The Mortgage Punk Show

Detroit Tough, Wichita Kind: Negotiating Like a Magical Unicorn

• Chris Waipa

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Detroit Tough, Wichita Kind: Negotiating Like a Magical Unicorn

In this episode of the Mortgage Punk Show, I sit down with Brenda Noffert, a 20-year veteran of the Wichita real estate market who has traded the "alphabet soup" of professional designations for a much bolder title: The Magical Unicorn. Known for her signature purple hair and "Detroit tough" negotiation style, Brenda has built a thriving career by embracing her true self and focusing on one mission: changing lives through real estate.


The "Magical Unicorn" isn't just a quirky nickname—it’s Brenda’s professional philosophy. She specializes in the "impossible" transactions, specifically short sales and complex deals that others might walk away from. Whether she’s helping an 83-year-old transition to assisted living or assisting a first-time buyer at age 64, Brenda brings a unique magic to the process that turns skepticism into success.


Brenda shares how she scaled her production from $5 million to $16 million by letting go of control and building a specialized team to handle the "chaos" of paperwork so she can focus on what she loves—serving people.


🔥 If you want to learn how to stand out as a "unicorn" in a crowded market or need advice on navigating a transitioning real estate landscape, this episode is for you.


👉 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more disruptive conversations with real estate rockstars and Wichita home experts.


🔗 Connect with Brenda Noffert


🙏 Huge THANK YOU to our sponsors:

Glass Guru 

Quality Granite

Vortex Air Duct Cleaning

Mason Turner — Turner Solutions

💥 Subscribe to The Mortgage Punk Show for more conversations with disruptors, leaders, and community builders changing the face of real estate and homeownership.

About Mortgage Punk

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 Chris Waipa – Mortgage Punk

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SPEAKER_00

All right, everyone, welcome to the Mortgage Punk Show. I am Chris and uh I'm excited to have a very special guest. All of my guests are special if you haven't figured that out by now. But I love Brenda and I was just commenting on uh Brenda's hair because she's probably the closest like on brand when it comes to like punk. Now I don't know if the hair color comes from that or not, but you can tell the story. So Brenda it has been an agent in the Wichita market for 20 years. 20 years, a long time. She's super successful, very professional. You're with LPT now, right? As a brokerage. Um, and so anyhow, super excited to have you on the show. So excited to be here.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00

So tell me real quick, because I don't think I've ever asked you, and I'm noticing your nails now, even they're purple too. So, what's with the purple? And you are the I I think the only agent I know that is bold enough to like that's a punk color in my world of punk.

SPEAKER_01

Totally a punk color. It is, and it is.

SPEAKER_00

And come from that, does it come from your actually? Okay, so when you were younger, were you at Raves and like that? Was your favorite hair color?

SPEAKER_01

No, never had I dyed my hair ever. I was natural. I mean, I went through the 80s things where I got a little, you know, blonde highlights, you know, the bleach blonde highlights scary things. Oh my goodness, yes, with five. My hair was wider than my shoulders in the 80s. But I never dyed my hair, but I had always from the time I was a kid, my dream was that I could make my hair match my own.

SPEAKER_00

Whatever color you want.

SPEAKER_01

I just think that if I could change it every single day, that would be so fun. When I turned 50, um, one of the things that is very important to me in real estate is education.

SPEAKER_02

Yep.

SPEAKER_01

I think further education, I teach down at the association, and I for a long time made it my goal that every year I would get a new designation.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

So on my name tag, it was absurd. It looked like real estate soup. I mean, it had so many vowels, nobody knew what vowels, consonants, all kinds of acronyms. Nobody knew what they were. Half of them I forgot. And I was like, this is ridiculous. My name tag just looked like a typewriter keyboard.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

So when I turned 50, I said, you know what? I'm dying my hair purple and I'm changing my name tag to magical unicorn, taking off all the alphabet soup, and I'm just magical unicorn dying my hair purple. I'm now 55.

SPEAKER_00

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01

And I was scared to death when I did it that people would be like, I'm not buying a house from somebody with purple hair. Right.

SPEAKER_00

But interesting.

SPEAKER_01

Shortly after I did it, I went and talked to a lady who was 83 years old about listing her home. She couldn't, she was by herself and she couldn't be in her home anymore, and she needed to go to an assisted living. Right. And I was, I was nervous about it. I was so scared. You thought she was gonna judge that she was gonna be like, yeah, get off my porch. I showed up and she opened the door and she got this big smile on her face and she said, I just love your hair. And I thought, okay, that's it. It's stand perfect. It's a dime deal. Yeah, permanent. That's it.

SPEAKER_00

And you know what makes me think of? Well, it doesn't, I I wouldn't have thought of this before, but you know, I go to uh the gym a lot, and I think you guys are members too at Planet Fitness, and their brand is purple. Oh, yes, and they have the judgment free zone on their walls everywhere.

SPEAKER_02

Yep.

SPEAKER_00

Um, so I love that. So that's the story. What what's with the unicorn?

SPEAKER_01

Where did that come from? So my favorite type of transaction is the one that nobody thinks is gonna happen. Um I am very well versed in short sales. I do an awful lot of short sales. I am representative for some short sale committees, national and um governmental and stuff like that. And I just changing people's lives and being there at a time when, you know, it seems like nothing's gonna come together and bring something together.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And one of my clients that I helped called me a magical unicorn. She said, You are just an absolute magical unicorn. And I thought that is what I want every single person I deal with to experience. I want everybody who meets me to think, yeah, you are a magical unicorn, absolutely, because I want to have that effect on people's lives. So that's what I did.

SPEAKER_00

That's like that's like the the glory victory, right? Win.

SPEAKER_01

Oh God. We all need money to survive. We all need to pay our bills, we all need to do that stuff. But I'll tell you what, changing somebody's life, being there went from people that I help, buyers and sellers that I help who think, you know, my favorite transaction last year. I sold a lady, she was 64 years old, first woman in her entire family to buy a home.

SPEAKER_00

Wow.

SPEAKER_01

$17,500. She saved 64 years old. She put crazy $17,500 in a pile, and we found her a house. It was a little one bedroom, one bath. My favorite transaction. It meant everything.

SPEAKER_00

That's wild. I mean, that's like what I love about you, Brenda, and what I love about your hair. This and this is something I hope that you pick up on if you're watching this. Like, I really think that the most effective business people today are people that just be themselves, don't try to be what someone else wants you to be and truly care. And, you know, have make your work mean something more than just a paycheck. Serve people.

SPEAKER_01

My very first trainer in real estate told me that everything is transactional. That was his entire lesson was everything is transactional. And I hated that training, hated it with a passion because I was like, I'm hoping you did because I'm trying not to read it. I don't, I mean, this was in the late 90s. I mean, it was, you know, and it was you just need to go from transaction to transaction, deal to deal. That's what it's about. It's not, it's not, and like I tell my team all the time, be yourself. Yeah, nobody does it better than you. Be yourself.

SPEAKER_00

People can tell.

SPEAKER_01

And your people will find you. There, we are not for everybody. I'm a lot, right? I am a lot. And there are some people that are like, girl, I just can't. I you you exhaust me.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_01

Then I know I'm gonna pull it back. Because you're not looking, that's not your job. I'm not for Bertie. I am not, but there is somebody out there. Your people will find you if you are authentic and you have a giving spirit. That is what that's what life is all about. I mean, isn't it great when yeah, I tell my team all the time, try this, smile at somebody.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_01

Most amazing thing in the world happens, they smile back.

SPEAKER_00

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_01

You just made their day.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. That much better. And don't don't you think that, Brenda, don't you think that like professionalism? I mean, I I understand that there's there's gotta be some etiquette in our profession and an element of professionalism in that sense. But don't you think most people would really, when it comes down to is a person a professional, would really come from the moment that that person opens their mouth? Because you can tell when someone knows their stuff. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

That's an expert. That's a professional.

SPEAKER_01

That's a professional. And I think in our market, in our business, unfortunately, the way we're defined as professional or not is if we do the job. People can absolutely love us if at the end of the day we don't get their household or we don't find them a house. We're not per we're not a professional.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_01

But the only way that we can make those things happen is to find out what they want.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_01

What they're after, you know, right. And it always amazes me you can talk to a seller and they're so upset and they want, you know, you tell them their house is only worth X, and they're like, no, no, but I want Y. No, I want Y. And I'll walk away from the listing and say, I'm sorry, I am sure you can find someone who will list your home for Y, but my job is to sell your home.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And it's not gonna sell for that. Right. So, and it always makes me laugh when it's and I've had several people come back to me over the year and be like, You're right, you were right. And I hate that you were right, but you were right.

SPEAKER_00

Well, then you earn more trust and more credibility. And they're really if they come back to you, right? They're really with you. Absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Oh gosh, yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_00

So I want to take a minute to spotlight one of our sponsors, Brenda, uh, who sponsors the show, and that's uh Mason Turner with Turner Solutions. He is a CPA. So he does, in fact, I had him do my personal taxes. First time this year I've changed um CPAs. That's a big deal. And work with Mason. So what I love about Mason is that he uh works uh a great deal with real estate agents, successful, big producing real estate agents. So um every great business and every great home project needs systems that actually work. Mason helps people solve problems, streamline operations, and get unstuck when things feel messy or inefficient. Uh so if you're if you're tired of duct tape fixes and want real solutions that scale with you, Turner Solutions is who you want to call. Uh just holler at Mason, tell him that Chris from Morge Punk sent you, and he will take care of your tax returns. He'll take care of your bookkeeping if you want everyday bookkeeping. I'm having him do some of that for me. Um, but he's fantastic. That is phenomenal. There is top-notch, uh, super professional and has built a business.

SPEAKER_01

That is phenomenal. There is nobody saying that whether you're an individual agent or you're working on a team, it takes a village, man. You gotta have a good CPA, otherwise, every dollar you make is going somewhere else.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

In fact, I I will give an extra plug to Mason. This is the first year, Brenda, I think in maybe ever I've gotten money back.

SPEAKER_01

Wow. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00

I don't usually get money as well. Yeah, no kidding. Well, you know, and hope it's not everybody.

SPEAKER_01

Terrible, right?

unknown

Right.

SPEAKER_01

Well, April 15th, you know, extension day. Yes for all of us.

SPEAKER_00

Yep. So thanks, Mason. Appreciate your sponsorship and your support. Um, okay, Brenda, I love I love your stuff. I I've never heard that unicorn story as long as we've known each other. I've never asked you about it. So I've just kind of like I've assumed and like put together, you know, bits and pieces what I think that might be all about. And now I'm even more excited. What cracks me up? I'm gonna buy you a unicorn.

SPEAKER_01

I'm gonna buy you a batch to put in your unicorn. I do it too. That's some people think I do it for K-State. Okay, I don't, right. But sure, I do. I mean, if that makes you happy, yes, absolutely. That's why and then, but you've stuck with purple.

SPEAKER_00

You haven't, I haven't seen it. Purple is my favorite color. Okay, that's just your favorite color. It's just my favorite color.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. So um, I love it. Love it, Brenda. I love your heart. I know you care about people, you run a really good business, you have top-notch um managers helping you run it.

SPEAKER_01

Oh my gosh. So Chris and Kim are I the way we set up my business, I get to do all the fun stuff. Right. And they get to do all the stuff that is absolutely no fun at all. They probably think it's fun though. They think it's great. Right. That's the I would rather work midnight at Quick Trip than do the stuff that they do. Oh my gosh. I, yeah. That's funny. I they I am so blessed. Yep. I'm so lucky.

