Work Hard, Play Hard, and Give Back - A Real Estate Podcast

S2E8 - Rediscovering Real Estate: Christine Dato’s Return and Rise

• Coldwell Banker American Homes • Season 2 • Episode 8

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In this inspiring episode, host Mike Litzner sits down with Christine Dato, a top agent at Coldwell Banker American Homes in Hicksville, to discuss her unique path in real estate—starting not once, but twice. Christine shares the challenges she faced as a young agent, why she stepped away from the industry, and what ultimately brought her back with renewed confidence and purpose.

From navigating today’s fast-paced market to building trust with clients and giving back to her Long Island community, Christine opens up about the habits, mindset, and mentorship that helped shape her success.

Stay tuned as we cover her favorite business tools, buyer/seller seminars, family motivation, and her role in local charitable work like Feed Long Island—plus a fun Drop the Mic question to wrap it all up.

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Speaker 1:

Hi, welcome to the Work Hard, play Hard and Give Back a real estate podcast. I'm Mike Litzner, broker owner of Coldwell Banker American Homes. I'm at the studio in Franklin Square and I have our guest Christine Dato, top agent at Coldwell Banker American Homes Hicksville location. So welcome to the show, christine.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for having me. I'm honored to be here.

Speaker 1:

Excellent, excellent. Before we get started, I want to remind our audience over here that if you like the episode, you like what we're doing here, don't forget to like, subscribe and join us, and don't forget to stay around for the drop the mic question. We always have fun at the end here. Okay, have fun at the end here. So, okay, all right. So, chris, let's get started here, let's go. Come on we, we know you've developed an incredible career at colwell banker american homes, um and? But getting started in real estate is difficult, anyone will tell you. Right, it's, it's a process, right, but you started your career not once, but twice, yes, so why don't?

Speaker 1:

you walk our audience through this a little bit. What was the path for Christine Dato?

Speaker 2:

I had two very different careers. We have chapter one where I was young, I was 25 years old. I was working at a job where it was 9 to 5, really more like 9 to 9, overworked, underpaid. And then I was buying a house and all of a sudden I'm like, wow, kind of cool. I think I might want to try this. I left my job, I started real estate 25 and I would say that my first year I doubled my salary.

Speaker 2:

I went from 20,000 to 40,000 and back then that was big money, that was big and it was great and I really enjoyed it, except that I found that once the kids started coming, my husband was NYPD working overtime. We didn't have childcare, we didn't have cell phones back then. We always had to be in the office. I was taking the kids on appointments with me. It was getting complicated, and the other thing that was really complicated in getting in my own way was me. I was only really working this business I would say 50% because I was young, I was very insecure, I wasn't confident and I always found that I was intimidated by sellers. So I would mostly only work buyers and therefore I wasn't really maximizing this business back then.

Speaker 1:

No working half the business Now it was funny because you and I actually did a deal together.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I forget what year that is, but it was probably somewhere around 1991.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

It was my mother-in-law's house, okay.

Speaker 1:

That's right. So you had a listing right. No, I had the buyer, you had the buyer.

Speaker 2:

You had the listing, I had the listing, I had the buyer. I do want to say it, you and kind of see the professionalism which is why I actually wound up coming here the second time. Yeah, because you were at a different brokerage in your first pastime? Yes, so I always worked with small mom and pop shops.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And you know, it was fine back then At least that's all I knew, Right, and then when, about five years into it, and the kids and it was just getting chaotic and it really wasn't working for me, I decided to leave. I was actually even an associate broker at that time I decided to close that door and I swore I would never go back. And then what wound up happening is I went back to market research. I actually did direct sales, which was a big part of my career with Leah Sophia. I sold jewelry. I had a big team of 75 people. I loved that job. I was running trips. It was great.

Speaker 1:

And then they closed the doors. How long did you do the Leah Sophia thing? Eight years, okay, so it was after kind of kids got to a certain age.

Speaker 2:

Yep, and my goal for that was to help pay for their college. That's what it did, ah good, and then um love it, yeah. And then they wound up shutting the doors. They gave us 30 days notice not much ramp time, huh devastated yeah, and then I wound up um, you know, not sure I was struggling because I knew I didn't want to go nine to five. I knew I loved the idea now because that really taught me how to like set goals, that sales was my thing that I really liked working with people.

Speaker 2:

I like making people feel good. So then I wound up talking to my husband Steve's like why are you back to real estate? And I'm like I don't know. And then Nancy Calber, who is our neighbor and friend he whispered in her ear and said I think you should talk to Chris about it. And she did and she's pretty persuasive, as we know. And she got me to have a meeting, if you recall, with you and Lisa, and I thought about it and I said you know what? What have I got to lose?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, and here we are.

Speaker 2:

I was 50 back then and I was like I can't believe I'm starting this at 50 years old. And here we are, almost 10 years later, and it's the best decision I made.

