Episode 66: Jim Duquette on Rockwall Growth, Grit, and Real Estate Leadership

If you're looking for a home to buy or needing

to sell in the Rockwall, Texas area just east of Dallas.

Have I got someone great to introduce you to?

We go way back, and I'm super excited to introduce you

to Jimmy Duquette.

Hey, I'm Nate Carver and welcome

to Between Two Doors.

Hey, Jimmy.

And Nathan, how are you doing?

I'm good.

Welcome to the Between Two Doors podcast.

And, this is going to be a fun one.

And, so, so little a little background story.

We went to the same university

and out in Hardin-Simmons University.

Out in Abilene, Texas.

Yeah.

And, we both pledged the same fraternity.

I think you're a little bit older than me. No.

I think my.

Tail end of each other there.

Yeah.

So I was in there a little bit before you.

Anyway, so.

So let's, let's introduce the world to you.

So, Jimmy.

Great. Reconnecting with you.

I did not know you were in the real estate space, until about two months ago.

And so we were like, we got to do a podcast.

We got to catch up, tell stories on each other.

Tell me about your journey.

So, actually, we did Hardin-Simmons, the university life together.

That arc from school to now,

where you have your own,

brokerage.

Yeah.

The team leader here at the Keller Williams Rockwall office.

You know, there's a part of me you said, man didn't know your all these years.

Then know that you were in real estate, and,

I've been in real estate 18 years now.

And, you know, the where we connected, we connected online, Nathan.

And, that's where we ultimately kind of drew the draw the dots together.

And, that was kind of a real recent deal with me was I, you know, I stayed away

from social media, and all of a sudden, a lot of things just change in life.

Doesn't

decided have to jump into the space.

Yeah.

So that's been the biggest difference in at all.

So hopefully more people see me and, get to know me a little bit more.

But no, it's been a crazy kind of ride, to the spot,

you know, graduating out of Hardin-Simmons

kind of plugged in and, that, well, was,

2005, just trying to kind of figure out my feet.

And after a couple of years of just working,

I don't know, 3 or 4 jobs at a time,

got plugged in with a, guy

that was running for state representative out in plain view

and did some things out there, which ultimately

got me working with, Rudy Giuliani, running for president.

And then after that was all over, I mean, really quick synopsis of it

all, got plugged into real estate and been doing that for the last

right about 18 years now.

Wow. 18 years and and Rudy Giuliani.

Well, he's, you know, he just survived, major,

heart issues too, so. Wow.

So from politics to real estate,

what's what did you major in college?

Marketing. Marketing. Well, there you go.

So you're going.

You're using that in your business? Yeah. No.

Oh. Oh, I, I majored in Bible and, you know, and English literature and,

you know, so I'm, it just makes sense that I'm a mortgage lender, so.

Yeah, it's I guess.

And so how do we get to where we get to.

So in that time,

let's let's jump back a little bit further.

So our, our college years,

without telling too much on each other after Trinity life

we were in, I want to be clear, we were in a fraternity and not a frat.

And, you know, you know, the connotations there.

I know it's probably it's got to be true to you.

I think the, you know, that it's a small group of men and,

you know, some some of my closest friendships have come out of that,

that time frame and, or that season of life to this day that,

you know, there's, there's a handful guys that always that I turn to and,

and we always we keep in touch with families now and kids and,

and, what's, what's a memory you could share?

I'm really curious as as in the fraternity life, what

we think our traditions or we're new to us or guinea pig tested on us.

And what's something what?

Maybe a favorite memory that you did in the fraternity stuff.

You know, Nathan,

the thing that just pops off the top of my head, it's nothing.

That's just

a funny anecdote or anything that we kind of did.

I mean, there is a lot of silly things that happened.

Man, know some of them?

I'm not sure how much I can talk about, but, you know, I think one of the funny,

when you're talking about just those memorable,

having those, friendships that lasted so long, you know,

when you're pledging, you're always spending so much time

together, and, after pledging was over.

