What If Real Estate Success Is About Exceptional Service | Brent Sledd

We sit down with top Kansas City agent Brent Sledd to unpack how he went from buying early rentals and working at Hallmark to building a high-volume business driven by trust, service, and repeat clients. We dig into the specific habits that create raving fans, including a Thursday open house strategy, deep market expertise, and a vendor network that makes selling and moving feel easier. 
• starting in real estate by buying rentals and getting licensed to capture commissions 
• balancing a full-time job with “part-time” selling for years and then scaling fast 
• choosing brokerages and leadership roles without constant jumping 
• advice for new agents: say yes, go face-to-face, out-hustle, learn the market 
• why Thursday open houses can outperform weekend traffic 
• converting open house visitors into buyers through preparation and local knowledge 
• creating raving fans by prioritizing people over commission 
• making listing prep a team effort through pricing and condition decisions 
• building a reliable vendor bench for paint, floors, staging, cleaning, and repairs 
• staying in touch with your sphere using simple value adds and Buffini systems 

Level Up Your Client Experience with BizBox 📦

Want to stand out and stay top of mind with your clients? BizBox makes it easy. Our branded moving boxes aren’t just practical – they’re a marketing tool that keeps your name in front of past clients, referral sources, and future deals.

Order your first Branded BizBox pack today and see why top agents across the country LOVE them!

👉 https://www.bizboxinc.com/

Stay Connected on Instagram 📲

Follow BizBox Inc. for behind-the-scenes content, guest insights, and actionable tips to grow your real estate business! Plus, drop us a DM and let us know what topics you want to hear next.

Transcript

Welcome And Brent’s Track Record

Brent Sledd 0:00

There's thirteen thousand pages out there. Do some things different make sure that you know the case.

Sean Leary 0:35

Today it is Mr. Brent Sled out of Overland Park and sells the KC area metro. He was number three in the KC Business Journal. Total transactions, total volume sales last year. He's number two nationally with Wiker as well. And so he did last year he did 87 total transactions and 46 million dollars worth of that as well. So Brent, welcome onto the podcast.

Chad Armbruster 0:59

How did you get into real estate? What did you do before and

From Factory Floors To Rentals

Chad Armbruster 1:02

what caused you essentially to get into the business?

Brent Sledd 1:04

So I think I have a pretty unique uh history. So when I was 18, uh, you know, had five kids. My folks said, well, we can't afford to send any of you to college, so you're all on your own. So uh I went to the Votech school to be uh civil engineer, and uh after about six months I decided I was bored with that. One of my best friends, um, mom's worked at Hallmark on the factory Florence Peka for uh forever. She said, Go apply, and I did, got the job. So I was 18 years old. Uh best friend and I went out and bought a trailer in uh trailer court in South Topeka, and that was my first home. And um, about two years, three years later, I saw an ad in the paper that says uh you know, buy real estate, retire early, get rich, all this stuff, you know. So I bought all the books and tapes and uh I was ready to do something different. So anyway, I went and bought my first three rental properties in um first six months after that. I'm not very proud of any of the three that I bought. But you know, after I bought that third one, I thought, you know what, this guy's getting a commission. Every time I'm buying a house, I might as well get my real estate license so I can start making some real estate commissions. So I um went and got uh my real estate license with Green Bar Realtors in Topeka. Then the next thing you know, I start uh selling houses, some of my friends on the Hallmark factory floor and um started building a business. Started learning a lot. Well then I had this idea, I thought, you know, if I uh move to KC, I can get a lot higher sales, I can have a better career opportunity with Hallmark, and a better career opportunity with the real estate. So I was uh 20, about 24, I think I moved up to Kansas City, and uh I got my big break in life. So anyway, I got my foot in the door with Hallmark was uh scrubbing toilets at night and vacuuming carpet. And I only had to do that for about six weeks. They had an opening on the day shift as a furniture mover and a truck driver. So anyway, about two hours a day, I'd pick up loads of furniture from the Hallmark furniture warehouse. Then me and two other guys would deliver furniture all over the Hallmark complex. At the time, we had about two and a half million square feet, 7,500 employees, and um a great culture, things like that. Um but anyway, just being out roaming the halls all day, uh, I got to know a lot of people. I was when I moved up here, I decided I was gonna be a lot more extroverted too, and that's who I've been ever since. But that was actually a very conscious decision to be that way. You know, clean start, didn't know anybody in Kansas City. So a lot of those people I'd meet in the hallways uh became friends and clients. So over time I built this business app where I ended up spending 24 years at Hallmark, 20 years on the side selling real estate. My last year selling real estate, quote, part-time, I sold 38 houses and I had a stretch of 13 closings in six weeks during the spring market. Well, along the way, uh I decided I was just gonna buy houses till I ran out of money because my my real estate money was kind of my mad money. So I just saved that money up, and uh if I went to list a house and I liked it, I just go ahead and buy it. So here's what I bought. So all of a sudden, after 20 years of this quote part-time, 38 sales, had 15 rental properties, three kids, a crumbling marriage because I worked all the time, and uh I thought, you know what, give me another 50 hours of my week, I can probably make a living at this. So anyway, so I gave up the day job and my business skyrocketed. So I actually sold six and a half million that first that last year part-time. So I was making a lot more money on my that than I was on my day job, and then um went from six million to nine million to twelve to fifteen and to forty-six million last year.

