Transform Your Sales Skills: 8 Proven Techniques for Real Estate Success

John Harcar (00:01.124)
All right, hey guys, welcome back to our show. I’m your host, John Harcar, and I’m here today with Kristin Ryan. And what we’re going to talk about is pivoting with the market, right? Really be able to shift focus if need be. Remember, guys, at Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers, I mean all real estate entrepreneurs, 2 to 5X their business by providing tools and resources to build the business you want to build and then live that life you want to live. Kristin, welcome to our show.

Kristin Ryan (00:30.38)
Thank you so much for having me. Pleasure to be

John Harcar (00:32.5)
Yeah, I’m glad you’re able to join us here. And I’m excited to talk about pivoting with the market. As we know, we’ve had a rough market last couple of years, maybe. But before we get into the weeds and talk about all that, why don’t you tell our audience a little bit more about you? What got you into real estate? And what got you here?

Kristin Ryan (00:53.048)
Sure. So I started my company in 2020, right? As COVID was shutting everything down. I have been in sales and service my entire life. I was with a company. Wasn’t too happy with my circumstances. And I knew I always wanted to get into real estate. My grandfather and my father.

John Harcar (01:01.476)
you

Kristin Ryan (01:22.99)
both small business owners, entrepreneurs, and had owned a little bit of real estate. So I happened to see something on social media for a free seminar on real estate. I was interested in house hacking. We have lots of two flats and three flats here in Chicago. I was interested in purchasing a building, living in one unit and renting out the others.

John Harcar (01:30.324)
okay.

John Harcar (01:43.513)
Hmm.

Kristin Ryan (01:51.694)
I went to this seminar and it, you know, the seed was planted. I wanted to find out more. So I signed up, this was with Fortune Builders and I signed up for the three day. I went to that and I just knew it was for me. My service and sales background translated really well into it. Flipping was going to be my main area focus. Just the design and it just.

John Harcar (02:02.882)
Okay.

Kristin Ryan (02:21.032)
making things pretty, it really appealed to me. So I signed up for it and right as I had my initial weekend training, everything shut down the COVID. So there was a little bit of fear as to what I had, you know, what, it was so uncertain at that time, what was going to happen. So I dove into the curriculum.

John Harcar (02:23.768)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (02:33.22)
Mmm.

John Harcar (02:42.092)
Right?

Kristin Ryan (02:47.534)
And that was in March. And then by May, I had my first property under contract, had closed on it in June and had it rehabbed by October and sold it by December. Yeah, yeah, it was, it was definitely a learning experience considering, you know, nobody was going out. There were some very big supply chain issues. So I definitely got a lot of knowledge experience and, and, and learned.

John Harcar (02:58.712)
Wow, fantastic.

John Harcar (03:11.076)
Mm-hmm.

Kristin Ryan (03:17.282)
how to be flexible and, you know, take the licks as we do.

John Harcar (03:23.83)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You mentioned that you said your father and your grandfather were entrepreneurs. They were into real estate. What did you see with what they were doing or whatever it might be that kind of planted that little real estate seed?

Kristin Ryan (03:39.502)
A couple of things. they it was I could see that they were building wealth. Basically, was it’s basically you have tenants who are, you know, paying rent and paying down your mortgage and you know, it’s it’s asset appreciation that time. And I’ve learned a lot, obviously, but, know, everything that goes along with that, tax depreciation and, you know, it’s

John Harcar (03:57.934)
Mm-hmm.

Kristin Ryan (04:08.238)
Real estate is just the vehicle for building wealth. It’s not about getting rich. It’s about building wealth.

John Harcar (04:10.819)
Right.

John Harcar (04:15.808)
Now when you went to this fortune, fortune builders, were you currently working with a company where you employed in a W-2 job or something like that or?

Kristin Ryan (04:24.494)
That was a sales job that I had and I was also an investor in that company and I exited that company. So I left as an employee. I was a territory sales manager. I left as an employee and as an investor as well.

John Harcar (04:33.508)
Okay, all right.

John Harcar (04:39.095)
Okay.

John Harcar (04:45.198)
Do you feel that having that sales background and a lot of that really helped you make the transition maybe a little bit easier when talking to sellers in that part of the investment game? Yeah.

Kristin Ryan (04:56.03)
No question, no question. Sales and service is a lot like real estate. It’s all about relationships. So if you’re an outgoing person, it’s the same thing. You’re prospecting. Instead of customers, you’re prospecting sellers. So essentially it’s the same. You really need to be a people person and be comfortable with networking in order to

to be successful in this business.

