Being a solopreneur, as most agents are, is isolating. Making real estate friends can be difficult, but can make all the difference for your business happiness. In this chat we are discussing the importance of a real estate support system and community. We are diving into the topic of work friendships and giving you our best tips to find and sustain meaningful real estate friendships. Where do you find new friends? Do they need to be in your office or your market? Can you find true support from an online friend? We are ready to answer all of your real estate friend questions. We are also sharing the list of ways to be a great cooperating agent. Being the agent other agents want to work with is a great way to strike up a new real estate friendship. Our mission to celebrate community over competition is truly celebrated in this episode all about our real estate friends!

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

Alissa 0:01
Like, that’s almost more valuable than a showing that leaves no feedback. I think

Katy 0:06
this is going to be interesting in the coming months, yeah, because listings are going to become what they were in the past, which is gold. If you’re just going to be adversarial and combative the whole time, that agent is not going to be your friend. They’re going to be like, good

Alissa 0:20
riddance. Please. Don’t like it. Please don’t like right? I

Katy 0:24
don’t want so right? Do

Alissa 0:25
not want to deal with this. That’s

Katy 0:26
what we always say. Be the agent. Other agents want to work with.

Alissa 0:31
Clients. Come and go, but the realtors, the good ones, are there for your career. 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 comparing yourself and start embracing your strengths. Hi

Katy 0:55
Alyssa.

Alissa 0:55
Hi Katie. Welcome to episode 258,

Katy 0:59
making real estate friends,

Alissa 1:02
real friends,

Katy 1:03
real friends.

Alissa 1:03
I will say real estate friends are like my favorite friends.

Katy 1:08
Are they your only friends? Maybe

Alissa 1:09
they’re not your only friends. They’re not but I do spend a lot of time. Why

Katy 1:14
are they your favorite friends?

Alissa 1:17
I think it’s because if you go to lunch with them or vacation, like with you, if I need to say hey, I just need to go get in my computer for 20 minutes, it’s like, oh, yeah, okay, yes. Some friends are like, no,

Katy 1:33
it’s your can’t work. You can’t work. And I’m like, but

Alissa 1:36
it’s not bad, really. I just want to do something real quick. I

Katy 1:39
gotta do this real quick. We

Alissa 1:40
understand each other, the story of my life. I just got to do this real quick. Yeah, solidarity, you know, we understand each other. We have that in common. And real estate, when you’re a real estate agent, it’s a big part of your life. Yeah, it’s all consuming. It could be, it could be, so it’s nice having friends that help you balance that out. And so

Katy 2:03
like today, what are we gonna do help people find their real estate community? So I’ve had

Alissa 2:08
a few people recently, with all the changes going on in real estate, and brokerages are being bought and sold and closed and opened, and there’s just a lot of agents like switching brokerages or transferring, like my company was just bought, or, I know there’s, there’s so much going on, lot of lot of transition, a lot of transition. And one conversation in particular I had with someone where, you know, they were just feeling kind of lonely in real estate, and you do have to work really hard, and it is hard, especially in certain seasons of life, to have really like friendship takes work, yes, regardless of your profession, regardless of your profession, friendship takes work. And with real estate, it’s almost like, especially if you’re in the season with like, little kids, or you have something else outside of it that’s time consuming, aging parents, other responsibilities. Sometimes the real estate community is all you really have, and I know not all you really have, right, right, right. Friendship wise is where I was going with this. All

Katy 3:18
you have time for, yes,

Alissa 3:20
it’s like killing two birds with one stone, right?

Katy 3:22
Make it just like having work, any kind type of work friends, yeah, it

Alissa 3:25
just makes you gotta go to work better. Sure,

Katy 3:27
the job better. Yeah? And you need the support also, because if you’re, especially if you’re in a season where you’re taking care of some other people, or you have some personal things take up a lot of your time, I mean, you need the support. You also need the support, because if the market is tough or you need to be able to bounce ideas off of someone else that knows. So

Alissa 3:48
part of the reason that my particular friend was struggling, okay, so she’s been with a few different companies, and then finally, just decided to be a company of one. Okay, so let’s just call it Alyssa. Jenkins, Realty Sure. I am now my own, by myself, alone, right?

Katy 4:08
And honestly, you feel that way a lot. Even when you’re within an office, you don’t have to go into the office at all. You don’t to do your job, right? Okay? Barry, she was like, not only am I not gonna go, I am the office, right.

