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Outside The Box
Outside the Box is the podcast for real estate agents who want to grow their business. Every episode provides actionable strategies that help you grow your repeat, referral, and sphere of influence business. Referrals don’t happen on accident—they happen on purpose, and we bring you insights from top agents and coaches who have mastered the art of relationship-based growth. Tune in for practical, proven tactics that will help you generate more business from the people who already know, like, and trust you!
Outside The Box
What Every Top Agent Uses To Win? This Silver Bullet... | Bill Moomaw
Bill Moomaw shares how he built a $200 million real estate business by nurturing relationships and staying top of mind with his sphere of influence through consistent marketing and follow-up strategies. His background in restaurant management taught him valuable skills for handling high-stress situations and managing client expectations in real estate transactions.
• For every properly marketed sphere of influence contact, expect approximately $500 in annual GCI
• Your first deal is already in your phone – focus on nurturing existing relationships
• Most agents quit marketing campaigns too early before seeing results
• Send monthly mailers to keep your brand visible – "it's all annoying until it's relevant"
• Always thank referral sources with a gift, even if the referral doesn't result in a transaction
• Use the phrase "Will you do me a favor? If you hear of someone looking to buy or sell real estate, will you think of me?"
• Gather "completed contacts" (name, phone, email, mailing address) for everyone in your database
• Consider hiring a licensed assistant to handle tasks that don't represent your highest and best use of time
• Schedule your vacations and time off first before filling in your work calendar
• Referrals come when you exceed expectations, not just when you do the job you were hired to do
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Justin Armbruster – https://www.instagram.com/armbruster_jd/
Chad Armbruster – https://www.linkedin.com/in/chadaarmbruster/
I think that is the single best marketing tool that we have available to us. Yeah, so it's all annoying until it's relevant.
Chad Armbruster:Thanks for joining us on Outside the Box, where we talk through actionable strategies that help you generate more repeat referral and sphere of influence. Business Referrals don't happen by accident. They happen on purpose. For those who don't know, my name is Chad Armbruster, ceo of BizBox, and alongside me, as always, is my co-host, full-time realtor and son, justin Armbruster.
Justin Armbruster:Today we have Bill Mumat, with Regal Realtors, joining us all the way from Kauffman, texas. Bill has been serving buyers and sellers in the greater Dallas area since 2019 and has sold over 500 homes, resulting in over $200 million in sales volume. Bill, thanks for joining us today.
Bill Moomaw:Hey, thanks for having me guys.
Chad Armbruster:How did you get into the real estate business?
Bill Moomaw:I sold a house and bought a house, had a really good transaction, saw how much the realtor made and, like many other people, thought, wow, I'd like to make that kind of money. It really crept into my brain over some months and I started thinking about how I could have done it differently, how I could have made the experience a little bit better, could have done it differently, how I could have made the experience a little bit better. Then I ended up having a sudden career change that was unexpected and saw it as the opportunity to go ahead and move forward.
Chad Armbruster:What did you do before?
Bill Moomaw:So I had a long career in restaurants so I would do restaurant management, all different levels of it, throughout the kitchen, front of house. The full restaurant multi-unit did the whole thing and was suddenly let go one day and took a few months off after that. To you know, take some of my life back that I'd given away over the past 20 plus years and man really thought hard over it over that time period. My wife was working for a real estate attorney at the time and she'd been doing it for a while and she'd always tell me that I missed my calling by not doing the law or going into real estate. So real estate was a much quicker avenue of course than law at that point. So took a few months off, then ended up getting my license and then went full bore, full time, started aggressively marketing myself and really understood the whole branding aspect of the of the career.
Justin Armbruster:Is there anything you've you've pulled from your past career that you use today, or you can attribute to some of your success what you learned?
Bill Moomaw:Uh, yeah, it's uh one thing I tell my my staff a lot and a lot of them came from the restaurant industry with me um, I'll have these moments with sellers where they're really, really stressed, or even a buyer who's feeling like they can't get it done, or that it's just that the target date keeps moving further and further out, and I'll have these flashbacks to standing in the cooler with the server having a breakdown on Friday night and hey, it's going to be okay, it's going to be okay.
Bill Moomaw:You know well, we got you Get yourself cleaned up, we're going to clean up your section. And then, even like with upset people, you know just that understanding of frustration going high and intelligence dropping low, and you know frustration being expectations and reality not lining up. Just these simple concepts that you would get with dealing with people that are in these high stress situations and kind of, you know, dumping on you about it. It's a lot easier to handle and move through. When I've lived it as the restaurant manager, you know so keeping people keeping their emotions in line, it definitely translates from career to career for me.
Chad Armbruster:So I don't know if this is my perception or whether I just heard this. I've heard the restaurant business is kind of tough, like hours or something. It seems like it's demanding. Am I wrong?
Bill Moomaw:Yeah, yeah, it's, uh, it's definitely a grind. My, my daughter, often mentions how, how I work more as a realtor than I did in in restaurants. But I'm just more visible, um, just because I'm around, even though I'm in my phone, uh, 24, 7 just staring at the phone. But uh, no, that was a lot of six-day work weeks, you know, minimum eight-hour day, maximum 14, 15-hour days, lots of closing the restaurant and then opening it the next day and all these things. It was very draining. The biggest difference, I would say, like demand of my life is, is that I sleep better now, you know.
Bill Moomaw:I have more consistent sleep than I did in the restaurants.
Chad Armbruster:Well, that's important.
Bill Moomaw:It is.
Chad Armbruster:So what's the one habit or routine that's helped you consistently stay in front of your sphere of influence and generate repeat and referral business?
Bill Moomaw:Well, I grabbed on early to you know this rings so true. As we go through, I always tell new agents your first deal's in your phone and if you go around the room at my team meetings and we just go around the room and 80% of us our first deal came out of our phone. So I really focused on that early in my career. And then I started working with some online leads that I'd buy and referrals, and man, it was really clear to me that the referrals that came directly from my sphere of influence were way easier for me to build a relationship with those people. Throughout the transaction it went smoother, there was more trust and then even after the transaction, it felt more pure the relationship than when I would meet strangers. So I would start focusing a lot on those, on building that with my sphere of influence.
Bill Moomaw:I did it a lot by. You know, I came into it as the real estate authority and I carried myself that way and I learned as much as I could about the real estate industry and I think that's what builds the trust with your friends and family and then consistent outreach to them of a follow-up. You know, minimum four conversations a year that you're reaching out to them and I like mailing them things. I think that anything that has my logo or my photo on it is going to stick into their mind, and then the idea is that when they think real estate, that my image or my logo pops up in their mind's eye.
Justin Armbruster:I love what you just said. Your first deal is in your phone. I just recently heard a stat in a book I was reading that out of 100 homeowners nationwide there will be 15 transactions within that 100. Whether that means there's one family buys and sells, there's two and maybe they buy an investment property, there's three. But on average out of the 100 people there's going to be 15 transactions in there. And so you know you work those transactions well. Even if there's 300, you know there's 45 transactions that are up for the taking if you're in front of them enough.
Bill Moomaw:So that's interesting, very true. I preach to my team that for every contact, sphere of influence, contact that you properly market to over the year, that will account for $500 of GCI. So the more people you can pack in there, the easier that that gets to do.
Justin Armbruster:Yeah, absolutely.
Chad Armbruster:So I'm just I think I understand what you're saying. So if you have a database of a hundred, you preach that there's $500 per uh for those. What are $50,000 in that? That that's interesting. That's a good way of looking at it.
Justin Armbruster:It's a great way to think about it too, because I think working by referral and you know repeat business it's, it's scary because it's it's not trackable. You know it's hard to put a gauge on. You know what kind of year can I expect to have when I work strictly off of repeat and referral clients? It's like, well, you know there's a good, you know law of law of averages. You know for every hundred people in your database you can expect $500 in GCI and so you know it gives you something to work towards at least on, you know how to predict it.
Bill Moomaw:Yeah, exactly, it puts it in their mind specifically and it you know it gets them to where. Hey, every person you can add into this database will add five hundred dollars a year. So that that's how you give yourself a raise and you know if you, if you work your sphere really hard, it can dry up. You know there's only so many transactions that people are going to do, so you have to continue to add people into that. And then you also have to enlist the help of your sphere of influence to also tap into the 15% that they have in their database that are going to be doing real estate transactions. That's where the money really makes it.
Chad Armbruster:That's a good point. That's good. So what are some common mistakes that you see realtors making when trying to grow their business?
Bill Moomaw:Um, the the number one mistake I think that they make is that they they dip their toe into things, marketing wise, and then they give up too early.
Bill Moomaw:So you know, like a sphere of influence marketing campaign is going to take a really long time to really catch.
Bill Moomaw:So, for instance, the boxes that you guys sell, we know that for someone that we're meeting a buyer, that's the entry level to it.
Bill Moomaw:Once we're sending these logoed items to them that are very useful and unexpected, if you ask people, what do you expect your realtor is going to do? None of them are going to mention they're going to send me moving materials. So when they get those it really starts sticking into their mind. Then, as time goes on and you're checking back with them and checking in with them to see how the house is after closing, and then you know calling to tell them happy 4th of July and Merry Christmas and you're having all these touch points that come up. You're just kind of creeping it into their brain more and more and more I call it becoming the mayor of your friends and family's minds that you can't become mayor until they elect you. So that process takes time and a lot of realtors don't understand that at the beginning, they're so used to trading their time for money instead of results and efforts for money, and it's something that's hard to grab onto.
Justin Armbruster:Yeah, yeah, that's a great point. There's too many. That's probably in almost any business Real estate, you know the service industry, any marketing campaign. You know instant gratification. People want, you know, results right away. And if they don't get it right away, what's the point? You know it's not working. Well, it might take some time. You know, if it was easy, everybody would do it.
Chad Armbruster:Exactly yeah would do it Exactly. Yeah, so is there anything unique that you do to generate referrals or new business from your database that you know other realtors might not think of, we do use.
Justin Armbruster:But before we get into that, the Outside the Box podcast, as you know, is all about repeat and referral business, and great realtors know the key is serving their clients.
Chad Armbruster:At BizBox, we believe your marketing should do the same. Bizbox branded moving boxes are marketing that serves your clients when they need it most.
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Bill Moomaw:The CRM we use is really good with keeping us in front of our sphere of influence database, so consistently having those touches throughout the year. I do mail to my database as well. So the very first thing that they get from me is your boxes. That they get from me is your boxes, and then post-closing and through the lifetime of our relationship, they're getting all different types of things mailed to their homes, whether it be just little postcards or magazines, things that are branded and hopefully useful. I do think that mailing something to someone's house and then looking at it and thinking, mailing something to someone's house and then looking at it and thinking why does Bill mail me so much stuff and then throw it away, I think that is the single best marketing tool that we have available to us. It can be pricey and you have to consistently do it for it to work.
Bill Moomaw:When we reach out, we do ask for referrals every time. That's the purpose of the call when we reach out. So we do ask for them, and if anybody gives me a referral, then I automatically send them a gift. Usually it's a food gift. I think these are the best ways for people to remember you and remember the moment smells and tastes, so we mail them brownies. We do that every time, even if it doesn't go anywhere, just getting the name and the contact.
Justin Armbruster:I love that, even if it doesn't go anywhere. You know you want them to know. You know it's not their fault. It didn't go anywhere, it's just the situation that the person who was referred is in. But you know you're still thankful for the opportunity that they remembered you, thought of you, took the time to refer to you. Yeah, it's just as important. It's great.
Chad Armbruster:If you had to start over today, what would be your top priority for building a strong network of repeat referral and sphere of influence business?
Bill Moomaw:Oh, that's easy.
