Meet Shane Waterfront Wilson: 30+ Years Selling Florida Waterfront Homes

Shane Waterfront Wilson 00:14

Yes, several months.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 00:19

Feel great man. Busy. Busy as can be. Kids are great. Wife's great. Family's great. Everything's good.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:24

Which is cool. So we're

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:39

100%.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:03

Yeah, I've seen it many times. Many times.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 02:48

I think it's great. I think you're right on, and like I said, you y you live it, you breathe it, you sleep it. I mean, this is what I do. Oh yeah. Real estate, boating, family. incorporated into the business and it's I make money doing what I love. And I think my grandpa told me years ago, he goes, if you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life. I said, Grandpa, what do you mean? He goes, just find something you love, a passion I got it. And it's working. It's worked for 33 years. Oh.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 03:15

I know I'm old.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 03:22

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 04:43

I love what I do. I've been in Florida my whole life. We're been on the water my whole life. I mean I love that. I loved real estate. My grandma and grandpa were realtor developers. My grandma was an interior designer. My dad's a contractor in the Florida Keys. My mom was a realtor. My uncle was a realtor. It's kind of uh in bread. So at night when I was young they talk about real estate transactions and building houses and I just sit there and listen, not really taking it in. as far as like what they're doing to make a living to provide. But as I grew up I think, hmm, that's interesting. I remember grandpa told me that. I remember grandma told me that. Hmm. My mom and uncle talked about that. My dad talked about that. And then you kind of play it back in your head, you're like, that's what they meant. So not only do I love real estate, love helping people, one of my nicknames is the overhelper. And you say, what is that? Everybody that knows me said, Shane, you're the overhelper. You're always helping the older people, young people, the kids. You're always doing something to help somebody so I can help somebody buy a waterfront home or buy real estate, whether it's investment, personal home, second home, and I get to take them out in the boat and show them the waterfront lifestyle. I'm like, we're going fishing today. I'm like, yeah, we're going fishing. We're gonna catch fish. Then what? Well, we're gonna catch the fish, I'll clean it, we'll take it to a restaurant, and they'll cook it for us. What? No, I go, Yeah, we can do that. Or we're lobstering. All right, so what do you do when you catch lobster? Well we go down the catch lobster, we clean 'em, we cook 'em. You eat 'em. We're gonna do that. So it's that the whole thing, the thing that I love, which is the waterfront lifestyle. It just blends into my business.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 06:15

Shane Waterfront Wilson.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 06:27

I don't know any different.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 06:58

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 07:09

There was so much. Grandpa Murray was amazing. He was a giver. I mean he cared about everybody and even when things were tough and tough markets, he was always helping people, always giving. And I saw that. I learned that and grandma was too And my dad, and my uncle, my mom. Um I there's so many times that I'd listen to 'em well, there's a lot of great stories actually. And then when times were really, really bad, this is in the Keys Key Largo back in the seventies There was a guy, um, I don't remember his name, I was just a small kid, and he had something wrong with his ears, like he had a hearing issue or something, and at the time Real estate was tough, new development was tough, and nobody really had any money back then. But he spent a bunch of money to get this guy hearing aids. I know it sounds crazy. This is I don't know why it sticks out in my mind, but he paid for this guy to have hearing aids put in and he could actually hear for the first time and this is, you know, probably late seventies, early eighties. That kind of sticks out. I remember all the help my grandpa Murray gave to other people to help them prosper He uh grandpa helped a guy named Mike, I won't say his last name, um, become a developer up north and all the knowledge my grandpa had from developing over the years. gave that information to Mike and he became super successful, like multi-gazillionaire. These are stories. Um my dad, you know, my grandpa bit my dad, you can't get your contractor's license. This isn't the keys. Dad goes, Yeah, I'll get it and I will. He got his contractor's license. They built homes from Ocean Reef down to Marathon for years and years and years. They were partners. My grandpa, my dad, my mom was a realtor, grandma was a realtor, grandpa was a realtor. So it's kind of been i in our blood but These are stories that I remember, and then I remember when uh my family's friends would come down to the keys, they'd say, you know, Shane, we want snapper tonight, a grouper, or stone crab or lobster. Go out and catch it, we'll give you twenty bucks, I'm like Twenty bucks.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 08:59

Golly, that three dollars in my gas tank and I can buy some Reese, some Coca Cola Oh that'd be awesome. So me and my buddy TJ or the Johnson boys or Derek or whoever it may be would go out, we'd get lobster, we'd get Stone Crab, we'd get Grouper, whatever they wanted, bring it home, we'd get twenty dollars. Like this was a big deal. Then we had money to put gas in the boat. Back then it was Seventy cents a gallon, I think, and that was a big deal. Got our Reese's peanut butter cups. But then we turned it into a business. So all of my friends would come with me and um at a Boston whaler would come with me and we'd take orders from all of our parents' friends. What do you want this weekend? What kind of food do you want? Do you want lobster? Do you want stone crab? You want fish? And back then it was plentiful. It was easy What else did we do? Um it just a different lifestyle. But seeing where I was raised in the Florida Keys, it took a village to raise the kids. So if you did something not good. It got home to dad somehow. I don't know how. He's like, Shane, where were you in the boat today? Well, uh, I was out on the oceanside. In the Gulf Stream? No, Dad Shane, so and so saw you in the Gulf Stream in your seventeen foot Mako. What did I tell you about that? What if your engine breaks? You'll float away and they'll never find ya. It took a village to raise all of us, and most of my friends from the Keys have the same the drive that's been instilled in them from the village raising us in the Keys a very small community. Yeah. And moving to Fort Myers thirty-three years ago, it's the same thing. It's a small, big community. Now we've grown a bunch now, but 96% of our business is referral. They know who Shane is, they know my wife, they know my kids. It's a big, huge family. So little town in a big town, if you will.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 10:49

We did.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 10:56

Yeah. And you're like

Shane Waterfront Wilson 11:04

Yeah, fill up the boat back then, yeah. Yeah. Um

Shane Waterfront Wilson 11:21

Right.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 12:55

Right.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 13:10

100%.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 13:33

Yeah. Take grandpa always said take care of people better than you want to be taking care of yourself. And I know it's so cliche, everybody always says it, but it's true. And it's interesting, and you remember this, you did my website over twenty-five years ago. You're like, Shane, you need to do this, this, and this. We'll get you out there. I have some of my bestest friends today from that website that were looking for property in Southwest Florida. Yeah. And they wanted to do the boating thing. And back then we did the boating guide.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 14:00

Yeah, I know you remember it like yesterday, so do I. Uh talking about going to Cabbage Key or Picnic Island or fishing offshore or Cayo Costa or wherever, somewhere on the boat, some adventure, and we used to post that every week. And uh one of my best friends today is Craig. I won't say his last name 'cause I normally get bombarded. But uh he contacted me, he's from Chicago. He goes, Shane, he goes, uh, you're this waterfront dude. I go, Yeah. And at first I thought it was a buddy pranking me and you know, like Who is this guy? He goes, look, man. He goes, you're living my lifestyle. I go, what do you mean? I go, but you're in Chicago. He goes, I want to live your lifestyle. I've dreamt about being in Florida, buying a home on the water being in the boat, taking my wife and children out in the boat, doing the things you do. He goes, I watch your podcast. It wasn't called a podcast then. It was a boating guide.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 14:44

Every week. When I'm in Chicago, we've got 10 inches of snow I'm thinking about being down there. I'm envisioning. I'm dreaming about this. I'm like, wow. That's like wow. Fast forward, sold him a condo, sold him a lot, helped him build a house, sold that house, sold him another lot, he built another house, sold him another property. But during that time we just sat down for lunch the other day. I think he referred sixteen people to me over all these years. That's uh we met sixteen years ago. That's a big deal. Now, when Craig has family and friends that come down, if they're looking to buy or want to go boating, they'll call. Hey. Shane, you know, these people want to look at some houses. I'll go show 'em property. They're good friends of his, therefore they're friends of mine. He takes them out in the boat. He takes them to the places I took them sixteen years ago or fifteen years ago. to the beach. I taught him how to back up to the beach, put the stern anchor out, unload all your stuff on the beach and have a barbecue, a cookout. Taught him how to run his boat, dock his boat. Oh, that's another thing I do When people come here, they don't know what kind of boat to get. Yeah, Shane, what should I get? What's your application? Well, I have five kids. Well at the time you had four. I go, you need a bigger boat. Flats boat's not gonna work. So um Helped him buy his first boat, sold that, helped him buy a second boat, he sold that, now he's got his third boat, which he loves, and he wanted to repower the boat, and I said, well What do you want? What's your application? I want to go fast. I go, hmm. So I called my friend at offshore over here and I said, hey, I got a good friend of mine. He wants to change out his motor for bigger motives. He wants to go fast. He did it. So that's one example, you know, and I've got another great friend, he's kind of like my adopted dad, Frank. This is uh 14 years ago. He called and he goes, hey, and this is Frank.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 16:22

I'm not gonna say his last name He goes, I want to come to Florida. We've been watching you online, your waterfront lifestyle. I'm from New Mexico. We want to do what you're doing. We want to go fishing. We want to go lobster. We want to go to places by a boat. I said uh okay. I thought it was a prank again and then called the next day. Shane, this is a prank. You didn't send me my property. So I'm like, ugh, this guy's from real. I'm like, holy cow So I called him back. Long story short, he's become one of my closest mentors, kind of like a dad to me. He's just a great guy. His wife Dottie is just amazing. His kids are amazing. And we have this relationship. So whenever they come down, we go out in the boat. We've been everywhere together. Tortugas, Key West, Keys. Um he also helped introduce me to flying. He's been flying for sixty years. So it's just uh That website you built for me 25 something years ago have all these amazing relationships and majority of our clients become our friends. It's just the relationship. They become family. And when they become family, their family becomes our family, if that makes any sense. Oh yeah. It's but it works. You know, I know some brokers like to do the numbers game. They'll go out and call, you know, a hundred people a week or a thousand people a month Just trying to get that one lead. It's not me, man. I I want the relationship. I care. You can call me at nine o'clock at night, you can call me at six in the morning. I don't sleep much. I'm there for you. If you need something, I'll send you to the right person or I'll get you the information you want. So it's it's a caring-based business. We're not in the real estate business, we're in the people business. Take care of the people. the money follows.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 17:56

