Welcome to the Real Estate Collective Podcast featuring your host, Brandon Head and Megan Vollmer. On today’s episode, Brandon learns more about how Megan got into real estate, her teaching background, as well as the market chaos in mid to late 2020 with low interest rates. They discuss the differences between a $600,000 home and a home in the 400-500k range, as well as the competition caused by the increasing influx of companies and people to Texas. Megan and Brandon cover the concept of full and partial waivers and the consequences of selling houses, as well as suggest a solution of using equity from a HELOC to make a down payment on a new house and renting out the current house. Lastly, they emphasize the need for agents to have a genuine desire to help others and to have an understanding and knowledge of the real estate business in order to be successful.
Timestamps
[00:04:09] The Impact of COVID on Real Estate.
[00:07:57] How Low Interest Rates Impacted the U.S. Housing Market in 2020
[00:12:08] The Price Range for Houses with At Least 1900 Square Feet and Little to No Renovations in the Grapevine Area
[00:16:19] The Effects of Rising Interest Rates on Buyers in a Competitive Market
[00:20:26] The Effects of a Competitive Housing Market on Making an Offer.
[00:24:53] The Dangers of Completing a Full Waiver of Home Purchasing and the Fast-Growing Real Estate Prices in Hollyville and Grapevine.
[00:32:26] The Impact of the Housing Market, Voting, and Interest Rates on Home Buyers
[00:36:31] Real Estate Investment: Navigating the Difficulties of Buying a Home with Limited Resources
[00:40:25] Recruiting Real Estate Agents Who Have a "Servant's Heart"
[00:44:34] Overcoming the Fear of Not Knowing: Learning in the Real Estate Industry
[00:48:45] Strategies for Agents to Successfully Market and Manage Unexpected Problems During Transactions
[00:53:30] Strategies for Successful Real Estate Business as a New Agent
[00:58:05] The Challenges of Being a Real Estate Agent
[01:02:23] The Importance of Maintaining Neutrality and Time Management in a Transaction
[01:06:22] Successful Real Estate Agents Over 40: Strategies for Organizational Efficiency and Building Word-of-Mouth Referrals
TOPICS
Real Estate Investing,
Home Equity Line of Credit,
How To Be A Successful Real Estate Agent
Time Management Tips
The Effects of A Competitive Housing Market
All Quotes
[00:31:33] "It's a long-term game. It is. And this is this is going to be interesting. This between the interest rates, the number of people moving in, I what Zillow has done, Opendora, those types of brokerages, if the next 10 years for real estate as a industry is going to be quite fascinating."
[00:20:16] "Do you know what the peak day to buy real estate is in the state of Texas? Is it fourth of July? It's May it's like May eleventh. Oh, most offers written on that day. Interesting. I wonder why May eleventh because summer Maybe you get in there before right as school is getting out. Yeah. So, you have all summer to get settled. Yeah. Transition period? Yeah. I guess. Because you close that next July or, like, July 11 ish?"
[00:45:43] "It the best deal is the deal that closes that everyone's happy with. Right."
[00:27:14] "It was another probably 80 to a hundred grand to raise the raise the property. And they tore down the 2 big ass Oak trees that were there. Like, it was just 1 piece of your I was I was hurt my heart to see that."
[01:03:52] "You're too you're getting too involved. Like, you're getting too close to this. You're taking this too personally, and that other agent can feel it and is taking advantage of your involvement. Trying to push the buttons."
[00:09:05] "You are crazy if you do not look at your interest rate and go get it refinanced. Crazy."
[00:09:25] "It's crazy to think about that. I saw something the other day as a side note. It was What was it? If you bought a 600000-dollar home at and locked in at, like, 2.75. That same house today in today's rate market would be 380000 dollars. The buying power is shrunk that much."
[00:15:12] "But it's a vastly different house. And for double that, you can get the mega mansion across the street."
[00:30:47] "Most agents on Wednesday are not going to have that conversation of don't sell your house. Right? Because then I'm not going to get paid. Just shot me in the foot. Right?"
[00:51:27] "It's the thank you. It's the happy birthday. It's the anniversary. Christmas. It's just a genuine contact point relationship builder, and it's a follow-up."
[00:55:10] "Pick up the phone. Don't just text, pick up the phone. Anybody listening, write that down, because that legit that no. That legit is the key. It's just having those honest relationship conversations."
[00:52:20] "You remember that I was a realtor before you remember that your neighbor's daughter is also a realtor. It's just being in front of people in a genuine, non-pushing kind of way because people don't want to be pushed on either."
[00:13:47] "It was the kind of house where I was like, hey, really, this is the 1 where you put in writing somewhere. I strongly recommend you do not purchase this home."
[00:22:35] "The good news about that is we have these starting to happen to where appraisals will start to catch up. Right? Oh, they have. Yeah. The last 6 months, we have seen more appraisals come in below value. Then we saw in 2 years."
[01:01:32] "I I think there's a whole amount of I I think you see this a lot on the seller side there. I think it's on both sides really, but that attachment and the it's very people take this stuff very personally. Oh, yes. It's completely different from commercial or even from investment. In an investment home you may or may not get, and that's fine. It's usually a numbers game. But when you are buying and selling personal homesteads, Residences. Yeah. Yeah. Because, typically, when you walk into a home, the whole idea is can you feel yourself and your family living there. And so you are automatically invested or you're trying to get invested as you walk through every single front door. Mean, that's the idea. Right? How much, you know, emotional investment does is this 1 worth? If I can walk in, I'm like, none. Out. Like, why are we standing here? Let's go."
[00:16:19] "The goal is to buy down but you have to be able to tolerate after the buy down just in case."
[00:06:33] "You should get into real estate. I was like, whoa, you know, I'm what are you talking about? You know, why why were you why would you ever think of that?"
[00:26:17] "It's finite. Right? Like, Colliville, Grapevine, South Lake is finite. And the only thing left to do is to tear down older houses and build new ones."
[Unknown] "You have to work on yourself as a person, the more you work on your business, the better off you're going to be, and the more that it shows. And you don't have to put side of that, I will say, is especially because I am in the new agent world, you know. That's who I work with. That's who I'm training. It is okay to say I don't know, and I will find out. Because in this industry, your bluster can get you into so much hot water. You cannot just spell out even what you think might be common sense your refrain should be."
[00:06:08] "My broker is my neighbor. And my very good friend. Both he and his wife are god's people and really just amazing."
[01:06:45] "Time is the actual most valuable asset. Forwarding really is the key."
[00:36:58] "We have officially outgrown it with 2 boys that are now big enough to be in 1 room and feel like they're taking over the entire house. I feel that from the depths of my soul."
[00:00:55] "At the core, I'm a teacher. I grew up teaching my stuffed animals actually to help myself learn."
[00:14:37] "It's about 1900 square feet. But it is beautifully remodeled, completely gutted, redone. They took what was the garage, converted it into a mask or suite."
[00:24:43] "It's just going to be interesting to see where these Are they coming in with waivers or are they just going over. Both. No. They have both. They have parcels in full."
[00:05:07] "Nobody wants to work for a thousand dollars a month. I mean, it was basically 2 thirds of my salary is going to day care and the time that dose didn't make any sense."
[00:43:56] "She can see and feel when somebody has dollar signs in their eyeballs. That is just like you can see and feel when somebody is smiling at you on the other side of a phone, you can feel greed. I mean, it is Right."
[00:18:46] "It's putting it's taking that expectation out of and putting in reality. Right? Which is what people need. Right."
[00:34:14] "Worse for me would be when you start creeping zulek 09:10 double digits, you know, like that is where honestly we're going to start telling people just hold where you are unless you have to move for some reason. Because now you're looking at, like, highway robbery type. And potentially just simply not being able to to buy at all. Right?"
[00:34:38] "It's either chasing people out again or, you know, there's without any relief and sight, like, they're supposed Fannie was saying last year, March was going to be, like, the cut point for 4 and a half rates. So L0L to that. Right? That's such volatility, which, again, I mean, I don't I'm not trying I don't want to be scaring people here because these are but these are the conversations we have to have."
[00:19:09] "Now the overage is maybe 20 to 30 grand without a waiver. Or maybe with a partial waiver, but it's not what we were seeing, height of COVID, summer 22, summer 21, where it was a hundred thousand dollars full waiver, like, maybe you might pass through with an inspector, you know, if it's not that, but if the interest rates go anywhere near 5, I'm gonna call it 5 even because of the amount of businesses that are coming to Texas, people are flocking here."
[Unknown] "Your vote matters, and I will leave it at that. Yeah. I mean, we just went to Austin yesterday. We listened to senators in House of representatives feel every single time when this came up, that's what they said. Your vote matters. If things don't get fixed."
[01:07:26] "It only took 40 years. It's fine."
[00:37:35] "It's like, oh, hey. Well, you know, and then you're competing with people and it's just it's a it's a tough position for folks, and I really feel for people on that. But it's, you know, again Were you or you or you changed your mindset a little bit? You think of it as opportunity to learn more about the craft and really do the living flip."
[00:11:39] "That's double what you told me it was going to be. Or a quarter, 25 percent more of what you told me it was going to be."
[01:00:10] "Ride a passenger. Yeah. And get in the car with your mentor and drive around with them. Yes. That's what they are there for. I love that."
[01:08:52] "Get your direct system, figure it out. There are ones that you can purchase. My it's just an Excel spreadsheet, and it is every single person I have met. It's their names, address, birthdays, contacts information, spouse's names, children's names."
[00:38:17] "Now I walk in the house, and you should listen or see the faces of clients. I'm like, well, you're not down that wall. You push this out. You lower this countertop. You know, you can do all these things. These are all doable."
[00:57:39] "It's all about closing loop pulls. Basically. Application is better when you understand the application."
[01:07:44] "My goal is to have the best brokerage and colleague role. May not be the most number of agents. It may not be the biggest volume, but I want our rep's mutation to continue to be gold in this community and then branch out from there."
[00:01:35] "It's in my blood and heart."
[01:06:15] "There's a lot of power in no. It took me a long time to figure that out."
[01:10:00] "It's 7 to 12 is how you get remembered. And if not, it's going to go to the last person that They saw. Went by their eyeballs or their ears. Yep. 100 percent."
[00:10:22] "But when you get to the higher end clients who have all that liquid money in banks, they're making money even when those mortgage rates were low -- Right. -- or they're making money now that they're high. Because the bank rates are high."
[00:29:57] "He doesn't get charged on if he has the HELOC. And then if he rents it off, he still uses it."
[00:28:09] "we tell clients all the time. If there is any way you cannot sell your house, in order to buy the next 1? Yes. You should keep it."
[00:59:16] "If you are made to feel in any way whether it's intentional or unintentional that you are bothering your broker. Find a new one. Period."
[00:59:56] "That you're new and you don't know what to do is a thing. Like, you can it's okay to learn, and that's how you learn. You have to go through that stuff. You have to ask the questions. It's an important part of the whole right."
[00:42:58] "It is a servant's heart, honestly. That's what I would say is people are coming into this from career paths where money was not the object of desire. The objective desire was to make other people's lives better in some form or fashion, whether that was through police were nursing, teaching, and now in real estate, our goal is to make someone's life better."
[00:17:21] "If we can get it down into the low below 5, closer to 4, like, that's a thousand-dollar difference in a 600-price range. Right."
[00:15:02] "You can go here for 600, and you can go here for 600. And as the crow flies, that's only 2 miles apart. Same city, both Grapevine."
[00:36:47] "It's a pain point. Right? And it's just simple as that, like, we're in the position because we got in at the absolute lowest in 2019. Let me estimate how low they're interest rate is. I mean, it's basically giving away money. It's free money at that point. How are you going to give that up?"
