Transform Your Real Estate Business: Proven Coaching Tips for Success

John Harcar (00:01.149)
All right. Hey guys, welcome back to the show. I’m your host, John Harcar, and we’re here today with Holly Haws. And what we’re going to be talking about is how agents can, can really grow and better their business by working with investors. Remember guys at Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers. mean, all real estate entrepreneurs, two to five X their business. And we do that by providing the tools and resources to grow the business they want to grow, which helps them live the life they want to live. So Holly, welcome to our show.

Holly Haws (00:30.572)
Thank you. I’m so excited to be here.

John Harcar (00:32.479)
Yeah, I’m super excited to talk about it. mean, as I mentioned before, a conversation I had earlier with another gentleman is, you know, why don’t so many agents have that investor piece in their business? But before we get into all that, jump in the weeds. Why don’t you tell our audience a little bit about you, kind of your background, your journey and and how you got here?

Holly Haws (00:52.344)
Sure. So I graduated from college. I was a high school math teacher for six years and I loved a lot of components of teaching. It fit me really well in a lot of capacities. But we had a year that we got really intentional about paying off our all of our debt. And I worked a ton of extra hours. did summer school, homebound, curriculum development, like all the extra things that teachers do at about twenty dollars an hour to pay off debt.

John Harcar (00:59.365)
wow.

John Harcar (01:22.197)
Mm-hmm.

Holly Haws (01:22.514)
And so I went back the last fall that I taught school, I went back super burnout and we had purchased a home the year prior. I loved the experience and I kind of just ran the math and I could teach and sell four houses a year as a real estate agent and not do any of the extra stuff that I had been doing at $20 an hour. And I kind of just looked at myself and I said, I don’t know, but surely I can sell four houses a year. So, I got licensed in October between October and the following May when I

actually ended my teaching contract. I sold 16 homes and it was kind of a no brainer that I really did like teaching, but I was kind of cut out for real estate. So I was a licensed agent for almost a decade, sold almost exactly a thousand homes in that timeframe and always kept a really small team. My last three years were our best three years and it was me and my husband and two licensed admin. And we sold anywhere between 135 and 155 homes.

really with an investor focus. You can do that when you get super specific about the audience that you’re serving. And I’m super grateful for the investors that came important to me early on in my career and helped turn me into the agent that I became, but also turned me into the investor that I became. And about three years ago, we had the opportunity to, for me to sell the, sell the team, sell the book of business and just move full-time into the coaching space. And that

kind of is just the culmination, the bringing back of both worlds. I did like a lot of components of teaching and so now, but being back into the teaching and coaching space, but doing it with, you the real estate conversation, which is amazing, and also doing it with adults who actually care about what I have to say versus kids who don’t want to be an algebra class. It’s kind of the best of all the worlds.

John Harcar (03:11.009)
There you go. And I like to ask this question to folks who make that transition from another type of career into real estate. I know you mentioned about your house, but did you have any family influence, any influence growing up or assimilation or exposure to real estate? Or is it just from that first house experience?

Holly Haws (03:29.036)
Not at all. I mean, so honestly, my family was always renters. They became homeowners after I became a successful real estate agent. And I had no experience in the business world, no experience with any of it whatsoever. I like to say my very first year sitting at all of the teacher meetings and hearing them complain about how much they made, like,

I could not relate because as a first year teacher, I was making more than anyone in my family had ever made, like ever. I thought I’d arrived.

John Harcar (04:02.049)
Right, right. So explain a little bit. Tell us a bit more about this that you’re experiencing your first house and what kind of said, hey man, maybe I should turn this into a career or turn this into something part time.

Holly Haws (04:14.4)
Yeah, so I have it. I’ve had I had had experience with selling and I think that’s probably important. I had the opportunity and went on six different trips between sixth grade and 12th grade, all paid for by door to door sales, selling t shirts or candy bars or calendars or whatever the item of the week was. Not quite, but yeah, pretty much. And so even my junior year in high school, we went to Scotland and by that point I was.

John Harcar (04:30.347)
Mm-hmm. Girl Scout cookies.

Holly Haws (04:43.118)
pretty seasoned in sales. And so I just said, okay, the trip cost 1200 bucks and I broke it down to how many calendars I needed to go sell. And I sold them within the first two weekends. And then I got to spend the rest of the school year helping my classmates raise their $1200 because they struggled with it. So I had a background in sales and that gave me, I think the confidence of like, if I can sell hundreds of calendars and t-shirts door to door, surely I can sell four houses.

