Building a $2.5B Brokerage in 10 Months ft. Eddie Garcia & Mark Dimas (Realty of America) | Coffeez for Closers with Joe Shalaby

0:00Today we are sitting down with two future legends in the real estate space they are going to take over so much national market share. Please welcome the founder and CEO of Roa, as well as the president and co-founder. We got Eddie Garcia and Mark Demas in the house. Thank you guys for joining the show. Welcome to another episode of Coffees. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. Thank you for having us. Yeah, so guys, man, I've just been so impressed with what Roa is doing. But before we jump into what Roa has been doing, I would like to start to show off with what I ask everybody, which is what's your morning routine?

0:37Morning routine. Wake up. I don't eat breakfast or lunch. I spend a little bit of time with my son and get straight to work. Look at my calendar and figure out what appointments I have, who I need to speak to about Realty of America, what agents I need to support, any meetings I have with Eddie and this support team, and that's how I get started. For me, it's like this morning, woke up at 5 a.m. And then I spent the next two or three hours just reading, reading, consuming all the data I can consume. On average, I read maybe two or three hours a day and just kind of get my day going, get my brain going, and then I get to work.

1:19Love it. Now, what is it right now that you guys think is the biggest differentiating factor that's really allowing Realty of America to grab so much market share? I think for us is that there's never been a real estate company that has been built like ours. So traditionally, real estate companies are either, you know, it takes 15, 20, 25 years to really scale. Or, you know, some big hedge fund comes in and starts buying lots of companies. That takes years. For us, literally in 10 months, we have closed$2.5 billion, 7 ,000 properties sold, onboarded over 2 ,300 agents, opened 17 states, paid out almost three million dollars in revs to our agents and I mean in countless other things right build systems, builds logo, build a business plan etc etc so to us it was identifying seven founders that literally started from absolutely nothing we all decided to put the egos to the side come together and build one national brokerage collectively we have a hundred and seventy years of real estate experience and over 17 billion dollars of closed business now in this market you got exp you got real you got all these random companies and they all kind of offer the same thing and I talked to you guys about the sesame you're like no what we do is different now what do you think is like all these competitors do you view them as true competitors I think they're amazing companies and I think you have to respect what they've done their trailblazers especially exp coming in first and doing what they've done.

2:52Real Broker came in second and kind of did things different. I think for us, the experience, right? If you look at what they did in their first two years, you can't compare to what we've done in 10 months. You look at what they've done in five years from inception to what we've done in 10 months, you can't compare. We're growing right now probably 8x faster than what EXP was doing in its first five, seven, eight years. And it's thanks to a man like him. I mean, he was the first person I spoke to. Mark Demas, number one realtor in the Wall Street Journal, number one realtor on the Real Trends 2022.

3:26He sold 3 ,200 houses, 971 million. You're in the real estate business. You understand that a typical agent closes maybe seven, eight deals a year. 70 % of agents last year closed zero transactions. how do you find someone that's human that does 3 ,200 closings with a team of 15 agents? He doesn't have 500 agents. Team of 15. He's like the U.S. Navy SEAL. So when I had the vision of growing Realty of America, I said, you know what? This dream is so big. And I was about to retire. So for me to hold off on retirement, you know, at 40, my goal is like, I'm going to retire. I've done very well for myself.

4:09I'm gonna get married have a family and then I had this vision I said okay well this vision is this big I'm gonna fly to Houston I'm gonna talk to him and if he says no it'll be the greatest news because I get I get a chance to go retire in Jackson Hole Wyoming and just live on a little mountain you know a little mountain home but he said yes and now I'm 40 years old about to turn 41 I'm out here in San Diego nowhere close to retiring and no nowhere close to retire you know there was never there's never been a real estate company else put together like Realty of America you know taking the top 1 % of the 1 % of Realtors bringing them together creating a company and not only that the 1 % of the 1 % who still practice real estate every day so even though I'm a non producing team lead my my office is still doing deals every day every day Eddie's has a team that's doing deals every day Max and Claudia Mo Max and Claudia have you know a team that's doing that all of our all of our founders are doing amazing businesses and we knew that we would create a beautiful company that we created what we didn't know is how fast it would grow considering that when you take the top leaders in the industry that come together then their friends also that they talk to want to come together and guess who top producers hang out with you know thoroughbreds like to hang out with thoroughbreds right and so they're hanging out with the friends that are at the top of the top that validates the company.

5:35And then agents who want to become top producers are drawn to Realty of America. You know, we were, you know, with any company, you get haters, right? And you get people that say, you know, this about this company, whether it's EXP or Real or Century 21 or Realty of America. What some of the hate was is that, oh, don't go to Realty of America because that's a company of$100 million producers. That's great hate. And I said, you know what? It's not a company of just$100 million producers. It's also a company where a$10 million producer can become a$100 million producer, where a$0 million producer can become a$3 million producer.

6:12So we're here to inspire, encourage our agents, and we're growing, and our numbers are... You know, it's no longer a dream and a vision. No, it's being executed on a daily basis, and then our numbers are there to prove it. Last month we closed just shy of 400 million, over 1 ,100 transactions, and 10 months old. It's incredible growth. Impression. One thing I really admire about both of you is both two beautiful souls, two amazing human beings. What I've noticed about Realty of America in a very short time in my interaction is the culture. Culture's phenomenal. How are you guys really fostering and creating that collaborative culture, that wonderful culture that already exists?

6:57How did you do it in such a quick period of time? So I think it all started with Chicago. In Chicago, I built the 11th largest real estate company from scratch. College dropout, undocumented to the age of 13 years old, had no money, no experience. And somehow I built this company. And the way I built it is 90 % of my agents were not realtors. 90 % of my agents, I found them as people that were busboys, waiters that served me, Costco workers, Walmart workers, CTA drivers, nurses, police officers, and we created opportunities for them. They became realtors. They became top producers. We helped them invest their money into real estate.

7:37They became millionaires. And then what we taught them is like, hey, today we're going to pour love into you. We're going to help you. We're going to inspire you. We're going to empower you. When you're in your lowest, we're going to help you out. But once you become a top producer, when the next person comes in, that's expected of you too. And we created like this, almost like this 15 level program of just like everyone's helping each other, everyone's helping each other. So that was the foundation that Realty of America was built on. So, you know, we have a national back to school bag giveaway that we just did.

8:07We served in almost all our cities that we're opening. We're going to have a national turkey giveaway. where our goal is to feed over 200 ,000 people. So this is not just a company of making money, of closing billions and closing thousands of transactions. This is a company that we care to give back. We're going to be one of the first companies. I don't know of a company that's been open for less than a year that's able to mobilize their force to send out hundreds of people to give to thousands of people. So it's a company fostered and created in servitude. Correct. So what's happening is God is just anointing it.

8:44Oh, 100%. You know, it's serendipitous, you know, the way that Eddie and I met, the way that I've met all the founders, the way that my business has grown. And this is the time for Realty of America. You know, Eddie says it the best that the culture first started in Chicago. You know, I had a team, a very small team. And, you know, we did a lot of volume, but we had great culture as a small family unit. But Eddie, you know, perfected the culture on a wide scale and helped us to become where we are right now. And you ask, like, how do we foster the culture? We just got off a call with 51 of our team leads, you know, hearing them out, addressing concerns, addressing, you know, future initiatives and what we're doing to grow Realty of America.

9:37And so we're there in the trenches with them. You know, we just came up with a new initiative for next year where Eddie and I are going to be traveling around on a thank you tour. Not on a growing tour, but on a thank you tour to go visit all of our leaders, all of our agents. We're talking about, you know, six events a month in different markets so that we can go and pour into our leaders, pour into our agents, hear them, figure out where we need to grow. and I think that's the difference. You know, we're such in a digital world right now. People are texting, you got AI, you got emails, you got all types of automation.

10:17But what's the best way to do real estate? Belly to belly. That's right. I will beat anybody in a listing agreement if I'm belly to belly with the agent and they're trying to do it on Zoom. And it's the same thing with how we grow our company. You know, we scaled so fast because we took over 100 flights before launch to meet with the agents face-to-face. We wouldn't tell them about it. So if we called you up and we said, we got something that we want you to hear, you're a good friend of mine, and I want to share with you something, tell us about it. I'm going to fly to you. This is so important.

10:47We got to do it face-to-face, belly-to-belly. And that's what we're teaching our agents, and that's how we're growing. It's old school, but it's new school. It is. Actually, my own mentor said that the new school is going to be face-to-face handshake. That's going to be the new thing. Yeah. And it's happening. So would you attribute your current growth to Belly to Belly? Or what are some of the key strategies that really have allowed you guys to grow this fast? So I'll tell you that when we started, you know, we just did it so strategically. You know, this dream would have fell apart, never would have been born if I would have just called him.

11:27And I would have told him, hey, I have this idea. What do you think? Maybe he would have been with his baby, busy, driving in his Ferrari, can't hear me. And then he would say, oh, I'll call you back. And that would have been it. But as soon as I had the vision, I've been a belly-to-belly person my whole life. That's how I built my business, how I became a top producer, how we closed over$4 billion in Chicago, sold 12 ,000 properties. I was a belly-to-belly guy. I built relations that way. So when I knew I had this vision, I just flew to Houston, had a conversation with Mark in person. I told him, hey, you've seen what I've done in Chicago.

12:01You've seen the culture. You've seen how big we got. I said, we can do this nationwide. And, you know, it was a five-minute conversation. Was that just a cold call? Like, you just, because he had a reputation? It's kind of a semi-cold call because we've known each other for 10 years. But for the last year and a half, COVID happened. You know, he had a new baby, building a house in Mexico, building a house in Houston. That we had stopped talking. So, literally, when I called him, it's like we had never stopped talking. He was like, hey, Mark, what's up? He's like, hey, you know, I told him, I want to see the new baby.

12:32I want to see the new house. Come whenever you want. So I flew into Houston, had that conversation. And literally, it took maybe five, ten minutes for a billion-dollar agent to say I'm in. And then the second conversation was with Victor. He's a$115 million producer. And I said, okay, you know what? Let me vet it now with someone that doesn't know me. That was a cold call. This is a relationship, but I wanted to talk to somebody that never met my family. I never met their family, never slept at their house. We've never traveled together. We've only known each other on Instagram. So I went to Austin, Texas and I spoke to him as a hey, this is the business plans what we're doing.

13:06Mardim is in are you in 13 hours later? He said I'll leave KW after a 13 year career. He was unrecruitable and he left and then four days And then it was mark day one Victor day two four more days later We had assembled about a thousand producing agents and we knew we were onto something then we shut down we're not recruiting let's build the company what's the CRM what's the cap what's the business plan what's the rev share now we had the money and the and the friendships to hire all the consultants in the world hire the biggest attorneys to build this real estate company realty America what's crazy is do you hear what he just said if you hear the timeline it was Mars Victor all the other founders you had Alex Mosquera you had on the day as you You have Mo and Claudia.

13:54You have, I know I'm missing people, Diego. Victor. Yeah, Victor Nino, David Dominguez. And then we went to build the company. So we didn't, you know, when we talked to all these top 1 % of the 1%, right? People that are doing 100 million, 200 million, 700 million in production in a year, not in their career. We didn't have a logo. we didn't have a comp plan we didn't know what our splits were gonna be we had the name Realty of America we had our reputation and we had the vision you know when Eddie Eddie Eddie tells a story and it's the true story right is is that he asked me you know hey I want you to come on this journey to build this company and I asked him the three questions I said is gonna have rev share he said yes it's the future I said all right I said is gonna have equity he said yes I said is gonna to go public?

14:50He said, yes. I said, I'm in. It was a five minute conversation because I, because previous to that, I was already searching. You know, it's like you had talked about God. God had created and provided a door that was so vivid to me as he was speaking to me that it was just, yes, this is exactly what I've been looking for the last year. I had recently, I had spoken with Gary Keller and I spoke for 30 minutes to talk about like hey what does it look like Mark Demas team joining Keller Williams I had spoke with Josh Miller the CEO and founder of Epic I spoke with Glenn Sanford and Leo Pereja the founders and CEO now of EXP and it just wasn't the right time and then six months later Eddie calls me up you know we've been best friends for 10 years but you know like he said for about a year and a half I had COVID for 45 days that's when I became a business owner because you know I couldn't do any work and I had to get out of production.

15:51My son who was born premature at 26 weeks he was in the NICU for 74 days. When I closed the 3000 transaction that's been 160 days in Mexico I was semi-retired and Eddie was also you know flourishing in his business traveling 45 days at a time so it's not that we didn't want to see each other it's just life happened but when he called and said hey I want to come and see the baby I said come anytime he said I'll be there tomorrow and then he showed up and as he's telling me his vision it was just clear to me one thing about me in my in my life and and the decisions I make some will say they're very hasty because I can make them really quick but I go off the energy I go for feeling and I go off of is this is this where I see my life going if it is and I'm just gonna say yes we're gonna and we're gonna do that Richard Branson way you know if you don't know how to do it just say yes and figure it out later right when opportunity comes your way and little did I know that it would change my life my family's direction legacy change his life change thousands of agents and eventually tens and tens and hundreds of thousands of agents because we will be the number one real estate company in the country there's no doubt I don't do anything to be number two you know everything that I've done in life not to and it's not an ego in that hey I'm better it's just that I always compete against myself and I always compete against you know my best year and I always want to do better and I always want to do better to not not caring what anybody else is doing but just knowing that I can get to the top because I've already seen the vision and it's the same thing with Realty of America we see it and now it's just happening it's just it's just the snowball of like good news and blessings out we would we would talk about last year when we just kept getting yeses and yeses and it's like man when is somebody gonna tell us no I said I said the dream is too big the visions too big and now we're ten months in we don't we have a logo now we have a we have a whole tech stack we have an amazing c-suite we have 23 over 2300 agents we have the production we have the volume you know now it's a vision the story and the production and And now we're meeting great people like you.

18:08We're meeting great people like Sam at Pavan who brought us to the Mindset Summit. It's just a... God just is pouring in. It's going great. You guys are just doing God's work. And he's the one who had the dream. You know, so, yeah. And it's incredible to see because it happened at such a fast pace. And I'm sure in the short time I met you guys two months ago, I don't even know how much more you guys have grown since. In two months, we probably close an additional$700 million in business. I mean, name a company that opened 10 months and has over seven figures in cash in the bank, because we're a profitable company.

18:45We have zero investors. I mean, that's insane. We have no debt. Yeah. That's insane. No big lawsuits yet, thank God. I had the biggest one. I was personally named in the$7 billion NAR lawsuit. So if it's not$7 billion, if it's under$7 billion, I'm not sweating it right now. You know, but you know, you'll just, you know, lawsuits are something I'm like, yeah, that's great. I got a stack of them like that high. You know, they say that if you're not getting sued, you're not doing business. Yeah, that's it. That's just a sign of your winning, you know. Sign of your winning. No, but we don't. We don't have any.

19:18Thank God. Fortunately. Yeah, it'll happen anyways. And when it comes, it's no big deal because you're going to have a big legal team anyway. So what do you think, like, we talked about a future, the future of Roa, But what do you think the future is right now for you guys in the next like 12 months? What's some of the future plans? Three strategy goals to go public. So one of it is having a certain amount of cash in the bank. Second one is having a certain number of agent count. The third one is owning 60 % of our technology. So I started. You own it by yourself. You don't. Built it from scratch.

19:47Not white labeled. Because if you white label everything, you don't own anything, right? And there could be another company that opens up tomorrow with the same CRM, the same everything you have. So one thing that I was trying to solve for at Realty Chicago, my old company, is that I was tired of everyone using the Redfin website and Zillow. Like literally everyone was using it, right? Because it's a superior website. So I was like, man, I want to build it. And once I went to the biggest tech companies, they were like, oh, that's a$5 million,$10 million project. And I was like, eh, I don't think so.

20:16So I did what I always do, crazy things. And I set out to build my own tech team. Hired the brightest, probably, I've hired thousands of people. This is the brightest person I ever hired in my life. he was actually he received the the global employee of the year award last year for us so this man literally single-handedly with a team in India of 18 developers for work for over a year built our realty of america.com website to portal we built it from scratch so literally on the same foundation that Redfin built it we built our mortgage calculator from scratch our mortgage calculator is actually easier less touches than one of the big boxes to built that from scratch so now our consumers can can search houses on the MLS and all 17 states were open in and we open to 20 to 30 to 40 we're sending on all MLS's in the future all 50 states you can search on all 50 states including Puerto Rico so including Puerto Rico which is I forget their MLS stellar MLS so now we've also built our own revenue revenue dashboard from scratch so it shows our agents their organization they show them how much they paid to cap how much they're earning a rev share what they've earned year-to-date that's owned by us also our onboarding system any anyone can join our company they are not no human needed in all 17 states obviously there's a human that you need to change that DRE license but that was built from from scratch and right now what we're building is it's gonna be your one-year sprint so 2026 september we will have a technology that a multi-billion dollar company's been open for 15 years has and we will own it from scratch we're literally building it who else to to architect it than people like him people like me i'm like the least successful one out of all the bunch everyone that that that is around us is more successful than me we know what the agents want what they struggle in what they actually use and what tech they don't use so that's what september 2026 looks like for us.

22:18I think we'll be 24 months old. We'll have right around 10 ,000 agents. Add a few more million dollars in cash to the bank account. Probably be open at 25, 30 states. What am I missing? I would hope to close around 20 billion in production. In the next 12 months? 20 billion? Right now, even if we don't grow one single agent, we just tell, hey, you know what? Everyone stop. and just keep it the same, we'll do$6 billion. So$20 billion is not that far away. I mean, we got 2 ,300 agents doing$5 billion in production right now. It's not like just 2 ,300 agents. Like, EXP's got like$180 ,000, but you got 2 ,300 producers.

23:00Producing agents. Agents. And it's actually not even real data because you know how long... For a team to onboard to Realty of America, They're still going to close for the next 45 to 60, 75 days. They'll be closing their business at the old brokerage. So you're really talking about we've done, you know,$2.5 billion in seven months. But that started with, you know, like no agents and then adding 100, 200, 500, 1 ,000, you know, opening markets. So by then, when we have 20 ,000 agents and our markets are actually seasoned markets, then, you know, My goal is per thousand agents that we're closing two to two and a half billion in production per thousand agents, which is 2x what our competitors are doing.

23:47And we should be doing that because we have agents that are doing 100x than what the average agent is doing. And we're doing it in infancy. Now, a company like EXP has got amazing agents, right? They've got amazing producing agents. but they're also 15 years old and it took them that long to build that validation and have those agents coming over. We're 10 months old. You already have those agents. And we have those agents. So can you imagine three years from now? It's going to be a game changer. So we've had all the positives. So what are some of the biggest challenges that you guys have faced in such a short duration of time?

24:25So I'll tell you that, I mean, the biggest sacrifice this man has done is, you know, he has a baby that he goes sometimes days, you know, weeks without seeing because he's building this dream. For me, you know, I took 180 flights last year. I said, hey, where do you live? You live in a suitcase. I live in a suitcase, right? But this is what it takes to build legacy. This is what it takes to build your version of your American dream. you know and whenever I go speak I said like look if an undocumented immigrant that his net worth was five thousand dollars at the age of 21 and now look at where I'm at if I can do this I mean why can't you do whatever you want to do and I think that you know the US is still the greatest country in the world look at what you've built I mean look at what everyone built you know at today's mindset summit you know and I think that for us is like you know I tell my team I met with one of my senior leaders and I said look like I actually texted this because she's like hey you know I really appreciate the meeting and I said hey just know that I love you and I care for you and then I know that sometimes we're like working like crazy right it can be stressful but just know that it will be stressful the journey is gonna be stressful but it will be worth it because right now we have an opportunity to to build legacy and to change our entire lives because what we're doing together we couldn't do separately there was no way that mark could his company go public or my community go public or everyone else but if we come together we have an opportunity to go public one of the biggest privileges of our professional life is we got invited to ring the bell in Nasdaq last year so just think about like all the wins that's why when Mark's like man this is too easy this is crazy because literally in 10 months it's been an amazing journey incredible journey so yeah you know it was it I want to piggyback on what he just said about ringing the bell because that was a that's a core memory right and not only that it's one of one of the highlights of our professional careers and you know I think back on that was a July 27 July 26 breakfast when I asked him hey are we gonna is there gonna have equity are we gonna go public he said yes I never dreamt about going public I just wanted to I wanted to have a big vision I wanted to have something worth putting in take coming out of some retirement and then put going back into the 15 hours a day going back into you know putting the put it you know getting suited and booted like we say you just love this too much man yeah I love it too much and and and then to you know a few months later so that was in well I think it was in May, you know, we get a call from Gary Acosta and he says, hey, I want to invite you guys to the closing bell ceremony at the NASDAQ.

27:16And then I just remember getting off the phone and I said, this is a foreshadowing of what's to come. When we, I was like, I mean, goosebumps were just, I mean, I was like, man, these things happen in my life. And it's just serendipitous that it just shows itself so like clear, right? And so we get there, and I remember after the ringing of the bell, we go outside. We're there looking in Times Square. We're looking at the NASDAQ building, and then it's like 60 feet in the air. You've got your picture up there of ringing the bell, and it goes through. And I was like, man, can you imagine when we're up there with our friends and our family, and it's our company that's going public?

27:57I said, it's going to happen. And this is confirmation right now that God's giving us that it's going to happen. Because who else gets invited? I mean, this is just random, right, that you get invited to be able to participate. But it was because of the fact that we were planning to go public, and they were looking for business owners that were planning to go public and that they knew would go public, and that's why we were invited. That's awesome. Got a couple last questions. we talked about family and this you can you can actually answer this too you know you grew up poor you grew up poor we all i'm an immigrant too and one thing i'm struggling with i'm sure is how do you instill the same level of grit the same level of mindset that same level of perseverance that you had to attain the level of success you have now in your children and your future children you know i went to i went to public school my whole life so i kind of understand what that looks like and then I also went to private school for one year and in that and that you know it was night a day right my public school was 50 60 students my private school class was 9 10 students public school everyone drove you know went on the bus private school G wagons and Mercedes you know like just different lifestyle and I remember I had a friend there and he went to private school his whole life kindergarten grammar school high school his mom cooked the meal for him, cooked the meal for the father, and cooked the meal for herself.

29:31Three different meals. I was like, I had one meal and we had to eat or else we're not eating that day. And I saw, I didn't realize he was being spoiled. Bought a new car, everything they were buying him. And then he ended up spending, I think, his 23rd year in life, he spent more time in jail than he spent outside. And I saw that his mindset was different. Everything was given to him. so I think he felt that the world belonged to him and you know we stopped talking so for me I think that you know for my kids you know I'm gonna I'm gonna have them work I've been working since the age of 13 years old my dad taught me these lessons the same lessons that my dad taught me I'm gonna still my kids my dad gave me a hundred dollars actually didn't give me a hundred dollars he said here's here's a loan hundred dollars go get a fake ID that says you're 18 and start working full-time summers winters I was working at the zoo I was cooking I was selling ice cream and 90 degree weather and I and that was probably one of the biggest lessons that it taught me to I was 13 14 years old speaking with 35 year old you know 35 year olds and I was learning to communicate have conversations with them negotiate with them you know your parents are not there you had a little thing for yourself and for me my kids I want them to be US senators I want their bill the sky you know high-rise you know I have those big goals.

