Welcome to Other People's Perspective, a place for you to listen, learn, laugh, and always feel better at the end of every episode, taking something bigger away from it for you and others. And now, here's your host, Freddy Welcome back, everybody, to Other People's Perspective. I'm your host, Freddy Cocek Actually, I'm Right. Yeah. I did that the other day. I forget who. It was like someone like a speaker guy. And he's like, oh, fuck, this is going to be a long one. I'm like, sorry, I'm a little rattle. I was like, I don't even know what Yeah. Well, it's like I was telling you beforehand, you know, yeah, I'm like operating on about three and a half or four hours sleep after I drove, you know, eight plus hours to get home last night. And I spent a majority of the daytime driving back and forth. Yeah. So it's, it's been a long run. So anyways, you know, it's, it's all eight Yeah. It's a long way. That is a long way. Oh, I, uh, gentlemen, I got here with me today, Mr. Blake Elsner or, uh, STL. And, uh, Blake's in the, uh, he's in the real estate game, Third generation, third generation, but in the, uh, good old real estate game for a little over 10 years now. So I, uh, actually. I grew up around my dad and actually my grandpa did it about 77 years ago. Oh, wow. Yeah. And then my father stepped up and he actually opened a restaurant at the age of 18. And so when he opened that restaurant, he's like, I'm not working enough hours, so I better get into real estate. So he went into real estate, my father did, and he's been doing it for about 27 years. And then, of course, I'm like, hell no, I'm not getting into real estate my whole life. Like I got been around it. I don't want to deal with it. And I go to go to college. I got a criminal justice degree. you know, thinking I'm going to do something in that field. And unfortunately, I look and I'm just like, that's not going to pay the bills. That's not going to get me very And definitely a career path, but it's not a you're not going to burn the barn down with with the money you make off That's exactly right. There's a, there's a cap on that. And I'm like, you know, you know, I got this brand here. I could build on top of it. There's, you know, at this, at this time, you know, interest rates were still, you know, in the twos and threes on a 30 year. Um, but yeah, and I jumped in and started selling and it comes pretty naturally. And now, you know, sitting here 10, plus years later, I've got about $225 million in sales underneath me, about 650 transactions I've been a part of. So I always say, we deal with the everyday person because our average ticket's about 330,000. And in St. Louis, it's a very affordable market. So when we're pretty blessed around here to be able to get, you know, three beds, two baths, 1,500 square feet in a desirable area, you know, for, for a decent price. One thing about St. Louis is you can't, you can't go East. There's not a lot, you know, obviously you run into Illinois, Uh, there's not a lot of space up North to go. You run into St. Charles, you can go West. Um, and you can kind of go South till you hit Jefferson County. So St. Louis is kind of a unique place. There's only one way out of St. Louis, not crossing water. It's always something that I always joke with people. I'm like, we all got to take Manchester. If there's the city's going under, we got, we got one route and one route only for all of us to get out, um, without having to cross water. So. Sometimes I get a little nervous thinking about that, but I think that's, that's a little, little conspiracy Yeah. It's, it's all good. Just, you know, just keep, keep a raft handy, I guess, if you got to forward the river. That's right. That's right. So, um, so you've been in, uh, you've been in actively in the real estate. Did I mean, probably longer, obviously longer than that, since it was kind of a family business, but yeah, always growing up listening to, you know, never got to listen to the radio. I always had to listen to phone calls or inspections or, you know, amendments being signed, notices being signed, you know, people calling. Um, because at a time when I was, you know, back in high school, Let's see. Oh, six, seven, eight. I was a freshman, sophomore, junior in high school. And, you know, looking back on those times, I remember sitting on at the office on a Tuesday afternoon and it's like 2 p.m. on a. Tuesday, it's middle of summer and there's not a single soul at the office. And here I am as a kid, just, you know, screwing around on the internet, like not even a clue in the world that we're inside of this awful recession, you know, short sales. He, I'm like, listen to him, you know, argue back and forth with a bank and trying to get this one done. And then he's carrying 70 plus listings. And so seeing that, Back then I'm like thinking like, wow, that's, you know, this is going to be completely different now. Like as I'm tuning in and I'm thinking, well, it's going to eventually cycle back. Right. Just like everything. And, you know, unfortunately we've stayed in such a seller's market that I have not seen a cycle. And I joke with my father, I'm like, Hey, you know, is this harder now than the 08? nine, 10 or whatever that was back then in that recession. And he kind of says, yes, like right now is more difficult because of you have higher interest rates. You got low inventory. People are basically a lot of golden handcuffs out there. So it's tough. And then, you know, dealing with, um, a family business, right. You, you always got to like shift and you got to have, you know, I got to have my dad on board with stuff that I want to shift. And if we switch brokerages, I got to, you know, have him on board with that. And so there's, there's been a lot of things that I've watched him, um, do starting, you know, he started at one of the big ones, Remax and actually started at, uh, Prudential. Then