Real Estate Therapy

Real Estate Therapy

By Cynthia CumminsBusiness
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Real Estate Therapy episodes

  • Top Realtors in Asheville North Carolina

    Here’s an entertaining conversation with Patty and Ben Woolf, a married real estate team working in Asheville, North Carolina – THE place where everyone seems to want to be right now. In talking with host Cynthia Cummins, they cover lots of – literal and metaphorical –  territory, while keeping it fun and congenial. You’ll love getting to know these “woolfs in sheep’s clothing”!


    Highlights:

    • Why married couples make great Realtor teams

    • A favorite Oscar Wilde quote about San Francisco, with a twist!

    • Ben says “You buy the neighborhood” not the property

    • A career in education can be a good prerequisite for the Realtor job

    • Why you can’t do real estate part-time

    • You learn lots of crazy stuff while being a real estate agent

    • Septic systems, bloody refrigerators and “conveying” frogs

    • “Weird doesn’t care if you’ve been doing this for 20 years or 20 days.”

    • When you hear “it’s the principle of it” during a negotiation, better buckle up

    • “There’s no such thing as a real estate emergency” and why agents need time off

    • City real estate vs. rural real estate: There’s a big difference

      • Engage with Patty and Ben:

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      Website: https://benwoolf.mackeyrealty.com/

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      51 min
    • How Our Stuff Gets in the Way of Our Progress

      Julia Rich, professional organizer and decluttering expert, echoes host Cynthia Cummins' view that a home is far more than just a rectangular structure with a triangular roof made from various building materials. It's a place where we create memories, and our belongings become intricately intertwined with the fabric of our lives. Our stuff can enhance our lives, but often it gets in the way! Despite some audio issues, this conversation is particularly enjoyable and relatable.


      Highlights:

      • Realtors and other home-related professionals’ first job is to witness 

      • Hiring an organizing pro is a magic solution to inertia or paralysis when it comes to “things”

      • Objects have stories in them, even if they aren’t objectively valuable anymore

      • People die of loneliness and isolation; beware becoming trapped in your house by your stuff

      • Never put things in a storage unit!

      • Beware endowment effect and mere ownership effect: Your stuff isn’t as valuable as you think. 

      • Or it’s more valuable than you think; a third-party professional can help with that

      • “If you don’t love it, don’t acquire it” and “if you don’t love it, lose it”

      • Clearing out a longtime home is laden with emotion

      • "But Mom said I can have all the silver!"

      • A joke: "There's no crying in estate sales!"

      • Stuff impedes our progress. It keeps us anchored and rooted to the things that don't serve us and prevents us from moving on

      • “Open your drawers every 6 months and take a look.”


        • Contact Julia Rich:

        650-245-8978


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        48 min
      • Why San Francisco is a Realtor's Dream

        How many ways do we love San Francisco? Don’t listen to or watch this conversation with Mike Shaw if you don’t want to hear Cynthia and Mike gushing over our “cool grey city of love.” Just in time for Pride month, we talk about home sweet home SF, wonderful Castro Street, gay history, real estate for the LGBTQIA+ community, Armistead Maupin and more.

        Highlights:

        • Want some love? Come to San Francisco

        • Some history of Herth Real Estate

        • Filming of “Milk” on Castro Street ​​

        • Diversity and respect in real estate work

        • Armistead Maupin and Tales of the City

        • Historical homes in San Francisco

        • “A spreadsheet only goes so far” when it comes to the buying process

        • We're astounded by people's trust in us, and honored to serve

        • “You have to work to buy real estate”

        • "It it's hysterical, it's historical"

        • SF Pride

          • Engage with Mike Shaw:

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          54 min
        • What Sellers Get Wrong When Choosing an Agent

          Nobody strolls into the local real estate store anymore when they're looking for a home. They begin with an internet search, and that has made geographic specialty for listing agents a thing of the past. Yes, your agent should live and work where your home is located, but that's as far as it goes. In this mini-episode, Cynthia explains why you should thoroughly vet your so-called local specialist.


          Highlights:

          • Tight geographic specialty can't sustain a real estate practice, so the agent who touts this isn't telling the whole story.
          • The internet has obliterated micro-market focus
          • Buyers aren't usually focused on just one neighborhood
          • Buyers don't care who is listing a property
          • If a home is priced right and given full exposure, buyers will come to see it
          • Many neighborhood specialists are dinosaur Realtors who just pump out postcards and wait for the phone to ring. (Emphasis on waiting for an actual landline to actually ring. LOL.)

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            Theme Song: Just One More Thing by Bob Hart

            7 min
          • How to Bring Mindfulness to Buying or Selling a Home

            Know that old saying “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence?” On its face, it’s about envying your neighbor’s lawn-care skills. As a metaphor, it’s about dissatisfaction with your present life. In this episode our guest Jessie Mahoney explains how you can shift that dynamic by bringing “pause and presence” to your home search and your life at home. “The grass is greener where you water it,” she says.


            Highlights:

            • With the right Realtor helping, you too can have a wholesome and healthy home search

            • Just because everyone else is doing it (buying a home) doesn’t mean you should

            • That it’s “a deal” doesn’t matter if the home doesn’t feel good

            • A home search or sale is a great way to grow a relationship

            • Real estate agents need counseling skills in order to be effective

            • Hypervigilance is a destroyer of joy

            • Catastrophizing, FOMO and other fear-based strategies can make you miserable

            • Luxury doesn’t necessarily mean expensive or trendy or rarefied

            • Pleasure is underrated in our lives

            • Jessie’s simple tips for becoming more present

            • Achieving your goals doesn’t bring happiness

            • If you want marital harmony, it’s best to avoid fixers

            • If you’re anxious over your search, remember it’s going to turn out better than you think


              • Engage with Jessie Mahoney:

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              Website: https://www.jessiemahoneymd.com/


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              Theme Song: Just One More Thing by Bob Hart

              55 min
            • Realtors Need a Rebrand


              Katie Bobo, whom we call “the Mona Lisa of residential real estate,” joins Cynthia for an engaging conversation about what the Realtor job is really all about. If you’re thinking about embarking on a real estate career or if you’re among the misinformed public who believe Realtors don’t actually DO anything, listen in!


              Highlights:

              • How “the Covid-19 Experience” changed the value of home

              • Agents shouldn’t “take things personally”

              • Real estate transactions can be beautiful!

              • Once you’ve sold, leave your house behind

              • Your real estate agent is the advisor on your personal team who is best qualified to be Chairman of Your Board

              • Witnessing a lifetime is one of the things we do as agents

              • What does it take to be an agent?

              • Katie’s unusual path to a real estate career

                • Engage with Katie Bobo:

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                Theme Song: Just One More Thing by Bob Hart

                53 min
              • Why Part-Time Realtors Don’t Succeed

                Our first “minisode” offers some valuable advice for would-be agents about how to make me break out laughing hysterically.

                Just say “I’m going to get my real estate license so I can work part-time and make lots of money and still {fill in the blank with one of the following: be a stay-at-home parent, travel extensively, go to graduate school, pursue my art, etc}.”

                It ain’t-a-gonna-happen and that’s because a successful real estate career doesn’t fit neatly into a 40-hour-a-week box. Listen to learn more


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                Theme Song: Just One More Thing by Bob Hart

                8 min
              • Why You Don’t Need to Remodel Your Kitchen!

                Hey there, dreamers! Got your head in the clouds, picturing that kitchen makeover that's going to transform your family life? Are you poring over magazines and websites for inspo and trends? Imagining quartz countertops, integrated hoods, trendy wallpaper, and terra cotta tile flooring? Hold up! Before you dive down the renovation rabbit hole, take a breather and tune into this episode.

                Fancy fixtures won't fix the heart of your home. Sometimes, the simplest (non-renovation) tweaks can bring the biggest and most sustainable results. Join Thais Harris and host Cynthia Cummins for a cozy chat about why your kitchen is more than a cooking space—it's the warm, beating heart of your household. Discover how to infuse it with all the love, nourishment, and comfort your family craves, no sledgehammer required!

                Highlights and links:

                • The kitchen is the modern-day hearth – the locus of living in our homes

                • Eating offers us three chances every day to practice mindfulness

                • If the Buddha Came to Dinner by  Hale Sofia Schatz and Shira Shaiman

                • The 80/20 rule about mindfulness

                • Our kitchen is a place for difficult conversations

                • The kitchen has a gravitational pull on us

                • Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto

                  • Jeff Crump’s Earth to Table Every Day: Cooking with Good Ingredients Through the Seasons

                    • Don’t get too attached to the outcome; you might just discover “Scuffins”

                    • Thais offers a list of simple changes you can make to enhance your experience of your kitchen and your home

                    • We don’t need the “latest and greatest” in our kitchens

                    • W. C. Fields said “I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.”

                    • The Life Changing Power of Self Love, a mindfulness anthology to which Thais Harris contributed

                      • Engage with Thais Harris:

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                      Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://nourishtogether.com/


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                      Theme Song: Just One More Thing by Bob Hart

                      59 min
                    • Can't Buy A Home? Think Again Renters!

                      Actor and humorist Will Rogers famously said, “Don’t wait to buy real estate. Buy real estate and wait.” True! Owning a home is perhaps the best vehicle for building generational wealth and ensuring future financial security. But homeownership is an elusive dream for many, especially in high-value markets like San Francisco. As a result, more than 65% of the city’s residents are renters, many of whom believe the deck is stacked against them. At the same time, many multi-unit owners who are landlords wish to sell their buildings but feel their property’s value as a straight-up investment is severely limited. Realtors to the rescue! A cadre of dedicated practitioners are coming up with creative solutions to this intractable problem. Shelly Sutherland and Lisa Zahner of “The Neighborhood TIC” talk about how tenants and landlords can live in peace and work together to create win-win scenarios for all. 


                      Highlights:

                      • Professional and caring Realtors are some of the best allies anyone can have

                      • In a high-property-value setting like San Francisco, the bar to homeownership is high, and one of the main impediments is down payment

                      • San Francisco is at the vanguard for protecting and preserving tenants’ rights, but there are downsides for both tenants and property owners

                      • Landlord-tenant relationships don’t have to be difficult, and the majority of landlords care deeply about the well being of tenants

                      • The Neighborhood TIC is focused on helping tenants become owners of the buildings they live in, thereby creating win-win situations for landlords/sellers and renters/buyers

                      • Fractional financing for tenancy-in-common units, a relatively unknown lending vehicle, is a boon for would-be buyers who are struggling to come up with down payment

                      • Neighborhood TIC transactions result in better “deals” for both buyers and sellers

                      • “You don’t know what you don’t know” are words that prospective buyers and sellers can live by when it comes to small commercial residential buildings

                      • “Constitutional Peasants” scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail: https://vimeo.com/748305311

                      • Co-housing, aging in place, community building


                        • Engage with Lisa Zahner:

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                        Website: https://www.lisazahner.com/


                        Engage with Shelly Sutherland:

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                        Website: https://kindredsfhomes.com/agents/shelly-sutherland


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                        Theme Song: Just One More Thing by Bob Hart

                        56 min
                      • Lawyers Turned Realtors: Why They Switched, and Why You Should Too!

                        Two Lisa’s and One Liz – all “recovering” lawyers turned Realtors – join Cynthia for a fun conversation about attorneys and real estate agents. A law background is helpful to residential Realtors, though many attorneys could benefit from experience in real estate. Former practicing attorneys Lisa Auer, Liz Branham and Lisa Riddle make a good case for exchanging a law career for a real estate career.


                        Highlights:

                        • Are attorneys always the smartest people in the room?

                        • What’s with all those letters after professionals’ names?

                        • Jarndyce v Jarndyce https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarndyce_and_Jarndyce and Dickens’ novel “Bleak House” https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0442632/ about a probate case

                        • LSATs, the bar exam and LexisNexis

                        • Lawyers can represent themselves in a real estate transaction, yet the old adage applies: “He who represents himself has a fool for a client.”

                        • Why working as a Realtor vs. working as a lawyer is so rewarding

                          • Engage with Lisa Auer:

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                          Website: ⁠https://www.auersf.com/


                          Engage with Lisa Riddle:

                          ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠

                          Website: ⁠⁠https://kindredsfhomes.com/agents/lisa-riddle


                          Engage with Liz Branham:

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                          Website: ⁠⁠https://kindredsfhomes.com/agents/liz-branham


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                          Theme Song- Just One More Thing by Bob Hart

                          48 min

                        About Real Estate Therapy

                        From the publisher's feed

                        Real Estate Therapy offers an unconventional philosophy on navigating the messy world of Real Estate.