Guest: Tim Meyer, 4 Oceans Real Estate

Episode Introduction

Some careers are built through persistence. Others are rebuilt — again and again — through courage, humility, and heart.

In this episode of The Hook, I sit down with Tim Meyer, broker and managing partner of Four Oceans Real Estate, to talk about growth, reinvention, and leading through disruption.

From 23 years in the Air Force to decades in real estate, Tim shares what he’s learned about discipline, adaptability, and the power of getting back on the horse — no matter how many times life throws you off.

This is a story about perseverance, mentorship, and redefining success at every stage.

Sarah Larsen: Hey friends, welcome to “The Hook with Sarah Larsen.” I am your host, Sarah Larsen, and today I would like to introduce my guest, Tim Meyer, with Four Oceans Real Estate, brokered by EXP Realty. We are in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, enjoying his office today. Welcome, Tim.

Tim Meyer: Hi, I’m glad to be here. Thank you.

Sarah Larsen: I’m going to have you tell us a little bit about what you do. Obviously, you’re a real estate broker, actually, right? Tell us a little bit about that, like what you’re doing today.

Tim Meyer: I’ve been in the business about 24, 25 years, and I have enjoyed every minute of it. I’ve been an agent, I’ve built teams, I’ve been a coach, I’m still a coach, and I’m a managing broker for our particular office. We have branch offices within EXP. This is a branch office of that. We have several agents in this branch office, and I manage that. My full-time job is actually selling houses.

Sarah Larsen: Right, right. And you also own a property management firm?

Tim Meyer: Yes, I do, absolutely. I’ve owned that about two years now. I have a partner in that as well, and my son actually runs that business.

Sarah Larsen: That’s great that you guys get to work together.

Tim Meyer: Absolutely. Yes, absolutely.

Sarah Larsen: That’s awesome. Well, I’d like to go back a few years in time. Tell us about growing up. You grew up in Minnesota. You have siblings, parents there, right? What was that like?

From Minnesota Roots To Military Life

Tim Meyer: Well, I grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota—actually, a little town called Richfield, which is a pretty big town now. It’s a suburb of Minneapolis. I had a great upbringing and enjoyed myself, went to school there. Then, my junior year in high school, my father’s company moved him to Little Rock, Arkansas, so it was a big transition from Minnesota to Arkansas. But I had a great life, rode my bike all the time, played in the snow, and shoveled a lot of snow up there. I certainly enjoyed the growing up during that period of time. Definitely good.

Sarah Larsen: And then you joined the Air Force.

Tim Meyer: Yes. When I was in Little Rock, after I graduated from high school, I joined the United States Air Force. It was time for me to do something else in my life. I think it was probably part of my growing up, and so I joined the Air Force and made it a career—a 23-year career in the Air Force. I was in financial management, instructional technology, and I built tests and instruction guides for the government. I also taught leadership and management to non-commissioned officers in the Air Force.

Sarah Larsen: Quite an experience. A lot of different things there.

Tim Meyer: It was, very much so. It was a great time of my life. The 23 years went by so quickly, it wasn’t funny.

Sarah Larsen: Right. Yeah. And at what point did you meet your wife?

Tim Meyer: Actually, the second year I was in the Air Force. I was stationed over in England. I met her. The day I saw her, I said, “That’s the girl I’m going to marry.” About 27 days later, we got married, and we’ve been married 47 years this year. That’s pretty neat.

Sarah Larsen: Congratulations. That’s amazing. You mentioned that you moved to Arkansas as a teen, junior in high school. What was that like? That’s got to be a bit of a big change. How did that affect you personally, transitioning to a new school and a new locale?

Tim Meyer: Well, it was quite different because I was used to all my friends and everybody around me, and then we picked everything up and we moved. I had to make new friends, and I was kind of the outsider. Nobody knew me, so I had to overcome that outsider mentality and learn how to make friends. I didn’t have to make friends all my life where I was at, and now I had to learn how to do that. That was quite a challenge, definitely.

Sarah Larsen: I bet. But it’s something that I’m sure has carried through your life. I know you do a lot of networking, you’ve created network groups, and you’ve helped create a local Chamber of Commerce. So I’m guessing you got over that a little.

