Interview with Realtor

Cindy Smith, a realtor, shares her experiences and insights in an interview. She chose real estate to help people make informed decisions and avoid being taken advantage of. She joined Keller Williams because of their reputation and the education and training they provide. Her goal is to educate people about real estate and make it accessible to everyone. Consistency and routine are her strengths as a real estate agent. Building relationships with clients and helping them solve problems motivate her. She recommends becoming a real estate agent for those who have the right attitude and enjoy talking to people. Social media is vital for her job as it helps her connect with clients and keep them informed. She enjoys helping clients sell their homes, as it is a significant and emotional process. She determines which properties to show clients based on their needs. Her consistency, confidence, and positive attitude set her apart from other agents. Her advice to first-time homebuyers is to f Hello everybody, this is Grace Galbraith speaking, and today I will be interviewing a very special guest, my mother, Cindy Smith. We will talk to her about her job and responsibilities as a realtor, and it is my hope that you can get to know her better and learn to love her as I do. So, Cindy, tell us a little about your job and why you chose to pursue it as a career. Hi, thanks so much for giving me the opportunity to share my love of real estate. Basically, I help people find solutions to their problems when it comes to real estate. I help them have knowledge to be educated in the things that most people don't understand. I started this journey because I watched friends and family purchasing real estate, not knowing what they were doing. We did the same thing as young adults, purchasing it, signing a bunch of papers, and not understanding what those papers meant. That's a very good way to be taken advantage of, and I wanted to have the opportunity to help people know that they can trust the process and that I'll take care of them and that make sure they get what is best for them and what is probably going to be the largest investment of their life. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I know having a real estate agent you can trust is really important. So, what attracted you to Keller Williams, because I know you're working with them now. Absolutely. I never had any desire to go to another brokerage. Keller Williams is the number one real estate agent in the world, and I just know that if I'm going to work in anything, I want to be with the best, and I want to have what comes with that. Keller Williams offers so much in the way of education and training, and they just provide so much, not only to their agents, but to their clients as well. So, it's just the company that I want my name to be associated with. Yeah, that seems like a great company. What is your goal as a real estate agent? To educate. To educate people about the market, to educate people about property, to educate people about investment, real estate investment, to help the world know that they can take part in real estate, that everyone has the ability, the possibility, to own their own piece of the world. And I just want to be able to educate them in that. Perfect. What have you found to be your strengths since beginning as a real estate agent? Consistency and routine. I got into a routine when I first came in, and I'm very good at sticking to that, and when I get off of my routine, it kind of throws off my whole day, whole week, and being very consistent. Yeah. So, what's been the most challenging part of being a real estate agent? Consistency and routine. I find that it was something that I had to learn, but once I did learn it, I found that it is a strength that I have. All right. So, what motivates you at work? Relationships. Getting to know people, knowing what their dreams are and their thoughts are, and helping them solve problems, whether it's to decide to buy or decide to sell their home that they've lived in their whole life, or to help them decide whether to purchase an investment property or to rent their home out, or however it is. I just love being able to build those relationships with people. Would you suggest to others to become a real estate agent? I would say not everyone. It's definitely not for everyone. It's not an easy job to get into. You come into it, and I guess some people just can do it with no problem, but it's a building. You have to build the job, the business up. It doesn't just pour out, and people don't just start throwing money at you, and so it definitely takes a lot of hard work. But if your attitude is right, and you know how to talk to people, and you care about people, definitely. I definitely love to recommend getting into real estate. And there's so many different areas of real estate to get into. I know it's pretty common nowadays for people to be a real estate agent. So, what advice would you give to a new real estate agent? Do the hard things. Just be willing to show up when others don't show up. Talk to everyone. If you can't talk to people, it's really hard to be a real estate agent. There may be another area within the real estate industry that you could do well at. Okay. But to be an agent, you really just need to be able to talk to people in any job, I think. My biggest advice would be to get up early, start your day, and get moving forward while everyone else is still deciding what to do with their day. Start networking and putting yourself out there. How does social media play a role in your job? It is vital. It is all my connection. Between social media and email and texting, it's how I communicate. I let people know what's going on in the market. I let them know what events are happening. I let them know what's going on in their area. I let them know what's available, what's out there in the market for them to buy or how much they could get for their home. I'm a connector. I connect them with other companies that do business in the real estate world. Do you enjoy helping clients buy or sell better? I like both, but I think I prefer helping people sell their homes because it's such a tender time a lot of times. If it's an investor, it's a little different, but if it's their home that they've lived in for 10 years, 15 years, 30 years, when they get ready to sell, it's a big move. I know that's a tender time, and I like to be a part of that. I also like it when they move into something better or nicer or in a place where they're happier with their family. The rewards are really good when you help someone sell their home. That's what it really is about for you, is just helping others find joy in moving out or moving in. I think that's great. How do you determine what properties to show clients? Their needs. They tell me, and then I get on the hunt, basically, until I can find what's the best fit for them, what gives them most of what they want. There's no perfect properties out there. You're not going to find something that has everything that you've ever dreamed of in one property, but I can help them find what's best. If it's not out there, then we look for it. I try to find it somewhere else. If it's not already listed, then we see if someone else wants to sell their house, and if it's the house they want. There you go. What do you feel sets you apart from other real estate agents? Again, that consistency, confidence. I have a really positive attitude. I actually received, to me, what was one of the best awards at our awards ceremony this year for 2022, and I received the Espirit Award. Congratulations. I think that's amazing. It felt really good because they can recognize the money that we make and the number of houses that we sell. The fact that they saw that light in me, that I was constantly helping other agents try to be better. I was lifting people up who were down and trying to help them see that it's going to be okay. You just got to keep working, and they recognized that, and I appreciated the recognition. It was great. Also, learning. I love to learn everything about everything, so that makes it good for me. I know from a perspective of being your daughter, you've always had the number one spirit for everything, encouraging and pushing people to help them and helping me grow up. I know you've had a lot of spirit in your life. Thank you. That's cool to see it influence the way you're working now. What advice would you give to first-time homebuyers? Don't be scared. Don't let the market and Facebook and all that social media scare you. Look for the people you can trust. Look for what they're saying, and do the research yourself. Find out. Find a good agent that will guide you. Just don't be scared of it. Owning your own home is a very rewarding experience, and if you do it right and you have a good agent on your side, it can show up years down the road. It's great value. What advice would you give to someone preparing to sell their home? Keep records of everything you have that you work on. Like, if you get work done on your house, keep records of it. Repairs and things like that. Maintain it. I mean, for any homeowner, your costs of repairs is going to be way less if you do the work up front. If you maintain your home, if you change out the filters in your air conditioner and you keep your yard clean and don't let junk pile up, those things automatically will raise what you can get for your home in the end. And I tell everyone, when they buy a home, they think it's going to be their forever home, but they should treat it like they're going to sell it so that they take good care of it. I love that. Yeah, that helps raise your equity and just the value of your home if you can take good care of it. Thank you, Cindy, so much for joining us this week. That's all we have time for today. But I hope that we have answered any questions you may have had as a homebuyer or somebody looking into real estate. If this is your first time being introduced to my mother, Cindy, let me remind you that her dream is to help others realize their own dreams in real estate. So if you need a realtor, then visit her website, CindyLouHomes.com, to get in touch today. Bye!