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Real(ty) Talk
Real(ty) Talk
Money Hunt: How Giving Back Built a Real Estate Empire With Derek De Ville
Derek DeVille shares his powerful journey from financial hardship to becoming the #1 real estate agent in Southern California, revealing how treating real estate as a business with consistent systems transformed his career and life.
• Lost his father young, experienced home foreclosure, and accumulated massive debt before finding success in real estate
• Faced rejection when his broker tried to fire him, but refused to quit and eventually became top producer
• Personally sold over 100 homes annually for 13 consecutive years with no team or support staff
• Created McDonald's-inspired systems for every aspect of his business to ensure consistent client experiences
• Built a referral-based business through exceptional service and community initiatives like his "Money Hunt"
• Recommends agents create a daily method of operation with 85% of time dedicated to prospecting
• Emphasizes "clients before commission" as his guiding philosophy
• Currently balancing continued real estate success with family priorities, particularly time with his children
If you're an agent looking for advice with no strings attached, reach out to Derek on Instagram at TheDerekDeVille - he genuinely wants to help others experience how real estate can transform their lives.
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Paul Hanson:
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Stephen Couig:
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Welcome back. Realty Talk Podcast. I am your host for the day, suzanne Sini. Paul Hanson is not with us today, so I am going to do my best to take over his portion. But we do have a special co-host, sierra DeVille, joining us today and another guest, derek DeVille. We're going to give you a ton of information and you will get to know him very well both of them. But let's kick it off with kind of what's happening in the market. We'd like to do an initial touch base how things are going, what's going on, what's new? What's new in the market?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the fun part is we have two different markets. Yeah, this is going to be interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, so let's just elephant in the room how you guys are related.
Speaker 2:So so we're cousins, okay, so both crushing real estate. He got into real estate first, so I will say he he's the leader on it and is crushing it, so I followed his lead. But I was at Zillow before and then you know how the corporate world goes and jobs, and so I wanted to go work for myself, um, and so we've crossed paths a few times in some situations and obviously here today we wanted to bring you in and get your story because I think some people have already heard mine. But as far as our market goes, orange County, I think it's still really highly in demand.
Speaker 2:If a property is priced well, in great condition, it's going to move no matter what, and we're still seeing that Orange County, if it needs some work, it's going to move no matter what, and we're still seeing that Orange County, if it needs some work, it's sitting a little bit longer and I do think there is going to be more demand in Orange County because of what's going on in LA. But Orange County has been holding strong for a while. It's just a very desirable market and so we don't get hit with as many curve balls. Um, and there's a lot of money there, so interest rates don't affect as many people. You have a lot more cash buyers and cash on hand there, um, but overall, I think what we're all feeling is it's still slower than it, than it once was.
Speaker 1:I also feel like we thought that there was going to be this like big surge in LA of, um, you know we have, we have quite a few properties in LA and we thought after the fires there was going to be, you know, people really aggressively buying and um, we haven't really seen that, I think. I think it's almost been the opposite, where people are a little more timid to buy, you know, um, so that's been really interesting and that's something that we've talked about every week. As far as, like what you know, what that future looks like, I think, um, like, more information is coming out about um being able to build and um, just some, some homes that were built in like the 1940s that were up to a totally different code and then now having to get those up to code like it is just an absolute nightmare for rebuilding there.
Speaker 2:I would agree. We haven't seen the impact of LA yet. I think people are a little scared still, and or maybe they're going out of state and we're not seeing them shift different cities, we're seeing them shift to different states. What do you think?
Speaker 1:What about?
Speaker 3:you. Yeah, so I'm Hesperia, Victorville, Apple Valley, area known as the high desert and North Inland Empire, Rancho Cucamonga, et cetera. Yeah, our market, VASA market about 50. Prices are still holding strong, I think where our market's probably a lot different than yours. Besides, the medium home sales price is concessions. So, like I just ran comps yesterday for a house in Apple Valley, Out of all five sold comps, all five of the sellers not only paid the buyer's agent commission but also gave the buyer's concessions a minimum of $7,000 to help them buy down their rate. So that's super common up here. Our income, you know medium home price, medium income for a family is around $40,000 to $50,000, substantially lower than you guys.
Speaker 3:So, this is a more affordable area. You can buy a home in Hesperia on a half acre that is built in 2010 for around $400,000.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, so, and I think you deserve a proper introduction because I feel like you're kind of a big deal out here.
Speaker 3:I think you're the guy, big fish in a small pond.
Speaker 1:The big DeVille, but you have some bragging rights, I feel. Do you want to talk a little bit about what your team's done and how you've gotten to the place that you are today?
