Real Talk Realtors with Kaleb Wright - Episode 49

Summary

Podcast Summary: Real Talk Realtors with Caleb Wright - Episode 49

Podcast Information:

• Title: The David Greene Show
• Host/Author: David Greene
• Episode: Real Talk Realtors with Caleb Wright - Episode 49
• Release Date: April 8, 2025
• Description: Real Talk Real Estate with David Greene delves into the dynamic world of real estate business and investing, offering unfiltered stories, insider details, and expert insights for building wealth, pivoting careers, or simply understanding the industry.

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1. Introduction and Guest Background

David Greene welcomes Caleb Wright, a successful realtor from Jennings, Oklahoma, to the show. Caleb introduces himself as a multifaceted real estate professional juggling multiple roles including running his brokerage, a construction company, flipping houses, and managing rental units.

• David Greene [00:00]: "Welcome to Real Talk Real Estate... I'm David Green and I've been doing this for over 10 years."
• Caleb Wright [01:16]: "Dude, Dave, I'm doing pretty doggone good... a booming metropolis of 450 people."

2. Caleb’s Business Operations and Achievements

Caleb highlights his impressive sales numbers, closing 79 deals personally out of 108 transactions handled by his brokerage last year. He emphasizes that he manages all aspects of the transactions without a supporting team, showcasing his hands-on approach.

• Caleb Wright [02:24]: "I own a brokerage, have a few agents underneath me. We did 108 transactions last year."
• David Greene [03:31]: "You're literally doing 100% of the transactions for 79 deals."

3. Lead Generation and Client Interaction

Caleb discusses his comprehensive lead generation strategies, encompassing self-generated leads, open houses, social media engagement, and paid leads. He stresses the importance of building genuine relationships and being actively engaged with potential clients.

• Caleb Wright [09:38]: "I do some paid leads. I do some open houses occasionally... I try to use every aspect of lead generation as you can."
• David Greene [11:31]: "This is a business for extroverts...”

4. Extrovert vs. Introvert in Real Estate

The conversation delves into the extrovert-centric nature of real estate. Caleb explains how being outgoing and enjoying interactions significantly benefits realtors, allowing them to handle high volumes of clients and maintain energy levels essential for success.

• Caleb Wright [11:46]: "You gotta enjoy chatting. You gotta be engaged...”
• Caleb Wright [35:35]: "Yes, I do. Like if I'm an introvert, I'm freezing up every time a phone rings."

5. Handling Difficult Transactions and Client Relations

Caleb shares experiences where tough negotiations and unexpected challenges were overcome through proactive problem-solving and maintaining calm. He underscores the importance of being a dependable figure who can navigate complexities, ensuring transactions remain on track despite obstacles.

• Caleb Wright [44:50]: "When things like that happen, it can be fixed, and it can be fixed fast."
• David Greene [45:44]: "Why are you here? You're just a transaction coordinator..."

6. Managing Stress and Work Ethic

Caleb attributes his resilience and success to his strong work ethic and positive attitude towards stress. He compares the mental fortitude required in real estate to physical training, where overcoming challenges leads to growth and increased capacity.

• Caleb Wright [52:59]: "I'm wired in such a way where I need to be moving, I need to be working..."
• David Greene [59:10]: "It is like a secret in God's design that lets us know how human beings should work mentally."

7. Interaction with Other Realtors and Industry Insights

The discussion highlights Caleb’s perspective on other realtors who may lack dedication or professionalism. He criticizes the overemphasis on tenure rather than actual performance and experience, advocating for a more results-driven approach.

• Caleb Wright [14:08]: "Nobody hates realtors, but it's because I think... the misnomer of the word experience."
• Caleb Wright [62:56]: "What do they call it? Commission breath, something like that."

8. Conclusion and Contact Information

David praises Caleb’s approach and resilience, emphasizing the importance of dedication and proactive service in real estate. Caleb concludes by sharing his contact details, inviting listeners to connect with him across various social media platforms.

• Caleb Wright [64:15]: "You can find me anywhere... my cell Phone number is 918-693-3535."
• David Greene [64:35]: "Remember, everyone, today's show was sponsored by the One Brokerage..."

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Notable Quotes:

• Caleb Wright [05:16]: “It is impossible with a 40 hour work week. Like you couldn't do it.”
• David Greene [14:08]: “Nobody hates real estate agents more than me.”
• Caleb Wright [29:16]: “The half a percent I let go there on his sale...”
• David Greene [35:00]: “Introduce yourself, make a really good impression...”

Key Takeaways:

• Dedication and Hard Work: Caleb's success stems from his willingness to manage all aspects of his business without relying on a large team, embodying a hands-on and dedicated approach.

• Relationship Building: Genuine interactions and maintaining strong relationships are crucial for sustained success and referrals in real estate.

• Proactive Problem Solving: Handling unexpected challenges calmly and efficiently ensures transactions proceed smoothly, enhancing client trust and satisfaction.

• Extroversion as an Asset: Being outgoing and enjoying client interactions provides a significant advantage in lead generation and client retention.

• Managing Stress: Embracing stress as inherent to the job and using it as a catalyst for growth leads to increased capacity and resilience.

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For more insights and strategies to elevate your real estate game, tune in to Real Talk Real Estate with David Greene and connect with Caleb Wright across his social platforms.

Transcript

[David Green]

Welcome to Real Talk Real Estate, the show where we cover how to build wealth in real estate with no fluff, no BS and no sales pitches. I'm David Green and I've been doing this for over 10 years. I've seen the ups, the downs and everything in between. This is the show where we pull back the curtain and show it to you too. So if you want to build wealth through real estate or you just love learning about it, you found your home. What's going on? Welcome everyone to Real Talk Real Estate. I'm David Green, joined today with Caleb Wright, a realtor in Oklahoma. This is the new Real Talk Realtor show. So if you are not a real estate agent and you don't want to listen to this, no hard feelings, I understand. But if you're curious about what goes on behind the curtains of the world of real estate, this would be a pretty fun show for you. And if you are a real estate agent, welcome. Glad that you're here. Before we get into the show today, the show sponsor is the One Brokerage. One Brokerage is my mortgage company helping people to finance real estate. We can do conventional loans, FHA, VA, small multifamily, regular residential, as well as all kinds of investment products as well. So if you're looking for someone to finance your real estate or realtors, if you're looking for someone to take great care of your clients and help build your business, send me a DM on Instagram at David Green24 or go check out the1brokerage.com then send me the DM. I'll get you connected. Caleb, welcome to the show. How are you my friend?

[Caleb Wright]

Dude, Dave, I'm doing pretty doggone good. It's. It's a beautiful night in Oklahoma, in rural Oklahoma, the small town of Jennings, a booming metropolis of 450 people. It's great time, great time to be here. I'm happy to be here with you, my friend.

[David Green]

Only Caleb could make a town of 450 people sound that good. And folks, you will realize this is one of the reasons that he sells so many homes because he puts effort into everything, including the way he talks. Has anyone else ever referred to it as a booming metropolis like you?

[Caleb Wright]

Very few. Maybe the mayor and he's my dad. So you know, might get that from somebody. You know, I make, I do, I do. As you know, David, I do TikTok videos and I, my one rule, there'll be some I don't do videos on. But my one rule is I have to have one thing that I Like about that place. And so people watch my videos and they comment and they say, I just love how you get so excited about crap. And it's like, hey, it might be, but you know that. That deck that looks out over that hill. That is a. That is a great thing. Love that.