Alissa 4:20
Okay, so she’s like, you know, it’s just hard, because I’ve lost so many friends along the way, and it’s not that, you know, she’s lost them, because they’re like, Oh, we’re not friends anymore, but, but if you don’t see them, it fizzles, right? And so got it. She was like, I just see that. You have friends in real estate. And I said, Well, again, I think that this episode today, I kind of just went back to the basics of our intro. Yeah, community over competition, right? Stop comparing yourself. Because I told her, You can’t compare me, because I started at one. Company in 2011 and I’m still there, right? You’ve been to a few, which is fine, and now you are, you know, broker of one. So I can imagine that that would be harder to find people a little isolated, yeah, nobody to talk things out with, no office secretary to say, hey to right, it’s no broker to call. You’re the broker. You’re it end of the line, right? So I thought, if she’s struggling, I’m sure there are other people out there just feeling a little bit alone. I’ve even heard I’ve had people message me from other markets and say, Hey, I’m going to be president of our board next year, and I’m just trying to find a way to get our realtor community to play nicer together. You know, their particular market struggles with cutthroat and, you know, yes, that’s out there, but I think the one, like the top ones that are doing most of the sales for the most part, are usually embracing some sort of community collaboration within their transactions, or they’ll eventually fizzle themselves out of business, or just not have any friends, not have any friends, exactly. So it’s been a while. So in fact, I asked you before this, have we ever recorded one about community over competition? And you were like, Yeah, episode number 36

Katy 6:26
not only was it episode number 36 in some weird turn, it seems to not have been listened to that much. So maybe this time around. Yeah,

Alissa 6:34
it’s pretty low on the totem pole of downloads, kind

Katy 6:37
of 250 episodes. Yeah,

Alissa 6:39
it’s like, in the bottom, in the bottom 10 of how many times it’s been listening. Are

Katy 6:44
y’all trying to tell us you don’t love the mission of the show, right? So

Alissa 6:48
if, if you feel like you need I don’t. We did not listen to it. We recorded it in 20 I

Katy 6:53
don’t even remember what happens. Yeah, I don’t. I have no idea what, but I do think that it just brings back to light the mission of the show, and that there is a lot of comparison in the industry, and it is sometimes hard to make a friend with someone in your market, because you are competitors, and especially if you’re within the same sphere, so that maybe you’re competing for the same relatives or the same friend group, you know, and like, it hurts whenever they pick someone other than you. And so there is some tension there, right? Yeah,

Alissa 7:29
I just was talking to an agent who lost a really good friend because her friend was a realtor, and she told her friend that she was getting her real estate license. And instead of being supportive, I guess maybe her friend felt threatened or like, oh, well, I don’t know if you’re made for this. Like, you know, just stop being friends. They stop being friends. Oh, that’s sad.

Katy 7:51
I

Alissa 7:52
know she was like, I don’t know if like, she’s like, and I’m having trouble communicating with my database, because I’m like, well, she’s already upset at you. Yeah, different. Just communicate with your database. Yeah, sounds like you’re the type of person people would rather work with than someone that abandons a friend over nothing hard. So I just think that, especially in a market where everything else is kind of tough and hard and under extreme scrutiny right now, the relationship that we have with each other is more important than ever. How we are conducting our business with each other is more important than ever. And I heard someone say that the clients are the ones that come and go. Yeah, it’s the agents. You’re gonna have to work with them again. We stick together. We work together. We cross paths. We show each other’s listings. We see each other at CE, right? We see each other more than we see our clients, typically,

Katy 8:50
right? Like, for instance, in our market, it’s like you have 4000 co workers. Yes, it’s a lot, right? They’re all in the same they’re doing the same job. So you could cross paths with them any number of times, exactly? Yeah, okay, well, but let’s start with, how do you make a realtor friend?

Alissa 9:07
And I thought this episode would be so great, because you and I are so different, and I’m with a large brokerage, and you’re with a smaller, boutique brokerage, and I feel like we’re both intentional in our own ways with our relationships with other agents for sure, like, you do such a great job at asking people to go to lunch and messaging people on social media and keeping a conversation going. I’m always, I’m

Katy 9:32
always talking to Jim like, Well, my friend in, you know, Maine, or my friend here, and he’s like, What are you talking about? Like, I don’t know. I have all these online friends. Like I do, who they are, we talk regularly. They’re my friends. I know I mean, like they’re obviously not all at the same level of depth, like

Alissa 9:48
you even talk on the phone with some of these. I

Katy 9:50
have talked on the phone with a few people I have met online. Yeah. But I think maybe if you are in a more cutthroat particular market, where. It does seem pretty adversarial, and it’s not like everyone’s buddying up and feeling community. Start by making friends outside of your market. You just need some realtor friends. It doesn’t have to be realtor friends in your office or your market, although those are the ones that can help you see the trends of what’s going on in your market, see how buyer and seller behavior is going, like, figure out problem solving that has to do with something specific to your area. So I do think they’re very important, yeah, but if you’re having struggles there, don’t just not have friends. Start outside of your market. Find some people online that resonate with you, and start just chatting with them. People will talk to you. People love a DM, yeah, they will answer you. They will be like, Oh, great. I mean, you can just ask questions or whatever, find someone that matches up with what

Alissa 10:50
you like, Yeah. And you’re so good about just like keeping up with people’s lives in that way, but making it, taking it to the next level by, you know, maybe even, like, texting them and being like, Hey, how’s this going, or that transaction play out, right? I think that’s great. I

Katy 11:06
don’t think it’s crazy to be like, let’s jump on a call. Or, yeah, start your own group. That’s like, four or five agents from all over that want to get on a zoom once a month and mastermind. Or, right? Then you build your own community. You can also find some communities where the people are already in community, and you can join in, right? Like there’s tons of groups.

