EP 25: The Realtor’s Secret Transaction Strategy to Protect Every Transaction with Brooke Riecke

In Episode 25 of The Buyer’s Box Podcast, Ally Burnett sits down with Brooke from Reside to break down one of the most overlooked skills in real estate:

👉 Transaction management.

This episode explores how the best Realtors protect every transaction through systems, communication, organization, and hospitality-driven client experience.

As Brooke explains, transaction management is not just paperwork…

It’s about protecting the client experience during the most emotional part of the deal.

Inside this episode:

• The transaction checklist system that keeps deals organized
 • How to manage multiple real estate transactions without chaos
 • Why deadlines, communication, and follow-up matter
 • The hospitality mindset behind great transaction management
 • How poor systems create stress, confusion, and lost deals
 • Why clients remember the transaction process more than the sale itself

You’ll also learn:

• The “flow of the deal” every Realtor should master
 • How to reduce client anxiety during escrow
 • Why operational systems create better referrals and repeat business
 • The transaction strategy that helps agents scale sustainably

If you’re tired of:

❌ Transactions falling apart
 ❌ Missing deadlines and follow-ups
 ❌ Chaotic closings and stressed clients

This episode will help you build a smoother, more scalable real estate business. 

🎧 Listen now.

📥 FREE EBOOK — THE REALTOR’S TRANSACTION PROTECTION SYSTEM

Inside this free ebook:

• Proven transaction management systems
 • Client communication frameworks
 • Deadline tracking checklists
 • Hospitality-driven follow-up strategies
 • The operational systems top agents use to protect closings

👉 Download it here: https://joinshft.com/free_ebookep25

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Hi, everybody. This is Allie Burnett with the Byrus Box Podcast, a podcast focused on agent-facing content for all the agents out there in the world that are following. Today we have a very special guest. We have Brooke from Resign. How are you? Good. How are you doing? Thank you for having me, Allie. Thanks for coming on. Brooke has helped us so much with our team. Resign has helped us so much with our team. And today we're really going to focus on something that I think a lot of agents struggle on is transaction management. And Brooke is the queen of that. So, Brooke, can you tell a little bit about your background with transaction management?

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Yeah, absolutely. So, well, I always joke that I've been in real estate and have been in like the transaction world my whole life or you know for 30 years because my dad's always been in the business for my entire life. So, you know, I was on the phone calls at the closings, at the showings, um, you know, at in a bassinet when I was young. So it's always kind of been ingrained in me, even when I didn't want it to. I remember saying to my dad specifically when I was in college, like, I will never get into real estate. And then um, of course, here I am. I uh so you know, to speed up a little bit, um, I actually started as an agent myself on my dad's team and was essentially just him and I. So even though we were a team, I was still very much operating as a solo agent because he was so kind of advanced in his craft that he was like, I don't even know where to start. So I kind of learned a lot of things just by following him around and picking it up on my own, uh, but eventually got into the operations side as we continued to bring agents onto this team and grow the team. Um, so at that point, it it was a natural kind of move that I was going to then be helping with the transactions and managing uh what we were doing there with the team. Um, so we ended up growing to about, I think at our max, we were at 15 agents. Um and then we were with a different company aside from um Reside previously before I had joined Reside. I was with a different company, an expansion team where uh we had different locations. So I also, as my data is expanding into different areas, um including Myrtle Beach, actually, um I started helping manage transactions with his teams in Myrtle Beach and Wilmington, um, as well as helping some other other leaders in, you know, Virginia and Florida and you know, some different areas. So being in the the different uh different types of leadership in the different states and things, it really taught me very different agents and clients. Um, it really taught me very quickly how the transaction management process should go and and honestly how it shouldn't go. Definitely made my fair share of mistakes, but that's that's how I learned.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Awesome. Thanks for sharing. And I always tell our TC department that transaction management is very much um, so my background in Mercedes, RTC, her background is in hotels. And so it's very much a hospitality sort of job and a role. And I think oftentimes real estate agents don't think of it that way. So I really want to kind of focus on the hospitality of it all. So, Brooke, let's take a time machine time machine back. And um, you were a brand new agent, you were just getting started, and now you're starting to run your own transactions. What would you say to that agent and how could they possibly get their their life together now?

SPEAKER_00 3:29

Yes, absolutely. And I uh first of all, I think um what I want to say to agents is don't overwhelm yourself. Um, don't worry, don't freak out. I think that was, I remember feeling very much feeling that of when I stepped in from um, you know, just my first, even I as an agent, my first transactions, not even, you know, when I was a transaction coordinator and was doing it for other people, but um as an agent myself, uh when I had more than one transaction going on at once, I was like, oh my gosh, now I can how everything's out the window, how am I gonna keep track of this? And um I I think what I want to tell agents is really just start simple. It doesn't have to be this big, complex system. Um, you don't necessarily don't have the time for that. You know, if you are producing and you are or actively trying to get in production, you don't have the time to fully run uh as a transaction manager. However, you do have to manage your own transactions. Um, so I really think the the the first step, if you are starting anywhere, would be um if you have you know a short amount of transactions or nothing just yet, is really just thinking about and understanding the flow of the deal. So really understanding what what, and this is even goes for transaction managers that are brand new as well. Um, really understanding that whole flow. So that general path of okay, the offers accepted, then we have um earnest money is due and then inspection, appraisal, loan approval, closing. That's really your backbone. Um, and then from there you can kind of build out a basic checklist of what would need to happen at each stage. Um, and then from there, so that's really again, step one is just understanding what's that flow, what are those main kind of milestones throughout the transaction that we need to be aware of. And then after you have that, I think you can really start to layer in that step of getting ahead of communication, um, which is a big key piece for agents that I think is missed. So even if they are highly successful, they are running um multiple transactions at once on their own. I think where I see the biggest piece fall through the cracks is getting ahead of communication. So what I what this looks like is um waiting until a client asks you what's going on, like, hey, I haven't heard from you, what's happening this week, where are we at with inspection, where are we at with appraisal? So really you just want to you want to know that flow and know those milestones so you can get ahead of it and set expectations. Um, because you're removing that anxiety from your clients or removing the need and for yourself, by the way, because that thing's more anxious. Um, you know, Allie, you know, like it's nothing's more anxious as an agent when you have a client that is freaking out and like, what's going on? This is all a mess. Like they're having anxiety because they haven't heard from you. They don't know what's next, they don't know what's going on. Um, so they're freaking out. So it's also a very stressful time in their their life. It's exciting, but it's also very stressful. Um, and then that then, you know, puts it on to you, and you're taking on that energy and and feeling like, oh my gosh, the world's falling apart right now. Um, so the the more you can get ahead of that communication and setting out those expectations, the better that you can and the smoother the process is going to be for you. Um, so really asking, uh setting really in the in the presentation, this should be the conversation of okay, here's our next steps. We're going to um, you know, start looking at homes, getting really clear on what they're looking for. Um, so you can reduce the time needed for them and for you to have to be looking at, you know, 30 homes over the weekend, um, getting really, really clear on what they're looking for and finding them, you know, just a short list of what meets that criteria. Um, but also, hey, once we go under contract, here's what's going to happen. You have earnest money due, here's what that is, here's why it's important, here's what's going to happen. Um, with that earnest money, where it goes, when you're going to see it again, uh, which is gonna be, you know, for the most part, on your closing statement. Um, here's where it needs to go. Next, we're going to get into inspections. Um, I always, as an agent, I always told my clients, hey, you are hiring your inspector um because to look at all the problems, to look at everything. So because if you don't, you get that 40-page inspection report and it's like, oh my gosh, this house is a piece of trash. When it's like you are hiring, you know, when that's not the case. It's that's totally normal. You know, you are hiring that inspector to find the problems, to locate every possible little issue that could be something. Um, so setting that expectation of, hey, you are gonna get this 40-page document, maybe more, maybe less, does not mean that this house is a piece of trash. Right.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

Yeah. We stress that. We're like, it's a non-invasive inspection.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Yes, exactly. Like you hired a good inspector if you got a 40-page document because we're looking at everything for you. And it might be 40 pages of, hey, everything's great and everything looks awesome. But um, and also the expectation of hey, there might be there might be 40 different things that come up as a yellow or red flag. It's it's it might not be reasonable that we ask for all of these items to be fixed. Here are the main ones that if it comes up, we might want to address. Um, so really setting that expectation ahead of time because that's a big stop gap uh in the transaction process that could throw everything off or just completely kill a deal is that inspection and the anxiety and the back and forth over what exactly is going to be fixed. So as much as you can remove and set expectation for remove the friction ahead of time, the better. Um and then I always say that the next like stop gap of like this could really kill the deal would be an appraisal. So also setting up that expectation of, hey, okay, after inspections, um, once we're we're feeling good there, we're gonna move on to the appraisal. Here's what that is, here's why we're doing that. Um again, the the lenders and the loan companies want to make sure that their investment is good and is is valid. They don't want to loan you, you know, $300,000 when the house is worth $20,000, you know. So um, I've never seen that quite of a gap, but I'm sure that that is that happens. I have seen big gaps, but um they want to protect their investment like you would as well. So there's there's a couple different ways this could happen or the results that could come from this appraisal. One, it's either at the value or above, awesome. They're their investments protected, we're good to go, no issues. Um, or let's say it's low, um, it comes back low. We do have some options there. It's not the end of the world. And that's another piece where if you don't set the expectation, they see it come back low. They're like, oh, not buying this house, it's not worth it. Um, there's options that we have, and it could be um maybe this the seller is is paying the difference, or hey, ask even asking the buyer if you're working on the buyer's side um or the seller's side, really asking your client if this does come under, or is it a possibility that you can meet the difference or um meet partial the difference? And then I've seen it where maybe the buyer is covering the difference, or the seller is covering the difference, or they reduce the price, or um, I've also seen it where they meet in the middle and say, okay, for they have a $10,000 gap, buyer side and seller side have agreed that they're gonna meet in the middle at $5,000 each. Um, so again, presenting those options ahead of time like it's already happening, just so if it does, the worst case scenario, if it does happen, they're not freaking out. They know you've got option A, B, C, and D that you you have. It's not the end of the world. And then if it goes great, then great. You you you are smooth sailing. Um, and then just really prepping for you know the closing and what to expect there as the moving logistics are actually happening, utility change, all that information. Um so all that to say is really setting the expectation up front um with the clients to make sure that you are saving them time and energy of of the of worrying what's going to happen and also for yourself.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

Yeah, absolutely. And as we've talked through this, I think in the ebook that we'll release after this episode, we can put some scripts in there that um you can use with your clients. And of course you want to say them, you know, in your own way that feels natural to you and you don't, you know, seem like a robot as you continue to sell more real estate. You know, like one thing that we've noticed, and I think Andrew does a great job at when we're at showings, if we're noticing that somebody's getting pretty serious about a property, and maybe we're, you know, we're seeing some leaks on the ceiling, or maybe we're noticing that this property is very, very unique. Of course, as a professional real estate agent, you can't, you know, speak to those things because that's not what you're licensed in. Um, but you can kind of start setting those expectations of, hey, just so you know, typically with properties like this, we see that it's potentially may not come back at the appraised value that you want to offer. Because prior to showing someone, hopefully, a property that they're very serious about or putting in the offer, you're gonna pull those comps. So those are gonna be similar comps that the appraiser is gonna use, and that's something that we can talk about. So you want to make sure that even before you're putting the offer in, um, that you're you're pulling that data because when you pull the data, that's the information that you can use to explain to the client and say, hey, based off one, two, three Sesame Street and one, two, five Sesame Street, the home you want to buy at one, two, four Sesame Street, it's possible that it may come back at like I'm not an appraiser. However, like this is something I want you to think about as we go through this transaction. I know that you said that you love this home because of motivation, motivation, motivation, because you really wanted to live on the same street as your favorite daughter, Brook. And if this did not appraise, do you have a plan in place or would you be willing to bring additional funds to the table? What would that look like? Because you want to plant the seed. The main thing is planting the seed.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

Exactly. And if you never have to water it, great. Like you know what I mean. But like exactly like you just said, and that is perfect. A great example of um the data showing showing the logistics there. There's no emotion behind it. There's no, well, I feel like you're, you know, I've solved this house by passing by, and I saw this house. And in comparison, like I this is what I feel or what I think, like the data, you can't, there's no emotion behind it. It just is what it is. And so you are prepping of based on what we're seeing here and what the the past comps have shown, this is very likely that we are gonna fall in this line. So, what how are you how are we gonna prepare for that if that is the scenario?