Tim Meyer: A little bit! I still think that I’m more of an introvert, but I’m probably not. I like to meet people, I like to talk to people, and I like to learn and listen to what they’ve learned and what they’ve done in their life. It all helps me down the road, so it’s an important thing for me. I think I’ve used it in a positive way in my life. We all go through tragedy and things happening, but we just have to get back up on the horse and ride it again. That’s the most important thing.

Building Connection Through Business

Sarah Larsen: How did you end up in real estate?

Tim Meyer: I came here to the Hampton, Virginia area. I was stationed at Langley Air Force Base. It was my last couple of years in the Air Force, and I was traveling all the time. My wife told me, “You really ought to stop that traveling because you’re gone three weeks a month.” I said, “Yeah, I could probably do that.” She said, “Maybe it’s time for you to retire.” I said, “Okay.” So I started looking around. The guy that I bought my house from said, “Look, if you ever decide you want to get into real estate, call me.” So I called him, got my license, and was ready to go.

I called him and started working with him. We became business partners for probably 10 or 12 years and had a great run. We built our team and were one of the top teams in the area for a long time, based on just building our business over a period of time. I got here, and I didn’t know anybody. I was just in the Air Force, so I didn’t know a lot of people. I had to go out and join the Chamber, get involved in networking groups, and be a networker because back then, 20-plus years ago, the internet wasn’t a big deal. We were still looking at pages of housing books. That was a whole different time than it is today.

It’s been an evolving process over the years, just trying to learn how to meet people, what to say, how to listen, and then how to make conversation. I always look for a common denominator. I’ll ask questions like, “Were you in the service? Where are you from? Do you like sports teams?” I just kind of ask those questions until I find a common denominator for somebody, and then I can start talking to them and build that connection.

Sarah Larsen: And you’ve had a lot of experience teaching other people. It seems like you are a great mentor and you’ve done a lot with that. You’re doing it now as well. Tell me about that.

Tim Meyer: Well, over the years, I’ve helped start businesses, I’ve coached businesses, and I’ve been with the Chamber of Commerce. I was the president like eight out of 15 years. I believe in businesses and how to help them get rolling. When it comes to coaching, I’ve actually shared with real estate teams on how we built the team that I had. We were one of the premiere or the first teams in the area, so people always called me and asked, “How did you start your team? How did it work?”

I’ve coached there and helped them. I’ve been a leader, coach, and mentor in business networking groups as well. In real estate, as a broker, I’m a mentor, a manager, and I coach across the country now. I coach agents across the country, which is really fun for me to do because each market is different, they say. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t, but the basics and all the fundamentals are the same.

Sarah Larsen: Right. The fundamentals of how to be a real estate agent and how to get clients. What would you say is the most important thing that you’re teaching new real estate agents?

Tim Meyer: I think it’s accountability and the basics. A lot of the agents today decide, “I’m going to get my real estate license; I want to jump into real estate.” That’s great, and they think they can make a lot of money, but there are some basics you have to do. One of the things that attracted me when I first came to the business was I’d been in the military for 23 years. I was tired of people telling me what to do. I wanted to own my own business. What’s the best way to do that? Get into real estate. Do your own thing because the only person I need to look at in the mirror if nothing’s happening is me.

A lot of agents today get in, and they don’t have the skills. They don’t know how to lead generate. They don’t know how to work a lead, turn it into a transaction, and turn that into getting paid. There’s a lot of that out there, and they think, “I got my license, but what do I do with it?” I’m here to help people with that, and it’s served me well. I’ve been across the country, I’ve been on different marketing teams across the country as well. I had one company out of California that marketed agents specifically, and I used to fly in and become a consultant for their different conventions and did some marketing there as well. I’ve done a lot.

Lessons In Leadership And Change

Sarah Larsen: You’ve had quite a career. What are some times that you’ve experienced disruption or change? How was it transitioning from military to civilian life and becoming a real estate agent?

Tim Meyer: That’s a really good question because when you’re in the military, you’re disciplined. You’re used to people telling you what to do, you’re used to following orders, and all those kinds of things. You get out, and you start talking to people. If you have some rank or whatever the case may be, you say, “Well, I’d like to get this done,” and they take care of it. Out here, you say, “I’d like to get this done,” and it’s like, “You’ll take care of it.”

