Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Shelle Pennington, Realtor with Addison & Maxwell Real Estate

Episode Date: September 5, 2023

Born and raised in the Littleton area, Shelle gained a true appreciation for the natural beauty right outside her door and stayed local to attend the University of Colorado. Licensed since 2002, Shelle enjoys her job now as much as in the beginning. A natural networker, she builds genuine connections within her community. In addition to extensive knowledge of the Denver Metro area, Shelle has personal experience remodeling homes and investing in real estate – sharing this first-hand knowledge with her clients is invaluable in helping them accomplish their dreams of homeownership and building wealth. Her gift for mediating and passion for fairness equates to strong negotiation skills and an unmatched level of care.Learn more:https://www.addisonmaxwell.comElite Real Estate Leaders Podcasthttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/elite-real-estate-leaders-podcastSource: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-shelle-pennington-realtor-with-addison-maxwell-real-estate

Welcome to the Elite Real Estate Leaders Podcast, brought to you by Trailstone Insurance Group, bringing you interviews with the best real estate and mortgage professionals, empowering you to understand the current trends in the housing market so that you make the American dream your reality. Enjoy today's episode. Welcome to the Elite Real Estate Leaders podcast. Today we have with the Shelley Pennington, who is a realtor with Addison and Maxwell Real Estate. Shelly, welcome to the program. Thank you so much for having me.

You're welcome. Hey, I want to talk all about what you do and how you do it and how you serve your clients, but get us started first with your story. What is your background? And how did you get into real estate? Well, I started working in high school, actually, as a receptionist at a couple of remax offices here in town. And I went to college at CU Boulder. At that time, I was working as an assistant to a realtor here in the,

the Denver metro area and decided to get my real estate license. Just as a way to work through college, I really enjoyed the industry. So I thought it would be a fun way that I could earn some money while I was getting my degree. So got my real estate license when I was 18, continued to work as a buyer's agent for four top producing brokers here in town. And when I graduated, I decided to, you know, stick with it and stay in the industry just because I love it. Yeah. You know, starting off as a receptionist almost sounds like starting off in the mailroom. You know, you just start off at the bottom and work your way to the top. Did you find that you were learning things even just by listening to conversations in the office, even at those, as a receptionist?

Yes, absolutely. You know, real estate is fascinating. to me. And there's lots of different aspects of it. There's, you know, interacting with people, there's contracts, there's negotiating. So I got a little bit of exposure to all of that working in the office. And even though I was young, I just got a feeling that it was something I would really enjoy doing. And then, of course, being an assistant to an agent, you're even closer to the client, you know, and just able to observe a lot more of really what happens in the day to day. Yeah. And then just kind of tucking things away to go, ooh, if I was doing this, I'm going to enjoy doing it this way or change this or add this and things like that.

That's really neat. You know, it's often said, I know that this sounds cliche, but, you know, the American dream is homeownership. And that really is what you're helping people to do is achieve their American dream and create wealth. So talk a little bit about how you're on that mission and crusade to help your clients achieve home ownership and create wealth for them. Yeah. Well, you know, I think people know that like owning a home is a great way to build wealth. But, you know, according to the Federal Reserve, housing wealth is about one half of total household net worth, which is big. You know, you create wealth through appreciation.

You create wealth through paying down a mortgage. And obviously outside of wealth, homeownership has a lot of other really great benefits, just stability and creating community and all of those types of things. So I just have been paying attention to, you know, what are the obstacles that keep people from homeownership? You know, how do we sort of convey that message? because some people who grew up in a home where their parents or grandparents or aunts and uncles did not own a home, they are a lot less likely to become homeowners themselves. So, you know, that's one of the things that we're really passionate about is just teaching people about the process. The process itself can feel very overwhelming if you've never done it and you've never seen anybody in your immediate, you know, family or sphere of influence who has owned a home.

So really just helping people, making sure that we're educating them about what they can do to prepare to be a homeowner in terms of financing, in terms of the process and things like that. And then obviously I'm involved with some nonprofits around town here that also support that through grants and just other ways to help people along the way once they have decided, yes, this is a step that I want to take. Yeah, I want to dive into the nonprofits because I think that that is so powerful is to have that cause behind your service. But talk a little bit about what you were mentioning about educating your clients because I do feel like people feel overwhelmed about the buying process or the selling process because they do it once every five to seven to ten years. You do it every day. So what are some of the ways that you're able to help maybe clarify and make that path really smooth for your clients? Yeah, well, I'm glad you mentioned that because one of the things I was going to mention is the average time that people own a home is now at about 10 years. That's been increasing over the last several years.

And so when you really stop to think, you know, where were you 10 years ago? It's a very long-term goal that you have to have in mind. So to simplify the process for people, we really start with talking about the, their main overall goal? Is it to be near family? Is it to be in a certain school district to make sure that their kids get a good education? Is it to shorten a commute to work? You know, what is really important in terms of finding the right place? And that might sound, you know, like, oh, I want to live close to work. But really deeper down, there is something that is driving that why. I want to be closer to work so that I don't miss my kids baseball practice or, you know,

whatever, whatever the why is. So we really start with that, get people dreaming. You know, this is meant to be a fun process. We want to be enthusiastic about it. And yes, it is kind of stressful when your lender is asking you for a million documents and a ton of details and things like that. but this is a fun process. It's exciting. It's a big milestone for a lot of people. And so get people dreaming, get people excited. And then obviously we do have them talk with a lender because for some people,

they might be ready right away. For others, it might be a two-year process of rebuilding credit and, you know, saving and things like that. And despite, you know, our market and the way it's been over the past few years, There are still lots of opportunities for people to get down payment assistance, to get grants, to get assistance with closing costs and things like that. You do have to dig a little bit for them and just understand how they work. So once we've nailed down, you know, what is possible on the financial front, then letting people know the process for actually buying a home. And we try not to overwhelm people with all of this information right up front.

You know, this is a, it's a sequential order of events. So we, you know, explain, hey, here's how the offer process works, because that's its own process. You find a home. We gather some information. We, you may or may not be competing. What does that look like? You know, how might this play out? And I think really helping to set people's set expectations for people helps everybody to go into it with eyes as well.

open, a lot more confidence. And then obviously throughout the process, it's, you know, I'm always the main point of contact for my client, but I have folks that help me on my team. And we just make sure that we're educating people with emails, with videos, with phone calls, with lots of different touch points to make sure along the way they know that they can contact anybody at any point in time to get just a simple question answered and no question is a dumb question. Yep, because it's important to you and everyone else has had it as well. You said a couple of words I want to key in on that start with the letter D, dreams and documents. And when you can start with that why, like you mentioned about why do you want this home and what is it going to do for you?

And you dig in those layers deep and go, oh, you want to have homeownership because. And it's this big, passionate why. Now that dream is materializing. And then when it comes time to, oh, we got to dig through this and get this document. no this deadline. Now all of a sudden they're drawn toward that dream, not repelled away from it, just going, oh, just forget about it. We'll do it next year. And then it'll never happen. So I like how you put the, you know, sometimes people put the cart before the horse, you know, and it's like, oh, here's all these documents. And people just go, I can't do that.

But they didn't fully articulate the fact that we just need these so that we can get you to where you said you wanted to be. So I really like that approach that you guys take. Yeah. You know, another thing that. I wanted to mention is the community piece of while you're buying a home. So NAR puts out a report every year. It's called the buyer and seller generational trend report. And this is from the National Association of Realtors. And in 2022, 4% of all the buyers were in the Gen Z generation. 30% of that group moved directly from a family member's home into homeownership. So these are people who are not going out and renting a home for five, 10, 15 years before buying. There are people who

go, oh, homeownership, that's an option for me. What does that look like? So in part of our education, you know, with helping people dream, what does that look like? What options exist for you? We do encourage them to talk to the people that they know. Maybe their friend has thought about buying a home as well. And once you sort of are able to witness, oh, they did it, I can do it. You know, that makes it also a lot easier for people to take that first step in order to make it happen. You know, Gen Z, obviously, is they're not the only ones who are buying homes. Those are people really under the age of 24, by the way. Millennials made up 28% of our buyers in 2022.

Gen X was 24%. The largest group was actually baby boomers who made up 39% of all home buyers. And believe it or not, there are still a lot of baby boomers who are first-time buyers. So we really tried to make sure that we are messaging a lot of different folks. It doesn't, we're not only talking to young people who we think might be in the market. Well, those stats are really interesting. The one that stood out to me was the Gen Z's who had never rented before but went right to homeownership because you just know that they're not even used to paying a landlord rent or taking care of trash or HOA or electricity and all the things that go into

renting, much less owning home. So part of you, your guiding in the process and being that trusted advisor will even entail some of those preparatory things to go, hey, here's something to remember. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we got to get the loan and approval and offers and all that. But now you're trying to prepare them for actually homeownership, you know, once they've got the key in their hand. Yes, exactly. Yep. And that's, you know, really we, I don't really think of myself as a salesperson, more of a consultant, because, you know, Like we mentioned before, the average time that someone stays in a home is 10 years now. I mean, I would like to keep in touch with my clients and be a resource for them over 10 years.

You know, I have questions for different professionals, my financial advisor, a CPA, that I just need. I need a trusted professional to be able to call when things come up. And the same thing is true for homeownership. So we have clients reach out to us for referrals for vendors. for questions about maintenance on their home. You know, I have several clients who have moved to Colorado this year and have never dealt with, you know, winterizing a sprinkler system. So what does that look like?

Well, we connect them with someone who can help them and explain why you do that and, I mean, things like that. So we really try to be a resource for people in any, you know, way that we can with regard to homeownership, sometimes that is questions about refinancing rates, you know, dropping your private mortgage insurance. A lot of people don't know about that. And that is something that we really try to help people benefit because they are homeowners and their clients for life to us, not just once every 10 years when they're buying or selling a home. Exactly. Well, let's get back to your work with nonprofits that help the local community support the mission of homeowners.

What does that look like with you guys? Yeah, well, there's a group here in Denver called Project ICU, and they have a campaign called Shared Power. And the goal of shared power is for 2023 is to raise $300,000. That would be for 30 women who would get a $10,000 grant as part of becoming a homeowner. really to be used towards all of the extra things that exist when you buy a home. So it could be they need to paint rooms for their kids or they need to buy appliances that weren't there or making repairs, moving expenses, things like that outside of, you know, the typical loan-related closing costs and down payment.

So, you know, there's a group of lenders, realtors, other professionals who have pledged to raise money for the shared power campaign. And I have put it out to my clients. I've explained to them, you know, why I'm doing this, obviously, as you know, from this interview, I'm a big advocate for homeownership and really helping to close the wealth gap in our local community. So shared power is focused on, you know, the Denver metro area. Women can, it is also for women. We are trying to increase homeownership among women. And again, a lot of these people are folks who are the first in their families to ever own a home or even attempt to own a home. So it's been really great.

We've got, you know, education for them along the way. Just like I mentioned, you know, what is involved? what do they need to do financially? How do we create stability? And it's been really neat to work with, you know, alongside other realtors, other lenders, other professionals who are in the industry overall to help make this dream come true for a lot of women.

I love it. It's just when you can look beyond the transaction and go into the people and create those relationships, it's really huge. Do you guys look to, build your team and bring people on to help you achieve this mission? What does that look like with you, guys? Yeah, you know, we've got a small group at Addison and Maxwell of really professional, committed, experienced realtors. And I think we'd like to keep it, you know, small.

We're not trying to grow into, you know, a huge company. But really, we're really, we're We are always looking to grow our team with people that are a values fit and who are, you know, want more than just a job. This industry and being a realtor can create a phenomenal lifestyle for people. Yes, it can be a lot of work, but it can also be really rewarding. And, you know, that includes working with people who are like-minded, who have. a deeper why than, you know, being very transactional focused. And so, yeah, we, we are always, you know, welcoming, growing the team with folks that are, you know, on that same path, are passionate about, you know, personal growth, helping their communities, and really working in a

relational way with clients. Yeah. And I think that's the, if we can put air quotes around the relational way. You know, it's not going to that closing. It's going to that opening up of a relationship because, like you said, we want to be there as a resource and help to serve your clients now 10 years from now, five years from now. So that's really spectacular. So I think that the way that you guys just lay out how you work with your clients is just amazing. And if someone is listening to this, wanting to learn more about becoming a homeowner or even joining your team, what's the best way that they can learn more and then also reach out and connect with you, Shelly?

Yeah, they can visit our website. It is www.addison maxwell.com. They can also call me directly. I'm very accessible and would love to have a conversation with anybody. My phone number is 303-667-3335. And yeah, I would love to chat with anybody. other realtors in the industry, professionals who would like to hear more about shared power or homeowners, buyers or sellers who are thinking about making a move.

Excellent. Well, Shelley, thank you so much for coming on today. It's been a real pleasure talking with you. You as well. Thank you so much. Thank you for listening to the Elite Real Estate Leaders podcast, brought to you by Trailstone Insurance Group. To learn more about the topics mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes, visit www.org.com.com.