But getting in and really testing the waters, it just clicked and it was that thing I got to go do after work. It was that thing that you would choose to do that was free and it didn’t feel like work for a long time.

John Harcar (05:24.607)
What do you think are some of the most important skills that carried over into your real estate?

Holly Haws (05:29.676)
Being willing to talk to people. Literally my very first training that I got to attend as a licensed agent. I was teaching and so most of them I couldn’t go to because they happen during the day, but the very first one that was a Wednesday night class I showed up and the teacher handed us a for sale by owner conversation and he said if you don’t have a local sphere. Call it for sale by owner. They’ll probably answer the phone.

And that was my first 12 pieces of business, cause I didn’t know any better. And it turns out that it works. If you’re willing to talk to people, if you’re willing to figure out what they need and then how you can help meet that need, they’re super happy to use you.

John Harcar (06:08.225)
So you’re doing this teaching part tar, you’re teaching and then you’re doing the real estate. At what point did you kind of hit that level and say, okay, goodbye teaching, here’s real estate.

Holly Haws (06:21.826)
I submitted my letter of resignation in January. So I got licensed in October, submitted my letter of resignation in January. The principal handed it back and said, I don’t need it until the middle of April. And I said, no, keep it. I’m done. And then I had to keep teaching and finish out my contract till the end of May.

John Harcar (06:27.265)
awesome

John Harcar (06:38.933)
Okay. Did you have any challenges or any struggles, whether personally or professionally, as far as making that transition into, you know, going full time, leaving the teaching behind?

Holly Haws (06:48.822)
So for me, I was blessed with the willingness to lead generate, which I think that is where agents and investors alike struggle by and large, but I was willing to lead generate. And so I would say the challenge for me was leverage.

John Harcar (07:01.217)
Mm-hmm. Ugh, I can’t.

Holly Haws (07:09.026)
So I would say the challenge for me was leverage. I got to a point where I was still a full-time teacher and I had more business than I could service by myself because I was a full-time teacher. And so I actually had to bring in help much sooner than a lot of agents would have to bring in help.

John Harcar (07:26.657)
Okay, and then at what point did you start working on the investor type of side, right? Did bring in maybe some of that business or maybe those type of influences, referrals, et cetera?

Holly Haws (07:36.686)
Yeah, so I, my first few transactions were investors. The first listing that I sold, and this was a decade ago and it was Wichita, Kansas. And I feel like I have to set that, like set realistic expectations. We don’t need a shock factor. It wasn’t the first listing I signed, but the first one that closed was a really junky house and not a good neighborhood. And it sold for 24,000 and change.

John Harcar (07:50.894)
Hehehehehe

Holly Haws (08:06.902)
right before Thanksgiving. I, it was a for sale by owner conversation. He’d agreed to meet me out at the property and we walked, I walked around through the property. It was November. It didn’t have any heat and it was just gross. And so we actually took the, took the listing paperwork back to his truck and we signed all the paperwork in his truck because neither of us wanted to sit, stand in that kitchen to sign listing paperwork. But.

John Harcar (08:33.931)
That bad, huh?

Holly Haws (08:35.406)
It was not good. It was not good, but I, I looked him in the eye and I shook his hand and I said, I’m going to get this one sold for you, John. And then you’re going to hand me another one. And he, he agreed and he was 12 pieces of business over my first three years. And then, I got to help him and his wife with a couple other major life changes down the road as well. so I, I. It was pretty quick that I started to figure out investor transactions are non-emotional, either the numbers work or the numbers don’t work. And.

While most investors aren’t necessarily actively looking to liquidate their portfolio, almost everyone would sell anything in their portfolio for the right price. so just finding that way to remove emotion from the transactions meshed so well with me. And then it was about, it was right after the end of my first year in real estate was when I took the leap and bought the first investment property myself.

John Harcar (09:14.155)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (09:30.781)
Awesome. Okay. So you started working with this, this client, this first guy was an investor. so is that what kind of pushed you to pursue the investor side and working with more investors because they had these portfolios?

Holly Haws (09:43.776)
Yeah. So I, I looked up and I had done several investor transactions, all cheap crummy properties, right? They weren’t selling any of the good ones, but I looked up and I had sold several of them and they were my easiest transactions. And I had a real estate coach in my ear who was doing the best he could at the time. And he kept saying, you got to work on raising your average price point. You got to raise your average price point. That’s the only way you’re to make real money. But I was.

sitting here on the other side saying, actually, but I love the investor transactions and I’m learning so much. Like these guys, every time they give me 15 minutes, I feel like I just, my mind expands, right? I’m learning something that’s gonna be beneficial. And so I did, I wrestled with that for a while and I finally came to terms. I finally was able to vocalize it for him, my coach. I don’t need to raise my average sales price. I just need to, in order to raise my dollar per hour.

I just need to decrease the amount of time required for each investor transaction. So, and that’s where my love for systems and processes was born. If I can take an investment transaction and I can plug an investor or an investment property in, and I can service that deal at a really high level in a fifth of the time as another agent could service a different transaction, then it’s okay if my average price point’s lower.

John Harcar (11:06.133)
Right. Why is it important to have investors in your tool belt?

Holly Haws (11:11.31)
Investors are buyers and sellers in every single market. And so I think this time in history is a really good example of if you’re not working with investors as an agent, you don’t have that steady book of business that those of us who are investor focused have. And you may be wondering when are you going to get to go out and get a J-O-B versus investors are always around and they’re always ready to buy or sell at the right opportunity.

John Harcar (11:39.883)
always hungry for deals. Why do you think so many realtor, and I want to ask this question because I got an answer from somebody else, but why do you think so many realtors don’t pursue that or add that into their repertoire?

Holly Haws (11:51.34)
I mean, investors is kind of an agent’s version of a four letter word and there’s several of them, right? I mean, let’s be honest. It’s not sold as a glamorous, it’s not sold as anything that you would want to do. even though I clearly had a skillset and had clearly stumbled upon something, the people that really had my best interest at heart, they were steering me away from that because that’s how much

John Harcar (11:57.505)
Yeah, for sure!

Holly Haws (12:20.856)
just our industry as a whole, how little our industry as a whole thinks of investors. And it’s a shame. It really is a shame.

John Harcar (12:26.401)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (12:29.825)
Do you think that it’s maybe they’re afraid of losing business? You think that’s kind of like the whole stigma behind it? Like, hey, these guys are just trying to take my business. And secondarily, do you think by not working with investors that they’re doing a disservice to their clients?

Holly Haws (12:47.256)
Okay, so two things that I probably won’t remember both of them, but I don’t think every agent is cut out to work with investors. I don’t think that every single agent should be pursuing working with investors division because it’s a whole different skill set. And I think that the agents that work with investors at a high level agree to…

invest in the education and the time on task to actually think like an investor. And let’s be honest, most agents are not going to be willing to do that. Why do I think most agents don’t do it is because of the, think just like any industry, the worst of the worst of the investors tend to kind of ruin it for everybody. Right. And so the perception is investors, right? Lowball offers investors.

John Harcar (13:35.264)
Right.

Holly Haws (13:41.23)
um, our tire kickers and they may or may not actually perform, but only if it’s 60 cents on the dollar. like, I think all of the stigma around investors, if you, if you don’t get in enough to see that that doesn’t have to be a reality, it’s about how do you, how are you pre-qualifying your investors that you choose to work with? Then I absolutely can see why it feels like a very non-appealing and real estate agents are very much taught and conditioned that you should be raising your average sales price. So.

If last year your average property sold at $300,000 and this year your average property doesn’t sell at $350,000, then you’re going backwards and not forwards. And those misconceptions very much contribute to most agents leaving money on the table, leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table.

John Harcar (14:25.995)
Yeah, but do you think it does a disservice to their clients that they’re working with to not have those resources? Because we know that not necessarily every deal is going to be the best fit for the MLS.

Holly Haws (14:32.621)
I

Holly Haws (14:38.926)
True. I think the biggest disservice and maybe this is it’s okay if we disagree on this, but I think the biggest disservice is if they’re not qualified to speak, then how many of their clients that they’re working with should be owning investment properties themselves and working towards their own version of financial freedom, but they’re not hearing that from their agent because their agent isn’t qualified to speak to that.

