REINCheck

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You're listening to REINCheck with Andrea Rice, Contracts and Industry Specialist at REIN, where you get the latest member news and information delivered straight from the source, REIN MLS.

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Andrea Rice
Hello and welcome to REINCheck. I'm your host, Andrea Rice, and today we are checking in with Pat Steele and Joyce Anderson. Pat, Joyce thank you so much for joining me today.

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Joyce Anderson
Glad to be here. Thanks for having us.

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Pat Steele
Thank you for the invitation.

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Andrea Rice
And before we get started, I do want to say, you know, REINCheck is in its fourth year, so we're about halfway through year four. And I want to give a shoutout to Amber Mitchell, who has been there since day one. She is the person behind the scenes who is doing the editing. And if you've seen any of the Instagram and Facebook teasers that she puts out prior to the episode coming out, she's responsible for all of that.

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Andrea Rice
And she's also responsible for the idea of today's podcast, because after four and a half years, sometimes it gets a little difficult to come up with new ideas and topics. And she thought it would be interesting if we invited two people on. One that had been in real estate for a long time and then one that had not been in real estate for a super long time and just had a conversation about, you know, the differences in perspectives and what we can learn from each other.

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Andrea Rice
So I thought it was a great idea. And that's how we came to today's episode with Pat and Joyce. So that's the background. And as we get started, let's start with how long have each of you been doing real estate?

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Pat Steele
For me, this is Pat Steele. For me, i's been 47 years and I started out in Orlando, Florida. We had moved six times by then and we were building a house. We always say agents are our best recruiters. So our agent there in Orlando said, Why don't you, while you're waiting for this home to be built and you're up in Jacksonville, Florida, why don't you start the real estate for us

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Pat Steele
and by the time the house is finished, you'll be ready to join our office. And I never looked back after that. My boys were nine and 12 by then. And like I said, it was our sixth move. So everyone said you should be in real estate. And someone got that notion before I did. And it's been a blessing ever since.

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Andrea Rice
Wow. That's amazing. And Joyce, how long have you been doing real estate?

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Joyce Anderson
Ten years myself. And the whole ten years has been right here in Hampton Roads.

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Andrea Rice
Okay, great. And so what prompted you to get into real estate? What was the motivator.

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Joyce Anderson
For me prior to getting my real estate license and working in the industry, I was working in accounting, corporate accounting. And when I looked back at it, a lot of that had to do with real estate. For example, I worked for a company for quite a while that built apartment communities, and when they were built, it was turned over to property management.

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Joyce Anderson
So I learned a lot about construction and property management. Subsequently, I worked for a real estate investment trust, lots of purchasing of commercial properties and apartment communities and again property management. And then I had worked for a while for a local residential single family homebuilder, made custom homes. So I'm into sales and marketing along with accounting at that point.

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Joyce Anderson
So when I reached a point where I want to think of something outside of accounting, real estate just seemed like a natural progression. I already had lots of experience in the industry, had some knowledge to bring with it. So it seemed like a good fit for me. And it didn't hurt that my husband had his real estate license and supported me in this decision.

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Andrea Rice
Nice. Nice. And so for both of you, feels like it was just kind of a natural progression from where you were into real estate.

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Joyce Anderson
Absolutely. I love the lifestyle. I love not being in an office every day. I like the everyday is different. It just you don't know what if you have appointments or if you're going to be driving around a lot or if you’re going to be in the office, or are you going to a meeting someplace. It's just a very enjoyable lifestyle to have and you meet so many people.

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Andrea Rice
Yeah.

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Pat Steele
And for me it was interesting because making those moves, I think you then you have empathy for when you're working with those buyers coming in and not knowing where they're going to get all the necessities of life when they make those moves. You can sort of ease that pain for them. And as sellers the same thing because a lot of times they don't want to make that move and you can there again just encourage them to let them know that at that point that you can just give them some ease of that because you've made that move so many times.

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Pat Steele
I do talk to people that have been in their homes for 50 years, 30 years and a long time. And when we were much younger, that was not the case for us. And I think still today it helps us in encouraging people when they need when in particular need to make that move to be that corporate wife, maybe or spouse making that move.

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Pat Steele
You can just give them some encouragement.

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Andrea Rice
Yeah, definitely. And like, Pat, you said, you’ve done several moves before you ever got into actually doing real estate, so you really knew what they were going through.

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Joyce Anderson
And my husband being retired Marine Corps, we had moved around a lot before we settled down here too. So I always like to let people know I understand there's so many military here that are coming. First time homebuyers or maybe not the first time, but they are making those changes my first designation was military relocation professional. Just because I know I've been through it myself and I really felt that could bring that to the table for my client.

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Pat Steele
Absolutely. Yes. In the beginning part of my career, even in Florida and here, I definitely was on the relocation team because there, again, that just helped to let them understand that we've been there before and have all the resources that they would need and things to help them out in that move it’s very emotional, as we all know, and we just need to be there.

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Pat Steele
resource people.

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Andrea Rice
Oh, yeah. They say like moving is one of the most stressful things you can do in life. And I've made quite a few moves myself, so I can attest to that. So I kind of wanted to get your different perspectives on how you stay competitive in this market. Because as we know, real estate is always changing.

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Andrea Rice
And do you have different perspectives coming from different places and different longevity? Like what? How do you stay competitive?

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Joyce Anderson
Well, speaking for myself, I think the same things that I was taught when I first got into the industry are still the hallmarks of staying competitive regardless of what the market is like. And that basically is you're always advertising yourself. If you go any place do the people there know that you are a realtor. Your business cards are your biggest marketing benefit, your biggest asset there. Put all your money and get as many cards as you can.

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Joyce Anderson
And don't worry about handing out 200 if you just get one call back with it. That's just the biggest thing you can do. You leave it with the waitress when you're done with your meal, with a nice big tip. You just leave it any place that you can. So you're always doing that. If you can outsource mailings, postcards, that kind of thing, let somebody else do it for you if you can afford that, because that's just great, they'll do it better than you all the time.

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Joyce Anderson
Be involved. I've done a lot of I belong to two golf leagues and I do sponsorships there. Everybody on these two leagues know that I'm a realtor. If they needed somebody, needed some advice, they can just call me up and ask me. They don't need to have me sell their house. But I do get calls like that. It's just putting yourself out there all the time and it's so easy to do.

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Andrea Rice
Yeah. What about you, Pat?

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Pat Steele
Well, and I totally agree. You really, just as she said, stay in front of the people. You know, I've always been wanting to stay involved in the community. And I think that also goes back to all those moves, because each base where you are, you have to reinvent yourself I always called it. And so therefore, you know, that just carried into the career of saying that we have to stay in front of people, local organizations, and we have to let them know how that how important they are to us.

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Pat Steele
So that means staying in touch with those people that we have met at different events, being involved in civic groups in your community, the Chamber of Commerce, and just being aware of what is going on around us. We have to what we call we have to be the source of the source of something and that’s just staying out in front of people.

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Pat Steele
And as she said, people need to know that we're in real estate. We cannot be hidden agents. We need to have that card ready no matter where they are to to let them know that we're we're in real estate and that we want to to help them. And the source of the source, no matter what that is, that can be something coming in a new development, staying in touch.

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Pat Steele
I know Joyce does this to with new construction. Knowing where things are going to be happening because all of those things that are in our area make a difference in what's going to happen. Whether we're talking to a buyer or seller, when we know what's going on around us that it just shows that we're involved in the community and that real estate is not really the only thing that we do.

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Pat Steele
The worst thing that can happen would be that we would be somewhere and this happens probably to all of us. Just teaches us a lesson. When someone ask us about something new that’s going on, we need to know. We need to be that source. When they ask that question, whether that's in a welcome center somewhere, like you said, at the golf on the golf course and someone asks a question, we need to know if that's a new development coming in or, you know, is it one of the newer, larger companies that are relocating here?

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Pat Steele
The worst thing would be that we don't know. Now, if we don't know then we need to find out and let them know immediately. But I’ve seen business lost through people who really don't keep up necessarily with what's going on around that particular person and community.

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Andrea Rice
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And you know when you have Pat, you've been in the industry for so long and when you you've been in something for so long, I think it's, you know, kind of common that you get in a routine and like set in how you do things. But I'm interested what is something that you have learned or taken away recently from newer agents that are brand new maybe something that didn't occur to you or that you've added into your own business?