Chad Armbruster 5:02

That's incredible. So I am just stunned that you were working, you were working two jobs for 20 years. Did I get that correct? Uh I'm just surprised. First of all, that's that is an incredible amount of hours we're working. Uh I just can't believe you hadn't decided to go full time before that.

Brent Sledd 5:22

Uh I'm a slow learner.

Chad Armbruster 5:25

That's just unbelievable. I don't know how you even had enough time in the day, especially if you said the Hallmark job was literally a the day shift.

Brent Sledd 5:33

That's yeah, full time. 7 to 345 every day. It was crazy. Like I'd take two hours of vacation to go to closings or showings or inspections or whatever. I will say uh even when I worked at Hallmark, I had an assistant back then. So I've for probably my last three or four years at Hallmark, I had an assistant, so I did get a lot of help that way. And I had a good one

Choosing Brokerages And Scaling Up

Brent Sledd 5:54

too.

Sean Leary 5:54

So who was that uh initial brokerage that you were uh with when you uh transferred over from Topeka to Kansas City, and then how did that kind of where was the stair step there? I would imagine some you had some recruitment, you know, when when people saw what you were able to do, and so what did that look like?

Brent Sledd 6:10

First thing, two things about me, I've always had an extreme work ethic and I've always had a good sense of humor. So when I hired down in KC, I went to work for uh Century 21 in Overland Park. And for all the old people out there, Century 21 ran these commercials where uh we all wore gold jackets. So anyway, I let the brokers know a few years later, I said, you know, the only time I ever wore that jacket was when I was in the office. But anyway, um, so what was the rest of the question?

Sean Leary 6:39

Yeah, just was wondering kind of how you ended up stair stepping because I know you're with Weikert now and and uh you've had incredible success with with them, um, not only you know locally, but nationally being recognized as as uh elite, elite, I think number two last year, and and been even named number one with Weikert in your area. So what what did that stair step look like? Kind of switching some brokerages, maybe why you were you you had made some of the decisions you did on under that and what you were looking for?

Brent Sledd 7:05

I'll tell you even a different level of crazy how I I haven't jumped around a whole lot. I've been very stable through the years for the most part, but um back in the 80s, early 90s, I had a developer that hired me. He also had a real estate company. So not only was doing everything I was doing, I was working the model homes on the weekends, like 12 to 5 Saturday, Sunday, which guaranteed me no life because you know Saturdays, there's a seven-day a week job, you know, jobs, and then during the week I'd you know list houses and show houses and things like that. So anyway, uh I did that for about three years, and I thought, man, I gotta get a life. So I transferred to a small kind of boutique brokerage in Shawnee, and then um they were bought out by Reese Nichols, and Reese Nichols is the big, you know, always been the big powerhouse in Kansas City. So uh I had been with Reese for about 30 years. Along uh I had a business partner for over 10 and a half over 10 years. So we gosh, we're Casey Business Turtle, top 25 every year. Her name is Debbie Fleet, and uh my gosh, we we did so well together. Well, I had an opportunity to um good work for Rob Ellerman, and Rob is always number one in the city by a long shot. I mean, they sold a billion dollars last year, you know. So Rob made me an offer I couldn't refuse, so he just hired me to of course still sell like I always did, but to run his overland park office and also to uh be in charge of national expansion. So we want to put offices in like maybe Vegas, Des Moines, Florida, who knows where we had these dreams of building it around the country. After about six months, I told Rob, I said, I am way, way, way too busy to handle this national stuff. I got plenty to do here. Why don't I just focus on my business and building up the Overland Park office for for you? So that worked out really well. So anyway, I I ended up building that over uh eight and a half years. I built that from you know a couple agents to 31 agents I had on my team. So I was uh doing the coaching and the uh mentoring and things like that, in addition to running my own business. So anyway, um it worked out really, really well. We like my team did 185 million, you know, my last year there, and um that would have been fourth in the whole city out of all the teams, all the big teams and everything like that. So anyway, uh and then Rob, our whole big team was number one in the city by

Hustle Habits For New Agents

Brent Sledd 9:30

a long shot.

Chad Armbruster 9:30

If you were to talk to a new agent getting into the business, you know, what what recommendation would you make to a new agent and say basically this is how you should build build your business? Uh you know, one or two tips.

