The Power of Intention in Real Estate Relationship Building with Tara Limbird

Host1 00:00

I think this year we may have actually gotten surpassed by Dear Horton.

Host 00:04

Are you somebody that people want to hang out with?

Host1 00:06

And I've had to change a lot of things about me.

Host 00:09

Real estate agents are always giving out referrals to everybody in the world, but they don't necessarily get a lot in return.

Host1 00:13

I will say a lot of times you don't have to reinvent the will. You just kind of figure out what is somebody doing that's working well for them.

Host 00:19

Everybody would copy everybody. I got to a point where I would like intentionally put out stuff that I wasn't doing.

Host1 00:24

Sometimes you have to take things that you're just you're passionate about.

Host 00:27

What's up everybody? Grant Wise here. Welcome back to the Partner in Profit Podcast, the show where we teach you how to turn your relationships into revenue. Today I get to speak with Mrs. Tara Limbird, and uh I am excited about it. She is somebody that I've you know followed, been around, worked with a little bit uh over the years, has just built some an amazing company, and uh I know the conversation's gonna be great. So, Tara, thanks for uh jumping in with me for a few.

Host1 00:49

Yeah, no, sounds good. And that made me actually pause and think. I think we've known each other for long time, yeah.

Host 00:56

It's been a minute, yeah. So that's so it's been like 13 to 15 years or something like that. A long time. For people that maybe don't know much about you, just give a bit of the backstory. How do you guys get to where you are today?

Host1 01:05

Sure. Well, my my husband, Nick and I, we own Lindberg Real Estate Group and we have a team, Lindberg team. Uh, but I I am from the Fort Smith area originally, but moved up here in 2000 and actually worked for a finance company and a mortgage company is kind of how they got my start into real estate, if you will, doing loans and you know, running around to different real estate companies' offices, stuffing agents boxes with flyers of, you know, use use us. Well Spargo's who I was with at the time. But anyway, it's it's I learned a lot through that, but I just realized it wasn't something I wanted to do long term, you know, kind of like, you know, what do I want to be when I grow up? Still trying to figure that out. And then a couple of people had made a recommendation that I should get into real estate. But, you know, dating myself, I thought, well, that means I'm gonna have to go door knock, I'm gonna have to get a phone book out and just call people in a phone book. And I didn't want to do that, but I found an ad in the newspaper for anybody that knows what newspapers are, and it was for a model home sales agent in a new neighborhood in Bentonville. And I thought, well, that wouldn't be so bad working with builders, new construction. My dad was a fireman and a trim carpenter, and so I kind of grew up around construction. And so that's how I got my start into real estate being a model home sales agent, and then, you know, did that for a few years, and then the market started tanking, and um, I didn't really, I wasn't smart enough to know what was happening. I just knew I didn't have as much money coming in as I had previously, and so like most realtors know, the grass is always greener somewhere else. So did commercial real estate for a little while, loved it, but realized I was probably gonna go broke in between paychecks, and then went to work at Remax doing, you know, resales, which that was, you know, three or four years in the business. I never even sold a resale house. I had no idea what that even looked like. So that was a brand new experience. And then a few years later, my husband and I we met and he was doing orthopedic sales, and he decided in 2010 that we should start a team, which anybody that's been around for a while, if you remember what the market was like in 2010, I told him that was an absolutely terrible idea and that there's no way we were doing that. And lo and behold, we jumped out there and did it. And now I realize when everyone's running away from something, that's when you should actually be running towards it. But time I I wanted to run away from that as well. So, but you know, it's funny how things things work themselves out.

Host 03:37

Yeah, that's amazing. You guys have built an impressive company, and um, it's been fun to watch. You guys are top team in Arkansas. I believe is that the stat is it top number one team in Arkansas or is it number one broke, or is it both?

Host1 03:48

Yeah, no, we're the number number one team. I think this year we may have actually gotten surpassed by the R Horton because you know, now a lot of these builders are doing their own stuff, so but I think from a true team, right? That I feel like there has to be like an asterisk there now, you know.