SPEAKER_00

I totally couldn't agree with you more. Like I've got a team and my staff, believe it or not, the things I do, there's a lot of it that I I don't, I don't want to do it. Don't, you know, I just done it all these years because that's what you got to do when you're by yourself.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And giving up that control, even though there are things that I absolutely despise, giving up the control is so hard. Oh, it's hard. So hard, but so worth it. Once I do it, once I did it, once I let go and I was like, okay, guys, here's stuff I hate. Here you go. And Chris and Kim, Kim was like, I love that.

SPEAKER_00

You love that stuff. That's right.

SPEAKER_01

We can get you therapy for that, but okay.

SPEAKER_00

You can have it all.

SPEAKER_01

That's right. That's every single one of them. That's do it.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_01

And it is so great. So I get to do all the stuff I love all the time.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I'm so awesome. I'm I'm more and more getting to that point in my career and with my team. Let's talk about that for a minute because uh this morning I was actually encouraged. I had a realtor call me, Brenda, and tell me that he really appreciates the show because he watches it and it helps him implement disciplines, practices, strategies that are helping him in his business.

SPEAKER_01

That is phenomenal.

SPEAKER_00

I was super blessed by that phone call this morning. Um, and so uh let's talk about realtors and business owners that are trying to scale from solo entrepreneur or solopreneur, which is all by yourself, of course, to a team. And that and giving up control is crazy scary and hard, and it can mess up your credibility and it can.

SPEAKER_01

It absolutely can.

SPEAKER_00

I've had it, and it's hard. Then you gotta rebuild it and turn around and you gotta let someone go and then try to get someone back on board. What are some of the things that you would encourage people to do that could help them either avoid pitfalls or mistakes that you've made? Um, like like what has helped you, I guess.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, so here's what happens. You as an individual agent, you ramp up your business and you get so busy that you say, I need help. I'm in chaos. Any 90% of the people who are really good in real estate stink at things like paperwork, follow-up, compliance, right? You know, all the stuff I hate.

SPEAKER_00

Um, but that Brenda and Chris hate plate.

SPEAKER_01

Right. A hundred percent. So, you know, and what happens is you get really busy in your business and you're overwhelmed. So you start dropping balls. So you say, I need someone to help. And then you hire the friend, the client's daughter, the agent in your office, people closest to your own. And you fold them into your chaos. And all they do instead of unchaosing you, they are just folded into the chaos, and it's one more thing that you have to manage. And you're so busy that you can't handle your things, but you feel that it will take 10 times longer to teach them. So you end up in this frustrated thing where you're then your business starts to slide off. I did that five times before I hired a business coach who said, stop doing that. And I was like, oh my gosh, that's brilliant. Why didn't I think of that?

SPEAKER_02

Well, it's obvious. Right when it's the answer, like, hello.

SPEAKER_01

Right. And so what we when I found Kim, I actually placed an ad. And she had training from someone else. She had training, and she had when I hired people before, I hired people in my image.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Like you. Just like me. People like you who hate paperwork when you're trying to hire someone to take over your paperwork. To do paperwork.

SPEAKER_01

Right. Right.

SPEAKER_00

So that was your big mistake number one.

SPEAKER_01

Right. I don't hire a clone. Ever.

SPEAKER_00

That's really good advice, Brenda. Because that's what we want, right? Absolutely. You want the duplicate of yourself.

SPEAKER_01

I am ready, fire, aim.

SPEAKER_00

Mm-hmm. Right.

SPEAKER_01

Let's start, see what screws up, we'll fix it. Or maybe we'll just keep going at 100 miles an hour until we hit that wall. Let's see how it goes. You need, if that is you, when you hire, you need someone that is like measure twice, cut once.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, the opposite. Ready, aim, fire.

SPEAKER_01

And ideally, that's a really good point. Hire somebody that already has knowledge of the industry or hire somebody and have your team, because even if you're a single agent, you have a team. You have a brokerage. You have a brokerage, you have someone who has an administrator that's doing a good job. Nothing is free. Pay them to train them. It is worth the money. Interesting. Pay them to train them. Or if you have a brokerage that is a franchise and they've got training for administrators, do it. Because you don't want someone folding into your chaos.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_01

You want someone that's going to sort your chaos. And all of a sudden you have. And when that happens, when when when the revelation hit me and I was like, oh my gosh. And I actually let go of all of the control and allowed him and Chris to kind of settle my chaos. I was able to do so much more business. My business went from like five million to like 16 million.

SPEAKER_00

Fantastic.

SPEAKER_01

Because I just do what I love.

SPEAKER_00

Right. And the rationality is a good idea. You should be because you can grow by doing more of what you love.

SPEAKER_01

It is such a it's such a dichotomy because you say to yourself, you know, no, I gotta it's gonna cost me a fortune to do that. It's not worth it. The money that I'm making right now doesn't warrant that. The money that you're making right now is uh very small compared to the money that you will be making once you put that position, once you fill that position right properly. That's that's really good.

SPEAKER_00

I love what you said about having hiring someone else to train someone that's not seasoned in the business. So important never even thought about that. That's our that's a if you're listening, pick and you're a business owner or a realtor, that's really uh that's like a gold nugget to me.

SPEAKER_01

And my trainer, my business trainer, he was brilliant because I was like, I can't hire somebody full-time, I can't afford that. So he told me, go to three people in your office that are busy like you and bring them on and allow all have that person work for all four of them with the understanding that when you need her, they drop off and she will train her replacement.

SPEAKER_00

Interesting. So you brought more agents to the team because that bring more revenue into your business. So that's it. No, no, I wasn't a team.

SPEAKER_01

I I was an individual agent, and I went to other agents in my office that were doing similar business to me and didn't have an administrator and said, You probably can't afford an administrator full-time like I can't, but what if we share one?

SPEAKER_00

Okay. So you're doing a shared resource in your brokerage, had four agents. We worked at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_01

With the understanding that when she's mine ultimately. So when I need her more, she will hire you the replacement.

SPEAKER_00

She will, she will so that you both train up everybody's production.

SPEAKER_01

And it works justifies so well. It worked out so well. Because, you know, the idea of hiring someone and being responsible for a human life at full time, you know, hey. It's like, oh my gosh, I can't do that.

SPEAKER_00

It's heavyweight, you know, on your shoulder.

SPEAKER_01

But if you bring people in and you bring them in with the understanding that when I need her, right, she's no longer for you, she's for me. It worked out so well. That's it. It worked out so well.

SPEAKER_00

I I hope that someone's listening to this podcast and takes that to. The bank with them and then thank Brenda. And if but don't do purple, do a different color, like maybe pink, hot pink, 80s, something like that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, neon.

SPEAKER_00

Neon. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

If anybody has questions, call me. I am so happy to share all of the mistakes I've made. I mean, I've made every mistake you can imagine. I'm so happy to share it if I can save somebody a hassle.

SPEAKER_00

So on this subject matter, I do want to highlight one of our other sponsors for the show, but um, I've had the same discussion with them. These tactics aren't just for real estate professionals. These are the same kind of tactics that corporations use, that entrepreneurs that found companies that turn into big big organizations. I mean, these are the moves they make, right, Brenda?

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

To scale.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

You did your production tripled. You scaled. So businesses use this same line of thought, these same strategies. And so I was talking with Natalie Imbody, who's one of the owners of Vortex Air Duct Cleaning Services. And uh they've recently made a huge hire, a lot like your Kim. And that is turning their business in a whole, they're already super awesome, but they're just growing exponentially. Good for them. And they need to facilitate the growth. So um, so I want to talk about them for a minute. Uh, the air that you are breathing is super important. And if there's one thing that I promote to home iron home buyers that are buying their first home or home buyers that are buying their second, third, and fourth, fifth home, is to uh think about having your air ducts completely sucked out uh from top to bottom. And uh that's what Vortex Air Duct Cleaning Services do. They do an incredible job helping families breathe cleaner, healthier air, uh, dust, pet hair, allergens. It all ends up in your ductw over time. And Vortex is fat, Vortex is fast, professional, and they'll show you exactly what to remove. I had them back their trucks up to my brand new constructed home, suck the ventilation system out, Brenda. And I think I heard three two by fours go boom. I'm sure you did throughout the holes because they've got these trucks that back up and they hook up these massive hoses. Um, but they're incredible people, phenomenal business owners. They're small business owners, but they have a lot of integrity. Um, they just run a really good operation. I highly recommend them. Uh, if you want to get your air ducts cleaned out, sucked out, call Matt or Natalie and tell them Chris from the Mortgage Punk Show sent you. Uh but yeah, they've they've been implementing just the same, these same things on board so important.

SPEAKER_01

So important. When you're buying a new house, you know, brand new construction, you definitely need to do it because every single, you know, drywall dust and all of the construction stuff is all in that. But when you're buying a used home, I you don't even want to know what's in there. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00

I don't even think of it.

SPEAKER_01

I always told my clients, you really want new carpet because you don't want somebody else's toenail skin in your carpet.

SPEAKER_00

Well, it's in the vents, too.

SPEAKER_01

Toenail skin is like the least of your worries. Get it.

SPEAKER_00

They've given me some horror stories on stuff they have diapers, oh yeah, things like just stuff like that. So I would highly recommend. I highly recommend it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Chris and I once bought an investment property, and we had um the guy had a lot of cats, and we had the ductwork and um there was four and a half pounds of cat feces and hair in the ductwork. Yes.

SPEAKER_00

And you're breathing that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it is really important.

SPEAKER_00

A lot of people don't think about it.

SPEAKER_01

Important work. Yep. It's what they do is special. It's good.

SPEAKER_00

So, Brenda, I want to ask you, let's switch gears a little bit. Um, thank you for those nuggets on hiring great people to build a team. Uh, let's go uh backwards in your story. Where are you from? How'd you get into the industry? Why'd you start doing real estate? Have you always done real estate? Like, what's what's the whole story there?

SPEAKER_01

So actually, I am a floral designer by trade.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Um learning stuff about you. Yeah, but I've known you.

SPEAKER_01

I um went to school to design flowers. We owned a flower shop in Detroit, Michigan. And we did, I did all of the flowers for like large hotels, um colleges, banquets, stuff like that. Did you go to school for that? I did.

SPEAKER_00

Or did you go to college for that? Or what's I went to trade school school or something like that?

SPEAKER_01

I went to trade school and I loved it. Thought it was my calling, thought it was what I would do forever. I absolutely loved it. And seven years in, found out after doing significant damage to my lungs that I was allergic to flowers.

SPEAKER_00

I know, Brenda. Are you from Detroit? Yes. Originally? Yes. What suburb?

SPEAKER_01

Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, um, ended up sh just outside of Detroit. Okay, so you know, legendary eight mile.

SPEAKER_00

Oh yeah. Are you serious?

SPEAKER_01

Eight and a half mile. Detroit is very interesting. They're really unique. They name their mile roads, you know, six mile, seven mile, eight mile, nine mile, they're approximately a mile apart. Right. And it goes all the way up into the 30s.

SPEAKER_00

So kidding, I did not know this.

SPEAKER_01

Yes. So eight mile, if you cross over eight mile, there's east point.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

So Detroit, East Point. And then if you cross over nine and a half mile, there's Roseville. We my husband and I both got into real estate at the same time. Um, so I was told by my pulmonologist, you know, either find a new career or die, basically, because I had done so much damage. And at the same time, Chris was painting cars. He was a car painter, autobiotic painter for dealership. And he went to a seminar and they said to him, you know, have you ever seen any old painters? There aren't any because they all die because they don't take care of themselves. And same problem. If you have even in paint, yeah, all the time. If you have, you know, losing fingers, you know, losing feeling in your fingers and toes, stuff like that. Well, Chris had started to experience that. So kidding. Both of us, I told him.

