EYL #66 Keys 2 the City feat. Quiana Watson

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All right, guys, welcome back and your Lisia atl edition. We got a very very uh special guest special episode. It's crazy because we've covered real estate a lot, but we covered it from wholesaling, from development, from investing, but we haven't covered it from a realtorst perspective. So we have Keanu Watson, who is one of the top relatives in Atlanta top five percent front top five, top five for sure, and she has her own firm too, can

We got the right person.

I'm to talk about out my perspective and let you guys know what it's like to be a realtor in the metro Atlanta area and you know what it takes if you want to get in this industry and what it's going to take if you want to really start investing in building generational wealth through real estate.

Yeah for sure.

So all right, So I was saying off camera, like you know, we're from New York and starting out like in business for me, like years ago, I used to go to like these networking events and stuff like that, and everybody there was a realtor. Like, there was like so many realtors. And I realized that the reason why there's so many relators is because it's it's like a commission based job, but it's a high turnover.

Right.

But but if you are successful, like you can make a bunch of money. So it's like million dollar listings and stuff like that. And especially like you know those high end markets New York, LA, now Atlanta. So how did you what made you get into into the game, Like what made you want to be a realtor?

I stumbled across a group of ladies. So let me rewind when I moved to Atlanta. I moved by myself O six and.

I was North Carolina.

Yeah from North Carolina, shout out to the shout out to the vill And I was working in this little marketing firm. You know, they call it a marketing job, but you really a taile a marketer.

You're in a little cubicle and I'm like, all right, you know, I'm not really feeling this.

So I went to this little bar, little club, and I saw all these fly chicks like all bossed up, like I'm like.

What y'all do I need to know?

And they were like, we're relatoris we do real estate. And at the time they were the girl I met, she actually was a part of like a small boutique, all lady, all female real estate firm.

So I got my real estate license and I joined them.

You got the real estate life license in North Carolina?

No, I got my little state license here in two thousand and seven.

And then so how does that transition unto we're gonna talk about like owning the business, but like, at what point do you say, Okay, it's cool, but I want to actually be on the other side and own my own firm.

What happens is this when you are selling real estate and you're out here and you hustling and bustling, because if you are really going to make some money out here, you're gonna have to work for it. And it's not like you're gonna sit behind a desk either, Like you get up in the morning and you behind the wheel. You know, you go where your clients go, and you got to really hustle. So at some point you have to decide what you want to do, what type of

You know, there's a big difference. Is there a difference between being a realtor and a real estate agent.

It's a difference.

So when you're a real estate agent, you just got your real estate license, you're using the regular forms. You know, you don't have a cold essation, you're not part of a board. When you're a realtor, you're part of a board of realtors. So the good thing about that is we have special training. We also have different contracts that we use that protects the best interests of our clients and us. So you really want to be work with someone that's a realtor because they're held to a different standard.

They have a code of ethics.

But on top of that, just to add that we have training that we're a part of, and we're involved in the community and the growth of our communities.

So let me ask you a question because I heard somebody in the life insurance business say one time, and it was like, life insurance agents, it's the hardest business to make fifty thousand.

It's the easiest.

Business to make five hundred thousand, Meaning like if you really if you get a niche market and you can really do a couple policies and make a lot of money, or you can be chasing people down for one hundred dollars and work twenty hours a day and make thirty thousand dollars a year. And I feel like, correct me if I'm wrong. Being a realtor is kind of similar, like you either hit it big or struggling.

Up all night with it.

That's the truth. That's the truth.

That's why I've saying that it's going to be twenty percent of the agents do eighty percent of the business because it's easy.

The barrier to entry to get your real estate license is so low.

All you need is a high school diploma and no felonies past the test test is a week, take the class for a week past the test.

Building, you have a real estate life?

Is that true in every state?

Every state? Pretty much everything is the same. You don't have to have a college degree.

To be a realtory. You just have to have a ged and no felonies.

So how do you separate yourself? All right?

Being that is so competitive, there's so many people when it's a low bar entry, how do you separate yourself? How did you separate yourself as opposed to everybody else that may be not be successful.

By being myself but also I'm I'm pretty I'm pretty smart. You know, I know my stuff, and that is my biggest selling point. A lot of people work with me because they're you're working with someone that knows what they're talking about.

But I'm also relatable. You know, back in the day they had.

To black suit everybody, but you know you got the tidy.

Got the hair, and the bun in the back. We're not doing that anymore.

I started to really use social media as a way to highlight I'm human, but I know what I'm talking about and I'm relatable. People love to work with people that they can relate to, and I've been able to grow my business by being knowledgeable and also relatable.

Was there a specific deal or client that you had that made the shift for you, like, you know what, I got this deal and now it's brought me in so many more. Was there a specific moment?

Oh, absolutely there was one person. So when I got back, so I had my real estate license, started managing multi family communities when the market crash, and I got back into real estate full time in twenty fifteen. So now I was coming back. My cousin had her coworker. She was like, she wanted to buy a house. I'm like, all right, let me work with her. Four houses later, two investment properties later. Plus I'm about to go help her sell a piece of land. And she's referred me

That's it. Let me move on.

Now I'm like, hey, what you doing. Let's go to lunch like on some GP. Not trying to sell you nothing, not trying to listen nothing. We don't even talk.

About real estate. I'm talking about life.

We rode our bikes through like Grant Party, like we're just doing things. And I figured, I understand that it's about building their relationship with people when they like you and they.

Feel like you're just not there.

To take Is that part of the success too?

Right now?

Absolutely, you're creating an experience. It's not just selling. Were creating experience.

Creating experience, you know I have. But the good thing is because I get a lot of my clients from social. I really like my clients, like they people I can hang out with, we can go have dreams, we can hang out like we really cool and so it helps me so much.

So I want to keep up with them.

You know, let me ask you this, referrals. You have a referral system.

I don't have a system in place. I just it's to the to the point where I literally I can I post a video on social like you know, not to brag, but I could get on here and talk a little bit about real estate.

