We're the largest independent family-owned real estate company in the United States. So almost 10% of Indiana realtors are associated with Tucker. No way. So we're really in a unique position from an economic standpoint to see massive growth. Like what gets you the most excited about the potential of Tucker real estate? From South Bin to Evansville and everywhere in between.
This is Get In, the show focused on the Hoosier State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. Big news from my friends over at Hope Plumbing. Now, Hope Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling. You heard that right. They are now your one-stop shop for home services, offering plumbing, HVAC, and electrical.
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Now, let's get back into the show. Today, I'm joined by Andy Rudolph, the vice president of franchise operations for the FC Tucker Company. With over 20 years of experience in real estate and a background in engineering and construction, Andy has served as the president of the Indiana Association of Realators. in 2022 and in 2018 was named the SIR Realer of the Year. Uh his leadership in Indiana's real estate market has helped shape its growth and development. Today we're going to be talking about the history of the FC Tucker brand, the growth of the brand throughout the past long long amount of time.
We're going to get into all the details there and the future of Indiana real estate. Andy, welcome to Get In. Thank you very much, Nate. Proud to be here. Dude, I am really really excited about this one. I've said it like 10 times.
So FC Tucker was an alumni of Depal University and a member of the Deltatown Delta fraternity. So I'm trying to live up the big shoes of of these accomplished alumni and uh the guys uh from one Taylor Place and Green Castle are going to be super pumped to hear this one. Thank you for coming on and talking about it. There were just some amazing stats that we've shared uh that we'll get into a little bit later in the show about the amount pure volume real estate that Tucker Company does here in Indiana. I think there was I mean the word billion was to tossed around. So, uh I'm excited to get into that.
But before we talk about the amazing impact around Indiana that you're making today, we kind of have to start from the beginning and talk about how FC Tucker got into the real estate game. Yeah, sure. So we started 1917, so over a hundred years old at the time. Fred Tucker I Fred Senior as we referred to him. He was starting out just as an independent operator with a few agents. He was working in the Indianapolis area.
Uh and uh generationally he's handed it down several different times. So he started the uh the company itself in 1917. uh Fred Tucker II, also known as Bud Tucker, uh was involved after that. And then finally in 1986, Fred Tucker III, uh along with Dave Goodrich and Jim Littton, uh took over the company at that point. And that's where we saw some real growth beginning to happen. Right.
So there were significant growth between 1917 and 1986, but then after 1986, the actual brand really took off where we found our sweet spot in residential real estate. uh in expansion uh started to grow from there. Which Tucker was it that went to Depal? Bud Tucker. So, probably the second. You may have to do that research and have uh have a plug it in for I know.
I'm going to have to look that up cuz I'm like, uh I But there are three of them. Bud Tucker. Class of Class of 1940. Yeah. That that that lines up there. Okay.
Uh and so it's been passed down three times. Yep. Familyowned. Still to this day, we're the largest uh independent uh in the state of Indiana. We're also the largest brokerage in the state of Indiana. So, when you say independent, what do you mean by that?
Independent meaning we're family-owned. So, we're not a corporate um traded on Wall Street type stock, right? We're part of an independent uh brand. Uh we are part of the Howard Hannah family of companies as well, which is also a family-owned operation. And we're the largest with being part of Hannah Holdings, we're the largest independent familyowned real estate company in the United States. So part of 15,000 agents strong.
Uh really proud to be part of that uh that organization. It's really great. So how many real estate agents are a part of Tucker? 15,000. So we have about 1,200 in central Indiana as part of the FC Tucker company. We've got another 500 or so that are part of the rest of our network around the state.
So outside of central Indiana, we also have franchise operations and they go all the way from Fort Wayne to Evansville, Valareerezo to Madison, right? So, we have the central Indiana covered by our franchise or by our um company-owned stores and then we have franchise operations that hit all of those other areas outside of that footprint, but they're all part of our Tucker family. Right. And so, this started with Bud Tucker as like an agent back in the day, just sell like slinging houses, slinging real estate in central Indiana. Yep. And then just by growing up and getting more people and just building up the business over time.
Yep. And part of it is growth based off of the culture that we developed. So each of the Tucker family members and and Jim Linton and Dave Goodrich and those have developed such a culture around us that that we had more and more people wanting to get into that. So in the 80s as we were expanding and growing in central Indiana, they had a lot of knocks on the door that said, "Hey, what is working for you here that we could do other places like you know if in Evansville uh we want to use the same formulas and stuff we did." So, at the time, Jim Littton, who is one of our owners, uh, got in his car and drove up to Chicago to where there's the National Association of Realtors offices and library. And so, he sat down in the library and he just started looking up franchising because he's like, I don't know that I could, you know, fully develop systems just like we have in Indianapolis for Evansville or Lafayette or uh, Fort Wayne.
Uh, so he did a whole bunch of research trying to figure it out, right? and he came back with a with a plan and that began our franchising adventures in about 1990 and now we've got 29 office locations throughout the rest of the state that are all independently owned and operated franchise partners of of our FC Tucker and that's what you oversee right is franchising operations and and so I mean in the time that you've been there and is that isn't that how you kind of got into Tucker in the first place on the receiving end of of kind of like brought into the family? Yeah, I was kind of brought in. That's a good way to put it. U I was back up just a little bit. So I was born in a real estate family.
My dad was in it and growing up, you know, I'd see him put on that three-piece suit and and we'd go to church on Sunday and then he would disappear and just go off working. And I was like, the one thing I don't want to do is be a realtor because that part looks awful. So growing up, I said, I just want to do something different. So I went to uh Purdue. I studied engineering. uh got out of that, had a really awesome internship with Walt Disney uh where I was uh working with their engineering department called Imagineering.
Um I did that for 3 to four months and then moved out to Boston doing anything I could do to stay away from Indiana because that's what young kids think. They think they need to get out and go see what else is out there. Uh but then they they go off and they say, "Oh, hey, uh uh the world the grass isn't always greener on the other side." And so when I was living in Boston, I was like, "Man, I just I want to get back to Indiana." like that's where my my roots are. I need to get my my roots back in that southern Indiana soil.
There you go. So, I moved back and uh I was working at a pizza place in Evansville called Terrronis and I was kind of working on weekend. You you went from interning at Walt Disney. What were you doing in Boston? I was working for a consulting firm. I did design work for I did the paging system for Miami International Airport.
I did arenas, sound and video systems for You're a Purdue engineering grad, right? Purdue engineering grad. Yeah. And then you find yourself back in Evansville slinging pizza. I was back in Evansville slinging pizza because I just I loved Indiana. And I wanted to be back home and and my high school sweetheart was here.
So there's, you know, the truth comes out. There it is. But the one thing I knew was I, you know, I tried engineering. It wasn't necessarily my fit. I didn't like living outside of Indiana. You know, I wanted to come back and do something else.
Uh, but I wasn't sure what it was. And one day my dad said, "Hey, man. if you go get your real estate license, I'll pay you a commission on this flip house I'm working over here and I'll sell it to you at my cost. And I thought, okay, that sounds sounds pretty good. So, I went and got my my real estate license. How do you just like go get like was it hard?
It's not really tough really. Indiana has uh pretty easy laws in place, right? We are we're a controlled license, which means you have to do a 90-hour course. You got to take a state exam uh and pass and complete those with 70% or higher. 90 hours. I could probably go get licensed in like two weeks.
