Real Estate Market Update 2023 Recap: Google Marketing, Special Loan Programs, & Hidden Deals

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:00:08 to 00:00:26
Howdy to all my podcast partners out there. It's time again for your Texas real estate and finance real estate market update. I'm your friendly neighborhood mortgage banker, Mike Mills, coming to you from the heart of Dallas Fort Worth. Now, I know I'm fashionably late this week, but blame it on the holiday hangover, I guess. But don't worry, I'm here to give you your lowdown on the last last week of 2023.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:00:26 to 00:00:47
But hey, since it's been a bit of a snoozer in the real estate world this week, let's switch things up a bit. In today's episode, I've got a little treat for all of y'all. We're going to dive into five episode highlights from interviews that we did earlier this year. You know those hidden gems that you might have missed somewhere along the way? These snippets are like tiny little treasure chests filled with nuggets of wisdom to help you dominate your real estate game in 2024.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:00:47 to 00:01:10
We're going to be talking about the importance of self care for all you hardworking agents out there. A sneaky little marketing trick to reel in more clients next year. Insights into those special loan programs for your buyers, a secret sauce for finding deals in a high price market. And of course, how to get your business ready for 2024. Because change seems likely with all the fun stuff happening in our industry as of late.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:01:10 to 00:01:26
I really hope you enjoy these bite sized nuggets of knowledge and get a taste of the incredible guests that we served up in 2023. And if you find these helpful, you know the drill. Go back and listen to the full episode. Our guests drop some real wisdom on us in these episodes, and this is just a taste. So sit back, relax, and let's get the show on the road.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:01:26 to 00:01:50
All right, let's dive into our first little wisdom nugget. Now, this snippet hails from episode 72, where we had the pleasure of chatting with the awesome Nicole Christopherson, a top notch broker from Austin. Now, Nicole's not your run of the mill real estate pro. She's all about building a whole darn community around her real estate gig, and she does it with the work hard smile large mindset. In this clip, Nicole shares with us why self care is the real mvp when you're hustling as a busy professional.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:01:50 to 00:02:15
She shares how it's been a cornerstone of her life and why she thinks it should be one for you, too. So, folks, if you've been neglecting your body and your mind, you might want to lend Nicole your ears for a few minutes. She's got some real pearls of wisdom to share. Mentioned this a second ago, and I always hear people that have had success in really all walks of life mention this often, and I'm a big proponent of it as well. But when you have to maintain a certain mentality, especially in a down market right now, things are slower.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:02:15 to 00:02:27
I mean, there's no pretending that it's not, it's not what it was. It's not terrible, but it's also not great. So there can be a little bit of downtroddenness or whatever you want to call it, agents that get upset. Everything takes more work. That's right, it takes.

Nicole Christopherson (Guest) | 00:02:27 to 00:02:52
And guess what? It's always taken more work. In my 21 years of doing real estate, there has only been maybe two years that it wasn't a lot of work, or three years that it wasn't a lot of work. You had brought up part of your regimen and part of your day is very focused on your fitness, on taking care of your body and your mind. And I think people lose track of that often when we feel like, well, I got to work, work, work, I got to go out and hustle and bustle all day long.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:02:52 to 00:03:16
But if you don't work on yourself and take care of your self, then the rest of it doesn't bleed over very well. So can you speak to a little bit about why that's so important, especially in that work hard, smile, large mindset where you got to take care of? Absolutely. My family calls me a machine and I know when I feel my best and whether it means I had a ton of success at work or anything like that. I know when I feel my best throughout my day and when I end my day.

Nicole Christopherson (Guest) | 00:03:16 to 00:03:26
And so I try to recreate my best day every day. And that's for me, that's what I know. I check in with myself and check that. So that means everybody's is going to be different. So let me just make that disclaimer right now.

Nicole Christopherson (Guest) | 00:03:27 to 00:03:41
Mine is going to a one size fits all. I used to wake up at 04:00 a.m. In California, be at spin by five, be home by 630 from the gym, wake my kids up. I don't do that anymore because that doesn't work. So my routine has changed, but I make sure I wake up and have quiet time.