I get fifteen leads next day DMS.

So social media is like you're driving driving force.

And then on top of that, people refer me that just follow me, So they followed me.

There.

I got a girl, she was in Chicago. She referred me to her brother. Never worked with me, but she's like, I follow you. You gotta work with her. He bought his house with me.

Do you network with like other like mortgage brokers or other professionals that may give you leads or absolutely?

So.

I mean this is my thing.

If we're gonna do business together, you gotta give me some leads. You're gonna have to be some a sponsor, You're gonna have to be a part of whatever I got going on. The biggest part of it is working with other like mortgage brokers. Like one thing I can say, there are certain people like that, actually can't that that got a big enough audience.

That can give you some leads. You know, can shout somebody out, Yeah so free, so free?

Why not you know anybody like that? Matt Matt the mortgage guys.

Yes, he definitely has given some leads because he has a big platform. Unfortunately, a lot of lenders that I know, they still in the old ages. They don't really have that. They don't have them that leads to give. They want to just take. And I don't like that. You ain't work with me if you're not giving me some No.

I learned that early on in businesses, like you got to develop a team. So it's like, if you are in business and your clients need a lawyer, or your clients need an accountant, you should develop a relationship with an account and a lawyer because it could work vice versa because like the more business that you give them, now they're in a position where it's time for them to refer business to you.

Exactly.

And it's the same. It's almost every industry. There's somebody who you can network with.

Absolutely there's always more to network with.

I have found accountants, I work with lenders, appraisers. You want to be you want to be a one stop shop because your clients are going to call you and they want your opinion when it comes to home inspectors. All of these people you network with them, you build a relationship, and so it's like if you on my list you know, because I got a list of people.

Then you you know you've made it. You made it.

So I'm sure you get like you said, you get a lot of leads. How do you sort out the serious ones from like these people are not serious about actually quiet really so you know, I.

Mean, you know, at some point you can't be the first point of contact.

Anyway, you're running the business when you go when.

You go to the doctor's off, you see the person at the front desk, you see the nurse, and you.

See the doctor.

All right, you got you got, you gotta you gotta, you gotta get through my selling assistant.

You got to get through one more conversation then you get to me.

By the time you get to me and you've been vetted enough and I know what you need. But I got a lot of emails. I already think templates, I got anything. Any question you asked, we got it for you.

Perfect.

No. I'm glad you said that because I learned that early on in business. Yeah No, I didn't.

Have you ever seen that me?

Was like sixteen heads you like the ad man, you, the person showing the house, you the person picking up the phone.

Yeah, cause it's like because somebody. One time, somebody told me I was like eager to make a sell, and they told me, they was like, you gotta respect your time, and you can't. You can't let people know that you're this eager because it's like if you if you want to go to the dentist, the dentist, you can't call it into cell phone, right, you call a dentist, they have office hours, Yep, they'll say, okay, this is where, this is what time we can fit you in exactly.

I just real quick, I just think, like that's the power of social media, right, It's like I follow you, so now I feel like I have direct content. So like we did that out. It's important, but.

You also have a way like you they feel like they have direct contact with me, but they already know the moment. My everything is on my calendar, Like you call me, you contact me, all right, My assisters about to follow up with you and figure out what your needs are once are, and then she'll put you on the calendar. You're trying to move in a year, you don't need to talk to me tomorrow. You know you're trying to still your house today. I might have an opening at.

Twelve thirty, you know.

No, I'm glad you said that too, because that's something that people need to learn in business too, is that you have to prioritize absolutely. You have eight clients, B clients, C clients see a lot of times. This is why I love Earno Lisia, because it's like there's no mentorship. So we don't fully understand business as a community for the most part, and we make a lot of mistakes.

But we don't. We don't.

We don't know, like it's okay to segment people in different categories because something it's like once again, if you go.

To the doctor, if you have a.

Toothake, that's important, but it's not as important as if you just got shot, Like right, you need more urgent, you need more urgent attention, right, So they're not gonna treat They're gonna say, okay, we just got to wait a minute, and we're gonna bring the gunshot victim in first. Like, So it's the same thing with business like you have to be able to prioritize and say this is more important to my business exactly, and I can get to this.

And if you don't do that, what you do is you do a disservice to your client. So the moment that you open the door to be easily accessible and you don't call somebody back or you don't text them back because you don't have systems in place and you're trying to talk to fifteen twenty people a day, you do a disservice because now your customer service is low.

It's about matching and I tell people that all the time. It's like I might not be a good fit for you, you might not be a good fit for me. So let's not even because that takes the whole dynamic of how people look at you as well, right, because it's like you're not trying to work with everybody. No, it may be a good fit, it may not be a good fit. And then people it's like, well, how can I be your client? Now they ask you to be a client like Bernie made Off. See, we always got

That's a fact, like what I'm saying.

But the psychology on it is like if he would have said I can, yeah, let me give me your five, the guy gonna look at him like the fact he acting like he don't need the money.

Even if he needed it, he still acting like he don't need.

It on My favorite quote is you always be hungry, nemver thirsty. You know, you can't be out here being thirsty for any opportunity because you put yourself in a situation where people want to run over you because they think.

That they need that you need him business, and then you're.

Vulnerable, vulnerable, And I feel like being exclusive and putting yourself in a position like listen, I got a Monday and I got a Wednesday.

It's one and two, one of eleven. If they want to.

Work with you that bad, they gonna go. Nobody's You're not jumping to another. If you got a certain doctor you will to go to. And you know this doctor right here gonna do everything right. You're not gonna say, oh you're not available on Monday. Fine, I'm gonna go to someone else. If you want that person, you're gonna wait a month, a week.

You know. That's that's how that's life.

And I think people have to start respecting entrepreneurs the same way they respect other other industries and our and our industries, especially the realtors. They feel like any people like they can just take advantage of your time because they think that you have all this time, and if that means that they're running your business, you're not running your business.

And you put in you you're not gonna be able to grow that way.

You said that you obviously have sisters in place. Now I'm wondering at the start, is this something that you have to learn by making mistakes? Yes, in the beginning, in the beginning, when what did it look like prior to like, I have to make some changes before.

Oh, in the beginning you talking. I'm up seven am, hitting the ground running. I'm showing houses by eight thirty. Soon as the lock box is open, I'm taking calls in the car. I'm pulling over to the side of the road, like I'm eating lunch, doing phone consultations, three or four phone consultations, and I'm going off to go

I'm the person. I'm the business.

And once I got I was like, okay, this ain't working. And one person I was supposed to meet her like I'm going. We had an in person meeting. It was on the calendar and everything. For some reason, I missed it. I just missed it, missed the whole appointment. She had the office waiting for me. I'm somewhere across town showing houses, and that even she did not work with me. She definitely decided to somebody else. But that was a learning experience.

Yea, not even intentionally you're doing it. It's nah.

One thing I learned from sports is that you got to slow down. Like all the great ones they slowed down like I remember my coaches. I used to play basketball, and my coach used to tell me, he was like, you moving too fast. You can't see the game like you just running. He's like, when you slow down, and when you think about it, it doesn't really make sense until you actually in it, because it's like most of the time you're thinking, I'm gonna go full speed, that's how I gonna be successful.

But the slower you go, the.

More time you can actually have to evaluate things, look at things. And that's true in business as well. It's like a lot of times entrepreneurs, this goes back to having help and having systems in place. Course you try to do everything yourself. You're running too fast, and it's only so fast you're gonna run, You're gonna just burn out. You slow down, you get help. Now you can see your vision improved, and now you can actually scale at

That viewpoint changes, perspective changes, You get to see a lot of clearing.

That's true, and that just and that comes a lot with just learning. You know, we have to learn how to be entrepreneurs. A lot of us don't know. And I came across this one realtory. He you know, he was dope. He got into the business. He just literally switched from working like a corporate position, got a small loan from the bank, and he literally just started hiring a team. He didn't have one sale. He hired a team, hired an assistant. He did all of that immediately before

My hold up?

Oh I got to write down my systems. And I think that if we learn from the beginning, because the best time to really write down what your plan is is from the beginning, not when you're in it, because you will have to take a step back and you're gonna miss some money.

It's like franchises.

We did an episode on franchises, and it's like, you don't open the McDonald's just winging. McDonald's has a book that's six hundred pages. Everything from how you fold the napkins is already. All you got to do is just read the.

Book and follow it exactly.

The system is in place, systems in place, and like you said, a lot of times, we don't have systems, so your business is never going to be successful.

We don't have a system.

You're just winging it, exactly, winging it, and you won't scale and you will burn out because you're one person.

That's a fact, Troy.

No I was gonna say, I'm thinking at that time, right, you got your li in seven let's go back a little bit. And then twenty fifteen things changed. What was your mindset in those in between years, right like when you when it was like the market had crashed. What was the mindset? Then?

I kept my license, you know, so I was still doing a deal here in their part time. But my mindset was, let me get myself ready and this time I'm not gonna think that nothing will never happen, and I'm gonna go you know, I'm gonna go hard. When I first got my license, I wanted to be like the people I saw, but I know mentally I wasn't really ready because there are people that actually made it through the market shift and they just did what they needed to do and didn't have to go it at

I've seen a lot.

I've seen I seen how they were taking advantage of people. I understood, like because in my position, my job, like people think the property manager job is just oh you just in the office. Our job is to bring in revenue. Our job is to rig that refrigerator so we can get our bonuses. And you are sitting there with we know is a objective refrigerator. That's that's our job, and we have in the property management position, that's the bottom bottom line.

So I learned so much in that being there.

You're still in the game.

I'm still in the game.

Yeah, still in the game, just some different positions and watching it.

Exactly so it just geared me up.

I was like, I need to run my business like a business, and I treat people how I will want to be treated, and really focused on building business generational wealth. It's so many people that I used to manage that could buy a house. They just mentally didn't understand that they could do it. Got the credit score because I'm looking at your credit I see your pay stubbs. But you rather stay here and continuously get this seven percent rent increase.

And I was doing seven because I needed my bonus.

That's pretty high.

That's pretty high.

Oh yeah, that's pretty hid.

But they but they would go for it because I throw them in like I say, okay, well we'll give you one refrigerator. Refrigerator costs for ninety eight black refrigerator. I ordered a wholesale for my But the thing about it is they're be like, all right, cool.

I'm gonna stay. They signed off on this.

I'm getting my quarterly bot and say his life is good. But the thing about it eventually like this ain't right. You know?

Does it have an ice maker?

All right?

Play damn damn plain Jane with plain Jane refrigerator.

No, no, no special specialty. You know.

I'm really back here to help people, like you know, do better, you know, do better, And let's really build something, build something.

Yeah, that shows a lot of character in your point, right, like the perseverance of it. Like, yo, you saw a downfall, but you said, let me say in the game, man, that says a lot.

You got to stay down till you come up. I say all the time, it's wins and losses in this game. But you got to be able to keep your composure. And that's that's another thing that in business, it's like you got to keep your composure. You can never get

Well, I'm looking at the numbers. So I'm a numbers person. So if you're interested in a certain area, I'm going to run the market stats. I'm looking into curved Atlanta. I'm looking at the developments that take place. So I have like a little spreadsheet. I start developing on zip codes and keeping up. So the appreciation values are going up year over year, that's a good thing. If they're going down her over year, there that's something I want to talk to you about.

So that doesn't make.

A great neighborhood if the appreciation values are on the negative and not in a positive So people start focusing on the schools where you need to be looking at the values or the values going up or down. That's number one that makes a great neighborhood. I feel like the second part what makes a great neighborhood is what's important to the client. There are some people that they want to be in a live work space. They want to have someplace so they can walk outside in happy

Neighborhood for you. And then you have other people.