Brent Sledd 9:41

Like I say, that extreme work ethic will carry you a long way. I mean, I was faxing contracts at midnight and doing all kinds of obviously the not too many people are willing to make all the sacrifices that I did, but you know, um always say yes, always reach out to top agents in town and and take them out to lunch. I mean, I do this a lot, you know, people call me and they say, hey, teach me, you know, and I I think most guys like me are all about giving back and would love to do that. So um, you know, everybody in town has some nuggets they can they can teach you. But I think the best thing is um do open houses, you know. There's uh we had an agent um within the element team uh start doing this from age of 18, and uh Thursday he'd do an open house from you know one to three, then he'd do one from four to six, he'd do that Thursday, Friday, then two open house on Saturday, two open house on Sunday. And I think the agents like that that have the face-to-face, you know, whatever you do, do face-to-face. But the agents that are willing to make those sacrifices and do things like that are the ones that will be rewarded in the end and have a sustainable business where they have people calling them once they build that COI up and not have to go chasing business like they did. But but you get really gotta get out there and hustle it, you know. I I remember a situation I had several years ago, and I had a listing out here in Overland Park, like $900,000 listing, I think. And I had somebody driving up from Wichita, and um they wanted to see this house at six o'clock. This was like 3 30 on a Friday afternoon. I absolutely couldn't get out of what I was doing, and I said, Yeah, let me find somebody. I'll tell you what, I couldn't find anybody to go show the house at six o'clock on a Friday night. You know, break your plans, you know, do make those sacrifices till I get this thing built up. But um, you know, always say yes. And that you know what? And if I had somebody that would always say yes, I would be calling that person every time saying, Hey, I need help. You want to go show this and you know, cut you in on it, and things like that. But uh but I just think out hustle everybody, you know. The other thing, be an expert, you know, I think that's one of my strengths is you know, you tell me an address in uh Johns County at least or in the KC Metro, I probably know what there is like around it. Get out there and preview, do the Tuesday tours, things like that, and take a look at what's out there and just get real knowledgeable about the market here, so that if kind of somebody calls you and says, Hey, I want to spend $500,000, I want to be at Overland Park, where's the best place to take them? Why would you take them here? Why would you take them there? Um, you know, the other thing that I would say, probably my greatest strength is that I'm not a salesman. You know, I don't care about a commission check. The commission checks take care of themselves, but I care about people first and foremost. I tell everybody I don't care about selling your house, I can help care about helping you make a good decision that's the right thing for you. The commission check is I don't even get never give it a thought. And I think you know, if you have commission breath, people sense that, they feel that. But just I I want to do a great job for every single person that hires me, and I, you know, referrals just come, the second, third, fourth, you get the whole family you represent, their friends, and all that, but it just happens organically. But the thing that learn, learn, learn, be an expert, you know. You gotta fake it until you make it, but be an expert and be a sponge and just learn all the little things, you know. Um things I say to every single person, I'm very consistent, you know, whether it's a listening or a buyer. I'm very consistent in in my message. And that, you know, I'll tell them, you know, I care a lot about resale. You know, if I think you ought to buy a house, I'll tell you I think you should, I'll tell you why. If I think you shouldn't, I'll tell you you shouldn't. I'm gonna tell you things like um, you know, when we're out looking at houses, there's a lot of things you can't change about a house, a lot of things you can't. You can't change steep driveways up or down. You can't change sitting next to railroad tracks or highway noise, or sometimes you can change a bad floor plan, sometimes you can't, you know. Um some foundation problems are are fixable, but not totally fixable. Um there's just things that I I educate them a lot on and I help them for making a mistake. Um if they want to buy it anyway, that's fine, they can buy it, but they're gonna get every opinion I have, and and they're gonna know I don't care about selling them a house. I help I care about them as people and I care about them making a decent investment and things like that.

The Thursday Open House Playbook

Brent Sledd 14:24

Trashy neighbors is another thing you can't change.

Chad Armbruster 14:26

Uh so uh just a quick follow-up on that. When you said go to um or do as many open houses as you can. Now, of course, I think um, you know, in the environment that that we're in, and I suppose it depends on the market, but um where houses I mean to a certain extent, it's just there's so many buyers and the demand, and it feels like there's fewer open houses that are being um had. Uh are you making that recommendation because of selling the house, or are you saying that might be a way of uh networking and collect collect buyers and things like that? What's the the primary purpose of the open houses in this market?

Brent Sledd 15:05

Aaron Powell The primary purpose is to help me sell that house. You know, every single weekend, every single week of my life, I have more listings than I have agents to hold them open for me. You know, obviously I'd love for you to go and sell my listing, but here's my theory. So, okay, I usually make my listings go live on Thursdays. So um Thursdays is the best open house traffic of the week. Nobody does it. You know, there's 13,000 agents out there. You know, I tell people all the time, you know, why would they hire you? Why would they hire you over the other 13,000 people out there? What makes you different? And I think you do some things different. I think you uh make sure your your sellers, you know, your buyers know that you do things different, you know, you do kind of the above and beyond things. But anyway, one of the things I started doing a few years ago that hardly anybody in town is doing is I do the Thursday open houses. So I make my listings go live first thing Thursday morning for the most part with a few exceptions. But I make sure we have open house from four to six that first Thursday. We get that's our best open house traffic. We're a new listing. Uh we have people that don't have an agent and they come to see it. We make it easy for them to come see. Or they don't want to bother their agents just to come look at one house, you know. So we make it real easy for these people to get in and see the house, you know. And um, you know, it's true a lot of listings don't make it until Saturday or Sunday these days, but uh you know, the Thursday open house is is very effective. So like I say, if you're a young agent, um you know, do a two to uh one to three and a four to six open house on that Thursday. But you your uh primary purpose is to sell that house, but if they don't want that house, you know, pick them up, you work with them on something else, you know. And I you know, business is all about partnerships and win-wins and things like that. And I I'll expand on that in a little bit, but it's all about you know surrounding yourself with good people. But uh, you know, I hope my agents that do open houses for me all the time do pick up buyers, and they do, you know, and listings and things like that. Oh my gosh, I got some stories I could that you wouldn't believe. I mean, she had a $450,000 listing in Leewood, believe it or not, a couple years ago. I had an agent show me that or held it open for me. She's like the queen of open houses. She ended up selling those people a million and a half dollar house in Mission Hills and then sold their existing house in Leewood, and then they ended up selling their Mission Hills house, you know, last year. I mean, there um she had one listing she helped for me out in the pavilions in Leewood that uh it was 875 listing. Um had people walk there through there, they go, yeah, they want to buy it and sold it that night for 875, you know. So anyway, um there's part of it being the right place at the right time, but part of it's being a good open house agent and being a sponge, you know, learn, learn, learn um about the house, be an expert on the house, but you know, learn all the things you say that would make somebody want to hire you. You got one shot, you're face to face with them. If they don't have an agent, then you got a chance.

Chad Armbruster 18:13

Is there like a technique to collecting? I mean, is there anything special you recommend or suggest or use to collect names and to try to grab that buyer? You know, uh, you know, obviously that I suppose they're gonna do a sign-up sheet and this and that, but or is it just you know social and relationships?

Brent Sledd 18:30

It is, you know, here's where I think they work well for me, and I don't do them every week. I don't do all my list, I just can't believe doing my listings every week, you know. But anyway, um the market, you know, like do your homework ahead of time, like uh like my $1.8 million listing I held open yesterday, you know. I know everything in Overland Park, South Johns County area on small acreage in that you know, million to three million range or whatever, you know. So if they come through there and they don't really have an interest in that, then I can say, well, you know, maybe we can set an appointment to take, take a look at some of these other ones that that uh match your criteria. I've actually got another listing coming up uh that's similar to that one, you know, it'll be a little more money. But um, you know, when I go to that guy and uh eventually list his house, then um I'll tell him, hey, I I've already got a buyer pool, you know, because I can kind of use this listing to leverage these listings in the future.

BizBox Break And Client Service

Sean Leary 19:31

Yeah, so what I'm what I'm hearing is you have a lot going on. There's a lot of people that you are talking to, you know, daily, weekly, monthly, and you've got the one assistant. So do you kind of have a habit or a routine that has constantly helped you stay in front of your sphere of influence and generate that repeat and referral business? Great, great question. Um before we dive into that, the Outside the Box podcast is all about serving clients well. And great realtors know the move is when the service matters most.

Chad Armbruster 19:59

At BizBox, we believe this thing. BizBox is how realtors support their clients through the move, delivered directly to your client when they need it most. Printed on two sides, packed with everything they need to pack and organize, and delivered straight to their door. Your client is taken care of, and your brand stays present long after the move.

Sean Leary 20:19

With packages starting at just five boxes and free design setup, there's a solution for every budget. Visit Bizbox Inc., click free setup, and own the move in minutes. Bizbox, service when it matters most. And now, back to the show.

Raving Fans And Referral Momentum

Brent Sledd 20:32

I know what I can do if I really want to ramp it up more. I kind of choose to do nothing. I I coach things like that. Like there's a a guy named Brian Buffini, he has a company called Peak Producers. It's all about you know working on your COI and how do you work them, how often do you send them things, how often do you get together? Things like I don't do any of that stuff, I wait for my phone to ring, and I'm fortunate at this point in my career I can do that. But until that, you know, when you talk about new agents or existing agents, the very best thing you can do is go through that Brian Buffini course. I'm actually a Bethinian uh facilitator, I teach those classes, but um, there's so many nuggets in there and so many things you can do. First and foremost, that would be one of the very first things you should do as a new agent. And as an existing agent, always the best thing you can do.

