Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to The Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I’m your host, Justin Stoddart and I’m excited to bring you live from the from the Jersey Shore. Justin Bosak. Before we get into introducing today’s guest, Mr. Bosak, we are going to I just want to reiterate the purpose of all of this, the reason why I get up every day, and I’m fired up to bring you the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. It’s because when you start to think bigger, when you surround yourself with others, like today’s guest, your mind starts to think differently, you start to think bigger. And as a result, your own possibilities start to expand, you start to see things that were right in front of you, but you didn’t see them before. You start to hear things that were being spoken around you, but you didn’t hear them before. The purpose of this show, again, is to expand that. Expand your mindset so that your possibilities in life start to get bigger and bigger. So as a reminder, if you go to the website, thinkbigger.realestate, you can get a weekly summary update of these shows with highlights, you’re going to love that. So be sure and get signed up for that. about today’s guest. Again, he is a gentleman who is growing very quickly, making a big impact along the Jersey Shore in New Jersey, his name is Justin Bosak. He owns REMAX Revolution, which is a 45 agent group. He runs the Oceans Six Group, which is the number two team in all of New Jersey, pretty fantastic for a young guy like you, Mr. Justin Bosak. He has a team of 14 that helps him create that kind of production, and several support staff as well. And today, we’re going to talk a little bit about controlling your own economy. And how Justin has gone about doing that right now in the news. There’s all kinds of talk about how we’re overdue for a recession, how rates are low, but they won’t stay low forever; how who knows what’s going to happen with the trade wars. This message, the message that both Justin and I, Justin squared, both of us want to deliver to you today is that, the ultimate world, national local economy does not matter as much as your own economy. You have the biggest influence over your own economy, over everything else that’s happening out there. And so we’re going to dig into a little bit about how Justin has done, what he’s done. So that we can all learn from that and have greater control over our own our own economy so that regardless of what happens, with rates, with China with whatever, that your economy will be strong. So Justin, I want to thank you for coming on the show today. excited to have you here and excited to share your energy and your passion for real estate with this audience.
Justin Bosak
Sure thing, brother. Thanks for having me.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, my pleasure. Good to have you here. So let’s talk a little bit about kind of your kind of rolling in real estate. How long have you been in the business? Justin?
Justin Bosak
Oh, years… its 2019. So that’s 16 years now.
Justin Stoddart
Perfect. 16 years? You look pretty young. I would imagine you’re in your mid 30s. Is that accurate?
Justin Bosak
38
Justin Stoddart
So 38. Okay, very good. I was born just a couple years after you just celebrated my big four oh, here a couple weeks ago. So it’s pretty awesome up here, you’re gonna love it even more than the 30s. So you obviously expert in real estate have been long enough? At what point did you start your own brokerage.
Justin Bosak
We just started the brokerage last year. So you know, kind of grew from, you know, developing a team and then you know, having our own innovative ideas, and we kind of blocked on some things that we wanted to do with the team. So it just was a natural fit that just grow and just era? Well, you know, if you’re not gonna allow us to grow within a brokerage and do the things that we need to do to become number one, you know, we’re going to have to take it to the next level and start our own brokerage.
Justin Stoddart
Interesting. So you realize your ambitions were bigger than the arena you were playing in? And you realize, like, I can’t slow down for where I’m at. I’m gonna have to go create my own arena, correct?
Justin Bosak
Yeah, I mean, you know, I came through, you know, ’06, ’07, ’08, you know, so you saw the high highs, the highs and the lowest lows. So, you know, my thought back then was “Listen, nobody ever gonna take away from me,” you know, when I know something’s right, and I gotta do something, I’m still work hard and keep at it. And you can let other people limit you know, your innovation and your growth. It’s very important to be able to do what you feel is right for you and your business. So, don’t ever let something you know, somebody stop you, or tell you what you know is right.
Justin Stoddart
Interesting, we oftentimes create glass ceilings, one, right is the arena that we play in. Secondly, I think is the arena that we think within right is oftentimes we think, Oh, I can’t do that I don’t have I’m not as talented as Justin Bosak, right? Oh, I don’t have the same skills. I haven’t been in the industry, as long as he has. I’m not in New Jersey, right. I’m in a much smaller market. There’s all kinds of things that we say and we play these continual tapesthat we run through our head every day, that create our own reality. And what I hear you saying is that, once you start to change those tapes, you start to think a little bit bigger, you start to realize that there’s more possibilities, and that you kind of get restless and you realize, like, I have to, I have to do something more, I can’t know what I know, and feel what I feel, and stay doing what I’m doing.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, for sure. I mean, it really just comes down to just taking notice of what’s happening, you know. In your market, and then maybe having the understanding that, hey, in four or five years, you know, the top players may not be the top players, you know, the top companies may not be the top companies, the way business is done, it’s going to change, and it’s going to happen at such a fast rate. Regardless of what happens in the market, I think the market, you know, a crash or some kind of recession is only going to accelerate it that much further. I think there’s some things that are here in the real estate industry, that are going to remain, you know, I saw after the last recession, some things went away, took a while for them to come back. But with technology and innovation, and you got all these big players all this big money in real estate, you know, there’s so much attention on this business, and everybody’s trying to squeeze every dollar they can out of us as Realtors, you know. So we have to really proactively take our business look at it as a whole and say, you know, how can I protect it? You know, if commissions are cut and the new norm is a one and a half percent on the list side, or one and a half percent on the sales side? What are you going to do about it? Is your life set off financially, you know, that you could weather that storm, you know, and that’s the thing is preparing for the future. And I think real estate is going to go through some major changes, I really do.
Justin Stoddart
Ya know, it’s interesting to realize what happened during the recession to our economy as a whole, right is that major corporations were forced to do more with less and so they brought in a lot of automation, obviously, they cut their workforce pretty significantly. And everyone thought that as the economy recovered, that they would hire again, and a lot of companies did not because they replaced their workforce to some degree with automation, with computers. And I think because our society started to turn that way, and technology had caught up to the point to where that could happen. It was possible, people started to look around and say what other industries are people-heavy, and that start to rely more upon automation? And obviously, we we’ve seen that come into real estate, you know, with with reckless abandon here over the past few years with, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars being spent in the industry in which we live and work to minimize what real estate agents do, and get paid or eliminate the agent altogether. We’re seeing that happen. And what I hear you saying is that, despite that, regardless of what’s happening there, right, there’s some realities, there’s some areas in where we can add more value to where we don’t play that price war. Yet, even as prices potentially do come down a bit. The answer is, what would you say? Is it just do more business. have more volume? Justin, is that your, your kind of bet moving forward?
Justin Bosak
Yes. I mean, it’s just creating more solutions for your client and having more control over different things that happen in a transaction. So whether it’s, you know, owning a mortgage company, owning a homeowner’s insurance company, or even, you know, having a partnership with the title company, things like that, just to kind of, you know, know that if recession hits, you know, there’s some other ways to generate income, you know, I look at it like this, I mean, if you, you know, and this is probably true in any market, you know, 80% of the agents really shouldn’t be in business, you know, so how easy is it for the automation that you just talked about, to really just eliminate them, you know, so that, you know, if they’re doing four or five deals, you know, they’re only doing one, you know, and then, you know, hopefully, I mean, my hope is really, that this industry kind of goes through a process where becoming a realtor becomes that much harder, you know, that there’s much more of an investment, there’s much more education needed. Because I think, you know, realtors do get a bad rap, the top top agents are doing a ton of work, you know, there’s ton of money spent to procure lead, and then what they take away, you know, and obviously, you know, you get a $20,000, commission check, you know, that $20,000 isn’t going in your pocket. I mean, I think most realtors at the end of day, they’re lucky to keep, you know, 5000 as actual income after you pay, you know, expenses, and taxes and investment and things like that. So, you know, the new companies coming in with the automation, they’re trying to lower commissions, they’re trying to eliminate us all together, by you know, literally buying the houses as it was doing, and then just reselling them to the to the public, but charging them outrageous fees, you know, so it’s just coming up with solutions. So that way, you know, you have something that compete. So if Cisco saying, Hey, you know, we’re, you know, we’re making offers, we’re buying homes, and that’s not even where they’re making their money, they’re making their money, you know, they’ll be making the money on mortgages, and then selling us, you know, leads back. So it’s kind of taking your business and saying, Well, how can I become versatile, if things do change, you know, that shift can come, you know, pretty quickly. So, if you’re not an attempt, you know, top 10% of your market, I’d say you’re at risk, like you’ve got a fight right now, to kind of create, innovate and put yourself out there. Otherwise, in the next, you know, couple of years to hit, you know, any kind of recession, you know, you’re gonna be out of business.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, yeah, we’re absolutely seeing it, you know, there’s some kind of the bigger companies are predicting that, you know, half of the agents are going to be out of the workforce here in the next couple of years. I don’t know if that’s economically driven, or if that’s more just based on technology driven and innovation. And the fact that more and more people are going to rely upon kind of the I buyer situation was interesting that it was a case study down here in Portland, on an AI buyer company won’t mention them. I don’t want to receive a letter from their attorney necessarily, but the the company purchased a home. And agents here tracked what actually happened to that home. And they sold it for about $50,000 more than what they bought it for, and carried it for about four months. So to the homeowner, right that accepted one of these letters in the mail that said, Hey, this company is going to buy your you’re home. Right? They they sold their home about four months faster, right? They they unloaded it four months faster. But it came at a premium, right like $12,000 a month is what they lost, or, or is is kind of what they paid for that convenience, that’s a lot of money. And I think part of agents responsibility is to be aware of what these costs really are, like how the competitors are coming in, and tell and speak the truth to consumers that yes, there’s a convenience, but there’s a heavy convenience fee that you need to be aware of. And, you know, I agree with you that things are changing. But part of that change is that common agents, increasing their value proposition as well as increase their voice so that they can speak the truth about what’s really happening in the industry, and who their competitors really are not in a a slandering kind of way. But just speaking the numbers like here’s what’s happened, here’s this model. And here’s how this model works. Is it good for you? Maybe? Possibly not, though?
Justin Bosak
Yeah, and I think it’s educating yourself. So if you’re in one of those markets, luckily, we are, you know, really the market where a big player has come in, you know, it’s just having a solution. So I mean, there are people that do need to sell very quickly, so they will take that hit. And if you don’t have a solution for them, and it’s just oh, well, you know, I can put up a market, well, obviously, all the other agents can just do the same thing. You know, the solution is we need to close quickly, and we can’t go through, you know, a deal falling through, because our home is at risk or whatever, you know, whatever the reason may be, I have investors that that do this, you know, for a living locally, and we’re getting involved in that arena, we’re actually going to be kind of joining, joining hands and kind of attacking it together. But it’s going to be solution based. So you know, as a REMAX agent, you can offer, make an offer on a house and close in 30 days. And they can get paid a commission as a buyer’s agent, though, so they’re getting paid for the investor. But at the same time going to be given the market value, and probably expectations of what it takes to sell, you know, whether it’s you have to repair, you know, A, B and C or we’re going to just do a little staging, whatever it may be. So they have a full full knowledge of kind of what the reality of you know, selling quickly for less, you know, or taking the chance putting it on the market and getting market value. So if you don’t have that solution, you know, you can’t really compete. So if Zilla does come into your market, and you know, the client wants that, and you can offer it. I mean, what are you going to do? You know, you lost the client.
Justin Stoddart
That behooves agents to get start to think bigger and start to put preparations in place one in their own production. Also, like you said, to start to think creatively to think about, okay, if, we’re for coming into the housing market right now is the generation that that thrives on convenience, right? They want like, not just prime delivered in two days, they want prime now delivered in two hours? How can I offer them that? And they’ll be a part of it.
Justin Bosak
Yeah, so as an agent, you know, I know, it’s not as easy as like, you can start your own company and do all these things, you know, but you can tie in with a local investor, you can tie in, I mean, there’s hard money lenders now everywhere, you know, so finding out who the hard money lenders are in your area, find out who their investors are. And again, having that solution. So if you hear about somebody that needs to move quickly, you know, you have something you know, something that you can offer to them. So just creating those relationships, which is the key. Because again, you know, it’s not, you don’t want to necessarily, you’re not going to be a business, Priscilla. I don’t think they’re here to be in the agent business. I think they’re just technology driven. And it’s going to be, we’re just going to be almost minions, to Zillow to kind of it but a smaller, smaller rate. You’re not going to be making a good commission, if you’re in business with them. So
Justin Stoddart
it was interesting how, couple years ago, I had a conversation with an agent who was a big proponent of Zillow. And I said, I don’t think Zillow is your friend and he said, Look, I have kind of boastfully, I have I have a text message right here from Spencer Raskin, who’s the CEO of Zillow who said that, like agents will always be a part of it. And I kind of backed down because he’s get pretty heated. And I was like, Okay, all right. And now guess what? Spencer asked us no longer the CEO. Our agent still involved? Yes. But I’ve been getting paid less. Yes. Like, I just don’t think that I think their loyalty is to stockholders, not to agents, right?
Justin Stoddart
I mean, he, he conveniently is not in that chair anymore. And it’s because, you know, how could you face the public and the agents that I mean, you’re, you’re making your, your bread from the agents. And, you know, you said one thing, and now, you know, you’re going after something else. So there’s no way he could be the face of Zillow, but just like that, so I said, Well, how could we help we make it we’re going to shake it up, you know, when to put somebody else in the chair? He did say that. Yeah. I’m Rascoff’s out.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah. Was able to keep his word and, and on the went, you know, taking care of stockholders, not necessarily taking care of agents. So again, I’m, I’m not necessarily anti Zillow, like, I gotta hand it to them, like they’ve got a powerful business model. But I do think that we need to be very aware of as far as who we’re funding we’re partners with and what their ultimate like where their ultimate loyalty is. If it’s the agents, then I think you probably ought to double down. If their loyalty is to stockholders, I think you probably ought to be aware, right, unless you are a stockholder then buy more stock. So let’s talk about the real quick here, Justin, the optimism that you have, obviously, there’s some there’s some dark clouds on the horizon, right for the traditional agent that’s not well prepared for this, obviously, you are preparing yourself for what’s coming and what’s here and thriving as a result. As a result, because you’re stepping out as a leader, you’ve got people attracted to you, right? You’ve grown a brokerage in a very short period of time a 45. agents, I’m sure that’s just the beginning, you’re going to keep on growing, talked a little bit about your focus on stepping outside of just the circles that are immediately around you to learn and to grow, and how that’s maybe helped you in this optimism that you have.
Justin Bosak
Yeah, so number one is leveraging your time. So I mean, the key thing with my businesses actually do have two business partners. So I’m still in production, I have one guy that is running the team, as a team manager, and then the other guys are office broker. So he’s running and dealing with the brokerage stuff. They’re doing training, actually, right now, for boots, which is the do REMAX website and CRM. So it allows me to do more of the innovation. I’m very, I guess, creative. I’m very into the marketing and advertising and the business. It allows me to then expand to take some time to look at some some things and develop some things and not have to be bogged down with like day to day operational stuff. I’m not good with paperwork, I hate paperwork, I’m not good with, you know, just the whole brokers thing. I don’t have my broker’s license, I don’t want it because I don’t want to be put in a position where I’m actually like, you know, the guy that’s being asked all these, you know, silly questions about about real estate, I’m worth it. Come to me with the marketing stuff, I’ll teach you how to take your business to the next level. So doing that I really got a lot of my knowledge. from listening to podcasts, I spent a lot of time just evaluating different things and looking and researching. But I really found that listening to the show, Pat Ivan’s real estate, rock stars, that was like the number one thing that I tuned into, where I learned a ton of information about agents that are just way beyond even the top agent in my market, and they’re giving away all this information, and it doesn’t cost you anything, you know, so you just really need to sit back and say, How can I apply maybe one, two or three things from that conversation? To my business? You know, so it’s a lot of, you know, it was a lot of time, you know, research, but I mean, how are you going to get to the next level, you know, I mean, the number one agent in your market is going to sit you down and say, Hey, this is exactly what I do. And he may be doing things wrong till you know, so it’s looking outside of your marketplace and saying, Well, what is going on, where, you know, across the country, maybe in some of these hotter markets, that’s working, that’s taking people to different levels, you know, I’ve had agents reach out to me, just from networking, and being part of, you know, different groups online. And, you know, there’s some areas that just really aren’t, they’re not cutting edge at all, you know, so you got to look and see, like, well, what began what’s outside my market, I have an agent that works in an area that’s not very dense, and nobody was doing professional photography. Nobody was doing drone or video or anything, it was just basic real estate, just like it was back in the day. And she started last year, and one year in the business. She’s a top agent in the market, and she’s crushing it. She’s absolutely killing it. I mean, it’s just, it’s crazy. So, you know, again, if she didn’t, if I didn’t have that relationship with her husband, who’s a title, agent, very good title agent, where we can kind of I gave him a lot of information about what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, and he was able to just put it and implement it. And she was able to just run with it, which was, which is awesome. But she just dealt with, you know, well, this is just what the other agents in the market do. She wouldn’t have that same success that she has now. So a lot of it was her. I mean, she’s, you know, type A personality, but she got the playbook. So it helped her just accelerate where she’s had her growth.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, there’s a bit of a changing of the guard happening, we’re seeing that with some agents coming in and becoming top producers in a hurry. And, you know, they’re willing to embrace kind of the new media, they’re willing to embrace kind of new methodology, and come in and gain mindshare, right? Only real estate and people’s brains so that they can then gain market share. And, you know, we’re seeing that, and it’s it’s kind of an exciting time, because there’s some great leaders coming into the industry to spite these clouds on the horizon. Right? There’s people out there, they’re super ambitious, saying, actually, now’s a great time, because the hobby agents aren’t going to last, it’s going to become a true industry of professionals. And I’m a professional, and I’m going to come in and I’m going to, I’m going to win. So anyway, it’s exciting to see that love hearing that story. I’m going to end with our signature question, Justin, I feel like you and I could talk for a long time, and I’m sure will continue to. So appreciate your time. But the signature question of the show, which is this, you are a big thinker, hence the TB think big, think bigger real estate show here behind me. What does a guy like you do to continue to be a big thinker? To continue to expand your own possibilities? Teach us!
Justin Bosak
Yes. So just taking the time and for yourself to really sit down and study and analyze your business? And where am I getting my business from? And where am I going in the future? And what are other people doing to help grow their businesses and, and, and trying things and paying money and spending money? You know, and that’s the thing is I could speak? You know, from up from a point of like, we’ve tried everything, we’ve wasted a ton of money doing a lot of different marketing and advertising things. That didn’t work, you know, so I didn’t really have a mentor. I didn’t have somebody to really say “No, don’t do that. You know, that’s a waste of money.” You know, but my agents, my agents, do you know, because they come to us and they say, “Well, what do you think about this?” We talk now don’t do that?
Unknown Speaker
So yeah, I mean, it’s just really finding maybe a mentor that is really, you know, maybe where you want to be, you know, or next step above you, and learning what you can, you know, and I find that just when you get to a certain level, like, like, I don’t care, like I have agents in my own market that ask me questions that work for competitors, you know, Keller Williams, and I, if you’re a good person, if you’re a good dude, I’ll share, you know, I’ll let you know kind of what’s going on. I’m going to give you everything, you know, but you know, if you ask me a, you know, a question, I’m going to give you my opinion. So it’s really just using in your networking, you know, whether it be on Facebook and joining different groups, you know, but listening to the podcast has allowed me to find out like, I like how that guy talks. I like how he works. You know, there’s a guy named Ricky Carruth down in Alabama killing a single agent million dollars, doing a bunch of training for agents. And I just liked the way he approached things because he was, he wasn’t a hard seller. You know, he literally was just “Hey, whatever’s best for the client, it’s relationships over dollars.” And that’s how I’ve always been. So it’s refreshing to just find other people above you that you know, “Hey, I want to get there. I want to do a million dollars in production.” I’m at that level. You know, just watch what he’s doing. See how he’s doing just asking questions. He’s more than available, he answers he responds. So it’s just, you know, thinking bigger going outside of your sphere, get outside your bubble, get outside of your comfort zone. You can’t just sit back and just think that everything is going to be all good moving forward, this business, this industry is always going to change. So if you’re not changing, and if you’re not really approaching it like a business, if you’re just kind of just doing what your clients tell you to do, and not really investing in building it like a business, I think it’s going to be an issue moving forward for a lot of agents. So, my hope is, you know, people, if you have any questions, feel, you know, feel free to reach out. I mean, I’m more than willing to help people out.
Justin Stoddart
I love it, man. Let’s be sure and get everyone who’s listening to this. Let’s get you in their network. So if they ever have any real estate needs in New Jersey, they know who to contact. What’s the best way to contact you?
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, cell phone, I guess 732-644-6217 I’m on Facebook. I’m on Instagram. Justinbosak@gmail.com. If you want to check out what we got going on, look at the ocean six group on Facebook. And you know, see what a solid Facebook page looks like. See what some Facebook ads that are not just boosted posts that are you know, managed ads in the back end what they look like. So feel free to take a look at it, check it out, steal it. informations there for you.
Justin Stoddart
You know, people that are big thinkers like you that are abundant mind that are like, “Look, come learn from me, I’ll learn from you. Let’s learn together.” Instead of like all the cards held in my chest, can’t show you anything that I’m doing. I love you know, the fact that even in your own marketplace, you’ll need to be that way, says a lot about you. And the reason why you’re having such success is because people are attracted to that kind of leadership. They’re attracted to people that that help them that serve them that lead them. And that’s what leadership looks like. So I want to thank you for your time, Justin, it’s been a total pleasure. You’ve added tons of value, to the think bigger real estate audience and it’s been a total pleasure. I want to thank you again and encourage everybody here to find Justin, put them in your network. Should you have people moving this way or that way? Be sure and get in contact with him. And then my final request of everybody is three simple words that are a charge to all of us which are Go Think Bigger. Thanks again, Justin. Appreciate you being here and look forward to staying in contact my friend.