I want to walk nature trails, you know, I want to be in those types of areas. So it's not general, it's clients specific, but generally speaking, everybody should be worried about appreciation values and school systems because both of those go hand in hand. When it's time for you to sell your property, because every property is a profit that you should look at your house as a bank, you're trying to make money when you.

Sell this out.

So we say Curve Atlanta.

Curved Atlanta, and so it's a basically it's an online magazine that you can use to look at different developments in different neighborhoods and what's up and coming. So I was just looking up a project for in College Park. My clients are looking to get a property and p College Park and they have this big six point five billion dollar project that's coming down there where they're making

Now they're going.

To bring in because the average median income that a person was making down here is like twenty nine thousand a year, but the regular people up here in Atlanta on the north side of Fulton County and sixty five thousand. So they have an initiative to make that better than they're calling an airport city because it's literally by the airport.

I just saw that y'all got a G League team coming to come.

Oh yeah, exactly, So you got to keep up what's going on in our city. That's what I can tell you that if you were looking to invest, maybe you want to look over here because now the presses are low, but they won't stay low when the project comes up.

Did that that website also shows the appreciation values?

No, No, that's that's on the back end. That's what you gotta do some work for.

That's that's an agent thing.

You know, you're gonna have to log into your your MLS and you're gonna.

Have to run some statsun a regular person can see that.

No, gotcha? Gotcha?

Is any way a regular person can see if appreciation.

Values, you can see some because you know what, a lot of our stats now, even though they're a little skew.

I hate, I hate, I hate Zelo.

Let me say, I hate is worth thousand, right, you know, even his house was less than a house, his own house is worth But you can use site like sites like that to get a general idea of what's going on in the market, because it'll if you scroll down, it'll talk about values and recent souls.

So that'll give you help.

If you don't you necessarily want to jump out the window with the relator, you can at least see what's going on there.

So when you're showing a house, right, staging a house, what's that process? Like, are you or are your company putting the items of furniture everything tocord into the house? Like how's that earth?

Well, well, okay, I have what's called the friendly little a friendly little staging, So I have like a couple of items like keeping the storage room. You know, you ain't really got the budget. Or if we just need a smooth a few things like a pillow or something like that, a plant, you know, I go over there, I put that in. It's nothing because I'm a you know, when house sells, it makes it better. Other than that, if it's like a full staging project, it depends. We

Is what I do for people.

That's like, listen, you need to stage this property to sell it.

So as far as like school system, because that's a big one.

How do you know?

It was like the schools like four stars. It's like ratings, like what like what do you look at like to see.

The first You can see it everywhere. But I like to go to Great Schools dot org.

School I like to site because it tells you a lot about the neighborhood in the area, because you know, do to fair House and we can't say certain things to our clients. But when you go to great Schools dot org, not only does it tell you the star of the school, but it also tells you the demographics of the students, and it tells you each category. So science they're growing, fail you know they're low, and maths

The parents, and then parents correct reviews and everything about the school, district.

Reviews about the school. So it helps. I tell people to use great Schools dot org to find out.

About once upon a time. There was a review of written about me once upon a time, Okaya, I am.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, so you know about that.

I do. Yeah, yeah.

He's definitely a teacher in more ways than one. So how important it comps? That's like the most important thing absolutely.

You gotta have comps and you have to search for comps. So I was I'm so obsessed with comps. I took an appraisal class at the beginning this year, maybe it was the end of last year.

I know, other thing's running together.

I really I really wanted to know, like how are use appraisals coming up with these numbers? Because you're disputing me if I'm on the sell in side, It's like, wait a minute, I know this house is worth this, Like how you guys coming up with this? So comps are important because appraisals have to happen for people to get the houses finance and if it comes in below value to issue.

I had a very very unfortunate situation when it came to appraisals where I didn't even know if there was a class. So where can somebody take the class? And are you noticing there's more people that look like us taking these classes because that is the part of the home buying process that can make or break things.

The class I was in, it was just me and one it was three of us.

It was on three of us. It was eight o'clock in the morning.

You had to drive like an hour and a half outside the city to get there. It was only three of us there, but I took the class and it's a few things I learned about these appraisals. First of all, they just they can get their license the same way rule to get their license.

It's low barriers to entry.

They're human too, and so sometimes you got to walk them, you know, if they're not really an experience appraiser. I learned from my listenings. Go ahead and put my comps on the kitchen table. I'm trying to meet them at the house. I'm trying to explain to them at the moment what how I came up with my comps and why they should use mine, because by the time they write on the report is even though you can dispute it, they never.

Get That's that's important because what he's referring to is I'm not sure if you're familiar, but the Bookings Agency Institute did a report last year and they said that black homes were undervalued by one hundred and fifty six billion dollars. That you know about that, Yeah, so, and we did it. We did a whole thing on the podcast about it, and Troy actually it happened to Troy. His house got like devalued, like sixty thousand dollars.

It happens a lot, yes, one hundred thousands.

Compared to his neighbors with like the same type of houses.

It's crazy.

It's called redlining. You know, it's not like it doesn't happen. But I'm honestly speaking. I tell my class to take all those personal pictures out the house. You don't know, you my class are ambiguous when you walk in there. You don't know who owns this house, what they look like. I did it on purpose. I tell him take him out, like, don't even hide them in the closet, Take him out the house, put in somebody else house, put him in the trunk.

You don't because people.

Are the true nature game.

Even if it's subtle, it's like they could still have a hidden Yeah, you know, it's objective.

But if there's more people on the side of you know, the people who are actually from our communities, actually doing these appraisals, then we may have a fair chance.

We'll have a fair chance because we know what to fight for, you know, and we know what makes sense. You can fight. You could successfully fight an appraisal. It may delay your closing.

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Can run down the numbers and you can show you can fight in a praisal. You just need someone to do it for you.

You have them to look at that.

How do you fight? How do you fight the appraisal?

The number one thing is you're going to have like I've done a few titles, like a few appraisal fighting one. You need to make sure that you're compare apples to oranges. So you got to break down the comps. When it comes to the upgradsing house. That stuff counts. Looking at the square footage that counts, and sometimes they'll leave off a good chunk of your square footage. So maybe you want to hire your own company to come in and measure the square footage of your house. That's the number

Hundred square feet.

Of course, that's exactly what happened. They said that. And you know for sure, like the lower level of my house they didn't count exactly.

They do that off at all.

And we have like a gym down there, a whole another like almost apartment. Yeah, a window bathroom.

You how you as long as.

You got a window door, action door, it's counted as a finished space. See they're still counting as an unfinished space because the tax records had it.

Is unfinished probably before you finished out that bottom.

And so this a lot of times, like I said, you gotta fight that, like no, this is my square footage. This is how I had a company come out and measure, and I'm going to pass this up.

So you had you can just view that, thank you, thank you, And can you like complain about an appraiser likes it like.

A absolutely because they all appraises works for work for a company. So when you look at the very bottom where they sign off, there's a company name there. Getting get in touch with the person that's the chart in charge.

I still name written down.

You can't just go by the person that comes out in the praise like they're working for a major company, but the company that they work for, then you need to send them your grievances and your evidence and go from there.

It happened a dl hugely. Yeah, that was crazy, and it was like he got his house to pray and it was so low that the bank actually called him and thought that he had like damage done to it exactly. And so it was just such an egregious situation. And obviously he's famous, so I helped probably too. The bank actually reversed it and they apologize, but they was like he was like it was it was so low compared to his neighbors. They thought it was like damaged.

But it still happens.

And that's why I think that we have to be very careful when you're working with people and you know, know your stuff. If you're a homeowner, you need to know you need to have documentation of upgrades you've done in your house, keep up with that. You need to have documentation of your square footage, anything that you've done in your property. You need to keep up with that and keep it. We're so lacks to day's call until

So you can fight this stuff. You just gotta know.

So what makes a house more desirable?

Because they always say, like the kitchen is like something that's like a big item. Like what, yeah, you, as a realtor, what would you suggest people that are looking to sell their home or even buy a home, Like, what what's the desirable things that people can do to add value to their homes?

Well?

I think general maintenance.

I find a lot of times when people are ready to sell their house, they got in the house, house ain't been pressure washed. Washington is six. You know any pressure washing, you can tell it's the first maintenance on the property. So you need to get that stuff done if you want to sell for top dollar. If you have a kitchen, and we know how those kitchens look back in the day, but it was a little walnut colored cabin and and you walked in the house, it

Here a sat my old grandfather.

If your fridge is white.

Still white, but your store is because you're replaced the sold with with refrigerator is still kicking.

These certain things you're gonna need to do.

So you need to be prepared to just have general maintenance unless you're trying to sell it below value. If you want to sell a top dollar you need to present a product like that.

The kitchen counts.

The general maintenance of the property is what is really important to.

A lot of people.

Yeah, one thing that they looked at and they took into account was the roof. Roof is important too.

Oh yeah, I mean, if.

You're a homeowner, you need to be calling your home You need to call your little insurance company.

Anyway, was there some hell here? Better watch the news?

But but but it's kind of tricky because it's like, if you're trying to sell a home, at what point do you do too much renovation and it's like not really worth it.

Oh, that's when you start looking at the comps.

So I tell people all the time, there is a certain cat in your neighborhood. So don't go put in marble floors and it's two hundred thousand dollars house. You're not gonna get your money back. You know, you have to be very careful about that. So when you're looking at comps, look at the photos of what recently sold too, look at and then get a good idea of your

We even know we spoke about that or on the episode with Matt when we were talking about fifty cent he put this multi million dollar home renovations in it in the neighborhood that the average house is like three hundred thousand.

It makes no sense.

White elephant white and you're never gonna first of all, the prayers ain't gonna be able.

They're not going to be able to combat. Like what why would you like? No, you got to stay in line with the neighborhood.

So you want to stay a line, you want to stay alivee.

You can do a little too much, but don't expect to get your money out of it if you take it too.

Far, don't. That's that's some one people.

Yeah, because a lot of times people want to just do crazy things and put the jakuzie and with the grotto.

Whole movie.

It might have cost you all this money, but you ain't getting it.

Back stroll lights and he did pull fifty man.

So so so when when somebody's selling a house, what are some of the fees? Right? Like, I think people don't really understand that. What are some of the fees that come along with selling a house?

When you're selling your property, you're paying to sell your property. So there's a lot of fees that can come along with that. So you have the of course general maintenance getting the house ready to go on market. But you pay the agents, you pay us who who you think.

Pays the buyers? You pay for them.

You paid a buyer's agent and the selling agent, so you have those expenses, and then the only other expense that you have is like your pro rated taxes. And if you have a homeowner's association, you're going to have to get the clear HOA letter, so your your your fees are minimum. But the biggest fee you pay is.

Your realtor what about is that the closing costs as well? Because I see it's like tricky. Sometimes a buyer has it, sometimes a seller does it.

Well, this is this is the thing the buyer can negotiate closing costs. You look at the market, You look at the area you need to when you're pricing the property, you need to look at also, I personally, I'll look at what's being going on in the area, the recent

They don't have to contribute.

If you're getting like an FAHA loan, they can contribute up to six percent. They can do three percent on the conventional loan, but they don't have to contribute anything because that's their profit. So if you get enough demand for the property, which is you know, my thing is getting multiple offers, create the bidding war, and like, hey, somebody not gonna need the money, or you need a thousand dollars boom, I'm taking that offer before I take somebody to need ten thousand.

How do you negotiate?

Like, okay, you can negotiate closing costs, but like, what's the lower the lower you.

Can go on that zero.

I have sold houses where my sellers have sold have contributed no dollars to the closing costs.

Find your own money, really.

Yes, I tell buyers that all the time, Like, you're not entitled to the profit from the seller. The seller has their own expenses. They're paying the realtor's fees sometimes seven percent realtor fees that they have to pay just to even get their property, so they don't necessarily have to.

It depends on the area. The demand that you create by.

Staging the property, getting the property prepared for marketing, pricing it correctly, and having an agent like me.

You know.

You may not have to.

So has anybody tried to negotiate? Do you negotiate your fees?

No?

Not negotiable.

I tell people the number. That is the number.

My favorite.

My favorite line is if you want me to negotiate my fees, can I negotiate my service?

As long as long as you want me. As long as I can negotiate my service, we can do this.

I like that.

So, so that's the seller's fees down. The commissions fee. Is there a standard commissions fee for realtors.

Yeah, and it's subjective seven percent six percent, seven percent, And so that's about the fee of the whole the total price of the property time seven percent.

Yeah, because that's like these million y'alls listening that you watched that show, Oh police, that's because yeah, I think that's like what people really like.

You want?

Yeah, you want, I mean, and you still split the money. You know, you've got to sell and sign the buyer's side to wait for you to really come in. So you like, I list the property, so I get my six percent commission if I bring a buyer and I'm representing the seller, because then I've stayed. We can do dual agency, represent both but if you bring the buyer, then I got to give you half of that. So I get my three, you get three, so you can.

It's not a conflict of interest to represent both depends.

It can be a conflict of interest. One person becomes a client, the other person is a customer. It's the only way you're able to do it it. Really you have to walk a fine line because really generally speak and then you're just there as to consult and write paperwork.

You really can't negotiate for either party.

I've done a couple of dual agencies with like investors or people that really know what they want. It's real hard to do dual agency with the first time buyer.

I'm gonna tell you that now.

As a matter of fact, if I get a first time buyer, I'd rather refer them to like a person with my team before I before I try to negotiate, because I'm gonna I'm fighting hard for myself to keep their money. You a buyer, you fighting hard to get money. How were going to make this work? You know, especially a first time buyer and not an investor.

They're different, they know what.

They want, they're good, you know, So you deal with luxury homes. Right, and over the course of maybe a couple of years, you've seen the median home go from two hundred and seventy five thousand. Said yeah, so now three twenty five in Atlanta. What are some of the factors that have led to that and what have you noticed with the buyers? What demographic is doing the buyer?

Well, predominantly my clients are all African Americans. OK, so it's us. We are making some moves here and what's the driving forces? Atlanta is growing now.

People that say what they want about Mayer Cassine read and when he tore down all them churches and built that don't historical churches. But at the end of the day, when he made that move and they built the Mercedes, Mercedes being zoned and they kind of create a state farm arena and they redid that, it created more opportunity for us. Now we have more opportunities. We have soccer games here, We have so much just going.

Champions, champions, championship, champions, all these things.

So we start with sports and then we just now let's go out. Now, you got people like Tyler Perry telling people to come down here and build their own tables in Atlanta. You have the Rock that just bought a nine million dollar house here. You got Cardi Bate that just bought her house here. What is happening here is people are saying that there is wealth here. And the good thing is that's the driving that's how prices

And that was from six speaking of Atlanta, speaking of the belt line. And I saw a little baby on the breakfast club talking about I guess he's from the West side of Atlanta. Oh yeah, and he was saying that his neighborhood, the prices is going up because of the belt line.

Can you talk about that?

No, no, no, A big project.

So the belt line is just basically a belt line connecting the entire city of Atlanta. People only think about the belt line being at the bottom, but it actually goes all the way around, and so what it does is really to help us one with traffic so you can get on and off the trolleys. But then on top of that you have like parks and all these things that are connected. So we're really trying to build our own communities within the community.

So they do yoga in the park. You can now bite the belt line down in South Atlanta, So.

They're creating these opportunities so we can be more like New York. You know, love what you guys have, so we're trying to create that. And there's restaurants and it's like live work spaces. So you're really trying to create that environment because now everybody is you know, no longer has the aspiration to get the big house in the suburbs.

People now want to be close to the city.

They're sacrificing space for that, and they want to enjoy them their lives.

That's the millennials. They want it right now.

They want to walk outside right now, they want to go on the trolley and get to where they need to go right now. So that's the big part of the belt line.

So Atlanta specifically, since we're in Atlanta, like what's the hot area that because it's the West side. That's like when Statey's been steadings on the west side right, Yes, that's like the highest area in Atlanta right now for real estate.

It's a lot of hot areas.

If I had to choose one, like they had the most appreciation value. This based on the numbers I was running the other day, they're up twenty one percent. Is the city of Decatur. Yeah, the city of Decatur is up twenty one percent on appreciation value. So last time I checked on the west side, they're only up. They're

What we in East Atlanta right now? Yes, you are okay.

Atlanta three six three or three one six, This area is growing. If I could tell anybody about zip code three or three one six three zero zero three two that's the city of Decatur. And then three zero three one eight that's a hot area on the west side.

So these areas are hot. When's the best is there best time? A more ideal time to get in into a deal.

I tell people, if you're looking to buy, you on a really good deal shopping.

And winter month winter.

Why because if a person is stilling their houses around Christmas, they want to sell, they're desperate.

You get a better deal I got.

I literally, I on boarded so many clients around Christmas. That's why I didn't realize what year it was. But we all got crazy. They got crazy deals. The builders are throwing money at you because they don't want to start the year in the red. So you buying the property, buy it in the winter months. By the time you get to spring, two things happen.

That's what I always heard. By spring spring.

Sail and buy in spring because so because they wanted her to do this before they get out of school, the transition. You have a lot of competition. Everybody's shopping in the spring. Prices are up in the spring. So from a buyer standpoint, you don't want to be out here when it's like ten fifteen people to one house, multiple office situations.

Now I love what you say you forgot what year it was, because that's like when you when you really start to get money, you lose track of things. I remember one time it was like a free it was the weather was freezing in New York and I noticed every single day I was checking the weather and then I this went. I'm like, I don't know what, I don't all the weathers.

It doesn't matter, it does not matter.

So literally I wake up. I just literally looked up my calend I clicked the.

Button, and it really don't. It really don't.

It doesn't matter.

But when it's slow, you know everything. You know, you know the humidity, everything everything.

When you're running, you just got you just focused.

So let me ask you this as far as like being a relator, right, like how do you because everybody wants to multi million dollar listings in a but like how does that work? Like how do you get assigned to a house? Like how does how does that work?

You don't get assigned to a house. You gotta go get it. You know, you you actually have the network.

You got to talk to people, talk to somebody that want to buy a house, talk to someone that wants to sell their house, and you get that appointment.

So like an agency, but don't like big agencies have like they like gift or every every You just got to get openseason.

Let me tell you big agencies they definitely not just gonna be giving you out leads. You know, they get opportunities, they'll give you a couple of referrals. But if you are out here and you're selling and you want to get into these big deals, you build a relationship and you work hard and you keep going. That's how you get those listenings. Nobody's dropping it in your lab. No, no money's dropping in your lab.

That's true.

What if somebody has the point of view where they trying to like do everything themselves right, because like we had like NFL agent, a couple of NFL agents, and like a couple of NFL guys, they they're not hiring agents anymore because they feel like they can negotiate their own contract and save money. What would you what's your opinion if somebody wants to sell their home without a realtor to try to save money for the relators?

Is that a good idea of bad idea?

I see it happen all the time, and anytime someone is trying to sell their house without a relator, it's statistically proven that they sell their house for twenty two dollars twenty two percent less than they would have made if they had a realtor. And the reason for that is I've noticed, and I have sold a lot of people like for sell by owners, they'll pay for a buyer agent. You're gonna have to You're gonna have to pay somebody. They don't because they don't know the contracts.

You know I'm not doing both jobs.

That brings me to another question. It was like, what are some things that can kill a deal?

Oh, the biggest deal killers I see that happen is repairs, repair requests. You get an inspector in there and they make a big deal out of something. Seller doesn't want to fix anything, and buyer is overly emotional and not understanding that these are just normal wear and tear. This is just normal things that happen in the house that kills the deal quick.

And then ego like I never I.

Don't like my sellers and my buyers, like if I'm the median, if I get pushed back, like if I get attitude, I'm representing selling, and I can tell this agent is being a little little funny, you know, a little itchy. I'm not sharing that with my client because they are emotional. I'm not emotional about this. I got I got a job due.

You know, a lot of gyms, a lot of information.

So in the last segment, we're gonna close it out with some more tips from realtors, and we're gonna talk about your business and yeah, your scaling model, all right, all right, So in the and the we're gonna we're gonna talk about a few things. But before I wanted to talk about a serious topic, something that's been in the news. A young lady was actually murdered, I think

Oh, definitely, I can tell you for sure. There's there's tips. There's safety classes.

One thing about being a realtor, they they get they have a lot of safety classes that will take But I'll say this, you need to have systems in place, and you can't jump and just run and meet people and show them houses. I'm not doing that. Like the first thing I do, shout out to my husband. The first thing I do, He's on my calendar, So I have my calendar on his phone.

He knows where I'm at.

Everywhere I go, everything I do, it's on my calendar, so he knows where I'm at all time.

Then you take it, take it to the next level. Get a buddy system.

You know, if you're gonna meet a stranger to show a house, which I personally know everybody's a stranger to you, they're not right. So the first thing I do is like we do phone consultation, but until you get an approval letter, you don't see me. I'm not seeing you with that an approval letter. And I don't just take

I'm like, nah, I'm good. I feel I don't feel I don't like this fine, you know.

I feel I don't feel safe around you. Even though I got this approval letter and you maybe spend a good budget, I don't think you're a good fit for me.

I mean a lot of people don't even think about that. Like you're actually going to maybe two or three hours a day with a complete strangers.

They strangers till they're not, and keep in mind they can tell someone to meet them there. Look, you're trying to show a house. You're just trying to just get in and out, you know. And I always say when you go into a house, like I park on the side of the street because I want to be with if I got to run out, I got to jump in the car and go. I got a gun and a taser and I carry I mostly keep both and I keep I keep a fanny pack because I like to have my stuff, Like in a fanny pack or whatever.

It's easier for you to have your hands free.

You don't have these big like I like my little designer bags and all that too. I love that, but I'm not wearing that. To go show a house, you know, and just be aware of your surroundings.

Let them walk in front of you. They know.

You don't have to walk to the house and say, hey, here's the kitchen. They see, that's a kitchen. You know, here's the bathroom. You know, you can kind of do your tour, but if you feel uncomfortable, just don't go to that part of the house.

I have actually been on. I had a client.

He was a male client, and it was nothing to males, you know, he was a male client. And then he showed up with a male friend that I didn't know. He was bringing somebody else with a tour. I was uncomfortable, but he was already a client. So I opened the door and I stayed downstairs, like, y'all take the tour upstairs.

You let me know what you think.

When he came back downstairs without like making them feel uncomfortable, I was like, well, they said it was marble floors up there, you know, just kind of built conversation and you just always kind of moving that way.

So I think you got a trust.

Your discernment and don't tell everybody where you're at, especially on social media, like hey, I'm at this property here on two two two five eight eighth Street, and you're trying to get more clients, but you also become a target by letting people know your every move. So what I've started to do now with my social media, especially for people that are out here, video and all that video the house, save it and when you leave that location posted, Yeah.

The Kashi six' nine, strategy say you're somewhere six hours after you got to think About, no, no it's it's a real, situation especially for. Minutes things like that we don't even think. About and it's like as a, woman it's like so many things like uber, drivers so many different areas where it's it's a crazy world that we live in and we gotta you gotta be.

Safe so it's an article and.

The first THING i thought about is someone called her to see a house and she showed.

It that's exactly WHAT i.

READ i saw all the other, pieces but so they called, you they wanted to see a, house and you ren what. Hapened the middle part didn't. Happen it's just missed a couple of. Pieces you know What i'm, saying because it helped save your.

Life.

Unfortunate.

Ortunate.

Yeah.

Yeah so as far as your, business, like what's your scaling model moving? Forward what's your? Plan you want to how many agents do you have working for you?

Now actually have two agents to.

Assistance my scaling model is about REALLY i want to have about fifty agents. Eventually and by the Time i'm doing, That i'm not showing. Houses i'm not selling house throughout the, country throughout the country.

Everywhere you.

KNOW i definitely want to get my license In. California definitely want to get my license In New york And. MIAMI i want to have my license in those big cities because those, cities of, course the medium purchase price and sales price is so.

High and the way that we.

Work here In, atlanta you, know no shades. People but the truth of the matter is we work hard for we work, harder.

And we still get.

Less so we put this SAME i put the same type of, effort and the average sales prices is a.

Million dollars per. House it's only.

Up it's a game change change. Mind taking the time to learn the, market to get.

You got to get you in, here you see WHAT i.

Mean and then educating.

CLIENTS i get people contact me from other cities all the, time so you do. That so that's WHAT i want to. SCALE i want to scale, up getting other, cities make my mark, there and eventually put myself on a platform Where i'm really training agents on how to do this the right way and have a long time, business not like a short time.

Stint, yeah so you're education, clients but you also want to educate. Agents is there a system in place now that like if somebody calls you or like a sort of a mentorship piece that you provide.

Now not yet as launching, though SO i will be about Agents tools For. Success it's the online. Site we're going to do, webinars ebooks and also coaching. Calls So i'm going To i'm launching that very, soon Like i'm wrapping up just a few small tweaks in, it BECAUSE i see that there's a need for people to get. Information by the TIME i get fifteen IF i do a live or do a video or, something AND i got fifteen emails from agents asking for, advice AND i got two.

Leads all.

Right so you, guys are you need some information and you want someone to help help you? Learn you know this industry all?

Right so what are you looking to hire new? Like what's that process as far as bringing agents? On are you open to bringing new agents on now or?

Not right? Now the same way we're talking about.

SYSTEMS i got a couple of more SYSTEMS i want to put in place BEFORE i bring on more, agents and really writing, down writing down my expectations because you don't want. To people can leave when they want. To they take your knowledge and they go. Right SO i want to put people in a position where it's a value for me in. Them and when you do, come you need to come with a certain skill set already because you can't teach.

Personality you. Can't you.

CAN i can teach you the technical things, already but if you don't have the skills to have, personality if you don't have the, Drive i'm not trying to coach you to get out the bed. Now i'm not here for. That i'll coach you to do your job and get better at your. Craft understanding how to, sell understanding body, language understanding how to talk to, people how to adapt to certain. People i'm one, person But i'm a different person depending on each. Client you, Bubbly i'm, Bubbly you're,

Here so somebody has extreme, drive you passion if they haven't had experience yet in the. Game, right is that a? Requirement?

No ACTUALLY i prefer people with no.

Experience that, way you don't have any bad. Habits you're not coming here with no bad.

Habits you coming with no.

Expectations no bad, habits and you're ready to absorb and you listen as long as you're driven and you have the basic fundamental skills you, know speak, intelligently be able to write an intellectual, email and be ready to go to. WORK i think people think this is too, cute especially for the lady. Ages y'all think it's just all about all about, findness.

Then parts part of it.

You better make time to do that flyness and get to.

Work and that's that's one THING i really. Like when you're talking off, camera you were, saying like how you study like market updates and you educate your clients on like different mortgage rates and different mortgage. Opportunities it's like you're not just selling them the. Home you're educating them, on you, know different.

Things you're more of an. Advisor they're relying on you

It you need to get a piece of get a.

Place i'm gonna get a place In.

Atlanta this is this is.

No we Love atlanta and we was here.

Yesterday it was DRIVING i was Telling troy And, Alex i'm, like we come here so. MUCH i don't feel Like i'm. VISITING i feel Like i'm coming. Home i'm like starting to learn the. Streets we were driving out the.

Street i'm, Like, Yo we're going To mike's. House you're, like, oh, yeah we, yeah, YEAH i. Know it's how many cookies cookies are.

At that home. Field you, know it's a different type of feeling when you Get, yeah.

We love it. Here we love it so. Much love that's giving out so.

Well, keanna thank you for joining. Us that was a lot of. Information thank you for rocking. Us you appreciate. It how can the people contact you like social media and.

Website my name Is Keanu watson Q U I A N A W A T S O. N I'm Keanu watson On. INSTAGRAM i Am Keanu watson On. FACEBOOK i Got Keanu watson dot. COM i am the brand Ke. Watson you, know come check me.

Out troy some housekeeping that.

Shot everybody On patreon dot, com y'all know that's our proud to pay. Program we have obviously some tears on it where you get exclusive, content exclusive merch and obviously we're putting out some extra, episodes so be sure to log on The patreon dot, Com backslash And leisure to join us. There and everybody that's On Early Lesion, university you know that is our online. Webinar it's our online. School but we have webinars three times a week with, Myself,

Man yeah for, sure and make sure you check us in a city near. You by the time you hear this Are, atlanta run to be over and we had a live podcast And ke was one of our guests and she did a, wonderful terrific. Job so next stop Is. Houston you saw by this time you already have seen the footage Of. Atlanta you know we did out.

Here it was. Crazy, yeah so ah town pulling.

Out make sure you come out and, yes the book tip of this week is The millionaire Real Estate, agent recommended by our. Guests so if anybody is interested in being a real estate, agent.

That's probably a book that you should.

Read and you should also check out Your your class will probably be up by this.

Time oh, yeah my class is definitely.

Agent agent swoos for success On, instagram agents shools for success On.

Facebook im very strategic.

Gain success is definitely going to help you get some gems about running your.

Business oh, yes for, sure for.

Sure so once, again thank you. Guys oh don't forget to subscribe to our, YouTube Apple spotify channels like subscribe leave a, comment, please thank you guys for rocking with.

Us we'll see you next. Week pease, please.

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