Chad Armbruster 21:21

Essentially, where you are in your career, you've probably built um, you know, a hu uh fairly large sphere of influence working mainly off of a repeat and referral business. Do you have like a key? I've I've heard some things you say here, but you know, turning a one-time client, you know, into a referral source or repeat business, do you have um um some strategies for that?

Brent Sledd 21:43

You know, I think mine is pretty simple. I try to create raving fans, people that would would be excited about referring me. Like, man, this guy, and and I get a lot of raving fans, you know, that that do refer me. That's I mean that's what keeps it going and what keeps it growing every year.

unknown 21:59

Uh

Brent Sledd 22:00

But really, just the overall experience, you know, there's a whole lot more I could do, I know. But um, but just create that experience where they know that you're the person, you know, you you're gonna take really good care of them, and if they refer you, you know that you're gonna take really good care of their kids, their family, their friends, their grandkids, whatever. But uh, but I just try to create that experience above all that would make them and you know, and then those things I say, like I say earlier, there's things I say to buyers, they say things I sell to sellers all the time, you know. But like when I'm on a listing appointment, I I tell them, my job is to make your life easy. There was a lady, um, I was actually at my grandson's wrestling meet, and I get a call on 2.30 on a Sunday afternoon, and my um I get a call from this lady saying she saw me at ChatGPT, and I was one of the top three names that came up. So anyway, I met with her at 5.30 that night. I pulled all my information together, met with her at 5.30 that night, and I told her, you know, like I tell everybody, my life's make your life easy. My job's make your life easy. So by the time I left there at 7 o'clock, I had my painter scheduled to get all the painting done. I had my hardwood guy scheduled to get the hardwood scratched and refinished. Um, I had my handyman set to change out light fixtures and things like that. Um, I had my carpet guy uh scheduled to uh install the carpet on Tuesday. We went live on Thursday, had seven offers by Saturday, and sold it for uh $30,000 over list price. I actually called, I had a friend that had a listing pending in that area at um she put up her $375. I called her and I said, Hey, how much is that pending for? She says $400. So I had that information, you know. Um so by the time I left there, she said, you know, I was supposed to meet with a friend of mine tomorrow to um to get her opinion as well. She says, I'm gonna cancel that interview and go with you. But you know, but here I my one of my biggest strengths is my network of people, my painter, full-time painter, just works for me. Send him from listening to listening or buyer to buyer or rental house mine or whatever, but I keep him busy full-time and he's phenomenal. Uh my hardwood guy has worked for me for over 20 years. Uh my movers are rock stars. Um you know, my carpet guy, like I say, I called him Sunday night, we had the carpet in on Tuesday. Um, I have specific carpets already picked out. I have specific colors I already have picked out based on like the color of the trim and things like that. But but I I live that. My job is to make your life easy. And uh I think you know, the people you surround yourself and people that really make you look good, you guys with the boxes, you know, uh, that's another part of my branding, you know. That's another thing I'd say we can talk about this a little bit more, but I mean, every new agent should have a brand. My last name is Sled. For years and years I've said, you know, I should probably have like a little sled on my logo, you know. I don't need to do that anymore, but it would have been a good idea. But anyway, what makes you uniquely different? What uh a buddy of mine's a scuba diver, he's got a scuba diver thing on his sign, you know. So, you know, what makes you different and how do you convey that to the public, you know? So every mine's very simple. I got me in my chief shirt, you know, but but people see those signs everywhere, and and it's my brand, you know. But anyway, those people I surround myself with, I'll put my painter up against anybody, my carpet people, my my granite people, my everything, plumber, the electricians, you know, and people call me years later, hey, I need to have my house painted, or I need this or that. And I'm always happy to get those calls. But once again, it creates raving fans when you have this, these many great people that you trust that get the stuff done that are consistently my cleaner. My gosh, I send her all the time. Like, you know, I had her in there on that listing on Wednesday and had my photographer there on Wednesday. I mean, get stuff done, and and these are the things that make you different than the other 13,000 out there.

Chad Armbruster 26:21

So

Vendors That Boost Listing Value

Chad Armbruster 26:22

I have a question when you talk about um your network of people and all the different things that you just rattled off that you um are either make available or do? Like what's the val what are some value on or value add-on things that you're doing, you know, versus you know, they just have access to the to the your network of people? Uh when you when you were describing the incident with the lady or the listing, you know, and you said uh the painting and the hardwood floor and this and that, is that the type of thing that you know it's it's like, okay, you need this painted, I'll get that taken care of, uh, you know, type of a thing, or you know, the how when you talk about the cleaning and this and that, like how how do you determine what's a value add-on and what's uh these people are are uh just in my network and at your disposal?