Speaker 3:Does an agent want to brag among themselves? Of course this is what we do, right? That's our favorite. The snapshot is this is my 20th year in business.
Speaker 1:For 13 years straight, I sold over 100 homes every year by myself, no team, no buyer's agent no showing agent.
Speaker 3:That's amazing, yep and brutal.
Speaker 1:That makes me have anxiety, when you say that yeah, it's a lot of work for sure.
Speaker 3:And then a transition from Century 21 to become an agent at Realty One Group and it was a small brokerage 40 agents and went to the owner and said, hey, what do you think about partnering up? And she said, let's do it. And within two years we had over 200 agents. And we're the number one brokerage up here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a snapshot deal Number one brokerage up here but yes, yeah, I saw there's someone signed down the road.
Speaker 3:that wasn't Realty One, and let's talk about this Just so you know, sierra, that house has been on the market for over a year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, For over a year that blue sign has been up. Oh painful, just to antagonize you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it is what it is, but, but I think what's important, um, for at least for me, is to remember real estate is what I do, it's not who I am. Yeah, Like you know, I'm a, I'm a father, I'm a believer and I'm an outdoorsman. That's like who I am.
Speaker 1:Real estate.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's been good and I'm very grateful. But I don't let that go to my head. I'm just still like a poor kid from the high desert.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. Well, that brings me to how did you, how did you settle on real estate?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So, um, you want me to kind of start from a little bit of the beginning. I'll make it short for the viewers.
Speaker 1:No, no, I mean, we want to hear the story.
Speaker 3:So so grew up in the Temecula area here in Southern California. My dad owned his own business, a small chemical business. Unfortunately, when I was in the eighth grade I lost him and then the business went under. Our house was foreclosed on, we lost all of our cars and I have a little brother, a little sister. My mom moved us into a rental in Menifee and she did the best that she could, with no college degree and really no work history because she was a stay-at-home mom, and it got really bad. It got to the point to where she called her sister up in the high desert and said hey, we don't have a car and we're getting kicked out of our rental, we need help. And my aunt, Donna saint of a woman, drove down, load us up and moved us into her home. And this was in Phelan, which, if you think Apple Valley's rule, it's still horse and buggies. In Phelan it's all dirt roads. But my mom immediately got a job working at a laundromat and a video store. There used to be these things called video stores.
Speaker 2:You're too young, you don't remember.
Speaker 1:Oh, no, no.
Speaker 2:Come on.
Speaker 1:I wish I was that young.
Speaker 3:But so she started working 80 hours a week right away. And I'm the oldest and I am a male and I felt horrible. I just lost my dad and my family was tormented not only emotionally but financially. And so there was an old man that lived across the street that had a big yard that was in disarray, and I went and knocked on his door and said, hey, I'm a young, poor kid, I see you're an older gentleman, can I work for money? And he said yeah, and so I started working right away. Um, some of this really cool is bought my first car at 16, bought it cash, and it was the first car that our family had, so my mom would drive me to school, drop me off and then she would take it to work. But, uh, what's really cool is, uh, my mom, even though we were broke, she made it very clear to us that we are not poor.
Speaker 2:And what?
Speaker 3:she basically instilled into me and my brother and sister and they're all also successful is that poor is a mentality and broke is an absence of funds. And I think that really made a difference for us not to feel like victims. So to fast forward, ended up working at Stater Brothers and was a manager there, and my uncle, dave, called me and said hey, I'm doing this new business, you want to check it out? I got into that business with the encouragement of my wife, jill, and I failed horribly at that. I'm probably the biggest loser, and not in a good way, and I was in that for a year, made no money.
Speaker 3:Um, my resolve is unshakable. And so I stayed in it, um, probably to my detriment, and a year later I ended up having to sell my car and buy an old junkie car, sell my home that I bought at 21 and moved in with my girlfriend's parents as a complete loser. Wow. And so a friend of mine, linda Pennington, said hey, you should get into real estate. And I said I don't. I don't want to be in real estate. I like people, I don't want to take advantage of them.
Speaker 1:And she's like she's like I take great offense to that. Yeah, she said come to the office, those real estate stigmas.
Speaker 3:I'm telling you, I talk about them all the time you know it's like yeah, it's not reality.
Speaker 3:What she did was so cool. She said, well, why don't you just come to the office and just sit there and just listen? And so I did that and by the end of the day I was like, man, this is really cool. You guys help people and you get compensated for it and there's freedom and all the other things, and I was like awesome. So I decided at that point that I was going to become the number one agent and just get into real estate and just show everybody how great I am.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, we all have that story. We all have that story, yeah.
Speaker 3:I can drink lattes and, you know, do champagne.
Speaker 2:Uh, yeah, so only mansion, selling only mansion.
Speaker 3:So six months later, still hadn't sold anything, made zero money. Like I said, I'm $65,000 in credit card debt. Um, man, I came home one day early which why am I coming home early when I'm broke? That's a problem, obviously. But, uh, I caught Jill. She had all of our credit cards and when I say our, it was my credit card bills and she had them all out and she was crying and I walked upstairs and caught her and it just gutted me. Yeah, didn't feel like even a man and I had this woman that I loved, that I wanted to marry and proposed to, didn't have the money, um, and just felt like a complete loser. And only because of Jill's belief in me, before everybody else saw, am I where I'm at? There was no doubt about that. But the broker tried to fire me. Broker called me in the office and said have a seat, derek, and I said what's going on she?
Speaker 3:goes, you're fired. You suck and I said what am I doing wrong? She goes you're not selling real estate. And I said well, help me. And she was an old school broker. And she said Derek, my job is not to help you, your job is to make me money.
Speaker 2:And when you don't make me money, you make the brokerage. Wow, so you know brokers like that. Oh yeah, Is she still alive to see where you're at now?
Speaker 1:Thankfully yes.
Speaker 3:Well, painfully for her, but yeah. So I told her in that meeting. I said no, I'm not quitting. And I walked out and I was so pissed man, I was like this fricking lady I'm going to show her. And uh, I just did my best to do that and just basically stopped lying to myself and just said you know what, let's see if I can make it in real estate. I'm going to give it my all.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Maybe I still fail and thankfully, within a year I was the number one agent in the office. Two years number one in the high desert, three years number one in Southern California for Century 21,. And then top 21 in the nation for income and units for whatever. It was a decade.
Speaker 1:Wow, what a story, yeah, what a journey that you know.
Speaker 2:That feeling you had I think a lot of agents have is like the imposter syndrome is starting out and going how do I be a top agent when I don't even know what I'm doing or where I am like? How did you get past feeling like you were the best agent, even though you hadn't sold anything?
Speaker 3:well, I wasn't the best agent.
Speaker 1:I was lying to myself, yeah, um but I think you have to do that, Like I think that's part of it, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so affirmations was a big part of it, believe it or not. I know a lot of people, including me. When your dad first introduced me to it I was like, oh, it's hocus pocus, but when you think about it, it's like man, we are constantly affirmed things, whether it's from the outside or from the interior. A lot of us have negative interior talk. You know I'm so stupid, I mess up, I always do that and then, not to mention, life is always kicking your butt. So that definitely helped. And, uh, really, it just and I don't think it's just real estate, I think it's applies to everything, whether it's fitness or business is, if you just make a decision that you're going to find a way to do it, yeah, no matter what, there is no option, it's non-negotiable. It's a non-negotiable. And when you start to take accountability for everything in your life that happens, good or bad, it empowers you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And so that's just what I, what I did, and I worked I mean to do that production. I worked 80 to 90 hours a week.
Speaker 1:There was definitely great sacrifice. However, I still coached all my kids uh sports teams and it was important to be still be a great father. Yeah, um, do you still find that? Um, at least now you have the work-life balance, like, how do you manage?
Speaker 3:that Well, I think. I think balance is important for most people. I think that if you're going to chase greatness or your full potential, balance is probably going to go out the window. There's always sacrifice. That's the thing. You're going to sacrifice something. It's going to be, you know, loved ones or whatever it is.
Speaker 2:Like the Kobe Bryant, like putting in that many hours, you're going to have to make sacrifices on time with family.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so like for those 13 years that I, that I did that high production um I had no hobbies.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:I did. I went to like zero events.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I never had lunches with agents or anybody.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:All I literally did was work and then spend time with my wife and kids. Yeah, that was it. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Do you think once you started closing, you got the taste of success and then that kept you also re-motivated? Because now you saw, okay, I can make some real money doing this, and that was something you didn't have growing up, and that taste of it made it even more exciting.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think results naturally motivate us. So when you go to the gym the first time there's, no change. Second time, no change. But then what's really exciting is when you start to see well, gosh, I have abdominals?
Speaker 1:I haven't seen them. We got a six pack creeping in there. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:And that's the way that's like I said, I just think it applies to everything, and so that's what it was. It was like okay, cool, Like I made a commission, wow, that's awesome. I could do that, and then I set an income gold initially back then. The first one was $10,000 in a month and keep in mind I was selling homes for 40, 50, 60, 70,000 up here in 2009.
