MJ Frazier - Masterclass in Property Development & Life Foundations
Jun 25, 2024
Alimond Studio
Venturing into the real estate market can feel like an enigmatic puzzle, but MJ Frazier, a seasoned entrepreneur, lays out a masterclass in property development and investment. In an enthralling exchange, he recounts his leap from corporate development into the entrepreneurial realm, now a guiding force behind his thriving business, Razr Group. His decade-plus insights illuminate the pathways from renovations to condo conversions and new builds in the vibrant markets of DC and Northern Virginia. Beyond the mortar, MJ's passion extends to nurturing growth in others with his coaching entity, Defined Coaching.
This episode isn't just about building structures; it's about laying foundations for life. MJ intertwines the poignant narrative of his personal growth, aligning his values as a family man with his business principles. He imparts wisdom to eager minds diving into real estate, stressing the significance of forging strong relationships and embracing continual learning. Looking ahead, MJ offers a sneak peek into the future of Razr Group, emphasizing a team culture steeped in shared ethos, not just expansion for expansion's sake. His upcoming speaking engagements promise to be incubators of community wisdom, fostering a collective journey towards industry excellence. Join us for this episode as MJ Frazier offers both a blueprint for professional success and a roadmap for personal fulfillment.
Venturing into the real estate market can feel like an enigmatic puzzle, but MJ Frazier, a seasoned entrepreneur, lays out a masterclass in property development and investment. In an enthralling exchange, he recounts his leap from corporate development into the entrepreneurial realm, now a guiding force behind his thriving business, Razr Group. His decade-plus insights illuminate the pathways from renovations to condo conversions and new builds in the vibrant markets of DC and Northern Virginia. Beyond the mortar, MJ's passion extends to nurturing growth in others with his coaching entity, Defined Coaching.
This episode isn't just about building structures; it's about laying foundations for life. MJ intertwines the poignant narrative of his personal growth, aligning his values as a family man with his business principles. He imparts wisdom to eager minds diving into real estate, stressing the significance of forging strong relationships and embracing continual learning. Looking ahead, MJ offers a sneak peek into the future of Razr Group, emphasizing a team culture steeped in shared ethos, not just expansion for expansion's sake. His upcoming speaking engagements promise to be incubators of community wisdom, fostering a collective journey towards industry excellence. Join us for this episode as MJ Frazier offers both a blueprint for professional success and a roadmap for personal fulfillment.
Speaker 1:
My name is MJ Frazier and I'm the owner and team leader of Razor Group Real Estate. We're with Pearson Smith Realty as a brokerage. I'm also a coach, with Defined Coaching, and then I also do investments as well, and I have a third business where we flip homes and buy investment properties.
Speaker 2:
Okay, tell me a little bit how you got into real estate flip homes and buy investment properties.
Speaker 1:
Okay, tell me a little bit how you got into real estate. I uh, in 2012, got into real estate development Um, not intentionally. Uh, somebody saw something and said, hey, I really want you to do this and come join our company. And um, really fell in love with real estate development. And, uh, so I did real estate development for about seven years real estate development. And so I did real estate development for about seven years and then, about seven years into that, I realized, hey, I really need to take the jump and start my own business. And so, over five years ago, started my own business. And then that's just evolved as time has gone on into getting into investing, getting into coaching and just serving people not just clients, but just serving people in the best way that I can.
Speaker 2:
Tell me a little bit more about the development side of your business.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so you know my team right now, you know personally, we have um let me actually go back and start new with that answer Um, so my team focuses heavily on development work. Me personally, I'd say that you know a majority of my time is actually spent with my development clients. You know, obviously I personally serve all clients. In fact, this afternoon I'm going to leave here, I'm going to go to a listing consultation from a past client that's looking to sell their home in Fairfax County. Absolutely, but a large part of what I do is on the development side, and what we do there is we work with a handful of developers where we're the exclusive representation for them and we find deals for them in the market, both on the market and off the market, where we can add value. So adding that value could be in doing a full rebuild of the interior of the home, where we gut it, we make some exterior renovations as well. It's a glorified flip, but I mean we're spending hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars, you know, $500,000, $600,000, $800,000 on a renovation.
Speaker 2:
So we're really rebuilding the whole interior of a home, not your typical flipping of a home, exactly yeah.
Speaker 1:
Where we're totally adding value. We'll also do condo conversions, where we'll take an existing row home or an existing single family home and we'll convert those into condominiums, and then we also do new construction as well. The new construction can be single family homes, row homes or townhouses, or also condo buildings as well. So that's a significant part of what we do Right now. We've got over $22 million in listings that are either on the market or coming on the market here very soon and they're under agreement. We've got over $3 million in buyers that are under contract right now. So we do a lot of work with clients and it's really mixed between your traditional buyers and sellers and our investor development clients as well.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely, and this is mostly in DC and Fairfax and Loudoun County. Where are you developing?
Speaker 1:
Most of the developments in DC. Personally speaking, when I'm doing an investment, I don't do DC. I'm typically in Northern Virginia inside the Beltway. No HOA is typically what I'm looking for, but for the developer clients that I serve mostly they're going to be in DC.
Speaker 2:
Okay, and I can see you're a man of many hats, tell me a little bit more. You have a coaching business as well.
Speaker 1:
I do, yeah, so the coaching business actually is newer for me. It's not new, Goodness. I've been coaching for over 10 years, but just not in an official capacity. For over 10 years, but just not in an official capacity. A guy by the name of Dusty Oglesby started a coaching platform called Define Coaching and Dusty was the former national director I'm not going to say the name, but of the largest red real estate company in the world and he was the national director of coaching. He's coached over 50,000 agents and he started Defined Coaching to really align with what he was teaching and I'm so honored that he selected me as one of the 10 coaches that he has nationally to help agents, both one-on-one in coaching as well as in one events that can be done from 9am to 3pm. That's just a transformational day like seminar type style of just learning and coaching in a big room full of people.
Speaker 2:
And where are these seminars held?
Speaker 1:
I mean I would love to do way more locally here, but we'll do them anywhere, you know Texas, California, Utah, Florida. I mean we'll really travel anywhere there's a need, We'll travel there for it?
Speaker 2:
And is this just for real estate? Or is this business coaching for all sorts of businesses?
Speaker 1:
Look, the whole point of Define Coaching is that we want to help people get to where they want to be and help define first where they currently are, because you can't get to where you want to be unless you know where you currently are. And so that really can be applied to anyone in any industry, and one of the things that I coach on is that, in order to be the best fill-in-the-blank teacher real estate agent, insurance, broker, mortgage- Podcaster.
Speaker 1:
Podcaster right In order to be the best person professionally that you can be. You can't do that unless you're the best husband, the best wife, the best girlfriend, the best friend, the best son, the best daughter, the best dad, mom Again, you can fill in the blanks of all the roles that you fill in your life, but unless you're firing on all cylinders inside the four walls of your home, you can't be the best real estate agent, you can't be the best teacher, you can't be the best podcaster, you just can't. And so defined coaching. When I have one-on-one clients, we look at not just the tactics in their business and the systems in their business to get to where they want to be that's a big part of it but we're also looking at the person we're looking at inside of those four walls. How are their relationships? How's their spirit, how's their health? Are they really? When they wake up in the morning? Are their feet hitting the ground and the world says watch out, universe, they're up right.
Speaker 2:
Here I come.
Speaker 1:
That's what we want every single day, right, so that we can win at a high level and be there for the people in our life.
Speaker 2:
What tactics do you use to help people feel that way in the morning, when they get up and they just want to hit the ground running and say I've got this day, yeah.
Speaker 1:
Well, you have to define your day right and defined coaching. That word defined was very purposeful and strategic, because that right there is the secret sauce to making sure that you win your day each and every day. It's defining your morning. It's defining your day. It's defining your systems and your business. It's defining your marketing. It's having definition around all of the things that are gonna make you win.
Speaker 1:
So in the morning it's do you actually have a schedule that you have written down somewhere and do you stick to that schedule? And do you see a difference in your life and in your day when you don't stick to your schedule? I mean there's a reason why having a schedule is so important. What does that schedule look like? And then, is that schedule defined where it matches the business plan that you have? Does it match your life goals? You know your goals shouldn't be just business goals. Your goals should be related to your relationships. Your goals should be related to your just personal life. I mean we all want to achieve things personally and if we don't have goals around that, well, what are we really working for every single day Right? If we don't have goals in our spiritual life and in our health life? I mean it's going to be really hard for us to achieve the goals that we want to in business.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely, and that was well said. What are you doing for marketing and advertising these days to bring clients in?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so I'm really big on social media. My social media strategy is a little different than some others. You know, you have, you know, I'll say influencers that you know have. They're just trying to get as many followers as they can. I don't really care about that. I want the people that I'm engaging with on social media to be people that know me right, people that know me, people that are in my sphere, in my network, people that I interact with every day or that are in my circles already. I want them to know what I'm doing. I want them to know the listings that I have coming on the market. I want them to know what it's like every day for me being in real estate, being in coaching and being in development, and so that's really my social media strategy. That's a huge part of my marketing. But I'm also big on video marketing, getting those out to different channels through Facebook, through YouTube, retargeting all the stuff that makes my brain want to explode.
Speaker 1:
Yesterday I spent like two hours putting pixels into things and creating containers, and I don't really understand that stuff yeah.
Speaker 1:
Well, that just scratches the yes, yeah when you get into pixels and containers and anyway, it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to me. But you know, I mean there's so much data that's out there for us to market our listings, to market our services and what we provide for clients Like. It's so incredible how much technology has allowed us to get in front of the people that we want to get in front of in ways that in history we've never been able to do, never seen before. It's complicated to learn, but once you learn it it allows you to win at a high level.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely. What do you find most rewarding about what you do?
Speaker 1:
I find the most rewarding thing for me in my business is that I can unequivocally say that I'm home for dinner every single night and I help my wife with putting our three girls to bed every single night too. Yeah, sure, there's exceptions, you know. There's occasionally a night where I can't, or maybe I'm going to play basketball one night, but almost every single night I'm home for dinner and I'm home for bedtime, and that's a huge part of what I coach on in coaching right. And if I'm not living that, what am I doing? You know who can really sit across from me and believe what I'm telling them if I'm not living that?
Speaker 2:
myself If you're not doing it yourself.
Speaker 1:
That's the most rewarding thing. I'm not living that myself. That's the most rewarding thing. The most rewarding thing to me is that I know that when my daughters are 15 and 16 and 18 and 20 and 25, they're going to look back to this time in their life and they're going to say my dad was there.
Speaker 2:
My dad was there. Yeah, yeah. What advice do you have for this next generation? You talked about your girls getting older. What advice do you have for this next generation that's getting into real estate or into development? Do you have advice?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I mean, you know I I'm a big proponent of you know everyone that you're supposed to know right now. You know there's so many people that say, like, well, if I just knew the right person, or if I just knew the right people, I could get by, I could get ahead. And you know, my advice to the next generation would be you know everybody that you need to know. There's a book called the Power of who, and it talks about how every single person that you need to know to get to where you want to be you already know. Now, it may not be that you know the direct person, but you know the person that knows the person, and so it's getting in front of as many people and telling them what your goals are. Are you talking to people about your goals? If you're not talking to people about your goals, how can they help you get introduced to the right people?
Speaker 1:
I think education is huge. Education is so big, but I don't think education necessarily means college. It might, I think, for a large portion of the population, people want to get the four-year degree. It's hugely important. There's tons of life skills that you learn there, but as long as you're applying yourself and educating yourself in some way and then meeting the right people through the people that you already know. That's how you're going to find success.
