Matthew Foss will be the first to admit he likes side hustles. While he’s been a real estate agent, the associate broker at Trank Real Estate has also owned an ice cream and sweets shop, a DJ service and currently owns WNY Trackless Train, fun on wheels for everything from car shows to corporate events.

“I try a lot of stuff,” says the associate broker and sales leader for six years running at Trank Real Estate. “I like side hustles.” He’s done everything from selling sunglasses and ugly Christmas sweaters to doing house cleanouts for clients and other Realtors’ clients. He even got ordained as a minister to add to the resume. 

Before becoming a top producer at Trank though, his professional career really started at McDonald’s after school when he was 16. “I became a shift manager when I was 18, a general manager when I was 20 and a corporate supervisor when I was 25,” he says of an 18-year career with a McDonald’s franchisee, overseeing training, scheduling and systems implementation for the franchisee’s 24 locations. He also consulted at the corporate level, even creating a marketing concept that was implemented by McDonald’s nationwide. 

While there, he also launched a community fundraiser for Ronald McDonald House that began with car washes and pancake breakfasts at one McDonald’s location and grew into annual holiday concerts featuring stars like Tony Bennett, Liza Minnelli and Brian McKnight. Those concerts raised about $500,000 over the years.

The same attention to detail that helped his highly successful career at McDonald’s has also been a key to his success in real estate. “I don't think of myself as a salesperson,” he says. “I don't ask what would it take to get you into this house today.” 

Like McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc, who said he wasn’t in the hamburger business but the people business, Matt says he’s not in the real estate business but the business of helping people achieve their real estate goals. 

He does consider himself a marketer, however, and knows that paying attention to details helps homes sell quickly for the best price. “Real estate today is all online and it’s important to market that way. You can’t afford to lose people’s attention,” he says. “Attention to detail and knowing where to market a property gets those properties the most views and, therefore, the most interest.” He even believes the day of the week to list a property can make a difference in the number of online views and in turn the number and quality of offers. 

Small details like the order of photos for a listing are important, too. With most buyers searching for homes online, he says things like a photo of a home’s exterior followed by one of its water heaters can lose someone’s attention in a second. “We are in an instant gratification society and we have only a few seconds to catch a buyer’s interest online,” Matt says “Every word and photo matters, which is why I always use an award-winning photographer to shoot my listings.”

Another of his strengths, he says, is also one of his pet peeves. As Trank’s top producer, he’s ranked in the top five percent of area real estate agents for seven years and in recent years has twice been one of Western New York’s top 100 agents. While he’s rightfully proud of those accomplishments, he’s most proud of accomplishing them by himself, without a team. 

“With me, you get me. You get me from day one,” he says. “I don’t pass you off to a transaction coordinator, a buyer’s specialist, a seller’s specialist, a closing coordinator or anyone else. When you get me, you get my cell phone and can follow up with me 24/7.” 

With $8.2 million in sales from 43 properties last year, Matt notes that many of the top-ranked agents often have teams of 5-30 people all contributing to the team leader's totals. 

Another advantage Matt and other agents at Trank Real Estate enjoy is their status as Zillow Premier Agents.

“Some agents don't look at Zillow leads as a positive, but they have made my life so much easier,” he says. “Everybody goes to Zillow. I mean you can fight them, but why? Everything is geared toward the Internet.”

Interests outside of real estate include WNY Trackless Train.“I didn't want to be a carney or anything like that,” he says of the purchase. But after seeing the train for sale, “I just kept looking at it and thinking ‘This is just so cool.’” His wife thought it was cool, too, and they bought it.

While Covid put the brakes on the business shortly after the purchase, the train is up and running again and he’s also building a few commercially for resale with the hopes of building this business into another six-figure income. 

When he’s not working, he and his wife Kelly are kept busy with their three children—Keaton, 9, Amelia, 6, and Ava, 2—and shuttling them to Taekwondo, gymnastics and other activities. Family is important to Matt and he still gets together with his parents and brother who live nearby. He’s also a 20-year Bills season ticket holder, along with his dad.