Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to coffee is for closers. I'm your host, Tim Brigham. And today you're going to want to stay tuned. I've got somebody really, really cool in the studio that prior to even starting the interview, we were just chatted up and I can't even tell you the cool things that this man shared with me.
I, I hope that you really get something out of this today. I have Craig Falaco in the studio.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: Thanks, Tim.
[00:00:30] Speaker A: Craig, please introduce yourself for those who don't know who you are.
[00:00:32] Speaker B: I'm Craig Falaco. I'm with Dreamtown Realty. My son Nick and I run team Fallaco out of Dreamtown Realty.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: That's awesome. So tell me about you and your business, first off. So who are you? And put some numbers behind it, I guess.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: Well, I started in 1981 as a broker and the reason I got into real estate is because I'm also a 36 year teacher. I was, I retired and I coached for 31 years, but back in the teaching salary was $9,200.
[00:01:08] Speaker A: Oh, wow. Okay.
[00:01:11] Speaker B: See, that's a contrary to popular belief. People think teachers make millions of dollars. They don't. But anyway, so I needed an income, right? Because I'm getting married and we know that 9200 isn't going to cut it, right? And my dad was a realtor, so my son Nick is third generation realtor, so we had Fallaco real estate.
[00:01:34] Speaker A: Cool.
[00:01:34] Speaker B: So I was teaching, coaching and selling real estate in 1981. That was when I started.
[00:01:43] Speaker A: It's fair to say you've seen some things.
[00:01:45] Speaker B: Seen some things. I probably helped about 7000 people in real estate since that time, either buying, selling, renting, or even some light commercial, everything in between.
I'm really proud of that career so far, 42 years. But I'm very proud of my teaching career. That was 36 years and my coaching career of 31 years.
[00:02:10] Speaker A: So talk to me about the progression of your career. 42 years is incredible. And for those that don't understand what we're talking about, most people, they'll taste some success, right? And then they, okay, I finally did it and they almost want to relax, right? To stay successful for 42 years is, and I'm sure there were some trials in the beginning, but to get in it, taste some success and stay with it. And now I've built a team that's remarkable.
[00:02:38] Speaker B: I think my success is based on the same things I've always done, right?
I say yes to people who call me for help for all things, right? So if I'm in real estate and someone calls and says, I need your help to find something to buy or need your help to sell my book. I say, yes. Okay, so that's one thing. The other thing is I work at it. I work every day. So for 42 years, I've worked seven days a week. It's not an exaggeration. That's what I do. And when I look at the different times of the market that I was in, right. So in 81, there was a recession, depression rates were 18% to 20%.
The only sales were owner finance sales.
[00:03:29] Speaker A: So I'm going to stop you expand on that for those that don't understand what you just said.
[00:03:32] Speaker B: What an owner finance?
[00:03:33] Speaker A: Yeah. What is that 18% rate?
[00:03:36] Speaker B: I'm a buyer of a house. I don't want to pay 18, but I'm okay with paying twelve or ten.
So I go to the seller and I say, listen, I'll give you 20% down, I'll pay ten or 12%, and in two or three years, we'll balloon out and I'll refinance and I'll give you the rest of the money, which is great for a seller. Right? So they get their price, they get 20% down, they get another 2030 grand on an average sales price at the time, over those two or three years. And then they get the full amount of the mortgage because barely any was touched in two to three years. If you look at an amortization schedule, front load.
[00:04:13] Speaker A: Right?
[00:04:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
So it was a great thing to do. Right. I would love to be the bank on every house I sell. Could you imagine that? But I don't have those resources. But it was a great time for me because it was a time where you always have to work hard, but it was a time where you really got a chance to help both parties in the transaction. Right. Even though you represent one kind of. During that time, it was very good because you were really helping the seller if you had a buyer, and you were really helping the buyer if you had a seller, because they would owner finance. So everybody was really helping each other because it was such a tough time.
[00:04:52] Speaker A: And you could problem solve a little bit differently than you could today. But that doesn't make it mean it was easy. It's probably a little bit more fragile. Right?
[00:05:00] Speaker B: Well, I would say that we talked about this earlier. If you love something, it feels easy, right?
A 60 hours work week is really easy to you because you're passionate about it. Because you love it. Right?
And that's how I always felt. I never did anything I wouldn't be passionate about I got offers. I remember at and t at the time tried to make me one of their executive vice presidents, and they'd offer me, this was back in 88. They say, we'll give you $107,000 a year and be it. I said, well, I'm not interested in that. That's not something I would like to do. And they go, you don't want the money? I says, no, nothing I do is for the money. Teachers don't. If. If a teacher does it for the money, they're not good at their job. Certainly coaches don't do it for the money.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: I was going to say, that's the coach in you, right? If your heart's not into it and you're not.
[00:05:59] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, you're not going to be successful.
[00:06:01] Speaker A: Expand on that further. So you started with, you're in the 80s doing real estate, and it probably shaped your work ethic, I would think, because how hard it was back then with the depression, all those things.
