Soda City Hustle is excited to have Kyla Bailey as a guest today!
Kyla tell us about your background:
Kyla: I grew up in a small lowcountry town, Walterboro, SC. I knew I always wanted to be a business woman since I was really young. I decided to attend USC and go to the Darla Moore School of Business. I double majored in Management and Marketing and loved it. My summer going into Junior year I decided to get my real estate license without telling anyone. One day I got home and my friend asked me “what are you doing every day from 5pm-7pm” so I told her I was getting my real estate license after work every day- we laughed pretty hard at that.
During the day, I worked for a downtown Columbia law firm as a runner in between classes, was a part of a sorority, once I got licensed, I interned at a real estate brokerage and ended up selling a few houses which was awesome! The Darla Moore School of Business has job fairs for the students and the company Textron was really pushed to students as a great place to work. I interviewed with them and had a job waiting on me once I graduated which was the best feeling. In the back of my mind I knew taking that job was the best thing for me and if I wanted to sell real estate full time, I could always take that leap when the time was right. I loved my job with Textron and learned so much in sales and business in general. During my lunch break I would sit in my car and I started calling FSBOs every single day asking for their business and to give me an opportunity to list their home. This was my test to see if I could be successful in real estate. Just after a year from my Textron start date, I had enough properties sold and under contract when I knew it was time to go into real estate full time. I made the leap from a nice steady salary and great benefits to commission only real estate and it has been amazing ever since.
Kyla Tell us about your business and how you are different:
Kyla: Business has been great and I truly cannot imagine doing anything else. Something that differentiates me with the thousands of other agents is I started investing in real estate in 2020 and have acquired 8 rental properties since and I would like to keep growing my portfolio. 4 properties are student rentals, 3 are Airbnb, and 1 is a long term lease. When I was a student at USC I thought it was genius for property owners to basically own a multifamily property in a single family home. For instance, students rent by the bedroom and not the entire house. When I adopted this practice, it has created a niche buyer pool for me where I can help parents of students see the value in buying a home for their freshman student and earn rental income while their child is in school or show investors ways to diversify and introduce this concept to them. I have really become the expert agent in student investment properties.
Kyla, what is 1 sales technique that works for you:
Kyla: I surround myself with more successful people than me. I am constantly motivated by them and learning something literally every day. I make it a point to take what I learn and apply it to my business. I check the MLS hotsheet 3 times a day: in the morning, lunchtime, and evening to see what is new on the market, if there were any price reductions, and if anything expired from the market. If someone asks me about the market, that is my chance to show them I am aware of current trends and everything going on with a positive attitude no matter what. Someone who has really helped me with this is my broker/owner of BHGRE- Medley, David. He's taught me an immense amount about business, client relationships and sales. Something that he has taught me and that I am really focusing on this year is the importance of time blocking and making my prospective calls every single day. Keep the pipeline full always.
