Ep 47: Rockin' Crocks and Socks In Detroit with Nick Bellmore

Nick Bellmore, a Detroit area native, is a highly successful real estate team leader, but the road to get there was a bit bumpy. 

Rick shares his story of divorce when he was 11, bullied at 12, and kicked out of high school a couple of years later. 

He moves on to working in housing before the age of 18, building homes after graduating, and transitioning to selling real estate after doing the math of how much money the investor made on the home Nick was building. 

Of course, we get deep into how he met his wife... hint: He found love and made a commission check from her at the same time. 

This is part 1 of a future two-parter with Nick Bellmore. 

Learn more about Nick here: https://athomerealtyfamily.com/our-offices/hudsonville-mi-realty/nick-bellmore

Transcript

William Huffman  0:00  
Hey everybody, William here and Sarah and we just need to let you know that we are licensed real estate agents in the state of Minnesota with REMAX results of Good Life Group and that's our legal disclaimer. Hey everybody, William here and today we're speaking with Nick Belmar, he is a friend he coaches with us in the same company we are in we're going to talk about Detroit, the FES building houses and falling in love. I know kind of weird,

Nick Bellmore  0:26  
of course, I'm trying to understand and I'm still trying to do my job, but I also

William Huffman  0:31  
help with current day. Women

Nick Bellmore  0:35  
I try and understand women and you know, 30 years later, I'm still struggling, but I'm gonna figure this out one day,

Accouncer  0:40  
welcome to Life behind the highlight reel. The podcast that takes things beyond the curated life we all see online join hosts Sara and William Huffman as they dive in with their friends to talk about the good and the hard things that come with a real not perfect life behind the highlight reel.

William Huffman  1:01  
Hey, everybody's William here and Sarah and,

Nick Bellmore  1:04  
and Nick, Belmar, yeah,

William Huffman  1:06  
all right. Just so everybody knows it's our first time using our mobile podcasting stuff. And we are sitting in the lobby of a gorgeous Hotel. So it's kind of echoey and if there's stuff going on in the background, it's because they're setting up for a wedding next door, but we are in Detroit and we did not want to miss the opportunity to speak to one of our absolute like, you're becoming one of my favorite people. I don't know if you noticed or not. I'm admiring you from afar. I know. It sounds kind of weird, but I don't care. And I want we want to

Unknown Speaker  1:33  
give a best friend in Minnesota. Yeah,

William Huffman  1:35  
yeah. Want to get to know you a little bit more?

Nick Bellmore  1:39  
Well, good. I'm super excited. You know, obviously you guys are definitely amongst my favorite people more Sarah than you but I absolutely love you too well understandable. Without a doubt

William Huffman  1:47  
when we have people on our progress. We just wanna hear about you and how you grew up and just learn about just about Nick Belmar because I know you as a coach. I know you as a professional real estate agent. And I know you I mean honestly more so it's whenever we get together it is around a Glover you event the company we both work with typically. So this is now I just want to know, let's start with your story. Where were you born?

Nick Bellmore  2:11  
So oddly enough, I was born just a few miles from here. Over in Livonia, Michigan, five and Lavon over at St. Mary's Hospital in the beautiful year 1978. And good year.

William Huffman  2:26  
Nick has an eye on the DISC profile. So we're gonna hear some great stories. I'm gonna keep him on.

Unknown Speaker  2:31  
Are you an S?

Nick Bellmore  2:32  
No, I'm an I. Although I have a very I have a very strong ass without a doubt. I'm very high in my amiability, but I'm just a little bit higher in my eye although I'm typically not the bright colored high dresser because I am so amiable is your Crocs

William Huffman  2:49  
and socks baby crocs inside style.

Nick Bellmore  2:54  
I will own Crocs and socks. No doubt now I will say this I haven't Crocs and socks now. God Angela, one of our great coaches had to call me out on my shoe game he was he said hey, you're dead. Oh, no. And I had to take it at least dress shoes today. But I did. Of course I do love my kids because I am full dad style and Gino did explain to me my Keens and socks are the equivalent of candles or a candle of Crocs and socks. And so without a doubt, I had to make sure that I bought my footwear game and I got my dude shoes going this weekend. It's a thing. It's a damn thing, too.

William Huffman  3:31  
That's awesome. So you were born in the year of 77. Our Lord and Grace

Unknown Speaker  3:35  
77.

William Huffman  3:36  
Good thing I was listening to the last few seconds ago, I got distracted by the cracks in sock sock. You know, so tell me, where did you grow up? Where do you go to school? Tell me about your folks. So you know, whatever you want to share.

Nick Bellmore  3:47  
So I'll tell you I had of course a crazy childhood. So I grew up over in the Detroit area to start but then when I was in second grade, you know, this is we're talking the beginning of the 80s. And for the people who are familiar with the Detroit area in the beginning of the 80s. It was a pretty bad recession here in Detroit.

William Huffman  4:07  
Okay. I mean, because there wasn't there was a national recession going on. But it really was,

Nick Bellmore  4:11  
like everything. One of the things that a lot of people don't understand about Detroit, they are the canary in the coal mine when it comes to national recessions. And we saw it obviously in the 80s. They were the first ones and, and again, we saw this in the mid 2000s When we saw the real estate market start to drop in the credit market dry up and we really 2006 2007 the rest of the nation had really started to fall into it. But Detroit was already in that market for a solid year before. Oh, wow. Okay. And if you'll remember that was a time when Ford Motor Company had to go out and basically mortgage all of their assets. Yeah. And you know, they came back through and they were getting started. General Motors at that stage went into bankruptcy. And of course at that stage mortgages were really hard. To get and so of course, we were in kind of that freefall here in Detroit through that time. So what a lot of people don't understand about the Detroit area is they are kind of the predictor of economic recessions, because they're so tied into the manufacturing. And just the way the economy is set up here in Detroit. Yeah.

William Huffman  5:18  
That's fantastic information. And I want to talk more about that. We need to go back to baby Nick, baby. I'm gonna keep bringing this back on I keep bringing this back.

Sarah Huffman  5:27  
Well, does I do want to rush this for I do

William Huffman  5:32  
is drive me crazy. So but I have a lot of experience with this. So you were in the 80s, Detroit's getting destroyed the recession, what's going on with you?

Nick Bellmore  5:41  
So, you know, again, normal childhood, for the most part, we lived in a little suburb, really, you know, a little bit west of Detroit called walled lake. And at that stage, you know, of course, I'm in, you know, my kindergarten stage and, um, you know, the little kids stuff. And then my parents decided that with everything going on in my, my father at that stage was in the tool and dye industry. And so they made a move to New York. And so when I went York City, New York City, New York, technically center port on Long Island, is where we ended up and at first was a little time we were in Queens. And so I went to elementary school in New York. And then it was probably about four or five years, it was sixth grade or so at that stage. When we made the move back here. And I moved to Redford, which is a small little Township, the very first municipality west of the Detroit border.

William Huffman  6:34  
So you're kindergarten, first grade, second, third, fourth, fifth, all of a sudden, you're out in New York. Yep. Do you remember the mascot of the school you went to?

Nick Bellmore  6:45  
Well, the school I went to Okay. It was called Thomas J. Leahy Elementary. I don't think they really had a mascot because it was just elementary school so much. Okay. And of course, New York has a billion Schools. Yeah. So much population. Yeah.

William Huffman  6:58  
So what what? So that's that name of the school? You remember that? Is there a reason to remember that?

Nick Bellmore  7:04  
It was just a weird name. So I did it stuck with me, you know? Yeah. I mean, that's just a very specific long, remember, and I couldn't tell you who the guy was. Just remember the school

William Huffman  7:14  
from 30? Some years ago? Yep. Okay, so is it just you and your folks at that time and your siblings, okay, no,

Nick Bellmore  7:19  
no siblings. At that time, I was an only child. However, my parents did decide that they were going to divorce. My father suffered from mental illness. And he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. And my mother decided, hey, this is not going to work. And so my parents, when we move back, they ended up separating shortly after we moved back.

William Huffman  7:41  
Okay, so in your fifth sixth grade, at this time, I wouldn't say

Nick Bellmore  7:44  
sixth grade, sixth grade, eighth grade, it was probably yes, at the end of sixth grade is when that happened. And so my mother and I ended up moving in with my grandmother, okay. And that was, of course, my grandmother was a very big influence in my life.

