From Fitness to Real Estate

Speaker 1 0:31

My name is Victoria Gregorian Roberts and I was born and raised in Ukraine. I moved to US in 2006 and my journey has been a little bit different from everybody else, from most people, but what we focus on right now is primarily real estate and the fitness industry primarily real estate and the fitness industry.

Speaker 2 0:58

I'm Tony Roberts. I'm also involved in fitness, like Victoria mentioned, and real estate how we serve our clients. Well, that's a big, big question, because we got into real estate because we wanted to serve our community. We wanted to serve our community With the background of fitness, that transition to real estate, we thought that it was a good fit for us.

Speaker 3 1:23

So, because we've been serving the fitness community close to 20 years now, so tell me a little bit, how did you get into like all the fitness stuff first, because obviously that's what started this all out, right yeah?

Speaker 2 1:36

So we had to go back a little bit, so just bear with me, okay, so I moved into the dmv area in 97. Okay, I was still in the military. You're military man, yes, so retired military um, retired in 02. But I was a personal trainer when I'm at additional duties, when I was in the army and I said, hey look, you know I'm going to be in the gym, so let me just go ahead and start training people. Then I got burnt out, like within two years, and I approached this professional bodybuilder and said, hey, look, I want to start bodybuilding. And the rest is history. So I started. My first actual bodybuilding show or bodybuilding event was in 2000. Okay, so, yes, it's been a while.

Speaker 3 2:31

Okay, tell us about that event.

Speaker 2 2:34

Well, I got a ticket on the way there. Oh man, I was on 66 driving and I was just so nervous because all new competitors, you know we, you know they have a tendency to be kind of nervous because it's the first time to get on stage to be judged and all this kind of stuff. But I got a speeding ticket on my way. But. But long story short.

Speaker 3 2:55

I won my class I won my class.

Speaker 2 2:58

So I got the bug. I got bit by the bug and that was it. So competed for like 12 years, took a break, went back in 2018, did another show, but in between that I started expediting bodybuilding events in 2005.

Speaker 3 3:15

Wow, Okay. So how did this whole bodybuilding merge into real estate?

Speaker 1 3:22

Victoria answer that question we met through bodybuilding when I came home from military training.

Speaker 3 3:32

So you're military too.

Speaker 1 3:33

Yes, I joined military just to serve and give back to the country for the opportunities that I was presented with Throughout my journey of pursuit of American dream. My main job was back home in healthcare, and it still was health care here. So for the past 23 years this is what I've done. I've taken care of people my entire life pretty much. So that's where it kind of translates into into why real estate now we? When I came back, I had also a friend who was competing and I wanted to stay in shape just so I can maintain my high score on PT the overachiever and I entered a competition the first competition and Tony was expediting it.

Speaker 2 4:30

I didn't know her at the time. I did not know her at the time.

Speaker 1 4:33

But who caught each other's eye. I could tell he has a military background, and you know. Then we met again at another show and at that show he somehow knew my name and I was like, well, let me hold up, let me stop.

Speaker 2 4:47

So I see a lot of athletes on stage. Yeah Right, that's just what I do. So when I see someone who has improved from their previous look, it catches my eye. Especially if I've seen them a lot, Then I will mention it to you. You're like who is this?

Speaker 3 5:04

girl.

Speaker 2 5:05

So I called her by name, which she said shocked, shocked her, and I said Victoria, you really look great. And then that was it, and I was just giving her a compliment, just you really look great. And then that was it, and I was just giving her a compliment just because she looked actually great, not that I was trying to do anything, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 5:22

And then we ran into each other at the gym. Oh yeah, we ran into each other at the gym where he used to train with his friend, and my job was in the same area, so I would go to the gym, then go to work and when I saw Tony actually training with his friend, it was it really caught my attention because of the form and how focused they work, as a lot of people just go to the gym to have conversations and yeah and that on their phone and you know we would go with my girlfriends and of course we would lift weight, but it wasn't the same.

