Sell It or Lease It For Free Program with Jennifer Wehner

September 9, 2021

Expert CRE Secrets Podcast

“Learning is my number one core value by far, because even if you learn first, sometimes you have to learn to be able to love, sometimes you need to learn to be able to empathize, you're able to learn to be vulnerable, and express what you've gone through.”

Jen got into real estate in 2003 as an investor growing her buyer and investor business and became the top agent in her office within the first full year of being in real estate. In the great real estate market crash of 2008, she pivoted to working with REO, short sales, and investors which taught her a lot about grit! When the market turned around in 2011 she worked at the trustee sales with investors and flipped over 40 homes that year while growing her traditional real estate business through digital marketing including blogging, video, and internet marketing.

In 2014 she started her team, and in 2020 sold 373 homes and over $178million in real estate volume. Some of her achievements include winning the Team of the Year award by the Arizona School of Real Estate and Business in 2019, one of Real Trend national Best Agents 2013-2020, the Women of Strength award given out to a local realtor in her community every year, and was the Top female Remax agent in the state of Arizona in 2017 before she moved to eXp Realty in 2018.

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Sell It or Lease It For Free Program with Jennifer Wehner

Brett:

I'm excited about our next guest. She actually got into real estate in 2003 as an investor, and she grew her buyer and investor business and became a top agent in her office within the first full year of being in real estate, and then the great real estate market crash of 08 hits and she pivoted to working with Oreo short sales and investors, which taught her a lot about grit, and when the market turned around in 2011, she worked at the trustee sales with investors and flipped over 40 homes. That year were growing her traditional real estate business through digital marketing, including blogging, video, and internet marketing, and then in 2014, she started her team and in 2020 sold over 373 homes and over $178 million in real estate volume. Please welcome to the show with me, Jennifer Wehner. Hey Jen, how are you doing?

Jennifer:

I am doing very good, very grateful. Life doesn't have its challenges, but like the next floor of challenges, and I'm so honored to be here.

Brett:

Well, it's an honor to have you on the show, and for our listeners getting to know you for the first time, would you give us a little bit more about your story and your current focus?

Jennifer:

The story sounded a lot nicer than the backstory. But I have failed a lot along the way, and actually, so I was all in when I got into real estate, I saw the freedom, I saw the flexibility, I saw that this like endless, you could make whatever you wanted to make. I was all in and I just took all the money I'd saved up from waiting tables because I knew that was not my end goal, and I bought two homes to flip here for the same price that just my rent was in Huntington Beach, California. I moved here, I had a daughter, I have a family to provide for. I had to make it work. Because I was already an investor, I started naturally working with investors, and then I started to buy investment properties with really bad strategies, and I also was developing a luxury land subdivision with a really bad strategy. I actually just produced a video of how I made a million and how I lost a million, and it was actually how I made like 1.5 and lost like 5 million, but um, it's all the principles that I learned that I never can be in that pain again because I literally was giving birth to my third child of four kids, and I was negotiating a short sell, and I was supposed to go and be induced on a Friday.

I knew I never could be in that pain again. But now I have multiple businesses, and I just launched a real national real estate coaching company. It's like, more than ever so important to be aware of time wealth, like not just being a slave to your job, exit strategy, see the future, and really, the only way to do that is like with the tribe. Because I don't know about you, but when I'm the smartest person in the room is exhausting, and even though it's humbling, it's when you have that collective intelligence of the people around you, and you're able to tap into that. Now that inaction is where wealth happens, and I'm somebody that's happy to take action, if you just give me the wealth, and you surround me with people that I have no other choice to fit in other than to level up. Now that people have aligned with me, they like my team that is coaching students as they rely on you not just to hit their real estate goals but for their future them and their families. I take my commitments really seriously and see the way I know what we had to do to not be in that same position before. It's terrible. I don't want anyone to have to go through that. But um, but yeah, when you share how you know when there's past the multiple streams of income, like if the real estate sales slow, which they are because that we've already seen the market shift. You're not going to be so worried because you are going to have multiple streams of income.

Brett:

I'm not going to hear more of it. I want to dive in. We'll leave the meat on the bone here because there's a lot of wealth of wisdom there. But one of the things I really picked up on and I really appreciate about you so far is you're transparent about your success and your failures, you're transparent about the realness of The real estate entrepreneurial world, starting, and selling everything had moved from Southern California to the Phoenix Scottsdale area, and then building teams, but also taking a risk, and so we'll get into all of that and your coaching and everything else. But before we go there, I want to take one other step back then, and I believe we've all been given certain gifts in this life, I believe their God-given gifts, some people call them strengths or superpowers, but I want you to go back maybe to your high school days, maybe in your college days, and I want you to maybe to pitch yourself, and maybe what those one or two gifts that kind of naturally came to you or given to you, perhaps? And what are those gifts? And then how does that help how you help and bless people today?

