How A San Antonio Agent Built A Business On Honesty, Systems, And Grit

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A wedding coordinator turned realtor who almost quit ends up selling 30+ homes her first year and doubling down on the one tactic most agents avoid: telling the truth. Meet Melissa Royale, a San Antonio agent who built a resilient business on systems, mentorship, and real conversations about budget, tradeoffs, and timing.

We dig into the inflection points that changed everything: splitting from family partners, leaving a bad fit, and finding a mentor who replaced guesswork with accountability. Melissa breaks down the exact toolkit that saved her sanity—Google Calendar time blocks, Tasks for daily execution, a CRM that keeps seven-month leads warm, and a live checklist that flags deadlines in red. The result is a calm brain and a steady pipeline, even with multiple pendings in a tight, incentive-heavy market.

If you’re wrestling with affordability, builder concessions, or the post-NAR settlement noise, this conversation offers spine and strategy. Melissa explains how to write offers that win, why she negotiates compensation inside the contract, and when she refuses listings that won’t sell. She sets expectations with buyers early—choose your compromise: location, size, age, or upgrades—and warns short-term owners about competing with builders on resale. For new agents, her advice is direct: know your personality, pick the right environment, and get organized fast. For buyers, it’s simple: start where you are, build equity, and let your next home fund itself.

Real estate doesn’t reward perfect conditions. It rewards clarity, consistency, and courage. Tap play to learn how Melissa turned hard lessons into a durable playbook you can use today. If this helped you think sharper about buying or selling, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway—we read every one.

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Key Factors Podcast is Powered by LoanBot.com
Host: Mark Jones | Sr. Loan Officer | NMLS# 513437
If you would like to work with Mark on your next home purchase or as a partner visit iThink Mortgage.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_07 (00:45):
And welcome back to another episode of Key Factors
Podcast Real Estate AF, wherethe AF stands for and finance.
And I'm your host, Mark Jones,and we're powered by LoneBot,
Smarter Mortgage Matching.
And on the last couple ofdiscussions, we talked about
builder incentives, we talkedabout 50-year mortgages, we
talked more importantly aboutnew versus old way of doing

(01:10):
business and the industryprofessionals that are jumping
into our industry.
And a name came up a few weeksback of someone that is just
making head waves all over SanAntonio.
She walked into our officeseveral years, well, what was
maybe two years ago?
And as she left the office, Itold my loan officer, I said,
she's gonna be pretty highmaintenance, but you're gonna

(01:32):
want to stick with this one.
So without further ado, let meintroduce Melissa Royale.
Melissa, how are you?

SPEAKER_02 (01:39):
I'm doing good.

SPEAKER_07 (01:40):
Doing good?

SPEAKER_02 (01:40):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (01:41):
Good.
So typically on thesediscussions, I want to give the
folks out there a little briefof who you are.
But before we do that, I wantedto read something that we just
looked up a moment ago.
Ladies and gentlemen, the chatGPT machine knows who Melissa
is.
I typed in here, can you provideme with a brief bio about

(02:02):
Melissa Royale, realtor in SanAntonio with EXP?
And as it was doing itssearching, Melissa turned to me
and said, What?
It doesn't know who I am.
And sure enough, it knows enoughto say that Melissa is a
dedicated realtor based in SanAntonio, Texas, affiliated with
EXP Realty, with a backgroundrooted in both service and

(02:24):
family.
Melissa balances herprofessional drives with being a
proud mom of three.
She specializes in helpingbuyers and sellers navigate to
San Antonio market, bringing amix of tenacity and clients'
first mindset.
Relentless in negotiation,seamless in execution, committed

(02:47):
to your success.
Melissa works across a broadarea of San Antonio region,
including neighborhoods like the78203 all the way to 78254 and
outlying areas in the region.
Her service covers first-timehome buyers, experienced
families, and investors with astrong emphasis on making the
process smooth, positive, andstress-free.

(03:10):
Would you think that that'spretty accurate?
I'd say so, right?
Now, before we go any further,I'd like to give you a moment to
tell us who you are.
Melissa, where did you comefrom?
Where'd you grow up?
All that good stuff.
Because this episode, unlike afew of the past, this one's all
about you.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (03:31):
I don't know.
I grew up on the south side ofSan Antonio.
Okay.
Mom of three.
I before I got into real estate,I came from the wedding
business.
I had a I had a weddingbusiness.
Yeah, I don't know much else totell you.

SPEAKER_07 (03:45):
I'm gonna dig deeper.
So and if you don't talk aboutit, I'll pry it out of you.
Okay.
So in growing up in San Antonio,the south side, what you went to
high school, then from there,what happened?

SPEAKER_01 (03:58):
I was a stay-at-home mom for most of my adult life.
Okay.
I've been raising kids most ofmy adult life.

SPEAKER_07 (04:03):
And that's the hardest job.

SPEAKER_01 (04:04):
Yeah.
Until I got into the weddingbusiness.
And then I still did it fromstaying home what with my kids.
I opened a flower shop overthere in like the Alamo Ranch
area, would take my little brandnew baby Jameson with me, do my
weddings from there.
And then eventually I gotintroduced to real estate, and
here we are.

SPEAKER_07 (04:24):
That's cool.
Okay.
So the the idea of being, let'scall it entrepreneurial
self-employed has kind of been apart of what you do from the
time you started working afterbeing or while being a mom, I
should say.

SPEAKER_02 (04:39):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (04:39):
It reminds me a lot about my mom.
She was a stay-at-home mom, andthen it was like, I've got to
get out of here and dosomething, and she jumped in the
real estate business.
Same concept.
But through your journey, whatmade you decide to be a realtor?
Before you answer that, how longhave you been in real estate?

SPEAKER_01 (05:00):
I just I just did my two years like of my license,
renewing my license justrecently.
I sold my first house January15th of last year.
I actually got introduced toreal estate by my
brother-in-law.
We sp part ways, so you know,and I became on my own.
But yeah, I from the verybeginning I got into real

(05:22):
estate.
I've had to just figure it outon my own.
Yeah.
And good thing I'm, you know,like able to do that because I
feel like those bumps caused meto be as successful as I am in
one way or another.
But yeah, just I I didn't know athing about real estate when I
got into not a not a thing.

(05:43):
And now I would say I'm doingpretty good.

SPEAKER_07 (05:45):
I I we're gonna dig we're gonna dig deeper into some
of the things that you're doingand how you have become so
successful so quickly.
But I wanted to emphasize forthe folks listening, because on
the past several discussionsI've had, the question has come
up is it a good time to jumpinto our business as a realtor?

(06:07):
And it was Casey Hampton thatmentioned we all agree, yes, it
is, but you need to go at itfull throttle.
You need to go two feet in, headfirst, that kind of stuff.
And the reason being is a statwas pulled up.
I think it's like somethingaround the lines of 90% of

(06:29):
realtors fail within their firstyear of doing it, which makes
perfect sense.
Yeah, but that's also not areason for someone that is
aspiring to do it to jump intothe pool.

SPEAKER_03 (06:39):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (06:40):
And reason being, you're proof of that.

SPEAKER_03 (06:43):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (06:43):
Right?

SPEAKER_03 (06:44):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (06:45):
So you never know if you are going to be the outlier
or the one that, in my opinion,outworks everybody else, asks
more questions than everybodyelse, is willing to go the extra
mile and not make excuses, etc.
Now, those are the things thatin my mind I'm thinking what got
you partially the way to whereyou are.

(07:06):
But tell us about yourexperience thus far.
When you got into real estateoriginally, did you have any
mentors around you?
No, nothing, huh?
Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_01 (07:17):
Okay, so long story short, like I said.

SPEAKER_07 (07:19):
No, make a long story long.
We've got we got an hour.

SPEAKER_01 (07:22):
I got into real estate.
I was introduced by mybrother-in-law.
I wasn't, I didn't prepare totell this story because I didn't
think you were I didn't know youwere gonna ask it, but it is
what it is.

SPEAKER_02 (07:32):
We're digging.

SPEAKER_01 (07:33):
Got into it with my brother-in-law and my
sister-in-law who were had theirlicense long a little bit longer
than me.
We realized really quicklyfamily don't work well together.

SPEAKER_04 (07:42):
That's true.

SPEAKER_01 (07:43):
So immediately within like the first few weeks,
we part ways.
I went on my own.
I almost considered quitting.
I literally said, okay, well,maybe, you know, I should just
go back to doing what I'm doing.
Maybe this is his thing, youknow, whatever.
I know, I know weddings.
I'm great at weddings.
I did over a thousand weddingsover, you know, a few years.
So I'm, I know I'm that's that'smy thing.

(08:05):
Maybe I'll just go back to that.
And then I met another agent inreal estate.
And then I thought, like, oh,I'll go over there and try that.
And then I went over there withthem.
Didn't work out.
Not even, not at all.
So that lasted about a monthagain.
So mind you, at this point, I'mlike two months in, three months
in, maybe to having my license.
So then from that point, youknow, I was on my own.

(08:28):
I I rented an office over thereby the airport.
I had one girl who shared theoffice with me.
She was just as new as I was.
And we were kind of like theblind leading the blind.
Yeah.
Literally.
If I had questions, I'd call abroker and just ask the broker.
Honestly, a lot of the time Iwould ask the listing agent.
If I I mean, I don't recommendthat.
I don't, you know.

SPEAKER_07 (08:47):
No, but you used whatever resources you had at
your disposal.
Yeah.
And that was convenient for you.
If the listing agent didn't giveyou advice, then I'm
guaranteeing you're gonna go toyour broker at that point.
But hey, I've got you on theline.
Yeah.
Might as well ask this question.

SPEAKER_01 (09:02):
Yeah.
I mean, honestly, that's how itstarted.
I just would tell them all,like, hey, you know, I am new.
If I, you know, left somethingoff or I didn't put something in
there, please just let me know.
And, you know, they they allwere very welcoming.
They all, you know, were veryhelpful.
But yeah, for probably the first10, 15 deals, yeah, it was, you

(09:23):
know, I was 12 by five.
Yeah, yeah.
I'd call the broker a lot.
I'd ask questions, you know,hey, you know, about this.
I would do a ton of classes thathad to do with contracts and
things.
I didn't want to mess up mycontracts.
I used a transaction coordinatorfor the first, you know, several
because I wanted to make surethat, you know, I'm not missing
anything.
I'm not getting my clients introuble.
You know, I also would ask otheragents, you know, just that I

(09:45):
hadn't met, like in networkingevents, things like that, you
know, can I see like a copy ofyour, your contracts?
And just, I mean, I justliterally just used whatever I
could to figure it out.
And then I got about a year in.
At this point, it's been myfirst year.
Uh, y'all mentioned it the otherday.
I had sold 30 something homes myfirst year.
And I had posted on Instagramand I was kind of disappointed

(10:05):
in myself because there weresome other agents that I
followed, you know, likeinfluencer type agents that, you
know, gave the impression that,man, you know, they're selling
like 100 homes a year.
So I was like, man, I suck.
Like, how can I get to be wherethey're at?
This is when I met JJ andreached out to me, had coffee
with him.
He ended up so that so a year inis when I got my first mentor.

(10:28):
Like the first year was totallyon my own.
Like, I I really feel like I hadto kind of like just like they
sink or swim.
Sink or swim.
Yeah, I think it's like, likethey're gonna throw you out
there in the water and it'syou're gonna figure it out or
not.

SPEAKER_07 (10:43):
So pause right there before we get into the second
year.
I want to go back to the firstyear and and see if there's any
lessons that others could pickup with the first two groups
that you're with.
The first one being relatives,and and obviously, lesson is
it's tough to work with family,it's not impossible.
I've done it a couple of times.

(11:04):
Yeah, but yes, it is closer thanneeding to be for a business
type concept that emotions startgetting involved.
Even things from the past startbringing why?
Because they know, you know.
Yeah, what was going on in that?
If you feel comfortable, if youdon't feel comfortable, by all
means you do not have to move onto the phone.
So I don't know.
Okay, well, there you go.
Yeah.
I mean if you see this, you knowshe made it, baby.

SPEAKER_01 (11:29):
Yeah, definitely.
It it's a it's a trickysituation.
I mean, we started off.
I've I've been with in thefamily for 17 years, so we were
very close.
Over the years, we would havelittle issues, you know.
So I kind of I should haveknown.

SPEAKER_07 (11:43):
Sure.

SPEAKER_01 (11:44):
You know, I should have known it wouldn't work out,
but maybe the red flags wereorange, not yet.
Yeah, yeah.
They were light red.
So I should have known.
But I just think that we theonly thing that I would say is
if you're gonna work with familyand you've haven't and you've
already kind of realized overthe years that y'all can kind of
butt heads a little bit, don'tdo it.

(12:06):
You know, there are plenty ofteams and things that you can
join that, you know, will help.
I never was on a team because Ididn't make it, but you know, I
mean, I didn't, I couldn't doit.

SPEAKER_07 (12:18):
And that that's totally fine.
Like I go back to when youwalked out of the office the
first time, I said, man, she'sgonna be high maintenance, but
that one's gonna be worth it.
And the reason I know that andcould have sensed that day one,
the questions you were asking,the the openness to which you
were willing to receive theinformation and the

(12:39):
relentlessness to ask follow-upquestions after that, just in
one session, tells me, okay,that that's a real one.
She really is going to buy intowhat we are doing and she's
going to become a student ofthis game.
Yeah.
Does that make sense?
Yeah.
So yeah, I mean, the idea ofworking with family is tough,

(13:00):
but at the same time working ona team versus not, that's
something that folks out thereare gonna have to determine on
their own.

SPEAKER_01 (13:07):
Definitely.
I think that, you know, thereare so many, there are so many
different personality types inreal estate.

SPEAKER_04 (13:14):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (13:14):
I just don't work on a team, you know, but that
doesn't mean that otherswouldn't, you know.
I recommend them 100%.
I get mentors, I mean, I get Imentor some new agents that come
into EXP and I and I let themknow, like, hey, I'm here if you
have any questions, if you needto reach out.
Yeah.
But if you want like thatside-by-side hand holding, you
might prefer a team, you know.

(13:36):
It's they're not bad.
They're just they're justdifferent.
It's a different way of goingabout the business.
They'll, you know, like they'll,you know, give you leads,
they'll give you mentorship,they'll teach you, they'll train
you, they'll do all the things.
And some people, you know, dobetter like that.
I just am, you know, a kind ofperson that's like, look, I'm,
you know, painfully independent.
And it's not, you know, but butyeah, I mean, there's nothing

(13:59):
wrong with teams for sure.

SPEAKER_07 (14:00):
So we learned a little bit about the first.
Now, how about the second?
What was going on with them?

SPEAKER_03 (14:05):
Oh man.

SPEAKER_07 (14:06):
With you, with them, it could have been you, could
have been it's not me, it's you,it's you, it's me.
I don't know.
So what happened?
Things that we can learn.

SPEAKER_01 (14:14):
Yeah.
I just think we just need to becareful, you know, just kind of
like who we choose to putourselves around.
I, you know, I don't haveanything bad to say, or I don't
really want to, you know, youknow, but I just I think that as
long as we're mindful of ourenvironment and who and we know
ourselves enough to know wherewe fit in and where we don't,

(14:37):
and leaving, you know, when youdon't feel welcome anymore.
Yeah.
You know, that's that's reallyall I can say about it.
I mean, I'm not saying, youknow, anyone's to blame or any
one part was more the problem.
It's just I'm a kind of personthat it's like when I when it's
I'm not feeling it anymore, I'mout.
Like it's just just like that.

SPEAKER_07 (14:57):
And I can also you tell me if I'm wrong in this
without you saying much aboutthat situation.
I feel it may have been asituation to where you're
joining their group, but you arealso the one that is running
circles around the concept of Iwant more, I want to learn more,
I want to do more.
Who's going to show me more?

unknown (15:19):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (15:20):
I don't know if that's true, but I mean, yes and
no, a little bit.
I mean, without, you know, goingtoo much into it, it it kind of
became an environment of maybethey thought they were taking in
someone who wasn't capable orwhatever.
And my personality is just likeIt's time to move on.

(15:40):
I hit the ground running and I'mlike, like you said, I want
more.
I like the sky's the limit forme.
I don't settle for just, youknow, sitting around and having
someone feed me.
Like, like if I say this a lot,like it's you know, it's a
little irrelevant, but it's kindof irrelevant.
It's like if you don't set mysoul on fire, I don't want to be
even anywhere near you.

SPEAKER_07 (16:00):
Like, oh that's a great way to look at it,
actually.

SPEAKER_01 (16:02):
You know, yeah, like to me, it's like if I'm not, you
know, constantly feeling like,you know, for one, that the vibe
is good, but also to feelinglike I'm welcome.
It just became it just became ayou know kind of a point where
you know that it was a coupleand you know, they were just a
little bit like too much goingon.

SPEAKER_07 (16:25):
Yes, not enough time for malicious.