I saw somebody do it once in three days. God bless Nikki. I don't know how she slept like but she days. Yep. Yep. Holy smokes.
Okay, that's intense. Yeah. So, I wouldn't suggest that. For most people, it's about an 8 10 week course, something like that, unless you do an intensive. Um, but that allows you to get a license, but getting a license doesn't mean you're going to be successful in this, right? So, part of it means because that was like a co thing, right?
Like everyone and their brother I felt like got licensed. looked like we have we went to record high numbers. 22,000 realtors in the state of Indiana uh at its peak and uh and they're still pretty high in those same amount of numbers, but we only have so many transactions to go around. So much housing that's there. The business is able to be able to make uh any kind of wage and lifestyle that you want out of it. So that's a lot of the attraction that real estate always brings.
But what people don't see is the hard work that has to go in behind the scenes to be able to generate those leads to be able to bring in the people and uh and have folks to be able to represent as either buyers or sellers. So, um and so you started through the flip house. I remember you telling me about uh before we started recording, right? The was it the dirt floor or something? Yeah. My first listing I sold was a one-bedroom house and the back room of it could have been a second bedroom, but they didn't have any floor in it cuz the people kept chickens inside.
So, you see everything from the worst to the best. And when I got done selling that house, there was a the seller came to me who was an absentee owner and he just goes, "Okay, now if you can sell that house, you can sell any house in the state." And it was it was right. And so then you started to get into the family business after uh not really wanting to explore that. He kind of tricked me into it is the way to look at it. But my dad was an independent brokerage as well.
So right uh in Indiana if you are a licensed broker you can have agents that work for you. Um and you can develop your own brand, your own marketing, that kind of stuff. I come from a small town in southwest Indiana uh called Wesville somewhere between Evansville and New Harmony. And I still live down there. Love the place. you know, he had his own brokerage and for the longest time, I worked one-on-one with my dad.
So, I learned the business there. Uh, when he was ready to retire, you know, I took over that brokerage from him. But I remember one day, and I always tell this as my the printer broke story. One day, the printer broke and I couldn't print out the payroll for my one non1099 employee to take it to the accountant's office to do it. And I was just fed and I needed to go get Pinewood Derby car kits for my kid. And so it was that was my breaking point day.
That was the day that I knew that I didn't want to do this alone. I wanted to do it as part of a bigger team. Um so I had had great relationships with the uh the owner of the FC Tucker franchise in Evansville. Um and I called them up and said, "Hey, you know, I think it's time for me to do something bigger um than than just the small brokerage that we had together." And so we we merged my family's real estate brokerage with their brokerage. Um, and I became a manager for for their uh for their operation in downtown Evansville.
And I did that for about 10 additional years after that. So, uh, really enjoyed it. It gave me a bigger picture of what real estate looks like, right? Because it goes from like running a small business, right? Like I don't know what was the if you said like transaction like how many houses were you guys selling a year uh with your family owned? Yeah, probably in the range of 30 to 50, maybe 100 on a good year.
My dad did a lot of real estate development, right? So, he did a lot of small subdivisions. We did new home construction. We did this. I always call my dad the Forest Gump of real estate, right? He would just kind of fall into different things and be able to to to work it out, figure out how to make a make a dime.
Uh so, uh he was real fortunate to be able to to follow in his footsteps as that. But when I started with the Tucker company in Evansville, which was called FC Tucker Imi and still is to this day, you know, I learned a little bit more about what organized real estate looks like, right? Um, so we were able to make uh make a good living on that. It raised me, you know, so it wasn't all all bad. Uh, but I got to see what the bigger side of that is. So scale starts to uh to help out in that way.
What are the challenges that these independent family-owned brokerage what what kind of challenges are they facing versus the challenges that come at with scale? Yeah. So, if you look at it, I mean, there's so much demand by consumers today on things like internet tools and website, email, all that kind of stuff that as an independent owner, I was having to figure out on my own, right? So, I would have to come in and and if the coffee needs made that morning, I'm making the coffee. You know, rent needs to get paid, I'm getting paid. And interestingly enough, and a lot of people don't understand this, but brokers in Indiana, so real estate agents are independent contractors.
We're not employees. So, so you're not an employee of the brokerage you're with. You're partnering with them to supply services to you. They when you go out, you decide you want to work with the next uh buyer's agent to be able to work with. They're not receiving a check from the company that they work with, right? We're all independent contractors.
We all get 1099s at the end of the year. But the brokerage you affiliate with is is the place where you get your tools and your support. So the brokerage takes a small cut of the amount of money that is brought in by the agent, but in return they get all of the rest of this stuff so that they can focus on client interaction as opposed to all of the rest of the business stuff. So it's kind of a unique uh arena to be in. No other business that I'm aware of goes fully straight commission. Yeah.
And and that is due to like you the success of it, right? It's like anyone can probably like sign up. Yeah. You and you can be really really good or you could sell, you know, just like your friend one house a year or whatever. But you have to be, if I remember right, where you have to be under a brokerage, right? Like I if I just went out and you get your license today, you have to wait two years before you can have your own brokerage.
To be a managing broker, you've had to have been in business for at least two years. You have to take those state exams again. uh the barrier is not really really difficult. Uh and we used to have across the state thousands and thousands of brokerages over time those have kind of consolidated because what people have found is that hey if we get under a larger umbrella a lot of the hassle stuff kind of goes away. Um so if you're an independent broker owner you've got 10 agents and you're working in in my uh and you are trying to do all of that stuff for all of your agents make sure they have all that full support. That's where like a franchise operation comes into handy, right?
We can take a lot off the shoulders of the owner um and take a lot of those things away and make them be more productive in the things that they can do to support their agents and the agents therefore supporting their clients. So yeah, and it goes from, you know, being part of this bigger team and yeah, you say not having to worry about running payroll or, you know, all the headaches that can come along. uh and you can focus more on supporting getting more leads, selling more houses. And what we find is to be people that make uh great success of being in this business have an entrepreneurial spirit in the first place, right? They're trying to figure out the way that they want to be able to work uh to be able to support their lifestyle, uh to work best inside of their family, uh to be able to do those things. So, they come in with creative spirits.
So, it's really energizing to work with the agents every day because they're always coming up with great ideas and they're the real secret sauce. They're what makes uh a company like the FC Tucker Company great is because we have some of the best agents across the state, real professionals that are working hard to help support their their uh their clients. And how many agents do you guys have? We have about 1,200 or so in the FC Tucker company. We've got another 400ish in the uh in the franchise operations group. And so those are separate.
Those are separate, but we consider them all family, right? Because they're all part of us. They are separate businesses. Uh but uh but they're really part of our Tucker family. So looking at that overall, yeah, I mean we're we're up there around 9% of all licenses in the state of Indiana are supporting their Tucker. Nine 9%.
Yep. So almost 10% of Indiana realtors are associated with Tucker. Y no way. Yeah. Okay. And you said I mean you had this crazy stat of like how many real estate transactions touch Tucker?
Yeah. So last year in the state of Indiana, just talking about residential real estate, there was about 88,000 residential real estate transactions and that totaled about $22 billion in residential sales. In total in 2024, there was $22 billion worth of real estate sold. Yep. And just residential. And out of that, about 5 million of it was under the FC Tucker brand.
