Under Contract

Don't Hire Another You: Roxanne Humes on Building a Team Like a Band

• Tim Donovan • Season 1 • Episode 8

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Guest Bio

Roxanne Humes is a real estate agent and team leader with Coldwell Banker in the Pittsburgh area. Before real estate, she spent years as a buyer for May Company (Filene's in Boston, then Kaufmann's in Pittsburgh), and later helped grow a wholesale apparel company to $40M in revenue — until the 2009 financial crisis, tied to the owner's real estate investments, ended that chapter. At 42, with her husband's blessing and her father-in-law's nudge, she got her real estate license and started over from zero, with no local network and no built-in client base. Fifteen years later, she leads a team of roughly 12 agents alongside her business partner Chris Ellison and regional VP John Perry, pacing to close in on 200 team sales this year while personally handling 50-60 units of her own.

Show Notes

Tim sits down with Roxanne Humes, a Pittsburgh-area Coldwell Banker agent whose path into real estate started with a layoff, a career in fashion buying and wholesale apparel, and a blunt question to her husband: what do we do now? She got her real estate license at 42, was written off by nearly every broker she interviewed with for having no local friends-and-family network, and built her business anyway — first through relentless open houses and professional photography (a rarity in her market at the time), and eventually into a team built on a philosophy she compares to a band: nobody needs to be the lead singer, everyone just needs to want to make good music together.

Roxanne walks through her three-question hiring filter (are you nice, are you actually nice, and are you interested in growth), why she brought on a business partner instead of "hiring another her," and where she believes most agents leak business — not from lack of leads, but from failing to categorize and follow up with leads by urgency. She's candid about not being the most tech-forward person on her team, but she's become genuinely dependent on AI for listing descriptions and reverse-prospecting the MLS, cutting tasks that used to take over an hour down to minutes. The conversation closes with a sharp insight from her partner Chris on why buyer-side commission is headed toward full decoupling — and Roxanne's take on why the 2020 industry lawsuit was actually the best thing to happen to the profession.

In this episode:

  • Roxanne's path from fashion buyer to a $40M wholesale apparel business — to starting over at 42
  • Getting written off by brokers for having zero friends-and-family network
  • The early differentiator: professional photography when no one else in her market was doing it
  • Her three-question hiring filter: are you nice, are you actually nice, and are you growth-minded
  • The band analogy: why she doesn't need agents who want to be the lead singer
  • Why "don't hire another you" was the advice that shaped her partnership with Chris Ellison
  • Roxanne's A/B/C lead framework — and why most leaked opportunities are a follow-up problem, not a lead problem
  • "We think about them 24/7. They think about us once — when they want to buy or sell."
  • How AI cut her listing description process from 90 minutes to a few
  • Reverse-prospecting the MLS: a 15-minute task now down to 1 minute
  • Why her partner Chris believes buyer-side commission is headed toward full decoupling
  • Why Roxanne thinks the 2020 industry lawsuit was the best thing that happened to real estate
  • Reinventing herself at 42 — and finding work that finally felt meaningful
SPEAKER_03

Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of 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 built their businesses, what's working right now, and where they see the industry going next. Today I am joined by Roxanne Humes, who's from I think it's the Pittsburgh area, correct?

SPEAKER_00

Yes.

SPEAKER_03

Got it. So first of all, Ross, thank you for coming on. I'm really excited to have you, as I already told you. Um let's go ahead and jump right into it. We've got lots of questions. Well, not a lot of questions, but I've got good ones. Um and I think I always think understanding someone's journey gives context to everything that came afterwards. So first question, how did you get into real estate? And what point did you realize this could become a serious business rather than simply a job?

SPEAKER_01

Okay, my path is a little different than most. I got into real estate um after a long career in the fashion industry. I was a buyer from a company. I worked in two divisions, one in Boston, that was Fileens Department store. And then I came to Pittsburgh when we started our family, my cousin and I, to work at Kaufman's as a buyer. Fast forward three years, uh, Kaufman's merged with the Fine Leans Division in Boston, so our Pittsburgh office went away. And I had to find something else to do. Uh, then came baby number two, so I make big career moves with children. Um, and I went on the other side of that business. So I was a retailer, buyer, and shifted and went to wholesale apparel sales. Uh, worked for a company in New York and helped grow and build that company to a $40 million business. And it was privately held, and we were on the precipice of opening some pretty tremendous brands. Uh, we did a lot of private label, but um, we were getting Lee and Wrangler under our belt. And unfortunately, the owner of the company was heavily invested in real estate.

SPEAKER_00

And in 2009, real estate being a pretty big dive.