SPEAKER_01 (16:26):
Too much going on, yeah.
And it just it just, you know, Ijust had to go.
I had to part ways, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (16:32):
So now here you are, one year into the business,
setting your soul on fire andSan Antonio in your in your way.
What does year two look like?
You mentioned it's time to get acoach, a mentor, something.
Someone that is in the businessthat can look bird's eye view,
tell me what I'm doing right,what I'm doing wrong, what I can

(16:53):
focus on.
I would assume because youwanted at least a repeat of the
previous year.

SPEAKER_01 (16:59):
No, I wanted better.
I mean, a repeat was like boringto me.
Like a repeat was like, no, andwhich I am kind of like at a
repeat of last year, and I stillfeel like, you know, I don't
know.
So yeah, I wanted, I wanted tofind that one that was gonna
teach me how to sell a hundredhouses a year, you know.
I wanted to, and I didn't evenknow I was looking for a mentor

(17:20):
at the time.
Like when he reached out, I wasover at a brokerage where it's
you're on your own.
Like it's a cloud-basedbrokerage.
There is, I mean, it's nothing.
You show up every day or youdon't.
No one cares.
Like no one's gonna check in onyou, no one's gonna ask how
you're doing.
That's it.
You you do it or you don't.
And I and I thought it was fine,you know.
I I said, well, you know, I cando this.
And I was doing it.

(17:41):
I was I was doing fine.
He reached out and I met withhim a couple of times and and
just just he holds me soaccountable.
Yeah.
Like I can't, I can't get awaywith anything.
Like there, I can't just, youknow, say, oh, well, I'm trying.
Like, yeah, right, try harder.

SPEAKER_07 (17:58):
You know, let me ask, you're paying at this
point, correct?

SPEAKER_01 (18:01):
No, I'm not paying.
Still.

SPEAKER_07 (18:02):
Okay.
Then that is a mentor.

SPEAKER_01 (18:05):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (18:05):
1000%.

SPEAKER_01 (18:07):
Yeah, definitely.
Like he, you know, if I wouldtell him, oh, I have a problem
or, you know, whatever, he'slike, Well, what are you, what
are you doing to, you know,about the problem?
How did you get here?
How can you fix it?
How can you make sure it doesn'thappen again?
You know, just being heldaccountable on a different
level.
Cause like last year I just waslike winging it.
I just was kind of like, yeah,whatever, you know.

(18:28):
And then the next year it wasmore so of like, well, where do
you want to be in 12 months?
And I'm like, well, I don'tknow.
And he's like, Well, what do youmean you don't know?
Well, how, you know, and and soI just was forced to go like a
different direction and likereally plan and not just show up
every day and wing it, not just,well, okay, well, what are your
goals?
And then I would say, Well,these are my goals.
And he's like, Well, how are yougonna get there?
And then, well, what are yougonna do to get to that?

(18:49):
And then what I'm like, youknow, I had not thought about
that.

SPEAKER_07 (18:52):
Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 (18:53):
He's like, Well, then you're not gonna get there,
right?

SPEAKER_07 (18:55):
And I'm like, Okay, you know now that's literally
the question I was gonna ask youis had you not stumbled upon
this mentor, JJ, do you thinkyou would have at least repeat
what you did?
And second part to that, wouldyou still have your sanity?

SPEAKER_01 (19:14):
Oh, sanity, no.
So my brain was fried last year.
I remember there would be therewould be times when you know I'd
have two or three pendingtransactions and I literally
would just like want to cry.
I mean, there are so manydeadlines and dates and you
know, things that, you know, andI would just my brain just felt

(19:36):
fried.
And now my brain's peaceful.
I, you know, I talk to Nicoleall the time, and I'm like, you
know, my brain's peaceful.
I I have systems that handlethese things.
I have, you know, checkliststhat I look at to where that I'm
I'm not constantly trying, did Iforget this?
What am I supposed to be doing?
You know, it's it's automatednow.
So that's something that waslearned.

(19:58):
Last year I didn't have that.
Last year it was just figure itout, you know?
And so yeah, I think that wouldI have been the same, probably.
I, you know, because I do, youknow, it's just me.
I probably would have, you know,still get it.
Yeah, one way or the other, youknow, hard the hard way or not,
but definitely it's changed justlike my quality of life of doing

(20:20):
that.
Because now I can have I havesix pending transactions right
now and I don't even think aboutit.
Right.
You know, I have a set time thatI look at it on the calendar
every day, I do what needs to bedone, and then it's out of my
mind.
I if I hadn't have learned thosethings, I don't know how long I
could have stayed on thattrajectory.
Like it, I probably would haveburnt out really quickly.

SPEAKER_07 (20:39):
Yeah.
And and we talk about theburnout that both lenders and
realtors have when they'regrinding.
And without the team and withoutthe roadmap and plan to get to
where you're going, the it italmost takes over you.
Uh that is that becomes youinstead of, like you said, I'm

(21:00):
me, this is my business, and mybusiness runs this way, type
concept.
And and I wanted to emphasizethat for the listeners.
I hope that you would answer itthat right that way, because in
my opinion, the folks that dofigure those things out are able
to prosper for a longer.

SPEAKER_03 (21:19):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (21:19):
Because of the sanity piece.
That's why I added that secondto it.

SPEAKER_03 (21:23):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (21:24):
In regards to systems and processes, what are
some of those things?
And you touched on them a littlebit, but what are some of those
things that could possibly helpthis newer generation of
realtors that are getting in?
Maybe they're having some goodluck, some good fortune, and
closing some deals and wantingto do more, but they don't have

(21:45):
any systems in place.
They're not looking at thecouple of months down the road,
if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 (21:53):
A few of them, definitely.
Number one is your GoogleCalendar.
Okay.
If last year I didn't even use aGoogle Calendar, I mean, I would
just say, Oh, I have anappointment on this day.
Hopefully I remember it.
Yeah.
You know, so your GoogleCalendar is huge.
Time blocking things are huge.
You can't allow people to justsuck the life out of you and
expect you to be everywhere allthe time, you know, responding

(22:16):
to everything.
So you set aside certain timesthat I'm going to respond to
these things.
One thing JD says all the timeis nothing is going to kill a
residential deal in 24 hours.
So if I'm at, you know, like abirthday party or whatever,
before I would have been like,oh my God, I got to respond
right now, you know?
Now it's like, okay, I have acertain time that I look at

(22:38):
these and I will respond whenit's that time.
You know, I have a certain timethat there's another system that
I created on the Google, GoogleFiles or whatever it is, Google
Docs or something like that,where I put each, he sent me
like a checklist and he and heeven laughed because I had to
make it my own.
I just couldn't do it the waythey did it.
But I put it into like a Google,like these Google Docs, and then

(23:00):
I put, you know, the theperson's name, the client's
name, address, and then just allthe dates, like important dates
on there, you know, and it'sit's literally like 30 things
long.
So when you have a whole bunchof pending transactions,
whatever's in red needs to beaddressed.
So every day at a certain time,I look at it and I say, okay,
this is in red.
Am I able to find this today?
If not, we look at it againtomorrow.

(23:21):
I I forget about it.
It's out of my mind, you know,once I look at it.
So that's that's one system thatI couldn't could not do real
estate without that one.
My Google Calendar, the tasksection on your Google Calendar.
I didn't even know about ituntil probably six months ago.
You can create a task.
And then instead of trying toput it all in your notes or

(23:42):
write it on a piece of paper andlose it and things like that,
the task section has been hugefor me.
Every day I look at that tasksection.
I say, what can I, what can Ido?
What needs to be moved to thenext the next day, et cetera,
whatever.
And then as soon as you're done,you can clear them out.
And then being able to see allthe tasks we cleared out does
something to your brain.
Like it really does.
And then probably aside from aCRM, CRM's huge, you know,

(24:07):
following up with people.
If you don't follow up withthem, you're gonna forget about
them.
I closed deals sometimes that Imet seven months ago.
You know, and if if you meetthem one time, then you forget
about them, like they're gonnafind another realtor.
It's just that simple.
They're not gonna care to reachout to you later unless you're
their friend or whatever.

SPEAKER_07 (24:21):
And even unless they've got your loan bot.

SPEAKER_01 (24:24):
Um, so yeah, that the CRM and following up.
And then lastly, I would say ismy lead tracker.

unknown (24:30):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (24:31):
It's it's just a document I got from another
realtor.
It's a, it's, it's literallyjust being able to see a list of
what leads have come in and whoare they and where are they at?
Like what's going on with it.
So I put little notes on theside of it, I switch it out
every month.
And then sometimes I'll go backto the months before and call
them and just check in on themand I'll put it in different

(24:52):
colors and I'll say, like, ifthis is someone that's, you
know, they're approved, they'reready to go right now, like I'm
gonna check in with them daily.
So that's in a different color.
If they are, you know, someonethat's like, oh, I was just kind
of wondering how it is, blah,blah, blah, whatever, maybe
checking with them every coupleof weeks or, you know, once a
month, maybe even every threemonths, just depending on the
conversation.
So the lead tracker, the GoogleCalendar, the task section on

(25:15):
your Google Calendar, and thenthat thing that I created, I
saved my life.

SPEAKER_07 (25:19):
So basically sitting down, looking at your business
from a bird's eye view andgoing, okay, what things need to
be delegated, automated, set onautopilot?
What can I use technology for toleverage to make me a better
producer, wife, parent, etcetera?
So for the folks listening outthere, one simple way to start

(25:42):
something like this, and itdoesn't even need to be super
intricate, but I used to do thispractice with our loan officers,
and I would have them create acould do, should do, and must do
column, like uh three separatecolumns.
And each week or each day,however often you'd like to do
it, you go in and you list allthe things that you could do

(26:04):
this week or this day to makeyour business better, to get
another buyer, shopper, seller,et cetera.
Then from that column, you movesome over that you should do
today, this week, et cetera.
And then from that column, youmove over the things that are
must-dos.
And you start with your must-dosand move to your could do's.

(26:26):
And then you at the end of theday, you go, okay, did I do
everything that I should havedone, could have done, and must
have done type concept.
And it's just an easy way to goabout what you're talking about,
yeah, which then turns into atime-blocked, consistent needle
moving practice that I do everyday at this time, etc., without

(26:49):
exceptions.

SPEAKER_03 (26:49):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (26:50):
Yeah.
So we're still in your secondyear, we're going strong.
What is this year like?
Without talking about systems,what is this year like for you
being in the market that we'rein and painting the picture or
framing the market?
We're in an affordabilitycrisis.

(27:10):
We are dealing with whatconsumers believe are higher
interest rates because they'restill comparing them to our
2020, 2023.
And we're short on inventory onthe pre-owned side, but the new
construction's giving awayeverything.
What is today's world like foryou and getting deals done?

SPEAKER_01 (27:32):
So I feel like everyone has their own
situation.
Everyone is different.
I definitely have seen theissues with, you know, not
having a lot of pre-ownedinventory.
I think my biggest hurdle hasbeen these lower pre-approval
amounts, which are notnecessarily low.
They're just low for what wecurrently have.

(27:53):
And so I just I just try to makeit work.
So I didn't, I didn't reallysell very much new build at all
until kind of more recently.
I was very predominantlypre-owned.
But I just kind of look at atthe situation as a whole.
And I so in weddings, I was aphotographer, a florist, and a

(28:14):
coordinator.
And as a coordinator, as awedding coordinator, I don't
look at the problem.
I look at like, what are wegonna do to fix this?
You know, I tell my kids all thetime, if you're not part of the
solution, you're part of theproblem.

SPEAKER_07 (28:26):
Amen to that.

SPEAKER_01 (28:26):
So I don't want to be part of the problem.
I want to be part of thesolution.
So every person that I meet thatexplains their situation,
whether it's I need thispayment, I need these closing
costs, I need, you know,whatever the case, I say, okay,
well, let's figure out how we'regonna make this work.
I don't want to tell someonelike, oh, I'm sorry, you just
can't buy a house.
Right now, sometimes that is thecase.
There's nothing that I can doabout that.

(28:47):
But for the most part, the onesthat can, we do, you know, and
we don't just figure it out upfront.
I mean, like, we don't just giveup right away if it's not easy.
Most of them are not easy.
Right.
You know, every now and then wemay get lucky and get an easy
one.
But, you know, most of them arehard and they take a little, you
know, work and and movingaround.
But it's so new build definitelydoes offer a lot of incentives.

(29:09):
But I'm very upfront with withmy clients.
Like, hey, are you planning onselling this new build within
the next three years orsomething?
And if they're like, no, I wantto live here forever, I'm like,
okay, the new build may be agood idea for you.

SPEAKER_03 (29:21):
Right.

SPEAKER_01 (29:21):
But if you meet someone that's like, oh, I'm not
planning on living this forever,you know, I just want this to
kind of be like my starter home,whatever.
I'm like, how soon are wetalking?
Because you're not gonna sellthat thing.
You know, you're gonna becompeting against the builder
and their incentives, and you'reyou're gonna be stuck here for a
while.
Well, I'm glad you had thatconversation.
Oh, a thousand percent.

SPEAKER_02 (29:36):
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 (29:38):
No, that's exactly the last two or three uh shows.
People are saying that therealtors and with the sales
contract aren't being upfrontabout that.
Yeah, yep.
That's exactly right.
Wow.

SPEAKER_01 (29:47):
Yeah, I'm a thousand percent.
I tell everyone, it's I evenkind of jokingly tell people you
may not like everything that I'mgonna say, but I'm gonna tell
you the truth.

SPEAKER_07 (29:56):
That I'm very very proud.
That you say that.
Weird to be proud, but but a lotof folks are scared to say that.

SPEAKER_03 (30:06):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (30:06):
A lot of folks are scared to say the truth.

SPEAKER_03 (30:08):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (30:09):
But I feel as though the ones that are serious about
their craft, serious about beingthe best at their craft, have
almost a fiduciaryresponsibility to being honest
about those things.

SPEAKER_01 (30:24):
A thousand percent we do because even just two
years in, most of my businesscomes from repeat clients or
referrals from those pastclients.
If you want to be transactionaland maybe sell a deal every now
and then, fine, whatever.
Go lie and say whatever you wantto say.
Right.
But if you're expecting thesepeople to come back and trust
you, like I meet these people myfriends, like part of my family.

(30:47):
And I truly, truly mean it.
Like I don't just meet if I meetsomeone and I don't like them,
it's obvious.
Like I don't have a, you know, Idon't, I, I don't have a, you
know, a good poker face.
It's like if I meet you and wedon't, you know, really mesh
well, you'll know it.
So the people that I meet and Ijust absolutely love, I loved

(31:08):
weddings.
I used to tell the people at theweddings all the time, like,
man, I feel like I'm moreexcited than y'all are.
Like, so when you when you trulycare about people, I I made a I
make videos all the time, butone of the videos that I made,
it's I said, you know, when youtruly love like what you do,
it's not hard to sell, you know.
I'm selling myself because it'sreal.

(31:28):
And and like I say, you may notlike everything that I say, but
I'm gonna tell you the truth.
And there's times where I havethose hard conversations with my
clients where I'm just like, I'mnot gonna lie to you.
No, that's not gonna work.
And no, you know, they're like,oh, I want to put in no, you
know, and but they love that.
They love me for that.
They come back, they I, youknow, I send them cookies to

(31:50):
their kids on their birthdaysbecause I'm just like, I just
really love these people.

SPEAKER_07 (31:54):
That's right.

SPEAKER_01 (31:54):
And the ones that I don't, they know it.

SPEAKER_07 (31:56):
They know it.
That's right.
And and not everyone is a goodfit, not not every deal is a
good deal.
It's not worth losing yoursanity or the way that you do
business, which essentially isyour foundation, your beliefs,
your structure, your missionstatement, all of the things
that you can say that you standfor when you do business, yeah,

(32:17):
it would be untrue to that.

SPEAKER_01 (32:19):
So I tell people, you know, say I go to a listing
appointment and this house isnot gonna sell.
I I say, look, I'm not in thebusiness of just putting my sign
in your yard and then you hatingme later.
You know, I would rather youhear the truth up front.
Right.
And or same thing if I'm goingto put in an offer and they're
like, Well, can we offer$50,000under?
And then I say, Look, you know,no, let's be realistic.

SPEAKER_07 (32:42):
We can, but do you not want to hear back from the
sellers?

SPEAKER_01 (32:44):
That's why I say, are you a serious buyer or not?
You know, like are you arewhat's like what's our end game?
Are we trying to get thisaccepted?

SPEAKER_04 (32:51):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (32:52):
You know, and and they appreciate that, you know,
but it's it's really just thetruth.
I, you know, I I've never had aproblem with the truth.
No, me neither.
You know, I I'm very like, youknow, it's whatever.
And I I guess that that thatworks.
But yeah, so pretty much that'skind of where I've been.

SPEAKER_07 (33:08):
It it really does work.
I speaking from someone thatoperates business the same way.
I've got customers that love mebecause of that, and then I've
got customers that don't takewell, but we don't end up
working together, and that'sokay with me because at the end
of the day, I'm going to giveyou your real advice.
I'm going to paint the realpicture for you.

(33:29):
I don't want you to come back tome.
I'd rather you come back to mebecause you went with someone
else and say, hey, you wereright.
Yeah.
Versus you sticking with me andsaying you were absolutely
incorrect because I wanted toget the business.

SPEAKER_01 (33:42):
Yeah.
And that happened recently.
I don't know if you saw my post,right?

SPEAKER_07 (33:45):
No, tell me.

SPEAKER_01 (33:45):
Today I turned.
Matter of fact, tell us.
Yeah.
So recently I had posted onFacebook that today I was going
to tell the story of how Iturned down a showing that last
year I bet I'm not a showing, alisting.
Okay.
That last year I begged for.
Okay.
I literally begged the lady.

SPEAKER_07 (34:00):
Tell us about it.

SPEAKER_01 (34:01):
Okay.
So last year it was pretty earlyon.
Now, just because of thetraining and things that I've
had, I would say that I'm anexpert in listings.
Like I know them pretty well.
Last year, buying a house is notthe same as sell like the
listing side.
They're two totally differentthings.
So I wasn't great at it.

(34:21):
I kind of knew how to run comps,and that was about it.
You know, like literally thatwas it.
So if I went to a listingappointment, you know, I would
be like, sure, you know, like,yeah, I'll sell it.
And and maybe I did or maybe Ididn't, you know.
Now I can pretty much predict ifI can sell this house or not.
I can tell the seller about howlong it's going to take me to
get it sold.
I could, you know, there'sthere's so many aspects that go

(34:44):
into selling a home.
So last year I get a call from alady.
I I actually go and I meet withher.
I'm sorry, I called her.
It was a for sale by owner.
I actually I went to go meetwith her.
She was priced, she wanted aprice way too high.
And I didn't care.
I was like, what do I need to doto get this listing?
I'll cut my commission.
Like, just tell me, like, whatis it?

(35:05):
And she was like, I'll let youknow.
And I thought, I thought themeeting went well.
Like, I really thought she wasgonna hire me.
I met her and, you know, we hada conversation for like an hour
and a half long.
I really was convinced she wasgonna hire me.
She never did.
A year, and I followed up withher every couple of months,
ignored me.
She would not respond to mycall, she wouldn't respond to my
text, but I would periodicallylook online to see if it had
sold and it hadn't.

SPEAKER_04 (35:26):
Right.

SPEAKER_01 (35:26):
I really wanted the listing.

SPEAKER_04 (35:27):
Okay.

SPEAKER_01 (35:28):
So a year, a little over a year, goes by, and I get
a call the other day and it'sher.
And I was like, oh wow, likeweird.
Um, so I figured maybe she wasgonna ask me about something
else.
No, she still hadn't sold thishouse.

SPEAKER_07 (35:41):
Which you knew.

SPEAKER_01 (35:42):
I knew.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (35:44):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (35:44):
So she calls and she says, Hi, you know, I still
haven't sold my house.
And, you know, I've had it onthe market, and I'm, you know,
I'm about to have to pay taxesagain, I'm about to have to pay
insurance again, and you know,and it's just too much.
And, you know, I really need toget it sold.
So I was like, oh wow, like Ican't believe she called me
back.
So I tell her, you know what,let me go run some numbers again

(36:08):
and you know, I'll give you acall back.
I go, I do a CMA on it, and Icall her back and I'm like, you
know, this is the range that youcan sell in.
These are how many activelistings you're competing
against in the neighborhood,these are how many have sold in
12 months.
You know, I'm telling her allthese things, and she's still
adamant on keeping that higher,that higher price.

SPEAKER_07 (36:28):
What was her reasoning or logic behind that?

SPEAKER_01 (36:31):
She owed, she owed some money and she wanted to be
able to pay that off and stillhave, you know, after closing
costs and everything, she wantedto still be able to have a good
amount of money left over.
And then she said, Well, and Iand I so I was explaining it to
her line by line, like these aregonna be your closing costs and
you know, things like that.
And then she said, Well, youtold me last time that you would
cut your commission.
And I said, That's cute.

(36:52):
Yeah.
And I go, unfortunately, like II'm number one, I'm not gonna
cut my commission, but numbertwo, I still don't want, I still
am not a good fit for thislisting.
Right.
And I said, I I really, youknow, wish you well.
Let me know if you ever, youknow, have any questions or need
anything from me.
But it's just, you know,unfortunately for me or, you
know, for you or whatever, butthis listing just isn't gonna

(37:13):
be, I'm not gonna take it.
And she, you know, she was like,Oh, okay, well, thank you for
letting me know and things.
But it's crazy be how we go fullcircle because like I said last
year, I literally was beggingthis lady.
I was in the driveway with hersaying, so what do I gotta do?
You know, I mean, I was like, isit the commission?
Is it is it this?
Like, you know, and and I'll letyou know, I'll let you know.
Here we are, and I've reallymastered my craft, which I still

(37:36):
have a lot to learn, of course.

SPEAKER_05 (37:37):
You're a student to the game, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 (37:39):
You know, but I I've I'm just a total different agent
than I was in that time.
And now I'm like, not only I'mnot gonna cut my commission, I'm
not even gonna take thatlisting.

SPEAKER_07 (37:47):
You know, well, a couple of things from that story
that I'd like to dig in deeper.
First off, the idea of youcutting your commissions because
it's being asked that leads meto the NAR settlement thing.
When that was going on, you werestill in your first year.

(38:09):
Was that scaring the hell out ofyou?
Did you know what was going on?
Did anybody kind of prefacethat, hey, we're in Texas, we
already kind of do somethinglike that, make sure to state
your value.

SPEAKER_01 (38:20):
Yeah.
It didn't really scare mebecause it's kind of like all I
knew.
You know what I mean?
They were already talking aboutit like right when I got my
license.
This is this is kind of theyhadn't made the actual decision
yet, correct?
But they figured it was gonna gothat way.
So they were kind of alreadylike any of like the broker
meetings and stuff we wouldhave, they would say, you know,
this is the direction we're kindof already taking anyway.

(38:40):
So I mean, I just I didn't evenknow any different.

SPEAKER_05 (38:43):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (38:44):
So, and I guess like the first few deals when I would
put in an offer, I'd call rightaway and I'd say, Hey, I just
want to know how much commissionyou're offering, and you know,
this and that.
And and then I started torealize, like, look, I'm gonna
put in the offer, you know,whatever.
And and then this happenedrecently, and I actually had the
conversation with the lady aboutwith the NAR about the NAR
settlement.

SPEAKER_04 (39:03):
Okay.

SPEAKER_01 (39:04):
I went to put in an offer last week.
And in the offer, I put mindyou, the house had been on the
market for over a year.
I gave a really good offer.
I went in full price.
I only asked for a little bit ofwhatever our max concessions,
but it's um, you know, it was aconventional loan.
So yeah, so it wasn't much.
Yeah.
So it wasn't much on theconcessions, and then I asked

(39:25):
for my 3% so that my buyerdoesn't have to pay for it.
Mind you, I wouldn't make mybuyer pay for it.
But anyway, and I put in my 3%.
Well, this lady is an actualbroker and reaches out to me and
says, you know, we accept youroffer as is.
Five minutes later, she's like,actually, there's gonna be a
couple of there are gonna be acouple of changes.
One of them is we're onlyoffering two and a half percent,
and the other one is we're notgonna pay for a survey.

(39:48):
And I said, so we went kind ofback and forth for a minute and
I and I explained to her, youknow, had we known, she said,
you should have called me upfront and asked me what we were
offering.
I said, first of all, whatyou're offering is irrelevant to
me.

SPEAKER_05 (39:59):
Agree.

SPEAKER_01 (40:00):
My 3% that I'm gonna ask for is a package deal based
on data of the offer.
I don't care what you'reoffering up front.
I'm going to look at how longhas this home been on the
market?
How good of an offer am I am Igiving?
And I'm gonna put my 3% inthere.
And then you as an agent shouldbe educating your seller on the

(40:20):
benefits of accepting my offer.
Not, well, we agreed to beginwith that it would, I don't care
what y'all agreed with to beginwith.
And I even explained, I said,you know, with EXP, we don't do
broker-to-broker compensationanyway.
I said, so you're welcome toamend your listing agreement
because she's and then shethrows in, well, I lowered mine
and I that was on you, ma'am.
Yeah.
I said, you know, I said, I lovehow you discounted yours and

(40:41):
were willing to discount mine.
I said, but you know,unfortunately, I feel like you
would be misleading your clientif you let him think that this
was the norm because there is nonorm.
That's right.
And you also are kind of failinghim if you don't explain to him
the benefit of accepting thisoffer.

SPEAKER_07 (40:56):
That's on the table.
That's right.

SPEAKER_01 (40:57):
You know, in with all of the details at hand,
you've been on the market over ayear.
Yep.
You know, are you turning awaygood offers based on half a
percent?

SPEAKER_07 (41:06):
Right.

SPEAKER_01 (41:06):
You know, and so she ended up accepting.

SPEAKER_07 (41:09):
Yes.
When there is literally amountain of cash waiting for
your seller.

SPEAKER_01 (41:14):
I told her I said I have a ready, willing, and able
buyer.
That's right.
If you want it or not, and sheaccepted my offer.

SPEAKER_07 (41:19):
Ready, willing, and able.
I've always said that is buyershave to be three things.
They have to be ready, willing,and able.
If they're not one of thosethings, you're not gonna get
them across the finish line.
I'm glad you said that.

SPEAKER_01 (41:28):
Yeah, I can't take credit.
JJ says all the time.
It's not a lead unless they'rewilling and able.
But yeah, so she accepted myoffer.

SPEAKER_07 (41:34):
Yeah.
So in that instance of thenegotiation back and forth,
number one, you're right.
You don't have to call her, evenif you did, and she said, Yeah,
we're offering two and a half,you submitted at three.
Absolutely.
So that means nothing.
Is it a courtesy?
I I don't know.
I don't even think it is acourtesy.
I don't think it is.
I don't because you guysnegotiate on contracts.

(41:56):
Yeah, you don't have to.

SPEAKER_01 (41:57):
And if someone called me as a listing agent and
asked me, what are you offering?
I wouldn't give them an answer.
That's right.
Submit your offer.
Submit your offer and we willlook at it as a whole.
Yeah.
So I just kind of do the samething, you know.
I there is no standard the wayshe, you know, made it seem.

SPEAKER_07 (42:13):
Right.
No, and I totally agree withthat.
Do you think that let's saysomeone in your position of last
year, your first year in thebusiness, the way you were
trying to get that listing so sobad, cutting your commission and
throwing everything at it tocapture that business.
Do you think that there's a lotof that going on, which is

(42:35):
spreading the narrative oflowering the realtor's value?
Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_01 (42:42):
Yeah.
I mean, yeah, I do think thereis a lot of that going on.
I think that, you know, a lot ofagents think that some business
is better than no business.
And I, and and I'm not sayingI've never cut my commission.
You know, I have.
There are times where, you know,my seller doesn't have enough
with the offer that's can't comein to, you know, close without
paying out of their pocket.

(43:02):
And, you know, we're gonna gobuy as well.
So, you know what I mean?
I've I've I've I make it workfor them because ultimately they
are the most important.
Yeah, of course, I I want to bepaid for my my work, but I don't
want to put my clients in a badplace, you know.
So I have lowered my commissionbefore, but I also don't think

(43:23):
that all business is goodbusiness.
There's some times when it'sjust not a good, you know, fit
or it's just not a good, and Idon't think that lowering it
lowers our value so much becauseany any person who has bought or
sold will tell you that a goodreal estate agent is worth their
weight in gold.

SPEAKER_05 (43:41):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (43:42):
Because most, not most, but a lot of agents, and I
know because I've worked on theother side of them, don't have a
clue of what they're doing.

SPEAKER_07 (43:50):
Right.

SPEAKER_01 (43:51):
And and I'm not saying that like I'm the best or
I'm the smartest or anythinglike that.
I still have a lot to learn.
I've said that.
Yeah.
But there are a lot of peoplethat are just kind of like
flying by in the seat of theirpants, and you know, and a lot
of these questions that they askor things that they'll put on
the contract.
And but I mean, I know that Iwas in that place at one time.
So I, you know, I'm kind aboutit, but I can just see like

(44:12):
overall, like a lot of peoplejust like there are a set of
good ones, and then there's therest.
Yes.
You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05 (44:19):
Yeah, I do.

SPEAKER_01 (44:19):
So yeah, all real estate agents know.
I don't think that everyoneshould be, and I've I've said
this before, there are some thatkind of like do it part-time and
their family know that they'reagents and maybe throw a deal in
their lap every few months orwhatever.
But the ones that are workingevery single day, you know,
hours on hours on hours onhours, we're sacrificing.
I feel like, yeah, we should bepaid because I work hard and I

(44:41):
make sure that they're getting agood deal and I fight for my
clients.
And there's a lot of things thatI use my experience to prevent
them from some muddy waters, youknow.
A lot of agents wouldn't knowthat.
A lot of them maybe just, youknow, get them to the finish
line and we hope that nothingcomes back and bites them later.
But for the most part, there area lot of things that, you know,

(45:03):
shouldn't make it to the finishline with most people, and they
do because of experience.
Not just my own, but a lot ofpeople, you know.
I there are times where, youknow, like I said last year, I
wasn't, you know, like thegreatest.
I didn't really know what I wasdoing.
And those listing agents carriedthe whole deal.
You know, they there would besome things that were happening,
and you know, I would have beenlike, all right, well, you know.

SPEAKER_07 (45:23):
And well, I mean, I want to give you a little bit
more credit because you say Iwasn't the greatest.
And no, matter of fact, you canstrive to be the greatest.
That's why I had keep a brassnumber two in my office because
there's always someone better.
So keep chasing, keep improving,keep learning, being a student
to your game.
Because no matter how good youthink you are, there's somebody

(45:44):
better, and that's okay.
You know, who the hell do wehave to learn from if there's
not?

SPEAKER_01 (45:49):
Exactly.

SPEAKER_07 (45:50):
And in the instance of the what are I guess your
first year trying to do what youdid, and and I talked about this
in maybe two discussions ago,the idea of part-time versus
full full-time, and you broughtthat up.

(46:12):
So I want to know your thoughts.
Is this game industry possibleto do part-time?
Go for it.

SPEAKER_01 (46:21):
No, I mean, you you can you can get a license and
you can be broke paying allthose fees that we have if you
want to do it part-time.
And like I said, you may sell ahouse here and there when you
know, like you have a familymember that knows that you do it
and then they bring it to you.
But no, it takes it takesconsistency and follow-up and

(46:43):
hard work every single day.
Yeah.
You know, in one form or theother, whatever it is that each
person chooses as their leadgeneration or whatever, it takes
that every single day.
Because even if, like I said,you sell a couple or whatever,
you're constantly going to, youknow, just have such
inconsistency.
And these fees are expensive.

(47:04):
Absolutely.
You know, so no, I've had peoplethat reach out, you know, that
you know, knew me from beforeand they send me a message like,
hey, I see you're doing sogreat.
Like, I want to get my realestate license and do it like as
a backup or part-time.
And again, and with them, I'mhonest too.
I'm like, good luck.

SPEAKER_05 (47:20):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (47:20):
Good luck.
You know, I mean, it's it's notsome there are it's just there's
so many ins and outs and thingsthat if you don't just really
eat, sleep, and breathe realestate, then you're just gonna
waste a lot of your time.

SPEAKER_07 (47:35):
And I think that is a uh recurring issue that will
continue to plague our industry,which is the idea of the barrier
to entry being so low.
You go take a couple classes,you pass a standardized test,
and guess what?
Yeah, pay a fee and you're arealtor.

SPEAKER_03 (47:50):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (47:51):
But because you have a license, does that, yes, it
gives you the ability to sell,but the are you doing the right
thing for your customer ifyou're not shadowing somebody
that is a top producer doingwhat they're doing, seeing what
they're doing to see if this issomething that you even want to
get into.

SPEAKER_03 (48:11):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (48:12):
But it is such a low barrier to entry that you get in
and like always, we close ourfirst deal that's a family
member, a friend, a closefriend, the sphere of influence
kind.
And it's that was easy.

SPEAKER_02 (48:25):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (48:25):
And then you go down the road, month two, three, and
you're like, wait a minute.
Yeah, where's the business?

SPEAKER_02 (48:31):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (48:32):
So that leads me to my next topic, which is you
being in the business so new.
Where are you getting yourbusiness from, if you don't mind
talking about that?
Because the idea of where youget your business from isn't
going to be the same as anyoneelse.
And even if it is, they arestill different uh pools, if
that makes sense.

