Glen shares his fascinating journey from selling a tech company for $91 million to diving into real estate after a personal tragedy, driven by a passion for improving customer experience.
Glen opens up about the challenges of expanding into new markets like Massachusetts, where he had to overhaul his processes without losing the "magic sauce" that makes his team successful. He explains the importance of having a consistent customer experience across all locations, regardless of the specific state regulations or contracting processes. Glen emphasizes that building a business in multiple markets is not for the faint of heart—it’s like setting up a whole new company each time—but once it’s operational, consistency in metrics and performance is critical to success.
The conversation also delves into how Glen uses Sisu to not only streamline operations but also to predict market trends. By analyzing Sisu data, Glen can foresee shifts in the market, which allows his team to stay ahead and make informed decisions. This ability to anticipate changes has led to a stronger performance in the final quarter of the year, with some agents expected to do 75% more business than the previous year.
Top Takeaways:
(2:15) What life event triggered a drastic career shift?
(6:28) Why are clients more than just transactions?
(9:18) How did a simple portal transform client trust?
(11:09) What’s driving expansion when others shrink?
(15:14) How are videos transforming agent relations?
(16:12) How new agents are closing $700k deals instantly
(17:19) Three components that run an entire real estate business
(18:43) How to see market shifts before they happen
(20:30) 15 minutes that keep the team on track
(22:21) The must-have report for every agent one-on-one
(27:11) From Doordash to deals: the power of client portals
If you're looking for strategies to enhance your client communication, recruit top talent, and expand your business in challenging times, don't miss out on Glen's advice on why now is the perfect time to leverage technology and boost your value in the real estate market.
About Glen Baker
Glen Baker is a leading real estate agent in North Jersey and the founder of the MorrisAgent Team. He specializes in helping individuals, investors, and developers find properties in Morris, Sussex, and Bergen counties. With a reputation built on trust and consistent results, Glen has earned a place among the top .05% of agents nationwide and has been recognized with the Circle of Excellence every year.
His team’s footprint extends across New Jersey and Massachusetts, with plans to expand into Delaware and Florida, guided by the principle of "No Surprises, Ever!"—a commitment to consistency, reliability, and transparency. The team is known for combining advanced digital tools with a seamless customer experience, ensuring that every transaction is smooth and transparent. Glen’s business is largely built on referrals and social media, reflecting his dedication to building lasting relationships.
Glen is also committed to giving back to the community, contributing over $300,000 in Hero Rewards through the Homes for Heroes program, where he is ranked #1 in New Jersey. Beyond real estate, Glen has an entrepreneurial background, having sold his last company for $91 million and serving in C-suite roles throughout corporate America. He also actively serves as the Deputy Chief of the Boonton Fire Department, advocates for suicide awareness, and fosters dogs with over 65 pups under his care to date.
Connect with Glen Baker Today!
Episode Transcript:
Brian Charlesworth 00:37
Hello everyone. Welcome back to the grit Podcast. I'm Brian Charlesworth. I'm the founder of sisu and the host of this grit podcast show, and grateful to be here today. I have Glen Baker in with me today, and Glen is a REMAX team owner, and in this challenging world that we're in, Glen is expanding his business today, most people are shrinking their business, which I think has given people like Glen, who are power operators, the chance to expand their business. So we're going to dive into his real estate business today. He has been one of the top teams in Jersey for quite some time, and he's also been in the firefighting business for a long time, and currently a fire chief. And Glen has also started and sold, you know, a tech company before, and I want to dive into that today as well. And that was, maybe it's not so much tech company, but outsource partners International. We're going to dive into that. So welcome to the show, Glen. Anything you want to add to that intro. Yeah, I think
Glen Baker 01:41
thanks and thanks for having me, and I'm grateful to be here, and let's hit it all
Brian Charlesworth 01:45
right, so I got to meet you, Glen, when you came into sisu mastery, April of 24 Tell me, how long have you been a sisu customer? Now
Glen Baker 01:54
we're just going to turn three years soon. Two months for three years.
