We are so fortunate to have Jen Stanbrough, broker at REMAX Precision, team leader and Realtor safety advocate on the show this episode! Jen is involved as current President & in many other roles for the Des Moines Area Association of Realtors, the Iowa Association of Realtors & the National Association of Realtors. Her passion for Realtor Safety following the death of her friend, Ashley Okland, has led to her role as a national speaker. Her passion for Realtor safety is evident with her involvement in the Beverly Carter Foundation whose mission is that every real estate agent goes home safe every day. This is a mission Hustle Humbly is happy to get behind and we were thrilled to make a donation to the Beverly Carter Foundation on behalf of our listeners recently. DO NOT miss this important episode where you will learn practical tips and advice for running your real estate business professionally, so you return home safe every day. You can find Jen on social media @jenstanbroughrealestate and at her website jenstanbroughrealestate.com. If you’d like to learn more about the Beverly Carter Foundation visit beverlycarterfoundation.org.
NAR Safety Toolkit for Associations
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The following is a rough transcript provided by Otter.ai.
Speaker 1 0:01
But that gave me a system that I really transferred into being 100% referral based. I’m protecting myself but I’m also protecting my clients and my other colleagues clients.
Alissa 0:16
It has been so eye opening to me when the buyer walks up and I realized they don’t know which agent is there because they’ve never met their agents. You know, you’re trying to backtrack on that conversation. It’s really something that needs to be discussed in the listing appointment. Hi, y’all, welcome to hustle humbly. It’s Alyssa and Katie. And we are two top producing realtors in the Baton Rouge market.
Katy 0:42
We work for two different companies where we should be competitors. But we have chosen community over competition. The goal of our podcasts is to encourage you to find your own way in business to stop comparing yourself and start embracing your strengths. Hi, everyone, it is episode 216. Hello, Alyssa Katie, we have a guest today we love having a guest on the podcast, we’ll kind of let Jen introduce herself. Tell us like where you are what you do. And we’re going to talk about safety today. So we’ll get into why your your heart is for safety.
Speaker 1 1:16
Me when you guys reached out, I was super excited because I have been a listener for probably the last several years. And it’s one of those things I love listening in my car because it keeps me going. And it’s just so refreshing to have somewhere to go. And you to listen to that has like mindedness with business. And just you know, we all struggle with the same things on a daily basis. So I was super honored to be asked to be on the podcast. My name is Jen stanbro. I am from Des Moines, Iowa, I have been a real estate agent threat since 2006. I’m currently a broker of my office, I also have a team that I get to help lead and mentor, which has been a super awesome experience. They are my they keep me going as well. And yeah, I’m involved at our local level or state level. And I’ve also been on the National Association of REALTORS safety committee for the last couple of years. Wow,
Katy 2:14
you’re Are you still currently on that committee? I am. Yes. So we’ll just get right into that because I’m fascinated by it. What do you what do you do? What does that committee do? So how do you serve on that committee?
Speaker 1 2:26
So it’s, it has been awesome. Now I really took up the fight on Realtor safety several years ago. I’m also I served on the Beverly Carter foundation. So now are really stepped up to the plate and realized how much of an issue this is in our industry. You know, before you heard a little bit of talk about it, but there weren’t resources out there. So the safety committee at NAR, they really put put that into effect to really have the change that they needed. So if you go out to the NAR website, and I would encourage you to do that and look at the Safety section, you’re going to say amazing, amazing tools out there that we can use and can be used in any and all areas of our business, also in our personal life. So you know, safety goes much more than just an attack, it goes into our wellbeing, it goes into our mental health, it goes into of course security. What am I trying to say prevention of fraud is what I’m trying to say. But they have awesome resources out there. The committee has been influential in what resources are needed. They’ve produced great videos that you can go out and use, they’re really well done. So you can use those for training or even just to educate yourself. We have different forms out there. One thing that I have been part of through the safety committee, and actually started at my local level, we have a realtor safety pledge. And I’m not sure I hope that you are familiar with that from the national level. But there is now a National Association of REALTORS pledge and I would ask you to go out and read that. But what it boils down to is that I owe it to myself, my clients and my clock colleagues as well as my family to take safety as a number one priority every single day with the mission of getting every agent home safely every single day. And there’s more to it. But I got to be involved at Iowa years ago when we actually wrote the first initial safety pledge and then went out there and asked our agents and our brokerages and started educating the public of white why real realtor safety. Why is that important? So at this at the national level, they really picked up our Iowa realtor pledge and really improved