Moving to St Augustine, Pricing, Mistakes & Building a Business With Zero Paid Leads: Ep 343 Niki Sparks

REE #343 Full Audio

[00:00:00] Niki Sparks: This is gonna sound really cliche, but I just really truly love helping people. I love studying the market. It's something I used to do for fun before I ever was licensed, to work real estate for other people. But-

Mm-hmm ...studying the market and the data is just fun for me and, learning neighborhoods and learning inventory.

 Hey, welcome back to the Real Estate Excellence Podcast. Most agents build

[00:00:54] Tracy Hayes: a business on cold

calls, paid

leads, and door knocks.

Today's guest never

touched any of it.

[00:01:00] She spent years homeschooling

her kids.

When they left for college, she got

her license and went all in.

Three years

later, she went

from rookie of

the year

to realtor of the year in her

office.

In 2025, she ranked

number eight in St. Augustine for

sides closed,

built entirely

on relationships.

She's with Keller Williams Atlantic Partners in St. Augustine,

and her family roots

in this city go back to 1565.

Let's

welcome Nikki Sparks to the show.

[00:01:30] Niki Sparks: Hello there.

[00:01:30] Tracy Hayes: Welcome.

1565. give us a little bit on that, because obviously

any

listener that is not l- you know, obviously not from northeast Florida-

Mm-hmm St. Augustine

is the oldest incorporated city,

and, I always wonder, 'cause

I, I grew up in

Massachusetts,

and everyone... Massachusetts really

doesn't get started till 1620, right?

Yeah. And you think

about, like,

how many years,

you know,

or that, that

was a whole

lifespan there between

1565 and 1620.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, if you, think about

it, 60 years there.

but yeah,

tell us a little about the,

the family history and,

and, and a [00:02:00] little bit

about St. Augustine to

kind of bring

everybody in of,

you know, why

you're an expert in the area,

 having grown up there

and, and obviously having those, generations of

the family.

[00:02:08] Niki Sparks: Yeah. So my

12th great-grandfather came from Spain with, Pedro

Menendez and helped found St.

Augustine,

 way back when. And then-

How

[00:02:16] Tracy Hayes: far, how many grandfathers ago?

[00:02:18] Niki Sparks: 12. 12.

[00:02:18] Tracy Hayes: 12 great-grandfathers.

[00:02:19] Niki Sparks: Okay.

It was all the Solana line. So it was all

great-grandfathers until my great-grandmother.

and

then in the 1700s

when we had the British invasion in St.

Augustine,

 

only five men were allowed to remain in the city,

and one of them was my fifth great-grandfather, and he built

a home,

 

in town. It's

the seventh oldest

home currently still

occupied

in the city, and it's currently

a bed

and breakfast.

[00:02:41] Tracy Hayes: Oh.

[00:02:41] Niki Sparks: It's the De Solana.

So there you go. That's my

[00:02:43] Tracy Hayes: family.

It still- does- someone

in the family still owns it,

or-

No, no ... no, no. I was gonna say you- No, it's

[00:02:47] Niki Sparks: operated by a business

[00:02:48] Tracy Hayes: now. By a business. Yeah. Okay.

Interesting.

[00:02:50] Niki Sparks: Yeah.

[00:02:50] Tracy Hayes: What do you

w-

From a real estate perspective, cause one of the, one

of the things that,

 I,

have kinda

caught interest is some ideas that I've thrown by, and obviously having the

podcast now for five [00:03:00] years, is

going back in some of the history.

'Cause it...

Just,

Florida in the last...

You know,

we think about

our area in the last 50 years, how much it's

grown. Yes.

but to

actually go back,

you know, 500

years, into this,

and obviously having generations. And I imagine, I

mean, when you were growing up, were you able to converse

with your grandfather or even great-grandfather at, at some period of time?

[00:03:21] Niki Sparks: No, no. They both passed.

my great-grandparents passed before,

 before I was around.

So

I hear a lot of this history from

my, my,

grandparents. My

grandmother was really into

genealogy

and, and history, and

actually

wrote a few books

about the history of,

 not only St. Augustine,

but,

Putnam County as well, 'cause my family eventually migrated over there as well-

Mm-hmm

and became cattle farmers. And

so, all of northeast Florida really

is

is kind of where we're spread

out. I have hundreds, possibly thousands of cousins.

[00:03:47] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

Are you

serious?

[00:03:48] Niki Sparks: Every, every time I tell my clients, "Hey, I got a guy

for that," it's probably a cousin.

Yeah.

[00:03:51] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, from

a real estate perspective now that

you

got into

bus- and working in the old city,

and just... but

St. Augustine in [00:04:00] general-

Mm-hmm ... you

know, the obviously

the old city's been there for a long time.

Yes. But even, but when you expand out to St. Johns County- Yes ... or out to Putnam- Yes ... and what has

changed in the

last- Oh my goodness ... I

would say roughly two generations- Yes ... maybe three generations, since, you and I

have, have, have been alive and- Mm-hmm

and Florida's been going on.

that's

kind of helped your business to kinda give some of these people who've,

really

they're, they're moving in from

Midwest

or Northeast- Right ... or even California,

who

you may have visited here a few times but now are moving here-

Mm-hmm ... and how

you're able to give them a more, a better perspective of

what's going on.

[00:04:32] Niki Sparks: Yeah,

of course.

We have a lot of people

that do vacation

here, and then they

fall in love, and they make the move here permanently

and

wanna make it their home.

And, it's, helpful to know

how these neighborhoods were formed,

and who the builder was, and what

the

history was, and, what was there before, what's coming there

in the future.

it's,

to get

them

used to hurricanes. I mean, Yeah

A lot

of people move

into, into Florida in general- You can

[00:04:52] Tracy Hayes: give real

historical perspective.

[00:04:54] Niki Sparks: Yeah.

Like,

It's like, like look, historically,

we really don't get hit head-on with

hurricanes. Yeah. But we [00:05:00] do have flooding

sometimes,

you know. So

there's just

different

aspects of things as far as life in Florida

and life

here in St.

Johns County and St. Augustine that just, you

just kinda educate them

and,

and help them

understand

hurricanes aren't big

and scary,

and this is a great place

to be,

and this is probably gonna be developed in, in the near future.

And, and, you know, what's behind you might not always just be

woods. It might

be new houses.

[00:05:20] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:05:20] Niki Sparks: And so just having that perspective on,

on the progression of development within

St. Johns County and, and

St.

Augustine.

[00:05:28] Tracy Hayes: I would imagine this topic is

something that's discussed in the

office, '

cause

you do have,

it's a large office you

have. Mm-hmm.

And you have a

lot of new agents or-

Just new people in the, business.

you know, you've had, your family's been part of

the real estate business for,

I would imagine decades. Yes. I mean, you said ...for a while,

just used the word decades, But so you kinda had an idea of the workings of a

real

estate agent.

[00:05:48] Niki Sparks: Yes,

yes.

[00:05:49] Tracy Hayes: But with your,

the mixed up perspective of having grown up here, seen these developments come on, seen these roads that were dirt roads at one time-

Mm-hmm

or, or didn't even exist at

all.

Yes ......and [00:06:00] develop. The importance of when you are working with

a client, and we've

got a lot of new construction, where this neighborhood is going,

that because you have seen

the growth-

Mm-hmm ...

your, your knowledge and your just foresight to,

you know, hey, this is where you're at, but I know where to

look at the

maps.

Right. What's going on? Are they gonna put a highway in the backyard? Right, right. You know?

And these things are important, and I think a l- a lot of agents,

aren't taking that

into really, I think,

doing the best for their client. Now, the, sometimes the client doesn't care.

[00:06:30] Niki Sparks: Right, right. Some people

[00:06:30] Tracy Hayes: don't.

You know, they

lived in Queens, New York, and they could touch their neighbor next

door and the highway- ... was over their head. They enjoy

[00:06:34] Niki Sparks: the noise. Yes.

[00:06:35] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

But there's

a lot of that situation going on right now- Mm-hmm,

[00:06:38] Niki Sparks: yes ...

[00:06:39] Tracy Hayes: in

the county.

[00:06:39] Niki Sparks: Yes, absolutely. And you know,

just, just the

new expressway that's connecting,

Clay County-

Mm-hmm to,

to

St. Johns County. I

mean, that, that's huge, that,

 a lot of homes now

are going to have a highway in their backyard and they,

and, and no one told them.

and

now they're looking

to sell.

And

so

so

having an

idea of that development, yes, absolutely is very helpful.

I

am always one [00:07:00] to,

if a, buyer has an interest in a home,

I'm absolutely going to look at

what's surrounding that home, what land is around, who

owns it,

where could

that go,

what's going to

be in their backyard.

That, that's

so important when someone's purchasing a home,

to know

what's going on around you

and what what it could look like in the future.

Because what it looks like right now

is pretty much a guarantee not what it's

going to look like in 5 to 10 years. So having an idea of that.

And my father was a developer and a realtor, and so

I, I, have a really good sense of,

 the size of land and what communities could go in there and, you

know,

the amount of homes

per acre and things

like that.

And

it's, uh, really important when you're building home. If you're

wanting something quiet out in the woods,

we really

gotta get you out in the woods.

You gotta stay out in the woods.

[00:07:43] Tracy Hayes: Okay.

Well,

it goes back to,

 you know, long-term success in this business.

They may be in that house three or

four years,

and all of a sudden now

there's a, and it's like, "Oh, Nikki didn't tell us about that."

You, there,

the, I

mean, your,

the real estate agent's going to

be on that shortlist of who,[00:08:00]

who to blame they be

upset- if something's

going on like this.

[00:08:02] Niki Sparks: 100%.

Yeah. 100%. Yeah. And so

doing as much research as possible,

 for me

is vital. I want my clients to make the

best decision for them based on every available piece of information we

have, and I'm going to go into detective mode-

find out what that is

so that they can make the best choice

for them.

Yeah.

I mean,

we, we often,

 I often talk on the show of, you know, obviously i-

interviewing 300,

know, your episode

343,

 

you know,

[00:08:30] Tracy Hayes: s- just some, some of the regular things that

top

agents are doing.

And this information that we're talking about to be able to

foreshadow to someone, say, "Yeah, I

see where that subdivision's going,

but you

know, that

highway was

planned

a long time ago."

[00:08:43] Niki Sparks: Right, right.

[00:08:43] Tracy Hayes: that-

[00:08:43] Niki Sparks: That's already owned

by the

county or the

state.

[00:08:45] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:08:46] Niki Sparks: And

that's a road coming through.

[00:08:47] Tracy Hayes: that easement's already in there. Yes. And that the information to find what's going to be happening,

 you know, granted something could

change, but,

obviously it would take several

years for them to eventually get

it to [00:09:00] where they're going to put a road in or something like that.

But that stuff is on

all the-

You

know,

there's county websites- Yes ... and so forth- Yes ... that's

feeding you that information. Yes.

And as a, as an

agent, I

mean, how important is it that

you, you need to be s- especially around some of these

new subdivisions as

we go further and further

west,

you, you need to say, "Hey, what- Yes

all right, what's gonna happen around them? Do I wanna

show these people this

house because

my name is

hopefully going to be

on it?" You want your name to be a billboard on that house

as

you sold it,

you know, and hopefully get

you further business.

You know, you don't wanna put them in

a bad situation-

[00:09:29] Niki Sparks: No.

absolutely not. or a possible bad situation. Absolutely not. Yeah.

So, So, every, every client that I'm

helping,

I'm helping them as if it were my own home,

and I'm gonna

do that research around all of it. If,

I've had a buyer

come to me and say,

" I don't wanna be in the city. I wanna be outside the city.

I don't wanna be

anywhere near a cell tower." And

so,

you know, even the research like that, it's important

to, work with a client- 'Cause they hide these

cell towers

pretty

good. They do. They hide them

really well. and then again, looking

at property ownership, is there one

going in nearby?

Is, is there already,

you know, planned, are there already

plans for that? And

[00:10:00] so,

yes, absolutely doing all the research possible to help that client. Have

[00:10:03] Tracy Hayes: you... You know,

you just made me think about it. This is something just off

the cuff. Have you

had anyone,

 the whole flock camera,

[00:10:09] Niki Sparks: Not yet ...

[00:10:09] Tracy Hayes: stuff.

Anybody mention- Not

[00:10:10] Niki Sparks: yet.

[00:10:11] Tracy Hayes: 'Cause I,

I

mean, that's one thing I, I mean, I love about St.

Johns County. I was on my board at my CDD

when they were first

putting the initial-

Mm-hmm ...license plate readers,

and we

put them at one at a choke point

in front of our neighborhood, and the, um,

the car break-ins like went to zero.

[00:10:27] Niki Sparks: Yeah.

[00:10:28] Tracy Hayes: it was well worth it.

'Cause as soon

as they

chased that first guy away, everyone el- all

the others knew-

not to

come in there anymore,

and it, and it worked. Now, yeah,

I

mean, but St. Johns County

has done a

great job. We live on

95, which

is a- Mm-hmm ... the cocaine corridor- Yep ... from Miami to New York.

Yeah.

[00:10:45] Niki Sparks: Yeah. Yeah. You gotta be careful.

[00:10:47] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

I don't think people realize what goes up and down our highway every day- ... running right through the

middle of our county. And who gets off of

it, right? Yeah. You know,

where, where are they might

[00:10:55] Niki Sparks: go.

We just don't

wanna

[00:10:57] Tracy Hayes: know. We just don't. Yeah, yeah.

wanna know.

We just don't. Yeah. Yeah.

The perspective,

or

[00:11:00] so

you're- you

you get married, you have kids.

How many kids?

[00:11:03] Niki Sparks: Two kids.

[00:11:03] Tracy Hayes: Two kids. You decide,

and you're able,

your, your husband's where you're able to

stay at home and raise

them- Yes ... as a stay-at-home mom. Yes.

But you had family members

that were in the business.

Mm-hmm.

So you kind of, you

kind of had a feel.

what was the most

kind of aha moment when you actually went and got your license and actually started working

that you either

didn't realize they were doing or didn't understand how, how deep

it was,

but now that you

got your license and you're actually,

you know, working real estate,

you're like, "Oh my God, I've known about real estate, I've al- and I didn't realize this"?

[00:11:39] Niki Sparks: So I think

that

the biggest thing for

me, the two

things that, that really hit me when I got my license

and dove in,

I

loved real estate

even more than I

realized I did. I always have. But to see,

how easy it came to me, for lack of a better word, I

guess. But that I really feel like I was

[00:12:00] made to do this.

It is so fulfilling to me.

and I was just, I was really good at

it just

f-

kind of

from the start, and think it's

from all

that I watched as I grew up and,

 watching my family and, and

how they did things. But, the other thing that, that

was surprising to me

was I actually

had to work to

get clients.

Like, that

that's the biggest job in real estate- Yeah ... is you have to find, you have

to find people willing to work with you and that want to buy

and sell with you. And so

one of the first things that

I did when I got

my license, I got my license in February of '22,

and which

was not very long ago,

and I worked for the first four, four or five

months or so, and I just learned

my market.

I didn't try

to solicit

clients, I didn't

try to build my

business at that time. I just needed to know my market inside

and out. I needed to know

exactly what inventory we had, what property values were,

 how quickly things were moving

in different

neighborhoods. I needed to

know all of that

for

my clients so that I knew that I could

serve them in the best way possible before I offered to even help [00:13:00] them.

So I spent

that time

building my knowledge and

then dove into, okay, well now I gotta

clients.

Mm-hmm. And so then it was a matter

of

simply

finding a way to regularly communicate with the people in my circles that already knew,

like, and trusted me,

 to, convey this knowledge that I had

and that

I could,

to give them the confidence that I could guide them in the best decision for them.

and so

that was how I

started out, was not

selling homes,

it was building my knowledge, my expertise, and building

my business.

[00:13:31] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, there's someone listening right now,

well, you were fortunate enough,

you

know, either, you know, your husband was, you

know, making money and-

Mm-hmm

you start, so you had, you

came in slow

and you took- Yes your time.

Yes. But

and in reality, even the agents who come in and "

like, Hey, I've gotta

try to

get a deal as

quickly as possible, you know, I only have

so many

months of savings," or whatever

it may be.

the

reality

is-

there

is a lot of,

I wa- I wanna use

the term downtime-

Mm-hmm ... or time that you actually,

you

know, there's [00:14:00] not a structured training

going on at that moment in time and so forth, that you actually need to structure your day- Yes

and

to

whether, "Hey, I'm going to the board to take a class.

I've got something going on

at you know- Mm-hmm ... the Keller Williams office there,"

or,

"So-and-so's offering a lunch and learn, a lender,

title company, whatever."

Mm-hmm. That sort of thing. How important is it for an agent when they

first get

started to, i- and

started to, i- and time blocking

is the word,

but to really-

kinda

schedule themselves and,

and don't be so willy-nilly,

actually go in like it's

a business and schedule, "

because I'm new, I wanna take a training three times a week

or something." I

gotta find

them, 'cause

they are out there-

[00:14:38] Niki Sparks: Yes ...

[00:14:38] Tracy Hayes: if

you want. Absolutely. Somebody's teaching something somewhere.

[00:14:41] Niki Sparks: Absolutely. There's so much opportunity to learn in this business.

and yes,

you are now, you know, when you get into real estate, and

that's, what a lot of new agents

don't realize, you are now a business owner.

you

own a business. You're building

a business. And one

of the reasons that I went with Keller Williams as my brokerage after interviewing several,

was

because they were going to [00:15:00] support me in building my business.

I wasn't helping to build their brokerage, they were

helping to

build me, and

that was huge for me.

So

you're now a

business owner,

and you've got to structure your day

and structure your

time and structure

financial resources in such a way

that you're going

to build a

business. It's not just a, "Oh, hey,

I get to go sell houses, and here's my check, and you get

all of your check."

That's

we

do not

get all of our check.

Yeah.

So

we have

to structure that,

and we

have to invest in the business, both

with

time and money,

and, we've got to

educate ourselves

in order to serve our

clients.

I mean, that's just the bottom line. You can't just hop into real estate and think, "Okay, I'm just gonna

sell a house, and I'm gonna get the m-" that's not how this works.

It's about serving

people.

[00:15:44] Tracy Hayes: So when you your kids are old enough, you're like, "Okay, I'm gonna go get

my license."

Mm-hmm.

you already,

I was gonna use the word mindset earlier when you were talking about,

 being around your family

members that were working in real estate- Yeah ... that

you

came in with a certain mindset.

Mm-hmm. When did you form[00:16:00]

the mindset you just described a few

minutes ago,

that, "Hey, I wanna come in. I need..."

Because I'm

sure they were telling you, if you were mentoring under, "

Hey, you

need to learn the inventory.

You need to learn the subdivisions

you're g- the area you're gonna work in." Mm-hmm.

You know, You need to know these little, details,

 so you can, you know, be the expert

you're supposed to be as a real estate agent."

When

did you start putting that

plan in place?

as y-

before you

got your

license, say, "Hey, when I

get my license, this is how I'm gonna do

it. I'm

really gonna take actually the first few months, and I'm gonna do

this." when did you actually make that plan?

[00:16:31] Niki Sparks: Definitely before I got my license.

I worked hard to, you

know, study for the exam. I mean, only half of those

that take the Florida real estate exam pass

on the first try, and

I was determined that I was gonna pass on the first

try. That was

gonna be me. So studied, prepared, but I

knew, I knew

I was building a business, and I had already

dabbled in building

businesses. My, my husband is

a business owner.

I had a

part-time photography business while I raised my kids, just

for some kind of fun

money, so I

built a business there.

we had done

flips

[00:17:00] and long-term rentals while we were raising the

kids, so a little bit

of business

there. So

I knew

from the very beginning it was going to be a business and I was

gonna build it the right way in every regard.

And so as I was getting my license and

focused on that, I knew right

out of the gate,

I knew the financial side needed to be in

order. I knew I needed to,

you know, if,

I can't sell

what I don't know,

and so I had to know what

I was gonna be helping my

clients with from- Yeah ...

from the beginning.

[00:17:26] Tracy Hayes: Th- that business mindset.

Mm-hmm. Th- there was one,

 guest that

I had on,

 

Carrie Carpenter.

she

does really well. Love her. She was a project manager.

She is, I don't know where she gets

her energy. She's- She's on a whole 'nother level. She drinks really- She's awesome ... drinks really great coffee somewhere.

Carrie's

great.

Yeah. And

she came in,

 with that project manager, but understood

it was

a business-

Mm-hmm ...and structured her business.

Mm-hmm. I imagine, you know, you

Keller Williams hires,

or,

you know, signs

up a lot of

new agents. Yep.

it's

kind of their model- Mm-hmm ... and, and trains them up, and hopefully maybe [00:18:00] they spill off into teams like yours or

something like

that.

But

many of them don't have that mindset, 'cause one,

they're they're not bringing in any money, so they're like,

"Well, I'm not bringing any money right now,

so I don't need to worry about setting

these things up." Right, right.

what, would you say to them? I imagine

you may have had somebody, you may have coached some- of these

new agents on

that mindset. What are some of the things you tell them?

[00:18:17] Niki Sparks: Number one, open a business bank account.

Never mix the personal

money with the business money.

You have a business

account, you have a personal account, don't

mix them.

[00:18:26] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:18:26] Niki Sparks: Always,

always, Always, whether you think you have

to

or not, when you get your first deal, you set aside money

for taxes.

Don't

get yourself into

a jam, because now you're owner. You're a 1099 employee. You're not

W-2. Nobody's withholding taxes.

You

have to prepare for the expenses that are going to come

with the business. And so I know

that, that, we say in real

estate a lot, you have

to come into the game here

with, with at least six months saved up of

living expenses,

and, and I would venture to

say you need a little more,

because you have to invest

in

the business as well in order to really do it right.

invest in yourself and invest in your business.

[00:18:58] Tracy Hayes: And there's a

lot of-[00:19:00]

There's, I'm sure

there's a lot of books. Yeah.

Keller

Williams, you know, he,

 they've got

what's the Millionaire, what's-

[00:19:05] Niki Sparks: Millionaire

[00:19:05] Tracy Hayes: Real Estate ... Millionaire.

But-

That's a popular one ... they're

talking about these things, and I, I'm sure they can give you an idea of what percentages

you should be- Yes

putting away.

And I think,

you

know, of course, a lot of self-employed people neglect the part is like,

hey, the government

allows you to put so much,

you know, as

a W-2 employee myself, to put into a

401. Well, you

could create your own

401- Yeah ...

or IRA. Yeah. And you could be putting that

money away there.

But for the

long-term play,

it's just

so beneficial to be so disciplined up front.

Ag- again, some of the,

the top agents now, I know some of my top agents aren't all-

you know, like you and

Kerry and have got it all,

you know, down to

a T. But if there was something

you could do

differently, I

guarantee

most, a lot of them would say,

"Yes, I wish

I started off more structured-

Yes ... in a

business mindset."

[00:19:53] Niki Sparks: Yes, 100%. You have to treat it like

a business.

If, if you want to be seen as

a professional

by the people that you're helping,

[00:20:00] you

have to start out with that professional mindset yourself.

You

are building a business, and that business is going to help others. You're gonna have expenses.

For me, I have an amazing operations manager who's

been with

me for a year now.

She's my right arm.

[00:20:13] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:20:13] Niki Sparks: Can't live

without

her now.

I mean, you know, I pay

her salary. And so

there are expenses in a business that you have

to

plan for and account for. And as you start to become, you know, you start to

sell more homes

and, and bring in more money and bring in more revenue,

that's gonna be dispersed out into the business.

You know, the brokerage gets their cut, Uncle Sam definitely gets his cut,

you've got

expenses in the business, and you have

to, you have to plan for that

accordingly.

[00:20:36] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. I

could probably

do a whole series of podcasts

on

money

blown by real estate agents.

but, it's not,

just real estate agents,

it's any

self-employed small business owner.

We all go through this trial and error thing.

And, when you don't

know your

budgets, you're not like, "

Hey,

I

read these books. They say you

should [00:21:00] hold 10,

12%

for marketing," just

to use

a number.

