Episode 103: Brent Montella
Brent Montella is a real estate agent in coastal Virginia working with Seashore Realty. Brent is a retired police officer, an athlete, and a father. In this episode, Kenny and Brent discuss the housing market, their lifestyle, stories, and past experiences. Read more about Brent below.
About Brent
Brent has been one of the top three agents in the Sea Shore Realty office for the last 7 years. He has been awarded the 2011 Bronze and 2012 Gold “Circle of Excellence” awards from the Hampton Roads Realtor Association. He routinely receives outstanding feedback from clients. Brent is currently a trainer, recruiter, and mentor. He plays a vital role in the DNA of Sea Shore Realty.
For the past several years Brent has had the opportunity to do public speaking in a variety of different venues on several different topics beyond real estate. It has always been a passion of his to motivate and inspire others through his speaking engagements.
Brent served the community of Virginia Beach as a police officer and retired after a great 15 years with the department. He continues to serve this same community for 7 years strong now as a Realtor. Brent is always moving forward, always learning, and always growing. For Brent, it has always been about building relationships because relationships are the foundation of life.
His Facebook fan pages, Twitter, Google +, Linked In and blog will be on the forefront of the real estate market containing pictures, videos, and articles from experts in the industry. His hope is to be the “go-to” guy for all your real estate needs as well as to educate you on home ownership and the community.
Brent isn’t just a trainer for Sea Shore Realty, he also trains and pushes his step-son in races as a member of Team Hoyt VB, an organization where the volunteers are the legs for children with disabilities so they can run their races and be able to participate in community activities. He currently holds seats on two Boards of Directors; Recovery for Life and Toast Masters. He also leads a monthly mens group.
When working with Brent you don’t just get a Realtor you can trust, you get a collection of individuals in his Group that work together for the common goal of a smooth transaction and transition into your new home or out of your existing home. His desire and top priority is to get you into the best neighborhood that is customized to your wants, needs, and lifestyle or to help you in the transition out of your existing home.
Transcription
Kenny: All right, Hey, thanks for joining us today. I have a unique opportunity and privilege to have one of my close friends on the show, Mr. Brent Montella. Brent, thanks for joining us today.
Brent: You’re welcome Kenny Ken
Kenny: Kenny
Brent: Thanks for having me.
Kenny: Oh god, here we go Kenny Ken.
Brent: Kenny Ken.
Kenny: We are gonna do this. So, Brent is a real estate agent. Realtor. What is the difference between a realtor and real estate agent?
Brent: Well realtor you actually pay fees to be a realtor and there's certain ethical guidelines you're supposed to be following.
Kenny: Oh, so you can’t be a realtor then, huh?
Brent: It's kind of being “accredited”
Kenny: Yeah
Brent: So, you know, if somebody has a complaint against you they can lodge a complaint. There's like a small investigation. That kind of thing. So there are some repercussions to, you know, may be shady dealings or things like that so.
Kenny: Shady Brent.
Brent: Yeah.
Kenny: Not shady Brent. I’m just kidding.
Brent: I appreciate that thank you. Shady. That wasn’t very nice.
Kenny: That is the worst introduction I think I've done yet.
Brent: Yeah.
Kenny: Brent Montella, shady, real estate agent extraordinaire.
Brent: Thanks.
Kenny: No, not.
Brent: I wouldn't be here if I was shady.
Kenny: We’ll cut that out, probably not.
Brent: Well maybe not.
Kenny: Yeah, probably not.
Brent: Yeah, make it a little more interesting.
Kenny: Yeah. Right. So, hey, as you're getting ready to drink a drink of water—How’s life?
Brent: It's going good. Going well. I’m a little sore today.
Kenny: From? wh—wait a minute, this is a semi g-rated show.
Brent: Okay. Okay. No, I just did a track workout yesterday. It's been a while. I'm running a race on 4th of July weekend. Gentlemen's bet, with another buddy. So, we're gonna do a mile run, so, I did a little track workout yesterday and I am feeling it today at 48 years old.
Kenny: So pre-show, you were telling me is this the same buddy that, our, our friend Clayton?
Brent: Yes. Yes. Well—
Kenny: Bee sting, Clayton?
Brent: I was training with him but the race is not with him. But I was training with him yesterday.
Kenny: So if you can imagine this, here's a guy, we'll get to you in a little bit.
Brent: That’s fine. That’s fine.
Kenny: Let’s talk about—
Brent: I'll be here waiting, go ahead.
Kenny: —this is a guy, Clayton’s six nine?
Brent: Six seven. Six nine. Very tall, very tall.
Kenny: Very tall. For Brent and I, he is like chin up tall.
Brent: Giant.
Kenny: Yeah, giant. Played basketball. Played with the Lakers for all of three weeks, I think.
Brent: Was it really that long?
Kenny: I think, well, tryouts anyway.
Brent: Yeah.
Kenny: Well we'll have him on the show soon.
Brent: You need to.
Kenny: We’ll embarrass him.
Brent: You need to. You need to.
Kenny: But, I digress, so, Clayton yesterday you were working out with him you were telling me that he had a bee sting
Brent: Yes
Kenny: on his tongue? What? Clayton, how do you?
Brent: Yes. So, yeah, we're just we're just warming up and we come around
Kenny: I have to see that on video there
Brent: And it’s funny. There are some lacrosse players practicing also on the track and so we just coming around just doing a warm-up and he starts going [coughs] ‘Brent, Brent, I just got. I just swallowed a bee or a bee went in my mouth and it stung my tongue’. And I was like ‘are you allergic?’ ‘Cuz, I'm thinking he might die. ‘Cuz, I don't know if I could help him. Anyway, so he's like ‘yeah!’ He sticks out his tongue. He's like ‘get the stinger out!’ and I could actually see the stinger. So, I’m 5/8 on a good day. I had some thick-soled shoes on, he's six seven, and he sticks out his tongue and I just take my finger, I'm trying to scrape this bee sting off of his tongue. It was very comical. It was very interesting. So
Kenny: Five eight. Six nine.
Brent: Yeah, so I'm up here like this [scraping gesture] you know.
Kenny: Oh my gosh.
Brent: Yeah, that's pretty funny. So we were talking about that last night and this morning.
Kenny: You ever heard the expression, five eight, and they go “Wow, five eight? I didn't know they stack stinky that tall.”
Brent: I mean, in my mind I'm six two, 225. In reality, I’m five seven/five eight, 200.
Kenny: Yeah, you’re a beast man. But I've got mad respect for you. You're not quite as old as I am you’re, you're in your later 40s.
Brent: 48
Kenny: I’m the big five-0 and, but, you’re a stud man.
Brent: I appreciate that.
Kenny: You do rucks. Is that, is all that part of like your real estate marketing? To go out and do all these crazy sports and hopefully get some business from it?
Brent: No actually. So actually, you know something I found out the last couple weeks was it's really the process for me and not so much the award or the end.
Kenny: Yeah.
Brent: So, all these go rucks. I did an Ironman Triathlon in Chattanooga, about a year and a half ago, but I found it’s.
Kenny: I remember that.
Brent: Yeah, yeah. I found it’s the process.
Kenny: Way down under on the Chattahoochee.
Brent: It was all— it was all Hills. It was a long day for me, a very long day. But, I found that it's just really the process. So it’s, it’s interesting. Same thing with real estate or anything whether it’s, you know, my spiritual life. Whether it's my physical part or my mental. It's the process for me, not so much the awards. It's not so much the certificates, the medals, and all those kinds of things but it's really the process and people I've enjoyed.
Kenny: You know that's interesting you bring that up. I think anything in business, when you find people who really focus on the product or I'm sorry focus on the process and not their product.
Brent: Right.
Kenny: And it could be processing people, it could be processing real estate paper, and whatever your process is, if you really are devoted to your process versus, you know, getting your product or getting the commission or making a fee, those seem to be the people that excel. Have you found that to be true in real estate?
Brent: Well not just excel but actually be happy. That's a that's a big part of it. There's a lot of stress in this business. Being a, I am a retired police officer, but, real estate is very stressful. And I found that when I am more mission, my purpose is more mission oriented, than it is money oriented that works for me. Some people want to dominate. Some people have a different aspect of how they want to be successful. Some want to dominate the market, some people want a lifestyle—certain lifestyle. It's not that I don’t have goals, it's not that I don't have benchmarks I want to hit. It doesn't mean I don't have a plan, doesn't mean I don’t have a purpose. I have a CRM that I use to keep up on all of this. It's just that my fuel and my purpose is much different, I think, it's kind of turning the real estate upside down. So, some people feel like the foundation has to be commissions/money and just this is a huge focus. I've kind of turned that upside down. I'd rather be happy, have a great lifestyle, be people, be processes, priorities and that's gonna come.
Kenny: Sounds like it doesn't feel like work to you.
Brent: It's not. Honestly people I have—people have said, “man, I like your lifestyle.”
Kenny: Yeah.
Brent: Because, it’s just. You know I wake up early. I wake up very early sometimes between 5:00 AM and 6:00 AM. I sometimes will start working in my little garage/office that I have.
Kenny: Which is pretty sweet.
Brent: I appreciate that.
Kenny: We will have to post a picture of that on the site.
Brent: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Kenny: We were at your house about a week ago and you showed me your studio.
Brent: Yeah yeah yeah
Kenny: That’s pretty cool and you, you did it pretty inexpensively too, right? Which again, I'm asking you questions right as you are taking a drink of water.
Brent: Yeah, go ahead and ask me a question.
Kenny: Let me just. I'll do something fun. You know. Let’s rewind that back a little bit and start over.
Brent: Thank you. Alright.
Kenny: How about this one? This is fun. [Mike Tyson sound clip]
Brent: That's Mike Tyson, for the crowd out there.
Kenny: So, that sounds like Mike Tyson but it's actually Brent and his stand-up.
Brent: That's me. Yeah. Yeah.
Kenny: So it's good. Yeah. Nonsense.
Brent: Should I be funny now?
Kenny: Go. You’re always funny.
Brent: I'm gonna go right now. No, that’s..
Kenny: So yeah, you built this little studio in your
Brent: yeah yeah
Kenny: in your garage and that’s now become like your sanctuary workplace, right?
Brent: I love it. So we have some workout gear in there also. We have some workout gear in our outdoor gazebo which I love working out at, but yeah, it was very inexpensive especially with this quarantine and everything.
Kenny: Yeah
Brent: And even with my lifestyle, I would work from home often anyway. Most often—because you know, we do our work as real estate agents; we're gonna do it in coffee shops, you know restaurants, those kinds of things. Maybe somebody else's home.
Kenny: But with your background as a police officer you probably frequent doughnut shops a lot to, right?
Brent: I love doughnut shops.
Kenny: Where’s my.. [ yay noise]
Brent: Everybody loves a doughnut. Doughnuts.
Kenny: Hey to bring the mood way down real quick and then we'll get off, but, police officers. Man, they are in the target of our, our country right now with what's happened in Minnesota and our, you know, thoughts and prayers go out to that family.
Brent: Yeah.
Kenny: Mr. Floyd and I'm really sorry that happened to him but,
Brent: Yeah.
Kenny: just real quick in, in your world you were a retired police officer. I want to talk about that but also talk about how that correlates and translates from serving in that community to where you serve now as a real estate agent.
Brent: Yeah.
Kenny: And you told me not to talk about it, but you know when you say that to me, that's exactly what I am going for. But you know obviously what this guy has done, justice will be served.
Brent: Yeah.
Kenny: He’s gonna get his.
Brent: Yeah.
Kenny: As he should.
Brent: And the other officers that were there too.
Kenny: And the other officers that were there too and you know the world we live in now, I mean, we need, you were talking about your spiritual life. We need more people in life to come together in this world and really focus on what's good.
Brent: Yeah.
Kenny: And even though those four officers are, I don't know how big the Minneapolis or that Twin City department is, but I would say it makes up a microcosm of really the quality people that come out of our police departments across the nation. But most of them are like you, well-intended people who really want to serve the community and when you you retired as a police officer you were, you were actually injured. I think you picked up a doughnut that was too heavy?
Brent: It was a big doughnut.
Kenny: Yeah and hurt your back.
Brent: Big.
Kenny: Yeah.
Brent: Jelly filled too.
Kenny: Jelly filled doughnut.
Brent: That added to the wait. It was ridiculous.
Kenny: Yeah, and you probably had too much bacon, right?
Brent: That’s right, that’s right. Big lunch.
Kenny: God, this is terrible. I love the men in blue. Love you guys.
Brent: I appreciate that
Kenny: Appreciate what our local Virginia Beach guys, which you were Virginia Beach police officer.
Brent: Yeah yeah. 15 years.
Kenny: I know a few of you guys.
Brent: Yeah, yeah, you got a heavy foot.
Kenny: Yeah, I’m well-known in Virginia Beach.
Brent: Are you on probation still?
Kenny: No, Brent I’ve told you this is gonna go.
Brent: Tough crowd.
Kenny: I was, I was on probation.
Brent: Well you said not to mention it, so I thought I would mention it, because this is what I do.
Kenny: That’s yeah. Touché. Yeah, well right. You mirrored me. You mirrored and
Brent: That's good business though.
Kenny: It is.
Brent: It’s to mirror.
Kenny: To mirror?
Brent: Yeah. That's actually a lot of successful books, mirroring the person in front of you.
Kenny: Successful books say mirror.
Brent: They say mirror.
Kenny: Wow. Do you practice mirroring?
Brent: No.
Kenny: So, it sounds like you’re a repeater of information.
Brent: A repeater of information?
Kenny: I have met my match. No, that’s awesome. So what happened in that, in that transition from retiring from the police department to becoming a realtor?
Brent: Actually it was very easy. People are like ‘how did you go from that, to that?’ I said well for starters, real estate might be a little bit more stressful, you're dealing with a lot of emotions, you are dealing with a lot of money, deadlines. You know, those kinds of things, so, it is also very stressful, but one thing that I learned that it was still about people.
Kenny: Yeah
Brent: It’s still about communication. It's still, it’s—it's people and it's a process. I used to tell—I used to train newer police officers, as I do new real estate agents in the company. And one thing I used to tell them, even before I got into real estate was when you're in your police car, you know, we have our bag with our gear, flashlight, files. We have all these, you know, this big bag that we take in and out of the police car every night but it's all of your gear. So it's almost like, your desk, so it's almost like you're running your own business because when you're on the street, you are going to have a reputation, you're gonna have your own brand. Just like in real estate
Kenny: yeah
Brent: you're gonna have a brand, you’re gonna have a reputation. It's almost the same thing you know if you had a camera on you, as a police officer, would you act that way? Would you want your mother to see you
Kenny: hmm
Brent: on video, doing what you're doing?
Kenny: yeah
Brent: The same for saying in real estate. It’s the same thing. If you were being videotaped for, you know, I'm not a real pressure kind of guy with my clients, but it's how would you if you saw yourself on video and how you are talking to your client or even be, you know, with other agents about your client. Would you even want your mom to see you
Kenny: yeah
Brent: say those things?
Kenny: So, it sounds like, what you’re saying to me is that people who are not so heavy-handed whether it be a police officer
Brent: right
Kenny: or a real estate agents, that if you can work on your communication skills. You can work on how you communicate where you're at. So, you get a bad guy who's about to do something horrible, you know obviously you got called, as the police officers show up to a scene where things aren't so good
Brent: yeah
Kenny: but it sounds like what you were saying to me is that if you can bring that moment down, bring that intensity back to a level where people can be more communicative in there
Brent: yeah yeah
Kenny: in what's happening.
Brent: yeah
Kenny: Probably the scariest things you'd ever go on a call was domestic disputes. I would bet, right?
Brent: Yeah and you know there's a lot of emotions with domestic disputes, so, that's definitely a very—can be very difficult, challenging, scary—you never know what to expect. One of the—my last injury was a military personnel that had gotten back and he made it. He had some PTSD issues going on.
Kenny: Threw a doughnut at you.
Brent: Yeah. But that's what—that was the last call.
Kenny: I’m sorry. That’s insensitive of me.
Brent: But that was like the last call that I went on. That’s where I got injured, it was actually was a domestic violent, violence call. So, actually I never really thought about that, to be honest with you. That I was like always “no, no not domestic violence. It's you know the robbery that just happened and I'm around the corner and the guy may, you know, I may come in contact with him very quickly.” Those kinds of things, but yeah, actually it was a domestic issue and she was for fear of her life and her kids, when we showed up, so.
Kenny: Well the world needs a lot of prayer and a lot of hope. You know, you and I are both believers and we know they can find that in Jesus and Jesus there's some promotion for you.
Brent: That's it.
Kenny: No.
Brent: He doesn’t need any promotion. He's got his own book, its called The Bible.
Kenny: Oh man
Brent: Best seller ever.
Kenny: Have you read it?
Brent: I've read it
Kenny: Wow.
Brent: I read it this morning.
Kenny: Did you really?
Brent: I read it this morning and had my Bible study.
Kenny: What did you read this morning?
Brent: I had a Bible study this morning. Actually, we talked a lot about social injustice. So, actually most of the conversation right now was about what’s going on in Minneapolis, but, I am currently reading 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy.
Kenny: Nice.
Brent: Some leadership.
Kenny: That's awesome.
Brent: A little bit of Titus thrown in there.
Kenny: An approved workman, right? And we were talking about that off scene and you know when you talk about your work effort, and you know, moving this conversation along about real estate and that work ethic that you had as a police officer and translating that into what you do as a real estate agent now. There's nobody managing now. You probably had a sergeant that managed, you back then, or a lieutenant that managed you but there's nobody there making you get out of bed in the morning, Brent. So what what drives you to go every day?
Brent: So interesting you said that. So, the correlation between police officer and real estate is, same thing like you're saying. Some police officers go out and they want to hustle all night long. Some don’t. But then there's days the guy that likes to hustle, he just needs a rest today,
Kenny: Yeah
Brent: ‘cause he's had a long week. It’s his Friday, it might be Thursday but it’s his Friday. It's the same—it’s the same concept. What keeps you going as a police officer, same in real estate, again you are your own reputation, your own brand, so your work ethic will follow you. So no matter what occupation or profession I was in it's the same thing. So some of the things that keep me going, really what fuels me, all of my business is referral based. I don't pay for leads, you know, there's websites out there or agents, companies pay a lot of money. I’m not saying there's anything wrong with that, but that's not me. For me to get an email that says “this person's asking for information on this house”, isn't real attractive to me. You know cold call ‘em column, you know, “Hey, I'm responding to your inquiry yet on this house. How can I help you?” Meanwhile 25 other agents already called that person cuz it took you an hour or two to get to them.
Kenny: You know I've talked about that before, that I feel that if you're in the service business—I relate it to being in a people processing business, that your job every day, is to get up and process people.
Brent: Yeah.
Kenny: Some will tell you “Yes”. Some will tell you “No”. Your job is to move on to the next one that you can serve in your best capacity and your best way possible that the talents that God has given you. Your responsibility is to serve that community well. Do well, by doing good and that's one thing I respect about you is that folks that I've talked to in the community that, that know Brent Montella and know Brent Montella as a real estate agent, they've said you can pound some doughnuts and you're really good at exercise.
Brent: I like cookies too now.
Kenny: And cookies. But that you're a trustworthy individual and that you know, you will put your best effort forward. so that’s, that's also why I wanted to have you on the show
Brent: Yeah, yeah,
Kenny: Number one you know
Brent: I appreciate that.
Kenny: that you compete well with me in eating doughnuts and—
Brent: cookies
Kenny: —but you’re, you're a solid dude so appreciate that about you.
Brent: I appreciate that. Yeah yeah.
Kenny: I’ll give you a little, [yay audio] hand clap. Actually, you know, what was the other one we had on there?
Brent: You know it’s interesting [Cricket noise]
Brent: That’s you when you get home. But, it’s interesting when you mentioned gifts or talents or everybody uses different words for that, but it's the same. You know growing up we all kind of know we have certain gifts.
Kenny: Yeah.
Brent: We may not want to admit we have certain gifts because that doesn't look humble enough but I think deep down we all know what we are kind of good at and how we're able to connect with people but it’s understanding how to use those properly.
Kenny: Yeah.
Brent: And that’s, that's always been and that took me a very long time to figure that out. That's been part of my journey, is using those gifts say for good. You know, being a Christian, got saved in 2006 but prior to that, I used to kind of joke with you know one of my siblings about gifts and that person “I want to use my gifts for good” I was always—you always thought you were a good person, but it's really deciding to surrender those gifts to something bigger.
Kenny: Yeah.
Brent: And that's changed a lot how I work and in my personal life. And that's been—it’s been huge. That’s been huge.
Kenny: You know, I appreciate you sharing your faith here on the show, does that ever get in the way of your business?—and I know your answer but I want to say that folks that are listening that may be a believer and they're “like man I'm not sure if I should bring this whole religion and politics into our conversation?” But I'm all about it. I'm like “let's talk about what's real” and if we can get the 600-pound gorilla out there more and talk about these things that we may be different and then sometimes bad things may not happen that if we can communicate better. Communication is the key to, in my opinion, to all success in life. That it’s the unknowns and the things that we don't communicate and like in contracts in real estate
Brent: Yeah.
Kenny: It’s those unknowns or those ambiguous pieces in your contract that usually kill your deal, right?
Brent: Sure, sure. But you know, it’s interesting you bringing that my—your faith up with work. There is a balance because you don't want it to look—using that as a tool, you know?
Kenny: Yeah. Like it’s some crutch or you're hiding behind.
Brent: Yeah or even just, “Hey look at me this..” Well, you have to be cautious and there's a lot of discernment and wisdom that comes over time on how that works. But you know, I've had friends or even clients, come to my office, sit down in a chair, close the door, and start to cry.
Kenny: hmm
Brent: I had a younger person, mid 20s, that came into my office and he just needed somebody to talk to. He came in he wasn't a client, but he sat down and he just started kind of crying and that time, I listened and and we prayed about it. We prayed about that. I've also had an older couple come in that made a mistake moving out of the area. I sold her house, they moved out of the area. They came back and they said “Hey Brent, can we meet you at your office?” I thought it was kind of odd. I said, “yeah.” They came in, closed the door, and they said you know “we know you wouldn't judge us. We know you wouldn't think any differently of us. We want to come back and we feel a little—we’re doing that but we know you wouldn’t—you would understand” and I never talked about, you know, religion or you know my faith with them. However you want to say it. So it was, that's when I kind of bring that in.
Kenny: Well they picked up on that, from you.
Brent: Right.
Kenny: That's that process that you took them through the first time around. It built what we refer to in my business is a trust bridge and that’s, that's the thing we want to try to do
Brent: Yeah
Kenny: with all of our relationships. Is build trust bridges and it's really easy to burn those bridges, it's really easy to to create parts of that bridge that can sometimes be damaged, but if you're a well-meaning person, you know, you can build those back.
Brent: Well real quick too. ‘Cuz I didn't know if we were going to go to another subject but I had an incident a couple a few weeks ago where I also do property management and he came— gentleman came in. They were only in the lease for like six months, it's for a year, and he's like “Hey, we're getting separated. We are getting a divorce.” I could really see he was distraught and upset and in my heart I wanted to like—I want to, I want to pray with this guy
Kenny: Yeah
Brent: but I held back. Not because I was fearful but I was already thinking “man, if they're gonna get out of their lease early like there's fees with that.” There—this could be an issue. I'm gonna do my best so that doesn't happen but we're working for the owner but I, I want to make sure that everybody is treated fairly and I held back because I was worried that if I prayed with that person to get him just through this personal thing and then a week from now I'm like “Hey you know we haven't gotten it rented yet and you’re gonna have to pay this month's rent still”. And I was worried of what that was gonna look like “well he prayed with me here, but then now he's like this. What does that say about him?” You know what does that say about Jesus and so I was I was having a challenge right there and I didn't I didn't pray with him, you know, because there is a time where it's kind of be business but there's always that respect in business.
Kenny: Yeah.
Brent: It's still, you can still have that. So that was interesting.
Kenny: That's a beautiful part of business is that, if you're really taking time with the people that you serve, to really listen to where they're at, to listen to their wants, their needs, their desires, and sometimes that doesn't equal paycheck.
Brent: Nope.
Kenny: That equals, you got to serve your community first
Brent: Yeah
Kenny: and then they will serve you, and you'll be compensated well, by doing well.
Brent: Right.
Kenny: And you know in my business, in the financial business, we used to say you could see a guy coming who had, we called it “Commission copter”. You know? That every person they saw there was like this dollar sign over their head and that's all they focus on. And it shows up real quick and when you're just a number to someone but you know, you've got a reputation. Then again, the reason I wanted to have you here, is because you do have a reputation for serving your community well and so that's really cool and I appreciate that about you. So KPs BlackBox when we're doing a podcast and you know you and I could just gab all day
Brent: Yeah
Kenny: and talk about life and talk about Jesus and we should. That's important, but, if we’re gonna deep dive real estate today. The real estate contract, so, it's between a seller and a buyer and there usually is representation of an agent. Like yourself. Give me some insight, give our audience some insight of what a real estate contract, the do's and don’t’s.
Brent: Right.
Kenny: Inside a real estate contract, when you go to buy or sell a house.
Brent: Well an important thing is you—when you go to the house that you're looking for items because what there's a part of that in the contract where talks about property condition. And if you see a defect or something during that initial viewing, when you go do the contract certain things you want to put in there. Some people say “well, we'll just wait to the home inspection. We'll ask them to fix that.” Because I've heard agents say that “Oh, we will wait till the home inspection. We will get that taken care of”. So it's really having an agent, really, that is experienced or at least has a good mentor or a very good broker that is hands-on in a sense. And I know it’s difficult for some brokers to be hands-on but they need to be approachable and they need to be able to educate they're agents on the specific things that—to cover your clients. So really from that, but also, from the beginning having a good loan officer. That's good because on the first page it’s, purchase price.
Kenny: Right.
Brent: Okay. So where is their max? What's their minimum? Being cautious, you know, you gotta be cautious not to push them to that max. You know, because you know they go by debt-to-income, credit, and all that of course so—
Kenny: That’d be important for a buyer to be pre-approved by his loan officer, her loan officer
Brent: Yes.
Kenny: Prior to picking out a house.
Brent: Yeah. Yeah and that US agents have our due, our do-do-due diligence to talk to that loan officer and really get an idea of what this looks like, because, he—you make it, they may be pre-approved. They bring a letter, but then you come to find out “yeah, but I kind of need, I needed this other paperwork and they didn't get it.” So it's really about, again comes down to communication, having a relationship with a loan officer or frankly just being able to speak to a loan officer and with your experience be able to come up with exactly what this person needs.
Kenny: Yeah, one of our previous shows we had a local loan officer and we got into the deep dive of loans and how they work. One of the things we found in talking in that show was they're so often buyers will show up, even seasoned buyers will show up to a loan, a loan closing, or even that pre-qualification phase and we find sometimes that people have questions and have concerns that they don't want to seem like they're illiterate or don’t understand and they're afraid to ask that. We really deep dived.
Brent: Yeah
Kenny: And so if you want to listen to the podcast, I forget which episode it was but with Bobby Ashburner.
Brent: Episode 999?
Kenny: Yeah, exactly.
Brent: You’re a beast. You’re a beast.
Kenny: But we'll make sure we reference back to that one in your podcast but deep dive in a real estate contract. The the one thing that I would say as a person who's bought a number of pieces of property over the years, is the key in those real estate contracts is not to be ambiguous and if you want something, be clear.
Brent: Yes.
Kenny: And state it clearly.
Brent: Yes.
Kenny: So that, if you have to go back and discuss it later or dispute it later—Would you agree with that?
Brent: Yeah. Verbiage is huge because there's a certain areas where settlement costs, that's a big thing,
Kenny: Who's paying for what?
Brent: Exactly. You know prepaids, discount points, closing cost assistance, maybe a home warranties thrown in there. Survey.
Kenny: Yeah.
Brent: There's a lot of things that can be put in there. I've received contracts from other agents where it literally says—if I'm an agent and you're a buyer oftentimes I say “yeah, we're gonna try to get closing cost assistance.” I'm kind of bringing a lot of things into that. I'm meaning prepaids discount points all these other things.
Kenny: Yeah.
Brent: ‘Cause I'm trying to keep it somewhat simple. It really cost of doing a loan. “Hey, this is what we’re gonna try to get for you” but I've seen where real estate agents have actually put on just put under there closing costs. Closing cost is a very smart part of that.
Kenny: There's buyers and sellers closing costs.
Brent: Yes, theres buyer closer but then there's also the prepaid and discount points. The closing cost is a very small portion if we're trying to ask for 3% of the purchase price and they say and they just and I put in prepaid discount points or at buyers discretion whatever that is, I have just included almost everything.
Kenny: Yep.
Brent: And some agents had put “closing costs” and I'm thinking to myself what a disservice to their clients that comes to experience not having that support.
Kenny: Let me ask you this then. So if you've got a buyer, you know, we live in a capitalistic society and so pretty much whatever you can dream up, you know, you can have. So from a real estate contract if a buyer wants some—something thrown in with their real estate contract, like, I've seen some before person pulls up in the yard and they go “Hey I want to buy your house but I like the I like the johnboat in the backyard too
Brent: I've gotten those.
Kenny: throw that in the contract.” So that, that's done?
Brent: Yeah, it depends on the type of loan. So I definitely try to stay in my lane, but, there's things that you can do to ask for those things. They may not be in the contract. They may have to go in the addendum, something like that, so and certain loans won’t—won't allow them.
Kenny: What’s the weirdest, like funniest, thing you've ever had a buyer ask for?
Brent: Sometimes it’s personal property inside the home. A painting. You know something like that, that you can tell that's the—that’s the sellers you know, I wanna say family…
Kenny: They want a sculpture of the seller’s
Brent: Right. A nice sculpture or something like that.
Kenny: My bust.
Brent: I just closed on a house recently, where you know, we ended up getting the boat.
Kenny: Yep. Nice.
Brent: Like a John boat with a with a little motor, doesn’t seem like a lot but when you just bought a home the last thing you want to do is to have to go buy a boat. So if you can get that thrown in somehow or however. Again, there's a lot of different loan, loan guidelines. So I talked to the loan officer cuz I have that relationship. “Hey can't what can I add in here? What can I not add in this? This is what they're interested in, you tell me.” I’m kind of—I like to think sometimes I’m the coach, the loan officer is kind of the quarterback, closing attorney you know they are a wide receiver so it’s kind of I am kind of working all, the defense, the offense, making sure everybody's coming together communicating. Talking. Expectations are set. That’s really big when you're dealing with buyers and sellers is setting expectations. I want to expect in this process.
Kenny: That’s great Brent. That kind of relates back to—
Brent: I've never been a coach though. Well, basketball coach for my son.
Kenny: in my financial practice, we refer to ourselves as macro strategists.
Brent: Yeah.
Kenny: And so, there’s got to be this big picture guy, that’s bringing all of these micro components of your overall plan together to say someone's got to have your back and someone's got to be calling in plays that
Brent: Right
Kenny: has an understanding of the full scope and picture of who you are. And sounds like you do that in the real estate deal where you're trying to bring together all these micro
Brent: Yeah
Kenny: financial components and experts to give your client the best experience possible.
Brent: And again, it's not that I have to know everything, personally. You know, my dad used to always say “surround yourself with good people” I am sure a lot of people say that. But you have to surround yourself with good people. I've been using the same closing attorney for 14 years. I've been using the same home inspector when he he was all by himself with a pickup truck now he's got three or four teams. One of the most professional property inspection companies, I think, in all of Hampton Roads. That's Safe House. But he's a great guy great, Troy Pappas.
Kenny: Shout out to Safe House. Whose your closing attorney? We'll give him a shout out.
Brent: I’ve been using Jones, Walker and Lake. I’ve been using them for ever. Yeah.
Kenny: Jones, Walker and Lake. Shout out to you guys.
Brent: Yeah and Evelyn is the paralegal I’m always dealing with. They are the ones who really get it done.
Kenny: That's really who's doing it.
Brent: I know look.
Kenny: The attorneys past the bar but we know. Like in my firm, Noah does all the work in my firm.
Brent: Exactly. If the attorney calls me, that's when I get a little nervous. It's about to get—it’s about to go down.
Kenny: It’s about to go down. I wish I had a button for that. Zach we gotta have “it's about to go down”.
Brent: You can tape me. Yeah I can do something.
Kenny: Yeah we'll have Brent do voiceovers for us. Yeah. There you go he could do it right now. Go ahead Brent.
Brent: You ready? Zach: Well I won’t be able to make it a button until after the recording.
Kenny: Yeah.
Brent: You ready? “It’s about to go down.”
Kenny: That was kind of weak Brent. I think you
Brent: Was that okay?
Kenny: Look Sammy's back there.
Brent: My wife’s over here cracking up laughing. That big smile of hers.
Kenny: We're gonna have Sammy on the show show too.
Brent: Can we edit that out? Because I think I just totally ruined everything I've done up to this point.
Kenny: You did. It was—it was terrible but no, we're gonna leave it in there.
Brent: Thats embarrassing. Embarrassing.
Kenny: But, we need to have Sammy on the show -
Brent: Yeah
Kenny: She is a legal drug dealer.
Brent: Yes, CBD.
Kenny: CBD baby.
Brent: Every time I say CBD—
Kenny: CBD little on the THC. Especially when she goes to Vegas.
Brent: —Every time I say CBD I grew up in the late—
Kenny: Should I throw Kat under the bus too while we are at it? Gummy bears Kat.
Brent: I grew up in the late eighties, listen to BBD. Bell Biv DeVoe. So every time I say CBD the first thing that comes to mind is BBD “Yo Ron what’s up with that?”
Kenny: I have a few clients in the music business. We'll see if we can't get you a record deal.
Brent: What kind of podcast is it, by the way?
Kenny: So, our podcast. KP’s BlackBox is—we really try to keep it diverse.
Brent: Yeah.
Kenny: I tell folks it is everything from oxygen to money.
Brent: Perfect.
Kenny: The two most important things you need in life; oxygen and money. You ever tried to live a day without oxygen Brent?
Brent: Never.
Kenny: Neve—it's tough.
Brent: Never. Yeah.
Kenny: And if you try to live a day without money in the society that we live in.
Brent: That's right.
Kenny: It’s it's a sucky day.
Brent: Yeah Yeah.
Kenny: I’ve tried to do that a couple of times and it didn't work out too well.
Brent: This is a great time. This is actually my first podcast, ever.
Kenny: Is it really?
Brent: This is—this is actually pretty fun.
Kenny: You're having fun with this? Thats good.
Brent: I'm having fun, I'm having fun.
Kenny: Yeah all right. So, we got to get people back to real estate though.
Brent: Yes.
Kenny: And stop gabbing. We've got a few minutes left here to do this.
Brent: Sorry about that. Holy cow look at the time.
Kenny: That’s okay. I’ll keep you on track here. So as a real estate agent and you’re working through this contract. Deep dive a little bit for me on putting a good deal together.
Brent: Yeah.
Kenny: I—I once had a guy tell to me if you feel like you’re getting screwed and I feel like I’m getting screwed then it's probably a good deal. Now that's a little weird way to look at how good deals work but, you know, one of the most stressful days in a human beings life—you and I’ve talked about this before
Brent: Yeah
Kenny: is a home purchase. There's so many people touching that real estate purchase. So what do you do with your clients to try to help keep them cool, calm, and collective?
Brent: I'm glad you brought that up. So, I feel like I talked—I touched on it a little earlier with my, just, my perspective and I’m trying to create an experience that they're gonna actually relish and not regret and so the three C's I call it. So Creating the experience, Communication, and Calm.
Kenny: I am glad you remembered those. I was like “Oh god, what are they again?”
Brent: I was like this (holds fingers up) “okay…” You know, but, all of that really comes into play because it's setting up the expectations with the communication. Calm is, they're gonna be very stressed out, I like to think I bring humor to it.
Kenny: Yeah. You are a funny guy.
Brent: And some ease but it’s also the communication is really explaining the process upfront what to expect. “This is what the markets doing”, and in Hampton Roads or Virginia Beach it's kind of weird, like, this week it could be crazy next week you're like where did everybody go?
Kenny: Crickets.
Brent: Yeah so. Perfect.
Kenny: Has it been a cricket week? What’s the market been like?
Brent: No, it’s busy. It's been busy showing homes, a couple clients this week, one listing appointment in Norfolk. A nice colonial home if you're looking for a colonial home in Norfolk. They're gonna be turning around and buying, so it's been a really good week. Doing this podcast, so that’s awesome. But really it's about the three Cs. All that together makes the process a lot easier. So, when you're talking about the contracts, when we finally sit down they're in a good place because as even as I'm showing homes to my buyers I'm explaining the process. Okay, when we're outside and we’re looking at the house, I'm already looking at what's the roof look like? Hows the windows? Is it on a crawlspace or a slab? Because there's certain things that—so I'm already educating them that first house. I say “hey these are the things I’m kind of looking at. So as we're going through these homes I'm not—you know, you may or may not have bought a home before but you may have forgotten but these are the things I just want to remind you of.”
Kenny: So do you like pre-survey a house before you even bring a client out?
Brent: I don’t. I don't because the way the market is right now, they may call me, today I had a text message before I came in and she’s like “hey can I go see this house as soon as possible?” So it's not a lot of previewing, it is setting it up and going out there.
Kenny: Yeah.
Brent: But it's really and it's setting up those expectations. It's huge. It's huge so it's not stressful. I had—I have a review, it's actually on my website BrentMontella.com, but I had this client and it was a husband and wife, Michelle and Terry, and she said this was easier than buying a car. And if you could get a client to say that.
Kenny: On a purchase?
Brent: On a purchase of a home. First-time home buyer. So they have no idea what to expect. They don't know how the process is gonna go. So I'm setting all that up in the beginning. So it's gonna be a calm process and what I found when I came up with those three C's and/or my perspective I thought “what do I not like about the business or agents or the process?”
Kenny: Yeah.
Brent: When I figured out what the things I didn't like, I figured out, that was kind of like my purpose.
Kenny: Yeah.
Brent: I want to be the opposite of that. That's what fuels me to be the type of agent that I am. More relational than I am transactional.
Kenny: Yeah.
Brent: And that's been—it’s been huge and I don't mean to cut you off but
Kenny: Yeah, no, it’s good.
Brent: I find that a lot of real estate agents because they're so focused on that money that the process can be, that you know, they come in and promise everything. They give you the how and the why. “I'm gonna sell your house and if I don't in three days, I’m gonna buy it” or “this is my plan and we're gonna do, this we're gonna do that” all this kind of puffing, all this how and how we're gonna do it but they don’t explain to you the why. ‘Cause they don't even know they're why or their purpose or what they're doing. They’re just going in and saying here's the script and I’m going through this.
Kenny: I gotta take you back on that. It's interesting you brought that up. So, you'll see some real estate agents out there that will make their USP their unique selling proposition will be.
Brent: Thats good.
Kenny: “We will sell your house in three days or we will buy it.” How can they do that and what’s the fine print?
Brent: Right. I have no idea. Because I always ask my other friends that are in real estate, how do they do that well? Well, I’m sure there's a contract, we suggest this price which is probably lower but we're gonna start here. If we go by the price I say
Kenny: Yeah
Brent: you know, if I don't sell it, I'll buy it. Honestly I don't know so
Kenny: I would have to guess that, that agent is setting a price that's at a wholesale level compared to a retail level. So if they're buying your house, they're not likely gonna lose any money on that deal.
Brent: Right.
Kenny: So read the fine print? Read your contract.
Brent: Yeah yeah yeah and again it comes down to, maybe you just have to interview agents. Because most of my business is referrals, I'll get a call, “Hey Kenny told me to give you a call. We’re looking to by a home.” They're like, “what's next?” All right. “Let's meet up and talk. Coffee shop, I’ll come to your house, we can meet wherever. Come to my office.” Whatever that may be. So, yeah, it’s.
Kenny: Is there any guideline that you think makes sense? Now obviously people—the question I'm about to ask, is how long should an agent be in business before you have a conversation with them? You know, people will ask that about financial planners. Oh they should be in business five years before you, you know, trust them with your money. Is there anything like that in your industry where you should look at an agent that has some experience or at least be teaming with an agent that has X number of years experience? What's your thoughts on that?
Brent: So, that’s an interesting question because I know at some point, everybody started somewhere and they wish somebody gave me an opportunity.
Kenny: Yeah.
Brent: I had my first client—I got it, it was at a dinner party. I really didn't even have my license yet. I think I was about to go through the course.
Kenny: Gotta—Be careful you might get fine here.
Brent: Well, we were just talking.
Kenny: Oh yeah?
Brent: We were just talking.
Kenny: So early on.
Brent: So yeah so.
Kenny: First piece of business.
Brent: Honestly, honestly. The uhh and everything went according to plan exactly what it was supposed to. But everybody's gotta have an opportunity so I would, honestly, I can't even say that you should—they should have this amount of time. I started off part-time and I did really well. Unfortunately or fortunately, I got injured on line of duty and I was,
Kenny: Eating doughnuts. I know, you’ve told us that story Brent.
Brent: I'm gonna keep bringing it up. Its kind of a big deal and
Kenny: Jelly doughnuts.
Brent: Exactly it was heavy. And so, I was given the opportunity doing it part-time. Did I tell everybody was doing a part-time? No. But I had a broker, Tracy Boswell, Seashore Realty. I'll have to say that it’s a family.
Kenny: Tracy’s great. I met Tracy before I met you but go ahead,
Brent: Yeah.
Kenny: We will talk about Tracy on another day.
Brent: Yeah So,
Kenny: Brent’s sister.
Brent: Yeah, so Seashore Realty is actually 20 years in 2020.
Kenny: Congrats Tracy, that’s awesome.
Brent: That it’s been in business. So it's been pretty awesome, but, it's always been kind of a boutique kind of company and anyway.
Kenny: She couldn’t have done it without you, Brent.
Brent: Yeah, that’s right. Well she was going six years before me, so maybe the last 14 years? I think you just need to give him a chance and talk to them because it depends. Tracy was such a good mentor and support system.
Kenny: Yeah.
Brent: That she really walked me through it, you know, with the checklist. This is how it goes but, of course, when you come with Seashore Realty, you're gonna have a mentor for your first three deals to walk you through. Literally, call me. Go show the homes. I'm gonna sit down I’m gonna go through the contract with you and your client, let them know, your partner will be there. An experienced agent that's gonna go through it so they don't have to feel like they’re dealing with an agent, this is their first or you know six deal, still very green. But there is still going to be somebody there with them, so, I think it's really giving them a chance. If they’re—if they're a person with a good heart, bright, you know whatever, I think that you just give them an opportunity. But I can't put a time, I really, because I don't think that's fair.
Kenny: I think what it comes back to across the board, the the ’T’ word comes up “trust”. Do you trust the person that you're setting across from to be well intended for you?
Brent: Exactly.
Kenny: And if that person's well intended and they don't know the answer, they don't know maybe the the real estate contract like the other agent.
Brent: Yeah.
Kenny: If that person can be transparent with their client and be. We like to use the word radically transparent and using radical truth.
Brent: Yeah.
Kenny: Where it becomes so disarming when you go to people, you go “you know I probably should know the answer to that. I don’t. Just give me an opportunity to find it out for you.”
Brent: Right.
Kenny: I think more people respect that
Brent: Yeah
Kenny: then if you try to pretend to be something that you’re not. And so, I think that’s probably what you're saying that there shouldn’t really be a timeline but do you trust the person that you are sitting across from?
Brent: Yeah and are they surrounded with good people?
Kenny: Yeah.
Brent: People that know what they're doing. That might be my—it might be my second deal, but I have a mentor that's been in the business for 14 years, done a—you know—a lot of transactions and they’re going to walk us through it. I appreciate you utilizing me. Giving me the opportunity get my business off, off the ground but we’re not alone.
Kenny: Yeah.
Brent: And I think that's a big part of it. I see a lot of agents out here that, that are really, I don't want to say rogue cuz they don't mean to be but they're not being trained properly. They don't have a really good mentor.
Kenny: Yeah.
Brent: You know they …
Kenny: Would you say that's important?
Brent: Huge.
Kenny: Having a mentor?
Brent: Huge, it's huge.
Kenny: Who would you say mentors in your life? Paid, unpaid? People you've met, people that
Brent: Yeah
Kenny: Maybe trained under?
Brent: Yeah. So, in real estate, I would say my sister Tracy. She has a lot of experience even before Seashore Realty. She was a real estate investor, you know, president of some groups and she’s very knowledgeable. So I would say she's been a huge mentor for me. I also have a friend Arnel Tanyag, who is a business coach, that I've used kind of off and on over the years. Sometimes just to kind of bounce things back and forth with him and he's just, he's awesome. He’s awesome.
Kenny: Arnel was the local B and I guy from years ago I remember.
Brent: Yeah Yeah.
Kenny: Tell Arnel I said, Hello. If he remembers me or not.
Brent: I will. I was actually talking to him this morning so.
Kenny: Were you really?
Brent: Yeah.
Kenny: Did you tell him you were gonna be on the podcast?
Brent: I did, I did.
Kenny: Yeah.
Brent: I did.
Kenny: We should have Arnel on one day.
Brent: He's awesome. And he’s—I can—he really connects well with people and can really understand like pretty quickly
Kenny: Yeah, super guy.
Brent: You know, the type of person you are and that's easier for him then to assist you.
Kenny: Yeah. So, so Arnel. Your sister. Anybody else that comes to mind that you would say had an influence in your real estate business?
Brent: You know for the real estate business I think that’s pretty much it. I kind of feel sometimes, I'm in a bubble you know. I look at trainings, you know, of course there's all those things but those are the people that have just been close enough to me to actually influence me to the agent that I am today.
Kenny: Yeah.
Brent: You know and then of course we're always—you get a little bit of something just like when I was a police officer. You have field training officers your first three phases. While you take a little bit from—something from that field training officer, a little bit from that and then this is kind of the police officer I now am. Of course and who I am, same with real estate.
Kenny: You know I probably should do this in the beginning the show but I was just listening tp you. Your accent. You know, I can easily be picked up as being from the South.
Brent: Right.
Kenny: But you know, I pick up this accent from you that's not Virginia Beach. It’s not North Carolina. And so, Chicago, right?
Brent: Yes.
Kenny: Yeah, Noahs over there raising his hands. You were in the cornfields over there man, so, take it easy.
Brent: Yeah, he’s like “I’m from Chicago. Where you from? Macomb.” It's like on the other side of state.
Kenny: Yeah, is it Macomb? Did he get it right?
Noah: It’s 30 minutes from Macomb.
Brent: Are you serious? Are you serious? So I went to—so I grew up in Chicago Heights. South suburb of Chicago but I actually went to, I graduated from Western Illinois University with a criminal justice degree and that's in Macomb. So I was kind of exaggerating and that’s actually where Noah’s from. That’s awesome.
Kenny: Wow.
Brent: Total opposite end of the earth.
Kenny: Yeah all the people out there said, “so what?”
Brent: It was out in the cornfields. That is so funny that he lived out that way. That's awesome.
Kenny: Wow so growing up in Chicago and I mean, that's a place a melting pot of people much like New York City.
Brent: Yeah yeah.
Kenny: And I, you know, had an opportunity to meet your dad for a short period. But share some of those stories you, you—there’s a couple of them, if I can get you to reminisce but there was one you told me about you and your brother once.
Brent: Which one?
Kenny: Oh, this one was a
Brent: A party we had? Maybe?
Kenny: Which ones we are we allowed to tell, Sammy? There was one where you, you got in a—I think you got in a fight with your brother and did he knock you out?
Brent: Oh, no, no. So my brother's always been bigger than me. So he was my twin brother, Brian, and he was always bigger but yeah. So what happened was I was hungry it was summertime and
Kenny: Here we go back to doughnuts again.
Brent: We were out of school. Well it is food. I think we might have been in high school, maybe it was like 7th or 8th grade and I was hungry and I said, “Brian, make me some pancakes.” He's like, because he used to kind of like cooking and I was like, “Make me some pancakes!” And he would not make me pancakes. We got into a fight because he didn’t make me pancakes.
Kenny: Over pancakes.
Brent: I literally put him through some paneling in our basement. That was kind of our relationship.
[Boos]
Kenny: That’s terrible you did that to your brother.
Brent: That was terrible. Actually,
Kenny: Who won though, your brother?
Brent: No. No. I was kind of scrappy.
Kenny: Really?
Brent: I was kind of scrappy. There was this one time we kind of got into it and uh, he threw a ham bone. You know a ham bone? So I grew up in an Italian family.
Kenny: The bone of a pig.
Brent: Yeah. My grandma would make gravy. That's spaghetti sauce but we called it ‘gravy’ and you put a ham bone in there and that would kind of, that would season it up. But I remember there was a pot in our kitchen and literally, you know, you'd give it to your dog afterwards. He's biting it. We were fighting in the house, doin’ who knows what. He literally picked up that ham bone, he threw me, I still I got five stitches, right? You could still see the scar where he hit me. I had to go to the hospital and get stitches ‘cause he threw a ham bone at me. So, yeah it was pretty crazy.
Kenny: Brothers, man. There are some stories there.
Brent: Man, they just call us the mud boys. ‘Cuz we were always so dirty, you know, rolling around in the mud and the dirt.
Kenny: That sounds like when—I’ll tell you one real quick, my brother and I, Paul.
Brent: We don't have time for that. Can we get back to me?
Kenny: We will do it. We will jump on it. We have thirteen minutes.
Brent: Alright. Go ahead, Kenny Porter, BlackBox.
Kenny: So, it reminds me of a story with my brother, where we got in a fight. We got in a bunch of fights. The one where I beat him and he’s five years older than me.
Brent: Yeah.
Kenny: But I was in the kitchen sawing canned biscuits.
Brent: Was it a knife or a saw, actually?
Kenny: It was with a little steak knife.
Brent: Because we had no tools, but we would use a knife. But go ahead.
Kenny: Yeah a little steak knife and I'm trying to open the steak or open the can of biscuits with a steak knife to feed our cat. Whose name was Preacher by the way.
Brent: Oh, okay.
Kenny: Open this can of biscuits. Paul comes in, is like “what are you doing?” I'm like five. He’s—maybe I'm eight, maybe he's 13. Doesn't matter, I whooped him. But here's what happens, he comes in tells mom, that I'm sawing open this can of biscuits
Brent: Hmm
Kenny: and I've got a steak knife in my hand. So, don't arrest me.
Brent: You cut him? Did you cut a brother?
Kenny: I stabbed him in his forearm.
Brent: Oh my gosh.
Kenny: With a steak knife.
Brent: What is wrong with you?
Kenny: Stuck it clean through clean through his forearm.
Brent: Stop.
Kenny: Yeah. So assault with a deadly weapon.
Brent: Dang.
Kenny: Eight years old. Yeah, so confession today. True confessions on KP’s blackbox.
Brent: I think it's in John Wick 3.
Kenny: Yeah.
Brent: What was his name again, please? What was his name again?
Kenny: Keanu Reeves. Sammy: Laurence Fishburne.
Brent: No, Laurence Fishburne. He said, “sometimes you gotta cut a brother.”
Kenny: Yep. And I did.
Brent: And that's what you did.
Kenny: Smooth.
Brent: Thats awesome.
Kenny: And we completely got off real estate here, but, I just wanted the Chicago accent. I was like, man, I should have talked with Brent about that.
Brent: It’s weird kind of hearing you. I feel like I'm trying to talk lower ‘cuz I could be very loud. So there's Im still kind of working through this. I'm working through this.
Kenny: Yeah that's awesome. Hey, I always like to ask folks as we get towards the end of the show and thanks for being on here today.
Brent: Yeah, yeah.
Kenny: We’ll have you back on another day.
Brent: Definitely.
Kenny: But we can gab more but,
Brent: Did we talk real estate?
Kenny: Well, just a little bit. Yeah, just a little bit, I think.
Brent: Felt like we were just hanging out.
Kenny: But what's important is that people know where they can find you. We'll share that on our site.
Brent: Yeah. Great.
Kenny: People in Hampton Roads. Now you're just licensed in Virginia?
Brent: Virginia. Yeah, yeah.
Kenny: So if you, you want a good agent in Virginia, I'd tell you look up Brent Montella, BrentMontella dot com and we'll put it on the podcast for you as well. But what's more important to me is just your character and wanting people to understand that if you want to be a good business person. If you want to be a good person in community. It's about building that trust bridge. It's about building that relationship with people that's what's really important.
Brent: Yeah.
Kenny: But you know, you were telling and sharing with me earlier that one of the books you're reading, obviously is, The Bible. What else are you reading right now? Anything that's interesting?
Brent: I just finished a—I don't even remember the title. David Baldacci, I think that’s how you say his last name.
Kenny: You guys look that up. What's the book?
Brent: Oh my gosh, I literally have read, I think, all of his books.
Kenny: It must have been great. You know, you are able to—
Brent: Well I read often right before I go to bed. Oftentimes, so, but I can't remember the name of the title. It’s brand new.
Kenny: So what was the premise of the book?
Brent: It’s brand-new. I like more of those kind of James Bond, CIA, covert kind of books.
Kenny: Okay, yeah. So is it fictional?
Brent: Yeah. So you know Tom Clancy’s, Vince Flynn, David Baldacci, those are a lot of the books that I read.
Kenny: Yeah, ‘cause you get a lot of business insight from those books and
Brent: Yeah, right.
Kenny: they help you in your real estate transactions.
Brent: Exactly. Exactly.
Kenny: I’m trying to help you here Brent.
Brent: I appreciate that. But you know, real quick with the whole real estate, you know, sometimes dealing with agents, they think that the louder you are, the nasty you are negotiating that makes you a good agent you know. I see that a lot and then you just—it has to be this adversarial and that is so far from the truth. That's one thing that I just wanted to kind of get across as it doesn't need to be like that and doesn’t mean that they're a better negotiator because they're louder or they scream or they talk down to you or what, hey, I mean it's just life in general. But that’s pretty big, that's pretty big for me and it's not about the awards. It’s the people in the process. It's the journey. It's the, you know, the training.
Kenny: Most of your clients are repeats to, right? The people that you've done transactions with.
Brent: Yeah.
Kenny: And they're calling you back. That's a good example of having some success then.
Brent: Yeah, yeah and yeah I would say, you know already this year I've already had a handful of people I've sold homes to that I've sold her home and then they purchased. Doing it at the same time, you know, where you you list the house, they're buying a house. You're trying to line all that up this is, you know, it's a whole lot of logistics. Again, as the coach
Kenny: Yeah
Brent: being in those situations you kind of have that play in that process, setting up the expectations for them to say “hey this is what can happen.” This might happen” and “we'll address it as it goes but these are some of the options and things that can happen” so, again, it's just that knowledge and experience.
Kenny: From the knowledge point of view, 2020 obviously it's been a little bit of a disrupter for a lot of businesses and the whole COVID crisis
Brent: Yeah.
Kenny: I look forward to not even bringing that up in the episodes in the near future, but, where do you see real estate in Hampton Roads 2020? Buyers market? Seller's market? What’s—what your tea leaves tell you?
Brent: The market is so crazy right now. I mean some people would say it's more of a seller’s market. The inventory is very low and there's still plenty of buyers out there, so, it's very competitive. And again, setting up expectations for buyers, keeping them calm, you know.
Kenny: Are you seeing any of those things like the pre—pre mortgage meltdown of 2008? Are you seeing like multiple contracts coming in on houses?
Brent: Yeah. Multiple contracts. Not giving that seller concessions we talked about earlier. It’s, it's a very competitive market, you know, and sometimes it's by the week. You know Hampton Roads is interesting, you know, we have a lot of military of course but one week could be crazy busy and then it could be quiet for a couple weeks for you but the other guy, he’s killing it this week. You're looking at him going “man he's killing it. I don't feel like anything.”
Kenny: How are you living with this bizarre world of wearing masks and gloves and
Brent: Yeah
Kenny: showing homes? and it’s—it's nut, so?
Brent: Yeah. Yeah honestly, the homes that I've shown, the owners, the list agents, it hasn't been too crazy. Some are, you know, “don't touch doorknobs”, “we're gonna keep all the lights on. Don’t touch the outlets.” Those kinds of things but oftentimes they're like, “Okay, go show.”
Kenny: Yeah.
Brent: You know business as usual my business didn't really, was not, a hiccup during all of this. I've been very busy, whether it's property management, whether it's you know buying and selling for my my clients. It's just been a great season. It really hasn't caused a hiccup.
Kenny: So that’s another side of your business we didn’t talk about. We got a couple more minutes to do that. So, you do property management as well. What's that market look like in, in the rental?
Brent: Yeah, a big part. Having a process. So I have a CRM, you know, client relation management system. Whatever you may call it but I get a lot of leads from that, all my business is from referrals, but for—for rentals having a process for that. Rentals are going very quickly also.
Kenny: Yeah.
Brent: And I have a really good system. I have somebody that helps me with that, an assistant. Also assists me on my selling and buying side. Because oftentimes in our business it is about leveraging time. If I'm doing all of that paperwork and all the things that just need to be kind of filed or whatever, I can't be out with the clients and people and do what I'm supposed to be doing. So leveraging your time that’s really huge having an assistant.
Kenny: Are you seeing it become tougher for renters who may be not able to purchase yet? Like what’s that credit score minimum? What are you looking for in a tenant for your clients?
Brent: Yeah we definitely have requirements because we're representing the owner in the end. You know, the tenants wants us to work with them on certain things. Of course that's what we do. But in the end we're representing the owners and so I have found, you know, we have requirements and I have found with our requirements and the system that we have, our track record—my track record for all rentals I manage are great.
Kenny: Meaning defaults are low?
Brent: Right. Everybody’s paying. You know it's pretty rare that you have, you know, you get the house back after a renter, where it's you know tore up or it's in disarray or what have you. So it's all about, again, having the processes and setting expectations and doing all these things upfront and not just on a whim. It makes the biggest difference but property management is busy. People still need to rent because they can't buy, because the market could be so competitive, they will need to rent for another year or maybe they need to do a couple things. But again, having a good loan officer, as I do that I work with “oh you need some help with your with your credit?” He'll look at it he’ll kind of give you a plan, so in a year, maybe two you can then buy a home. So it's not it doesn't have to just stop with them being a tenant. It's really about everybody wants to own their own home, pride of ownership.
Kenny: Awesome so as we leave today. Did you guys find that book by the way?
Crew: No. There’s a couple of them.
Kenny: What are they?
Crew: Perfect assassin.
Kenny: Perfect Assassin, that's Brent.
Brent: Oh yeah yeah.
Crew: [reads off more titles] Redemption.
Brent: Yeah Yeah, redemption. That’s another podcast. Redemption.
Crew: Long Road Mercy
Brent: I literally read all those books.
Kenny: But which one did you just read? you don't remember? Sammy, he needs some help. Take him,
Brent: It’s the line. What’s that new one? If I had my phone.
Kenny: get him some help
Brent: No. It should be something that came out, literally, like a month ago.
Kenny: I think Perfect Assassin just goes well. Let’s say that.
Brent: Call it the Assassin. Okay.
Kenny: Because of real estate, I mean you’ve got to be, you’ve got to be on it.
Crew: One Good Deed?
Brent: One Good Deed. Thats another podcast. One Good Deed. Keep going.
Crew: [Another book title]
Brent: The which one?
Kenny: The what?
Brent: It should be—it’s the line. Line something.
Kenny: Yeah, we’ll look at—we’ll find that out and—
Crew: The Whole Truth.
Kenny: The Whole Truth?
Brent: No. I don’t know what kind of technical team you got over here, Kenny, but you—They… I mean it's a book that came out this month. Ian, it’s David Baldacci 2020. I bet it will come up. Look.
Kenny: That the pot calling the kettle black here. You are on these guys for not finding it. You can’t remember the name of the book, Brent. And we even talked about this pre-show man.
Brent: For crying out loud. Pot calling the kettle black. You just want to bring the blackbox back into the KPs BlackBox
Kenny: KPs black box, yeah.
Crew: 2020, Walk the Wire.
Brent: There it is. That’s it, Walk the Wire. I said that line, wire, line, wire. Come on, line, wire…You can’t figure that out?
Kenny: Walk the line. That is Johnny Cash.
Brent: You are terrible at Who Wants to be a Millionaire. I'm not calling that friend. That’s all I know.
Kenny: We tried. We tried.
Brent: That's awesome.
Kenny: Hey man, we could do this all day.
Brent: I know.
Kenny: But people, like, their ears are probably burning now
Brent: “Like, why did they do this podcast? What does that guy do?”
Kenny: Yeah. Right. So.
Brent: Real estate professional.
Kenny: Real estate professional extraordinaire.
Brent: I have a digital business card. How cool is that? Because you know COVID.
Kenny: It was cool. You know, Zach actually made me one after I showed him that.
Brent: oh dang. For free?
Kenny: Shout out to Zach. For free. F-R-E-E people. Digital business card, Zach Stine. Kenneth Porter and Co.
Brent: You know what do they say about things you give out for free to people?
Kenny: Another promotion.
Brent: What do they say about when you want to give things out free does that work? Or is there value?
Kenny: Giving free stuff? It’s called freemium.
Brent: Freemium?
Kenny: Free premium content
Brent: Exactly.
Kenny: You should try that.
Brent: I just wanted you to get that in.
Kenny: So people can find you on Brent Montella dot com. You are licensed in Virginia.
Brent: Virginia. Instagram. Facebook.
Kenny: Instagram. Right we'll put that on our show for you. How many books have you written, Brent?
Brent: Zero.
Kenny: Zero. Are you working on one?
Brent: It’s interesting, I’ve actually, had thought about it but, no.
Kenny: You should. You could be great at that. You really should write a book.
Brent: No. I’m gonna do a podcast.
Kenny: Do that. Yeah. You got a studio right here. Come on back. We'll have you.
Brent: I appreciate that. Yeah.
Kenny: Hey thanks for being on the show today. It was awesome to have you here. We'll have you, you know what? We will have you with, with pastor Clayton. We will get him on the show and have him just minister with us.
Brent: He will be rolling.
Kenny: Yeah, we’ll get the preacher to cuss. He’s right now, he’s going “no don't do it. Don't do it.”
Brent: Did they just say my name?
Kenny: Yeah. LA Laker, look him up.
Brent: I think it was a week.
Kenny: I think it was three.
Brent: It might have been two days.
Kenny: Yeah I don’t know. Clayton fact check us.
Brent: I feel bad.
Kenny: We'll find out. All right, hey thanks for being here. It was awesome.
Brent: Hey, who’s fact-checking the fat checkers—fact checkers?
Kenny: Yeah. Hey, thanks for spending an hour with Brent Montella this has been crazy. I hope you learned something about real estate today out of the mix of everything we talked about and it was entertaining for me hopefully other people found it to be that way
Brent: Awesome. Thanks Kenny. I appreciate it bud.
Kenny: Bye. [Applause]