Um, we make up a large percentage of those things. Again, we have the most uh 5 billion 5 billion AB. So 5 billion of the $22 billion of Indiana real estate sold in 2024 was attributed to Tucker had a Tucker agent sitting at the table with them. That's like it's almost 25%. Not quite, right? You have to though, there's a little bit of weird math that goes along in in real estate sales compilations where you have to cut that in half.
It's closer to about 12%. Oh, because it's a sale and a purchase, right? So, you have to do a little bit of of working there to make sure that that math works. But in 22 billion dollars worth of real estate, uh, changing hands, we made up a a a strong position inside of the market. That is wild. Yeah, it is kind of neat.
And if you look back, it's been really fun to watch over the last couple years because we had some we had some interesting years in real estate to say the least, right? In my lifetime, this was the the wildest ride. uh our our owner Jim Linton always likes to say well that was Disneyland during 21 and 22 uh because it kind of felt like everybody was out there but I will say as an agent it was really really tough during those years. So even when people said oh the the market's crazy you guys are doing great it also meant that we had you know 15 offers at a time and I could make one happy call to one client and I had to make 14 sad calls to others. And are you still like out and about like selling homes and showing homes and doing that? So I did that for the first portion of my career whenever I took on this role.
I stepped out of the buying and selling arena because I wanted to be able to support my clients in a better way. So I refer them to agents that are inside of our system now. They still get taken care of very well. But I spend my time on the road. I'm out doing trainings. I'm out doing uh recruitment, finding us new franchise partners uh and and just generally supporting our brand everywhere because that is a big issue, not an issue, but a a problem to solve is integrating these teams, right?
It's like you and I think most recently you guys just partnered merged with a huge brand out of Lafayette, Chuk, right? And I mean they're a pretty legacy brand in the area, correct? Correct. Yeah, they've been around for a hundred years as well. And so you think about a hundred years of systems, processes, name, brand, all that stuff. Uh you want to honor and and like can maintain that legacy, but you also have like ways and reasons that that like you know you guys are doing $5 billion of transactions a year.
How do you balance that? Yeah. So we want to do it with true honor to the partners that we come with, right? Some brokerages or some brands look to go out and just partner with somebody who's willing. And that's not necessarily our our mantra, right? We look for partners that look like us, that have the same corporate culture as us, that are full service brokerages, right?
We really do. So full service brokerage means that we're in it for for every aspect of the transaction. If you come to me uh and say, "Hey, I want to buy." I can say, "Well, I not only will help you do the preliminary search, we've got title, we have access to insurance, we have access to uh mortgage services through Howard Hannah Mortgage. Uh we can help service you in all aspects of it. So, we're a one-stop shop as opposed to somebody who might be out doing another model where it is we do the brokerage and we partner with other things in the group.
We have all of those aspects underneath our umbrella uh with Hannah Holdings and FC Tucker Company." I had a conversation the other day uh with a mortgage company, right? And it's like you go to a realer, you know that you're they're going to refer you like one or two of their friends who are doing and so it's like having someone that's that their incentives are aligned and they're upfront about that where it's like hey this is our mortgage partner, this is our title partner, this is this like I don't know I think that just and by no means are they obligated to do that, right? But we want them to have that opportunity. So that's where that full service parts comes in. We're not discount.
We're not going to come through and say, "Oh, well, we do this, but we don't do that for you." You know, we we market ourselves as a guide through the entirety of the transaction, every aspect that can be there. And I think that's been successful. We've known that it was successful for that. That's why we're here for a hundred years. And some other models that haven't been around as long, uh, you know, have to prove their time and catch up with us after after 100 years worth of service.
when you're like price shopping or just considering real estate, how do you make decisions as the consumer who's selling a house? How do you choose and what are the the things that people choose when listing a house or choosing someone to list their house for them? I think the most important thing for a consumer to do um is to interview folks, right? Have them come into your house, have them look around. I I say that whenever I was in the selling space, I spent as many nights at other people's dining room tables as I did at my own, right? Um because that's where the real magic is made.
You have to have someone who you have a connection with that you have a understanding and a truth that they're guiding you in the right way. Um so my first uh recommendation is to interview somebody, right? So talk to your friends or your family, get the name of some folks that do it and bring them in and have them tell you why they should choose you. Um we're a service industry. Uh really are. I always use it.
We're closer to attorneys or doctors than we are to other things because they always call it the practice of medicine and the practice of law. This is the practice of real estate and that's how you learn it, right? We're not selling anything. I always hate calling it the real estate industry because that implies that there's a factory over here with smoke stacks and we're building widgets and that kind of stuff. I don't we don't build anything. Realtors don't build anything.
what we're selling is us, our service, our integrity, all of the things that go along with that, right? So, when when I say what should a seller look for is sit down across the table from people and interview them and ask them, you know, what's important to them? What should they be considering whenever they work on it? What tools is that agent going to use to be able to get you top dollar for for your buy? Yeah. Well, and like on the buying side, it's like you are a guide through people's biggest transaction of their lifetime.
Yeah. In a lot of cases, it's the largest financial asset that some people have outside of their retirement funds, right? So, it's the single largest asset and we want to help you protect that could also get like blown down or like, you know, leak. You know, it's like if your if your retirement fund was leaking, like that's one issue. But it's like you buy this thing, you put up all this money, and you're like, "Oh, now like my furnace can go out or whatever." And I will tell you, the the best option that you have is when you work with a good real estate agent is to stay with that real estate agent, the same UA as you would with a really good doctor or with a really good lawyer, right?
Because there's so many times that I had had customers call me and be like, "Hey, you know, you helped us buy this house 10 years ago, but I need an electrician. I got it. I got it. I don't know how to do a lot of things, Nate, but I do know a lot of people. And that's the secret sauce to real estate. Yes.
Is the I have a guy for that. I have a guy for that. Like I may not know how to do it, but I have a guy for that. Yeah. The rolodex of real estate agents is crazy. And it's like even random stuff that like don't have anything to do with houses.
Oh, like, oh, you need an underwater basket weaver. Like, yeah, I actually sold him his aunt's house back in 2017. Like, I know an underwater basket weaver for sure. And so as you guys are going out and brands are considering uh franchising with you guys, h how do you know that that's a good marriage there? Yeah. So normally what I'm looking for is I'm looking for a broker owner that shares the same general culture inside of their brokerage as what we have because then that transition is going to be a lot easier, right?
So, if they have the same the the same ethics, the same uh moral uh compass as we do, it makes it really easy to be able to say, "Hey, this is something where we can help you out. We're not making a massive change to your business, but we're giving you a whole lot of support systems. Uh because it can be lonely being a small broker, independent broker owner. I I did that, right? It was me and my dad. If I didn't have my dad to show me what it was I should be doing uh there and came up in it generationally, it would have been really hard for me to be able to figure out what to do.
And what I see now is whenever I go out and work with smaller uh or or even midsize brokerages, um a lot of them don't have an exit strategy maybe for when they want to retire. So they, you know, they have an asset here that is a brokerage. Sometimes we can partner with them and a young person inside of their office that wants to keep it going. Um and we can work through things that way. So it gives uh legacy owners a lot of opportunity to have a salailable market, right? So they have a an asset that they can go out and do something with.
