Should You Become a Realtor? with Shelby Osborne
Shelby. Thank you for joining us today.
Thank you for having me excited to be here.
It’s been great chatting with you so far for our listeners. Who doesn’t know about you and your business? Can you tell us a bit about what you do? And then we will dive into the topic of discussion?
Sure. I am a real estate investor first and also a broker or the owner of the five pillars team at exp and have a slew of agents in my team.
And invest in any strategy pretty much. I’m primarily focused on Airbnb now, but also just on turnkey flips, lots of diverse strategies. And yeah, also real estate.
Today I wanted to discuss with you real estate investing and real estate investors from a broker’s perspective. And you know why it’s important for us as investors to understand the perspective of brokers so that we can obviously, do more deals and make more money.
Yeah, for sure.
Okay. So the question that people always ask normally is that if I am investing, should I get my license myself and do it myself? Pretty normal question. And I would say completely depends on you. So if like me, I was in the military for six years. I decided to get out of the military to pursue real estate full time and knew that it was my full-time gig and investing was my focus, but I also needed a way to.
Active income to fuel my passive. And so for me, in particular, it made a lot of sense. My goals were nested and all of my activities that I did to lead generate also filled into opportunities for off-market deals, for interacting with more just more flow of people. And with people comes opportunities.
So for me, it made sense if you are not getting, leaving your job and full-time pursuing being an agent, I would recommend not getting the license because what people don’t realize is that being an agent, it’s actually a lot of work and it is very interesting. Work specifically on your market. So if you are thinking that you’re just going to get your license and all an agent does is open a door and write one contract and sees you at closing.
That’s where the expectation is not reality. It’s much better for you to find an investor Saudi broker in that specific market. Someone who knows what offers are going to be competitive, what you need to put down in regards to deposits, or, addendums to waive inspections, all that stuff, or else.
Spinning your wheels and wasting a ton of time getting frustrated and never earning back what you think that you’re saving on your 3%.
Should You Become a Realtor? with Shelby Osborne
So that is glad you mentioned that at the end there, though, a lot of folks are going to counter and say Hey, I get to save 3% on doing a deal, closing a deal.
So why shouldn’t I go for it? It’s only gonna cost me such and such thousand dollars to go through a whole process. And. Doing the education to get licensed, then, I’m going to learn about real estate through that. What are your thoughts about that? Is that worth the saving and then does the training help?
Yeah. People think that getting your license will help them. Be an agent. What you’ll find agents actually talk about this all the time. It’s like, when you’re getting your license, they’re teaching you like the bare minimum that you need to know to not end up in jail. It’s not actually teaching you how to be an agent at all.
People get their license and they’re like, I’m so excited. No. What? And it’s like a whole different world out there. So that is my it’s. You’re not going to learn this stuff. That’s going to make you more competitive. And then the other is the time of. Man and the opportunity that is lost when you could have a great deal, but you don’t understand what you need to do to be competitive in this market.
And you’re just throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping that it sticks. It’s yeah. In theory, if you knew everything that you needed to know, you could save money on the buy-side, sell-side, and all of that. But what I found time and time again, it’s people lose money and then waste time and end up coming back.
Anyway, like I’ll have agents outside of, my markets hit me up and be like, Hey, look, I am an agent and in the same state as you, but I want to invest in this market and I don’t know, the industry sees it, please do your job type of thing.
Okay. Oh yeah. So I just want to make sure, we really drill it down.
So if folks are out there and they want to go full-time real estate investing. To them, that means they acknowledged they’re going to have to be very active then it’s like a maybe, but if it’s you want to build passive income, you just want to invest on the side then no, don’t do it.
Yes. I firmly stand by that for sure. But everyone, do you booboo, you’re going to do meats. You are happy, like support. Everyone’s different.
No, I think it’s good to listen to the experts, right? Especially when, if you’re brand new, you don’t know which way to go doing the right things is important and not wasting time and money.
It’s so important. Especially if the listener schools are to save time if they are invested in other day-to-day activities. I talk about how the importance of a team. Frequently. I actually gave a class on Saturday about, one of the factors was the inference of a team because when people are starting out in real estate, there’s so much to learn, you’ll be super overwhelmed.
And what I found is people are shy. They’re nervous. They don’t want to say that they don’t know something, but if you use the key players in a real estate transaction at their fullest capability, when you don’t know something about insurance called the insurance provider, You can call the agent. Sure.
But for me, what I would do is I would then, in turn, put you in touch directly with the subject matter expert, and that’s going to get you the real-time information. It’s going to cut the learning curve and you’re going to have the best end result by talking to the insurance provider by calling the inspector by calling the contractor, the attorney, or the paralegal in particular.
