From Hops to Homes: Jessica Duncan's Award-Winning Real Estate Approach

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tim Shoop (00:01):
Welcome to another episode of Nerds on Tap, where
we're going to get nerdy todaywith Mrs Jessica Duncan and
we're going to talk about realestate.
The show, as usual, issponsored by Digital Boardwalk,
one of America's leading managedservice providers, and
SmarterWeb, an AI-driven,data-driven marketing company.

(00:21):
An exciting show today, wherewe dive into real estate with
Jessica.
A little bit about Jessicashe's an award-winning real
estate agent with over eightyears of experience specializing
in properties in the Pensacolaarea, where she was raised.

Jessica Duncan (00:42):
Born and raised.

Tim Shoop (00:43):
With a background in marketing, she expertly
leverages her skills to give herclients the best possible
advantage, whether they'rebuying, selling or investing.
About helping people achievetheir property dreams, Jessica
brings a unique localperspective and unwavering
dedication to each of her clientinteractions.

(01:05):
So welcome to the show today,jessica.

Thank you.
Thanks for having me.
Sort of weird to sit here andlisten to you talk about me,
though.

Tim Shoop (01:15):
That's funny.
We ran into each other at arestaurant not that long ago,
caught up for a few minutes.
The first time we hung out thatI remember is when we hung out
at was it an IHOP or somethingoff a podcast.

Yeah, or Denny's some sort of breakfast place.

Tim Shoop (01:33):
And we were talking about business ideas a long time
ago.

Absolutely.
And I look at you.
And look at you, I mean come on.

Tim Shoop (01:41):
That's what it's all about, right?
It's the American dream.
It's never quitting.

That's right and we're proof it can happen.

Tim Shoop (01:48):
So we're going to talk about the following topics
today, jessica.
We'll discuss the current realestate market trend, so I'm
excited to hear about what'sgoing on, especially in
Pensacola.
We'll discuss the impact oftechnology on the real estate
market, and then we'll talkabout how you can find the right
agent for your needs, and we'regoing to sample some really
good brews that are sittingright in front of you today.

(02:10):
I'm excited about that.
So welcome to the show.
So let's kick it off bydrinking a beer.
How about that?

Perfect, that's how you convinced me to come on
the show, right?
Yeah, I get to drink beer andtalk, absolutely.

Tim Shoop (02:21):
If we didn't have beer on the show, I wouldn't
have any gas, I would have a oneman podcast and I'd be sitting
in here getting drunk all day.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcometo Nerds On Tag.
I'm your host, tim Schuitt, andI couldn't be more excited to
embark on this nerdy adventurewith all of you.
So grab your favorite brew,because things are about to get

(02:45):
exciting.

Tim Schaffer (02:46):
Three two, one go.

Tim Shoop (02:50):
Welcome to Nerds On Tag.
So, mr Tim, why don't youintroduce us to the first beer
of the day?

First beer today is Cheap Sunglasses Fairhope
Brewing Company, founded in 2012.
Lower Alabama's firstproduction Crap Brewery Sense
Prohibition.
This brew is a light andrefreshing Coast style golden
ale.
This is that easy drinking boatbeer you've been looking for.
Which one is this?

(03:21):
What is it called again, cheap?

Tim Shoop (03:23):
Sunglasses.
Okay, cheap Sunglasses.
Cheers, cheers.

Oh, that's pretty good.

Tim Shoop (03:31):
I like that one.
I need to remember that.

That's perfect for the boat.

Tim Shoop (03:36):
I need to load that into my arsenal.
So let's kick this thing off,let's talk about current real
estate market trends and let'sjust get right into the nitty
gritty.
So why don't we talk about thereal estate market right here in
Pensacola?
Because this is what you know,right?

Absolutely.
I know this area.
You get outside of the FloridaPanhandle or Lower Alabama and
I'm lost.

Tim Shoop (03:58):
So tell me what's going on.

So we're in a little bit of a changing market
from what we've seen the lastthree years, but not a scary
market.
Some people think, oh, it'sawful.
No, we're actually still doingvery, very well, but we've been
spoiled for the last three years.
You put a house on the marketon a Thursday.
By Monday you're in multipleoffers.
People are overbidding.
That's not quite the case rightnow.

(04:21):
What we have right now is a lotmore balanced market and if you
look back to what we had in2018-19, similar market to that
which we thought was a greatmarket then Now people are
saying it's not.

Tim Shoop (04:33):
But aren't the prices still elevated?

Prices are still elevated, but when you look at
the days on the market, we'rerunning more similar to the 2018
or 2019, which is actuallystill a good, balanced market.
Depending on the price pointdepends on the average days on
the market, but when you're over500,000, you're looking
somewhere between 100 and 125days on the market.
That's average.
It's not a week anymore, butour prices are definitely still

(04:59):
up.
We're not seeing prices drop,we're holding and still growing
a little.

Tim Shoop (05:03):
What happened in 2020 ?

COVID what happened.

I know COVID happened.

Tim Shoop (05:09):
Well, I remember a little bit of 2020.
Pretty much beer, but tell meabout the real estate market in
2020.
Because what I saw was a slowlychanging market that all of a
sudden just skyrocketed between2020 and 2021.
People were snagging up realestate when it was still low and

(05:29):
now they're reselling it since2021.
Is that what's still happening?

Not necessarily so what really happened?
To look at what happened in2020, you have to go back a
little further.
You have to go back to look atwhat happened in 2008, 2009.
Because of some of thefinancial changes that happened,
you really stopped a lot ofyour developers and builders
from building.
Okay, so during that timeperiod, real estate fell.

(05:55):
Everything happened.
Finance laws changed.
We had some federal acts thatchanged and prevented builders
and developers from being ableto build and develop land.
So when you stop building,natural attrition of houses
coming out whether they burned,hurricanes, whatever stuff just
comes out of the inventory.
So that all happened andcreated this shortage of

(06:16):
inventory.
And this is before COVID everhit.
We had a major shortage ofinventory.
Matter of fact, there wasseveral studies done and
published locally that if wekept building at the same rate
we were in early to or 1920,those rates, we could build at
that rate for the next fiveyears and still couldn't catch
up with the amount of inventorywe needed.

(06:37):
So you had that happening.
So here we are shortage ofinventory.
Covid hits and everyone wantsto move to Florida.
We weren't shut down like otherstates were, and so we had a
massive movement of peoplemoving from other states.
When COVID hit, first I freakedout a state home six weeks and

(06:59):
then I was like screw it, I'mgetting out of here.
I'm either going to die ofCOVID or you're going to lock me
up in a mental institute, butI'm getting out of the house.
So I went back to work and theinteresting thing was our phone
rang off the hook with peoplecoming from out of state.
We work 100% based on referral.
That's how I get my business.
People refer them to me.

(07:19):
Our buyers were 80% localpeople being referred to us.
Covid hit they were 70% out ofstate.
That's a huge change.
Still being referred.

Tim Shoop (07:30):
What areas?
What areas were you seeing Well?

all over.
So basically your states thatwere a lot more locked down.
So California, oregon,washington, chicago, new York,
new Jersey we had a little bitfrom the center, but not much.
So it was more of your hardcorestates that were definitely
locked down.
People were coming here forfreedom and if they could afford

(07:56):
it they just came down here andbought to get away and be free.
And so you had all these peoplecoming from these more expensive
places to live who all of asudden discovered this great
town and that Florida's free andso they can't free as in more
free and laws not free to liveand very reasonably priced.
So they came down here andwe're just overbidden paying

(08:17):
cash, which is a good thing,because we don't have a lot of
upside down home buyers likehappened in 0607, which created
the crash, or 0506.
Most people are at least 20%equity in their property, so
they're not upside down oranything like that.
So all of a sudden you get thismassive movement of people here
.
Everyone's moving to Florida.

(08:38):
We already have a shortage ofinventory and you create this
explosion and bidding and itjust continues to grow and value
everything did and now we'restable to a more reasonable rate
of growth, not a 17% year overyear growth, which is crazy.
We're now at a more stable rateof growth, which I'm excited

(08:59):
about.
I mean, I want to keep itaffordable to live here, but we
do live in paradise andfortunately for us good and bad
our little town got discovered.
Not a lot of people used toknow about Pensacola.

Tim Shoop (09:10):
Yeah, now we pay for parking.

Yeah, I mean, can you see a list of where to
live or where to vacation orwhere to retire or best beach
town that we're not in the top10?

Tim Shoop (09:20):
Yeah.

I mean, we have been discovered.

Tim Shoop (09:22):
You know it's funny.
I brought up parking for areason, because I hear a lot of
people complain about the payingfor parking downtown.
We just we were spoiled, Ithink.
For so many years you couldpull down there and you could
get a parking spot, but it wasalso like a ghost town.
You didn't have tourism, youdidn't have people going out of

(09:44):
their way to go downtown andenjoy, you know, our beautiful
downtown.

No, years ago we didn't go downtown, it was a
ghost town.

Tim Shoop (09:52):
You went to the beach , yeah.

I mean, and now, I love our downtown and when I
bring people they come from outof state.
That's one of the things I dowhen I do tours with the local
hospitals and stuff.
They bring people in and I takethem around and I take them
downtown, I show them.
These are these great, amazingrestaurants we have now.
I never thought we'd haverestaurants as good in our town,
so many of them I know.

Tim Shoop (10:13):
I remember, me and my wife, we used to go let's go
out, let's go out, let's go finda restaurant.
Well, which one of the few thatdo you want to pick from this
one, this one or this one,because it's all we had.
I miss Trayford Telly's.

Oh, I love Trayford Telly's.
That was my favorite, yes.

Tim Shoop (10:26):
That was my go-to and then it closed.
But now it doesn't matterbecause we have how many dozens.

We do, but you still need a reservation at many
, as I saw not too long ago, wewere taking some clients on like
a Wednesday night randomly andevery place was booked up on a
Wednesday night at 5.30.

Tim Shoop (10:43):
Yeah, you know, but that's good though, because,
yeah, we're paying higher prices, but that's national.
Paying higher prices national,yeah.
So that's the things we pay forin Pensacola now that we were
spoiled on before, that wedidn't have to pay for.
But look at our economy.
So if you're spending moneyhere, it's going into someone

(11:04):
else's pocket.
They're spending moneysomewhere else, that person
spending some money somewhereelse, and then maybe that
person's going to come hireJessica to buy their next house,
so that money turns in aneconomic circle, and that is why
it's so important to build andprosper, not just be spoiled.

Absolutely, and I think it's you know here we
have been very spoiled with asmall little town.
That was great.
But we've wanted to grow andwe've grown, I think, at a good
rate, and Quint Studer has a lotto do with it.

Tim Shoop (11:38):
Oh yeah, he does.
I love him.
Shout out to Quint yeah.

Our town would not be what it is without him
and the vision of bringingtalent here and saving talent,
keeping talent here so we canrecruit these good paying jobs
to bring up the average pay inour economy.
I mean, our town has grown howit should, I think.
Yeah, we got to pay for parking, but look at beach towns across
the country.
Where can you live thisaffordably with this beautiful

(12:05):
resource?
You can't beat it.

Tim Shoop (12:08):
I mean, god, I just remember coming down here.
Yes, it was great when youcould go out on the beach and
get lost in a sand dune and notyou know, and literally sleep in
a sand dune and nobody wouldbother you.
Now there's, you know, but wehave tourists here now, which
again comes back to the economicimpact that it has had on our
community.

(12:28):
So let's get into that.
I want to get into my next.
We'll stay in this segment.
I want to keep talking realestate, but I want to talk about
all the factors that affectedthe Pensacola real estate market
.
Outside of what we alreadytalked about, include the
economic, social andenvironmental factors.

Okay.

Tim Shoop (12:47):
I'm going to put you on the spot, jessica.
I want to, I'm ready.
Your point of view I mean, Iknow what I know, but I'm a
techie.
You know and I follow what Ifollow, but I'm still a techie I
want to hear from you what youthink, what all like
environmental and social andeconomic factors kind of boiled
in to the real estate market aswe see it now here.

I think let's talk about environmental factor
would be our beach and theprices on our beach.
So when you look at our island,because our beach is an island
and 80% of that land isprotected, 80% of that land is
protected by National Seashore,so that only leaves 20% of our
island to be built on.
Anytime you have scarcity,prices go up.

(13:33):
Well, I don't know if yourealize.
Now there's no morecondominiums can be built on our
beach besides one place.

Tim Shoop (13:39):
I did not know that.

Yeah, so Portofino is the only place left
that you can build.

Tim Shoop (13:44):
You're building one more, right they're supposed to
build six and seven.

I don't know when and if they are.
They've been talking about itfor years but that lot can have
six and seven on it.
But the last other lot that youcould really build a
multi-dwelling unit was wherethe new Fairfield Inn just went
in.
So what you see now on ourbeach, without some major law
changes because of evacuationpurposes on a barrier island

(14:07):
we're limited by that you won'tsee any more really high rises
on our beach without tearingcurrent ones down and building
new ones.
So we won't ever look likeDestin.
We're always going to have thisbeach access, which I think is
great.
Yeah, so us being a barrierisland and protecting those

(14:27):
resources and our state,protecting those resources and
our federal government, as wellas the safety of the people on
the island, has really limitedthe inventory and anytime you
create scarcity, value goes up,especially on a high demanded
product.

Tim Shoop (14:42):
You know it's funny.
I kind of want to let's dialback a little bit.
I remember us talking about thereal estate market and how the
inventory affects the prices andhow back during COVID there
wasn't as much, that wasn't justhappening here in Pensacola.
I put two offers in on twodifferent vacation homes in
Alabama and got outbid.

(15:05):
And I went over and still gotoutbid by $100,000.

Yes, it wasn't just happening here, and let me
back up, though, to whathappened during COVID and the
inventory problems.
So we started out with ashortage of inventory, but then
what happened during COVID wasnot just an inventory problem.
It was actually a velocityproblem.
So we had more houses coming onthe market than ever before.
We had more houses selling thanever before, but they were

(15:32):
selling at such a fast ratewhere our average days on the
market went from 90 days to 34days.
So it was a velocity problem.
It appeared to be an inventoryproblem, but it was just moving
at such a faster rate.
So we had an inventory problempre-COVID.
Then we had a velocity problemduring COVID because a lot of
people did put their houses up.

(15:53):
Prices shot up If they hadrental property they weren't
using.
If they had a house they hadbeen debating on whether or not
to sell, it wasn't their primaryresidence.
That thing went on the market.

Tim Shoop (16:03):
So I get letters in the mail.
Oh, you know where I'm goingwith this right.
I get letters in the mail, andnow I'm starting to get phone
calls of people wanting to buyall my properties.

So let me explain what that is.
Most of them are calledwholesalers and they actually
make my life really difficultsometimes.
So we will have a customer whowants to be in a specific
neighborhood.
We have a lady we recently shelost her husband, wanted down
size and move into theneighborhood that her daughter
lived in.
So we're sending letters out tothis neighborhood.
We've found, use tech, findevery owner, every email, every

(16:36):
phone number.
We're reaching out to thesepeople to try and see if they
are interested in selling,because we have a cash buyer who
truly wants to buy in thatneighborhood or market value,
good price.
We want to pay you good money,cash for your house.
Unfortunately, these wholesalershave bombarded people so much
that they think our offersaren't legitimate and we are.
And what these wholesalers dois and I have mixed feelings

(17:00):
about them.
I know there's a need foreverything, but to me it's taken
advantage of people a littlebit in a tough time.
So what they do is they try tofind people who are in a tough
financial situation and they mayowe tax money, they may be in
debt, they may have a situationwhere their insurance is about
to cancel them because of a roof, whatever, and so they offer

(17:23):
them normally 25 to 50% on thedollar, and a lot of them.
What they're doing is they getyou to agree to sell your house
for ex-mounted dollars in what'scalled an assumable contract.
They turn around, put yourhouse on the market and resell
it for more money and they makethe gap.
They never actually buy yourhouse.
They bought the rights to sellyour house.
That is all.

(17:44):
It's called an assumablecontract, and you know I mean to
me.
I think it's awful.
There's definitely some people,though, that it's probably
helped because financially theywere in a hard time.
I think if they could havetalked to an agent and maybe
found out what their house wastruly worth, maybe they could
have profited a little more.
You know, when I meet with acustomer, sometimes we'll say

(18:06):
listen, you want to sell it, asis cash, quick clothes, here's
what I can get for it.
If you're willing to do this,this and this, here's what I can
get for it.
And I let the customer make theeducated decision by providing
the information they need tomake that decision.
You know the wholesalers.
I guess there's a need for them.
I don't know.

Tim Shoop (18:22):
I'm not a huge fan.
These people are worried aboutthe bank stepping in and
foreclosures, so they Some ofthem are free and clear houses.

They're not always that.
Sometimes it's some kidsinherited a house, some adult
kids inherited a house and noone wants to deal with it and
everyone lives out of state.
They've never set foot in theproperty.
They don't know what it's worth.

Tim Shoop (18:41):
Don't split the money .

Yeah, I mean there's so many different
reasons why it happens.
Not all of them are in aforeclosure situation, but
unfortunately they arebombarding the market.
I get them myself and I'm anagent.
I get the postcards, the phonecalls, the text messages.
You're not getting texts yet.
You'll get those soon.
Oh, I get them yeah.

Tim Shoop (18:58):
I get them.
I've blocked all, every one ofthem.
They just roll over to the nextphone number.
So all these new projects thatI see popping up around downtown
, on the beach, everywhere, allaround me, they're all going on.
How do you, how does Jessica,whittle into these deals?
How does Jessica get involved?
I know you're in theresomewhere in that ecosystem on

(19:21):
those different projects.
Tell me from a if it's notconfidential information how
someone in the real estatemarket or someone you know in
your position gets involved.

So there's a couple of different ways.
I think we're still a smalltown and there's still a small
group of us who are actuallydoing the work.
So, for example, the top 100agents in this market do about
80% of the business.
So there's this very smallgroup that are in the know.
We, you know, we all talk toeach other.
We let each other know what'sgoing on.

(19:53):
There's different ways to seewhat permits have been pulled
and, of course, a lot of stuffis done under different business
names, developer names.
So sometimes it's just knowingthe right people and staying
connected and being from here.

Tim Shoop (20:08):
I have a feeling you know all of them.
You can never know everyoneeverywhere I turn, ladies and
gentlemen, I see Jessica's faceand that we have.

I'm sorry.

Tim Shoop (20:19):
No, it's good that you know, and the first time I
saw your van I was impressed.
It made me want to go out andbuy one of those vans.
I got two for sale.
Well, you'll have to tell me.
So she has a van that is builtout in a way where she can
entertain clients while they'redriving around looking at real

(20:41):
estate.
I have a feeling there's somebottles of champagne back there.
Oh absolutely Okay.
Tell me about that, van.
Tell me how that came in, andthat's not even on my script.
I want to know about it becauseit really I was impressed.

So in late 2017, mind you, I started November
1st 2014 in real estate.
By late 2017, I had basicallyreached max capacity.
And you know me from a previouslife.
I was a strategist sort of whatI do.
I look at the numbers.
I'm a numbers girl, I'm sort ofmore of a nerd, but I know

(21:15):
right.
I love it.
So I sat down and looked at mytime.
I had someone follow me forfour weeks, track everything I
do, put it into an Excelspreadsheet and go through the
numbers and ultimately what Irealized is I was driving four
hours a day.
Well, I'm at max capacity.
I can't do any more business ina day, but I'm not done growing
.
I want to do more, want to domore.
So I'm like, well, if I couldfree up four hours a day, what

(21:38):
could I do?
How much faster could I returnphone calls, emails?
So I was like you know, I needa driver, I need a driver, I
need someone to drive me.
I could work while they'redriving.
This is great.
So then I started researchingvehicles to figure that out.
I tried riding in the back ofjust a normal, like SUV style.
Didn't work that well, wasn'tthat comfortable.
Came across the sprinters andloved them.

(22:01):
I needed something that waseasy to turn around and hold a
sacs, but also could run forlong periods of time.
And you know all the did allthis research on the different
types of vehicles.
Tried to explain it to myhusband.
He's like so you want a limo?
No, he's like, so you want aminivan?
No, I dreamed up this vehicle.
Didn't know it had ever beendone before.

(22:21):
So I dreamed it up, sort ofstarted doing research, figured
it out and figured out I was thefourth that I know of in the
country to do it.
So as I'm doing my research, Ido find that there are three
others that had done, of course,in your big cities New York,
beverly Hills, and then one overin Arizona.
So as I'm finding this vehicle,I'm like I want them to be able
to see everything.

(22:42):
I want to be able to connect mycomputer to the screen you know
, and be able to show them wherethe property lines yeah.
And so, as we would go showproperty and they're like, well,
hey, what's the disclosures?
How old's the roof, where's theproperty line, I got it all
right there and when the marketwent crazy, we'd walk out of
that house and I could have thatoffer written, signed and sent
to the listing agent before wewere back in the office,

(23:04):
sometimes before the nextshowing was done.
So I want to talk about timebeing essential.
That was really.
They have their own Wi-Finetwork set up in them, so it
really just just became mymobile rolling office.

Tim Shoop (23:18):
So when you don't have a client in the van, I have
a feeling you have certainparking spots where you hang out
Mm-hmm.
Make all your phone calls rightSomewhere downtown.

Yeah, so I never drive the vans.
Okay, there's someone drivingme, but you're in the back.
I'm in the back.

Tim Shoop (23:32):
Yeah.

And there is a partition in the bigger van so
that we need to talk aboutprivacy.
Oh, that's awesome, so thatthey can talk.
Fine, cause I get into nittygritty.
Finances Is this the sprinter.

Tim Shoop (23:41):
This is the sprinter.

Yeah, I get into the nitty gritty finances, you
know, and I don't.
I don't want them to have toworry about feeling comfortable
about that.
So we have a partition therewhere they can't hear, installed
a couple of refrigerators underthe back seat so we can keep
whatever the client likes coldto drink there, from champagne
to beer to water, sodas,whatever, mm-hmm.

Tim Shoop (24:01):
But football back there.

That could.

Tim Shoop (24:03):
No.

Actually, it even has TVs in the back.
You could tailgate on it.
Never actually got to use those.
But when I don't have acustomer in there and let's say
we're in between meetings,there's several parking spots a
lot downtown Drivers are reallygood about finding a high
traffic area to park me in so Iget lots of visibility.
But I would park, they'd park,and I just sit there and work

(24:25):
and if I got 30 minutes inbetween appointments, I'm
working on the way to thatappointment, I'm working so, but
they're going away.
So the business is changing.
That's what I launched in 2018is when I launched them.
Had the idea in late 17,launched it in March of 2018.
But the business has evolvedand we're evolving too.

Tim Shoop (24:45):
So Well, you know, the cost to be on the show is
one van right.
Oh is it, I'm kidding, I'mkidding let's, I'm excited to
get into the next beer.
I've got one more questionbefore we get into the second
beer.
Let's talk about potentialbuyers and sellers out there
want to know how to navigate thetrends.
They want to hear some tips andtricks from Jessica.

(25:07):
Let's talk about, maybe toolsthey can use for exploring the
market, tools they can use forevaluating homes and properties
and you know, like taxassessments and planning tools
and things, because we all do it.
Not everybody knows where to goand then they go to you.
So usually everybody does alittle bit of R&D and then they

(25:31):
get an agent involved.
What tips can you giveeverybody in regards to some
research they can do whenthey're shopping?
I mean, you know what I do.
I sit on Zillow not to look atprices, to look at properties
that are up for sale.
I sit on there and I go, oh,that's a nice, and I save them,
and then I come back to themwhen I'm ready to get more

(25:51):
serious.

Right, so a couple different things.
I mean, I think, when you'retalking about selling and what
the home's worth and the valueof it, that's really hard to get
from any site.
Of course there's all the sitesthat'll give you the testament
or whatever you want.

Tim Shoop (26:07):
Oh yeah, I know.

You know, but they're off and there's no rhyme
or reason to how much they'reoff over or below.
So you can't even reallydetermine a true value from that
.
You really need a person whocan walk through the house, see
what's in the house, see thedifferent traits of the house
and the things that are going tomake it hard to sell as well.
We've got a property right nowwe'd get really creative on,

(26:29):
because there's a really coolfeature there that people here
just don't understand.
So there's a misconception ofit.
So we had to get creative onhow to overcome that.
So you really need someone withexperience to walk through to
determine the value.
There's no easy way to figureit out.

Tim Shoop (26:42):
So what you're telling me is, I can go on,
zillow, right, I love a house,right, but I'm like, oh, that
house might be, I don't know,overpriced or it might look like
a good deal, but a kitchenremodel or something, maybe
pavers in the driveway whichincrease the I mean, obviously,

(27:02):
curb appeal and things they cando outside don't necessarily
factor in the Zillow'sassessment of that house.

Zillow, can't smell your house.

Tim Shoop (27:12):
Zillow uses an algorithm an.
Ai algorithm and it takes thelast purchase price, the tax
assessment and then the markettrends.

Well, so what it's looking at is price per
square footage in a certainradius, but it's not looking at
the age the home was built.
It's not looking at and why.
I say Zillow, can't smell yourhouse, it can't smell that your
carpet smells like dog or youknow different things like that
that people are going to walk inand notice.

Tim Shoop (27:38):
Am I smelling a little bit of frustration in
regards to Zillow from anagent's point of view?

I mean, you know , of course, it's very
frustrating.
We live in a time whereeverything the customer could
want is almost at theirfingertips, right, but they
believe it all and it's likewell, just because it's on the
internet doesn't mean it's true.
We don't all believe it, andjust because it's on Zillow
doesn't mean it's true.
You know, there are definitelytimes where we find huge errors

(28:07):
on there, even with our ownlistings.
I mean, I've had to argue withthem.
I don't know how many times I'mlike would you take down those
pictures from 10 years ago?
Or you've got the squarefootage wrong or the bathroom's
wrong, and so you know it's notas easy as just typing it in Now
.
When it comes to buying, though,there are a lot of resources
out there that customers can use.

(28:27):
Not only do I think they shouldbe looking at the market ahead
of time.
If I got someone who's notlooking to buy for three to six
months from now, I'll go aheadand set it up on my website.
Start sending on property thatfit their parameters, because I
think it's good for you to doyour research and be able to
know what you get for the money.
Don't wait till it's time tostart looking, to start looking,
then you may come across agreat deal right away, and you

(28:49):
didn't even know it because youweren't comfortable with where
the market is.
So I do think starting early,looking at what you get for the
money is very, very important.
There's definitely sites you canlook at.
On the taxes, you can see whatthe taxes will be, but our taxes
are misleading here.
So because we have HomesteadExemption, you can have two
houses next door to each otherthat have very similar assessed

(29:11):
values or very similar value notassessed value but market value
and their property taxes arecomplete.
One could be double the otherone, and the reason why is
because with our HomesteadExemption here we cap how much
that house can increase in valueper year as your primary
residence Homestead.
So if someone has lived in thishouse for 15 years as their

(29:32):
Homestead and the other one'sbeen a rental, that assessed
value that your tax don keepsgoing up on that rental each
year but that Homestead itdoesn't.
Or if that one next door maybechanged hands two years ago it
was reassessed.
So there are just definitelyplaces you can look.
But versus seeing what thecurrent taxes, santa Rosa County
has a site that'll show you.
I don't think a Scambia Countydoes.

(29:53):
But you can actually type inthe purchase price of the home
and, based on the millage rate,it will tell you your
approximate taxes.
So Santa Rosa County has apretty good site and tool for
doing that.
I use it when we're having toestimate what the taxes will
actually be in the future,because right now they may be
super low.
We also have a lot ofmisleading information when you

(30:14):
have a disabled veteran in thehome.
Florida is great on exemptingthem from paying property taxes,
which I think is wonderful toin a great service to our
veterans.
So if you see a home and theyonly pay like $400 a year and
it's a $500,000 value home, itcould be because it's a veteran.

Tim Shoop (30:31):
Oh, I got it.
They have to be 100% disabledto receive that but this is a
wealth of knowledge, a lot ofthings that I'm learning today,
and I appreciate you.
I'm excited to get into thenext beer.
How?

about you.
I am too Well, the first onewas so good, I'm excited for the
second.

Tim Shoop (30:45):
Tim, why don't you introduce the second beer for us
?

Our next beer is Perfect Plain Fest Beer,
pensacola, florida.
Originally founded byPensacola's mayor, dc Reeves.
Traditional German fest beer.
A smooth, clean, pale Germanleger with a balance of malt and
light hop character.
Made with 100% Germaningredients, 6% ABV.

Pretty good.

Tim Shoop (31:16):
You like that one?

I do, I think, a different style than the first
one.
The first one's perfect for aboat, this one's great for
gallery night yeah.

Tim Shoop (31:24):
And shout out to DC Reeves for bringing another
brewery to Pensacola.

Yes, absolutely, I love that place.

Tim Shoop (31:30):
So we're going to get into video technology in real
estate, something that I'mexcited to learn about how you
guys are doing your thing.
So let's talk about howtechnology has changed the game
in terms of real estate and howyou conduct your business every
day and how you market yourself,just like an actor we talked

(31:54):
about acting before the show.
You're the product.
I mean, you are your product.
So tell me how you use video,first of all, to put yourself in
front of all your prospectivebuyers and sellers.

So we use video a lot, as much as I hate being
on camera.
I understand I am my brand.
Oh, trust me, I could talk forhours, but put me on camera and
I'm not as big of a fan.
I never watch my own videos,though, because I will critique
myself and will never air anyone.

Tim Shoop (32:26):
Oh yeah, you never watch them.

I never watch them, but so we started using
video not only to promote ourproperties but also to promote
our brand and our localness, ourknowledge of the area.
So we started a coupledifferent series.
We do one called Journey withJess, and it's where we journey
around Pensacola and thesurrounding areas and visit my
favorite places and businesses.

Tim Shoop (32:49):
I've seen a couple of those.
Yes.

I love that.
I mean, and it's really placesI go to.
It's my favorite places,because all of our customers who
are especially moving here fromout of state, what's happened
in the last couple of years?
They kept asking me hey, what'sthe best coffee shop, what's
the best this?
Where should I go for that?
So we started Journey with Jessand then we've also done a
video series called Just myOpinion and it's literally just

(33:14):
that.
It's just my opinion.
It's catchy.
You can message me something onmy Facebook and I will answer it
on there.
We have people.
When I hear a question beingasked multiple times by
customers, I'll do it.
Just my opinion on it.
So it comes from a variety ofsources, but just a way to get
some information out there andanswer questions and help show

(33:35):
our value.

Tim Shoop (33:36):
So what's your opinion on this show?

So far, I like it.

Tim Shoop (33:41):
Well, good, we have beer.
She told me before the show theonly reason she came on was
because of the beer.

That's not true.
I would have come on here justfor you, Tim.

Tim Shoop (33:49):
So let's flip the script a little bit.
Tell me how you're driving inusing technology on the other
side of the spectrum to helppromote the properties.
Obviously there's dronetechnology.
Now there's 3D cameras,walkthroughs.
I imagine you set those up andyou have software that does
those things.
I've seen you do a lot of videowork with your.

(34:11):
Specifically, I think it's 3Dsand walkthroughs.

Yeah, so we do a couple different things.
So on every property we dothree to four different types of
filming and video combination,which sounds crazy.
But you have so many differentplatforms now.
So when you're puttingsomething on the MLS that goes
on Zillow, that's a certain typeof photography.
When you're putting it onInstagram, that's a total
different type of photography.

(34:36):
And then you have drone andthen we do what's called a 3D
Matterport, so Matterport whereyou can, and we use the high-end
Matterport.
There's different levels ofwalkthroughs and some are sort
of hard to get through and youreally can't.
I just want to shut thecomputer because I get so
frustrated by them.
But we use a high-endMatterport but it's where you

(34:56):
can click and literally walkthrough the entire house and see
the trim work and zoom in, andso we do that.
We do reels that are a lot morefaster, quick walk throughs
through the house to getattention on social media.

Tim Shoop (35:07):
But are the devices that you're using, or any of
them, specific to the industry?

Matterport.
Matterport is the only one andthat's it's about a $2,500
camera as well, as you have tohave the subscription to the
service.
That is just for real estate.
It's very real estate specific,but everything else we use is
probably similar to what youwould use.
Yeah.

Tim Shoop (35:28):
I mean, like when you go out and about and filming,
you might be using or using aniPhone, or using iPhone, iphone.
You know, that's what I do.

Yeah, so all of our journeys with Jess that's
done on an iPhone are just myopinions are done in my kitchen
with an iPhone, awesome.
So we use a basic lapel mic andan iPhone.
So and and Jackie, my marketingrock star, does an amazing job
of editing them and taking outall my mistakes and making me
look when is she?
Is she here?
She's here, jackie you're inthe studio with us.

(35:59):
She's off camera.

Tim Shoop (36:00):
Do you want to be on camera?
Oh, she's okay, ladies andgentlemen, but thanks for
hanging out, though.

So seeing like right now.
I'm sure she's going to takepictures of this today and make
a little real.
I'm a little bit intimidated.

Tim Shoop (36:14):
So let's talk a little bit more about that.
We were talking about thecamera technology.
You know, here at our company Iuse an iPhone to do all of our
skits.
I actually will throw that on aboom and use a mic with it and
we'll film skits because I cando them quicker and I can save

(36:35):
all that.
But here in the studio we'reusing Panasonic cameras because
we have to capture multipleangles and stream.
So you know, and there's somuch more out there when I
started doing the research toput this podcast together, oh my
gosh.

There's so much technology now, but it's amazing
to me that how much we can dowith an iPhone, and the new 15
even has a gimbal built in.

Tim Shoop (36:58):
So I'm a little excited.
I have a 14 Pro.

I haven't got the 15 yet either.
So actually Jackie's got a 14and I got a 13.
But I'm excited to try out thenew 15, just because I want to
see.
Do we have to carry the gimbalaround?
Jackie does a really good jobwith the gimbal and keeping
straight, but imagine not evenbeing able to have that.
It's amazing what we can do.
It's crazy.
So we do a variety.

(37:21):
Customers are a little shockedwhen I'm like yeah, so we're
going to do four different typesof film and photography.

Tim Shoop (37:27):
So tell me how long that takes.
So back in the day, when Iwould hire an agent to sell a
house, you know you get a littlefrustrated, especially when
you're a nerd and you're inattack and you're in all these
things, and back in the day along time I'm talking a long
time I haven't, you know, boughta main house in a long time and
all they I was like I couldhave done that, I could have

(37:49):
thrown those pictures up.
But you're doing so much moreBecause all they did was throw
pictures up, do a nice prettydescription and I felt like huh,
but there's so much more, evenback in the day, that you all
did.
I think the buyer or, I'm sorry, the seller just doesn't see
everything behind the scenesthat you're doing.
You're connecting people right.

It's relationships, it is and it's a
lot but we have.
Because we brought it allin-house, we're able to turn it
around really fast, and so bybringing it in-house instead of
hiring outside people, I've nowbrought them on my team
full-time.
So I have in-house people.
We can turn stuff around prettyfast, depending on what needs
to be done to the house.
I met with someone this morningand I need to have some window

(38:33):
seals replaced, some pressurewashing done to the house or
some things.
I recommend it's a second homeor I think it's a fourth home
for them.

Tim Shoop (38:39):
You go around and you recommend what the seller needs
to do.

Absolutely.

Tim Shoop (38:44):
Is this pre-inspection?

This is pre-taking photos.
This is, yeah, I mean and youknow I'm not doing a full
inspection on the house- Right,I'm not doing it.

Tim Shoop (38:52):
I'm pointing things out that you see.

Well, I mean, it's a waterfront house and the
view is fogged by a broken sealin the window.

Tim Shoop (38:59):
Yeah, moisture.

Yeah, so I want that replaced because we're
selling that view.
That's what waterfront's allabout.
It's linear footage on thewater, so that's going to, I
think, deter someone from buyingthe house.
I want to showcase that view,so I recommended that.
I recommended some pressurewashing on the outside so they
have a nice first appearance.
First appearances are soimportant, that first impression
, so I recommended that.

(39:22):
And this is, I think, a fourthhome for them, so they're not
here.
So we're going to handle allthat for them.
Get that done.
Then get all of our photos andvideo and everything done, but
depending on what the houseneeds, such as that type of
stuff or painting or carpetflooring, depending on what it
needs.
If the house is ready to go inless than a week, we have

(39:42):
everything done in the house onthe market Wow.

Tim Shoop (39:46):
Wow, and there's so much more that you guys are
doing than back in the day.

Yeah.

Tim Shoop (39:50):
So you're going to be up in a week.
That's pretty impressive.
So how do you use video tocreate a compelling narrative
around the house?
That's the key.
Right Is being able to turnthat house into a personal story
, To be able to show thecharacter of that house through
video.
Are there certain angles youuse?

(40:10):
Do you approach it a certainway?
Do you come in with a dronefirst and then bring them into
the inside of the house and walkthem through?

I think all the above.
It depends on the house andwhat I want to feature.
So I've done some with drone,where I'm standing at a
penthouse on the 18th floor of acondo on Navar Beach and start
with a drone footage flying byshowing the beach and sort of
zooming out away from me.
That's what I want to show thatproperty.
That's specific.

(40:41):
When we talk a lot in thereabout Navar Beach and how great
it is because that was runningin California and Oregon and
Washington and we're trying torecruit in New York and New
Jersey, I want them to know whatNavar Beach is.
So you'll notice in there Imentioned Navar multiple times
and Navar Beach on the Gulf ofMexico, While everyone here
knows that these videos aregoing way more than just local.

Tim Shoop (41:02):
And Navar has a lot of building going on out there.

It does, and so Navar is still limited by the
same things that the Bolabeaches, but there's so much
available space out there.
I think in the next 10 yearsNavar is going to have a huge
boom and it goes back to whatyou're telling me invest in
Navar.

Tim Shoop (41:20):
I need to buy a beach house in Navar invest in Navar
further than I want to drive,though I'm kidding 10 minutes,
I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

Yeah.
So I think Navar is going to bea great investment.
I think it already is a greatinvestment and I think we're
going to continue to see it grow.
And I think the reason why isbecause of our tourism.
Our tourism has changed so muchfrom what it used to be.
You know, we used to be afishing village.
People came here to fish.
That was our tourism and thatwas about it, and that's why
Navar never really boomed,because there's no pass there.

(41:52):
You had to go to Dustin orPence Kola to go out to fish.
Well, that's not necessarilyour tourism anymore.
They come here for much morethan fishing.
Of course they come to fish alittle, but we have the families
coming.
They're not just coming here tofish.
So you've seen the other areasreally blossom and bloom and I
think you'll continue to seeNavar do just that.

Tim Shoop (42:11):
Well, good, so what we're going to do?
I have so much more I want todive into.
I want to talk about the futureof technology in the real
estate industry and the futureof the industry as a whole.
In regards to that integration,what do you see happening?
Where is it going?
I mean, yeah, we talked a lotabout video.
We talked about using socialmedia and Instagram and those

(42:35):
ways to promote propertiesinstead of just MLS, and we've
talked about going aroundvisiting other business owners
to promote Jessica.
But what is the next step?
Do you have a crystal ball?
Have you been doing any R&D?
I mean, are you guys going to Idon't know, are you going to

(42:57):
push something out that makeseverybody just kind of funnel in
?
I mean, what is the next step?

That's a good question.
Our industry right now ispossibly going through some
major changes.
There's some lawsuits going onand a bunch of changes and who
knows how it's going to shakeout.
I can't predict the future,Unfortunately.
If I had that crystal ball, I'dbe a very, very wealthy woman,
but I can't predict it exactly.
But what I do think is going tobecome important and what I

(43:23):
think we're going to continue tosee the individual being the
trusted partner, the trustedadvisor to their clients and
that's going to come into allresources, Whether it's, you
know, who do they use to remodeltheir house and who do they use
to service their AC.
And you know, you see your bigtech companies going into this.

(43:43):
I mean, if Google could getinto our house and recommend
people right, they're alreadytrying.

Tim Shoop (43:49):
They're already doing it.
So is it.
So is Amazon.

Exactly so.
I think that's where it's goingand I think it's the
relationship, but withtechnology merged.
I don't think we can lose therelationship, and I do think
that's where some agents willmiss the boat is when they try
to rely 100% on technology andnot the relationship.
But I think you have to merge acombination of the two and I

(44:13):
think, ultimately becoming moreof the resource.
However, your customers arehearing it, whether it's
technology wise, it's podcastwise, it's video.
However, you can most deliverthe information to your customer
where they're going to engagewith it.

Tim Shoop (44:30):
But as far as the tools that you're using.
So here's, here's what I see.
So I'm in the tech industry andyou know AI is the big buzzword
over the last couple of years.
We've mentioned it a couple oftimes in this show in regards to
Zillow, and we have beenleveraging AI here at digital
boardwalk for probably the lastseven years.

(44:51):
Now.
It's only been a buzzword fortwo years.
Ai has been around for probablysince the 50s I don't know 50s
or 60s People just don't realizeit.
It's been used in a lot ofdifferent ways from a, you know,
in a lot of differentperspectives since that time.
But now we've got chat, GPT,Google's got its own product,

(45:14):
there's other things beingpushed out, and we're using it
in our marketing company now todo some really cool stuff.
And AI, I think, is going to bea game changer for a lot of
industries in regards to howthey approach not just the
customer and lead generation,but how they push products out

(45:37):
and how they use their products.

So we're using AI a good bet, Talk about that
and we use it.
I think, while it's been aroundfor a while, it's really gotten
a lot better recently, and sowe've started using it more.
But we still have to have thehuman filter on it, because
sometimes it says stuff thatisn't true and I'm like whoa,
what is that?
So we use it for a multiplethings.

(45:59):
I mean from writing socialmedia content generation to
writing property descriptions.
So we use a paid AI version so Ican build my message, my toning
, it gets to know my style, sothat I'm not having to reinvent
the wheel.

Tim Shoop (46:17):
How long have you been using it for generating
content?
How long have you been doingthat?

I've been using six months Wow good.
Yeah, so six months, jackiesays we both started using it
about the same time.

Tim Shoop (46:31):
So did you learn that you were using it by reading it
and going?
Jackie didn't write this.

No, actually we both started experimenting with
it together.
So yes, jackie is my amazingmarketing rock star.
This looks like a robot wroteit.

Tim Shoop (46:44):
I don't understand why it is rewriting the same
keyword five times in fourdifferent paragraphs.

We actually started venturing in it a little
bit together.
You know, while I have such amarketing background, strategist
background, that while Jackiedefinitely leads our marketing,
I still want to be involved ineverything.
I want to understand it, I wantto be.
You know, hey, can we tweakthis, can we tweak that?
I'm not completely out of it.
So we started using AI, for weuse it to write property

(47:17):
descriptions, we use it toimprove property descriptions,
we tell it what the greatfeatures are the house and find
different words.
Good Lord, we can't use all thesame words all the time.
It's boring.

Tim Shoop (47:28):
You know what I tell my marketing team?
I go well, let's let chat GPTwrite it and I'll edit it,
because chat GPT makes me soundsmarter than I am.

Yes, I used AI recently to write a Facebook
well, to write sort of aposition description and an ad
to recruit someone for our team,and it found the perfect person
, which was sort of weirdbecause it was a very unique
position that had to have twovery opposite fields of
experience and it wrote itperfectly and we found the

(47:59):
perfect person off of it.
So that was per.
I mean I could have asked forbetter results from that.
We're also using it on ourwebsite.
So if someone goes on ourwebsite, we have an assistant
name Alex that talks to peopleand that's all AI generated and
it's pretty.
It's pretty cool if it saysstuff like you know well, my mom

(48:20):
just passed away, so I'mwaiting to be able to move to
the area.
It actually realizes that andsays, oh, I'm sorry to hear
about the loss of your mom.

Tim Shoop (48:27):
Yeah.

You know, I mean , it's pretty intuitive and it
carries on a conversation withthem to a point and then it
notifies us and we take over theconversation, and so Alex is a
whole nother assistant in ouroffice that helps us better work
the leads that are coming inthrough our website.

Tim Shoop (48:45):
Yeah, chat bots have been leveraging chat GPT
technology for a while now andwe had one on our website, on
our last website, that was doingthat and that that technology
actually existed probably fiveyears, about five years now.

I've been using it on my website for about three
, so it's been used for a littlebit.
It's improved so much.
Three years ago it was awful.

Tim Shoop (49:10):
I'm going to stop you right there.
Your beer is empty, so we'regoing to introduce the next beer
.
Jessica, tim, why don't you goahead and taught?
And so this last beer, just soyou know.
Now, don't take the.
I brought this last beer onbecause I felt like it might be
up your alley and you can punchme if it's not and go.

(49:30):
Tim, that is unacceptablebecause it is a fruity beer.

I like a fruity.

Tim Shoop (49:35):
Okay, good, I wasn't sure.

I'm a true Huffa Wisin with some fruit undertone
.
A good wheat beer, you know.

Tim Shoop (49:41):
Yeah, I like a Huffa Wisin and I like a wheat beer.
So when I traveled Germany,that's all you do at the taps is
wheat beer, so I love that.

I love a wheat beer, a wheat beer with some
sort of good fruit undertone.
A wheat beer with an appleundertone is one of my favorites
.
You know how hard that is tofind.

Tim Shoop (49:56):
The older I get.
I used to be an IPA guy.
I can't.
I can drink them, I just can'tdo it very often anymore.
They give me headaches.
Pilsner's a good crisp Pilsnerdoes me just right on a go to.
But a lager or Huffa, wisin orsomething like that really gives
me the gives me the zing, giveme the wheat beer always.

(50:19):
Tim tell me what we got.

Last one here mango cart Golden Road Brewery,
Los Angeles, California, foundedin 2011.

Tim Shoop (50:34):
I don't know, it's not bad.

I still think the first one's my favorite.

Tim Shoop (50:37):
It was mine too.

First one's definitely my favorite, but it's
not bad, I'll drink it.

It was founded by Meg Gill, one of the few female
founders.

Tim Shoop (50:45):
Another reason we brought it on.

I like it, just so you know.
It's also good with the TahinChili Salt Rim, by the way.

Tim Shoop (50:54):
Oh well, why don't we have a salt rim Tim?

Hey.

Tim Shoop (50:58):
I was a poet and I didn't know it.
Oh, so we're gonna wrap uptoday's episode with the last
segment Finding the Right Agentand Pensacola Real Estate is the
name of our topic for the lastsegment.
I wonder who that person couldbe.

Well, I mean not necessarily always me.
I mean, I think you really haveto find someone that you
connect with and that you'regonna have a good relationship
with and be able to communicatewell with, and that's not always
me.
Would I love it to be me?
Sure, but let's be honest, noteveryone is gonna connect with
me.
I'm very direct and so I'm notgonna sugarcoat things as much.

(51:36):
If you ask me my opinion, I'mgoing to give you my opinion,
and so I think that's whatpeople want.

Tim Shoop (51:43):
I've realized that in anything you do, honesty is the
best sales tool.

I think so, but I'm not everyone's cup of tea.
Yeah, I mean.

Tim Shoop (51:55):
You're talking about tea on a beer show.
Come on.

Oh sorry, I'm not everyone's cup of beer.
Fine a beer.

Tim Shoop (52:00):
Fine a beer.

And that's why there's so many of us out there.
You gotta find someone that youconnect with.
Of course, I want them to cometo me, but you wanna find
someone that you connect with,someone that you trust, someone
that you're gonna be able tocommunicate well with, that your
language is easy to understand.
So, for example, if you aresomeone who wants to write five

(52:22):
page emails to me and have merespond to it, I'm not your
agent.

Tim Shoop (52:25):
Okay.

Email's a 24 to 48 hour way of communication for
me.
I'm less pick up phone.
Have a quick call.

Tim Shoop (52:31):
Or throw a text.

Or throw a text.
I mean, if it's more than acouple sentences we're gonna
have a call.
But I'm someone who wants tohave that relationship and
really understand you.
In an email it's hard to get toknow you and so when I'm
meeting with customers, I'mtalking to them about like we
have customers we're workingwith tonight and they're doing a
pre-scouting mission thatthey're gonna be moving here in

(52:53):
a year.
But I'm like what's yourlifestyle like?
How many times you go out toeat?
What do you like to do in youroff time?
What hobbies do you have?
I don't wanna know.
Three bedroom, two bath.
I wanna know what theirlifestyle is about.
That's hard to get through.
Just an email.

Tim Shoop (53:06):
They got kids.
What kind of schools are theylooking at?

Well, we can't ask that question, but yeah.

Tim Shoop (53:11):
Oh, you can't.
Okay, I didn't know that.

I mean we have to be pretty, I mean if they
know.
But if they know what schoolsthey want, I can ask what school
districts they would like to be.

Tim Shoop (53:20):
Well, I can talk about it.

Yeah, we have to be.
We definitely follow the FairHousing Act.

Tim Shoop (53:24):
I living here, unfortunately, and I don't wanna
get too deep into this, but theScambia County school system
isn't, in my opinion, all thatgreat.
My kids don't go to.
They go to a private school forthat reason.
But you know it's unfortunateand I don't know how to fix that
.
But I didn't realize that anagent couldn't talk about school

(53:48):
systems.

I mean, if you say, hey, I wanna be in the
school district, obviously I canhelp you get in that school
district, but I can't tell youif a school's good or bad.
I can direct you to a website.

Tim Shoop (53:58):
But you can talk.
That can be the rating.
Yeah, okay.

Yeah, but I can talk about what school zone it's
in.
But you know people call andthey say, hey, I need to be in a
good school zone.
What's a good school?
I can't tell them that I haveto send them to other places to
do resources, to look atresources for them to find that.

Tim Shoop (54:15):
So you mentioned earlier that you need to find a
real estate agent thatunderstands you, right, someone
that understands you.
So to do that, they have tointerview you, they have to meet
with you.
So let me interview you for aminute Now.
This isn't scripted.
This is me.
This is me being me.

Has anything been scripted here today?

Tim Shoop (54:36):
And we're on our third beer, so cheers, cheers.
Here's your interview, so I'mgonna ask you three questions
and you can ask them, answerthem or not answer them.
I'll try not to be too mean inmy interview.
How many clients do yourepresent at any given time,
jessica?

It varies.

Tim Shoop (54:54):
And do you get that question?

Oh, yes, absolutely, it varies both a
balance of buyers and sellers.
So you know, on average I do100 plus transactions a year,
So-.

Tim Shoop (55:06):
That's a lot right.
Yeah, yeah, you're a topproducer.
Yeah, Is that a buzzword in theindustry?
Top producer oh absolutely.

And when is your award?
When are you name?

Tim Shoop (55:16):
it.
I didn't even know that.

So definitely, you know I handle multiple
customers at any given time.
But my question back to youwould be you're asking that
cause I'm sure you're afraidthat I'm not gonna be able to be
responsive.

Tim Shoop (55:31):
I want you to answer my emails within five minutes, I
want you to answer my textwithin 30 seconds and I want you
to meet me and drop everythingthat you're doing when I have a
need at a property I want.

So, mr Tim, I'm gonna be very upfront with you.
I'm a very high producing agentand I do have a lot of
customers because of the resultsI get for them.
Unfortunately, because of that,I will not be able to meet
those standards.

Tim Shoop (55:59):
So how do you get around that?
Tell me, how do you accommodate100 clients at a time?
And I know you're gonna have agood answer.
And I know you're able to do itbecause I've seen you perform.
I've seen your face on a lot ofsigns and I've seen you on
every social media platform andI've seen you out there.
That's why you're on the show.

So I set the expectations from the beginning.
So when we have our meeting,one of the questions I ask is
let's talk about communicationwhat style of communication you
would like and what are yourexpectations At the end of this
transaction?
If you said this was a greatexperience, what would that look
like?
And so I have that.
How do you like to becommunicated to?
And then I also let them knowlisten, if there's a problem, I

(56:41):
don't believe in avoiding it.
I think problems only festerand become worse.
So I'm never gonna avoidcalling you because there's
something bad.
I'm gonna call you immediatelyand let you know what it is.
I do also ask I said hey, ifthere's like something small and
issue comes up but I can handleit with one phone call, do you
want me to handle that, or doyou want me to come to you and
tell you first what would youprefer?

(57:02):
I try to understand what theywant so that I can help guide
that and make sure I'm meetingthose standards.
I also use video for this, so welet our customers know.
Every contract gets a videoevery week.
We do weekly videos for everysingle customer.
It's a quick iPhone video.

(57:23):
There are 45 seconds to aminute, and it's here's where
we're at.
Here's what we're working onfor you this week.

Tim Shoop (57:29):
So you're using a hosted platform that emails the
video.

No.

Tim Shoop (57:35):
And it no.

Simple technology we pull out the
iPhone.

Tim Shoop (57:39):
Oh, okay.

We film it in front of our light, very similar
to your light.
Here we film our video and weshoot it off.

Tim Shoop (57:45):
Okay, good, no editing, no method.
No, I like it.

It's complete, simple.
I mean cause we're doing somany at one time every week Like
.

Tim Shoop (57:55):
It's easier.

And also what it does.
So it started.

Tim Shoop (57:58):
So you're not using a webcam, you're not sitting
there filming yourself, talk tothem and hitting a button, and
then it goes out to a hostedplatform and into emails.
Nope.

Old school text message.

Tim Shoop (58:08):
And I like the honesty piece because the best,
like I said earlier, the bestsales people have two traits
they listen.
So you listen to your customerthat was one of your answers and
you're honest.
You'll tell them dude, listen,I may not be your agent because
I'm not gonna do that.
Yeah, Right.

And I do tell them.
If you have to ask me what'sgoing on, then I feel like I
failed to do my job.
So I try to over communicatewhat's going on.
When we have an open house onthe weekend, I'm then reporting
back.
Here's what happened.
Here's the feedback we got,both good and bad.
Here's how many people we camein.
We did a tacos and tequilabroker open yesterday.

Tim Shoop (58:45):
Well, I wasn't there.

Well, you're not an agent.
I like tequila.
It was good for trends.

Tim Shoop (58:51):
That's my favorite.
That's my favorite.

And my homemade margarita, which, I have to say,
is pretty good.
So we did that yesterday andliterally as soon as I walk out
to the car, I'm on the phonewith the client.
Hey, I wanted to tell you thisis how many agents we had come
through the house.
Here's the feedback.
I think we're on the righttrack, giving them constant
updates.
I will say having a driverdefinitely helps me communicate

(59:13):
a little bit more, but also Ihave a great support staff back
in the office.
My team is just amazing, fromJackie and Tabitha and Micaela I
mean, they are absolutelyamazing.
So I can hang up with a customerhey, can you shoot this over?
We all use, of course,technology, drop box things like
that, everything.
Everyone has access toeverything.
So I can just shoot a quickmessage hey, can you forward

(59:34):
this to this client or send thisto them?
They can actually even see myemails, so they help me even be
able to respond faster.
Now they're not going to justanswer my email, but as me.
But if they see a client'sasking for something and they
can get it faster than I can,they're going to make sure they
get that ASAP.

Tim Shoop (59:50):
Well, and it's a relationship business.
I mean, when I was in therestaurant, buried in a taco,
you said, hey, and that's whatyou have to do, right, you have
to identify.
So I'm going to ask you acouple more questions in regards
to the interview.
I'm going to try not to makeyou feel too uncomfortable.
But what can go wrong in a dealand how do you handle that?

Jessica Duncan (01:00:15):
So there's a lot .
So am I selling your house orbuying your house?

Tim Shoop (01:00:20):
Let's just say you're selling my house.
Let's say I'm the.
Because I'm the seller, I wantthat house sold.
I want top dollar for it.
So tell me and I have a feelingI know the answers to some of
it in regards to funding but oh,there's so much, oh, I'll bet.
Tell me what can go wrong andhow do you handle that kind of
and keep it going?

Right.
So there's a lot that can gowrong.
Remember how, when I firstwalked through the house and I
was asking you how old the ACand how old the roof and how old
all these things are, those areall things that are going to
stop insurance and that's why Iwas asking those and making sure
we're good there, becauseinsurance is a big issue right
now in Florida and that doesstop a lot of transactions or
create a lot of repair coststhat were unexpected, that maybe

(01:01:03):
a seller wasn't ready for.
So I try to front load mypresentation with that and
really getting them prepared forthat.
Hey, these are possible itemsthat could come up and here's
how we're going to address it.
And, of course, I have peopleand resources to handle it all.
But I want to bring it up frontversus hey, where are we going
to have before closing and theycan't get insurance.
So I address that up front.

(01:01:25):
And then, when it comes tofinancing, financing obviously
falls through.
There's issues with that, butthere's a lot that we do on the
front end to try and prevent itfrom falling through.
There was one, as interestrates are going up and down.
I was really glad I do this.
I actually reached out to thelender and was like hey, so I
noticed this pre-approval wasfrom 30 days ago On an offer we

(01:01:47):
received.
I noticed this pre-approval wasfrom 30 days ago and the
interest rates have went up apoint and a half since then.
Is this still good?
Or can you double check andmake sure these people still
would qualify at the currentinterest rate before we accept
the offer?
And unfortunately they did not.
And the reason why that'simportant is because we accept
an offer and we come off themarket and then we have to go

(01:02:09):
back on the market.
It does hurt our marketabilityand it makes it look like there
was a problem with that.

Tim Shoop (01:02:14):
Because it's public knowledge right.
It's got a public footprintonline.

So we try to do everything we can to prevent
stuff like that happening byasking the right questions up
front here.
Recently I have noticed thatthere's been a lot of
pre-approvals without that don'thave contingencies to sell in
the pre-approval, but thecustomer actually has to sell a
house to be able to buy.
So I have been reaching out tothe lenders on almost every

(01:02:41):
pre-approval.
Now I reach out to the lendersand just say hey, your client
has submitted an offer on thisand I got their pre-approval.
I just wanted to verify.
This is what it says on thepre-approval.
Is everything correct here, andis there anything that's not on
here?

Tim Shoop (01:02:55):
Very cool.
So I was gonna ask you one morequestion how do you stand out
in the market?
But I think we already answeredthat in segment one and segment
two.
Through everything publicpresence, social media, all of
that.
So when I'm choosing an agent,what factors do I need to

(01:03:16):
consider?

Other than communication.
I think a lot of people willpick someone because they're
their friend or they know them.
This is the largest transact,one of the largest transactions
of your life.
I think you need to interviewsomeone, find out their skillset
, find out their experience,find out their background, find
out their stats.
You know how many properties dothey sell and a lot of this you

(01:03:41):
can see.
You can go on realtorcom.
I get actually a lot of peoplewho find me and call me off of
realtorcom because you can go onthere and see how many houses
I've sold in any given area andyou know it shows all my not all
of them, but a lot of my staff.

Tim Shoop (01:03:55):
That's the girl right there.
Right, they're going.
Yeah, that's her.
Look at this, Look at thisactivity.

Yeah.
So I mean I think you need to.
You need to ask the rightquestions and not just pick
someone because they're yourfriend and you know them and you
know it needs to be someoneyou're comfortable with and that
you're going to trust with avery large purchase or sale of
probably the largest sale orpurchase of your lifetime up
till that point.

Tim Shoop (01:04:21):
All right, we're getting close to wrapping up.
I'm going to drill you withmaybe a couple more things here.
We kind of touched on a lot ofthis, but I just kind of want to
recap it Jessica's personalapproach to ensuring her clients
are matched with the perfectproperty.
How do you incorporate yourlove for Pensacola into your
work?
Is that a good question?

Absolutely so.
I love this town.
It's the town that raised me.
It's the town that I give backto as much as I can and I really
try and showcase the beauty ofPensacola to our customers.
I really want people to knowall the great features of this
town and I want them to know allthe great features that we have
in different areas.

(01:05:02):
So, by getting to know them andunderstanding their lifestyle,
like we were talking before, youknow, if I know they like to
play tennis and they go playtennis four days a week, let's
make sure they're near a tenniscourt.
You know, I really want to knowtheir lifestyle so that I can
say, hey, is this important?
You know this area has this.
This if they're a boater, it'sso funny.
These people call me and theywant to buy a waterfront

(01:05:24):
property and I say, okay, why doyou want to be on the water?
Well, because I want to have aboat.
What kind of boat?
Well, I don't know yet.
I haven't bought it yet.
Well, what do you want to do onthe water, that matters.
Yeah, they're like what do youwant to do on the water?
I don't know yet.
I just want a boat and I'm likewe have so many waterways here,
like do you want to be up inthe river, do you want to be in
a bay?
Do you want to be on the innercoastal?
Like there's so many differentwaterways and what type of boat

(01:05:47):
you have matters.
This morning, at a listingappointment On the water, one of
the first questions is how deepis it at the back, at the dock,
how deep is the water?
I mean, you know what type ofboat people can get.

Tim Shoop (01:05:57):
And is it dredged going out, and how hard is it
going to be able to?
Because I know that, like offof our coast, I live over in
Star Lake.
So if you're on the water inStar Lake there is a certain
path you have to use to get outto the main water area.
I bought a center console tofish and all I did was drink
beer on it.

Right, which that's okay, but if I know a
center console, I know you needat least three, four foot of
draft.
You know, I know you're notlooking for a sailboat that I
need to deep water slip.

Tim Shoop (01:06:27):
But if I were to buy where I just said, right off of
Star Lake, I would probablyrecommend you know if they were
just using it for entertainmenta pontoon boat.
Absolutely, because you canfloat lighter.
Yeah, so we're going to wrap itup, we're going to.
We'll get in the last thinghere.
I'd like to hear a couple ofpersonal antidotes.
Maybe a success story from yourcareer.
Maybe look at the camera andthis one right over here.

(01:06:51):
Okay, we'll have a close up onyou, tim, if you can get a close
up on Jessica.
Let's talk about a greatsuccess story that you had
during your real estate career,how that affected the customer
in a positive way and how itaffected you and your, your the
emotional impact it might havehad on you.

So I think one of probably the most impactful
situations that I remember andwe have a lot of these cause we
do help people during very toughtimes deaths in family, deaths
of a loved one, things like that.
People normally buy herselfbecause something's changing in
their life, right, but I hadthis one that she was facing

(01:07:32):
foreclosure and someone told herhey, just talk to Jessica and
see what she could do.
And so she called me out.
She called me and I went outthere and I'm like, well, when
she showed me the paperwork shewas served and I was like, oh no
, when's it going up on thedocket?
So I realized we had 60 daysbefore her house was sold on the
courthouse steps.
So we had 60 days to dosomething and we needed to do a

(01:07:56):
couple of things to be able toget the house to make her the
most amount of money.
And I was like, look, if youcan do this, this and this and
this amount of time, I can havethe house on the market in a
week.
We can have it under contract.
I can probably get undercontract for X amount of dollars
and if this happens, you canwalk away with X and avoid
foreclosure.
Luckily she was.
She was going through a hardtime in her life separation with

(01:08:17):
her spouse as well as theyowned a business together.
So she lost her husband, losther job and everything all of
that and everything all at onceand was facing a foreclosure.
And we were able to help herwalk away with over $60,000 in
her pocket and no foreclosure.
And that was a great, greatsituation to me to just give her
a whole another restart at life.
And I'm just so glad sheactually reached out and called,

(01:08:40):
because so many people don'tand they don't realize how much
we can help them.
I mean, the worst thing thathappened is I can say there's
nothing I can do.
But those situations wherepeople are going through a tough
time and we're able to relievea little bit of that burden,
those are the ones that leavethat impact and tug on your
heart.

Tim Shoop (01:09:00):
Are you still in touch with her?

Oh, yeah, oh yeah, yeah, and we, like we just
had another one.
Her mom passed away and and shemoved to Chicago while everyone
else is moving here.
She moved there and she wentahead and left and we were able
to handle everything on thehouse, handle getting the
repairs done and and getting thehouse staged and getting it to
closing.
And you know she, she thankedme afterwards for going above

(01:09:21):
and beyond and gave us a greatreview and you know, just being
able to be there and make adifference in people, people's
lives, oh, I got a good one thatI'm so proud of right now.
So I helped this first timecouple by a first time home
buyer couple by a house,probably about five years ago,
and I just recently met withthem and you know I do talk a
lot with the customers aboutmaking extra payments and how

(01:09:42):
they can save money on interestby doing that and putting there.
I really believe you go to workto make a living, you buy real
estate to build wealth, and so Italked to them about building
wealth and and different thingsthey can do to be able to build
wealth.
So I got to meet with them.
Here we are, like five yearslater.
Their family has grown.
They are in one of the bestfinancial situations I could
have asked for with a couplethat bought five years ago.

(01:10:03):
I mean, they are just almostpaid their first mortgage, their
house off and their family'sgrown.
They're further along in theircareers and making a lot more
money and now we're able to helpthem move up to the next house,
help them sell that house, takethat equity out of it, move it
into the next house, and thatjust to be a part of that life.

Tim Shoop (01:10:25):
You'll be their agent for the rest of their life.

I hope so.
It sounds like I hope soBecause of what?

Tim Shoop (01:10:29):
you've been able to do with that family.

It just makes me proud.
You know I love being able tomake that kind of impact on
someone's lives and when I seeyou know social media has its
good and its bad, but when I seethe photos families enjoying
their pool that I helped themget in and that was a dream of
theirs or enjoying Christmas byin their house you know

(01:10:52):
Christmas morning photos Likethat makes me proud that I was
able to help create that forthat family and that impact is
so much more important thananything else we do.

Tim Schaffer (01:11:02):
Sounds like you have a real passion.
That's great.

I love it.

Tim Shoop (01:11:05):
It's amazing, and that's why we wanted to bring
you on the show, because I knewI could get all this out of you
today, jessica.

And you're going to turn me into a softy.

Tim Shoop (01:11:14):
I think I made.
I saw a tear.
I saw a tear.

Let me keep my heart exterior on.

Tim Shoop (01:11:19):
So we'll go ahead and wrap up.
I want to thank Miss JessicaDuncan, mrs Jessica Duncan, for
being on the show and, you know,taking the time out of your
busy schedule to come hang outand be nerdy with me, for a
little bit.
And I want to wrap it up bybefore we cue the music, to let

(01:11:40):
you maybe tell our audience howthey can find you and how they
might be able to work with you.

Sure, so the easiest way to find me is to
call me or text me 850-554-1783.
My number is everywhere and ifyou don't remember the number,
don't want to write it down,just Google JessicaLoveDuncancom
.
Yes, my middle name is love,literally, so Jessica Love,
duncan, jessicaloveduncancom.

Tim Shoop (01:12:09):
I'm on Instagram, I'm on Facebook, yeah, so and make
sure you mention Nerds on Tap,because we get commissioned now.
Cue the music.

Hey.

Tim Shoop (01:12:24):
Cheers.
My fellow nerds and beer lovers.
Stay tuned for more Nerds onTap.
Oh, and one more thing Help usspread the nerdy love and the
love for grape roots by sharingthis podcast with your friends,
colleagues and fellow beerenthusiasts.
Let's build a community thatembraces curiosity, innovation

(01:12:49):
and the enjoyment of a cold one.

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