Ep. #23 | Featuring Chandler Townsend

Chandler Townsend (@ctownsells) is the founder and team leader of CTown Sells under LPT Realty — one of the most recognizable real estate brands in the Lowcountry. Chandler also hosts LowCountry LowDown, his own podcast built on the same philosophy he sells with: be real, be yourself, and let the results speak. He runs his team alongside his wife Mariah (@mmmariah.townsendd), stays in personal production, and has built a culture most team leaders talk about but never actually create.

In this conversation, Chandler reveals:

• Why authenticity isn't a personality trait — it's a business strategy, and the industry's lack of it is costing agents referrals they'll never even know they lost
• How he scheduled family time like a $100 million client — and why that decision made him a better producer, not a worse one
• The real reason he stayed in personal production after launching his team (and why every team leader should be closing at least a couple deals a year)
• The biggest mistake agents make as they get more experienced — and why it's costing them the client relationships that drive long-term business
• What agents get wrong about Summerville: the "new vs. old" identity split most people don't see coming
• His honest take on building a team — the financial reality, the leadership responsibility, and why some agents should stay solo
• Why the 2020-2021 market was a curse disguised as a blessing — and what getting your ass kicked actually teaches you

This one goes deeper than tactics. Chandler is the real thing — a guy who built something he'd genuinely want to be a part of, and figured out how to stay human while doing it.

Follow Jake: @jakecummings_homeloans 

About Charleston's Leading Producers: Weekly conversations with the highest-producing real estate agents in Charleston. No fluff. No theory. Just proven strategies from agents doing the work and getting the results.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I think the biggest mistake is trying to assign what worked on the last deal to your current deal. And I I think that's the the trouble I try. I say this so many times, it's ridiculous. My age is probably are just the sick of it, but um you know, uh for us it's a day at the office, and for them it's the biggest transaction of their life.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Hey leaders, I'm Jake, a loan officer obsessed with business growth and finding out what's actually working in our market. If that sounds useful, hit follow. Now, this week's leader.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Thanks for coming on and uh and doing this with me, man. Hey man, I appreciate the invite. I'm I'm excited to be here on uh Charleston Leading Producers Podcast. I talked to my doctor, he said I need to get on CLP1, so here I am.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

You know, I've never put that together, so maybe we'll start advertising that way. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

That's right, dude. Daily dose. I don't know if insurance will cover or not, but you know, they should. It should. Everyone needs this, everyone needs to get script for this, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Everybody needs a little CLP. That's for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Everyone needs the CLP, brother.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

So for people who don't know, you run C Town Cells under LPT Realty.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

You record your own podcast called Low Country Lowdown. It's fantastic. What uh your first couple guests were probably the best, but we'll come back to that later.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Yeah, yeah, they were they were pretty good. They were great. It was one of the two. One of the two, but one of the two first guests.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Yeah, phenomenal. You also you're also producing real to yourself. You have a young family. So talk to me just about balance, first of all. How do you actually do all of these things and do them well?

SPEAKER_00 1:43

Oh this is a is a tricky thing to find in our industry, man. And you know, it's actually something that I don't think I really you know was able to get a good grasp on until fairly recently into my career. I've been doing real estate for quite a while now, and it really wasn't until this past year um, you know, or so that I really started to kind of balance things out. And, you know, uh part of that has to do with me just being a bit more seasoned, you know, you got a little bit more referrals coming in, spend a little bit less time, you know, trying to uh you know get new business when it's coming your way through referrals. But you know, also it's just prioritizing it, man. Um we we've talked about it before and it it sounds uh a little cheesy, but you know, just scheduling time uh with your family and with your kids, it's it's it comes across, I think, on paper as almost a little bit, you know, uh maybe not as personal or intimate as you'd like it to be, but really, you know, treating your home life and treating your personal life, whether you've got a family or whether you know you're just taking care of yourself, um, you know, treating it with the same degree of seriousness that you treat your business uh ultimately is gonna help you be more productive, uh, at least for me. Um, you know, when you're an entrepreneur, you got to get yourself out of bed in the morning, you know, nobody's gonna fire you but yourself, right? So um, you know, staying motivated and just keeping morale up and being happy ends up uh really affecting my business in a positive way as well. And, you know, when I'm uh overworked and I don't get to see my boys and this, that, and the other, you know, it bleeds into my work as well. So uh we make an emphasis to, you know, have dedicated family time and you know, put that on the calendar. And, you know, for me, I treat that uh, you know, like a $100 million client, right? That's just a non-negotiable appointment that we can't cancel if somebody needs to, you know, see a house or you know, have a listen consultation. Hey, look, unfortunately I got something on the schedule that day uh or that time, and you know, we can go before or after, but you know, that's just a blocked-off time on my calendar. And, you know, uh it's funny, a lot of people they get worried. Uh, you know, when they're entrepreneurs, they're always worried you're not doing enough. I think that's very common with people who are running their uh their own businesses. But you know, at the end of the day, um, you know, putting putting even something as small as just you know an hour or two aside to, you know, uh, you know, throw the ball around and do whatever, that that's not gonna have a negative impact on your business. And ultimately it's gonna make you stronger and you know, um, you're gonna have more time with what what matters as far as I'm concerned. So just putting it on the schedule. That's all I do. Try to stay organized once.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

