Stay Objective, It’s Their Decision – Angela Harkins

00;00;22;13 – 00;00;31;08
Speaker 2
Welcome back to the Agents Who Crush It in Real Estate Podcast. I am sitting here today with Miss Angela Harkins. Angela, welcome to the podcast, my friend.

00;00;31;23 – 00;00;34;21
Speaker 3
Thank you, Lindsey. I’m honored that you invited me. Finally.

00;00;35;01 – 00;00;53;13
Speaker 2
I know exactly. I was saying this. So we actually have a funny story. We this is the second time we’ve recorded this now because the last time we recorded we were at your house. She so graciously invited me up to New Hampshire to spend the day with her and to hang out. And we would do the podcast, which we recorded, or at least we thought we recorded.

00;00;54;02 – 00;01;18;09
Speaker 2
I got home and it was empty on the thing, but it doesn’t matter because we had a blast anyways and now we get to hang out again. So it all it all works out best. So thank you so much for coming on this. As I said the last time I can’t on like don’t understand how I haven’t had you on sooner because when we’re talking about agents who consistently crush it in this business, you are definitely the very top of that list.

00;01;18;09 – 00;01;29;14
Speaker 2
So I’m so excited to have you and to dove right in. So why don’t you take us back to the very beginning of your career and why you decided to get into the business, what you were doing prior, and take us back to the old days.

00;01;30;00 – 00;01;32;13
Speaker 3
The old days? Oh, boy. I’m really going to date myself.

00;01;32;22 – 00;01;33;16
Speaker 2
No, it’s okay.

00;01;33;24 – 00;01;51;23
Speaker 3
Yeah, well, as it says in my profile, I mean, I started out in high tech, you know, project management, director of technology. You know, running projects, doing some training, things like that. And, you know, like any industry, you know, you have your ups and downs. And at that point in time, there were a lot of layoffs and mergers and things like that.

00;01;51;23 – 00;02;08;17
Speaker 3
So I said, you know, I’m going to take a pause. You know, I was one of those that took a package and decided to just spend the summer relaxing. And I know how to relax. So I said, Oh, what else can I do in the meantime? I said, I’ll get my real estate license and maybe someday in the future, maybe I could do it part time, which I quickly learned.

00;02;08;26 – 00;02;24;14
Speaker 3
You cannot do this successfully, part time, and say to the part time jobs that are out there but serious. If you want to be Presidents Club or Lead or anything like that, you have to dove in and do it full time. And I know everybody has their own path and I respect that. But for me, it was do or die.

00;02;24;14 – 00;02;41;03
Speaker 3
You know, I had to jump right in. So in back then, you know, people were going into the office and I was used to being an office person. So for me, I would get up, I would hop in the office, 630, 7:00 in the morning, just like I did in high tech. I quickly realized that that is not really the real estate world.

00;02;41;11 – 00;03;01;07
Speaker 3
I was the only one in there for the first at least 2 hours, maybe more. But that was to my benefit because I got so much done, you know, I did my leads, I looked at expired and I canceled and I just worked my system and therefore that first year I did phenomenal.

00;03;01;19 – 00;03;21;21
Speaker 2
And really it speaks to just being disciplined in the beginning. So even if it’s your home office, I mean, we always tell people to come to the office, but sometimes it’s just a home office for someone like dedicate that time and energy into that, into your business, wherever that may be. And you know, obviously going into the office is ideal, but if you can’t, then that’s another option too.

00;03;21;21 – 00;03;36;07
Speaker 2
And it’s funny when you said that you don’t rest well, because the last time we did this, you had told me that you had been out on the lake like for 3 hours or something crazy. So, yeah, she does not rest well, folks. She definitely doesn’t. She enjoys hard rest time, that’s for sure.

00;03;36;07 – 00;03;37;27
Speaker 3
Yeah, I do. I do.

00;03;38;09 – 00;03;53;11
Speaker 2
So tell me about after you got into the business and you were spending some time in the office and you were kind of working on, you know, what were some of the things that you were working on back then to kind of ramp up? Yeah, I find it always interesting as to how the market’s changed and what people do now versus what people did then.

00;03;53;11 – 00;03;54;28
Speaker 2
So take us back to that a little bit.

00;03;55;10 – 00;04;13;11
Speaker 3
Yeah. So back then to the brokerage I joined, you didn’t really have any training and I really feel like because I just beat down the doors to get some training that helped me because in the beginning you’re not as busy with the actual business because you don’t have it. You’re trying to get the business, so you might as well take that time.

00;04;13;18 – 00;04;39;22
Speaker 3
I mean, getting your real estate license gives you, you know, a base, but that just gives you general law you need how do I do this? How do I write a contract? How do I negotiate? How do I get new business? How do I keep new business? So I went to one of my local real estate. I belong to the Northeast Association of Realtors, and I just went there and took every single training program they had, all the certification programs I could find and just train, train, train, train, trained while I had the time.

00;04;39;25 – 00;05;01;12
Speaker 3
And unfortunately, the brokerage didn’t operate, so I had to go elsewhere. But then, you know, just make a plan. I, you know, get back then that was 20 years ago is different. We had to go on the computer and look up expired. But I sent out postcards and I still believe in postcards. And my first listing came from a postcard that I mailed out.

00;05;01;12 – 00;05;16;16
Speaker 3
And when they called me for the listing appointment and I went, I had my sign in the car and my presentation and they’re like, we don’t need any of that. It was a vacant place and they’re like, You’re the only one that contacted us. We just want to list with you. So I didn’t have to do anything. And that one piece of business turned into that listing.

00;05;16;16 – 00;05;20;17
Speaker 3
And then our listing in Bedford and then a listing in Burlington, my house in Pepperell.

00;05;20;21 – 00;05;24;02
Speaker 2
You needed an easy button on that day. That was easy.

00;05;24;02 – 00;05;41;09
Speaker 3
Awesome. Exactly. But I mean, if I had never sent out that and it wasn’t the first postcard I had sent out, as maybe in the first like thousand postcards I sent out, but still look how much business I gained from that one postcard. You know, it’s not going to be every single postcard. Oh, look what I get. We’re going to get.

00;05;41;18 – 00;05;49;11
Speaker 3
It’s work. It’s definitely work. You can’t just sit there and whine and say, I don’t have any business. You have to go out and get it.

00;05;50;19 – 00;06;09;18
Speaker 2
And it’s interesting for you to say that, you know, direct mail back then when you started was something that was lucrative and it still is today. And I know you feel that way. So how do you continually do that outside of what we help you with? What how do you kind of continually market through direct mail? What’s your strategy kind of how many postcards do you send?

00;06;09;18 – 00;06;11;20
Speaker 2
How often do you send? What of those things that you do?

00;06;12;03 – 00;06;38;20
Speaker 3
So it’s that’s both an easy question and a challenging question because because of where I work, I don’t have to do any of that by myself. I can actually set up a plan and pay the marketing team to do it. For me. So I can tell you I send out just sold and just listed on every single listing I have and if it’s a listing that I’m not usually working in because it’s a little bit out, but somebody referred me and really wanted me to do it.

00;06;39;00 – 00;06;58;20
Speaker 3
I’ll still do the just sales and the just listed and then I give the referrals to other people in my company in that area. So again, it’s still generates some profit for me, but I definitely do that. I definitely do a postcard a month. I do a newsletter while you guys do the newsletter, and it works really well for me.

00;06;58;25 – 00;07;19;08
Speaker 3
And I always know when the newsletter goes out because that very day and the next day I get so many emails saying, Hey, thanks for that information. I didn’t realize X, Y, Z, congratulations on this or you haven’t talked to you in a while. It definitely spurs the conversations and I love it. I love it all. Get text messages, you know, all kinds of all kinds of messages.

00;07;19;08 – 00;07;25;13
Speaker 3
So I know when it goes out, I’m like a newsletter just went out or postcard just hit. But it’s not me doing it, you know.

00;07;25;15 – 00;07;51;05
Speaker 2
It’s even gotten I’ve even got, you know, out of office responses and then I’ll look quickly. I’ll be like, Oh, like, I wonder what they’re up to. And I’ll look quickly on Facebook and it shows that they’re in Paris or something. So that way I’m like, Oh, wow, you must be loving that, you know? So it definitely it, you know, any kind of monthly newsletter kind of touchpoint is so necessary because it really does, you know, something, something very often is rough, but if you’re sending it, you know, once a month, the people open it, they read it.

00;07;51;05 – 00;08;07;11
Speaker 2
And it’s a great way for you to tell whether or not someone’s maybe bubbling up or what the case is. So that’s great. What about your lists when you’re doing things for direct mail? Like do you have a strategy with who you hit is versus farm versus sphere and all of that kind of stuff? How is that we’re always worked for you.

00;08;07;19 – 00;08;26;02
Speaker 3
Definitely hit sphere because near the people that are already warmed me or hot but not cool so I already have a leg in with them. So just keeping top of mind, letting them know what I’m doing. I also do sphere, so either some general areas that I want to work more in or that I have worked in and I want to keep the momentum going.

00;08;26;11 – 00;08;29;25
Speaker 3
Yeah, very seldom do I just do blind. I like to focus.

00;08;30;07 – 00;08;46;27
Speaker 2
Yeah. You know, you have like certain areas, certain buildings, certain streets that you always focus on. So I think that that’s really important for yeah. For just keeping a consistent top of mind awareness. I think it’s huge and you’ve always done a really good job on that. We just took it from where you were and took your guidance on it.

00;08;46;27 – 00;08;49;20
Speaker 2
So really we’re just an extension of you when it comes to that.

00;08;49;20 – 00;09;11;05
Speaker 3
Well, it’s one thing, Lindsay, to have a plan, right? Oh, all right. I’m going to send out so many postcards or I’m going to send out just sold and just listed. But you can’t really work in your business if you’re going to be working on your business. And I know that’s kind of a cliche, but it’s true because back in the day when we didn’t have all the online stuff, I would order postcards and I would have them in order.

00;09;11;05 – 00;09;24;13
Speaker 3
I’m going to do this, this, this at the end of six months. They are all still sitting there because you get busy, you get into closing mode and you can’t always be in closing mode. You have to be in marketing mode, in sales mode, and you have to do your business.

00;09;24;23 – 00;09;27;20
Speaker 2
So you have to you have to be in all the modes at all the times.

00;09;27;27 – 00;09;32;02
Speaker 3
Yeah. If you’re doing more than 15 a year, you need to have somebody else doing that for you.

00;09;32;18 – 00;09;50;18
Speaker 2
Just absolutely to have a and to work. I think that that’s really important to mention the number because it’s really that’s kind of that threshold I feel like and you hit it on the head and a lot of the times when people going back to the part time discussion, you know, if they’re okay with working their part time job and doing those 15 deals, maybe then that’s comfortable place for them.

00;09;50;18 – 00;10;04;01
Speaker 2
Then that’s fine. But if they truly want to get into that next level and do more real estate and give give up that part time job, then it’s better to just cut it off and just move forward because otherwise you won’t be able to spend the time on growing your business. So I think that’s really smart.

00;10;04;09 – 00;10;12;25
Speaker 1
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00;10;13;04 – 00;10;33;04
Speaker 4
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00;10;33;04 – 00;10;46;09
Speaker 4
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00;10;46;17 – 00;10;51;04
Speaker 1
Thanks, Scott. Now let’s get back to the show.

00;10;51;04 – 00;10;59;00
Speaker 2
So what else do you do to market yourself now? I know, you know, obviously 20 years ago, Facebook, wasn’t it? Well, it was technically around, but not really.

00;10;59;00 – 00;11;00;27
Speaker 3
I think it was actually it was.

00;11;00;27 – 00;11;17;15
Speaker 2
Actually just pretty scary. And now I’m dating myself. I think I was one of the first users of Facebook. So because I was at I was in school in Boston when, you know, Zach was there doing his thing. So it’s like the same time frame. But yeah. So as far as social media and all of that, what’s your strategy?

00;11;17;15 – 00;11;19;28
Speaker 2
What are you doing to keep top of mind online?

00;11;19;28 – 00;11;39;26
Speaker 3
Yeah. So online I guess, you know, the Facebook, the Instagram type things and I should have a better plan than I do. But I mean, I try to put some fun things out there. And again, I’ve said this for many years, I try not to be the real estate agent on Facebook or Instagram. I try to be the person who also does real estate.

00;11;40;06 – 00;11;57;13
Speaker 3
I don’t want to be in everybody’s faces because I don’t want them unfollowing me. So I try to have a good mix. Plus I want them to know my personality and I want, you know, I’m a very relationship based realtor. I like to deal with people on a personal level. I mean, we all have our, you know, quick ones in and quick ones out.

00;11;57;22 – 00;12;18;11
Speaker 3
But most of the time, the people that I deal with end up being my friends. There are so many friends that I met the real estate. I thought, boy, if I didn’t get into real estate, I would be a pretty lonely person. So for me, it’s all about relationships. So again, you know, just doing that kind of some real estate, some personal getting it out there.

00;12;18;11 – 00;12;36;14
Speaker 3
I know there’s also some very successful people that just put real estate stuff out there that works, too. There’s no one size fits all in real estate or in marketing or in success. So you find what fits for you. And then you put that shirt on and put that hat on and you work it that way. For me, getting getting leads.

00;12;36;14 – 00;12;57;21
Speaker 3
I mean, most of mine are personal where like I golf. So my golf community, I end up obtaining a lot of business for my golf community. I do ballroom dancing. I’ve sold many houses to people that I’ve danced with, neighborhoods that I’ve lived in. I move like every five years, although I think this one’s going to stick. So I have my neighborhood people.

00;12;57;21 – 00;12;58;19
Speaker 2
Yeah. Please don’t move.

00;12;59;07 – 00;13;18;06
Speaker 3
Please don’t move. They even once went out and bought a ton, maybe like 10,000 pens with my picture and my, you know, the logo of the company and my phone number. And this was when people did a lot of signing. So I would leave them at all the local gas stations. People would have to sign their their check.

00;13;18;06 – 00;13;34;28
Speaker 3
And I would people say to me or text me or call me, say I signed my receipt today with your pen. How did that even happen? Like, because I dropped them everywhere I live at restaurants. I live like there was one restaurant. I must have given them 200 pens. Every time I went in there, the wait staff was using them.

00;13;35;07 – 00;13;41;04
Speaker 3
Because you can’t have enough pens, right? Yeah. So that was really funny. Everyone had my pants. I loved that.

00;13;41;13 – 00;13;59;07
Speaker 2
We had a we had someone on the podcast a couple, couple episodes ago, Derek Stewart, he’s from down south, but he said that his wife would get mad at him because he would go with her to sporting events or whatever the case was a concert, and he would leave to go to the bathroom and she’d be like, Why were you gone so long?

00;13;59;07 – 00;14;03;00
Speaker 2
And he’s like, Because I went to all the bathrooms and put my business cards on the urinals.

00;14;03;21 – 00;14;04;08
Speaker 3
So like.

00;14;05;00 – 00;14;13;19
Speaker 2
She would be like, why? Why, why, why? And he was like, cause, you know, you always got to be working and trying to get the business. I was like, That’s impressive. That’s some dedication right there.

00;14;13;27 – 00;14;15;09
Speaker 3
At least he didn’t put it in the ladies room.

00;14;15;17 – 00;14;23;27
Speaker 2
Yeah, exactly. Well, who knows? Maybe it was hand in stacks to the ladies outside going put these in there for me. Crazy either way. So you got to do it. You got to do I guess.

00;14;23;28 – 00;14;33;12
Speaker 3
Evening of that. The other thing is wearing your nametag, right? Yeah. I swear every time I wear my nametag I do get I get inquiries for sure. And sometimes I get business from it.

00;14;33;23 – 00;14;34;04
Speaker 2
Now that’s.

00;14;34;12 – 00;14;39;27
Speaker 3
Weird. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. But I mean, as a new agent, I never went anywhere without it.

00;14;40;08 – 00;14;45;08
Speaker 2
Yeah, you have to. Or just even like your realtor pen, too, because people recognize that logo as well.

