There are hundreds of Facebook groups for Realtors and finding a good one can be a challenge. In this episode we share tips for choosing and participating in a Facebook group and give you the list of do’s and don’ts while you are there. Facebook groups can easily go wrong sucking up your time and leaving a negative impact on your mindset. We share why we took three years to start our own group and what rules and vibe we had to implement to make it work for us. As we make changes in our lives and businesses for the new year, it’s a perfect time to dive deeper into what culture you are consuming, including Facebook groups. And if you are looking for some real life examples of what happens in these groups we read through some posts and comments and give our own commentary!

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

Katy 0:01
You have lost your mind

Alissa 0:02
lost your minds. Yes. lost

Katy 0:03
your minds. That’s not okay. Not allowed. If I’m following and then you say following, I’m getting all the comments that say following.

Alissa 0:13
For the love of God. Stop asking what CRM you should use.

Katy 0:20
I mean, how can I do work without doing work?

Alissa 0:24
Yeah, what’s gonna do my business for like that? And then he grabbed my sign and threw it as if it was a Frisbee into an open field. 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.

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

Katy 0:51
comparing yourself and start embracing your strengths. Hi, Alisa. Hey,

Alissa 0:55
Katie.

Katy 0:56
Welcome. I’m like, I don’t even know what to call this. But I said hustle humbly reacts to Facebook groups. Who are deep dive deep into the world of Facebook.

Alissa 1:08
Yeah, well, we’re coming off of two heavier episodes yet very how to ish. Yeah. Tough topic. Tough topic. So we just wanted to go a little bit lighter.

Katy 1:18
I don’t know that we got there.

Alissa 1:20
Maybe it’s not lighter. Maybe it’s heavier, maybe

Katy 1:23
on the wrong road? If you’re looking for light in a Facebook group, you have gone off

Alissa 1:27
the rails? Well, it’s like, if you don’t laugh, you’d cry? Sure.

Katy 1:33
I’ll give you that one on this. I think it’s funny. Let’s start with Facebook groups for realtors are very popular. There. There are some with 40,000. Members, there are some with over 150,000. Members, there are some with 500. Members. I saw a couple that had eight members. I mean, it is in there. I don’t even there’s probably hundreds.

Alissa 1:58
I mean, just with our board alone, we’ve been through like, five, right?

Katy 2:03
So Right. And that’s your one board. Yeah. And those were their groups started by other agents, their group started by businesses, their group started by the board their group started by like a particular office, or there’s a group, maybe for your entire, like franchise, right? There’s no shortage of places. Yeah,

Alissa 2:23
we saw the public ones. Like my office has a private one that you that we can chat about or if we need help with something.

Katy 2:30
Okay, let’s start there. What happens in that group? Because those are people, you know, yeah.

Alissa 2:34
If you need an Open House held open, okay. You could put it there. I’ll just head on over who moderates that group. I think just sort of all of us. I

Katy 2:46
mean, someone set up the grid like Connie is

Alissa 2:49
not in there. Yeah, Connie is in there. Alright. But okay,

Katy 2:53
let’s back it up way far. While you’re while you’re tight, Gillis is just steady on her keyboard. Maybe you’re listening. And you’re like, why don’t use Facebook? What happened? You can’t find your group. Just keep going. Okay, here’s my thing. Maybe you’re like, I’m not a Facebook user. Maybe I use a different social media. Maybe I don’t use social media at all. Do I need to be in a realtor Facebook group? I would say my answer to that is no. In no way shape, or form is your business struggling or going to because you’re not in a Facebook group. If you were looking for some additional community or support a Facebook group may be a good fit for you. However, we’re going to get to this later when we talk about how to behave. Many of the groups, what ends up in them isn’t super positive. So if you’re trying to protect your mental health and work on your mindset for this year, I don’t know that going to join a bunch of Facebook groups is the route I would go. In fact, I might recommend that you like get out of some groups that you’re in that aren’t like how is it providing you value is always my thing. So like your group for your office is providing value, because it’s a way for you to find support from each other for actual tasks. Yeah, and maybe I would think some actual market like this is what’s changing or have a question about the form or, you

Alissa 4:08
know, like we’re coming out of Christmas, there was a lot of posts in there because we adopted families and like, okay, so charity worry me, then you know, who wants to donate? If your seller is selling furniture, you’re allowed to post pictures here? You know, just different things.

Katy 4:26
Are you allowed to post your listings there? You

Alissa 4:27
can, if you see it every now and then. Right? Or like if there’s going to be a tour, right, and you’re inviting them to the tour. A lot of recommendations for does somebody have a plumber or does somebody have this? Okay, that makes sense. Some of our new agents post I’m here to help. I’m new.

Katy 4:46
I love that I

Alissa 4:47
cook or I know thank you

Katy 4:50
so sweet. So this sounds like a very utilitarian group.

Alissa 4:53
Yeah,

Katy 4:54
I mean, we’re getting we’re getting some actual stuff done in the group. Right. Do you get rants in there? Oh, no, not in this one perfect. What happens if there is one just does Connie allow that and that are

Alissa 5:05
just most recent past Monday meeting. Connie has been like, I hope I don’t see any of you commenting in these public groups. And I think that comes from a place to of just making sure you’re not violating any ethics. We’re not breaking any laws there. So many times people are just not familiar with what we’re even allowed to discuss. And you see things in this public forum. That’s actually you could get fined or lose your license.

