Real Estate Without Commission Breath | Majid Ghavami

We talk with Kansas City Metro realtor Majid Ghavami  about building a referral-first real estate business through confidence, patience, and systems that keep clients feeling supported long after closing. We dig into the simple touches, team leverage, and vendor relationships that turn one deal into years of repeat business. 

• Moving from a construction background into real estate and earning rookie of the year early 
• Why joining a high-performing realtor team unlocks resources, marketing support, and confidence 
• Staying top of mind with value-based touches like HomeBot home value emails 
• Using handwritten notes for birthdays, home anniversaries, and life events 
• working with a spouse as a business advantage through complementary strengths 
• Avoiding commission breath by playing the long game and staying disciplined with money 
• Earning trust fast through open houses and serving people who do not already know you 
• Training clients at closing to call us first for contractors and home help 
• Building a vendor bench that makes listing prep and inspection issues easier 
• Using hyperlocal social media content to become the expert for a neighborhood 
• Kansas City market outlook, local development, and what may move prices next 

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Transcript

How He Found Real Estate

Justin Armbruster 0:31

All right, welcome to another episode of Outside the Box. My name is Justin Armbrooster, full time realtor here in Kansas, Sean Leary with BizBox. Today we have a special guest for you.

Sean Leary 0:41

Yeah, today we have on Majeed Givami. He is a Kansas City Metro area realtor. Last year he did 60 transactions and just under $30 million in sales. Really impressive guy. Majeed, thanks for coming on.

Majid Ghavami 0:54

Hey, thanks for having me. It's an honor.

Sean Leary 0:56

Yeah, absolutely. So, hey, uh, do you want to start off off by uh telling us how you kind of got into the real estate business and uh kind of what you did before and and where you're at now?

Majid Ghavami 1:05

Sure, yeah, it's kind of a unique story. Um, my background was my family owned a construction company here in Kansas City, and I kind of grew up in that business. I mean, I was driving a forklift by the time I was 12 years old, and um, you know, that's I just thought that's what I was probably gonna do forever. But as I got older and after I graduated from KU and came back into the family business, I just knew it wasn't probably my passion, and I think my dad realized that too. So he decided to sell the company after we had a talk, and I was like, Yeah, I don't want to do this the rest of my life, but um, he sold the company, and then I had to stay on with the new owners for about 18 months as a consultant to them, but then at that point I wasn't sure what I was gonna do. I was 28 years old, um, had a psych degree from KU, which can't really do much with that. And so in December of 2008, I was at a um Christmas party, and one of my friend's moms was a realtor, and she just kind of gave me the idea. She's like, I I could see you doing real estate, you should look into it. And I at that point, I hadn't been working for a couple months, I was like, I gotta do something. So January 2009, I took the classes, February 2009. I I got I signed up with Reese Nickels, and I ended up being rookie of the year that year. So then at that point, I was like, okay, I think I could do this. So, and I've loved it ever since.

Why A Team Changes Everything

Majid Ghavami 2:27

It's been great.

Justin Armbruster 2:27

So, okay, you've been with Reese Nichols your entire career then.

Majid Ghavami 2:31

Almost. I I left for about 16, 17 months, went to another brokerage to see what it was all about. Um, nothing bad, um, but just decided to come back, had an opportunity to join the Rob Ellerman team, and um, you can't say no to Rob Ellerman. So my wife and I jumped on that opportunity, and we we've been very blessed with it.

Justin Armbruster 2:54

Uh okay, so walk me through. I've heard a little bit about the Rob Ellerman team. So I'm, you know, from Topeka, so not too far away, but far enough where I don't maybe appreciate that. Uh Rob Ellerman team at Reese Nichols, what's the idea of being on a team? Uh, how is that beneficial to you as you know, someone who's been in it for a while and you're a producer? What why are you still on a team?

Majid Ghavami 3:14

You know, Rob runs a well-oiled machine. He's just he provides a lot of resources for us realtors, and it makes us be better realtors for our clients. And my business was good, but I was kind of at this level where I was like having trouble getting to that next level. And um, when I saw the benefits of the team and what he offered, um, you know, I was thinking, okay, this could this could really help. And sure enough, it did. It took us to that next level. Um, just with the marketing staff that he has in place, we have um, you know, people to help with our social media, our marketing, and things like that. Um, the moving truck's a big piece, you know. We have a free moving truck for our clients, and so it was amazing because at that point in my career, I'd already been in the business for a little over 10 years, and I felt good, I felt confident as a realtor, but making that step and joining the team and having all those resources really took my confidence level to another level. And I feel like clients can feel that when they are dealing with a confident realtor who knows what they're doing, it makes them feel better. And so our our business nearly doubled after a couple years of joining the Allerman team, and so it just made me a better realtor, and it's such a remarkable team because everyone is there's such a unity with the team. I mean, even though technically we're kind of competitors with each other, but we're still under the same umbrella, but we truly do care about each other and we're trying to make ourselves better. So it's it's just it's really like a family, is what I tell people. And that's hard to believe, but it's truly amazing with the culture he's built.

Touches That Create Referrals

Sean Leary 4:48

Okay, so then what uh what's a habit then or a routine that has consistently helped you stay in front of your kind of sphere of influence? Obviously, you've got a ton of people, you know, to to try to do that with. So uh that social media, the or the marketing team, what's kind of helping you generate that repeat and referral business?

Majid Ghavami 5:06

I follow the Brian Bafini kind of methods and things like that. And, you know, he says you need to have 36 touches a year, which that's a lot. I mean, that's basically three times a month. And so we do our best to do that, but you know, sitting a couple years ago, I sat down and I I calculated. I'm like, well, we're honestly, we're only probably doing about 26 to 29 touches a year, but I think that's still better than nothing, you know. You gotta do, you know, because part of it too is I don't want to like be out there and be too much in front of my clients and just just to be there. If I'm gonna be in front of them, I want to provide some value. Yeah. So one of the things I do consistently that I like a lot, and it's pretty easy to do. There's a program called HomeBot that I use, and it's just a monthly email that goes out to all my clients, and it gives them basically tells them how their home value is doing, what's happening in their you know, surrounding areas and things like that. And my open rate on that is kind of cool because you can watch in the background. But I think I have like an 84% open rate on that, which is really high for email, you know. Yeah, so it's something that clients because you're providing something of value, everyone wants to know what what's my house worth, what's going on. So they can every month they get that email, they they see the data and what's going on, and it's even cool because if some clients have like secondary homes, like maybe a lake house or a vacation home somewhere else, they can add that property to it too. And so it really keeps them invested. So that's one touch that once you set it up, it's pretty easy, but it's something that really provides value.

Justin Armbruster 6:39

Okay, so you said that's called a home bot, and it's a monthly email that goes out giving home values. Yep.

Majid Ghavami 6:44

Gonna write that down. That's one of my favorite marketing pieces. I love it.

Justin Armbruster 6:49

If you don't mind me asking, what do you pay for that a month?

Majid Ghavami 6:51

So if if you want to sign up for it, it's fifty dollars a month. But if you pair up with a lender, a lender can share the cost with you and it goes down to 25 bucks a month, and it's a benefit to the lender. Their information pops up on the email, so they get some um, you know, good FaceTime with your clients and things like that. So cool, you know, for the investment, if especially if you find a lender you like and you feel comfortable with, 25 bucks a month, well worth it.

Justin Armbruster 7:15

Yeah, oh absolutely.

Majid Ghavami 7:17

Even the 50 bucks a month, honestly.

Justin Armbruster 7:18

I'm just getting ready to say, especially if it's one of those automatic things, I don't have to think about it. Right. One of the things that I think is so difficult for realtors is we all as realtors we know what to do for marketing. Like we know stay in stay in touch with past clients, you know, get on social media, emails. It's not rocket science, we understand how it works, but we get so distracted with all of the fires of actually doing our job that something like that, you know, gets left in the back burner if it's not automatic or if you don't have a rhythm in place, or you don't have a social media person who's running things in the background, it's so easy to get lost in all of the fires that we put out every day.

Majid Ghavami 8:00

It is. I mean, being a realtor, we wear so many hats and we're juggling so many things, and it it does get tough. And sometimes I've got sucked into working, you're working in the business, but sometimes you need to take a step back and work on the business, and that can be sometimes the toughest part about real estate.

Sean Leary 8:17

Yeah, yeah, no kidding. Do you have some other systems in place kind of outside of Homebot that you feel like uh has really helped stay in touch or provide another kind of value add?

Majid Ghavami 8:25

Yeah, I'm a big handwritten note guy. So I do every month I do birthday cards, home anniversary cards. Um, if I see on social media somebody just had like a baby or there's a big life change, and you know, I'll drop a note in the mail. So I do anywhere from maybe 75 to 100 handwritten notes a month. So I think that's just a nice, genuine touch. Um, the only thing that sucks about that is the cost of postage has gone up quite a bit. Oh, yeah, no kidding.

Justin Armbruster 8:53

No kidding. I I am handwritten notes, probably the most underrated thing someone can do. 100% open rate when it comes to handwritten notes. Yeah. Emails, never know, calls, they don't always pick up. People typically read text, but it can come across as unauthentic. Handwritten notes, someone takes the time to write you a note. They're always gonna read it and they're always gonna be appreciated.

Majid Ghavami 9:13

Yeah, it's nice. I mean, you just we just don't get them anymore in the mail, so it's kind of fun when you do, when you see that actually an envelope that's handwritten with your name on it, and it's kind of that little that little 30 seconds of fun opening it up, reading the note, you know, hopefully puts a smile on someone's face that day.

Working With Your Spouse

Justin Armbruster 9:30

Yeah. So let's switch gears a little bit. Um, you said that you work with your wife, she's licensed as well. Tell us a little bit about that. When did she get licensed? Was she always in the business, or what did that look like?

Majid Ghavami 9:43

Yeah, so Melody joined me. I've been in the business now 17 years. Melody joined me about nine years ago. Um, she was in the healthcare, was had a very successful role, but it was just kind of getting to her. She had uh moved away from bedside care, moved into more administrative role, and there's I discovered during this process there's a lot of politics in the hospital, and there's just a lot. And um, she was missing honestly that I I call it client, but it's in her case, it was patient care. You know, I think she was missing that taking care of patients more, and so um I just thought it'd be a good fit for her, and at that point, too, my our business was growing or my business was growing. I needed help, so um she made the leap of faith. You know, it was a little scary for her for having two, you know, both of us being on a 100% commission-based, you know, earnings. But I think truly it made her much happier, you know. She kind of went back to that patient care with the clients, you know, being able to serve and help them, and um, it was more fulfilling for her. And I helped me tremendously a lot too, because um, I'm kind of scatterbrained here and there, and she is so type A, just keeps everything in line and keeps me on track, and that's a big part of why our business has grown too. A lot, I give her a lot of credit for that.

Justin Armbruster 11:01

I was just getting ready to ask if you guys were had similar personalities or different. It sounds like maybe a little different, which is I'm sure super helpful. I'm here and here, and she's straight line. Yeah. Oh, I'm the same way. Yeah, I'm all over the place, which you know, a lot of realtors are. You kind of have to be with the all the different directions you're being pulled, you know, the you think your evening's free, then all of a sudden you're showing a house, and you know, having someone there who also, you know, is has their ducks in a row, type A, keeps everything organized while you're scattered, can be a massive upgrade for the for the business. Huge. What's the most impactful thing that she does for you guys and your business now that she's working with you?

Majid Ghavami 11:41

You know, a lot of it's just on the back end of the business side of it. Um, you know, a lot of times as a busy realtor, you're so focused on your clients and taking care of them, but you're not taking care of your own business, you know, in the background and staying in line, keeping things. So I give a lot of the back side of the financial things, but honestly, too, she has made me a better realtor because she is such a good listener and she listens to truly what the clients want, and I've learned a lot from her in that aspect. I mean, sometimes you you know, a client tells you, I want a three-bedroom, two-bath ranch home. Okay, you hear it. But but she takes that next step. She told me, like, why do you need this ranch home? What what other elements? And we kind of take it a step further, you know, to truly understand the client's needs. And um, that's a trait that I've learned from her, and it's made me a better realtor. So women just tend to be good listeners, I think. Yes, they do.

Justin Armbruster 12:32

Yes, they do. Oh, that's great. Yeah. Uh prying into the answer a little bit further. It's not always, I want to ranch home. Well, what's the underlying reason for that? That's that's great. I can apply to I mean, that's sales. The best salesmen ask questions. Uh they don't give answers, they just keep asking. Right.

Majid Ghavami 12:49

You want to get to the root of you know what you know the client's looking for. So and and I think they appreciate that too when you really take the time to invest even further on what their wants and needs are. So it's a great answer. It's a big thing.

Patience And Avoiding Commission Breath

Sean Leary 13:02

Yeah, so obviously you're are are growing your business very successfully. What do you feel like are some common mistakes you see like realtors out there are are making when they're trying to grow their business, uh, kind of similarly?