Host 04:06

For sure, for sure. Well, relationships are such a big part of this industry in in many capacities. How have you developed so many incredible relationships to power your business? What's been the strategy if there is one?

Host1 04:19

Yeah, well, I mean, I think a lot of it is understanding building relationships as a is a long play, you know, it's it doesn't happen overnight. And I think that's sometimes a problem. People get into real estate and they just want to be an overnight success. But it really is a you gotta think if I'm in it for the long haul, you know, then then I gotta build these relationships. And and in fact, I think that's how we all first met is my husband, Nick, was in a BI group, which is all about building relationships and referring things. And so I think it's just, you know, being intentional about building relationships and and and not really spreading yourself too thin. Sometimes with realtors, we just want to cast our net. We want to do everything. Yeah. And kind of like when you do everything, you're really not that great at anything. And so it's kind of like finding your niche, your lane, whether it's, you know, I'm I'm really involved in the chamber and you know, my husband, he's involved a lot in the B and B and I. And so it's kind of like finding your niche of what what does it feel like extra work for you? It just becomes natural because if you start trying to do something that you don't like and it's just one more thing to do on your list, you're not gonna do it, at least not long term, or it's not gonna come across authentic, you know, with trying to form a relationship. And then I think like with our team, like some of our agents, like we've had agents, an agent our team that just celebrates his ninth year with us. We've got agents that are been with us for 12 years in this industry, especially in real estate, it's sort of unheard of. I think the average time period is about two or three years before an agent, you know, swaps to a different company. And so I think what we've tried to do over the years is is understand that even though we're number one, is like we're we may not stay number one. So it's like never, never getting complacent, never getting comfortable, and you know, and feel like, oh, I'm just gonna put my feet up on the desk and kick back. We've got this thing figured out. Because the moment you do that, that's you know, that gets scary. I always like this quote by Mark Cuban. He says, you know, work 24 hours a day like someone's trying to take everything away from you. Maybe it's a bad, that's the idea, a healthy place to live because it's like this fear-based, but I'm motivated by fear, I think. Oh, if it's just how I grew up, but it's just like I'm always scared the shoe's gonna fall, you know, and something bad's gonna happen and it's all gonna go away. So, but at the same time, I think that's what's helped us not always like turn a blind eye and think, oh, you know, everything's not comfortable. Yeah. So yeah, and so I think just over time is understanding, you know, markets change, the economy changes, technology changes. So how do you with with some of those relationships? It's also a value add, you know, how do I add value to someone's life or to someone's business or their career? And I'm just, you know, over the years trying to think, you know, what things can we do that to to help add add value to whether it's our agents or our clients and that sort of thing.

Host 07:10

Yeah. I always tell everybody comfort is a luxury I cannot afford. And it's not, it's not like you know, I'm broke or something. It's like I don't want to be comfortable because when I'm comfortable, I get lazy. When I'm comfortable, I don't want to make that phone call. When I'm comfortable, I don't want to create that piece of content or send that email. And um it's something that breeds contentment and it's not necessarily something, at least in business, that that I'm striving for is to be content with what I'm at.

Host1 07:34

Yeah, well, that's me. It's like kind of my personality too, is no matter no matter what we've done or what we've achieved or how many sales, whatever else, it's always like I always want more, and not in a greedy capacity, but it's just like it's kind of like well, what's what's that next level? Like, how do I prove myself? Like what what version of me has to show up to be to do this or to do that? Whether it's like I've I've in the last few years made a lot of personal goals for myself, and I've had to change a lot of things about me and how you know my diet and nutrition and working out, and it's it because I realize that other Tara can't show up and do these goals that I have. And whether it's professional or personal or financial or relationship driven, you have to figure out, you know, who how do I need to show up to to make those things happen?

unknown 08:24

Yeah.

Host 08:25

Uh Ed Mallette calls it blissful dissatisfaction. I'm I'm happy with where I'm at, but I still want I still want more. I still want to, I still want to keep growing and achieving. I want to go back to one of the things that you were saying is you know, you just have to be really intentional about building your relationships. Can you kind of go deeper on that? Can you give us some examples when you say you've got to be intentional? What do you what do you mean? How how are you intentional in building relationships? We'd love some stories.