Speaker 2:
You were talking about the future a little bit. Where do you see the future of your company going? Where do you see it in the next?
Speaker 1:
five years, yeah, so I have a team Actually this is the team right here, so we're called Razor Group.
Speaker 2:
We all fit underneath that, hat we do?
Speaker 1:
They're all Jesse, matt, donna come on out, I'm just kidding. No, I mean we're a small but mighty team I mentioned right now we've got over $25 million in listings under contract and buyers under contract or on the market right now. So we're small but mighty, but it's a relatively new team. I was a solo agent for a long time and I had real estate coaches pour into me and say, mj, you need to start a team. I always said no, I don't want to do it, because I had seen what happened with team leaders that I knew and just vicariously looking at what other teams were doing. I didn't want to be that. I didn't want the team to be built around. The team leader and the agents are really just scrambling and fending for themselves in this business. I didn't want to start a team like that. Well, I had a coach of mine, my real estate coach. He finally said to me one day he said, mj, listen, I've gotten to know you, I've gotten to know your heart. Don't start a team for you, start a team for other people.
Speaker 2:
That's an interesting perspective.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and it's staying the same thing right. Start a team, it's just the why behind it, right. And so that's why there's so much of me being a coach and me living out what I coach Like the why that you live for every day is the most important thing that you do, and the only difference between those two statements of start a team and start a team for other people is the why. That's the only difference, and so I did. I started a team last summer and we've got there's four agents on the team right now and we're not looking to grow, right, but at the same time, our doors always open for agents that wants to have conversations with us about our team and whether it makes sense to join the team. But it's got to be the right fit. That's why we're not looking to grow, but my door is always open, my phone's always on. I'm always available to have a conversation with somebody that's hungry and wanting to be part of what we're doing here.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely yeah. Now you mentioned, you had some events coming up. Is that true? You had some speaking engagements coming up.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so I'm going to be in Upper Marlboro, maryland, next week. I'm actually going to be there with Dusty Oglesby and I'm going to be in Upper Marlboro, maryland, next week. I'm actually going to be there with Dusty Oglesby and we're going to be doing the one-day event Define One Day. We're going to be doing that for a room I think there's like 75 or 80. These are real estate agents that have signed up for the event. So that's going to be great. That's taking place next week. And then we've got events kind of all throughout the year all across the country where we're traveling for some pretty cool speaking events. And then this Sunday actually, my team is putting on a spring cleanup event where we're partnering with Solace Brewery in Dulles and Junk Luggers. They're coming in and we're paying for people to just bring their junk, their donations and paint cans, which is huge.
Speaker 2:
Hello, can I come with my truck Please? Absolutely.
Speaker 1:
There's officially a limit on how many you can bring, but it says ask MJ if you want to bring more. So that's your ask and the answer is yes. But yeah, so that's taking place this Sunday. You're more than welcome to come, and it's just for us to give back to our past clients and to the community. It is open to the public. We are spreading the word on Facebook and then people can come in and, you know, grab a beer at Solace on us. We'll pay for it all.
Speaker 2:
That's a great way to give back to the community. It's such a community service and giving back is so important to us, to all of us. Are there any parting words you'd like to leave us with?
Speaker 1:
I think the most important thing for me to get across is that I want every person, no matter if they are in real estate, whether they're just getting started in real estate, or they've been in real estate for 10 years or 20 years, or they're a teacher, or they're a podcaster, or they're a mortgage broker, or whoever they are you were designed and created for a purpose and my hope is that you find that purpose, and my hope is that you find your why so that you can live in alignment with that why, and once you do, your world is going to explode in a good way, and that's what I want for everybody that's my heart is that everybody finds their why and can find a way to live in alignment with that why, so that they can be the truly best person that they can be.
Speaker 2:
Well, now you're making me tear up. Thank you, MJ, for coming in today. It was lovely to meet you?