Alissa 11:28
And that was sort of one of the things that another agent was talking to me about, was she was trying to find some professional type friends, looking at BNI groups and things like that. And it’s like all those things cost a lot of money. Yeah, and it’s one of those things too, where you want to make sure you have exhausted all of your free resources of community before you go pay for things. Yeah, agree, before you join expensive clubs and groups. Have you even tried volunteering in some of the free ones, or leading something, going

Katy 12:04
to some classes with other agents, talking to them during the break. We have

Alissa 12:08
an agent in our market that does all of their CE outside of Baton Rouge. I think that’s pretty smart, because he just likes to go and see how are things going over here in New Orleans, like, how’s your market doing? Right? Gives a few cards out networks, but then is intentional by making sure he friends those people on social media or hand writes them a letter if he got their card in exchange, you know, just sort of nurturing that relationship. Yes, it’s a benefit for referrals, but it’s also just a benefit. Yes, to have agreed

Katy 12:41
very much. Okay, what would you tell someone, though that was maybe in a small brokerage, or even if they’re in a large brokerage and wants to make friends outside of it, like, what’s the what are some tips? What are some things you would tell them to

Alissa 12:52
do? I mean, the first thing that I did when I became a new agent was started volunteering at our local Board of Realtors. Okay, that is really how I met the majority of my friends, yeah, like some of my greatest friends, I have never worked at the same company with them. We served on different committees, and right there’s fun committees like, you know, before kids, I was on the social committee, and we were just playing at parties and having fun. I don’t even think we have a social committee anymore, but we went to leadership committees and board of directors. And you travel sometimes you don’t have to, but like, you know when they would do the CE in Lake Charles at the big casino, that’s so nice. We would just all go. And it was just nice to have people that we’re all there for the same thing. We’re going to classes together. We get dinners together as a group. You know, our particular state has LR leadership, which is Louisiana, realtor leadership, which is a pretty intensive program, but I did it in 2015 and it’s four weekends out of the year, okay? And each weekend you spend a weekend in a different major city in Louisiana. So like, Baton Rouge was one of the weekends New Orleans was one of the weekends we went further up north. And then we went, I forget where else, but we went to four different ones, and stayed there for the weekend, and did our classes and our leadership program. And it was just like, some of those people are my great friends, big day, so I think

Katy 14:33
there’s a meaningful amount of time with them. Yeah, right.

Alissa 14:37
It’s hard, just like coming and going right now, I have gotten such response from handwriting letters after closing to the other agent. I bet people are like, Oh my like, it’ll be two because, you know, sometimes I don’t write it the day of closing. Yeah, I’m catching up and I’ll write eight at one time. But then it’s funny, because I know when they’re getting. Received, because all at one day, I’ll get texts that’s like, I just got your note. Like, thank you so much. You know. Like, how often are you told you’re appreciated, Ryan and that it was a good transaction, and thank you for your professionalism. And, yeah, you know, it’s like, you just, you know, when you work with someone, if you like how it went, just like me and you, we enjoyed our transaction.

Katy 15:25
It’s easier when you’re in the trenches of a transaction with someone. It’s easy to figure out if you would be friends or not, right? Like, you’re just having to talk a lot, you’re trying to work through problems. You see like, kind of how they are under stress. Yes, you’re really seeing it all. So be like, well, you’re joking about the same thing. Like, you know, it just you figure it out. So I also do think it’s important to show your personality a little bit during that time period. Like, you don’t have to be a robot, right? Like, you can have some sense of humor. Like, my favorite agents to work with are the ones that I know are gonna like joke or tease or like, whatever, but you’re like, Oh, it’s you okay, this is going to be fun, yeah, because it doesn’t have to be unpleasant, sure. And then you could make friends later. I also think friends of friends are good, right? So I was approached once to join a local mastermind by my previous buyer’s agent. She had moved on to another company, but she and someone there wanted to start a mastermind. They’re like, hey, we would like for you to come. And I’m like, okay, and then it would be like, we were each gonna bring someone from a different office, yeah? And then you met, like, a group of 12 people who were in different offices that maybe you wouldn’t have normally been friends with, but it starts from one person, and it kind of is just like a chain. Yeah, that’s cool. So that’s fun. There’s a lot of ways you can do that. You can just reach out to one person, or maybe reach out to someone who used to be in your office that you really enjoyed. Yeah, so you had a relationship, and maybe it’s you’ve lost touch, but bring them back in, or you just had a transaction, bring them back in, like, go to a coffee after that,

Alissa 17:00
yeah, I think too, like, anytime you start hearing a certain name a few times, but you’ve never met that person, sometimes I’ll be like, maybe I just need to meet this person, right? Like in real life, you know? And I’ll just be like, Hey, I heard your name come up about this, and wanted to see if you wanted to grab lunch or coffee one day, you know.

