Good Neighbor Podcast: Rochester
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Neighbors of Rochester
Good Neighbor Podcast: Rochester
EP#133: Realty Consultants with Kim Agemy
Meet Kim Agemy from Realty Consultants, brokered by eXp, who turned a spark of inspiration from her husband into a thriving real estate career. Discover how Kim's journey began at Pulte Homes and evolved through her partnership with eXp, which provided the support and network crucial for expanding her business. Her commitment to elevating industry standards shines through initiatives like "Knowledge is Power" events, where she shares real estate insights and empowers women entrepreneurs. Kim's passion is palpable as she talks about guiding clients through life-changing real estate decisions, from buying their first home to handling sensitive estate sales, all while debunking common industry misconceptions.
Get a glimpse into Kim's world beyond real estate, as she opens up about her personal interests that fuel her resilience and personal growth. From cherished travel adventures with her daughter to swinging clubs in a golf league and keeping fit with Orange Theory, Kim shares how these experiences shape her journey. She candidly reflects on the challenges of scaling her business, noting the invaluable role of mentorship, especially during the uncertain times of opening an eXp office amidst COVID-19. Kim's story is one of courage, family, and a relentless drive to learn and grow, ensuring her clients' needs always come first.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Lisa Swiftney.
Speaker 2:Hi everyone, good morning and welcome to episode number 133 of the Good Neighbor Podcast. Today we have with us Kim Agame, with Realty Consultants brokered by eXp. How are you doing today, kim?
Speaker 3:I'm doing fantastic and I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to be here this morning.
Speaker 2:Well, I appreciate you as well. Thank you, let's first start off by telling our audience about your business.
Speaker 3:Sure, my husband grew up an entrepreneur. I grew up with parents that just worked careers and so really that entrepreneurship rubbed off on me. So we have a real estate company, so we're brokered by eXp. We have our own office. We're right by the Costco on Hall Road in Shelby Township and the great thing that eXp does is it kind of gives us the engine of where to run our business. As a broker, I could really work out of my house or anywhere I want, but it's given me an engine to really work bigger, better, stronger. And so we have a real estate business. We love helping our clients buy and sell. Typically, your home's your biggest investment. So most of our business would pass clients in referrals, because it's very important to us to make sure that we help our clients. It can be stressful, exciting and everything all wrapped into one, so we're excited to be able to help them along that journey.
Speaker 2:That is great, so tell our listeners more about your journey. You talked a little bit about your journey, but tell us how did you get started?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know it's funny, I didn't. I didn't decide one day, oh, I'm going to do real estate. That wasn't really in my plan at all. And I I got a business management degree in college and, if I'm truthful about it, I ended up with business management because I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do, and so along the way I thought about teaching to computer programming, and then I ended up going eh no, eh no, and so it really and truly.
Speaker 3:Meeting my husband was kind of that pivotal, kind of a pivotal moment. At the time we were moving from Indiana back to Michigan and he's from Michigan. I'm from Indiana, louisville, kentucky area, grew up there, and so when I moved to Michigan I had to find a job. So essentially, my sister-in-law worked for Pulte Homes. I applied there and got the job, and it was a great place to start because they taught me sell skills, they taught me how to build a home, they taught me a lot of great skills that would really help me throughout my career, and so that was the start of it.
Speaker 3:And I had journeys along the way with raising my family. I got my broker license. Along the way I pivoted to where I then opened my own brokerage and I had my own brokerage for a long time. But as I was trying to figure out how to scale and grow, I was finding it hard to get people to help me, kind of share and show me the path. And so my husband kind of pushed I was joking between him and Kurt, they push, shoved me. We opened our exp office in it and it truly was the best business decision ever made because it allowed me to surround myself with people that did show me some paths and ways to grow my business, which means I get to help more people, and it has taken me down some kind of arm lengths off of that business that I've been able to help more people.
Speaker 3:I'm really excited about that and just learned how to do it better, more efficient, and I get to help more people that way. I love it.
