Listen Now

Kim Colaprete and Chavi Holm (Team Diva Real Estate) join Agent Stories to talk about their individual real estate agent stories. They bring very different backgrounds (one from New Jersey and one from southern Oregon) to the team. Part 2 covers how they invested in their business during the recession, how they expanded their marketing, and how they view their advocacy work in and out of the real estate world.

Kim Colaprete and Chavi Hohm (Team Diva Real Estate) join Agent Stories to talk about their individual real estate agent stories. They bring very different backgrounds (one from New Jersey and one from southern Oregon) to the team. Part 1 covers their journeys to real estate and getting through the 2008 financial crash.

Tyler Davis Jones and Phil Greely work for different brokerages but often work together in real estate and collaborate on a podcast. Part 2 of their story is today’s episode. They cover their experience working together and starting the Rise Seattle podcast and how it’s affected their business. Check out Episode 1 if you haven’t listened to that already.

Tyler Davis Jones and Phil Greely work for different brokerages but often work together in real estate and collaborate on a podcast. Part 1 of their story in today’s episode gives the backstory of Tyler and Phil: how they started in real estate, how they measure success, and how Tyler stole one of his first deals from Phil. (All is forgiven now. We think.)

Seattle agents Annie Hart and Derek DeWolf talk about their shared business in real estate, how they work so closely together to best serve their clients, and how they each have their sights set above the day-to-day fear and stress of real estate. This is the second of a two-part episode. The first, Episode 008, is with Annie Hart and her story of becoming herself.

Annie Hart is a Realtor in Seattle, Washington. She grew up in a small rural town in Eastern Washington to parents who were early entrepreneurs in the Washington apple industry and after decades in that industry she entered real estate. So many Realtors struggle with being authentically themselves while practicing real estate. Annie’s story of transitioning and becoming her true self is challenging, inspiring, and empowering.

Born in Los Angeles, California, Kendyl Young is the Boss Lady and Listing Specialist at Diggs in Glendale California. Kendyl is a “second generation” Realtor, whose mother Bea-Jue was a successful (and formidable!) agent with Coldwell Banker. After a short career outside the industry with Proctor & Gamble, Kendyl kicked off her career in real estate in Silicon Valley when she was 23 years old. After 6 years as a successful Realtor in Silicon Valley Kendyl returned to Glendale where she started a family and began building a business separate from her mom’s. Kendyl talks about following in her mother’s “force of nature” real estate footsteps and coming out of her shadow to start her own business and become a leader in her market. Kendyl shares her insights into the special challenges second generation agents face making their own way in the business. Kendyl is all about understanding and articulating her value as an agent. Rooted in that, she is focussed on increasing efficiency for her agents using systems. This creates a better environment for agents and a better client experience. If life after systems is so great, why aren’t more agents and teams successfully implementing them? According to Kendyl, “People don’t do this because they prefer being busy to being productive,” says Kendyl. “It feels so good… I would be lying if I didn’t tell you I enjoy it when I swoop in and save the day.” For Kendyl, moving past that initial rush of being constantly needed and into a more stable form of customer service is a necessary part of every agent’s growth process. *Full disclosure, people: REALVOLVE is a sponsor of this podcast, and Kendyl Young is involved with REALVOLVE!

Marguerite Crespillo is a California native with a thriving real estate practice, a popular Real Estate Podcast, and a consulting/training company for real estate agents.  After owning a bar with her husband and starting a family she entered the real estate business. Marguerite discusses being successful in any market, the different personal and professional obstacles she faced over the years , and why building a business that is in service to your life (not the other way around) is the key to happiness in real estate.

