March 5, 2024 • 49 mins
Christie Snapp grew up in Bloomington Indiana, graduated from Purdue University, then traveled around Europe for a few weeks before settling in Indianapolis. She briefly worked for a small PR firm before getting her real estate license.
Christie co-founded the Indy Scene Team in 2011, winning rookie team of the year. They have since grown into a multimillion-dollar producing real estate team, and in 2023 re-branded the team to Golden Collective, affiliated with @properties.
To Contact Christie Snapp
Call or text 317-902-2989
Email--christie.snapp@gmail.com
https://www.atproperties.com/site/christiesnapp
Visit Our Podcast Page
https://www.podpage.com/indys-real-estate-gurus/
Contact Hard Working Mortgage Guys
https://hardworkingmortgageguy.com/
Rick Ripma NMLS# 664589
Call or Text 317-218-9800
Email--rripma@advisorsmortgage.com
Ian Arnold NMLS# 1995469
Call or Text 317-660-8788
Email--iarnold@advisorsmortgage.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ian Arnold (00:00):
Hey, Rick, we had Christie snap on today. And this
(00:03):
was her second time back. Imean, what was your big thing
out of talking to her this time?
You
Rick Ripma (00:10):
know, I just think she's such a phenomenal agent.
But she also just is such a niceperson. And I, you know, she
knows what she's doing. Youlisten to her, she has a plan.
She works her plan. She knowshow to take care of customers.
She knows exactly what to do.
She even sends handwrittennotes, which is a rarity in this
world today. I just think she'sone of those people. That's
(00:31):
she's she's a guru for a reason.
Because she's really good atwhat she does. And she goes
above and beyond Yeah,
Ian Arnold (00:37):
I think it was phenomenal. Listen to her
process, how she goes throughwith the buyer or even with the
seller, all of her steps. Andthen look, if you're looking at
buying or selling, you need tolisten to this, because she will
walk you through her process andhow it can benefit you
Rick Ripma (00:55):
welcomed into India's real estate gurus, your
ultimate guide to the dynamicworld of real estate in Indiana,
and I'm recruited by your hardworking mortgage guy and I've
been in real estate andmortgages for over 24 years.
Ian Arnold (01:07):
And I'm Ian Arnold, a loan officer on brakes hard
work in mortgage game. We'reboth with advisors mortgage
together will empower you withexpert advice market trends is
Bestival stories from Gururealtors and local experts.
Whether you're a homeowner,investor or pro, join us as we
navigate the thriving indie realestate market. Now get ready to
(01:28):
unlock the doors of success. Oneepisode at a time.
Rick Ripma (01:33):
Christie Snapp, you're back. I'm back. You're
back. Thanks so much for joiningus again. We appreciate it very
much. You were a fabulous guestlast time. So we're looking
we're looking really forward tothis. Now you I remember you
grew up in Indiana.
Christie Snapp (01:47):
Yeah. I grew up in Bloomington, Indiana. Okay,
where are you is. So then when Iwent to Purdue, a lot of people
got mad. But went to Purdue. Ijust had to get out of my
hometown. So I grew up inBloomington, went to Purdue
graduated and then moved to ndafter that,
Rick Ripma (02:02):
well, there's different degrees to write. I
mean, you go to Purdue for sure.
Different things that you go toyou for.
Christie Snapp (02:08):
Yeah, but I was a communications degree. So I
could have gotten either.
Rick Ripma (02:13):
Don't tell people that. So then, so your
communications degree. So if youdid you did something in
communication, which actuallyhas helped you out in real
estate too.
Christie Snapp (02:23):
Yes. So communications and PR degree. As
soon as I graduated, I workedfor a very short period of time
for a small family run PR firmhere in town. This was back in
Oh, eight. So economy wasn'tgreat. I got laid off pretty
quickly. And then was introducedto a real estate investor here
locally. And I did some leadgeneration office management,
(02:45):
like just a little thing withhim, and then got my real estate
license while I was working forthe investor and decided I need
to go off and be my own boss.
Rick Ripma (02:54):
So So you've been a real estate agent for around 13
years. Yes,
Christie Snapp (02:58):
I got my license in 2011. Okay, so in 2008,
Rick Ripma (03:02):
you actually started in real estate just done a
little bit different, right?
Christie Snapp (03:05):
Exactly. Yeah, just I am. To back up a little
bit. My dad has always ownedreal estate, real estate, like
rental properties and things. SoI kind of grew up around it a
little bit. But never thought Iwould really like dive full
force into into the real estateindustry. And then when I was
introduced to the local realestate investor, got a little
(03:26):
taste of it, and then decided toget my license. And
Rick Ripma (03:31):
then so you got your license 13 years ago. So you've
done a long time. So what whatdo you like best about real
estate? What's your favoritepart of the job?
Christie Snapp (03:40):
Honestly, it sounds cheesy, but just helping
people, every time I get kind ofget a little burned out, I get a
win for a client and it like rere ignites me, you know, and
with the passion of being inreal estate just to helping
people getting their first homeor just upsizing or downsizing
or whatever it is. And also evenjust helping them through the
(04:02):
process with like, hooking themup with other vendors and things
like that. Just being kind of anadvocate and a guide for all my
clients. It's really fun. Yeah,
Rick Ripma (04:12):
that's awesome. So in that time, not only have you
been in the business for 13years. Now you also have a
fairly big team, right? Yes.
Christie Snapp (04:20):
So my business partner and I have been together
for about 12 years. So I've beenwith her for a long time. And
we've had team members come andgo Currently, we have four team
members that work with us. Sothere's a total of six of us
right now.
Rick Ripma (04:35):
And your team is
Christie Snapp (04:36):
called the Golden collective. Yes.
Rick Ripma (04:39):
Where'd that come from?
Christie Snapp (04:40):
So for the longest time, we our team name
was the MDC team. And a coupleyears ago, we were kind of
thinking about rebranding alittle bit getting a new logo
done, and I just randomly poppedinto my head if we're gonna
rebrand why don't we justcompletely change the name. I
felt like the old name was justa little stale. Y'all and I
(05:00):
wanted like a refresh. So wejust kind of brainstormed names
for a while my business partneractually was watching TV and the
Golden Girls was on and shewanted to like play off of that
a little bit. And then I don'tknow, I didn't want to be team
or group. I just wantedsomething a little bit classier
(05:21):
feeling, I guess. So collectivewas what we went with. So golden
collective was born. And now weget to play off that name. And
we call ourselves the GoldenGirls. And okay, that's fine.
Yeah.
Rick Ripma (05:33):
Your and your team is made up of all women.
Christie Snapp (05:36):
Yes, we're all women team. But intentional. A
little bit. Yeah, it kind ofhappened that way from the
beginning. And we just kind ofkept it going. And the energy's
like, nice. And yeah, yeah.
Women power. Yeah.
Rick Ripma (05:50):
I mean, I think I think everybody has to whatever,
you know, because you have tohave that camaraderie. And you
have to have that, that mesh,you have to get along with
everything else. So who's onyour team, you're probably
fairly picky who you bring onyour team?
Christie Snapp (06:05):
Yeah, we, you know, we were never ever seeking
out people, we are always opento talking and seeing if it's a
good fit, but we really wantsomeone who's hungry, good work
ethic. We are there to guidethem and help them through
anything they need. But it inreal estate, you're you're still
your own boss, even if you're ona team, and you got to have that
(06:26):
hunger and drive. So that's whatwe're looking for usually. And
also someone who's just a goodtime, and not no drama. And
because we do, hey, as a team,as all women, we do hang out a
lot outside of work and at workevents. Oops, sorry. And so
yeah, that's important.
Ian Arnold (06:43):
So Rick, your next job cannot be there. I'm sorry.
Sorry.
Christie Snapp (06:48):
I don't know if we're breaking any laws.
Rick Ripma (06:52):
To say it, but I don't think I'd fit in. I just
guess I wouldn't fit in.
Christie Snapp (06:58):
I'm sure you would. I will welcome you and
probably
Rick Ripma (07:02):
be the tallest one in the group
Christie Snapp (07:03):
100%.
Rick Ripma (07:07):
So that wouldn't, that wouldn't be all good. So So
you've been in the business along time. You you love your
job, which is it's veryinteresting to me how many
agents get into the businesskind of somewhat by mistake,
maybe? Yeah, but then they fallin love with the business.
Christie Snapp (07:24):
It is it's an amazing business. I mean, what's
better, first of all, thanworking for yourself, you do
have to have, you know, somemotivation and drive there. But
every time I think about anyalternative, you know, working a
desk job or a nine to five Ican't imagine so that also
drives me because I have tosucceed in this. I can't imagine
(07:44):
doing anything else. So even ifthere's a little bit of a
burnout, it's it's very easy toget back it get off the burnout
and in back into,
Rick Ripma (07:54):
well, how about your family? You have a husband and I
Christie Snapp (07:57):
yep, I have a husband. I have one boy, he's
eight and he is in second grade.
And yeah, he's chill like me.
And he likes video games. Hewants to be a YouTuber. So
Rick Ripma (08:08):
yeah, so you can get him working for you. Right? I
Christie Snapp (08:11):
know. I said, Let's get your channel started.
Do Yeah, well, he
Rick Ripma (08:15):
help you get your you know, get your I know
running better.
Ian Arnold (08:18):
I think it's everybody. I have a nine year
old. Okay, same way. I askedwhat do you wanna do for as
you're thinking longer on?
Probably play video games. Iknow. And I'm like, alright,
well, we got to think a little alittle more as a parent. You're
thinking that but then you watchall these guys how much money
they're making? Hey, hi. No,maybe you can? Job. It's crazy.
Yeah.
Rick Ripma (08:39):
My youngest son went to Carmel High School. He had a
really good friend who went tocollege. At college. He met some
guys they started a atournament. They ended up video
games. Yes. Yeah. And ended upselling that guy ended up with
(08:59):
like, a 22 years old. $30million. No. Yes.
Christie Snapp (09:03):
What do you want to know what video game? I do
not. I'm so curious. And
Rick Ripma (09:07):
then he and now he just puts on tournaments all
over the you know, just my gosh,yeah. Yeah, that's what you
think as you tell your kids? No,no, no, but, you know,
Christie Snapp (09:17):
it could turn into a real lucrative thing.
Yeah.
Ian Arnold (09:19):
I mean, my dad was computer programmer, but you got
to think about when he was incollege. Computers are not the
biggest thing. Right. And somepeople even debated whether they
would take off. Well, guesswhat? He never had an issue
getting a job.
Christie Snapp (09:32):
Yeah, exactly.
It's it's weird to think aboutwhat like in 1020 years what's
going to be a job that's not ajob now. It's so yeah, right.
It's crazy to think about.
Rick Ripma (09:43):
Yeah, think AI is gonna change. Yes, AI is
Christie Snapp (09:47):
crazy. We've dabbled in chat GBT and stuff a
little bit but I'm still have alot to learn.
Rick Ripma (09:53):
Have you found it yet to be helpful for your
business? Yeah,
Christie Snapp (09:57):
it's helpful.
You know, we we I typically, inmy at my team, I'm like the
creative ones who I always writeall of the property descriptions
and hold within marketing. Sousing that, a little bit
definitely helps. It's that itmakes things faster. I do like
to still have my hand in it andlike edit whatever is popping
out, you know, but it ishelpful.
Rick Ripma (10:20):
It's makes things a home safe. Yeah,
Christie Snapp (10:23):
yeah. And I learned this the other day from
somebody, you can tell chat GPTto sort of summarize an article
or a, or a blog post orsomething in a way that like is
concise that you can then reposton Facebook or whatever. So like
consumers, instead of like justposting the link to the article,
(10:44):
like it kind of gives a littlesynopsis. Yeah, so people can
kind of digest it a littlebetter. Yeah,
Rick Ripma (10:49):
it's all in your props. Yeah, it's all in how you
write those prompts. I don'tknow if you've know this.
There's something called propperfect. If you if you get on.
It's right now it's currentlyone of their plugins, but the
plugins are going away. Okay,the middle of this month, so you
can get there. And then you canI think I'm a member of that,
you know, I pay him a littlebit. It's not very much. But
(11:11):
before your prompt, you putperfect and I put a period and
then I write my prompt. And thenit goes and fixes the prop.
Christie Snapp (11:17):
Oh, to be better for shut. Okay. Yeah. Is it a
separate app? Or it's part ofchess? It's
Rick Ripma (11:24):
a separate company, but it's through, you know, how
GPT has the plugins.
Christie Snapp (11:29):
Okay. Yeah, but I don't I haven't played with
those. Oh, my gosh, I have notexplored the plugins. No, it's,
it's
Rick Ripma (11:38):
fun. They have some phenomenal plugins, but But
anyway, that's there are somethings you can do with GPT. Like
that. And and, and that one willhelp you write the accurate, you
know, the best prop, I actuallyhave taken a course on how to
write prompts. Because, yeah,it's so valuable. You have to
write them, right.
Christie Snapp (11:58):
I know what you want. There's a lot of people on
Instagram that post tips for thebest prompts for real estate, or
there's a bunch of people on onthere also kind of training, and
Rick Ripma (12:10):
everybody's selling the some art day, they're all
selling us how to how to do howto use digital products. You
know what else you can do? Youcan ask prop GPT exactly what
you should write and say I wantthis is what the outcome I want.
What's my best way to write aprop? It will tell you how to
write it. Yeah,
Christie Snapp (12:27):
it's crazy. It's crazy. Yeah.
Rick Ripma (12:30):
But you're right, you have to check everything.
Christie Snapp (12:32):
I know. Yeah, you need it. You don't want it
to sound too. Overly AI. Youknow, you want it to sound human
and like it came from
Rick Ripma (12:39):
you. Plus, it also changes. It gives you some
information. That's not always100% accurate. Yeah. And it's
weird, because it's just amachine. You know, we kind of
give it like it's intelligent.
It isn't intelligent. It justgoes in.
Christie Snapp (12:53):
Yeah. Yeah, you know? Yep. So I
Rick Ripma (12:57):
guess it is kind of human. Yeah. Well, there's that.
Yeah, yeah. So. So you're usingGPT. And I see you on social
media all the time. So like,what do you what's your
objective and social media? Whatdo you what are you trying to
accomplish?
Christie Snapp (13:17):
Well, I think of and use social media, it's a
free advertising and marketingplatform. So why would you not
use it. More recently, I've beentrying to really educate on it
in a way that like, alsocaptures the audience and makes
them want to follow me and allthat stuff. So that's I just
sort of use it as like a way tobrand myself to personal
(13:41):
branding. And we have up Forceteam pages as well that we use
it for. So just educating peopleand hopefully they see the value
that we provide and want toreach out when they're ready to
buy and sell.
Ian Arnold (13:53):
So what what social media sites do you use the most
Christie Snapp (13:58):
Instagram is my go to. We are on Facebook as
well. But I sort of fell offwith that a little bit and
should probably spend some timeover there too. But Instagram
makes it easy. They just pusheverything that we're posting
over there onto our Facebookpages. So that makes it easy.
I'm starting to dabble with tictoc as well. So I'm starting to
(14:22):
post more on there. But if if Iwould say if you could find like
one or two to focus on and getreally good at is because
otherwise it's just toooverwhelming. There's just too
much too many to focus on. Soyeah.
Ian Arnold (14:36):
And do you just post real estate stuff? Or do you
post other things
Christie Snapp (14:41):
I try and mix it up. You know people want to see
your personality and see youknow what you're doing outside
of work so they can kind ofrelate to you and see if they
can actually look at your socialmedia and see okay, I could vibe
with that. I could like sheknows what she's doing but she's
also like fun I could hang outwith her for you know You spend
a lot of time with your clientsup until closing. So it allows
(15:04):
people to, you know, relate toyou and see if it's a good fit
potentially.
Rick Ripma (15:09):
Yeah, no, I hear you had a really you had one post
that you had a he went viral?
Yeah.
Christie Snapp (15:16):
So it's really funny because I posted and it
had nothing to do with realestate of course, my son went to
a birthday party. And it was ata gym like a jet with gymnast
gym, and I was a gymnast in highschool. So I did a little move
on the bar and I the the captionwas something like, you know,
(15:37):
when your kid has a birthdayparty at a gym, and you were a
gymnast 20 years ago, you haveto give it a try again and
remind yourself how old you are.
So so many past gymnast that areout there that I had no idea
related to that. And it has Ithink at this moment has 9.6
million views. Which is insane.
(15:59):
So that yeah, that that realwent a little
Rick Ripma (16:02):
crazy. I wonder if there's something to that maybe
we shouldn't be posting allabout work all the time. We
Yeah, some of this other stuff.
People
Christie Snapp (16:07):
want to like see like your personality a little
bit. See who you are. That's howyou connect with people. So
Ian Arnold (16:13):
I gotta ask, have you decided to get back out
there and do one more video likethat? I
Christie Snapp (16:17):
should. I can't think of anything else. Like I
could do some more gymnastics, Iguess. But yeah, I definitely
need to mix it up.
Ian Arnold (16:26):
And just so you know, I see those the fail ones
workout too. So if you fall justhave your son post.
Christie Snapp (16:32):
Yeah, exactly.
Oh my gosh. Yeah. Those are themost funny.
Rick Ripma (16:36):
Yeah, I don't think you have to tell her son to
probably not everybody in thatgym. But yes,
Christie Snapp (16:42):
yeah, I wouldn't. I probably wouldn't
push myself too far, because Iwould really hurt myself. 20
years ago, was a long time whenI was doing gymnastics.
Rick Ripma (16:52):
So it's amazing. How much you could do back then. And
I know.
Christie Snapp (16:56):
Yeah, that's what's ever on the reel. All the
comments are like, Oh my god, metoo. I tried that when my kid
was at the gym and like I likealmost broke my head, you know?
Yeah, that's funny.
Rick Ripma (17:08):
So if somebody wants to get a hold of you, because
they want to see this this gymthis video, what's the best way
or they maybe they want somereal estate help?
Christie Snapp (17:18):
Yeah, so my instagram handle is at snap
sells real estate. Snap is mylast name with two Ps. Or my
phone number 317-902-2989. Itcan always call or text me
there. Or emailchristy.snap@gmail.com Okay, now
Rick Ripma (17:36):
it always says I'm getting old now. I can't
remember that phone number. Whatwas that?
Christie Snapp (17:40):
317-902-2989
Rick Ripma (17:44):
it's about surprised I can't remember. I have trouble
remembering my own phone though.
Yeah, I blanked
Christie Snapp (17:49):
the other day, someone needed my husband's
phone number. And I startedrambling it off. And then the
last four digits. I was like,wait a minute, pull out my
phone. Yeah, it's so bad.
Rick Ripma (17:58):
We don't call anybody we just hit a binary. So
it's yeah,
Christie Snapp (18:02):
that's my memory saving. My brain is used for
other things.
Rick Ripma (18:05):
I use my memory my phone not in my head. Yeah, we
got too much other and to get ahold of you and I got a
HardWorkingMortgageGuys.comThat's
HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com Oryou give us a call at
317-672-1938. That's 31767 to1938. All right.
Ian Arnold (18:21):
So before we get into a lot more questions, let's
have a fun question. So,Indiana, we have tons of
restaurants. What's yourfavorite restaurant go yet?
Christie Snapp (18:32):
Okay, I have a very favorite lunch spot. It's
in Broad Ripple Northsidekitchenette, that's around the
corner from my office, my teamand I go there all the time. So
that's my absolute favoritelunch spot. But I have another
sort of hidden gem if you like.
Vietnamese food at all, likebond me sandwiches and a bunch
(18:53):
of other things. Chow. It'sVietnamese street food and it's
on 96th Street in a strip mall.
Like 96 in in Bedford or 69across the street from the
Meijer up there. There's alittle place called Chow So
shout out to them they havedelicious food
Ian Arnold (19:15):
the food and Bravo what what is it?
Christie Snapp (19:18):
Oh the the kitchenette? Yeah, it's like
soup sandwich salad. Breakfastburritos. It's like a
traditional like lunch littlelunch thought so and that
breakfast all day as well. So
Ian Arnold (19:32):
so if you're not your office, you're there Yes.
Christie Snapp (19:35):
Yeah, you can find me there most of the time.
Rick Ripma (19:38):
Broad Ripple has it's just such a quaint little
town there's there's a lot ofYeah, well place. Yeah, to go.
Yep.
Christie Snapp (19:43):
There's a lot.
There's some construction goingon right now. So I know a lot of
the businesses are hurting therewith all this construction like
blocking streets and stuff soyou can make it too Broad
Ripple. Go eat somewhere there.
Ian Arnold (19:56):
My dad went. So my parents live in Broad Ripple.
They do So he was researchingand he was like, and then he was
telling me about the history ofbroad report is very
interesting. How it used to belike a big carnival area. Yeah.
And like if you go to Robertpark you can see where the stone
to hold the merry go round andall this other stuff. It's still
(20:19):
there. Yeah, people just don'tunderstand what it used to be.
Yeah,
Christie Snapp (20:22):
the park there hosted. Yeah, the big carnival
there. If you Google it, thepictures are crazy. Like old
school carnival style. And
Rick Ripma (20:31):
it's still a carnival.
Ian Arnold (20:33):
Yes, yeah, it would traffic. Yes, it is. Alright, so
let's get into how you actuallydo business. So let's say little
Timmy comes to you. And he'slooking to buy a home. What is
your process after he's alreadybeen pre approved? The Rick and
I, you know, their approval isgold. Yeah. So what's your
(20:54):
process on showing houses andstuff.
Christie Snapp (20:56):
So I like to first of all, have just a
consult with the buyer, whetherthat's we meet up or on the
phone or a zoom, whatever theclient wants, who's comfortable
with and wants to do, I like tojust have a conversation, get to
know them, and really what theirgoals are getting to know what
their situation is currently andwhere they're trying to go. And
(21:17):
then of course, the details ofwhat are you looking for in a
home, your must have list ordeal breaker list. And then once
we have all that kind of naileddown, I help them search for
that home. Of course,everything's online these days,
we get our auto search, set upwith the MLS, and then I'm on
the MLS every single day, seeingwhat what new is coming up, that
(21:39):
might be interesting to theclient. And then in this day,
you have to move fast. So it'sreally just a text me as soon as
something pops up that you wantto see or I will text them like,
hey, we need to go see this. Andthen we try and get them in for
a showing as soon as possible toget their foot in the door
before all the other buyers outthere are going to see it so and
(22:01):
then we just go from there.
Rick Ripma (22:02):
So when somebody is interested, and especially in
this market, because they'reselling so fast, and you're
always on the on this systemlooking at I never remember what
it's called I MLS still it's
Christie Snapp (22:16):
well, it's MLS ours is the BLC Yeah,
Rick Ripma (22:19):
PLC. Yeah, that's our local Yeah. VLC. So, but,
and you see something, you havean idea of what they want. So
you send it to them, as they golook at houses, does what they
want change many times? Or isit?
Christie Snapp (22:34):
Um, sometimes I would say the core of what they
want is the same, but sometimesit'll be like, they'll be
willing to give on somethingthat they thought that they had
to have. So that sometimeshappens and and with the lower
inventory that we see a lot oftimes that's necessary. So you
(22:56):
know, and every situation isdifferent. I asked the questions
what how long are you stayinghere? What's your goal with this
house? Is this like a starterhome? Or is this your forever
home? Because that can changeyour decisions, too, right? So
if you can give a little onsomething, if it's just sort of
a starter home, hey, you're notgoing to be here forever, like
maybe compromise on some things.
So sometimes that is needed. And
Ian Arnold (23:20):
so it's just like the TV show three houses and
sell that one,
Christie Snapp (23:24):
right? Yes, exactly. The Cape Cod, the
ranch, the mansion, which one doyou want?
Ian Arnold (23:30):
The reason I mentioned that, especially like
first time homebuyers, they maynot understand that you might
look at 10 or 12 homes beforeyou even find ones that you
actually do. Like,
Christie Snapp (23:40):
yeah, yeah. It's funny because sometimes the
opposite happens. And they fallin love with like the first one
or two and they don't want tomove on it because they feel
like they need to see a bunchbefore they can make a decision.
And sometimes that's the caselike if they really are not 100%
Sure, we'll go see a few morefirst to really make make sure
(24:03):
it's what they want. But in thismarket, if you do that, that
first show most likely is notgoing to be available in a week
or two. So yeah, sometimes theopposite happens but it's
there's no like right or wronganswer as to how many houses you
have to see as a buyer, but thatis a good that's a question a
lot of buyers ask, like, what'sthe what's the average amount
(24:24):
like how many houses should webe looking at? So I don't really
know what the average is rightnow. With the inventory lower?
Yeah, with the inventory. I betit is lower. So I think
Rick Ripma (24:36):
I think you have to listen to your gut. You know, if
you I would have trouble makingan offer on the very first house
I walked in Yeah. But you know,if you've done your it's
different today than it used tobe because I can do a ton of
research and, and pretty muchknow what I want before I ever
go out so I could walk into thefirst house and go yeah, this is
(24:58):
exactly what I want. Hmm, yeah.
My son just he's in Chicago, hejust bought a house in Chicago
and bought the first house. Theylooked at their second house.
But, you know, they just theyknew what they wanted. They knew
where they wanted to be. And itwas the perfect house for them.
Christie Snapp (25:13):
Yeah, yeah, you do have to listen to your gut.
And just, it's a feelingsometimes. So just listen to
that don't like get discouraged.
If you think like, oh, I can't,I can't make an offer on this,
we will only see one, you know,
Rick Ripma (25:26):
what, what's the market like? It is, you know, we
keep hearing the the news mediaout there telling us, you know,
the doom and gloom ofeverything, when we're all
seeing something completelydifferent. What are you seeing,
and we know they're sellingfast? What are you seeing in
price? Are we seeing increasesdecreases? What are we seeing?
Yeah,
Christie Snapp (25:45):
there's they're still steadily increasing
through COVID, when interestrates were below 3%. The rate at
which homes were likeappreciating was crazy, you
know, over 10%, year over year.
And now I think it's like evenedout a little bit. It's still
high, though. And at the end ofthe day, the longer you hold on
to a piece of property, it'sgoing to it's going to grow in
(26:07):
equity in value. So we'recurrently right now in our
market, the prices are steadyand still rising. And it's
funny, I talked to people whomoved here from out of town, and
the prices here compared toother bigger cities are, like,
way lower, so you can get way oryour money goes way farther here
(26:28):
in Indiana, I would say. So it'sa perspective thing.
Ian Arnold (26:34):
You know, yeah, that was one thing we saw a lot of,
especially during COVID. Andwhen people could work remote,
yeah. They're like, Oh, wait, Ican work from home. Let me move
closer to mom and dad. Exactly.
Because we got kids now. I mean,you saw people move from
California, or New York oranywhere. And they were like,
wait, I can buy this. I know.
Wait, hold on. What's the catch?
Yeah, like there is no catch.
(26:57):
Right. So
Christie Snapp (26:58):
while prices are on the higher side, and they're
rising, you know, year overyear, comparatively, the prices
are still really good here inour local market. And my
opinion, yeah.
Rick Ripma (27:10):
When you talk to anybody out of state, you you've
kind of run into that rare? Doessomebody come in and go, you
guys are a lot more expensivethan we are? Exactly. We're not.
So what's your golden rule? Whenit comes to negotiating? Do you
have a golden rule for that?
Christie Snapp (27:26):
I do. And it's really simple. And it's just to
be a nice person. Honestly,you're you want to cooperate
with the other agent, you're nottrying to win. So being a nice
person I have found and justbeing cooperative, gets me more.
When I asked for something, youknow what I mean? So that's my
(27:46):
internal sort of golden rule.
Just be helpful, be cooperative.
And when when you have to give alittle to get but if you're nice
about it, they're going, they'regoing to give as well. So that's
what I found. That
Rick Ripma (28:01):
goes for everything in life. Yeah, right, isn't it?
Yes. If you, you know, you canget on the phone, and you can
yell and scream and holler. Andsome people think that's what
gets them everything they need.
But I know for me, if somebodydoes that with me, it's just
like, I shut down. Yeah, I'mdone. I'm not I don't, I'm not
going to worry about what yousay. Because there's Yeah, I
Christie Snapp (28:20):
can do. Yeah, you just put a wall up. So you
can be like, you can be a strongnegotiator. Yes. Without being
like, mean and aggressive. Youknow, so, and that's just my
style. I'm, I'm laid back, butI'm going to get it done for my
clients. Right. At the sametime, you know,
Ian Arnold (28:37):
I mean, which is smart. Because, I mean, if
you're, let's say bullish at thestart, I mean, you're we dealing
with the same people roughly for30 days. Yeah. So I mean, you're
gonna you're people are gonnaget angry at each other then
and, but if you're kind, niceand respectful, things move a
lot smoother. Yeah, well, youwere saying exactly.
Christie Snapp (28:59):
And that starts honestly before the negotiation
even starts because if I have aclient looking at a house and I
need some information, I'm likereaching out to the listing
agent. And I'm asking them forthings like so my clients can
make a decision so you gottalike start that from the
beginning and on the flip side,if I have a listing and a
(29:20):
buyer's agents asking me forinformation I'm like on top of
it I'm like yes here because Iwant to make friends with this
agent. I want to make a deal. Sojust being again helpful and
cooperative and nice from thestart. It's the deal is gonna go
so much smoother for you andyour clients.
Ian Arnold (29:36):
So you mentioned being on the listing side so
let's talk about that say littleTimmy has his home now he's
wanting to
Rick Ripma (29:44):
upgrade and he gets a right now
Christie Snapp (29:46):
he does Timmy.
Ian Arnold (29:48):
Hey, you want him as a client? I'm telling you this.
Rick Ripma (29:52):
It's about how he names his kids, I guess. Yeah.
Tell me. No.
Christie Snapp (29:58):
Anyway, wants to say
Ian Arnold (30:00):
But everybody likes Little Timmy. Alright, so Timmy
wants to sell his home. So whatdo you do? I mean, how do you go
about listing it? And how do yougo about? Do you stage out all
that stuff. So go into how youdo your process.
Christie Snapp (30:14):
So same as with buyers, I start with an initial
consultation, and there's alittle bit more prep that is
needed for a listingconsultation than a buyer. So I
go in with so when I say go in,I schedule a time to go meet
with the seller at their home,so I can get my eyes on their
(30:35):
house and see what the currentcondition is. And then we have
that whole conversation likewhat are your goals? What what,
what is the current situationthat is needing to happen, and
then we prep with the comps wedo a deep dive into the
neighborhood, what what thesales are right now in the
neighborhood. We go through ourour seller Guide, which is very
(30:57):
detailed what needs to happenfrom step one to closing. So we
outline that for the client asfar as prepping it for sale,
which I think is very important.
And some people kind of rush alot. And it depends on what the
current situation of the houseis. Sometimes we walk in and
it's ready for pictures already.
(31:18):
Sometimes it needs a lot ofdecluttering. And they need help
a little bit with staging. Ifit's vacant, we pay for Virtual
Staging, which I think is hashelped us a lot with because
everything's online, marketingonline and social media and all
that stuff. So the picturesbeing virtually staged, is
(31:39):
helpful.
Ian Arnold (31:40):
So let me ask that.
So virtual just so somebody'slistening, Virtual Staging is
technically they're not puttinganything in there, right?
Christie Snapp (31:47):
Correct.
Correct. So you can either payfor a stager to physically move
stuff into the home. And this,of course, is if the home is is
vacant, or Virtual Staging youget we get professional photos
done. And then we send it into acompany that puts virtually puts
furniture and stages at to looklike a model home pretty much so
(32:07):
and then they send thosepictures back. So then we can
use those pictures in ourmarketing without having to have
physical stuff moved in and thenmoved back out. So it saves a
lot of time, it is lessexpensive, and it's still and it
looks just as good. Obviously,we disclose, Hey, these are
virtually staged, so peoplearen't surprised when they walk
(32:29):
into a vacant home. And we liketo print the pictures and have
the virtual staged pictures inthe home makes sense. So as
people are walking through, it'svacant, but they can still see
the picture. They're like, Oh,this is what it might look like
once we get furniture in here.
So that's one thing that that wedo is the Virtual Staging. We do
(32:53):
open houses for every home ifthe client allows us to. And
with that, we always invite allthe neighbors, the closest by
neighbors, we actually handleover a folder with an
invitation. Information aboutthe listing, hey, please come
walk through it. If you knowanyone who wants to be in this
neighborhood, please share itwith them. So just as as much
(33:15):
exposure as we can get for thehome. Right? So you always do an
open house. Yeah, that's thegist of so
Ian Arnold (33:24):
let me ask this because we're used to, really,
Rick and I came from the carindustry. So everybody when they
trade their car in, it thinkstheir car's worth $100,000. And
it's worth 2k. Yeah, let's behonest. So do you have to combat
that? Do people just think thesame way for homes or
Christie Snapp (33:43):
sometimes it depends on the situation in the
house and the buyer or theseller, but we do a deep dive
into the sales in thatneighborhood or nearby. Or if we
can't find anything that's closeby we will like go out a little
bit farther that from the radiusof the home. And we just see try
(34:03):
and find similar homes assimilar as possible homes and
see what they sold for. And thenwe look at that price and
compare, okay, they got thisprice, but they had an extra
bedroom. So we need to adjustthe price a little bit. So we
really look at it like throughan appraisers eyes a little bit.
I don't know exactly how theappraisers value things per se,
(34:25):
but I have a good general idea.
So I look at it throughappraisers eyes when I'm looking
at comparable sales and I canreally do a deep dive with the
client and so they can see and Ishow them the pictures of that
sale down the road. So they cansee visually like what their
home is compared to the othersales. So when when you do that
you are justifying the pricethat you're suggesting. So a lot
(34:50):
of times the seller understandsand agrees with the prices we're
giving them
Rick Ripma (34:57):
because pricing is in credibly important. Yeah, you
can price it too low, or you canprice it too high. Yeah, both
those things are bad. Exactly.
Christie Snapp (35:07):
Yeah, we try and price it right on the nose as
far as market value as best wecan. I never want to price it
too high. Sometimes if you priceit slightly under the house down
the street, then you canencourage, you know, multiple
offers and a bidding war, whichwe are starting to see again, by
(35:27):
the way. Yeah, good. Yeah, Ijust my
Rick Ripma (35:32):
for sellers, not good for sellers.
Christie Snapp (35:34):
I actually just got a house for a buyer this
past weekend and multiple offersituations. So yeah, they the
multiple offers were comingback. I'm haven't seen. It's not
been as aggressive as, like acouple years ago. So I'm not yet
seeing like crazy over asking.
But you are going to probablyhave to pay over asking.
Ian Arnold (35:57):
And that's okay, to a point. But my whole thing was
the waiving of inspections.
Christie Snapp (36:03):
I know. That's hard to compete with. But I
never let my clients waiveinspections.
Ian Arnold (36:09):
All right. So Rick, and I say this all the time. But
let's get your point. Why wouldyou never let somebody waive it?
Well,
Christie Snapp (36:16):
because you can, you can offer certain things
that make the seller feelbetter, while still protecting
your client. A lot of timeswe'll do either an as is offer,
which that scares some buyers.
But when you really look at theas is addendum how it's written,
it really protects the buyer. Sothey can still get all the
(36:39):
inspections done, they want anddo their due diligence. But the
as is addendum basically justsays, Hey, we're not going to
ask the seller for any repairs,we just want to get inspections
done to make sure there's nomajor issues. And just for our
own knowledge, we want to knowthe condition of the house
before we buy it. And you canwalk, the buyer can walk away
(37:00):
within that due diligencetimeframe, for any reason. So
the way there as his addendum iswritten, they can walk away,
because they changed their mindor for a leaky faucet or
whatever. If you don't have thataddendum, you have to give the
seller a chance to make repairs.
So if something major comes up,and your client is like, Hold
(37:24):
on, I don't want this house andget cold feet. Well, too bad,
you still have to give theseller a chance to repair the
items that come up on theinspection. So there's different
there's different ways to do itwithout waiving your inspection
that can still win you the offerwith the sellers.
Rick Ripma (37:41):
Yeah, because you never know. I've had people who
have told me Hey, Rick is goingto be fine. We're gonna have an
inspection. But this house is sobeautiful. There's no way
there's anything wrong. Exactly.
And then the inspection comesback. And they're like, We gotta
get out of this. This is there'smajor issues with the house that
were hidden. So you always hadmy opinion. That's why you have
to make sure you do that. Yeah,
Christie Snapp (38:01):
you want to get them no matter what. Yeah. And
you want, yeah, they're not ifthey if someone doesn't want to
do an as is like, let's say abuyer, they do want the chance
to negotiate inspection itemswith the seller. They we can
write stuff in like, I call theminspection limitations. So hey,
we're gonna get an inspectiondone. But we're not going to
(38:23):
nitpick you on all the little,like, Bs items, we just want to
see if there's anything major,and be able to negotiate on
those major issues. So I'll puta cap on the dollar amount for
the inspection items that myclients will negotiate. So then
the seller reads that andthinks, Okay, like, I'm most
(38:43):
likely not going to have to dealwith inspection items unless
something major comes up. Sothere's, like I said, multiple
ways to kind of negotiate
Rick Ripma (38:51):
that. And when you said cap, you mean low cap, so
we aren't going to anythingunder whatever dollar amount
we're not going to ask for. Butover that.
Ian Arnold (39:00):
Yes, exactly. And which I think it's, it's smart,
because we do a lot of firsttime homebuyers. And I was one
of them as everybody else was.
And you know, if you don't knowthe market or know what to do,
you just don't understand it. SoI got one for my home
inspection. And I'm like,looking at them. Like, there's
quite a bit on here. And it wasa lot of it was like little
stuff. And then my realtor thensat down with me and we walked
(39:20):
through it. And then one bigthing is we already knew prior
was we didn't do windows. Wealready knew that. My realtor
luckily pointed it out to us.
But yeah, I mean, I looked at itand I was like, Oh my gosh, this
house needs a lot of work. And
Christie Snapp (39:35):
it's scary because those reports are very
detailed for a reason. So justfor your knowledge, though, you
know, you don't want to, again,you don't want to nitpick and
ask the seller to fix every tinylittle thing that comes up on
the inspection. So I tell myclients just focus on the
important big ticket items thatreally need attention now. And
(39:57):
we can work it out with theseller most of the time.
Ian Arnold (40:00):
All right. So Little Timmy bought a house from you.
And he's been phenomenal. Solet's do that. What do you do
you try to keep in touch withTimmy after the sell. I know, I
know, during the 30 days or 90days, whatever timeframe, you
guys are like best friends. Butwhat happens after that?
Christie Snapp (40:17):
Yeah, of course, I have my business plan consists
of like our touches. So we, wehave five touches that we do
every month to our sphere,clients, friends and family,
which includes, you know, amonthly e newsletter, I send out
a magazine that has recipes andfun things in it. And other
(40:41):
things like that invites toclient events. And then we do
two or three bigger clientsevents that we invite all of our
past clients to. So those arereally fun, we get to like touch
base again. And then every day,I send out two handwritten note
cards to people, a lot of timesthey're like birthday
anniversary cards, or just, hey,we're just thinking about you
(41:03):
kind of thing. So I'm constantlyjust reaching out to past
clients in my sphere in general,just touch base, see how people
are doing so. That is, I think,for the long haul, how you're
gonna get business. So alwaysbeing in touch and in top of
mind, so then, and it's not likeI'm reaching out, Hey, how's
(41:23):
your house? Or hey, do you needto buy? It's like, Hey, how was
your weekend? You know, it'slike, more personal thing. So
just maintaining a relationshipover the years, and then, you
know, down the road when theyneed to spy yourself. Hopefully
they think of me.
Rick Ripma (41:40):
They know who you are. You don't have to tell
them.
Christie Snapp (41:42):
Exactly. Yeah,
Rick Ripma (41:43):
I always get irritated. I think some of
that's okay. But everything,somebody sends you a happy
birthday. And then they've gotall their sales information in
there. They were wishing you ahappy birthday, right?
Christie Snapp (41:55):
They were wanting a sale. They were
wanting to sell. Right, right?
Yeah, no, no, no, yeah, I neverput my business card and those
things. No, yeah. And then thereare real estate things, too,
that are valuable that I reachout about, I try and do some
like real estate reviews. So ayear after a client buys a
house, send a little like, Hey,here's what happened in your
(42:16):
neighborhood in the past year,just so you know. And it's not
to like, Hey, if you're gonnasell reach out to me is purely
information about the marketthat they might find valuable.
And then I include like a littlelike, here's how to use this
information. Like make sure youhave enough coverage, you know,
for your house, reach out toyour insurance agent. So just
being a resource. And again,back to the just being helpful.
(42:41):
It's really pretty simple. Whenyou when you think about Yeah,
Ian Arnold (42:45):
that's a smart email, especially or text
message or call to say, hey, youmight want to check make sure
you're covered from outagebecause what's happened over the
last four or five years withyour home? Yeah, yeah,
everything's shot up. Yeah. Soguess what? Everything else so
if you had to get a repairthat's that's a brilliant way to
at least touch base right nowespecially
Christie Snapp (43:05):
Yeah, yep.
Rick Ripma (43:06):
Well, insurance has also shot up that to really hire
some not our area fortunately,isn't this bad. But I talked to
some people like Florida, anagent in Florida. They're like
these condos can't even getinsurance.
Christie Snapp (43:22):
I know there's I've heard that there's condos
are not getting like insurancecompanies are just not offering
insurance down there. Right nowin some in some areas. It's
crazy.
Rick Ripma (43:32):
It's a real struggle for them. We don't have that
problem. Fortunately, right.
Insurance has just been I guesshammered with claims. So they're
very, very, very picky. It justmakes me mad. Yeah, just makes
it hard. So what's your secretsauce for standing out in a
crowd and the crowd?
Christie Snapp (43:50):
Secret Sauce.
Honestly, being authenticallyyourself, I think is the best
thing you can do and crew andreally pay attention to your
personal brand. You have yourbrokerage and they have a brand
and you can piggyback off ofthat a little bit. But people at
the end of the day don't careabout that necessarily. They
like again back to the Instagramand the showing your personality
(44:12):
and who you are and how you canhelp people and just providing
value for them, I think is thebest thing you can do.
Especially when there's I think10,000 Realtors on our board
right now there's a lot ofrealtors. Now, I think 20% of
those Realtors do 80% of thetransactions but yeah, I think
(44:34):
just being authentic beingyourself and showing your
personality is what will helpyou stand out because not
everybody is going to be a goodfit for me, but I'm going to be
a good fit or a better fit for alot of people that maybe another
realtor wouldn't jive with. So Ithink just showing who you are
is
Ian Arnold (44:56):
so let me ask you this because you have a young
kid like I do. Have you have aneight year old? And you've been
in business for 13 years? So howdo you actually keep a work life
balance with?
Christie Snapp (45:07):
Oh my gosh, that's the question right? Well,
so I try my best for my businessand from my personal life to
time block. So I try and make aconscious effort to put the
phone down and spend a period oftime with my son after school,
or whatever it is. So just beingconscious of it. Because
(45:29):
otherwise, you know, we comehome, and he likes to chill
after school and like, watchsome videos and play some video
games and just relax for a bit.
So he can do his own thing. AndI get caught up, like getting on
my computer or posting onInstagram, like so I can get
caught back into the work stuff,even when I'm at home. So I have
to be conscious of like, okay, Ineed to set a time put this down
for a second, go spend some timewith him. So yeah, you just have
(45:52):
to be aware of really how you'respending your time when you're
at home. Because as a realestate agent, and especially
since I have a nice home office,like I can get like rolled into
the work, even when I'm at home.
So it is it is hard, but justbeing aware of how you're
spending your time. I think
Rick Ripma (46:12):
it's very easy to get start working and an hours
go by video game, it's easy toget out of video gaming years go
by. Yeah, get up video gamesanymore.
Christie Snapp (46:24):
Well, I'm kind of getting into video games,
because that's how my son likesto spend his time. So we'll like
that. I'll offer to play videogames with him. So that's it's
it's funny. The whole video gameworld. It's even for eight year
old for like the little kids.
They like know how to do allthis stuff. I'm like, Oh, I'll
try and keep up.
Ian Arnold (46:42):
Yeah, I mean, it's, they're bred in new technology.
Yeah, they're growing up withit. My son in second grade
already had a laptop for school.
We were not even thinking myparents were like, they were
over for the weekend. They'relike, have they learned cursive
writing? Like they don't teachcursive. We keep typing. I go
that's what it's about. You'renot gonna write cursive anymore.
Christie Snapp (47:04):
Exactly. Yeah.
Isn't that bizarre? And,sidenote, the way they teach
math? Oh, it's crazy is sodifferent from how I learned
math. Like I can't. He's insecond grade. And I can barely
like, do what he's doing. Like,I don't know how they're
teaching it. I just pull out thecalculator.
Ian Arnold (47:25):
All right. So one, we'd like to thank you for being
on again.
Christie Snapp (47:29):
Thank you for having me. Always fun. But there
is one thing we need to do herefor oh gosh, what
Ian Arnold (47:36):
a nice way to get in touch with you. How can we get a
hold of you?
Christie Snapp (47:41):
So you can reach out to me on Instagram at snap
sells real estate snap with twoPs. Just shoot me a DM that's I
actually have been gettingclients from there a little bit
more recently. Or you can callor text me 317-902-2989 Is my
cell phone or emailchristy.snap@gmail.com.
Rick Ripma (48:05):
And to get a hold of the winner, I go to
HardWorkingMortgageGuys.comThat's
HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com Oryou can give us a call at
317-672-1938 31767 to 1938. Andplease follow us for more in
these real estate gurus
Ian Arnold (48:19):
and reminder if you have any friends or coworkers
looking to buy sell refinance,let us know we're more than
happy to help you. Christyagain, thank you for being on
the show. And of course we wantyou back on but this time yet do
another gymnastics saying okay,and
Christie Snapp (48:34):
hopefully it goes viral again. Which machine
do you use? Maybe we'll justbring one in the uneven bars to
set that up. set that up righthere. Yeah, lots of matte black
Ian Arnold (48:43):
we can we can do it in the parking lot. There you
go. Oh my god.
