Kimberly Waterhouse: USMC to Top Jacksonville Agent

REE #266 Transcript

[00:00:00] Kimberly Waterhouse: It's good to have that collaboration. Mm-hmm. It's great to have a broker who's really there for you, and is accessible. I know there are some situations where the actual broker of the brokerage isn't here or is accessible. I think that's vitally important.

[00:00:44] Tracy Hayes: Hey, welcome back to the Real Estate Excellence Podcast, where we highlight the leaders, innovators, and top producers shaping the future of real estate in Northeast Florida. Today's guest brings a level of professionalism, community leadership, and marketing acumen that few in the industry can match. With a background in broadcast, print, and digital media, she led campaigns and built strategic partnerships for names like Jacksonville Business Journal, the First Coast News. She's a graduate of the Gallup Leadership Institute, a seasonal small business owner, and even spent time in commercial construction with Gilbane, bringing a 360-degree understanding of the business, branding, and service into her real estate career. Now a proud part of the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Network Realty, she's helping families and businesses navigate one of Florida's most competitive markets while remaining deeply involved in civic and nonprofit organizations across the region. Joining me today is Kimberly Waterhouse—a marketing powerhouse, community connector, and dedicated real estate professional committed to helping others love where they live, work, and play. Welcome.

[00:01:50] Kimberly Waterhouse: Hi. Thank you.

[00:01:52] Tracy Hayes: I appreciate you coming down today. So I was messaging you last night to get your bio done. While I didn’t have time to actually... I was like, I gotta get this done because I hate to come in in the morning and try to scramble, you know, getting ready for the show. So I went into your other websites—oh, you know, LinkedIn and then what you have actually on the Berkshire Hathaway Florida Network Realty site—and pulled those bios off and uploaded them to ChatGPT. And of course, it knows my show very well 'cause I upload every transcript to it, and so it knows. And that's how it created that bio there for you. So...

[00:02:27] Kimberly Waterhouse: It missed one important part though.

[00:02:28] Tracy Hayes: It did miss the Marine Corps, as I assume that’s where you were leaning, as you are a veteran. Uh, the United States Marines—once a Marine, always a Marine. And my father's a Marine, much back. He spent most of his four-year enlistment at Eighth and I.

[00:02:44] Kimberly Waterhouse: Okay.

[00:02:45] Tracy Hayes: And was there during the Kennedy administration.

[00:02:48] Kimberly Waterhouse: Oh, wow.

[00:02:49] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, and the story goes, the Bay of Pigs was going down as his enlistment was coming up, and they were gonna hold him over, and then obviously that didn’t last very long, and then they let him go ahead and move on.

[00:02:58] Kimberly Waterhouse: Yeah, I spent my entire enlistment at Camp Pendleton, California. Lived in Carlsbad. And so that was the early eighties, and that was a great time to be in California. Getting ready to fly into San Diego next week. So we’re gonna tool around a little bit before we head over to Yuma, Arizona for a family visit. And so I’m excited to see everything. I'm trying to get back on the base so I could go visit where I worked. Don’t know if that’s gonna happen, but I—yeah, it was a great time to be in California.

[00:03:32] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. So what was your occupancy as a Marine? What would they have you do in Pendleton that whole time?

[00:03:37] Kimberly Waterhouse: My MOS.

[00:03:39] Tracy Hayes: Your MOS, right. I knew I was trying to get—come on. What...

[00:03:40] Kimberly Waterhouse: It stands for those that are non-military—Military Occupational Specialty. I was operations, I was in the S3. This is very long. So I was stationed at Headquarters and Service Company, Schools Battalion, Camp Del Mar, Camp Pendleton, California. And as most people would say, we were the closest to the Oceanside gate—to civilization—and we could see the Pacific Ocean from certain parts of Camp Del Mar. Because Camp Pendleton is the largest military installation and it can take you hours to get from one point to another. It's beautiful there, but it's huge. So yeah, I did that in between going to college and finishing college.

[00:04:28] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:04:29] Kimberly Waterhouse: So, yeah.

[00:04:30] Tracy Hayes: Alright, so, as I always kick off each other though, but where are you actually—where are you actually from?

[00:04:34] Kimberly Waterhouse: Jacksonville.

[00:04:35] Tracy Hayes: You're from Jacksonville?

[00:04:36] Kimberly Waterhouse: I’m a native, yes.

[00:04:37] Tracy Hayes: Well, I know Tom was just in here and asked you what high school you went to. I mean, as I imagine, you just—you make this decision to go into the Corps or not, you're like 17, 18 years old at the time. What makes you choose to?

[00:04:52] Kimberly Waterhouse: Well, I was actually supposed to go in the Air Force. Mm-hmm. So I went to college for a year and a half, wasn't really sure what I wanted to do—I know this sounds strange, and for you parents out there, it doesn’t sound strange.

[00:05:00] Tracy Hayes: That's every kid in the United States.

[00:05:01] Kimberly Waterhouse: I felt like I was wasting my parents’ money. Because it was like, you know—so I sat out for a year, and then I was ready to go back to college. Financially, that wasn't in the cards at that point. And so I...

[00:05:19] Tracy Hayes: So you’re about 20 now, give or take?

[00:05:21] Kimberly Waterhouse: I was... how old was I? I was 19.

[00:05:24] Tracy Hayes: Well, you said you went for a year and a half and then you...

[00:05:26] Kimberly Waterhouse: Yeah, I was 20. I was 20. Mm-hmm. And—actually 19 turned 20, 'cause my birthday’s later in the year. And I was supposed to go into the Air Force and they had a wait, and I got a call from a recruiter, a Marine Corps recruiter, and went in with my parents. He lied a lot, but that’s okay. And I went into the United States Marine Corps, went through boot camp at Parris Island. Mm-hmm. And they were just starting to integrate the male training into the female training. So at one point in my life—I always go like this 'cause I'm visual—like a transformer, I could put together and take apart an M16A1 rifle. Mm-hmm. Had to learn to shoot it, throw a grenade, go through a lot of stuff. Marched out in full cammies, boots, helmets, with an 80-pound pack and my M16A1 rifle out into the field. Had to dig my own latrine, pitch my own shelter half, do all of that. Okay? And I know that sounds crazy, but I did that. Mm-hmm. So that was—I learned a lot about myself. I definitely learned a lot about other people. Very interesting time.

[00:06:45] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. There's one thing—having grown up with a Marine, and then I went to the C—the Military College of South Carolina, which today is one of the highest-ranking ROTC colleges out there. Mm-hmm. And the amount of Marines that are actually put out—and that's actually led by the former Assistant Commandant, is the president of Citadel, which is a Citadel grad.

[00:07:00] Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

[00:07:01] Tracy Hayes: General Walters, four-star. And anyway, what I've always found about Marines is they're very humble. And for the most part, I don't know if confident is the word, but like, when you talked about you—you learned about other people—they understand what they went through at Parris Island or, you know, in California, Pendleton out there. That they're driving a totally different road. I think they’re so unique between the, you know, the Navy, Air Force, and the Army. The Marine Corps is kind of unique in that way. It's just—and it's just something I’ve caught hanging out with Marines. They just—you know, they tolerate other people being stupid and so forth. They don’t let—they just—they know that they have gone somewhere that others haven't. Mm-hmm. And don't—but they don’t have to talk about it. You know, it’s just something—I don’t know...

[00:07:55] Kimberly Waterhouse: Right. I get it.

[00:07:56] Tracy Hayes: ...that I've always—a perception that I've always picked up from them.

[00:08:00] Kimberly Waterhouse: Well, it’s interesting because in my previous professional chapters, I never really talked about being in the military. Mm-hmm. And as you saw in my bio, I spent 18 years with the Jacksonville Business Journal. So, you know, this is really before LinkedIn was a big thing and you could go in and learn about somebody. And if I were in a meeting, especially in a C-suite situation, I'd scan a room and see if there was something I could pick up on to start a conversation. And I remember the first time this happened, I saw the Eagle, Globe and Anchor. And I knew—and I could tell with the other items around it—he was an officer in the Marine Corps.

[00:08:40] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. Was he wearing some—was this because he's wearing civilian clothes, right, in your meeting?

[00:08:43] Kimberly Waterhouse: No, you could see just different things like pictures and stuff.

[00:08:47] Tracy Hayes: Oh, oh, okay, okay.

[00:08:48] Kimberly Waterhouse: And, so I, I said, oh, you and I have something in common. He goes—he's like looking at me like, "What?" And I pointed over and he's like, turning around. He's like, "What are you pointing at?" I said, "The Marine Corps." And he's like, "What do you mean?" I said, "I served in the Marine Corps." And that changed the whole conversation.
Yeah. So I started talking about it more. I put it on my business cards. And when it pertains to real estate, one of the first designations that was important for me to get after my license and so forth—
[00:09:00] —was my Military Relocation Professional designation, MRP. And to really understand that, you know, I bought a house on my own as a professional single female, and I used my VA loan. And we're going down a different rabbit hole here—

[00:09:14] Tracy Hayes: That’s all right.