The transition was a little rough just because I was so used to the military mindset. Then I had to learn how to deal with people in civilian life, and there’s a whole difference. There are a lot of people out there that don’t care that you were in the military. They have their own set of disciplines, and you have to learn how to negotiate and navigate those disciplines as well. It’s the basics of everything that we do out there, especially in my business: do what you say or say what you mean and do what you say.

Sarah Larsen: Yes, that’s something that is very frustrating to me when I’m working with businesses, and I’ve heard it from other people. You call somebody, and they say they’ll call you back or they’ll call you at a certain time, or you plan to meet at a certain time, and then it kind of falls apart. That can be extremely frustrating, absolutely, especially when you’re used to things happening timely.

Tim Meyer: Exactly. As time went on in my business, there are times when you get on a roll and things are happening really good, and then there are times when you hit the wall. I hit the wall a couple of times in my real estate career. I had to reinvent myself. I had to start over.

A couple of those times was when my business partner and I were together. We were a great team, and he decided he was going to retire, so I had to kind of rebuild my business at that point. I had a pretty good business going, but I had to keep it rolling, redevelop myself, redevelop my team, remarket myself, and do all those kinds of things. That was a big deal. When you hit the wall like that and production stops, it slows down. You’re like, “Do I need to go get another job?”

It was a big deal for me to get through that because I could have just as easily stayed at home, shut the door, and not done anything. But I knew that if I didn’t get back up on that horse and start riding it, I’d have problems. I’ve been thrown off the horse many, many times in my life. It’s just a matter of getting back on and making sure that you’re doing something about it.

Reinvention Through Recession

Tim Meyer: Another big one was back in 2008. The market crashed. We had such a market crash; it was depressing. There was a date—I think it was September 1st—where you could turn the light switch; the light switch went off on the whole country, the whole real estate market. Everything just stopped, and you could see it.

There were a lot of people jumping out of the business, and this was my business. Thank God that I had built a client base and that I had networked all those times and done all these things to build my business to where it was at so that I could survive that period of time. A lot of agents didn’t. Our membership in our association went from 14 or 1,500 down to five or 600 during that period of time. We lost 700 or 800 agents because there was no production, nothing was going on.

So I had to navigate that area because if I didn’t get through that, I wasn’t going to make it. I had to get back up on the horse. I had to work. I had to 10X everything I was doing. I 10Xed my lead generation, my conversations with my clients—I had to 10X everything I was doing because if I didn’t, I wouldn’t have made it.

Sarah Larsen: Yeah. You have to keep going. The people who keep going through those periods are the ones that absolutely survive. They come out on top and gain market share during that type of period. I was in the mortgage industry at that time and saw just the same thing. I had been working for a company that I really loved and felt was super supportive, and they went bankrupt and shut down. I changed to several different companies after that, just trying to stay in the industry, stay relevant. My clients were mortgage brokers, and they were all going out of business or joining a larger bank or mortgage company because they couldn’t survive on their own with all the changes that happened over those few years.

I was very fortunate that I met my husband. We got together as he was starting a new business, and I was able to help him out with that and get out of the mortgage industry because it was really miserable at that time. It was a dark time in my life. I went through a divorce and job change after job change, trying to recreate that energy that I’d had previously. So I know how much of a struggle that must have been.

Tim Meyer: Absolutely. You’re living at a certain financial level, and then it just stops. You had to be ready for those changes. You had to go in and say, “We have to cut this, we have to cut that.” Things we had to cut out because, to survive, you have to pull it back in for a while when things like that happen. It was a tough time, and quite frankly, in our business, it lasted probably from 2008 till about 2014 or 2015.

Sarah Larsen: Well, it took a while for the market to return.

Tim Meyer: Exactly. Foreclosures were everywhere. We have a pretty good market here because we have a lot of military in this particular market, and we didn’t get as hammered as the rest of the country did, but we got hammered. There was no doubt about it; there were a lot of foreclosures.

Adapting To A Shifting Market

Sarah Larsen: I think there are some similarities, not the exact same market situation, but with the last couple of years and with rates suddenly going up recently in 2022. How has that affected our market, and how does that affect your business?

