The Alimond Show
Welcome to The Alimond Show --join us as we share our entrepreneurial guests' stories, uncover their secrets to success, and explore the unique paths they've taken to build thriving businesses in our community.
In each episode, our host, Aliyah Dastour, sits down with a diverse group of local business owners, from the corner cafe to the boutique shop, from tech startups to family-run enterprises. We peel back the curtain to reveal the trials, triumphs, and transformational moments that have shaped their entrepreneurial journey.
Discover the passion, perseverance, and innovative thinking that fuels these businesses, as well as the challenges they've overcome along the way. Whether you're a budding entrepreneur seeking inspiration or simply a curious listener interested in the stories behind your favorite local spots, The Alimond Show has something for everyone.
Our guests share their experiences, insights, and valuable advice that can empower you to turn your own dreams into reality. We discuss topics like marketing strategies, customer relationships, community engagement, and much more, offering practical takeaways you can apply to your own business or career.
Join us every week as we celebrate the unsung heroes of our local business community and explore the vibrant tapestry of entrepreneurship in our area. Tune in to The Alimond Show and get ready to be inspired, informed, and motivated to support and nurture the businesses that make our community thrive.
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The Alimond Show
Kelly Krogmann - From Marketing to Real Estate Success: Inspiring Stories and the Power of Kindness
Ever wondered how a single mom with a background in marketing and graphic design could overcome life's challenges and build a thriving real estate career? Meet Kelly Krogmann, the inspiring team lead of the Appalachian Home Team. Kelly shares her heartfelt journey from struggling to find her footing to becoming a successful real estate agent. Through her story, you'll learn the importance of building genuine relationships with clients, treating them like family, and the immense satisfaction of helping people achieve their dream of homeownership. Kelly's dedication to alleviating clients' stress and providing unwavering support through life's ups and downs is truly remarkable.
In this episode, we also explore the multifaceted role of real estate agents and the emotional complexities of the industry, featuring a poignant tale of assisting a disabled veteran family through significant obstacles. Kelly's narrative underscores the importance of experienced representation, especially amid the ever-changing real estate landscape. The discussion wraps up with a powerful message about kindness, highlighting how simple acts can profoundly impact clients' lives. Whether you're navigating your home-buying journey or considering investing in real estate, Kelly and her team bring expertise and a compassionate approach that extends across Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. Don't miss these insightful conversations that reveal the true essence of the real estate profession.
My name is Kelly Krogman and I am the team lead of the Appalachian Home Team. We are a full-service real estate group that focuses on helping everybody create their real estate dream. So to me, the American dream has always been owning a home. So whether you are buying your own personal home or an investor or anything like that, we want to be here as a go-to resource for everybody that we can, so, locally and all the way.
Speaker 2:Actually, we're expanding too, so tell me, how did you get into this industry.
Speaker 1:So my best friends worked on a really successful team and they ended up getting their licenses about, I think, 12 years ago for them. And so I, as a single mom, was trying to find my way. I just had a baby and had kind of just say like took a sledgehammer to my life and I needed a career that would provide me the ability to be a mom and and actually make money. And so I actually have a degree in marketing and graphic design. So it worked out really well that they were like you should look at getting into real estate. And so I got my license and for the first year I did nothing. I floundered around, did like maybe one or two rentals and had no idea how to market myself because I'd been paid to market everybody else. And then I actually that's always a problem, yeah, figuring out how to market yourself is always an issue. So I, um, and I had no idea what my why was. I mean, I knew that I wanted to be able to be a mom and work, but I didn't know what I was doing.
Speaker 1:I was 25 and figuring it all out, so I ended up joining actually that same team, and that was actually when I was here and doing my headshots with Aaliyah and um, put my license and referral status for a little bit. As I learned and as time progressed, I just really started having a heart for people that kind of struggle into homes because I couldn't get my own loan, I couldn't buy a house. I was trying to struggling to find, to even get a rental at the time. So, single mom, no help from dad, you know all of that story. And so I just um, really put my head down and humbled myself and learned from everybody around me. At the time I was at a local brokerage, um, and I just started learning from the broker there, from all the super awesome agents that were super successful there and my own team lead, and then um, and from there on it was just a learning curve and learning how to build business and really start marketing in the real estate world.
Speaker 2:So I was going to say how do you market yourself now? Cause that's I think that's a big thing that I struggle with as well. I didn't go to school for marketing, but most of my previous work, history, has always been within the marketing industry, which is always marketing somebody else. But once I start thinking about you know my own stuff, I'm like I don't know what to do. Yep.
Speaker 1:And I still, I still struggle with it. It's especially even like getting a degree in marketing. They teach they don't teach you how to market small business. They teach you how to market small business. They teach you how to market big business. So completely like washing clean of that mindset and learning that it's really about creating relationships.
Speaker 1:I have made a really solid we'll call it referral business of my past clients. I treat my clients really well. They are my family. I don't. If I'm not going to put my mom in the house, I'm not going to put my client in the house. Now, if you're an investor, that's a whole other conversation. But if I'm not going to put my mother in the house, I'm not going to put my client in the house. And if you push me and that's the house that you want we're going to have a lot of conversations about it and you'll get pushback from me.
Speaker 1:And then the marketing side of it is just creating that amazing brand that people remember. So they remember their experiences, they remember how you treated them. They remember, you know, if you remember that they have a daughter and her birthday is on April 7th, you know they remember those things and if you make them feel special, they become raving fans. There's a book about Wegmans and creating raving fans and I read that and so I started really wanting to make sure that everybody felt special, that I came in contact with and being hyper local, that's how you do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you get a lot more people.
Speaker 1:This person knows this person referring you to this person and then if you're able to transition that into like doing something online, that it's a whole other conversation.
Speaker 2:So what do you find most rewarding about what you do now?
Speaker 1:The ability to give somebody a home is the most rewarding thing, because home is not just a house Home. It's different for everybody what home is, but giving somebody the ability that they never thought that they'd be able to buy a home or they never thought that a specific home that they were underwater on would sell for the amount that they sold it for, and getting out of debt, like being able to help people's dreams and removing the stress of the process, is the most rewarding feeling ever. I mean, it's a very difficult industry to navigate sometimes and we have a ton of changes always happening and everybody's situation is different. We are literally real estate agents, are literally problem solvers. We are. We wear all the hats all the hats.
Speaker 1:I have been therapist, I have been um relationship guide, I have been um. We're not supposed to give legal advice, so I always make sure I'm not and whatever life happens, and so whatever is going on in their lives while they're going through this super stressful process, being able to help them through that. It's really about the service and about making sure that somebody is cared for, I guess is the best way to put it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Now flipping it a little bit. What are the biggest challenges that you kind of come into play with within the real estate world?
Speaker 1:It's again. Life is messy, and so the biggest challenges that I've come across is really people not knowing the laws that we have to follow, and even some agents don't know the laws that we have to follow. So navigating people's emotions during high-stress situations and for some of these people it's like the biggest thing that they're going to do yeah, it is the biggest investment they've ever made. So you're talking about, especially in this area, handling millions of dollars of real estate and somebody especially now, because we had such immense growth the last five years somebody bought a house for $80,000 back in 1970. And now it's being sold for like $1.2 million in Fairfax and you're literally changing lives and if you don't handle that well and you don't walk them through that process and have the expertise to do that, it can get really messy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so tell me a a you said messy, which made me think of something, but tell me a good story that you know. You came into contact with somebody and it was something you helped them in the most amazing way or like, and then tell me a messy story.
Speaker 1:I mean, how about both? I can give you both, okay, because, um, I had these clients that were based out of Akaquik, maryland, which is, you know, pg County. It's it's far from here, but I, like I said, we grow. So, um, they it was a veteran, a disabled veteran, and his wife, who was also disabled, and their two disabled children, and they needed one level living. They were in this monstrous house that was way too much for them to take care of, and the husband, he was almost wheelchair-bound at the time. So, I mean, their situation was really sad and they had these two monstrous dogs and wanted to sell their house for like the most money so they could move into a house that was one-level living that had everything that they wanted. Yeah, and, as you can imagine, when people are disabled, they don't necessarily, well, they aren't able to manage the house.
Speaker 1:So what we did is we brought in contractors. They didn't have the funds to do it themselves, so we brought in contractors, we took all the stress off of them. I said go on vacation for two weeks, literally, just go on vacation for two weeks. When you come back, the house will be painted, there will be a new painted, there will be new carpet, there will be new stained hardwood stains down Like everything will be painted, you will not have any issues. And so they literally they went away for two weeks. When they came back, they had updated lighting, they had new paint, everything. And we sold that with multiple offers within a couple days, quick, and put them into the home of their dreams. And it's a messy situation because, on the flip side, their sale didn't happen when it was supposed to and that affects their purchase.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so we ended up having to find another buyer because lenders lied and there was all kinds of messy stuff. And the day that we were supposed to close on that first contract, the buyer refused to close because the lender lied and they had all their stuff on a moving truck ready to move into their next house because they were closing the next day. Oh, my goodness, on a moving truck ready to move into their next house because they were closing the next day.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 1:And I had to figure out what we were going to do. And so, luckily, the sellers of their purchase let them move in early and you know we managed it. But you have people who are desperate to get out of a house and out of a bad situation, and the longer they stayed in the house the worse things were going to get. So we literally sold their home and I had it under contract within once. They lost that contract, I had it under contract again within 24 hours, so it didn't phase their sale at all that we lost that original contract the day 24 hours.
Speaker 1:So it didn't. It didn't phase their sale at all that we lost. We lost that original contract the day of closing, just very quick turnaround, yep. And to this day they I get cards from them at Christmas and you know, thank you so much. We will never forget what you did and those moments where and I I was, if you can imagine, like I was sweating, I was like freaking out.
Speaker 1:How am I going to solve this problem? This is bad and we managed to make it work and once that final closing happened I could breathe. But there was like three months where I could not breathe. I mean, we stay up at night. People's housing situation keeps agents up at night. I don't know that anybody really thinks about how their agent is feeling during a transaction, because they're going through it With the pressure. But if it affects you, it affects us.
Speaker 1:Or at least if you're a good agent, it does. Some people can just not. But I think that that's kind of what sets us apart with me and my team, is that we have a heart, and even though it keeps me up at night, it's worth it.
Speaker 2:Do you specifically focus on just like day-to-day kind of I shouldn't say day-to-day more personal buys, or do you work also with investors?
Speaker 1:and stuff like that. We do it all because it's me and I have two agents that work with me, and I have two agents that work with me. We cover Maryland, virginia and West Virginia and, in the near future, north Carolina, but we're not there yet. Coming soon. Coming soon. But investors is a whole other ballgame, but we do. One of the agents is a property manager. She's also heavily experienced I don't know if that's the right way to put it, but she's very experienced with investors and so she does a lot of the investment portfolios that we work with and property management, and then I focus mostly on residential. So I'm working with people.
Speaker 2:Residential. That was the word.
Speaker 1:Yeah, residential. I love residential but I will work with investors. But I like the warm and fuzzies so I tend to have the experience. But I tend to lean towards working with residential and handing the investors off to somebody that's more experienced in that role.
Speaker 2:And then working with residential and handing the investors off to somebody that's more experienced in that role and then working with like residential clients. Does the team mostly work like? Oh my goodness, I forgot my question no-transcript pretty widespread.
Speaker 1:We work with a lot of first-time homebuyers, but about 50-50 of our you know our more residential buyers. There's move-up buyers, there's downsizing buyers, like move-down buyers, who don't want as much space, and then we have a lot of first time home buyers as well. Um, but the heart, I think, for me is the first time home buyers, because a lot of them don't know what they're doing.
Speaker 2:Is there any advice that you would give these first time home buyers, like the first initial advice, like talk to a lender.
Speaker 1:Talk to a lender. You need to know like everybody wants to go see the houses first. It's always I want to go see the houses, I want to go house shopping, I want to um go look at the houses, and then they let that be their motivation. But to be smart about it, you don't want to look at a house that you can't afford. If you fall in love with a house and then you can't buy the house because you went online, you did the online mortgage calculator and it was like oh yeah, you can afford this much, but it didn't include your taxes and HOA fees or whatever.
Speaker 1:It's really important to talk to a lender first. We can send you houses all day, but that doesn't mean that you can buy them and lenders can help you if you have any hiccups with your credit. That was my first step when I was buying a house was hey, look at my credit. I know that there's not some great things. I have student loans, I have this, I have that. Tell me how I can buy a house.
Speaker 1:And so always, always go and talk to a lender and make it a local lender, not like a national, not a bank, a lender Gotcha, I think, a lot of agents would say that too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and tell me a little bit about who you are outside of all the real estate world.
Speaker 1:You're telling me you're a girl mom. I am a girl mom. I have three daughters. I have a stepdaughter and two daughters. I actually just had my youngest, three months ago. Her name is Willow, so I'm a girl mom. I am engaged to a wonderful man who is thank you, thank you who's in contracting and we kind of work side by side Sometimes.
Speaker 2:he obviously doesn't just meet him in the industry.