[00:09:15] Kimberly Waterhouse: You know, back then—and that was the late nineties—a VA loan was 8%. And typically a VA and an FHA loan is a lower percentage than a 30-year—

[00:09:56] Tracy Hayes: Because the government is—

[00:09:58] Kimberly Waterhouse: Yes.

[00:09:59] Tracy Hayes: —backing it in one way, shape, or form differently in the two. But yeah.

[00:10:01] Kimberly Waterhouse: Well, and it’s also interesting too because you don’t have to put money down and other things. But I just feel like I’ve learned so much more and I would’ve done that financing—the way it was set up—a lot differently. But that’s okay. You learn. Mm-hmm. And so, yeah. But you know, I heard a statistic recently, and I don’t know if it’s true, but it’s astounding to me that there's like—in the 70 percentile—of veterans have never used—

[00:10:34] Tracy Hayes: Yes, this right? That—well, they haven’t used their VA.

[00:10:36] Kimberly Waterhouse: —loan.

[00:10:37] Tracy Hayes: When I started in the mortgage business in 2005 with then Quicken Loans, now Rocket, they didn’t even do FHA and VA loans.

[00:10:42] Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

[00:10:42] Tracy Hayes: We had all this other alternative lending going on. It wasn’t a thing. And it wasn’t really until, you know, the collapse of ‘07 and ‘08, and all of a sudden, you know, all those kind of alternative type lending things went away. And now a demand for—

[00:11:00] —FHA and the VA. Mm-hmm. And then, you know, today someone—which I think, the majority, if not all, of our service members who are leaving the service are leaving with some sort of disability.

[00:11:10] Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

[00:11:11] Tracy Hayes: It might only be 10%, maybe for hearing or something like that. But they're getting that disability, which now—they’re not having to pay the funding fee.

[00:11:19] Kimberly Waterhouse: Right.

[00:11:20] Tracy Hayes: I don’t think you had that for a very—even guys that got back from Vietnam—

[00:11:24] Kimberly Waterhouse: Right.

[00:11:25] Tracy Hayes: I don’t think many of them were getting some form of disability and therefore exempting them from the funding fee, which would then be a reason not to do it. And you know, I’ve talked to other veterans—and you probably will agree with it—they actually are teaching them, as they’re going through their stages of, you know, discharge—

[00:11:43] Kimberly Waterhouse: Reprocessing.

[00:11:44] Tracy Hayes: Reprocessing, right. But you probably never were actually educated while you were actually in the service?

[00:11:50] Kimberly Waterhouse: No, I wasn’t. And there’s a lot. There's a lot. I think, you know, going through that de-processing—and again, going back to the fact I was on Camp Pendleton going through that—I saw parts of that base that I never had a reason to go to. It was pretty wild. Mm-hmm. But no, and I think there’s a lot of things that they don’t—they may do better now, I don’t know. But I knew nothing about it. And, you know, do I know everything? No. Mm-hmm. But I know enough that if I find out somebody is a veteran and they’ve never used that VA loan, let’s talk about it. And—because we are in a region that’s heavy military.

[00:12:44] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:12:44] Kimberly Waterhouse: You know, we have—right over the Florida line—you’ve got Kings Bay Substation. Mm-hmm. A lot of those folks want to live in Florida. You know, they can live in Nassau County—

[00:13:00] —North Jacksonville. But just understanding the pro—you know, having enough information that you can tell, you know, even with a seller, "Please, you know, there’s nothing wrong with accepting a VA loan and here are the things that you have to look at."
It’s just like working—you know, and we’ll skip over here to working with sellers—mm-hmm—is I always suggest and highly recommend doing a pre-listing inspection. I’ve only been told no once by a seller and I was fine with it.

[00:13:28] Tracy Hayes: I’m a big pre-listing inspection—

[00:13:30] Kimberly Waterhouse: Person. Supporter. Yeah. He had a book. He had a book. He knew everything.

[00:13:34] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:13:35] Kimberly Waterhouse: And I was like, okay, we’re good here. Because in, you know, in today’s environment—especially with insurance—you’ve got to get some of these things out of the way because they’re not gonna be able to get insurance.

[00:13:44] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:13:45] Kimberly Waterhouse: Sure, there’s Citizens, but, you know, that doesn’t guarantee that they’re gonna get Citizens coverage. Because you know, they typically show up at your house and go through stuff and find something—and that’s a whole ‘nother conversation. But, yeah. I mean, you have to. And—

[00:14:00] —if you’re not, then you price your house accordingly. You disclose. And so—

[00:14:06] Tracy Hayes: Well, I don’t wanna mix—because we were talking about the VA loan and then you went into the pre-listing inspector—I know we—I thought you were going somewhere, but maybe I can bring this back around.

[00:14:14] Kimberly Waterhouse: Bring it home.

[00:14:15] Tracy Hayes: I think for the most part, agents that are savvy enough and understand—and obviously you do—there’s nothing special about a VA home appraisal. Now, to be a VA home appraiser—

[00:14:26] —you have to have—you are the best of the best and they're under very strict guidelines from the VA. Right? Agents—for whatever period of time—there’s still some out there, but I think they’re slowly fading on about how, "Oh my God, don’t want a VA loan because they’ll see some water damage."
They’re gonna see water damage no matter what loan you’re doing.

[00:14:50] Kimberly Waterhouse: Exactly.

[00:14:51] Tracy Hayes: I don’t know anyone buying a home today that isn’t paying for a home inspection before they just ultimately sign the line, right?

[00:14:57] Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

[00:14:58] Tracy Hayes: So there—if there’s water—

[00:15:00] —damage, the understanding that a VA appraiser’s not crawling in the attic like an inspector, but if they see water damage, they’re gonna say, "Hey, there’s water damage." They’re gonna do that on that VA loan, mm-hmm, as well as just that regular conforming loan or FHA. They’re gonna say, "Hey, we saw water damage. You might wanna look—there might be a leak in the ceiling," whatever it is, or the roof or whatever. Right?
So I don’t wanna say—but—and WDO and—

[00:15:28] Kimberly Waterhouse: Right.

[00:15:29] Tracy Hayes: But the—what they see. So if you can see it, they can see it.

[00:15:34] Kimberly Waterhouse: Right.

[00:15:35] Tracy Hayes: You know, type of thing. And—but I think the important thing is I think we’re slowly closing that gap where agents are—and some sellers—are miseducated on the VA.

[00:15:45] Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

[00:15:46] Tracy Hayes: It’s the best loan out there. If you’ve got a veteran buying your home, trust me—it’s the most forgiving. It has more likely chance to close than any other loan that they have.

[00:15:58] Kimberly Waterhouse: Oh yeah. You know, and there's a lot you can do with a VA loan. And you can have more than one.

[00:16:02] And you can assume a VA. Yeah. Like there’s a listing out there—I’m actually showing it tonight—where I about fell out when I read the language. It started off, “Less than 3% Assumable VA Loan.” I was like, oh, okay. Called the listing agent. I said, “Well, how much is it?” She goes, “2.75.” I was like, “Lovely.” Yeah. And you just have to know—you know, you have to find out who that lender is, how much they have left on the loan itself and, you know, get hooked up with the right—

[00:16:25] —inside.

[00:16:26] Tracy Hayes: Inside. Just so you’re—those that are listening out there, this is actually very important—especially right now. Now, obviously, they’ve gotta come up with that money between what is actually owed on the current mortgage, mm-hmm, and then what’s the value of the home, 'cause someone’s not gonna give away tens of thousands of dollars in equity.

[00:16:45] Kimberly Waterhouse: Right.

[00:16:46] Tracy Hayes: But there are lenders that are starting to—in that second—to meet that gap where maybe they only have to put five or 10% down. But by assuming a 2.75% loan—I mean, yeah, the second may be a little bit higher in interest rate—but we’re talking, I mean, hundreds and hundreds of dollars in housing expense savings by having, by capturing that lower rate and assuming that. So—

[00:17:08] Kimberly Waterhouse: Exactly.

[00:17:09] Tracy Hayes: You definitely want to pursue—again, have the lenders in your Rolodex who can fill that second. “Can I get a $100,000 second?” or whatever that gap is there, because it can be beneficial to you. I want to also—listen, since this is something I was actually just talking about yesterday with an agent—you like pre-listing inspections.

[00:17:28] Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

[00:17:29] Tracy Hayes: I think it's brilliant. I think, you know, to go in and—especially now when there's so much inventory—but even back when there—when people were, you know, and you went through this, you saw this in ‘21 and ‘22, where people were going out and putting an offer on a home. Wasn't really the home they wanted, but because there was no really—a lot of other choices—

[00:17:47] Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

[00:17:48] Tracy Hayes: —and then the home they think they really wanted came up, and they would try to cancel the contract on the home they were in.

[00:17:55] Kimberly Waterhouse: Right.

[00:17:56] Tracy Hayes: Because the inventory is low. Now there’s a lot of inventory, but you know, buyers will find—they always have buyer’s remorse whenever it settles in. Whether it’s 15 minutes after signing the contract or a couple days, they have reasons to get out. And if you’ve done a pre-listing inspection and done all the things, that eliminates a lot of the little excuses they have or buyer’s remorse opportunities for them to escape.