[00:21:02] Niki Sparks: Mm-hmm.

[00:21:03] Tracy Hayes: And if you know that number and hold yourself to it,

"Well, I've already spent that money,

I can't do this

right now"-

[00:21:09] Niki Sparks: Right

[00:21:10] Tracy Hayes: you probably are going to save

yourself a

tremendous amount

of money,

not because you just didn't spend it,

because you

didn't blow it.

[00:21:16] Niki Sparks: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. You have

to market, you have to buy signs, you have to

advertise, you have to...

I mean, for me, I own staging

furniture and I stage homes,

and

so there's a storage unit and there's movers and there's a

stager and

[00:21:28] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm

[00:21:29] Niki Sparks: there's a

lot of expenses

that go into it, and planning for that.

And I think vision is

important, too. I think having a vision

of the business that you want to build,

and then building that

model around. we

have so many models,

 with Keller Williams, and, and

you mentioned Millionaire Real Estate Agent, love there's

models within

that that are

not just

theories, they're proven.

And

so using those proven models and building on that has been a really good move

for me.

[00:21:55] Tracy Hayes: For

a newer

agent listening or an agent who might

be [00:22:00] struggling, not really moving

along, maybe

hopefully

you're surviving right now,

 which I think is

a lot

of the percentage of agents,

as we know

the percentage that actually produce.

If-

you wanna

move forward, you've got to

start,

you know, digging

into some of these books or podcasts- Yes ... or audiobooks, whatever you wanna. And

because you really don't need to c- recreate the wheel. No. You really don't.

These new widgets that are coming

out, I

mean,

the advertisements are a constant bombardment

on Instagram and, and,

social media.

"Oh,

you need this. Oh, there's this new,

 new app that you can do this."

The reality is if you go

in the office

to someone

who's doing it

and

almost copy verbatim what they're doing- Yeah ... the only difference is your clients will

be different than theirs. Yes. So

you just n- need to know how to approach your clients

versus

how

they approach their clients.

[00:22:51] Niki Sparks: Absolutely.

and I always say that

there is enough

business to

go around. You

know, I,

one of the

things I love about

our office is that we're very collaborative.

That's another thing I love-

Mm ... about Keller [00:23:00] Williams, is we're very collaborative. We're not competitive.

I mean, some of us get a little competitive.

[00:23:04] Tracy Hayes: But- Well,

well, you want- But we work together ... that's what the recognition

comes in,

'cause you want a little bit of, you need some of that spirited juices

there. Yes.

[00:23:11] Niki Sparks: Right? Yes,

yes. We need

a little bit, a little bit, of

fun. but we work together

and, I have the honor of serving

on our associate leadership, council.

And

so, you know, we get to mentor

these new agents that come in and get to share

what we do. and the reason that I don't feel threatened by that

is because

I'm not,

I,

I have no desire to be everyone's realtor. I have no desire to work with everyone who's buying or selling their home.

There are certain clients that are, I'm going to connect with and that are going to

connect with me, and others that aren't,

and that's okay.

Like, there's plenty of business for all of us

to go around,

and working together and building each other up is the best environment,

 I have found

to, to not only build my business,

but you know, a rising

tide lifts all ships- and

we just work together.

[00:23:52] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, I think,

 

there's a couple, there's several phrases that you

bring up there.

[00:23:56] Niki Sparks: Mm-hmm.

[00:23:56] Tracy Hayes: one is what goes around comes around.

[00:23:58] Niki Sparks: Yes.

[00:23:59] Tracy Hayes: And[00:24:00]

agents that struggle or agents that other agents don't, you don't

wanna be,

you don't wanna

be disliked by

other agents. It's not

a- No, you gotta have a relationship

it's not,

y- you can be, competitive in your own way. It's kinda

like golf.

You're kinda like, you're

competitive, 'cause you're really competing against yourself-

Right, exactly ... in

your, in your growth, 'cause you're at a

different

chapter in life. You're on a different hole, than

the other a- Yeah

agent you m-

you think you're competing against.

But the collaboration, like you said, you were helping out

the younger agents. Yes.

The reality is

you and I know-

know-

that if this was easy, everyone would be doing it.

And we know that we can help

100

new

agents,

hopefully a handful- Right ... are still

here three and four years from now.

[00:24:43] Niki Sparks: Right. Right,

exactly. I mean, it's,

it's, a

lot of people get into real estate,

and they, "Oh, it's an easy paycheck."

And, it is,

hard, hard work. I had,

goodness gracious, I

had two closings the last

couple of weeks

that, that were just hard for my clients, and that makes it hard for

[00:25:00] me. It just, I,

carry, I

carry, my clients' stresses, and disappointments, and inconveniences and all, I carry

them

very, very, heavily.

and that's, that's one of the reasons

that clients like to work with

me, I think, is I'm there with them every step of the

way. But

it's sometimes it's

really, really hard.

Sometimes, you

know, the

market, I mean,

we're we're in a market shift right now in, in

Northeast Florida, and

so, you know, we're feeling that

on the ground.

and

agents

that come in,

 at a time like this, it can be

very,

very, difficult to get

new business. Very difficult.

And so

the work that, and the effort that they have

to put in, this is

not an easy paycheck.

it's not at all an

easy paycheck. It's

worth it. It's worth every bit, and I, love it more than I

ever imagined I would.

But

it's, it's work.

[00:25:43] Tracy Hayes: But-

I don't

know if there's anyone who can't do it. You just have to apply yourself. Yes. And now,

would you

agree,

and you

know,

obviously even

growing up with family around you, there was

things about real estate you didn't real- know. Yeah. You

learned- Yeah ... as

you [00:26:00] got

into the office- Of course

and started seeing

what

these other people

were doing.

But how important is it for someone,

and, and I don- I, uh, the question I was gonna ask you earlier, 'cause you said you took several months to learn, is, is- Yeah

did you

take some time to, to mentor under an

experienced agent,

 almost shadow them?

And how important

is it for new agents to

look for opportunities like that, where a

senior agent will take them under their wings, but they gotta be willing to apply what

that agent's teaching

them- Right ... to some degree.

otherwise, those senior

agents

are like

Just get lost, 'cause I'm telling you what to do

and you're not doing it-

and you're crying 'cause you're not being successful. Right?

[00:26:36] Niki Sparks: To

be coachable. Yeah. Be

moldable, yes.

yes, absolutely.

So, Russell Nicholson was our team lead,

 when I joined our office. He's now our operating principal, but, he's amazing and, one of the biggest reasons that I

joined that office was because of Russell,

and he has been coaching and mentoring me since the beginning.

still coaches me a

couple times a month

and,

I've been

very grateful for that guidance and just kind

of gleaning

from his [00:27:00] experience.

And, getting a different

perspective too is

so important. And s-

you know, you, you, come in and,

and I can be

stubborn and

I can,

I can, sometimes think I know it

all, but we don't.

We really don't.

I mean, it- to

have a continually,

 you know, desire

to learn and

to educate yourself, just be on constant learning,

when you're

in this

industry. The market is always changing

and shifting.

There's always something new to

learn, and now I'm... I also

cautious new agents,

you know, it's not

always about chasing the new shiny

object either.

it's

about doing the basics.

It's about keeping in touch with your people, knowing

your market,

communicating that

to your people.

and my business is 65 to 75%,

 

sphere-based and referral-based and, you know, I don't cold call, I don't door knock.

I've never done that. I never will.

Mm-hmm. So

it's, it's relationship based for me

and the only way to build a business like that is

to, to genuinely take care of

your people

and know what you're

doing.

[00:27:53] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

Well, I think your office,

 you know, we could cut

this little reel out for Russell.

You know,

obviously I've had him [00:28:00] on the show.

I've talked to him outside of

the, the show.

he

gets it.

[00:28:04] Niki Sparks: Yes.

[00:28:04] Tracy Hayes: he understands his role and

how he,

you know,

obviously

his success is the agents that,

get better underneath him.

Yeah.

And because

he gets

it,

 I think he's,

 gathered a lot of credibility with the agents around him. Yeah.

Not every

brokerage

has that.

[00:28:21] Niki Sparks: Nope.

[00:28:22] Tracy Hayes: I am sure you've worked with

many people who are like,

what

does Russell do?"

[00:28:25] Niki Sparks: Yeah.

[00:28:26] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:28:27] Niki Sparks: Yes. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, Russell's

awesome. And,

you know, to have,

it's so

so, important, especially for agents that are just coming into the industry,

that they get

the proper training.

you

know, our, our,

contrary to

popular belief, the real

estate exam in

the state of Florida

does, does, does not teach you how to be a real estate agent. it

only, it only teaches you how to

stay out of real estate jail, which is actually real

jail. so you know,

knowing what you're doing,

knowing the contracts,

 again, knowing your market, knowing

how to find

your clients, because that's truly one [00:29:00] of the biggest jobs we have in real estate, is

knowing,

knowing,

how to find business.

and that,

that's as important as helping people find homes.

[00:29:08] Tracy Hayes: Well-

There's, there's the,

the important trainings. The trainings you're actually going to, that

are actually going to move your business.

And then,

you

know, it, it's

kind of like, you know, as I mentioned earlier, all these flashy

things, these apps or whatever, "

Oh, it's gonna help you do this.

Oh, it's gonna help

you great- create these great Instagram

reels or whatever."

is

it going to move the needle?

[00:29:27] Niki Sparks: Right.

[00:29:28] Tracy Hayes: And I think why Russell

gets it

and

is able to pour great value into,

 the people, he,

leads

is because he's

narrowed it down

to knowing what

the important

hot

points, hot trainings do you...

Yes, you need to

know the contract.

are, how are we getting business? Everyone in your office gets their business a different way.

[00:29:49] Niki Sparks: Yes,

absolutely.

[00:29:50] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Absolutely. How

you even

get your business from your sphere

is different from another- Yes ...agent ...in the office, and how they get their business from their sphere.

[00:29:57] Niki Sparks: Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely.

And, and

when I signed [00:30:00] on with Russell, when I

hung my license with Keller Williams,

I told him flat out, I said, "

I am not, I'm not making any cold calls. Not gonna make a single cold call, so if that's what you're gonna make me do, I'm not coming

here."

So, you know again,

Russell to not only

get what agents need to know to succeed, he knows what they each need to succeed for their business,

and how to reach their clients and their people.

And so

that

has been ingrained since,

you know, since I got my license and since I joined. It- and that's been a

huge,

support.

[00:30:33] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

if

there was somebody new coming to me

today and said, "Hey, what

brokerages should I speak to?" Russell's on that

list. Yeah. Especially if they live

in St.

Augustine. Yeah. You live in Nassau

County, a little more difficult. You're probably not gonna get as much as Russell.

We got an

[00:30:46] Niki Sparks: office there

[00:30:46] Tracy Hayes: too.

but eventually maybe

he might be over

all, all of, you know,

kind of

like how Josh Cohen

at, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices is

another

one.

If

you're an agent getting in the business right now, knowing what you

know, Nikki,

and I'm looking for [00:31:00] someone like Russell, what

are some of the things...

You know,

you,

you said you spoke to some different brokerages

before choosing Keller Williams.

what

are some of the things that

if you had to go back and

start over again

and

tried,

and, Russell wasn't there, to find

someone like Russell? '

Cause-

I

think you would agree,

there's a

lot of agents,

and I say

this all the time,

a lot

of agents,

your brokerage choice could

or break.

[00:31:24] Niki Sparks: 100%.

[00:31:24] Tracy Hayes: Now, if you're

like Carrie Carpenter, I think Carrie Carpenter would've

been successful no matter what brokerage she goes- ... 'cause she

has that,

she just has the energy, and she has the business mindset,

whatever. But there's a

lot of

others who are a little more dependent.

Mm-hmm. And

nothing wrong with that.

Right.

We all, we need, we need to get with someone who can fill in

some of the knowledge gaps,

 and and,

 constructively

coach us on, you

know,

what do we need to buy, what don't we need

to buy, and all those things that we were just

talking about.