SPEAKER_01

So we hung on for maybe another six months, and then he decided to exit and start a different business. Um, so I'm like, what do I do? I temporarily for about a year and a half went work for a competitor and found out they were in worse shape. So it was just like, okay, what do I do now? And talking with my father-in-law, he was like, I really think you should get your real estate license. I think selfishly they wanted us to stay in Pittsburgh and maybe that was a way to have that happen. Sure. But um, so I took the classes and I was always interested. I would find myself at an open house on a Sunday for no reason, just because I was curious, you know. I would go in and start looking around and be like, why is this house this much? You know, didn't look in it, um, obviously until I got into business. But fast forward, got my license. My husband is like, You're gonna do what? You know, go from a high six-figure income to, you know, basically starting over.

SPEAKER_00

Yep.

SPEAKER_01

I I walk I interviewed with a few different uh brokers uh in the area, and interestingly enough, most of them at their first question was, Oh, how many friends and family do you have? And I'm like, none. I'm not from Pittsburgh originally, I'm from Boston. I've been traveling for like 11 years with a company out, you know, that's headquartered in New York. So I traveled about 120 days a year. I didn't even know my neighbors. I knew the immediate right and left. So they, you know, a lot of those brokers wrote me off. They were like, I don't think she's gonna do well at this. She doesn't know anyone. And then I sat down with Clobo Banker. I actually had an interesting enough conversation to go inside the office and meet the manager. She was the only one I met in person because the rest literally wrote me off. Sit down, and her first few questions were, so what do you do now? What brought you here? And I'm like, Oh, we have someone who cares about my skill set, yeah, like how it might translate, which is a crazy idea. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, I entered in this business, it was very traditional at the time. I mean, that was 15 years ago. Sure. And you know, I think a lot of brokers were kind of set on that friends and family, and that's how everyone gets started. So I had to do it a little differently. Um, I I sat in point blank asked her, Can I earn $60,000? And she was like, Why that number? I said, Well, I could stay in the industry I'm in, reinvent myself, start at the bottom, and build back up. And I knew I could get a retail management job making about that much. So that's 15 years ago, and I'm like, okay, and hence why my husband was like, You're gonna do what? You know, we're gonna go from here to here, and I'm like, I have to start over. You know, he stayed from dad for 12 years. So we were like, you know, the two of us starting at the floor, he became a cable guy for about six months, and I got real estate license. So here we are, like, you know, just finding quarters to go to a dollar theater, you know.

SPEAKER_03

And um by the way, you two you two sound amazing, right? I love it.

SPEAKER_01

No, no, no, no, we're just we're the kind who we're the couple that will just figure it out, you know. That's amazing. We know each other, I wouldn't have a great career and have been able to do what argue without his support and vice versa. So um, so about a year later, uh, I'm recapping the year after doing a bazillion open houses, brown bagging every week, like literally peanut butter and jelly, drink the free coffee and the water cooler. And I I hold up in a conference room and just really was grinding. I probably worked about 60 to 80 hours a week trying to get business, you know. Sure. Cold calling. I mean, right after you know, 2011 when I started, there were just listings were plentiful. Listings were selling, you know, people were in short sale positions, and yeah, it was rough. So, you know, you'd get all these listings and they would sit for a year. Um, so I was like, okay, what do I do? I need to be different. And I was taking my own photos to save money, and then I'm like, this is awful. Like, I am not a photographer. So I said, what do I have to pay someone else to do that? So I started doing professional photography. My listings looked a lot better, and they were selling faster, you know, just trying to apply things that I knew from the corporate world for sure. Great descriptions, putting descriptions on the photos, simple little things that agents just weren't doing. Honestly, I it felt like what a lazy profession. I really felt that way. I'm like, you're getting paid all of this money, and all you do is list it, like I can market these properties. So I would do agent tours and invite people from outside my brokerage. I would attend agent tours outside our brokerage and really get to know the agents and you know, just try to build a reputation that way because contrary to what a lot of people believe, we are in collaboration. We're both trying to make the same goal happen, and it's a sale. You know, they have a buyer, I have a seller, they both want a common goal, so we need to work together towards that, all the while representing your client, you know, and not giving up a position for them. So, anyway, I don't know if I've gotten that's a long answer. Honestly, about how I got here, it was it was kind of forced. I mean, it was move or reinvent. So I decided to just try something I was interested in. And I'm so glad I did.

