Ed Akers: Lead with Passion and Empathy With Every Client

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TRacy Hayes: [00:00:00] Hey, welcome back to real estate excellence podcast. My guest today has nearly 37 years in and around the real estate industry. He is a top producing agent. He has held numerous leadership positions within the brokerages he has worked for. He currently is the branch development manager with Coldwell banker office here in Avondale, uh, He brings a couple of decades of corporate America experience.

Let's welcome Ed acres of Colwell banker Vanguard to the show. 

Ed: Good morning, 

TRacy Hayes: Ed. Thank you for coming down. Thanks for the invite. I appreciate you reaching out because I, one of the things I do before the show is, you know, find out as much as I can, at least from social media. Um, one of my anchors is always LinkedIn and you have a great LinkedIn.

Page tells a lot about a lot about you. It was easy for me to go in there and piece together because I like to go Through it and see how your people's career your life happens, so Welcome. 

Ed: Thank you very much. Yeah 

TRacy Hayes: Um, I always kick off the show with the easiest question. Where are you from? 

Ed: [00:01:00] I'm a native of jacksonville Born and raised.

Uh, I was actually born on 8th street in the old st. Luke's hospital She's in the Springfield area. Okay. A little tight of that community, which I worked quite a bit in and volunteered in over the years. I lived there again for a while. Um, but my family moved to Clay County back in the 72, um, and built a house out in that area.

And so I lived in Clay County, grew up on a couple of acres of land. Saturday, you know, yeah, but then move back into Jacksonville probably around my late 20s. 

TRacy Hayes: So Did you go to high school in Middleburg 

Ed: in Middleburg? All four years. Oh, wow. Just had our 40 year reunion. Awesome 

TRacy Hayes: The first class though, right that that's yeah I love that area.

You know, I officiate high school football here in Northeast, Florida and And, um, you know, to get a Middleburg game or, you know, Clay High School, I like going out, going out there. Um, you know, it's, well, it's easy for me because I live in St. Johns County, just cross over the bridge. [00:02:00] But I think, you know, talk about, to relate it to real estate, I mean, you know, you know, you know that area.

And I think, you know, as that, as that bridge gets built and it's finished here in the next, well, I think it's 2030, you know, the new Shands Bridge, that area is just going to be a huge growth. Not that it's not growing right now, but it's going to go on steroids. 

Ed: Yeah, actually. So growing up in Lake Asbury, uh, you know, we were like the 25th house built in Lake Asbury.

So there was nothing out there that most of the land was built on what used to be 26, 000 acres of farmland that was on the family. So. First graduating class in Middleburg. I remember when there was no lights except for a flashing light at 21 and 218. Um, and so it's absolutely amazing how much growth has happened down there.

I cut my teeth in real estate in that market. So I work, I started my real estate for a small real estate company there. Uh, the sister on the real estate office, the brother on the appraisal office there. Um, and so then, uh, You know, back then it was you were selling eight, [00:03:00] nine, 10, 000 vacant lots. Someone might buy one, put a well and septic on it and you might sell it for 15 or 20.

They'd hold a mortgage on it. Um, mobile homes, manufactured homes, or 25, 000, 35, 45, 000. Somebody paid 55, 000. That was a lot back there for a manufactured home. And now 200, 300, 000 plus. Yeah. Right. So a new construction was, was I've sold, uh, we had a, we had a gentleman walk into the office one day and said, I've got 10 acres.

I'd like to, you know, develop, sell the 10 acre lots and build homes on. I said, sure, it'd be great to be glad to, right? One of the great things of holding floor duty, right? The opportunity, if you're not holding floor duty, you miss the opportunity, right? So a contractor walks in and we wound up selling the lots for him on the, in the Mustang road.

So, um, But the new construction, it was 65, 000 to 72, 000 new construction and interest rates were in the teens. 

TRacy Hayes: Yeah. 

Ed: So I've lived that teen scenario. So when I hear 7 percent is too high, 6 percent is too high. Uh, my first one was 93. Well, I always bring 

TRacy Hayes: you back down to earth. You said [00:04:00] 65 versus 650 or 700 times.

Right. That would 

Ed: have been a 1980, uh, 7 88 Right period of time. Yeah. So, 

TRacy Hayes: um, I'm just gonna take a moment before I forget, 'cause I, I, I always get deep into the show. Uh, just, uh, uh, my, my co-sponsor here, uh, Remy Graphics, I'm gonna show it in the graphic. Everyone has seen it. Remy Graphics, and of course the logo is on here.

I've got a nice mug in here for you. Thank you. Uh, with there, with the, for, for the logo for coming on the show today. But Remy Graphics, um, Dunya will, uh, make these one-offs if you want. And they make other laser and grade items go to remy graphics.com that I have there on the thing. But they'll make one-offs.

So if you're doing a closing or something and you just wanna make a specialized, Hey John and Sally, welcome to Jacksonville, whatever. She will make one-offs for you. So for closing the closing, right. Um, definitely, uh, get ahold of Remy Graphics. Go on their site. They have obviously other laser engraved.

Items so and if you mention the real estate excellence podcast, you get a 10 percent discount. [00:05:00] So make sure you do that So going back deep though. I always I was Always interested of course how people get into real estate and you did at a very young age, which was rare at that time I imagine you were in offices where most of the people were 20 30 years older than 

Ed: you some interesting experiences So when I got I went to junior college and after I finished junior college, um I just looked at my mom and said, I don't know why, but I want to go take my real estate license and I, to this day, I don't remember why I did it, but I'm glad that I did.

Um, so that was in 1986. I started in 1987. I was the youngest member of the Clay, what was then the Clay County Board of Realtors, which is now, it's all been absorbed. Um, it's the Northeast Board of Realtors. That was, that was a big deal back then. I've had customers say, have you ever bought a house before?

I'm, I'm 20, 21 years old. Yeah. Uh, and I'm like, no, I actually haven't. I'm, I'm still living with the parents, you know, and, um, and, um, I said, they said, well, why should we buy a house from you? I said, well, cause I've been through real estate school and I've [00:06:00] gone, I'm educated and I, I know the market. I lived here my entire life.

Right. And usually that was enough to get me over the hurdle. Right. Right. Um, but part of that was, was. Communication and, and digging in and finding what they want, listening to the customer. Right. Um, and, and that was, and it was very successful at that. So, um, I think that's, that's kind of been my motto all along as I'm getting the weeds when it comes to that kind of stuff.

I really look for the details of the thing. I really listen to my customers, what they're looking for. 

TRacy Hayes: Where do you think you, where do you think you, um, you know, like you said, 2021, 22 years old, uh, you know, is that something you could just kind of just naturally, um, through just maybe some trial and error, or are you actually, you know, being mentored or are you following somebody, where did you pick up some of these, because obviously those are, you know, key things.

And we talked to the top real estate agents, you know, communication and, and, you know, uh, the whole, the whole sales process. And it's not necessarily being. Salesy, if we want to use that term, but, uh, listening, [00:07:00] right? We would say a lot of our young people today don't, don't just listen, uh, or even retain what we're telling them half the time.

Uh, I think we could probably go back in generations and say that about every, you know, teenager there. What do you think, what were you doing at the time that clicked? Or is that just the way you were brought up? 

Ed: I think it was a lot of the way I was brought up and unfortunately I didn't get the mentoring.

So I went, it was a very small. privately owned company had been in the family for a number of years. Uh, the broker, unfortunately wasn't extremely engaged. And so it was like, I had gone to the other companies around the area, the other franchise companies, and basically he's, you know, are you going to work full time?

I'm like, yes, I think so. Um, I'm going to give this a try. And I actually had put going to college, the rest of college on hold. And so I'm just going to give this a try, which my family thought I was nuts. But anyway, um, I did that. And, um, The first year I was pretty successful selling eight and ten thousand lots of mobile homes because I was really digging in I was riding the roads working for subway owners [00:08:00] doing those types of things But I really didn't get that very professional mentoring, you know that we had my brokerage is wonderful for that right now I wish that I had that back then I knew my broker back then.

TRacy Hayes: Well, and of course you didn't have the technology, right? I mean, I'm, I mean, I'm, we're, you may be a few years older, just a couple of years older than I am. Obviously, you know, we didn't have emails. I mean, computers were just at their infancy. They were, they weren't teaching you how to use software. They were actually teaching you how to write, you know, Code I guess is what they would call it today.

Um, you know when you're you're in high school, uh in the late 80s, so You didn't have pictures and videos of these of these homes you had basically Whenever someone put that description or maybe What took a Polaroid? I mean, really, and put them in the 

Ed: In our, and we didn't have an MLS, other than the fact it was in books.

Right? So every couple weeks we got a printed book of what the listings were. And if you're going through it, by the time you may make an offer, want to make an offer on it for a customer, that probably [00:09:00] may have been sold. So we're dealing with a little bit of out of date. It's definitely technology wasn't, wasn't quite there yet.

I had actually wanted to, I call it farming back then, right? So I've said there's got to be an easier way to do this. I was going down to the appraisal office and they had these big, huge black tax books, right? And I was literally with a legal pad and a pen writing down names, addresses, phone number, name and names and addresses, lot blot.

Subdivision number on those subdivisions that were down there because I just wanted to get more lots to sell, right? It was pretty easy to do right and if I had a big inventory of that then I had customer choices, right? And then I met someone then who had his license with our brokerage but wasn't actually selling but was in the technology and so Uh, together, I said there's got to be a way, if there's a way to computerize this, can we do that?

And about three weeks later, he comes into our office and brings his, you know, big laser printer and brings a big computer in and, and sets it on the desk and says, [00:10:00] watch this and creates a demo of establishing being able to download the data from the tax rolls and merging it to a word processing document to do mail merge.

I'm like, this is like the best thing ever, right? This is gonna take hours. Alright, you're definitely into the 90s now. Definitely. This is actually 19, around 1988 actually. So this, I'd only been in real estate about a year and then this, this started to happen. Right. Um, cause I wanted to up my game. 

TRacy Hayes: Was the county, the county was online at that time?

The county 

Ed: was online. You're able to actually get that information. Okay. So we have this program. Um, tax link is what we called it. We were just linking stuff together. And the, and so we convinced the broker to invest in a laser printer, uh, and a computer, you know, back then it was like a two eight hundred and eighty six megahertz, whatever, two, six, 12 megahertz.

Yeah. Our phones 

TRacy Hayes: have more 

Ed: green screen. We've got the amber screen. So we were kind of updated a little bit, but, um, but the first month we actually printed out 26, 000 Form letters. I was working day and night to send this stuff out. My broker said, you know, here you go. Just have at it. Right. [00:11:00] And I was too busy.

I was so busy, but you know, this is because you're stuffing 

TRacy Hayes: these envelopes yourself 

Ed: And it's sending the pay to be taking boxes and boxes to the post office and they're wondering This poor little middleburg post office like what are we doing, right? But we got so busy and and I mean eight to ten thousand lots The interesting thing was our brokerage back Then was the original brokerage that handled this real estate sales transactions for all those lots to start with from the original developer So we had 11 file cabinets full of all the original closing files You So I had original surveys, original closing documents, so it was a little bit like shooting fish in a barrel.

TRacy Hayes: Yeah. 

Ed: But it was a lot of work. Um, 

TRacy Hayes: Well, how did, so how did you, so those are your, you were sending the letters out to the owners of the lot? The owners 

Ed: wanting to know, hey, if you're wanting to list your property, So, okay. Hey, we'd be glad to do that. We've got the original file here for you. This would be really great.

And so we would send them a rough estimate, approximately what the value of the lot might be. 

TRacy Hayes: Mm hmm. 

Ed: And I go [00:12:00] take a, they called and said, yes, I'd like to sell. I go take a look at it. I'm like, well, we think it's going to be 9, 000. And, and, um, and so we wound up selling it. Um, Commission structure was much different back then and everything else.

It was a little different than it 

TRacy Hayes: was. Well, it's, it's an interesting time because I remember, uh, uh, I was in college 88 to 92. I remember coming down for spring break cause my parents had friends that lived in Palm coast, uh, and, um, going down there and visiting them during that time. And yeah, there was, you could buy 10, 000 lots on golf courses.

Um, Type thing and but actually to be out in the clay county area Uh, we're just people Bought those lots or they were just the developers still own those lots or you know They're you know, because obviously you were selling them for 9 000. They did pay like four or five for them originally Many 

Ed: cases they paid seven or eight just depends upon how good the lot was, right?

and so I actually learned to kind of look at these lots and say what kind of Uh growth is on them, right? You can [00:13:00] tell sandy or not, you know the types of trees that are there And you could tell when you got a good lot that had oak trees on it versus one that had palmettos and pines and maples and other types of right plants and stuff.

So, um, but yeah, so that was hugely successful for us. Mm-Hmm. . Um, 

TRacy Hayes: how did you match to the sellers though? So you got, you were getting bought, you're getting listings, right? How were, how were you. Bringing that to the 

Ed: Well, so many times we had a lot of buyers that would come in and say i'm looking for you know a lot And i'm like, oh, what kind of what's your budget and they said well i'm going to pay, you know Nine to ten or nine to eleven.

I'm like, well, here's I got like five lots for you here I mean, let's go take a look at them, right? And so we were able to handle both sides of the transaction or whatever else sometimes so That worked out good for other brokerages would call us and say we were got somebody looking for a house on Hibiscus Street or Cosmos or John cemetery road, you know, right and so we we had I've got three lots there, 

TRacy Hayes: right?

Well, so I just think [00:14:00] to relate to obviously the you know marketing that we do today And you know, you're, you're a leader in your office now and, and what you're doing now, as far as, you know, the important, especially now as listings are staying longer on market, we're trying to promote those listings. We didn't have to really do that too much two years ago.

Now it's, it's vital. You know, are you doing a broker's open? Are you already putting that out there where that time period that you had? I mean, there was no. Facebook, you know, there was no videos on in on the internet per se. Um, I guess, you know, websites are primitive at best. Um, that was probably your fastest way to post up that you have a lot.

And then, but obviously you got to drive people to your website too, right? Yeah, 

Ed: it was usually a sign for the most part or a walk in. So third duty was really important, right. Being present and accounted for. Um, We can't, we, many of those lots never saw the, the times union magazine cause they're based usually old times union ads, right?

Unless it was a house. Usually the homes would be there, but [00:15:00] sometimes we'd put, you know, collection of lots, right? We have various lots of animals. There might be something there. That was about it. Yeah. Yeah. There wasn't, there wasn't much out there in terms of advertising. So it was a lot of legwork. It was a lot of self promotion.

It was a lot of things like that. Occasionally I find someone who will buy three or four lots and they would buy them and put well and septic tank on them and they would, Lease. They would rent the lots out. Somebody could move their manufactured home on, they'd rent them out for money or they'd hold financing Peculate.

Yeah. Financing on peculate. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, so yeah, it was pretty interesting. But that was really, for me, that kind of the start of the technology aspect of my career. Um, 'cause ultimately I went into work for a privately held company. Yeah. Uh, to do. Um, 

TRacy Hayes: I'm going to go to that after I just, just your, your general, you know, being in the industry, as long as you have the importance of walk in traffic, uh, then was vitally important.

Obviously. Every brokerage does every real estate agent does business differently. Every brokerage does real estate differently. What is your mindset [00:16:00] today? on Having a more of a retail front versus obviously, we know some broker some of them don't have any office, you know Do you do you see that market still there for walk ins you think in certain areas?

Ed: Absolutely. Um, my office is an avenue on the historic district, which is a huge walking area for the shops of Avondale, right? So, and I'm always promoting that to come in on a Saturday or Sunday, sit be there coming during the week. It all gets down to be present, being present accounted for right in this business.

We have 12, 000 roughly agents in our market. Um, those who stand out, those who have both feet in right in the business. So we have a lot of people that are part time and stuff and some that works great for them. I'm a corporate person. I show up for work. I'm there and present and accounted for not just to do the work, but my management knows that I'm there present and accounted for, right.

That sends a good message to them. Um, but I've always been a two feet in or two feet out [00:17:00] tiger by the tail, got ahold of it, hang on and give up my all. Right. And so those agents, as far as we're going through transitions in our industry now, I think those agents that are, um, very involved in that, that are staying educated.

feed in, right, are going to be the ones that are going to be the most successful. 

TRacy Hayes: Right. Yeah. 

Ed: And, and I think, and that hasn't changed. I mean, that's the case back then. I mean, I was riding the streets of the neighborhoods trying to find for sale by owners. It's really over whatever works for you. Right. I mean, I think that's a lot of, it's kind of like the CRM, what's the best CRM when you use, right.

TRacy Hayes: Exactly. 

Ed: What is your plan? What's your business plan? What do you want to accomplish? Right. If you want to have, You know, 5 million in sales every year, then you need to figure out how do I get there? Right? How many calls a day you're making? How many note cards you're sending a day? Uh is a little bit of a numbers game, right?

But part of it is the more you put yourself out there, the more likely you're getting something back, 

TRacy Hayes: right? 

Ed: So, um, being part of relocation, you know, [00:18:00] networking is a huge thing. I'm fortunate because I've essentially done networking my entire life without realizing I'm doing that work about purposely doing that working.

But part of that is just establishing relationships and all walks of life. Right. I'm fortunate that when I left the corporate world in 2016, I had a big network of people. Yeah. So, and, and people knew me, like me, trusted me. Right. And now they trust me as their realtor. Right. So, um, so I was pretty successful starting off in 2016.

Not everybody has the benefit of having a large network of people. Right. Someone who moves from another state to Jacksonville, gets her license, you know. Doesn't really know anybody. You're going to probably have to work a little extra, you know, part of it's getting out there, networking business cards as antiquated as they are as some of your cheapest form of advertisement besides social media now.

Right. Um, and so that's just you putting yourself out there, which is kind of what I'm here today. I mean, this is a, I think right now is everybody needs to break out of their comfort zone. Right. And you need to [00:19:00] experience and step out of that a little bit and see what works for you. So, 

TRacy Hayes: well, there's, um, You know, obviously video, video, video.

That's what I keep telling you guys at every conference. I say this every show, uh, you've got to get on. Uh, if you, if someone listening today, um, you want some ideas, I can give you some ideas. Uh, I have many agents. Uh, talk to you. They're afraid of this video camera, but you probably dropped it. We are even videoing this 30 seconds in because we're just having a great conversation.

Yeah. Um, 

Ed: yeah, you just start talking. Yeah. 

TRacy Hayes: Um, uh, and there's many ways to do it. I see agents on instagram. Actually, there's this great business. Kim Pirelli. I follow her from a business standpoint as a businesswoman. She sits there and she's got the same mic I have and she's just talking into the camera, doing her a little, um, LinkedIn, you know, video giving some advice or something and makes it look like she's on a podcast.

There's some agents that [00:20:00] are on Instagram. They're making it look like they're on a podcast, but I'm looking at him going, you'd be on a lot of podcasts because they changed the lighting and every, you know, but that's comfortable for them to, you know, Talk as if they're talking to somebody in a camera over here, but you're creating video, but you're creating those relationships.

And that's where we're one to go to, go to next when you're working with some of the newer agents today or over your entire career. I mean, obviously you've, you've worked with agents at all sorts of levels. Um, I think one of the misconceptions that the public has of a real estate agent or even real estate agents that are just getting started is Well, I think real estate Mortgage people do too.

We live our business. We are always Uh marketing we don't you say we don't it's not nine to five for us If the agent calls at eight o'clock i'm taking the call because there's a reason why they're they're calling, you know Hey, I need a quick pre call. I got to make an offer, you know, especially two years ago when everyone was like You Bang, bang, bang, you know, type of thing.

[00:21:00] But as an agent, you're networking all the, all the time, whether you're out to dinner, just socializing with friends, because they're all going to ask you, Hey, what's going on in real estate? Because that's just an easy question. And they know that's your wheelhouse, but you're now. networking, you're building that trust and credibility, right?

Ed: Absolutely. Uh, yeah, I'm a normal human being, right? And so I'm, but yeah, real estate can be 24 seven. It can definitely take over. I mean, I had a property back in the heyday when things are really starting to crank here a couple of years ago. Um, at a, Probably they had 34 offers on it. Um, that was about four or five days of my life.

I will not get back. It was a huge thing. And because you've got a spreadsheet, you've got to, you know, work all the numbers out for your customer. You know, it, what's important to the customers. What's the net along among many other things. Right. So. It is totally not a nine to five. I have trouble getting out of my house in the mornings because of phone, email, text, you know, other types of things happening.

Right, 

TRacy Hayes: right. 

Ed: Not [00:22:00] alone from thinking about my day is going to be like, right. And part of that is trying to set goals for what you're trying to accomplish. Um, I'm a whiteboard person and people laugh at that sometimes, but part of that is projecting out what. what you're planning on doing, right? Same thing goes for real estate listings and pendings and everything else.

I know three months out when I'm planning on closing on her what's going in a pending, right? And so it's all about forecasting, right? If you don't have that visually in front of you, you don't have anything really to accomplish. Right. And so you can do that visually on a whiteboard. You can do that in a planner, whatever else.

But I think that's important for a lot of the new agents to. So 

TRacy Hayes: do you feel agents, um, can almost, Oops. Whoa. I think a lot of agents don't look long term. They, uh, get in the business, they're not, you know, and not realizing that they're actually their own small business. They are, you know, they're all 1099.

And then, From a career standpoint, they, they aren't doing some of the steps that [00:23:00] are going to someone like you who's been doing it and has had a lot of failures, I'm sure, through the years, tried different things, and actually sitting down and discussing to actually plan out, hey, what do I need to be doing?

Really getting leads five years from now. I am just getting people calling me at eight o'clock in the morning and you know, uh, Now I need a team and we'll talk about support and so forth But they really only have a 30 60 90 day vision a lot of times and not looking at some of the long term uh, you know marketing, uh, plans or, you know, like you said, you, you mentioned CRM, you know, the one you use, cause that's, I don't think I know.

99 percent I'm going to say 99 percent don't leverage the CRM because it is a, you have to take some time to learn these things and what it can do and how, how you want to use it. Because there's so many, these CRMs are just, they're like a computer. I mean, they could do so many thousands of things and we only use [00:24:00] a small percentage of it.

Ed: And I'm a little old school on that too. So I'm a little bit, you know, a lot of my CRMs up here are still so, uh, Yeah, but part of that is you're absolutely right. So it's not just a 30 60 day net. But if you want to say like, I want to accomplish three million in sales this year, three and a half million dollars in sales this year, right?

Well, you know, Yeah, figure out what the average price is in the Jackson market, which has significantly increased, um, probably about 150, 000 since 2018. Right. So that price is up. So do the math, right? Figure out how many, how many sales is that? How many transactions is that? Um, Then you have to figure out, is it one a month, is it whatever else, right?

So you should have some forecast out there, start planning for that. Well, to get the one cell a month, you've got to make so many contacts, so many calls. So five note cards a day, get up in the morning, send those cards out to customers. And it doesn't have to even be, send them to your friends, send them to colleagues, send them wherever.

It doesn't have to be, Oh, I'm in real estate, right? Right. This is what you want to do is establish personal connections with people. Right. Um, and it could be over, you know, it could be over dinner. It could be over just a [00:25:00] walk in the park. It could be. Whatever you want it to be, right? Um, it doesn't always have to be in real estate.

They just have to know that you are in real estate and you're alive and breathing. You don't have to force it. Right. And so, um, it's even going down to going down to dinner and you get a great, you get great services. I'll pop a little business card down there, write a little note on it, said had a really great dinner, you know?

And I didn't say if you need me, call me, right. But she has my business card or they have a business card. So, It's little things like that, you know, um, I mean, I keep a stack of business cards. That's the cheapest form, right? So, um, Farm a neighborhood. I don't farm necessarily, but You know, I I do sometimes based upon new activity that I get.

Um, but i'm looking for opportunities. So when A pair of years ago when the real estate it was, you know, so many agents in the area It's kind of difficult to go to get a new home listing, right? 

TRacy Hayes: Mm hmm 

Ed: I said, well, I used to sell land, you know, [00:26:00] 30 something years ago. I'll just go, we're going to go sell land.

So I went to, um, a community up on the north side and managed to get a new listing up there. And I'll say, well, okay. I've heard the neighborhood. This seems like a good opportunity. Did some research. So I just sent the neighborhood out and I wound up selling about 20 lots in the neighborhood. Wow. So I've even had real estate appraisers call me and say, Hey, I've got a, praising, what do you think?

I'm thinking, well, you're the real estate appraiser, but you're sold 20 lots in the neighborhood. You have, you have your finger on the pole. So what's happening. Right. Right. Um, and unfortunately I saw where things started to happen, where maybe other agents caught on to what I was doing and that's fine.

That's good to be the trendsetter. Um, and I, unfortunately I started to see prices because you 

TRacy Hayes: had the lot and you just reached out to other owners who had lots that were sitting there and say, Hey, I'm selling this one. 

Ed: I'd like to provide any potential future customer who's looking to buy choices, right?

So if you're thinking of selling a lot, you know, we'd love to have, be able to market the lot for you, right? So, so that is giving me two or three or four lots at a time to market. So if someone had done like this one, I could [00:27:00] take them over, show them the other one. Right. Um, so, You know, you have to kind of think smart about this stuff is find your little niche what you're comfortable in some people like selling Condos condos some people like selling beach property, you know, i've been fortunate sell land manufactured homes new construction Resales historic homes have restored some of my own so So it's just kind of funding with your niche, what makes you feel comfortable and go with it.

Right. But it's all about goal setting. And, you know, and you've got to put something out there to accomplish. Right. And it doesn't have to be a major significant call. It just has to be a goal. 

TRacy Hayes: You know, what I, what I like about it, you've Mentioned it a kind of a couple times in describing some of the marketing things, you know, reaching out to you know The neighborhood because you're selling that lot and you know, what what is that?

What does that really take? I mean, of course a lot of our homes now that are selling You know are in these subdivisions. It's not difficult to get addresses To take a [00:28:00] few moments, especially we got a new listing or maybe you just sold the house and say hey I'm You know To go 20 30 doors either way and say hey, I just sold, you know, sally's house over here We got a you know, great, uh price on it had multiple offers whatever you want to put if you're thinking of I don't I think people um, you know, because there are 12 000 agents.

I think a lot of agents Uh just think well, yeah, everyone does know an agent But doesn't mean they that agent that they know has that The like, trust and credibility part of it and are actually active that we know a lot of agents, but Are you actually doing stuff? And when you actually say, Hey, I just sold this, which they probably drove by the for sale sign.

And now you're reaching out. You have some credibility that, Hey, you have a house and you just sold one here in the neighborhood. Take that little inch and run with it. 

Ed: Exactly. Absolutely. So yeah, exactly. Unfortunately, the brokerage I have has their own marketing division, right? So it's easy for me to tell them what I want.

I'll post [00:29:00] cards. I want form letters sent out. I've even done that on my own. So in addition to what they're doing in this case of this particular neighborhood. I did mail merge, right? So I went back to what I was doing 30 something years ago, and you're giving me an idea, so I just got to write this down.

So I'm sorry. So it's, uh, for me, it was, you know, creating a form letter, uh, and, uh, pulling together an Excel database. I did mail merge and I did it old school and I was sending out about 250 letters. Um, that produced great results for me, you know, and And you also have to find, I say creating your niche, but find your bread and butter, right?

I mean, this real estate market, as we know, uh, you can have three sales this month and none for the next two or three months, right? So what is your bread and butter? What keeps that commission rolling in for you, right? For me, I was selling a vacant lot, closing at least one a month. Well, The commission wasn't more than enough to cover my personal expenses and everything else, right?

So, um, That was that became my bread and butter for a period of [00:30:00] time when? Getting a residential listing was a little bit more challenging, right? Because there's so many of us vying for Yeah, it was a small number, right? So, um So it's finding your niche in the market finding what what you feel comfortable in doing, right?

It could be property management It could be sales, it could be whatever the case may be. Um, but also finding, um, what your, what kind of producer bread and butter for you. Cause you got to have, you know, kind of a stable situation that kind of helps the laying the, uh, double fill. So the other thing too, is, you know, uh, is communication with your customers.

I learned a long time ago that even if you may not be getting showings on a property that contact your customer, right. Don't let the listings go stale. Right. Um, And don't let that relationship with your customer go stale either. Right. I've found out that a customer, whether you contacted him every, every week or week and a half, whatever, whatever you and the customer decide is a good communication schedule.

Right. The even if you contacted him and says, I've had no listing, I've had no showings, no [00:31:00] offers or anything like that. At least that customer knew that you're in contact with them and that you had your pulse on what they're, what's happening with their listing. Yeah. 

TRacy Hayes: That's going to be very important right now, as these listings are starting to set back up.

Yeah, some of them. Yeah. So 

Ed: if you have a customer you haven't talked to in the last month, they're thinking nothing's happening, right? You could have had 10, 15 showings, right? What's happening with the 10 to 15 showings? What's the feedback, right? Is it overpriced? I don't like this. I don't like that. Yeah, you'd have a conversation with the customer and find out what we need you to make adjustments, right?

I wanted to go stale. So 

TRacy Hayes: do you think right now, you know, like something I mean Obviously, there's some ideal homes that they immediately sell that weekend because they're just in the right neighborhood They got three car garage or whatever. It is the pool. That's what they want You know open houses opens really to, yeah, you, you hopefully someone walks in, but really show that to your, um, your seller that you, that you're working because I, I, I think a theme that we're going [00:32:00] to have for a little while, uh, it's the thing I've been talking about obviously with the NAR settlement and so forth, I really feel the intention or the collateral damage is the devaluing.

The real estate agent that they you know, all the things that we do you do Under the the waterline that they don't see It type of thing and you know, you're working you're developing your agents in your office now You're working how important is it they get that new listing to? to some event, show, show the seller that, Hey, you know, I'm in the business.

I'm going to show everybody in town or as many agents as possible, you know, this home, let alone obviously possible buyers, but how important it is right now. 

Ed: It's extremely important. So, um, one of the things, of course, you let your customer that you're always there to work in for him, you're doing everything you can, right.

Um, a lot of times I'll, I'll have a house that'll, it depends on the circumstance. I might have it where it goes live on, on a Monday, see what kind of listings that we have. But I've [00:33:00] always heard some people, uh, showings we've had, but I always have an open house plan following that. It may be that we wait until Thursday and we turn it active and then we do an open house on Saturday.

I, a lot of times the new listings we'll do Saturday and Sunday open houses. I'll say, look, Mr. or Ms. Seller. Go ahead and take your weekend off. Go ahead and do a little trip because my goal is to take, take charge of what's happening this weekend. Um, open houses are hit and miss. It could be a beautiful day outside and you have zero, it can be a rainy stormy day and you have several people, right?

Right. Uh, I was just saw a recent post where someone was asking, the other realtors group was asking, how many showings did you have at your, uh, attendance? Did you have at your open house? And some people still had zero, you know, well, What did you do to market that? Right. What kind of stuff did you do to promote that?

Right. Did you knock on 10 doors? Did you do postcards out? Did you do social media, digital marketing? What did you do for that? Right. So, um, some homes are going to sell themselves. It's just naturally it's the right house. It's the right neighborhood. It's, you know, it checks [00:34:00] off all the boxes for a lot of people looking these days.

Right. Um, and in homes, you know, some are a little more difficult to sell. We have to dig in and find out how I can market that. Maybe you have to market the home in a historic website, right? Reach out, find out where customers are moving from, right? There's, there's data out there that you can, you can leverage.

So social media, right? So reach out to other parts of the country to do social media, move to Jacksonville, right? Um, but from an open house perspective too, and we've been very fortunate. We had one this past weekend. It was a brand new listing on Saturday. We had nine groups come through Sunday. We had eight.

Some came with the Realtors, some did not come with the Realtors. Um, you know, but, uh, and some, some didn't have a realtor representation at all. Um, so the people out there looking, but you know, now we take that list, right? That we have, and we either make a communication with their agent, right? Say your customer came in, how can I help?

Right. The ones that didn't have that, we make contact with them as well too. And [00:35:00] say, how can we help you? You know, this, was this the right house or you're not the right house? Or what are you looking for? Um, but it's, it's just working through that, that list. But, um, I think just the marketing of the house, kind of getting it ready.

Yeah. I'm a firm believer the more move in ready the house is, the easier it is to sell, right? Yeah. 

TRacy Hayes: That's what I'm hearing. People really want turnkey houses right now. They don't want to. I 

Ed: don't have to come in and paint every, I don't want to paint the purple wall again. So part of this is your, your listing presentation with your customer, getting the home on the market is depersonalizing.

Neutralizing the home as I call it, right? So you want to have this great palette, right? That a customer can come in and say, you know, I can just kind of really just bring my furniture and my clothes, right? Right. Um, So I think the more, uh, uh, moving ready it is. Tell us 

TRacy Hayes: a little bit because you, you've been working in the historic district for a while.

So I imagine you've had some homes where people have been living in for a long time. Um, having some of those frank conversations, you know, if you were, [00:36:00] um, giving a class, uh, to a bunch of new agents, the importance of being, uh, well, honest would be one of them. Hopefully everyone's honest, but to actually.

Be direct with them, you know the importance right now of hey It's not just a sign in the yard because everyone's wants turnkey if we want top dollar 

Ed: We might have to do some work on the house. Well, it gets all the back, you know Insurability and the ability to be financed, right? So Yeah, we look at the four point home inspection, right electric plumbing heating and air and roof, right?

Let's just start there Is there anything about the home that may be a challenge for that? Does it have an old electrical panel in it? A Federal Pacific or Challenger panel? Well, that's a problem, right? Yeah. Is the roof 20 years old? And, you know, that may be a problem. Um, uh, plumbing. Have you done any re plumbing in it, you know?

Um, is it got poly butylene pipe in it? We're not by any stretch of the imagination, Inspector, nor do we [00:37:00] pretend to do that. But at least I need to have some knowledge and we need to recognize certain things, right? Right. Um, and electrical, you know, and, and, uh, heating and air as well too, so. Is there heating and air working fine?

Right. When's the last time was it changed? Water heaters have popped back up by Olds. A water heater, right? Mm-Hmm. . If you go walk into a home, you see it's an old rusty water heater and it's 25 years old and it's got some gray plastic pipe around it. Hey, this might be a problem. 

TRacy Hayes: Well, I heard also where it's at in the house too.

It absolute, you know, because some of the old houses, they were in the, they're in the ceiling. 

Ed: They're in the ceiling. Right. And do they have drain pans? And I have other types of things around 'em. So, so there's, there's a whole myriad of things like that. And again, not being an element inspector any, by any stretch of the imagination is that.

Is having some fundamental knowledge of that common 

TRacy Hayes: sense. 

Ed: Yeah. And I have to tell you, like old homes, like the historic homes, those homes, if you really listen to them, they'll talk to you, right? They, there's something about an old home. You get a sense for, you know, is this going to be a problem or not?

If you walk around and see, there's a lot of rotten wood and things like that. And I mean, I've had [00:38:00] situations where. Even the conventional loans, not even the VA loans. Not that 

TRacy Hayes: fanning me and Freddie Mac. 

Ed: Exactly. I've even the conventional ones of how to real estate appraiser flag the rotten wood on it.

They flagged rotten wood on a, on a detached garage that had no value, but they flagged WDO on that, right? So they want that replaced. So Again, this all gets back to how, how, um, moving ready. Can you make the home? Right. And if you do that, that builds value. If somebody can come in and say, I don't have to do anything.

I can just move in and 

TRacy Hayes: pay more. 

Ed: They're going to pay more for it. Right. And so if it's not, they're thinking, Oh my gosh, I have to replace the carpet. I have to repaint the walls. I have to replace the fog windows. I have to replace the water heater, you know, that just is going to kill the value. And if you're starting up here, you know, where it should be moving ready, They're going to knock you down a little bit on it.

Right, 

TRacy Hayes: right. So working in with the older homes, um, do you often call for a pre listing inspection when you start to start to see a few of these issues say, Hey, let's get someone professionally to find as [00:39:00] many issues as we can right now to stamp them out. 

Ed: Yeah, I think we've, we've done that. So that's a really great idea to do that, but let's, let's find out what's, what's out there.

Right. Cause they may say, look, I don't see anything wrong with a house. Right. But you've got You haven't, when's the last time you crawled into the house? Well, I haven't. Things happen, right? Things happen that we don't always visibly see, right? So, um, rotten beams, rotten wood, you know, it could have wood board damage on it, but when was that?

So there's all those types of things. So, um, I think it's just a pre home inspection is a good thing to do on some of these older homes. Yeah, doesn't hurt even older ones too. I'm hearing horror stories about even the new construction. Yeah. Yeah. I've seen recent one where there's no insulation in the house and it was a year old house, a million dollar home and there's no insulation in the attic.

So I don't know how that passed inspection, but 

TRacy Hayes: I think, yeah, there's this, um, 

Ed: having an inspection prior to, Closing the home would have been good. Yeah, even forget the fact you were going to do in 11 months Which is when this was found, but having one head of that would have 

TRacy Hayes: I've had [00:40:00] austin gray on from uh, grace home inspection and I am a true believer in the pre home inspection If I was building a home i'd have a home inspector from the beginning Uh, because like I said, the quality control is is not there.

Um, People kind of think that oh the um, The county inspector is coming by and, you know, signing off on this. Well, it's like any government they have, there's a low level threshold that these guys have to make. And is, is that the quality or are you going to have to go and add insulation later? Did he actually go up there and, you know, poke it to make sure all the way around or just where he could see was thick enough, but over there in the corner, It's not insulated because they just didn't get it out there, right?

Yeah, I don't think every 

Ed: city inspector is going to walk around and check every plug in the wall, right? Right. Home inspector does that with their devices to make sure are they grounded plugs or not or where the case might be. Yeah. In new construction, there's been plenty of times we've had that happen where GFCI breaker is not working for some reason.

So, [00:41:00] you know, it's, uh, It's, it's fun. I actually like older homes and stuff like that. I'm a huge mid century fan, which is I'd love in a fifties ranch. So it doesn't bother me that the bathroom is pink or green or purple or blue or whatever else. Right. If it's in respectable, good shape, a really good cleaning of the tile does wonders.

There's a certain amount of the population that like that homes just have good bones to them. Right. So, um, I went from a two story historic home that I lived in to, I'm in a. One story concrete block mid century house, um, actually going back because we had someone who had actually had gone in already previous to me owning it and replace cabinets and put Granite and other types of things in there that doesn't really fit with the mid century styles, right?

I'm going to the reverse of that. So my home in 1950s 60s period furniture that we're second owner of right right and And the light fixtures are period, you know, I got rid of the ceiling fans. I'm fantastic lights So [00:42:00] when I'm when I when I have a customer that's wanting to sell their home and say well Do you think I should renovate this this green bathroom?

Like do not touch it. If it's in good shape, the tile's not cracked Let's just do a great clean on it and let me have fun marketing that right? So it's finding these things about the home we can promote and have fun with you know Part of it is not only just have an improved app for that seller's property disclosure, but the feature sheet These are all the wonderful things about this house, right?

TRacy Hayes: Well, this is the research What you're getting is you know recent knowing you're knowing who the buyers are in that area Obviously in the historic district you have buyers that are might have the taste that you have and like it to be with versus if you're down in St. John's County with, you know, homes that are less than 15 years old, five years old, they're more of, uh, they want to turn key.

They want the granite countertops. They want those things. So knowing your customer or who, you know, who the buyer may be right now, anyway, in those markets is so So [00:43:00] important. Um, I just, I like to get up to the new agents, um, that, that listened to the show. I know there's some experienced agents that also are picking up tips that you're getting the consistency right now that I'm hearing from everyone is the buyers, uh, for the most part, want to turn key.

So you need to have these conversations with your sellers. What do we need to get it up to minimize, but also, You know, if you're selling in the, especially in the historic district, but really anywhere when you get someone under contract, I know you guys, that's a great, that's, that's the first gasp of air you got, right?

I got a contract. Okay. We might be closing in 30, 45 days, but then that inspection comes. And if you know, there's issues, if you know, there's issues, don't give the buyer that opportunity to. To use that as an excuse or to have that buyer, you know, everyone has that little buyer's remorse Did I do the right thing?

I signed that contract now you give them. Oh, you know, there's this Whatever now they have the [00:44:00] excuse out in this. I know I just believe in stamping all those things out I guess it's kind of in in the loan world. I like to make sure The loans as clean as possible so when I do get the contract I just hand it over to the processor and underwriter and it goes through call me when It's ready to close It's 

Ed: time for me To be replaced, right?

Don't wait to get into the contract negotiations, right? Or, or get into the contract and have the home inspection done on them to tell you what you already know. And now you've got to have a contractor come in and pull permits and do all that kind of stuff, which could be an impact to closing line, which isn't so much now, but it wasn't a past, right.

With getting permits approved. Right. So if you know what needs to be done, go ahead and do it. Yeah. So, you know, a roof is a maintenance thing, right? There's other things about home that are maintenance things. These things just need to be done. Right? Um, renovating kitchens and bathrooms add value and other stuff adds value too.

So, um, and the thing too is about new agents. Um, so, [00:45:00] um, yeah, I said earlier it's having both feet in and both feet out, right? It's really hard. To work a part time job or some other job and then to sell real estate. You know, some people will have mastered the art of that. They still have something on the side and that's great because people who have different revenue streams do what very well alive, right?

There's some good statistics on that, right? Right. So if I was do this all the time, I'm going to do X. But if I do this, this, this, this, I can have different revenue streams. But, um, it's just a matter of finding that balance in your life, right? So work life balance, um, But it's, I think it's more difficult for somebody who doesn't have both feet in, you know, And if you're not fully engaged in what's going on in the industry right now Um, you may be a liability to yourself and your brokerage, right?

So, I mean, I think it's really important right now that you're up you you get your game on in terms of Getting all the education you can possibly get right now with not only what's happening in August 17th, of course, but, um, with our forms changes, right? So we're having [00:46:00] to move to the Florida association, the realtors forms, right?

So our Florida realtor association form. So, um, it, you should be going through every one of those forms and learning all about those forms, right? You should be able to flip those forms upside down and have them in front of your customer and know what's on that form. Right. And that's an extreme. But when you do that, that shows to your customer that you know what you're talking about.

Does the 

TRacy Hayes: average, you use the term liability, does the average agent even really understand? the liability. I know. I, and I, and I put that out there because I know there's some people on my side of the, on the, on the lending side, there's some things going on that, um, or destiny or the way I was, you know, 19 years I've been doing this.

Um, or you mentioned to one person and like, Oh, that's a rest of violation, but someone's doing it now. It may not be a rest of violence. Cause that person is not a lawyer and doesn't work for, uh, yeah. Um, Whatever that uh, [00:47:00] organization is. CFPB. CFPB, yeah. Consumer Finance Protection Board. Um, because when you do read, you try to pull up any RESPA guidelines, it's got so much legal jargon, you're like, come on dude, can you just like, simplify this?

Give me an example of that. You know, that type of thing. I don't think the average agent really fully grasps, uh, the liability part and, and you being in business and now, and obviously in, in leadership positions, I imagine those are some of the discussions you have, because obviously protecting the brokerage is the primary.

Ed: Absolutely. And I, and I worked in corporate risk. So I was a corporate risk director for a major, for a multi billion dollar company. So, uh, and information security technology. A lot of that. So, um, so I'm a very forward thinker and I'm trying to think outside of the box. What it, what, if I do this, what are the ramifications for that?

Right. If I do this, then I shouldn't have issues along the way. Right. So, uh, so to mitigate your exposure, right. Of course, as being educated, if when you, I'm always a big believer that when you stop educating yourselves, when you [00:48:00] potentially become in trouble, so, um, and so I think being about new or old agencies with all the industry changes going on, you have got to move.

Stay on top of what's going on in the industry right now. Um, the forums changes. You need to be sitting and learning those forums, you know, spending that extra time that you have is going through all that attending classes and many people go to more 

TRacy Hayes: than one, which yeah, 

Ed: because what happened a month ago is has potentially changed.

Right. So, 

TRacy Hayes: or your instructor is highlighting one part, not another, and another instructor is going to point something else out. Yeah, 

Ed: agreements have changed. Right. So that's the whole new thing. Right. So, um, So it's just really important to do that and because if you don't do that if you say the wrong thing do the wrong thing You know even with the new forms changes, right?

We've gone from a NIFAR listing form to The Florida Realtors Association listing form which that was only four pages, right? This was multiple pages. So What's not in the four page one that's in [00:49:00] the one we're used to. Right. Well, addendums, writers, other things. I've been going through that with our, with our office.

We started some classes just to do nothing but just go through each one of those forms. Um, and it's been eye opening. I'm, I'm going through the same thing everyone else is, right? Because a lot of those forms I didn't use. So I'm learning right there with. The newer agents or other people that have maybe not been in the business as long as I have, but we're all in this together, right?

Right. Um, and if we're all in this together, we should all be doing and saying and operating the same way, essentially. Right. Um, it's going to make everyone's life a lot easier. 

TRacy Hayes: What does he think the biggest liability of any agent out there? 

Ed: Well, of course, you know, we're not attorneys, right? So, yeah, um, uh, we're not attorneys.

And so just being able to, you know, when you're writing documentation up and offer up, if you need, you know, Um, and then you have to have a special condition and then reach out to a real estate attorney for that. So don't craft it yourself. Right. Um. 

TRacy Hayes: The language you're using in those areas where you have free hand.

Ed: Correct. Yeah. Be careful. Right. So. [00:50:00] Um. And so you should be seeking some legal advice get some assistance from you know a closing agency or whatever else. Um. Not be careful what you say, right? So, um, you know, I've been at homes and I can see a brown spot on the ceiling, but it doesn't, I can't say the roof is leaking.

All I can tell you is when you get your home inspection, Mr. and Ms. Customer, make sure that you're, You get that checked out. Yeah. Uh, that you wanna make sure that everything's shucking out for you. Right. It could be nothing. It could have been something from the, a prior roof. It could be condensation, somebody was 

TRacy Hayes: drinking coffee in the attic and

It could be 

Ed: any number of things. Right. Yeah. So, um, but it's, you know, uh, um, and, uh, I think it's just being careful. Yeah. 'cause you have to be careful. 'cause even errors, Arizona missions insurance, we all pay errors and admissions insurance. But if you're not doing things. With regards to disclosures if you see something, right?

You need to make sure you tell your customer perhaps an email and get in writing or getting something to sign off on that Because if you don't tell them that right And something happens in the [00:51:00] future, right? and they said well i've got this problem this house and you know, 

TRacy Hayes: my agent said my 

Ed: agent said this and everything else and so Your errors and is errors and omissions your insurance may not cover you fully and that could cost thousands, so so it's important to that so Just Um, just be cautious about what you're doing, right?

And seek advice when you need to seek it. Um, I always learned, I learned a long time ago in real estate, if you don't know the answer to the question, tell the person, I don't know the answer to your question, but I'll do what I can to find that out for you. Right. So just don't assume automatically you know that, and just give them some, um, Some explanation when you're not really sure about it.

TRacy Hayes: The buyer's agreement, is that something you always did? 

Ed: Um, I typically had not. So, um, I love listing homes, so that's always been kind of where I'd love to be at. Right. Because I love the, I love the marketing aspect of it. Set the traps. That's why I call it set the traps. Yeah, that's what someone will sell it, right?

So, uh, so I love, I'm huge on listings. I've always loved that part of the business, right? Yeah. And, um, And, [00:52:00] uh, in helping the customer pair the home and getting that kind of stuff ready. So, um, not so much on the buyer broker, uh, the, the buyer side of the house, but, you know, again, I'm in the same boat, everybody else is in.

So we're making, everyone's got to make that shift. There, there is no choice, right? We all are going to have to do this. 

TRacy Hayes: What it, so with your experience, so in the greater industry, um, obviously these are discussions you guys are having in your office. You're, you're a leader. You've been, you know, you're, uh, Credibility is there because you've, you've produced, you've done.

So obviously younger agents, uh, are, are looking up to you. How are you and how is your office? Um, I'm going to use, you know, selling this cause I know some people just gotten, you know, negative about it. Uh, obviously, you know, I'm sure you have found a positive spin. On the whole buyers agree, but the importance right now that you, you need to be role playing, what are questions that, that the seller or buyers are going to be asking, or if you're doing a [00:53:00] listing agreement, you know, the, you know, the, the seller talking about the commission, cause it's out there.

So they're seeing bits, they're seeing their little reels on Instagram and all this stuff, you know, what is the, uh, I guess the attitude that you're trying to, uh, your office is trying to put across to everyone, um, about this and how to absorb it and make it part of their business. 

Ed: Yeah. Well, again, I worked on a corporate world where I've had multiple management changes.

Companies have been companies that have sold themselves off and re and merger merged and everything else. So what I found out was, uh, immediate, there's immediate response from that is like, oh my gosh, we're getting a new manager, right? Or, oh my gosh, you know, the company's being bought out. What I found is, you know, and this is a cheese mover, right?

So our cheese has gotten moved several times and sometimes mine's growing wheels, right? So I when I was in the corporate world, I was there for about 18 years. I had 11 managers, right? So what I found out was It's usually better At up on the back end of it, right? It's at first there's apprehension [00:54:00] but you need to Reality is that maybe it's not a bad thing, right?

Change is good Um in the risk world, you know The companies that don't change are doomed to fail right so if you're not going to change with the industry, right? You may not be there too long. So from Starting to use the buyer broker agreements, of course, you need to know and study the documents, right?

You need to know all their ins and outs about that as much as you can as an agent On the backside of this the positive is, you know, when you're working with your buyers You do have an opportunity to negotiate your Commission, right? 

TRacy Hayes: Mm 

Ed: hmm. So um And so we have listings that are out there and for whatever the commute co ops are, sometimes, you know, we get one, it's like, well, I've run into situations where we've had, I could show 10 homes, right?

And then when the customer wants, typically we'd have the lowest co op. Wonderful. But my job is there to make the transaction work for the customer, right? And not focus on the commission. We should never be focused on that. [00:55:00] Um, In this opportunity of our brokerage image, you at least do have an opportunity to sit down with your buyer and consult with them to say, here's what my, here's what my rate is, right?

And here's why my rate is this, right? I'm worth that. And so for you, it's your opportunity to show your customer what your value is. Um, and go down through the list of all the things you do. I mean, it's not just answering telephones and emails and stuff, but you do your homework, right? You're working with customers and helping them to come up with some valuations and doing other types of things.

You're there as their guide, right? To help them through this process. So you're there to, you're there and you're bringing value to what it is they're trying to do. They have a goal in mind, right? You're there to help them accomplish that. How much is that goal worth, you know? So this is an opportunity where you can have that conversation with them, set what you're.

Commission would be for them, regardless of what it may be on the other side. So, um, I think it's just an opportunity for you to be able to sit down and There's plenty of other opportunities, right? Um, some people like the listing side, some like the buyer's side of the house, you [00:56:00] know. Uh, for some people it doesn't really matter, but, um.

TRacy Hayes: Would you, would you, uh, or maybe you're already teaching this, I don't know, and just, my whole thought is, some people are not, you know, uh, I'm one of them, are not very good at sitting down with you. And, you know, when I want to express I'm valuable, you have to kind of, you know, put. Brag about yourself a little bit, you know, hey, I've this is this is all the things i'm going to do And sometimes if you're just trying to rattle that off the top of your head, it doesn't come across Smoothly like some of my questions sometimes because they are coming off the top of my head but you'll Go to that buyer's presentation you'll with Uh, you know, a flyer listing all the things that you go in the, you know, the importance or if you're going, you're at that listing appointment, the cost of all the things that that you're going to do as a professional, the photos, this, that, you know, you know, all the things that time you're, I keep saying on the show, I think every agent right [00:57:00] now should have a journal.

And every time a customer calls you just like an attorney and you talk to them, you're going Uh, I mean, you know about whatever you say. Yep called Uh, sally called at 9 a. m. Talk to her for 15 minutes Strategizing on you know, or whatever it is because I I don't think the the public Um, and this is bringing being brought to the light because of the settlement Realizes the amount of time the agent spends in at you know, how many times at eight o'clock?

Are you have you been doing? marriage counseling for crying out loud Um, 

Ed: I had a situation this past week, you know where uh, you know, it was a customer that came through as a referral You know in 2019 You know, it's still a bit in the book still making contact with him went out there once before and and and met with them and One of them was very disengaging, was just, could not care less that I was there, right?

Right. So the obvious, I knew this was going to be a, uh, uh, a potential listing opportunity with some tension involved. Right. Um, and, you know, I expressed [00:58:00] back then, I'm, I'm not going to be your marriage counselor, right? I'm here to do, to sell your home, right? Right. Um, we carry a lot of that with us. We carry some of their stress with us, you know?

Yeah. Um. And to some extent, it's part of our job to take a little bit of that off of them, right? The buying process or the listing selling process, that's, that's what we do. Right. Um, and then, but you 

TRacy Hayes: build relationships with these people and sometimes they, they want to talk to you like you're their best friend.

Right. 

Ed: Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Sometimes more than you really want to know. Um, but, but then this, it was, so we did not list the house then, and we went back out this past week and, And, uh, after, uh, three prior appointments that got canceled, right? Because the other one was, was not. On board. Not on board with it.

And, uh, went back out there again, and, you know, got there, knocked on the door, uh, heard someone talking, or him talking inside, and, and, No, they came to the door. So I rang the doorbell and you know, [00:59:00] uh, forgot that I locked my truck. So I popped the lock and of course the horn went off, uh, knocked on the door again and, you know, and rang the doorbell again.

So I was, it was 90 degrees. I'm in, I'm, I'm dressed, you know, and I'm ready. I'd spent a good few hours preparing myself in terms of having market data, market stats, everything else, not to go in immediately expecting the listing that day, right? This was to go ahead and preview the home again since 2019 to see what have you done.

Um, and have this other conversation with them about industry changes and other types of things. Right. So, um, never would come to the door. So I'm like, how bad do you need me? Right. I've got plenty of other customers on this case that do need the help. So unfortunately, you know, You have to kind of draw the line somewhere.

It's like, I can't be your marriage counselor. Right. And that immediately set a negative situation for me that even if we do get this listed, there's going to be some point that this listing up or this listing is going to be a challenge, right? Right. Because we have somebody who's totally not on board, right.

With what's going [01:00:00] on. And, um, that can be problematic to the transaction later on. So, um, and I shared with you early on was like real estate's transactional. Right. Right. So. But for me, my success comes from, I look at this as it's a very transition business. So, we're here for whatever the case may be, someone's job change, right?

They gotta sell their house, they gotta buy one somewhere else. We call it job change or relocation. Divorce situations, forced sales. Death forced sales. We went through all that with experience that was some of the COVID experiences. Right. I personally have been through some of that, uh, where I had, and I was the realtor in the family and parent, the parent passed away.

So, you know, there's, there's a lot of that that happens. So we're kind of in a really transition business. We're helping people make transitions, right. In their lives. So, uh, while it's transactional, we're there to serve some purpose and all that's right. Right. For me. I've looked at the real estate business [01:01:00] that way.

It's very transitional. You know, we're there to help people make these changes in their life, of which involves a change in real estate somehow or other. And the fact that I do earn a commission on the back end of this is kind of my little reward. So for me, my why in the business, we all talk about what's our why in businesses.

I like to help, right? I'd like to be that person that's helping this person, helping this person make this transition in their life, right? sitting down with someone who's lived in the home for the last 60 years and now is making a change to move to assisted living or something. You know, it's all those things in their home, right?

So how can I align that with him helping people that dealing with state sales and other stuff, bring it in. So be a resource for your customers as well, too. But for me, the most rewarding thing is, um, helping that person transcend and transition to the next chapter, the next chapter of their life. Right.

So, um, So that's a really big thing for me. And the fact that I somewhere got a commission check at the end of that was was my reward, [01:02:00] uh, was my compensation for doing that. But I knew that I'd, this person was super happy at the end of it. Right. Right. So I take it to heart and I really do that. I've had some really wonderful experiences in life.

I was fortunate to have a great family and childhood. Um, I had a father who restored vintage cars. I got a really fun time to do that and spend time with him Um, I live my life with my father leaning over my left shoulder my mother leaning over my right Making sure I don't take anything off of anybody that I don't need to and And making sure that I also do the right thing all the time.

So 

TRacy Hayes: you've given me i'm listening to you because the the The situation I, uh, was talking about was how, um, how do you go into a situation of generally someone you don't necessarily know, or maybe they were referred but you just don't, you don't know these people, and you're trying to explain your value.

And you were explaining your value to me. Um, How [01:03:00] important I just the advice if you listen if any listeners were listening to that last five minutes that we've been talking to put your value I Would suggest in a video just like this you and I talking and you explaining Hey, I had to do this. I imagine you have had to put on Boots and gloves and dig into some of these older homes and move some stuff out that you You You know, had to wear a mask for, you know what I'm saying?

Um, and these things that real estate agents do. we're, and then how important the agent is there during these chapter changes in people's lives, which not always easy, you know, especially if you've got a death in the family or divorce, it's a negative situation and the agent is, is there being empathetic in, you know, obviously they have their lives too and let alone be involved in someone else's lives that they don't really, probably you've only known a month, right.

You know, if that, [01:04:00] and I think it's so important right now, um, for agents to get their stories out. Like you were just expressing to me the things that you go, because it's hard to like, put that in a bullet point thing, but, uh, to sit down and if anyone's listening, I would help you with that to dig out what, what, what is your value and actually condense it into a hopefully, you know, cut it down to maybe a little three to five minute video and put it on your website.

Or when you do have that listing appointment, shoot that link out to them. So they actually go, Oh, wow, this guy, he cares. He actually has shown he cared because he's telling me actual stories of him going that this is the service you provide Not only to that individual But to the community, you know as a whole 

Ed: absolutely and You know, it's sharing you have personal experiences, right?

Just like they're going through a personal experience, right? So I had a father who was diagnosed with alzheimer's at 85. I was a year out of high school 

TRacy Hayes: Oh, geez, 

Ed: and so, you know next 16 years of caregiving for him. So Um [01:05:00] used to do fundraising for the Alzheimer's Association as a result of all that. So, you know, um, at a time in the eighties and nineties when there wasn't much out there.

So we went through all levels of caregiving. So for about 16 years as they passed away, we took care of my father, you know, so I've learned a lot of compassion and patience, right? For things like that too. Um, so it's all these little experiences. You 

TRacy Hayes: don't shy. You understand that when you walk into those situations today where someone may never have experienced it.

may just avoid that. You, you, and I, I just, that's, that's what adds huge value to you. And it's 

Ed: great what you said about the video though. I mean, even if it's just a, just a quick three minute video just talking about it, I'm a human being, right? Just like I'm helping my customers. So I've, I've had my personal experiences.

I went through the COVID 33 days in the hospital with COVID, um, in 2021, the death of a parent at the same time. So, and, and then wanting. To sell their house for the family and, you know, the last [01:06:00] person who walked out of the house to see it empty. So, you know, I, I've been through a lot of that personally.

Um, I'm a much greater person, a much stronger person, a much compassionate person, understanding. Um, I, I get that, right? Not everybody has all those experiences, right? So, but if I sit down with my customer and I have that, it's like, I understand, you know, Um, I'm fortunate to not have to bend to a divorce situation.

So, but I understand the situations that can happen, right? Um, I've had homes that had 11 people I had to have signed to, to get ownership conveyed. Right. And I went after it and did it. So, um, It's just really knowing your customer and listening to them and what their situation on their goal is. And you can share some personal.

things with them, right? That I get it. I understand what you're trying to accomplish, right? Um, And then, and then moving forward, what's, what's plan A, what's plan B, what's step one, step two, 10? Let's find out to get you through this process. [01:07:00] Um, so that you're successful. 

TRacy Hayes: Yeah. 

Ed: For me, it's never been about chasing the commission dollar.

For me, it's about the transition aspect of it, what I'm there for, right? I'm going to be remembered a lot more for what I did to help this customer out than what How much money I did, you know, my my parents used to say it's you know, you're gonna be judged probably in life not by house you have the car you drive or no many other things.

Right. It's going to be, who is that acres, right. And what did he do? Who's in lives you've impacted. He's that's actually, I mean, life's going to impact along the way. So, and that's why I'm doing, that's my, why? Yeah. All this. So, 

TRacy Hayes: well, because you have a passion about the business and obviously a passion about people, that is probably the biggest thing.

Cornerstone of it all and then real estate is just a vehicle here For agents coming in and understanding these natural Passions [01:08:00] that you have has led you to great success because people use the time you've spent Being empathetic and understanding their situations helping letting them know that you're gonna be there for them Goes back to that initial question and a lot of or one of the initial questions that you asked Agents only look 60 or 90 days that they really have to focus on the clients in front of them And are they really giving them the you're all because it's that client.

That's hopefully whether it's days, five months or five years, 10 years down the road. All of a sudden you get a call and say, Hey, I know you dealt with my sister, Sally three years ago. Can you help me in my transaction? 

Ed: Yeah, absolutely. That's so a lot of my businesses repeat customers or referral, personal referrals or former colleagues, people that I've known for years, classmates, you know, it's still like that too, because they knew me, they knew me.

I've had some relationship with them for some period of time. Right. So, uh, and, and they knew me to be a very trusting, reliable, straightforward [01:09:00] individual. Um, but they know there's a compassionate side to, to who I am. Right. So, um, and they get the sense that I care. Right. Um, and I think that's the biggest thing for me.

That's been my success, um, in this. So, you know, if you're newer to the city and you get into selling real estate, of course, um, You've got to create networks of people, find opportunities to do that. Um, no matter, no matter what that is, no matter what organization you belong to, um, is, you know, try to do that as much as you can and repeat.

It's not how much, you know, it's repeat, you know, it's a step. How much you care, right? Absolutely. Yeah. I've had a, I've had a referral come in and people say, Oh, the relocation fees you have to pay out in your commission. So, well, that's fine. Right. That's a, that's a customer that I wouldn't normally have had.

Um, Right. Yeah. Um, it's a sale that I wouldn't normally have had. And, and that customer has not only for me to, you know, I've had about four or five transactions from one customer that came in. So similar along the way it's panned out, right. And you know, um, [01:10:00] you know, I believe in different things, you know, the butterfly effect and certain things like that.

There's, there's something that happens, right. And it's the true butterfly effect. What I do to impact one person's life. They're going to remember that. Yeah. And they're going to share that. I had a really great experience working with Ed, right. Right. And I think she did, you know, we all have friends. And family members that are in the real estate business, right?

Um, and not to say that those are the best or the right ones to use but sometimes selling real estate Because of the financial aspects are very personal. Yeah, so some people I've seen this a lot. Well, you know, my sister's a realtor and she didn't pick me, you know I don't know why she picked me because, you know, I don't know why she picked me.

Well, I totally 

TRacy Hayes: understand it from the mortgage side. Yeah, because 

Ed: I don't want you to know my financial side. It's nothing personal. Right. And so we have that. So I think a lot of real estate agents seem to understand that. I've seen that a lot. It's like, just because he didn't pick you doesn't mean anything negative.

The fact is they just may not want you to know. That's just their personal, yeah. It is very [01:11:00] personal and it's financial. It's a big, a big transition whether buying or selling. Um. I like stuff like that too. Yeah. And I'm like, that's fine. You know, that's, that's a hundred, a hundred 

TRacy Hayes: percent. There's, there's, there's people, you could get your license today and they want to do a transaction for you, even though you've never sold a home, you have friends like that, and there's others that are going to wait and you got to sell 50 homes before they're like, okay, they're in it long enough.

I can use them now. Um, I, the same thing in the, in the financial world, obviously pulling people's credit reports. There's some that just have that natural trust in you. There's others that will never use you because they just don't want you to know that. And just, you just got to roll on with that. Um, I want to just change that just cause from a time standpoint, cause I went back, I wrote, um, you know, you've probably have directly, indirectly coached, mentored.

Many agents through the years and obviously the position you're in now you're that's more or less your title is you know the sales [01:12:00] success part of it You mentioned finding their niche earlier You have changed you you've molded your niche over the years to different things and went back to doing the lots as you mentioned up North yeah What do you, how do you come across it, especially, uh, to an agent you're trying to hopefully develop up that has potential to help them find that?

Because I don't think, uh, You know, everyone, um, you know, I know some agents have moved brokerage. They said, well, I'm moving over here because I want to cover more of Northeast Florida. Is it necessarily the geographic area or you just need to narrow down on your niche, which might be the historic district, for example, you, how do you help them?

How, how do you try to uncover, uh, with these agents that are developing? 

Ed: Well, again, part of it is knowing your niche, but also that don't lock yourself and, uh, One thing as well too. So I think you got to find a balance there somewhere. My niche was, uh, [01:13:00] at the point in time, I figured, well, I used to sell land here.

I can go sell land again. Well, it's, it's getting hard to sell or get a new listing on the home. I'll go try out the land out. Something 

TRacy Hayes: to move the needle. Right. 

Ed: I had to move the needle or do something. Right. So, so that's pivoting. Right. So it's, you know, you get to move your own cheese sometimes, right?

So, um, I'm not going to do this cause this is, I'm seeing this is not going to go well. Let me try over here. So, um, It could be driven from your network of people that you have. If you have, you know, a couple of attorneys in your family or something like that, and maybe there's a niche where you can have some conversations that maybe there's some business that you can draw from that, right?

We learn, learn about the state, learn about other types of things, right? There's, I've had, I've had referrals from attorneys too. That says, I've, I've got this house that's being sold and I've got, You know, there was 10 family members, one of them passed away. So now there's a, you know, a niece and nephew.

And so now there's 11 people we have to get signed. Right. Most people would just run away from that. I said, you know, that's a learning opportunity, right? It's 11 possible customers, right? The possible customer, maybe not so much in this case, but, but, [01:14:00] but the, but the fact of the matter is that was a learning opportunity for me to dig in and say, okay, I've got to go get 11 people to sign all these contracts.

Right. And then when I get it on the contract, I have to get. Communicate with all of them, right? Yeah, I have to get on a contract. I have to, you know, get all of them to sign the deed later on. So part of it was setting expectations up front by the customer. Here's what's going to happen, right? Here's what needs to happen during this.

So that all works smooth. But, um, but it's, I think it's finding, you know, if you, whether you're a member of a bond, uh, active in the church or active in other things, you have connections in different areas. Types of walks of life is maybe that is where you draw it from Uh, if you just absolutely love the beach and that's where you want to work and you want to stay in the beach area then fine um, you know, I For me, it's just been the ability to just find what it is I like and i'm all over the board in most cases, right?

I I don't care if it's 5 000 or 5 million It doesn't really matter to me. So, um the process in here at least still the same right? It's the [01:15:00] communication You is essentially the same, although you're dealing with different people sometimes too. So, um, you know, I learned sitting around a boardroom of people, you've got 12 people.

We have 12 personalities, right? Uh, the real estate market is no different than that. Every, every new customer you have is a different personality. It's a different learning experience, a different way you may communicate. But inherently, the business is still the same, right? Um, and preparing the home, doing the listing, setting up for open houses, doing all those types of things.

So, so 

TRacy Hayes: what's an agent who may be listening right now? Uh, I think you'd agree with this. If you're not, if you don't feel like you're, you're in your, in your groove, in that niche that you're just. Killing it, which would be most agents. Um, because we know there's a small percentage that are just got more business and they can handle, they they've got team or whatever, helping them because I got so much business to sit down, whether a coach or a mentor or a senior agent like yourself, and really just start having a [01:16:00] conversation about you.

You know, where are you? Like I said, are you church goer? Where are these, where are these places where you can start to be, uh, you, where you have probably some credibility 

Ed: where 

TRacy Hayes: you could start to influence a 

Ed: little bit. Yeah. You could get back to my, what I said about my why, about, you know, I do this so I can help people transition people.

Maybe there's, maybe there's, um, something you can do there that drives what it is. What your business is, you know, so maybe it's connecting with attorneys or, or some, some other field. But, um, I think it's just, you know, I think it's just really important to, um, um, find out where your niche is and find out.

Yeah. And you may 

TRacy Hayes: have to have conversations with people to kind of uncover those things. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. 

Ed: You can say what motivates you, but what, what do you do? Like, what do you like to do? And like, but your hobbies, you know, sit down and talk to them and say, well, there may be something that you don't realize Is a line of business that you would like to go in, right?

And maybe it's not even sales, [01:17:00] maybe it's property management, you know, maybe it's something else. So, um, um, I think that you just have to have that sit down with a mentor and help draw that out sometimes too. Uh, and be willing to pivot. Right. So be willing to change that up. If industry is going to change the market changes, you need to find somebody to adjust through all that, navigate that business.

So I think the people that are most flexible, but still, it's unlike a ton of skill sets, right? So, um, you can have certain skills, like in the case of the 11 person thing, right? That was a great opportunity for me to learn. Right. A lot of patients, a lot of patients, a lot of patients, uh, you know, So I think if you take those opportunities and, and, and grab all those opportunities you can, right?

Some of them, some of them are just bad opportunities to start with. I mean, some of them are just like, I don't know if I want to do that. So, but, um, but you have to find out you don't like it. The good thing about it is you can, you can, you don't have to take everything that comes along. Right. Right. You can essentially [01:18:00] choose.

But, um, But I think that you just need to find those opportunities because it makes you a well rounded realtor. I 

TRacy Hayes: want to finish with this part because I think this is a thing that every top agent runs into somewhere along the line. Um, they reach a point where, um, and I use this phrase, John Maxwell phrase, reach the lid.

Um, I'm sure you've seen, you, you yourself have gone through it when you, when you feel, and I, and I, the number, somebody came up with a number that I forgot who I was talking to not too long ago, they felt somewhere between five to 7 million. They're, they're, they're right now, this in today's market numbers, uh, they're You reached about nine, you're tapped, you don't have the time in the day, um, what you're doing and it's, and it can actually start to erode your business because obviously you're not doing the marketing and prospecting.

That part of it starts to, you start taking less of that because you're busy working on the transaction that you've already got. [01:19:00] What do you feel are some of the things that I'm sure you've seen at your office when you start seeing the agents reach this? What are some of the things that should it be jumping into a transaction coordinator?

Does Coldwell Banker provide that? Or is it getting an assistant? What have you found to, to, to help them start to break through this and actually produce what they should be producing, right? Like some of these, some, some agents are, they could produce 20, 25 million if they had the right, 

Ed: Yeah, I think our position with Cobo Banker, I'll just speak to them.

So Cobo Banker Vanguard, of course, we have our own marketing department. So we do a lot of our in house marketing. We have our own in house photographer. You just take that load off. I take, that takes a load off. I don't have to go shop here, shop there, pick this person, do that, right? It's, it's a one house, it's a one stop shop.

So, um, so that's, that alone has been a tremendous benefit for any of our Cobo Banker agents, right? So that is a huge tool for us in our, in our, in our bag. So. The other thing is we do have transaction coordinators, right? And you can absolutely leverage transaction coordinators. Um, we do have new agents that use transaction coordinators.

I [01:20:00] think you need to know the business, the business and the process, right? First, but, but we have them there, right? And you can learn from them, right? We have a rental gurus, which is our rental, our property management division, right? We have a commercial division now. So, and we've expanded into the central Florida region.

So, uh, as a company we're doing quite well, we're, we're, um, Hey, It's finding those things that are tool sets for us agents that make it a little easier for us to do our business with, right? Um, you know, me, myself, and I, as I say it, I said, you know, me, myself, and I can probably work circles around a lot of people, right?

But I have my limits. So, uh, for me, that number's more about a 10 million number. And, and when I start to get around the 10 million, you know, each year, I can, I can start to feel it, right? So, um, But having been in program management, project management for years, I've had projects that I had 40 projects on time.

I used to manage. Um, I personally do not use a transaction coordinator. That's a personal decision that I do. And even though I'm a manager and I'm still an active [01:21:00] selling manager, active selling agent, actually, um, I still manage my own stuff. I'm hands on. I go to home inspections. I go meet the appraiser there wherever I can.

Right? Right. Can I send someone right? Um, But for the most part, I'm there. Um, I'm still in contact with my customer, right? Um, And even having a team and stuff. I'm still the face of what happens, right? So, um, I'm probably a little different, uh, from an agent perspective, you know, I'm, I'm probably a little different than, than most, but I am totally hands on with a lot of stuff.

So, but everybody has their threshold on what they feel they can handle. If you're not, if you're, if you have a part time situation and you're a part time realtor, then obviously. You know, if you're doing five or 6 million a year, 

TRacy Hayes: you're part time. That's pretty good. 

Ed: You probably need to have a transaction coordinator for that and consider going full time because yeah, full time or bring you on a team member, you know, honestly.

So, um, you know, I've had [01:22:00] team members too. And I said, like, if you ever get to make a five or 6 million, you want to go off your own. I'm not upset that I wouldn't be upset with that. I actually would take that as a compliment. Yep. Right. So. Um, because I've helped and mentored you for you to build your business up to that point you feel comfortable with to do that on your own.

That's, that's great. That's the life of being a real estate agent. My own back and say, yeah, I just helped someone get to that point. Right. So, um, but just from a transaction coordinating business, I think there is a threshold. You just gotta find out what your, what your capacity is. 

TRacy Hayes: Um, well, I think, I think again, it goes back to, I think one thing about talking to a lot of the top agents, uh, they're, Giving and if you're listening to this, I know I've said this, uh, if you've listened to any of my episodes, I say this often, you've got to reach out to the top agents and, uh, sit down.

You might, you might be going along hooky door, but you, the, for the collaboration part of it. Um, but there's always some, Nugget that you can pull off and then if you are reaching this because this [01:23:00] Basically what you explained it. There's many different ways to skin the breaking through the lid cat. So You know, what is it for you?

You like doing the transaction coordinating, but you love using your marketing department. That's what I just heard out of out of you Others, you know may need that, you know, like I said Sometimes you can't make that uh appraiser so you got to send an assistant or you know If you've got a team of Subagents that they're going out there because you're covering them when they're out of town or whatever, you know type of thing There's so many different ways to do it.

And then obviously, you know finding that brokerage that office either offers that Sort of thing to fill in the gaps if that's what you need and the only way you're gonna find out because everyone does it Differently is to sit down with some of the top people and learn the different ways because I think I mean I mean 215 episodes now.

I mean all the different ways everyone tells me they do real estate Uh, and then talking to agents that I know are growing in the business Um, [01:24:00] you need to sit down with two or three of these people and find out Um, and then there's probably, I don't know, infinitely amount of ways to do it. 

Ed: And I do, and I love sitting down with the other agents and saying, let's go through this together, right?

Cause honestly, I still grab those old nuggets too. You know, I'm certainly, uh, again, I get back to, if you're not learning, you know, Yeah, you're dying. Yeah. The great information. And 

TRacy Hayes: I appreciate you coming on today. Anything you'd like to add, say there, 

Ed: no, you know, I just got to say, you know, again, transition business, right.

This is transactional, but you're helping people make transition this business. Right. Think about that and what they're going, what their side, it looks like. And then how can you help them out? Right. Yeah. And, and you're successful in that they're going to remember who you are. Right. Yeah. And just stay in contact with them.

Right. Cause usually the last person a realtor's the person that the realtor's the person the realtor is going to use is the last one that probably made contact with him more than likely. A hundred percent. [01:25:00] And if you, and if you have a customer that you sold a home to or sold their home, stay in contact with him because if not, someone else is going to do it.

TRacy Hayes: Yep. 

Ed: Yep. 

TRacy Hayes: Appreciate 

Ed: you. Thank you. Thank you, 

TRacy Hayes: sir.