Mm-hmm. If

I wanted to go out there right now and I

d- you know, you started all over again,

knowing what you know now, five years in the business roughly,

 

and you

want

You know, I mean, I need to find a [00:32:00] broker like Russell. What are some of the things that you would do to try

to find that?

[00:32:04] Niki Sparks: Oh, that's

a good question.

I need to have a conversation with

them first of all. I,

I need to see

I think

it's more important to have a conversation with their

agents

and then have a conversation with them.

I agree. Like, what,

what have they produced?

What, how are their agents

working?

do they have integrity?

do they know

what they're

doing?

can

they have an educated

conversation about today's market?

what

has that

broker produced? I think the

agents that come out of that office are a really, really big indicator of,

what that leadership looks like.

[00:32:36] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

I agree wholeheartedly. I think

too many,

 agents, they

just go talk to the broker themselves,

and it's, you know, it's like going

to an interview. Both of you are trying to sell each other.

He's

trying to sell you to come to the brokerage-

Right ... but you

think y- you're

actually being interviewed to see if you're good enough to get in the

brokerage.

There

are a couple brokerages

like

that, won't, that they

hire anybody.

But most brokerages are going to sign up anyone and say, "Hey, we're gonna train you,"

because they're [00:33:00] confident in that ability.

Keller Williams, for the most part, is

one of the... They like

you

know, they're deep in the training, they're

deep into

the,

the bigger organizations, and they're,

you know, Watson's another one that, that, that go, takes

that route.

But

to

truly find that

broker is gonna

pour into you

and actually be

paying attention

of how

you're doing your business,

because I'm sure there's

been times where you

took some

that

didn't bear fruit,

and then

you, you

either yourself did a checkup or someone said, "Hey,

I see you're walking down that path.

It's not

bearing any fruit." And you're

like, "

You know what? You're actually right." Yeah. "Help me out. Which

way should I go?"

[00:33:38] Niki Sparks: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:33:38] Tracy Hayes: and, and

and I think so many agents, a

of agents need

that help.

[00:33:42] Niki Sparks: Yes.

Yeah, 100%.

I mean, I

I, I

came into the business

knowing a lot about what I was doing

and, and I still needed that mentorship

and that coaching, and I still do.

I don't think there's ever going to be a time,

 when I'm not going to rely

on some type of mentor or coach.

[00:34:00] there's always opportunity

for growth in this business and there's always more to learn. Yeah.

and you have to

have that mindset. There's

always more to

learn.

[00:34:07] Tracy Hayes: All right.

First,

 this is my structured questions, and just to put a little, out there,

 with the help of

readtomato.com,

 we've structured some questions for Nikki and

her business,

what she's doing

in, in St.

Augustine, in, in obviously the

Old City and so

forth.

So, we can create some great content, but really,

she's the

expert, and that's

why we're using the podcast is, Nikki

is getting a, a moment

to, express

to everyone. Of course,

it's out there

forever. It's

on Google. Yeah. You Google it, your

Google it.

Your YouTube

YouTube-

or the podcast will be

out there on all the podcast platforms,

 forever. And so anyone, you know, searching for answers.

So, to get off,

k-

kind of the learning experience- Mm-hmm

this

is a question I, I, I put out often is,

 I

it the, the cocktail or barbecue

question.

Obviously, e-

if

anyone knows you're in real estate,

you're at a social-

Mm-hmm they're gonna ask you about... It's a very easy subject to

talk about. Yeah. Whatever.

it could take you [00:35:00] any,

any which direction '

cause

most

people are curious about or what's just going on around

them, and they expect a real estate agent to

know those things. But

give

us a situation that maybe you've had recently

that, still sits with you

and, and, you know, might be one of those things where like you won't believe the transaction I just had.

You, you,

you feel me?

So give us a situation

you had recently

that, that maybe it went sideways or,

you know, maybe your customer

had a very unique

or a request

or something. Like

just, just share with us a, an experience with a client recently that,

and obviously, hopefully

was a, a success.

[00:35:34] Niki Sparks: Yes.

oh goodness.

I'm gonna

go with, this was very recently, so it's still really

fresh on

my mind.

I was helping a buyer

who's, who's actually someone

dear in my life.

And,

my,

hope for every single client,

whether it's a sale or a purchase, is that everything goes perfectly smoothly.

I carry

all the stress, and it's just a smooth road to

closing. And then either brand-new house,

[00:35:57] Tracy Hayes: yay, exciting- That's the utopia.

That's the

[00:35:59] Niki Sparks: That's the utopia. That's the goal. Yeah. [00:36:00] That's the goal.

[00:36:00] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:36:01] Niki Sparks: But that's not what

happened this time. so s- end goal still,

I mean,

end result

still great.

End result,

got my wonderful favorite person

in, in this house.

but it was a really, really bumpy road

and

it wasn't, the

fault of the buyer.

it

wasn't even really

the fault of the seller.

it was

delays that couldn't

have been helped, I think,

 in a

lot

of ways.

But it caused

the seller to have to live out of a U-Haul for two days with, with two

kids in diapers,

which killed me. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It wasn't even my

seller, but that killed

me.

and then things that, that had to be done at the house on closing day

and, and

cleaning things

up and getting it ready for my buyer.

And, and it, it was just, the power was left

off, and it shouldn't have been. And

It

was, it was,

oh,

it was, it was, a journey of a,

of a closing. It

sounds

[00:36:48] Tracy Hayes: like one of those deals that if it could go wrong,

it did go wrong.

[00:36:50] Niki Sparks: It did. Exactly.

100%. Yeah. If

it could go wrong,

it went wrong. and

it's been

eight days now,

but my

buyer is in the home[00:37:00]

and

happy, and newly painted walls.

And,

it's

gonna be a great

home for them. and

I,

I just,

you know,

it's

gonna sit with me for

a long

time that

I couldn't, I couldn't relieve a lot of what happened. But

in the end,

first-time home buyer is now a homeowner,

so.

[00:37:19] Tracy Hayes: Excellent. What did you, cause

I imagine some of these situations that occurred were-

were first time for

you.

And even an agent who's been doing this 20

years still has

first time experiences- ... of

issues of potholes they've never seen before-

in that process.

After

going through that,

what are a couple

of things maybe

you you would do, or maybe

you've added to your

foreshadowing, 'cause it's

very important for an agent

to

foreshadow of what's expected and how things

are gonna go down until we get to closing.

After

this experience, have you changed,

 you know, how you foreshadow, or obviously add this situation to your foreshadow

list?

[00:37:56] Niki Sparks: Yes.

Yeah.

The answer is yes.[00:38:00]

So

when

we have a delay in

closing,

I tend to push that

final walkthrough

back

to, I need

to know that the home is in the condition

it needs to be in

just before my, my buyer is signing or

my seller is signing.

I check on my

listings too.

Mm-hmm. and

this situation, I probably should have done a

walkthrough

on the day we thought we were closing, instead of two days later, because then I could have

nipped a few things in

the bud, I

think.

[00:38:28] Tracy Hayes: So

you got a delay.

[00:38:30] Niki Sparks: Yes, two

[00:38:30] Tracy Hayes: days.

So you, so you delayed the final walkthrough- Yes

and didn't- Yes ... okay.

[00:38:33] Niki Sparks: Yes. Mm-hmm. So

a lot, could have been handled a l-

differently

had

I,

had I

done that

early

walkthrough. Even though we weren't closing that day, I could have done another when we were closer to closing. Mm-hmm. But

that's definitely a lesson I will take with me,

 when

there are delays, do three walkthroughs

if you have

to.

Just make sure.

[00:38:50] Tracy Hayes: So especially

for a house that may be empty.

[00:38:53] Niki Sparks: Yes.

[00:38:54] Tracy Hayes: the agent maybe sh- should

do their

little

pre-walkthrough three or four days before the actual [00:39:00] walkthrough- Yes ... with your new buyer.

[00:39:01] Niki Sparks: Yes. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. And that's what I do on my

listings,

and, you know, it's not something I ever thought that I

necessarily needed to do for a buyer.

it wasn't vacant long term, it had just,

you know, we thought we were

closing, and the move out was done on the day we thought we

were closing.

So that's

definitely a little nugget I'm gonna take with me.

Mm-hmm.

[00:39:18] Tracy Hayes: Because I,

you know, You've

done it enough times. This is not the

first situation where when the seller

moves out,

I don't know, in this case, did they take something they weren't supposed to take, like an appliance or something?

what was

it-

Well- Something changed

from the time the-

Something changed ...

when the seller cleared out.

[00:39:35] Niki Sparks: Correct.

Something cha-

well, there was a pet left

behind. W- not,

not permanently left

behind, don't worry.

They came back to

get the pet,

but I guess they couldn't

have the pet with the U-Haul or not, so anyway.

Right. There was a pet

left, and so there

was,

there

were pet messes, and then no water to clean it up because the utilities had

been turned off.

So, and

then food in the freezer and the seller didn't intend the,

to leave

food in the freezer. It was

kind of hidden on that pull-out shelf- Over, [00:40:00] overseen

you know? Yeah.

Right,

right. It was an oversight. you know,

and, ice bucket wasn't emptied out because they didn't plan for the power to be out.

and so, you know, there's a puddle on the

floor. So there were just a lot of things that- Mm

um, yeah, could

have been better, but

[00:40:13] Tracy Hayes: So, well, ta- talk about

that transition of

the utilities.

I

mean, r- really the

seller doesn't need to go and shut things off.

The new buyer is going to

call and say, "Hey, I just bought this house."

They're,

you

know, the power company's gonna do their thing and then

they're gonna transfer it over.

Right. They

don't actually need to physically cut the power.

Right, right.

and,

And, and think you, okay, the couple of pennies that day or that-

20 bucks

that that

day of air conditioning cost you, which actually would be a lot for-

But the few dollars is not worth the poss- Right ... 'cause

they could have damaged the house. A water leak

on the

floor, now you got a water damage situation.

You maybe had a hardwood floor, now it's screwed up.

[00:40:50] Niki Sparks: Right,

right.

[00:40:50] Tracy Hayes: the cost of that versus just paying for the power for two days.

[00:40:53] Niki Sparks: Right. Yeah. And you

know,

we always tell our sellers,

 always cancel

the utilities the day after, because there could

be delays in [00:41:00] closing, so do it the day after. And then the buyers should be transferring it the day

of.

And

so there's

Mm ......there's an overlap, and it's

fine. and in this situation, my buyer had transferred utilities, but unfortunately, the utility companies

mistakenly turned the utilities back on at a previous address and not this new one,

so.

[00:41:18] Tracy Hayes: Ah.

[00:41:20] Niki Sparks: I'm telling you, if it could have

I'm telling you, if it could have gone wrong, it did.

[00:41:21] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, sounds like it.

Wow, Murphy's Law on that one. Yes.

you

talk about most, a, a good portion of your business, three-quarters of your business roughly- Mm

um, you know, coming from referrals.

walk us

through how the relationship

model actually works in practice. Where does the next client actually come from

if you,

never chase one?

[00:41:41] Niki Sparks: That is a good question.

So one of the things, like I said, that I did in the

beginning was

educated myself on our market, the areas that I wanted

to serve.

and then

I,

I communicated that

to those people within my

circle.

And,

I

did that through,

 regular monthly newsletter emails, [00:42:00] talked

the

market.

I

did it through,

 

market report mailers that I send out.

So the

people that were already in my circles

now knew, "Okay,

well, it's, this isn't just Nikki the photographer,

or

Nikki the homeschooling

mom, or Nikki

the fellow church member.

She knows

real estate.

Like, look at this.

She,

she knows this market.

She, here's how she can help

me."

And

I market exclusively to sellers.

And, and,

when, you, market

to

sellers and you have listings, the buyers will come.

So I

certainly, I help

sellers and buyers.

But all of my marketing, all of my newsletters are written to sellers.

And just communicating

that market knowledge

and, communicating how

I can help solve their

problems.

That, that's what it's all about.

you know, buyers and sellers,

they, buying and selling

real estate is stressful. It

is stressful. Moving is stressful.

All of it is

stressful.

And so to

d-

they

all have certain concerns

and,

and

unique

situations that if

I can get in there and help them

understand

that, "

I can solve this problem for

you.

I can

help carry this stress, and [00:43:00] this is how

we're gonna do it. This is our

plan. This

is my strategy

for

this." And, that

just communicating that

to my people and,

they would

call when they were ready.

[00:43:07] Tracy Hayes: you

just said something, was,

 that

I caught in there was

your newsletter.

[00:43:11] Niki Sparks: Mm-hmm.

[00:43:11] Tracy Hayes: which

if you are not a creative person, there are people

that can be

creative- Yeah and ...be you. Just

like,

you

know, I imagine the, for the most part a lot of them

are, are using a

little bit

of AI when

they start programming AI.

You, you know,

how you

speak, all

kind of thing.

you

know,

recording a podcast

like this, now

we have a transcript that's got you talking

and,

you

know, AI

can pick up on that.

But anyway, not

to

off on

AI.

But from

the newsletter

standpoint, you said you- in your newsletter

you really focus on listing.

Mm-hmm. And,

 a couple episodes ago I had Katie Spaniak on, who has a literally an,

a very

large YouTube channel,

and she found

in

successful

in YouTube,

it

took her

years of trial and tribulation.

she

found out you can't speak to both.

Right. You can't

speak to both buyers

and sellers.

Mm-hmm. but if you're speaking to the seller

[00:44:00] and you're focused on

this newsletter,

your newsletter,

I, I

just imagine

it's

good because you're

focused

just on the

seller. The buyers

still

it.

[00:44:07] Niki Sparks: Yes.

Yes.

Yeah.

They, they

know. it also shows buyers that I know

the market and

I understand how to help them purchase a home in this market. So

one thing

about my,

communications,

 

with

my people, I do

have client events

and things like that, so

there are,

there are other

communications that

go out.

But

for my newsletter,

for

my market report,

it is

no fluff. It is like

I,

literally sat down and typed

up an email

at my

computer and it goes

out to

my people, and then

I design

a,

you know, a mailed version of that too.

Mm-hmm. But there's not gonna be a recipe in it because I'm here to tell y'all I

do

not cook.

There's

not gonna be gardening tips, 'cause I cannot keep

plants alive to save my life.

So

it's going to be focused on,

real estate. I want people to

know

that I'm the real estate expert and that I can solve

their problem,

and that's what

my newsletter and my market report need to communicate.

[00:44:54] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

You say

sellers have to

win the price war and- And the beauty contest. ... the beauty

contest. [00:45:00] Walk

me through what that actually means when you sit down with a seller before the listing goes live.

[00:45:06] Niki Sparks: So in, any shifting market, and you

know, i-

a lot of people

are seeing

price reductions and they're seeing all these

homes on the market

or or their

perception of all these homes on the

market,

and they think, "Oh, the market is crashing,

the sky is falling,"

and it's really

not.

but

we have to

beat the competition, and we have to

beat them

in price

and

condition.

I

mean, we have to

win the price war

and the beauty contest. If

you've got two homes side by side that are the same condition,

and we've gotta beat that price

or they're gonna be the ones

that sell instead of us.

when

I say win the beauty contest, market prep is important.

Details are

so important. Details matter.

I'm

really detailed

and strategic in

my business and in my

listing

preparation.

So I'm gonna walk in with the eyes of a buyer.

I'm

going

to,

you

know, if there's

a cobweb

in the corner of

the

front door,

if there's dirty

gutters, we've

gotta take care of

that.

We can't

let [00:46:00] a buyer walk up

and see these

little details,

and then they're gonna

walk through your home and they're going

to

see

the rest

of,

you

know,

they're gonna look

for more bad

details.

We've gotta

have a deep clean of the

home because

everyone's

version of

clean is different.

we've got to,

I

have

a stager that

I

bring in that even

if it's

not a, a vacant home that I'm doing

a

full

furniture stage in, I do own staging furniture

and

we,

we do

that

on every empty

home.

But

even if

it's

occupied and my sellers

are

gonna live

there

while we

sell,

my stager

comes in and

we kind

of rearrange and

we'll

let, let's

pack up this

bookshelf, let's move

this around.

And,

presentation, preparation, and

pricing are

so, so important

in this market.

[00:46:38] Tracy Hayes: Just

in your experience, obviously

you're

doing that for

a reason '

cause you've seen

success.

But

explain

that

success,

obviously, you

know, obviously

holding

price point

is a

success.

How quickly it

gets

offers,

getting multiple offers.

But

obviously

what are the things that you're seeing by doing the things you just listed off

there

that

obviously continue

to

f- [00:47:00] you

to

fuel and continue to go deeper

in

going

through some of those, steps that you just talked

about?

[00:47:04] Niki Sparks: Yeah.

So, it's

all

about

too what

do my

sellers need to accomplish?

what is their biggest

goal?

they have

to

get a contract and get out of

here in

a

month? Have

they already signed the contract

on

their next house?

Are, are

we really in a hurry?

let's

price

at the lowest level

the market will support

and,

get that quick interest.

if

they've

got

a little bit

of time, then maybe we can

price it

in,

the

mid-range.

We're a

little bit higher.

[00:47:25] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:47:26] Niki Sparks: but

me walking them through that preparation

and

taking that off of them

and

guiding

them

what

may

need

to be done and

what doesn't need to

be

done, I know a lot of sellers

get

really stressed out, "Well, I've

gotta do this and I've

gotta

do this," and then they

kinda get paralyzed because it's just overwhelming.

It's so much.

Yeah.

And so when I go

in there

and, I know because I

spend,

you know, every day with buyers

too,

know what

buyers are looking

for

in that particular

community,

in that particular

price point. And

so I can guide

them,

"Okay,

this

major thing needs

to be done.

This is, it's

a

very visual

thing.

This

needs to be done. [00:48:00] This

other thing, we

may not need to worry about. this isn't something

that I

think buyers

are really gonna be

concerned about in,

this neighborhood

and this price point, so we

don't need to

stress about

that. We don't need

to do

it."

of course, we're gonna

disclose

everything that

needs to

be

disclosed because

we're, honest

and we work with

integrity. But

we're

only gonna do what we have to

do

to win that

price war and that beauty contest.

And,

it's all

about strategy. It's all about positioning

on the market for

the

home that it is and the community that, that

it's

in.

[00:48:27] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

I

think

the agent,

agents

that are listening, if there's something to

out of there,

you have created

a, process- Mm-hmm

of,

you

know,

the listing

and what you

need to do, whether

it needs to be staged, decluttered,

or

all

the

above.

Yep.

Those types of

things.

and

normal

average

agent

is actually looking at it going,

"What is

the least amount

I can do- ... to sell

this house and move on to the next one?" And

in reality,

because 75% of your business is coming

from, you

know,

your sphere, past clients- Mm-hmm

[00:49:00] imagine all this is what you're,

leading to.

How

have you seen

that

this,

these steps

that you

take, maybe

stage a room,

it does- yeah,

maybe you could have gotten

away without doing it,

but you

don't know,

right?

Yeah. There's

a

tree in the woods that's falling,

make

noise. If no one's there to hear

you

don't know.

You just

know. But the people

that are

seeing

you do it, your seller-

is

now going, "

Oh,

"Oh, wow."

You know?

I

I call it

the,

wow factor. I,

I

think it was in a recent blog I did of a,

you

know, it

was a

recording, but I, I mentioned

this,

like, what

are

you doing

to

impress-

Mm-hmm

your

seller that you're representing?

Right. Because hopefully that

person's gonna

be like, "

Oh

my God,

Nikki, she

did this and

she recommended

that, and we sold

so much

quicker, and we got, we

got what we

want,

maybe a

little bit more."

you

know, they have

some,

that great experience where, yeah,

you could have cut

the

corner, maybe still,

y- you

don't know if you would've

gotten the price,

but

the

seller wouldn't

have known

either.

But the fact

that you do

these, little extra

steps that the

average

agent

won't do is

the

wow factor

that gets those

people [00:50:00] out there,

I call it being your

billboard and, ...and- Yeah ...telling other people about

you.

[00:50:03] Niki Sparks: Absolutely.

And, I care so much about

the people that I

serve,

whether

they

are directly

from my

sphere

and my

circle,

or it's someone in my sphere or circle that has recommended them to me.

I have an obligation to

take care of

that client,

and, I'm gonna

earn

every penny.

Mm-hmm. I'm gonna put forth every possible effort,

 'cause

I care about these

people. I care about the outcome for them,

and, not

putting in

100%, 200%, uh,

200%, I

I, I can't,

I wouldn't be able

to

sleep at night. Yeah.

[00:50:34] Tracy Hayes: Well,

I think so many

people are so into

like,

what am I gonna get out of

that?"

[00:50:37] Niki Sparks: Yeah, you

know.

[00:50:38] Tracy Hayes: Well, you

don't know until

you, you

do it. And if it is,

hey, spending an

extra

10

minutes here or,

you

know, getting a couple pieces of furniture

to stage maybe one or

two rooms- Right

in

the house,

you,

don't

know how the effect

of

the potential buyer in this case

coming in is gonna

be

wowed and,

and make the

right offer, or

you get multiple offer.

You

just

don't know. Right. But if

you,

take

the low [00:51:00] road,

the

common denominator road,

you are

never

truly going to be

a, a great

agent

as the agents that

I have on, and then you, because

you're not, giving

them the wow factor.

Doing

something they did not expect you to

do- Right ...and

they obviously saw value

in

it.

[00:51:14] Niki Sparks: Over and above.

I

mean, that, that's,

my goal

is

to,

delight and

surprise, surprise,

and

delight.

every client,

to me,

is

a luxury client.

It's not about the

price

point. It's

not about how much commission am

I gonna make on

this.

It's about

getting done what my client

needs

to get done.

and it's, every

listing is

marketed

as a luxury listing.

Every client

is treated like

a

luxury client.

I mean,

it's all luxury

in

my world.

they're all

going to

get the

white

glove treatment, the red carpet, all the

things.

[00:51:44] Tracy Hayes: You never know, and you don't know

who knows who

[00:51:47] Niki Sparks: Right.

[00:51:48] Tracy Hayes: And the

guy who might be buying the $150,000 manufactured

home

may actually have a best friend who lives out at the

beach

or something.

and

it's

a $1.5 million

home.

you

just don't

know.

[00:51:58] Niki Sparks: Yep.

[00:51:58] Tracy Hayes: When a seller

walks [00:52:00] in with a number in their head- Mm-hmm

that the market won't

support, how

do you have that conversation

without

losing the

listing or the relationship?

[00:52:09] Niki Sparks: So

sometimes I

will los-

lose

the listing, and that's okay.

I,

bring my experience to the

table,

and I bring

the data. I'm

not one to

guess. I'm

going

to walk

that door

with

data

that shows

this

is where we

are,

and

we make

our best

educated guess

based on

the

data, and

I hate that it's

even

called a guess, but

an educated guess

based on, on hard

data.

and we look at

their bottom

number, too.

" so

tell

me what your

bottom number is

that

makes

this

make sense for

you."

and if my price,

the market

price,

can't

reach that for them,

then

maybe it's not

the right time to

sell. I'm not about

to walk into someone's

home

and encourage

them

to list

and

sell

their home

i-

if it doesn't make financial sense for

them

in that

moment.

I'm not going to

come in and tell

a seller that

can

get,

you know, 100 grand

more than they,

than the market

will support.

I'm not [00:53:00] going to tell someone

what

they, what I think

they

wanna hear just

to

get

the listing.

I will instead walk away from that listing

because

ultimately, they

may get even

less than that.

You

know,

if, if,

we're

not using the

data

and they

start

too high,

then we could be chasing

the market. And,

you know, an-

another side of

that

is, is if

they are,

you know, open to

the

data and the price that, that I've brought them,

and

I always offer

a

range. I mean-

Mm-hmm ...

this is my seller's asset, and they get to make that choice.

I work

for

them.

but

if it's not within that range that the

data supports,

then

they understand

that we're gonna listen to the

market,

and if we don't

have showings or

offers or talk of offers

in

those first

two weeks,

then we've got to adjust

quickly- Yeah ... because this market

is

shifting, and then we're chasing

even, longer.

[00:53:43] Tracy Hayes: this

kind of leads into

this

next question. When a buyer,

 to you is convinced

they can

get a steep discount because

they're seeing all these price

reductions,

how

do

you realign

their

expectations

without

discouraging

them?

'Cause

just to

lead in a little bit to what you

were just

concluding with from

a seller

side,[00:54:00]

you start

too high, then you start

reducing

your, price.

Buyers

see blood in the water.

[00:54:05] Niki Sparks: Yes. Yes. that's very

true. Right now, we kind

of have a

unique market where a

lot of sellers still think we're in the crazy hot seller's market of

2021, 2022, and

buyers see

the sky falling and

think we're in a 2008 market where-

Mm-hmm ...everything's crashing. I

mean, we we have buyers and sellers that aren't

on the same page

right

now.

And so again,

I'm going to

communicate with data. It is

all about...

I'm

a data nerd. It's

all about data to

me,

and I'm gonna show these buyers,

 

okay,

this

is what

has

gone under

contract recently.

And, I'm not even, I...

know, we look at sold

comparable properties.

We look at sold

comps. I won't go back

farther than

three months, and in

most cases

with

sellers and buyers

right now,

I'm only looking at

pendings.

And

I'm,

trying to

reach

out

to

that agent,

and

and again,

this comes

down to

agent

relationships as well- 100%

in this industry.

so I'm

reaching out to those agents and I need

to

get a feel for what are the other homes in the neighborhood

under

contract [00:55:00] for,

and

then help, helping

that buyer understand

th- this is where we

are, this is where we

need to be,

and we use the

data. And I, and

you know,

I'm gonna write an offer that my buyer

wants to

write. Obviously, I work for

them

just like I work for

the seller,

but you

know, we

may get

zero response, and

then, you know, we get to

adjust.

[00:55:17] Tracy Hayes: Y- you've learned

that

are the

expert.

even

a

new

agent going out on their first thing,

the f- you've taken some

of the Keller Williams

training, you've been

the NEFAR or

the Saint Augustine

board, and you've

taken some of

these

training

classes.

You

are

more of an expert

than... Are you the

complete expert or is there

someone else in the office

who probably knows more? Yes,

'cause they've

been doing it

longer.

Exactly. But

you've taken enough.

you've

hopefully,

 

collaborated

with some people

in the office,

you know, on how to

do this.

You are the

expert, and you

need to

guide the client,

and obviously guiding the client

by showing them data, and being reasonable,

because it's

only

going to backfire

on

you and possibly cost

you a bunch

of money. You'll get all

these

photos

done and all that other

stuff.

Mm-hmm. You list it

too

high,

it doesn't

sell, they end up

firing you

and hiring

somebody [00:56:00] else, you're out

money

And

that's the one thing that obviously we

know

our, our clients don't

normally realize

is the, that money

that's spent on

that stuff, it, they

don't write the check.

The agent's writing

the check.

[00:56:10] Niki Sparks: Yes.

[00:56:10] Tracy Hayes: And it's coming, coming

out of

their... Talk or speak, we were just talking

about

buyers

and sellers,

and, you

know,

pricing the home

correctly, not lowballing.

But you work an area,

 of Saint Augustine

where you

have a

lot

of unique homes.

Yes. There's

not another home

like it.

Like, in the new

construction- Mm-hmm ...there's

other models like

it.

Mm-hmm. How

many in the neighborhood just depends.

But

you're

talking

about areas that are-

Everything is unique.

[00:56:39] Niki Sparks: Yes.

[00:56:39] Tracy Hayes: how

do you

have that conversation

with that,

someone who has a

beachfront home?

'Cause

y-

we all know

there, you could

have a beachfront home

that is,

oh my God, that's

a $5 million

piece of property.

You have

a similar

size home that might

get

1.5, both of them

on the ocean,

but there's

something different

about

them. How do

you [00:57:00] handle those, the unicorns- ...

if

you wanna call them

that.

Yes.

These unicorns, because

you

do live

in, or, and work

a very unique area of town,

every

house is

little different.

There's not

necessarily a direct comparison for most

people's eyes.

How

do

you handle that conversation,

 in the structuring

of you know, making

an offer. But obviously

the sellers,

I mean

some

of these sellers think

they're,

you

know, they want that much

more 'cause they think their house is that wonderful,

which it is wonderful.

Yes. But

it only goes for what someone's willing to pay

it.

[00:57:28] Niki Sparks: Absolutely.

[00:57:29] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:57:29] Niki Sparks: Every home

is unique

in

its own way, and

every home has-

positive,

 aspects that we want to advertise

and, you

know, make

sure every

buyer knows

about.

but

i-t-

unique

homes

is, is

definitely a challenge I think for most agents when you're

pricing

something unique.

And in

most

owners,

most

sellers of

a unique home

already have an idea of what they

to price it for.

And in those situations, of

course, I'm going to get as close as I

[00:58:00] possibly can

to

finding,

even

if it's

outside of that

typical

one-mile

radius with an appraisal,

because ex- exceptions

can be made for that, obviously,

when

it's a

very unique property.

So

I'm going to look

at,

I'm gonna

find

the closest in

proximity and the closest in condition and type

that I

can,

and

we're going to

go on

that.

But

the most

important

thing I tell my sellers "

is, we're gonna

go with

this price, you

know,

and

it... But

then we're gonna listen

to

the market.

We're gonna

see exactly

how the market responds

to that price, and

we're going

to adjust quickly."

we're not

gonna

sit on the market and

the

days

on market is, is our biggest

poison. And so

we're going to adjust before we

start losing value in

the eyes

of buyers

just sitting.

We're not just gonna sit.

I list homes

sell,

not

sit.

So we- we're

gonna listen

to

the market. We're gonna listen to that feedback.

with

higher

price point homes, I'm

probably

going to do a

broker's open, and we're gonna get

other brokers' opinion of that property

and both the pricing

and the condition, and

just try to

gather as much,

 data-

Mm-hmm

as [00:59:00] we can, if you

[00:59:00] Tracy Hayes: will. Yeah.

Well,

the only way to,

 

one, to give

you a peace of mind that you're not being crazy,

but I'm sure. In Sa-

And Sa- and, and, you

know,

in Saint Augustine,

you know, there's people are buying,

they

want

Airbnb,

a Airbnb, and these

are not inexpensive homes.

the, some of these homes

have been renovated in magnificent

ways

and, you know, it,

there's

no direct

comparison.

It's like,

yeah, there was a

house

with that same

square footage, that same model,

same layout,

 sold

for this.

I-I-It's, it's, there's

not a direct

comparison.

Right. Right. And

you've got

to be able to rationalize and

come up

with some sort of,

like you said, like some sort of range, some sort

of window that, hey, we could be within this,

you know,

20,000,

$30,000 here.

Right. We probably will still, get hits.

I

would imagine-

that,

 any

agent

doing any amount

of business

in, you know, what I'm

calling

y-

you know, calling

the old city, in th- from these unique

homes,

that

there

a list of

people out there, buyers, who

are

looking for that very- Yes ... unique

property.

[00:59:59] Niki Sparks: Yes.

[01:00:00] And you

just ...

One

of my passions

is marketing

listings,

and

you just have

to know

what

buyer

you're

talking to. You have to find

those buyers, and they're not always

local. you've

got

to branch out and do ...

gotta get creative with advertising when you're marketing these listings

to potential buyers.

One of the things that

we do

is

look at, we

look at trends

on what areas are

moving into northeast

Florida. We market

to them

online.

We

do online ads.

We do

social media ads.

we try

to

find

the buyers

and

write, everything up in such

a

that

you're speaking

directly to that buyer.

That's kind of one

of

my, analysis

that

I do

when I,

when I, list a property,

is, I have

to figure out who this buyer

is,

and I

have to speak

directly

to them.

[01:00:43] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

Yeah. another, you

know, challenge

and unique

thing of, again, working in, you

know, whether

it's

the

St. Augustine Beaches,

whether it

is

in

old city, not

so much in the new

construction

areas of town. I

mean, insurance.

is,

is, is,

you know, it

is what

it is, and you can get,

you know, a brand [01:01:00] new

house, you're

gonna get decent

insurance. Yeah. Yeah.

the

question is

this, how it's,

we're to set the record straight up for buyers who are afraid of Florida insurance, what is the actual

insurance

reality

this,

in

the St.

John's

and

then in the

Augustine? Because,

know, whether it's there's

flood or

they

should

have flood, maybe it's not necessarily

in a

flood

zone that requires

it-

Mm-hmm ...but that they should have flood- Mm-hmm ... 'cause

you

just,

you

know, you don't

know. And obviously,

like you

said, some of those

older homes,

I would

imagine

have unique insurance

policies.

Yes, yes.

Tell us u- a

little

bit of how insurance

plays into your factor,

maybe a story if

you've, you have

one

when it

comes

to insurance in one of these

unique homes.

[01:01:35] Niki Sparks: Yeah. I, I have a fabulous,

 homeowner's insurance partner, and she

gets

some great deals

for my clients,

finds the right

policy for them.

But yes, I

think

there's

a misconception

out there

that, it's

just impossible

to get insurance in Florida,

and, you

can't afford it, so you can't afford

to come

to Florida, and

that's just not the case. No.

[01:01:50] Tracy Hayes: You can't afford the... It's

the taxes where you're at- ... that

you can't afford.

[01:01:55] Niki Sparks: So

yeah,

I, I, insurance is,

like

I said, historically

[01:02:00] speaking, we

are not really

in an

area

where we get a direct

hit

from a hurricane.

So insurance

here

in Northeast Florida looks a lot different than it

would in South

Florida.

Mm.

And, it's

relatively,

I'm not gonna say easy,

but it's certainly not the nightmare

that people think it is

coming into Florida.

and the

other misconception

is

that

everywhere in Florida is in a flood

zone.

There are actually

places on Anastasia

Island that are not in a

flood

zone.

So there's

a

lot of areas

that,

don't necessarily

require flood

insurance that

have

not ever flooded that we

know

of,

And,

it's

not as scary as

you

might

think.

[01:02:34] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. and

a top agent also knows

that if the

current seller

has flood insurance-

Mm-hmm

you,

the

buyer needs to get that information

and

pos- possibly inherit that policy-

Mm-hmm ... would save them, could

save them thousands

of dollars-

Yes ...

versus getting a totally new policy-

[01:02:49] Niki Sparks: 100% ...

[01:02:50] Tracy Hayes: them,

themselves.

Yeah. So

it's very important.

But

Obviously, if

you

start having

insurance claims, I think

people don't understand,

as

much as we are in the technology world

[01:03:00] to try to be faster, better, do things more efficiently,

so

the insurance

companies.

Right. And they know

right

down to, like-

every

claim

that possibly made.

They, the permits are

accessible

in Florida, which

I imagine

they are

everywhere.

It's,

they're pu- you can go in public,

they're

public domain. You can go on and see

when someone, when

did they have a

permit for

the roof, when did they have a permit

for the water

heater,

those things. And the

insurance companies

are looking at

those

things to foreshadow, "Hey, I've got a 12-year-old

water heater."

Hmm, you're

probably, if

you can get 15

years out of it, you're gonna be lucky, but it

go

tomorrow.

Right.

So,

you know,

they

know that stuff.

[01:03:34] Niki Sparks: Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely.

And,

and, you know,

there have been plenty of times that,

you know, insurance

companies like a new roof. They like a new roof.

And so there have been times, uh, would say

most of

my, listings

bought or sold,

 they

need some sort

of update

for insurance.

And, it's something

that

we negotiate from

the seller,

or

it's

something the

buyer chooses

to

do after closing.

upgrading the

electrical

panel

or

replacing the roof

at closing,

I've [01:04:00] done that several

times where

I've

partnered with a roofing company

that will

replace

that roof,

and then the seller

can

pay

at

closing.

and,

you

know, sometimes we, we

even

increase

the sale price

in

order to accommodate

that new roof-

Mm-hmm ...and we, we know

it's

going

to appraise.

So there are definitely ways around, getting the best rates possible is,

is

definitely-

An, an option

[01:04:20] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Now I'm,

am seeing

some

great quotes

now. Obviously,

you know, as,

as, I'm sure your-

Mm-hmm ...insurance

partner,

you

require

them to

have a conversation

with

the

buyer and stuff, and

explain to them what their insurance policy actually covers and doesn't

cover,

and

obviously the

deductible

for a hurricane

that we all have

and- Yeah ...

and that sort of

thing.

But, you

wanna get educated,

but obviously

it's

not impossible,

and

I think it's getting better. Yes.

we kind

of hit a

s- a

spot there, and then now

the state

has

rectified some

legislation

to,

take

a

great- the burden off

some of

these insurance companies-

Mm-hmm

so they can offer a more reasonable,

 insurance policies. And

I, and I am seeing

more reasonable stuff.

But if you're

b-

it's a

used

older home,[01:05:00]

and

you're, you're

at a

listing, you

got

the call, Hey, I want you

to come over and

list my

house,"

you need

to go and find out these

things up

front.

[01:05:06] Niki Sparks: Yes.

[01:05:06] Tracy Hayes: You

don't

wait

until the inspector goes by and says, "Oh, hey-

No ...

I

just

wanna let you

know that roof

is 15 years old."

You need

to know

before you do the listing.

[01:05:13] Niki Sparks: 100%,

yes.

That, that's definitely a conversation

that I

have with my sellers.

And, and in

certain sit-

situations I will

even,

 

recommend a

pre-listing

inspection

so

that we

don't

have

any surprises, we know

exactly what needs to be

addressed, we

know exactly what

needs to

be

disclosed,

and

we can price

that

home

accordingly. Either we're going to make those

improvements

or

we're going to,

you know,

price it to where

we

didn't. Yeah.

So that conversation is

definitely

one

that,

you know,

if the buyer can't

afford

insurance

on the

home

th-

because these

updates

aren't made,

then the buyer

can't

afford the home.

Yeah.

So,

so

we make it as attainable as

possible.

and

yeah, insurance has

gotten a lot better and in recently with new companies coming

in, and

there's

a lot more

options.

[01:05:53] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[01:05:54] Niki Sparks: Yeah.

[01:05:54] Tracy Hayes: I'm, I'm a big

fan of

the pre-listing inspection. Yes. and I think, you

know, especially if

you've got an

older

ho-

an [01:06:00] older home,

an older could

be,

you know,

20,

30 years old.

Obviously we

in

the old city

there's homes that

are-

older .........hundreds of

years

old.

And-

you know,

because of

it's

at, it's

been,

you know, it's got

all the upgrades, you

know, it's every- I mean,

you

could have a multimillion-dollar

piece of property

there.

There's

only

certain amount

of,

a

very

fine number of people that can afford that level

of

home.

and if you, they

go in there and they

find

out, "

 

[01:06:23] Tracy Hayes: hey, we went up in

the

attic and it's rat

infested, and you

need

to have the, all the

insulation removed-

Been

there.

that buyer's probably gone.

[01:06:30] Niki Sparks: Right.

[01:06:30] Tracy Hayes: Exactly. You know?

and there's,

because your

list is already

very narrow

of

how many

people

can actually buy

that house-

Mm-hmm

you

just eliminated-

Right ... a

huge percentage of buyers- Yes ...

because you

didn't,

 

do

the due diligence and,

add value to yourself,

add value

the sale.

We've

done a pre-listing

inspection.

Mm-hmm. We've already

knocked out all these things

and got them

corrected-

Right ...

type of thing.

[01:06:50] Niki Sparks: And,

And, to go along with that, the home

warranty. I'm a

big fan of a home

warranty.

And

when I take a listing,

the seller can offer the

home warranty.

It's not a huge

expense. They can

[01:07:00] automatically offer that

home

warranty to the

buyer, which gives

the buyer peace of

mind,

and it

makes them

less likely to

nitpick

that inspection

report.

But

also, it protects the seller

during the time that

we're

listed. Yeah.

So if the fridge

dies during

our listing period,

before we

sell, before we close,

well, that's

covered for the

seller, too.

So.

[01:07:17] Tracy Hayes: Right. Yep. Yeah, not that expensive.

Mm-hmm. It's worthwhile to

educate yourself

out, and we've got

some

great representatives around-

Yeah

Northeast Florida that,

that handle home warranties. Mm-hmm.

Contact

them, and they hold

lunch and learns all the

time. Yeah,

[01:07:30] Niki Sparks: do. They teach

us,

too.

[01:07:31] Tracy Hayes: Right.

Walk

me through the CDD, HOA,

and

homestead exemption

conversation-

you

have with your buyer before they,

 

before

they

close. What, what

do

they-

always get

wrong?

[01:07:43] Niki Sparks: Well,

what's a CDD?

[01:07:44] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. When

[01:07:45] Niki Sparks: they're coming to

Florida,

what's,

what's that?

Community

Development District fee.

this is

something

that a lot of people,

 

coming into

Florida, and even

some of us

that have been here a long

time,

you

know, in an established

community,

this is a newer concept for us,

 here in

Northeast

Florida.

the

[01:08:00] CDD

is

essentially what

covers

the cost of

the development,

the infrastructure, the roads, the

schools,

police stations,

fire

sta-

Okay ... all the

common

areas that are in these

large,

Julington Creek,

Nocatee, Palencia,

big neighborhoods like that in St. Johns

County,

 that

have these

CDD fees

A

lot

of our 55

plus

communities have a CDD fee as well,

and

it

basically covers

all

of these bells and whistles and amenities and

the things that

you enjoy as

being a member of

that community.

The

trade-off is

that when you have a

CDD fee, you're not necessarily

going

to

have

as high of an

HOA

fee. So

it

kind

of, it

kind of

balances itself

out.

CDDs are

paid with taxes

annually as opposed

to

HOA fees being paid- Huge benefit ... Yes,

Huge benefit. That's collected when,

in

your escrow with your

mortgage payment,

so it's

just rolled into your

taxes.

Some

CDs,

CDD fees

are higher than others,

 

but

it does cover all of

those

costs.

And, what some

people don't understand,

they'll

see a listing,

the CDD

bo-

the CDD bond is

paid off, and

they think

there's no CDD. Well,

it's two parts. CDD is

two parts.

Mm-hmm.

One [01:09:00] part is the, is the

bond, 25 or

30-year

bond,

and

that can be paid off and, you know, sometimes

we'll

find a

home

that it's

already been paid off,

but there's

maintenance

fee

that's always going to remain.

And

here's the other thing that most

people don't

understand is don't

think

that just

because the bond

portion of

the CDD

is

paid off,

you're not ever gonna

have that again.

They can actually renew that bond

and

it

comes back.

[01:09:21] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[01:09:21] Niki Sparks: So it doesn't necessarily go away comple- so

just

something to budget

for. But

again,

if

you have

that CDD,

it's

very likely

that you

have little

to no HOA

fees, maybe,

you

know,

100 or 200 a year

in HOA fees

along

with

that CDD, whereas a community that doesn't have

a CDD fee, their

home prices

might be a little higher because the developer didn't

pass that

cost on

in

the

CDD.

Instead they, put it into, into

the homes.

But

you've got a higher

HOA

of

maybe

300

or 400

month,

depending, so.

[01:09:49] Tracy Hayes: Depending on, yeah,

it's

all,

 uh,

about lifestyle.

[01:09:52] Niki Sparks: Yep.

[01:09:52] Tracy Hayes: It's

all about the

amenities- Mm-hmm ...

that you

wish for.

Yep.

I

have

11 years of

experience on my

board in my

community, on

the

CDD.

Did not

know [01:10:00] what it was when I was- ...

I, I,

volunteered

to be on the board. Did

not even know what I was

actually doing.

But

I learned a lot,

and it was

very valuable.

and

for

someone moving from

Massachusetts,

where you have all

these

little

townships-

Right ......and the townships

are

collecting taxes too,

because every road and everything

needs

to

be taken

care of by,

the

county, the ball fields,

 or the township.

They're taking care

of the county,

those

amenities.

Your CDD has

its

own amenities.

Mm-hmm.

splash

pad, you

know, whatever

it may

be.

Some have a

lot more than others.

It, it,

and

then your CDD reflects it- Yeah ...

obviously.

And

it's

spread amongst

the

of homes that are

the neighborhood.

Exactly. If you

got a smaller

neighborhood with a

lot of amenities,

you're gonna have

a pretty

good size CDD.

Yep.

Larger neighborhood,

it's put

on

per house.

And like you

said,

the,

If your CDD

chooses,

obviously,

you

know, the

community comes in,

it's not...

They can't

make choices

overnight like

the HOAs

can.

They are under the

Sunshine,

so they follow under Florida government.

Mm-hmm. That,

you

know,

they decide

we

had a very small gym in our neighborhood.

It was [01:11:00] undersized

for the number

of homes. We built

a new

gym. Great asset,

but

we used up

 the

money

we had saved in the CDD.

There

was

money being put aside

for capital improvements.

We

used that up.

Well, we

recently had

to have the roads.

Our neighborhood was over,

is over

20 years old now. Mm-hmm.

We

had

to r- have

the roads

replaced. Yep. So

we went and borrowed

money. So

in

reality,

the... honestly, the...

like you

said, if

you expect

the bond

eventually

to be paid off,

your

neighborhood is

probably

actually

downgrading because it's not

keeping up

with-

Right

the

newer neighborhoods.

And

it's not to say you have to

keep up

with

them, but

have to

refresh-

You

You

have to maintain, yes ... these things, and there's,

you know,

10

a million money. Yeah.

So,

I

think it's a

greater

th- I think it's

better than an HOA because you do have a lawyer sitting right there making sure- Mm-hmm

you have board members not making,

 very poor decisions,

and it

is

under

the Sunshine Laws of Florida,

that we...

conversations

can't be

being held

and

decisions held outside the

meeting board

where the community can

be sitting at. Mm-hmm. Yep.

So,

but it

does relieve off the county

taxes. Yeah. You

can live

in the county and not have an HOA

not have a CDD if [01:12:00] you choose

to.

[01:12:00] Niki Sparks: Yes, that's true.

[01:12:01] Tracy Hayes: And, and we're... so most, a lot of

people like the amenities. They're

gonna pay a little

extra.

They're paying

for their

amenities.

You're not using

them.

They are, so

gonna

pay

for them. That's right.

That's

really... it

really comes down to

that.

[01:12:12] 343 AUDIO: Yep.

[01:12:12] Tracy Hayes: when

a

buyer says

they want

to

be

in World Golf

Village, what's

the first

question you ask them to figure out

which part of it actually fits

their lifestyle?

[01:12:21] Niki Sparks: How close do

they wanna be to the

action?

Do they want to be

you

know,

in

World Golf Village we've got Costco and Buc-ee's

and lots of fun things.

so-

Target's

[01:12:31] Tracy Hayes: coming

in ...

[01:12:31] Niki Sparks: Target's coming

in.

[01:12:32] Tracy Hayes: Walmart's

already there.

[01:12:33] Niki Sparks: Walmart's

already there.

That's right.

[01:12:34] Tracy Hayes: And you have a

number

of,

number

of Publix. Two,

[01:12:36] Niki Sparks: three

Publix.

Uh,all

kinds

of things.

So I think my first question would be,

 you

know,

I

kinda see two sides

of World

Golf Village. I

see,

I

see

the hustle and the bustle,

and

kind of in the middle

of everything.

You're, two minutes out

the

door to whatever,

wherever you wanna,

you

know, wherever shopping you wanna be, whatever restaurant you wanna

eat

at,

 

schools, things like

that.

And

then you g- you're a little deeper into World

Golf, it's still

kind [01:13:00] of considered

World Golf, and Trailmark

is one of

my favorite communities.

I've sold a lot of homes

in

Riveria at Trailmark,

and, and that's the

more quiet side. That's the, you

know, you

feel

like you're in the woods, but you're

still only,

you know,

10 minutes

from everything.

So,

I'm first gonna ask what, what

type

of lifestyle are they

looking for? Are

they looking

for quiet?

Are

they looking

for in the middle of the hustle and

bustle?

and

I'm also

gonna ask

you

know,

where

are you commuting

to?

Are schools important?

Is there a job

you're commuting to?

And,

let's get them to where

their daily

life

is,

you know, not stuck in

traffic all

day

long.

[01:13:32] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[01:13:32] Niki Sparks: Yeah.

[01:13:33] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

It's not Atlanta

or Washington

DC- No

or something

like

that.

[01:13:36] Niki Sparks: No,

[01:13:36] Tracy Hayes: it's not,

thank goodness.

But because of where,

You

know, yeah,

you're, if

you're

you're at

Mayport-

[01:13:40] Niki Sparks: Yeah. Yeah ...

[01:13:40] Tracy Hayes: and trying to commute all the way down to Trailmark-

Yes ... at

end of the day

that's, that can

be- That's long ......a tough

one.

[01:13:44] Niki Sparks: That's long.

[01:13:44] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Dig a little deeper on World Golf Village. Tell us a

little bit about some of the, the,

differences

between some of the

communities. You've

sold a lot in

Trail Mark. What

is it

about

Trail Mark versus some

of the other communities? 'Cause obviously,

if

you like

it, you're kind

of probably

pouring

that energy

into [01:14:00] some

of your buyers a

little bit,

versus

maybe some of the other

neighborhoods that you

don't think are m-

are

as,

good as Trailmark.

[01:14:07] Niki Sparks: I think

that it

comes down

to that

feeling

of

really being in nature. TrailMark has d- did

a great job of,

you know, they've

got

miles

and miles and miles

of

walking trails,

biking

trails. They've

got a,

a

kayak

canoe launch,

into

the,

you know, a,

runs into the St. Johns River.

Reverie

at TrailMark has,

is the 55

plus section of TrailMark and,

they

have incredible resort-like communities

and

it's that sense of

community within

TrailMark

and the events that they have,

the food

trucks, the craft

fairs, the,

makers markets.

I

mean,

TrailMark

is just

its

own,

 

its own little world out there.

And,

you

know, I say out

there, you

feel like

you're separated

from everything,

but you're still so convenient

to

everything

too at the same

time.

[01:14:53] Tracy Hayes: The,

amenities that

are, are available,

I mean,

obviously if you're a golfer, it's World

Golf Village, but I

mean,

[01:15:00] not

that

that says there's

more

golf courses than

anywhere else.

But there's,

obviously they're there.

and and in

World

Golf Village, we have

property

in, King and Bear-

Mm-hmm ...in, and so forth.

Obviously King and Bear

was built,

you know,

20

some years ago- Right ... was

out on

the

edge of the universe. Yes. Well,

now it's right in the

middle of

it, right?

It's right in the middle of it.

Yeah.

and

still

I think

one of the most

well-designed- Yes ... neighborhoods. Yeah. When

you drive

in there at night,

 

the way that

the roads

are

angled

and

lit

and everything else, it just-

Yeah ...I

mean, you

know, if you want a,

a nice

established neighborhood,

 

you

know, you need to be looking

at World

Golf Village.

I

mean,

King and Bear.

King and

Bear. King and Bear.

TrailMark, like you said,

you're

a runner, you're a kayaker,

you're

doing

those

things, you're active.

these

things

are all

over Florida.

You gotta get

the right agent

to guide you to

these communities to

save yourself

a

lot of time, and then obviously tell you

the,

what

might be the

pros

and

cons of any one particular

neighborhood-

Absolutely

also

well.

Pros and cons is where we're gonna

end this,

end this

up.

I'm

gonna ask two more

questions. This

[01:16:00] is

last formal question,

though.

we're

gonna

dive deep in,

this

question is related to the old city i-

in

going

in,

the historic district.

Mm-hmm.

Demand

and short-term

rental interest

both,

running hot

right

now.

What

do you know about

navigating the micro

market neighborhood by neighborhood, block by block

with an agent

 

[01:16:19] Tracy Hayes: without roots

here

simply cannot tell

a

buyer? W-

what is the advantage of working

with Nikki when

it comes to

actually,

if you're

looking

in the old

city

and

trying to

find maybe that,

that great

Airbnb property?

[01:16:31] Niki Sparks: Yeah,

so

that

is, you

know,

there's so many

different

locations

that work

so, so well as an Airbnb short-term rental

type

thing.

So you've got walking distance to the

amphitheater. We've got

great,

great,

you know,

bands and everything

else,

great events happening at the amphitheater all

the time.

So

is

it walking

distance?

Can they

come in for

a few nights and, and attend a concert

or something at the

amphitheater?

in

the

heart of downtown, [01:17:00] especially during Nights

of Lights,

you

know,

you've

got...

I

mean, we've

got

tourist traffic. There's an event every weekend. Right. Exactly.

There's an event every weekend. Right. Exactly.

You got it. You've

got

something

all year

long.

Mm-hmm.

And, And, especially

during Nights

of

Lights.

But

it's such a pull to

be

right

in the

middle of the action

in downtown St. Augustine, because

parking,

you know, parking

can be a challenge

in our downtown.

Yeah.

so

for

someone to come

in and stay

and, and be able to walk

to

restaurants and shopping

and,

 

it's, that's

a great area

for a

short-term rental.

you get

more

outside of that, and

then

it changes things.

So, you

know, it

changes what, What people

are

willing to

pay for a short-term rental to stay there, depending on the

proximity

to these events and these activities that they

wanna do.

And then of course, you've

got

your,

a

whole other, a

whole other,

world

at the beach for

short-term

rentals.

at

St. Augustine Beach, if you're

within city limits

of

St. Augustine Beach, there's

only, there's only 100,

there's only 100

permits

that you

can

have a short-term

rental.

Right. And

if you

don't buy something with that,

you're,

you're, not

doing

that.

but

there are others, outside of those

lines

that we can certainly put

short-term

rentals,

and condos.

Condos make

their [01:18:00] own

rules.

So

when you

get into

a condo, you just have to know exactly

what those rules are for

that

condo.

I've helped a lot of clients,

 buy

a second

home that

they,

put on the

rental program, and it's very

lucrative for them. So

it's so important

for

an agent

to

know the different rules,

the different,

 you know,

what's allowed where,

and

then where are

people

going

to want

to

stay

based on

what's

going on

in

town.

[01:18:20] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Yeah. 100 is,

you

have a

very,

relatively

small area

with,

depending

on which

side of the

street

you're on, could

change your rules-

Right ... when

it comes to

rentals.

Or

the

condo

complex,

when he allows,

 

short-term

to them

is three months,

six

months,

versus,

obviously most places

will

allow a yearly lease.

but

there

are other places

that will,

like the

Latura Condos and

the

King and Bear,

that will allow

literally short-term rental, one

night, three nights,

whatever- Yeah ... it

may,

it

may

be.

Yeah. So you

need an agent

whose experience is

not

gonna lead

you

somewhere, and

you go

buy the

101st

and

try to

get

the 101st

permit- Right

at the St.

Augustine '

Beach, cause you're not

getting

it.

Not

[01:18:57] Niki Sparks: getting it.

[01:18:57] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

And

then you're gonna be

very,

very [01:19:00] disappointed.

Right. So knowing,

knowing,

you

know, that,

and

speak a

little bit

to, I'm

gonna

add this,

 

subsection B

on the screen.

Speak a little

bit,

'cause

I haven't

had anybody

s- speak to the importance

of Nights of Lights.

We know our

chamber of

commerce in the Old

City,

we

have events going

on

all the time.

Big or small,

art festivals

to-

Mm-hmm ......to

obviously, but Nights of Lights,

 s-

you

starts at,

I think, was it the 1st

of November?

Yes. Yeah, 1st of

November.

Now they, did

they

change to- Well,

[01:19:28] Niki Sparks: but they may have

backed it up now.

It

might be

after Thanksgiving

[01:19:30] Tracy Hayes: Well,

it's

definitely

Thanksgiving. If

you're here at Thanksgiving- Yeah, yeah ... Nights of Lights is

going

on. Yes, yeah.

And

it goes

into, used

to go to January 31st,

but

I

thought they

backed it

off

January

31st as well.

But

I've heard, just

by

in the rumor mill and hearsay-

some of

these Airbnb

people just

during Nights of

Lights

literally

make enough money

to

pay for the

entire,

you

know,

overhead of

the, of the

unit

during that period of time. '

Cause

it's a

premium time to

be in St.

Augustine-

Yeah ... '

cause Nights

of

Lights is considered one

the

top

Christmastime, [01:20:00] uh,

events,

in the United States.

[01:20:03] Niki Sparks: We're

in all

the magazines Mm-hmm Apparently it's

the

place to be.

Yeah.

Nights of Lights in St. Augustine is,

 

we

get

a

lot of visitors, and that's why most of

us

locals

don't go visit Nights of Lights.

Ex-

[01:20:14] Tracy Hayes: yeah.

[01:20:16] Niki Sparks: But we

appreciate

the, the, economy- We go during

the

week.

Yeah,

[01:20:18] Tracy Hayes: we

go, we

[01:20:19] Niki Sparks: go, in the middle of the week.

Yeah.

But

yes,

we

love our tourists because

they, do help the, the

economy

of

the

city.

Mm-hmm.

so yes, Nights of Lights is definitely a high-demand

time.

parking is at a premium,

 

especially during

Nights

of Lights, and,

you know, family

comes into

town

around the holidays

and,

you

know, that's where

you

wanna

take them.

You

wanna take them

downtown, and you wanna see the lights- Yeah ... and that's a great experience.

and, you know, making an investment

in something downtown

to,

to

capitalize on that,

absolutely.

[01:20:44] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Yeah, there,

there

there is

a, lot of politics

going on down there, just

wanna put

it, but

obviously you

gotta

get

an experienced agent that has their, um,

you know,

finger

on the heartbeat of what's going on because those are

a, a regular

conversation at the, um,

city meetings I'm sure.

Yes ... if that sound [01:21:00] right. All right.

Let's

finish

up. Last

question.

you touched on it a little

very early,

but

tell us right into the camera, why do you love

real estate?

[01:21:07] Niki Sparks: Oh, my

goodness. I love

real estate.

This is gonna

sound

really cliche, but I

just really truly

love helping

people.

I love

studying the market.

It's something I

used

to do for fun

before I ever was licensed, to

work real estate for other

people.

But-

Mm-hmm ...studying

the market and the data is

just fun

for me and,

learning neighborhoods

and

learning

inventory. And, My

father was a developer

growing up, and so I g-

literally

grew

up sitting the model with my

realtor

mother,

 on the weekends.

I was an

only child.

 

[01:21:33] Niki Sparks: and

then walking

the new developments

and walking

through framed houses and

new construction

is still one of my favorite smells. But

everything to

do with real estate

from

preparing a listing and,

guiding

those

clients through the largest financial transaction of

their lives,

I

mean,

that's, such an

honor

to

be able to

do that

and to

be able to

guide

them

through

with

the knowledge

that is

needed to

do that

and help

them make the

best

decision for them.

It,

[01:22:00] it's

truly,

truly about people for

me.

it's about helping them

find

home. I-

home and family

is absolute priority in

my life

and to

be able to guide

others that I

come to

care about,

you

know, through the transaction and,

it's

all about relationships

and

helping people

and

helping them find home,

and

that's

why I love real

estate.

[01:22:18] Tracy Hayes: If

you don't like people, you're not gonna last very long in real

estate. You're

[01:22:21] Niki Sparks: in

the wrong business-

[01:22:22] Tracy Hayes: Yeah ... if you

[01:22:22] Niki Sparks: don't like people. Maybe

[01:22:23] Tracy Hayes: you

can try commercial. Maybe. I don't know.

Maybe.

But

if

you don't

like

working with people and,

 

being their, um,

 

psychologist sometimes- Psychologist, therapist ...

and taking phone

calls in the evening

and so forth because they're stressed out.

and

then obviously

negotiating on their behalf

and

using your

expertise.

I

appreciate you

coming on.

[01:22:41] Niki Sparks: Thank you so much for having

[01:22:42] Tracy Hayes: me.

Great

Nikki. It's been great.

Thank

[01:22:43] 343 VIDEO: you. [01:23:00]