Speaker 1 5:56

We were just having mostly, mostly fun or like it was just a lot going on. But when I saw that that was very I was attracted to it. So I asked him to help me to get to train properly and to pose properly for so you took the first move.

Speaker 1 6:14

Uh, kind of so basically, I had to hire Tony, pay him a lot of money because he was expensive, but the quality was there and that's what I wanted. But the quality was there and that's what I wanted. I wanted if I was, if I'm involved in something, I need to be and want to be the best or one of the best, because there's there's no purpose of being, you know, contributing your time to something If you're not. You're not in that, you know, in that mindset the mindset.

Speaker 1 6:53

The mindset was I didn't know what mindset was, I wasn't raised with that concept, um, so mindset was actually embedded and trained and I and I implemented it from tony. So we kind of we, we became really good friends. Um, you know, we would train three of us me, his friend um, and then Tony and um and and, but there was just, we just had a great time. They were just had a great time and there was never the chemistry was there yeah it.

Speaker 2 7:27

It didn't start off like that, but it it eventually evolved.

Speaker 3 7:31

I'm sure over time, once you start seeing, you know the person's dedication and like how they train and all of that kind of comes together Well.

Speaker 1 7:42

Tony had a golden rule to never date a competitor to maintain his professional, professional status in the industry, and that's what he is most known for is the professional status most known for, is the professional status and um, so that's why he was kind of, he was not very like, he wasn't he. He wasn't the one to actually engage into a personal relationship other than friendship. So it took me a while to understand that okay.

Speaker 1 8:13

Tony there will be a different approach to this situation and but it just happened very naturally. It just happened very naturally, it wasn't but let's, let's.

Speaker 3 8:25

There was no pressure.

Speaker 1 8:26

That's awesome, because I, I reached the point of my, of my life at that moment where I was very happy and accomplished on my own. So I wasn't really looking for a man, nor I needed one, but having somebody like Tony was very complimentary to my lifestyle and certain things that I saw that we could do together. It was very complimentary.

Speaker 3 8:55

And then all of that led us into the real estate world.

Speaker 2 9:00

Yeah, I mean that was recently, but we were just doing a lot of different events, fitness-wise Projects, you know, in the fitness, under the fitness umbrella at first.

Speaker 1 9:13

That's where we realized we work really well as a team was. We started in in the bodybuilding and it was just. We came to a conclusion that we don't even need to speak like. I look at him on the other side of the stage, he looks at me and we knew exactly what needs to be done. So I told him, if we ever do any type of business business the real estate- would be the one where we can be successful.

Speaker 2 9:39

So we had a lot of conversations about what we wanted to do to move away from our nine to five OK, and then we had to come to Jesus conversation and we decided on real estate. And so because we've served the fitness community and still serving the fitness community and we really enjoy that, I mean you really feel good after a weekend after being around the judges, the promoters, the athletes and making sure that they're reaching their goals.

Speaker 3 10:15

Yeah.

Speaker 2 10:16

And so real estate. We said hey look, we can do this, let's get our license, let's just try this real estate thing. And it's been very, very rewarding, because how many people buy homes throughout their life? So, many people, yeah, and this woman right here, she's really really good at it. I mean, she knows how to connect with the clients and to serve them and get them what they want. And if you're looking for a home, and Victoria has the time, she's going to probably show you about 5 to 15 homes.

Speaker 3 10:55

I mean, seriously, we're going to probably show you about five to 15 homes. I mean seriously, we're going to be going on a tour. I mean yes, I mean so In one day. In one day, yeah, in one day Wow.

Speaker 2 11:04

I mean, that's just how she is. I mean so, and I can see her shine as a realtor. So very efficient. Oh yeah, I mean it's mapped out.

Speaker 3 11:15

Everything is mapped out Because I know most realtors like you schedule a time with them and they're like oh, I can do this today. I can show you one house.

Speaker 2 11:22

And it's like okay, I mean that's if they are, I mean just busy like that. But I think one thing that separates us is the fact that you know we've been on the other side, you know, of buying a home, and to be able to support someone, a family, to buy a home, their dream home, I mean that says a lot, and so we take pride in that. It's not just okay, we're going to get a commission, da da da. It's more to that, because it's a relationship.

Speaker 3 11:58

Okay, so what do you think is the most rewarding part about your job? Do you think that's what it is, or you know, for me I can.

Building Trust and Delivering Excellence

Speaker 2 12:06

Just I'm going to speak for myself. For me it's the fact of sitting there at the closing day and seeing how happy the couple or the single single mom, or or just a, a military guy who never thought that he could, he or she could afford them, and they're buying their first able to do it that says a lot, I mean, to me, because I've been there before so I know how that feels.

Speaker 3 12:32

Uh, at least that's, that's how about is how about for you, Victoria?

Speaker 1 12:44

My most favorite part is under-promising and over-delivering. It's the moment when you realize that all the hard work whether it's 10 homes, one home or 50 homes, whether it's selling homes, whether it's selling that we delivered something to families, to friends, to strangers especially with strangers because they don't know you so that trust that you have to build, that's where the most difficult part is when you work with sort of strangers. They really don't know you, so they have to trust you. But we had a lot of success which with people, especially military families, that move from different states and we buy or rent for them over, over, face time, like that, that type of trust, that when somebody can trust you, that you can deliver and you can find them a home without them. We've been seeing it and they put probably their life savings on the map into their home and then when they arrive and they say it looks even better in person than what you showed me.

Speaker 1 13:47

And and we have our standards are different. We're very um particular. We, our standards are high for ourselves first of all, and we will never put somebody in a house where we don't see ourselves live in. So it's not just let's just buy something just to put a check Mark Because, again, we come from a place of service, we come from a place of taking care of people and I think that when I found myself in the right place after all the years of, you know, pulse care, military fitness, this is a perfect fit to actually unleash my creativity and be me, because I'm not a 9 to 5 material.

Speaker 1 14:37

Because I'm not a 9 to 5 material, if I cannot bring changes to the work environment where I am, I cannot be in that environment Because I start feeling suffocated. I cannot make changes. I'm starting to get stressed.

Speaker 3 14:53

You don't let those creative juices flow. Do you ever do any sort of staging or stuff like that too?

Speaker 2 14:59

Yes, we do.

Speaker 1 15:02

They have a lot of creativity. So both you know Tony had a home before we met. I had a home. When we sold, when we decided to build a new home together, we actually I staged his home, I staged my home. They both were sold and then we built one together. We designed our home and for our clients if they have any type of furniture and if it's a good fit, it's a complimentary service that we will advise on the colors and everything. We do have teams that we work with. If we can save clients money, our goal is for sellers to obviously make them as much money as we can by saving, For the buyers is to get them the best value for whatever the budget they have. I've lived in this area for 18 years so I know this area well. We're surrounded by a lot of diversity, so we're very diverse, very knowledgeable. We're certified in military relocation. 95 of our clients are military.

Speaker 3 16:11

yes, I was gonna say do you guys specialize a little bit more on the military side? I I think they, I think, yeah, it just happened like all your all different people you knew or that refer you to other people Exactly.

Speaker 2 16:25

Exactly. I mean, when we first got started, it was a lot of out-of-state clients military relocating from Texas to here and you know we did a lot of business with a lot of people in Texas you know, we did a lot of business with a lot of people in Texas. What is one of the biggest challenges you guys are seeing recently in the real estate industry? The biggest challenge that I see is that people look at that interest rate and then they're like, well, I'm going to wait until it goes down.

Speaker 1 17:07

And what do we say about interest rates? Marry a house, date your rates.

Speaker 3 17:10

Date your rates. You can always refinance.

Speaker 1 17:12

You can always refinance.

Navigating the Home Buying Process

Speaker 2 17:16

And then if you do a rent versus buy analysis and you see how much money you save yes, that's a slap in the face, Like some people don't even want to see that number, because if you've been renting for six to eight years, imagine that at $3,500 a month over eight years. Oh my gosh, that's a lot. That's a lot if you're paying someone else's mortgage right which you could have been paying on your own home, bringing the principal down, and now you have a lot of equity to do other things, to free up another. You know enough funds to go do something else.

Speaker 3 17:55

I mean, that's the thing about rent right, You're kind of doing somebody else a favor in a way.

Speaker 2 18:01

We totally understand. We totally understand that it's a process. One of the other things that we've been fortunate to do is to have home buying seminars, and we pulled a page out of our fitness book because we have fitness seminars as well. So we said let's do a home buying seminar, so we will bring in babe.

Speaker 1 18:21

babe, just talk about that, I'm not, that's your baby, that's your baby, so you can so in the fitness industry we have, if somebody wants to enter a bodybuilding competition, we say average prep time is 12 weeks. So when we transform that concept into a home buying process, we we say you know, the prep time is 12 months. It could be less, it could be more. It depends on how prepared or how not prepared the clients are. For some people it takes longer and for some people it takes a month.

Speaker 3 18:54

So it again some people got a cut weight, some people got a gain and some muscle.

Speaker 1 19:00

So we have a great team that we work with and we always say that we are a one-stop shop. The client never has to think, oh, where to get an inspector? Where do I get a title company? Where do I get a cleaning people? Where do I get a photographer? We've got everything and, again, because of our standards, we're very selective of who we'll work with, because it's a reputation and we want our clients to be taken care of the right way.

Speaker 1 19:30

So we created a home buying seminars that are very different from a standard seminar, which I've attended a few when I was buying a home first, and it's literally we take you from A to Z, from everything that you need to know and have to buy a house. And we actually have a great testimony. One of our friends from fitness industry attended a seminar and two weeks later Tony went out with them to a new construction and they signed contract and purchased their home. And she said that because of that seminar and and they've been- thinking of buying for over a year already, but they got all their information.

Speaker 2 20:14

They yeah they were a young couple, but they were prepared. When I I say prepared, I'm like they had their numbers down. They knew exactly where they wanted to go. That's one of the things about those home buying seminary. It opens up because a lot of people read online. You can only do this, you can only do that If you have someone coming in Speculation.

Speaker 1 20:40

Too much information is not always a good thing.

Speaker 2 20:42

So we have spelled it out A to B. Hey look, I'm going to talk with your lender. Like Victoria mentioned, the title company, home inspection all this under one roof, so we can answer your questions right now. So all those speculation, all that stuff that you read online if you had doubts about, we can answer that question. So if you come to the home buying seminar any home buying seminar you know that's what you should be looking for.

Speaker 1 21:09

Yeah, and we have clients that have been already to two of our seminars and they say they learn something new every time because as knowledge piles up, people have more questions or they have the budget is different. So we educate people on how much you want to save, what do you need to spend on, what do you need to cover where your credit score needs to be. And it's never too early to talk to the lender because you never know what's going on on your credit history. There are some charges that might not even be yours, or you think you paid off that credit card two years ago and it's not paid, or hospital bills that are unpaid, and we've had clients where we couldn't buy anything because their credit score was so damaged and they didn't know about it. They have money but they can't buy. So that's very frustrating and disappointing and discouraging process, and it's discouraging for us as much as it is discouraging for people that are looking to become homeowners and start building the generational wealth.

Speaker 2 22:17

But I do want to add that if someone are having, if they're having those types of challenges, right, they can overcome that, but they have to be educated on what to do, and that's why we like to get our clients in front of a loan officer and say look, let's talk about your finances. Make sure you have a clear picture of what you can afford and what you can't afford.

Speaker 1 22:39

Also the business owners. The requirement is two years of taxes from previous. That's how the lenders will pre-approve them for a loan. But some business owners don't even do that. Taxes, that's a big.

Speaker 3 22:57

Thing.

Speaker 1 22:58

It might be a situation there's just so much.

Speaker 3 23:02

Not just for house buying, not yet.

Speaker 1 23:05

Not just for that, but a lot of people's under conception that buying and selling is super easy. But there's so much that go into that process that one little thing can cause somebody to lose a lot of money and that's why these seminars are all so important.

Speaker 3 23:25

Do you guys have any seminars coming up? We just had one, we had two. This year.

Speaker 1 23:31

We had two this year, but we probably have another one January, february going to be our next one. Okay, and it's growing, it's growing.

Speaker 3 23:41

We had full house last year, last well, what are you guys doing for marketing and stuff for yourselves, you know, for people to know, hey, I'm here for you well, I leave up to victoria to do all the social media, because she's good at it, I mean, but creativity, creativity, right videos, um.

Speaker 2 24:00

And then, of course, our team. When we have a house that we're listing, that they will come in and do a video. They do metaphor 3D drone.

Speaker 1 24:14

Our team has a phenomenal marketing package where everything is included. It's a lot, and we also contribute, especially for our veterans. We only always assist in addition to what they already are given. We assist with sometimes inspections and pest control and other things, but for our business marketing we just actually in august we're releasing our first own magazine oh, it's going to be the october, I think it's home and style, so it's going to be our personalized uh, catered to our clients or anyone congratulations, that's awesome yeah, we'll partner up with a media company and you know we're going to have a digital copy too and mailed copies, so anyone who wants to receive a copy it's going to be every other month and you know we'll have our business partners included in our copies as well.

Speaker 1 25:19

So we want to be different from other people because we are different, and I've heard a saying recently if you meant to stand out, you're not supposed to blend in. That's true, so we give up on trying to blend in. It's just not happening, because our main goal is to serve.

Speaker 2 25:41

And, as you can see, I mean through this conversation you see that we're constantly serving people. And I think that when you have a serving heart, it's going to come back. It's going to come back to you. So you're not going to always reap the benefits of taking care of someone, but did you feel good doing that? And the majority of the time we do.

Speaker 1 26:09

Well, it's surprising, but we've, throughout our real estate career, right. We have not purchased a single week. We have not paid for a single. It's amazing, like, like, that's what you know. That's a challenge for newer realtors is to generate business, to find the clients. But we haven't had to do that because it's all by referrals and word of mouth and people's experiences. That's what we get.

Speaker 3 26:34

Give me one biggest advice that you would give the new realtors coming in.

Speaker 2 26:41

Um, have an open mind because you know, sometimes realtors will go in thinking that it's, it's going to be just great. Uh, I'm going to be selling this home, buying this home. You know I'm gonna make a lot of money, but you have to be patient. You have to be patient. You have to talk to the people that has fruit on the tree and you just pick certain things to build your business. Okay, because we went through that, you know. I mean, it's going to take time for you to grow. You have to be patient. Just like bodybuilding you know what I'm saying Muscle takes time. It takes time. Now there are some gifted people out there who hit the ground running Kudos to those people. You know kudos. Some gifted people out there who hit the ground running Kudos to those people, you know. Kudos to those people. But what do you think?

Speaker 1 27:33

Having a gross mindset and mentorship. That's the main key for somebody who has just started, because it doesn't matter how many friends you have, an average person knows five realtors. All your friends know at least five realtors. It's the value that separates you from everybody else that you have to offer, and we want to work with people that want to work with us. We don't want anybody forcing themselves to work with us just because they read five-star review or somebody recommended them. We want to make sure if there is no trust in such a complex process, it's not going to be successful, because we are literally putting our hands on everything that people own.

Speaker 1 28:26

It's their life savings so there is no trust if people can't trust us to be transparent with us you know, and believe that we only look out for their best interest, but there's not going to be a good experience. So you know, just patient being patient, and my biggest problem when I started was taking things personally because I thought I was doing everything wrong. So that was my, you know, that was my challenge that I had to overcome. I'm not saying we never make mistakes, that's not possible. But we'll never make one consciously and on purpose to hurt somebody.

Speaker 2 29:06

And that's why you know you got a two-for-one deal with us, exactly.

Speaker 1 29:10

You get a two-for-one deal.

Speaker 2 29:11

So if Victoria is not available, then I got her back and vice versa, and one of the things that I really love is the fact that Victoria will be out there, because she is the face of our business. She is the face, she interacts with the clients about 95% of the time. Okay, so she bounced a lot. We have conversations, we talk about our clients, we talk about the transactions, we talk about how we want to market certain houses and things like that.

Speaker 1 29:45

So we just throw ideas off of one another to see what works best yeah, we're very detailed and very particular and very strategic strategies and that's something that just comes from, I think, military background being strategic, accomplishing the goal and having you know work and things like from if we have three weeks to list the property, then everything's gonna be you know, backwards planning and in. And we took that concept again from our fitness industry from before Tony and I met, I started opposing seminars with a couple other friends and now next year will be year seven. Year seven. We have close to a thousand people attending and we had to make it two days instead of one day.

Speaker 3 30:40

We couldn't figure it out, had to cut it. Yeah, I had to make it.

Speaker 2 30:43

We had to double play it. It grew that much. That's awesome Because of our connections throughout the fitness community, we have top-tier athletes come in to support the DMV community bodybuilding community, and it's free yeah.

Speaker 3 30:59

There you go. Tell us your social media, so our listeners can know where to find you.

Speaker 1 31:04

Our social media is LadyvictoriaG, the real Tony Roberts.

Speaker 2 31:09

The real underscore. Tony Roberts on IG.

Speaker 1 31:11

Our business is the real, tony and Victoria, and once you find us on one page, you'll be able to find us everywhere.

Speaker 2 31:21

Can we mention our team? Yeah, of course, wellis, with Real Broker out of One, loudon, right down the street.

Speaker 1 31:28

You had Janet Brinks on your podcast, yes, so Janet was a part of Dwellers Ryan Zook, so we got extremely blessed.

Speaker 3 31:40

Yes.

Speaker 1 31:40

Being able to find this team in our real estate career, because that was a game changer for us, the value that they brought to us.

Speaker 2 31:52

And the value that they continue to bring to us. I mean, I can't even put a number on that, so we're very blessed to be a part of that.

Speaker 1 32:00

It's like finding a good coach, just like in the fitness industry. You'll be looking, looking. Once you find the right person, you just you end up there.

Speaker 3 32:13

And then, guys, for my last question if you could leave our listeners with a message, I don't know, something from your heart, some mantra that you live by or anything like that, what would that be? You know the sky's the limit.

Discovering Self-Acceptance and Inner Peace

Speaker 2 32:26

Keep reading, keep learning that you live by or anything like that. What would that be? You know the sky's the limit. Keep reading, keep learning, because this world is evolving and it keeps changing, so you have to evolve with that. You know, if you are an audio book listener, I would say you know self-improvement books definitely helps out a lot because you need to have that positive mindset Because there's so much external stuff out there, so much bad stuff out there. So that's what I would recommend.

Speaker 1 33:03

That's a tough one. That's a tough one, you know. I've always had an open mindset, so I've never been somebody who would just get stuck on one thing and would refuse to grow. There's just so much that people are saying now Do whatever you want, chase your dreams. We read it every day. We read motivational quotes and listen to speakers. But I think, for me, creating your own identity and creating your own journey and accepting yourself and finding yourself that should be a priority over anything else.

Speaker 1 33:46

And finding yourself that should be a priority over anything else, because you will never find peace on anything external if you don't have one inside.

Speaker 3 33:54

Yes.

Speaker 1 33:55

And you can't put price on that. You can't, and I went through that experience and we have to constantly go back to it and reconnecting, redefining, going back to, you know, to basics, and if you're totally lost, just go back to basics. That's what we always say in healthcare. You know, the diagnosis comes from going back to basics and starting from zero, from scratch. The same in the fitness industry. If you're not succeeding on stage, you need to go back to basics and see what, what, what's, what's happening? What's happening because the problem is not so, not always so obvious, right in your face, something underlying that goes back all the way it could be all the way to childhood. So that's finding yourself, accepting yourself, redefining yourself and bringing that internal peace Because, like my one of my best friends says, you can't feed people from an empty plate.

Speaker 3 35:03

Yeah, I like that. I like that. Well, thank you guys so much for being here today, for sharing your story with our listeners. We really appreciate it, thank you.