Why 10% of Agents Sell 90% of Homes

You're listening to the Vault Unlock where the real secrets of success are revealed. Every episode, one founder, one confession, one strategy that created income scale and unstoppable growth. The code is cracked, the Vault is open. Today, I'm excited. We have the leadership guru, awesome, awesome entrepreneur, Lee Brown. Lee, how are we doing? I'm even better now because I get to show off my little retro kitchen. In fact, you got your little fancy hot tech background. We're like yin and yang here. I actually, I noticed that. Do like your little fancy retro kitchen. What was the inspiration by that? Oh, it's a long story. So I don't know how much your listeners want to hear. The very first female lead syndicated TV program was out of Charlotte, North Carolina back in the 50s. And it was a lady named Betty Feaser. So it was one of your home X shows. So you had to cook things and have it fixed a stain. And then a few years ago, I found her set in the basement of a house that I was going to list for sale. And I was like, that's Betty Feaser's kitchen. And so I asked if I could buy it. Shazam, I have taken her whole set and recreated it here in my office. And it's my favorite backdrop ever. And with that story, I love it. And I know if you haven't actually little plug here, if you're listening on Apple, come to YouTube so you can actually physically see the set we're talking about. I love it. So Lee, tell us a little bit like who's Lee. What is Lee all about? Well, I'm a North Carolina native and my roots here go all the way back to the colonial days of North Carolina. My family or Patriots in the birthday of the country is coming up here next year, which is wild. We are a farm family and I grew up into a kid who went to go to Wall Street, which wasn't for me. I sold chain soles. That was great, but it wasn't for me. And I landed in real estate as an entrepreneur 25 years ago. I still live here. I hang out with my family as much as I can. I have two kids who are eligible to fly the nest as soon as they can get a good job and a husband who is more patient than he should be. And basically living the American dream every day. I love it. And with a lot of energy too, it's awesome. It's awesome. So real estate agent. Well, I would say I'm actually a real estate broker because, okay. Nancy, you know, the category matters when you're trying to elevate your game. I do own my own brokerage and I have worked with buyers and sellers personally for 25 years. But at this stage in my career, I work with a select few buyers and sellers because, you know, I can cherry pick, which is a good perk. And now I think we can educate all over the world on how to conduct real estate in a more professional way and be more profitable. Okay. So I want to get into that because that's very interesting because I actually have a little bit. I used to do some real estate training. So I remember back in the day, the luncheon learns and the guy would come in at luncheon sell you a product and speak to real estate agents. Believe it or not, imagine myself back then I was selling websites before real estate agents were even on websites. Yes. So we were telling them how, you know, if you don't have a website, you go out of business nowadays, right? If you don't have even social, heck, if you don't even have a podcast, you probably go out of business these days. So I get it. I love it. But you didn't just turn it. You're right. You didn't just turn into a real estate agent. You create your own brokerage. How many agents do you have? Oh, there's only four of us. You know, we're so good mighty and I love it. I love it. You're one of the top 1000 brokerages in the country and it's always a good reminder to people that size is not always the way you measure things. If you have really productive people, I'd rather have my small crew of highly productive people than a bunch of non-producer. So already we're going to change that for you because when I hear the language and terminology, I want to make sure we catch on. We said small, but we ain't small. We're boutique. We're boutique brokerage. But I generally don't like that word. Can I tell you why? Oh, yes. Because it imports an opinion that we're the luxury top end kind of brokerage, but we work with everybody from a single wide trailer and we do represent luxury homes too. Okay. I avoid the word boutique and you can fix me on this if it would help, but I don't want the person at the lower end of the price spec from the feel like they can't call me because I won't everybody to have top professional service. So help me. Recrant. Yeah. So figure out what's another way of saying boutique that doesn't isolate just with everything that you were the way you speak and the way you hold yourself. I actually thought you were luxury. Well, thank you. I'll tell my hair's where he is. Yeah. Just just I thought for sure you're probably doing a little bit more. Well, I mean, are we talking ultra luxury, you know, a $30 million homes, but I definitely think and you're doing at least a million dollar plus homes, not dealing with, you know, trailers, I think you said, right? But you go all the wide range. So it's the original affordable housing and one thing I learned from my dad, my dad's a retired realtor. I should absolutely point out he was by the way, the first realtor in Charlotte, North Carolina to have his own website. He was kind of. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty good. But he told me on day one in this business and actually he told me this in my other sales lives too. When the phone rings, it is someone who could have called anybody. Anybody? Yeah. You have received the honor of that phone call. Yeah. And so from day one, it's, I don't care what your price point is. I'm going to treat you like you are the multi million dollar property because you never know what's happening in somebody else's life and how you can lift them up by being the one person who poured into them when everybody else told them they weren't enough. And I love my luxury properties. They're pretty fun to sell, but there's something special about the person who scratched and scraped and made it happen because now they're in the game too. I absolutely love that. Again, I see how real estate's bigger for you than just selling homes and commissions right out of the gate. And you just set it there indirectly. The last thing is people who scraped and figured out whatever they had to do, make the meat the down payment to get in their first home. It doesn't matter the size of home. You're helping people get into a home. Who maybe thought they never even had the ability to get it at home? You find them the right home. You're finding them right, like the right process for them so they can walk in with their own keys. And I can see that you're very passionate about that. So that's fantastic. Well, we want people to build a future that's financially stable. And I think every entrepreneur, one of our goals is to hire people so that we can provide a future for other people. It's so exciting when you get to grow jobs because other people then get to change their lives. Real estate's the same way when somebody gets in. Now later they can play up, but if they don't get in on step one, they're never going to be able to progress. And man, it's just so empowering to watch somebody else make it happen. I didn't do it for them. I just helped show them the way. And then they get to go do big things and I get to sit back like a mom and say, good job, baby, good job. Yeah, I love it. And you do that with a small mighty. Like we said, a small mighty strong team. You're not looking to be bloated. You're looking to go deep and you're looking to be effective. Well, honey, I've had those days. I've had the lots of agents days and it's lots of headaches because the larger number of agents, you still have a core that are wildly committed professionals and they are crushing it. And you have a whole bunch. You're like, I don't have enough leads. Yeah. So let's talk. I mean, let's not, this podcast isn't about that, but let's let's talk about that because I think there's something there for all sales people, which and I don't know what the start is, but back in the day, it was something like that again, typical like 10% of the real estate agents make 90, you know, sell 90% of the homes. Why do you, what would you say? Still accurate. Still like, yeah. So why do you think that is? Well, I personally believe that because real estate, you have to make a discipline choice on day one. You're either in or you're not. I love my time agents who feel like they could sell a house here and there, but they're not in and they don't get up and treat it like a job and give themselves the discipline and manage themselves to success. Those top producers, they're up in the morning. They have a calendar. They have a schedule. They've got a plan. They got checklist and they will not get down. The person over here who wants to sell one house every three years isn't committed. And the commitment takes you from the bottom to the top in a way that knowledge really can't do. I love it because what like in directly what I always say is there's no such thing as being half pregnant. You are or you're not a K you're committed and you're all in or you're out. There's no such thing as I say, if I was teaching or selling real estate, if I was in a real estate room right now, I'd be saying this is there's no such thing as a real estate agent who gets to take his cape off on Friday. You either take that you put that cape on and you and you become it. It's not what you do. It's who you are or you're not because there's too many other real estate agents as you know that are committed and they're just going to eat your lunch and that's where the 10% come from and make up 90% of the homes. It's so funny. You mentioned that because my hairdresser who I paid exorbitant amounts of money to look like this, I'll be very honest and he's wonderful. He texted me the other day and he said one of his clients has gone into real estate and I said, Oh, do tell. I can't wait to hear about it. This person because they're trying to break into the market is offering everything for free. He said, That doesn't make any sense. I said, You're right. It doesn't because in our business, we are paid success fees and until you've sold the property and getting paid nothing. He's putting all this money out and hopes of one day getting compensated. He'll be broke within the year because he doesn't understand the value that he brings. The value isn't in the stuff. The value is in you. Your ability to listen and help somebody else figure out how to respond in the marketplace. And that comes from communication, being aware, being knowledgeable and being in there, not about throwing money at it. You can't throw money at things and expect it to get fixed. I will. Let's unpack this if we have the time. Oh my God. There's so much there. So we can't throw money at things without what I heard. We hear it without actually understanding, communicating and really know what you're doing in this job. So let's, let's, this is really interesting. I love this. If we were to take a step back and say, Okay, what do you, what is a real estate agent? I understand what a real estate broker is. You