I see so many realtors get in the business where, oh, I want to make all this money. Wrong mindset, you're going to fail. And majority of them are out of the business in a year. They don't care about the people. They see the dollars. You can't do that in this business. Take care of the people, the money will follow. I hope that makes sense.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 19:19

I think it's just innate. It's inside of me. I mean it's my family too, but I think it's just inside. Yeah. You know, ra being raised as a kid. I remember loving animals and catching little lizards and be careful not to break their tail off and it's just innate. I don't know what it is. Like I said, everybody says Shane, you're the overhelper. Anybody that knows me call me the overhelper because I just like helping people. It makes me feel good. When I see somebody else happy smiling, I happy smiling inside. If they're upset, something's bothering them, I gotta come up with a solution. You know, I know a lot of people want to fix things I'm the overfixer, man. I want to help anybody I can. So it's just that with real estate being genuine and honest. You transmit this. People can read it. And then again, getting back to real estate, if somebody's not in real estate because they don't care, a buyer and seller picks up on it. People aren't dumb. They can sense it. If you really care or if you just want that check. And I think that differentiates myself. You know, some people say, Well, how much money are you gonna make this year? I don't know. Well don't you go over your budget? Well, yeah, I kinda I'd like to see what I spend and what I make, but I know if I take care of everybody that calls me, the money will be there. It just will. And I know some people say, oh, you're crazy, Shane. You need to, you know, track this income and track those expenditures. I got it in my head But if you just help people and be honest and genuine and if that deal is not right for them, don't do it. If it's the wrong time to put your home on the market, don't do it. In 2005, when the market was crazy, I had a lot of people say, Shane, should I buy? I'm like, look guys, I got a weird feeling here, man. I mean just I got a weird feeling. And then remember it peaked out, oh six, oh seven, oh eight.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 20:52

Kapoosh. And then people said, well, Shane, I need to sell now. I'm like, yeah, you've got foreclosures and short sales If you can hang out, just have the staying power to wait. I probably wouldn't sell now because remember, everything went to the bottom until about eleven or twelve and started to come back.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 21:09

yeah, I'll never forget that. But back to your question, I think it's just something you have inside. Either you care about people or you don't. In life you have givers and takers. I'm definitely a giver. And you have takers. All they want is take, take, take, take, take. They don't care. They just they don't care. Yeah. I hope that makes sense.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 21:33

100%.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 22:19

You're doing things to create it, putting it up to the universe, yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 24:09

Yeah, you know, my dad was a contractor He's a people person, but not like me. My mom was a people person. Grandpa Murray was more of a developer builder, very straightforward. Grandma was more people person. I think I'm just built with this innate, like I said earlier, innate feeling towards people. I can read people. And it's interesting because when my kids were little, you know, way in Sierra. They're Twenty-eight and twenty-seven now. I wait till we twenty-seven. And I have three grandkids and one on the way. But getting back to my kids, I know it's crazy. Uh

Shane Waterfront Wilson 24:48

the year. Yeah, yeah. It's interesting. I think it's innate in you for reading people. I can read people. Like a book. Within the first thirty seconds I know exactly if it's gonna work, not gonna work. And the kids were the same way, like waiting when he's little. He'd point somebody out, Dad, see that guy? I'm like, Yeah, he goes, and he'd say something about him like Hmm. Wade is four years old. How does he know that? Same with Sierra, Daddy. See that see those people over there make yeah. And she'll say something, I'll look, I'm like How does my little five-year-old know that? To this day, they still have that innate inner feeling. Sierra can read people like a book. My son Wade can read people like a book. Wade's in the um diesel industry. He owns his own business. He's super successful because he has the ability to fix anything, innate ability to fix anything, but also has the people skills. Sierra is a people person. She loves people. But she's genuine. And if somebody wants the c she owns her own hair salon, somebody comes in and says, Hey, you know, I want to do this, this, she goes, Yeah, that may not look so good, but maybe try this. And ultimately they're completely satisfied when they're done. But getting back to your question I just love people. In development, you're dealing with the contractors, which is fine. You're building stuff, which is fine, which I can do any of that stuff. I don't have my license, but I've been around it my whole life. But in real estate, you deal with people's emotions. You get to help people. You see the joy. I put families in the boat with their kids. I'm like, Mom, Dad, we're going out in the boat. What are we doing? I said, we're gonna go fishing today. Are we gonna catch fish? I said, Yeah, I call it catching, not fishing. Because when I go I catch. I mean the kids die. We're out doing some footage yesterday, it's really neat.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 26:23

And um I had the videographer with me and I said, Do you see that boat up there? He goes, Yeah, I go, There's sightseeing for dolphin, not the fish dolphin, but the mammal. I go, you want to see something cool? He goes, yeah. I go, I'm gonna call them in. They're gonna jump me on the boat. He goes, how you gonna do that? I go just watch. So I get up to it and of course the big tour boats they back up and you slow down. You kind of come up on a like a half a plane, meaning you're not up on plane half, it makes a big wake Wouldn't you know we have five, six dolphin and I'll give you the footage we can somehow incorporate jumping behind the boat and then the captain on the tour boat Speed it up. So I'm doing maybe eight, nine knots, and he's doing eight or nine knots. So there's probably 30, 40 people on the boat videotaping the watching the show. And the captain's like dude Yeah. Yeah. So they're digging it. We're we're providing this joy, this experience that these tourists on this tour but have never seen. And I can see their faces and little kids like Oh my god, you can see them, they're so excited. So meanwhile, they're taking videos and photos of the dolphin jumping. Meanwhile, I'm in the boat with my logo down the side. Waterfront. So maybe like the W back here for the waterfront Maybe that one person will say, yeah, we saw this big blue boat had a W and the guy said me it's a waterfront, dude. Maybe they want to come to Florida and experience what we did yesterday. It was so cool. I'm gonna get you the footage and so

Shane Waterfront Wilson 27:41

It was so cool. So years ago, going back to my buddy Craig that I sold the property to, he said, uh, you know, Carolyn's not 100% sold. on buying in Florida. He goes, You gotta do something cool. I go, How about dolphins, manatees? He goes she goes, She loves dolphins. So I know the spot where the dolphin always hang out 'cause when I fish there, they're always there. So if I pull up to the spot and I stop. I start banging the side of the boat. You know, sometimes they'll come, sometimes they won't. Wouldn't you know? This dolphin comes right up to the boat, looks at us. Kelly goes, Oh my god, it's a dolphin. I'm like, yeah. I said, you want to see it play behind the boat? Watch this. She goes, You're not gonna do that. I go watch this. And it They're playing, so nine times out of ten when you get the boat up half a plane, you know you're not fully planed off making a big way, he's jumping. Carolyn was in awe. Carolyn looks at me I'm sorry, Craig looks at me, thumbs up behind Carolyn. So Carolyn was in awe. I mean it was the coolest thing. She's so happy and to this day, like I said, he's referred all those people to me. I've helped them buy and sell several property. We're best of friends. We've been to the Bahamas in their boat. We've been to the Tortugas. We've been to Key West. Everywhere by boat. And now he teaches his friends. and his family how to fish, where to fish, what kind of bait to use, what kind of tackle to use. That's knowledge shared with me from being a little boy growing up in the Keys, and I passed it on. It's just cool to see him passing. it on. So I guess getting back to your question. I'm a people person. I can build anything, but it's not fun. Selling real estate helping people is fun. It's a blast. It's not always easy because sometimes it's stressful with inspections or Whatever makes it a lot of things. It is. And I think too, selling real estate so long you get that sixth cents.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 29:19

It's like an eight cents. You know if something's gonna go wonky with the transaction before it goes wonky, you're like, hmm So my little spidey s spidey senses start tingling, so I'll make the call to the lender or the appraiser or whatever it is and say, something 's off. Inevitably something will be off. We'll fix it. And if it can't be fixed, we contact the buyer and say, hey, look, you know There's a structural issue. What do you want to do? Do you want out? Well, I don't know we love the house. I said yeah, but do you want out? They have an option. Not me being dishonest saying Make the deal work even though it's not good for them and it's gonna harm them later. Oh heck no. I would never in a million years so Anyway, I just I love what I do. It's fun, man.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 30:44

I think it's innate. It's in my DNA. I don't I could never screw anybody. Can I say that?