SPEAKER_03

I mean, seems like it's turned out pretty well for you. So I love it. I love it. So in that journey, so it leaves me to my next question, which is every successful business seems to have a moment or two where everything changes. What was like the biggest turning point in your business uh that really maybe changed the trajectory of your real estate business?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I it would have to be the year that well, the first thing I did, uh I reached, I'm gonna say it was about 12 million on my own, and my manager was like, You need an assistant, like you need someone because I have stacks of files like this, and you know, I I looked at it this way. I could spend all this time filing paperwork, or I could be out in front of clients, and she's like, That's why you need an assistant. So I hired someone, you know, to help me with the backup office things that uh you don't need a license for. I mean, that person couldn't interface with clients, but sure, and then you know, I grew again, and then the next thing was like, okay, I need that person a little more full-time, put somebody too and hired somebody that way. But then I'm like, they still can't interface with clients, so then I hired a licensed assistant. Someone could meet with clients, and that was in 2019. And then by 2020, it was kind of like, all right, this thing isn't slowing down, like it's getting bigger. Um, how do I teach other people to do this? You know, I started an unofficial team, I guess. Um, so I had two agents kind of working with buyers, one behind the scenes with paperwork, and then when the three of us were busy, it was like, all right, we can get another one, you know. And then Zillow, honestly, it became a factor. Um, you know, we could buy marketing, if you will, um, show yourself as the expert in the field. And um, you know, those leads were just coming so fast and crazy. I'm like, I don't know. So by the time we were four uh agents and an admin, it was almost like the law of attraction, I guess. Um I it's a weird thing, but half of my team are past clients. Like out of say 12 full-time agents, six of them were my clients, and a new one is coming on board soon who was a client. And interesting. Yeah, yeah. And I mean, there are a lot of teams out there, and some of them, you know, they're almost homogenous. Like they almost look like they have a look, you know. We definitely don't have a look. Um see, yeah. It's hot in this office, so my hair is off the top of my head, very unprofessional today. But what we do have in common is um and we're all different agents. The youngest is 19 and the oldest is well, we don't talk about that. The older ones, but we do have agents in their 60s. Okay. Um close. But anyway, uh what we do share, we're we're all nice people. Um, we're we're not the same. And I love that about us because we we have different interests and we see the business differently, like different skill sets. And honestly, the young ones teach us things, the older ones teach the young ones, um, share experiences. I I it's just I don't know how or why, but it works and it works really, really well. Um, there's mutual respect for each other, and you know, we do meetings about once a month all together. We would agree to chat. Um, and if there's a second point of growth, I brought a partner on this year. So, you know, and that was a big decision because I, you know, entertained merging with another team twice about two different teams. Um, and then I'm like, I mean, I don't know. I do have a pretty big role model in our pre, he's our uh, I guess, regional vice president because our president handles like five regions, but we have a regional vice president. And I sat with him, he's a younger guy, he's absolutely um amazing. He's smart, he's the only person I know that got a perfect score on the real estate exam. Oh wow, like 100 on both sections, I got 100 on one section, but I did okay. But uh perfect score, the man is brilliant, and I sat with him and I said, you know, I'm thinking about a partner because you know, I'm now 10 agents and myself and an admin. I think I need to start thinking about future and when I might want to retire in 100 years, just kidding. I think I mean it'll be at least 10 years, but sure. Um, but how I get the team ready for that when I'm ready to exit or be in the background, a little like consulting coaching. And um he said, Don't hire another view. And I'll like you want to hire, you want to bring someone on who is gonna compliment you. The two of you will learn from each other and you'll grow the team together. And we're pacing right now, we're gonna blow away our plan, we're gonna reset the year hoping to do close to 200 sales and we're gonna blow it away. I mean, probably by 10%. I don't know. Boom! I'm just it's so exciting to watch these guys grow and have these theories and just cheer them on. It's you know, yeah, I'm still doing about 50 to 60 units myself, sure, and you know, but I can be right there, yeah. Yeah, so between these two fantastic guys, John Kerry, he's our regional vice president, and Chris Elton, my partner of about four months now. So yeah, Chris, unfortunately, he's not here, but we are interesting co-team because I'm about five two and he's about six, six. So they were going on appointment together one of these days, it's gonna be interesting. So that's too fighting.

SPEAKER_03

Real quick, so you said something, you know, look, there's well over a million agents in the country, yet only a small percentage really build truly exceptional businesses. What do you believe is the biggest thing to differentiate your business from everyone else?

SPEAKER_01

We are genuine. Um it's interesting. Like I when I'm looking for people, or when I started the team, I needed to know that the people that I'd be working with and starting this with that they were really interested in a really great band. They didn't want to be the lead singer, but we wanted to make some music together.

SPEAKER_00

Love that analogy.

SPEAKER_01

You do give up a little bit of visibility when you join a team, you know. And partly part of why you do that is to do something bigger together. So think about the greatest bands, you know. You know who the lead singer is, but you also know who those drummers are. Yeah. Um, yeah, so but I think it starts with honestly just being genuine and being nice. So I hope if I can say a little bad word. So I have three interview questions. One, are you nice? And they'll go, Yeah, of course I'm nice. And then I'll say, Are you an asshole? You need to verify that number one is true. We don't want people out there, just it goes back to what I was saying about collaboration because if you're gonna be a big turd in the transaction, it's not gonna work. Like, and you need to be there for your clients, you need to be nice, you need to care about people, and you need to have empathy. So I think, are you a nice, kind person? And then that third thing, you know, because number two is the same question. Uh, are you interested in growth? And growth can be so many different things. It's not that we want people who are gonna go from 10 units to 20 to 40. We want people who want to grow and whatever that means. You know, I want to be a better buyer agent, I want to improve my listing presentation. Um, and the other thing I would tell you, um, I don't want one-dimensional agents. I think the only way to be truly great at this is to be a great buyer agent and a great listing agent. You have to know how to how to work with both sides. Yeah, we don't understand where the sellers are coming from. How are you gonna coach your buyer by a great offer? And vice versa. So, you know, that and having really good relationships out there. There, I mean, I'm sure there's a few agents who don't love me, but I think I think there's gonna be a lot more that do, and they would pick us and my team if all things are equal, they will choose us over a different offer over a different team.

SPEAKER_03

I love it. Okay, so obviously we're we're super successful at this point. I want to take step back because I love if we trip away the reputation and the existing assets, like if you woke up tomorrow in a brand new city with no database, no reputation, no contacts, how would you build a top-producing business today?

SPEAKER_01

Honestly, I would do the same thing. I would just dive in and do those things, do open houses, show my face in the community, and I would stay in the same price point in the same area, and then it would branch it out. So, you know, some agents don't want to do the same open house twice, do that open house twice because you're building who you are in that area and what price point you want to work. And anyway, so open houses, I I would offer the you know, anyone who needs help, you know, you need you need showings, you know, show that I'm in the community. Oh, I'm at this house today. I can't say I'm the greatest at the video and all that, but you know, the more that the your network and the people who know you and whatever's happening on Facebook, the more that they know you're doing this business, you know, they're gonna start to trust you. Um and I've I've had, I mean, this it feels kind of strange, but you know, I'll have somebody say, Oh, I met you a year ago at an open house, and I'll say, and one told me they had another agent, and I'm like, Oh boy, are you out of contract now because we're not allowed to pop to you? Yeah, and I mean I had somebody wait until their buyer agency was up, and another one waited until their listing contract was up. And it was it was very, you know, and they just remembered the genuine real conversation, like a real person. So I love that.

SPEAKER_03

And I can see, I certainly see how that um I think it's one of those things I can see how that grows a lot of referrals because you do write by people, you know, they have to spread the word. But do you think as far as like if you had to drum up business just from start, you know, that that's a little bit a longer play, I think, which I think is fantastic. Um if you were like a new agent, how would you meet the streets, if you will, uh to try to drum up some business? Would it be open houses or would it be something else?

SPEAKER_01

I mean, it it would be a combination, it really would. Um, I mean, honestly though, if I was like let's just say I decided because I thought about it, go to a southern market and have dual agency two states. I mean, maybe I would join someone's team. They already have a reputation as that maker. Um and and just do it that way. Because of where I am in my career, I don't know that I'll go somewhere else and launch a big team again. Sure, right? Yeah, renew or I guess in the business, maybe joining another team.

SPEAKER_03

I love it. That's great.

SPEAKER_01

Or you or you grind. I mean, you just you know, build it, build it yourself.

