Andres Bustamante talks about his own life journey as a young real estate agent in Texas. Next, he describes why he thinks that starting with renting is the best strategy to increase sales. Andres also discusses why “referrals and social media“ helps new agents to grow the connections. Andreas also emphasizes that an agent should be a good storyteller, educator and problem solver.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Andres Bustamante can be reached at Andres@victornino.com and (915) 227-9301‬.

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks.

Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:00
We know the expression with age comes wisdom, but what about younger agents that already appear to be wise and crushing it? Even if they’re in their early 20s? Or we’re gonna be talking to one of those agents today? Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real, the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Parris. I’m your guide and host through the show, and in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with Andres Bustamante. But before we get to Andres, just a couple of quick reminders, please the best way you can help our show two things, please support our sponsors. They’re the one that pay the bills, and they are the ones that allow us to do as many episodes as we can. So thank you, please check out our sponsors their services and products, consider investing in them by investing in them that will not only help your business, but also help us stay in business so we can keep doing these episodes. And the second thing to do is to tell a friend about the show 2023 is a tough year so far for real realtors, so let’s give them the best chance of success, introduce them to the show, send them over to our website, keeping it real pod.com They can check out some of our episodes, and they can always of course like and subscribe on any podcast platform that they might be listening to shows on. Alright guys enough of that. Let’s get to the main event my conversation with Andres Bustamante.

Today on the show we have Andres Bustamante with Keller Williams Nino team in Austin, Texas. Now I am really excited to tell you more about Andres. And if you are a listener of our show, and if you kind of just zone out during the bio, I really want you to zone in only for the next 30 seconds, because this is probably going to pique your interest. This is a really fun one today. So let me tell you about about Andres. So Andres Bustamante was actually born in El Paso, Texas to Mexican parents. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin as a first generation. He also spent one full year in France with an exchange family when he was 16. And that helped him become independent at an early age. And when when he was 19. He actually got his real estate license again at 19 years old. And this is the reason why he needed to figure out a way to pay for college. Now being a leasing agent. He was able to accomplish this he actually paid for his college education by being a leasing agent. Now this is where it gets really amazing. His first ever sale as a 21 year old was for $1.1 million. And at 23 years old, he decided to do real estate full time clearly he’s good at it. And he joined a team. Now his first year full time he earned rookie of the year he sold 21 homes for almost 7 million in volume. That’s in year one. Now in year 237 homes for 17 million. And in year three another 37 homes for 19 million. He’s currently by the way, guys, he’s currently 26 years old. Now visit all things Andreas on his Instagram and Tiktok at Andres booster TX A NDRESBUSTATX links to both of those will be in the show notes. Andres Welcome to the show, my friend.

Andres Bustamante 4:55
Thanks, DJ. That was a great intro. I mean, that’s the bio

D.J. Paris 5:00
It is the bio and I wasn’t joking, you are fascinating to me. And as a young man in this industry, to have this kind of success is is is amazing. It really is inspiring. And I’m so so happy to to I don’t know if you found us or we found you. But either way, this is an exciting interview for me. So let’s, let’s start at the very beginning, which by the way, it wasn’t that long ago. But let’s start at this idea of being a leasing agent at 19. Sort of how did you even know about that? I mean, at 19? You don’t even want to know what I was doing. I was like bussing tables? For nothing. What you got it? How did you how did you learn about that real estate?

Andres Bustamante 5:44
Well, firstly, I mean, you ever had one of those moments in life when you just don’t know what you want? For your life?

D.J. Paris 5:51
Sure, every moment of my every moment of every day? Yes. Certainly when I was younger, for sure.

Andres Bustamante 5:58
Yeah. So that’s how I was in college. I’m just like, I switched majors, like three times. I was supposed to be doing supply chain, that yeah, then I was like, oh, finance. And then I’m like, oh, I want to travel abroad, let’s do international business. But one thing I knew for certain I needed to find a way to pay for college. But But I didn’t want to have like that job towards like, I had someone telling me what to do. And this and that. I know a lot of us realtors can relate. So a buddy came to me, it’s like, Dude, you should try being a leasing agent or real estate agent. And that’s how I really got into it. Because I needed to find a way to pay for college. And I needed to find a way to make more money than anyone else could at that time as a 19 year old.

D.J. Paris 6:42
Yeah, and they’re just let’s, let’s face it, there just aren’t a lot of opportunities for 19 year olds, right? Like, you get a a minimum wage, or a low paying job, because that’s what 19 year olds get. And the fact that your friend came to you with this opportunity is is truly amazing. I imagine you have a tremendous amount of gratitude to that friend.

Andres Bustamante 7:04
He’s one of my best friends. He was my roommate. And when he was my roommate for like, five, six years.

D.J. Paris 7:09
Yeah. Wow. So So when when you started as a leasing agent, what did that look like? How did that work for you?

Andres Bustamante 7:16
Oh, it was insane. So it was back when we didn’t have the bluetooth for your phone to open lock boxes or anything. So I would have to go to like there was like 20 leasing offices in West Campus. That’s where the university students mostly stay. So I’d have to coordinate with like groups of students that were living in the condo to be like, hey, I want to show your place. I have several clients that are interested. It was crazy having to coordinate that, then I’d have to go to the leasing offices to get the keys. So no joke picture a 19 year old driving in his car with like, 20 keys in the clipboard. And I would frantically be like, Oh, is this the key? Or is this the key? And I had moments when the keys wouldn’t work. So I’m just like, I turn around to look at my clients. I’m like, Hey, guys, I don’t think we’re going to be able to see this one. But they were usually older. So I was always like, Oh my gosh, are they gonna trust me? How is this gonna go? Yeah, it was?

