Kickstart Your Real Estate Journey with Matthew Wong

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Interview Transcription

ADRIENNE: 
all right, so now on to our guests. Yes, our guest today was born and raised in Hawaii and attended Moanalua schools who are graduating from HPU. Okay. He founded the Wong Way Real Estate Academy to share a passion for teaching. His career has always focused on guiding others, from helping students navigate college admissions to teaching driving. He has teach. He’s taught two of my children so far to drive. Thank you, Matty, as a real estate professional, he’s also dedicated to guiding families through buying and selling homes. Please welcome our guest, Matthew Wong,

ATTILIO: 
you know, I did something. Wong there initially, I missed my cue to come in with the second part of that it

ADRIENNE: 
did so I had to, like save you.

ATTILIO: 
Thank you. You’re welcome.

MATTHEW: 
Aloha, guys.

ATTILIO: 
Hey, Matty, can you tell, can you tell, we have fun with this radio

MATTHEW: 
show? Yeah, absolutely.

ADRIENNE: 
Welcome back to the show. Welcome back

ATTILIO: 
to the show. No.

MATTHEW: 
So in a while, how’s everything? It’s been a, you know, it’s been a good minute years, but yeah, yeah, but it’s good to be back. Yeah. I

ADRIENNE: 
think the last time we were talking about driving I think driving school, yeah, I think you had just maybe taught Aidan or and then Nadia was on her way, yeah, see you. Yeah, yes,

MATTHEW: 
yes, back in 2022 Can you believe it? It’s been a couple years, but yeah, no, lots, lot has grown from then we just started another one of our classes. We had almost 100 students in this class for the driving school. All right, now we’re on our way to start this next venture of the real estate

ATTILIO: 
school. Well, the testimonial for Adrienne’s kids is they’re still alive and still on her insurance. That so good job.

ADRIENNE: 
Although, although they have both had some speeding tickets, but that was not your fault. That

ATTILIO: 
was not your fault. They own it. They were like the Karate Kid never listened to Mr. Miyagi, wax on, wax off. Read the speed limits.

ADRIENNE: 
They just needed to touch the stove to make sure you know that it was and

ATTILIO: 
write the check for the fine. Yeah,

MATTHEW: 
yeah, expensive lessons, but hopefully lessons learned? Yeah,

ATTILIO: 
yes, it is alright. So let’s talk about the next thing, teaching, educating, real estate school. Real Estate school,

ADRIENNE: 
yeah, tell us the story. Like, what like made you decide? Okay, I’m expert with the driving school. Now I’m going to, you know, do the real estate school. What? What? How did you decide to do that?

MATTHEW: 
Yeah, well, you know, as you mentioned in the intro, we’re all about education, whether it’s, you know, for me in my past career in higher ed to the driving school to, you know, what we do in real estate sales, you know, kind of early on, when I was going through my pre licensing, like, wow, like, going to the schooling, I was like, Man, I really think I could do something like this. And, yeah, you know, it kind of just, you know, as you know, I embark on my 10th year in real estate. I’m just like, Wow, I feel like I met at that time. You know, as you folks know, I run my own team as well, and I don’t want to continue to help produce, you know, really, really great agents to help educate, yes, to serve our community. I think that’s so important, especially with what you guys are talking about in earlier, with the normalization of the market, you know, we have to make sure that we’re serving our community, and I think that’s so important,

ATTILIO: 
yeah, so you’re helping them right out of the gate

ADRIENNE: 
because, and they’re probably having fun too. Because what I noticed not that I was sitting through your driving school, yeah, but like I did, you know, kind of I peeked my head in, and, you know, Aidan had a lot of fun, you know, having you as the instructor. So you make it fun,

ATTILIO: 
yes,

MATTHEW: 
yeah. I think it’s important to not just have fun. I definitely try to make it as fun as possible with, you know, something as, maybe not as sexy, as real estate law, you know, we have to, you know, it’s one of those things where we want to make it relatable. I think the thing that makes it stand out a lot is I try to connect as much of the real life, real estate to what we’re learning in class. That way, when they get to the test, you know, it’s like, oh, it’s that much more like, easy to connect when you see these examples and these questions. But like, also, you know, when we get out of the class, it’s like, hey, like, I have kind of a semblance of, at least what direction I should be going into. So I think that’s really what we try to do, is, is make it not just fun, but also very relatable.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah, so we every other month, or every three months, I don’t know what it is, we have a career night. Yes, next one is in October, and we’ve been doing career nights for, I don’t know, maybe 10 years. And I will tell you, it’s the same four things they all want to know, how much time, what’s the time involved to get my license? What does it cost? What does it take to get a license? And it’s always those same questions, what do I need to do? So but let’s talk about that specific part, about the. Real Estate school, licensing the school, yes. And, and this course prep, what does that look like? What’s the well, what is the duration of your classes? How long are they like? How many days? How many, how much time per day?