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Correct. And um, one thing I want to tell all the agents out there is that we focus a lot on lead conversion on this podcast, and that's a very important part of it because that's ultimately what gets you in front of the person. And then after that, you know, you're gonna work with your leadership or your team owner, um, or maybe figure it on yourself by yourself, I don't know, but how to get the how to open up the door and get get the person under under contract. But ultimately, the transaction coordination part of the deal is the last 50%. So, you know, the beginning part is super exciting because they're like, oh, I'm buying a house, I'm buying a house. You know, I'm excited to buy my house because of whatever. And then they're at the emotional height where they're like, it's mine, it's my house. But then after it's under contract, that's when it kind of hits the fan. Because that's when it becomes real, that's when the money's coming out of their bank account, or they're shuffling their 401k or whatever they got to do. And so you want to make sure that um you're very professional during this stage because ultimately, my own personal opinion, I think this is what people will remember about you because this is the part of the transaction that costs them the most money and time. And sometimes the second part of the transaction could be, you know, double or the same amount of time as the time that you talk to them, depending on when you got them on the phone and how long it took them to make that decision. And that's where you're gonna leave it off with them. Um, and I want to talk a little bit about okay, so you got the house under contract, you ran through the transaction coordination portion. We'll upload a checklist of everything that should be on your list. Obviously, it varies state by state. And the transaction is closed. Talk to me a little bit about what are some things that you can do post-transaction?

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Yeah, absolutely. That's a great question. So I think that's another um piece where agents can easily miss because it's like kind of out of sight, out of mind type of thing. Like, great, now we're done with it. I don't have to worry about it anymore. Yeah, exactly. I'm gonna check by, you know, and clients feel that they they feel that. And imagine yourself as a client, like where you try to put yourself in their shoes where they just had this support from you, um, you know, so consistently for a good amount of time. Sometimes, I mean, I've been in deals, this is more like if it's a short set of foreclosure, but sometimes for it's been deals where it's like six months, you know, of us working to closing. Um average, you're looking at probably, you know, one to two months, but you still could be up to that. Um, and they're relying on you, and you have built that relationship that all of a sudden you just drop off, you know, one day and then you just kind of ghost. They they feel that of hey, this person just kind of almost like a feeling of hey, this person just kind of used me for the check in a way um to get that now. They're they don't have any interest. So you want to keep that relationship going afterwards. Of course, you don't have to be checking out with them every day like you were previously during the transaction, um, but at least reaching out of course the day of closing. Thank you, you know, thank you. Um sharing your, you know, sharing your experience with them. You can highlight them on social media, um, take a picture together, you know, you can um give them a closing gift, whatever your your process is there. You want to have some sort of thank you, and if it is just verbal or a handwritten letter or something along those lines, so thank you so much. Um, but also, you know, within the first week, um, you want to make sure that you're following up with them. Hey, do you guys get in okay? Is did moving go okay? Anything I can do? Any sometimes they'll move in and then all of a sudden something breaks right away. I just had a friend that just went through that and moved in two days later, he has to spend $11,000 on fixing electricity. Um yeah, and I and I don't it doesn't sound like he's been able to really even get a hold of his agent to talk through what options there. So um checking in within that first week, hey, how's everything going? How are you enjoying the home? Um making sure they're feeling comfortable and there's nothing that that no big big fires, not literally, hopefully, but no big fires that have happened um during that first week. Also it's a great opportunity once you have that closing um to you remind them about a review and referral as well. Um, I always say this is kind of like a more of like my my operation kind of like tricks or best practices. Um, throughout the transaction, even at the beginning, you want to mention reviews and referrals. Like, hey, my commitment to you is to be such, give you such five-star service that you want to leave us a review and you want us to refer you, you want to refer us to your friends. Um you want to set that up really at the beginning of hey, this is my promise to you. I call it the promise script. Um, it's not mine. I I apologize to forget who actually came up with that, but um that's the promise script essentially. It's I promise you such a great service, like such a five-star service that you're going to want to leave a review and tell your friends about it. Um, and so it's always a good thing where you can bring it back around there at the end um and and ask for that review and referral. And again, I'll we can provide the scripting around what that actually looks like and um how to follow up on reviews and things like that in more detail. Um but what you're looking for is you're continuing the relationship. Um, you're also and and by the way, it doesn't stop at just one week. You want to make sure you know maybe once a month after that, if once every other month as it keeps going through checking in with them, hey, how's everything still going? Reaching out to them a year later, um, or continue years on their closing anniversary, hey, you've been in the house five years now, and so forth. You're you're keeping in front of them because what you're doing is you're building that connection so you can have repeat business from them of let's say they want to, it is five years and they're ready to move again. They just had their third child and they're they need something bigger now. Guess who they're gonna think of? You, the person that helped them previously, and it's still on top of reaching out to them. Um, I think agents listening to this um that's been in business for a little while can relate to you had a closing, and then maybe you might follow up with them, you know, a way later, and then they're like, Oh, I just bought a house with a different realtor. It's because they didn't hear from you.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

