Edwina Burch: Top Jacksonville Agent Thru Consistency and Mindset

REE #271 Transcript

[00:00:00]
[00:00:01] Tracy Hayes: Hey, welcome back to the Real Estate Excellence Podcast, a show that highlights the stories, the strategies, and the grit of the top-performing agents in northeast Florida and beyond. In today's episode, we're driving into the mindset and momentum behind one of Jacksonville's top real estate professionals. A true example of what's possible when hustle meets authenticity. Since launching her real estate career in 2020, she's risen to the top 1% of real estate agents in Jacksonville, earned recognition of the Jacksonville producers, and recently ranked number 72 on the Jacksonville Business Journal's top 100 agents list. She's built her business on honesty, hard work, and commitment to delivering real results. No fluff, just execution. Whether juggling the demands of motherhood or negotiating deals for her clients, she brings relentless energy and a competitive edge to everything she does. Let's welcome Edwina Birch to the show. Woo. Oh, the clapping. Appreciate you coming in this morning.

Absolutely. I'm really curious, [00:01:00] just from our pre-show really got me, just, you know, talking about a few things. That's why I said, "Hold on. Let's hold it for the show," because there's a lot of good information in there. 'Cause I think there's a lot of agents that started around the same time you did but haven't quite blossomed to where you're at today, you know, doing over 16 million last year in 2024. I didn't know, I didn't see what you've done. So, has this year started off good? Are we having a good first half of the year?

[00:01:24] Edwina Burch: It's an okay first half of the year. It's not how you start; it's how you finish, though. That's...

[00:01:28] Tracy Hayes: It's not the five that started. It's the five that finish. That's right. I tell you. But, you know, welcome to the show. Tell us a little bit about yourself, but start off like, you know, where did you grow up and tell us, so, you know, at 18, 19, Edwina, what did she envision herself doing as a career?

[00:01:44] Edwina Burch: So at 13 and 14, I wanted to become an attorney. Okay. I wanted to become an attorney. That was my lifelong dream. I went to college, I got a bachelor's in Political Science and Economics, and I thought that I was going to be an [00:02:00] attorney, but my ex-husband, who is now my best friend at the time, he was into football. He was headed into the draft.

[00:02:10] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:02:10] Edwina Burch: And he ended up getting hurt at his pro day.

[00:02:12] Tracy Hayes: Oh no.

[00:02:13] Edwina Burch: So I forwent law school to follow my college sweetheart into this world. And so it didn't end up with me being an attorney, which listen, let me tell you, this real estate is—that was my calling, that should have been my goal at the age of 13, 14.

[00:02:34] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:02:34] Edwina Burch: But we moved here to Jacksonville. We've been here for about 10 years and I got into the school system. Believe it or not, I wasn't a teacher; I was an admin. And I was an FTE coordinator and an enrollment specialist. And so my job was to basically enroll the students and report those numbers to the state so that the state funded the charter school. It was a charter school, right? The state [00:03:00] funded the school. And yeah, totally out the spectrum.

[00:03:04] Tracy Hayes: So how, how long did you do that? Because I can't tell—you could be 25, but you could be 35 too. You have really great skin, so I'm—

[00:03:13] Edwina Burch: I'm over that. I'm over 35.

[00:03:15] Tracy Hayes: You're—oh, wow. Okay. I, I would not have guessed that.

[00:03:19] Edwina Burch: I did that for, I wanna say six, six years.

[00:03:25] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:03:26] Edwina Burch: I've been in Jacksonville six, seven, so seven years. Around seven years I've done that. I did that—actually, I just quit two years ago and I literally had to beg my principal to leave 'cause he was not taking my resignation.

[00:03:38] Tracy Hayes: Right. So you actually were, in 2020, you were kind of doing a little bit of both—

[00:03:43] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[00:03:44] Tracy Hayes: Real estate and working at the school. Interesting. So at what point does what you could be doing in real estate start to outweigh what you were making at the school?