[00:37:14] "It's like, okay. Well, you know, we have we have to upgrade, but there the issue with us in this area is all the things we've been talking like, the upgrade is going to have to be the 05:50 to 06:50 range."
[00:10:55] "And then when that happened, those same people get kind of prissy pants is not the right word, but I'm going to use it. That they can't buy that same house now. They're like, well, we're chased out the market. And, unfortunately, the market is high enough where have higher prices now."
[00:03:19] "We did not head hunt. We don't we never advertise that we're hiring people We never call. We never email. People only ever come to us."
[00:44:31] "The real estate community is very small, actually. Like, there are a ton of agents and there are a ton of lenders but there aren't a lot of true, let's call them, full time professionals. And when you get into that, kinda circle. Man, it's it's like an old voice club. Like, you better not make some of the big dogs angry or it will come back around."
[00:49:36] "I don't know, but I will find out for you."
[00:12:32] "There's a big difference in our neighborhoods between a 04:50 and a 600."
[00:07:00] "He looked at me a couple months later, and he was like, well, that's really good. You should get your license."
[00:40:49] "My tech 2 people at the same time and say whoever gets it first gets the lead type of thing, you know."
[01:04:46] "Once you tell me you want to buy this house or sell this house, that's the goal. Right? Once you've been agreed to the contract, but everything we do from there should be to get us to that end goal, which is to buy or sell the property."
[00:55:32] "The best book is waiting a second. Uh-huh. The ninja spelling. Love this book for new agents. By Larry Kendall, ninja spelling. It's amazing. It's really good."
[00:24:53] "It's like the partial ones are the, obviously, the ones that we get to see. And then the full waiver I guess we see both, really. But I mean, I just it's a dangerous game. Right? Like, you generally have to have some money."
[00:01:44] "We are a small, not quite boutique brokerage, but we don't have a brick and mortar, and we all work within our own homes."
[Unknown] "So it's a gentle drip system of contacts. Right? So, it's the text message of Happy Thanksgiving, happy New Year, like, simple stuff that is a touch point, that is just a little glimmer of a reminder."
[00:59:50] "If you're calling about separate things, keep on calling me."
[00:21:44] "It's in that really competitive zone of the 03:50 to 400 range. Yep. And that is the hardest to act. Like, it breaks my heart when I I have to ask people in that price range. If they can come up with more money. I mean, it's hard. It's hard. Because they don't have it or they're having issues."
[00:25:42] "It's only gone up. And 2 years ago when we thought it was crazy. Right? Like, we all should have bought the whole neighborhood 10 years ago 10 years ago when the values were hacked. But, like, you know, we didn't have the money. We wish we didn't. It's gonna be the same story. Yeah. People are still coming to Texas. It is Hollyville is almost built out. Right? When
[00:48:12] "It is. I don't I don't know. And you have it you have it right."
[00:27:27] "Now there's this big, just square Yep. 2 story houses there. It's like it's the obscenest thing."
[00:10:22] "When you get to the point where you feel like you're on the wrong side, and it's still your fiduciary responsibility to represent them. Yeah. And you're basically just saying, please don't shoot the messenger. I understand how much these stinks. I'm not getting paid if this doesn't go through either, like, but my job is to represent them in the way that they want to be represented. Right."
[00:40:57] "It's an instant industry. Nobody's really to wait."
[00:51:55] "Because there are realtors are diming a dozen. Right? And we can all talk about how we're the best, but it's the follow-up that really sets you apart."
[00:57:21] "For new agents, I don't recommend it until they have written a few contracts because just like anything, it's you need to actually be hands on to understand the theory."
[00:33:59] "But I mean, where is this sort of it's still it's still not that bad. Like, that's what you know, if if you Correct. So I mean, yeah. Like, it's it's still time to buy."
[00:44:16] "But you may fool someone once, but you're probably not gonna fool them over and over again. Any fool enough people, it gets around."
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