Majid Ghavami 13:13

You know, real estate it's a long-term game. I think sometimes people get into it and they immediately just want to, I gotta sell houses, I gotta sell. And yes, I get it, you gotta make some make a living for yourself, but you know, you gotta be patient with your people though, too. And I think sometimes I see where people get into it and they're trying to almost push clients one in a direction or one way. And I, you know, we there's a term called commission breath, you know. You don't want to have come across as being too pushy and and you know, trying to make that person buy or sell quickly. You gotta go at their pace. And I I think you just have to go into this industry with that mindset, like it could take a while. And I always tell the new agents like you might not make a sell until you're maybe six or seven months into your career. You know, are you prepared? Like, do you have fun set aside to be able to do that? But once you do, I feel like it is a snowball effect. Once you get a couple deals done under your belt, then it just keeps growing and growing. Because hopefully you're providing a service well enough that they're gonna be like, hey, I gotta refer you to my friend, coworker, family member, or whatnot. So you just have to be patient. That's probably the hardest part starting out in this industry is just having that patience.

Justin Armbruster 14:23

Yeah, we talk about commission breath a lot on this show because it's I think it's the easiest thing for agents to they don't sometimes don't even know it, and they're they just recode it. Um and something that I'm thinking of right now that uh a way to uh uh prevent that is to be disciplined with your own personal finances. Um because it's easy to hold back the commission breath when you know you personally and your family, you live on a budget, you you know, maybe you're paying yourself a salary, you're not living commission check to commission check. It'll make you a better realtor. When you know, if that sale doesn't go through or they don't buy that house, you know, uh you're not gonna wreak of commission breath because you know that hey, we're taken care of at home, we've been disciplined with our finances. I think that's a massively underrated thing that realtors need to be hearing. Uh it's so easy when you're getting you know big eight to twelve thousand dollar checks uh for commissions that you're just spending it. You know, you have a couple good months and it's gone the next and it's gonna hurt you.

Majid Ghavami 15:25

And and and it can be tempting. You know, you like you said, you get sometimes those big checks, and hey, I want to go get a new car, or I want to do this to my house, or you know, I want to go on a trip, but you you have to be disciplined and just set some money aside for those rainy days or those, you know, those times where it could be a little slower.

Open Houses And Earning Trust

Sean Leary 15:41

Circling back to where you were rookie of the year, obviously you you started off pretty hot onto that. How many transactions did you kind of do that rookie of the year? And and do you feel like you just got lucky with good work ethic to be able to start off on such a good foot, or you know, or some skills in the construction business that helped you kind of kind of lead to good expertise? Or how do you feel like uh what were some of the things that benefited you to help you abstain that?

Majid Ghavami 16:04

My first year I closed 11 transactions, and this is the best part. My my sales volume for those 11 transactions was 1.3 million. So I was closing a lot of trans, I wasn't making a lot of money. You break it down, do the math.

Justin Armbruster 16:20

Those are peak of Kansas numbers, not Kansas City numbers.

Majid Ghavami 16:24

But back then you you literally could buy a pretty decent home for like $125,000 to $150,000. I mean, so but I I knew in my first year, I was looking at it, okay. This is almost like an internship. Like I just have to learn, I gotta get some transactions under my belt, I gotta get, you know, feel comfortable with what I'm doing. The construction background did help, you know, because I could go into a house. Um, my family, it was a construct a commercial construction, but still, regardless, you know, residential, I knew what to look for and things like that. So, and I think when I was going through homes and being able to explain what I was seeing and explain to clients, they they built up that trust in me, you know. So they knew I wasn't just like, here's a kitchen, here's a bathroom. Like I could take it a step further and be like, okay, the foundation here looks a little shaky, you know, we need to do this or that. So that definitely helped. Um, I just did a lot of open houses my first year. So that's how I was because I learned the lesson early on. I had a friend who I saw on Facebook after a few months I was in the business. They they posted, Hey, I just bought a house. And I was like, dang it, I like that was my buddy, like, why didn't he call me? And so I worked up the courage. I reached out, I'm like, Hey, can I ask you why maybe you didn't go with me? You knew I'm licensed. And he was he gave me very honest answers. Like, you know, our first home, we just felt like we needed to work with someone with more experience. I said, I get it, I totally understand. I can't blame you for that. So I quickly learned I need to go to open houses, I need to meet people that don't know me, don't know I've only been in the business maybe a few months, but I need to be able to show them value and gain their trust, and that's what I did, and that's how it worked out. And then by year two and three, I started getting those referrals or those phone calls from people that I did know that I did grow up with, because then they saw, okay, I think Majit knows what he's doing. He's done several sales, now they feel comfortable calling me. And that's the other thing, too. I think for new agents, you can't feel too discouraged if maybe people you know aren't using you. You know, you gotta build up that trust and show them you know what you're doing.