[00:03:54] Edwina Burch: Yes, it did. So, initially I started real estate because one of my teachers was a realtor, [00:04:00] and she had come into my office and she was telling me about a student and trying to work a deal at the same time. And I couldn't keep her attention. And so she was just telling me how hard it was, and she went through like the ebbs and flows of what she was going through at the time. And I was like, "I watch HGTV, I love helping people. I should be a realtor. I can make my own schedule, I get freedom. I'm on my own time and I get the ability to help people." Now, helping people has always been my passion since forever. And so I asked her about getting into real estate, and she gave me a link to a Groupon course. And I'm like, "You have to be kidding me. I'm gonna get my real estate license on Groupon?" So I thought she was like, just doing it just to like, here, this is, you know—and I took the course.

[00:04:46] Tracy Hayes: All right.

[00:04:46] Edwina Burch: And then, yeah, here we are.

[00:04:49] Tracy Hayes: Besides that interaction in the office that day, did you get a chance really to sit down and dig into what she was doing or just kind of all—just an epiphany came to you and said, "Lemme go take this course"?

[00:04:59] Edwina Burch: I heard her [00:05:00] complaints about it, and I am a solution finder. So as I'm—sometimes in like, when teachers would come into my office in that current profession, I would listen to their complaints and I would always find a solution. So I'm listening to her, listening to her complaint about a transaction that's going on, and in my mind I'm like, "You should do this and you should do that, and you can do this." And I'm not even in real estate at the time. It's just standard-level, you know—

[00:05:25] Tracy Hayes: Common sense.

[00:05:26] Edwina Burch: Correct. And so I was—and I'm like, you know, I could possibly just do that as something—at the time I considered it a side hustle. Boy, did I know.

[00:05:31] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:05:31] Edwina Burch: It's no side hustle in real estate, so yeah.

[00:05:34] Tracy Hayes: Interesting. So did you go to the brokerage she belonged, worked with?

[00:05:39] Edwina Burch: No.

[00:05:39] Tracy Hayes: Okay. Tell me about how you took the test. Were you already investigating what brokerage to go with, or how did you kind of evaluate where to go first?

[00:05:48] Edwina Burch: So, once I signed up for the test, brokerages started reaching out to me.

[00:05:52] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:05:52] Edwina Burch: And I started interviewing different brokerages to figure out which one would I best be, you know—and, you know, Keller Williams is a household name. And I was looking up different—

[00:06:00] Edwina Burch: trainings on real estate, and Keller Williams kept coming up as having one of the best training platforms for new agents.

[00:06:07] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:06:07] Edwina Burch: And so, at the time I said, you know what? I'm gonna go with Keller. But then, my husband at the time was like, "Hey, let me connect you with a..." Um, it was Ernie Sims.

[00:06:17] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:06:17] Edwina Burch: Football buddy, Red Zone Realty. So I signed up at Red Zone, and as a new agent, I was so lost. I'm like, "Okay, where are the deals? What's going on?" I signed in. I never went into the office outside of that, and I just kind of sat on my license and went about life, not doing. And then, another teacher was in my office, and I was telling her that I had just got licensed. And she goes, "Oh, my husband owns a brokerage." And I'm like, "Oh, I can join him." So then I went to a boutique brokerage, which was absolutely phenomenal. That's where I got my first, my first real estate transaction. And I did have a lot of conversation with him about what to do and how to do it, because [00:07:00] as new agents we're like, "Okay, let's go at it." And I think when I got licensed, I didn't follow realtors on social media. And so I didn't understand the glitz and the glam and all of those things. But I did watch HGTV, and I thought that's what it was supposed to be like.

[00:07:15] Tracy Hayes: Did you really have a true visualization of that?

[00:07:18] Edwina Burch: Yeah. So for me, I'm like, "You know what? I'm going to get the customers who want to purchase half-million-dollar house, and he's a pencil collector and she's a butterfly catcher, and we're gonna make the deal work. We're gonna look at three houses and they're gonna pick one." And it wasn't until I became licensed and I started seeing—because even then I didn't know a lot of people in Jacksonville. Just my school, my school, my small circle of school teachers and, you know, we just didn't know a lot of people. And so I started creating this real estate journey in my head of what I envisioned it to be, and it was never that—never that. Mm-hmm. So, but it was beautiful. But to answer your question, [00:08:00] I got into real estate, and when I got my first transaction and I announced it on social media with the picture, oh my gosh, everyone started saying, "I didn't know you were in real estate. Oh my gosh, I wanna work with you. My cousin's looking for a house. This person is looking for a house."