And that will save you so much time for sure.
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I think it would be good in that realm too. Ask, what is reasonable for an investor, say an out of area investor to expect to get from their realtor, and what is unreasonable? I think sometimes out of state investors. Ken, especially newer. I don’t want to be, I don’t want to be too harsh, but can expect, Hey, all I have to do is find the golden investor-friendly realtor and we’ll basically do everything for me.
I just need to bring the money, but is that reasonable?
Okay. Yeah. So if you are. If you do your homework and your legwork, then that will set you up for success. Because I’ve branded myself and my team as the investor savvy team, we have experienced exactly what you’re talking about. We have new people off, bigger pockets all the time, hitting us up.
Like I’m a newbie. I know nothing I want to invest in. And then the expectation is set that because we’re investor-savvy agents, it’s our job to train you from the ground up, teach you everything that you need to know about to be an investor. Also, find you the perfect deal. Also, get you the rehab and set up that timeline for you.
Every piece of the puzzle. Whereas it’s, it took not too long to realize. Very difficult. You can do that with one client, but if you have 50, there’s no way that’s going to happen. And then as an investor, you guys should realize that if you come into the mindset of this agent works for me, they need to do all these things for me.
What you don’t realize is there’s 50 of you and there’s a package. For sure. So as an agent, what I’m going to want to do is I’m going to want to work with the person who has done their homework, who knows, what they’re looking for in property has lined up their financing or comes to me and says, this is what I want to do.
Do you have a contact for this financing? Hell yeah. If this person comes ready and all of those ways, and also. My time and understands that when I’m out running around and looking at six properties, that’s, potentially six hours, then those people are going to get the good deals. When someone calls me a wholesaler says, Shelby, I got this off-market property.
It’s awesome. Who do you know you want as the investor to be the first call? Does that make sense? So yeah. And that’s what clients don’t realize we choose actually, who gets.
If you were in the position where you’re putting all the deal together and just basically handing it off to somebody, it wouldn’t be a very smart business model. You’re making what 3% where if you’re going to put the whole deal together, shoot, you might as well do it yourself and move further up the chain, make more money.
Yeah. And I’ve definitely been there. Like I’ve definitely put complete deals together. I used to do that, especially just starting out when you don’t have as many clients and your clients aren’t as savvy, then I’ll find, oh shit. Like I got to close another deal. Cause I got to get that commission check to pay for my own X, Y, and Z.
I have done that. I’ve pulled all the comps for the, But also for rental rates, if they’re doing a cupper and put together the entire package, do the BiggerPockets calculator and send them like with a bow on it. But the expectation should not be that. And we actually developed a screening system essentially because we had so many people running it like flooding.
That when we get an inquiry, it’s the same first email, every single time where it’s thanks so much for reaching out attached our action steps to becoming a successful real estate investor, as well as a getting started questionnaire and information on our market. So the action steps take you through, literally listen to.
Amount of podcasts on these topics, call lenders, call like literally it’s here’s your homework. And then the getting started questionnaire is have you done the action steps? What is your investment experience? What are your goals? What are you looking for in a property? And if they can’t fill that out, it’s if you don’t know what you’re looking for, I can’t find it.
So it like immediately filters a lot of people out through that way, which is, has been helpful.
Yeah, as a broker your time is money as anybody’s time is money, but especially in a heavy commission-based lifestyle or business model year.
We really do, but we want to help.
So you mentioned a bit earlier.
You want to be the person that the broker thinks of first when they get that off-market deal coming your way. You mentioned the action steps that are available, but do you know what else you want to be top of mind? You don’t want to just be middle of mine. Hey, this guy, took these initial steps.
You want to be number one, I know this person can close a deal. How can you really take it to the next level to be top of mind for a broker?
I would say if you are grateful really does help. And then also. If you are, if you read what we give. Okay. The first email we give you is action steps, getting started, a questionnaire, and info on the market.
Once you fill that out, you get the second email, which is they had to fill out a BiggerPockets calculator, how to estimate renovation costs all your list of preferred vendors that you will need. And so we were really big on providing information. So if you really want to be the favorite, then you would actually take into account the information provided.
Instead of I’m not going to read this. Shelby. What’s the, what do I do here? And I’m like, I just told you, so that, that is one, but the other one I would say is, and this is, gosh, I don’t want to just turn this into, I love people and like this isn’t a bitch that I promise. But the other thing that I would say that would really set you apart is if you build relationships like in person, if possible.