John Harcar (15:02.891)
So when you’re helping agents add this in, add the investor division or whatever, how are you helping them overcome that stigma of what people think of investors?

Holly Haws (15:13.238)
Yeah, it really is how quickly can you begin to think of yourself as an investor? I think that that comes first. And there’s the knowledge, like kind of the intangibles that have to be in place. But then also like, I need to get agents to a point that they’re willing to write an offer on property that they could potentially buy themselves. And I could care less.

If there’s any likelihood of it being accepted or not, like just go out and write the first offer. I found once, once an agent gets over that hurdle, if they get to where they’re at, they can actually see themselves as an investor. They understand what their buy boxes, what they might be willing to purchase themselves. Then, the concept of you selling an extra hundred houses a year, working 10 hours a week, with a massive investor system is a lot easier to grasp or imagine.

John Harcar (16:09.045)
Right. So how are you helping these agents? I know you got a coaching program, right? And I know you’re helping people add these investor things. How are you helping them to get into that or add that piece into their puzzle? How are they finding investors? How are you helping them do all that?

Holly Haws (16:22.51)
Perfect, yeah. So first, it’s getting, I would say for most people, the start is you have to start with an investment quality listing and you market the heck out of the investment quality listing. If we want to chuck it all the way down into the most basic actionable step, so you understand how to think like an investor, you have a basic understanding of how to run numbers, of how to look and find the information you would need, and then you go find an investment quality listing, and I don’t really care.

I don’t really care what it looks like and market the heck out of it. When I was first getting started, there were several weekends that I would take a $70,000 property and I would hold it open on Saturdays and Sundays. And I cannot tell you the number of people that told me I was out of my brain, like totally wasting my time. But so many of those properties I double ended because the investor walked in, they were never going to call this.

the agent on the sign, but I was there that it was open. They pulled over, they walked in, they loved it. And then come to find out they had more needs. They needed to sell a couple other properties that were a headache or they were buying one or two properties a quarter. So I would say that’s the first thing is get a listing. That’s an investor quality listing, market the heck out of it. Actually answer the sign calls, actually work on building a relationship with the investors. Really early on, if you’re working with investor buyers,

you’re going to come up against the fact that they don’t want to sign exclusive agency agreements. And while you need to check with your broker and every state is specific, I have found that almost every broker is okay with some type of verbiage around agency agreements being exclusive to properties where you can prove procuring cause. And I got to a point really early on in my career that I was comfortable with. I don’t care if you buy every single property with me or not, but the properties that

I present to you and I say, John, you should buy one, two, three Main Street because it matches your criteria. That property, if you buy it, I want you to work with me. That unlocks the door. Now, investor has a problem agreeing to work with you. They just don’t want to be exclusive to you.

John Harcar (18:32.768)
Sure. just for folks that maybe, or maybe you some realtors on here or maybe, what would you define as an investor quality listing?

Holly Haws (18:44.93)
I mean, that varies. Typically, it would be a property in the lower half of the price point of the market. And ideally, you’re looking for a property that it looks like the rent rates would come close to paying for all of the property’s expenses. That gets a little bit more complicated. So I would say, at a bare minimum, you’re looking for a property in the bottom half of the market.

John Harcar (19:12.993)
Okay. And what do you think have been some of the keys to your success as far as working with investors and growing that part of your business?

Holly Haws (19:21.934)
willingness to listen and learn. When I was first getting started, my first few investors, it took me about 20 properties a piece to find something that we actually got put under contract. And on the one hand, I don’t know why they kept showing up for the next round of showings, except I do. Like I listened, I took their feedback and then I improved and the next round of showings were better than the last round were. I was more in line.

what they were willing to buy. And I learned how to look at the pictures on the MLS better. And I think it’s just that simple. As you’re growing an investor division, you’re not the smartest person in the room, would an investor want you to be the smartest person in the room. Investors have big egos. And so I think it’s important to where you can say, can you just…

vocalize everything you’re saying as we’re walking through this property vocalize everything you’re seeing about the property what you like what you don’t like Pretend like I don’t know anything and I said that to my first few investors. I didn’t say hey, it’s my second week on the job I actually don’t know anything. I said pretend like I don’t know anything. Yeah, tell me what you’re seeing And then I did the exact same thing once I could see the property the way that an investor could Then I changed the question and I said now can as we’re going through and we’re looking at everything

John Harcar (20:29.992)
Mm-hmm.

