Venture With Joe and Cody
Venture with Joe and Cody is a captivating journey into the lives and stories of business leaders, entrepreneurs, and pivotal community figures, revealing the essence of success through candid conversations. Tune in to discover the setbacks, triumphs, and invaluable lessons learned on the path to making a mark in the business world and beyond.
Venture With Joe and Cody
Starting A Business Is Not Glamorous
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A beautiful five-acre property near Wilsonville set the stage, but the real tour goes behind the scenes of what it takes to build a real estate or lending business that lasts. We open up about the trade-offs most people never see: the joy of flexible schedules and family time weighed against health insurance premiums, taxes without a safety net, marketing bills that come before revenue, and the late-night anxiety that arrives when a client’s deal wobbles. This is a candid, practical look at self-employment—the freedom, the fatigue, and the focus it demands.
We break down the differences between brokers and retail lenders in plain language. More options and higher upside can come with brokers, but so do software costs, processing support, and compliance overhead. Retail lenders often keep everything in-house, cover core systems, and provide benefits and a 401(k) match, though pay per file can be lower. On the agent side, we walk through how “big” commission checks get trimmed by marketing, staging, travel, photography, transaction coordination, and taxes. The lesson: price your service like a business, not a hobby, and measure your true margin.
The human side matters just as much. Clients are making their largest purchase or sale, and their stress becomes yours if you let it. We share how to set expectations, respond fast without burning out, and keep reputation high even when conditions get tough. We also get real about retirement for the self-employed: no one auto-enrolls you, so automate SEP-IRA or Solo 401(k) contributions, build a cash buffer, and plan growth with clear math. Freedom is not free, but when you can show up for your kids at 3 p.m. and still deliver for clients at 8 p.m., the cost can be worth it.
If this resonated, tap follow, share with a friend who’s debating the leap, and leave a review telling us the one hidden cost of self-employment you wish you had known sooner.
New Studio And Home Tour
SPEAKER_01Hey guys, welcome to Venture with Joe and Cody. I am Joe Skipper, the owner of Skipper Realty Group, brokered by EXP Realty. Name will be changing soon. We've already talked about that. And Cody Wilhelm with Residential Mortgage. What's up? How you doing, man? Good, good. As people notice, we are in studio. We're in it together. This is weird. Cody and I are still getting a little used to it. But we wanted to uh one have a chance to be together and be in person and talk about stuff, but also showcase this beautiful new house that you took a tour of privately yesterday. Yeah. What do you think?
SPEAKER_00Dude, it's got a little bit of everything. Yeah. I mean, the the property, what is it, five acres? Just uh yeah, over five acres. Yeah. So you got fruit trees, you got tons of stuff, yeah. Cover deck. Awesome remodel.
SPEAKER_01Awesome remodel.
Today’s Topic: Starting A Business
SPEAKER_00It's got a little bit of everything. Like we were talking yesterday, there's there's not really that thing that you're going, oh yeah, but it doesn't have to be. It kind of checks off a lot of the boxes. I mean, you got a full-on ADU downstairs in the basement. I mean, whole living court.
SPEAKER_01It's like a party shower. Like you're like, is the clo is that a closet like with water in it?
SPEAKER_00We should have done this in the shower.
SPEAKER_01We could have. That's true. But no, this home has it all. It's remodeled in uh everything pretty much from 2022. It's an 80s home, but it's like everything's pretty much brand new. So we wanted to wanted to be in here. It's a beautiful location to showcase just outside Wilsonville. So we were like, hey, let's take advantage of a beautiful home and sit here and hang out in person and get used to this. And then we'll just get weird again and go back to screens.
SPEAKER_00It's like we've had a long distance relationship this whole time and now we're together.
SPEAKER_01I know. It's so funny. We've always talked about that. It's like it's it's weird to, you know, we see each other every single week on camera. Right. Like so it's like normal to see each other, but in person it's like I just I can actually touch you. It's not like I have to touch the screen anymore to get to get to you.
SPEAKER_00And the funny thing is we're like 40 minutes away from each other.
SPEAKER_01It's so close. It's surprising how close you are to this house. Um we're just outside of Wilsonville and you 35 minutes with traffic. So bad at all. Yeah, I kind of lost track of what we were gonna talk about today.