Brent Sledd 27:09

So one thing that I say, like the very beginning of my listing presentation, one thing that I always start with is I say this is a team effort, you know. I'm gonna make recommendations, you make decisions. You know, there's things the only things we can control is the price and condition. I have comments about both, I'll have opinions on both, but you decide. So if I have a uh if I feel like it needs to have interior painted ugly colors or beat up walls or whatever, you know, I have no filter. I tell them, you know, I have no filter. I'm gonna say everything I think, you know, but I make recommendations, you make decisions. So um you may love the color of that living room, but it's not gonna make the pictures look good. It's not gonna, you know, we want to put our best foot forward. So I try to demonstrate that there's value in what I'm doing. And it's hard to say, if you spend this, you're gonna get this. But I will say, you know, we're doing everything we can to increase our percentages. You know, it's a really good market out there right now. I kind of jokingly say the average buyer wants to walk in and say, wow, I don't have to do anything. The closer you get to wow, I don't have to do anything, the more money they're willing to pay. The more likely I are to say yes, let's go ahead and write it up, you know. And the other thing too I've learned is like I know about what my painter's gonna charge to paint a house. I know exactly what my hardwood guy is gonna charge to to redo the hardwoods, whether you just scratch and final coat them for a dollar a square foot or you you know sand them down to the bones and start all over for $350 a square foot, you know. I know what colors that they should use because I know what the trends are, you know. Having said that, I do um have a stager that's worked for me for a long, long time. She's phenomenal. Everybody loves Tammy. Um another example, she makes me look good, you know. But uh a lot of times I'll back off and say, you know what, let me not tell you what colors to use. Let's see, let's let Tammy answer that question because I trust her a thousand she'll pick the carpet, she'll you know, pick hardwood floor colors, things like that. So anyway, so I can help with that with a certain extent, but basically Tammy gets the last word on any of those kinds of things. But you know, the other thing I'll tell you, we see a lot of like you know, dog scratched hardwoods or whether chairs have you know roughed them up and things like that. When Eddie gets done doing those hardwoods, they're gonna look like the hardwoods in a brand new house. If there's dog pee stains or you know, things like that, he'll cut that boards out, lace them in, and and you'll never know it's like that. But those hardwoods are gonna look like just like within a brand new house. When your house is on the market, you want to separate yourself from the crowd. If you're a big house in a certain price range, you're competing against new. You got to put yourself in a position to compete with new. If you're a starter home, you do these things, and and I'll tell them about what it's gonna cost. If you spend 5,000 bucks, your house can look what we accomplished. You know, your house is gonna stand out from the other ones that we're looking at because people, most people don't go to the trouble and expense to do the things you are to really make your house stand out.

Sean Leary 30:13

So how do you have a great network of people in your corner, like you said, that are helping, you know, it's a win-win situation. How did how did that all start? You know, you're talking about have 20 years of of having these relationships. Um, obviously that had to start with a first step for some of these newer agents or or people who aren't quite at the the level that you are. How does how does that look like? And and and what kind of advice would you give to, you know, someone trying to build that network that they can call on?

Brent Sledd 30:39

Ask around, you know, be very nice and kind and things like that. You know, that's my nature. You know, I'm I I like to have fun. I like to um I have no stress in my life, I don't allow stress in life, you know, so it's not a perfect world, but I try to um, you know, I'll give people a chance, you know, do a house or two or three and see how it works. And uh, if they start saying I'm gonna charge this price, they charge something else, they're not gonna stay on the list, you know. And it's been a lot of trial and error through the years. I have rental properties as well, you know, so I can try them on my rental properties and things like that. But um these people that I have now have passed the test, you know, they're predictable, they put you know, prioritize me and my needs, my clients' needs. A lot of times you um have to try a few before you get to the good ones. And like, you know, I have people, I have agents, I have buyers, I have people reach out to me all the time, you know, because I got this great network. And like I say, that's a big part of my why use me over 13,000 others. It's a huge part of it. But like my painter, I'll never share my painter with anybody. I need them for me. You know, my like my rock star plumber, I can't share him, you know. I need them for me. But like my mover, my hardwood guy, they have the capacity to take on extras, but you just gotta have that consistency, that predictability. Like I say, I know what my painter's gonna charge. I'm gonna know what my hardwood, you know, know your people, know what they charge, know what they're capable of, and you know, always be honest. Like I know, like my hardwood guy, the best in the world, in my opinion. But I know like he's probably gonna slop a little bit of uh the finish on the quarter round, you know, and the painter will have to come do that for you know, it's not gonna cost a lot, but you know, but I I I tell everybody I work with, I tell them one of my biggest roles is help you avoid surprises. You know, the worst thing that could happen is somebody tells somebody or tells me a month after close, gosh, I wish somebody would have told me that. My job is to make sure you get enough education, they make a very well-informed decision.

