If You Don't Answer Your Phone, Somebody Else Will: Sondra Hernandez on Responsiveness in Real Estate

Sondra Hernandez is the broker/owner of Cobblestone Realty Partners in Enid, Oklahoma, with 23 years in the business. She spent two decades running an accounting department before a friend nudged her into real estate — a career she says she's never once looked back from. Sondra built a multilingual brokerage (three languages spoken in her office) and a business defined by one non-negotiable standard: she responds to clients in 10 to 15 minutes, every time, from 8am to 8pm.

Show Notes

Tim sits down with Sondra Hernandez, a 23-year real estate veteran and broker/owner out of Enid, Oklahoma, for a conversation about the one thing she believes separates her business from everyone else's: she actually responds. Not eventually — in 10 to 15 minutes, whether it's a call, text, or email, seven days a week. Her take is simple and a little blunt: if you're a realtor and you don't answer your phone, somebody else will.

Sondra walks through the turning point that took her from selling $20-30K homes working 15-hour days to a fundamentally different price point — not by working harder, but by advertising differently. She talks candidly about why she deliberately built a multilingual office, why she's not afraid of hard conversations with buyers, sellers, banks, or lenders, and why she ditched every automated lead-nurture program she ever bought in favor of a personal spreadsheet system. The conversation closes with her take on where AI actually helps (branding and advertising) and her conviction that no amount of technology will ever replace the human relationships at the center of real estate.

In this episode:

• The advertising shift that took Sondra from $20-30K homes to $150K+ — without working more hours
• Why "I respond" is Sondra's entire competitive differentiator
• Her actual standard: 10-15 minute response time, 8am to 8pm, every day
• Why she built a multilingual brokerage — and the disservice she believes agents do by not offering it
• Why she walked away from every paid lead-nurture program she ever bought
• Her personal, spreadsheet-based follow-up system — and why she avoids automation
• Sondra's two-part advice for any agent wanting to grow: treat it like a career, and educate yourself constantly
• Where AI actually helps her business (branding and advertising) — and where she won't hand over control
• What she believes NAR will lose in the next 5-10 years, and why she expects a national MLS
• Why she believes the human relationship in real estate can never fully be replaced

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to Under Contract, where I sit down with some of the top real estate agents and team leaders in the country to talk about how they've built their businesses, what's working right now, and where they see the industry going next. Today I am joined by Sandra Hernandez from Enid, Oklahoma. Sandra, thank you for coming on. I'm really excited to have you.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Excited to be here.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

All right, let's jump right into it. I've got to start from the beginning. I always think understanding someone's journey gives context to everything that came afterward. How did you get into real estate? And at what point did you realize this could become a serious business rather than maybe simply a job?

SPEAKER_01 0:41

You know, I was I run an accounting department for 20 years at a local uh business, um, retail business, and I so I'm good with numbers, and I had gotten as far as I was gonna get in that company, and I had a girlfriend who was realtor who said, you know, the kids are now out of college, it's time to get started. And I didn't take her up on that for many years, and then I did, and I have not looked back.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Well, I I see that from the online results that I've seen that you and your team are doing. So that that's that's fantastic. Now, let me ask you this. So, how long have you been doing this at this point? Uh 23 years. Okay. So, you know, one thing I've noticed that typically every successful business seems to have one or two moments where everything changes. Sometimes it's a key hire, sometimes it's a marketing strategy change. Do you have a like a biggest turning point in your business that really changed everything for you?

SPEAKER_01 1:44

I do. I worked for a broker that said, Sandra, I sure wish you'd advertise more. And I can remember looking at him and saying, I can't handle the business I have. Are you out of your mind? So I started slow with um some advertising. It didn't bring me more business, it brought different business. So people, I think, sometimes are unaware that there's there's a little niche for everyone, but that doesn't mean that's the only thing you have to do. So I went by selling basically 20 and $30,000 homes, work in 15-hour days to uh graduated to 150. And you that it just goes up with time because your time is known. So that is that's that's what happened. I mean, I just started advertising differently.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Got it. So same essentially same effort, but much higher price points. So you're essentially making way more money for your app. I love that. I love that now. Now, obviously, there's you know millions to two million agents, depending on who you ask, uh, in America, yet only a small percentage build truly exceptional businesses. So, what do you believe is the biggest thing that differentiates your business from um maybe your competitors or everyone else?

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Oh my goodness. Um I would say what what is different about my business or the way I do business, maybe I am I respond. You you have too many people, in my opinion, that um do not respond quickly enough. And I am also not afraid to have the hard conversations with you with a buyer, with a seller, with a bank, with a lender. It doesn't matter if I if there's a hard conversation that's gotta be had, I'll do it. I don't have to like it, but I'm not afraid of it.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

Got it. Well, someone once told me you can measure someone's success by their willingness to have uncomfortable conversations, and I do believe that. I think the more you can lean into that, whether you like it or not, good things happen in the long run. So I I love that. Um, and when you say uh that you respond, is is that more of like a high-touch approach, meaning that you really value the relationships that you have? Or because you see, there's some people that are out there, you know, like I said, I'm a lead generation guy, there's some people out there that are generating tons of leads and maybe they're letting a bunch fall through the cracks, but you know, it's a numbers game, or there's some people that are like I've talked to that are that value every person that comes through and really high touch. I mean, uh, I'm curious when you say uh respond, can you can you strap away on that a little bit?

SPEAKER_01 4:52

If you if you if you um are a potential buyer or seller, I'd love to say client, but you know, client clients a very personal word for me. If you are my client, you you you're somebody I care about. My response time is 10 to 15 minutes, be it email, be it text, be it phone call. And um people know that. Yeah, you know, I I work long days, I still work as a broker. I still work, answer my phone from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. So if you need a realtor, I'm available. Yep, and there are people who don't do that as quickly.

SPEAKER_03 5:43

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Not gonna, I'm not gonna throw rocks or stones, but if you want to be a realtor and you do not answer your phone these days, somebody else will.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

That's a great point. That's a great point. Um, speaking of like leads, you know, I'm curious. One thing I've learned over the years is that great business owners often evolve how they think about growing their business. You mentioned before the idea of how obviously your your value of the homes you're selling went up quite a bit, which is obviously a growth tactic in itself. But how is your philosophy around generating new business change over the years? Are there certain avenues you're using? Uh, you don't have to spill this uh secret sauce or anything that you're using for uh acquiring more uh potential clients, or uh what what is your sort of overall take on generating new leads and has that changed at all over the years?

SPEAKER_01 6:40

You know, um I am bilingual, so that has helped um with um today's world having bilingual agents in your office, be it it doesn't, I mean you know, and I'm not saying oh only Spanish. I'm you know bilingual that could be um Asian uh Latinway could be you know French. I have three different languages spoke in this office, and yeah, and I and I that is something I cultivated. I want people to know that we're not narrow.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

Yeah, I love this, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

I I you know I I can't say enough for that. Not um not every person I could I could I could point out 10 people who graduated from high school, um, that if you came to them with the legal jargonies within a contract, they don't understand it. So you have to be able to sit down, whether it's in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, it doesn't matter. And it's a contract, and I feel like you're doing a disservice to the general public. You don't speak their language, or at least have a paid interpreter, be it AI, be it I don't care what it is, but they need to understand what they're signing.

SPEAKER_00 8:10

I love it. This is a great angle. Um, now we're talking about lead generation. One of the things that I see is the biggest challenge for uh agents, and you you touched on this a little bit in your response time, but is follow-up, right? So, you know, every great team seems to kind of have its own philosophy around follow-up. Can you walk me through what happens maybe when a new lead enters your business today from the first five minutes to maybe the next six months? Because obviously not everybody is ready to buy or sell in the first 30, 60, 90 days.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

Sure. You know, I can only I can only speak to you about my program and my process. Sure. Uh everybody I allow everybody within our brokerage to do their own thing. Um, it's monitored from the back end, but I do not monitor their leads. I do not check and make sure that they are um following up on everyone. I check up on them maybe every two or three months to see if uh what they have been handed or what they have been uh granted, um, if there has been any more conversations with them. Um when I hire realtors, there's an expectation.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

And those expectations are very clear. So far as lead generation uh and or the process behind behind follow-up, um, I leave that to them if they want. I have bought lead generation programs where they keep track of all your leads and they'll send them this and they'll keep track of how many emails and I don't I bought them. And unless the people that aren't within your brokerage use it, it's a waste of time and money. It's only as good as the input. And if they won't use the input, then I was I was and I quickly discovered that I was wasting money, so I don't have it anymore. And if they want to uh if they want to buy one themselves or or figure out a program to use, they're more than welcome to. I'm just not going to do it for them any longer.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

Fair enough. Now, for you personally, uh what's your what's your approach?

SPEAKER_01 10:26

If you my own, I have I have spreadsheets that I use. Again, your input, you know, your output's only as good as your input. And I find that um the email is very good. Text messages. I I consistently go through emails and text messages to think, oh my gosh, I haven't spoken to Smith in in years or days, or you know, it's been five years since that military man bought that house. I know it's time for him to be PCS. So mine is more personal. I don't I don't uh I don't like I don't like the programs that that auto I don't like automated.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

No, I I I totally understand that. Yeah, at the end of the day, it's impersonal. It's a people business uh as as much as any, so uh a hundred percent. Um okay, so one thing I want to do is I want to make sure that agents listening they walk away from these conversations with something they can actually put into practice. So I got this is a little bit of a challenge on it if you were if you were coaching an agent who's already doing some business but wants to significantly grow over the next 12 months, what's one specific thing you'd tell them to start doing this week?

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Two. I have two things. First of all, this is this is your chosen career you get out of it what you put in it. This is not a part-time when I'm done being a mommy or when I don't when I don't have anything better to do. It's a job, treat it as such. I am in this office every single day. And I'm the one I don't just I you it has to be your career choice, put it first. Yes, your family is important, of course. However, so is this if you want it to be. So that's the first thing. Secondly, is educate, educate yourself, educate people around you, educate your buyers, educate your sellers, educate your husband, educate your children. You have to be educated in this in this career field, and it's new education, there are new things happening all the time. If you do not stay abreast of the new, then you will get stuck in the old.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

That's that's great. No, that's thank you for the bonus giving us two instead of one. That was great. Sorry. No, I love it. I love it. Uh, speaking of new though, you know, gotta ask one question. AI is impossible to ignore right now. Uh, you know, building our platform has kind of given me the opportunity to have a lot of conversation with teams about where AI creates real value for them and where sometimes it's kind of hype. Where do you think the biggest operational opportunity is for AI inside a real estate business today?

SPEAKER_01 13:35

Again, I'm somewhat old school, but I do keep myself educated, hopefully, enough. AI is a wonderful tool to use to reach out to new clientele to introduce yourself to people, to end yourself. It's wonderful. It has created some challenges on the other side of that. I'm sure you're aware of that.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

I am, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

Yeah, the biggest benefit I can see AI is is basically your branding and advertising as what it helps us do. That's what I see. It could be wrong.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

No, well, no, uh, you're not wrong, and you know, it's interesting because different agents are using it for different reasons. Uh, but I think what we always come back to is that this is a people business, and so AI is great, it can do a lot of cool things. I love AI, but at the end of the day, this is the most important thing.

SPEAKER_03 14:32

Absolutely connect.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

So, um, that is the consensus among top performers like yourself that I talk to is AI is great, we do it for XYZ, but at the end of the day, exactly we're in the people business. So real estate, real estate is relationships. 100%. Yep. I mean, this is the most important decision, uh, buying decision most people will make. Uh, and so you know, it it should be treated as such. Actually, I get one bonus AI question just because this is more this is a little selfish question for me. Uh, I like to ask people like yourself. Um, if AI could eliminate one task or workflow from your business tomorrow, what would it be? So you dream a little bit here, it may not exist, but I'm curious, is there something that you do all the time or is it expensive that man, if AI could do that, uh that would be interesting.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

If I could get AI to go put signs in yards in Oklahoma in 110 degree weather, uh tomorrow. That was deciding actually a some day advertising. If I could if I could say AI, I want this program ran and I want it run twice a week on 12 different social platforms, and I could trust that it would do it correctly within the parameters of our business and the rules and the regulations, I would do it, but it has to be cost effective.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Agreed, agreed, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:59

Yep, and if you're running rampant or somebody saying, Oh, let me do this for you, and then using the uh AI and me paying them, why I need to be able to utilize it myself.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

100%. I love it. Okay, um, let me see here. I want to I'll give you a couple more questions. I want to respect your time. So you're fine. Okay, great. Um let me see here. If the best operators and business owners usually challenge conventional wisdom somewhere, like because you see a lot of narratives in the real estate agent space. What's something you think almost everyone in real estate believes that you think is actually incorrect? That you see a narrative out there that goes, but you say, nah, I don't think that's actually the case.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

That I see from John Q public, or from my that I see from other realtors?

SPEAKER_00 16:58

Uh from other realtors, maybe something that's going like you see realtors say this is an approach, and you say, I don't I don't think that's actually true. This is a bit of a contrarian question, like uh right.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

Um, what do I see from other realtors that I I just I disagree with? Um agree to disagree. Um I I I gotta think about that one. Let me let me think about okay. Well, okay, some thoughts, but it's like, well, maybe do I really disagree with it?

SPEAKER_00 17:33

So let's sure no try another one. Okay, I love it. So um, if you wanted to double the business over the next two years, what would need to be true operationally before that could happen? So let's say you want to double Sandra's business. What would need to be true by 2028 in order for that to be the case?

SPEAKER_01 17:54

Well, I I would feel like Enid would have to grow exponentially. Like we're 55,000, 55,000 people here.

SPEAKER_03 18:04

That's true.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

I mean we have to expand all across Oklahoma. And while I am capable of doing that, and I do practice in Tulsa and I do practice in Oklahoma City, I would probably have to have a satellite office in one of those areas because Enid um I it Enid's been very good to me, and I'm successful because I am willing to um do what it takes.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

Um but I in order for my business to grow, I would I would probably have to have a second location.

SPEAKER_00 18:35

Got it. That makes a lot of sense. That makes a lot of sense, and given the you know, Enid being a smaller town, yeah. We're pretty small, yeah. No, but not too small, but big enough to have a great business. So uh when you do it when you do it right. So that's I'm not gonna complain. Yeah, no, you're doing great. Um okay, let's finish by looking ahead. So five years from now, what changes do you think we'll see in real estate? And what do you think will still never change?

SPEAKER_01 19:06

I think one of the biggest things, in in my opinion, that is going to change, is I feel like um NAR is going to probably take a um pretty good hit. I think a lot of people um, whether I agree or disagree, is not the point. I think this is gonna happen. I think we will probably go to a um a national multi-list. I feel like the smaller markets will have to merge with larger markets, and then at one point in the next five to ten years, I really do feel like it will be one national listing service. Um I feel like NAR um lost uh uh a great deal of respect in the last couple of years. I'm not once again not agreeing nor disagreeing. I just that's my feeling that they they lost a lot of respect and uh they're still playing catch up. Yep, and it's not working.

SPEAKER_04 20:12

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 20:13

So um that is what that's where I see real estate. I see a lot more online business, um which has its hazards as well. People, you know, you can be as savvy as you as anybody and still get hammered. Ask me how I know this, okay? Um, so uh I like to think I'm a little smarter than the average bear, but I um it is very easy to get led into a situation where you where angels fear to tread.

SPEAKER_03 20:56

You just don't need to be there.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

And I think the more AI is employed, I think the more online business that we garner, encourage, uh, or it's reduced to, I think there are going to be issues that they're they're going to have to fix those first.

SPEAKER_00 21:17

They I I mean they. I I I I agree. Um, so the second part of the question was what do you think will still never change?

SPEAKER_01 21:26

So you answered what you already do not think you can ever truly take away the relationships that you have to have in order to be as successful. Uh depending on what you would consider successful. Um if it's if if it's me and I cannot go to the mall and see ten people I know and stop and hug their babies, or go to Walmart and spend four hours uh looking at eggs because I've met eight people that I've sold houses to. I think once you take away that human portion, um, I don't think you can truly ever get rid of it. I just don't think that will change. I don't think so.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

I couldn't agree with you more. I I think that you hear a lot of things with AI and other and and online. It's but I I I gotta believe that this particular purchase. Um, I was just talking to a gentleman the other day. We were talking about this, and I said, you know, there's even talk about car sales for a minute. There's you know, there's Carvana where you can go pick it. I'm like, but I still don't know many people that use that. I mean, like most people still go to the car to that's a car, like that that's not a home. And so I've I feel like technology can be great, but there are certain things in life you're just going to want a human in your corner for. And I think real buying uh residential real estate is one of them for sure.

SPEAKER_01 23:04

I do, I do think, I think just the the human touch.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

Yeah, and I love that you say that because I you know there's a lot of agents that are gonna be listening to this that are you know earlier in their career and they and they they kind of hear these the rumors, the whispers in the in the background saying, you know, is this right for me? Because maybe I won't even have a job. I every smart agent I've talked to says, look, you know, there will be things that will change, but at the end of the day, I think we're pretty good. And uh I'll I think that's a a strong way to end. You can make everybody feel uh good about being being a real estate agent. And um before we wrap up, Sandra, where can people learn more about you and your team?

SPEAKER_01 23:52

You know, um you're gonna you're gonna laugh at me because I have found that the the uh Sandra knows website. Um if you don't pay attention to the website, it it doesn't serve a purpose. Yeah, notice that most people coming to rural Oklahoma, it's Zillow, it's true, it's redfin, it's uh they don't know who Sandra is and they don't care.

SPEAKER_00 24:26

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 24:27

They just want to look at a house. So where can you find out more about Sandra Hernandez and Cobblestone Realty Partners? Um, you I am online, I am on Zillow, I am on Trulia, I have bios. Um Northwest Oklahoma Association of Realtors has uh information if they would um love to go out and read all about me. And and uh it's pretty short-lived. Um, but that's where the information will be.

SPEAKER_00 24:57

I love it. Okay, Sandra, thank you so much for joining me on today's episode. I really enjoyed the conversation.

SPEAKER_01 25:05

Absolutely. Thank you, Tim. I hope to talk to you again someday.