Jennifer:

Well, I've really been really focused on that this last year, I have been doing a lot of deep work personally, you're kind of forced to do that when you're in a leadership role. But, when I was a teenager, you probably wouldn't have recognized me, like, personality-wise, I was an introvert, like no one's business, I always just figured out the systems like, I didn't want to get bullied anymore. I just made a couple of popular friends and became a cheerleader, and that was the system to, fit in. But I want all the words physically capable, like a natural athlete, but like mean, behind the scenes was like, depression, like addiction, like, like did not believe in myself worth did not believe in myself and didn't find my voice. But the one thing I always got along with was books. I could learn anything that is like literally the way I do self-love, and my self-care is like, if I could have four hours of gene research, that to me is like going to a spa, and so I was I'm a lifelong learner, I am like, learning is my number one core value by far, because even if you learn first, sometimes you have to learn to be able to love, sometimes you need to learn to be able to empathize, you're able to learn to be vulnerable, and express what you've gone through. I do believe that my gift is like the fact that I'll do the investigation for you. Because I love this, I love learning, and I am not afraid to tell to like, I won't tell you while I'm cooking the bed. But after I poop the bed and how I'm not gonna poop the bed again, that's when I get to tell you.

Brett:

Thank you so much. I think that's fantastic, and those are really bizarre gifts. Because if you think about it, we're all struggling in certain ways and certain things. No matter how successful or how, on the outside, things seem to be shiny and bright, and this, social media, let's just say nice sunglasses, pictures, and videos, and but there are challenges. I appreciate you sharing some of those vulnerabilities. That being said, let's dive right into building real estate wealth with people. Okay, this is the topic of the conversation, and moving beyond just selling real estate or building wealth. What's the number one secret, Jen, when it comes to building wealth with people?

Jennifer:

Well, sometimes it's back to the basics. It's like you're the sum total of five people you spend the most time with? You think about that, like in money-wise, dollar-wise, like, who do you talk to you to get wise counsel, then add all those amounts? That's like, you're the average of that. First look at your circle, but also look at the information. Who are you calling with that? What should I do next? Or what's the best thing? Should I do this? Are you asking somebody that doesn't sell a lot of homes? Are you asking somebody that doesn't want to share? Like, who are you going to for wise counsel, because when you have that collective intelligence to tap into. If you're willing to do what it takes to take action on it, you're committed, and you live by a principle that anything you want, can happen, and when something's not your fault, I mean, when something does go wrong, and you take 100% ownership of it, it's freeing, but with the building wealth through people, like I cannot get there alone.

I need like my mentors, but I also need my mike, the people that follow me, like that's building business, and when you build their collective intelligence, you're going to have a much more well-oiled machine because I can tell you building a business, there is not a very good tutorial on how to how to run a profitable real estate business. I was winning awards while being unprofitable. Now I have the right optics and metrics and consultants with me, I know what to look for in my numbers to look forward to making sure I'm not profitable month over month, and now I can forecast. I didn't have those available to me two years ago as I do now. But it's through that collective intelligence I have it, then you have to be able to provide multiple streams of income or teach your people how to do that for themselves. You're going to be like, this is what keeps me up at night is like people that like, choose to align with me going to tire? How are they going to be able to retire and have vacations and retire and like, be able to, like spend time with their grandkids?

I'll find a way, but it's more important for me to help them find the way, and I was meeting with an agent doing one on one coaching and we have stock and revenue share, and it was funny he was I was like talking about what do you have saved because I always talk about personal goals, and he was really proud as well. If you've ever saved $25,000 and stock account, like if you can elect to take 5% of your paycheck and or commissions and buy your stock at 10% off. Well, he had failed bank account like $75,000 in there more money than he's ever saved. But it was that investing that we kind of forced him to. But now with revenue share, it's a whole different world, you bring people only that you want to help, and like you're financially rewarded for it because there's only so many have a minute avers you can do for people, but when you're financially invested in them, doesn't matter if it's their own team, it could be their own team in Colombia, their own team in California, they could be on your team and then want to grow a team. You're so vested in their success, that it takes all the personal emotions around, away from you, and it's like, you want to leave the team and start your own team? It's a very common thing. How can I help you?

