Real Estate, For Real

Celebrating the 50th episode by welcoming one of everyone's favorite guests, Ketki Arya. Once again, Ketki takes the reins and asks me all about my plans going into 2026. We talk about my plans to build a real estate team, and my involvement in a few committees with the association. Ketki shares her experiences both being part of a team, and as a team lead. We also reflect back on what I thought the podcast would be vs what it has turned out to be.

My guest this week is Jane Locascio. We talk mainly about overcoming adversity. From her battle with cancer, a horrible accident that nearly cost her a leg, and chopping part of her finger, Jane has fought back and built a successful real estate career. We talk about how beneficial the Buffini program has been to her, and offer up advice to new agents.

This week I'm joined by Bev Brauer, President of Cornerstone Title Groupe. We of course learn about how she got into the business, some of the things that happen behind the scenes to make sure everyone gets to the closing table, what they're doing to help combat wire fraud in real estate transactions, the importance of everyone in and around the real estate industry keeping lines of communication open, briefcases full of cash, and some great closing table stories.

It's all about commission on this episode as I welcome back Julie Davis. We talk about how to have those conversations with sellers, what has changed in our conversations since the NAR settlement, getting buyer agency agreements signed, and the importance of offering compensation to buyer agents.

This week's episode features Dominic Campo. The conversation covers his start in the family business, being known as the Pawnee brokerage, Realtors being bad at math, his involvement in different committees, trying to understand how to pay taxes, getting along with agents from other brokerages, and the Campo family's 100 year history of local real estate.

This week Cody Huson stops by to talk about how he got into real estate, the challenges he faced starting off vs the challenges new agents face today, the benefits of working on a team, the importance of communication and human connection, changes to our contracts, and our go-to McDonald's orders.

Gina Wolter returns to the podcast this week. We talk about the importance of communication in our industry, and how easy it is for Realtors to slack off in that department. Then we shift to the topic of appraisals. We cover how they impact our transactions, and share ideas of how the process could be potentially be improved.

It's another Grady Day on the podcast! Cindy and Missy return, but this time they bring their mom, Betty, and their brother, Dave. We learn how Grady Realtors began, and what it was like having the whole family working together. Betty shares what retirement is like, and how tough the decision was to merge the family business into The Real Estate Group. A really fun episode with a lot of great stories from a family whose name is synonymous with Real Estate in Central IL.

On this Realtor Roundtable episode I welcome Katelyn Rexroad, Maki Rose, and Zach Brewer. We talk about getting into the business at a young age, the obstacles facing younger agents, applying the same mentality they used as competitive athletes growing up to the competitive industry they work in now, the importance of having a social media presence, choosing work over the normal social life of people in their early 20s, and the challenges they didn't see coming.

I go solo in this episode to talk about what has and hasn't changed in our industry since the introduction of Buyer Agency Agreements a little over a year ago. Are buyers reallly paying their own agents now? How do we go about having these conversations with buyers, as well as sellers? We seem to be settling in and adapting to the changes. But, there is still some lingering confusion, even among agents. I do my best to make sense of it all. A good, quick listen for agents, buyers, and sellers.