Business Innovators Radio - The Power of Passion in Real Estate: A Conversation with Jennifer Taylor

Episode Date: June 16, 2023

In this episode of Agents Lounge, Nathan Gaylor and Francisco Bermudez Jr. interview Jennifer Taylor, a real estate agent with EXP Realty. Taylor shares her journey from military service to real estate, and how a bad experience as a first-time homebuyer inspired her to become an agent.Taylor emphasizes the importance of communication in real estate, citing it as her pet peeve and a crucial aspect of providing a positive experience for clients. She discusses the various ways she communicates with clients, including via text, phone call, and email, and stresses the importance of being responsive and available.The hosts and Taylor also discuss the challenges of the current real estate market, including low inventory and high demand, and how agents can adapt to these conditions. Taylor shares her strategies for finding properties for her clients and staying up-to-date on market trends.In addition, Taylor discusses the benefits of working with a team and how it can improve the client experience. She also shares her thoughts on the future of real estate, including the potential impact of technology and the importance of staying adaptable.This episode provides valuable insights into the world of real estate and the importance of communication in providing a positive experience for clients. Whether you’re a seasoned agent or just starting out, there’s something to learn from this engaging and informative conversation.About Jennifer Taylor:Born and raised in a busy household, Jenn learned how to juggle her responsibilities early on. As a dedicated mom and fitness enthusiast, she wakes up as early as 4 AM to work out and take care of her kids. Jenn takes her clients seriously, responding to texts and emails promptly, drawing from her extensive career in the military where she learned the value of discipline and hard work.https://sa.exprealty.com/agents/259503/Jennifer+TaylorAbout The Show Sponsor:The Agents Lounge Podcast is proudly sponsored by Airtegrity Comfort Solutions, your trusted HVAC experts in San Antonio, TX. With a commitment to exceptional service and top-notch comfort, Airtegrity is dedicated to keeping your home or business cool in the scorching Texas heat.Visit their website at [https://airtegritycs.com/](https://airtegritycs.com/) to discover the range of services they offer. From professional air conditioning installations to reliable repairs and maintenance, Airtegrity has you covered. Their team of skilled technicians is equipped with the knowledge and expertise to handle all your HVAC needs efficiently and effectively.Whether you’re looking for a new system installation, need repairs, or want to schedule routine maintenance to ensure your HVAC system is running smoothly, Airtegrity Comfort Solutions is just a phone call away. Reach out to them at 210-446-0105, and their friendly staff will be ready to assist you.Experience the comfort and peace of mind that comes with Airtegrity’s exceptional HVAC solutions. Trust their reliable service and enjoy the benefits of a well-functioning heating and cooling system. Visit their website or call them today to schedule your next HVAC service. Airtegrity Comfort Solutions, your go-to HVAC experts in San Antonio, TX.Agents Lounge Podcasthttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/turbopassusa-podcast/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-power-of-passion-in-real-estate-a-conversation-with-jennifer-taylor

Welcome to the Agents Lounge podcast, where we talk all things real estate with the industry's top performers. Join us as we dive into the inspiring journeys of successful agents and uncover the secrets to their success. Whether you're a seasoned agent or just starting out, we got the tips and tricks to help you navigate the world of real estate. Brought to you by Eritory Comfort Solutions. So grab a seat and join us in the Agents Lounge. Welcome back to episode number five of Agents Lounge podcast. I'm your host, Nathan Gaylor with Aerategrity Comfort Solutions, company by Mr. Nate Kier with True Blue, specializing in premium house care. Co-host, Francisco Bermuda's Jr.

Howdy? How's everyone doing? Good, Nathan, yeah. Fantastic. Yeah, and we'd like to welcome our guest today, Jennifer Taylor with EXP Realty. How's it going? Fantastic. Yeah, cool.

So, yeah, Jennifer Taylor with EXP Realty. welcome. Thank you. All right. So, yeah, it's okay to be nervous if it's a new thing for you. So just tell me a random question here. If you could pick a superpower for a day, what would it be in why? Ooh.

