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December 15, 2024 • 15 mins

How does a surprise call from a biological grandfather change the course of a young woman's life? On this episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast, I sit down with Madison Mason of Steel Forged Real Estate, whose real estate journey began with an unexpected offer in the world of personal investigation. Madison's story of adoption, self-discovery, and a leap of faith into real estate is both inspiring and resonant. From a young age, she showed the grit and determination that has since defined her career. Her move to Virginia Beach and her embrace of the real estate industry serve as a testament to her boldness and adaptability.

Join us as Madison shares her insights into the ever-evolving real estate market, particularly the challenges and opportunities that arose during the COVID-19 era. Madison also highlights her unique approach of leveraging social media to differentiate her company in a competitive landscape. As a leader of a 14-agent team, she speaks on the importance of mentorship and nurturing new talent, underscoring her commitment to community and growth. Don't miss Madison's take on becoming a TikTok sensation and how it has amplified her personal brand and business reach. This conversation is brimming with practical advice and inspiration for entrepreneurs and real estate enthusiasts alike.

Steel Forged Real Estate
Madison Mason
Virginia Beach, VA
www.madirosemason.com

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Denise Taylor.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to Good Neighbors Podcast, virginia
Beach.
Today I am here with MadisonMason, with Steel Forged Real
Estate here in Virginia Beach.
Welcome, madison, thank you.
Good to be here.
I'm excited to talk to you.
You are relatively a youngentrepreneur and when I met with

(00:33):
you over a year ago, you'rejust a force and it's so
exciting to see somebody who hasso much grit in our community.
Tell me, you have a reallygreat story.
Tell me how you started yourjourney into real estate.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
Oh well, yeah, I mean it's a relatively long story,
but I'll keep it concise.
Growing up, I was adopted atbirth and I grew up in
California, and it was an openadoption.
So I'd always known mybiological parents and had a
good relationship with them, butat the same time distant, you
know she was usually.

(01:09):
She was a military brat.
My biological mother, mybiological father, was between
Arkansas and Washington, so Ireally didn't see them very much
.
But for whatever reason, when Iwas 19 years old, I was living
on my own, I was working threejobs and going to college full
time and I got a call from mybiological dad's dad.

(01:33):
So my grandfather and heoffered me a business in
personal investigating.
He was ready to retire, he wasgoing to sell his business, but
instead of selling he decided,okay, well, maybe she wants to
take it over.
For whatever reason, I decidedto call my biological mother and
ask her her opinion, and it'sone of those things where I've

(01:53):
spoken to her once or twice ayear my birthday and Christmas,
you know.
So it was kind of calling outof the blue and she told me if
you're going to take over abusiness, you have to have 100%
of yourself invested.
So how about I fly you out hereto Virginia?
We talk about what you want, wego through all of your options

(02:16):
and then you decide Cool, freevacation, let's do it.
Yeah?
So two weeks later, she flew meout.
I fell in love with VirginiaBeach.
I fell in love with her company, which was real estate.
She was leading a team and Ijust fell in love with the idea

(02:38):
of doing what she did.
So I flew back home, put in mytwo weeks notice and started my
real estate courses right thenand there.
So that's how I started 10years ago, almost to the day.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
That's amazing.
A 19-year-old can make adecision like that and it's life
changing, Very impressive.
So in your current business,what do you see currently
happening in the market and howyou differentiate yourself from
other agents and brokerages inthe area?

Speaker 3 (03:10):
So as you know, the real estate market is nothing
but changing all the time,especially since the years of
COVID.
You know everything changedwhen that happened.
I remember 10 years ago where aclient of mine had $500 for
their name, could get a housefor less what they would do with

(03:31):
renting.
We're paying deposits andeverything.
They could get their closingcosts covered.
They get inspections covered.
Oh, if you need a privacy fence, I'll ask the seller to do that
To needing to bid $20,000,$30,000 above list price and
guaranteeing that amount.
So the only thing that staysthe same in real estate is
change.
And because me and my companyare so adaptive, because of how

(03:56):
young we are and how good we arewith social media and figuring
out what's next, what peopleneed, I think that's what really
sets us apart.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
Tell me about the agents in your office.
How many agents do you have?

Speaker 3 (04:13):
Yeah, we currently have 14 agents.
We range from being in thebusiness 10 years to be in the
business two weeks, and we whatI very much strongly, you know,
advocate for is mentorship.
So all of these agents havefound me through, whether it be

(04:34):
doing a deal with me and wantingto learn with me, through
following me on social media,and wanting to be like me or my
husband or past clients of oursthat want to get into the
business.
So these are people that wehandhold through the, through
the whole process of actuallygetting their license until
their fourth or fifth deal.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
You are a TikTok star .
Tell, tell me about how thatall came about.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
So it's so funny.
This was back during 2020 andwe were all cooped up in in our
homes and I was making fun ofone of my stepdaughters for
doing all these TikTok dancesand everything.
And she's like you know, you'dlove it, you would love it.
I don't think so.
It's a, it's a kid thing.
Blah, blah, blah.
But she finally convinced meand so I started doing TikToks

(05:27):
and I was more so doing it forpersonal, but then every once in
a while, I thought, okay, well,maybe I could do some real
estate content showing houses,blah, blah, blah.
I got in a network of otherTikTok real estate agents and
all of them started telling mewell, no, this gives me a lot of
clients.
You just need to actually payattention to real estate, not do

(05:49):
all your personal stuff onthere.
Stop doing these silly thingsthat the kids are doing and only
do real estate.
So I'm like, okay, well, I'lltry it.
I've got nothing better to do.
I'm eight months pregnant,might as well.
So I started doing TikTokconsistently with clients or
with real estate, and within twomonths, I started getting

(06:12):
clients.
And then it got reallyconsistent with getting clients.
And it's funny because allthese people are just like, oh,
you're not going to get muchbusiness from TikTok because
it's just the younger generation.
That wasn't true.
I got so many clients who arein their 50s and 60s selling
their homes that they've had foryears because they use TikTok

(06:33):
as a search engine, and that'show it worked out and I've been
getting consistent clients fromTikTok since.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
You also have had a little bit of TV stardom.
Can you share a little bitabout that?
And it's all related to realestate.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
Yeah, yeah, it's all real estate.
We did HGTV, we did HouseHunters and my husband even did
Beachfront Bargain Hunt.
We actually were speaking toproducers about getting our own
show at one point, uh, but itjust seemed like there was just
so much going on with our family.
I mean, we we have our twobabies as well as my two

(07:08):
stepdaughters, and it was just alittle too much to think about
adding that to our you knowwhole life.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
Plus a bit, plus a very busy brokerage.
Um, what was that experiencelike being on HGTV?

Speaker 3 (07:24):
Oh my gosh, it was so much fun.
It was exhausting.
I'll admit that.
We spent all day for three daysfilming, going through the same
house five different times, fordifferent angles, for different
commentary.
It was exhausting, so I oh mygosh, but it was so much fun, it
was a great experience.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
Did you end up buying one of the homes that were that
?

Speaker 3 (07:48):
So I'll, I'm going to admit something.
It's so staged it's not evenfunny.
They do, they don't, uh, theydon't film until after you've
closed.
So I did buy that house house.
Except it was bought before weeven searched the houses oh,
interesting, that's true.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
You've shared um quite a bit about your personal
life.
Can you tell me miss ormisconceptions in the real
estate world that you would wantbuyers and sellers to know?

Speaker 3 (08:27):
and sellers to know.
Honestly, I think the biggestissue when it comes to looking
into the industry from outsideis that there's this big fight
between both buyers and sellers,and the thing is, the goal is
the same on both ends you wantto reach the closing table,
happy.
It's so funny that I'll meetlisting agents that feel the
same way too, or buyers agentsthat kind of go in trying to

(08:49):
fight for something.
We're just like no, let's cometo an agreement, let's figure
this out, let's work as a teamtogether, and I think that's the
biggest thing that I would wantto give other people outside
and a little inside the industry.
We're all working towards thesame goal.
There's no reason to notcommunicate, to leave things out
, to lie about anything.
We want to get to the closingtable and we all want to be

(09:12):
happy.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
How important Is it for an agent to have negotiating
skills?

Speaker 3 (09:20):
Pretty important.
But also you've got to thinkabout it.
Just using the point that Ijust made, you catch more flies
with honey.
You know you want to be nicerrather than trying to strong arm
somebody, because people willlash out back out.
Do whatever they can to notgive you your way if you're
aggressive.
So there's a way to beassertive without being

(09:43):
aggressive, and having thatnegotiation and having that
knowledge of how to negotiatethat way is extremely important,
Can you?