The different realtor is us. We're buying the online lead. So the moment your past client is online looking up all your phones for sale, Alan Andrew are calling.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

Exactly. So don't, yeah, like don't if you want to keep that client, you know, keep keep up with them. Um, but you're also not only just getting that repeat business from them, but the repeat and referral, the referral business from others as well. Like, hey, this agent is so on top of it. Um like they they want to gush about you, they they take pride in sharing. Um, hey, this is my this is my connection, this is my person, and I'm I'm giving this to you. Um, it's like if you have a great, like um, you know, a great, you know, hair stylist or you have some, you know, so or you know, something I know our guys on this are like, okay, great. Um I'm trying to relate it to the guys as well. But um, you know, if you have something special and you just and you got a great deal from somebody or you had a great service, let's say you went to a restaurant and it was fantastic service, you want to share that experience. You want to take your friends there next time, you want to.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

share that with others want to refer that hairstylist you know um to your friends so that you can say hey I gave you you know I gave you kind of this connection this piece of it so um that's it's so key that you are so continuing that relationship after or like Ali said they'll be they'll be picking them up yeah a couple of things I want to add that Andrew and I do and anybody that's listening these are some things that you could very easily implement uh in Myrtle Beach we're retirement market so anybody that is um I think it's 65 sorry if if it's not that age but I think it's 65 and you have like government healthcare the Medicare and you're moving from one state to another state there is some paperwork involved that you have to do to transfer it from state to state so what we'll do is we'll set you up with and she's actually a past client of ours we'll set you up with her and she'll help you move all your paperwork over free of charge and it's paid for by the insurance company. So that's an extra service that we offer uh we'll just say like hey you know do you have to move your medical insurance over we have someone that we can connect you with if it works for you hire them great you know if not I I think you can do it on your own but that's not our specialty we also get their birthdays so we have a birthday calendar we're telling them happy birthday we try to do client events so we'll make sure that they're on that list. We're inviting them to the client events that we we were doing them quarterly last year but we're kind of busy so I think we're gonna probably do biannual um we also I know this sounds crazy not all agents are gonna want to do this or maybe they don't have a house big enough but um or maybe your house isn't really big enough because ours isn't now at this point but we invite our past clients over for Thanksgiving. So a lot of clients a lot of um people moved down here and their family's like far away or you know the whole situation where it's like you only have one kid and it's a son and the son marries the daughter and now they go to the other in-laws house so we invite them all for Thanksgiving. And last year we had like 35 people at our house for Thanksgiving. Plus our family so that's amazing yeah and some people didn't come and that was okay but they were like wow you invite us to your house for Thanksgiving and we're like well we don't want you to be alone and we kind of dragged you here. So like happy happy to help um that's another way um that you know you can do that or like we have had some people that have said um oh you know I really love my home church do you have any church suggestions um we joke at we joke but we have a whole row of uh converting Catholics that come with us to church now so we're at a non-denominational church and we have 10 past clients that come with us every single Sunday um so that could also you know you know be something and you know and just give them a couple options or another thing I'll add I'm like in this in this and this but another thing that we do is um if we sell someone a home in let's just say waterway bombs we've sold several houses there and we know 15 houses of people that do live there so we're gonna connect you with some of your neighbors so we're gonna say hey um insert name insert name uh I know you just moved into the neighborhood I wanted to induce introduce you to our other past clients insert name insert name and they live over on blank blank street take it from here hope you guys enjoy yourself so now you're connecting the neighbors