Speaker 1:then no, I met him on Instagram. Okay Well, we had um a lot of mutual connections. You know they, you know you, you know this person or suggesting contacts and he was like well, she's pretty, I'm gonna reach out to her.
Speaker 2:So there you go.
Speaker 1:You went on the dms yeah, he knew my best friends in like high school, so it worked out the, the realtor friends that got you into both of them yep, he knew him well.
Speaker 2:That worked out broad run man, everybody knows everybody from broad run shout out to Ashburn Run.
Speaker 1:Everybody thinks I went there and I didn't.
Speaker 2:I did not.
Speaker 1:I did not go to Broad Run. I went to a very small private school in Fairfax that nobody knows about because it closed, but I literally, you went to Broad Run, you went to Broad Run. Nope, I just hang out with a bunch of people that did so. I guess I have one of those faces. Yeah, so, um, but yes, I am a girl mom. I am, um, I'm a dog mom. I have four dogs and, um a foodie.
Speaker 1:I love going out and trying all the local foods. That is my favorite thing that has happened to Loudoun County recently is that all of these fun restaurants and breweries and wineries have opened up. So all the good food has been really exciting. I actually live in an area now in the middle of nowhere, which was intentional because I can garden and putz around and have my farm animals and all of that, but they don't have any of the good food. So whenever I travel back, I'm like all right, we're going to go watch, watch. Which new restaurant are we going to go try now? So that's what we're, that's what we're doing. I have um 12 acres and farm animals.
Speaker 1:I have a horse. I rescued her from a kill auction. That's a thing that happens that I did not know about until I rescued her, and she is a one-eyed horse and her name is Enola, and we just kind of let her live the rest of her life happily. We're going to do chickens and goats and all the fun stuff, but nothing big.
Speaker 2:You think too crazy.
Speaker 1:I'm just like little goats, like the little ones that jump on trampolines and are funny.
Speaker 2:They do the goat yoga, mm-hmm. Yep, they'll jump on your backs, yep. Well, is there anything else that you would like to touch on that maybe I didn't cover, or anything you'd like to share with the audience that I didn't necessarily touch on, that I didn't necessarily touch?
Speaker 1:on. I just think that there's a lot of industry changes right now. The real estate industry is in upheaval and I think that it's more important than ever to make sure that you have good representation, and that is, you need somebody that's experienced, that knows the contracts, because with the changes that are coming down the pipeline, people buyers especially are going to be affected and they need somebody that's going to advocate for them and fight for them, and it's affecting buyers. Sellers are very happy right now, but it's really important to have somebody that's going to fight for you and fight for your best interests, and so make sure that you have an agent and you don't get taken advantage of. There's a lot of people out there that could, and it's such a big purchase that it could affect you for many, many years.
Speaker 2:Well, for those people looking for somebody you want to let us know what your Instagram, facebook and website are.
Speaker 1:We are the Appalachian Home Team, and so you can find us at Appalachian Home Team on Instagram. Tiktok I am RealtorKetty, not Realtor Kelly. Realtor Keddie on Instagram. Facebook is Kelly Crogman, md, va Realtor. I'm licensed in both Maryland and Virginia and we serve basically the entire Maryland, virginia, west Virginia area. We're here to help, and if you want to check out our website, it's appalachianhometeamcom.
Speaker 2:Awesome. And then for my last question if you could leave our listeners with a message or anything like mantra you live by, or anything like that, what would that be? It could be about life, it could be about real estate. It could just never judge a book by its cover.
Speaker 1:You never know how one smile to somebody that looks scary or intimidating could change their entire day and change their life. A side note I have a family member who is mentally ill and knowing that there were people out there that were willing to help him and just be kind to him in some of the tougher times when he had decided to be homeless, Just be kind, Be kind. You never know who you're helping just by being kind. And I think that that's really hard for a lot of people today because we're bombarded by so much that it's easy to not be kind. It's easy to say leave me alone, Getting like a thousand spam calls a day. The person on the other line is just doing their job. Even I'm guilty of being like stop calling, but being kind can change their day. So I think that's the biggest message that I have and I live my life by is to just be kind.
Speaker 2:I like that Well. Thank you very much for being with us here today.
Speaker 1:Thank you for having me. This is super awesome and, like I said, totally full circle for me, so I'm really enjoying coming back here like literally almost 10 years later, and seeing a how this has grown, and be just being able to share something that I've been passionate about for almost a decade now.
Speaker 2:That's amazing, thank you very much, thank you.