EP63 From Water Meters to Trading Land with Sean Asada

[00:00:00] This is what I've always thought. I love land. I want to own land that I can hunt, but investment first. So I can't go broke doing this. But if I can find something that's a good, solid investment, then I'm interested in it. And then I just so happen to be able to hunt it. From cornfields to high-rises, office to industrial, houses to hotels, and every other asset class in real estate, we cover the people, the projects, and the profit.

[00:00:29] Welcome to the Investing in Iowa Show. This show is for go-doers, action-takers, and business owners. It's for people like you who are sick of Uncle Sam taking a huge bite of your apple. If you're looking to get ahead of what's taking place in Iowa, learn who is doing what and how you can get in on the action. You're in the right place.

[00:00:50] Hosted by Neil Timmins, an Iowa native who has been involved in over $300 million in real estate right here in Iowa. Recording in studio from West Des Moines. Here's your host, Neil Timmins. I've got Sean Asada here on the show. Sean, welcome. Hey, nice to be here. Thanks for inviting me. I'm glad you're here. Say, for the audience to say, who are you? Where are you from? What do you do?

[00:01:12] My name is Sean Asada. I live in Urbandale, and I own and run the Remax Real Estate Center in Urbandale off of 100th and Douglas. They're by the Donut Land and the new Demos. Okay. Yeah, fantastic. All right. So take me back to the beginning. Where are you from? And then walk me through the journey of how you ended up in real estate. So it's really a hard knock journey. It's nothing special. I went to high school in Forest City, Iowa.

[00:01:40] And then after that, a little bit of self-deprecation here. I was not smart enough to get into a university after that. So I didn't even try getting into a university. After looking at my SAT score, I knew where that was landing. So I went to NIAC. And then from NIAC, I went to UNI. Still didn't know what I wanted to do.

[00:02:04] So then after UNI, I got an internship with Urbandale Parks and Rec. So I did my internship with Urbandale Parks and Rec. I graduated from UNI in 2003. I wanted to get out of there as quick as I could. I got out of there in four years, minus my internship, which was that summer. What did you study UNI? It was leisure, youth, human services, basically people management. The furthest thing from real estate. Yeah.

[00:02:30] Well, not really. I mean, people management certainly has a real estate vein to it. Yeah. But now it's not directly real estate. Correct. Yep. I loved college. I really, really enjoyed it. Classes. Meaning what I loved in college is I had some really great instructors. Some, not even a majority. Some really great instructors that I really liked. It's got you to think deeper with more breadth and depth in everything you did.

[00:02:56] But really the social life, even just hanging out with my roommates and just that whole aspect of learning to be an adult. Yeah. Being on your own. But after UNI, I did my internship with City of Urbandale Parks and Rec. I called four or five places and then ended up landing there. So my maybe April of 2003 came to Des Moines looking for an apartment and started at the cheapest and started working my way up.

[00:03:25] And my gosh, the place I moved into, the apartment I moved into, I can't like now there's 0% chance I would move back there. It's just that actually I'll say that I didn't have to say where it was at, but shortly after moving out, somebody was killed outside of my window. Oh my God. So it was in an area I wouldn't take my kids to, I mean, to go live in, right? During the day, it's fine. Yeah.

[00:03:51] But so from there, I was in a couple of meetings doing my internship with City of Urbandale. I ended up getting a job at Urbandale Water. Great job. Great people. As far as a job goes, fantastic. What did you do there? I was essentially a customer service rep and more service rep than anything in the field. So I did have a desk.

[00:04:16] I was at my desk very little, but I had a truck and I would go install and repair automatic readers, shut people's water off, go to people's houses that had high consumption, meet with builders, went to a lot of new construction homes. I learned a lot about homes at that time. Always around real estate. Always around tons of new homes. When I was at NIAC and UNI, and even when I did my internship, I was working at Menards.

[00:04:42] I transferred from the Mason City Menards to the Waterloo Menards to the Clive Menards. So when I moved, I also worked at the closest Menards and I learned a lot about construction. I worked indoors, millwork. Yeah. So sold a lot of that. And then when I went to Urbandale Water, I was in so many new construction homes that I might say this and maybe I'd be remissed if I didn't say it or arrogant. You could look at it the other way.

[00:05:08] But as far as the city of Urbandale goes, I've been in at least 10,000 houses in the city of Urbandale alone. Yeah. And a lot of that due to working at Urbandale Water. Sure. So 2003, I'm working full time now. So it's September 2003, working full time for Urbandale Water. Still have zero dollars. Still, if you figure in my student loans, I'm still worse than bankers. Right? Yeah.

[00:05:36] So I get married in 2005 and then in 2007, we're finally starting to save a little money. We buy a house and we were the first time home buyer with no money down. Yeah. So mortgage, piggyback mortgage, hey, we can buy a house. Right. And that's what we did. We financed basically 100% of it. Moved into that house. And then in 2007, we started saving a little money because we're both working full time, paying down our debt.

[00:06:05] We have cheap but somewhat reliable vehicles. I'm driving a Honda Accord. I think my wife was driving a Ford Taurus. And 2008 comes along. And so about 2007 into 2008, I wanted to make extra money. I knew a guy that had a dealer's license for vehicles. So copart.com is dealers only at the time. But you could buy wrecked vehicles. And I've always liked cars. I still like cars. I love cars.

[00:06:35] So I was buying wrecked vehicles through him, pay him a couple hundred bucks just to have access to them. But there's sight unseen. You're looking at them online, trying to find damage of them. And then you're buying them and then having them shipped to you. The first time you lay eyes is when they drop it off in your driveway. But through a couple of connections, I ended up meeting a body shop guy that owned a small body shop in Earlham, Iowa. Yep. So I would pay him to fix some.

[00:07:03] And then they had salvage titles, which they were still, they'd pass inspection. Yep. And then I would resell and make a couple thousand bucks. So made $10,000, $15,000, $20,000 saved up. Yeah. Just doing that on the side. And then he moved away. So then on the nights and weekends after Urbandale Water, because I've always wanted to try getting ahead. I've never, just personally. Yep. I've never tried being rich.

[00:07:30] I just grew up, we grew up so, the word really was poor. Yeah. My mom heated the house sometime. When we'd run out LP, she'd heat the house with the oven. Now you can't even open an oven, it shuts off. But that's how she'd heat the house. We'd have our phone shut off because she couldn't pay the bill. She put food, swear, she put food in the bathtub on ice to keep it good for a few days so she could find a way to buy a refrigerator. Wow.

[00:07:58] We had a stove with one burner that worked on it, and that was it. One time I remember growing up, and my mom would be embarrassed, but it's a true story. We had cream of wheat for supper. That's what we had because we had nothing in the house. And I remember her being very upset about it and crying. And you know what? I wouldn't change a thing. It taught me how little you need to get by on it. So it's also, I suspect, some fuel for you. It was. You know what it did?

[00:08:28] If I want to be really candid about it, I was, when kids are brutal, kids are brutal.

[00:09:03] Yeah. It was. It was. I remember thinking to myself, there is no way in heck I am going to live like this the rest of my life. My mom did the best she could. Three boys at home. One income. And I couldn't. What she did, I couldn't have done. So she had it worse than me. And without a doubt. And I thank her for every single bit of showing me what work ethic looks like. So then in two, once that, that got going back to my story of saving some money.

[00:09:33] Yeah. The guy that had the dealer's license moved away. And so I no longer had access to his dealer's license to get wrecked vehicles. So then nights and weekends, I started working at Sears. That was still on Merle Hay. Yep. Selling appliances. And that was, that went pretty well. Um, I enjoyed it. Worked some fun people. It was straight commission. And some days you'd make zero. And then other days you might make $1,500 in a day. Yeah.

[00:09:58] So, um, we ended up saving around $20,000, my wife and I. And one day I always wanted to own land. I loved hunting growing up. Grew up in the country. I love being outside. Still love being outside. Always wanted to buy a few acres. So was poking around online, found some land in Apnoose County, north of Centerville. Yep. So between Albion and Centerville. My wife and I went down there and looked at it, put an offer in it. It was not quite 10 acres.

[00:10:26] And I were thinking we had to put down like $14,000. So that took a big chunk of our savings. Right. And then about a year, year and a half later, the neighboring 13 acres went back to the bank. Neighbor was telling me about it. I called the bank, made a deal with the bank on, I believe what was owed on it. So the bank no longer lost money at that point. And then a couple more years go by and, um, we wanted to build a house.