[00:06:11] Speaker B: Well, you're going to love some of these stories. So I still farm, I still walk a block or two or three, I'll still hit a townhome or condo complex and introduce myself. So back in the love to do and into the 90s was put on my walk, man.
And especially during NFL playoff season, even though it was cold and I would listen to the NFL games on, my know, it was really cool. That's cool. Certainly during college football, I'm a football. I was a football coach, and I love the sport, too, but my primary sport was wrestling. We'll talk about that.
So I would put on my walk, man, and walk the blocks. And if anyone was out, I would take my walk, man, off, introduce myself, hand them my card. Remember that? The card?
[00:06:59] Speaker A: Yeah. We didn't have this digital anything, right.
[00:07:02] Speaker B: And it was a great way to meet people and everything. And so. Oh, my gosh. I should send you a photo of this. I have an old Falico real estate magnet that is yellowed from a listing, a house we represented last year.
[00:07:19] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:07:19] Speaker B: And the reason the kids called me, because they're in their still had my magnet on the refrigerator.
[00:07:27] Speaker A: Amazing.
[00:07:28] Speaker B: I got to show you a picture of it. It's up on my desk. I have a stand desk, and the metal bars that hold it up, it's sitting right there. So I'm going to shoot you a picture of that because you got to put it in here somewhere.
[00:07:40] Speaker A: Done.
[00:07:41] Speaker B: It's really great. So in 2018, I was in this roundtable, and one of the realtors said, yeah, this is a tough year. By the way. If you started in real estate after 2011, you don't know what a tough year is. This year is tough. But before that, we had great real estate in 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 1920. All except two months. 21. Right.
[00:08:08] Speaker A: Let's unpack that real quick because this show is designed for an audience of realtors, and they hope they get value out of it. What you just said is so incredibly important that everybody thinks this is a hard market. This is not a hard market. No, this is just a market. You need to work.
[00:08:23] Speaker B: Right.
[00:08:24] Speaker A: This is. You need to do your job. Everybody thinks that. Oh, well, after the last two years, oh, look at what it is now. There's plenty of opportunity.
[00:08:33] Speaker B: We're on pace to beat 2019 when.
[00:08:36] Speaker A: All of your properties, when nobody qualifies, everybody's looking for a short sale, when there's foreclosures rampant. That's a hard market.
[00:08:43] Speaker B: Oh, that short sale market was awful.
[00:08:45] Speaker A: It was awful. And more importantly, the stories. You'd have to take calls from clients crying because they couldn't afford their home and cement in the pipes and all.
[00:08:55] Speaker B: Those crazy no appliance fecal material on the floor. Yeah, it was a rough time.
[00:09:00] Speaker A: This is a market that probably serves you pretty well because you're not afraid to go into a market and drop off flyers, go shake somebody's hand, go hand out some cards.
[00:09:09] Speaker B: I always tell my team or other agents around us, Dreamtown is a great thing. It's kind of an open office so you can share more.
And I say, sometimes you have to work twice as hard to make half as much. Right.
That might be one of these times.
So you're not making a killing, but you're making a living. Don't forget. Right?
So in 2018, I'm in this roundtable, and one of the agents says, wow, I've never had to prospect before.
And I go, your job description is prospect and produce. Produce and prospect. You have to do both all the time. What do you think I was doing all last year, all the year before, all the year before prospecting. Like, I've never done done more mailers because I had more resources. So I even put out more out there to keep it going.
I've been the same through all 42 years about this business. Right. I help as many people as I can. I work as hard as I possibly can. You're only in control of two things in your life, your attitude and your effort. Everything else is out of your control. So like I used to tell my students, get an a in both of those.
I'll never remember your grade. When I see you 20 years from now or 15, I'll remember you. Yeah.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: That deserves the utmost respect. I'll never remember your grade, but I'll remember your effort. I'll remember your work ethic. I'll remember what you did. Your attitude, too, your grade. I'm not going to remember.
[00:10:43] Speaker B: What?
Doesn't matter. I'm actually a teacher that always thought we should never have grades. If you learn enough the material, you can move on. If you don't, you have to stay back again. That's it.
[00:10:54] Speaker A: Awesome.
[00:10:55] Speaker B: Attitude and effort is all that matters.
So I've always focused on attitude and effort. Every year I make a vision board.
I have an affirmation card this year. It's a little booklet because I believe in those things. You have to keep reminding yourself that your job is to help other people, help as many people as you can, and do it with maximum effort and with a great attitude.
[00:11:23] Speaker A: I always say this to people when you do those exercises, vision board affirmations, I say the same thing. I say, this is cheesy, but it's important.
Some people, they think, oh, well, this is just. I'm just going through the emotions. No, you're manifesting something. You're actually putting into the universe. What it is that you're about and what you're going to do. And that's so important.
[00:11:43] Speaker B: Well, it's kind of worked for me for 42 years.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: Right.
What's on your affirmation board now?
[00:11:49] Speaker B: Oh, it's a booklet. I can even pull it out of my car. It's in my car. But I have a spiritual page, business page, of course. I have a family page. I have five children. My wife and I, we met in 1979.
