WS1296: The Value of Building Relationships | Matt Teifke

MATT TEIFKE: When you’re committed and you’re on top of it, there’s no other option, and I genuinely try to look at most things that I do in a very intense manner of like, I’m gonna do this as good as I can, and I’m gonna be somebody that’s reliable, and that you can count on, and I pride myself in that. Have you considered the value in building relationships? And I don’t mean just barely reaching out to somebody quickly and then never talking to them again, but really getting back to people, getting back to emails, every text message, every phone call, in scheduling as many meetings as possible. In helping people, passionately, that will change your business in a big way.

WHITNEY SEWELL: Our guest today, Matt Fore. He’s a real estate entrepreneur in Austin, Texas, he runs TRE real estate brokerage with over 150 agency, co-hosts the Real Estate podcast and co-owns TRE property management solutions and long horn construction and development. He’s a firm believer in the power of connecting and adding a value, and seeks to shine a light on what is possible and grow with others. Matt goes into many details today about his drive to be an entrepreneur and how he’s trying to help so many people, allowing them to come work for him, but to do what they’re passionate about in his line of work, and he allows them to come and make what they want… And so it’s interesting, but he shares about how just crazy schedule. We all think we’re busy. He’s very busy, talks about how many emails have many text messages are coming in every day, how…

All the meetings he is trying to take with people and how he’s trying to add value as much as possible, but how over time, that has paid off in a big way. He goes into daily habits, he goes into his biggest challenge for this past year, and even a way that he would have improved his business if he could go back 10 years, you’re gonna learn a lot from that today. 

Matt, welcome me to the show. I’ve enjoyed getting to learn a little bit about you in the business that you’ve built and your growth, running a brokerage and numerous entrepreneurial things, businesses and over 150 agents, and I’m looking forward to diving in and seeing how you’ve done that, where there are… Totally. How you’re finding good people and managing that growth and encouraging them, give us a little bit about your current entrepreneurial, maybe drive in your business and real estate and… Let’s jump in.

MT: Yeah, very motivated to go accomplish things, I grew up with the single mom and she was a hard core grinder, and it kind of got in my blood, I guess, and it’s 247, I just taught a class or a cold call in for about an hour doing this with you, we’re speaking to students at UT later today, which is a little unique day, but we love real estate and been really going all in for about 13 years. I love getting around people, I’d love to ring to how to grow together. I’ve taken it to a level where I started of like, I wanna learn every aspect about real estate that I possibly can, and I wanna build a solid foot foundation and got a Master’s degree, but the brokerage sole management company, and we feel very lucky and blessed to say, we’re in probably one of the best markets in the world here in Austin, Texas, and so our heads are down and we’re working hard, and the ultimate goal is how do we help people unlock the value that real estate can bring. And we’re confident and we can lock the door and make a ton of money, and money is obviously important and it means something, but we wanna show other people how to do it, and we’re very passionate about that with our agents, and so we’ve kinda created a unique system, where we do have 150 agents, we say, Hey, come here, build your own brand, build your own team, holds raise capital, managed properties, the assignment is subject to like do whatever you want, and it’s very unique from a brokerage perspective, and we’re like the opposite of ego call your sphere and list properties.

So we go all in on, come here, make it what you want, we look at agents as partners, and we try to figure out how do we grow together, how do we be unique, and then all along the process, we’re constantly documenting it on every social media platform, you can imagine we’re putting it out there or having fun, but we love this business and we think we understand some of the core principles that would make somebody successful, and we just wanna figure out how do we kinda be different and push the limits and help people change their life through real estate, which is totally possible, and we’re very passionate about trying to figure out how to help and also learning and growing with people ourselves.

