S2 E41: My First Closing as a New Mom | A $154K Military Family Deal in Early 2020

What does it look like to close a real estate deal just six weeks after having a baby?

In this episode of Closing Chapters, Brittney takes us into 2020 and shares the story of her very first transaction as a new mom. Her daughter was born on Valentine's Day, and by March 20th, Brittney was at the office doing paperwork with an infant in tow.

The clients were a fellow military family in her husband's CE unit coming to Shaw Air Force Base. They had a baby girl of their own, and the timing made this deal feel personal from the start. Brittney found them a three-bedroom, two-bath home on a half-acre fenced lot with a garage for $154,000 in early 2020 before the market shifted. It needed cosmetic work, but the bones were solid and the backyard was perfect for their energetic dog.

This episode is about more than a transaction. It is about showing up when it feels hard, trusting your clients to meet you where you are, and understanding why having a key in hand matters so deeply for military families who are constantly packing up and starting over. Brittney also shares her own wild cross-country move story, including towing a car with a four-month-old through 10 hours of screaming, and why she always makes sure there are essentials waiting in the home when a family walks through the door for the first time.


Key Takeaways

• Returning to work shortly after having a baby is possible when you have the right clients and the right mindset.
• Shared experiences create trust. Working with another new military family made this deal feel low-pressure for both sides.
• Military relocations cost an average of $5,000 out of pocket per move. Having a home ready at the finish line changes everything.
• The real value of a real estate agent is not just finding the house. It is making sure the family gets in the door without losing their minds.
• Small touches matter. Leaving essentials like toilet paper, snacks, and drinks in the home is a simple way to show clients you thought of them.
• Real estate in 2020 pre-pandemic still offered incredible value. A fenced half-acre with a garage for $154K is a win worth celebrating.
• This career rewards long-term relationships. Brittney later helped this same family sell and buy again.
  
  
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Closing Chapters Podcast: Where Every Mission Has A Story

Thanks for listening. We talk all things military real estate, my transactions, the mistakes, the wins, and simple plays you can use right now.

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Disclaimer: This podcast education only & is not legal, tax, or financial advice. Talk with your own pros about your situation. Opinions are my own.

© 2025 Brittney Frye. All rights reserved. Realtor, license # 352197 in NC. Brokerage: REAL Broker l Military Division

