Guest: Don Rongstad MOVE Asheville Reality

0:02Hi, and welcome to this week's episode of the Epic Entrepreneurs podcast where we are all about helping business owners just like you achieve success. So we don't do fancy smancy. We don't do flashing lights. We don't do a lot of things that a lot of podcasts will do. These are just real stories about real people and their entrepreneurial and business experiences. We go into their wins, their challenges, and their learnings. So we hope you enjoy it.

0:37Welcome to this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs powered by Action Coach Growth Partners. You likely went into business to have more freedom and flexibility so that you could spend more time with your family, do more things or travel or enjoy your hobbies or whatever it is that you like to do in your spare time. We're here to help you find better ways to make more money, build better teams and get that time back so that you can have that freedom and flexibility. We'll help you simplify things and make sense of business, investing, and wealth building so that you can be epic and achieve all your dreams and goals.

1:10And now, enjoy the show. Yes, I'm Don with Move Asheville Realty, broker co-owner of that real estate firm, and I'm happy to be on. Welcome, Don. So how did you get in this business in the first place? Well, years ago, I was a retail store manager and, you know, family of five, me, my wife and three kids. And even though the pay was decent, I still still need a little bit more income to, you know, properly provide for my family. And right around that time, I had purchased a home and just kind of really fell in love with the process. And, you know, who doesn't like to go look at homes? Everyone these days always talks about looking on Zillow and online outlets, and it's kind of enjoyable.

1:56So I kind of instantly fell in love with just a lot of the components of real estate, viewing homes, being interested in the history and the different types of architecture. Um, so my, uh, my realtor broker at the time, uh, is a longstanding friend of mine. Um, Mary Love with Love the Green, uh, Realty. And, uh, so basically after a while, it kind of came to the time where I was like, Hey, you know, kind of have some interest in, in real estate. And even when we were looking for homes, uh, together, uh, you know, she had kind of brought that up, uh, as well as, you know, that I should possibly consider it.

2:38uh, you know, down the road and, uh, down the road just happened to be about, you know, a year or two later. And I was giving her a call and saying, Hey, you know, tell me a little bit more about this. And I guess that was around 2011. Um, and then at the time she was at, uh, Keller Williams. So I, I went through Keller Williams, which is a, you know, great company. Um, uh, a lot of, a lot of training, uh, is in, is involved in their, in their systems. And, you know, they've been around for a long time, you know, huge company. So we kind of did that for a little while. And I learned about, you know, both real estate as well as the team models.

3:18And, you know, everyone in when you go to real estate school, you know, I always tell people, you know, they'll teach you how to get your license, but they don't really teach you how to use it. So that's kind of really where I learned my how to use the license component and actually how to do the business. Um, then later on we went to a, a smaller boutique firm here in town. And, uh, then later on decided to, uh, was kind of involved in, um, uh, the formation of another firm until eventually we just decided to, you know, go full force and, um, have our own firm together with me and a business partner, Amanda Mandeville, who's, uh, just an awesome lady, good friend and Asheville native.

4:07So we went in together and it's been great ever since. So when did you pull the trigger and go in to it yourself? So that was me and Amanda. We went in, it was right one month after the 2020 North Carolina a stay-at-home order after COVID hit. So there was about that two, three months of limbo where the COVID lockdown occurred and everyone was kind of hitting the panic button. And if they weren't hitting the panic button, it was just a lot of unknowns like, okay, what's going to happen next? What is this new norm in really all aspects of life, but obviously pertaining to this, specifically in real estate.

4:56So, you know, so we had no idea what to expect. All we knew is, you know, we were sweating it for a little bit there because, you know, COVID lockdown hit and, you know, real estate kind of did this, you know, weird pause where everyone's like, oh, what's going to happen here? So we wound up, you know, kind of floating the company together financially for several months and kind of, you know, for a split second there, thought maybe we made a bad decision. But then as everyone, you know, knows, you know, real estate just went crazy due to COVID and mainly fueled by a lot of people being able to relocate, keep their, you know, high paying salaries wherever they were living, working remotely.