D.J. Paris 8:10
Did you? Did you work closely with students?

Andres Bustamante 8:14
Students, and I had several graduates. During that time, though, mostly students, through groups that I had joined that everyone lives 98 95% of students rented. So the apartments would pay me the condos would pay me once I got them to sign a lease.

D.J. Paris 8:33
It’s it’s it’s such a brilliant strategy. Because, you know, obviously, college kids have to live somewhere. A lot of times they’re bankrolled by their parents as well. So getting, you know, sort of that part approves probably a little easier. Because you’re, you know, I know when I went to college, or I went to the school called Miami University in Ohio, and I think we had to pay the whole semester rent upfront. I don’t know if that’s still done these days. But well, it was like 200 bucks a month, you know, so. So it was it was, you know, they were like, We don’t want to, you know, the landlords over there. Were like, we’re just going to collect it all. You Yeah. But, but but in your case, you know, it was probably a really great idea because you could network with the people that you knew in classes and in your social circles. And, and I imagine you were probably the only person in your social circles, aside from your best friend who was also doing it. Were you guys the only two that were really doing it?

Andres Bustamante 9:33
So my best friend actually did not end up doing it because he didn’t have like, he could not do it because of some certain visa requirements and whatnot. Sure. Yeah, unfortunately. But I was the only one in the group and I was part of like four groups. I was part of the UT soccer team, University of Texas soccer team. So every year people would need a rent. So I would get repeat clients for three years. And once once I set the systems, I would just tell the property manager Hey, I’m sending people over and they’re I’m pretty much sure they’re gonna sign. So it was like maybe 500 bucks per bedroom. And as a college student, that’s pretty amazing. Huge.

D.J. Paris 10:07
That’s amazing. And then did you have the foresight at that time? And again, a 19 year old? You know, look, we, you know, just that you’re even doing that at 19 is impressive. But did you have the foresight at that time to think, at some point, these these, these leasing tenant, these tenants are going to graduate? And, you know, I don’t know how many of them stay local, or, you know, leave and go elsewhere. But were those relationships? Like you said, you worked with them while they were in college every year? And then were you able to find the people that did stay after college and maybe even continue to assist them?

Andres Bustamante 10:49
Well, the thing is, my mindset wasn’t really on that I always thought I was going to be working as a in commercial real estate as a tenant rep with JLo, because I had internships with them. But then I was like, I don’t want to have an eight to five and I had a set salary there. So my mindset was never really it was more so I need to pay for college. This is what I’m going to do with this is

D.J. Paris 11:11
just getting me through till I get to Jones Lang LaSalle. Yes, because I

Andres Bustamante 11:15
had an internship with them. And in my head, I was like, I’m too young to be a real estate agent. And you are, yeah, yeah, that’s true. It was like people are not going to trust me. That was my mindset back then. That’s why I was saying, Oh, no real estate full time. I mean, a lot of my friends would be like, Dude, you don’t sell a house, you’re done. Or you don’t do this. You’re done. So I would, I’d be like, oh, yeah, they’re right. It was like a Yeah, the mindset thing, wasn’t there, unfortunately, at that time.

D.J. Paris 11:43
Well, I mean, you can’t expect a young person at that age to have a, you know, a healthy mindset around opportunity, right? They know, you don’t know what you don’t know. And at the same time, you’re also in college, you’re like, Okay, I’m gonna go down this path. I’m getting a degree, I want to go into commercial, I want to work in the, you know, for a more traditional commercial firm, like Marcus and Millichap Cushman and Wakefield, those those are the firm’s, you know, Jones Lang LaSalle. As you mentioned, CBRE, you know, places like that, and, and then you’re like, Well, wait a minute, I’m pretty good at this residential real estate thing. But I’m also in 2020 2122. But you did have success pretty early on, and you’ve had success every year. And so as much as your mindset obviously has shifted, you are obviously incredibly skilled. And I think skill is, is oftentimes, you know, the missing factor. For people who, who are struggling, you know, it’s mindset is part of it, of course, but also just being able to do the job is not an that isn’t, let’s talk about your first sale. So we’re sort of I’ve started dancing around it, you, you’re 21 years old, you have your broker or your your realtor license, whatever they call it in Texas, I don’t know if it’s broke or whatever. But your your realtor, and now again, a very reasonable thought nobody is going to trust me with this, you know, I wouldn’t trust a 21 year old, with my home, I just wouldn’t. And you know, what, that’s ageist and it’s, it’s probably ignorant on my part, but it’s understandable. And so you are now in the position of, I gotta grow, I got to try to figure out this. And you did. So tell us a little bit about how you got that first sale, which by the way, was $1.1 million, which I’m so so impressed by

Andres Bustamante 13:37
I was I’m sitting in my dorm room cafeteria. And I remember this perfectly. I just ordered something that resembled the pizza from you know, other dorm cafeterias are like the worst. And I get a call. And I’m listening to the guy. And I mean, you ever gotten one of those calls where it seems like a scam? Because it’s too true. You’re like, Dude, wait, what is that? He’s telling me his budget. He’s like, my budget is 1 million to 5,000,001 of my friends referred me to you that you helped lease. And I’m sitting with my, with my roommates and in the cafeteria. Yeah, I like my expression changes and I get up. And I’m still with my phone. And I legit told the guy, dude, you’re I’m sure you’re saying renting. So with a budget of 1005 1000 you can rent anything you want. And it’s like, you know, you know that rich, velvety voice. It’s like, you just know this guy is like super rich. So he’s like, No, dude. I’m looking to buy it’s 1 million of 5 million. And I’m like, okay, I can help you. I hang up and in that moment, I’m like, regretting that I said yes. Because I’m like, how am I going to figure this out? Sure. That was the moment when he called me that’s how it went. And I was just like, What is going on?

D.J. Paris 14:51
Yeah, so So what what did you do at that point? So you hung up and now you’re like, Okay, now I gotta put something together for this guy had

Andres Bustamante 14:58
a Oh my gosh, I had a week, I learned all the lingo. Like I didn’t even know what a nature way was. And I yeah, I had only done leasing and these were students. Yeah, the first ever tour. This guy is like very straight up, you’ll say what he means no filter. It was hilarious. Now he’s a really good friend. And we go to the first meeting and they’re barely building this, this condo, it’s the Austin proper downtown, beautiful building. And we walk in, and oh my gosh, that guy is just walking with me. He looks at the building inside the showroom. He sees the model in the middle. And in Spanish, she says no, megusta that means I don’t like it. Yeah, no good. And this sales rep was coming towards us, my client walks out. And I’m left alone with the sales rep. So I’m like, that was my first ever experience. And I said, Dude, I don’t know if this is common or anything. But then we ended up closing on a $1.1 million condo at the independent, which was incredible, that all those thoughts were going through my head during the whole transaction, like I’m too young, this is gonna happen. Crazy thing is, though, it was a lease referral. And that client is a really good friend of mine now. So it’s just crazy how it all happened.

D.J. Paris 16:15
It is and it didn’t, you know, it didn’t just happen, right, you had done an exceptionally good job for the tenant that referred to you. Although you know, and so you know, it’s, it’s, there’s some degree of luck in the sense of you happen to have done a great job for somebody that had somebody to refer to you. But you made that luck yourself, right. And so this is this is can happen to anybody at any age. And it did happen to you at an early age, you were able to convert it, you took it seriously, at 19, I wouldn’t have had the emotional maturity to even know what to do. So I am very impressed.

Andres Bustamante 16:54
One thing I always say leasing is so underrated. If you’re barely starting house, I always say look, find the top brokers top teams, and offer the value of look, you know what I understand that you’re extremely busy and your priorities are probably buying and selling. What do you have for lease that I can help you out with? And if you’re looking to join a team, that’s probably the best way to join a team offer value for free. And those leasing clients they might buy, but it’s always about who do they know that might buy as well, because I know a ton of people.

D.J. Paris 17:27
I couldn’t agree with you more here in Chicago, I talk about that a lot. When agents will come to me and say I’m thinking about joining a team, what companies do you recommend for teams, and obviously, there’s a lot of them. And I say, you know, there’s plenty of teams, you can join, I’m like, that’s not really a problem. But I said if you can bring value to a team, you have more, more, more leverage. And you can ask for more things. And if you can come and say, Hey, I noticed your team does a lot of sales. But I noticed you aren’t doing a lot of rentals. And for me, I think that you know, we can feed the sales beast by working with these people as renters today, stay in touch with them, educate them, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, when rates come down, maybe we’ll be able to convert them over to buyers. I think that’s an amazing strategy. I’m not not that not every market supports that. Right? If you’re in rural Idaho or something, maybe there just isn’t a rental market that could support you. But if you’re in a you know, some sort of metropolitan area Austin obviously being one Chicago where I am, guys, there’s so much business here and so much and and also most Realtors tend to ignore the renters, they tend to move away from those. So there’s not as much competition as well. So that is that is amazing to me. Now you joined a team, which I think was a very smart move pretty early on. Was that was that your role on the team was to be? Would it be the leasing guy?

Andres Bustamante 18:54
Not necessarily. And I joined the team kind of not really looking for it. But my company, the first company I joined housing scout was like, only leasing. Sure they never did sales. And it was funny when I would call people hey, there’s some that is from housing scout. I’m looking to buy a one month our condo, people like housing. Scott, what is that? So it was more so look, I don’t want to be doing leasing as much I want to transition into the sales. And my mentor. I heard him on bigger podcasts, bigger pockets podcast, the Oh Korzo. And I reached out to him because he was in Austin. And I’m like, Dude, I loved your podcast, I need to be on your team. I really want to get lunch and I kind of provided some value. And he was like, I’m busy right now and call me next week, calm next week. I set the lunch. Thankfully, this is like November 2019. And he’s like, Dude, I really like what you’re doing. I want you to join our team. So that’s how I joined the team. It was like me listening to podcast to get as much knowledge and a guy says I’m in Austin. So I said I need to join this guy’s team. And they weren’t looking for any team. They only had two agents.

D.J. Paris 19:57
Wow. I didn’t encourage everyone to do this right? Find the superstars in your local area. And you’d be shocked at how few how rarely, they actually get reached out to by newer agents. Yeah, and you might have to bug them a few times because they’re busy, right? And, but I know people that I’ve interviewed people on this show who go, if somebody emails me and wants to join my team, I typically ignore the first couple times they reach out. And, or I’ll just give them kind of a little bit of a brush off. But if they keep coming back, if they keep showing up, you know, maybe it’ll take a year of, you know, pestering me, but eventually, they sort of wear me down. And I’m like, okay, this person is serious. So it doesn’t mean you have to, you know, be a pest. But But I think this idea of being persistent and also helping a team solve a problem, right? So so instead of just saying, Hey, guys, I don’t really have a lot of leads, I’m kind of want to join a team, so you can help me, you know, generate more business. Maybe, maybe you could find somebody that’ll help you do that. But if you come in and say, Hey, tell me about your team, where are you guys having problems? What’s stopping you guys from growing? Here’s what I can bring, why you’re gonna have a lot

