Speaker 1: 0:30

My name is Jonathan Patrick Hurley I go by John, and how I serve my clients is, you know, essentially I treat every client like their family or like their mom. I've worked with a lot of older clients recently that's why my mom comes to mind and a lot of them could potentially be widowers or widows and, you know, basically say hey look, I'm going to treat you like my mom, and so what that means is I'm going to hold your hand throughout the entire process. It's nerve wracking when you're selling a house. It's probably the largest investment that you'll make in your entire life and, as a result, people are very nervous about the whole process, and if they had a loved one that had recently passed away or passed away in the past, sometimes that would be somebody that they would lean on for answers and for support during that time, and so I have to step into that role and try and play that role for them and try and help guide them through the process and make them feel good, and so far it's worked out quite well.

Speaker 2: 1:25

That's amazing. What's the name of your real estate company?

Speaker 1: 1:28

It's Hurley Homes and Company.

Speaker 2: 1:29

And you're an extra special guest today because we have known each other for so many years, through high school and all the way back to elementary school. That's correct so we're excited, I'm so excited to have you in today and our paths just kind of keep crossing in this Leesburg, loudoun County, fairfax world. I'm like, oh, it's John again and I see you at Hope Flower Farm and in real estate and all sorts of things.

Speaker 1: 1:54

Yeah, it's been interesting, and obviously the Fairfax and Loudoun County connection. Growing up in Fairfax, I've spent my entire life in Fairfax. It's somewhat of a joke, but the reality is my elementary school, my high school and my college I went to George Mason are all within a five-mile radius, and so being so local to Fairfax has given me an edge in terms of literally knowing everybody. There's not a street or road in Fairfax that I haven't been down, and so you know whether you know, as a kid growing up riding my bike everywhere I would drive, you know, ride my bike everywhere and that was so great about Fairfax because everything connected on the bike paths Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 2:35

Absolutely so. That was cool. And then the Loudoun County connection. My wife lived in Leesburg, downtown Leesburg, not too long ago and she was also connected with Hope Flower Farm, which you just mentioned. And then let's see last year. Last July, I launched an Airbnb on that property. Yeah, and it's been wildly successful. We had a great first year Second that property, and it's been wildly successful. We had a great first year. Second year stacking up looks like we'll double our stays and our guests just absolutely love it.

Speaker 2: 3:00

I remember, looking at the pictures, you guys really turned that place around and made it looks like really cozy and comfy. In there it is.

Speaker 1: 3:06

Yeah, If you go and look at it, I mean we're not five stars. We had one review that kind of knocked us off, but they've been all five stars with the exception of one.

Speaker 2: 3:14

So I think we're sitting like a 4.98.

Speaker 1: 3:17

That's awesome.

Speaker 2: 3:18

There's always going to be that one person you can't please, that's right. That's right. Yeah, I'm going to circle back a little bit to your real estate career. Tell me a little bit about your journey into real estate and kind of what got you into real estate.

Speaker 1: 3:31

Yeah, so you know I always had a general interest in real estate. Yeah, so you know I always had a general interest in real estate. I've always been looking at listings from probably my early 20s, maybe even before that. I have an uncle who was in luxury real estate in St Louis selling beautiful mansions on Portland and Westmoreland Place, two really famous streets in the city of St Louis, and just a general interest in looking at stuff. And then in the I guess it was around 2004, 2005, I bought my first townhouse, or I bought my first house at 24 years old. A lot of my friends were not in that kind of realm, they were doing their thing. But personal finance and investments are always important to me and real estate was one of the legs that I knew could help me towards financial freedom and financial success.

Speaker 1: 4:18

And so at a very early age rather than doing some of the vacations that all my friends are doing, which would have been fun. I didn't forego all of them, but some of them I did push aside so that I could focus on this goal of getting my first house.

Speaker 2: 4:30

And was that townhouse in Fairfax?

Speaker 1: 4:31

It's in Centerville. Oh, okay, still own it. Have a tenant. It's been occupied for the past seven or eight years.

Speaker 2: 4:37

What a smart investment.