on that. We’ve implemented it right now. We’re really working on getting that out to all of the states, all of the associations, all of the agents. We also have great tools in there. As far as I use what’s called the listing safety form. It goes right along with my pledge, and I use that on every single listing where that I go went to, and it’s a one page document and it walks you right through. And it just says, Hey, Mr. And Mrs. seller, and this is exactly how I use it with them. Mr. And Mrs. Seller, we’re listing your home, as a part of listing your home, we have to invite people into your home, so they fall in love and give you top dollar for it. But with that comes some, some risks. And we know that people are going to be walking through your home with agents that you’re going to be walking through potentially on open houses, there are certain things we need to be mindful of. And it talks about weapons, it talks about prescription drugs, jewelry, things that have your personal information on it. So right there on my farm, it has a choice, Mr. or Mrs. Seller, would you like to require or ask that. And before a realtor brings a person into your house, that person must be identified to that realtor. And what we mean by identified is either somebody that you personally know, someone that has been given to you by a lender that you as a referral that you trust, or that you met in a public place and identified. So yes, if I don’t know you, and you call me and I want to go see, you want to see your property with me, I’m going to take you through that I’m going to ask you to come into the office, if that’s a if I’m in ours, where there’s going to be people in there, or a coffee shop, we’re going to meet in public, I’m also going to sit down and talk to you about the process and how this is going to work. But I’m also going going to ask you for a copy of your driver’s license or some kind of form of government issued identification. So I’m protecting myself but I’m also protecting my clients and the other my other colleagues clients because that seller 99% of the time, when I have this conversation, they are floored than an agent would ever consider walking someone that just picked up the phone and said, Hey, I don’t know you, I want to go see 123 Main. And now we hop in our car, we meet a stranger, and we now take that stranger through my sellers house or someone sellers house. And that’s where their kids live. That’s where they sleep. That’s where they eat. We don’t always put that in perspective and think about the deal. So you know, my buy in from sellers is 100%. Why would we not want some?
Alissa 7:17
That’s funny that you bring up that example, I have a higher end listing right now, that requires me to be present for showings. So I’m meeting the buyer’s agent with their buyers and just giving them a little bit of information about the house that they would otherwise miss. And then I let them go on their own and do the tour. It has been so eye opening to me when the buyer walks up. And I realize they don’t know which agent is there because they’ve never met their agent and come to find out they were like an online lead. The buyer’s agent didn’t do any vetting. And I can tell because I’m there. They’re realizing this looks bad. Like they’re okay feeling it themselves, but they were ashamed for me to witness the like, Oh, you’re just now introducing yourself to your buyer on the front steps of this, you know, multimillion dollar home you didn’t know anything about them before but it’s been about half. It is insane to me.
Speaker 1 8:20
In all fairness, I look back at my early career, you know, I was I was younger than I am now obviously. But some of the things that I did, and some of the things that I unknowingly did, putting myself in harm or even clients ever. I had not thought about it. So when I was first in the industry we have these they were called IR leads and it was truly an email that came to you and said so and so wants to see this house who can meet them and you had five minutes or whatever to respond. And multiple times if I was in the office, I pick up the call I didn’t even call them I got in the call. I met them I still think back I remember there was a day I met this cute couple and they actually became super dear dear friends of mine Mike and Kim pole but I met them in a house young couple I knew nothing about them. I remember I was in the basement because I also didn’t position myself where I should have been. They were awesome and move to become one of my best referral sources but that could have churned up very very quickly. And I had not thought through any of that I have never been talked to about where to park my car. I had never been taught to is it smart to have a client in my car or should I have the meet me Is it smart? I had not thought through any of that I grew up very small town in in Iowa not far from here and you knew everybody and if you didn’t know everybody they knew you and no matter what you did your parents were going to know about it before you got home and there’s a false sense of security that came with that and I anybody that sometimes I long for that because I Wish I could go back to the time where I wasn’t aware. And I hadn’t seen evil personified in my own life, I guess in the way I did. But I yeah, I think back in I’m, I cannot believe that that’s how I ran my business.
Alissa 10:18
And I think that’s the perfect segue into why we have you as a guest today. One of your friends was killed during an open house. And we would love to hear from you about her story how that impacted your marketplace, your industry, is that the point that you started implementing safety protocol, you know, we just kind of want to dive into the Ashley’s story.
Speaker 1 10:48
things this month always hits me a little bit hard when I started doing these, it has been 12 and a half years now, since this happened. And you know, part of me wishes I don’t like feelings. I don’t like any of that kind of stuff. So some of me wishes that I could just bury it and I I hear that catching my voice when I start down these. This is one of my first for the for the month that I’ve done so bear with me a little bit but like I say I had been an agent since 2006. I had met a dear friend of mine through another friend who was a business partner with my husband and I and I met Ashley and she was also a realtor and she was just one of those people. That was amazing. A couple of little quick things that really, truly share with you who she was at this time. Ashley was young, she was about 26 She did not have kids yet. I already had my son. And I get it when you don’t have kids. You don’t understand that life. But Ashley knew my son was important to me and she was going and she wasn’t just like that with me. This is how Ashley lived her life. She would go around and drop off more miniature pumpkins on things Halloween for her clients kids and her friends kids. She always remember to ask me when Jason’s first day was going to be and check in on me and see if I needed to have meet for lunch. If I was dropping him off on preschool if I was going to be sad. You know when He would dress up for Halloween she would call and make sure that I was going to stop to show those guys his costume before. And I had fun in real estate as well with her. Her project that she was working actually had at this time was doing a new construction townhome project with with a partner. That’s kind of how I started my career. When I got into the industry. I had my first townhome project and worked a model home so I was very familiar with that. But at this time Ashley’s project that she was working was actually closer to my office real estate office than it was to her real estate office. We were in the same company so she would pop in and out of of my office to to use the coffee machine or pick something up. And so she leaves me little notes I find your business card or my business card that she grabbed off my desk desk, flip it over and say you know I stopped by to see you I was using the copier hope you have a great day just always brought a smile to me. I was sometimes on my way home. If I had a couple of minutes I would just pop by her open house because she and her partner. They held those six days a week. So they were there. And they always had a candy bowl. So I told Ashley of course that I was stopping there to to get candy not to say hi to her. But Ashley was just an amazing person. So at this time, it was 2010. And we were both in real estate. I actually remember to make kind of a long story short, I had a crazy day I had another friend got got married in the morning. I was going to go to the reception that night and I had three houses that I was showing in between. So I remember I was going about my business. I remember walking up we’d gone through the first house open the lockbox that wasn’t the one kind of a funny story. This was an a client that I believe I probably showed 342 houses to to find the one but the one that we saw that day. The first one, wasn’t it the second one was in it. And I remember when in between those two houses. My client as we got out of the car said I just heard that there was a shooting over in West Des Moines and if you’re familiar with Iowa or familiar with West Des Moines, we’re pretty fortunate we live in a very safe very area especially when they said Jordan Creek mall that was kind of an area that had schools and and neighbors and you you definitely would not have thought of it as as something that happened there. And I remember when she said that I said, that’s weird in my I was right on next to opening up the lockbox. As we go through this house, I noticed that I had my phone, but I was in my professional mode. So I was being good and trying to send it to voicemail and ignore text and swiping through. And I, I even remember making a comment, wow, Friday afternoon, everybody wants to get a hold of me. But I just kept not really looking and swiping and getting things off. But my manager of the time, I saw her member pop up, or her name pop up and for either the second or the third time. And I thought she was calling me because we had just had a business deal that, you know, went terribly wrong when some paint touch ups didn’t match. So I finally picked up the phone. And I just remember she asked me what I was doing. And I probably kind of responded, it’s Friday afternoon, what do you think I’m doing? I’m showing houses. And she kind of paused and I remembered that pause. And I asked if everything was okay. And she said I just can you give me a call when you leave there? And I said yes. And then I remember asking again, if everything was okay. And I’m still in my mind still on the transaction. I’m thinking about the paint touch up and how we need to fix that for our clients. But I can tell that there was something different in I asked again, and she paused and said, Your family’s okay. But I need you to call. And at that point, I wasn’t getting off the phone, I don’t handle not knowing things very well. And I just remember that. She said, Ashley’s been shot. And that’s all we know at this point. And I remember everything changed right then my manager knew that we were good friends. And so she thought to pick up when she started getting the calls from the other people that were holding models in the area. And that that’s kind of that was before and after when everything changed. Sadly, the story ends that Ashley Oakland was shot while holding an open house in broad daylight on about a three o’clock ish in the afternoon on a Friday in West Des Moines, Iowa and a townhome community that she had said many other days and that several of our our clients and agents had shown she was taken to the hospital and prevent pronounced dead. The aftermath was the investigation of trying to figure out who why. Truly, that was a time that I would have never been able to imagine, again, Ashley if you knew her heart? Well, it would be hard to understand anyone knowing Ashley and knowing her heart and her person personally, you couldn’t make sense of it. I hate to say but 1012 years later now, it’ll be 13 In April, we still don’t know why we don’t know who they have not been able to ever find out who did this to Ashley who took her from here from her friends from her family. So the mystery, the case goes unsolved. And it was a wake up for me in when I finally wrestled. And this is a long time coming. But when I wrestled with losing my friend losing that innocence and false sense of security in the world and being in the same industry and not knowing what to do, I felt so bad that I couldn’t I couldn’t figure this out for my friend. I couldn’t figure out who who took her who did this to us. I couldn’t figure out any of that. And even if I didn’t figure it out, or it was figured out she wouldn’t come back. So I guess finally I got to a point where when the idea of the safety pledge was brought up from another gentleman in our association at the time Dylan dobro. And that was the first thing that I could put some energy and that her and that anger and that why that I could put that into a positive place to try to make a difference and to try to use Ashley’s story and to use our experience of losing her to hopefully help others and help other realtor communities other families other friends others to not ever go through this this time as again. Okay,
Katy 19:40
I have a question because it wasn’t solved did it immediately impact the way realtors in your market behaved like were open houses no law. I mean, I would assume people were afraid that that would just happen again since we didn’t have any idea who it was or or what the reason was or anything.
Speaker 1 19:59
Well Big study here Sundays. Absolutely those were very sitting also in these projects in new construction that it wasn’t uncommon that we would have daily open houses, maybe one day off. I remember. And again, this was really hard for me at the time. But so this happened on a Friday afternoon, open houses were canceled for Sunday. Beyond that, you did have people choosing to go back to them. It was really hard for me because I got those personal and professional lines blurred. But we did have some people go back, you know, sadly, I will say we had people that went right back to them right away and did not change anything, you know, it couldn’t have happened to them, it wouldn’t happen to them. This was something that was just directed at her. Well, the fact is, we don’t know that we still don’t know that 12 years later. And beyond that, the factoring means that an open house, when you are sitting there by yourself in a home is an opportunity. It’s an opportunity that we are inviting strangers into this space, we don’t know if every, every stranger that is coming through that door is truly a buyer, we don’t know if they have good intentions. So we’ve got to take that step of I may think that I’m super safe, but we don’t know who’s coming in. And it gives the opportunity. I would say that we’ve seen changes in the last several years as to more talk around the safety. We definitely had some people that took that up right away and made changes to their open house systems or how they handled that taking a buddy working with a lender so that you had someone in there, we’ve seen that. But yes, some went back and some, some did not. Do you that point, I did not go back, which was a personal choice. For me, I was not confident enough or in a healthy enough spot at that point, that I would have been any good for myself or for clients in their house. I had a lot of people telling me I needed to carry, you know, get your permit to carry carry a gun when you’re in there. And again, that is an option for people. I am not saying one way or another on that I do urge people that if you are going to go that route, you need to make sure that you are proficient and you are practicing with your weapon all the time. I was so scared and so on edge and so uncomfortable at that time, I would have been more harm to myself and anyone else. That wasn’t where I needed to be. It also naturally evolved into a shift of how I did my business. I went away from that open house model, which I think also we can argue that our industry, our lives or technology, I don’t find them as beneficial as I did when I was doing them that time. But that gave me a system that I really transferred into being 100% referral based.
Katy 23:01
Okay, so that so you’re not doing open houses as a practice. Now what how do you handle it when you take a new listing? And a seller asked you about open houses? Or wants you to do an open house like What is What do you say? Yep,
Speaker 1 23:14
we talk about that right up front and very clear with that when we’re going through the listing interviewer and seeing if we’re a good fit to work together. I give them my reasons for that. Again, open houses are one tool, but there are many different ways to get clients who are door, when I open an open house, I don’t have the ability to have those discussions to demonstrate the house up front, make sure that we’re bringing real ready willing and able buyers through. So we talked about that I talked about the risks for them I talked about I do not feel that that is going to lessen your chances of selling. And I believe that 100% There are ways that we can market your home through video through camera, from our photos from doing tours, through social media, there’s so many different avenues that we can also work and have a little more control and parameters around what we’re doing. Because again, I have to remember they’re bringing they’re also inviting strangers into their homes, the place that they live with their families. I usually don’t have pushback on that. I again 100% believe that this is the best path for my clients as well. If I thought for instance, that they were missing out on anything by not having that open house, I would change something I would have them list with someone else but I truly do not believe that has impacted any sales that I have had in the last numerous years.
Alissa 24:49
And I think that just goes back to communication and setting those expectations up front at the listing appointment. You don’t want to be three weeks into a listing and the seller say hey, why don’t you You do an open house, and then, you know, you’re trying to backtrack on that conversation, it’s really something that needs to be discussed in the listing appointment. We have an agent in my office that is has he was successful when I got there. And he’s just always been a very successful agent. And he doesn’t do open houses, he, you know, coaches, his kids on the weekends, and it’s just not something but he let them know, upfront, as part of my marketing plan, open houses aren’t in that plan. Here are the things that are Yeah, and I remember hearing that and going. But it’s sort of like that scarcity mindset, you just think I have to do this to make my sellers happy? And it’s like, No, you tell them how you run your business, and you be the boss and communicate with them. So I think it just only affirms that if you address it before they ask it’s a non issue.
Speaker 1 25:56
And if it is something that they find important for the for the marketing plan of their house, then we’re probably not aligned to work together. So and that’s okay, too. You know, that’s one thing that I’ve learned over the years, and not just on an open house, but we are interviewing each other. So I I’m investing a lot into my listings into my clients, I wish you know, it’s not a normal job, I eat sleep and breathe real estate and all that goes in, but we’re partners in this and I need to make sure that they know what to expect of me. And I also know what to expect of them and make sure we are a good fit to work together and it’s a win win. And I think open houses for clients or for agents, some people use it as a great lead generation tool. One of my agents on my team she loves open houses she can she can convert buyers to work with her like no other and I used to love open houses. I loved meeting people I met some of my favorite clients at open houses. So you know part of me missing that but I’ve just found for myself and what’s best for my business and the way I’m running it that that’s not one of the lead generation tools that I foster.
Katy 27:11
Okay, so give us some good tips if someone’s listening and they’re like well I like my open houses but I don’t want to do them in an unsafe manner. What are some of your open house tips for us?
Speaker 1 27:21
You know, there are great tools that we also have available to us now. I technology has come a long ways. You know cameras if you have a house, I asked I would recommend that you ask your sellers. If they have any listening devices. If they have any cameras that they’re going to have in the house. Ask them that that’s something that they’re going to be watching while they’re gone. That might give you a way to do that. My agent Amy that I was talking about again that is amazing. She is She strategically picks her open houses to she’s familiar with the areas she’s working she makes sure that it’s a neighborhood where people are going to be around she waves at the neighbor’s when they’re coming in, she’ll even talk to them and say hey, I’m hoping holding an open house Sunday one to four stop on by makes herself present again. It also is little things about when you get to help to the house don’t come running in at 105 If your open house starts at one, make sure that you have time to go inside. Go around the house make sure that you’re familiar with your exit plans. If I have to get out of here what do I do? How can I get out the easiest. Make sure that you are standing where you’re not sitting getting yourself locked in like I was talking about. When I was showing my can can pull I remember I walked myself down to the basement they walked right behind me and all of a sudden I’m sitting there looking and it’s me and the two of them in the door I would have had to go through them to get out. Again making sure you have your keys where you need them park your car so you’re not getting blocked in every time that you’re behind. Parker up I’ve our team is great about if I’m not feeling comfortable with something or you know if they’re meeting somebody that they’ve talked to on the phone they’ve seen they’ve gotten their ID we’ll tell each other where we’re at call me in five minutes, make sure that I’m okay come along with me. I will always pop out and go or you know, sometimes we’ll have our one of our husbands sitting in the car just waiting out there making sure you do not need to demonstrate the entire house with your open house guest you do not need to walk them from the front door to the bathroom to the kitchen to them. You can meet them, greet them, send them on through and then tell them I’m going to be standing here I will be here when you have questions save them for me and I’ll be here when they yell at you from the upstairs bedroom. You don’t have to go up there to answer it. You can wait where you’re at and if you don’t feel comfortable, get out have a story to say I just Got a phone call and I’m sorry, I’ve got to go. I’m waiting out here to lock up, I’m going to have to have you leave sir. And be on the phone, have it ready to go. I grew up where we made a lot of apologies for how, how we were perceived, right? Being quiet in school, be polite, be be friendly, be an overall Those are great things. But sometimes I overthink to the point of, oh my goodness, if I tell this guy I’m and I don’t even say I’m not comfortable. But if I leave this house, that’s going to maybe make him feel bad, he might feel bad because I don’t feel comfortable or that lady made me feel like nothing is worth your life.
Katy 30:41
I went to an open house recently, I had a showing down the street with my buyer who I knew. And then they wanted to go, Oh, hey, that one’s open down the street, can we go there, I’m like, I’ll run. And actually they had gone before I got there. They were like, we went into that open house. But we think we like it. I’m like, well, I need to see the house. So I’ll pop over there. After we left the showing, I popped into the open house where the agent was sitting. And I was there probably 30 to 45 minutes just chatting with her about the house and she was alone, I would have left. But a single guy came in and then another single guy came in, and I’m like, I’m not leaving this lady here alone with these people. Like you’re just so exposed, you’re so exposed. And it happens every day all of the time. And no one thinks it’s gonna happen to them. But I think taking a partner be like, hey, this weekend, we do your open house next weekend, we’ll do my open like can we can work together so that we’re not, you know, leaving ourselves so open to, you know, danger. And I
Alissa 31:40
think in the Yeah, it is more fun. I think in the market now we’re we’re shifting like out of the crazy market we’ve been in the last few years and the interest rates are higher, and the business is more scarce. Agents especially like some of the newer ones are having that scarcity mindset where they will do anything for a client, if they get a lead, or a sign call or a phone Duty Call. They’re in the car, and they’re going. And I think that the scarcity mindset of needing the business so much really clouds their judgment on what they should be doing. And it’s not a problem until it’s a problem. But just as far as you know, maybe even outside of open houses qualifying people that you don’t know, and that weren’t a referral from someone, what advice do you give your agents for that?
Speaker 1 32:37
I run this whole system with a referral. So my mom can give you to me, and it’s going to set up the same. Okay? Even my mom, my cousin, if they’re going to go through the buying process, this is how we’re rolling it. So it just starts easily with, I’d love to talk with you. I just wanted to find a time 3045 minutes that we could sit down, go through the process in general, I can tell you a little bit about myself tell you how I work, I want to learn about you what you’re looking for, see if we’re a good fit to work together. Because again, it has to be a win win. Not everybody here is for me, and I’m not for every buyer. And that’s okay. So right away, I have the buyer coming into a public place. Typically it’s my edit it is at my office, we’re going to sit down, I’m going to go through that little buyer consultation talk, which of course, I’m talking through different things depending upon the client, and what’s important to them. I’m going to tell them a little bit about myself how I work, what showings are going to look like. And we’re also going to be talking a lot and I’m going to be listening more than I’m talking about what they’re looking for what their expectations are. Once we get to the end of that buyer consultation, we’re going to talk about do we feel comfortable moving forward. And sometimes that’s not an AA immediate response. But if they are, we can also go through how we are going to go through showing so immediately when I’m having the buyer consultation, we’re talking about everything from when you see a listing that you like, from what I’m sending you send me the address, you know, let me know a couple of times that work for you, we’ll schedule an appointment. But we’re also talking about when we go in, I don’t walk all the way through the house with you or I’m not with you every step. You know, I’m gonna be walking behind you, you get to take in the house first. And I’m not always saying is for safety, but it’s for those kinds of reasons. I’m talking also about that sellers. Now a lot of our houses have listening devices and cameras that serves two ways. It’s also a little safety tip because I’m immediately telling my buyer, first of all, be aware of what you’re saying because the seller could be listening, but also someone else could be listening to us so immediately they already think that we may not be in the room together. Again, I work with amazing buyers. I don’t have this, but we’re kind of setting up that process, I’m also telling them like you were mentioning, this is how I run my business. Because if I don’t set those expectations, they’re gonna run all over me. And that doesn’t have to do with safety, that’s just good business. And I’m also not being my best for them, and guiding them as easily through the process. So if I meet them, if there was any kind of a feeling, or we’d have that discussion, or you know, I might just say it’s not a good feel, I use a program and I’m sure you guys have likely heard of it, but we use for warm, I actually talked, got that that was, we talked with them. And that’s actually offered at our local association for all of our members. But that’s something I do on every single client that I talked to, I send them through their phone number, so I’m looking at their background, if there’s anything like that, again, I found that sometimes those are 100% accurate, but it’s another tool for us to use. I go into Facebook, if if Joe referred me to this person, I’m going to look this person up on Facebook and Instagram, I’m going to kind of see if the story that I’ve gotten makes sense that Joe knows this person, and also see those common people that we might know, because again, it’s a great conversation starter. And it’s also a way that I can can kind of back into that there one time, I had a phone call from somebody that was calling on a listing and I talked to the client all the way, I talked to the person on the phone all the way through. But from the conversation, he told me that they just sold their house for sale by owner, he told me a location ish that it was that he somehow it came up, he told me that he would be driving X and X car, he had a wife, but I could go into for warmth and put enough pieces together that it matched his story. And again, we still met in that in that public place first, but it gave me another tool to make sure that I’m checking my safety.
Katy 36:57
Okay, I have a question, though, that makes perfect sense for me, for buyers. How do you handle sellers, I know you’re working by referral, but let’s just say agents in your office or on your team, you know, receive a call or a lead in another way. And it’s not a referral? How do you vet a seller before you go to their home? Or do do you have to meet them at the office first, like what’s the process a
Speaker 1 37:20
little more difficult? I think innately because you have to get in their home, right? You have to get in there to see what we’re talking about. I can do a preliminary market, but I’ve got to get into see. So I’m still running them through those social media checks to forewarn check, trying to get anything that I can see. But typically, if I don’t know somebody that I’m going to their home, either. My husband, my assistant, my calendar is a tool that I use huge. And I will kind of go back to that. But I’m telling people where I’m at when I first started, it was kind of like, I don’t need to check in every five minutes. It’s not checking in, it’s telling them and making sure that I feel comfortable asking for that, hey, give me a call in five minutes. Let me just say, Hey, I feel good. I don’t. And if you really don’t know somebody and you have a feeling taking someone else with you, hey, and we partner up on things all the time. I’m just going to have my agent Jen, stop by with me. We want to get a feel and we’re going to give you a better give you a better idea of what your house is. We just want two sets of eyes. Again, it’s pretty simple to get at least two of you in there.
Alissa 38:33
How did you so back in episode six and seven, back when we first started the podcast because your episode 216 We interviewed Carl, where he shared with us, you know his story about his mother and the safety tips he gave through this world? How did you end up connecting with Carl?
Speaker 1 38:57
It’s a weird, weird, weird connection we have I love Carl dearly. Carl’s mom would have been shoots about five years after Ashley had been killed. And I remember hearing it on the news and following it and it just gripped me from the start. And I think part of that was because it was ripping off some raw emotions for me. And also just watching this family go through it and watching knowing what it does to your real estate community because you know, we’re all competitors, but we all are. We’re family to so I remember watching that and just being devastated with it. And then when Carl kind of took up his Beverly Carter foundation, I I saw that and I saw different places where he was going out and speaking and I went to my broker owners and said could we do this could we bring Carl here for to speak to our Realtors I want to continue this safety passion and Carl flew in At night, and we actually met for dinner, he and I, and my, I think there were about four others of the owners there that had graciously brought him in to speak to our agents. And it was, I can’t even describe that dinner. It was so awesome and so heartbreaking at once. Because he and I started talking about things. And I felt God, I felt like I, what he was sharing, and back and forth. It just felt like it was another layer of my healing that much later, because he identified with all of those emotions. And I just remember he left in that passion and that fire for this, which sounds weird because of where it’s driven from, but that passion just ignited. And in talking to him, I mean, he he was from that minute on one of my forever friends. I mean, I he’s one of my favorite people, and one of those that I will most close. But from that point on, he was he asked if I’d be interested in joining the Beverly Carter Foundation, and it was yes, yes, yes. Nobody wants to be in this club. But we have a choice of what we can do with where we’re at right now. So to me, honoring Beverly and honoring Ashley is sharing with others and hoping that it takes them a second to pause and to think and to hold each other accountable and continue having these conversations. These aren’t fun conversations. I hate having them. I hate saying have you checked the person before you’re going Did you? Did you park in the right spot? What are you doing? But we have to hold each other accountable for that. My my team holds me accountable. They’ll say Where are you going? Do you know this person are you we hold each other accountable. Because we slide back into those patterns. We we know what we need to do we know it’s not smart to go meet someone. But oh, it’s just one phone call, I’m just going to do it this one time or gosh, I haven’t had a closing in three months. I need this. I’m just going to go meet him. I’m going to do one time we’re going to see what happens. So I think it’s important that we hold each other accountable of having these conversations. I love it. If my agent will call me out and said did you get their ID because I heard you on the phone, it sounds like you’re running over there. That’s what we need to do for each other. And to can continue this on. And Carl has done such amazing work in the memory of his mom, and just what the foundation has done. That comes across that a cost to him as well. It’s hard, hard work. He is emotionally raw every time he tells but I’m so proud of him of of what he has done with such tragedy, he has really impacted so many, many people’s lives.
Alissa 42:55
We have a community group within the podcast, and we do a monthly event in the community and Carl’s going to come speak to them. And so we’re really honored to have him again. But you’re right. I mean, by the end of you know, his episode, we had tipped us and we’re just like weeping because it was. And I agree with you to that, you know, you hear it and you’re maybe cautious for a few weeks, and then you get busy and you get back into routine. And then you just start making exceptions. And next thing you know, all of your boundaries are out the window. So I love that you treat every client the same. It’s just how you do your business, whether you’re a referral or a cold lead, these are the protocol that we’re going to take for how you run your business. And if you do it that way, it never slips through the cracks,
Speaker 1 43:49
right? Do because it becomes almost automatic. So we get a call we’ve put them through for Warren, we do this, here’s our intake, even and I was mentioning this, I’m I’m frugal. I’m a small town girl, I will save $1 if possible. So a lot of the things I do are not really safety apps, they’re they’re just easy things. My Google Calendar, if you go in there, anytime that my assistant tailor or I plug in a showing, it’ll say the buyers last name, you know, Morris buyer showing. And then if you go in there, it’s going to have in the notes, it’ll show here’s where I’m at the first house, here’s the time I’m supposed to be here. Here’s the second row, here’s the third row, and it will show so that sadly, she knows my husband knows my team could they will be able to figure out to get in there and they know that they can track me down if for some reason I’m not answering and at least that’s going to give us when also with our contacts. This has been something that is has been awesome from a safety standpoint, but it’s awesome for my business because when I go into a Google contact if I have to by your Sally, her Google contact is going to have all her information, obviously, phone number, those things, I’m gonna put her her address in there. But I’m also going to link her to her husband. So that pops up anything with kids easier to remember if I can make sure that I’m saying the right name. But I’m also going to say that she came from Stu Smith. And so now I’m kind of creating a weave of, if we ever had to go back and figure something out. Plus, it’s great, I can pull up and see how many people did this one were for me or who didn’t knows them. Because I love all of that. It’s my clients that really fill my passion. But I’m creating that story in that that print, if you will, and those are super easy to do. And then when I can’t remember what address we have this last night, and a selections meeting, we’re trying to remember the one address that we shown, I can easily type in buyer Erickson showing it now pulls that up, and I can click in and all the addresses were right there. So they’re practical tools for making our business more successful as well. But there’s so much behind them that we can do. Mm hmm.
Alissa 46:06
Yeah, I think that’s an excellent point.
Katy 46:10
Okay, if our listeners and I hope they are feeling inspired after listening to this episode, what are some of the ways that they can get involved in realtor safety? Like what are some things they should share with their peers? Or what would you encourage them to do to be more, you know, involved in realtor safety.
Speaker 1 46:28
You can tell I sometimes when I start talking about this, I, I can talk for a long time, but three things go out to the National Association of REALTORS Safety Toolkit. And it would be awesome to link that for them. Because there are so many wonderful, wonderful, wonderful resources out there. Again, videos to watch forms to use that safety pledge, please go out and take that and then pull up that listing safety form that I talked about, because it makes it so easy, that visit the Beverly Carter foundation. Follow that on all social, we have great resources on that I’m so blessed to serve on the board there. So please follow in keep. And then third is really keep those conversations going. hold yourself accountable, hold others accountable. Because you’re not being you’re not being rude. When you say anything to someone. It is truly because we owe it to ourselves, clients or colleagues in our families to practice safe practice to implement safe showing practices. So that every realtor comes home safe every single day. That’s the most important thing. But we’ve got to have these conversations over and over because we get back into we slipped back in and we don’t want another quote Dateline tragedy to happen before we have another pause and thinking through it. Sure. Yeah.
Katy 47:55
That was perfect. Yeah. Did you bring a toast for today? I know you listen. So you know, everyone wants to toes someone. So we would love to hear yours if you’re ready.
Speaker 1 48:05
Yes. So I have to because I have trouble following directions, I guess. So my person is Carl. Again, Carl Carter is just, he’s been so important to me. And he has brought so much healing and he also has served as my little warrior on this journey. I feel like when I go out, I know if I’m having these conversations. He’s also having them. He keeps me going and I’m so proud of all he has done. September gets hard for him. You know, these are we’re on some anniversaries of when his mom went missing and when she lost her life, so September’s a hard month and then we’re also he’s having these conversations every a lot of times in this month. I have to kind of get on him about he’s got to take care of himself because it’s wearing So Carl Parker, love you. And then my other is for my team we talked about they are really what keeps me they keep me day to day we have fun, we laugh we do a lot of business. We help each other. Amy she is a stitch Amy I told you as our open house warrior, Julie and Taylor I just I’m so thankful for them.
Katy 49:25
Love it. Well cheers to Amy and Julie and Taylor and we love Carl to so we’re happy to toast to him and thank you so much for coming and sharing. I know that’s not a fun topic to necessarily discuss and we appreciate you and hopefully you’re saving lives you just don’t know it like you know what you do make such a huge impact. So someone changes their policies and procedures because of this. You’ve done a great service to the whole industry.
Alissa 49:54
Thanks to for reminding us like how hard this is for Carl like I mean we know that
Katy 49:59
yeah Alright, so I guess we’re good to go, Jim. Thank you truly. Yeah. Thank you for
Speaker 1 50:05
asking me. I mean, yeah, absolutely. It’s not one of those things you ever want to be asked, but I do appreciate it. I hope it helps people.
Katy 50:13
It will fit well. Yeah. Okay, have a good day.
Alissa 50:19
Thank you so much for tuning in to the hustle humbly podcast. If
Katy 50:22
you enjoy this episode, please go to rate this podcast.com/hustle humbly and leave us a review or drop a comment if you’re listening on Spotify.
Alissa 50:29
If you have an episode topic or someone you’d like to toast on the show, please email us at team at hustle humbly podcast.com
Katy 50:36
Find us on social media at hustle humbly podcast. Don’t forget to find all the free resources at hustle humbly podcast.com/resources See you next week. This is
Alissa 50:47
the good lie.
