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Beatty: [00:00:00.09] So welcome back, everyone. This is Beatty Carmichael. If you don’t recognize the voice yet, and especially for our new newcomers, we’re on another session of Get Sellers Calling You Realtor podcast. And I have a good friend of mine that is actually my brother. I don’t know if you knew that, but I actually have a number of brothers in real estate. We’re kind of laughing because we know where that goes. But this is Peter Fife from Prescott, Arizona, and he’s got an incredibly strong business, consistently strong and a great story. And I wanted to just have you hear from him what goes on in his life and how you can mirror what he does. So, Peter, how are you doing?

Peter: [00:00:52.09] Good, Beatty. Good to talk to you. Your brother in Christ?

Beatty: [00:00:55.45] Yeah, that’s right, brother.

Peter: [00:00:56.74] No resemblance except for the beautiful hair. You know, I do have that resemblance.

Beatty: [00:01:00.79] And for those that are just listening to us by audio. Yeah, we both have very, very few hair follicles up top.

Peter: [00:01:07.84] So it’s a sign of a thinker and.

Beatty: [00:01:11.38] A thinker and. And something else. But we won’t go there.

Peter: [00:01:15.76] The brain’s gotten so big, it’s just pushed it all out.

Beatty: [00:01:18.76] That is exactly it. The Lord chose some heads to be beautiful, and then he covered the other ones with hair.

Peter: [00:01:25.54] Exactly. I like that one. Yeah.

Beatty: [00:01:28.27] Just as a reminder, for those who are listening in, if you have not subscribed, please press the subscribe button If you want to watch this video, it’s actually a video so you can go back to our site, GetSellersCallingYou.com. You actually see who is talking on this. And one final reminder, we’ve just started a Facebook group to simply enhance the dialog between agents on discussing getting sellers and those type of things. It’s called of all things get sellers calling you, so please look us up and join the group if you have interest. Peter I would. Before we get into real estate, I’d like to just understand, just tell us a little bit about you. What’s your background? How did you get to what led you into real estate and just whatever it starts from there?

Peter: [00:02:15.61] Well, real estate runs deep in my family, so my dad’s been a realtor my whole life, okay? And he’s passed away to a couple of years ago at age 90. But my whole life he was in real estate. My grandmother in Switzerland, she did real estate for 40 plus years. Oh, wow. And didn’t stop until she died at 8586. So I’ve always seen real estate as a way to provide for my family, you know? And so I’ve been doing it since I was 23.

Beatty: [00:02:50.11] Wow. So no, no real story behind the real estate other then that’s how you grew up. I love it. Yeah. What is your just to kind of get to know you a little bit more. This could be personal within business. Without business, what would you say has been maybe your biggest failure and what did you learn from it?

Peter: [00:03:15.45] Biggest failure. What can I learn from it?

Beatty: [00:03:17.88] If you consider anything a failure, sometimes you don’t.

Peter: [00:03:21.90] Well, see, I don’t think there’s any. I mean.

Beatty: [00:03:23.97] That. That’s why I say that.

Peter: [00:03:25.17] There’s called PhDs in real estate. Pretty hard deals. Yeah. You know, and if we don’t learn from our mistakes, they become pretty hard deals. But if we learn from them, they turn it into a PhD where. Where we become educated. You know, I’ve only bought one fridge in my career, but. But my. My theory on real estate is. If I make the mistake, I’ll eat it, you know. But it keeps me from making a lot of mistakes. And I learn from my mistakes that way, you know? And also it gets good comeback customers, you know. So.

Beatty: [00:04:01.56] So let me rephrase my question. What is the biggest day that you’ve experienced and what did you learn from that?

Peter: [00:04:11.32] Oh, I remember when I was poor and struggling. And early on I remember I forgot to. Look at the box where it says there’s a box in Arizona that you check that says Fridge included, and we got to close off escrow and my by my sellers are taking the fridge and the buyer calls me, buyer’s agent calls me, says, Where’s the fridge? And I said, What fridge? So the fridge and the contract. And I said, What fridge in the contract. Oh, what fridge would you like? And that was, that was a hard deal. And I went, okay, I’m always going to look at that one, but, and didn’t even tell my sellers because it was my mistake, you know, I just said, Well, buy the fridge. But you know, there’s what else? You know, you just have regular stuff that comes up all the time that is just normal, you know, And it’s not really a mistake. It’s working through personalities, you know, and working with people. So I can’t think of a big mistake I’ve made that really, you know, oh, gee, you know.

Beatty: [00:05:14.72] Well, you know, I love the FD approach.

Peter: [00:05:16.54] I’ll tell you a big mistake I almost made. Okay, how about that one?

Beatty: [00:05:19.72] All right, perfect.

Peter: [00:05:20.80] Okay. So in 2005, I owned about nine properties and was really leveraged hard because I owned a lot of rental properties and things were happening in the nation. And my wife was inspired and she said, What would it take for us to get out of debt? And I said We had to sell it all if we sold. They said, if we sold all the out of debt, and I said we’d be like 50,000 off. And she said, Sell everything. And I’m like, Sell everything. That’s crazy because this is before 2007 happened in the big crash. This is before we’ve ever seen real estate do this. And I was you know, I was. I knew more than my wife.

Beatty: [00:06:07.27] Right?

Peter: [00:06:08.02] Because I’ve been in real estate a long time and she was getting this inspiration and I wasn’t humble enough to listen to her. And so she kept telling me, Do you need to pray about it? Like, okay, fine. So I was very hesitant because I didn’t want to, you know, I was going to be rich by darn it. You know, see, I was going to do really well and I knew better. And so finally, I, I humbled myself and pray to the Lord. Lord said, Yeah, sell it all. You need to sell it all. And I was like, You got to be kidding me. I mean, this is this does make sense. So I sold everything in 2000, five, six, and then we know what happened in six and seven. Everything just and I was like, Oh, boy, that was good. I sold everything because I couldn’t afford I mean, my income dropped by 80%, you know. Yeah. In that in that first year, 2007 eight. But, but because I had sold everything and had no debt to next to near debt, no debt, you know, I was able to survive and be okay and have enough to make it through that valley. To where I could not have to grab for my savings anymore and be okay. And that’s the only thing that allowed me to have staying power. But I almost didn’t listen. You know? So, yeah. And that also led to me getting up here to Prescott, which is the greatest blessing in our life, because had I not done that, I wouldn’t have been in a financial position where I could move up here and start all over again in 2008, which was another story of faith that we’ll have to get into.

Beatty: [00:07:49.52] I definitely want to get into that. So in fact, Paul, we’re in that direction. So let’s I have to tell you this story now. I can’t remember if I have said this on in my other podcast. I remember going into I was in a business group many years back, and we would bring in a top speaker every year, every month to come and teach our group. It’s like a group of 15 or 18 men, men and women, and they’re usually, you know, glittering with Rolex watches and expensive suits and, you know, they’re multi multimillionaires from their businesses and they’re going to teach us these business things. So I kind of got accustomed to that. And then I came in this one day and this guy just wearing a, you know, sort of like a turtleneck, black black shirt and black pants, no jacket, no fancy watch. My watch was fancier than his, you know, just normal shoes. And and this was my thought. And for any of our listeners out there before you say, am I going to get anything from this call, my thought was, oh, what am I going to learn from this joker? Okay, that was my attitude. I was real prideful. And then the the moderator said, I’d like to introduce this person is so-and-so. He’s from Texas. He was here yesterday for our other group, but he had to fly back on his private jet to make a tea time. Von Golf. And I’m thinking, Oh, maybe I’m missing this guy. And then he said, he owns four businesses and thinking, okay, Jack of many, master of none. And they do a combined revenue of $1 billion. And I got put in my place. Okay. So don’t judge a book by its cover. Right. So we’re not judging you by your cover, but just to kind of titillate a little bit where this is going. Would you mind if I ask you what type of personal transactional volume do you do today as a real estate agent?

Peter: [00:09:43.66] I do between 24 and 28 million a year, between 50 and 70 transactions, and I’ve done that consistently for 25 of my 27 years. There’s only two years I didn’t sell over 50 listings and that was my first year. And the first year I moved up here to press. Those are the only two that I haven’t sold over 50.

Beatty: [00:10:01.51] I did not know that. So very consistent. So we want to learn a lot of what is your secret to keep your business going. So you mentioned the story about moving, selling, moving up to Prescott and starting over, and that is a fabulous story. Can you share just a little bit of what happened and what was going on?

Peter: [00:10:22.27] Yeah, that was really a faith move, frankly. Logistically, there’s really no reason why I should move. I had a strong business down in the Phenix market, East Mesa area, consistently selling again between 60 and 80 properties a year and things were going really well and initially about a year prior. Phenix is hot, I mean 115 hot and it just fries your brain in the summers. And so about a year prior to me moving up here, I was just just so hot. My sister in law said, Hey, why don’t you go over to Prescott? I don’t even know where Prescott, Arizona was. And I was like, What? And so I looked it up and we went up there and I remember waking up, and this is in August, and I woke up in the morning at 630, went out on the balcony, and I was like, Oh, wow, I can breathe. It’s like in the sixties, you know, because usually in Phenix it’s in the nineties, in the morning, you know, and it goes 115. And I was like, Oh, this is great. And I said to my wife, I was like, We got to get a cabin up here, second home, you know, And she didn’t really she didn’t like the Prescott, she didn’t have a good feeling about it initially. I’m like, Oh, okay, whatever. But I was like, I’m still going to get on the MLS’s up there.

Peter: [00:11:39.61] I’m going to get on the board and I just watch the market. A year passes and the market went down about 5% and I’m thinking 5%. It’s on sale. Real estate never goes down, right? This is in 2007. Yeah. And so my wife was really into the green thing and efficient houses. And there’s this one house that came up in a little town called Chino Valley, which is north of Prescott, and it fit all of the hot buttons for her. And it was my birthday in oh seven and I said, Honey, all I want for my birthday is to just go up and check out this house. Could be a good second house. It’s cheap. It has all the stuff you like maybe. And she’s like, okay, okay, we’ll go up there. So we start coming up the hill, we go over the rye. There’s like a little ridge that goes up into Chino Valley and Chino Valley, just so you know. Is is very rural acreage, flat prairie land. You know, it’s not like Prescott has pine trees and rocks and boulders and it’s pretty and it’s charming. Chino, frankly, is kind of boring. And so we come up with a surprise and start coming in Chino. And my wife goes, Oh, I like this place. And I’m like.

Beatty: [00:12:51.00] Oh, wow, did.

Peter: [00:12:51.81] I miss something here? This is ugly. So we check out the house. She’s like, Yeah, this is a good place. And and so we we stayed there for church on Sunday just to see if our kids, if they’d like it or whatever. And I really, frankly wasn’t that impressed. I was like, Yeah, it’s okay. It’s church is church. You know, it’s good. We walk out the church. My wife goes, Yep, that’s it. We’re moving. And I went great, second home. She said, No need to move here. So when you raise your kids and I’m like. What? I said, did I miss something here? Yeah.

Beatty: [00:13:25.81] I told you to sell. And now she tells you to move.

Peter: [00:13:29.14] I was like, Did I miss the angel at church? Did I say something? I’m not starting over. Are you crazy? I’ve been in the business. What was at that time? 12 years or so. 13 years? I said I’ve got a business established. I said coming up here would be disastrous. I said I’d have to start from scratch again. We don’t know one person up here. This is crazy. She’s like, Nope, this is where we need to be. Raise our kids. And this is about what, 14 years ago, 15 years ago. And so and I was like, No, no, I just wouldn’t even open my mind. And I said, second home, we can go up there in the summers, you know, when it’s hot. I think we don’t do a lot of business in summer. I could take basically I could work two days a week in the summer, you know, and but I’m not moving. And she says, you take it up with the Lord and I’m like, fine, So pray to the Lord. And Lord says, Yep, need to move. And the house we thought we liked sold immediately. So we’re like, Well, whatever. So we invested time into it, found a house that worked and we bought the house. And right after we bought the house, the market in Phenix just took a nosedive. My house lost 100,000 in value in six months. Wow. But because I had bought a house up there, I was committed. Had I just rent it first, I honestly don’t think my faith would have been strong enough to to leave it all and go up into the mountains, into the valley of the shadow of death, you know, so and fear no evil. So we move up there. I sold my house for way less than I thought. Went back in debt again, which I didn’t like. But but I did have savings, so I was like, Oh, we better. Instead of just having everything paid off, I better put something in the kitty so I have something to live off of. And so we moved up here. So join me to continue with the story on that one or.

Beatty: [00:15:18.97] Yes, because it’s building to what I remember when you and I spoke a number about three years ago. That was the most amazing story. And I want to share this. Let me pause for just a moment. We’re moving right now into a difficult real estate time for a lot of people.

Peter: [00:15:39.82] We are.

Beatty: [00:15:40.57] Because it’s a huge shift for those who’ve gone through shifts. It’s like, okay, been there, done that, but there’s a lot of uncertainty and where you’re just about to talk about, there’s a lot of uncertainty going on and at this time in your life and I just want to ask as you go as you share this part of the story, that you share your your concerns moving into the uncertainties, but also how do you have the confidence to keep moving forward? And I’m sure it’s going to come out naturally, but I want to make sure you talk on that.

Peter: [00:16:17.59] I will. I want to tell you three things my dad told me when I got to real estate. He said, Son, he said, Always remember three things. You always remember. You’ll always be successful. Real estate. I said, What’s that? Daddy says, Number one, keep the Sabbath day. Holy number two. He said, always pay a full tithe. And number three, when things get really tough, pay extra love offerings and you’ll be blessed. And so I’ve always followed that, you know. You know, I try my best not to do any work at all. On Sunday, I might check a text or so, but I don’t go on appointments. I don’t I won’t take a buyer out. I don’t care what’s going on, because I think. By honoring the Lord’s Day. Mm hmm. It connects us with the Lord. And there’s promises associated with the Old Testament. If you study that carefully, the Lord says, if you honor and keep my Sabbath days, you shall be blessed and you shall be prospered, baby. And so I took that one to the bank. But also. I know that God is faithful and. You’ve got to have confidence in your answers. To know that everything’s going to work out.

Beatty: [00:17:30.15] Yeah.

Peter: [00:17:31.35] So, for example, when I first moved up here. I didn’t know anybody. I didn’t have any business going on. I remember moving up here from the valley and talking to other realtors and, you know, how many deals do you do here? Oh, ten or 12. He says, How many do you ask? Oh, he’s like 50. He’s like, You won’t be 50 up here. That’s not going to happen. Then I remember coming into my office and there was like 30 or 40 agents, you know, and I talked to the manager and he said, So what are you used to? I said, Oh, you know, I used to go about 50 to 70. And he’s like, Oh, you know, nobody does that here. And I’m like, I will see. You know? And so I’d been here like eight months and. You know, actually, the first couple of months, I got to tell you, this one again. I’m a proud person. I’m going to admit that, you know. But the Lord is still able to work with me. He’s patient. He’s gentle. Yes. But I was going to change companies because I was with Coldwell Banker. I’ve been with him the whole time. I’ve been with him now 27 years. Wow. And when I moved up here, they wanted to change my commission split.

Peter: [00:18:39.46] And I was I was at the top. I was like one of five in the entire company that had the highest commission split because of my production. And I was like, What are you talking about? Well, your new market and it’s not the same grandfathered thing. And, and I was like, you guys, I was not happy and my pride was hurt, frankly. And so I was going to change companies. And I had looked at this other company and it was closer to my house and I looked at everything logically. It was a, B, c, d, f, g, I should move a, B, I should stay. And so I was pretty determined I was going to change companies. I mean, I made up my mind and I said, Well, you know, before you ever make a big decision, I should take you to the Lord. So I knelt down, I said, okay, Lord, I’m going to change companies to this other company. What do you say? No, I was very clear in my mind. Clear? No. And I was like. What could not be right. So I go to my wife and I’m like, you know, I’m going to change companies to this, this, this, this, this. What do you think? I think you should change.

Peter: [00:19:47.25] Somebody’s just prayed about it. Got to know. She’s like, what? That doesn’t make any sense. And I said, No, it doesn’t make any sense. I said, I’ll pray again. Kay Lord, maybe you didn’t understand me. Abcd cfg a b No, like that can’t be right. So I went to Lord one more time. I won’t ask more than three times. Three times the max, you know, ask one more time, Lord. Very clear says No, don’t change. And I’m like, okay, I’ll stay where I’m at. Now I’ve got to preface this with one thing. I had been there about 5 to 6 months and I was in a scout group that I was a leader and I was with another scoutmaster and we’re driving. I said, So how much have you made since you’ve been here? I says, I don’t think I had one closing yet, maybe one in six months. It was really rough, you know? And he said, Well, aren’t you worried about providing for your family and what you’re worried is going to work out? And I said, You know what? I said, I’m not. And he says, How are you not worried? I says, I’m actually excited. And he says, Why are you excited? You’re crazy.

Beatty: [00:20:47.63] And I said, I understand.

Peter: [00:20:49.10] Yeah, because I. I just know something good’s going to happen. I can just feel it. And it was about the same time that I was either shortly after that that I got the no answer. And three weeks after I got the no answer to stay where I was at in Coldwell Banker, I got a call from the head of relocation for the state of Arizona, who I knew well because I’d done relocation down in the Valley and have lots of experience, know I’d closed probably at this time, somewhere to the tune of 800 to 1000 deals, not quite, probably 800 deals at the time. And she calls me up and she goes, Hey, you know, I don’t know if you’d be interested, but Coldwell Banker just landed a big national program with doing bank homes with with a big bunch of banks and was interested if you’d be interested in doing the bank loans, it’d be a lot of work and it’d be the full relocation package with beams and everything. It’s going to be a lot more work. Would you be interested? And I said, You bet. Sign me up, I’ll be doing it.

Peter: [00:21:43.72] I said, Be happy to do it. You know, it’s not full commission you’re going to be having to work. And I was like, I know, but I’m good. I’d love to do it because I had seen the market changing and I knew that’s the direction it was going. And before that time I was trying to figure out a way to get involved with the bank owned. And so I got went in the office for the meeting and I said, just so you know, I’m getting all the bank loans now and every in the office laughed at me. This is in 2008 now 2008, about July, August, they all laughed at me and they said, You’re crazy. I said, You’re going to tell all the bank loans. That’s that’s crazy. You’re not going to make any money off of all the work. You’re nuts. And I looked at all of them and I said, I’m crazy like a fox. I said, One year from this day, you all look at me and wish you’re in my shoes. Within one year of that happening, I was doing 50% of the entire office’s business.

Beatty: [00:22:31.72] Wow.

Peter: [00:22:33.25] Yeah. I’m the only reason why the office My manager came to me a couple of years afterwards and said, You realize you’re the only reason why this office stayed open. If it wasn’t for you moving up here, this office would have closed down because we wouldn’t have been profitable.

Beatty: [00:22:44.68] Wow.

Peter: [00:22:45.43] So, you know, the Lord blessed me. He provided, and I’ve been blessed ever since. And, you know, I’m still a top producer, top ten in all of Arizona for Coldwell Banker. And and it’s all the Lord, you know, he provides he opens a way, you know. And if I can tell you one more story for those who are starting out. Yeah. You know, so my first nine months in real estate, when I got back into it in 95, I think it was, yeah, I hadn’t made a dime. I hadn’t got a single sale. I’d worked my tail off, you know, done the right things, but I didn’t have a single closing. And then the way opened up for us to move to Arizona, and we really didn’t have the money. You know, I was going to come and join my mother in law. She had been in real estate as well. And I prayed and Lord said, yes, what I needed happen. In a matter of three weeks, I made 50,000. Why in three weeks? What have nothing to listings to double, ending all the listings to getting your buyers in a contest and closed all before we moved. And I didn’t tell a single soul I was moving. I closed them all up, had everything tied up in a bow. I said, okay, I’m moving in two days and two days. I says, Yeah, I already go to Arizona. So the Lord opens ways and miraculous ways. And and we just need to be grateful, you know? And, you know, we do. It’s not all been easy. It does take a lot of faith and there’s been some nail biter experiences, you know, or you wonder. But he always provides and he’s faithful when we are.

Beatty: [00:24:25.66] So I was going to ask a question, but I don’t think this question has much merit. But it might. The question was this one of my standard questions? Everyone’s figuring out how do you get more sales because you’re in a hunter business? What have you found to work best to get more sales? And I think I know the answer. So I may ask for what’s your number one? Probably the Lord. And what’s your number two?

Peter: [00:24:51.76] The number one is the Lord. You know, He really is the provider of all good things, but we’re expected to do our part. You know, I spend a lot of marketing, a lot of agents don’t Real estate works when you do. And there’s two ways you can work real estate if you don’t have any money to spend on marketing. I knock doors for the longest time and when I first started real estate and I did a little flier for the neighborhood that I became an expert in the neighborhood, and I would knock those doors in that neighborhood and just let them know that I knew what was going on in that neighborhood. You know, every time I knock doors, I always got something. Not from knocking the doors, though. That’s the point. That’s important. When you set your mind. In the position to receive. You’re able to receive what’s coming to you. Maybe you’re sharper on the phone. Maybe you’re better at picking up that buyer. You know, you get that one lead call, you know, you do floor and the Lord send you somebody that you answer the right questions and you pick them up as a buyer that’s ready, willing and able. But I’ve always done that. And then you can also cold call, hate, cold calling. But I don’t do that anymore. And so instead, now, instead of doing the other stuff to go find and search, I, I do a lot of marketing with my listings, which in reality markets me and helps people understand, Wow. You know, real estate is all about perception. If people perceive that you’re huge and you’re big and you do a lot of business, you’re huge and your big and you do a lot of business and that’s what the marketing accomplishes, you know, so.

Beatty: [00:26:32.08] So tell me your what’s the number one or maybe the number one and number two activities that you do? How do you market and you mention your marketing, your listings. What are you doing that has been consistent that you keep doing because it keeps working?

Peter: [00:26:50.02] You know, it depends on your market, what you should do. Each market’s a little bit different. Like in my market, I used to do magazine advertisements when I was down in Mesa and I had kind of given up on when I first moved up here and then I started up again. Coldwell Banker has a has a piece called The View magazine, which is nice full color, and I advertised in that and I got so many calls, I’m like, okay, I’m going to keep doing that. And so I’ve done magazine ads up here, which. The purpose is twofold with the magazine ad number one, it’s to pick up buyers, which sometimes happens, but not always. But number two, it does market your listings because we have an older population up here and we’re in the top ten areas to retire in America. And so people come into town and they open up a magazine, they look at it and and you’ll pick up a buyer. But they also sometimes come here with the idea of buying something, and they’ll see that property and they’ll go, Oh, what about this one? That they might not have showed up on their search with another realtor? And so your listings get more, more showings every time magazines come up. I always see my listings spike on showings every time. And then the third big reason. So I continue to do magazine ads, even in the hot market when they were selling in a day, you know, because two things. Number one, you have things fall out. And about the time they fell out, it would hit the market with the with the magazine. I remember one property I sold for 10,000 over asking the first time it had fallen out. When it came back on the market, my magazine came out and I sold 50,002nd time over asking, and I use that in my listing presentations. But the biggest thing is people that are thinking of selling. Do you know where they go to look before they sell.

Beatty: [00:28:43.87] Where they’re going.

Peter: [00:28:44.29] To buy to pick up a magazine?

Beatty: [00:28:45.64] Interesting.

Peter: [00:28:46.33] And open that magazine. And there I am. First page on every magazine. They go, Oh, well, that guy’s there. I see his mailers in the neighborhood because I’m doing a farming piece, you know, or and I always do just sold. And so so people are seeing my name over and over and over again. So when I walk in that door for that listing presentation. They feel like they already know me and they see my stuff all around. There’s a. A belief system of automatic trust that’s been built because they see it so much. You know, and I would say eight out of ten listing appointments, I go on, I’ll win, you know, so. I don’t want them all. Nobody can. But you know that that’s really what helps me get the listings. And then they call me and either just sold another stuff and. And so it’s just a machine, you know, and put it in machine keeps rolling.

Beatty: [00:29:36.06] So as we move into higher interest rates, lower much more extended days on market, lower sales prices, definitely not selling over list as much, all these different things. What’s the biggest challenge in your business right now and how are you tackling it?

Peter: [00:29:56.81] The biggest challenge you have right now in our market is you’ve got to convince people to not chase the marble down the hill. What that means is in a declining market. When you’re looking at comparables, you’re looking in the rearview mirror. Okay. So newer agents. Can fall prey to saying, Well, I had an agent. He said, it’s worth 750. And I said, Well, yeah, that was six months ago. That was March, April, May. And we’re not in March, April, May. You’ve got to look two months and you really got to look at the pending what’s under contract because that tells you what’s actually selling. I said what they sold for before is not what they’re going to sell for now. I said, Yeah, I can get it appraised for 750 all day long, but it’s not going to sell for 750. I said, Your market’s now at 699. And to help them understand where the market is, I said. Perfect example, in March of this year, I listed a house for 9.99. It was a million. And there was six houses on the market total in a large area. That was it. So full price sold in a weekend. It was awesome. Six weeks later, same market, similar house. 26 homes on the market. And we priced it similar. Couldn’t get sold, couldn’t get a sold and got him to come down. Finally got it sold. Right. But it’s always better now, now that it’s entrenched and you see this happening. If the marbles here, you’ve got to price it right here so that you catch it. You ought to price yourself. So you’re the next one to sell and you’ll always make more money as the seller or lose less money however you want to look at it.

Peter: [00:31:43.27] You know, reality is this and this is my take on the market in 2019. Me and the other top producers. We always talk to each other. We all saw it. We saw that it was it was flat. It was getting to be flat, you know, And we thought it would just stagnate for a while. And then COVID hit and we jumped 60% from 2019. All that 60% is fluff. It really wasn’t real appreciation. People don’t want to hear this, but I think win lose all of that 60% and then some and then we’ll shoot back up again because it’s just going to be the fear of missing out. But I’m not going to I’m not going to buy now because interest rates are going up, you know, and why would I buy now? Prices are going down, you know, and then sellers are going to go, oh, no, I’ve got to sell now. So you lose, you know, So I think we’ll see another 2008 scenario, but we’re not going to see the foreclosures like we did because people are not going to let their houses go at 3% interest rates when we’re going to see interest rates climb to 10%. It’s just not going to happen. They’re going to hold on to that house no matter what, because they won’t be able to replace that payment for a rental. They’re like, no way. You know, I’ll do everything. I’ll hock my phone if I have to to make my house payment. But I’m not going to foreclosure, you know, So you’re not going to see the foreclosure frenzy like we did last time. My opinion, I might be.

Beatty: [00:33:04.44] Wrong. I think you’re probably right on that. It’s a different type of shift than it was back then. For sure.

Peter: [00:33:11.17] Yeah. Talk to me.

Beatty: [00:33:12.60] About balance in your life. You have how many kids? Three and ages right now.

Peter: [00:33:19.80] 24, 21 and 18.

Beatty: [00:33:21.93] Okay. So then when you moved into Prescott, they were in their teens and.

Peter: [00:33:27.03] Maybe seven and five. Wow. Or spore.

Beatty: [00:33:32.40] So real estate for a lot of people is a 24 seven business. Sometimes it’s only a 60 or 70 hour a week business and sometimes only.

Peter: [00:33:42.21] I love that I was doing nineties back then.

Beatty: [00:33:45.36] Well, you know, a friend of mine, only it’s only 35 hours a week and he does as much volume as you do. And I’m thinking.

Peter: [00:33:52.17] Yeah, I do about 30 hours a week now frankly, because I’ve once you, you’ve got to get the soil productive and then once you do then there’s less work.

Beatty: [00:34:01.69] Yeah. So talk to me about boundaries and balance your, your you’ve got a thriving business. You’re especially with all the ratios that you got as you moved into Prescott. How do you, how do you put structure so that you don’t lose your family? Your family isn’t suffering? How do you still be a dad and a husband?

Peter: [00:34:24.75] Step one Marry Well, okay. It makes you have a very patient life step to be humble, which I’m not really. Well, my wife helps me be humble. Okay, But you know. I tried not successfully when I was getting it started getting started as tough, but I tried to leave work alone after six in the old days. I’m not so good at that now and it doesn’t matter too much. When the kids were younger, it was more important. But try to put your family first, you know, as best you can. There’s a balance. And that balancing act is very difficult. Very difficult at times. My kids were involved in scouting at the time. I’d try to go on every camp out with them, try to take them to their youth activity nights, you know, on Wednesdays, and just be involved in their life. We’d always have dinner together. That was a big thing in my family, you know, We’d always have dinner together. And I think there is. Sitting down having dinner as a family. It’s like an anchor.

Beatty: [00:35:43.59] Yeah, it goes a long way.

Peter: [00:35:46.94] I’ve been blessed with really good kids. I’ve never had a sleepless night with him, never had to worry about him getting drugs or alcohol or women or anything like that. They’ve all been very good kids, and that’s mainly because of my wife, frankly. We chose to homeschool all our children and they’ve all done very, very well. You know, don’t be afraid. To follow your promptings and not worry about what other people think, you know. And it was hard to homeschool. That wasn’t popular back then. You know, we got a lot of, oh, your kids aren’t going to be socialized. Your kids aren’t going to do well, you know, And they’ve all been really well and they’re all awesome kids. They really are.

Beatty: [00:36:32.87] Most homeschool kids I’ve met have been the most well-adjusted.

Peter: [00:36:37.64] Exactly.

Beatty: [00:36:38.18] Self-confident, most socially adept. I was like, Yeah, it’s very good.

Peter: [00:36:44.39] And now with everything going on in the public schools, I think there’s more motivation than ever to homeschool.

Beatty: [00:36:49.70] Yeah. I’m hearing a lot more about that from those who have the younger children. So one come back real quickly. So as we’re talking at boundaries, so one of the boundaries, it sounds like, you know, you have your family and you’re always mindful. It seems like you were mindful and trying to be sensitive, putting up work at six, being home for dinner, creating that anchor. You also had the boundary. I want to come back to keeping the Sabbath day holy. By the way, for those who have interest on that research, my podcast channel a little bit further back I did a series on is the Sabbath for today. It’s a really fascinating understanding and walk through the Scriptures. And what is the importance of that, by the way, as a trivia? You remember, Peter, when Israel was ransacked, Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar comes in, takes him away, and the Lord through I think is Jeremiah gives one reason. It may not be the only reason, but is the only reason we find in the Bible why he did away with Israel and and turn them over into exile. Do you remember what that one reason might be?

Peter: [00:37:58.37] Probably honoring the Sabbath day is because I mean, because the Lord says, Yeah, that’s one of the few Big Ten Commandments.

Beatty: [00:38:06.08] Very much.

Peter: [00:38:07.25] That comes with the promise one’s honor, your father and your mother and number two. And that has a blessing associated with always keep the Sabbath day holy. And if you do this, you shall be blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed. Very.

Beatty: [00:38:19.31] Very good. And you’re right. It was the Sabbath so that his land can now receive the Sabbath that they weren’t doing. But what’s also interesting in that is the Sabbath, the seventh day is the first instance in the Bible where God declares anything holy. It was the number one.

Peter: [00:38:40.01] Interesting. You’re right. I forgot. Yeah, that’s a good point.

Beatty: [00:38:42.89] So as we talk on the Sabbath, which for us it’s Sunday, you and me. I know, but it’s not that way for everyone. And how do you manage a business? You’ve got needs that may come up on a Sabbath. Your son.

Peter: [00:38:55.01] You know what I did is, believe it or not, there was a Seventh Day Adventist in my in my office who believed in keeping the Sabbath holy. So it made it real easy. I took all her Saturday appointments. She took all my Sundays, and we were good.

Beatty: [00:39:08.57] I love it.

Peter: [00:39:09.05] I love it. We had it covered.

Beatty: [00:39:11.66] So there’s and I wanted you to share that only because, you know, sometimes we say, am I going to lose business? Well, you know, there’s always a creative way around it, but. There’s always.

Peter: [00:39:24.90] I’m going to tell you this. Yeah. I had a client. I had an agent in my office who’d always been a top producer. And this is back in 2012, 13. And her business was suffering really bad. She was struggling and she said, Gosh, what can I do to get more business? And I said, Do you want the truth? And she says, Yeah. I said, Stop working on Sunday. She said, I just asked you how I can get more business. I said, Exactly. Stop working on Sunday. And she says, What do you mean? I said, If you keep the Sabbath day, holy. Your deals will go smoother. The clients you have will be better and your life will be much easier. Because if you have a client that refuses to honor your Sabbath day. Their client you don’t work with because that’s kind of sad. Client’s going to sue you. That’s the kind of clients going to be on your back. That’s the kind of client that you don’t want to work with in the first place. I said, I said, Who is going to call their attorney on a Saturday or Sunday? Nobody. Attorneys work Monday through Friday. They’re professionals.

Peter: [00:40:23.82] I’m a professional. I’ll give you six days a week because God says Labor. Six days, not five, not four. And on three, he says Labor six days. Shut the labor. On the seventh day, thou shalt rest. So I’ll give them six full days. And on Sunday, you know what? I’m not going to be working now. Like I said, I’m not perfect. I will answer some texts. I generally don’t return any phone calls on Sunday. Tell me. Come back on Monday. You know, every now and again it’s a quick little five second text. You know, I should be better. I should repent and go all the way, you know, But I got to repent of that one. But but, you know, I really believe. The Sabbath day is the Lord’s day, which is meant to be spent with your family and your church service. And and doing the things we should be doing, you know, I mean, I’m not I think we ought to be careful to not draw the Sabbath as as a Pharisee or S’agissait. 15 steps and can only do this much. This much. It’s it’s a sign between us and God and our relationship with him.

Beatty: [00:41:31.89] Yeah, it’s a it’s an element of trust and faith.

Peter: [00:41:34.74] Yes. Yes.

Beatty: [00:41:37.35] And, you know, that’s what I pick up from this conversation with you, Peter, is just you strike me as one who not only you are, you call yourself a Christian. You are you love the Lord, but you live it out. You live it out in terms of being willing to do those things that the Lord is directing you on regardless.

Peter: [00:42:00.78] You know? Right. Perfect. I guess I get that we all make mistakes. Yeah. I’m not Michael.

Beatty: [00:42:06.81] Ryan, so I’m not calling you perfect on this because I know you’re not perfect. I’m teasing. I’m sure you are, aren’t. Yeah, but. But, you know, within there’s the element of faith which is stepping out and trusting the Lord. And with the Sabbath being one of the few of the commandments with a great promise. I love that.

Peter: [00:42:28.77] You know, And tithe is another thing with a promise, in my opinion, giving a tithe. And it depends on how you talk to you, how you give a tithe. A tithe is is, I think, defined by the scriptures as.

Beatty: [00:42:42.57] A 10th.

Peter: [00:42:43.17] 10% of, you know, after you meet your needs. I mean, but yet the more you give, the more you get. So each person can can live their tithe according to what they feel good about. You know, I’m not telling you how to tithe, but I can promise you. That God will bless you abundantly. If you do those two things, because it shows trust in him. Yes. And he rewards gratitude. And trust and faithfulness.

Beatty: [00:43:16.27] You know that. I think that’s well spoken. Before we wrap up, I’ve got one final question. I don’t know if there’s an answer because I don’t know what’s in your life, but have you had any struggles that you can share in your life where your relationship with Christ made a really big impact in coming through it? Because there are a lot of people out there that are struggling through things right now marriage, health, business, all kinds of things. And just want to say if there’s anything that. Comes to mind.

Peter: [00:43:48.20] There’s a lot of things, actually, but I won’t go into specifics because they’re a little too personal. Perfect. But I can say. I’ve struggled with things in my life. Hard things. Very hard things. I struggle with depression really bad about starting it up probably 13, 14 years ago. For a number of years. That was caused because of things that happened to me in my childhood that I hadn’t really remembered that were affecting me, abuses that had happened, that I that happened to be very, very young as a child. And I didn’t realize that. And. Through going to. Some help in doing some. Guided imagery. I was able to find out what happened and. Christ was there for me.

Beatty: [00:44:51.18] Yeah.

Peter: [00:44:52.81] And. One insight that I gained from that. As the Lord touched me and helped me. Is. The words. The savior said to me in my mind, I am. And he says, I am always there for my children in the past and the present and in their future. Because I am. And the guy that was helping me through this guy, that image who was actually a Jew, who was Jewish and knew Hebrew. And I said, He says, Oh, that’s interesting. You had that epiphany. I said, Why is that? He says, Do you know what the word Jehovah means in Hebrew? And I said, No, I’ve never I don’t know Hebrew at all. And he says, Yeah, means the past hole means the present, and var means the future.

Beatty: [00:45:58.20] Wow.

Peter: [00:45:58.77] That’s what the word I am comes from Jehovah. And. It just sent chills up my spine. And if there’s any message I can give to you today. It is that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior. And that he is the only way. And he’ll never abandon you. There’s no trail you can take that’s too far from his love. And there’s no darkness. You can enter that his light can’t reach. There’s no broken heart he can’t mend. My oldest son told me once as he was studying, he said, Dad, have you ever wondered why Jesus was a carpenter and not a shepherd? He always talks about shepherding and being the good Shepherd and the Scripture. But why was he a carpenter instead of a shepherd? And I said, Never thought about it. What do you think, son? He says, First of all, it put him in contact with people. Shepherds are out in the field. No. One. Number two, his goal in mission in life was to take something broken. And to make it whole. Or to take something crude and rough and make it smooth and beautiful. And I went, That is my Lord. That’s my savior. He takes a rough stone like me who’s not perfect, who sins like everybody else, who needs the grace of Jesus Christ every day. And makes me whole and forgives my sins. And helps me be the son he wants me to be, to lift and help others, which I need to do much more. So that’s my testimony of Christ. And he is the way, the truth and the life and, you know. Real estate works when you do, but it works ten times better when you have the best teammate partner in the world, and that’s the Lord Jesus Christ. So anyway.

Beatty: [00:48:12.06] Wow, that is a great message to end on. I don’t think you can get better. Thank you for sharing that.

Peter: [00:48:20.37] You bet.

Beatty: [00:48:21.96] So that’s it. As we wrap up, just a reminder, if you aren’t subscribing to our podcast, please do. If you’re listening to this online, if you have a mobile phone. Haha, I know you do. Just simply pull up your podcast player. If you’re on Apple, it’s called Apple Podcasts. It’s already downloaded. If you’re not on Apple, go to your play store and you can download any podcast player and just search for get sellers calling you and subscribe. You’ll get more of these and some also some great Bible teaching that I do. And don’t forget, join our Facebook group. Get sellers calling you if you desire. And thanks for allowing us to serve you. And Peter, thank you very much for.

Peter: [00:49:05.73] Thanks, Beatty, for your time and thanks for the call. Appreciate the blessing.

Beatty: [00:49:09.90] Have a blessed day, everyone.

Peter: [00:49:11.31] You too. God bless.

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