So I remember. Over anyone else? The freaking guy who I, who came to our meetup, we do pints of properties, real estate investors, meetup. We have several locations now. Also, if anyone wants to start up their own, we have a checklist it’s free. I’ll send it to you. You can start in your own city, but we have these meetups and that’s where you’re networking with people and it’s not stuffy.
It’s just okay. Y’all what are you actually going through? Realize scenario, what are you struggling with? And like building relationships like that. We’ll make you stand out for sure. Just be likable, be fun.
So that’s something I did myself a few years ago, start a meet-up in my city of Richmond.
And I know other folks who have started their own across the country. And for newer folks attending networking events. This is myself included when I first got started. I had no idea what to do or I don’t know anything. I, it was just basically walking in entirely blind. I know how to talk to people, but that’s just about it.
In your experience, what should folks know when they first go to a networking event like that? And what should they look to accomplish at those events? Especially the first one. Cause it could be daunting.
Super daunting. Okay. So before you go realize that. No one really knows what they’re doing in this whole world.
Everyone is just making it up as they go and trying to do the best they can. So you’ve literally nothing to be intimidated about. Usually, the people at meetups are pretty cool and I haven’t I don’t know. There are some people who suck, but mostly. So that’s the first thing, get your mind. The next thing I would say is if you’re nervous, that’s okay.
Other people are too. So when you come into the room, look around and look for the person who looks the most miserable. Maybe they’re standing by themselves, go up and say hi, and be like, I am also miserable because I don’t know anyone. Let’s go take this on together. And then at least you have someone to walk up.
Cause you’ll see real estate investors. They turn out to be little circles, really fast, where it’s like, people are just talking and you’re like, how do I get in there? So you know, you and your buddy can go take on the world together, or if you really want to get fancy most of these meetups are online.
So if you wanted to go to see the event, see who else is going and just. If you people and be like, yo I hope this isn’t weird. This is my first meetup. I just want to have someone that I can go up and say hi to him I’ll see you tonight. And just having that little bit makes you more comfortable.
But in regards to like intent, so what I found is that you should listen more than you talk, ask questions and be genuinely interested in people. If you’re like, everyone just wants to talk about themselves. So you go and you’re like, Hey, like you’re investing. Woody’s. How has that been working? You’re going to learn so much just by being genuinely interested in them,
Yeah. So I would like to dig a little bit more into building teams because whether it’s real estate investing or hosting a podcast or any other things that the team. All of the differences in my experience, but we touched on it a little bit members of the team that you recommend folks reach out to you, but I want to make sure we really cover that in a little bit more detail.
So let’s dive into that. And who should folks look to get on their team in addition to an investor from?
Yes. I would say the broker slash realtor is the first one for sure because they generally know all of the rest of these people, but then, in regards to being an investor, people that you need to get to know and be friends with a lender is definitely, always a good place to start because you’re going to need money for your deals.
And with that lender piece, you got to figure out whether you’re going to. In your personal name or whether you have a plan to invest in an LLC because those are generally two different lenders or requirements for lending. So a lender for sure. And then I would get a contractor. That’s another big one.
I’m like looking at my list of my team. A contractor is so freaking huge and they’re hard to come by the good ones. They’re always completely slammed. And they usually start out really good when they’re small and then they, because they’re so good, they get slammed and you never hear from them again. And it’s really sad.
So having a contractor, another thing with the contractor, what you should do is when you find one, this is the key to actually everything. This is how I learned in the very beginning is you find people who know what they’re doing, and then you’re like, Hey, can I just follow you? Or. I know that sounds creepy, but I literally did that.
I’d be like, Hey I don’t know anything about rehab. Can I come in? Can I just watch? I promise we’ll be fine. I’ll stay out of the way. And just watch and then there’ll be like, oh, do you have any questions? And you can talk, you can ask questions. You get that hands-on experience. I did the same thing as a broker, too.
I picked the top performers and was like, Hey. Ah, I’ll just be really quiet instead in a listing appointment. Can I just come with you? And they’re like, yeah, sure. So if you do that with your contractor, you should do that with your agent too. It’s yo man, you’re going to go walk houses for someone else.
Totally cool. Can I just come? You’ll learn so much from the literally the minute you got out of the car, the agent’s going to be telling. Yeah, start at the roof. You’re going to make sure that make sure the shingles look good because the roof is one of your biggest expenses. Oh, does it have gutters?
Do you know about exterior wood rot? Like how that deteriorates, like you are going to learn so freaking much from that. And then property manager, that would definitely be another one. There’s I’m looking at the list. There’s like a bunch of people on here, but those are like your keys. If you can have an agent.
A contractor and then a property manager, you’re going to be golden that property manager trust, but verify my friends. I’m going through some struggles right now where I’ve trusted a little too hard and I went back and verified and I’m like full, fully, yeah, just make sure that what you put your eyes on is what’s going to Excel and what you choose to not pay attention to will grow into chaos.
And as long as you know that and live that then The results are what you chose. I apparently chose chaos. We’re getting well.
Find a way to win. Don't stop at the first 'no'. You're going to hear 'no' about 10 times before you hear 'yes'.
One of those, one of the big advantages of networking around is particularly with property managers, you can really ask people because the contractors are one thing where somebody has a good contractor.
They’re probably not going to tell you who it is, but if they have a good property manager, they’ll probably tell you who their good property manager is. And they’ll tell you who, the bad ones.
For sure. Lots of fun experiences that people have gone through at the meetups are you got to go to the meetup and make those relationships.
Sure. What do you think about this is one that I particularly struggled with years ago at the beginning, having business cards. Do you think that’s relevant is too preliminary because of everything? In business, no matter what is, it’s all about the follow-up right. So should a newbie print business cards out for themselves or not.
I don’t think so.
So I have business cards in my Airbnb is next to a little frame that says you want to buy, sell or invest nationwide. I think that’s applicable, but if I’m meeting someone in a real estate, And like an investor’s meetup and we’re about to share contact information. I’m going to say, this is how we do this.
I’m like, Hey, I got a digital contact card. What’s your number? I’m going to share it with you. And then I share my contact card with them, which means that I got their phone number and the contact card they’re going to open it, save it. And it has. My phone number, my email, my Instagram, my Facebook, my team’s website, all of the things are right there in their phone.
And I have their number. That’s the key. You can never count on anyone to say. Yeah, I’ll send you that tomorrow. Sure. Probably 99%. Sure. They’re not going to, but if you have their contact information and you share the number, you make a quick note, you have to make it note and put it on your list. However you follow up on things, then you can reach out and be like, Hey, just a reminder, any chance you could shoot me that X, Y, and Z.
When you have a moment.
I like that a lot. That is definitely one that I’m going to use because. Don’t like using business cards, it’s necessary, or I saw it as a necessary evil and print them out and then decide you want to change color on your branding or you could get a new logo or something.
Shoot. Now I have 500 extra business cards, but that’s my old logo, so I can’t use it anymore. But the digital business card, that problem goes away.
Yes, totally. All of that. And people, a lot of people will get into, I think I’m supposed to do it this way, but if you just accept to be the weirdo, like then it’s cool and people won’t question it.
If you embrace it, if you make it weird, then they’re like, oh yeah, they’re weird.
Oh, yeah. Now, as we stand here, it’s off-camera, but I have a bookshelf or a chest of drawers over here that has thousands upon thousands of other people’s business cards in it. And some of whom I’ve followed up with and made connections with.
But many of them, I never talked to again, because if it wasn’t a good fit or whatever, and this digital business card strategy, that’s what I’m going to use. Yeah, no I like that learning. Learn a lot today. All right. Right now we’re going to take a quick break for our sponsor. All right, Shelby, I’ve got three questions.
I ask every guest on the show. Are you ready? I’m ready. Great. First one. What is the best investment you ever made other than in your education?
For real it’s people who have the money. People have the opportunities. People have the deals and you want to be there first. First of all.
Absolutely. And that’s very much on the theme of our discussion today.
We had the best investment that would go to the other side of that coin. The worst investment. What is the worst investment you ever made?
I bought a 160 years old house. And so it’s the renovation that comes along with that is always so much more than you expect, even when you think you’re expecting the worst.
So that has been an absolute lesson learned in drug on forever and busted timelines and way more money. So be careful when you’re buying the old ones guys.
So was there, would there have been a way to, even though. Working to be conservative. Was there something you could have done differently ahead of time to be properly conservative?
Not in regards to the numbers? I don’t think some of those things you really just can’t know until. In it. But what I did not do as I was living in Charlotte and the project was in fibble and I was using my general contractor as the proper project manager. And it took me too long to make the change, to implement and put a project manager on top of him.
Because I needed more pressure without me physically being there. And that’s something that I waited too long on. So if you were at a distance or you feel like you don’t have the time to. Stay on people like you, should, you got to put someone in place for that or else the project will never get done.
Nice. Glad we dug a little bit more into that. My favorite question here at the end of the shell is what is the most important lesson you’ve learned in business?
Find a way to win. This was a saying from my brigade commander, actually back in the day when I was a Lieutenant and he used to say it all the time, find a way to win, find a way to win.
And that was in field artillery in the army. But I think about it constantly. It’s like when presented a problem, you’re going to hear now about 10 times before you hear it. And that’s the way it is in life all the time. It’s don’t stop at that first note. Find a way there’s a creative solution.
There’s someone you can talk to. There’s a workaround. Just get to find a way to make it.
Nice. I like that. Thank you for joining us today and bringing us all of these lessons. If folks want to reach out, if they want to get in touch with you, they want to learn more about your business or anything like that.
Where can they track you down?
We go to fivepillarsrealty.com or real estate at shelbyosborne.com on Instagram is a great way or Facebook, but Instagram is probably more. And that’s okay.
Great. Thank you once again for joining us today, we’ll tag you on Instagram. When our posts go out regarding this episode to everybody out there, thank you for tuning in.
If you’re enjoying the show, please leave us a rating or review on apple podcasts. I appreciate that so much. That helps us rank higher in the apple podcast ecosystem. Because that way they know you’re engaging with the content and all that stuff. And I always tell you guys, I’m always honest. That helps me feel good.
Cause I get to see that you’re engaging with the content and you’re escaping the wall street casino along with us. If you know anyone who could use a little bit more passive wealth in their lives, please share the show with them and bring them into the tribe. I hope you have a great rest of your day and we’ll talk to you on the next one.
Bye-bye.
Shelby Osborne in The Passive Wealth Strategy Show
About our Guest
Shelby Osborne
Shelby Osborne graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2012, served in the Army for 6 years, and got out as a Captain at the beginning of 2018 to dive into Real Estate full-time as both a broker & investor.
Following her first year as a broker, Shelby was recognized as the Keller Williams Rookie of the Year for the “Carolinas Region” (all of North & South Carolina) and began to expand, creating her own team of real estate professionals. Five Pillars Realty Group became official in 2019 and specializes in helping military and investors nationwide meet their goals. “Pints & Properties,” their Real Estate Investors meetup, is booming & continuing to grow rapidly.
Episode Show Notes
Shelby Osborne graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2012, served in the Army for 6 years, and got out as a Captain at the beginning of 2018 to dive into Real Estate full-time as both a broker & investor.
Following her first year as a broker, Shelby was recognized as the Keller Williams Rookie of the Year for the “Carolinas Region” (all of North & South Carolina) and began to expand, creating her own team of real estate professionals. Five Pillars Realty Group became official in 2019 and specializes in helping military and investors nationwide meet their goals. “Pints & Properties,” their Real Estate Investors meetup, is booming & continuing to grow rapidly.
[00:01 – 03:13] Opening Segment
- Get to know Shelby Osborne
- A Real Estate Investor First
- “Real estate is kind of my jam.”
[03:14 – 12:45] Should You Become a Realtor?
- Should you get your license yourself?
- Is that 3% worth saving?
- Shelby shares a license secret
- Listen to the experts.
- What is reasonable for an investor to get from their realtor
- The Investor Savvy Team
- Shelby’s Tips for the Aspiring Agent
- Helping others become a successful real estate investor
[12:46 – 23:15] Becoming the Next Level Realtor
- Helping and Success is Two-Way
- Be the Next Level Broker
- Meetup Events 101
- How Shelby built her teams
- “I apparently chose chaos!”
- Are business cards in the past?
[23:16 – 29:58] Closing Segment
- Quick break for our sponsors
- Groundfloor offers short-term, high-yield real estate debt investments to the general public. Check www.passivewealthstrategy.com/groundfloor/ to get started.
- What is the best investment you’ve ever made other than your education?
- Relationships
- Shelby’s worst investment
- A 160-year old house
- What is the most important lesson that you’ve learned in business and investing?
- “Find a way to win.”
- Connect with my guest. See the links below.
Tweetable Quotes:
“Being an agent is actually a lot of work. And it is very intricate work specific on your market.” – Shelby Osborne
“If you do your homework and your legwork, then that will set you up for success.” – Shelby Osborne
“Don’t stop at that first “No.” Find a way, there’s a creative solution.” – Shelby Osborne
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Connect with Shelby Osborne through Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Visit their website https://fivepillarsrealty.com/.
Invest passively in multiple commercial real estate assets such as apartments, self storage, medical facilities, hotels and more through https://www.passivewealthstrategy.com/crowdstreet/
Participate directly in real estate investment loans on a fractional basis. Go to www.passivewealthstrategy.com/groundfloor/ and get ready to invest on your own terms.
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