Nicole Christopherson (Guest) | 00:03:41 to 00:04:02
I really try not to get on my device in the morning until my kids or whatever have been seen off. I make sure we eat healthy vitamins, home cooked food, healthy fruits and vegetables, but I get exercise almost every day and my form of exercise changes. But that needs to be done before I start my work day. The minute I pick up my device or I get on my computer, my workout is non. What happens when you.

Nicole Christopherson (Guest) | 00:04:02 to 00:04:12
I tried many times. I'm not going to work out at the end of the day. It's not going to happen in the middle of the day. I want to be ready and part of me doing it in the morning. For all the professional that are listening, you don't know where your day is going to take.

Nicole Christopherson (Guest) | 00:04:12 to 00:04:24
I don't go through my day in sweats anymore. And if I am in my workout clothes, it's very rare. I will embrace that. That's fine. But I get ready every day, not to the nines, to how I feel comfortable.

Nicole Christopherson (Guest) | 00:04:24 to 00:04:52
So that something calls upon me or I have an opportunity to meet somebody or go somewhere or do something or be on camera with somebody and learn and grow. And then it sets up my tone for how I operate my business every day and how I run my daily routine. So that's like the physical whatever. But then I also have a daily, weekly, monthly routine of what I check through every morning. I check my email, I check my calendar, I check the MLS, I check our marketing calendar, I read the news, a couple news things, and that gets shorter and shorter every single day until I revamp it and build it up.

Nicole Christopherson (Guest) | 00:04:52 to 00:05:07
But it should take less than an hour. Now I'm hitting all my cues and I'm starting my day with a clear mind and a prioritized list of what I need to do and who I need to call. And I'm ready and I'm way more efficient. The days I scramble and don't hit that, I'm scrambling all day. Well, I've had a couple of conversations with different people about this.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:05:07 to 00:05:31
And what I've found as a general theme is that you don't appreciate the physical exertion and the mental clarity that you get from it until you don't do it. Or you do it for a long period of time and then you fall off the bike, which everybody does. Nobody's perfect. We're all going to work out. There's weeks that you're tired or your body tells you you don't need it and then you do something else.

Nicole Christopherson (Guest) | 00:05:31 to 00:05:48
You read a book instead. You find another form of peace and calmness for yourself because it's really a mental reset. All right, now moving on to clip number two. And let me tell you, this one is a real mind blower. It's from one of my personal favorites in 2023, episode number 34, featuring the incredible Cassie Spears.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:05:48 to 00:06:07
If you haven't had the pleasure of tuning in yet, you are seriously missing out. Cassie is the real deal. She's been on the grind since she was 18 years old, and now she's the undisputed champ in her market. This gal invests more in coaching every year than most agents even make. And in this clip, she imparts on us how she leveraged Google reviews to snatch up even greater market share.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:06:07 to 00:06:21
Trust me, if you're looking for marketing tips for your real estate business, Cassie's got the place. We're going into fifth gear. Hang on, buddy. Put your seatbelt on. But I just wanted to be the very, very best, and I knew that I needed to market then, and you don't learn marketing now.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:06:21 to 00:06:38
So I think where a lot of agents are failing, especially like the people that in their class, they're all taking these vigorous notes because they weren't doing it last year, they weren't spending the time. And I was. I literally immersed myself in marketing. And what makes a consumer do something, and how do you show up? And what's branding and client avatar like?

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:06:38 to 00:06:58
All the things I know about, I know about the back of my hand. And what's really cool, too, with my one coaching program is now I'm a mentor in it, so I get to help agents. So I spoke on stage a couple of times last year, and I've taught other agents, this is where you come from. Abundance, mindset, not scarcity. And I taught them how to do a Google review funnel.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:06:58 to 00:07:15
So what I did was I spent the whole year of 2021. So I didn't have a Google presence on reviews like a Google my business or anything like that. So I spent all of 2021 nurturing my past clients. I would drop off things on their door. I would send them postcards with a QR code that took them directly to leave a review.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:07:15 to 00:07:27
I had contests and things like that. So at the end of the year, I had 105 star reviews on Google. That was what made my ads perform so much better, because not only am I paying, so Google likes for you. To pay, but you're legitimate. Two, I'm legitimate.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:07:27 to 00:07:44
And then, number three, I'm actually talking about the topics that people are actually searching on my website, right? So it just made me stand out. Now, last year, a lot of agents in the area started doing, like, local service ads and stuff like that. So the amount of leads that were coming in became down. But it doesn't matter because the ones that call me.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:07:44 to 00:07:59
They're ready to do business with me. They're like, here's my keys, or here I want you to do to property manage. And especially, I was kind of scared to even have an online presence, owning a property management company, because you can imagine how hard it is to keep all those tenants happy. Oh, I'm sure. So I was almost like a secret agent.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:07:59 to 00:08:15
Like, oh, my gosh, they're going to get somebody's water heater to get Fixna, and they're going to go and give me a one star review. So what happened is two months into this funnel, we took over a property. We didn't know it was a problematic tenant. They forgot to tell us that part. So we sent this whole, welcome, welcome to this is how we do things, blah, blah.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:08:15 to 00:08:25
He went and gave me a one star review. Never had a conversation with the guy. So then we turned it around and we made. I put my whole team in, like, a gel cell. And then I was like, oh, my gosh, we're in one star gel.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:08:25 to 00:08:32
And the only way to get out of one star gel is if you guys leave us. That postcard got us 20 reviews. Wow. They were like, what? She's great.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:08:32 to 00:08:45
And they truly made lemonade out of lemon. And we did. And we did that a couple of times because Google math isn't math. So I think we have, like, 188 reviews and we have six. One star.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:08:45 to 00:09:00
And they're tenants. Like, we have a tenant that allegedly burned down the house or burned down the kitchen after being evicted, and he went in and wrote us two reviews. So that's fun. We've been trying to fight that with Google, but. So we have a 4.8.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:09:00 to 00:09:19
So at first I was like, when I had the five, I was like, I need this five star review forever. Once I dropped, like, 4.9. It makes you more relevant because people have hired us because of how we respond to those one stars. We'll have people, we're like, we don't even know who you are. We've checked our database, and we don't show your name.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:09:19 to 00:09:29
We've checked our call logs, we've checked every. We don't know who you are. And a lot of times those people will go in and delete those, right? They'll just take them out. I feel like I just ran a marathon with you there.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:09:29 to 00:09:36
That's impressive to me. In my head. Yes. No, the cool thing is I teach other agents how to do it. I teach them like, hey, you do this.

Cassie Spears (Guest) | 00:09:36 to 00:09:46
And it's helped. It's tremendously. Helped other people, and that's fulfilling. All right, moving on. Have you ever found yourself scratching your head over all those special loan products flooding the market right now?

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:09:46 to 00:10:05
Well, don't fret. My good friend and colleague Jen Gottio came to the rescue in episode number 42. In this episode, Jen cussed through the noise and helps us separate fact from fiction when it comes to all those flashy loan offerings you see plastered everywhere these days. So if you're in the business and want to get the inside scoop on these loan options, Jen's got you covered. So there's always rules.

Jen Gaudio (Guest) | 00:10:05 to 00:10:17
Always rules. Okay. So for majority of these programs, if it sounds too good to be true, where you only got to put $100 down on a house and you buy a house for $100. Yes, that program does exist. Yes.

Jen Gaudio (Guest) | 00:10:17 to 00:10:26
But Uncle Sam's going to get his money one way or another if you're going to ask. So let's talk about the power five real fast, okay. I call them the power five. My daughter plays softball, so we talk about power five. Right.

Jen Gaudio (Guest) | 00:10:26 to 00:10:32
So I talk about power five. So you have the five, which is va. Right. You can get a va loan. That's for our veterans.

Jen Gaudio (Guest) | 00:10:32 to 00:10:40
You can get an FHA loan backed by HUD. Right. USDA, our rural development. And then you have Fannie and Freddie, which. Conventional loans.

Jen Gaudio (Guest) | 00:10:40 to 00:10:52
Yes, conventional loans, but they're two different agencies, so we separate them out. So that's our power five. So a lot of these programs fall underneath one of those five of the power fives. Where's the first time home buyer loan? There isn't one.

Jen Gaudio (Guest) | 00:10:52 to 00:10:58
There's not really a first time. What? People ask me this all the time. What do you mean? What's the first time home buyer loans?

Jen Gaudio (Guest) | 00:10:58 to 00:11:04
What are you talking about? I'm so confused. There's not a true first time home buyer loan. I know it's. There are programs that.

Jen Gaudio (Guest) | 00:11:04 to 00:11:21
There are programs that might require you to be. Not have owned a home in the last. Not have owned a home in the last three years, but not technically a first time home buyer program like conventional. Fannie and Freddie have an option where you can put down 3% instead of 5% if you have not owned a home in the last three years. That's right.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:11:21 to 00:11:30
That's perfectly loud. But you do have to take a first time home buyer course, which is like, what are they, like $75 now, Dave? Yeah, some of them are. I mean, that's not that big of a deal. Small little thing that you have to do.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:11:30 to 00:11:39
And I think they're pretty quick. Take like 20 minutes or something. They're not very hard, but that is technically a first time home buyer loan. But it's a conventional loan that still has all the conventional rules. All the conventional rules.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:11:39 to 00:11:49
There's no incentive involved in it whatsoever. You just put down a little less money because they're trying to be like. Okay, that's all it is. And then, so let's talk about your FHA. So your HUD.

Jen Gaudio (Guest) | 00:11:49 to 00:12:13
Remember, this is the government. So it's backed by HUD. Okay, but let me clarify something on that too, because this happens more with VA, which we'll get to in a second. But people will say, well, FHA says this or VA says that, okay, no loan goes to FHA or to VA in the process of doing the loan, okay? The loan is with the bank, with the underwriters and the staff that is doing the loan to guidelines.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:12:13 to 00:12:26
The government, the VA and the FHA are not issuing loans. They do not issue loans. They're the governing body that creates the rules to guarantee that loan. So if it defaults, then the bank has coverage. Correct.

Jen Gaudio (Guest) | 00:12:26 to 00:12:47
Sorry. There are instances in VA where you do have to submit to them, but we'll talk about that in a minute. So let's talk about HUD, FHA government loan, okay. Backed by the government. So I always tell people if you are default, defaulted on some student loan that was government backed, don't go ask for a government backed mortgage loan because Uncle Sam's going to get his money.

Jen Gaudio (Guest) | 00:12:48 to 00:13:04
If you already owe the government money, they're not going to go give you another government backed loan. But there are programs. They're not programs per se. They're just different subsections, if you will, of the master FHA loan. So there's options within the FHA loan.

Jen Gaudio (Guest) | 00:13:04 to 00:13:14
Yes, but that's all it is. It's just add ons. If you want to think of it like a menu. They're just ala carte sides that you can add to the main loan. That's all it is.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:13:14 to 00:13:24
The other special programs that get brought up and it does fall into the category. This is one of these first time home buyer loan that gets put into that category often. But it's down payment assistance, okay? Oh, yeah. Yes.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:13:25 to 00:13:31
And that is a program. So talk a little bit about down payment assistance. You will get money. Yes. But it will come at a cost, correct.

Jen Gaudio (Guest) | 00:13:31 to 00:13:47
Down payment assistance, it is great. Remember, as originators like yourself, you put the programs in front of somebody who's going to be the best option for them. So somebody who might not have a lot of capital and really wants to own a home. And they really don't care about the interest rate. They just want to own a home for them and their family.

Jen Gaudio (Guest) | 00:13:47 to 00:14:00
Great programs, down payment assistance might be the route to go. You get the cash, but you're going to have caveats. A lot of down payment assistance programs require you to live in the home anywhere between three to ten years. Yes. Otherwise you get to pay back every penny that they give you.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:14:00 to 00:14:16
Yes. And nine times out of ten you're going to have a much higher rate. Correct than what your standard is. Because again, they don't give you the money, but it's going to come at a cost and they're going to get it in one way or another, whether it be in the interest rate that they're going to charge you. Because us, nobody dictates that rate but them for down payment assistance.

Jen Gaudio (Guest) | 00:14:16 to 00:14:35
So it's not like we could play with it or anything like that. There's nothing I can do. You can't even buy it down a lot of times. But majority of these other down payment assistance programs, they have caveats. What they do is they slap a second, okay, so all that means is on your home, when you own it, they'll put something on title similar to car title.

Jen Gaudio (Guest) | 00:14:35 to 00:14:51
Let's say if you have a loan. So on a house, they'll slap a little soft second lien on the side that basically says if you try to go do something within the time frame that you're allotted, that you're required to live in that home, you have to pay back every bit of that. Yes, every bit. Right. There's no proration.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:14:51 to 00:15:01
If you refinance it or sell it, you're paying it back. And each down payment assistance program has different rules. Yes. And we have to follow each of those rules. Now they all start again.

Jen Gaudio (Guest) | 00:15:01 to 00:15:16
One of the power fives, it's either going to be a conventional loan or an FHA loan or a VA loan or a USDA loan. One of those four. It will be one of those four. So you still have to follow those rules. And then you have to add on the down payment assistance rules on top of that.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:15:16 to 00:15:36
And most of them have credit requirements. So you have to have a minimum credit score to qualify. Most of them have income limits, which means that you can't make too much money to qualify for this. They don't want somebody who makes half a million dollars a year able to go in there and get this money from the government or from the localities, mostly municipals. I say government, but it's state and local government, not the federal government.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:15:36 to 00:15:58
It's getting this money. Like you said, it's not free money. It comes with a much higher rate. But what I always tell people is like, look, as long as you understand what you're getting into, if you understand that you're paying a higher rate to get money so that you don't have to keep renting, so you can start the path of home ownership and you understand it and it's a benefit to you, then great. They're great programs.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:15:58 to 00:16:17
Where I get frustrated as a loan officer in the business is that there's this idea in our industry and I don't even fault. It's not borrowers. It's people that do our jobs that use these tools as advertising mechanisms to get people to make the phone ring. Oh, yeah. Because then they get in and then you're like, you don't qualify for that, right.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:16:17 to 00:16:39
And it's sold as this magic pill that's going to make you be able to buy a house with no money, with no. Unfortunately, I probably would do better if I did more of that. I just can't bring myself to do it because I just want to be upfront with people. I want to be like, look, these things exist and they are helpful. And sometimes, like with the CRA programs, we have some in certain areas, Houston, Louisiana.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:16:39 to 00:16:52
We don't have any locally here in. DFW right now till maybe after the census. Until maybe after the census happens. But those type of things, they all come with catches. And there's no such thing as free money, there's no such thing as this perfect program with you.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:16:52 to 00:17:17
If you have poor credit and you have no assets, that you're going to be able to get into a loan. If you don't fit in the box, right, the little box, then it's either going to be very expensive, you're going to have a really high rate, require a lot of cash, or you're not going to be able into clip number four. And this one's a real gem. Our regular contributor, Conrad Jackson had some golden advice for all you savy investors out there. Even in a market where prices are soaring, he's got the inside scoop on where to find the best deals in the market.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:17:17 to 00:17:39
And Conrad's no small player. He's deep into single family and multifamily projects and he's even a neighborhood developer. This guy's been dishing out knowledge like candy over the last year. And this little tidbit is just a taste of what his brain is holding on to. If you want more from Conrad's wisdom, you can catch him on episodes 65 39, 20 510 and two, trust me, he's a big contributor to the podcast.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:17:39 to 00:18:04
Real estate is obviously very hyper local and every area is a little different for sure. So if you were looking for a deal right now as a fix and flip or even as a rental, are you looking in McKinney or are you looking in what would be an area that you would look that's either maybe undervalued. You don't have to give specific areas. But just like if you're the investor, are you going to the high traffic areas and paying more, or are you going to a lower traffic area and trying to find a dealer? Where are you looking?

Conrad Jackson (Guest) | 00:18:04 to 00:18:47
That depends on your tolerance for risk as the individual, every individual is different. My tolerance for risk is pretty low, and I'm a creature of habit. Like most investors, especially newer investors, you're going to probably start somewhere geographically close to where you already sell or live life or live or whatever. So I always recommend people to start where they're comfortable. If you're going into this for a rental and you're a newer investor, then you're going to want to look at places that have a great working class community with public transportation, high visibility in areas that typically have a lot of rental units, because you know that there's a lot of data there that's going to allow you to be able to rent your unit out when you find one in that area.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:18:47 to 00:19:06
Right. Going into the specialty markets requires a lot more legwork and a lot more risk. So unless you're from that area or you're familiar with that area, I would recommend staying what you are in the areas that you're familiar with. Do where you're comfortable, go where you're comfortable, and there's still deals can be found. Absolutely.

Conrad Jackson (Guest) | 00:19:06 to 00:19:16
Yeah, absolutely. And if you're not finding the right deal for yourself, you're not looking at enough deals per day. Got you. That's just it. And where would you go to look for deals?

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:19:16 to 00:19:50
Like, where are you looking? Where's the places you're checking out? Everywhere. Just driving the neighbor driving in the car and looking at houses that are boarded up or overgrown grass or seeing these for sale by owner deals or seeing these. There's a lot of trash and stuff on the yard, and people are setting their stuff out, finding these properties that have notices of the water being shut off or taped or tagged or whatever we call it, driving for dollars, looking for signs that say, we'll buy houses because they also sell houses because they've bought so many houses.

Conrad Jackson (Guest) | 00:19:51 to 00:20:15
Doing things like that are going to actually making sure that when you see neighborhoods popping up, brand new neighborhoods popping up, and you're seeing for rent signs out there, calling those for rent signs and asking the owner if they're going to sell the property, if they can't rent it, would they be interested in selling it to. You never know till you ask, right? You never know till you ask. There's a lot of places that you can go to find out information. The tax foreclosure lists.

Conrad Jackson (Guest) | 00:20:15 to 00:20:27
They put them out on the county's websites or on the attorneys websites who handle the foreclosures. You can just google it. Who handles Tarrant County's foreclosures? Auctions. And boom, it'll give you the attorney's name.

Conrad Jackson (Guest) | 00:20:27 to 00:20:53
You go to their website and they list every single county on that attorney's website that they handle, and you can pull up the list for that month and see what properties are going to come up for sale on the auctions, there's a lot of free things that you can do to find properties for sale. You just got to look or just ask. Yeah, we're on social media. Every single day we're looking for properties, and most of us don't put on social media that we're looking for properties. It's so weird.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:20:53 to 00:21:04
Just ask the question. Yeah, we'll literally go to Facebook and go to marketplace and just start thumbing through and, hmm, I like this one. I like that one. As opposed to putting a message out. Which will go to a thousand people.

Conrad Jackson (Guest) | 00:21:04 to 00:21:19
That look at your messages and say, does anybody have a deal? Yes. Nobody does. I won't say nobody does it, but there's few people that will do that in their sphere because I guess we have to mentally separate. Oh, this is my personal, but this is my investment.

Conrad Jackson (Guest) | 00:21:19 to 00:21:32
Where do you think you're going to find your best deals? Your personal sphere of influence? That's where the deals are. All right, last but not least, folks, we are wrapping things up with a snippet from my chat with Amy Cornell back in mid November. Amy is no stranger to our podcast either.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:21:32 to 00:21:55
She's been a regular contributor, and boy, does she bring the knowledge. With two decades of experience under her belt, Amy's a true real estate veteran. She's not just a broker. She's worn multiple leadership hats across the industry over the years. And when it comes to being in the know about the state of the industry, she is one of the best in this clip Amy shares her insights on what's brewing for 2024 considering all the lawsuits and potential changes on the horizon.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:21:55 to 00:22:12
If you're a realtor looking to stay ahead of the game, her wisdom on how to prepare is a can't miss. Listen, I encourage you to check out the full episode for more insight into what's coming our way in 2024. It sounds like we don't have a lot of answers. That's what it sounds like. It sounds like we have so many more questions and not a bunch of answers.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:22:12 to 00:22:36
And unfortunately, that's not where anybody wants to be. But we're in this situation where just what it is, right? I mean, there isn't. I think it is what it is and I think we can be forward looking as business owners and start playing out like, well, if this happens, then this, and if this happens, then this, and maybe I want to make some of those changes now, and then I want to do this. So I think there's going to be some of that happening.

Amy Cearnal (Guest) | 00:22:36 to 00:23:02
But as far as somebody coming in and coming into our house and saying, hey, you need to start doing business this way, that may be long and. Coming, wow, what would you tell agents that are planning for 2024? As far as not just with this, but also with where the market's headed? As far as like, hey, how are you planning your business and what kind of income can you expect to make? Because that's really what it all boils down to.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:23:02 to 00:23:23
I think a lot of agents are asking themselves right now, am I going to continue to be a realtor or do I need to go find another profession? Unfortunately, we've already had a bunch leave and it's a question they're asking themselves. So you got to plan for it and know what's coming. Yeah, I agree. I think they've got to start getting real serious about what their plan is for 2024.

Amy Cearnal (Guest) | 00:23:23 to 00:23:54
How are they going to do business development? How are they going to explain their value proposition and how are they going to price and what team do they have behind them to do that? And that could be team from brokerage team, marketing team, mortgage partners. How do they create this client experience that's going to be the best fit that makes a consumer want to pay for this service, not feel like they have to in any way, but that they are just so desirous of this because they feel like they are going to be better off for working with you than not. And so that may take some creativity.

Amy Cearnal (Guest) | 00:23:54 to 00:24:17
It may take doing something different than what you've done in the past. And so I would just encourage all agents to do that, to really take this next, even 45 days between now and the end of the year to really seek out as much information as you can. I would say talk to friends in the industry, not about like, hey, let's. Fix our price at this. Don't do that.

Amy Cearnal (Guest) | 00:24:18 to 00:25:02
But talk about is your brokerage offering a business planning seminar? Are there any sort of resources that you can go to to help craft a business plan and a strong value proposition so that then you individually can say, okay, this is what I do and this is what I feel like is the fair price that I charge to the consumer for that. And that's what I feel like I can go to market with and I'm going to go with this marketing strategy. Business planning this year is going to be completely different. Like I was saying earlier, this is something that if you're doing things the same old way, if you're going to the same old classes or same, you've got to change it up and figure out how can I be relevant in this new world and what do I want to have that look like?

Amy Cearnal (Guest) | 00:25:02 to 00:25:13
Don't let this happen to you. You want to happen to it. Yes. Those that are proactive will have the success that they're looking for and those that are waiting to see what's going to happen or not. And that's why you have to be thinking about this stuff.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:25:13 to 00:25:29
You can't just stick your head in the sand and pretend like it's not happening. And there are going to be a lot of people that are going to take some of the guidance that we've gotten from our partners forever. I mean, Ben Ar saying, hey, it's just business as usual right now. You don't have to change. That's real easy just to say like, yeah, I'm not going to change.

Amy Cearnal (Guest) | 00:25:29 to 00:25:45
Everything's going to be okay. And it may be you could stay on that path, and it could be that the Department of Justice or the president or somebody comes in and says, hey, home ownership is so important. We are not changing anything with realtors. This is exactly how it's going to stay. But there's also this possibility that it's not.

Amy Cearnal (Guest) | 00:25:45 to 00:26:18
And if you're not prepared for that, what does that mean for your family going forward? Can you believe like 18 months ago our entire industry was just, they could just sit by their phone and their phone would ring and someone would want to buy or sell their house and they really didn't have to do very much. And here we are less than two years later. And our entire industry has been kind of flipped upside down due to market conditions. And with stuff like this, I don't know if there's been too many industries over the last 30 or 40 years that have seen such a change in such a short amount of time as to what their impact is.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:26:19 to 00:26:29
I can't believe it. In some cases, it blows my mind. Change creates opportunity, though. So there's going to be a lot of cool opportunities in this market. And so if you just leave, you're not part of the party.

Amy Cearnal (Guest) | 00:26:29 to 00:26:48
There's going to be stuff to do. It's just a matter of how do we do it and how do we do it? Well, folks, that is a wrap for today's episode. And what a ride it's been. As we close out this year, our first full year of the Texas Real estate and finance podcast, I want to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you who's been with us on this entire journey.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:26:48 to 00:27:16
Your support and engagement has meant the world to us, and it's been a blast, bringing you insights, tips, and some good old Texas charm throughout the year. Your enthusiasm and dedication to growing your knowledge of the real estate industry is what keeps us going. But wait, we're not just done yet. We've got one more fantastic episode coming your way this Friday. We're rolling out the red carpet to welcome Chelsea Gardner, a marketing professional and an absolute wizard when it comes to crafting prompts to supercharge AI for realtors in 2024.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:27:16 to 00:27:27
You won't want to miss this one. It is going to be a game changer. So here's the deal, folks. Keep spreading the word. Invite your fellow realtors to join our ever growing community, and let's make 2024 the best year yet.

Mike Mills (Host) | 00:27:27 to 00:27:44
Stay tuned, stay engaged, and stay awesome because we're here to support you on your journey to real estate success. So thank you once again for being a part of the Texas Real Estate and finance podcast community. Until next time, this is Mike Mills signing off, saying, be great, humans. Stay tuned and stay inspired. We'll see you next time.