Evan Carmichael credits his real-estate agent Mark Oulahan's loyalty-building approach: Mark fixed a leaking fridge at Evan's rental condo without extra charge, going beyond his commission. Carmichael argues that genuine gratitude and service without incentive create lasting referrals and trust.
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Welcome to another Thankful Thursday. I believe it's important to thank the people who've had an impact on your life, on your business. You can't do this alone. There are people out there helping you, and I believe that you got to take the opportunity to say thank you. Today I want to thank Mark Oulahan. Mark is my real estate agent. He helped me sell my office, he helped me move into my condo here. Now, how did I find Mark? I honestly went to Mark because his office was right next to mine, so it wasn't a referral. I didn't know a real estate agent that I liked and trusted, and he was the closest one. So I said, okay, let's give him a shot and see what happens. And when I was moving into my condo— this is a rental, so I don't actually own this place— you know, real estate agents don't make a lot of money off of a rental, right? It's not the business they want to be in. That's not their game. And a lot of agents don't want to work with you because they don't— they say, I don't do apartment rentals, I just do housing purchase and sale. And Mark, you know, didn't give me any attitude at all, was super helpful, super kind, told took me around to all the places, and what really stood out was this. So he helped me get my place, helped me negotiate a deal, that was all great, and stuff that, you know, you'd expect an agent to do. I expect that a decent agent to do. Fine. What made the difference though is on my first week here, my fridge started leaking water. There's water all over the floor, it's coming out of the fridge, I don't know what's wrong, I'm not a handy person, and so I call up Mark and say, "Mark, Dude, like, I love the condo, but this isn't great. How do I fix my fridge? Should I contact the landlord? Should I contact the building manager? And he said, you know what, this is something that the landlord really should take care of, but for these little kinds of things, you don't want to be bugging the landlord all the time. You should try to take care of it yourself. You get it done a lot faster. And I said, well, that's great, Mark, but man, I have zero technical skills, okay? Handyman level is below zero. I could change a light bulb, but that's about it, you know? Ask me to do a video, you to help entrepreneurs, I'm all in, but fixing stuff around the place, no, I can't do it. And so he said, you know what, are you home tomorrow night? And I said I was. I'm gonna come over and check it out for you and see if we can help solve the problem. And so he did. He came over and he looked at the problem, he looked at my fridge, and he found that it was the freezer. The freezer was collecting water, there was this layer of ice underneath, and every so often I had to just take kind of a screwdriver and jab at it and then take out the ice and put it in the sink and the problem would be solved. And it worked. And I've kind of been doing that maybe once a month, fixing the freezer so that no new ice comes in. And what just blew me away was Mark's willingness to come out and help and be a resource, you know, wasn't getting paid for it, made almost no commission off of this rental place for the, you know, one-month commission that they get. But he cared and he took the time to come out and went way above and beyond. And so that's why I'm making this video about Mark. And that's why when I'm ready to go get a new place or get a new office, whatever it is, Mark's gonna be the first guy I call. So when somebody asks me for a referral, I'm gonna pass them on to Mark. And so that's how you stand out, you know, actually caring about your customers and going above and beyond. So Mark, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. I love not having a wet floor anymore. So thank you for your helpfulness. And for those of you watching, Take some time today to thank somebody who's helped you in your life or in your business. We don't do it enough. You know, we don't reach out and just say thank you. It could be a video, it could be an email, it could be a handwritten note. Doesn't have to cost you anything. Just reach out and say thank you. You'll feel better, they'll feel better, everybody wins. Believe. For those of you watching, you like the video, you can subscribe to the channel, watch more videos just like this. Thank you so much. I'll see you soon.