Katy 5:34
Right? I love when they start talking about Commission’s and like, you’ll have lost your mind lost your minds. Yeah, lost your minds. That’s not okay. Not allowed. Like,

Alissa 5:43
I think Connie is like, I’m your broker, if you need something, come come for me. And that’s why I think, I don’t really post there. It’s like, if I do have a conflict of that nature, your brokers really who you need to go to? Yeah. And if you can’t, you need to find a broker that you can write

Katy 6:02
a Facebook group should be I would think more like, high arching, like how to work with kids, or do you have any tips or like, you know, not I am struggling with this particular transaction in this particular problem. That’s a contract issue. Yeah. Or even an ethical issue, like, or an issue with another agent, like all of that should go through your broker? Yeah. If the problem is your broker, it’s time to move on. Yeah, time to switch. Okay. So there’s so many groups we had, we had one locally for many years. That was like the default group, everyone was in this group. And it was just started by an agent or two. Yeah, locally, it was not by a broker. It was not owned by our board. No one was, I mean, that agent was policing the group. And there was like a job. Oh, it’s like a job, I would never want that job. You have to moderate the group. You have to like, you know, make sure that nothing is happening in there that shouldn’t be in that group. disbanded? Yeah. Couple of years ago, and people were in that group. All of the time. That was

Alissa 7:11
like very active, super active. Mostly helpful. But

Katy 7:15
I also found it to be like, I don’t know that it was necessarily good for my mental health. I was just sucked in. It was like watching reality TV. Like, what’s the scandal now? Yeah, like, What are y’all complaining about what’s happening in the market? And then sometimes there’ll be good safety things like, hey, this person did this Be on the lookout, if someone calls and says this, you know, safety stuff, but it was off the rails a lot, and won’t be like, and then posts were consistently being put up and taken down. Like you had to really check it right away. Because you might some that might have been, you might miss it. If it wasn’t screenshotting. To you, you might miss the gossip, right. And there’ll be a lot of screenshotting.

Alissa 7:52
Yeah, if you think people are not screenshotting your post you are mistake, it’s a great

Katy 7:56
tip. If you’re out there in the world of a Facebook group, or just your regular social media post, or your super old twitter feed that always happens when someone becomes famous, right? Or like is on a reality show, or Travis Kelce for instance, like people, the public once you get like, like thrust into the limelight for some reason, we’ll go back and read all of your old posts, right? And you better hope there’s not something in there. That is not a good look, right? You need to have a you need to take your PR goggles and fix yourself before you like go out. But don’t post things that you don’t want people to see. Anyone can screenshot anything. There is no safe place.

Alissa 8:37
Oh, it’s a private group. No BS. No, no, just

Katy 8:41
wait until one person is mad at another person and they just want to make cause trouble. Some people love to cause drama. And I think Facebook groups are like a little Drama boiling pot. Like we’re just like, Oh, we’re just gonna stir this pot. When

Alissa 8:55
I was on our board. We were to comment. Oh, I hear you’re very frustrated with MLS perhaps you should join the MLS committee. Right?

Katy 9:03
Like what’s the go to? What’s the party line like always like

Alissa 9:07
because and I feel that way about anything. Really in general whether it’s ranting about something in your industry or ranting about something politically one, it’s not the place for it. And two, if it bothers you so much do something about it. Don’t just be a complainer. Yeah. Be so hard to

Katy 9:24
talk about. Should I? Yeah, absolutely. So our group disbanded, though over an incident like yeah, there was a very specific incident and basically the agent and had been running for years. The group, the eight and it had a couple 1000 members like there’s a lot of people, literally more than 50% of the agents in our area. Were in that Facebook group. And basically that an incident happened and she had immediately shut it down. Like it wasn’t something that could be bounced back from there were some accusations made. I honestly don’t know the ins and outs of the whole thing. don’t either but there was a post that was put up taken down. Regardless, as a person, she then I mean, I did run across her later and was like, that was rough. And she was like, it just got to be such a tedious activity keeping up with it. Yeah. And it had taken on a life of its own. And like, in some ways, it was so helpful to us. And in other ways it was such a poison. So it was gone. But when it disbanded immediately, how many popped up three

Alissa 10:27
immediately, with really similar names. Yeah, it was like, you know, what, 2.0 version? Yeah. All over one

Katy 10:35
run by a lender, other agencies and that law, you know, and I accepted, I got invitations to for you, and I accepted him. And then I’m like, I’m not doing this anymore. Yeah. Like, I literally don’t follow any of that. I mean, I might be in some I don’t know. But I don’t go and read and

Alissa 10:50
write is that the old group while no longer active is still there. You can you can search like roofer and get all those recommendations, because that’s what we also lost when the group shut down. Yeah, the the ability to crowdsource information. And that’s something to like, when I was doing all the research for this episode. Yeah, the same question over and over several different one, you know, search people at kids search and type in CRM, and you can read the whole history of what everyone has ever chatted about. And yeah, whole group. Yeah. So if you’re in the group, there’s a Facebook search bar. But within the group, there is a search bar. So you want to search Facebook for search? Group? Yes, you make sure you’re in the group, and then you click search. And anytime this question has been asked and answered, will come up. So in a way, like I sort of like that, because you can filter it by what you need. Yeah. And you like, you never even really have to comment, right? You’re just just

Katy 11:50
getting Yeah, just to hear for a roofer. I’m just here for the information. What do you want to share any of the ones that you’ve enjoyed that are positive? Are they all have I

Alissa 12:02
shared any positive saved any positive? Yeah, I love that. Well, nobody ever got on there and was like, Hey, guys, I just want to say how thankful I am for our industry. Y’all are doing a great job. All this professionalism out there. Never. There were some that was just normal. Like, who’s doing this mailer? For Thanksgiving? It was you know, there was it wasn’t negative or positive. It was just a post.

Katy 12:29
Okay, here are my general tips before and we’re gonna get you’ve got some rants for us. I

Alissa 12:33
got some rants, but also got some just interesting discussion questions. Okay.

Katy 12:36
Love it. Yeah. Before we dive into actual post and, you know, discussions. Number one, feel free to leave a group of complainers. If you’re in a group of complainers. There’s no reason why you need to be in it, or mute it or whatever. Okay. Recently, in an episode, we talked about the culture that you’re consuming. What is the culture you’re consuming? How is this group adding value to your life? Do you really need to be in it for your business to run? Likely? No. Are you wasting a bunch of time reading posts, whether they’re helpful or not? Is it gossip, like, move on? Yeah, I honestly feel much lighter. Since I stopped following the Local Group. I’m so cool. When it shut down. I’m like, you know, I don’t feel any different. Like, it’s great. Like, I don’t feel like my bit like it didn’t, it didn’t affect my business. It didn’t. But it did affect my mindset. And I don’t like that. I think that I want to read the description to our community group, because we resisted having a Facebook group for three years.

