Heather Perez-Hollis: Continuity of Care

Tracy Hayes  1:14  
Hey, welcome back to The Real Estate excellence podcast. Your host, Tracy Hayes, it is a guest like this is why I love podcasting, the type of show that I just truly enjoy doing. She has risen slowly, and she's had trials and errors, and now she's really starting to get her groove, and I'm really excited to dig in, because I think it's going to be a true lesson for all much like when I was in college, I had to learn how to learn she's learned how to be a real estate agent, and that's what's really exciting about we're going to dig it out of her today, this amazing agent has learned to be successful through trials and tribulations. It did not happen overnight. I am so looking forward to learning more about her challenges, successes and those who have made a difference in her career. She has been an agent for seven years, based on her numbers, about 18 months ago, something clicked. She had a good 2021 but most, as most agents did, but she's even having a better 22 which is not exactly happening for everyone. She loves to surf. I look forward to her telling us about her recent trip halfway around the world. Let's welcome Heather with a feather in her cap. Perez house to show I love that I always like come up with some tricky line to see, make sure everyone's listening. Yeah, oh, I'm glad you came by. And you know where it was that came upon. I'm always trolling social media. I know what it was that, whether it was the team at angle and Volkers was putting out, Hey, you done, a million dollars or two minutes, because the last few months have been really good for you, really good. So I'm like, Oh, what's this Heather doing? We thought I can go in and look up the numbers, and I'm looking at your trend and what you've done, and my system set up for the last year, and you're trending up. So I'm like, okay, she's an up and coming. Let's see what she's got to say. And so when we talked last week on the phone, or Monday, I think it was and you were telling me, you know, yeah, I mean, everything just didn't come to you right away, or wasn't easy, and you've had to work through it some through the podcast. So, like, I just, I'm really hoping we put that whole story together. 

Heather Perez  3:13  
Yeah, I'm excited. I hope that some people get some golden nuggets. Yeah, we talked about it earlier. You're a big surfer, and last week you posted that you had, well, you the word broke actually isn't the correct word, because didn't actually the longboard bowed. You said, yes, yes. So how do they fix that? So I would consider myself like the on the lower end of like a mediocre surfer, like I catch the wave I go down the line, I'm not ripping and shredding. And my friend let me borrow her favorite board, and I took a probably a little bit heavier of a wave that I should have, and it bowed in the middle. And if I would have paddled back out, I definitely would have broke her board. But thanks to it's fixed and she's got it done, so it's life the long board you said, took the weight so because the wave was too big, the board, of course, now the front of the board's pushing down on the water. The back of the board lifting up because the water's lifting it up. Is that what caused it? I really don't. For someone that weighs 125

Tracy Hayes  10:00  
The high schools and even in their colleges, is not there. And we need to spend more time explaining to people like, Hey, this is what a mortgage is, this is what a credit card is, is what these are, how these, you know, these things work. And so you come out into the field and, you know, like you heard me taking an application earlier, yeah, and I'm talking to somebody, you know, I guarantee the average 23 year old the questions I'm asking that gentleman when talking about his application was, you're like, why are you asking him that? Or you have no place to put it exactly and no place to stick it on the wall. So there is that maturity level. But we, I think the stereotypical real estate agent is that older person that's changed now in your gen, well, probably the generation slightly before you you're starting younger, and you are seeing it as a career. And by the time you are 30, you are doing very well because you've made those, yeah, and you know, it came down to a point too, where, you know, it's like, I know, I knew, obviously I'm younger, my clients are going to know that I'm younger. So hey, I know I'm young, but I'm hungry, and I will not stop until I get you what you want. So one of my mantras has been, as you know, Persistence is key. Keep going, keep pushing. Yes, 100%

Tracy Hayes  11:08  
 So let's, let's dig into education here, because it's a common theme. I've told everyone, I'm gonna write a book. One part of it in the common theme is education. So you're a young person, you're trying to get a grasp of the business time What are and not necessarily. And I we know just looking back, it wasn't perfect, yeah, but if you're talking to that new agent, when you know again, someone who's following in your footsteps, you know, just coming out of UNF and so forth and getting into the business, would you increase your education knowing what you know now? Because now you knew a lot of the education sources. Because I imagine, as a young person, you don't know all the places to go. And is everyone telling you where to go, whether it's this was a board, or whether it's a lender sponsoring a class or another, you know, type of thing. How important is education? And could you have done it better? Yeah, if I could go back, I probably would have done it the exact same at the time the brokerage was offering ninja coaching, and that was a weak course, and I ended up taking that course twice, and because I just got so many golden nuggets from it. And I'm like, I know if I do this again, and I started implementing that. I took things from Tom Ferry, someone would have an audible and I would listen to that, and borrow that, that information from them, and go from there and kind of mimicking. And, you know, again, the way that I learn is by doing so, holding as many open houses and getting as much practice as I could, finding an accountability partner and practicing those scripts and going through it. So I think I would have done the education the exact same ninja was still I still do. I'm in a ninja mastery class, and it's about 15 agents nationwide, and we meet, you know, every two weeks, and that just holds you have an accountability partner in the group. So I think that find there's a lot of real estate coaching out there. Find what you connect with, and take the course two times, three times, because you won't hear certain things, right? You can only soak up so much information. So again, just keep on doing the coaching. But if you don't relate to it, you know, move on. Well, it goes back to what you said earlier. You've got to ramp up, and you've got to, you got to put the reps in, right? Yeah, got to do that type of data. Maybe the class you take it initially, when you first started, but there's information there you take a couple nuggets actually are relevant to you at that time. But then now, three, four or five years later, you take the class virtually the same information, but it's now means something different to you. Now, there's other things they're talking about that you actually go, oh yeah, I remember you talking about that five years ago, but I had no clue where to put it, yeah. Now, you know, because of the of your where you're at in your in your career, we were talking the great Melissa Ricks posted something the other day about, you know, don't be, don't think as other agents as competition. That's a very common theme, I'm sure at Engels and Volkers, because you guys have got a lot of great people in corey's offices, and you got to be collaborators. And everyone is at a different part of their career based on their experience, exactly. I'm sure you're sitting around agents that are closer to my age, and you're like, Wow, I can't, you know, I want to be successful like them, but they've only been in it five years too. But they're actually at a different time in their life, exactly. And the things that just came to them a little quicker because they had 20 years ahead of you, yeah, of life experience, and then putting it in just whatever that combination is, there's no set, yeah, and, but even if someone you know my age, you can take from that. And when I first started, I made sure that, you know, obviously you have either a group Facebook or you have a group email. Hey, does anybody want to hold an open house? Hey, can someone help me with this showing I was always the first one? Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will help you. Because I knew that it was going to come across one day that I had a question and I was going to reach out to that person, because I've hold five open houses for them, so now they kind of have to help me. Yeah, and I wanted to learn, so I knew that being that front facing and helpful agent, I would be learning from them, they're going to tell me how they want their open house run. They're running this podcast hypothetically at UNF right now, yeah, in a career setting, like people, whatever they want to do as a career. I my personal bias is that, like you said, while you're young, put the time in one of the one of the trying to remember, there was something I saw again with all these memes on, yeah, on social, girl, pop in my head. You know, are you the person that wants to dollar now? Or you're willing to wait till this afternoon and get $2 right? Yeah? Or are you willing to go out and get that job now. Or do you start the real estate career, which blossomed for you quickly? Yeah? Or maybe it takes five years and all sudden now you know you're in your groove, and you're on this nice rise that you're coming. You put the time in and got the reps, yeah, as a young person, so you had to sacrifice. You put your time in as a apprentice, basically, because that's what really.

Tracy Hayes  11:09  
there's days that you and I'm sure you've woken up going, man, do I want to do this today? Or should I just go find a job at the bank or something, whatever? Yeah, yeah, trust me, it goes through, and you have to keep pushing on. Have you ever thought about making your you've had to making your theme as the surfing agent. You're the only surfing agent. Imagine there's others that do like to surf, but make that your I

Heather Perez  11:31  
could find that as my new niche, but I think I'd have to like improve my surfing skill, just so

Tracy Hayes  11:36  
that wired. I think why I see I've said, No, there's other agents that surf. We had the the newcomer, Sadie and Luke on, they're down in St Augustine beach. But like, I was, I mentioned Ella Woods earlier. She was actually a college golfer. Oh, cool. So I was like, you know, why don't you make your specialty that you're the golf course guru of, you know, Northeast Florida. That is what a lot of these northern people want to do, yeah, they want to either have a pool or be at the beach, yep, or be on the golf course, yep, right? That's the ideal situation. Why not be? I, that's what I would sell myself at, yeah, that would be your brand. Definitely start making surfboards. And yeah, see you on the beach, and just put, you know, call me all your real Heather, yeah, Heather's home team on the surfboard and just stick on the beach. Yeah, I love it. I think that I would just go with that. You can do a lot of tick tock videos. Hey, hey. But so you, if I'm not mistaken, it was a UNF. You went to UNF and you majored in communications and PR, which I think is a super you know, not that your real estate, being a real estate agent was kind of like in your mind of why you chose that, yeah, but isn't that what we do exactly?

Heather Perez  12:43  
Yeah, exactly what we do. And, you know, I kind of, I went with that mindset of, hey, I know that I'm not going to go into the traditional PR degree. I'm not going to be writing press releases, but I am going to go into real estate. And it has been very helpful.

Tracy Hayes  12:55  
What are some of the like? Just some things there, if you walk, I think today, knowing what you know, knowing what you were taught. Yeah, if you were to go back there and just like, tweak it a little bit, or do a or teach a communications and PR class for real estate agent, yeah, what are some of the things that maybe you would do? Oh, well,

Heather Perez  13:13  
now I've heard over at UNF, if you are getting a PR degree, they are teaching, there's a college course on Canva. And I'm like, Man, I missed out on that one, because that's, you know, there's, now, they're wizards, so I would probably do something like that, and changing algorithms and things with real estate. So if I could teach a course to, you know, and there's, I think, UNF has a real estate course,

Tracy Hayes  13:35  
yes, I do know some people have taken it, I mean, so the social media, yeah, you're using between, well, Canva, because that's a lot of your stuff that you're developing for to post online, yep, yep, and so forth. And then we know everyone ever all the top agents have been on the show. Social media is part of their game. Some are better than the others, but it's a constant part of it. And as as they grow and become more successful, a lot of them are either outsourcing it someone that's really good at or hiring somebody to do it in their office with them. All right, we talked about a few things you do post college. You start Berkshire Hathaway is where you lead there. You're working part time, yep. Tell me some of the what are you what are you grabbing from them? Yeah. What is the schedule of a part time agent like at 24 years old, yeah.

Heather Perez  14:21  
So really, what I did is, at that time, Berkshire Hathaway had a sign in sheet, so whoever signed in first would get the first floor call or the first walk in. So for me, knowing that, hey, you know, I don't know many of my friends that are going to be buying house right now, we're still like, oh, in school, I was the first one in the office, and I signed my name in, and I would just sit there, and I've got my first listing. I got a couple buyers from those walk ins, and those leads also the community and having other agents help me and learning from them. They've been in the business for 2030, years. I was picking their brains, you know, calling them at 8pm like, Hey, I have a question. And thankfully, they were answering.

Heather Perez  15:00  
Me. So I did a lot of training. I just did a deep dive of figuring out, really the way that I learn is doing. So in real estate school, they'll teach you the contract, but when you actually go to write a contract as a newer agent, you're like, oh gosh, what do I still offer? So let's, let's dig into education here, because it's a common theme. I've told everyone, I'm gonna write a book. One part of it in the common theme is education. So you're a young person, you're trying to get a grasp of the business time What are and not necessarily. And I we know just looking back, it wasn't perfect, yeah, but if you're talking to that new agent, when you know again, someone who's following in your footsteps, you know, just coming out of UNF and so forth and getting into the business, would you increase your education knowing what you know now? Because now you knew a lot of the education sources. Because I imagine, as a young person, you don't know all the places to go. And is everyone telling you where to go, whether it's this was a board, or whether it's a lender sponsoring a class or another, you know, type of thing. How important is education? And could you have done it better? Yeah, if I could go back, I probably would have done it the exact same at the time the brokerage was offering ninja coaching, and that was a weak course, and I ended up taking that course twice, and because I just got so many golden nuggets from it. And I'm like, I know if I do this again, and I started implementing that. I took things from Tom Ferry, someone would have an audible and I would listen to that, and borrow that, that information from them, and go from there and kind of mimicking. And, you know, again, the way that I learn is by doing so, holding as many open houses and getting as much practice as I could, finding an accountability partner and practicing those scripts and going through it. So I think I would have done the education the exact same ninja was still I still do. I'm in a ninja mastery class, and it's about 15 agents nationwide, and we meet, you know, every two weeks, and that just holds you have an accountability partner in the group. So I think that find there's a lot of real estate coaching out there. Find what you connect with, and take the course two times, three times, because you won't hear certain things, right? You can only soak up so much information. So again, just keep on doing the coaching. But if you don't relate to it, you know, move on. Well, it goes back to what you said earlier. You've got to ramp up, and you've got to, you got to put the reps in, right? Yeah, got to do that type of data. Maybe the class you take it initially, when you first started, but there's information there you take a couple nuggets actually are relevant to you at that time. But then now, three, four or five years later, you take the class virtually the same information, but it's now means something different to you. Now, there's other things they're talking about that you actually go, oh yeah, I remember you talking about that five years ago, but I had no clue where to put it, yeah. Now, you know, because of the of your where you're at in your in your career, we were talking the great Melissa Ricks posted something the other day about, you know, don't be, don't think as other agents as competition. That's a very common theme, I'm sure at Engels and Volkers, because you guys have got a lot of great people in corey's offices, and you got to be collaborators. And everyone is at a different part of their career based on their experience, exactly. I'm sure you're sitting around agents that are closer to my age, and you're like, Wow, I can't, you know, I want to be successful like them, but they've only been in it five years too. But they're actually at a different time in their life, exactly. And the things that just came to them a little quicker because they had 20 years ahead of you, yeah, of life experience, and then putting it in just whatever that combination is, there's no set, yeah, and, but even if someone you know my age, you can take from that. And when I first started, I made sure that, you know, obviously you have either a group Facebook or you have a group email. Hey, does anybody want to hold an open house? Hey, can someone help me with this showing I was always the first one? Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will help you. Because I knew that it was going to come across one day that I had a question and I was going to reach out to that person, because I've hold five open houses for them, so now they kind of have to help me. Yeah, and I wanted to learn, so I knew that being that front facing and helpful agent, I would be learning from them, they're going to tell me how they want their open house run. They're running this podcast hypothetically at UNF right now, yeah, in a career setting, like people, whatever they want to do as a career. I my personal bias is that, like you said, while you're young, put the time in one of the one of the trying to remember, there was something I saw again with all these memes on, yeah, on social, girl, pop in my head. You know, are you the person that wants to dollar now? Or you're willing to wait till this afternoon and get $2 right? Yeah? Or are you willing to go out and get that job now. Or do you start the real estate career, which blossomed for you quickly? Yeah? Or maybe it takes five years and all sudden now you know you're in your groove, and you're on this nice rise that you're coming. You put the time in and got the reps, yeah, as a young person, so you had to sacrifice. You put your time in as a apprentice, basically, because that's what really.

Tracy Hayes  20:00  
What you were talking about. And so if you're talking to that addressing or they're listening to this podcast, whether it's tomorrow or a year from now, you know, what would you say to those young people about what real estate has done for you and your growth in your I mean, are you still sub 30? Oh, yeah, I'm 30. You're 30. Okay, I might not. Okay, so for that sub 30 class that's coming in, why real they should consider real estate. If that

Heather Perez  20:26  
company you're interested, real estate is the most rewarding career out there, and you get the flexibility of life, and you still can have that quality of life. Why real estate? One? It's, again, super rewarding. So that's what I would say to those UNF students that were interested. It's hard, you know, for me, my it took me eight and a half months to get my first sale, and I hit a wall at six months. And I said, What am I doing? What am I doing? And don't come for me. Experienced agents, I paid for Zillow at that time. So I was like, You know what? This is the only way, and that's I at that time. You know, Zillow is like, crazy expensive now, but I think it was, like, 450 bucks for one zip code, and I was like, done, gonna do it, and that that paid off, and because I didn't have that pipeline. And one thing for me is, you know, a newer agent, oh, and I'm still this way, like, get back to your clients right away. Like, be there when they call you, because that opportunity will find someone else.

Tracy Hayes  21:18  
There are 1000s agents out there would love the call. We got to return. It got a bit so at least somebody pick up the phone. Yeah, it doesn't necessarily this is one thing I've learned in the loan officer world. There's a lot of loan officers out there that think they got to be the one that answers the phone. Yes, trust me, you do not have to be the one. It's now there are some agents that will ask me, oh, when I call in and do an application, are you going to be doing it? Because they know my experience, they can carry on. Versus someone new, I can completely understand. But when that deals in process, or even someone just calling and trying to get an appointment with you to go look at a house, just that someone answers the phone, so if you're unable, you've got to forward that line to someone that is going to respond, or you're immediately going, hey, I'll call you back in five. You're immediately getting back on, you know, as we do now with text messaging. Yeah, so hey, I'm talking to another client on the other line. I wouldn't interrupt your call if I was talking to you if someone called in. So I don't want to interrupt this one, but I will call you right back. Absolutely. You got it this age we Yeah, people move forward. I want to just kind of circle around the education because you were talking about in this mastermind group. Do you have some favorite places that you like to, you know, regularly check out, whether you check and see what ne Fars, you know, has this month for trainings, or, you know, is there a podcast, you know, Buffini, or Tom Ferry, or someone like that, you're, you know, that's your favorite, that you're always checking to see what they're talking about and picking out what you want. What do you like to learn from?

Heather Perez  22:47  
Yeah. So actually, within our mastery class, our coach gives us, you know, books to read and podcasts to listen to so we can have those discussions. I'm kind of all over the board, like again in Jacksonville, we're always driving. So I love Tom Ferry. I love the fee and listening to those guys, and I really love Glenda Baker. She's an Atlanta real estate agent, and she's a luxury specialist, and, you know, that's my ultimate podcast. Or she just, she's big on Tiktok and Instagram, and she's a big personality, and she's just, she has a lot of really good tips, so I follow her on Instagram, and I'll listen to her and her videos. And I think she's more guests like she has. I don't think she has her own podcast.

Tracy Hayes  23:26  
Okay, so well. So she goes on like Instagram and gives and just tips on Instagram, yeah? And she'll just, this is how I do Instagram, or, Hey, here's the latest thing.

Heather Perez  23:35  
Or she'll say, you know, she opens up a video with, I had this client, and she'll tell you every realtor will tell you now, every transaction you learn something doesn't matter how long you've been in the business. So she'll say it's kind of like a war story, like, Hey, I went through this with this client, and you can learn from her experience too.

Tracy Hayes  23:52  
Well. That brings up an interesting tip that I think is very important. I want your honest opinion. Yeah, don't be because you're mean, I'm a straight shooter. I'll be on I will tell you that the if I've had this is episode 93 if I've had 8687 agents on there, all 87 would agree with me, but you may be the one who disagrees, because, well, you know not that you're the only millennial I've ever had on the show. You're How important is it to show up, to come into the office and hear what you just talked about, where you watch this lady on Instagram talk about some of her transactions. How important is it to go and hear in the office of the other agents making

Heather Perez  24:31  
stuff happen? I'm not gonna disagree with you. You're not gonna disagree 100% you know our answer? Yeah, I was the first person in the office when I first started to get in that sign in sheet. And when someone would beat me to the office, I would, oh, man, yeah, and you know, the office opened at nine, so I would get there at 830 I would make sure that my name was first on the list, but also not wearing my AirPods and listening to the conversations, because you can learn, you know, someone may be on the phone with a super difficult client, and you can pick up on those little cues. Is and figure out how to talk to people. And in the beginning, you know, since I was younger, I was like, Hey, I'm faking it till I make it. You know, I'm gonna say what I heard. You know, it's gonna sound great.

Tracy Hayes  25:09  
I'm not, I'm not agree with fake it, make it thing, although we often do that. Because, I don't know, some of the top people say, No, you don't want to. You don't want to, hey, do that. But I think they're really talking about true faker. No, keep it all we're doing what we I mean, the first, you know, 28 minutes of our podcast where we've been talking about, yeah, is you are getting the mental reps in, and that is where I see too many in, on my side, and the loan officer side, and I the agents, I guess, is where you want to go, how far you want to you get there if this is going to be your career, and you want to make X amount of dollars a year. And I imagine, you know, it's at least a six figure dollar amount was hopefully a two or three in front of it. Yeah. If that's the kind of money and solid money you want to make, you got to put your mental reps in and as and this is what I really love about the young people that you know, you set in your 30 or less that I've had on the show is every single one of you has that maturity of understanding that, you know, it's not my transactions, it's their transaction. But I'm going to listen in, because I may learn something, Oh, for sure, and it's so invaluable. And I really think that today's a lot of people today are really missing it because I didn't have that attitude that you had yeah and

Heather Perez  26:23  
be a yes person. Someone needs coverage. Say yes, like they are going, it's gonna come back. I remember when I was a newer agent, and I had, I think, two more experienced agents bring me in on deals just so I could assist them. They didn't have. There's plenty of other agents that could have asked, but because I was front facing and always saying yes, and doing the open houses and doing the showing coverage. You know, even it's, if it's an inconvenience, you're still going to learn. You know, you're still going to learn having that attitude of saying yes will always come back.

Tracy Hayes  26:52  
So this can transition just a little bit into, you know, you have the Heather's home team, because you have another agent that you you guys work off each other a little bit. She's ramping up because you talked about the quality of life for sure. Now, obviously most agents will like talk about you. You want to pick up the phone when they call. It might be Sunday afternoon someone calls, because buying a house doesn't just happen Monday through Friday, nine to five. It is oftentimes the weekends that you're doing stuff, but then or doing well, and you want to go spend almost two weeks in Maldives. You need some coverage, for sure, and it's important. So how do you structure your day? Because you what's the terminology you used earlier with me before the show? You're basically work life balance, but you didn't say it that way. What was your quality of life?

Heather Perez  27:35  
Big quality of life. Person I do want to see and continue to travel the world. And Amber is the same. She was just in Iceland with her husband. Oh, cool. So it's really about just having each other's backs. And one thing that we like to structure is that for all of our clients, it's a continuity of care, right? So I'm not going to go to the Maldives and just throw Amber at, you know, a client that they've never met. I've probably mentioned Amber a few times in conversations and saying, hey, just want to let you know in about a week, I'm going to go out of town. Amber is fully up to line with the transaction. She'll be in my email. If you need anything, she'll be your direct point of contact, and she takes great care, just as she would for her own clients. So give me that term one more time, continuity, continuity of care. Continuity of care. Yeah, it's not just oh and the real estate transaction,

Tracy Hayes  28:24  
that might be the title of our podcast, continuity of care, of care. Yeah, I love that.

Heather Perez  28:30  
And there's one, one thing that I want to touch on for newer agents is get your buyer packet and your seller packets together today. Start practicing that one. I have lines that I'll say to each and every client. For example, Hey, Mr. And Mrs. Buyer, I am in the business of setting expectations. Today. We're going to go through what we're going to go through. I don't say hey, it's going to be rainbows and butterflies during this buyer process, especially the last two years. It's more of a roller coaster ride. But I am here to take that stress off of you, but it is going to be a team effort. So I think that, you know, saying, hey, continuity of care, I'm here. Amber's here, even when the real estate transaction is over. If you need us for any reason, we are here and we stay in touch.

Tracy Hayes  29:10  
So you mentioned earlier, I'm gonna tail off that to stay in touch. You mentioned earlier that when you first started you, you know, had your other friends that were the same age, went to college together. Obviously, you grew up here, but they weren't necessarily, you know, your ideal home buyer at that age. I'm sure a couple of them were trying to buy homes. Hopefully they bought homes then versus now, yeah, but it was a price standpoint. But how is, how is that changing? We start to mold into a little bit of a marketing campaign, because you are from here, yeah. So what are you doing differently now, and obviously having the confidence and the experience and so forth to work your circled influence, yeah.

Heather Perez  29:53  
So I think when I first started, it was kind of like this fear of being talking about real estate and like, oh, okay, well, I'm just. Starting. I don't want to throw it in people's faces. I don't want to be that salesy. And then once you step into it, it's really like, hey, yeah, you should be talking about it all the time, reaching out to your friends and family, reaching out to the people that you see on, you know, maybe two times a year, and say, Hey, I'm in real estate. I just want to call and let you know, or seeing someone in the grocery store and wearing your name tag and doing all of those things. So, yeah,

Tracy Hayes  30:22  
you know, I was just thinking of that the name tag you need to have surfboard with your logo on it.

Heather Perez  30:27  
So I am, I just ordered news, had some surfboard, and he said, Do you want your real estate logo on it? Yeah, I do, yeah, yeah.

Tracy Hayes  30:35  
Who has it had on very recently, Missy caddy. Katie cam, I always get those miss I always get that Missy. But kitty Jan Meyer said she was sitting at Starbucks or not, unless it's just a coffee shop, I don't know if it's Starbucks. Have her laptop up. I guess it had us. I think had a asked me about real estate, or something about real Yeah, she's a real estate agent. I'm a realtor or whatever. And she had that started conversations, and what's, you know, one rock turned over another. I can see you taking a break at the beach. You got your board in the sand. And, I mean, people are gonna, people are gonna come up and talk to you about it, and because it becomes part of your life, how has real estate? Because, again, we're not nine to five. We don't check in at nine and check out at five. How do you mold it in? You're talking about your boyfriend. You guys with the Maldives. I mean, I assume he accepts the way you do business. Otherwise we wouldn't be dating. Yeah, yeah. How does it? How do you make it this one? It is you excellent

Heather Perez  31:32  
question, and I definitely wanted to touch on this today. So my boyfriend owns a CrossFit gym, CrossFit and total control and blending into life. So he's in sales, even though he owns a gym, because he's got to sign up members and becoming a part of a community, especially as a newer agent, or even a seasons agent, that is kind of in a slump, we're going to CrossFit every day. CrossFit is hard. You know, you are suffering alongside of people. You're top of mind.

Tracy Hayes  31:59  
Are you doing a lot of classes together, because only a lot of CrossFit get in team classes.

Heather Perez  32:04  
You know, if you and even if you don't want to do CrossFit, you can join a 45 another gym and start going at that same time consistently. Because every single day, things happen to people. Sometimes people get a job promotion, and they're super excited, and they're going to be telling everyone at the gym, I got this job promotion. Oh my goodness, blah, blah, blah. Or you're going to see another side of somebody. They're going to have a bad day, and they're not going to be talking to you, and you may go up to say, Hey, are you okay? Real Estate, as you know, it was a relationships business. So the more that you become a part of the community, the more that it's going to be easier to talk about, Hey, today I, you know, I sold the highest home that I've ever had, and they'll be so happy for you, yeah, and they'll, they'll remember that, you know, maybe a year later, like, Oh, I remember that. You know, Heather's

Tracy Hayes  32:48  
now, he has his gym. Does he have a real estate board with your like neighborhood?

Heather Perez  32:53  
I need to, there is a place for me to have a sign, and it has been on my to do list. So, you know, calling myself out some accountability here. Send you a picture. Need to get advantage signs to make me a sign outside this gym. Well, you

Tracy Hayes  33:05  
bring up a great point in, you know, and again, teaching, whether it's real estate, and again, the loan officers out there too. Yeah, you got to get out. Okay, you've got, you got to meet people. Today was the first time we've talked on the phone, but this today was first time we met face to face. So tomorrow we're going to an event together. Yeah, now we've talked for an hour. We've seen each other. We know who we are. Now we can come up and just start a conversation or continue the conversation tomorrow. You got to get it started, and that's showing up to an event, showing up to the gym every day. You may see the same person in the gym for weeks and weeks, and then finally, you get up to gusto say, hey, you know, I know you're in here all the time with me. Hey, my name is Heather. What's yours? Yeah. And then now you've taken the relationship up to another level, because now you know each other by name, and you're broken that ice barrier a lot of people have, but as a real estate agent, as a loan officer, you've got to get that initial shield broken

Heather Perez  34:01  
advice, right? No, for sure. Yeah. I totally agree.

Tracy Hayes  34:04  
Yeah. So the gym is a good, a good spot. That's, you know, Ryan Sirhan tells in his book where he, like, joined, like, multiple gyms just to run into people. That was his.

Heather Perez  34:14  
Again, it's community. And even if you don't want to go to the gym, you can join a club, if you play a sport. You know, there's ways to get out there, but making it consistent, because the last two years and big source of my business has been the gem. Because I'm around those people every single day, it makes it easy. I'm top of mind, and I'm not talking about real estate every time I'm working out,

Tracy Hayes  34:36  
when you're just bringing all sorts of thoughts to my head. I should be marketing director, but these are like, no brainers to me, if I was going to the gym, I would have Heather's Home Team tank top on or whatever. Yeah, where I've seen your gym outfits on social media. I mean, that brings up conversation. It does people see the shirt? Oh, are you know? Are you Heather, or you know? You know me, especially. Being female, guys are going to see your, you know, are you Heather? Yeah, no, because they Yeah, that's their way of breaking the ice into their subtle way, yeah, talking to you that they're seeing that every, all the time, Heather, or they're going to go to your boyfriend and go, Hey, is that girl a real estate agent? That's, you know, type of thing. So wearing your the proper strategic materials, whether it's a surfboard, whether it's a t shirt, where you're working out again, another way, just to easily break the ice. So people are seeing that consistently all the time. You know, we all wear, you know, our team, you know, whether it's, I don't have my loan depot shirt on today, but you know, it's a lot of times I'll wear that just because that's everything we're wearing the team. But going that consistent place, people are seeing it all the time. You weren't just wearing that shirt one day. You actually, that's actually your life. Yeah, yeah, I would carry a gym bag too.

Heather Perez  35:48  
Just go get you a pink gym bag. Full blown.

Tracy Hayes  35:53  
All right, so Corey has a way of great way, or I've talked to many agents been recruited by Corey, young and old, some of the most senior agents you would never think would leave their brokerage talk to Corey, and they're like, that's where I need to be, yeah. What is it about Ingle and Volcker? And I would imagine that Corey has a lot to do with it. I Because, obviously, I don't know any other angle, although I'd like to get Jennifer as a brindle that down in Sonny and Augustine on. She hasn't accepted my invitation yet, but hopefully, maybe she listens this. But what is it about the Jacksonville angle Volkers that you're like, Yeah,

Heather Perez  36:26  
I need to be there. Great question. So I was definitely one of those that was like, Hey, I am not going anywhere, but I will take the meeting. Because why not? I'm a yes person, so I need to live by that code hold myself to. And I was one so impressed with Corey, and you've met him, sure you've had the same the same feeling, but really it was the tools that give time back to me. So my favorite thing about real estate is being front facing. I love doing the client drop bys, I love seeing my clients after they've moved in after six months. And I always write a thank you card at the end of the transaction, I say, PS, I'm inviting myself over. I can't wait to see what you do. And the last two years I haven't had time, because I have to do the marketing, I have to do the posts, I have to do the E cards, I have to do the contracts. I have to show the property and going crazy. And when I met,

Tracy Hayes  37:18  
because what's the word there? What's the word there? This is a con, one of those themes, again, like education,

Heather Perez  37:23  
yeah, consistent, consistency, yeah. And I think with, when I met with Corey, there was things that I knew that I wanted, but I didn't know how, and he presented me with those solutions. Of, you need to go out and sell. You need to go out and be 100% with your clients. You don't need to be worrying about a social media graphic. And I was like, I agree, yes. So I would say tools were the main reason. And being around the best of the best, again, because I am younger, and I want to be around the agents that have been crushing it for, you know, 2030, years I well like that as a 30 year

Tracy Hayes  38:00  
old to be accepted into. I mean, I want to use the term into corey's club. Yeah? So shirts man said we're getting a lot of Corey shirt ideas. Yeah, corey's Club, because Ingo Volcker doesn't take new green agents. You have to have a certain volume to be accepted in into, because that's just their business model. And at 30 to be accepted in there, like you said, to have that room full of, you know the common terms, you know five successful people, but you even have more than that that are around it. You know, at any day of the week, you can walk into that office not knowing who's going to be there, but there, there is probably going to be a couple of successful people in that office you can look up to, and immediately, you know, if you're having a bad day, that'll probably, you know, give you a little shot and a little, you know, pump up, yeah, and give you that energy. Because that's what I get from many of the people that I've had on the show. I tell people, it's, this is like a personal it's like me reading a personal development book a couple times a week. You forget the couple shows, because what I from you and then many other guests is just enlightens me. And some of it's not like something like total rockets, like I've never heard that before. It's just hearing it over and over again, hearing the consistency that we talked you're just talking about how important you know, you know other agents and that they're not getting that kind of support. You are. I love the way you positioned yourself. You are. You like the front end. You like the customer interaction. You like taking that initial call, scheduling going out, you know, maybe evaluating what homes are best for them, after doing a little interview with them and that and doing that, because that's where the money is made. The money is not made by posting the social media graphic, although many of us will sense that, hey, I need to do the social media graphic to get to. But there are people who can sit there, post on social media for you all day long for pennies on the dollar, literally where you're out there making. I always like to call it the $500 an hour job. You want the $500 an hour job so you want to spend as many hours a day doing the $500 hour job, let the person doing the 20 $25 an hour job do that exactly. And if they spent as much time doing that as you did the fuck. I mean, that's a great yeah, return on investment, right?

Heather Perez  40:18  
Absolutely, yeah. And you know, to the newer agents to like we said, the consistency, but I took, I have a buyer interview sheet that I would follow. And even when I was new, I might not remember the seventh question on the second page, but I'm looking because I'm making notes, and I'll tell them, hey, I'm going to make notes and I'm going to put this in your file. So following that. And now, you know, my buyer and seller process is down. You know, it's completely memorized

Tracy Hayes  40:42  
now, so you like to meet them face to face, and only with this, like interview. They always and

Heather Perez  40:46  
especially if it's an online lead or someone that I haven't met before. I will say that, you know, being a woman in this business is, you know, and I've learned, I'm so grateful for the women that are more experienced and smarter than I am that have helped me along the way. But with the way that the world is today. You know, no amount of money is worth my safety. So if I get an online lead, if they're not willing to meet me in person to have an initial conversation, they've at least got to text me their ID. And if they don't do that, find another agent. Yeah, so, but I do, like, no matter if they are, you know, repeat, if they've, like, done four real estate transactions, but they've never worked with me. I want them to come in and I want to go over my process and I say, hey, I'll take 30 minutes of your time, and then we can go see houses. And that really has been a strong point in my real estate career. And I've gotten a lot of client feedback, like, hey, like, we've never had an agent do it like you do.

Tracy Hayes  41:37  
We're talking about the meeting. And one thing I like about I think, is real estate's done so many different ways. Yeah, so there are, you got the EXP? You got the Florida homes? They're not, they don't have offices. I mean, some of them have some small business offices, but they're not retail offices, like you guys have at England locals exits, got retail

Heather Perez  41:55  
offices, or do zoom. I mean, with covid, we all had to shift. I was doing plenty of buyer interviews or consultations, as I call them, through covid on Zoom. And one thing too, being in Florida. Another, you know, newer agent tip is, hey, like in our neighboring state, Georgia, sellers do not have to pay the closing costs. Or the sellers have to pay the closing costs, not the buyer. So having people from Atlanta, and they may be, you know, I had a client, top executive, CEO, and when they purchased their house with me, and I still did the buyer process, and I said, Hey, these are going to be your closing costs. What they said, What do you mean? We've bought and sold three, four houses in Atlanta, and we had to pay the buyer's closing costs. Were you thinking about so and that may have changed in the last couple of years, but even though their experience, they might not be from here, they're going to learn something from me. And you know, again, business is spending. I spoke to expectations like this is how the process is going to go. Let's see if we're going to work well together. Well, I would get along.

Tracy Hayes  42:48  
I think one of the benefits of Ingle in that talking to Corian, you guys love your offices. Your offices are amazing. Are done to impress and so to invite them and do that into the home court, or I would even say, Hey, I'd really like you to come by. I want you to meet my broker, you know, and I want to do the initial consultation. We've got a great space here, or whatever, however you want to describe, I think that I agree with you from especially from the any agent this day and age. I mean, this the stuff that goes on. Obviously, we probably watch too much social media, but it's in our mind, a safety standpoint, for sure, 100% light and being out of Jack's beach, it's not like being in down in South St, you know, South St, John's County, you got every character walking.

Heather Perez  43:33  
You know, it's not like, you know, there's crime everywhere. But again, that's just something that I've chosen in my business, and I honestly don't get that much pushback. And if I've maybe had two or three people say, Well, I'm not comfortable sending you my ID. And I said, Well, I'll send you my ID if you want me to. And they're like, Oh, well, okay. And I'm like, see, this is just and I tell them, I said, Hey, I'm a single woman prior, you know, safety is my permanent Do you have a daughter? Would you want her to do the same thing? And I've had some gentlemen be like, actually, yeah, I totally get that. And I'm like, I appreciate. It doesn't matter if I'm, you know, a knocker T I'm still gonna ask you for some identification.

Tracy Hayes  44:05  
That is really weird that someone would like, No, I mean, you go to drive out, you go to drive a car. Yeah, most of the car dealerships, they're gonna make a photocopy your driver's license before the sales people

Heather Perez  44:16  
just get get in a new agent. Tip, though, you've got, if you're gonna ask one person, you've got to ask everybody. So even, yeah, asking everybody, don't just you everybody. So even if it's you know, my mom, like Mom, I got to get a copy,

Tracy Hayes  44:28  
yeah, file. It's one of those things. Everyone should know where you're going. My wife is always she's a, Hey, I've got a showing. And especially, she's meeting a male by himself, not never met before. Yeah, hey, I'm going to be here at 10 o'clock. You know type of thing. And you know you should be doing. It should be a natural practice, and everyone should.

Heather Perez  44:48  
You know what works for me? May not work for everyone, but I do really. I found a lot of confidence in my buyer and seller process, within my consultations, because you learn so much. We are here to solve

Tracy Hayes  45:02  
a Do you I? And I, because I've heard this from, again, some other greats have been on the show that we kind of got onto the subject of the consultation. But really, that's where you build it. We talked about relationships. That's really where you're building that relationship. One, yeah, with the immediate thing is that they don't just go and show up at the new construction site agent, and they cut you out of the deal. Yeah, but you're actually building that relationship for post sale. Because it's not just that one customer, it's you built the relationship. You actually sat down and listened to them, which everyone wants to be heard, and you hopefully then narrow down how many houses you're going to show them, instead of just going out there as a shotgun and just showing a bunch of houses. You actually talked to them and said, Okay, well, we need to look at these houses then, based on what you told me and but you're it's actually that period of time, because when you think about it, especially last year, as fast as things were happening, if you didn't sit them down for 30 minutes or whatever, and have that little meet and greet and talk about some things, it was like, make your offer accepted. Boom, you're on the closing. Because after the offer is accepted, yeah, you need them over, maybe for the inspection, right? You go over for that, and then you got to do the walk through. Those are the only two other scheduled times, yeah, that you're actually face to face with them, yeah? And these are people that you want to make advocates, which I'm sure you've learned from the older agents, that it's precious time for

Heather Perez  46:22  
sure, and you know, making sure that you do the process and the consultation, because they're going to likely refer you to somebody if you do an excellent journey, to tell their brother, their sister or their co worker, I learned so much from Heather. You've got to go talk to her, even though you're not ready right now,

Tracy Hayes  46:37  
right, right. But what being that resource of that consultation, being that you mentioned it very one of the first things you said here today was, I'm going to use the word concierge. You didn't say concierge, but being that resource of real estate, and some of the greats that I've had on the show, they want to be the resource. Matter of fact, it was the newcomers just on the last show. We're talking about how even when they recommend a restaurant, and they make sure they they recommend, oh, you're gonna be in St Augustine. You should go here. You should go here. Because when they start, when those customers start doing what you're suggesting, you know, you you're starting to build a relationship. And then you have that follow, Oh, how'd you like that meal? And, you know? And then the conversation continues. All right, we talked about education. We talked, I want to dig a little bit out of consistency rule. Just to kind of sum that up and close that one that subject out, what are some of the things that you do like every day, every week, that you're just as much as you go and go to CrossFit, yeah. What are you doing in your business? Consistency? And maybe not be perfect at it, but you're trying to be as consistent as possible. You feel as beared fruit and ramped you up here in the last 12 months, 18 months.

Heather Perez  47:43  
So staying top of mind, and, you know, writing thank you, Ninja will teach you to write thank you, or to say, Hey, I'm thinking about you. I hope everything is well, how many times do you get a handwritten card from someone that keeps you top of mind, making calls? I do post on social. I'm not as good as I should be. I really I don't even have a tick tock. I need to get better. Maybe this you're talking about hiring a marketing company like I might need to do that. But, you know, staying consistent and top of mind in the last two years, honestly, I haven't been perfect at it, and now, with the market changing a little bit, I'm really looking forward to doing that client facing before covid, I was a co founder of a women's marketing group, so that was quarterly events for the community, and we kind of hope to get that back up and started. But again, just saying, front facing, consistent, checking in, Ninja has a really easy to follow sheet of post closing. Okay, so it's 12 Steps. The third step is check in two weeks later. How did moving go? Do they have any questions? Check in at month three. How are things going? It'll tell you what to ask, right?