Shane Waterfront Wilson 30:50

Yeah. I could never hurt anybody intentionally. We all make mistakes, and when I do I make them right. But between my family seeing how honest my grandma, my grandpa, my mom, my dad, my uncle, all my family, they're just so totally honest. They want the best for the people. I want the best. goes back to Shane being the overhelper. I just want to tell the truth and be honest with people. So if the deal's not right, don't do it. You know, and a good thing you brought up a point. I just thought about this too, is when we're looking at property, I'll see things that most people won't because coming from a contractor background, I'm not licensed, but I've been around it my whole life. I've built homes with my grandma, my grandpa, my dad and the keys. Construction is way different when they build in the Keys versus in Southwest Florida. It just is. We need to be up to basically Dade County Hurricane Code when you're in the Keys. Here they're not as stringent. They're stringent, but not as much. And I'll see something maybe on the back corner of a house. I'll see these wonky cracks that kind of go up the side of the house and the cracks get bigger and bigger and bigger. Buyer never saw it. Listening agent never saw it. And I look and I'm like, hmm. That could be a problem. So I'll point it out to the buyer to prevent any stress in the future. Once they do a home inspection, it's going to be an issue. Or inside the house, I'll see. I can't think of anything offhand, but I'm looking for the things as a contractor would, as my dad, my grandfather would, that we can catch ahead of time. And if it looks like it's gonna be a major headache, I'll say guys, this isn't the home Why not? We love the view. Look at the water. I said, yeah, but we got problems here.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 32:16

But I'm able to see that where maybe a lot of realtors, they don't see it because they haven't built homes from the ground up. I built homes from Dirt, concrete slab, to concrete block, the tie beam, to I mean from start to finish. I've remodeled a ton of homes. I've done a ton of flips. I know what to look for, whereas maybe some realtors don't know. It's not a bad thing, it's just I don't know, but if there's an issue I see or I feel there is, I'm gonna tell my buyer or if I go on a listing appointment like, we got a problem here. Let's let's get it resolved and fixed before you put the home on the market because that's gonna affect your sale. They may not want to hear it, but it's the truth.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 32:49

Always tell the truth.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 33:49

That's true. Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 34:10

I think it's just I think it's just me. I've always been like that, high energy. I never ever have slept much. I get up in the morning and ready to go full throttle, whether it's five o'clock in the morning, four thirty, six o'clock and Maybe I'm a freak, I don't know, but it's just I don't I don't require a lot of sleep. I have high energy. I get up full throttle. I know a lot of people get up and they're kinda coffee and just kind of wake up. My eyes open, boom, poof my brain's going. I'll tell you something interesting. Um obviously I have ADD, if anybody can tell out there, I'm like I'm trying hard to sit still. It's really hard for me. I got kicked out of four preschools when I was little. Way hyper, always bad. And the schools wanted to put me on medication, my mom and grandparents, because my dad well, that's a whole nother story. But anyway Wanted to put me on medication, they said absolutely not. Um so now that I recognize I have ADD, school is challenging for me unless I find something I really love. But now I'm able to juggle a gazillion things. My wife always says, Shane, how do you remember that? Shane, how do you do that? And I'll be, hold on, we're switching gears and I'll point over. We need to take care of that, that, that. And I'll say, hold on, I need to call so and so. She's like, what are you doing? Just stop. I go, I can't. It doesn't. It doesn't.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 35:20

That's how it works. And the funny thing is, Wade, my son, struggled in school. Zero straight A student when she applies herself. Wade had the same issue and they were gonna hold him back. And I had a talk with Wade when he was, let's see, fourth grade. I said, Wade, they're gonna hold you back. Daddy, what does that mean? I go, you're not gonna graduate with your friends and go to fifth grade. You're gonna stay in fourth. I said, you've got to focus more And we had these two amazing mentors, um, Dale and Miss Christie, the amazing people. They went to the school four and five days a week, would read with Wade, would practice with Wade. No feed, this is what they do. They just help. That was huge in Wade's life. And the teachers told me, you know, Wade needs to be on medication. I said, there is no way in hell you're putting my kid on medication. Not gonna happen. Yeah. And we didn't. So a fast forward he graduates, went to caterpillar diesel school. Wade is killing it now, but he's ADD. He's running his business, running this, doing this, doing this. I mean he is It blows me away. And my daughter too. She's able to coordinate I think it's just that ADD in our genetics that allows us to Be caring. Wade gets upset when th things don't go right. Sierra, something doesn't go right. She gets upset. When things don't go right, I get upset. It's just I think it's in our DNA. So to answer your question, I think it's just innate

Shane Waterfront Wilson 36:33

us, or maybe a previous life. I I don't know. I just know that you gotta help people. You gotta do the right thing. Yeah. And the great thing is my wife Anne, who I'm married to now, is the same way. She's built the same way She could never do anybody wrong. She could never she's awesome. She's like, You're so blessed. I am blessed. I'm blessed too. You're blessed too, 100%. We are blessed. So I guess the answer to your question just comes from inside to please people. I'm a people pleaser. I want to help and always do the right thing. Yeah. And be the overhelper. And it just makes me feel good inside. I feel complete. Yeah. That makes any sense.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 37:13

I learned to leverage it.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 37:29

do it. You know, it's funny th not to switch gears, but it's funny. So we opened the office in the keys about eight years ago and uh I was making the drive. I get up at four o'clock in the morning, drive down, work all day, drive back to Fort Myers. So that's whatever, four hours, eight hours on the road, seven hours, whatever it is. After six months of that, I went home. I said, Anne, because Anne and I are really tight, my wife. I go, um, I'm gonna get my pilot's license. She goes Okay. Not like, oh my God, this is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. I'm like, wow, that was easy. So six months to train. I said, and we're buying an airplane. She was okay. Never backlash. She believes it'll be 110%. So bought an airplane. Um it's an older airplane, totally safe though. You have to have you know annuals every year, totally safe. And instead of driving four hours to the keys now, I just fly there in fifty-five minutes.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 38:14

And after application, buying the plane for application, like getting to and from so I could help more people. I love flying. I didn't even know it. I didn't even know it was a thing. I didn't know I didn't know I'd love flying. It's a blast. I fly everywhere No. If I fly from Fort Myers to show property in Key West, I'm there in sixty minutes If I drive from Islamorada to Key West to show property, two hours minimum because of traffic. If I'm in Islamorada and I gotta go to Key West, I fly. It's like thirty-two minutes I'm there. If that not even that, probably twenty-eight minutes instead of driving. You know, if I have to show property in Islamorada and I'm in Fort Myers, 55 minutes I'm in Tavernier. Show property, fly right back. It's like hopping in a car. A lot of people don't get it. They're like It's like a big deal. No, I get in the airplane, do a pre-flight, make sure I got gas, check the weather. I'm off.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 38:59

try and fly right back. It's easy. Now it's a blast. We fly to the Bahamas, we fly to North Florida, North Carolina, we fly ever everywhere.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 39:06

Huge time saver.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 39:08

Huge.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 40:13

Tar

Shane Waterfront Wilson 40:21

That's awesome.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 40:28

Wow.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 40:31

Yeah, bank. That was awesome. That's cool. Um

Shane Waterfront Wilson 41:03

That makes me happy. I like when other people call and like, dude, that was so cool. You caught this fish or speared that fish or caught that lobster. We want to do it. I'm like, well then let's go do it Really? Yeah, let's go do it. I mean it's or I'll take customers flying from here down to Alamrado to show property. They think it's the coolest thing. So normally I'm on a mission. I'll take off and I'll be at 6,500 feet Um actually fifty five hundred feet uh heading south just to get there. But when I have customers with me, I'll fly to thousand feet along the coast. We'll see sharks, manatee, dolphin, pods of bait, so much cool stuff and going over like Cape Sable, Shark River. over the Florida Bay coming into the Florida Keys at a thousand feet. It's they're like, wow. It's just cool to share it with them.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 41:45

just cool.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 42:29

being raised on Kibiscay until I was about four years old, moved to Key Largo when I was four, four and a half, five years old. Um got my first rowboat when I think I was seven. And my dad was like, you know, you keep rolling that boat, build up your muscles. Yeah. We'll buy you another boat with an outboard motor. I'm like, oh, outboard motor. I know, right? Exactly. I'm an outboard motor. I go, Dad, what do I have to do? He goes Cool. Get out there and row the boat. You know, a rowboat had these little square glass bottoms so as you're rowing, you can see the bottom and see the fish swimming around. Oh, that's so cool. Way cool. Every day after school, I'm driven, man. ADD driven when I have a goal. It's like nothing else matters. Every day after school, I'd row and I would row and I would row and I would row every single day for months, probably six months And uh one day I said, Dad, I'm ready. He goes, ready for what? I go, ready for the boat with the motor. He goes, You can't pull start to six horse start. He says, I can, son. I don't think so. Well when you're rowing and you're pole starting. So bought me a six horsepower Evinrude, a little white and yellow boat, and had the old cable steering on it, and they put it in the water. And I remember him teaching that choking the motor, pumping the ball, second pole cranked up. He looked at me. I looked at myself. I'm like Holy crapola. I did it. And from that point I had gas powered boats, man, and I had a boundary area to stay within a certain boundary in Keelar with Buttonwood Bay. I could go down, I forget the house here, and to that house here, and out to the intercoastal waterway. So if I did break down I'd be in that geographic area and that boat Took me to say took care of it, flushed the motor, kept it nice and clean to Boston whale over the 40. Yeah. Then the 17 Mako, and then a reaction and so on and so forth.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 44:06

A bunch of boats. But that is kind of what inspired the waterfront thing 'cause when I had a motor now I could go out fishing. I'm nine years old on my little power boat. Me and my buddies, I remember Scott and Ricky would go with me. My two brothers, Bill and David, would go with me and uh they live in Miami now. And uh All my buddies go with me and the parents are like, sure you should let those kids go. Oh, they're only like eight or nine. Yeah, yeah, they're within their boundaries, which I went outside the boundaries. Don't tell dad. But Well I want to catch fish. There's no fish there, man. We need to go a little further out to catch lobster, catch the fish, catch the crab. I mean it was we had the best life growing up, and then when people say you were racing the keys, I'm like Yeah, that was pretty cool. I didn't know any different. And it was a whole village raising the kids and everybody watched out for everybody. Everybody did. It was great place to be raised.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 45:07

Take care of this all over it.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 45:39

Oh, absolutely.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 46:24

That's a great question. So growing up we didn't have a lot of money. We just didn't. We in my opinion, I thought we had everything, but In retrospect, looking back, we didn't have a lot of money. My mom worked full-time, my dad worked full-time, but he always taught me, take care of the boat, keep the back then WD40s, a big deal. Now it's corrosion block. But WD the powerhead, flush the motor, keep the boat clean, take care of it. So if you don't, we don't have the money for another boat. So that was instilled. And I think since that point all my stuff has maintained to a T. The boats, the airplane, the cars. I like everything clean, maintained And it's funny, because when Wade was little, we'd go see Uncle TJ in the keys and he had a lake and bay. And we'd go out in the boat all day and Uncle TJ'd pull the boat back next to the house and he wouldn't rinse the trailer, flush the motor, just park it. Wait, this daddy, Uncle TJ's not rinsing the boat. I go, well, ask him why not. I go, you know if it was me, because I know dad. I know. Uncle TJ, you're not rinsing your boat off flushing your mother. Five-year plan He goes, what's the five year plan? Every five years I replace the boat, the motor, the trailer. Mike Wade, we don't have that kind of money. We're not doing the five year plan Fast forward, we had our boat. Anytime we 'd use our Lake and Bay, he'd take it up on the lift, he'd flush the motor, lube everything, oil everything. Our motor was ten years old on our Lake and Bay. There wasn't that one piece of rust on it. That's unheard of Right. Our boat trailer was like eleven years old, not one piece of rust on it. That's unheard of. But Wade, I instilled that in Wade, kinda like my dad instilled it in me. Now Wade has two F five fifty trucks, a Peter Belt, an F two fifty. He's got all this equipment for his business. It's maintained to a T. He hasn't washed wax, he has them serviced on a regular basis.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 47:59

So if that was something passed down Then I take that into my real estate career. You don't do anything half but. Do everything all the way. Either do it all the way or don't do it. It's really simple. And I think when you Pick up clients in your car. The car is washed, waxed, clean. They get inside, it's spotless clean. Well, if he takes care of his equipment this way, he'll probably take care of our transaction the same way. We'll take care of us. This guy cares. This realtor cares. I've been in some realtors' cars. Oh my god, it looks like they're living in their car. I'm like, dude, you can't take customers out. It's stinky. My car smell good. My airplane smells good. My boat smells good. My boat is spotless. You open the hatches on my bilge. It is spotless. But I think that transfers back to taking care of people That dude's like so anal about taking care of his stuff. I think he'll take care of me and my family. He'll help us make the right choices. It just goes hand in hand. It just made me think of something before Wade opened his company. When you pull up these hydraulic supply stores, because he's working for another diesel company. He says, Dad, do you see that truck? I go, Yeah, what's wrong with it? It's covered in like hydraulic fluid and oil and fingerprints. It's one of those big box trucks And I go, how can you pull up to a job site with your truck looking like that? Are they gonna let you work on these multi-million dollar machines? No, Dad. I go, you remember what we just saw, Wade? Now when he pulls up, Wade works for a huge company. He works in these multi-million dollar big track lines, these big machines. These machines are like ten times bigger than the service trucks. But when he pulls up, the truck is spotless clean, washed waxed, tools are in their place.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 49:31

He takes care of the client. And when the company, I won't say the name, saw that, they're like, hmm, all these other I'm not saying anything bad about these other subcontractors, but their trucks look like crap. They're covered in grease and hydraulic fluid and oil and they're beat up and they're dented up If Wade gets a dent in his truck, he's mortified. If I get a dent in my truck, I'm mortified. It's got to be fixed immediately. I can't. It's just the way it is. And again, that translates to hmm. If he takes good care of his stuff, he'll take care of us. He'll take care of our transaction. If something comes up, he'll make it right. Just like I make my truck right, the airplane right, the boat right. It's the same thing. So I guess I Part of it's my dad taught me that. It just makes me feel good to have it right. I think it translates to anything you do in life. Does that make sense? Yeah. Into your marriage. I want my marriage to be good. So I go the extra mile and I've got a wonderful wife. where she goes the extra mile. We're both givers. And when you have both givers giving, if I have an off day, which is rare, she's always there to give. If she has an off day, I'm always there to give.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 50:29

And it we just kind of feed off of each other. Yeah. If somebody's having a bad day, I can't tell you Being a real estate broker, you're also a psychiatrist, psychologist. We deal with so many divorces. I mean so much stuff you have to be there to listen to them and care and have compassion. It's not just about the transaction. Take care of the person and they're going through the worst time of their life when they're divorced. I've been there done that. You've been there done that.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 50:53

just refreshing and relieving to them knowing Shane's got my back. He'll make sure everything's gonna be okay. And it will be okay. I don't care if I have to stay up all night making sure it's okay. It will be okay. And it always is. And then that's why we 're kind of switching gears and there's my A D. We have a hundred percent client satisfaction for the last like fifteen or eighteen years.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 51:13

do what you're supposed to do. It's not rocket science. Take care of the people. Take care of the people. And and that's how we get to repeat business and referral business. Because when somebody refers a friend That's one of the biggest decisions you make in your life. Buying real estate or selling real estate. That's a big deal. That's a big financial commitment in your life, whether you're purchasing, selling. or selling to buy this. Shane, what do you think?

Shane Waterfront Wilson 51:33

It's not about making the dollar and like, hmm, if you sell that, you have capital gains, we'll buy that. If it was me, I would do it. And there's been a lot of times I would say I wouldn't do that. Why not? Because of this, this, this. Yeah, but you're gonna make a commission. I don't care. I w I wouldn't do that. I gotta sleep at night.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 51:49

It's it's it's really to me it's cut and dry. It's black and white. It's easy. And I know a lot of people out there, whether you're Well, whoever you are, maybe they see the dollar signs. I don't care. I don't care. I do care, don't get me wrong. I care about dollar signs because I got to pay bills, but not on the expense of hurting somebody or harming somebody or making the wrong choice.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 52:10

You know what? After doing 33 years in real estate, I'm doing something right because I've helped thousands of people I've made a ton of money, and with that money I'm able to give back to like Alam Rada, the baseball team. I give back to the high school. I give back to things here. I give back to the fishing tournaments. All the money Is you're making money you've got to give back. It is huge to give back. You can't keep everything. This is my opinion. Maybe other people like shining you out of your mind. But you know what? It's a universe, man. It's it's it's it's karma. You have to give to get. And not even that you're trying to get, you just give and everything falls into place.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 52:46

Don't want to say I haven't had hard times. Oh, yeah. Market tanked out. We were tight. We were with each other, man.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 52:53

Oh, it was horrible. Worst time in my life and going through divorce at that time. It was horrible. But you know what? That ADD laser focus. I just I know there's light there somewhere. Yep. I just don't see it yet. But in this didn't matter. Taking care of my family, my clients, my friends, that was the most important thing. Here we are.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 53:33

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 54:51

100% You know, we'll get a phone call, they'll say, hey, we want to move to Southwest Florida. We want to experience that boating lifestyle that we see, all these videos you do. We want to do that too. I said, great. You know, come on down. They'll come down. We have to figure out price point where they want to be. Do they want to be on the river? On the Gulf of Mexico? Do they want to be on a canal? That they want to be further upriver? Do they want a better value maybe in Cape Coral where you'd have to get in your boat and drive fifty minutes in a canal? to get out. You know, the price point's gonna be different. Let's say we determine a price point. I say, okay, what kind of boating do you want to do? Well, I don't like going offshore, I get seasick. I just want to stay like inland. All right, well a bay boat, maybe a flats boat You know, do you have kids? Yeah, I have two kids. I have a three year old and a five year old. You gotta have a bay boat. You know, like a Lake and Bay Flats boat, the gunnels are this tall, they're gonna fall overboard. You can get to the beaches, you can get in Pine Island Sound, you can get upriver, downriver, go to the beach. You can run just off the beach maybe if you want to go fishing Depends on their application. Then I get some guys say, no, man, I'm all in. I sold my company. I want to get one of those big go-fast boats with three or four motors. Great. You want a big contender, you want a CV, you want an intrepid, you want invincible What is your application? What do you want to do? Well I want to run the key west like you do, Shane. I'm like, all right, well we need to get you know minimum thirty two foot up to forty two foot You know, how much fuel do you want to hold? How far do you want to go? Well, I I don't know. I said do you want to go to the middle grounds? Do you want to go to Tortugas? Do you want to go to Tortugas, hang out, fish there for three days and go to Key West fuel up? These are things I need to know Oh well, it'd be nice to go out for a couple days, you know, and I'll have a generator in a cabin. I say well you need five hundred gallons minimum to go out to middle grounds. That's 180 miles out. Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 56:24

Then you gotta go south to Tortugas. And then you anchor up there, you're running your generator all night. So These are things I need to know to help the people. Then I get a lot of people say, well, maybe I should get two boats. And for years people thought I was so stupid for having two boats. There's two separate applications. I have a thirty-one contender, which I can run offshore, go to the Bahamas, run from here to the Keys, run from here to Middle Grounds, Tortugas, I have plenty of fuel. Or my bay boat, I have a twenty four foot bay boat. I can run skinny water, I have a second station, so if I'm Fishing customers, family, friends. I'm up in my second station. I'll see a snook, redfish now like cast one o'clock. I don't see ya. I said just cast over there. Oh my gosh, I gotta fish on. Yeah, that's why we're casting over there. We're catching. We're not fishing, we're catching. So it's all about the application. So once I find that out, I say, okay, so you want a big boat or little boat? Hmm There's some neighborhoods where the water is super shallow. You'll never get that 31, that 35, that 42. Not gonna happen. We need to maybe focus on McGregor Isles, Town and River, Palmetto Point. These are deeper water canals. You also want to focus on linear water frontage. If you want two boats, we've got to think about it. We need a minimum of 70 feet linear water frontage. What do you mean? I go, well, if you got a 40-foot boat And you got a 25-foot bay boat, you gotta make sure they're gonna fit nose to nose, or if you're on like a canal de sac or on a basin, we can put them perpendicular, you know, nose out or nose in depending on the dock application and how they design it. These are all things I think maybe a lot of realtors don't understand. They don't get. And I've heard time and time again from people saying, I looked at this house for 700,000. It was off McGregor.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 57:55

I go. Well the realtor said I can get my boat and there I said you can't well how do you know? I said, 'cause I fished that for over thirty years. I know the water. I fished this whole area for actually over that thirty 34, 35 years fishing. So I know every square inch of the w river. I fished everywhere. I uh after all that time, you know the waters.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 58:16

getting back to them buying a boat, so let's say we find a boat that they like, you find a neighborhood they like. They want to get their big boat, get their little boat. Once we get the house sold to them, they love the house, they're starting to learn a lifestyle. I'll take 'em out, show 'em different areas. We'll make snail trails on their chartplotter. That's the little line so they can see.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 58:36

So and I made a mistake years ago with my buddy Craig, good uh one of my best friends. Um I said, Craig, we're gonna go between this channel here and Redfish Pass, but I said only go through here on high tide Yeah, I got it, I got it. So we're making snail trails. Remember, only high tide, low tide, don't go through here. He had a go fast spot to help him get anyway. So we rippy. I can't wait for him to hear this. He's gonna laugh. Well, he can laugh now. Back then he didn't laugh So we ran through there and on the way back I said Craig remember high tide only at this little channel at Redfish Pass. Alright, got it. Well he went out a month later, low tide, ran aground, bent both prop shafts, torpedous props, he calls me with some choice words. Shane you told me. I said, when did you go there? Yesterday. I said, what time? Like four thirty. I said that was dead low. We had negative tide that day, Craig. I told you don't I'm not gonna remember that. I'm like So I learned a valuable lesson. Even when the high tide is high I don't take people through there. I will stay in the channel with people until I now he knows the channel. Now he knows the tides. He's a lake boater, not the ocean boater. You don't have tides on the lake. Yes so Getting back to that, it just a matter of knowing what their application is, are they fishermen? Are they do they just want to cruise in the boat and go to dinner On Sanibel or Fort Myers Beach. Yeah. Totally different application. You don't want a fishing boat. Maybe like a Boston whaler, like a bow rider we can sit up front and just enjoy. There's so many different applications, but until they tell me what their application is, what do you want to do? We want to do what you do, Shane, but I don't like touching fish, but I want to just go out in the boat and go to the beach. Alright, great. Those boats I named will work fine, but I'd get, you know, twenty-eight, maybe a thirty-footer, so you can go off the beach. You can still run back bay But maybe not run 180 miles out. I mean you can if you watch the weather, but you gotta be boating for a long time to know the weather, watch the weather. You don't want to get stuck out there.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:00:17

So I think that adds value to in knowing the water like I know the water. So once you tell me your price point, immediately a picture forms my forms in my mind. Oops. And a lot of times what happens is people say, you know, our price point is this. I can't get them what they want in South Fort Myers. It doesn't exist. It's too much money. However, we can go to Cape Coral. Cape Coral's there's a lot more homes, a lot more waterfront, it's more affordable. Meaning Fort Myers, you have a limited supply And if you have high demand, it drives prices. In Cape Coral, there are thousands and thousands, maybe not thousands and thousands, of miles of canals there. Okay, so that reminds me of another guy I sold a house to. He said, uh Shane, all these homes you're selling me They have low front elevations. They're not pretty like the big pretty front elevations. So he sent me a bunch and I called him back. His name's Jim. Dear friends of ours became friends after we met him fifteen, sixteen years ago He goes, uh, I go, Jim, I go, the houses you're sending me, you're gonna have a long boat ride out. I go, how many beers do you want to drink from the time you leave your house to get to the river? He started dying laughing. He goes, one maybe two. I go, how fast do you drink beer? He goes, Well, not that fast. I go, dude, by the time you get in the water your boat at the house, it's gonna take you 55 minutes to run your boat down a series of canals. So you're gonna have three bridges that go under which have a maximum height of nine feet. Well how do you know that? I said because I boated all these canals. This is what I know. This is what I do I go, what kind of boat you get? Well I don't know. I said, well I need to know. Are you gonna get a boat with a second station? You'll never make it to the house because the bridge won't allow it. Number two, your wife is gonna belly ache at you when she's sunburnt, wants to get home and you gotta idle down a canal for fifty-five minutes in June, July, August.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:01:54

It's gonna be very bad for you. And then you're gonna make a call to me and it's gonna be very bad for me. You may not get the fancy high ceilings front elevation beautiful, but you need to be on the east side of Del Prado. He goes, the things you've been sending me. I go, yeah. I go, do you want expansive water view or not? Yeah. I said, well bump it up seventy-five grand. I said, there's no guarantee in life, but historically speaking, you buy this house now, let Michelle do her thing and make it beautiful, which they did. They sold it like five years later, four years later, made like two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Insane. And now they live in this beautiful house which is on the east side of Del Prado. See he's literally four minutes out to the river. The house I sold him before was literally two minutes out to the river. He gets it now. So when his friends come down, oh we saw this cool house in the front elevation of high ceilings. It's new. He goes, how many beers do you want to drink? Jim says it. How many beers do you want to drink for you get out to the river? He goes, what do you mean? He goes, you don't want to be there. Our realtor Shane is our dear friend. You don't want to be there. If you're not a big boater, your occasional boater once a month, do it. Doesn't matter. Yeah. But Jim and Michelle like to boat. I like to boat. So that's something else that maybe some realtors don't know.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:03:05

voted this whole entire area, like I said, 33, 34 years. I knew it like the back of my hand in my sleep. I knew where the restaurants are, the fuel stations, the sandbars, the Places to go, places not to go. So

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:03:19

Yes.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:03:48

Probably a foot

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:04:18

Can't get out to the river, man. Can't get to the gulf. You're on fresh water.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:04:21

It's like Shane, but it's so pretty. I said, yeah, but you said you want a boat. You can't get to the river. What does that mean? I it means like you can't get your boat behind your house because you can't get to it by water or by the river, and you sure as heck can't get from your house out to the river. It's not connected.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:04:37

Oh Why not? I go, I don't know. I didn't make the canals. It's not. That's why it was such a good deal. I said, yeah, because it's no golf access. Tack 100 grand on and then I'll get you where you want to be.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:04:49

It's huge.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:04:50

Huge. I can't say how many times I've talked to people, we found this house and this house and this house. And what do you think? I go, you're gonna be boaters, right? Yeah. You can't get to the Gulf. What do you mean? And I'll zoom in or I'll show them on the map.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:05:06

There's no access. Yeah. So that's something else too to help people. Yeah. I mean you have to know all this stuff when you're selling waterfront property in depth. In the

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:06:16

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:06:26

Yes.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:06:44

Hundred percent.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:06:55

year player, don't tell waiting. No man, new motor every five years, new boat trailer. I'm like, no We're not teaching Wade that. No. Maybe you do that, but we're not doing that. I mean, no. So that 's funny.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:07:48

It's huge?

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:07:50

of that. It's huge. So I've got another good buddy, Todd, I won't say his last name, and uh very instrumental in helping me Not learn to fly, but he taught me a lot. Okay. He's been a pilot like almost forty years, thirty-seven years. He lives in Indiana. I sold him several properties here. But now he flies from Indiana down the page. He's got a hangar now reserved. He's on the waiting list for six years. I was on the waiting list for six years to get a hangar. That's where you put your plane inside.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:08:16

We have actually a lot of customers who fly themselves here and they'll fly to the Bahamas, they'll fly to the Keys. It's a big part of their life because they know the time savings it gives you. And once Todd gets here, he has a car at the airport He'll go to his house. He has this boat in the backyard. He's living the waterfront lifestyle. He's from Indiana. He's lake. He's used to lakes. I've had to teach him, you know, okay, low tide Todd. Don't go here, don't go here. Stay in the in the marked waterways or in the channel

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:08:41

He gets it, you know, helping him to dock his boat, he called me one day. And Todd, I'm not saying anything bad, but this happens to everybody Um Nicolai goes, hey man, I bought a uh was it a four winds? Not a four winds, it was a um I forget the name of the boat, big tall boat, big cabin, had twin engines. He was having a hard time getting it in the slip because the wind was blowing, so I went over to the house and Todd, get on the boat. He's trying to use the joystick. Those of you people have joysticks on your boats Please learn how to drive the boat in case the joystick goes out. It's fine and dandy to run it forward and backward side to side, but when you have a 25-knot wind, you can mash that joystick to the side. The boat does not have the power. It doesn't. So anyway, long story short, showed Todd how to get it into the slip of the strong wind, you know, trajectory, turning, forward, backwards. But it's interesting to teach him that ever since that time he never had an issue. I mean never had an issue. Getting back to the flying, he was very instrumental too. Teaching me like I thought it was a big deal before I started flying. Oh my gosh, it's an airplane, it's you know all time consuming and this and that. He goes, No man, he goes, Save so much time. Like I mentioned before, if I have an appointment in Alamrada, I will get in my plane here at Pagefield 55 minutes. If I have a tailwind, I made it in 42 minutes one time, which is insane. A tailwind is a window 's pushing you. And I'll get there, show property all day, you know, go visit my dad, see some friends, go have lunch, get in the plane. I'll fly back and I have a headwind. It might take one hour or 55 minutes. Not an hour and fifty five. Fifty-five minutes or an hour. Yeah. But I'm back in Fort Myers going to my listing appointment at five or going to see my grandkids at six or whatever it may be. That is a huge time saver. Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:10:17

We're able to list properties throughout the keys. I can land in Tavernere and be in Key Largo. You know, if somebody calls now I could be there within two hours, get to the plane, get down there. Typically a homeowner's home, they want two hours minimum showing anyway to clean the house and get out. Or if I know I'm showing property in Key West, I go to Pagefield, I get my plane. It's a straight shot. Almost due south to Key West. I'm there in an hour, maybe an hour and five minutes. Yeah. They have loner cars there. Get in the car, you go show property all day or half a day or whatever. And then from there I'll fly from Key West. I'll fly back to Tavernier, go to my house and work there or hang out for a day or two and see friends or clients, customers, or go fishing with customers. And then next morning get my plane, fly back to Fort Myers. So I've covered all this ground.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:11:01

In a fraction of the time. If you try to drive from here to Key West, the show are listing down there, it's six hours, no traffic, maybe seven hours with traffic. Yeah, it's a

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:11:13

All the way over. I take forty one, which is a slow road all the way down to Key West. I'm there in an hour. I mean it's it's not it's a no brainer. And many times we've been in Tavernear where the weather was questionable here. I don't fly in bad or marginal weather. If it's bad or marginal I don't fly. That's how pilots die. And I would say probably 90% of the time that pilots die, they fly into bad weather. They have get their itis. We need to get there. You know, there's an old saying my instructor taught me, there is old pilots and bold pilots, but no old bold pilots, because they're all dead. I know it's crazy.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:11:48

Yeah. There's been several times. I cranked up the airplane in Tavernier, Anne and I are in the plane. I look at the weather on my scope. I'm like No, we're not doing it. Shut the plane off, put the plane back. We'll drive back the three and a half, four hours. Mm-hmm Next day if I don't have appointments I'll drive back down, get my plane and go back.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:12:04

It's it's not worth it. I mean we're flying from here to uh Were we going to marathon? Might be going to marathon and I got just outside of the Everglades and then they see this red blob start getting bigger and bigger and bigger within 20 minutes. And then it moved. between me and where I was going. So Fort say Fort Myers is here, Everglades is here, and I'm going a marathon. And the red blob grew all within 20 minutes. I landed in Everglades. Everglades City X50 is the

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:12:33

You know X fifty. Yep. You know, it's it's fifty feet wide, twenty two hundred feet long. You got water, water, water. And if you hit that, that's the fuel, so don't hit the fuel. And uh I land, I look, and I go upstairs and I'll talk to uh I forget the guy's name. Super nice guy. I go, hey man, let me look at your uh your chart real quick, the plotter. Don't look at it, he said I wouldn't do it. I go, I'm not. So I said, bye-bye. Got back in the plane, flew back to Fort Myers, moved my appointment to the next day Most pilots, oh I gotta get there, I gotta meet these people. You get the ritis, you're dead. I mean it happens all the time. I can tell you story after story after story.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:13:07

So I guess to answer your question, how did the airports being here, it's it's convenient for customers. who maybe live up north, they can fly into RSW.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:13:16

In a heartbeat. It's Clash Charlie. And they either have a car there or they'll take an Uber or if I'm near there or know they're coming and not busy, I'll pick 'em up, bring them to the house where their car is.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:13:25

They're in Florida. You know, Todd when he flies commercials two and a half hours, two hours and twenty minutes from Indiana. So it's huge having the airport here. And even in Punta Gorda, a lot of people will fly to Punta Gorda 'Cause it's inexpensive to land there through a Legion, I think it is.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:13:41

Yeah. So having two airports right here, you got Ponta Gorda there, having Tabanera, which is a private airstrip, which I know a lot of people on the airstrip Um or marathon, anybody can land there or key west. Yeah. It's just like driving a car and people don't understand it. It's easy. I gotta be somewhere great I'll meet you there. Alright, well I'll be there in four hours. Alright, well I'll be there in fifty-five minutes, but I'll meet you there.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:14:03

I have people from Fort Lauderdale coming to the keys to see property. They can leave before I do. I'll hop in the plane an hour later. I'm there. I'm already at the property and they're stuck in traffic. Yeah. It's a it's just a game changer and I didn't know it. And now I love flying. We flew to the Bahamas uh three about a month ago to help his my buddy open up his house. Buddy TJ went our buddy Steve. Yeah. We went lobstering, spear fishing, opened up the house, washed all the windows. I did a video on that, sent it outside footage.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:14:33

It i it's just insane. I mean w we were there at Tailwind. I was there in a hour and hour and thirty-five minutes at Normans. It's like two hundred and fifty, two hundred and sixty miles, something like that. And then coming back, I flew to Key West, went through customs, flew to Tavernier, dropped TJ off, out back in the plane, flew back home. I was home. I mean within That's amazing three Yeah, within three and a half hours I'm in the Bahamas, customs, Tavernier, back

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:15:21

Going anywhere. I'm glad you brought that up because a lot of people are not used to flying Florida weather. It's a different animal. You get to end of May, June, July, August, September. October, not as much. I'll be I'll take off out a page and I see a little red blob and within fifteen minutes that red blob is now fifteen miles. Within another 10 minutes, it's 20 miles. It

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:15:41

You're not flying around it. You're not flying above it. Those clouds could be 40, 50,000 feet. Yep. And there's turbulence in the cloud. Cumulus nimbus clouds is what they're called. A lot of people don't understand it. There's up drafts and down drafts. You fly off. It'll rip your wings right off. And I have a kind of a sad story. Uncle Phil and his good buddy, the wife. his wife and the four dogs were flying and unfortunately got in bad weather, ripped the wings off and they all died. This was about six years ago, five years ago. He had thirty five hundred hours. Uncle Phil was like the best pilot. I mean I looked up to him They thought they're on the outskirts of it and somehow something bad happened and

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:16:26

Far away. Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:16:53

Yep.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:18:14

you say about North Captiva. I was there yesterday doing some videos and um with a videographer I said, you see that plane coming? He goes, Yep. I go, he's gonna do the flyover. He goes, what does that mean? He's gonna fly over. They just put the strip back together after the hurricane. It was all wonky and sand washed up and you couldn't land forever And we went by and we shot some video from the boat and uh the strip's all redone now. There were sprinklers out there watering the grass and this plane. Flew over and I said, watch, he's gonna make a right base. He goes, What do you mean? Oh, I said, well he's gonna turn right Go back down and come back and sure enough he turned around and the airplane landed while we were there and he got it on tape, which is so cool. That's awesome. I mean and the thing is it's a private airport.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:18:51

That would be very cool. That would be very cool. And If you own a house on the strip, I think you have landing rights or you can get permission. I have a friend in the Keys who lives in Tavern here.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:19:01

He flew up there, they rented a house, and he was able to land at that strip instead of driving the f five hours, what would that be? Five four and a half hours, five hours out to Captiva, then getting on the shuttle boat and getting to North Captiva. They rented the house. Um it's just funny you bring that up. Yeah, just yesterday I was there. But yeah, having a smaller, I like high wing planes, I can land less than a thousand feet. I can take off in a thousand feet.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:19:25

Now if I'm fully loaded Four people, full fuel, it's hot out.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:19:30

You get altitude. Altitude density basically. Your plane thinks you're at 5,000 feet, so it's struggling to get off the ground. You gotta do your weight and balance. And there's so many factors that pilot snow. Yeah. You gotta be very careful. On that exact strip, years ago they had a guy who flew from the mainland, had a bunch of tile on the back of his plane. You might remember this. Eight or nine years ago. He came in to land on uh North Captiva, and when he's coming in for landing, the tile shifted. It threw a CG off center of gravity, his weight and balance off. Put the plane up like this. I don't know if he hit and went into the water or hit the water, but it killed him. He died. But again, that's not being smart. Your plane is not designed to haul. Heavy tile. Designed to haul people and maybe some stuff within your weight and balance.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:20:15

So a lot of things that go into flying. It's not just get in the plane, start the motor and go. You've got your pre-flight. There's so much stuff you have to do Because I'm ADD, I don't miss a thing, man. I got my checklist and my checklist and my checklist.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:20:44

Which is plenty. And of course you need uh when you do your flyover, you're looking at the wind sock, which way is the wind coming? Yeah. You don't ever land with the wind because you have no lift. You don't have that airflow going over the wind, creating the airfoil, giving you lift. If you're going with the wind, it's you know blowing 20 knots, you're going with it, and you gotta land at you know 65 knots You got a problem. That means you're really doing forty, forty-five knots.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:21:09

You're gonna lose lift and you're gonna crash.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:21:12

Yeah. Or if you have a crosswind coming out of the north or south, and you know, like in Tavanera, we've got trees and houses on either side. It's 22 feet or 2200 feet. Yeah, water, water, houses, houses. And you get that cross when I'm coming in for a landing with 30 degree flaps, I'm at, you know, 65 knots. When you get below that tree line, you lose your lift. So sometimes you gotta give it power, sometimes you gotta pull back. You just gotta feel the plane.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:21:35

And my instructor, and this is kind of funny, my instructor, uh, Ed Wilson, no relation Uh he was eighty-four years old. He taught me how to fly. And uh I came home and it's insane. And looking back I'm like, what were you doing, Shane? But anyway, my perspective, my wife's are two different things. So I came back that day, my wife Anne goes, Shane, how was your first day of flying? I go, Oh my god. God, it was awesome. I said, Ed's been flying for 65 years. She goes, good God, how old is he? He's 85, 86. She goes, Shane, what if he strokes out? I go. I didn't look at it that way. My perception was he hasn't crashed in 65 years. He's alive. He's a great pilot. Not thinking he's 85, 86 years old. The guy taught me how to live, how to fly the plane. Wow. When all else fails and everything's haywire, he goes, Shane, what do you do? I go Uh I'm in the left seat, you right seat. I go, I don't know, I guess fly the plane, Chain. Fly the plane.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:22:26

So that's in instilled in my head, and I'll tell a real quick story that may help another pilot one day. You have VFR and IFR. VFR is visual. IFR is instrument. I'm not instrument rated yet, which this year I'm going to get it done. We uh we're flying to Tavernir, he's gonna come into Tavanir. It's challenging to land there. Most pipes look at that and say There is no way in hell I'm land that No, I'm not landing there. They want to have three, four, five, six thousand feet of paved runway. This is grass, two thousand feet. You mess up, you got a problem. You're in the water or in the mangroves. Yeah. And uh We're halfway down to the keys, and it was white clouds like stratosphere, not really cumulus nimbus. It was just like clouds, but not no tornadic activity inside of them. They weren't dark, they're just white. You can fly through 'em, you get shame Fly down there, go in those clouds. I said, Ed, we're not supposed to do that. Go down in the cloud chain. I'm like, all right, well he's been flying 65 years. He's alive. He's 85, 86 years old. All right, he knows what he's doing So I'm at 5500, I get down to like 3500 feet. I'm in the clouds and I'm flying. I'm like, wow, this is really cool. You can't see anything. It just wide up. I'm flying along. Because Shane, how are we doing? I said, Oh, I'm doing great. He goes, we're gonna be dead in two minutes. I go, dead. He goes, look at your instruments. And I had steam gauges back then, you know, not the glass cockpit I have now. Now I've got the ultimate. I'm in like a 20-degree bank going down at 500 feet a minute in two more minutes we would have crashed in the water. He says, what do you do? Of course I'm thinking All right, whatever. He goes, Shane, level your wings. Don't do a JFK where you

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:23:53

So I level my wings. Now what do you do? I go uh Straight and level, yes. So long story short, got wings level, looking at instruments, you never look outside Your body's gonna lie to you every time. Oh yeah. You have to look at your instruments.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:24:08

Wing straight and level.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:24:09

He goes, How are you doing now? She said, we're doing good. He goes, do not ever For a millisecond, take your eyes off those instruments when you're in IFR, when it's clouds outside. For one second, looking out, you throw yourself off. You think you're flying straight level, you're not. Yeah. He goes, all right, get us out of the cloud, so I've got out of the cloud. So Fast forward three, four years of flying to the Bahamas over the state of Florida. Uh PG, good another good friend of ours from the Bahamas, and my wife, she's in the back We're flying at 4500 feet. I see these clouds. I'm like, yeah, looks a little clear on the other side. Long story short, got into the clouds and I'm flying. And I c I wouldn't take my eyes off the instruments, but I can kind of see my peripheral Anne's white knuckled, she's hanging on. My buddy PG doesn't have a clue. He's like, This is cool. I'm like, No, this is not cool. Yeah. And I'm flying along, flying along, and we're in the white clouds for about thirty five minutes and for thirty five minutes did not take my eyes. Y you can't turn around in the clouds 'cause you get Spatial disorientation. Yep, that's a problem. Get into a spin. And for probably closer to 40 minutes I was flying. Never took my eyes off of it. We got to the coast, right on the side of Palm Beach. I'm out of there airspace Boom, opened up. Beautiful blue sky. I'm like, my the point of my story is Ed Wilson in the back of my mind is saying, Shane, fly the plane. Do not take your eyes. Off the instruments. You look straight out. And back then the autopilot was intermittent and I didn't have enough money. It's like 20 grand for an autopilot saving for an autopilot. I didn't have an autopilot, you know. Yep. Typically you have a blue button, you push Stabilizes the wing, straight and level flight, then you can re-evaluate.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:25:39

The new plane, full glass cockpit, touch screen, I see. ADSB out, ADSB in, I can see traffic, I can see everything.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:25:46

Everything's new in the plane. So totally safe. Retractable gear. If I lose my motor over the water, leave the gear up. We'll skip on the water. We are going to live. The plane may be total, but we will live. But I tell that story, maybe other pilots listening will be like, hmm

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:26:00

I should get my IFR. Hmm. When I'm flying and I'm in the clouds, not purposely, do not look at your right hand guy. Do not look behind you. You will get thrown off. Yeah. And if Ed hadn't taken me in the clouds that time, it probably wouldn't have been.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:26:16

Yes. I heard Ed. Jane!

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:26:19

Do not take your eyes off the instruments. Do not look out that screen the sniper windshield. Do not look behind you. You look straight at do not take your eyes off once I go. I'll never forget that. Once we got out Anne goes, was that close? I go, No, it wasn't close. Ed was with me And it's passed away since then, but it's crazy how things happen.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:27:03

Big deal, man.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:27:10

thousands of people. Thousands of

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:27:14

Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:28:25

I think buying in the keys, excuse me, it's a different animal. Um first it's price point. You know, maybe somebody doesn't want to spend over a million bucks. Maybe they want to stay in that seven or eight hundred thousand. We can find them property that have boat parks, meaning that the home is off water. They can keep their boat on the trailer. They can get in their car, hook up the trailer, and drive the truck and trailer to the boat ramp in their neighborhood, which is only for that neighborhood. Take the chain off, open the gate, put in, park your truck and trailer. Go out for the day boating, fishing, lobstering, diving, cruising Come back, pull your boat out, pull your boat back to your house. Some boat parks, and this is the big deal to people who maybe don't have the means to buy something on the water where the boat is on the lift. Some boat parks offer like 24 or 48 hour parking at the dock. So hook up your boat, get it all ready to go. You put the boat In at the boat ramp, you have a couple little slips there. First come, first serve. You can leave your boat there. Go out boating all day, fishing, lobstering, diving, just having a great time. Go to dinner by a boat. Come back. You can leave it there. Okay. You'll take your truck and trailer back to your house. And sometimes, like I said, somewhere 24 hours, 48 hours, 36 hours. Those are the nicer boat parks. A little more I don't say nicer neighborhood, it's just a little nicer. Then after 36 hours, if somebody's not, you know, beating down your door, hey man, look, you've been there three days, it's my turn. And typically they don't get used. You leave it there longer if you want to. Then you have homes maybe that are less expensive. They don't have boat parks, but there's community boat ramps in the area. Um Key Largo, like over at um Oh my gosh, um I just forgot the name of the place.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:30:01

Anyway, there's a public boat ramp there. There's a couple more in Key Largo. There's some in Islamorada. And maybe you want to buy a house for five or six hundred thousand to have a place in the keys to keep your boat and put in at one of these community boat ramps and go boat all day.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:30:14

If you really have that goal and desire and want to be on the water, you could probably find something for Upper keys, I say over keys. Islamorada, lower mat, million three, million four on the water. Nothing super fancy. But the dream that you're living, the dream you've had since you started your business twenty, thirty years ago, to be on the water, to pull up into the Florida Keys, to walk on your dock and see, you know, fifteen feet down and see the fish and the lobster tentacles sticking up from the seawall. I mean it's this is a real thing and push that button and drop your boat in and go. And go fishing and boating and snorkeling and diving and uh trolling and whatever all day you come back to your dock, push that button, and the boat comes out, you know, all the fish. Depending on your exposure, if you're western or northern western or eastern exposure You clean your fish. And if it's too hot, you wait for the sun to go down or jump in your swimming pool. These are all visions in their mind that they had like Craig. He wanted to be on the water, have a swimming pool, have a beautiful home for his five kids He had the vision. I met him from the website you built for me 25 years ago. But uh getting back to the keys, most of the people I work with have a vision. They have a dream. And then when they see all the videos I shoot in the keys, I snorkeling, diving, catching lobster, catching fish, pulling up to hog head, and I'm cleaning the fish on the dock, and people are standing around like What are you doing? I said, well, we just caught this maw here, caught that tuna.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:31:34

Well then what are you gonna do? I said, Well they're gonna cook it for us. Yeah. You can bring your fish here. They're gonna we're gonna clean the fish right there, they're gonna cook it for you. And whatever you don't eat You bring home and whatever we don't cook, you bring home, cook it tomorrow. Or freeze it if you want to. Take it back home. So there's so many different aspects. Some people say, look, man, I'm all in. I want two boats. I want the ocean boat to run offshore and go sword fishing or go tuna fishing, Mahi. And I want a flats boat or a bay boat to run out back in the Florida Bay to go catch snook, redfish, snapper, whatever it is, whatever their application is. Okay, then I ask them again. What is our price point? Okay, two to four. Okay, fine. Yeah. We'll pull up on what exactly do you want to do again? Well, I want to spend a lot of time on the bay, a lot of time on the ocean. I said, all right, well, the two homes you sent me I said you do understand you've got to run up to Cross Key Waterways, also known as Adams Cut. It's a twenty thirty minute boat ride, just to get to the bay, or if you're on the bay to get to the ocean. Or you gotta run your boat 25-30 minutes down the Tavernier Creek. Do you want to do that?

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:32:33

Well, heck no, they don't want to do it, because it takes forever. Unless it's a big thing.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:32:38

Yeah, same thing. They go, We never thought about that. I said, That's why you hired a waterfront expert. I'm born and raised here in the Keys. I think based on what you're telling me, your price point your application for wanting to be offshore in the back bay. You love snorkeling every weekend. We need to be, let's say hypothetically near Tavernier Creek, mile marker, what is that? 90, 91, 89, something like that. 92 actually. No 91 If you buy in that area within five to ten minutes, you can cut through Tavernier Creek, you're out. If you want to go a little south and go through Snake Creek, you're out to the oceanside. If you buy in the oceanside, say you buy in Venetian Shores, which is off Snake Creek That day you want to go offshore, come back, get the family, hop in your bay boat, run around the bay and go to Marker 88 for dinner. Or go to Oh my gosh, Pierre's, you can go to Lorelei, you can go there's a ton of restaurants to go to by water I need to get I need this information so I can best help you. So how big of a boat do you want? Well, I want a 42-foot intrepid. Okay, you need about three foot. This particular neighborhood won't work. Why not? Because when you come into the neighborhood, it's about two and a half to three foot. But once you get a hundred feet into the canal, it drops off to fifteen feet. You'll never get in and out in a big boat. You need a smaller boat. Yeah. They never thought of it. Yeah. Okay. Lower Matecumbe on the ocean side. You'll have some houses on the ocean that they'll have a 300-foot pier, and you get to the 300 foot and you're in three feet of water, maybe four foot. Wow. That ain't gonna work. It's too shallow. Not only that, when you get the storms that come in, it's gonna beat your boat up. It depends what their application. I have some people say, I don't care about boating. I want to be on the ocean Three to five, I just want to see the ocean and the sunrise. Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:34:14

Or I want to be on the bay. I want to see that sunset every day. I don't care about boating. If they got a boat, it's gonna sit. So these are all things that I need to know. And being raised in the Keys, I fished all that water. Key Largo to Key West. I mean, everywhere we go is by boat. As kids, before we got our driver's licenses.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:34:31

You couldn't drive. We got in our boats. We'd go to here, go there, go there, go to Key Largo, go to Islamorada. I mean go to Marathon on the boat. We didn't tell our parents when we're that young, but we did. They had no clue where be home before dark. Yes, ma'am. So Again, it's I need to know what your application is. Are you fishermen, divers, are you not? Are you just want to be on a wide canal and have a boat in the backyard so it looks pretty? I need to know these things. But it a lot of it's price-driven Again, somebody who maybe can't do the water front to have their boat on their boat lift in the backyard, I have options for them. Maybe somebody wants a condo for 500 grand. They don't care. They just want to have a residence an address in the Florida Keys. Yeah. That's important to them. So th there's so many different factors that go into it. You know, size boat. I mean

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:35:22

Yes.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:35:40

I'd love to. So when we built these years ago with you.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:35:42

I wanted to have first initially the Southwest Florida. And then when we opened the office down south, I wanted to have another website to differentiate the two. They're two different markets.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:35:53

Totally different. But How do you learn a market by not living it, eating it, breathing it, fishing it, boating it? Raised in the Florida Keys, I knew the area like the back of my hand. My dad's still there. I mean, you know Southwest Florida over 33 years fished. Beaches. I mean, it's just two different animals. The water is amazing, clear, gorgeous, and the keys. We really don't have beaches there. Southwest Florida. We have these amazing beaches. Yep. In the Keys. I can run 10, 12, 15 miles out in the Gulf Stream and be catching blackfin tuna, Mahi, wahoo. When I want to go offshore here to fish group of fish, I run about 80, 90 miles out because you're on the continental shelf. Different animal. You know, if I want to catch snook redfish, I can fish off the beach in southwest Florida. Or in the Keys, I'll be fishing off the mangroves. I mean it's All depends what your application is and what you're trying to catch. There's just vast knowledge. So getting back to your question, we have Shanewaterfront Wilson. com, which is Southwest Florida website.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:36:52

Markets Southwest Florida, the beaches, the boating, the fun, real estate. And then we have Shane Waterfront Wilson Team. com, which is the Florida Keys. Okay. Key Largo to Key West. It has voting stuff in there, properties in there, not just my listings, everybody's listings. And like I said, uh interesting story, my other buddy, I won't say his name, when he first came to Southwest Florida, met with a realtor The realtor showed him four listings. They're all that realtor's listings, not an MLS.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:37:21

And my friend said, hey, he goes uh to the realtor, he's no longer a realtor obviously, why are you showing me just your listings? I have the best listings, you know, in the area He goes, no man. He goes, I want to see everybody's listings. He goes, well, mine are the best. He fired that guy. And then luckily my friend found me on my website that you bought for me 25 years ago.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:37:40

gold.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:37:40

we get to a house, he goes, Who's listing? Uh. Jane Dell. All right. Well, second listing, who's listing? You know, John Dell. Uh m Mary Smith.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:37:47

You're not showing me your listings. I go, No, that's not what you asked for. You asked for this specific criteria. I'm showing you what's out there.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:37:55

Tight. Yep. Back to being honest. Yep. That other realtor is no longer in the business because they weren't true to the people.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:38:34

I do. I do. Real estate can either consume you and chew you up and it can be a seven day a week thing, which pretty much for me it is. I don't mind it because I love what I do. Yeah. With that said, I still schedule out time for my family, schedule time out for the kids, the grandkids Find somebody who's passionate about what they do. Find somebody who's knowledgeable that knows the waterfront market. I know a lot of realtors may say, I'm not poo-pooing these realtors, they just don't know what they don't know.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:38:58

I'm a waterfront expert. You are great. How high's that bridge getting into um you know fifty fourth street? Well I don't know. Well it's nine feet at average mean tide. They have a second station. Certain neighborhoods you go into.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:39:16

Even a high tide, you'll never get it in there. These are things that you need to know. What else I learned is just be true and be honest, tell the truth. It's not about the sale. It's about helping the people.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:39:26

sale will follow. If it's not meant to be, then it's not meant to be

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:39:30

And if they don't buy, that's okay. Not everybody's gonna love the water. Some people don't like the water. That's okay. I sell off water too.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:39:37

I mean uh homes in the keys we sell off water, they could care less. They just want to be in that vibe of the Florida Keys and the Palm Trees. Southwest Florida, they don't care about the beaches, the water. They're golfers. Yeah. I'll sell you in a golf course community. I can sell you Tell me what your passions are. What do you enjoy doing? Do you want to be in a country club that's gated, that has all the activities? We sell those all the time. It's not just the waterfront. I love waterfront, but in general I love helping people. I love real estate.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:40:03

It works, man. 33 years, 34 years, it's something. I'm doing something, right?

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:41:13

I remember I remember you got lean.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:42:07

Barnacle Phil's is now called um they changed the name is called and they just opened. I saw I was there yesterday. Yeah. Now open because the hurricane smashed.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:42:16

forget the name of it. And then right next door you have melons. So Barnacle Fells you have melons here, which is really fun. They have a pool.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:42:23

yeah. So

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:42:57

you could go fast the whole way it was awesome.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:43:19

No, I slow down, yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:43:32

You gotta enjoy it, man. It's beautiful going down the river. And you're in the slow zone. You see yesterday, I mean a slow zone basically, and these dolphins are jumping behind the boots. Like guys on playing it, they're jumping, and the videographer of my buddy is like

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:43:47

Yeah That's magic man He was dying He goes Do you feel like every time I said if they feel like it they will nine times out of ten they will if they're tired then they won't But

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:44:36

Call me, text me. I live, eat and breathe on my phone. And a lot of people say, oh what a pain in the butt. That's all I know for 30 or something years. My phone lives with me. I'd say call me 239-851-3861 or text me. Find a meeting like in a meeting now, I'm sure I probably have 30 texts over there. I'll get to them as soon as I can, but I'm with you right now like present I'm present. When I'm with customer showing property, listing appointment, I'm present with that person. Yeah. They don't want you. Oh hold on. Oh hold on. That's just rude. But call me, text me, I will get back to you. Yeah. Like, you answered your phone. I know. Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:45:14

Yes. And the funny thing is in the keys, it's even worse. They are so Taken back when I answer the phone and the keys in one of my listings, like, you answered your phone. I'm like, yeah. Well, we've called so-and-so and so-and-so. They've never answered. We even texted them. They didn't text back. I'm like, well This is what I do. I like helping people. What are you looking for? We're looking for, you know, whatever. I'm like, okay. If I'm with somebody, I might hit that button where if they're calling, it goes. call you back. It's just like an auto button.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:45:39

And when I'm done with that person in the moment, then I'll text them back. Hey, I'm done with my client. You know, let me give you a call and I'll call him. He called back.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:45:46

Nobody calls us.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:45:48

It's a big deal. It's

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:46:08

The best one would be Shane at Shanewaterfront Wilson dot com.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:46:14

at Shanewaterfront Wilson. com.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:46:18

Fort Myers Market is Shanewaterfront Wilson. com. The one in the keys is Shanewaterfront Wilson Team. com. Yeah Two different websites, two different markets, two different MLSs, but growing up in the Keys and being here thirty three years, it's Florida living, man. And it's not if it Like grandpa said, if you'll never work a day in your life if you do what you love, something along those lines.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:46:41

It's a blast, man. I mean boat, who gets to take customers on the boat and have fun and go fishing and diving and snorkeling?

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:46:47

And uh so many of our friends today are because of the real estate market. Yeah. We met 'em. I mean I love what I do. It's fun.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:47:19

Thank you.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:47:40

That's it, man. I appreciate you. You're awesome. You were like so smart, man. You have these amazing ideas and amazing ideas and you're genuine and you care about your people and you've helped hundreds if not thousands of people. And you dig what you do. So like we're the same. You and I have both been through the ups, we've been through the way

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:48:01

Bad, but we got through it, man. We got through it. And the thing is, like you said, always have that focus. Yeah. Doesn't matter what's out here. Have that focus. You can't see it. It's there though. And you and I both did it through those horrible times we went through and I remember like it was yesterday, but now everything's great, man. Yeah.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:48:50

You're the man. You'll make it happen. You know how to do that. That's what you do. I sell real estate. That's what you should do. I'm excited.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:49:01

Correct.

Shane Waterfront Wilson 01:49:29

Take care. Right on. Good job, man. Right on. That's awesome, dude. How'd you feel about that? Dude, that was amazing. I didn't