Lender Vs Broker: How They Differ
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we were gonna talk about just the you know, some of the challenges associated with starting your own business. Yes. Um whether that be mental, financial, um, just kind of the risks and challenges associated with starting your own business. Like you're you're in a position where you really are truly self-employed. Yeah. I'm an employee of our company, okay, but I'm I self-source my income. Okay. Right? So I'm not self-employed, I'm a W-2 employee, but I have to go out and get my own business. You truly are.
SPEAKER_01So I get the concept of that you have to earn your own business, but do you is there any benefits to you by being a W-2 with another company? Like, do they give you do you get retirement? Do you get how does that all work?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I get I get medical, dental, I get all the benefits. There's a 401k plan.
SPEAKER_01And that's paid through the company. Yep. Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00That's I mean, I pay, obviously, but yeah, it's not as if I'm just straight self-employed. So I do get all the benefits of being an employee, um, but we don't have like walk-ins or um, you know, branch on it, needs or anything like that. Everyone you get is you. Yeah, so from that standpoint, it's you're self-employed, but you also don't have I don't have to file self-employed taxes, I don't have to do any, you know, a lot of stuff that you do. You have to go out and source your own insurance and and everything. It's fun. I bet. It sounds funny.
SPEAKER_01Like as you're talking, I'm like, I should be a lender, right? I should go get my W-2 and or you know, get my health insurance.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, they do like on the broker side.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00Um, they will they're most of them are self-employed on their own, yeah.
SPEAKER_01But what would you say, okay, without getting into the weeds, um, I know we want to stay superficial level, but uh what would you say is a benefit of a broker versus a lender then? Like more freedom, is that the only thing? Or uh to kind of because uh what for people that are listening, a broker is more of someone, and correct me if I'm wrong, is someone that can shop lenders for someone. So they're kind of like a middle, yeah, middleman, like between the buyer and the lender. Right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Okay. So a broker is really primarily gonna be someone like say your company is ABC Mortgage, that's the brokerage that you work for. You most of them do not have their own in-house, you know, they don't do the processing, they don't do the underwriting, they don't do the loan through their company. They're gonna say, All right, cool, I'm gonna I'm gonna go out there and I'm gonna find the best option for you, and we're gonna do the loan through there. Okay. So, like you said, they're kind of a middleman. Whereas from uh like my position is like the retail side, um, so we do just about everything through our company. Okay, same underwriters, same everything. Um, the loan might be going in and getting sold to a different investor, but we do all the stuff in-house. We're not dealing with other companies where we're like chatting with them on what they're doing, it's all internal.
SPEAKER_01So you could go the route that I'm going and have the stress and get your own insurance and all that stuff. Yeah. You become a broker. Yeah. How do you think about it? Right?
SPEAKER_00Sounds great.
SPEAKER_01I guess like I would say, you know, and I'm just playing devil's advocate, I guess the benefit of a broker is that they have more options, I guess. Is that what they generally go for? Is that the broker can kind of look at a bigger sphere of options for a buyer.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And and it's um just like the difference between self-employed, like you pay for everything, right? All the marketing, all that stuff. If you were, maybe there's other um real estate options where some of that stuff is paid for and you just get paid less. Yeah, it that's kind of the same difference from our side. All of our marketing software costs for the to do the process is all paid for by the company. And then therefore, we get paid a little bit less than what a broker would have. They get paid more, but they have to then pay for the support staff, the software, you know, polling credit, all those different things. So they have more flexibility because they can they can kind of choose what they want to do with each scenario, whereas ours is all it's all just part of the package. Yeah. And you just kind of it's like a plug and play things.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's nice. Have you ever thought about going like a broker? Or is it like is it still a thought or is it like, was it a fleeting thought that you're like, I'm good now? It was uh when we had left I don't want your company to watch and be like, yeah, no, I'm gonna do this like you're like, I'll never change. Yeah. I love where I'm at. Yeah.
Who Pays For What In Lending
SPEAKER_00We uh a handful of us in our office before we left Gateway and went to residential, we had explored the broker option. Okay. Um, but that was going to be involved with my boss, him kind of being the one that that ran everything. So it was like, if you want to do this, like we're on board to kind of try this out because none of us had done the broker side. Um so it was something that we explored when we were kind of trying to figure out where's our next destination. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it didn't go. It this was also 2022. Yeah. So the market was like, it was it was not a hot market to begin with. So it's kind of a we even more what felt like a riskier scenario to go like, all right, the market's cooling off a lot, yeah. Not a whole lot of transactions happening right now, and we're gonna completely change things. Yeah. Um and there's a lot of upfront cost to to do that. If you just plug into another company, there's not really any cost associated with that. But if you want to open up your own brokerage and the licensing and registration and all that stuff, it's a big investment and risk. But again, you have total control. Like you run it like it's your own.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I think there's there's pros and cons to that, and that's nice. Um I would say this isn't a hidden, uh, we're talking about hidden costs of more like uh subliminal cost to running your own business. I think the financial thing is a very big thing that I think people don't look at, especially with a family, is you look you kind of glance over it, but like health insurance, life insurance, yeah, uh retirement, like all that stuff comes out of our that's us. Like, and we don't have to put in anything, or we have to put in as much as we want. So it really is something that has to be considered for anyone thinking about doing it out there, is like considering some companies, some companies will provide some sort of insurance insurance or something like that as real estate agents. There's not a ton in real estate world in lending, it sounds like there is, but um, yeah, it was a cost that that there are a lot of hidden, I don't even think they're hidden costs, they're just not costs that a lot of agents factor in when they make decisions to get into this field. Because we've talked multiple times about how there's a low bar of entry to get into our line of work. And I hate saying it, but it's just the facts.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, so that appealingness, especially when the rates were low, it's like, dude, I could get a thousand bucks, two thousand bucks to get my real estate license and start my business. And I can just, you know, sell five, six homes, make a ton of money. Uh-huh. Um, and then they hit that realization of like, that's cool, you make the money, but you've got to pay taxes, you've got to pay for your marketing, you've got to pay for everything else that comes along with the stuff. So I think that that's where a lot of agents at least get into a lot of trouble is they think that they see the profit margin uh, you know, right away when you sell a house, the commission structure or whatever they charge. Yeah. And then they forget that a lot of that's gonna be gone by the time you're by the time you pay everything off. And that's what we had to realize is like it's I know people think that real estate agents get paid a lot of money and they and I'm not saying we don't. Um some agents deserve it, some agents don't. Sure. Um but there's a lot, it's running a business. I think but I think both agents and buyers and sellers don't see agents as like they have to run a business. They're like, oh, look at their commission. Right. Because it's very rare for, I think, and I'm thinking out loud here, I think it's very rare for people to see someone run a business and see their profit or see their see their pay. And in real estate, it's very in front of your face that here's what I'm paying you for this. And so I think people can see that and say, Well, I'm paying you a lot of money. What are you, you know, right? What why do I pay you this much money? And so they don't factor in all the stuff that running a business takes a lot of money.
Hidden Costs: Insurance And Taxes
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And and I think something that gets overlooked too with a lot of that is real estate, anything, right? The amount of time that you put into it, too. Right? Like your normal eight to five, you clock in, you clock out, you get paid, everything's safe feeling, right? Yep. When you're self-employed, whatever it is, I mean, you talk to people that are contractors or anything else, and it's like they're working all day and all night. When even when they're home, they're like, all right, kids are in bed, I gotta get caught up on this stuff, because you don't have a lot of that support. And if you do, you're paying for them, which means that you're you gotta get even more in there. And it's just like there's I think there's a there's such a comfort with being an employee and not having to deal with all that. If you're short staffed, cool, hey, let's let's let's see if the company can hire another person. For sure. When it's on you, you're like, all right, now I have to bring in this much more business to justify this helper to make it work, or I just hack my day. And there's a lot that goes into it that I think is it does get overlooked.