John Harcar (05:26.254)
Sure. Was the Fortune Builders, did they do any type of one-on-one stuff? Was it just kind of learning via video and online curriculum? How did that all work?

Kristin Ryan (05:35.906)
So initially, yes, you have to remember too, COVID, I signed up right as COVID started. So a lot of things changed. So they did do a lot more in-person events. So almost everything, at least for the first year, year and a half was virtual and online. Yeah. and then shortly after that, the actual program kind of.

John Harcar (05:44.1)
That’s right.

John Harcar (05:57.972)
Okay. Okay.

Kristin Ryan (06:06.22)
went away, transitioned out. you know, Sam Maryland, policy agent who are the founders of Fortune Buildings, they kind of went in a different direction, I think more with syndications and things like that. So, yeah.

John Harcar (06:12.003)
Right.

John Harcar (06:17.58)
Right. So you take this three day course, right? You’re studying. What was your first step? What was the first thing?

Kristin Ryan (06:23.938)
So it was a three day seminar and at the seminar is where you could sign up for the program. It’s a mentorship of sorts or an educational type of program and I did sign up for it.

John Harcar (06:27.683)
or seminar.

John Harcar (06:32.881)
Okay, got it.

John Harcar (06:40.74)
Perfect, okay, and then when you signed up for that, long did it take? What was that timeline to get that first deal?

Kristin Ryan (06:47.95)
So I signed up for that. remember exactly it was March 1st because it was a leap year that we that year and it was that weekend. It was like 29th and the first so March 1st was the day that I signed up. I had my first I guess what they would say. What would you call it was a weekend kind of like an initiation where.

you get into the basics of training and then you go out into the field to view a property. And that was March 12th, it was a couple of weeks later and then COVID shut everything down. So I guess you could say I started March 1st of 2020 and I had my first property under contract by the end of May.

John Harcar (07:13.614)
Mmm.

John Harcar (07:20.44)
Okay.

John Harcar (07:31.116)
And how did you find that property?

Kristin Ryan (07:33.71)
that particular one I found on Redfin.

John Harcar (07:40.132)
Okay, so you bought it off, it was on market, I’m sorry.

Kristin Ryan (07:43.374)
It was on market, it just gone on market. So I just jumped in and I immersed myself in the curriculum to learn. And I don’t know, I didn’t have, you know, when you have knowledge, it mitigates your fear. So I just jumped right into it. I made an offer and it just, it went well. Boy, I’m grateful. I really am. But yeah.

John Harcar (07:56.953)
Mm-hmm.

Sure.

John Harcar (08:09.86)
Yeah, a lot of people don’t have that quick success, but it does, in a sense, go to taking action, right? And you took action. What do you think were some of the challenges, maybe obstacles, mistakes maybe you made in that first deal, if you made any?

Kristin Ryan (08:29.166)
well, you know, they were, there were mistakes, but again, I was on a learning curve. So, so I was, I tried to be, you know, easy on myself, but, certain things like, like windows, cause there were, there were certain, materials that were the lead time was so long. and I had waited. So I waited till the end to order my windows and the windows were like eight to nine weeks out at that.

John Harcar (08:38.19)
Sure.

John Harcar (08:58.948)
Mmm.

Kristin Ryan (08:59.534)
So, you know, now, not so much, but like anything else, I really think it’s so important to learn. Always be learning, know your market, learn your market, cost of materials, because we know that those have risen. So it’s just important to know all these things to mitigate your risk and not be taken advantage of.

John Harcar (09:24.748)
With all the information online and whatnot, why was it important for you to sign up for a mentoring or a coaching type of program?

Kristin Ryan (09:34.27)
The big thing that sold me with Fortune Builders were the systems because they had things like a deal analyzer. You obviously had the curriculum. Depending on the level, you had access to coaches. So you did have, you know, live calls and, and, and mentoring. were business coaches, you know, marketing coaches, that kind of thing. So as long as you, I think the two keys are, you know, commit yourself to the learning.

John Harcar (09:43.748)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (09:56.611)
Okay.

Kristin Ryan (10:03.7)
And like you said, take action. Cause I know a lot of investors who they learn, learn, learn, and they just, yeah, don’t do anything with it. But the systems were what sold me.

