July 15, 2024 • 35 mins
Toussaint and Veronica Smith are the dynamic brother-sister duo that own Alliance Associates Realtors.
Putting an emphasis on educating not only the next generation, their clients, but also themselves -- Toussaint and Veronica are the go-to gurus for everything real estate.
Their primary focus is not just on buying or selling properties, but on connecting with people and cultivating relationships that last a lifetime. With strong values of education, integrity, and a dedicated commitment to service...the only way to go is with Alliance Associates Realtors!
Putting an emphasis on educating not only the next generation, their clients, but also themselves -- Toussaint and Veronica are the go-to gurus for everything real estate.
Their primary focus is not just on buying or selling properties, but on connecting with people and cultivating relationships that last a lifetime. With strong values of education, integrity, and a dedicated commitment to service...the only way to go is with Alliance Associates Realtors!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Putting the spotlight on chicago Lands growingblack businesses. iHeartMedia Chicago presents the Brilliantly
Black Podcast. Here's our host,Jasmine Bennett. Hello everyone, and welcome
back today. I'm here with Veronicaand Tucson Smith of Alliance Associates Realtors.
How are you guys today? Iam doing well. How about you?
I am doing fantastic. I'm gladto be here with Jasmin and hanging out.
(00:24):
So we appreciate you having us in. Oh. Absolutely, thank you
guys for being here. Thank you, yes, ma'am. So I cannot
wait to just dive right into thebusiness. Whoever wants to take this first
question, just tell me a littlebit more about the very start of the
business. Where did the inspiration comefrom? Alliance of Socials problem started in
two three wow, two thousand andthree, and the whole concept of the
(00:48):
business starting was just me getting alittle bit more education about real estate.
I was selling my own home atthe time, and I said both solid
by owner, but I didn't haveenough knowledge to know how to sell it
by owner. So I started inlike two thousand and two just going to
classes, taking classes, and thenI found out that I took so many
(01:10):
classes that I could go and takethe state exam. Took the state exam,
worked for a company called Beard andWater for a year, went back
to school again and got my brokeer'slicense, and it was all of a
sudden, it was like, whatare you going to do with your brokeer's
license? And hence Alliance real EstateCompany started the next year. So it
(01:32):
was really out of me just gettingeducation overall and just bringing it up.
So around six months into the business, I told my sister, who has
the gift of gap, that's thebest was for me to say she has
the gift of gap. I toldher you need to be a real estate
(01:53):
broken. He called me out andhe said, Veronica, I'll never forget
these words. I don't know ifyou're gonna believe me, but I'm laying
here on the couch and God toldme to tell you you need to go
to real estate school. And thatwas a Tuesday, no Wednesday. I'm
sorry, and I said, okay. So I called a local real estate
(02:17):
school in Franklin Park asked them abouttheir program. They said, you missed
two days. We have one seatleft and it's six hundred dollars for this
class and all I had was sixhundred dollars and three children at home.
Wow. I spent the sixth gavethem my card, cried all the way
(02:44):
to my first class. I criedbecause I'm like, I'm gonna feed my
children. Yeah. And it feltlike the first day of class that someone
was surgically opening up my heart andinserting real estate say, and I became
addicted immediately. Wow. And whatA year or so later, I took
(03:10):
call to sign up and said,I'm finished and he said you're finished with
what? I said, I'm nowmanaging broker, you know, And he
says what And of course, asas a woman, I took over.
Now I'm just thinking, but whowe became partners and our parents at the
time was very proud of us.Oh yeah, as I'm proud. I'm
(03:35):
proud. And I just met youall, so that's amazing. And you
you really stepped out on faith.I did, you really did? I
did? But it turned out sowell. I did. It was it
was for me, this is mepersonally. It God hit his hand on
it, and not just on me, but he hid his hand on two
(03:59):
signed and it just with all thejob interviews, I went to with everything
else, and all the I kepthearing no, and God was just closing
that door and saying, no,it's time to move on. I need
you to do something else, andI am living in what I am supposed
(04:21):
to be doing. Oh no,she took off. She took off like
a rocket when we first started.You know, she I've always said that
I knew real estate, but likeshe said, she dived in so heavily
that anything that I knew. Istarted coming to her asking her questions about
the business itself, because there wasjust so many things. There's a lot
(04:45):
of things that you probably already knowin this business that you need to know.
But she became so engrossed in thebusiness that she grew fast. And
you know, it was a work. It was work. But he told
me, yeah, I will callhim up now, and this is serious.
I am so serious. I willcall him up and say. Oh.
(05:05):
He says, Okay, I needyou to study the contract. And
I'm like, I just finished studyinga contract. Hey, I just finished.
Okay, Now what do you needme to do? He said,
did you finish studying the contract?Yes, Okay, go back and study
it again. Go back and studyit. Again, and it was disclosures.
(05:26):
We will move on from there.And it was disclosures, and it
was this and he it was hisintegrity. He's my brothers. I can
beat him up after this, Butit was me looking at him in a
different light. It wasn't me lookingat him as a brother, but as
a mentor and someone that wanted meto succeed. And I needed that at
(05:51):
that moment. This is the firsttime he's hearing that. So I needed
him and he was there and heguided me into this thing. I mean
he guided me into this thing witha lot We had a lot of bumpy
rolls. Well, let's talk aboutthat when you guys first started forming this,
(06:15):
Like, what were some of thechallenges you went through and more importantly,
because you did you came through it. How did you go about that?
Well, as you start any business, you know, there's always just
getting things in place right. Youhad your big name companies that were out
there, and here we look AfricanAmerican family owned business. Really, that's
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what we came down to. Andour first journey was really dealing with the
people that we know that was closeto us. So we got a lot
of favor initially from individuals that weknew that was ready to buy homes all
over the place. So we wasjust busy doing that. But it was
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again, it was a roller coasterride, you know, getting getting to
know getting people in that didn't knowus, you know, because that's where
your money comes from. When youcrossover into different markets with different individuals.
Now you start seeing the business explodeitself. But we took joy in being
able to learn. I used tosay this when I first started. I
(07:23):
would learn something and it would justbe me learning something that or it was
just Veronica and I learning something.And then we start bringing on other agents,
and as we bought on another agents, my learning curve became both our
learning curves became increasingly because of thefact they were bringing to the table things
we had never I've never experienced thatbefore. So and still yet until today,
(07:46):
I'm saying that same line. Ihave never heard that before because somebody
has something new every day. Yes, because the business is constantly changing.
But initially, initially we had ourroller rides. And you're gonna hear me
use that term a lot, becausethis whole business is a roller coaster ride.
When the market change, our businesschange. Yeh, a quarterably,
(08:09):
how you can do that's all youcan get. So there was there was,
there was tears as we go gothrough various markets. Uh. The
crash in two thousand and six,seven and eight, my god, it
was. It was insane. Youknow. We we actually saw ourselves during
that time period. And again it'sit's a God move for us because in
(08:33):
two thousand and six, seven andeight, that those are the years I'm
gonna combine together. We adjusted ourbusiness plan because the market crash, there
was no selling real estate, sowe got connected to an insurance This is
when God comes into play. Wegot connected to insurance companies and we start
(08:54):
doing more rentals than we have everdid in our career then. And he
pulled us through those rentals, justfinding people homes doing due to fires,
doing to water damage or whatever itmight be. Those were moments in which
I mean we were saved because wesaw businesses, the offices across the street
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or a blockdown and they were closingdown left and right. I remember to
sign and nine sitting on the couchin our office. I don't know if
you're gonna remember this, and hesaid, let's pray, and we literally
had to stop what we were doingin prey because it was scary to watch
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someone else who was successful in business, who you were looking up to.
Yeah, and they were closing theirdoors. And I want to say this,
these are companies that have been inplay forever years. When she said,
look, those are the examples thatwe were following in the community.
You know what are they doing?Okay, how do we copy what they
(10:05):
do? And these people are closingAnd here we are right on the verge
of wanting to close. But man, we had our landlord says no,
we're not gonna let you because atone point we couldn't even pay our least.
It was like, okay, wewere ready to shut it down.
(10:26):
And we made the phone call andsaid, hey, we're gonna have to
shut it down because there's and hesaid no. So when I say that
people were in place, absolutely,they were literally in place for us.
And here's the other thing about thisone. When he came up with the
(10:50):
concept of education, not education justfor our other brokers that we have in
the office, educating the public.Oh, that's important sellers buyers, distress
people that's having problems with their homes, giving them what they need to move
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on to wherever they're going, whetherit's into a new home or out of
our old home, or help themto see that there's life out there.
Short cell mm and things like that. Yeah, those people who come back
to us after that moment in theirlife where they have lost their homes and
(11:37):
say I'm ready by another one.You made me able to survive this.
That's some good stuff, man,that's some good stuff. Would you say
that it's one of your favorite partsof the business one of my Yes.
Education, Education, just sitting downeven our home buyers seminars or them coming
into the office and we're just notjust sitting down and talking to them and
(12:01):
giving them their on one on oneon bus education saying no, this is
how you do it. You knowwe have you have to I've been through
to me, I have touched somuch in this life time and just letting
our clients know, hey, I'mhuman too, I've been with some of
(12:26):
the stuff that you're going through.And on top of what Ronica said,
you think about it, jas,Buying a piece of property is probably one
of the most expensive items that anybody. Yeah, one of the most expensive
commodities that anybody will buy in theirlifetime and once you get the first one,
(12:46):
now it becomes easy. So whenron can talk about the education part,
how better for us to educate youthrough the whole process of what it
takes, you know. So wehave in our office little charts that show
you from the beginning of the buyingprocess to the end of the process,
so you can flow with us andwe're not just telling you the next step.
(13:07):
You can see the next step beforeyou get started. And so that
kind of information is because I didn'thave that when I was when that initial
standpoint where before the business started,that's what I was trying to figure out,
what do I go from here?And so but by giving people that
and preparing them for the journey,if you will, and you have to
(13:30):
figure most of our return customers isour business, that's that's referrals. That's
where our success is, you know, because the fact that we try and
we will continue to continue to treatour clients as best as we possibly could,
because we as Ronka likes to sayit, they become family. They
do, yes, And I thinkthat's how it should be. They do.
(13:52):
And the thing is, and Iused to tell I was offered so
many different positions with so many hugefirms, real estate firms, things that
make you scratch your head and say, wait a minute, do you know
I can make a lot more moneyover here than I am here. My
(14:16):
comeback was, but who helps ourcommunity? Who's going to be left to
help them? Yeah? And notthat I can help everybody, but I
know I'm helping some and that becamemore important to me than getting the big
(14:37):
bucks. Yeah, you know isstanding still and making sure that someone's mother
is not put out of their homeand letting them know, okay, let
me help you through this process.So that's okay, I'm finishing. But
that's a beautiful thing. Sometimes sometimesit's so some of the issues that people
are facing are so simple. Fixyeah, and really, well, let
(15:01):
me correct it. It's simple tous because we got twenty years plus in
the business, so we have seenit, done it, changed it,
fixed it. And so some ofthe things once you talk it out,
because most people can't disseminate or can'ttalk it through exactly what's going on in
(15:24):
their position. But you see,you look at that paperwork, you try
to get understanding, and Romka hasbecome a wizard at paperwork. You know,
but she puts together the short selldocumentation and all the documentation that folks
need to continue to keep their house. And sometimes you put one sheet of
paper in to a bank and allof a sudden you go from being thirty
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days getting ready to lose your hometo now you at six six months before
you lose your home. And soit just takes a little effort sometime before
you go into that whole. Now, we sell real estate. We help
buyers buy real estate, you know, so that's our goal. But in
between that, we help people.We do our best to help people along
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the way as much as we can. And I can tell that's a big
thing for you guys just listening toyou guys talk, and would you say
that's like a big part of themission too, to help the community.
Yeah, our vision or our mission. One of the part of our mission
is turning dreams into realities. Itreally is. We want to see whatever
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your dream is in a home,is to turn it into a reality along
the way. Though sometimes it's justnot as easy. You know, you
got a lot of young people intoday's market, and you hear the market
is constantly increasing. Houses are gettinghigher and higher and higher. Today you
have to be prepared to buy ahome. You have to be prepared.
(16:53):
And I'm going to say this,I'm going to be a speaker for it,
but buying a home is still betterthan renting a home because when it's
all said and done, there isno equity left. You have nothing left
when after you rent for five Imet a lady that rented a home for
eighteen years, eighteen years of noequity coming back to her at all.