SPEAKER_01And I think that I'm not, and this isn't meant to be a podcast on complaining that people, you know, you're paying us a lot of money. Yeah look how poor we have it and how hard we have it. That's not it. It's more for yeah, I think this personal talk is to be more for agents or people that are in this industry to know what they're getting into. I know I do think we're compensated well. I don't know lending compensation, so I can't speak for you, but yeah, I know we're compensated well. But I do also know that we work, we personally work very hard to earn that money. And one of the hidden things we can talk about is that that time. Like you all you have freedom with your business, but with that freedom comes a lot of uh, I guess either you have to have a lot of discipline or accept that you're working a lot. We don't have these, you know, we have some agents in this world that are like, uh I'm like a lawyer. I only work eight to five Monday through Friday. It's like, okay, come on. You're not a lawyer. So and you're not a doctor, and they do all these things of like your accountant doesn't, you know, work all nine hours of the night. I'm like, well, you're not an accountant. So um I don't we don't buy into that thing. We're available for clients. I know you are, and that's why we and you and I get along really well in a sale, is that um we're available. Like we're we just have to be. We we we want to be. It's like when clients need us, they're they need us, and I'm they're not waiting around till the following morning at nine o'clock. So what comes with that? The hidden the hidden things of running your own shop is deciding what you want to be as a as a business owner. And yeah, um, we decided that yeah, we're you're available at least all all the time. Yeah. And there's more nights than not that you're you know, the kids go to bed and you're like, okay, I gotta do this really quick, or I gotta make get on this phone call, or you're at dinner and someone calls, you're like, I gotta take it because they need yes, there's a bit these are the biggest transaction of their life. So that's what Christine and I bought into of like we may think it may not need direct attention, but yeah, this is their largest purchase they're gonna make or or largest sale they're gonna make, and we need to be the clients that are in that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But what comes with that is a lot of time.
SPEAKER_00A lot of time, yeah. Yeah. So and sometimes those conversations are just two minutes or five minutes. For sure. But to that point, if you're not, then they're either gonna be become frustrated or they're gonna go somewhere else. For sure. So that's another part too, like in that same kind of element of time. Um you know, I I know you don't get vacation time. No, I don't get vacation time because we have that flexibility to go, you know, we're just commission only. So if I choose to be gone for three weeks out of the country, yeah, that's cool. Fine, go for it, right?
SPEAKER_01You're not getting paid for it. Yes, you're not getting paid for it.
SPEAKER_00And if I don't answer my phone and and get back to people, they're gonna move on to the next person. So I think there's also that factor too, you know, self-employment uh across the board, but especially in the real estate side, it's a it's a quick there need to be answers quickly.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um it's expected. It's expected.
SPEAKER_01And I don't think they shouldn't expect it. Right. And that's why working with you and working with your company is like we need people that respond like we do. Like that, you know, and I I don't want to work with a lender that's, you know, oh, it's Saturday, we don't I'll see a Monday. Yeah. And like it's not how this works very well. Uh one of the stresses that I would say that before I forget it, um, that you probably factor the same thing in is the stress that you take on for each client.
SPEAKER_00Oh man.
Time Costs And Always Being On
SPEAKER_01Like it's very I was not prepared for how personally you take each transaction. And I know that people like try to teach you, it's not you, you know, just move on. This is just a transaction. And it's like we have like we've gotten better at it, but man, the stress of like a client that is struggling with this, or almost the deal's about to fail, or yeah, the inspection's not going well, or they didn't get an offer accepted, or they did it. Like everything, I didn't realize how much I take personally, yeah with them. Like it kind of you you either enjoy the experience that they're having or you're dying with the experience they're having. So I don't know if that's probably it's probably even more so in the lending because the stress involved with the numbers and the whether things work out. But that's something that people don't tell you about is that you're gonna take on your client's stress.
SPEAKER_00And I really struggle with it, and I've I've always struggled with it because I, you know, like you, I I take it personal, even though I know it's not personal, and I'll even have people tell me like, I'm not frustrated with you, I'm just frustrated with the process. Like, you know, I thought we had this or that or whatever it is, and it's like, oh, you know, it's like a gut punch because even though it might not have anything to do with me personally or something that I did, but it's like whenever you sense that frustration of some kind or the stress level, I'm like, man, you know, you try to you try to make it as smooth and good of a process as possible. So when it feels like it's not, um it makes it challenging because you know, we're in a position where we're we're gaining clients by uh having a good reputation, doing a good job, getting referrals down the road. So I think that plays into it as well, where it's like I want to be the best possible lender for them. And if I'm not, then I feel like, oh man, not only was that tough, but what could I potentially be missing from this down the road? And a lot of times, you probably run into this too. You follow up with people afterwards, you know, whatever happened, and a month goes by and you check in and it's like everything's good, you know, we're happy, it was a stressful time, but we made it, and thank you so much.
SPEAKER_01But in the moment, I'm like, Oh, you you that's you know, common. That's I I think that's more common the case as you talk a few weeks later, because in the the heat of it, it's it's very difficult, especially in the lending world with the numbers. You know, we have contractual stuff and things like that that we have to keep straight and the the negotiations for inspections and things like that that could go south, but you know, in the lending world, it's like it's tough, man. It's uh it because I you know I indirectly hear from clients of like, why can't we do this? Why can't this happen? Why can't this happen? And yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you you probably hear all the venting side of it.
SPEAKER_01Cody sucks. Like, why is he doing this? Why is he keep asking for this stuff? No, but especially in the your world like of like not being able to provide, uh, you know, like you were saying, is not being able to provide maybe the loan that they wanted or that or the terms that they wanted, and you're like, oh, it's just a frustration, and you have to personalize each thing.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, and things change quickly with stuff too, you know. So um, yeah, it's it's a I think that's one of the challenges, definitely, is trying to balance that. For sure. Because I think it's a good thing that shows that we care. Yeah. But it's also, you know, you sometimes I think we wear too much of it.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00And it's like, I'll my wife will bring it up to me all the time if I'm like, oh man, this loans, you know, it's a challenge or whatever. And she's like, Well, is it something that you did? Yeah. I'm like, no, and she's like she's like, I cannot do that. Yeah, why are you like, why are you stressing about it then? Like you didn't do anything. I might I know, but I still like I want to be able to fix it.
SPEAKER_01And so no, I think that's something that people, yeah, that we were never told of that, you know, and maybe I was told that I just never thought it. I'd be like, yeah, it's fine. Like uh, and coming from the police world, it was like, you know, it's obviously a different stress, but it's still a similar stress. So I think that, you know, I don't know if it's a hidden thing, and along that lines of the stress of just I think that there have been more nights in in law enforcement, you have those times that you know are very scary. Yeah. And then you can go to sleep, or maybe you you kind of think about it that night. But there's more times that I'm up it like it's always between three or four. I'm up like and I'll hit it and I'll be like, Did I do this? Or do I need to do this for my client? Yeah. Or I need to talk to him about this. And then you're there. That's a normal thing in running your own shop. I think I don't think it's unique to lending or real estate. I think that's any business that they don't tell you about is like you're a lot of sleepless nights on your mind 24-7.
SPEAKER_00A lot of sleepless nights that you're gonna have. It's such a different experience, right? Because you're when you're an employee, and I say that in the sense of like you go to work and you just do your job and you clock out and you go home, and you don't have to really carry into that stress. Yeah, in the big picture at the end of the day, I don't really care. I did my job, and that's all that matters. Yep. Um I think from the more self-employed side, uh, and and I'll include the lending side in there too. It's like you do, you wear it with you all the time, and that stress, it just never goes away. And I think that's one thing that's that's always kind of pushed me and motivated me with the the industry and the business, is that it's it's it's never boring, it's never the same thing over and over. It's like something's constantly changing.
Emotional Load And Client Stress
SPEAKER_01You would think it would be based on it's like it's a house sale, but it's surprising. Like Christina's mom said the same thing. She's like, every time you'll learn something from every transaction, it's like okay. Right. Yeah, gotcha. It's like a house sale. How but it truly is because you're dealing with like it is the typical home sale, but you're dealing with two different personalities each time, buyer seller. You're dealing with an agent that you might not have worked with, you might be it's like it and it's it and the home has issues. Like there's literally everything. Terms of their contract, uh firing, you know, they get fired halfway through. They there's like everything that happens that I now realize that I know that you learn something new every every time.
SPEAKER_00And and you also get to this point where it's like there's never a level of satisfaction.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because it's always chasing.
SPEAKER_00You're always chasing, and you can appreciate it for like a day or two or something. You're like, okay, what do I have for next month? What's my next deal going on? Cool. I can so it's like you know, it's like these um uh athletes, yeah, where it's like they won their conference championship. Well, what's next? Well, I'll just take it one game at a time, right? Like, can't be too happy right now, and that's how it always feels.
SPEAKER_01Like we're athletes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you can enjoy the city.
SPEAKER_01We're we're basically star app very average. Neck and neck. No, but it's true. Uh there is like there's an unsettledness that you have to be okay being unsettled. Yeah. There is never, and it's not like, oh, we're just greedy or oh, we're just you know, you're just always looking for more money or more whatever. It's like, no, we're just looking for the next pay. Like we're looking to support our family and have a normal life. Like because you can never feel we always are wondering, like, what's the point? What's the number of homes? What's the number the GCI? What is what will be that point where we're just sitting back like cool? Right. Like, yeah, we got it's never coming. No. And it's not because it's greed, it's a matter of survival. It taps into a survival mode that you just never thought you needed to have. That you're like, you could have like probably the same thing. We could have seven deals going on and closing this month, and it wouldn't be like, dude, this is amazing. It would be this is amazing, yes, but okay, next month what do we have? Because it might not come ever again. Yeah. And always that kind of like fear of that it's not gonna happen again. Like it may never come.
SPEAKER_00Like that's and I think that was part of the problem, you know, with 2020, 21, those markets where it was just hot, no matter who you were, no matter what was going on, there became that level of comfort because whether you were doing everything you should have been doing or not, business was still coming in. So I think there was there's a time where you do kind of relax and go, Hey, maybe I can't. And then everything shifts.
SPEAKER_01I think with time you realize that's not the case. Like as you get more in the business, you realize that's never gonna happen because those times you're now like those times are gonna end. Even if you're in it, you're like, when's the when is next month gonna change? And so I think that's good.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Because you kind of prepare. I think when you're newer, you don't prepare as much and you're just you know, oh man, I'm making money. Let's start, let's buy the car, let's do it. Oh man, right? Because this can never end. Like I'm getting so many clients, I'm so good at what I do. Yes. Yes. I was made for this, clearly. Like, and then you it hits you really hard, you're like, nah, that's not the case. But yeah, um, yeah, that's a that's a stress that I don't think people or a thing that people don't really talk about that never being content, never feeling content. And I think I don't know if that's healthy or not. I I like I think it's healthy to run a business that way. Right. Um, but as a person, it's very difficult. Right. Because you don't go on vacation, even if you have the like you're like, I got the money, I got the deals, I got whatever. You go on vacation and you're like, you're still like, dude, if I just take off truly, don't respond to climate. Right. It what's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00How far is that gonna set me back?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Yeah. So it's not easy running your own shop.
SPEAKER_00No, it's not.
SPEAKER_01But the freedom that comes with it is And that is like there's no price tag. The the there's no price tag that you can put on being with your family whenever you need to be. Going on this thing, like if you family out of state, if you need to go take care of someone or if you need to go do something, you know, that restriction for me was very uh it was very tough for me to do. Yeah. That restriction of like an eight to five or a you know, four tens, and you had to ask for it off and you had to uh you know, sick leave to do this. I was like, that was so like I guess claustrophobic to me. Sure. That the freedom, even if I'm waking up struggling about where the next paycheck is gonna come in. I do have to like sometimes think like at the kids' practices and the things. I'm like, I get to do this, whereas some parents don't get to do this. Like uh Monday, uh President's Day, where we had a tournament, um, another basketball tournament, because it was like an official holiday. It's like think about how many people I was like, how many people have to go to work, they don't have the choice to do anything different. And I have the choice to say, okay, I'm gonna go to this game. So just really that's I think freeing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, and we've talked about it just recently too, but like that to me, as our kids get older, that really carries more and more weight. For sure. It's like, man, I can, you know, once my kids in another 10 years, well, 15 years, say, all three of them in theory would be out of the house. And it's like I would have as much time as I wanted to devote my whole life to working. But until then, it sure is nice to be able to have those opportunities to jump in and help coach or be able to, you know, coordinate with your wife on picking up a kid or taking them to wherever, and it's like that carries if there wasn't the flexibility with that, there are days where I would probably be like, I'm ready to just find a job where I can just clock in and clock out. Because I could probably find something that pays close enough to the space.
SPEAKER_01There's still like the grass is always greener. Still, you're like, eh, you see all your friends that I still have buddies in police work, they're like, uh, we got this much overtime and blah, blah. I'm like, uh there's a slight thing of like this sounds nice to just have a steady thing, but it just ends up no, I'm not doing that.
SPEAKER_00But then you're tied to the clock.
Never Feeling Done Or Secure
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And I think finally I would say uh it's not even hidden. Um, maybe none of these are hidden, but to pay attention to is retirement. Um a lot of agents um I've seen go until they can't go anymore because they they have to, maybe they want to, but retirement is again like health insurance and life insurance, no one's putting into your retirement anymore. Right. Like, and so that was it wasn't a wake-up call, but it was something that we had to consider and we still have to consider every day and every paycheck to say what are we gonna put, if anything, into our retirement each month, yeah, whatever it is. Um, because it truly it's on you. Like we don't have to we can save the money and not put into retirement and use it to do whatever, but you know, come when I'm 65, am I gonna be done? So just something like that we had to kind of really prepare for and plan for is is retirement. I don't know if you guys get a retirement with residential or get some sort of um just a 401k. Okay.