WS: That’s awesome. It’s so interesting that you share too just about your single mother and just how hard she worked and how that seemed to rebuff on you, and I think there’s probably many listeners who can relate to that in a big way, one way or another, but just your drive to… For learning everything you can about real estate, and not only just keeping it all to yourself, but now just your drive to help so many other people, and I just like just investors about your team, allowing people to come in, the 150 agents or more now, speak to there, let’s have been a little bit about how you’re finding those people, how you’re finding the people you’re looking to hire and bring them like that, like you’re talking about…

MT: Well, for about six years, no lie. I had, I think probably three to maybe six, maybe more coffees or lunches every day. I’m very, very busy. Maybe some people would say it’s a problem, but I’m just going all in. It’s like if you look at my phone book, there’s a phone call every two minutes, there’s a text every 10 seconds, I get hundreds of emails. So it was massive outbound, and I started at a commercial brokerage, Jana college, and nobody would call me back on these brokers, and then I learned, you gonna meet these guys for Cougar launch and I get to know you. Then they’ll call you back. So I learned the value of building relationships maybe six, seven years ago, and I went all in on it, so I was just constantly talking to everyone I could, whether they’re super successful or they’re just getting their license or… There in high school, I store the number, I stay in touch, I add value. And over time, it’s just a massive network, and then also through our social media channels is like, Hey, we’re literally, if you go look at some of the stuff, it’s every day, every day is a new video, and there’s hours and hours and full-time salary positions for these positions.

And so people reach out and we communicate that way, I’m like, Probably maybe one of the easiest people to ever get a hold of, I don’t miss a call, I don’t mites. And it all started from when I was 17 years old and really wanting a lead, and I had this fear of like If I missed the call, they’re calling the next agent, and I haven’t lost that, and so we’re very easy to get a hold of. And it’s constant outbound and inbound and just massive amount of conversations.

WS: Yeah, that’s awesome. I love to focus on like never missing a call or text, and I had to ask you to share a little bit about the management side of that, especially in your position… I know I’ve struggled with that. It’s like I want to get back to people as fast as I can. But hundreds of hundreds of emails a day amongst the text message is just like you’re experiencing… It’s a struggle, right? And my sister and I have had put in systems to just so we can ensure we’re getting back to every email and all those things, but you speak to that a little bit, how you do that and do it so well, because I know at the listener wants to do that as well as they’re growing their business.

MT: I do have a full-time assistant, which a lot of these things, like if people reach out to the email or text, I just say, Well, you help me schedule this, but… I’m not gonna lie, man. It’s just, it’s hard core when you’re committed and you’re on top of it, there’s no other option, and I genuinely try to look at most things that I do in a very intense manner of like, I’m gonna do this as good as I can, and I’m gonna be somebody that’s reliable and that you can count on, and I pride myself in that for my friends or my family or whoever, it’s like, If you need me, I’m here, it’s probably very rarely like my phone broke a couple of years ago, and I was like… I was not in a good position, and this isn’t the best for everybody, it’s obviously important to have balance, but the way I’m approaching things is like I’m trying to accomplish something, and in order to accomplish some great… I looked at people that I respect, those kind of manners, and I think about COBRA is like Cyprian would have two practices before the normal practice started, and I genuinely try to approach a lot of things that I do in life in that fashion.

WS: You speak to your schedule then a little bit I have to ask, ’cause I know the listeners are just like… You were just briefly talking about how we all feel like we’re busy, and then you look to somebody like Cobra and the success and what they did to get there, and they’re doing two practices before the actual practice where everybody else that was just showing up for the one practice I felt like they were really busy to speak to your schedule and how you maintain a schedule like that, in a way that… There’s still some life there, I assume you probably have some family or friends that you wanna spend some time with outside of work or business… How do you do that?

MT: I have gotten burnt out before when you’re doing six meetings and you’re having these calls and text, it’s burn out, so I realized I can only do two or three meetings with people and be able to give… Unfold attention and energy. So I learned that I cut off meetings at 330 for the most part, I do go home and I pick up my kids, but I just stay on top of from five to seven, and it’s not… By a means, perfect. I’ve been working on this from five to seven, I try to put my phone away and then I’ll wake up at 2 AM and work for two hours. Pretty regularly, I might not be the best. Resonate, talk about balance, but I try when I can, and I do believe that I have a lot of people that help me in a lot of support, and it’s not like I’m 247 working, but I’m in at 247, I’m here, and I don’t really look at the whole what I heard one time was, work-life harmony. I don’t really think of it as work-life balance, I’m working… Now I’m not, it’s just like, it’s all one life, and whether I’m having beers with a friend or closing deals at the same time, like…

I’m not trying to say there’s a huge difference. And so I try to set up a life that I enjoy, I try to get around a lot of good people that can give me energy, I focus on having a best relationship I can with God in Christ, and that helps me rejuvenate and realize what’s more important in life, and ultimately just learning as I go, I definitely don’t have this perfect schedule, but we’re doing a lot and we’re trying to figure out the balance constantly… I definitely need my assistant and I need my partners, but things always change. We’ve found this deal that it’s 25 houses in Austin, which is rare, and I’m like, we might need to stop everything we’re doing for the next 90 days and start raising capital, and that’s kind of what’s cool about real estate is like there’s always a new direction and a new thing you can focus on, there’s always a new deal around the corner, and this guy that had his property just reached out from our website and just is like, I got 25 properties and that’s very rare here. And so it’s always evolving. I’m at a point now where I’m probably gonna stop doing as many in-person meetings, unfortunately, maybe this is valuable, but I’ve kinda learned that I am here and I do care about people, but I kinda have to lead by example.

And I can’t go give everybody an hour of my time as much as I really want to, because the fact is I do have a goal and I’m trying to accomplish something, and very few people are extremely serious about what they’re doing or what they say they’re doing, maybe they’re serious about other things, and there’s nothing wrong with it, maybe they’re serious about watching every episode of a certain Netflix show, and there’s nothing like… I watched movies, but the problem is, when you say that you wanna make money and you say that you wanna call call and you say they want five deals, but you don’t do anything about it, I just unfortunately can’t be meeting with you and I don’t want to do that way. I’ve just learned the hard way, it’s like I have to get around with people that are very serious and myself, like you said, I’m trying to meet with other people that have done a lot more than I have in business and are been around longer, and when I get around them, I respect the fact that I’m not here to waste their time, so I have to be the same way, unfortunately, I believe to lead by example for other people, and it’s a challenge, but I’m always learning and trying to work through it the best I can, if that all resonates in somewhere…

WS: It does in a big way. I know when I first started the first few years, like I’ll talk to anybody. So I could be a just… Anybody schedule a call, right? You just never know who that person is gonna be. And then over time, my wife is like, You have to scale some of those back, you have to stop taking all those calls, but it’s ’cause it’s exactly what you just mentioned, then I’ve told my assistant to my question… Me, Is this the best use of my time? Is this appointment worth that time? It really helped me think through some of those. And even, unfortunately, she has to be the bad guy off than to say, Sorry, he just can’t do that right now.

MT: Here’s one thing I’ve learned is that… ’cause there’s a lot of people that haven’t wanted to met with me with me over the years, and I don’t know about with you, but I would believe that if somebody really wants to meet with you bad enough, they can find a way… And so that’s what I resonate with is like, I don’t wanna be turning people away, but the ones that are serious and want it bad enough, it will happen, I’ve gotten in the room with billionaires that literally told me No, probably 50 times, and they were like, I don’t really know how you got in this room, but you’re here now, we’re talking a Alison’s talk.

That’s how I find comfort is like You have to turn it away in some sense, you don’t necessarily have to say, I’m never talking to you. It’s like, Well, how can I help you? And you help them in a quick fashion, but the people that really wanna plug in… There is a way to make it happen. I believe that speak to

WS: What caused the growth, I can speak to the Business Growth Company Growth, was there a time that it took off in a big way, or has it been very steady… And maybe just speak to some of those things that you were doing, whether that’s educating yourself or being around other people that are doing it, or something you did internally or applied that helped you to streamline some growth.

MT: Yeah, I’m in a lot of great support, just constantly adding and figure out how to get people on fire and love what they do, but I would just say in general, as you know, I’m sure that the beautiful thing about real estate is the snowball effect, and so every year in every way, if you’re approaching with some principles of like, Do what you say you’re gonna do, follow up, stay in touch, add value. I’m sure there’s other ones, but if you do those things, every single thing gets better, your net worth goes up, you make more money, you have more resources of people, you have better banking connections, just every single thing gets better every year, and it turns into a pretty massive compound effect, and it’s 14 years for me, and I’ve had the same mindset since day one, I haven’t really let up, and so it’s just… I feel like if you look at anybody who’s serious about what they do and committed over a long period of time, of course it’s gonna be something big, like the church that I went to 10 years ago, I went, and it’s like 1000 or 2000 people.

I’m like, I was amazed, but actually I was probably 5000 and I was pretty amazed and I was like, Well, why should I be… This is what happens when you’re consistent and you put in work, but it takes a long time and not… Esporte Nate-ly in real estate, don’t seem to understand that. And they give up too early, and it’s a sad thing, and I’d love to help with that anyway I can, and so you have to just say, You have to see the results on time, it’s almost like you gotta look at when I do phone call, but people I don’t really care about the results, I’m like, Did I do a good job on that phone call that I have a win on that call, and it’s not about any kind of destination, but it’s like I’m not just getting better and I… I enjoying this at the same time, and then you look up and it’s pretty crazy.

WS: It’s about those small, daily, consistent actions. It’s so true, it’s like you feel like you’re doing nothing hardly in the moment, or you didn’t accomplish much, but six months later or a year later or 18 months, you see massive growth and so marine of a book that I don’t if you’ve heard of it called five feet from gold, had about stopping or quitting too soon, you’re so close and just didn’t keep going. I speak to though, maybe some daily habits that you have Math that have helped you achieve this level success.

MT: I try to get into the Word every day, I try hard to work out, I work out twice a week for sure. When I try to swim every day, it usually turns to every other day swim this morning, I love swimming. It’s like I have my phone around, it’s so peaceful, just in this interesting state that… And I’ve really gotten into it in the last two, three months, and then other than that, and get my mind ride the best I can, and then just crying, like just get in it. I’m usually meeting at least two to three people per day, just sitting down and talking, and then I’m just staying on top of everything I can, and we’re closing deals, and we’re closing new agent center coming to grow with us, we’re getting leads for our construction company, we’re getting properties that we manage, we offer a lot, and so that’s one of the cool things is we’ve figured out how to do one thing, but to maximize our time, but starting with adding value for you or ever we’re talking to… And I am 100% in belief based on that, I put in the work and then I’ve committed to this, that if I find somebody that’s serious about real estate, there is a way that I can add value for them or for you.

And I just had to figure out what that is. And then if I do that, then some will have been down the line, and if I do that and maybe I will, but if I do that enough… For sure. Something definitely will. And so it’s like, I’m confident in myself and the work that I put in that regardless if I’m talking to a kid in high school or the CEO of Black Stone or any kind of same… There is a way that I can add value, and I’m like, How can I figure out how to do that?

WS: What that thought, of being able to add value to others in that way, I’m figuring that out. I just wondered, now that you’ve been in business this many years and this many meetings, how many of those meetings are… Are people seeking you versus your seeking them…

MT: At this point, it’s a lot less of me, so in them, which probably shouldn’t be that way, I would imagine, but I was saying I’m kind of in this transition phase where I’m gonna be a little bit harder, but I’m teaching this class two times a week, which I’ve probably done 20 classes and we just get on here and we’re like, Let’s make money, and so I’m saying, Hey, just come join my class, I don’t wanna schedule a meeting, just come to the class, and so that’s the transition phase, but at the same time, I think there’s obviously always people to learn from, I just kind of feel like at this point, I have enough connections and I know enough people that I don’t really need to know that many more, I just need to go drop up opportunities and then use those to get things done and keep cultivating. Probably the ones you already have.

WS: Yeah, exactly. So that’s a big challenge that you’ve had this past year.

MT: Just figuring out where to put my time, just kinda like all the things I’m alluding to, and I believe this for anybody, it’s like Whatever you wanna do, you can accomplish, but I’ve just been around a lot of people. Pretty big time guys. And they’re like, Matt, you can do whatever you want, you just have to know what you wanna do. And I believe that. And so it’s just figuring out, what direction do we go? What do I spend my time? And how do I just keep getting better and better? And not waste my time. Unfortunately, because I have, because I’m more than probably anybody. It’s like, you wanna sit down to me with me, no questions asked me, me here, and we get there and I’m like, This guy’s playing video games like eight hours a day, and I’m like, I can tell that, and I’m like in my head, this a complete way and that’s Metasploit is right. Most Valuable resource. And so that’s been a struggle of like, How do I stop or never do that again, because you don’t get that back in… Like I said, I wanna help, but you know what I mean? When we come to the class and then we’ll meet later if you go do something.

WS: But in some effort… Right. Yeah, I agree, it’s been a real struggle for myself and it’s just a constant battle, but what would you say with your years of experience now and growing the business like you have and continue to grow, and now you can just struggle with calendar now, what would you do differently, if you go back 10 years.

MT: There’s probably only one thing, and I think I would have just simply built a better CRM from day one, because I was always just like, Go, go, go, go, go, but my head through the wall, and if I would have taken it a little bit slower. And taking notes and put people’s contact info, and I was in college and corporate Kristy and I’d probably help 30 people buy houses. And I can’t remember who they are, and I’ve never talked to him again. Unfortunately, I’m not proud of that, but if I would have… I could be getting leads to our agents, or I could be raising capital from them for our fund, so as much as you wanna go accomplish stuff, and it seems to be kind of easy nowadays, where there’s a lot of easy money and things are good and it’s like you can just go, go, go, go, go. But try to build the system at the same time, and you’ll do a lot more, so it’s simply… I would have had a really good CRM that I would have documented things much better with rivers.

WS: What about any predictions just for our… The real estate market over the next six to 12 months.

MT: I mean, the obvious things… Rates are going up, right? I’m kind of in this little bubble and Austin, where I’m drinking the Kool-Aid and I’m saying, Go on a limb, I’m like, This is gonna be one of the biggest markets in the world, I believe that there’s just a massive jobs and people and all of a sudden San Antonio is connected to Dallas, and it’s all just one mega plex. And so I think real estate is gonna be fine, like it’s proven time and time again, if you stick to some core principles, don’t get over leverage by below value, have a good exit plan. I don’t really care what happens because we’re just gonna adapt and that’s what we promote is like Come be a real estate professional, and don’t be reliant on listings or buy our clients or simply one aspect. And so I don’t think too much about it, but if I had to say something, I think real estate, even though rates go up, real estate is just gonna be just fine.

WS: What’s your best source for meeting new investors right now…

MT: Good question, probably through online, like we did a call today where we were on Instagram live, Facebook live, Twitter live, YouTube Live, and all these people are jumping in, learn about our deals, we have a pretty big database as well, we get connections through our agents, but really we’re just constantly putting stuff, and that’s the way I think the only way to get real scales to be on social media and online. And so not only is the biggest, but we see the most value and potential with it.

WS: Speak to behind that just a little bit about their marketing. Maybe department or a people or a team that you have that helps do that.

MT: Yeah, we got this Guy and Jeanine across from me, and we grew up together and known each other since six years old, and he was a linebacker in high school… I was good now when I say that, but this is a good dude and he’s really good at what he does, and we’ve got… If you could see this right now, there’s multiple cameras and lights and this whole room set up for that, and then we got a girl named cat, and they work together, and cat’s really special, and they’re just all in… That’s literally their focus. And we have spent time and resources and money and everything for a long time, and very few people commit to it the way we do, and I have no judgment about it, but people have a hard time understanding what the return is and what the value is, and we don’t even really care to measure it too much, we know it’s there, we just don’t even really know how to see it honestly, but maybe what we did is part of the reason we’re on this podcast or an investor invest in our fund, and we don’t realize but he’s been watching our YouTube channel for five years, and so it’s a really big commitment.