When you think about, you know, the expansion, I mean, you guys have been doing this for a very long time and to still be like hungry and growing, like what gets you the most excited about the potential of Tucker Real Estate? I think whenever we meet with a partner, regardless of what the transaction looks like, right? So we meet with a broker owner and we start to hear a little bit about what they need and we start to show them the tools that we have already developed because when you're the scale and size that we are we have buying power for various uh technologies and tools that others wouldn't. Um but a lot of times it just means we just know this position that they've been in right and so we know what it is that they might uh they might benefit from and so we show that to them and when their eyes kind of light up and they're like ah that's that's the thing that I've been missing. um you kind of you kind of see that in their face but it it you know the conversation never goes the direction that you think it will be in the onset.
Um so in the onset I you know we were meeting you talked a little bit about of our acquisition there of the shook uh realy group in in Lafayette. I mean that started with me working with our current franchise owner there. We had had a franchise there for for 30 years um run by Lou Johnson. Lou is fantastic, a big-time agent in her own right at the time when she was still selling. Um, but uh, but she was looking for an exit strategy. So, we were shopping around looking for for various partners.
And every time I would talk to Lou and I'd say, "Hey, Lou, who else in the real estate market would you, you know, like to see us bring in and help help take over your your legacy ownership?" She goes, "I really think it needs to be Charlie Shook in the Shook Agency." And so, I said, "Well, I guess we'll we will see if they're open to that that opportunity." So, Charlie called us. We came in, we sat down and started to talk and then he finally said, "Oh, no, really, we might be open to the opportunity of joining the Tucker Company as well." So, we wanted to honor their legacy and this as well.
So, we combined our franchise operation along with the Shook Realy Group into our first metro Indianapolis office that's outside of Indiana or Indianapolis up in Lafayette. So, that's when you say own store. So, it's a corporate owned store. So, not a franchise. Not franchise. So we start down that path, but what we really do is we want to look at the agents that are there and the ownership that's in that in place there and say what's best for them.
And in this case, their ownership said what's best for us is for us to be a corporate owned store. Why would that make it better? They had been in business with family. They saw the opportunities of the things that we were able to put together, and so they felt comfortable carrying on their legacy of a family-owned operation by going to another family-owned operation. And so this made for or a good exit. And like I said before, our cultures aligned.
So it made it very easy to go in. But we're trying to honor all of their their legacy. So the name of the operation in in Lafayette is now FC Tucker Shook. We are including their their uh family's legacy uh in even the naming of the thing because because the shook name in Lafayette super super strong, right? a lot of years of of real estate, a lot of transactions, and and we wanted to honor honor their family as well. So, so the operation in Lafayette while being a corporate owned store is is identified as FC Tucker Shook, which makes me really proud.
Yeah. When you talk about like well-known names, you know, having the Shook name around Lafayette is amazing, but the Tucker name around the state of Indiana and Talk to Tucker, what what's the history behind that? Who was the first person to put that on a sign? the talk to Tucker slogan came up in the in the 60s, right? And it was just kind of a mantra and then the next thing you know it kind of takes off and we've really leaned into it over over time. As a matter of fact, that's what you see on the signs, right?
It doesn't even say FC Tucker on it. It says talk to Tucker real big at the top of it. So, it's uh it's been something that we've been really proud of. We lean into it. It's so well known around the state that Yeah. It's not very often that like a marketing campaign or like a slogan like you know like for this is going on 80 years.
Holy smokes since the 60s. So 60 years by public math and it uses that that uh synergy operation and it doesn't mean that you need to come to the Tucker Company in Indianapolis but you can come to any Tucker branded operation because we share those same sensibilities. So, uh, uh, it really is something that we're we're proud of. And the guy who had done my job in this franchising operation, kudos to him. He did it for nearly 30 years, uh, and set us up for a great base, uh, around the state in all of these various locations. I do wonder who was like in that marketing, if they even called it a marketing meeting, but like back in the 60s and it's like, you know what, we should just put like one sign that says talk to Tucker and see what happens.
and then and see what and then like you know 60 years down the road it's everywhere on every single one of the signs and it's like one of the most like recognizable slogans of Indiana business. Oh yeah. So you are from Evansville and it's not very often that we get someone from Evansville to come up and uh and be on the podcast which I'm super super grateful for. One thing about the past few years that Evansville has never been more connected to Indiana Indiana and Indianapolis than it is currently. Right. Talk about was it the 65 69?
Yeah, I the I69 corridor is finally complete. You can now whip back and forth between Evansville and Indianapolis quicker than you ever have before. And you can really tell it in the Evansville community, right? Whenever I was growing up, there was no great way to get to Indianapolis. You know, I used to tell everybody, I'm like, "Well, we're in Indiana, but it's easier for me to get to St. Louis or Louisville or even Nashville than it is to get to Indianapolis."
Because you just it there was kind of a pain. And a lot of the studies before I69 was done said, "Well, it may save Evansville commuters 15 to 20 minutes." I will tell you, it's way better than that now. Wait, so what did it used to be? How how long did it used to take to get from Indianapolis to Evansville? I always considered to get to downtown uh Indianapolis from my house in Evansville took about four hours.
I And you lose an hour. Are you in a different time zone? We're in the central time. We're on slow time, too. So it makes it real difficult to make it for me to morning meetings because you're five hour, right? It's like a 5 hour trip, right?
But once 69 is complete, I can get here now parked in downtown because I had a meeting at Monument Circle yesterday. So from my house to downtown uh parked uh at the state house, I was 2 hours and 45 minutes. So from 4 hours to 245. 245. Yeah. It's crazy how much more connected it makes it.
So now there's all of this mentality that used to be in the Evansville market was well we're going to do, you know, our MSA, our metropolitan service area meant we were probably going to go for services to Louisville or to St. Louis. Now with the opening of that, it gives uh access easier to the to the capital, which is so I mean and you're like basically minus a few years in there a lifelong Evansville resident. Yeah. And you used to feel more connected to St. Louis or Louisville or Nashville than Indianapolis.
Absolutely. Even though I was h who's your proud, right? It was hard to get to Lafayette whenever I was going to college at Purdue. Right. So, it was you went straight up 41 and you went through all the stop lightss that that are part of that. Now, I69 connects us.
And if you look at the state of Indiana in general, now we have this wonderful web that goes across the northern part, southern part with I64 and 70. Uh, right. And then you have this giant X that crosses the center of the state. 69 from one corner to the other, 65 from the other corner. So we're really in a unique position from an economic standpoint to see massive growth. Well, you were telling me an interesting fact when we we talked maybe a few weeks back that Evansville is like a a logistics hub or something something to do with defense mechanisms.
I don't know what they are. So, so one of the largest inland ports in the United States is found in Mount Vernon, Indiana. Uh, which is right down as far south and west as you can go in the state. Um, is it Mount Vern? That's Posey County, correct? County.
Down at that port, one of the companies that's down there is BWX Technologies. BWX does welding for nuclear reactors for submarines amongst other things. So, a lot of that is government contract uh defense things uh because of the access they have. It's railway access, the access via the interstate system and the port itself to be able to take uh those reactors once they're done down the Mississippi all the way to the to the Gulf to exit. So, there's defensive strategy stuff that happens inside of Indiana that you wouldn't predict is in Indiana, right? It's just like kind of crane is a hidden resource there in in Indiana.
