Trevor Day on Curiosity, Timing, and Helping Families Buy Homes
Relationships · From Student of the Game
Trevor Day on Curiosity, Timing, and Helping Families Buy Homes
Every so often, Brad Noll brings a member of his own team into the Student of the Game classroom to talk about the inner workings of Noll Team Real Estate. To open the new year, that teammate is Trevor Day, the team's lead buyer's agent. Trevor jokes that he was starting to think his invite was never coming.
Brad has spent about 20 years building the team's chemistry and culture, and he admits building a team is hard. This conversation is a look behind the curtain at what winning looks like for the people who help Fort Wayne families buy homes, and at the habits that make it work.
A Divine Appointment at Tim Hortons
Trevor was 18 or 19 and headed into college when he met Brad at a Tim Hortons. He was meeting with one of Brad's past clients, who made the introduction. The two talked about studying marketing at Purdue Fort Wayne and about basketball, and Brad handed him a business card with a simple offer: if you are ever interested in real estate, let me know.
Trevor held onto that card, sent a text, and a few months later asked to job shadow. Brad calls it a divine appointment. Whether you sell t-shirts, promotional products, or new homes, he says, sometimes success comes from just showing up, being available, and getting a little out of your comfort zone.
Brad admits his goal for Trevor's internship was to make the day so long that he would hate it. It did not work. "I loved every second of it," Trevor says.
“If you set the right expectations at the beginning, if you guide them properly, if you truly have their best interest, it's not only going to pay off for them.”
Trevor Day
Burning the Ships
At the time, Trevor was living in an apartment and working for Shipt, the grocery delivery service, shopping and delivering 50 to 60 item orders within an hour. He credits that job with building his communication skills and his patience, and with teaching him the neighborhoods of Fort Wayne. Years later, showing homes, he would sometimes realize he had already delivered groceries to the house.
Brad remembers a pivotal conversation. He offered to pay Trevor to shadow him, on one condition: no more grocery runs. Like the story of Cortez, Trevor had to burn the ships. "If you got one toe in, it's going to be hard," Brad says. Trevor went all in, and Brad says that commitment is a big reason for his success.
In roughly four years full time, Trevor has helped close to 200 families, and his magazine cover story carried a two-word title: stay curious. Brad points out that experience is about reps and muscle memory, not years on the calendar.
Why the Noll Team Uses a Specialist Model
Early in his career, Brad handled 50 to 60 transactions a year on his own. He realized two things. He was never home, and he did not want to be an absent dad or husband. And the busier he got, the harder it was to deepen relationships with his clients. You do not go to an orthopedic surgeon for a heart problem, he says, so the team built around specialists.
Trevor's whole day is focused on buyers. Brad studies the industry, national trends, and conversations with realtors around the country, while Trevor stays in the weeds of the local market. The two talk six or seven times a day. When the market slowed, Brad says, that focus helped Trevor negotiate repairs for buyers at a time when, a month earlier, buyers were hardly asking for inspections.
The Fundamentals: Communication and Curiosity
Asked what makes a great buyer's agent, Trevor starts with communication, and specifically with staying curious. "Half the time buyers, you know, know what they want or think they know what they want," he says, and often they end up with something completely different. Staying in touch does not mean hounding people with calls and texts. It means adding value and being an advisor.
That is why the team holds a buyer's consultation before showing homes. Brad explains that when an agent meets a buyer at a house for the first time, the buyer is often guarded. A sit-down meeting puts everyone on the same page. After getting to know each other, the conversation covers three things in order:
- Timing: where the buyer is in life and when the perfect time to be in a new home would be.
- Criteria: the fun part, including location, size, and must-haves.
- Financing: making sure the plan fits the budget and the buyer is prepared.
- Education: a refresher on the process and the current market, using a colorful life board that maps each step and who is involved.
Brad is candid that on the rare occasions the team skipped this meeting, there was a noticeable difference in how the transaction went.
As Fast or as Slow as You Want
Trevor's favorite line with buyers is that the team will go as fast or as slow as they want. Brad jokes that Trevor leads the team's sales prevention department, and Trevor agrees he has talked more people out of homes than into them. When a first home in a higher price range has an original roof and a tired furnace, he will suggest waiting for a better fit.
That honesty pays off later. "If you set the right expectations at the beginning, if you guide them properly, if you truly have their best interest, it's not only going to pay off for them," Trevor says. It pays off midway through the deal too, when clients trust his advice during inspection and negotiation. Brad adds that great salespeople listen, and that meeting someone's emotional needs, not just their transactional ones, is what turns clients into advocates.
When buyers are on the fence about a home, Trevor's advice is simple: go see it. Photos and virtual tours do not show the layout or the smell. Brad also shares a story of a couple stuck between four homes. Once they ranked them, they realized both had the same second choice. Buying a home, he says, is a process of elimination.
Is Now a Good Time to Buy a Home?
It is the question Trevor hears more than any other, and his answer is that it has never been a bad time to own real estate. The better question, Brad says, is whether now is the right time for you. Real estate is a long-term play, and people move because of lifestyle: a new job, getting closer to family, or the harder life changes nobody posts about on social media.
Trevor says being part of those decisions, the exciting ones and the tough ones, is his favorite part of the job. For him, winning at the game of life means waking up and loving what he does, being surrounded by people who add value, and finding what God has called him to do. When Brad asks him to send virtual flowers, Trevor chooses his dad, who showed him what hard work and caring for family look like and who proudly wears Noll Team gear everywhere he goes.
▶ Listen to the full episode
The Secrets to Successful Home Buying with Trevor Day, on Student of the Game.
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