Alissa 13:33
Yeah, people wanted it though. Yeah,

Katy 13:35
people want to connect with the other people who listen to this podcast, they want to connect with us. I totally understand the reasons but because of our past experiences with other groups, I’m like, I don’t know that I want to invite that into my life. We were very hesitant, very, very hesitant. Whether it was a free group or a paid group. I’m like, I don’t know that I want to, I just don’t know. And then finally, we’re like, you know what? We want to get to know that. Like, we can police it like we can make it nice, right? Yeah, we can have nice things. So I want to read the description to our group. Now, to be fair, hustle, only community is a paid group. Yes. So it has to be people who are invested in their business and want to learn a little bit deeper with

Alissa 14:20
us. Right. And I think that’s why the quality has stayed so good. Yeah.

Katy 14:23
Because it’s not just every single person in there trying to throw up, you know, fairy tale, but houses and their listings. I’m like, oh, no, no, please don’t do that. Okay, but so the description of our group is, this little corner of the internet is meant to be a safe space where we can all come together and find ways to make our real estate careers and lives better. We are building a true community, a group of people who want to take care of each other. We want this group to be helpful and fun. If you want to complain about something take that to one one of the million other Facebook groups or Realtors our number one role here is be positive Yes, of course, we want to answer questions and help our community solve problems. But we will fiercely protect the vibe of this group so that we are protecting all of our mindsets. Mm hmm. And I think that was like the best answer we could have and still have the group and we’re over a year into it. And I don’t feel like I’m regretting the decision. No, I love seeing pictures of everyone’s, you know, family or their dog or tell us how they started real estate or where are they? And we have, you know,

Alissa 15:28
I like when they share like the response to something they did, whether it was like a bailout or an event they had.

Katy 15:34
I love it. Okay, before you read your rants, will you tell me some ways that people are misbehaving? And in the groups, how do you have any behavior tips for if someone if they are going to stay in a group?

Alissa 15:46
I mean, obviously, we are not here to talk about commission. Correct. We are also not here to talk about other people. There is no name calling

Katy 15:56
Oh, yes. And then people will tell a whole story but not tell the name. And then everyone in the comments asked for the name. And I’m like, yeah, and then they tell the name. And then it’s like, Oh, right. And it could be about an inspector or appraiser or whoever. Yeah, yeah. None of that. We already said you should go to your broker first, for questions. I think that asking for opinions is fine. But don’t be upset when you get it. develop them saying, Yeah, hey, yo, what do you think about blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then people give their opinions and you’re offended, man, I’m like, you asked, right. What did you think if you just wanted to validate what your opinion was? That’s not gonna happen? There’s gonna be what? What is the quote? You know, opinions are like, everybody has one. Oh, yeah. Right. Like, if you ask for an opinion, you might get it. You might, you might not like it. And I just said to be positive and offer useful tips. Like, if you don’t have anything good to add, like, if you don’t anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all kind of vibe. Like if you don’t have a useful tip. Also, y’all just logistically, putting a dot like a period in the comments, is not how you need to follow, you just hit the little three dots at the top of the post and hit follow comments like,

Alissa 17:10
following following following. Following when people are following I’m like, are, you can just press the button,

Katy 17:17
press the buttons that hits it says following like, I don’t need to, because you know what, if I’m following and then you say following, I’m getting all the comments that say, following. I

Alissa 17:27
also couldn’t believe how many posts were like for the love of God. Stop asking what CRM you should use?

Katy 17:36
I mean,

Alissa 17:38
fair, it was like everywhere in every group CRM, CRM, what’s the best one? What’s the best one? Which one is going to make me successful? You know,

Katy 17:46
I have finally decided I think I know what that question is about it. The question isn’t, what’s the best CRM The question is, how can I do work without doing work? Yeah, what’s gonna do my business for like, that’s not really how this works. That’s why you have a job in the CRM could do it for you than me. I don’t know. Okay, also don’t spam, like just putting in stuff that doesn’t even make sense. You know, trying to sell something else in the group. don’t recruit,

Alissa 18:16
that’s you. Like, that’s the biggest nono, please,

Katy 18:19
especially not in someone else’s group. If you made a group, and that’s your intention, and people join your group, you do you but if you’re in someone else’s group, you should really mind your P’s and Q’s. Don’t post listing and open houses. If you’re in a national group, nobody needs to see your new listing or your open house unless it is a group specifically made for listings and open houses then go to town. But if it is a general realtor group, or agent group or whatever, like that’s not the place people are going to get. And I hated it even in our local group and I could have gone to show those listing right.

Alissa 18:55
I’m like, we all have access to the MLS. Yeah, we know, we

Katy 19:01
don’t need you to tell us about your listing. Now. The rule in our old group that I did like was if something major has happened, like it’s back on the market, we’re we’re offering some sort of change. If there is maybe like an agent tour where you’re giving away a door, right? What is the value for me? Not just I have a new listing? Yeah, I don’t need it. And the other one I saw in a rule for another group was don’t ask for contact info or to be like DMS or collect emails. And again, you’ll have to keep in mind a lot of these realtor groups are created as part of or an arm of a business and that business doesn’t want you coming into their group and trying to collect all of their member data. Now, you know, I don’t I don’t know why you would even do that. But we’ve even had an incident in our group where I think a well meaning agent was wanting to email everyone. Yeah. And we’re like, well, we don’t we want to really keep it. Yeah, low spam, you know, low because you know, everybody

Alissa 20:00
did that

Katy 20:01
it would be, you would get so many emails, right? So if every one of the 400 people were like, We’re gonna send an email saying, Hi, I’m in such and such place, and I’m happy to take your referrals, right? That’s a lot of email we’re not trying to.

Alissa 20:11
And that’s why in our community group, we do have an Excel spreadsheet. Yes. So that we do want you to get referrals. Yes, we want you to get referrals. So if you do live in a certain place, go put it there, and we will if somebody needs someone, they just go to the sheet. They don’t even need to ask Yeah,

Katy 20:27
no need no need. The other thing I like about a good Facebook group is when it’s very niche. Like, I’ve seen it, the group is about using Canva. Yeah, the group is about or like, Chelsea’s group has paid, but it’s using social media. Like if you’re a member of this thing, using this tool, we’re going to talk about that. I think that helps. If you’re just in a general Real Estate Group, you’re gonna get a lot of the rants. Yeah, you’re getting a lot of the asking questions that maybe you should already know the answer to. You’re gonna get a lot of the opinion posts. You’re gonna get a lot of the stuff that you don’t want already. Yeah, right. I’m ready for your rants. Well,

Alissa 21:04
this poor guy. Let’s just hear what he has to say. And I thought some of it we could help help answer some hustle humbly answers.

Katy 21:12
Your hustle humbly answers your your real estate post in Facebook groups. Okay.

Alissa 21:17
Real talk. Okay, how do you deal with the stress and anxiety associated with this job? Excuse me, if this is a little rant ish. This is where things go off there. Yeah, currently coming up on two years licensed, closing an average of one unit a month hardly anything. I have no idea how some of you have time to close 50 a year. I am in my early 20s. And this is my first real career. It has been hard. Everyone wants something at the same time. If I help one couple and other family needs something, I’m dropping me time and spouse time to help people. And if I don’t, I’m in breach of my fiduciary obligations. If I say or do the wrong thing, it can lead me with fines or opened me up to a lawsuit. I still am learning to deal in conversations and it’s scary. I feel a strong moral obligation to help my clients and knowing if I screw up one time it could ruin someone financially is so overwhelming. I triple check everything and replay every conversation in my head over and over. Oh my sometimes I lose sleep because I’m worried about past deals or current ones. Does it get easier? How can I make it easier? 23 and thinking of retiring? Oh, wow. So

Katy 22:26
many thoughts about this?

Alissa 22:28
You got 125 responses? Okay. Well, first

Katy 22:31
of all, bless. I think one transaction per month is pretty good, right? And he was like, this is a mindset issue for sure. He has he I don’t know if I can offer the therapy that this gentleman needs. Right. But he needs to like really work on his mindset.

Alissa 22:49
Yeah. Because I think so often, you you are focusing on what you want that this one deal a month, this one like I’ve only got one like maybe you would have more if you appreciate

Katy 23:01
what you have on he’s it’s got him working to the key can’t even keep up with his family life. Right? He doesn’t have free time. I’m like, I don’t know what happens in the one transaction. But things are, he needs

Alissa 23:11
systems. Someone said I think it’s important to be surrounded by the right people, a brokerage that is supportive and uplifting makes a huge difference. I had a huge difference. I had to try out a few places. And I was kind of embarrassed in the beginning because I kept changing brokerages but I finally found the right one. And it really changes everything. No, it

Katy 23:29
does make a difference. He needs the right support system. But he also needs systems and it sounds like you need to email templates if you ask me like why is it taking you so long to do the one transaction? And why are you reliving it afterwards? What happened during it? As long as you ended it and everyone closed? And your client wasn’t angry at you? Why would you be replaying it in your head? Someone

Alissa 23:51
said one unit a month is not hardly anything. Agree you are doing better than 75% of all agents agree.

Katy 23:58
I don’t know Oh, this is good. New

Alissa 24:02
agents frequently think that they are in charge you are not always in charge. You are there to explain the contract present options let your clients decide and move on. You cannot take their decisions as your own personal response. Right?

Katy 24:17
But was he giving bad because he’s like all worried that he’s gonna make they’re gonna make a mistake. And it’s his fault. But like, what kind of advice are you giving just give data doesn’t give actual data.

Alissa 24:29
46 years of selling and I have never worried like you are doing

Katy 24:35
no doubt. I mean, look, that’s young. You’re just entering the workforce in general. Yeah. I wonder if he had ever worked before. He was feeling the high stress and like there’s a lot of bad advice on here too. I’m sure there is. When was that post? July. Okay, so Mark had had one like he wasn’t sure. Yeah. Last year. It was just recently hit me with another one.

Alissa 24:57
What is the longest repair requests you have ever received and how did you handle it just received one with 28 items. I was curious what your if you had the highest number?

Katy 25:08
Oh my God, I wish I knew, but it was definitely more than 28 For sure. 50. Yeah, I have a whole report. I know, just like highlights.

Alissa 25:17
Anyway, the answer that everybody commented on, which is the correct answer is money over repairs. For sure. I recently had a situation where one of my past clients is an attorney. And he called me and asked me if I could come to his office as like a expert witness of sorts. Oh, fascinating. He had a client who was suing their realtor, the listing agent. Oh, the home inspector, everyone. Did you know any of the parties? names were blacked out? Okay. You went and testified without the I just went as a consultation with him. So he could ask me questions. But I was fascinated. And it was really such a reminder, like, the the way the repair request was written. There’s no way it could have been done to anybody satisfaction. Like, I can’t think of an example. But something like all systems to be in working order, right? Well, what like, what does that what does that even mean to use objective to subjective? Okay, so it was just but it was so many things that the buyer’s agent should have never written this repair request. But where would it end page and listing agent checks? seller agrees to all? Like, that’s impossible. You have just set yourself up for failure. No way. Yes. Yes. And then they move in, and they have all these issues, and they have mold and like it’s a huge thing. Oh, my God. Yeah. And come to find out. They didn’t have receipts for all however many items there were they didn’t have the right documentation. Like, there are some things you’re not going to check it I know, a walk through buyer’s agent being sued. Yeah, the buyer was suing their own agent, everybody. He was suing everybody. But I, it was really just a good reminder for me, like, you know, cross your t’s dot your i’s make sure that you are very clear in what you are looking for. And make sure you are black and white answer. Yeah. Oh, did you want to know who? I actually saw one of them on a piece of paper? It was a good agent. Oh, that makes me sad. shocked, shocked that this would ever happen each. Okay. But I would have never let a buyer submit this repair requests, right? I’ve never, I have submitted repair requests that I felt uncomfortable with that were long but not vague. Not vague, and not really unnecessary. Yeah, I mean, sometimes the house is bad. It just is what it is. And I think you’re gonna have to do these things regardless. And so I’m sorry, it’s long, but it is fair. Yeah. I’ve never allowed like, I’ve never been able in this makes it sound like I’m telling my buyer. You can’t do this. After educating them. Yeah. And explaining why it’s in their best interest not to do it in this way. Why taking the money and having things fixed the way you would want them fix others better? Yeah. I’ve never had someone be like, I disagree. Yeah, I

Katy 28:21
want the seller to do it poorly. Yeah. All right. Give us another rant. Okay. Small rant here.

Alissa 28:26
Yeah. They open at all like, Yeah, seems like everyone has a quote unquote, air quotes team nowadays, literally people that have no idea what they’re doing themselves and have sold maybe a handful of houses or running teams now. It’s kind of irresponsible, in my opinion, because in my mind, you should be able to coach and counsel your team members on doing business the right way. So how do you do it if you don’t know what you’re doing? So many brokerages are telling their another air quote superstar first year realtors. Wow, you had such a great first year you should start a team. But shouldn’t you at least have a couple years of experience? No.

Katy 29:08
Oh, wow. How are the responses on this one?

Alissa 29:09
All over the place? I mean, 90% Agree 100%.

Katy 29:16
I mean, look, here’s the thing, when you’re an entrepreneur or a self employed person, whether you’re a realtor or something else, you run your own business, you can run it poorly, you can run it well, right. Yeah. And that’s what I like. It seems strange to me that I wouldn’t be a second year. I was at some point a second year realtor Never did I think now seems like a good time for me to teach somebody else. Yeah, I didn’t. You know, like, I do think that even that maybe you did 50 transactions the first year that’s a lot. That’s a lot more than some people get to in five or six or seven years, right? But even then, over time, I feel like you just learn more about the industry. You learn more about the process you learn more about People, I don’t know that I would ever feel comfortable that early on being like, Yep, it’s time for me to open my own brokerage. And

Alissa 30:08
there is a lot of commentary in here about how the brokerages are so pushing that, like feed that ego and make this new agent thing that is the next step.

Katy 30:17
They’re doing that to recruit, though I know, it’s a way for their business

Alissa 30:21
to make. And I look back on my first years where my obviously my broker never told me that, but the companies that were recruiting me were very much like, you’re never going to grow at your current brokerage. They are not team friendly. I mean, we have like two or three teams in my office, that’s like, Let’s pay, right? Yeah. But we don’t have a team at all. But it’s just so interesting, because they do make it seem like that’s what you need for the next level of success like this one guy. I’m like, I want to come and be like, I feel sorry for you. He said, I have a team of 23. And I’m available 24/7. Why? How do you live? Why do you want it to go to dinner? Can you go on vacation at all? I don’t. And that was he’s like defending it in that way. Like this is what we’re saying is the problem. Yeah, another person made a good point that their issue isn’t with teams, per se. Oh, it’s also how the transparency is not always there. For example, oh, Alyssa jinkin Sold 100 homes, only to find out that she has a 15 person team different. So it is different. And so it’s different, how things are classified. And oh, I made six figures this month divided by 23. This

Katy 31:33
all goes back to why does real estate the real estate industry feel so compelled to shroud everything and all of this kind of like half truth secrecy? Like oh, like hide the way it works? They don’t want the general public to understand, like, why right?

Alissa 31:53
Someone said, I agree. We have one called the listing guru, and I just looked him up on MLS and he has two listings. Right. Also, it’s at some point, he feels like false advertising. Yeah, the listing guru had two listings, right? Not much. Have you had a lot in the past? Maybe they all sold? Yes. Oh, this one listing agent had multiple offers on a property. And it was two people on the same team representing different buyers and things got very sticky. This feels like

Katy 32:24
what did they call that when the lawyer like when they can’t represent both sides? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I know, not non compete, but it’s a conflict of interest. Oh, yeah. Do you feel what I’m saying? Well, I

Alissa 32:37
think you know, people always are like, Why don’t you have a team? Why don’t you do this? Why don’t you do that? And my big thing is, I’m all like, oh, I don’t mind your own business. That’s written in here a few times. So I don’t focus on your own number. Literally, the

Katy 32:53
literally the saying is mind your own business. One

Alissa 32:57
of my friends who is not in real estate, was dating someone that has a large real estate team. Okay. They’re not dating anymore. Okay. But she was like, why don’t you come over here and join his team, like you do so well. And I just had to tell her, I said, Okay, I, let’s keep the math simple. I sell 10 million a year. How much does his team sell? Oh, well, at least 25 million. Let’s round, at least 30 million. Wonderful. How many people does he have on his team? Oh, well, I guess he does have like 25 people on his team. Okay, so if we do the math, would it benefit me to be on a team? No. And I also feel like me myself. I’m good at selling real estate. I don’t want to be an office manager. I don’t want to manage the realtors. I’m managing my clients, right. It’s a different job. And I think you like your job you have. Yeah, like one of my friends has a team. And she came from an HR background like she was in a big corporate recession where that was what she loved. And she sold real estate and was like, getting more fed herself by helping the people in her office. What fulfills you? That is what fulfills her? fulfill me, you know, the coffee dates did me in so I’m like, I’m not made for Team life. No, but I just think that it could work for some people. There’s a reason that I don’t have

Katy 34:31
a team. Okay, fine. Let’s move on to another rant. Okay.

Alissa 34:35
Let me okay. Do you have anything else while I go to the next one?

Katy 34:38
No, I don’t think so. I will say this. I think we all spend probably more time than we’d like on social media, of all kinds. And we sometimes trick ourselves into believing it’s for business reasons. Yeah. Right. So these groups would be one of those things where you’re like, well, I need to know what’s going on in the industry. But do you? Like do you really not know? Can you just read like a real estate publication once every couple of weeks? Do you have to be in the group hearing the same questions over and over again? Do we really need to hear for the 50th time? What’s the best CRM? Do you really need to read all those comments again? No, like, it

Alissa 35:19
was hard for me to do it for this episode. Right? I like to go for a walk. Like, I need to walk this off. Okay. Yeah. Is it each agents responsibility to ask all potential clients if they are working with an agent? Or are we in a competitive environment where it’s okay to compete with the opportunity to work for someone? Where is the line of fair competition?

Katy 35:42
I’m like, do you even know how it works? I know like this is an actual ethical issue. Yes. But I think that’s where Nora has gone wrong. Yes,

Alissa 35:52
we’re,

Katy 35:53
if we’re going to be a realtor, we have to follow a certain code of ethics. But I honestly believe a lot of realtors don’t even know that’s true. Do you know what I mean? Like you don’t even understand what the rules are that you’re you had signed up to, even though you were probably required to sign up so you could get access to your MLS. And again, that’s why the whole thing is backwards anyway. Yeah. But yes, you have to ask if they’re working with an agent, and that’s not fair competition. Not at all. That’s the ethical

Alissa 36:18
rule, it says to the best answer that everybody just loved and adored. Okay, great. The Code of Ethics clearly states that we have an affirmative duty to ask potential clients if they are already working with an agent. When you get called in to sit in front of your Association’s Grievance Committee for procuring cause claim. This will be the first thing you are asked, Did you ask them if they had an agent? I’ll give you a pro tip to save you some time and money later answering. No, why would I do that is the wrong answer. It is up to you to ask the client not up to the client to tell you on their own. And then he responded to this. Yes. He said he was snarky, deep, right. He was snarky. He was like Don’t forget the circle R and say realtor. Yeah, snarky.

Katy 37:07
But like, here’s the question. What was the point of that post? Yeah, his mind. Yeah. Like from the user of that Facebook group. What did you want people to validate? Are you just trying to I think that was one of those like, backdoor passive aggressive. I’m trying to prove a point. Like, don’t you think this is fair competition? Yeah, they’re all missing out on fair competition. Um, I don’t I don’t think you even understood what you were saying. Right? Bless Do you have another rant for us. Or just another post? Are they all rants do we have positive posts? Oh, that was just rants. We’re just giving you a little sample of what’s out there to make you delete your face. I just

Alissa 37:43
thought this was funny. Okay, what would you do?

Katy 37:47
I can’t wait to hear about what I do.

Alissa 37:49
I normally don’t complain too much. I just keep my head down and go to work. I make the magic happen. This morning was like something I had never seen before. Here in San Diego we have some pretty strict Open House sign policies. They need to be off of the pedestrian right of way as most cities have adopted. We are only allowed to post in certain places this makes sense. I have a fantastic open house today. Local to my area ocean views beautiful. I placed my signs accordingly with the rules of the city and the pedestrians right away. I placed a few around. This is when the magic happened. I noticed a gentleman walking his dog standing near my sign as some other kids and their father walked by. I pulled my car off to the side of the road and watched in horror. This man waited for the family to walk by. And then he grabbed my sign in through it as if it was a Frisbee into an open field. Breaking the sign and the writer on top my jaw hit the floor. I immediately jumped out of my car and yelled sir please Why would you be instantly began to cuss and yell at me and said that all realtors were an act of the devil. He started this lawsuit probably we found him we found the guy oh my word believe what was coming from the guy’s mouth. It goes on and on. But I just had to share that story.

Katy 39:22
Also, she’s so brave. She just like jumped out the car and was like Sir Obviously he’s not he’s not well, like who would do that? Yeah, that was funny. She’s like, sir, I’m following all the laws of the city. You are not

Alissa 39:35
this is wrong.

Katy 39:38
Destruction of property. Okay, here’s

Alissa 39:40
what I thought was just an interesting because I do I do this thing that annoys this lady. Oh, wait. Now I’m so excited when some of us post pictures in MLS. Why do some of us put a photo of the living room then a photo of the swimming pool and then back to the living room and then back to the backyard and then back to the pool. I always try to make sure I I start at the front and walk the client all the way through the house as if a virtual tour.

Katy 40:05
I mean, I do do that. I like that. But here is

Alissa 40:09
my thought. If the first five, I tried to make my first five photos the best, right? If it’s fair, I know. And then after that, I do go back in order back in order. I know it is hard. And once upon a time, I don’t know if this is still true. But at one point, there were some websites that only showed like the first five. Yeah, and then you had to put your email in. Yeah, so I’m like, what, at least. So I have had, you know, realtor friends in our market be like, Hey, can you take a look at my listing just online and let me know. And I’m like, the picture of the pool was number 27. I’d had no right and the house was not great. Yeah. So like, I would have never even made it that

Katy 40:49
far. So look, you don’t want to go all 25 pictures back and forth crazy, like but you’re doing the first five best photos then we’re going through the house in order do you always put the outside first? Like I don’t but you know many MLS is require it to be a front photo. I would like to state we have a whole episode on photos though. When they put the front photo like you’re required to put the front photo but yeah, there’s a lot of different angles you can take of a house. I don’t like when they do like the house where the garage faces front and the photo is just the garage,

Alissa 41:22
right? Get a different angle. Just move over and do the door.

Katy 41:24
Yeah. Right. Just the garage. Like it’s so weird. I don’t want to see the driveway in the garage. Well, that’s boring. Who wants to buy that?

Alissa 41:32
On that note? Susie would really like everybody to make sure all of their room dimensions are there as well. Sure.

Katy 41:41
I’d be happy to help. Yeah, I’m doing that for my seller. Not for you, Susie. Yes, yes. Oh my god. I

Alissa 41:48
think it’s just like any information you have should just be there. Yeah, I had a client one time that we were buying specifically for her family dining room table. That was huge. She needed to know that dad had no and there were some that were close. And I even had to call and be like, can you tell me how there were some

Katy 42:04
that had the dimensions? And they weren’t right. Correct. Which bothers me. Yes. Don’t just because someone might be looking at it for a reason. Like they need to know exactly the dimensions right.

Alissa 42:15
You are here to bring professionalism that I will realtor brand. For lightwood can’t wait. Oh, okay. Okay. I’ve tried really hard not to rant much lately, but I have lost my restraint. Oh, no. Nope, to fellow realtors out there who allow their clients to use the bathroom and a showing. If your client uses the bathroom, please make sure they flush Oh, my God is good practice to go behind them and make sure they did ill. Who does that? No, I just did check one of my vacant listings. And both bathrooms had been used. And we’re back. I wish there was a way to know who I was. But we had 87 Total showings and I just can’t. I just can’t find out who would take this mysterious.

Katy 43:11
It’s whoever wanted the house the most because they were trying to turn other people off. Oh my gosh,

Alissa 43:16
I just thought that was that is so we’re fine. Right in the group. That is an awkward situation, though. When your clients like can I use the restroom? Like what do you say?

Katy 43:26
I mean, their toilets there. So I’m kind of like, okay, like if it’s an emergency, right? What if it’s an emergency room? Do you have an accident on their living room rug? use the restroom. I don’t know what the right answer is. It doesn’t happen that often. But this lady was talking about a vacant house. And I mean, honestly, in a vacant house, I’d be less worried like,

Alissa 43:48
well, I almost would be more because it’s like, what if the water is off?

Katy 43:52
I always say check the water. Yeah, check the water first. All right. Yeah. Here’s

Alissa 43:56
the uplifting one.

Katy 43:57
Okay.

Alissa 43:58
What did you do this year that had the biggest positive impact on your real estate business?

Katy 44:02
How do people answer the 148? Answer? Just pick three. Okay, let me just randomly randomly

Alissa 44:09
Hold on Let’s Yes, I want to see all the comments I faced. Also, why is Facebook so hard to use? One person said I went back to the basics, got rid of all my apps got rid of all my fancy tools and car.

Katy 44:22
Yeah, right. No more software. That’s not a bad piece of advice.

Alissa 44:28
I started short towards short term video and saw a huge increase in my Oh, in my interaction. I love that. I listened to my wife.

Katy 44:40
Paul, that’s always good advice. Thank you, Paul.

Alissa 44:43
I stayed in my flow of my sphere and stopped worrying about cold leads great love it canceled my Zillow leads. Great got divorced.

Katy 44:54
Maybe didn’t want to listen to their spouse

Alissa 44:58
actually took action on Things that I read about so like, you accent it just learning. Yeah, not just learning do learning is great. But you know, you got to be an implementer. As to the thing. I love that got a website and branded myself you.

Katy 45:13
This is a great post. That’s very

Alissa 45:15
good. So I guess there are some stupid answers on here that don’t worry. Don’t take it. Listen, we want to end on a high note. Yeah, I went to work every day consistent and constant showed up at the office.

Katy 45:27
Y’all that works. If you’re like, how, what can I change this year? Yeah, just show up. Literally show up. Wherever you put yourself that more of that will happen.

Alissa 45:37
Yeah, focus on my top 50 People in my database. I love that

Katy 45:42
idea. Great.

Alissa 45:43
That’s a good call. I

Katy 45:44
feel like that was enough. Anything else? You’re just burning? You have to say about Facebook groups. You need to get out there for the record.

Alissa 45:51
I did want to see what the answer to this one was. Okay. We’ll find out the insurance company won’t accept that the age of the house is between 50 and 75 years old, which is all the owner knows. I’ve looked all over and can’t find the age of the home. The toilets are new. So that is no help. Where would you go? The permit office? But why clerk of core closing attorneys for the abstract assessor’s office? Yeah, it

Katy 46:17
should have a chain of ownership. Yeah.

Alissa 46:21
Oh, I just thought this was funny. Real estate is like dating. The longer you are on the market, the more people wonder what’s wrong with you?

Katy 46:27
Absolutely. Absolutely. I have seen lots of useful tips and a Facebook group. But I’ve seen more stuff I didn’t need to see in a Facebook group. When

Alissa 46:39
sitting at a very busy open house. What are your best questions to ask guests to sort out if they are already represented or gauge their true interest?

Katy 46:47
Have you been looking long? Yeah. I mean, like, Thanks for stopping by. How did you find us? Right?

Alissa 46:53
If they say MLS? How long have you been looking? Where do you live? Now?

Katy 46:56
I get their info. Yeah.

Alissa 47:00
Have you been looking for a while? Are you working with an agent? Yeah, just ask. Just ask people all the things that you just why are we trying to hide why we are trying to hide you? What are we trying

Katy 47:09
to hide? It’s there’s something more to this? Yeah,

Alissa 47:13
it’s like, they just need to say it. I’m just looking at the last few. But if the remainder

Katy 47:20
of this episode will be Alyssa just scrolling? Yeah, I’ll just hold my clicker missing because you don’t want to hear that was gonna scroll and we’re just gonna wait. No, I think this is good. Oh,

Alissa 47:33
has anybody noticed the difference with the little blue checkmark next to their name on social media? Is

Katy 47:37
that the question? It’s supposed to help you prevent? like identity theft? Allegedly. But I’ve heard it doesn’t.

Alissa 47:47
Right. I know, like, and there was pretty much all mixed messages there.

Katy 47:51
And this is what they refer to as social currency. So all I think that the blue check paying for the blue check, did was devalue the blue check? In my opinion, my person you have hit pay for it? Yeah, girl. Oh, I don’t have it. So I just didn’t know what because you don’t want to pay for that. Because why? Yeah. So before you had to get to a certain number of friends or followers or whatever. And then you could be verified by Instagram, let’s say. Now you can be Instagram verified by doing some steps. And then they’ll give you the blue check, just like someone would have gotten if they managed to get a lot of followers, right? Yeah. I don’t. I don’t think you having the check suddenly makes you an authority. And now the check just me. So before it’d be like, Okay, let’s just say for instance, Taylor Swift has an account, right? Whatever it is Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift. Well, if someone else made it, at Taylor underscore Swift or at the blue check was helping you to realize that’s the real person. Right, right. But now anybody can have it. Yeah. Like an even Taylor underscores.

Alissa 48:59
Like, it seems like it is less credible. That’s what I think that’s how I felt when it all started. They just they just

Katy 49:06
show up everywhere. And then it’s like, what was the reason why you needed the blue check, y’all you don’t need that.

Alissa 49:13
Not to be maybe if it really worked as an extra security measure.

Katy 49:17
Yeah. And I think that’s how Instagram sold it. And also, you know, if you’re working really hard, but look what’s so funny to me. Here’s another example. Not blue check. And look, if you have a blue check, I’m not saying anything, do you whatever you want to do. But whenever Instagrams first started doing stories, you couldn’t put a link in your stories unless you had 10,000 followers, right? So everyone’s working so hard to get 10,000 followers. All I ever wanted was to put a link in my story. And then one day Instagram just wakes up and like everyone can put a link in their story. Yeah. All right.

Alissa 49:48
I’ll guide here.

Katy 49:51
I never once really cared about my followers after that, because I was just trying to get the functionality right. And I do think there are maybe some perks of the blue check that I do. Don’t know. But I’m not anywhere near getting a blue check. Nor am I willing to pay for a blue check. Yeah, I just, I don’t personally see the value for me automatically

Alissa 50:10
get one after a certain amount or do you always have to pay? What’s that number?

Katy 50:14
Not always, I don’t know the number you might need to get your Google machine out on the computer, I get your Google machine out. There’s a certain number and then there’s like some steps to like be verified like the they have to I guess make sure you are who you say you are. You can’t be a bot with a bunch of followers. Yeah. Or, or a person with a bunch of bot followers, whatever. I love that it was gonna look it up and tell us, but that is considered what they consider social currency. Right? Okay, so Oh, I am more important because I have this blue check. I mean, I’m not that’s just, you know, I don’t know who thinks that but whatever. There’s not a simple answer here. Okay, so Instagram just decides. Yeah, when you can get better. It’s more about engagement. Oh, fascinating. It is better to

Alissa 50:57
have 1000 engaged fans than 10,000 followers. Mm hmm. Like, they’re not going off of that per se. But also

Katy 51:05
I think, you know,

Alissa 51:07
Instagram was at one point 10,000

Katy 51:10
Oh, okay. Well, Instagram made it to where everyone wanted it. And now that they did that, yeah, they’re like, it’s, it’s hard to get, you can’t just have it, you have to be a certain level. And now, after a few years, they’re like, Haha, now you can buy it. Right? Give us your money, right? It’s a business, y’all. It’s still a business. Interesting. Very interesting.

Alissa 51:30
Oh, we end on something. Are we ready to end I’m ready

Katy 51:33
to end this. This is I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t either. I don’t want to my brain

Alissa 51:40
hurts from this research. I just deep dived into the real

Katy 51:43
place that I want to be. I want to just give everyone listening permission to not be here. If you don’t want to be. I don’t think you have to have social media to have a thriving real estate business. I think you can have a better real estate business with thriving social media. It’s really what do you want to do? Yeah, that is the premise of the show. What do you want to do? Would you rather take someone different to lunch every day from your database? Go for it. Do it never be on social media? Yeah. But I think the point of the Facebook group specifically is Don’t feel pressured. Because there’s a lot of peer pressure in those groups. Don’t feel pressured to be in the group. Don’t feel pressured to buy things because of the group. Don’t feel like you’re you’re not doing enough and that your

Alissa 52:24
system out there that is going to do your job for you. You still have to work. You

Katy 52:31
have to work. So you know, okay,

Alissa 52:35
well, we’ll end with this please. The one most important thing I do to create consistency in my business is blank. Let’s let them answer it themselves. Okay. Yeah. That was a review some of the comments. Oh, please. Take care of my mind and emotions daily.

Katy 52:51
Oh, that’s, that’s that’s your mic drop. That’s exactly. We’re talking. Yeah. Okay. What else?

Alissa 52:55
Look at my goals every day. Have a good night’s sleep. Uh, huh. Pay attention to what works and what doesn’t. I am more motivated when I see it working. And that causes me to be consistent track yourself. Yeah. But if you’re not tracking you don’t know.

Katy 53:08
What was it? What was the one thing that helps him stay consistent? Tracking?

Alissa 53:14
Well, like you you start every morning with lemon water and just start you off on the right foot to be

Katy 53:19
consistent that I wrote down my goals every morning. Yeah. It’s not hard. There’s

Alissa 53:24
my email keeps me consistent for you know, your standard

Katy 53:28
I’m trying to keep. Yeah. Interesting, positive and

Alissa 53:33
motivating work environment.

Katy 53:34
Yeah, that’ll work. And

Alissa 53:37
so many more that we didn’t even read and you don’t want me to? Oh, God,

Katy 53:41
why me? Just Oh, it’s just too much. It’s just too much too much. You don’t need all that. Find some quiet and you’re because social media, I don’t know. It’s January social media is gonna get a little out of hand this year. Yeah. So

Alissa 53:58
take a break. Give your best behavior. Give yourself you’re super passionate about something go volunteer for it in real life.

Katy 54:04
But also don’t make me look bad because the stuff that you as a realtor post reflects on all realtors, and I want you to make us all look good. And professional. And kind. That is all you get. Yeah. Okay. And now we’re going to have one of our sweet friends from the conference do their toast. Wonderful. Can’t wait to hear it. Bye guys. Goodbye.

Speaker 1 54:31
My name is Jolene Meyer from Sonora, California and I’m toasting Stacy Mathis from Chimacum Washington. I wanted to Stacy for all the love support and encouragement she has given me throughout my journey to becoming a realtor. From the moment I expressed an interest in pursuing this profession. She was there to guide me helped me overcome challenges and celebrate my successes. Her her unwavering belief in me and her tireless dedication to my growth and development has been a driving force behind all of my accomplishments. She has shown me what it truly means to be a supportive sister, and mentor and I am forever grateful for all that she’s done for me. Her positive impact on my life and career is immeasurable. And I truly believe I would not be where I am today without her. Thank you Stacy for being an inspiration to me and for always helping me to see the best in myself. I am honored to have you as a sister and a realtor guru to get wonderful advice from with love and gratitude. Jolene, thank

Alissa 55:40
you so much for tuning in to the hustle humbly podcast. If you enjoy

Katy 55:43
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 you

Alissa 55:51
have an episode topic or someone you’d like to toast on the show, please email us at team at hustle humbly podcast.com Find

Katy 55:58
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Alissa 56:07
See you next week. This is the good life