[00:10:52] So now it's 2011, 2012, decided to sell those and made a few grand, very little. Really when you, when I think about it, we made very little on it, but we still made some money. And it was basically a deferred savings account because we're making our payments on it. Right. Right. But we didn't lose money on it. So then bought a lot in Urbandale and built a house on it. And I general contracted it. And that was, that was very interesting. Hey, Iowa investors.

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[00:12:15] I was working at Urbandale Water for 10 years, close to 10 years at that point. So I'd met so many different contractors through that position in new construction. Still didn't know what I was doing. I met with a general contractor and he ended up saying, and I knew exactly what I wanted my wife and I knew how I wanted it laid out. He just said, Sean, why don't you general contract it? So I talked to another GC and he's like, yeah, you should do it. He goes, I have contacts or if you need help, call me. So ended up general contracting it.

[00:12:45] And that was, we took five months to build it. And so there was, I think one week it was vacant. Other than that, it was getting worked on six days a week. Yeah. So we moved into that house and at the time when it got appraised for the final mortgage, we ended up from building it, ended up having about $80,000 in equity. Seven, yeah, $80,000 in equity at that time by building it.

[00:13:14] And then another year goes by and now it's 2014. And I'd hunted this piece of land down by Osceola, been hunting it for a couple of years, asked the guy if he wanted to sell it. He calls me. I can tell you the exact spot. He told me, no, he didn't want to sell it. Maybe a little less than a year goes by and I didn't know how I was going to afford it anyway. A little less than a year. That wasn't, that wasn't the question. Right. Exactly. Yeah. He calls me. I missed the call and I can take you to the spot where he called me when I missed the call.

[00:13:43] And I thought to myself, I just had a hunch. I think he's going to say I'll sell it to you. Right. So I get home, call him and he's like, yeah, I'd like to sell it to you for the price we talked about. So I ended up buying it. And then I ended up finding another piece of land I really wanted. And we were just able to scrape together the down payment on it. How many acres? It was 80 acres. Okay. So then was able to scrape together down payment on it, found another piece of land I wanted, but it was out way outside of my range price wise.

[00:14:14] So, um, talk to that guy. He's like, yep, I'll sell it to you. We agreed on a price. Didn't have a purchase agreement together yet. So I said, give me, give me five weeks. I remember just give me one, one little over a month and I'll get something to you. He's like, Hey, no problem. It's not on the market anyway. In the meantime, I talked to farmer about farming it. This new piece I was looking at. So put my other one on the market and get a purchase agreement on it and call the, call the guy back that owns it.

[00:14:42] It's like, Oh, I sold to somebody else already after I already had a purchase agreement on the other one. Wow. I'm like, Oh no, I didn't want to back out. Right. I mean, I'm under a purchase, a binding purchase agreement to sell it. And this was before anybody ever put, um, with the exception that seller has to find somebody that something they can buy. Sure. That contingency. Yes. That contingency. Correct. So now under the gun to find something else and ended up finding something else.

[00:15:12] It was 280 acres this time. I did not have the down payment on it. I bought it with friend and great guy. One of my best friends still today. One of my best friends, um, didn't have the down payment on it for somehow, some reason got pre-approved to buy it. I don't know how two days before closing, I still was 35,000 short of the down payment, even clearing out our savings account. Bless my wife's heart. Clearing our savings account. And we got two kids and a mortgage still 35,000 short.

[00:15:42] I go to the bank, pull $35,000 home equity loan against our house to buy this piece of land and close on it two days later. So bought that and then held it about four or five years and made about 250,000 on it myself. Yeah. So close to a half a million on it. Yeah. Yeah. But it was between two people. Two people. So yeah. Quarter million pre-sale. But that was still, that's life changing money for me. Yeah.

[00:16:11] As time was definitely life changing money for me. So, um, and that was in about 2020 and then I've bought and sold several since then. And now, now I own about three, a little over 300 acres. So the bank owns part of that too. Yeah. Yeah. That's incredible. And most of your interest or the investment concentration is in the land world. It is in the land world. Primarily. Is it ag hunting, you know, a rec ground? What, what is it?

[00:16:41] Where is it a lie? Mostly rec. Uh-huh. Um, one of them is about 140 acres now currently, but that one's about 106 open ground. Yeah. Um, that one's getting enrolled in CRP. Okay. So that one is mostly ag ground. I, um, this is what I've always thought. Uh, I love land. I want to own land that I can hunt, but investment first.

[00:17:06] So I can't go broke doing this, but if I can find something that's a good, solid investment, then I would, I'm interested in it. And then I just so happen to be able to hunt it. Elaborate on, uh, cause I think for some people they are going to think of land and they go, it's not an investment or non ag land, not an investment. But you've got a different perspective on that. So elaborate on that a little bit about, you know, through your lens, what makes an investment and how does the investment actually work? Yeah.

[00:17:36] Um, so number one, as I told you before, I'm a real estate agent and broker. So that being the case, I'm not looking for off market deals for myself. If I find a good deal, I can't, I've forgotten how many times I've just sick somebody else on it or sent them to the listing agent saying, Hey, John, don't call the listing agent. Go get it. If you want to sell it, give me a call. Yeah. Cause I'm not on the hunt to buy a bunch of land or find these great deals and scoop them up from other people.

[00:18:05] The last several pieces of land I bought are on the market. They're on the open market. Anybody can buy them. So I'm not, I don't want to make it clear that I'm not taking deals from other people, taking a piece of the pie that somebody else can't have, but it's generally rough wreck ground that I'm looking for. I know what the market is on them. If they're dynamite with a bunch of deer pictures and blinds and some CRP income or some row crop

[00:18:34] income or some alfalfa income. And somebody shows me an aerial, I can say, I know land well enough from Boone, Iowa to Missouri, from Bedford, Iowa, all the way over to Bloomfield, Iowa. So that triangle that I can get pretty close if somebody just drops me a pen on what it's worth per acre. So, but there's a difference between what it's worth. If it's, if there's no hunting history or if it's dynamite. Yeah.

[00:19:01] It sounds like there's almost a grade of wreck ground. The idea of what you said, if it's, if it's, if it's rough, it hasn't been groomed to be full wreck ground, meaning full pristine hunting. Um, it's worth a different number than that ground that does get groomed in is put in shape for prime hunting. Oh yeah. There's probably a 20 to 25% difference between rough and just let's just call it rough Southern Iowa ground and premier hunting ground.

[00:19:31] So, and that's in any neighborhood that, that 20 to 25% Delta is any given neighborhood. So I am, um, I'm rarely, I'm rarely a buyer. I really am. But if I've, you know, had a good year or I sold a piece of property, I'm looking to put it somewhere else. Yeah. There is people ask if it's so good, why are you selling? If it's so good, why are they selling it?

[00:20:01] Crazy thing. As a hunter, I love buying a piece of property. I don't know necessarily, don't necessarily know what's there because they don't have deer pictures. There's no blinds. Nobody's hunted it or they've let people hunt it on permission or they let the whole neighborhood hunt it. Nobody knows anything about it or is willing to divulge anything about it. I love buying one, making it awesome. And if somebody else wants to buy an awesome property, they're not willing to roll the dice on a crummy one that has no history.

[00:20:30] Fine by me. I like, I've made so many friends that I've sold property to that I stay in contact with. Hey, how's it going? What are you seeing for deer? Yeah. And sometimes there's bigger deer on it when I sell it than when I had it. And I'm like, oh my gosh, what did I sell that for? But it's fine. Yeah. It's, um, it's, yeah. I say this in a funny way. You can't trade wives. So you trade land. It's fun. It's fun to trade.

[00:21:00] Yeah. Trade land. Yeah. I mean, it almost sounds like pun intended here. You, uh, there, there is a, it scratches an itch in your, in your mind to go on the hunt. There's your pun, uh, for a new piece of ground and what it could potentially become when you're, when you're transforming that piece of ground. Yeah. And a lot of, some people will say, or you'll even hear on an interview, some people say that, um, it's a gamble. It's a risk on the outside. It looks like that.

[00:21:27] And not one bit to me, I have zero problem paying market value. If I want a piece of property and I can afford it, zero problem paying market value for it. Cause in the past, um, 247 years, how long has the United States been around? 1776, 2024, 247 years. Is it? There's never been a 10 year time period where land has not beat as pre real estate has not beat its previous peak. So it will always go up.

[00:21:57] When I say always, I mean, always, there's one way it won't go up. Half the population gets wiped off the face of the earth or the United States, something like that. But outside of something that can't be predicted, it will go up. If you're a house flipper, execute the burst strategy or do double closings and are in need of money. Little guy loans is your go-to lender here in the Des Moines area. Time is money. Loan approvals in 24 hours. Closings in five days.

[00:22:24] Little guy loans was founded by Neil Timmons, an investor just like you. Since he has been in over 10,000 homes in Des Moines, there's never an appraisal. Houses, multifamily and commercial property loans up to 1 million. Check out www.littleguyloans.com. So you're in ground and obviously you've done well through that. Sooner or later, you decided to enter the real estate agent world. Yeah. All right. What year was that?

[00:22:55] 2017, I got my license. And then what prompted it? So I had sold a couple pieces on my own and then I decided that I wanted to go get my license and thought, I'm going to hit the ground running. I still had a lot to learn. But since I had sold a few pieces on my own, I thought, you know what? I think I've got this figured out well enough. I should just go get my license.

[00:23:21] So I went and got my license in 2017 and I met my current business partner. So the Remax in Urbandale that I own, I own 50-50 with Bill and Tracy Jennings from Ames. They own the Remax Real Estate Center in Ames. It's the biggest brokerage in Ames. And that's, I met Bill as an instructor. So I met him there as an instructor and he is with, he only teaches a couple of classes because he's successful in many facets in life.

[00:23:49] And so to get him to teach classes is a commitment. So he teaches two in particular, professionalism ethics and listings or listing practices. Those are the ones he regularly teaches. I was in his listing practices, which really should be called how to make money as a real estate agent 101. That's really what it should be called. The state requires it to be called listing practices. That's what he teaches. That's how, that's where I met him. And that's how I found my broker at the time.

[00:24:21] And so that was a really long answer to your short question. What prompted me to get my license was selling land. But you know what? I can do this full-time. I could do this. Let me correct myself. I could do this part-time because I started part-time. Yeah. I was still working at Urban Nail Water. Still working at Urban Nail Water. And then eventually you, you morphed to full-time. I did. Yeah. I started the first year having my license. I made about two-thirds of what I made for income in Urban Nail Water.

[00:24:51] And then every year after that, I made more working as a real estate agent than I did working at Urban Nail Water. Part-time. Part-time. And it was actually double full-time. It's really. Yeah. Right. Because I, I still work a lot now. I probably still work 50 hours a week now. But when I was working at Urban Nail Water the last two and a half years, I was working 65, 70 hours a week. I was up at six o'clock on my computer till eight going to work at Urban Nail Water, working through lunch breaks, working through breaks.

[00:25:19] And then in the evenings doing family thing, running kids around. And then on my computer at 8 p.m. till 11 p.m. And then hopping into bed, waking up and doing the same thing in the morning. And then on the weekends, one of the two days. I tried to never work seven. Sometimes I work seven days a week. But I tried to only work six days a week. And so I got to work so much that it's like something's got to give.

[00:25:43] You know, I had written down a quote that just you reminded me of, right? When you're talking about having, always having, you know, the side hustle, quote unquote, right? Working at Sears and then now ultimately working two jobs. Bill Krauss said it. You can make a living working nine to five. You make money working five to nine. Yeah. I read that years ago. It always stuck with me.

[00:26:09] Um, and ultimately this is how you find yourself getting way ahead. Yeah. And then, and then you're, and then you're right at impasse. Something to give. Yeah. And again, I, I'm not bashing public sector work whatsoever or working nine to five whatsoever. But when I would just be in, in large trainings and large meetings and look around, I was really still a fish out of water. You can just, you can look around in a room and you can feel if it's not you. That's right. And it just, it wasn't me.

[00:26:39] I just always had more. I'm not saying I'm better than anyone. I just knew I had more, I expected more of myself. And so I wanted to, I wanted to work more. I've always, I've thought this, I've heard it. And I still think it today that there's the pain of discipline or there's the pain of regret. Choose your pain. I'm much more comfortable with myself laying down every night facing the pain of discipline than the pain of regret.

[00:27:08] Cause the pain of regret is awful. That's the, the pain of regret is what people lie on their deathbed. That's right. And they hate. Right. What year was it that you went full time? A couple of years ago. So 2024 now. So yeah, that was a couple of years ago. Wow. It took that long. It took that long. Yeah. It was, I would, what I was trying to do is I was trying to save a couple years worth of bills. Yeah. You weren't convinced yet, were you? I was not. You know what?

[00:27:37] And even, even to this, I mean, I still drive by that office and I stop in and talk to, talk to them and pay my water bill because I do think so highly of them. There is 0% chance, Mr. Timmons, 0% chance I would go back there. I love what I do now. Yeah. And it is, if I could make a terrible analogy, what the way I see it was, I was a wild animal

[00:28:07] stuck in a zoo. I was a wild animal stuck in a cage. And when you, when you are, when you think of a, let's just think of any zoo animal, whether it's a lion, a tiger, a penguin, they know they're getting fed. They have a good life. They don't have a great life. Right. But a wild animal, you got to go find your food. Yeah.

[00:28:31] And that, I just feel, I'm so much more comfortable working and finding my food than get it fed to me and live in a cage. So to an entrepreneur, you know, we all, we all eventually quit our 40 hour jobs working for somebody else so we can work 80 hours a week for our cells. Yes. And, but I, and happier doing so. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I, I completely agree with that. It's, um, I can work.

[00:28:59] I can work as much as I, as I want. Sure. Yeah. I, I don't, I'm going to be clear. I can't work as little as I want because there's so many demands such as walking in here. Yeah. I left my phone in the vehicle. Yeah. And you know what I drove here? It's this is, I'm not, not rich. You know what? I drove here at 2010 Toyota Highlander with 140,000 miles on it. And I, I do have a different vehicle. I have a truck, a Tundra that I take my listing appointments and things like that. But I just, I find it, if I'm going to go get a loan on something, it's going to be on real estate.

[00:29:29] It's not going to be on a vehicle. The thing that appreciates. That's right. Exactly. What are you most excited about as you look forward to 2025? This sounds very cliche, but I sincerely mean it. It really is helping people with real estate goals, because if I help them get what they want, I can pay bills for another month.

[00:29:55] If I help one more person, one more married couple move up into a house, because I, I do sell quite a few houses. I love selling houses. To me, if somebody can sell recreational or ag ground with all the idiosyncrasies and complications with leases and fences and government contracts, if they can do that, they can sell houses. Well, no doubt about that. So to me, selling houses is pretty enjoyable because I find it easier to sell houses. But what am I looking forward to?

[00:30:25] It really is. It sounds so cheesy. Helping people, because if I can help people, I'll pay my bills. Yeah. And I have, in the past year, I dabble a little bit in giving a private loan. Sure. And so I'll do more of it. Yeah. Because I don't always want to have to work for money. Yeah. I really don't. I do want to get to a point. Yeah. Where money can work for me. And then I can go. I do want to become a happy hour bartender.

[00:30:54] I want my money working for me. And then I want to go work four days a week, happy hour from like 2.30 to 6.30. The PM. Yes. PM. That is exactly right. It sounds so enjoyable to me to drink a couple of beers and then serve other people some beers that I can just sit there and chit chat with. So not at a hustle and bustle, just at like a townie bar. Yeah. Oh, I love it.

[00:31:19] You have such a dynamic background, you know, coming out of the Urbandale water world and being inside of 10,000 homes gives you first-hand exposure to that world. Building your own house. I mean, general contract net. Yeah. First-hand exposure to that. And then your passion for the real estate, for the ag side of things and the hunting world. And then you've married those together by putting them together in a business as an agent, repping people on both sides of that world.

[00:31:48] It's a wonderful, incredibly dynamic background. Thank you. I appreciate it. It is the best thing I know. Being a real estate agent slash broker, because I'm the managing broker of the office, it is legitimately, it is the best. I have the best job. If there was something better out there, I would go do it. Yeah. I tell that to agents all the time. This is the best job ever. Yeah.

[00:32:14] If you, because if there was something better, Neil, I'd go do it. Right. I love it. There's, um, and I don't want to try to answer your question again, but, but I will. Well, as an agent, there is a very low threshold to getting your real estate license. 60 hours, uh, pre-license class here in the state of Iowa, pass the test. It takes 2000 hours to go cut hair in the state of Iowa with a license. Yes. Ever had a bad haircut? Yeah. Right.

[00:32:44] So that threshold is, is incredibly low and way too low for what it needs to be. I completely agree. It is a very low threshold on the inversely is a very high threshold to make a living doing it. I agree with that. And so that's what I've, I tell agents in our office time and time again, that to make money, to make a living at it, it's a very high threshold, but I want it to be difficult because if it's difficult, then it takes a good person to do it. That's right.

[00:33:14] I don't blame people in 2021 and 2022 selling property on their own. Yeah. Cause it was easy and there was agents cashing checks for doing very little. I want it to be difficult because when it's difficult, the, the good agents get business and it makes you better. It makes all agents better. There's no doubt about that. Yes. The cream arises. It does. And the, um, another thing I tell myself and other agents is that the weight doesn't get lighter.

[00:33:43] Your back gets stronger. Yes. And so when, when stuff starts hitting the fan with, with transactions and, and people and their, their hair is on fire, I sit there. Yep. Been there. Yep. Been there. Yeah. You, I suspect you could do what you, uh, what you do from just about anywhere or do it just about anywhere. Why Iowa? What, what, what has your hair? What keeps you here? Why'd you choose this place? I would never move away from Iowa. I love it. Whenever we go on vacation, which is we don't go on very many vacations, but, um, whenever

[00:34:13] we go on vacation, I always enjoy it. But I think, could I live here? And never is the answer. Yes. I could winter in Arizona. Sure. I could summer in Alaska, but I never want to leave Iowa. I was a fantastic state and there's a huge indicator that should lead people to believe why Iowa is an incredible state. And it's one thing it's growing. I want to live in a state that is growing.

[00:34:40] We have a governor, whether you like her or not, we have a governor that wants to grow the state. Yes. And so that being the case, I only want to live in a state that is growing. And Des Moines, in my opinion, is one of the best metro areas to live in, in the country. We've got a state that's growing and Des Moines, uh, there's no way around it. It's going to give its disproportionate share of that growth. It is. Yeah. Absolutely. I love every bit of it. Yeah. Yeah, exactly right. All right. You ready for the final three questions? Yeah.

[00:35:08] If you had one piece of advice for your 20 year old self, what would it be? Believe in yourself. Hmm. I, I second you. You saw how long it took me to leave Urbandale water. Yeah. Believe in yourself. Yeah. You can do it. Two books that changed your life. Rich dad, poor dad. Yeah. How to win friends and influence people. Yeah. Carnegie. Yeah. If you were cast away on an Island for a year, you could only get three pieces of data

[00:35:37] about your business each and every month. What three things must you know every month to know how your business is running? You know what? That is a tough. Can you ask me that one more time? Yeah. If you were cast away on an Island for a year, you could only get three pieces of data about your business each and every month. What three things must you know every month to know how your business is running? How many emails am I getting a month? How many texts am I getting?

[00:36:07] And how many pendings do I have going on? All right. You're going to explain the first two to me. Why? What, what, what is significant about the number of inbound emails and the number of inbound text messages? To be a successful real estate agent, people must think of you when they think of real estate. That's the goal. You, I haven't made it. I'm, I'm getting to making it, but when people think of real estate, they need to think of you.

[00:36:37] So therefore that is an indicator that they are thinking about me when it comes to real estate. Incredible. Sean, I've loved this conversation. I appreciate you being here. For the audience's sake, if they want to find you, follow you, connect with you, where can they go? What should they do? You can Google me. I can't hide. I love everywhere. I go west of Merle Hay, I run into somebody I know. So to me, the show cheers, everything west of Merle Hay, because I've spent so much time west of Merle Hay.

[00:37:06] It's like cheers to me because I always run into somebody I know. So what's my point? I can't hide. Google me. Just Google Sean, S-E-A-N-A-S-A, D as in dog A. You'll find me. You'll see my email address. You'll see my phone number. I love to talk to anybody. I love talking. All right. So when you're on happy hour, are you going to be Woody or are you Sam? Oh man, I like being a goofball. So how about I say dumb stuff like Cliff? You're Cliff, but behind the bar. Sure. Yeah.

[00:37:35] Dumb stuff, but he knows everything, right? Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah. Yeah. All right. That's great. I really appreciate you taking the time to connect up here. So thanks for it. Hey, I enjoyed it very much. Thank you. Thanks for listening. If you're enjoying the show, may I ask a favor of you? Naturally, subscribe so you never miss an episode. But would you rate and leave an honest written review on Apple Podcasts? Does a lot for us here at the show. And I appreciate reading your thoughts.

[00:38:03] Great guests make for a great show. If you know of another Iowan who would be a great guest or you yourself have interest in being a guest, well, get on our radar. Visit Investing in Iowa to fill out an application or recommend a guest. And if you want to connect with me one-on-one, go LegacyImpactInvestors.com. Click on the Invest With Us button in the top right corner. And there you can pick a time for the two of us to get on the calendar and connect.

[00:38:32] Until next time, keep investing in Iowa. Let's see you next time. Bye. Bye.