Being a Realtor means you will spend a large portion of your working life putting out fires in your business. This episode is filled with stories and examples of the types of fires you will be faced with in this business. Alissa shares how posting about her “messy May” led to so many of you responding that transactions have been tough lately and filled with many obstacles to overcome. Right now nothing comes easy and getting to the closing table seems more challenging than ever. Unhappy with us or the market, we have never experienced this many disgruntled clients. We are ready to share how you can survive these same trials by fire in your business.

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The following is a rough transcript provided by Otter.ai.

Katy 0:01
I love and appreciate you aunt Cindy, but and you want a realtor to help you buy, but you’re not willing to pay me, and I cannot work for free.

Alissa 0:09
I can’t this whole thing has just been a surprise. She’s like, I’m sorry. I’ve been such a terrible client.

Katy 0:16
Believe she apologized. So

Alissa 0:18
I’m like, I don’t need to be yelled at anymore. Even if it’s from hearing loss, right? I don’t like people right now,

Katy 0:27
which is, but I’m actually not working with people, right?

Alissa 0:29
I’m not working with people. If you have a dog that would like to buy a home, that is what I prefer. Hi, y’all, welcome to hustle. Humbly, it’s Alyssa and Katie, and we are two top producing realtors in the Baton Rouge market. We

Katy 0:42
work for two different companies where we should be competitors, but we have chosen community over competition.

Alissa 0:47
The goal of our podcast is to encourage you to find your own way in business, so stop

Katy 0:51
comparing yourself and start embracing your strengths. Hey, Katie, welcome Melissa. Hi. It’s episode 259 be cool about fire safety.

Alissa 1:03
Be cool.

Katy 1:04
No, not at all. I used to work, okay, this is called you wrote on the let’s back it all up. I go to look at the podcast flow list, where we put what the upcoming episodes are, and I look down and I read fire extinguishers, like fire extinguishers. And then now I’m just down a rabbit hole. Of all the things I remember about fire, I had this CO manager at the Old Navy, and she always said like it was her hello, goodbye, it was her tagline. It was be cool about fire safety.

Alissa 1:39
Okay. Why? Yeah, so weird,

Katy 1:40
right? Anyway, why? Why are we talking about fire extinguishers? What

Alissa 1:45
does that even mean on the notes? Oh, I’m sorry. I had May was, like, really hard for me, not just with work, but it was my first may where Haven is out of school that she did not immediately go to summer camp, right? So last summer, and then before that, she was in daycare. So I just my schedule. Never I told you this was coming. I know I they called us may summer. It was terrible. I wasn’t prepared, and it’s unfortunate that real estate picks up so much the same time that there is no childcare, right? And I did not handle it gracefully, okay? I feel like I’m extra transparent right now. Oh, I love it, because I just served on a panel another panel. You love, a good panel where I just end up getting mad on the panels, because people answer questions. I didn’t hear this story. No, you didn’t. It was fine, okay, I called people out. You did, what

Katy 2:48
about what? Give us some backstory. So

Alissa 2:50
the question was like, What is something you do consistently that gets you business? And the guy next to me told this huge, long story about this other realtor who does something, does something, does something, until their business got so good that they just take off quarter four. And I thought, and I asked him, and then they handed me the mic, wait a minute. And I said, so you do that? And he kind of laughed. I was like, Well, no, I just heard about this guy, and I’m like, what it reminded me? That’s a really helpful panelist. And do you know what it reminded me of? What he’s just not that easy when they go, I heard of this guy who heard of this guy who actually things worked out with her jerk, right? Who lives they got married, yeah, ever after. And they’re like, We must stop telling ourselves these stories.

Katy 3:41
Yeah. Okay, so this guy told a story to the whole audience, and

Alissa 3:45
everyone’s feeling like, like, oh, I should do this too. And I’m like, the guy who’s telling you didn’t even do it and even do this, okay? And the other guy doesn’t sell real estate. How does this wrap? Back around to December? Because I did not want to get on this episode and lie? Oh, you’re gonna be transparent and say how gracefully I handled May. You

Katy 4:10
also traveled. A bit.

Alissa 4:11
I traveled. I told Katie, can we please put on the calendar next year? Do not schedule anything in May. No may things nothing in May. It was just too hard. And also, like, not that Tanner listens to that podcast. But if I got on here and said, Have you seen those things on Instagram where it’s like, the girl’s talking and her husband’s behind her, but she’s or no, the husband’s in front of her, and she’s acting like she’s videoing herself, but she’s really videoing, oh, and saying stuff. And she’s like, I get up every morning and tidy the house and run four miles and make the menu. And the husband’s like, what like? He’s like, banging his head on the table, like, this is a lie. This is a lie. This would be Tanner if I got on here and talked about how gracefully. I handled may how I just kept my cool, and I did not get overwhelmed at all, and I was the best mother, and I was the best wife and the best realtor I could have been, it would have been a lot. You would be like they did not live with you. I just feel like I had some really difficult may closings, and I was so distracted throughout the month of May because of all of the things that were so hard, right? And then in at the first week of June, our marketing person for the company sends out that little thing that’s like, you know, Alyssa sold $3.1 million in May. And I’m like, That explains a lot, yeah, well, one that explains a lot. I did not realize it was gonna be that much. But also, like, it felt like 10 million, not because I was busy, but because every transaction I had was so hard. So you posted, so I posted. I usually don’t reshare those, right, but it sort of just like so I posted it and said, this was hard, and may was hard, and every transaction right now, there’s so many obstacles in real estate, and there is so much standing in the way, and you called it your messy May. Yes, I said this was the messiest may I’ve ever had. And then what did the people say? Well, then I had all the DMS, which I don’t usually get, yeah, but it was like, all these DMS, you struck a chord, yes. So it let me know. Okay, people, realtors are are feeling this. I had a lot of agents jump in and share their stories about Same here. You know, business is up. I’m picking up. I am busy, but, like, it is hard. We were also discussing how we’ve never had more disgruntled clients at one time. People are just not super happy. Well,

Katy 6:57
they’re not happy about the inventory they get to choose from. They’re not happy about the interest rate they get stuck with. They’re not happy because the media keeps telling them they shouldn’t be paying their realtor for doing whatever it is that they’re not doing or not doing like they’re just

Alissa 7:10
agitated. Everyone’s very agitated and getting freaking hot outside. It’s hot in Louisiana right now, and

Katy 7:18
they’re just agitated. I always

Alissa 7:19
joke, because the home inspectors, like, they end with testing the heater, yeah, and you know, when the heater kicks in, we gotta go and the client’s always like, is it getting hot in here? And we’re like, Yeah, we like to turn the heater on and get you really hot and sweaty and then tell you everything that’s wrong with the house you’re about to terrible. It’s a terrible system. Yeah, we should really start that first terrible system. But, yeah, it just made me realize that we’re sort of in this market at the moment, coming out of and coming out of certain transitions, entering the next transitions, and we are getting busy again, but not without its challenges. Right?

Katy 7:57
You know, this reminds me, we just posted this reel in June, of the people in the whitewater rafting boat, yeah, and it’s like, You’re so lucky. All you do all day is show pretty houses and get paid. And then it’s like getting paid, and all the people are getting thrown out of the boat by the rapids. Yes, like, appraisals, inspections, negotiations, loan approval. It’s like, all repairs, like, you’re like, I’m trying to get paid. I might have saw a pretty house, and now I’m just trying not to fall out of the friggin boat, because it’s really hard to get to that closing table. What do you think are the disgruntled clients telling you? Like, is it all the same problem? Like, what is the that

Alissa 8:43
is a big part of one of the many things that was sort of taking its toll on me in the month of May, yeah, is that people are being way more blunt and brazen about expressing their annoyance, yeah, of having to pay me. Like, thanks. I’m like, but it’s my job, right? I don’t volunteer here, yeah? Before, they

Katy 9:08
were just like, okay, yeah. Now they’re like, wait a minute, I’m mad about this. Yeah, you weren’t mad about it before, right?

Alissa 9:17
I blame the media. It sort of reminds me, like six years ago, our company totally revamped their commission plan, and nobody is good with change. And it actually was a better thing, like it was a we got more money, yeah, but, you know, there’s always the people that resist change. Many of them aren’t even here anymore, and they’re all, you know, ruffling feathers and telling everybody in the office, like, are we gonna be okay with this? And and then one of them started, like a petition to sign up to go speak to these third party people that that made the new plan Okay. Okay, and I didn’t know I was like, I don’t even think I’d hate this was a long time ago, but I remember her. It was someone I looked up to telling me, like, you need to go stand up for yourself. And I’m thinking, okay, so I scheduled a time to go sit with these people to talk about my individual plan. And I thought, if anything, I’ll just make sure. I mean, my mom had already crunched all my numbers. She was like, me, it looks fine. Yeah. She was like, this looks okay. It was, I think the problem is that it was complicated to figure out, but once you figured it out, it did work out in your favor. But I have my mom and her Excel spreadsheets because she’s a CPA who does all that for me. So she had already confirmed you’re good. But I thought, Okay, well, you’re right. I should be a smart businesswoman. Yeah, I better go. I better go. And I sat down, and I guess, like everybody else they had met with, you know, is coming defensive and and so I sit down at the table, and they’re like, all right, what questions do you have? And I really didn’t have any. And Connie goes. Connie was there with the third party people. She goes, Did you feel like you needed to sign up just because so and so told you to sign up? And I was like, yeah, yeah, I did, actually. And she’s like, are you okay? Did the numbers work out for you? And I was like, they they actually were fine.

Katy 11:12
They were like, bye, thanks for stopping by. Yes, yes, you’re wasting my time. It

Alissa 11:16
was that’s what the media is doing. They’re like to the public right now, like, you should be mad about this. You should be mad for paying for a professional service, yeah, and it’s like, but Right? But why? Right, you know. And so anyway, they are verbalizing it more and more. And this transition where we are right now, I also had an example that I thought we’re probably going to start seeing a lot more often, where I was helping a pretty good friend of mine look for a home, and she had sold her home sooner than she should have, right? She she sold it like in the fall.

Katy 11:58
She was 2023, just an interim like not she had

Alissa 12:02
not found where she was going, but she was eager to get her home sold, and she knew she could go live with family or her daughter or friends until she found where she was going. Okay. Well, the problem is she sold her home much quicker than anticipated, and is not pleased with the inventory available, right? And so she’s like a little Nomad, just living where there’s a free space and her stuff is in storage. And of course, we come along for sale by owner. That is like no agents, no agents. And so I had to have that conversation with her again, because we’ve had it several times about what that looks like. And she just said, I’m just really annoyed that I’m going to have to pay you right, because I just paid both Realtors as the seller, as the seller. This is where people are going to be falling here in these coming months,

Katy 13:01
like, Wait a minute. Yes. As the seller this summer, I pay both sides. Now you’re telling me it’s August or September, October, and I’m ready to buy, and I have to pay you. So now I’m three times paying three people. Like,

Alissa 13:15
yes, and I sort of had a light bulb moment too, because I had never thought of about the people in the transition, yeah, that that paid both sides as sellers, and now may have to pay their own buyer’s agent, and they just are. They are more disgruntled because they feel gypped, which I understand it’s

Katy 13:33
fair, because the way the system was set up before, it was quite equitable and fair. It’s

Alissa 13:39
also not my fault, though, but I’m the one that they’re going to take it out. You’re the punching bag. I am the punching bag. And I also wanted to say so are what you saying is you haven’t appreciated the last eight months I’ve shown you homes. The last eight months, I have gotten a babysitter on the weekends, yeah? But at

Katy 13:58
the end of the day, it’s just about them. I know it’s not about you. They, yeah, sure. And sometimes they even feel bad. I think, well, you know, I feel bad because I, I know you’re working, but I also don’t want to pay I also don’t want to pay you. I have to work. Look out for my best interest first,

Alissa 14:14
and that is where I can I consider myself pretty tough in this industry, but I think this is going to be a whole new layer of tough skin that I’m going to have to get, yeah, because I have had people confront me with this a few times, and there’s no nice way to say it, you’re

Katy 14:35
just going to have to be continue to say, I understand your frustration, but I cannot work for free. Yes, like, that’s really the end of the story. I understand your frustration. I’m not loving this transitional time or these changes either. However, I cannot work for free.

Alissa 14:50
I love that. That was so good. Like,

Katy 14:52
I I’m frustrated too. That was it was working fine before, but I cannot work for free. Like, there’s, like. It’s that is such a black and white to me. It’s like, Hey, I love and appreciate you aunt Cindy, but, and you want a realtor to help you buy, but you’re not willing to pay me, and I cannot work for free. I can’t because I don’t have the time for that, right? I gotta go find someone who will pay me. Or another job, right? Or another job, like, if no one’s gonna pay me, then I can’t even do this as a job. Require someone to pay me, otherwise, it’s a hobby. Yeah, I’m not a hobby. Realtor. I

Alissa 15:31
have to make money, or else I gotta go get a job. Like, it should just be that black and white, and I think a lot of us are gonna have to have some uncomfortable conversations where it’s like, I’m sorry, like, I have to get paid. I’m having them more and more. You just have to get paid. And I will say the first few times that they just said it, I was so caught off guard. I did not I sort of fumbled through it. I didn’t really handle it. I was surprised that someone who I thought respected me as a professional was just so bluntly being like, I mean, I appreciate you, but not enough to pay you. Yeah? Like, yeah. I know it’s been eight months, and

Katy 16:07
I It’s so crazy to me, though, because the buyers were paying you, it’s in the cost of the house, right? So it’s like they’re acting like they’re paying something they did not previously pay, which is so silly, but it’s our own fault, because we never explained to them what was happening. Right? Your total cost of your house, there’s some percentage of that. That’s what the seller has agreed to. Then pay agents that their side and your your side. But it’s too late now. Can’t be fixed. I want to go back to Messi May, though. What are some of the other things that caused those transactions to be so difficult,

Alissa 16:44
I’m having some insurance issues, of course, with the age of the roof. Yeah, insurance being too high, even though the roof is in good condition and has no leaks and looks fine because it’s 13 years old, insurance is either saying, No, we’re not going to insure it at all, or we want you to replace your roof. And my sellers are like, well, that’s not fair. It’s not fair. I

Katy 17:10
feel, I know we’re a board. It’s not fair. You know what we need to do? We need to enlist some of these lawyers that love the class action lawsuits and be like as homeowners who have insurance and roofs that are in perfectly fine condition that are being forced to change them just because of their age, I feel like I have been materially harmed by the insurance industry.

Alissa 17:32
I do feel that way totally. I had a closing last week where we had to close with an open ended addendum, okay, oh, my where the buyers want the roof replaced? Okay, my sellers, we’ve had the roof looked at. It has a few years left. There’s no active leaks, but they cannot get the good insurance on it. They insurance that would be affordable. It was actually such a big difference that it kicked the buyer out of their debt to income ratio, my word. So what happened is we got an estimate of worst case scenario if we can’t get insurance to replace the roof, it’s $20,000 to replace the roof, okay? And y’all, this is not an expensive house. This isn’t a luxury home. This is a normal, first time homebuyer, single family home, yeah, so $20,000 is astronomical, but that and that was the lowest of five quotes that we got the lowest that we could get in the insurance claim at this time is going to take up to eight weeks. Oh, my, we just had a few big storms come through. I’m still dealing with my driveway gate in my tree that fell at my house. Gosh, darn it. But anyway, we did not want to extend closing eight weeks, right? Because her rate was blocked, right? And we if we extended it, she the buyer was going to have to pay money, she was going to cancel the contract. Yeah. I said, What do we need to do to not cancel this contract? Right? It took me a minute to get this house under contract. We can’t lose it. I am not. What do we need to do to close? Yeah, here’s what we did. Okay, we closed with the original roof on there. Okay? Because insurance is still processing the claim. Okay, we confirmed through their insurance that even if we close and that policy is no more, it doesn’t matter, because the investigation occurred during the time of their ownership got it so the insurance, we made it very clear we have it in writing that they’re not going to say, Oh, well, this policy has been canceled, so we’re canceling your claim, right? It is still going through the claims process, okay? If the addendum reads, I wish I would have printed it out. The Addendum reads something along the lines of, in the event that insurance approves the roof claim, seller will continue to work with the insurance company and pay whatever deductibles required to see a new roof through to fruition. Okay? So that will happen. Okay, at closing, we held $20,000 at the title company, just chilling there, yeah, as good faith, because the addendum then reads, In the event insurance does not replace the roof, the $20,000 will be released to ABC Roofing, per the attached invoice to replace the roof. Yeah. If insurance agrees to replace the roof and the seller has seen it to fruition, the $20,000 will be released to the seller right upon the roof being complete. Yeah. So we have, we’ve closed, and we still have two months of follow up and 20 grand just and my sellers are in their new home in another state now going, I wonder if we’re ever gonna see that $20,000 again. Just hope they’re waiting to see like, do we buy new furniture? Do we wait? What can we do? Yeah, they’re waiting. I

Katy 21:20
trust insurance companies. 0%

Alissa 21:22
I don’t feel good about it.

Katy 21:24
Oh my gosh, I

Alissa 21:25
do not feel good about it. So we might have to, I’ll have to update, follow up on how this goes. But so that was a big thing. And you know, at closing, nobody was really very happy. No, the buyer was okay, but her dad was very annoyed at the whole like he wanted her. He wanted his daughter. Is this? Mr. Shingles, no. Oh, my different roof. He wanted his daughter to extend closing until the roof was done, right? And she’s like, Dad, you don’t understand. Like it hurts. I want to be in my house, yeah. And it and it hurts, my love so and then my sellers are stressed, and you know, it’s just okay. Tell

Katy 22:06
us this roof story, the people are surprised with the numbers. Oh,

Alissa 22:10
yes, okay. I have another client who I have been working with on and off, not tremendously a lot. They are from out of town, and they are buying a second home here in Baton Rouge. Okay, their adult children will live in it through grad school, but it will also, she wanted it to be a little bit nicer, because they have all the LSU season tickets for, like, baseball, basketball, they’re always here. So she’s like, I don’t want a college pad that I don’t want to sleep in. I want it to be like a nicer home. Okay, so we been casually looking she comes in town like every other month, and well, we we found the one great she had been approved. I had made sure, before I ever started showing her houses back in 2023 that she was approved. Okay, well, I realized when we found the house and she was ready to write an offer immediately, and we had to, because it was multiple offer, which was strange, I thought, oh, man, I haven’t rechecked her pre approval. And look, I know that they are a wealthy family. I know these things, but I’ve been burned before, and you know how I am about making I’m not going to write an offer without a pre approval letter. Yeah? And she’s like, just so reassuring to me. And then she’s like, Well, I was a, she used to be an underwriter for mortgages, but this was like, Yeah, 15 years ago, that’s different. And so she’s just so confident that this is not going to be a problem at all. Okay, I went against my better judgment, and I wrote the offer you so and I had some pretty serious conversations with her when I did it. So I said, Listen, I’m going to do this. I feel very uncomfortable. I need to know that in a worst case scenario, you can make this sale happen. And she said, In a worst case scenario, if I had to pay cash, I could. I just don’t want to Okay, so I’m going fine. That’s enough for me to write the offer. And I knew they were putting down a good bit anyway. And I said, but because she kept telling me, I know, because I used to do this, I and I said, How long has it been since you got a mortgage? And she was like, Oh, um, hmm, well, we’ve been in our house, like, 19 years. I said, Listen, get ready. A lot has changed, okay? And this is on a Saturday, her banker that she wants to use is not open on the weekend from her city, where she’s from, and it was very stressful. Monday rolls around, I get a frantic we won. We won a bidding war. Okay? We had an escalation clause in there. We had all sorts of things. I get a call from her Monday. And she says, Oh my gosh, you’re not. I’m just so embarrassed. You’re not. I’m like, what happened? And she said, Well, the banker won’t issue a pre approval letter because one of our small businesses, or this or that or something, we didn’t file a tax return for 2023 for one of the businesses. I don’t know. I’m sure there’s more to it. And I’m like, Okay, so are we paying cash for the house? Because it was, that was our agreement, you know? And she’s like, how long do I have to figure this out? I said, Well, we have our inspection this week. You’re in your 10 day inspection period, we need to close. I don’t want to make this phone call. She’s so apologetic. And this is a very professional woman, and I have so much respect for her. And again, I’m telling myself, Alyssa, gosh darn it, so you follow your own rules, but, but you had to do it to get the house. I had to do it to get the house. And we did get the house. So she calls me back by the end of the day, and she is exhausted. She’s like, you have no idea how many people I have called, and nobody will give us a mortgage without this tax return. So what she ended up having to do was going to another private banker that she has a relationship with, but they’re doing like an arm okay? And the note is going to be so much higher, the interest rate is so much higher, but they don’t require tax returns. They don’t require so it’s going to be a way easier process. But she’s not pleased with the numbers, right? I said, Well, I understand that, but are you pleased enough that we’re going to close? She said, Yeah. I said, okay, because that’s and she’s like, I just should have listened, you know? And I said, Okay, well, let’s just put this behind us and move forward. I said, Now listen, we are in our inspection period, our due diligence time frame. This is a 80 year old house, very old house insurance is different now. She’s like, Oh yes, my insurance policy on my current house has gone up to my I’m like, You need to get insurance within your due diligence period to make sure you’re comfortable with it. And she’s just kind of like, again, like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it’ll be fine. It’ll be fine. And I’m going, okay, oh my, I’m just letting you know that insurance is really high right now. And she’s like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. She didn’t really get it during her due diligence, obviously. And then the lender guy is asking for a copy, and she’s like, why is he pushing? I said he’s pushing because this is time sensitive. It’s very important. I think you’re going to be surprised at your quotes. She called me so surprised about how high her insurance was. She’s like, Well, I live in 100 year old house where I am now, and it’s not this high, it’s not your primary residence, right? This isn’t your primary residence. You have a new roof at your primary residence. This one doesn’t like, you’re in a different city now. Yeah, there’s a lot factoring into this. And she’s like, this whole thing has just been a surprise. She’s like, I’m sorry. I’ve been such a terrible client, Felicia apologized so she was at least not, you know, I dealt with a lot of angry, upset people. She was not one of them, but she was one that her experience throughout the transaction was difficult. No from not listening. You know, yeah, it’s like people aren’t understanding that we know what’s going on in the market. We see it every day that insurance is I have had more list buyers. Agents request a copy of homeowners insurance on my current listings before they even show it. Yeah, people are really doing their due diligence. You have to have to,

Katy 29:01
because it will push you out of your debt to income. I mean, it just will.

Alissa 29:05
And I know, I think maybe in her situation, because they are a wealthier family, she thought, I mean, it’s not going to be so high that I’m not going to buy the house. I love you, right? But it didn’t take away from her surprise. It made the process way harder. Ew,

Katy 29:21
okay, tell us about happy to help. Are we saying happy to help? A lot, right now, what’s happening? Like, when the problems come up, you’re just like, happy to

Alissa 29:32
help. I was thankful that we had recently done this. Say this, not that episode. Oh, great, right, right, right? Because I have never said happy to help. Or I’ll send you some options to figure this out. Yeah, or we can handle this. Yeah.

Katy 29:47
You know my go to when I enter the phone of a current transaction. How can I how can I help you today? How

Alissa 29:52
can I help you? How

Katy 29:53
can I help you?

Alissa 29:54
I said it so much during the month of May, it’s like I turned into a robot that was just. Trying to take all of this coming at me, all of this, like, unhappiness, and, you know, it was just icky, and I was just trying to keep up. Like I was, like a Stepford wife, you’re like, I had a smile plastered in my face, and I was like, I can help you, but not for free.

Katy 30:19
I’d be happy to help you,

Alissa 30:20
yeah,

Katy 30:20
how can I help you today? Oh my gosh, that. Do you have any other stories you want to tell us about messy May, what did the people say in the DMS? Just like they’re all having trouble is the same types of problem? Yes, very

Alissa 30:34
similar. A lot of insurance issues. And the thing is, not, yes, insurance is an issue. I’m not I can handle that. Yeah, I struggle personally. Me myself and my personality type, when people express it in a way that makes me feel like they are not pleased with me and my service, right? When I take things personal, I don’t do well. Go back and listen to the Enneagram episode from early on. It’s like you can be mad at the market all the I’m used to that, right? I’m not used to people being upset with me about it and taking it out on me specifically, yeah, and that has been a bit of a learning curve. And, you know, having such a great May, usually at the end of such a productive month, I’m ecstatic, feeling fulfilled, and I just was feeling empty. Yeah, I was just thinking like, this is really hard, and I’m gonna have to really figure out how to handle this better. Do we have any ideas? I unfortunately, think it is sort of like a baptism by fire situation, where, you know, the first time that someone said that to me about, you know, I vow thank you for all your help, but I don’t want to pay you. I just was so dumbfounded, yeah. And didn’t really have a good response, yeah. And then the second time, it was a little bit easier. Yeah, one of my closings, my client was so rude to me throughout the process that I emailed the title company, because I closed with this title company a bit, and I know that at the end, they just hand you a check. I called beforehand and was like, Could you please put my check in a folder? I didn’t even feel comfortable getting paid in front of this person, wow, because they were like, so upset. I knew that I wasn’t sleazy, but they made me feel gross for getting paid for your job. They and that is a problem. I should not be feeling that way. No. But I just messaged title. I was like, Look, this one has been really hard. I messaged the lender to be like, are you going to be there? I just don’t know if I can sit at the table by myself, like I was in my head bad. I was just maxed out. And I think the reason it bothered me too is like you have one difficult thing, okay, but you know, when you have 345, that’s when you start going, am I? That’s when the self reflection, like, maybe it is me. Maybe I’m not good at this, maybe I’m not explaining, maybe I’m not working hard, yeah. So I just sort of had, like a May mindset meltdown. You

Katy 33:17
surely did. You

Alissa 33:18
saw it. I know. I just, I had a really tough time. I’m coming out of it, and I’m also, I feel like I’m being so cautious, right?

Katy 33:30
Here’s my question for you, and it’s okay if you can’t or don’t want to, or don’t know how to answer this. Do you feel like after this experience and seeing where the industry is going and how buyers and sellers are behaving. Will you reduce your production or change how you qualify? If you will work with someone? Yes,

Alissa 33:49
I already have tell us how, like, just recently, yeah, after closing out all those transactions in May, and I still have two in June that I’m like, get me out of here, right? But because of that, it has made me go. I’ve never had to ask myself, do I have room to handle this? Yeah? And I’m asking myself that more, yeah, I had a really good friend call me, and she has sent me a lot of referrals. And she’s like, Hey, I have a referral for you, but I don’t know if you’re going to want to take it. And I’ll be honest with you, the second she said that, I was like, Nope, I don’t, I don’t actually in my brain, yeah, but I’m thinking of, Oh, I’ll hear you out. I’ll hear you out. And I’m already thinking of who I can send it to for a referral fee. Okay? She’s like, you know, he’s very hard of hearing, and he, like, yells. I’m like, I don’t need to be yelled at anymore, even if it’s from hearing loss, right? And then she is competent, but you wouldn’t think so, because she repeats herself a lot, and she’s just gonna be pretty needy, and I’m going, I’m almost. Running On Empty at this like, I don’t have the bandwidth for needy, not at this exact moment in this month, while my child is out of school and I’m struggling in my professional work, right? With my mindset, which is a place I am not used to being, yeah. And I just was, I took down all the notes, and then she was like, and then, you know, they want to look in Zachary, I don’t, you know, away from me. And I thought this will be the perfect out, yes, because I was looking for an out because, yeah, I didn’t want to be rude and be like, Thanks, but no, thanks. I’m I don’t like people right now,

Katy 35:39
which is, but I’m actually not working with people, right?

Alissa 35:42
I’m not working with people. If you have a dog that would like to buy a home, that is what I prefer right now. So I said, Okay, listen, I have, this is great. I have all the notes. I have the perfect person who knows Zachary, who’s gonna work that area for you. Are you? She’s like, Yes, please. That’s what they need. And I was just really proud of myself because I turned it down, not because I have too many transactions going, right? Because I just closed a huge chunk of my transactions in May, yeah, and I’m approaching the end of mini in June. July is sparse, right? But in my head, I was like, I need this break. I don’t need it because of my workload. I need it because I am processing a lot. Yeah, and it’s all happening so quickly, right? So quickly. I think that’s the thing. It wasn’t as gradual as I thought it would be, yeah, all of a sudden, in one month at people’s behavior, people’s behavior has changed, and they are asking me all sorts of questions. One of my listings was like a family member, and we signed listing agreements, they were kind of asking me questions about, oh, well, will this new lawsuit change anything about this before I sign? And I’m like, No, not right now. Like, this is how I work. You know, you’re welcome to interview other people. And so we get an offer, and the first thing she wants to negotiate is the commission. And I’m like, No, you don’t understand that has already been signed. We have a good offer on the table. She’s like, well, if I’m paying their closing costs, do I still need to pay you the full amount? Yes, because that’s what you signed, right? So it was just those things were happening. I could go on and on, you know what I mean? And I’m just okay, it’s just hard

Katy 37:43
last couple of things, while we’re on, I like that you we’re gonna, we’re gonna dive back into the fire analogy. I like that you’re like baptism by fire. You’re putting out fires. You’re seeing yourself as this fire extinguisher. Let’s talk about fire prevention. Okay, back in the 80s, when I was a kid, this was a hot topic. I mean, fire prevention. You see the commercials the, you know, Smokey, the bear doesn’t want you. Only you can prevent forest fires. That’s right, we don’t want forest fires. We don’t fires. At home, we had those red and silver, like metallic oval shaped stickers on our windows that are like a picture of a fireman carrying a kid over its shoulder. That’s like, there’s a child in this room, yeah, can you put them on all your kids’ bedrooms? So if there’s a fire, they know to, like, get they don’t do that anymore. You know,

Alissa 38:30
I see them on cars sometimes. Well,

Katy 38:32
that’s weird. And then, like, there was just all of this, like, fire propaganda, awareness, so much fire awareness, stop, drop and roll. Like, if you ask a kid now, what do you do if you catch fire? I bet they don’t know. Like, if you as a person, get caught, catch on fire, like, when, in the 80s, they’re like, Stop, drop and roll. Like, like, fire safety was like, hardcore, yeah. Like, we have to be really worried about this. But what I’m trying to get to is in real estate right now, I think we need to start worrying about our fire prevention, right? Like, if insurance is hard where you are, and it probably is, like, how you’re gonna have to be really stern, just like you were with your lady. Like, listen, I know you think it’s not a big deal, but it’s a big deal. And we have to do this before your inspection period’s over, or you’re just gonna have to really focus on preventing these fires in general, which, again, is why we’re constantly adjusting our email templates and trying to make sure we take in any different situations so that we’re telling our clients on the front end what they should expect in the current market, yeah, before their transaction catches fire.

Alissa 39:38
I think too, where I got stuck a little bit, is that in all of this training I’m going to they’re trying to give me these very professional, stuffy scripts, right and scenarios to make the client understand, yeah, and I don’t know that a lot of them will always work, especially when a client’s like, there’s nothing you can say. That’s gonna make me want to pay you right, even just hearing you say, I hear you. I’m not loving this transition either. It is frustrating, but I cannot work for free.

Katy 40:10
It’s like, at some point we just have to be a human Yeah, say. And I think the reason I fumbled through it is because I was trying to try to convince them yes and be you know, Uber professional. Know what Gary Vee would say, don’t convince have conviction. So all you have to do is be like, Listen, I’m not going to convince you to pay me, to work with me, to use an agent at all, but I know the value that I provide to my clients who have chosen to pay for my services. I know how many transactions I get to closing because I was part of them. I know how much money I save my buyers and sellers because I am involved. That is okay if you don’t want an agent. But again, I don’t work for free, and I know my value. Like, don’t convince have conviction, because you actually do know your value. I do. So you just have to keep, like, reinvening that into your brain, like, you know your value. And

Alissa 41:13
the what the real is, you know, you take classes, preparing for things, but until you go through the real scenario, yeah, what I realized is, yes, these classes are about knowing your value. And

Katy 41:26
you know, the other problem, a lot of those scripts feel to me like you’re trying to trick Yes, a buyer or a seller into doing what you want them to do, correct. I’m not trying to trick you. I get paid. It’s my freaking job. This is what I get paid because this is my amount of experience, or like, it just it doesn’t have to be, I don’t have to trick

Alissa 41:45
you. Yeah, and the part that I think I was missing is that knowing your me knowing my value, does not mean these classes are going to teach me how to force everybody else to know my value. Some people are not going to do it, right? It is. It is not going to happen to all of them. And you would argue

Katy 42:07
the people, these clients who are so mean and hard, mean to you, hard on you, so aggravated with you, are not, are probably the ones in the future that you’re just going to walk away from because they’re going to be like, I don’t want to pay you, yeah, upfront. How nice? Yes, I

Alissa 42:22
think that if you have somebody up front telling you they don’t want to pay you, you need to listen,

Katy 42:28
because even if they end up paying you, they’re going to hate it the whole time. That is not going to change. Yeah,

Alissa 42:34
it’s going to be interesting.

Katy 42:36
I’ll say this took a fascinating turn. Yeah, just okay.

Alissa 42:41
I don’t know if I’m putting out fires or if I’m on fire. It’s a little above, it feels like a little above you. Like, spray me with a firing. Stop,

Katy 42:50
drop and roll.

Alissa 42:52
Stop, drop and roll. You need a break, yeah, yeah. And not like, like, I don’t think a vacation is what I need? It’s like, I just, for the first time in my life, want to be alone for a minute. Just need to work with dogs. Yeah, just take a break. I need my kid to go to camp for

Katy 43:12
like, three weeks. Summer is hard. It is hard.

Alissa 43:16
So in one of these messy may transactions, it was Haven’s like, first week off of school, and they don’t start any camp because they’re they take a week to, like, let the teachers clean out their classroom and change it into camp, okay? And I’m trying to say all of these positive affirmations on how I’m going to be such a great mom this summer, and trying to channel my inner case

Katy 43:42
like play, and I’m not,

Alissa 43:47
but I’ve heard you talk about it before. Okay, and so I had on one of a one that we didn’t even talk about today. I had to get pretty ugly feisty with a buyer’s agent, okay? On the phone, who needed to be told I had been nice for too long and it wasn’t working, right? I finally just had to be like, listen, right? If you want to get to closing, this is what we’re going to do. If you don’t, I’m taking the house off the market, and we’re not selling it. He’s gonna keep it for two more years because he can’t. I just, I was like, so if you’re serious, you need to send me a serious offer that’s not gonna tick off my seller, because right now he wants to say, take a hike. I mean, I was just laying into this agent, and Haven’s in the backseat. I kind of, I wasn’t cursing or anything, but I was very firm. And I think Haven’s like, Oh, I thought only I got this voice, you know, like she’s using it at work, you know, she’s seeing a different side of mom at work. She’s used to seeing me show a house at work and do all you do is look at pretty houses all day. Yeah. And now she’s seeing me like, so then we had to go straight to my office, and I had to. I tell my broker the situation and ask permission to handle it a certain way. So Haven had to hear it again. So that night, I had book club. So I went to book club, and then I get home late, the kids are asleep, but I always go kiss their head when I get home. So I go in Haven’s room, and I like, kiss her head, and she like, rolls over and she’s like, Mom, Mom, I’m like, yeah. She’s like, what happened with that house? Did did they do it?

Unknown Speaker 45:30
Did they listen? And

Alissa 45:32
I was like, I don’t know yet, babe, I don’t know. We’re still working on it. And she’s like, okay. She’s

Katy 45:39
like, really invested. Rolled

Alissa 45:40
over and went back to sleep. And I just thought they freaking. They listened. She’s like, I’m gonna stay up all night thinking about this Yes, and she followed up until the end. In some ways, I think it’s kind of cool, and in some ways I just was aggravated more, because I’m like, You made

Katy 45:56
me yell in front of my kid. Yes, you did. You just do what you’re supposed to do job.

Alissa 46:01
So anyway, that’s how my Summer’s going. Great.

Katy 46:05
Thanks for sharing. Yeah,

Alissa 46:06
I just wanted to, you know, give some we’ve been having a lot of podcast therapy lately, but

Katy 46:11
everyone feels that yeah and we love you, going ahead of us and getting all of the the buyer, seller feedback. So we know what’s coming.

Alissa 46:20
Yeah, yeah, it’s not going well. So far. I need to be better.

Katy 46:25
They also call that trial by fire. Trial by Fire. So many good fire analogies, well,

Alissa 46:32
maybe we can call it trial by fire. Yeah, that’s a good one. That’s better than fire extinguisher. Yeah, that didn’t make sense to me. Like we are the fire. Let’s call it, stop, drop and roll and be done. Just kidding, trial by fire. Trial

Katy 46:44
by Fire. Okay, let’s hear a toast.

Alissa 46:46
Yes, let’s move on to something happier. Okay, goodbye. Y’all Bye.

Speaker 1 46:50
Hi. I’m Terry Hatcher, and I am in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and I am toasting Belinda Franco, she is my colleague here in Albuquerque. She is at a different brokerage than I am, so we very much embrace the community over competition. She inspires me every day, and is always just so willing to serve our membership. She is past president. She serves associate brokers. She does training, she does a joke of the day, just to always be really upbeat and positive in an industry that can sometimes not be. And I just want to say cheers to Belinda, because she is awesome, and I hope that she keeps doing what she’s doing and continues to inspire us. Thanks, Belinda.

Alissa 47:33
Thank you so much for tuning in to the hustle humbly podcast. If you enjoyed

Katy 47:37
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, if

Alissa 47:44
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 47:52
find us on social media at hustle humbly. Podcast, don’t forget to find all of the free resources at hustle humbly podcast.com/resources, see you next week, this is the good life.

Unknown Speaker 48:05
You.