KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Ashley Houseman

Episode Date: May 24, 2024

Right now, I still feel like this area, so this mentioned that Charlotte, Sarasota, Desota counties, I still feel like this is one of the best kept secrets in Florida. There's still so much room for opportunity and building. There is so much new construction. I mean, I got my start in new construction almost 18 years ago, and still, like, it's just, there's so much opportunity with, like, the pricing and the cost of living and this. You're listening to the Real Estate Sessions podcast, and I'm your host, Bill Risser, Executive Vice President's strategic partnerships with Rate My Agent, a digital marketing platform designed to help great agents harness the power of verified reviews.

For more information, head on over to Rate Myagent.com. Listen in as I interview industry leaders and get their stories and journeys to the world of real estate. Hi, everybody. Welcome to episode 326 of the Real Estate Sessions podcast. Please pardon my voice. This is, I'll call it conference voice. I had the two-week trip to, Australia. I've been to three conferences in August after I got back and I've got two more coming up in August. So I'm just a little worn out, but having a great time learning a lot and helping people. And today you're going to learn a lot too and find out how to help people from Ashley Hausman. I met Ashley at Inman. She's one of their newest ambassadors. She's been there for a couple of years doing this. And she lives south of me just south of here in the Punta Gorda, Northport area right on the Gulf Coast. and we're going to have a great time talking to her about her business and how she does what she does.

So let's get this thing started. Ashley, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having me. It is going to be a lot of fun because, you know how I know that, Ashley? Because you are a lot of fun. Oh, thanks. I met you. You've just completed, I mean, you've been an ambassador for a while now, right?

You've completed a few admin ambassadorships. And for me, it's really the majority of the guests on this show come from either an Iman event, being an ambassador myself, connecting with people, which is what Iman connects all about. And now I've got you on the show the same way, right? Because that's how we met. Same way. I think we bonded at Rate My Agent when we did that little selfie story. That's right. That's right.

Hey, nice meeting you. Let's do this. Yeah. I know how it's helped me. It's really open doors, made better relationships for me. Talk about how that being a part of the immigrant world has helped you. So I've been watching the inman world from afar for many, many years. I've always had a desire to kind of jump into it.

And during COVID, when Laura started doing the happy hours, I got a chance to really get to know people online. And then I got really involved and became an ambassador about two years ago. I just, you know, New York was my first in person, connect. and can't wait for, you know, coming up again in January. And then also we just had Vegas last week, which is amazing. And gosh, the people. Like, meeting the people online is great, but then meeting everyone in person is just phenomenal.

Like, I am such a, you know, relationship person and connector and, you know, friends for life kind of thing. And just, you know, being able to call up somebody in Canada or Australia or somewhere and just to be able to connect and learn. and it's been phenomenal. And also, I've always felt that inman is on the forefront of everything new in the industry, you know, that comes up. And so I've always, you know, like love that and respect that and, you know, what's new.

And so I've, you know, being able to go, especially going in person and meaning with vendors and sponsors of the event, I've been able to implement different services into my business here that sets me apart from all the agents in my area. I offer Homeward and Curbio, and I could go on for all the different sponsors that I've met over the last couple of years as an ambassador. And I've been able to utilize those services and really set myself apart and add value. Like my value proposition is just phenomenal here because I just offer things that other agents can't. That's absolutely what you should be doing, taking advantage of the opportunities that being an ambassador presents. I love that.

I love it. You're a native Floridian, which is like almost unheard of. That's crackers. Yeah, let's talk about it. You currently live in Sarasota County on the Gulf Coast. Yes, sir. And let's talk about, first of all, I ask this question a lot, but I think you'll have a great take on it.

What would be the biggest misconception that people have about Florida? Oh, that's great. The national news? We have like the craziest, like, things that happen. Everyone thinks that, I don't know. I can't even think of some of the stuff that I hear from my friends all over. So bizarre. And, you know, that we just deal with hurricanes multiple times a year, which we don't.

You know, growing up as a native Floridian, when we had hurricane days in school, we were so excited. Because usually that meant it was going to be a perfect beach day or it was, you know, hurricane party at my house. So we were never really, you know, afraid of those. Other than Hurricane Charlie, I've lived in Florida almost 40 years of my life. and we've only really had one that we've truly devastated our area. And then in the long run, ended up being a blessing in disguise for our area. So, but yeah, love being a native 30 and I always joke that I'll never move up north.

And for me, up north is north of Tampa. That's great. Yeah, there's no Ocala in your future is what you're saying. I'll go write some courses and come home. Okay, gotcha. Yeah, you mentioned Hurricane Charlie. That was 2005, right? Do I have that right?

2004. Yeah, August 13th. We just had our anniversary. Yep. Wow. And there was a series of storms that year. It was just kind of like unbelievable. Like every other week there was something coming up the coast.

There was. It was, oh my gosh, I think that was Francis and Jean. And it's funny. Well, not really funny, but I was in college when that happened. And so when Hurricane, I had already moved in. I'd been gone for a couple of days because I always move over early. One, because of the college athlete. And two, I worked for the football team.

So I always had to go early for training camp. But having to watch Hurricane Charlie from the news was just awful and unbearable, especially since my whole family was home. But then, of course, once all the other hurricanes started coming up, they were evacuating campus. And I had to drive two and a half hours home to a house that had no electricity, no power, and a cribbyo. With multiple teammates, by the way.

I had teammates from all over the world. So I would have all my teammates. and we'd just be camping out in my, you know, non-air-conditioned house. Perfect. This is, I came to Florida for this. Yeah. We're going to talk about, we're going to talk about you as an owl shortly, but I want to, I want to start with this. You have a really, I mean, anyone that follows Ashley online, well, if you don't, you're listening, you should.

You have this amazing family. You and your husband have three boys, which is, you know, got to be just a ton of fun and a ton of work. Florida has such a unique lifestyle. compared to a lot of other parts of the country, especially when you're as close to the water as we are, right? Talk about watching those kids grow up, you know, and then you must be flashing back to what you, to, to you know, to you're on track there? Oh, absolutely. Between, you know, going to my favorite beaches and, you know, teaching the boys to fish, like something that we did every weekend growing up, you know, that's one of the beautiful things about living on the Gulf Coast. And I'm sure you can agree because you're just up the road for me.

but I always joke that it's like the best West Coast. I say West Coast and people think California. I'm like, no, the best West Coast, which is, you know, Florida. Because the golf is just so beautiful. The beaches are amazing. The fishing is amazing. And just growing up and, you know, doing the same things that I did growing up with my children is awesome. But I think more than anything is just the theme parks between Bush Gardens and Disney.

I finally broke down, bought annual passes for the boys. I have photos from when I would like two or three years old from Disney, like that I've recreated with my children. And it's just, it's just amazing. Yeah. Yeah, that's cool. I love it. I love it. You know I chatted at in a minute.

I need to talk about you as a Florida Atlantic University owl. Let's share with everyone. You mentioned you're an athlete. Let's talk about what got you to FAU and what was the sport that helped pave the way. So I was actually on my way to University of Miami for a tryout for golf. I thought I was going to be a hurricane. And the coach had a heart attack that day. And the AD sent me to FAU on a whim because I was already on the East Coast.

And met the golf coach who was also Joan Joyce. Oh gosh, she was such an amazing woman, who was also the softball coach. And met her, walked out to the softball field, met her, talked about golf. a little bit and then realized wow this place is beautiful and the north entrance of school is half mile at den ends at the beach oh and my best friend goes here so this is great so it's not that kelly was a deciding factor but anyway i saw the school and saw the facilities and saw the golf course and just fell in love with fAU i didn't even know i wanted to go there you know i'd already done 10 trips at that point i you know was offered at wisconsin and penn state in miami and i ended up being an owl and

And I love it. I mean, Boca was great. Yeah, I mean, look, at Boca Raton, right? And it keeps you on the coast, the other coast. You had to experience the Atlantic coast, get away from the Gulf Coast for a little while. And we also chatted about the fact that not only, you know, because you were an athlete on campus, some other kind of opportunities opened up. Let's talk about what you were doing there. So because I was a scholarship athlete, we weren't allowed to have jobs off campus. So we were at the freshman orientation and we're walking the breezeway. And you know how they always have like the breezeway is always lined with, you know, flyers for all the things. And there was a flyer looking for people to help come work for the football team. So we're like walking the breezeway. My mom saw that and I think she probably grabbed like a hundred of them. and tore them all down so that my best friend and I could apply for the football team.

And right after orientation, we went right over to the athletic center and applied and got the job. And for two, three years, I was the hydration engineer for the Florida Atlantic Els. Wow, an engineer. I mean, that's awesome. So some great training in high school to get you to that level. Go ahead and tell us what that really means. Yeah, hydration engineer. I was a water girl.

Right. So when I'm watching a college football game, there were always a couple of people who would head out on the field during a timeout, carrying a six pack of squeeze bottles that have Gatorade logos on them usually. Is that pretty much it?

That was it. That's awesome. I'm pretty sure if you go to my Facebook profile, if you scroll all the way back to my very, very first profile photo, it's probably me laughing, standing on the field with that exact image that you've just described,

me holding six-pack. I don't know if it's Gatorade or Power, probably Gatorade back then. So, look, you're a freshman, and you got these, you got these, they could be upperclassmen. Like, you know, all these guys on the team. You probably had, like, the biggest set of brothers, big brothers that would take care of you. Is that a good assessment? I did. I did.

I started my very first day of college with, like, 100 brothers. Yeah, that's great. But usually found me in class. I wanted to sit next to me and copy my notes, you know, my test. But, you know, other than that. Sounds like what a big brother would do. Yeah, pretty much. But it was good.

Hey, and it wasn't always water. I mean, Howard Schnoenberger was the coach. And he was, wow, amazing, being able to, you know, work for the team under him. But I always got to bring him his Coke. He always had, like, a little cooler on the sideline of just his Coke, you know. Would he put in a cup for him or would he just take a can? Just bring the can over. You know, he always had, like, one pant leg up.

and he always did his little speech on the stump the night before, which ended up in my college apartment for half the last year of my, you know, of college. But, you know, we won't talk about that. We didn't take it. My neighbors did. Somebody took the stump and you ended up with it. Okay, is that, that's probably all up as far as you want to go. You know, it's out there.

He's past God bless him. So it's not going to live. He's not upset now. My, our next door neighbors were a bunch of frat boys and I don't even know how that it came into their possession, but they did. And they were not smart enough to just bring it into their place. They left it like in between our two doors. And Kelly and I knew what it was. And we're like, well, this is Howard. We're going to take this back. So we, it's really heavy. Like we underestimated. Like we were going to bring it to my car at the time. But like, oh, my God, this is heavy. So we like dragging into the room. And then it for six months just stayed in our college. apartment. We had Schnelly stump in the apartment. I will say the last week of school, we did enlist a couple of the football players who were very big and strong and they brought it back over for us to the athletic center. So it is very safely back over at FAU. You've got to have a photo. I need to see that. Well, you'll have to send that to me. That's awesome. Let's go with real estate now. Real estate's in your blood, right?

I mean, it runs in your family. And there are a lot of people on the podcast that have been that way. And there maybe half a dozen people who knew they were going to be a realtor from, you know, middle school because that's what their family did and they wanted to do it. Kind of looking at your history, I see a little bit of a rebel in Ashley going, ah, I'm going to do something else. Do I have that right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So talk about it. What did you do right out of school? So, well, I actually got my license while I was in school. So we can start there if you want. I was home between, I'm a third generation realtor. So that's the rebellious part.

I didn't think I was going to be. Home between sophomore and junior of college and my dad's like, get your behind off my couch. Go get your real estate license. I'll pay for it. I'm like, okay. Well, I guess I got to buy a house one day, eventually. One day I'll buy a house. So it's just good to have it, I guess, you know, go get my license.

So fast forward, I got my license, my junior college, and then my degree is marketing. So I thought that after I graduated college, I was going to move to New York, and I was going to be this big CEO of this, you know, company and doing marketing, you know, making all the Mool-A up there in New York. And I ended up really liking real estate. And now I'm here. I still use my marketing degree every day, though, which is great. But I'm going to say, here I am. Yeah, you definitely have the right degree to, because it's, I say this a lot. I mean, I don't think it's, I'm not saying anything that people don't know, but

realtors that have to do a lot of marketing, and they're generally not trained in that field. And so having some knowledge that makes a big difference, yeah. What was the first brokerage you worked for? I always like to find out. I actually worked for a builder at the time. That was kind of that first big boom shift that everyone kind of revert back to all the nightmares. and goodness. So I got to be on the forefront of that. I mean, I started out doing lot

acquisitions, you know, sending out letters and buying lots in the area. Actually, in the same exact section that I live in now is kind of funny. Think about, you know, 40,000 apiece. And now they're, like, worth a quarter of that back when you had the issues with the appraisals and all that stuff. But I worked for a builder. My first summer, I, you know, between my junior and senior year of college, I sold 15 new building contracts. So I just worked for a builder. They're not. in business any longer. But it's not, wasn't like a major brokerage. But yeah, after the downfall of the building industry, I guess, at 2005, six, seven, I did end up going over to, I started my own brokerage. I had my broker's license at 25. It's just myself, my dad, and my

husband. And after realizing that I really liked real estate, I went to a major brand. So that's when I started with Cobo Banker and I was with them for quite a while. Awesome. I know Colobanker, especially in that time frame, it was a great place to go get a good solid base, right? The training was there. They were really taking care of new agents. And even though you had a whole lot of experience compared to the average person that might have been joining their company, right? A little bit.

In essence, too, I was also very new because I never really had that help for training, you know, beforehand. So, but it was great. I mean, we had great leadership here locally at the higher level. Kind of like what I do for inmen, I did for a couple of bankers somehow instantly. It's on their social squad, but, you know, getting to know people like David Marine and Lindsay Lestansky and just being surrounded with that group was just phenomenal. So that really made my experience with Colobanker amazing, I think. By the way, two guests on the podcast if you haven't heard of them.

You should look them up. Yeah, both David and Lindsay. Yeah, they're awesome. I'll look them up. You just recently made a big move, though. Let's talk about that. You're no longer with Coldwell Banker. Tell us where you're at now.

So thank you to Enman. and going to Inman Connect in New York. I knew I'd been wanting to make a change, and actually, I wasn't with Cool Banker when I made the change. I was with another brokerage. But seeing Glenn Sanford on stage, being an ambassador, we get to be like front row setter and, you know, tweeting and do people still tweet, I tweet, doing all the social media goodness for inman. I think I remember the topic was like the humble CEO or the approachable CEO. And I'm like, okay, let's see. Let's just really hear what this guy has to say. And he was phenomenal. I thought he was really great. And so later that day, another fellow ambassador, Christian Harris at a Seattle,

is also with EXP. And we sat down and said, okay, I need you to just tell me all the things. Don't, you know, don't recruit me. Don't preach at me. Like, I want to hear, you know, just tell me all the things like about EXP and, and why EXP and all the things. So he did. And needless to say, a couple weeks later, he was in Florida onboarding our whole team. Oh, that's great. So here we are. We're at XP. And I couldn't be happier.

It's been phenomenal. I feel like after just goodness, almost 18 years in real estate, I finally found my real estate tribe. Wow. Congratulations. That's awesome. Thank you. I love to hear that.

Let's talk about you in marketing and stuff. I mean, look, your social profiles are unbelievable. You know that most agents struggle with that. It's so hard to do what you do well. It really is. And it's, and there are some, I think there are some people in the real estate world, some realtors, that probably shouldn't even try. Am I right? Yeah.

Okay. So I'll let, I'll let you off the hook. For those who, for those who can get there, who can get to that level, what's some advice to get them started? How do they, what do they got to do? As far as being on social or just being an angel together. Let's talk about being an agent on social, right? And really using those tools so that it makes a difference in their work. Because, you know, look, I'm an older guy.

And I remember when social first hit the scene, guys, my age at that time, we're going, this is just a fad, this is never going to work. I mean, whatever, you're just doing all this silly stuff. How's that going to help your business? Well, we've blown that idea out of the water, right? So let's talk about how do you get someone, what's that advice you give them to get them started? Hmm. So I feel like a lot of people just kind of feel like they have to post like, here's my new listing, here is this, here is that. And it's just like all the same stuff on

everybody's profile. So my advice would be to try to be different, take a different approach to, you know, real estate instead of saying, hey, look at my new listing that hits the market. Like, find a really cool aspect of it and, you know, highlight that. Or, more than anything, it's just being consistent. You know, people will start all the different social profiles and then they're stagnant. If you're not constantly posting, then no one's going to follow you and you're kind of irrelevant. But most of all, it's just being authentic. Can't tell you how many times I've met people in real life that I've, you know, initially met online.

And they're like, wow, you are exactly the same person in real life as you are online. And it's true. I am being authentic is so unbelievably important. I mean, don't just post the real estate, you know, post the food, post the kids, post all the things. Like, when people are looking for a realtor online, they want to get to know you. They want to know that they can connect with you and that they like you. You want them to know, know you like you and trust you before, you know,

even get that chance to interview with them in the buyer or seller or, you know, potential customer in the future. It's just being authentic. That's for some reason really hard for people to do. It's been said before, but it's absolutely the most important thing. You know, when I'm watching a video or I'm doing some research and I pull up, for example, I'm going to be interviewing Christine Pappas, who's your state president, right, of the Florida realtors.

And I'm watching a bunch of stuff on, I've never met her. I'm watching a bunch of stuff. And I have a really good idea what she's going to be like in person because it seems like she's very open and honest and authentic in what she does. So I think that's huge. And look, I don't think it might be saying this, but being a little fun and whimsical and all that stuff, it makes a difference. But it's got to be you. You can't fake that, right? It's so true. Yeah. Yeah. Relationships are key for you. You have that wonderful business that you've built for you and your husband are natives. And so you have a sphere of influence that's

probably second to none in the area when it comes to realtors. How do you maintain those relationships? What's your trick for staying connected to your sphere? Staying connected. So you have been a victim of this, my birthday videos. I, you know, it kind of like goes back to what we were talking about, you know, being authentic and being different. I don't send out newsletters and all the, you know, boring, you know, I, how many, how I can only get so. many emails from people saying to please, you know, put your clock back for time change. You know, I try to find ways to have a purpose to reach out to everybody in my sphere that's different than everybody else. And, you know, anyone can just go on Facebook and, like,

type in, happy birthday. But I try to, like I said, try to be different and really make people feel special and have a connection with them. And I take the time every single day and wish absolutely every person in my fear happy birthday and i have about 8,000 people on my sphere right now so sometimes it takes a little bit but uh it's been phenomenal i can't tell you um i mean not that i'm doing it for business but you do it for business too is i i'm top of mind i can't tell you how many the responses i get back are amazing you know if i were just like text someone say hey how how are you happy birthday versus send a video people are like wow i can't believe you took time out of your day to send this oh my gosh i haven't heard your voice

in 10 years or oh hey my mom's selling her house like I get so many people who reach out to me on social who are like who want my help with real estate and I'll look back to the previous message and my last message I sent them with their birthday this year so just stay in top of mind and just being really really intentional and in connecting with people just in ways that are not normal like all for instance all throughout COVID you know if I saw you know a family or whether they were a customer or not it didn't matter but if there was someone in our area that you know they got hit with the bug and they were all home i would get their i'd message them and say hey i want to bless your family and i want to send you guys dinner tonight like what you know

what's your address what's your favorite pizza toppings i can't tell you dominoes loved me during covid like their stock went up um my accountant see the domino's on my bill and she right now i still feel like this area so this meant that charlotte surasota uh desota county I still feel like this is one of the best kept secrets in Florida. There's still so much room for opportunity and building. There is so much new construction. I mean, I got my start in new construction almost 18 years ago. And still, like, it's just there's so much opportunity with like the pricing and the cost of living.

And there's need to find a way to because, you know, they're, they're what's going to carry you through. Let's talk about the market down there in the, we'll call it Charlotte. DeSoto, Lee, Sarasota, you know, you're in that whole area. Maybe you dip into Collier County every now and then, which is awesome. That's Naples for people that don't know Florida. You mentioned the softening of the market. I like the normalization of the market because it wasn't normal in the last couple of years. No one saw that coming and it was just unbelievable.

So, you know, for someone like you who's a successful agent who's got a brokerage, runs their own team now, I should say, because of the EXP thing. I think you look at this as hopefully an opportunity because you know the area you're going to do really well. And a lot of agents who joined because of the easy sales that were happening, not going to have the same skill set you have, right? They can go back to their other job.

There you go. Perfect. Let the professionals handle it, the market. Yeah, I love that. Yeah. So talk about it. What's happening down there? So I'm excited about the, I like normalizing too.

that's a great word. Market because, you know, bring people back to reality. And it's such a great place to live and it's still very affordable compared to other parts of Florida. So whether it's resale or new construction, because I specialize in both, even with the market, the way that it is, it's still just such a great place to be and invest. Whether it's, whether it's, I've had just in the past two months, I've had four different people. everyone's coming here from Colorado.

You know, just make it rain, you know, Colorado people here. I've done four investment properties for multiple people and just from Colorado. Just people are coming here now and this is the best time to do it. With the pricing, it's still great compared to other parts of Florida for what you get for the area. And the opportunity with new construction, it's been great. I've had you here now. I always say a half hour or 40 minutes. And we're right on that time.

So let me ask you the final question we've asked every guy. going back to the I'm actually celebrating this month is the eighth anniversary of the podcast. So it's pretty, pretty exciting. Yeah. So yeah, thanks. So let's go ahead and ask this question. What one piece of advice would you give a new agent just getting started? Oh, find yourself a good mentor going into this normalizing market.

You've got to find your tribe. You've got to find good people who can help you. and not necessarily carry you, but just really teach you the fundamentals, you know, and getting started because you don't just wake up and have business. You've got to find not only good people to help you, but more than anything, you have got a love on your S-O-I. You've got to love on your people. And however, that looks like birthday videos or door knocking or pop-bys or phone calls or text, whatever it is, you have got to love on your people. especially going into this normalizing market

because they are going to determine whether or not you make it through this next cycle. Yeah, I love that. Ashley, if someone wants to reach out to you, what's the best way for them to do that? So I'm on all the social platforms. You just Google me. But on Instagram and Twitter,

I'm a broker-exclusive, on Facebook right now, just Ashley Hausman, or you can find us on I think still Houseman team realtors on Facebook and YouTube. Trying to do a little more video. You know, that's the thing, right? That's what all the cool kids are doing. Yeah, yeah.

I like the word kids because that's not me. Ashley, this has been great. Thank you so much for making some time for us today. And I can't wait to see you in New York. And I can't wait to watch your continued adventures online. It's super fun. Like I said, anyone listening, go follow Ashley. You'll enjoy it.

Oh, well, thank you. I really appreciate the opportunity to be guest number 300 and something, rather. So many ballers. That's growing through like, look, look, you're all these amazing people. You're now one of them. You're now one of them. So thank you so much, Ashley. I appreciate that.

Well, thank you. I really appreciate you. Looking forward to see you in New York. Thank you for listening to the Real Estate Sessions. Please head over to rate thispodcast.com forward slash RESessions to leave a review or a rating and subscribe to the Real Estate Sessions podcast at your favorite podcast listening app.