Holly Haws (20:42.37)
Can you tell me how much you think all these repairs are going to cost? And again, it probably took me 20 or 30 different properties and hearing three or four different investors tell me that’s how much a bathroom gut is. That’s how much new countertops cost. That’s well now, now I really do think like an investor. Like now they basically have just spent however long, three months creating their own little AI deal finder. and I came invaluable very quickly.

John Harcar (21:08.513)
You

Yeah, I mean, that is some incredible information, right? If you can learn it from the person who’s basically your buyer in a sense, right? You can learn all those things without having to YouTube you or, you know, how do you do? You got the best way to educate. So let’s talk about your coaching program. How do you help these folks? Like what’s what specific steps to use? Is it in-person coaching? Is it video coaching? How do you how do you run your coaching business?

Holly Haws (21:34.85)
It’s all live, it’s all virtual. So most people when they’re in that newer phase, the start is a 12 hour workshop. And so it’s virtual, I spread it out, it’s three, four hour sessions, and we’re digging into everything from you deciding what your version of financial freedom looks like to you, because again, I want every agent to be an investor themselves and be working towards their own financial freedom.

It’s how do I analyze investment properties, short term, midterm, long term, flips? How can I help my investors by doing some of the heavy lifting of the analyzation or how do I at least understand how to speak the language they are with analyzation? What are we looking for when we’re first viewing a property? What are we, once we’ve decided to write an offer, what are the components that have to go into an offer to protect our investors at the highest level?

what’s reasonable in today’s era, what’s not reasonable during due diligence, what are all the boxes that need to get checked? And then also a big component of being able to work with a large number of investor transactions is can you handle the work required from repairs until it’s time to hand the property off to a management company? If you can make that seamless and something that an out of state investor

could put their confidence and trust in your team. And you can carry a property all the way until it’s time to hand off to a management company. And you have the vendor relationships in place, like you even can help them hand select the management company. You can charge whatever you want. I hate to say it, but you just can. Because again, investment transactions are not emotional. Either the numbers work or they don’t work.

John Harcar (23:21.377)
Yeah, yeah, you’re in the service you provide is invaluable and especially out of state investors. I mean to be able to walk through all of that. That’s that’s just genius.

Holly Haws (23:26.072)
That’s correct.

Holly Haws (23:31.064)
Well, I mean, and I would say it’s out of state investors and high income earners, like lots of doctors and attorneys and that sort of thing, which those are exactly the people you want. The people that are going to buy one or two transactions every single quarter for the rest of their lives. Sign me up for that.

John Harcar (23:44.313)
Mm-hmm. Sure. If someone wanted to get into the business right now, if they’re realtor, they want to start working with investors, what kind of advice or what steps should they take?

Holly Haws (23:57.355)
Same thing I said right at the beginning, if you can’t get ahold of an investment quality listing yourself, then go find someone in your brokerage or market center that has one and get their permission to just market the heck out of it.

John Harcar (24:12.513)
Awesome, man, such good information. Any last things you want to share with our audience?

Holly Haws (24:20.244)
I just that my heart that if you’re if you’re not a current investor, you need to set a goal and a deadline for yourself that you’re going to buy a piece of property hopefully before the end of the year.

John Harcar (24:30.197)
Awesome. Take action. Holly, great information. You guys, hope that folks out there, you’re a realtor or your agent, look into working with investors. Reach out to Holly. How do they find out, or how do they get a hold of you? How do they get in touch with your coaching program, et cetera?

Holly Haws (24:32.238)
That’s right.

Holly Haws (24:48.022)
Yeah. So if I don’t know if we’re able to link it into the show notes, but I’ve got a, I’ve got a free guide on how to find off market properties that I think would be really valuable, not just for the agents in the, in the room, but any investor. and so click the link in the show notes and, I’d love to get you connected that way, or you can email me directly coach at hollyhoz.com. And I’m happy to respond.

John Harcar (25:12.743)
Awesome. Yeah, well, we will put everything in the show notes. Guys, I hope you enjoyed the show today. I know I did. You there’s a lot of value for you agents to work with investors and really generate more business. Holly, thank you again for coming on the show and spending some time with us. And guys, we’ll see you on the next show. Cheers.

Holly Haws (25:25.186)
Thank you so much.