So, so we have we have access to things that are like that. But I think that the growth that you see, say if you leave Indianapolis in your studio today and you drive to drive to Chicago, right? The connection that has been made across I65 and the growth that's happened between say Lafayette and and Indianapolis is all a result of our wonderful roadway system that we have. And those growth means jobs. Jobs mean income and money. means better uh living for for those residents here in the Hoosier State.
So, we're seeing great growth all across the state as a result of those things. Hey Hoosiers, let me tell you about Keller and Keller, a respected Indiana based law firm that's here for all of us from Evansville up to South Bend. They've been serving Hoosiers since 1936, and they really know what it means to fight for the community. These guys have recovered over $1 billion for their clients. Yes, that's billion with a B. That's a serious track record of getting results.
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Now, let's get back into the episode. Yeah. And it's the things that uh I don't know if the normal everyday civilian, you know, thinks about, oh, this another road construction project like crazy. Like I had um Justin Birkheart from Warmlow on and he talks about they have their manufacturing operation in Centerville and he talks about being able to get on 70 in like from loading a box into your truck to you know on the road in 35 seconds. Like there are 35 seconds to go like to get on to 70 and start on the highway. Yeah.
On the highway and start pushing it wherever they need it to go. And it's like oh yeah those little things like add up over time being close to transportation and connections. For those that may not have a ton of experience with Evansville, like how would you describe the community, the town, what are the big industries? Like if you had to give uh a PowerPoint presentation, Evansville 101, what do people need to know about? Well, I'm going to start off by backing it out because I think that regional thinking in the state of Indiana has become the thing. There's a a program called Ready Grants um that the state legislature put in uh a few years ago and those worked off of regions, not necessarily cities because cities are starting to grow together, right?
You don't know if you're in city A or city B because they start to blend as they grow in. So, I want to talk more about Southwest Indiana as a thing rather than Evansville. And that could be the anchor to that, but there's so much industry in southwest Indiana. Where would you say the geog the geography runs from? Southwest Indiana. I think now contrary to the belief of everybody in Bloomington, I don't consider that southern Indiana.
Now, it's south of the capital, right? But unless you're against it, I know they're going to be very mad. And first off, I'm a Purdue grad and now I'm going to say this. So, while they are south, there's a whole lot that goes on beyond that. So I would say that southwest kind of runs from Dubo County and Jasper um down say to Canton Tel City and then over to the river in other in the other two directions. So that to me is that boundary of southwest Indiana.
And when you look at it that way then you go oh what are the big industries? Well there's a whole lot of population base and there's a whole lot of infrastructure that's there whether it be railroad again highway interstate that kind of stuff. So we see a lot of support things that have gone up. I grew up during the time where Toyota built a brand new plant building uh the Sienna minivans in Princeton, Indiana, right? And I saw how that was able to shape that community and how it grows. Um and it also has all these supporting businesses that come with it, right?
So there's a break plant that's there. Uh there's a plant that just makes the doors, you know, there's things like that that are that have sprouted up around it. So whenever I say southwest Indiana, there's industry that goes all the way from furniture making to plastics industry is very very big with Barry Global headquartered in Evansville, various manufacturing things that take travel into a spec uh into respect in Mount Vernon. We talked about Mount Vernon before. There's a really big asphalt uh asphalt shingle plant uh that's down there, right? Because they have access to oil, they have access to the materials, and they have access to the labor to be able to support it.
So, we've been very fortunate to to have those type of industries looking at it. And I've worked with a lot of the local uh local politicians to to help bring some of those folks in. And that's another tool that realtors do in our community all the time is that uh you know, we are asked often to to help court various manufacturers to come to town and uh and and stuff because we know the market area as well as anybody else. So when they come in to help for shovel ready sites, um we can be instrumental and help bring uh bring those businesses in. When you're selling selling southwestern Indiana to any sort of economic partner or anyone that might be bringing like what do you what's the pitch you give them? Yeah.
So we might say, "Hey, look, we have this demographic um that's down here. We have this uh educational attainment. We have available workers and they want to be inside of this community, right? So we show them all of those demographic things, but then we just show them the good things that come with us. For years, economic development always ran by, well, let's try to bring jobs in first. So we would court employers first, right?
Say build a factory. But instead, we've found that there's a far more effective tool and that is making life there better. Right? So you talk about parks and trails and support systems and where does little Janie go to have swim class and where does uh mom get groceries or where does dad uh have his club that he wants to join and those kind of things. So when we start to focus economic development on those kind of things then it frees up the um the employer then is looking because we already have the people that want to stay there. So very proud to say we've got a lot of employment.
One of the fastest growing companies in the in the uh country right now is Nyx Manufacturing. And Nicks Manufacturing started as a little welding shop by a guy two generations ago in Poseyville, Indiana. And Nick's uh materials now spans multiple states, employs hundreds of people. Uh and all grew out of a really smart family saying we want to be here and we want to be embedded in the town of Posyville. And when you get employers that say they want to be embedded in the community that you're in, um, then they have a lot of of respect. They're willing to give back to those communities just like like we do.
And if someone was going on a weekend trip to southwestern Indiana, let's say Friday morning, you're leaving from Columbia City, okay, northern Indiana, and you're coming down to southwestern Indiana for the weekend. What What's that trip got to look like? What do they need to hit up? Long weekend. Okay. So, I would start by putting some miles under my belt so that you get down to say French Lick and you go to the casino in French Lick, Indiana.
I think it's really pretty community. Tons of fun stuff to do there. And uh and uh the Cook uh organization has done so much growth inside of Green County there to better the place. I'd spend a night uh in the Yeah, you're hitting Friday. Friday night in French Lake. It's a really good time.
Uh, I had just went down there this past summer for the Cornferry Golf Tour. Phenomenal time. Very, very great. Then after that, I think on your second day, you want to head down towards Evansville. You want to take part in all of the things that happen in their bustling downtown. So, there's some really great stuff down there, a wonderful uh arena.
Uh, as well as if you haven't been to the Ford Center, it's a cool spot. Uh we've hosted the OVC tournament, uh the Missouri Valley uh conference tournament, and just last year we hosted state wrestling when there was a conflict up here. So I was in your in your I was thinking uh the NBA All-Star weekend just takes precedent over the wrestling state finals and kicked us. But I had a great time. It's a fun downtown. Pyro Technics.
They brought Fords Center really. Yeah. Rolled out the red the the southern Indiana hospitality. But that whole little downtown district right there because there's a casino right in downtown also. Yep. Casino, some great hotels, wonderful food and dining.
Um, Indiana in general has that overall, but I think in southwest Indiana it's got some really cool uh little hip spots that are that are fun to hang out at. Yeah. So, one I remember the Donut Bank. Yes. Like the o the OG one in Evansville. That's legitimately a bank.
It's it was it started several years ago. The Kimp family has it. They have multiple locations now. It is really a fun fun place. Great family uh thing. But it's traditional donuts, cakes, pastries, that kind of stuff.
And it's an institution in the Evansville area. That and then the other one that we went to, we got dinner at Comfort. Comfort. Yep. Let me tell you, holy smokes. Yep.
