Bob's Investor's Toolkit: Focus, Delegation, and Market Insights

You're listening to Crazy Shit in Real Estate. You'll be amazed at all these wild but true situations that others have found themselves in. Because on this show, you'll hear uncensored, unbelievable stories from the world of real estate. I'm Leigh Brown. Let's dive right in. I'm Leigh Brown. This is Crazy Shit in Real Estate. And today, as usual, you get a random conversation with some pretty good tips in it from Bob LeChance. If you recognize that number, it's because you're an NHL fan. He is a former hockey player turned real estate pro in a million directions. So I hope you'll enjoy the conversation and I'll see you on the other side. This is the story of my life today. I'm 10 minutes behind on everything today. It's just my day. Sorry. My bad.

No worries. No worries.

Like the doctor's office, you know, except that I actually can control my schedule and they're controlled by big pharma and big dollars. So they have, uh, that is true. Less excuses than I do. Let's be honest.

That is true. That is true.

So anyway, so tell— introduce yourself to my audience. They are mostly realtors and mortgage lenders, but I also have some normal people who just like that this is a real-life real estate show.

Realtors and mortgage lenders. All right. That sounds good. I mean, I do a bunch of stuff. Just— I have a virtual assistant company, I have a real estate investment company. I also have my license. So I've been doing this for 20, 20-plus years.

So Well, that's one of the secrets of real estate, that you actually can work in about 14 different directions at any given time. And it's not just what they've seen on Selling Sunset or House Hunters. But where are you located?

I live in West Hartford. I'm from Connecticut, born in Massachusetts. I've been doing real estate, like I said, for about 21 years. I first started playing ice hockey for 8 years and then retired from that sport and jumped into real estate.

Wait a minute, so grin for me. How many teeth you got?

This one's fake, as you can see. The color's a little different. Color's a little different.

So that means you did play real hockey then, because you can't play real hockey and not lose at least one.

You had a couple scars on your face. I got one right between the eyes, right down there, all the way down the bridge of the nose.

So were you playing for the NHL or were you minor league? Where'd you play?

I got drafted by St. Louis Blues. I played in their organization for 2 years, played 1 exhibition game. I played 4 years here in the minors and then 4 years in Europe.

Well, that is so fun. Did you enjoy that time of your life?

It was the best time ever, you know, going to the locker room and hanging out with your buddies and, you know, going out, working out, playing, uh, playing in the bars for a little while. So it was a, it was a good time.

So do you still play in like an old man rec league now? Do they still have—

I don't, 4 knee surgeries later, I had to, you know, hang up the skates.

Yeah, that might be enough to let you just enjoy other people playing. Do you still go? Do you clap and cheer?

Oh, I do. I do. I have 3 kids that all play hockey. One's going to college next year. The other one is going to be the year after and the other one's in high school.

So, okay. So did you read the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell?

I did. I did.

Every time I meet a hockey person, they've all read it because for those of y'all that are watching and listening, if you haven't read it, go read it. There's a whole story about how the NHL players line up based on youth hockey and ages, and it's fascinating and has to do with the amount of time you spend in the game. So how did you—

I'm a February birthday, so, so you're right in that game. Cut off is January. Yep.

All right. So you get out of hockey and obviously still hanging out with your friends. How do you land in real estate? Is it because you were not hireable by a normal 9-to-5 crowd?

Pretty much. Well, I went to school for 4 years. I went to Boston University, uh, for 4 years and I was 2 classes short to get my degree cuz I got offered an NHL contract. So I had to sign a bonus they gave me and I said, you know what, I'm going to test it, see if I'm going to make the NHL, and I could always go back to school, right? It's only 2 classes short. Fast forward, you know, every year I didn't go, I didn't go, I didn't go, I didn't go. So 8 years later, I either had to, you know, I was at a point of decision like a lot of people. Do you go back to school or do you just jump into an industry that doesn't have any barriers of entry? So decided to, you know, jump into real estate because there's no barriers of entry. And, you know, I bet on myself and I don't like having any, any safety net, if you will. So I just jumped in real estate and, you know, here I am 20-something years later.