Katy 17:20
I mean, I just reached out to you because you gave that webinar. Yeah? Like, how do I do my business? I talk to agents all the time. You just reach out to people who seem like they’re open to that, right? Yeah. I also think you can probably make some decent friends by getting on the agent tour circuit. Yes, I feel like some of those people are repeats, so you would be seeing the same like if you were some regulars, if you were an office of one, and you just started showing up to those type of events that are invite, everyone is invited. Eventually people are gonna get used to seeing and be like, Oh, hey, it’s you again. How’s it going? You know, I

Alissa 17:52
also think people like to reciprocate. So if you’re an agent of one, and you are going to the tours, and you are going and giving good feedback to agents that are holding their listing open when it comes time for you to hold your listing open, and you invite those people specifically, yeah, I think you’ll be surprised how many people will show up. I even had one where my seller really wanted me to have an agent open, and so I did, and I have been. I go when it’s my friends and stuff like that. So I invited certain people and like, one wasn’t able to come. I didn’t even notice that they weren’t there. But later that night, I got an email from her, and she was like, hey, so sorry. I missed your agent tour today, but I went through all your MLS photos and ran some comps and made you notes, wow, so that you can just share it with your seller. Holy smokes. How? And that was so nice, so nice. She said, I was like, you just have to do that. She was like, it took like, 15 minutes. Like, not a big deal. So if you ever see an agent that’s struggling with the listing, maybe y’all can offer to, like, listing swap and go look at each other’s listing in person or just on the internet. Yeah, and give each other some advice so that you can reach out to your seller and say, Hey, I had another agent take a look at this. I feel like I just needed a fresh pair of eyes, because I’ve looked at it so much. Yeah, and here’s some additional feedback we got. Yeah, how easy is that? Like, that’s more valuable than a showing that leaves no feedback, absolutely, at least you are putting forth effort and you’re helping each other out. Yeah, I think that’s good. Same thing with sharing each other’s listings. You know what I’m not sure about, let’s be sort of off topic. I’ve lately agents from like other smaller brokerages have been asking to hold listings open. Okay, that like, aren’t within their company, okay? Just like, hey, looking to do an open house. But to me, I’m like, I don’t know. It just seems like, because that listing is held by that broker, and that brokerage sign is in the yard Fair. Yeah, that that I for an open house of sorts. I would be curious to hear the broker’s

Katy 20:05
opinion on this. Yeah, to me, it’s like, well, as the person who’s trying to sell it, if I don’t want to hold it open, and my seller wants it to be open, or I can’t solution, or I can’t hold it open, and the seller wants it to be open. Oh, you know? Well, there’s a able bodied agent that’s excited to hold it open. It seems like that would be okay. It is probably a little confusing, though, to the public. They would assume that when they’re walking in, that’s the listing agent. So it would have to be really well explained, yeah, very transparent. Like, hey, I’m just holding this open house for Alyssa, you know. But if you as the listing agent and your broker, don’t care if someone else is getting that, I think this is going to be interesting in the coming months, yeah, because listings are going to become what they were in the past, which is gold. Yeah, they’re always been gold. But I think they’re going to really level up to where it’s like, I wouldn’t be giving away my listings to have open house, because the buyer pool may shrink, yeah, for agent and like, I think you’re gonna want to do those open houses. You’re going to want to catch those sign calls, like, but I don’t know.

Alissa 21:15
I know that was a little off topic. It’s just been happening more so I’ve been like, I wonder what the protocol is for that. Mean,

Katy 21:21
I think it’s allowed, like, you’re sure it’s allowed, but like, I guess it would just be dependent on how your broker felt about it. To me, it’s like, whatever gets a house sold, yeah? Like, a lot of times agents want to share on their social media a listing that’s not theirs. Yeah, that doesn’t bother me at all. No, it’s similar. Wouldn’t that be, like, a similar concept? Like, Well, okay, yeah, they’re

Alissa 21:40
sharing that one, right? You know, there’s so many real estate Facebook groups out there. Connie prefers us to just not comment because of how negative and controversial they can be at times. However, even when I served on the board of directors and stuff, I was always trying to respond to the complainers, yeah, just to be like, Wow, in a positive way, sounds like you’re really passionate about the issues in our MLS. You should definitely join the MLS committee and make a real difference, right?

Katy 22:12
I know exactly where you’re needed, right? I

Alissa 22:15
can help you get involved here. And I think that that’s just a reminder, too, that if there’s something you’re passionate about within your industry, I do believe in giving back to your industry, yeah, if you can. Hence the podcast, obviously. And before the podcast, it was the board, yeah, was serving on committees to keep things running smoothly. But I also like in those groups, if you’re looking for community, you see similar names over and over again. And if you are someone looking for community, always be a positive responder. So I laugh, because me and my sister were both in the same huge moms group, okay? And there was a lot of questions in there about nursing. Okay? And so my sister’s a nurse, and so people be like, Oh, I’m trying to, like, nurse my baby in a second. Well, it was like, these notifications were always popping up in my feed because my sister was always commenting on them, and they’re like, so they’re like, oh, you know her, and you’re ready. It would pop up in my feed all the time, making quite a lot of friends. And I thought to myself, dang, she is, like, real and, I mean, she was, she’s a stay at home mom, and I do think she loves helping other moms, right? And that’s a connection, connection. It’s a passion for her. But I told her, I was like, you’re such a good commenter. Like, you’re so supportive. And she always ends it with, like, you’re doing great mama, and like stuff like that. And I’m like, If only all groups were like this, but you could be that light. You know, you’re showing your personality through what you post online, yeah,