Speaker 3:So to make $10,000, I had to sell 10 homes a month and then you know you just keep pushing it from there. So, yes, results help motivate big. The big thing is is what do you do, whether it's business or fitness? What do you do in the gap in between? I want to do this and the results? That is where most people fail Right, and I think it's because they're driven by motivation instead of discipline.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, I mean, we see it all the time. I think you know the people sitting here on this couch can all relate and um, and understand that feeling and know that, uh, we talk about it all the time. I, I think the number one quality that an agent should have, or has to have in order to be successful is, uh, to be tenacious Like you can. Yeah, tenacity like you can't give up, you know, and um, and I think that a lot of people say, and that's I mean in any sales job, really, it with any of your goals, like you said, it really does apply to anything and everything. And um, and you, you can't quit. You know it's not always going to be easy, um, but I think you know, so many people say that they want it, but so few actually do it, yeah, so, um, it's really amazing to see what you've done up here and um, we, you know that's why we came, because, number one, we wanted to chat with you, um, but number two, we, um, we really applaud the team that you've built and I think you know what's really great.
Speaker 1:It doesn't matter that, you know, we have Innovate Realty, it doesn't matter, we're actually at different brokerages. We all operate with an abundance mindset and all we want to do is share and help people grow, no matter what industry they're in. You know, we've had guests on here that have nothing to do with real estate, but uh, but we try and sprinkle in some of our own every now and then. Um, which leads me to so this is a fun one. Um, what would you say is you, but you've been around, you've seen a lot. I, I I mean a hundred homes a year on your own. I know you've had a lot of real estate experiences, so give me your craziest real estate story. Okay.
Speaker 3:I have one for you because it's like seared in my mind.
Speaker 1:I know I'm like that was fast that one, but I think no, I don't know. I feel like we all have the one you know that it's like Ooh, yeah, so this is a fun story. So, um, I don't know, I feel like we all have the one. You know that it's like, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:So this is a fun story. So this is in the foreclosure market. I'm showing homes to a buyer and it's a single lady. We walk into the house and the homes are foreclosure, so they're empty. And I walk into the house, open up the door, she walks in, she goes down the hall.
Speaker 3:I kind of go to the kitchen and I'm hanging there and all of a sudden I hear a bloody murder scream like you're getting murdered oh no, yes, so, and the area that this happened in is not a very popular area, let's say, yeah and so, anyways, I start to come running down the hallway, all of a sudden she burst out of a bedroom with eyes like afraid to death, screaming, and I go, what's going on? What's going on? She's like ah, I said what's going on. She goes, there's a man in there. I said okay, and she goes and he's naked. And I go, okay, and she goes and he's masturbating.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 3:So here's the funniest part. So I go in the room right away.
Speaker 1:Of course.
Speaker 2:I got to see for myself.
Speaker 3:No, that wasn't really. I wanted to make sure it was safe. So I walk in there and the guy is about 21 years old and he's pulling up his pants and I'm like dude you know, like dude, what are you doing? He's like, he's like, oh you know, and I'm like anyways. So I tell him to leave the house. And the funniest part is is my client. He leaves and she goes. Man, he had a nice body, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:That's a good one.
Speaker 2:That's a good one I like that.
Speaker 1:Okay, so, um, there's something else I want to talk about, because I think you know, um, as we talked about, you have grown, grown the business. What is it that you do? Cause I think I've seen a few things that you do here locally. Um, what are some things that you do that sets you apart from the rest, to you know, get you to where you are?
Speaker 3:Okay. So when I, so I, when I got in real estate and I started actually having some success, it was uh, the results were very sporadic. Right yeah, have a good month and I'm like I'm the best, and then make no money for one or two months. I'm like.
Speaker 2:I'm the worst.
Speaker 3:And uh, so I I I seeked out counsel in my brokerage and I'm like, hey, how do we do this? And basically everybody there was doing kind of what I was doing, which was just shooting from the hip. And so I remember this moment vividly, as I was sitting there and I was like, okay, if I'm going to run real estate like an actual business, then I have to have some sort of systems, things that are repeatable, right, so that the client experience is the same, so that my experience is the same. And so what popped in my head is McDonald's, because McDonald's can take people from all over the world, put them into their company and have them operate on the production line seamlessly and you can have a Big Mac here or wherever, and it tastes the same. And my thought was okay, well, if McDonald's decided to get into real estate, what type of systems would they build?
