Taylor (17:44)
Absolutely. Yeah.Michelle Kesil (17:48)
So there’s a lot of investors maybe earlier on in their journey or looking to level up that are listening to this and are there any sort of maybe common strategies that you have seen throughout your experience that you think could be helpful to share with them?John Taylor (18:11)
for investors, new investors, would just say network like crazy. Just network with all the other investors that are out there, all the wholesalers, depending on what your challenge is, is getting inventory. So if you’re looking for it to buy something, then network, obviously you’re…Michelle Kesil (18:13)
Yeah.John Taylor (18:32)
doing all your prospecting stuff with mailers and whatever your marketing is and follow up to me, think follow up’s the key. So if you have those leads, my motto isup with every lead until they buy, die or file a restraining order, right? so it’s a follow up’s key, but if you’re new and you’re looking for money, network. If you’re looking for ⁓ opportunities, network. And so I think it’s just that consistent daily networking and prospecting.
and marketing and follow-up. And so if you’re doing those things consistently and you know, and never give up. Most people give up after you know, after if they’re not getting wins for you know, the first six months in their career ~ you know, it’s tough because you know, you don’t have any money in your pocket right until they give up and then you know, that deal was probably going to hit them at the seventh month.
and they give up on the six months. so I’d ~ never give up and these things take time ~ over time, you know, things build up to where there’s more consistency, but it can be challenging to start out for sure.
Michelle Kesil (19:42)
Yeah, that’s good advice. Absolutely. So what is like the big goal that you have when it comes to your personal business?John Taylor (19:55)
Yeah, my personal business is to continue serving all my past clients and the builders and investors that I work with. I’ll continue doing some investment properties here and there for myself, but my focus over this next ⁓ year is really just helping ⁓ my clients, ⁓ whether they’re going to buy or sell and…So that’ll be my focus over this next couple of years. So if there are any investors out there that are looking, that are listening right now, that are in the Portland, Southwest Washington area, I’d love to help you out. so that’ll be my focus. And I have a couple of great opportunities right now that I’m looking at.
Michelle Kesil (20:29)
Yeah, I love that.Amazing. ⁓
Yeah, amazing. how is the market in that area, like for people that are maybe not familiar with investing in that zone?
John Taylor (21:00)
Yeah, I think theslow right now, so if you’re going to buy an investment property, absolutely do your due diligence and make sure you’re getting a good buy on it. ⁓
I think there’s some opportunities out there right now just because people are, the people that do have to sell might be struggling to get their home sold so you can jump in and offer some creative financing or just some creative ways to ⁓ help them sell their home and create some win-win situations. ⁓
Overall, the market’s on the slow side, for sure. Homes are taking longer to sell, and there’s pockets, and there’s certain homes that are gonna sell faster than others. I’ve had some that sell the first day, and I’ve had some that are sitting for 60 to 70 days or more in some cases, and some sellers that just, they weren’t selling, so they took it off the market. And so there’s a little bit of everything, but there is activity, and there’s deals to be had. It’s just, we gotta work a little bit harder and be a little more patient.
Michelle Kesil (22:03)
Yeah, absolutely, that makes sense. So, before we wrap up here, if someone wants to reach out, connect with you, collaborate, learn more, where is the best place that people can reach you?John Taylor (22:18)
Yeah, absolutely.the absolute best would be to text me at 971-409-7962. Text is always going to be best. I’ll respond right away. I get bombarded with robo dials and sales calls and so I don’t…
pick up typically unless I know exactly who it is. you know, text and then if we want to have a phone conversation, just text me and let me know that you want to talk and who you are and we will and I’ll call you back for sure.
Michelle Kesil (22:56)
Well, listen, appreciate your time, your story, and perspective, so thank you again for being here.John Taylor (22:58)
Yeah.Thanks for having me, I appreciate it and I hope you have a great day.
Michelle Kesil (23:10)
and for those of you that are tuning into the show if you got value from this episode Make sure that you’ve subscribed we have more conversations coming with operators Just like John who are building real businesses, and we’ll see you all on our next episode -