Speaker 2:And you do have a tremendous heart for helping people.
Speaker 3:I do. You know, and that's really the key of it, what EXP did? Because if I just stayed on my own, my own brokerage office, because from the time I went from selling new construction to where I ended up, or reopened the EXP office, I really was figuring out things by myself. I made a lot of mistakes. I'm like, okay, never learned from that, but what I ended up going, oh well, if I surround myself with the right people, I can avoid mistakes, avoid wasting money, avoid time, which that is a whole nother you know multiple effect on time, energy, money, mindset, all of those things. So and I do really love so with that came along with doing my monthly knowledge, is power events where I'm helping agents at, oh, and I end up having not just agents but industry related people come to my events.
Speaker 3:Been doing it for three years just trying to help elevate the industry that you know went off to ditch the hills, which we've talked about, which is helping women entrepreneurs. It is that love of helping people, that it's open doors and mindset on how can I extend that. And so my buyers and sellers and clients. That's the core of what I do. And so we, we, we love helping people with that and we see that and sellers and clients. That's the core of what I do and so we love helping people with that and we see that we change people's lives right. Sometimes it's sometimes they have a death in the family, sometimes they have a baby, sometimes they're buying their new house, sometimes they're downsizing All kinds of stories that we have but it's the stories that make it so rewarding.
Speaker 2:That is so true, so true. Can you tell us about any myths or misconceptions in your industry?
Speaker 3:Well, I'll tell you what a lot of people don't really see it. It's funny their home is typically their biggest investment, for most people, right, right. So it surprises me and shocks me how little people think about who they hire to help them buy or sell. And they're so it. And I'll be honest, compared to other states, in michigan you can take a 40, you take one week, 40 hours, pass the test, you can write a legal contract with somebody's biggest investment and help them buy and sell. And that's scary on a lot of levels because you know a lot of people get in and see the flip shows and thinks it's easy. So they say, on average, people know an average of 13 real estate agents. Okay, they don't actually think. Or they go online and shop, get connected to somebody and start using them and they have no idea of their abilities. So the myth is if you're going to buy or sell, you should be interviewing, you should be questioning, you should know somebody's background ability.
Speaker 3:When I help my clients, I'm not just setting them up on an automatic search. They get an email with here's some homes, oh, you want to go see it? Okay, let's go. It's so much more than that. I'm a circle prospecting. I have clients in my database. I can help sell homes quicker.
Speaker 3:I'm a great negotiator. I win more than I lose. So in multiple offer situations, when you're wanting that you find that home, nothing is more disappointing than finding a home that you want, putting in an offer and your offer doesn't get accepted Again. In that situation I win more than I lose. And sometimes if I lose it's because I have laid it out for my client and they have made a decision that maybe that's not in their best interest. I'm always going to say here's where you need to be to win the home and here's where it does or doesn't make sense. Here's where you're crossing a line of reckless. But I have been able to get offers accepted with not always the highest offer sales price, because there's other terms that are important. You have to find out what those other terms are. One of the great things that I love about my knowledge is power. I've really tried to form relationships with other agents, and so when I'm sitting across the table from somebody they know I'm going to get the job done, I partner myself with great lender, great title, because I know those things can fall apart and I don't want you to be disappointed, and so I really try to lead my clients through. You know, jim, my husband is my partner. We work together as a team and he's got different skill sets than I do and so we really complement each other.
Speaker 3:But I think the myth is that you don't need a real estate agent. I think there's a lack of respect for what we do until you use somebody bad or until you use somebody good. Right, because sometimes somebody is like, well, I don't trust because I had a bad experience. Well, how did you find that agent? Did you use aunt susie? That does one once a year. You know national association.
Speaker 3:Here's a stat that I think most people don't know national association of realtors said that 49 of licensed agents sold zero or one home last year. Wow, yeah, so do you think those, those people that sold one, does it? 49? That's half that don't even have experience in selling homes. Not to mention, I've been shocked, as I tried to, as I look to scale my business, how little homes the average agent sells. It's surprising to me.
Speaker 3:So I think the myth when you ask me is that I would tell anybody whether you use me or somebody else investigate, interview, ask questions, know who's helping you If they can't negotiate and if you're going to choose your agent because of your commission, your compensation if they can't negotiate their own commission, how do you think they're going to be able to negotiate on your best behalf? True, right, right. So ask lots of questions, interview, look up their history, look up their Google reviews. Just do your due diligence. Just like, if I use a painter, I might get more than one quote. Why would you not? On your buying or selling of a home, that is true, so true, all right.
Speaker 2:So I have a fun question now. So when you're not working on your business or empowering other people, what do you like to do for fun?
Speaker 3:Well, one thing I really, I really love to travel. My grandma kind of got a taste of that for me when I was, when I was a kid, grew up at a time where she lost her husband. My dad was three, so she grew up as a single mom raising three kids at a time where that didn't, you know, that wasn't typical. She never drove, she, but she flew around the world, flew around the world, and so it was always fascinating to me. I remember in middle school I was in middle school and she brought home some wine from Paris and she goes we're going to have a toast and I'm so excited I thought I was going to have this delicious wine from from Paris. I took a drink.
Speaker 3:I'm like yeah, not what I expected, so, but I watched her do an Alaskan cruise. I watched her there. So I really love when I can take my whole family on trips, which we do. So we're planning one for next year which I'm excited about. My daughter really has the passion of travel for me. So me and my daughter we've traveled to Arizona and went through Antelope Canyon and Sedona and that we went to New York City. We've done hiking. We just went to Europe in May where we went to Paris and all over Italy and saw all kinds of places and it was just so phenomenal to be able to go over there and see. There's so much to see in the world. So I'm always looking and tagging places that I would like to go to. I like to see new places.
Speaker 3:I'm in a golf league, so, as my kids, as an empty nester now, I'm like, okay, my kids are gone, they all play travel, they all play college sports. So they, you know, we were busy, we were divide and conquer. And then, when they were all gone, I'm like what do I do with myself? I need some friends, I need some hobbies. So I joined a golf league, which has been a lot of fun. My golf league is totally for fun.
Speaker 3:Listen, I'm competitive but I like that it's. You know we don't always keep score. We know how everyone does. You know we toast on the keep score. We know how everyone does. You know we toast on the different holes and we have fun. But I so I enjoy golf because it makes me stop working, gets out. I. I get to get some fresh air, have some fun with some friends. I've been working out at Orange Theory so I do like. I do like. My health and my fitness has been something that's become important to me. My kids, as college athletes, they are completely into eating healthy. I got the Yuka app. I'm going through the grocery store downloading it. I'm like is this good?
Speaker 1:I'm like oh my God, everything's bad.
Speaker 3:That's why it tastes good, right, so you know. So, really trying to work on my health, my diet, my exercise. I love to travel, love to golf. I really trying to work on my health, my diet, my exercise, I love to travel, love to golf. I really love to read I don't read as much as I would like to and I do have two grandkids now as I had.
Speaker 3:I had my oldest lived out of state. Our middle Cole was playing baseball in college at Marshall University. My daughter was playing volleyball up in Grand Rapids so that for a while was like woo, that was our, that was what we did for fun. We went to see them. Now my son just finished his master's this week in five and a half years from Marshall. My oldest husband, yes, so proud of him. So I'll be, he doesn't want to, he didn't walk, he played baseball for there, so I'll be, he doesn't want to, he didn't walk, he played baseball for there. And he's like, yeah, I'm not doing that. So my daughter now my daughter is, so my daughter's the only one in college, my oldest.
Speaker 3:We have blessed with two grandkids, so that's a lot of fun. They come and stay the night. I get to enjoy them. Today I'm enjoying my grandson today. So it's fun to see that. So it's fun to see them all go on their own lives. It's really hard to get them all together. My favorite thing in the world is to have us all together on a vacation. It's harder to do than you think, especially now that Cole's out of college. They were all over the place. Now Cody lives locally with our grandkids so he's moved back. So that's that's been fun. I get to go to you know the donuts at school and stuff like that. So you know my grandkids. My family is huge my parents. I'm from the Louisville Kentucky. Louisville Kentucky area, indiana. My family's still there, so I like to travel back to see them as well. So very close with my mom. My sister lives there now. So family travel, golf, those are the top. And then I do put a lot into work because I enjoy it.
Speaker 2:That's great. That's great. So can you describe for us one hardship or life challenge that you rose above and can now say, because of that challenge, that you're better for and are stronger?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think the challenge and something that drives my passion now like even with the Ditch the Hills that I do is that I learning real estate, is that I learning real estate? What I didn't realize is that back when I was raising my kids, where my youngest one started kindergarten I wish I would have really surrounded myself with people to learn how to grow my business earlier. As my kids got older, I think my biggest challenge was figuring out how to scale my business. Well, I like helping people. I, I enjoy real estate. But how do I, how do I build a business? How do I, how do I help more people? How do I let people know I can help them? How did I let them know that you know I'm good at what I do? I think that was the biggest challenge. That was, I didn't know quite how to solve. And then when I, when I started being selective and intentional and I started being around in different rooms with different people because at one point when I had my own brokerage, I joined a smaller luxury brokerage looking to get the how I was going to scale, but I quickly found that I was actually a top producer. So they they just didn't have the ability to teach me.
Speaker 3:When I made the pivot and we decided to open our EXP office the week of COVID, mind you did it on Monday, covid shut us down Friday. That was a challenge. That's probably the scariest decision. That decision, right there was the scariest I made because we decided to open an office and I and I went for it. What I can tell people is that the biggest wins come from the smallest decisions. I honestly was sick to my stomach the whole week that we made the announcement. I'm like what if I fail? Everybody's going to know what if this doesn't go right? Covid happened and then you know that was a whole nother thing. But if I never made that, it's kind of like my my doing my monthly events If I never decided to do the first one.
Speaker 1:Because, let me tell, you, I didn't have it all figured out.
Speaker 3:I didn't know who was going to show up. I didn't know who my speakers were going to be. I didn't know what was going to show up. I didn't know who my speakers were going to be. I didn't know what was going to happen. But if I didn't just decide to do that, I wouldn't have that led to me doing events for three years. That led to me doing running the EXP regional rally for a global brokerage, the last two rallies and I'm going to run another one this coming spring To having my Ditch the Hills event for women entrepreneurs two of them. Now I'm launching a community and planning a retreat in Tulum, mexico.
Speaker 3:None of that would have happened if I never made that first decision, even though I was terrified. People like, oh, it comes easy for you. Well, that's not true. It's not true. I just was bold enough and had people around me, enough kind of pushing, pushing, pushing me and believing in myself to go for it. And then, as one thing happened, it rolled to another. And then I'm like, oh my God, I can do this. Okay, I did this. Now what about the next thing? I'll tell you, like the, the, the retreat into New Mexico. I was terrified. I'm still terrified, still still working on that. I'll tell you, like the, the, the retreat into New Mexico I was terrified. I'm still terrified, still still working on that, I'm still terrified.
Speaker 3:Right, be intentional about who you surround yourself with. Sometimes you need the push, sometimes you need a shove, sometimes you need the encouragement, sometimes you need the belief, sometimes you need to run your ideas and and go, oh, okay, and believe in yourself. That imposter syndrome. Well, why does anybody care what I have to say? I don't know, I still not sure, and it's funny, I still feel that way.
Speaker 3:But when you go out there and I believe you get back what you put out, right, I'd say the biggest challenge is just, really, I wasn't sure how to grow, I wasn't sure how to scale, and when I started getting in different rooms where I was the smallest fish, not the biggest fish, surrounded myself with people that are at a higher level and people that are willing to show the path along the way it's not everybody is and then I want to bring people with me because I see how that impacted my life. I tripled my business by making that decision and so by doing that, that's how I overcame that objection, and it might seem small, but it was. It changed my life because it changed what I'm doing on a on a daily basis. It changed my passion. It changed how many people I'm helping, and you know that that, I think, is just just go for believe in yourself, and if you're not around people to support you, then you need to change who you're surrounded yourself with. Right.
Speaker 2:Right, and we had that conversation. Yeah, I appreciate that. What is one thing that you wish our listeners knew about your business?
Speaker 3:The one thing that I wish that they knew is that this is what we do full time, me and my husband. We are experts. I am always learning. I'm always looking at how to improve. I'm learning new technology as technology takes on. How am I going to market your home? The best marketer wins. That's just the reality. When it comes to selling your home for the most money, I need to be ahead of the game on what's marketing your home to get the most eyes on it. I can get the most offers and I can drive up the price and the terms that I can get you the most money. When you're looking to buy and sell, you need a good negotiator. You need somebody that's going to say because sometimes I will tell my clients listen, you got an offer here, but the home's over here Now. If you're going to stay here long-term, here's what I think you should do. If you're not, then it's your decision. Ultimately, I just wish they knew the passion that I have and the links we'll go to for our clients.
Speaker 3:I've got a long list of stories. We had a client that came just as a referral and, throughout the process, her husband. It was a sad situation. She literally had to divorce her husband in order to sell the property because of just the way it worked with being able to get him into a facility and just before the closing she ended up in the hospital with her heart. We literally had to have the closing at the hospital and we had to help get somebody there because if she didn't sign that day, she was going to lose the home and lose the equities she had in it. We helped her clear out the facility and we helped her find a facility for her husband. We helped her find an apartment. I didn't make money on that, I just wanted to help her as an individual and help her. We helped her with an estate, so we did everything that we could to help her because she was in a tough time in her life.
Speaker 3:So I just, I just would like for people to know that we are truly, me and my husband we're not about the, we're not about the money, we're about the people and we love, enjoy, enjoy helping people. We help our agents as well. We like to help them learn to scale. But I just, you know just that we are going to work hard for you and we're always going to do what's in your best interest, even if it's, even if I have to bet I had a had another offer. We had an offer come in, a buyer come directly to us and we actually used the buyer that didn't have an agent that would have used us and I would have gotten paid on both sides that actually brought up the offer on this offer, because there was one term they liked better and they went with this offer, but I was able to get them more and that's what we're going to do, so we're going to do what's in your best interest, that's all.
Speaker 3:Just that. You know we're here to help you and we enjoy it. We're passionate, we're great negotiators. We know what we do. This is not part-time for us. This is our heart and soul. We are here to help you.
Speaker 2:That's great. You're working for your clients. Yes, absolutely. Our listeners are now intrigued. They want to hire you. They want to learn more. How can they get in touch with you?
Speaker 3:They are able to a lot of ways. One, our office is by Costco. If you go between Costco and getting gas, you're going to pass the office with my photo in the window. You can go to our website, realty Consultants, with an S dot info I-N-F-O. You can find me. You can match me on Facebook, instagram, on all the social media. I do a lot of social media. I do the social media because guess what? That helps my clients sell for more money. So that's a very important thing. So you can find me on Facebook. You can find me on Instagram. You can find me on LinkedIn, tiktok, x, all of them. So you can find us all those ways and then reach out directly to us. But our website's RealtyConsultantsinfo, like I said, find me on social. You'll find our website, contact us directly and we are happy to help.
Speaker 2:Great Kim. Thank you so much for being on our podcast today. I really appreciate the opportunity to talk with you.
Speaker 3:Well, Lisa, I appreciate the opportunity. I love what you're doing. I love that you're all about the neighborhood, the community. That's very important. You are showcasing small businesses.
Speaker 1:And I think that's truly important in a community. So thank you. No-transcript.