In the insurance business you meet a lot of people and quite the ensemble of characters.
Let me tell you about one of my very long-time clients, we will call him Jay. Jay calls the office one day to get a quote on a house he is buying. It was an investment property and he wanted a minimal amount of insurance on it. I picked up pretty quickly that he had a decent amount of insurance knowledge so this was not his first rodeo. He liked the quote I gave him and I wrote the policy for him.
A few weeks later Jay calls again and needs quotes on two more properties he is buying. It was at this point I asked a few more questions about what he was doing. I ask if he was going to rent them. I will never forget the response. “Heavens no, I am old, fat and lazy and I don’t wanna fix nothin.” It turns out Jay had a system for flipping houses. He developed the system over years of trial and error. He was steadfast in his efforts to perfect his method and I quickly became part of this system.
Jay’s system had him taking payments on 25 houses he had owner financed at all times. He stopped calling and asking for a quote and just started calling me with the address of the property he was buying. I already knew exactly what he wanted and he trusted me to take care of it. Whenever he sold a property, he would have the buyer call me for a quote.
Over the years I got to know Jay very well. I have visited his home on multiple occasions. He’s introduced me to all of his pets which are all birds including one that goes to work with him every day. His office is a building in his back yard. When he gets ready to walk out, he tells the bird it’s time to go to work and the bird hops onto his shoulder.
Years after our original phone call Jay calls one day to tell me that he has written a book. His book is about his system for buying and selling real estate. In the book he states that he was successful in real estate because he is an expert in several areas including insurance, real estate, real estate closings and mortgages. He then goes on to explain that he is not really an expert in any of those areas but has an expert that he works with in each area which makes him an expert. It was flattering to be mentioned in a book. I don’t consider myself an “expert” but I certainly understood Jay and his system.
Jay, my self-proclaimed “old, fat and lazy” client is one of the most interesting and intelligent people I have ever met. I am thankful for this insurance business that allows me to meet such interesting people.
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