In this episode of The Hyperfast Agent Podcast, Jessie Rodriguez from HGTV’s Vintage Flip, presents at the HyperFast Sales Summit. Jessie knows what it’s like to lose it all, but in the process discovered how to use consistency and motivation to explode into a realm of success that he never thought possible!
Episode Highlights:
- Every real estate agent is at a different spot in their respective career, so everyone has a different next step.
- Jessie and his wife Tina met at the age of 18 in the Greek life of their college when Jessie walked Tina to her car.
- After getting Tina’s number, Jessie made the all-time dumb mistake of not calling her.
- Jessie’s first job in real estate was making cold calls at a mortgage company, an industry he knew nothing about.
- After cold calling for a year and a half, Jessie got his license as a loan officer before opening his own loan company.
- For Jessie, the market crash hit in 2007 just after he and Tina had purchased their first house.
- In an effort to counter the market crash, Jessie started to dip into their savings account without telling Tina.
- Eventually, Jessie and Tina were able to short-sell their house and were forced to move in with Tina’s parents.
- After hearing from an old friend about REOs, Jessie decided to become an REO agent.
- With no money in the bank, Jessie went out on a limb and invested money to become an REO agent, but it didn’t take off as he expected.
- Going to events and masterminds will ultimately elevate your network and success.
- After waiting and waiting, Jessie realized that he had to search out properties that were owned by Wells Fargo.
- Jessie made the effort to reach out to the Loan Officer on all the Wells Fargo properties, after which he was given 10 listings.
- Within 2 months after COVID, real estate entered the best market that it has ever seen - down markets don’t last long.
- In just 3 years, Jessie was doing over 500 deals year-over-year, all because he chose a niche and didn’t give up.
- At all times, Jessie keeps his brain 2 years ahead, making sure to plan for future market movement.
- Jessie and his team had to discover how to buy houses once they partnered with hedge funds that were scooping up single-family homes.
- In the midst of purchasing houses for a hedge fund, Jessie began purchasing houses for himself and flipping them.
- Though he made money on his first flip, Jessie immediately lost $40k on his second one.
- After losing money on his second flip, Jessie began to sell flips to real estate agents.
- Guest-starring on HGTV’s Flip or Flop ultimately landed Jessie two seasons of his own show, Vintage Flip.
- With flips slowing down, Jessie made his rounds with his old clients and was asked to sell houses for the same hedge fund that he previously bought for.
- It takes the same amount of hard work to get a niche sale as it does a standard sale - the riches are in the niches.
- Staying humble, consistent, and working hard has taken Jessie from broke and depressed to a life that he loves today.
- Everything is hard, so you can’t let resistance stop you from blasting through the wall.
- Sometimes it only takes one phone call to start building momentum in the right direction.
3 Key Points:
- Very early in his career, Jessie realized that in just about any sales game, you have to go through a million no’s to get to the yes.
- REOs, or real estate owned, are properties that have gone into foreclosure and need to be sold, so the bank gives the listing to an REO agent.
- Jessie always keeps his mind 2 years in the future of whatever market he is in, at one point buying homes for a hedge fund, selling REOs, and flipping houses.
Tweetable Quotes:
- “I learned that you have to get through a lot of no’s before you get the yes.” - Jessie Rodriguez
- “What you do next is going to define you, not what happened to you.” - Jessie Rodriguez
- “Events like this, the reason they are so valuable is because of who you’re in the room with.” - Jessie Rodriguez
- “Everything gets really busy, then it starts to slow down. That’s going to happen for your whole career.” - Jessie Rodriguez
Resources Mentioned: