What does a new agent learn from the Florida Real Estate Licensing course?

Episode Overview

In this episode, host Steve Martin Smith, joined by attorney Lauren Cole and his wife Katrina, tackles the complexities and confusion surrounding buyer broker agreements in Florida real estate. They discuss recent changes in real estate rules, share real-world stories of buyers being pressured into signing agreements, and clarify what consumers need to know to protect themselves. This episode is essential for anyone navigating the home-buying process in a shifting market.

Key Topics and Timestamps

• [0:00] Introduction
  Steve introduces the episode, welcoming attorney Lauren Cole and his wife Katrina to discuss buyer broker agreements and their impact on Florida home buyers.
• [1:02] Why Buyer Broker Agreements Matter
  Steve highlights the confusion among buyers due to inconsistent agent practices post-2024 rule changes, emphasizing the need for clarity with Lauren’s legal expertise.
• [3:36] Katrina’s Story: A Cautionary Tale
  Katrina shares an uncomfortable experience at a showing where a late-arriving agent pressured buyers to sign a buyer broker agreement on the spot, without prior introduction, using the property as a meeting point [5:00]. The agent misrepresented the agreement as a “formality” [6:48], raising ethical concerns.
• [7:27] Real-Life Examples of Misunderstandings
  Steve recounts cases of buyers, including an 80-year-old client, being rushed to sign agreements without time to read them, committing to unknown agents for extended periods [7:27]. Another buyer faced issues with a protection period clause, nearly owing a commission on a for-sale-by-owner deal [10:00].
• [10:00] Types of Agreements
  Lauren explains the differences between Florida Association of Realtors’ buyer broker agreements (offering transaction broker, single agent, or no broker options) and other brokerages’ agreements, which may misrepresent the level of representation [10:00].
• [14:30] Importance of Meeting Agents First
  Steve discusses his brokerage’s policy of meeting clients at the office before showings to review agreements thoroughly, ensuring buyers understand their obligations [15:00]. Katrina notes buyers are often shocked to learn they’re responsible for broker fees [15:24].
• [16:46] Benefits of a Buyer’s Agent in a Buyer’s Market
  The discussion shifts to why a dedicated buyer’s agent can secure better deals than going directly to the listing agent, who acts as a neutral transaction broker [16:46]. Steve emphasizes the value of experienced agents with local knowledge [20:00].
• [20:51] Flexibility in Agreements
  Lauren explains that buyers can work with multiple brokers for different property types (e.g., condos vs. single-family homes) or areas, and suggests starting with shorter agreements (e.g., 30 days) to build trust [20:51].
• [25:00] Protecting Consumers
  Steve and Lauren stress that agreements should protect buyers, not just brokers. Buyers can modify terms, strike clauses, or consult an attorney like Lauren to ensure fairness [25:00].
• [26:07] Hidden Costs and Negotiations
  A story illustrates how unclear agreements can lead to unexpected costs, like a buyer missing out on a higher offer because of a seller-paid commission misunderstanding [26:07]. Steve notes sellers may offer commissions in a buyer’s market despite initial refusals [27:06].
• [28:04] Ethical Concerns and Accountability
  Lauren highlights issues with agents requesting higher commissions than agreed in buyer broker agreements, violating National Association of Realtors (NAR

Steve Martin Smith is a Licensed Florida Real Estate Broker and the owner of Slice of Florida Realty in Sarasota County Florida.

Transcript

Speaker 1  0:02  
Okay, take two. I am here with Rachel Schofield, yes, yes, etc, perfect.

Unknown Speaker  0:08  
And you are here with who? Steve Martin Smith,

Unknown Speaker  0:11  
yes, we are going to be doing something here that

Unknown Speaker  0:14  
real estate agent fan.

Unknown Speaker  0:21  
And now your host Steve Martin Smith,

Speaker 1  0:26  
we are going to be doing something here that I've never recorded. We're having a conversation about how Rachel is going to start her real estate career, correct, right? How long ago did you actually get your license a week, so you're about as Ricky as you could be, as rookie as it gets. Okay, great. So one of the things that I think will will be very good here. You've read some of my blogs and listened to some of my podcasts, and hopefully you've realized that one of the things I'm trying to do is just help people understand the process. Better part of that is, is because when I got my license, there were things that took me quite a while to figure out, because nobody told me, I'm a relatively quick learner, and I was 50 years old when I got my license, so I had a lot of life experience. But still, some of the, some of the things were quite a surprise. One of the big things I just figured out last year, and that's why I've started my own brokerage. We've had no conversation about you getting your license. We know each other from what year did I help you buy your house?

Speaker 2  1:33  
We bought our house closed, got the keys December of 22

Speaker 1  1:38  
Okay, so we've known each other about that long, but not like we've spent a lot of time together since then. Nope, right? So one of the things that I'm hoping that you'll share in this podcast is what brought you to the point where you thought you'd want to get your license, and what you think you know about the industry at this point, and then, as you're sharing those things, I'll be able to help tell you if I think you're right or not right the listeners who are very likely, you know, thinking the same things that you were thinking as somebody who's just think, I want to be a, you know, real estate agent, it can maybe help them to make decisions based on more facts than maybe you even had right, more facts than I had when I started right I'm all about helping people make the best decisions they can make, and if by listening to my podcast, they gain knowledge that helps them do that, I consider that a huge win for the planet. So tell me now, why did you get your license?

Speaker 2  2:36  
Well, becoming a new mom. I've always loved the sales industry, but I had to kind of transition to staying at home for the last year taking care of my daughter.

Speaker 1  2:47  
So you couldn't bring your daughter to the dealership. No, not at all.

Speaker 2  2:52  
And you can't work from home either. There's no remote flexibility when it comes to the auto industry, so that kind of went out the window. So my husband's like, stay home, take care of our daughter, and which is awesome. And, yeah, it was great. I loved it, but I was sort of a workaholic, working in the auto industry, working 12 hours days, and now I'm being a mom for 24 hours a day, and I kind of want to get back out there and the sales industry in the automotive side of it changed my life, and I want to pursue the real estate side of it continue to change my life, and maybe even take it further than that. It's

Speaker 1  3:33  
not that uncommon for somebody in car sales to go to real estate sales and vice versa. I've definitely seen that. So there's a connection there. I think one of the No, you know what, what do you think is one of the biggest connections between like, being in car sales, what do you feel that you can use in real estate?

Speaker 2  3:57  
Building a relationship, building a relationship with your client, that you're helping to fill their needs and wants, not just what they want, but also make sure that their needs are satisfied too. So I feel like that's probably the closest bridge to the two, okay,

Speaker 1  4:17  
one that I think of is the whole features of benefits. Okay, because when somebody comes in to buy a car, they may be looking at the thing that's really like attractive to them, but as you get to know them, I would assume that you start to hear some needs that they have, that maybe that car they were looking at, that SUV or truck they were looking at, wouldn't actually take care of their needs. It take care of their want for a really sleek looking vehicle, right? But at the end of the day, if that sleek looking vehicle isn't meeting your functional needs, they would have probably appreciated it if you as their sales person. Would have

Speaker 2  5:00  
helped them in that right direction to make sure that, okay, yes, you like the look and feel of this. But is it functional for your family? If you're looking at a sports car with two doors, is that going to be functional for a family of four or a family of five, however many you have?

Speaker 1  5:19  
Yeah, and so in order for you to be able to do that, you had to know the inventory and the features and benefits of the inventory, and also things that maybe you didn't have on the lot, but you could potentially get correct right and then in the different price points and all that. That's the same thing as helping a buyer, if you're a buyer's agent in real estate, great example just happened to me, where near the end of last year, a customer was referred to me by somebody else who had put into a place here in Venice, as we're talking, while they filled out our wish list. I don't know if you saw that yet or not, but on slice of florida.com there is a tab to fill out a wish list. And if you do that, I now get a whole bunch of information that's going to really help me zero in and streamline your shopping process as a buyer. And so this gentleman filled out the wish list, and he wanted to be in a Golf and Country Club, but he also has an 80 pound dog that he wanted a fence for. You don't find a Golf and Country Club that allows you to have a fence for your 80 pound dog? Nope. At least not anywhere around here. We started looking at all kinds of other options, single family homes and whatnot. By the end of the day after he came down here, we're spending some time together, he realized what he wanted more than anything else was to be able to wake up in the morning look at the Gulf of America, okay, or Gulf of Mexico, if you're still living in the past, I get it and at night, be doing the same thing, walk down to the community pool and but because he had an 80 pound Dog, that's also very hard to accomplish, because most condos don't let you do that. But I was able to get him into the one place that was the perfect fit for him. But it all happened because when he filled out the wish list, then I was able to look at that and say, Okay, this is why you can't have that. So something's got to give. Well, he wasn't giving up his dog, nope, right? And, and so then once he got down here, he just realized what was most important to him, and it's really good that it was because he wasn't going to get in a gulf of Country Club, not with that need, right, right? And because I know what's available here, I didn't have to, like, take him around all these Golf and Country clubs to find out that they didn't allow that. There's another example. I just posted a short on Facebook a couple weeks ago. I'm doing an open house at one of my listings, and an agent had set up a showing during my Open House time with customers. Did you happen to see that short? Oh, you really haven't spent any time on the Facebook page yet. I have not. You've been you've been listening

Speaker 2  8:03  
to the podcast, listening to the podcast. I dabbled a little bit on YouTube, but okay, so

Speaker 1  8:07  
yeah, this one's only on Facebook. What happened there is the agent comes in, the customers come in behind him, and they go straight to the backyard. They want to look at the pool, and when they get back there, they see there's no fence. So they ask the question, are you allowed to have a fence in this neighborhood? And I said, this is a 100% Fence Free Community. There's no allowances. They were upset that they even came there because it was a waste of time, because it was a waste of time, right? Because one of the two things happened with that buyer's agent, either he didn't know that offense was a requirement, which is means you didn't ask enough questions before you even started, or he didn't know that the neighborhood didn't allow offenses. Both of those, in my opinion, are an epic fail, yeah, because now you're wasting your customers time. You waste your time all day long. I mean, unless you're working for me, then I'm going to help you to not do

Speaker 2  9:04  
that, right, right? You don't want to waste your time either, because at the end of the day, it's valuable. You're trying to help expedite the process for your client on suiting all of their needs and wants, right?

Speaker 1  9:14  
That is a really long way to say that, because I know that you have that experience with helping customers figure out what they want and what they need and putting them in the best vehicle for them. I think you can do that with houses. I think I can manage that. Yeah, I think you can. Now what they taught you in your classes to get your license is of great interest to me, because I took mine like 11 years ago. Okay, so I know what the thing was that stuck out to me, of the most important thing I learned in there again, there was a long time ago, and everybody probably takes a little something different away. I'm curious, what did you think of the education that you just received to. Become a real estate professional.

Speaker 2  10:01  
There was a lot of law, a lot of law. And at first I was like, Okay, this is a little a lot, actually, not a little bit, but it was a lot. And soaking in the law side of it, you don't really get to see any of that in the real this car sales side of it. So looking at all that, I was like, Oh, wow. I could go to jail for this, and you could do something and not realize you're doing something, and you could still go to jail for it, lose your license. Like, I was like, wow, this is serious stuff. You don't you don't see any of that. But at the same time, I love that the state of Florida looks to protect the consumers. At the end of the day, you know you're not taking advantage of people and thinking that you're not going to get any repercussion for it, right? You're representing your client and to the best of their interest, and you want to make sure that they're safe in the meantime, and there's no

Unknown Speaker  11:05  
backstabbing from other people in the industry either.

Unknown Speaker  11:08  
There's no backstabbing from other people in the industry. You're looking to

Unknown Speaker  11:11  
protect your customer, your client, from that,

Speaker 1  11:14  
right, right? Yes. And just for clarity, since we're talking about this client, is when you are representing them in a single agency. Did you hear that podcast yet? Yes, okay, everybody else in the real estate world is a customer. Did you go through any actual contract writing? No,

Speaker 2  11:34  
not yet. I believe that's going to be in the continuing education for the 45 hour course you'd take for your post license,

Speaker 1  11:42  
I think that you'll be surprised at how little that's covered.

Speaker 3  11:46  
Okay, this is the time that I'm going to remind you to subscribe and leave a review for the real estate agent man podcast. More than ever before, there is so much more to know about buying and selling your home. That is why we provide professional coaching to Florida sellers and buyers on every episode. We want our customers to have the knowledge needed to make the best decisions possible for themselves and their families. Our real estate team personally covers Sarasota, Charlotte and Manatee counties. That's a wide area. However, Steve also interviews agents from around the state and the entire country to find great agents for customers that are out of the area. Visit slice of florida.com for more information. And now back to the podcast.

Speaker 1  12:32  
Yeah, and here's the thing, right now, you're licensed if you were under a brokerage. I mean, right now you're trying to figure out where that's going to be right? Once you get under a broker, you can actually start working in your field, and they haven't taught you how to fill out a contract, right, right? And so that, of course, is what happened to me, and I think it happens to everybody. And so on the day that I had my first contract to right, I was a nervous wreck. Oh, I believe it now. And keep in mind, I'm 50 years old, and I've dealt a lot with contracts in my professional career, but not for the first time in my life, I'm putting together a contract that somebody is trusting me to know what I'm doing, and they're gonna be committed to whatever they sign.

Speaker 2  13:20  
And you can use One wrong word, if I'm wrong

Speaker 1  13:24  
and they suffer for it, that is just a horrible scenario that I would never want to be in, even if I didn't get sued. Right when you're doing this, from the standpoint of, I care about people, and I'm actually trying to help them with this very important part of their life. It really weighs on you that you might do something wrong. I probably wouldn't sleep. Thank you. So that that morning that I had to write this, this contract, I tried to get my broker on the phone. He was nowhere to be found. All day long, nowhere to be found. And this was a brokerage that was just known for training. That's why I went with them. Super Training. Okay, well, training is great in a classroom, but then when you actually have to do it and you have questions, you need specific questions for that moment, yes, right? So my wife remembers this. She could tell you all about it, because she was there watching me suffer through this. It was about eight hours to get that thing done, because I finally got, like somebody else in the brokerage who had some more education, but they weren't all that interested in helping me, my team leader who had four months more experience than I did. Okay, I had had my license for three months when this happened, but this was my first sale. Yeah, my team leader had seven months in on the job. They tried helping a little bit, but had very little insight, and I couldn't get a hold of the broker, because

Speaker 2  14:50  
how many contracts have they filled out if they've only got four more months of experience?

Speaker 1  14:54  
So what I did is read through every single inch of that contract and tried my. Best to understand it. That was probably one of the best things that ever happened to

Speaker 2  15:04  
me. So you catch things that may not have been explained to you, and right? That's not talked about either,

Speaker 1  15:10  
right? They're not talked about. And anyway, got them under contract, they got their house. Everything was great, but it was a nerve wracking experience. And that's, that's one of the things, like, I know one of your questions is, you know, like, how we train people? And my answer is, I'm going to train you as we go about the things that you need to know now, right? I will give you advice on things that I expect to come up, but until you're in the situation, you're not going to realize how it actually plays out anyway. That's how I learn best. Have you ever had somebody try to teach you how to play a game, like a card game or something? And as they're talking, you can tell it makes perfect sense to them, but it's like, I don't understand. Can we just start playing the game? Yep,

Speaker 2  15:50  
that's how I am. You tell me how to do it, okay? Can you show me how

Speaker 1  15:55  
to do it? Right? That's how I have to learn every single game. I feel like you grasp it better, too. Yeah. Oh, I see how that works, great, right? So unless you have somebody that's going to be like right alongside you as you're doing these things for the first time, for me, I don't, I don't see a better way to make sure you're not screwing up people's lives than to have that situation, right? Yeah, that whole not learning how to write contracts or negotiate contracts, or did you learn anything about marketing in your class? No, okay, so you get these people who get their license, and they go out and they try and get listing appointments, right? They don't know how to market a home.

Speaker 2  16:38  
I went on Tiktok while I was still in school, and I'm like, How To Market Yourself as a real estate associate in Florida, because every state's different. So I'm like, specifically, I need Florida. What do I need to do? And social media was one of those things that they say, make yourself look busy. Go to showings. Make yourself

Speaker 1  16:57  
look busy. Fake it till you make it right now, that's what they say. However, how is that in the best interest of the customers? Because they're hiring a rookie, right? I think they should know they're hiring a rookie, but that their rookie has this support,

Speaker 2  17:15  
right? And that should that. That was why my most important question was, what's your training like? Yes, I'm a green bean. Yes, I have sales experience, but I don't really know what I'm doing, aside from what I learned and what you learn in school, is how to not get in trouble, basically,

Speaker 1  17:34  
right? How do you not get in trouble? But how can you not get in trouble if you're out there doing stuff by yourself and you don't really know what you're doing for sure

Speaker 2  17:45  
or how to get a hold of your superior to guide you in the right direction,

Unknown Speaker  17:51  
right? This is what everybody goes through.

Speaker 1  17:55  
I mean, every new agent out there. So did you read the blog where I talked about, like the 10,000 agents over a four year period, average less than like 42,000 a year. Yep, one

Unknown Speaker  18:08  
of the first ones that I read, actually, yeah. And then 7000

Speaker 1  18:12  
were like one sale a year or less, on average for four years. So that could have been somebody who did one sale in four years, or for sale in four years. I know that there's some people who do this part time, but one sale a year, is that really what

Speaker 2  18:29  
what they thought of? I don't think that's what they thought of going into it.

Speaker 1  18:33  
Yeah, yes. I feel bad for all the people who thought it was going to be like a great time to get into real estate and how much money they could make. And I've talked to a lot of people, I mean, people I mean, people that left good jobs at Publix to get the real estate license in 2021 because they could get rich. No, no, they were one of the 10,000 people almost guaranteed. The worst thing about that to me is what the customers are experiencing because of it, because customers think that if you have a stethoscope on that you're a doctor, and anybody with this stethoscope on can at least be a general practitioner. And they're all good, right? That's what they think. Some of them may have got to see in college. Some of them may have got an A. I kind of would want the doctor that got the A if I knew I had a choice, right with real estate agents? I believe the consumer believes that if you have real estate agent or broker or realtor next to your name, that you are all equal, and there's just no way, because in any industry, there's no way, no did you know that we used to own hair spa, like a hair salon that was ahead of day spa

Speaker 2  19:44  
five. Yes, that's one of the things I remember you and your wife were telling me about when we started looking for a house with you guys. Okay,

Speaker 1  19:50  
so I learned a lot because she was 20 years in the industry. So, you know, you tend to have a clue as to what your spouse is going through, right? And one of. Things that I realized when I got into real estate is that people, especially women in this scenario, spent more time researching who their next hair stylist was going to be than they did researching who their next real estate professional was going to be. Because when you're looking for somebody to do your hair, you want to see other hair they've done. Yeah, a lot of times people go to somebody because they love the way their friends hair looked. I've had people go up to my wife over the years. They'd say, Who does your hair? She's my actually did it myself. Can you do mine? Right? But with real estate, so many times it's they're like, on Facebook, do you know a good agent? Somebody replies, oh, yeah, this person's great, but they do no research into what that person has actually accomplished, and that person is likely a friend of the person who referred them, right? And the friend doesn't even know,

Speaker 2  20:57  
yep, probably hasn't even bought a house from them or worked with them?