[00:18:14] Kimberly Waterhouse: Well, you know, and also—wouldn’t you rather know that these things are here, fix them, so that when you do go under contract, those aren’t the big “oh my goodnesses” and “I’m walking away”? Then we’ve got to put your house back on the market, and—

[00:18:28] Tracy Hayes: Then they're negotiating dollars and on and on and on.

[00:18:31] Kimberly Waterhouse: I mean, there's still—there's a lot of negotiating going on now. Mm-hmm. I think the average on an existing home in concessions ranges between $8,000 and about $9,000. You know, you've got different types of financing—we were talking about that earlier—that sellers can help to, especially with a first-time homebuyer, help them get into a house.
And, you know, I remember my CPA asked me a question one day, "Kimberly, do you intend for your income to keep rising like it is?" I said, "Well, that's always the plan." He goes, "You need to buy a house."
[00:19:00] And I went, "Oh... what does that look like?" So for a year, I had—I went on a journey. My homebuying journey. And I was sharing this because I think this is important and there's not a lot of Realtors out there who have gone through a homebuying journey personally. And women are starting to make up a good portion of the homebuyers.
So sharing that journey—what I did over a year's period of time: preparing myself, having a pot of money set aside, paying that debt down, just being ready. And I bought very modestly. I was like—I had some things I was looking for. I didn't know. I was like, okay, I may be in this house three or five years, that’s it. And I bought way below, was ready. And there's still things that come up.
[00:20:00] I think back to that whole buying experience and some things in my gut that I questioned and just felt like, okay, they're saying it's okay, but I still think it's not. Should’ve probably listened to my gut. I'm trying to do a better job—

[00:20:17] Tracy Hayes: As far as?

[00:20:18] Kimberly Waterhouse: As far as the inspection—things in the inspection point. Yeah. And just things I saw. But I handled it. There were things I wanted to do to the house, but—yeah, three months after I closed on that house, unbeknownst to me, I became the legal guardian of a 4-year-old nephew and raised him in that house.

[00:20:40] Tracy Hayes: Oh my goodness.

[00:20:41] Kimberly Waterhouse: Yeah. That’s a life changer. So, you know, I bought in Lakewood. Lakewood’s a great area, and I lived there for 20 years. Now I live in historic Springfield.

[00:20:45] Tracy Hayes: Staying on the subject of the home inspection—

[00:20:47] Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

[00:20:49] Tracy Hayes: New construction.

[00:20:49] Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm. Oh yeah. You still—yeah. Yeah, I do. All the new construction I’ve done, no matter the price point: pre-drywall inspection and a third-party inspection before we close. I have yet—I love my builders, I love you—but there’s always something.
And here’s a story. Mm-hmm. And this was with a military relocation, a high-ranking officer. The wife and—the husband was a retired Marine Corps pilot—and they leaned on me a lot, virtually. I was their eyes and ears. And this was a significant size home.
[00:21:00] And I remember I would show up and we would do—I would do different milestones. She was not allowed to travel because of COVID. Mm-hmm. So he would get down here as often as he could, and we would go through things.
I remember the room—the bedroom that was going to be their son’s. I opened up the closet. I closed it and I opened it back up and I called the project manager in there and I was like, "What is this?"
I said, "Why is there ductwork taking up three-quarters of this closet?" I said, "This is going to be their son’s room and this—yeah. Hello?"
And the answer I got was, "Well, we've never built—we haven’t really built this home here before. This layout."
And so, you know—and I’m just like, okay. There were just so many things and, you know, try to have grace in every situation. And this was when we’re in COVID, people were buying crazy, you know—

[00:22:00] —fast and furious. And I don’t think the builders could keep up. They couldn’t get the help. But there was just so much. And I mean, just the things on that one particular house—
Like, the driveway. It was a three-car garage. And I’m looking, I’m looking at how they angled the pavers to come out of that—the furthest to the left—and I’m like, okay, if I have my car in this side of the garage, which I know they will, because it’s one of the large bays, I’m gonna have to try to pull out, angle my car over—
And I asked the project manager, "Why is this just not straight? I’m like, we need pavers here. We need to make this a straight shot. Common sense." And then the response was, "Well, we may not get those because those are hard to get right now."
It’s like, "Well, maybe we can find some in the neighborhood somewhere." But they took care of it at the end of the day.

[00:23:00] But the ductwork coming through that closet was not gonna get changed.

[00:23:03] Tracy Hayes: Well—and you and I know—you were the tree in the woods making noise and it got fixed. How many times did it happen and someone didn’t notice it? Or someone didn’t feel—another agent—or they didn’t have agent representation in new home construction, which is another sin.

[00:23:17] Kimberly Waterhouse: Well, here we got Marine Corps eyes.

[00:23:19] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:23:20] Kimberly Waterhouse: You know, we had to be able—on our uniforms—to see the slightest little whatever. Blood, yeah. I see things in people—most people are like, "Wait, what?" And it’s like—when I could do that with a—you know, I go, "Marine Corps eyes are walking in." I said, "Watch out."

[00:24:00] Who made that blue tape?

[00:24:03] Tracy Hayes: Well, you have the ability to look at a situation and say—and visualize—a car backing out of that garage, mm-hmm, and going, that ain't gonna happen. You're not.
And then, you know, let alone have a larger vehicle like a truck or something, or an SUV, which a lot of people drive, and you're just missing. Your mirrors are just making it inside the, right—you know—the thing.
So any little mishap—but I had the one little thing to put a stamp on the new home construction—someone tell me one of the bathrooms wasn’t even hooked up. So imagine you go through this entire build process, you’re going through your final inspection, or let alone you—you don’t even go in and run the water in this bathroom, right?

[00:25:00] You, "Oh yeah, the bathroom looks good, looks good," walk away. Right? Then you go and try to turn the water on. It doesn’t work. You already moved into the house. The builder’s now trying to find—schedule guys to come in and fix that while you’re already living in the house.

[00:25:09] Kimberly Waterhouse: Well, that’s why you need a realtor before you step—

[00:25:11] Tracy Hayes: That’s the start.

[00:25:12] Kimberly Waterhouse: Before you step—that’s number one—foot on a, you know, a community.

[00:25:16] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:25:17] Kimberly Waterhouse: Have a realtor. And if you have one, remember their name, who they work with. That always makes me scratch my head when somebody says, "Yes, I have a realtor." I'm like, "Awesome. Who are they with?" And they cannot remember. That, to me, is so interesting.
But, there was something else that came up that kind of flew out the window there with new construction. It'll fly back in here.

[00:25:44] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:25:44] Kimberly Waterhouse: Oh—‘cause we were talking about military.

[00:25:46] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:25:47] Kimberly Waterhouse: I learned this from that same build that we were discussing. I speak PCS. I’ve done bicoastal moves. Mm-hmm.
And you just don’t pick up the phone and, after the military move's been ordered, go, "Oh, hello military mover, I need it to stop." It’s not happening.

[00:26:00] Kimberly Waterhouse: And we need your delay. Yeah. Yeah. Because it could take you months to get back on that schedule. And when—and if—your home, your household goods are moving, they start moving. And they’re gonna come. And if the house isn’t ready, you’re gonna have to figure out where those household goods are gonna be stored.

So in this instance, we got in a critical situation. The house was not going to be ready. It’s COVID. You know, the wife is stressed out enough. And they had to—her sister was living in an apartment not far away from this community. Two bedroom, two bath. So she, her husband, and their young son are all huddled together while the house gets finished.

[00:26:44] Kimberly Waterhouse (cont’d): But it escalated up to a statewide level. And I was like, “Will you pay for their household goods to be stored? This or that?” So, you know, now my question when I’m working with new construction and it is a military relocation—my first question to that builder is:
“I understand that things can happen in the build process that could cause this house not to be finished on time. Understanding that household goods start moving and they may need help—what can you do? What will you do?”

[00:27:29] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:27:30] Kimberly Waterhouse: And—little story. I won’t say the builder, but if they’re listening, they know who you are. You know who you are. I will be forever grateful because that happened. And when I asked that question, they didn’t even stutter. They said, “We’ll make it right.” And they did.

They called me and said, “We’re not going to be ready. We have two other homes that will be ready. They can take their choice of which home, and we’re not going to charge them any more if it’s more expensive.”
They put their money where their mouth is. And of course, I knew which house they were going to choose.

[00:28:07] Tracy Hayes: So they had a spec home, or someone maybe had fallen through. So they basically had a spec home sitting there.

[00:28:12] Kimberly Waterhouse: Two of them.

[00:28:12] Tracy Hayes: Two of them. And they let this family choose if they wanted to change their whole contract and go move over here to this other—yeah.

[00:28:19] Kimberly Waterhouse: And they did. And it was the more expensive home. And did not charge them anymore. And that will always stick with me. Mm-hmm. Because I know what they'll do. But that’s the first question—again—if I’m working with a military relo and it’s new construction.

[00:28:38] Tracy Hayes: Right. That’s an inspiring story actually, right there. Because—mm-hmm—as you and I know, you know, back during, you know, ‘19, ‘20, ‘21, these builders didn’t even want to talk to real estate agents. They were trying to find ways to keep you out. They didn’t feel they needed you.

And now, where your inventory's growing, they have a lot of choices of homes to go to. Although the builders still have their incentives now—they have been for the last year and a half, maybe two years now—really trying to entertain the real estate people, sponsoring your events and everything at your brokerage.

[00:29:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d): But in that situation, obviously they calculated—they got the spec home, probably a deal fell through. What’s it gonna cost? Obviously, we’re paying taxes on it now. Like, we’re better off putting this guy in here now and resell his house.
‘Cause choices were made now. Just—someone made a decision. And that—that’s what’s inspiring.

[00:29:25] Kimberly Waterhouse: The director of sales—she made the decision. And she’s still with that builder. And whenever I see her—the site agent has moved on to a different builder, but I run into him from time to time—mm-hmm—and I always hug him and just say thank you.

[00:29:38] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:29:39] Kimberly Waterhouse: Because this could have gone so many different ways. But, you know, I was at—recently—

[00:29:46] Tracy Hayes: And lucky, 'cause a lot of these—the veterans too—for a lot of them, I can’t say all of them, ‘cause we know there’s—they realize their opportunity because they move so much.

[00:29:55] Kimberly Waterhouse: Yeah.

[00:29:56] Tracy Hayes: They’re not like so set on the—

[00:30:00]
Tracy Hayes: House, and here they had an opportunity to actually probably get a little bit larger house, maybe a little better lot or whatever. In this situation, it was like, "Yeah, no problem. Let's do it."

[00:30:07]
Kimberly Waterhouse: Yeah. Yeah. And it, you know, it just... and it was stressful enough. They had just had their first child, they're both naval officers. He was stationed at Kings Bay, she's at Mayport. And so my first question, when there's a split base like that, "Who wants the shortest commute?" Right?

Tracy Hayes: Right.

Kimberly Waterhouse: And then we'll go from there. Yeah. But yeah, so, you know, being able to bring my expertise and my experiences to the table, but even beyond it being military, I've tended to work with a lot of relocation clients.

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: And I love it. All last year, all of my business was relocation, and so far this year—

[00:30:46]
Tracy Hayes: Is it the Berkshire Hathaway?

Kimberly Waterhouse: No, no. It's something you've—been just you and been involved in.

[00:30:50]
Kimberly Waterhouse: They were. Yeah, we do have a full relocation—a very robust—Linda Moyer—

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: And her team. And they work with a lot of corporate. But no, this has just been referral. And it just is crazy. But I enjoy it because we have such a diverse region—seven counties—and having my background in business and having, you know... and I always—that's something that’s important to me to this day—is staying on top of what’s going on, especially through the various different economic development initiatives, whether it be JAXUSA Partnership, which represents the region, or going to the specific county EDCs and learning what’s going on there.

Another organization that I love is ULI, the Urban Land Institute. That’s a higher level of conversation.

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: I was involved with them back in my Business Journal days, to really just learn, go deeper into what’s driving real estate.

Tracy Hayes: Right.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Whether it be residential, commercial—because even if it's just commercial, residential will follow the commercial.

[00:31:58]
Tracy Hayes: So let’s—this is a great transition. Let’s go back to your corporate world. And you know, many guests I’ve had on, the agents come from all sorts—where they were stay-at-home moms, where they had corporate America-type careers and that sort of thing.

Tell us a little bit about—and share with the agents who may be on here, maybe someone’s thinking about being a real estate agent, maybe is in corporate America right now—some of the things that you experienced, some of the skill traits—

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: Dealing with people, you know, we talked about that with the Marine Corps, but how you’ve taken that and how it meshed with that experience to transition to become a real estate agent.

[00:32:34]
Kimberly Waterhouse: Oh geez. Well, in the 18 years I was at the Business Journal, I will just say it opened a lot of doors for me. I got exposed to a lot of organizations, to a lot of different-sized businesses and business leaders that most people don’t get to meet and be around.

[00:32:54]
Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:32:54]
Kimberly Waterhouse: And helping those companies put together marketing plans that would help grow their business. And just much like Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, the Business Journals—American City Business Journals—is all over. So, it just taught me a lot. My client base was in real estate, whether it be commercial real estate, residential real estate. That’s how I first met Linda Sheer.

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: And it was Prudential Network Realty at that point. And, architects, engineers, contractors, economic development. So I had the exposure to real estate and construction in the built environment. And when I made the conscious decision to leave the Business Journal, I had all kinds of people coming at me: “Get your license. Get your license. Get your license.”

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: I saw what was happening in the economy. I saw—because I left at the very end of 2008—I had a young lady come to me. She always called me by my initials, KLW.

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: “Come talk to me.” She goes, “I’m thinking about buying a house. And I got approved.” And I went—I started asking her questions. I went back to my journey.

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: And I said, “You have no business buying a house.” I said, “Who is it you’re working with?” She told me. I was like, “You have no business buying a house you can’t afford. This is not—” And I knew what was going to happen. And what I knew was going to happen? She went through foreclosure.

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: And there was an event, a conversation that was put on by the Business Journal and NAIOP shortly after I left. And it had different experts talking about what was happening in the financial industry, in real estate. And I remember this female realtor at the time—I don’t know if she’s still with Hall & Knight—she was the only female. And she just, she was listening to these guys banter back and forth, and no one was really answering the question. She took the mic, and I love that. And she said:

“Let me just tell you what was going on. These documents, these loan documents—signatures were missing. People were signing people’s signatures that it wasn’t the person that should be approving and looking at these documents. And people were getting loans that absolutely had no business getting loans. That’s why we’re in the mess we’re in.”

Tracy Hayes: Yep, exactly.

Kimberly Waterhouse: And I was like, “Thank you, you said it.” And that—that’s what happened.

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: So I was like, “No, I don’t want to do that right now.” And so what led me into real estate—if you want to go into that—is, I was at First Coast News, and I had a death in my family, and it really shook me to my core. And I was offered a severance package, and I took it. And I sat there and I literally asked myself the question: “What does the last chapter of my professional career look like? This is it.”

[00:36:00]
This is the last chapter. I’m older than what most people think I am. That’s okay.

Tracy Hayes: That’s okay. Good genes.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Yeah. And so everything kept coming back to real estate. And I was—my goal was commercial real estate, because there was an organization here that I’m a founding member of called CREW—Commercial Real Estate Women—that started when I was at the Business Journal. And that’s an international group, and it was all about commercial real estate. And I actually went down to Orlando, interviewed with a company that I had the highest respect for—and COVID hit. And hiring was put to a pause.

Well, I had been talking with a couple of people. You know, it’s interesting when you get your license and all these people start calling you about interviewing, and the first thing—I would listen to the rhetoric, and I’m like, “Why are you calling me? How did you get my name? Did you look at my LinkedIn profile?”

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: “Because if you looked at my LinkedIn profile, your conversation with me right now would be very different.” And I would say, “If you’re still interested in speaking with me, the next call should be from your broker.”

Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

Kimberly Waterhouse: And they don’t know how to handle that. So I got—I saw some interesting—but I’ll do some shoutouts. Holly Hayes, who was the managing broker of the Ponte Vedra/Nocatee office at the time for Berkshire, she and I have been friends for years. I actually worked with her husband, Robert, at Gilbane. And she and I just—you know, I was like, “I gotta do something. I’m not gonna not do my real estate.” And I have the utmost respect for Linda Sheer and what she’s been able to do in this industry.

And so I just made the conscious decision I was going to be with Holly. And she’s like, “You live in historic Springfield. Do you really want to drive back and forth to Ponte Vedra every day?” She goes, “Let me introduce you to Josh Cohen.” So, you know, that’s the Metro offices, which is San Marco, San Jose, Avondale, Riverside, Ortega. And that’s where I’m at.

[00:38:06]
Tracy Hayes: Let’s dig in and get some real rubber-meets-the-road for agents, 'cause you brought up a couple different things. The great part is because of your corporate experience—

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: You got to know some of the players in the game. And so now you decide where you want to hang your brokerage.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: And to me—and I say this on every single show, maybe not directly, but—

[00:39:00]
Tracy Hayes: It's brought up in one way, shape, or form or another—the choice of the brokerage you have can make or break you.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: Now, you had a corporate career in dealing with a lot of people—

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: —and that was kind of what I was drawing out with that last question of what did you bring to the table? 'Cause you probably could have been successful with most any brokerage out there. You would've found a way to make your business work.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: If you were that focused on, "I'm gonna make real estate work."

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: Not everyone has that experience or confidence. So that broker really could make or break, really might be the first couple weeks or months—how you get started. So when you make that—when you walk in the office the first day—

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: —now, you've got your license, you're signed up under Berkshire. What are some of the things that you didn’t know about real estate? You knew people, but obviously, I’m sure as every day in real estate, we learn something new.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: But really just like—how to operate the business as a realtor. Realtor, that’s the right word.

[00:39:26]
Kimberly Waterhouse: Well, I think—you know, and I'm gonna answer your question, so I think I'm not answering your question—but I think the—you know, going through this whole process of making that decision of where I was gonna land—

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: I almost felt like—they call it recruitment nowadays—but when I was in college, Rush, I felt like I was going through the rush of the real estate brokerages. Right? Who wants me? Do I want them? You know, how do I feel? And it was really interesting. That’s a whole ‘nother—that could be a whole other episode, Tracy, and stories. And, you know, I leaned into some—

[00:40:00]
people that I know. And like I said, there’s one girl in particular—I’ll do a shout-out to Wendy Patton. Wendy's at our Ponte Vedra office. Wendy actually worked for the Tampa Bay Business Journal for many of the same years I was at the Jacksonville Business Journal. And we both were in CREW, we had the same verticals. And she—you know, so I leaned into her.

Another guy, Michael Starling—I've known Michael since 1991, back when he ran BellSouth Mobility. He was the sales manager. So it was talking with people and getting their take—and even people who aren't with Berkshire Hathaway. And the one thing that rang consistent, especially with the people not with Berkshire Hathaway: they, hands down, have the best training. Hands down.

And the other thing that was important to me—you want the training, because a lot of agents don’t have it, and they don’t have the professionalism to support them. I’ve been a small business owner—

[00:41:00]
so I had that too. I know, you know—because we are small business owners. Let’s—yeah, we’re 1099. And then the other thing that was important to me is—we do operate as a single-agency brokerage, which gives you the highest level of representation, confidence, confidentiality, and fiduciary responsibility.

And as I say, it's what’s best for you, not the transaction. And our brokers are there to support us—they do not sell. And that was important because you do need that support, especially if you are not business-savvy. And some people are needier than others.

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Yep. I know I can be needy at times. But there’s a lot going on, especially as of last year, you know—with the lawsuit, going from the NEFAR contract to the FAR/BAR contracts, just everything. And, you know, the things that you have to think about now.

And it’s—you know, it is—I was in a mastermind last week—

[00:42:00]
and I heard a couple of very seasoned agents, because there were people of all levels in there, and they’re like, “Where’s our season?” We don’t understand this market. There is no season right now. And it’s making—it’s causing a lot of pause to very seasoned agents.

And so when you find yourself in this type of change—’cause we’re still in change—you’ve got to figure out, how am I going to be successful, stay successful, and help my—and I can call them clients, because we’re single agency—how am I going to best help my clients and make those the best decisions? And also, you know, there’s a little bit of self in there—how can I take care of my business?

[00:42:47]
Tracy Hayes: All right. So on that description you gave there, which is kind of from trials and tribulations of a small business owner/real estate agent—how important was it for you to rely on whether it was Josh, or—I know you’re part of a team—Berkshire Hathaway obviously has some very successful agents.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: And you talked about being at a mastermind recently. How has just, you know, surrounding yourself by those five people—

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: —really helped you in your business growth, that when you didn’t know something or like, how are we going to handle— I don’t know if you may or may not have had this question, but many agents did—was, how are we going to handle this new buyer broker agreement?

Kimberly Waterhouse: Right.

Tracy Hayes: And all that, you know—role-play of when do we bring it up, in an open house, and you—Right? I remember I was at a mastermind for that. You might have been there too actually for that one. And an argument ensued—or pseudo-argument. But when—because, well, technology, training, you know?

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: Every day you're getting phone calls, whether it's from a lender or someone trying to sell you a widget—"Oh, this is going to help you get more leads" and all this other stuff. To have those people around you and to run ideas—or get ideas—

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: —from them to really move your business forward.

[00:44:02]
Kimberly Waterhouse: Oh, it's crucial. And that’s part of the culture that they’ve created at Florida Network Realty—is that collaboration. And just, you know, “Have you had this situation happen?” You know, we have a weekly business meeting every Tuesday morning.

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Yes, I’ve missed my meeting today to be with you, Tracy. And we have training also. And I might sit in something more—I do. I sit in something more than once, because you’re always going to pick up something else.

Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

Kimberly Waterhouse: And I always hope that somebody’s going to make a comment and go, “Oh, light bulb moment. Didn’t know about that.” Take you off on a different—

[00:44:39]
Tracy Hayes: Page. Yeah.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Because—you know, I am a boomer.

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:44:44]
Kimberly Waterhouse: A boomer. I didn’t come out holding the technology in the womb.

Tracy Hayes: [Laughs] Holding it in the womb.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Yeah. And so it’s—you know, I’m fortunate because of my experiences of being exposed to more current marketing platforms, but still, you want to—I’m not as fast as, you know, the younger group.

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: But I—you always should be learning and surrounding yourself with people that, especially those that come from other brokerages into the one you’re at, and asking the question. You know, I think the biggest thing—the biggest disruptor—I don’t know if it really, truly is a disruptor—everybody wants to talk about technology.

And I’ve seen people migrate to brokerages because of the technology. And, you know, when it comes down to things, at the end of the day—yes, it’s great to have technology in any facet of your life—but when you’re dealing with the largest purchase that someone’s going to be making—it’s an investment—technology isn’t what’s going to drive that real estate transaction.

[00:46:00]
There are so many things that I get involved with and dig into that if I didn’t do that and didn’t have the knowledge that I have and understand it a little more, or know the people to turn to, they could fall apart. Or I would have very unhappy people with me after they closed on a house and go, “Why didn’t you tell me about this?”

And, you know, there’s always little surprises here and there, but at the end of the day, it’s that communication—it’s that personal interaction without the technology—and making sure, especially with that agent on the other side of the table—we were talking about that earlier—

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: I love my iPhone. I love it. But it can also be an enemy, so to speak, because there are people I’ve never even met in person, and I will see them somewhere and I’ll go, “Oh my goodness, I know your picture. I know that’s you, but we’ve never met in person.”

Tracy Hayes: Right.

Kimberly Waterhouse: And I wanted to meet them in person, but for whatever reason, it didn’t happen.

[00:47:00]
Kimberly Waterhouse: But it’s just interesting that so many transactions go on where the agent on either side has never met in person.

Tracy Hayes: Right. Isn’t that crazy?

Kimberly Waterhouse: Uh—

[00:47:06]
Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Well, I mean, I've brought that up many times—how important it is to go, whether it is over here at Landmark—

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: Or go to these and interact with agents from all over, because you never know who’s going to be on the other side of the transaction. And then—I’m sure you’ve dealt with agents you’re like, “I hope I never do another transaction with that person again,” because they were a hinder to what was going on. You know, just a bad situation. But...

You were talking about technology. Training and technology—

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: You’ve said both of those words—I don’t think you said them together, but I think, you know, having talked to so many agents from so many different brokerages—

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: And many of them went, “Oh, I went there because of training and technology.”

Kimberly Waterhouse: Right.

[00:47:44]
Tracy Hayes: Okay. Well, let's take that actually off the table—just like you just said. Take that off the table.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Yeah.

Tracy Hayes: And what do you have left? Because that is really the real estate transaction.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Yeah.

Tracy Hayes: Now, some of the training may overlay like how to, you know, work with people—how to go to some trainings—

[00:48:00]
where someone’s telling you, explaining to you how to—you know, it’s all about the relationships, right?

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: It’s the relationships. The relationships. Which is, you know, where your referral business is coming from is ‘cause you built relationships.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: Well, maybe you tweak that, or you read some personal development books or whatever—

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: That—that part of training. But I think technology is like this satellite out here. And I think the really good agent doesn’t want to have anything to do with it themselves, but they’ll hire somebody to do all the backend stuff—to make sure their people are being followed up, reminded, maybe... And I would put social media into that category as well.

Because I think you're right—the agents that are truly out there, I mean truly killing it—I mean, we have a lot of good agents—

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: Don’t get me wrong. But I mean, I’m talking like the ones that you know are standing out, doing numbers—unbelievable. They’re spending all their time being front-facing.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: They hire somebody to do their technology. They know what they want—“Hey, we need to set up a follow-up campaign,” “I want every one of my people that I’m working on or past clients to be contacted, let’s do a newsletter,” or whatever.

Obviously, the ones that step out, take that few minutes when they’re driving that half hour to that showing or whatever—they’re on the phone, they’re making a phone call and physically touching someone, interacting. But like you said, the training and technology all now—

Would you agree—and you’ve probably, I don’t know what’s going on at Berkshire Hathaway, I’m sure you’ll brag about it—but at a lot of brokerages, they have all this technology, but no one—

[00:49:30]
Kimberly Waterhouse: Knows how to use it. Well, they're doing a really good job of helping us understand it. Like I said, every Tuesday in our office—

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: We have a business meeting, we do caravan, and then we do training. And, for example, last week the training topic was MC+—which is our marketing platform that our brokerage designed.

We can go in there, we can create flyers, social media—

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: We can do a lot of stuff in there. And now, they've amped it up. So making sure—like, Josh will do a video explaining how to get in there, what are we doing. If you don’t understand it, just come and ask me a question. You know, you can have the shiny new toys, that’s great.

Or like you said, you can hire people to help you with that. But not everybody has the extra money at the onset to go out and pay. So I feel—I feel very... what’s the word I’m looking for? I hate when you have a word and you're just like—it’s just there. Thankful is the word.

[00:51:00]
Yeah, that we have these platforms and they hear us. They have a thing called MOSS, and once a month this MOSS meets—all the representatives from the different offices meet with our leadership to hear what we're having to say and, “Can we make this happen?”

I think the biggest thing—was it three years ago? Four years ago? We got color printers in all the offices. Something simple as that.

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: You know, every office got color printers. So, you know, it is just—you have to slowly evolve. But I feel like the evolution in those areas for our brokerage is picking up a lot. But you know, it is about—there is so much more beyond the technology that’s so important.

The training—I mean, when you get hired on at Berkshire Hathaway, before you go out and set the world on fire, you go through Rising Star.

Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Because they want to make sure you’re prepared. Because you go through real estate school and you're drinking from a fire hose—

[00:51:34]
Tracy Hayes: Yeah. It’s—

Kimberly Waterhouse: —to pass a multiple-choice test.

Tracy Hayes: Yeah. It’s...

Kimberly Waterhouse: It is.

[00:51:37]
Tracy Hayes: And I just—I want to conclude on this point, 'cause I really want to just dig into your day-to-day business. But I know from a lending side—

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: Having worked for several lenders, and from the real estate side—you guys are dealing with the same thing. They want to sell you on this technology—

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: Which—there is tech needed. But I think if I was to create the optimal—whether it was a lender from a marketing standpoint—

[00:52:00]
Tracy Hayes: —to their soldiers, the loan officers—or from a real estate brokerage to their real estate agents—and I think the understanding when you look at the really top people—I really love the way Melissa Ricks runs her business. I haven’t talked to her in a while, but last time we spoke—she has all these people doing all those things that’ll keep someone locked in the office—

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: —so she can spend all the front time. Because she’s really good at that. Showing the house, spending time with the families, building those relationships.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: Because I think you probably have found in the industry—you maybe didn’t realize this when you got in—when you’re one-on-one with that buyer or seller, that’s your billboard.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: That you’re hopefully painting that’s going to last for years after the transaction. Because they’re going to continue to refer. They’re like a walking billboard out there. They’re telling everyone, “Hey, if you’re gonna use an agent, you gotta use Kimberly.” You know what I’m saying?

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: And because you spent enough time with them instead of rushing off—because what's the other thing? We’re in front of our computers and they’re like, “Hey, you need to be out in the field.”

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: “You need to be out spending more time.” Well, you gave me all this marketing technology. It takes time to learn all this stuff.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: Versus just having that one person in the office full-time that’s doing it for 20 people.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Right.

Tracy Hayes: You know, and that’s my little soapbox.

[00:53:15]
Kimberly Waterhouse: No, I got you. Yeah, I got you. No, it is—I mean, there are days that, you know—and I have to make sure that people know—I am part of a team. We’re the Northeast Florida Group. And, you know, Nathan Gray and I came together about this time last year. We started formulating the idea, and then we added three more people before the end of the year.

And we were very intentional about who these people are.

[00:54:00]
And that’s a conversation—we do a team meeting every Monday at 10 a.m., and once a month it’s in person, the rest of the time it’s virtual. And the conversation now is, “Okay, we’ve gotten to this point. It’s been almost a year together. We need to tighten up some of this marketing infrastructure.” And so we’re going through that evolution right now.

But we do have a lot of different things at our fingertips. It’s learning them and trying to figure out which one's the best use of my time.

Tracy Hayes: Right.

Kimberly Waterhouse: And, you know, then you throw in social media. I have no problem getting in front of my phone and doing that—or a camera.

Tracy Hayes: Right.

Kimberly Waterhouse: But it is time-consuming, and you have to be thoughtful. And thank goodness—ChatGPT. I feel very fortunate that we have a person within the Home Services ecosystem—Rajiv is his name—he’s a VP of Innovation and Technology for this brokerage.

And I’m going to say the wrong one, but I think it’s Long & Foster.

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:55:00]
Kimberly Waterhouse: And he came in—and King and Linda Shear brought him in last year in the fourth quarter—and we spent a half a day with him. And it was like, mind-blowing at the rate of speed from when ChatGPT first hit—and it happened on a Thanksgiving Day, which was interesting for him to share that—to where it is now.

But he created a mastermind and I’m part of that. Anybody—it’s free—within Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices. So I’m like—it has helped me, because how I approach that now is very different. And, you know, I’m not going to let AI take over my life—I mean, there’s a whole other conversation on that—but it can be very helpful, especially with writing copy for social media.

I did it the other day. I had it write for my open house that I did this weekend. The copy was different for the Instagram platform, Facebook platform, and for just a regular marketing piece. And you still have to go in and massage it, because it spit it out—some things I was like, I don’t know where you got that, but that is incorrect.

[00:55:58]
Tracy Hayes: You have to tell it not to make things up.

[00:55:59]
Kimberly Waterhouse: Well, you can take the MLS number and just—that can be part of the question you’re asking of what you want them to do for you or it. But it is helpful that way. You know, I have an advertising background, so copywriting isn’t foreign to me. But it is time-consuming.

But when you can have somebody just cut and paste that MLS number and put it in—and then you’ve given it the prompts—and that’s important, how you do that—

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: And just see what it comes back with.

[00:56:42]
Kimberly Waterhouse: …and then keep massaging it. Don’t take the first iteration at all. And even for me—I mean, for other things—

[00:56:42]
Tracy Hayes: Well, let me just add something to that that I found out recently, which makes total sense. Again, from this gentleman I was talking about before the show: AI is looking for AI. And so when you’re out there now and you’re Googling, you’re now getting this—Gemini comes up.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Gemini, yeah.

[00:56:58]
Tracy Hayes: Because if you’re kind of looking for like an answer to something—I forget what I asked it the other day. My wife’s a real estate agent, we’re doing the garage floor in this gentleman’s house for a reason, and I was like—there was this chemical, and we—does the floor have to be dry, or can it be wet or whatever? So I asked Google.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

[00:57:00]
Tracy Hayes: And it actually came back in Gemini and gave that answer. But people are moving from Google to ChatGPT—amongst the other AI, right? ChatGPT’s not the only AI platform out there—as they’re doing their searches. They want answers, and that’s why they like going to AI—’cause it gives you an answer, versus giving you... you know, Google was just giving you a bunch of advertisements, and then eventually it got to the links that you needed, and so forth.

But AI is looking for AI.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: So, they’re going in there and searching, and you’re using these to create your captions—which I’ve been for about six months. Actually, I had a guest on that said, “Hey, you need to be using AI to create your captions and descriptions on YouTube, captions for Instagram.” And that’s what I’ve been doing.

And it’s getting better and better. Of course, it knows my format now, I don’t have to give it all the prompts—

[00:58:00]
I just say, “Hey, I need an IG caption for Kimberly, she’s talking about—”

Kimberly Waterhouse: It remembers you. Virtual Hathaway.

Tracy Hayes: It remembers you, yeah. And I upload the transcript from every show, so it’s already reading the show and knowing where that will fit in and then gives me some sort of caption—but then adds all the little extra things that we want, like Berkshire Hathaway and—

[00:58:18]
Kimberly Waterhouse: Oh, there’s so much you can do with it. And that’s what we did when Rajiv did our AI Mastermind last week—that was the focus. And he said, “These are all my little buttons I have—copy them and use them and create your own.” And it—light bulb. I was like, gosh, okay. It is getting to know me.

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: It is getting to know the things that I ask. Kind of scary, but hey. But yeah, definitely, it saves—every once in a while I go into it—it saves time.

I mean, I had—so, I recently—the man in my life was officiating his son’s wedding recently and he was just kind of a little stuck on something. And I said, “Well, give me a minute here.” I’m in ChatGPT and I massaged it a little more and I said, “Well, I think this is something. I’ll read this to you and you tell me.” And he was like, “Oh.” And he used—he said, “Can you send that to me?” So I copied and pasted it and put it in an email to him. It helped him get unstuck in what he was trying to do.

[00:59:57]
Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:59:58]
Kimberly Waterhouse: So that, to me, is where AI can be very helpful. You know, and it’s time. Because my time is money. And you mentioned this about Melissa—I haven’t seen her in a while—

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: But I’m better in front of people. And my team, the Northeast Florida Group—or I should say our team, because it’s a collective—our team, they know that I’m probably the most extroverted person on the team. But I shine in the openness and conversation.

[01:00:02]
Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[01:00:03]
Kimberly Waterhouse: And, yeah, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Tracy Hayes: I mean, and I don’t think that’s going to change in real estate—as long as we’re on this earth.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: I don’t know what’s going to happen 50 years from now—

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: But one, it cannot all be handled by a computer, because there are so many different variables. You know, maybe AI tones that down a little bit.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: I don’t know. I don’t know. But the more forward-facing people—we still gotta have the face-to-face, you know, pressing of the hands—

Kimberly Waterhouse: Right.

Tracy Hayes: You know, that whole thing. And I don’t see it going away. But what AI will do—it’ll give us more time to do that.

[01:00:34]
Kimberly Waterhouse: It’s the time. Mm-hmm. And I agree with that. But it’s just—you know, it’s just another—the new kid on the block. But at the end of the day, there’s so much to learn about real estate. And I think as an agent, if I could say a thing—just keep learning. Do CEs even if you don’t need the CE.

I’m trying to get my GRI. I’ve taken the first pod of the three. And I learned something that was very helpful for my father—I learned about a grant that he could get to retrofit his bathroom.

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Didn’t know it existed—and it got done. And so little things that you’ll learn and pick up. But every transaction’s different. I always go like this—it’s going into the Rolodex here—because I need to remember that for something else.

And I think that’s the other thing—the collaboration. You know, “Did you have this happen? What did you do? Do you have this?” Like, somebody yesterday—they needed to get a WDO inspection done pronto. The person that they normally use is booked up. So it’s like, “Okay, try this person, try this person.”

[01:01:59]
So it’s good to have that collaboration. It’s great to have a broker who’s really there for you and is accessible. I know there are some situations where the actual broker of the brokerage isn’t here or isn’t accessible. I think that’s vitally important.

[01:02:00]
Tracy Hayes: Well, I mean, I like to just touch on that for the listeners out there—with the technology that’s out there and things moving as fast as they can, as we’re just talking about AI and everything—for a broker to stay out in front... You know, in the Marine Corps, right? Platoon sergeant’s out in front. The broker’s gotta stay out in front of their people and continue to add value.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: And they may be doing great right now, but a year from now, if they start fading off—

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: You know, because there’s so much pressure on them on a daily basis to stay informed before their people, so they at least seem to be adding value to it.

I know some of the technology things—I had a group on, Gigi and Mike, talking about Real. And obviously their way of doing it is they have a room of brokers that are fielding calls. But obviously they also try to spread the knowledge base into their main page that they can work off of.

[01:03:00]
Everything’s very easy and accessible to search. But that is a real—that’s a challenge for the leadership in real estate—to stay out in front. They gotta stay out in front of this ever-changing technology and then actually filter it to what the agent actually needs to know so they can go out and just do what they do.

[01:03:12]
Kimberly Waterhouse: Yeah. And I think, you know, with the NAR lawsuit, the reality is—Berkshire Hathaway, along with some other brokerages, had to pay a lot of money. And we had the largest part of that kitty.

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: And we didn’t have convention this year. And I’ve been to every convention because I find it important to connect with agents from elsewhere and learn.

Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

Kimberly Waterhouse: And there—I will always go to convention. So what Anne and Linda did is, “We’re gonna create opportunities to make up for the fact we didn’t have convention.” So our theme this year is Thrive in 25. And the training is in pods, and they’re consistent through each of the offices. And they’re hitting on different themes.

[01:04:00]
And we did a company-wide meeting—we do those quarterly. And the one we just had, they created it to be a mini-convention, which I thought was brilliant. And I was thankful for that. So they know that they’ve gotta step up and fill a void where there is a void—and they’re listening to us with those MOSS meetings. “What do we need?” You know, you can’t do everything overnight.

[01:04:26]
Tracy Hayes: And do you think because of your 18 years in corporate America—it sounds like you thirst... well, 18 years of—we’re not gonna age you.

Kimberly Waterhouse: [Laughs]

Tracy Hayes: Not gonna age you. But no, because of the structure of corporate America, and like—they have their training departments and everything, right?

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: A small boutique brokerage doesn’t have that. Now, Berkshire Hathaway—they’re working on a national basis, so they have resources. Let alone their agents, but then they have people, I’m sure, who just do training. That’s what they do—great training module.

But you—you thrive in that office. You got your team, which I imagine over years, you probably, you know, worked in little teams on different projects or whatever—but having those people that were not that far away—they’re in the hallway, you’re walking by the cooler together, that whole thing.

[01:05:00]
Tracy Hayes: You thrive in that. So just thinking, as someone who’s listening right now—who’s thinking of what brokerage to go with—

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: Maybe Berkshire Hathaway, being very collaborative, being obviously a highly professional group of people—there’s a lot of people doing a lot of great business there. And there’s just a synergy in that office. And that—you thrive from that?

[01:05:35]
Kimberly Waterhouse: I do. And I see other—and I think it’s important for... you know, for me, it’s not as necessary as it used to be in my—

[01:05:36]
Kimberly Waterhouse: Office. Mm-hmm. Yes, I have a desk sitting in the Avondale office, but people go, “Well, what office are you in? Where do you…” I said, “I have a key fob that opens every office. I go wherever I need to be.”

[01:06:00]
I might be out in Nocatee or Fernandina Beach. If you need to go type up a contract or whatever, I'm gonna go be wherever I need to be.

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: And that's the beauty of that. You know, now we've opened up offices down in Palm Coast. So it is that flexibility. Because I think you have to learn—you’ll listen to different things on social media, and they’re like, “Find an agent, find a mentor.” Well, you can't do that if you're not…

Now, there’s a lot of different collaborative masterminds that are out there that are agency-agnostic, and I go to those. I am a member of Market Distillery.

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Alex is brilliant. And what he’s doing now for us, the members, is wonderful. And, you know, you just have to find those areas that make sense. I mean, I got into a situation where I was putting down an interesting amount of—

[01:07:00]
—money on a monthly basis. It was an epic fail.

Tracy Hayes: Just to get information that he provides?

[01:07:06]
Kimberly Waterhouse: No leads.

Tracy Hayes: Oh—lead gen.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Yeah. A lead gen by a platform that’s still out there in a little bit of a different iteration. And it was awful. I just know—because of my business background—I knew how to frame the conversation to get out of that contract. And I was able to. And actually got some money back.

But I've seen that fail. And there’s a lot of them out there, and they come at us fast and furious on a daily basis.

[01:07:45]
Tracy Hayes: Well, let me—because being around all these top-tier people in there, because you like to interact in the office—

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: And be at these things, you probably—I’m gonna guess—you probably actually didn’t ask others about this service before you jumped into it and realized. But now, before you do it, you probably ask a bunch of other real estate folks: “Anybody using this?”

[01:08:00]
Kimberly Waterhouse: Actually, actually, it was something that was at a different level—a partnership that came from our brokerage going into it with them. And I did that, and then I got a phone call that said, “Oh, we have this heightened level—concierge level.” Ooh—shiny. And it was gonna—it's really shiny. “Do this for you and that for you, and Kimberly, don’t you want that?” And I guess I said, “I do.”

It was awful. I mean, I kept complaining. The leads—here’s the kicker—they did away with it and never let me know.

[01:09:00]
And I was still paying for it. I picked up the phone and they’re like, “Oh, we did away with that at the beginning of the year.” And I was like, “Well, then why am I paying for it?” “Well, you should’ve gotten a call or an email.” And I said, “Listen, I didn’t. I have emails I probably haven’t read yet.” So I did a search. I said, “There is absolutely nothing. No call that I ever got.”

And I was like, “How can you be charging me?” This is what's happened. Again, their—what I call the mothership—

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: —runs ads on all the different media platforms. They're out there. They’re at everybody’s conventions. And every time I see them, I’m like—“Let me tell you my story. Yeah. And what happened.” And they all just go, “Oh… maybe you need to move on.” And I’m like, “Okay.”

[01:10:00]
So it made me skittish to do that. And I will never plop that kind of money down again anytime soon. But, as I said, our team—the Northeast Florida Group—and I have to do a shoutout to Nathan Gray, Amanda Rodriguez, Margaret Fishback, and Nathan Bussy.

That’s a conversation we’re having now: Do we each, at a nominal investment, create this monthly kitty? And these are the things we will do—and we will be strategic. We will have a plan. But we just feel like we’re at that point now. Because we’ve been working on all of our different packets—for buyers or sellers, expireds, FSBOs—getting some team-centric platforms up on social media.

[01:11:00]
Canva—what’s everything gonna look like? And then, oh by the way, you have your own little gig—your own little essence that’s out there.

So it’s a good group. And we are there to help each other. And that’s what a team should be—is to help each other. And not all teams operate the same. But at the end of the day, what I have learned about it is—the broker’s gonna set the tone. Find out if that broker sells or not. Find out what training is available to you. If there isn’t a robust training platform in that brokerage, find the successful people.

And it may take a few times to find that person that you jive with, but learn from him or her. Shadow open houses. Do open houses. Get out.

[01:11:18]
Tracy Hayes: You're probably actually leading into my next question. So let me premise that.

Okay. But I wanna say something right before that. Because again, you—you spent years in corporate America. I did as well. Well, of course now almost 20 years—this September—20 years in the mortgage business.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: You gotta go to these brokers—if we're talking about real estate specifically—and ask the agents.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: 'Cause the broker’s gonna tell you all things are fine. My first question is: When you have a meeting—

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: You know, and I'm just—any broker—you have a meeting: Is there actually an agenda with an accomplished goal? Are they actually gonna learn something? Because your time is very valuable.

[01:12:00]
And I guarantee you, 75% of the pseudo sales meetings that are happening right now—which people stop going to—is because there’s no agenda, no true “Hey, this is cutting-edge learning, you should get to know this.” So someone’s leaving with a nugget.

Maybe it’s about training, maybe it’s about this thing and whether or not you should use it or not. What's the pluses and negatives about it?

But I find so many sales managers out there that really aren’t prepared. They're saying, “Hey yeah, we have a meeting on Tuesday morning,” and at 9:30, they start kind of whipping together a couple ideas and maybe scratch them down on a piece...

[01:12:31]
Kimberly Waterhouse: No. No. We have—there—

[01:12:32]
Tracy Hayes: Yeah. That’s why you gotta find a brokerage like Berkshire Hathaway. I know Josh is—

[01:12:37]
Kimberly Waterhouse: He’s—yeah.

[01:12:38]
Tracy Hayes: He didn’t get to the level he is—running all the offices—because... You're gonna bring people in, it’s gotta be—they’ve gotta leave with some substance.

They’ve gotta say they got something from that. You may teach 10 things, and maybe they walk away with one or two things—that’s a win.

[01:12:53]
Kimberly Waterhouse: So, yeah. He does a Monday Motivation—

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[01:13:00]
Kimberly Waterhouse: Younger career life. Mm-hmm. A lot of my business gets done at my home.
And he starts the week before—probably around Wednesday—talking about what the theme of the next business meeting is going to be.
If we’re gonna have special guests, this and that, little market tidbits. We have our meeting—you can be there in person or virtual.
Sometimes we’ve been doing more on-site at somebody’s listing, and we’ll collaborate with one or two other of our offices.

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: And that’s always fun. And then we get a recap sent to us, and we know what the training’s going to be.
And it’s all based on Thrive 25.
We know what’s going to be on caravan the day before.
And then at the end of the week on Friday, he does a wrap-up.
So there are constant touch points.

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[01:13:44]
Kimberly Waterhouse: You know, he’s—

Tracy Hayes: But he’s thinking and he’s planning.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Yes.

Tracy Hayes: He’s not just winging it, which I think too many are doing.
And I think, as an agent coming in—because here’s my question:
Right now, there are some agents that are actually doing fairly well in the current market.
You know, even—

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

[01:14:00]
Tracy Hayes: You know, there are people with a lot of listings. Some are slowly moving, but some are actually doing better than they did last year.
But, as we know, there’s 70-something percent of agents that didn’t even do a deal last year.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: What would be two or three things that you would recommend to an agent who may be struggling right now?
Maybe what they should reach deep and think about doing—if they’re not already doing—to hopefully change that?

[01:14:26]
Kimberly Waterhouse: What is your why?
Why are you doing this? Why did you even do that?

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Because you’ve got to understand your why.

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. That’s always hard to answer.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Yep. And I hate—

[01:14:36]
Tracy Hayes: I hate that question, actually, personally. But why...

Kimberly Waterhouse: You know, “What’s your why?” Right.
And I know what my why is—and why I’m doing real estate right now.
It’s very clear. And it all makes sense. Now I know why people wanted me to do it years ago—it wasn’t time.

And you know, ask—"How are you going to support me? What can I expect? Where’s my growth potential here?"
And just ask questions.
You may know somebody, personally or professionally, that knows people in other brokerages—say, “Hey, do you know someone in real estate that I can lean on?”

Like—my former, I know this sounds funny—

[01:15:00]
My former gynecologist. She retired—I wish she would come back—she called me and said,
“My niece is relocating down here with her family from Chicago, and she’s gonna get her real estate license. I’d love for her to chat with you.”

And Amanda is the Amanda Rodriguez on our team, and she’s part of my team build.
And, you know, I just appreciated it.

This business is not for the faint of heart.
This isn’t, “I can go do this and have fun, and then I can go do my country club stuff and then come do this a little bit.”
You’ve got to treat this like a business.

And I think that's—how is the tone being set by that broker?
Are they encouraging you to be in the office? Is there collaboration going on?
There are just so many different factors.

And there are great brokers out there.
But I can’t say enough about Josh Cohen.
I can’t say enough about just Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Network Realty—and then you say, the Northeast Florida Group.

[01:17:00]
And, it’s perception is reality.
And there’s a lot of new shiny kids on the block—brokerages out there.
Is it bougie? Are we having parties and this and that?
I will tell you, we’re not old stodgy people at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Network Realty.

We have fun. We know how to have fun.

And I’ve noticed the dynamics of the agents coming in—it’s from all walks of life, let’s just put it that way.

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: And I like that.
Because it can’t be the same old, same old.
And the brand has a certain panache to it.

And you know, for some people, they hear “Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices”—
“Oh, those are the really expensive homes. That’s all they do.”

That is not at all true.

[01:17:18]
Tracy Hayes: Like Sotheby’s or Compass—they all kind of have that reputation.

Kimberly Waterhouse: We do.
We are the leader in the market in luxury, and there are certain segments of the market that we dominate.
But, like I tell people, my little tagline I share is:

“Wherever you are in your real estate journey, we’re here to help.”
Or—“I’m here to help.”

Because, you know, there’s—I think my least expensive transaction was a lot in Mandarin.
And I know it sold for like a hundred-and-something thousand. That was my smallest transaction.

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: So yeah.
And I think about when I bought my house in Lakewood—I bought that house for $80,000.
And I’m like—I couldn’t buy that house today.
And I see what the prices are and I’m like—this is so interesting to me.

But yeah, I’m always open to chatting with people.

[01:18:59]
Kimberly Waterhouse: I'm doing a—I like to play golf. I don't get to play as much, but there's an organization called LEGS—Ladies Executive Golf Society—that started here by Jillian Johnson. And it’s sprung up all over the United States. And they launched a mentorship program. I'm actually mentoring another real estate agent who's in a totally different brokerage in Scottsdale, Arizona.

And it’s been fun. And, you know, she’s a little firecracker. And I said something to her—I said, “You know, if you ever want to consider Berkshire Hathaway…”

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Waterhouse: “You might want to have that conversation. And I can set that up for you.” Because she’s thriving. She’s desiring more.

[01:19:00]
And she will not get that from the brokerage she’s at right now. And I think that’s another thing: if you’re new, if you’ve gone through a full year or a couple of years and you’re just floundering and unsure, go out and talk to different brokers.

Tracy Hayes: Well—well really, would you agree more of the agents that are doing the business?

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

[01:19:21]
Tracy Hayes: I think that's more important. I don’t think the broker is always the answer. ’Cause you’re gonna get a crapshoot there.
At least you can go and say, “Hey, these are, you know—” like listen to the Real Estate Excellence podcast. Say, “Hey, you’ve been on the Real Estate Excellence podcast, they’re top producers. Let me go pick a few of those and actually go and have coffee with them, or lunch.”

[01:19:40]
Kimberly Waterhouse: Yeah. And have coffee with them. Because I think you would be surprised—people, they’ve been there.
And I think it’s important to find somebody who might be in the same stage of life or started off in the same stage of life that you’re in.
And—what did they do? You know, what made them so successful? Did somebody give them a chance?

You know, I’m having that conversation with somebody right now on a listing. I said, “You need to give me a chance. I know I can do this.” And yeah, just because I haven’t sold at that exact price point doesn’t mean I cannot do it. Look at what I’ve done.

[01:20:28]
Tracy Hayes: They think they’re in L.A.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Well, they think these are the only people that can do it.
Funny little thing—I think you’ll find this funny—there’s a husband and wife with our Beverly Hills Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, and they specialize—they actually run their new construction division. And when I first met them, I said:

“Okay, I just have to ask—the Oppenheim Group, all those people out there that we see on reality TV… do you ever interact with them? Is it really like that?”

And they started laughing.
They said, “We see these people all the time. And no—how you see them is strictly for TV. That is not how they dress. That is not how they’re made up. And they’re actually pretty down-to-earth people. It’s just for TV.”

[01:21:18]
Tracy Hayes: No—they make it look like they play basketball in their six-inch high heels.

Kimberly Waterhouse: [Laughs] Yeah, come on now.

Tracy Hayes: Come on now—or go running.

[01:21:23]
Tracy Hayes: Kimberly, I appreciate you coming on today. Really, really good show. I think there’s a lot of information there.

We talked a lot about Berkshire Hathaway, but you know—it’s obviously the pool you jumped into, and you’re thriving in. And I think that’s the bottom line if we conclude this episode:

Find the brokerage that does business the way you can thrive in.
That you feel you want to get up every morning—and there are people to rely on, people who challenge you—

Kimberly Waterhouse: Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes: —and hold you accountable, etc., and help you move the needle.

Kimberly Waterhouse: Yep. Yep.

Tracy Hayes: So thanks for coming on.

[01:21:58]
Kimberly Waterhouse: Thank you for having me, Tracy.

Tracy Hayes: No problem. Alright.

[01:22:00]
Kimberly Waterhouse: Alright. Bye.

[01:22:01]
Tracy Hayes: Bye.