Okay. Did you ever go back and finish those two classes? Are you the almost bachelor's degree?

I still have the almost bachelor's degree. Did not go back. Now I don't need it. I mean, you know, I look back, the only reason why I should ever do it is just for my kids, for an example. But other than that, yeah, you learn a lot more in the, in the real world than you do in school.

I've said that a lot of times. I bartended and waited tables to pay for college at Carolina, but I learned more in the restaurant than I did on campus. That has suited me in working with the general public. So it's— I hear what you're saying, but maybe you'll be that dad who walks across the stage with his precious pumpkin and you'll be the old graduate and they'll be the young one. It'll be so heartwarming.

Back to School, right? And then the movie Back to School, Rodney Dangerfield.

Oh, Rodney Dangerfield. That was a good one.

That was a very good one.

They could never make that now, by the way. That would be so politically incorrect.

The good old movies. The good old movies.

Yeah. All the good stuff. All the good Movies that Mel made, you can't make now.

I know.

All right. So obviously this is the crazy side of real estate, the things that are real life that happen that nobody expects. And you reached out to be on the show. So tell my audience a little bit about the space in real estate in which you find yourself now and how you landed there.

Yeah, it's kind of funny because I think we talked a little bit about this. Where you start in real estate is never where you end. So, you know, my first deal started back in 2004 was a flip, and I thought I was a flipper. And then I got my real estate license just to get access to the MLS, not to buy and sell houses, to be very transparent. But I did get it to make extra income because I refer all properties over. I do some marketing, I refer it out. But anyway, just to take a step back, my first deal was a rehab property and did pretty well on it, made about $32,000 on it. And at that point, The biggest problem was I had no systems, no processes, nothing. You know, I just came from the locker room and, you know, you don't learn anything in the locker room besides, you know, having fun. You're not talking about business, you're not talking about real estate, not talking about how to get buyers, how to get sellers, how to get clients. You're not talking about any of that. But what I did when I jumped in the real world is I door knocked. So after that first deal, I door knocked from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday or Monday to Friday, every single day for a year, you know, and knock on pre-foreclosure houses. Now, the beauty of technology is you don't have to do that anymore. But do I recommend doing it to learn it? Yes. It's not easy. Full transparency. So anyone who's ever done that, you understand that it's a good way to cut your teeth and learn the business. It does teach you how to communicate and how to, you know, talk to individuals, especially in the pre-foreclosure world. And I know that is coming back again. Short sale world's coming back again. I'm here in Connecticut and we're seeing a lot more foreclosures or pre-foreclosures, if you will.

Right.

Come up notices, defaults, where whatever state you're in, lis pendens in my state. But, you know, you notice now there's more and more and more because that's what's coming into our office. And I'll get to what I'm doing now today. But this was back, back then. And then I started negotiating short sales. I partnered up with a guy who was my mentor back in the day, and this is back in 2004. So we're going back and then negotiated probably, I don't know, 1,500, 2,000 short sale transactions. I got a door knocker underneath me, started building my business that way. We know what happens obviously 2007, 2008, 2009, but in 2007 helped start a real estate education program on the investment side. So that ended up, you know, doing very, very well. We went from zero to literally selling over $250,000 or $250 million a year. This is in the future, this, you know, we were in business for a long time, company by the name of Fortune Builders. And then through those years, I did everything from, you know, using my real estate license to doing knockdown rebuilds to losing a lot of money from not knowing what I was doing to coaching space. And then 2014, I actually, or 2013, I was introduced to what a virtual assistant was. Well, I'm doing real estate and it was very, very prevalent, very, very commonplace in the real estate agent space, but not in the investor space. So the platform I helped and the coaching program I helped create was in the investor space, and we would take agents on, actually teach them how to fix and flip properties, how to do different stuff. And it was really, really cool because a lot of agents now, especially nowadays, are seeing the opportunities by having your license and the investment opportunities, whether it's buy and hold, whether it's, you know, rehabs, whatever, however you want to look at it, it's a very, very important space, I think, to do both nowadays. And again, this is just my opinion through 20-plus years that I've gone through. But anyway, 2014, I actually— the light bulb went on. I said, you know what, the virtual assistant space can be put into the education space and real estate investors could use this service. So I put them both together and I launched my first virtual assistant company back in 2014 because I would coach somebody one week, and I know you do some coaching as well. One of the most frustrating things when you coach and mentor is when you give someone an action plan and they don't actually do anything the week.

Any, not even just half, none, nothing.

And it, that was the most frustrating. So I was like, there's gotta be a product or a service. This started 2007 to 2014 until it actually hit me. And I'm like, this is exactly what we need to give to all the students because you need some sort of service that will actually do it for them, is my point. So I created the service of, you know, think about this. Now you're cold calling, now you're sending messages, now you're doing, you know, lead generation for the agent world. It's huge for prospecting, you know, lead nurture, follow-up, right? Because You know, everyone's busy in the real estate agent world. Same thing in the investor world, because you're, you know, if you're going on a listing, who's doing your marketing anymore? Who's answering the phone? Who's talking to potential sellers? Who's talking to potential buyers? So that's when the light bulb came on. And then, you know, since launched a couple of different companies within that time. But fast forward now, I'm doing my virtual assistant staffing company. We have over 500 VAs and also I have a real estate investment company with my real estate agents. License as well. And we did over 209 transactions last year on the investment side. So I'm doing all of that and lending money, etc.

So with your virtual assistant company, are your assistants overseas or are they domestic or do you have both?

All my virtual assistants are in the Philippines. I'm actually flying out next Tuesday for a team event. We're flying in about 60 individuals on my team for, for just a, you know, a little get-together, a little event. But they're all in the Philippines.

Very good. All right. So you, you're actually doing the Wayne Gretzky, right? Where we all know he's, well, Michael Scott said, if you're an Office fan, Michael Scott quoted Wayne Gretzky when he said, you gotta skate where the puck is going.

Yep.

You were doing short sales before the Great Recession. So you were prepared for helping a really large population because you were educated and prepared for it. So for any agent who's listening right now who thinks Leigh Thomas Brown, you and Bob are crazy, there's no foreclosures. Let me just tell you, when the economy goes into a very tumultuous time, which is what's happening right now, as people lose jobs, they will spend their home equity line money. They will find themselves in a financial pinch. So there is a house question mark in front of us. Now it may be big, it may be small, but regardless, if you're the person who's prepared to take advantage of the changing market, not taking advantage of the people, but to be prepared for the changing market, now's the time to do it. But back to your point about how I can offer all the advice on the planet, you can offer all the advice on the planet. Humans have a nature to not take advantage of the opportunity in front of them. Because we procrastinate. We think it's never gonna happen. We get lazy, we get distracted, we get unfocused. And the beauty of your company is that you're filling that gap on action items. How do you teach the virtual assistant to sound like the investor or the realtor that they're representing? How do you teach them a little voice so that it sounds authentic? And I say this as a Southerner, I have a very hard time hiring assistance because they're not even remotely close to, not that they're gonna have an accent.

Yeah.

But that they don't understand that North Carolina is a different market than Connecticut. How do you help it become more authentic and less, less AI, less bot feeling?

Yeah. So we do training. We, we have a whole training team. I, I have a recruiting and staffing, um, or recruiting and sourcing team over there. And then once they go through all the application process, cuz we weed out 95% of individuals that come, you know, come to our company. Okay. Because what I found is, and the reason why I started, one of the other reasons why I started this company, because of the pain of hiring your own person. Hiring is rough.

Yes.

I don't like it. I don't know if you like it, but I hate it.

I hire the person all the time because I'm reactive.

Yep.

I'm like, you seem fine, let me take you. Then I'm like, oh, this was a terrible idea.

Yeah. And I made that mistake so many times. So we created that whole, you know, system process for individuals as well. And then as soon as they pass through our, application process upfront. Then they go to our training team and they train for about a month and then people can interview them. So it goes through the process already. The main reason why we do that is we weed out a lot of individuals that you will not want to hire. So I wish someone could do that here in my, you know, here in Connecticut. So which is, which is pretty interesting. But once you go through the process, then you go to our operations team who manages the relationship between the VA and you. And to answer your question, I always call it the 80/20 rule, right? They can do 80% of everything except 20% makes you live like the best of what you do in your market, which 20% is different in my office. So I like to say everybody does 20% of things different, which that's the 20% you just have to tweak them a little bit. And that's just like if you hire anyone off the street in your office that has experience in real estate, you still have to let them because your culture is part of that 20% as well. As well.

Well, there you go, friends. There, that should take your hiccups out of hiring truly anybody, whether they're on-site or offshore, is that we expect perfection. We're not supposed to expect perfection. We can get a lot of stuff taken off our plates. So if you're in real estate and you're listening to this podcast or watching it and thinking, man, I need some more Leigh Thomas Brown answers in my life. Well, guess what, friends? I have a new program that is launching right now called Answers.RealEstate.com. Where I will give you every bit of insight I have to help you grow your real estate business, help you better respond to consumers to provide a more excellent real estate experience so that the next time you land on crazy shit in real estate, you'll have a better solution to whatever you ran into. Answers.RealEstate. There are monthly plans available. You will love it. Get your coaching. Sign up with me today. Now, let's go back to the fact that you've changed gears multiple times, you've worked as an investor, you've trained agents, you're working with virtual assistants, you've door knocked and done all the different angles. What do you think is the biggest mistake being made by real estate professionals right now in 2025?

I think it's the same as every, every time. It's— and I went through this as well— it's shiny object syndrome, right? It's not focusing. If you're an agent, I would look at— and you're interested in something else, let's just say you're interested in rehabbing. Then just focus on doing your agent business and also looking for rehabs. Understand how to do a scope of work as an example. Understand, you know, there's a lot of AI stuff out there that'll literally just look at a property on the outside and give you a rating.

It's just— wait, what? There's AI that will do that?

Yep. Yeah.

Which program? What program is that?

I have to get it for you because I was just on a call last week, which the guy showed me. I think it's like a— send me an email after and I'll get it for you.

Okay. Because I'm allergic to AI, but I'm always kind of interested in the ones that sound different.

So of course, I just talked to the owner, literally. So what it does, which is I think it's pretty cool, it ties into Google Earth and it takes a picture of all, like all the properties and it attaches AI to it to say, all right, if it doesn't need a roof, does it need, you know, siding? Does it need windows? And it gets that honed in. How's the foundation? Just through a picture. So it's pretty cool. I've never used it, but I will give you the, I'll give you the owner's name as well if you want them.

Okay. So if you're interested in this, write in the comments, write program, and then we will follow up with you and send you the link after we get it from Bob. And as usual, all of Bob's stuff will be in the show notes for this episode, but go write your one-word comment is program. We'll make sure we get that for you. All right. So back to, I totally interrupted you because that was, my mind just exploded real quickly. Sorry.

All right. What were we talking about again? We go off the rails.

The biggest mistake real estate agents make. And you said it has to do with They don't understand scope of work. And then—

yep. And then so look, looking at exactly what you want to do, just focus on that one other thing, right? Because if you're really, really good at what you do, right, and you're listing properties, but you want to add in another— I like to call it line of business, but another tool in your tool belt, which would be, let's say, rehabbing. Don't try to do 7 tools in your tool belt at the same time. Right? Because if you're also interested in passive income, then you're trying to think, well, I want to buy and hold. I want to, you know, want to jump in a commercial. I want to do all this stuff. Just start with one thing and get good at it. And then you have the opportunity at that point to look at something else. But I find that to be a very, very challenging thing for all of us because, you know, you got Instagram, you got TikTok, you got, you know, Facebook, you have all this stuff that people are posting that You and I both know half of the stuff is not real, right? You know, and that's the challenge that we all run into, especially the younger generation. Older we get, you know, the calmer we are. Unfortunately, you know, that's me personally speaking. I just turned 51.

So I see things that we have to slow down to find our readers, Bob. That's the problem. Like, I can't make it. I actually need to find my readers.

I need some. I need some. I'm still fighting it, but I have not jumped into that.

I'll buy the 6-pack on Amazon. You're going to need a pair everywhere you go and you'll lose them.

All right.

So agents are making the mistake and failure to understand how to focus, which I think is very fair. And I'm completely guilty of that myself as a flipper investor rehabber, somebody interested in bringing houses back. It's kind of the way I like to look at it. I love these houses that can be saved from their condition. What's the biggest mistake you see investors making in a market like this? Because it's a different investor market than we've seen before.

Yeah, you have to buy right, I think, because some markets are— I mean, I even see my area up here in Connecticut. We do some work in Florida. Florida markets, there's a lot more properties on the market. We have investors all over the country using my virtual assistants. And, you know, you look at places like Texas, Dallas, there's a lot more inventory that's hitting the market. So we as investors, as agents, have to look at days on market. Have to look at inventory. So as we know, we're obviously— everyone listening to this is probably very aware of their own market. But as inventory ticks up, right, and if you start to get into rehabs, you just have to look at those numbers, right? And we know that from back in the downturn, properties that are— that need work are sitting longer. So a lot of times, as soon as the markets shift, is what I've noticed through obviously the years that I've been in business, as soon as they shift, that means a better product has to come on the market. And those are the ones that sell rather than, you know, everyone bidding up properties that need a lot of work because they're like, all right, there's no properties on the market, I'll actually do the work. So that starts changing over time.

Okay. So I have to detour there because you mentioned days on market and it is a very important tool. If you are a consumer, this is the, the clock that's ticking in the Multiple Listing Service for how long a property has been available. Until it goes under contract. Some of our multiple listing services include the days under contract as part of the clock, but it depends on the MLS. There is a movement afoot right now by one of the biggest brands in real estate to keep properties from the MLS under the exact excuse of if the days on market accumulate, the public will then know that something's up with this house. And just for the record, the only reason days on market really get long is that it is not the correct price based on the condition it's in. It's always a price and condition thing. It's being positioned by this one real estate company right now as, well, if the seller wants to try a high price, they shouldn't be punished by days on market, which is a red herring argument.

They should be punished. They should be punished. They're not going to listen to the individual that's a professional on it.

We need to know, like, I need to know going into that property if it's been on the market for 120 days, I know I've got to have my investigator's hat on as to what's going on there. And it might be price, it might be market, it might be condition, but I got to figure out what it is. So how do you feel about that as somebody who relies on that indicator that there is a move afoot to stop showing days on market?

I call that company a victim mentality company. If you look at that, I mean, that's— it's absolutely ridiculous.

It's—

I mean, you know where I stand on that. Everything should be public record.

Transparent.

Transparent. That's it. You be transparent on it. If I'm a seller and I want to go, you know, $1 million over, there's a lot of properties listed in— let's, let's use an example. Cape Cod, right? Cape Cod. Yeah. I mean, you have all— let's— North Carolina, right? I mean, you have properties in Charlotte, all these places where people try to go $200,000, $300,000, $400,000, $500,000 over what the real value is.

Well, you know, it just takes one buyer and they're not in a rush to sell and they're not going to give it away. Is that all three of the excuses? That's always the only house like theirs. That's the fourth one.

Oh, no. The neighbor just sold even though it's 7,000 square foot bigger.

And it was 3 years ago during the height of the COVID market. Don't forget that part.

Yeah, yeah. Correct, correct, correct. So 100%, I 100% disagree with that company. It's basically just trying to control keep buyers in-house, not disclose, et cetera. So it's, it's, I mean, I can't fault them for it, but I think it's ridiculous.

Well, I, I hear what they're saying, but I know there's an ulterior motive. So if you're in the public listening to this, would you please just trust me and Bob? Ask better questions and dig for motive. The more transparent somebody is, the less you actually have to ask, because they will tell you things you didn't want to hear. But if somebody's over here trying to squirrel things away, you should ask yourself why it benefits them to squirrel things away. That's all I'm saying.

Just say why, why, why, why? Be like a 4-year-old, 5-year-old. Just keep asking why. Ask it 5 times, you'll get your answer.

My daughter used to go, "Dad, dad, dad," because she wanted to build her vocabulary. Everything was dad. And then when she started speaking, she spoke in chapters because she had built a vocabulary by asking constantly and Y'all, you can do that too. Okay. So I really haven't gone through any of the questions I was supposed to ask you, which is most of my shows here, but apparently I'm supposed to ask you about the best tasks to delegate when hiring a virtual assistant. Because that one actually is an interesting question because real estate agents are control freaks by nature.

Yep.

In a business that can't be controlled, which is hilarious to me, you cannot control anything. So we try to control it and then we don't hire people that could help us with predictable tasks. So what tasks do you think an agent can successfully allow somebody else to do, which will also provide a better client experience to the person who engaged that realtor? Because I do think there's two different things going on. One helps the agent, one helps the agent by making the consumer happier. I want a happier consumer client. So which tasks will provide that better experience to the other side?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there's a lot of different tasks, but one of them is lead nurture because we get a lot of individuals that come to us that just don't turn into either buyer or seller. So one of the things is always keeping in front of them, always nurture them. Another one is that I think is very important is prospecting. You know, you always need to be prospecting because— and that's the most tiresome part of being any agent because you always have to— you got to get new leads and you got to get new leads. And whether it's another one, social media management is posting things out there every single day to make sure, because people want to know you're relevant. People want to know you're out there. And if you're not out there and I know for me personally, I don't like doing that. I have my VA team. We'll do as an example, we'll do this podcast and my VA team will cut it up and send it out. Right, send out different clips on this. You could have a month, month worth, worth of content on this. And anyone can get on your show, right? If you're a real estate agent, get on other people's show, get on your show, get on other podcasts, or just do walkthroughs of properties and just give it to a virtual assistant. Let them post it. Right. That would be right in front of you. You got to stay relevant.

Can we just point out how that's a direct correlation to your life as a hockey player? Because had you never gone to practice on the days that you didn't feel like it, that you were sore or tired or had other things to do, you never would've made it as far as you did. And real estate's no different. Investing is no different. You don't get to wake up and surprise, have business and have that be a reliable thing unless you're doing the hard work on the days you don't want to do the hard work.

Yep. That's, well, that's exactly right. I mean, it's kinda like with hockey, shooting pucks when no one's looking, right? Working out, running, doing all those things. People, you know, people look at Michael Jordan, think, well, he was just lucky.

No.

Yeah, not at all. Does anyone have any idea of the hard work that they put in? Anyone puts in the top agents out there. What do they do when nobody's looking? Are they researching markets? Are they looking at days on the market? Are they looking for more buyers? Are they looking for more sellers? Are they networking? Are they going to lunches, etc., etc.?

And that's frankly the key to success in any business, whether it's real estate or hockey or whatever it is that you're doing. If anybody wants to reach out to you, Bob, they want to find out about your investor programs, they want to find out about your virtual assistant support services, they want to just find out more about what your offerings are, what is the best place for them to find you?

Absolutely. Check us out at REVA Global, REVAglobal.com. You could also check us out on same thing on, on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook. LinkedIn. You can send me an email direct, bob@revoglobal.com, if you have any questions. And yeah, it's about all the, all the ways you can find me.

And as usual, all of the contact information for Reva and for Bob is in the show notes for this episode. As I previously mentioned, if you want information on that AI that we are going to follow up on, write program in your comments, click the bell to subscribe, and most importantly, come see us again next time. By the way, friends, don't miss my brand new coaching program at Answers realestate where you can have access to Leigh Thomas Brown, submit your questions, have them answered, meet like-minded professionals, have an entire library to help you build your business no matter what happens in the market. Get signed up today. I promise you'll be glad you did. As always, I'm so super thrilled that you joined in for more crazy shit. And if you're a realtor, investor, inspector, lender, or just a regular human being, or somebody who happens to have an unbelievable story that you need to tell the world about, or frankly, you just need to one-up the story you just heard, then make sure to DM me on Instagram @leithomasbrown or tweet me @leebrown, or frankly, any social network where you hang out. I'm there. And if you had some fun, then you totally want to subscribe so you don't miss out on any future episodes.