SPEAKER_00

No kidding. Yes. Did not know this. Yes. That means you're rough and tough. You want a rough and tough agent? That's the kind of agent you want negotiating a deal for you. A tough one.

SPEAKER_01

Brenda is. I just had a conversation with one of my clients this morning. I'm like, okay, I want to get my Detroit on. You need to tell me if I can.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_01

She said, pull it back, babe. I want this house. I was okay. So yeah, she's my girlfriend.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. That's really getting.

SPEAKER_01

We sold tons of houses in Detroit. I mean, we we did all of that. But um, I told Chris, you know, I'd rather live in an older over under an overpass than not have him. So we needed to find something else to do. At the time, I was raised in real estate, hated it with a passion, hated it so much as a child. Hated, hated haters.

SPEAKER_00

Your parents?

SPEAKER_01

So my mom got her real estate license when I was two.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Um, she was divorced, and I was raised on crazy income. You know, sometimes you had it, sometimes you didn't. Crazy hours.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, with her because she's doing real estate.

SPEAKER_01

But here's how I thought, you know, you showed a house. Sit in the car and don't touch anything. I'll be back in a minute.

SPEAKER_00

So yeah, PTSD. That's how you showed a house. So I don't want to do this for my career.

SPEAKER_01

I swore I would never be in real estate ever, ever, ever. It was the worst thing ever. And when I found out about the flowers, and my mom actually transitioned from selling real estate to owning a real estate school. And she was very successful at it. She was a phenomenal teacher, horrible real estate agent, but phenomenal teacher. And she um she told Chris and I, take the class. Just take the class. Even if you don't do anything with the information, just take the class. And I was like, nope, nope, not gonna do it. Nope. Hate real estate, not gonna do it. Nope, nope, nope. And my husband Because of the circumstances. Yeah, because I grew up in it and hated every minute I was.

SPEAKER_00

But but you and Chris had a you're like at an impasse.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, we were that puts you into a my husband said, let's do this, let's take the class. Even if we don't do anything with it, let's take the class. So I took the class and I took it for fun. Passed my class. Chris fell in love with it, said, I'm doing this. I talked to somebody, I got a job. Um, this was in July. I got a job and I was gonna go fit somebody for eyeglasses. You know, I was gonna work at an eyeglass optometrist and help people.

SPEAKER_00

You landed a different job at the same time.

SPEAKER_01

But I couldn't start till October.

SPEAKER_00

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01

I couldn't start till October. So Chris was like, I'm gonna do this. So I said, Great, I'll help until October because I'm going to make $10 an hour. So I'm out of here in October.

SPEAKER_00

So this is a wild story. We should not know.

SPEAKER_01

Our trainer, and here's how our training went. Here's a phone, get a listing.

unknown

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00

Sink or swim.

SPEAKER_01

So I was like, so I just started calling people. I because I was playing at it. By October 24th, I was supposed to start my job on October 30th. By October 24th, we had eight transactions pending. That's crazy. And Chris is like, sure, you want to go away? We can do this. We stay with me. We're having the greatest time. Stay with me. And I'm like, no, I'm I'm gone. I'm I'm vapor, man. I got a job.

SPEAKER_00

You still have that same.

SPEAKER_01

My broker sat me down with a yellow piece of paper, a yellow notebook, legal pad, and said, This is all the money that you have pending, and this is what you're making at $10 an hour. Imagine if you took this seriously.

SPEAKER_00

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01

And I couldn't argue with it. So I called up the lady who was gonna hire me and said, I'm sorry I'm not coming. I'm sorry. That's crazy. Chris and I started our career.

SPEAKER_00

No, what year was that?

SPEAKER_01

That was in 1998.

SPEAKER_00

Oh wow, that's when I got married. 1998. Right before the world was gonna end in 2000, and all the numbers were gonna stop in the computer system. Um that's crazy. So so was there anything, I guess, during that period of time that's like said to you, oh, that this is really different from what I experienced with mom. Everything.

SPEAKER_01

Everything. Because and part of it was uh our broker, our broker sent us, he said, uh, there's this training. And at the time it was Floyd Wickman sweat hogs. Now Floyd is superstars or whatever it is, but it was very 70s training, you know. What's it gonna take to get you, me into it? You know, what's it gonna take to get you to buy this house today? Kind of thing, right? Which uh I hated so much of it. Uh but what it gave me was the foundation that the basic principles are you can be a phenomenal real estate agent, you can have the best ideas, the best heart, the best wonderful, most wonderful everything. But if you don't talk to people, nobody knows.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_01

So what it gave me was that foundation of I pick up the phone, talk to lots of people, talk to lots of people, and when you talk to them, convey your message, right? Whatever your message is, convey that message, and the people who are your people will respond to it. Sure. And it just gave me that basic foundation of you cannot sit and wait for the phone to ring. You you cannot, you know, you can't hang out a shingle and be like, okay, world, I'm here, you're welcome. It just doesn't bring you business.

SPEAKER_00

So I want to uh we gotta take another minute here to spotlight another sponsor for the show, which uh sounds like you've had some experience with quality granite and interiors. Love them. Um Joe Warren is the new owner over there at Quality Granite. He's uh fantastic. So uh if you've ever remodeled a kitchen, um, you already know that countertops can change everything. Everything. And uh Joe over at Quality Granite is the guy who uh you want to handle an upgrade like that. So he's gonna be uh just super professional at quality and crafts craftsmanship. Um, and uh and he's got the materials to back it all up. So whether you're building, remodeling, flipping a home, uh Joe's team can deliver clean installs and a serious wow factor. Uh and his family has a history in real estate. Uh, if you know the Warren family around here in our our town, um, but he's just super sharp professional. He's doing a great job running quality granite, turning that thing around. He just recently bought it. Um, I don't know if it was last year or the year before, but uh but you've had a good experience with them. Oh, yes. So and yeah, remodel work is kind of their thing. If you're gonna remodel it.

SPEAKER_01

So important. And yep.

SPEAKER_00

Call Joe. Tell him Chris from the Mortgage Punk show sent you. And Joe, thanks for your sponsorship, dude. I appreciate you. Big time.

SPEAKER_01

Thanks, Joe.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. Um, okay. What uh I was gonna ask you a question here. Um, I so that is a great now. What brought you from Detroit then to Wichita? Okay, so that's another piece of I guess that story.

SPEAKER_01

You know, I it takes me 10 minutes to say hello. So if I'm talking too much, just tell me to shut up. But no, here's the deal. Um, okay, so Chris and I did our real estate thing, and we did everything, I don't want to say everything wrong, but we did what you needed to do in the 90s and early 2000s to sell real estate. We um we were in phone books, we were on bus, you know, park benches and all the ad all advertising and marketing, image marketing, because the only advertising, I mean, the internet wasn't there yet. So the only advertising that you had was a homes book.

SPEAKER_00

Sure.

SPEAKER_01

And that's how people found you. And uh my broker told us one time it is really easy to make a million dollars in this business if you spend 900,000 on advertising.

SPEAKER_00

So that's expensive stuff, especially back then.

SPEAKER_01

It's pretty much what we were doing, and but uh three things happen when you do that. Uh the first thing that happens is you get really uh complacent and you say, I'm spending all this money on advertising, I'm just gonna wait for the five years. Yeah, it's not you, somebody else. That's fine, you know. Um, that's the first thing that happens. The second thing that happens is that those bills come whether there's real estate or not. Right. Those you're paying those no matter what. And the third thing that happens is that you get there's a certain type of person that responds to those kinds of ads. So you're always dealing in the same group.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you're kind of the same kind of buyer. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So great, I am grateful for all of that because in 2005, we started to feel the market change. Detroit had a horrible crash. I mean, everything crashed.

SPEAKER_00

The auto industry then Detroit had a horrible crash.

SPEAKER_01

Right. Um, and we started to feel it before it actually happened.

SPEAKER_00

That was in 05.

SPEAKER_01

So in 05.

SPEAKER_00

That was when the auto industry really spiraled out.

SPEAKER_01

We, I was sitting down with sellers, and three out of four sellers were upside down on their house.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, heading towards foreclosure, probably.

SPEAKER_01

And not yet. Not yet. They were just upside down. They could still make their payments and they thought they wanted to move.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

But they were upside down, couldn't get out of it. And so we saw the writing on the wall and we were like, okay, anywhere but here. We literally laid a map out on our dining room table, bought our big CRT computer monitor right next to it, and we would do this. And then research. And we knew what we wanted. We wanted an area that was not a one-trick pony. You know, Detroit is all auto. When the auto industry struggles, the entire metro area fails. So we knew we didn't want a one-trick pony. We wanted some place that was more fiscally responsible because one thing that we noticed in Michigan was people refinance their house every year. And they would take the money and you know, go to Cancun or buy jet skis, or, you know, they weren't making capital improvements on their property, they weren't buying down their mortgage, they were blowing it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And they were doing that every year or every other year. So they were constantly at a hundred percent of their value. Um, so we knew what we wanted, and we found Wachita, which on paper is an amazing. On paper in 2005, Wachita was incredibly diverse. Yeah. There's pharmaceutical, there's tech, there's, I mean, after we, you know, bought our house, came here, we were like, oh my gosh, it's all aircraft. It's all aircraft. We just traded cars, cars for purple crap. But no, it um but what we did is in 2005, we said, okay, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna come down for a month and we're gonna drop ourselves in the middle of the city that we don't know, where we don't know a soul, and we're gonna use our back to basics thing. And if we can put one deal together in 30 days, then it is the sign from gods and dud relatives that this is where we need to be. So we did it, and we put three deals together and said this is it. Been here ever since, and we've been here ever since, and Wichita has been the biggest blessing ever.

SPEAKER_02

That's cool.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, absolutely ever. It's like Mayberry. I mean, people here are so nice, so nice. We were told forever that we would never be able to have a child. We went through all kinds of things. We were living in a hotel waiting for our house to be ready and found out I was pregnant. Um, we have our daughter, it is now 19.

SPEAKER_00

She's it's like ever since you landed here.

SPEAKER_01

It's I mean, it has not all been, you know, roses and sunshine, but it is so good, and the blessings that I have are so amazing. I mean, I I wake up every single day, know that I am so blessed.

SPEAKER_00

And you probably avoided a further decline and crash in some of those flint.

SPEAKER_01

Let me tell you. So, I mean, we when we left, we sold off everything that we owned, you know, got rid of everything, except we had one house, one investment house with a business partner, and we had had a stable tenant and it was great. So we were, and at the time we were doing all of our investments on five-year balloons. So right before we left, we refinanced on a five-year balloon. Appraisal came back, it was worth $67,000. We owed like $13.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

So everything was fine. Five years later, the bank called us and said, We have a problem. You owe like $12,000 and the house is worth eight. I said eight what? It went from $67,000 to $8,000 in five years. That, I mean, we got angels and dead relatives, man. It was low. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Good grief.

SPEAKER_01

Well, and they were like, you know, so here's what we want you to do. You send us six thousand dollars. We'll be able to day. And I'm like, let me get this straight. You want us to send you six thousand dollars. Oh no, and then they were gonna finance the other six. I'm like, you want us to send you six, it's only worth eight. I'm not feeling that. How about if I send you the keys and you just have another foreclosure? You know, I'm from Detroit.

SPEAKER_00

Asking a Detroit woman who's in real estate now. A question like that.

SPEAKER_01

And I don't even need more than 10 fingers for that.

SPEAKER_00

I had a friend, Brenda, that lived in Flint, and I went up to Flint and visited him a few times. We were just really close, and him and his family were moving out as the auto industry was just continuing to spiral down. Then 2008 hit, got even worse. Foreclosures, empty properties, people just living in them.

SPEAKER_01

No, yeah. Everywhere. Everywhere. Everywhere.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, it was your timing coming here is impeccable.

SPEAKER_01

But it's so we like I said, we did a lot of really, really dumb things the way we ran our business in Michigan. But everything happens for a reason. And we were so blessed to be able to feel it coming. Wow. And when we left, I mean, all of our friends, all of our real estate friends were like, Oh, you're gonna miss the boom of 2007. It's gonna be so great. You're gonna be so sad. You know, you're gonna be so sad you missed it. And you know, you're making the biggest mistake of your life. And I mean, we had we had practiced there for 10 years, so we had a phenomenal circle of influence. We had great repeat customers, you know, a good customer base, but we could see it coming. And it, I mean, many of our friends lost everything. And I am so grateful. And Wichita, we felt it, but we lost seven percent.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_01

You know, not like that. And people here are so fiscally responsible. If somebody's refinancing their house, they're refinancing it for a lower rate, they're not doing it to take money out and go buy jet skis or rehearsal, you know, or back into there. Or capital improvements. Absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So I love it. Uh, I got a question for you that I want to ask you and uh and see what you give us here. Um, what's hard right now that no one wants to say out loud?

SPEAKER_01

We are in a transitioning market for many years, for several years, we have been in a very firm seller's market. Buyers walk into a house, and if they want it, they better bend over backwards and give the sellers, you know, everything they want in a turkey sandwich in order to make it happen. We are transitioning, we are transitioning to a balanced market.

SPEAKER_00

Balanced market. Okay.

SPEAKER_01

There are we are still, here's the thing. According to Wichita State, who I I think is research, but according to them, we are still 80,000 units shy in housing. The untold picture is it is affordable housing that we're missing.

SPEAKER_00

80,000 uh uh homes short of affordable housing. Affordable housing. Right.

SPEAKER_01

It's you know, we went from having a average price in Wichita of like 186,000 to 240.

SPEAKER_02

Or yeah, yeah, something like that.

SPEAKER_01

It's I mean, it's insane. You know, the the increase that we've had, we've never had that kind of increase. So we're missing affordable housing. So although, you know, higher-end homes are staying on the market longer, which you know, but that affordable piece, buyers are more discerning than they were two years ago. Buyers are not gonna walk into a house that needs work, needs carpet, needs paint, needs updating, needs this, needs that, and tell the seller, here's my kidney, I want to pay overpay for it.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_01

It's not gonna happen. Sellers are not ready to hear that because you know, everybody they don't want to do the the work, they don't want to do the work or lower the price of the house to compensate for that. And you know, I know in my own personal life, I can't read a calendar. If you ask me, it could have been two years ago, it could have been seven years ago, it all feels the same, you know. So when sellers think, well, I just talked to Bob, my neighbor, and he sold for $10,000 over. Okay, that's true, but it was two and a half years ago. Right. And in real estate, that's a really long time.

SPEAKER_00

We we always have to ask context questions, right? Renee, right? Hey, I knew someone that bought a house and got this rate. When did they get that rate? What do you know what year that was?

SPEAKER_01

That would have been 2004, Chris. Right. That's I mean that's oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00

What do you think the what do you think the solution is? Give us like real quick the uh the kind of two-minute solution to affordable housing to solving the affordable housing. Okay, you ready? I I'm ready. I want to hear it.

SPEAKER_01

Here's what I want to do. I unfortunately I don't have the intelligence or the resources to do it, but I do you do you know the row houses back right after the closed door here or anything? Pick a city, okay, doesn't matter. Yeah, pick a city. Builders built because we had a housing shortage in the 50s and 60s, builders built three-bedroom, one-bath houses, thousand square feet on a basement. In my opinion, I don't see why those houses cannot be built for two or two twenty. Unfinished basement, three bedroom, one bath on the main, those houses and make them green. Instead of putting solar panels on the roof, have an array of solar panels on the side that so that you're not dealing with the specials because the infrastructure right now is insane. It is because all of those parts for transformers and everything else are built out of the country, the tariffs bringing them back in is killing developers. It's just too expensive. So use different sources so that we're not paying those. And I don't see, I mean, I know it sounds crazy, but it seems to me if we could build those for 220 and just put up a subdivision.

SPEAKER_00

Right. It that would do it.

SPEAKER_01

And 220 on an unfinished basement. If somebody has more money and they want to finish the basement, go for it. The builder will do it. If not, but I think that would be like the solution.

SPEAKER_00

A great solution. I just ran into um I don't I don't a lot of people, some people know this about me. I um you I think you know this about me. I'm a silent partner in a construction and development company. And of course, we build a lot of duplex properties. We sell half-size of those duplex for about $195. And so I think the reason we've been having a lot of success with those is because people can afford a half-side. It is a three-bedroom, two-bath, two-car attached garage. But I did run into a couple other guys um just this week, uh, a couple uh developers. Um, one of them is a general contractor, and they were actually they have blueprints spread out, and uh, and I was at a coffee shop having a meeting, but anyhow, I I walked up to them just to say hi because I know them. But they were showing me, I said, What do you guys got cooking here? What are you building now? Um, and they're building uh three bedroom, two bath on a slab for two oh five. And I you know what I told them on the way out the door, I said, guys, I think I think you someone needs to be building something that people can afford. This is a problem. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01

So and you know, the the the challenge, I think single family homes are the thing. I mean, I you know, the duplexes have they're they're affordable, but they have a stigma to them. And I think five years from now, they're gonna have a problem. Right, you know, yeah, and that's I think a mix. You need a mix, but I would I would just love to see that happen because I believe that, and I also believe that there are so many younger people. I mean, now I'm old, I'm 55, so uh younger people to me is like, you know, we're 80s children. That's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_00

Where the world rocked. We are the rock and roll generation. Well, almost the rock and roll. We're the ones that took it to the next level. Right.