I mean, for years, like, we the guys that I'm friends with now,

that we do things on a regular basis, you know, we're across the state,

sometimes across the world from each other.

And, you know, it's all about spending time together.

And so there are so many times that I can remember in college

where we'd have a movie night, and instead of going back to whatever room

that we were in and the house, everybody just kind of like,

pull a sleeping bag in and we just kind of like post up there.

And then that would happen for like five nights in a row.

Everybody just live in that one room.

Just because we were having so much fun hanging out with each other.

The, the I think it's those small moments

that mean just a ton to me that I remember a lot of.

Right. What in the,

what do you think

along your journey has been most impactful

in your in your real estate career?

You know,

I think just the fact of

being in that fraternity

helped me get out of a pretty big comfort zone that I was in,

you know, it forced you to talk with a bunch of different people

and and all sorts of different walks of life,

coming from small town of Rockwall, you know, you were kind of

in a little bubble and going out to Abilene.

You're still kind of in a little, bit of a bubble.

Yeah.

But you're around so many different personalities

in so many different walks of life.

And I think that helped me kind of understand people

a little bit better and how to understand them and

understand where they're coming from and ask more questions and,

just how to get along and understand

that, hey, we don't have to see eye to eye all the time.

And this is how

we get to some sort of common ground.

Yeah.

Tell me in your in your,

in the when you were in the political world, what were I, I guess.

What did it open you up to?

That you bring into

your real estate business?

Yeah.

Man, Nathan, almost along the same lines,

it was, how to have fun with people, though.

Yeah. I remember getting thrown into that.

At the time, Tom Hicks was the owner of the Rangers and Stars and all the like.

Tom Hicks was the biggest guy in sports,

and he was our chairperson for the, campaign.

And then right below him, we dealt a lot with Boone Pickens.

And so it was a really, really intimidating room to get into.

You realize really quick, just

I don't know, I felt like I was over my head, for the most part.

But you got to hang out with these guys on a much different level

than probably most other people might be able to.

So it was really just understanding that they were all there to have like,

oh, like, we can have these just off the cuff conversations

and just have fun with each other. And so it's

just realizing

how to cut loose and have a real conversation.

But I'll tell you, there was this, lady,

she died a few years back and her name was Carol Reed.

And Carol will always hold this special place in my heart.

And we used to kind of travel around Texas together, down between the triangle of,

kind of going down to Houston and over to San Antonio and up to Austin.

And, we always drove that,

and she would tell me so many stories.

I mean, she'd been in politics for 50 years.

I think I had voted once in my life.

Maybe.

And so

just all the different things that she would tell me

and some of them were political, some were just human behavior.

And, you know, she told me this one story to this day,

after I get off a phone conversation,

I always check like 3 or 4 times to make sure my phone has hung up,

because just some of those goofy stories she'd tell me.

But, you know, you just carry those along with you

because they have real practical meaning to what we do every day.

Good.

How did you how did you get into the politics?

Like, I mean, outside of watching the news and going and voting, I'm just

I don't I'd be curious to know.

That's got nothing to do with real estate, but.

No, I've never.

I had honestly never voted before.

I don't think I had, I barely watched

any,

like, voting coverage or, election coverage.

I was, I was sitting in my room one day and like I said, I was working like 3

or 4 jobs, and, I'd go from starting out the day at four in the morning or three

in the morning, unloading trucks at, target.

And then I go in, working in an electric company for about 3 or 4 hours.

And then I work at ESPN radio, and I was doing

all these different things, and I was just burned out.

And again, one of those guys that, went to college with, Tex.

And one day I was like, man, I just need to get out of town.

What can you what can you help me with any set me up with a job?

Well, he set me up with an interview, and I blew the interview.

I mean, in the first 30s,

the guy asked me about our state representative here in Rockwall,

and I had no idea who he was talking about, and he just hung his head low.

And right then and there, he just called me out on it.

Because you didn't know nothing about politics, do you?

And I laughed and told him, no, but I'm a great worker.

And I learned really quick.

And so that's how I got plugged into politics.

It was. One I. Needed a change in.

But it's crazy how just the dominoes just started falling.

Falling?

After that, you put yourself in a situation to to succeed and do something.

And if you're patient enough with it, how things just kind of come to fruition.

Right.

So okay, we're going to shift gears a little bit.

So you decided to go from the political space to real estate in my right.

If math is right about 2008.

Yep. And everybody knows 2008 was a tough year.

I know personally because that's that is whenever I stepped out of the military,

I completed my

my time in the military in 2008 and had bright idea to go join the civilian world.

And then the market crashed.

I think it's oh, I was like, oh my gosh, it was brutal.

But you

jumped into the real estate space in 2008, and I can tell you,

I know there was a lot of people getting out of real estate

in the lending world in, in on the real estate, real estate agent.

Side two.

But you jumped in.

I want to know why.

What were you.

What were you thinking in 2008, if you can recall?

Wasn't thinking, I had no idea we were even in a crash.

Like I said, I wasn't political, I didn't watch the news.

And so there I walked into that office the very first day, Nathan and,

I had this, older gentleman, Barry Buchanan, kind of walk up to me,

and he looked at me and he goes, you're getting into real estate.

Don't you know, everybody's getting out?

And I kind of shook my head, was like, I have no idea.

Why are they getting out?

Yeah.

But, you know, we get into a market kind of how we're in now.

And I stopped telling people that, you know,

good, bad markets aren't good or bad.

They're just challenging,

you know, in 2020, 2021, when we're doing all these multiple offers,

it was a good market, but it was challenging, right?

We just deal with various challenging markets.

And so getting into a market like that helped me realize that

because there were still success to be had,

you just had to do things a little bit differently.

And so that's kind of the thing that it doesn't matter

if you're transitioning to 2013 going into this, that that 21 market

or you're in the market we're in right now, there's a success code there.

And, it's just challenging.

You have to you have to figure out the pieces of that puzzle.

Right? Yeah.

I you know, necessity is the mother of all inventions.

And I remember I, I just I decided for me, I was going to succeed.

I didn't care what everybody else was doing there.

Getting out there, getting out.

And, I needed a paycheck, you know, I needed income.

So I had mouths to feed.

So I was like, we have to do this in, you know, good for you.

Any, any, you know, from anything from there, like a, leadership

lesson that you might have learned

in moving out of that into the different,

different phases of what the world is doing

and what the markets do that you don't have any control over.

But you do have a big role within.

Yourself, right? Yeah.

You said it.

You don't have any control over it.

And, the, you know, there's a there's a couple things and,

that I've talked about here recently with agents and one of them

is having a plan B, like, what's your plan B?

Because that's where agents start going wrong.

And I don't think it's just realtors.

I think it's just people in general.

You know, once you kind of figure out that I've got this fallback option,

I've got this plan B, you're already one foot out in to what you said

a second ago of I needed a paycheck and I was going to make this work.

That's the headspace you got to get into.

And it's not always comfortable. It's not always fun.

It's not always what you see on TV.

It is hard work. And so

it's just putting all those eggs in that basket and going,

no, if I'm going to fail, I'm going to fail giving it my all.

There is no plan B burn the ships.

There's no turning back from this one.

Yeah, I, I, I watched the HDTV shows in our efforts them a lot.

I find them quite comical.

That's just being in the, in the lending space.

I'm like, oh my gosh.

It's so, they're pretty fun for me.

All right. So

Eddie, let's see some of the struggles that shaped you.

So your coaching, your team, you know, we're in a we're in a changing market

now, and, regardless of world

current events or whatever, there's new technologies out there.

I being one of them.

And I know, I know, there's a lot

of lenders and realtors,

that are intimidated by it

or, or ignoring it at their own peril, in my opinion.

But for me, I see this as a pivot point.

I got a plan. And, you know, look at the plan.

Then I see I and I'm like, well, we're pivoting, we've got to address this.

And I look at in ways and, well, how do I, how do I use the I stuff

to to benefit the client, the homebuyer as a lender.

And my realtor partners in, what are effective ways to do that?

Have you have you all started

using I, and

I mean, there's 100,000 different types out there, right?

Every day there's a new one.

But, I'm just curious if there's if there's any mechanisms

that you've already started

implementing to help your clients find a home, sell their home or.

Yeah, that's been something fun we've been working on for the last,

I don't know, I guess month now is, really

hopping into well, right now we're using cloud code

and so everything live in local gets to know you really well.

But we were sitting around and we, we've been building just,

you know, owning, trying to own our own software, basically.

And so what is that way that we can have that,

best customer experience?

And it like, all those little things.

Right.

How can we take care of all those little things in life?

And so it's been working through.

And so we ask that the question, a few weeks ago of what are all the ways

that we're not using AI right now that we should be looking into?

And so it's sort of diving into some really interesting areas of,

you know, between using AirPods while you're showing a house

and it can actively receive the feedback that the clients are giving

help you talk to the client and either validate

that concern that they have,

or if that house isn't going to work for them

and they have a new direction they want to go, will it be able to give the feedback

on, well, here's three other houses in the area

they should probably consider given that feedback.

And so there's so many different changes that are happening.

And by time looking a week, that may be a mainstream technology error.

But he's using the the at the rate that everything's kind of flying right now.

Right. I think that's one of those

I did

it well I think there's a realm where it's going to replace different people.

It's going to open up more jobs.

But I think in the terms of you and I, it only really replaces us

if we don't embrace it.

You know, it makes you better, it makes you smarter.

There's a lot of thought that still has to go into it.

So it's one of those places

that embrace it, and it just opens up an entire new world.

Yeah, I, I see it, it's a great tool.

And in our industry, in the real estate industry,

I don't foresee,

I mean, it is the biggest purchase thing a family is going to do.

Yeah.

And I don't see the, personal

relationship of, of a real

estate agent or a lender being replaced.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

What you just said there, it's relational.

Right? Yeah.

I think that's the biggest misconception that so many people

that get into real estate, or whether you're a realtor

or you're in mortgage, that it's not just the transaction.

The biggest piece that you have in real estate is that relationship.

And that's how you really build a long lasting,

career as you develop relationships.

And there's nothing

that can truly replace that relationship.

I mean, there's so much trust that's there.

Yeah.

So you let's see, back in like 2013 I've got cheat notes over here.

So back in 2013, you partnered with Patty

Turner and, y'all ended up

building, what, a top team in North Texas.

Yeah.

So I actually started working with her in, 2008, right when I got in.

Okay.

She was my mentor, helped me get started in real estate.

I mean, really pushed me through real estate,

as many times as I thought about getting out.

But, yeah, in 2013, that market started to shift.

I can remember, right around that March

going into the summer, that so that spring market,

there was so much business that just started spilling out

and we couldn't keep up with the demand.

And so she was just giving business

to agents, just telling them here, just don't drop the ball.

Work with this person. They're ready to go.

Yeah, we got through that and got it to the fall and realize

if we've got this business that's coming through,

we ought to look at starting a team.

And so we discussed what that was going to look like.

And from there we started a group.

We started with about four people.

I think we did about 30 million that 28, 30 million

that first year to word this last year we did, 145 million.

And within the system we were top five group in the region or top two.

Wow. Great.

Good for y'all.

So what what are some leadership,

ideas that

you, you've learned through building that team out that influences

your home buyers and home sellers?

Oh, man. Leadership.

The influences of.

Hey. You know, I, I, I think probably the biggest one,

Nathan, is not letting yourself get too caught up in the moment.

Right.

Good or bad, there's this nice place

in the middle where you don't react one way or the other.

You know, that was another one of those things I learned in politics.

But, you know,

there is this old Chinese proverb,

that, I heard one time, my kids love Bluey for a while,

and I heard on Bluey and, but it just kind of talked about,

you know, there's this Chinese farmer, and it said his horse ran away, and,

and all the

neighbors came around and said, oh, man, this is this is so awful.

I'm sorry.

The horse ran away and the guy said, maybe.

And so then the next day, the horse came back and was like, oh, what a great look.

The horse came back and said, well, maybe.

Well, then the next day the, his son was riding

the horse and got bucked off and broke his leg.

And they're like, oh, this is horrible. Maybe.

And then, the next day, the, the Chinese officials came around

drafting for a war, and they didn't take his son because his leg was broken.

And so the whole point of it is that, yeah, there's

a lot of good things that happen, a lot of bad things that happen.

And we don't need to react on one side to the other.

There's things that are going to happen in appraisals.

There's going to be things that are happening and inspections

and your clients are going to have enough,

emotion in the whole, transaction.

You don't need to put more in that.

You're that maybe.

And yeah.

And then I'm saying that middle area.

Yeah.

You know, I always think that where you're

where your income, your finances in real estate intersect,

having a great team put together, a great realtor, great lender put together

helps make that a smooth and flawless experience at closing.

You know, sometimes getting to closing can be

can be a challenge.

But getting there, you know, signing a contract

buy a home may take 30 minutes.

And then it's history in that your homeowner.

Tell me.

So you're man of faith, family and and to me talked a little bit

about your personal life, if you don't mind.

No, absolutely. I've got it.

I've got three boys.

I've got twin, twin, 13 year olds, a 12 year old, man, they keep me busy.

We've lived here, and I've been here since I was six years old.

So the last 36 years I've been here in Rockwall,

I've been part of the same church for about 30 years.

So, you know, it's been great to watch the church grow.

It's been fun to watch the community grow.

It's been fun now to see, like, the kids in the church and the community.

Yeah. They're part of boys team charities.

Watching them give back in a way that I never gave back, as a kid.

And, it's just, I don't know, I love seeing them grow in the community.

Grow in the church.

They it's interesting just watching.

What?

How they're,

Their tastes change and what the things that they're like,

and all of a sudden they're like, no, I don't like that anymore, dad.

And they're over here and, and here

and how they talk about their faith in God and how they understand it.

It's very it's I know it's very eye opening right now.

They're young and you're young.

You're not, you know, you're younger than me.

So, I'm forever 29.

So, have you given much thought

to legacy, what you'd like to leave behind?

Like.

Yeah.

You know, I had a coach years ago when we were talking about legacy, and,

it came around to the, I love talking big. Why?

With agents? Like, why are you in business?

Why do you do the things that you do?

And for me, I started thinking about that, and it was, well,

I want to leave a legacy.

My dad died whenever I was

eight, nine years old.

And so

there wasn't a whole lot that he left behind.

And, And so I always thought about that, and,

well, I want my real estate to leave a legacy for my kids.

And when I got to talking about this with my coach,

he kind of said, well, what if they don't want to get into real estate?

And that really made me think hard about it,

because I always kind of thought, well, at least I've got three.

One of them is going to want to get into real estate, but it's like, oh, maybe not.

I want them to do all the things that they want to do,

and see where that takes them in life.

And so it was the definition of, well, what does that legacy

really look like and how was it built and what does it really mean?

It's more than just real estate.

It's how do you fix yourself

as a pillar in the community, a pillar in the business, a pillar in the church?

And those those are the types of things that kind of live on.

And so legacy is a really interesting conversation to have.

Yeah.

So 18 years, if you can recall,

what was your why when you first got into real estate.

And I'm curious see if you're wise maybe modified a little bit.

It's modified a lot.

When I got in, I didn't realize how much ego I had, but I had a ton of ego.

And so the why was all about ego.

It was all about just proving people wrong.

Because as I was transitioning out of politics, everybody told me,

I think you're making a big mistake.

They all knew that it was a bad market.

I didn't, and so I had this big vendetta.

I just wanted to prove people wrong.

And I would just kind of force myself into a situation and be like, look,

I can be successful no matter what.

And, Yeah, it wasn't until I came over to KW

and that big y conversation came up more often

that I really started thinking about, no, why do I want to do this?

And because I think I said earlier

this, it's kind of a tough business.

And there's a lot of times that I've looked around and I'm like,

why am I doing this? I don't want to.

I like, I'm busting my butt.

I'm working till midnight.

1:00 a lot of times,

you have to have real purpose behind that. And,

you know, ultimately my purpose is change.

Not to just building a legacy for my family, that I can leave behind them.

But, as it's kind of morphed over the last couple years, I've added on

to that to be a light in a dimming world to make a difference.

And that difference may be small, but it kind of trickles across the community.

Yeah.

Oh, I'm 100% convinced that

this industry is a calling.

I mean, the, the

the amount of lives that you can touch and change, you know, something about,

you know, owning your own home, going from renter to ownership,

you know, generational wealth

accumulation through real estate,

you know,

seeing somebody get their very first set of keys to their own houses.

Yeah, it's it it feels really good.

Especially, you know, when you put the work in and,

you know, you got a solid product put together for them.

When I go to closings, I see that in a it's exciting.

It is really exciting.

It's probably

I don't know, I've done a lot of

really neat things in life, and this one really makes me feel good.

So. To be able to be a part of.

That first house that they buy,

there is just something about that energy in that,

the look in their eyes. And,

a lot of times we catch people at transitions in their life, right?

Yeah.

Maybe that first home and maybe marriage or first kid or multiple kids

and getting into a school district or there's a loved one passing on.

We get we're in touch with people,

me and just very specific points in their life.

And you can have a very positive effect

on those people and on and on yourself.

But if you look at it the right way, man,

we have a tremendous opportunity in what we do.

Yeah.

And it's not just I don't know, let's be let's be real concerned.

Maybe it takes 30 days, 60 days from, hey, I want to buy a house

to purchasing a home.

That's not the end of it, you know, it's

I stay in touch with

people, and, and I know you and your team do,

you know, and so those,

those relationships just grow, deeper.

And so the house being a big piece of that, but post closing there.

So there's there's a whole new life adventure out there, with them.

Oh, good. Good. For everyone.

I'm going to do some rapid fire questions to you.

Just kind of see what you're thinking.

But if you're you're listening to the podcast and not watching it

behind you, there's a couple of signed,

footballs and basketballs and a whole lot of baseball mugs up on the wall.

So tell me who your favorite teams are and whose signatures you.

I mean, I see the football. You get a lot of signatures.

So tell me, what what team do you have signed?

Man, Nathan, I am a tried and true Dallas fan.

And here you go.

For better or worse, I was.

I go through the Cowboys

and be optimistic every year and curse them at the end of the year.

Yeah. Yeah. Now the football was signed.

My wife, had the opportunity to go to the Super Bowl Miami,

and she went to a Hall of Fame dinner and wow, there was a lady

she was with at that dinner and took her around to all the different tables.

And so there's a, I don't know,

maybe about 40 different Hall of Fame signatures on it.

Wow.

Got Jason Kidd and Dirk Nowitzki, back behind me.

Up on another wall over here.

Don't know.

I've got about 20 or so

baseballs just signed by all my favorite players from the 90s.

And then all the mugs are, from, stadiums that my dad and I visit.

Yeah, I met Dirk once.

Yeah.

Tall, obviously, but dang.

I mean, till you pay me in face to face, you don't realize how tall tall is.

Yeah, I don't very, very short. And I'm six.

So anyway, that I was like, good gosh, you're tall.

All right, so, rapid fire questions.

What's one leadership book everyone should read?

I got kind of a weird one.

Not really weird. It's probably just not one.

Most people say, but it's, 101 essays that will change the way you think.

Okay. All right.

And it's almost like reading through Psalms, right?

You've just got a bunch of different stories.

I don't want to say it that way.

You've got a bunch of different chapters, and some are long, some are small.

And that's kind of the way through this book.

It's not something you just kind of sit in,

just digest in a given week or something that you

kind of take your time and turn there, and if you let it, yeah,

it will absolutely kind of challenge the way you think and in a good way.

But okay,

I love challenging, just thought processes and people.

Nice.

What's, one thing agents overcomplicate

everything.

You know, I think one of the big thing, I try to.

It's the hardest thing for me to convey to people, but,

it's it's the beer ability, that you can have with somebody.

The ability that by the end, end of the conversation,

they want to have a beer with you. Right.

And I think people, they get too hung up in scripts

and they don't just talk to somebody.

By the end of that conversation, somebody should sit there with you and go,

man, I just enjoy having a conversation.

I want to have a beer with you.

And so that's kind of the idea of don't over complicated.

Don't try to have that perfect script.

People have problems.

And, you know, sometimes we just need to ask the question,

how are you doing right now?

Yeah.

What's, one habit

that's had the biggest impact in your career?

Who? But,

Yeah, I'm.

I'm tough on habits.

Again, maybe kind of

my morning routine of having coffee.

I do coffee and have do, like a crossword puzzle or a puzzle of some sort,

but, puzzles are how I really kind of just unwind and break down.

I don't know.

I love being challenged to how to think and,

just have my mind work a different way than it has all day.

Yeah.

But yeah, it's probably not anything

that is just real estate related, work related.

It's the ability to kind of shift gears and do something that's

a little bit different and make your mind go a different direction.

Yeah, I get up, every morning I sit on the back porch sunrise.

Right. It's. Yeah, picturesque for me.

Got my cup of coffee for sure,

because that keeps me out of prison and, you know, quiet.

And and I'm just, you know, that's, And I got some.

I got my jams.

My music in the morning is, it's a little.

It's a little bit of, praise and worship and AC, DC it makes sense.

That what that makes is I like.

Yeah. I'm just saying, you know,

it just, it works, in my head at work.

So, let's, let's talk.

So North Texas, there's a lot happening up in north Texas.

It's a hot market.

Some of the fastest growing counties in the country.

Tell me a little bit about Rockwall.

What are you excited about in the area?

That maybe people that are moving to Rockwall

don't know about, or might not know about.

And favorite restaurant, those two things.

Oh, man. Favorite restaurant?

All right. Yeah. It's all the growth.

You look around and you can't look anywhere

without seeing, just wood going up in the air.

Right. And we've got to watch and everywhere.

And so while that makes for

a challenging market right now, because a lot of the homes being sold,

you can look on any stat sheet and there's a lot of new builds being sold.

And so that causes one of those complications

or one of those challenges we kind of talked about earlier.

But when you look five years down the road, a lot of those homes

are going to become resale.

And so there's even more people that are looking at, going to be a future client.

And so as far as you know, if you're looking at moving to the area,

you have a lot to choose from,

from golf course communities to lakefront, beautiful lake fronts,

you builds, all sorts of different types of communities here.

It's pretty diverse.

And then you've got, the Outer Loop tollway that's just going to be coming in.

I don't know, maybe five minutes from here.

The, I don't know, Royce City, which will tie in the north side of the metroplex.

And so there's just a lot to look forward to in a lot of ways that we're growing.

But that's the biggest one is growth.

And that favorite restaurant, we've got this, little place and it's,

it's it's a house in the middle of old Rockwall, and it's just a burger place.

You go there and you get a, single or a double cheeseburger,

and, it's the grease.

Like when you pull that out of the bag.

I mean, the wrappers are already just drenched in grease.

It's called.

Bootleggers.

It's boots. Burgers, burger.

Yeah.

If you're planning on coming through, it's only open at lunch.

They serve until they're out,

and you need to be there by 1115, because you may not get served by 1:00.

They're going to run out. Yeah, I bet they've run out a bunch.

I know of a place like that in Pensacola, Florida.

And when they're out, they're out.

And they're always, they always they run out before closing.

And they're open for lunch.

Yeah.

People started calling their orders and. Yeah.

So you'll get there about 11:00 when they open,

and you may not get served until about 1145, 12:00.

And a good greasy hamburger.

Yeah, yeah. I'm in. I'm down.

I'll drive over to Rockwall.

For that, for sure.

Well, what do you what are you excited about in the future?

Looking ahead.

Oh. Yeah.

Business wise, like I said, just the growth that's happening around,

but I think just bigger than that.

You know, my wife and I, we're looking at, just,

you know,

moving to a different house here recently, and I was having kind of a hard

time with it, and I couldn't figure out why I was having a hard time with it.

And I finally came to the realization

I was having such a hard time because the kids are getting older.

And so I really started thinking about just the kids getting older.

And what does that mean?

And how do I want to interact with them differently.

And so, you know, I think it's,

I'm excited about just change right now.

Yeah.

Within the community change with the family,

even though that means different pains that come along with that.

Right.

But, you know, it's those,

my family excites me right now.

Good.

So if, someone's listening today,

especially or

personally, if they feel stuck, what would you mean?

Any word of wisdom you might impart on them?

Yeah, I'll tell you.

Anybody that I ever talked to.

Within real estate, I can talk X's and O's with you all day.

I can tell you all the different numbers

and what they mean and all the things to do.

But the biggest question that we have to ask ourselves

is, why aren't we doing those things that we should do?

Because I can go through them all until you

if you want to do 20 transactions, you do this.

Many open houses are called.

This meeting expires.

It doesn't mean anything until you figure out what I call

the monster under the bed.

All right.

There's always a fear that we have.

And so when we go back to when we're eight and nine years old,

we are scared about the monster in the closet, the monster under the bed.

And it wouldn't go away until we looked under the bed.

And we turn on the lights, and we revealed that there was nothing actually there.

And so we we had to fill our minds with the

actual facts and details of what is true,

rather than what our mind just fills in the gaps with.

Which is that monster under the bed?

Because we didn't know what was under there before.

And so those are the biggest conversations I have of

what are those things that are holding you back.

And we're so hesitant, I think, as adults, as to

just say that we have those flaws or what those flaws are.

And the quicker that we are of saying that,

I don't like how calling it is, what makes me feel or whatever it may be.

That's fine.

We named it.

We can either get better at it or we find something else to do,

but we get better nonetheless.

Yeah, just got to name those things.

All right, well, we're about out of time, so tell me,

if anybody's listening, they think they one of them are looking

at moving to Rockwall or needing to sell a home in the Rockwall area.

How can they best get Ahold of you?

Yeah.

I think I gave you all my different socials.

I've got it.

You can always DM me across any of those accounts.

Hit me up on my cell phone, email, whatever it may be.

There are so many different ways you can get Ahold.

There are.

I'm going to link them all so they'll they'll be down.

But wherever you're consuming this, they'll be there will be links.

Get those put together.

And when I get this published.

Jim, brother. Thank you.

This is fun. But.

Yeah, if we had.

So our old fraternity life,

we used to get together at the end of our little meetings,

and we all circle up and we'd sing this, fraternity song, which I do not know.

And it's been a minute.

But.

Well, I think the minimum you had to have three.

So we get one of the other guys on.

We'll sing. We'll sing a song.

That. That'd be fun. I like to see that.

We're not going to sing,

so, thanks, Jim, for sharing your stories.

And, in your wisdom, you've got a great team, the Rockwall area.

And, I hope, I wish you nothing but more success or continued success.

Thanks for being on the on the between $2 podcast.

Thank you buddy. Good talking with you.