and we've also done that in our neighborhood so the neighborhood that we live in we've sold five or six houses and so we were actually at the pool the other day with um some of our past clients that became great friends of ours and they brought their um their sister and their brother in law and they we were all hanging out the pool with the kids and everything. And then one we we texted one of our past clients who was in town because it's a it's a part-time house we said hey you want to meet us at the pool so then he came by and he was like you guys hired them too and they were like yeah they're the best realist ever we love Andrew and Alley and then another one saw us because he lives right by the pool so then he came and then that guy was also like wait a minute you also hired them and you're like telling him then now you have a a fan of like a neighborhood of like fans that like they know hey like all of us have used them like this is you know they're recommended and I absolutely love that. Yeah so those are a couple of suggestions you can use um obviously in the beginning it's it's hard to get to that point right like if you're just starting out but but a lot of these things are free. You know it doesn't cost you any money um to ask someone how you can support them you know in their moving journey offer them vendors offer them if if they're saying they're putting a pool pool in say hey happy to help these are some of the three pool vendors that some of our past clients have used like just doing those little things shows people that you really care and you're genuinely interested in their new life and that makes all the difference yeah truly yeah I mean just think about all the if you've moved yourself or if you could imagine moving right now um all those different friction points that happen and those again the other things you don't think about necessarily like am I gonna have enough boxes?

SPEAKER_00 27:03

Where am I gonna find boxes? Like you know where how am I gonna have the time to organize stuff how am I going to repaint and like all these things like again you know looking ahead of what are those friction points that could possibly happen and then offering it it could just be simple as you're dropping off some moving boxes to them just because you have a stash or you had somebody a client that just moved and they don't need them anymore. You can just recycle them to the next person. And that means a lot. I mean I would be super impressed and so grateful if I was moving and someone's just like here's moving boxes for you got you taken care of I'd be like yes one last thing on my plate that I have to worry about.

SPEAKER_01 27:38

It goes a long way or connect them with the cleaner. So if if the last person moved out and they left it trashed and you you know you're happy with the commission check that you got which all real estate agents really should be because they pretty much all have a comma and you know like send a cleaner for 150 bucks 200 bucks it's gonna make their day worth it. So I think we're running out of time. I appreciate you so much. Is there anything else you want to add?

SPEAKER_00 28:04

Yeah um I think I'll just leave it with this again I know just a reminder it doesn't have to be complex it doesn't have to be you don't have to do everything at once if you have no system or no process right now it doesn't have to be everything at once again understanding the foundational piece first of what is that that path um for transactions what are those main milestones like we talked about the offer accepted inspection appraisal loan approval and closing and then thinking about layering in okay what are those friction points between then that we could possibly run into that might delay a deal or um might cause some stress for the client. And then really just have that practicality and have that practice every day of managing your transactions by you know each day looking at your your active deals and what are the next couple deadlines, what closings are coming at first, where are we at with with those, making sure that they are on the right path. And then weekly you know if you are if you do have a preferred lender or preferred title company or attorney or somebody that you're working with on a regular basis with multiple deals it'd be beneficial to make sure you you schedule um possibly a weekly like standing meeting with them. So you can have that time to review if you do have multiple deals you review that together.

SPEAKER_01 29:20

Awesome. Thank you you are so informative and always so much fun every time we talk and thank you so much for coming on our podcast.

SPEAKER_00 29:27

Yeah thank you so much for having me truly hopefully I can come back come back in the future.

SPEAKER_01 29:32

Anytime sister awesome