Katy 23:56
be the good you want to see in the world, right? So you could be the one that’s answering kindly or or answering at all. Sometimes, when you see a post and no one responds, I’m like, Oh no, no, yeah, with someone needs to help this person out, right? I also see a lot of times, especially in our group, where people make a connection over a question or, like, a problem, and they’re like, shoot me a DM and we can talk about it more. Yeah. They’re like, I love that there’s a lot of people who want to help. People love to help. Love to help. So I think commenting is a great tip, especially to make some online friends. Yeah, do you want to talk about how being a good Co Op agent could also make you some friends? Yeah? Okay, so we’re gonna go through the list of how to work cohesively with other agents from Do you remember what episode that I think it was 129 how to be a great Co Op agent? So let’s just run through them really quick so you can remember what it was like to be a good agent and how that might make the I go other agent be want to be your friend. How

Alissa 24:58
many times. Do you think your relationship with the other agent helped your transaction like because you knew them before the transaction

Katy 25:07
plenty?

Alissa 25:08
I know so many times me your

Katy 25:10
that’s why your reputation is so important. That’s why the way you behave during a transaction is so important. That’s why you have to walk the fine line of negotiating for your client, but also making the situation pleasant for everyone. Yeah, right. Like, if you’re just going to be adversarial and combative the whole time, that agent is not going to be your friend, they’re going to be like, good riddance. They will not want to ask you to coffee. I don’t want to talk to you anymore. You were so rough to deal with. And then those are the ones. You get an offer for them from them later, and you’re like, oh, no, not again. Yeah,

Alissa 25:42
I don’t again. There’s like, one that took me to arbitration one time, and I’m like, every time I have a buyer that wants to see one of the listings, I’m just, I mean, I’ll show it, but it’s sir. I’m like, please don’t like it. Please don’t like, right? I

Katy 25:55
don’t want, so I do not want to deal with this. That’s what we always say, be the agent other agents want to work with, right? So, like, how can we do that? Yeah, are you ready? Yeah, remember that everyone has the same goal, yes, okay,

Alissa 26:09
that’s where I feel like sometimes agents go askew, is they’re like, Well, I’m representing my client, right? And I’m like, Well, does your client want to get to the closing table, right? Or we all guess mine does, yeah, and it’s on the same house. So whatever we need to do to get this house to closing, same goal, yeah, but they feel like if they’re not playing hardball, they’re not, they did a good job, right? Have correct and detailed information and require documents and the listing. So use your professionalism, yeah, leave detailed showing instructions on the listing. They make it easier for the agents to show, send buyer agents a good luck message, if

Katy 26:48
their buyers lost out on your listing. Like, I

Alissa 26:50
think we have that in our is it in email templates? Feels like there’s or we had multiple we had a rejected offer template. But it might have just, I don’t remember,

Katy 27:01
I know, but it was if you’re gonna reject and offer BS, be kind, be kind

Alissa 27:06
about it, right? Not C sign, detached rejection. Boo. If

Katy 27:10
you cannot meet a deadline, communicate with the other agent as to why you cannot meet the deadline and let them know when they can expect the task to be completed. Like, don’t leave them hanging out there, old Gigi style. Call me. Wait. Are you gonna call me? Act ethically and respect the rules of the business. Okay, keep your clients in check. Don’t have them contacting the other agent. That’s a good one.

Alissa 27:35
I even, I think, on that note too. This is where buyer rules become so important. I really, you know part one of the buyer rules is, please go to open houses. Always tell them Alyssa Jenkins is your agent. Yeah, the amount of phone calls I get from agents being like, Hey, you’re calling people hey my open house. And

Katy 27:56
do you know why? Because they’re like, I want to work with Alyssa, and I know that she can sell. So I would be like, Hey, your buyer was here. Why don’t you get home? No, buy.

Alissa 28:05
Yes, I mean, and it lets me know the buyers are doing their homework, but it lets this other agent hear my name and know, okay, I’m out there. Maybe we could make this work. That’s

Katy 28:17
great. I love that. Make sure your clients know what to expect to cut down on having to reach out to the cooperating agent to ask for, in quotes, crazy stuff. Okay, so make sure your clients, can we

Alissa 28:30
come back again in the house? Can your sellers pack up the kid and dog so we can measure for how big the refrigerator is? No

Katy 28:36
no. Every day, every day, be mindful of the condition of the home you listed before closing. Make sure it’s clean and cleared out when the buyers get the keys open the door for a buyer on your listing, if the buyer’s agent is unavailable, it’s your listing. Help get it sold. And people will complain about this, but it’s like, it is your listing, yeah, if they really can’t get there, you got to play nice, right? Within reason, ask if you can pick up signs, lock boxes, keys, etc, to help the other agent out. Like, at closing, yeah. How many times have you done the walkthrough right before closing? You just call and be like, Hey, do you want me to grab this lockbox? Yeah. Can I get a sign right? Like, do you need to make a trip over and send a thank you note after closing? Those were the tips from episode 129, and

Alissa 29:21
there were so many other good tips. In fact, I made an appraiser friend. You did because of our appraiser template. Oh, so I had one recently that had a lot of documents. It was my big one. It was like 5000 square feet, two story, all these extra nooks and bonus rooms and pool house. So when I saw who the appraiser was, I sent the email template that just says, you know, thank you so much for doing the appraisal. Here’s the terms of the contract. I have attached the following the plat map, so you have the lot dimensions, the blueprint showing the square footage, in case you need to check your measurements. And so I’ve been getting this certain 80. I’ve had them like, three times this year, just on rotation on my listings, and they have that same appraiser this, yeah, I’m sorry, the same appraiser, and they know they’ve they usually just found, like, thanks. Thanks, thanks. Like, nothing special, right? But this third time on the big one, and he was like, I’m not gonna lie, when I saw that, I was about to go do this one, and I was gonna have to set aside all this time to make sure everything was correct, because it’s such a large house, I was so thankful when I saw you were the listing agent. Because I was like, sweet, she’s gonna send me a floor plan, yeah, so you can check, you know? And I was like, of course, right? And it’s like, I thought he never even cared, right? Yeah. Oh, so it’s like, you just never know how it’s like, if you can be helpful, be healthy. Doesn’t hurt anything. It hurts. Nothing

Katy 30:49
hurts. No one. You might make a friend. Yeah, I think that’s a good point, too. If you’re wanting to build communicate community in this business, you could also make friends with appraisers, lenders, inspectors, anyone that understands kind of what you’re going through. Yeah, and have to be other agents.

Alissa 31:07
Yeah, I agree with that completely. I have such an amazing relationship with my lenders. Definitely the home inspector like it’s just so nice. It again, it makes the job so much easier when you know you’re about to go sit three hours with another professional, oh yeah, that you are friends with. I’m

Katy 31:27
usually excited to go to an inspection me too. We’re

Alissa 31:29
gonna chat. It’s gonna be fun, catch up. Like that’s why I feel like we see I mean, because of the podcast, I talk to you more than anybody in my entire life. That’s

Katy 31:39
true. True story. We have hours of conversation, uninterrupted conversation, and I will tell everyone who’s listening that makes a difference in how you feel about the job. Oh yes, because you can talk through anything you need. Like we are forcing ourselves to talk through it. But I haven’t felt stressed or like upset, and since, because we’re talking it through, right? Yeah, if you have a problem, be like, This is what it is, let’s, let’s, let’s hash it out, right? And

Alissa 32:09
on that note, I think it kind of goes back to your vibe, attracts your tribe, for sure. Feel like you’re not getting advice that you like. That is helpful, right? I met a new agent recently, poor sweet thing. Found the podcast. I was like, thank you so much. I am realizing that the brokerage I started at, um, you know, I just thought this was how real estate was, yeah? But I’m realizing that, like, these scripts are just icky, yeah, like they’re teaching me things like, well, not your problem and, right? You know, do you? And it was just like, not very collaborative, yeah. And so I think on the flip side, if you find yourself in a funk, I reach out to my real estate friends in those moments to be like, I am having a transaction that’s taking its toll on me, right? And I need someone that is going to walk me through it, not someone who’s going to make it worse or be negative. And so, I mean, there’s certainly been people that have come and gone throughout my life that it’s like my life of real estate. Of you know, they were just not, they didn’t necessarily love real estate, right? And when I hung out with them, it kind of made me aggravated at my client. And you’re like, wait a minute. No, that definitely rubs off. It does whatever people feel. They’re they’re like, projecting that onto you about you’re like, what? That didn’t bother me, but you know now it does. That is annoying. Oh, no, right. Maybe you just need to evaluate, like, who is your circle?

Katy 33:46
Yeah, what are the messages that they are well, like, what is the topic of discussion? What seems to come up a lot? How do they handle problem solving? Is it a positive discussion, or is it always like, Oh, what was me? Everything’s bad. The market’s terrible. This is the worst job. Yeah, it’s

Alissa 34:02
like, you know, the people that you want to call and have lunch with when you need to pick me up? Yeah,

Katy 34:08
I agree with that completely. You had a very nice quote in here from the president of our board. Do you want to read it? Yeah, it’s, it’s, you

Alissa 34:18
see, oh, yes, clients come and go. But the realtors, the good ones, are there for your career. They’re right. The good ones, clients are there for just a tiny snippet of time. Yeah. And you know, what’s even funny about that, there is three agents I can think of for sure off the top of my head that I started real estate with, that they are no longer in real estate. Oh, yeah. And they send me referrals all the time. I’ve had that happen too. It’s like, be kind. It can hurt nothing. It can only help you. It can only help even being kind to agents in different ages from you, like helping those older agents with their stuff, they may help you in return, as they are. Starting to retire or need to refer things out again. The referrals are just a bonus to being kind. Definitely not the whole reason. But you’re not gonna have any referrals if you’re not the type of person that somebody wants to work with, right

Katy 35:16
and to send their clients to, yeah, I think that it’s easier than we think to make a friend, because we’re all solopreneurs, right at the end of the day, we’re all just our own business, maybe on a team, you have something but, but at the end of the day, it’s just you, yeah, you’re your whole business, right? And everyone else is just feeling that too. They’re all feeling that isolation. Sometimes they’re all feeling the same stress or anxiety or concern about the future, like you can all. You just have to reach out and like, say, Hey, I’m feeling this way. You’re probably gonna get a me too, yeah. Like, I feel that too. And how

Alissa 35:56
has your transition been from, like, ReMax to a small boutique brokerage, and then the podcast, also keeping you home more. I

Katy 36:04
always liked a smaller office, right? Even when I was at REMAX at biggest, it was maybe a 40 to 60 person, and it kind of would fluctuate okay time, because that wasn’t a growing office. It was more like a, you know, retire, reaching retirement sometimes. So we didn’t have a lot of, like, Office meeting, like the stuff that you do, so I didn’t feel there was a big change, you know. And even then, I was already friends with you when I worked there, I had a couple of friends there that, you know, I stayed friends with when I went to the smaller offices, when I did get involved in that mastermind. So you can put yourself out there. And the only reason why I knew about the mastermind was because I went to support another agent friend at their agent tour, yeah. And they were like, Hey, do you want? It wasn’t like they called me out of the blue. I showed up for them, right? Yeah. So if you show up, you will meet people. But now I find that I have just as many I have way more real estate friends now than I did when I was in a bigger office or ever in my career, because I can meet a limitless supply of people online. Yes, right? Like, there are tons of them. And it’s not just because of the podcast, it’s because I’m in a certain group or, like, you know, whatever. So I feel like I have definitely made more friends. I

Alissa 37:21
think so too. That’s

Katy 37:22
what I was gonna say. Even though I am selling maybe less houses, I have more friends, and maybe more of them are outside of my market, but they still serve the same purpose, yeah, like you do not have to see someone in person for them to be, you know, a good friend, sure, and to give you that kind of like support, or, you know, fill that for space for you, it’s quite nice. Yeah. What would do you think? I mean, you or have always been in the same office, and agents have come and gone a lot while you were there. Yes. What? How does it feel when an agent comes and you make friends and then they leave? Like, do you feel sad? Do you just keep reaching out,

Alissa 38:00
like it kind of depends on the situation, I suppose, I think that it takes. So I always can tell it’s almost like I know who to get attached to and who not. Who’s gonna stay around. Well, the ones that are showing up. So our Wednesday meeting is our big office sales meeting, tons of people. You’re not there to talk, you’re here to listen to the company. It’s information delivery. The Monday meeting is more of like a collaboration. We sit in a circle. Everybody has a moment to talk. If you’re new, you introduce yourself and say what you did before. What are you struggling with to get started? So I can tell from that Monday meeting. I feel like the Monday meeting is the qualifier, right? If you are there and showing up, I get to know you, and then we just get attached, like you become part of the office because you’re there and you’re sharing your struggles, and you’re giving advice, and you’re collaborating, you’re participating. If you’re not participating, you’re not gonna have any relationship. So Connie always says, like, if you go to a lunch for a networking group, right, and you get there right when it starts, and you sit in the back, and the second it’s over, you leave. You really did not need to go to that lunch. It did nothing for you. Didn’t do any networking. You did not network. You did not put yourself out there. And I think the same goes for the office. You know, if you have a minute and you see an agent struggling on the computer, you can say, Do you need help with something? There’s a reason that I try not to work at the office on Wednesdays, because it’s the busiest day, and if I need to get stuff done, I can’t be there, right? Because I have people coming in asking for help. I go offer help when I shouldn’t be always. So I kind of know what days are better, productive days, and then if I’m have a slower day, maybe I will go there and just say, hey, haven’t, especially this summer, you know, with the kids, with Haven being home, yeah. I haven’t been as regular to our Monday meeting, and so it’s like, if I have a Wednesday, like I went this past Wednesday, and I don’t usually go to those, yeah, Monday is more my thing, right? So participating is up to you. People aren’t just gonna randomly call you. We don’t have a nine to five that if you miss a meeting, your boss isn’t calling you. Are you what? It’s 905, yeah. Are you coming in today? Yeah, nobody’s doing that. So it really is up to you to show up and just be present and be there. But I find that through those that share in our smaller circle of Monday morning people, those are usually the regulars that we see. And people still come and go, yeah, it’s almost like, when they’re new, they’re there, they’re there, they’re there. I just like, never left, but right, once they get some traction and some business, then they, we kind of don’t see them for a minute, yeah, and then they start having problems in their transactions, and then they come back.

Katy 41:01
They’re always there. We’re always

Alissa 41:03
there every Monday,

Katy 41:04
right? I mean, that’s nice to have that option. Yeah, right. I love it.

Alissa 41:11
I know. I just felt like we needed to revisit some reminders that, you know, while we’re getting beat up on and the market’s tough and the news is tough, and everything’s just kind of tough that I do think, like, like, our president said, the realtors, the good ones, right? Are there, yeah, for your career, yeah,

Katy 41:30
they’re not going to change. I think that it was we, we shied away from it for a long time, making a community and a Facebook group for the podcast, because we’re like, oh, you know, we’ve been in so many that were negative or didn’t provide value and kind of just made you, like, feel that competition all the time. Or, yeah, like, Who wants another one? The messages were just all over the place, right? So it has been nice to make one where it seems that so far in the two years we’ve had it, the the listeners that join have been like minded and so supportive to each other and really helpful and bringing like the right vibe to the table. So that’s been really nice. I mean, I’ve been in I’ve I’ve turned off all my realtor groups, yeah, I just they got to the point where people would say the meanest things. They were not helpful. They were always complaining, you know. And they have them for every different type of realtor out there, right? You can get into a million different groups, and if you find one that’s the fit for you, go for it, you know. But I also think there are groups that have moved from maybe what was a group of people who were supporting each other into a group that’s now being consistently sold to, or, like, you know, they’re, oh, you must join this coaching program. Oh, you must do this. Oh, you’ve got to do that. Oh, like, you know, it’s just not why the people showed up there originally, and then it just kind of has taken this pivot. And so if you’re in one of those groups, even if it used to make you feel good, and it’s where you made some friends, if now when you’re in there, you don’t feel good, it’s okay to take those friends and go, You know what I mean? Like, like,

Alissa 43:14
I serve my purpose here, right? Like you don’t have to

Katy 43:17
stay there all the time. And I feel like sometimes I tiptoe around, like there’s some bad groups out there. Yeah, they’re not helpful, and they’re teaching Realtors terrible behaviors, terrible behaviors that I would never say is a good idea. Yeah. So, you know, maybe just reevaluate. We’ve said that before, yeah. Like, where are you getting your community? Maybe that’s why you feel alone. Who are your friends? If you’re getting messages you don’t even agree with? That’s pretty isolating, too. That’s all I’ve got on the community over competition. Do you want to talk about the accountability group at all? Okay, we can for sure. So it’s newer. It is newer. So we in in our community, if you are interested in finding an account accountability partner or group? We have a form you fill out, you put in your information, and then the spreadsheet, basically, you can go and look, read through it. What time zone are these people in? When would they like to meet? You know, are they interested in, like, going 12 week, year style or, like, it kind of has a whole series of questions they’ve answered, and you can go, sort of, it’s almost like a personals, right? Yeah, where it’s like, do you just message people till you find a connection, right? Just be like, Hey, you were on the list looking for an accountability partner. Did you find one? Are you still interested? I mean, I think you can also have little pods, right? Like a three or a four person group, yeah, absolutely. And it’s so nice sometimes to grab people outside of your market?

Alissa 44:41
Yeah, I think too, I was going to say that, yes, I have been with the same company since I started in 2011 I love having realtor friends of all different companies. Yeah, I just think that there is so many different ways you can do this, and everybody offers something different. And I’m always fast. Needed to hear about what they do, and I just enjoy being able to be outside of just my office bubble. Yeah,

Katy 45:08
it’s, it’s very nice to have that change. If anyone wants to join us in community, you’re always welcome there anytime. Yeah, month to month. Come in. How do they get out? Yes, hustle, humbly, podcast.com/membership, okay, and it’s 25 bucks, yeah, when you join, you get all of the prospecting templates, which are a $50 normally, 50 bucks. So whether you like us, and you decide where your people are not, yeah, you get the templates you can go, right? So it’s, like, pretty no brainer, right? Like, just give it a try. But I do like that. It is, we try to provide a little extra value there and give you some extra tools. And that’s why it is a paid group. And so instead of every single realtor that rolls by who just is, like, I join every group. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. We don’t want let’s have some skin in the game here. We all are here to try and like, support each other, but also like, what’s the value? So, yeah, that’s the story. Wonderful,

Alissa 46:06
delightful. Ready for a toast? Yeah, let’s

Katy 46:09
hear a toast. Okay, here we go. Bye. Y’all.

Speaker 1 46:13
Belinda Franco from Albuquerque, New Mexico, with real broker LLC in the Venturi Realty Group, I’m toasting Terry Hatcher, who is an absolute badass, and introduced me to hustle humbly, and to Alyssa and Katie introduced me to the podcast, introduced me to just the amazing content. And I just think that she is a wonderful human, and I appreciate doing life with her as business partners, and that trying to find any way that we can create that community over competition in our marketplace in Albuquerque, New Mexico. So here’s to you. Terry Hatcher, you are an absolute badass.

Alissa 46:53
Thank you so much for tuning in to the hustle humbly podcast. If

Katy 46:57
you enjoyed this episode, please go to rate this podcast.com/hustle. Humbly and leave us a review or drop a comment if you’re listening on Spotify,

Alissa 47:05
if you have an episode topic or someone you’d like to toast on the show, please email us at team at hustle humbly. Podcast.com, find

Katy 47:12
us on social media at hustle humbly. Podcast, don’t forget to find all of the free resources at hustle humbly. Podcast.com/resources,

Alissa 47:21
see you next week. You.