That's such great perspective. And I I love how I think I think you nailed it when you said when you carve out those times and you're truly present in that whole, you know, being where your feet are mindset, it makes you better when you know you're actually on the job because you your mind can't be in both places at one time. So when you're working, work. When you're with your family, be with your family, you know, and I think that's a reminder that we all need to hear, probably on a consistent basis, too, right? Um, but like you mentioned, you know, carving out that time makes you better at your job. And I think it's the same thing with like physical exercise, too. Like when I carve out and I'm not missing workouts, uh, I'm more efficient when I'm at work, you know. And I know you've gone through that journey a little bit as well. Done a couple of these, my man.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

A couple of them, a couple of them. You gotta, you know, working out, whatever it is, you know, going to sleep on time, waking up, whatever it is you need to do to take care of yourself, that's gonna bleed into it. Uh, you know, multitask where you can, uh, that's great. I've actually got this little uh, I'm gonna turn it on right now. I got a little standing desk treadmill thing going on. So I'm just completely hamster maxing my day-to-day life. I'll turn it on right now. Here we go. Now we're just walking while we're talking, right? Uh it actually helps me think quite a bit. But it's it's funny the types of things um, you know, that you don't think about and just kind of going back to putting that time aside. It's crazy now that I think about what I did for years. Um, you know, where, you know, if I'm sitting down to dinner, right? Or if I'm at the gym or whatever it is I'm doing and I get a phone call, I'm like, I gotta stop what I'm doing and take this phone call. Um, but you know, you can't be available every second of every day. Um, you know, you can't be taking phone calls at 1 a.m. and responding to people at 1 a.m. uh all the time. Uh but you know, you think about it and you're worried that it's gonna affect something negatively. But when you're with a client, if you're talking to somebody else on a meeting and you get a phone call, you're not gonna pick that up right then and there. You know, people understand that you can return calls, return texts a little bit later sometimes. But when we're in our personal life, uh, I think a lot of people tend to just detach it or just remove it as an option to, hey, I'll just take this call later. But really, you know, again, it's not gonna have an effect. And if you wait three days to respond, that's a problem. But you know, if you get back to them in an hour or something like that, hey, I'm in a meeting, I'll get back to you in a minute. Quick text like that, no issue whatsoever. You got to take care of yourself first.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Love that, man. Um, the low country low down.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

What what made you want to put yourself out there in that way by doing the podcast? A lot of agents they're looking for the short form clips, you know, they're leaning into reels. Not a lot are leaning into long form content. So doing a podcast. So what made you pick that vehicle and lean into that?

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Well, anybody who knows me on a personal and intimate level knows that, you know, I've I just never shut the hell up, man. And so uh podcast was a pretty organic expansion for me. Um, I knew I needed to do something. You know, it's 2026. Lord knows we've all got to, you know, do content. Everyone needs the content. It's what you got to do. Um, especially if you don't want to spend uh half a million dollars a year on billboards, uh, you better put something on uh on social media. So, you know, I knew I need to do some sort of content, and and the podcast felt natural for a couple reasons. Um, one, uh again, I'm just you know, I love talking to people. Um, you know, I love sitting down and having a conversation. It's not a hard thing for me to do. I enjoy it. And so it's a lot easier to be consistent with something that you enjoy doing. You know what I mean? Um some people are disciplined enough to uh wake up every morning and do a job that they hate. But uh, you know, more power to you, that's not me. I'm very blessed to love my job, and I don't do anything I don't enjoy doing. Um, so I happen to enjoy that. Was the first reason. Second reason is that to be totally honest with you, I I think there is a massive void in probably sales as a whole, but in the real estate industry is what I can attest to. Uh, in regard to authenticity, um, there is an unfortunate uh lack of realness, uh, for lack of a better word there or better phrasing. You tend to find people, and it's you know, I've been a part of um, you know, larger teams and I've known a lot of agents who are part of other teams, and it's it's not singling one individual out. I see, I think it's really an epidemic amongst the entire uh really real estate industry, where you know, it's often like, how do I get clients? You know, how do I get them? And I'm like, well, you're not getting people, you know what I mean? That's kind of a crazy way to think about it. And it's almost like, I don't know if this is the intent, but it reads like, you know, how do I how do I capture these people? How do I catch, you know, their attention and they try to look for these kind of gimmicky things? And I think, you know, I always say you're not selling a sandwich, you know what I mean? This is a pretty big deal. Uh, it's the largest financial transaction of somebody's life, and outside of the money, it's, you know, this is Christmas morning, this is Thanksgiving dinner, this is a very intimate product that you're selling, much more so than uh something that's, you know, again, like a sandwich, right? So I think you have to appreciate the human aspect of it. And as wonderful as all those short format little clips and reels, and you know, uh, you know, whatever little trending thing is is you know going on right now, that's fine, that's wonderful. But I think there's a real lack of just genuine, you know, uh human authenticity in this industry. Uh, we hear it so many times. Um, you know, where you know, where people like associate realtors or lenders or any, again, anybody in any sales, you know, I'll just pick on car guys, you know? You always get always a used car salesman. That's you know, that shows you how much um that's stereotype business because we know we use them as an example as a sleazy guy, no disrespect to car salesmen. But that's just what people think. You know, that's what the public looks at. And as much as we'd like to all deny that, there's a reason uh why that perception exists, and that's because there's just not enough uh genuine, uh, you know, authent authentic human emotion or just there's not enough people being real, to put it simply. Yeah, like a better word there. I'm not a poet, but I do like to talk. Uh so you know, it I just think that uh that was a gap that needed to be filled. It was something that I could jump into. And, you know, I'm I'm I'm not uh not gonna be everybody's cup of tea when you show your real human side, when you show, you know, a genuine version of yourself. The fact is, not everyone's gonna like you, but I, you know, and no, not uh the the entire population of the low country was never gonna buy with me or sell with me. There's always gonna be other options out there, right? That's why you got menus at restaurants. So, you know, I'm uh gonna go out there and do my thing, be myself. Folks that love me, love me, folks that hate me, hate me. And hey man, that's just how it is. But uh, if nothing else, I can say that uh, you know, it's it's real, it's authentic, and um, you know, that's just the way it is.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

Yeah, and to your point, I would actually argue that I don't know if trust has ever been lower for people in our industry from the loan side, from the realtor side, you know, and we've I we've shot ourselves in the foot. We have nobody else to blame but ourselves for that. So to hear, and you know, I've had conversations with people on this podcast before about being authentic. And you mentioned, you know, not everybody's gonna work with you anyway. And sometimes we're so scared to put our authentic selves out there, and then we're really holding ourselves back, right? Because you're putting something out there that's not even you anyway. So I don't know, maybe people are successful that way, they're kind of like almost playing a character, but I don't know, it doesn't seem like a real fun way to live your life anyway.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

Well, exactly. And you know, here's uh nobody's gonna give me an Oscar, even if I wanted to, I couldn't pull it off. You know, I could I couldn't uh you know uh and look, there's a difference between like, you know, sure you put on a little bit of a social mask, but you do that when you walk into Starbucks, you know what I mean? If you're if you're having a bad day and someone, you know, a Starbucks, how's your day going? You don't like tell the cashier about all your problems of the day, you go, oh, it's great, how are you?

SPEAKER_01 12:05

Now that you brought it up. Yeah, let me just hear it.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

There's a little bit of, you know, you social niceties and politeness, sure, whatever. But you know, outside of that, like, you know, I'm not gonna try to be this whole like made-up artificial manufactured character. Um, I think a lot of the times when people do that, it's pretty transparent whether they realize that or not. Um, again, some people might be better at it than others. Um, I'm not an actor, and it's a lot to remember. It's uh, you know, when you're going around, you know, uh making up all these stories about you know who you're pretending to be, uh, you know, frankly, that's a lot to keep up with. And, you know, if you just go around and if you just present as an honest, genuine version of yourself, it's a heck of a lot less to remember anyway. Uh but yeah, look, there's a the great thing about real estate is we're a high-ticket industry. You know, Coca-Cola has to sell a billion cans of Coke to make you know profit. It's a it's a volume-based industry. If you sell a billion houses, uh you know, you it's not gonna happen, right? It's just crazy. If you sell um a hundred houses in a year, you're in like the upper you know, 0.1% of realtors in the market. If you sell um 20 houses a year, you're probably I don't know if I hadn't checked the stats, you're probably in the you know, top 5% or something like that. I know the average is somewhere around like three or four a year if you took it like the national average for realtors. So it's a high-ticket industry. Uh, I don't need everybody in the world to love me. I don't need everyone in the world to to think of me as the most wonderful, greatest guy out there. You know, the people who like me like me, and people who don't don't. And you know, that's that's really all there is to it as far as I'm concerned, man.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

Well, I like you, Chandler, and I like having you. So, you know, there's one, you know, if nothing else. Yeah, one baby, let's go. So let's talk about running a team a little bit. Because I have so much respect for the people on your team. You work with your wife, um, and and you're building something that I really admire personally. But going back to the beginning of that, what was the turning point in deciding to build a team instead of just growing by yourself? What kind of pushed you um over that line?

SPEAKER_00 14:07

Sure. So um I guess kind of the initial uh spark behind it all was the same reason I got into real estate to begin with. Um, you know, I I really value creative freedom, uh, but just freedom as a whole. Uh I don't uh I don't want to be told what to do and how to do it. Um, you know, I like to make my own decisions, good or bad. Some of my ideas are all outstanding, some of my ideas fall flat in their face. It is what it is, but uh I like that that that freedom to kind of control my own destiny. And that's why I got into real estate um as a whole to begin with. Uh, I started off on a larger team, which it's what I would recommend any new agent doing, uh starting off day one, so it was a little tricky. Um, but you know, I spent a couple years there, and it was sort of always my intent to eventually, once I understood the industry, kind of break out and do my own thing, just again for the you know, freedom aspect of it all. Uh so that's probably what um initially sparked it, and that was always gonna be the case. Had nothing to do with, you know, I have no, I don't, you know, say, oh, I hated my old team and I had to break off from. That was never the case. You know, they're great people. Um, you know, the guy's a real good guy, and this, that, and the other. Um, but just the uh, you know, the freedom to control my own destiny and create a model that um that was attracted to me. And uh, you know, moving forward, there were some aspects, again, great team, wonderful process, no resentment. But you know, there's things that I would change, there's things I wanted to do differently, and there there weren't not every part of it was perfect. And so my focus as a team leader um has always been about creating an environment that I want to stand in. And so again, not every agent's gonna mesh with that, not every agent's gonna love that. Uh, but for like-minded individuals, I can create an environment uh that they can stay at from a longevity perspective, they can be happy at, they can focus on you know, quality of life, and um, you know, creating that ecosystem that is, you know, has that balance of, you know, obviously making money. That's what anyone's job is about, uh, but also just quality of life and somewhere you can genuinely be happy, a culture where everybody genuinely likes each other and enjoys going to work every day. That was always the biggest priority. And so I just focus on, you know, well, what would I want if I wasn't a team leader? If I was an agent on my team, how would I want this to look? And that's really the number one focus. Uh, that's all I think about in terms of any decision I make. It's whether or not if I was the agent and this decision was being made for me, that's ultimately the situation they're in, uh, would I be happy? Would I agree with it? Um, and you know, short of uh running a charity and not making a penny, uh, you know, that's really the only restriction on that. So um, that's the main focus for me is just you know, you know, having that freedom and uh creating an environment uh where I'd be happy.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Yeah, and you've you've done that so well. And shout out Mariah, your wife. She's great. I I love communicating with all of you guys on your team. Um, but looking at the flip side of it as well, a lot of people when they're running a team, they step back from personal production. Um, but you're continuing the closed deals, you and Mariah working together while leading your team. What makes you stay in it personally as well?

SPEAKER_00 17:17

I think if you get out of production entirely, you really run the risk of losing touch with the process. And I don't think that I would be able to maintain again what what I view as the highest priority is would I be happy as an agent on this team? If I'm not in production, if I'm not kind of you know in the trenches along with them, I don't really know uh that I can maintain that same level of perspective. Um, you know, am I producing um as as much as I was when I was a solo agent? Absolutely not. That would you know required 80 hour uh plus work weeks, and you know, at that point it would just be fully neglecting the team and not spending any time with them. Um, not to mention, you know, wasn't spending enough time with my family at that point as well. But um, you know, it's I I'd say we're probably doing about half of you know what the production I was when I was um an agent, maybe about 50-50 between the administrative kind of leadership role and then about 50% of my own production. But, you know, I just think it's necessary. And even if you even if you're just doing a couple deals a year, um, if you were to scale it down, I I think it's necessary for uh individuals who are running teams or running brokerages to at least have, you know, at least once or twice a year get out there and do the dang thing. Uh, because you're not you're never gonna be able to get the the full experience, you know, keeping up with stats and reading and this, that, and the other. I think that's a mistake that I see all too often is it I have to physically restrain myself when I hear somebody say, I've been doing this for 20 years, and I'm like, brother, it's different. Like, you know, I don't give a damn what happened in 2005, man. Uh, that's not where we're at or 2006. I forget, the clock goes forward. Uh, but you know, look, uh, it's it's just different. The market changes, you know, really constantly. And but it at least, you know, you've got to do a couple deals a year so you have at least a semi-annual kind of sample size of, you know, what are clients talking about? Because there's things that, you know, they're gonna say uh to their agent that maybe is not gonna show up on some report you read somewhere. Uh you know, there's gonna be, you know, even just things as simple as body language. What are they not saying, you know, but how are they acting? You know, what are they you know, what's making them comfortable, what's making them uncomfortable? Are they absolutely petrified by what they saw in the news this morning, or is uh, you know, or is their algorithm, which is you know something I think about now, it's not the news anymore, it's whatever their individual algorithm tells them. Can't even just watch the news to understand the propaganda. Everyone's got their own propaganda. Uh but uh, you know, uh what's the pulse like? So I think it's necessary and I think you have to do it if you want to maintain uh an honest uh you know idea of of what it's like for your agents.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

So in keeping your finger on the pulse of our market, and we're recording, you know, we do a lot of our work in Somerville, Charleston area, um, and having a good feel for our market. What's the one biggest mistake that you see agents making in our market today?

SPEAKER_00 20:17

The biggest mistake. There's a lot, uh but I think I think the biggest mistake is trying to assign what worked on the last deal to your current deal. And I I think that's the the trouble I try. I say this so many times, it's ridiculous. My agents probably are just sick of it, but um, you know, for us, it's a day at the office. For them, it's the biggest transaction of their life. Average person's gonna buy one to three houses of their in their entire life. If that, they may be the first person in their, you know, out of their mother and their grandmother or whatever. They they may have all been renters, they may be the first person in their family that's bought that they can, you know, they could reference. Um, this is a massive deal for the individuals, uh, and it's extraordinarily personal for them. And as an agent, you can't just treat it like, oh, it's another day at the office. It's never going to be like that for the client. So whatever worked for John Doe is not necessarily gonna be what works for Jane Doe. And you have to take the time to understand and to know your clients, um, you know, not just from, you know, a customer service experience standpoint, but also just from an effectiveness standpoint to do your job properly. Um, you know, people ask general questions, you know, where's the best area to buy, or should I buy new construction or pre-owned, or what's a great town to buy in this, that, and the other. And it sounds like a cop out, but like truly, if I don't sit down and get to know you, I really can't answer that question. Um, I could give you like a numbers investor ish, like I could tell you that because that's pretty consistent. But like whether or not people want to admit it or not, we ain't Bill Gates. Most people ain't. You know what I mean? Uh, most individuals, this is a home for them, and every house is an investment, but that's probably not priority A for most people, right? Um, and so you have to understand people. So I think that's the biggest mistake is um sometimes the more experienced you get, uh the more detached you become because you start to make generalizations and assumptions and and you just can't do that as eventually you're gonna, you know, you're gonna lose the personal aspect of it. And you know, you might find little tips and tricks that make you uh a more efficient producer, and you might make more dealers and might make you a little bit more money, but um, you know, you're not gonna be as good at your job, and you know, it's I don't think it's gonna um gonna be uh as uh I just don't think it's gonna be good overall personally. I don't think that's the right way to do it.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

I don't it's not always about making the most money, but and what I'm hearing you say, it you it sounds like you continually come back to the client experience and what's best you know for the client. And you know, as somebody who talks to realtors every day, different realtors and a lot of different realtors, it's refreshing to hear that. You know, it's refreshing to hear somebody, you know, just pause, take a step back, and put ourselves in the client's shoes too, because I mean you mentioned it like we're in this every day. People don't understand this stuff, they don't go through this stuff hardly ever. And you also mentioned it too, it's always changing. So even if they did buy, you know, in 2018, it is really different right now than it was, you know. So, and understanding that from our side is super important. So, yeah. Um, to to piggyback off of that, you grew up here. You grew up, uh went to high school right down the street from where I'm sitting for this recording. Go Foxes at Ashley Ridge High School. Um, what's one thing about the Somerville and Charleston market that a lot of agents might not understand?

SPEAKER_00 23:56

Ooh, what's one thing? Okay, most agents don't understand. Um, well, I'll I'll tell you this. It's I think Somerville, if we're talking about Somerville exclusively here, um, I I think that Somerville is really kind of a, you know, uh two sides of the same coin, but it's really divided into you have new Somerville and Old Somerville. You have that not just from a chronological this house is new construction, this house built in the 70s, uh, but from a cultural standpoint as well. Um, you know, when people ask about, you know, what is the vibe of this town, what is the atmosphere of this town, it's extraordinarily different in certain little pockets of the community uh than others. Um you know, we have an extraordinary insane amount of people that are moving in from out of state. And I'm not gonna sit here and say whether that's good or bad. Um, it's just what's happening. And so when you think about Somerville, it's it's almost got this kind of like identity crisis in a lot of ways, you know, because somebody who grew up here, and I'm like, you know, listen, I'm I'm still a I'm still I'm still a young viral fella. I'm not that old, but I can say even in my uh uh short lifespan, it it really doesn't feel like the town I grew up in. I can't imagine what it would be like for uh, you know, somebody who's uh approaching a retirement, was born and raised around here, how different this must be. Um you talk about uh Ashley Ridge High School where I went. I have one of my coaches, um, should I name drop him? Sure. Yeah, Mr. Mr. Mitchum, Coach Mitchum. And uh he's he's from around here. God bless him. I don't know what the hell he's up to these days. I'm sure he's living the dream. He was a cool dude, um good coach. But um, you know, he would always talk about how much town had changed. And you know, I was uh you know in high school at the time, and I was like, yeah, sure, whatever, who cares? But uh, you know, he'd talk about when he was growing up, Trolley Road, which if you live in Somerville, you know about Trolley Road. It was just a you know, little two-lane, had, you know, forests on either side. Almost, you know, he called it a country road. I wasn't there, I can't attest to whether it was or wasn't, but that's you know, the way he described it. Um, not much going on. I wasn't a whole lot there when he was a kid. Um and I just it's hard to envision that even, you know, because I think of trolley as like just you know, uh traffic nightmare. But you know, not not too long ago, um, you know, it was it was not quite rural, I don't think you would say, uh, but significantly less developed than it is now. So I think a lot of agents miss um, you know, just how different this area can be, depending on where you're living and and how different people interpret this area and what it's like. Um sometimes in the real estate industry, this kind of just goes back to detaching yourself from another day of the office. You know, we get so hyper-focused on like, you know, more, more, more growth, growth, growth. And that's great. Awesome. Everyone loves making money. And um, for the record, I think equity is a good thing. Uh, when you buy a house, you want it to go up in value, everyone likes that. Uh, but you know, there's something to be said for uh, you know, affordability. Um, I think most people understand that uh we'll take a town like Mount Pleasant. If you're uh if you're born or raised in Mount Pleasant, when you get out of a high school, or maybe when you get out of college, whatever it is you're doing, let's say you're buying your first house, maybe you're in your early 20s. You're either if you're fresh out of college, you're just into your new job, or if you work in the workforce out of high school, you know, you're maybe getting your footing in your career. You know, perhaps you're maybe engaged, you're thinking about starting a family, this, that, and the other. Okay, it's time to buy your first house. Point being you're in your 20s, you're probably not making a ton of money. Maybe you've got a great degree, maybe you're gonna make a ton of money, but you have it yet, right? So I think it's very well understood that somebody born or raised in Mount Pleasant, you are not buying maybe a condo, but you're not buying a detached home in your early 20s in Mount Pleasant. That's gonna be low end three quarter million unless it needs a ton of work for a detached home in Mount Pleasant. And without a uh, you know, a co-signer or, you know, mom or dad are helping you out or something like that, you're probably not buying um your first starter home in the town you grew up in. And, you know, it is what it is. Mount Pleasant's a luxury area. Um, but it's just kind of an accepted fact. Uh now Somerville is kind of approaching that same level where you can't buy your starter home in the town you grew up in. Uh it's not quite there yet. There's a lot of bargains you can find. Uh, seatownsales.com, see all the listings. But um, you know, you can still find some stuff in the high 200s, low threes. But um, you know, a lot of a lot of people I went to high school who are now starting to buy their first homes, you know, we're having conversations about, well, you know, what if we were just a little bit outside of town? You know, uh, maybe we're not quite in Somerville necessarily. Uh you can find stuff in the high twos, low threes, and especially if you're, you know, if you like townhomes for sure. But uh detached homes, you know, um, high twos, low threes, maybe. But um, you know, if your budget's gonna be in the low 200s, Somerville's kind of off, it's just kind of gone as an option for a detached home at least. Um, so I think that's something a lot of agents kind of forget about, is is how, you know, when they get to talking about, oh, you know, it's great, you know, property values are jumping up. It's like, yeah, that's that's good. That's great, you know. Uh every seller thinks prices are too low, every buyer thinks prices are too high, and that's just never not gonna be the case at any market. Um, but it's something you have to be sympathetic to. And again, it goes back to the human aspect of like, you know, that's gonna be emotional for some people, man. You know, this has been home for them for, you know, uh their whole life. And, you know, they've grew up and you know, they want to they have dreams of of buying and living and you know, uh around the area they grew up in. And, you know, maybe now they've got to have a conversation about, you know, well, we've got to buy something, maybe build up some equity somewhere a little bit outside of town, or maybe we'll start with a town home, or maybe we'll buy something that, you know, could use some cosmetic work or something like that. Um, but the affordability aspect, I think sometimes people just view it as like a it is what it is type of thing, and they sort of gloss over um the emotional aspect of that for some of these people, you know, because it's they're moving in from out of state, that's different. But for folks who have called this place home their whole life, you know, that can be a tougher conversation. You got to give that the respect it deserves, I think.

SPEAKER_01 30:09

That's a great perspective. Um, yeah, I I really, I really enjoy that. And it is hard because I'm from the north, I'm from Pittsburgh. Daniel. And I live in Somerville, you know, and I I live in the part of Somerville that most uh people from the north um that if they came here, this is where they live. We've we've all congregated together.

SPEAKER_00 30:30

Yeah, we all put you in one spot.

SPEAKER_01 30:33

Yeah, keep everybody, yeah. It couldn't be further enough.

SPEAKER_00 30:36

Oh, you're moving it from New York. Hey, have you heard of uh not that have you heard of Summer's Corner?

SPEAKER_01 30:41

There's a great place for it.

SPEAKER_00 30:42

Why have the neighborhood for you? Uh no, I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_01 30:45

You're gonna love you.

SPEAKER_00 30:46

You're right, though. I mean, um, it's there's a there's a lot of really attractive um aspects to new construction. And I think, you know, when you just look at it and you don't have any like sentimental ties to any areas or you don't like you know have any sort of attachment to any one particular neighborhood or whatnot. If you're just coming in from out of state and you've never heard of any of these neighborhoods, um, I think a lot of people naturally gravitate towards new construction because it's just fresh and new and clean and um you know and you don't know anything about the area, it feels like a safe option, I think.

SPEAKER_01 31:17

Yeah, yeah. All right, I I want to get us wrapped up here in a minute, but I what I gotta get one more piece of advice from you about the team aspect. So if someone came to you tomorrow and said, I want to build a team, I want to build a real estate team, where do I start? What's the first thing you tell them?

SPEAKER_00 31:38

Start with that in a couple zeros at a bank account, buddy. Um, it's expensive. Uh no, but uh truly, where where do I start? Um number one, I think you have to very clearly identify why you're doing it and make sure it's what you really want to do. Uh, some agents uh I think fall victim to this like, this is the natural progression, like this is what I'm supposed to do. Like, okay, I've gotten a few years under my belt. Maybe I'm getting to the point where I'm doing enough deals where you know I almost don't have enough time anymore. And I should, you know, a lot of you know to even do my business properly, I probably should be referring this out to some team members so I can spread the labor out a little bit. Um, and people view it as just a natural progression. Uh, it's so much more than that. Um, and you have to understand how things you don't think about, uh, like, you know, just the amount of faith that somebody's putting in you to really, you know, uh control their destiny in a lot of ways, you know, that's a big responsibility. Um, you know, because you it's one thing to, you know, provide for yourself and your family, but now this other person is really relying on your system um, you know, to pay their own bills and you know, perhaps feed their own kids, you know, and that's that's a lot. You know, you've got to make sure that you're ready for that responsibility. Um and so just you know, put a lot of time and planning into it. You don't need to rush anything. That'd be my first piece of advice. Uh, make sure you got money in the bank, this, that, and the other. Um, and you know my second thing would just be to make a big emphasis or or make sure that you are ready to take on a leadership or a guidance role. I've seen a lot of teams, and I'm not gonna name anything because that would be distasteful, but I've seen a lot of teams where they just kind of, you know, it's the same concept over and over as they get into their own world and they don't, you know, have enough empathy to kind of understand the other perspective and they just go, well, this is what I do and this is how I do it. So, you know, you just look at what I do and then you copy and da-da-da-da-da, and they just they don't take any, they don't get out of production at all, they stay 100% in production, they go, you know, all the time working and they they don't spend enough time on the support and the systems and this, that, and the other. So, um, and that's you know, if that's not what you want to do, don't do it. If you're doing it just to, you know, try to make more money. I don't know, man. You know, I don't know if that's the big thing. It's not that it won't make you more money, it probably will. But if that's your main focus, um, and you're not willing to, you know, take on a more nurturing role, perhaps, is uh the word I can't, you know, think of the best word, nurturing maybe perhaps, but uh you just a support role and and you don't find satisfaction in building something and and sharing the wealth and trying to help other people rise, um, it's not something you should do. I think um I think if you're not putting that that emphasis and building up others, uh if it's just for yourself, then you need to stay in solar production. If you really put your put your foot on the gas in solar production, you can make millions in real estate uh and that's plenty. So uh, you know, if you're not, if you're just money motivated, then just go do a thousand deals a year and you can hire like a showing agent or an assistant or something like that to share the burden. But um, you know, if if you don't truly want to build something uh that can help other people, you know, maybe take a take a step back and give it another look.

SPEAKER_01 35:08

It's so true on our side of the business to the financing side. Um, and I think a lot of that might stem from, and I'm gonna preface this by saying I I am grateful that I've had a few different really great mentors. And I haven't even been in the business that long, and I've been very fortunate. Um, but I think some of it stems from there were a couple big years there around 2020, 2021. You know, there was a lot of business happening, and some people were, you know, running a big business and thinking they had everything figured out. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, those were the leaders, you know, in the past few years. And it's been like, wait a second, yeah, I have to actually know what I'm doing now. Yeah, this has gotten a lot harder. And I I don't know. I I definitely want to make it a rally cry of mine, at least on the loan side, that if you are going to start a branch and you are going to bring a loan officer on, you should have a system in place on how you're going to trade that that person and you should have fundamentals that we're all walking through this together, and you are a leader of that person, and that's a huge responsibility. And, you know, I think on both sides, the real the agent side and the loan officer side, that responsibility is overlooked sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 36:25