30:50I don't have a goal for them to run Realty of America. I want like greatness and hopefully God gives me that. Yeah, definitely. That's great, great points. And you're going to be an amazing father. I already know that. Oh, dude, he's already teaching me. Yeah, yeah. You know, I think it's a challenge and an opportunity that all parents have, right? especially ones that are they have the ability to provide very well for their kids and give them everything which I think is a duty of a parent you know to you know the reason why we work hard is so that our families can enjoy the life and to buy back our freedom to spend time with them but at the same time like Eddie was mentioning about the friend that he had you know we we are entrusted with lives that the decisions that we make can impact what happens to them in the future, especially the way that they value things and work.

31:53So for me personally, all my kids were homeschooled, every one of them. My middle daughter, who's getting married September 5th, she's the last daughter. I have three daughters to be married. The other two are married. She graduated, is it SUMA or MAGNA? Which is the one where's the top? this the top so she graduated summa cum laude fifth in her class forensic science forensic chemistry major she's now a scientist and she was completely homeschooled all my other kids are amazing my daughter and son both work for me in the real estate business super smart my youngest daughter also just a great great woman she just got married but she she she manifested her dream she just says I want to be a housewife and she married Roy where she's gonna actually she's giving me my first grandson who's she's doing in March she's an army wife so she literally manifested the life that she wanted and as they were growing up I was very careful on how I raised them because I was raised with no allowance I was raised working from the age of four years old with my mom.

33:08I thought it was like seven or eight and then I called. Called her and I was like, how old was I when I used to go to the flea market with you in the morning? She goes, you're like four years old. And I used to hate going there, but she, my mom's Korean and her English wasn't that great. And so she says, but you're really good with the people and they'll buy from you. And we used to sell these little, uh, Buffalo head nickel coin, uh, money clips, earrings and independence and from there and then I worked with their in the restaurants and this and that. I sold gum at high school and so I wanted to figure out hey what am I going to do for my kids.

33:41So what I did for them is I never gave them an allowance but I always gave them the opportunity to work and make money. There was never a lack of work you know so they had their own chores that they had to do as being part of the family unit. Make your bed, clean the house, after you eat your food you clean your dishes you know you're you're doing your chores that is for living period but if you want to make money you wash the car you can cut the grass all my kids helped me um when i did my mail outs for just listed cards and just sold cards and i had a newsletter they would fold tri fold it back this back then you know we we tri folded we we put stamps on you know uh on the uh the envelopes and we mailed up they did all my labels all my stamps uh and i gave them a check book I never gave them cash because my first ever hire my first assistant on the on the we had a proper small property management division the very first assistant that I hired I asked her to write some checks and she didn't know how she was like almost 28 27 she's I've never written a check in my life just like right now kids probably don't you know they don't write checks right it's it's an old it's a lost art form and so at that point I was like well I don't want my kids to not learn how to balance a checkbook.

34:56So right then, my kids were, I don't know, they were like probably 12 and 6, you know, that age. I gave them all a checkbook registry, and I became the bank. And I said, every time you earn money for whatever you do, we're going to put it in the register. And then when we want to go buy something, which we did all the time, so imagine this, we're at Target. All the kids, they all, you know, grab things. They grab some toys, they grab some candies and things like this and the way that we're gonna we're gonna charge it is once i have to pay for it i do a debit in their in their um on their registry so as they're standing there in front of the conveyor the conveyor belt um the candy's going through one of my kids emma she'll grab like the starburst and put it back no i don't want that and another kid would grab something another kid would grab so another kid would grab something by the time the conveyor belt was done nobody bought anything because they didn't want to see their bank accounts go down And then what I did when they were the age of 13 to 16, I gave them the opportunity to buy a car.

35:56It started when they were 13. However much money you save from 13 to 16, I'm going to match it, but you have to buy a car cash. And all my kids purchased a car. One of them purchased a$30 ,000 car. One of them purchased a$4 ,000 car. You know, but they all learned and you know to buy a vehicle to be able to save the money up To be able to balance the checkbook and now all of them are fiscally, you know sound, you know They they and also you lead by work by just by example by just the strong work ethic that you have Kids want to be like their parents. I think so, you know, I I think back, you know, my dad died when I was five years old but even that small amounts of memories that I have with him.