Sarah Rothstein: Top Solo Agent

Sarah Rothstein  0:32  
This is Sarah Roth. Sing with Berkshire Hathaway Home Services. If you're looking to improve your real estate business, you need to be listening to the real estate excellent podcast with my good friend Tracy Hayes,

Podcast Intro  0:44  
welcome to Real Estate excellence making lasting connections to the best of the best in today's industry, elite. We'll help you expand your circle of influence by introducing you to the leaders in the real estate industry, whether it's top agents who execute at a high level every day or the many support services working behind the scenes, we'll share their stories, ideologies and the inner workings of how they run a truly successful business, and show you how to add their tools to your belt now please welcome the host with the most Tracy Hayes,

welcome back to TTracy Hayes  1:18  
he Real Estate excellence podcast with your host, Tracy Hayes today, I have the top residential real estate agent, according to Jacksonville Business Journal, for 2022 she made the list. They call it the highly recommended all of our listeners go to her Instagram, Facebook and her website to see her reviews. She has of some amazing, well thought out, lengthy reviews. That's why she is number one. Today, we will dig into her business and get to know a little bit more about the Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, finest from Fleming Island. Sarah Rothstein, to the show. Hi. Thanks, Tracy, thank you. I'm glad you made it on today. I am already I saw your post this morning on your way over, or, I guess when you were leaving the house, you posted something that you were headed, headed this way, and some of your friends were giving you some encouragement.

Sarah Rothstein  2:08  
Yeah, it's a little out of my comfort zone, so I'm excited.

Tracy Hayes  2:11  
You know, you'd be amazed. I actually had someone else this morning say something. They posted something, and I said, Hey, I look, you know, look, they're coming on the show in a few weeks. And and they said that there, she was a little nervous. And I said, Well, actually, amazingly, most are, but you will find, hopefully afterwards, and you can tell your friends this, we're just going to have a great conversation and let everyone know about you. This is that's the important thing is to learn about Sarah what she's doing. Hopefully, as I say oftentimes on the show, my goal, personally, is that we're going to inspire someone looking to get into real estate, someone who maybe is in real estate and maybe has hit a roadblock, or just a lid. I like to call it from John Maxwell, it's hit a lid. And maybe there's something that you're doing. They're like, Oh, you know, maybe I should put that into my business and gets them moving along there. So from that standpoint, as often I start off every show. Where are you from?

Sarah Rothstein  3:04  
I'm from a small town called Springfield, right outside of Savannah, Georgia, so not far away, two and a half

Tracy Hayes  3:09  
hours, not far away. So again, she does not have a LinkedIn account. I've already given her a hard time

Sarah Rothstein  3:15  
on there as of like yesterday, just so you know, as of yesterday I'll go, I must have

Tracy Hayes  3:19  
been after I was on there, doing my investigation. So you were born and raised there, yeah, graduated high

Sarah Rothstein  3:25  
school. I lived there for 30 years. 30

Tracy Hayes  3:28  
years. Oh, okay, okay, so you went right. You grew up there, went to high school, went to Georgia, Southern Yep. What did you study there? Mathematics, mathematics. So the 18 to 22 year old, Sarah, what is she? You know, I mean, what was her vision at that time?

Sarah Rothstein  3:44  
Hey, that's a good question. I didn't have a lot of vision. Most of us don't at that time. Yeah, I knew that I was gonna go to college, and Georgia, Southern was a good school only about 45 minutes away from where I grew up. So it was kind of in my comfort zone again, and math just kind of came naturally and easy to me. So when I was going to college, I knew I wanted to get a four year degree, but I didn't know what I wanted to do, so I just majored in math. What I could do easily. I didn't show up to class a lot. I wasn't the best student, but I got through college, and I'm like, three and a half years the bachelor's of science and math, yeah, and had no idea what I wanted to do with that.

Tracy Hayes  4:19  
I think the, you know, I see a lot of these people, oh, I mean, you know, when we see in our neighborhoods, everyone's worried about where they're sending their kid to school and so forth and and some of them are spending absorbent amount of money just to send them to, you know, a name of a school. Oh, you know, they, you know, that's where they they wanted to go as well. That's where their friends wanted to go. I really believe today, college is more just this maturity period of time versus, say, you know, back when our parents, you know, at 18, you know, lot of them were out. A lot of them, you know, my parents didn't had did not get my mom had got her associates, I think when she was in her late 50s, you know, just to. To get a little bump because she was working for the government. She did not have a college education. My father does not have a college education. What my dad did is he went in the Marine Corps, yeah. Oh, and that was his maturity period of time from 18 to 22 so you say you didn't have direction? I don't know. Many people did. I started off at engineer, went to education, graduated with that, and obviously now I'm a mortgage loan officer.

Sarah Rothstein  5:22  
So yeah, I my family, both my parents, went to Georgia, Southern actually, and all my friends were going to college. So I knew I wanted to go to college. I just didn't really, I didn't know what was out there. You know, I besides being a teacher or a nurse or, you know, your basic things, I just really never sat down with anyone to have a really in depth conversation. Had a few college professors I know that were trying to groom me during my math degree, and, you know, were trying to give me advice on where we could take that and everything which, a lot of that involved either more school and higher education, or, I don't know, just a little bit more, you know, in depth plan than what I kind of where I was at at that point, but I've always, I've always been, you know, a pretty good scholar, and, like I said, I guess not a great scholar, as far as attending class and showing up and things like that. But you say you didn't show up sometimes, yeah, I actually missed there was one particular class. It wasn't for my major, but it was, of course, you had to take at Southern and I was only a midterm and a final. And I only went to a few classes in between and showed up for the final with the date that was on the syllabus. And they actually had canceled, they had rescheduled it the teacher, like well in advance, and me and one other student were the only ones to show up to that class. So that was the only class I didn't pass, because we missed the final on that one. But anyways, but I, but I got out of, you know, I graduated with my math degree, and then, no, and then was kind of at a, at a point where I really had no idea what to do with that.

Tracy Hayes  6:50  
So you're, you're roughly 22 years old. You're still in the Savannah area. What is you said you were there for two or 30 before you moved here. So what kind of career options, what kind of things

Sarah Rothstein  7:02  
did you do? Yes, it was an interesting road that kind of brought me here. So I math degree. I was looking I had a four year degree, so I was I started looking for jobs that just required a bachelor's and anything. And actually, my first job right out of college was at an environmental testing lab in Savannah, and we were literally testing samples of soils and liquids and running them through a machine and trying to pinpoint or detect, I don't know different Tracys of chemicals and things like that, and really, really boring, and I hated it, but I did that for a year, and I realized that that was definitely not where I wanted to be. And then, and then I ended up again looking for entry level jobs needed four year degrees, and I came across a pharmaceutical company, so that kind of entered my that's kind of where I entered the world of sales at that point.

Speaker 2  7:49  
So you What brings you to Fleming Island? Think it was 2012 if I was reading your bio correctly. Yeah.

Sarah Rothstein  7:58  
So like I said, I lived in the same county I was born and raised that for 330, years, I was just going through some changes, and wanted, really wanted to change the scenery. And my best friend had moved here a few years prior from Savannah. And so it was Jacksonville's, you know, only a two and a half hour drive. So it was close to, still an easy day trip back to Savannah. And like in my again, in my comfort zone, I know you're supposed to step out of that, but that's where I was at the point. And so anyways, I ended up taking a leap and moving to Orange Park. And that's so, that's so, were you married at this time? No, I met my husband right around this time. Okay, he worked with my best friend also.

Tracy Hayes  8:34  
So was that part of the influence to come he was he here. He was here. Okay, okay, now we're getting some in. Now we're getting some background. Okay, yeah.

Sarah Rothstein  8:41  
So, yeah, I just, you know, I just wanted a change. I guess I met him and had a great opportunity to work from home. I was a easy transition from the company I was working at in Savannah to here allowed me to work from home.

Tracy Hayes  8:54  
So, okay, so this is 2012 so what kind of work are you doing at this point?

Sarah Rothstein  8:58  
I was working for a pharmaceutical wholesaler. We was inside sales, a lot of cold calling, and I was in this industry, worked for a couple of different companies, competitors. I was in the industry for probably about 15 years doing this, working with the same clients. We basically would call to hospital in inpatient pharmacies and surgery centers selling different hard to find medications that were on backwater. So it's kind of a niche market.

Tracy Hayes  9:21  
Lot of, more or less, some cold calling here, talking to people, talking to people on the phone. I know that's that, you know, in my career, you know, spending first 12 years in the business being in the call center talking to people on the phone is you just, you know, that's what you did. Either you we did not see our I did not see the clients over us. That's why I tell agents all the time, you could be standing in a house right now with a client in front of you, and if you're talking about financing, call me on your phone and hand me, hand them your phone. I will talk to them right there and then, because I I've done that for so many times, I'm comfortable with it, and obviously enough experience in the business to have a legitimate conversation. Yeah. Has that kind of jumped forward of, you know, where I haven't started talking about real estate yet, is that natural ability and experience that you've gained there prior to getting into real estate part of some of your strengths?

Sarah Rothstein  10:11  
Yeah, you know, I interesting. I had no idea when I was things were changing in the industry that I was in with the pharmaceutical business, and wasn't super thrilled about the direction that it was going, so I that was kind of what made me want to get into real estate. But I had no idea the parallels between prospecting and cold calling and lead generation that with the type of pharmaceutical sales that I was in, that was what we focused on. You know, we weren't given a territory. We were out there, you know, we were literally dialing the phones all day long, you know, trying to develop relationships and rapport with these people you know, over the phone, over the phone, who you know, were basically like glorified telemarketers. So you would have to, you know, get really good at developing rapport and building a relationship very quickly we got, you know, the phone slammed on us a lot, you know, but there was a lot of parallels when I got into real estate that I wouldn't have necessarily imagined were there with all the cold calling and prospecting and lead generation as as there is in real estate.

Tracy Hayes  11:10  
So you kind of, I imagine you probably felt the same way I did after a while, and you said you didn't like the way the business was going. You're probably getting a little burned out.

Sarah Rothstein  11:19  
I was getting burned out. Had been doing it for a long time, but things were changing in that industry that I was in. It was, again, it's kind of a niche market, and we were starting, you know, we, I didn't really have much to do with insurance and things like that, but we were having to get a little bit more knowledgeable about not just selling our products and filling needs for our customers, but also insurance sides and perspectives that they Yes, I wasn't interested in that.

Tracy Hayes  11:42  
You know, my my old mind, there's someone else that I had on the show recently. Maybe they're listening right now, or I'll listen to the audio. Was doing similar that you were talking about. And they really said the same thing, that business started to change in the pharmaceutical atmosphere, and again, the laws change and so forth again. So what gives you your first taste of thinking about becoming a real estate agent?

Sarah Rothstein  12:07  
Well, like I told you, I had a math degree, had no idea what I wanted to do, and needed something that was kind of an entry level position, which is how I got into the pharmaceutical world, which was great, and I loved that job for years, but it had another opportunity besides pharmaceutical sales before, especially before I found the company I ended up staying with for a while, real estate was kind of another entry level job, right? That anybody could potentially do. Really didn't. I didn't have you just

Tracy Hayes  12:33  
got to take a course for a week and take a test, right? Yeah,

Sarah Rothstein  12:38  
stay out of jail, basically. But no, I real estate just seems I was something that I don't know how it really got on my radar, but it was something that had been in my in the back of my mind for a while, for years, actually, and not something that I was, you know, super active on, you know, going towards, but when things started changing, that was kind of the first thing that kind of popped in my mind. I never even realized, you know, I didn't know any realtors to know, like, what type of living lifestyle and, you know, earning potential and things like that. That never really even crossed my mind. But it was just something that seemed like it would be okay. So you

Tracy Hayes  13:11  
didn't have a friend or someone that said, hey, you know you'd Sarah, you make a great real estate agent. You make the decision to go. I assume the first decision is, you're going to go take the course. So did you sit down for the whole solid one week? Or how did

Sarah Rothstein  13:26  
you Oh, no. Oh, so I was still trying to make my career work with pharmaceutical company, and that it was a very successful career when I was in it, but I was trying to overcome the obstacles with the change environment and everything, and so I decided to go ahead. I was pregnant with my son. My son's almost seven now, so I was pregnant, and I decided I would go ahead and just do the online course. So I began probably early in my pregnancy, maybe, and went through a couple of chapters, and then I think I got busy with work or whatever, and I just stalled. And so I think it took me probably about almost a year to finish the class. And then finally, I was like, Well, what am I doing? You know, I've forgotten all the half of the chapter of the book, or half the book already. So I was like, I gotta get serious and just get this done and over with. And it was kind of still in my mind. It wasn't necessarily I would have liked to have made it a career, and, you know, I hoped it worked out. But at the same time, I still had my other job. I wasn't quitting the pharmaceutical company. I needed a paycheck, and it was just something to, you know, not necessarily was something that was going to be part time, but it was an avenue to explore, I guess.

Tracy Hayes  14:31  
Okay, all right, so you're, you're not one of those people dove in 100%

Sarah Rothstein  14:38  
Well, I did, likely, once I got into it. But point in time it was so

Tracy Hayes  14:42  
where do you were? You take the test and you pass. Let's get to that point. This is what, 2000 4016 16. 2016 what makes you again was, wasn't on your LinkedIn? Have you been with Berkshire Hathaway the whole time? I have you have okay? So what? Gets you just passed a test? What gets you to sign up under Berkshire Hathaway?

Sarah Rothstein  15:05  
Well, I didn't know anyone in real estate. I didn't even know, as I work from home, I didn't know I didn't have a huge sphere or in a huge amount of friends in Fleming Island and Jacksonville, at this point you've been here, well, about four years, right? Four years. I'm a very social person, so I did have friends, but I didn't really know anyone in anyone in the real estate world. The only person I knew was Kim Knapp, who you had on recently. And love Kim. She was actually my realtor, and we had bought our house in 2014 so two years before I got my license, and I think I went to her either before I started the class completely, or maybe while I was in the online course. And first up, I asked her, you know, is this something, you know? Am I crazy to try to become a realtor and a town that, you know, I'm not from, I don't really know very many people. Can I be successful here? You know? Because in Savannah, where I grew up for 30 years, I know tons of people there. You know, that would be easy. Well, potentially. And of course, she was, she, you know, flat out. Was like, yep, you know, you definitely can make that work. And so she, you know, gave me at least, made me feel good about that. I was pursuing a, you know, a career that had potential. And then once I got my license, I called her again, because she was the only person I knew and and I spoke to her about a world banker. But then also, at that time, I was really important to me, because, again, I had my other job, and that was my primary job, and I wasn't going to let that go. I was still making good money. It was really important to me to find a brokerage that that we were on the same page as where, like, what I could do. I didn't want to be. And I also had a baby at this time. My son was six months old when I got my license, when I passed the test, and when I was looking for a job, and I didn't want to be stressed out between two jobs and baby. So anyways, Kim recommended global banker. Wanted someone that I was told at the time that was full time. So she recommended a few other companies that I speak to, and Berkshire Hathaway was one of them. So I and I met, I had several interviews with a couple of different brokerages. Linda been since my broker at Berkshire Hathaway, and I met with her, and we really hit it off. I felt, you know, was very she everybody wanted to make sure, and she was also, you know, definitely, you know, interested and wanted to make sure that this was a career, you know, a serious move that I wasn't looking just to, you know, encourage me for a little while. Yeah, exactly. But, you know, she understood that had another job and that, you know, this is what I'm capable of, and this is what I listen these are my goals and aspirations. And so that's why I chose to work with Berkshire Hathaway.

Tracy Hayes  17:28  
So in this conversation with Berkshire Hathaway, and I think your story is going to resonate with a lot of agents out there, or I want to use, you know, want to be thought about. You know, you took some time. It wasn't like, drop dead tomorrow. I'm a real estate agent. You've kind of more or less backed yourself into career. What was some of the things in that conversation, initially, with the broker you know, in with your knowledge today, if someone like yourself came up in front of you and, you know, said, Hey, what about real estate? What is, what are some the important things that you asked or maybe didn't ask, you should have asked, but some of the things they were asking, because it sounds like to me, you know, because of they wanted to see how committed you were, because they're going to pour a lot of energy and resources into you. Yes, and if you don't write, you don't write contracts, they've wasted or, like I said, you're with them for three months. They pour all this training into you. Then you go, Oh, you know what? I got this full time job. I just don't have any time anymore. Yeah, you know, you're out. So they're, they're digging into you. So what were some of those? Some of those, let's start with, let's start with the questions they were asking you to kind of probe to see what your commitments were.

Sarah Rothstein  18:41  
If you can recall, yeah, I was gonna say it was almost seven years ago, but I definitely remember us having a conversation, you know, again, that I was very forthcoming with letting them know that this was not going to be my primary job at that moment, but they were definitely wanting to make sure that this is something that I wanted to be serious about To make it a career, you know, to eventually be able to leave the other job and become a full time realtor, because that is really what it takes in this field to be successful. And they want, like you said, they're they're pouring, they're investing a lot in me. So they want me to invest in myself and in the career and the job. And to do that, you have to, it's really difficult to to do to be successful in this job, if you're not, if you're just doing it part time, right? So that was a large part of the conversation. There are, you know, we also talked a lot about training. There was a commitment. A lot of brokerages don't have this. And I think this is definitely something. If you're a newer agent and you're trying to, you know, you're in the stages of interviewing with other brokerages, you want to make sure that they have good training and and, you know, Berkshire Hathaway required us to go through a month long training program, which was five days a week for, I believe, maybe like three or four hours a day. And they were a little bit flexible if you had to miss classes. But that was, that was a requirement. And me, you know. Know, it was something that I was able to do. I had my computer up working the other job while it was a little bit but, yeah, but,

Tracy Hayes  20:07  
and I'm sure that your baby is the same time, yeah, well,

Sarah Rothstein  20:11  
it was in a class before covid, and now there is a lot more zoom, you know, and webinars and stuff, but face. So I think that's though important. A lot of companies don't require that. And as a newer agent, you're, you know you go to you don't. We all know that you don't learn what you think you're going to learn in the class to get your license. So, you know, it was very invaluable, the education that I learned at Berkshire Hathaway, as far as you know, all all areas of the aspects from the contract to prospecting to you know,

Tracy Hayes  20:44  
so now you're an experienced agent. Now, all right, so you said something that I brought up on the show most of the time, most of your brokerages will tell you they have great training and they have great tech, right? Technology. So how would looking back if Berkshire Hathaway just said, You know what, we're not going to do the houses anymore. We're closing up, and you had to find a new brokerage. And I assume you continue to train today, I would. We haven't got to that question yet, but I'm soon you're you're good because you stay educated and stay on top. However you do that. But how would a new agent test today? Because all of them are going to tell them they have great education. What is one thing they should do to kind of have a litmus test that really is the education or that initial training the best they can get?