[00:12:03] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:12:03] Speaker B: So she looks like my trophy wife. She looks like my second wife, but she's not. She is the original.
[00:12:11] Speaker A: I love what you said before we started. I invited you to the casino, joking around because we lucky. And you said, I already won that a long time ago. I got my wife. I love that.
[00:12:23] Speaker B: I did.
[00:12:23] Speaker A: Says a lot about you.
[00:12:24] Speaker B: In 1979. I met her.
I tell people I won the lotto in 1979, they go, you did? Yeah. That's when I met my wife. I said, no, you don't understand. When you win that big, you must leave the table.
[00:12:39] Speaker A: Yeah, it's great.
So talk to me about your coaching career. Right. How has that served you well in real estate? And where's the synergy between the two? Because it's got to be, well, I'm.
[00:12:50] Speaker B: So glad you asked that. We didn't even talk about that. So how come Nick and I are ahead of 2019 numbers? Right now we're a little behind 21 and 22, but not much because we've spent these last twelve months now coaching, inspiring our buyers, who go and they bid and they lose. Who go and they try to set an appointment, it's already gone. And they would easily give.
[00:13:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:19] Speaker B: And they would easily drop you.
[00:13:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:21] Speaker B: Right.
[00:13:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:22] Speaker B: And all Nick and I have done, because Nick is a division one scholarship athlete, he wrestled at Michigan State.
All we've done is motivate and inspire and enthuse. Our buyers love it that whole time. So if you're not a teacher and a coach through this last run with your buyers, you don't know how to do that, possibly. Right. And that has been the secret to our success because everyone else is saying, how are you doing? How are you doing it? It's because we're relentless with our motivation.
[00:13:54] Speaker A: If you're setting the precedent right out the gate and setting the expectations right out the gate on what this experience is going to be like, I love prepping clients. When we get into the pre approval process of like, listen, this is going to be weird. It's like a test on yourself. I'm going to ask you questions.
[00:14:09] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:14:09] Speaker A: You may not know the answer.
[00:14:10] Speaker B: What color were your fingernails? 19. Whatever.
[00:14:13] Speaker A: Just know that buying a house is a lot different than buying. It's going to be different than anything else you've ever done. And I find that when you set it up correctly, it makes out the rest of the conversations easy. It's that later when they're like, oh, this is weird. And you didn't set that expectation of, this is what we're going to be going up against. If you're not coaching, if you're not a therapist at times.
[00:14:33] Speaker B: Right.
[00:14:34] Speaker A: You're going to run into some challenges because this is a hard business.
[00:14:37] Speaker B: Very tough. Very tough. Actually, I'm going to put this out there, too. All of the realtors who are new, I would say this is the hardest I've ever seen to be a new broker. Here's why you're not going to get listings when you're new, right? Because people aren't going to give you their house to sell if you're brand new. They want someone with experience and everything.
So all you have are buyers. And buyers have gotten beat up badly over the last year and a half, for sure, if not more.
Now you're out showing properties like lots of them. You're writing contracts and you're not making a dime. Not one of these are coming together, not one of these are closing. You might have one closing every six or four months, which is you can't survive that way. So if you're a new broker, I would say that this time is as hard as any. This time is just as hard, if not harder, than the seven, eight, nine and ten time. Just as hard, if not harder than the 80, 81, 82, 80 time. This is a very tough time to be a new broker. On the flip side of that, the experienced, excellent brokers are doing unbelievably well.
[00:15:49] Speaker A: Agreed.
[00:15:50] Speaker B: So like, if there's 100 houses to sell, I sell 80 and that leaves 20 for everybody else. This is what is happening right now.
If you're going to ask me if I'm going to start sharing all of that, all I could tell you is I'd be happy to. Except when my client calls me, they want me to do the job, right.
So someone says, why don't you start giving all your clients to your team? You're working really hard, you're working many hours. They didn't call my team members, they called me.
And so I'm going to do the job for them or my son.
[00:16:23] Speaker A: There's something to be said for know, we interviewed Matt on the show and Matt Larsey, he's a great, he was, he was very candid about his team and he talked about, he noticed some brokers that will build out these big giant teams thinking that that's just going to lead to success. And I think the way you just put that together is really important. That just because you have a team doesn't mean your client's going to be happy when you're like, oh, hey, yeah, thanks for calling me. Let me give you to Steve, right? And you go, I called you because I want Michael Jordan. I want you to go dunk the ball.
[00:16:58] Speaker B: Well, the thing how they feel too. Let me. Oh, this is a really good person.
I'm not good enough for you or.
[00:17:06] Speaker A: You don't have time for me, you're too busy, right?
[00:17:09] Speaker B: We had 19 people on our team in May of 21 and we got rid of eleven and we were talking about this because I didn't feel I could do the job for them, right? I didn't feel like I could give them my best stuff. I didn't feel like I could be their coach, their mentor, their teacher. Because I have my own clients, right, and I have my own job.
I out produce everyone on my team.
I'm not trying lead by example. Yeah. I outproduce everyone at the company right now. I'm not trying. I'm not doing anything different. I'm just going for it.
We went down to a very small team now. So we have a total of four full time brokers and four part time brokers. That's our team.
Some of those full time brokers are also my showing agents, mine and Nick's showing agent, because we've already had over 100 listings this year.
[00:18:05] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:18:05] Speaker B: And we want to be at our showings for our listings. We told our clients that's why you hired us is because we're going to also sell it.
[00:18:13] Speaker A: Right.
[00:18:16] Speaker B: We have showing agents, but I still try to go to all of my showings. If I can't, that's when I call my showing agent. So going into a day, they may not have any appointments, and by 1030, they have four and I have six.
Something like that.
That's what we did with our team.
[00:18:35] Speaker A: So going further into the coaching side of it, how has that helped you with real estate?
Have you taken some of those things you learned as a coach and bring.
[00:18:44] Speaker B: I mean, I was a wrestling coach.
[00:18:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:47] Speaker B: Pick yourself up off the mat is more than a metaphor for our family. Right.
[00:18:52] Speaker A: Love it.
[00:18:53] Speaker B: We had to do it. We actually had to pick ourselves up off the mat. The greatest thing you can teach your kids is resiliency. It's the greatest thing you can teach yourself over and over.
I had a buyer for five and a half years one time. That's the record.
[00:19:13] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:19:14] Speaker B: Five and a half years. Wow. And every single time we wrote and every single time I showed them, I was pumped.
Right? Excited.
[00:19:24] Speaker A: The one.
[00:19:25] Speaker B: This is great. Let's go.
Also a thing I'm doing now with all my buyers who they write a contract and I say, I'm very proud of the contract we wrote. You should be, too. It had this much down. It did a great price.
[00:19:40] Speaker A: I don't think I've ever heard that before. That's amazing.
[00:19:43] Speaker B: It's a great.
[00:19:43] Speaker A: Very crippled out of the offer that we.
[00:19:45] Speaker B: Yeah, we did a great job. Yeah, we just got beat.
That's all we can do is our best. Right. My son has tattooed on his back Dyb ltr. Do your best. Leave the rest. It's out of your control. All you can do. Attitude and effort. And so I tell all my buyers that if they miss out or anything, I just say, great job. Onto the next. And now I'm excited because the inventory has more than doubled in the last month and a half. So now, my buyers have three or four or five or six to look at instead of one that are already sold.
[00:20:24] Speaker A: This market is so interesting when you ignore the media and you look at the data of what's actually happening.
That's why a licensed professional is so important to have, because you can't interpret what CNBC is telling you. Dan Olick's out there saying stuff that you go versus when you talk to somebody like you or I. What you just said is so important because that happened yesterday, not 30 days ago when they created that article or whatever. You need somebody who's got hand on the pulse and knows exactly what's going on and can actually read the market for you properly.
[00:21:04] Speaker B: For all of us brokers, our economy is hyper local. Right. I mean, we're talking like a city broker doesn't even know anything about my Park Ridge northwest suburbs area. Right. So they call me for advice. Right.
[00:21:19] Speaker A: Is that where you focus?
[00:21:21] Speaker B: Yeah. I moved to Park Ridge in 1964, and.
[00:21:26] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:21:26] Speaker B: We bought our house in 1983, moved in in 1984, and my wife and I have been in the same house since 1984. Wow, that's cool. And so Park Ridge is about 40% of our business, 35 to 45, depending on the year. And all the rest is northwest side of the city, northwest suburbs mostly. But this year, I've sold a house in Antioch, west Chicago, south Loop. So, I mean, my client, you know, you're my client, Tim. And you say, craig, I'm really interested in Lake Zurich. Let's go.
[00:22:07] Speaker A: Great.
[00:22:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I just showed a place in Wayne yesterday. Okay.
[00:22:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:11] Speaker B: First time I've ever showed a house in Wayne. I don't.
[00:22:15] Speaker A: Know.
[00:22:16] Speaker B: Awesome. Lots of land, everything. What's funny, because my wife won't move from our house. Right. I see these know every day, basically. And early in my career, I used to tell her, hey, Jen, this is a great. She goes, you can go. Look, I'm not moving. I had a guy knock on my door. He goes, the house next door to us was for sale for 750.
[00:22:38] Speaker A: Yeah, right.
[00:22:39] Speaker B: And he knocks on my door, he goes, Greg, I buy your house, 750. I buy the house next door, 750. I knock them down, build beautiful house. I go, George, let me tell you something.
I would sell to you, but my wife will not move. You give me a million dollars, and I'll talk her into it. Yeah, he laughed just like you did. I'm not kidding. And I may not be able to talk her into it if you give me a million. Right. And that's today. If you knock on my door five years from now, I don't know what the new number will be.
[00:23:10] Speaker A: Right.
Your wife and my wife sound like they get along just.
[00:23:14] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. We're like this all over the place, and they're like this. She's the rock of our family, there's no question. Yeah.
She's everything for us.
[00:23:24] Speaker A: So you were a wrestling coach, you're a realtor, and then you were a spanish teacher.
[00:23:28] Speaker B: I taught Spanish for 36 years at the high school level. Yeah.
[00:23:32] Speaker A: So you've probably got maybe a different worldview than other people, right? Have you traveled much?
[00:23:37] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, one of my goals is to visit every spanish speaking country in the world. There's 21 of them. I have 19 down, two to go. Two to go. Yeah.
[00:23:46] Speaker A: That's cool.
[00:23:47] Speaker B: Everyone says, what are the two left? El Salvador, which is not. Well, maybe now it's okay, but a year ago, wouldn't have been. But now that they've arrested everybody in the whole country, maybe I could go now.
And Paraguay, which nobody knows about, but I still will go. I'll go to the capital, spend a couple nights.
[00:24:05] Speaker A: So is that how you push reset? You travel?
[00:24:09] Speaker B: Well, my wife pushes the reset. I'm glad you asked that. That's a great. So I went to Nicaragua just a week and a half ago, and it was my wife who booked the ticket because she saw, well, I don't take any days off and I don't relax, and I just, uh. And she, let's get you to Nicaragua. She doesn't come with me on most because I backpack and I go to.
[00:24:34] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:24:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:35] Speaker A: Wait, you're doing these solo?
[00:24:36] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, most of them. Some with the family, like, my daughters have traveled with me to these places. The whole family traveled with me to several of the places.
But on this trip, just backpack. And I was the only foreigner in the areas I went. I was the only one. So I don't go to the popular spots when I travel because I want to immerse myself. As a matter of fact, by the third and fourth night, because I was only there four nights, I was dreaming in Spanish again. So that's how immersed I was.
[00:25:07] Speaker A: You're dreaming in Spanish?
[00:25:09] Speaker B: Yes, that's how immersed I got.
[00:25:12] Speaker A: My brain is still trying to wrap my head around that as being real. Right? Like, of just deciding, you know, what? I'm going to get on a plane, I'm going to bring a backpack, and I'm just going to immerse myself in another country.
That's got to be a real reset. Some people are going to these commercial cancuns.
[00:25:27] Speaker B: Yeah. The last thing you want. And chances are very good, because 42 years in the business, 36 years as a teacher, 31 years as a coach, we're talking thousands and thousands and thousands of people. Chances are real good. If I go to one of those popular destinations, I'm going to run into a client, former student, former athlete, someone I know. Right?
[00:25:49] Speaker A: So that happens all the time, really.
[00:25:52] Speaker B: Jenny and I are not allowed to go to dinner practically in Park Ridge or that area because she doesn't get to talk to me, because everyone. Great. So we run this commercial at the historic pickwick theater. We're the ones who introduce. Put your phone away and everything. It's a really good clip.
[00:26:09] Speaker A: That's cool.
[00:26:09] Speaker B: And I'm at this restaurant in Park Ridge, and the little kid is having a birthday party. He goes, daddy, get me a picture with him. He's famous. He doesn't know who I am. The kid was like four or five, so we took a birthday picture with him and everything. I know the parents, so it wasn't.
I mean, I can't go in that town.
Nick's third generation. His kids are fourth generation falcos in the town now it's over.
[00:26:41] Speaker A: That's what they call a farm, right? That's where you've got this community of people that you've either taught or coached or been a realtor for, and it's probably served you well.
How do you keep in touch with these people?
How do you run your farm?
[00:26:58] Speaker B: So, Yuval de Gani in Dreamtown. So in the end of 2015, we were at Remax. So we were Fallaco real estate. We being my dad and I, because my son, obviously is not that old. From 1981 to 1997, we had Fallaco real estate. And then from 97 to 2015, we were at Remax. And then Nick, my son, was getting out of the corporate world and wanted to come be my partner. Remax wouldn't do it for him because there's no support and there shouldn't be. It's 100% commission. I mean, you pay to go to work there, right?
So I started interviewing, and I interviewed everyone. I interviewed Diapril before they came to Park Ridge. I interviewed at properties before they came to Park Ridge. I interviewed Keller Williams twice. They even invited me down to their convention.
I interviewed compass when they were only interviewing 20 plus million, if you remember that, that was back in 2015 or 16 or whatever.
And I sit down with Yuval de Gani in Dreamtown, and I literally signed in a minute and a half with them. Yes, because I already knew they had all the technologies that my son would need and all the marketing and all the branding, because that was going to be his focus. I didn't even know what that was. I still don't. I just did it by being active for millions of hours.
I always tell people, you had me at Yuval because he met me and he was looking at me through me, like saying, you have no idea how good we can be together.
I can help you be a better broker, a better like. And I immediately sensed it and I was right. So we joined Dreamtown. Nick is my partner. We're team Fallaco. Okay.
And we went from 50 or 60 transactions a year at Remax to over 200 at Dreamtown.
We closed 1000 properties in less than seven years with Dreamtown.
But now think about, everybody knows who's in the business knows what that means. That means we contracted 1300.
[00:29:22] Speaker A: Yeah, it's true.
Well, that's incredible. So it sounds like your system, you've got systems that are in place.
I don't mean to offend when I say this, but I mean it as a compliment. You're more old school like me. Like it's just pick up your phone.
[00:29:39] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I do a connect MLS Mailer, an email every month. And it's not always business related. It's sometimes an update on my family. Because in that group of people, 90% of them know who I am. They know my wife, they know my five kids. They know I have seven grandkids, they know some of them.
So I'm able to reach out to them and tell them about like one of the nicest updates I ever gave them was at the same time my wife and I celebrated our 40th anniversary. Nick and Lindsay, my son and his wife, celebrated their 10th anniversary.
[00:30:16] Speaker A: That's sweet.
[00:30:17] Speaker B: And we were in business for over 50 years, for example.
[00:30:20] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:30:21] Speaker B: So what we did was we sent out a milestone like update with pictures of us and them and their babies. It was awesome. That's the type of touches we do.
[00:30:33] Speaker A: Unpacking that I don't think. Again, you've shared so many nuggets so far that I've genuinely never heard. I didn't even think about the fact that getting someone a home is the most important thing that probably they'll ever do. The biggest financial decision they'll ever make.
[00:30:49] Speaker B: 90 something percent of the time.
[00:30:50] Speaker A: And we don't want to lose that relationship. But time passes, right? So you almost don't want to annoy them with just more mortgage stuff or real estate stuff because they don't really care. They bought a house and they're not interested in making a decision. So how do you stay in contact with them?
I think it's so cool that you treat them with that much respect that you're truly updating them on your family and say, look, this is my life. This is what's going on with me. And if I'm reading that, I'm comparing it to mine, like, oh, grandchildren. Oh, well, here's my son. Right. And you build that relationship in a completely sincere way, like you said, special.
[00:31:29] Speaker B: Let them know you're human. Yeah. You go through a lot in your regular life, not just your real estate life. Right.
Just to talk about that, about.
People love to say to me, I like houses. I want to go into real estate. It's not a house business, it's a people business. Right.
The other thing I love, when an attorney says, well, that's a big check you got there. I said, well, do you ever work for free?
Because I do all the time.
[00:32:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:00] Speaker B: As a matter of fact, I don't get paid until it closes. Do you know how many years I've worked with some of my clients?
You get paid by the hour. You're going to get paid whether anything happens or not.
[00:32:12] Speaker A: I take that a step further. You've got 42 years of experience.
Look, I said this to an agent, and I won't share their name out of just respect.
[00:32:22] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:32:22] Speaker A: I was involved in a transaction of my own. Right. And I called this person up and said, I want to apologize to you. I had no idea for the last 17 years what you do for a living. Yeah, I had no idea. I always thought a realtor walked in the house and said, this is great. You want to buy this sign right here. Right? That's not what. A real estate transaction. Sometimes it goes down that way.
[00:32:47] Speaker B: Absolutely. You'll have a few transactions that are one and done.
[00:32:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:52] Speaker B: So the average amount of showings on a listing before it sells, and team fallacy is eight.
[00:33:01] Speaker A: Okay, sure.
[00:33:03] Speaker B: The average amount of houses that you show a person before they buy is way reduced. But why? Because they're doing their work on the Internet now. Right. They're doing it through whatever. All those sites. Realtor.com, Redfin, whatever, whatever.
Oh, that's a funny story. No offense to all the compass people, but in that interview with compass, the guy tells me they're going to drop their apps. No one will ever use Redfin again, or Zillow. They're going to use just compass. Just the compass app. And I looked at him, I said, they might add your app, but they're not dropping Redfin app. They're going to add apps. They're not going to drop apps. So what do our buyers do? They have ten apps on their phone, 20 apps on their phone, all the notifications, and they're going, Ping.
[00:33:51] Speaker A: Bing bing bing bing bing bing bing bing.
[00:33:53] Speaker B: So that's a great example of what sets you apart. Right? We were the first to use the PLN. This is going back about five or six years. We were the first. Okay, Team Felico, if you looked at our area, if there were five PLN listings, we had four of them. If there were 15, we had 14 of them. We were the ones.
And that was before they let him go into the MLS. Right.
To be able to share it with buyers. Right. So to be successful in the PLN, you had to actually go into the PLN, search for properties, tell people about those properties. You had to be actively looking. Instead of hoping that some algorithm will reach out to them. Just think of how you can lose control of your client as far as that goes. Right? Sure. Never control. But you're hoping that they will get a ping and then just call you to show them the house. Right.
Just think about the dangers of that. Right. So how many times do brokers hear what you bought? What you did? What? Yeah. Well, I called to see it and this person said, yeah, come on over. And then we bought it.
[00:35:07] Speaker A: There it is.
[00:35:08] Speaker B: So we stay ahead of it. So that's another thing I do. I update my buyers. I have a buyer card, an old fashioned, handwritten buyer card. All my buyers are on there and I check the computer every day for them, knowing that they're getting pinged, knowing that they're getting my feed, knowing that they're getting everything to me, that's not good enough to me. I've got to stay on top of it.
[00:35:29] Speaker A: So anybody listening to this, remember that this is not something that you can hide behind. This automation.
All these tools that are all new, right? All these things that we get to make our jobs easier. They do, it does. It's great.
[00:35:46] Speaker B: Like I said, their amount of showings is down because they've already gone through 50 on the computer. So now I only have to show five. Right.
[00:35:53] Speaker A: But now you're learning that you still have to do the work. You need to go out there.
[00:35:57] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:35:58] Speaker A: Learn about these properties and reach out to your borrower, have a conversation. Don't wait for the MLS to send them a ping and them reach out to you and go, okay, I want to see this one, it's probably under contract at that point.
[00:36:09] Speaker B: Right? Look, and I'm a 42 year veteran. I've had great success.
I'm one of the top producers in the entire Chicagoland area.
And my last appointment last night ended at 820 and my first one started at eight this morning.
So I had two appointments before I came here.
[00:36:30] Speaker A: You had two before you came here?
[00:36:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:31] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:36:31] Speaker B: One was short. The first one at eight was short. But the showing 830 lasted till about 915 and I scooted over.
So I told you what my son always says about me. He says, if there's a hard way, my dad is already doing it. Right.
But I don't look at those as hard ways to do it. I just look at the one. They're. They're the ways that work best for me. Right? The ways that work best for me is to be actively involved in helping my clients all the time. Right. My son, when he started in the business, by the way, I have five kids. I keep talking to my son only because this is a real estate thing.
[00:37:14] Speaker A: Yeah, sure. Right.
[00:37:15] Speaker B: My other kids are awesome. I would like to do just a podcast on my kids. Okay. That's awesome.
[00:37:21] Speaker A: You seem like a very proud father.
[00:37:27] Speaker B: But my son came to me when he first started in 15, and he said, dad, I'm going to do 10 million my first year. And I said, no, you're not. And he goes, what do you mean? I go, well, let's say the average price is 800. You only help twelve people, right? You only help twelve people. Why don't you help 50 people at 200,000 to get to your 10 million? Because then you've helped 50 people. So our focus is completely about, someone calls for help, you help.
[00:37:56] Speaker A: I can see the passion. As soon as you start talking about it. The coach comes out of you the second that you start talking about. Because I love when somebody comes at me with the wrong goal. Right? It's like you're looking at that the wrong way. Nailed it. You're focused on 10 million.
[00:38:12] Speaker B: We don't know our volume.
[00:38:13] Speaker A: Who cares? You're going to walk a transaction because it's not big enough. Come on.
[00:38:16] Speaker B: Do you know the one year, I don't know what it was, 21 or 22, whatever year it was. Yval, the owner, goes, Craig, do you realize you're right at almost 100 million in sales, which for some of the city brokers, that's nothing. But for our average price, it's a lot, right? And I go, no, I didn't realize that, nor do I care. Yeah, but that's a big number. You know what, 1 million is a big number if it's for a lot of really good people.
[00:38:45] Speaker A: But when you're focused on the people, you're focused not on the numbers, the transactions. You're focused on how many people can I help.
[00:38:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:38:51] Speaker A: Right. That's something you said earlier, was I'm worried about helping as many people as I can.
[00:38:56] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:38:57] Speaker A: Do you care to expand on that at all?
[00:39:03] Speaker B: I believe that.
I don't want to sound corny, but I believe in love. Right. 100%. I wouldn't be a teacher, I wouldn't have been a coach if I didn't. Right.
And I believe that unselfishness is love's foundation. Okay. And I really don't care about the deal ever. I even had a broker say, don't you want the deal? I says, is that why you think I do, is make deals? I don't do that.
You know what I do?
I don't put deals together. I put people in their dreams together. I put people in their house together, or I put people and people together. This is the thing I do. So I learned it from my first profession as a teacher and a coach, that you walk into a classroom as a teacher, and this is important for all of us, for everything.
And I have 150 students every day, and I walk in, I'm not allowed to say, you know what? I'm going to help that one, but not that one.
[00:40:14] Speaker A: That one's going to get an a.
[00:40:16] Speaker B: You're going to get a help. And I think that one I might help. Let's see how it goes. And I'll definitely help that one. And I don't know about that. No, you walk in, you go, all right, guys, I'm here to help.
[00:40:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
It makes my skin crawl when I know we have to use that terminology of deal. Right. Because it's just part of the industry, so it comes out. But I hate when a client hears that. When they hear the word deal, it makes my skin crawl because it devalues how important, of course, we think these people are. Like, this is where you're going to go put your kids to sleep.
[00:40:52] Speaker B: Of course.
[00:40:52] Speaker A: Right? This is your house. Right. Deal makes it seem like, you know.
[00:40:59] Speaker B: You'Re on the right track. You know, you've arrived kind of in one phase of this industry when you can fire a client. Yeah, it's true. When you can say, look, you're just not a good person and you're being rude to my team or you're being rude to the front desk or you're being rude to me.
[00:41:17] Speaker A: Amen.
[00:41:19] Speaker B: I'm sorry. And I did that. And the guy says, you don't want my money? No.
If you thought that that's why I was doing this, you got the wrong guy.
And then he was so nice, and he tried to get me back, and I didn't go back. I didn't. Because you are who you are, man.
[00:41:37] Speaker A: You want to hear something funny that I've said in the past? I've had a client come and challenge.
Well, what about this lender and this lender and that lender?
[00:41:47] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, we get that all the time.
[00:41:48] Speaker A: Yeah, I got frustrated and I said, all right, let's forget about this for a second. Let's forget about your transaction once you close your eyes. Do me a favor, close your eyes. You just got a phone call and you got a call from a detective. He says, your son's being charged with murder. Now, I don't think your kid's going to kill anybody, but for the exercise, what's the first thing that you do? Do you go to Groupon to find your attorney, or do you go and you find the person that cares about you the most, that treats you with the utmost respect, and you find the killer? You find the guy that's going to go in front of the judge and fight for your kid? That's me. So if you don't see value in me, I get it.
[00:42:26] Speaker B: I get a call, the first thing out of the person's mouth, a cold call, let's say, what's your commission? And I answer. Did you call the cheapest realtor or did you call the best realtor? Why did you call me?
[00:42:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:42:39] Speaker B: And the silence is unbelievable. They don't know how to answer that.
[00:42:43] Speaker A: It's a great point.
[00:42:43] Speaker B: Because if you called the cheapest realtor. I'm not that guy.
[00:42:47] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:42:47] Speaker B: Okay. If you called the best realtor, I'm your man.
[00:42:51] Speaker A: But when you dive into it, there's a reason for it, right? I mean, there's a whole value.
[00:42:54] Speaker B: Well, I don't blame them for 42 years. Yeah. I don't blame them for trying, but they tried the wrong guy.
To my right and to my left are people that will talk to you.
[00:43:06] Speaker A: Who has been your mentor in your life. If you had to think of one mentor that jumps out at you, who do you think of?
[00:43:13] Speaker B: Well, obviously my late father, who died in four.
So my dad gave me the love and passion that I have. So he would pick up this glass case and he'd go, isn't this the most unbelievable glass case you have ever seen in your life. Look at this writing. Look at. Oh, feel the texture. Oh, my. And that's how I do everything with my grandkids, too. I find something on the ground, I say, look at how great this is. That's one, but the other is Dennis McCann. We coached together, so I wrestled at Loyola Academy. That's where I went to high school. And he was the head coach at Gordon Tech, and that's no longer. But Gordon Tech was one of our rivals, and I just was inspired by how this guy coached. And then I ended up being his assistant coach from 1982 to what was the year, 1997. And then we flipped, and then he was my assistant, but we were just always co coaches, so we coached together for 30 years. Yeah. And so he was the perfect compliment to me. Kind of like my son is in this business. Right.
[00:44:25] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:44:26] Speaker B: So I'm the fire. I'm the juice.
I'm one of those guys that believes in the thing.
[00:44:37] Speaker A: I'm very proud of that offer that we put up.
That's such a good way to put.
[00:44:42] Speaker B: Absolutely. Yeah.
I like to say ask. It's better to ask for forgiveness than permission on some things. I'm one of those guys. So nine out of ten times, that's a great way to be. But every once in a while, you really should probably think about it, or you really should probably step back and take your time. Dennis, was that for me. Obviously, my wife is like that for me.
So he taught me about how to love, how to win, how to lose, which is very important, and how to err on the side of the people you care about. Right. Err on the side of the student, err on the side of the athlete, err on the side of the client. That's the place you want to make a mistake is doing. Your intentions are good, right?
So I have passion and good intentions.
That's kind of like the basis of the business.
[00:45:48] Speaker A: So before we wrap up, I want to dive into what your thoughts are for a realtor that's listening to this. If you wanted to give them advice, maybe they're struggling. Maybe they're trying to figure out market, maybe they're trying to figure out where they want to go with their career. What advice do you have for them listening to you, what would you say to them after 42 years of being in this industry?
[00:46:09] Speaker B: Well, I would say that love is the answer.
Be unselfish and have a great attitude and a great work ethic. Right. The two things you can control and you'll be a success.
But what is success?
I'm in the smallest house on my block.
I think I'm the most successful guy on my block.
[00:46:39] Speaker A: Well, you are.
[00:46:40] Speaker B: I think I am. I mean, as long as I believe that I got my wife, my kids, my grandkids.
[00:46:45] Speaker A: But that has nothing to do with money. Well, I know, of course, right?
[00:46:49] Speaker B: Of course. Yeah. What other people say and do have nothing to do with your success really.
It's really about you.
So I would say to them those things be passionate, put others first, outwork everybody. That's a key in anything that you do. And of course have a great attitude.
[00:47:13] Speaker A: Well, you've inspired me and I'm sure you've inspired others. I really appreciate you spending time with me today. Thank you so much.
[00:47:19] Speaker B: Good.
[00:47:19] Speaker A: Great hanging out.
[00:47:19] Speaker B: Thank you, budy.
[00:47:20] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:47:21] Speaker B: Thank you.
