Hello everybody, thank you for coming to our weekly video blog here at California Realty
Training.
Robert Rico here.
We are always looking to encourage you or/and educate you on the real estate world, and
today we have the privilege.
The big privilege to have the Mr. Rick Cunningham himself here.
Now Rick Cunningham, if you guys don't know, is a real estate mogul here in the real estate
world.
We want to ask him a few questions, maybe he can help us out, help you out with your
real estate career, and see maybe if you can get started on a nice strong platform when
you get started.
Rick, how you doing?
I'm doing great.
Thank you for coming.
Nice to see you.
Great to see you.
We want to get to know you a little bit as far as a person, and maybe you'll be able
to tell us how you got started in your real estate field.
Tell us a little bit about yourself- when did you get started in Real Estate?
I got started in real estate about 20 years ago, and I got right into real estate when
I got out of business school.
And I realized that I had a passion for helping people, and so I originally was looking to
get into commercial real estate, and decided I can help more people by getting into the
residential side first.
When was that moment, that precise moment, where you said, you know what real estate
is going to be the thing that I want to do for the rest of my life.
Real estate.
You know, it was in business school that I really realized I have a good act for business.
I thought that this industry needed people in a higher level, and I thought it was a
great opportunity for me to come in and kind of change an industry.
And I saw it as an opportunity to really grow and develop, and make good money.
And be able to help people.
Speaking of money, when you became a real estate agent, how did you grow your business?
Just being a real estate agent.
Well, I had great mentors.
First thing I would say is for a new person, they should get a great mentor.
Mentorship is important.
Mentorship is critical.
So I got the best training, I got great mentorship, and I really focused on generating leads.
And really, we're in the real estate business but it's really about lead generation.
Lead follow ups that gets you business.
Got it, so without people we have no business.
Correct, you can know all the real estate in the world, but if you don't have a client
you're not gonna make money- that's my motto- you can know the contracts upside down, in
the dark, and so on and so forth, but without a client, means nothing.
I hope you agree with that.
I agree completely.
How the heck did you transition from being a real estate agent- this is amazing, from
becoming a real estate agent to owning several real estate brokerages in Keller Williams.
Well, I saw it as an opportunity.
When I first got approached to being the first agent in Los Angeles for Keller Williams,
I saw it as an opportunity to have a business model that really supports my real estate
sales career.
And then I saw the bigger opportunity, which is why I went to business school and own my
own brokerage.
I always have that vision and this became the right platform for me to exercise that
vision, and I've done, you know I own 20 Keller Williams offices now in California and Hawaii.
He owns 20 Keller Williams offices, just so everyone knows here, he's very influential
in the real estate world out here in California and Hawaii.
Yes.
Okay so the transition was simple?
It's not simple, but I am very determined.
So the way I ran my real estate business is the same way I run my real estate companies.
So it's all about, how do I help the agents how do I help the consumers, how do I provide
the best level of support so that way my agents can thrive and be successful as well.Good.
So speaking of agents, within your brokerage, what is that you look for, say when interviewing
an agent that wants to work for your brokerage?
They have to have passion and drive.
Passion.
You can't motivate people, they have to love the business.
If they don't love the business they shouldn't be in this business.
Got it.
You know, like I will say I go on vacation, and I want to look at the real estate locally.
You know, go to open houses, or walk by a window and see what the average sale price
is in places.
So I have that passion.
Passions never die.
I walk to work every day and say, this is my career this is what I love, and so this
doesn't feel like work.
So um, that has kept that fuel going year after year after year.
And I would say, for new agents getting in, they have to have that desire.
The skills can be learned.
But you have to have that passion.
Oh I like that- the skills can be learned, but you have to have that passion.
Right.
You can't teach passion?
You can't teach passion you can't teach motivation.
Got it.
Love it, love it, love it.
What do you attribute your success to?
That's a pretty deep question.
What do you, looking back, I mean you've done a lot, I highly respect you.
You've gone from business school to successful real estate agent to owning brokerages.
Several not just one.
Several.
Looking back, what do you owe your success to?
I learned early on that it's all about who you're in business with matters.
Whether that's a client, or whether that's people that support you or who you help support.
It's about people- it's a people business.
And I have learned how to develop people.
So a person who started as my assistant 14 years ago now runs an entire company for me.
So I believe investing in people, and those people invest back in me, and because of that
we've grown incredible businesses.
There's no way I can run this many businesses without the help and support of others.
Got it, so it's important to have the right team with you.
Completely.
Aside from passion, I'm sure you have other techniques that you used throughout the past.
Passion, determination, all those key elements that we need to be successful.
Who's helped you along the way, aside from your team, is there anybody you particularly,
that you look up to that's influenced your life.
Yes, of course, there's Garry Keller who actually built Keller Williams, is one of the most
people I look at for inspiration.
He's an incredible leader and not just in real estate, you know he's written all these
books, and really looked at this business in a different way, and because of that I
respect what he's done.
I would say that there's a lot of people like John Maxwell and Tony Robbins and others,
so- of you like Tony Robbins?
I love Tony Robbins.
And I do certain things - I create habits.
I learned how to create habits when I want to get better in anything.
Whether it's personal or business.
I create those habits by creating systems behind it to change what I'm doing to be better
at something that I want to be better at.
Speaking of habits, if you don't mind me asking, part 2 of this question, this is good stuff,
on habits.
Habits- it's been known that habits in place will lead you to success, but how do you keep
that habit in tact?
How do you discipline yourself to keep that habit strong.
You said the word- discipline.
What I do is I put sticky notes on my mirror.
And I do it for 30-40 days.
Do you actually put a sticky note?
The sticky note is on my mirror and if you looked at my mirror the sticky note does not
come off, so the first thing I see in the morning and the last thing I see at night
are the sticky notes.
So it's a constant reminder.
This is an actual activity that Rick Cunningham does- puts sticky notes on a mirror to help
him out.
Good.
Yeah, and I put it and I don't do more than 3 things at once.
So for me, it's always my new years resolution.
And I actually succeed at about 90% of it.
And it's all about, I believe a habit is developed over 26-27 days, you create a habit, I do
it a little bit longer.
So, creating those habits it becomes a pattern just like going to the gym.
Like if I don't go to the gym on a day I'm supposed to go, I feel that sense like I'm
missing something.
Right.
You have to do that if you want to be disciplined, if you want to make money in this business,
you have to be disciplined and not all areas, you have to be disciplined in the most important
areas.
That's lead generation, lead follow up, and about really being focused in certain areas.
Got it.
You know we've been talking a lot, just in this interview, about business, about work,
about how to make it happen.
How important is it to have a well balanced day or a well balanced life?
Not just work work work work work.
Cause I've been doing that throughout my career, work work work work work.
Before you know it, years have gone by and my kids are this big now.
And I'm like, what happened?
When did they grow up?
Do you believe that balance is important?
It's incredibly important.
If you don't have balance, you're gonna be- I believe in imbalance.
Constant imbalance.
So yeah, so I work really hard and I make sure I am playing really hard too.
I work at the extremes, and people know that I'm not the agent who's going to put I work
24/7 on my card, cause I'm not.
My family is important and at a certain time, my phone gets turned off and everything else
has to wait.
Does it really get turned off?
It completely gets turned off.
He turns off the phone - which I highly agree with.
Otherwise you're gonna have that little question mark in your head is the phone going to ring
again when you're with your loved ones, and you don't want to have that little doubt in
your head that it might ring.
The last thing you want to do is say, you know, daddy you're always on the phone we're
playing ball you're on the phone.
When you're- you got to be present at work and present at home.
Right.
But if you're not present at each, you're not gonna be happy at both.
I 100% agree.
That actually happened to me, I was answering my phone all the time when I was with my kids,
I was answering the phone all the time.
Eventually they would give me that stink eye that would be like dad not again you're picking
up the phone.
That's the only regret I have real estate, that I didn't spend enough time with kids,
and I put real estate ahead of them- I don't believe that anymore.
Yeah, and you can do this- you can be very effective.
If you're really effective the first 4 hours of the business day, you can accomplish a
lot.
You can be one of the top agents in the entire city.
It's about laser-focus for at least parts of the day.
Everything else can fall apart, and if you do a 4 hour work-day that's really focused,
you can probably reach your goal very easily.
How do you define success?
I define success by - less monetary and more about when people recommend me to others - that
defines success for me, because that tells me I'm doing, I'm accomplishing what I wanted,
which is help people succeed.
That really makes you feel good?
Yeah.
It's not just making me feel good,I feel like I am accomplishing something.
Got it.
So I am making a difference in people's lives, I am making a difference in my own life, and
the money is the bi-product.
Got it.
It's not the focus it's the bi-product.
Beautiful.
I love it, l love it.
Let's talk about the market, today's market.
Um.
Where do you think it's headed?
Well, we're due for more interest rates heights because the economy is actually doing well,
and I feel like we're gonna have a pretty good period right now but I think that that's
a short window, mainly because we are due for a downturn market and we will stay strong
just because the lack of inventory right now, but that's the only thing really that's propelling
us through what should have been and already is a downturn market.
We felt the downturn market already happen in a certain market and we're still feeling
it a little bit, but it's really the lack of inventory causing that.
You expect- are you expecting a downturn anytime soon, say 1 year 2 years?
Yeah- when, according to real estate cycles, and if you had a crystal ball, when do you
think the next one is actually going to affect the market?
I believe we saw part of it last Fall and even into January.
I think we are having a robust Spring because the fundamentals in the difference of government
has caused, is causing part of that and the fact that we have 4.8% unemployment rate really
helps so people can buy.
The problem is when interest rates start going up the affordability changes, and when the
affordability changes it causes a problem.
There's another big issue too, which is the affordability to meet to the demands of first
time home buyers.
There is so much demand and not enough supply for that and mainly because the cost of land
the cost of development and entitlement is so expensive that why build lower income projects
than building much more expensive homes.
Right, I know the affordability index- causing problems.
Yeah, I 'm glad you touched on the affordability index.
In Los Angeles and San Francisco, you own brokerages up in San Francisco- Correct.
Affordability index is very low.
It's very expensive in these areas.
How do people get through these kinds of times, when it's so expensive to buy a home and they
can't so they go into the rental market.
How do we fix that?
And the rentals are so expensive.
That's why if you look at the cap rate of apartment buildings, why it's unprecedented
in numbers.
And it's probably because just the lack of supply.
Right.
And until they release that and allow for more building to go on or create some sort
of government sponsored thing in order to create supply necessary for our economy to
support that growth we're gonna have a really tight and difficult market.
Got it.
This is great stuff.
I'm hoping you guys are taking all this in.
Fantastic stuff.
Let's get off the business side a little bit, um.
How do you start your day?
How do you start your day saying you know what I'm getting up I'm motivated I'm ready
to go out and attack the world.
How do you do that?What motivates you?
I would say everything is a habit.
So I wake up, I eat the same- almost the same thing, I go to the gym every time, almost
the same time, I get to work at the same time I do the same activities and so I start every
day the same.
But what's your motivation?What makes you want to do this?
I would say every day is a new opportunity to do something unique- okay.
And the great part of our industry is- you can be very successful in the real estate
industry and have a very very different day than a person sitting next to you that's also
in the real estate industry.
It's a very broad industry so I would say that I've created an opportunity that really
suits what works well for me and I work well for that niche leadership development which
is what I focus on.
Got it.
And because of that I wake up inspired to affect people's lives, change that, and make
a difference.
Got it.
Let's wrap this up nicely.
There's a lot of mottos out there- one of my mottos is- I like the motto, well the motto
I live by is by Winston Churchill when he says.
Winston Churchill once said "if you're going through hell, keep going."I love it.
You know, if there's a downturn in your life, just struggle through it and get through it.
What's Rick Cunningham's motto when it comes to real estate?
Be in it for the passion or don't be in it.
Be in it for the passion, or don't be in it.
Can you expand on that?
Yeah, you gotta love this business, and if you don't love this business it's probably
not the right career, and I would say that you got to have that internal thing in you
that wants to make a difference and help people.
Can you see that in individuals?
You can see that in a second.
Really.
You can see- within a 2 minute interview I can tell you whether someone's got it or not.
I actually agree with you on that.
Thank you so much for coming, Rick, I appreciate your time.
Listen, if you have any questions go ahead and leave them down below in the comment section.
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Thank you for coming, we'll see you next week.