Speaker 3:And so what I started doing and it was a long, tedious process was everything that I did more than once. I made a system for it. So, for example, you go on a listing, you get the listing. The seller would say when's the sign going to be up? First time. I'm like, oh, it'll be up. Blah, blah, blah. Second time. I'm like I need to tell them this before they ask. So I made that a major focus of my business is to answer my clients' questions before they even ask them, because, you are, we already know what they're going to ask. Right, it's? Humans are very similar, yeah, and so I would say that that really separates me and I don't want to say that that I'm like the elite professional, because I'm not but that level of professionalism and the systems of my business, how else can you sell 100 homes a year by yourself?
Speaker 3:by yourself and not shoot yourself in the head.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, no without systems.
Speaker 3:You can't. Yeah, and so the and the great thing is what I'm really proud of is the customer experience kept getting better and better and better.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And uh everyone loves the repeat client.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and of course, when you give a customer good service, they refer people to you. So the majority of my business is referral at this point, 20 years in the business- yeah.
Speaker 3:So I think that's the biggest thing. And then the second thing that I would say is innovation. I'm really big on dedicating time to try to figure out. What is it that I don't know that can help me. So early on in real estate 20 years ago, I became really affluent in pay-per-click ads, which was cutting edge at that time. And then social media came along and I actually kind of got kicked in the nuts. And a real short story is I was talking to basically a prospect and they mentioned another agent up here and they're like man, she sells a ton of homes.
Speaker 3:And I was like OK, I know that agent and I'm literally selling 10 homes to every one of hers. I am offended at this and my ego is hurt and I'm pissed and I asked her why do you say that she goes? Well, I see her always posting it and I wasn't posting. And being raised as a Christian, I was taught to be quiet, be humble sit in the back and I had to overcome that wall.
Speaker 3:And I was like you know what, derek? If you're not going to promote what you're doing, how can you expect people to know? And so then I got into social media and I think I'm pretty dominant up here in social media.
Speaker 1:Definitely.
Speaker 2:I hear the money hunts big.
Speaker 1:Yeah, tell us about this money hunt.
Speaker 3:It's a great idea. Yeah, so I give away money with no strings attached.
Speaker 1:Nobody can do this, especially up here, so yeah, Nobody's allowed, so I'm not the innovator.
Speaker 3:No strings attached.
Speaker 2:But if you're going to buy or sell, you use Derek DeVille.
Speaker 3:So none of that is incorporated into my branding.
Speaker 3:So I didn't create the. Well, I guess I created the word money hunt. People call it drops, right, Anyway. So I saw people were dropping money or whatever and I was like man, that's really cool. And being a poor kid, I have other ideas and stuff that I've done for charity, but I was like man, how cool would it be, Especially the high desert. It is a very I don't want to say poor cause, that's not the word, but it's, it's, it's salt of the earth, people, Right, Uh, which is what I really like about up here, Um, people are who they are.
Speaker 3:Being fake is like non-existent up here. Everybody's like you are who you are and so, with that said man, we're known for car accidents and, um, specifically, uh, more in Victorville, and so, like, we have a real prominent news Instagram page up here that pretty much everybody who follows and it's just constant negative.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I just had an idea like, man, what if I did something positive that could help my community and uh, give them something to look forward to and make it fun? So what I do is real simple. I take my money, I hide it in places that only locals would know and I posted on Instagram and the first person that finds it keeps it. There are no strings attached. There is no real estate um incorporated into it. Call me. They don't get my business card. I don't give them. It is literally just uh giving now. Will I receive from that? Of course, yeah.
Speaker 3:That's, that's, that's an automatic, but that is not my purpose.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. Yeah, it's um. I think it's clear that, um, you care not just about real estate, right, like you care about your community, you care about your family and um, and I think that that shows in what you do, and I think that's why you're so successful in what you do.
Speaker 2:So that's, I think, going back to that abundance mindset. We work with so many people that are will fight you for a deal or fight you here, and it's like I don't think that mentality gets you to be the top agent. Um, and I think some of the top agents are some of the most lovely people to work with because they're not like that and they aren't doing the faking it, acting like they're the best and they're the best negotiator, and it makes, I think, transactions so much more difficult. But I think that abundance mindset gets you 10 times more than the me, me, me, take, take, take. And I think you've got that brand up here and that's what people like working with you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've been super blessed.
Speaker 1:OK, so we are going to play a game, so we do this segment called Rate, that Listing, and it's fun because usually we have Paul looking at it from like an investor perspective and then agent perspective of like, how did they actually do these photos on screen as well? But we are, yes. So the rules are we're going to get the location, we're going to get the price of the home, the number of bedrooms, bath and square footage, and then we're basically going to rate and see how this agent did. And yeah, is this a trick one where it's like it was Sierras.
Speaker 3:And then I'm like this agent sucks. And you're like surprise, I know that would be the case. I would never do that to you. Don't set me up, yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's see. So this is in Quitman, Georgia. Okay good.