William Huffman  7:58  
So tell us about her. Like, where was she? Where she from? My

Nick Bellmore  8:02  
grandmother, of course, Greg would love this. If he was here. Oh, no, it's from Ohio. Ah, oh. And my grandmother was one of nine children. And this was, you know, our school Depression era, farm family type of thing. And so she ended up moving her family moved up to Michigan. And yep, that's when they kind of restarted but they were there was a giant farm family. And it was just, you know, a whole situation with that. And then, of course, she made the move up here. And then, oddly enough, my grandfather passed away when my mom was very young. So my grandmother had four children of her own. And then, you know, as my grandfather passed away, she was you know, taking care of things and she was a waitress, and he was a milkman. So she was not, you know, into making a lot of money than any of that kind of stuff. It was just a little bit of support, but at that stage, she had to kind of step up and become the breadwinner of the family and, and that type of stuff and she actually got a job cleaning the hospital. And Botsford Hospital is a hospital that is kind of split between the Livonia Farmington Southfield Redford border, it's kind of right where all those cities meet up still there today. And she had worked herself in there. 20 years she had worked there. And she retired as the head of the cleaning department. She was in charge of all the cleaning at the hospital. By the time she had retired,

William Huffman  9:23  
so Wow. So from waitress to widow to running the cleanliness of a hospital. Absolutely. Yes. I mean, that's a whole story right there. That's incredible. Yes. All right. So thank you for sharing that. So we're we're sixth grade. Dad has some issues. Mom, make some choices. Moving with grandma. Yep. Then what? So now we're thinking about middle school, high school, what's going on in Nick's life at that time? Gosh, at

Nick Bellmore  9:53  
that time, middle school and high school, were of course I think like everybody those were kind of tough, tough times. Yeah, sure, right. Yeah. You know, of course, we're talking about saris

William Huffman  10:03  
face, right.

Sarah Huffman  10:04  
We all experienced Middle School Without social media and it still rough. Thank

William Huffman  10:09  
you to anybody and everybody who is involved in technology for not creating that. Right. Appreciate

Nick Bellmore  10:15  
that. Yeah. Wait until I was older. Yes. Very cool. The internet didn't really come around until I was already kind of graduated high school at that stage. So a little bit easier at that. But yeah, still really tough. For me, at least I had a little bit of a tough Junior High in high school experience. You know, I felt

William Huffman  10:32  
what do you mean by a little tough like, like mentally, or were you out there causing some ruckus,

Nick Bellmore  10:38  
I was not really causing ruckus, I did cause a teeny teeny bit of ruckus towards, you know, my high school years. But I would say for junior high, I more was getting bullied. Okay, I hadn't gotten any size yet. And so you know, I was a small, I wasn't smaller, but I would say I was more of an average normal size kid. Whereas obviously now I'm bigger than most people and all that kind of stuff. So but I hadn't really had gotten any size I hadn't been working out and I was getting picked on. And I can remember there was a kid who was going to beat me up. And for those of you who are super old, if you're listening to this, we had a clothing brand called IOU back in the 90s, it was really never heard. It was very popular here in Detroit, and I had this jacket and these kids, were basically going to beat me up and steal my jacket. And were threatening me in this kind of stuff. And so yeah, that was kind of like a tough little road through, you know, childhood and in junior high and that kind of stuff. And so I ended up in a little altercation over this. And so the principal started to take an interest in me. And so in junior high, the principal from the junior high, started driving me after school to the high school. And he would have me work out with the football team in the way Oh, yeah, seriously. Yep. And so he kind of Oh, yep, he noticed that I was kind of I want to share his name. His name was Brian Mater, okay. And he eventually became the high school principal, right at the same time that I ended up leaving the junior high and going to the principal. So I had him all the way through, you know, when I was really, really, really important to yours, like, not just important years, but he was the right person at the right time, to connect with me to show interest to take the time and energy out of his effort and his day, at the end of his long workday to then stick me in his car, drive me a mile and a half over the high school. And, you know, go through all that. And, you know, again, no connection, no reason to just a kind man who saw that I needed that help and was willing to put it in, and you don't put that extra mile in and go that extra effort. So, so cool. It without a doubt made a big impact. And that's where I started because I can tell you my freshman year, working out with the high school football team, and of course, all of a sudden, you know, puberty comes in and all that stuff. And I put on 40 pounds of muscle, basically over my freshman year and then continued working out and all that all through high school with those wells,

William Huffman  13:06  
what was the mascot of the high school? You went to? Well, I

Nick Bellmore  13:08  
went to Redford union, or are you high? And so we were the Panthers the fighting Panthers.

William Huffman  13:15  
I have to say that this entire time. Absolutely. So

Sarah Huffman  13:18  
now during these years, like junior high through high school, is your dad around? Or is that is he just doing his own thing.

Nick Bellmore  13:25  
He's completely out of the picture. Okay, I did not see him from the time I was probably 12 or 13 up until I was 18. And then he, that side of the family kind of reached out and reconnected. And that was the time at that point. However, at that time, just be totally transparent, honest, he was so deep into mental illness, he was not able to have the same type of relationships that you and I could have. Yeah, normal people in that kind of stuff. It it was a situation where he was very paranoid. He believed that the government was trying to read his thoughts and you know, satellite dishes were after all the stuff that goes along with that type of of mental illness without a doubt.

William Huffman  14:11  
Okay. Thank you for sharing that. And we'll get to that because right now we're 13 or 14. We're a freshman in high school. We're working out

Sarah Huffman  14:20  
where I rushed ahead and do yes.

William Huffman  14:24  
I'm gonna I'm gonna bring my superpower. So we're gonna come back. So now that's my superpower. Which part bringing it back? Oh, okay. Yeah,

Nick Bellmore  14:33  
thank you controls time. Yeah.

William Huffman  14:37  
I hate to like to be the driver. So, freshmen working out, you know, we physically mature quite a bit. I say physically, like, what's like So Nick's for 1450 Now now, what's going on in your life?

Nick Bellmore  14:52  
1415 So, okay, so we'll get into some some interesting stories. You're probably gonna get more than you bargained for now.

William Huffman  14:59  
Well, get as far along with timeline as we can. We're good. Take your time. We're Team

Nick Bellmore  15:03  
15. I'm kind of cruising through. And I'll tell you, we're still living with my grandmother at this stage. And I ended up this is where I got into a little bit of trouble in high school. Okay. Okay. And so what I ended up doing is my grandmother used to have these parties, but she wasn't really a drinker. But people would bring liquor to the parties, and then it wouldn't get drank. And so my grandmother had a liquor collection in the basement because she wasn't a drinker. And she'd have these big parties. So it would just kind of sit down there. And I decided that I was going to take some of this liquor and I was going to sell it to a kid in school, because that was an easy way to make money and I hadn't learned how to the

William Huffman  15:45  
entrepreneur. Early Yeah.

Nick Bellmore  15:52  
Buyer mastery, what do you want? 30 proof or 40? Proof? That's amazing. Yeah, decision making hadn't matured at that stage. A lot of poor decisions got made for sure. Okay, so

William Huffman  16:04  
now we're bootlegging alcohol,

Nick Bellmore  16:05  
bootlegging alcohol, and we ended up getting caught. We ended up getting in trouble because I'm doing this at the school. Yeah. And that's, again, poor choice getting made. And so I ended up getting in trouble. And they ended up basically kicking me out of school. Oh, really. And so I was sent to what they called an alternative education program. And this was kind of, well, yeah, we got something in common with this. Okay. So what ends up happening is I go to the alternative education program, and it is more filled with teen girls who have gotten pregnant. Yep. And it is filled with straight criminals. And I'm going to tell you, I'm not a criminal. At this stage of my life. I just wanted to sell some liquor and make some money and which is a crime, which technically, but I don't care about violence is his job here.