Brian Charlesworth 01:58
Okay? I'm excited. I've never really doven into sisu mastery with a customer before, but I think we're going to do that today, because I think it had an impact on your business. So but before we do that, can you give me the story of how you got into real estate with everything else going on in your life?
Glen Baker 02:15
I sold my company outsource partners in 2011 and my two partners, well, we're older, so they kind of faded away, and I stuck around with the company, and had a stay package to stick with the company that had acquired us. I stayed with them for about seven years, and then I had some life events that happened. Personally, I traveled 200 days a year. So I traveled, I flew more than pilots did the 100 countries, 200 days a year. And the next thing you know, I was away on a vacation, and I found out that my sister Wendy had killed herself, and when I came back, it was just like shell shocked. I had to figure out a way to to do life again. And then I had said to my wife, who knew me in this career, in this life, I think I'm just going to quit. And I was sitting on a plane. I'll never forget I was in Detroit. I said, I'm going to make my way home and I'm going to quit. And she said, You can't quit. You're doing too well. You make too much money. You do this that. And I said, I'm going to die in a plane seat. And I just stopped. I quit. Now, little as you know, I said I was going to quit, and I had already quit four months earlier. I was just riding out the rest of the time, but when I got home, I listened to podcasts, and I started to to really think again. I guess the way to put I got off the cop the corporate wheel, which I was on quite some time, and that creativity started to come back. And I it always brought me back to real estate. And a numerologist in India one time. I'll never forget the place it was in Varanasi said to me, you belong in real estate. And that was in probably 1999 when I was but I never really thought of it. And then next thing you know, I was in my backyard doing projects, and my wife said, You need to find a job. You need to do something else, because you're going crazy, because I was doing a lot of crazy projects around the house. Yeah, I said, I want to do real estate. And she said, great, why don't you sell used cars while you're at it?
Brian Charlesworth 03:58
And then this is so the sarcasm came out immediately.
Glen Baker 04:02
Yes, yeah. She did not think like I honestly didn't think much of Realtors right at the time, because I had bad experiences with them. And in my professional life, customer experience was what we talked about all day and all night. So what I did was I said, I'm going to bring that to my corporate experience, to real estate, but still have it with the entrepreneurial spirit, and that's really how I designed the team, how our team operates, how we talk, how we act, and all our systems around that they behave the same way customer experience. Okay, I
Brian Charlesworth 04:29
love it. So we're going to dive into your real estate business. But prior to that, I want to hear more about outsourced partners International. What was this business? So
Glen Baker 04:37
we did outsourcing services. It was finance accounting, primarily, if you were a firm like a you had an engineering firm and you had 200 people in your accounting department, we would come in and take it over and cut the cost in half, and we'd do it with systems, people, processes across the world. Okay,
Brian Charlesworth 04:54
so you sold this in 2011 back when Outsourcing Things like that was. Like, truly, just kind of coming in, wasn't it, at that time, we were the one of the
Glen Baker 05:04
first, for sure, in the early 1000s. And then at that time, it was the right time to sell. It was either go public or sell, and the sell was the right answer at the time. And the company who acquired us just the brightest mind. So I stuck around for, I guess, six and a half, seven years, then enjoyed every minute of that too.