Host1 08:47

I'd say maybe the the best example. I had a a real estate coach at one point that was talking about as far as being the leader of our team, is that building those relationships, I forgot how you word it exactly, but it said some of it has to be scheduled and there's some that has to be non-scheduled, you know, like whether it's a friend, a client, an agent, you know, out to lunch, or let's go to breakfast, or let's just meet in the office and do a one-on-one together. Like sometimes you have to schedule, schedule that time because it's just like we know visiting family or whatever else, you think, oh, we'll come visit you this year. And the next thing you know four years have gone by and you're only seeing each other because Uncle Joe Joe passed away, you know, and you're like, Oh, we should get together more often under better circumstances, but we never so it's being intentional about about those kind of things. But then the unscheduled is in and you know, I'm giving away my secrets now, but I sometimes I'll put on my calendar so it feels scheduled where I'm gonna send out five random texts to people, you know, so they don't know it's scheduled, but I'm making sure I'm intentional about setting time aside to like, you know, hey, I know someone our team had their first closing, or I know someone's, you know, dog passed away or whatever, you know, and I want to make sure, like, hey, I'm letting them know, even if it's just through a text message, like, hey, I'm thinking about you, I'm here for you, you know, those those sorts of things, whether it's congratulatory or or you know, if you need help or that kind of stuff. So I think that's kind of what I mean by intentional is like you can't some some relationships happen organically, but for the most part, I think you have to kind of be intentional. Um, I heard a saying one time said if you if you want more friends or if you want a better friend, then you have to be a better friend, you know? And so it's you know, just being intentional about, you know, reaching out to people and spending time with them and and asking them questions and getting to, you know, we all like to talk about it.

Host 10:41

She's curious and being interested, yeah.

Host1 10:43

Yeah, absolutely. So yeah.

Host 10:45

I had Nikki Miller on here. She's pretty big in the real estate industry. I'm not sure if you know her, but she she had a different angle as well. She was she was like, Well, I think one of the ways that I look at building relationships is like, are you somebody that people want to hang out with? Like are are you interesting? Are you genuinely interested in people? Are you curious? And it seems like uh, you know, if you you look at relationships like a mirror, um, it's a it's a way to be introspective about building relationships. It was a pretty fascinating take.

Host1 11:13

Yeah, that is like would would I want to hang out with myself? No, what do I need to do about that? You know, 100%.

Host 11:21

You know, another thing was like you've got to add value. A central theme in a lot of the conversations that I've had is you know, giving. I was literally just in another interview right before this, and it was like, you just have to give, you have to help people, you have to contribute and do so with no expectation of anything in return. A lot of people want to help so that I can get something. And a lot of the leaders that I've interviewed have like, no, I just want to help right care if I get anything in return. Can you kind of talk us through like how you typically try to add value in relationships?

Host1 11:47

Yeah, for sure. Like one thing that just pops in my head, like with our agents, is sometimes you have to take things that you're just you're passionate about because it's like you just want to teach people certain things, and again, with no expectations, you know, in return. But I'm passionate about saving money on taxes, you know, all legally, because I know this is recorded, but you know, let's say it anyway. But yeah, because there's so many ways to save money on taxes. And I I go to classes, I read books, I do all sorts of stuff. And and then because of that, we teach classes to the public, we teach classes to our agents. It's just because I love I love helping to educate them on these are the things that you're doing. You're like, oh my gosh, you're not doing this. Let me help you here. Call this person, do this. And and now I I even just get like random texts sometimes from people saying, Hey, I heard that, you know, you helped my friend and this and said that you could help me. And I love helping people on on certain things like that. But I think it's it's easy to add value when it's something that you're you know you're passionate about and you just you want you just want to like spread the word, so to speak.