Probably reading somebody's minds. Why is that? Because when you go into a room or you approach people, you never really know what they're thinking. So I would love to be able to know exactly what somebody's thinking. Right. Or if somebody, like, for a client of yours, maybe, you could be like, are they wasting my time? Exactly. I was literally fixing to say the exact same thing. Like, are we just sitting here shopping, window shopping, or are we legit fixing to buy a house? Yeah. I like that. That's one I haven't heard. So that's good. Most people go with flying, which, I mean, it's cool, but reading minds is

definitely practical for sure. Yeah. I'd much rather read your mind. It's like being a fly on the wall. Like, I want to see what's going on. Yeah. Right. Yeah. All right. So just to get started, tell us a little bit about your background.

How would you do before you got into the realty business? And so I was in the military. Yeah. Retired 28 years. So that's how I started off. And so in 2012, we bought our first house in San Antonio. And it was not the best experience. Why?

You know, it just wasn't the best experience. As a first time homebuyer, it was new to me. And just a lot of ups and downs. And so then it was like, you know what? I think this is what I want to do. And I think that not necessarily I can do a better job than somebody else, I just think I can give a better experience. I got you.

And so it became my passion. And so this is what I knew I wanted to do. And I did IT in the military. I have a master's degree in IT, top secret clearance. This is what I, and, you know, money to be made when you retire, but no desire to do it. Like control, out delete, call somebody else. So my passion is real estate. I knew that's what I was going to do.

I got my license. I did it part time while I was still in the military. Yeah. And then when I retired, full time, full throttle, full steam ahead, and here I am. Yeah, so you kind of ease your way into it a little bit there. Starting part-time? Yes. Okay. So just go back a little bit. What do you pull from your personal bad experience? And how do you pull that into what your game is?

So communication is my pet peeve. Good communication is a pet peeve? No, bad communication is a pet peeve. So I think communication is the forefront of your business practices. If you don't have communication and you don't provide that to your business practice and your clients and you can't make time to respond via text, phone call, email, then your business model is trash. And so I learned that, you know, in my military career and in really, estate, you know, and clients just want to know that, hey, you can be busy, you're human,

you have a life, but at the same time, they just want to know that you're still there for them. Right. And so you have to be able to communicate. And if you lack communication and you lack those skills, then I just feel like you can't. And I learned that when I was buying my house. Yeah. And if you cannot respond, then we have problems.

And I agree with her because the first one that I bought, I just, you know, I was. We got a realtor that was referred to us by a friend that he didn't even know the realtor. He just called. He's like, hey, call this guy. He's a realtor. So we ended up calling him. And he didn't show us any of the houses we wanted to see. Nothing was on our budget.

Everything was like nothing that we told him to that we wanted to buy. He didn't show us none of that. Really? And then we asked our friends like, hey, where do you know this realtor? He's like, oh, no, I've never. the business with me. He just goes to my church. What about you, Nate? You have anything like that? No, I think communication is key. I know in our business is the same thing, right?

We live in an instant culture right now where everybody wants something very, very quickly. So you have to be able to respond, even if it's not like the answer they want or you can't give them the full answer right now, but you still have to be available to people. And so, yeah, that's a great thing that focus your business on because we see it day in and day out. and I'm sure you guys do at integrity. Oh, yeah, for sure. That, like, begs the next question, though, like setting boundaries is essential to whether,

I mean, you'll just go crazy if you're always, your phone is attached to you, which it almost has to be all the time, but how do we set boundaries? Like, personally, like, yeah, I know that if you value communication, where do you draw, or do you draw a line anywhere, or is your phone just always on? So my phone is always on.

However, it goes on silent mode at 9 p.m. Nine. But I also get up at 4 a.m. because I work out and then get the kid and stuff like that. So I'm very petty as well. So if I have a client that likes to message at 2 a.m. in the morning, they will get a response at 4 a.m. So even though it didn't wake me up at 2 a.m. But no, I'll respond to emails. I'll respond to texts. But if they call me and I'm not able to respond, what are the case may be, I'll send them a text.

hey, I'll call you back in XYZ. But they'll always get a response. But if they're texting or calling in the middle of the night, they're not going to get a response. It's just not realistic. If I'm with my... If they're texting at 11 p.m. They're not going to get a response.

But they'll get a response the next morning at 5 a.m. Yeah, right. You know. That makes sense. But at the same time, if I'm with family or if I'm with my kids, what are the case may be, if they call, I will send them a text and say, hey, I'm, you know, eating dinner.

I'm with the family, what are the case may be. I'll call you back in an hour. But I'll always respond one way or the other. I'm not going to walk away from my kids and call them. Unless they have like a 911. You know, if there's something like, hey, something going on, then, okay, I will. However, I'm not going to break away from my family. Because those are the same boundaries when I was in the military.

