KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Seas to Success: From Oceans Deep to Market Heights with Christy May

Episode Date: August 20, 2025

SummaryIn this episode, marine biochemist-turned-real estate powerhouse Christy May shares her unique journey to becoming a top producer. The discussion explores how her scientific background gives her a distinct advantage in a data-driven market. Christy reveals her strategies for leveraging AI and predictive analytics to find clients, navigate new condo laws in Florida, and build a successful business from scratch.Key TakeawaysThe Scientist’s Approach to Real Estate: Discover how Christy's background as a marine biochemist taught her to use a methodical, data-driven approach to real estate. She applies her analytical skills to market research, lead generation, and client acquisition.Leveraging AI and Predictive Analytics: Learn how to utilize cutting-edge technology to your advantage. Christy explains her use of AI and predictive analytics to forecast market trends and identify high-value real estate opportunities.Mastering Your Market's Unique Laws: Gain insights into navigating a complex real estate landscape. The episode highlights the importance of staying informed on specific regulations, such as the new Florida condo laws, to provide expert advice to clients.Proven Promotional Strategies: Hear how Christy's targeted promotional strategies and use of resources like Reminder Media help her connect with clients and build a recognizable brand in a competitive market.TopicsChristy MayReal estate richesReal estate analyticsAI in real estateFlorida condo lawsCall-to-ActionListen to the full episode on your favorite podcast platform and get ready to apply a new, data-driven approach to your real estate business!

Hey everyone. This is Real Estate Rich's podcast, and boy, is it going to be rich, full of the wealth and the tips and the tricks of all kinds of successful agents. Because that's what you want to be, right? Business builder who has success in their business, well, that's what we got going on here. And I'm going to have all kinds of agents, men, women, younger, older, sharing all their stuff because there's technology, there's just, how do you build your business? There's so many questions, right? So let's learn from some of the best. Gather your wealth and build your business. That's what this channel is all about, and I'm excited to bring it to you. I'm Kathy Burns, and I'll be your host, and stay tuned.

Let's get at it, right? Hey, everybody. It's Kathy Burns, and I'm here with Real Estate Riches, and today I've got Christy May on, and you are out of Sarasota area, right? I am. I'm in the main office downtown, 100 North Tamiami. it's where the action is. The main office, you mean of your firm?

Colville Banker. They have five in the area. And I moved to this one a couple years ago because there's a lot going on, especially with the new condo laws and the condos that need my help. Boy, we'll get on to that in a minute because I don't know about any new condo laws. Maybe it's different in Florida. It's a Florida thing. Okay.

Because I'm in North Carolina and we are at different companies. And what's cool about this particular podcast is I am looking for seasoned agents to share the nuggets that they've learned through the years for agents that are struggling. Maybe they're starting over at life like I did at 55, you know, where you're trying to figure out the business and hopefully it's so nice of you to do. A lot of really good agents don't like to share. Well, and that is not who I want to do business with. I want to do business with that agent again. Yes. You know, transparency is a beautiful thing if it doesn't hurt your client.

Right, right. That's exactly right. So you want to give us, Christy, a welcome, by the way. You want to give us a little background on you? Okay. I started out in marine biochemistry, did 200 underwater dives, and was the photographer that everyone wanted to have along because I knew how to put together a 35 millimeter camera, 35 millimeter film, a lusite case,

and seal it with the right silicon, and make sure all the levers worked. I went on every research cruise I wanted during the four years I was at the University of Miami, Rosensteele School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. But from the camera thing, you can guess I'm very visual, right? So I decided to take that and go up to Boston University and get my master's in communications. But before I left, I hooked up with Channel 10. I sent them all my films and videos and worked with them on what wrist mass was up to. And I worked with a girl at Channel 10 in Miami.

And I went to interview with Channel 5 in Boston while I was getting my master's. I figured I'd do the night shift nobody wanted because that's what I had figured out. And I interviewing, and the girl from Channel 10 walked by, she said, Christy, what are you doing here? And I was interviewing with Rich Dickinson, and he was being very circumspect and boss-like. And so when she walked by and said, what are you doing here? he said, how do you know her? She said, oh, I've worked with her. She's awesome.

Hire her right now. I don't care for what. Just hire her. And they did. They liked her too, I guess, right? Yeah. So I was a TV news producer as we chatted before I came live. And that's hard, especially back in the 70s and 80s, right?

When you couldn't go on Google and find out. what the real story was. We kind of depended on AP Newswire and I had to be a research hound. I really did turn into a research hound. I still am. So, hey, I loved that job. Two years, news producer, Channel 5 in their best years ever. And I picked up science clientele with that too. You know, my marine, Boston's a marine town too, right? So I worked with, Woods Hole Oceanographic with Patel Ocean Sciences. How did that all play into becoming a realtor? It's coming.