Sarah Rothstein  21:35  
You know, I think speaking to other experienced agents. You know, when you're going to interview with a broker about their brokerage, ask them, you know, for a few references of agents that you can reach out to and ask them about their experience, see how successful they are. Maybe ask to sit through trainings. Most brokerages are very open to you coming and sitting in to, you know, a business meeting or a training class. And so, you know, there's, there's a lot of opportunities out there, if you just ask to be able to participate in and to educate yourself, to see kind of, really what that culture is, because they do most brokerages, not all of them, but most of them do offer a lot of tools and technology, but those tools and technology are only as good as you know. They're only good if you use them, right? So part of that too is, you know, the personal growth and the discipline that you're going to have yourself at making your you know, yeah, making that work.

Tracy Hayes  22:25  
No, 100% I think we what is that? It's 99% 1% perspiration. Anyway, you're, you are, you are the key component in the whole equation. What you are going to do is, is the key of all of it? Now, can you make life easier for you if you had, you know better technology, and you know, if you're going to the gym right now, it is, you know, to work out. It's you showing up. No one's going to come and pick you up and drag you into the gym, right? What is the equipment there? Is there a trainer there that's going to show you different exercises that you can do. So you're not doing the same exercise every day, all the time, because eventually you're just going to quit that. That when evaluating that brokerage is like evaluating that gym, you are 75% of it, the other 25 is, do they have the right technology, and do they have the right thing? And I, obviously, I was like a lawyer when I asked that question, and I wanted you to say the answer, because I want everyone to hear it from, from you, because you actually are a real estate agent. But it's, it's true in life, you had the one thing about real estate, and I want you to comment on on your agree or disagree with my statement. I think you're gonna agree with it. Is the one of the unique things about it is you are your own business. You're 1099, you're signing up under them. So there has to be a there's a mutual business agreement. It's not them hiring you. They're not giving you a salary. They you need to interview them as much as they interview you. But the the bottom line is, you need to match up with that right brokerage that's going to, you know, fit with you, and that's why some people move brokerages. After a while, they outgrow them, or they're not giving you those things. But you said the most important thing is take five minutes go on their website, look up a bunch of several realtors and just call them, from the someone who may just started there three months ago, to someone who's been there six years, seven years, right,

Sarah Rothstein  24:23  
right, finding out about the company's culture. Also, another thing I like a lot about Berkshire Hathaway, we have, you know, obviously in the industry, we have the National Association of REALTORS conferences. We have Florida, Florida real estate conference in Orlando. Every year. Berkshire Hathaway has their own conferences and conventions as well. Number of them, and those have been they provide, you know, we have local market expertise here, but we also have, you know, a lot of market knowledge and information that we're learning on a global level. And so the training and motivational speakers and the things that we get at these conferences, and also the networking that we get, you know, we. I have a number of agents with within Berkshire Hathaway across the country that I'm connected with, that I've met in person, that have relationships with, and that, you know, I can call them in another market and see what they're doing there, follow them on social media. And they just make a lot of connections with people through the within, you know, the company that that I don't think, I think some of these you know that some other brokerages have that as well, but not all do. And that's I've been I found that very valuable.

Tracy Hayes  25:28  
This is where I think disconnects good agents and great agents, in my opinion, of what you just said, going to events, I we've often talked about it on the show, showing up as being important, but meeting some of these people who are outside your area, having you know, you don't not talking to them every day, but maybe you interact like I said, you're watching what they're doing social media wise, what's going on. You know, in their markets, they're they're giving ideas. I spent the last two weeks over the Christmas break. You know, the last two shows, if anyone's following me, I actually did them. They were distance shows, which I don't often do. Most of the time, it's, I'm here in the in the studio with the agent. But I took some time to really go in and study what other people are doing. You know, what are their successful agents doing? And that's you got to have, and that's what, that's what re bar camp. Kim, that re bar camp is all about is exchanging those ideas. This worked for me. This didn't, don't be afraid to tell people, you know, hey, I tried cold calling. It didn't work for me. I worked. This works for me. Some people can do cold calling, and it works for them. You know, those types of betraying the little tips and secrets. But how important has that been, just in your overall growth and understanding of the industry, but you know, in just your your health of your business?

Sarah Rothstein  26:51  
Yeah, I mean, it's been huge. Like I said, one of the someone that I follow, that I've met through working with Berkshire Hathaway and going to conferences, is Jimmy Burgess. He's and I know one of the questions you always ask are, you know, podcaster books, right,

Tracy Hayes  27:04  
right? You're going to the next question. All right, good,

Sarah Rothstein  27:09  
but more of a podcast person, okay, Jimmy Burgess is fantastic. I follow him. He's got a and I your podcasts are great, also to appreciate the local level, but he's in another, you know, he's in Florida, he's on the panhandle, but he's putting out, you know, great information and tips and action items that agents can do. And the name of his show. So he is the real estate sales podcast, I believe, and Jimmy Burgess, b u r g e s, or b u r g e s, I will look him up. Yeah. So anyways, he's, he's one person in particular, and that puts out a lot of really helpful information, and it's a lot of action items. And, you know, it's not all tools and technology, but you know, there's definitely been times, you know, where something new gets mentioned, that they're using over there, that I don't, you know, that I'm not super familiar with. And so, you know, I'll go check it out, or, you know, or I've reached out to him, you know, with advice and questions on, you know, how to take my business or do certain things that I'm kind of interested in. Just gives an outsider's perspective. It's, you know, a connection that I wouldn't have had if I had not been, you know, involved with the company that you know is putting me in connections with, you know, these types of opportunities. Well, I

Tracy Hayes  28:19  
think we would all agree. Everyone agrees with me. So I think we'd all agree. We, oftentimes will, like, if we're going to maybe buy a car or, you know, buy a new dishwasher, whatever it is, we go on and investigate. We get other people's opinion. It could be Hayes, anyone know, you know, a great painter, whatever it, whatever it is, our consumer purchases, we often ask for other people's opinion, or, Hey, have you guys, you know, hey, you've owned that car? Do you like it? Have you had any problems with it? Right? We ask those questions Absolutely. But when it, when it comes to our business, how many are taking a few minutes because we are thrown all these between real estate agents, loan officers, everyone in the real estate world. We're throwing all these trinkets or flashy, you know, objects are coming in front of us all the time, like, Hey, here's a better CRM, here's a better way to get leads. Here's this, here's that, and here's the other thing that to reach to someone who's not in your area and get and feel you're getting a truly because they don't see us competition. We should all collaborate. But someone outside the area say, Hey, is anyone in your area using this tool, or is anyone doing this? Are they getting any responses? And they get that kind of feedback, yeah.

Sarah Rothstein  29:36  
And as I say, you can do that from a local level too. To your point, we all, you know, we all should be playing nice together and helping each other. That's, you know, what I think makes another thing that makes, really, you know, sets an agent apart from others, is someone who's willing to, you know, that wants to network and wants to better each other and looking for, you know, Win Win opportunities, because we, we can't sell every house you know, ourselves, right? Yeah. So anyway, so, you know, I have, you know, I find my friends and networking with other agents, even in the local market, very valuable, especially Jacksonville is such a large city, you know,

Tracy Hayes  30:11  
so geographically, with such a large area, it's hard for someone in

Sarah Rothstein  30:14  
Ponte, vedra versus Clay County, yeah, you know, yeah. So I have, you know, great agents that I've met within the company that, you know, I, if I have a listing out in pot of EJ or, you know, or have to have a out of state client that is going to wants to do a tour of, you know, Northeast Florida and things like that. You know, if I need to call somebody, it doesn't have to be someone within Berkshire Hathaway, but you know, it's those, those relationships are very important.

Tracy Hayes  30:39  
So the bottom line is, having other realtors should be collaborators. Should be showing up. Whether it's a large event, like an RE bar camp we have on January 27 or a social. Try to make some of those, you know, convenient socials to meet some of those. I know our family lives take us away a lot of times. So maybe we can do a luncheon versus, you know, the happy hour, but they get out and actually shake hands and know who's going to be on the other side of some of those, some of those deals. All right, I have a couple questions here. We kind of crossed some of them. Here we talked about the brokers things, let's, let's just, actually, let's just jump, jump into you and your business. Sarah, what are a few things you wish you knew before becoming an agent?

Sarah Rothstein  31:22  
Well, I wish I knew the potential and how much of a game changer and life changing that real estate can be, if you're successful and if you're all in, you do have to show up, and you do have to work really hard. And we joke about this all the time. You know, people get into real estate all the time because they want to make money, and they think it's going to be fun, and they love to show houses, or they like to see houses, but it's, it's a lot of work, and to be able to, you know, if you want to, if you want it to pay off, and if you want it to be what you think you want it to be, you just can't imagine sometimes the hours and the amount of time and commitment that you're going to have

Tracy Hayes  31:54  
to put into it. Now, I did not prep you for that answer or that question at all, pretty much, you know, anyway, but I think that was really raw from a standpoint. You had no other experience, didn't have a friend, a mom, an aunt, or whatever that was in this business, so you didn't even know the true potential of where you're at. I'll talk about how it's changed your life, but you obviously had to rely on past experiences, whether it was your education or your work experience, to make it happen. You've gotten into it, and all of a sudden, would you agree your business becomes you. You are your business. When you're a realtor, there's not a nine to five shut off. You can control things as you get to a certain level, like, Hey folks, I at seven o'clock, I'm not going to take a call. You can text message me if you think it's urgent. Otherwise, I'm going to call you back at Aga. You can start having those control parameters. Most people aren't going to jump on you for that, because nothing and that real estate really happens like that quickly the next morning is is generally when anything, especially in the loan world, my support staff, at five o'clock, they go home, right? They're not like you and I. But from that standpoint, so

Sarah Rothstein  33:11  
emotional support happens 24 hours a day. Just got to

Tracy Hayes  33:15  
tell you that part, though, the the whole aspect that you become your business, you have to enjoy what you're doing. Would you agree 100%

Sarah Rothstein  33:25  
and that is definitely one of the I really feel very strongly that I don't think I could do this job if I didn't enjoy what I did. They never it never feels like, you know, I've had those jobs before sitting at a desk. My whole career basically, was behind a desk until real estate. And even though I would enjoyed some of those previous companies and jobs and positions, you know, you still have those times where they're like, oh, you know, I don't want to go to work today. I don't want to do this. You know, you dread it. You know, when's Friday coming around? Well, in real estate, there's never, you know, oh yeah, it's the weekend. It's Friday because the weekends, you know, just another work day, typically, but I never feel, you know, thank God. I mean, that's a blessing for being in real estate. You know, being successful in real estate and being made for this job is that it doesn't feel like work. So I never, I am, I know it's, I don't like to brag about that, because so many people do don't feel like that. But, well,

Tracy Hayes  34:19  
let's, step back the first few months that you were, you know, in the business, or, you know, the first few years, what your demand is different. Your first years you're really trying to, you know, if you're really committed, you're, you know, whether you're making the calls, and we'll talk about the different things that you do, that you like to do from marketing standpoint, but you're really you're pounding you're pounding the doors, you're pounding the doors, and then all of a sudden you're, you reach this tipping point, and then you're the business, and people are calling you. You've done enough transactions that people are referring you and your other people, oh, she's a real estate agent. Sarah's great. And all sudden, that. That type of work becomes the work of actually doing what everyone dreams of being the real estate agent, like showing the houses, writing the contracts. But that's not easy either. It's it's one, yeah, and that can stress you out, probably sometimes even more, because now your fear, your fear of loss, versus at the beginning, you didn't have, typically, a fear of loss because you didn't know what you

Sarah Rothstein  35:21  
had, right? Yeah, no, that's very true. And it's, it's an interesting journey from, you know, I used when I first got into real estate, I had a second phone because I had my other phone was for work, so I needed a new phone for work. And I remember, you know, I always had it on me, and it was kind of a joke, because I would just look at it because it would never ring. And now, you know it's a joke about look how many messages I got in one day.

Tracy Hayes  35:46  
Or after the podcast, you'll go back on and see how many people have texted you and so forth. What do you think? Give me three skills in this? And doesn't necessarily these are skills that you've mastered, but you know that the ideal agent, if we were to create this artificial intelligent agent, what do you think are three skills that agent needs to have?

Sarah Rothstein  36:09  
Ideally, they need to be good at relationship building. Because this is that's we're in that business, work ethic. They need to be, I mean, you have, you have to work, be a hard worker. And I think that's really one of the biggest differentiators of a good agent from a great agent. And be teachable. You need, you know, you coachable?

Tracy Hayes  36:28  
Yeah, yeah. I like that. So, relationship builder, coachable. What was the second one was,

Sarah Rothstein  36:35  
did I say, Oh yeah, you need to be have work ethic. Work ethic, of course.

Tracy Hayes  36:39  
Yeah. So now let's take let's bring that back around to you. Now, okay, you know, obviously work ethic, we've talked about that a little bit. I think most, a lot of people who have a misconception of the real estate business, or many of the agents that I've had on the show will, you know, you know, tell you that obviously there's this huge shock. They they come in and they're working, and all of a sudden, obviously the fruits come and they're like, Oh my God, look at, look at what, what I did. Others have this kind of thing, like, they don't really have a work they don't know what it's really like to commit. They don't know what consistency is. We talked about a little bit pre show when we're talking about social media, you've got to keep banging on the doors. You got to reach the tipping point. Yeah, in the business, most people want to go to to the tipping point. Unfortunately, it doesn't happen that way. No one's going to hand you, hand you business. But turn that, turn those, those things to work ethic, relationship building, turn those things around to your business. What do you do in have evolved? Because I think relationship building is an evolving thing that we do. You know, we may go down this route of doing a lot of this, but then we realize that gets a little burnt out, and then we got to change over, and now we're doing a lot of this. What are some of the things that you you like to do to strengthen the relationships and build the relationships that we're talking about, whether it's with clients or the other real estate agents or, you know, people in your neighborhood.

Sarah Rothstein  38:08  
Yeah, well, I'll start with the people in your neighborhood, since you just throw that, that's one of the areas that I focused on when I first got my license, because I, like I said, I didn't really know very many people in the area. And one of the things that we talked about in training with Berkshire Hathaway was farming, door knocking and prospecting. And so, you know, I live in a community that has about 650 homes, and, you know, I can't imagine a better place to to sell. You know, where else would you, you know, besides the community that you live in? So I'm always surprised sometimes when people don't focus on their communities, because that's that you know, that you have an instant rapport and connection with these people, right? So when I first commonality, yeah, yeah, exactly. So I door knocking was very similar to cold calling from my previous job. So that's kind of where I began with real estate, besides, you know, letting my friends know that I was a realtor. I started door knocking. I started, you know, just walking my six month old son, you know, and pushing him in the stroller with some flyers. And when I would see someone out in the street, you know, I pass out a flyer and tell him, oh, you know, I'm doing an open house and introduce myself. And that was actually how I got my first listing with some clients that I'm still friends with today. And so, you know, seeing getting involved with my community, I actually joined. We have a recreation committee within our neighborhood where we we do food truck Fridays, we have events for kids, for adults, and I'm not as involved. I've been kind of involved with that for several years now, and that was a great way to it was things that, you know, I found, you know, I found fun. I felt found fulfillment, you know, being involved with the community, and I got to meet a lot of people, and then, you know, put systems, and it's not rocket science, but you know, you know, I tried to, when I would meet new people within the neighborhood, you know, try to develop relationships, friend request them on Facebook. You know, just try to stay involved. Be a good neighbor and a good friend. And are

Tracy Hayes  40:01  
you putting those people had Markie lemons Ryman, who made the keynote speaker, and she gave this great tip in show, if you have not listened that show, you need to go back to Markie lemon and listen. She talks about just this thing and building her CRM, yes, she does it when she whether, obviously that neighbor you met, you already know their address, absolutely add their name and you're putting that in your CRM, so they're getting your regular 100% stuff.

Sarah Rothstein  40:28  
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I send them notes every once in a while. I'll, you know, I do drop bys, pop bys at their houses, yeah, just try to stay in flow with them. But they definitely go in my CRM and when I have it defined, you know, as a group within, you know, PACE Island neighborhood where I live, so that I can remember who these people are and try to stay in touch.

