KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Navigating the Heights of Luxury Real Estate

Episode Date: January 16, 2025

Welcome everybody to Real Estate Riches podcast today. I have an exciting guest and I have Janie coffee with me here today. I'm really excited to have you here, Janie. Thank you. I'm super excited to be on here with you. Oh, gosh, this is fun. So I'm going to read a little story, her background and her history, which is incredible. And then we're going to get to it.

Yay. So today we're thrilled to have Janie on, of course, as a distinguished luxury realtor. And when we dive into this, you're going to see just exactly her story. It's incredible. With over 25 years in real estate, development, and construction, that's a big deal in itself. Each one is a separate field, right? Janie's not just licensed real estate broker and general contractor, but she's also formally an executive vice president for One Sutherbee's International Realty, and she was

a founding agent at Compass. She's definitely an influential figure, and that's why we're really excited to have her here. She was even recognized on Inman as one of the top 100 most influential people in real estate. And she excels at teaching. I'm one of her students, which I'm excited to talk about more. So welcome, Janie. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm super excited to be here with you. Great. So I thought it might be best. If you just kind of give a summary yourself of what started. I think you've been in the area of time and somehow just evolved into real estate. just kind of share your story. Yeah, so I started.

I'm from the Washington, D.C. area. I'm in St. Augustine now. It's where my family's been forever. Florida. Florida, Northeast Florida. But I grew up in the Washington, D.C. area, Northern Virginia. And in college, I actually started working with a very, very high-level developer of historic buildings downtown D.C.

And from that, got into construction project management, and that kind of with a little sidebar of five years in Germany, that's how I ended up in Florida because I helped one of the general contractors that I had been working with start up a high-end luxury commercial general contracting firm for offices, law firms, banks, restaurants, things like that in Miami. And I was the VP of that company, but honestly got kind of burnt out. I was in it for a while. and being in general contact is really hard.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. You're handling all the problems and you're the lightning rod for all the problems. So got into the concept of like flipping homes because I have the construction background and had not intended to be a real estate professional other than to sell my own homes. But things happened, you know, turned into that, got licensed and opened my own brokerage because I always like to go like zero to 100. I do this stuff in the middle very well.

And did that for a while, went through the whole recession with a bricks and water, boots on the ground brokerage. And was getting a little tired from that. That's a hard row. Like being an indie owner broker is hard for a lot of reasons. And I saw this little blue sign show up in a yard. And I was like, what is that? And it was Sotheby's. And they had opened in Miami.

I was within the first 40 agents that joined, worked my way up the ranks, and became executive vice president, as you mentioned. And it was a tremendously great experience. My main job was to coach and train the agents and be the liaison between corporate Sethabees and the agents, like really understand everything that corporate was up. to and bring it down to the agents to do and had a great run with that fabulous company, have nothing but great things to say about the company, the heritage, all that. But Compass was opening, saw an opportunity to be a founding agent with Compass.

Really enjoyed my three years with Compass, continue training agents and continue to do that because I love doing that. And then EXP kind of came around full circle. And the reason I say full circle, back when I owned my own brokerage in around 2010, 2009, 2010, I had spoken to Glenn Sanford and a few people when they were just in the infancy of EXP and they were looking for a broker for the state of Florida. And I had gone through like three meetings. They had EXP World, everything like that.

And I was like, cool concept, but super weird. Like, I was like, this is not going to take off. It needs to go to the office. They don't want to play like a Sims game. Yeah. I'm so smart in my head, right? So, fast forward those 10, 12 years, whatever it was, I guess 11 years. And my coach, Lars Hedenberg, was announcing.

I had been coaching with him and Stacey Peterson. They were basically made a small announcement to a small group of people that they had decided to move to EXP. And I was like, wow, like, they're the two smartest people I know in real estate. And if they've decided this is smart, I'm going to do this too. So I moved June of 2021. So two and a half years ago. And when I came over, one of the first things I said, of course, is who's doing luxury here? Who's doing luxury?

and started to try to connect with all the other luxury agents. And then like you said, EXP corporate tapped five of us across the country from different brokerages, different management and ownership backgrounds to basically help them craft a luxury division. And that's what we've done. And we've put our hearts and souls into it. I feel like it's probably one of the largest achievements of my life personally. I'm very proud of it.