Okay. The research part that I love. That makes sense. It really does. If you know what you're talking about, you're likely to get hired. Just saying, don't you guys? I agree. Yeah.

So, okay. So I left there, Channel 5, because I got too busy in my ad agency, DM Communications. And that was nice. But then I got hired away early on by a trade show company and came up with the name Comdex, the computer dealer's exposition that did better than the Consumer Electronics show in Vegas. But now there really aren't trade shows so much, just gatherings.

They're gatherings now. They're not trade shows. So back to... Back I went to my science background and research and really enjoyed my clients. Jeez, who's better than Woods Hole? I had the Office of Naval Research. I published the Journal of Electronic Defense, so I actually have clearance. And from our chat before we went live, can you even believe I have national clearance?

So, yeah, I did commercial stuff, commercial marketing of real estate. Fidelity FMR properties on the Massport pier. I knew because I worked with Massport, right, project-wise, that they were going to lease their peers. So I talked to my financial advisor Fidelity and he said, oh, let me introduce you to Dan. So he introduced me to Dan. And we did the FMR properties lease pitching of the 99-year lease on a major. It was a huge peer. It was the biggest peer in Boston. And we developed it as a conference center. And that was our plan.

And I knew the people at Massport, I knew they wouldn't read five inch thick engineering plans that covered a whole table or five three ring binders that sat on top of it. I knew this, right, in my heart of hearts. So I said, hey, let's do a video, summarizing everything. And that's what did it. Don't you know? A nine minute video would do better than all the other research they might have to do. Yeah.

Well, it's today, too. Videos are it. Well, back in the, when we did this, it was, you can do video. Yeah, I can do video. So we did it and we named it bosscom and it's still boss com today. Wow. And yeah. And it totally redid the South Seventh.

seaport area. It became more vibrant and I'm really proud of that, really proud of that accomplishment. Then I decided I like the actual real estate part of it, got to know some realtors. All right. Should I say this on a podcast? It's another one of those way too interesting things, right? Well, the goal here is to share for other people to get some nuggets. So let's get it into some of the things. All right. I'll share. nuggets rather than go into what I was thinking of talking about what actually got me in. I had something that actually got me in, but we will not discuss that. Okay. But I did make, I did make 86,000 on my first residential real estate deal back in the 80s. Jeez, woman, that was way ahead of the

that. That was my own house. It was your own house? Yeah. And I wasn't even a realtor then, but I went to the broker and I said, I'm going to sell the house myself. Will you do the paperwork? And he said, sure. You didn't want to lose my listing. Wow. So to get to know how to do business, I published things all along the way for different clients. I thought, okay, I'll publish broker-agent magazine in the area. I had access to every realtor, their contact information, through this magazine, and I learned all their tricks, a story on the best realtors. They talked to me like I talked with you earlier, right? And how I'm talking to you now, realtors who are starting, it's tricky.

It's good to have all the best learned features of every top realtor in your market. And getting to know them is also good. So that's what I do. I don't suggest that they publish a magazine, but they could do a blog like you. They could. I mean, really, you're doing a marvelous thing. I really appreciate this. Yeah, it's been good.

Yeah, yeah. I don't mind the little details and all the things you go through. Okay, I'll give you one nugget I've learned. The smaller deal with the less amount of money are the ones that keep you up at night. Go for the big stuff, everybody who's listening. Go for the big stuff. it's so true. They don't give you as much grief.

They don't drink themselves out of, drink themselves drunk out of anxiety and call you at 11 p.m. They don't do that. Yeah. They have their contact you. Okay. What can we do? They like the big deals. Yeah.

And if you could only like the big deals to whoever's listening, you know, if people and if you don't go after them anyway. Go after them anyway. That's exactly right. educate yourself, level up. Yes. And when I moved to Florida, I bought my own house. I transferred my license down here. And I like going after the big deals. I just, that's the best advice I'll give to you. If you can figure out a way to get in, go to open houses at the big deals, get to know the buyers walking in and out of the big deals. Another thing that is, I used to do that isn't so good now is to do open houses at the big deals, right? Volunteer. I think they are a big deal now.

I think with the NAR. You can't get their business there. They don't even remember the name of their realtor, right, when they walk in. But they don't want to talk to you about getting some of their money on the buy. No, they don't. Not the first time, hello, no matter how lovely we are. You're not going to get it. Right. Right. I'm going to disagree with you on that one. Okay. I don't think they're going to agree to give me, pay me commission on the first date, basically. But I think I'm going to be able to pick up agents or buyers that have not aligned with anybody

because they don't want to put sign that buyer agency. Tell us that in Florida. They all tell us, oh, I have a realtor. I don't remember our name. I think it's Julie. Yeah. Okay. No.

Yeah, I don't believe them either. So I'll say, well, let me write down Julie's name, you know, blah, blah, blah. I still get their information. Yeah, of course. I say the seller must have your information. Yes. And because our open houses here are blown up with people coming in, unrepresented people. Yeah.

And so there's opportunity there. And now, is that a slower thing? Yes. But everything's not necessarily fast track, right? It isn't. Something that we do in our firm, and you can probably do it within your office too, is we are allowed to share our listings with each other and market them. And we do that.

And so that's how you're capturing buyers. And I tell them, take the higher price point houses. If you're going to market it, pick a higher price point market to grab those buyers. And that is very successful here. That's really good. I'm listening. It's called Mayo. Make it your own.

Decide what's ethical about telling them, oh, you know, what don't you like about this house? Oh, I know another one, right? When you're doing an open house, you're a realtor. Yeah. Can you really say, you know, I know exactly what you want. When do you want to go see it? I can't do. Well, you can't say that anymore.

It's like if you want to look at others and we've got to have a sit down. We've got to have a conversation because the rules have changed. Derek has got to be. Yeah, the rules have changed, buddy. We've got to sit down. We've got to decide you and me. Are we going to work together? Well, if not, you're going to have to find somebody else.

But there are other properties that may fit your deal. And I think I could help you. But we've got to sit down and talk about the new game in town. Are you listening, new realtors? Go to the big deal. Don't do what I thought you might want to do and try to scoop them from whomever they're working with is not okay. I know. I know because I'm a market research person. What might suit you? Let's have a sit down. I love that. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. All right. I'll do open houses again. I will. Change your perspective. Well, and the other thing is I have agents that I'll be doing these low budget homes like you're saying. And I had one sell me. She says, well, I want to do a million dollar homes. I said good.

She goes on, I want to increase my number to 30 million for the coming year. And I go, so you don't want a life, huh? Commission that she's made? No, the price point of the house. Okay. And I said, so you don't understand that either. They think if you say 30 million, you're thinking that's how much the realtor makes? No.

Yeah. 30 million. That's how we're present. And our audience is realtor. So 30 million is what she wanted to do a million each, 30 homes. So she'd have gross commission. or gross sales of $30 million. And I said, so you're doing 30 deals in a year.

And I said, me, I'd rather do $15, $2 million and have a life. And I said, because first of all, just like the bigger price point, they're not so crazy. You know, the drama is not the same. They're not desperate on every year. They've done this before. Yeah. First time home hires only for. friends. Yeah. Exactly. And I prefer listings over working with buyers. Just my niche. Matter

fact, I live at a co-bo banker. List to last. Well, you know what? There's a software out there. The software is called PropStream. I know. And you pay for it. Yeah. I use it in commercial too. See? And now you can do a search within that where you say, I'm looking for a particular area. And because it's all of the U.S., anybody can use this. Right, I love it. I love that program. I love that feature. So I said, I want around the lake here where I'm at, I want you to find me all the homes that

have a minimum of a million dollars in equity in their home. They've owned it over 30 years. It doesn't equity. And so that told me their age group in a sense. And it also told me that they've got plenty of equity in the house. and I said, and they haven't refinanced lately. So that was my person that now I created a list from that. You made a beautiful algorithm.

You did. Yes. You made a beautiful algorithm. Now you give that to predictive analytics experts and you come up with your list. And then you just call. Hello. I understand you look at. What's predictive analytics?

Hold on everything here. AI. in lists. AI in lists. I use Reminder Media and they do all the hard work for me. So you take your list like you would have gotten from PropStream and you give it to that. Okay. For example, with the New Florida law, going to that a little bit, I wanted to work on Ciesta Key. Have you ever heard of Ciesta Key? Number one, Beach in Florida, in the world many times. Dr. Beach loves it once they got rid of cigarettes. it was always number one. Yeah.

So, C-S. to Key, big, beautiful homes, big, beautiful condos, you know, all older, overlooking the water. The new Florida law says, hey, do you remember the collapse of the Miami Beach condo?

That resulted in Senate Bill 26th in Florida, which by law, by July, You had to have a milestone inspection. You had to have your assessments and reserves all lined up. And then waterfront insurance, what do you think? It's kind of hard.

Yeah. So those four things together make it really hard to sell your property. It's taken the value of people in the note. Most people don't know. I'm not surprised you don't know. My own husband said, you know, I hear you talking about it, but what's the scoop? It's going to take these properties when people find out about what they're facing in terms of additional money. A lot of these people bought these places 20 years ago.

They don't have continuing income. They gave it to their kids. Their kids don't have the same income. Third of value down when people know about this. If they don't know about it, and according to. to Berlin Patent attorneys, if you don't have the milestone inspection, although you were mandated to have it, you couldn't get it because there weren't enough engineers to do the work. So find those properties. That's in my predictive analytics list. Find the properties that have not

had their predictive, that have not had their mandatory milestone inspections. Call the HOA director and say, hey, this is what you're facing. Do you want to get out of town? I have a nice house over here in Lakewood Ranch. Yeah. That works really well. It's a for-fer, right? Yeah. Sell the condo before people know. You find them a little house in Lakewood Ranch so they get to know and love it. Then they build the house of their dreams and then you sell that little house. I like for-fers. Yeah, I like forfers too. So that was A-I-D-N-L-L-L-I-S-T. No. Reminder media, artificial intelligence, the big AI thing that everybody's using, you can do, you can use it with algorithms on predictive analytics lists. Those most likely to sell, right? And then you put, you have your own algorithm for the time frame and the, hey, the demographics fit in from POP stream. and you let Reminder Media do the hard work.

Say, oh, I want 500 postcards and people's phone numbers and emails in CSTC key with that. And then you have something to work with. So Reminder Media is not analyzing it. It's just getting it like a postcard. They work on my algorithm. You came up with your own algorithm for your lakefront people, right? Right, right. It's not that hard if you really think about what.

No, I'm not worried about that piece of it. I'm trying to understand what reminder does. Are they mailing out postcards or are they analyzing your data? Okay, let's see what they do. Okay. They're known for doing this magazine. Have you ever heard of Good to Be Home? No, but are you saying they're going to print something or are they the analyst?

Two different. The company that sells promotional material that's better than me, even than it's an advertising. Okay. That's the part. They did make their mark on magazines. They print them for a little money as a postcard. Wow. I mean, that's amazing if you buy it.

Yeah. And then you can write your own stories. Esplanade is where I live. And I wrote a story about how the pre-golf homes are different from the homes that came after the golf course was, you know, done. You have your own stories in a magazine. that they have Beachfront Haven stories about and recipes, tear out recipes. I love reminder media that you could make a trifle and then you give it to your friend

and they have your name and phone number. Yeah, I think I have seen those magazines before. So. It works well. Yeah, that makes sense. A small area. Yeah. I thought you were saying it was an AI program in itself.

You're putting the AI into it. They run an AI program they have. Gotcha. And they do all the hard work. And it's a postcard that says the value of your condo is changing with the new Florida laws. Call me. And then I have QR codes. I love QR codes. Let me not let that go by. Yeah. The QR code will take them to a landing page. What's the value of your home? Then you have their address. And then of course you can come up with the value of their home. Property appraisers website, props, train. You can look them up, right? It's making life easier AI. Yeah. Oh, I agree. I'm a fan.

I used to think I was a fabulous writer, right? Oh, I'm such a good writer. No, I put in my story in chat, GPT, and it comes out better than mine. Yeah. It's sad. Yeah, I love it. But why not why fight it? Let's just do it.

Oh, let's just do it. It's right. Yeah, QR codes are a great way to go. I even put them out at open houses so people who just are doing a drive-by can get me. Yes. I think it's a great idea. I put them everywhere. If they're waterfront, you can put a QR code with all your contact information.

I do. Yeah, I do too. I think it's great. Yeah. Well, you are an interesting woman, Christy. I like it. I like it. I love that you're helping other realtors because I like Tutu.

I have a team. Yeah. And that's my retirement plan. I'm going to get my team up to speed, convey to them my huge database. It's like 10,800 now. Wow. And I send out emails, right?

And all different kinds of emails, because that's the fun part. To me, the promotional part. That's who I am. I'm a promoter. Me too. Maybe not as good as a reminder of media, but I'm pretty good.

I know. That's where my passion lies is in the marketing. Well, I like your, what do I like about what you're doing? It's so satisfying. Thank you. It is so satisfying for me. Absolutely. I love it. And I'm going global with it. I like getting it to mesh up. Yeah, it's great. Details and the research. Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Christy. So thanks for joining me on this episode of Real Estate Riches. wasn't that great? I'm sure you've got a nugget or two. I know I did. So if you liked it, please subscribe below, share it with everybody, make some comments. We really find that invaluable. And if you're thinking that you would love to talk about this a little bit more,

let's schedule a business strategy call. I'll have the link below. Let's see if we can't mastermind together and see if we can't empower each other. That would be great. So until next time, signing off. Hope to see you on the next one.