SPEAKER_00So they yeah, they manage a plan so that they'll do something. They'll uh they'll match too up to a certain percent. So you get a little bit of that extra incentive to put in at least as much as what they're gonna match.
SPEAKER_01I wish real estate would do that. I wish real estate brokerage. I know, right? Just something.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I and I feel like that would be a real struggle with the self-employed, like the truly self-employed side of things. Yeah, because that's hard unless you have a you know, couple great months in a row and you're like, all right, we can kind of stash some of this over there. If it's just steady but not great. Yeah, you're always just kind of playing. You're always like, uh, maybe next month, but then man, you know, time just flies and you look at it and go, oh man, if I want to retire in 10 years or 15 years. And I've had conversations with borrowers like that, and it's like it's kind of heartbreaking when they're like 65 and they're they're still having to work a part-time job and scraping by on social security, and they didn't they're they're kicking them themselves to like, I wish I would have done some type of retirement, you know, and and you hear people say it all the time, do it while you're young, and you're young, and you're like, Okay. Yeah, that's like a hundred years from now. So no, I'm good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm not ready to die yet, thank you. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, it's crazy. Um, that's something, and I and again, it's I think where agents fail is like they don't factor those things in when they first start up. Yeah, like they're they're attracted to that uh GCI, which is the gross commission that you make on a sale, and then it's like once you line item on what you have to pay for, it's it doesn't turn out to be as much as you think.
SPEAKER_00No.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So, but still worthwhile. But yeah, retirement is one of those hidden things that I think that we, you know, we got it in front of it in the front end, but it's like, yeah, it's something that can be easily be forgotten, especially if you started this career younger, that you're like, oh yeah, I'll get to retirement down the road. But yeah, get on that faster.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I think that you know, another one that maybe isn't necessarily hidden, but like when you're needing to to grow, right? You kind of got things figured out, you've started a baseline. Yeah. Well, now in order to grow, you either need to market more, yeah, or you need to bring on some help because hey, things are going better than I was expecting, but now I can't do all these jobs, so how can I capitalize on some of these other jobs that I'm doing or opportunities, and then you're looking at hiring employees and what that costs, the marketing costs, and going, oh man, there's growth comes at a cost.
SPEAKER_01And that's again, people don't realize that you know, oh, you you continue to get this, get these clients, get these, whatever. It's like, yeah. But what comes with that is actually a cost associated with growth. And like if you've watched a shark tank at all, you can see that they're they talk about that. Like, oh, we've we've grossed, you know, eight to so many millions, and it's like they're losing money every because they have to keep keep up with what success they they have.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, that's something yeah, it's not as if like stuff just falls in your lap and you're like, Oh, check my email this day today, and I got a bunch of new business.
Freedom Versus A Steady Paycheck
SPEAKER_01Yeah, tons more marketing goes into it. Like we've noticed that we've been growing, thankfully, a lot, and it's like, but what comes with that is a lot more marketing and a lot more marketing budget and things like that. So you start to see that profit loss, you're like, geez, Louise. Right? Yeah. And then you set that standard. I know. And then you sell that standard, and then you're like, well, I'm not going. But that's good. It's just like, yeah, just not holds you accountable. You gotta factor that in because you're not just gonna be able to just call your buddy, and you know, eight eight out of ten buddies are gonna be like, yeah, we want to sell with your like you made eight calls and you know, made ten calls, got eight, eight sellers, and you're good to go.
SPEAKER_00Like, you know, Joe, I wasn't planning on selling, but now that you called me, let's see. Sound like a nice guy.
SPEAKER_01Well, I think that's it, man. Yeah. So it's good to talk to you in person. Uh I think we're finally maybe used to it a little bit.
SPEAKER_00It's like a make-a-wish thing.
SPEAKER_01But um, yeah, I guess next week we'll probably be back at back at the remote unless we want to find someone else's beautiful home we can we can go in. Yeah, if you want to volunteer a home for us, just call us. We're totally willing to come to your house and uh and record there. So um no, it's good to see you, man. Thank you for the talk. And uh you guys like and subscribe, download, head over to our YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, all the stuff if you want to keep up with what Cody and I are doing. But until then, we'll talk to you guys later.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. See ya. See ya.