Southern comfort food and a really, really cool atmosphere. It's three stories, so they've got different things that go on. Upstairs is fine dining. main floor is uh is home food uh down in the basement. They do some steaks and and that kind of stuff. So, a steakhouse.
So, we had a really really good time there. And then there's also a place that I hear about uh for food wise. So, we're giving you the recommendations on your weekend trip when you're down in Evansville. Is there a pizza joint that is like very well known? Yeah. So, Terrron's Pizza.
I mentioned it beginning of this thing. Is that the one or is there another one too that's like newer and like bougie pizza too? Okay. So that is Pangia Pizza Kitchen. Pangia. Yes.
Yeah. Because they won like Yelp, one of the top pizza places in the state of Indiana. Crazy. So they do they do fantastic pizzas, but they also have chicken wings and then they've got uh Asian noodle bowls and that kind of stuff. It's pangia uh kitchen and it is really really fantastic uh food and a fun owner too. So that owner has multiple locations of various restaurant styles uh throughout that including a buy the slice place and a really cool ramen shop both located in downtown.
So but then you have your place that you Tron is to me is the institution. That's the place when I have somebody come in from out of town and I really want to show them pizza. That's the location I go to. So I go to they've got three different locations. Jerry Tur who is the owner and founder of Terronis. Uh I got a chance to work with years ago and and he was a really fantastic guy.
But their pizza in crust we trust is a must. Yes. They're right on the uh the main street location and then the forget me not in uh as well uh which was where follow the pizza brick road. Heck yeah. I love it. So fun.
That's the institution. All right. So then after that, so to finish off the three-day weekend, the other thing that I would do, which I think is a real hidden gem, um is I would head over to New Harmony. And I think a lot of people overlook New Harmony. It's part of our n or our state parks uh project. So Harmony State Park is uh located there, but it's also one of the first settlements in the state of Indiana.
So a lot of that history is still in the town of New Harmony. Really fun place to visit. They've got a lot of old structure uh there. very artistic community. Um, so a lot of little art shops and that kind of stuff. And if you go down, if you go to New Harmony, you have to rent a golf cart because it it's better to move around New Harmony in a golf cart.
Uh, and you can kind of see all of the various sites that are down there. Uh, really, really fun historic community to go see. That's pretty cool. I've never I've never heard of that. I've never been there, but I love that New Harmony is spelled with a Y and Harmony State Park is spelled I E. And I never understood exactly why.
Somebody probably needs to do a correction and tell us. Yeah. And figure out and do some deep dive into why it went like that. But yeah, that state park looks cool and the Wabash border nature preserve and all the stuff that they have down there. And I do think, man, when you get out there in southwestern Indiana, even starting at Bloomington, so we'll say central central southwestern Indiana, the landscape just changes. And someone came on and told me talked about like glaciers, how far the glaciers came down, and then they stopped right like just south of Indianapolis.
That's why you see the change in terrain. Actually, that changes. Northern Indiana, central Indiana is very, very flat. Dude, that the the glaciers did not take it easy on northern Indiana. Let me tell you, they flattened all of it out. But they came down and as a matter of fact, the lowest point of the glacier activity during the last ice age is in Indiana.
It's about two miles away from my house in Posie County. Uh at Big Creek there is a placard up that says this is the furthest southern spot for the glacier activity. Wait, what? This is in in where? Wesville or Blairesville, Indiana. So this this was the furthest like here lies the furthest spot.
And so that's why you see that terrain change, right? So southern Indiana is very hilly uh whenever you get down to it and a lot of that has to come all the way back to the glacier activity. Wow. Uh, I think that's super fascinating. I mean, you can see it when when the roads start cutting through like the rock beds and all the stuff and you're just like, man, and when you get to French like I always say this, like the Pete Dors, I don't know if you've ever played it or been there. You look out and you're like, where the heck am I?
It's nuts. It's an oasis in the middle of the state. And I think those hidden gems are what really sell folks on wanting to come to Indiana or move to Indiana. So if I meet somebody and we have someone coming in, say it's a corporate transferee that's moving from their company and they're moving from from say California to to Indiana and they say well what is there to do here? You start pointing them towards those kind of activities and those kind of things and the and the diversity that happens throughout our state and you really start to see some real successes in what they what they see. And and you guys at Tucker have your hands all across the state, right?
from we just kind of hyped up southwestern Indiana, but I mean you have agents and and members of the Tucker family all over. Where are you seeing these hot beds of of people coming maybe into the state of Indiana or moving relocating from one place to another across the state? Yeah. So the Indiana migration patterns generally come, you know, most states their migratory patterns come from your nearby states, right? So, if you look at Ohio um and Illinois in particular, um those two have a lot of outward migration. They're moving folks into Indiana.
A lot of it's because of the tax climate. A lot of it's because of available jobs, that kind of stuff. So, we see positive migration into where? Into Indiana. Like, is there a specific spot around the state where people are going? Not as much.
I would say that if we were looking for hot beds of activity for growth, I think that we follow the Ohio River in southeast Indiana. So, there's a lot of pressure, economic pressure in Louisville that makes the Indiana side of the river pretty easy to commute. I think we see a lot of growth there. I think we're seeing a lot of growth in the region, right? So, we're seeing a lot of growth up outside of Chicago because transit's a lot easier. So, opening up the rail system that we've done uh that the light rail that will take commuters into Chicago, downtown Chicago from work, uh means that Sherville, Melville, uh Valparezo, those kind of places are kind of hot beds right now.
I think the other one that I wouldn't have predicted several years ago, but comes out of economic uh incentives that the state has put out is Cooko. Cooko is got real traction under it right now. The What do you guys see from like a home buying perspective in Cookamo? cuz I keep hearing that they are just ripid. Yeah. I think that there's so much opportunity because again they've got more they've got more jobs available now than they have people.
But for years since the economic crisis in 2008, we've seen less and less builders building new stock of of available residential housing. So we see there's more jobs and there's more people, but there's not enough housing to be able to support it. So, I think we're going to see a whole lot of growth um in subdivision development, in multif family housing, that kind of stuff in Cooko to support the businesses that have chosen to go there. And the expansion of that battery plant's been huge. So, I think I see a whole lot going on there. I think that anything along both of these corridors is ripe for for expansion and growth.
So coming out of Indianapolis either on 70, 74, 65, 69 heading south, um I think we'll see a whole lot of growth and connection together. So I was just looking up like the fastest three growing counties outside of Indian like the Indianapolis metro area cuz they they they had Boone County and they had which is makes sense because the Lebanon development's going on. They had Hendricks County and they had Hancock County and I'm like okay yeah that makes sense. It was all around Indianapolis. Uh but outside of those three, this is Chad GBT's from the Indiana Business Research Center was Rush County, so down in that corridor on the way to Cincinnati, White County, which is up by Monaceel, and I don't know what's going on up there, but that makes sense. And then Clark County down on the river, which makes sense cuz I feel like now uh a lot of people want to come across the border and live on the Indiana side, even if they do work in Louisville on the Kentucky side.
And we find that commuting pattern very common because we have property tax caps in Indiana. So, as a residential property owner, um, your property tax are capped at 1% of your assessment on your home. And that was a huge huge ad and and plus for home ownership in in Indiana. And, you know, you don't see that same kind of structure in Illinois or you don't see that same kind of structure in Ohio. So, Cooko's one. Is there another spot in Indiana where you guys are just selling a ton of homes that surprises you?