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Pat Steele
Well, ironically enough, it's probably going to be the technology, you know, and technology is not anything new, but it does seem that every day there's something new that comes out. I think the most interesting thing that I have seen being used lately for the business and, you know, we have to stop and think none of this technology, when that was created by whoever did that, they were not thinking real estate necessarily, but I admired, particularly the young people or the newer agents who take advantage of some of that creativity is just huge.

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Pat Steele
And the ChatGPT thing is something was new to me and I watched newer agents create cards online. You know, we were talking about earlier, if they had financing to be able to outsource a lot of things, you know, we would the agents have had to do that. Now they can be the creator of some of these things that don't that are much less expensive and that's one example of Snapchat GPT that they can create cards, they can create relocation

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Pat Steele
reports are just so many things that can be used today that are not as costly to them. And I admire the fact that in their creativity kicks in and they put their themselves, they personalize that so that is a new marketing tool, particularly that most of them are using. And I get fascinated when I see something new then even come out of that when I have been watching that with the new agents.

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Andrea Rice
Yeah, that's interesting. And Joyce, what's something that I don't know, I think probably just knowing Pat there's probably so many things that you probably picked up or, you know, taken and implemented into your own real estate practice. What what's something that you have picked up from people that have maybe been in the industry a little bit longer than you that you find helpful?

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Joyce Anderson
Well, you hit the nail on the head when you mention my resource of Pat Steele right here. The biggest thing that I can say is the knowledge that more seasoned agents bring to the table. Listen to your broker, your mentor, whatever that person is for you, because they know the industry and it's so easy to have a transaction start to go sideways or go south and you think you're in a unique situation.

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Joyce Anderson
You can bring this up to someone who's had more experience and they're like, yeah, I've had that happen ten times before and this is what you need to do. There's just so much experience out there. I don't want to say learn from other people's mistakes because they're not necessarily mistakes, but they have the knowledge and the experience.

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Joyce Anderson
We are in a very nicely regulated industry. There's not too many choices when things go sideways or south you have A, B or C options, and that's about it. And you just have to work with that and the encouragement you can get from someone who's been there before or helps you phrase it for your clients so it's in the best light is just is a tremendous education.

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Joyce Anderson
Learn from the person who has this experience and take it to heart.

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Andrea Rice
Yeah, yeah, I love that. I think there's always something we can learn from someone else who has been through it and might make it a little less painful for us.

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Joyce Anderson
But there's a lot of support out there.

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Andrea Rice
Yeah, yeah. You just have to be open to it. I know sometimes we live in an age where people don't like to, I don't know, interact or pick up the phone. Right. But that's being in person and talking to people is how you get the insight and get those little nuggets of wisdom.

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Joyce Anderson
Absolutely. Go to the office frequently and just have a conversation with somebody. You don't have to be in a bad situation to ask for advice. Just go to the office. You have nothing else to do. Go to the office and have a conversation with somebody.

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Pat Steele
Exactly.

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Andrea Rice
All right. Well, Joyce and Pat, I thank you so much for joining me today. Do you have any last things you'd like to say before we sign off?

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Pat Steele
The one thing that I would add is just to support the organizations, you know, the Realtor organizations and other ancillary things that are out there. They're involved in the community. I know Joyce is involved. You know, and that that is so important because that connects us. This is a business we do maybe for ourselves, but not by ourselves.

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Pat Steele
And we're peers 24 seven even when we're competitors. And so just the community, the organization itself, of realtors and our MLS REIN just being involved can make such a difference in having those resources of your peers out there to help answer those questions and just to be a partner in some activities, sometimes it might benefit the public.

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Joyce Anderson
Absolutely

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Joyce Anderson
agree.

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Andrea Rice
All right. Thank you, guys. And thank all of you for listening. As always, I appreciate you taking the time to tune in. And if you missed any of the previous episodes of REINCheck, I do invite you to go to REINMLS.com to listen and make sure you subscribe so that you get future episodes delivered directly to you when they are released.

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Andrea Rice
Thank you and have a great rest of your day.

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VO
You've been listening to REINCheck with Andrea Rice. Stay in the know from those who know. Delivered straight from the source, REIN MLS.