MATTHEW: 
Yeah, so we try to keep it really concise. The total amount of time is a 60 hour course. So it’s actually compared to, you know, other careers, it’s a very, very nominal amount to be in school, yeah, which is really, really great. We do a Monday, Tuesday, Thursday night class, and that goes from about 530 to nine, and then all day on Saturday. So that’s going to be from like around nine o’clock to roughly around four o’clock, and it’s only for a month, so that’s the biggest time commitment. So we try to keep it pretty concise, and we feel like it’s a good amount of time to keep, you know, the attention of the students, but not keep it so long where you’re like, oh my gosh, like, I’m dreading this class, you know, again, we gotta keep it fun. Yeah,

ATTILIO: 
I know I was when I took my broker’s license. I’m not gonna say who was with. So what I was in person was that one title company in town, and I would hold one, I would put my hand on my my side of my head, to hold my head up, and then I would put one highlighter in my hand. And when the high when I fell asleep, the highlighter would fall out on my hand, hit the table, and then I would wake up, wake you up. But I know enough and have your students are not going to need that tip for your class, no. Talk about the format. Is it in person? It is a zoom. Is it both? What is it?

MATTHEW: 
Yeah. So right now, we’re currently all on Zoom. Nice. We, you know, one of the things that we learned also with the driving school and coming out of, you know, the pandemic, and what we do in real estate sales, it’s like, hey, a lot of families really appreciate the online, you know, virtual online, where we’re able to still have access to a live person, but I can take this from home, where I don’t have to dive into town or have to, you know, drive back. Yeah, exactly. And that was, you know, one of the big things for, you know, before everyone got used to, you know, being on Zoom, yeah, that’s the only way you can meet with people. But now we try to make it really accessible. So what’s really nice is that we’re accessible to everybody in Hawaii, so not just on Oahu, but like, big island now, anywhere, anywhere in the state. So a

ADRIENNE: 
couple tips, couple even if you’re like, on the mainland and you’re planning to relocate, to move here ups on the Zoom and be ready

ATTILIO: 
relocating. Yeah, yes,

MATTHEW: 
absolutely get on

ATTILIO: 
the zoom. So a couple tips, oh yeah, we try to Yeah. A couple tips we have for a zoom school, number one, dress from the waist up. Dress from the waist up. Number two, if you’re going to yell at and verbally abuse your kids, make sure you’re on mute. Number three,

ADRIENNE: 
what about like the random shirtless people that are walking past in the background?

ATTILIO:
Yeah, make sure your family walking in the background is fully clothed. That’s number three. Number four, if you use your laptop, shut your camera off, if you go in bathroom,

ADRIENNE: 
that’s a real life making

ATTILIO: 
all this stuff up. This is for real. There’s a Facebook page for all of this kind of zoom antics, and you can No, I don’t know. Maybe they do have one. No,

MATTHEW: 
these are great tips. But thankfully, you know, the biggest intruders we might have is maybe a pet coming onto screen, but not far. So that’s good. Yeah, exactly. So.

ADRIENNE: 
Matty, when is, when is the next class starting?

MATTHEW: 
Yeah, so our next class is actually in a few weeks. It’s in on September 2, yeah, and it goes till September 8. So yeah, it’s coming up in, yeah, not too long. So there’s still time to register, yeah,

ATTILIO: 
and I could be wrong, but I can imagine with when you’re doing it virtually, there is a, there’s not a limit to the amount of students you can have, or is

MATTHEW: 
there no, no, definitely no limit. So yeah, we definitely encourage, you know, if you or your family members, yeah, you know, or friends, yeah, definitely invite them to come, come, come, check us out. Yeah,

ATTILIO: 
and Matty,

ADRIENNE: 
what is the the link that they can go to to go sign up right now, when I

ATTILIO: 
go real estate school, what’s

ADRIENNE: 
the link? Fun, fun, Zoom school.

ATTILIO: 
Fun, Zoom school, real estate, yep, yes.

MATTHEW: 
Wong Way. Real estate.com so you can find us there, and then the registration link is right there on the front page, so you can go and check out our schedule and register. So September

ADRIENNE: 
2, it’s coming up.

ATTILIO: 
Wong Way. Real Estate school and Attilio

ADRIENNE: 
and I were just talking about how we’re hiring, and we have administrative roles as well as salespeople roles, so you can go

ATTILIO: 
get class. No, we’re looking for agents and we’re looking for a listing manager. W2, position, yep, salary, health benefits, F45 membership and free. If you don’t achieve your goals on Fridays, we will beat you. No, no, no, no, no, no. We stopped that. We that went that was one of the things that went away with the pandemic. It was beating our staff on Fridays. We had to change, we had to adopt, we had to pivot. All right,

MATTHEW: 
yeah. And one last thing, though, we do have a Team Lally discount code, so if you type, yeah, what is that one? Yes, but you’ll be able to get $50 off of your course. So we definitely appreciate the, you know, the Lally team. So yeah, if you guys have any other further questions or just trying to get to that code, reach out to the Team Lally and they’ll be able to hook you up there. Nice. Thank

ATTILIO:

you so much so

ADRIENNE:

that. So the access code is just Team Lally, and they put that in and they get the discount. Yep,

ATTILIO:

they got to give us a call. Come up. Yeah, tell them. And that’s the best way to tell let Matty know that you heard about it on the real estate show today, because we know a lot of people listen to the show. Might have some people there. There are significant others. Their kids are like, Ah, I don’t like go college and be $130,000 in depth. I’m just going to be a realtor. Nothing wrong with that.

ADRIENNE: 
So So Matty, what kind of people do you see coming through your school? Yeah,

MATTHEW: 
they’re all different types, you know. Like, we have an engineer that’s coming through this next class. We have a loan officer who wanted to take the class. We have people that are coming straight out of the finance, like almost

ATTILIO: 
all you wanted to say, Compton, no,

MATTHEW: 
and some of them are in college just trying to learn a side hustle. They kind of see the value of entrepreneurship, and especially in this day and age, you know. So they’re trying to leverage other skills to help, you know, get ahead. So they’re all different types. So and we welcome every single one.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah. And on a serious note, besides putting yourself on mute when you’re yelling at your kids in the background, what are some serious tips that you would recommend to the students to prepare have a high probability of success in your course? What’s some tips for that?

MATTHEW: 
You know? I think the biggest thing is just you put in what you get, you know, you get out what you put into it, right? So, you know, if you’re one of those students, this is not one of the ones where, like, you can just skate by, like, yes, you can pass my class, yeah, but you know, you’re not gonna pass the real estate licensing exams, which, there’s two of them, right? You have to pass those. And you can’t cheat on those. You can’t look off your neighbor, you know. So the more that you put into to the course, whether it’s reading ahead or asking questions, getting involved in the activities that we’re doing, you know, that is really where you’re gonna excel, you know. So I think that’s kind of the biggest thing for me,

ATTILIO: 
gotcha. And then I mean, one of the tips we always tell people like that, come on to our team are looking to get their license, schedule the test and take it right

ADRIENNE: 
away, as soon as you’re done with the school. So like, everyone in that class should be scheduled for, like, beginning of October.

ATTILIO: 
Like my mind is like on steel chap I Hank I keep everything in there. I know it’s more like when sieve and everything falls out over time. So take the test right away. I even tell people, schedule it like, you know, when your class is going to finish, schedule it now, that way you’re not going to, like, no, schedule it. Now,

ADRIENNE: 
that’s what I did when I when I took my real estate, yeah, of course, I knew when I was going to be done, and so I just made sure. Because I was I knew I was like, this cramming and so much information, and I didn’t want to, you know, lose any of it. Yeah, it was just boom, finish the class. And then the next day, there I was taking the

ATTILIO: 
test, and here she is, 20 years later. Yeah, she’s a realtor,

ADRIENNE: 
yeah, a broker, broker.

MATTHEW: 
Yeah, there you

ATTILIO: 
go. All right, but she not broke. No, no. All right. So Matty, any last things that you want to share

ADRIENNE: 
with us? Oh, I want, I wanted to ask. I mean, I know we touched on the driving school. Like, how often do you hold the driving school academy, and is it zoom in person? Combination, When are your tell us a little bit about that before we wrap it up with you. Yeah.

MATTHEW: 
So, yeah, same, same, same, family business. Wong Way, right? We keep it, you know, we learn the wrong way, right? Yeah, so Wong Way Driving Academy, yeah. So that one, we actually just had started a class last week, Saturday, and the next one’s probably not going to be until maybe November, December time. We’re not too sure yet. It’s that one, we kind of have to go based off of our classes at Moanalua Middle School. So we have to go after them the school schedule, so that one is in person that was the schedule will also depend on what the school allows us. Sometimes, if it’s during a break, we can do it, you know, straight six days, like Monday through Saturday, right? And that would be from usually from 830 to 130 but if we’re not doing it during a break, we have to do it every Saturday. So it’d be like six Saturday. So the next schedule, the next class is not scheduled yet, but you can go check out long way Driving Academy, a. To see, just kind of stay updated there. So if you subscribe there’s you can go to either of our websites just as a long way Driving Academy, or one way real estate. You’ll be able to find our websites there and then subscribe to our our websites.

ATTILIO: 
I can imagine, like there was one scene in the planes, trains, automobile with John Candy and what’s that comedian, Steve Martin. And they got they fell asleep, and they flipped around. They was going the wrong way down the freeway, and then the people on the other side was like, You’re going the wrong way. And they’re like, what, I don’t know what you guys are crazy. Do

ADRIENNE: 
you show that in your school? You should show that clip you’re

ATTILIO: 
going then they’re like, I don’t understand what they’re saying, and they’re like, you’re going to die. To your students, we

MATTHEW: 
haven’t shown

ATTILIO: 
that way. You’re going the wrong way. Do you yell at your students? You should yell at them. Make them real life. No, no, no. That would be the parents teaching the

ADRIENNE: 
kids. That was me, and that’s why I was I happily handed over like the keys and the car everything to to Matty and his team to help teach my teenagers how to drive, and it was just you give

ATTILIO: 
free blood pressure pills to all your instructors when they get the teenagers in the car. Oh, that should be on health benefit. Give them high blood pressure pills.

MATTHEW: 
Oh, no. I don’t know if that would help, but yeah, definitely. You know what really does help is having the break on the other side. So, yeah, I know that’s what kept my blood pressure down. The break

ADRIENNE: 
they have, they have their controls on the other side. Yeah, that’s the difference between parents trying to teach the kids and professional like Matty.

ATTILIO: 
I bet you if the man the auto manufacturers had one of the roles that parents would buy that model to the kids turned 19 or 20, no, and then you gotta buy them again when you know when you drive in your elderly parents. No,

ADRIENNE:
you just hire Matty and his his team to teach them how to drive safely. Well, hey, let’s

ATTILIO: 
always remember kids out there, people wanting to learn how learn how to drive. It is a privilege. It is not a right. Yes, that’s what, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. Well, thank you so much. Any last thing about the about the real estate school, because that’s what we had you on the show for real estate school, starting again. When is it starting? Next class?

MATTHEW: 
September 2. Yeah, long way. Realestate.com Check us out. Referral code Team Lally, and you’ll get $50 off of the class. And, yeah,

ADRIENNE: 
sign up today. Thank

MATTHEW: 
you so much. Yeah, sign up today. And thank you guys for always being such a huge support to us. Yeah, we look forward to helping all, anyone who’s listening, get into the career of real estate.

ATTILIO: 
One more tip. You know, it’s you’re gonna be working all day, and then you’re gonna be taking to school at night. Pound, some monsters, some Celsius, nine cups of coffee, but not too much, but, but pay attention. Take notes. Be present, and you have a higher probability of success of passing the course, yep, and passing the test. Oh, here’s one line thing too. If you don’t pass one of the tests, if you pass the you know, what is it? Local and federal, national, national, yeah, state, you can go retake the second part. Don’t be all crushed that you didn’t pass them both one time. But

ADRIENNE: 
you know what, if you go to Matty school, you probably will, yeah, he’ll have you prepared. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Thank you Matty. Thank you Matty,

MATTHEW: 
thank you Mahalo.

ATTILIO: 
All right, so that’s the one way real estate school, they got a class coming up September 2. Use the

ADRIENNE: 
team discount code. Yes. What’s the discount code? Just team Lally, and you’ll get $50

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