Speaker 1  21:01  
Yes, I have a friend, a neighbor, who is in a certain profession, and he kind of works for himself. And I know he's in this profession, and I've actually referred him a few times to people who have asked for somebody who does that service. But recently I realized, you know, he doesn't have a Google business page. He's not on Yelp. I have no way to know what the public thinks of his services. So I googled that profession, and I found a couple in town that does the same thing. They've got 85 star reviews. And when my when the last person asked me, you know, I have a customer who asked me for that service. I said, Well, I've got this neighbor that I know is a nice guy, but I don't know for sure how good of a job they do, so you're welcome to call them. But also, here's a five star review from a local company. Right when you got 85 star reviews, which is, I think we have 79 five star reviews, so that's pretty darn close. That's awesome. You know that that is something that the the could help a buyer or a seller feel much more comfortable with if they could see that kind of thing, right? As opposed to my friend recommended me like,

Speaker 2  22:13  
then, you know the experience of other people that may not be related to that person.

Speaker 1  22:17  
When people call me to work or like, like, they call me because they might want me as a buyer's agent or a listing agent. I asked them if they've seen my reviews online, and a lot of times it's like, no, I just Googled real estate agents. And I said, Well, I appreciate the call. I'm going to send you the link there, because it is incredibly important that whoever you hire you feel very confident in because this is a high stress part of life for you, and your level of comfort is going to be determined by how well you how much you trust the person you've hired to help you with this

Unknown Speaker  22:53  
absolutely

Unknown Speaker  22:56  
so your largest purchases in your life,

Speaker 1  22:58  
right? So that's one of the things you know, in in the brokerage that I started off with as a rookie, as I'm going through these great training courses, and I use that term sarcastically, and they're telling everybody the exact same thing. One of the things they're saying is, okay, I want you to take 10 minutes and go call 10 people, or as many people as you can in 10 minutes, that are in your contacts, and let them know that you are now a real estate professional. And do they know anybody that needs a real estate professional? Right? Buy or Sell house? Okay, so you just got your license, and you're calling all your friends, maybe some who you haven't talked to in a while, and saying, Hey, trust me with your next real estate purchase. I think that's insane.

Unknown Speaker  23:40  
You don't know anything,

Speaker 2  23:42  
right? No, no, not enough experience under my belt to

Speaker 1  23:45  
right? So there's got to be a better way, like I, you know? I think that the real estate industry would really benefit from an apprenticeship program like they do with plumbing. You know, I would trust more plumbers out there than I would real estate professionals,

Speaker 2  24:00  
yeah, because you don't even know if we're trained by the right person either.

Speaker 1  24:03  
Yeah. So this is all stuff that I think about. I want to not be a part of that problem. If, if you decided that you wanted to work for slice of Florida Realty, and you get a person that wants to use your services, I would want you and that person to know that we're going to be right there every step of the way, right?

Speaker 2  24:27  
Absolutely. It makes me more confident in what I'm doing, knowing that I have the support to accomplish what I need to to support the ones that I'm working with Exactly,

Unknown Speaker  24:36  
exactly. What

Speaker 1  24:39  
did they tell you about the difference between single agency and transaction brokerage. What do you recall from that?

Speaker 2  24:45  
So single agency was basically you're like the attorney for your client, and then transaction brokerage, you don't really have the fiduciary duties that you do in a single. Agency to your client, you're basically just helping them in the transaction to buy the house and not really then their full needs. Right?

Speaker 1  25:15  
Yet, I believe, and I really think I'm right on this, that probably 90% of the transactions in Florida happen in a transaction brokerage relationship. That's why I talk about it so much. I don't mind it being in another podcast, because people need to understand that. You know, if you think you're being represented, unless it says single agency on your document that you've signed with that brokerage, you're not being represented. So that the podcast that I did with Lauren Cole at this point, for the listener, I would say, go and listen to that one if you want to get a lot more detail. It was a good one. I listened to it as you were listening to that podcast. Did you feel like you already knew that from school?

Speaker 2  25:56  
I felt like I knew a little bit of it, but I think it really dove deeper into it and gave me a better understanding. I wish I would have listened to it before I even took my state exam, because definitely would have helped me a little bit more.

Speaker 1  26:11  
Yeah, there you go. Yeah. Although I don't do hardly any podcast where I'm even considering what a real estate professional might get out of my podcast, it's like all for the buyers and sellers, right? I do recognize that if, if agents or people think about becoming agents, would listen to that, they would probably gain some important knowledge.