Tim Meyer: Well, what’s happened is that in the last couple of years, people have started to gain equity in their property again. After 2008, the government put a lot of regulations in place for those people borrowing money to buy a house. Back in 2007, you didn’t have to prove anything.

Sarah Larsen: Right. No income, no credit check.

Tim Meyer: In 2009, you had to prove it. You had to prove that you were making this kind of money and all those kinds of things, so the loans got better. People started gaining equity and those kinds of things. What we’re seeing today is a lot of people in this particular market have a lot of equity in their property. Even if the market did decline for some reason, and it hasn’t yet, there’d still be plenty of equity left available for them to refinance or whatever they wanted to do. So we’re not going to see as many foreclosures anywhere near 2008 just because of the inflation that’s going on and the interest rates rising.

Back in the day, I bought a house at 18.9% in 1981. I got a loan for 13.9% and thought I was lucky. Today, people are saying, “6% is killing me.” I ran the numbers, and interest rates were between 8% and 9% for almost 10 years straight. So, that was the norm.

Now, the prices have gone up, and people are sitting on their equity. They’re kind of afraid to sell right now because there’s a shortage of product in the market. When people want to sell, and you’ve been in this house for all these years, and you have all this equity, and you want to sell, where are you going to go? There are not a lot of places for people to go. If they’re downsizing or upsizing, there might be some opportunities, but if they’re laterally sizing or they want another house, it may not be there because nobody is selling their houses right now.

We’ve got a huge demand right now and a low inventory. Had it been the other way, then we would have a serious economic situation. But we’re so high up now in the demand versus the inventory that it would take a couple of years for us to see a major shift. We’re looking for a really great outlook in 2023 as far as the market is concerned, and hoping that people are beginning to want to sell.

People today are willing to pay top dollar for a house because they want to be homeowners. Rents have gone up so much. In my property management, our rents have gone up 30% and 40% in the last three years because of the economy. People are realizing, “It’s cheaper to buy now than rent.”

I’ve seen the market change probably four or five times in the 24 years I’ve been in the business. This is a different market, nowhere near like the 2008 market. It’s fun to see how it goes, as long as you can survive.

Sarah Larsen: Right. And learning to pivot. You said that you had been coaching some real estate agents virtually. What other things have you had to do to pivot recently?

Tim Meyer: Obviously, Zoom is a big one. Since COVID, Zoom has been huge, and group coaching—coaching people together in a group—that’s been important. I’ve also been putting on seminars and helping other people as well. I believe in paying it forward; that’s the way I live. I help you get what you want, and everything else takes care of itself.

In the long run, there are a lot of people out there starving for coaching, some people that need help. They want to learn something about something else. People are pivoting to different career fields to see what they can sustain themselves for a while. It used to be that when you went to work for IBM, you were there for 40 years. Well, that’s not happening anymore. Most people are kind of popping from job to job because they’re looking for the best for their family.

Identity, Purpose, And The Power Of Starting Over

Sarah Larsen: What would you recommend, or how do you look at these sorts of situations where you’re changing from one thing to another, or something happens in the market, or your industry has changed? We’ve all created these identities that we think of ourselves as. What would you recommend for real estate agents in this market, or just business owners in general? What do you recommend to get over or to reconcile yourself with a new or changing identity because of that type of change?

Tim Meyer: That’s a really good question. I think there is so much that goes into that. First of all, there is organically, the marketing, changing yourself, reinventing yourself, and rebranding yourself. But also, there might be a reputation out there about you that you never call anybody back, or you don’t say what you’re going to do. Those are the kinds of things you need to look at.

You need to look at the whole picture: “How am I really operating? What am I really doing here, and what do I want to achieve at the end?” My goal is to be the most thought-of realtor in this particular area. What does that mean? How do I do that? Am I willing to give my time? Am I willing to give myself? Do I do a really good job for my clients? That’s important too. They want to know that they have a great person working for them.