John Harcar (10:06.276)
Okay.

John Harcar (10:12.064)
Analysis paralysis? Yeah. Perfect. So we got deal one in the belt. What happened next?

Kristin Ryan (10:20.801)
Yes.

We got another one under contract by I sold that one in December. I had the other one under contract in February. That one I. Yep of 2021 and then I got another one so I was working on two at the same time. I got another one in. I want to say it was maybe April or May as well. Sometime between April and June, so I had a couple that I was working on so.

John Harcar (10:30.884)
Okay. Of the next year? Okay. Okay.

John Harcar (10:47.009)
Okay.

John Harcar (10:51.524)
Okay, so that’s important, right? And I want to talk about this for a quick second for maybe our newer people in there that are still trying to get done. You got your first deal in March, but it was almost a year till you got another contract.

Kristin Ryan (11:04.906)
Well, got my my first my first deal. I it was May actually, so I started in March. Yep, May and then I closed in January, but. It was important. I didn’t want to take on too. That was enough for me to take on my first deal. I didn’t want to take on, you know too much at once. And you know, I learned a lot, so it gave me the confidence to move on to the next one, which was a few months later after I.

John Harcar (11:11.117)
Amen.

John Harcar (11:23.319)
and the others.

Kristin Ryan (11:33.826)
you know, after I sold it and we got through the holidays. And then at that point I felt comfortable enough to take on another one.

John Harcar (11:38.104)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (11:43.542)
OK. And then you start to negate momentum. So how many more deals did you do over the next few years?

Kristin Ryan (11:49.998)
So, and then I took on, I sold another one in July, took on another one in September 2021. That one sold, that was a bigger job, that was a gut rehab. And then I had another one that I bought in 2022. And that was my last flip. Yeah.

John Harcar (12:15.085)
what made you stop flipping.

Kristin Ryan (12:17.134)
there were a few, there were a few factors. The first one was, the market was just starting to shift. the second one is, and I know this is a universal problem, but it is, it’s not easy to find, reliable, and, trustworthy, general contractors. And I was spending so much of my own time managing my own projects.

John Harcar (12:46.5)
Mmm.

Kristin Ryan (12:47.564)
that I wasn’t able to really do anything else. So there were a couple of reasons.

John Harcar (12:52.174)
Got it.

Okay, so you stop flipping and now what are you doing?

Kristin Ryan (13:00.078)
So right now, again, I’ve gone through some changes, did a little bit of wholesaling. I partnered with a friend of mine who does acquisitions. did some dispo for him, some project management. But right now, since I do have some time, I have been wanting to get my real estate license, but I just didn’t have the time to do it. So I’m working on that right now.

John Harcar (13:27.566)
Okay.

Kristin Ryan (13:27.828)
And I am actually, I very recently, I partnered with a company called BB Long and they, it’s an application, the first of its kind. It is very unique and I really think it’s going to be the future of multifamily. Multifamily, yeah.

John Harcar (13:35.287)
Okay.

John Harcar (13:51.47)
Okay.

Okay, let’s talk about it. Why do you say it’s going to be the future of multifamily?

Kristin Ryan (14:00.79)
Because it incorporates real estate AI and tokenization which AI and you’ll see I think with this I definitely don’t want to get political but with this new it administered it with the new administration They really are focusing a lot on AI and talking about it, right and start we’ll start to see that implemented So I think that’s very important you to see

John Harcar (14:05.572)
Mmm.

John Harcar (14:18.574)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Kristin Ryan (14:25.496)
People like Mark Cuban who are starting to talk about AI, how it’s the future. And I really think businesses, not just real estate, but any business, again, you have to move with technology and what’s going on. So this incorporates AI tokenization and multifamily real estate.

John Harcar (14:30.337)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (14:46.134)
It’s funny the we just found that I found out the first day of our next mastermind coming up in May is all about AI for investors. So it is a big trend and it is out of thinking. I guess that can kind of bring us to our focal point of pivoting with the market. Right. It sounds like you’ve made the pivots when necessary. What do you think some of the main things are that people need to focus on when they’re pivoting right when they’re making that change like how can they make it easier on themselves?

Thanks

Kristin Ryan (15:18.158)
I think again that goes back to learning. Never stop learning, knowing your market, know what’s happening, not just in your market but in other markets nationally. Again, that kind of comes back to networking and having a great network of other real estate investors.