00;14;45;12 – 00;14;46;24
Speaker 3
Yes, they do. Yeah. Yeah.

00;14;47;10 – 00;15;11;06
Speaker 2
So what is the biggest thing that you do? You said that you become friends with all these clients, which is a testament to, you know, you because they obviously want to become your friends. They want to work with you moving forward again in the future. So how do you continue to build your sphere business? How do you continue to get people to refer you and to trust you with their friends and family and so on?

00;15;11;06 – 00;15;14;13
Speaker 2
How what do you do to stay consistent with that group of people?

00;15;14;26 – 00;15;37;01
Speaker 3
Yeah, I think that’s the easiest answer is that I treat people the way I want to be treated. So when we’re going through a transaction, I call people back. I make sure, you know, I’ve moved a few times so I know what it feels like. You want the feedback you want. When I when someone has seen your house, you want the feedback you want to know what’s happening with the home inspection.

00;15;37;01 – 00;15;55;20
Speaker 3
You want to know what the process is. And we have a lot of systems in place to help with that communication and it just makes, you know, then to put on top of it a personal phone call or a quick text at night or something. They think you’re a rock star. They just want communication. So the more you communicate with people, you know, I you to think I want to bother them.

00;15;55;20 – 00;16;06;22
Speaker 3
It’s too much communication. You can’t communicate enough. You just can’t. They want it. They want to hear from you because they’re sitting there wondering what’s happening. Did anyone call today? Did you get a call? You know.

00;16;07;05 – 00;16;21;04
Speaker 2
I record that void of communication is where issues arise. That’s what’s going miles apart. Will get angry or people get frustrated or that’s when they start to have conversations with other brokers or other realtors or whatever the case is. So you’re absolutely right.

00;16;21;14 – 00;16;36;07
Speaker 3
And I’m not saying I hit it on the head 100% of the time, but I try, you know, every once in a while, you you you are going to get a seller or a buyer that’s not happy. And sometimes it is a personality thing. You know, obviously they won’t be my friends going forward, but I’m okay with that.

00;16;36;13 – 00;16;37;20
Speaker 3
Yeah, exactly. You know.

00;16;37;24 – 00;16;38;23
Speaker 2
Be friends with everybody.

00;16;38;25 – 00;16;43;00
Speaker 3
You can be friends with area, but you can try. You can do your best. And if it fits, it fits.

00;16;43;09 – 00;16;59;28
Speaker 2
So tell me because there are a lot of people that listen to this podcast that maybe are newer to the business, explain how you kind of get over some of those rough patches that you can go through. Either it’s dealing with a difficult buyer, difficult seller, or dealing with a rough patch in the market. I know that a lot of people are feeling the pinch.

00;17;00;11 – 00;17;14;16
Speaker 2
Over the last couple of years. There’s been those waves of like things are really good and then things are kind of slow and now we’re kind of hitting that slow piece again. So it’s, you know, how do you what kind of advice do you give to people to kind of just put your head down and get through it?

00;17;14;16 – 00;17;16;07
Speaker 2
You know, what do you what do you say to them?

00;17;16;19 – 00;17;36;00
Speaker 3
Yeah, trying to try not to let it eat you alive because when, when the market shifts like it is now sellers get really how come I hosted and so on a weekend and I didn’t get over asking where all the offers were. I am not getting appointments they I mean luckily the media is on it a little faster than they were with some of the other markets.

00;17;36;09 – 00;17;52;20
Speaker 3
So they are hearing about it. It’s not the first time through us we are listing appointment or follow ups, but they are getting frustrated. And yes, when they get frustrated they want to hear from you more and more and more. And the inclination from us will be to I don’t want to call them. It’s going to be a conflict.

00;17;52;20 – 00;18;10;14
Speaker 3
It could ask me questions. I can’t answer them. I’m not going to know what to say. That’s when you have to go back to basics, go back to the seller training, listen to it live it, and remember when they call you. But there’s always going to be that one seller that when you see their name come up on your phone, you just get a pit in your stomach.

00;18;10;29 – 00;18;31;13
Speaker 3
And in order for that not to happen, you just have to stay on top of it and have those tough conversations. And I would say I’ve had more of those tough conversations since coming to Lamacchia than I ever did before because I was in that mindset. I don’t want to hear it, I don’t like conflict. But Anthony said, No, you have to have the tough conversations, have them now.

00;18;31;13 – 00;18;46;20
Speaker 3
It will save you in the future and it’ll save the relationship. And it has it has so many times. And I said, you know what? If I didn’t pick up the phone and call them, I would have lost the listing and I would have lost their referrals. I would have lost the relationship because I called and just stuck to it.

00;18;47;11 – 00;18;48;00
Speaker 3
I saved it.

00;18;48;10 – 00;19;13;03
Speaker 2
Yeah. And some of those people you probably are still friends with because they respected the fact that you did that. So, yeah. All right. So my next question for you is, what is the biggest thing that an agent can do to be successful today and to stay successful, especially now with the changes that are kind of coming? Not that the market is crashing, because I know everyone’s making sure that that is not the word that’s out there.

00;19;13;03 – 00;19;27;18
Speaker 2
But it’s definitely a downshift. It is definitely a change in the market as opposed to what has. Yeah, exactly. As opposed to what has been over the last two years. So tell me, what is the biggest thing that an agent can do to be successful and to stay successful?

00;19;28;00 – 00;19;45;28
Speaker 3
Well, first of all, there’s no way we could have sustained that kind of growth and price increases. That was just crazy, right? We just couldn’t sustain it. So it had to it had to adjust. So now it’s adjusting. And people just have to get in the mindset of when if they’re on the listing side, they need to go in and set expectations right up front.

00;19;46;11 – 00;20;06;24
Speaker 3
This is what we’re seeing. But remember, this is history, right? So history shows prices were increasing and everyone was getting over asking. Now we’re going to shifting market. So set expectations that you might just get off a price list, off a price you might get a little bit below. You might have to, you know, negotiate a little bit more, negotiate a little bit harder.

00;20;08;00 – 00;20;26;01
Speaker 3
But I think just sticking with it and I think, number one, especially for the agents that have not seen a market like this, you have to get the training to know how to speak to the sellers. And on the buy side, you really need to get the training on the buy side to know how to talk to the buyers and what their expectations would be.

00;20;26;06 – 00;20;55;11
Speaker 3
Because I had a buyer the other day and they’re thinking they can go at 100 on your asking. I’m like, No, no, no, no, no, no. We’re not at that market. We’re still in an adjusting market, but we’re not below asking yet or not that much below asking. So you don’t want people to start getting ridiculous. But if you don’t have the conversations or the scripts to help you navigate through that, you’re going to get yourself in trouble and you’re going to find buyers wanting to fire you because you won’t make offers for them that are so low under asking.

00;20;55;18 – 00;21;15;20
Speaker 3
And you don’t want to ruin your reputation with all the other agents. They’ll see your name and say, Oh my gosh, you must have another one of those buyers coming in low. So really, I think right now is training. Stick with it. Don’t let people get you down, you know your business and just educate people and be truthful with them and do your homework.

00;21;16;03 – 00;21;33;10
Speaker 2
You mentioned this in the beginning about, you know, going back in the day to the Realtor Association. Well, I say back in the day, it’s really not that long ago, you know, in the grand scheme of things. But a lot of agents are only in the business a couple of years now. So maybe that for them it is.

00;21;33;17 – 00;21;56;24
Speaker 2
Yeah. But yeah. So before you had mentioned going to the realtor Association to get some training and things like that. You’ve always been as long as I’ve known you, you’ve always been very involved in the Realtor Association in your area. But I wanted to see why that is and what other benefits people can get out of those kind of, you know, being involved in adding that kind of community aspect to their business.

00;21;56;24 – 00;22;19;13
Speaker 3
Right. I would say for the first 15 years of my career, I was extremely involved in both the local in the state and some of the national level as well. And that’s where I made a lot of my relationships. Right now, everything is computer based, so you don’t get to meet agents. You know, we to broker open houses, which I’m kind of glad we don’t now, but we did and we get we were able to meet agents then.

00;22;19;24 – 00;22;46;07
Speaker 3
I find it much easier to present an offer to an agent if you know them, because they already trust you. So that’s really one of the only way to meet people these days, meet other agents, is to actually go to the realtor organization, the realtor events, get to meet them face to face. They get to trust you. And that’s basically how I met a ton of people and I actually got a lot of referrals from when I was at the state level from people that didn’t necessarily work in my area, didn’t have offices here.

00;22;46;17 – 00;22;56;18
Speaker 3
They would give me referrals, I would refer to them again and again. The training know just the experience being around other people. If you don’t have that in your office.

00;22;57;05 – 00;23;16;09
Speaker 2
Awesome and couldn’t agree more. I think it’s a common theme with agents that I talk to that have been in the business longer than five years. They’re all very much involved or they’re doing CQ classes or certification courses or whatever it is that they can do through those associations to really better themselves. So I love I love to hear that.

00;23;16;09 – 00;23;17;14
Speaker 2
And I think it’s really good advice.

00;23;18;14 – 00;23;37;29
Speaker 3
For agents to, you know, the certifications to be able to put that after your name is pretty important because you know what were the biggest fear I had when I came into real estate was a seller or a buyer asking me, how long you’ve been doing this? Nobody wants to say, a year, two years, five years. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but if you have the certifications, they typically don’t ask, you.

00;23;38;26 – 00;23;41;03
Speaker 2
Know, just looks like you’ve been doing it for forever.

00;23;41;10 – 00;23;41;21
Speaker 3
Ever.

00;23;42;07 – 00;24;02;04
Speaker 2
Fake it, see it now I’m just getting it’s training. It really goes back to it is training training as you can do. So last question for you. Okay. And you know, this should kind of be an easy one, but maybe not is the traits of a successful agent. What do you think an agent truly needs to have in order to be successful in this business?

00;24;02;13 – 00;24;27;00
Speaker 3
Well, I guess success is measured in different ways, but I would say having a really good attitude, because remember, what is our job? Bottom line, our job is to bring buyers and sellers together to buy properties. Buy and sell properties. Right. It’s not your house. It’s not your decision. I think if an agent stays objective, they will close more properties than an agent.

00;24;27;00 – 00;24;51;08
Speaker 3
That gets very personal about it. You know, some people take on the persona of the House. Well, I don’t think that you should be asking for this. Well, it’s not your job to think about that, right? If I present something, you present it to the seller. Let the seller decide. And there’s so many emotions between the buyer and the seller going in that if the agents start getting that emotion, it’s going to fall apart.

00;24;51;18 – 00;25;08;02
Speaker 3
Agents should take a business view of it. And just this I’m presenting this offer, this is what we’re doing. Let me know what the sellers think or vice versa, and let’s move on from there. No yelling, no screaming. I’m telling at any age. And that calls me and says, yelling at me, I’m hanging up. I’m going to be yelled at.

00;25;08;09 – 00;25;25;15
Speaker 3
I’m not going to be sworn at. So just be professional. You know, raise our profession, be professional, be objective, and treat the other person as a business person and try to take the emotions out of it to the best of your ability. And that way, I think that will make you successful.

00;25;26;00 – 00;25;41;28
Speaker 2
Absolutely. I think it’s amazing advice from an absolutely awesome realtor. So thank you so much, Angela, for doing this twice now. I do feel like this one was better, so I’m glad and we’re going to go with that. Okay. Well, as long as it recorded, that’s all that I care about.

00;25;41;28 – 00;25;43;12
Speaker 3
I’m sure it did. But if it did, I.

00;25;43;12 – 00;25;59;02
Speaker 2
Can see that. I can see the line. Yeah, exactly. We’ll do it all over again. We’ll have to go live at that point just so that there’s no like, you know. No, no way for it to not go into the into the interwebs. I will. Thank you so much, Angela. I really appreciate it. And thank you to all of our listeners.

00;25;59;04 – 00;26;03;18
Speaker 2
We will see you on the next episode of The Agents Who Crush It in Real Estate. Bye bye.