William Huffman  17:02  
This is I went to an alternative high school in Red Wing, Minnesota. Okay, okay. pregnant girls, totally. Some troublemakers I was one of them. This is not Detroit, alternative high school, I'm assuming there's a little bit of a difference

Nick Bellmore  17:16  
a little bit. But keep in mind, this was not Detroit. This is still Redford, which we call Detroit light. And so Detroit light without a doubt. So it's not the same level as if I was in Detroit at this stage. Of course, it's too late for them do anything about it now, unless they come back and take my diploma. But we were living in Detroit, and at that stage, and then using my grandmother's address still. So I could go to school, you know, through this system, which was a much better funded system, much more resources, all that type of stuff. Makes sense. And so yes, I ended up going through now, when we got to the alternative education program, I was the model student, because I really wasn't into you know, crime. And I really wasn't doing a lot of the stuff that these kids were, I would show up, and I would do my work. And I would go through. And so I ended up in a situation where I was considered their model student. And they kind of put me up to say, Hey, everybody, look, the system works. And then they put me back in high school. And so I got back into high school for I was my 10th poster child, I was a child of success of the program, for the most part, because I in the really, I'll tell you, the rules of the program were show up and don't fight. Yeah. And so I was able to maintain that high standard. And so they moved me back to the high school. But one of the things where the education system without a doubt failed, is that they sent me through the hardest programs while I was in this group class. And so when I came out, I had credit for geometry. And I had credit for accounting. And I credit for all these higher level high school classes that I had never gotten the education for. So when I returned back to the high school now, in my 12th grade, I have all the requirements done. And now my 12th grade year is like I'm library assistant, then I go to gym, then I'm library assistant again, then I go to art, then I had another I forget silly class and I government government was my only class that was a real class. And for me, government was something that was interesting, because it's the rules of running the country. So things that I'm interested in, I can learn very quickly, so I didn't have to work hard like I would have had to in geometry or algebra. Exactly. Yeah. Like those classes where it would have been a challenge. We're all just covered in that and then I was in

William Huffman  19:44  
the easy stuff I want to make. So when you're in the alternative high school, that's you took those classes that were much harder, yes. Oh, wow. Okay,

Nick Bellmore  19:52  
but like they gave me credit for those classes, but none of the education because again, the standard to get an A in Class regardless, remember, don't fight. Yes.

William Huffman  20:03  
Don't fight show, okay? See, this is where I got confused.

Nick Bellmore  20:05  
And we'll we're all in one class. So you got to understand to no matter what grade you're in, or what you're studying or where you're at. And this is much different than mine, we are all in one single class together. And one teacher is trying to teach 228 different kids curriculum and where they're at. And while I was able to learn a lot of these kids, especially the guys, were clearly learning disabled, and they were definitely not even interested in participation. And again, for a lot of these guys, this is where, you know, you started to see real criminal type of stuff versus, you know, selling grandma's liquor bottle, right. And school. Yeah. And so I really kind of got a different type of education through alternative education.

William Huffman  20:50  
The high school version, okay, so they basically said, You didn't get in a fight. So in my alternative high school, we had to literally clock in on a timecard. And if we were a minute late, we wouldn't get credit for that class and all this stuff. Oh, wow. Okay, we actually had to do work.

Unknown Speaker  21:04  
There are standards.

Nick Bellmore  21:06  
Yeah. Which probably would have been better in all honesty for the program when I had to, it was very low standards. And that in and of itself, did no one any good.

William Huffman  21:15  
No, no, I mean, it sounds like it was a massive failure, to be honest. And it was and we couldn't talk about partying, we couldn't talk about alcohol or drugs, or any of that was called party talk. If like, Hey, you want to have like codewords? Yeah, the teachers were not stupid, though. They were I mean, they, they, and they would call you on your shit in a second. And I was pretty good about it. But every now and then it'd be like, Oh, we had a great time last weekend. Get out of your house man. Like dammit, like you can try and argue. But they they're smart enough. They know, our teachers

Nick Bellmore  21:45  
were bargaining and negotiating. They really wanted you to get through the day, they wanted this program to succeed. And so they were willing to do whatever it took to get you through, and not have you stuck somewhere. Because again, in Michigan, I believe the rule is you have to be in high school until you're 16. And then your parents can remove you. And so a lot of us were under that. 16 I graduated when I was 17. Because I was born in September. So of course, you know, where else am I gonna go? I'm gonna stay here, the whole entire thing get through this. And so of course I did. But yeah, totally different experience, because there was a lot of lax type of stuff. This is where I learned a lot of stuff I never expected, I had a young man there that taught me how to break a steering column and start vehicles. And that was never something I was exposed to prior to that. And so a lot of the education that I got, there really was not the education that I was hoping to get an education that would do me good in the world.

William Huffman  22:45  
Is there anybody from that time that you still communicate with a couple

Nick Bellmore  22:48  
of them, I'm still friends with a few of them on Facebook, one of the guys specifically that I still talk to, is really turned his life around. And he's a father. And, you know, he and I had a lot in common and oddly enough, we grew up very close to each other. I mean, literally, seven, eight houses away. Oh, wow. Yeah, it was a whole situation. But today, I wouldn't even recognize the guy as far as a personality style. I mean, physically, he's still experienced same. But without a doubt. He's a completely different guy today. He doesn't drink, he does a party. He's a father. He's, you know, works up and he's worked his way up in his business. And he lives an amazing life. And he just bought a wonderful home. And, you know, he's a big hunter. And so of course, it's all his dream stuff. Like, yeah, that stuff gets me excited to see people. That's really their dream. Yeah, yeah. So without a doubt, he's one of the ones that was within there. Now, there's probably a couple other guys too, that I've kept up with, and or at least paid attention through the years that life hasn't gone as well for and of course, you know, decisions get made every single day for all of us. Yeah.

William Huffman  23:49  
Alright. So did you did you did you end up playing football in high school or like, so I was going on there, like, what was going on? Well,

Nick Bellmore  23:57  
here's the thing is I in the very beginning, they wanted me to play football, because of course, I'm working out with the football team, and I was lucky enough to be genetically strong. And, you know, I was always a little bit bigger, but I ended up actually instead falling in with a boxing club. And so

William Huffman  24:14  
really, yes, I don't want to catch those hands.

Nick Bellmore  24:18  
Let me tell you, I have the people that I trained with. I was one of the worst boxers. And so there's no doubt like I enjoyed it. It was a fun thing. I was never good. Even today, I still train Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and I'm not one of the best jujitsu guys. I do. Okay. But, you know, but that was why I did not play and I thought boxing was gonna be better for me. And obviously, I was more fearful physically at that age because I really hadn't learned some of those skills and that kind of stuff, you know, as I was younger, and so it was more of a draw for me because I felt I was going to get more value from at that time was called the Livonia Boxing Club.

William Huffman  24:58  
That Oh yeah, that's just like It's a well known boxing club. I

Nick Bellmore  25:01  
do believe there, they were there for a few hours. The guy that ran it was from galaxy, which is a very well known boxing club and James Tony used to fight out of there and, you know, a couple different things like that. And he kind of started that on his own. And I trained there for a while, and it was it was a good experience, because it was great trainers, nice facility, and it was a place that you could keep showing back up and, and you know, getting a ton of of, you know, information as well as training and

William Huffman  25:28  
sounds like some stability to it was absolutely, and I know that's kind of what I'm reading between the lines, because you say keep showing up and same crew was there and the routine with

Sarah Huffman  25:37  
jujitsu, like it's very disciplined. Yes, absolutely. Like so you're learning a lot of discipline as well. Yes. All right.

William Huffman  25:44  
So you're throwing hands in the ring, you know, and we're graduating high school, what happens?

Nick Bellmore  25:51  
So when I graduated high school, I went to work as a roofer. Because I was still 17, and a friend of mines neighbor, oh, in the roofing company. So even though I was too young to be covered under his workman's comp policy, he paid me cash on the side and told me if I fell off the roof, I was fired before I hit the ground. That's true. Yeah. That's what he told me. And I worked for him. And I made a lot more money than my friends did. Because again, stability was a big thing. My parents were not financially well off. And so you know, I knew that even though that was harder work than what a lot of my friends did in fast food. And again, I'll bring myself back as far as pay goes, a lot of my friends at the time made 495 or 485. Because, you know, in the early mid 90s, minimum wage, that's what people paid. Yeah. And I had an opportunity to work for $5 an hour at Kmart, which I did during school, and then I could work when I started working for this guy. I started out at like, eight and then within like, two months, I was at $11 an hour. Wow, was a lot more than my friends were making.

William Huffman  27:02  
So so I know, I know just enough about roofing and know it's a job I would never wish upon anybody because it's a hard hard job a hard job. So were you the guy who had to carry the bundles up the ladder?

Nick Bellmore  27:13  
I was well, I was two things. I actually a couple jobs now. Definitely. That was one of my jobs.

William Huffman  27:17  
How many bundles could you carry? I can shoulder up the ladder? I would

Nick Bellmore  27:20  
I could carry a lot. I'll tell you a quick. Yeah, as I move on, because right after this, I turned 18. And so I would do two bundles at a time because you're all day. But then I would also do the tear off which I'd get on there with the you know the tool and just rip the shingles off pitchfork. Well, good thing. Yeah, yep, exactly. And then I would also do the cleanup. And then of course, the skilled guys were up there roofing. And I did this for seven, eight months, because it was cash. And it really worked out and on top of it, we would be able to meet at the owners house and he would drive everybody to the jobs. And so it was I don't have to spend a lot of money to work there. I was getting the cash, which was a lot of money for my age and the whole thing. But then I turned 18 years old, and now I could get covered under workman's comp. So I ended up going to work as a frame carpenter. So I would build the actual structure of homes. Yes. And okay. I'll tell you one of the things I had noticed working in a couple of the high school jobs I had had still while in school, and my mother had remarried when I was probably about I was about 13 or so

William Huffman  28:22  
we kind of breezed over.

Nick Bellmore  28:24  
That's okay. That's okay. My mother had remarried. And so my stepfather was a trim carpenter. He did handhelds and mantle's and cabinets and tailstock detail stuff. Exactly. And he said, you know, if you want to really learn about homes, you should start out as a frame carpenter because you're going to learn the structure of a house and I wanted to be a builder because I especially now, we're talking about the mid to late 90s In Michigan, and we were on a boom in Southeast Michigan for building graduated What 9495? I

William Huffman  28:56  
graduated 9696. Yeah, because we were night were 9898. Okay,

Nick Bellmore  29:01  
so yeah, really close. And so you know, that timeframe was expansion everywhere, right? We were seeing rates start to come down in the, you know, the finance world at that stage. And new construction was happening all over so much expansion was happening here in Michigan. And so I wanted to be a builder because I saw these guys were just really doing well. And I wanted to be financially successful. And that was falling into, you know, one of the opportunities I had, so I figured, hey, I'll learn about houses and I went to school and got my builder's license, but I went to work as a frame carpenter.

William Huffman  29:35  
So how old are you when you decide that you're going to be so you're you're 1818 you're now a framer, and you get your GC and I'm a builder. Yep. at 18 at 18. Wow, wow. Okay, slacker.

Nick Bellmore  29:47  
Yes, I was. Now keep in mind there's a difference between having a license and actually putting up homes absolutely no place to really be financially ready, or even having the the money management skills, it really takes to build and sell a home at that time. But I've got my license and I go to work as a frame carpenter. That's awesome. And then I framed houses. And this was a great job for me. Because this is where this was a really physical job when you're talking about carrying stuff. Without a doubt, there was nothing harder than framing houses. Now, of course, today, things are a little bit different. And things are different today, because of the way the lumber situation works. And we know that you know, old growth trees specifically are a little harder to come by today, significantly heavier, right, way heavier. And so today, so many things are TGI joists, or you're seeing these eye beams in there, you're seeing all these different Flooring Systems. But when I was doing it, everything was two by 10 or two by 12. And it was all that dimensional lumber. Yep.

Sarah Huffman  30:46  
It's like we go into the homes that we love. Because they're so solid. Yes.

William Huffman  30:49  
The good bones. Yeah, yeah,

Nick Bellmore  30:52  
yeah. And a lot of what I framed at the time was very high end for that time. Now, on average, those homes were selling, you know, low three, hundreds to mid three, in the late 90s. In the late night. Yeah, that's good, very much. Today's five to $600,000. Home. Absolutely. So very high quality, all of them, you know, good materials and that type of stuff. And we were great framers, I mean, we were the frame crew. And I lucked out, I had a guy who really took me under his wing. And this is a guy who to this day, I still keep in contact with. His name was Scott Wilhelmy. I was his realtor, when I first became a realtor. I mean, that's he supported me all the way through that structure, into real estate for years. And he taught me framing and a lot of that stuff. And it was a really great experience working with him throughout the years and that type of stuff, too. And so it was several years that I did framing. Eventually, Scott ended up connecting with a developer. And he really helped to set me up in my own framing business for a little while, too, and kind of helped me get through and get started in that realm.

William Huffman  32:01  
I'm just seeing some like, some really cool. There's certain people showing up in your life at the right time. It's a theme. And but you're you're also having the maybe not looking back at it now. But you're having the openness to be like, Okay, this person's here and helping me I need to say yes, yeah. And like

Sarah Huffman  32:24  
you didn't rebel against the right support, or the mentor. It was like Scott,

Nick Bellmore  32:28  
and I had a tough time a little bit because he was a high analytical. And as you guys know, yeah, hi. Oh, yeah. Oh, gosh, he valued order very much. Yeah. And I did not value order as much. So we, but also he was such a big brother to me. He did I can tell tell the story. And I hope he actually listens to this one time, because he'll laugh if he hears this. He wanted to fire me. And this guy was like, I mean, years this day, we still talk. But he went to the owner of the company, and he asked him to fire me, because I showed up five minutes late every day. And to him that was unacceptable. It is very unacceptable. Yes. Now, I was one of the best carpenters they had. And I showed up more than everybody else. And for those people who are familiar with the skilled trades. Oh, yeah, a lot of times guys have been problems with substance or alcohol, and they don't show up every day. Yep. And the reality is, that was not my problem. I was there every day, but I was there every day, five minutes late. But I'm also there ready to work till whenever and I was very efficient and strong, and I put houses up. So I'll never forget this. And, and I didn't quite understand personality styles. This is really Oh, right. Yeah, we didn't understand how this was until I actually ended up meeting Jeff and Jeff really spent the time to teach me about the DIS system and how this stuff really works. And that's when I realized that's going back and you think about us, and it makes so much more sense. So yeah, he was such an asshole was, in his mind, this was for my own good. Yeah, he really believed that. So it's hard to be mad about it, because he was doing it for my benefit. But of course, you know, everything is the hard way. When you're, you know, in the trades and a guy early 20s in

William Huffman  34:12  
the hole, there's a real thing about like that rough neck like blue collar, like, my way or the highway seniority. You know, look at my hands compared to your hands. You know, there's definitely something for that

Nick Bellmore  34:24  
and the mentorship because he taught me how to frame which and I'll tell you, I had a very quick acceleration through my pay scale, because I it was a very in demand situation. And I was taught by really good people. So even though I'm only at this stage, probably 20 just turning 21 I'm making 25 bucks an hour, which is way more than a lot of people I know and it's the right place, the right time, the right market. Everything just happens that way. So why does he want to fire you? Because I can't show up on time but what if the store doesn't like it? So he He, He wants to tells the developer he wants to get rid of me, the guy that owns the whole entire company in the thing, and he won't let me he tells me No, I'm not going to fire, Nick. But he also sits me down. He's like your piston Scott off, you need to be here. He sees it as an insult, and you need to respect it. And so I did, I took it very seriously. I didn't understand how much it upset him because I truly didn't understand personality styles. Yeah, time. And so of course, I didn't want to upset this guy. This guy is, you know, my hero growing up and the whole entire thing. And so, yeah, I ended up figuring out, you know, okay, this is what I got to do. And I'll make sure that I'm here five minutes early. And, and of course, you know, I knew I could find another job at the same pay, but not amongst people who I enjoy being with every day. And that's so important. And so I really, hey, I'm going to make this work. I'm going to do what we need to do. And I did Sure enough, and we went on for a few years and ended up being a situation where Scott ended up having a back injury and he kind of took on a little bit more of a superintendent role. Yeah.

William Huffman  36:04  
Okay. oversee his hard hat color change. And it was a lot clay did a little bit. Yeah, it did. It did.