Speaker 2:So, don't you worry.
Speaker 3:Okay good, I feel better.
Speaker 2:So the price point's same.
Speaker 1:Price point $449,000, four bedroom, four bath, just over 3,000 square feet. Okay, okay, I'm intrigued. Oh, okay, so this property is green, but not like dark green, not like the green that's on trend right now, like the bright green, I would say it's a neon green, almost like a Lamborghini green.
Speaker 3:It's close, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Lamborghini, green, yeah, lamborghini green Oh's close. Yeah, like a hurricane green, lamborghini green, yeah, lamborghini green. Oh, this is starting to look like a dollhouse.
Speaker 3:And this is real. This is a real listing. This is real.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so we've got pink frames and chairs with the neon green. This is special.
Speaker 2:Is this an Airbnb Someone?
Speaker 1:Oh and B Someone. Oh, okay, so it kind of looks like that's exactly what it's going to say, like grandma went a little wild in here, barbie grandma, and it's, yeah, a little kitschy. It reminds me of the Madonna Inn in Paso Robles.
Speaker 2:Speaking of Paso Robles.
Speaker 1:We're just talking about that. Oh, okay, um, green cabinets, okay, that one doesn't look that bad, yeah, but you know not my taste. Oh, there we go again, okay, um it kind of looks like christmas uh is still happening, and then this is an actual listing right now, so it's a little surprising.
Speaker 3:I mean, what are you going to do? You know what comes to my mind when I see this is and I could be totally wrong, but I'm like this is an agent that was afraid to have a hard conversation with that that's I mean most of these.
Speaker 1:it's like what? Where? Depersonalize?
Speaker 3:and remove 95% of this.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, or maybe they thought purple walls green totally into this because it's so different, and equipment. Georgia equipment Georgia. Yeah, they're like, this is the one um colors everywhere, yeah, so just very bright, okay, bright blue bathroom.
Speaker 2:I mean, this person's life is not boring, it is not boring. It is not boring.
Speaker 3:Actually, that person would be fun to have on your podcast.
Speaker 1:They're going to be so much fun we should call them Totally and actually like they're probably very happy Like they brought a lot of color into their lives. Oh, the craft room, okay, all right. Craft room, Creative, creative mind. They probably painted the house themselves too.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, oh, red, white and blue.
Speaker 3:I like that. I'm a proud American, okay.
Speaker 2:There's a theme for everything, okay.
Speaker 1:Theme for every room. Theme for every room.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay, Ooh a little dream catcher there too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right, okay, whoa, all right, so All right. So, as Derek mentioned, I would agree. I think you know if, what do you do there? You know it's like you got to redo the. You got to paint. You got to at least paint. You got to paint everything and um you have to declutter. And in Quipman, georgia I don't know the population there, but I am I I have an inkling that like, like, maybe that's not for everyone there, like there's not, that's not appealing to the masses everyone knows that house for sure, I would think it kind of reminds me of like um Gilmore Girls type, like maybe it's like a small I don't know.
Speaker 3:I shouldn't be talking about equipment. I don't know anything about it. Yeah, if that's still around. I don't know. I shouldn't be talking about equipment. I don't know anything about it. Yeah, if that's still around. I don't know, I heard about it, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nobody knows, okay, so I'm going to give it. Um, yeah, I gotta give it like a two. I I'm not going to give it a one because it was clean.
Speaker 3:Like it wasn't like.
Speaker 1:I mean, we've seen some that are like inappropriate and like scary. It's like, as you said, the agent just didn't want to have a you know a real, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Or the seller just said, nope, yeah, exactly I think there's something to work with here from an Airbnb owner perspective.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of good parties that could go on in that house that you could rent out on airbnb. I think it's catchy. I think you could you can like make that work with some kind of brand. That's true if there's an instagram out there of this house and all of the ins and outs that's in it. I think this could be a really good following. So I'm gonna give it a little bit more, I'm okay. I'm gonna give it a three and a half. Okay, all right, she's generous okay, and what am I?
Speaker 2:rating like the listing like how would we, you know?
Speaker 1:are we having a stern talk with the agent? Are we okay?
Speaker 3:so this is what I would say is I thought the photos were actually good quality photos. It wasn't okay, it wasn.
Speaker 1:That's nice of you, the agent hired a photographer.
Speaker 3:it looks like the house is kept up. I'm digging for positives.
Speaker 2:You hit your limit, Because it is like an antique of a home right. It's very Victorian.
Speaker 1:Sierra's buying this house. She got sold, she got sold.