Unknown Speaker  26:32  
Absolutely.

Unknown Speaker  26:35  
What other questions do you have for me?

Speaker 2  26:39  
Why will placing my license with your office be a greater opportunity for success if, then, if I placed my license with one of your competitors?

Speaker 1  26:54  
Okay, I don't want to sound too arrogant.

Unknown Speaker  27:00  
I kind of gave you that opportunity.

Speaker 1  27:01  
So thank you. Okay, well, you know what? I've got a couple of documents here that I keep in my briefcase. I just met with a broker from another state last week who has a probate deal down here that she's a part of. Now she she can't represent it, right, but it's part of her family. She's a broker from another state, so she knows all the right questions to ask when she's interviewing agents or brokers. And so one of her questions was, what kind of sales have you been doing and whatnot, and how do you compare, you know, with the rest of the place? So this one my past five years. Now, the viewer can't tell that I'm holding up an MLS printout, but this was printed directly off the MLS. I just put in the criteria the six REMAX broker or offices that were all part of the brokerage I was with. There's 120 agents on this. You see that? Okay? And this was a five year period that I worked there, and it's sorted by the most amount of sales, and there's my name up at the top. And also for the volume, it's not sorted by by dollar amount, but you can see at the 71 million there for those five years, that there was nobody else that hit seven. Closest one was 68 million. Okay, so if you've got somebody with that level of success that is basically holding your hand, getting you started, I would think that that's a scenario you're not gonna find too easily anywhere else,

Speaker 2  28:27  
right, especially when you look into those larger brokerages. You know, I could easily give you a phone call. I was actually calling you, not even realizing yesterday that you held your broker's license. And I was calling you for advice, knowing that I worked with you. I liked your style when we were looking at purchasing a house, and I didn't feel like you were talking sales like you were I was talking to you as a friend, in a way, even though you were helping me in finding my home, you were I still felt like you were my friend, like we've known each other for a few years, I was comfortable, yeah, and you answered second ring, I think it was when I called you. Oh, just to ask for some

Speaker 1  29:09  
advice. Thanks for and I was in Walmart at the time, right? You were doing your thing, and you still answered. If you do not answer your phone in real estate, I

Unknown Speaker  29:18  
don't know why I have your license,

Speaker 1  29:21  
right? I got a listing one time. I was the third agent called, but it was like the Friday after things. So it was Black Friday. I'm on my roof, putting up my Christmas lights in the dark. I've got lights wrapped around me, and I'm putting my phone rings. It's in my back pocket. I pull it out, and I answered the phone as professionally as I always do, and the voice on the other end said, Well, you probably have this listing because, just because you answered the phone,

Unknown Speaker  29:50  
so important, so important.

Speaker 1  29:53  
So let's talk about this phone thing, because I have signed up with a program just today. I've been looking into this for a while now. So. Me and I just today signed up with a program that is going to do some amazing things. Well, that concludes this very special edition of the real estate agent man podcast. Interviewing somebody who has had their license for seven days is not something I've had the opportunity to do before. So we're talking about a lot of things. She's actually interviewing me as well as a potential brokerage for her to work at, and that is why in the next episode, we will be continuing the conversation about this incredible new phone program that we have that is going to make the communication between ourselves and our customers absolutely amazing. And now it's time for you to be the hero to your friends and family by sharing this podcast with them. You can find these episodes on pretty much every podcast app, whether it's Spotify, Pandora, Apple podcast. I heart anything that's out there that plays a podcast, you'll probably find us, but there's also unique content on Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, truth, social and X. Wanna own

Speaker 4  30:59  
a place like the ones you see, maybe near the beach or a golf course green you're searching on the web and housing magazines. It's time you cost Steve Martin homes to reach your dreams. We sell Sarasota homes. We

Unknown Speaker  31:24  
we sell Sarasota homes,

Unknown Speaker  31:28  
Sarasota area homes. We

Unknown Speaker  31:30  
you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai