Eluyn Gines of RHI Real Estate: Five Things You Need To Know To Succeed In The Real Estate Industry

As a part of my series about the ‘Five Things You Need To Know To Succeed In The Real Estate Industry’, I had the pleasure of interviewing Eluyn Gines.

Eluyn Gines is a real estate professional who is known for his integrity and sincerity in all his dealings. In his tenure in the real estate business, he first and foremost strives to be someone in whom his clientele and colleagues put their trust and faith.

Prior to becoming a realtor, Eluyn was a highly decorated Army Colonel who dedicated 28 years of his life to servicing our nation at the highest levels of the Department of Defense. He served in numerous strategic military positions throughout the United States and overseas including deployments to Cuba, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. Eluyn received many prestigious awards over his three decades of military service, including the Legion of Merit and Bronze Star Medals for his exceptionally meritorious services during combat.

Today, Eluyn specializes in residential home buying in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. He believes every transaction is always about the customer and dedicates his energy to understanding his client’s needs and building a relationship that will last over the course of time. He has proudly served our nation and is ready to serve individuals and families who are looking for the home of their dreams with the same loyalty and commitment.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us the “backstory” about what brought you to the Real Estate industry?

I initially joined the military as a means to an end. But it quickly became more than that. I was proud to fight for America and help so many people in so many ways. When I retired, I started down a new path, which allowed me to further serve my community.

The most rewarding experience was being the Base Commander in New York City during Hurricane Sandy. We were the only active military installation in the city. It was a special honor just to be selected to serve on an Army base when only less than 1% are selected to do so. After the hurricane, the whole city was flooded. Every operation to recover the city was done from my base.

Finally, after 28 years in the military, I retired. It was an odd feeling. I had devoted almost three decades of my life to something, and I felt a little lost afterward. I didn’t have attachments to anyone or anywhere.

Some of my military friends had moved to Texas, and they asked me to visit them. I fell in love with Texas and Dallas in particular. I decided to stay and even custom-build a house.

During the building process, there were a few things that didn’t add up, and I realized that the builder was taking advantage of me and my lack of knowledge. I was frustrated and wondered how many other people were suffering a similar experience.

That is what prompted me to become a real estate agent, I didn’t want others to be taken advantage of as I did. I wanted to become as educated as possible and pass on that knowledge to everyone else that wanted to buy a home. I was ready to start a new venture that would help this community I was growing to love. It has led me to where I am today, and I’m proud to be an agent and to have the opportunity to serve in a whole new way.

Can you share with our readers the most interesting or amusing story that occured to you in your career so far? Can you share the lesson or take away you took out of that story?

The best story ever is I had a family of a husband, wife, and two young daughters. The husband worked late hours so he asked permission to see if we could see a house late in the day, around 8:30 PM.

I told him that normally eight o’clock was the time limit for us to see houses, but I would ask for an exception. So, I called the listing agent of the property and I said, can you give me an exception to see the house late? And she gave me permission to see the property.

So, I scheduled the appointment. I showed up at 8:30 and I entered the house to start showing the house. Apparently, a neighbor saw people in the house late and he thought that somebody was breaking into the house. He called the police and he said “Hey, somebody is at the property and there are intruders in the house. “

As you can imagine, a SWAT team of police officers showed up at the property and they barricaded themselves on the outside. Waiting for the “intruders” to come out. As I am finishing the tour, I am walking out with me, husband, wife, and two kids and as we were walking out of the house, all I heard was freeze, and we all panicked.

We all pull our hands up. We all say what is going on? They say, get on the ground, get on the ground. And we’re like, what is happening? I have two little kids over here. They said, who are you? What are you doing in this house? I had to identify myself as a real estate agent and I was showing the property. They asked me if I had permission and said yes and had to call the listing agent on speaker for them to let us go.

As you can imagine, the client and his family never called me back.

Do you have a favorite “life lesson quote”? Can you share a story or example of how that was relevant to you in your life?

“In God I trust, everyone else I supervise.”

“You are only as good as the people who work for you.”

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

I have a bachelor’s degree in elementary education. I believe children are the future. And even though this is not related to real estate in actuality, it is. I am involved in a very special project where I sponsor a company called Wonderland celebrations. Wonderland brings families and children together to see and interact with some of the Disney characters. They get to paint, sing, and do story read alongs. I do my best in supporting the community. It is not just about selling houses, it’s also about investing in our community.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

The most important aspect of any company is to establish a vision for the company. Establish a philosophy and establish values associated with what you stand for.

My company stands for respect, honor, and integrity. Our vision is to be the real estate agent of choice for buyers, sellers, and highly talented professionals who value superior work ethic, community impact, and relationships over transaction.

This means to me, it is more important to take care of the individual than worry about how much money you’re going to make on a transaction.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I would not be here today if it was not for my Coach mentor and friend Kaitlyn Norton. She taught me everything I know about real estate and took me out of my comfort zone. She is the reason I went on to establish my RHI real estate team.

Thank you for all that. Let’s now jump to the main core of our interview. Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the Real Estate industry? If you can please share a story or example.

Number one, I must say what gets me excited every day is to see the smile on people’s faces. When we help them find a home nothing is better than seeing the excitement of children, spouses, and family members when they see their dream home and how they are going to live there.

The second thing that gets me excited about business is seeing my realtors grow as agents is very rewarding. I love being able to see them out and about helping others and makes me excited to see how successful we are and will be as an organization.

Third but not last is all the impacts we make in our community. We put in so much time and effort into making our community a better place. We love seeing how much our community has grown because of our involvement.

Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to reform or improve the industry, what would you suggest? Please share stories or examples if possible.

1. Foreclosures. I hate to see people losing their homes because they can’t afford to make the payments. Foreclosures happen when one of the owners can no longer make the payments and regardless of the situation the banks automatically start foreclosure procedures and take the house away from the family and their children.
   To me, this has to be reformed into categories. If you lose your house because you are irresponsible and you choose not to comply with the agreed terms of the mortgage payment. Then yes, foreclosure procedures should begin and the house should be taken from you.
   However, if you are behind on your payment because of medical reasons or perhaps you had an accident that prohibits you from paying the mortgage. There should be an exception that allows the family to live in the house until their personal situation is resolved.
2. The mortgage industry. As a self-employed individual, you must maintain a current business for up to two years in order to qualify for a mortgage loan. That number is too long. I would request this to be reduced to 18 months to give people the opportunity to purchase a home. If you have consistently made payments for 18 months in a row without any issues, I am pretty sure nothing is going to change six months later.
3. The utilization of paper. In this era, 2022, everything we do should be digital. We should not be signing any papers in person, all real estate documents should be done digitally. The fact we still signed papers is an indication we have a long way to go.

What advice would you give to other real estate leaders to help their teams to thrive and to create a really fantastic work culture?

To begin, treat everyone equally. Do not make exceptions or make anyone do something you would not do yourself. Always lead by example and be the first to show the way. If I want my team to do well with reports I should lead by example and show them a good report. Don’t be a dictator. Be a facilitator. If you are going to make a decision that is going to affect the whole team, ask everyone for feedback. You will be surprised how many great ideas will come forward you had not even thought about yourself. Last, get to know your people well. Get to know their families and if they are healthy and what is happening in their lives. If any of them cannot concentrate on their jobs because they are focused on a personal situation then you are wasting your time asking them to do something they mentally cannot handle. The key is to care for your people.

Ok, here is the main question of our interview. You are a “Real Estate Insider”. If you had to advise someone about 5 non intuitive things one should know to succeed in the Real Estate industry, what would you say? Can you please give a story or an example for each?

1. Get your finances in order. To be a successful agent, you must have a firm grasp of your financial situation. You need to know what you need to produce and stay in business. You must budget for office fee, MLS fee, supra fee and marketing fee. The team covers a lot of your expenditures already, but these fees are individual fees that must be taken into consideration. The key is to know how long you can go before closing a deal in order to stay in business.
2. Create a morning routine. First, it’s important to start your day by waking up on the right side of the bed. Creating a morning routine is a great way to set the tone for the day and to ensure it’s going to go smoothly. I start every morning by going to the gym. Personally, I wake up every morning at 5:30 am. Then I head to the gym and work out from 6:00 am to 7:00 am. After my workout, I eat breakfast, check my emails, read the bible then start getting ready for work. This routine works for me perfectly and I believe a unique morning tailor to the way you are, will definitely generate positive results in no time.
3. Focus on Lead Generation. Once you’ve started your day on the right foot, it’s time to get to business. In order to grow your real estate business, you need to focus on lead generation. Failing to focus on lead generation is one of the many reasons why real estate agents fail. Below are some real estate lead generation ideas that can help you find new potential clients:

a. Reach out to your Sphere of Influence and ask for a referral

b. Send handwritten notes / Postcards

c. Market on social media

d. Host Open Houses

e. Do Facebook Ads

f. Look into Expires Listings

g. Look into For Sale by Owners

h. Establish a Farm neighborhood

i. Sponsor Local Events

j. Work your database (and Keep it Updated)

k. Sign up for KW Phone Time

4. Become a Real Estate Expert by attending training. If you don’t want to join the 87% of real estate agents that fail, it’s essential you become an expert in the field. This means learning as much as you can by attending as many KW Lunch and Learn classes as possible. I am also going to be coaching each of you on a By-Weekly basis in order to help you achieve success. The more you know about our business, the more powerful you will be.

5. Have fun.

Because of your position, you are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

If I had the ability to start a movement, I would love to create a people heritage month. I would love to celebrate people in general and not worry about gender, race, or background. Where we can all be one and celebrate each other.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Instagram: @rhirealestate

Facebook: @RHIrealestate

Website: https://www.rhirealestate.com/

Thank you for your time, and your excellent insights! We wish you continued success.