he went to Remax, then he went to, uh, Keller Williams. And that's when Gary Keller down in Austin brought Keller Williams to St. Louis. And he was one of the there was about six or seven owners at the time that opened up a Keller Williams franchise in St. Louis. And that was 2005. And so he eventually sold that. Keller Williams did their own thing. That building actually was sold that Keller Williams moved on. And I made the decision. I said, hey, let's go look at this other company called Worth Clark. Long story short, that's where we are now, who holds our license. It's a small company, local. And the main thing I always tell people, I'm like, well, I'm not looking for somebody to hold my hand because we're all independent agents. I'm looking for somebody who's going to give me the best you know, training the best backend, um, to where I can get deals closed, get paid the fastest and shortest amount of time, most amount of money. Um, and that's kind of where what's led us to worth Clark and, you know, Keller Williams had a profit share thing for a long time that was like, Hey, you know, Gary Keller looked at me and said, Hey, we got profit share for you. As long as the people that are in your downline are still selling. that downline is going to get passed on and passed on and passed on. So there were some issues with that for for a few years that, you know, is going to get taken away from us since we weren't a part of Keller Williams. But that's kind of been fixed out and kind of ironed out. And now I think everybody in the industry is just trying to survive because, like I said, I think there was about there was some crazy statistic about realtors selling like no houses last year. Whoa. Yeah. And you're like, you can see why. And we've, there's been a mass exodus of, of realtors. There's been a mass exodus of title companies. Um, cause here in St. Louis or state of Missouri, you close at a title company on like some states or a law office. Um, So you've seen that loan officers, you've seen, you know, there's some big loan officers that have just completely disappeared because they had such, you know, high relationships with just buyers, buyers, buyers, or just, I'm sorry, just refis, refis, refis during the, you know, cheap rate time period that they never really made a personal connection with people. And since inventory is down, there's so many loan officers, not enough to go around. It's just simple economics. So you've seen a lot of people either cut back, sell their houses as realtors, sell their houses as loan officers. Yeah, you're seeing the real side of, I would say, this industry. And yeah, there's still a lot of people very successful. But I think what kind of hurt this industry was all the flash, all the, all the kind of bling when the average realtor only took home like $40,000, you had all these TV shows and all these realtors driving nice cars and go, I'm going. stuff, you know, what is going on right now? This isn't a true representation of what we actually do. And I think that's what led us right into that lawsuit. And, you know, you got a bunch of National Association of Realtor lawyers that were in Gucci belts and they walk in and they got schooled by a Kansas City lawyer. And that's where we are now. And so the commission structure got thrown off. Everything got kind of tossed in the air. Forms got redone. It's just kind of been a chaotic Uh, last few years, and I'd say just about anything, right. Since COVID has been kind of chaotic, we're Yeah. Unfortunately that, that, man, that thing, that, that whole situation changed dynamics for, for. Damn near everyone and everything across the board. I mean, almost everything that we do in life now is it operates a little differently than So it does. And I mean, and dealing, you know, with my father, that's always been a, you know, a challenge because I have two kids. So he's grandpa. He's, you know, he's the boss. He's, um. got to wear multiple hats, I got to wear different hats. So, you know, sometimes crossing those paths where, you know, I say a comment, you know, while my kids around that's work related, I try to cut that out. Because that's kind of the stuff that I think kind of, you know, he can take that, like my five-year-old could take that a different way. When it's just like you're saying, it's just work, right? You got to, sometimes it's cutthroat to the, to the point and you got to get right to it. And that, that's what I try to leave, play certain roles, hats, and try to leave it at the right place. Because I think if you kind of try to cross too much of it, it can get a little, I don't want to say awkward, but it can get a little passive aggressive, I guess you would say in the room. And because you want to solve a problem while you're, you know, enjoying your kid and he's enjoying his grandkid and you, you know, you both have this problem on the back of your mind, um, that needs to be solved, but you know, you want to have fun and have this. So you kind of have to figure that out. And, you know, I always say like. let's do it now before, you know, we, we get to the next spot or we get to the next event because it's just one less thing we have to worry about later on. So we're big on that call back people. Um, that's kind of been my, uh, You know, I guess my thing growing up that I've always had pushed into me and that's never not talk to somebody, you know, never to not give them a chance and always listen because you never know what somebody is going to tell you or have to say to you because that's. kind of like life. So I've watched these connections flourish. I've watched my father make seven figures in real estate. And so it's been fun. And that's with just strictly transactions. I always say I'm proud that our family is strictly residential investor transactions. We don't own any real estate ourselves. And kind of the point about