And I am the coach here of the luxury division. And I get to bring all my coaching. and training into that too. So that brings us to where we are now. That's awesome. I said you were newer to EXB. I knew the luxury was newer. I just joined it. When did I join it at the end of last year? And it was so excited. So excited with all the tools that you've got. And which really leverages us up. Now, Sotheby's is known as a luxury company. I don't know if Compass is known. much as a luxury, is it? It is. When I first started, it was only luxury, but then they went through kind of a growth spur where they kind of like opened up the price points a lot more. So now I think

it's a fairly diverse one. They do have a big luxury side of things and probably more than 50% of their business is luxury. But they have opened up to more middle price points as well. Well, luxury was a missing piece at EXP for. sure. I had a local agent here. He did a lot of luxury in Florida and he moved up here and he wanted to do luxury and he goes, I have to create my own tools. I need, I need luxury tools. You know, it's a whole different mindset. It's a whole different deal. And where your marketing goes is so much broader too that you need to have. When I saw what the package was that you guys created, I was really blown away.

And then I'm personally on a team. So to be able to be on a team and even get it at a better break was even more one to work for me. And my clients were blown away with it. It's how I got the listing. It's how I got the listing. Awesome, yeah.

The presentation is amazing. The five of us, the luxury advisory council members, three or four of us were already using a lot of these tools on our own. at a much higher price. Like I was paying easily $20,000 to $25,000 a year for these same tools. I know Pete was probably paying like $70,000 for these tools.

So when we all came together and we started talking about what are our best tools, our best in brand, best, you know, it was so many of the things. We were all using them already. Yes. It was an awesome thing to all come together. be in alignment. And then we go to these vendors who, you know, EXP is a very large company. We're 90,000 agents worldwide. And even though, you know, the luxury division, of course, is 90,000 agents. The vendors gave us really, really, really great pricing because they wanted, you know, to work with our company and with our agents. So we just have such great

pricing and such a great offering at such a fraction of the price. Like I said, I really am really proud and something you might not know is at expe corporate we have six or seven corporate people who have come from suthabees and or compass in events in marketing in PR in communications Michael Valdez our chief growth officer all of them come from a compass and sotheby's background so they and victoria coster our VP of marketing, they all were able to bring their corporate background at these luxury companies into this luxury division. And I think it really shows. Like when you look at our, you really see it's a nice elevated brand. But at the same thing, what I do like about it, it's, it's a luxury brand that

I feel is not stuffy, right? Because I came from probably one of the most stuffy brands with suburbies, which I love, love them dearly. But luxury in Kansas or luxury. And here, even where I am in St. Augustine, a lot of times it's not that New York, Miami, L.A. type of luxury. It's luxury for an area, but it's a lot more understated elegance, right? So I feel like this brand we've created is neutral enough that you can amp it up for an L.A., Miami, New York, or kind of tone it down and be more gentle. It's a very approachable luxury brand, I feel. I think so, too.

The list thing I've got right now is a, like, a whole farm feel to it. It's, um, it's an older style to it. It's a custom home. It's beautiful. It's on three acres. And able to show them. He was,

it's very taste specific too. So, you know, and we have, I'm in Charlotte area and we have so many people moving into the Charlotte area. from all over the country and even the world, that the fact that we can reach all these corners with our marketing, like you said, for that lower price and yet still have the fuel to it,

is very powerful. I was really blown away. Yeah. And it got me that listing. So, and it was brand new for me. Yeah. That works. And that's what we're kind of looking to do here today is,

is kind of talk about four agents who are looking in, luxury, they may or may not be with the XP. You know, just some of the things about luxury that you feel are good tips that an agent who wants to get into luxury should be kind of focused on. Yeah. So one, I kind of call myself like the everyday agent's luxury agent. And what I mean by that is, you know, we all know agents that are in our head like the supermodel luxury agents and a drive.

in the fancy car and they have a fancy belt and the fancy purse. And that can sometimes be off-putting or not off-putting but intimidating to a lot of agents. And so the one thing I always try to tell everybody is, first of all, luxury is in every market. At every market, because it's just the top five or 10% of your market. So if your average price point in your area is 200,000 and the top 10% is 500, that's luxury for your market. I think that's really, really important because a lot of people think, oh, I don't have luxury in my market. You do. It's just the top five or 10 percent wherever you are, right?

Even if that's like, I don't know, Central Kansas where it's very spread out, whatever the top five or 10 percent is, that is luxury, right? And it can be a lot more accessible than people think. Because a lot of times people, they psych themselves out. They think, oh, I don't belong to this country club or that. Clenched Clough. I don't drive this fancy car. I didn't go to this university or have this spouse or whatever the stories are that we tell ourselves in a way to keep ourselves safe. But at the same time, it's keeping us from growing. And you don't have to go to the top. I personally don't, myself, don't even go for the 10 or 20 million dollar listings. That's not my comfort zone,

right? So you can use everything from luxury, even just to raise your average. price point. And raising your average price point, 50% do the same number of deals and you've giving yourself a 50% raise. Right. That's it. Yes. That's it. And so I'm always trying to tell people, just think a little bit bigger, a little bit bigger. You don't have to all of a sudden become like a, you know, selling Miami or whatever there's a million air agent shows are on TV. You don't have to become that, but you can raise your average price point. You can go from 400 to 650. Yes. So you just everybody, but it's much more accessible than most people think.

With a little bit of work. It is a little different. You do need to do a little bit of work. You need to gain the right knowledge, the right confidence, and then really work on your branding and your tools and your marketing because you do need to look polished. Yes, I agree. When I first got into real estate, I was starting, I started at 55 dead broke.

and it was in a waterfront community and I'm from Michigan area and I grew up on all the Great Lakes and stuff like that so I said well my target market's going to be the water now it's a man-made lake here and there was price points of a million above were like the elite right but there was a niche

and then the niche about was around 400 to 900,000 that was like a niche they were the second homes that a lot of people were doing And like when you were talking about, you know, you went through the recession where it really hit. Well, in 2006, when I got in, the market was climbing. And so people had extra money. And I thought, you know what? There's a lot of people that want a second home on this lake, even if they live in Charlotte and we're up 30 minutes away.

You know? And so I started targeting that niche. And I decided I'm going to live on that water. I'm going to figure out how to get a rental because it couldn't afford to buy how I can get a rental and then I can start to know it because also lakes have a lot of rules to it. So part of it was like building it. And then I eventually evolved where I was doing much higher in waterfront homes. But and I started to title myself a waterfront specialist. But I was very clear to let people know I am, I'm a waterfront specialist and I do off water as well. But part of

it was to really create a niche because just as luxury as a niche. And, there's different price points. I think as you said, how do you keep bringing your price point up? Because it's our net, not our gross, that matters. And you know, you can spend all that money on that luxury advertising. But when you develop that with your peers here and you created a program where it became affordable for more people to even look at luxury. Right. Because today's price points feels like every house is luxury. Right. Doesn't it? And so I think you're right on the money that. as far as, you know, just leveling up and learning your territory, too, because it is work. I had to learn my waterfront area.

There were a lot of rules on a man-made lake. I'm sure at the ocean, there's lots of rules there, but you've got luxury waterfront and you've got a lot of luxury off water, like on golf courses and the same thing, right? Absolutely. Luxury is a true. I think it's really smart to focus on a niche like you're talking about. And it's something a lot of agents are fearful to do because they think they're going to limit themselves. And what I always tell people is like, look, let's say you're in trouble with the law or you have a tax situation or you're getting a divorce.

Do you go to just the general attorney or do you go to the criminal attorney or the tax attorney or the divorce attorney? Right. When you need something special and elevated, you seek the higher level professional and you're willing to pay because you see the value in that. And you pick them over all the rest of the attorneys out there because this is a specialized. Same thing with physicians. If you have a, if you want to do, you know, if you're sick or you have cosmetic procedure or whatever, you're not going to go to a general physician, you're going to go to the cancer doctor or the plastic surgeon. You know, so having a specialty makes you that. It doesn't mean you can't do other things, but it also layers on top, not only your knowledge, but it layers on top all of your customers and clients and all of your marketing. So it just makes you become that expert so much. It's very impossible to become an expert as a generalist. Yes. Well, it also waste your time.

It waste your time and waste your money. Yeah. We'll waste everything. When your focus is on your net, like I'll see a lot of agents. They'll just run all over town. They'll take everything they can get. I go, stop. Stop.

You're wasting your time. You will burn out faster than anybody doing that. Right. It is smart. And I think today, you know, there's a lot of money out there today. There's a lot of money. And when I first put that house on the market, the first six people that came in were ready to pay cash, a $2 million plus cash. And they were totally prepared.

easily accessible. Some of them it was a primary house and some of it was a secondary. And two million is not a high dollar anymore in luxury. Right. It's kind of, depending on where you're at, you know, um, I had a $5 million one. I did a year, a little over a year ago. And through the marketing that we had at EXP then, which was pre-luxury, because this was a year ago, November, what I was able to do is go into EXP and say to the agents, market the, market the, this as if it's your own property and bring the buyer, get yourself a referral for a buyer's agent. I didn't want both sides. And even that was a tool that helped me do it. And so when I, and I sold that, I was under contract in 11 days, full price, and it was overpriced. So I said to the

buyer, how did you find me? How did you find this house? Because it's very taste specific, very, very taste specific. And I, and overpriced. And I didn't say that to him. And I said, how did you find it? And he said, I did a hashtag search mansions on Lake Norman, waterfront mansions on Lake Norman. And I knew I never did that hashtag because I wouldn't have thought to use the word mansion. And so I know that one of those agents did some marketing. They didn't actually end up getting that deal, but they got it out there. And in my mind, that was a powerful tool that we did have at EXP back then. I feel so much more excited to have the full luxury program and I think it's very affordable.

Oh, very affordable. Yeah. What would you say to agents that are wanting to, like if they're at EXP, let's start with EXP first. If they're at EXP, they're doing that upper 5%, like you mentioned, what would you say to them that maybe they're gun shy to come in and check that out? If they're already at EXP, they can just join the workplace group called EXP. luxury program info.

They can join that workplace group where they can watch a video that completely explains the division and they can join a once a month training that we make open to not just ex-fee agents in the luxury division, expe agents in general, but actually the public. Always the fourth Wednesday of every month. That's just like a really meaty training on luxury real estate. Oh, great. That's what I would tell people if I was at EXP and if I was not at EXP. I would say reach out to somebody who is or go to expeflexury.com and check out the website.

I think that you can find more information on that and then join our free open training on the fourth Wednesday of every month. Yeah, we'll put that in here in the link below so that everybody has access to that along with all your information. How about somebody, well, that covered even people that aren't with the education because it's an understanding that they could still pick up trainings even if they're not using. our tools, they could pick up a concept where they could take it for themselves. Yeah.

And like you said, part of it is just a mindset. 90% of it is a maximum. Yeah, because it is a market that's out there. And with the way today's industry is with agents leaving the industry, I think there's an opportunity in Florida. I know you have, I think, one of the highest number of realtors that there are in the state. but the truth is not everybody's a builder not everybody does this as a business and so those numbers are are really they're true they're sad but people get in thinking that this is just a quick way to get

your Mercedes and you know have a bunch of freedom it's not this is a business right this is a business and they you know a lot of people watch those TV shows and they see people running around having lunch having drinks and nonsense that's a TV show I managed a ton when I was at Sutherbees. I've managed a ton of agents on there. And those are just TV shows, right? And it is work. It's a business. It's a career is really what it is. Yes. It's a career and you have to approach it like a career and you have to approach it like a business. Right. Totally great. Well, thank you so much. This has been wonderful, Janie. I appreciate it. Awesome. So I'm going to have all of Janie's information down below, all the different links that

we just talked about. And I appreciate you being on. And I thank everybody for listening. and hope you all come back and watch Real Estate Riches. Awesome. Thank you, Kathy. Welcome.