Sorry, Crosley

I owe a few apologies around town.

When I sit down with business owners and agents, I have a habit — I point at whatever company happens to be across the street and make them the villain of my pitch. If I'm at Sunergos, Taco Luchador catches it. If I'm at Jay's Burgers, poor Crosley Records gets dragged.

(Quick side note — Crosley, the record player company, is headquartered right here in Louisville. A lot of people don't know that. Pretty neat.)

Here's the pitch Crosley keeps getting pulled into:

When an agent joins my brokerage, one of the first things I do is introduce them to my CPA.

Say an agent makes $150,000 at Winner Realty. And they'd make $150,000 at the brokerage across the street. Same number on paper.

But a hundred and fifty thousand dollars isn't a hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

It's what you keep. And an agent using my systems and my CPA — a CPA who actually knows how real estate works — keeps significantly more. I'm talking a large amount of money. That $150K is going to feel a lot bigger at Winner Realty than it does across the street.

My CPA doesn't pay me a dime to say this. I don't ask for referral fees. I just expect the same great service every year — and they deliver. I've been through some terrible CPAs. I've had bills literally eight to ten times higher than what I pay now. Having someone well-versed in what they're doing isn't a luxury. It's the whole game.

One time — back when The Morning Bergeron was just an email — I mentioned my CPA and how much stress they took off my plate. I referred them 130 clients in two days.

One hundred thirty. Two days. That's how starved people are for a CPA they can actually trust.

Mine operates in all fifty states. Land trusts, cost segregation, LLCs, Airbnb strategies, how to use your spouse's real estate professional status to knock down your W-2 taxes — a wealth of knowledge. The best. Want the intro? Shoot me an email. I'll connect you, and hopefully you two do some business together.

And if you're in a sticky situation right now — something heavy, something that keeps you up — I totally get it. I can empathize. I've navigated a lot of storms. I'm happy to introduce you to my attorney. If you've got a bad-acting business partner or something tough to untangle, I know a great litigation attorney. Need an eviction attorney? Reach out. I've been in this industry a long time. I know the bad actors, I know the good ones, and I know the people who are more than excellent at their jobs.

My goal is to insulate everybody from as much risk as possible. It's why we're adding lending quotes and my comps to OffMarket.deals — including fair market Section 8 rents. It's why I use a home inspector who's also an investor, and GCs who quote straight from those reports. The best work is often invisible — the disaster that didn't happen. I wrote about that on Friday.

If you've got a property that's underwater, I don't take a commission. I charge an admin fee to pay Colleen, I charge for photos, and that's it. I'm not going to pile on while you're losing money.

Attorneys send me clients who got taken advantage of by contractors or realtors. Other agents hire me to list their own properties. I've been called the realtor's realtor, and honestly, that might be my favorite title.

"I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy." — Rabindranath Tagore

That's it. That's the whole thing. I feel better serving. It brings me joy. So whatever the issue is — hit me up, schedule a call, don't be a stranger.

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