Anybody that’s out there now—business-wise, new agents, or agents in general—after all these years, I think it’s a combined package. You’ve got to sit down, look at what you’re doing now, and where you want to go. Just kind of build that plan, build that goal. A lot of us don’t have our “why.” What is our real why in life? Why are we doing this every day? Why are we networking and doing all the stuff we are? Is the why to be retired at a certain age, or is it to spend more time with my kids, or is it financial? You need to look at that picture. I look at it all the time. I always practice introspection. I’m always looking at myself first to see what I need to do to better myself. Sometimes it needs a lot of work, and sometimes it doesn’t.

Sarah Larsen: And it’s hard to admit when it needs a lot of work.

Tim Meyer: Absolutely.

Sarah Larsen: So it really sounds like we need to take stock of where we are, who we really are as we feel that identity change, and where we really want to be and what changes we need to make to be that person.

Tim Meyer: I always talk about, with my coaching, to begin with the end in mind. What is my end goal? Then, let’s back into that. What do I need to do to get to that goal? Here’s my goal; maybe it’s a financial goal. How many transactions do I need to do to hit this financial goal? So let’s back up into that. That means how many calls do I need to make? How many people do I need to talk to? How many deals have to close to hit that goal every year? If I begin with the end in mind, I’ll be okay. But if I just kind of dilly-dally every day, it’s not going to happen that way. You have to build the plan and work the plan.

Sarah Larsen: Yes, you have to have a plan first of all. Or at least creating that vision of what you want that future to look like. It’s the same thing, having the end in mind: where do I want to be, and how do I become that person? What can I do today to be that person?

Tim Meyer: Right. And the vision changes. It’s not going to be that same clear-cut vision all of your life because life gets in the way. Life changes things. As I coach agents across the country, they’ll tell me, “Well, something happened to my kids, and I couldn’t stay on track.” Obviously, that’s life. You’ve got to learn how to get back on track and put those things back together. Sometimes we get derailed for longer than we want to be, and then we have to jump back up on that horse and ride it again.

Sarah Larsen: Eventually, you have to come back to it one way or the other. We won’t survive otherwise.

A New Model For The Next Generation

Sarah Larsen: Eventually, you have to come back to it one way or the other. We won’t survive otherwise. What is it that you’re looking for right now? Are you looking for more agents throughout the country to mentor or coach? Is that an expanding part of your business, or are you really focused more on the local area?

Tim Meyer: I have a two-pronged approach. Our company, EXP Realty, has some really great opportunities for agents. The traditional real estate company is, you sell a house, you get a commission, and you move on. Our company offers a little bit different model: you sell a house, you get a commission, and you can buy stock in the company. I’ve been with them now over a year and a half, and I have stock in the company. It’s on the NASDAQ, so it’s an opportunity. If you attract people to the business, we call that revenue share, and that’s another opportunity as well.

There are multiple opportunities with our company, and I see that as a two-pronged approach for me. I am going to continue to sell real estate. I enjoy that. I enjoy working with my clients, and I have a fairly good-sized database that I’ve worked in the business over the years. But I also want to attract agents to this and give them an opportunity because when I first came in, with a stock option and a revenue share option, there’s a retirement option there. Most real estate agents never had a retirement option, and this is one. So I want to share that with people. I want to give them this retirement option so that they can stay in this field, end up retiring, and have a good life after selling real estate.

It’s a two-pronged approach for me. I really work on both of those areas. I have a business partner as well. I’ve focused my time—and he’s really good at the recruiting end of it—while I’ve been doing the sales end of it for a long time. We work well together, and that’s kind of where we want to go. That will produce some permanent income over a period of time. It’s a win-win for everybody. Traditionally, when you had a split with a company, that commission would go totally to the company. Our company gives portions of that back to you. That’s huge. You can’t get much better than that.

Sarah Larsen: Well, it makes sense. I know a lot of agents that have moved into the EXP realm because of that. It’s a really neat model that they’ve created.

Tim Meyer: It makes sense. If you’re looking to spend time in the business, real estate is a little bit different. You can spend more time with your family and do all those kinds of things. You might have to work some different or weirder hours, but you can basically call the schedule yourself. As I said earlier, if I’m not doing anything, I’m looking in the mirror. That’s the only person I can blame for nothing happening.

The Long Game: Purpose Beyond Retirement

Sarah Larsen: Where does retirement come in? Is it on the horizon, or are you just going to keep doing this?

Tim Meyer: I told my wife I’m not ever going to give up real estate. The reason is I can sell a house when I’m 85 or 90 years old. I can do that. I’m not going to sell as many as I am now, but I can when I get to that age. So why not keep your license? Why not keep doing it? Why not keep sharing with other people? It just feels good. Then I can throttle back and go on vacation if I want to, or take a trip, come back, and sell a house or two.

Sarah Larsen: The ideal life.

Tim Meyer: Exactly. I’m working towards that. That’s the end game: take off when I want but still help people. That’s important.

Sarah Larsen: Where can people reach you if they would be interested in contacting you for a real estate transaction or for mentoring?

Tim Meyer: You can reach me at Four Oceans Real Estate https://www.google.com/url?sa=E&source=gmail&q=Group.com. We’ll get that into the show notes. I’ll give you my email address and my phone number, and I’d be glad to share that with you. I’d love to have it spread out to anybody that would like to talk.

I’m also open to coaching other agents that may not be part of EXP if they just want to talk to me. I would like to think that I’m a level-headed person and able to tell you the good and the bad about everything. I can help you. If it’s coming to EXP, great. If it’s not, that’s okay, too. I can help you there as well, or maybe do some coaching for you and help you at least expand your horizons in real estate. Experience is very much important in real estate, knowing the market, knowing what’s going on in the market, knowing people, how people act in the market, and how people want to deal with people. It’s very, very important because you only get one chance to make a first impression.

Sarah Larsen: From what I know, we’ve known each other for a few years now. I feel like you have such a level emotional stability. You don’t get overly reactive or hyped up. Not to say that that’s necessarily a bad thing because that can be very energetic, and some people will like that. We’re not for everybody. Everybody is going to work with somebody that fits with them. But I appreciate that, having worked with some maybe more volatile personalities in my career. I can appreciate that you are just pretty even-keeled, and I think that probably is very helpful to your mentees and the people that you’re coaching.

Tim Meyer: I’m glad you said that because I am aggressive. I aggressively sell people houses, and I aggressively find them houses. I’ve shown more houses to one particular person than I ever thought I would. I tell my clients, “I’ll show you a hundred houses if I need to find the right house.” But I’m also competitive. I want to be the best in my field. I want to be out there in front of everybody. I want to be the star player that people call up and go, “Hey, he’s the guy we want to work with.” But I don’t want it to be the fact that I’m stuffing it down your throat. I want you to know me from my reputation and what I’ve done for you, and that’s important to me.

Sarah Larsen: I think that’s an important thing to keep in mind. Thank you so much for your time today, Tim.

Tim Meyer: Absolutely. It was really fun to chat with you. Thank you.

Key Takeaways

• Resilience is built through repetition. Every challenge — from military transitions to market crashes — became fuel for Tim’s growth.
  
• Leadership starts with accountability. Whether managing agents or mentoring others, Tim believes success comes from consistency and ownership.
  
• Reinvention is a choice. Markets change, partnerships shift, and life throws curveballs, but showing up with integrity rebuilds trust and opportunity.
  
• Legacy is mentorship. For Tim, the measure of success isn’t just selling homes; it’s helping others create careers and lives that last.

About Tim

Tim Meyer is a real estate broker, mentor, and founder of Four Oceans Real Estate, brokered by EXP Realty in Hampton Roads, Virginia.

A 23-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force, Tim brings discipline, strategy, and heart to everything he does — from coaching agents nationwide to helping families find their next home.

His mission is simple: help others build lasting success through authenticity, accountability, and service.

When he’s not mentoring agents or closing deals, you can find Tim spending time with his wife of 47 years, his family, or paying it forward through community and leadership.

Connect with Tim: Four Oceans Real Estate | Email

Energetic Reflection

Tim’s story carries the energy of steady strength. The kind that rebuilds without bitterness and grows without rushing.

It’s a reminder that success isn’t about never falling down; it’s about rising again with more wisdom each time.

As you move through your own seasons of rebuilding, remember that every restart is a refinement. The foundation gets stronger, the vision gets clearer, and the legacy expands with each new beginning.

If this conversation inspired you, I invite you to join my Reiki-infused newsletter, where I share reflections on business, energy, and resilience in action.