Nick Bellmore  36:10  
And he was in his 40s at this stage. And so I ended up as they kind of ran out of work and some different things happened. And I ended up taking up with another guy who actually lived in Livonia. And he ran very much a production frame crew, we were just getting houses up quick. And we were putting up a house a week. But this guy and his name was Jeff and also not like our Jeff obviously. But he ended up really supporting me because he let me work three days a week for 25 bucks an hour while I went to work in real estate as a buyer's agent, part time from an agent that I ended up buying my very first house

William Huffman  36:48  
from. Okay, hold on, we got to back this up now, because that's a great segue is oh, your phone's recording this conversation? Anyway, yeah, they share. Okay, so we're framing stuff happens with this one company, do take some over soup roll. Now, you buying a house? How old? were you when you bought your first house?

Nick Bellmore  37:09  
I thought this was a crazy one. So I closed on my first house. I want to say it was about 15 days after I turned 21 out of yours. Well, I had known that. And again, I came all the way through my teens. And I'm seeing these guys building and selling these houses and they're making more money than I can fathom. I mean, they're just really coming through. And they're doing really well. And I'll tell you, this is actually the story that really got me into this because my very last point was Scott, one of the things that we had done as we were building homes in Birmingham. And so if anybody out there is familiar with the metro Detroit area, Birmingham is a very high end suburb out here in Detroit. And so we would go in and this is again, this is still late 90s, the developer would buy these houses for 200,000. He would come in and rip the house out, build a house on the lot, sell it for 850. And so I had built the last house he did. And if we go back to the late 90s, there was a car that I really thought was cool. It's called a Lincoln LS. I don't know if you remember that was like a Lincoln sports. Yes, I remember. Okay, so I spent this whole time building this house and I'd spent probably about seven months of me and two other guys physically framing, we did the windows, we put all the siding, I mean everything up until you know rough electrical plumbing, we did the majority of it. And so finally it gets finished. And I helped even supervise the finish and all that stuff. In this. This realtor pulls up in this Lincoln LS and I'm I'm just finishing some work outside and I see this guy walk out what's your car at the time. At the time I'm driving, oddly enough the same car I drive today I'm driving an F 150. But I have an F 150 Short box and it's not all jacked up or any of the cool stuff, but not a bad. I mean, nothing to complain about. I'm doing really well. But I see this guy pull up. And he's in this cool, cool Lincoln. Your car that you want attention. I'm right. Yeah, yeah, puts his sign out. And this house sells in a week. Wow. And I went to the developer now. I had gotten my real estate hours and I had not taken the state test. But I I put in my hours and I was ready to go take the test. But I wasn't. It wasn't top of mind for me. I wasn't like oh, I'm about to become a realtor. I gotta get this done. It was like, Okay, this will help me as I build and sell homes. I never thought it was gonna take me down this path because you were gonna be a builder. That was the that was my plan at the time. And so I went through and I had taken this and I I asked the developer about it. I said, Hey, how'd this work? And he goes, Well, he charged us 6% And he sold it so he got the whole 6% And so I took out we didn't Oh you didn't I took out my my piece of wood. because we wrote everything, wooden pens, two by 10, I took my wood pencil and I did that math. And I realized that this guy just made in a week what it had taken me nine months to make. And I thought, oh my goodness, what I built this thing, and he's making way more money and I nailed personally every nail I put the trim on the outside. I'm like, Andrew, I built this house. And this guy just made all this money in a week. And I've put 40 hours a week for nine months into this like everything and of course like

William Huffman  40:35  
anybody who thinks about that I can do that.

Nick Bellmore  40:37  
I did Yeah, I know exactly what I thought you liked the body

William Huffman  40:41  
didn't do anything for that money. Interesting how we always think that but no, this is cool. I like it. But I

Nick Bellmore  40:46  
paid attention to this guy. Yeah, paid attention his name because of the car. And he had he had a name that I thought was a little bit funny. And it come to find out that he was involved in a major coaching organization to and he had been learning and training real estate and that whole thing.

William Huffman  41:02  
Oh, okay, cool. Awesome. So

Nick Bellmore  41:06  
I ended up going through at this stage and I was buying my house and again, you know, I'm building 3200 square foot mansions with beautiful floors and I bought myself a nice little $78,000 shack over on the Redford Livonia border. Hey, it was your shack though it was my surely fixed up. Yep. And I did I put a lot of work into your castle, man. It was it was coming through and it was great. I'll tell you the other thing that was great. It was my first rental not just the first one as far as me moving out buying the next house and renting it which it was. But it was also my first as far as renting rooms. And I had a friend of mine that lived with me and helped me pay the rent. And so it was of course building my equity. And of course, I had a big tax deduction because I had owned a home at that stage and all the benefits that really came with it financially. I was starting to learn about and so I closed on that house. And then it was maybe about maybe about 30 days later, 15 days later, I went and showed up at my realtor's office. And I just want the one who helped you're the one who helped you buy your one that helped me buy my house. Okay, and this is a this is a crazy story. So I just basically cold call them and one of the things the loan rep told me that he's probably looking for buyer's agents. And I had no idea who this guy was, I really didn't. And it turns out just by sheer accident, he is one of the biggest realtors in Metro Detroit at the time. And you know, first team third generation realtor, really high volume to the point where people hadn't even seen and if we go back to the early 2000s, it was not average for people to be running around selling even 50 and 60 and 70 homes like today. It's not that it's average, obviously in our business. But you know, it's not unheard of. Yeah, it's not uncommon. Yeah, every market has a couple of agents now that are selling these, you know, 100 homes, 130. And most places even have some people that are in those two, that was unheard of at the time, and there wasn't big teams. This goes back so long that there wasn't even a Keller Williams in Metro Detroit at that time. And so I ended up going to him and I said, Hey, I heard you might be looking for a buyer's agent, and I have my license. And I wonder, would you be willing to give me a shot and out of obligation? He said yes. And he said it because out of obligation. What do you mean by that? I'll tell you why this is and I talked to him about this years later. So I knew this was his thought process. Oddly enough. I double ended so I looked at I had another agent before them that I ended up firing because I did not like the way she was constantly trying to push me to the top of your house. Yes, we bought my house. And so when I ended up switching and not using her anymore, I ended up buying one of his and double ending it and like doing my own searching through realtor.com and then found it so he double ended this thing. And I was very naive. He I just like wrote full price, you know the whole entire thing first time. 21 years old, FHA buyer. And so he was like, this is super easy transaction. I just double dipped it. I'm gonna give this kid a shot. I can tell you told me this in the future. He said, I thought for sure you'd come in for a week or two, and you would get bored with it and you would just phase out and that would be the ideal. Wow. But that's

William Huffman  44:39  
apparently he doesn't know who Nick

Nick Bellmore  44:41  
Elmore. I don't think I knew who Nick Bellmore was at that stage.

William Huffman  44:45  
Well, looking back I think looking back we see a very clear pattern of, of strength and ability to there. There's obviously a lot of personal stuff that was happening to you in your life that was you know, driving your decisions by Behind the scenes, but I think even in this few short what we've been talking for 4050 minutes now, we can see that a young Nick Dalmore definitely made some decisions that he was going to live his life in a very, very certain way and do things so much differently to break kind of a pattern that was going on in your absolutely, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, it distract. You're going on a hippie road there. But I you know, I love those I know you do. I know you do. Alright, so this guy thinks you're gonna fail. This guy

Nick Bellmore  45:31  
thinks I'm gonna fail. But he feels obligated and he starts telling me he's like, great. So start, you can start coming in here after work. And you can come in and work with me on the weekends. And so I'm like, okay, that's what I started doing. A top producer was working on the weekends. This guy, let me tell you about this guy. This guy works seven days a week, nice seven days a week, 1012 hours every week, day, 810 hours on a Saturday, and then he would work a half day on Sunday, he would only work like eight hours. So

William Huffman  46:02  
we know that feeling. But yeah, we know that was his

Nick Bellmore  46:05  
half day. And this was his pattern. He was very much a workaholic, but also really taught me the business. And we did a lot of low end stuff. We were not the high end realtors. We were the blue collar realtors.