Tracy Hayes  40:46  
So Hey, folks, this episode was produced by streamline media, the number one media company for helping brands generate content that converts. I knew I wanted to start a podcast to reach more people and bring value to the world, but I did not have the time or the knowledge. Streamline media became my secret weapon to building my show. They handle all my back end work, production and strategies to keep my show going strong. If you're in the real estate business and looking to make content that generates more leads and brings in more revenue, check out the streamline media link in the show notes and discover how partnering up can supercharge your path to real estate excellence. Let me dig into the farming this. This is your 100% right? When you made that statement, I don't understand why. You know people don't work their neighborhood as Austin. Hope you're listening to the show I'm giving you here. Austin preck was on the show. He lives in in Beacon lakes. Everyone he does his beacon lakes YouTube. You know, here's the the market of Beacon lakes this month, blah, blah. And he says he goes around the neighborhood people see are seeing the video, because our great social media will find everyone that is in Beacon Lake and feed them that video, because they want you to watch and be on their channel. And so you're seeing Austin, and he's saying he's almost like a celebrity walking around the neighborhood. It is so easy to do that. If you need help doing that video, I will help you do that video. It is not very difficult. You just have to pop your phone up. You have your stats. I don't you could have a clipboard right there and read the stats off. People don't care, but the fact that you're doing it consistently, and obviously they know you live in the neighborhood, so they can reach out and they see you walking around, or they see you part of the committee creating these events work right there, those 650 homes. I mean, just ballpark in, you know, six and seven years now in the business, how many transactions have you think you got off in your neighborhood ballpark,

Sarah Rothstein  42:49  
gotten 20 transactions? Oh, yeah, I've probably had at least 20 transactions.

Tracy Hayes  42:52  
Most real estate agents would love to have 20 transactions in a year. Yeah, yeah.

Sarah Rothstein  42:57  
Well, that wouldn't be probably in a year. But, well,

Tracy Hayes  43:00  
no, you did that over, over time. But if you think about it like, Hey, I've been in here seven years. And an average agent, which you're well above average, but an average agent 20, they did 20 deals, they feel pretty good about themselves, yeah. So you could take one year of the seven years you just got from your neighbor, yeah. Oh, and the little things of you just getting out, which is good to get out and know who you live around. We're a little shy and bashful. But if you're shy and bashful and being real estate agents, that's kind of difficult. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sarah Rothstein  43:30  
And what? So I joked with you about landing the plane earlier. So what are you asked me something else. I don't know. How we got on the subject landing the plane. No, no. About about the community involvement. Before we got on that,

Tracy Hayes  43:42  
we were talking about the original question was three skills a real estate agent needs. Oh, so the work ethic, relationship building was really what we took that, yeah, and took it to another level, work ethic. I don't know if there's anything you can teach anybody, but I think you know to kind of summarize that up, you've got to get in. And I would suggest, if you're getting in this industry, there's a lot of podcasts, as you mentioned, you listen to, there's a lot of people that will co there's a lot of trainings you can go to time block your day. And if you aren't really putting a solid eight hours of true work into it, you know, some people take that eight hours and they spread it over 12, because they just lived their job, and they did. But if you actually say I'm going to, I'm going to work on my social media for an hour this morning, I'm going to make, you know, 20 phone calls for the next two hours. And that kind of time blocking, you can create that work ethic, right?

Sarah Rothstein  44:33  
You know, I used before covid. Don't do this quite as much, but we're trying to get back into the swing of things. I used to go to my office and I dropped my son off at daycare, and then I'd go straight to the office, and I'd, you know, if I didn't have appointments, I would sit there at the office and work because there, you know, I was away from distractions, and I was in that groove, in that atmosphere, where, you know, that I had no choice but to focus on real estate. So, I mean, that's just, that's a small example of work ethic, but it's showing up, you know. And being committed and surrounding yourself, you know, in that environment is it's really important. I think most, most agents, you know, even though we, some do have that environment where you actually have an office and a desk to go sit down to, some don't, but having that is that's really important, and I think is very helpful with just getting your mindset right.

Tracy Hayes  45:20  
Well, I mean, would you agree that, if you you'll a good part of being a real estate agent is being social, yeah, being showing up. So where you don't, you're like, Oh, I'm going to this training at lunch. Well, okay, I'm running another real estate agents. Get something out of that, right? Maybe there, you know, someone's putting on a training, and I got to meet an agent that lives across town, whatever, and now I know who's here. So you did something for that, that period of time, most people, well, I'm just, I'm going to this lunch and learn, and I'm eating lunch. So it's not really work. Well, no, it is. That's part of the how you do things. But if in listening to a lot of the whether it's real estate agents or loan officers, you know, because we're kind of doing the same thing you're doing that prospecting period of time, if you're spending a couple hours a day doing something, and we'll talk about what, you know, everyone should do, you know, do the prospect and it works for them, doing that thing for a couple of hours A day. That's a lot more than the average real estate agents doing. And if you're committing yourself that, hey, every morning from nine to 11, I'm going to do X that over time that just builds up, builds up, builds

Sarah Rothstein  46:32  
up, absolutely, time blocking is really important, which is kind of what you're talking about. And I was just going to add to that, you know, anytime you go anywhere that you're around people. That's, I mean, not to make it sound like we're always, you know, trying to bring work into personal relationships. But you're on the clock like you're you're meeting people, you are developing relationships. You should be anybody that you meet. You should always be putting into your CRM and just being mindful that, you know, this is somebody that you could potentially influence, or, you know, who, who, at some point everyone needs we'll have to have a place to live. So this is always, you're always on the clock.

Tracy Hayes  47:07  
Real Estate's an easy subject to bring up with anybody. Yeah, because the first question you asked, hey, where do you live? Right? Yeah, yeah. All right. What is your favorite way to the to prospect and expand on that a little bit too. You know, obviously what you're doing today versus what you were doing six or seven years ago, because that's it might may have changed. So what is the one thing that you feel is the number one way for for you prospecting and really moves the needle for your business today versus what was six, seven years ago.

Sarah Rothstein  47:42  
So I'm not doing anything drastically different now. I'm perfecting it, I feel like compared to before. But I am, you know, digging deeper into relationships. You know, one thing I wasn't doing when I for the first number of transactions, when I first got into real estate, I the follow up after the sale. I really wasn't. It didn't dawn on me that these relationships, especially people that I didn't really, you know, I didn't know I just met them, and they weren't like a personal friend of mine or something. I didn't really realize the value and the importance of, you know, keeping in touch and trying to deepen that relationship over time. So, so that's something that I'm definitely doing a better job at now that's through things like, I mean, just checking in with them, just trying to be personable, checking, you know, to see how things are with their house, keeping them informed on their market value and things like that. You know, that changes every the years, but also on a person you know, just trying to be their friend. So, so that's something I'm doing different. You know, the other two ways that I feel like I where I'm finding most of my business and where I My strengths are in prospecting, would be open houses and door knocking, door knocking. I haven't been doing as much recently. I've been I'm a solo agent. So So I this past year was a 2022. Was an amazing year for me, and so I was more working on my business, or, I guess, you know, just trying to keep my head above water with with all the transactions, and get, you know, making sure everything's going smoothly. So, so prospecting, even though I was still doing some of that in a way, but door knocking definitely have time to do that. But that is something that I think I do very effectively and and

Tracy Hayes  49:22  
let's door knocking for a moment, because new agents, you know, they hear it, and they probably have never done it. So to you, are you door knocking in in correlation with your open house, or are you just, literally just going through, yeah, if you had, if you had someone, someone being an apprentice under you? Yeah, what would you have that agent be doing as far as door knocking laid out for us?

Sarah Rothstein  49:49  
So where I feel like I've been most successful with door knocking is in my community, and I've door knocked in other neighborhoods many times that, and I've had some great conversations. And I've had sales that have been produced from those activities. But within my community, you know, we said we have instant connection with these people, because I'm, I'm knocking on their door, not necessarily just as a real estate agent, but as their neighbor. And I'm being neighborly, and I'm introducing myself, and I'm, you know, asking good questions, not from a real estate perspective necessarily, but as as a neighbor. And just, you know, you know, just asking about themselves, how long they've lived there, you know, do they like the neighborhood? Is this their forever home? Things like that. And I found that when you're door knocking in a place that you live, people tend to be much more receptive of you when I when I've door knocked in my neighborhood, you know. I mean, sometimes, you know, I'll be out for a couple of hours, and I've only gone to six homes, because these people keep inviting me in, yes, and they want to show me their house, they want to talk to me. They're so sweet, they're so nice. And I've met some wonderful people, and I've sold a lot of houses, you know, over real estate's a marathon, not a sprint. So it's not like they necessarily were ready to list their house next month, but they were like, oh, a couple of years, we might want to sell, you know. So I, you know, and I make sure to, you know, get their contact information. Obviously, we have their address, but you know, if there's always where our whole purpose is right is to try to add value. So if they have any questions, or it's not like, necessarily, they have in depth questions every time about the real estate market, but if they, you know, need a painter or, you know, yeah,

Tracy Hayes  51:19  
new restaurant when in town, down the street, or whatever.

Sarah Rothstein  51:23  
Yeah, we're just, you know, it's developing a rapport. And so I always, you know, have a reason to get their contact information. I do, and then I stay and flow with them. So that's the easy part.