SPEAKER_03

I think that's one thing that uh people underestimate is how much energy it takes to really get that thing off the ground. Uh, you know, they're really prep them, I don't think, going into uh the first year or two. But um, yeah, so real quick I want to switch uh gears here for just a minute. Um, one thing that we've seen, uh, you know, like I mentioned before, I'm in the lead generation AI. So one thing we've seen building our AI platform is that teams often they don't lose business necessarily because they lack leads, they lose it because good opportunities can slip to the cracks. Where do you think most agents leak opportunities they might already have?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I think it's follow-up, honestly. If there might, I mean, let's face it, things like Zillow, that's immediate gratification. That's a different type of lead than someone you might meet at an open house. That open house may need nurture. Like, and usually that online lead, they're hot, they have they're they're looking at a specific property, they want to see it now. I mean, they even have real-time touring where they're scheduling it for you. So I think you can get lost in that immediate gratification and you're just chasing the immediate thing that's in front of you. So if they're not simple, you almost have to have category A, B, and C. Those A people there now, you know, they need the help immediately. Nurture those B's, you know, they're probably a month away, two months away, whatever, and they under C people. You met them, they were super nice. I mean, I got lucky with somebody calling me a year later, right? I who had an open house. I had to really think about them. Did I put them in my phone? Did I put some notes? Like, you know, one and one, when I go meet them, it'll ring a bell when I see them. But honestly, don't I couldn't, I don't know if I know which open house I met them at, you know. But you know, so and here I am, I think I'm you know gonna follow up with everyone. I definitely I would say that's absolutely where it's leaking. If they're not like right after the open house, and I learned this a long time ago, and I keep talking about open house, but anyway, right after whatever it is, if it's conversational on the phone, if it's somebody referred to you, if it's open house, immediately go and put like write it down, put it in your CRM or or wherever you're gonna do it so that you can with that person. It it's definitely follow-up.

SPEAKER_03

Yep. No, I I couldn't agree more.

SPEAKER_01

No, you care. We think about them 24-7. They think about us once. And then um, John, our VP, he would recommend those annual asset reviews. Hey, what'd you do improve it? Let me just kind of give you an idea of what that's worth now.

SPEAKER_00

You know, that's I like that. That's three or five clients.

SPEAKER_01

It's it's excellent. Um, because we sellers one day. Every you know, I think the average is five to seven years now that people move.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, and something I talk to agents about because in my I've done lead generation across dozens of industries, and there's a study in this, when I learned about this study, this was 10 plus years ago, it really changed the way I thought about lead generation, which was um that they did a study where they said, okay, they took a thousand people that were interested in whatever it is, in this case house, right? And they said eventually uh most of those thousand people would eventually buy the thing, right? But 90% of them were after day 90. So it means if you aren't focused on that third bucket, you know, you got your now's your pretty soons, and then there's nine times more business over here. You know, that's it's pretty wild when you think about it like exactly. If someone says, how are we gonna resolve this? I'm like, you know, and that's I'm not trying to pitch. We create the best one of these things we create with the AIs because to your point, it's hard to remember, especially on a ton of uh uh people in the database, like where do I need them, what's their situation, and whatnot. And also, I mean, I don't know how you guys do your follow-up, but like um I one of the things that we were looking to solve for is we found out like a lot CRMs, it's very sort of cookie cutter. It's like uh more time-based in that uh hey, we're gonna reach out to them every so often with this sort of kind of generic type of messaging. And so what was possible with technology now is there are there's you can have AI or whatever you want to use, where it can actually identify um oh, like this person posted about getting married uh soon, and it's like a life event. But unless you're standing sitting on Facebook all day long, you don't know that, but there is technology out there now that can actually say, Hey, wait thing, Rossian, this is a life event that might be happening, uh, you might want to reach out. And so uh it's really exciting to see what's possible, especially like I said, in that that third bucket, I think. Because I think agents are pretty good at you know dealing with who they're dealing with now and probably the people that are coming up next. But I think it's that other where most of the leads are is where I think there's a real gold mind there. So speaking of follow-up real quick though, every great team seems to have kind of its own philosophy around follow-up. Can you want me to real quick what happens when a new lead enters your business today from the first five minutes to like the next six months?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I mean, I think it depends where they're coming from, you know. So that initial assessment is this a now move, you know, whether they're buying or selling. So we kind of get a feel for where they are, and then we do have follow-up loss as our safe friend. So, and that is very intuitive. It I mean, um, one of the younger teammates, um, once he figured out how to send a mass text, he was like, This is blowing my mind because he sent it out, and then one of the leads answered back and said, Oh my gosh, we absolutely left you, we lost your phone number.

SPEAKER_02

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01

And he reconnected, sold them a house, and their house is listed now. So that's two sales that he wouldn't have had if that text didn't go out. And they weren't that old of a lead. So that's that's purely a follow-up thing, you know. And that system allowed him to do that. So it can get really sophisticated. I mean, we've only been using it for about six months, seven months. Sure. Um, but yeah, it definitely uses AI. And I mean, I'm one of the old dogs, right? So I will confess I'm not actively using that. It's and you know, they're scrubbing my old leads just to see if there's anything to resurrect because that the it's a ridiculous amount of contacts that were in there. I was like, that's insane.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, well, as long as you have somebody doing it, uh whether it's you or something, then they're not.