Speaker 1: 4:38

Absolutely. If you've been in real estate over the past three or four years, you should be sitting on a pile of equity.

Speaker 2: 4:45

Yeah, what challenges are you seeing? I mean, there's so much talk right now about low inventory and interest rates and stuff.

Speaker 1: 4:59

How are you overcoming the challenges that are in the real estate market today? So I think you just have to be pretty frank with a lot of your buyers. You know, on the buy side, inventory is definitely an issue. You have interest rates that are higher than what people remember. Everybody remembers these sub 3% interest rates that were happening during COVID and I think it takes a long time for people to understand that those 3% interest rates are never coming back and if they are, it's because of some other large worldwide pandemic or some other reason, which is how we got those in the first place and I hope we don't go back there Right. So, trying to help clients understand that a normal interest rate is anywhere pretty much between 5% and 7%. That's healthy and that's kind of where we are now. We're at the higher end of that right now, just kind of a little bit below 7%, but those are still great interest rates. If you talk to folks your parents, that generation they are buying houses. 13%, 14%, 15% interest rate.

Speaker 2: 5:47

Right, we forget that, though we do.

Speaker 1: 5:50

And obviously the houses were like $150,000. So that's very different than today's prices on houses. So I don't mean to minimize that, but just talking to them about that and then also understanding that the house that you buy now may not be your forever home. So you might just need to buy something that you can afford today and start building equity in that property. And then, once you have equity in that property, you could either sell it or rent it and then buy another house.

Speaker 1: 6:17

But the game is you just got to get in you just got to get in so that you can start to build equity in something and kind of trade up and that's you know, I think that's what I've been trying to talk to my clients about.

Speaker 2: 6:28

Yeah, so you've always kind of had this passion for real estate then.

Speaker 1: 6:32

Yeah, for real estate. So my first job out of college, I actually worked at a brokerage in DC. It's Washington DC's oldest brokerage. It was founded in 1899. It's called Folger Nolan Fleming Douglas. That's a mouthful.

Speaker 1: 6:44

Sounds like a law firm, but it was an investment advisory firm and I mentioned that because one of the things I was learning there and learned before fortunately my folks give us a pretty good financial upbringing. They talk to us a lot about investing and so coming out of college and going and working at this firm was like oh my gosh, like everything.

Speaker 2: 7:02

Like I've landed, I've arrived.

Speaker 1: 7:04

Yeah, exactly, and I get to work with clients, I get to help them build their investment portfolio, you know, focused on equities, fixed income and cash, and then you income and cash and then naturally looking at real estate, real estate becomes another part of that investment, so it's not just focused on equities and fixed income. Now you have real estate piece and so now I can help clients with that aspect as well.

Speaker 2: 7:30

Yeah, that's amazing. Talk to me a little bit about your 52 lunches. Where did that idea come from and what's the motivation behind?

Speaker 1: 7:39

that Okay Because.

Speaker 2: 7:40

I've been following you on Instagram and I see you highlighting these other businesses. Tell me a little bit about where all that came from.

Speaker 1: 7:46

Yeah. So for those of you who don't know, 52 lunches is a. I guess you could call it. It's not a.

Speaker 2: 7:54

Kind of a networking A goal, a networking goal that I set for myself starting in 2023.

Speaker 1: 8:03

Obviously, during COVID there was a lot of people that kind of pulled back. It wasn't safe to go out. They pulled back. They kind of retreated into their own kind of home office. People weren't getting out as much and I really think that that took a toll on people's mental health.

Speaker 1: 8:16

I really think that we are humans and we need to connect with people face to face. Like there's people that are introverts, obviously, and it doesn't work for a lot of people, but there are some people who may not have been introverts but kind of the pandemic pushed them in a way that probably wasn't natural. So I'm thinking, OK, so how do I, how do I start to get kind of people back, meeting face to face? Like what can we do to bring it out and what can I do to hold myself accountable to tracking and making sure that I'm going to go out and do something? So I figured, 52 weeks in a year I go to lunch or I have lunch pretty much 365 days a year, so I figured, maybe spare one of those days to meet with somebody and go to lunch and just talk to them.

Speaker 1: 9:03

How are they doing personally? How are they doing with their business? Is there anything I can do to help? And the first focus was on small business owners. So I've met with electricians, plumbers, cpas, attorneys with electricians, plumbers, cpas, attorneys let's see photography professionals, I mean you name it. I would meet with them, figure out what they're doing and just highlight what they're doing, what their story is on LinkedIn, on Instagram and on Facebook. One of the other caveats was I would only go to locally owned restaurants. I'm a big, big supporter of locally owned and operated because, quite frankly, and especially for restaurants, during the pandemic, restaurants got hammered.

Speaker 1: 9:47

And I don't know about your family, but we try to go support local restaurants every week. We call it our Friday Friday go out and support the local town, right? So we live very close to Clifton and so we we supported a lot of the restaurants in Clifton during the pandemic and other restaurants outside of Clifton, but our whole goal was to go out and help these folks because they were the ones that were getting crushed. You had your Costco's and your Walmart's and stuff. Those were open there in the entire time. They don't need our support. Local needs our support.

Speaker 2: 10:13

Okay, and there was only so much store dashing that was going to save the situation.

Speaker 1: 10:18

Exactly, exactly. So when I meet with somebody, when I invite them to lunch, I say it's on you. The only caveat is you've got to, you've got to select a locally owned restaurant, and so I kind of let them guide where that is. I've been to some amazing places that I'd never been to. Some of the other ones I've been to many times and love, love them, but, um, so it's introduced me to places I probably wouldn't have gone. Um, I meet people that I necessarily wouldn't, may may not, have met. Um, throughout this, and one of the things I do ask when we're meeting is if there's anybody else that that I should meet, you know, and if they would make an introduction.

Speaker 2: 10:50

So um so kind of one person's leading to the next person.

Speaker 1: 10:53

Yeah, I've had several, several yeah, so kind of one person's leading to the next person. Yeah, I've had several that have introduced me, like five or six people, and it's just been remarkable kind of how it kind of grows and so kind of threefold getting people back, focused on getting out after the pandemic, supporting locally owned restaurants and supporting a local business, because I truly believe that, you know, we've got to build our community up and a rising tide raises all boats, so if we can bring everybody up, that's just kind of how it works out.

Speaker 2: 11:21

Yeah, what's some of the feedback you're getting from these launches?

Speaker 1: 11:35

when I first set out to do it, I was thinking you know, I'm going to go do this. I'm going to do this for a year, I'm going to see what kind of feedback I get and then I'll choose whether, whether to do it or not and I was. You know, the feedback was great during 2023, but, to be honest, it's it's really. It's hard. It's much harder than it seems to dedicate yourself to meeting with somebody on a weekly basis. Then the write-up, because I do spend a lot of time doing a write-up.

Speaker 1: 11:57

It might be more than what people want to read, but the reality is when.

Speaker 2: 12:01

I'm meeting with somebody.

Speaker 1: 12:03

I truly want to capture that person and what they're doing, because they've given me an hour plus of their time and I want to make sure that what I'm putting out is reflective of what they're doing and who they are, and so I take it very personally. A lot of people are like, oh, just throw it in the chat, gpt, let it just do it for you, put in some keywords and I'm like, well, that's not authentic to me and that's not authentic to them, and so I take a lot of time. So I think I can go and do that.

Speaker 2: 12:28

Yeah, and I can tell on my end that it not a chat GPT. You are actually taking the time to get to know these business owners and highlight them in a proper way.

Speaker 1: 12:36

Yeah, I definitely want to connect on something that's more than surface level, because everything like you run into people out in public, it's like, oh, how about the weather?

Speaker 1: 12:43

And I'm like, yeah, it's hot as crap out whatever you know, but like you go and you have lunch with somebody, you break bread, we're sitting here, we're eating, we're chewing, we're we're talking and, before you know it, like you know like five other people in common, right, and so it just kind of grows and grows and grows and um, it's just really cool. And then they take it back to their friends and and and their and their friends and they and they show them. And then I tag people on Facebook and we had I think it was a lunch two weeks ago one of our PE teachers in high school.

Speaker 2: 13:13

Tom Peterson. Mr Peterson, I remember.

Speaker 1: 13:18

So Mr Peterson, he was the elementary PE teacher, the high school PE teacher and high school baseball coach. And when I posted about Tom, the remarkable thing was there were so many people that said that they didn't realize that Tom also owned Peterson's Ice Cream Depot in Clifton, Virginia.

Speaker 2: 13:35

I didn't know that either.

Speaker 1: 13:37

I didn't realize it was the same, peterson. There's just certain things that kind of come out, and when I post it and I share it, people are like, oh my gosh they didn't realize the connections were there and then there's a whole other community that wants to go out and support him.

Speaker 1: 13:52

right, Totally, yeah absolutely, and the other thing that's come from it is a lot of the businesses that I've featured. I've had people reach out to me and say, hey, can I get that carpet cleaners number? Sure, no problem. So I always try to make an introduction. I was offered to make an introduction, but the reality is it's really happening. I've sent countless businesses, customers just based on what I'm doing here. And the other thing is I was doing this long before I was in real estate. I'm just a natural connector.

Speaker 2: 14:20

You are.

Speaker 1: 14:20

Yeah, and so I've had people reach out to me for years that's like, hey, john, do you have this person? Part of that is because I grew up here and they're always like, oh, my friend, john, he's got a guy.

Speaker 2: 14:32

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 14:32

So like one of the things I pushed out as your local guy, so like I'm your guy, like being in this environment for 44 years, I've met so many people, I've made so many connections and they're actually like deep connections, like they're with people like again, not surface level, authentic connections, that when somebody I just hear in passing needs X, y, z, contractor support or whatever, I'm always thinking how do I, how do I make the connection with somebody? And then I follow up, to which a lot of people are like, oh, most people just throw a name out there. But I want to find out was it a good experience, was it great, was it awesome?

Speaker 2: 15:06

Right, I feel like that's always been. A wonderful part of your personality is your authenticity, and it shines through in everything that you do.

Speaker 1: 15:13

Thank you.

Speaker 2: 15:14

As far as back to real estate for a moment and the 52 lunches, what are you doing for marketing and advertising these days to kind of get people in the door, and how is the networking and lunches helping that?

Speaker 1: 15:27

Yeah sure, absolutely. So I've had, I've had a fantastic year so far mid mid year.

Speaker 1: 15:34

At the mid-year point. I'm just about where I'm above or ahead right now, further than I've than I have been at mid-year okay. So that's great up to this time, like my annual production has kind of been where I am at mid-year now. So I think through the lunches I've I've certainly gotten clients from posting on that and then just making just, you know, genuine connections again through the, through the Airbnb that I run over at Oat Flower Farm. I have a wonderful client that came out of that. She was staying there and I I went and met her and um turns out they're they're buying properties in Loudoun County and they're putting them up for some mental health facilities for our adolescents in the community. So like that was one client.

Speaker 1: 16:21

I've had the pleasure of working with several people that I worked with previously in my previous world working in telecom. I've gotten to support a lot of those clients this year and last year, which is really awesome. So in terms of marketing, I mean I'm not everything that I've had is out of my SOI, my sphere of influence, so it's all people that I've known for years or made connections or referrals. I have a lovely neighbor named Janice Groff who has sent me wonderful referrals this year and she knows that because her son, robert, runs Groff Landscape Design, which is another guy that I had lunch with, and I made the connection with Janice, she's a neighbor. And then she was like you need to meet my son, rob, and so we met Rob and went to lunch with Rob and before I knew it, rob and I knew 45 people in common.

Speaker 1: 17:07

That was the same, so yeah. So as far as spending dollars, I'm not spending money on advertising. My money is being spent at lunch getting to know people and that to me is the most valuable dollar that I could spend. Having this face-to-face.

Speaker 2: 17:24

That's right, absolutely. Do you have a favorite buying or selling story, something that really kind of hit home with you, that you're like this is this is what I'm meant to do. This is what I'm going to continue doing.