William Huffman  46:18  
And so hence your unit 70,000. For your house. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And

Nick Bellmore  46:23  
so we went through, and we really did a lot of volume. So and of course, when you do in the low end, a lot of it's problematic, right? There's always issues that crop up. And so the great part of that experience is I really learned how to deal with hard deals in high volume. And so I was going through for years, and really doing really well financially better than I had ever done. And I can tell you over those years, so many people had come up to me and tried to talk to me about coming to work for them for a higher split. But I was doing volume, and I was making more money and netting more money than I ever expected to make as a child,

William Huffman  47:04  
you're 2023

Sarah Huffman  47:06  
probably making more money than you were ever around as a kid.

Nick Bellmore  47:09  
I was making more money probably at that time than both of my parents put together. Yeah, right. Yeah. And so it was yeah, it was very different and very much tied into the mentorship that went through this now, knowing what I know, today. And being a real estate coach, there was a lot of things that quite honestly weren't efficient, and how we worked. And it was very much a culture of being a workaholic,

William Huffman  47:34  
more of more of grinding it out until 2am. Yeah, versus being no boundaries. Yeah, yeah,

Nick Bellmore  47:39  
no family balance. And you know, that type of stuff, which, you know, I at 22, and 24. And that kind of stuff, it wasn't as important to me. But today, I realize how impossible that ever could have been to maintain and have a good family life or great relationship with my kids or any of that stuff. It's just impossible. So in my early 20s, it was a good spot for me. And I learned so silly.

William Huffman  48:04  
Absolutely.

Unknown Speaker  48:06  
What did you meet your wife?

Nick Bellmore  48:08  
So we're coming right up to this part of the store. Okay. And let's go there, then I'll tell you. So this guy that I worked for, he was he would go on quarterly vacations, and he would go every single quarter, and he would spend two weeks or 10 days on vacation. And I'll tell you, this was a great part of the business for me because again, high volume dude. And when he would go on vacation, I would sit at his desk, and I would just take everything that came in. And so he was gone on one of these two week vacations. And my wife was assigned call. And I was No, I was sitting at his desk. That's awesome. This is a hilarious story. I love this. So I'm literally I can remember the day she called I'm sitting at his desk in his office. So we had offices like right next to each other. And he was in there with the assistant and the whole entire thing. And so my assistant was so wonderful at the time I love is his assistant, am I but she was so wonderful. She was like a second mom to me. So I would all the time I could I would sit in there with her. And we would mess around and joke around and I really enjoyed spending my time with her. And then we had a mail out person because of course foreign mailing was huge at that time. Yeah. And you know, she was in there a lot of times either with me or in that same office so I would sit in with them. And sure enough, this sign call came in. And I answered the sign call and I set the appointment and I went to meet this lady at a house on Antigo in Livonia and sure enough there she was, and I did my whole thing where hey, you know what, I can show you more homes. Why don't you come meet me at the course this is old school. So everybody met you at the office at that time, you know back then. And sure enough, I showed her that house and reset her from there. And then you'll stare you'll love this. I'm ready. So my wife came to the second showing with her boyfriend. Oh yeah. Ha, yes. Yes. Plot twist, a little plot twist. This is awesome. So I, you know, of course I'm like, okay, it is what it is. And I, you know,

William Huffman  50:11  
well hold on. So at the first showing when you were you, were you just like, like, oh, like, or was it just like, Oh, she's cute or

Nick Bellmore  50:20  
it was it was definitely Oh, she's cute. Okay, of course I'm trying to understand I'm still trying to do my job. But I also can't help but current

Unknown Speaker  50:27  
day. No.

William Huffman  50:30  
I understand women. I'm trying

Nick Bellmore  50:31  
to understand women. And you know, 30 years later, I'm still struggling, but I'm gonna figure this out one day. And so yeah, I ended up going ahead and resetting her. And I'm like, Okay, well, why don't you meet me at my office, I'll have three set up for us. So she comes into the office with her preset as in, reset the appointment, reset the next appointment, because I met her at the first house, the sign call. And then of course, typical Nick style, I brought alternative listings with me when I knew she wasn't going to buy that one. I gave her this list. And I said, Hey, when are you available to see more homes, I'd love to show you some stuff on this list. And we set that time up and great. Just meet me at my office. Here's my card, here's the address, and we'll go out and see three homes from there. And so when she came in, she came in with the boyfriend who worked with her at the time, but they weren't like they just kind of been dating this guy was casually and it was you're trying to justify it to happen. So

William Huffman  51:27  
you're doing her a favor.

Nick Bellmore  51:33  
Welcome. Yeah. I don't know. She might not agree with that one. But we'll, we'll say yes. So the second time, so of course, same thing, I showed the three houses, and I'm super professional or whatever. But I reset again. And now the second time she comes back is still the same week. And now she comes back with her girlfriend from work. And they were like friends that worked at the, you know, the same type of thing. They were always together, and now he's gone. And she's looking at houses, what type of work was she doing at the time at the time, she worked at the airport, and she worked for Customs and Border Protection. Okay, so, you know, uniform and the whole entire thing and serious, you know, real serious? Yeah. And then there's me, you know, it was not as serious at that stage. And so yeah, she came out with her friend and we did the whole thing again. And now when it's just her and her friend, I have to admit I was able to flirt with her a little bit more and that kind of thing.

William Huffman  52:31  
So we highly recommend flirting with your clients.

Nick Bellmore  52:35  
Hi, if you're on my team, I'm gonna highly not recommend that. But fortunately keep in mind

Unknown Speaker  52:40  
flirt while showing the house.

Nick Bellmore  52:43  
What you know the same way you flirt with everything. Come on. Now you just number one. You're making those jokes. It's the banter. It's those looks I see. Well, looking at you right now he's like, I'll show you how I flirt with you. We go to our house. You know exactly what

Unknown Speaker  52:57  
is the kitchen? This

William Huffman  52:59  
is I bathroom. I have such a deep like I remember Are you buying the house or not? Why are you making it? Are you

Nick Bellmore  53:09  
so in my highway, so this is what I was. I'll tell you my move. Yeah, just for all the realtors out here. If you want to date your client, this was the move right here. I used at least I said to her Hey, what's important when we started looking for stuff and one of the things that she had said she was important for her to have mountain biking trails and like places to go kayaking outdoor type of stuff. And so I was like, Oh, so you're into kayaking. That's really cool. I know a place locally. If you want I can take you out there and show you I've actually got you know two kayaks now. I don't have two kayaks. One of them is my friends. But he's got two and believe me he's gonna loan me

William Huffman  53:51  
his kayak might be missing his chi

Nick Bellmore  53:53  
Yes. And he was more than happy to help me out and to loan me his kayak and yes, that was our first date. We went to Kensington Metropark, was

William Huffman  54:01  
it other now, was it a date? Or was it you showing her the neighbor? No, it

Nick Bellmore  54:05  
was definitely a date. Okay, because there was no real estate and we just met at the park for kayaking. And yes, and we did end up kissing at the end of it. So okay, this is another favorite and I made her dinner at the end of the first move. Oh, gosh. I don't know. I wonder if she would even remember it. Of course as the guy want to say it was me but I'm not positive that it even was, you know, there. It was honestly, so easy and natural that it was like it was a foregone conclusion by the end of the day, like we had kayaked around for a few hours and then I invited her back to my house to make her dinner. I made her chicken alfredo, which believe me if you want to win a woman's heart chicken alfredo can do it. So that was specially with my chicken alfredo.

William Huffman  54:52  
I'd reach out to you for some chicken alfredo right now. Just saying I'm hungry. Will okay well if

Nick Bellmore  54:59  
I made you You chicken alfredo. You'd want to date me. Yeah, we'd have to Yeah, that would be

Sarah Huffman  55:03  
an issue. So you didn't have to go back to the office and reset after this date.

Nick Bellmore  55:10  
We had already reset, because I do not leave a showing appointment. However, this was the appointment to, you know, show her where the kayaking and the mountain biking could happen. That yeah, so we did still have and then it wasn't very long after we first started dating that she was under contract on a house. I was like,

William Huffman  55:30  
under contract. Yeah,

Nick Bellmore  55:32  
she was. She was under contract, like go ahead and put a ring on. It just happened to be we weren't ready to put rings on things quite yet. But it was a mile away from my house. And so it worked out fairly well.

William Huffman  55:45  
When she looking in that neighborhood initially. Okay, she was

Nick Bellmore  55:48  
she was absolutely she was because

Sarah Huffman  55:51  
you weren't like some like future stalker boyfriend being like, Oh, this is a great location next door.

Nick Bellmore  55:59  
This was my second house at this stage. So when I had gone through, I lived at the very first house that I had bought. And then I was in there for maybe three or four years and I was doing well financially in real estate and so I thought okay, it's time to buy up. And so instead I then moved a little bit west to Livonia a nicer neighborhood and I had a at this stage 1600 square foot ranch with a finished basement. And it had, you know, an inground pool built and it was it was a ridiculous house. It was a ridiculous single guy. All right. I'm 25 years old. I got my own in ground heated pool. And like it was a whole situation you

William Huffman  56:40  
make a chicken alfredo, making chicken alfredo and

Sarah Huffman  56:44  
kayak. Yeah, like long walks on the beach. And I like

Nick Bellmore  56:47  
long Yeah, six. And I've got the other house still too because I rented it out. And here I know. And I'm keeping that thing I'm, I'm trying to give out those good boyfriend vibes. And it luckily worked in this case. And so yeah, she came to the house. We ended up dating from there. And then she closed on her house course. I'll never forget this. Her parents came, like right before the closing to see the house. And she told me she was like, Don't tell my parents were dating. I don't want them to think I'm dating the realtor. Yep.

Sarah Huffman  57:17  
So then down the road, you're like, Hey, by the way,

Nick Bellmore  57:20  
by the way, guys, I'm marrying your daughter? Nobody. Wow.

Sarah Huffman  57:25  
So then how long? How long did it take for you guys to get married?

Nick Bellmore  57:28  
About actually three to four years before we got married after that? Because she had just bought a house. And of course, you know, opposites attract. So Wow. Yes. See? She is more of like a D. C? And so yeah, all the opposites of me. Yeah. Yeah. Would you know how this stuff works? Yeah, we're

William Huffman  57:49  
opposites. Yeah,

Nick Bellmore  57:50  
you gotta you gotta it's never the like people that get together. It's always the people that are total opposites. So we knew we were total opposites. And so I think part of us was just like, okay, we can take our time. And of course, at that stage, she has her own house. I have my own house. We're living a mile from each other. We're spending a ton of time together and play biking

William Huffman  58:10  
back and forth all the time. weirdos that bike and kayak,

Nick Bellmore  58:15  
and then we get a dog together and the whole entire thing. And so yeah, and then we ended up getting engaged. Yeah, right. I mean, four years later, I guess.

William Huffman  58:27  
That is so awesome. Here, we're not even do like there's so much more to go here. This just mean, this is a good place to kind of wrap it up. I think. Here, Belmont. We're gonna be seeing you again soon. We're gonna have to talk about I don't know, after you were 28 Because I think we're a two parter. Yeah, we're gonna have to, we're gonna have to because I mean, we haven't even met Jeff yet. And the story? No, no, no,

Nick Bellmore  58:54  
I'm still at REMAX. I haven't met Jack. Yeah, I'm just building my career at this stage. I've probably been I married her and probably been a realtor about six years or so maybe seven total? Because again, I'm starting 21 We got married. Oh, man, gosh, I would say this is before the crash. And everything says, Well, this is we're dating into the crash at this stage. It's just about crashing. It's probably crashing. And I'm not quite aware of it. Yeah. And you're in love, because I'm in love and the whole situation going on at this stage. And so yeah, we were. We were living in our two separate houses. And we were just we got engaged. We stayed engaged for a year before we got married to because one of our big goals now my wife is very financially conservative. And so one of our big goals together is we did not want to be in any debt for our wedding. We wanted to save it up and be able to pay and we didn't want to ask our family for strength. We wanted to be able to be like, Hey, we're gonna pay for our wedding. We're gonna have it and all that kind of stuff. So that was a big goal with us. We had actually a wonderful little small wedding in my parents backyard. But you know, we had some Almost a dance floor with great lighting and DJ and like it was a really detailed. Yeah, we had everything but we really kept like we did our whole now again, some people freak out on this. We did our whole wedding for about 5500 bucks when it was all said and done.

Unknown Speaker  1:00:14  
Wow, thanks for coming. Yeah.

William Huffman  1:00:20  
Moving on Yeah, no, so we're gonna have to get you in the live unreal studio. And because then they can record and we can record like we can just do a. So we'll definitely to park this here very soon here. Because I want to know more. Sarah definitely has a bunch of questions he hasn't even got to yet. And we haven't even got to the I mean, this is cool stuff. Don't get me wrong.

Sarah Huffman  1:00:41  
I don't think it really sets the stage that like just hearing about like your childhood, how you grew up alternative high school like you could have gone in so many different directions. Yeah, yeah. And like, I do really appreciate the fact that you like called out your mentors, and they were like, hey, they kind of kept me on the path.

William Huffman  1:00:58  
And, and as as an as a, we keep using the DISC profile because it makes sense to us. But as an AI the AI personality types tend to downplay some stuff that has happened in their life. And I'm not saying we got to get into that. But I just know from talking to you off the microphone that you went through a lot of lot of shit a lot of stuff, right? A lot of shit a lot of stuff and, and in to to hear this side of the story is super cool. And I just really want I really want to hear more of this. I really do. But we're not going to let you off the hook without telling us your top five favorite restaurants. And here's the thing, they don't have to be like because it's the best food in the world. Okay, well, one gentleman, I said it was Olive Garden. And I was like, What the hell. And he's like, because I used to go there with my mother all the time. And we would just sit there, we'd have pasta and wine and this loved it. It was like the nostalgia of the memory type thing of it. So give us your top five favorite restaurants in no particular order, except don't screw it up. And we'll start with number five.

Nick Bellmore  1:02:04  
Number five. Okay, I'm gonna split this because for we haven't gotten into me moving across the state yet for a little so for those of you that pre 2008 then okay, pre 2008 top five. Okay, my Detroit top five.

Unknown Speaker  1:02:17  
Oh, I'm excited. Oh, this is neat. Yeah. Okay. Well, here's

Nick Bellmore  1:02:21  
the thing. None of them are downtown because I'm a suburbs guy. That's okay. So I'll forgive you. Yeah, well listen, the best places in the suburbs. And again, things have changed a little bit. So there might be some better ones out there today. But I'm going going eight, nine years ago, we get in my favorite places. Number five. I'm going to have to put on there and I start I actually stopped there on the way because I never get back to Lavanya as much as I want to. And it's Dale yeas Chinese restaurant. And this is another one this place has been around for like, I don't know. 40 years. I think this place is older than I am. It's like multigenerational. It's been in the same spot in Livonia forever. It's at five and Merriman and they have the best sweet and sour pork okay, what yeah, what's your Sara always asked What's your order sweet and sour pork is my favorite for sure. Although there's a lot of different stuff that I do like I'm not always the same I'll do like chicken different stuff. I love almond shake, and I love mongolian beef, all that kind of stuff. But sweet and sour pork is definitely my favorite because they have like a perfectly crispy tempura batter so I would say there my number really does make it

William Huffman  1:03:26  
if it does. You crush it all right, soggy. Yeah,

Nick Bellmore  1:03:29  
exactly. I need that. Like I need that Chris has

William Huffman  1:03:31  
that temporary also helps keep the sauce on there. You don't get and stuff. Yes. Still

Nick Bellmore  1:03:35  
gives you that crunch. Yes. All right, I'm gonna give you a number four. Hold on.

Sarah Huffman  1:03:43  
And we'll get excited about the mic. I was like, Hey, Nick, number four. He'd be like, No,

William Huffman  1:03:50  
number four. Number four. Oh, that's even better.

Nick Bellmore  1:03:53  
Alright, so number four. I'm gonna go I'm gonna stay in Livonia and I have to say Tony Bologna's pizza and subs, and I like their pizza to me is not wonderful, but I love their subs. They're a tiny little hole in the wall place. Yeah, nice. Yeah, and they're, you know, just seem

Unknown Speaker  1:04:10  
like Tony Tony. Yeah, yes.

William Huffman  1:04:13  
Do they sell beer by the pitcher?

Nick Bellmore  1:04:15  
No, you can't even eat in there. It's all takeout. It's like it's maybe 1000 square foot building. And like 700 square foot is taken up by pizza. Get out Yeah, that's exactly what it is. Trade themed it's Yeah, it is it definitely Caesars

William Huffman  1:04:31  
yeah there's a lot of places to get your stuff and get

Nick Bellmore  1:04:33  
Yes Yeah, Little Caesars never had a place to eat too but as much as I really enjoy my trips, Little Caesars probably not in my top five.

William Huffman  1:04:41  
It's understandable. Understandable. And what was your order at at the pizza place? Would you get the sub

Nick Bellmore  1:04:46  
sub which some? I would always get like this chicken and bacon sub like they did their own bread there. And that's why I love their subs because they would come out on this like Italian bread that was like a little crust to it. But super soft inside, and then they'd run it through the pizza oven. So it had that Chris Christmas. Yes. And they put the chicken in the cheese and they'd run it through the pizza oven.

William Huffman  1:05:11  
Oh, yeah. But yeah, isn't the metal. Awesome. That's awesome. All right, we'll go to number three.

Nick Bellmore  1:05:16  
Number three. And again, I'm keeping it over in the Detroit area. My number three is out of business today, but I'm still if you're again, I grew up in Livonia area too. So this is another one six mile in Merriman there was

Unknown Speaker  1:05:31  
an m&m. No, that was that was it was it was

Nick Bellmore  1:05:35  
two miles away. But yeah, no. Little bit further west. m&ms eight miles. So

William Huffman  1:05:39  
that's a real thing, by the way, though. Without Yeah, okay.

Nick Bellmore  1:05:42  
But it stops at five mile. There's no four mile. Five miles Last Mile Road. Oh, really? Yep. I did not know that. But as you go north that goes out to like, I don't know, 20 mile or whatever. Some craziness as you get in Oakland County. And of course, we know eight mile is the Baseline Road at splits. Wayne and Oakland County here in Detroit. Oh, we did not know that. Absolutely. Yep. It's the county line. So. So for me. Personally, if I was to jump into that, it would be pickleball. And they were like a rib and steak place that was around family owned small amount of franchise. But there was a couple other family members that had similar local restaurants at the time. But I want to say maybe five or six years ago, they retired and just never kept the place open. And so they went out of business. They went out of business, but it was wonderful. They had the best giant fried shrimp in there. Oh my gosh, William. So good.

William Huffman  1:06:34  
Seeing there it is. Alright.

Sarah Huffman  1:06:36  
And there's the crispiness.

Nick Bellmore  1:06:38  
Yep. You know, I love my Christmas.

William Huffman  1:06:41  
It is alright, number two.

Nick Bellmore  1:06:43  
Number two. Oh gosh, in Detroit area, what will be my number two? Ha, you know what, again, I'm gonna have to go for my quirkiness. And this is this is a Lavonia original type of thing. And maybe not the best but I love it because it was like a history thing is bait. Do you guys know what Bates is? And no beats is a tiny little like diner style burger place. in Livonia. It's right at the corner of five and Farmington and it was like everything's on the corner of five and something I know it is. That's where I grew up. Right. I lived like between eight mile and five mile and really between like beach Daly and Haggerty was like my stomping years right. So yeah, so I gotta stay with my Livonia originals for sure Bates is one and Bates has been around for like six years, seven years. And it's just like for me, it was all just hamburgers because you get like a sack of hamburgers for like $6 in the eyes. And you would get like six hamburgers for $6. And they were never like really great, but they were like the greasy spoon. Yeah. Or like Yeah, yeah, so I would definitely put

Sarah Huffman  1:07:54  
anybody else hungry after he starving now, right?

William Huffman  1:07:57  
Yeah. I love I love a good mediocre burger with like a V anastasija. Yeah, that's this thing like the VF where

Sarah Huffman  1:08:05  
the bun isn't too like thick. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't need a dense but no, there's

William Huffman  1:08:11  
just just enough bread. Don't make sure

Nick Bellmore  1:08:13  
my fingers dollar. Yeah, there. Yeah, yep. And these are ones they could get smushed a little bit. You could eat like, you could eat five or six. Because there's small little tiny but then without a doubt if you ate five or six of them. You are not going to feel good and 30 I was like

Unknown Speaker  1:08:28  
where's the bathroom is so

William Huffman  1:08:30  
that sounds like a whities

Nick Bellmore  1:08:32  
very very similar but like almost like a high end White Castle without a doubt like that. You know because White Castle is is all over Detroit. You've Okay, so what's my one of my buyer's agents came with me as you guys know. It's well it's time you're here. No, no,

William Huffman  1:08:51  
we gotta go. Oh, yeah,

Nick Bellmore  1:08:53  
you do not want to have White Castle the day before playing Yeah, that's a bad situation. Alright, so quick story. I'll take a quick just I'll get your my buyer's agent Tony. Tony with an eye she's a girl. She came with me to see Matt marsupial and to our 15 ways to sell you know, I'm sorry, everything was 10 ways to sell 15 more homes. Yeah, and Lavanya and she had never had White Castle either. So I'm like okay, come on. We right so if you've never had White Castle it's really an experience and of course if you're in Detroit most of our white castles are in questionable neighborhoods a little more interesting yeah, it's always an adventure to get on to so I Tony and I had to stop and get white castles and she had her first White Castle ever and she only got like one you Tony's tiny little person and so she would said she's like if I to I don't know

Sarah Huffman  1:09:48  
absolutely like castles. I know it wasn't white castle but we're talking about White Castle. I think the reason I've never tried a White Castle don't they have onions?

William Huffman  1:09:56  
You can get without you know with Oh, yeah, but they have but they're not really Indians. I mean, they come in. They're kind of I mean, I guess I don't know if they're number one. Yeah. Are you put you're forcing me along here. Yeah. Should push you forward. All right, number one,

Nick Bellmore  1:10:10  
number one. Okay. So I gotta say if I'm gonna stay in the Detroit area, because I am a large guy. One of my favorite my number one would be the Motor City casino buffet. Okay, I didn't know the first time we had a buffet brought I know, I know. I know is the Motor City. It is say about a quarter mile half mile from us right now. And it's my only downtown. Let me tell you and as a guy in the 90s, early 2000s I did not come downtown a lot at the downtown now is so much different. It's so much safer

William Huffman  1:10:46  
in that yet downtown is I think it's gorgeous down here right now.

Nick Bellmore  1:10:49  
Yeah, it's definitely come a long way. No question about that when it's come so far. But when I was younger, in the 90s, it wasn't the same. It wasn't safe to be downtown. It wasn't safe to go walking around. But the first thing is when they started opening the casinos down here. The Motor City was one of the first ones to open. It wasn't even the same building there. And now they had like a temporary location. But I had heard about their amazing casino buffet. And it was like $25 or so it's probably 3035 to go now. But it was all like really good high end buffet like you could only get in Vegas, we didn't have anything at the time here. So if you were going to look for like really good quality food and of course that stuff. So of course my friends and I when they first opened we all like 10 of us guys all went down and went to the casino buffet and of course they had like you know, the giant desert island where it's like 15 Different kinds of cake and 15 different kinds of pies and every ice cream you can think of and then all through the whole buffet was like the the Italian area and then they like it was all super good. So I we used to go all the time when it was like a celebration thing with a group of my friends. We would always cruise down to the Motor City casino buffet. And so that's why nostalgically I definitely got to

William Huffman  1:12:08  
put it that's awesome. That is awesome. Man, I gotta say thank you so much for making me some of you guys were in Detroit for a reason we descended a coach's speakers retreat. And it's been a long couple two and a half days you've had some longer days and I just want to say thank you so much for giving us this time. Oh, thank you for having me. And I look forward to getting part two on the books and super cool. Hanging out with you guys. Super cool. So as always, thank you so much for everything. We appreciate it and we out deuces.

Accouncer  1:12:39  
tune in each week. For more in depth conversations about life behind the highlight reel. Follow us on your favorite podcast platform to make sure you never miss an episode. For today's show notes head over to lb thr.com