Speaker 3:If she ends up owning it, I'm going to love it, I'll come out, I'll fly out. She's like.
Speaker 1:I can Airbnb this equipment, georgia. I can take her in a month off this house. Okay, if you live in Quitman, georgia, we need to hear from you, like we need to hear this feedback, because I don't know anything about your city or town, but we need some real feedback here.
Speaker 3:But what? What's your number? What are we? I'll throw three out there.
Speaker 1:Okay, you're very nice.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know we went a lot nicer on this, like oh it's bright and colorful. But, like our previous listings, are like stripper pole and like like alien in the bathroom and like very strange. So yeah, I mean I think we're all just happy to see something nice, so um, I think it was happy I mean the colors really invited you in.
Speaker 1:Yes, okay, um. Well, with that, I guess um, before we wrap up, I would just ask you, derek, so I would just ask you, derek, so um number one, I would say advice to agents out there that um are either looking to get into the business or really not even real estate agents. Again, I feel you know um, you have created success from the bottom, you know and and clawed your way up to the top, and um still like, still goals on the horizon which I want to hear about Um, but what would your advice be to someone that you know isn't necessarily at the place where they want to be?
Speaker 3:That is a great question, Thank you. So, uh, we just had our office meeting, uh a couple of days ago, and uh, I heard an agent a seasoned agent say that they're still having the same struggles as a new agent. And I looked at the agent in front of everybody. I was like, well, that's a problem and the problem is you. So this is a thing.
Speaker 3:As I mentor agents is, I find out that the most helpful thing to do is to build them a daily method of operation, because, along with the freedom of becoming a realtor, becomes the responsibility now of making sure that you're not just busy but productive. So if somebody is not getting the results that they want, I would say review. Hopefully you have a daily method of operation. If you don't, then all it really is is just building yourself a schedule and then holding yourself accountable to it. So you should be prospecting 85% of your time, right, and there's transaction management and advertising, all that other stuff. But I found for me that putting it in my actual calendar and my iPhone and then actually honoring that time, so when it says it's time to cold call or whatever it is, it's the last thing you want to do. But you have to be disciplined enough to say well gosh, what do I want more? Do I want to have the life that I want to have?
Speaker 3:and achieve my dreams and goals? Or do I want to not make these calls? And I think having a scheduled daily method of operation is extremely important. And the second thing is is I think that if you can find a mentor or get into a brokerage where the leadership has actually sold real estate because my first brokerage the broker never sold real estate. So I found myself going to the broker and saying, hey, how do I handle the situation, how do I do this? And the advice was piss poor.
Speaker 3:It was very clear that I was being led by somebody that didn't know how to sell, so I think those two big things would be big.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think you touched on it earlier when you mentioned um, you have to treat it like a business and I think you know we do have so much freedom in real estate and really in a lot of sales jobs, insurance, like it's so many of these commission based jobs and you have to treat it like it's an actual business. You can't treat it like a part time thing and, um, like you said, I mean you kind of have to have a plan. I find agents coming to me quite a bit and being like I have nothing going on and no business, and I'm like, well, what are you actually doing to generate business? Are you just waiting for people to call you Like what? You know? What is the plan every day?
Speaker 1:And I think, as you touched on, that's one thing that I recognized when and I think Sierra, um, as you touched on, it's um, that's one thing that, um, I recognized when and I think Sierra as well when we were initially coaching real estate agents, it was like 90% of them just didn't run it Like it was a business. They just were kind of just, you know, getting lucky or answering their phone and kind of getting by. But if you do treat it like a business you will be successful, but you have to have that discipline, so I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 2:I think my team's sick of me talking about. If you had a pizza shop, if you had a yogurt shop, what would you do? What would you budget for marketing? How would you brand yourself? How would you put yourself out there? You're running a business and somehow in that they think, oh, I guess I'm not doing anything to be prepared, versus treating real estate like a transaction and a commission. I think any agent that is counting their commission ahead of time is doing the wrong thing For sure. I think you should be all about your systems. If you're doing the revenue-produ producing activities, then the checks will come. If you're looking at the checks, then your your productivity is going to get hurt by it.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So two things is always clients before commission. That's like the motto that I've instilled into my agents. I feel like you just can't go wrong if you do that. And then the second thing that I, that I do with these agents, that I mentor, is I let them I asked them I say, hey, if you, if you worked for me and you were my employee, do you think I would let you wake up whenever you wanted?
Speaker 2:Do you think I?
Speaker 3:would let you just start your day and be like well, just do whatever you want today. And of course they're all like.
Speaker 3:No, derek, you would be like you're going to have your butt here, then you're going to do this at this time. And I said, okay, would you do that? They said, well, yeah, if I worked for you I'd do it. I said so. Why would you help me build my business, but you're not willing to build your own? Why don't you treat yourself like you're the CEO instead of just a real estate agent? And I think what's hard in real estate is we are the CEO, but we're also the janitor.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and we get caught in this wide gap of things that we end up doing and you're kind of like, well, you get lost.
Speaker 2:How many homes I've organized and cleaned for photos. Myself hold on. Move this behind the doorway.
Speaker 3:We do so much.
Speaker 2:Oh, they have no idea. All the hats. We've talked about that before. Yes, exactly.
Speaker 3:And that's something that I did early on and that's actually in my listing presentation. It says most agents wear many hats and because of this they're spread out, and I built a team to support me on the back end, so that I can focus with my clients be present, answer my phone and do all those things.
Speaker 1:Okay so, yeah, yeah, the takeaway treat it like a business. Okay, so what is what are your goals? I know you're not done, so.
Speaker 2:I know it's not just do sell a lot of real estate.
Speaker 1:What? What does your future look?
Speaker 3:like. So I still. I still love selling real estate, believe it or not. I was in a listing late last night with this amazing family. They're over here and, uh, they're like you know, I know you're the broker and all this and I'm like, yeah, I still love this though. So, I love to sell real estate.
Speaker 3:I love people, so I don't foresee myself ever stopping to do that. Being a broker has its challenges right Almost 200 agents that I've partnered with. It's definitely challenging. Been building and selling homes for eight years now. Been flipping homes since 2009. We are building our first apartment complex, which is exciting. Um so the the major focus right now. My daughter's in high school now she's a freshman and my son is in seventh grade. The major focus for me is really them.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So, financial goals, I still have them. I have definitely pulled them back from where I wanted to be because I realized that there is a sacrifice. Yeah, and for me right now, in this stage that I'm at um, I'll never get these years back. Yeah, and I want to have the best relationship with my daughter and my son that I can't, so that's really my, my priority.
Speaker 3:I love that I sound like a minimum income. I'm like, okay, I make that as good. Yeah, I'm completely different If you Wow this is the first time I've heard that.
Speaker 1:Well, and I have a feeling this minimum income is not like minimum income. So yeah, like yes, okay.
Speaker 3:If it doesn't have seven figures.
Speaker 2:I'm not interested, I don't want it.
Speaker 3:But no, that really is my focus now. But, sierra, you're 100% right. All these years, I mean, I have been a straight-up mercenary.
Speaker 2:And yeah, like well, I mean we were kind of worried. We were like we have, you have to take care of your health first. You know which I did not.
Speaker 3:I ballooned up to 240 pounds and never went to the gym and I just literally. But this is a thing too, and I um, a lot of agents are females and a lot of times their husbands have a hard time supporting them because they don't see the results. And what I share with them is the conversation I had with Jill, which was hey, I'm going to work my buns off, but it's not forever. This is not going to be our life forever. And for me and Jill I asked her, I said can you give me a decade? I just want one decade and just let me do nothing but work and I will get us to this level financially and we can retire if we wanted to. And she's the most amazing woman business partner, pretty much all the great things I was just going to say.
Speaker 1:I feel like maybe we should have Jill on here.
Speaker 2:You should, she's really the one behind all this.
Speaker 3:She's an incredible woman and so intelligent businesswoman. Yeah, if you think I'm okay, then you'll be like dang it Jill's badass.
Speaker 1:Okay, next guest, that's great. Yeah, I guess I would just say for our listeners if you are looking to buy or sell in the high desert Apple Valley, victorville, anywhere this is your guy, so reach out to him. He definitely knows what he's doing and still loves doing it.
Speaker 3:Let me say this too If there's an agent watching or any agents that are watching that would want some advice, feel free to reach out to me on Instagram at TheDerekDeVille. Reach out to me, ask me questions and I'll help you, no strings attached. I don't have a mentoring thing to sell you Not that that's bad. I just don't have anything to sell you. I just want to help you. That way, you can build the life that you want. Because real estate has been so great to me and absolutely changed the trajectory of my family and I don't know about our lineage, but it's definitely changed our family. I believe in real estate. I believe in real estate agents. I think it's the most incredible thing and opportunity in the world. I absolutely love it.
Speaker 1:And it can change your life. So if I can help you, just let me know. Yes, we will plug all of his information as well and, of course, sierra's information and we. I think that's a wrap, that's a wrap, that's a wrap.
Speaker 3:We will, we will, yeah.
Speaker 1:We'll see you guys next time. Bye, yay.