[David Green]

We should call you the. The marketing plumber, because you're the only other person other than a plumber that gets excited about crap. So welcome to the show. We're going to talk about it. All right, let's start off with a couple technical questions, and we're going to get into your origin story. So I want to know, how many units did you sell last year? 20.

[Caleb Wright]

24 we had as an individual agent. We'll start this. So I own a brokerage, have a few agents underneath me. We did 108 transactions last year. That's 108 addresses. Not sides how some people do it. So 108 addresses. Personally, I close 79 of those.

[David Green]

Okay, and you have a bunch of buyer's agents working under you. A whole admin team.

[Caleb Wright]

Absolutely zero. You know, I have a few agents that. They do their own thing, right. They're not team members or anything like that. They just do their. They sell just like I do. I have no transaction coordinator, no buyer's agent.

[David Green]

No.

[Caleb Wright]

No listing agent, nothing else. I have one person who I call my assistant who records receipts for me. That's what she does. Because I hate doing that.

[David Green]

So you do all your own transaction coordination. You show all your own houses. You do all your own listing coordination. You input your own listings. You schedule the photographers, you get the signs put in the yard. You do all your own negotiating. You're literally doing 100% of the transactions for 79 deals.

[Caleb Wright]

That's correct. That is correct. And sometimes. Sometimes even a little more helping them after they close.

[David Green]

All right, so I'm assuming that you're a single man and you never sleep and you just work 18 hours a day.

[Caleb Wright]

Sleep six, one would assume, but no, I've got a lovely wife of almost five years now. We have got a awesome son. He's two years old. His name's Weston. Got a beautiful little girl named Lucy. She's one. And then we got another one on the way in June. So, yeah, we figured out how that stuff works. And we don't know the name yet, but it's a little boy. And, yeah, so I'm running. I'm running my sales company, the brokerage selling 79 houses. I have a construction company that we do custom and spec houses. So Selling new construction as well. And then, gosh, I do a few flips here and there and then I've got, you know, several rental units now.

[David Green]

At this point now I, I think most people would think this is impossible. They've been taught to believe it's impossible, can't be done. I've also seen how most people work and I understand why they think that. I don't know if you would agree. I would imagine that you would just having a brokerage and seeing how other employees work, not very many people are getting the most out of their God given abilities. Would you agree?

[Caleb Wright]

Oh, 100%. It is impossible with a 40 hour work week. Like you couldn't do it. Yeah, if I did a 9 to 5 and you know, didn't really want to get up that early or didn't want to sacrifice some time with my family or you know, didn't want to work weekends, I, you're right, it wouldn't be done. Like I've got tomorrow, I've got two meetings, I've got showings and I've got two new construction meetings. So it's. Yeah, if you didn't want to, it would be impossible. But I mean, even God worked six days a week.

[David Green]

That's a good attitude. All right, now you sold 79 sides this year. How much real estate have you sold so far?

[Caleb Wright]

Oh, gosh, we just closed. I just closed 20 for the year today. So we had, this is my. I had a closing every day this week and two today.

[David Green]

So close two deals today. All right, let's just start with these. Like how did you meet these people? How long did it take you to put them in contract? Were these listings or buyers? What's the deal with those?

[Caleb Wright]

All right, so the, the first one today, guy named Robert, he closed a little. He's like an investor. Bought this little house in Muskogee, Oklahoma. And you'll also notice I'll say some names as, as we go on. And I am a very widespread agent. I have an opinion that I am a licensed Oklahoma residential real estate agent and that means that I can sell it anywhere in the state of Oklahoma. So if I have someone serious, I will drive. Furthest I've driven for a listing or a buyer is probably about four hours and the least. Right. Five minutes taking the old four wheeler. But anyway, so how I met these folks, I had a phone call on a listing and didn't quite fit. This guy, we found another one for him. He was a cash buyer. Very simple. You know, it's about as easy as it gets two and a half weeks. He was great. The second one I closed today from a small town, right? You know, when I first start, started real estate, I thought, gosh, I've got to get to Tulsa, I've got to get to Oklahoma City. The only people buying and selling real estate is in the city. And that's just incorrect. It's a fallacy. There's in rural areas, rural markets, there lots of transactions. It might not be the million dollar ones or the ones that are a million. They're, they're going to be a lot fewer and far between. So, so this particular one, a guy that I've known for a long time went to high school with his brother. He was selling his own personal house. Nothing, nothing too, too expensive. I mean, believe it or not, some people might not believe this. Less than a hundred thousand dollar house. And you know, I knew, right the fir. I knew the first phone call to make called a guy who I knew was looking for some rentals, some inexpensive rentals and you know, cash transaction went simple, went easy. They all don't go like that, as you know. But the, the two today were, we're pretty decent.

[David Green]

All right. Now you're, you mentioned you're building homes. Some of them are custom homes. So somebody pays you to build a house for them, you help them design it. Some of them are spec houses where you build a house they try to sell to someone. You're also closing a bunch of your own deals without a team. It's amazing. And then you're running a brokerage in addition to that and you don't have help. I'm not even going to use this episode to talk about how the hell you do that. I think that is itself like kind of a mystery. Like how do you fit all that into a schedule? We'll do that on a future episode. What I want to know is how do you get that many human beings to come to you and say, caleb, I would like to buy a house or I'd like you to sell my house. Because if you are closing 79 units, how many human beings is that reaching out to you just to talk about real estate in general?

[Caleb Wright]

I would say close to a thousand, if not more.

[David Green]

Okay, so are you, where are you getting these leads from? Is this all self generated? Are you doing open houses? Are you buying leads? How does this work?

[Caleb Wright]

All of it. I do all of it. So. So, yeah, so. So from the, you just got to talk to everybody. Start from the top. You talk to as many people as you can you gotta like people, you gotta enjoy chatting. You gotta be engaged. Like, really, if you care about somebody, you're gonna learn their wants, you're gonna learn their needs. Like, you can have a conversation with someone and figure out, hey, this, you know, this house that you guys have been asking to see in the middle of, you know, a neighborhood in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, is not really what you want. What you really want is you want something on an acre and you want a little bit of space for the dog. You learn to see what people want and what they need, and then you can develop relationships. You develop enough relationships, then their friends will have somebody for you, your family. You know, I do a lot of social media stuff. I am posting, chatting, talking, I engage. Like, I treat Facebook Marketplace. I treat comment sections of TikTok and Facebook as an open house, right? I mean, if you raise your hand, I'm gonna say, hey, how can I help you? I'm gonna have that conversation. If I can. If I can steer any conversation to the direction I want, then I can say, hey, who do you know? Wanting to buy a house, sell a house? And then, yeah, so I do some paid leads. I do some open houses occasionally, not a whole ton. So, yeah, I mean, it's. I try to use every aspect of. I try to use every aspect of lead generation as you can, because I think you'd be silly not to.

[David Green]

All right, you said something to me earlier. You said, this is a business for extroverts. Introverts can do it, but it's really, really, really kind of meant for and built for. Designed for extroverts. What do you mean by that?