Stacie Staub from Live Urban Real Estate in Denver, Colorado is a marketing machine.  Anyone who has ever met Stacie knows that her mind never stops working. She’s that rare combination of creativity and implementation that has created incredible results in her business and now for her entire company. A born entrepreneur, Stacie wanted to own her own business from the get go. “I’ve always just had that drive,” says Stacie.  “Like, I read case studies for fun, I read Fast Company like a fiend… I love INC magazine. I think there’s something so special about being able to start a business.” Stacie entered the real estate industry via her husband’s real estate website company. Initially her role was Director of Marketing, but eventually in 2005 the idea of getting her real estate license made sense for both her family and to provide value to the company. “I got really thrown into it,” says Stacie.”His clients started asking for a Realtor on staff…because we all know anyone who has ever been in the process of building a real estate website- they are not built by Realtors… They wanted the web developers to be able to look at their sites from a Realtor’s point of view.” Starting from Scratch She began her career hustling buyers with a low cost brokerage. “The bubble burst right as I was finding my stride,” says Stacie. “My first buyers were all first time homebuyers… I had to show them 50 houses, the market was saturated with foreclosures. So showing really crappy houses to first timers… There was no better way to learn the nitty gritty of real estate, the dark side.” Cutting your teeth on buyers in the midst of a crashing market shapes the kind of agent you become. Getting deals done in that environment taught Stacie to fight for her clients. “People had lost their belief in homeownership,”says Stacie.”and in the value of their homes and they took it out on their houses. It was not a good time. It makes you very motivated to take care of your buyers and to make sure that they’re making smart investments. The market will turn again.” One day while walking down the street passing out well designed flyers with her Realtor friend Nicole she met Mark White, one of the owners of Live Urban. They were looking for people to attend their Homebuyer Happy Hours. “He looked at the flyers and said, ‘Maybe you guys should come in and talk with me.’ We sat down for an interview right then.” What Makes a Successful Team? As her business grew her mom came into the business. Stacie talks about navigating the complexities of combining your business with a family member. “I think that because you’ll have this super strong motivation to help each other succeed it’s the strongest type of team. I can get super frustrated with my mom… but the end result is always good for both of us.” As a company, Live Urban initially resisted teams because of the breakup fallout.the importance of having a partnership agreement. Live Urban requires all of their agents that choose to team up to sign a Team Partnership Agreement that they had their lawyers draw up. “They have to lay out, if we get to the point where we can’t work together anymore what is going to happen? Who gets our database, who gets the logo, who gets the collateral?” Teams don’t always work out. I think it’s good to have a breakup plan in place. Just like a pre-nup. There are so many little things to consider, and our contract actually walks them through those waters and makes them think about it before they sign. The office hasn’t had a team breakup since creating the agreement, but they have also had many agents go through the process of filling out the contract realize they aren’t a good fit after all. Creating Innovative Marketing at the Brokerage Level After a few years of successfully hustling houses with her team Stacie decided that creating a career that allowed for a more structured schedule was a priority. Initially she brought her ideas to the brokerage because she was interested and excited about marketing. From annual events to stepping up their social game. “I just knew it could be so much bigger, and we could do more.” says Stacie. “I went home and sort of wrote out my dream job description… I remember this one specific thing I found on the internet, it said ‘I wish someone would pay me to pin.’ I approached the owners and said, ‘This is my dream job and I want to do it for Live Urban.'” The rest, as they say is history. Stacie came on as the Director of Marketing and her friend Nicole Rufener became the Managing Broker. Stacie is now the Director of Marketing for Live Urban- and is very proud of the brand and culture Live Urban’s agents have. “We have strict standards,” says Stacie. “You have to meet a minimum production, you have to show up, you have to be full time.” The marketing strategy Stacie and Live Urban have created for their agents is to do EVERYTHING for their agents. Newsletters, great flyers, market reports, videos, websites- every kind of market collateral. “Your focus should be out selling houses,” says Stacie. “You should be doing all of these things that back to basics- build your real estate business… We really give our agents all the collateral they need to build their real estate business within our brand so they don’t have to create their own brand.” Examples of Live Urban’s great marketing: Crafting the Sale Video Web Series Live Urban’s Denver Real Estate Market Update Infographic Live Urban Denver Real Estate Market Report Videos      

“My team works because we have a shared culture,” says Leigh. “And our shared culture is ‘How do we improve the real estate experience?’ As agents we cannot control the real estate experience, and we act like it because the number one real estate marketing slogan used in real estate is ‘I will get you the most money in the least amount of time with the fewest hassles’ and you can’t promise any of those things. And so as a team we don’t promise any of those things. We just say, you know what? We’re going to help you navigate the minefield of real estate. You might get blown up and I might get blown up but we’ll get to the finish line together.” – Leigh Brown Leigh Brown has been in real estate since 2000 after a variety of careers including managing a bar, working as a stockbroker in Manhattan, and selling lawn mowers and chainsaws in the corporate world. Having grown up in the country outside of Charlotte, North Carolina with a father who sold real estate she didn’t plan  to get into real estate, but it happened anyways. “You grow up around this business and you’re either an entrepreneur or you’re not. I’m just an entrepreneur,” says Leigh. “I tried other jobs because I did not want to do real estate (because daddy did real estate) so I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to do my own thing. But I hated being a stockbroker, I hated living in Manhattan. I loved chainsaw sales for a while but I hated the corporate life.” While Leigh’s team of 10 sells over 300 houses per year, she’s probably most famous for her speaking and advocacy in the real estate industry and for her new book, “Outrageous Authenticity: You are Your Best Sales Weapon“. In today’s interview we talk about: Growing up in North Carolina with a father in the real estate business and how her background shaped the kind of agent she’s become. Increasing the training and barrier to entry for agents entering the industry as a way of protecting consumers including a discussion about what a CRS designation is and how they’ve created a higher education and experience requirements. How she runs her team to be centered around improving the consumer experience and getting your ego out of the way so that you can grow and serve your clients. She also shares her thoughts on interviewing and adding team members taking care of our agent colleagues in the industry and creating systems that care for clients and how to constantly improving the systems. Her thoughts on hiring coaches from inside and outside the industry. How her experience with CRS Instructor Howard Brinton’s Star Power conferences impacted and inspired her and the value of learning from speakers and trainers who are active high producing agents sharing their actual methods. How her belief in giving back to the industry inspired her to begin speaking and become involved in the REALTOR Association and RPAC. Balancing speaking your mind with people pleasing, pushing back against the speaker at events, and which swears she prefers not to use. Why getting involved and making your voice heard with your local REALTOR Association is even more important when you disagree with them… even if the pace of change is like a river running through the Grand Canyon. Show Notes and Resources: Leigh Brown & Associates – Leigh’s real estate website The 80% Approach by Dan Sullivan – Leigh Brown’s Business Coach Interview with Howard Brinton of Star Power    