So I know a lot of investors across the country and each market’s gonna be a little bit different, but when you talk, you know about what is happening in this market. I just earlier was talking to an agent friend that I know out in LA and she’s telling me they have some certain things that are going on there. Then we have things going on in Florida are completely different than what’s going on in Chicago. So I think it’s very important to know your market.

John Harcar (15:46.03)
Okay.

John Harcar (16:05.518)
Mm-hmm.

Kristin Ryan (16:12.726)
other markets and just kind of see where the shifts are going, what’s happening. And that’s why when this opportunity with BbLong came about, it just makes sense. We’re starting to see things move in the direction with AI. So it’s being ahead of the curve and that comes with knowledge and learning.

John Harcar (16:21.732)
Okay.

John Harcar (16:37.324)
Besides AI, are you seeing any other trends in the industry right now that people need to be aware of to prepare a pivot?

Kristin Ryan (16:45.624)
Well, we also know that there is a housing shortage. So, and when we talk more about BB-Long, I’ll speak to that as well. So it’s making home ownership for people a lot harder, especially for, know, Gen Z. They’re talking about how hard it is, but we all know prices have gone up, interest rates are up now. So, you know, again, it’s a very different market than it was when I started just five years ago.

John Harcar (17:06.052)
I

John Harcar (17:14.594)
Sure. Okay.

Kristin Ryan (17:15.202)
You know, these are the things that you really need to know and be ahead of. Yeah.

John Harcar (17:19.332)
Yeah. Well, from our talk before we got on here and you know now tell us about BB Long. I mean, what do you want to talk about? How can you share some information with us?

Kristin Ryan (17:28.514)
So it is an app that integrates three things. It’s more for larger multifamily developments. for the landlord that owns maybe a three flat, it might not make sense, but for larger multifamily apartment buildings, it’s an app. gives the tenant.

a sense of community. So when you live in a larger community, you may not necessarily know your neighbors or know social events that are going on. So it gives people the opportunity to connect in person, especially with social media. People aren’t necessarily making those personal connections. So it does that. The second thing it does is it allows

outside businesses to, I guess, to simplify it, kind of advertise in, you know, along this app. In return, what that does is gives the landlords an opportunity because of the referral, gives them an opportunity to increase their NOI. So if, you know, if they’re, if the business is advertising on their platform, it gives them, you know,

John Harcar (18:37.028)
Hmm.

Kristin Ryan (18:45.23)
It sometimes, and that’s a big thing when you own multifamily properties is how are you going to increase NOI, especially when you have a lower cap rate, you’ve made the improvements, how are you going to increase that?

John Harcar (19:00.996)
How can you find things to monetize? Is it something like a kind of a I don’t know if you have heard of it or have like a next door type of thing?

Kristin Ryan (19:09.194)
Next door, I believe, is a property management app, isn’t it? Next floor.

John Harcar (19:15.876)
Uh, well, I don’t know if they have it out there, but I know like out here next door is just like a community, right? So like, you know, people in a neighborhood, you know, can all share like, Oh, hey, saw, you know, watch out for guy walking down the street and, know, and I saw someone leave their garage door, whatever. mean, it’s just a community share type of thing.

Kristin Ryan (19:22.957)
Okay.

Kristin Ryan (19:32.717)
Yes.

Kristin Ryan (19:36.246)
Yes, so it does sound very similar, but that’s just one part of what BBlong is. So it incorporates that into it. The second thing we talked about is increasing for the landlords to increase their NOI through that revenue share with the partner businesses. what it also allows with the tokenization is it allows the tenant to

John Harcar (19:42.19)
Okay.

John Harcar (19:46.871)
Okay.

John Harcar (19:52.556)
Mm-hmm.

Kristin Ryan (20:05.614)
purchase fractional shares of their unit. And this is where, yes, this is where it’s very unique and one of its kind. So we all know obviously that, you know, ownership, it seems really out of reach for people, especially now. So this is a way for them to, you know, have some kind of ownership. It also, being a landlord myself,

John Harcar (20:10.02)
Mmm.

John Harcar (20:26.062)
You right.

Kristin Ryan (20:35.586)
When a tenant has pride of ownership, they tend to take care of things in a better way, which is going to mean, they also, they will potentially stay longer too. So tenant turnover obviously is beneficial to landlords so that, you know, it costs money every time a tenant leaves and you have to get a new tenant in. there are many.

John Harcar (20:39.884)
I can see that.

Kristin Ryan (21:02.924)
many different ways and that again too is going to increase your NLI when you don’t have so much turn on.

John Harcar (21:09.706)
Right is let me see how am I trying to word this If a landlord is in it just for obviously their their depreciation Why would they want to sell off pieces? It’s simply for that of of you know, maybe a longer tenant more respectful tenant of the property, etc

Kristin Ryan (21:21.506)
Well, as it.

Kristin Ryan (21:29.098)
well, it’s so it’s fractional. So, so remember also, you know, as you’re getting the appreciation, you’re, you know, they’re the. Money’s coming in. It’s just another, another route for cashflow. So there are several different ways that you can look at it. You do have that money coming in. It’s cashflow in addition to the rent coming in. but yes, there are several different factors that.

John Harcar (21:31.49)
Right.

John Harcar (21:36.452)
Mm.

John Harcar (21:41.612)
Right. Got it.

John Harcar (21:56.974)
Mm-hmm.

Kristin Ryan (21:58.326)
you know, I think really it’s just, it’s a winning, it’s a winning situation. And at some point, know, you are, you know, landlords, want to sell the building. So.

John Harcar (22:02.68)
Yeah, it sounds great. Yeah, it sounds great.

John Harcar (22:09.54)
Right. Do you think it works better with more units, with less units, like maybe like on a fiveplex versus a 80 unit type of apartment? I mean, don’t know about apartments, 80 unit complex of townhomes?

Kristin Ryan (22:25.878)
I I definitely see that it would work better for a larger complex, but I think we’re talking more like, again, it would have to make sense. So there will be setup costs. Would the setup cost offset on a three unit? Probably not, or even a 10 unit. But if you have an 80 unit, it absolutely would. You also have to remember not every tenant is going to want to do that fractional ownership. Some people like the freedom of

John Harcar (22:35.48)
Sure.

John Harcar (22:52.172)
Right. Right.

Kristin Ryan (22:55.8)
They just being a renter, they’re not tied down to a place. So it’s not every single unit. It just gives people the option. But there are definitely different ways that you can monetize with the app. So, and that’s what’s nice about it.

John Harcar (23:07.958)
OK. OK. We went over some of the pros. Are there any cons of doing this? Are there any negative part downsides of doing this type of thing?

Kristin Ryan (23:19.15)
I mean, I don’t really see any, if you do, know, it’s still in it. It’s. Yeah.

John Harcar (23:24.716)
Well, I’m just curious if you maybe had any feedback from someone, you know, from maybe someone that did that, that were like, OK, I didn’t like it for this reason. Not saying it’s a bad thing. It just maybe didn’t fit what they wanted it to do.

Kristin Ryan (23:37.662)
Absolutely. Well, I can tell you we’re actually in the very, very early stages. So the app, it is a startup. The app has been established and what we’re doing right now is we’re looking for investors who want to get in and start up. be doing crowdfunding shortly, but for any investors that want to get in now, now is definitely the time. yeah.

John Harcar (23:41.95)
Okay, so this is startup.

John Harcar (24:01.006)
That’s awesome. That’s awesome.

Kristin Ryan (24:04.014)
We’re hoping to be the uber of the multi-family real estate world.

John Harcar (24:10.463)
I love it. love it. Well, if we have folks that are listening to this and they want to invest in it, they want to talk with you and learn more about it because they have several multifamily, you know, what are some of the best ways to get in touch with you?

Kristin Ryan (24:22.317)
Yeah.

They can email me directly. My email is Kristen, K-R-I-S-T-I-N at K-G-G-P-V dot com. KGG Property Ventures is my company. Yep, or they can shoot me a text, 847-341-3786.

John Harcar (24:42.564)
Perfect. Okay, great. And what?

John Harcar (24:49.23)
Perfect. And we’ll put all your contact information in the show notes. Thank you for sharing that. That’s pretty interesting. I never would have thought of something like that, but I could see how it would make sense. I hope you guys enjoyed the show. I hope you guys got some good nuggets. Please reach out to her if you have any interest in investing or just learning more about it. Kristin, thank you again for joining us or joining me for the second time today. And guys, hope you enjoyed the show. See you on the next one. Cheers.

Kristin Ryan (24:51.63)
Great.

Kristin Ryan (25:12.11)
Thank you. Yes.

Kristin Ryan (25:18.862)
Thanks, John.