Yeah, because you just it's not, I mean, I get it, it's money, it's business, blah, blah, blah. But like you do that person is putting so much faith in you to control, you know, so much of their life or to influence it at the very least. Uh, you have to give that the respect it deserves. And I know this is going long and I'd be rambling, but you know, I like kind of what you said there during, you know, 2020 and 2021. And, you know, everyone thought they were uh hotshots. And um man, I can't tell you how much of a blessing it is to get your ass kicked. Um, you know, a lot of people, they had this false sense of like, wow, maybe I am the greatest lender of all time or I am the greatest agent of all time. It's like, well, that or two percent interest rates, you know, uh, it's pretty easy, man. Uh, you know, everyone can afford a house prices were you know about 30% lower at the start of COVID than they are now, and the rate was, you know, two and a half percent. Yeah, it's a little different. Um, it's gonna kind of easy to sell a lot. It's just like those uh you remember that GameStop nonsense uh that uh that was happening uh during COVID. Yeah, a lot a lot of people were like, wow, maybe I could be a day trader, and it's like, no, you know, uh, you don't I'm Warren Buffett, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I actually am uh yeah, and they're I I see people on the internet all the time, and they're like literally will you know counterpoint people like Warren Buffett, and they're like, Yeah, this guy doesn't know what he's talking about. I bet he does. Uh I think maybe you're in an anomalous market, and perhaps uh this is a you know freak event that happens once in a lifetime, and and you know, that's not gonna mean longevity, but um you have to understand the markets that you're in. And I think that it's it would be, you know, market was great when I got into it, and that was fine, and it was awesome and made a lot of money. If in an ideal world, um, you know, I almost wish that I started kind of now, or really 2024, I think, was probably a harder market than it is right now. That's just my opinion. Some people disagree, some people weird, whatever. I think 2024 was the hardest market uh that I've experienced in recent history, just in terms of where the buyer psychology was. Um, but you know, I kind of wish I had started then because um, you know, those uh those years in in you know 2020 and 2021 when it was super easy, um, you got experience, but you didn't really, you weren't faced with a ton of adversity. You put a listing up on MLS and it was going to get 10 offers in a day, and you didn't even have to really even learn how to sell a house. You know, uh it wasn't until the market corrected where a lot of people understood, like, oh, well, there's you know, there's levels to this. Um, there's a little bit more finesse you have to put into things sometimes. Um, and so, you know, uh, you know, easy, you know, easy, wonderful, great markets where it's easy to buy and sell and this, that, and the other, um, you know, sometimes they can be a curse. And there's a lot of um lot of blessings in adversity, you know, a lot of blessings in adversity, in my in my opinion.

SPEAKER_01 39:16

Well, Chandler, I'm gonna wrap us up on that. That's so well put. Um, you've got incredible advice. If anybody wants to reach out to you just to ask follow-up questions, connect with you more uh or learn more about your team, how can they get in touch with you? Where can they find you?

SPEAKER_00 39:31

Well, you can check out our website, cTownsales.com. Uh, it's got all the properties in the low country. Everything that's on the MLS is gonna be in the low country uh or anywhere on there, just check out ctownsales.com. You can give me a call, shoot me a text, 843-703-9970. That is my personal cell phone number. If you give it to a telemarketer, I'll find you and I'll hunch it down. Please don't. Uh yeah, it's always fun putting your putting your number out there, right? Um I'm sure you get as many of those calls as I do. But yeah, give me a call, give me a text. I'm I'm pretty good about responding. You can always email me ctown to ctown sales.com, S-E-L-L-S. Um, but yeah, just reach out. Uh, we're always happy to have a conversation. And, you know, I'll say this. If you're thinking about buying a house, that is the time to give me a call. It's if if you're ready to buy tomorrow, that's fine too. I can help you out. But you know, don't discount how much planning goes into this. And don't think that, you know, you're wasting anybody's time. Some people say, Oh, I don't want to talk to, I just feel like I'd be wasting their time. I I know you're trying to wrap it up. I'll tell a quick little story real quick. You're good. No, I want to hear it. When uh when I bought my first house, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. And I don't know if I told my agent this, is before I was licensed, obviously. Um, but when I first sat down and met with her, I was 17 and I couldn't legally buy a house. And uh I'm again, I don't know if she knew that or not, but I sat down and I met with her, and you know, she gave me a lot of great advice and we got a great game plan. I don't, I I bought my first house, I think two years after that. Uh some I don't know. It was it was years, you know, after I sat down and had that conversation, but you don't know what you don't know, and uh sometimes you think you know more than you do. And so, you know, sitting down and having a conversation with her, um, she was wonderful to work with. And um, you know, she uh you know, she supported me every step of the way and you know was great with all that. Um but first one is very, very, you know, there's a lot of plenty ego into that. So there's never too early. And if you have an agent that has any shred of um, you know, um integrity and respect for the situation, in my opinion, uh, you know, they're gonna be willing to talk to you early on. Even if I'm not your cup of tea, whatever agent you love, talk to them when you're thinking about it. Because this is what they do. This is, you know, uh this is their life, this is their career, and it's something that you might do one to three times in your life total. So I'm always willing to have a conversation regardless of where your time frame is, where your credit is, whatever. Always willing to sit down and have a conversation and you know put that roadmap out for you. So don't wait till the last second because it's a lot to do in a short amount of time if you do.

SPEAKER_01 42:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:07

That's perfect, man.

SPEAKER_01 42:08

I appreciate you being on today.

SPEAKER_00 42:10

All right, I appreciate your time, Jay. Thank you so much, buddy.

SPEAKER_01 42:15

Thanks for listening to Charleston's Leading Producers Podcast. Could you take a moment to hit subscribe on the platform that you're currently listening on? That allows this show to grow and bring you more of the top of the line producers and business leaders. And if you think these stories will help someone you know, please share this with them. New episodes every Wednesday. I'm Jake Cummings, and I'll see you next week.