Host 12:52

That's something you've probably done a lot of in real estate, I would imagine, right? Didn't you say I had you speaking at an event um a few years back and you said something that people used to call you like the the event something? I can't remember exactly what I think. The conference queen, yeah. The conference queen. Because you used to go to a lot of events and stuff like that. Would you take a lot of what you learned and then turn right around and and teach a lot of the agents that you you work with? Is that how you maybe do stuff like that?

Host1 13:16

Probably not as much as I should. You know, sometimes you go to conferences and you take all these notes and then they start growing dust, you know? Yeah, but and I left your conference was great. I wish you need to do that again. That was a lot of fun. So yeah, that was a that was nice. But yeah, I know I I I love going to those and then taking that information back. And obviously, obviously going to real estate conferences where where that started for me. And one thing I loved about that is a lot of times you were in other markets and people were very willing to share what was working, what was not working, because you were not competition for each other. And in real estate, a lot of times you don't have to reinvent the will, you just kind of figure out what is somebody doing that's working well for them and then take it a little bit. Of course, I also realized throughout the years, and I'm sure you can attest to this, is how many times people will say they're doing something and that it's working well, and it wasn't really working well, but you know, but they were still trying to convince themselves because they'd spent so much money doing it, you know. So my role for a while was anytime some new product came out, came out and everyone's raving about it, is I would wait 12 months and then see if people still liked it, and then I would turn it in, you know. I was like, I'll let them be the guinea pig and then I'll come on the back end if it works out.

Host 14:29

So it's kind of like getting a new iPhone. I'm gonna wait a year, let you guys work out the kinks.

Host1 14:33

Yeah, get all the bugs, yeah, exactly.

Host 14:35

Yeah, so true. I mean, when I first got really into like internet marketing as an example, everybody would copy everybody. I got to a point where I would like intentionally put out stuff that I wasn't doing because everybody was copying me. It's like, here's a bunch of stuff that I'm doing, it's working really well, and uh I had either tried it and knew it didn't work well or or you know, they always say imitations of yeah, flatter, but like, I'm tired of being flatter. Yeah, I'm tired of being flatter. Yeah, I would I would absolutely agree with that. I had somebody copied my entire I had a salesperson that worked for me one time and um intimately familiar with the business, took everything that we were doing and went and went to work with somebody else as a partner, and I think they made like millions of dollars off of the strategies that we were. It's like, uh I don't want to be a flatters, I'm good. Yeah, so when I say, like, okay, Tara, how do I turn my relationships into revenue? You've kind of taught me how to build some relationships, but how do I turn my relationships into revenue? How do how do you guys do that?

Host1 15:35

Well, I think number one, you have to ask people. I think sometimes we're so scared, we're like, oh, you know, number one, most people don't like to ask for business, no matter if it's a client or if it's a friend or whatever else. But number two, they're always worried, like, well, that's my that's my sphere, and that's a friend. I just don't want them to think about that I'm that that's all I care about. The thing is, if you've built a true relationship, people want to help help you because you're their friend. And sometimes you just have to call and say, Hey Jim, how's it going? Hey, I know we're gonna go play tennis tomorrow night, but this is actually a business call I'm making right now as I'm trying to, I'm working on my business for March and I'm looking for some referrals from all my favorite people. And so I know, you know, and so I think it's just letting them know, you know, this is a business call and just asking for it. Like we did a we did a contest a long time ago when iPads had first come out and with our team, and I can't remember what the contest was, like whoever got the most under contract or something, but everybody was scared of like calling their past clients. I'm like, hey, you know, tell them, hey, I'm gonna win an iPad. Can you help me? And if you had if you have a good relationship with them or is a good experience, then they like you. If I like someone I and they tell me they're they're gonna win something, I'm like, well, how oh my gosh, well, how can I help you? I want to help you, yeah. You know, so I think we just get in our head the thinking, like, well, I can't so that it's like, well, who cares? Just ask them, you know, and if and if it if it does bother them, then they probably you probably didn't have that great of a relationship built with them anyway.

Host 17:05

That's so true. I mean, a lot of the work that that we do today is we're helping real estate agents monetize the referrals they send to home service providers. Real estate agents are always giving out referrals to everybody in the world, but they don't necessarily get a lot in return. And so people use the system that we've built to send leads to their favorite service providers, and they now real estate agents get paid for all of the referrals they send out, and we're helping people add a ton of money. It's a new revenue stream that they're adding to the business, something they're already doing, right? That they're not making money off of. And it's something that we teach all the time is like you want your client, you want to train your clients to call you for everything. The light bulb burnt out, call me. The air filter needs to be changed, call me. The the yard needs to be mowed, call me. Like you need to paint, call me. And by doing that, what are you doing? You're you're you're basically giving them a hundred reasons to call you in a year. And what are you gonna do on every hundred one of those phone calls? Is hey, do you know anybody else is looking to buy ourselves a house right now? And people are, it's it's very fascinating. They they do seem kind of afraid to like ask people for certain things. Right. It's very interesting. I don't I don't know why people I don't know why people do that.

Host1 18:11

I know. Well we try to make a point too of like is letting our clients know, like, if you need a dentist, it doesn't even have to be overlay, they're like, call me and I'll help help you. And I get so aggravated at myself sometimes because I'll see on Facebook a past client, they're like, Hey, does anybody know a good plumber? And I'm like, Why are they not calling me? Like, I just I did a bad job apparently of making them a they can call me for these things, you know. But yeah, and I like the idea that you have of like working with other vendors because we as realtors, a lot of times we're spending thousands and thousands of miles of money, yeah. Leads, and it's like, hey, and and then all of a sudden that the house needs a roof, and I'm sending it to this person, or it needs this and that, and it's like, hey, I'm giving you free business based off the lead. I had to pay for it.

Host 18:57

Now you've got you know, we just a couple days ago, because I have a feed of all of these leads that are going through. We had a an agent sold a lead to a roofer for $417, and it's like, there we go. Now we have mutually beneficial partnerships that that that are are taking place, and it's it's obviously it's better for everybody involved because you guys are right. I mean, you make an enormous amount of investments in the business, and real estate agents are just you know, gimme, give me, give me, gimme, gimme. Everybody is calling realtors because if you know a realtor, you know somebody that's gonna help you grow your business. It was the very first thing I did when I got into business at 19. I had a little gutter company, and I was like, How am I gonna grow my business? And I was like, Oh, realtors know all the people. So I printed off like as many flyers as I could afford, like four to six hundred flyers. And you'll know the office. I went to Lindsay because I had family that work there, and they let me dump in both of their offices, and then I never had to worry about where I was gonna get customers. Like my phone just rang off the hook and I would take care of the I would take care of it. So it's like if you know a real estate agent and you can partner with them in some capacity, yeah, if you're especially if you're in home services, you're you're typically gonna crush it, like you're gonna do a really good job in business.

Host1 20:03

Great point of contact that there is a thousand percent. Yeah.

Host 20:07

Well, I want to respect your time. This has been an awesome conversation. I appreciate you taking the time. I know you're super busy. I always like to ask this last question is how can the listeners of the podcast, how can they partner with you, what can they do to support you guys right now?

Host1 20:16

Yeah, sure. Well, uh, you can go to our website, limbirdteam.com. We're also on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, all the things, you know. Of course, we're all we're always looking for anybody you know that looks look to buy or sell a home. Uh, we also do a property management. If you have if you want to own rental properties, but you don't want to manage it, we can help you with that. We actually even have a a mortgage business as well. And we're always looking, we're never gonna be the company with three or four hundred realtors, but we're always looking to grow, but with the right fit, you know. So if you're interested in in real estate and you want a a team behind you, then give us a shout.

Host 20:51

Love it. Well, I'll make sure that we link up how people can connect with you in our show notes. If you guys are listening this, I highly encourage you to do so. I've I've known Tara for a long time. They've they've done some incredible things, they're incredible people. And uh I I definitely know they're they're not gonna steer you wrong. So, Tara, thanks again. I appreciate you spending some time with me today.

Host1 21:06

Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much.

Host 21:08

Of course, and thank you all for continuing to listen to the Partner Profit Podcast. This has been an amazing conversation. I'll see you on the next one. Peace.