Tracy Hayes  51:33  
I can imagine, if you're working your neighborhood, is because you can walk up and say, Hey, I'm Sarah, I live over, yeah, exactly. And right away they're like, Oh, she's a neighbor, okay, I can talk to her. We have the same way, you know, the different things that we're dealing with, the same traffic light out front. You know that everyone's complaining about schools. You know, if they've got kids, you have a commonality immediately to just start talking about whatever, and I think he was going to correlate with the podcast. Like I said in the beginning part of the show, a lot of agents come on, they tell me they're a little little nervous, but as soon as we start talking, right? We're just talking about real estate, which is what you do. It's the same thing with them. You're talking about your your neighborhood, and it's another person you're going to immediately go back and add them into your CRM, so they're getting your, you know, your your regular stuff, and then you know some of the things, I think you agree. I think in our area, because it is a growing area, there's, you know, whether it's a new restaurant, a new store, a new shopping centers going in a new neighborhood's going in, or there's different things that you can find reasons to reach out to, hey, let you know that new shopping center gonna be going down there. And I think you know, Publix is going to be opening a new location there. So whatever it is, it doesn't matter. The point is you're now staying top of mind, because that's truly the goal.

Sarah Rothstein  52:59  
Yeah, absolutely open as I say, open houses were the other as the other thing that I was doing from the time I started that I'm, you know, continuing to do, and especially over the past two years when the real estate market was insane, you know, open houses are obviously great weights to meet new leads. And even if person you know before covid, I think people that would come into open houses were just generally browsing, you know, getting the feel for the market. And maybe it's their hobby, or maybe they are thinking about making a move, but not immediately. In the past two years, that was a lot different, because houses were selling so fast. People were coming into open houses, buyers that were like, ready to do something immediately. So that was it was even more, you know, advantageous of doing open houses, you know, to well, you feel there

Tracy Hayes  53:44  
was a period of time there, like, almost like you didn't even have to do an open house.

Sarah Rothstein  53:48  
Well, yeah, that was going on too. I still, you know, I was strategic about when I would list the property, you know, because, you know, well, we were typically listing houses on a Thursday or Friday and letting it sit until Monday, and then we would collect all the offers, and then we would just, you know, discuss Hayes the best and all this kind of stuff. But during that time period, you know, we'd have open houses to let the masses come in. And so I still you didn't necessarily have to do one, but I think it was in the seller's best interest to do one.

Tracy Hayes  54:13  
I think this is the, one of the things that, and I know you're going to agree with this, because deep down, we dug in deep into open houses, and how you should do one, and all that kind of stuff. But even during the time when you really didn't even have to do an open house, you just posted the listing, people were going by, and then you had offers within minutes later, right? The reality is you have to continue doing your show. Part of your show is an open house as a real estate agent, if you want to do listings, which every agent you know, I think you guys have a phrase for it, basically, yeah, last listings, last, right? Yeah, whatever. So if you want to be in the business long term, you want to have so many, I call them traps, because that's really what you're doing. You're going out and you're setting a trap. I used to have lobster. Are traps on the back of Cape Cod. And so I use this analogy, you go out and you set the trap, and the baits in there, and the baits the house, and you know, people are going to come in and slowly, you know, the lobster, there's going to be a bunch of other stuff in there too. Crabs will get in there, and you'll, you'll throw those out, but because you want the lobster, right? And but you have, that's part of your your display, that's part of your show. Because now, somebody in that neighborhood who's across the street, who you listed the house for last year, and you did this open house and had balloons out there, maybe you went over, knocked on their door, invite them over, say, hey, you know, come on over. And, you know, have a, you know, a cookie or something in or glass of wine, whatever you were doing. And they go, you know, we're ready to move now. Who was that agent that listed that house across the street? That's why you do the open houses. Yes, the first things are in front of you, but really the that's, it's the long term effect that you are a full service real estate agent. This is what you do. And when you list a house, whether it's a house that's going to sell in 15 minutes, or it's going to take 15 weeks. This is the show you're putting on.

Sarah Rothstein  56:05  
Yeah, absolutely. And we're doing it to it's good for us, but we're also doing it for our sellers. And unless the seller just absolutely doesn't want to do one, I always tell my sellers that it's in our best interest to get as many people in the house as possible and, and you want to do the open house, right? We don't want to just, you know, put a sign out, you know, the Day of the Day of the open house, and hope that people come in, right? You know, we want to be strategic about it, and we want to be the professional. We want to show, to your point, that we're doing, you know, we're doing this in a way that is, you know, speaks about a level of real estate that we're in and and it impresses people. You know, for sure,

Tracy Hayes  56:39  
it's, it's, it goes back, to the photography Rick was listing edge on a couple months ago. I mean, you know, even though you know, this house will likely have enough offers by Monday, and I could probably go around and take a bunch of photos with my phone, and it'll satisfy but you have to put on the show of putting those professional photos up. You don't know who's going to look you know, because those things are on the internet forever, right? Someone Googles that house, those photos are going to show up. But again, you're it's those other people who are looking at you, who may not be in the business of buying and selling right now, but are just, it's, it's how you present yourself. And part of that, some professional photos and the open house, how important is it for a we're talking about different things that the skills that you're good at, and lead generation, how important is it for an agent to find that groove they're good at? And I think it's so important. I'm finding more successful brokers talking about it, I try to put it out on every podcast, but you got to match with a broker who's going to help you find that groove. Whatever it is that you're good at that, you can 10x

Sarah Rothstein  57:53  
you do, and you don't know what you don't know. So I think as you're a newer agent and you're trying to figure out, you know what your strengths are and what's going to work for you. You know, you just have to ask a lot of questions and you have to try a lot of things. I think it's important not to, you know, not to diversify yourself too much. You want to give something a long enough time to be able to work, you know, whatever lead gen or you're doing to see if it's going to be successful for you. But I know you need to be you, you know, I think it's really important. One of the things that, one of my goals, is to increase lead sources and opportunities. Besides, you know, just you don't want to have all your eggs in one basket or just a couple of things, you know, especially with the market shifting and things like that. So I think you've got to ask those questions and try to figure out, you know, what works for you, and talk to other agents that you know are doing different things to to see what's out there. First off,

Tracy Hayes  58:47  
well, I think you all started at the same point. You're all, you're all came in with, with, you know, you got a license that basically, I think, is mark you lemon side that basically says that you're, you know, you're competent, because you know the laws of being a real estate agent. You don't know how to be a real estate agent, but you know the laws of being a real estate agent. So the state's okay with giving you advice now you actually have to go and put it down into meet with other agents who are doing different and you know some of the things you're doing, you're doing now a new agent may not necessarily be able to, you know, immediately implement into your game, because you've perfected the open house, right? You've done it. But can they do door knocking? Can they go, when you're holding an open house, go and knock on doors, you know, with, you know, in the neighborhood, and let everybody know, yeah, hey, tomorrow we're having an open house in the day of the circle back around and do that, those, those those little things that can be done, like right out of the gate. And I think it's very important to find a broker or teammate or a mentor. Yeah, you know, in in we talked a little bit, you were talking about a coat. Coach? Have you had? I can't remember where you and you probably told me this before when we had coffee. Have you had a coach before? I haven't. You haven't. So this is so you've reached a level where many have had a coach to get to the level you've reached a level, but you're also now searching about, Am

Sarah Rothstein  1:00:15  
I doing it backwards? Well, but I am. But everyone's journey is different level, and I feel like I've kind of hit that peak, you know, over the past few years of, excuse me, of my production and the number of transactions and how much I can handle on my own. So, you know, so I am, yeah, I'm always looking to better myself, and that's kind of where I where I'm at right now.

Tracy Hayes  1:00:36  
Well, there comes a point where you need to start investing in yourself. And like, I think, yeah, you reached a lid. Now your lid was different than, you know, some people, you know, I've had Angie Bell. When she was on she told me she came from corporate America. Had a coach. Which first thing she did, real estate. She hired a coach right away. You got in because she got into a business. You really, you know, as you told before, you really didn't have any background or anyone to bounce off of, and you've learned it, and amazingly, you've done extremely well. You've but you've hit a lid. Now, how do I move to the next level? And that's where the coach comes in. But having, you know, a mentor or coach, I mean, is there, is there some agents that you would, you'd want to kind of give a little call out to you that kind of, you know, you would kind of put on that short mentor list that people you kind of go to when you get some tough deals.

Sarah Rothstein  1:01:25  
Yeah, absolutely within my broker, first off, Linda Benson, she's been fantastic. And our brokers don't compete. So it's always nice to have somebody, you know, there, who is an unbiased opinion there's especially when I was a newer agent, but still now, Kat Wetmore is in Fleming Island. She's been a realtor for, I'm not gonna age her for a while, and anyway, so she's a seasoned agent. She's a seasoned agent. I don't mean that she's Yeah, but she's a sweetheart, and she's always been there for me. There's agents in, like, I told you, you know, I I get calls, you know, I sell all over northeast Florida. So I have a new listing or questions about buyers that are going to be out in Ponte Vedra or something. You know, Tina Webster has been a great you know, resource to me. Priscilla Johnson is with Berkshire Hathaway. She's in our Ponte Vedra office. She's a very top producing agent, and she's really taken up a lot of time when I've needed to to show me around communities and stuff up there. So Jimmy Burgess, like I said, is someone that I admire, that I listen to a lot for tips and advice, not necessarily on a personal level, but on podcasts and things like that. So just kind of put me on the spot first.

Tracy Hayes  1:02:34  
Well, I understand there's probably and apologize for anybody's name she did not mention. I'll apologize before, but I did put her on the spot with with that, with that question, just to give a call out. But the point I wanted to make was reach out. Even if you are a new agent, you're coming out. Every agent you know. You've been in this business six or seven years. Sarah Rocco, six or seven years, you guys are at high levels. You know, in a very short period of time, reach out. They still remember what it was like the first day they walked into the office and reach out to these key people that you know, that you could put in your Rolodex and follow them on social media, and you start build, build build your business, surround yourself by those collaborate with those people, and they all want to pour into you. They do want to pour into you. They tell me every time they're on the show, you just have to ask That's right. All right, here comes. This is one for my reels here, or for your reels. Okay? You know, obviously, you know, the production is done. You've got a lot of at bats and have a lot of feel, especially, you know, in the in the neighborhoods and that you're working in. But I think northeast Florida's, you know, whether you're up in front of Dena beach down the Flagler County, is in high demand. Florida, in general, is in high Northeast Florida. What are your feelings for 23 What are you seeing from the standpoint, you know, lead flow listings of homes, obviously, with rates are higher, but what's your 23 prediction? I hate asking this question, but people love it on social media, so I'm gonna ask,

Sarah Rothstein  1:04:14  
What's my prediction for 2023 as far as what we're gonna see in the market? Oh boy, I think we're gonna I we're gonna have a good year. I know I still am seeing lots of getting lots of calls from out of state buyers for wanting to move to our area. National Association of REALTORS just put Jacksonville on the top 10 cities across the country as far as projections to overcome the rest of the country, as far as growth goes. So we're number eight on that list, as Forbes Magazine listed Jacksonville on the top the second, I think top city in the country recently, or something like that, that was on there. So I think Jacksonville is on the radar. And Northeast Florida, you know, our prices, even though they're higher than they were, we're still probably one of the most affordable cities in the state right now. So. So I think we're gonna have a good 2023 I think our spring and early summer is going to be very busy. I'm looking forward to that and being prepared. Thank you. Know, agents just need to double down and, you know, show up and do the work and put themselves out there, you know. And I think you're gonna, I think we're

Tracy Hayes  1:05:17  
having a great year tailoring off of that. Or I think one of the underestimated one talks about St John's County Schools. I have there's a rumbling out there. Clay County schools are not that bad, more than a rumbling. I'm on this side. I'm on this side of the river. So the

Speaker 2  1:05:37  
rumble doesn't quite get talk about Clay County Schools.

Tracy Hayes  1:05:41  
Talk about Clay County Schools. Why schools? I feel like I want to, well, actually, one of the things I asked earlier, we kind of, I wanted to get more details, because your lifestyle, you mentioned it in your bio, you know, coming to the Florida lifestyle and so forth, expand on someone candy to say, you know, you maybe someone's looking at St John's County and the prices are a little bit higher here on this side, and the schools are out there, but Clay County has so much opportunity and tell us about Fleming Island and Clay County as an overall I mean, someone who might be out of town. We're going to clip this out of the reel now we could put up talking about Clay County Schools and Fleming Island, etc.

Sarah Rothstein  1:06:22  
So Clay County is, you know, has been one of the top school districts, I believe, in the state for years, you have a rated schools. We're, you know, a small suburb outside of Jacksonville. So we're, you know, our commute to work if you live in Fleming Island or Orange Park or Clay County is very convenient to jacksville. We, you know, we're very close to 295, we've got the First Coast expressway that's coming through, that's gonna there's lots of, you know, we've been growing for years, but Clay County, as far as green Cove springs, and that area is a great area to to look at. Look at for investment properties, also for your, you know, personal home there. I think we're, think we still have a lot of growth opportunities, and that, you know, a lot of opportunities for your value to increase. Purchasing out in Clay County because of, you know, because it's, it's still affordable, it's a little bit, it's rural still right now in some areas, but there's going to be a lot of growth coming. There is a lot of growth coming today.

Tracy Hayes  1:07:17  
Well, yeah, would you agree if you're investing right now, and you are looking, hey, I have some money. I want to invest a buy an investment property. I'm going to rent it out. Because you are looking at the appreciation value over next five or 10 years, when that expressway connects all the way over, comes open to new Shands bridge and comes all the way out to 95 that whole area, all the way out. The stark to me is, is gold, it's

Sarah Rothstein  1:07:43  
gonna boom, and prices are still very low, especially the farther out you go out there. And people, you know, and people do like, you know, the the you know, the privacy and and having, you know, the it's just more, it's just quiet out there. So people, there's always people that are looking for that anyways. And it's gonna be built up more, and it's going to get more populated, but it's, it's an excellent, you know, still fairly undiscovered. I feel like, right now, at certain areas of Clay County and school systems awesome, you know, again, we're, we're very close to St Johns County. We have great parks, you know, we have unco Springs has an adorable spring Park Christmas time. You know, they had, they have a big Christmas celebration where they have

Tracy Hayes  1:08:22  
Christmas trees out. You know, green Cove strings is a hidden gem. It is.

Sarah Rothstein  1:08:26  
It's super cute. My mom will take a river cruise to green Cove springs, which is a whole nother story. And I thought it's hilarious that they do it, but it's, it's a really, you know, well, well,

Tracy Hayes  1:08:35  
I will, I will take two minutes. I'm gonna plug green Cove springs from, I have some friends that that live over there in Magnolia point, a very popular subdivision, from what I understand, green Coast springs have had two Hayes already, back before the railroad was put in by Flagler. That is where or steam boats came down. Went to green Coast springs. And then second was post World War Two, because the Navy had installations all the way through there, and the naval in the yard still there. The Navy doesn't own it anymore. I assume it's privately owned. But when the sailors were being discharged from the Navy, they considered green Coast springs, little Detroit, because all the sailors were buying cars and driving home. Oh, wow. So green Coast Springs is going to have another heyday, I think, within the next decade and on, because when that expressway goes in and people are going to be able to go, oh, I can live out here, and then it's, you know, hey, it's another 10 more minutes, but it's highway and I'm at work, yeah, assuming you're going into work, yeah, now I do notice kind of wind down here because we're going long, but social media, you're, you're kind of lukewarm. Let's put it that way, lukewarm in slow areas. Yeah. But now you, but you've that's not, you know, other people use more so in their marketing campaign, because they're whatever they're. Comfortable doing with or just gotten into it and committed to it. You've been doing well and been busy with the way you've been doing your business, but a new agent coming in today. What? What would be your recommendation? As far as you know, having that social media presence, what are they? What are they coaching you at? Berkshire Hathaway,

Sarah Rothstein  1:10:18  
so I, I think it's really important to I think you're going to be most successful when you do something that you enjoy. So there's so many different types of forms of social media. Obviously, we do think Berkshire Hathaway definitely, you know, believes that you should be present in as many, I guess you'd say as many of those realms as possible, but, but, you know, not everybody loves Instagram, not everybody loves tick tock are all important. And I think if you can, you know, I think you should be, try to be, put yourself on all platforms. But I also personally believe that you're going to be, you know, most genuine and most successful doing something that you enjoy and that comes natural to you. So you say, I'm lukewarm, I am probably, like, red hot, like, over the top, annoying on Facebook, because I'm on that so much, no, not necessarily, not just from a business level, but on a personal level. I am on Instagram. I have a

Tracy Hayes  1:11:06  
lot of family photos on the Facebook I mean, I post, you definitely do the five to one. You have five family to every one business.

Sarah Rothstein  1:11:13  
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I do, you know, I know I stay on top of mine on people, as far as real estate goes from my Facebook post. But, you know, I definitely think Instagram is I'm probably not using it to the level that I could, but Instagram is definitely huge. As far as you know, I think as far as referrals and connecting with other, especially with other agents, I believe in other companies and in other areas of the country, you know, people, followers with Instagram is huge.

Speaker 2  1:11:40  
I don't know LinkedIn, you're called me out on that.

Tracy Hayes  1:11:45  
No, I already called you out on that. Well, you know, because LinkedIn is a different clientele, so they said they don't, they don't have the algorithms like, you know your, you know, Facebook and YouTube's goal is to keep you on the channel. I mean, that that's tick tock, that they're the more, yeah, if you're a content creator and you're putting out great videos, and people are staying on there, like, there's this thing with Tiktok that if you can create content that can keep that person on past the first three to five seconds, you're they're gonna keep pushing your stuff out. So that's their little, little thing. And I could tell you, notice I've posted a lot of Tiktok videos, a lot of the reels of, obviously, the shows now, there's no big, fancy intro or anything. I'll just have some sort of relevant subject on there. And then, you know, the agents making, you know, some sort of, you know, comment relative to that, in their business, it'll hit 200 some views, 230 views like that. But the thing is, I looking at the videos that obviously people are, you know, getting 10s of 1000s of views. Those are the ones that are. They're doing those little extra things like I told you. One things I want to advance the podcast to is getting a couple cameras in that are all recording. Because the one thing they tell you to do in the first three to five seconds is bounce the camera back, like would be, be you than me, then back to you, type of thing all in the three to five seconds, because flashing then some we could just do this. Yeah, hey, so I need to advance to that level, but, or it's totally going with that. But, yeah, yeah, there, there becomes

Sarah Rothstein  1:13:20  
a you said LinkedIn works differently.