know, a real estate broker, you know, owns the office and basically owns the business and has real estate agents under them. But in this case, what is a real estate agent? What does a real estate agent really do? The truest explanation of a real estate agent is a professional problem solver. Wow. Okay. Well, that's what sales is. Is problem solving. That's, I mean, welcome to sales 101. Yes. I've been stated when I solve a problem. So I'm not an amateur and I get very irritated with people who don't understand that the difference in a professional in an amateur is compensation. And if you suck at sales, you're not going to get compensated. In fact, there's always an episode of the office that will correlate to things in life. And if you remember when Pam tried sales and she was mad that she wasn't making any money and she said, Oh, I guess it is fair that I don't get paid when I didn't sell anything. It was hilarious and true. So I'm professional and I'm a problem solver because in real estate, I don't know what I'm going to encounter. I don't sell for modesty. I'm selling only motion all the time and not just a client, but the other side. And then I might have a survey issue, an inspection issue, a money issue, a human issue. I don't know, but my job as the pro is to say, OK, that's what we got. Let's figure it out. And every day it's a let's figure it out day. And it's interesting because you're solving one of life's biggest problems, right? For like most people is only in a home. Finding the right home with a budget that they're excited about and that they're going to be again, I'm against the mortgage stuff, but you know, buying to a mortgage for 30 years. Well, we want to look at the mortgage in the way that it's properly processed, which is it should be considered short term debt. Smart people lever themselves to get into the game and then pay it down. Yes. So 30 or mortgage last 30 years, you did something wrong. OK, so I'm from Canada, right? So it's a little different there with the with the mortgage. They're very special. But, but what I have. So I have this philosophy is you buy, you rent out what you own and you rent where you live. What's your thought on that on that philosophy? It depends on the person because you as a single person and you're not emotionally connected. That might work. But if you are a parent and you've got a spouse and three little kids, they need stability. And if we look at what happens to children's educational futures, the longer they stay in properties, the better off they are as they learn and grow because kids need stability. So if you're a family with kids, you buy it and you live in it instead of paying somebody else rent them when the kids are out of the house, sure, become an investor or a super duper smart by a duplex, but your family and one side rent the other side out. There's ways to accomplish it. It boils down to the fact that it's got to be a personalized solution. And isn't that everything in life? We should start advertising everything and get back to how each person has a unique perspective on it. True problem, sovereign, front of us. Right? Identify the problem. Figure out the solution. I love that. So if there's agents, I mean, salespeople like sitting here because I even thought many people told me, you should be in real estate, you know, agent and I've always said, no, like I know what I am. I know who I am. And it was just never really spoke to me. I understand it. Sure, the commissions are incredible, especially when you get into like the five, 10, 20 million dollar homes, but it's not for me. But what I love about it is what you just said, it's problem solving, it's sales is it's it. You're in the people business. Well, are we all, I mean, isn't everything sales? You have to have a winning package to get people to listen to your show and to watch your show and that package is how you present it, how you put it together and who you bring on the show. It could be you're in the, well, let's go back to the office again. Dunderclum was a mid-level paper processing company, but what was their key was the sales people who sold the product so that somebody else could have their needs met. People who are good in real estate or people people, we're probably terrible with the details, but we hire for that. Everything in life, if you would think about it is sales dating as sales. I have a 19 year old and a 20 year old, they're terrible at dating, which I think all the young people are now. You should do a whole theory zone. What's happened into dating, but they're scared of failure. And I keep telling them, that's the whole point. Dating is for the failure so that you recognize the success when you find it. And it's no different than me talking to some buyers and can't help you, can't help you got one. It's just all a numbers game. Yeah, we can go down that date. I just did actually a video on the whole dating, what I think about the dating world. We won't go down there, but the point of that video was very simply was the whole dating world is messed up right now because actually being real and authentic is actually seen as weak today. You have to be manipulative. You got to play games. You got to gaslight if you want to win, which is so complete backwards of what true dating was, which shiverly was, what picking up a girl and being your authentic self and showing her who you are and showing your heart and being kind. You do that. You lose. You actually lose the date. It's crazy. I don't want to get into it because that's all it is, but it's actually. No, doing their lips. Explain that to me. Oh my God. I don't even get me. I, oh, we're going to go down