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So although in certain situations, rentingis feasible, I mean for individuals,
I got it. But when it'sall set and done for majority of individuals,
when you can position yourself to buya home versus just renting, you
still have a nest egg that you'rebuilding up. It's the best saving plans
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that you could possibly have. AndI want to double back when he said
turning your dreams into realities. Oneof the things about me, I'm not
gonna mess with you. I'm gonnagive it to you like you need it.
Yeah, so that you are livingin reality. Yes. So if
you're looking for that five bedroom,three car in a grade school district,
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this, that and the other.But we have beer budget money, I'm
going to bring you back to realityand let you know this is what you
can do, and we're going tofind you something that you need now,
right, Because people the one thingI want to I hope to get out
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and I want to tell everyone,do not buy a home to impress anybody,
because they will only be impressed onetime. And you have that mortgage
for thirty years and you're eating crackersat home trying to save, so that
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part of me wants them to holdon to their homes. Right. I
think I'm talking about my clients.I've only had one client in twenty years
to lose their home because I havetold them, you're not my client just
for today, and he says itall the time. You're my client for
(19:07):
life. You're my family. Now, you're my cousin. I have some
of my clients call me Auntie becauseI'm gonna talk to them forever, you
know, and I would rather themcall me. There's so many scams out
here. There are so many scamsout here. They'll send you things to
your home, make you think you'relosing your home, and it's a scam.
(19:32):
It's a scam. So I lovekeeping relationships so that they can call
me up and say hey, Veronica, Hey Veronica, I just got this,
and I can get them right backon the track. I can say
shredded, I can say don't thinkabout it, and they can go on
living their life. Yeah, youknow, so that's how it should be.
(19:53):
It really should. So I appreciatethat you all are so like I
would say, family oriented. Imean, it's a family business, and
then it bleeds into your business,which I absolutely love. So let me
ask you this, when it comesto advice for someone that made they're thinking
about getting into real estate, what'ssome of like the first big important steps
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they need to make. You know, I just had a meeting with a
guy that came to my office andwants to start, want to get into
the business, And I told him, I said, you got to be
really serious about this. I've hadpeople on my team that you promote,
that you push you, you getfired up, and honestly, they have
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spent this money for this real estatelicense and spend this yearly fee for this
real estate license. And I've hadhad a couple of folks that sold one
house in a year. You know, So for me, you're not serious,
you know, because you're gonna you'regonna look in every crack that you
can to find a buyer, youknow, or do what it takes.
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But I'm always caught, especially nowwith individuals coming in the business because of
the fact that it's a great businessonce you get in. But it's a
tough business. It really is.You know, you have to have the
clients and the clientele to continue togrow in this business. So I always
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say, approach it cautiously and beprepared to work in this business. We
can guide you, we'll take youout and show you the ropes we're gonna
give you. We're gonna get youprepared. But now if you're not willing
to do the rest of it,and that is sometimes sending out information and
the mail to people that you know, you know, just letting people one
of the worst things that I couldever hear from a client. I forgot
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you as a real estate agent.It puts you hard. So they bought
a house from Joe or Susie overhere because they forgot you were a real
estate agent. And so it takesfor us to stay connect to our clients
at all time. And that's that'sin any business. I have to have
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a passion absolutely. I remember Ihad an agent. She beautiful agent.
She's doing this and I looked ather one day in the office and I
said hey, she said hey.I said, you're not living your dream
and she said prodica and she justteared up. I said, you're fired.
(22:30):
We're friends today. A matter offact, I saw her last week
where she's helping me clean out ofhouse because she she does antiquing. Oh
but I and she doesn't stay insales, so she's helping me with one.
And but that was years ago.Yeah, you have to have a
passion. Again, here behind thismicrophone, that was your passion. Yes,
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you have to have a passion tobecome successful in this business. And
success is not not always what itsounds like. Success is not just money,
right, It is not how doyou sleep at night? M hm?
How do you sleep at night?What did you do towards your goals?
And so I would say people thatthink this is a lick, this
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is a lick. I'm gonna go, say a real estate and I'm gonna
make some money, I'm sad,and no it's not that easy. Yeah.
Every day before before he would letme touch a client. I will
walk in my office, I promiseyou. I would get dressed the toe
head on my soup, I lookgood, and I would walk in that
office and it was empty, andI'll say thank you Lord for all my
(23:45):
clients. And I would get onthe MLS and pretend that I was looking
for homes for clients until it manifests, and I was so busy. At
one point, SUSI, I hadto send other agents to my closings because
I couldn't make them off. Wow, So you have to have a passion
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for whatever you want to do wholeheartedlyagree you're yes, because I really feel
like you can't fake it. Youcan't fake it. Yeah, you can
do it for a little while,a little bit it. He always shows
this ugly head and it really doesit is I don't want to do real
estate. We heard that's something Idon't estate. We went through a cleanout,
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yeah, real quick, but tellthe story. We went to a
cleanout, uh, probably around fifteenyears ago. We had a bunch of
agents, probably around three or fourthat just wasn't doing anything, and we
start thinking about the effort of thejust the liability itself. If you go
out there because of your lack ofeffort, you go out there and began
(24:55):
to talk about real estate and yousay the wrong thing or do the wrong
thing, absolutely liability that we hold, right, so we start asking people
to leave, and so our elevenperson staff went down to probably around six
of us. And you know,so it's a press on all of us
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because we want, we want youto be successful while you're in the business.
We really that's my desire that ifyou want to join the team,
I need you to be successful.And it's not just about it's about you
making money in the business and gettinga name for yourself, you know,
not not a name for Alliance.We have to use Alliance as the corporation
(25:37):
because that's the name of the company. But really we are independent contractors in
this business. As independent contractors,you're providing for your family. And you
know, so to provide for yourfamily, you need to go to work.