SPEAKER_01

But and the thing is, I think that agents are afraid. They'll be like, oh my gosh, and when they realize that they have you know haven't been in touch with that person for however long, they're like, oh, then then they put it off even longer, they're afraid. Like they're gonna think that I'm just you know, I don't know if your mind will tell you all kinds of stories and none of them are true. So you have to get past that and just what do you have to lose by reaching out to somebody that you helped or met or whatever it is and just show them that you care? You know, they want to know that it's coming from a positive place. That's all yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I love that. Um, I I know that you say that you are not um necessarily heavily in involved uh in AI, but uh the obvious AI is kind of possible to ignore now. And uh billion platform kind of giving the opportunity to have a lot of conversations with teams about where AI creates real value and where sometimes it's kind of hype. Where do you think maybe the biggest operational opportunity is for AI inside a real estate business today?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I mean, how I'm using it, because I am a little more listing focused. Sure. Like the buyers that I'm gonna work with, they know me or they were recommended to me. So like if leads come in, I do not take them. They go to the team. Um so you know, but when they come directly to me, yes, I'm gonna work with them. Um so on the listing side, it it has saved me hours because I take ridiculous notes. Like I'm so detailed. Um when I'm doing listing, I start it in reverse and I write my photo captions, but then I feed all of my notes and I try to give it a general I want this is the thing that makes this house special. And it will write the story that it pulled every single thing I wanted to hit in such a nice, concise way. And sometimes I have to shorten it because it's a lot.

SPEAKER_00

Sure.

SPEAKER_01

So that has saved me so much time. I mean, I would spend at least an hour and a half writing story, like just putting it all together. And then, you know, you're looking at the photo. Wow, it's a great shot, but I can't believe we didn't take the magnets off the fridge. It's I mean, just making the listings sound better and look better. A game changer.

SPEAKER_03

And what about uh this one?

SPEAKER_01

How about this one? Yeah, you can reverse prospect the MLS. So I thought I was super efficient with this. You know, I would take the contacts that match my listing, put them in Excel, and then like painstakingly over whatever 10, 15 minutes, delete all the duplicates and then you know, blind copy, email them all. Hey, would you come to my open house or send your buyer? You have matched. Well, you can take that whole Excel file and give it to chat, and then you're able to get rid of the duplicates and you copy and paste every day.

SPEAKER_00

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01

It took a 15-minute task and now it's like one minute.

SPEAKER_00

Wow.

SPEAKER_01

Press the button, get the list, and then let the system delete the duplicates and then it. I should let it write my description too. You know, come to the colour.

SPEAKER_03

So I know you're focused more on the listing side, but do you know how maybe some of the other agents on the team are using on the buyer side? Um, do you have use cases there?

SPEAKER_01

I not as much. I mean, I think they're using it to like I know some um who are using like Instagram, they want to write a little story about themselves.

SPEAKER_03

Sure.

SPEAKER_01

You know, they'll do that. Um, but yeah, on the buy side, no, I I I would I mean you could probably tell me a few ideas.

SPEAKER_03

Well, I mean, the the the thing that uh really I think changed the game for the people we're working with is like I said, that third bucket, uh just continually automating real, real conversations with with the buyers because I think eventually buyers are gonna buy, and a lot of times it's gonna be who do they think of last? Um, unless they have like a real connection with you. A lot of times, um, you know, I remember when I went to sell my last house, it was like, well, there's about a handful of agents I know. You know, I can just pick one of y'all. It was there wasn't one specific one per se, because nobody had really made a huge effort uh to to take the time to you know make sure they were uh on top of it, if you will. And so that's one of things I think that's amazing by AI is like uh just having consistent conversations. You're able to also score um buyers like based on their responses. So, hey, this person's a 70 out of 100, which means the AI should follow up with them in a month or something, and just especially if you're one of those who has hundreds of thousands of contacts, like there's just no way to manage that many relationships. And so um I find it pretty pretty incredible how it's able to keep those conversations going where normally they would kind of fall by the way side. So um one more question about AI if if AI could eliminate one task or workflow from your business tomorrow, what would it be? You're still you're still doing AI.

SPEAKER_01

Get rid of the spam calls. It's crazy that like these just I I probably get 20 calls a day from somebody selling something to me.

SPEAKER_03

Well, well, you can sure everyone's out there too. You know, I mean main topic.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, you know, so it's through. Like, yeah, that would save me hours of having to explain someone. Why no, I don't need that, you know what I mean? Or whatever it is, it's just and then they, you know, they're coming through with a 412 number, like they're local. And then we don't know, you know, any agent you answer your phone because I mean that buyer, you you know, if I do relocation, they could be coming from California, New York, sure, Florida, wherever. It might be another agent referring somebody. So we do, you know, you answer the phone, but I I don't know. I mean, we can't really block us, you know, we're we're out there, but yeah, that'll give me time. But I don't I I mean, I actually I think that some of the buyer agents they're using um like for mapping and neighborhoods and things like that, you know. Um, but I mean I've written my scripts and everything for explanation of documents, like we use Google Docs and you know, we have ways to be organized and like the repeatable things, you know, that doesn't change. It's just you know, so we do we have quote scripts that help with the day-to-day.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, you know you know I've heard a couple times now is uh because they a couple agents have told me they wish this existed, uh, and I think it sort of does, but not quite fully yet, um, is automating transaction coordination and saving that three, four hundred bucks whatever uh per you know, doing the contracts and whatnot, which I think is something that's probably here sooner than later.

SPEAKER_01

Um yeah, I mean we're we're probably halfway there anyway, because anytime we sign a Byron, it's the same set of documents. So it's copy paste into an exclamation, and then we're filling blanks, you know, start dates, emails, that kind of stuff. But um our internal systems already, like I processed a listing. Um, this paperwork would have taken probably 25 minutes before. Now all I have to do is enter my client's information. I give it my listing contract, it extracted everything else. Our internal system did that. So all I have to do is feed it one document, the rest it just and then it parsed it all and put it in my virtual file. It's it's great. So now I don't ever have to have a piece of paper because I just log in and all my docs are there, and then it's shareable to my client. So it's like technically they're using it, it's just on a corporate level. Um honestly, I don't know what these small companies do. Like if they don't have something like that working behind the scenes, you know, and then you get agents that are like, oh, but I have this split. I'm like, well, you're spending money and time in other ways. So I'm happy to give my company back six percent to their franchise for the tools that we have because they are out of this world fantastic. Yeah, you couldn't imagine life without them.

SPEAKER_03

So it's if it saves you want six percent of your time, you're already uh winning creditors. Yeah, yeah. I love it.

SPEAKER_01

Um yeah, I didn't even think about it, but it's already incorporated into what the company offers. So you know shout out to College banker there. Uh okay, we could chase my partner down. Christina over here, say hi. So you can just see how you're gonna go to the case here. Here, five two. Can you even see a hand?

SPEAKER_03

No, yeah, actually. I see my Chris how are you? Good, are you? Is this is this the gentleman that ace the both?

SPEAKER_01

No, that's John. Yeah, it was John Howard, our VP. I got a purpose for. But no, Chris has the first time for sure.

SPEAKER_03

I love it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, we're live.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, good to be here. You are live. By the way, Chris, it's a happy ask you a question, uh, if you'll mind, real quick. Um, because I was gonna ask Rossan's question, but um, I'm gonna ask you since it won't put you on the spot. If you could go back to the day that you got your license and give yourself one piece of advice about building this business, what would it be?

SPEAKER_02

Um be one piece of advice. Be quick to start, like quick action. And uh really keep track of the people you first start to work with. That's a new keep your database tight and those those first 10 to 20 clients, uh really keep those organized, and then just set that up. That system's probably the most important system as you move forward through the business, is just keeping your database of sales and listings as tight as you possibly can, and then find a creative way to connect with them and not annoy them.

unknown

Yep.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Good advice. Yeah, good advice. I'm glad you brought Chris on here. Uh Rocket. I'm just curious, I was asking.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, we need to go back. What advice would you do? I mean, I honestly I didn't do that. Um, but after my third year, I decided to pull all my people together and have a party. Actually, Chris came to the party because he, yeah, and I was like, actually, his wife was there, and I said, You gotta marry her, it's awesome.

SPEAKER_03

Anyway, um you listened to you apparently.

SPEAKER_01

Like the coolest thing that came out of that party. I mean, I had to wait three years to like a fill a room, you know, so there were probably other people there. Um, but it was so cool to see who knew each other, and there are still friendships from past clients. They still go out to dinner together together, and that is so cool.

SPEAKER_03

I benefit what you do for sure.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, but I mean, I on my database with them that's for a long time. So thankfully we had ways to get organized, you know, within the company.

SPEAKER_03

So but love it, love it. Okay, well, I'm gonna ask you one question, Chris. You can hang there, you can uh you'll have to hang out if you don't want to. So I'll do you. Very nice to meet you though. Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, so do you want to ask you one more or no?

SPEAKER_03

I was gonna ask you one more. Uh oh me.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, more one more.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, one more. Uh uh, I'm gonna stop the hour here. So um so last question is five years from now, what changes do you think we'll see in real estate and what do you think will still never change? I have an idea what you might say in that last part, but um, what where do you see things changing and what won't change? Because you get a lot of things in the news about stuff that could change. Um, but I'm curious what your thoughts on that.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, I I do think there's gonna be more people trying to do our job, you know, our themselves, you know, more sellers who might try to sell by themselves, yeah, and buyers who I mean, I don't know. Will we ever have the public be able to open lock boxes? That's a little scary. I mean, if I'm a homeowner, I want somebody, you know, with that person, you know, who's better in my home. So I don't think that will change. But there might be some way that they think they can do it without us. Um, but I mean, you're not gonna be able to take the people out of this.

SPEAKER_03

No, no.

SPEAKER_01

This is a human, it's a it's a connection, this is an emotional and an investment, but the emotion and that human part of it, I don't think you're gonna be able to automate that. Um, you the process and you know the behind-the-scenes things may get easier and more automated, but I think I think the agent is going to be there as a facilitator. Um, and hopefully, I mean, honestly, I feel that the best thing that happened was a lawsuit in 2024. If you settled that and they made this a real profession, agents, you're gonna get fined if you don't have documents signed. Yeah, well, that's why we were always supposed to have documents signed, and commission was always negotiable. People just weren't explaining it correctly, you know. Um, that was the best thing that happened. A lot of people wanted to exit the business because they were like, oh, this is so complicated, we can't just go somebody out of house. Well, you weren't supposed to be doing that anyway. Yeah, um, and why would you? Why would you meet someone who's not committed to you on some level? So I know that wasn't the question you asked, but no, I know that's great. That was a huge change in this industry, and I think it was for the better. Um the other thing that's gonna keep continually evolving. I think buyers are gonna pay their own commission by year number five from now, at least half of them are gonna be paying their commission. Yeah, because we've already decoupled it as a company. And it makes sense, you know. Uh, I remember having this conversation with Chris, like literally six months ago. He's like, Why are you negotiating the buy-side commission as a listing agent? And I'm like, Well, because I need the buy side, that's who's gonna sell the house. I want to offer value. And he said, Let them create the value in the offer that they make, let the seller decide what they want to pay that broker, that agent who brought the buyer based on the offer. And I'm like, Well, that's brilliant. I mean, because the job that we're really doing on the listing side, it's marketing, you know, and my fee might be higher than someone else's who has zero tools. And hope that that was enough. Because yes, we all have access to the MLS, we all fill the same fields. What happens with it after that? That's that's what makes the difference.

SPEAKER_03

Yep. I love that. I love that. Well, we're a great ending. Um, Roxanne, you're awesome, by the way. I really like it.

SPEAKER_01

You're a good interviewer. You've asked great questions.

SPEAKER_03

I appreciate that. Now, before we wrap up, where could people learn more about you and your team? I want to make sure uh they want some more Roxanne in their life that they could think.

SPEAKER_01

Oh gosh. Uh well, our website, which will link right to the Cobalt Banker site, it's Roxanne sells your home.com.

SPEAKER_03

That's a good domain. You certainly do sell a lot of homes, that's for sure. Um, I love it. Well, thank you for joining me uh on this. I really enjoyed the conversation. Uh really cool uh journey, pretty inspiring too, how you sort of start all over again. At 42 years old. At 42 years old, I won't talk about ages because people might go do the math on that. Um the fact that you have a really successful career and had to step away from it. That's that's tough. I mean, that's really tough. But but I'm I'm guessing you may have enjoyed that career, but would you say you're enjoying something more now?

SPEAKER_01

Oh my gosh. This this is I mean, I loved what I did. Fashion is so fun, but it's not meaningful. Like this is something that changes someone's life. And I always felt, you know, we're here for a purpose. We all, you know, and I just found mine a little later in life.

SPEAKER_03

Sure. That's okay.

SPEAKER_01

You can prepare me to get here. I wouldn't be the same agent without that background.

SPEAKER_03

Well, yeah, no, 100%. No, you were you're cued up for success, I think, by the experiences you had before. But I do think I say people, I think uh selling homes is is could be one of the most meaningful. I mean, what greater gift uh you know to give somebody when they spend their family time and whatnot. So I do think that's cool. Certainly fashion school too, but I can definitely see getting away from the balls everything. Yeah, a little bit more out of uh providing people with their home. So I'm gonna uh go ahead and wrap up. Thank you so much for your time. You are and uh we're really excited to follow you probably to hundreds, thousands of sales uh in the coming uh day. So we're really excited about that.

SPEAKER_01

Well, we'll hope to get half that halfway there.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, you get it uh you will. All right, thanks, Roxanne. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01

Have a fantastic weekend.