that. I'm looking at middle age. Is that looking at them thinking baby girl? They're like you're doing. It's not even what's happening to their physically to their body, but it is destroying them mentally and they don't realize it. And what happens is, as you know, like they start being delusional. Like they get body dysphobia and they start like forgetting that like their lips are already too big and you know what I actually blame outside of everyone else. You can blame you all media all that, but the injectors. If the injectors were like you who cared about their people, they would turn people away. So I know some professional injectors where I live. They tell me horror stories where they, but they turn people away. They don't let, they don't and then but the problem is those people will go to another one, another one, another one until they find someone who's willing to just inject them. And they have these big lips and I feel so bad for these young girls because they think it's pretty. They think it's cool. They think it's Miami and it's so gross. And it's an, and men don't like it. All ages men don't actually like it. We don't. It's not each other. And that's where the, you go back to the flow and dating. If women are trying to impress other women instead of the men they're trying to attract and they wonder why the men aren't attracted, play to the right audience. That's sales. You play the right audience. You're always talking to somebody where they are so that you can connect. But if you're talking in a, in a horizontal fashion instead of a vertical fashion, that's why you're not moving up. Yeah. No, I hear that. I love that. So let's, let's talk about it. You're established now, right? So I would say as a, as a, as a result of all your hard work, your commitment, your dedication, I'm sure the phone rings for you. You don't have a lead problem. You pick up the phone you close. But what was it like before that? Because you got, you had a work hard to get there. So what was your process? Like, what did you do to get to the position where you know the phones ringing? I go everywhere people are. Now, I'll preface this by saying I'm an introvert. I'm an I and TJ. And so I had to fight my own preferences to go be successful in this business, but I wanted it because I wasn't cut out for the corporate world. I did not fit in corporate sales. So if I don't fit there, I may as well make this work. So for example, at the gas station, one of my favorite stories ever, you spend a lot of money on gas and real estate because you're haulin' and hoping to take in people all over. And instead of paying at the pump, I would go inside and pay for my gas. Well, the same fellow was in there all the time. And finally, he said to me, why are you buying so much gas? And I said, well, I'm in real estate. Why are you here all the time? And he said, I own this gas station. And I said, tell me about that. And he said, why would I spend money on labor when I can work here myself? Because a lot of our gas station owners are very understanding of their labor cost. Well, he and I should make up a friendship. And as it turns out, he owns 22 gas stations in the area. Yeah. And I was a broker, I am, because I was in there all the time. Yeah. Because he had a very congenial relationship where I wasn't the kind of customer that I see on the TikTok who walks in thinking they're better than the proprietor. I engaged with him. And so he has my business cards and he hands them out. And then I would volunteer at places that mean something to me like my church and also habitat for humanity. Not just going to a nonprofit because other people are there, but the places where my heart is. Yeah. And wherever you spend time and people configure out who you are, they will reward you with business. And it's not an overnight success, but it's a long term strategy that actually works. So what came up for me there and I just was so important was intention and integrity. And when I say intention, you are intentional of where you went. Because you just said, you're not just showing up there because your broker told you to or you write someone, someone told you to do that. You're showing up because you know, yeah, it could help with business, but you're intentionally showing up to the places where business or no business is where you're supposed to be. You're also getting something out of it yourself just for being there, providing whatever whether it's given or taking. And as a result, you're intentional in your integrity. And that's the type of people want people want to be business with. They want to be in business with people that they can no like and trust. Well, in a space, if you look at the changing world of AI, which I don't like, and in so many ways, but I use it in several ways. So I guess I'm a great whatever. You got to, you got to, you got to use it. You got to respect it. You got to use it, but you got to understand how to use it. Because I believe that we live in a world. There's two, two things are going to happen, like two groups of people. The group that's going to fight it, you're going to say, AI is not taken over. And then the group that understand it's here. It's been here forever, but it's here and it's here forever. And the ones that learn how to use the AI and adapt to the AI, they are the ones that are going to exist. They're the ones that are going to succeed. And the ones that are fighting it, they're going to find themselves beautifully equipped to live in a world that no longer exists. Well, but they can also be in my third group of beautifully equipped by knowing AI, but still hating it instead of knowing that it should take over and one the world. So we'll be the third questioning group. Yeah, but you're using it. You are, you know, you got to, you got to tap into it. But I use it for I take my human piece and let it, yeah, I can be a little abrupt in emails. I'll admit it. And so one of the good uses of chat is to take my very abrupt emails and say, please soften this a little bit. Yeah, soften it. And then I can edit because it needs to be edited because I don't use 87 emoji. And so spoiler alert for any of your viewers and listeners. If you use chat GPT, get back and backspace over those 47 to men get rid of the emojis and the dashes, the dashes, what are you leaving the dashes? And I tell people like, oh, you don't want to get caught in GPT. Two things just simply do take out the emojis and take out the dashes. That is it. No, it's going to start using ellipses soon because that's what my mother uses and every one of her text. And so at GPT is going to learn that from her. And then I got three things to watch for. But anyway, so I can go back and I can take my piece, get it soft and then edit it. So it does add a step in, but it actually helps me with my connections. And I'll take the help side of AI, but I brought that up because if I think about where it's going to interrupt relationships, sales people are going to have a lot of relationships interrupted because they're forgetting the intentionality of the face to face. And I'll, an example, I'll use is this. I can get the grocery store app to put my list together, cause the grocery store by scanning my little barcode knows exactly what I'm going to buy week over week and replenish it. But I will not do that because when I walk into the store, I get to interact with the staff and the other customers and I can drop, strike up a conversation. It's my favorite tail trick. I will pick up my phone and say, good afternoon, Lee Brown. And I say it nice and loud. So everybody around me can hear that I'm in the store and then I'll hang up my phone call and they'll come over and say, Oh, I had a question about this and that. And I'll say, wow. You do that. Of course I do. That is the easiest prospecting ever. You know what it calls me? Zero dollars. I want, I don't think people picked up that. I don't know if a lot of people would have picked up what you just did there. But I did. That's genius. So you know, again, know your audience, know yourself, be self aware. You want to be a great salesperson. You know your audience, you know the city you're in. It sounds like it's a smaller mom and dad. Everybody, I mean, I'm sure your billboards are everywhere. And everybody knows Lee Brown. So Lee Brown walks in like in the grocery store and out brings the springs or phone out. This is just awesome. And she goes, Hey, Lee Brown here. Right. I was a little bit of a fake conversation and get soft. Oh, who's Lee Brown? No, Lee Brown. People are suddenly coming up to you and there is bubbly Lee Brown just saying here, how can I solve your problems? Well, you know what's interesting. My city's about 190,000 people. It's not a tiny place. But wherever you live is actually smaller than you think because you frequent the same gas stations, the same grocery stores, the same restaurants, we're humans. And by nature, we are mimetic creatures. We do what other people are doing and we repeat our own patterns. So if you treat your area, I mean, you could live in Toronto and treat your area like a small town by showing up. I'm in there so frequently they know me. And frankly, the reasons I have the hairdo that I do is because it is recognizable from a distance. I don't want to have everybody else's look. Yeah. I lose my advantage and I also have never tried to get rid of my Southern accent because I know it is a get out of jail free card with a whole lot of the inappropriate things that I've been known to say. Yeah. I love it. So and then you say it earlier, you don't just, you're not just a brokerage. You said you talk, you do speeches and you travel all over the US as a leader, as a as a sports person for real estate for brokerages. Well, as a hired gun really to come into associations and brokerages and leadership events to talk about sales and leadership and sometimes the practical side of real estate, but more frequently about the strategy side and the strategic planning. And what are you supposed to do when everything's changing? AI is going to be this generational game changer like email was when it came out in what 92 and 93. It's that big of a shift and a lot of people are panic right now, which I think is where the I ain't touching it comes from is just I don't, I don't, I don't want to learn anything else. I don't know, make me learn it. And so they're in panic and I can talk about the changes I've been through in my life and in this profession and help give people a little bit of juice and fire back, but I won't lie to you. My favorite place to go is to Asia to teach. I've spoken on five continents. And what I have found is that Asian audiences are so hungry for ideas and information. They are dialed all the way in. God love them. My American audiences get a little bit numbed and they can't put these things down. They get so dialed into this little poisonous device. They look like they're where they are. Yeah. It's a challenge that we have out there, but I love nothing more than a challenge. I love it. So what do you think is I, what do you think that these real estate agents are facing right now? Like what were some of the threats that are happening? Oh my heavens. If you look at the newspapers as a headline every day, this lawsuit and that lawsuit and our great associations are being sued by this person and that one in class action and the brokerages are going after the multiple listing services and it is daily. Rama and all I can look at it and think is these lawyers are making a big pile of money off of all this fuss and because we all know what happens when you're mad and I'm mad and we sue each other who wins. Did the lawyer? No, I don't ever deal with lawyers because the only people that win people don't realize that only people that win are lawyers. Like I like everything I can do to not deal with the lawyer. The traffic ticket and we want to get a lot of money. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Conversation, but when I look at the upheaval around the lawsuits and how the structure of real estate is being changed by regulatory agencies and by lawsuits and legal reactions, those are the 30,000 foot changes that are impacting the day to day life of a tiny entrepreneur because most real estate brokers are solopreneurs. They're doing it on their own. They may expand, but their practice is being changed by the upper level. And they don't really know how to react to that. And so I feel one of my roles is to encourage them because every other time an industry has gone through and upheaval, there are a lot that have come out the other side stronger. The question is, if you're going to be the one that comes out or if you're going to give up and go somewhere else and right now is a time to make that choice. How is the buying process change for buyers? Like so someone, you know, the market like, you know, 10 years ago, they I'm assuming it's changed quite a bit. And the reason I'm asking so you give you the reason I'm what's coming up for me, I know for instance, the car industry, the car industry and you just go shopping for a car you would on average, I think it was like four to five dealerships you would go to. Now it's 1.1. Me personally, I don't even go to the dealership. I already know the car I'm buying. I know the car better than the sales person does better than the even the general manager does because I've already built that 125 times on the line. I know the colors, I know the specs, I know everything. I come in. I don't even need to go to the dealership. I just make a call credit card, send me the papers. I'm done. How is that? How you seeing that that's changed in real estate? And the reason I'm saying that is good real estate agents I could tell, right? They bring in the drone, they bring in that type of whatever that video is whereas 3D you can walk right through the house. You can envision yourself in the house with your family. I don't even need to go see it. I go see it just for due diligence. I already know if I want to be in that or not. Like how does that affect the real estate agents? Well, there's a really important distinction between automobiles and houses. And that's the on the automobiles side. You're definitely buying a commodity item because the car that you built to be built again and replicated and it is what it is. Houses are emotional purchases that are not commodities. And what changes in a house is the unspoken parts and that could be the smell. Yeah. You've ever been in a smokers home or somebody who owned cats. It's going to have a different price in the market than something else. And we don't currently have smell of vision. Although I'm sure that's coming right after AI and then we'll have that handle. When I take somebody into a house, there's this weird sense that it's either home or it's not. You can feel it. Can you feel it right away? In their eyes. They start spot on the like, oh, this is the house. And if they walk in the wrong house, they're like, well, I mean, it checks all the boxes. Looks good online. But it's not your house. And if it's not your house, we keep going. Yeah. Are you are you are you up front like that? Do you just say, let's just move. Let's just stop wasting time. Yeah. Why are we looking around if you're not bad? That's like going on a date with somebody you're never going to marry. Why would you wait for their time and yours? And I think you have to remember too is that when you're viewing a home, somebody else lives there, they'd like to come back and finish supper. They'd like to come back. Yeah. Yeah. It's their day, but you're spending an hour somewhere you're not going to vibe. Well, that's just rude. Yeah. Realizing there's an emotional component and it's because a car, you'll drive it. You'll enjoy it. It becomes your own. And then when you go to trade it in, you just take all your crap out and put it in the next car with the house. But that's where your babies lay their head down to sleep at night. And that's where my wife had her last Thanksgiving. And then or for y'all, it's even the last time in the day. And we just love it so much. And you have all these memories wrapped up into it. Yeah. And look at fewer houses. But if you look at the buy and process, the reason it hasn't gone on Amazon is because if you click to buy, it's still, you don't know the house because it's the community drives the value, the smell drives the value to feel drives, the value more than just the bedroom's bathroom square footage. And so in an internet world, our buyers find their own houses is quite frequently. I got a text just a little bit ago. We found the house. Okay. Great. So why do they have to say that it's changed where you used to actually probably have to really go find the house for them. They already found that between them. And last all the websites, blah, blah, blah, they found the house. They're just getting you to broker it. Right. And so that's the hard part because the hard part is from the