(48:52):
Like I say, fish where the fishare.
Well, my fish are in a differentpond than your fish.

SPEAKER_01 (48:57):
Thousand percent.
Yeah.
So when I first started, I hadno idea where to get leads from
or anything like that.
So I did the only thing that Icould think of.
I just pick my phone up and juststart talking into it.

SPEAKER_07 (49:10):
And I that's that's that's gosh, what's his name?
Uh the speaker that I alwaysI've seen twice now.
Oh goodness, you know him.
Everybody, Tom Ferry.
The Tom Ferry saying rightthere.
Yeah.
So pick up your phone and startdialing.

SPEAKER_01 (49:24):
That's I mean, no, not even dialing.
I'm talking about I would justmake videos.

SPEAKER_07 (49:28):
Okay.

SPEAKER_01 (49:28):
Yeah.
So I see that a lot of people,and to each their own, I'm not
judging.
I think, I think the ones thattake a funny approach to it or a
comedic approach to it, great.
Like it works for them.
I mean, I'm pretty funny, likein just a normal setting, but as
far as like being like an actorin a video, like I I don't have
it.
So all I all I knew to do wasjust kind of pick up the phone.
I hold it right out in front ofme.

(49:48):
There's no fancy production,anything like that.
And I just would start giving asmuch information as I could.
So I would teach as I learned.
So from day one, and then one ofmy biggest things that I've
focused on since I've got intoreal estate is I was also a
first-time homebuyer justrecently, you know, and and
there's like this big myth thatit's so hard to buy a house and

(50:11):
you need 20% down, and you gottahave an 800 credit score and you
gotta have all of these thingsbecause even that's what I
thought, you know, two years agobefore I bought a house.
Even though I had family membersthat were in real estate, I
didn't have a clue how to buy ahouse.
I never even considered it.
And I'm, you know, I'm in myolder years.
I'm not, you know, my young 20s.

SPEAKER_07 (50:29):
You are a spring chicken still.
So, you know, we're the sameage, so yeah, easy on that.

SPEAKER_01 (50:35):
Well, you know what I mean?
Like I wasn't, I'm not it's notlike I'm this young college
student that's just naive tolife.
Like I'm older, so you wouldhave thought I I knew how to do
it, and I didn't.
So that's kind of the approachthat I took.
When I would learn something, Iwould teach it.
When I would do something, Iwould share it, you know, just
like that, and it's just pickedup.
So I don't get my my businessfrom strangers for the most part

(50:57):
on social media, but juststaying top of mind with people
that already know me, that'swhere it all comes from is you
know, referrals from them or youknow, just them, or now it's
been mainly past clients andrepeat clients.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (51:09):
There you go.
There you go.
And I think a lot of folks arescared to share, like you're
talking about, because thenpeople will go, oh wow, you just
learned that.

SPEAKER_03 (51:19):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (51:19):
Yeah, you may be thinking that, but the person
that saw it that as I'm actuallygonna help respects the fact
that I just shared that.

SPEAKER_03 (51:26):
Yeah.
That was it.

SPEAKER_07 (51:26):
So it's two sides of the token.
The one that is judging probablyisn't looking for business
themselves.

SPEAKER_01 (51:33):
Yeah, probably sitting around doing nothing.

SPEAKER_07 (51:34):
There you go.

SPEAKER_01 (51:35):
Yeah.
So, and I I share it all.
And I even I even say, like,hey, look, I practice what I
preach.
I bought a starter home.
I didn't, I didn't just say,well, I can't buy a$500,000
house, so I'm just gonna stayrenting forever.
No, they told me, y'all actuallytold me you can buy up to
$250,000.
And I wanted to be in thisspecific neighborhood so my kids

(51:57):
can stay in the school becausewe rented the same house for 13
years.
So I said, okay, I have up to$250,000.
I know I need a four-bedroom,two-bath, and I need to be in
this same neighborhood so mykids can go to the same school.
So I had like four houses tochoose from.
There you go.
They weren't nice, but you stilltook that seriously.
I took the opportunity and Ihave fixed my house up to where

(52:18):
I love it.
I tell I say all the time, Idon't think I'll ever sell this
house.
That's awesome.
You know, I did a ton of work onit, and I and I even jokingly
say one paycheck at a time.
Like I built my dream home, onepaycheck at a time.
So I try to share that.
Like, like, look, I'm notstanding up here telling you,
oh, go buy an ugly house.
Like, no, I'm right here withyou guys.
Like, like, come buy a house,whatever you can afford, fix it

(52:40):
up little by little.
And then, you know, if you wantto sell five years down the road
or whatever, leave with yourcheck, and then you can go buy
something bigger.
You posted that before, which Ithought was really cool because
it even gave me hope of like,yeah, that's really cool.
He went from this, and then afew years later he went to this,
and then a few years later hewent to this.
And when you share those things,even people, you know, that I'm
not even looking for thatinformation, but I came up

(53:01):
across it and I was like, that'spretty cool.
You know, same story.
Yeah, and same here with me.
I mean, it's I I'm explaining topeople like, look, I do it, I
did it too.
I'm not here just telling youbecause I'm trying to sell you a
freaking house.
Like, I'm telling you, if youwant to own a home, this is
where we start, and you know,and then we'll get there later.

(53:22):
But, you know, start somewhere.
And some people appreciate itand some don't.
I get a lot of rude comments.
I don't really care.
I delete that.
That's what it is.

SPEAKER_07 (53:29):
You know, you know what?
They they they feed thealgorithm.

SPEAKER_01 (53:32):
I for sure.

SPEAKER_07 (53:32):
Yeah, you know, and I'm glad you kind of brought
that up, which leads me toanother conversation, a bigger
conversation about the and I'vebeen trying to bring this home,
oh gosh, on every otherdiscussion, and hopefully it'll
spread maybe a movement ofpeople and their lack of
understanding or willingness tosacrifice to get what they can

(53:56):
now to work towards what theycouldn't at the time if they're
gonna be.
Yeah, and and the the folks thatwell, I'll start with this.
Are most of the folks thatyou're helping right now, let's
say on the buy side, are theyfolks that truly need some help,

(54:17):
but they're willing to actuallyaccomplish that goal?

SPEAKER_03 (54:21):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (54:22):
And and I and I I I knew that because this market
has bred those type of buyers,all of the ones that rates are
too high.
This is the there are a ton ofpeople that could care less
about the rate right now andwant to own a home so they can
start building some equity andwork towards that next home and
the next home, etc.

(54:43):
But they understand the factthat I've gotta kind of live in
that for now and build up to thenext.
What are you seeing as far asbuyers' expectations and
willingness to compromise inthat aspect?

SPEAKER_01 (55:00):
I love that.
So that's one of the firstconversations that I have with
people.
I went through kind of helluntil I realized look, if you
don't set expectations, you aregoing to be miserable.
So they are and we are.
Okay, very good.
Yeah, they they are and I am,right?
There's there's a big gapbetween reality and and not.

(55:22):
And if you don't set thoseexpect expectations up front,
it's it's gonna be miserable.
So I do get a lot of, you know,buyers that are like, oh, I and
it's not only just first-timehome buyers.
A lot of times it's someone inthe$500,000 range, but they want
a$700,000 looking house, youknow?
They just haven't really kind ofgrasped that.

(55:42):
Look, I don't know what you'reused to, but this is what it is.
And I and I I let them know upfront, there's gonna be a
compromise.

SPEAKER_04 (55:49):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (55:50):
Unless you have an unlimited budget and you can
check every box for your dreamhome, unless you have an
unlimited budget, you're gonnabe have a compromise.
Now, is that compromise gonna beon the location?
Is it gonna be on the size?
Is it gonna be on the age?
Is it gonna be on the upgrades?
Is it gonna be on the, you know,whatever?

SPEAKER_05 (56:05):
Correct.

SPEAKER_01 (56:06):
There's gonna be a if you're not willing to
compromise or you can'tcompromise on your budget, then
be ready to compromise onsomething else.

SPEAKER_05 (56:13):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (56:13):
Don't come and say, I need this, this, this, this,
and this, but I will not goabove this, this amount.
Okay.
Payment.
Then I then I let them knowthat's not gonna happen.
Do you want to find something ordo you not?
Right.
You know, because there is gonnabe a compromise.
Now I can find you, you know, Ican check some of your boxes,
you know, like maybe you say,because like I said, it's not

(56:34):
only the the lower, likefirst-time homebuyer budgets.
It's a lot of times it's likethose$500,000 people too.
They want something that's inlike looking in the$700,000
range.
I want five acres, but the houseneeds to be brand new and this
and that.
And I let them know.
Yeah, or yeah.
So I let them know.
I say, hey, we can, what areyour must-haves?
What are your deal breakers?
And let's work on that.

(56:55):
Yeah.
Because thinking that we'regonna get everything, it's not
gonna happen.
You know, so what is that gonnabe?
Are we going to compromise onthe size of the home?
Are we gonna maybe move a littlefurther out of the city, you
know, kind of on the outskirtsso that we can get something
bigger, maybe a bigger yard, oryou know, a lot of them will say
no HOA.
Okay, well, now you just wipedout half of the inventory.
You know what I mean?
Absolutely.
So what are we, what is the mostimportant to you?

(57:16):
Pick those and let's discussthat, and then we'll see what we
can throw in from down here.
But having that conversation isso important if you don't want
people just to bring you over.

SPEAKER_07 (57:29):
So JC, how much time are we at?

SPEAKER_08 (57:34):
One hour and two minutes.

SPEAKER_07 (57:35):
Okay, so we can wrap this up here in a bit.
But what allows you as asecond-year realtor, the
courage, the cojones, whateverit is, to be able to have that
conversation?
Because that is another thingthat I can tell you it separates
you from any other that doesn'thave that conversation and

(57:59):
spends weeks upon weeks uponnow, it's a month, then another
month, and they still haven'tfound a home.
Why?
Because you haven't set theproper expectations of what
they're even looking for.

SPEAKER_01 (58:11):
Yeah.
One, I mean, it's just mypersonality.
Okay, okay.
Um, but two, I think it justcomes with experience.
It comes with getting tired ofbeing like, oh my God, I'm
exhausted.
Well, you know, this is wherethe mentorship comes in.
You know, I would go to him andbe like, dude, I'm done.
Like, I'm exhausted with it.
And then he would walk methrough it and say, What
expectations are you setting?

(58:31):
Are you having these harderconversations?
And I would be like, No, okay,well, then get out there and
have them or get out of my face,you know?
That's right.
And so the same way he setsthose expectations with me, I
turn around and set thoseexpectations with them because
the same way he doesn't want tohear me complaining about the
same crap over and over.
I also don't want to keep havingthe same conversations over and
over about, you know, oh, butwhy it it doesn't exist.

(58:54):
So let's find what does exist inyour must-haves and in your, you
know, your deal breakers andwhat's most important to you and
try to see how many boxes we cancheck, unless you're just not a
serious buyer altogether, youknow, and sometimes they're not,
sometimes they're not.

SPEAKER_07 (59:07):
That's exactly right.
Some people need to be willing,yeah, you know, in that that
aspect.
So, Melissa, the last two finalquestions I want to ask you, and
you don't have to answer rightaway, but the first one is
what's some advice you wouldgive to a brand new realtor
trying to jump into thisindustry today?
And then the second piece isgoing to be what's some advice

(59:28):
you would give to a buyer thatis jumping into this market
today?

SPEAKER_01 (59:33):
Uh to the brand new realtor, I would say take a real
deep look at who you are as aperson and what you need to
succeed and what you need justsee who you are, kind of, you
know, look at where I would fitin, what do I need, and and
adjust from there.
Not everyone's gonna be thesame.

(59:53):
Some people are far moreorganized than I am, some people
are, you know, they hustle morethan I, whatever the case.
Just see what it is that thekind of person that you are and
base your decisions on where yougo from that.
Because if you just take adviceof go join a team, if you just
put everyone on a team, clearlywe don't all need a team.

(01:00:14):
A team would have been theopposite of beneficial to me.

SPEAKER_04 (01:00:17):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:00:18):
But others, you know, that's that works for them
and they can stay on a team forlife.
And and there's nothing, there'snothing wrong with them.
Everyone has their own, youknow, way of learning and their
own personality types and thingslike that.
So kind of find out who you areand what you need and stay
freaking organized.
If you're not organized, yourbrain's gonna fry and you're
gonna be burnt out really quick.

SPEAKER_07 (01:00:38):
That's good advice on that side.
So now how about buyers?
Buyers out there.

SPEAKER_01 (01:00:42):
Buyers, I just give I the piece of advice that I
would give is there's somethingfor you.
I'm not asking you to settle,I'm just asking you to buy, to
look for what is in what worksfor you right now in your budget
or your price range, and justwork towards building equity so

(01:01:04):
that someday you can havewhatever you want, even a few
more times like you did.
You know, I went to this one andthen I went to this one, I went
to this one.
But when you completely cut outthe idea of ever starting from
the beginning and you try tojust jump right to the middle,
you're gonna be there's you'renever gonna get to that.
You're gonna constantly besaying, I'm gonna keep saving,
I'm gonna keep saving.
But this the in the time thatyou're saving, home prices are

(01:01:26):
going up.

SPEAKER_03 (01:01:27):
Yep.

SPEAKER_01 (01:01:27):
You know, so unless, you know, unless you're planning
on getting, you know, likeyou're in school to be a doctor
and then you're gonna be adoctor and you're gonna be rich,
okay, whatever.

SPEAKER_07 (01:01:35):
Not all doctors are rich.

SPEAKER_01 (01:01:36):
I know, yeah, I know.
But, you know, just having thatidea of like, I'm gonna wait,
I'm gonna wait, I'm gonna wait.
I don't recommend it.
But just pick your pick yourmust-haves, you know, write out
a checklist of, you know, theseare the things that I will not
compromise on.
These are my must-haves.
And obviously, budget's probablygonna be one of them.
So you got to be mindful ofwhat's out there.
A lot of, you know, buyers willthink that you're gonna send

(01:01:59):
them 10,000 houses.
And it's like, no, once we starttyping in the criteria on MLS,
it goes from here to like, mm,yeah.
And then you send them 10 homesand they're like, that's it.
And then I'm like, no, that'sreally it.

SPEAKER_05 (01:02:10):
Yep.

SPEAKER_01 (01:02:10):
You know, so just being mindful of realistic
expectations.
And as long as you're able tocompromise, you'll find
something and you'll make itinto what you love and you'll
live in it for a little bitbecause you're gonna, if not,
you're renting anyway, you know.
And then maybe someday you canhave something even better.
But like I said, I'm still inthe same one that, and I have no

(01:02:31):
plans on buying anything else.

SPEAKER_07 (01:02:32):
So I like that.
Melissa, I'm actually gonna askyou one more question.
I think I'm gonna ask everyone-on-one guest this moving
forward.
What is some advice you wouldgive yourself today if you could
tell yourself something day onein real estate?
One thing.

(01:02:53):
And it can't be run.

SPEAKER_01 (01:02:56):
I mean, I would just tell myself that you know who
you are, you know what you'recapable of.
Just get through the hard parts.
The hard parts are never goingto end, but they will get, you
know, a little less heavy tocarry, and you'll find your way.

SPEAKER_07 (01:03:15):
Well, that was said very nicely, and I know that you
mean that.
Ladies and gentlemen out there,today was a pretty cool
discussion because we've beentalking about the COVID agents,
the folks that got into ourindustry 320, 20, what?
2020, 2021, 2022, that era.

(01:03:38):
And for the most part, a lot ofthem are are having a tough
time.
That's not my opinion.
That's just the the overallconsensus of it.
And today I've had a greatdiscussion with Melissa, who is
an outlier.
But you also got to hear what ittook for her to become that
outlier.
You also got to hear what shehad to sacrifice, what she had

(01:03:59):
to go through in order to bewhere she's at today.
And I have no doubts that she'sgonna continue to help more
buyers and learn more andcontinue to be a student of this
game, this crazy world calledreal estate that we live in.
Melissa, I want to thank you forjoining me and telling your

(01:04:19):
story transparently, asdifficult as it seemed up front.
Not too bad, huh?

SPEAKER_02 (01:04:24):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 (01:04:25):
An hour feels like 20 minutes.

SPEAKER_02 (01:04:26):
For sure.

SPEAKER_07 (01:04:27):
There you go.
Well, guys and gals, thanks fortuning in.
We are now, JC, throw up on thescreen.
Let's see here.
Let me hit refresh on thisthing.
Where are we sitting?
Where are we sitting?
We're at 31.2,000 subscribersand growing.
I really appreciate you guys.
So if you're watching this, uh,if you get something out of it,

(01:04:48):
make sure to share with somebodythat could also benefit from it.
Um, like, subscribe, all thatstuff.
And um, we will catch you on thenext one.

unknown (01:05:16):
I am a master.
I am a master model.

SPEAKER_07 (01:05:21):
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