Real Estate Tips with Mariah Sielaff

Keller Williams Agent Mariah Sielaff joins us this week to talk about how she balances work and family, as well as her tips on navigating this crazy real estate market.

Episode Transcript

Cassy (00:07):
Hi, and welcome to the south central PA mom, Fireflies and Whoopee Pie podcast, where
we discuss motherhood, local events, andeverything in between right here in south
central Pa.
So sit back, grab a coffee a while, and settle
in for the show.

Mariah (00:29):
Hi, everyone.

Cassy (00:30):
Welcome back to another episode.
This week we have Mariah Seeloff with Keller
Williams of Central PA joining us.
Mariah, how are you doing?

Mariah (00:39):
I'm doing great.
Thanks for having me.

Cassy (00:42):
So, one thing that I thought would be really fun to talk about with you because
you're a realtor, right?

Mariah (00:49):
I am.

Cassy (00:50):
How do you balance work and family life?
Because I can imagine that's got to be hard inyour job.
It is.

Mariah (01:00):
Especially as a realtor.
The thing that's unique about my career is I
am somewhat in control of my schedule, but atthe same time, my clients kind of become like
family to me while I'm working with them.
And so I have to find ways to fit my schedule

(01:23):
around their schedules and be available tothem when they need me.
And so it is different than just working atypical nine to five as a mom.

Cassy (01:34):
Yeah. And I'm sure it's not having a set schedule.
On the one hand, it's really convenient, butthen on the other, it's probably hard at the
same time.
But I think that balancing work and family is
something that a lot of moms can relate to.

Mariah (01:55):
Yeah. And something that has really helped me with this year.
I looked back on my business over the pastcouple of years, and I went into this year
just wanting to set goals.
And it was interesting because we had this
whole training at the office about goalsetting.

(02:18):
And when I was there, I realized that I waslooking at all these successful agents around
me, seeing their goals, seeing what they'redoing, and I was just kind of running along
next to them, not paying attention to my ownlife.
And this year I said, no, I can't look attheir goals and base my goals around what they

(02:41):
want for their life.
I have to step back and realize that my goals
are going to look different.
And it's okay if I don't sell 25 homes in a
year like the person next to me.
When my priorities are different, that person
doesn't have five children at home.
That person has time, and all they do is their

(03:05):
work.
And that's great.
So this year, I actually reduced the amount ofhomes I want to sell in a year and figured out
how to make my budget work with that so that Icould put my priorities back in line with
goals that really matter to me and my family,which I think is so important to reflect on

(03:30):
where you are yearly, monthly, sometimes evenweekly, to make sure you're going where you
want to go, sometimes we can just startrunning and we don't even realize we're
running the wrong direction.

Cassy (03:48):
So what helped you as far as balancing those goals for your job as well as your goals
for your family?

Mariah (03:58):
Yeah. So I sat down with a piece of paper and a pencil, and I said, what is the
most important thing for me in five or tenyears?
And I want to be healthier.
I've had a lot of health problems since I gave
birth to my last son.
And because I was working so much, I wasn't

(04:18):
able to take care of myself the way I used to.
And so seeing that, and seeing that when my
business was booming and at its best, and Iwas doing over a million dollars in a month of
real estate business, that's kind of when myfamily was struggling the most because I
wasn't there for them.

(04:40):
And so writing down, like, okay, I want to be
healthier.
I want to focus on my family, and I want to be
able to provide for my family.
So I do need to have this career.
And so I looked at the big picture, and then Ikind of went backwards and I said, how do I
make all these things work together?And it was hard because I've been kind of on a

(05:04):
real estate team for a while, and I loved myteam, but I realized if I left the team, I
would be able to keep a little bit more of mycommission, which increases my income with
doing slightly less work than I did last year,and that would buy me back some of my time.

(05:24):
So I basically said, and I actually even madea post, there's this quote that says I can
always make another dollar, but I cannot makeanother day.
And so I said, how can I make my money gofurther so that I can buy back my time?
I believe true wealth comes in freedom withyour time.

(05:44):
And so I might have been making more money,but I didn't feel wealthy because other areas
were being sacrificed.
So this year, I'm focused more on what's
important and prioritizing my family andprioritizing my health and then looking at

(06:09):
what was realistic business wise.
And with 14, if I help 14 families, that will
pay my bills, that will help me do the thingsI need to do for my health, and it will also
give me back some of that balance that I wasmissing.
So then I had to reach out to clients of mineand basically say, hey, if you would like to

(06:35):
have me work with you this year, let me knowkind of what month you're thinking so that I
can get you on my schedule and just be upfrontwith people that I might be able to do more
than that.
14. But that truly is my goal, to get 14 this
year and to get some new systems in place.
And I'm kind of rebranding right now.

(06:58):
So that's going to take a little bit of mytime and energy.
And then hopefully by next year, I'll be ableto up that number to do a few more than 14.
But it's just nice to be able to reach out topeople and say, hey, what month are you
planning to do something?Let me get you in your books.
And then when I stepped back and saw mycomplete year, I could see, okay, like, this

(07:20):
month is going to be a busy month.
This month will be a slow month.
I can do a family vacation in this slow month,and I can prepare my family better for the
busy months instead of just letting mybusiness kind of dictate my life.
Now I'm building my life and my businesstogether, and it's actually very harmonious.

Cassy (07:45):
I think that makes a lot of sense, making sure to build things together instead
of whether it's focusing on your kids too muchor your job or whatever.
I feel like moms can really easily get pulledinto this trap of, like, I have to put
everything in this one basket.
Like, my life is revolving on my kids or my

(08:07):
life is revolving around my work, and then youkind of get lost.

Mariah (08:11):
Yeah, totally.
Well, and that's one of the things I love
about the goals I set.
My goals are very specific, like getting
healthy.
That's for me.
And so I have been going to m studios wherethey have hip hop fitness classes and stuff
like that.
I danced when I was in elementary and high

(08:34):
school, and it was hilarious because the onenight I was there and they have a heels class,
which is something so outside of my comfortzone.
But I'm like, you know what?I'm just going to try the beginner of every
class this week.
And I was doing these moves and I was really
surprised that I was able to do some things.

(08:54):
But then I go into this one move and you're
supposed to slide down onto the floor and mybody just stopped working instead of sliding
down all pretty.
I fell flat on my face in front of all these
people.
And the worst part is the next move, you get
back up.
And I could not get back up, so I was just on

(09:16):
the ground, everybody's back up.
And I'm like, it stopped working.
I don't know why it stopped.
And I couldn't figure out what went wrong with
my body, but it was hilarious.
And I love that because I found this new
freedom to just be okay in my own skin and tounderstand the big picture of my life.

(09:43):
I guess.
I don't even know.
I feel so much more free to just be myself andto land flat on my face in a dance class, but
know that I'm doing something that is outsidemy comfort zone and hard, but it feels like
me, and it's going to be more me the more timeI put into it.

(10:04):
So I have that, and then I have restructuringmy business to be with my family.
And it is.
It's too easy to get hyper focused in one
aspect of life.
And if we can somehow find a way to let those
things live together and not lose ourselves,that's when I feel like the world almost opens

(10:35):
up to us and opportunities come our waybecause we're taking it day by day.

Cassy (10:44):
Another thing that I was thinking about is that being a realtor and with this kind of
unpredictable schedule and stuff, you musthave some good tips, right, on balancing your
role as a mom and your role as a workingmother.
What kind of things help you.

Mariah (11:06):
Keep.

Cassy (11:07):
Those two things going smoothly?

Mariah (11:10):
I think the key for me is empowering my children, helping them become more
responsible for things that they can.
I used to be a micromanager of my children and
kind of a helicopter mom that did everythingfor them, and that was back when I was a stay

(11:33):
at home mom.
That doesn't work when you're working as a
working mom.
It's actually very healthy and great for my
children, but it's sad for me because I lovemothering them.
I love doing everything for them.
But it's not exactly the best thing to do
everything for your children.

(11:54):
So, for instance, my oldest daughter, she
often will help make breakfast for the otherchildren.
My nine year old will sometimes make me coffeewhile I'm getting ready for my day.
My six year old is responsible for picking uphis room, which the other kids are responsible

(12:17):
for, too.
But what's something unique for him?
Oh, he's a dancer.
And so I have made it his responsibility to
make sure he has what he needs, depending onthe classes he has that night.
So when we're leaving, if he forgets his shoesbefore, I used to say, oh, I got to go get

(12:39):
those.
I got to fix this for him now.
I'm like, well, that was your responsibility,and he's only six.
But he's learning.
He's learning that he needs to remember these
things because mommy has five children and acareer, and I can't remember everything for
everyone all the time.
I used to put that on myself, and now I see my

(13:00):
children almost thriving more since I havegiven them those responsibilities.
Like, you guys have to know your schedule.
You have to get ready when you need to be
ready.
The other day I had an appointment after I was
supposed to drop my daughter off for her acroclass.
And typically I would have ran around, madesure she had everything she needed.

(13:27):
It was a long morning of telling her to getready for hours.
And finally I said, sweetie, I have told youfor the past 2 hours to be ready.
You're still not ready.
I have an appointment.
You're going to miss acro class today.
And she was absolutely devastated.
But it was setting that boundary, even with mychildren, that my time is important.

(13:49):
Like, your time is important.
I will get you where you need to go, but you
need to respect where I need to be as wellsometimes.
And I have never put that boundary in placewith them before.
And in that moment, I saw something in herwhere she's like, oh, I did this to myself.
And she kind of realized and tookresponsibility for spending 2 hours not

(14:14):
getting ready.
Instead of me being the bad guy, she was able
to understand, like, oh, my mom tried to getme there, and I didn't do what I needed to do.

Cassy (14:30):
And I've noticed.
Well, okay, so full disclosure.
Mariah was our realtor earlier this year.
She helped us buy a house, and she was
fantastic.

Mariah (14:41):
It was amazing.
I loved helping your family.

Cassy (14:47):
You brought some of your kids with you.
Like sometimes when we were looking at
showings and stuff, and how do they feel aboutstuff like that?

Mariah (14:59):
They love it.
It takes me back to when my mom used to sell
dk books.
She sold dorling kinserly books.
I don't know if that's how you say it, but Iremember going with her and learning so much
about business by just watching her presentthe books.

(15:19):
And I was like her little Vanna White, holdingup the books and watching her do these
transactions with people.
And when I first was doing my real estate, I
really tried to keep my kids away from itbecause I didn't think it looked professional.
However, I learned that the people I want tosurround myself with and the type of clients,

(15:45):
I make them like family to me, and I treatthem like family.
I work extremely hard for them.
I sacrifice a lot of time for them.
And so the people I typically work with end upbeing okay with it, and if it's offensive to
them, then they're probably not my people, andthat's okay.

(16:06):
There's lots of other realtors out there forthem.
But I love that.
In a bind with my career, I can bring a child
along.
Not every career has that.
And so there's a lot of sacrifices with myreal estate career, and there's a lot of
things I give up.
I miss some of my kids activities once in a

(16:26):
while, because especially in this last market,you had to go the day a home was listed to get
it.
And if it was the right house for my client,
you bet.
I was missing something for my kids that day
because it was so hard to find.
Inventory was just so low.
It was so hard to find the right house.

(16:47):
And so I made a lot of sacrifices in that
season with my family, and I feel like it'ssometimes a two way street, and that's okay.
It's okay to have a little bit of give andtake in this relationship with my clients.
And if somebody doesn't like it, then there'slots of other realtors, and I'm okay with

(17:10):
that.
But I do offer a lot of value for the ones
that choose to use me.

Cassy (17:25):
How do they feel about those kinds of things?
Like when you're not able to be at yourchildren, like when you're not able to be at a
recital or something, or when it's like, oh,hey, mom has to go look at a house, and
they're tagging along with you.
Are they generally pretty understanding, or is
it like, oh, my gosh, not again?

Mariah (17:48):
Well, it depends on the day and which child.
Typically, my children are very understandingbecause I have made it a point to be at
everything I possibly can.
I'm one of those moms.
I volunteer in the ptos.
I go to field trips.
I find every minute I can to be with them sothat whenever something does come up and I do

(18:13):
miss something, I say, hey, guys, we have allthese opportunities because of the work I do.
I'm kind of the main breadwinner in our home.
So because of that, they know that, okay, if I
want to continue being in recitals and beingin dance, then sometimes mom has to miss a

(18:36):
little something here or there so that I cancontinue to do everything I do.
And honestly, my children love theiractivities so much.
I know some kids are forced into theiractivities, but I always have tried to find

(18:59):
what brings my kids alive and what they loveand find every opportunity to kind of propel
them into something that's natural, that theyenjoy, and I've never forced them into
activities.
So because of that, it empowers them and also

(19:20):
benefits me because I can just look at mydaughter and say, hey, do you want to stay in
all these dance lessons you're in?Because she's in a lot of dance.
She's right now going seven days a week, soit's a lot, and it's a lot of money to do
that.
And she's like, I love dance.
It's my life.
I was like, okay, well, I have to pay for

(19:41):
dance.
It's not a free thing.
And so they understand that there's thingsthat they love to do, and this kind of fuels
that, and they love when they get to comealong with me.
The couple of times I bring them with me, theythink it's so fun.
My one daughter, as you saw, will walk aroundand try to give the homeowners all the ideas

(20:05):
of what they could do with the house.

Cassy (20:08):
It was the cutest thing ever.

Mariah (20:11):
It's adorable because she's my little designer.
She has been a designer since the day she wastwo.
She rearranges my house all the time, and wefight about it because I put my decorations
where I want my decorations, and she movesthem all the time, and she puts on dance

(20:34):
shows, and she feels like she needs to put allthese candles in the room and set the mood.
So that is her thing.
And whenever she goes with me, I love it.
My older daughter, whenever she comes along,she's completely different.
She's not the designer, she's the architect.
And she's like, you could take down this ball
and you could do this.
And it's hilarious to just see how each kid

(20:57):
brings their personalities into the showings.
I typically only bring my older two because
they're just better behaved when we have to dothat.
But it's interesting to see theirpersonalities come alive in that environment.
And I think realtors are a lot like that, too.
And that's why it's important to find a
realtor that resonates with you and yourpersonality, that you can work well with,

(21:21):
because some realtors go in and they see allthese things you can do.
Other realtors go in and they're pointing outflaws with the home, and other realtors just,
like, open up the door.
Every realtor has their own approach, and it
works for different people.
And so my kids, they walk into a home, they
see different things, and I love that.

Cassy (21:43):
Well, and I think it helps.
I mean, we didn't in our situation when we
worked together, we weren't selling, we justwere buying.
But, oh, my gosh, before we moved toPennsylvania, we did have to sell a know with
all of my million kids, and it was sostressful.
It's so stressful having to worry aboutshowings and, like, your realtor calling and

(22:08):
someone wants to know if they can come in 2hours.
It's like, oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God.
But having a realtor, I think that is also a
mom and can understand that, I think, or atleast I would imagine would be so helpful.

Mariah (22:23):
Totally.
And that's actually, as I am kind of going out
on my own, it's been amazing.
I feel like my mind has just opened up, and I
have all these downloads for my business andall these things I wanted to do that I
couldn't do because I was partnered withsomebody else.
And when you partner with somebody, it's greatbecause there's a lot of things you can do

(22:46):
that you might not have been able to do, andtwo is better than one, but at the same time,
you don't have as much freedom to kind of dothings the way you want to.
And for me, I want so badly for my business tobe all about the heart.

(23:07):
I want to treat each client like family withheart.
And when I thought about heart, honest,encouraging, artistic, relevant, and
thoughtful.
And those are the things I want to put into
every transaction, every family I help out,because oftentimes I feel like families can

(23:30):
just be another number on a spreadsheet for arealtor.
And to me, these are people's lives.
These are their greatest assets.
And I want to put a lot of care and time intounderstanding what they need and not pushing
them into something that's wrong for them.
And to be patient with them and work through
things with them and not look at it as income,but look at it as an opportunity to help a

(23:59):
family get somewhere they need to be.

Cassy (24:03):
Well, and now I kind of want to pick your brain, like your realtor brain.
But, for example, what would your tips be forsomeone who is, you have kids and you have to
sell a house and try to find another one.
Okay.

(24:23):
First, what are your tips on getting yourhouse show ready when you've got kids making
messes there, like every single day?

Mariah (24:32):
Yeah. So first thing, call me.
No, honestly, I think simplifying your home,
packing up everything you possibly can so thatthere's less things for the kids to just get
out.
Kids are very creative, and I think a lot of

(24:53):
times, they have too much stuff anyways, toreally use that creativity.
So the more you can pack up and put in theirgarage, in the basement, in the attic,
somewhere where people aren't really going tosee the boxes, the easier it's going to be to
maintain your home throughout the showingprocess.

(25:16):
That's definitely step one.
The more you can do that, getting a realtor in
there quickly.
So many people want to try to sell homes on
their own, and I don't think they understandthe complexities of home sales.
And oftentimes a good realtor is going to beable to get you so much more for your home and

(25:38):
really reduce the stress and efforts that youhave to put into it.
Time is money, and you can always make anotherdollar, like I said before, but you cannot
make another day.
So handing that off to somebody that knows how
to do it and can do it seamlessly for you,instead of trying to figure out on your own,

(25:59):
is worth every penny.
And oftentimes they will get you more for your
home because you use them.
Also.
I completely believe in staging homes.
I have a stager I have worked things out with.
She has a great deal with me, and so I'vepartnered with her many times.

(26:23):
And it's sad because I have this one client orthis one friend, and they really want to sell
a property, but they had to use anotherrealtor.
And this realtor, I gave my friend all theinformation for my stager.
I said, hey, tell them I'm sending you.

(26:43):
They'll give you my discount and all of these
things.
And the other realtor refused to use the
staging.
Well, that home never sold, and they still
have that property.
And it's so hard because I saw the property.
It's adorable.
I feel like a few pops of color to draw your

(27:03):
eye, to make the space bigger.
Creative staging, and that's why artistic is
part of my heart phrase.
If you can envision something and make it
beautiful, people buy that.
Especially in our social media driven world.
People like something that looks familiar.

(27:24):
It makes it feel like home, it makes it feel
comfortable.
So when they walk in and it feels familiar,
all of a sudden it starts to feel like home.
And that's what you're selling.
You're selling a home, you're not selling yourhouse.
You're selling a home to the buyer.
To the buyer.
That's where they're going to raise theirfamily.
So if you can do something that makes it feellike a home and less like a house, and it's so

(27:49):
much easier to kind of get that ball rolling.

Cassy (27:56):
What are the biggest mistakes that you see people make when they're trying to sell.

Mariah (28:03):
For sale by owner.

Cassy (28:04):
That little snort.

Mariah (28:07):
I'm sorry.
I feel bad because I understand why they're
doing it.
I truly do.
And I'm not somebody that ever even calls thembecause I just feel like it's not worth my
time and energy to try to convince them thatwhat they're doing is wrong.
But it's really hard to sell your ownproperty.

(28:29):
Honestly, when I list my home, I'm not goingto sell my own home.
Even though I would get a commission and itwould financially benefit, I will enlist
another realtor to sell my home as long asthey do a really good job.
Because I don't trust people and I'm controlfreak, but I will kind of oversee what they

(28:50):
do.
But it's such an emotional process, and you
have to have somebody on the outside to giveyou clarity.
It's important to have that when you're insomething and emotionally invested in
something, it's so hard to see it logicallyand to separate yourself from it and to make

(29:14):
it a rational, smart business decision foryour life.

Cassy (29:27):
So do you think that that is something a lot of people do is they get too emotional
when it comes to.
And when I say emotional, I don't mean that in
a negative.

Mariah (29:41):
Yeah.

Cassy (29:42):
When you're selling your house, it's like.
Of course it's like.
I remember our first house was in North
Carolina because my husband was in the MarineCorps and we had to leave and sell because he
was no longer in the Marine corps.
We weren't going to be living in North
Carolina anymore.
It wasn't a bad thing that we were selling,
but it was still emotional because it's like,this is where my son took his first steps.

(30:02):
This is where we have all of these memories.
It makes sense for it to be emotional, but
that can also have a not so good effect on thebusiness part of it.
Right?

Mariah (30:15):
Yeah. And that's why having somebody to kind of walk you through the process makes
it easier.
Emotions aren't a bad thing.
Emotions mean we're human and we're actuallyhealthy, because if we didn't have emotions,
then we would be sociopaths or psychopaths,and nobody wants that.

(30:38):
So having emotions is definitely a positivething.
And it's okay.
It's okay to feel sad for leaving something
behind.
There's memories that you have in your home.
There's things that you dreamt for your homethat may or may not have come to fruition.
And so that's one of the things I love, too,about the business I'm in.

(31:03):
I'm a pretty empathetic person, and I lovepeople.
I love meeting people and getting to knowpeople and hearing their stories.
And with my business, I didn't realize I wasgoing to be a counselor or a therapist.
But I feel like at times I'm walking throughsome tough stuff with clients or walking

(31:28):
through some emotional moments in their life,and it's nice to just be there.
I had one client that really struggled withtheir whole situation and would call me all
the time, and I would just remind her of whatshe told me was important, and I would ask her

(31:52):
good questions, and I would just help her kindof through all of the emotions she was
feeling.
And it was good because she needed to move on
like she needed to move on, but it was reallyhard for her to move on.

(32:14):
And so I was just appreciative that she feltcomfortable enough that she could reach out to
me a couple of times a day because I didn'twant her doing that alone.
I didn't want her in her home crying andfeeling alone in this.
I was helping her through this transition.

(32:34):
And so the fact that she trusted me enough and
was comfortable enough to reach out to me inthose vulnerable moments is actually very
humbling and makes me know that I'm doingsomething right.
I'm connecting with my people.
They trust me enough to tell me what's
bothering them, and then I can help thembetter, too.

Cassy (32:58):
Right? Okay, so let's say you have, someone's trying
to sell their house, and they have gottentheir contract with you, and they've gotten
rid of the extra stuff, what is next on their,I guess, to do list?

Mariah (33:20):
So after they've boxed up as much of the personal stuff as they can, and I highly
recommend getting rid of pictures.
Those are extremely distracting to buyers when
they walk through homes because they startgoing, do I know these people?
And then it doesn't feel like it could betheir home.
It feels like somebody else's home thatthey're in.
So packing up personal things, packing up asmuch of the clutter as you can, then I'll have

(33:49):
kind of a walk through with you and say, okay,now that we can see the house, maybe touch up
this paint, especially in the new market we'regoing into, it's not as buyer heavy.
It's still a great market to sell in.
If you're going to sell anytime in the next
two years, do it now, because things I thinkwill continue to slow down.

(34:11):
There's still such a shortage of housing.
So it's a great time to sell, and it's also a
phenomenal time to buy because interest rateshave started to tick down and there's not as
many buyers.
So you're not going to be competing at the
level we saw over the past two years.

(34:31):
And hopefully you can squeak into a house
without having to do the crazy things buyerswere doing, like waiving Inspections or paying
over appraisal price, or there were so manydifferent strategies we had to win back when
you were competing against 20 differentpeople.

(34:52):
So going backwards, then we would walkthrough.
Now that we can see the home a little bitbetter, maybe touch up some paint.
I'll give you a few recommendations of thingsthat would increase the value of the home
without costing you a lot of money.
Your home is not a flip project unless you

(35:13):
want it to be, and then I can help you do thatas well.
I have great people, and some of my sellersend up being flippers of their homes to make
more money off of it.
But some homes, it's just not worth it to put
a new kitchen or bathroom in.
They just want to sell it and move on.

(35:35):
So if you're just looking to sell and not flipyour home, then we're going to touch up some
paint.
A couple of things next, I'll have my stager
come in and my stager.
And it's a quick process.
We can get a house on the market within aweek.
I have all the systems and the people inplace.
As long as the family that's selling the homecan box up their stuff quickly, we can move as

(35:59):
quick as they want.
My stager will come in one day, they'll stage
the home.
Depending on the house, we kind of determine
the amount of staging that's required.
Every home needs a little bit of staging.
We had a trailer that we sold.
It was staged, and because of that, it just

(36:23):
gets more attention.
I feel like no matter the price of the home,
whether it be a $100,000 house or a $2 millionhouse, it is still that person's largest
asset.
It is still to be treated with dignity, no
matter the price point.
And so I treat my $100,000 houses the same way

(36:44):
I treat my $2 million houses.
They get staged, they get the best
photographer, and he'll come in, he does thephotography.
And then I write up a nice little blurb.
And usually with my write ups, I tend to tell
a story for the buyers because stories aremore engaging.

(37:06):
You want to invite them into the home and say,this is where you will do this.
This is where you can do this.
And it's like a walkthrough of letting them
see how they would live in the space insteadof just saying, hey, this has three bedrooms
and two bathrooms.
So you want to show them kind of the
highlights of this has a special niche that,oh, sorry, I'm getting a call.

(37:30):
Send a voicemail.
Okay.
So yeah, you kind of tell a story and then mymarketing kicks in.
Once we go to coming soon, I typically like todo my homes coming soon.
And for people that don't know, it just meansthat it gets it out there on all of the

(37:50):
different, like Zillow, the MLS, realtor.com,all the different places a day or two before
it's open for showings.
And that's to build anticipation and
excitement for the buyers out there lookingfor a home like yours.
And so we always like to have a little bit ofa build up before showings start because my

(38:14):
goal for my clients is that we get everythingin place.
People are excited and starting to createappointments that on day one on the market, my
family can leave their house in the morning.
We can have a whole ton of showings that day

(38:35):
and the next day and they can even go away forthe weekend if they can.
And then we just get all the showings in rightaway.
I contact all the realtors I know.
I say, this is what's coming up.
I do a lot before going live, just buildingthe anticipation, letting everybody know that
a property is coming on.
Because my goal is within those first couple

(38:56):
of days to have as many showings as possibleto lessen the disrupt for the family.
I'm assisting because the worst thing is toput your house on the market one day and say,
okay, well, whenever we get showings, you justhave to leave your house.
I'd rather build up to the day we go live, andthe day we go live we already have a bunch of

(39:21):
appointments and you know, like, okay, I'mjust not going to be in my house for these
couple of days, but we're going to have 20showings and hopefully a buyer by the end of
those.

Cassy (39:38):
And so what are the things that I know from when on my end, when I go to see a house?
Like the things that are, I'm like, what areyou thinking?
Or that are really annoying.
Yeah, but it's like you can't say anything
other than maybe like being polite, I guess,but that you're just like, no, don't do this.

(40:03):
Because for a lot of us, we don't know what isgoing to.
I assume these people don't know.
So it could be helpful to know, like, hey,
don't do these things.

Mariah (40:16):
Yeah, it happens a lot.
And I feel like that's sometimes why it's
helpful to have a professional thatunderstands listings and not just one of those
agents that lists one or two homes a yearperiodically for family and friends.

(40:37):
I think whenever it's your largest asset, youwant somebody that's going to be able to give
you the third party perspective.
You need to know the things that distract a
buyer and the couple of things that, yeah,they may be really cool and it's your

(41:03):
aesthetic and it's you and I love it.
You can be you all the time.
Except for when you're selling your house.
When you're selling your house and you're
trying to get the most for it, you need tomake it marketable.
And so make your house your home wheneveryou're living in it, but whenever you're

(41:24):
selling it, it's now becoming an asset.
It's something that needs marketed and it's
something that needs to have mass appeal sothat you can get the most for the asset you
have.

Cassy (41:37):
Now what about when you go to buy and you're dealing with people that have a bunch
of kids?What are the things that someone who has a
family needs to know?Especially because it seems like from what
you've been saying in this conversation, thatthe craziness of last year has kind of died
down a little bit.

(41:58):
Hopefully.

Mariah (41:59):
Yeah. People just think they're looking through these crystal balls and
predicting the future.
We really don't know what's going to happen in
the market.
I feel like things are starting to pick up
again, which is almost scary because it's notan ideal market for anyone.

(42:21):
Other.
Well, for sellers, there's less balance.
And so I'm hoping that we're getting intosomething that's a little less crazy.
But I would say if you have children, some ofthe most important things to consider is

(42:42):
looking at what's most important to yourfamily and how your family is run.
Some people really need the space outside.
Some people, they have family meals all the
time.
So the kitchen and the dining room being
connected.
Some people have children that just do not get
along and they need their own bedrooms andbathrooms.

(43:04):
So just thinking about some of the pain pointswith your current home as you start the
search, if you're able to find somebody towatch your children when you're going on
showings, that's huge because you can reallyhave an open dialogue and be able to see if

(43:27):
this house is going to work or not for yourfamily without having the children there.
But honestly, when you're at showings and youdo have children, just having a realtor that's
a mom is sometimes beneficial, because I canchat with the kids while my clients are
looking around, and we'll walk aroundtogether.
But I kind of know how to communicate with achild.

(43:50):
So I try to talk to the kids and help thempick out which room would be theirs.
And it gives the parents an opportunity toengage with each other instead of having the
kid kind of pulling on their pants going, mom,dad, dad, and.

Cassy (44:12):
Are there, like, anything? This is, I guess, more abstract than the
buying and selling part of it.
But, I mean, as a realtor, I bet you get to
see this kind of up close.
What are the trends you're seeing right now
with homes?Like, are there specific design trends?
Are people going away from certain things?Or are you saying, like, oh, well, people

(44:35):
aren't wanting open floor plans as much now.
They're wanting this.
What are the trends that you're seeing rightnow?

Mariah (44:40):
I would definitely say, since COVID having an office space is one of the top
requests now.
I feel like people really need a space to be
able to work from home, and they wantsomething that is closed off.
So before, open concept was huge, and openconcept still has a pretty large appeal

(45:05):
because it does make a space feel large, butit's almost.
People want open concept with pockets, if thatmakes sense.
So they want this big open space, but thenthey also want an office space around the
corner or just other places to get away withinthat.

(45:26):
And I would say the biggest change I see rightnow is people are starting to get away from
the white, white kitchens, and I'm seeing somemore pops of color coming back in, which I
actually love.
I love a good island that's got, like, a bold
color on the island, and then you've got thewhite cabinets on top and maybe a colored

(45:49):
cabinet on the bottom or something like that.
We're seeing a little bit less of the
farmhouse look, but that, I think, will alwayshave its appeal.
Joanna Gaines really, really captured Americawith her farmhouse look, but we are starting
to see a little less of that, a little bitmore modern, a little bit more color, but

(46:16):
whites and grays and gray and all that, Idon't think will ever really go away.
More black hardware.
I'm starting to see gold again, too, which,
when it's used well, is stunning.
I recently was in a very nice house, and they

(46:37):
had some sort of mosaic like tile backsplashwith gold fixtures and it was gorgeous.
And I'm not one that typically I'm kind ofboring.
I like white.
White has been my favorite color since I was a
child.
And it's really funny because eventually I had

(46:58):
to stop telling people white was my favoritecolor because they always argued that it
wasn't a color.
So I finally said, okay, my favorite color is
blue, but it's always been white.
So I still gravitate towards the neutrals, but
I love seeing color in homes.
It's been really fun to see that shift taking

(47:18):
place.

Cassy (47:24):
I was trying to get off mute and it's like not going, are there any.
I know you probably can't be too specific.
Are there any crazy things that you've seen in

(47:45):
what kind of crazy, know, you always see thosethings on zillow gone wild or whatever, but as
a realtor, you must get to see it in person.

Mariah (47:57):
It's so fun.
I love my career, honestly.
So I have ADHD.
Anyone that knows me well knows that.
And so one of the things with ADHD people isthey like when things are new, exciting, and
fast.

(48:18):
With my career, it's always new and it's
always exciting.
So it keeps me really engaged.
I can't be at a regular desk job doing thesame thing every single day.
I'm too creative for that.
I need opportunities to come up with wacky
solutions or whatever it might be.
And so I just love whenever I'm able to flow

(48:40):
in my creativity, which is one of the things Ilove about being able to go off on my own and
make my business more me.
I've seen that kind of spark coming alive
again.
But with real estate, every day is you just
never know what you're going to get, ever.
And it's flying by the seat of your pant.

(49:00):
Even with this podcast, I was like, I don'tknow what we're going to talk about, but I'm
just going to show up and it'll work out.
Some of the funkiest things I've seen.
Well, there was a dead bat in a house right onthe floor.
I have seen, oh goodness.

(49:22):
There was this one house that I took my people
to.
It was out in the woods and it was a really
neat property.
It was mid century modern, kind of rusticy.
It was so cool and very fun.
But when we went in, there was a bird trapped
inside.

(49:45):
I call her my friend.
She was a client, but she became a friendthrough the process.
She and I were trying to shoe this bird out ofthe house, and it was going all over the
place.
And then we walk into these rooms with the
strangest art on the wall.

(50:05):
I don't even know how really to describe it,
except that there was a whole bunch of painton this one wall in circular 70s, psychedelic,
I don't even know.
Like somebody was on drugs type of abstract
art.
And at the very center of all these different

(50:27):
colored circle things was a hole in the wall.
And then coming out of the hole in the wall
were plastic bags.
Colored plastic bags.

Cassy (50:42):
Sorry.
Like grocery bags.

Mariah (50:46):
Kind of.
They didn't have logos on them or anything,
but kind of like grocery bags, but coloredones without logos coming out of the wall with
a hole in it with a weird muraly thing.
It was so weird.
I have a picture of that, I think, somewhere.

(51:08):
So, yeah, I saw that one time.
The scariest showing I ever had.
So with vacant properties, and this is one of
the things that is the unfortunate side of mybusiness.
People always watch those realtor shows, andthey think it's all glamorous.
Oh, I have another story now that I thinkabout that.

(51:29):
People think it's a very glamorous job.
Not always.
I once had this showing where it was a hoarderhouse, and it was so hard to do.
And this is the part that breaks my heart.
When I'm helping young first time home buyers

(51:51):
or young families that don't have a lot ofmoney, it limits what they can buy.
And so we get there, and it's this mom anddad, they've got their two year old, I think
she was at the time, and she's pregnant.
And we go into this hoarder house.
There's cats everywhere.
Cats just outside, inside, everywhere.

(52:13):
And we're walking through, and she has to usethe bathroom.
And so I try to find a clean space for her tomake the bathroom a little bit cleaner so she
can use it.
And I'm just trying to get us out of here, but
they really need a home.

(52:34):
They needed a home.
And so they're talking about, well, maybe ifwe did this.
And he was handy.
And I'm like, this looks way worse than you
think.
Because I could feel like the subfloor felt
squishy.
And I was like, I think there's more that we
can't see going on here with this home.

(52:54):
And then we went around and we went down to
downstairs area.
Next thing I know, there's like fleas popping
up on my legs.
And I told my buyers, I was like, you guys
need to get your daughter out of here.
I think there are fleas.
We can talk about the property if you want,but I just don't want anything happening to

(53:18):
your daughter, the pregnant wife, at thatpoint.
And so we're walking away.

Cassy (53:25):
Is that kind of house even, like.
I mean, obviously there's people who are able
to.
I don't want to say it's not sellable, but,
like, how?

Mariah (53:33):
Yeah, so that's a wonderful investment property for somebody that's looking to flip,
but at the price this person was trying tosell it for, it's not a smart home to buy.
And eventually, I think homes like that, ifthe seller can't come down in price, those are

(53:57):
the ones that kind of just sit there foreveruntil somebody passes away or the bank owns
it.
And then eventually, hopefully a flipper.
It makes me sad because I love homes so much,and I love houses, and I'm one of those people
that sees potential in a lot of homes.
And eventually I want my husband and I to

(54:19):
start flipping homes ourselves.
But I think that's going to come when the
children are older and we have a little bitmore time again.
Because I love architecture.
I love the old homes made new because there's
a lot of good materials that were used, andolder homes were just built better.

(54:41):
So I feel like if you can get an old, wellbuilt home and fix it up, they can be
beautiful.

Cassy (54:52):
Homes are totally my thing, too.

Mariah (54:55):
Yeah, they're beautiful.
I love them, and they're so well built.
I have a home from the.
It is rock solid, and my husband's slowly
going through fixing up one room at a time,and it's becoming ours, and I kind of love
that process.

Cassy (55:13):
Yeah, it's like, as you know, the home that we just bought is not older, but our
other house, which we still own, was built in1860, which I think you visited, right?

Mariah (55:24):
I did.
I love that house.
If you ever want to sell it, look me up,because it's so cute.

Cassy (55:31):
Just the coolest thing, being able to kind of experience all the little old gems
from the house's history.
Like, going down in the basement when we first
saw it, like, first ever saw it, and it'slike, oh, my gosh, this is the original
fireplace.
I love going.

(55:52):
And I don't know who redecorated this houseover however many years.
It's, like almost 200 years old, but itdoesn't have the original wood flooring right
now.
It's covered up with, I think, laminate or
something.
I don't know, whatever.
Whoever owned it before us did that but you godown to the basement and you can see the

(56:13):
original wood flooring.
It's still there and it's in good shape.
That's amazing, seeing stuff like that.
It makes me wonder to come in.

Mariah (56:22):
There and pull up that laminate and really give life back to that old home.

Cassy (56:30):
Those were among our goals.
And, I mean, maybe one day when our kids
aren't, I get a glimpse into my life forpeople listening.
This other house was only 1400, so for afamily of eight, that just wasn't going to
work.
But we still own it.
So when the kids move out, it would be theperfect size for just me and Matt.

Mariah (56:54):
Yeah, totally.

Cassy (56:56):
And oh, my gosh, I would love to restore that house back to its original
historic glory.
And sometimes I wonder what it is about the
materials that were used at older houses.
I don't know when the quality went downhill,
but especially here in Pennsylvania, I'venoticed there's houses that are like 500 years

(57:20):
old and they're still.

Mariah (57:23):
We have some of the oldest housing in all of America.
I think we're in the top, like five.
Yeah, they are.
They're amazing.

Cassy (57:33):
It blows my mind.
Like, how do you build something?
We have hardwood floors in our house inFlorida and the toilet overflowed and they
were destroyed.
And I'm going, how is it that the wood floor
and this house built in 1992 got destroyedbecause of this little teeny flood, but these
houses from 500 years ago are still just fine?

Mariah (57:54):
Yeah, I think a lot of it has to do with the wood that was available back then.
And it's very interesting.
I helped sell a 200 year old property.
Guess it was like two years ago now.
And it was amazing the history that was

(58:15):
preserved with that home and all the newspaperarticles.
And it's actually on the house of historicumsor something.
And so I helped somebody buy that house.
And as I was learning about it, it was very
interesting because they would chop down wholetrees around that area and stack these trees,

(58:42):
logs, like the entire tree pretty much, tomake the house.
And the wood was stronger because it was olderand it had been there for a really long time.
Whereas now we have these kind of tree farmsand they have quick growing trees that aren't

(59:04):
as strong and don't have as deep of roots andhaven't been seasoned well.
And so they plant these trees, they grow realfast, they cut them down, they make them into
boards and then the boards just aren't asstrong.
Whereas back in the day they were cutting downtrees that were probably 100, 200 years old.

(59:28):
And had been weathered and were very strong.
And so it took a lot of effort to cut those
trees down and then to stack those trees andto make planks out of those trees.
It's really, honestly the quality of thematerials.
And that's why you have to be very carefulwhich builder you use, too, because you can

(59:51):
build a much cheaper home with some of thesebuilders, but a lot of their savings is in the
materials and the type of wood they're using.
I forget what they're called now, but there's
different types of wood qualities.
And so some of these really big builders out

(01:00:12):
there are using the cheaper quality wood andthrowing up these houses, and I don't think
they're going to last.
I think those houses are good for maybe 50
years or so.
I don't know.
I don't know yet.
We'll find out.
But then there's other builders that really dounderstand that quality wood lasts and they

(01:00:39):
still use those materials, but they're moreexpensive because the material is expensive.
So I think it's just important as you'rethinking about building to kind of know where
corners are cut with any builder.
And so I have a few builders that I really
like, and then a few that they're good enoughfor clients, but I really try to match clients

(01:01:05):
with the best they can get in their pricerange whenever they're looking to build.

Cassy (01:01:12):
And for people who are buying, what are the things that they need to know?
Because I feel like I can just say from myexperience, every time I've bought a house, I
feel like I'm learning something more.
Yeah.
Like, the first time we bought a house, wejust kind of bought one at random, and it was
like, oh, what do we like?We didn't really think about resale or what

(01:01:37):
are the schools like in the area?We had no clue.
So the next house, it's like, okay, well,let's think about.
We need to make sure we remember to thinkabout schools.
And then it turns out that there's more thingswe didn't think about.
I feel like no matter how many times you'vedone this, there's still stuff that you're not
thinking about.

Mariah (01:01:55):
Yeah. So that's very interesting.
And to be completely honest, I feel like even
after years of helping people buy and sellhomes, and this is like a daily thing for me,
I'm always learning, which is one of thethings I love as well.
I'm constantly trying to better hone in myskills.

(01:02:19):
And you do.
You kind of pick up things along the way.
There's always that first time something'sever happened to you in a transaction moment.
And we joke because we'll get in a room of 50realtors sharing stories of things that
happened, and there will be somebody that'slike, yeah, I've been in the business for 40
years and never had this happen before.

(01:02:41):
And that's the thing about real estate that
keeps it interesting.
As a buyer, I think the most important piece
is the location, making sure you know whereyou want to be.
Understanding, like you said, the schools, thecrime rate, the diversity, understanding the

(01:03:05):
community that you're going to be in and theneighborhood you're in and looking at the
houses closest to your house to see if do theyhave swings in the backyard?
Which was something I loved about you guys,because I remember going to some places and
you're like, there's not enough swing sets.
I'm like, you're right.
And I love that you knew that was important toyour family, especially having all those

(01:03:28):
children.
You wanted to be in a neighborhood with kids.
And I loved that whenever we found your house,it had all those things.

Cassy (01:03:41):
We drove down the street and I'm like, oh, look, there's like five different
driveways with chalk all over them.

Mariah (01:03:47):
Exactly.
And there were kids outside the day we were
there, and we were able to talk to one of theneighbors.
And it's things like that where you're like,okay, this is starting to feel like it could
be the one.
And I always tell my buyers to be open minded,
and I think that's really important becauseyou just need to see a lot of homes.

(01:04:08):
The more homes you see, the more comfortableyou are when you find the right one, because
you can kind of compare and contrast.
And the worst thing that can happen to buyer
is they walk in the first home and they say,this one's it.
And then they question it for years.
So getting in, seeing lots of different homes,

(01:04:29):
lots of neighborhoods, lots of locations,really helps whenever you find the right one
to know, like, okay, this is the one.
And you're not second guessing anytime a
buyer, we see our first home and they're like,this is the one.
I'm like, let's look at other houses first sothat you don't question yourself for years.

Cassy (01:04:53):
Okay, so let's say that you've looked at all these houses and you find the one that
you want.
So what are the do's and don'ts as far as
putting in offers and getting ready to buy?

Mariah (01:05:05):
Yeah. So I think running everything through your realtor, never, ever reach out to
the listing agent and the homeowner, becauseit's a dance that your realtor is going to
take with the other side of the transaction.

(01:05:26):
So if you're the buyer, you really want to
have a realtor that knows how to negotiate andknows how to dance and knows how to play nice
with the other side to get you more of whatyou want and to get you the best deal you can

(01:05:47):
get on the home.
I like to think of transactions as like a win
win for both sides.
Everybody's going to give and take a little
bit, and the nicer we play ball, the nicerthey play ball, and eventually we all come
together and it works.
But, yeah, I think reaching out to the other
side or anything like that can reallyjeopardize your ability to negotiate.

(01:06:18):
So just sharing with your realtor all of thepertinent information that they need and being
very open and honest so many times you havefamilies that are very, how do I say this?
Very hesitant to share their financialstruggles or just different things that are

(01:06:45):
playing out.
And I'm not here to judge anyone.
I'm just here trying to help you get a home ifyou want it.
And so the more information I have going intonegotiations, the more I understand the full
picture of your life and your finances, thebetter equipped I am to then do everything I

(01:07:07):
can to make it work for you.
And I'm really good at laying the.

Cassy (01:07:16):
I don't know if that's going to.

Mariah (01:07:17):
Work for my people whenever I know it's going to work for my people and coming
out, out slightly ahead.
So it's not that knowing it will work is a
disadvantage for my buyers.
Knowing it will work gives me more confidence
to push a little bit harder because I know,okay, we got this, but I'm going to push a

(01:07:42):
little bit and make them a little scared sothat they'll give us more.
And so it just having the confidence andknowing the situation makes negotiation
processes so much easier on our end.
So I think just trusting your realtor to take
over and I have a winning strategy sheet.

(01:08:04):
I walk through with my clients and I say, hey,
these are all the different things we can doto craft a strong offer.
And I tell them, it's an ala carte menu.
You pick and choose what you're comfortable
with.
I'm good with whatever, these are your
decisions.
I will help you craft it.
But you need to be comfortable with the offerand understand the offer you're writing.

(01:08:27):
And then once we have that and I understandwhere you're willing to go, then it's just a
dance, and I dance it out with the other side.
Usually he who speaks first loses.
So I like to kind of just give them some timeto respond.
And once we start getting into conversation, Ilet them talk a little bit more to see what I

(01:08:52):
can get from them, if that makes sense.
Yeah.

Cassy (01:08:59):
And are there things that you have learned tend to kind of turn off sellers when
it comes to putting in your offers or littletips to maybe make an offer more attractive?
What can help or hurt you?

Mariah (01:09:18):
I think a lot of it's in the presentation.
Something I really take pride in is mycommunication with the listing agent from the
get go, making sure that they understand, likeI call them, I understand what the seller's
needs are so that I can craft our offer tokind of meet their biggest needs.

(01:09:44):
You don't know what the seller's needs areunless you ask.
And so sometimes the seller just needs moretime in the home or less time in the home, or
they want a lease back.
They want to sell the house and then stay in
it for a month or whatever.
Finding out some of their motivators so that
you can tailor the offer to them makes it alot easier on the front end and then how you

(01:10:13):
package your offer.
I always share a couple of things about my
buyer that aren't too personal but mightresonate with the seller in the email to the
listing agent.
And I really try to, gosh, when you're a buyer
in this market, you don't have a ton of pullright now because there's just not enough

(01:10:40):
housing for everybody.
There isn't.
And so I'm always playing suck up when I havea buyer and trying to get the listing agent to
like me and want to work with me and tounderstand that this is going to be an easy
transaction for you and you're going to getpaid and it's going to be great.

(01:11:01):
I do a lot of buttering up of the listingagent and then my presentation of my offer.
I always outline my offer in my email so thatit's easy for them to understand.
I call them whenever I submit the offer sothat they don't miss it in their email.

(01:11:21):
And then for the buyer, honestly, there's notmuch a buyer has to do to make their offer
stand out if they have a good agent.
Sometimes people like to write letters and
that's great.
However, with fair housing, it's not always a
safe practice.

(01:11:43):
I kind of let my buyers know if they want to,
I will give it to the listing agent, but thenthe listing agent has to decide whether or not
they want to share that with the seller,because you don't want somebody buying a house
because of your skin color or because of yourreligion or whatever it might be.

(01:12:04):
And so letters were a really big thing back inthe day, but then with just fair housing
lawsuits and everything, they do open you upto risk.
So I don't often, once in a while, I'll getsomebody that just loves them, and we will do
it.
And it has helped some people, but I leave

(01:12:28):
that kind of up.
I partner with my buyers and sellers.
We're in this together.
And so I think the more we just communicate,
the easier it is.
I hope that answered your question.

Cassy (01:12:43):
Yeah. And I mean, just, I can say from our experience, we did the thing with the
letter for one house, and we bought, let methink, 1235 houses now throughout our
lifetime.
We've done it once, and there was only one
time where it was actually recommended by ourrealtor at the time, because the sellers, I

(01:13:08):
guess the feedback she was getting from theirrealtor was that they were strongly
considering the offer, but I guess they justneeded, like, an extra little push.
And the other ones, it just never wasnecessary.

Mariah (01:13:22):
Yeah.

Cassy (01:13:24):
I guess part of the other aspect of it was that our realtor, from talking to their
realtor, knew this is another family and mightbe able to identify more.
And it turned out, like, when we came to theclosing, they were like, we were so happy that
we knew that this was going to another family.
And we had said, I think one of the things

(01:13:45):
we'd asked for was for their baby gate,because they had this big.
It was like the size of, like, two frenchdoors.

Mariah (01:13:53):
Right.

Cassy (01:13:54):
So you don't typically have baby gates.

Mariah (01:13:56):
Yeah. And it fits this perfectly, I'm sure.

Cassy (01:14:00):
Right? It fit perfectly.
And so I'm like, oh, my gosh, please keepthis.
Can you leave this so that we can continue touse?
Because they had it as a playroom.
And so I'm like, we love the playroom.
If you could leave the gate so we couldcontinue using it as a playroom, we would love
that.
And they had said, we were so happy to know
that this room where our daughter got to playsomeone else's kids would get to play.

(01:14:24):
And so I can see how in those circumstances,it would work.
But I also know that from similar experience,if you don't have a realtor, because we have
had some not so great realtors over the years,and that can really make a big difference.
You can put in the exact same offer with a badrealtor and it does not go well.

(01:14:47):
Ask me how I know.

Mariah (01:14:51):
Unfortunately.
And being on the listing side, I have seen a
lot of offers come in and it's wild to me.
I don't know.
I started off primarily with buyers, and soseeing the, I got really good at almost

(01:15:13):
manipulating my buyers into homes andnegotiating our ways in.
But whenever I had my first listing and I sawall these offers coming in, I think back to
that and I'm like, wow, these people are allover the place.
Some people didn't fill out the formscorrectly.

(01:15:37):
Some people never even called me.
Some people were terrible about building
rapport and were just like, mean and like, yougot to take our offer.
I'm like, jeez, I was surprised.
Yeah.
But then you do meet those couple really goodagents on the other side.

(01:16:00):
And there's something about seeing a goodagent on the other side of the transaction
that makes you want so badly to work withthem.
And that's why having a good agent is key,because agents get to know each other.
They get to know how each person works.
And whenever you see an offer come from an

(01:16:22):
agent you've worked with that you trust thatyou know does a good job, you just know that
it's going to go smoother for everybody.
And who doesn't want that for their buyers and
sellers?The last thing I want to do is put my buyer or
seller through some terrible transaction orwhere there's all these different problems, or

(01:16:46):
the agent on the other side forgets to bringthe check to a settlement because that's never
happened whenever your buyer is buying.
And so to me, limiting those unknowns,
whenever we have the power as a listing agentand being like, okay, so these are all our
offers.

(01:17:07):
I'll tell my people, I'll be like, I've worked
with this agent.
I know they'll do a good job.
That's usually not the determining factor, butit is something that helps.
So just having a good agent that people knowand trust is worth something in a transaction.

(01:17:29):
Yeah.

Cassy (01:17:33):
And when you are looking to find an agent, obviously, other than, I mean, they
should just call you.

Mariah (01:17:40):
But let's say you're taking 14 people, so they better call quickly before my calendar
fills up.

Cassy (01:17:49):
But generally speaking, you decide you want to sell your house or are looking to buy
a house, whatever the situation is, how do youknow you're getting a good agent?

Mariah (01:18:02):
Oh, man, that's hard.
Some people are really good at that initial
contact, and then through time, you kind oflearn that they just put on a good show and
they don't actually deliver.
I think it's important to look at reviews,
which is why I cherish my reviews so much.

(01:18:24):
Actually, I have to go in and thank my two
most recent reviews.
I've been so busy with the holidays, I feel
bad.
But my reviews are kind of the lifeblood of my
business.
And so I appreciate whenever I get a five star
review, because that tells a story I can'ttell.

(01:18:48):
I don't like selling myself to people, and Ithink it looks car salesmanny.
And I just don't do it.
I don't try to go after people for business.
I like having relationships with people, andif I can help them one day, I'm happy to help
them.

(01:19:08):
If they use somebody else, I do not get
offended.
I used to.
I used to be like, why would my friend useanother realtor?
You know what?It's really okay as long as that other realtor
takes good care of them.
And I've had friends that it didn't go well.
And I still give them advice.

(01:19:29):
I still help them through their transactions,
even when I'm not making a penny off of thembecause they're friends of mine.
And this is something I know really well andsomething I love, and I love helping people.
What was the question?

Cassy (01:19:48):
How do you know you're getting a good realtor?

Mariah (01:19:49):
Finding a good realtor? Yeah.
I think that's the key.
Looking at their reviews, hearing what other
people have said about their experiences withthe realtor and not getting sold a story, but
actually getting to know who they are as aperson and connecting with them as a person

(01:20:10):
and being like, okay, you're somebody I cantrust.
If they feel like someone you can trust,that's everything.
I actually just wrote a post on Facebook todayabout trust, and I equated trust to being on
peaceful waters.
And whenever you have trust with somebody, it

(01:20:30):
makes whatever sea you're traveling on smoothand easy.
But whenever you're with somebody you can'texactly trust, then you get onto the stormy
waters and things don't go very well.
And so I think just having a good

(01:20:52):
communicator, somebody you know, has your bestintentions in mind and doesn't see you as a
paycheck, and that's hard to sift outsometimes.
I don't know how you really sift that out, butI think just knowing people have heart behind
what they're doing.

(01:21:12):
Actually, now that I'm on my own, my motto
that I came up with is home is where yourheart is.
Helping you find a home is where my heart is.
And that's so important to me is just letting
people know, like, I care about this moment inyour life and want to help you.

(01:21:34):
It's not about the money.
So finding somebody that really doesn't need
the money but wants to help other people isusually best.

Cassy (01:21:50):
Yeah, that totally makes sense.
Well, Mariah, thank you so much for your time
today and for all.

Mariah (01:21:56):
Thanks for having me.
It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
Sorry I was so nervous.
I'm like, I don't know what I'm going to say,
but thanks for having me.

Cassy (01:22:08):
Well, I will make sure to include all of Mariah's information in our show notes.
So if you are looking at buying or selling ahome, make sure you contact Mariah.
And until next time, thanks for stopping by.

Mariah (01:22:21):
All right, thanks, Cassie.

Cassy (01:22:30):
That's our episode for this week.
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Thanks for stopping by the Fireflies and
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Until next time.