Podcast Transcription: Humble Beginnings
Speakers:
Billy McOwen
Andrew Walters
Billy McOwen
You know, man can create some pretty beautiful and wonderful things. But he doesn't hold a candle to what God can create. Thanks for joining us. This is Mossy Oak Properties. Find your favorite place. Hey, everybody, thanks for joining us. This is episode one of find your favorite place podcast. My name is Billy McOwen. And I'm your host. I am joined today by Andrew Walters, our broker in charge of the Greenville office. How're you doing today, Andrew?
Andrew Walters
Hey, Billy, I'm doing great. How are you?
Billy McOwen
And we're doing great. So let's go ahead and get started here and have some fun.
Andrew Walters
All right, Billy, why don't you tell us a little story about how you got started with Mossy Oak properties and how that has evolved into where the land and farms Realty Group is at today.
Billy McOwen
It's actually a really great story. You know, back in 2010 we were over at the Harrell and Associates office over in the beach. And Brian and I occupied an office in the second floor. And we were starving. It was on the heels of what was just the worst real estate market we had had in two decades. And we were just wondering what to do next. And we get a phone call from David Holley. And he says, hey, you know, this is David Holly from Mossy Oak Properties, and, and we're interested in developing a territory there in North Carolina. And you guys were on our radar screen. And we want to know if you'd be interested in talking to us about joining our network.
Andrew Walters
Alright, so what was going through your mind when you got that phone call?
Billy McOwen
Well, I mean, we were really excited. And the next thing we knew, this package shows up in the mail, and it's about an inch and a half thick Franchise Disclosure Document that was just, you know, a really light read, as you can imagine. So, I mean, I'll never forget it, it was Thanksgiving of 2010. I took that big old brick of a book home over the Thanksgiving weekend. And it was Thanksgiving dinner and, you know, grabbed a cup of coffee and sat down on the couch. And I read that thing cover to cover and took little post it notes, made some notes and walked in the office on Monday morning, lay down on Bobby's desk and said, Hey, man, this looks pretty good." You might want to check out those little spots there. I noted, but, man, I say we do it. And we were off to the races.
Andrew Walters
I gotcha. So what happened next? And what were some of the governing factors that led you to become a Mossy Oak properties franchisee?
Billy McOwen
Well, you know, we we started having some regular conversations with those guys. And, you know, what I mean by those guys is Chris Holly Toxie. And those fellas down in Mississippi, West Point, Mississippi, which is where the headquarters of Mossy Oak is, and, through a couple of tries, we had some weather issues and some other stuff. But in early 2011, we jumped on a plane and went down there and spent a couple of days with those guys. And we were just looking to sort of connect with them, we wanted to get a feel about their mission, their vision, their values, we wanted to see a really good alignment with what we had planned. And just to really kind of see what those guys were all about. And, you know, we left there making the decision that we were joining forces with some like minded people and just felt like it was a good idea at that point moving forward.
Andrew Walters
Okay, so when did you guys actually start?
Billy McOwen
Well, we opened up our first franchise in Nags Head, North Carolina in April of 2011.
Andrew Walters
Okay, so what was that first year like?
Billy McOwen
Well, it was tough. I mean, when we started, it was some pretty humble beginnings. I mean, honestly, it's a little embarrassing to talk about now. But here's the way it was, the truth. You know, we started with 10 listings, worth about $2.7 million. And they were spread out in five different counties. And, you know, there was three of us. So, I mean, I think you can kind of do the math here. One of those listings was several hundred acres up on the Currituck Sound north of us. And that was an $825,000 listing that we never sold, by the way. So, you know, we, we were just struggling. We didn't have nothing and we were just literally starting from scratch and that first year was really tough. You know, I'll be honest with you, and I probably wasn't the easiest guy in the world to be around you know. I was 100 hours a week heads down, just driven to make something happen, you know. Look, you know, I have a wife and, you know, kid, family, house, cars, responsibilities. And the real estate market was what the real estate market was. And we just were doing everything we could to make something happen. I mean, it was a tough time. But we really put our heads together and we really took some risks. We went out and did things in places that other people were backing away from, and we were able to get every little step we would take in that direction; we would get a foothold. And then we take another step and another step and it was one of those things where, you know, around every corner was just another miracle that was happening for us. And it didn't take long before we figured out we had made the right decision. But I think what's most important in that first year is that we learned that as as individual agents and brokers and owners, we only had a certain sphere of influence ourselves, personally. And our business connections only reached so far. What we realized was that the Mossy Oak brand was something that would transcend those boundaries that we were experiencing. We understood very quickly that we could go into places where nobody knew us, and would never have known us, and introduce that Mossy Oak brand, and people would gravitate to it. And that was the key that unlocked so many doors for us to get inside. And then, you know, then we could do our business. It, with our scale and our personalities and get started doing that. But getting in the door with the Mossy Oak brand was the ticket to that first year. And I mean, it was lucky. It was a meager beginning. I mean, this is no joke. I think we did $3 million in sales first year. We have agents now that do that in the first six months of a year. So it was that was three of us were grinding it out, man.
Andrew Walters
Sounds like it? Well, obviously, things have changed some since then. So tell us a little bit about your team of land specialists and why opening new offices was a good decision.
Billy McOwen
Well, our first hire was a gentleman by the name of Jay. He lives out in Spring Hope, which is on the other side of Rocky Mount, about halfway to Raleigh from Rocky Mount. And, you know, Jay's a big old boy and I mean, he's just got a big gregarious personality, and he's just a hoot to be around. And, he's a worker, I mean, this guy was, just like us, he was driven and just going through the same thing with a builder. Had just, gone through the same recession that we had. He was hungry, just like we were, and he went to work, and we started to make some things happen. And then a couple of years go by and we're starting to get some traction. Get some success. Really begin to pick up some an extra footprint, you know, and covering a lot more of the state. And we were having some talks with a group out of Lake Walker mall. They were interested in getting some support and some marketing support, which we had built a really good marketing platform. That was a lot of what I had to do the first year that we were working with it. And so it was Bud Cook and Marty Linear. These guys are the best of the best, and we were able to come in there and we bought their franchise out, and made them part of our team. That was one of the better moves we had ever done. Those guys are absolutely awesome and really great. And they had what we needed, which was experience, and really strong depth in their portfolio and their knowledge. And we had what they needed, which was a really strong marketing platform, so that they could promote their listings. It was, you know, a really good match. And then we started to notice that we really sort of needed to have a few sentinels out there, you know, like a buttress that we could put up to where we could protect the territory. And that was really important because we were investing quite a bit of money and gathering listings and things. So we decided that Greenville was a really good spot to put up a buttress and sort of establish an office there; that was a good spot. Of course, you know, Greenville is the home of East Carolina University Vidant Medical Center, all that stuff. So it's really thriving community and is just a great spot for us to be. So that was our decision and we started to hire a few more agents then, and grow our team a little bit more. We picked up gentlemen out of Windsor - Josh Kilpatrick was great guy. He's now the fire chief for Windsor, you know, just a great dude. And really started to grow our ranks, and that started us on the track where we are now.
Andrew Walters
Okay, well, how long after that did you make the decision to move into Virginia?
Billy McOwen
It was in 2015. And Danny Graham, John Draves, those two guys were really, just really fantastic partners and just great guys. Really full of energy. Danny was retiring from the Virginia Department of Transportation. John was a very successful builder. And he was looking for some little sidebar that he could do some things. We opened up our first office in Suffolk, Virginia. Those guys came out of the gate; started doing really well. It was just another round of doing what I do. I built another website, built another marketing platform, started to get some advertising vehicles happening up there. And Virginia started to build a listing base. Couple years later, or a year later, rather, we opened up our second office in Virginia in Cambridge. I'd met Gianni Seamster at a trade show. And he was all fired up and just all in Mossy Oak the whole way. And you know, he's proven to be, you know, just a really great asset for the company. He's our principal broker in Virginia right now. And he does a great job. He's a great leader, people love working for him. We are really blessed to have some of the best land specialists, I think, there are in the country. Certainly in the state. And I could not be more proud of where these guys are at right now. I mean, we're sitting on about 35 agents in both states. These guys are the best of the best, and I couldn't be more proud of them.
Andrew Walters
Okay. All right. So what can the viewers expect to see from us this year? I mean, what's new, what's next with the land and farms Realty Group?
Billy McOwen
Well, thanks for asking. We're constantly trying to renovate, constantly trying to innovate, constantly trying to do things different, and are always looking for the next thing that we can do to help our agents, help our company, help our clients. And so we've embarked on a brand new website we're going to be building this year. It's going to be a monster. I mean, we are really excited about it. I can't really get into too many details about it; we're developing a lot of the bells and whistles and things. But I promise you, it will be special. Landandfarmsrealty.com will be the new moniker for that website. And we're really excited about it. Of course, we're working with Mike at social Joey, doing a lot on social media that is proven to be really spectacular. We've got some TV spots that we've done. Those, as you know, on social media are getting quite a play. I think we've had 40,000 views of our videos in the last 10 days, which is really special. I mean, thanks to Mike for that. He's done a great job. The guys at Social Joey are terrific. There's all kinds of digital ads that we're doing with Google and things. And, you know, just really trying to mix it up. I mean, today's marketplace is radically different than it was 9-10 years ago, when we first got started. So we're just trying to embrace technology as much as we can. I think you've heard me say it 100 times. You know, we're a technology company that sells real estate. That's it. And I think the key to our success, and continued success is going to be grabbing a hold of all of that technology that we can. We started a new transaction management software this year, to help our staff keep track of the 350 transactions that we do every year. This makes things go really smooth for our buyers and sellers. It's a very good way to keep everything organized, when you're doing that much. You know, you really got to have a pulse on it. So one of our staff members is a dedicated Transaction Manager, she does an awesome job. The other thing is that we're installing a brand new contact management system, which is really awesome. And it allows us to be able to keep up with our clients. I mean, if you're like me, right now I've got 100, literally 122 customers that I'm working for right now to try to find properties for here in eastern North Carolina. And managing that volume just takes a minute. Well, you know, I don't care who you are, you've got to embrace technology with this. You got to use the tools that are available to you to be able to manage that kind of work. flow and keep up with everybody. So it's it's going to help out. So those are the things that are new and what we're working on, and we're pretty excited about it.
Andrew Walters
Okay, well, you know, this is episode one of the find your favorite place podcasts. I'm going to put you on the spot here. But why would our listeners want to continue listening? I mean, where do you see this going in the future?
Billy McOwen
It's a great question. And so I'm going to give you a kind of a long answer to this, because we've been thinking about this for quite a while, and we've had a lot of conversations about it. First of all, I got a lot of windshield time ahead of me, you know, every day I'm on the road. And, you know, I like country music and all that stuff, that's all good. I also like to use that time to get a little smarter, and listen to some things that I think are interesting, so I listen to podcasts. Sometimes I'm in the car for hours, you know, and I can listen to some of these podcasts that are a couple of hours long. And if they're engaging, and I'm learning something, then I keep going back to the well, you know, I keep going back to those podcasts. And I've got a few favorites. And I know you do too. But one of the things that I noticed was, there's a lot of podcasts out there that are about the outdoors, right there about hunting, fishing, all kinds of good stuff. I have yet to find a podcast that spoke about the process. There's even podcasts out there about, you know, just buying regular homes and real estate. Sure, but I haven't heard anybody produce one for land. So I felt like, okay, here's an opportunity. This is an opportunity to do something that's really special, that's different than everybody else. So starting the podcast to deal specifically with land. So why this? Well, I'm not Toxie Hayes, I'm not Cuz Strickland. I don't own 1000s of acres of property. I am just like most of our buyers that we deal with. I've reached an age and a place financially where buying a farm is front of mind. And I'm going through this experience right now. I'm in the middle of it. I'm looking, agonizing over, is that the right place? Is this the right time? Is this a good time to get the loan? What's going on with the timber market? Where's the path of progress? All of these things that I'm thinking about, I'm right in the middle of it. So, you know, what I wanted to do here was to use a Podcast, where each week for 52 weeks, we'll sit down with a topic, and we'll say, Okay, this week, we're going to talk about conservation easements. This week, we're going to talk about forestry management practices. This week, we're going to talk about land management and how to set up wildlife areas and buffers. And maybe one week we talk about ducking permits, you know, or lending, or how do you make sure that you've got a a deeded easement to your property? What's involved in a title search? What's a survey? How much should a survey cost? You know, who do you talk to when you're looking for a lender? Do you do a title company to do your closing? Do you get an attorney? The list goes on and on and on and on about the things that people just don't know about if you've never bought land before. And you know as well as I do, how many times do you have a conversation with a buyer? And he goes, Look, I've never purchased land before. I don't know the first thing about it. I'm really going to need some help here. Almost daily. Yeah. Right. So I think that this is a great platform to address all of those questions that we get every day. And what I want to encourage everybody to do is hey, you got a question? What do I got to do here? About buying land, you know, go ahead and send it over to our Facebook page. It's #findyourfavoriteplace. And it's easy, you just send us a message and say, hey, you know, I'd like to know a little bit about this. And we'll try to pick some time during the podcast to do some q&a and answer some of our customer questions and feel those questions and give them good answers and provide really good detail and really good content. So I mean, this is the reason for it. I feel like that this is a really great platform. People can take 20-30 minutes, 40 minutes, listen to some things that they're interested in. Tell us about what they're interested in. We'll go and make a podcast for it and just have a vehicle that we can provide people with really useful information in a way that's easy for them to gather. No, Andrew, I'm gonna turn the tables on you here real quick and ask you a few questions if you don't mind. So, you came to work for us right after graduating college you got a degree from North Carolina State University in wildlife sciences and you came to work for us right after getting out of school. So, tell us about what that's been like for you. What's it like for you working for the Mossy Oak Properties Land and Farms Realty Group.
Andrew Walters
Sure. So kind of a funny story is when I was in college at NC State, I was writing part time as a freelance writer, wildlife management articles, wildlife habitat management, stuff like that. And I had about two dozen published articles for Mossy Oak gamekeepers farming for Wildlife Magazine, few for wildlife in North Carolina, and then one for the Quality Deer Management Association's publication. So I came home one weekend, oddly enough, and I got a this spring fishing guide in the mail. And on the back, there was a Mossy Oak Properties ad. So I called the number and lo and behold, you picked up the phone. And I'll never forget this, you said, Yeah, you know, send me your resume, and I'll send it down to the guys in Mississippi, we'll see if we can get you a job there. So I was, you know, obviously, pretty pumped up about that. But I said, uh, you know, I was born and raised in eastern North Carolina, I'd like to stay here, if at all possible. And you say, Well, have you ever considered selling real estate? And the truth was I hadn't and at the time, I've always liked dealing with people I like, you know, being outside, but I never connected, you know, my degree, which was Wildlife Science and real estate. I didn't think there was any connection there. So, you know, I did some research, got checking it out. And I was pretty thrilled with it, you know, I really found out what multi unit properties was, you know, because up until the end, it was just an ad that I saw in magazines. So actually, I met Billy at the Dixie deer classic with Brian DeHart there. And that's when I kind of got a glimpse into the culture at Mossy Oak Properties here. And, of course, it has grown and increased and it's better now than ever, but even then, at that time, it was enough to get me hooked. So that was in the spring of 2014. I graduated. And it was, I think, seven or 10 days later, I was back in class getting my real estate license.
Billy McOwen
Now, that wasn't easy for you, was it? I mean, that was not like, you know, a skip to my lou, my darlin', right? I mean it had its challenges, right? Tell us about what that was, you know, going through the real estate course, and all that kind of stuff?
Andrew Walters
Well, it was pretty frustrating to me, because it was not any more difficult than what I had learned at NC State. But it was a different type of exam. You know, with my degree, in my concentration, there was a lot of hands on stuff out a lot of labs, and I had three or four hour labs a week. So I'm a hands on learner. So it was really difficult for me to learn, you know, buyer's agency, for example, and to be tested on that when I had never had a chance to apply that. So you know that was tough. I did not enjoy it. I do not miss that class at all. But luckily, while I was taking that exam, I worked part time at the Greenville office. And I was able to upload a couple of listings here and there, and really kind of get a smaller glimpse as to what it was like to be an admin. So I certainly have a great appreciation for our home office, and what they do there. You think it's just answering phones and uploading, you know, pictures of properties online, but it's much more detailed. It's much more in depth than that. So once I got my license, that was later in the year, late summer, I started as a provisional broker, and I was working in the Greenville office. And at the time, Billy was the broker in charge there. So I was the one who pestered him with questions constantly. So I still am appreciative that he answered all those questions and phone calls, because I probably wasn't the best provisional broker to deal with at the time. But you know, fast forward and five, six years now and the broker in charge there has a few agents to work under me. And I think the world of them, I enjoy it, just the culture, the people I work with everything about it. I mean, I wouldn't trade it for nothing. It's really funny how it all just fell into place. And, you know, when I was at Raleigh at NC State House, I was stressing out trying to figure out where I was going to go, what I was going to do, and lo and behold, it just kind of fell into my lap and I'm very thankful for that.
Billy McOwen
Well, we're thankful to have you. You've been a great addition to the team and of course you know, the people, everybody loves you, and your grades. I think it's fascinating that you came out of college, and you know, you're right back into a classroom. You were working on the technology side of our business, you know, even while you were still taking the class, and so you got right in the middle of really the heartbeat of the business while you were still getting your license. So you remember, what's going on today is the land Summit, of course, which is the annual Mossy Oak Properties meeting. Do you remember your first trip to Mississippi for the land Summit? We went down there and got to meet everybody. Let's talk about that a little bit.
Andrew Walters
Yeah, that was pretty cool. I mean, as far as the guys in North Carolina, I had met Billy, I had met Brian. And you know, I met them at a quickie stop and Rocky Mount about three o'clock in the morning. As bad as that sounds. And that's where they picked me up, right off of 64. And that's when we embarked on the 12 to 13 hour journey to West Point Mississippi. Yes, sir. But I loved it there, I met coach Strickland met Toxie Hayes, I thought that was awesome, to just be able to meet those guys, who obviously have a lot of clout. They're the founders and the president and managers, or what have you. They have a, you know, a large nationwide brand. And here I am, as a part time admin, don't even have my license yet. And I was able to go to those guys and shake their hands. And, you know, they were proud to have me on board. And they were talking, and they asked me questions, and I could tell they cared, and I could tell that, you know, this was not just your typical real estate firm, it's not a meat market. It's not, you know, Oh, do you have a license and a pulse? Sure, we'll hire you. These guys actually cared. And, of course, that also goes without saying, for the guys in North Carolina, such as Billy and Brian, and those guys. Well,
Billy McOwen
Well thank you. I think it's really important when you talk about the company culture. I think one of the things I'm most proud of, is the way that we've evolved our company culture. Under the umbrella, if you will, of the larger, you know, Mossy Oak brand. The thing that I really enjoy the most is the fact that we're one big family. I mean, you got 35 guys with their wives, girlfriends, kids, they show up. Remember, last year at our annual family reunion, we had a big outdoor picnic for everybody. And people come together, you know, that live four or five hours apart, and they come together, and they're just like, you live right down the street. Everybody's laughing and joyful, and they enjoy that. And, you know, what that tells me is everybody really loves what they do. And I mean, think about it, there's not a lot of people out there that can really say, when I get up in the morning, put my boots on, you know, I absolutely love what I get to do every day, and I think it shows in our work, shows when we walk into the woods with a customer. I get in the woods, I get walking around, and I'll find a dog on deer trail or, you know, bear scratches on a tree rub, you know, whatever, and I get like a little kid in a candy store. And I think that's infectious. You know, people see that, they get I'm fired up, because I'm seeing this stuff, and they're fired up. And it's just, you know, that's what makes it great. I mean, you know, where can you go and spend a day in the woods almost every day, and go and have a just a great time, you know, working with clients and customers and help them accomplish their greatest dreams of owning their own piece of ground. And you know, that whole fistful of dirt thing is, is really pretty cool. But, you know, it means a lot. And I think it's really rewarding, and you see it too, we all see it, but I just think it's really a blessing to have such great people, like you Andrew, like our team. And we're gonna have a lot more to come, we're gonna get those guys in here, we're going to try to get every one of our agents to come in, talk on the podcast, you know, tell us tell their story. Get them to connect with their clients and really make it a special time. So this is all about us connecting with you, our clients, our customers. Again, if you do have any questions about anything having to do with land at all, we don't care what it is. Just remember, hashtag 'find your favorite place.' Send us a message on Facebook. We'll get it right away. Both Andrew and I are looking at that all the time. We'll field your questions on the podcast and, and get things going. So this is going to wrap us up for episode number one. So thanks for joining us. Please come back. You can check us out in just about every place that you can find a podcast, Apple, Google, all those kinds of fun places. Will also try to post our weekly episodes up on our Facebook page. Again, that's hashtag 'find your favorite place.' My name is Billy McOwen, and I'm your host. My guest today was Andrew Walters, our broker in charge for the Greenville office and we thank you an awful lot for joining us today. Peace out everybody. We'll see you next week.
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