I think things eb and flow throughout the year. It's really fun to watch because of the wide footprint. Real estate is always local, right? And that's why we lean on the knowledge of the agents in those particular areas to be able to do it. Um, there'll be times where I'll see one month where southwest Indiana is down, but north uh east Indiana is up, right? Or vice versa, or it's fairly flat in central Indiana, but the southern half really takes off.
So, we see things eb and flow on a monthly basis uh like that. If you talk about just overall growth like long term, then you start to look at well where are the the places that the people want to be. Um, and I think that that central Indiana is is big in that hub. But I think as you move towards the border, anything that has the the presence of an hour to two hours uh drive space to to 465 has always been hot and will continue to be hot. It's those other buckets uh where you're where you're at the fringe ends of Indiana, where you're farther away from the central core that I think we'll see giant growth. Fort Wayne has done fantastic in its growth over the last several years of trying to to um modify and add in these aspects of living in their community that make people excited.
People get far more excited about a trail that runs through their backyard than they do another factory, right? That's the kind of thing that they want. But the factory is the necessary thing that makes them employable and and and keeps them employed. So, we see those areas that use it. And that's why I think that the ready grant program that the uh that the governor Hok's uh administration uh helped move through the legislature is so big. And I can tell which communities use that ready grant money the best.
Right. If you drive into downtown Columbus, it's pretty awesome. They've done some great things. They've also added housing support inside of there. I think downtown Columbus is neat. I think downtown Valareerezo is really cool.
Madison, Indiana. These are just fun little downtowns and I think that's where we're poised to see the most growth are these smaller communities where people kind of want to be in that small community feel. They want amenities like they can get in big cities and they want to be able to get to those big cities easily and that's where our highway uh system uh and interstate system helps us out here. So, I think where you could see really, really big jumps are in these small historic downtown communities that are starting to really shine um in giving great uh you know, living amenities. Well, you talk about communities and and one thing about Tucker is you guys are I mean an active member of the Indiana community, right? Whether it's sponsoring little league teams or I know at the hundred year anniversary there's a really awesome story Yeah.
of uh you guys raising money for cancer research. Yeah. So, we've always had a program called the giving circle. And the giving circle is a way that agents can contribute a portion of their commission uh on each sale or one-time uh donation into uh the giving circle program. And then we use the giving circle to to distribute money to United Way um various community uh local community outreach. And then we've also done uh big things with Payton Manning Children's Hospitals.
So during our 100red-year celebration, we we wanted to go at it with a big bang. Uh we had an all company uh all brand uh event at uh Lucas Oil Stadium. So we ate dinner uh dancing, all that kind of stuff out on the field, which was super cool. Oh, that's it was super super cool. Uh but I think one of the things I'm most proud of of that event and that evening is that we had Pton Manning join us u in attendance there. Uh and at the time we were able to give him a six-f figureure check uh for for Pton Manning Children's Hospital and that came out of uh contribution from from the company and it's always been our purpose and our mission to give back to the communities that we're in.
And that's been really really important to us from a legacy standpoint um for the entire time that the Tucker Company's been around. And it goes uh all the way from our leadership at the top uh down to the agents. everyone wants. We live in the communities that we work in. Um, and we want to be good stewards of that. U the terms always pay our civic rent, right?
We need to pay our civic rent at times to to to help make the communities better that we support. The Tucker family has paid their civic rent specifically to the city of Indianapolis. As I know, how legend goes is the Pacers may not have been still the Indiana Pacers without the Tucker family. And I know there's an interesting story about how I don't remember which Tucker it was, but saved the Indiana Pacers from leaving town. There was a time when the Pacers, I think this was in the late60s, early '7s, right? Uh where they were still out at the fairgrounds and that's where they were playing and and the the facility wasn't up to par with what the rest of the NBA was.
So, uh there was talks of them leaving town and uh and we knew that that was an integral part of of the community here. So, um Jeff Jwitt, uh I believe was his name at the time, uh started working on some projects to to build downtown. Um the Hilton Hotel, which is right in downtown Indianapolis, um was developed under under guidance from the FC Tucker Company. And part of that was because we hadn't had a downtown development uh of a hotel for over 40 years. So, um so part of that development and what is now Market Square Arena was all part uh projects of the FC Tucker Company. So, we looked at ways to be able to to make the downtown more attractive um to help property values in that area and part of that meant we became part owner of the Pacers, right?
So, so the development of what is uh now uh Market Square Arena was done under the guidance of the Tucker Company and and at one point they were minority shareholders actually of the Pacers in order to be able to escape from there and also did a teleathon in the 1970s, right, to be able to bring in more season ticket sales. Uh and that's what kind of saved it. But they saw that as an important part of what what what made Indianapolis Indianapolis and we wanted to make sure that we we tied that in for the long term. There are times when we all need to look at what's inside of our community and what we can do to make it better. And this is what they saw at that time. So this this is on the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, which I didn't even know was a website, but it is the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis.
In the early 1970s, FC Tucker played a role in keeping the Indiana Pacers in Indianapolis. The real estate firm developed the team's new home, Marcus Square Arena, and the surrounding area, which included the gold building. The city of Indianapolis paid for one-third of the arena's development and construction costs, and an investor group that included FC Tucker and the Indiana National Bank paid the remaining 2/3. And at one point in the Pacers history, FC Tucker owned 30% ownership of the team. Right. And it wasn't because we're in the basketball business, Nate.
We're in the real estate business. You're in the community business. But we're in the community business. That's a fantastic way to say it. And this was something we knew had to happen in the community and we see this all over the state, right? So, our agents that are in the Evansville area are actively promoting things that make Evansville better.
Our agents that are in Bloomington are actively making Bloomington better. And that makes me really, really proud. Well, you see like some of my biggest competitors on social media are real estate agents posting their hidden gems or lifestyle hacks to like living in whatever the community is. And I'm like like they're selling you like I just do this out of the love of the game and they're over here like they want you to move and love this community because it's like they want to sell you the house when you move to the community. Right. They do.
But they also love it because they're in it. Right. And I think that's why when we looked at franchising as our path forward for growth, it was because we knew the passion of the agents and the passion of the local owners that are in there could really drive what it is. And that's why we partner with them in the way that we do. I love it. Well, we come down to the end of the show.
I feel like I could talk to you like all day long and, you know, get more hidden gems around Evansville. Uh, but we have we have coming to the end. So, the first one we have is our younger year segment. It's presented by our friends at Or Fellowship. They're a great organization here in Indiana helping develop young business leaders across the state. It actually started here in Indianapolis and they just opened their second chapter down in Evansville.
So, there's now Orfellows that are uh I think the first 15 are starting this June down in Evansville and working with some local businesses down there. So, if you end up brushing shoulders with the orfellas down there, take good care of them. All right. U, Andy, what advice would you give to your 22-year-old self? Don't get in your own way. And sometimes we overthink changes that we're going to make in life.
And so, I think I would tell myself, don't be afraid to take risk, take chances, go out and do something uh today. Be active. Right? So, if you just keep thinking about things you want to do later in life, uh they'll never happen. But the best and most important thing to do is to go out and do it starting today. Just do it.
Talk to Tucker. Great slogan. Just hung around. It's just long. Yeah. Great slogans.
Um, amazing. Tell me about the craziest home you've ever sold. One of the most crazy ones that I ever did was this individual homeowner who had built a panic room in his basement. Um, but that it was also a true vault. Like, so it he there was a full vault down in the basement. uh just like a smoker's lounge and you could go into it, but it fully locked you in whenever whenever you came into the room.
So, kind of neat uh what people do with it and and what they're going to do, but I always wonder, hey, 30, 40 years from now, what will that room be and what does the next homeowner want it to be with? Uh yeah, it's like you're taking a tour and you like walk into that and you're like, whoa, I'm in a vault. Like, what's going on here? Yeah, that's pretty great. And I can only imagine like who the real estate agent on like uh I think I just saw Tony Stewart's mansion went up for sale. I think it's down by Columbus or he's like a state.
I even it's like it's a whole big thing compound. Yeah. Uh that had I mean it's crazy if you look at the listing. I think if you you know the thing to to remember is that most buyers and most sellers regardless of what category that they're in or the or price range that they happen to be in, they're all the same, right? They're all still just people. And so when you're interacting with them, it's really not that different.
Um, sometimes priorities change a little bit from one way to the other, but they all have the same concerns and they all wonder about the exact same things and and the roof leak that can happen on that uh on that same multi-million dollar house is the same roof leak that could happen on a $150,000 house. Yeah. Right. So, it's all about the same. You talk about like those compounds or whatever. That's my like that's the long-term goal.
It's like we're going to have the studio here in Indianapolis, but I want to like find a fun factory somewhere in the reaches of Indiana where it's just like you can record crazy fun videos and hang out and you know it's like five $5 a square foot or whatever it is and and my hometown's Bourbon Indiana which is up by Plymouth or Warsaw and I am like we're perusing the market there to find like some type of building that we could just build into something crazy. Nate, when it's time you know who to call. Yes. You need to talk to T. I got to There it is. Talk to Tucker.
What's one thing that every first-time home buyer needs to know? Partnering yourself up with somebody that you can trust is a fantastic way to go about it and do it sooner rather than later. If you think you're going to buy a house and your first purchase is going to be in 3 to 5 years, um, start engaging with that real estate broker now and start to talk to him and ask questions. Hey, what does this mean? How do I do it? How do I go about saving safely for for the time when we do it?
And what are the things I should expect? In the same way as I talked earlier in the interview and we said to interview people, this is part of that same process. Make them aware that you're looking but you're not necessarily actively looking now. And good agents will be able to to guide you through that process. And I think that's the most important part is find a guide that you're comfortable with. Ask your friends who they've worked with, get referrals, that kind of thing.
Uh but team up with somebody sooner than you think you should. And the reason I say that is so that they can help guide some of the other financial choices you make in life to help you reach your goal. What is the biggest real estate red flag? If you smell too much poperri, it means that they're trying to cover up something, right? So, I think use all your senses whenever you go into the house. So, make sure you're looking at things, make sure you're listening for stuff, make sure you're smelling all those things that happen.
Uh, I think those can give you telltale signs of what that house is like. But then also don't overthink it, right? So help the guide tell you whether or not the thing that you see as being a a major major problem uh can or cannot be rectified. So I would say that if you're looking for red flags, I think one of those is, you know, obviously sloping floor, but I think if it smells too good, they're trying to probably cover they're Yeah. No one puts that much stuff out there. You know, they're trying to cover something up.
All right. I love it. Uh, these are the same three questions I ask everyone who sits in the chair all about the state of Indiana. The first one, what's something the world needs to know about Indiana. They need to know that we are more than the home of Larry Bird and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. That we've got so much more to offer than just those two things.
Those two things are great, but there's more. There's more than corn and Larry Bird in Indiana. That's great. Second, fun fact, second uh highest producing state for domesticated duck in the United States. Yeah. Uh Maple Leaf Farms in Indiana.
They sling ducks. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Okay. All right.
So, we're going to see if you have any more and you kind of revealed a few of them throughout the episode, but what is a hidden gem in Indiana? I love Madison. I love downtown. Madison is just such a fun. How far away is that from downtown? Uh probably two hoursish.
you know, it's following the river, so it depends if you want to take the interstate or the curvy road uh on 66. So, uh yeah. What is that? They have like a uh they got a riata every year that would be it's on my bucket list of things to do. I've never done it before and as a hooer, I know that I need to. So, I'm going to try to get with our And it's not like uh when I think when people think riata, they think like rowboats or sailboats.
Like these are like hydro. Yeah. It's crazy. Uh like look at some of the videos. Uh, I need to actually make it down to Madison for the riata. It looks so so cool.
That's a great hidden gem. And they have a good live music scene down there, like right on their their down main strip. And another really great state park. Some really cool hotels. Eclipty Falls. But there's also a hotel that's been developed down there that has full uh floor to ceiling glass that overlooks the river as you go into it.
It's in an old factory that's been refurbished down there. So there just some really cool stuff going on in Madison. Madison, Indiana. We're coming. Okay, final question for you. Uh, you get to share the love with someone else.
Who's a Hoosier that we need to keep on our radar? Someone who's doing big things. I think if you look at the owners of Azip Pizza, have you ever heard of Azip Pizza? Pizza backwards. Yeah. So, he's from my hometown of Evansville, home area of Southwest Indiana.
He was at Purdue. Um, he was an engineer as well, as far as I'm aware. um and won a contest with the concept of azip pizza, which is effectively fast food pizza, right? You make it your with with all the toppings that you want. They run it through a conveyor belt within two minutes, comes out the other side, completely done. They've expanded to multiple locations, multiple places throughout the state.
They're at Purdue. They're at IU. They're in Indianapolis now. Um I think he's really got a fantastic program. They're franchising some things out themselves now. And I think is a really fast moving business.
So AZip Pizza uh and those guys, I think they they've hit the nail on the head and I think that's one of those things that you could see become a national brand um that started right here in the Hoosier State. Yeah. And specifically Evansville, right? Their first location was down there. Love that. AZip Pizza.
Yeah. I mean, we need to go check it out for sure. Hey Andy, thank you so much for coming on and sharing a little bit about the history of Tucker and the over 100 years of of history that you guys have. Like that's incredible. Thank you for sharing how you guys are thinking about partnering and merging with these other legacy brands in real estate throughout Indiana and sharing a little bit about Southwestern Indiana. I I feel like it's always fun to have an expert telling us all the the cool stuff we need to check out out there.
Harmony, New Harmony and Harmony State Park is on the list for sure. Uh and I appreciate you and all the work and the impact that you're making within Indiana. Thank you so much. Central and Southern Indiana and beyond, right? You're talking about $5 billion with a B of real estate transactions in a year. Like that is a crazy amount of economic impact in our state.
So, thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate being here. Thanks, Nick. Thank you for listening to this episode of Get In. If you like what you heard, make sure you leave us a review wherever you listen to podcast.
This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater. Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at sweetwater. com. If you want a behind-the-scenes look at everything we're doing across the state, make sure you follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok, Nate Spangle. Thank you so much for listening and being part of what makes the Hoosier State great. We'll see you next time here on Get