My kids and family sacrificed a lot for the military career. And those are not things I'm going to do in my, second half of my life. And so those are the boundaries I said and promises that I made to my kids. But at the same time, you have to make the clients feel just as important as everybody else because they want to feel like they're a priority as well. And that's where the communication comes in play. Like you have to still communicate. You can't just ignore the phone call because you're with family or you're, you know, XYZ. So at the same time, I will respond. But I'm not going to just be like, oh, let me get up from the dinner table and answer this phone call. I'm not going to do that.

Yeah. I've gotten a similar answer to that before, but they are more adamant on like, you know, if it's, if I'm sitting down, I'm not, my phone's not going to, I'm not going to look at it. Like, until whatever is, you know, yeah. But so, yeah, communication always, you're always responding, letting people know. Yeah. Same with our business, right? You want a service business, you're going to get hit up. I mean, I've got it ended up at Saturday at 11 p.m. Yeah. For issues, and it's like, okay, I'm not going to take that call. Right.

Yeah. So if people text me, okay, I'll respond to the text in that day, right? Something like that, or I respond at the end of the day some text. But calls to me are like the border. They're the line in the sand. Like you said, you're with your family. I'm not taking a call. Yeah.

But yeah, if you text me, I'll respond to your text. I'm not going to just ignore it. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. So you said you started part-time, right? Where did your, like, original client base come from? How did that look?

Like, how did you present yourself as just like, as a part-time thing? Did you do, like, networking groups? Was it just like word of mouth? Word of mouth. And so I started off with Century 21 North Side. And so they did, like, lead generation there. Obviously, I was in the military. So people knew, you know, again, my sphere, word of mouth.

I did some marketing. But mostly that. That's probably the best connection you could have in San Antonio, I would imagine, is just having the military background. You could almost sell it right there just on that with a lot of clients, I imagine. So can you name a time particularly like you went above and beyond to get a good deal for one of your clients? I don't think there's any particular time. I think every time you try to negotiate the best deal for your clients.

You know, only I feel like now we're really able to do the best because I probably worked 99% with buyers. In the past two years, it sucked to be a buyer's agent because sellers were running the world. only now has the tables turned and buyers agents are more in control or I shouldn't say buyers agents the buyer is more in control and they're able to negotiate more and we're able to negotiate closing costs and we're able to negotiate the price and we can you know we have more things in our favor so we're definitely able to do a lot more so I can't really necessarily say oh just one client you know we're able to like because I feel like you know each every deal that we do, I'm always, I always treat like it's my money. And I tell my clients that all

the time. Like, I'm never going to go into a deal and pretend like I just have your money and we're going to just, you know, while out. It's always going to be like, it's my money and we're going to treat it because I'm very frugal. And I'm always looking for coupons and I'm trying to save money at every corner I can. And that's how I'm going to treat your money. And I just, I think they appreciate that. And that's how we approach every deal. Yeah. Jennifer, and you're a first military agent. I'm very interested to figure out, like, how is that transition from the military into becoming an agent?

How do you feel it has helped you or prepared you for your current job? So I feel like I'm very disciplined and I'm very, I have routines in place. And so I have people ask me all the time. So I don't, I'm solo in everything I do. Like, I don't have. admin assistant. I tried out a transaction coordinator one time. I'm very OCD and I'm very... Yeah, so like the minute that you don't do something that is like...

Yeah, and I micromanage a lot and I have to follow up on everything I do. So everything I do I have a process for. And so I literally do everything myself. And so I do believe my military career prepared me for that. And I have ritual. for everything, like from the time I wake up to the time I go to bed. And so I do believe my career prepared me for that. And I'm the top producing EXP agent

in San Antonio. And so, but I don't have any, I don't have a team. I do that myself. And so I contribute that to my military career. That is so cool because like the discipline is very difficult, especially like waking up

early. Like there's days where I don't want to go to the gym and I'm going to slip like I'll just postpone it to another time of the day or I'll postpone it a week or a couple of days but yeah or if I don't want to do something like like having the discipline to do it because you're like okay I'm not just going to do it today I'll push it yeah like getting up at 4 a.m. for the gym not me maybe I'll be lucky to make it by six I think that's that's something you're taught at the military right yeah yeah Do people just get up and you're ready for it? Yeah.

I mean, you have to. It's just, it's something that's just instilled in you and you just continue to do it. I mean, don't get me wrong. There's days. I'm like, gosh, like, do I want to do this? Or do I even feel like dealing with people today? Like I tell them, I'm like, some days I'm like, I don't even know if I'm a people person. But, you know, it's a joke, but, but, you know, because there's people that are just not friendly and they're just, you're like, why do you even come outside today?

Because you're just not nice. But you're always a reflection of your clients. So you always have to put on the best attitude because I can't go and be ugly just somebody because then I'm a reflection of whoever I'm representing. And so I don't want to be nasty and give that same negative energy somebody's given to me because then it may affect my client or it may affect the deal that we're trying to, you know, negotiate. So I always have to remind myself like, I really want to throat punch you right now. but I can't.

So let me just smile and out of the professional realm. Like you take that home. Like it's just, it's a big circle. It's not good. Exactly. And I'm interested to know, especially from the military background,

do you work with a lot of military? Are those a lot of your customers? It is. Probably 99% of my clients are military, retired veterans. So how does that help you? Like, how does, if somebody comes from San Antonio,

relocates, like, what would be the difference between having an agent that's a former military versus somebody that is not? So there's not, during the seller's frenzy, it was my pet pee because there was a lot of people that were not well-versed in VA loans. So, you know, they were directing their clients not to accept VA offers, which made me very upset because VA loans are one of the top closed loans there are. And but because of people's ignorance to the loans, they just would tell their sellers don't accept them. And so, but now people are a little bit more educated in the process.

And as long as you're educating and you know about VA loans and what they bring to the table, then there's not a problem. But we still have some people that just refuse to get educated on them. And that part is frustrating. And so when you're not educated, whether it be a VA loan, FHA conventional, whatever the case may be, if you don't educate yourself and become a subject matter expert in your business, then you put those biases onto your client, and then it just messes up the entire deal.

And I'm sure you're familiarized with the benefits that some other penalties will get, right? Yeah. Yeah, because, of course, I get those same benefits. So it's a huge advantage for you. Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. So it's my favorite question is, It's just like, what is it?

What is your strategy for dealing with difficult clients or uncooperative customers? Ooh. So, like, in what aspect? Maybe they're just high demand. Maybe everything that you're showing them is just like, it's something that they described, but then maybe, like, you get there, you show it to them. They're just like. So are we talking about, like, people that have champagne taste, but beer budgets?

Are we talking about? Yeah, maybe that's... Right, right. So, honestly... I went to Lalear, but we're looking like Milwaukee's best. Yeah, gosh, you're like I'm dealing with those right now. No, I think you literally have to have full transparency and communications with them. Because you're going to come across.

You're going to have amazing people that are like super easy, peasy. Like, first house they see. They're like, this is it. Let's make an offer. And then you're going to have clients. that you've seen 105 houses and none of them are the right house. But I think patience is a virtue

and you have to remember that it's a big purchase and not everybody is going to be the same. And regardless, you just always have to remember to be patient. And you can be frustrated and take those frustrations home, but you always have to put yourself in their shoes. And you can have conversations with them And then at some point, you're going to have to have realistic conversations to be like, look, you have to have an 80% solution.

Nothing is ever going to be 100%. But if we can get to 80%, and then when you break down those conversations, normally you can kind of ingrain that into them. And, you know, if it's cosmetic, then we hire handymans. And they fix it and get you to the 100%. If it's not structural, then we're good. If it's purple paint, we can paint that. You know, if it's a light fixture, we can replace that. Again, we're looking for 80%.

That's what we're looking for. And if you can make them visualize, because people are visual, that's... Almost. Yeah, always. We're visual. So if you can get them into that mindset of, you know, get out of, you know, your Pinterest and your HGTV, you know, things that you've been watching and, you know, looking for, then normally... Those are some good memes.

When they make fun of the TV shows, they're like... Exactly. Normally you can get them to kind of like, okay, let's come back to the real world. You can normally get them focused. And then there's going to be some clients that, you know what? Sometimes you just got to be like, I don't think this is going to work out. Right. We have a handyman here. So I'm pretty sure, how do you hope them get to 80%? Or 100%? Yeah. You get from 80 to 100? Yeah. Oh, yeah. There's a lot of stuff you can do. I mean, there's paint, like you said, and there's repairs around the house. house. There's, you know, new sailing fans, new whatever. So we can definitely, definitely help them get there. But I had the question. So you were talking about visual and I was talking to an agent, I think it was yesterday actually, and he's like, I just sold a house without the people even

looking at it. They just ended the pictures. And I was just curious if you'd ever run into that where you had a client. Probably 50% of my clients buy houses sight unseen. Really? Wow. That's a common thing then. It is. So because I deal with so many military, actually I have a client, we just closed on a house last week. They're in Japan right now. I have a client that's in Kansas. They are closing mobile notary in two hours. So is that common in the military? It is very, it's very common. It's very common. It's very common. But there's ways to go around it. They're not looking at just pictures. Like I don't just show them pictures. Like we're doing we're doing FaceTime. WhatsApp. I have WhatsApp for all my overseas clients. clients. I do videos. We do neighborhood tours. So we do as much virtual. Like, they can't touch, feel, smell, but I mean, I'm zooming in. We're doing, we're still doing the inspections. We're still doing everything as if, as personal as we can possibly make it. So, but yeah, I deal with a lot of out of country, out of states, out of, you know, out of everywhere.

That is so cool. Yeah. I could really be. buy a pair of pants on Amazon. I don't try them on. I'm like, I'm not going to buy it. Yeah. So in that instance, when we were talking about communication, so for like my clients that just closed in Japan, it's a 14-hour time difference. So now for them at 2 o'clock in the morning, I was answering calls and texts because

of the time difference. So those are exception to the rules. Now, if you're here in San Antonio, I'm not answering your call at 2 o'clock in the morning. But for them, I would be available for them for 24 hours a day. I was available for them because, you're not. It's such an unique experience, and they're buying a house site unseen. They're in Japan.

We're in a different time zone. You know, for them, you have to make everything as easy and as less stressful as you possibly can. Do you get nervous sometimes? Absolutely. Yeah. And you're like, do you really like it? Do you like it? What do you think?

Absolutely. Because, you know, it's your biggest fear. Like what happens if they come in and be like, this is not what I thought it was going to be. Because then what do you do? Like, it's yours. In six months, we can look at selling it. Like, I don't, you know, that would be my, I wouldn't be able to sleep if somebody did that. If they came in the house and they hated it, I don't know what I would do.

I have, I have not. Yeah, I have not ran into that. You know, we, like I said, I do as much video and talking. And the good thing is we do have a lot of technology now that we didn't have, you know, even 10 years ago. Right. really helped. And I have had clients that, like, hey, I want to make an offer. And I'm like, not with me.

Not until we see it or not until we do a video tour. And not until we do this. Like, I will not allow anybody. Yeah, because posting pictures can be very deceiving. And they are. And I've had clients go into a house and be like, I'm like, photography at its best. Like, this is what we call marketing. Yeah.

Yeah. It's always, the grass is always super green. Yes. And the postings are like, wait a second, this is St. Antonio. Like, you only have green grass for like one month a year. Yeah. Yeah.

Right. Doom scrolling on Zillow is something dangerous. It is, it is. So that's kind of a decent segue into what my next question I wanted to ask you. Have you ever faced any ethical dilemmas in your career in real estate? And how did you handle them? Well, you've certainly faced them over here. I'm sure Nate has to.

But yeah, no pressure. Possibly I'm sure I have. I feel like everybody has. I can't think of any one. specific thing, but I feel like I'm never going to compromise my name, my reputation, or my license. So I'm never going to cross a bridge that's going to put myself into jeopardy or my clients. So I definitely can't say I haven't faced any ethical dilemmas, but I can't think of like, oh yeah, this is a prime example. Yeah. Now, we had one that was like, oh man, they were worried about the

neighbors like they like the neighborhood but then they saw like a different ethnicity of neighbors and they were like uh no and so like he had to he had to draw a line in the sand i mean like yeah i'm not gonna work with you know like something like that i don't know if you have anything but oh wow i was yeah digging for something maybe i don't i don't know if you have had a hard client like that before no not nothing with ethnicity um oh not yeah just yeah no yeah yeah um no not that i um no not that i That's good. That sounds like you've had a decent experience. I mean, with your customers.

Yeah, I just throw punch them. No, I'm just joking. Just go for the throat. Just go for the throat. So do you have any, like, major benefits you worked for, what did you say, like, when you first started part-time? What company was that for? Century 21. Century 21.

Are there any benefits that kind of outshine other brokerages with E.X. that you could maybe give our listeners, like what's a pro that you've had working for and with EXP? So I love EXP, and I'm sure all brokerages have their pros and cons. But for me, the reason why I like EXP is because it's cloud-based. And so I work out of my house and everything's virtual. And that is what works for me. So after being in the military for 28 years,

having to go very, you know, rigid routines. Everything has to be tangible, yeah. Right. And so with EXP, I come and go as I please, as long as I follow the rules, as long as I do what I'm supposed to do in accordance with, you know, Trek and Sabre and my brokerage.

Yeah. And they don't mess with me. I don't mess with them. It's a beautiful relationship. And I love it. And I love it. And I don't have to throw punch anyway. And I don't have to throw punches.

You know, so it works beautifully for me because it's very flexibly. I can take my kids to school. I can pick my kids up unless they have to ride the bus and then they get mad at me because they ride the bus, you know, because it's, you know, heaven forbid, you have to ride the bus. Oh, yeah. But it's a beautiful relationship and, you know, it works wonders for me. Yeah, for more independent people that, yeah, you can manage yourself your time. Right. And it doesn't work for everybody and that's fine. And I think, you know, when you're in real estate, you have to find what. works and fits for you.

Not every brokerage is going to, you know, EXP won't work for everybody because of the independence that it provides. You have to have a certain amount of discipline, I would imagine. Right, right. So it works for some people. It doesn't work for everybody. And that's fine. And I think, you know, there's a lot of debates out there for brokerages,

but there's not one shoe fits for all and you have to find what works for you. And that's perfect. Like, try out 10 different brokerages. you have to, you know, and find out which one works for you. Yeah, exactly. You know, we can sit here and have conversations all day and I can sit here and tell you, hey, this works for me. And then you go out and try exactly what I'm doing. And you're like, this is not it. Yeah, right. A lot of people do value that kind of like team building or just that environment, like having that interaction. Yeah. And that's what we had talked. We talked about that earlier. Like, they want to go into an office

and have that team unity. And that's perfect. And that works for somebody. And like for me, it doesn't. I don't want somebody to tell me, hey, there's a team meeting at 9 a.m. Because I'm probably not going to be there. And then I'm going to get in trouble.

And I don't want that. Yeah. So you must be really good at teaching yourself new things too, right? Because I know realtors, they always have to go through new training. It seems like for whatever things are changing. And there's constant stuff coming out. There's Sabre is really good at sending out stuff. Our brokerage has, we call it, EXP World.

There's a ton of things. training on there. So there's always things available. You know, champions real estate school, they always have stuff online for us to learn. I mean, there's a gazillion things out there. You just have to go out there and do it. So as long as you have, you know, the ability to go out there and get it and do it. And then I'm part of this great little chat group, you know, with these other real estate agents. And we're constantly feeding each other information as well. So, you know, and there's Facebook groups out there with realtors. And they're always posting information as well. So there's an abundance of information out there.

So if you want it, you can get it. It's just doing it. Yeah, for sure. And I would like to circle back to the question where you mentioned that you were helping your clients from another country, right? But nowadays, like people, I've seen that there's some on TV, they want me to sell. I always get like ads or commercials to sew the house or to buy a house online, like if it was an Amazon. But to me, it's like, how am I going to buy something if I'm not even a pro or I don't even know what to look for? And I feel like it's very deceiving for people that want to buy a home that they're advertising to them.

And people believe that just because they saw an ad, they can buy it online. And how do you, and I know when you were helping your clients, there was a lot of things that was involved to help them make that purchase rather than them just going online and trying to figure out, okay, I think I want this house. Oh, man. That's a tough one just because, like. But I feel like she brings a lot of value because there was, like, as a consumer, I'm like, she has all this trainings. She has a lot of, um, yeah. I mean, she knows the area. I mean, yeah, I would definitely say I always have a trained realtor.

You know, there's a lot of stuff going on, especially in San Antonio, because I feel like people, there's a lot of scams going on in San Antonio. You'll see a lot of it in the rental arena. Yes, there's a lot, a lot of scams going on with the rental. People will find rentals on the internet, and they'll have them submit. in application fees and deposits and it's not even a house that's even available. So I will always say it is. It is. So you'll see a lot of, a lot of scams.

So I will always say get a realtor even for a rental. It's not going to cost you anything. But it avoids the scams because realtors have access to the MLS. They'll know if it's a legit rental. But there's so many scams. And the same thing with home buying. Because we do, we can do that. interaction face-to-face, we can go out there and do all those tours, we have the experience.

There's just so many benefits and, you know, the ones that actually have dealt with overseas clients and out-of-state clients, they're going to go out there and do and give the best experience of home buying and make sure they're vetted, make sure they're pre-approved, make sure it's a real client, not somebody, because I'll get messages on WhatsApp all the time, talk about, hey, I'm looking for a house. Oh, yeah. You know, 1.5 million, I'll be like, block. Like, when I'm starting. That's one that you're not going to respond to.

Yeah, exactly. So, but I mean, it's... That's pretty wild, though, just to hear it because that's something I haven't really thought about, getting, like, kind of catfish by, uh, for a rental or some... It's bad. Yeah. So get a professional. Get a professional.

Yeah, everyone listening. Definitely consult with a realtor. You've always got to have your eyes out there. There's scammers everywhere. Everywhere. I just put a car up for sale. and instantly I got these responses like, oh, I'd love to come look at it.

Can you send me the Carfax? Oh, yeah. No, you can get your own Carfax. I'll just go to this website, fill out the form. Click on this link. It's only $25 and then it'll send it to me. I'm like, okay, I know what this is, right? Yeah.

It's bad. It is so bad out there. Yeah. It's the same in our industry. Like, people that will give you a quote online, but then they show up to the house and it's, oh, it's going to be extra because it's an, it's closet. We need to run this. We need to do this. Like, by the time you, um, you end up

finishing the project, it ended up costing them more. But, those are the worst calls. Like, I just got a text. It was like, uh, how much for like a four ton? I'm like, uh, 15th or two or whatever. I'm like, uh, I mean, it's a ballpark, really, like, without looking, actually, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I don't like answering any of that stuff. I don't do it, actually. I just don't give people a number. I'm like, look, I need to at least have some photos. We need to have some dialogue before I'm going to give you any number. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And that's probably the most important. And that's why I said I like hook it up with y'all. And I love air tagging it because my first conversations with y'all was amazing. And in our industry, it is so important to have trusted vendors and trusted people that we can call and

put our clients in touch with because it is like the words to say, hey, I have this person. And then they call that person. And it turns out to be an epic failure. And then they're calling us and being like, hey, da, da, da, da, da. And I'm like, it's kind of like Frank's story with the realtor from your friend that they recommended. Yeah.

So it's like it's invaluable for us to have trusted circles with people that we can say something goes wrong or, you know, an inspection goes wrong or whatever the case may be. Like, nope, don't even worry about it. Here's this person. Trust me. I've worked with them. They're amazing. They're trustworthy. Right.

You know, and you just give them the phone numbers and, you know, they go off and running. Or especially if they close on a house and then two weeks later, something goes wrong. And you're like, don't worry about it. I have a person. Call them. You know, so it's like there's no better thing to have a trusted circle of people that you can trust. Yeah, yeah. And it sets a standard too.

So even if like Nate or we end up doing something different, we're not around anymore, it sets a bar. Right. So somebody else comes in and they're not cutting it with like, like. Yeah. Yeah, it kind of just sets expectations. Right. Somebody that's worked with a crappy realtor before. So it's good to have that circle for sure.

Right. And the accountability as well is like, if something goes wrong, like, you've got to respond to her. Yeah, right. Exactly. We had that situation with Holden roofing. So even though, like, it wasn't perfect, like, the way it was dealt with. Like, at the end of the day, we had accountability. I knew who to talk to.

But we don't have to. get into that site. Do you have anything else? You want to throw in there? I'm not trying to like interrogate you too much here. No, this wasn't bad at all, actually. I was like...

Yeah, you did well. So that'll actually wrap it up for episode five. Jennifer, thank you so much for taking the time to come here and chat with us. Nate, always a pleasure. True Blue, handyman. Give him a call.

Absolutely. Nate and Nate and Nate. I know, I love it. I love it. You got you all covered. That sounds like a TV show, honestly. All right, but thank you all for tuning in. We'll see you all next week.

Thank you. Thank you, guys. You've been listening to the Agents Lounge Podcast, brought to you by Ayrtegrity Comfort Solutions. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or to listen to past episodes, please visit Agentsloungepodcast.com.