Brian Charlesworth 05:20
Okay, so you sold your company for 91 million, if I am correct, is that right? Yep, stayed there for seven years. Yep, finally decided you're sick of flying, and so you stay home. You're going crazy, yep, and dealing with your sister and what happened there, which I'm sorry to hear that that's a challenge that nobody wants to face in life. And then you say you're going to go into real estate, and your wife does a sarcastic joke, saying you might as well sell used cars, basically, right, that's right. So how do you go from there to you probably didn't need to work, but now you're like, Okay, I'm going to build a real estate business. What actually made you like be able to just kick it in gear and focus on that? Because I think that's something that a lot of people don't have in life. Like, is that, that grit or that drive, and that feeling of, I need to do something in life to better things? And it sounds like, from my perspective, what you're really focused on and correct me if I'm wrong, but what you're really focused on is the customer experience and improving that experience of people buying a home. Yeah, 100%
Glen Baker 06:28
I think I had a bad experience, and it always resonated with me. And when folks, when I touched them, I wanted to be in a way that they're going to tell their kids about me, right? The person that made that happen. And, you know, all too often, I think that Realtors think, Oh, I opened the door and I negotiated a contract, and that's the relationship, and we just do it differently. People are family. I mean, I've been invited to weddings. I was in more weddings since I've been in real estate than I have one of my whole entire life up to that point. I've been for weddings before that, and now I've been to a bunch for people. I've sold homes. It's just a it's a different type of relationship. It's a one on one. It's the you're putting a you're putting someone a roof over their head. How cool is that? Like? It's the best business on Earth.
Brian Charlesworth 07:05
Yeah. So, so you came out to sisu mastery in April, and for those of you who don't know, again, I think we opened with this, but Glen has been on sisu for about three years, and sisu does a lot, right? And so a lot of times it's hard to really execute, know how to, in the most efficient way, really leverage the the power of the platform. So you guys came out to a sisu mastery. We now call that behind the scenes of a real estate machine, because, as you know, you get to dive into the back office of springs business. But tell me about that experience and that event and how that impacted your business.
Glen Baker 07:46
Yeah, so for me, it's a twice a year event, because I can't feasibly put in place all the things fast enough that I learned. So we are, and I guess I'll sum it up by what I brought my wife. My wife is our team administrator, so she clearly she likes real estate now, and I brought her, and we were on the on the Uber back to the hotel room, and I said, So what do you think about this? Or what do you think about that? And she goes, I can't there's just too much to process. I need a little bit of time to think this through. There was way too much information. And I was like, rip roar, ready to go. And that that was the context. Like it didn't matter who you spoke to. There was someone willing to share, there there was someone to give how they do it. I'd ask about a checklist, and next thing you know, it's already loaded in my portal. Five minutes later, I was mind blown. And I've been to a lot of these in my professional life. It was definitely the best.
Brian Charlesworth 08:30
Okay, so that had an impact on your business. And one of the cool things is our goal is to really be different with that. And instead of you leaving the event saying, Okay, what do I need to do before that event, before you leave that event, we want to implement, right? And so sounds like you got a new checklist implemented before you even left that day. Is that right? Oh,
Glen Baker 08:52
multiples. I mean, I had my portal set up. I had my checklist fine tuned. I had an HR checklist loaded in from springs business. I mean, it was, it was over the top. It was good,
Brian Charlesworth 09:02
cool. So when you say you had your portal set up, are you talking about your client portal? Yes. Okay, so you weren't using a client portal before that. Now you have a client portal for your customers. I know that you are all about the customer or consumer experience. So how has that client portal, which, by the way, you guys, it's branded. It's white labeled for Glen's business, which he, as you can see if you're watching this in the background, he runs a REMAX business. But how has that impacted the client experience? Volume
Glen Baker 09:34
of calls comes down, and we had a saying before the portal, that if the client calls you, you didn't do your job, right? So now those interactions aren't as many, but they're more meaningful. So it's taken down a lot of that communication side in terms of volume, and especially with the new change is going to play as a listing agent, I can use anything that takes a little call volume down,
Brian Charlesworth 09:55
okay? And I would beg to say, even though call volume is down, which is. It because those are incoming calls, because you're actually doing your job and communicating with them, I would say these clients are far more aware of what's going on in this transaction process than ever before. Would you agree with that? Oh, 100%
Glen Baker 10:14
you're not hounding them, right? You're not You're not telling them what they have to do. They're actually going in and checking it. And you have the ones that are compulsive about it, sometimes they'll be a little bit ahead of me so, but that information would never be available without the way that we did in sisu. Cool.
Brian Charlesworth 10:28
So tell me about your business so you have what's the size of your business? And I want to focus on this, because this is we're in an industry right now where I'm seeing a lot of people reduce the size of their teams. I'm seeing a lot of people focused on reducing expenses, focusing on reducing technology, and sometimes that hits us, but the good news is we're focused on really being your full end to end platform us and a CRM, you can do everything you need to do in the business, but like, tell me, in this world of people really reducing the size of their businesses. You really focused on growth right now. Why is that? And how are you able to do that? Yeah. So
Glen Baker 11:10
the one thing I realized when we did a calculation on the whiteboard with spring and everyone was how many agents I needed to meet my goal. How many is that? 32 more. Okay, so that was a pretty sobering number for me, and I had to get some planning around it. And truth be told, it only really started about two months ago, right? So it took me four months to get my act together, to really figure out how I was going to approach the market. Currently we have in the New Jersey, North Jersey market. We have 11 agents. We're doing about 171 sides this year. We'll do probably 220 with that agent count, and I expect that to grow, because some of the agents that are come on are just starting the springboard. And then I have two other agents in Massachusetts, which added two other checklists, two other portals, two other everything, and they're kicking butt there. I mean, they're just killing it up there. And right now I have expansion zones that I'm looking at in Indianapolis, Delaware and Florida. Those are the immediate ones for the team.
Brian Charlesworth 12:01
All right, so one way you're expanding, which I think a lot of people are not thinking about right now, is acquiring other teams or brokerages across the country. You shared with me, before we started this call, that you wouldn't mind spending some time in Arizona. We bought a home in Arizona about a year ago now, just over a year ago now, and absolutely love it down there. Have not been there as much this summer as we were going in the winter, but looking forward to getting to spend more time back down there again. But tell me, like, how is it that you're able to do that in a market that most people are struggling and thankfully, we just heard interest rates are going to reduce, and I want to talk about the market here in a few minutes, but like, how are you able to expand in in the market and the climate that we've been in?
Glen Baker 12:47
So I kind of come from that Tom Ferry school, if there's more nuts and squirrels and our calls, our context, everything that we speak about is that the market is what the market is, and we have to deal with it when we're in it, right? We're going to adapt. And I laugh, because this whole change that was occurring on the 17th of August, we were ready 100 days ago, and it is. It's a zero issue. It's not even a non issue. We don't even worry about it. In fact, it's better now, because we have so much protection in place as buyer's agents that we never had in the past. And we've noticed that the sentiment amongst the industry is pretty negative about this, and it's the most opportune time I think, in real estate history for us to make money. And we're seeing it because when we walk into listing presentation, when we talk to buyers and do our our buyers, buyer strategy sessions, the context and how we deliver is so positive about what we're seeing and what we're doing, and we're already seeing the hockey stick the everyone was starting to nosedive on their commission rates. We're already seeing them starting to come up, and we're making more than we did in the past. So I think it's perspective. I honestly, I get on some calls and you hear some doom and gloom from these mastermind groups, and I'm like, man, you're going down the wrong rabbit hole. You have to look at this the way that it really is, which is a really positive change. And hey, I think Who Moved My Cheese, right? There's agents that I don't want to do that anymore. I'm not making this change, and I'm sorry I'm pouncing. That's what we're doing, is we're just pouncing on those right now.
Brian Charlesworth 14:10
Yeah, I love it. It's so true. The market is what it is, right? And we can listen to the news and let them influence us and pout and not work and not show up, or we can show up and do the work, and we're going to probably have more success than we've ever had, because the majority of the people listen to the news, they don't just show up and do the work. And so this is an opportune time for people like you. So So you've gone from Hey, we're prepared, our agents are making more money. Now you're focused. As of two months ago, we're going to recruit more agents, and we're going to expand into other markets by acquiring teams. Let's first talk about recruiting more agents. How do you go about doing that in this market? So
Glen Baker 14:51
right now,
Glen Baker 15:02
I'm very, very video based. So the way that I do it is I put out some messaging. Some of them are pleased on social media, just, hey, here's what I have to offer, or your face here if you want to become an agent, and the others are targeted. So I have a dashboard I use to see what agents performance is, and if they're agents that did well in the past, but clearly aren't adapting to what's happening in the market. I reach directly out to them. I send them a video. I send video to everyone. I do about 10,000 videos a year. I send out custom videos with their information, sometimes even their stats up, you know, to say, Hey, I'm watching and I care, and I want to talk to you. And that has started to really resonate. I started to start to pull things together.
Brian Charlesworth 15:40
Yeah. I mean, I would say, based on my experience, now is probably a better time if you want, and some teams don't want experienced agents, but if you want experienced agents like now is the better time than ever, because these agents who are on their own are struggling, many of them, not all of them, but many of them are struggling, I agree. And so it's an opportunity to help turn their world around, right?
Glen Baker 16:06
Yeah, I know. And I'm so confident in how, if you follow the approach that we have, because now that we've set up different locations, right? We did Massachusetts, and the lead engine started like just right away, the way that we do our lead generation, the way we do our nurtures, and immediately a new agent, net new, no experience in the business, is doing seven deals at an average price of $700,000 right? So, and that lead flow and the process that we've taught them instantly was replicable in another location. So that said to me, we have something that we're doing, this a little different. And when I go to market, I'll say to agents, you follow what I do, and if you don't make 100 grand in your first year, I'll give you $20,000 that's how confident I am that if you follow the process, you're going to make real money. But you have to follow the process. You have to do the work. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Brian Charlesworth 16:50
So moving into new states, you moved into Massachusetts. You're talking about moving into Arizona. What? Like you said, your lead flow automatically is picked up over there. What about your systems? Like? How difficult is it for you to move into a new market and keep the same systems in place? Which, when I say systems, a lot of people don't know what I'm talking about there. So maybe tell us about about your systems and how you really streamline your business. Yeah.
Glen Baker 17:19
So in all locations. It's three components. It's lofty at sisu, and it's not loop. I mean, that's, that's how we, we manage everything. The challenge is, is that we have a customer experience. I wanted to deliver. I wanted to be consistent, regardless of where you are or what your step in the contracting process is. That means that I have to create this whole entire platform for each location to customize to their state's needs for the contracting piece. So when we come into like an example, Massachusetts, we had to completely revise the way we did it without tinkering with the magic sauce, so to speak. So it's been a process. I will say it is not for the faint of heart. It's like setting up a whole nother business altogether. But once it's up and humming, it's the same exact metrics, the same exact stats. You can watch them. You can monitor them. And when we get on calls, it's no different if you're a Massachusetts agent than if you're a New Jersey agent. The accountability is the same accountability. The lead flow is the same lead flow. The measures that I should say that the quantities that we give you of leads before, or capacities, I should say, is a better word that we give you. It's all the same because I know the metrics and a lot of it I keep in sisu. I'm a fanatic in terms of that.
Brian Charlesworth 18:23
I was gonna say, how do you know your metrics? I remember coming into this business and trying to do all of that on spreadsheets myself, which is why I built sisu. But I mean, how important is it to know actually, what's going on in each of those businesses when they're remote and out of state?
Glen Baker 18:40
So it's like a soothsayer. I have to say, when I look at the SISU numbers, I can literally tell what the market is doing, not just us, but what the market is doing based on my team stats. And it's got to the point where the team says, How do you know what's coming? And I literally can I predicted that we were going to have the blip in July to August, that we're going to have a huge bounce the second two weeks, and then forget rates and all the other stuff. I can see it in the stats and how people are communicating receptivity on the client side. And it's been four or five cycles now where that has happened, and I try attributed to just looking at the CC numbers, knowing where I stand, seeing patterns and deciding what a pattern does. And the team is now rip roaring, because our last quarter is our strongest quarter. It's the craziest thing our our last quarter is always our strongest quarter of the year, because we don't take the pedal off the metal. And I gave them some of the stats that they will do individually, and they are excited, like, like, over last year, some of these agents are going to do 75% more business in the last quarter. It's crazy.
Brian Charlesworth 19:38
That is cool. We were actually having a conversation within the SISU team, having 3600 teams on our platform now. Of hey, how do we leverage this information to help people know more what's coming in the market? Because we're seeing things like that as well now. And so hopefully you'll be seeing stuff from us, Glen, in the near future that actually you. Takes what you're doing, but does it more on like, a global scale level of 3600 teams information, not just your own, although sometimes your own, can predict what's going to happen in your business. Better than that number, as long as I feel
Glen Baker 20:12
like Neil has a matrix, I feel like Neil in the matrix, and I'm looking at the dashboard, right? It's like, this gets really cool. It's really cool. Yeah, yeah.
Brian Charlesworth 20:20
Okay, so you talked about leveraging sisu for agent accountability morning huddles, and that's really the biggest change you made after you came out of sisu mastery. Talk about that like, how do you hold your agents accountable?
Glen Baker 20:31
Yeah, so we were doing typical morning calls, but the problem was they would roam. They would not have direction. And when we talked about, show me your dials, who hit their dials, who hit this? And when you're looking at your phone and have your phone ready, and I asked the question on the call, it just changes, and it's right front and center with them that they have to watch their numbers. It's their business. I always say that to them, it's your business. You set your goal. My job is to get you to it right and help you get you to I can't do the work and that huddle piece change the dynamic, because those calls are 15 minutes on point. Everyone's grateful for them. People apologize when they miss them on the team. They actually apologize to how many Realtors miss an office or team meeting and apologize for missing it, because they find so much value in it. And I never, ever cancel, like I could be on my deathbed and I won't cancel because there's such valuable calls for all of us as a team to get up, get the morning coffee and get going. Now the second piece was, and I didn't even know it existed until the mastermind was that agent accountability report. And as a techie, when I click that, I'm like, Do you know how much number crunching that thing is doing in the background? I'm like, we're bringing that server to its knees because it's got so much data. But that report and having them present their business to me on that that Friday call every other Friday we do it. It is game changing. Like, all of a sudden they understand pipeline, they understand how much they're doing and really doing instead of what they think they're doing. And it's, it's super that really was a game changer.
Brian Charlesworth 21:53
Yeah, I was in Whistler this last weekend. Spring was in another 29 oh 29 I sat down with the sales leader, who has not yet been to a C suit mastery, and I spent two hours training him on how to run one on ones and how to really leverage sisu for accountability, all the stuff you just talked about. And when he saw that report, his eyes just lit up, and he was like, you know, he didn't know it existed, yes. And so that's on me. I need to do a better job of letting everyone know it exists. So I'm going to tell you guys now, if you're running one on ones with your team and with your agents, and you do not use the agent accountability report, it's an absolute must. And the other thing I'll say is that agent accountability report is 1000 times more powerful if you have them go and input in their transaction amount, their GCI and their agent paid income, so you can actually help them forecast their income and help focus on deals that are higher commission paying deals, and strategize and all the things that you normally wouldn't do in one on ones, because you can't see enough, you can't see deep enough into their business, unless you have something like that. Glen, do you have anything you want to add to that that I'm missing?
Glen Baker 22:56
I'll just say we have team meetings at the brokerage level, and when I talk about this stuff, it's almost like over everyone's head, right? So, and it's, I think that it's one of these baby steps and eat the elephant bite by bite, and all the timing of those things hit when I had the need, and that really helped me push it forward. But that that report, boy, that Asian accountability report. It is, if you need one thing in real estate, you need that report. Yeah,
Brian Charlesworth 23:21
yeah, totally, totally. I remember carrying a little book around with me that had the 15 people. This is when I was selling real estate for a short period of time, for 18 months. But it was the 15 people that I thought I could get under contract in the next 30 days, right? And every day, I would brainstorm and to myself and like, okay, what can I do for this person? How can I move the needle forward and get them to that next level? But having it on paper and having it in this agent accountability report are two different things. So super, super valuable. Let's talk about the market real quick. What? And I just looked at your name on here and saw Chief Baker, so we didn't really get into your experience in the in the firefighting industry, but I'm going to call you Chief for a minute. So tell me about this market. What's your opinion? You shared a little bit, and you're so on top of it that you made all the changes that were required last week. You made those 100 days ago. But what can people do today to really take market share? Because there are a lot of people leaving the business because of fear, and there's really no reason to have fear. So I really want to emphasize that to those listening to the show,
Glen Baker 24:27
yeah, you know, I think that it all starts with a fundamental understanding of why this change came place, took place, right? And I look at it and say, I'm a pretty transparent person. I always laid out all the fees. I always did those things. But the fact is, most agents didn't, right. They didn't really have that conversation on the buy side and say, Hey, you're paying it. And last time I checked, the buyer's the only one ever coming to closing with a check. So my attitude towards it was, this is the level of transparency that we probably needed a little bit, and I'm not going to fight it, and I'm going to figure out how to use it to my advantage. And now it's a common. Station. We even have in our listing presentation, the ability to, I'm sorry, buyer side Strategy Session, to have tiers like, if you want this service suite, it's going to cost you this percentage. If you want this service suite, this is because it's my time, my effort, and what I'm going to do for you, and go over the top, it'll that enabled us to demand more, and everyone's looking at it like it's cutting us down and getting less. And we said the opportune time. So
Brian Charlesworth 25:24
I'm meeting with more and more people these days, and I meet with so many team owners who are telling me that they're now getting, like, up to 4% on the buy side. Now, I had seen that on the listing side previously, but not on the buy side. So like, what is it you're actually doing to provide a higher level of service that they're willing to pay you more than they've ever paid up till this point in our really, in our US history, right? On the buy side, and
Glen Baker 25:52
I think it's we've actually documented what we do, right? So now we're required to put on a on a five page form in my state and and it says, here's the duties of the agent, right? Well, we go the duties of the agent, and then there's an other box, and we say, See addendum. And then that page has 99 points on it of what we do. And the 99 points are everything from, not only like standing by your home inspection, opening up the door for when you're want to bring your parents to to take measurements, the second and third and the fourth time, all those other things that get done, right? All the contractor suites that we bring in and resolve issues, it gives them the palette of this isn't just opening the door and getting something under contract. It goes much, much further than that, down to, you know, there's a lot in our market. It's super hot, so a lot of people leaving provisions to, hey, we'll leave. You can leave anything that's non house, or just waste in the house. So essentially, you can leave your house as it is, walk away, and we'll take it that way, and we'll do that to win the deal. And then we'll have the clean out crew clean out the house today, in the closing before like things that are over the top to make it worthwhile for them to jump into a deal and also get their offer accepted. For the only love is
Brian Charlesworth 26:57
that a list you'd be willing to share with our listeners. 100% Yep, if you'll share that with me, I'll make sure we post it on the link to this podcast. Cool. That would be great. I would love to get that in the hands of our listeners, because I agree, now is an opportune time to start getting what you're really worth for the work you're doing, because so many times we don't express the work we're doing, which is one more time I'm it's not a shameless plug. You really need to have the client portal like more than ever. You need to communicate with your clients in a way that they're used to getting communicated with all the time. Right before this podcast, my 15 year old daughter, 16, as of next week, she gets out of school early on her b days, she only has two periods. So she was home, she texted me and said, Do you want me to order DoorDash for you? Yes. She orders DoorDash. Well, I went down 30 minutes before this meeting, and I said, How far where's the food at? And she said, it's three minutes away, right? We know that on our food getting delivered? Do we know that on all the steps of our real estate transaction? In Glen's case, we absolutely do. So make sure you guys are leveraging that last question here, Glen, interest rates are scheduled to drop, right? Yep. How do you see this hap affecting the economy? And I obviously nobody knows what's going to happen here, but I'd like to get your take on like, what does this do for home sales, what happens in the market over the next six to 12 months, as far as buyers market, seller's market, you know, listing inventory, all this kind of stuff. And I know you're in Tom Ferry's world, and you're hearing what he's saying. So anyway, I want to know, I want to know your thoughts on all those things.
Glen Baker 28:37
Yeah, I call it the last big pop. That's what I'm telling my team. I foresee one last hurrah for a little over a quarter, is what I'm thinking. And you're going to see, unfortunately, with the buyer broker changes, we're in this hybrid mix where home prices haven't adjusted to take out the commission that the buyer would ultimately be given, and if agents, unscrupulous agents, start to put out no comp, right or no concession. That's going to be a challenge for buyers today, and it started. I'm seeing it in pockets. Most of them. You can overcome it by putting in a great offer. But where I'm going with that is that challenge for buyers existed, and now we're getting into another challenge for buyers, which is rates are going to come down. Competition is definitely up like it's already starting. This well has begun, and it's almost like a one two punch. So I think some buyers are going to get pretty frustrated. I always trend off of rent rates and rents have are holding. They're not going backwards. There's holding. And that kind of leads me to believe that this, this is going to even out after the first of the year. We're going to see a much more normal, cyclical real estate market. And it's not necessarily unwelcome. I'm kind of ready for it.
Brian Charlesworth 29:47
Okay, so last prediction, we went from 6.2 million home selling. We know the average is 5 million. We went 2021, six point. 2,000,022 6.8 million. 23 3.8 million. I'm not sure where this year is going to end, but from what I've seen, it's going to be close to 3.8 million again. Yep, tell me, what is your forecast? What do you think next year? How many homes are going to sell?
Glen Baker 30:13
I'm thinking right around four. Yeah. And I think new construction is going to help with that. I think that's what's going to even it out. Unfortunately, it's not going to be in my area. I think it's going to be in the middle. Going to be in the middle states, mostly. But four bill, I think, is around the number
Brian Charlesworth 30:25
you're saying this year, or you're saying next year. Yes, next year, next year. Okay, interesting. This year,
Glen Baker 30:31
I think we're going to stay flat. We're going to be around the same amount, 3.8 ish, yep, yep.
Brian Charlesworth 30:35
I believe that as well. But I'm predicting that next year we're back up to 5 million. So we're going to come back to this, and we're going to hit this I'm going to have Glen on this show next year at this time, you remind me, Glen, we're going to figure out how we're pacing at this time next year towards 4 million or 5 million homes.
Glen Baker 30:54
Yeah, I'll be in 20 states if we're at 5 million homes, that's for sure. And
Brian Charlesworth 30:58
I love it. I want to in 20 states. So you guys, I've really enjoyed my time today with Glen. Thank you for listening to the show. It's always fun to have these team leaders and broker owners in here that just like are just crushing it in this market, and Glen is one of them. If you want to get a hold of Glen, Glen, what is the best way for them to reach you? Any
Glen Baker 31:19
of the social media handles at Morris agent.com, or just text me. 973-727-8539,
Brian Charlesworth 31:25
I'll answer. I'm going to ask you to repeat that number one more time. 973-727-8539, okay, great text. Glen, you guys. He'll share with you the secrets that he's doing to grow in this market, and you should be doing them as well. Glen, thank you so much for your time and looking forward to continuing to watch your success.
Glen Baker 31:45
Yeah, thanks so much.
