Why One Gig Worker Went Full-Time at Flyhomes
If you lived in Seattle between 2013 and 2016, chances are good that Larry Green did something for you. He started driving for Lyft as soon as it launched in Seattle. He also drove for Uber and Sidecar; delivered food for Postmates, Peach, and Instacart; moved for Dolly; walked dogs for Wag; and did jobs through TaskRabbit. And those are only some of Larry’s gigs.
All the while, he was a real estate agent building a client network.
“Early on in a real estate career, you can get clients by doing open houses for more established agents,” Larry says. “I was a licensed broker but I used gigs to give me the flexibility to make gas money and coffee money.”
Something else was also in the works: a pro basketball career. Larry played in The Crawsover, the Seattle pro-am league run by NBA player and Seattle native Jamal Crawford. While in the league, Larry got 9 offers to play professionally in 8 countries. He signed on to play in China, but injured his ACL, MCL, and meniscus. After surgery, he refocused on real estate and kept doing gig work.
Lightbulb: Larry’s own app-based business idea
Running open houses for other agents worked for Larry as a way to get real estate leads. Before long, he was helping 35 clients buy homes.
Balancing that many clients at different stages of the homebuying process is a challenge. “I realized that I might not know how to negotiate the best or market the best, but I connect with people really well at these open houses,” he says.
“As a traditional agent, showing homes to clients is one-fiftieth of the job,” Larry says. “I started thinking, ‘I’m so good at doing open houses, why don’t I create a business out of doing them?’”
Taking a cue from all the services he gigged for, he decided to start his own app-based company called Mobility Realty Group, which would provide open house services to real estate agents, along with other services such as cleaning and sold-sign installation. This way, agents could support each other.
Finding Flyhomes
“Randomly, I was on Facebook and an ad popped up for agents to make money doing open houses,” he says. “I thought, ‘What? Somebody beat me to it!’”
He responded to the ad and got an email back from Steve Lane, Flyhomes’ co-founder and CEO. Flyhomes wasn’t selling homes in Seattle yet, so they agreed to connect in a few months.
In the meantime, Larry’s daughter Charli-Jenny was born and he started wanting the stability of working full-time for one company. He got hired at a commercial real estate company — but his new job wouldn’t start for a few months.
“Something just whispered in my ear and said, ‘Follow up with Flyhomes,’” he says.
Before he knew it, Larry was scheduled for a 20-minute chat with Tushar Garg, Steve’s co-founder. That chat ended up lasting 2 hours.
A different approach to real estate
“Because of people I met through gigs, I’ve had so many two-minute conversations with executives from Expedia, Docu-Sign, Amazon, everywhere. I was used to hearing what-if scenarios, but Tushar really piqued my interest,” Larry says. “It sounded different.”
Flyhomes was creating a role where rideshare drivers who were also real estate agents could show homes on demand. That part matched up with Larry’s business idea, but Tushar and Steve were building a full-service company improving on the homebuying and selling experience.
Larry was interested, but he didn’t want to contract anymore.
“I had another offer of a job with stability for my daughter and I had a decision to make, he says. “I was influenced by seeing the success of the startups that I’d been working for and I felt inspired to contribute to a startup. I believed in Flyhomes.”
Tushar and Steve decided to offer Larry a permanent role rather than a contract. That made Larry’s decision easier, and he gladly accepted. Since then, Flyhomes has built a team of Tour Specialists who focus on helping clients learn about homes.
Now, Larry’s able to focus on what he does best, just like he wanted to do back when he was still driving and delivering food and walking dogs and helping people move. And he gets to do it full-time.
Request an On-Demand Tour with Larry or another Flyhomes Tour Specialist from any listing page on Flyhomes.