Chad Armbruster 32:47

I

Staying Top Of Mind And Rapid Fire

Chad Armbruster 32:48

I do have a question. I hear basically you saying, you know, create raving fans and obviously provide great service, make their life easy, things like that. Do you find it's necessary? Do you stay in front of your sphere of influence in any certain ways? How do you do that? Uh you know, our understanding is um, you know, it's still necessary. I don't know if that's something you do. Do you, you know, mailings or whatever. How how do you stay in front of your sphere of influence?

Brent Sledd 33:13

Best thing I say, do what I say, not what I do. I am terrible about keeping in touch with people. You know, I like say I pretty much wait for my phone to ring. There's only so many hours in the day, and do I really want to like do the buffini thing and 87 house a year is just fine. I don't need to sell 187 house a year and and ramp it up. But you know, the best way to answer that really is just go to the Buffini Peak Producers class and do what they say because they've got it down, you know. Um, but I'm not great about keeping in touch with people. Actually, you know, like I'll send uh like a football magnus out, it'll have like Chiefs, KU, K-State, Missouri football schedule on it. Um, some years I'll uh send uh Royal schedules out when I think about it. Um one thing that that you kind of have to do, do the easy stuff. Like uh every year pull together all your settlement statements from all your buyers and sellers that you sold houses to, send a little letter in the mail saying, hey, this will come in handy when you go to do your taxes. You know, what a great value add, and it costs you a dollar, you know, or whatever it costs the mail these days.

Chad Armbruster 34:21

That's funny. Uh actually, usually we don't talk much about BizBox here and what we do, but it it's kind of like you set us up with a softball because um a couple weeks ago, actually Bufini just um endorsed us on one of his uh uh webinars. Um so so yeah, so we we do we do know about Buffini, uh obviously, who doesn't win real estate. Um he knows about you, even better. Yeah. Yeah, we call it the Buffini bump. So uh there you go.

Brent Sledd 34:50

Absolutely, it's a real thing.

Chad Armbruster 34:52

Yeah.

Brent Sledd 34:52

But uh anyway, people like you. I mean, I mean, you're gonna you're gonna be we're just starting, but uh um I say no to everybody. You can imagine how many calls I get from people saying, hey, you need this, you need that, or you're one of the few guys I've ever said yes to. You know, I mean I think this is fantastic, you know. Um, you know, we can get into branding a little bit, but uh this is one part of of my branding, you know, and and um you know I think we're gonna have I know we're gonna have a long-term partnership, and this is things my assistant does. She'll be ordering boxes and and all that. But um, I know a couple other I actually a few other people that are doing um using your product. And when I saw it, I'm like, uh, yes, that's a great idea for the branding. It's a great idea for get my face out there even more.

Chad Armbruster 35:39

Yeah. Well, I appreciate that.

Sean Leary 35:40

Yeah. Would you see yourself using it as a um as a as a listing tool for your buyers? Do you kind of have any thought process for both, you know, as how you think at best brands and markets and alleviates that pain of moving for you? Because moving stinks. We all know that. So it does stink. How do you kind of show up when when when needed?

Brent Sledd 35:58

I don't necessarily think I'd use it as a a tool. You know, I think um if you look at Buffina, one thing he talks about as UEs, unexpected extras. And I think this is a really great UE, in my opinion. I think everybody wants it and they're like, oh, where do you get boxes? You go to Home Depot. They're gonna get nice moving bus, they're the same size that uh you know it makes me look good. You know, you guys make me look good. So it's one more example of that.

Chad Armbruster 36:24

Yeah, that's what we hear lots of times it's just used as a service just to kind of help alleviate a pain point.

Brent Sledd 36:29

Absolutely, yeah.

Chad Armbruster 36:31

But um you had a good transition. You were talking about the Chiefs of the Royals or something like that. Um, and so we kind of like to try to end with um our four quick uh favorites. I think you had written those down, right? So we'll we'll just uh kind of a fun ending here. He'll he'll just kind of rattle off some quick a quick answer from you um on some quick uh four quickies. If you got a second, yeah.

Sean Leary 36:53

Uh all right, so hot yeah, hot hot seat, hot questions. Um, first one is uh homes, Zillow, uh local MLS. Where do you think people should be looking for their houses?

Brent Sledd 37:03

Through their agent. There we go.

Sean Leary 37:06

Good answer, good answer. Uh, what about uh like podcast or audiobook?

Brent Sledd 37:10

Podcast.

Sean Leary 37:10

Do you have any uh ones that you like to listen to business wise or entertainment wise? That's not Chiefs. I really don't.

Chad Armbruster 37:18

Whatever, whatever feels good at the time.

