Marc Mullen - Nurturing Dreams and Serving Veterans in Real Estate with Cornerstone Elite Properties

Imagine leaving a bustling restaurant career behind for the unpredictable world of real estate, driven by a childhood vision of designing homes and a heart committed to serving those who've served our nation. That's exactly the journey Marc Mullen from Cornerstone Elite Properties embarked upon, and we're proud to bring his story to your ears. With a knack for customer service honed in the hospitality industry, Marc paints a vivid picture of how mentorship and a sincere desire to serve veterans in the Fredericksburg Stafford area have been the cornerstones of his real estate success. His anecdotes reveal the realities of navigating the competitive market, tackling everything from fluctuating interest rates to scarce inventory, all while ensuring every client, veteran or not, finds their dream home.

Marc's dedication extends far beyond the close of a sale, a testament to his commitment to his clients. He prides himself on being just a message away, always ready to offer guidance or simply listen, whether through Facebook or Instagram, or a good old-fashioned phone call. His clients' stories are a mosaic of gratitude, highlighting his hard work, responsiveness, and unwavering investment in their best interests. Join us as we uncover the fulfilling world of real estate through the eyes of a man who's not just selling houses, but building a community, one veteran at a time.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:30

My name is Mark Mullen. I work with veterans and I'm sorry, what was it?

Speaker 2: 0:38

Yeah, how you serve your clients.

Speaker 1: 0:40

Basically I'm available 24 hours a day. You know I serve in the Fredericksburg Stafford area.

Speaker 2: 0:49

Okay, and what's the name of your company?

Speaker 1: 0:51

Oh Cornerstone Elite Properties.

Speaker 2: 0:53

Great, okay, and you work with veterans.

Speaker 1: 0:56

Yes, relocating, to the area Relocating and then also when they're moving from renting to buying their first home.

Speaker 2: 1:06

Okay, great. How did you get into this business?

Speaker 1: 1:09

So I've always been passionate about real estate, about houses. When I was in elementary school, I was designing my own houses and finally I was like, well, let me go into real estate. So 13 years ago I got my license. I was doing restaurant business and doing real estate at the same time, and then I shifted over to doing real estate full-time.

Speaker 2: 1:36

Great. Did you feel like some of those restaurant skills could kind of translate over to real estate? Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 1:43

Dealing with people and building my business and also using them as first-time homebuyers and all that so got a lot of clients from them referrals so it's been great.

Speaker 2: 1:59

That's great. And how are things right now? Are you guys busy right now?

Speaker 1: 2:06

I'm always busy because there's contracts always ending or beginning, so right now it's a really busy time. We'll probably slow down in October, november, but it will still pick up.

Speaker 2: 2:19

This is like the height of the spring market, absolutely yeah, yeah. Tell me a little bit how you got into the work with working with veterans.

Speaker 1: 2:27

So in the beginning I did referrals and then lead generation just from like Zillow and Trillia. And then when I joined Cornerstone, my broker she got us involved in working veterans.

Speaker 2: 2:43

Okay.

Speaker 1: 2:44

Yeah, so I get the leads from them.

Speaker 2: 2:47

Yeah, and this broker, was she a mentor to you?

Speaker 1: 2:50

Yes, she's actually like probably the best mentor I've had in real estate. She's available 24 hours a day also, and then she helps me build my business as well.

Speaker 2: 3:03

How has she helped you? Tell me what kind of advice and what she means to you as a mentor and how important it is to have a mentor in this business.

Speaker 1: 3:16

It's very important because when I first started I was kind of on my own and didn't really have the skills and the mindset on how to build a business, how to take care of clients. And then, when I got in touch with her, she's helped me with building the business, but then also talking to clients and having a mentor is definitely important.

Speaker 2: 3:40

Having them work.

Speaker 1: 3:41

Having a mentor is definitely important. A mentor, yes, absolutely yeah.

Speaker 2: 3:45

What are you doing for marketing and advertising these days to get some of those leads in?

Speaker 1: 3:51

So right now, since we work with Veterans United, my marketing is kind of on the side, just because we get the leads from them.

Speaker 2: 4:02

Okay, and what exactly is Veterans United?

Speaker 1: 4:05

It's basically a company. It's a lead generation pretty much, but it works with relocation and it's kind of like a Zillow and a Trilio, but it's more for the veteran side.

Speaker 2: 4:20

Okay, it's a tool for them to help them find houses.

Speaker 1: 4:26

Yes, absolutely, and get the loans yeah.

Speaker 2: 4:28

Yeah, very nice. And what areas do you serve?

Speaker 1: 4:32

So I do. Manassas, Fredericksburg, Stafford, Spotsylvania I'm all over the place.

Speaker 2: 4:40

All over Northern Virginia, all over Northern Virginia. Yeah, do you have a favorite buyer story or seller story?

Speaker 1: 4:48

I would say buyer story. When I first started in real estate, I was holding an open house and this couple walked in and they were like we're not interested in talking to you and anything. And I was like, okay, take a look around the house and let me know if you have any questions. And they ended up working with me and that was my first deal and it was $800,000 house.

Speaker 2: 5:14

Wow.

Speaker 1: 5:15

Yeah, and I still keep in touch with them to this day, and this was 11 years ago.

Speaker 2: 5:20

Yeah, so are they still in the house?

Speaker 1: 5:22

They're still in the house. Yeah, and they're looking for acreage now for their second home.

Speaker 2: 5:29

Oh good, and are you able to help them with the second purchase? Yes, absolutely. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 5:33

I'm still working with them, but it was nice to just have that relationship and they've talked with 100 realtors and they were like you know, we picked you because you were consistent but weren't overbearing.

Speaker 2: 5:48

Oh, that's a good compliment. Yeah, how did that feel?

Speaker 1: 5:50

It felt really good.

Speaker 2: 5:51

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 5:52

Absolutely Good.

Speaker 2: 5:55

What do you find most rewarding about what you do?

Speaker 1: 5:59

Helping my clients find their perfect home. I think that's my slogan. I'm in the people business and it's to help them find their perfect home, where I'm not pushy or overbearing. It's more of like, when you're ready, let me know so, and when they do and they move in, it's it's a great feeling. Yeah, and I'm here for you, and Absolutely, you and your friends and all that yes.

Speaker 2: 6:26

What challenges are you facing? I know there's a lot going on in the real estate world right now. How are you handling?

Speaker 1: 6:31

I would say the biggest challenges is everybody knows somebody that does real estate. So it's what value can I bring to you, what makes me different from everybody else? And I think my honesty and not being pushy, and I think that's the biggest benefit.

Speaker 2: 6:55

When clients are searching for a real estate agent.

Speaker 1: 6:58

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 7:00

How are you handling the challenges with the interest rates and the low inventory right now?

Speaker 1: 7:06

I'm always on social media talking to other realtors to find out coming soon. So I'm always on Facebook pages, always looking for coming soon listings.

Speaker 2: 7:21

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 7:21

And then I send them right away.

Speaker 2: 7:23

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 7:24

Interest rates. They're pretty good. I haven't had really a lot of challenges. There are some clients that I have that want to wait until they come down a little bit.

Speaker 2: 7:35

What advice do you give to those clients?

Speaker 1: 7:40

My advice is when you find that home, you'll make it work regardless. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 7:47

If you find the right thing, so do you advise people to just go ahead and jump in, buy the house, don't hesitate.

Speaker 1: 7:54

Yeah, and then you can refinance down the road. So there's always different options that you can do down the road. But finding that perfect house, you know it's what you want to do and you'll make it work.

Speaker 2: 8:06

Do you find that people have their standards too high as far as finding the perfect house?

Speaker 1: 8:14

I would say to a point. I know, when I was looking for my house, there was specific things that I needed. Looking for my house, there was specific things that I needed. You know, it was like the two-car garage, the deck for my dog, so those were like the main things.

Speaker 2: 8:40

So I advise my clients. I'm like do you pick? Yeah, you can go ahead, you can go ahead.

Speaker 1: 8:43

Pick the top five things that you need yeah, what do you?

Speaker 2: 8:49

what are the top five? What do you? You're asking them to pick the top, yeah what do you recommend?

Speaker 1: 8:54

um, I would say, if you have kids, I would say your school district. Um, I would say space, uh. And then if you're looking for something down the road to like remodel, if it's, you know, good investment property, yeah. Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 9:12

Do you have? So you said your favorite buyer story. Was there ever a really challenging buying or selling story and how did you overcome that?

Speaker 1: 9:22

How did you overcome that? I would say, with me not being pushy. I had one buyer that I worked with him for about a year before they actually bought the house. So that was it wasn't challenging, but it was a long process. Yes, yeah, but then they definitely did.

Speaker 2: 9:40

How did that feel when they finally bought?

Speaker 1: 9:41

It was awesome.

Speaker 2: 9:42

Did you go out and celebrate?

Speaker 1: 9:43

Yes, and it was also their first house too, so that was exciting for them.

Speaker 2: 9:49

Yeah, and are they still in that house?

Speaker 1: 9:54

I believe so, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think some of them moved out. It was a multifamily, so some of them moved out.

Speaker 2: 10:03

Oh okay, you talked about how, when you were in elementary school, that you used to like design houses. Tell me a little bit more about that. It's always kind of been there for you.

Speaker 1: 10:16

Yeah, so it's always been good. I thought about my school, my elementary school, and turning that into a house and how I would design the different rooms and what I would do there, and then always looked at new construction and I would walk through the new houses.

Speaker 2: 10:38

So what led you to the restaurant industry?

Speaker 1: 10:41

So my mom, brother and I all worked at a Thai restaurant growing up. She was a bartender, I was a host and my brother was a server, and then I was like all right, I need to venture off. And then I went to Baskin Robbins and I worked at Starbucks for 10 years and then moved into the restaurant after that. So I've always been in that customer service business.

Speaker 2: 11:07

And those are all skills you can take right over to real estate, absolutely. What advice would you have for someone young, maybe graduating from college, that wants to get into the real estate industry?

Speaker 1: 11:21

I would say be consistent with learning, be consistent with talking to your friends and family while you're going through the process and then don't give up, because building a business is challenging. So they always say the first five years are the hardest.

Speaker 2: 11:46

So I would say Did you find that to be true? It?

Speaker 1: 11:49

is true. Yeah, a lot of people end up leaving after the five years because they're like it should be easy money, I should just be able to get it, but it's just going through that five years.

Speaker 2: 12:00

That process and sticking through it. Yep, definitely years, that process and sticking through it? Yep, definitely. Yeah, what has helped you the most in your field? What has helped you get through those five years? Did you have a good support system?

Speaker 1: 12:19

I did With the brokerages I was with. In the beginning I was with Long Foster for two years and then I was with Keller Williams. So with Keller Williams I learned the business side of it and Long Foster was where I just started. So the people that I worked with there definitely helped with the contracts and new things, so definitely had a good support system in the process.

Speaker 2: 12:46

And good resources. Absolutely, yeah, you mentioned, you do social media a lot. What kind of things do you do for social media?

Speaker 1: 12:54

I do Facebook posts, instagram, do open houses and do videos and talk about you know I'll post those Then I'm Just fun things also.

Speaker 2: 13:07

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 13:07

You know, I went to Italy and Paris on vacation a couple weeks ago. Oh how was that. It was awesome.

Speaker 2: 13:14

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 13:15

Yeah, it was a lot of fun, a lot of good food.

Speaker 2: 13:18

Did you get to see some of the Olympics and stuff?

Speaker 1: 13:20

No, Well, I saw them cleaning the buildings and getting ready for the Olympics, but it was so that was cool. Yeah, because I've never. So that was cool. Yeah, because I've never been outside of the United States.

Speaker 2: 13:33

Oh wow, so it was a big trip.

Speaker 1: 13:34

It was a big trip. It was nine days. I went with like 30 people and it was a lot of fun.

Speaker 2: 13:41

Yeah, Was it being in the real estate market? Was it really cool to see the homes there and how other people live?

Speaker 1: 13:48

Yeah, what was that like really cool to see the homes there and how other people live? Yeah it was. It was um, because they're like 1900s, 1800s. So just seeing the architecture and just yeah, it was just fascinating yeah yeah, and then, um, I did the Eiffel Tower and got to see just everything, and then the London Eye, which I could see the fucking palace and all that.

Speaker 2: 14:14

So it was a lot of fun. So were you trying to do some business social media as well while you were there?

Speaker 1: 14:19

No, mostly just for fun. It was just for fun, yeah, yeah, definitely.

Speaker 2: 14:24

Yeah, we talked about a little bit what you find most rewarding from your clients. What would your clients, what would your clients say about you? As far as feedback, what, what, what reviews have you gotten from your clients?

Speaker 1: 14:38

I would say I'm hardworking. They would say that I'm responsive, easy to get along with and I will always have their best interests at heart.

Speaker 2: 14:54

Yeah, yeah, that's great to hear. Yeah, are there any last little parting words you would like to leave us with?

Speaker 1: 15:03

Just that. I'm always here to help. If anybody ever needs me, just give me a call.

Speaker 2: 15:09

Yeah, yeah, yeah Great. And where can we find you at?

Speaker 1: 15:13

I am on Facebook also, instagram, instagram, great.

Speaker 2: 15:21

Yeah, and tell me the name of your company.

Speaker 1: 15:23

one more time Cornerstone Elite.

Speaker 2: 15:25

Great, and we can find you there.

Speaker 1: 15:26

Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 15:28

Well, thank you for coming in today, Mark.

Speaker 1: 15:30

Thank you, it was lovely to meet you. It was nice.