Superstar Guest Greg Junge, https://www.phoenixazheroes.com/

Hi, hi everyone, we're now live. So the next man that I'm going to introduce you to, I'm going to just say out loud, I'm very jealous of him. Greg— oh, I didn't even get to ask you, Junge or not.

Pronounce Young.

Oh my gosh, everyone, the fool. Oh my God, of course it is, of course it's Greg Young. Of course I'm teasing you. That was a joke. So anyway, so you are in Scottsdale, Arizona?

Yep. Yeah. Phoenix, Scottsdale area. And, um, I know we were talking earlier, you're in Daytona Beach, which I think I'm jealous of you because, uh, me and my wife, that's our goal is to move to the beach. So, uh, maybe we can swap sometime.

Oh, is it the goal to move to the beach? I love that. What do you love about Arizona and why, why would you, why do you want to sell homes in Arizona?

Um, so I like Arizona. You know, I came out here from New York for college and never really left. So, you know, Arizona, I love the desert. I have a great friend base here, which is kind of what keeps me here. Um, but, you know, selling homes here in Arizona, it's just, um, it's just been in my blood for a while, you know, the whole real estate bug, which I'm sure we're going to get into. But yeah, I mean, for now, Arizona is my home. Um, but we definitely eye that, uh, that house on the beach and that beach lifestyle for sure.

Oh, I love that. And then wait, do you, do you work with— if you came here to Daytona Beach, do you actually work with another realtor?

Um, if I did, yeah, I probably would actually, um, unless I got my license beforehand. But, um, that's like way down the road that we're trying to figure that out. And we're just trying to get to that point where we can make that move, and hopefully sooner than later, which I think it'll be sooner, but we'll see.

West Coast vibes are really cool. So I love, I love Tucson. I loved Arizona. And you went to the U of A, and I don't know if people realize how lovely the downtown Tucson community is. Did you, did you love Hotel Congress?

Yeah, it was great. Hotel Congress, going down there. It was just, U of A was just a great experience. The campus was beautiful. I met so many cool friends and cool people that I'm still friends with today, and it's been 20 years since I've been in college, believe it or not. So, yeah, Tucson is a great small college town and, yeah, I still love it and I wouldn't change anything, you know, any decision I made to go there.

You just, you just called the town of almost a million people small.

Well, I guess, yeah, consider, you know, compared to bigger college towns, you know, like Michigan State or some of those bigger ones, I still think Tucson is a small college town. It's got that feel to it and That's what drew me to it. And believe it or not, I actually knew within 2 weeks of going there, I said, I'm going to be here for 4 years. I just, I loved it so much. And that was it.

Yeah, it is great. I lived at the Catalina Mountains, which I loved. So tell me how real estate is going. So you wrote a book too. How does a realtor write a book?

Yeah. So the book I'm really excited about, I actually co-authored a book, so I can't say I wrote a book from beginning to end, but it was a real cool experience, basically. There was 80, a little, little over 80 co-authors. So every author wrote a chapter, and that's, you know, basically the compilation of the book. And actually have it right here, it's The Success Habits of Superachievers, and it's got a lot of really celebrity or celebrity authorities in there as well. So if you're familiar with personal development, Les Brown is in the book, Brian Tracy's in the book, Darren Hardy, There's even some rock stars in the book, Phil Collins from Def Leppard. So it's just a really cool experience to actually write a chapter, be in a book with some of these amazing people that I've looked up to. And yeah, it's just a real cool experience kind of getting my story out there.

Have they had a Zoom meeting with all the different authors?

Yep, we have a follow-up Zoom meetings and everything kind of going over different stories and strategies. And yeah, there's a lot of follow-up to it and a lot of systems behind it. So it was actually the person who published it was Kyle Wilson, and he was— if you don't know him, you probably should— he's the 18-year business partner of Jim Rohn, who was, you know, an awesome speaker and just personal development in that space. So the systems around the book were just top-notch, and it was just such a great fun experience and It's cool to say I'm an author, honestly.

I love it. Okay, so you have to tell, tell us, tell us what your chapter was about, your paragraph, chapter, whatever it was.

Sure. So yeah, my chapter was just basically my story of, you know, getting into real estate, why I got into real estate. I even talked a little bit about, you know, my personal life. And what it really centered around was habits and just getting into personal development about a year, year and a half ago, I stumbled upon habits and I haven't let it go. And habits have truly changed my business life. Since January, I'm down about 30 pounds. So, just, yeah, habits are a huge part of my life right now with checklists and spreadsheets. And so, that was mainly what my chapter kind of centered around, aside from, like I said, real estate and some personal stuff in there. Yeah, that was what I really focused on just because I had this biggest impact in the past year or so.

So what are the— what are your habits? What are the ones that you like daily?

So my daily habits, the best one that I really like is actually came from a book, The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. And he's another person in the personal development space. But basically it just, you know, it puts that idea in your head of if you wake up early you can basically get a lot of things done before your workday starts. So, for me, I wake up at 6:30 in the morning. I get my workout in. I read. I write. I do some breathing. I do some meditation, basically all before my emails come in, my phone calls come in, so I can really just focus on myself. And then once 9:00, 9:30 hits, that's when my business day starts and I'm off to the races and just kind of have a lot accomplished at that point.

Wow, yeah, that makes sense. That really does. I, I, I love the habit of you have to wake up and make your bed, and I, I feel like I can't understand why someone wouldn't do that.

Yeah, that's—

yeah, no, I get it. That's a real good habit to start your day, right?

Oh yeah.

And also I cannot stand— I'm looking right now— I cannot stand having dishes in my sink. Like, I have— I have to clean every dish every minute so that when I go to bed, my sink is clean, and when I wake up, my sink is clean. Anywhere in between, I get— and I'm not even like OCD or anything, it's just like a habit. I like to— I like to not have dishes in the sink.

Yeah, no, that's good. I mean, that's, that's what I like about habits. Everybody has their own kind of spin to it or a different style or, you know, just different habits in general. Um, but, you know, one thing I really like is tracking the habits and make sure you're getting the results that you're looking for, because if you keep trying to do the same thing over and over and expecting different results, we all know what happens there.

So very, very true. I love that. All right, so then your next— okay, so, so I love your chapter. I'm actually going to get this book. But then tell me about your favorite one Your favorite other chapter, uh, what, what is that one?

So my favorite other chapter is, I'm actually another real estate investor. His name is Carlos. Um, he's in the first or second, uh, chapter of the book, and it just made me realize— I, I won't go into his story 100%, but, um, you know, he was talking about his childhood. He grew up in Compton, which was not a great area back then. He had a gun pointed to his head. So this made me really appreciate, I guess, my childhood, or I've never had to face that kind of adversity ever in my life. I can't imagine as a child. So these are the kind of stories that are in this book, but that's the one that stuck with me the most on a, like, a human level or a personal level, just because I can't even imagine having that happen to you as a child and He's a successful real estate investor and he just turned it around. And it's just the book is filled with those kind of stories of adversity where you're faced with, you know, insurmountable challenges and then all of a sudden you're running a business, you're a CEO, or you just turn that into a success. So that was my favorite other story, you know, aside from my own, which honestly, I like a lot of the other stories better than my own because I'm learning about these other people and I already know my own story.

So I'll tell you, everyone does have a story. I remember when I moved to Celebration, I, I left Connecticut where I was born, I moved to the town that Disney built, and all of a sudden I was like driven to like every single person I met had a story. Because a lot of times when you live in your own hometown, you know, you kind of forget that people have a story because you're seeing them all the time, and maybe someone new comes in. But it really hit me. So I really do believe, and Everyone has a story, and I, I just, I think that what the book itself is really great. So tell me, thank you for sharing, because I actually do want to get the book. So I will, um, I'll put it on the notes so that if someone else wants to read the book too, they can, they can grab it. Is it on Amazon?

It is, yeah, it is actually. It's on Amazon and it hit number 1 in over 30 categories, so should be pretty easy to find on Amazon.

Oh, that's awesome. I love that. So tell me about Arizona. So as far as like home sales right now, like I will tell you right now, Daytona Beach and Ormond Beach and the whole like— I live in a county called Volusia County, but our— if you go to Orlando and you go like directly east from Orlando, it's kind of where you would run into is Daytona Beach. It is booming. It's very hard right now to, um, homes are selling very quickly and people are flipping their homes. So even if they're in a a home that they love, they're putting it for sale to see if they could get, you know, another home for the price because the prices are selling high, right? But then you're buying high, which kind of confused me. So what's happening in the Arizona market?

Yeah, Phoenix, the Phoenix market is exactly like you described. It's a super seller's market. Um, even before COVID it was, I would say, a strong seller's market, and COVID just amplified that like crazy. So You know, on the realtor side of things, I'm helping, you know, I have some listings which are sellers, which is pretty easy. Like you said, they're selling pretty quickly as long as it's priced right. On the buy side, you know, I'm helping a couple of buyers at this point, and it's tough. It's a lot of competition. I mean, the other day I went up against 10 other offers, and I'm not even exaggerating. That's what the agent told me. So it's, it's tough. You have to really get, get get creative and kind of tell your client's story and a little bit backstory on why they want the house. And so, yeah, it's just, you know, supply and demand and everything's in demand and there's not enough supply here in Phoenix. So similar to your, your market out there.

Are people moving to Phoenix for work? Not to be rude, but it's really hot in the summer, like 110, 115. What, what would make someone, unless it was for work or for a partner's work, or for a summer home or like a winter home. What makes someone want to move into the desert?

So we are actually getting a lot of people moving from California at this point, and it's, uh, just based on purely on price. Um, you know, you can sell your million-dollar home, which is a starter home, and, you know, let's say the San Francisco area, and you can come out here and for half of that you can probably live 2 or 3 times as well, you know, as far as the, the house, the neighborhood, the amenities, that kind of thing. So Yeah, the summers are hot. We're not going to deny that. I think we're, we're setting records every year for, you know, it's 115 for how many days in a row, or, but the rest of the year is, you know, it's beautiful. We have a lot of jobs here, just a lot of activity, you know, sports and a lot of arts. And so we're well diverse here in Phoenix and it's still pretty affordable. So yeah, lots, lots of people from California, a lot of snowbirds from the Midwest are making their way out here now because of the weather and Yeah, a lot of positives out here in Phoenix. And yeah, just, you know, in the summertime, it is what it is, you know.

The food is absolutely delicious. And I have to say, what strikes me as kind of interesting for me is that we're called the Sunshine State, Florida, and that's so odd. I think we need to switch it with Arizona because that's sunshine. The sun doesn't stop ever. I mean, anyways, what's it like?

Yeah, it's relentless out here in the summer.

So yeah, in the winter.

Yeah, it is. I think it's 350 days of sunshine is one of the slogans or taglines that I read years and years ago, but it's true. There's not a lot of clouds out here, a lot of sunshine, which is good for outdoor activities and Yeah, it's just a great lifestyle out here.

It's beautiful. I would, I would go swimming in the pool in 110-degree weather and come out and actually be chilled. And it was the weirdest thing because the air is dry. And also, I don't know if people talk about this a lot, but you don't really get a lot of sunburn. Like here, if you lay out in the beach, even on a cloudy day, you will walk away with a sunburn. But yeah, it was kind of rare that I would actually have a sunburn even though the sun was shining. It's— I, I don't know if that was me or something because I burn quickly, but it just seemed like it's not as strong but it's as bright. Am I— is it me? Am I crazy?

Um, I think it honestly depends on— because I've gotten some sunburns out here, but, um, you know, I was in the middle of the summer going golfing at 12 o'clock, which was, you know, not the best move in the world. So, um, the sunburns definitely happen out here. You just have to be prepared like anywhere.

So there Very nice. Well, it's so nice talking to you. It's nice to get to know someone from an area that I love. And so someone is thinking of— and I, and I'm really kind of teasing you about the, uh, the heat, because just like the winter in New England— and Salt Lake City is beautiful, but it's freezing in the winter— there, where we get rainy and we have hurricanes, I don't know of the most perfect place to live that doesn't have— oh, Croatia! I can hear my friend Anna Anderson saying Croatia. But other than that, seriously, it really is a beautiful place. The food, the restaurants. I noticed that, that area, Phoenix and Tucson, you have— you're like on top of things before we get them. Like the first time I ever saw pizza where they make the pizza like, like a minute and a half, like a pizza was it, right?

Yeah.

And then it kind of came to the— so things really— and Phoenix is the heart of a lot of like good new stuff, right? The coolest cars.

Yeah, for sure. There's a lot of, uh, yep, yeah, there's definitely a lot of good restaurants and good spots to hang out and parks and everything. So yeah, that's what I'm saying. Phoenix is very, very diverse. It kind of can appeal to a lot of different, uh, people in their lifestyles.

So, okay, so I'll put your information. So what company do you work for? What is your real estate company?

So my brokerage is Sterling Fine Properties. It's a small to medium-sized brokerage, and then I do investing, real estate investing as well, which is kind of mentioned in the book. And I have a website and the whole kind of systems and setup for that.

So very good. And just so, how are you? How have you been with COVID What happened in March when COVID hit?

So when COVID hit in March, I was freaking out because I wasn't sure if I had a business anymore as a realtor. I quickly realized about a month into it, maybe 3 weeks into it, that it was pretty much business as usual. So yeah, I was a little, a little anxious about what was going to happen. You know, obviously a pandemic is the unknown on many different levels, especially a business level where it's face-to-face showing people houses, that kind of thing. So, but everything kind of just leveled out and increased a little bit over the summer. So Um, yeah, pretty much status quo at this point. And, um, and I can't really complain as far as, uh, activity on the realtor side anyway.

Yeah, but that really makes sense when you think about it. I will tell you, we live in like a luxury apartment, so we have the clubhouse and the beautiful pool and the gym, and, you know, the grounds are gorgeous. All of that is lovely, but it all closed down when COVID hit. And we could go to the pool now though, you know, it gets really hot here. We're Northern Florida. But what I'm trying to say is that really a lot of people realize that their domain is going to be what they were going to live with, with their family. And so isn't that the part of it, is that people being home realize that they now look at their, their home and wherever they're living and saying, I need this to be comfortable and big enough and my own pool, and I don't want to have to worry about complex or anything like that.

Yeah, I think that was one of the big realizations, uh, that pretty much everybody had during COVID was if you're going to be locked in your home or your apartment or wherever you're living, you want it to be, you know, nice and, um, you know, livable. And, you know, there— I know there's a lot of people that are doing a lot of DIY projects in their backyard to, you know, build sheds, or they're looking for, you know, another house to upgrade with maybe, um, you know, maybe it's a 4-bedroom home, so the husband and wife can each have a home office because people are Zooming these days and working from home. So it definitely shifted people's mindsets on their home and how their, you know, the home functions day to day now with COVID and working from home.

Yeah, yeah, you have to have the happy medium too. Too big of a home means you've got to do a lot more cleaning. So I think that people really have to look to, to what makes them comfortable. So it's nice to see I think it's gonna last, and I think that, you know, we see how— I, I think that it's a good change. I think a lot of the changes that have been taking place, um, will be positive at the end, hopefully. That never— the loss of lives. Have you— did you have a lot of friends? Are you currently— have people that you know that have COVID?

Um, I've had a handful of people, um, that I, you know, play poker with online, that kind of thing, that you know, have told me they have got COVID and their families, but nothing really in my inner, inner circle. So thankfully not, but, you know, I hear the stories all the time. So, you know, we're definitely taking it seriously and it is sad to see the lives lost, but like you said, there is some, some positives, a lot of positives coming out of it, and whether that's, you know, self-reflection or creating better habits. So there is a lot of positives coming out of it, which I think a lot of people are striving for and realizing at this point.

Yeah, I sell logo merchandise, so I do promotional products. So I have a line of antimicrobial pens and branded masks and shields and the COVID guards and stickers for the floor, all of that. Our industry kind of really stepped up the game to make sure that promotional products will be a source for the needs of PPE and those kind of products.

Yeah, no, that's great. Good for you. That's amazing.

Yeah. So I think a lot of industries have picked up. Well, thank you so much. I've got to— I am— I love SCORE. I don't know if you're familiar with SCORE. I was the vice president of marketing for Southern Arizona SCORE and loved it. So that is— we do resources. So I have a call at 3 o'clock to help someone with whatever their needs are in their business.