that came about one, we just never really are interested in being a landlord. And second, we have a lot of investors that trust us because, Hey, they're going to call us and go, okay, well we know they're not going to swipe anything from us. So we got builders that say, Hey, you know, call us up and say, Hey, can you get this lot for us? And they know that, Hey, we will. you know, do what they say. We're not going to follow somebody else's guidelines or whatnot. So we we're just we're people of our word. We call back. We're fair. We're honest. And I think just being that way kind of creates the brand. And, you know, in a way, I don't think my dad really meant to create this big of a brand, but, uh, he's, he's nice. He's a good talker. He's, you know, he cares a lot about people. So I think it kind of built itself and now I'm just trying to, you Hey, there's, there's a lot of situations that start out that way where people don't, you know, the, If it was your dad or your grandpa or whatever, they may not have started it with the intention of saying, man, I want to see that fucking Elzer name on the fucking billboard one day. It just said, hey, they got into it, decided what they wanted to do and how they wanted to do it and the way your dad has gone about it. you know, being, being consistent, you know, consistent in communication, like you're talking about, you know, responding to people, either, you know, making, making the calls, following up, you know, sometimes we know that, that, you know, you got to make a call or you got to take a call that, that it might be some kind of an uncomfortable conversation or might have something that's going to lead to an uncomfortable conversation. A lot of people will avoid that, but. you know, the reality is if it's business, it's got to be handled, then it's got to be handled. And if you if you, you know, present yourself as the type of person and the type of outfit that no matter you know, no matter what it what it consists of or what the you know, what the potential outcome is, if they know that you're going to you're going to answer the fucking phone when it rings or if they you know, if somebody has a concern or need something, you're going to be the guy that's going to respond and call them back, whether you can can ultimately do it or not. Yeah, that's, you know, that says a lot, you know, in my career in oil and gas, you know, it's like the just consistency, you know, and especially the communication, a little bit of communication on a lot of shit goes a long way. And so. That is true. And, you know, you got to a lot of times, whether you're, you know, you're married, you're divorced, your boyfriend, girlfriend, boyfriend, boyfriend, girl, whatever you are. Right. I don't care what you are, but if you have interest in a property together, we like to say, you know what? Both people want to be heard. Right. Unless they say, don't even talk to only let Susie handle it or only let Bill handle it. But otherwise, everybody likes to have their two cents. Everybody likes to hear themselves, their opinion and have, you know, constructive criticism. And I think that's another part that we're good at, whether no matter the situation, we listen to both sides. And that's kind of, I think, a big part of what we do. And going back to the billboard part, pretty cool part that a little story that I'll tell you. So when I was younger, that billboard, let's see, it was 2004 when we got that. And I remember the first picture up there. It was like our baseball team. I was young. I, you know, we're playing 68 games for over the summer and, you know, we're in seventh grade. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, oh, there I am up on the billboard. There's our whole team. And it struck me the other day, like, you know, I'm looking up there and it's now my two kids up there. And it's just like, man, I went from looking at myself up there, like felt like yesterday. Now I got my own two kids and I'm looking at them up there on the billboard, looking at themselves on the billboard. So I always say, like, I'm like, man, like. It's pretty like special and it's a blessing that I've been able to look at that billboard since 2004. And it's just, it's a very busy intersection in St. Louis and people see it all the time. So when we change the picture and, and stuff, I always joke with people like, they're like, you have a billboard. I'm like, yeah, like you'd be surprised how many people see it. Like we have, I got, I got, we got digital billboards too. Don't worry. But. Our main staple billboard, it's been there for, like I said, 15 years and people literally look at, they're like, Hey, what are they going to put up there? You know, during COVID we put up thanks to the, you know, for, uh, first responder, all the people, the health lot, health workers, all that we put up there. And, um, Yeah. And, you know, we have a lot of hate too. People will call on our billboards just the other day prior to this last one. And I think we had, now we have on their serving Kirkwood and beyond. But prior to that, I had on their blessed with my, my dad holding my two kids. You know how many calls we got and people were like, can you know how many people were, are not blessed? Like, And I'm like, Like you did that to intentionally take a jab at anybody that's not blessed. Yeah, exactly right. Well, anytime that somebody does something to draw attention to themselves, you've got to be realistic that you're going to get everybody. If the purpose of your trying to draw attention is obviously for good reason, yeah, you're going to get haters or you're going to get people that aren't in alignment or whatever. I mean, that's just part of life. And it sucks that that I was never really a person, I always joke, I grew up with red hair, I was a fat little kid. I was not the kind of kid that could go around and talk