Rick Ripma (48:49):
But market that Yes.
Christie Snapp (48:51):
Don't invite people to watch. Oh, no, no, no,
there will be
Ian Arnold (48:56):
downtown Carmel.
There will be people live
Rick Ripma (48:59):
this time next.
Christie Snapp (49:00):
Oh gosh. Thank you, Chris. Thank you guys.
Rick Ripma (49:03):
Rent number 33041 NMLS number six, six, we're
finding your normal NMLS numberis 1995469 equal housing
opportunity. Some restrictionsapply.
Hey, Rick, we had Christie snap on today. And this
(00:03):
was her second time back. Imean, what was your big thing
out of talking to her this time?
You
Rick Ripma (00:10):
know, I just think she's such a phenomenal agent.
But she also just is such a niceperson. And I, you know, she
knows what she's doing. Youlisten to her, she has a plan.
She works her plan. She knowshow to take care of customers.
She knows exactly what to do.
She even sends handwrittennotes, which is a rarity in this
world today. I just think she'sone of those people. That's
(00:31):
she's she's a guru for a reason.
Because she's really good atwhat she does. And she goes
above and beyond Yeah,
Ian Arnold (00:37):
I think it was phenomenal. Listen to her
process, how she goes throughwith the buyer or even with the
seller, all of her steps. Andthen look, if you're looking at
buying or selling, you need tolisten to this, because she will
walk you through her process andhow it can benefit you
Rick Ripma (00:55):
welcomed into India's real estate gurus, your
ultimate guide to the dynamicworld of real estate in Indiana,
and I'm recruited by your hardworking mortgage guy and I've
been in real estate andmortgages for over 24 years.
Ian Arnold (01:07):
And I'm Ian Arnold, a loan officer on brakes hard
work in mortgage game. We'reboth with advisors mortgage
together will empower you withexpert advice market trends is
Bestival stories from Gururealtors and local experts.
Whether you're a homeowner,investor or pro, join us as we
navigate the thriving indie realestate market. Now get ready to
(01:28):
unlock the doors of success. Oneepisode at a time.
Rick Ripma (01:33):
Christie Snapp, you're back. I'm back. You're
back. Thanks so much for joiningus again. We appreciate it very
much. You were a fabulous guestlast time. So we're looking
we're looking really forward tothis. Now you I remember you
grew up in Indiana.
Christie Snapp (01:47):
Yeah. I grew up in Bloomington, Indiana. Okay,
where are you is. So then when Iwent to Purdue, a lot of people
got mad. But went to Purdue. Ijust had to get out of my
hometown. So I grew up inBloomington, went to Purdue
graduated and then moved to ndafter that,
Rick Ripma (02:02):
well, there's different degrees to write. I
mean, you go to Purdue for sure.
Different things that you go toyou for.
Christie Snapp (02:08):
Yeah, but I was a communications degree. So I
could have gotten either.
Rick Ripma (02:13):
Don't tell people that. So then, so your
communications degree. So if youdid you did something in
communication, which actuallyhas helped you out in real
estate too.
Christie Snapp (02:23):
Yes. So communications and PR degree. As
soon as I graduated, I workedfor a very short period of time
for a small family run PR firmhere in town. This was back in
Oh, eight. So economy wasn'tgreat. I got laid off pretty
quickly. And then was introducedto a real estate investor here
locally. And I did some leadgeneration office management,
(02:45):
like just a little thing withhim, and then got my real estate
license while I was working forthe investor and decided I need
to go off and be my own boss.
Rick Ripma (02:54):
So So you've been a real estate agent for around 13
years. Yes,
Christie Snapp (02:58):
I got my license in 2011. Okay, so in 2008,
Rick Ripma (03:02):
you actually started in real estate just done a
little bit different, right?
Christie Snapp (03:05):
Exactly. Yeah, just I am. To back up a little
bit. My dad has always ownedreal estate, real estate, like
rental properties and things. SoI kind of grew up around it a
little bit. But never thought Iwould really like dive full
force into into the real estateindustry. And then when I was
introduced to the local realestate investor, got a little
(03:26):
taste of it, and then decided toget my license. And
Rick Ripma (03:31):
then so you got your license 13 years ago. So you've
done a long time. So what whatdo you like best about real
estate? What's your favoritepart of the job?
Christie Snapp (03:40):
Honestly, it sounds cheesy, but just helping
people, every time I get kind ofget a little burned out, I get a
win for a client and it like rere ignites me, you know, and
with the passion of being inreal estate just to helping
people getting their first homeor just upsizing or downsizing
or whatever it is. And also evenjust helping them through the
(04:02):
process with like, hooking themup with other vendors and things
like that. Just being kind of anadvocate and a guide for all my
clients. It's really fun. Yeah,
Rick Ripma (04:12):
that's awesome. So in that time, not only have you
been in the business for 13years. Now you also have a
fairly big team, right? Yes.
Christie Snapp (04:20):
So my business partner and I have been together
for about 12 years. So I've beenwith her for a long time. And
we've had team members come andgo Currently, we have four team
members that work with us. Sothere's a total of six of us
right now.
Rick Ripma (04:35):
And your team is
Christie Snapp (04:36):
called the Golden collective. Yes.
Rick Ripma (04:39):
Where'd that come from?
Christie Snapp (04:40):
So for the longest time, we our team name
was the MDC team. And a coupleyears ago, we were kind of
thinking about rebranding alittle bit getting a new logo
done, and I just randomly poppedinto my head if we're gonna
rebrand why don't we justcompletely change the name. I
felt like the old name was justa little stale. Y'all and I
(05:00):
wanted like a refresh. So wejust kind of brainstormed names
for a while my business partneractually was watching TV and the
Golden Girls was on and shewanted to like play off of that
a little bit. And then I don'tknow, I didn't want to be team
or group. I just wantedsomething a little bit classier
(05:21):
feeling, I guess. So collectivewas what we went with. So golden
collective was born. And now weget to play off that name. And
we call ourselves the GoldenGirls. And okay, that's fine.
Yeah.
Rick Ripma (05:33):
Your and your team is made up of all women.
Christie Snapp (05:36):
Yes, we're all women team. But intentional. A
little bit. Yeah, it kind ofhappened that way from the
beginning. And we just kind ofkept it going. And the energy's
like, nice. And yeah, yeah.
Women power. Yeah.
Rick Ripma (05:50):
I mean, I think I think everybody has to whatever,
you know, because you have tohave that camaraderie. And you
have to have that, that mesh,you have to get along with
everything else. So who's onyour team, you're probably
fairly picky who you bring onyour team?
Christie Snapp (06:05):
Yeah, we, you know, we were never ever seeking
out people, we are always opento talking and seeing if it's a
good fit, but we really wantsomeone who's hungry, good work
ethic. We are there to guidethem and help them through
anything they need. But it inreal estate, you're you're still
your own boss, even if you're ona team, and you got to have that
(06:26):
hunger and drive. So that's whatwe're looking for usually. And
also someone who's just a goodtime, and not no drama. And
because we do, hey, as a team,as all women, we do hang out a
lot outside of work and at workevents. Oops, sorry. And so
yeah, that's important.
Ian Arnold (06:43):
So Rick, your next job cannot be there. I'm sorry.
Sorry.
Christie Snapp (06:48):
I don't know if we're breaking any laws.
Rick Ripma (06:52):
To say it, but I don't think I'd fit in. I just
guess I wouldn't fit in.
Christie Snapp (06:58):
I'm sure you would. I will welcome you and
probably
Rick Ripma (07:02):
be the tallest one in the group
Christie Snapp (07:03):
100%.
Rick Ripma (07:07):
So that wouldn't, that wouldn't be all good. So So
you've been in the business along time. You you love your
job, which is it's veryinteresting to me how many
agents get into the businesskind of somewhat by mistake,
maybe? Yeah, but then they fallin love with the business.
Christie Snapp (07:24):
It is it's an amazing business. I mean, what's
better, first of all, thanworking for yourself, you do
have to have, you know, somemotivation and drive there. But
every time I think about anyalternative, you know, working a
desk job or a nine to five Ican't imagine so that also
drives me because I have tosucceed in this. I can't imagine
(07:44):
doing anything else. So even ifthere's a little bit of a
burnout, it's it's very easy toget back it get off the burnout
and in back into,
Rick Ripma (07:54):
well, how about your family? You have a husband and I
Christie Snapp (07:57):
yep, I have a husband. I have one boy, he's
eight and he is in second grade.
And yeah, he's chill like me.
And he likes video games. Hewants to be a YouTuber. So
Rick Ripma (08:08):
yeah, so you can get him working for you. Right? I
Christie Snapp (08:11):
know. I said, Let's get your channel started.
Do Yeah, well, he
Rick Ripma (08:15):
help you get your you know, get your I know
running better.
Ian Arnold (08:18):
I think it's everybody. I have a nine year
old. Okay, same way. I askedwhat do you wanna do for as
you're thinking longer on?
Probably play video games. Iknow. And I'm like, alright,
well, we got to think a little alittle more as a parent. You're
thinking that but then you watchall these guys how much money
they're making? Hey, hi. No,maybe you can? Job. It's crazy.
Yeah.
Rick Ripma (08:39):
My youngest son went to Carmel High School. He had a
really good friend who went tocollege. At college. He met some
guys they started a atournament. They ended up video
games. Yes. Yeah. And ended upselling that guy ended up with
(08:59):
like, a 22 years old. $30million. No. Yes.
Christie Snapp (09:03):
What do you want to know what video game? I do
not. I'm so curious. And
Rick Ripma (09:07):
then he and now he just puts on tournaments all
over the you know, just my gosh,yeah. Yeah, that's what you
think as you tell your kids? No,no, no, but, you know,
Christie Snapp (09:17):
it could turn into a real lucrative thing.
Yeah.
Ian Arnold (09:19):
I mean, my dad was computer programmer, but you got
to think about when he was incollege. Computers are not the
biggest thing. Right. And somepeople even debated whether they
would take off. Well, guesswhat? He never had an issue
getting a job.
Christie Snapp (09:32):
Yeah, exactly.
It's it's weird to think aboutwhat like in 1020 years what's
going to be a job that's not ajob now. It's so yeah, right.
It's crazy to think about.
Rick Ripma (09:43):
Yeah, think AI is gonna change. Yes, AI is
Christie Snapp (09:47):
crazy. We've dabbled in chat GBT and stuff a
little bit but I'm still have alot to learn.
Rick Ripma (09:53):
Have you found it yet to be helpful for your
business? Yeah,
Christie Snapp (09:57):
it's helpful.
You know, we we I typically, inmy at my team, I'm like the
creative ones who I always writeall of the property descriptions
and hold within marketing. Sousing that, a little bit
definitely helps. It's that itmakes things faster. I do like
to still have my hand in it andlike edit whatever is popping
out, you know, but it ishelpful.
Rick Ripma (10:20):
It's makes things a home safe. Yeah,
Christie Snapp (10:23):
yeah. And I learned this the other day from
somebody, you can tell chat GPTto sort of summarize an article
or a, or a blog post orsomething in a way that like is
concise that you can then reposton Facebook or whatever. So like
consumers, instead of like justposting the link to the article,
(10:44):
like it kind of gives a littlesynopsis. Yeah, so people can
kind of digest it a littlebetter. Yeah,
Rick Ripma (10:49):
it's all in your props. Yeah, it's all in how you
write those prompts. I don'tknow if you've know this.
There's something called propperfect. If you if you get on.
It's right now it's currentlyone of their plugins, but the
plugins are going away. Okay,the middle of this month, so you
can get there. And then you canI think I'm a member of that,
you know, I pay him a littlebit. It's not very much. But
(11:11):
before your prompt, you putperfect and I put a period and
then I write my prompt. And thenit goes and fixes the prop.
Christie Snapp (11:17):
Oh, to be better for shut. Okay. Yeah. Is it a
separate app? Or it's part ofchess? It's
Rick Ripma (11:24):
a separate company, but it's through, you know, how
GPT has the plugins.
Christie Snapp (11:29):
Okay. Yeah, but I don't I haven't played with
those. Oh, my gosh, I have notexplored the plugins. No, it's,
it's
Rick Ripma (11:38):
fun. They have some phenomenal plugins, but But
anyway, that's there are somethings you can do with GPT. Like
that. And and, and that one willhelp you write the accurate, you
know, the best prop, I actuallyhave taken a course on how to
write prompts. Because, yeah,it's so valuable. You have to
write them, right.
Christie Snapp (11:58):
I know what you want. There's a lot of people on
Instagram that post tips for thebest prompts for real estate, or
there's a bunch of people on onthere also kind of training, and
Rick Ripma (12:10):
everybody's selling the some art day, they're all
selling us how to how to do howto use digital products. You
know what else you can do? Youcan ask prop GPT exactly what
you should write and say I wantthis is what the outcome I want.
What's my best way to write aprop? It will tell you how to
write it. Yeah,
Christie Snapp (12:27):
it's crazy. It's crazy. Yeah.
Rick Ripma (12:30):
But you're right, you have to check everything.
Christie Snapp (12:32):
I know. Yeah, you need it. You don't want it
to sound too. Overly AI. Youknow, you want it to sound human
and like it came from
Rick Ripma (12:39):
you. Plus, it also changes. It gives you some
information. That's not always100% accurate. Yeah. And it's
weird, because it's just amachine. You know, we kind of
give it like it's intelligent.
It isn't intelligent. It justgoes in.
Christie Snapp (12:53):
Yeah. Yeah, you know? Yep. So I
Rick Ripma (12:57):
guess it is kind of human. Yeah. Well, there's that.
Yeah, yeah. So. So you're usingGPT. And I see you on social
media all the time. So like,what do you what's your
objective and social media? Whatdo you what are you trying to
accomplish?
Christie Snapp (13:17):
Well, I think of and use social media, it's a
free advertising and marketingplatform. So why would you not
use it. More recently, I've beentrying to really educate on it
in a way that like, alsocaptures the audience and makes
them want to follow me and allthat stuff. So that's I just
sort of use it as like a way tobrand myself to personal
(13:41):
branding. And we have up Forceteam pages as well that we use
it for. So just educating peopleand hopefully they see the value
that we provide and want toreach out when they're ready to
buy and sell.
Ian Arnold (13:53):
So what what social media sites do you use the most
Christie Snapp (13:58):
Instagram is my go to. We are on Facebook as
well. But I sort of fell offwith that a little bit and
should probably spend some timeover there too. But Instagram
makes it easy. They just pusheverything that we're posting
over there onto our Facebookpages. So that makes it easy.
I'm starting to dabble with tictoc as well. So I'm starting to
(14:22):
post more on there. But if if Iwould say if you could find like
one or two to focus on and getreally good at is because
otherwise it's just toooverwhelming. There's just too
much too many to focus on. Soyeah.
Ian Arnold (14:36):
And do you just post real estate stuff? Or do you
post other things
Christie Snapp (14:41):
I try and mix it up. You know people want to see
your personality and see youknow what you're doing outside
of work so they can kind ofrelate to you and see if they
can actually look at your socialmedia and see okay, I could vibe
with that. I could like sheknows what she's doing but she's
also like fun I could hang outwith her for you know You spend
a lot of time with your clientsup until closing. So it allows
(15:04):
people to, you know, relate toyou and see if it's a good fit
potentially.
Rick Ripma (15:09):
Yeah, no, I hear you had a really you had one post
that you had a he went viral?
Yeah.
Christie Snapp (15:16):
So it's really funny because I posted and it
had nothing to do with realestate of course, my son went to
a birthday party. And it was ata gym like a jet with gymnast
gym, and I was a gymnast in highschool. So I did a little move
on the bar and I the the captionwas something like, you know,
(15:37):
when your kid has a birthdayparty at a gym, and you were a
gymnast 20 years ago, you haveto give it a try again and
remind yourself how old you are.
So so many past gymnast that areout there that I had no idea
related to that. And it has Ithink at this moment has 9.6
million views. Which is insane.
(15:59):
So that yeah, that that realwent a little
Rick Ripma (16:02):
crazy. I wonder if there's something to that maybe
we shouldn't be posting allabout work all the time. We
Yeah, some of this other stuff.
People
Christie Snapp (16:07):
want to like see like your personality a little
bit. See who you are. That's howyou connect with people. So
Ian Arnold (16:13):
I gotta ask, have you decided to get back out
there and do one more video likethat? I
Christie Snapp (16:17):
should. I can't think of anything else. Like I
could do some more gymnastics, Iguess. But yeah, I definitely
need to mix it up.
Ian Arnold (16:26):
And just so you know, I see those the fail ones
workout too. So if you fall justhave your son post.
Christie Snapp (16:32):
Yeah, exactly.
Oh my gosh. Yeah. Those are themost funny.
Rick Ripma (16:36):
Yeah, I don't think you have to tell her son to
probably not everybody in thatgym. But yes,
Christie Snapp (16:42):
yeah, I wouldn't. I probably wouldn't
push myself too far, because Iwould really hurt myself. 20
years ago, was a long time whenI was doing gymnastics.
Rick Ripma (16:52):
So it's amazing. How much you could do back then. And
I know.
Christie Snapp (16:56):
Yeah, that's what's ever on the reel. All the
comments are like, Oh my god, metoo. I tried that when my kid
was at the gym and like I likealmost broke my head, you know?
Yeah, that's funny.
Rick Ripma (17:08):
So if somebody wants to get a hold of you, because
they want to see this this gymthis video, what's the best way
or they maybe they want somereal estate help?
Christie Snapp (17:18):
Yeah, so my instagram handle is at snap
sells real estate. Snap is mylast name with two Ps. Or my
phone number 317-902-2989. Itcan always call or text me
there. Or emailchristy.snap@gmail.com Okay, now
Rick Ripma (17:36):
it always says I'm getting old now. I can't
remember that phone number. Whatwas that?
Christie Snapp (17:40):
317-902-2989
Rick Ripma (17:44):
it's about surprised I can't remember. I have trouble
remembering my own phone though.
Yeah, I blanked
Christie Snapp (17:49):
the other day, someone needed my husband's
phone number. And I startedrambling it off. And then the
last four digits. I was like,wait a minute, pull out my
phone. Yeah, it's so bad.
Rick Ripma (17:58):
We don't call anybody we just hit a binary. So
it's yeah,
Christie Snapp (18:02):
that's my memory saving. My brain is used for
other things.
Rick Ripma (18:05):
I use my memory my phone not in my head. Yeah, we
got too much other and to get ahold of you and I got a
HardWorkingMortgageGuys.comThat's
HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com Oryou give us a call at
317-672-1938. That's 31767 to1938. All right.
Ian Arnold (18:21):
So before we get into a lot more questions, let's
have a fun question. So,Indiana, we have tons of
restaurants. What's yourfavorite restaurant go yet?
Christie Snapp (18:32):
Okay, I have a very favorite lunch spot. It's
in Broad Ripple Northsidekitchenette, that's around the
corner from my office, my teamand I go there all the time. So
that's my absolute favoritelunch spot. But I have another
sort of hidden gem if you like.
Vietnamese food at all, likebond me sandwiches and a bunch
(18:53):
of other things. Chow. It'sVietnamese street food and it's
on 96th Street in a strip mall.
Like 96 in in Bedford or 69across the street from the
Meijer up there. There's alittle place called Chow So
shout out to them they havedelicious food
Ian Arnold (19:15):
the food and Bravo what what is it?
Christie Snapp (19:18):
Oh the the kitchenette? Yeah, it's like
soup sandwich salad. Breakfastburritos. It's like a
traditional like lunch littlelunch thought so and that
breakfast all day as well. So
Ian Arnold (19:32):
so if you're not your office, you're there Yes.
Christie Snapp (19:35):
Yeah, you can find me there most of the time.
Rick Ripma (19:38):
Broad Ripple has it's just such a quaint little
town there's there's a lot ofYeah, well place. Yeah, to go.
Yep.
Christie Snapp (19:43):
There's a lot.
There's some construction goingon right now. So I know a lot of
the businesses are hurting therewith all this construction like
blocking streets and stuff soyou can make it too Broad
Ripple. Go eat somewhere there.
Ian Arnold (19:56):
My dad went. So my parents live in Broad Ripple.
They do So he was researchingand he was like, and then he was
telling me about the history ofbroad report is very
interesting. How it used to belike a big carnival area. Yeah.
And like if you go to Robertpark you can see where the stone
to hold the merry go round andall this other stuff. It's still
(20:19):
there. Yeah, people just don'tunderstand what it used to be.
Yeah,
Christie Snapp (20:22):
the park there hosted. Yeah, the big carnival
there. If you Google it, thepictures are crazy. Like old
school carnival style. And
Rick Ripma (20:31):
it's still a carnival.
Ian Arnold (20:33):
Yes, yeah, it would traffic. Yes, it is. Alright, so
let's get into how you actuallydo business. So let's say little
Timmy comes to you. And he'slooking to buy a home. What is
your process after he's alreadybeen pre approved? The Rick and
I, you know, their approval isgold. Yeah. So what's your
(20:54):
process on showing houses andstuff.
Christie Snapp (20:56):
So I like to first of all, have just a
consult with the buyer, whetherthat's we meet up or on the
phone or a zoom, whatever theclient wants, who's comfortable
with and wants to do, I like tojust have a conversation, get to
know them, and really what theirgoals are getting to know what
their situation is currently andwhere they're trying to go. And
(21:17):
then of course, the details ofwhat are you looking for in a
home, your must have list ordeal breaker list. And then once
we have all that kind of naileddown, I help them search for
that home. Of course,everything's online these days,
we get our auto search, set upwith the MLS, and then I'm on
the MLS every single day, seeingwhat what new is coming up, that
(21:39):
might be interesting to theclient. And then in this day,
you have to move fast. So it'sreally just a text me as soon as
something pops up that you wantto see or I will text them like,
hey, we need to go see this. Andthen we try and get them in for
a showing as soon as possible toget their foot in the door
before all the other buyers outthere are going to see it so and
(22:01):
then we just go from there.
Rick Ripma (22:02):
So when somebody is interested, and especially in
this market, because they'reselling so fast, and you're
always on the on this systemlooking at I never remember what
it's called I MLS still it's
Christie Snapp (22:16):
well, it's MLS ours is the BLC Yeah,
Rick Ripma (22:19):
PLC. Yeah, that's our local Yeah. VLC. So, but,
and you see something, you havean idea of what they want. So
you send it to them, as they golook at houses, does what they
want change many times? Or isit?
Christie Snapp (22:34):
Um, sometimes I would say the core of what they
want is the same, but sometimesit'll be like, they'll be
willing to give on somethingthat they thought that they had
to have. So that sometimeshappens and and with the lower
inventory that we see a lot oftimes that's necessary. So you
(22:56):
know, and every situation isdifferent. I asked the questions
what how long are you stayinghere? What's your goal with this
house? Is this like a starterhome? Or is this your forever
home? Because that can changeyour decisions, too, right? So
if you can give a little onsomething, if it's just sort of
a starter home, hey, you're notgoing to be here forever, like
maybe compromise on some things.
So sometimes that is needed. And
Ian Arnold (23:20):
so it's just like the TV show three houses and
sell that one,
Christie Snapp (23:24):
right? Yes, exactly. The Cape Cod, the
ranch, the mansion, which one doyou want?
Ian Arnold (23:30):
The reason I mentioned that, especially like
first time homebuyers, they maynot understand that you might
look at 10 or 12 homes beforeyou even find ones that you
actually do. Like,
Christie Snapp (23:40):
yeah, yeah. It's funny because sometimes the
opposite happens. And they fallin love with like the first one
or two and they don't want tomove on it because they feel
like they need to see a bunchbefore they can make a decision.
And sometimes that's the caselike if they really are not 100%
Sure, we'll go see a few morefirst to really make make sure
(24:03):
it's what they want. But in thismarket, if you do that, that
first show most likely is notgoing to be available in a week
or two. So yeah, sometimes theopposite happens but it's
there's no like right or wronganswer as to how many houses you
have to see as a buyer, but thatis a good that's a question a
lot of buyers ask, like, what'sthe what's the average amount
(24:24):
like how many houses should webe looking at? So I don't really
know what the average is rightnow. With the inventory lower?
Yeah, with the inventory. I betit is lower. So I think
Rick Ripma (24:36):
I think you have to listen to your gut. You know, if
you I would have trouble makingan offer on the very first house
I walked in Yeah. But you know,if you've done your it's
different today than it used tobe because I can do a ton of
research and, and pretty muchknow what I want before I ever
go out so I could walk into thefirst house and go yeah, this is
(24:58):
exactly what I want. Hmm, yeah.
My son just he's in Chicago, hejust bought a house in Chicago
and bought the first house. Theylooked at their second house.
But, you know, they just theyknew what they wanted. They knew
where they wanted to be. And itwas the perfect house for them.
Christie Snapp (25:13):
Yeah, yeah, you do have to listen to your gut.
And just, it's a feelingsometimes. So just listen to
that don't like get discouraged.
If you think like, oh, I can't,I can't make an offer on this,
we will only see one, you know,
Rick Ripma (25:26):
what, what's the market like? It is, you know, we
keep hearing the the news mediaout there telling us, you know,
the doom and gloom ofeverything, when we're all
seeing something completelydifferent. What are you seeing,
and we know they're sellingfast? What are you seeing in
price? Are we seeing increasesdecreases? What are we seeing?
Yeah,
Christie Snapp (25:45):
there's they're still steadily increasing
through COVID, when interestrates were below 3%. The rate at
which homes were likeappreciating was crazy, you
know, over 10%, year over year.
And now I think it's like evenedout a little bit. It's still
high, though. And at the end ofthe day, the longer you hold on
to a piece of property, it'sgoing to it's going to grow in
(26:07):
equity in value. So we'recurrently right now in our
market, the prices are steadyand still rising. And it's
funny, I talked to people whomoved here from out of town, and
the prices here compared toother bigger cities are, like,
way lower, so you can get way oryour money goes way farther here
(26:28):
in Indiana, I would say. So it'sa perspective thing.
Ian Arnold (26:34):
You know, yeah, that was one thing we saw a lot of,
especially during COVID. Andwhen people could work remote,
yeah. They're like, Oh, wait, Ican work from home. Let me move
closer to mom and dad. Exactly.
Because we got kids now. I mean,you saw people move from
California, or New York oranywhere. And they were like,
wait, I can buy this. I know.
Wait, hold on. What's the catch?
Yeah, like there is no catch.
(26:57):
Right. So
Christie Snapp (26:58):
while prices are on the higher side, and they're
rising, you know, year overyear, comparatively, the prices
are still really good here inour local market. And my
opinion, yeah.
Rick Ripma (27:10):
When you talk to anybody out of state, you you've
kind of run into that rare? Doessomebody come in and go, you
guys are a lot more expensivethan we are? Exactly. We're not.
So what's your golden rule? Whenit comes to negotiating? Do you
have a golden rule for that?
Christie Snapp (27:26):
I do. And it's really simple. And it's just to
be a nice person. Honestly,you're you want to cooperate
with the other agent, you're nottrying to win. So being a nice
person I have found and justbeing cooperative, gets me more.
When I asked for something, youknow what I mean? So that's my
(27:46):
internal sort of golden rule.
Just be helpful, be cooperative.
And when when you have to give alittle to get but if you're nice
about it, they're going, they'regoing to give as well. So that's
what I found. That
Rick Ripma (28:01):
goes for everything in life. Yeah, right, isn't it?
Yes. If you, you know, you canget on the phone, and you can
yell and scream and holler. Andsome people think that's what
gets them everything they need.
But I know for me, if somebodydoes that with me, it's just
like, I shut down. Yeah, I'mdone. I'm not I don't, I'm not
going to worry about what yousay. Because there's Yeah, I
Christie Snapp (28:20):
can do. Yeah, you just put a wall up. So you
can be like, you can be a strongnegotiator. Yes. Without being
like, mean and aggressive. Youknow, so, and that's just my
style. I'm, I'm laid back, butI'm going to get it done for my
clients. Right. At the sametime, you know,
Ian Arnold (28:37):
I mean, which is smart. Because, I mean, if
you're, let's say bullish at thestart, I mean, you're we dealing
with the same people roughly for30 days. Yeah. So I mean, you're
gonna you're people are gonnaget angry at each other then
and, but if you're kind, niceand respectful, things move a
lot smoother. Yeah, well, youwere saying exactly.
Christie Snapp (28:59):
And that starts honestly before the negotiation
even starts because if I have aclient looking at a house and I
need some information, I'm likereaching out to the listing
agent. And I'm asking them forthings like so my clients can
make a decision so you gottalike start that from the
beginning and on the flip side,if I have a listing and a
(29:20):
buyer's agents asking me forinformation I'm like on top of
it I'm like yes here because Iwant to make friends with this
agent. I want to make a deal. Sojust being again helpful and
cooperative and nice from thestart. It's the deal is gonna go
so much smoother for you andyour clients.
Ian Arnold (29:36):
So you mentioned being on the listing side so
let's talk about that say littleTimmy has his home now he's
wanting to
Rick Ripma (29:44):
upgrade and he gets a right now
Christie Snapp (29:46):
he does Timmy.
Ian Arnold (29:48):
Hey, you want him as a client? I'm telling you this.
Rick Ripma (29:52):
It's about how he names his kids, I guess. Yeah.
Tell me. No.
Christie Snapp (29:58):
Anyway, wants to say
Ian Arnold (30:00):
But everybody likes Little Timmy. Alright, so Timmy
wants to sell his home. So whatdo you do? I mean, how do you go
about listing it? And how do yougo about? Do you stage out all
that stuff. So go into how youdo your process.
Christie Snapp (30:14):
So same as with buyers, I start with an initial
consultation, and there's alittle bit more prep that is
needed for a listingconsultation than a buyer. So I
go in with so when I say go in,I schedule a time to go meet
with the seller at their home,so I can get my eyes on their
(30:35):
house and see what the currentcondition is. And then we have
that whole conversation likewhat are your goals? What what,
what is the current situationthat is needing to happen, and
then we prep with the comps wedo a deep dive into the
neighborhood, what what thesales are right now in the
neighborhood. We go through ourour seller Guide, which is very
(30:57):
detailed what needs to happenfrom step one to closing. So we
outline that for the client asfar as prepping it for sale,
which I think is very important.
And some people kind of rush alot. And it depends on what the
current situation of the houseis. Sometimes we walk in and
it's ready for pictures already.
(31:18):
Sometimes it needs a lot ofdecluttering. And they need help
a little bit with staging. Ifit's vacant, we pay for Virtual
Staging, which I think is hashelped us a lot with because
everything's online, marketingonline and social media and all
that stuff. So the picturesbeing virtually staged, is
(31:39):
helpful.
Ian Arnold (31:40):
So let me ask that.
So virtual just so somebody'slistening, Virtual Staging is
technically they're not puttinganything in there, right?
Christie Snapp (31:47):
Correct.
Correct. So you can either payfor a stager to physically move
stuff into the home. And this,of course, is if the home is is
vacant, or Virtual Staging youget we get professional photos
done. And then we send it into acompany that puts virtually puts
furniture and stages at to looklike a model home pretty much so
(32:07):
and then they send thosepictures back. So then we can
use those pictures in ourmarketing without having to have
physical stuff moved in and thenmoved back out. So it saves a
lot of time, it is lessexpensive, and it's still and it
looks just as good. Obviously,we disclose, Hey, these are
virtually staged, so peoplearen't surprised when they walk
(32:29):
into a vacant home. And we liketo print the pictures and have
the virtual staged pictures inthe home makes sense. So as
people are walking through, it'svacant, but they can still see
the picture. They're like, Oh,this is what it might look like
once we get furniture in here.
So that's one thing that that wedo is the Virtual Staging. We do
(32:53):
open houses for every home ifthe client allows us to. And
with that, we always invite allthe neighbors, the closest by
neighbors, we actually handleover a folder with an
invitation. Information aboutthe listing, hey, please come
walk through it. If you knowanyone who wants to be in this
neighborhood, please share itwith them. So just as as much
(33:15):
exposure as we can get for thehome. Right? So you always do an
open house. Yeah, that's thegist of so
Ian Arnold (33:24):
let me ask this because we're used to, really,
Rick and I came from the carindustry. So everybody when they
trade their car in, it thinkstheir car's worth $100,000. And
it's worth 2k. Yeah, let's behonest. So do you have to combat
that? Do people just think thesame way for homes or
Christie Snapp (33:43):
sometimes it depends on the situation in the
house and the buyer or theseller, but we do a deep dive
into the sales in thatneighborhood or nearby. Or if we
can't find anything that's closeby we will like go out a little
bit farther that from the radiusof the home. And we just see try
(34:03):
and find similar homes assimilar as possible homes and
see what they sold for. And thenwe look at that price and
compare, okay, they got thisprice, but they had an extra
bedroom. So we need to adjustthe price a little bit. So we
really look at it like throughan appraisers eyes a little bit.
I don't know exactly how theappraisers value things per se,
(34:25):
but I have a good general idea.
So I look at it throughappraisers eyes when I'm looking
at comparable sales and I canreally do a deep dive with the
client and so they can see and Ishow them the pictures of that
sale down the road. So they cansee visually like what their
home is compared to the othersales. So when when you do that
you are justifying the pricethat you're suggesting. So a lot
(34:50):
of times the seller understandsand agrees with the prices we're
giving them
Rick Ripma (34:57):
because pricing is in credibly important. Yeah, you
can price it too low, or you canprice it too high. Yeah, both
those things are bad. Exactly.
Christie Snapp (35:07):
Yeah, we try and price it right on the nose as
far as market value as best wecan. I never want to price it
too high. Sometimes if you priceit slightly under the house down
the street, then you canencourage, you know, multiple
offers and a bidding war, whichwe are starting to see again, by
(35:27):
the way. Yeah, good. Yeah, Ijust my
Rick Ripma (35:32):
for sellers, not good for sellers.
Christie Snapp (35:34):
I actually just got a house for a buyer this
past weekend and multiple offersituations. So yeah, they the
multiple offers were comingback. I'm haven't seen. It's not
been as aggressive as, like acouple years ago. So I'm not yet
seeing like crazy over asking.
But you are going to probablyhave to pay over asking.
Ian Arnold (35:57):
And that's okay, to a point. But my whole thing was
the waiving of inspections.
Christie Snapp (36:03):
I know. That's hard to compete with. But I
never let my clients waiveinspections.
Ian Arnold (36:09):
All right. So Rick, and I say this all the time. But
let's get your point. Why wouldyou never let somebody waive it?
Well,
Christie Snapp (36:16):
because you can, you can offer certain things
that make the seller feelbetter, while still protecting
your client. A lot of timeswe'll do either an as is offer,
which that scares some buyers.
But when you really look at theas is addendum how it's written,
it really protects the buyer. Sothey can still get all the
(36:39):
inspections done, they want anddo their due diligence. But the
as is addendum basically justsays, Hey, we're not going to
ask the seller for any repairs,we just want to get inspections
done to make sure there's nomajor issues. And just for our
own knowledge, we want to knowthe condition of the house
before we buy it. And you canwalk, the buyer can walk away
(37:00):
within that due diligencetimeframe, for any reason. So
the way there as his addendum iswritten, they can walk away,
because they changed their mindor for a leaky faucet or
whatever. If you don't have thataddendum, you have to give the
seller a chance to make repairs.
So if something major comes up,and your client is like, Hold
(37:24):
on, I don't want this house andget cold feet. Well, too bad,
you still have to give theseller a chance to repair the
items that come up on theinspection. So there's different
there's different ways to do itwithout waiving your inspection
that can still win you the offerwith the sellers.
Rick Ripma (37:41):
Yeah, because you never know. I've had people who
have told me Hey, Rick is goingto be fine. We're gonna have an
inspection. But this house is sobeautiful. There's no way
there's anything wrong. Exactly.
And then the inspection comesback. And they're like, We gotta
get out of this. This is there'smajor issues with the house that
were hidden. So you always hadmy opinion. That's why you have
to make sure you do that. Yeah,
Christie Snapp (38:01):
you want to get them no matter what. Yeah. And
you want, yeah, they're not ifthey if someone doesn't want to
do an as is like, let's say abuyer, they do want the chance
to negotiate inspection itemswith the seller. They we can
write stuff in like, I call theminspection limitations. So hey,
we're gonna get an inspectiondone. But we're not going to
(38:23):
nitpick you on all the little,like, Bs items, we just want to
see if there's anything major,and be able to negotiate on
those major issues. So I'll puta cap on the dollar amount for
the inspection items that myclients will negotiate. So then
the seller reads that andthinks, Okay, like, I'm most
(38:43):
likely not going to have to dealwith inspection items unless
something major comes up. Sothere's, like I said, multiple
ways to kind of negotiate
Rick Ripma (38:51):
that. And when you said cap, you mean low cap, so
we aren't going to anythingunder whatever dollar amount
we're not going to ask for. Butover that.
Ian Arnold (39:00):
Yes, exactly. And which I think it's, it's smart,
because we do a lot of firsttime homebuyers. And I was one
of them as everybody else was.
And you know, if you don't knowthe market or know what to do,
you just don't understand it. SoI got one for my home
inspection. And I'm like,looking at them. Like, there's
quite a bit on here. And it wasa lot of it was like little
stuff. And then my realtor thensat down with me and we walked
(39:20):
through it. And then one bigthing is we already knew prior
was we didn't do windows. Wealready knew that. My realtor
luckily pointed it out to us.
But yeah, I mean, I looked at itand I was like, Oh my gosh, this
house needs a lot of work. And
Christie Snapp (39:35):
it's scary because those reports are very
detailed for a reason. So justfor your knowledge, though, you
know, you don't want to, again,you don't want to nitpick and
ask the seller to fix every tinylittle thing that comes up on
the inspection. So I tell myclients just focus on the
important big ticket items thatreally need attention now. And
(39:57):
we can work it out with theseller most of the time.
Ian Arnold (40:00):
All right. So Little Timmy bought a house from you.
And he's been phenomenal. Solet's do that. What do you do
you try to keep in touch withTimmy after the sell. I know, I
know, during the 30 days or 90days, whatever timeframe, you
guys are like best friends. Butwhat happens after that?
Christie Snapp (40:17):
Yeah, of course, I have my business plan consists
of like our touches. So we, wehave five touches that we do
every month to our sphere,clients, friends and family,
which includes, you know, amonthly e newsletter, I send out
a magazine that has recipes andfun things in it. And other
(40:41):
things like that invites toclient events. And then we do
two or three bigger clientsevents that we invite all of our
past clients to. So those arereally fun, we get to like touch
base again. And then every day,I send out two handwritten note
cards to people, a lot of timesthey're like birthday
anniversary cards, or just, hey,we're just thinking about you
(41:03):
kind of thing. So I'm constantlyjust reaching out to past
clients in my sphere in general,just touch base, see how people
are doing so. That is, I think,for the long haul, how you're
gonna get business. So alwaysbeing in touch and in top of
mind, so then, and it's not likeI'm reaching out, Hey, how's
(41:23):
your house? Or hey, do you needto buy? It's like, Hey, how was
your weekend? You know, it'slike, more personal thing. So
just maintaining a relationshipover the years, and then, you
know, down the road when theyneed to spy yourself. Hopefully
they think of me.
Rick Ripma (41:40):
They know who you are. You don't have to tell
them.
Christie Snapp (41:42):
Exactly. Yeah,
Rick Ripma (41:43):
I always get irritated. I think some of
that's okay. But everything,somebody sends you a happy
birthday. And then they've gotall their sales information in
there. They were wishing you ahappy birthday, right?
Christie Snapp (41:55):
They were wanting a sale. They were
wanting to sell. Right, right?
Yeah, no, no, no, yeah, I neverput my business card and those
things. No, yeah. And then thereare real estate things, too,
that are valuable that I reachout about, I try and do some
like real estate reviews. So ayear after a client buys a
house, send a little like, Hey,here's what happened in your
(42:16):
neighborhood in the past year,just so you know. And it's not
to like, Hey, if you're gonnasell reach out to me is purely
information about the marketthat they might find valuable.
And then I include like a littlelike, here's how to use this
information. Like make sure youhave enough coverage, you know,
for your house, reach out toyour insurance agent. So just
being a resource. And again,back to the just being helpful.
(42:41):
It's really pretty simple. Whenyou when you think about Yeah,
Ian Arnold (42:45):
that's a smart email, especially or text
message or call to say, hey, youmight want to check make sure
you're covered from outagebecause what's happened over the
last four or five years withyour home? Yeah, yeah,
everything's shot up. Yeah. Soguess what? Everything else so
if you had to get a repairthat's that's a brilliant way to
at least touch base right nowespecially
Christie Snapp (43:05):
Yeah, yep.
Rick Ripma (43:06):
Well, insurance has also shot up that to really hire
some not our area fortunately,isn't this bad. But I talked to
some people like Florida, anagent in Florida. They're like
these condos can't even getinsurance.
Christie Snapp (43:22):
I know there's I've heard that there's condos
are not getting like insurancecompanies are just not offering
insurance down there. Right nowin some in some areas. It's
crazy.
Rick Ripma (43:32):
It's a real struggle for them. We don't have that
problem. Fortunately, right.
Insurance has just been I guesshammered with claims. So they're
very, very, very picky. It justmakes me mad. Yeah, just makes
it hard. So what's your secretsauce for standing out in a
crowd and the crowd?
Christie Snapp (43:50):
Secret Sauce.
Honestly, being authenticallyyourself, I think is the best
thing you can do and crew andreally pay attention to your
personal brand. You have yourbrokerage and they have a brand
and you can piggyback off ofthat a little bit. But people at
the end of the day don't careabout that necessarily. They
like again back to the Instagramand the showing your personality
(44:12):
and who you are and how you canhelp people and just providing
value for them, I think is thebest thing you can do.
Especially when there's I think10,000 Realtors on our board
right now there's a lot ofrealtors. Now, I think 20% of
those Realtors do 80% of thetransactions but yeah, I think
(44:34):
just being authentic beingyourself and showing your
personality is what will helpyou stand out because not
everybody is going to be a goodfit for me, but I'm going to be
a good fit or a better fit for alot of people that maybe another
realtor wouldn't jive with. So Ithink just showing who you are
is
Ian Arnold (44:56):
so let me ask you this because you have a young
kid like I do. Have you have aneight year old? And you've been
in business for 13 years? So howdo you actually keep a work life
balance with?
Christie Snapp (45:07):
Oh my gosh, that's the question right? Well,
so I try my best for my businessand from my personal life to
time block. So I try and make aconscious effort to put the
phone down and spend a period oftime with my son after school,
or whatever it is. So just beingconscious of it. Because
(45:29):
otherwise, you know, we comehome, and he likes to chill
after school and like, watchsome videos and play some video
games and just relax for a bit.
So he can do his own thing. AndI get caught up, like getting on
my computer or posting onInstagram, like so I can get
caught back into the work stuff,even when I'm at home. So I have
to be conscious of like, okay, Ineed to set a time put this down
for a second, go spend some timewith him. So yeah, you just have
(45:52):
to be aware of really how you'respending your time when you're
at home. Because as a realestate agent, and especially
since I have a nice home office,like I can get like rolled into
the work, even when I'm at home.
So it is it is hard, but justbeing aware of how you're
spending your time. I think
Rick Ripma (46:12):
it's very easy to get start working and an hours
go by video game, it's easy toget out of video gaming years go
by. Yeah, get up video gamesanymore.
Christie Snapp (46:24):
Well, I'm kind of getting into video games,
because that's how my son likesto spend his time. So we'll like
that. I'll offer to play videogames with him. So that's it's
it's funny. The whole video gameworld. It's even for eight year
old for like the little kids.
They like know how to do allthis stuff. I'm like, Oh, I'll
try and keep up.
Ian Arnold (46:42):
Yeah, I mean, it's, they're bred in new technology.
Yeah, they're growing up withit. My son in second grade
already had a laptop for school.
We were not even thinking myparents were like, they were
over for the weekend. They'relike, have they learned cursive
writing? Like they don't teachcursive. We keep typing. I go
that's what it's about. You'renot gonna write cursive anymore.
Christie Snapp (47:04):
Exactly. Yeah.
Isn't that bizarre? And,sidenote, the way they teach
math? Oh, it's crazy is sodifferent from how I learned
math. Like I can't. He's insecond grade. And I can barely
like, do what he's doing. Like,I don't know how they're
teaching it. I just pull out thecalculator.
Ian Arnold (47:25):
All right. So one, we'd like to thank you for being
on again.
Christie Snapp (47:29):
Thank you for having me. Always fun. But there
is one thing we need to do herefor oh gosh, what
Ian Arnold (47:36):
a nice way to get in touch with you. How can we get a
hold of you?
Christie Snapp (47:41):
So you can reach out to me on Instagram at snap
sells real estate snap with twoPs. Just shoot me a DM that's I
actually have been gettingclients from there a little bit
more recently. Or you can callor text me 317-902-2989 Is my
cell phone or emailchristy.snap@gmail.com.
Rick Ripma (48:05):
And to get a hold of the winner, I go to
HardWorkingMortgageGuys.comThat's
HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com Oryou can give us a call at
317-672-1938 31767 to 1938. Andplease follow us for more in
these real estate gurus
Ian Arnold (48:19):
and reminder if you have any friends or coworkers
looking to buy sell refinance,let us know we're more than
happy to help you. Christyagain, thank you for being on
the show. And of course we wantyou back on but this time yet do
another gymnastics saying okay,and
Christie Snapp (48:34):
hopefully it goes viral again. Which machine
do you use? Maybe we'll justbring one in the uneven bars to
set that up. set that up righthere. Yeah, lots of matte black
Ian Arnold (48:43):
we can we can do it in the parking lot. There you
go. Oh my god.
Rick Ripma (48:49):
But market that Yes.
Christie Snapp (48:51):
Don't invite people to watch. Oh, no, no, no,
there will be
Ian Arnold (48:56):
downtown Carmel.
There will be people live
Rick Ripma (48:59):
this time next.
Christie Snapp (49:00):
Oh gosh. Thank you, Chris. Thank you guys.
Rick Ripma (49:03):
Rent number 33041 NMLS number six, six, we're
finding your normal NMLS numberis 1995469 equal housing
opportunity. Some restrictionsapply.
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