Andres Bustamante 21:10
of success. Yes. And like I said, they weren’t looking to grow a team, they were only two agents. So I became the third agent. And I wasn’t really handed down any leads, because it was the first time they ever Well, I wasn’t handed any leads. It was the first time they ever made the team. But I knew I wanted to join these guys, because they knew their stuff. So any new agents, the best recommendation I can make is, look, the brokerage that’s important, but who’s your team? For me, that’s always been the most important your mentors. That’s like a cheat code. And anything you can do,

D.J. Paris 21:41
yeah. agreed and could not agree with you more. And I love the fact that you said I didn’t get any leads at all. Because I think that also is a misperception sometimes when when I will have younger, younger, or newer agents like yourself, who have had this incredible success early on. And I think the inclination is to think somebody probably helped to help them out. And it’s not that they people didn’t help you. But you you source, your own leads, you source your own business, you get support, and mentorship and coaching from from from your, I mean, I guess it’s a team, you know, it’s technically a couple of people working together. But it’s we’re not talking about a team of 30 people we’re talking about.

Andres Bustamante 22:23
Now, we’re eight amazing transaction managers. So it’s good for you in quantity, for sure.

D.J. Paris 22:29
It’s unbelievable. And so as as somebody who’s settling into your business, you know, you’re now in what year three or four, basically full time? Yeah. So you’ve had an amazing run, let’s I just want to go over these numbers again. So So year one, you know, you basically did 21 sales, which is almost two a month. That’s amazing, in and of itself, you know, 7 million total in production. Year two, you went from 21 sales to 37 sales. So now we’re at what about three plus a month? Unbelievable. And then also last year, another 37 sales and for almost 20 million? So So you’re doing three, three plus transactions a month in your third year? This is this is just incredible. It really is. Tell us how you’re doing? How are you finding your clients? And and are they coming from referrals? Are they coming from? Are you purchasing leads? Where are you finding your clients,

Andres Bustamante 23:31
I have never purchased leads, the biggest thing that I say as helped is fear of influence referrals and social media. And one thing I want to say that’s so important as a real estate agent is that we’re we’re storytellers, we have to know how to tell a story. And I remember perfectly when I was telling clients look, buying a house is a great, this is a great thing to do. That I was really starting off and I didn’t have my house. So I said, You know what, if I’m telling people to buy a house, why am I doing it? And also kind of like, that’s probably my biggest expense. So I looked at my expense sheet one day, and I’m like, Yeah, housing is about 1000 to 1300 a month. I need to eliminate that expense. How can I do that house hacking. So I bought a house that was four beds, three and a half baths, lived in one room, rented out the other three. And while I was living there, I was living there for free and making $300 of cash flow. But the biggest thing about this what’s most important, the reason I’m saying this story is because I knew my target audience, I knew that I wanted people that have a big misconception, or 20% down. That’s always that’s such a big misconception. And we’re also educators so we we should teach people that then also oh my gosh, I have a lease that ends around this time and this and that. Oh, I just graduated college and I can’t afford this. Yeah, so I got that misconception and I made a post when I bought my house. Hey guys, I’m 23 years old, and I had a big risk misconception I thought I had to put 20% down. I had just graduated graduated college and everyone told me this was a bad idea and this and that. But you know what I did it. And now I’m living for free. And when I told that story, all my friends that could relate to undress, did it, he was doing what I did, I just graduated, they all reached out because of the relatability of a story, as opposed to me saying, Hey, I just bought this house. I just sold this, like, dude, what’s the story behind it? What did you help achieve? And that’s when you make it relatable to your peer group. And that’s when people reach out because they can feel it. Like it’s them, you know?

D.J. Paris 25:31
Yeah, boy, I am. So there’s a lot that you just said there that I’m processing because it’s also perfect. I think I am. Yeah, I’m a little I’m a little, you’ve actually flummoxed me a little bit, because I’m so used to hearing very, very similar, very similar stories. And this one is more more unique. But this idea of story selling it, you said a lot of things. Number one, first buying your own property at such a young age and house hacking and saying, Hey, here’s an opportunity where I can actually live rent free. And not only do I live rent free, I make a few 100 bucks a month on top of that, which is awesome. And I get all the depreciation from being an investment in investment. Yeah. So So Oh,

Andres Bustamante 26:18
my God. Yeah. There’s there’s so much there that I can talk about for sure.

D.J. Paris 26:23
It’s, yeah, your accountant is probably very happy with you with with, with advice, and you actually, you have more than one property now how to tell tell us Wow, that’s evolved.

Andres Bustamante 26:33
So this is I love talking about this. So I talk a lot I harp a lot about new builds, why new builds? Okay, resell you might close within 30 to 45 days. What if someone is telling you dude, my lease is in 10 months, but I really liked this price. Well, US problem solvers, storytellers, educators, that’s our job to find his problem a solution to the problem. So a lot of people told me Oh, 10 months from now. Oh, create what I would tell him. Okay, great. What if there’s an opportunity where you can lock the price, and within 10 months, the home is built? People were like, Oh, my gosh, let’s do it. So we wouldn’t go under contract for new builds for a low deposit, like 1003 1000. And people walk in on no joke, 100,000 plus inequity. This was when the market was starting 2020 2022 Sure. So the new build strategy was insane. And I bought another house, even though I hadn’t fulfilled that one year requirement as an owner occupant. So a lot of people know you need three, you can do three to 5% down with a conventional if you live in it for a year. But I wanted my my next house because I was so excited, I got the bug. And I found a builder that they did not finish the house until like 10 months from then. So I put this house under contract two to three months after getting my first house. And I locked the price, when I closed on that house a year later, was selling for 100,000 more. So what I did was get a home equity line of credit on that house 80% of the equity. And now I’m a hard money lender to some of my clients. So I know crazy with the you look, I lend money to people I have 120,000 line of credit.

D.J. Paris 28:13
It’s it’s it’s incredible. And I think all of this is mentorship, right and coaching and having people that know this stuff. And and you have the ability to now be a really an educator, I think, and you’re like, Hey guys, this this is I think living the experience, like you were saying is is really compelling. And it does. Obviously social media is all about shared experience. And so you have the ability to explain these processes in a way that, you know, educates and entertains and really inspires. And I imagine what percent I’m curious what percentage of your clients have come from, you know, social media now that people have been sharing your stories. And

Andres Bustamante 29:05
I would say about 25 to 30%. Wow. And the big thing here that a lot of people don’t understand is look, you meet new people don’t ask for obviously, no one’s gonna ask for an email. That’d be way too weird, but it’s like, Hey, dude, I had a great time be intentional, firstly, but I had a great time. What’s your social media, your Instagram, you get them on social media. The big thing here is you need to show people what you do. It’s not like, they’re just magically going to guess. So I put like two to three stories of what I do and not just real estate related, but I go to the gym, people want to relate with you on a on a level of not just real estate or real estate stuff. And when people start seeing that a lot, they’re gonna be like, Oh, in my head on that is real estate. I’ll relate both of them. So putting stories on social media has been something that is crucial. And anytime I meet someone new, I get them on social media so that they can start getting the seed planted on that it’s real estate. I keep seeing him You must be doing great. His team did 98 million in volume, which is what we did this past year. Oh my gosh, the relatability. That’s so important.

D.J. Paris 30:09
So yeah, you’re talking about branding or so. So this idea of creating content on social media that reminds people what you do what you think about, I was thinking about this. The other day, I was yesterday, I was driving home, or here back to Chicago from my parents home. And I was going a different way. And I noticed a big McDonald sign out in the distance where it was attached to a gas station. And I thought, you know, you drive by, you know, on highways, you drive by all sorts of fast food places, and I went, I wonder how important it is for McDonald’s to have that sign there. And because what it does is it just reminds me about McDonald’s, right? We’re talking about branding, and we need to be constant constantly reminding people what we do in a way that isn’t pushy. And so I think stories and reels, and the video clips on social media is really a great way to do that. Because you can do these little short clips of like, here I am at the gym. Oh, here I am with a at a showing here I am, you know making dinner, whatever it might be. How come? Were you doing two to three of those a day? Are you doing two or three of those a week? What is your social media calendar look like?

Andres Bustamante 31:27
Honestly, anything that I’m doing? I might do like, yeah, I would say two to five nowadays. Today, I am big on morning routine. That’s one of the reasons that I’ve had the success that I’ve had, I do the Miracle Morning. And I went to the gym 520 In the morning, and then I did sound after and I posted like a little picture. Hey, who else to Sona? Or what do you guys think? Cole cold plunge or sauna to get people engaged. And then before the podcast, I was like, Oh, I’m excited for this podcast, a little story made people start seeing that, like, Oh, this guy’s on a podcast. Oh my gosh, he must be doing great things. So I had my team meeting today I have my team meeting every Monday at 930. And then I made a video on Tiktok asking my agents like, what’s the best way to get leads? It’s the best way to get each one. So it’s how my social media is. You just take like, five seconds on a story. It’s so easy to do, you know?

D.J. Paris 32:23
Yeah, yeah. And I think people can do this too, if you know with their existing sphere of influence. So in social media, you’re you were saying when you meet somebody who’s you know, a civilian, somebody who might be a potential client. I’m not a realtor, you’re you know, maybe you’ll get their email if you if you’re lucky. But most important thing is social media. Because not only will will you be able to brand yourself to them, you’ll also now know what they’re into what they’re all about, right? When you’re scrolling through, and you see that they just went on a vacation or that they have, you know, some major life event, it gives you an opportunity to want to then reach out and say, Hey, I noticed you just did XY and Z. So do you use do you use it for like a little bit of research and development as well? So you know what?

Andres Bustamante 33:06
Oh, for sure. For sure. Like anytime I do it for research and development, but I’m never like the guy hey, let’s like send me an email. I’m very intentional about it. Like the stories and whatnot. And I’ve had a lot of people reach out. Hey, dude, I didn’t know you were doing real estate. That’s great. When I see him again. They’re like, Dude, you’re doing so much in real estate. Like I’ve joined soccer teams, I’ve Toastmasters. Probably the best thing anyone can join. Toastmasters is a public speaking group. And it’s worldwide. That’s probably the best thing I’ve joined. And now I’m Vice President of membership. So all the new members are the one that talks to me. So art, it’s it’s been amazing. And every, every month, we get like 20 Plus members 20 plus new people that I get to meet. So, ya know, that’s been great. All the groups have joined in being intentional about that.

D.J. Paris 33:55
Yeah, it is, it is so much this, your net worth is directly connected to your network, right? Like, we know that it says expression, it’s said, your network and your net worth are kind of connected. And it’s like yeah, and now you have to think about how to how to remind your net work, what you do without holding your hand out all the time saying, are you ready to buy and you’re ready to buy? Are you ready to sell right? In the way that you can do that is by sharing your experiences of daily life? And it’s Yeah, go ahead.

Andres Bustamante 34:29
And and one one other thing that I would say that that I do with my business partner, we host meetups once a month, to also be like, Oh, this guy’s like doing meetups and bringing these type of guests. You know, it’s all perception is so important. And last week, we had a meetup we had 60 plus people and I got three new potential buyers. So that was incredible. And then I hosted a home buying seminar and I got four potential buyers. I’m pretty sure two of them are for sure gonna buy this last week. So that’s already Six potential buyers.

D.J. Paris 35:01
Let’s back up. So how do you get six? So 60 people showed up to what was it a house hacking seminar, it was

Andres Bustamante 35:07
awesome. Now I don’t really do that house hacking seminars anymore. If I do, I do it via zoom. But it’s more so we every month, and I’ll send you some pictures about it. Every month, we have like a guest speaker. And this guest speaker was David toop. And a good friend of mine. He’s a big apartment. syndicator, 27 years old, this guy’s killing it. And it was all through posting on social media. And I put it up on Eventbrite. So that then anyone that signs up, I get their email. Yeah, so I have 60 plus, but I mean, 80 people signed up 60 came. So after all the emails, I got a photographer for that event, I made a Facebook group for it. So people start joining. It’s insane. And I recommend any Realtors do that, like hosting a meetup and getting people to see that getting a photographer, you know, the connection there? Oh, it’s been huge. That has helped a lot as well.

D.J. Paris 36:00
Yeah, you know, it’s, gosh, you’ve got my head spinning in in a couple different directions, because I am now inspired to do some more of that on the recruiting side. So, boy, you, you, you’re inspiring me. So this idea of doing you what we’re really talking about is providing value. So you know, you’re you’re big about you’re big into branding, which we’ve talked about making sure the people in your sphere know what you’re doing. And sort of unconsciously reminding them that oh, by the way, I’m a realtor. And then we’re talking about education, you know, making sure that we’re giving back to, you know, these people who might not know about, you know, for example, the 20% myth, right, the 20% downpayment myth, you know, is I know, that was always a major one for me, was like, Well, if I want to buy a $400,000, home, I don’t have 80,000 in cash, just waiting, you know, to put down so I just always assumed that that was out of reach for me when I was a young, younger person. Nobody sat down with me and said, Well, there’s actually some other ways you can do this. And I didn’t know what I didn’t know. So I think there’s this huge opportunity. And it’s not like, once somebody gets to a certain age, they all of a sudden start understanding well, how how how home lending works. I mean, some people never ever really get it until they have to make that decision. And then they learn on the fly. I mean, that’s how it worked. For me, it was like, one day I went, I wonder if I could afford a home? And then I Googled it, you know, and then I was like, Oh, yeah. It was such, it would be such a great opportunity for somebody in my life, to say, Hey, you don’t have to google that I know this stuff, I’m going to sit down with you and go through it. So you either learn it by Googling, or they’re gonna go to somebody, and eventually they’re gonna go to somebody to buy the home anyway. But this is an opportunity to sort of establish yourself as the knowledge source. And by the way, these events that you’re doing, I’m assuming you’re getting other people to to pay for the events, or maybe you’re paying for oh, yeah,

Andres Bustamante 38:07
yeah, it’s do it. It’s all about how smart you can be. I have my title and lender, people paid for everything, everything. So it’s like, look, you can promote yourself right here. And we have a really good relationship. We’re gonna have 60 plus people, like, Dude, we’re game. So they paid for the full venue. It was amazing. Like, yeah, we had such a good turnout.

D.J. Paris 38:29
I love that. What would you recommend? So so this year, okay, so let’s talk about 2023. Because we are in a high higher interest rate environment than we were two years ago. We’re in a lower? Well, we’re in a low inventory environment, like we were two years ago. So there’s a lot of realtors out there. So now I want to I do want to talk about mindset for just a moment. Because it’s easy to get a little bummed out this year, I think it’s easy to take in and absorb a lot of the media, sort of the stories about the housing shortages, and the rates being obviously higher than than a lot of buyers would prefer. What are you doing? And and if we have sorry, and, you know, we’re looking at what economists are saying are going to happen this year, pretty much across the board. Economists are saying this is going to be a tough year. So I don’t want to pretend that it isn’t. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t amazing opportunities this year. And I’m curious because I know mindset is everything for you. What are you doing to stay motivated and stay productive despite some of these, you know, challenges in the market that you just obviously can’t control?

Andres Bustamante 39:44
For me? And this is like straight up I don’t believe in motivation. I think that’s like me neither here here. Yeah. Yeah, that’s for me. That’s BS. So one thing and I know a lot of people are gonna say like, oh my gosh, the morning or Seen, it’s just so important. Like, I don’t do my morning routine one day and I feel so different. And it goes a little something like this, I’ll wake up at 5:20am I’ll do my bed because those little wins are crucial. I’ll get to the gym around 530 to one hour that I take a cold shower. That has helped me a lot. Because whenever you are induced into stressful situations, you kind of get used to it, because I hate cold showers. I don’t like them. But it’s like it’s a stressful situation that it’s like, do you get used to it first thing in the morning. Let’s go. And

D.J. Paris 40:31
I want to pause for a second let’s talk about the benefit of a cold shower. So this is important because I’ve done this I did this for about six months straight. And and it’s debatable whether it’s healthier for you. So we’re not going to talk about the healthiness of it. As far as physically what but here’s what I will, I will tell you what I’m curious to undress to get your thoughts. If you can endure, so the reason to do a cold shower, forget it, it’s actually healthier for you, I don’t care, here’s why you want to do it. Even if it’s bad for your body, here’s why you should do it. Because it’s one of the hardest things that you can do every single day. That’s physical. And I hate it too. And I need to get back into it. i If you tomorrow, I encourage everyone who’s listening, try to survive 10 seconds, just 10 seconds, all the way cold shower, if you can survive 10 seconds, then, you know, tomorrow, try 15 seconds and then that 20 seconds, eventually you’ll be able to to survive. And it it is still it at least my experience every day it was it never really got easy. It was always brutal. But when I was done, which you know, you end up taking a one and a half minute shower because you just get through it. Yeah, let’s go. But once when I would step out of that shower, and I don’t know what the magic is over the endorphins that are firing, but it feels like you just ran a marathon and you won. So do you feel that same way when you step out of the

Andres Bustamante 41:59
shower? Yeah, I feel so amazing. But every day I dread it. I’m like, Just go into it. It’s the five second roll like everything in life did don’t think about it. Don’t think just do. You go into it, even though what we’re really

D.J. Paris 42:13
talking about is tolerating discomfort. Because anytime you want to grow in life, whether it’s your physical body, if you want to get stronger, obviously, you got to lift heavy weights, which is going to be painful. I just gave him the gym. It’s brutal. And you came from the gym as well today. And also when you want to improve your business, you’re going to have to get uncomfortable, you’re going to have to learn how to tolerate failures, discomfort challenge, and it’s something as simple as a cold shower. It sounds like it’s not connected. I am telling you doing it will put you in a mindset of I just did something really crazy hard first thing in the morning. Is that is that sort of how you feel?

Andres Bustamante 42:55
Yes, definitely. That God that’s perfectly well said that cold shower helps a lot with

D.J. Paris 43:02
it sounds silly, but it’s actually really, really important. So okay, so you start your morning, you go to the gym, you take a cold shower, what else do you do in the morning?

Andres Bustamante 43:10
Then I do meditation, transcendental meditation, which is great. I got it before that. Yes, exactly. TM, I gotta teach it for that. I just finished that those classes recently. Then I do affirmations, visualizing, and scribing scribing is like writing things down. And funny enough, I want to show you this. Sure. I do my top three tasks that I’m going to do for the day that the night prior. So I know at least what my routine is going to be. And then I don’t know if you can see it. But I amazing podcast is right here. And I checked that box. Because I want to put myself in the mindset that I’m going to have an amazing podcast. So it’s already done for me like before the podcast, I said, I’m going to have an amazing podcast. And I checked about that box to kind of get myself into that headspace of it’s already been amazing.

D.J. Paris 43:57
Yeah, I love that. I think that’s really smart. And this idea of setting your up your day, not just with your to dues but here are my here are my three big wins. These are the three big things I need to get accomplished there. Here’s what I need to focus on today. If you can do that, at the beginning of the day, then when other things come at you because things come at you all day, you’re able to filter a little bit better because you’re easily you’re more easily able to say okay, something just came at me. It seems urgent, is it actually important? Or Or oh, it’s not that urgent. It’s not that important cuz now as opposed to being just reactive, something comes in and then I want to take care of it right away. There’s an inclination to want to do that. But what I like about you is you you’ve prioritized your sort of lists per day, you know, the three big things you want to accomplish and you do it the night before again, this all sounds like you know life 101 But it’s really really important and a lot of people don’t do it did it last night? Wait You know, before I went to bed list the three things I need It’s due today. I didn’t, I should have. Because then when I got to work today, I was like, Oh God, now I have to make a list of what I’m going to do today. So, so let’s give another shout out to the Miracle Morning. And you know, it’s not a coincidence that after five years on this podcast, and 450 plus episodes, the number one most recommended book, but the two most recommended books are Millionaire Real Estate Agent from our guests, which is Gary Keller, famous, famous book about how to build a real estate business. And then number two for mindset, and just setting up your day for habits, habits, habits, habits. Miracle Morning is right up there lol rod. You tell me about how the Miracle Morning has really changed your life.

Andres Bustamante 45:44
Yeah, we’re going on on the base of motivation. Like, like we said, motivation, don’t really believe in it. It’s more so discipline. So it’s really look, okay, I’m feeling top of mind, top of mind, so that I can best help my clients. Because in order to best serve my clients, I need to feel my best. And whenever I do my morning, I feel my best. But it also goes back to what are my goals? And by looking at my goals that have helped me stay disciplined when motivation is not there, because it’s i 100% assure you, motivation will not always be there. So once you develop that discipline, boom, it’s great. And one of the best ways to develop that discipline is doing a program called 75. Hard.

D.J. Paris 46:26
I do that tell me about I don’t I don’t know this. Tell me about it.

Andres Bustamante 46:28
Oh, perfect. And I do it every year since I started in real estate 75 hard by Andy for Sella. Major Gee, that guy’s amazing. And it’s only five days, no alcohol, strict diet, you also have to read 10 pages of a book, you have to work out twice and have those two days, I mean, of those two times one has to be outdoors. So minimum is 45 minutes. So you do your workout, maybe in the morning, and then you do your other workout whenever you can. But the thing is, so two works out two workouts a day. Yeah, two workouts per day. They can’t be like after each other, and they have to be 35 minutes. So the big thing here is, whenever you say I can’t do this, what you’re essentially saying is I’m not making this a priority. Sherwood 75 hard if you don’t do one of those tests every day, you have to start all over. So two workouts per day, drink a gallon of water 10 pages of book diet, no alcohol and take a progress pic. And there’s an app for that. It’s amazing. But the big thing here is like, Dude, I have a lot going on. And I have to schedule time for my workouts. I just

D.J. Paris 47:39
don’t have time to do that. And so Exactly, yeah.

Andres Bustamante 47:43
But then the big. The big thing here is you develop that discipline to where it’s like, I know what my priorities are because I’m doing this program as well. And I have to work around the schedule that can make it work because I’ve had times no joke. I’m at a conference. It’s 11pm. And we’re going like, everyone’s going out for drinks. I’m drinking water. And it’s like, oh my gosh, dude, I forgot I had do my workout. So I’ve legit told my friends guys, I’m gonna walk around the city for 45 minutes. You guys just wait here. I’ve done that so many times. And it’s actually hilarious.

D.J. Paris 48:14
But it his life is so much about habits and discipline and motivation. As much as I love when motivation does hit it is a rare thing for me. Discipline is what wins the game. Motivation is just when you have a lucky day. Yes, this this is all just just great stuff. I really encourage everybody out there as we’re wrapping up to think about, you know, what are the habits that you could cultivate this year that would help you move the needle in your business? You know, is it a lack of follow up? Is it a lack of meeting people? Is it a lack of you maybe your social media isn’t very strong or maybe you’re not doing enough out, reach to your sphere of influence, or whatever it is as different skill you want to develop? Maybe you don’t know anything about investors and you want to start learning about House hacking or first time homebuyers or any of that you can put a plan together and get a community around you as well and get involved and then really start to hold each other accountable. It’s all about habits and discipline. Andres I am so excited to continue to watch your progress you have provided incredible value. Because again, I think in this conversation, you know we we really talked a lot about mindset. We talked about habits discipline, and working smart and you gave some incredible advice find a team, get a mentor. You know read The Miracle Morning come up with with you know your day before the next day. Make sure you know what you’re doing. And then it just and and also, you know, staying in good physical shape, I think not enough is said about the benefits of being in strong physical condition. This is a physical job that requires a ton of energy. And energy is important. And if you want to be a great Realtor you need, you’re going to have to have a lot of energy. And I think, you know, get your physical body in order, this is the year where you can get your physical body and in shape, you know, partner up with other realtors, like everything counts, so you can get together and and you know, and by the way, that’s another opportunity. If you want to do a meet up, you could find an accountability group of exercise people, that’s another way to meet people, right? So you’re involved in Toastmasters, you’re involved in all these other things. And by the way, at Toastmasters, you’re probably you know, the 20 new members every month, you probably like, Hey, by the way, what do you do, and they’re gonna ask you what you do,

Andres Bustamante 50:59
always. And last thing I do want to say, because referrals is a big part of my business. Whenever I do a buyer consultation, big thing, I asked for people’s birthdays, if they have kids, if they have dogs, if they have favorite wine, whatever. And then for my follow up, or whatever, it’s like, I send them stuff for their birthdays, I send them. So it’s just top of mind, because they’re always no people, but that’s at the buyer consultation so that I’m not asking it like around other things and all but just get a list of questions. And you get all that stuff. And that’s just, you know, is your reason

D.J. Paris 51:33
to reach out? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Because a lot of times I know, agents will say, Well, I don’t know, you know, I don’t really want to call my friends, I don’t really, it’s like, well, if you do you know their anniversary, do you know their birthdays, you know, their kids birthdays, if you know those events, then you do have a reason to pick up the phone. And you don’t have to talk real estate. But you do have to demonstrate that you care. And I think have getting all of this information in your database in your CRM, about birthdays, anniversaries, major life events, allow you to then pick up the phone and say, Hey, I know it’s your kid’s birthday today just wanted to wish so and so happy birthday, like that, in and of itself is massive. Huge. All right, well, we’re gonna we’re gonna cap this one off here, this episode here because I could talk to you all day and I’d love to have you back in the future. Your future is going to be so impressive, I’m sure. But Andres really, really appreciate on behalf of the audience your time today on our show. You know if anyone out there is interested in maybe you’re a realtor in the Austin area and you’re looking to maybe partner up or maybe you’d be a good good benefit to to Andres his team you can reach out to him he’s with Keller Williams, the Nino team. Or if you’re a realtor, maybe in another area of the country and you have clients that are moving to Texas or or the Austin area and you’re looking to refer business to another realtor Andres would love the opportunity to work with you. But if anyone wants to reach out to you Andres or maybe somebody’s just looking for a realtor in the Austin area, a buyer seller, investor etc. What’s the best way they should reach out to you?

Andres Bustamante 53:12
Instagram for sure it’s add on that as BUSA Tx and Drs. B USDA, TX.

D.J. Paris 53:18
Awesome. And on behalf of Andre and myself, we want to thank our audience for continuing to listen and support our show support our sponsors support Andres, check out his Instagram checkout is Tiktok Andres booster Tx and also send him your referrals. He’s a great agent, he’s he’s killing it as a as a young man growing getting in this business I I’m making a prediction live that you will be one of the National Association of REALTORS 30 under 30 within the next three years. So this is a this is a young man to watch. And we’re excited. And we will see. We’re going to ask everybody just one quick thing before you leave the episode. Please tell a friend think of one other realtor that could benefit from hearing from Andres and send them a link to this episode. Keeping it real pod.com They can stream every episode we’ve ever done. Or just go to any podcast app search for keeping it real. Hit that like and subscribe button. We would appreciate it Andres thank you so much for being on the show. Man I’m so proud of you. You’re You’re crushing it and excited to watch your your ascent as you continue to climb the mountain. So keep it up. Yeah, I

Andres Bustamante 54:25
really appreciate that.

D.J. Paris 54:27
All right, thanks. We’ll see everybody on the next episode. Thank you

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