shit on people. I couldn't, right? You could look at me and be like, you got red hair and you look like a little ball. I was the one that was always the people pleaser trying to, you know, hang out and fit in because I knew I just looked different. I was out of shape. You know, I had red hair, big boned, right? You always hear that, right? Big boned. What the hell does that mean? You're just a fat ass is what that means. So, you know, that type of stuff. And you kind of got to, I had to figure it out. And in a way, like, I think it strengthened who I was as a person, how I take things. You know, I used to get so pissed about friends not using me in real estate or somebody, you know, buying something without me. And then I'm just like, you know, like, It's not going to be the first time. It wasn't the first time. It's not going to be the last time. And if anything, maybe they just had, you know, don't want you to see their finances or have some other reason. There's always a reason why somebody who's close to you is not going to use you. And that's perfectly fine because that's their journey. And if that's how they want to take it, so be it. Right. Yeah. Take it too personal. Yeah, and I was And I think it's I think it's natural. It's normal for, you know, people to feel that way. Fuck, if you're in business for yourself and you're doing your own thing, you I think it's almost like second nature to think or feel like, well, all these people that are close to me and they're supposed to be my friends, you know, that you think those are the first ones that are going to step up and I can, you know, come to bat whenever you know, whenever they need what you've got to sell. And sometimes that's the last people that show up or they don't show up at all. And, you know, that's, it's okay. You Yeah. You have no other choice. And that's when I kind of figured, you know, I go, well, I guess I got to go find some friends, right. Or find some, you know, people I got to put myself in the right rooms in it. Somebody once told me like, You know, if somebody tells you that you can't buy your friends, they're just wrong. And it's interesting, like in a way that when they say buy your friends, right, you put yourself into the right rooms, you make relationships with people. And just like ourselves being able to talk, we both that you have a podcast, I have a podcast, we're talking, we're jamming, we're talking about life. And I think. because we put ourselves both in a certain room, we, we connect a little bit better. We're, we're all, you know, have similar goals. We have similar, you know, um, things that we want to achieve in life. Right. So yeah, we might be different age. You might be in a different city, but like you said, we're at the end of the day, we're, we're humans, right? We, we, at the end, a lot of us want the Yeah. No, it's a, you know, to, to your point about, you know, buying friends or whatever, you know, it's, it's, uh, you, You can look at it that way or another way that I try to look at it or consider it at least is, you know, you're you're. it's an investment in yourself. And you're also investing in a, you know, a higher caliber or a different level of people and friends, as opposed to, and it's not to take anything away from, you know, people that you've known all your life and people that I've known all my life. But, you know, as, as I've grown and progressed and as you've grown and progressed, I guarantee you could tell me that there's people that you were friends with, you know, 10, 15, 20 years ago that you still know them, but you're not necessarily, you know, friends or close with them now and same, same situation with me. And it's not like as you're growing and progressing, it's not like you're trying to leave people behind, but you just, you know, if you're, if you're the one that's making the conscious decision to put yourself in different spaces and get into the right rooms that are going to grow you, then, you know, it's, it's just, it's an investment in yourself and, and, you know, in some sense of Yeah, and I think it's hard to figure out because even myself for a while before I put myself in these rooms, I'm like, what are these people doing? You talk shit and you're just like, you don't understand until you actually put yourself into one of these rooms to where you're actually growing. You're learning from people that are light years ahead of you, light years. And you're just like, to the point where you don't even understand what the hell they're saying in the room. Everything is just flying over your head and you're like, That's exactly right. And that's how I felt like I was for, you know, the for a year or two. And, you know, it's helped, I think. So I love I love what I've built. I think I'm just kind of getting started on the A.I. side of things. We're kind of doing that, pushing that. I just I just always am always looking for the you know, next thing to dip my toes in. And it's not because of a, you know, I would say a bad thing. And people always like. you know, you're doing so many things, you do this, do this. I, I'm one of those people that I could build something and just leave it and be perfectly fine. Like if it never took off, I'll build the next thing and leave it. And if it doesn't take off, I'm perfectly fine. I'll go build the next thing. That's how I'm like structured. But you're always building. I'm always building something. And that's, that is what, whether it's a website, a funnel, a logo, you know, a marketing plan, something. I'm a director. Like I said, the doers aren't doing it anymore. It's the people directing the traffic that's really going to change, I think, the structure of Well, that's that's the way that that's the way shit gets done. And, you know, that's how that's how growth and progression happens is the people that are, you know, that are they're promoting that and perpetuating that. So. Okay. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Oh, I, uh, you know, the, the, the, the, the family dynamic of, of the business, you know, I just, before we, before we wrapped this up, I just, I wanted to make this comment or make this point, you know, I've seen a lot of situations where, you know, people have had the opportunity and we know, you know, we, we talked a little bit about the, you know, the, the, the pluses and the minuses and the pros and cons, you know, the kind of the delicate balance of, you know, the family aspect of working together in business and all that. But I've seen a lot of situations where, you know, people have had opportunities to, you know, either, you know, come into or be brought into or, you know, join or carry on with like an established family business or an operation that they could, you know, become a part of and grow into and do more with, you know, for the business and for the family and for themselves. And then some of them, you know, some people have that opportunity and don't do anything with it. But for the fact that you're blessed with that opportunity and it's not like you just looked at it and went, no. I mean, there's always a level of stuff to deal with and it's not sunshine and rainbows all the time. But to have that opportunity and to have the presence of mind to take the ball and run with it, that's good, Sales, you know how it is. Sales is tough and you're only as good as your last sale. So that's kind of one thing is, you know, you hunt what you eat or what do they say? Eat what you hunt. That's kind of like how it is because you got to keep going. You got to keep pushing because I've never been one that's been handed, like people are like, Oh, you, you joined your family business. I'm like, yeah, it's not a business. That's just generating revenue. Like we're, we're out there deal after deal after deal. Um, you know, the last deal, like you, like I say is, you know, you're, you're unemployed, right? So you got no more deals Yeah. So, I mean, you're just constantly chasing unemployment. So if you, you gotta be able to build out, it's just like, I'm looking now, I'm like, okay, so you look into August, I think, you know, in 35 days we're out of business. Right. So every, but that's like, you know, I mean, I, earlier in January, I think we went through January, had like one sale. And I looked in February, I'm like, we got like one more sale. I'm like, what the, what is going on right now? And so luckily it turned over and I think, you know, we've, I think got through the toughest times of this economy or market, housing market, at least I would say, as long as we don't hit any more recessions and the feds maybe lower the rates for us a little bit and we can all Yeah, I'm sure with rates and all that stuff, basically the availability of money is probably, in my opinion, I don't know shit about the real estate market, but just me looking at it, the availability of money is probably one of the biggest crippling factors on y'all's industry. I'm sure probably 95% of home buyers, maybe more than that, everybody's relying on a lender and a level of credit to be able to help them facilitate buying a home. And if the determining factors for that make it tough for people to get credit and get money, then that, you know, that's happening up here and it's trickling all the way down. It's getting the home buyers, it's getting, you know, the, the, the, the real estate, you know, the realtor aspect of it is hitting everybody on the way down. So, yeah, it's tough You know, even three and a half percent, um, let's just say on a half billion dollars, you gotta have three and a half percent plus closing costs. It's like, okay, now you could back in the day, I could at least try to incorporate closing costs into the sale price. Now you're getting so high up in the sale price. You incorporate closing costs. Now you got an appraisal and appraisal comes back and you're, you just jack it all up. Um, So, you know, that's another six, seven grand right there. So on top of the three and a half percent, I mean, yeah, your people have to fork out twenty grand to move into a house and kids, you know, a lot of like I'm thirty three. A lot of people might just don't have that to fork out and then just go back to living. Um, because that's the hardest part. It's like, okay, yeah, I could give you that, but then now what? And a lot of people are, you know, they're afraid to part ways with, with money, which I don't blame them. But at the same time, the dollar, I tell people, the dollar is already parting ways with us. So you better start using it or move it somewhere else because yeah, if we just keep, if we just keep printing it and you know, it's just going to keep losing steam. We have no gold standard. It's just, you know, I think, I think the dollars coming to its last leg. And I think that's why you're seeing all Bitcoin fly up, seeing crypto fly up. Because I think, yeah, after all that people, people are like, It's crypto probably is the next, uh, big thing. I don't know. You know, it's going to be interesting. What's going to replace the dollar. I have no idea, but something's So I guess stay tuned and we'll see what all plays out. That's right. Stay tuned. We all, we all get to stay tuned and we all get to watch it unfold. That's the best part. Nobody Oh, shit. Brother, I appreciate you, man. Absolutely. Good visit. Good talk. Best of luck to you on everything. And keep everybody lined out. Good luck with your business and with family and all the relations and that. And stay Take care. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of Other People's Perspective. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcasts. That's where you'll get updates as new episodes become available. And if you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. Until