5:46You know, a lot of people moved here where cost of living, even though it's expensive for what we think of in terms of what we're used to, and we're really where all a lot of us would like it to be. It was less than the places they're moving away from away from such as, you know, Florida, New York, California, places like that. So that kind of stimulated a bunch of, you know, I guess, new residents to the area. And then, of course, Fed had insanely low interest rates, which just made buying power that much easier. And it just caused this crazy shift. And luckily, purchasing our firm together and making that decision to take that plunge wound up paying off in the long run.

6:40And, uh, you know, the, the past three, four years have been phenomenal. Yeah, it's been good. It's been good to be in real estate in the last three or four years. What, um, so it looks like to me, if you started in 2020 and you got into the business in 2011, you did about a nine year apprenticeship. I, yeah, I'd say so. Um, and I'm, I'm bad with dates to be honest with you off the top of my head, but it was somewhere right around that timetable. And, and I did, I did stay as a store manager for a couple years. And I, I didn't believe in doing real estate part time, because I just didn't like the idea of, you know, helping someone with one of their single biggest investments of their lifetime and just doing it, you know, part time on the side.

7:26So I decided that I wanted to make sure that I was absorbing as much knowledge as possible, offer that knowledge and properly advise, you know, others that I was helping with in the process. So I did, you know, a good 40, 40 plus, 40 plus every week doing both for about a year and a half before I felt confident and comfortable that, hey, you know, I can, I can make what my current salary is. And then some, if I'm, you know, maybe doing, you know, 50, 60 hours a week in real estate if I have to. Obviously, that's not the goal. I'd like to, you know, everyone would like to work a reasonable amount so that way they can balance their, you know, business and personal life well.

8:12But I decided that I needed to know for sure because with, you know, a commission-based income, five miles to feed, you know, failure just wasn't an option. So I did both of those for, like I said, about a year and a half before I felt confident enough that I can let the salaried management position go and just go real estate full force. Right. So you put your toe in the water a little bit, checked it out, made sure it is. I want to shift gears a minute, though. You guys went into business on your own and you did that. How long did you do that before you decided, hey, we need to build a team here?

8:55And what spurred that on? Well, we were kind of already a team. There was a former owner and she was the financial backing at the time. And she was at a time where she had been in real estate for a really long time, wanted to kind of step away a little bit. Um, and me and Amanda were, you know, at the early, you know, beginning of our, you know, long real estate, you know, hopefully careers. Uh, and so it was kind of just a, you know, changing of the guards, so to speak. Um, we, you know, met with some attorneys, came up with some numbers, uh, agreed upon some numbers and then, um, you know, kind of, kind of made the rest happen.

9:41Okay. So you bought an existing business that already had other agents. Correct. And it had only been open about a year at that time when me and Amanda, and me and Amanda were already, we were a part of the brokerage. And it was kind of just really serendipitous timing all around. It worked out for everybody involved. Right. So you essentially went to work there and then bought the company from the previous owner and had already had some agents working there. So have you guys grown the agency since then? No. And this is probably a little taboo because it's not the typical business model in that regard that a lot of places would encourage.

10:33would encourage, but, uh, you know, we just want good people that, uh, you know, know, know the business, um, are gonna, gonna do it well, be a good representation of our, of our firm, um, and overall just be good humans, you know? Um, so, so really, you know, we, we, we, myself as well as Amanda, uh, we're both, um, you know, we're owner brokers ourselves. So, So, you know, we have our personal business and, of course, you know, our our family lives. You know, both of us have families. So, you know, we really our focus was kind of, you know, seasoned agents, you know, agents that are no longer on provisional status, have been in the business, know what they're doing.

11:20And then, you know, we're there for support and, you know, we make sure we have all the, you know, best systems in place that we can provide to both ourselves, our clients, as well as our agents with us. And that's, you know, both CRM, you know, pipelines, you know, e-signature software, you know, all those types of things in place. And then we have a big community involvement. We try to do as many, you know, community involvement outreach opportunities with several different places like Transformation Village, Beloved Asheville, Man of Food Bank, and a couple other things that we've done in the past.

12:05And so we're hovering right around 10 or a dozen agents or so at any given time and are really kind of taking that approach. Got it. So let's talk about lessons learned in buying a business, lessons learned in continuing to build a business. What are some of the lessons that you've learned as you've done this? Well, well, first, you know, it's financially, I'm very much, I guess, a little more cautious. I'd say some in terms of being willing to take on, you know, risk when it comes to to a company. So first and foremost, I'd say, you know, know it inside and out before. or, and this is my belief, before you take that plunge, because I'm not a, personally, I'm not a big risk taker financially.

13:06And, and maybe that's partly because, you know, I have, you know, a family of five, depending on me. And like I said, failure is not an option in that regard. But, but make sure you're confident in it, make sure it's, it's something you're passionate about and enjoy and, um, and, you know, some hard work and, and, you know, everything put into it, you'll get out of it in the long run. Uh, for me, you know, real estate just, I knew by then that real estate was what I wanted to do, uh, for my career. And, um, I knew I enjoyed it. I knew I was passionate about it. And so, um, you know, it was a matter of crunching some numbers.

13:47And then it was a no brainer after that. Do you, I know, so you, you help people buy and sell real estate. Are you also an investor in real estate? I am. And that, that kind of just happens sometimes organically. I'm not like a, a significant major investor, but I do have short-term rentals as well as long-term rentals. And I just started getting into that over the past couple of years, just through, you know, opportunities where, you know, when you're stepping foot in, you know, 15 to 25 homes a week, when things are really busy, you know, and when you walk into a place and it just, you're just wowed, you know, and maybe you're there on a showing with a buyer and it's not for them, but, you know, it resonates with you and you run the numbers and it made sense to me.

14:42And so that's what I've done with a few properties here over the past couple of years, long-term and short-term. Well, one of the goals that we have on Epic Entrepreneurs is to help people build wealth. And a lot of people don't really understand that the first key to wealth is having businesses. So you're in a business or a pretty good stream of income. That could be a profession or something that allows you to have extra money to invest. And then obviously real estate is one of the legs. You've got business, you've got real estate, and then you've got the stock market. So do you have any lessons for people that either are already investing or would like to invest?

15:36What would be your advice for them? Specifically investing in real estate? Yes. Yeah. Let's talk real estate since you're a realtor. Let's do that. Yeah. So I would say in regards to the short-term rental market, everyone, like not everyone, I shouldn't say everyone, but a vast majority of people visiting Western North Carolina, when they have this picturesque idea of our beautiful mountains, everything else that it has to offer, shops, restaurants, breweries, everything else. But when it comes to the place that they're planning on staying when they're visiting, they're almost always looking for that rustic cabin type feel.

16:23So obviously, you know, typical homes of all different styles and types, you know, will always do well because there's just so many visitors coming to Western North Carolina for tourism. But the ones that really kind of maximize and are able to charge a premium and just absolutely stay extremely consistently booked always seem to be those rustic, you know, log cabin type homes, you know, ideally with a mountain view, but not entirely absolutely necessary to maximize occupancy. But log homes and rustic type homes, they just do really, really, really well for the short term market. it. And then as far as long-term rentals, the ones that really tend to kind of drive the premiums best are the ones that are closest to really Asheville in the area.

17:22Once you start going further out and it's a little more rural, now while you may appeal to a prospective tenant, you know, I've got a, you know, acre lot, you know, nice home, you know, that's still going to do well, but the ones where you really kind of start to see, you know, over and above what you're, let's just say you have a mortgage on it, over and above what you're able to produce for, you know, net operating income. If you can get into a nice area, nice neighborhood, and just kind of close to everything in Asheville, those are the ones that tend to yield the best ROI on that net operating income.

18:05So, and that's really kind of all over Asheville, you know, West Asheville, of course, has the, has the, you know, the trendy name and, and, and rightfully so, and certainly yields, you know, crazy rental incomes. And oftentimes that's, that's due to people, you know, doing subleases with, you know, multiple bedrooms, and then being able to have that walkability to Haywood Road and everything like that. But also North Asheville, East Asheville, the Biltmore Village area, South of Asheville, all those areas kind of tend to yield the best, from what I've seen anyway, in terms of what your ROI and operating income will work out to be.

18:52You pay for it a little bit on the front end because of prices being slightly higher, but it does pay off in the long run. And they also tend to appreciate typically at a higher rate than some of the outlying towns and municipalities and hold their value and appreciate. Nice. Nice. So the real answer there is location. is just like it always has been. Let's do a quick fire round. These are quick answers. EPIC is an acronym. I'm going to tell you what the E, the P, the I, and C stand for. I just want your quick thoughts on each one. The E stands for education. What are your thoughts on what kind of education you need to be in business?

19:47uh well yeah i mean that is that is absolutely the most important um kind of i touched on it earlier you know uh you know doing this business you know while you know you can do it part-time to really have like the best knowledge available to properly advise people uh while they're you know either selling or purchasing one of their biggest single investments in their entire lifetime is to have that information. So constantly keeping up with the market, having, you know, tons of referrals available and partnerships through numerous, you know, professionals, whether it's closing attorneys, you know, builders, home inspectors, general contractors, you name it, having that in your hip pocket and knowledge ready to roll is absolutely the utmost important thing when you're doing this business.

20:51Of course, integrity and honesty and all those things are definitely key core values that are important. But yeah, you've got to have the knowledge to know how to use your license. Like I said, school teaches you how to get your real estate license, but you really need the knowledge, boots on the ground and information to really properly do real estate, in my opinion. Perfect. So the P stands for planning. What role does planning play? Well, as far as, I guess there'd be several components. In the real estate profession, we always talk about your pipeline, basically clients that are ready to roll right now, whether that's buyers or sellers, you know, your people in a month from now or even two weeks or, you know, maybe maybe they're five years out, you know, and they're planning on retiring and they're already touching base with you and, you know, letting you know that, hey, you know, we plan to retire in X, Y amount of years.

21:49So staying connected, even if it's a light touch, you know, you've got to plan for those things and stay, you know, very organized. That was something that I learned well from a store manager position years ago. And with all those moving parts, you have to stay organized, detail-oriented, and properly plan. And then, of course, once you do have, let's just say you have a listing, you've got to plan how you plan to market that property down to the day you want to go live, when you want to start allowing showings. Um, uh, and then once you have a contract, I mean, if you're, you know, whether it's a buyer or seller, you know, you're, when, when is the inspections, you know, if there's a loan involved, when's the appraisal happening, uh, coordinating, you know, closing time that's convenient for, uh, you know, buyers, sellers, um, mortgage lender, if they're going to be there for the closing.

22:46Uh, so yeah, planning is, is definitely, um, uh, very, very important. Yeah. So the I in the C is inspiration and commitment. So real quick, where do you find inspiration? Maybe a one sentence answer there and then commitment. What do you think about how you have to commit to a profession? Yeah. So inspiration, I would say when you're at the finish line after you've, you know, witnessed the fruits of your labor, that's that's the that's honestly everyone's best part. I mean, that's when, you know, everything kind of happens. People get keys or if they're a seller, they get a check. So happy faces.

23:30And, you know, I call them warm fuzzies. That's when all the warm fuzzies start to happen. That's the inspiration part for sure. nice nice so this has been awesome having you on here we make we probably could talk for hours it seems like we both enjoy chatting a bit so um this has been this has been great i think there's a lot of input here really appreciate you being on the show today absolutely thank you so much for having me yeah and until next time all the best thanks for joining us for this week's episode of epic entrepreneurs. Here's four things you can do. First, you can listen every week on Biz Radio Mondays at 1.

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