And we try hard to do it right, we try hard to do it better every single time, and we’re committed to it, and whether we have the following or not, we’re gonna keep doing it, and it’s important to us and it’s important in the sense of like… We wanna get this out there of who we are and what we believe in and what we’re about, and we just stick with it, man, it’s a full-time job for two… Actually, probably four people. We have some VAs that do editing. And we believe in it.

WS: What are some of the most important metrics that you track? For social media, either one, I just mean like you personally, it’s like right now, you’re gonna pick three of the top metrics, whether it’s your employees, where there’s something you’re doing yourself or whether it’s social media, whatever that may be. What would those be? Yeah.

MT: So we run our business on traction. Have you heard of that? Oh yeah. Oh, so everyone has their KPIS and their rocks. I’m technically considered to be visionary on the board, right, so I don’t have as many KPIS or rocks, but just constantly new direction. Well, the numbers, we look at the revenue and profit, we look at the amount of agents that have joined the team, and then we’re looking at how many deals are getting done and what’s happening with net worth and assets. That’s the big picture for me, my partner, Alex, is very detailed on profit margin and everything like that, and we’re similar in a lot of ways, we’re very different on the sales, go get her kind of new ideas and Otis the Lucy in the room. Let me draw on the track board and do some systems and operations, so we divide it like that, so he’d be the better guy to explain the fine-tune details. But for me, it’s like, Are we growing? Are we getting better? Are we adding value? And most importantly, are we being different and unique, what’s the number one thing that’s contributed to your success, the people, other people that are around us and the people that we try hard to get them to a point where they love what they do and they can be at a place of peace.

And I’ve hated the idea of cycling through employees or agents and just being profitable to be profitable and make money and just cycle through, it’s like, I wanna be around people that are gonna be here in 20 years, and that’s how I’ve seen people build a really big and special businesses. So just good people, man, people are bought in and they love it and they can promote and support and get as much out of it that they wanna give a couple of tips on helping people to be bought in like that, employees that wanna stay… The long-term like that with you, I think the simple thing is you have to inspire and lead for people to buy in, but the way the key people bought in is to be accountable, and… So it’s literally that simple. It’s like, they’re already bought in, now how do I be accountable to keep them on the team? And that to me, that means I’m here, I’m waiting on me, I’m doing what I say, I’m gonna do. He’s talking to one of our agents and 30 last night for an hour and a half. Then they know that I’ll do that.

So it just being accountable once people have already bought in

WS: Some wise words, I love how you said that inspired ly, and then be accountable as well.

MT: And I gotta give a shot, I got that from my past, or…

WS: That’s awesome, that’s awesome. A great person gets some wise words from… That’s for sure. How do you like to give back?

MT: I would say the biggest thing would be time. I do, but 10% of everything I make to the church, and then I try to go out of my way to help people that I feel like I want it. But like I said, there’s that challenge there of the challenges like how do you figure out who really wants it, and if people really want it, I’m here, but I can’t be here for people that say they want it and they don’t see… Just figuring out that balance

WS: At… I’ve enjoyed getting to know you a little bit and having you on the show, not everyone, just as you have said, can grow or put in steps that’s needed to grow and scale a business like you have, and so I’m grateful for the time. And the teeter is how they can get in touch with you to learn more about you.

MT: Yeah, we’re very easy. Check us out on any platform to re-type real estate on tiktok, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and just reach out that type Kamil dot com is my email on number. Happy to give it. 512-914-4806. And I will get back to you, and like I said, we’re very easy to get hold of, but check us out, relate dot com, and we’re here to provide as much value as we possibly can and try to not talk so much, but be about it.

WS: Thank you for being a loyal listener of the real estate syndication Show, please subscribe and like the show, share it with your friends so we can help them as well. Don’t forget, go to the Life, Bridge capital dot com, where you can sign up and start investing in real estate today, have a blessed day.