time you find it until we get you into it. It's the pickups you don't even know. So my professional problem solver hat, well, what happens if we've got an encroachment on the survey, what happens if there is mold in the crawlspace? What do we do if do we still buy it? Do we not? And my job is to counsel through the entire process and help them figure out how to be financially stable in this house. And when I'm working with someone by in a home, we're going to make sure they're equipped for taxes, they're equipped for insurance and the unknown things that are going to happen. The FAQ's on a zillow can give you some ballpark ideas, but they don't understand North Carolina law, which is different than South Carolina law, which is different than California law. As you have state-specific laws, state-specific regulations, I've got geographical things to consider. So my dirt here is different than the dirt two hours each out here. The weather in Canada is far different than the weather in North Carolina. How does that impact a house? So my knowledge actually is more visible now because they don't have to look at 57 houses. They look at three and buy one, but they get to see my knowledge sooner. So it's just a different way that the time is allocated. Well, it has changed that because you just said like you used to be like 57, you know, houses. Now it's three like it's like you go to couple houses and that's about it. So it's changed anymore. That's a good thing. But the sad part of it though is sometimes you rule out a house from the internet that could have been perfect because in your head you said I have to have X-Wazee. But houses are so different with the way that they feel when you walk in. And you know, the number one phrase on HBTV is natural light. Well, your definition of natural light might be different than mine. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And a house because you think it's not right. Well, sometimes you do need to walk in and see how it sits because it's a different kind of purchase. So it's an experience and you're right. It's a very emotional, very heavy financial experience. And you're basically the doctor, the salesperson, the therapist and then the friend through it all and making sure that we feel safe purchasing the home, knowing that we're buying the best home for our needs. And I'm sure because you've been doing this, you have a book of homes that maybe are not being shown up on Zilla or whatever it might be that you know that would be perfect for our needs. Like the perfect work. Right is to say, well, let's let's talk about it because I am visible in the community. So people do come to me and say, we're going to sell if you hear of somebody before we go. Yeah. And core with it. Let us know. Well, I can, I can quietly have conversations and that benefits people sometimes. But I'll be honest with you. I think sellers get the best outcome by being fully exposed to the market. And a lot of times when they want me to quietly get the word out there, it's because they haven't really committed to pack it up yet. They don't really want it to sell. And so they're testing the waters. And I don't mind helping people process through because it can be a long process. It's big. Well, and it's a big decision, right? Like you said, like especially if you're talking with a family who's been in there for 20 years and mom has all the memories, it's not as easy as people think just pick up and walk away. Moving, what do they say? The biggest stressors, right? Moving career and what's the other one? I mean, public speaking. Yeah, yeah, yeah, public speaking. That's their number one fear. Yeah. Yeah, there's never one fear. They never one fears public speaking, but the biggest stressors are in change, right? Is moving relationship and career. Yeah. So what else do I have to ask that the listeners need to hear about Lee Brown? Because I get it. I love it. You are like, if I'll tie this, if I was in your area, you're going to be my real estate agent. Well, I appreciate that. It's old. Confidence, you know, but the I missed Toronto. My son and I went to a game at Jay Stadium. Yeah, we stayed in that hotel that looks out over the field because who doesn't take their kid there. And somehow that became his favorite team. So we're the odd balls that in North Carolina, everybody likes Atlanta, braves my poor boy, like Santa, Bruno, Jason. Oh, I love it. I love it. Where can people find you if they want to learn a little bit more about you? If someone's listening in their in your area and or want to bring you on as a speaker, even just talk real estate with you, where can they find you? Well, I am Lee Thomas Brown on all the platforms. You know, you got to include your maiden name when you're a lady because people just don't know when they met you one time. And I'm Lee Brown on my website. It's pretty easy to find me if you see a fast-talking Southern woman with her hair swooped out. That's yeah. That's her. I love helping people find the best version of themselves and just grabbing the reins of their own life to keep going. Whether it's through real estate or through being better leaders in life. And I'd love to connect with you and my podcast is real talk with Lee Brown. So maybe I'll talk you in the coming on to my show sometime. I've heard the tables on you and make you talk a little bit. I love it. I think we should do that again. Thank you so much, Lee. Thanks for being here. And that was another episode of the Vault Unlocked where proven builders, real strategies and unstoppable growth happens. Subscribe now. The next unlock could be your success. The code is cracked. The vault is open.