Real estate is crazy. It’s hard to explain to people who haven’t done this job just how wacky it can get sometimes. Sometimes, other agents are the only people who understand. Eric Simon and Wes Pinkston of The Broke Agent have made it their mission to take the craziness of our industry and turn it into humor and satire. Wes and Eric worked in the same office (Wes worked with Josh Altman of Million Dollar Agent and Eric was the receptionist) It was conversations over beers during a sales draught that eventually birthed The Broke Agent. “We wanted to just take a funny angle on the whole industry,” says Wes. For an example of The Broke Agent’s brand of humor, check out: Wes and Eric don’t want to talk much about their everyday real estate lives, but they don’t want to get out of real estate either. What do they want to do? Make funny stuff on the internet, make great posts and merchandise, speak at conferences, and maybe sell a few houses. Eric & Wes have been on stage at Inman Connect and have over 50,000 Instagram followers. Their brand of humor can be crass- and that has rubbed some people in the industry the wrong way. Their response? It’s just a joke. “We’re just trying to make people laugh and give people an avenue that we didn’t have when we first entered the real estate industry,” says Eric. “I hope people understand that we love the industry,” says Wes. “And I think the vast majority of agents, they understand that.”   Related Content: How to Pass Time at a Boring Open House – The blog post that Leigh Brown advised agents not to share. The Crazy Buyer – A video most buyers agents can probably relate to on some level. Wes Pinkston – Hilton & Hyland Eric Simon The Broke Agent Blog The Broke Agent on Youtube

I didn’t launch this thing I was working on until I was resolute that I would do it relentlessly and publish on a regular schedule… I think at scale that there’s just this really poisonous conversation people have with each other around what their volumes are like and I think that there’s just too many factors outside of it to make these conversations meaningful. Frankly, I’m not very interested in them. – Greg Fischer   Greg Fischer has been in real estate since 2006. Greg was active duty in the US Navy from 2004 – 2010 and in the reserves 2010 – 2014. His real estate story began in Fort Worth, Texas shortly after moving from San Diego. There were 4 years of overlap where he was serving in the Navy AND working in the investment property/property management business. Frankly, Greg’s story makes my head spin. From property management to new construction to opening a brokerage to working in software- Greg follows his instincts and craves innovation. Greg’s latest project, BendStation.com is an innovative approach to building a real estate business in a new community. With no sphere of influence and very little cash outlay, Greg is creating a tool that both serves the community he lives in, builds his own knowledge of the community, and generates a steady stream of clients. BendStation.com is a resource for people interested in moving to Bend, Oregon. It’s part blog, part podcast, and part straight talk locals guide to the community. “It’s really evolving around news events and podcasts,” he says. “It’s a very interesting project and it’s interesting because I’m new to the area and I get very passionate about the places I’m living in.” Links to sites covered in this podcast: Fischer Real Estate Services in Fort Worth, Texas Doorsteps Swipe App BendStation.com and Bend Station Radio    

“Keep in mind back in the day we were guardians of information. That was our main objective. We had the information. You wanted it? You had to come see me to get it, an that book of mine was gold.” For the first episode of Agent Stories, I interviewed my very first managing broker, Larry Bergstrom of Crescent Realty in Spanaway, Washington. Larry’s career began in 1978 when his best friend Cody Miller asked him to be a site agent for his dad’s new construction sites. Larry has seen a lot in this business, and we talk about what has changed and what remains the same in this crazy business of ours. Larry’s Story Highlights Getting Started in Real Estate Larry’s sales career started with encyclopedia sales in the 1970’s and then a friend (Crescent Realty owner Cody Miller) finally convinced him to get his real estate license Surviving the Market Crash of the 1980’s Interest rates went up 2.5% per month until VA Loans were at 19% Finding other avenues to make money when a market shifts drastically and quickly Real Estate Life in “the olden days”  Cadillac Eldorados and Lincoln Continentals (your car was the client experience!) What the average real estate day was like How did real estate got done before email, fax machines, and even voicemail The early days of the MLS The original “pre electronic” keyboxes (every lockbox in town had the same key!) No Agency, everyone worked for the seller The origins of buyer representation at the national level MLS books, and the transition to an online database of homes The merger of a local Realtor and non Realtor MLS in the early 2000’s, and it’s continued effects Larry’s thoughts on the state of the real estate industry, NAR, and the role of the real estate age Agent Stories was launched with Design and Logistical Guidance from: