Episode 407 -Rick Hennessey, CEO - HouseAmp

Brokers and agents that want to provide more value, Right. They want to help their customers, the good ones.

And then there's the homeowner who wants to sell their home faster and they want to make more money, Right? And if you can get your home move in ready, then you, you know, the. All the statistics tell you that you can sell it faster for. For more money.

You're listening to the Real Estate Sessions, and I'm your host, Bill Risser. With nearly 25 years in the real estate business to interview industry leaders, up and comers, and really anyone with a story to tell.

It's the stories that led my guests to a career in the real estate world that drives me into my ninth year and nearly 400 episodes of the podcast. And now I hope you enjoy the next journey. Hi, everybody. Welcome to episode 407 of the Real Estate Sessions podcast.

As always, thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you so much for telling a friend. This is a really fun episode. I've got to tell you.

I had the chance to interview Rick Hennessey, the CEO of HouseAmp. HouseAmp is a platform that allows sellers to access equity to make improvements to the home. And it's all taken care of via this platform.

It's just really cool. We're going to talk a lot about it. Rick's a great guy.

He's in Florida as well as I am, but grew up in Alaska and went to Oregon and lived in Seattle, so he's got that whole Northwest vibe. But now in Florida, like me. So it's going to. It's really a lot of fun, in fact. Well, let's just get it started. Rick, welcome to the podcast.

Well, thank you, Bill. I appreciate that. And thanks for having me today.

This is going to be a lot of fun. You know, I love doing a little research when I, when I, when I meet a new guest, I think it was bondal and jolly. Right.

That kind of got us connected. Right. So, yeah, I had a great time talking to her. If I remember right.

There's a whole lot of music in her family, which is super cool, which, you know, that we kind of. I might have talked too much about.

That music and the arts. I think she's got some actors and models, all sorts of fun stuff going on in her life. Yeah, she's a.

They do. It's pretty. It's pretty cool. I'm going to start where I always start, Rick and I like to find out, you know, where people grew up, their background.

Just. I love backstories because eventually we all Know what we're going to get, we're going to talk about House amp. Right. You're the CEO of HouseAmp.

We're going to talk about that product, what it's doing. I'll ask you some questions about real estate. But it, but first, let's have some fun. And my, my first question is I see you live in Florida.

I do as well. I'm in St. Petersburg. I think you're on the other coast. Yeah.

Yep.

And I'm not a native Floridian and I don't think you are either, so.

I am not. That's a great. No, you've, you've spotted that. I don't know how, but. So yeah, no, I grew up in Alaska.

Wow. Let's. So let's let first of all, that you're the second guest out of 400 that grew up in Alaska. I don't know if you know Nobu Hata.

No.

Who was with. Okay. He was, was with NAR for a little while. Now he's the CEO of the. I think it's the Denver mls. But he grew up in Alaska as well.

So I have to ask first of all, where in Alaska?

So it was in Ketchikan, Alaska. And my dad was a fisherman and my mom was a realtor.

And if you talked to Nobu, he probably would tell you that it's a very kind of resilient, hard working group of people up there. And my mom had a pretty successful career in realty. I think, you know, they're very community oriented up there. And my mom is a super good listener.

So she wasn't real salesy, but she cared a lot about people and she was a big part of community, always active. And it sort of drove her to this really successful career. And a lot of those, you know, very, like if I shake your hand, it means we have a deal.

Like high integrity type of approaches to life still, you know, are lessons that I keep with me down here in sunny Florida, even though it's not in Alaska.

Yeah, we'll talk about that. It's funny. So obviously heavy, heavy influence from your mom. That's fantastic.

Talking about Alaska a little bit, my first thought is this, like, is it really the sun never comes up in the winter and you're like in darkness the entire time. And can I play golf? Can I play golf in the summer at 10:00 at night, tee off and finish my round?

You can do that actually. Yeah.

You know, I remember walking to school and having it be dark outside and, and you know, recess you get a little sun and then you're walking back in the dark just for a few, you know, maybe a few weeks during the. During the winter, and then it gradually you get a little bit more sun.

But in the summertime, as a kid, I mean, we would be out, you know, until 1 or 2 in the morning, because it felt like you're during the day. And that's the good part, the hard part.

When my dad used to take us fishing on his fishing boat, we always tell him that if child labor laws were enacted back then that he'd be in jail. But he used to really put us to work. But, you know, when the light's out so long, you work all day and almost all night.

And so some benefits from some of those industries. But yeah, it's definitely a different climate up there.

I was going to say, somehow you have to sleep somewhere. And probably it's the thing that suffers the most is not getting enough. Right?

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

What's the biggest misconception about Alaska? What do you hear from people? Probably it was, I just did it with the sun.

But what's the biggest misconception that you've heard over your time when you tell people that you grew up in Alaska?

That's a really interesting question because, you know, when you do talk to people about Alaska, the first thing they do is look at you and go, whoa. And I think, you know, they think of igloos and snow and moose crossing and very blue collar, which is. Which is a lot of that is true.

But actually, what I think, you know, the people up there are really quite incredible. They're resourceful. They. They have to plan ahead. And things don't always go right because of the climate.

And so they have to be very innovative at how they solve problems. So there's never this. I guess we can't do it because it's cold outside. You know, people there find ways to get things done.

And I see that as like a very entrepreneurial spirit. They just are out there. You know, they have. They might be lacking resources because there could be in a village somewhere.

They don't just have a Kmart next door or Walmart or, you know, I'm aging myself with Kmart. I don't think they're even anymore.

But I'm with you. I'm with you. It's all good.

Exactly. So, you know, I think. I think there's just a really, a lot of great people that are resilient and are very innovative. Innovative.

They've got to figure out ways to get things done. And unlike down here, oftentimes it's a lot about their survival as well.

Lots of families that are fishing and if something breaks, they have to fix it themselves without resources. So a lot of really interesting people that are very community oriented. They do anything for you. And I just, I love that. That aspect of it.

I think that's.

People are missing some of that aspect of innovation and, you know, they may not have as much experience, like with Wall street or things like that, but they're, they're finding ways to innovate and it's really interesting.

So, yeah, now you brought up the entrepreneurial. Entrepreneurial spirit there, I find. You know, look, you've done a lot of things in your life already. It's truly, it's. It's really fun to look at.

We'll talk about that shortly.

But were you an entrepreneur at a young age where there was that a part of Rick that was doing some things that, you know, other people weren't doing, you know, at your age?

Yeah, I mean, it started young. I. I had a landscaping company for years. You know, you go around and mow. I had a couple friends I would hire. I had a. I would take the.

The extra boughs and make Christmas wreaths. So I had a nice. Always had a nice revenue bounce in the holiday season.

And then when I went to college, I had a company where I made hats and T shirts and sweaters and things for the fraternities and sororities and really enjoyed that. I got to. It never hurts to be able to walk into a sorority, have something to talk about. So that was a lot of fun.

And I ended up selling that business when I graduated at Oregon to 2. Two of my friends, and they were on like a payment plan over two years and they never missed a payment. It was really cool.

It wasn't a big business or anything. It was just, you know, specialty advertising. But, yeah, it's been in my. I think the idea of creating something from nothing is interesting to me.

I really like that. And helping people is something that I've always enjoyed.

And so the ability to sort of create something that helps people always has been a main driver and helped me really enjoy that experience. And, you know, that's what's been driving me.

Yeah, well, that's another thing we're going to talk about in depth. But there's this side of me that I just can't let this go, Rick. I should. I know I should. You're a duck through and through. There's nothing.

Nothing Wrong with that. My wife and I on a trip stayed in. It's Eugene. It's a beautiful campus. Oh my gosh. I could see, see why you would want to go there. But man, Rick, last.

You know, we're recording this on the day after. The day after the the game. Thoughts on, you know, a 13 and 0 Oregon winning the Big Ten their first year in the Big Ten, which was.

Is an amazing accomplishment. But man, what happened with Ohio State?

I'll tell you, the better team showed up. It was. I've never seen Oregon get manhandled like that. I'm sure they have, but it was just a really great example of a team that was very prepared.

They had Chip on their shoulder. They came in and they just completely dismantled Oregon and it like. I think there was a lot of shock and awe for everybody.

The offensive coordinator, a guy named Chip Kelly, was the old coach of Oregon in the past and I have a lot of respect for him and like the, the defense just did not have an answer. And all of their athletes look prepared and just at the top of their game. It was a really. I'm.

I obviously was voting for Oregon, but if you're an Ohio State fan, I don't know if there's a prouder moment. These guys just. Everybody was playing at the top of their game and they just, they look great. So it was kind of hats off to those guys.

Not the direction I. I wanted to go, but onward and upward, right? Yeah.

I'm hoping Phil Knight puts the pocketbook even a little bit more for nil money. Maybe next season. Who knows? I don't know. It's. And look at all the schools that are in there now. It's all part of the game this year, right?

Yeah.

Portals the money.

Yeah, I wrestled there. I wasn't very good, but I wrestled. And I did have a chance to meet him and just a really gracious, nice person.

So I actually really would love to see a national championship come just for the commitment that guys had to the school.

No kidding. Yeah. That's great. I've heard nothing but great things about him. So that's awesome. So you graduated. You had to.

You sold your first business after you graduated. But what was the plan? Were you already in this startup mindset as you were leaving school? You had some ideas you wanted to follow?

No. I mean, I wish I did. I've always had the startup mindset, but I didn't really have a laid out plan. I did have a desire to build.

I always wanted to build something.

And so what Happened was I had my first job and I started innovating within that company and realized that, well, thought I could do something different, better, and, you know, and just had such a sort of burning desire to try something that. And I was young enough and naive enough not to understand the ramifications of not having very much money in the bank when you first start that.

I just started and was fortunate with a lot of help from people, to have some successes early. So. Yeah.

So what timeframe are we talking about here? When you went into your first, you said, I'm gonna do this on my own. What year are we talking about?

Oh, gosh. So my first business, let's see, started somewhere around the late 90s.

Okay. All right. So right in that timeframe when things were kind of happening. And also things are about ready to not happen.

Yeah.

You have built and sold and invested in companies that have been everything from wireless to data to transactions to healthcare. Am I on the right path here? Healthcare, yeah.

So you had all these things you were doing that started early, but all of a sudden, like, about five years ago, you decide. Real estate. I'm gonna get back into that with. Because it reminds me of my mom. I don't know how.

Well, how did you get back into real estate through that whole.

Yeah, I've always loved real estate, and I think partly because it was just around our house a long time. But I really like large, fragmented industries that have problems. Okay, right. That have issues that need to be solved.

And I especially like ones that have issues that can help people. So years ago, I had the first ringtone company for phones, and we built that business and sold the company.

And I honestly, I didn't, like, I felt a little empty.

It really wasn't like, it was about kind of having some fun and making money, but it wasn't about, like, there's nothing I would go and be super proud of around, like, hey, we made a difference in someone's life. And the next company I built was caller ID for phones. So if you have a caller ID in your cell phone, that was my business.

We built that about four years. We sold it for. It was the first company sold out of the recession for over 100 million. So that was a good. A good exit.

And I also felt a little bit like, well, we're just here making money. Isn't there something else? And in the middle of that, we started getting into real estate.

And there was a woman who was in her late 70s, and she needed to. Wanted to move into a retirement home with one of her best friends and didn't have enough money and she's still in her home.

So I loaned her some money just to help her out and she, it was like maybe 65, 70,000. She used that money, we helped her with contractors to improve her home. And I think she sold it for, you know, almost 225,000 over list.

And that difference, the delta, enabled her to go into the retirement home with her friend. And so that's really nice.

And what happened was when I went to pick up my check from the money I lent her, she came out and she started to cry and she gave me a hug and she put this face print on my white button up shirt and her makeup was all over it. And when I got home, my neighbor, who's the just brilliant banker and financial sort of expert, saw it, was asking me, hey, what's going on?

I told him the story and he was like, well, that's fascinating. And we just started talking about over the next couple of weeks, the fragmentation, the cost of money, how difficult it was, the regulations.

It's just so difficult and fragmented that we realized if we could solve that problem, that we could build something really special that could help a lot of people and a lot of the participants in the real estate ecosystem.

Wow. So that's the, the, the early genesis of House amp.

Yep.

Correct.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You gave us a great case study on how it helps as you go along. But overall, what is the, the process that House amp uses that then gives up?

I imagine there's different problems you solve for different people, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Well, all with the same, all with the same platform.

Yeah, that's a really good way to, to kind of ask the question. So. And I'll try to answer it the same way. Ask. I guess so it does.

What, what, what's happened is there's like brokers and agents that want to provide more value, right. They want to help their customers, the good ones.

And then, then there's the homeowner who wants to sell their home faster and they want to make more money. Right.

And if you can get your home move in ready, then you, you know, the, all the statistics tell you that you can sell it faster for, for more money. The problem is, is that it's really cumbersome.

And so the other side of it is we see service providers who want to do the right thing and work on a home to improve it, but oftentimes that homeowner either doesn't have the capital, which about like almost 90% of people don't to make improvements they need or they don't want to take the time to get it.

And so what we do is we built this platform that enables the agent to invite a homeowner and literally in five or 10 minutes, they can get approved and be ready to go to work. And it enables them to leverage the equity in their home.

So it's a very specialized heloc, so they can go on there and get capital and then they can connect with a service provider. They can choose anyone they want.

And basically, we've taken all of that sort of cumbersome nature out of enabling a homeowner to prep their home for sale. And they don't have to. They can get capital and they have to pay anything until the house sells with this market.

And the way you ask the question is really good because, you know, there used to be ways to sort of try to do that, but they were, one, oftentimes cumbersome and two, they didn't fit regulatory needs of the marketplace.

So we've seen some of the service providers now getting slapped with fines because they're trying to help a homeowner, but they're actually acting as a lender and they're not having disclosures and all the appropriate things. Lenders should be lending. So we, what we do is we connect the lenders on the backside and we manage all of the services for them so to make it fast.

And then the homeowner gets approved directly with that lender through our platform. And they, they, the agent gets to see everything that's happening and they add more value.

And so now the homeowner gets their home improved, they get to sell hopefully faster and hopefully for more money, and everybody wins across the ecosystem.

You think about it, you're helping a whole lot of people there because you've got lenders who probably are like, they're too busy to do something that's maybe considered on a smaller scale. But you've made it simple for them. They just have to be there for their return.

Service providers who wouldn't maybe have the deals they're getting right, unless there was a way to capitalize. Unbelievable.

Or they've done lending before and now they're realizing one, it's expensive to keep on their book. It. It might be, yeah.

So, yeah, it's funny. So then the old network platform, whether it's Match.com or Uber, that's what House amp is. It's like we were solving a problem.

These people need this, These people have this. How do we get them connected?

Yeah. And I think, I think the broker just too, in that they want to add more value, they're getting crushed on commission.

So there are not a lot of services that are like a seller, ancillary product they can make money on. So like we sit in the middle. So if you're a lender, you, you can't give something of value back to somebody who gives you a referral.

There's, there's respite laws, but the way we've managed it and built it, we are not the lender. I mean we don't make any money on the lending and so we are able to share back revenue.

So we're a really unique tool for them to add an enormous amount of value to their customers, help them get a better return and, and still also generate some meaningful ancillary income off of those transactions. And that's been really great. We don't take every brokerage. It's a very costly thing for us to implement and we don't charge the broker.

So we only work with brokerages who are committed. Wow. And, and so we don't, we don't really need every brokerage.

We just want the ones that are committed and also ones that are known for taking good care of people.

Does this mean you're focusing on maybe mid size and smaller independents? You're not working with some of the behemoths in the industry or.

Not necessarily. But it means that if they don't want to commit to an enterprise program, their agents can still use the platform.

But we just don't do things like commit resources, do revenue share back or help them market things like that.

It's just more about, we want our enterprise partners that we commit to and invest in to also be committed to building out a program that's meaningful.

Yeah, yeah, that's great. Is there ever a time where the deal just doesn't work?

Yeah, there must be. Yeah, sometimes. I mean, that's a great question. Yeah.

And I think, you know, our product is for someone who's got enough equity in their home and the leverage, I mean, fortunately right now we've never seen such high amounts of equity in housing. The market's been really quite incredible.

So if you've got decent credit and good equity, it's an incredible program because you really, there's nothing out of your pocket until your house sells it. Literally. It's like just a, you know, I think people see it as a profit center. So really, really great solution for that. Yeah.

As an old time, you know, Fidelity National, a financial employee and ran a branch for 10 years, you know, running escrow teams and things. I imagine it's a very simple process on their side.

They're just going to get a demand and a couple of things that they're going to add to the settlement statement and that's how you get paid.

Yeah, it has taken us, I think if we realize how, how much work it was because we're integrated with a federally regulated registered national bank and we, we do everything from the end to end. So all, everything is automated, the automation of the notary, the title filing, everything.

And it has been, it's taken, the integration with the bank took almost two years. Wow.

Yeah.

So we're really a very large infrastructure company and we've just started launching now we're finally across almost every state except for probably maybe six. And so we'll be nationwide I think by end of Q1. And we're now bringing on more brokerages and partners and it's really been a fun experience.

But you know, it's like building infrastructure takes a lot of patience and a lot of work and you don't really want to take shortcuts. So it's been a, it's been a pretty challenging, I think couple years simply because we always want to chase the shiny object.

But now we've got this foundation and we're starting to add more, you know, certain features to our platform. Like service providers love our platform.

They don't have to go collect money, they just, they just, the homeowner accepts it, we put it in their bank. They've got an entire platform.

If they're a large enough service provider, they can invite their customers and their customers can go through our 5 to 10 minute process and they just start working with them. So it's pretty, pretty, pretty cool.

That's great. When you, when, when you can generate more business, you know, through the partnerships. Yeah, that's awesome.

What do you have, do you have competition? You know, and if you do, what, what differentiates Houseamp from the others?

Yeah, there's a lot of great companies out there doing I would say like similar but not the same. And you know, like there's some great lenders out there that have built some platformish stuff to help their partners.

There's a lot of great companies out there, like we call them turnkey service providers and those ones are ones that kind of help start the market.

So you see the revives and curbio and renovation sales and there's a long list of those and we're starting to work with most of those because Initially, they're sort of forced to do the lending because they didn't have a good option. And now we're adding them on as a partner. So we manage the lending and they can focus on doing the good work that they do. Right.

And they all have some really interesting value propositions for the agent and the homeowner that are important. And so we just take the cost of capital off their plate and the very fragmented sort of lending process out of it.

And now they can just connect with the customer, they can get them a pay a close loan and they can get busy with their job and doing good work. And so we're starting to see them, now that we've gone nationwide, begin to join the platform. And that's exciting.

Wow, that's great. So those companies are more connected to the service providers in some way, shape or form. Do they kind of recommend them, whereas you don't?

Yours is kind of wide open.

Yeah, you can use anybody you want.

Matter of fact, it's interesting because, like before the, before the new year, there's someone that was using a turnkey and they also went out and used a stager and a mover. And so they're not stuck into one group. They can use whoever they want.

We've seen people use it for retirement homes to move in early while their house is getting improved and all sorts of things. The motto of the company internally really is improving lives one home at a time. Like, and we try to keep very focused on the homeowner.

I mean, we have a side of the business that's built for the agent and the brokerage and certainly for lenders to plug in. And we manage everything for them. And all this service pro is a really big part of what we do. We want them to have a seamless experience.

But at the end of the day, if we can do what we do really well and make, take, take the stress off of people when they're selling their home, it is one of the most stressful, hard things for humans to go through selling a home. And it might be one of their largest transactions.

So if you can make any meaningful impact, you can really, actually potentially change someone's life in a very positive way.

And if you can't, if you don't, if there's a service that doesn't do a good job or they don't have the ability to actually make changes, then it could have an adverse effect.

So we feel really good about the idea of like taking something that wasn't there before, kind of gluing it all Together and enabling people to just, you know, take this experience and make it better.

Building something from nothing. Yeah, there you go. That's awesome. Let me, I'm gonna ask you. Let me ask you an industry question here, Rick. You know, the industry's been through.

I mean, the last five years have just been out of this world, literally, right? Because we were kind of doing okay. And then the pandemic hits, and we were convinced that everything was just going to be. It's going to.

Nothing's going to work, and we're going to be in trouble. And it turned out two months later, three months later, to be just this market. That was incredible. And then we've kind of slowed down again.

So let's 20, 25, as we're sitting here, you know, the beginning of the year, where do you see the market headed? You know, what's, what's. And I know that's the hardest question to answer, and it's the one that's asked the most.

Yeah, well, I'm probably too positive, but I mean, I think, you know, we've seen rising interest rates, we've seen fluctuation in inventory, you know, changing in buyer behaviors. Just happened. It's just there. It's just. It's a different world now, and it's created challenges.

But I actually think that, like, those challenges also for an agent or a brokerage or service provider that we work with are also incredible opportunities.

You know, the ability to go out, like, and take this marketplace where, you know, I think it's thin, obviously, so realtors are having challenging times, some of them, and so there's an opportunity to do things like use technology to streamline your processes, not just with all sorts of other really cool AI and things they're doing and really lean in to, like, create exceptional, you know, client experience.

I think the, the, the agents that do that, that take the time and connect as a human, but also leverage all of the amazing resources out there are the ones going to come out way better than they were before. So to me, it, it might be one of these things where it's kind of just like letting the cream rise to the top.

And if you want to be the cream, there's some things you can do that will make you better. And I think those, the work they put in now will compound when the market gets. Gets better.

So I think, to me, it feels like this is, this marketplace has created a pretty unique opportunity for, for us.

You know, we saw the housing prices increasing and we realized that, you know, the cost of capital when you're lending is usually the lowest cost, usually wins. So we realized like, wow, if we go to a bank that's the lowest cost of capital. There's going to be a lot of equity in homes.

People are going to want to leverage that. And if the market gets really tough, I thought it might get tougher. They're not going to have a lot of money to spend.

And so that was kind of the recipe for like, wow, we could be helpful. But the marketplace might be one of these unique places, situations that you don't get to see very often. And so that was sort of the foundation.

And I think, I think you're going to see the good brokerages, the smart ones and the good smart agents that streamline and do those things, have, have a lot of success going forward.

Yeah, I, I have a good friend of mine, Sean Carpenter, who is a Coldwell banker agent right out of Columbus, Ohio.

Sorry, it just keeps coming up everywhere I turn the corner.

Well, he went to Florida, right. Because his dad was a actual professor at Ohio State. But he wanted to go to form, he went to Florida, he's a gator. Like, like we did.

Anyways, he, he has this great tagline that he does. He speaks nationally, he coaches and he's just a great guy.

And it's, you know, if you just build relationships, solve problems and have fun, that's a pretty good day, right?

Yeah.

And that's really, when I listen to you, that's what I hear. Right. If you can be that face to face person and the good agents are, the good agents solve problems, that's huge.

And technology is a big part of that. And of course the have fun part, you know, got to do that.

Well, I'll tell you, my business partner went to Ohio State, so. And his wife played softball for him. And they were my neighbors when I, you know, lived up in Seattle.

And so it's, it's, we're having a lot of fun with that actually.

I gotta tell you, maybe in my younger years I wouldn't be like this, but now I sort of, after the, the, a little bit of processing now I'm excited for them and I want to see Ohio State go all the way. So a funny story. My neighbor. So in, you know, in Florida we live on these little waterways, right?

So my neighbor across the water, I had my Oregon flag up on my dock, put out his Penn State flag.

And so my daughter, who's like a little goody two shoes, I put her in the golf cart, I bought an extra flag, we snuck over there in the middle of the night and replaced it out with an Oregon flag. Took his pens, he giggled all the way over and all the way back. She thought that was the funniest thing she'd ever seen.

So my neighbor woke up, he called me, he's giving me a bad time. I said, it's been up for like a week. But so we've been. We try, we try to have fun with it. It is just a sport.

Even though it really can dig a little deep sometimes in those losses.

Yeah, it can hurt. Yeah. This has been great, Rick. I always end every podcast the Same way for 400 and this is episode 407.

So I've asked the same question of everyone and you don't have to be a realtor to answer it. But what one piece of advice would you give a new agent just getting started in the business?

I mean, obviously I'm not going to tell them more about their job than they know, because I'm not an agent.

But I would say, like, you know, anytime there's a market that's challenging or anytime you're starting, like with your career, it's like, find your niche and find an edge. And once you find that edge, double down on it.

So whether it's customer service or knowing a local area, like, go into it and go deep and be known for that.

And I think that's always a kind of a nice thing to fall back on and get exposure for the things that, you know, you can do well or the things that give you that edge. And I think, you know, using technology is one of those edges. It really is. I have an interesting story. If we have a second, and that is.

So we had a sales manager for one of the large brokerages. And this brokerage, one of the early new agents that came aboard was a young man and he went through our training. We have a very simple training.

It's not hard to provide our product to customers. And he went out there and he was competing on a high end luxury home with three other very experienced high end luxury agents.

And he had just done our training and he had his meeting with the person and it was somebody, I think, managing a trust.

He forwarded a link for the improve to sell the person, manage it, clicked on it, got capital, improved their home, and in the middle of all this got engaged with this young new agent. When you think maybe those other three, probably a lot more experienced, probably maybe a better fit, lost that deal, the young guy got the deal.

It ends up being we were sitting on one of their calls. And what happened was the manager was telling the story.

The young guy just forwarded the link and started to engage with that manager of that trust and earn that deal. And so I think it's a good example.

Again, it's sort of, you know, promoting our business, but the reality is it's just about, you know, being curious and finding new ways to create that edge and using things that might differentiate and connect you closer to the person selling their home.

And that's just a great story because it was, it was, you know, someone who really probably might not have deserved with that deal, but use, use something that, that helped them provide more value and connect with that customer.

Yeah. That's awesome, Rick. This has been a lot of fun.

I, I'm so glad that you, you're, you processed the, the game already and that, you know, you're, you're not upset because I didn't know where we were going to go with this before we connected. But like, I, I, I am a huge Pac12 guy. You know, that's where I grew up. You did too.

And now that it's gone, you know, we're all following our teams in different places and I'm just happy for to be able to say this on my podcast that ASU and Oregon, in their first year in these supposed power conferences, won the conference. There's nothing better to say than that.

It's awesome. It's awesome. They had a great year. I'm actually so happy for the year. It brought a lot of joy and I'll take it.

Yeah. Well, if someone wants to reach out to you, what's the best way for them to do that?

They can just send me an email@rickousamp.com okay. Just my name@housesam.com and I really appreciate you having me on the show. It's been really great to have a conversation.

Looking forward to seeing you again.

We'll have to connect next time. I'm down in South Florida. I've got my in laws are down there for my son and so we'll definitely find a way to connect.

That'd be great. Thank you.

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