Mastering the Art of Real Estate with Guest, Maren Brisson-Kuester, Chief Operating Officer and a Top-Producing Broker at Corcoran, NC

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:36):
Welcome to mastering the Art of Real Estate. I'm your host,
Debbie Demaggio. Today we're here with Marion Greeson Custer. She
is coming to us from Charlotte, North Carolina, and it
is it's been snowing there, and I think it's colder
there than it is in New York. And I'm sitting
in sunny California. There are no rain and think, gosh,

(00:56):
there's no buyers. But it's a beautiful sunny day here.
So let's bring in Maren.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Hi. Good, thanks for having me today.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
So so happy to have you.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
I know you and I met, I believe two years
ago in Nashville the first time. You're going to be
attending the Corkoran conference in April.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
I am heading out to Arizona.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
Oh good, I know.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
I'm looking forward to it. It's just my second one
with Corkoran, but I had such a good time last
time and I met so many people. I think that's
one of the cool things about working with Corkoran is
that there's a lot of cool people to meet and
go getters and collaborators and colleagues, and it makes it
super fun.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
So I'm excited to see you again.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
I am too, so I'm very excited out there.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
I know it'll be nice. So let's formally introduce Maren.
Maren is the chief operating officer and top producing broker
at Corkoran HM Properties, a leading real estate firm.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
In Charlotte, North Carolina.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
With over two decades in the industry, she has built
a reputation for excellence, earning top producer status since two
thousand and six and holding leadership roles such as the
President of Charlotte Regional Realtors Association and North Carolina Realtors.
A passionate advocate for real estate professionals, Maren has been
recognized with multiple industry awards, including Charlotte Realtor of the

(02:19):
Year and induction into the National Association of Realtors Hall
of Fame. Beyond sales, she is dedicated to mentorship, advocacy,
and elevating industry standards through leadership and community involvement. She
frequently speaks on market trends, agent success strategies, and the
future of real estate. Maren lives in Charlotte with her

(02:39):
husband and two sons, and remains deeply involved in local
philanthropy and education initiatives. Wow you do a Lot and
it's amazing. I had to cut your bio way down
because you've had so many accomplishments. I would just be
reading all the accomplishments.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
It's amazing.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
So tell me how did you first get into real estate,
maren was did you have a career prior to real
estate or was this a second or third career or
was this right out the gate?

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Well, I started in real estate at twenty three. I
was working in marketing, so that was my day job,
and then I started taking real estate classes at night.
My first husband was from a development family and he
was getting his real estate license, and we dated taking
the real estate class together. So that was how I

(03:28):
got a real estate.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Oh my gosh. So and you were young when you
got involved. So and you wrote a little something in
the questionnaire about you and your husband and the test
and share with us that experience.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Yeah, we we took the class together at night, and
then we went to take the big final exam and
we came out and I had passed and he had failed.
And he was from a real estate dynasty family, and
needless to say, that didn't go over very well, but
he's I helped him study and he did eventually pass,

(04:04):
but it was a quite interesting part to that dynamic
and that relationship.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
And you still continue to get married to this day.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
I did. Right now we are divorced, right, I mean
that is not who I am currently married to, but I.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
Yes, you are always going to be one uping. Well,
let's start right there about the test. We So we
have eighty agents at our office, and we're always new.
Agents are always coming into our office, and and I
find that they study really hard for the test, some
of and some of them take the crash course, which

(04:43):
I always recommend because since your your former husband, he
was in real estate. But it doesn't really translate to
what's on the test. And I think a lot of
people think, oh, you know, I'm going to read the
book and I'm going to study and I'm going to
crush the tests, but oftentimes it doesn't happen. What do
I know as a leader in your firm, too, what

(05:03):
do you tell your agents to pass? Because I notice
a lot of people don't pass into the first, second,
sometimes third tries.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
Well, one, you just actually really have to pay attention
and study. I mean you have to take your study
GUIDs and your exam questions. So and it's multi layered.
It's number one, we don't hire anybody who's not fully licensed,
so I don't get that opportunity in our firm to
really educate people like that, but I do on the
broader scale. And it's interesting because for the last two

(05:32):
exam cycles, the recreation of the exam cycles, I've set
on the committee that actually helped write the exam questions
and redo the state portions of the exams. So it's
been interesting to watch that end of it on how
we create the exam questions and then we go forward
from the Real Estate Commission and help educate everyone. And

(05:53):
it truly is if you pay attention to your exam
prep and the question prep and study those, you will pass.
It actually is simple, but so many people don't bother
to do what you're talking about. Pay attention to your
CRAM sessions, pay attention to the actual test prep. If

(06:13):
you do the prep, you'll pass.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
Exactly. Really about that, it's a little bit like it's
just what.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
They're teaching you do that. Don't try to learn. You're
going to learn real estate on the job, right, And
let's talk a little bit about that, how the test
doesn't really have anything to do with what we do
in life. So tell us a little bit about that,
whether it's the differences or what is real estate really
like for people who might be some viewers might be
agents deciding to get into real estate, and some might

(06:44):
be agents that have been in the business but they're
looking for a new way to reinvent themselves. So just
give us a few pointers on being a successful real
estate agent.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
Well, being a successful real estate agent really means you
number one, have to know your audience, right, I mean
instantly coming in. You have to be able to read
the room. So I would say, if you're starting out
or you've been selling real estate for twenty five years,
you've got to be able to morph yourself to who
you're serving. And that's going to be changing on a

(07:18):
wreck every day. It's going to be different. The consumer
is changing. Their wants and desires are changing, and oftentimes
they have no clue what they want. I think after COVID,
everybody totally did a mind meld, and they thought they wanted,
you know, to move out or live on the beach,
or live in the mountains and work from home and

(07:39):
never go around other people again. And you know all
these things, right, and now we're seeing a total pendulum
swing back of everybody wants to move into the cities again,
and everybody's selling those country homes and you know, nobody
wants to have the picket fence and the two acres
to mow anymore. And I mean just everything's changing, right.
So one, I think you have to be able to

(08:00):
pivot and really morph yourself and be a creative person.
And that does not mean you have to be an artist.
Means you have to be creative with yourself and be
able to create what your client is looking for. And
that means in your personality, right, that means in your business,

(08:23):
that means in what you're presenting them, and that really
carries forward if you're brand new or if you're seasoned.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
Absolutely, and our market as the market change, the economy changes,
and exactly what you said, the wants and needs of
buyers and sellers are absolutely changing.

Speaker 3 (08:42):
It's a very different time.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
And I know a lot of people moved out of California,
and then I've also heard of a lot of people
moving back. They tried it elsewhere, like you said, in
your area, maybe moving to the mountains and then coming back.
It's just yeah, it's it's hard to break habits.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
You know, you get used to something and you try.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
It, you go, oh, the grass is greener, it's going
to be great, and then you go I felt bad
for this one person. They moved from California to Las Vegas,
sold their house here, so they got out of the
California market, moved to Las Vegas, hated it, and needless
to say, they were pretty upset as they were trying
to come back into California. So I would say, be ready,

(09:25):
know where you're moving and live there, even.

Speaker 3 (09:28):
If rent there for a period of but to see you.
So where do your buyers come from? And where are
your sellers moving to?

Speaker 2 (09:39):
So we of course have a lot of local intown
buyers and sellers, because that's just a given in any
market right in the Carolinas. But we also have major
market influxes in Charlotte being a financial hub, so we
have a lot of movement in the financial sector. We
have for the last forty years. So a lot of
our inbound move are coming from the West coast in

(10:02):
up north. Right, we're getting a lot of movement from
New York, New Jersey, Connecticut. Right, we always have out west.
We get a lot of movement from California, that's just
a given. But we also get a lot of Midwest movement.
The Chicago Land area has always moved a lot of
people our way. And then we get half backs, we
call them halfway back. We get people halfway back from Florida,

(10:25):
right that moved down there from up north and they're
coming halfway back. So that tends to be our migratory
patterns into the Carolinas region. And then we'll just move
people around the area and.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
What kinds of company You have a lot of movement there,
which is amazing. Which companies are still there or which
companies are coming in. Who's who makes up the greater
Charlotte area.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
So our largest employee sector is financial sector and everything
that goes in with that. So everything from fintech to
you know, legal that's supports financial It's not just the
big banks, of course, we have wells b of a centry.
I mean, all the big banks are here, right, they
all have headquarters here, But we have every industry that

(11:10):
surrounds it in. Our next large employment sector is healthcare.
We're a massive healthcare industry here, So it's not just
the healthcare actual you know hospitals that are here, but
we're a big industry in healthcare here, so we have
big pharma here, we have biotech here, we have biotech
actual industry here and it's booming and growing. So it's

(11:34):
not just the research triangle up towards Raleigh and Chapel Hill.
It's actually biotech down here as well. So it's really
interesting that you'll see all that. And transportation, when you
think about our region, you don't think about moving people
in goods, but we're moving about one hundred and seventy
two new people to our region the day. And if

(11:55):
you actually think about the mode of transportation and goods
that we move, we're a massive intermodal region. So when
you think about the two big ports in Wilmington in
North Carolina and in Charleston, we're moving massive goods through
the water through the ports, and then we have major
intermodal systems. So the railways are moving goods to Charlotte

(12:21):
Douglas Airport, which is the fourth largest airport in the world. Now,
so what realizes that, right, because everybody's like, oh, PODAC Charlotte,
North Carolina, right, why we have such a large airport. Well,
we're moving people and goods.

Speaker 3 (12:37):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (12:37):
So when you connecting those dots, you start realizing why
businesses are moving here at a rapid pace, not just headquarters,
but they're moving distribution centers, they're moving infrastructure to our
region because we have very large workforces here, very well

(12:58):
educated workforces here. We have seven higher education universities within
an hour drive from just Charlotte alone. I mean, you
just can't reach those sort of resources very easily anywhere
else in this country.

Speaker 3 (13:13):
So I had no idea.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
I'm yes, I'm I hate to say the word ignorant,
but I had no idea that there was that much activity.
You know, you hear of Research Triangle and you know
it seems like a quiet place to move to, but
it clearly is not quiet.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
So how are you? How are you? How is the
how are you keeping up with?

Speaker 1 (13:34):
Are there is are there our home new homes and
condos and housing developments being developed to keep up with
all this demand?

Speaker 2 (13:43):
Yes, but of course not enough and not fast enough.
I mean, we have an inventory shortage, just like the
rest of the country. For the most part, we do
not have enough homes for people. We're at one hundred
percent occupancy for rentals. I mean, we just do not
have enough homes we are trying to build. You just
can't keep up. And we are seeing building starts down right.

(14:06):
I think you're seeing that nationally. Builders were hoping to
increase building starts this year. Now they're panicking over tariffs
and over Canadian lumber and everything else. That's really going
to cause another problem. So I think we're going to
see more pressure. Quite frankly, if I were to predict

(14:26):
in building starts twenty five, we were hoping to see
those increase, and now I think all the builders are
screaming and we're going to see a decrease. Not only
are we seeing tariffs hit products, but we're seeing labor shortages.
So call it a spade a spade, right.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
Right, Oh my gosh, that's incredible, that's insane. So all right,
let's take a quick commercial break and we'll be right
back with Maren from Charlotte, North Carolina. Welcome back to

(15:40):
Mastering the Art of Real Estate. I'm your host, Debbie Demagio,
and we are here with Marion from North Carolina. So
you're in Charlotte, But what are the what are the
area cities and neighborhoods and how far out do you
go to serve your clients.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
Well, so I personally cover north in South Carolina and Charlotte.
You sit about fifteen and it's away from the state
line in South Carolina, so we are really close. When
you hear anybody talk about the Charlotte region, it really
encompasses about twelve counties and it really is North and

(16:15):
South Carolina all the way down from an area called
rock Hill, South Carolina, all the way up to Lake
Norman and beyond. In North Carolina. I'm born and raised here.
I'm about five generations deep, so I will basically serve
all the areas in the region personally. Our company will

(16:35):
cover all the Carolinas. We have offices in the mountains
down to the coastline in both states, so we kind
of cover all the areas and then some. So that's
where we cover. We're kind of spread everywhere.

Speaker 3 (16:52):
That's a lot.

Speaker 1 (16:52):
I had no idea it was so close to So
when you say the Carolinas, you mean both both states.

Speaker 3 (16:59):
So can you give us.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
A price range in a let's say Charlotte or a
suburb of Charlotte, in a nice neighborhood, give us a
price range of you know, a three bedroom, two bath
or a four bedroom house, just so people have an
idea of what the price range is in a nice
neighborhood in a good school district.

Speaker 2 (17:18):
So if you want to live within let's say you
want to be within a twenty minute commute to uptown
Charlotte for work, and that would put you in that
bubble if you will a just a normal twenty one hundred,
because that's about what a three bedroom house would get you.
You're looking at around one point one million dollars right now,

(17:43):
So that's about where we're sitting. Our average sales price
is sitting fairly high right now if you look just
in that bubble. But if you go to our entire area,
that's how diverse we are. We still are very affordable.
It just depends on which area of you want to
be in. Our average sales price is still below five

(18:04):
hundred thousand.

Speaker 4 (18:05):
For our house for a house Arcondo d on the above,
all the above, if you look at our average, but
if you bring yourself in to little pockets, say a
Myers Park or in East Over, which would be a
neighborhood like you're referencing, or Barkley Downs where I live
in for example, I mean those prices skyrocket.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
I mean you're not touching anything, even a tear down
for under a million dollars because of proximity to town,
because proximity to schools, to everything else.

Speaker 1 (18:38):
Right, And are you seeing so our market is pretty
flat right now. Buyers are out looking, but they're not
pulling the trigger. We have a listing in our area
that a buyer an agent was taking the buyer and
they kept going back to the same property. The buyer
couldn't pull the trigger, so the agent realized it was
such a great value he bought it for himself. Right now,

(19:00):
there's a lot of great deals out there, but buyers
just aren't pulling the trigger.

Speaker 3 (19:04):
And that's pretty much in California. How is it?

Speaker 1 (19:07):
And I am going to mastermind throughout the country A
lot of people are experiencing that.

Speaker 3 (19:11):
But are you experiencing that?

Speaker 1 (19:12):
Because it sounds like you have so many people coming
into the area.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
We are not experiencing that overall. We are experiencing that
with some of our intown clients, right they're just not moving.
I mean they're going, Okay, I'm saying, what's the point,
I'm just going to renovate or I'm going to add
on I'm just not going to deal with moving right now,
but with anybody moving here. Note we're not getting that.

(19:40):
We're still having bidding wars on homes. We're still seeing
competition left and right.

Speaker 1 (19:46):
Wow, I do want to go back to that.

Speaker 3 (19:51):
That's crazy.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
And I just to point out I'm pretty sure the
reason why in your market as well as our market,
is a lot of the people who used to maybe
decide to move out or move up or move down,
and they are staying put like you mentioned, and renovating
and just like.

Speaker 3 (20:06):
Where am I going to go?

Speaker 1 (20:07):
Because a lot of them had really great interest rates
and they're like, if I have three percent, why am
I going to go? Try to somewhere else? And it's
the rate will be so high it doesn't make financial
sense exactly.

Speaker 2 (20:21):
I mean, why are they gonna not just because everybody
moves up, right, nobody really moves down. I mean even
down size ors at this point in any of our
markets are doubling their mortgage right when they do that,
So they're going to watch with rates going up to No,
you're exactly right.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. So let's go back
to you can you share with us one of your
most memorable real estate experiences and how it impacted your career.

Speaker 2 (20:48):
Oh, there have been a lot, actually, but I mean
one of the most impactful to me because it just
resonated for me personally as well. Having I was a
single mom for a really long time after I divorced
my first husband, and I dealt with and it's actually
not typical because I always was blessed to work at

(21:09):
boutique firms who tended to deal with higher end clients oftentimes.
But I got the benefit of working with a woman
who left literally left with the clothes on her back
one night and her children and they lived out of

(21:30):
a hotel, were living in their car and had no
home and was trying call randomly called looking for a
rental in our office, and I was the agent on call,
and I mean I couldn't help her get anything, but
I was like, let's find a rental. Let's just get
you out of a hotel. And so I worked with
her to find a rental, and then I helped figure

(21:53):
out housing programs and to help get her credit straight
and worked with her on that for year. She got
a job, she got steady income. I helped her figure
out all that. In about a year and a half later,
we found a condo and we got her through all
these work housing programs. She got a grant to help

(22:16):
for down payment, and she bought her first home. And
I'm gonna tell you it was one of the most
impacted moments.

Speaker 3 (22:24):
Of my life. That absolutely I got right.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
What a blessing to be able to see somebody go
from literally living out of a car with your children
to being able to gift her children the gift of
upward mobility because that's what she did. Wow, And it

(22:51):
was very powerful, and it showed me that Frankly, one,
I was never given up on this show job because
we're unemployed every day and it's a really stressful career sometimes,
but I was never given up on it because I
could do that for somebody. That was amazing. And number two,

(23:14):
it taught me that I was never given up on
my own as a single mom, because we are capable
of anything for our children.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
Absolutely, absolutely just kind of got the chills when you
told me that story. I read it earlier, and it's
just incredible, and it's just how long how long did
that take? That whole cycle of her from living in
her car to buying the house.

Speaker 2 (23:38):
It was that it was almost two years.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
Okay, not so.

Speaker 1 (23:43):
Long, but it's I actually I write a lot of
inspirational posts and stuff, and it's so crazy that this
should happen. Because last night, before I went to bed,
I grabbed my computer and my husband says, stop put
it away, and I go, no, no, I have another idea.
And my quote literally was don't stop, keep going. You

(24:04):
are closer than you know. And this is exactly exactly,
And that is such a great story. That is so
beautiful and it's true. And you are a single mom,
and you know other single moms and just other people
who are struggling, and it's look at her example that
it was just so motivating to I'm sure for you
and anyone you told that story too, because she just

(24:26):
rose to the occasion and made it happen. Well, that's
a beautiful story.

Speaker 3 (24:29):
I love that.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
And that's that's exactly. When the reason that we do
what we do is because you never know. Yes, like
you were saying, it's a heart. We are unemployed every
morning when we wake up, but when we have those moments,
it's just it makes it. You're like, this is why
we do this. We just we made someone feel really
good and we help them within their life. It's so incredible.

(24:52):
So I get a question oftentime asks every new agent's
can I have a part time job? Why I'm getting
into real estate? And how do you get started in
real estate when you're new.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
The answer is no, In my opinion, you do not
have a part time job. Your only job is real estate,
or you will not be successful. We do not hire
part timers at our company. It's just against our belief.
I think the only way you can make it in
this line of work is to jump in head and
feet first and work your butt off. It's a twenty

(25:29):
four to seven ninety hour work week. You are running
yourself like a business. You have to eat a lot
of Ramen noodles. I mean literally, right. I mean my
doggate better than I did the first nine months I
started in real estate. You have to save up a
lot of money. You just have to be really smart

(25:51):
about it. You can't just leap into running your own business.
I think that's a common misconception that a lot of
people make. When they decide they want to get the
real estate license. They go, oh, that looks great, I
can go get my license and make some money on
the side. Well, no, you really can't, because who actually
wants to go hire some part time friend of theirs

(26:14):
to help them make the biggest decision of their life.
I don't know, not me. I mean, I'm not going
to have somebody go open up and cut my heart.
A part time surgeon, I don't want that. Means no,
you're not going to go hire you for that. And
it's expensive job to be in too, So why would
you want to spend money when you're not really going

(26:36):
to make it? It just makes no sense. So you've got
to be full time at it, and you've got to
be smart about your money and your expenses when you
get into it, because you've got to invest in yourself,
and you've got to really run it like a company
from the very beginning.

Speaker 1 (26:52):
Absolutely, you are just you, yours little but doesn't matter
who you work for, you are still the company, you yourself,
and you very true. So what are some key qualities
or skills that you believe it's essential for real relators
being outgoing.

Speaker 2 (27:08):
Even if you're an introverted extrovert, you still have to
be able to turn it on. You have to be
able to ask for the business. If you can't ask
for business, you will not make it so period. That's
first and foremost. Number Two, you have to be able
to organize yourself. Everybody that's in this line of work,

(27:31):
I'm completely convinced has some version of ADHD. That's a goof.
But you have to be able to organize yourself right
in some capacity, whether it's a planner, whether it's something
you have to find what works for you to keep
yourself organized. You're not going to be able to afford

(27:53):
a personal assistant when you start out, so you're going
to have to be your own. So find your system
to keep yourself regimented, i e. Run yourself like a company.
Make sure you're touch and base with contacts in your
sphere every day. On this point, make sure you're doing
your paperwork on time, make sure you're doing your marketing

(28:14):
and advertising. You just have to be organized. So if
that's not a skill you have, fake it, Fake it
till you make it. Do whatever you can to organize yourself.
I think that's the number one, number one most important
skill when you're starting out in this organization, and not
all of us are built with it. I know I

(28:35):
was we all have to create that skill for ourselves.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
So tell me do you use any you know apps
are coming at us? You know, cold people are calling
us every day, calling real estate agents every day?

Speaker 3 (28:48):
By this, by that?

Speaker 1 (28:50):
Are there any apps or tools? I'm sure you use,
you know some, whether it's pen and paper, But tell
us how you stay organized and what are the tools
or apps your favorite tools, apps that you use to
run your business.

Speaker 2 (29:03):
So I'm old school because I started doing this twenty
three years ago or whatever, So I wasn't using any
apps back then. I was literally just using me right,
So I still kind of am old fashioned in that regard.
I will pick up the phone and call people. I
started doing every time I had a closing, I would
add them to my calendar. For happy homemiversaries, I would

(29:27):
add everything on my calendar. When somebody had a birthday,
I would add it to my calendar and my outlook
that became less manageable, and then I could put it
into an app when those got developed later on in
my career. So now Corkoran offers some tools that are
great for that. So most of us here at my
firm used the Moxie tool for that, and that will

(29:49):
help you auto do all the things with your clients
to stay in touch with them or to prompt you.
I don't use anything automated to talk to my clients.
That's just not the way I roll. Some people do,
and that's perfectly fine and acceptable. Many of my agents do,
which is not how I will. So I use systems
in place to remind me to do things. I have

(30:11):
a blended family of five kids, so I run the
five kids, I run my ex husband's household, I run
my current husband, and I run my business and I
run this company.

Speaker 3 (30:23):
So between all.

Speaker 2 (30:27):
I need something to remind me right to talk to
my clients to do those things. So the systems that
I use are just in place to remind me to
do things the way I do. But everybody should do
things differently.

Speaker 3 (30:41):
Right how it works for you absolutely in your opinion?

Speaker 1 (30:45):
What are the common misconceptions that the public has, or
it could be about agents that you know who are
going to get in the business. What are those common
misconceptions and how would you debunk them?

Speaker 2 (30:57):
That it's easy that what we do we just you know,
make a lot of money for just opening doors and
letting people in. I've really fought hard especially these last
few years within AR and everyone else involved with the
public campaigns to try to get everybody to understand that
that's not just what we do. We don't just open doors.

(31:19):
We do much much more. We don't just advocate for
our consumers in our community. We help build them. We
are the coaches in the t ball fields. We aren't
just you know, helping write contracts. We're doing everything. We're
advocating all the way through the transaction and way after
the transaction. I think it's been fascinating to watch the

(31:40):
consumer advocate come out for us. So it's been big
in our state and in South Carolina. We've been working
on the consumer advocacy campaigns and we've had our clients
coming and literally running commercials for brokers and to hear
what they say about how we impact their lives. It's

(32:02):
not even about the transactions. And that's the biggest misconception
that people think it's just a one and done We're
just in it for the paycheck. We open a door,
it's a slam dunk check and call to day. It's
so much more than that. We're community builders. We're involved
in everybody's lives. It's not just a house, it's a home.

(32:26):
And we have commercial guys too, right, they're helping build
communities as well. It's just fascinating that people think we're
just literally open a door and then slamming it behind
a consumer and walking away with a big paycheck. And
I think that way far down the road. I blame

(32:48):
bad press for.

Speaker 3 (32:48):
That absolutely well.

Speaker 1 (32:51):
And the TV shows, all the reality shows. We're not
you know, there's all that, not that we're lawyers or attorneys,
but we do have to guide them. If we can't
answer the question a tax question or legal question, we
can ask the attorney and we can you know, quote
the attorney or whatever. But there's a lot of technical Yes,

(33:12):
there's so much. There's so much technical stuff and getting
the right answer for them, the legal answer. How to
fill out a transfer disclosure statement? What the right way is?
I mean, one of the things is I always repeat
to the client when we're signing, we're filling out a transfer.

Speaker 3 (33:29):
Disclosure not new.

Speaker 1 (33:32):
Is new something an appliance new one day, two weeks,
a year, put a date or approximation, but never say
the word new. These are just little things that we
pick up. And how many of those examples do we
have right, absolutely right. I mean how many things do
people not even know about?

Speaker 2 (33:50):
I mean they just don't have any clue, you know,
and they would never know if they didn't have us
to be their advocate.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
I don't know if you and in where you live
and where I live in all the different markets. You know,
I'm not in Florida where there's flooding. I wouldn't be
a good agent to work with someone where there's flooding.
You know, we have a sewer lateral ordinance. I remember
one of my clients, he's an actor, and he made
fun of the sewer lateral.

Speaker 3 (34:20):
He brought the sewer lateral into one of his He.

Speaker 1 (34:24):
Was doing improv, improv, and we went to watch the
show and they he threw out the word sewer lateral
and they did a whole improv around it. And it
was so cute because as we were watching the show,
because it was you know, sewer lateral is like what
is that?

Speaker 3 (34:40):
You know?

Speaker 1 (34:40):
If it depends every there's so many different ordinances. You
can't be a new agent, nor can you do it
on your own. It's not gonna You're not going to
save money in the end. If you try to sell
your house on your own right or buy a house
on your own. There's going to be things that are
going to be missed and it's going to be so
much more costly. That's just it's beyond So can you

(35:05):
provide some valuable tips or advice for individuals seeking to
get into the business.

Speaker 2 (35:11):
Yes, your WE is everything. So this is like a
team sport. There's no I in team, right, So your
WE is everything, as especially as a new broker, really
as any broker, right, but your team is everything. So fine,
don't hot brands. Don't be jumping around companies. That's never

(35:34):
good look for you. Go do your homework, find a
brand that resonates with you, find a support team around
you that's going to bolster you, educate you, and have
a good brand of reputation to wrap around you. You
only get one shot at a first impression, and your
WE will be what will help build that impression for you.

Speaker 3 (35:58):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (36:00):
We're going to take a commercial break and we'll be
right back with Marin of Charlotte, North Carolina. Welcome back

(38:37):
to Mastering the Art of Real Estate. I'm your host,
Debbie Demaggio. We are here today with Maren So. Maren,
are you utilizing AI in your business today.

Speaker 2 (38:47):
A little bit right with chat GPT tools, right, I mean,
we'll help use it to help write descriptions. That's always
an easy cheat, and will help render some photos if
we want a little tweaking with AI. But for the
most part, that's it. Do I think I'll see it

(39:09):
infiltrate a little bit more, possibly on some AI chat
on some websites, But ultimately I don't really see AI
taking off in our industry because I think people need
people and I don't think AI will replace.

Speaker 1 (39:26):
Us, right, No, I don't think it'll replace us.

Speaker 3 (39:31):
But it's been fun.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
It's been fun with descriptions and helping craft interesting social
media and stuff. But I did just do a post
on that I absolutely do not believe that it could
take realtors over because we do so many things and
there's so much of a human emotion in it that
it would it would. I think it's impossible. So how

(39:55):
do you generate leads? Well, you've been doing this for
a while now, and how do you generate leads today?
And how did you do it when you first started
out in real estate?

Speaker 2 (40:05):
So today it's literally just word of mouth and referral
everything one hundred percent of my business is past clients
and referrals from past clients one hundred percent. And when
I started, I mean, of course, a lot of it
was my sphere, you know, friends and family purchasing. But
at twenty three, who wanted to buy from me? Right?

(40:25):
I mean nobody, Nobody was buying from me that I knew,
and none of my friends hardly were buying anything. Yet
I was selling little condos at that point, So I
took a lot of call time because back then call
time was a thing. I know that's really not a
thing anymore, but back then it was. And then I
would work open houses ad nauseum. And I still tell everybody,

(40:46):
any of our agents starting out here, they know I
preach and teach it to work open houses till you're
blue in the face. If you're not working open houses,
you're not going to make it because you are captive
audience for buyers there. It's the best way to get.

Speaker 1 (41:03):
Buyers, absolutely, And also I also think it's also a
great way to get sellers as well, because I always
tell my agents they have to we advertise our faces
out there all the time. We need to make ourself available.
They need to see us, touch us feel us know
we're real, We're just not a picture on a card
or something. And sellers come through all the time. How

(41:25):
many times the neighbors come through and they want to
see and they always say, oh, I'm just a neighbor,
But I said.

Speaker 3 (41:30):
No, you're important.

Speaker 1 (41:31):
Come on in, take a look, and you learn such
valuable information about the neighborhood that might help you sell
the house, or they might invite you to their house
because they see how you're putting that house together. But
I could not agree with you more open houses, especially
when you're new. That's the only way to get in
front of an audience, right. It's like an actor on stage.

(41:52):
You have to be there to get.

Speaker 3 (41:53):
To know people.

Speaker 1 (41:54):
So I love to hear that. That's great anything I know.
And I think now we're now being in the busin
this as long as we have. It's a lot of referrals.
And are you part of any networking groups or any
other organizations?

Speaker 2 (42:08):
I am. I'm a member of a ton of organizations
in town. I mean through my college alumni network and
through my kids' schools. I mean, that's always an easy layup.
I think for anybody in the industry, if you have kids.
It's a number one way you can network. Kids are
great little networking vehicles because you're in your schools right

(42:30):
you're around the other families. There's no excuse for them
not to know you sell real estate, and there's no
excuse for you not to be talking about it. I
tell everybody, I'm the preacher and teacher in our company,
and I always have the nerdy, squinty stats. They say,
but I always tell everybody you need at least one
or two stats period. Memorize them every month. So I

(42:54):
always give them stats every month, and I say, memorize
one or two. That's all. You need, one or two.
Because you were at cocktail parties, you were at dinners,
you were at sport sporting events, you were at things
with other people. Everybody always talks about real estate. I
don't care where you are, everybody always talks about it.

(43:16):
Have a stat, you plug a stat everywhere you go.
You're an expert. I don't care if you've been selling
real estate for a month or for forty years. You
make yourself the expert. Where you're at, they're going to
turn to you when it goes to real estate and
the conversation they're going to go what do you think.
Then you're becoming the expert. Then it becomes natural for

(43:38):
them to turn to you. Then it becomes easier for
you to say, hey, do you know anybody looking for
real estate or selling real estate? Because you've got to
be comfortable with asking for the business.

Speaker 1 (43:52):
Absolutely, And I noticed there. And it doesn't matter how
long you've been in the business, but if you step
out and you not active and you're not around. There
was an agent she took. She had always done newsletters,
she was out there all the time. Then she took
a couple months off and all of a sudden her
business went from here to here.

Speaker 3 (44:12):
If you're not.

Speaker 1 (44:13):
Out and talking to people and engaging, you don't have
to be pushy, but you're just you know, people will
ask you. I find that people will talk to you
about real estate. You don't even have to bring it
up half the time, but to have that information so
if someone asks you a question, you can respond about
what's going on or have the resource. So I always

(44:33):
tell you newer agents, if you don't know, it's okay,
just say let me get right back to you and
then call your person that you go to and get
that answer and You're gonna look great and you're gonna respond.
I think if people don't respond or don't say, I
can get back to you that they really don't care.
And do you want to work with a person who

(44:54):
doesn't care? If someone asks me a question, I'm going
to find out the answer. I don't know everything, but
I'll find it out and I will get it for you,
even if you know whatever it is. But I think
that's really important and quality in any agent or anyone
in any business. So do you have a morning routine?
I love morning routines.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
My morning routine is pretty static because I have two
kids still at home to get ready. I'm about to
have one now, so it'll be a little easier. But
every morning I get up and fix everybody breakfast. And
I have boys, so they eat a lot, so I'm
feeding them full of a bunch of protein in the morning.
So I'm fixing breakfast and fixing lunches, and then I'm

(45:38):
eating my greens. I do green juice every morning, and
coffee and then out the door and then I'll slap
my makeup on. Well. I do listen to podcasts every
morning about real estate. I'll listen to my podcast about
financials as well. I do that every morning religiously. I
catch up on our nerdy news I call it before

(45:59):
I head into I like to hear about everything going on,
and then I'll dig into our smut news later in
the day, like our in men and all that. Like
I like our smut news too. I do try to
read those, but I always do that in the morning.
I've got to get my news in. I like to
hear it while I'm getting ready. Okay, very evil, And.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
What are some of your favorite You mentioned some real
estate podcasts? Do you have a real estate news? What
do you listen to specifically?

Speaker 2 (46:29):
All of them? Anything I can I can get my
hands on them. I listen to everything. I will always
listen to the Wall Street Journal every morning though. That's
my go to. That's the first thing I listen to
every morning. And they always talk about real estate, so
that's actually what got me started on it. And they're
always talking about financial news in real estate, and they're

(46:52):
two closely aligned sectors in my book, so I always
know what's going on with both, and so I always
start with the Wall Street Journal because it's a very
quick it's about seven to eight minutes tops. And then
I'll move on. So it just depends on which one
hits my podcast first. That more, it's just great, Like

(47:14):
I love listening to all of it. And I'll just
dig in and I'll get going on a topic and
I'll come into the office and I'll start telling everybody
about it because I love you.

Speaker 3 (47:27):
That's great. So you give them and do they post
this on social media? Do they just use it with
their clients?

Speaker 2 (47:33):
Hot?

Speaker 3 (47:33):
What do you when you're giving? So how do you train?

Speaker 1 (47:36):
What's just in general? How are you training or your
staff and your agents? It sounds like you're running the
company there with you said, there's another person running it
with you, But how are you implementing?

Speaker 3 (47:47):
And are people coming in the office.

Speaker 1 (47:49):
We really try hard to get people to come in
the office, and they don't really come in. It's very difficult.
Maybe once in a while for a meeting once a month.
But so are people in your office? And what are
you training them on? Whether it's monthly or weekly or daily?

Speaker 2 (48:06):
Well, we're training them all NonStop actually, So we have
a bunch of training resources, I mean really, So we're
really lucky in that regard because we have of course
Agent Studio, which is fantastic because we have resources to classes,
ad nausea and honestly right that they can go sign
up and they're doing that and we pitch those and
we promote them and they go sign up for those.

(48:28):
But then we have regular training sessions here that we
do as well. So it just depends on the topic.
So we have every other week we'll have sales meetings,
and we do them on different days for the different offices,
and those are mandatory for us. They're not just rah ras.
They are actual literal preach and teaches. We go through problems,

(48:51):
we talk about changes in our industry. We will talk
about real estate commission complaints and what you need to
learn about the We will talk about, you know, sometimes
role playing, like Val, who's the owner of the company, right,
We're going to role play in our next sales meeting.
You know, She's going to be the seller and we

(49:12):
have another agent who's a past president who works here.
He's going to be the other seller, and I'm going
to be the agent. And we're going to role play
in going through the new listing agreements because they've totally
overhauled them and taking out compensation for buyer agents and
you know, we're just going to role play that, and
so everybody's going to end up being in that because

(49:32):
nobody's going to want to miss it because they want
to hear how we role play. They're going to be
hard on me, right like they're going to be difficult
and that they want to hear how we navigate those conversations.

Speaker 3 (49:43):
So it just depends.

Speaker 2 (49:44):
That's a training because we're trying to teach them real
life situations. And then we'll do a lot of small
session training where they'll cap out on sizes of the
class and of the room because we want it to
be a lot of by you know, bring your own question,
like what are your difficult questions on how to navigate?

(50:06):
We really believe in small one on one training. I
sure classes are great, and I don't disagree with you know,
Ninja training or you know Tom Ferry training and all
these big training seminars and programs. They're fantastic, and a
lot of my agents have done a lot of them,
and I've set through some of them myself. They're wonderful,

(50:27):
But I think you need a little more one on
one and I think you need a little more like
in the trenches training to actually ride the wave of
what is coming our way in the industry. I think
it's not going to stop coming at us now. And

(50:48):
I think that we've got to just be different and
I think we got to be a little better than
everybody else. And I think that that is by constant training.
So I think it's everything. I think it's one on one.
I think it's group setting, I think it's virtual. I
think it's all the things, and that's how we train
and we're really lucky on that. And the same for

(51:09):
our staff. We have a fairly large staff. We are
staffed up pretty hefty, I would say for accompanying our side,
but that's a purpose because our staff is very well
trained on all the tools and resources and then can
go and deploy with our agents because Valani just couldn't
support that alone. I mean, we have a big lead

(51:30):
five team and all of the staff, So.

Speaker 3 (51:32):
Absolutely, I think that's one of the things.

Speaker 1 (51:34):
We started our own company in nine during the recession,
and then so and then about a few years ago
weoin we merged with Corkoran and what I find that
we were independent and it was great and we got
to create what we wanted, but we didn't have all
the back end that Corkoran Office offers.

Speaker 3 (51:55):
Now it's great.

Speaker 1 (51:56):
Just tech alone is just wonderful, but all of the
marketing tools and just everything we have, and all the trainings,
especially for newer agents, and even not even just newer agents.
If we get agents, as you know, from other companies,
and they come in, they go through our propel and
agent studio and there's just so much to learn.

Speaker 3 (52:15):
It's NonStop.

Speaker 1 (52:16):
People don't I don't think people are aware of how
much training there is and how many I never get
bored on my podcast interviewing agents because everyone does it
a little different and then you know, once in a
while there'll be something new and cool that.

Speaker 3 (52:31):
I'll learn, or the discipline some of the agents have.

Speaker 1 (52:34):
So having that whole robust set of tools that Quirkoran has,
I think is really amazing. And one of the most
my favorite things is when I went to the conference
where I met you. I got to meet with a
lot of like kind people and we were all very
collaborative and just had so much to share. And You're
on the East Coast and I'm over here and we're

(52:56):
going to reconnect with you know, with you and then
so many other people.

Speaker 3 (52:59):
I think it's just a really a great fit. And
I want to go.

Speaker 1 (53:02):
Back to what you said before we were talking about
starting out and getting with a group. You're really getting
with the tribe of people. So they're all kinds of companies,
but I think the most important where are people going
to support you? That's what's important. I think it doesn't
matter what news says or what someone else says, it's
how do you feel when you walk in the very

(53:24):
first time. I'm a sucker for just accepting. You know,
if you want to work for us, great. You know,
I like everyone, so I'm the worst person. So I
try to stay out of the hiring because I'll be like, oh,
they want.

Speaker 3 (53:34):
To work here and they're nice, of course we'll hire them.
So I'm like, forget it.

Speaker 1 (53:38):
But when someone who I knew came to me, I said,
you know what I want you to do. I was
so proud of myself.

Speaker 3 (53:43):
I said, before, we we'll talk a little bit here.

Speaker 1 (53:46):
But I want you to go out to other companies
and talk with them and then come back and then
we'll talk. And then she ended up coming with us.
But I finally said, you know, go see how you
feel when you're there, and what they offer and how
authentic does it feel?

Speaker 3 (54:04):
And then come back here and we'll talk.

Speaker 1 (54:06):
But I don't want to just hire you and not
have you do that.

Speaker 3 (54:10):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (54:13):
Oh yeah, I agree with you, and we've done that before.
And I mean I actually we just interviewed somebody today
down in the Wilmington office and she was like, to
be candid, We've gone, you know. She goes, I've gone
and I've interviewed at this place, in that place, in
this place. I said good, and she was kind of
taken back by that, and I said, no, good. I said,

(54:33):
I actually want you to go talk to all those
other brands. What did you think? She goes, Oh, they
didn't fit at all, right, she at all? Yeah, And
I said, okay, good. Then that means you actually like
our vibe, because otherwise you would here. Right.

Speaker 1 (54:50):
And then if they you know, people always think the
grass is greener, so if they do start from the beginning,
then they don't know and then they What I've seen
is that people who started with us and then they
tried to go do something else, and then they've continued
to move, they never were they never found that happy
because they didn't realize that they were in a good place.

(55:12):
It's interesting to see that after what's been quite some
time now twenty years of fifteen years that it's been
that we've owned the company, and to watch the migration
of people, it's very interesting.

Speaker 3 (55:23):
So, yeah, it was.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
I was so happy. I did just take her right
away and said to do that. I think that's a
really important thing for leaders of companies is have them
go see what and maybe there is another fit for them.
And that's okay too, because that wouldn't be a fit,
you know, for us. So I think that's important. So Marin,
tell us how people can find you and what are

(55:46):
you looking for and how can I as a colleague
support you and.

Speaker 3 (55:53):
Just refer people to you.

Speaker 2 (55:55):
Well, people can find me online. They can find me
on Instagram. I'm pretty easy to find I'm mayor and
b okay on Instagram, and you can find me on
the web. I'm pretty much the only mayor in Britain.
Custer out there. Somebody googles so the three names I suppose,
But I mean, really that's it. I mean, people can

(56:18):
find me anywhere and they can let me know if
they need anything, if they need any help in the Carolinas,
I am here and if they are looking for a
brokerage in the Carolinas, I'm here to help them as well,
and vice versa. If I have anybody looking for some
real estate out your way, I am absolutely gonna send
them your way. And that's how I can support you.

(56:39):
I popped by your office while I was out there
and took pictures.

Speaker 3 (56:44):
Pictures. That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (56:49):
Well, I wish I saw you next time you come
to California. You don't need to give me a lot
of notice to say or come in and I'll put
out the red carpet for you, will do. Thank you, sweetie,
Thanks thanks for joining us on Mastering the Art of
real Estate.

Speaker 3 (57:02):
I really appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (57:04):
Thank you for having me. It was a blast. Thank
you helping you in Arizona.

Speaker 3 (57:09):
Yes see you soon.

Speaker 5 (57:14):
Tune in each week for another episode of Mastering the
Art of Real Estate with host Debbie Dematio. Here Friday's
New n Eastern on the Bold Brave TV Network. Tune
in to where real estate matters matter

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