Bill Moomaw:That is, completed contacts, all in the same place with an easy way to follow up with them. So completed contacts is name, phone number, email and mailing address, gathering all this information from all of your, all of your databases. So usually people when they're starting in real estate and you bring up a database, they're going to think of your databases. So usually people, when they're starting in real estate and you bring up a database, they're going to think of one place. They're not going to think of their Outlook calendar, their Facebook, their Instagram, their LinkedIn, and going to all of these different places their Gmail, their Apple Mail, all the different accounts they may have and pulling all those together and then simply contacting those people, letting them know that you're in real estate, telling them you have a goal of helping three people in the next 90 days buy or sell a home and then asking them for business. If you don't feel comfortable doing that immediately, then just make the call and tell them that you're completing your database and you want to make sure you had accurate information for them.
Justin Armbruster:So, when you say go for it, go for it continue.
Bill Moomaw:Yes, don't. Don't come right out and and and ask them if you can have their updated email address. You simply put it straight to them I'm updating my database. I wanted to get your current email address. What is that? And that's simply doing it. That way, people will fall into the cadence and it's the easiest way for people to um sure and and give you their their updated email address without thinking that you're going to start spamming them.
Justin Armbruster:Right, right. So you said completed contacts. Is that just a phrase you use? Have a place where all the completed contacts are, or do you use a CRM that has all of that, a one-stop shop for completed contacts?
Bill Moomaw:Yeah, we use FollowUpBoss as our CRM and it definitely has a spot where you can overkill with a completed contact there. But just you know, I guess culture of my team we say you know the team knows if I say a completed contact that I'm looking for those four items. I find that that detail gets missed quite a bit by realtors. And then time will go on I can speak from experience with this. Years will go by and then all of a sudden it'll click in your mind I should have everyone's completed contact information. And then you have to go back through the system where just from the beginning like if you get in that habit right from the beginning that that's your mission Everyone you talk to you get those four items. It makes it so much easier when you get busy to be busy.
Justin Armbruster:And so those four items you said name, phone number, email mailing address, Yep, Perfect.
Chad Armbruster:So I have a question. You had said a little bit ago that you always try to ask for referrals. When is that in the process, or how does that come up, I guess? How do you approach that subject?
Bill Moomaw:It depends on how long you've been having these conversations. So when you first start, those conversations are pretty long because you're catching up with people you haven't been talking to for a while, so those would always come at the end. As you've been making these calls, I know when the phone rings and they see my name, I know that they know that I'm going to ask for real estate. So a lot of times they bring it up to me, and so much so that now, even at holiday events I don't bring up real estate. So a lot of times they bring it up to me, and so much so that now, even at holiday events I don't bring up real estate. They all come to me talking about real estate. But to answer your question better, the format is typically call, catch up, state the reason for your call, thank them for thinking and then ask them to think about you in the future. So, hey, it's been a while since we caught up. What's going on? Hey, yeah, I know you probably know I'm in real estate. I have a goal right now where I want to help at least three people in the next 90 days buy or sell a house. Who do you know that may be looking to buy or sell and then they're usually going to say they don't know. Or they may say you know my brother, blah, blah, blah, and you know they may give you the info, but typically they're going to say they don't. And then the whole reason for the call is so I can say hey, thanks, thanks a lot for taking a second to think for me. Will you do me a favor? If you hear of someone looking to buy or sell real estate, will you think of me? And then that's it. And I say that so much to people. I think that those specific words will you do me a favor. Will you think of me? Those, if you say those to people consistently, they will think of you. That's, that's the only way they connect the dots, will think of you. That's the only way they connect the dots.
Bill Moomaw:Otherwise, like, what agents think happens is that their friend or family members at work and their co-worker says man, I'm thinking about selling my house. They think that they're going to say oh well, my friend Bill sells houses, you should call him. But in reality they go. Why are you going to sell your house? They're like oh, I'm going to move reality, they go. Why are you going to sell your house. They're like, oh, I'm going to move to Florida. Oh, why are you moving to Florida? That's how the conversation goes. So if we don't help them connect the dots to where our image flashes in their mind as the avatar of real estate, then it doesn't really catch on. Until that happens in your life.
Chad Armbruster:Yeah, that's great advice.
Justin Armbruster:I like what you said and I think it's the most underrated part about a career in real estate. You said it earlier. When you're at a holiday event, a client event or even just out in the community, if you're marketing right, people know you're in real estate and they bring it up. You don't even oftentimes have to ask. I think the most underrated part about our business is people like talking about our business.
Bill Moomaw:They like talking about houses, you know, can an insurance agent say the same thing? No, no, no, they can't.
Justin Armbruster:But you know it's so it's easy to talk about business with us because we don't have to pull it out of them. You know, if we just have a conversation, hey, how's work going? More likely than not they're going to ask you how's the real estate market, how's work going?
Bill Moomaw:Oh, they love it. Yeah, they want to know.
Chad Armbruster:That's funny. So what do you think is the key to turning a one-time client into a lifelong referral source?
Bill Moomaw:a one-time client into a lifelong referral source. It is consistent follow-up. It's and and the follow-up isn't. Most of our follow-up is hey, I hope you had a great weekend. You know, I hope your holidays were awesome. Are you still full? That that's the majority of our follow up is that type of of conversation. We try and keep it like like we're just talking to friends and family and then it's not all real estate all the time with us. It's almost never real estate unless they're actively in real estate. We're just trying to. We're just trying to keep the conversation going like it never stops.
Justin Armbruster:And I like that answer because I think it ties into our other question you know, what's something unique that you do to generate referrals? And your answer was I don't know if I do anything unique, and that's not true. What you do unique is you do the boring stuff really well all the time. You're disciplined. You always do it when most people quit.
Bill Moomaw:And I think that in itself is unique, because most people don't, it's I say phone calls are difficult to start and easy to continue. So whenever, whenever you get into, even if you're calling expireds or if you're just going back through your, your cold leads, or even calling through your, your active clients, whatever it is that you're doing, it's usually difficult to start, but once you get going, you get in the rhythm and you're like all right, I'm ready for the next call and, um, yeah, it's, it does take some discipline.
Chad Armbruster:Yeah, so that's what's kind of. My next question is you it's you were talking about the calls and asking the for the referrals Um is, is this for people who have already done business with you? Is it just people who are in your database? Do they do this regularly? It's like, well, you want to make however many of these calls a week. I guess what type of? Who are you calling, I guess, when you're asking for the referrals?
Bill Moomaw:Yeah, we past client and sphere of influence. So sphere of influence is people that would know my face. So a sphere of influence is people that would know my face and then people that they could draw my name in like 30 seconds of a conversation. Like if I see them at a party or at the store and I start talking to them, that they'll pull my name up as I'm talking. So anyone that fits in that category would be a sphere of influence. Contact the people that know me instantly. We're going to focus on those people first and then the other people are going to fall in line with it as well.
Bill Moomaw:Of how we gather them into our database Past clients it's once they close a deal then they go into a past client sequence. Our CRM categorizes both of them the same, with the follow-up routine of being 90 days. So all we do is we go in and we look at our call list for the day. If they're on the call list that day, then we call them and log the call and then follow-up boss sets it for another 90 days after that for us to make that call again. And then we use some different vendors for printing magazines and these postcards and things like that. So we build the database as we go and then we upload the new database every month or so. I guess is where we'll go to those mail-out programs.
Justin Armbruster:How often are you mailing to clients? Because I always fight the battle of. You know I don't want to mail too much and be annoying, but at the same time I also know no one pays as much attention to my marketing as I do, and so I guess what do you? How do you balance that?
Bill Moomaw:Yeah. So it's all annoying until it's relevant. So none of us want to talk to a car salesman ever Like. None of us ever wake up and think about that. Or if, given the opportunity, we're like I don't want to talk to a car salesman, but the moment we want to buy a car, we're looking for a car salesman.
Bill Moomaw:And this mentality is the exact same with mail. So as you're mailing to people, they're going to look at it and they're going to wonder why you're mailing to them, and they may find it to be a nuisance. But the nuisance is that Bill mails me too much real estate marketing. That's what they're thinking about in their mind. So it's easy to then decide well, regardless of how irritated they may be with this mail, all they're doing is throwing it away. And then, whenever real estate comes into their life, the chance of my image flashing in their mind or that postcard flashing in their mind is very high. Um, so I don't. I at the beginning I did think it was too much, but, but now I don't. I don't think it is. Uh, but I mail monthly. I mail something every month.