Speaker 1:

Even better than Leah Sophia there. There you go, but it's funny how these building blocks of different parts of your life help set up the next phase of your life.

Speaker 2:

For sure Like my market research job. Like that plays a big part into what I do today the Leah Sophia, the whole, just setting goals and really striving for that, having a why, having a purpose. It just kind of led into this and it's really helped me with this yeah.

Speaker 1:

So now, as most you know, agents who have licensed have experienced. Getting started is extremely difficult, so and you've done it twice right what did you do differently or experience differently the second time around?

Speaker 2:

so okay, so you have to put yourself out there.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and you have to make yourself available and I found I always went to the office number one made sure that I connected with the other agents. Nancy was very instrumental, I have to tell you. You know she would. You know, filter me leads to help me out, to kind of get me started. In fact, one of my best, I would say, transactions, because it led from one to many, was an open house that she had me do and I kind of met somebody from there that really kind of kept things going in my business.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, because all referrals right, yeah, A big part of it right.

Speaker 2:

So I think that it was important for me to always be at the office. I would sometimes be the only one there on, like on a Saturday. Sometimes I get a walk-in. I remember selling that buyer there were. I would do the leads, I would do open houses for people and then I would. I definitely worked a sphere. I didn't have a big sphere, but I wound up. I looked at everybody who I knew. I sent them my initial letter. I remember I would post on social media just to kind of make them aware, and then I found that what wound up happening is that people say oh, I know, chris.

Speaker 2:

You know what? I think you just have to really put yourself out there.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, Now you touched on something that's interesting. So the first time around 1990 businesses 1989 to 94, 1995. So society, I want to say the real estate business, was different. There's parallels because it's still a people business first, right, right, and still a connection type of business. But it's the way we do business. So the second time around. So different.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so you have the technology, and now there's a little bit of a challenge is getting agents to engage back, because everything can be done remotely. We have paperless transactions. Potentially, we have a lot of meetings or training done on Zoom, so it's live, right, but you don't have to be in person. So do you have to dress up? Do you have to show up? It's not a long walk to your kitchen, know, kitchen table, your home office, so to speak I find that I'm much more productive when I'm in the office.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I am one that goes to the office a lot. I like being there. I like hearing people's stories. That's how you learn. You learn you know who's dealing with what situation and how they dealt with it. Yes, because then it said oh, I remember when so-and-so had this, this is what they did and you have to listen, you know, you have to really pay attention to what's happening there. I've also found that, being in there this past year, I actually got a really phenomenal walk-in.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

If I wasn't there, that wouldn't have happened.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So I believe that going in the office is important, even in this day and age, just the camaraderie, I think, and learning.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So what? I think? People who don't actually engage in the sale of real estate it's one thing buying real estate is they don't always understand the transaction and transaction management and there's a lot of nuance to every transaction. So it's not just here's the living room, here's the kitchen. It looks really nice. Do you want it? It's not like drive around. We always joke. You want me to supersize that please?

Speaker 2:

pull around.

Speaker 1:

So we're not order takers, and I think one of the more challenging parts of the job is not just bringing buyers who want to buy and sellers who want to sell together, but you know managing the nuances of both sides and the things known and unknown within a transaction. You know so, having been through a number of numerous transactions, you want to share with our audience any unusual scenario that you ran into in a, into a transaction, and then how you handled the, the challenge I had a co-op in queens okay and that seller was buying another house in farmingdale and I wound up met the buyer for the co-op at the open house.

Speaker 2:

Um, I vetted the buyer. They, the loan officer, told me everything was rock solid, because I always make sure. Did you see all their income information, their bank statements? Everything was great. And then they said that we had a commitment and my buyer and my seller now is becoming a buyer and they wound up going into contract on a house. So now they're selling their co op, they're buying this house, they're committed, they have a lot of money at stake here.

Speaker 1:

They need the funds from the sale of their co-op in order to buy the next house and then, all of a sudden, we get word that their buyer is now going to be denied.

Speaker 2:

Denied for the loan or denied for the mortgage by the bank.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so again, I always like to clarify for our audience. Yes, the difference between a condo and a co-op. A condo, you own the walls, the floor, the ceiling, yep. You own your unit. And a co-op, you own shares in a corporation which actually owns the entire building and you get a lifetime lease back on it. Right, so you have to. A buyer has to be approved for financing, should they be applying for some, but they also have to be approved by the board.

Speaker 2:

So they actually got approved by the board. So we got approved, we were all. And then all of a sudden, like right at the end we get word that they I guess they did some new verification for income Surprise and he had like no income.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

And it was a disaster and I remember freaking out and I just tried. You know what? There's a lot of things we can't control in this business and I'm a little bit of a control freak and I tried so hard to manage this and micromanage this and speak to the loan officer regularly.

Speaker 1:

Right, I mean, it was like a miracle that you know.

Speaker 2:

I was like we have to make this done, there's so much at stake here, and we did wind up closing that deal. But boy, it was a struggle. The loan officer wound up. I don't even know.

Speaker 2:

I haven't had to talk to another loan officer to try to switch to a different bank, but he wound up staying put where he was and they did wind up putting it together. But boy did they really stress some people out here a lot. It's funny, though ironically, that that person who bought the co-op just recently called me looking to maybe buy now a house.

Speaker 1:

So, which shows you, however, you handled the challenge there. It was obviously well-received. You got it to the point where you were able to resolve the issues and get everyone where they wanted to be. So I always say by the way and this is what I want to tap on, I think our audience should hear this is that any agent can show up and take that phone call when things are great.

Speaker 1:

Hey got approved for the mortgage, we're set for closing, Yay, Call me back. And the owner calling back oh, I'm so happy for you. It takes a great agent to show up when there's a problem. Did you ever notice that sometimes agents all of a sudden there's a problem, all of a sudden you can't get phone calls back? And a great agent makes the hard calls, not just the easy calls. So I'm sure that was difficult dealing with those calls there it was really hard.

Speaker 2:

I mean, there was a lot of money at stake there was families' lives at stake here, and that's when I start to take it. I take it very personally and I want to make this right for them, but there's only so much control I had and I want to believe that everyone's being truthful with me when I'm asking the questions that I need to ask to vet them, but no guarantees. I always say that can't be 100% that they're telling me the truth.

Speaker 1:

One of my favorite sayings is man plans and then God laughs. So they can be truthful and it turns out they lost their job in the middle and you can't plan for that. If they lost their job, they have no income. The bank can change their mind if they haven't closed the loan. Once the loan's closed, the bank's bought into it and then you know and they'll have to work through it.

Speaker 1:

So yeah so, again, I think our audience, you know um has a front row seat here and and I want them to see you know how exceptional agents are, because the things we need to deal with, known and unknown, to get us our clients to where they need to be.

Speaker 2:

What I try to do, honestly, is do a lot of that stuff up front to try to prevent the problems down the line. So, like for my listings, for even my buying, like, I just try to do a lot of due diligence up front because I don't want to avoid as many curveballs and surprises as much during that transaction.

Speaker 1:

Right, right. Well, I think a certain amount of experience kind of gives you the insights what to look for Right, and then you start to handle the problems before they're problems, right, yeah, now that's awesome. So what's the major difference you see now in challenges than you saw, maybe, when you started the first time around?

Speaker 2:

You know what I don't like. Back then our job was to find the homes for the buyers and they'd do a call from the newspaper ads and it was on us. We'd get our books, We'd look through, find the perfect listings for them. I feel like they took that part away from us with the internet now. Now everybody's just sending us listings and they are telling us what they want to say.

Speaker 2:

right, and it's why I have like a joke with all my buyers like, listen, I want to find you the house, right, you know like I wanted to, and and we'll kind of keep like tabs, okay. Well, that's right, chris found us this one, because I feel like that's part of our job you know the internet. We lost a little bit of that, yeah, but at the same time, because they send us things and I'm like this is not what they want, and then I have to explain to them.

Speaker 1:

But they get caught up in that I think that's what you're speaking to is product knowledge. So, having sold real estate, having sold Lea Sophia, I guarantee you you know everything about your product. I guarantee you, you know everything about your product.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Right, and the problem with, I think, new agents or agents that come in that think this is easy is that they don't put the time. You touched on market research before. Yeah, really learning your marketplace, you know, understanding the product, what's available, you know what type of conditions. You know a buyer should know more about the available inventory than our agent Right, and I see that as a opportunity for agents to improve, to be of a better asset to their clients.

Speaker 2:

Would you agree? Yep, definitely.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So for agents just starting out, what's one piece of advice you'd really want to share or that you've already share with agents that are new to the business?

Speaker 2:

Well, I would say definitely come to the office, definitely be there to learn. I would also say to invest in yourself. I think a lot of and I get it some people different financial situations, but I think it's important in this business to know that you have to invest in this and it doesn't have to be you know, I'm not one for the Zillow thing or anything like that but more like in your sphere of influence. The people who know love and trust you.

Speaker 1:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

Invest in them. So what I do and I usually tell new agents is mail them things, not just a letter, not just a postcard. Give them a little something, a little trinket, a pen, my screen cloths I give. They love them. I get great responses from that my little koozies for their white claws or whatever. We definitely want to give them something that they're going to hold on to and that they're going to remember me.

Speaker 1:

Right and remember that you're in real estate Exactly Because you're memorable, yeah. If someone's new, you've you gotta go from christine, my friend, yep, or neighbor to christine, my friend, who's in real estate I think people get too quiet about that and they're uncomfortable discussing it and telling people and talking about it even just on social media.

Speaker 2:

I don't love posting things on social media. I get uncomfortable myself about it I don't want people thinking, oh, she's annoying or whatever, but you have to do it you have to find, you have to do it. They have to be in the forefront of their mind so that they know when they're looking for an agent. They're going to call you. Yeah, Because they know you.

Speaker 1:

Right and they trust you.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

And trust is a huge.

Speaker 2:

It's a big big thing, yes.

Speaker 1:

Yes, you can't be a secret agent. No Great piece of information. So anyone who's thinking about joining real estate, listen to what this woman's talking about. She knows what she's talking about. Chris, you're consistently recognized as a top producer. What habits or mindset do you think you have contributed most to your success?

Speaker 2:

Well, I'm goal-oriented. Every year I do set a goal for myself of what I want to achieve. Listen, you shoot for the moon. You might get to the stars. You know, I always have like a why. Why am I doing this? Like what am I looking to get out of this? And it's funny my earlier years, like I was okay, I was average, and then all of a sudden a life event happened that I said, oh, I've got to save some money here and my son was getting married and I wanted to help him pay for his wedding. And all of a sudden it was like when hashtags kind of became a thing. Every deal was like hashtag mom has got a wedding.

Speaker 1:

I was just so focused on reaching my goal for that.

Speaker 2:

But what was cool is that while I was doing that I was helping all these people move and I was getting such. You know, it was like it was fun. I think that you have to kind of be very goal-oriented in this business. If I don't, I keep track of my numbers. I'm always looking at them just so that I can stay focused on it, Otherwise I'm floundering. If I don't have a goal or a purpose, I'm floundering.

Speaker 1:

You know it's interesting, these stats on goal setting, and they say typically the most successful people all have goals. That's one of the things you see in commonality, and yet they say only like 3% of the real estate agents actually have a goal.

Speaker 2:

Right.

Speaker 1:

And I think the other thing you just touched on should not be smoothed over, because a goal should not just be a dollar amount.

Speaker 2:

Right.

Speaker 1:

You said it and I want to make sure our audience doesn't miss this you need to know a why. Yes, you could take $100,000 and put it on the table $100 bills and it looks impressive, but at the end of the day, what does that represent? What does it represent to you and you were just so effectively articulated that mom has got a wedding. I love that. So, now that mom has already took care of the wedding, do you want to share one of your upcoming goals?

Speaker 2:

Right now it's really more about, like, my retirement right now. So I'm kind of focused on that, to just not that it's happening anytime soon.

Speaker 1:

Right, right, but I want to be prepared.

Speaker 2:

And now I have a grandson and you know I want to be able to provide as best as I possibly can. Yeah, so, yeah. So that's kind of my plan.

Speaker 1:

So what's your hashtag? Mama's got a grandson. I don't have a hashtag. Mama's got a grandson, that's right, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Hashtag Mama wants another retirement house or something.

Speaker 1:

I don't know, steve, you listening?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, you know what? I'm not really sure. It's just more like I just want to make sure that we're prepared and we're in a good place.

Speaker 1:

All right good. I like it. So, chris, you've consistently earned a prestigious quality service award. What does delivering outstanding service mean to you?

Speaker 2:

That's everything, honestly. That is what I feel helps. It sets the tone If you're giving good service, everything is going to come back. It's going to benefit everybody. The if you're giving good service everything is going to come back right. It's going to benefit everybody. Yeah, you know the people you're servicing as well as yourself.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, um, so that's always a main goal for me, because, to me, that's why I'm doing this like yes, of course you know we make a good living here, but I love the idea of helping these people and um. To get the quality service award they have to fill out a survey, get a certain score right. They usually write some nice words or whatever. It's very meaningful to me and it means a lot that it keeps me motivated to keep on going.

Speaker 1:

I think agents sometimes need to be reminded that referrals happen by design, not by accident. You know so if someone that you know doesn't transact with you in real estate, it's not on them, it's on you, the agent. What have you done to position yourself, to put you, you know, make yourself valuable, make yourself available? If they don't remember you're in the business, then it's not their fault. It's sometimes difficult to look in the mirror and say, okay, what could I have done better? But I think a really top agent can be that transparent with themselves. They can look in that mirror and ask themselves that question.

Speaker 1:

Because, even if we all make mistakes, we're human and that's okay. But you know, are we okay with challenging ourselves to be better and make improvements?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, I think that's a big goal of mine is to really go above and beyond so that they're really happy with my service, you know, and that they would recommend me to somebody if needed. But I just want to make sure I'm doing a good job.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so can you share with our audience. So what's the best testimonial you have ever received?

Speaker 2:

Well, there was one that my friend's son helped him purchase a home. I think this thing must have been like four pages long testimonial four pages.

Speaker 2:

I was like it went on and on and on and it was beautiful, I mean, and the detail was really really nice to read and honestly, on some hard days like if you don't realize they can have some tough days yeah, sometimes that's my go-to is to just go to a testimonial and say you know what, maybe this was a bad day or whatever, but there's somebody out there who has appreciated my service and my help. But no, honestly, every single one of them are great ones to me, even if it's one-liner.

Speaker 2:

The fact that somebody took the time to do that. I am always so appreciative because they didn't have to. I mean, how many times do we get things and you don't respond to that? Yes so when they do. It just means so much to me, yeah, so I'm going to change my answer to they're all amazing.

Speaker 1:

Okay, now I know you post your testimonials on your website Sometimes yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, which is good, and what I find that caught my attention was no, it's a good thing is that, theoretically, they say, if you treat someone right, you're lucky. If they tell one person, but if you treat them wrong, they tell everybody Right. So just because you did an above average job doesn't mean they're going to actually take the time to tell you or anybody else and or take the time to fill out that testimonial. And, uh, I think it speaks volumes when you you can sit here and say, well, no, they fill it out, but they wrote four pages worth. Yeah, and this isn't the time before chat gpt right?

Speaker 2:

this kid's an excellent writer, though I have to give him kudos on that, yeah no, that's I have to give you kudos on that because he felt that compelled to respond.

Speaker 1:

So good. Good, no surprise that you're achieving the success you are. I understand you recently did a buyer-seller seminar right, so what's a key takeaway from that seminar you can share with our audience?

Speaker 2:

You know, that's something that we started doing just a couple of years ago maybe two years ago or so and it really was out of my comfort zone to do this.

Speaker 1:

So you do it live.

Speaker 2:

We do it live In fact. No Zoom, you have to be present, okay, and it's such a great event. I love doing them now and I find that people, the feedback I get is great. People are really enjoying it. And I have a whole slideshow and we kind of go and I do it with Tom Nails a lot and we basically kind of go through the process and we do buyers and sellers at the same time.

Speaker 1:

So Tom Nails is also a very successful agent in our Hicks Follow office, by the way, for our audience. Who doesn't know?

Speaker 2:

Yes, so we do a good tag team here and basically we go through the whole process of as a buyer and a seller, so each side gets to see and hear what the other side is dealing with. So, they leave there with great information to know. Okay, this is how this is going to work.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, what's the most common buyer question, for instance? Is there a commonality to some of the questions? I'm sure Is there any, or is there one more surprising?

Speaker 2:

than the other From a buyer's perspective.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, what do they want to know when they're thinking about buying?

Speaker 2:

They're terrified, honestly, and they're terrified in this market because the prices are so crazy. They're scared we're talking about waiving things, like they don't even understand, right. So I think it's more. They come there with a little bit of fear, right, and my goal for them is to leave more confident that we're going to help them, it's going to be okay and they're going to get a house.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Because I think a lot of times right now, people are fearing they're never getting a house.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. You know it's going to take forever, so in a marketplace that has been rife with bidding wars over the last three, four, five years. So it's you know. When you're getting you know six, eight, ten offers, there can be a lot of disappointment.

Speaker 2:

Yes, and that's where we play the role of counselor with these people, because I always tell the buyers listen, you know, sometimes we get lucky, like I just had one where the first offer we got accepted. Sometimes it could take six or seven offers before they get one accepted. But I always tell them, like the house you meant to get is going to be the one, like you didn't get those other ones because this one that you're going to get is the one for you.

Speaker 1:

I'm smiling now because I'm thinking that my own son bought a house within the last couple of years and he lost four bidding wars before he got one. I'm like man. I think he needs a better realtor or something.

Speaker 2:

But it's a challenge, right, and it's a challenge because it's really not even listen. The agent has a lot to do with it, I think how I structure, the offers, how I really present it to the listing agent. They usually do tell me like, wow, okay, you really buttoned this thing up nicely, but I can't control what their down payment is.

Speaker 1:

Right, yeah, the terms.

Speaker 2:

Sometimes that's where we're falling short.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So just again, I think you're hitting on something really important when we deal with negotiations, right, but people fail to think. Everyone thinks price, price, price and it's really price and terms Right, Since there's contingencies very, very often the standard one for our audience members who aren't in real estate is typically contingent of financing. So, understanding the risk-reward of that financing, what's the likelihood they're going to get approved?

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

As opposed to another one. That would be all cash yeah.

Speaker 2:

No terms are everything, so I do try to structure that, their offer, in a way that I have my own little system, that I have my emails all very clearly defined. It's detailed. I have the loan officer call the listing agent and vet that buyer. I will waive certain things with appraisals in know if they can, if they're willing to.

Speaker 1:

As it comes with a risk, potentially.

Speaker 2:

What team they're using for. You know mortgage inspection. You know attorney.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

We try to make sure that it is just buttoned up, that this is going to be a really smooth deal. And you know, I think also as you get more experience people have done business with you, you know, I think they start to feel more comfortable.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

You know as a listing agent if you've done another deal with that agent. That also helps sometimes too.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, now on the listed side. So we talked about you know, so you've done the buyer-seller seminars. Is there a more common question you're getting from sellers at the seminars?