Speaker 2 (09:50):
describe a hardship or life challenge that you would
want to share with ourlisteners, whether it be
business or family, or somethingspecific to help a new business
owner.

Speaker 3 (10:04):
To be honest, it's all about the balance and I mean
that's a cliche in itself butit's the biggest part.
I mean I struggled pretty hardto learn how to delegate.
Once I had both my babies andeven becoming a stepmom.
I mean, when my husband and Istarted dating I was 23 and he

(10:28):
had his two, who are now 10 andseven, but then were six months
and three and a half.
So it was really kind of aninteresting transition and
really difficult to be able tobalance both becoming a mom,
then becoming a new mom andtrying to grow my business, and

(10:49):
then my husband buys arestaurant and there's just
there's so much.
You need to learn where thatstress level, where your
baseline is, so that you canmaintain that.
Because I do thrive in chaosand I do love so many things
happening all at once.
I have ADHD.
It helps me, I'm sure, butyou've got to learn how to

(11:12):
maintain that balance, otherwiseyou are going to crash very
easily.
So the biggest thing was reallywhen I actually had my baby and
going through my last pregnancy, which was very painful,
learning that I really did havean amazing support team with all
of my agents who are stilllearning from me, who are

(11:32):
veterans, who understand thedelegation and needs.
So all those people reallystepped up and you just got to
trust that they're going to stepup.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
Absolutely.
One of the things that Iadmired about you when we did
first meet was that you had ahat.
You were pregnant with yoursecond and you had your baby on
hip and your calmness about youand really confidence in such a
young person was very impressive.
You're very knowledgeable.
You've got a great way of beingwith people.

(12:08):
You've embodied the whole.
You can do whatever you wantand be whatever you want and
have everything.
What's one thing you would wishour listeners knew about your
particular business wish ourlisteners knew about your
particular business.

Speaker 3 (12:24):
I want everybody to understand that we've created a
community within our brokerageand we've created such a
community that wants to helppeople, no matter their
situation.
I mean, we have people.
I have an agent that took on arenter because I don't have the
time for renters right now, butseveral of my agents do and they

(12:44):
were having such an awful timewhen it came to finding a place
because they had dogs that mostlandlords won't agree to, and
she worked so hard trying tofind a home for them because she
got them with a lender, she gotthem qualified, she helped them
figure out how to jumpobstacles.

(13:05):
She did so much work that mostagents would have turned away
from.
And that's the culture thatwe're creating right here in our
company and that's what I love.
I absolutely love that my agentswill bend over backwards to
make a situation work for eachand every one of their clients,

(13:27):
regardless of how much they make, where they came from, who they
are, it doesn't matter.
We want to help.
As many people know that goalscan be achieved even though
there's a bunch of hurdles totake over that goals can be
achieved even though there's abunch of hurdles to take over.

Speaker 2 (13:46):
That is fantastic.
I know under your leadership,you're going to have a great
team.
How can our listeners learn?
Well, first of all, I want toask one more thing what areas do
you service and do you haveaccess to?

Speaker 3 (14:03):
Okay, yeah, pretty much all of Hampton Roads as
well as Greater Hampton Road.
So I'll go up to Williamsburg,jamestown also, then Gloucester
and then out to Smithfield thatkind of area.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
Okay, perfect.
And then our listeners want tolearn more about your business.
Can you give us your website?

Speaker 3 (14:18):
Yeah, absolutely so.
We havesteelforgedrealestatecom, and
then my personal.
My personal website ismaddierosemasoncom, so
MadiRoseMason.

Speaker 2 (14:32):
And then, what is your TikTok?
Is it handle?

Speaker 3 (14:34):
Yeah, handle, that'd be Maddie Rose Mason I'm.
I'm the same in every singlesocial media platform.
So Instagram, youtube, tiktok,it's Madi Rose Mason
M-A-D-I-R-O-S-E-M-A-S-O-N.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
Thank you so much, maddie, for being here today and
supporting our community.
We appreciate you being here.
Thanks so much, thank you.

Speaker 1 (14:59):
Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor
Podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go to gnpvirginiabeach.
com.
That's gnpvirginiabeach.
com, or call 757-797-8852.
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