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Connections
317 Plays3 years ago
There’s a first time for everything, and this episode is one of those. Joining us in the studio this week is Holly Adams, Realtor from Adams Family Realty with RE/MAX Precision, our first Realtor on the show.
This week we’re talking about the power of making connections, in real estate or otherwise, and how that leads to relationships and the opportunity to win people over with service. Plus, how Holly went from corporate America to real estate, what she was looking for in a firm to work with, and the costs and benefits of why someone should choose to work with a Realtor compared to trying to go it alone.
You can find more info about Holly by visiting https://www.remax.com/real-estate-agents/holly-adams-west-des-moines-ia/102065504
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Transcript
Introduction to Uncommon Life and Wealth Building
00:00:00
Speaker
Everyone dreams of living an uncommon life and the best asset you have to achieve your dreams is you. Welcome to the Uncommon Wealth Podcast. We're going to introduce you to people who are living uncommonly. We're also going to give you some tools and strategies for building wealth and for pursuing an uncommon path that is uniquely right for you.
00:00:27
Speaker
Hello and welcome everybody to the Uncommon Wealth Podcast. I'm your host, Phillip Ramsey. And Aaron Kramer. Thanks for tuning in. Can't wait to get into the show. But before we do it, you might be joining this podcast for the first time. One, thank you for your time. We know it's valuable. So you're probably wondering, or you're probably like, let's just get into it because I really on this podcast and searched it because of Holly. I totally get it.
Meet Holly Adams: Realtor from Iowa
00:00:49
Speaker
So, we have Holly Adams from the Adams Family Realty from Remax Precision and her bio. Let me tell you this. So, she graduated from Northwest Iowa, Northwestern Iowa. There we go. Orange City. That's actually where my dad graduated.
00:01:05
Speaker
Super fun. So there's definitely a lot there. She grew up on the farm. She is in Iowa and through and through. I can't wait to have her on the show. Here's why. Because she's a realtor. And this is the first time we've ever had a realtor. And you've probably for a long time listeners, you probably kind of know my history around realtors.
00:01:24
Speaker
Every industry has some shady business. Shady individuals. Holly, we had you on the show because we don't think you're a shady individual. Thank you. Appreciate that. And so we're grateful to have you on the show. Aaron actually has worked with you. So this is super fun. We're going to get into what his experience has been with Holly, maybe what my experience has been with the industry.
Investing in Passions for Financial Growth
00:01:44
Speaker
Sorry.
00:01:46
Speaker
Obviously, we need Holly to talk the most because this is the reason why you're on the show. But we're financial advisors who really want to try to show people that you actually have so much value and you are your best asset. What does that look like when you start putting your money into your passions? You start making more money and you start enjoying your life more. And so we're not really pursuing this huge number at the end of the rainbow. We want you to enjoy the journey on the way.
00:02:10
Speaker
And so what I would say if somebody asked me, hey, I have $50,000, what should I invest in? My first question would be like, well, what's your passion? What are you excited about? Because there's just so many ways to make money. It's a ton.
00:02:22
Speaker
And so what we want to do is try to get you excited about making money and excited about waking up in the morning and pursuing what you love to do. That's on Commonwealth Partners. Anything else, your dad? No, you pretty much summed it all up. I've been doing this for a while. So kind of fun. All right, Holly, how did you and let's start with Aaron meet. And then I want to go into like, how did you get in the industry?
00:02:44
Speaker
But you do have a husband. You've been married three years. There's another bio point. Look at all this stuff. Here's the reason why I want you to listen to it before you can jump into it. At the end of the day, I'd love for you guys to hear why we always talk about real estate as a passive investment, what you can do. Maybe if you're looking to hire a realtor, what you can look for so you don't find one of those shady ones. And so that'd be the reason why I'd say just listen. And obviously, you've turned in probably because of Holly. All of our longtime listeners, thanks for tuning in.
00:03:13
Speaker
Uh, here we are.
Real Estate Strategies and Client Relationships
00:03:14
Speaker
Ready, set, Holly. How'd you meet Aaron? I met Aaron and his wife, Ashley at an open house. Okay. You still do those. I heard a lot of realtors don't do that. No, I would say I'm still kind of a baby in the industry. So I've only been in four years and a great way to meet new clients is to go to open houses. So in doing that, I continue to do that because in 2020 open houses weren't a thing at all. So I kind of lost some, uh, movement that
00:03:41
Speaker
Yes, momentum at that time, for sure. So still doing that. But otherwise, I mean, I've got other ways to build business, but I just like meeting people. And Aaron and Ashley was really great. Right. Why do you think realtors don't do open houses as much they used to?
00:03:56
Speaker
Well, honestly, a little trick of the trade is that open houses are primarily for agents to get clients. They don't really sell a house very often. So you might see a house, like an open house actually sell a house, maybe 5% of the time, probably less, maybe let's say 1%.
00:04:18
Speaker
but it's very rare that somebody comes into a house and wants to buy it. Actually, Ashley and Aaron found the house that they wanted to buy via open house, and that was the first time that's ever happened to me, but it didn't go all the way either. We brought a lot of first times, which we'll get into that.
00:04:33
Speaker
That's never good. Yeah, it's never good, but we'll get into that So you guys met at open house. Yeah, and then the rest was history. No, yeah No, it was actually kind of cool. Like then this is the difference between Holly and other realtors I believe is it was like a slow drip like she was not pushy And everything and so then you know, we had a different realtor, but it just didn't work out And so we
00:05:03
Speaker
like legitimately Holly came up because I was like well I don't know she seems good like not pushy at all so that's an uncommon thing yeah I mean that will come into other stories here on this podcast as we get into my story of how she was helping us so but it was just as a light drip and eventually I think we've seen each other out and about
00:05:24
Speaker
Yeah. Beyond just that too. But it was, yeah, it was just like, it won my wife over. Like with the fact that it was a slow drip, non-pushy environment. That's good. That's helpful. So, yeah.
00:05:38
Speaker
Okay. Tell me this. So you get somebody, you meet them. They don't have a realtor or maybe they do have a realtor and you just met him at open house. Like how does one know that somebody is actually working with a realtor? Like do they have to sign a contract? Here's where we're going to get into my issues, but
00:05:54
Speaker
Go ahead. Go ahead. When I'm at open houses, I just start off with really lighthearted conversation. I don't dig right in. I don't like to be pushy like Aaron mentioned, so I just start random conversation. We connect a little bit and I usually ask them how long they've been looking and they might drop a line about how, hey, we've been to other open houses or we've seen other houses and I'm like, oh, are you
00:06:17
Speaker
seeing those houses with another realtor or are you just hopping in and out of open houses and then I can usually dig and find out from there but it's not something I ask initially because I don't want to scare people away I'm all about the connection I don't want to
00:06:33
Speaker
just be this surface level agent who doesn't care about their people because that is the exact opposite of me. I'm a very caring person and I want to display that right up front, I guess. Right. Right. And has the exact opposite of what you think you'll want. I think it just turns people away. So I think that's good. Okay. So let's say that you're like, well, I've, I've seen a couple houses with the realtor. What do you do then?
00:06:57
Speaker
Oh gosh, I just leave them alone, honestly. I mean, I will still answer their questions about the house we're in, of course, and I'll serve them in that way, but I'll say best of luck with your Realtor. I'm sure they'll take good care of you. If you ever need anything, here's my contact info, because sometimes those relationships do go bad. Like Aaron mentioned, they were working with another Realtor and it just didn't seem to be a good fit. So sometimes you have to change directions and I just want to be available if that happens and people think that I might be a good fit. Nice.
00:07:24
Speaker
Okay. So there's really no contracts that you have people sign. I don't know. Praise the Lord. That's the reason why we had you on the show. One of the reasons I'm sure we'll get into many. Yeah. Okay. Because there's some people who do. Yes. And this is where I would say I really want to make sure that people always feel valued and they don't feel like property. Like every people have choices.
00:07:45
Speaker
And to make those choices, I don't think is ever bad. Like people are always trying to act in their own best interest. I feel like a lot of realtors get territorial really quick. Oh, totally. And I don't know if that's beneficial for everybody. Now that being said, you have to put food on the table. So I think there's emotions that jump in there quickly. But for the most part, I appreciate that you don't have anybody sign a contract. And you try to win them over with your service. That's really cool.
00:08:10
Speaker
OK, so when do we want to jump into what happened with you guys? Right now, let's do it. I don't want to do it yet. Don't get too crazy. I've overstepped. How did you get into real estate? Has somebody helped you? Why were you like, I'm going to do this? That's
Transition from Corporate to Real Estate
00:08:25
Speaker
a good question. So I did a lot of time with a large corporate America corporation here in town. So I did 13 years there. And I was just a lost puppy. No, OK, sorry. Try the other one. Wells Fargo. All right, here we go. Uncle Wells.
00:08:40
Speaker
Yeah, everybody has had like a six month term there or more in town it seems like. So I did 13 years and I was just a lost puppy for a lot of that time, but in my early thirties I started just kind of revamping myself. You know, I started reading a lot. I just started like a personal development cycle. And through that I realized this isn't what I want.
00:09:05
Speaker
I had just gotten another job with a different department in Wells, and then a month after I was there, they said, hey, we're going to reorganize this place. And I was like, well, I know what that means. That leads to layoffs. So with my tenure there, I was like, hmm, I would have six months of severance if they lay me off. So I waited until they laid me off. And it was a beautiful thing.
00:09:28
Speaker
So during the time I was laid off, I got my license, I started with a brokerage and just dove into it. Yeah, that brokerage thing is weird. You've got to be established with something, which that costs money, but they don't let you do that for free. So to have a desk or whatever, to be affiliated, you have to be paying for them. So how do you pick what real estate company you want to be with? Hold on, back up. Why real estate? You're right, I didn't actually trust them.
00:09:56
Speaker
That's so clear. So at my corporate time, I never really felt like I was making a difference in the world. I never really felt like I was impacting anyone. My clients were other internal departments and it was just like a little hamster wheel with all the work. And I was like, this is not fulfilling. This is not valuable to me. I wanted to work with people directly and help them and build relationships. And so I wanted to do my own business as well and I needed a product. Real estate is a great product that's readily available.
00:10:26
Speaker
Everybody loves homes, including me. It's just a really fun, life engaging method. What I mean by that is that everybody needs a home. It connects to people in their lives. It connects to everybody. So it's not a product that only some people need.
00:10:47
Speaker
everybody needs it. So that's where I felt like I could easily connect with people and help them along the way. So that was mostly my appeal is wanting to own my own business and wanting to help people directly.
00:11:02
Speaker
All right, now we get to go into the companies? Yeah, yeah. Okay, now how do you choose Remax out of all of them? There's a lot. Yeah, and it's a weird thing because when you're in corporate America, you're being interviewed everywhere you go, so they want to choose you. You want to present your best, but in real estate, you are shopping for them, so everybody wants you as an agent. Every brokerage wants you, so you are interviewing them instead, and it's a really strange feeling at first.
00:11:29
Speaker
Fascinating. But for me, it was, you know, dues are important. What you're getting out of those dues, what they provide for training, what kind of resources they provide and support. But a lot of it for me was at that time, I didn't want it to be corpority because I'd done the corporate thing. So like Iowa Realty in town is incredibly corpority. And I did kind of spend some time there checking them out. I was like,
00:11:58
Speaker
This feels like Wells Fargo to me, so thank you. Hard pass. But I wanted a small brokerage at first, so I just thought I'd go to the extreme other end, right? Tried that for a couple of months. It wasn't quite right, but then I got affiliated with Remax, and everything has been really wonderful since.
00:12:15
Speaker
How do you learn that? Because I know in our industry, we kind of have a similar thing. But you don't know what you don't know. And you kind of get into it. And you're like fresh out of the gate. Yeah. Unless you have somebody really coaching you or you trust to really help you along the way, you're just kind of like, I don't know. This is the best thing. Until you start learning, you're like, oh, poop. It's not. Yeah. Experience goes along ways. I mean, I connected with another realtor that I knew. And I was like, what questions should I ask? So that was helpful to get started.
00:12:44
Speaker
Even then, I mean, the longer you're in it and the more experienced you become, you see the value of certain things here and there and then you learn what is really important to you and what to ask along the way. But it sounds like you had a little bit of trial and error. I did. I sure did. Don't we all?
00:13:01
Speaker
okay i got a question do you want me to ask it in a hard way or an easy way softball or fast pitch here fast pitch all right here we go all right so at the end of the day like why choose a realtor here's my here's that's the softball i can just stop there so you wanted to pitch so uh
00:13:20
Speaker
Because at the end of the day, like if you know anything about a mortgage and a 30 year amortization schedule, your first couple years, you're paying 80, 85% interest only because the banks are trying to de-risk themselves and trying to give you the money, right? So they're trying to de-risk themselves. So the principle is not going down much, okay? So usually the average person is staying in their house for seven years. Is that the average? Am I? That's the last I heard. I feel like it might've changed. It's my change.
00:13:47
Speaker
Probably. Okay. Let's just go at seven. And so if the first couple of years, you're only playing interest only like, and then you start building equity, hopefully, then giving that equity wage, 6% to somebody is going to be a little bit hard. So why use a realtor? Like there's the fast pitch sister. I love that you said it like that. So.
00:14:05
Speaker
Well, do you sell the house every day? No.
The Realtor's Role in Real Estate Transactions
00:14:09
Speaker
I've done it once solo. Yeah. It was, it was such an amazing experience, but yeah, that's not everybody's. Okay. Right. I'm intrigued. So we'll come back to that. Okay. Yeah. I can't wait. But for me, it's, I mean, it's like a lawyer and a doctor and they're, they're industries that,
00:14:33
Speaker
There are jobs that have people in there every day. Expertise. Sorry, I'm not expressing this very well. No, it's good. Yes, expertise. The more experience you have, anything can happen in real estate, as Aaron has learned. That's right.
00:14:47
Speaker
being able to have somebody who has experience in all those different situations or somebody who can leverage somebody who has had those experiences. It's just a really legal document as well. I mean, these are legal contracts that we're signing and real estate has a certain path that has to be followed and to not know what to expect is really scary. It's daunting. Yeah. Right.
00:15:16
Speaker
Online you can probably get through it all but but would you rather do all that hard work yourself or? Pay for somebody else to do it. So I would say a big reason is the legality of it I mean, are you gonna get into legal matters without knowing? Oh having no I did not do that How to deal with it did not do that
00:15:35
Speaker
And then just the emotional support about what do I need to do to get here and how do I need to, what actions do I need to take to get through it as well. So I think like, so I'll take a different approach on that. Like why realtors are important. It's like, I think the money wise, it's like, it's like same thing. People talk about art industries. Like I can do this myself.
00:15:54
Speaker
Yeah, which you can. But where studies show for us financial advisors, we make up our money on the emotional side, because you make emotional mistakes. So I don't know how many times you see, but I could probably count.
00:16:10
Speaker
see the one of the main things you're trying to sell your house, you're emotionally tied to it. You think your house is like really like, oh, this is my house. You have all these memories. When Holly took us through our house, it's like, you gotta take that out. You gotta take that out. It's like, oh, you know, like, cause you lived in it and you're like,
00:16:26
Speaker
Okay. Like, and for some people that can be super emotional, but you got to take that out. Like, well, I really liked that. It was really well with that wall. It's like, yeah, but like, we need to open this up. Declutter it. We need and depersonalize it to help sell it. But then you might think it's worth such and such, but you, do you have the tools to actually run and like not sell it for a hundred thousand dollars more than it should be. Right. You know, so, but that's, I think that's, well that might not have to show up to like, for all the showings.
00:16:54
Speaker
Yeah, I think pricing is a huge part of that. So for sale, but owners don't always pick the right price to start with. They can do their research, right? You can look on Zillow, see what other homes have sold for that are like yours, but they don't know the accommodations to make necessarily for each feature that's different, like the pricing adjustments. Um, they, so if they start too high, that initial, that initial, um, look that you're giving everybody is key because if you start way too high, then,
00:17:23
Speaker
people are gonna ignore you if you lower people still gonna ignore you cuz they're you're not down to where you think they should be yet and that initial
00:17:33
Speaker
I can't think of the word, but impression, there we go. The initial impression is key. So if you start incorrectly and then try to redeem yourself from there, you're likely to make less out of your own than you initially would have. Yeah, exactly. So that first impression, that's totally what I was going for. That matters a lot. And that's not selling your house, but like I'm buying a house also is like making sure, like a good ruler like Holly, like breaking down with what you're looking for and what you're wanting.
00:18:01
Speaker
Yeah. And so you don't get overly like you get in the house like, yeah, this is great. It's like, no, hold on. This isn't what you wanted. Like you sure don't get caught up in the moment. Somebody who's not pushy to make a sale, but to make sure that you get what you want. And I'll tell you the things that you don't want to hear. So honesty is a big thing of mine, even with sellers and buyers, it works both ways, but with buyers, it's more like.
00:18:23
Speaker
Hey, I'll tell you the things that I think are concerning about this home. And I also tell you, you asked about contracts in the beginning. So when I have a meeting with a buyer initially, I say rather than signing a contract and you committing to me, I would just like to establish right now, like, do you think this will be a great fit? Because I think it'll be great fit, you know? And they say, yeah. And I say, great. I'm really looking forward to it.
00:18:47
Speaker
All I ask of you is that if you think that it's not working, that you tell me. I can either adjust or be honest with you like it's not me. So honesty, like being honest with me and them telling me that they don't like me, that's going to be super hard for people to do. But we usually joke about it and it turns out fine and I've never really parted a relationship with anybody yet.
00:19:10
Speaker
Yeah, I think those are all valid. Here's another tool for your tool belt. Now that I'm beating you up, I don't feel like I should be doing that on my own show. I feel like what you can say is like selling and buying a house, you have to think about three transactions.
00:19:25
Speaker
right? The person with place where you're going, the cell of your house, and then the cell of that random person that's going to buy your house for the most part. There's three transactions you got to think about, right? Like there is a cascade of different emotions that are going to be happening. And quite honestly,
00:19:43
Speaker
There's just not a lot of things that you can control in the fact of like, okay, are the person that's going to buy my house going to sell their house? Like what's that look like? And then you have to think of the person going to buy their house. Like there's just a lot of things that can fall through and it's going to be good to have somebody who has experience.
00:19:59
Speaker
in that of like, hey, we're going to be good. I know the realtor that's going to be buying the house or the person that's going to be buying your house. Like there's just a lot of things that you can create value. Not sure if you're, if I'm communicating that well, but you have to be thinking of three transactions deep. It's not just your house to sell your house. A lot of times it's who's going to buy your house and then who's going to, who's going to
00:20:22
Speaker
who's selling their house and then who's gonna buy their house and then you have to do it like three transactions deep. And that's just really daunting and not a lot of people think that. They just think, I just need to sell my house and I need to go buy another one. But if you think about it, they have to go buy a house. You need a place to live. They're probably super excited about it. Then they have to sell their house, which is anxiety like, okay, I wonder if I'm gonna get what I'm gonna get. And then the person that's gonna be buying your house has to sell their house. But in order for them to do that,
00:20:49
Speaker
somebody else normally has to sell their house to buy your house. Like there's a lot of things that have to line up. And then all the dates have to line up for closing dates. Right. So you're now homeless for a few days.
00:21:00
Speaker
That's all subject to sale. Yes, that stuff does. Those dominoes can get deep and complicated. Real quick, right. Yeah. So I think that's just, if you can articulate that better than I have, I feel like you can show value of people like, oh, OK, I'm not thinking about this maybe very clearly. So that's an option. Yeah. There you go. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. I clearly struggled to answer it to begin with. No, no, I think you did a great job. Yeah. So yeah, that's my experience was just, I was going to try to do this a little uncommon.
00:21:31
Speaker
surprising. And then what I ended up doing is hiring a lawyer, a real estate lawyer. And he did a really good job of doing most of the things that I felt like I was like, I don't know what to do here, but being honest enough with them.
00:21:46
Speaker
And then I also felt like the reason why it worked for us is I have surprisingly amazing relationships that I could like just leverage that and I did the math of what I needed to do or get out of the house and then I did all the numbers for me.
00:22:01
Speaker
on what if I used a realtor and then I didn't ask for the top dollar. I asked for the dollar that was about $9,000 less than I did or that I could have sold it. And then all of that ended up going in the buyer's favor and my favor to put me more in my pocket. And then the lawyer kind of helped walk through the rest.
00:22:20
Speaker
And then I also felt like I had control of the open houses, which was key for my wife and I, because when you start working with a realtor, my experience has been, it's been like, Hey, we need to sell your house now. There's somebody who's ready to look at it. You need to get out of your house.
00:22:36
Speaker
I'm like, oh boy. It's just intimidating. And then you gotta clean it up. So I ended up, I just had a list and I had it on Facebook. This sounds so really bad. Don't do this. Hire Holly. But I was just like, whoever wants to look at my house, you have the first right of refusal. So sign up. And so they would be like, all right, I want to come over. Great. I would know them for the record. I'd be like, listen, we're taking off and having dinner. So the house will be ready. Go in and just tell me what you have. You have 24 hours?
00:23:05
Speaker
And then we did that four times. And then the last person said like, we're in, we want it. Which is crazy, right? And at the last minute he was like, hey, can we get a lawyer? And I was like, yes, you totally can. You're paying for him. And it was like, oh, I don't think we need him. Anyway, we did a cool thing where we had our neighbors over.
00:23:26
Speaker
and had them for dinner. And then we had the new owners come over for dessert. So they could kind of like, it worked for us. I'm not saying it works for anybody, but that's the way we did it differently. But I do think there's value in having a realtor walk through these things. I'll help you. I'll make sure these things line up well. And then for my little cascade of domino effect, the person that bought my house didn't have a house to sell.
00:23:50
Speaker
Yeah, that's always super helpful. Yeah. First time home buyer or something. Yeah. The stars aligned. God was good to us. Yeah, but it doesn't always happen that way. So we're going to get into a bad story. Oh, yeah. Aaron Kramer is going to get into it. Oh yeah. Yeah. So his whole story is bananas. Yeah. So I want you to talk through it. Okay. So we found our house, got Holly. She walked us through it. We did our whole shindig. We're going to buy it and
00:24:17
Speaker
Then like, we were like three weeks out from closing, right? But everything was like... Way too close. Yeah, everything was signed and ready to go. We just had to do closing day. And the people of the house that we were going to buy just said, nope, nevermind. We're not going to sell. So the house that you and your wife were super excited to get into, the owner's like, no. So to clarify, that means we had our house sold. Yep.
00:24:47
Speaker
everything was ready to go. I mean, we had like half the stuff packed up. Cause one, we were told to like declutter our house cause we're, you know, like, which is good. No, yeah. No, it's good advice. I mean, yeah. Yeah. How, I mean, it was sold the first people that looked at it bought it. So it was great advice. So anyways,
00:25:08
Speaker
Yeah, we didn't know what to do. We were like, what? And apparently this happens very little.
Challenges and Uncertainties in Real Estate
00:25:13
Speaker
Very, very little. Yeah. So, uh, it sucked. Oh man. Think about one of the biggest purchases you've ever going to make and getting excited for that purchase and then having somebody be like, no, throw the polar rug out. I mean, we had, uh,
00:25:30
Speaker
Botten paint we had like the flooring people lined up because like I mean for our listeners like The house that we were going into it was perfect in the sense of like it needed a lot of fixing up It was nice, but it needed some TLC on the inside good bones needed some cosmetics. Yeah, so we had that all lined up a lot of people ready to go and then Yeah, we got the one you call us. I can't remember
00:25:56
Speaker
Oh, it was like right after the inspection period. So I think it was a Friday or Saturday. Oh, it was a Sunday. Anyway, it was Sunday because we're skiing. Yeah. So how sinking is that to make the car? Oh gosh, it's awful. I mean, it's not the worst call you need to make, but it sucks.
00:26:11
Speaker
They really suck. And they were champions about it. You guys just, you dealt with it very, very well. Well, I mean, I got confused about the way. I was like, we're going to fight this. Because apparently, illegally, we could have won. We would have got it if we want to take it to court. Either I missed it, which my ADD means I probably missed it, then realizing the fact that it would take a year to actually take it through the system. Because to me, I'm like, oh, you want to push my competitive button. Let's win this.
00:26:40
Speaker
Yeah, right. But I thought it was going to be like pushback or closing day, like a couple of months maybe. Not 12. Yeah. Dude, whenever you get the courts involved, just kiss that goodbye. Especially after COVID, like you're not getting this done for a year or something. Yeah. Years. At least think about that through your head. And Holly told us that. It's like, well, usually like the buyer doesn't win in this case. And I'm like, what? No, like the legal system says the winning is that you're not going to really end up with the house.
00:27:06
Speaker
because you're not gonna fork out the money, and you're not gonna fight for this, because it's not worth, I mean, attorneys are really proud of their fee. Well, you have to think through, you're also pushing somebody out of your house, if, or out of the house you're gonna go into, and they're upset. So, the state of the house you're going into, like, not worth it. I think that was the one not to fight. Yeah, but I mean, like, I mean, this is where Holly, like, I mean, Holly, you won us over in the first place, but then, like, here now, this isn't gonna happen,
00:27:37
Speaker
And like you still were like foot and step right next to the other side the whole way. And like for our listeners, I mean, it's like, she's not going to get paid. Yeah. Like, and she still helped like, I mean, she will eventually, when we find another house, but like, I think most realtors, like even you've read online, they're like, Oh no, once realtors find this out, they're gone. Gone. Gone. I just want to.
00:27:57
Speaker
That's a bad model. Yeah, so that's where I'm like when I said we sit there and say like I mean there's gross people in our industry There's gross people in real estate, but it's just like you were a foot in step with us the entire way knowing like There's nothing at the end of the road until we find another one
00:28:13
Speaker
Right, that brings up something really good. Like when you're an uncommon person, you're looking for clients for life. You're not looking for clients per transaction, right? And so sometimes when you're looking for clients for life, you have to do things a lot slower. And a lot of times that means you're working for free.
00:28:30
Speaker
But how much is a client for life in the value indicator? It's like through the roof. And then think about Aaron getting you on the show. Like that's a huge deal. Yeah. Because he won me over because I was like, all right, I see it. Let's bring it up. So again, like the word of mouth that happens after just doing the right thing and not aborting and abandoning.
00:28:51
Speaker
is instrumental because you got a client for life. Like the next time they buy a house, sell a house, they're going to you, Holly, which is huge. And if you think about the monetary value of you, like what do you have to do to serve them well? Like it's kind of in your nature. So it's not like faking it. It's actually showing your true character, which Erin, I know Erin knows this, but I love seeing people's true character when things don't go
Building Long-term Client Relationships
00:29:14
Speaker
their way.
00:29:14
Speaker
Oh yeah. You can see it pretty quick. And so that's why you're on the show. That's why you're a rock star. Yeah. You can explain more detail. That's my side. Yeah. So give it a little bit more color to Aaron's story and situation. So I'll kind of tell it in relation to what I learned out of it. So the sellers of this home had just gotten through the inspection period. So I always revised and come to new terms and they signed everything. We had perfect documentation to say that they were selling their home. Like they were legally obligated.
00:29:44
Speaker
to sell their home. Which sounds so crass, but if you think about all the different decisions that somebody has to be making in order to go in, you get why it's like you legally have to walk away from this thing. Yeah, this can't just be a decision to make. I guess I don't want to do this now.
00:30:03
Speaker
Right. Yeah. What? I know. So in this particular family's situation, what Aaron and Ashley researched later and found out was that there was a lot of court, Iowa Online court information from late 1999. But even when we put an offer in, we knew that the family was going through a divorce. There was no contact order. No contact order. And the house was built in 2016, but incredibly damaged.
00:30:31
Speaker
as a result of their relationship issues. On the inside, yeah. Yeah, so I guess what I took away from this experience was that, hey, if we know this about a seller upfront, if we know their personal issues upfront, maybe I should caution my buyers and say, hey, these don't seem like really stable people.
00:30:50
Speaker
Integrity driven. There you go. Character building. Beware that some things could get crazy along the way. And that really wouldn't have solved the problem either. Because we would have still done it. But at least there's this flick of like, oh, shit. Well, you warned us. You know what to expect. There could be some crap that goes down.
00:31:10
Speaker
So that was my biggest lesson. No contact order and now you're suddenly gonna get back together. Yeah, that was the thing. I think the guy got access to the house, so the woman and the children were living there, she removed herself really quickly. Then he got access to the house to get the rest of his things, and then he just flipped a switch and said, nope, I'm getting my family back together, I don't wanna sell the house anymore.
00:31:35
Speaker
That'll be on the market in about two weeks. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't seem like it's probably true to me to say, but you just don't flip a switch, man. Yeah. This has been a switch that's been flipped for about 25 years. Yeah. But I mean, it's crazy because like, I know it was my mother-in-law, like I started figuring like, you're going to be homeless. But like, no, like Holly made sure like, cause we did not foresee this coming at all. Right. Like Holly was like, we're going to put in there a contingent to sell.
00:31:59
Speaker
Like, so it protects you so you're never homeless. And we're like, oh yeah, okay. So let's talk through that. Cause now we're talking about Aaron and Ashley's buyers of their house. And they're probably disappointed cause they were super pumped. They bought it first day, ready to go. What happens there? Like it's not like a legal recourse for Aaron and Ashley. Could be. But could be. Right. Right.
00:32:21
Speaker
And I'm sure that every judge, like at the end of the day, I do think our judicial system is trying to do the right thing. So if a judge heard that, like, Hey, I would totally have done this, but given this, like I'm not going to be homeless, you know? So, okay. So what happens to Aaron? Yeah. So we had to turn around and do the domino effect, unfortunately. I mean, we told them the situation, uh, it was completely unpredictable because predictable things happen in real estate. Anything happens in real estate. So I try to avoid surprises best I can, but sometimes you just can't.
00:32:52
Speaker
So we had to tell them that, hey, our deal fell through, they don't wanna sell anymore, and it had taken you a long, long time to find that house. So we could've said, hey, wait for them to find another house real quick, you know? And then we'll sell when that happens, but that just wasn't feasible for you guys because you had a very specific house fee. Well, it's specific like budget and need and stuff. Like right now it's like, the housing market is just so crazy.
00:33:19
Speaker
Yeah. You don't want to do things rash, like irrationally on these kinds of things. Like you want to make it feel right and you don't want to be like, well, hurry up. Let's go buy a house. You know, at least I don't. Aaron might want to do that money bags over there. Yeah. Uh, so, okay. So I want to talk about what's your husband's name.
00:33:38
Speaker
Jared. Jared. Love that guy. Uh, Jared even helped us out. I'm sure he did. What did he do? He went and like inspected the house for us, like on the electric side of like everything that was going to be done. Yeah. So he even stepped in and helped. Nice. Thanks Jared. He even charged us. Um, so you've been married for three years. Yes.
00:33:56
Speaker
And tell me the sacrifices that he's had to make to keep you going in your journey today. Cause I feel like that's one of the reoccurring themes. If you're new to the show, it's like, you know, the spouses are actually the people who are really like sacrificing more than I think they get credit for. So if there's anything, here's five minutes to just rock out Jared and talk about how important his role has been in your uncommon path and how much he plays currently.
Balancing Career and Personal Life
00:34:25
Speaker
Yeah, we sacrifice a lot of time spent together. We spend a lot of time apart. So in the spring and summer especially, I am gone most evenings. He's a really fabulous cook, by the way. Oh, nice. Look at you. Yeah, he had a lot of kitchen experience, and he makes delicious food. So a lot of times, I'd be up in my office working away, and he'd call me down for supper. I'd eat. I'd go back upstairs. Wow. Yeah. I've got a little Susie homemaker.
00:34:53
Speaker
That's awesome. Only in the food area. We'll stick with that, I suppose. He's a trophy husband. Yeah, so he's been really supportive in that way, just sacrificing our time. That's a big deal. Especially when you're newly married. That's not anything to sneeze at. That's a really cool thing.
00:35:11
Speaker
In other respects, he's been very helpful in the handyman ways, so he does provide services for my clients, which is great. He will do practically anything.
00:35:26
Speaker
You got a good flywheel going on there. You're the realtor. Oh, I got a guy. I kind of know him. Yeah. Yeah. Sleep with him. Yeah. It's a perfect. I know where he sleeps at night so I can, something goes south. That's good. Yeah. He really fills in the gaps.
00:35:41
Speaker
Okay, so let's talk about Wells Fargo. I love it. And then where you're at now. How long you been in the industry? Four years. Four years. Okay. Has it been everything you dreamed of? And would you ever think about stepping back into the corporate America? Yeah, there you go. Absolutely not. Yeah. Sorry. I use the term lost puppy earlier. And I feel like that's where people go to
00:36:05
Speaker
lose their soul. I would say being a realtor has brought so much fulfillment to my life and joy. So there's absolutely no way I would give it up. There are definitely hard times because you're not getting that steady paycheck.
00:36:24
Speaker
Yeah. So sacrifices are made in order to make that dream, that everyday dream reality. Yeah. But it's a risk that I think that is fun to take because you're going after it in a way that you, right. It's for the right people. It's right. I feel like it's for everybody, but it's like finding yourself. I mean, it's this exploration thing. You have to get uncomfortable sometimes to grow and become comfortable in other ways. You guys apparently are on board with that.
00:36:51
Speaker
Our new co-host, Holly, Holly Adams, everyone. You push yourself along the way, then it becomes second nature to you and you're like, why was I ever afraid of this before? And you just grow as a person, which is exhilarating. There's not a lot of opportunity as an adult to be able to push yourself like it is to like, I'm going to do something risky, right? And as long as your spouse is on board, like, man, there's ways to really get this exciting and it's fun to see you.
00:37:17
Speaker
Dominating Jared get jealous of like your growth and like your independence II Wow Great question. Yeah, I wouldn't necessarily say jealous, but I mean in the best way like envious Yeah, I would say that like I started this shortly before we got married and He was working for the man, you know, and turns out that just degraded him more and more over time. Yeah, and he was
00:37:43
Speaker
Like he added this dream of becoming self-employed pretty quickly on in our marriage. And I think it was because he was seeing me doing my own thing. He's talking freedom that I have, you know, to make my own decisions, manage my own time, serve the clients that I want to serve.
00:37:59
Speaker
Right. So I was just blessed with choices and he was stuck working for the dude. We had an interview that was a long time ago. It was a husband and wife and he was doing the uncommon path route. And his wife is a teacher. And so he said that he would keep sending her face times and try to talk to her while she's at work, which was not good. And he would have the fire on behind him.
00:38:22
Speaker
He would glamorize it a little bit. She ended up jumping ship and then going down the uncommon path and never has looked back. But it was fun how you've done that in a very unique way of just winning him over with how excited you are, what you're learning. And I think that's ultimately what's the most attractive about this uncommon path is that all of our clients have this energy and excitement around their life that a lot of people wish they had.
Encouragement for Personal and Professional Growth
00:38:50
Speaker
and the way they get it is to figure out what you're passionate about, step up on the bridge and jump, and see if this parachute unrails and you're under canopy, so you're underneath your parachute. So your parachute will open, now it might not open as fast as you want, so that's why it's nice to have some people come around you that are mentors and can help you with that, but super encouraged. So what's the future of Holly Adams family reality, and what are you wanting to pursue, what's the next level?
00:39:21
Speaker
Next level, let's see. So I want to grow, yes. But I don't want to get to the point where I have to hire people to do other things. I'm a control freak. I think that will happen naturally, so I'll have to get on board with that in a year or two. But I definitely like to have control over everything. So I'm going to have to release those desires. But I think things will run more smoothly when I can find a trusted individual to do things the way that I would
00:39:49
Speaker
do that, but then it's like I'm employing somebody now and they're reporting to me and I really want to... It's a scary thing. Yeah. Now you have two mouths to feed. Trust me. Yeah. I get it. I think I would start that at a small level here in a couple years or something like that, but it's not something I really want to do. Growth is the dream. I want to focus more on sellers each year that passes, but I'll always help buyers.
00:40:19
Speaker
Yeah, there's a good book, world class executive assistant or something like that. Michael Hyatt, be something good for you to maybe read. I read it one time and I was like almost bawling because it was like, oh, there's people out there that can help me with some of this stuff that I've. And so it's not really my industry, but they also can come alongside and we've hired them and we'll never look back. Oh, okay. Because I mean, think about you never have to read an email.
00:40:42
Speaker
and then they're telling you which ones you have to respond to. Like even just decluttering your email is huge. And so this would be my encouragement to you. I don't do this a lot, but I will say that when you do start hiring people and pouring into other people, it's a different level of entrepreneurship, business ownership. You're now kind of getting out of the eMyth principle. Have you ever heard of the eMyth revised? It's another great book. But you're starting to run a business instead of
00:41:11
Speaker
Imprisoning yourself to do everything and also it's so fun to be able to see people Catch the vision of something bigger than yourself and then to be able to lead them and encourage them in doing so oh Man, like it is scary. Once you cross over. It's like this is awesome and so to be able to have people help you and
00:41:33
Speaker
It's a different kind of leadership, it's a different kind of business-owning, and it's a different kind of risk for the record, but it's so life-giving. It's almost like this new, revised,
00:41:44
Speaker
enthusiasm that I get by just seeing Aaron and Ashley and Haley like all these people like unifying pulling the same direction for people that they now know like and love but at first they didn't right and so you got to introduce them to this and and obviously that's a level step up it's not just like and you're in like
00:42:03
Speaker
Right, it's like starting on the personal growth for sure path, but now you're leading other people Yeah, and I would say the thing that I'm really trying to get our clients. Sorry. I'm on a podium our clients to realize the people who are going down this uncommon path is that like
00:42:19
Speaker
this is the next level of your uncommon path. It's like pour into other people and get people excited about life again. Even if it's their employees, get them excited about it. Like they're unified in a common goal that you can lead well and give them kind of an uncommon glimpse by like giving them structure. Cause some people just need structure. And so that's mine. Well, also since you like control,
00:42:46
Speaker
It also helps you keep control of people treating people well. Yeah, that's true. So it's because we're talking about how both of our industries can have badness in there. Since you're doing it well and doing it different. You've got to be a beacon of hope. Yeah, a beacon of hope and teaching people how to do it well. Right.
00:43:06
Speaker
Well, Holly Adams, you're a rock star. Thank you for being a part of the show. Thanks for having me. You've been living, listening to the uncommon wealth podcast. I've been your host, Phillip Ramsey. Until next time, go reach out to Holly, encourage her. You want to buy a house, sell a house, give her a call. I'm sure she'd love it. Yes. Thanks for tuning in. Have a great day. Bye. Bye.
00:43:28
Speaker
That's all for this episode brought to you by Uncommon Wealth Partners. Be sure to visit uncommonwealth.com to learn more about our services. Don't miss an episode as we introduce you to inspiring people who are actively pursuing an uncommon life.