Bill Moomaw:That's about what I do as well, and you know, between calendars, random postcards, that that's great, yeah, every month they get something. And then they, you know, they get a voice call from me, uh, four times a year and then my assistant reaches out, often too. Awesome, we do. We do a lot of touches where I would. I would call it overwhelming. Yeah, over index.
Justin Armbruster:Yeah, but I mean you have to. As I said earlier, no one pays more attention to all the marketing you're doing than you are, and so of course it's going to feel like it's a lot, you know, to you. You know you spent $500 mailing out all these postcards to the client. They got it in the mail, saw it, threw it away. You know it's a touch, but it's not nearly as impactful to them as it is to us, thinking that we're being overwhelming.
Bill Moomaw:A hundred percent agree Same thing with being on camera right.
Chad Armbruster:So, um, what advice would you give to a new realtor when it comes to building their sphere of influence business, yeah.
Bill Moomaw:Well, think through everyone. Tom Ferry has a good list called the ABCs of Building your Database. So that list is fantastic If you complete it in its entirety. It's got like who's your postman and who cut your kid's hair, who do you order flowers from? You know all these random questions. But it'll really get your brain going to build out that list, to start building that database, then again pulling all of your databases from all the relevant places and then contacting those people to get their full contact info their full contact info.
Chad Armbruster:So, if it sounds like that's the big thing with, you know your agents and new agents that you talk about, you know the sphere of influence and stuff like that, which takes time. I've just this is maybe a silly question Do you tell the agents, hey, are you okay with, you know, not being paid for a long time, or you know, or you know this is going to be a struggle I tell them, them all.
Bill Moomaw:They need at least six months of income.
Bill Moomaw:You need to be able to go at least six months. Real estate has an 87% failure rate. I'm sure we've all heard these numbers. It's 87% of agents do not renew their license at the two-year mark. So that's a high rate of washout for this industry. And my opinion is is the number one reason they do is they're not financially prepared. So you know, we see kitchen nightmares on TV showing how people can't run their restaurants the right way.
Bill Moomaw:And you know a professional comes in and is like why are you doing this? And it's because they go to restaurants all the time and they think they understand what's happening and they think they can do it. Same with real estate is that you go through the process of getting your license and then everyone high fives you, you got it, and then everyone's gone, there's no one there to help you anymore. So people start doing what they think is important and they run out of money and they get commission breath and they start chasing the money over chasing a relationship. And you know it just doesn't work that way. You gotta you have to build the relationships. That's the whole business is is having real estate conversations and building relationships and then and then the money follows you along through that. Uh, but it, it. It's not standing there waiting to to pay you on Friday.
Chad Armbruster:Yeah, that's good. So can you share your biggest referral success story and and what you believe contributed to that success?
Bill Moomaw:Yeah, so it. It started with, uh, with my first billboard that I put up. Uh, my wife talked me into putting up a billboard and it's funny, I have several billboards and they don't really generate phone calls. I think that they give you like a you're everywhere feeling. But I put it up and I got a phone call in the first week and the guy was ready to list his house and from that phone call I became three different family realtors. Um, and I did.
Bill Moomaw:I think I just closed transaction number 20 on that, or no, I just listed number 20 from that phone call, uh, which is just this sequential like oh, let me introduce you to this person and then put the house on the market, and then you get a phone, a sign call, and you meet those people and then they buy a house and then they give you a referral and you know then all of a sudden kids are calling you, uncle Bill, and it's it's. It's funny how it translates, and I that that just really falls onto the heels of it. It's all a relationship building business and if you're focused on creating a really good experience and building a genuine relationship with people, then they're going to want to help you out and they're going to want to share that experience with their friends and family and when they give that referral, they'll give it with pride and want to follow up and say man, didn't Bill do a good job? So those are the things that really make your business grow and the fundamentals of what we do really.
Justin Armbruster:Giving a referral with pride. I always think and tell other realtors and even tell myself on a daily basis referrals aren't given when you do the job you're hired to do. They're given when you go above and beyond what they expected. And then they become fans and they give those referrals with pride. You know we would love to send Bill business because he did this. It was awesome. But you know, yeah, bill sold our house. You know referrals don't come from that, but it comes from a great customer experience.
Bill Moomaw:Yeah, I agree completely.
Justin Armbruster:That's awesome.
Bill Moomaw:Get them something to get excited about.
Justin Armbruster:Yeah, I have a question that wasn't we didn't have on here and maybe we'll cut it, maybe we won't, but I had a question. I am thinking about hiring an assistant for my real estate business and you have a team around you. What are some of the most important things you were looking for in your first hire? What were they doing for you?
Bill Moomaw:So what I did was my first hire was an unlicensed assistant, which was helpful, but making the decision to hire the licensed assistant was one of the most impactful decisions I made in my business. The second impactful decision I made was getting a work phone number that wasn't my cell phone number. That was one of the first ways I was able to actually start taking a day off, Because I often say our days off are easy work days and our vacations are easy work weeks. That's how it goes right Nailed it.
Bill Moomaw:Yeah, you're not working from home, you're living at work, right? So what I did was I wrote down everything I did and then I circled everything I don't want to do and I hired someone to do those things. It kind of moved around and changed up a lot Now what my assistant does now. So she was a buyer agent on my team and she man, she would do all the things. She would just 100% buy in, trust the systems and processes, but she just couldn't really get it closed. So as time went on I was like, hey, look, you do all the things well, that I don't have time to do anymore and if you can get me into an appointment, I'm locking it down. An appointment, I'm locking it down. So now she manages my database completely. She manages all of my active listings and she's a licensed realtor. So she's doing a lot of that. She's making a lot of outbound phone calls. It depends on what you want them to do.
Bill Moomaw:I look at everything as buying my time back. So I think it's like 8,500 hours in the year. So I take last year's income divided by 8,500. That's how much I get paid for every hour of my life, because I don't get paid per hour. I'm just living and making money. So everything that I don't want to do, how can I arbitrage that money to them? So you know, if I make $80 an hour and I can pay them $20 an hour, it's a no brainer do it. And then I can take that time back to either categorize my life into working or resting categories. So working is things that I have to do to continue my business and resting is things that I choose to do on my own time. Uh, so I factor those all two in there and I, and then I, I go into the uh to the things I want to do category for the the assistant. I don't know if that answers your question yeah, no, it does.
Justin Armbruster:I. I you know in my head and I, you know in my head I'm breaking down the. You know the 2080 hours. You know eight hours a day, five days a week kind of hourly. But that makes sense. You know there's a strong reality that you're working a lot more than that, even if it's, you know, just sending texts in the evenings, follow up calls, being out and about during your kids, events and things. I mean it's all work, and so your hourly might be less than what it really is. And so you know. But how can you arbitrage?
Bill Moomaw:that it's every hour of your life, even while you're sleeping and taking a shower. Yeah it's all the same.
Justin Armbruster:Yeah, no, that's fantastic.
Bill Moomaw:The assistant factor. It can. What I tell my top agents, because they're starting to get to where they're needing an assistant If you don't have your processes locked down, you're going to waste money on assistants because they're going to hate you, they're going to be, they're going to feel like they're not able to work with you, or that you're making the job harder, not able to work with you, or that you're making the job harder. Um so, having a tight CRM and having a tight schedule, uh, that if it's not on your schedule, it's not happening. That that mentality needs to be very strong in you before you start spending money on assistance, cause you'll you'll spend a lot. Of personnel is the biggest margin in our business.
Justin Armbruster:I think taxes and people Other than taxes. Yeah, the.
Chad Armbruster:IRS gets theirs. So do you view the assistant or should an agent view the assistant? As like you said, this is the way for me to get my time back, and or I'm spending this money because I can then go and create more business and grow my business. I mean, is that?
Bill Moomaw:a good reason to hire the assistant, I would argue it's the same thing.
Bill Moomaw:Because, like what most realtors will do is they'll especially if they really like what they're doing is they'll just work and work, and work and work and work until they hit burnout points and then they'll struggle through the burnout and then they'll finally rest a little bit and then they'll get right.
Bill Moomaw:They'll try and chug back in where I look at it like major league pitching, to where you have to have your rest periods, like you have to. So so when I'm writing my schedule our schedule has been a big focus for me for for a while. I do, I schedule my, my vacation, then I schedule my time off, then I schedule important meetings and then I schedule like appointment slots and all that type of thing. So the first two things that I schedule every month and year is vacation and time off. So I think that you'll make more money if you take the right time off. But, yes, everything is like well, I'm going to have someone else do this so I can spend more time doing this. My highest and best use of time is talking to an agent deal doctoring a transaction, or sitting in a living room talking to a potential seller. Those are the two spots that I'm most impactful on GCI for me and my team.
Chad Armbruster:And would you recommend getting a licensed assistant versus a non-licensed one?
Bill Moomaw:Well, I mean, I would say non-licensed. Even a virtual assistant is okay to get started with. It's definitely going to be, you know, a quarter of the cost of a licensed assistant. You know, a licensed assistant is going to be a pretty big chunk out of your pay, a pretty, pretty big chunk out of your, your pay, uh. So I would make sure that I know what I want them to do and that that that me and that person are aligned on how they're going to work and specifically like, can they run their own deals?
Bill Moomaw:Um, how much? When are they working for you and when are they working for themselves? And, um, are you, are you doing salary or are you doing just commission based? And what's that split between the two and how's that going to affect their taxes? And then, of course, a licensed assistant. Your chances are you're putting them on some type of salary. So now you have payroll taxes and just a lot of new complications that come with that position. So I would always recommend even getting a virtual assistant is good. You again have to have solid systems and practices, just because culturally they're going to want to follow a list beginning to end.
Justin Armbruster:Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Well, Bill, as we wrap up our time today, we like to end with some rapid fire questions. Whatever comes to your mind first, we'll hit you with it and just give it to us straight Let me know when you are ready.
Bill Moomaw:Let's do it.
Justin Armbruster:Zillow, realtorcom or homescom. What do you use? What do you recommend to a client?
Bill Moomaw:Oh, I love that question. I'm a realtorcom person.
Justin Armbruster:Love it, love it, love it, love it Office or home office.
Bill Moomaw:I would choose office, but I do spend more time at home office.
Justin Armbruster:Perfect Instagram or Facebook.
Bill Moomaw:Facebook.
Justin Armbruster:Podcast or book.
Bill Moomaw:Podcast.
Justin Armbruster:Podcast or audio book.
Bill Moomaw:Podcast. Podcast or audio book? Probably podcast.
Justin Armbruster:All right, what's the most impactful podcast that you listen to?
Bill Moomaw:Probably Joe Rogan Experience.
Justin Armbruster:Are you a religious Joe Rogan experience guy? Yeah, I am, love it, love it, love it, love it. What is the most underrated app in your phone, business or personal?
Bill Moomaw:Oh Tour Tempo.
Justin Armbruster:Tour Tempo. What's that do?
Bill Moomaw:It's a golf swing tempo sequencing you a fellow golfer oh yeah it just comes with the job, doesn't it? It really does man, it's one of my lead sources for 2025 yep, love it, love it, love it.
Justin Armbruster:Last question if a listener wanted to refer a client to you, what local areas do you serve and how could they best get ahold of you?
Bill Moomaw:Oh yeah, great question. So you can go to billmumawcom or housemumawcom or Instagram or Facebook and that's for Mumaw Realty Group. But. But our office is in Kauffman but we service surrounding areas between DFW and Tyler so I have a team of 20 agents that cover that large span. We go down to Cedar Creek Lake and we go up to kind of like you know, denton would be far.
Chad Armbruster:And we're talking Texas yeah.
Bill Moomaw:Yeah, Texas.
Justin Armbruster:Perfect. Hey, bill, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate your time more than you know and we hope you crush your 2025 goals.
Bill Moomaw:Yeah, Thanks guys.