[Caleb Wright]

I mean that you gotta be. You not only have to be okay with talking to people, you gotta enjoy it. You gotta like having the same conversation over and over again. I was on this group called the Power team. Gosh, probably 10 years ago, some people might know who they are. They rip phone books and smash large stacks of concrete, break legal slugger baseball bats, do these events at schools and churches. And I think I learned probably the greatest people skills from doing that. You had to wake up at four in the morning, take the first flight out on a Wednesday morning, you fly to some town in the middle of nowhere, Ohio, and as soon as you land, there's someone very interested in you that you have to be interested in. Because for the next five days, until Sunday night and Monday morning, when they're dropping you off the airport, you have to tell the same stories you tell every week. And you got to ask the same questions as Them because they expect it from you. You got to be okay with over and over and over and over again and not just check out. You got to care about the people. And so, you know, weeks and weeks and weeks in a row doing that. I think it's really taught me, like, how to engage with purpose.

[David Green]

That's really good. Okay, so when you first started with the power team, you weren't quite the extrovert that you became.

[Caleb Wright]

I probably. I was an extrovert. Like, I've always been kind of a funny, chatty guy, but it truly taught me, like, how to. How to do it with purpose. Right. Like, when you're tired and you're tired all the time, like, don't get me wrong, I'm not. I'm not a robot. I get tired. But you got to be able to still engage with some form of civility and enjoyment, even when you're tired, and not just be like, I'm out of here. See, I don't want to talk.

[David Green]

So let's talk a little bit about the realtors that you come across that you think are doing it the wrong way. What do they look like? And contrast that with how, how you would change things for them if you were in control of how they interacted with people.

[Caleb Wright]

No, that's a good question, David. I think about this quite often. Like, I get. Nobody hates a real estate agent like a real estate agent.

[David Green]

Oh, amen. I say that all the time. Like, nobody hates real estate agents more than me. And here I am making a podcast for us.

[Caleb Wright]

I absolutely hate realtors, but it's because I think they're, you know, obviously the barrier of entry is kind of low. I think that, I think that there's, there's. There's a misnomer of the word experience. You know, you got. It's a troph, right? Oh, I've been in this industry 20 years. I was. I'm doing a deal right now with a lady who's done. Who's been in the industry for, like, 18 years. At least that's what it says on her Zillow. It could be longer than that. That's what it's typed out on Zillow at 17 years. She's done like 350 transactions. And she's like a broker. And I was like, Dang, I've done 250 and, like, less than six.

[David Green]

And she's a heavy hitter, right?

[Caleb Wright]

Yeah, she's a heavy hitter. That's a lot.

[David Green]

How many are out there that have been in the business for 20 years. And they sold two houses a year for their career.

[Caleb Wright]

Oh, probably, probably the vast majority. Right?

[David Green]

That's what you sold in six months. So I see what you're saying about experience. It's kind of a misleading term to talk about how many years.

[Caleb Wright]

Yes. So. So in my opinion, time is not experience. Experience is experience. Do it. Doing repetition, doing deals. And that's where I think I got to be a good agent was. I'm not an agent that's selling a house in a neighborhood that gets turned over maybe three to every three to eight years. Right. Your, your normal numbers, there's no issues with those. Right. You, you have all the comps in the world there. You have zero title issues. Sometimes when I get my title attorney either loves me or hates me because I have something crazy for them all the time. I've got wild stuff. Hey, this needs a quiet title here. This has an easement, like I've got one right now that the lender doesn't quite understand how to do it because it's in a small town and there's an easement going through the garage. So it's an encroachment into the easement and it's like a fake unused easement. It just shows up on the survey. Well, the title attorney knows that, hey, this is in a small town. No one's ever going to tell them to do that. They said, I'll even insure it for forced removal. And now we're walking through like how, how to get the lender what he needs to close that. So I think to circle back to your question, I think a lot of agents just like stop there, right? They don't, they don't push on. They don't say, how do we get the deal done? And at the end of the day, like I've had to have some conversations with people at the end of the day, like you and I as an agent, like on both sides, we are trying to protect this transaction like it is, it is our job because sometimes people's emotions get in the way of things and it's our job to have them keep a cooler head and say, hey, this isn't probably the best direction. Yeah, they're wanting a lot of stuff. But guess what? We've been on market for, for 150 days and this is the first offer that's came in. Let's work it. Let's work this thing so you can sell this property and they can buy it. So what, it's a little bit more headache, but you're Going to be in a better position than you were yesterday. And I don't think a lot of agents understand that's what you do and that it is your like. Our job as a real estate agent is not to open doors. It is not to go find properties and send them to you. Let's be honest. Like, I know agents like to dog it's. But my goodness, like, Zillow is the best user interface right now.

[David Green]

They're going to use it anyway. You can look properties up for them and they're going to say, cool. And then they're going to go look at what they like.

[Caleb Wright]

Exactly. Like, like they can give me a criteria. You know this. Like they say buyers are liars.

[David Green]

Right.

[Caleb Wright]

Hey, what do you want? Well, I want two acres and I, I'm capped at 325,000 and that's what I need. And then they send you like a $400,000 house that is not in your search criteria because you're not looking for that. So it's like you guys know what you want more than I know what you want. Once you get there, then that's where I come in. Right? We can. How do we structure a deal? How do we make. How do we. How do we make our offer look better than others in a, in a competing offer? And sometimes you're, you're, you're hamstrung to the borrower if they're getting loans. But other times there's even better ways and you can get creative, right?

[David Green]

Yeah. Okay, give me some examples of how you've seen, because I think what you're getting at is the agents have a tendency to want to be liked. Most of them are high I. On the disc profile, which I'm assuming you are too, just interacting with you, but you don't let that get in the way of the mission, which is to make the deal work. When somebody wants to be liked, their biggest fear is to not be liked, which means they don't want to tell their clients anything that would make the client not like them. Sometimes that's what you have to do to be loyal to the deal. So they end up being loyal to their feelings as opposed to loyal to the deal, and they don't do a good job. What are some examples of things you've heard other agents where, man, you were this close. Like, if you'd have just said this, you could have had them in contract or you didn't have the guts to have a certain kind of a conversation that you just. I mean, you're the real Estate rhino, right? You just charge right through that.

[Caleb Wright]

Oh, I mean, you know, there. There's instances where I've had to. I've. I've had to fire people. You know, I had one guy who. He was an attorney, and he'd had this house on for. I was probably the fourth real estate agent for him. So he's, you know, he's obviously cycling through people real quick. I am. What. I think I was only the second one to get an offer on it, right? So we send him this. It's a commercial building. So we get this offer. It was lower, right? He goes, okay, fine, we'll do it, but I don't want any inspections. And he. Again, he's an attorney, right? So he's crossing out, like, Oklahoma Real estate Commission contracts. And he's crossing it out and saying, no, we're not doing inspections, and they can't cancel a contract if they, you know, if something falls through with their buy their purchase. And I was like, okay, so just to like, are you sure you want to sell this? And he's like, yeah, absolutely. I want to get rid of it. And I said, well, I said, I'm sure you're. That's what I told him. I said, I'm sure you're a phenomenal attorney, but I know this town like the back of my hand, and I can sell anything here. If you let me just work this, I promise you I'll get this thing sold. And I said, guess what? Even if it busts, you're in a no worse predicament than you are right now with it just sitting here not being sold. And, you know, he said, no, I won't do that. This is what I. And I said, I cannot help you any further. And so I fired him. I let him go. I took the listing down and released it. Because there's certain things that you gotta be able to do even if that's not. Like, as a seller, you have the ability to say, no, I'm not gonna do that. But as a buyer, you gotta have the comfortability to expect that. And so I imagine, you know, to circle back. Back with. Running that with agents I have probably had, especially in the competing markets where you had 15 offers, believe it or not, Oklahoma was in there too. We had a lot of competing offers, and 22. It was pretty wild. So I imagine there's a whole bunch of those scenarios where the offer was maybe close, where it wasn't, where we just missed out on it, but there's other offers that we did get, right? So you know, and I can expand on that a little bit if you'd like me to, but that's kind of what I see a lot.

[David Green]

Now, something else that you and I were talking about, you mentioned when you're working with buyers specifically that sometimes they want to see 50 homes. And you're like, you don't need to see 50 homes. You need to tell me what you want and I will go find the houses that will work for that, and we're going to go look at them and we're going to talk about it. And you sounded very sure of yourself when it comes to having these conversations. Can you tell me what that means, that process looks like for you?

[Caleb Wright]

Absolutely. Yeah. So I'll have people who, they say, we want to see about 14 homes. And I'll say, okay, why don't you narrow that down to five? Narrow that down to your favorite five. You know what you're looking for, you know what pictures you like the most. You don't need to see 14, 15, 20. I've heard people say, I've, I've showed these guys 50 homes. If I'm showing somebody 50 homes, it's because I'm, I'm writing 50 offers, right? Like, I will show somebody as many houses as they want. As long as we're writing offers, okay? But the, in good competitive ones, right? So I, I'll narrow it down. I'll say, you need to narrow this down to, to five houses. And this, this is a particular example. He. They had about 14 houses they wanted to see. I said, narrow this down. What's your top five if you had to choose? So they gave me their top five. I only put those top five. Out of those top five, two went pending. So it showed three houses. They had one that they really liked. We're going to offer on it. One more showed up on market the next day. I said, okay, sure, let's go look at that one. They loved it, contracted that one. So four houses less than my five, the, that I asked them to ask for or I asked them to look at. So, yeah, I think there's no need to see that many people can understand, get an idea from pictures. I mean, I don't know how many times I've sold homes where the person's completely remote and it's been all on video, FaceTime photos.

[David Green]

I bought houses like that.

[Caleb Wright]

Exactly. So you can really get so far without actually seeing it. And then once you see it, it's just like, okay, cool. We like this. This has a better feel. I mean, sometimes It's a smell test that gets it right. It smells good.

[David Green]

Well, I'll tell you, when I was buying them that way, they would just send me a video. It wasn't the video that sold me on the house. It was the enthusiasm of my agent when their tone was like, you know, yeah, it's in this part of town and it does have three bedrooms and there were two full bathrooms, I suppose. But I mean, I don't know. Did you want to write an offer that was very different than, oh, my God, this house is amazing. It is right across the street from a park. It's so close to the freeway. All the houses on the street look so nice. I loved it. I just, I wish that I lived in this house. It is such a good deal. I swear I'd never seen a house at this price that looks like this. When I heard that, that, I really think that had more of an impact on my excitement about the property. Now, I was usually buying rundown houses anyway, so they weren't going to be pretty. But when I could tell they really liked the area, they loved how big the square footage was. There was something about that deal that made it stand out. Most agents don't hide their feelings. They're either enthusiastic or they poo poo the deal. And you're sensing that when you're the buyer, you're probably listening to that more than your words. Do you think that you're able to convey to your buyers that this is a good deal and why, when other agents are afraid to have those conversations?

[Caleb Wright]

Oh, absolutely. Like, I've been in my fair share of just crap holes, right? So I kind of understand and I buy a bunch of crap holes and I love them. But, like, you can tell really quickly from a house. And, you know, that being said, some people might prefer the other way, right? Like, some people might prefer a. What I would call a lesser home because it might have a little bit more character and a little bit more charm. And that's a preference, right? But like, like for me, a couple weeks ago, I, I have this couple that are looking and they're pretty picky. Like, they, they like some stuff. And we showed this house and I was like, this is. You need to buy this house. Like, and I don't really tell them. Like, I'll tell them. I don't tell them, you need to buy this house on a lot of stuff. I'll tell them, now this is a crap hole. You guys don't want this, right? Like, I'll tell them not to. If I'm indifferent. Like, hey. Because people like stuff I don't like. Like, there's a lot of opinions, and people like different layouts. They like different things than I am. I prefer. But every once in a while, there'll be one where I'm just like, you guys gotta get this. This thing is a diamond in the rough. So, yeah, we do. We. We do come across those instances where that happens.

[David Green]

A lot of agents are nervous about telling somebody not to buy a house because they're thinking that they're gonna blow up the deal. Or it's kind of like when you're excited about your new puppy and someone says it's ugly and they don't like your puppy. They don't want to hurt their feelings. But you say it's better to say, you know what? You don't want this house. Let's just get out of here and see the next one. I wouldn't buy this one. What's your logic in that?

[Caleb Wright]

Oh, absolutely. Like, if. If my agent. If I'm selling a house and my agent has multiple deals going on and. Or if I'm buying one, right. I'm going to trust them a little bit more. Because the. Especially as the buyer. Right, the buyer's agent. Because if. If my deal busts, they're not like, oh, my gosh, it's the end of the world for them. I one time had this, and I'm willing to do a lot of stuff to get houses closed for my clients. There was one a few years ago. It'd been on market for a long time. Numbers were pretty tight on it. And so we get an offer, and it was real close. They were low. And I was like, hey, we can do this thing. If you want to just shave. I'll shave a half a percent off. And you can shave a half a percent off on commission. And I would say most agents would probably do that. And this lady goes, I can't do that. I really need the money. And so she was willing to let the deal bust for less than a half a percent just because she needed a little bit of money. And to me, I said, you know what? I'll take it on my side and we get it close. The guy has since referred me half a dozen.

[David Green]

Right.

[Caleb Wright]

Customers.

[David Green]

Yeah, I think you told me about one of either this one or one like it. But my comment to that was, you know, agents will spend $3,000 on. On ad spend for leads they don't know that are also dating other people. Right. Trying to buy these online leads is Terrible. It's like you're on Tinder for real estate. They're just all seeing a whole bunch of different agents, and you're trying to hope that you're the one that they choose, but they won't give up $1,500 of commission because they say they need the money. Right. Well, how much. What was your ROI on that percent that you gave up from all the other deals you got?

[Caleb Wright]

Oh, my gosh.

[David Green]

I mean, I'm not literally asking you, but it's a lot. They sent you several deals.

[Caleb Wright]

Yeah, I mean, he sent me a guy that was. That was a $600,000 seller. You know, that's. And that's. That's not huge in most. Some places I get. But it's. It's big around here.

[David Green]

That's where you probably, what, 14, $18,000 commission on a $600,000 house?

[Caleb Wright]

Yeah, it's 18. 18,000.

[David Green]

Yeah.

[Caleb Wright]

So the half a percent, the $2,000 I let go there on his sale. Okay, cool.

[David Green]

Yeah. Nine times money on that one deal. And then that one might lead to referrals. This is when I was building the David Green team. I haven't talked about this a lot, and I'm sorry to cut you off. I just want to kind of put the exclamation point on your story there. I wasn't on the bigger pockets yet. I hadn't written a bunch of books yet. It was just my own sphere and what I could do at an open house. Now I owned real estate, so I had some credibility. People would come to me like, hey, you're the real estate guy, David. I think I want to buy a house that was a benefit to me. But every deal I got, 25% of them came from open houses, and 75% of them came from, like, my database or referrals for my database. So every customer I was working with, I didn't look at it like, I'm trying to close this deal. I looked at it like I'm trying to close this deal and your mom's deal and your sister's deal and your neighbor's deal and your friend's deal and your maid of honors deal and your cousin's deal. And then when I was working with grandma, it was the same thing. I want grandma to tell all the other old ladies at the bingo hall that they need to use this really nice boy named David Green to sell their house. I looked at every single deal like I'm auditioning for the right to sell the houses of all your other people because I wanted to have a long career. Now, oddly enough, what ruined that was starting a team. I haven't talked about this a lot, but once I had a team, the agents that came to me did not look at the clients like that. They looked at it like a mercenary. I want a closing. What do I got to do to get to the closing table? I want my money like the agent you were just referring to. And that actually killed referral business people stopped coming back because they're like, well, I was going to get David, but now I'm going to get one of David's agents. And they're good, but, you know, they didn't really listen to me. They didn't really know what I was looking for. They tried to sell me on something I didn't want. And over time, all those leads bled out. And the real estate team eventually ended up dying. And I realized since that when you're doing the job that you're doing, you're not just working for that client. You're working for everyone in that. Their database too. How does that affect the way that you're interacting with the people that you're coming across every day?

[Caleb Wright]

Well, I'll say this. When I set goals for the year, I do not set a, A, A goal based on volume. People ask that all the time. What's your. What's your goal this year? What are you. We can do? I said, I don't know how to track that metric. Like, I don't. I'm. I'm not going to set a goal based on volume. I set goals based on. On number of transactions because that is numbers of families and people and customers health. So if I have that mentality, like my favorite. My greatest referral web, all right. Is my. It was my very first listing, 2019. I'm still selling houses from referrals from that very first listing, because listed her house, helped her sister buy a home. Then I helped the person who I listed bought. She bought. So that's three transactions. Then she had another sister buy. And then the sis. The I. I helped the other sister sell. There was. It was 11 transactions out of that. Like, it's a confusing web and how it goes. But it's just the power of a referral and a strong network and a strong and a strong just relationship. You build like it is kind of. You get so close with people. I feel like you do during, during transactions, especially if they're bumpy and they're rough. Like you're talking to people who are stressed out every day. I've got one that I'm calling them every day. I'm say, hey. And one thing I will not do, even when I don't know answers, is I don't not answer a phone. If I. Because I understand this is a stressful thing for you and me. We're callous to this. We understand any transaction can be delayed a frickin month for any, any reason. But these people don't. It's the world to them. And I make it a point to answer every phone call, even if I, even if I know they're gonna chew me out and be mad at me, even though it's not my fault. Hey, I'm sorry that there's title issues. I'm sorry that there's lending issues. I'm gonna be there and answer that phone call to at least be somebody who can put them at ease and say, I'm working on this. I get stuff closed. You want me in your corner?

[David Green]

Yeah. So you think a lot of other realtors just don't take the phone call?

[Caleb Wright]

I think a lot of people don't take phone calls.

[David Green]

And is that because they don't want to be bothered? They're lazy? Do you think some of it is anxiety? Like, I don't want to be mad at me, so let me just not do it with it at all?

[Caleb Wright]

All of it? Yeah, absolutely. Like, even, even, like paid lead stuff. I know people who just like, oh, gosh, I miss so many phone calls. I'm thinking you're paying for that thing and you're not answering it.

[David Green]

Oh, I know, man. This was.

[Caleb Wright]

If I'm, if I'm at my, my wife knows. Even if I'm at dinner and a Zillow phone call shows up, I'm answering that, she understands, she gets it. Now, I'll go fast on the conversation, but I'm going to make that phone.

[David Green]

Call, take the call, introduce yourself, make a really good impression. In 30 seconds, say, I'm at dinner right now. Can, can I email you? We'll schedule a time to have another phone call, go back to eating dinner.

[Caleb Wright]

You could literally, I think, I think a person, if they answered every phone call, could probably, without trying, sell 20 to 30 houses a year without, without trying at all just answering phone calls.

[David Green]

This takes us back to the extrovert versus introvert dilemma here. Do you think this is why extroverts have the advantage? Because answering that phone to an extrovert is like an injection of energy. Ooh. It's a new person to talk to. It's a new Problem to solve. It's a new thing to do. Yes, yeah.

[Caleb Wright]

Yes, I do. Like if I'm an, if I'm an introvert, like I'm, I'm freezing up every time. I'm freezing up every time a phone rings, I'm like, oh gosh, I can't get this, I can't get this call. I don't want to talk to these people. And I do know people like that, like a lot of clients. It was funny. I was in a closing yesterday and you know, one of the documents in title is like, hey, I need your number in case any documents wrong, I need you come down here. And they said, whose number should I get? And the girl goes, definitely his. Because I don't answer any phone call. And for me it's opposite, like, like I have to answer every call even when I know, hey, this is probably going to be a spam call. Okay, it is. Hello, this is, this is Safe Haven. No, I don't want to talk to you. Safe Haven, you call me four times a week. I get it. No, don't talk to me. But I still answer the call because you never know who it is.

[David Green]

Yeah, I mean, it's hard because like someone like me, I have a lot of out of state properties and so my information ends up on the title list that people trying to buy out of state properties look up. So I get spam calls constantly from all of the spammy investors. I get text messages. I mean, my phone's probably ringing every six to seven minutes a day. It doesn't stop with numbers that I don't know. So what I had to do just so I could use the phone is I had to turn off any number that I don't know. That also causes anxiety though, because occasionally a bank will be trying to call me or somebody important will be trying to get a hold of me. And now I don't even see it ring. Because if it's number I don't have sa, it won't show up on the phone. It goes to show it it's a certain kind of person that can sell houses. I guess is I'm getting at is not. I hate my job. I want an easy life. I just had a kid and I want something I can do on the side that's flexible.

[Caleb Wright]

I don't, I don't know that I'd ever call this easy. You can definitely have some easy ones and those are like, oh man, I sure love those people. But dude, I feel like I law at business and I'm trying To drum it up and I'm trying to move it. And in year after year, sometimes you feel like you're working twice as hard with half the results as you were last year. It's hard work, but again, I like to work hard and probably, it's probably a bit of a, I might even call it a bit of a downfall, a little bit of an issue because I have this thing where it's like I can't. I'm wired in such a way where I need to be moving, I need to be working that it's hard for me to relax because I just enjoy working and doing things and selling homes and you know, dealing with real estate transactions and maybe buying something or flipping something or you know, chatting with these people about building a new house on their, on their land. I just love it so much that I'm not a huge fan of sitting on the beach.

[David Green]

Well, that's what I wanted to talk to you about. If I was to design a real estate agent in a lab, it would be really close to you, Caleb. You've got a motor. You like to talk to people. It energizes you to talk to people you like working. You are willing to answer the phone and talk. You have the attitude of I work for the deal, not necessarily the emotional gratification that comes out of it. Sometimes people are going to be mad. I mean my experience, if you have a guest that stays at your short term rental and something like some act of God happens that you could have never predicted and you do an amazing job fixing it, they still leave you a bad review. A lot of the time when I was at the restaurant, when the kitchen messed up your order, it was not my fault. I could move heaven and earth to fix this as fast as possible. Get you something free to eat in the meantime, give you a free dessert, do everything that I could. I still got a bad tip. It was not my fault. But if the experience is bad, people will blame you. As you were talking earlier, I was just thinking you got to have this happen all the time where these complicated deals go bad.

[Caleb Wright]

The, the exper. How you as the agent, how you handle it is I would say 80% of how it's perceived because you're the professional, you're the one who is the calming factor. Like they don't know. They don't know what's good, what's bad. They don't. So this just happened this week. I had a, at a closing delayed about, about two weeks. And so I, I was going out of town last Weekend. We did a, a final walk through on the, on a Friday. They were supposed to close either maybe that Friday, but could be Monday for sure. So we didn't find a walk through. If we stashed the key, you know, just so just in case anybody need to get in, we'll be good to go. Well, they didn't, they didn't close that Monday, didn't close Tuesday, didn't close that week at all. We got the clear to close on Tuesday morning. So we're set. We're gonna go close at 2:30 this last Tuesday. And I said, you know what, I'm gonna go over there because I like to go to closings, right? I like to, you know, usually I'll be, I'll be there, I'll poke in late, you know, let them sign, do their thing. But I like to go give them a big hug, ask for a referral and say, but. But I was like, hey, I'm gonna go grab that key so I can give it to you guys. And I go, stop at this house. I, you know, jump up on that ledge, grab the key. I said, I'm gonna walk in. And I was not. Like, I've done this a hundred times as you have, David. You walk in and nothing, nothing's out of the ordinary, right? You're just going in, you're going out. So I'm watching a video, you know, I'm just kind of like listening to something. Had a headphone in my ear. I walk in the kitchen, I start walking out because my heart looks good. And I look down and I see this like, droplet of water. And I was like. I look up because I'm thinking something fell, you know, so we got a leak or something. It's been kind of rainy. I was like, no. And I take a step towards it and what? Water starts to bubble out of these hardwoods. And I was like. And I take a step back and I like start to slosh a little bit on the hardwoods. And I was like, oh, no. And so I like, take the headphone out because I know what this means, right? I gotta listen for some water. And so I'm listening for water. I was like, okay, I hear it's in the garage. I run to the garage, I open up the closet with the water heater. The water heater had rusted out and just been filling, filling up, going through, just straight through into the drain pan. Filled up the drain pan. A lot of it went down the drain, but a whole bunch of it overflowed, flooded these Hardwoods flooded the master bedroom, destroyed the carpet. Standing water in the master bath. Honestly, a nightmare situation, right? But here's the deal. When I first saw the droplet, I thought, oh, I just thought a slab leak. I was like, that's not good. And then I heard the noise. And when I heard the noise and I opened it up, I said, oh, we're going to still close this thing today. We're getting this closed. They're going to be happy. Because here's the reality of the situation. And you've probably had things like this, as a lot of agents have, when things like that happen, honestly, it can be fixed, and it can be fixed fast. It just takes money. And so while I call the seller and I call the listing agent, and I'm like, hey, we got a big problem. I'm FaceTiming. I'm showing this. They're on their way. They're like, oh, my gosh, get it stopped. So I managed to get the water stopped. While they're on their way, I'm calling people, hey, what's your. What's your square footage for replacement of hardwoods? What's your square footage for replacement of carpet? And, okay, we know what hot water. Hot water tanks are. So by the time they get there, I'd already had the conversation with my buyers. I'm like, hey, there's an issue showed on FaceTime. Don't. I said, I think we can still get this thing closed today. And I think you're going to be happy because I think we can get a check for you. Because at the end of the day, they were going to probably do some stuff. They were going to maybe replace that carpet. They were going to maybe resurface those floors. But Mr. Seller came in and, you know, he saw a mountain of damage, right? He saw. What he saw in his head was, oh, my gosh, this is gonna bust my deal. Or delay it a month because I have to call insurance, and insurance might pay out. They might not. They might give me what. What I need to do. This could take forever. But I said, hey, I'm getting a monetary value of somewhere around $5,000. I think if you write a $5,000 check and just give it to them, we'll close this thing. We'll say that you're, you know, you are. You have nothing to do with anything after. They can't hold you liable for anything, any other damages. This is. This is it. And they said, really? That'll work. I said, that'll work. And it got done, and it got closed you know, about 20 minutes behind schedule. So, yeah, stuff happens. Stuff comes up. You got to be the guy that sorts it out. You got to be the calm. You got to be that calmness in the storm.

[David Green]

Yeah, that's exactly what you're supposed to do. In fact, you're Made me think earlier when we were talking about telling them to buy a house or not to buy a house, we got off that subject a little early. I think most people want an agent to give an opinion. I think they want them to say, I think you should do it. Under these circumstances, I don't think you should do it. And here's why. I don't think very many people are looking for a yes man. I don't know that every client can articulate it. Like I just said, that's what they want. They don't want you to argue with them, of course, but I think way too many agents err on the side of trying to keep everyone happy, and then they just become this wet noodle without an opinion. And you're like, why are you here? You're just a transaction coordinator that opens doors as opposed to, I know what this town is. I know what houses are out there. I'm experienced. I know how these deals work. Here's what I think we should do. What's your take on that?

[Caleb Wright]

Oh, absolutely. And, you know, people have their opinions, right? I had this one couple who, in 22, they probably should never have actually sold their home. But in 22, they came to me, I helped them buy it, and they said, hey, I want to sell. And I was like, guys, I. I don't. I was straight with them. I said, I don't think you need to sell right now. I said, any equity you. You build in this house, you're gonna spend it on the next house. Like, it's. It's. You gotta go above and beyond. You're just. And it's going to end up being a lateral move for you when you really don't. You're in a good interest rate. They bought this house at a wonderful price. Well, the next year, they said it again, and I said, okay, now, I've already given you my opinion. I've already told you what I thought you should do, and I think you should stay. But at this point, you don't want to. So, all right, I'll do my best for you in this situation. And I've done that with houses, too, that people decide they like. Like, I will tell someone, hey, this thing is a stinker. You don't want It. Or I'll tell them, hey, this is great. Sometimes I don't really, you know, it's a preference, right? I don't really have an opinion either way. Yeah, it's a decent house. I don't see anything wrong with it. Probably wouldn't be my choice, but it might be yours. So in that. In that case, it's like, all right, when they ask me to be in that position of, hey, this is what we want, you help us, you help me get this thing. How. How do I. How do I get this home? Like, I had one. We. We had a. An offer. They sent. They sent an offer. It was listed at 296,000. 296,000. And they sent an offer. It'd been on market for probably like three months. You know, one of those, like, 80, 90 days. And of course, once. Once one person's interested in it, then you get another party. That's just how real estate works, right? It can be. No one cares about this thing for three months, but my people like it. Well, someone else does too. So we sent a kind of a low ball offer, right? Like 280, and needed like 8 grand, 8, 9 grand in closing costs. We send that over, and then of course, they're like, hey, we need a highest and best buy end of the day. And so I have a. I have a conversation with him. I say, guys, do you like this house? He said, oh, we love it. It's great. I said, do you just want to. Let's just get you in the game. Like, you can always cancel if the inspection's bad. Let's get you in the game and let's figure out some stuff. And so they're like, okay, what do you recommend? How do you recommend getting this house? I said, well, let's bring it. Give them what they want, the 296,000. Don't ask for any closing costs because you know you're gonna want to do some stuff like, it was a nice house, but you're gonna want to make some updates. Let's do an inspection and say, hey, instead of repairs. Because there's always. Everybody knows that every inspection report is gonna be like 60 pages long, and it's gonna scare everybody half to death.

[David Green]

What?

[Caleb Wright]

You send that to the seller and say, hey, you know what? In lieu of repairs, we just want another nine grand in closing cost. Sounds. Sounds real close to like that other deal, didn't it? And so that's exactly what we did. And every point, right, that's always a negotiation. That nine grand in closing costs. They countered back at 45, we countered back at 65. And they said, okay, cool, let's do it. And everybody was happy. Seller got it, was happy because he got it sold and they got their closing costs. They wanted.

[David Green]

Now what, how do you think somebody else might have handled that that would have messed it up? So as like people are listening to this, if they're not you, what do you think that they might have done that we can highlight so that they can realize that they should approach it your way.

[Caleb Wright]

Sometimes people like, you know, like the lender might say, hey, this thing only works when we, when we have closing costs. Not a lot of time it does, right? Like, if that's what I'm told, I'll fight tooth and nail. But sometimes you can take that a little bit too far and assume that they just like, they don't have the ability to do some things right. And so for me it's like, hey, as long as you're good, like the worst case scenario on that thing was that, hey, you pay your own closing costs. And there are, are you okay with that? Like if you're okay with that, or dropping out of escrow if you're okay with that, let's do it, let's make it happen. Like, I don't, I don't know if some people like look at the, what's the worst case scenario? And it's not that bad. Like who did this is bringing me back like 10 years. Tim Ferriss used to have a podcast. I don't know if you, you know the Tim Barris podcast, but he say something. Well, what's the worst case scenario? Am I, am I eating beans? Okay, well, beans aren't that bad. You know, like it's really, you're not, you're not going hungry, you're not. Things are not that bad even in some worst case scenarios.

[David Green]

I do this to myself all the time. I mean, I never stopped doing that when I was in law enforcement. I was making money the hard way. I would load up. The only way you made money as a cop is you worked overtime. And we had certain situations that were structured contractually where you could get double time instead of time and a half. So my goal was I need to be in double time as much as I possibly can be. And I will give up everything else to do it. I'm not going to have fun, I'm not going to get enough sleep, I'm not going to be going out on dates. Like I'm going to commit to this and everything else. Is going to have to wait so I can save up this money to buy real estate so I can eventually get out of being a cop, right? Instead of running a marathon for 30 years, I wanted to get as much as I could done in like 8 years so I could step out and go do something else. And people would say, how are you working 18 hour days or 20 hour days were kind of normal. I'd work 20 hours, I'd sleep for two and a half, three hours in the car, I'd get up, I go put on my uniform and I'd work another 20. And the, the answer was I would focus on how it could be worse, right? I'm not in a coal mine, I'm not doing manual labor, putting a roof on a house. I'm just a cop, right? Sometimes I'm chasing someone, sometimes I'm standing somewhere, sometimes I'm looking for somebody in the bushes. A lot of the time I'm sitting in the car, the car's doing the hard work, my foot's just moving this much, right? I would tell myself these stories all the time. Like I live in an era where we have caffeine. How lucky am I that I have unlimited caffeine to keep me awake? Whatever I had to do, that's how I kept the good attitude so I could keep going. I think this attitude that people have that you're supposed to work 9 to 5, you are not supposed to work nights or weekends. I'm not saying that everyone should do what I did. I don't think it's everyone's deal. But, but I didn't have a bad attitude about it because I never believed that I have a right as a human being to work 40 hours a week. I had the idea, like I have a right as a human being to try to survive. And we have a lot of rules in place that give people better lives by limiting work to 40 hours a week before you get overtime. But that's not mandated by God. That's not a law of nature. And the more people cling to that, I think personally the worst their attitude gets. When they have to do something like show a house at 6:30. And that shows up with how they interact with the client. It shows up with how they serve the client. Do you have a similar mindset and that's how you're able to just keep going? Like you do?

[Caleb Wright]

Yeah, absolutely. Like I, I am truly blessed, man. I, I get to do this. Like I get to go, I get to go bring my family with me for a day. Say, hey, we got some closings, we're doing showings. Y'all pile in and I get to bring my family with me. We get to go drive around. And yet. Are they in the car too long? Probably. Do they get tired? Yeah. Do I get tired? Sure. Do I have too many gas station boiled eggs and beef jerky? Absolutely. You got to keep it carnivore, though. But like, I love doing this so much. I am so blessed. It could be so much worse. I could be like, I live in, I live in rural Oklahoma. 20 minutes for me is the pipeline crossroad of the world. I went to high school with so many guys that, you know, went to the pipeline and that's a phenomenal. They created a phenomenal life for their family. They make a great wage, a great salary, but dude, they're doing six 12s, man. They're leaving their house at 4 in the morning with all their, all their tools and everything. It's a long heart and they're doing hard work. And in the summer when it's 110 here, because it gets real hot in the summer in Oklahoma, they're still doing it. And, and I am blessed to be able to, you know, go show a house or go do some other things that are.

[David Green]

Yep. You're sleeping in your own bed every night. You're coming home to your family. You can answer the phone while you're working. You're running a pipeline, you're doing some of the other jobs. You work in a manufacturing plant. You're doing nothing but that for the time that you're there, you're not staying connected to your family.

[Caleb Wright]

Two weeks ago, I, I'm not a big long vacation guy, so I'm a, I'm a 48 hour guy, 48 hours on the ground, wherever I go, if it's away from here, because I love Oklahoma. I love, I love working. I love doing stuff. I got a lot of stuff going. But a couple weeks ago we went to Florida. 48 hours there contracted three deals. It was great. You still get stuff going when you're, when you're getting to hang out somewhere else and you're getting to spend some time with your family. Yeah, this is an incredible industry. It could be a lot worse if then answering phone calls when somebody has a stressful thing or they need to go look at a house and you can schedule it.

[David Green]

Well, let's be frank. You're going to be stressed either way. You're going to be stressed because there's too much work to do and there's not enough you to do it. You're going to be stressed because you hired other people to do the work, and they're not doing a good enough job, or they want a day off or they want to take a vacation. Or you're going to be stressed because you don't have enough clients. You're running out of money. It's one of those three options. There's no way to avoid this.

[Caleb Wright]

I say this all the time, is stress is directly the job. Stress is directly related with the amount of money that you come out of in most cases. Like, most people are going to be stressed one way or another. I might be stressed on, you know, structuring deals and doing that. And like, every. Every once in a while, you get one of those deals where it's like, I swear that one. That one put a few gray hairs on me. Like, that was a tough one. I had to watch that family sleep on a couch for three weeks while we got this thing close. But you know what? Some people are stressed about money. Some people are stressed about what they're going to do tomorrow, the next meal. And, hey, this. If we can manage that, like, managing stress is. Is really the. Like, if you're good at that, and you can say, okay, cool. I 779 deals is what I did last year. The. The. My very first year in real estate, my goal was 12. I did 13. The next year, my goal was 24. I did 32. The next year was 36. And I did 50. No, 48. And then the next year goal was 50. I did 54. Next year, the goal was another 50. Because can I do that again? Can I prove to myself I can close 50 deals again? For a second year in a row, I closed 79. And so what's funny is that first year, I thought I was really busy. I was like, man, I'm a busy agent. This was great. And then my capacity grew. And then when I did 36. Or. Yeah, when I did 36, I was like, Gosh, that's. Or 32. I was like, man, I was really busy. I did three times the work I did last year, I was really busy. And then my capacity grew even more. And then you start growing. So even at 79 transactions, I still look at myself and I say, I can do more. I can do 100. Like, God has blessed us as humans with, like, being. It's like, I am on the power team. I was broke a lot of things. I was a strong young man. Your muscles build. Like, When I was 16, yeah, I could bench press £300. By the time I was 19, I was bench pressing over £530. We are blessed to be able to take on all forms of stress and be able to manage them in such a way that each time, yeah, I can handle a little bit more. I can handle a little bit more. It's. It's an incredible thing that we have abilities for.

[David Green]

Not only are, are we designed to manage it, it's actually a prerequisite to get stronger. You can't get your muscles bigger unless you lift more than you're capable of lifting. And it sends the message to the muscle to rebuild bigger than it was because you're trying to lift something heavy. I think that's. That. That is like a secret in God's design that lets us know how human beings should work mentally. How many women have become single mothers, unexpectedly ended up with a deadbeat father, had to figure it all out for themselves, and realized they were capable of things that they never thought they were capable of. How many guys were jokers, didn't have their dad in the house, didn't know what they were doing, knocked a girl up, all of a sudden they're like, oh, man, I need to get my stuff together. And went on to become very successful.

[Caleb Wright]

It's.

[David Green]

It is the pressure and the tension and the strain that wakes something up in us, that gives us the capacity to achieve greatness. And my belief is that you won't ever find your purpose that God gave for you. Like, you'll never find your ideal body unless you go lift heavier weights and work out as hard as you can. You'll never find your ideal personality, your ideal career, your. Your ideal gifting. If you're not being pressured and stressed. And one of the things I really admire about you is as you're going through that painful process of closing 79 houses and doing everything else, you don't have a bad attitude. You're this optimistic rhino that's charging through whatever is coming your way, setting a really good example for what everyone else. That shows what people are capable of.

[Caleb Wright]

Oh, yeah, I have this. But again, though, it's just like, I love it, right? I love it so much. I have this joke with a few lenders. I'm like, you know, that's why you guys call me the pizza boy, because, you know, I get these referrals for my lenders, and I said if I'm not contracted with them in 24 hours or less, it's free. So, like, I just. I love it so much. It's it's so much fun to be able to do this that. Yeah, it's. When you're constantly energized from something, it's hard to be beaten down. It's hard to be broken down. Like, I still. I still get euphoric every time a deal gets under contract. Like, it's so great. It's like, yeah, let's go now. If I would be lying if I said it was like, it was, you know, the first year, it's like, oh, my gosh, this is amazing. But it drives me, you know, because it's, oh, I get to help somebody else. I get to help this next person. These guys are great. You know, I get to walk through and see all types of people. And honestly, the. The connections I've made doing this has changed my life forever. Like, my business partner for the construction side of things was. Was a client who I met selling houses.

[David Green]

Wow. That just goes to show why you got to talk to everybody. Why you got to get to know everybody. I interviewed an agent called Landon Chase a couple episodes back, and Landon talked about very similar to you. He's like, I just wanted to serve everybody. I started in my church. I started serving everyone. I just wanted to help them. Word got around that I was really good at this and I was very helpful and people could trust me. Next thing I know, he's one of the. The top eight agent, I think, in the state of Arizona right now.

[Caleb Wright]

That's crazy.

[David Green]

And he's running another company just like you. He's running a media company. He's actually. He's a guy that does a lot of Mark Driscoll's content. If you've ever listened to any of his. Yeah, he's blowing up all over the Internet. Landon's. That's a legit real business that Landon is right running in addition to selling all these houses and that we are not saying this to make anyone feel bad about themselves. Like, oh, I suck. I can't even do one thing. And they're doing too. It's that the capacity of human beings is brilliant. Like you just said, Caleb, when you put them under stress and we have a good attitude and we walk forward saying, I know I can do this. The. The thing I'm trying to combat with this is the agents that look for reasons to justify why they don't try or why they don't serve their clients and they just serve them themselves.

[Caleb Wright]

Well, there's. There's a name for that. So, you know, you. You've heard of the. The Term the Midas touch, right? Yep. You know, everything they touch is gold. Well, there's an opposite of that, too. Like, we call that a junk finger. That they're going to find a reason to turn something to junk. They're going to be like, oh, this is, this is bad. You know, we got it, we got to bust this deal. This is, this is horrible. I, I, I, I gotta, I, I gotta close this thing. This is the, you know, this is, if I don't close this, I'm not gonna feed my family. Yeah. I mean, when you come from a sense of desperation, like everybody seeks it out, like everybody knows. You can smell it. Everybody knows. It's like, oh, this guy.

[David Green]

I mean, that's a good point.

[Caleb Wright]

What do they call it? Commission breath, something like that.

[David Green]

Commission breath. Yeah. And that's a good point to mention, not just for the agents, but when I'm representing a client and I can tell that the seller's desperate, the agent lets on that the seller's desperate. Not smart. Not a good idea to let the other side know that your client is in a big bind and they have to get closed. Right?

[Caleb Wright]

Absolutely.

[David Green]

But this happens a lot. Agents don't take their job seriously of representing their clients. And I'll call them. Oh, my God, my sellers. I really need to close this. David, please, you got to get your people to close. My seller's got all of his stuff in the moving truck and it's on his way to another state right now. And they got no plan. And I'm like, well, here comes a big well credit.

[Caleb Wright]

Write a 5000, write a $5000 check.

[David Green]

Or in California that might be $25,000. Right. Like, why that? It's, it's my job to advise my client on what is in their best interest. It's their job to do the same. They're not doing their job. They have commission breath and it shows in the transaction. All right, Caleb, this has been fantastic. Thank you for taking some time to share your insight. Especially it's about almost 9:00 over here in Oklahoma and you worked all day and you're still taking time to give back to the real talk real estate audience. So we appreciate you. If anybody wants to reach out. They want to talk about buying in Oklahoma. Oklahoma. They want to talk about what you're doing in the business, what they could do. Where can they find you?

[Caleb Wright]

Man, you can find me anywhere. I am on Facebook at Caleb Wright with a K. I'm on Instagram at thelord. Caleb Wright. I'm on TikTok at Real Estate Rhino. And because it's everywhere, my cell Phone number is 918-693-3535. Call me anytime.

[David Green]

There you go, folks. That is how you do it. And when you call, we'll see if he actually answers his phone or if he was full of it on the podcast. Caleb, thank you for being here today. Hope people reach out. Remember, everyone, today's show was sponsored by the one brokerage. So if you would like an honest lender to help you finance real estate with great rates and incredible service, give us a shot. Send me a message and I'll connect you with somebody myself. Make sure that you like this video. Share it with another realtor you know that could benefit from it and leave a comment. Let us know what your favorite part of Caleb's story was. I'll see you guys next week on Real Talk. Realtor.