Brent Sledd 37:21

Yeah, yeah. I uh I put a lot of hours in and then that downtime, I like just put on brain dead TV.

Chad Armbruster 37:27

There we go. I joke, I uh I'm gonna go sit at home and let the TV watch me.

Sean Leary 37:32

Yeah, exactly. Hey, what about a Kansas City one? So you got you can either watch Chiefs or Royals for the rest of your life, one or the other. Which which one are you choosing there?

Brent Sledd 37:40

Chiefs.

Sean Leary 37:40

Yeah, that was probably kind of an easy answer with that. That was a softball. Yeah, that was on that.

Brent Sledd 37:44

Fun fact on that, I've uh one of my biggest things is um traveling and going to stadiums. I've got three NFL stadiums left to hit. So I I'm a big stadium chaser as well.

Chad Armbruster 37:55

That's one of my passions and my well, do you have a favorite, or is there anything that stuck out, or are they all similar?

Brent Sledd 38:00

I'm telling you, I'm a homer, but Arrowhead is definitely the greatest game date experience of all. Green Bay is good. The fans, the atmosphere, the things the fans do, the tailgating, the the crowd noise, everything about it. Arrowhead is the best. There's some other very good ones out there, but anyway, uh well, what are the three that you're you're still waiting?

Sean Leary 38:23

I'm sitting here thinking like maybe Seattle, Jacksonville, maybe something like that, Carolina. What are the three you haven't made it to?

Brent Sledd 38:29

Yeah, I've done those numerous times actually, but um uh Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis. And the Chiefs play in Cincinnati this year, so I'll knock that one off probably. Um I do international games too. I went to uh Germany to see the Chiefs play and went to I got okay, another fun fact. I got season ticks, the Rams and the Chiefs. I got 50 yard line seats at SoFi in the club level out there. Last year I went and saw the Rams play in um London. This year I'm gonna go see the Rams play in in Melbourne, Australia.

Chad Armbruster 39:01

Really?

Brent Sledd 39:02

So I like to enjoy life and see the world.

Chad Armbruster 39:06

Yeah, so okay, I guess a rabbit trail here. Why uh do you have season tickets in Los Angeles?

Brent Sledd 39:14

First of all, the Rams were my number two team. I've always had like an AFC NFC team, and like as a kid, you know, like my whole life, Cowboys were my number two team. And as things changed with Jerry Jones and some of the nonsense there in Dallas, um I kind of cooled off on the on the Cowboys, and so the Chiefs were my team. There was a game in LA about probably eight, nine years ago, and it was a Monday night game, and the the Rams ended up beating the Chiefs 54 to 51. Oh, yeah. It was supposed to be in Mexico, they moved it to the Coliseum. And I just I didn't I kind of fell in love with the Rams that night. It was as a weird thing. I'm like, man, I really like these teams. I just started following them. And then uh about three years later, um I I just did a little snooping on season tickets out there, and I called this guy and he goes, Yeah, we got 50-yard line club level seats. Are you interested? And I'm like, Oh god, that's a lot of money. Yes, no, yes, no. Okay. And I got him, so uh, so I've had him. Um so anyway, but I love going out there to SoFi and going, love going to SoCal and taking in Orange County and Newport and Balboa and some of those great places.

Sean Leary 40:32

That's incredible.

Brent Sledd 40:34

But yeah, it's a good excuse to get out of town and go to a nice warm weather place too. But but no, I love the Rams and uh can't wait to see them. I went and saw them win the Super Bowl. I've done seven Super Bowls, so I went and saw saw the Rams win the Super Bowl three or four years ago. Um, the Super Bowl's gonna be in LA in this next year, so I've already got that trip booked. And uh hopefully it'll be the Rams and the Chiefs.

Sean Leary 40:58

Yeah, exactly. If some agents want to tune out now, maybe we just record another 45 minutes uh of NFL talk under that. You know, it seems like we could rip rip on that for a minute. Uh last question I was kind of thinking I'd wrote down, uh kind of a silly one, was that uh have you ever actually used uh like any Hallmark cards uh with since with your Hallmark background? Have you ever used any Hallmark like cards with your closings or your, you know, your ties still to Hallmark, uh maybe just as personal letters or anything like that? Just I think my generation just thinks Hallmark with cards and that, and then you're kind of talking a few things, but yeah, just curious, uh your your ties into Hallmark still.

Brent Sledd 41:34

I have a drawer full of those thank you notes and Hallmark uh no note cards and things like that. They're still sitting in a drawer that are probably pretty dusty right now. Some good intentions, but I have good intentions, yeah, that's right.

Chad Armbruster 41:46

But yeah, appreciate you uh being on, Brent. This has been great. We appreciate your your time.

Brent Sledd 41:51

Yeah, I enjoyed it. Yeah, you guys are awesome and thanks, Brent. Thank you.