Tracy Hayes  1:13:23  
LinkedIn, yeah, Link. LinkedIn does not have that kind of algorithm. You're pretty much getting it out there. Obviously, more people that click it, they like it or repost your LinkedIn. And it'll push because I'll see different articles or even a reel that I'll put out on LinkedIn and say something great about the agent. It'll tell me, like, also, you know, over the course of the day, how many hits it's getting. It's not getting the 10s of 1000s, like you will might see on a YouTube video or something like that, but it is a different clientele. But obviously, if I'm researching you professionally, and I'm a customer up in New York, and I'm like, Oh, who's Sarah? Boom, oh. Sarah went to, you know, obviously, must have grown up in Savannah. She went to high school there. She went to Georgia, Southern, you know, boom, all of a sudden I get this feel, and then I think, like this video here we're doing today. People are hearing your story. They can resonate with you, right? You don't have to go on to college for real estate and became a real estate and became a real estate agent at 22 they're probably actually not going to do business with you that, but you're, you're a little more mature, and you have a kid and that kind of thing and and, you know, they, they will resonate with you, and that gives you, I think everyone, what are some of the questions we always ask people, like, where are you from? Or, you know, yeah, hey, I saw on your LinkedIn, you went to Georgia, Sutton, boom. Now we're talking about, you know, where we went to school or what, right? So that's why I pushed LinkedIn. Yeah, I think it's, I think it's necessary, in my opinion, that which kind of took me off my totally last question. Well, I didn't even write this question down, so this will be my last formal question. As we're going so long here, what is this? You've reached this level. You're getting a coach. Do you see yourself, pretty much say, as a single agent with some assistance, or do you really have a passion of recruiting other agents and creating a team? What's your vision?

Sarah Rothstein  1:15:17  
So definitely want to have an assistant. I'm not. I have a few different ideas of what direction that might take, but, but my first step would not be necessarily to hire another agent or to have a team of you know realtors who are, you know, doing business underneath me, but I would like to have an assistant to help, obviously, do things that you know may give me more time to focus on working on my business and just in my business and running around with my head spinning and then farther down the road, you know, potentially, as always, we always want to have an exit strategy, right? And I'm nowhere near that. But, you know, having being able to enjoy my time with my family and have a better work life balance. You know, would definitely think an assistant would be huge for that, and then also, eventually, probably having a, you know, a an agent to work with me, I don't necessarily inspire, at least not at this point in time, to have, you know, a group of, I'm not looking for a number of people to be like, to have a team,

Tracy Hayes  1:16:16  
if you had someone take all your, You know, have that like that really dedicated transaction coordinator, sure person, basically, who took away all of your administrative work from putting your listings up properly with all the description you had someone doing all that admin where you were just totally front end.

Sarah Rothstein  1:16:37  
I'm totally that is that is definitely something that's on my radar right now that I need, yeah, so I am, as far as an administrative task, maybe some marketing, you know, help and, you know, behind the scenes type of paperwork and things like that, to make my life easier and to be able to focus on clients, then that's definitely something that I'm working on. And some goals for the future, or the near, you know, close future,

Tracy Hayes  1:17:00  
your twin over there, Shonda caponero,

Sarah Rothstein  1:17:03  
picture Hathaway, one I should have gave a shout out to earlier, by the way, because she's,

Tracy Hayes  1:17:07  
well, we'll give a shout out to right now, because when I had her on the show, she had just, you know, in the previous months had gone and brought on a couple of other agents support, because She was at the point where her business, and she's been, she's twice as long in the business as you have in the growth of Jacksonville and everything her business. She said she was, like, pretty much giving away deals she didn't have the time for. She was referring them out. I mean, yet she was getting a referral fee. But she's like, why would I not, you know, keep this in the house, and I would, you know, obviously you were already talking to her. I know I was looking your social media. We're at the jack's real producers. You guys did a picture together. I mean, she, you and her, like her, or I wouldn't say mirror images, but from the standpoint of, like, where you're at, I think she reached the lid, and so she was just spilling out stuff and realized she was giving away money. Yeah, yeah.

Sarah Rothstein  1:18:00  
I've definitely had deals fall through the cracks because I've just, you know, I can only handle so much, and so that's definitely a reason why I want to, I guess I said I don't necessarily want to form a team. I do want to have a team, but I want it to look differently than, I think some of your, you know, your typical team that you when you think of someone that has, you know, a number of ages underneath them.

Tracy Hayes  1:18:19  
And you can, I'll tell you. I could give you a list of names of anyone out there. There are so many different teams run so many different ways. You know, even within the same brokerages, yeah, you know, there's a lot of different team structures with, you know, the Keller Williams has a lot of different team structures that I'm very familiar with. They're all run differently. And if you want, I can give you a list of people, and you can literally go and talk to five or six different people in five or six different ways they structure their team and how it's done. Yeah, absolutely. That's awesome. It fits them, because they're all different personalities, and it's part of that thing you got to find that thing you enjoy doing, whether it's prospecting or in this case, how you want your team structured. You want it structured the way you like it structured, because that makes you, you know that gets you out of bed every morning, right, right. Yeah, right. All right. I'll ask these are my I call my two minute warning questions. So we're gonna finish up with these. What is rothstein's favorite family thing to do in Northeast Florida?

Sarah Rothstein  1:19:15  
My favorite thing to do is do an open house. That's what my husband love, going to the beach or going to the springs. I think we live in a really cool area, being in Northeast Florida, where we have a lot of outside adventures. You know, kind of things to go do. My husband bought me a paddle board for Christmas. Cool, not this past Christmas, but the Christmas before. I haven't ever even taken it out and used it, something that inspired you and that excites me. He also, as a family, we like to go we're foodies. We like to go out to dinner. We like to explore new like local restaurants and things like that. So that's cool.

Tracy Hayes  1:19:48  
That sounds like a great, you know, from a social media standpoint, you know, to just, even just promote, hey guys, I tried this new restaurant. It was great. If it wasn't great, then maybe you don't do anything. But, yeah, yeah. Yeah, all right, last question, this is one for the reels too. I'm cutting this out of everyone's show here. Is it more important who you know or what you know and why?

Sarah Rothstein  1:20:11  
So you always ask that question, and it's very tricky, you know, I, I'm, one of my goals for this year is to read more books and to, you know, grow myself and my personal growth journey. So I feel like that's kind of what you know. However, when I think back about where I've gotten to where I am to this point today, it's been a series of who I know. You know through almost I could tell you know, I've worked for five or six different companies throughout my adult career, and almost every single opportunity that came along with each one of those was someone I knew, who you know, saw potential in me. And as long as you're coachable and teachable, you know, you can always learn more. So the what you know will come but I think the who you know is, I don't know that's just made a difference.

Tracy Hayes  1:20:54  
No, I totally, totally agree, totally agree with you, you know? I mean, obviously everybody has a slightly different opinion on it. I've had people on here say it's what you know they were more like in the education aside.

Sarah Rothstein  1:21:08  
Well, you don't know what you don't know, so you can, you can always learn it right, the right people can teach it to you, right?

Tracy Hayes  1:21:13  
You don't have to go to a class for everything. Sometimes, sometimes it'll cut corners too. For You is like, Hey, how can I get really good at social media? Well, if I, if you'll meet with the right person, they're probably going to pin you down on one type of social media and become really good at it, right? You they'll learn. But if you go, you go and talk to an expert. Now that expert may be on YouTube, and you start listening to a couple different people on YouTube. Those are the who. You may not know them personally, but you are knowing them because they're spilling information out, going to these events and meeting people so but Sarah, I appreciate you coming on here, hopefully our listeners. I know we went long, but we'll cut this up in some short firm content for them. We got a lot of good stuff for them to hopefully someone's researching you. You know, we'll get to know you a little bit more, whether it's a new client or maybe it's someone who wants to be that transaction coordinator for you, if you haven't got someone locked in for that or like, oh, I want to be, I want to be with Sarah. I like what liked how she presents herself and does business. So who knows? Yeah, that's great. I love fans. Thank you. And make sure you get on, get on her social media and look at her reviews. Because I went through it, because you you post a lot of your reviews, and lot of people have taken time to actually write something significant, which I thought was that I noticed right away, is like, These people aren't just like, Oh, she's a great real estate agent. No, they actually wrote some stories in there. Some people,

Sarah Rothstein  1:22:32  
yeah, it's, it's really humbling. And, you know, makes you really grateful when someone writes a heartfelt review. So I'm very appreciative.

Tracy Hayes  1:22:40  
Yeah, yep. And she definitely does post them up on her social media, which is something everyone should be doing more of, so people can see those great comments about you. But yeah, thank you for coming on. All right