Justin Armbruster 18:25

I think one of the biggest mistakes agents make when it comes to maybe their friends or sometimes even family that don't use you personally is they write them off. And you know, if my friend doesn't use me as a realtor, it's like, alright, they're dead to me. And you know, it's easy it's so easy to feel that way. But the reality is is they're gonna move again and they're going to pick someone new again. Let's learn, let's get better, let's see maybe what that disconnect was. How can we fix it? Also, they know people. You know, you're in the people business, you're not in the house business as a realtor. You know, they're going to refer. Um, and you wanna don't want to burn a bridge when you could have been the person they refer. Um I have that exact story. One of my good buddies used someone different to buy a house. Less than two years later, he's referred three clients to me. And you just learn, you know, why why didn't they use you? Okay, you know, they had a family in the business. Okay, I get that. You know, stay present, don't write them off, add them to your mailing list, stay in touch with them, and that good business will come from that.

Majid Ghavami 19:30

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I I'm a firm believer everything happens for a reason, so for whatever reason, maybe it just wasn't meant to be for you to work with that person on this transaction, but like you said, they could refer you or down the road. And I mean, I had that happen one time where one of my friends' fathers wanted to list their house. They interviewed me, they ended up picking another person, which I was fine with. That was okay. But a couple years later, I got a phone call. It was time for them to move again. Yeah. And they wanted to go with me one time. So, like, you just you can't write people off.

Sean Leary 19:57

Yeah.

BizBox And Owning The Move

Sean Leary 19:58

Absolutely. So, what what do you think the key is then to turning uh like a one-time client, one-time transaction into a lifelong referral source within this?

Justin Armbruster 20:07

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Sean Leary 20:17

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Justin Armbruster 20:35

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Be Their Post Closing Resource

Majid Ghavami 20:51

Staying in contact with them like the like the homebought thing and all that. But one thing I always tell people at the closing table too, just because the transaction's ending right now, that doesn't mean this is the end of my services to you.

Justin Armbruster 21:02

Yep.

Majid Ghavami 21:03

Like, you know, whenever you need something around the house, you need a landscaper, plumber, electrician, HVAC, don't Google it. Let me be your Google. You call me first. Let me provide that resource to you. You know, obviously, being in this industry, we come across so many different vendors, we know who's good, who's not, maybe, and things like that. So I try and train my clients at the closing table, like you're calling me for whatever it is you need around the house. And they do, and and it's I love it. You know, I love getting that call from someone I helped four years ago, like, hey, I think my AC's on the fritz, I don't know what to do. I got you. I'm gonna I'm gonna send you a person, you know, things like that. So just really trying to be that resource for them even after the transaction is closed is huge.

Justin Armbruster 21:47

Yeah, and I think that's something that realtors can take note of. I mean, we you know, as a realtor, if you're doing enough business, you're getting those calls, you know, all the time. You know, hey, all your clients are calling you or they're texting you, asking for uh contractors. I learned very quickly in my career that um just as important as your relationships with your clients are your relationships with other agents co-op agents and contractors you know when you're thinking about hey I should go grab lunch with someone this week you know or past clients like maybe you should go grab lunch with your HVAC guy and you know get to know him personally you know uh ask him how his family is buy him lunch you know putting a uh a contractor in your back pocket that you can call him at any time and he's gonna you know bump you to the top of the list or you know he's gonna take good care of your people like that is that is gold and I think it just goes underrated I couldn't agree more and you know those vendors they're they're a huge part of you know I call them part of my team truth be told you know I just this week I I had my my go-to roofer who who I use and I gotta give them a quick shout out because they're amazing wet on sans roofing they I had an inspection we were close to the deadline you know of our resolution period and I needed a second opinion on the roof and I knew they were busy with all the storms we've been having here this spring but I called my person and Rebecca was like we're gonna make it work we're gonna get somebody out there tomorrow we'll we'll get we'll take a look at it and that to me was just it makes me look like the hero to my clients to be able to get somebody out there so quick and we we got the information we needed to know how to proceed and those vendors are gold you know especially if you have a good one and you should take care of them you should buy them lunch you know absolutely maybe take in a box of donuts or something just show some love to them you know for sure because yeah you said it they make you look like a champ. And when you have those relationships that I mean that reflects on you when you can get a roofer out there within a couple hours when you know this buyer thought they were just going to be having to settle for a bad roof because we couldn't get it in in time. It's like no, you know you work work with someone who's connected I mean that's a value add with working with you.

Vendor Network And Listing Prep

Sean Leary 23:51

So do some of those vendor relationships that you have um like leak into your listings at at that point and being able to provide that expertise when you're going to list somebody's home as far as kind of trying to provide um just insights into the floors or the paint or the the carpet or whatever the case may be onto that how does that look when you're going to list a home and you know someone's trying to you know have you as their agent?

Majid Ghavami 24:15

I I think that's again you're providing a value service to that seller and as you know you're going through the beginning process a lot of times sellers like well do I need to have my AC fixed or do I need some new carpet in the bedrooms? You know the kids tore it up over the years and being able to provide that saying hey I got a person I have somebody that's a huge thing because a lot of times especially sellers if they're getting their house prepared they're overwhelmed you know they're got work they got family they got maybe they're focusing on their next home and they're excited about that and now this having to sell this current property it's just like oh there's just such a drain or mental drain I I gotta you know but the being that providing that concierge service is what I like to call it like I will take care of I'll get somebody in here to get quotes for you for flooring uh exterior siding you know maybe we need to power wash the deck and so having that list of vendors to be able to provide to your sellers is huge and it just makes it easier for them.

Justin Armbruster 25:11

I even think I have an example uh so you know I'm a young guy I am not into the interior design trends on what's you know what's in what's not we all see enough houses we can you know tell them the basic answer but if I if I if a client asks me questions you know I gotta get one of the young girls in my office over there because they know their stuff and uh I this goes to having good relationships with co-op agents. I have a gal in our office who does paint consulting on the side for a local paint company and I'll have clients ask me as we're prepping a listing what they should paint and you know you have a good relationship with someone who knows something. It's like hey you know Kelly can I slide you 250 bucks can you come with me on this appointment we're gonna go look at this together I'm gonna bring you in as my you know expertise on paint and she's like absolutely I could use 250 bucks and she loves doing it. And it makes me look like a champ just because I have relationships.

Majid Ghavami 26:00

So you don't have to be the source of knowledge if you have an extension to someone who is exactly and honestly I think it makes you look better to your clients because I mean I'm very honest with my clients I'm like hey I can't do it all for you you know I have I have my limitations too but let me help bring in somebody who can I mean we have a a stager that we use a lot too and I always defer to her when it comes to choosing paint colors the carpet selections flooring selections things like that because I I tell them like I have a person that specializes in this I'm gonna bring them in. And like you said it just makes you look so much better you know that you have those resources for your clients.

Sean Leary 26:39

Yeah so you've won the uh the five star professional award 10 plus years in a row obviously just this quick conversation I'm seeing why but what all did that five star kind of you know professional award entail is that just client reviews is that you know somebody submitting something who whose kind of award is that and what is what does that look like not to make you gloat about your shit Sean I'll be a hundred percent honest with you I don't know how I got it in the first place but I will take it and I'm so happy they keep giving it to me every year.

Majid Ghavami 27:11

But no I think it does revolve around reviews and somebody must have at some point because I think this is year 14 for me so a while back I go somebody must have gone online and posted something and now they give it to me every year so I'll take it but you know I think just and I don't think about that stuff too much. I'm just my focus is just providing that level of service to clients and if if if you take care of your clients they're gonna take care of you. I learned that a long time ago with I I learned that in our family business. You know my dad growing up he always in the construction industry he always said we got to take care of our clients we got to take care of our clients and our employees if they do that they're gonna take care of you.

Justin Armbruster 27:49

Yeah. If you were so you're in Kansas City now hypothetical if you were to move to a city that you uh wasn't Kansas City and you had to start over your

Hyperlocal Content And Market Outlook

Justin Armbruster 27:59

career what would you do to get it going? Obviously you know this is a career where it takes some time but what are some of the key things that you would do to get going?