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hey there friend! Welcome back to the closing chapters podcast where every mission has a story. So this was special though because it was a guy coming into our CE unit. So my husband got word that somebody was coming in, needed some help, and got us connected. So I'm always help happy to help a fellow CE folk over at Shawl. So they were coming in and also had a they were actually, no, they'd already had her. They'd had their first baby girl, so they had an infant. Our daughters are pretty close together in age, and I was expecting. Hey y'all, welcome back! It is now time to dive into 2020. And uh, spoiler alert, it's a pretty quick run. I have two transactions for 2020. Why, Brittany? Why would you, a high-producing agent, only do two transactions in a year? Well, friends, 2020 was a special year. It is when our first little bundle of joy joined us. And she was born February 14th, 2020. Now, knowing that information, let me tell you about this first transaction. It closed March 20th, 2020, approximately a month and six days after my little girl was born. So to say that I got busy pretty fast after she was born would be right. Um, so we wrapped up 2019. I had transitioned back to South Carolina in December, and I had no intention of really doing a whole lot of anything because, you know, I was having a baby in two months. I was around the office, I was finishing up whatever transactions I had going on and hanging out and helping where I could just to stay busy. But I was about to have my hands full, and my husband was gone. He had gone back to basic. So he was at Fort Jackson. So I was going back and forth to Fort Jackson a good bit to be able to see him on the weekends when I was able to. And yeah, we knew that after he was done there that he would be moving on to training and we would only be there for about six months, tops, was the whole idea. So I wasn't going to get a whole bunch started when we were about to legitimately pack up and transition again. So this was special though, because it was a guy coming into our CE unit. So my husband got word that somebody was coming in, needed some help, and got us connected. So I'm always help, happy to help a fellow CE folk over at Shawl. So they were coming in and also had a they were actually, no, they'd already had her. They'd had their first baby girl. So they had an infant. Our daughters are pretty close together in age, and I was expecting. Um, so we needed to get to work. And in the time that they were in this home, they grew from a family of three to a family of four, and they are now a family of five in a different state. But we got the pleasure of finding them a really good deal. What's a really good deal, Brittany? Well, remind you, it is 2020. We got them a three-bedroom, two-bath house on a half-acre lot that was already fenced in, had a garage, VA eligible for $154,000. How awesome is that? Now, it needed some cosmetic love, it needed some flooring, it needed some paint by far, but overall it was sound. It actually had a really decent sized kitchen in it, and it was lovely. It was perfect for a first-time home buyer, and it had a huge Mama Jama backyard for their pop who needed the space to run. She was young and she was really like one of those overly active dogs, like just hyper, and just needed to be outside where she could bounce it out. So we found a space for her. So I am so thrilled that I was able to help them because it was such an ironic timing, right? Like I really didn't know if I could handle taking on a client or not. And whenever we found the house, then we were going through the walkthroughs and closings. And that was my first time taking my daughter out and about and having to have her with me when we did stuff and doing paperwork at the office with her. It was a huge new experience. And I'm so blessed that I was able to have my first transaction after being a mom with somebody else that was also recently just a new family. So they understood it and I and knew what I was going through and were very patient with me. But also with it being a fellow CE family and them knowing who we were and our history, it just took a lot of the pressure off and made it so that I didn't have to be perfect, that I could help this family get where they needed to be and make everything work. And it was glorious. And the interesting thing is that they drove cross-country legitimately way too fast. Like I don't do not think the husband even slept. So when we were planning for closing and the final walkthrough and all that stuff, um, I was tracking, you know, how long it took us from to get from South Dakota. And I was like, okay, I would expect that you're gonna be stopping this often. Like they've got a baby, they've got a dog, they've got a cat. There's there's some stuff they're gonna be stopping often. No, my friends, this this guy, and I'm pretty sure the husband drove the legitimately the whole way because I think the wife was handling, you know, the critters and the baby. And um they made it in like less than two days. I think he stopped and slept for like four hours and kept on trucking through. Just like a I'll sleep when I get there type of thing. And I was like, dude, um, you know, like I kept saying, safety first, like take your time, it's okay. Like the house will be here when you get here. And I think part of it is that they didn't want to incur extra cost, you know, for staying in the hotels, which I don't blame them. Um, we have found, and I've said this before, but on average, after making four moves in a year and a half's time span, it costs us about $5,000 out of pocket every time that we transition, whether it's, you know, for the gas, for the hotel rooms, um, the U-Hauls, the unexpected towing of a car, whatever the case might be. And when I mean towing of a car, I don't mean shipping a car, I just mean like actually having to haul it with you. Um, because that's what happened to me. Um, whenever my husband finished basic training, he went to Alabama for um his initial warrant officer class. And um he had gotten delayed because of COVID. And so everything was like out of the norm. He was supposed to be coming back and getting me, and instead, I was having to leave our rental and go to him. And that meant putting all of our belongings in storage and letting somebody else come pack it when when TMO could come and packing his car as with as much stuff as I possibly could for as long as I could. Like the thing was is that we didn't know how long we were gonna be stuck in Alabama, and then we didn't know when our stuff was gonna get to Missouri, like when it would get packed and actually moved to Missouri. And I have this Anybody baby, and we're gonna be going through different seasons. So I'm like trying to pack, you know, three, four months worth of clothes, different sizes, different seasons, um, anything that I have that she might need. And oh, by the way, we have two dogs at the time. And, anyways, so we packed down, I had a Tahoe at the time. So we packed down the Tahoe, we packed down his car. We, as in like um, friends and family, I had a great group of guys from my office that came and helped me out getting all this done. And then I towed the car 10 hours to Alabama with my four-month-old, and she was not a happy camper and screamed for the better part of 10 hours. And I was gonna split up that drive and decided not to because I was like, I cannot stop, get her out of the car just to put her back into this again tomorrow. Like she's already losing it. I just need to get there. I just need to get there. So it was uh quite the thing. But when you put yourself in those positions, right, I had already scheduled, okay, I'm gonna have a stopping point. So I'm gonna schedule that out, have a hotel waiting for me. So then when plans changed and I called and was like, hey, like I'm I'm not coming, you know, like this is my scenario. Um, hotels don't care. They don't care. They don't care that you're a military spouse by yourself with your baby and that you're trying to do the best that you can do. Um, all they care about is their cancellation policy was 24 hours ahead of time. So I still had to pay for that hotel room, even though I wasn't gonna stay there. And then I continued on to Alabama and had to pay for another hotel room because all of a sudden I'm, you know, staying there earlier than I expected to. So it can all um just add up and evolve very quickly. So, anyhow, I totally get why he was like, Nope, I'm gonna hit it, get it, and go. But I was so not expecting him to be from the West Coast to South Carolina um in literally like in a day and a half. So it was a pretty crazy turnaround. But he was like, I'm I'm not waiting any longer than I have to to get into my home. And I was like, Okay, I I get you, friend. So it was so cool to have a home waiting for them and to limit that craziness of having to stay in hotels with the newborn and the animals and get in and get out. Um, and and that's a blessing, and that's what I'm here for. This is like the moments that define my career when I am able to make sure that a family gets in the door of a home where they can just put their stuff down and exist and be. And it doesn't matter if they don't have their belongings with them, it doesn't matter if they have a bed right that second, they don't have to load it all up the next day and do it all over again. They are there. And that feeling is just it's overwhelming because it's tough when you don't have all of your stuff with you. However, there's such a sense of relief of like, I don't have to do this over again right now. I don't have to pack it all up again, I don't have to make the kid mad again, I don't have to shove the dog in a crate again. We're we're here, we're home, we can relax, and the rest will follow. That is also why I have learned that one of the ways that I love to take care of my clients is by making sure there's essentials in the home. So if I have a client in this scenario where they are doing a flyby night, they are coming in, and they are just gonna be ready to get there and walk in the door, um, whether it's during the day or the middle of the night, love having a couple of little goodies there so that they don't feel like they have to rush out the door. You know, making sure there's toilet paper in the house, some soap, some, you know, trash bags, paper towels, a few snacks, a few drinks, something just to get them by. Even if there's not a fridge in the house, right? Like um a pack of Gatorades, like on the counter, so much better than walking in a door and being like, man, I gotta turn around and go back out to the store because we don't have anything to drink, we don't have any snacks to eat. We just, you know, it's it just lets you be for a minute. So this is another great example of exactly why I do what I do, why I was willing to do it freshly postpartum, because this was such a deserving family, and I was able to make the American dream come true. They purchased their first home. I got to help them sell this home later on, and they purchased their second home. So they're doing the right things. They are able to take one property and push it up to another property, and they are really doing well in living life. So it makes me very proud whenever I get to see families grow and be prosperous throughout the um years that go by. So this was my start to 2020, my first closing, March 20th, 2020. And it's halfway point because there's only two. Now, the flip side to that is that I transitioned in June, and that's when we left again. So, right, it's March 2020. If I go another deal, you've 30 days out, it was April or May. Well, then I was packing and I was out. I had to be out by June 1. So um, that is a big part of why I only did two deals in 2020. I may have had a few referral fees going in or out, but actual transactions that I was involved in. However, that is not the end, my friends. It is not the end because this career has been going for 10 years now, officially in May. I've hit the 10-year mark, and what a blessing that it is to be able to have served so many families over the last decade to grow in my profession, and I'm always learning. This is one of those worlds where you never stop learning. There's something else around every single corner, another skill to learn, another change coming your way. And this is why this career is so intriguing sometimes because you're not gonna get bored. You just absolutely can't. Because if you settle and you get bored, then you're missing out on something, whether it's learning or a change that you didn't adjust to, and it'll catch up with you. So, this is truly a career that can kind of keep you on your toes and yet create such a cool engagement and beautiful relationships along the way. So, thank you to my first family of 2020 for welcoming me with open arms as a new mama and trying to figure out the whole world of being an entrepreneur and being a mama all at the same time. I hope to see you soon. Hey! I just wanted to say thank you for being here and listening in on this episode of Closing Chapters with me. I truly enjoy putting this content together, and I hope that you enjoy it too. If so, could you like, subscribe, and share this episode with somebody you know that will enjoy it just as much as you did? Thank you so much.