You know, like Rockets as shecame in dressed a certain way,
had a mindset what you wanted todo. You have to get up in
the morning going for your wherever yourjoy is. Yes, you got to
(26:02):
go for your joy and go allout for it. Because you know what
they say, give me this daymy daily bread that's what I need today,
this day, I need to beprovided for. So I'm excited about
the future. Even with the crazinessof the business that we've been going through
in the last few years, I'mexcited about what the future still hold for
(26:22):
this business. Scores should be.Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So let
me ask my my favorite question isto you both, what does being brilliantly
black mean to you? No,you go first setting setting an example for
the young people that are coming comingup behind us, uh and being a
(26:45):
voice as as much of an advocatefor them as we come up. As
I sit here and look at iton the screen, sometimes sometimes you want
to strive for that excellence for thembecause I know, and I just I
just had this conversation. I dida presentation, and I had this conversation
that we're not seeing a lot ofexamples as we used to. My dad,
(27:08):
my dad was a phenomenal example.Perfect. Yeah, he was a
phenomenal my mom. They owned theirown business. So that's what we got
our Yeah, okay, okay,we got our drive from there. But
I saw I saw my dad goto work at ten thirty eight, ten
thirty at night. Yes, Isaw him get off of work at seven
(27:29):
am in the morning and go intohis business on Madison and Cicero, you
know, staying in the corner andsleep and sleep. Yeah. Stay yeah,
I didn't say late, stay asleep. But the man worked. The
man worked. And so the examplesthat we see out here. And you
know, I was even going intothe high school at one point just being
a mentor for some of the kids. And you know, if they don't
(27:52):
get that, there is no example. So being brilliantly, brilliantly as an
example, it's my gauge. Uh. And to know that we did.
We we have not overcame anything.We're still pushing to get to where we
need to get get to in thisthis this goal of ours. But it's
(28:15):
been the best of who we arewhile we're doing it, and be an
example for other people while we're doingit. We get as he he mentioned
our parents m H. I remembertalking to my dad. Hated that store
I did, and then I couldn'tstand it and it taughted me everything,
(28:37):
everything, And to watch my fathergive somebody ten dollars to go to work.
Hm. My mother saying that,and they bring it back to know
that they because of their excellence inthe community. And that's what brilliantly blacked
(28:59):
me. It means excellent. Yeah, we you don't have to go outside
of your community. We get sucha bad rap. There are no black
professionals. We are black professionals.Let us show you how it's done.
Son should Yes. So for meis putting, always, always, always
(29:30):
putting your first foot step forward,whatever you want to say, just to
make sure that the client's goals areaccomplished and not yourself. Don't look at
that commission on it. Yeah,look at what you can do for someone
(29:52):
else. It's coming back, Ican promise you. It swings back around,
It swings back around as always aboutmore than just you. Yes,
always, always, if we canget that, if we can get that
into people, that everything that wedo exceeds us because I promise you it's
(30:14):
like even the time Ron could spendor the time I spent with clients.
What happens is they might not beable to do it sell a house or
buy a house at that time,but they tell somebody else and guess what
I got business from that help absolutelyfor just putting them first. In the
long run, I put them firstin my effort of trying to help trying
(30:38):
to be that example of making sure. I had a lady called me yesterday.
I didn't even tell you this,and she was trying to find a
home and she started telling me aboutother people of how they I said,
I can't promise you anything, butI'm gonna do my best. That's all
I could do. And that's allI could tell her. I said,
you got a difficult situation. Yeah, I said, I can't promise you
(30:59):
I'm going to fix it, Isaid, but I'm going to do my
best to help you through the process. And that's all I could give her
at that time, because she didhave a difficult scenario, and so I'm
going to walk her through. Butpeople need and it's not only saying it,
it's putting forth the effort and doingit. Because there's a lot of
talk. Talk is cheating, yeah, talking and doing two different things exactly.
(31:22):
So we try to do what wesay through it all because we want
to see you success because once again, it might not come from you,
but I need I need you totell somebody what you've been through and see
what we can do because we helpedyou through, so that maybe we can
be promoted somewhere else to somebody else, he said. On the way down
(31:42):
here, he said, you alwaysget these crazy deals, same deal.
They're not crazy like that is justdifficult. It's challenging, and for me,
it's purpose. Those are the dealsthat were we are supposed to get
(32:04):
and it's been hitting us for twentyyears. I'm talking crazy, I'm talking
what just happened. We have thingsgoing on now, what just happened?
Yeah, but those are the dealsthat we are supposed to have. Because
another person in the business, professionalin the business may not handle it.
(32:27):
We handle it, so he saidit, and all I could do is
yeah, he right, yeah,yeah, but we get it done.
They always come through. That's theone thing about about her and her attorney
that she used, and we bothuse the same attorney, but it's it's
always they always get it done.I mean, I just I've just never
(32:49):
seen I told you my thing is, I've never seen this before. But
those are the deals that they gothrough and for whatever reason, things turn
around, something make it a leftturn or right turn at the right time,
and the deal gets done. Imean, it's just amazing how it
all pans out, and all ofthem really pans out in the end.
(33:10):
If you just hang in there andcontinue to do the work right, you
know, you have to continue todo the work. I have to agree
with you. The work is it'salways going to be there, and if
you don't commit to it, it'snot going to get done, and then
it's not going to last. Andyou guys have been here for over twenty
years, so you have been doingthe work. So I thank you guys
(33:30):
for that. Seriously, I feel, oh, stop it, like,
oh my god, age Okay.I think this has been one of my
favorite episodes of this podcast so far. For sure. It's like you both
have like a light like beaming fromyou, like I can feel it.
(33:51):
And I hope that whoever listens tothis that if you guys need some help
with finding a home, you talkto them Alliance Associates realtor. So please
drop your website, phone number,social media for more people to get some
information. We are at aarhomes dotcom is the website. Uh, you
could call me and I'll give mynumber two soon Smith at six three zero
(34:15):
nine seven three eight eight nine twoonce again six three zero nine seven three
eight eight nine two, or youcan call me you wanna call me Veronica
Smith at Alliance Associate Realtors in theWestchester office, and that's seven o eight
(34:35):
three four four one one five zero. Well, thank you guys so much.
This has been an amazing conversation.I appreciate you both. We appreciate
you having us down. We reallyappreciate this and that being brilliantly Black.
Yes overall, so we thank youfor thank us. Of course, so
nervous, but you made it socomfortable. Good good. I love to
(34:58):
hear that. Good. Thank youguys again. All right, thanks for
listening to The Brilliantly Black Podcast,produced by Jasmine Bennett and Ryan Linc.
Executive produced by Eco Robinson and DerekBrown. If you're a black business and
would like to be featured, registeryour business or service now at V one
o three dot com slash brilliant.The Brilliantly Black Podcast is a production of
(35:21):
iHeartMedia, Chicago,
Putting the spotlight on chicago Lands growingblack businesses. iHeartMedia Chicago presents the Brilliantly
Black Podcast. Here's our host,Jasmine Bennett. Hello everyone, and welcome
back today. I'm here with Veronicaand Tucson Smith of Alliance Associates Realtors.
How are you guys today? Iam doing well. How about you?
I am doing fantastic. I'm gladto be here with Jasmin and hanging out.
(00:24):
So we appreciate you having us in. Oh. Absolutely, thank you
guys for being here. Thank you, yes, ma'am. So I cannot
wait to just dive right into thebusiness. Whoever wants to take this first
question, just tell me a littlebit more about the very start of the
business. Where did the inspiration comefrom? Alliance of Socials problem started in
two three wow, two thousand andthree, and the whole concept of the
(00:48):
business starting was just me getting alittle bit more education about real estate.
I was selling my own home atthe time, and I said both solid
by owner, but I didn't haveenough knowledge to know how to sell it
by owner. So I started inlike two thousand and two just going to
classes, taking classes, and thenI found out that I took so many
(01:10):
classes that I could go and takethe state exam. Took the state exam,
worked for a company called Beard andWater for a year, went back
to school again and got my brokeer'slicense, and it was all of a
sudden, it was like, whatare you going to do with your brokeer's
license? And hence Alliance real EstateCompany started the next year. So it
(01:32):
was really out of me just gettingeducation overall and just bringing it up.
So around six months into the business, I told my sister, who has
the gift of gap, that's thebest was for me to say she has
the gift of gap. I toldher you need to be a real estate
(01:53):
broken. He called me out andhe said, Veronica, I'll never forget
these words. I don't know ifyou're gonna believe me, but I'm laying
here on the couch and God toldme to tell you you need to go
to real estate school. And thatwas a Tuesday, no Wednesday. I'm
sorry, and I said, okay. So I called a local real estate
(02:17):
school in Franklin Park asked them abouttheir program. They said, you missed
two days. We have one seatleft and it's six hundred dollars for this
class and all I had was sixhundred dollars and three children at home.
Wow. I spent the sixth gavethem my card, cried all the way
(02:44):
to my first class. I criedbecause I'm like, I'm gonna feed my
children. Yeah. And it feltlike the first day of class that someone
was surgically opening up my heart andinserting real estate say, and I became
addicted immediately. Wow. And whatA year or so later, I took
(03:10):
call to sign up and said,I'm finished and he said you're finished with
what? I said, I'm nowmanaging broker, you know, And he
says what And of course, asas a woman, I took over.
Now I'm just thinking, but whowe became partners and our parents at the
time was very proud of us.Oh yeah, as I'm proud. I'm
(03:35):
proud. And I just met youall, so that's amazing. And you
you really stepped out on faith.I did, you really did? I
did? But it turned out sowell. I did. It was it
was for me, this is mepersonally. It God hit his hand on
it, and not just on me, but he hid his hand on two
(03:59):
signed and it just with all thejob interviews, I went to with everything
else, and all the I kepthearing no, and God was just closing
that door and saying, no,it's time to move on. I need
you to do something else, andI am living in what I am supposed
(04:21):
to be doing. Oh no,she took off. She took off like
a rocket when we first started.You know, she I've always said that
I knew real estate, but likeshe said, she dived in so heavily
that anything that I knew. Istarted coming to her asking her questions about
the business itself, because there wasjust so many things. There's a lot
(04:45):
of things that you probably already knowin this business that you need to know.
But she became so engrossed in thebusiness that she grew fast. And
you know, it was a work. It was work. But he told
me, yeah, I will callhim up now, and this is serious.
I am so serious. I willcall him up and say. Oh.
(05:05):
He says, Okay, I needyou to study the contract. And
I'm like, I just finished studyinga contract. Hey, I just finished.
Okay, Now what do you needme to do? He said,
did you finish studying the contract?Yes, Okay, go back and study
it again. Go back and studyit. Again, and it was disclosures.
(05:26):
We will move on from there.And it was disclosures, and it
was this and he it was hisintegrity. He's my brothers. I can
beat him up after this, Butit was me looking at him in a
different light. It wasn't me lookingat him as a brother, but as
a mentor and someone that wanted meto succeed. And I needed that at
(05:51):
that moment. This is the firsttime he's hearing that. So I needed
him and he was there and heguided me into this thing. I mean
he guided me into this thing witha lot We had a lot of bumpy
rolls. Well, let's talk aboutthat when you guys first started forming this,
(06:15):
Like, what were some of thechallenges you went through and more importantly,
because you did you came through it. How did you go about that?
Well, as you start any business, you know, there's always just
getting things in place right. Youhad your big name companies that were out
there, and here we look AfricanAmerican family owned business. Really, that's
(06:38):
what we came down to. Andour first journey was really dealing with the
people that we know that was closeto us. So we got a lot
of favor initially from individuals that weknew that was ready to buy homes all
over the place. So we wasjust busy doing that. But it was
(06:59):
again, it was a roller coasterride, you know, getting getting to
know getting people in that didn't knowus, you know, because that's where
your money comes from. When youcrossover into different markets with different individuals.
Now you start seeing the business explodeitself. But we took joy in being
able to learn. I used tosay this when I first started. I
(07:23):
would learn something and it would justbe me learning something that or it was
just Veronica and I learning something.And then we start bringing on other agents,
and as we bought on another agents, my learning curve became both our
learning curves became increasingly because of thefact they were bringing to the table things
we had never I've never experienced thatbefore. So and still yet until today,
(07:46):
I'm saying that same line. Ihave never heard that before because somebody
has something new every day. Yes, because the business is constantly changing.
But initially, initially we had ourroller rides. And you're gonna hear me
use that term a lot, becausethis whole business is a roller coaster ride.
When the market change, our businesschange. Yeh, a quarterably,
(08:09):
how you can do that's all youcan get. So there was there was,
there was tears as we go gothrough various markets. Uh. The
crash in two thousand and six,seven and eight, my god, it
was. It was insane. Youknow. We we actually saw ourselves during
that time period. And again it'sit's a God move for us because in
(08:33):
two thousand and six, seven andeight, that those are the years I'm
gonna combine together. We adjusted ourbusiness plan because the market crash, there
was no selling real estate, sowe got connected to an insurance This is
when God comes into play. Wegot connected to insurance companies and we start
(08:54):
doing more rentals than we have everdid in our career then. And he
pulled us through those rentals, justfinding people homes doing due to fires,
doing to water damage or whatever itmight be. Those were moments in which
I mean we were saved because wesaw businesses, the offices across the street
(09:20):
or a blockdown and they were closingdown left and right. I remember to
sign and nine sitting on the couchin our office. I don't know if
you're gonna remember this, and hesaid, let's pray, and we literally
had to stop what we were doingin prey because it was scary to watch
(09:43):
someone else who was successful in business, who you were looking up to.
Yeah, and they were closing theirdoors. And I want to say this,
these are companies that have been inplay forever years. When she said,
look, those are the examples thatwe were following in the community.
You know what are they doing?Okay, how do we copy what they
(10:05):
do? And these people are closingAnd here we are right on the verge
of wanting to close. But man, we had our landlord says no,
we're not gonna let you because atone point we couldn't even pay our least.
It was like, okay, wewere ready to shut it down.
(10:26):
And we made the phone call andsaid, hey, we're gonna have to
shut it down because there's and hesaid no. So when I say that
people were in place, absolutely,they were literally in place for us.
And here's the other thing about thisone. When he came up with the
(10:50):
concept of education, not education justfor our other brokers that we have in
the office, educating the public.Oh, that's important sellers buyers, distress
people that's having problems with their homes, giving them what they need to move
(11:13):
on to wherever they're going, whetherit's into a new home or out of
our old home, or help themto see that there's life out there.
Short cell mm and things like that. Yeah, those people who come back
to us after that moment in theirlife where they have lost their homes and
(11:37):
say I'm ready by another one.You made me able to survive this.
That's some good stuff, man,that's some good stuff. Would you say
that it's one of your favorite partsof the business one of my Yes.
Education, Education, just sitting downeven our home buyers seminars or them coming
into the office and we're just notjust sitting down and talking to them and
(12:01):
giving them their on one on oneon bus education saying no, this is
how you do it. You knowwe have you have to I've been through
to me, I have touched somuch in this life time and just letting
our clients know, hey, I'mhuman too, I've been with some of
(12:26):
the stuff that you're going through.And on top of what Ronica said,
you think about it, jas,Buying a piece of property is probably one
of the most expensive items that anybody. Yeah, one of the most expensive
commodities that anybody will buy in theirlifetime and once you get the first one,
(12:46):
now it becomes easy. So whenron can talk about the education part,
how better for us to educate youthrough the whole process of what it
takes, you know. So wehave in our office little charts that show
you from the beginning of the buyingprocess to the end of the process,
so you can flow with us andwe're not just telling you the next step.
(13:07):
You can see the next step beforeyou get started. And so that
kind of information is because I didn'thave that when I was when that initial
standpoint where before the business started,that's what I was trying to figure out,
what do I go from here?And so but by giving people that
and preparing them for the journey,if you will, and you have to
(13:30):
figure most of our return customers isour business, that's that's referrals. That's
where our success is, you know, because the fact that we try and
we will continue to continue to treatour clients as best as we possibly could,
because we as Ronka likes to sayit, they become family. They
do, yes, And I thinkthat's how it should be. They do.
(13:52):
And the thing is, and Iused to tell I was offered so
many different positions with so many hugefirms, real estate firms, things that
make you scratch your head and say, wait a minute, do you know
I can make a lot more moneyover here than I am here. My
(14:16):
comeback was, but who helps ourcommunity? Who's going to be left to
help them? Yeah? And notthat I can help everybody, but I
know I'm helping some and that becamemore important to me than getting the big
(14:37):
bucks. Yeah, you know isstanding still and making sure that someone's mother
is not put out of their homeand letting them know, okay, let
me help you through this process.So that's okay, I'm finishing. But
that's a beautiful thing. Sometimes sometimesit's so some of the issues that people
are facing are so simple. Fixyeah, and really, well, let
(15:01):
me correct it. It's simple tous because we got twenty years plus in
the business, so we have seenit, done it, changed it,
fixed it. And so some ofthe things once you talk it out,
because most people can't disseminate or can'ttalk it through exactly what's going on in
(15:24):
their position. But you see,you look at that paperwork, you try
to get understanding, and Romka hasbecome a wizard at paperwork. You know,
but she puts together the short selldocumentation and all the documentation that folks
need to continue to keep their house. And sometimes you put one sheet of
paper in to a bank and allof a sudden you go from being thirty
(15:48):
days getting ready to lose your hometo now you at six six months before
you lose your home. And soit just takes a little effort sometime before
you go into that whole. Now, we sell real estate. We help
buyers buy real estate, you know, so that's our goal. But in
between that, we help people.We do our best to help people along
(16:11):
the way as much as we can. And I can tell that's a big
thing for you guys just listening toyou guys talk, and would you say
that's like a big part of themission too, to help the community.
Yeah, our vision or our mission. One of the part of our mission
is turning dreams into realities. Itreally is. We want to see whatever
(16:32):
your dream is in a home,is to turn it into a reality along
the way. Though sometimes it's justnot as easy. You know, you
got a lot of young people intoday's market, and you hear the market
is constantly increasing. Houses are gettinghigher and higher and higher. Today you
have to be prepared to buy ahome. You have to be prepared.
(16:53):
And I'm going to say this,I'm going to be a speaker for it,
but buying a home is still betterthan renting a home because when it's
all said and done, there isno equity left. You have nothing left
when after you rent for five Imet a lady that rented a home for
eighteen years, eighteen years of noequity coming back to her at all.
(17:15):
So although in certain situations, rentingis feasible, I mean for individuals,
I got it. But when it'sall set and done for majority of individuals,
when you can position yourself to buya home versus just renting, you
still have a nest egg that you'rebuilding up. It's the best saving plans
(17:36):
that you could possibly have. AndI want to double back when he said
turning your dreams into realities. Oneof the things about me, I'm not
gonna mess with you. I'm gonnagive it to you like you need it.
Yeah, so that you are livingin reality. Yes. So if
you're looking for that five bedroom,three car in a grade school district,
(17:57):
this, that and the other.But we have beer budget money, I'm
going to bring you back to realityand let you know this is what you
can do, and we're going tofind you something that you need now,
right, Because people the one thingI want to I hope to get out
(18:22):
and I want to tell everyone,do not buy a home to impress anybody,
because they will only be impressed onetime. And you have that mortgage
for thirty years and you're eating crackersat home trying to save, so that
(18:44):
part of me wants them to holdon to their homes. Right. I
think I'm talking about my clients.I've only had one client in twenty years
to lose their home because I havetold them, you're not my client just
for today, and he says itall the time. You're my client for
(19:07):
life. You're my family. Now, you're my cousin. I have some
of my clients call me Auntie becauseI'm gonna talk to them forever, you
know, and I would rather themcall me. There's so many scams out
here. There are so many scamsout here. They'll send you things to
your home, make you think you'relosing your home, and it's a scam.
(19:32):
It's a scam. So I lovekeeping relationships so that they can call
me up and say hey, Veronica, Hey Veronica, I just got this,
and I can get them right backon the track. I can say
shredded, I can say don't thinkabout it, and they can go on
living their life. Yeah, youknow, so that's how it should be.
(19:53):
It really should. So I appreciatethat you all are so like I
would say, family oriented. Imean, it's a family business, and
then it bleeds into your business,which I absolutely love. So let me
ask you this, when it comesto advice for someone that made they're thinking
about getting into real estate, what'ssome of like the first big important steps
(20:14):
they need to make. You know, I just had a meeting with a
guy that came to my office andwants to start, want to get into
the business, And I told him, I said, you got to be
really serious about this. I've hadpeople on my team that you promote,
that you push you, you getfired up, and honestly, they have
(20:36):
spent this money for this real estatelicense and spend this yearly fee for this
real estate license. And I've hadhad a couple of folks that sold one
house in a year. You know, So for me, you're not serious,
you know, because you're gonna you'regonna look in every crack that you
can to find a buyer, youknow, or do what it takes.
(20:57):
But I'm always caught, especially nowwith individuals coming in the business because of
the fact that it's a great businessonce you get in. But it's a
tough business. It really is.You know, you have to have the
clients and the clientele to continue togrow in this business. So I always
(21:18):
say, approach it cautiously and beprepared to work in this business. We
can guide you, we'll take youout and show you the ropes we're gonna
give you. We're gonna get youprepared. But now if you're not willing
to do the rest of it,and that is sometimes sending out information and
the mail to people that you know, you know, just letting people one
of the worst things that I couldever hear from a client. I forgot
(21:41):
you as a real estate agent.It puts you hard. So they bought
a house from Joe or Susie overhere because they forgot you were a real
estate agent. And so it takesfor us to stay connect to our clients
at all time. And that's that'sin any business. I have to have
(22:04):
a passion absolutely. I remember Ihad an agent. She beautiful agent.
She's doing this and I looked ather one day in the office and I
said hey, she said hey.I said, you're not living your dream
and she said prodica and she justteared up. I said, you're fired.
(22:30):
We're friends today. A matter offact, I saw her last week
where she's helping me clean out ofhouse because she she does antiquing. Oh
but I and she doesn't stay insales, so she's helping me with one.
And but that was years ago.Yeah, you have to have a
passion. Again, here behind thismicrophone, that was your passion. Yes,
(22:56):
you have to have a passion tobecome successful in this business. And
success is not not always what itsounds like. Success is not just money,
right, It is not how doyou sleep at night? M hm?
How do you sleep at night?What did you do towards your goals?
And so I would say people thatthink this is a lick, this
(23:22):
is a lick. I'm gonna go, say a real estate and I'm gonna
make some money, I'm sad,and no it's not that easy. Yeah.
Every day before before he would letme touch a client. I will
walk in my office, I promiseyou. I would get dressed the toe
head on my soup, I lookgood, and I would walk in that
office and it was empty, andI'll say thank you Lord for all my
(23:45):
clients. And I would get onthe MLS and pretend that I was looking
for homes for clients until it manifests, and I was so busy. At
one point, SUSI, I hadto send other agents to my closings because
I couldn't make them off. Wow, So you have to have a passion
(24:11):
for whatever you want to do wholeheartedlyagree you're yes, because I really feel
like you can't fake it. Youcan't fake it. Yeah, you can
do it for a little while,a little bit it. He always shows
this ugly head and it really doesit is I don't want to do real
estate. We heard that's something Idon't estate. We went through a cleanout,
(24:33):
yeah, real quick, but tellthe story. We went to a
cleanout, uh, probably around fifteenyears ago. We had a bunch of
agents, probably around three or fourthat just wasn't doing anything, and we
start thinking about the effort of thejust the liability itself. If you go
out there because of your lack ofeffort, you go out there and began
(24:55):
to talk about real estate and yousay the wrong thing or do the wrong
thing, absolutely liability that we hold, right, so we start asking people
to leave, and so our elevenperson staff went down to probably around six
of us. And you know,so it's a press on all of us
(25:15):
because we want, we want youto be successful while you're in the business.
We really that's my desire that ifyou want to join the team,
I need you to be successful.And it's not just about it's about you
making money in the business and gettinga name for yourself, you know,
not not a name for Alliance.We have to use Alliance as the corporation
(25:37):
because that's the name of the company. But really we are independent contractors in
this business. As independent contractors,you're providing for your family. And you
know, so to provide for yourfamily, you need to go to work.
You know, like Rockets as shecame in dressed a certain way,
had a mindset what you wanted todo. You have to get up in
the morning going for your wherever yourjoy is. Yes, you got to
(26:02):
go for your joy and go allout for it. Because you know what
they say, give me this daymy daily bread that's what I need today,
this day, I need to beprovided for. So I'm excited about
the future. Even with the crazinessof the business that we've been going through
in the last few years, I'mexcited about what the future still hold for
(26:22):
this business. Scores should be.Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So let
me ask my my favorite question isto you both, what does being brilliantly
black mean to you? No,you go first setting setting an example for
the young people that are coming comingup behind us, uh and being a
(26:45):
voice as as much of an advocatefor them as we come up. As
I sit here and look at iton the screen, sometimes sometimes you want
to strive for that excellence for thembecause I know, and I just I
just had this conversation. I dida presentation, and I had this conversation
that we're not seeing a lot ofexamples as we used to. My dad,
(27:08):
my dad was a phenomenal example.Perfect. Yeah, he was a
phenomenal my mom. They owned theirown business. So that's what we got
our Yeah, okay, okay,we got our drive from there. But
I saw I saw my dad goto work at ten thirty eight, ten
thirty at night. Yes, Isaw him get off of work at seven
(27:29):
am in the morning and go intohis business on Madison and Cicero, you
know, staying in the corner andsleep and sleep. Yeah. Stay yeah,
I didn't say late, stay asleep. But the man worked. The
man worked. And so the examplesthat we see out here. And you
know, I was even going intothe high school at one point just being
a mentor for some of the kids. And you know, if they don't
(27:52):
get that, there is no example. So being brilliantly, brilliantly as an
example, it's my gauge. Uh. And to know that we did.
We we have not overcame anything.We're still pushing to get to where we
need to get get to in thisthis this goal of ours. But it's
(28:15):
been the best of who we arewhile we're doing it, and be an
example for other people while we're doingit. We get as he he mentioned
our parents m H. I remembertalking to my dad. Hated that store
I did, and then I couldn'tstand it and it taughted me everything,
(28:37):
everything, And to watch my fathergive somebody ten dollars to go to work.
Hm. My mother saying that,and they bring it back to know
that they because of their excellence inthe community. And that's what brilliantly blacked
(28:59):
me. It means excellent. Yeah, we you don't have to go outside
of your community. We get sucha bad rap. There are no black
professionals. We are black professionals.Let us show you how it's done.
Son should Yes. So for meis putting, always, always, always
(29:30):
putting your first foot step forward,whatever you want to say, just to
make sure that the client's goals areaccomplished and not yourself. Don't look at
that commission on it. Yeah,look at what you can do for someone
(29:52):
else. It's coming back, Ican promise you. It swings back around,
It swings back around as always aboutmore than just you. Yes,
always, always, if we canget that, if we can get that
into people, that everything that wedo exceeds us because I promise you it's
(30:14):
like even the time Ron could spendor the time I spent with clients.
What happens is they might not beable to do it sell a house or
buy a house at that time,but they tell somebody else and guess what
I got business from that help absolutelyfor just putting them first. In the
long run, I put them firstin my effort of trying to help trying
(30:38):
to be that example of making sure. I had a lady called me yesterday.
I didn't even tell you this,and she was trying to find a
home and she started telling me aboutother people of how they I said,
I can't promise you anything, butI'm gonna do my best. That's all
I could do. And that's allI could tell her. I said,
you got a difficult situation. Yeah, I said, I can't promise you
(30:59):
I'm going to fix it, Isaid, but I'm going to do my
best to help you through the process. And that's all I could give her
at that time, because she didhave a difficult scenario, and so I'm
going to walk her through. Butpeople need and it's not only saying it,
it's putting forth the effort and doingit. Because there's a lot of
talk. Talk is cheating, yeah, talking and doing two different things exactly.
(31:22):
So we try to do what wesay through it all because we want
to see you success because once again, it might not come from you,
but I need I need you totell somebody what you've been through and see
what we can do because we helpedyou through, so that maybe we can
be promoted somewhere else to somebody else, he said. On the way down
(31:42):
here, he said, you alwaysget these crazy deals, same deal.
They're not crazy like that is justdifficult. It's challenging, and for me,
it's purpose. Those are the dealsthat were we are supposed to get
(32:04):
and it's been hitting us for twentyyears. I'm talking crazy, I'm talking
what just happened. We have thingsgoing on now, what just happened?
Yeah, but those are the dealsthat we are supposed to have. Because
another person in the business, professionalin the business may not handle it.
(32:27):
We handle it, so he saidit, and all I could do is
yeah, he right, yeah,yeah, but we get it done.
They always come through. That's theone thing about about her and her attorney
that she used, and we bothuse the same attorney, but it's it's
always they always get it done.I mean, I just I've just never
(32:49):
seen I told you my thing is, I've never seen this before. But
those are the deals that they gothrough and for whatever reason, things turn
around, something make it a leftturn or right turn at the right time,
and the deal gets done. Imean, it's just amazing how it
all pans out, and all ofthem really pans out in the end.
(33:10):
If you just hang in there andcontinue to do the work right, you
know, you have to continue todo the work. I have to agree
with you. The work is it'salways going to be there, and if
you don't commit to it, it'snot going to get done, and then
it's not going to last. Andyou guys have been here for over twenty
years, so you have been doingthe work. So I thank you guys
(33:30):
for that. Seriously, I feel, oh, stop it, like,
oh my god, age Okay.I think this has been one of my
favorite episodes of this podcast so far. For sure. It's like you both
have like a light like beaming fromyou, like I can feel it.
(33:51):
And I hope that whoever listens tothis that if you guys need some help
with finding a home, you talkto them Alliance Associates realtor. So please
drop your website, phone number,social media for more people to get some
information. We are at aarhomes dotcom is the website. Uh, you
could call me and I'll give mynumber two soon Smith at six three zero
(34:15):
nine seven three eight eight nine twoonce again six three zero nine seven three
eight eight nine two, or youcan call me you wanna call me Veronica
Smith at Alliance Associate Realtors in theWestchester office, and that's seven o eight
(34:35):
three four four one one five zero. Well, thank you guys so much.
This has been an amazing conversation.I appreciate you both. We appreciate
you having us down. We reallyappreciate this and that being brilliantly Black.
Yes overall, so we thank youfor thank us. Of course, so
nervous, but you made it socomfortable. Good good. I love to
(34:58):
hear that. Good. Thank youguys again. All right, thanks for
listening to The Brilliantly Black Podcast,produced by Jasmine Bennett and Ryan Linc.
Executive produced by Eco Robinson and DerekBrown. If you're a black business and
would like to be featured, registeryour business or service now at V one
o three dot com slash brilliant.The Brilliantly Black Podcast is a production of
(35:21):
iHeartMedia, Chicago,
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