SPEAKER_01

But I think that, you know, but I listened to my daughter. I mean, I know she's 19, but I listen to her, and she wonders if she'll ever want to own a home.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, we got to fix that.

SPEAKER_01

It is not owning a home isn't the American dream that it used to be. And I think the reason why is because so many people look at it and say, it's just not possible. And I believe it's possible for everybody.

SPEAKER_00

We gotta fix it, Brendo.

SPEAKER_01

I believe it is.

SPEAKER_00

We're gonna do it. I'm gonna do one more shout out here as we close this episode. Uh, I want to shout out, I give a shout out to Michael Gaum of Glass Guru, who's best dude ever. Brenda has lots of great things to say. Uh, quick shout out to Michael, he's awesome. Him and his team at Glass Guru of Wichita. Uh, listen, windows are one of those things homeowners ignore until they become a problem, until they get foggy, until they break, or you start feeling a draft come through the house, or your energy bills start rising. Uh, my Michael's crew does it, uh, he'll he'll jump on it right away. This guy is one of the fastest, most efficient, like quality, integrity, and speed. Um, that's Michael and his team. They do a fantastic job. I can't say enough about them. I send everyone to him.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, they do a phenomenal job. I just took a listing and I didn't actually know that they had done the job, but um, the cellar had double doors into a foyer um as an entry. And they were steel doors that were full, there was no glass in them at all. And it made the entry so dark and scary, it was just sad when you walked in the house. And they came and added stained glass panels to each side of those doors, and it changed the whole look of the house. I've had about six showings on that house so far, and one of the compliments that I get all the time is the doors.

SPEAKER_00

And tell tell tell the listeners real quick, how much were they able to get that repair done with Michael as opposed to buying brand new?

SPEAKER_01

My client told me that if she were to have replaced the doors, it would have cost her about $3,800. He did it for about $650.

SPEAKER_00

Fantastic.

SPEAKER_01

Amazing, amazing, and made the whole look of the house completely different inside and out.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, Michael, Michael has done a lot of, I know he's done a lot of glass. Like he can fix glass without replacing the whole window. Yes, so sellers listing their homes. You want to cut seal broken seals, man. Broke, yeah, little, little uh inconsistencies and maintenance problems with your windows. Uh Mike and his team could save you a lot of money. So, Michael, I can't uh say thank you enough, man. I appreciate you big time. I appreciate your friendship. All of these sponsors are my friends, Brenda. All these realtors are my friends, most of them uh that are on this show. Uh I I I know already. So we're fids. Anyhow. What I can't thank you enough for coming on the show, Brenda. I've been wanting to have you on here ever since I kicked it off. And I've just been I've had this lineup and a list of names to start just calling through.

SPEAKER_01

So honored to be here and uh come back anytime at all. You know, I'll talk about anything.

SPEAKER_00

So you listen, there's probably, and I know there's a lot we we have not touched on. I can tell you right now, Brenda's a boss. She time blocks her schedule, guaranteed, time blocks every hour of it. I already know it. So all those disciplines and habits that I talk about a lot on this show with high-producing realtor performers, we didn't talk a lot about that on this episode, but Brenda does them, does them all.

SPEAKER_01

It is I can't thank you so much. I can't tell you how important it is to control your day. If you don't control your day, your day controls you. And so many of us as realtors, we can be busy without being productive. Without doing anything so well. We're so great at that. Oh my gosh, so great at that. And there are so many books about you know, success in 90 days or whatever, crazy books. And they start with read real estate articles, get your car washed, take somebody to lunch. That is not what is going to move the needle, move the needle. That is not it. It is basic contact.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Talk to people. A lot of people, a lot of people, a lot of people. And if your goal, my goal every day is it's my mission statement, it's everything, is to change somebody's life. Love it. That is, and even if that is just to be the only person that smiled at them today.

SPEAKER_00

Love it.

SPEAKER_01

That's changing lives.

SPEAKER_00

I love it. I love, love you, your family, your business, Brenda. You guys are amazing. You're a blessing to our Wachita market.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you. I love being here.

SPEAKER_00

Love the unicorn, love the purple hair. It's my favorite. I love it, love it, love it. So hope you guys learned something from watching this episode. And again, reach out to Brenda. She's, you know, one thing about high one thing I've learned about high performers, Brenda, is a lot of them and most of them are not stingy people. Like they're very generous, willing to offer advice, willing to help. I I think that's a mark of someone who wins.

SPEAKER_01

There is when you come from a place of abundance, there is more than enough business out there for everybody.

SPEAKER_00

There is.

SPEAKER_01

And there are no giant secrets in this business. There are no, there is no magic formula. There is no, you know, I get calls from investors all the time. Hey, can you send me the list of houses that have 20% equity? Is there a list? Okay, no, there isn't. And if there was, I would buy them. Right.

SPEAKER_02

And you would buy them yourself. I love it.

SPEAKER_01

There is no magic. There is no magic. But if somebody needs something, if you have a question, if you just need somebody to talk you through something, I am always available and I am happy to do it because we are, it takes a village, man.

SPEAKER_00

Yep. That's what I love about you. Brenda, thank you for being on the show. Thank you for watching this episode of the Mortgage Punk Show. Uh, we will see you next time with a next guest. And uh, in the meantime, we hope you have a great week and you do something for someone and expect nothing in return. So amended. All right, see you. Thanks for watching. Peace out.