Brett:

Jen's referring to eXp, and I'm a part of eXp as well on the brokerage side, and so multifamily is my specialty on that purchase. You've heard of Deferred Sales Trust clients. But it's amazing once you see the culture, the leadership, and then when it's financially aligned with folks, right versus just, I give you all my secrets, and then you go to another brokerage company, and compete against me or give you all my secrets, and then you go next in the cubicle next to me, and Marcus and Millichap be like, hey, wait, this is weird, Marcus & Millichap is always getting paid. But I'm not always getting paid. It was a weird thing. But when he eXp broke this code and figured this thing out, it changed the game. But before we go into all the eXp stuff, I want to make sure I gathered the stuff he said, because he shared a lot of wisdom there.

The sum total of the five people you spend the most time with, and I love how you put those circle of influence, who am I calling for wise counsel, and if you think about it, those major decisions that we're making, and the wise counsel that's bringing in, those decisions are affecting our future. Who can you reach out to? Who can you trust and and and that's what's shaping our future, those decisions that we're making based upon the council and the wisdom we have. I love that. The second thing is you need to get with leaders in front of you and back, you need to be able to vote folks that are pulling level on you up, and then you need to be level and other people up. Because it', not healthy to some best way to put it, and so they can help you build your business as you're helping to build theirs, and then people in front of you as well. You're leveling up. Is that a fair summary so far on those points? Jen?

Jennifer:

Yeah, and I think out of everybody that can think of Magic Johnson is probably one of the most inspiring concepts for this. When I don't know if you know the story of why they call him Magic Johnson magic. Well, he was like, in college, and he was playing his natural God-given talent. He's just shooting the coaches, like, just shoot, shoot, shoot him out of 52 points, it'd be 48 50 46, and a know everyone's like clapping him on, but he's looking at the crowd, and he sees all the families that go to see their kids play, and he's like, you're not seeing your kids play, you're just seeing me play. He took it upon himself to transfer his knowledge and skills into all of his players and his teammates. Because he's like, well, if like, you guys are all winning, we will all win more. Plus, it's not always on me, and I get to learn more to it's a win-win. But, that's why every coach wanted him because literally, he would be magic to every equation because it wasn't just about him. It was about other people, and I have a quote on my board that I've lived my life by, you can have everything like you want if you will just help other people get what they want. It’s true, the money will follow. Like, if you do the right actions. It's just sometimes, the wrong action.

Sell It or Lease It For Free Program: “The key is, no matter what story you tell, make the buyer the hero" –Chris Brogan

Brett:

So much was in I love that story of Magic Johnson. I played basketball in college. I have a love of Magic Johnson love basketball, and we're in the middle of NBA Playoffs right now, and it's, it's an amazing sport. Very cool, and then he also mentioned metrics, making sure you're understanding your numbers. As a part of that, Jen is that something where perhaps you hire it outright you hired a bookkeeper, you hire a professional, help you with that or walk us through how you were able to really dialing your numbers.

Jennifer:

I really had to get a consultant just for me just to meet with my operations manager. My sales manager, I have one on ones or CPO people. She is like helping with the optics and the KPIs for all segments of the business. Sources people how we can track their KPIs or, knowing or numbers per agent. It's also optics in the business, how many aspects are returning up or down? How many leads how many contacts how many appointments offers written showing homes? Like we track a lot. We have a lot of different scoreboards. But even for the average agent, like what we have a very simple volume breakdown analysis, that's insanely, insanely simple, but it tells you exactly how many appointments you need to be going on every week based on your goals and your conversion rate. How many appointments need to go in every week to hit your goals? If it's three appointments a week or five appointments a week when you're off? Well, way before it's a problem because most agents wait for is for a disaster to happen, as their account by their bank balance, but balance, and they're just showing up and then all of a sudden they're being served going down. Don't worry about it, then it starts really going down. They're like, I need to do something. But if you had the right optics in front of you on a consistent basis, you would know you would have seen this coming six months before. It's definitely having the scoreboards, and that's one of the Four Disciplines of Execution isn't lost, and it's not just for you. It's you and anybody aligned with you?

Brett:

Lots of wisdom there, and now let's move into the EXP part of the business. Jen, tell us before you join the EXP, why didn't you join? Now that you've joined EXP? What's life like as a real estate professional?

Jennifer:

Well, the number one reason I got in was a collaboration because it was the growth from a small team to a bigger team, and I think I was the most creative and like, the different positions I would hire for, and the budgets and the things that would say yes to but I was, I was not profitable. I have a friend who had been trying to get me in for us, and we loved her for a year, but she wasn't doing anything like what I was doing, and especially where I wanted to go. But Kyle and Dan Kyle Whissle, Dan Beer they brought, they brought me in there, they were my mentors, that when they made the move, I just immediately made the move. But it was the collaboration to is the economics and three it was for the divorce or the loyalty problem. The divorce, like he wants to leave your team who gets the dog or who's the house, it's more like how can I help you? If they're like if they do the math and see the big vision. But I have like two of my downlines that are have started their own teams. I'm like cheering them on, and they were like my top agents. It's so exciting that the relationship doesn't have to end, and but it's like, when I talked to most agents, I'm like, what's your retirement plan? Just like, what's your exit strategy? And they're like, investment properties, and I'm like, great, and I love that investment property.

I just got one for 40 in December, it's worth one, four. Now, I did some remodeling, about a condo for two grand down the street. I'm renting that out at 30-day rentals at seven grand a month. I like love cash flow, and I love investing. But I also know it's a longer-term play. I asked agents what their retirement exit strategy is, and it's almost always, oh, I'm gonna just buy a bunch of retirement properties, and I'll just, ask questions like, oh, how much do you need to retire? And usually, they're really low. They're like, they're making 200,000 now, but they're like, I don't know. 80,000? Like, okay, like, how many investment properties would you need to make $80,000 net? They're like, I don't know, like, maybe 300 $400 a house like, Okay, how much downpayment? How long is it gonna take you to save it? We all there are laws around how many investment properties you can own until you need a lot more to be able to qualify. It's, they just don't even know how to answer it. But if an agent over the next two years, were to invite six people into the organization who each brought six people, so just know team's gonna triple line just, I liked it enough to tell somebody and they all caps making $80,000 in GCI, you'd be making an equivalent of what a $900,000 investment in a mutual fund account would be in revenue. Sure. Well, you had to do is be a master inviter.

Like, do you want to, like invite people to like, learn how to grow their business, and then help them and then help them and then help them, then they want that they want to experience that and they know they need it. A lot of times so agency to experience it which I had the pleasure of doing it with Kyle Whissle and Dan Beer. But now it's so exciting because my downline and like Lauren Rosen and Shelby DiBiase Lola Smith, John Blush like, often say that we have some amazing partners in our downline. They don't probably know this, but they helped me sometimes more than I even think I helped them. But it's that like, collaboration, collective intelligence, and it's fun, and it's like, not even management. It's like, I don't have to tell Lauren Rosen to make her contacts like so that it's fun. It's rewarding, and, and even for the agents on my team, like, I want to help them grow and buffer us against the next shift, which we're already in.

Brett:

So much there, so much wisdom. I love how you broke that down, and it really is very simple. I mean, as a real estate professional, Marcus and Millichap all of our goals were not just to sell real estate for the rest of our lives. We like doing that as brokers, but it was to get on the other side of the phone. That meant you're owning the real estate and are paying the passive income,. You're getting the tax benefits, you're getting the cash flow, and so you're thinking about this, you're like, why not do the same thing? The stuff that I'm already doing training and coaching mentoring, helping people grow their real estate business? And why not just take out the middle person instead of making the billions for the Marcus and Millichap and the Richard Ellis is in the Keller Williams.

Jen, are you still here? She might mean just refresh your page. But anyway, you've got an expertcresecrets.com. To learn that more about that. I'm a multifamily broker here in Sacramento, and so we're building our EXP brokerage team as well, and then we also work on the residential side with one of the tops with top exp agents as well. Jen, are you back?

Jennifer:

I have been here the whole time, so weird. You disappeared.

Brett:

I know restream does kind of a funny thing. Thing somewhere around 20 minutes. I'm so sorry about that. But that being said. Jen, are you ready for the lightning round?

Jennifer:

Yes.

Brett:

Knowing what you know now Jen. If you go back to your 25-year-old self, what's the one Golden Nugget Make sure to tell yourself to do?

Jennifer:

Get some smart, rich nice friends in the business or just make for a nice cool.

Brett:

Second question. What's the number one book that you've gifted or read in the past year?

Jennifer:

The Four Agreements for sure. I gifted like 200.

Brett:

Next question. What are you most curious about right now?

Jennifer:

Quantum physics is beyond guarding my business but my extracurricular is quantum physics.

Brett:

You're so cool. I love it. You're geeking out on learning stuff.

Jennifer:

I love it. Yeah, I love history, art history, science, math, art. I just finished my first art painting and I just took up dancing and gymnastics. So let's try new things. But this is my latest it's the quantum

Brett:

Let me know what you learn about that. That'd be that'd be interesting.

Jennifer:

I wish everybody should do ice-cold plunges it's real-time letting go. I'm actually going to have them on one of my events. The Wim Hof. Everyone knows Wim Hof The Iceman. They don't know that his wife killed herself like when she had four young kids because she was so depressed, and he loved her so much that he threw himself into a lake and found like this like, like forgiveness, love that like so he hikes Mount Everest in shorts, like not even like mountain biking, mountain hiking shorts, but when you get into an ice plunge, and two minutes, it's real-time letting go. That's if it's one biohack I can like say that that is like a lot of clutter that can get in here. It's like that's the easiest and fastest way to just let go. declutter and then your brain is fresh, and for CEOs, two minutes is the most like the best way to spend two minutes of your time.

Brett:

I'm jumping in the polar bear swim tonight. I live in an ice bath. It's about 100 degrees here in Sacramento. It's gonna take a whole lot of energy to get there. But next question is this favorite leadership quote or theme that you strive to live by?

Jennifer:

Besides that one, can I do a twist quote? Because so Chris Voss, who wrote never split the difference, with a twist on a Charles Darwin, which I love this quote. It's not the most intelligent man nor the most capable, but the quickest to adapt that ultimately survive Darwin, Voss who's like FBI hostage negotiator, going up against, like, the craziest minds, getting them to back down from trying to kill people twisted, and he's like, it's not the most intelligent or capable, it's the most collaborative man that ultimately survives, and it's true because together, like, I'll be quicker to pivot, because instead of just being by myself here, and maybe with my friends, I could see a clear path here myself, but it's murky. Now, with the collective intelligence we have, we could be like, I tried that didn't work, we have a much clearer This is coming. This is what we're doing right now, and our path is clear. Collaboration is everything, it really is, and I think we have a duty to if we know something like if you are passionate about it, and you're like, about it, you want to help and you can just do it, help pay it forward, pay it forward, I think in this, everything that's going on over this last year, like there's been so much like we stopped being humans, it's time to be humans again, and when you help people, to me, it is like to me, I love giving gifts. I don't love always receiving them. But it's also number one, people's love language gifts, and sometimes the best gift you can give somebody is knowledge.

Brett:

I love it. Fantastic. Jen, for our listeners who want to get in touch with you. Last question. After all your success selling all these homes, building the teams going to the eXp doing all the things that you're doing now the coaching, how do you stay centered in your values, and how do you stay encouraged to charge forward to reach new heights?

Jennifer:

I have to love what I'm doing and I have to believe in it. If I find myself burnout, it's usually it's because I'm filling my week with activities that don't bring me joy. I'm very aware and I calendar like date nights, like kid time, like family, like knee time, I have personal days I go to hot yoga three times a week, like seriously just for the decluttering of the mind, and I'm so I'm if I make sure and I work out every morning but it's like a mathematical equation, and I feel like it has to be me. But if it's all my calendar, there's a system for everything. I'll fill it and it'll stay balanced. Well, it's never balanced but it's work-life integration.

Brett:

I love that. Yeah. calendaring and time blocking and scheduling. Yeah, me time, date time, kids time, work time and really mapping it out, so much wisdom for us today. Jen Wahner, thank you so much for being on the show. For listeners who want to get in touch, it would remind them one last time with the best place to find you.

Jennifer:

If you follow me on Instagram, @Jennifer.Wehner, w e h n e r, and also my YouTube channel. I've been doing videos for years. I love it. I have fun. I have breaking news market news every month but we do buyer tips, Agent tips, seller tips, consumer tips, investing tips. We've been doing a video for 11 years but we've been all-in on video for a while and we're just going deeper. Definitely check out my YouTube

Brett:

Amazing Jen I want to thank you for being on the show for sharing a bit about your story for using the gifts and talents of learning a lot and helping other people and being willing to be vulnerable and share your stories of struggle and challenges and that's real and that helps people to know that that hey if Jen can do it and she was in my spot at one point I can do it too. I would encourage you to keep using those gifts keep blessing people keep growing your business. Keep sharing the wisdom that you have and thank you so much for being on the show it also wants to thank our listeners for listening to another episode of the Capital Gains Tax Solutions Podcast as always, we believe the highest net worth individuals and those who help them they struggle with clarifying their Capital Gains Tax Deferral options not having a clear plan is the enemy and using a proven tax deferral strategy, such as the Deferred Sales Trust is the best way for you to exit your luxury real estate cryptocurrency business really any highly appreciated asset all tax-deferred you got a capitalgainstaxsolutions.com to learn more about that. That's capitalgainstaxsolutions.com, please rate review, subscribe. We so appreciate you out there and without these little likes little thumbs up a little technium may be tagging us for a friend who can learn about what we just talked about. The message doesn't get out as fast or as effective. So please, please, we appreciate your support on that, and we'll talk to you again next time. Thanks, everybody. Bye.