Majid Ghavami 28:07

I you know I think I would one try and network with people obviously find find a good realtor another and you know maybe some vendors people that are successful in the industry and try and go be a sponge and just learn to see what they're doing. But also too today with social media I would um I would pick a location like maybe a city or even just a neighborhood or just a part of town where you you want to focus in on and then try and become that expert on that and highlight those things. So like maybe you find a restaurant in that particular area that you you know you want to focus on. You go and go do a food review. Yeah um go go find out like your favorite park like hey this is a great park good for dog walking whatnot but start posting content on that area about food parks schools just any attractions whatnot and you're gonna showcase to people hey I'm the expert for that area and I think that builds trust when people are looking online.

Sean Leary 29:05

Yeah absolutely yeah is there an area of Kansas City you feel like you're an expert on with that and you you do some of those things that you just said uh you have posting park reviews or anything like that?

Majid Ghavami 29:14

Yeah I mean I growing up majority of my life in Johnson County, you know, I I think I'm kind of an expert in there but I am trying to hyper focus more on the city of Leewood just because my my office is in Leewood. I reside in Leewood so I am trying to be more the focus on Leewood as a whole.

Sean Leary 29:33

Yeah with the uh with the Chiefs moving out uh out west onto that I saw you posted something recently about like kind of West Winedock County maybe being uh a hot spot onto that so uh any uh insight on on how that will look kind of real estate wise or development wise with uh kind of trying to get out there first before it booms uh here in five years?

Majid Ghavami 29:53

I think now is the time if you're gonna be investing money into that area to do it before things really get moving out there because I mean as with as much as they're gonna invest not just the stadium and the team but it's gonna be built up with other entertainment districts and things like that. And I think it's gonna put that area on the spotlight even more. And so people are probably going to want to maybe be closer to those attractions and whatnot. So I think you know honestly then now in the next year or two is going to be you know the time to really get ahead of that curve and try and invest in those areas.

Sean Leary 30:24

What do you see in can't kind of like 2026 Kans City market trends what's your kind of outlook for for the the future and and what you've seen so far with some of our kind of Kans City area agents that are listening.

Majid Ghavami 30:36

It's still a seller's market. I know you know it's funny every year these predictions come out what what it's gonna be and I feel like the last couple years they keep saying it's just gonna be a straight line like we're not gonna see a big uptick but I feel like we're still seeing an uptick on home prices still going up a little bit. So you know I tell people don't wait you know if you're ready to buy something I would I would do it sooner than later and that's not me trying to have that commission breather be salesy I just really think like the longer you wait the more you're gonna pay in the future because these home prices just keep going up you know so but you know that the timing for a buyer it just really depends on them personally so you never know what their life situation is like but I I'm real curious to see what the impact of World Cup's gonna have on the city. You know that's gonna be pretty incredible. So we'll see I don't think we'll see maybe those numbers until 2027 or 2028 the impact but it will I think put Kansas City on the spotlight. I mean I feel like Kansas City as a soccer city is already there you know whenever they have you know um national matches they always show Kansas City Empower and Light District and all the fans down there. So I I just hope we as a city I'm excited for the opportunity to be more even more on a global spotlight

Referral Story BizBox Take Rapid Fire

Majid Ghavami 31:52

for us.

Justin Armbruster 31:52

Yeah. Well maybe last question before we switch to some rapid fire. Could you share with us one of your biggest referral success stories and maybe what led to that success if you have a story for us.

Majid Ghavami 32:05

Boy that's there's a I'm very blessed. I have so many I feel like I could share but I'll I'll share kind of a funny one with you. I have a client that um I met him back in 2009 or 2000 it was it might have been my very first year and met this client it was him and his brother he was the big brother he was helping his little brother buy a house so he just wanted to be involved in it helped them buy a house then I ended up getting like the sister then I got a cousin and then I got like an aunt or uncle I mean I I went through their family tree like you know I was the family realtor for real. And over the years I'd started doing all this while Scott's his name Scott just recently joined our team so we this has gone kind of gone from like I've helped this entire family and now he's a realtor on our team and I was like Scott you should have got in like 10 years ago man like I've already your family's taken care of. And he jokes because I think he thinks like even if his family has real estate questions they're gonna call me first before they call him that's the running joke in the family right now. But I think that's cool though that it started and they had the trust in me that I could go through their whole family, help everyone and now that it's even more that Scott wanted to get in the business and he came and joined us you know because again that trust in it and if you know he wanted to work with us so to me that's just such an awesome compliment that you know we were able to build that trust over all the years and things like that. That's super cool.

Sean Leary 33:38

That's awesome. Uh yeah real quick before we uh switch to that I was kind of wondering your uh introduction to uh to Bizbox how have you feel like uh our branded boxes have kind of uh helped kind of be a value add or just a service or kind of what was your story or kind of background behind that?

Majid Ghavami 33:51

First of all 100% value add. I mean it's awesome. I've had um I just started you using your guys' product this year and um everyone's been really happy about it. I I mean I figured they'd be like okay this is cool but I've had some clients who are like this is awesome like thank you this is something we can actually use you know and and that's cool because when it goes back to again to providing value to clients I don't want to just pick up the phone like hey I'm your realtor like I want to provide value to them. You know I want to do and this really does because when they're moving obviously they always need boxes and it's not just the boxes it's like you know the things that come with the boxes too that I think is so great you know the bubble wrap the tape and things like that. It's so useful so I love it. I the other day I was visiting a client who they're getting ready to move out and I saw it was such a good feeling I walked into the house and all my boxes are there they were there in the dining room they're starting to box up stuff and I'm like that's cool that's cool I even had one of my vendors recently went to go measure carpet and he saw the boxes there and he he left after he left he called me and goes dude you have your own boxes like that's the coolest thing ever no wonder you're kind of a big deal I'm like whatever but even the perception of other people seeing that is huge you know so I I love the product and I'm so glad I got you know I found you guys or you actually I think you guys found me so thank you for that. Oh that's that's awesome yeah that's we didn't even have to pay for that that was yeah yeah yeah that's awesome cool well let's transition to some rapid fire and we'll get you out of here yeah rapid fire questions either or this or that kind of stuff first thing that comes to your mind ready yeah homes.com Zillow or realtor where are you sending clients to look at homes or neither I think Zillow just because it's still got the name recognition um I mean I don't I I'm not a fan of this estimate because I feel like a lot of times they can be so far off yeah but it's just that name people recognize now I know homes.com is coming up and they've been doing a lot of Super Bowl commercials and advertising on TV with celebrities so it's gonna be interesting to see but yeah but I want I tell them you contact me look at those sites yeah you know what about a uh maybe a book or a podcast?

Sean Leary 36:09

What are you what are you tuning into more?

Majid Ghavami 36:11

Probably podcasts just because I'm in the car a lot and it's just easier you know um but I I like to read I just don't make the time to read yeah uh office or home office uh honestly both um I am an office guy I go to the office every day but I still spend a decent amount of time here in my home office I just you know it used to be I felt like I used to get a lot more done at the work office um but now with our team and I love it it's just there's so many people there coming in and out the door you're conversing a lot so if sometimes if there's stuff like I need to sit down and focus for an hour or two I actually need to come home and use my home office to knock some stuff out but for sure I love being I'm a people person so I love being in the office and being around everyone and just seeing what's going on.

Sean Leary 36:58

How about um just off the cuff uh Jayhawks or Chiefs you can only watch one of them for the rest of your life which one are you choosing?

Majid Ghavami 37:04

Oh Sean that's a hard question. Well since I'm an alumni for KU I'm I guess I'll go Jayhawks but I do love my Chiefs too.

Justin Armbruster 37:14

There you go. Most underrated app on your phone work or personal?

Majid Ghavami 37:20

Oh you know what I'll I'll say this one it's it's such a realtor answer or whatever business answer but MileIQ I love it because it helps track your mileage it's saving me money. Yep that is a good app realtors if you're not using Mile IQ you need to be using that great great answer.

Justin Armbruster 37:37

Great answer. Yeah yep I use it. Final question where can people find you at if they have a buyer in Kansas City they want to refer your way uh you have a website socials where can they find you?

Majid Ghavami 37:46

Yeah it's gavamihelmes.com on Instagram we're also gavamihomes um Facebook I'm on there um LinkedIn I mean we're we're basically on everything even TikTok but you won't find me on TikTok doing any dancing or anything like that but we try and be available on all the platforms but honestly the best way probably just gavamihomes.com and all my contact information is on there you can call text email whatever's easiest love it love it Majeet thanks so much for your time today this has been awesome appreciate you joining us this was a lot of fun thank you guys awesome you have a good one all right thank you