He Lost a $12 Million Deal… Then Built One of the Midwest’s Biggest Brokerages

It was a really bad couple years. I'm a much better person, much better business person from going through like a really bad time and and still getting up every time. A lot of people be like, "All right, I tried the real estate thing. This is tough. I'm out." Signing Brain to the NIL.

It was even bigger response than when we [music] first signed Purdue Athletics. The rates are coming down. How is the market in Indiana? From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between, this is Get In, the show focused on the Hooser State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder [music] of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. This episode of Get In is [music] brought to you by Indie Grills, Indiana's go-to team for fireplaces, outdoor kitchens, and entire custom patios.

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They post some insane content. and start planning your project with them at indiegrills. com. Now, let's get into today's episode. My guest today is Jim True Blood, and he turned a passion for real estate into one of Indiana's fastest growing brokerage brands. Long before launching True Blood Real Estate, he purchased his first rental property at just 16 years old, and he never looked back.

Since officially launching True Blood Real Estate in 2018, Jim has expanded across multiple Indiana markets while building a company centered around relationships, growth, and customer experience. Beyond real estate, he has leaned heavily into athletics, partnerships, and community building to create a recognizable Indiana brand. I'm so excited to learn this story that started with a 16-year-old purchasing a rental property to now over 200 different agents, all a part of the True Blood family. Jim, welcome to the show. Appreciate it. Glad to be here.

Man, this is going to be fun. Uh, I mean, again, uh, we you always get like five minutes of like kind of small talk, getting to know the guests before we turn on the lights and get everything rolling, right? and hearing the story just a high level of it is pretty wild what you guys have accomplished since 2018. But your journey in real estate is starts a a decent bit before that. How the heck does a 16-year-old end up purchasing a re a rental property? Uh yeah, with the help of family.

So I always wanted to do real estate. So where'd you grow up at? In Lafayette. So in Lafayette, you always like that was the thing from day one. You wanted to be in real estate. Wow.

What what was the like what was the premise of that? How did you I don't know. It was just I don't know. It's just like you grow up, you want to do certain things. Obviously, you want to be an athlete when you're a little kid, but uh when you know that's not going to happen, transition to the next thing. And uh I always just had a passion for real estate.

My grandfather was in it a little bit. Um he was a great man and offered to help me. So he uh uh obviously signed the mortgage, which I couldn't do, and and put the down payment down for me and then just turned it over to me to run at 16 years old. No way. Okay, so what? Take me back.

Paint me a picture. What was this first house when you were 16 years old? Brand new construction, three bed, two bath ranch in West Lafayette, Indiana, like 1,500 ft². I think it cost 100 grand. And um yes, we we bought the property and then I was responsible for running the ads, getting the renters and collecting the rent. How did you get your first rent?

Your first is classified ads. you. So, you didn't have to call the newspaper and you're like, "Hey, uh, you know, I have this, you know, nice ranch home available in Mafia and like I want to know, you have your first showing like somebody shows up to look at their potential the place they're going to rent and there's a 16-year-old kid standing there." I do think my mom went with me [laughter] because you like a 16-year-old written like I think the first person were like 40 years old. And you're like, but you're leading the tour. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Um, like it was my baby. I mean, they were there to help, but they're like, "This is this is yours. You can do it." Um, I wouldn't say I was mature for 16, but I wasn't an idiot either. Like, take me back.

You're a 16-year-old and you get your first lease signed. Yeah. It was always exciting. I'm like, "Oh, you know, the mortgage is $800. We're getting $1,100 in rent. I'm making 300 a month."

You think is amazing. Like, it's just passive income when you're not very old. But like, you know, it's, you know, 10 PM on a Friday and something goes wrong and you're a 16-year-old kid that's supposed to be at prom and you're getting a call from a rental like Yeah. And we had we had a few of those. Um, like I said, I had some support on the back end uh with my mom and my grandfather at that time, but it went well. We we saved that money and I actually So, it was two years from going to Purdue uh used the money we made off the two years of net rentals on that and I bought another house that I lived in when I was at Purdue.

So, by the time I was 18, I had two houses in West Lafayette. No way. Yeah. Okay. So then what' you study at Purdue? Uh business school.

Okay. You went to the business school there. And so graduating was the thought, okay, I can just keep acquiring more properties. I have a funny story about college. So I was a very good student until I turned 21. So I was uh had a 40 was tops of the business school at Purdue.

Um I went to a job fair and I think like I'm going to crush it, right? And the guy who was one of the bigger banks, I forget the name of the bank, he looked at me and looked at my resume. He's like, "Well, what else do you do?" I'm like, well, shoot. I I don't know. I just I'm good at school.

I hang out a little bit and whatever. And so, that kind of woke me up a little bit and all my friends were in the fraternities. So, turned 21 and and started hanging out with them. And and although my uh GPA took a nose dive the last year and a half, I actually think it was way more important for me developmentally moving forward to have the social interaction. Like, I changed. I came out of my shell.

So even though my 40 went to a 3-1 and I barely survived, I think I was much better for it after getting out of school. That's an interesting perspective because a lot of times parents are like, you know, go there, get straight A's, do the whole nine yards. But a lot of especially in the real estate business and a lot of business in general, whether it's sales, marketing, is talking to people and building relationships and being good on paper and being good in person are not are not directly correlated, right? It's like you can be a 4. 0 know student, but it's like you shake a hand at a job fair and they're like, "Oh, that's exactly what happened." That's a little interesting.

Yeah. I I don't think he thought I was weird, but I think he was like, "You have to be well-rounded." And I realized at that point I probably was not. And then we went and we did have a lot of fun, but I met so many friends that I'm friends with today. And I will tell you, almost every one of my buddies got their job from another friend. They didn't get it from submitting a resume that looks amazing.

They got it from the network we made and built as a group. And uh almost everybody you talk to I think that's how they they absolutely real world. And so you end up graduating and you got to go join the real world and you at this point you still have two houses. I have to tell like my finishing of college was a little bit interesting because it was when Purdue was very good. Kyle Horton was there and I just told the story for the first time in a while and I never told my dad this before he even passed away two years ago. But I didn't.

All my friends couldn't graduate in four, but I was ready to graduate in four years. But I was like, man, I really want to come back for another football season. So, I fibbed and I retook all my freshman level classes. And so, I retook like history 101, all these things just so I could go back for a football season. And it actually, they don't take your best grade, they take your most recent. So, I [laughter] actually lowered my GPA by staying for an extra football season.

Um, but I don't regret it even though I probably cost my dad about 10 grand. No. Four. So, you do four and a half to go back on a reunion tour and you lower your Yes. Yeah. And I didn't know that at the time that they um in one class I about failed and if I failed I was like, "Dude, take my credits away cuz I was not participating in school much.

It was football season." Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, what year what year would that have been? 20 2003. Okay.

So, that was like right after the Rose Bowl, right? Yes. Right after the Rose Bowl. Wow. Yeah, it's a good time to be around for Purdue football. For sure.

It was. Okay. So, you end up going for four and a half. Y and then again at some point you're you know the you go get a job. At some point you have to join the workforce but again at this time you still have two houses, right? So was the idea to build up more rental properties and own that and just it was it was originally.

So I went and took a job with a family friend at a lumber yard. Uh honestly just because I didn't it was local as a purchasing manager. I just because I didn't want to move away. All my friends were still in school. So even though I I did need to go work and start paying my own rent and all that. Yeah.

Um I stayed local. Um in West Lafayette. In West Lafayette. Yes. Okay. So I moved into one of the rentals.

Um ended up renting the other one out. So I had those two houses. And during that time, my passion for real estate is when like the big boom was going on in Florida. And so I put together a what's called a condo conversion, a project in Florida. How? I just researched it, found the property, found everything, and then some of the people I worked with, the owners of the place and some other business people in West Lafayette, I was able to convince them to go look at it to end up buying a Wait, hold on.

Hold on. Hold on. Time out. Sorry, there's a lot going on. Time out. So, you're 23.

23. 23. Almost 24 there. Okay. You're 23 and this is 2004. Yeah.

One. like is Google Maps like how are you researching these places in Florida? You know, I didn't even know. I was looking on like individual realtor websites and it was in an area I knew. So, my family owned a resort from a long time ago on Longboat Key. So, I knew the area very well prior to starting to research and I knew these people were buying old properties, flipping them like motel, hotels and converting them into condos and selling them individually because as you know at that time there was a big boom down there.

Okay. So, that was the idea. I found it in these gentlemen. So take me through what's this property that you find? It it was like a 25 unit cond like a like almost a motel cuz a motel is where you enter each room from the outside. Yeah.

And so the goal it was on the beach on Casey K which is south of Siesta Key which probably most of your listeners would understand where that's a lot of people know about Siesta. Yeah. So it's it's the island just south of Siesta connects to Siesta. Okay. Okay. Um, so this property was on there and how much like what what are we talking about like financially?

It was like $10 [clears throat] million, bro. What? This is 2004. It's $10 million. You did you have it? Like you have two single family homes in Lafayette, but like you're not an expert in real estate.

So I was I didn't have the money. So I convinced them to to put the down payment, carry the finances, and if it all worked out, then I'd get a percentage of the profits. Um, so I left my job there and actually moved to Florida on my own without anybody. And um, were you like overseeing the project? Yeah. What was the cost of the the space, the property?

And how much had to go into it to like get it ready to run? Uh, there's probably another 2 or 3 million. So 12 million altogether. Yeah. I think that when you're just starting out and you're young, that number feels in untouchable. Like $12 million when you're 24 years old, like that seems like crazy talk.

How do you how did you feel comfortable and confident that uh you could go to these people and raise that money and not lose it all? Well, the interesting thing is the only person that ever said to me, "What if it doesn't work?" was my dad when I told him I was leaving to go do it. My dad is very smart. He was a defense attorney in town, well known. He's the only person even questioned like, "Oh, go do it, Jim."

He was the only one who who who said um you know, what if it doesn't work? And this story is probably not going to end how people think it does, but um so we get down there and I had had budgets done. So for me it was all numbers. I'm a numbers guy. I'm like this is what it costs. Um there were 25 units.

You sell them for this pay realtor commission here. This is going to be our net. This going to be our carrying cost. Like it wasn't to me it's just numbers. And then once they're willing to give it to us. Now the problem was uh [clears throat] why we were there as you know like 0405 is the market didn't slow down.

It shut off right. So it's you couldn't you couldn't sell them. And so now I'm I've run a project that we can't sell the condos now. And so these guys are not happy. And and to be completely honest with you, I was a 24 year old kid living on a condo on the beach. Um [laughter] it's not ideal.

And I'm down there by myself, right? I'm spending money I don't have yet. I'm just assuming I'm going to make a million dollars and I'm 24 and this is going to be great. So bar tabs and you know you know betting on sports you know overseas and all this wild stuff. I feel like you're 24 on the beach. No.

Yeah. My my brain hadn't fully developed yet. Yeah. Um and anyways so at the end of the project it got done. I if I don't know if the ears matter directly I think it was the end of '05 or spring of05 it got done. We couldn't sell anything.

So I I had to come home and then they wanted their money back and then we was like look I'm 24. I have no money. Like I'm I'm broke. like I'm going home, but I I'm sorry. So, I'm out. And so, I come back from Florida at 24ish, 25.

What happens to the the project? They they keep it and over the course of the next like 10 years, they just rent it and sell it over time. Uh but I I I had no So, do do you think that I mean, if we looked it up now, what do you think that propertyy's worth 20 years later? Oh, now with the the boom the last 5 years, it's probably worth $30 million. I mean, but I mean, you you would have to carry it for a long time. Were they local to Lafayette?

Yeah, they were all local people, which hurt because my dad knew they were business people and you know, feelings were hurt. So, it was it was a tough time. You're coming home fairly You got your tail kind of between your legs there a little bit as you come back. I took I don't know if this is PG or not, but I took an ass kicking, you know, and it didn't feel good, you know? How do you overcome that? A lot of people be like, "All right, I tried the real estate thing.

This is tough. I'm out." Like, I'm just going to go get a normal job. It's weird because you're you're younger and you're going through all these emotions and I'm like, well, I I got to do it again. Like I failed once, I got to do it again. And then you realize like that's probably not in the cards, right?

And so, um, I tell the story, my friend John and EJ had a house and I they gave me their couch to sleep on. Uh, my mom, God lover, was a divorced teacher and, um, I always say she she started giving me money she didn't have and gave me a second chance to chase my dreams I didn't deserve, right? She paying my gas. Um, you know, I was mowing I started I did get my real estate license and I was mowing lawns for the broker with the broker's son getting paid hourly at 10 bucks an hour then trying to do real estate on the side living on a couch. Um, so it's, you know, quite the juxtaposition from spring of 2024 to spring of 2025. It is a life changer.

when when you were 24 versus when you were 25. You go from living on a condo on the beach down in Florida working on 10 million plus dollar deals making 10 bucks an hour mowing lawns trying to flip some real estate on the side. Yeah. So, I got my real estate license. I went 6 months without selling anything. But the the broker I had, Jeff Cusk, was he he still is one of the the biggest brokers in central Indiana.

He had what's called the dream home on 116th in uh near Meridian. And I did open houses there every Saturday and Sunday from for two years from two to five. And I sold multiple houses. So my first three sales were like big sales cuz people come and look at this. I did like $2 million. And then I get thinking that's easy.

Then I go another six month without selling anything. So I'm like and I had got an apartment at that time and I'm like oh [ __ ] Yeah. I'm like, "Mom, like I probably Oh, again for you it was like you sell some some pretty expensive homes and you're like, "Oh, yeah. This is easy. Make make 20 grand." And then you're 25 and you get an apartment at, you know, right at at Keystone at the Crossing and and life's good.

And then you realize I didn't sell anything. It's commission only. And um it was rough there. Um, but the roughest during that time, and I have to tell this story, is I was doing an open house at the other dream house during that time. And keep in mind, this is when like I'm period of time where I'm not selling anything. So, I really am very short on money.

My mom's paying my car payment. Like, it's not great for being mid mid20s. And um I was doing an open house and I had to leave early. Like I said, I did this for 2 years. I went I was going to my sister's exboyfriend's wedding at the zoo downtown. So, I left at 4:00, right?

Left the open. So, the listing agent, the co-listing agent came in and finished the last hour and I [ __ ] you not, I walked past in the threshold of this door, this big family. He ends up being the CEO of Republic Airways, buys the house for $3 million, the lot next door for $500. The guy that came and replaced me for that hour made 75 grand and didn't give me a penny. I got I got physically ill. Like I I threw up in my apartment.

Oh my. So your sister's exboyfriend. Yeah. So I go to this wedding at the zoo because we're still buddies. But I go down to the zoo, leave the open house early. The guy that comes through the door as I'm literally leaving with his four children to buy this dream home.

Walks in the door, buys it, pays cash for the house, the place next door. 75 grand in commission in 2005. And I didn't get a penny. So what was the lesson you learned from that? Yeah. Don't leave early.

Don't leave early, right? Yeah. Oh my gosh. So, so I mean, Jim, let's be honest here. This is like several years of just getting kicked in the teeth. Yeah, it was.

And I and I tell people now like it was it was a really bad couple years, probably the worst two years, like like in totality minus like a family member passing away or something. Um, but I I'm a much better person, much better business person from going through like a really bad time and and still getting up every time and trying again and finally got some momentum going. Um, but I'm a different person because of it. Yeah. I mean, where do you feel like you started to get traction? Where did you honestly, no offense, but where it's you're 25, you're like not making any money in real est.

It's kind of starting to look like you're not very good at real estate. It is. Then it's a hard time cuz the market started when I came back here. Then we were trailing Florida, the market was slower here. So my first year in real estate here as a real estate agent, I did 19 grand in gross commissions. The second year I did 21.

So that's like before any expenses. You don't have to pay taxes when you only make 19 grand. So that was a good thing. Yeah. Maybe maybe get some like some benefits there. And then at that point I was getting a nudge from my mom.

Like she still believed in me, but she's like, you know, at some point we probably you got you can't do this. And so it slowly increased. But I will tell you about three or four years in is when I found uh Zillow and that that really changed my life. Really? Okay. So what this would be like around 2010?

Yeah. Probably 20 not 2008 2009 which is also not a great time to be in real estate. No, it seems that you you got into the business at literally like the worst 5year stretch you could have. Yeah, it Yeah, it's Thanks. It was. Yeah.

But like a lot of those entrepreneurial stories when you think about them are built like if your business starts in a recession like and that like breeds entrepreneurship and if you can survive then Yeah. then when times are good and cash is flowing then you're doing pretty well. Yeah. So I I had got it to it doesn't sound like a lot but for me it was like 40 or 50 grand a year in commissions. Um I mean which when you're in your mid to late 20s Yeah. This is a while ago you're chilling.

I was fine cuz honestly at that point with some expenses you're not paying much taxes so it's four grand a month you can live on it. I mean you're not partying or anything but it's fine. Yeah. Well you're probably not like maxing out the 401k. Yeah. Not a lot of savings [clears throat] going on.

Exactly. Okay. Um but um so my neighbors at the time were moving. Um so we went over to their house. My wife and I went over to their house just for like dinner cuz they were and they were shopping on I didn't know what Zillow was at them. They're looking at Zillow.

I'm like what are you doing? They're like we're moving to Cincinnati. were shopping on houses and they were on this Zillow app, right? And I'm like, well, what is that? And then I pulled up some of my listings on their iPad at the time. I'm like, well, I'm not even listed next to my broker's listed.

Like, why am why am I not listed to my thing? So, on Monday, I called him and he's like, oh, Zillow, it's a payto-play thing. So, if you want to be listed next to properties, you have to pay and whatever. So, I signed up that day for Zillow that Monday. And the first thing you can do is you can be listed on your own properties. But then what you can do is you can spend money um and buy leads.

So if somebody inquires on a listing on Zillow, which is still the case today, that lead gets sent to agents. Oh. So I started buying everything I could buy on Zillow. I spent every penny I had to buy more and more leads. This is the early days of Zillow, so 2010. Yeah.

like before like now I feel like people are super hesitant to like go through systems like that cuz you're going to get like bombarded with a million calls but it's like this is the early days so it's like you're just getting you know phone numbers or email addresses of people who are actually buyers. Yes. The conversion rate was very high and the ROI was very high at the time. As time went on it it reduced like Zillow raised their prices and that's what companies do. Uh, but I went from doing uh like Zillow's pretty crazy now that you think about it, you know, 20 years later or so roughly. It's like every house their historical photos like you know, everyone is just like using Zillow.

You like drive by a nice house and you're what what's the Zestimate on that guy? Like it is. So we we've been big partners of Zillow. Were their biggest partner in Indiana and have been for over a decade. That was the big difference maker. That was the I would say it changed my business forever.

like give me your what was your year before Zillow and what was your first year with Zillow? It's hard to say year by year. I have gone and looked at this before, but say I was doing 50 grand. I started buying leads and what I did was I basically got a sales rep there. I said, "Every time you release inventory, I'll buy it." Like I find a way I'll credit cards, whatever.

So everything as they opened up inventory, I bought everything. So I at some point I owned the vast majority of all Zillow leads in Hamilton County, then Indianapolis, and now we're all over. So between I would say 2010 and 2015 I went from just me to me plus 12 by 12 agents and we went from doing 50 grand in commissions like 500 um over the course of 5 years. Now, some of that's going to the agents, but I'm taking a bigger bigger split since I'm buying them. And then it's only growing um from there. And that's what kind of led eventually to the brokerages.

I built the team off of Zillow and we got to the point we're so big that I decided like, hey, I need to open a brokerage. And that's what we did in 2018. And some point during that time around 2015, 2016, partnered with Realtor. com and did the same thing. So now currently we own 100% of realtor. com leads in Indiana and the vast portion of Kentucky and almost we're the by far the biggest partner of Zillow.

Wow. So and have you seen the that change your business like and over the years as Zillow has changed has and like other people have gotten in the game there like how has that uh hurt or helped your business? Yeah, it's gone through a lot of changes. I mean they've gone through like how they price things. Now we're on one of what a program is, which is is beneficial to us where you pay on the back end, so it's a referral fee, so I don't have to pay up front. That happened three years ago.

So there's been tons of changes over the 15 years, and everybody's like, "Does it bother you?" I'm like, "Well, I just kind of roll with the punches. I'm not going to affect their decision. So I just have to whatever they change, I need to figure out and roll with it." Yeah. Um but because we've been with them so long and been with Realtor.

com so long, we have great relationships with them. So it's definitely more of a partnership with both companies than like, "Hey, I'm just buying stuff from you." like they want us to succeed so we can keep doing what we're doing. Yeah. You know, in the beginning, was it just you? Like there was not other brokerages using Zillow.

There were, but I had first right of refusal. Oh. So, nobody else could buy anything cuz I bought it before it hit the market. And I did the same thing with Realtor. com. It like it it autocharged my credit card.

So, one time, [laughter] this is in 2018 or 19 when um the brokerage just opened and I'm spending lots of money getting the brokerage opened and and different things and they have an auto charge on my credit card. Inventory opens up and I'm in a meeting downstairs in our office and I kid you not, they run through $80,000 a month in new new lead sales. So, I'm like, "Hey, I got to I got to go. Like, [laughter] I got to go see what happens." So, holy, that's not like a notification you want to get and just like BTW, they just spent 80 grand on your credit card and it's going to be repeated every month. You got to go close some business.

Yeah. So, it's one of those things, but I was always like, hey, I'm willing to probably I have my my pain tolerance, my risk tolerance probably higher than most. Um, I was willing to live on the edge to try and do something different. But the main reason we've gone from 20 agents to 260 in two states is because we pro provide opportunities they don't, right? Because we you can't go buy realtor. com leads and I don't mean this kind of as a dick, but I own them all.

So like you can't go to FC Tucker and get realtor. com leads. I I have that inventory. Why did they choose you? And why did like why was it better? Well, I mean just like anything else, they reach out to you sales people.

They're think, you know, that guy thinks he's going to sell like a couple zip codes and caramels, Fishers, whatever. And I was like, maybe I'm just different. I'm like, no, I'll I'll I'll take everything. Yeah. And so that's what I've done for a decade. For real estate agents that are listening out there when they're picking what brokerage to work for and like to kind of like hang, you know, their hat with.

What are the different uh options? Like what would you go into if you were starting back over and like picking a brokerage to go join? There are lots of different options. How do you make a decision of where to go? Yeah, I think you just have to weigh the pros and cons. I mean, I'm I'm very biased, but I I try and build a brokerage that has the best of everything to build what I would have wanted when I was working just as a for someone who doesn't even know like what are the things what are the levers you can pull and just like anything else I think you have to enjoy the place you work even though it's a lot more remote now.

I think you have to in some fashion enjoy the culture, the people there, the people that are going to help you run your business. But it's cool. They have your real but you have your real estate cap, right? So on your own business, this is what the split is. Like you go sell $300,000 house, you get 9 grand. How much are you getting?

How much is the brokerage getting? Okay. I mean, for me, that's number one. But a lot of agents, they take a lot of other things into consideration, but for me, that was always like, what's the split? What's the c what's the max I can pay? Yeah.

Cuz I mean, if you do have like a really bougie nice office and kombucha on tap, those like that's got to get paid for from somewhere. Yeah. But like also workplace culture, if you want co-workers and people coming into the office and like you know, there's a quality of life play there too. So first thing would be split knowing how much of the commission goes to the individual and goes to the entity. Okay, that's one. What are the other what are the other levels you can I think the number one thing is how much especially it depends on where you're at in your career but the business the company can generate for you.

So like this year we're a lot different than other people. We'll generate 300 million in sales for our agents from our leads from Zillow Realtor and other $300 million in sales. So like housing like total total houses sold. Yes. Wow. 300 million for and that's generated by us for the agents.

Like very few brokerages generate that type of business for their agents. So that's not even including like referrals that come in. That's not including any of their own business. That's just what we provide. Now is that hard to know? You have 260 agents.

How does the how do like who's who's dealing out the leads to people? Yeah. No, it's man and it's very close. I have a sales director, Andy. Um, I can't manage it all on my own anymore, but he runs the lead meetings, but we have weekly meetings with Zillow and then I track it very closely. So, we track the the agents conversion rate.

We track the the money that comes in. We track the gross commissions, the net commissions, what we're paying. U, we track it as a group. You try to keep that balanced. So, it's like, oh, so and so, well, you want you want it balanced, but the the people that convert better are going to get more leads. I mean, it's this is business.

Yeah. Okay. I mean, that that checks out. But yeah, it's also like if you're thinking about the faucet of leads, right? It's like, oh well, you don't want you have to kind of I probably when it first started like divvy those up amongst the people around there. So, oh man, we divy them up like there's through the CRM and stuff we'd get in the weeds, but like you know certain people have certain zip codes.

You can put them on round robin. You can just get the z this code to one one person. That's wild. You know, once somebody gets over like 20 leads a month, you need to turn them down because then then they start cherrypicking and the conversion rate goes down. So there is a lot of things behind the scenes. I think people think you just buy lead, it comes in, you close it.

There's not. It's It's way more complicated and intricate than people would think. That's wild. Yeah. Wow. Okay.

And then at some point too, like you start to get your own like marketing type, you know, like you start to get leads in through the door because they see your signs out and you because you become a known brand, right? So the brand is much bigger. So we started out when we opened in 2018 doing the Fiser Farmers Market, right? So, we were like giving out beach balls and and you know the little bags you get at a farmers market doing a tent every you know every couple weekends at 8 in the morning and I'm setting that up myself to where we are today where we're you know we haven't got into it yet but we're the exclusive real estate state partner of the three biggest athletic departments in the state and so that just creates a huge branding change for us that we're so much more wellknown than we were several years ago. Well, how did how did that come about? How did you start to get invested with Purdue IU and Notre Dame?

Yeah. So, like what was Yeah. What was the thought process there? So, they reached out and I hadn't done a lot of branding advertising before cuz I'm so hyperfocused on the numbers like with when you're buying leads or something like that. It's easily trackable. Paid this, netted this, good to go.

[clears throat] I bought bought 10 leads, closed four. Yeah. Made Yes. And if it the numbers aren't working out either, we're not doing a good job, they're charging me too much, and you work it out and it's easy. But on this stuff, it's it's branding advertising. It's very hard to track, which we have Pence Media now, which helps us with that.

But um they approached me, Purdue and IU, and um at the same time. Yes. Yep. That's a wild That's like a That's like, oh man, you got to have to choose your choose your fighter there, right? Um so they came they reached out. I'm like, I don't know.

And they're like, let us come do a presentation. Wait, they wanted to come do a presentation together. Yes. Like the two sales reps. So they both are Learfield school. So Lefield all these are the rights but they have but they have two separate reps.

Um I mean people should know like Purdue and IU like off the athletic fields collaborate a lot. The people the the the the people in the universities get along very well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But then you know when they get on the on the field and the court or whatever.

Yes. So anyways they approached me and um it was a huge financial commitment but they were willing to make us the exclusive real estate state partner of each school. What does that mean like when people say the exclusive hamburger of the Olympics right? Like what does the exclusive real estate partner of Purdue and IU athletics mean? It means so including our stuff. So we're the only real estate brokerage that can advertise in any venue.

So any any sport, no other real estate brokerage can run any ad in any stadium. It's only True Blood. Wow. Um we're the only real estate company and our agents that can use the logos. It's IP rights for people who don't know that. So we can use it on our signs and our emails.

Um we have it on our windows in Caramel and Fischers and Lafayette like official partner of Purdue. uh official partner of IU. So, it's all inclusive. And then on top of that, they run ads during the game on the radio. So, it's a multitude of things. And then there's tickets and experiences for the agents.

Um so, it just it it elevates the brand awareness and um it there's fun things for agents to do like we do tailgates. We do things that we probably couldn't do if we weren't their partners. Um, so it includes a lot of different things, but the biggest thing is the exclusivity. The exclusivity of being able to advertise in venue and nobody else can and the only people that can use the logos. Yeah. I mean, that's pretty cool.

So, you you end up working with them, both of them at that we actually and we did we we announced it on on the same day. I think it's three years ago. Maybe it's four years ago next month. Um, we've been doing it, but just, you know, did like, hey, competitors on the field, partners off the field, and we both, we announced both schools at the same day. That's pretty sick. Yeah, it was fun.

Uh, I know you like a diehard Purdue fan. Oh, yeah. Yeah. My grandpa played at Purdue. My parents, what do you play? Basketball and baseball.

The two sport athlete. That's that's legendary. I didn't get all those jeans. Yeah. You know, well, you know, some guys get all the luck. So, you end up becoming the partner for IU and Purdue Athletics.

Then somehow you added Notre Dame. Yeah, Notre Dame. When when either of these schools see you doing something else, then they'll reach out. Um Notre Dame is Notre Dame, right? It's very different. So, they reached out, I think we're pushing two years ago, Alex, their um their salesperson.

Um and we negotiated for a year because there's certain things I want. I had experience with Purdue and IU. So, we got that. And what like what was something that Oh, just like can I use the logos on my signs? Um they didn't want them in their emails. was like if I'm sending something out, they wanted to go through their approval process.

Like even after we had the deal done, I put like the logos up in the window. Like the the chancellor of the university stopped by the office is like that doesn't look right. It's too big or whatever made us take them down, put new signage up that match. Cuz with Purdue and IU, they're like, "That's awesome. Go blast it out there." And with Notre Dame, it's like they're very particular.

Yeah. And that's the blackhead and D like they're they are protective of that. Yes. Yeah. So like we can't use the ND on our sign, but we can use the leprechaun. Like so like this is this is all very intricate stuff.

Like I would say Notre Dame is a global brand and more I mean now IU obviously is huge. They win the national championship. Purdue is also big. They went to I saw that coming which was one of the reasons I signed IU. You you knew they were coming. Well I I figured they win the national championship.

Yeah. Everyone Yeah. You and your crystal ball over there. But like Notre Dame is definitely uh I would say the most global brand of those three and they are super protective over everything which is like I mean fair you know so you end up becoming their partner. So you go from buying leads to now you're an official partner of three of the biggest universities and their athletic departments in the state of Indiana. Yeah.

Wow. Yeah. And then were were you getting agents in those markets? Because the other piece is you were largely central Indiana but then you were expanding to all those markets. Yes. Yeah.

So it it just helps the agent growth, right? You mean you know if you want to come use the logo plus the brands more noticeable in the market to helped us grow there and and we just opened our office in South Bend uh this winter. And so the combination of having Notre Dame and a brand new office in Notre Dame right near the stadium. Where are you guys at in South Bend? Something Commons is next to is Eddie Street Commons? Yes.

Right next to it. We're caddy corner. Yeah. That's a really cool area. I'm originally from up uh just south of South Bend. So, uh it's at five five points.

Oh. Right on the corner. It's a brand new brand new building. So, it just got it was built um from scratch and we opened uh in January. Oh, that's sick. And most of our offices we've tried to do something similar like I don't want to open some strip mall office or whatever.

Like I want our offices to be billboards and and multi-use spaces as much as an office. All of our offices have, you know, wet bars and common areas and you can hold events there and it's just a little different feel than I would say the traditional real estate office. This episode is brought to you by 1933 Lounge Caramel. If you're looking for a place that feels like you've escaped town without actually leaving, you've got to check out 1933 Lounge in Caramel. It's one of the most stunning restaurants in Indiana. The space is beautiful, the patio is incredible this time of year, and the hooser hospitality really shines through.

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com to explore [music] the menu, make a reservation, and start planning your next night out. Now, let's get back into today's episode. So, you go from working with teams to then getting into the NIL and the player space. Yes. Okay, take me through this. How do you end up going from all right, we're we're keeping everyone happy by, you know, your IU, your Purdue, your Notre Dame, everyone's, you know, okay, cool.

Then you get in with Braden Smith. Yeah. Take me through the like wild west that is NIL. Uh, it was a little wild west, but he is good to deal with. So, it wasn't as big a deal, but three years ago when you could first do NL, I signed the entire basketball team. So, we we were the first one to do a big team deal.

Now, that was small. It was actually only $1,500 a player. They did a couple posts. They wore some gear. That's cheap. Yeah, that's so cheap.

Now, it did not include Zack Edy cuz he was from Canada. He wasn't allowed to accept the money. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, that was a whole Oh, so you were getting Yeah. Okay.

That actually No, no, Zack Edy. But like everyone else is probably like that. Oh, yeah. That's good. Uh, neon cactus money. Yes.

So, they knew who we were and um as Braden ascended um and became an all-American. Plus, we we know him as family. He's from Westfield. Actually played against his dad in AA growing up randomly. Um some of my friends are good friends with his dad. Um and they reached out and like, "Hey, do you want to do a real deal?"

Now, Braden at that point had been an all-American. It was I won't give the number, but it was much more expensive to sign Braden and he did a lot more events for us, but it was fun. We got so much response from signing Brain to the NIL. It was even bigger response than when we first signed Purdue Athletics. Um it it was a major difference maker. You would not believe.

What are the kind of what are the kind of things you did with him? Pence is here with me today. But we did we had a video shoot where we could use all year long. So we went and um we had because he was there. The difference with signing Braden too, let me back up, is because we have uh IP rights, Braden can wear his Purdue stuff. So when a company that doesn't have IP rights, you'll see these players doing things.

It'll be in a generic uniform or just a color. Oh yeah. But because we we were partners with Purdue, we were able to film it in Mackie Arena with Braden in his jersey and they had me playing horse with them. We filmed that. Um their storyline, they wanted me to perfectly lose. I'm like, there's no [ __ ] chance.

I'm perfectly losing at horse, right? So we played horse, ended up dunking on the third one, and obviously I can't dunk. So he won, but we got a cool video that we were able to push out and then he reposted and I think we got 50,000 plus views in like 5 days. Nice. Yeah. So it does have an impact.

I mean those guys just have you realize why companies hire athletes is they do have impact. And again they have influence. Yeah. They have they have legitimate influence and Brain's a no-brainer because he's such just a great young man. And he stayed home. Yep.

Like when when big money starts to call and I actually knew that this would happen. I had like a gut feeling that you're going to forego your, you know, big NIL budget to go, you know, whoever is trying to poach him, go to Kentucky or Kansas or wherever, but that Indiana companies would come through and and you if you really want to settle down in Indiana, you want to like, you know, live here for the majority of your life, your name is not tainted. If you leave as a senior, it's tainted. Exactly. Well, that's the thing is he stayed and there will be benefits to him for the rest of his life for that. Yeah.

I mean, even though they I mean, the only the storybook ending would have been getting the job done in Indianapolis. Like the whole nine yards sucks obviously, but but the fact that you didn't just like sell out to the biggest number and the fact that Indiana business owners were like, "Hey, we're going to get Yes, it's going to be good for us, but it's also going to be good for Purdue, the whole nine yards. Like, take care of the people who are loyal to the state." I think that's pretty cool story line. Yeah, it's an awesome story. and we were happy to be a small part of it.

Wow. But both of those are different when you talk about buying Zillow leads from marketing perspective and advertising with athletics. Why why are both of those important? I feel like you could take that whole budget and just put it into more leads and you'd probably make the math work there. Uh you could except it's sold out so there's no more to buy. Uh we like when they open new inventory we buy it but there we own everything already.

So there's unless I go into a new market, which we did just did with Kentucky, like Indiana sold out. You can't go buy more leads on realtor. com or um Wow. Yeah, that's they're all gone. So then yeah, you have to start getting creative. Are there other ways in which you guys market for True Blood that have worked that you've enjoyed?

Are there is there advice you have for maybe up and cominging realers where it's like, hey, don't bark up this tree. Like trust me from that one. I would think the biggest advice I have on marketing is don't get out over your skis, you know, because I was I told you I was buying everything they had. There definitely were times where I was buying more leads and it was impossible for the amount of people we had to service them, but I didn't want to give it up. So, I kind of just ate it. Now, that was stressful and I don't know if it was the right decision or not, but I was like, I'm not giving up this inventory cuz if I give it up, somebody else will will not will get it and I won't get it back.

But, I would say you need to scale your marketing with the size of your business. Like I said, we went from uh golf outings and farmers markets to this, right? We didn't do that in in a day. That was over eight years. Wow. You just So, you just have to to do your marketing on on pace with your growth so you don't get out of whack.

What's the secret to building a big team? You talk about going from 15 people to over 200. That's a lot of human, you know, problems, human connections, human relationships, coaching, mentoring, the whole nine yards. It's like what's the secret there? You the whole organization has to be built out at the same time, right? So, we had like two staff members when we started and now we have 15.

So, you have now we have full-time coach, I have a sales director, we have managers in every office. So, you have all these layers of people that that grow. But again, you can't just hire everybody day one. You have to build it together. So, we've built the infrastructure as we've gotten bigger. Um, and the biggest thing with the growth is what we've tried to do is offer things other people don't.

Right? So, I don't I can't just go compete with FC Tucker and be like, "Hey, we'll save you three grand a year when you close a house." Like, I need everything to be better. I wanted our offices to be better. I wanted our branding to be better. I wanted our business cards to be better.

I wanted all these things to be better and different and be a little less expensive. And that's how we were able to to compete and pull people away from brokerages that have been around a long time. Yeah. Wow. Now, you know, the years of your growth, talk about 2018 to today in 2026, like I felt like during, you know, coming out of the pandemic and everything, everyone had their real estate license. Everyone got shut at home and said, "You know what I'm going to do?

I'm going to get my real estate license." And there were, you know, part-time moms and dads doing their thing, selling a house here or there. How How does the real estate agent landscape look in 2026? Like is it still a ton of people that are out there swinging houses? It's come back down, right? So it it inflated and come back down.

I don't have the numbers off the top of my head, but it definitely increased just in Maybore, which is central Indiana, it definitely went up by a couple thousand and it and it's come back down. Um cuz when especially as things have slowed down since interest rates went up, there's less units being sold. And so when that happens, the people that are experiencing the top agents typically are fine, but it really weeds out the lower 20% cuz there's just not enough business to go around. And you still have your dues and all these things and so they slowly kind of fade back to what I would call a more normal number. Wow. So like if I just wanted to have my license like what does it cost to be a licensed real estate agent in a year if I didn't sell a house?

I would say two grand. Oh. So if you can just like afford to burn two grand you're chilling. Yes. because but you have your your state dues, your your board dues, whether it's the IRMLS, which is like the outskirts of of Indiana or like the um not the center I should say. And in Mayore, typically I think it's around two grand combined.

With us, we don't charge monthly dues, right? Some of these brokers, you're going to have a mandatory monthly fee. We don't do that. We just view it as our job to help you sell houses and and then we'll cover it later. So, like if you were working at True Blood Real Estate, you pay your state your state dues, your your board dues, probably two grand a year. doesn't cost anything to be at our company.

And then that's that's kind of it. And then you're just like, you know, we will be made whole by you selling houses. Yeah. We view it as our job to help you sell houses. Wow. Where in your career did it become more managing people and growing teams and less selling houses?

Uh probably we opened in 2018. I think I was still in production till around co around 2020. Um, so you don't have to show or sell or do any You're not sell, you know. And honestly, I I would like to think I did a really good job for my clients when I did it. Um, I was always available. I can't do this job and sell houses.

It just can't. You just can't do it. I like, you know, doing these podcasts and doing all the other things I manage and managing the team and buying the leads and meeting with Zillow and Realtor and going to see agents in Lexington and Louisville. Like, I can't like take a call at 4:00 and go show a house at 6:00 anymore. So, I I just give those away. and my friends and family understand that I'm doing that because I I just can't provide the service I used to.

How long have you had any agents that have been with you since the beginning 2018? Oh, yeah. That's awesome. Like that goes to show that something must be working, right? Yeah. What advice do you have for young real estate agents that really want to make a career in the real estate market?

I think you need to go unless you happen to be like just really ingrained you and your family in a community and you know you're going to get a lot of people. I think you need to go somewhere where the brokerage is gonna provide you business because the hard like real estate once you get going it's not hard and if you run into something every brokerage is going to have someone there to help you right the hard thing about business is getting business that's the number one thing because there's so many and like this is no offense to any any real estate people listening but like what is really different if I go with like my cousin Sally or my friend John like is is the experience of buying the like the relatively the same, right? It's relatively the same. I will say like anything else, there's a minimum level of competence you you would need. So, there are there are better agents. I have to be careful how I speak there, but there to me there is a noticeable difference on how transactions are handled.

Less problems come up. They know how to deal with like inspections and things. Um, it just goes smoother with the the more experienced people. I say, where do you think the gap is? like like what is something that young people could do to to increase their customer experience? Um, one I would say always available and two just say I'll get back to you if you don't know the answer.

Yeah, like that's just let me let me double check that and I'll get back to you. I don't think anybody's going to complain about that. Now, if you did it every question, it might be one thing, but nobody's going to complain like, "Hey, let me make sure I get this right and get back to you." What are the biggest questions? Like what when someone's buying a house, like what are the things that people are unsure of? the the biggest thing you go through in my opinion that kills the most transactions is the inspection.

Um, which is very interesting because during co there were like no inspections because it was so hard to get a house. Everybody waved them. So we had new agents that we had to like retrain come 2023 24 when it the housing market balanced a little bit more because they had never had to do an inspection response. We're like, "Oh shoot, we need to make sure you guys know what you're doing." And that's the thing where you can really cost people money. um you miss an inspection deadline, it's it's assumed it's automatically accepted, which is the it's the only rule I have in my brokerage is don't ever miss an inspection deadline.

Don't ever What is that? So So like if you say you're the buyer and I'm the seller, you respond to me, um I want $10,000 in repairs done. We don't need to go through them, whatever they are. If we don't respond by the the reasonable deadline you gave, it's deemed accepted. And we've had that happen multiple times. And then, well, that's an agent mistake.

So like, you're on the hook for it. Wow. And so it it can get serious where if you make a mistake, it's a problem. I remember going through when I bought my house and if you don't know what you don't know, every everything in the inspection seems like this is going to be the straw that breaks the camel's back. Like you know, like this gutter is going to depends on who comes in as your inspector, but it's like, yeah, your down spout's not a far enough away from the house. You're going to pull water and it'll flood your basement.

Now I'm I'm thinking like any day now my basement's going to be like 7 ft of water. Like I'm so screwed. And it's like I've done it a few times now and I'm like okay we can breathe a little bit. It's not like as long as the house isn't like I mean obviously you don't want to buy anything that's not up to your standards but like the a small thing on the inspection report that's like okay you can breathe a little bit like it's not going to topple over tomorrow. Right. That's why it's important to have most of our agents use the same inspectors over and over cuz they know how to like, hey, here's the issue.

By the way, this is a this can be fixed. So, it's it's the combination of an agent and the inspector that can get you through it. And if you don't have those things, you can you people get freaked out and they're like lose their mind. Well, because it's like you're you're I mean, most people's biggest investment, you know, like you're never going to wire more money like the average American will never wire more money than their down payment for their house, right? And so like yeah, you know, you start to hear like, oh, you know, at one point you must have had termites in here. Like even if it was like 15 years ago or whatever and it's like, oh, ter I'm out.

And it's like I live here in Broadripple and it's like every house is old. Every house has issues. The basement's probably wet. Like they go down this list of of things, but I only know it cuz it's like I've bought a couple times here. And it's like every time you're like, "Oh yeah, that basement." like don't put your valuable possessions down there right up against the wall.

Put some blocks down before Yeah, exactly. So, I do see that part. What What are the other things as you guys have seen? Okay, so rates are coming down. Yeah. And how is the market in Indiana?

The market I mean the market's strong. I mean, we're up sales units from last year were up a couple percent. Prices are up a couple percent. Um I always tell our agents like for from an agent perspective, uh the average gross commission is up 50% since COVID. So like, you know, there's not a lot to complain about. Like the unit sales are down.

Yeah. Um inventory has is triple was it what it was at its low during CO. So it's more it's much more balanced. So it's it's a good So yeah, cuz for a minute there houses were spending like a day on the market. Yeah. We had we had agents we were having to make spreadsheets to review the offers cuz we would get like in Fischers on a $400,000 house, you get 40 offers in the first day.

So then you'd have to like put a net sheet together and we literally I I kid you not on a on occasion we that we just had to flip a coin on which one to take because they're like they're the exact same at some point you just have to pick one there. Yeah. It's like you know they all have a letter. They all have the same money the whole nine yards and it's like how do you even win? But it's much more balanced now on a really desirable home and a good price point. You'll still get you might get some multiple offers but nothing like it was in 2021.

And I feel like we're constantly, you know, in the whatever your list is, you know, best places to live, Zillow, hot housing markets, like all that jazz. What is the data that they're using to put together a list like the Zillow best what is it? Top market for 2026. Like what is it all different? Is it is it places to live? Is it, you know, the affordability?

There's all different ways to to view it. Um, like we have people in northwest Indiana, people move over from Illinois because you might be able to get a mortgage for the same price just the property taxes is in Illinois. Yeah. So, it's it's affordable. Um, even in Hamilton County, which is relatively more expensive than other places in the state. Um, there there's affordable housing relatively for, you know, the jobs those people have, and it's just an amazing place to live.

So, just in general, Indiana's got a great balanced housing market. It's very affordable, and there's all kinds of things to do. Like, like, like, how long is a house? Like, if you put something on the market, how long is it staying relatively the average days? I didn't check it before I came to be honest, but it's probably our average right now is 15 to 20 days. a reasonable amount of time.

Like you get two weeks and you're like checking through offers and yeah, it's still shorter than what would be like historically normal, but it's not you're not like everything doesn't sell in day. What about if you're a young a young person looking to buy your first house? I feel like a lot of people in this new generation feel like owning a home is impossible for them. What advice do you have for first-time home buyers in 2026? Yeah, I think if you can do it, you should. it.

I mean, it's a just a great way to build wealth over time versus burning it on rent. Um, you know, hopefully if you don't have the funds up front for the down payment, you have a family member, you can help them, maybe even paying back later. But if you can find a way to do it and the payments's affordable, I would still highly recommend buying versus staying in a rental for an extended period of time. Are there like specific markets where you see a lot of people starting here in Indiana? Our inner area in central Indiana is very hot for young people, right? So, a lot of the college grads and things moving.

Yeah. I feel like it's it's like you have to find somewhere adjacent to Hamilton County and maybe work your way into there. Yeah. But what you do see now is a lot of people that were in India and I know you live Broadly you live here before. A lot of that younger crowd has moved into Fisers in Caramel. It's wild.

Yeah. Big change from when I was here. I mean, you go out on a Friday night and there's like young people going out in Midtown Carmel and I'm like, I would have never dreamed about that. I just heard about the place called like the goat. I stopped in there after a 40th birthday party. Not a good decision.

I mean, probably a great decision, but like Yeah, I feel I bet you were hurt the next day. Yeah, I was. I mean, it gets rowdy like in the best way possible. I love it. I think it's sick. No, it's it's great.

Go from there to three up. It's like Saturday, this is the thing. I It's just this this generation of people in their 20s, they care less about $2 Bush Lights and and the quantity and they care more about like a fancy nice cocktail and a view. Yeah. And it's like back in my back in my day, you went to OP O opts over here. I just drove by OPTs on my way here.

Oh my god. Come on. A lot of lot of time spent at that. And um the Rock Lobster. Oh yeah. I I mean I can just still smell slash like feel the stick of the floor.

It was never not sticky. Yeah. Classic. Okay. Well, what I want to know where do you see you're you started in 2018. You're coming up on a decade.

You got two years to get to 10 years. Where do you see True Blood Real Estate going over the next two years to get you to a decade? I have plans for that. So, we're at 260 agents now. So, the goal is to be at 500 at the end of 2028. Holy.

Going to double again. That's the plan. Yeah, we just expanded into Kentucky. And um Yeah. How do you attract agents? The same things we went over before.

Having the lead flow we don't have, having the partnerships they don't have, uh having simpler, lower fees for the agents. So, like I said, having like multiple things that are better or less expensive than other brokerages combined with having opportunities to work leads. So, we just took over all of Realtor. com in Louisville and Lexington in March. Um, we just announced that we're the official partner of Louisville last week. Dude, this sports the ghee is sports.

The answer it fits in good. It fits in good with me. And it it's not announced today, but it will be by the time this is released. But we also signed we're now the official partner of University of Kentucky. Oh, so we have guess. Yeah.

So, we have IP rights and all the same things at those two schools. What? Okay. So, now we've got Okay, so here's a question. IU plays Kentucky. Where do you sit?

Oh, probably whoever gives me the better seats. Ah, there we go. So, you've got Kentucky, you've got Louisville, you've got IU, you got Purdue, you got Notre Dame. Yep. Yep. There's a strategy here, people.

There's a strategy to go around. It's what I consider it's a repeatable business model, right? We have we have the leads, we have the partnerships with the schools, we get to use the IP rights, so the agents there, we have something different than the other brokerage can offer. So, it's the same thing. They're exclusive deals. Louisville is not exclusive, but we're by far their largest partner because they already had a smaller partner, but uh Kentucky, nobody else can use the rights, and we're the only person in in Lexington.

Well, we can use it anywhere, but it's a big deal in Lexington because in Kentucky there's no professional sports. So, Louisville and UK are like it. Um, and so it's a big deal. So, we're excited about Louisville and excited to announce Kentucky in a few weeks. Amazing. Let's go.

It's all derby or it's UK/ Louisville. So, it's horses Louisville and UK. Hey, I mean, there you go. Now, you just got to become the official real estate partner of Churchill Downs. Yeah, that'd be great. There you go.

Right. Come on. You sell the winner's house. Come on. Okay. Oh, I love it.

Well, we've come to the end of the show where we talk all things Indiana. This question is brought to you by our friends at JC Hart. They're a leader in creating enjoyable living experiences at apartment communities all across Indiana and beyond. Check them out at homejart. com. So my question for you, why do you call Indiana home?

Yeah, this is an easy one. Um it's just where the family and all the roots are. Uh my dad's family grew up in Northwest Indiana. They're all still there. Uh my grandfather and uh great-grandfather grew up in Richmond. You know, they were the first father-son in the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.

Like I said earlier, my grandpa played at Purdue. Both my mom and dad went Purdue. So, we grew up in Lafayette our whole life. Uh, my mom and dad both spent their entire life in Lafayette until I moved my dad here about four years ago and, uh, moved my mom here last year. She's actually now my next door neighbor. Um, so, um, we're here.

We love Indiana. There's, uh, we love being here. Minus probably, uh, January and February. And, um, well, that's where you guys got to go get a get a deal with the University of Miami. Yes. There we go.

The official partner. Yep. We might need redemption. We go back to Florida. Yeah, we turn the tides this time. Yeah, I I did.

We We have considered Florida, but uh I also want to live a little bit and not kill myself. Yeah, right. Okay, that's awesome, man. I love that. Okay, you talk about NIL deals. You guys had Braden Smith this past year.

If you could have an NIL deal with any Indiana athlete of all time, you're talking from the beginning of sports in Indiana to today, sign them to an NIL deal. Who would you partner with? I'd probably go Drew Brees. Oh, electric. Um, ju just the same thing. He's just he's a great athlete, you know, he loves Purdue.

He comes back and he would be a great representative. So, it's not just you're the best athlete of all time. Now, grant he's in the Hall of Fame, but I would probably go for me. I'd probably go Drew. That would be so fire. This is like this is what's great.

Triple X, right? You think about that. They had the Drew Brees, you know, the breakfast, the whole nine yards there. today. Like I don't know if that will happen because like athletes will be like, "Oh, I well I want to get my I want to get my 17 cents per breakfast sold, you know, but like the idea of naming a burger after someone or whatever it is." It's like, "Oh, well, like is it a paid deal?"

Yeah. Those are the good old days. Okay. Drew Brees would be a great one. The most underrated Indiana housing market. Like where do you think people need to be checking out if they are uh looking for Indiana real estate?

I don't know. There's some areas in Fort Wayne that are really growing. Oh, Fort Wayne. Yeah. office up there. Uh we have agents.

We're waiting on the office. Um wait, and there's another sports connection to Fort Wayne, isn't there? Oh, yeah. We we did uh we we did sign deal with the uh the new u soccer team up there, dude. The soccer team looks lit. Yeah, it looks like a dang good time.

Yeah. Um so yeah, so we're partners with the Fort Wayne football club and um we're also partners with Ruof, the Ruof family and Mark Music. They own that and so Ruof is one of our biggest lender partners. So yeah, it kind of it kind of worked well. But uh it it's fun. We've already had agents go to a couple games.

This the new stadium's really cool. That's awesome. So it's a really growing area and a lot of stuff going on up there. Fort Wayne, that's the the uh the market to keep your eyes on. What's the craziest house you guys have ever sold? This is a true story.

This is me selling a house. So I sold a house over at like I don't know just east of here on 60th Street. It was a for sale by owner. I had somebody to want to move in. So, I showed it twice and the second time um we were leaving the my clients, the family left and the and the owner I was just talking in the threshold of the front door. She was like, "Hey, by the way, um there was a murder here."

I'm like I'm like, "Okay." Um do you have to disclose that? Once once I'm told, but I I would disclose it anyways. I'm not going to let my somebody buy a house. But anyways, long story short, I go home like, "Oh [ __ ] what's going on with this?" So, I look it up.

I there's an article in Time magazine. So there was a rumor and I may not get this exactly right that there was money hidden in that house like $10 million. This is like in 1980. I'll have to get the address after this. And two guys broke in and they don't know say stole the money, murdered the family, and lit the house on fire. Okay.

So I have to send my clients this. Anyways, they go back and forth for a month. My clients ended up buying this house. So, a couple months later, I'm telling my dad about this house and he goes, "Hey, what's the address? What are the names of the guys that robbed it?" And I mentioned earlier, my dad's a defense attorney.

He's done multiple murder trials. So, these dudes had got caught. They're on death row in Indiana. And I [ __ ] you not, my dad did their appeal on death row. Talk what? Yes, that's a true story.

This is crazy. Okay, wait. So, just look up like it's a Time magazine or else there was a People magazine. Maybe it's People. Is it because the lady distrusted banks? Have you Yes, I think something like that.

Uh Marjorie Jackson. Yes. Okay. Wait, we have story time. It's story time. I'm going to read this article from from people.

It says, "Accentric Aerys kept millions in cash at home because she distrusted banks. Then she was found slain. Marjgerie Jackson inherited millions from her father-in-law's grocery empire, but word quickly got around that she was hiding it throughout her Indianapolis home. Yep. Nearly 50 years ago, the murder of an eccentric ays in Indianapolis made headlines across the nation. Marjorie Jackson, 66, a multi-millionaire ays to a local Indiana grocery chain, was shot and killed at her home in early May 1977 during a robbery gone wrong.

But what confounded investigators was that despite being robbed twice previously, Jackson continued to hide millions of dollars in cash around her house before her death and she refused to report the crimes. Yep. The deadly heist has regained attention on social media in recent weeks and people is looking back at the 1977 murder that was once named one of the city's most notorious crimes of all time by Indianapolis Monthly. So the there's the first robbery in 76, but then they left with $817,000 in cash. You have the second robbery in 77. And then you have this third robbery where they got a million dollars.

This is nuts. Like these guys probably go back after the robbery and they're like, "We found the cash cow." And it just keeps regenerating more money in there. So these guys on the third one, my understanding is they like drove across the country in a camper or a car and it was believed maybe they hid it as they drove across country. Anyways, they finally got caught and um yeah, just the odds that I sold that house and my dad did their uh was their attorney is insane. Hey, they say several million dollars of Jackson's fortune remains unaccounted for according to Indianapolis Monthly.

I mean, that is wild. Did you end up selling the house? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Made like eight grand. [laughter] That's crazy.

What? Yeah. Marjorie Jackson, the more you know. That is a wild story. Okay, we've got uh the same three questions we ask everyone who comes on the show. Uh, first, this is your opportunity to shed some light on a part of the state that more people need to be talking about.

What is a hidden gem in Indiana? Harry's Chocolate Shop in West Lafayette. And it's not for the booze, but I I every time I go to Lafayette, I take my agents, I'm like, "You want to go to lunch? That's fine. But we're going to Harry's." And we and I I love the food there.

I love the wings. I think it's it's the best most unhealthy lunch. So, that's kind of my uh my hidden gem as far as food goes. Oh, and for food, cuz everyone knows like going and drinking the menu, doing the whole nine yards at Harry's, but going there and getting lunch. Oh my god. Getting lunch when it's sunny outside.

Amazing. That's like such a Purdue nostalgia thing, too, right? Like I love that. Okay, next. This is how we source new guest ideas and hear about other people in the state of Indiana doing cool things. Who is a Hooser we need to keep on our radar?

Someone who's doing big things. Caitlyn Clark. You know, there's few athletes that are so transformational, um, so inspirational. Um, I'm not going to compare her athletically with like a Tiger or Michael Jordan, but the the inspiration she's provided to young women in in central Indiana and all over the country is amazing. You go from having 2,000 people at the Fever Game to selling out, and most of that is families bringing their young girls down there. I just think, you know, moving forward, if she if that impact continues, I think it's just amazing thing for our community.

And I know it's not something new on the radar, but I just think the the impact she is having is even underrated. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like you talk about the inspiration that you know Jordan or Tiger had for athletes coming through in those times. Like I would say it's definitely comparable. Like you talk about jersey sales since 2024 in the NBA or in basketball.

Steph Curry's one, LeBron James is three, Kaylin Clark is two. Yeah. She's slinging jerseys and inspiring people to like go chase their dreams. And I love it. I think you're spot on with that. It's great.

Okay, final question for the show. As you think back, you know, coming spending time in Lafayette from IU National Championships, Notre Dame, all across the state, selling houses in all markets in Indiana. What is your favorite Indiana memory? Purdue going the Final Four. It was just, it's hard to explain as a Purdue fan, but it was something. It was on Easter Sunday a couple years ago, and it's um I think everybody in our house was crying.

I think it's I've heard that story from a lot of people like when Indiana won the national championship, but it was like such a big deal when they went to the national when Purdue went to the national championship. Yeah. But the the big one was when they advanced to the final four. That was that was that was it for me. I was just like, man, I just had to walk out of the room. My daughter was there cuz I'm just like crying about, you know, like a basketball game.

And it's I don't know. I I actually had just got chills sitting here. But the same thing like Robbie Hmel, he's a broadcaster. Like Robbie Hmel's, you know, crying port side. Like it was a big deal to Purdue people. And if you're so invested in it and Purdue Sports has meant so much to me and my family, not just my grandpa playing there, but all the the joy we have from going to the games with friends and family that um that was a moment for me and I I literally have chills even just talking about him.

I had uh you talk about Purdue. I had um Tyler Trent's parents on the podcast. Oh, I want to go on for that. the Trents are one amazing people become uh somewhat friends with his dad. Yeah. And um and he was just an amazing event and them the them carrying on Tyler's name and then also raising research.

It's one of my favorite days of the year. So that story too, I actually cried at that game. I was at the Purdue Ohio State game when they won and I just remember sitting in the press box just balling my eyes out. How could you not? Yeah. Like that.

You talk about like a moment, a sports story that gives you chills when you go back and listen to the uh oh the ESPN like E60 or whatever it was or 30 for I don't I don't know if it was a 30 whatever it was there little they have a special on it and then you see like the outcome of the game and you're just like dude. Yeah. On service level people that think it's just like a ball and people playing on a field like whatever like it just it just means more than that. It does. It means more than that. It's not about the uh it's not about the victory.

It's it's about the story around it. And um anyways, they're they're an amazing family. Yeah, man. Jim, it's been a pleasure getting to learn about the journey from your first rental property at 16 from I mean, having a $12 million deal in Florida blow up in your face, having to come home and figure out, but staying in the game. I mean, I think a lot of entrepreneurship is when you have a high risk tolerance. It's not always going to work out.

Yeah. But you learn, you grow from it, you stay in the game, you keep going. And today going from, you know, a team of 15 to starting True Blood Real Estate and growing it to over 250 agents on track on pace to double again and get to 500 agents in in the next two years. It's incredible. I think it's an awesome story of Indiana entrepreneurship and resilience, being the official partners of so many great athletic organizations across the state. We appreciate you.

If people want to learn more, if they want to connect, if there are potential agents out there that want to become one of these uh one of the new growth wave of uh True Blood Real Estate, how can they do that? Uh true bloodre. com. Love it, man. Thanks for stopping by and we'll talk to you soon. All right, thanks for having me.

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. If you want a behind-the-scenes look [music] 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 a part of what makes the Hooer State great. We'll see you next time here on Get