Speaker 2:

You know they too come in with fear, and that's what I feel a lot of this is. They don't know these people haven't been involved in a real estate transaction in you know 30 years sometimes, or you know they don't understand the whole process. So I think for the most part, like a lot of times, they'll get, oh, but I don't have a CEO for this, or you know, and they get so nervous that this is going to you know they can't sell their house Right and you know, again, it's just educating them on how we're going to handle it, how we're going to problem solve this and how we're going to make this work.

Speaker 1:

Correct, correct.

Speaker 2:

Yep.

Speaker 1:

But even something as simple as that, it is potentially a challenge. Correct Because one of the things we represent in a contract. As a seller, we're selling a legal dwelling, so if there's an issue, how?

Speaker 2:

do we meet that? How do we meet that challenge? Well, it's funny. We talked about what kind of challenge did we have? I had one house. They did not legalize a dormer, an entire dormer front back full dormer, and I'm like how am I selling this?

Speaker 2:

oh, and it was an open permit yeah, that's even worse it was open and I I didn't even know how I was going to do this, but I managed. We got a buyer, I checked with the loan officer and they wound up closing that deal yeah, there you go, but I believe you're hitting on and and again.

Speaker 1:

As a as a broker I I can see this, because a good agent recognizes the problem and doesn't run from it. But they're transparent and communicate. Yes, when you communicate the problem up front, even everyone could get their arms around that, as opposed to it comes up at the end and surprise.

Speaker 2:

No one likes surprises, especially when we're dealing with high ticket items here this is their biggest investment yeah so, and it can be very overwhelming and very stressful and I find that I want to try and ease that for them. Yeah, so before I always do a foil request, I'm always looking. There's a little. I have a little access and found a little site where I can go and dig through files for permits and this way I can say buyer, we don't have X, y, z in place and this is how we're gonna sell it. You know as is, and as long as everyone's on board, it does usually work To prevent that from happening during midway through the process and all of a sudden they're like oh wait, you don't have a CO for that garage conversion. We want you to get it Now. The seller has to go and pay a lot of money to get the permits in place.

Speaker 1:

How long does it take to get a response on your FO?

Speaker 2:

a FOIA report, by the way Quick, so I submitted one. It's usually the next day, okay, yeah, they take them by email, right? Yeah, you do it right online. It's really very very simple.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, for our audience. In case you want to want a FOIA list, it's Freedom of Information Act, so you can request public information.

Speaker 2:

And it's great, because you know what A lot of times these sellers they think oh no, we have all our permits in place, everything is great. And or you know, it's an estate and they don't even know, and they're like my father had perfect paperwork and then, before you know it, there's these open permits, there's no permits, there's, you know. So it's just better to be in the know beforehand and handle that and tackle that situation head on than wait for it to be thrown at you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean. And how many times you run into it's like no, the contractor was handling that, and then the contractor didn't handle that, right, or I bought this house this way.

Speaker 2:

And honestly, I try really hard to not be alarming about it. Right, you know, with my client. But just to say let's just know what we're dealing with and let's figure it out.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, perfect, perfect, all right. So, chris, I think we want to pivot here and we want to talk a little bit more about the play hard, the human side of this. But before we do, I just want to remind our audience to like and subscribe. We'd love to have you see our future episodes that are coming up, by the way, and stay around for the drop the mic question. So does Christine have a happy place when she's not doing real estate? Where do you go to recharge? What does Christine do to get down time?

Speaker 2:

I'm very social. I didn't notice my husband and I have, you know, great friends. We have lots of different circles. We love to go out, we love to eat, we love to dance, I love to party, I love to do all that fun stuff. Yeah, um, I also love to play pickleball uh, yeah, pickleball chunky yes oh yeah yeah, you go, come on.

Speaker 1:

You're probably one of these, I'm average.

Speaker 2:

I would say I'm average, but I really enjoy it. It makes me feel young, it makes me feel athletic, it makes me feel really good about myself yeah and I have a lot of fun with it. I met some great people, good exercise great, I like to go to the gym, but yeah, so we definitely every weekend there's always something happening pretty much, yeah, you know. So, yeah, I like to have fun.

Speaker 1:

All right, well good, I like that too. So what's a hobby or interest or even a hidden talent of Christine Data, oh boy.

Speaker 2:

A hidden talent of Christine Data. Oh boy, A hidden talent. This isn't the drop the mic question.

Speaker 1:

No, no, wait, there's more. Okay, come on.

Speaker 2:

Or a hobby, okay so I was a dancer when I was growing up and I happened to love. My love was always tap dancing.

Speaker 1:

Really.

Speaker 2:

Uh-huh yep.

Speaker 1:

So we have to stop this episode and get the shoes out. Here You're going to do a little soft shoe for us.

Speaker 2:

But yeah, that was something I always enjoyed. Now I'm going to say it's pickleball right now.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's your thing, that's my thing. Yeah, cool, very cool. If you can instantly master a new skill outside of real estate, what would it be and why?

Speaker 2:

I don't know if it's really a new skill, but something that I kind of would like to do more is kind of a little bit more reading, a little more downtime for myself, because I do tend to keep my schedule really busy, busy, busy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And I feel like just for my own head space, just to kind of have a little downtime.

Speaker 1:

Okay, what topics do you like to read? Do you like to read?

Speaker 2:

More self-help kind of. I'm actually reading the Let them, which is a big book right now that's out there very popular and yeah, so I enjoy it and I feel like I'm getting a lot out of it and it makes me feel good, so, yeah, All right good, All right reading Note to self. Yeah, I mean, we'll see, I mean my daughter. She reads like 80 books a year, so I'm never going to be anything like that. But even if I read a couple, it's more than what I read last year.

Speaker 1:

All right, good, good. Now you mentioned your daughter, so I understand you have a new love of your life, so that's for my son.

Speaker 2:

Yes, so my son has given me the greatest joy of having a grandson.

Speaker 1:

Okay, what's his name?

Speaker 2:

His name is Roman Okay and he's 17 months old and he is just an absolute pleasure. He's a fun, happy, just great little guy.

Speaker 1:

All right, so what's your nickname? Come on.

Speaker 2:

I'm a. Gigi, gigi, there you go, yeah, and he said it, and he's been saying it now, so it's kind of cool to hear him call me that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, he, yeah yeah. He's so awesome.

Speaker 2:

The next part of the pastime yeah, yeah, it's something that you know, especially with this job. It's kind of hard sometimes because I really have to make the time I can. You know, with our schedule being so all over the place that I literally block off a day like every two weeks and say I need to go see my little guy you know.

Speaker 1:

So that's tomorrow Some Roman time, right? Yep, yep, because you know what?

Speaker 2:

I don't think about any stress. I don't think about anything but just hanging out with him.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, Now he's how old now 17 months. That's such a great age, right?

Speaker 2:

Oh, he's just a happy. He's literally happy all the time.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and a good sleeper Like he's just a great great with no real estate calls. How would you spend it?

Speaker 2:

It's funny because there's not too many of those right, right, right and Steve and I are always like we want to go to the wineries, we want to go away for the weekend but they're always so hard to plan because we just never know what the schedule is going to like.

Speaker 2:

even this week. Someone's like we want to do the open houses this weekend. I'm like okay, but we do really enjoy being with our friends and our family. You know, if we have a free day, steve and I are going up to Rockland County to go spend some time with, you know, our grandson, or my daughter, even with her husband, and you know, just to be with our family and friends is probably our favorite thing to do.

Speaker 1:

It's a wonderful thing, that's awesome. So, chris, we want to switch to a little bit about giving back, because that's such an important part of the culture at American Homes. So is there a cause or local initiative or organization even that's particularly close to your heart?

Speaker 2:

Yes, so it's Feed Long Island and it's actually a client of mine who I sold a house I don't even know how many years ago, maybe eight years ago and she's an amazing woman and she started a Facebook group where she feeds people who come to her. They have local people who have no food and, honestly, my family was like that and I kind of wish that I had somebody like that who could have helped us out back in the day.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So that one really very near and dear to me. Um so whenever she posts, like today she didn't you know, need money for a family. I'll then mow some money you know um?

Speaker 1:

does she take on individual um like challenges, or is it just like a food pantry?

Speaker 2:

individuals okay, so that's where I feel that connection. I think that it's literally for specific people.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

And we also do.

Speaker 1:

Before we leave that, because it sounds like it's a really good cause. Is there ways if someone wants to find out more about it where they can?

Speaker 2:

Her name is Brooke, but if anybody is interested, they can reach out to me and I can connect them with her. Perfect, we also I didn't say we, but she and I love to participate in it. You know, for Christmas time we're all you know we buy for families and she says how many kids do you want to buy for? You know, and we just. It's amazing what she does Easter, every holiday, she is collecting and this woman is just what she is doing for people is changing and really making a big difference, and I really I'm very inspired by her.

Speaker 1:

Good, I'm inspired by her and I haven't even met her.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so actually Steve and I years ago used to do an annual fundraiser where we would host in like the firehouse and have a DJ and whatever, and we would pick up an organization every year and people would come and they would bring money and we would donate to that cause and it was whatever amount they wanted to give. So she doesn't know this yet, but we're hoping, and I'm fingers crossed, that we're going to be able to do that this year for them.

Speaker 1:

Excellent, excellent. So you've built a very strong relationships with your clients. How important is community to you, both personally and professionally?

Speaker 2:

I have been living in my neighborhood since 1989. I feel like I've raised my whole family there. I've been connected with churches, I've been connected with the schools, the PTA. I feel like I can walk into the store, I see people. It makes it a very small town feel for me, which a lot of people moving out of state. I kind of feel like they lose that and I thrive on that, like I love feeling that it's home. So I really do enjoy that part of where I live and just haven't been there for so long.

Speaker 1:

That's really both personal and professional.

Speaker 2:

And I think that that kind of goes hand in hand, then right, so if people in my community know me and they're familiar with me and they need a realtor, they may, you know, hopefully think of me, yeah.

Speaker 1:

I know you recently held a Relentless Determination Award where you have to give out. Is that an annual thing?

Speaker 2:

So I have done that and I think I did it for about five years. Basically, it was an award that I would give to a metbom senior, which is where my kids went to school.

Speaker 2:

I always felt like when I sat there with my own kids at the award ceremony it was always like the same kids getting the same awards like all the you know, and I always felt for the kids who really didn't get them and maybe I thought that if I could come up with something where it's the kid who overcame some kind of adversity or some kind of challenge that really persevered and it always went back to what our company's position was on that. So the school would pick the student and they picked them based on my criteria, basically, that they overcame a challenge and came shining through.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome. That's awesome. I like that a lot. So you recently were invited to sit on a panel for the what Moves Her event. It's a women empowerment initiative sponsored by Coldwell Banker. So how was that experience?

Speaker 2:

Well, similar to this. This is out of my comfort zone, as that was too, but, boy, what an honor that was to be on that panel with those women.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it was a great, those four women, strong, successful, if you would have told me 10 years ago that I was gonna be sitting there with Barbara Mulaney and you know like I would have said no way. I was very honored to be us to do that. It was cool because you know what? I think we all had a lot of similar ways of doing things and how we thought about this business, and I learned a lot even just from their stories.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, it was an interesting event because it was about 70 people in the audience there. So it was well attended. So what was your biggest takeaway from that event?

Speaker 2:

Being a guest speaker. You know, I laugh because I'm so hard on myself.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And I, you know, I was the one with all the notes and I wanted to be prepared and you know, really, and I realized that it was okay to just speak more fluidly, yeah, and I didn't have to be so.

Speaker 1:

Perfect.

Speaker 2:

Yes, Not even perfect robotic, like just more. You know, I didn't need to read, I could just speak from the heart, because this is what I do you know real estate every day, yeah, so that was a good takeaway for myself.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker 2:

To have more faith in myself and I guess I'm here now now, but this is still a little hard for me. And then from the other people it was great to hear that they kind of aligned with a lot of my thought process that I was. I felt like I was on the right track you know like and I even loved I got some great tips, like even from valerie, like how she talks about, like how really analyzing different markets and like really diving in Like. I thought that was an awesome tip.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that was Valerie Rosenblatt, by the way you're referencing who has been on the podcast as well, very well spoken, smart agent, yes, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So it was great to hear everybody's story and you know, and everybody had a different why of. Why are they doing?

Speaker 1:

this and.

Speaker 2:

I do bring it back to that. That's a really important piece to this.

Speaker 1:

What's the biggest challenge that you feel comfortable, maybe, that you've had to overcome, that you'd like to share with our audience?

Speaker 2:

I'm going to have to say and I'm kind of repeating myself a little bit but it was always a confidence issue for me and I worked so hard at trying to overcome that and I think I've come a long way. I do believe that 16-year-old me would be proud.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah. So I think that I would say that it's so interesting because, from my vantage point, you always came across as confident.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, I work at it every day and I think us women in particular, I think that's just something that we've just struggled with and me definitely had some issues growing up with that, but I feel I'm in a good place now. I think, as we achieve and we do and we help people and we feel good about ourselves, that that makes that whole confident package get a little bit stronger.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, good, good, I want to remind our subscribers to please, if you like what you're hearing here today, please remember to like and subscribe and join us for future episodes. It's time for the Drop the Mic question, so, christine.

Speaker 2:

Mike.

Speaker 1:

If your life was a TV show, what would the title be?

Speaker 2:

Friends Okay. I'm going to go with Friends, and I say that because you know what I feel like I do. I'm really blessed with a lot of great friends and we have a really good time.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, got a bunch of characters in your life.

Speaker 2:

Bunch of characters in my life, but you laugh a lot. A lot.

Speaker 1:

All right that characters in my life. But you laugh a lot, a lot. All right, that sounds really good. So I want to kind of twist it. So if you had a song that had to play every time you close a deal, come on, or a theme song for your, your tv show let's get this party started there we go, there we go. Well, christine, you've been an amazing interview. You're an amazing agent and we'd love having you on the show If someone wants to reach out to you. How do they find Christine Dato?

Speaker 2:

They can call me at 516-557-3974. Or you can actually also reach out to me on some of the social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram, and my handle is cdato, the number four homes, and that's on Instagram and Facebook.

Speaker 1:

Excellent, all right. Thank you so much for joining our show.

Speaker 2:

Thank you Okay.