Tracy Hayes  48:45  
And Well, as I think a lot of the ages started, a lot of the CRMs and stuff will if you put them in there correctly, but you got to put them in, yeah, and that's sometimes, I mean, I think you're at the level now where you're starting to need that assistant to be doing that back end stuff, even if it's even if you're sharing that person with somebody, right? So as you're making sure it's inputted into the system that's outputting that to you mentioned something here, which I think freezes a lot of people. You said basically that you were not perfect at it. You were not but you keep moving. Don't have to do the perfect video. Don't have to take the now you're going to do a you're the listing agent. Yes, you want to take perfect photos of the house you're doing you have that's your customer, but you yourself just being top of mind using social media so people get to know you just got to do it, and you just got to keep moving

Heather Perez  49:31  
forward and utilizing a Facebook I know all of my clients that I work with, I always add them on Facebook. Everyone is posting all of the time. Get comment. They're going to see that, and they're going to do the same for you

Tracy Hayes  49:41  
another you know? Great. That's a tip. I think everyone has in their back of mind. Not total rocket science is like, but you got to do it. You talk to someone on the phone, search them, troll them on Facebook. 100 friend them. Okay? Because one now they know you're thinking of them, even though you're not talking to them on the phone at that moment. Maybe while you're on in the phone, you're maybe you're on your computer at the time. Time, and you're talking to them on the phone, and you could pull up Facebook and yeah, and friend them while you're on there, but they now are seeing you. They're seeing you. You know, at the beach, surfing, whatever, you're seeing them. Maybe you didn't ask them what kind of dog they had.

Heather Perez  50:14  
Yeah. And also, one thing, when you add a new client on Facebook and maybe you have five mutual friends? Oh, how do you know so and so? Oh, awesome. I've known

Tracy Hayes  50:25  
them clutch right there. Yeah? Because now, when you mentioned that you have this mutual friend, if it's actually, you know, truly someone, maybe they hang out with casually, or it's their cousin, yeah, right, in a small world, yeah, now all of a sudden they're bound to you because you have a mutual Yeah, that's clutch, right there, like that. We talked about showing up, besides just showing up to the Ingalls and Volcker's office, what are you doing anything again, to hang out or be around or listen to? Because I think when we say surround yourself by five successful people, it doesn't mean literally, like in the same necessarily, in the same room? Yeah, it could be who you're listening to, yeah, who are the, who are some of the, I know you mentioned some of them already, but who are some of the people you're regularly listening to? Or if they're having an event, you would go, you know, go to it.

Heather Perez  51:12  
Gosh, that's a great question. I haven't been as front facing, honestly with going to events. And I recently went to built right home inspections last week for a contract class and new inspection. But with, you know, traveling this year and how crazy busy it's been, that's definitely on my list to do better. But I think my biggest thing is I don't want to be in the room and be the smartest person in the rooms. Great agents like, you

Tracy Hayes  51:36  
know, occasionally you can be, yeah, you know, and I'm sure to help others. Someone's coming here for you.

Heather Perez  51:42  
And I would say, you know, for newer agents that are around my age, like turning 30, this has been like, the greatest year for my own personal development. Who do I want to be? Is one of the questions, because in our 20s, we think we know who we are, and it all figured out. And as we get a little older, we're like, I don't have a figure at all. So, you know, turning 30 and saying, I mean, this is who I want to be. This is who I want to surround myself with. What is it going to take to get there? It's going to take sacrifice. It's going to take, you know, having to say no to some really fun things. Can really focus on your business. And I think that I was lucky enough with my previous brokerage and my current brokerage to be surrounded by really powerful like Boss Babes, so that, you know, like my mentor, she completely inspires me. And I have a few other clients that are top CEOs here in Jacksonville that I've been lucky enough to assist them in their real estate purchase. They're older than me. They're more experienced than me. They value me 150% Yeah, they've never made me feel less than just because they're the top CEOs at a company, and they've been absolute professionals for the last 30 years. So I think that I always ask people that are smarter than me, like, Hey, what is one thing that, if you would teach, what would you tell me? What can I learn from you? And I think it's super important at this age to be open

Tracy Hayes  52:54  
now that what can I learn, yeah, what can I learn from you? Yeah, maybe sound a little odd to the average person, yeah. But a really, truly mature, deep thinker, someone who has stuff to share with you, yeah, you that's not a rare that's not a question that they should be like, I trust that. Yeah, that's a question they're gonna be like, I appreciate you asking that question, you know. Let me you know. And then you start digging into some of the things they've done. There's maybe some things they're not even thinking about at the moment, but now that you ask the question, they're going, oh, you know. And now they're shooting all right? This is really deep stuff, right here. What you're talking about, I'm super deep. Oh, you're super so 30 years old. You mentioned these successful men and women that are probably, you know, 20 plus years older than you, and knowing that they are influencers in their area, and obviously you would like to tap into their circle of influence is, how do you work that client? How do you stay or done that transaction with them? And maybe they didn't even think about the real estate. Maybe somehow you just, oh, Heather, you were the listing agent, whatever it was, someone you got there, but they didn't really, like, you know, do any deep research. But now you've got, because they're, they were your customer. Now you have an open, somewhat open communication, like, how do you work that? How do you be top of mind with that person?

Heather Perez  54:14  
You know, it's really interesting that you say that, because these the CEOs that I've been mentioning. I actually, I got a call for him. And he was like, Hey, you're, you know, you're on my list today to call. It's got five people. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, he's got a CRM. He's calling me to check it out. Until I'm doing I need to be calling in and checking in on him. And, you know, for me, I'm a big people person. I think that part of my personality, I know how to read the room, and that's credited to, you know, my success that I've had becoming a part of their lives, like I've had, you know, clients invite me to their weddings and being a part of their family in No, it's, it's, that's why I say earlier when you asked, it's such a rewarding career, because you end up with forever friends. And you know, in this business, you've got to want to be a people person, right? Really do so

Tracy Hayes  54:58  
with really, don't be in. Tim. Donated by those people that did business with you, and whether the I think one of the things that loan officers in real estate stuff happens in our business, every transaction runs smoothly. Very rarely they ever run perfectly smooth. But don't think that not after the transaction that buy, that buyer seller is relieved it's over, but until they tell you they don't like you. Yeah, you should be continuing to stay tough. Don't be intimidated, because they're 20. They're the CEO of JEA or whatever. If they've done business with you, continue because they know people ask for the referrals. That's how they got to where they're at.

Heather Perez  55:32  
And one thing too, with these, you know, top executives, you're going to run into them. You're going to do business with them. I will if I am nervous, because I know that they're really busy, I say, Hey, I know you're really busy, but I would love to have a conversation, because I want to learn from you about this. And they're like, I would love to have a conversation with this. I'm not too busy for this conversation. So, you know, being willing to learn, I think that has been a strength, and I think you may have touched on it. What you said you had Melissa Ricks on your podcast. She said, abundance. And I think that, you know Shonda, you know, tansy, you know Lee Elmore, these are top agents, and they all have that mindset of abundance is we all have enough business. How can I help you? And I've been really lucky to make those relationships with those top agents, men and women that have that mindset. And I think that the more success that you have, the more that you see like, oh, there's plenty for everybody, yeah. And when you know, how did you do this? Or, hey, what photographer did you use on those listing photos? Because I want to call them, and they're like, Hey, here's the number. Like, they're not going to hide that

Tracy Hayes  56:32  
from you. Yeah. No, they, they definitely want to be collaborators. Is the term they like to use, not competition, collaborators. And you gotta make those connections. But I think, yeah, just to don't be afraid where you're at. It was this phrase everyone puts their pants on the same way, exactly, and the fact that the person's actually done business with you, they obviously like you, trust me, they didn't have to choose you as a real estate agent. They may have to choose a site agent, a new construction because that's the only person in the building. But when it comes to being a real estate agent, representing them and going around and looking at houses, they can choose anyone they want. So they're already telling you they like. You stay in touch with those people consistently and continue to ask for the referral.

Heather Perez  57:13  
Yeah, and having the confidence to ask for the referral too is so important. And that follow up and making sure that you do, you know, making sure that you do a good job. So I always tell I have a few things that I'll say to my buyers and sellers, like, Hey, I'm in the business of setting expectations. And the most important thing that I will say to every single client, this is not about me, this is about you. I want what is best for you, right? You know you're not bothering me at any you don't

Tracy Hayes  57:41  
have to live in that house Exactly. You're not the one has to drive in the driveway every night.

Heather Perez  57:46  
I do have, you know, and it might be a younger clientele, they'll say, Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm texting you right now. I know it's a Saturday. I'm like, hey, it Friday is my Monday. Go ahead and reach out. So it's just establishing those expectations, because the nine to five person may not know that they can reach out to you, you know, at any time. And that's part of the thing of learning navigate as you get busier. Okay, is this imperative that I answer right now? Because they texted me at 9pm No, I can get back to them first thing in the morning, right? And creating those boundaries, but also setting that expectation with a new first time homebuyer. Like, hey, I work on the weekend. So like, Oh, you do you know that? Well, no, what? They don't know.

Tracy Hayes  58:20  
It's, I think this has been brought up on the show before you have to set your parameters. Is a text message urgent? I mean, if someone texts a lot of times, I will send an email or a text message. Well, sometimes they're urgent. If I'm, you know, when I'm sometimes, like, just got the phone. Yeah. But text message at 830 at night a question. When you look at it go, okay. Now if I answer this, it'll make them sleep better. Okay, that might be somewhat urgent, but if it's just again, so you I also will do it as a text, almost like taking notes as you go, Yeah, put notes down, because I want to remember to do it later. So what I do is I send the message, and now I put the ball in your court, yes, and then I just wait for the response. It might be tomorrow morning. Okay, you know type of thing, but yeah, you want to set those parameters, like, what is your level of communication? I think it's important, obviously, to communicate on whatever level. Yeah, they have, I've said many times I've done complete loans over Facebook, instant message and text message without actually interact, because that's just the way they communicate, exactly well or like that.

Heather Perez  59:19  
You have to kind of mold to what they're and again, in my consultation, I say, who is the main point of contact? Would you prefer I call you or I text you, and they'll tell you, and you remember,

Tracy Hayes  59:28  
like one says that the main point of contact, but they're really not.

Heather Perez  59:31  
Yes, it's like a husband, wife or partner situation. I will say I'm gonna do a group chat. Yeah, in the last two years it's been Hey, I know that you are working until 630 or seven o'clock at night, but if this house lists at 1pm we have to go. We can FaceTime you, but like there's no we're gonna see it tomorrow. Yeah, and I think a big part of the way that I am in my business is I have in multiple offer situations. I will call the listing agent and I will be at pest I'll say, hey. I just want to let you know that we were the first people here. We're the first people to show it. Will you please tell your seller that we were the first to make the appointment. It matters. We won against two cash investors recently because we were the first to show it. I reached out at 830 in the morning, which is a little, you know, little aggressive for poor lifting agent. You know, she's probably just having her morning coffee, but I will continue to follow up. Because again, when I'm presenting offers to my seller, I'll say, Hey, I asked a question to this buyer's agent. I still haven't heard back, but this deal just as good, she's been following up with me twice a day.

Tracy Hayes  1:00:32  
Well, this kind of come comes to the summer when I started the show, I wanted to hear, you know, we've talked about a lot of things, yeah, but if you're putting it on the scale of what's making the needle move for you and why you're ramping up in volume. And they in a year that the really good, really top agents are ramping up, some are leveling off. Some have taken this couple steps backwards from compared to last year, yeah, which is not difficult to do last, you know, last year being crazy. But that little tip right there, I have heard it numerous times from agents said they're, you know, they get offers, and there's no call from the buyers. It's signed. Like, like, that contract is supposed to say something, and you've got to get top of mind of that selling agent. Or maybe the selling agent gives you some advice. Like, yeah, that, yeah, that's not even going to be close. You better go back.

Heather Perez  1:01:19  
Yeah. I'm like, that dog on the bone. I'll be like, can you just and I'll ask the questions. And you know, there's some agents will sing like canaries. Others. I'm like, you know, I can't tell you that. I'm like, Hey, but I'm still gonna ask you three times, and you know, I'll continue to ask. And if you tell me no, okay, I get it, but if you tell me no, once, I'm still gonna come back. So it's really being hungry and saying I'm going to do this. And it was hard this last year for buyers. And again, it's changed now, so

Tracy Hayes  1:01:45  
it's a little bit so on. And that's the same side. Same thing for the loan officer side. Should be calling out to the listing agent. Now, a lot of times we don't know you guys make an offer. We don't even know who the listing agent is, yeah, but when we get that contract to reach out, I love that way, and yeah, not everybody does it. You've got to reach out and, you know, you don't tell details. You know, I'll brag about a seller, I mean, a buyer, or whatever the borrower can, sort of thing, but just to let them know there a, there's an open communication, because I did just got your offer accepted, because you were doing the cheesing on that end. But yeah, you got to let okay, I know Heather thinks her buyer is the greatest. But are they really loan officers gathered? We've got to reach out and put that, make that call and just say, Hey, I'm here. It's really a good buyer. We shouldn't have any problems. You know that I've seen their cash and puts everybody a little different ease, because obviously everyone sweating it out to closing, right? Oh, of course. All right, we're gonna round down here. Yeah. And then you probably have to think about this one a little bit. Okay, I hope. Well, not with that too. Dude, what do you think in seven years? What was either your biggest mistake or just your biggest regret? Maybe you should have done it earlier. What do you think biggest mistake or biggest regret?

Heather Perez  1:02:55  
That's a really good one biggest regret. I don't really, I don't really have any regrets. One thing, two of my biggest lessons have been for newer agents out there that are listening, start your CRM now, and I just this year hired a transaction coordinator. If that's going to be a kind of a regret, I wish I would have had a transaction coordinator last year. And for me being a little OCD, and I'm also a little adds, I'm all over the place, and I wanted for a newer agent, I don't think you need a transaction coordinator right away. You should be learning the contract dates. You should be sending the email, so you're also learning. But if you're growing right now and you don't really know what to do, that transaction coordinator is so amazing, they're going to make you shine. Look great. You got to find the right transaction coordinator. But if I say my biggest regret, and I don't really have one, will say that I was at a point in my real estate career that I was ready to throw in the towel. I'm like, Hey, I tried this, and I 2% away from quitting. I was there, and that was very recently, and I said, You know what? I just feel this in my core, that this is going to work out. And for, you know, and I'm super open. So I've been doing this for seven years. It took me the first two years to make over 50 grand. It took me, you know, another two years to make 75 it took me another two to be making six figures. And just the last three and a half years, I have wanted, in a 12 month span to sell $14 million in real estate. I don't want to look back at the 18 months. And I'm not knocking it if you do that. I want the annual numbers. So you did 15 million, yeah. Well, so my my goal, those are, yeah, they're right on so by my goal has been 14 million for the last year, and I have failed and I failed, and then just last month, I hit that 15 million, and it still doesn't feel real to me, because I have failed at doing that, and now I'm like, I gotta get a new goal.

Tracy Hayes  1:04:50  
Well, when you and now you're getting now 20 is not that far away. No, five to 10 was probably a big, yeah, big step, and then you get that 1450, now, 20 million. Not that far away, because now you're picking a pace, but I think you're that inspirational story, as we talked about on the phone. You know that there's a lot of agents, and they get to that point they want to quit, but the biggest regret you have was higher was one of them was not hiring a transaction coordinator earlier. The third largest the newcomer group, as far as my system tells us, and volume is, the newcomer group, and Sadie and Luke were on here last week. They said their number one regret was not hiring that assistant earlier, because you've got to let someone do the social media posts, let them, you know, follow the appraiser, you know, schedule the inspection, or whatever, those things that are the 20, $25 an hour jobs, and you got to focus on the 500 That's why 15 to 20 isn't a big leap. Yeah, because now you're now you do have the transaction coordinator. Now you are focused front end. Yeah, you're waking up every day or planning out your week, going, Okay, I don't really have an appointment, but who can I get in front of that hopefully might create something three months from now, or two months from now, you're starting now to think the business out in advance, so that that is excellent advice. It is the number one challenge, not for real estate agents as well as loan officers. Yeah, because there's a we have a lot of after the con, after that consultation, after the contract, after that loan is created and then submitted. There's a lot of administrative stuff that goes on, and there are people that love to do that. Yeah, we're front end people. We want to be out in front and whether you'll get the sale or create the relationship and go on to the next one. So this one here, what makes Heather Perez Hollis a unique real estate agent. Why someone listening to this? We talked about this going out in my YouTube channel eventually, and someone might search it, and they watched all the way to the end of the show. What? Why should they be working with Heather? Why should

Heather Perez  1:06:55  
they be working with me? I love it. So I am a native of Jacksonville, and I actually have found a niche market and specializing in out of town buyer tour. So again, that continuity of care, I will pick you up. I will make sure that we have a schedule. We'll take a look at two houses. I'll give us a lunch break. We'll, you know, have a nice lunch somewhere

Tracy Hayes  1:07:15  
and go surfing, yeah, and,

Heather Perez  1:07:17  
you know, it's just offering, you know, like you said earlier, I have a restaurant list. I'm kind of a foodie, and I'll give that to people that aren't from here. And one thing is, communication is key in setting those expectations. So why to work with me? I'm a native of this area. I know Jacksonville like the back of my hand, and I grew up here, so I can give you the local experience. And I really love you know, those out of state or out of city buyers that are coming, and do

Tracy Hayes  1:07:43  
they like? I think a lot of people like the history, Oh, for sure, you know how things came about to, you know, in especially at Jack's beach or what used to be there now is, yeah, you know, that type of thing. I think people like that when they move into an area, the history of it is a little bit of the attractiveness, yeah. But I know you're doing your tours. We is, there's a lifestyle here. There is a lifestyle. People move here for a lifestyle, not in the Ohio factory town anymore. They're coming in to Florida before a reason. Obviously the sunshine. We can wear shorts pretty much all year round, as I try to do and but whether it's the beach or it's boating or you want to go hike trails, yeah, there's so many.

Heather Perez  1:08:26  
You've got it all. And I think that, you know, again, one thing with my business is that I will, I'm like a dog on a bone, like I will not stop. So again, Persistence is key, and I will work my butt off until I get you what your results are. And I tell everyone, and I get really annoying with my clients, and I tell them, I say, I'm gonna annoy you when I say this, but if it's meant to be, it will be. And I tell them, and I will repeat it, especially in the last two years, Hey, okay, we just lost again in a multiple offer situation because the sellers decided to go with a cash investor. I said, you know, this wasn't meant to be, and when it's meant to be, it'll be and they're like, you've told us that 10 times. I'm like, how many

Tracy Hayes  1:09:05  
keep telling you that? Well, I've been doing the 17 years, and really, didn't really start digging into purchases. Was doing mostly refills, till about eight, 910, time period. And I have run across a situation where someone has lost the offer. Yeah. And then it's the next house that are like, Oh my god, I'm glad I didn't get that offer, because this is really the house I want exactly, and that's what it's meant, totally meant to be. I think you ought to do. I got, I just think about what you were talking there in the light in the lifestyle thing on your I haven't seen your business card, but you should have a little caricature of you with the surfboard.

Heather Perez  1:09:39  
Just I like, I also like, I needed to get some T shirts made. I think that, yes, think that'd be really fun.

Tracy Hayes  1:09:43  
The Surfer Girl real estate agent, I It's a hit. No one else is doing it. You have corner in the market, all right, besides surfing, yeah, what is your favorite thing to do in Northeast Florida?

Heather Perez  1:09:54  
Oh, that's a good one. So I live in Neptune Beach, and I. Grew up in Atlantic Beach, so I love, I love all things related to the ocean. I love tennis. I was on a Queens harbor league for a little bit now, and I loved going around the country clubs and playing, not doing that right now. Business got a word.

Tracy Hayes  1:10:14  
Well, you CrossFit or play tennis? Yeah.

Heather Perez  1:10:17  
Again, I'm super active. So anything ocean related. And I love that we have an amazing fishery here, too close to pretty much everything there's, if you want to do, you can only do whatever you want.

Tracy Hayes  1:10:28  
There is so many things to do. But I'm gonna, I'm gonna bless you with this. I think your business is going to continue to grow. You will. You're gonna have that, you know, that full time Tracy, full time assistant, that you will be able to go, whatever, one day a week or two days a week and go play in those tennis tournaments. Yeah, I would really like, because I think that's another circle of influence. It really is, you know, to hang out with the ladies and they're interacting with their circles, not non tennis and, yeah, yeah.

Heather Perez  1:10:55  
One more thing ran like, within the CrossFit community, like, I try to keep all of my business that I do within the people that I'm work, like, around all the time. So for example, if I want to go get a spa service done, I'm like, Okay, which one of my Facebook friends does that? So keeping, you know, keep

Tracy Hayes  1:11:10  
the company. I thought you were gonna say they have to work out at the CrossFit. Yeah, no. Who do I know that does

Heather Perez  1:11:14  
though, I want, I want to, I don't want to outsource. And, you know, do the one 800 number. I want to use someone that I know. So I think that's really important.

Tracy Hayes  1:11:21  
Well, I'm going to answer the unique question. I think likability is why you do that? Yeah, what you're talking about, you want to do business with people who you like and trust, not saying it's just you don't know that person, so you don't know if you like and trust in me. So you try to you you refer to like and trust and your unique skill, although your work ethic, your vision has grown up on the business in seven years, and how you sell Northeast Florida, I'm sure, is totally different than what it was five years ago, but your likability, and that's why I said you ought to do the surfer girl, because that's going to be that your thing. They don't mind me, surfer people. They're like, Oh, she's just a laid back surfer girl. Be cool to hang out. Love it. Buy a house. All right, last question, this is the big question every show you're ready for this ready for the question you listen to the end of every show. So more important who you know or what you know and why? Ooh, who you know or

Heather Perez  1:12:18  
what you know, man, relationship, business. But also you want to know what you're doing. So that's a really hard one. Do people have to answer that?

Tracy Hayes  1:12:26  
Yes, it is required to answer before I can sit the go. I will pretend here's my here. I'll tell you what my belief is. Well, who you know, person from the here's why? Yeah, you can't be a complete idiot. No, okay, we're not. We're saying. We're not saying, Hey, you don't know anything about flying a plane, yeah, for example. And like, you're gonna walk in and like, I'll tell everyone here story, we're going over minutes. But here's funny story. We're in. We're my wife and I are in sandals for first year anniversary. Oh, nice. We play. We've, I haven't played in a while because I knew, but we were playing tennis. I taught my wife. We were, you know, someone we just casually did. So we're playing tennis with the pro out on the court at the Ocho Rios, and this guy walks up and he like, he wanted to play. And she's like, Okay, have you ever you know? Like, do you play? He goes, No, I play. On, on, we right for video game. Okay, all right. Now that that it doesn't go to me that way, yeah, but I truly believe it's who you know, if you know one enough to just the look over and go, Man, that guy is really good. Or, hey, you know, Corey is one of the smartest brokers in town. Yeah, I want to, I want to eventually be a broker in my own office. Or I just want to be a top agent. He knows tops agents. So I want to go, he's who you know that leads you exactly to what you need to know. That's my belief.

Heather Perez  1:13:39  
And I would, I agree, I would say it's who you know. But also, for example, with the CrossFit community, I've served, you know, friends there, and they've bought houses with me and sold houses with me. But if I was a complete idiot with the first person at CrossFit that's going to get around like so you've got to still be good at what? Well, you know,

Tracy Hayes  1:13:56  
true, someone gave you an at bat, and you've got to, you've got

Heather Perez  1:13:59  
to follow through. So I would say this relationship business, it's who you know, that's my convinced her, yeah, okay. Is there anything you want to add before we close out? No, that was great. We went on, yes. Might inspire me to start doing video. Who knows? Yeah, or who

Tracy Hayes  1:14:14  
as there's a great agent down below here at round table, Realty below Eric Jas and she, actually, she has a blurred screen behind. It's like doing a, she does, like a, almost like a zoom, where you can blur the background, oh yeah. And she's, like, got a table in front of her, and she just talks about whatever subject for like, I don't know, a minute or two, whatever topic it is. I think they're great videos. And some of them, she's silly in them and makes people laugh. Because I really think emotions attracts people to remember you right, whether you make them smile or maybe you made them cry, but some something that reaction, you know, puts a stamp on it. But appreciate you coming on. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. That was great.