Speaker 1: 17:36

So one one in particular. There was a couple last year who they have three children and they had been living in an apartment and they reached out and they wanted to buy a house. And so great, up to the challenge. I mean, obviously the market is with the market, it's fast and furious, it's. You know, you got to see houses as soon as they go active, which is typically like Thursday. You've got to have an offer drafted, like Thursday, friday, because you know, at the latest there's a deadline on Monday, but if the seller receives an offer they can't refuse, they reserve the right to take it off the market.

Speaker 1: 18:13

And so this couple, you know we'd been working together for months. It was literally like clockwork. You know what hits the wire on Thursday Okay, let's go out and see it. We'd go see it. We'd write offers. We lost time and time again. We escalated in our offers. We did everything to try and win these offers, but it just it wasn't enough in order to win. Yeah, and so we were. It was getting down to the wire. It was Memorial Day last year and they had to tell their apartment complex that they were going to re-up.

Speaker 1: 18:44

Right and then you have to make the decision If you re-up for a year, it's going to be a little bit cheaper, but then you're locked in for a year. Or do you lock in for three months, which then it goes up 2 or 3x what they were paying monthly?

Speaker 2: 18:56

Yeah, because then you have a short-term lease fee.

Speaker 1: 18:58

Exactly, and so the pressure's on, as if it hadn't been on. They knew that they had a deadline and we'd been looking. We just couldn't put together a strong enough offer to win. So, leading into Memorial day uh, it was the Thursday before Memorial day. Um, I was actually at the mall with with my wife and daughters. We were walking around doing.

Speaker 2: 19:21

They're doing whatever they're doing, doing their thing, getting their eyebrows done or whatever.

Speaker 1: 19:25

Uh, and I got a call from my client and I said, look, this house just came on and we would really like to see it. And I said, okay, great. So I grabbed. Everybody and my family knows that real estate is a thing where you're going to have to just kind of jump and jive and figure it out and sometimes dad gets called and dad's got to take a call.

Speaker 1: 19:43

So we pile into the car, we go out to the property On the way there, one of the things that I always like to do is because, again, I'm from here, I look to see who owns the house. I can go to the tax record see who owns the house. I saw this gentleman named Greg went on a Facebook. Do I have friends in common with Greg? Well, sure enough, I had like eight friends in common with Greg, and a lot of them was a family that we went to high school with the Eastman family, and so their their agent said hey, hey, look, I'm not going to be able to be there. My client is there with a baby that's sleeping, so if you could just please be quiet. And I said, great, no problem, I'll do that. Answer the door. Gentleman comes to the door. I said Greg. He said yeah, I'm Greg. And I said nice to meet you, I'm John Hurley, how do you know the Eastman family? And he goes, oh my gosh, he goes like like I've known them forever.

Speaker 1: 20:32

Jake Eastman is like like my best friend and I'm like great, well, we'd love to look at your house and buy your house. And he was like. He was like all right. So we took a quick look around. He's like right now, yeah, yeah. So so we took a quick look around and my clients were like this is great, we love the house, we want to put an offer on it. I said great. So we leave baby's still sleeping, thankfully, and we go, we put an offer together, I present it to the listing agent and she said that she would need to review it and look at it or whatever. Meantime I'm texting Jake. I'm like Jake put in a good word.

Speaker 2: 21:05

Tell Greg that we really want to get this house we need this house.

Speaker 1: 21:10

We need to help this family. Jake does that? He's reached out to Greg. Get a call. Later that that night, um, and the listing agent called us to tell us that they did not select our offer.

Speaker 2: 21:20

Oh and.

Speaker 1: 21:22

I was like oh my God, totally. I thought I thought we had. You know I'd made all the connections, I'd done everything to set my clients up for success and I had to call and deliver the news, which you know. I get emotionally tied into these deals too, like it's not just another transaction For me. I get vested in my clients.

Speaker 2: 21:45

This is a family's future. Correct, yeah.

Speaker 1: 21:47

Correct. So I had to deliver the news. I was a little upset by it and then the next morning I called the listing agent again and I just said hey, are you sure you know is our. You know, I talked to Greg, the owner, and it seemed like he liked our offer and like you know, we've got friends in common and she said, oh um, let me check on that and call you back. And so this was again Friday morning and you know they had already received the devastating news the night before. We're like you know what are we going to do? We still have till Monday. Now we're talking Friday. We have till Monday to get something under contract so that we can tell the apartment complex we're out or whatever.

Speaker 2: 22:31

Yeah, give them an answer, Right.

Speaker 1: 22:33

So she calls me back and she said tell you what Greg told me, that he wants to go with your offer. He knows that you have friends in common. So I got to pick myself up. I was unbelievably excited. Pick up the phone and I make sure my client, one of them he drives for work, so he's out on the road all the time, so I wanted to make sure that both he and his wife were on the phone. So we get on a three-way call and I was able to tell them, guys, we got the house. And I was able to tell them, guys, we got the house. They understood that it was. I guess she misunderstood that the offer that she was accepting wasn't ours and so literally I think all three of us were crying on the phone because it was so stressful. We literally had written 14 offers. It's exhausting.

Speaker 1: 23:23

So everyone's strung out stressed out Totally, totally, and so it was. It was just such a sense of relief, um, that they were able to get this house and, like I said, they, they, they were going to go two or three acts on their rent and this was like the kind of the last Hail Mary, uh, and we were able to get it and and I truly yeah, it was, um, I truly believe that it was the fact that I knew the owner. And that's what I do when I, when I look at anybody who's selling a house, I always look to see who the owners of the house are. I might know them, I might know their children, I might know their friends, friends, whatever, whatever edge I need to try and get in is what I do. Yeah, and so I bet that family is so grateful.

Speaker 2: 24:05

Yeah, are they still in the house? It's just not here.

Speaker 1: 24:07

They're still in the house. Yep, they're still in the house and in fact they just reached out to me about two weeks ago. Their mother is getting ready to sell their townhouse in Fairfax. So you know, obviously they appreciated what I was able to do for them and so that they're referring business and that's how, a lot of my business. Going back to the how, how am I getting business, how am I marketing? Well, a lot of it is just going out and doing a great job, Um, and and just being kind of all to your clients, exactly, exactly.

Speaker 2: 24:33

What do you find most rewarding about what you do?

Speaker 1: 24:38

Just that I mean helping a family um start on that next chapter of their lives. Whether it's helping a family buy a new home and giving that new chapter, or helping a family sell a home and shutting a chapter, there's a lot of things. You know, people that have been in a house 20 or 30 years raised their children in that house.

Speaker 2: 24:54

Right.

Speaker 1: 24:55

It's very emotional. It is, and I don't take it lightly, like I know, when it comes time for me to help my mom sell her home that we grew up in in fairfax station, yeah, it's, it's gonna be rough, like I mean it's gonna be tough.

Speaker 2: 25:08

Yeah, it's been. I think my parents sold their house in burke um. It's been about 15 years yeah and it was still, I mean for a couple years I still just pictured the house, pictured us in it, like it was just hard to to picture another family there and we got had the opportunity to go in um with new owners in it. And I was like this is just. They were so kind and generous to let us, like, walk around.

Speaker 2: 25:32

But, I was like, wow, it's like the same. And then it's not, it's. It's a very emotional thing.

Speaker 1: 25:37

And I and I think that's something that that I don't know about everybody, maybe it's just because I'm in real estate but like doing the drive by of a house that you previously lived in, especially like with the kids, it's like, oh, I used to live over there and I used to live over there and and um yeah, but but some of it's kind of cool, like like Megan, for instance. She grew up in Clifton literally in the house that her dad and his two buddies built by hand, like I mean literally like looking at the Bob Vila books, like how do I, how do I build a wall? Like how do I do this?

Speaker 2: 26:03

how do I do that?

Speaker 1: 26:04

yeah, I mean, it's seriously. They lived in Maryland and he and his buddies would come down and they built the house. I think it probably took them like five years to build it because they were doing it on the weekends. Um, and that house is in Clifton, out by Paradise Springs Winery, if you're familiar with it. Um, and it was. It was just this very sentimental house tour, in fact. That house recently came up. It was just this very sentimental house to her, in fact.

Speaker 1: 26:27

That house recently came up for sale and Megan wanted to go look at it. Oh did she. So we went. You know, it's like you know, my wife is not somebody who likes the word no, so it's always like all right, I know that. So we, you know, I said, okay, let's go. So we went, and we went and looked at the house and it was just just the rush of emotions was something that she couldn't deal with because it was the house was so personal I went through that, yeah yeah, her mother passed away there too, so it was just like so much you know, um.

Speaker 1: 26:55

But I had to go, like we had to go scratch that itch and find out if it was something that we were interested in, because it's a beautiful lot, you know, six acre lot, uh acre lot in Clifton and and um, you know it was it was, we just had to go look at it and um we didn't end up buying it, but it was cool to be able to go down, walk into it and see how it felt.

Speaker 1: 27:14

I mean, so many things that were there as a child were still there, Like her dad had this office off to the side of the house that had this little piece of metal flashing on this double doors that as a little girl she would hit it with her foot or her finger and it made this like funny, like springing noise.

Speaker 2: 27:29

It's always the little things, the quirky things like that.

Speaker 1: 27:32

Exactly. And so here we are adults. She's 40 plus, I'm 40 plus. She walked in, she kicked it with her foot and made her giggle.

Speaker 1: 27:39

I mean, it's like it's like stuff like that, you know like you know, her dad built it and there's several quirky things. In fact, we actually, during COVID, were out on a drive and we would always drive by the house and kind of look at it and see what's going on. And we talked to the owner one day and we stopped, we introduced ourselves and said, hey, this is who we are. And he said, oh, is your father Richard Ramirez? And she said, yeah, and he goes okay, I've got questions for you because there was a lot of quirky things with how that house was built. I'm probably not Bob Vila rated, but, um, he just had so many questions that we were able to basically be kind of like a decoder ring for him to figure out, like, why did? Why did he do it this way? Like, so it was pretty cool and we have pictures, um, of that house, just photo albums full of, like the building of that house.

Speaker 2: 28:23

I would love to go and give to the owners or at least share it with the new owners.

Speaker 1: 28:28

It did eventually sell and there'll be another family that makes beautiful memories there.

Speaker 2: 28:33

Yeah, more memories there when I went through my childhood home and I got very emotional, just like you were and you said Megan was as well. The owner actually took the time to email my dad and tell him how much it meant to him for us to come by and how touched he was by how emotional I was and how that was an example of how much love was in that home. And I was like, oh man, that just got me like right to my core.

Speaker 1: 28:58

Well, you know, there's an old adage home is where the heart is, and I think there's absolutely truth to it. I mean, home is home base, right? So you buy a house, that's your home base and that's like everything coming in and out, from the time that you're a baby till the time that you're an adult, like you know, everything happens there and there's, you know, there's good, there's bad, there's happy, there's sad, there's just so much emotion tied up.

Speaker 1: 29:21

And it's also just. You know, home ownership for me, is also just. It's not only an investment, but it's just something that like if everything else in the world can be chaotic, but if you have a home that you know is yours to go home to and that you're not going to have somebody call you and be like, hey, you've got to get out by next month. I'm selling the house, you know, like, like. I think it gives a good foundation for your kids and for your family, right? Like?

Speaker 1: 29:46

you you know that you have this place and you can have it for as long as you want to have it, until you sell it, yeah. And a roof over your head, right and you don't, and I think some of those just basic, um, so there's just those are just basic things that we need. We need we need shelter we need food, you know. We need love and all that's right there at home.

Speaker 2: 30:07

Yeah, as we kind of wrap up here, john, is there any last parting words you'd like to leave us with, maybe? I know your family has a mantra that you live by. Would you mind sharing that? Or is it? Or business advice, homeownership it can be anything like well I.

Speaker 1: 30:23

I'll just I'll go with. We choose joy, probably get emotional it's okay, um it's something I've heard you say and it's something I remind myself of every day, too is just to choose the joy yeah, so I don't know if I can make a long story short, but in 2015, january, I lost my dad unexpectedly, and then, you know, he was in the Navy, so we had him buried at Arlington, but Arlington couldn't take on a funeral until October.

Speaker 2: 30:59

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 31:00

So we went from January waiting for October until he was buried. Unfortunately, august 15th 2015, my best friend, jason, passed away. He was training for the Marine Corps Marathon. You look at him, thin guy, out there training.

Speaker 2: 31:22

So healthy.

Speaker 1: 31:23

Like inconceivable 36 years old to drop dead yeah, blows your mind it hit all of us yeah so, um, you know, we we had a service and uh, um, all of us guy friends got up and did a. We all just had a little speech for Jason, and one of the things I did was I basically wrote a letter to Jason and said listen, like we're going to take care of your family, you're good, like we got this right, we got it, we got you.

Speaker 1: 32:00

Little did I know. Yeah, it's funny and sad and happy. You know it's beautiful. Um little did I know. Uh, I would end up dating and marrying his widow yeah, and um. His daughters were five and seven at the time. Uh, married in gray and um. Now they're 16 and 14. Wow, and I became her dad. I was Uncle John.

Speaker 2: 32:28

You were Uncle John, yeah.

Speaker 1: 32:31

It was just nothing I ever would have imagined in my life. Yeah, but through watching Megan, watching her masterfully navigate life after losing a spouse.

Speaker 2: 32:48

Yeah, she was a rock star.

Speaker 1: 32:51

Like what do you do? And it's not like there's training. There's no training for this right. It totally blindsides you. But she knew that whatever she did, the kids would cue off of, and so she had to put on a brave face. She had a saying I'm going to butcher it, but it was like hair makeup choose one.

Speaker 1: 33:10

So, like you know, like you can wallow on the couch, but hair makeup, choose one and show your daughters that life will go on and you know, you've got to've got your kids will really. I mean they'll, they'll, they'll adapt. Yeah, um and um. So we, we went through the whole conversion of uncle john to you know why? Why does uncle? John want to date you, mom, you know like why well she's beautiful and and and she's awesome, yeah, and.

Speaker 1: 33:43

And the fact that the way that she navigated this was just so with just such clarity of mind she did I needed. I was like I need that in my life and and I had a great life before. Like you know, I was never married, never had kids, but there was something about her that was just infectious. I just I just had to be part of it and I, and you know, for the first time in my life, I found that that person that completed me, like you know, and going back to the we choose joy thing, that was a mantra that she started saying at that point in time we choose joy because it is a choice.

Speaker 1: 34:20

Another one of her sayings is what you Another one of her sayings is what you don't choose, you accept. So they're going to choose joy because if they don't choose joy, they could accept something else that was lesser or worse for these kids. And so, as a result, that's just been a family mantra we choose joy and we use it. And this is a result. That's just been a family mantra we choose joy and we use it, and this is a great reminder of it. Like, sometimes you kind of get off path of some of these things, but thank you for reminding me, because that is something that we do, and even in our wedding vows we choose joy was part of it, and another one is life's too short to wait for the weekends, and so you can choose joy, seven days a week, 365.

Speaker 2: 35:06

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 35:07

You don't have to wait for the weekend to go and meet with friends and see people that you haven't seen in a long time.

Speaker 2: 35:11

Yeah, do it now. Do it now, you're not guaranteed tomorrow. And I was so lucky to have seen, and you guys know that firsthand.

Speaker 1: 35:19

Massive, massive impact on my life.

Speaker 2: 35:25

I've always loved your story and I've always had so much admiration for Megan and the grace and dignity that she handled everything with and the love story that you guys have and choosing joy every day and teaching that to your girls has been inspiring for all of us to see so thank you for being here today. Thank you for sharing your story with us.

Speaker 1: 35:41

Yep, thank you for having me and sorry about the tears.

Speaker 2: 35:45

No, you got me too. We're good.