[00:08:14] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:08:14] Edwina Burch: And when I made my salary in one month, that's when I attempted to quit. So—

[00:08:19] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:08:19] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[00:08:20] Tracy Hayes: The point I wanna make is, the agents that are out there, any newer agents, or agents who may have made that first choice—you know, they came in new like you, you know, you really didn't know what to actually—

[00:08:32] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[00:08:32] Tracy Hayes: What the processes were or things to do to get business and so forth.

[00:08:35] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[00:08:35] Tracy Hayes: And I believe, and you've been in it long enough now to see that choice of first brokerage can make or break a lot of agents.

[00:08:42] Edwina Burch: Yes.

[00:08:42] Tracy Hayes: And it's very important to get out there and interview and so forth. Some of 'em have had enough grit to kind of at least stay alive long enough till all of a sudden you found the track and you started running.

[00:08:52] Edwina Burch: Right.

[00:08:53] Tracy Hayes: Right. Yeah. But I think many agents fall out maybe in the first month—

[00:08:57] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[00:08:58] Tracy Hayes: Definitely. We know in the first two years 'cause they don't renew their license—

[00:09:00] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[00:09:00] Tracy Hayes: and so forth. And how important that is. It's great to go where your girlfriend might be and you might have—but if they don't know how to nurture—

[00:09:08] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[00:09:09] Tracy Hayes: someone, you know, coming in that had the HGTV kind of envision, like, "This is gonna be really easy." But tell us some of the first things you went that—since you mentioned the HGTV—when you realized it wasn't HGTV.

[00:09:21] Edwina Burch: When my first buyer gave me 10 homes to look at, and I'm like, "No, no, no, we're gonna look at three. We're only supposed to look at three homes." You know, 'cause in my mind—and I was so blessed because they were first-time homebuyers. They didn't know what to expect, and I didn't know what to expect. So at that first transaction, I was really—we were learning together. But it—

[00:09:43] Tracy Hayes: Did they know it was your first transaction?

[00:09:46] Edwina Burch: No, but on my hundredth transaction, I told them. And so it's on my social media. I say, "Hey guys, remember that first [00:10:00] transaction?" And they were like, "Yeah." I'm like, "You were my first client." And they're like, "What? We didn't even know. We didn't even know." I'm like, "And you guys are gonna get my hundredth transaction." So she ended up getting pregnant and now we're looking now.

[00:10:10] Tracy Hayes: So it's for a bigger home?

[00:10:11] Edwina Burch: For bigger home. Yeah, full circle. Full circle moment. Yeah. So, it was definitely—I didn't expect it to go like this. I didn't expect the hurdles and the things that I encountered. I expected it to go smooth.

[00:10:22] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:10:22] Edwina Burch: So when I did the inspection report and the things are coming back, I'm like, "This is supposed to be perfect. What, what? So I have to ask for these things to be fixed?" So it's definitely a learning experience. I had a rookie mindset at the time. It was comical, and I'm blessed that I was working with people that were friends and that it was their first transaction as well, because had it not been, they probably would've fired me.

[00:10:46] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. What are some of the things that, you know, coming in, you took the test, but, you know, everyone knows, you know, the test is just so you don't get in trouble. It's giving you the rule book, basically. But really, what you learned at the—I guess, the—in this case, the second brokerage that you went to, he started to teach you some of the processes, some of the things that you need to be doing. Tell us some of those first things that you were like, "Oh my God, I didn't even know this is either possible in real estate," or just all of a sudden your mind just started to expand and start to see things on a larger—

[00:11:21] Edwina Burch: Well, he introduced me to the MLS and the things that I could do with that, and also the client relationships, which I already cultivated naturally. That was just a natural gift of mine. But having systems in place and having things in order so that you can run your business. But when he talked to me, it was in one ear, kind of out the other 'cause it was so much—

[00:11:41] Tracy Hayes: You didn't have anything to stick it to yet.

[00:11:43] Edwina Burch: Correct. Correct. And I'm like, "What does that mean? And you have to have this, and you have to have that." And I'm like, "What do you mean—is a CRM? What's a CRM? Why can't I use Excel? Why can't I use my sticky notes? These are more useful. They're color coded."

[00:11:53] Tracy Hayes: I can write everybody's name on one of those little things.

[00:11:55] Edwina Burch: Right. Everybody's name—

[00:11:56] Tracy Hayes: Every client I have.

[00:11:58] Edwina Burch: I had one—

[00:12:00] Tracy Hayes: I don't need this.

[00:12:00] Edwina Burch: It wasn't until probably my second year in real estate that all of those things resonated with me, and by then I had moved to Keller.

[00:12:08] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:13:49] Tracy Hayes: that? You said you got to a point where in one month you made more than your yearly salary at the school.

Correct. What were some of the things that either someone taught you or you caught on maybe watching what others were doing? Mm-hmm. But, you know, what do you think was a real attributor to that—getting you to that point?

[00:14:06] Edwina Burch: It's 100% relationships. See, again, at this time, I wasn't following any realtors. And the two that I knew—the only two that I knew were working at the school, and they weren't social media—like on social [00:14:18] media like that.

[00:14:19] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:14:19] Edwina Burch: And so for me it was cultivating relationships and not being afraid to tell people that I can help them. I love to talk. I can make friends with a bench. You put me on a bench, I'm gonna know the history, when it was made, all that. So for me, it was allowing me to be in a situation where, like in a school, where I told everyone that I was in real estate somehow or another, and then from there, that's where the referrals came. But had I not been in a school—like if I was just starting out, I think it would've been much harder. But my foundation started out with selling teachers homes—you know, selling homes to teachers.

[00:14:53] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:14:54] Edwina Burch: And then providing them the best service that I knew how, and going—each transaction became easier, but it was different. And even now, I'm still learning.

[00:15:02] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Every transaction's different. It doesn't matter whether you're at one or a thousand.

[00:15:06] Edwina Burch: Right, right. And so it's relationship building, and smiling through it all, and always finding a solution. I think when you come to anyone, no matter what career you're in, if you have a solution—if you're solution-based—I think it'll get you far. And that's—that was my foundation at the time.

[00:15:23] Tracy Hayes: Well, there, there is no doubt. And if I could, you know, think of many—that you're 271, of probably 255 agents that I've probably had on.

[00:15:32] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[00:15:33] Tracy Hayes: I've had some non-agents on, so that's it. But when it comes down, especially right now, you know, different than 2020, where you put the sign in the yard and you had, you know, multiple offers. And the better the home, you might have had dozens of offers.

[00:15:47] Edwina Burch: Right.

[00:15:48] Tracy Hayes: Right now there's a lot of, you know, strategery—

[00:15:51] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[00:15:52] Tracy Hayes: —and negotiation, making offer. And I think the buyer broker agreement—

[00:15:58] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[00:15:59] Tracy Hayes: —coming online last August, being required—

[00:16:01] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[00:16:01] Tracy Hayes: —is part of the strategy. Mm-hmm. You know, I think one of the questions—and it's evolved, agents have evolved—you know, do I call the listing agent and ask, well, what they're offering, or—and then the listing agents, a lot of 'em are just, "Well, make the offer and we'll figure it out."

[00:16:17] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[00:16:18] Tracy Hayes: You know, so that's kind of evolved over the last year.

[00:16:21] Edwina Burch: Right.

[00:16:22] Tracy Hayes: But have you found, especially, you know, in the last, you know, 6, 8, 12 months, there's a lot of hair now on some of these—you know, the seller has their requirements, or they wanna preoccupy the property. There's all these different things that are—that you're having to juggle—

[00:16:37] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[00:16:38] Tracy Hayes: —and get the deal done—

[00:16:40] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[00:16:40] Tracy Hayes: —right now more so than probably any time?

[00:16:42] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[00:16:43] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:16:45] Edwina Burch: Absolutely. So, I think that with sellers—during my seller appointments, I am no longer looking at comps from six months ago. I'm looking at the price improvement that happened two weeks ago. It's a different conversation. And even since the buyer broker agreement, I'm making them more aware and giving them my feedback for what it is to get your home sold. "If we list it at this price, it will sit. You might wanna list it at this price, it's going to sit, okay? But if we list it at this price, then we can sell it." And sometimes you have to let them know exactly what's happening in the market because sellers don't know.

[00:17:21] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:17:22] Edwina Burch: I think it's our job to provide them with data. You know, "Oh, my neighbor's house sold six months ago for $800,000." Yeah, but two weeks ago, the one across the street had a $50,000 price improvement. That's what we're looking at—

[00:17:32] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:17:33] Edwina Burch: —because we're in a different market. And with buyers, it's the same conversations but in reverse. Like right now we're in a buyer's market, which I love—even though I am currently listing-heavy right now.

[00:17:43] Tracy Hayes: Right. As many good agents are, right? All the top agents are gonna tell you right now they got listings they're sitting on right now.

[00:17:48] Edwina Burch: Yes, yes. I have these listings and I'm having conversations, and I'm giving my sellers—these are our solutions. And this is—right now the market is just what the market is. There is no crystal ball on when it will change. But as long as we are putting our best foot forward and doing what we can do, then we just—our buyer will come.

[00:18:07] Tracy Hayes: Do you have any listings right now that are in subdivisions that have construction still going on, where new homes are being offered by builders?

[00:18:15] Edwina Burch: No.

[00:18:16] Tracy Hayes: Okay. Have you had any of those recently, in the last 12 months? Because that's where a lot of the houses are sitting. And I think—the reason I bring that up is, you know, talking about buyers—

[00:18:26] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[00:18:27] Tracy Hayes: —is knowing what we know now, which is not any rockets—it's not like, you know, that makes common sense.

[00:18:32] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[00:18:33] Tracy Hayes: Because the market's dolled down and you got these buyers, you gotta really dig into 'em: "How long do you really expect to be here?"

[00:18:40] Edwina Burch: Right.

[00:18:41] Tracy Hayes: Because they're gonna be building in this community for the next five or six years. If you ain't gonna be here for five or six years, this may not be the property for you.

[00:18:48] Edwina Burch: Exactly.

[00:18:49] Tracy Hayes: Because that's one of the challenges right now—

[00:18:51] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[00:18:52] Tracy Hayes: —is they're dropping prices, they're competing—'cause they're competing with the builder—

[00:18:55] Edwina Burch: Offering incentives and—yeah.

[00:18:57] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, which the builder is building into their price—

[00:19:00] Edwina Burch: Right.

[00:19:01] Tracy Hayes: Which they're still getting the value on, but they're paying a lot of money to get those incentives to move that house—

[00:19:06] Edwina Burch: Right.

[00:19:07] Tracy Hayes: 'Cause I do believe a lot of the builders, their margins are very thin right now—

[00:19:10] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[00:19:11] Tracy Hayes: —because they're just trying to keep their crews busy until, you know, things swing around.

[00:19:14] Edwina Burch: Right. Right. I agree. Yeah.

[00:19:19] Tracy Hayes: I just, I wanna do just a little ad read here if I can.

Perfect.

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Deli actually brings up my next subject for you. Are you using any—and this is throwing it out there for you, 'cause I don't know if you're—are you using any AI in your business right now?

[00:20:26] Edwina Burch: I've started—

[00:20:27] Tracy Hayes: Because you guys have been getting trainings like left and right on this stuff.

[00:20:29] Edwina Burch: Absolutely. I've started, but I haven't integrated it fully yet.

[00:20:32] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. Yeah. So the interesting thing is—Lyman I had on the show a couple months ago, and he literally—people think that—I think the general public, when you mention AI, lumps everything in to the thing. And with the AI home search versus your normal—I'm sure you can go on your website and do a dropdown: "I want three bedrooms, I want..." you know, type of thing. It literally is natural language like you and I are talking here—

[00:20:59] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[00:21:00] Tracy Hayes: —or you're talking to a buyer: "Hey, where do you wanna live? I wanna live here. Do you have dogs? Yeah, I want a big backyard," blah, blah, blah. All these different things that you exchange.

[00:21:09] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[00:21:10] Tracy Hayes: The AI—they're trying to train AI to do that. Well, people are like, "Well, it's AI, it can do—" No, it cannot do that because it doesn't know—it doesn't know the difference between what the ground floor is versus the basement. Right?

[00:21:21] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[00:21:22] Tracy Hayes: It might think the basement—or you and I, if we're talking to—"I wanna live near the beach." "Near" for you and "near" for me is two different things. Right?

[00:21:29] Edwina Burch: Right.

[00:21:30] Tracy Hayes: These different things that go on. And one of the challenges—just to educate you guys that are listening—not everyone is really good at putting their details and so forth in the MLS. So it goes into the MLS and there are people who have houses with pools that don't put that into the description.

[00:21:43] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[00:21:44] Tracy Hayes: Like, you'd think that would be the first thing: "It has a pool." That's a big amenity, right?

[00:21:47] Edwina Burch: Right.

[00:21:48] Tracy Hayes: But it doesn't have that. So he's actually trained his thing—and it's constantly, it's gotta ramp up—it's now evaluating the pictures. So anyone listening right now: take your pictures—'cause you're using it for the descriptions? Are you using that? That seems the common thing everyone's starting to use it.

[00:22:01] Edwina Burch: Yes.

[00:22:02] Tracy Hayes: And AI looks for AI, so it's good that you're doing your descriptions in there. Actually have it evaluate the pictures, and then say, "Create me a listing description," see what it says. And then go in and add what you want it to—"Oh my god, hey, add this and add that," and then redo it and give me—because it'll actually—even ChatGPT if you're paying the $20 a month—

[00:22:20] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[00:22:21] Tracy Hayes: —it will evaluate the pictures and you'd be amazed what it actually finds in the pictures and brings out, puts a little more color, a little more pizzazz to your listing description.

[00:22:29] Edwina Burch: That's good to know.

[00:22:31] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. So Lyman is working on UseDeli.com and it literally just goes on as a little widget on your screen. They can click on it or do it the old way, whichever they—but they can actually start talking to it like they do ChatGPT or the other AI programs.

[00:22:45] Edwina Burch: Interesting.

[00:22:46] Tracy Hayes: Yep. And the listings will start popping up behind them—

[00:22:49] Edwina Burch: Oh, wow.

[00:22:50] Tracy Hayes: —as they—the more they describe, it'll narrow down, narrow down, narrow down.

[00:22:53] Edwina Burch: Wow.

[00:22:54] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. It's really kind of amazing. But AI is here. I really think that—I really think they need to start teaching in schools.

[00:23:00] Edwina Burch: They need to. They have to.

[00:23:01] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:23:02] Edwina Burch: They have to. I heard in other countries they are starting to integrate it into the curriculum. It's just something that we haven't done here, but we 100% need to, especially when times are changing, you know?

[00:23:12] Tracy Hayes: Well, there's way—I think the learning could pick up such a rapid pace because the kids can—you know, I didn't have Google. I didn't even have email when I was in college, okay? Dial-up. But, you know, to be able to do a research project or just an essay or whatever, and do some research on Google—you find fairly quickly. Now you take AI in there and now it's helping you do an outline, what I want to structure it—I think it's gonna force the schools to pick up the pace—

[00:23:40] Edwina Burch: Correct.

[00:23:41] Tracy Hayes: —and learn more faster. And the kids' minds will just be blown out because they'll be able to take in so much more knowledge at a faster rate.

[00:23:50] Edwina Burch: I agree.

[00:23:51] Tracy Hayes: Yep. So that's my little preach on AI. But I will say this—there's a lot of people going around, and I won't say it's just in [00:24:00] Jacksonville, 'cause I'm sure it's everywhere, that don't know squat about AI. They've either read a book, listened to a podcast, and they're going in and talking to people, but they're really only using AI like to do a listing description.

[00:24:11] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[00:24:12] Tracy Hayes: That really didn't take much for you to learn how to do that.

[00:24:14] Edwina Burch: Oh, it's so much more.

[00:24:15] Tracy Hayes: But yeah. There's things—all my captions are AI because it puts in all the SEO that I want in those. And then I upload the transcript from the show, and I say, "Hey, here's a reel. She's talking about this. Find it in the transcript. Create me an IG caption for it and then pull out all the SEO and your social media and all that." And it creates it for me, and I cut and paste and stick it in there.

[00:24:39] Edwina Burch: Wow.

[00:24:40] Tracy Hayes: So it just speeds up that much faster. But the thing I did learn from Lyman—which I think is important to everyone out there—and we were talking about LinkedIn before the show—AI is looking for AI. So we read the caption or something—a human could have done that—but the way it writes, it knows its own.

[00:24:45] Tracy Hayes: language. So when it's out there searching, it's looking for other [00:25:00] AI. So when you go in and do your LinkedIn, put all your bio information in there and say, "Gimme a compelling, fascinating bio," and let it write your bio and then stick it in there.

[00:25:11] Edwina Burch: Nice.

[00:25:12] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, yeah. But LinkedIn is, I think, one of the underutilized social media—

[00:25:15] Edwina Burch: It is. It is. It 100% is. Yes, I agree there.

[00:25:17] Tracy Hayes: I do—that's the first place I start for a show, is "Do you have a LinkedIn profile?" Because I wanna learn about you. I wanna see your background. Right. And I think if you're an agent and you're taking clients from outside the area, they're Googling you. They're gonna go to LinkedIn, which—if you go to Google, your LinkedIn file will pop up—

[00:25:36] Edwina Burch: Pop on there, yeah.

[00:25:37] Tracy Hayes: And you need to take a few—it's not—I think people—some people say, "Oh yeah, I haven't updated it recently." It's like your résumé. You update it every so often, and the beautiful thing is, you started and you're still there. It just clicks the dates automatically for you. So it's not like there's anything you need to do.

[00:25:53] Edwina Burch: Right. You're not creating an entirely new résumé every time.

[00:25:55] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. You might update your bio once a year or something. If you won an award or something like that, you wanna add that in there.

[00:26:00] Edwina Burch: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:26:01] Tracy Hayes: So definitely, definitely. Let's go back to your circle of influence.

[00:26:05] Edwina Burch: Yes.

[00:26:06] Tracy Hayes: You were talking about the teachers and so forth, but you gestured in there about social media. And you noticed right away when you posted your first sales, all of a sudden, kind of people out of the woodwork basically started saying, "Oh, I didn't know you…"—people who you probably didn't even regularly transact with—

[00:26:20] Edwina Burch: Right.

[00:26:21] Tracy Hayes: —on a daily basis. Tell us how that started to grow and how did you feed that?

[00:26:24] Edwina Burch: Yeah, so I always had a social media presence, really on Facebook, but I grew my Instagram slowly. And so when I posted my first sale, it was a Boomerang, and it was just something that I came up with. I thought it would be cute 'cause I like to dance—no rhythm, but I can dance. And I posted it, and all of a sudden—I even went back to that very first post, and it was just so much acknowledgment and love. And then my DM started saying, "Oh, my cousin wants to buy a house," or "I didn't know you sold real estate." Because when I first got my license, I'm gonna say this—I did not tell everyone, "I was a licensed real estate—I just got my license. I would love to help you buy or sell a house," because if I am looking for a house, I am not—and my little brother just got licensed, and I'm buying a million-dollar house, I'm not gonna use Buddy. And so when I first—that's why my buyers did not know that it was my first time. But I knew that I would—as long as I could find a solution, I would be okay to whatever was going on. If I find a solution, we're okay. So when I first posted that picture, no one knew that that was my first real estate deal. No one knew that was my first transaction, those were my first clients, and I had literally no experience at all. And that's how it started. And it wasn't until, I think, a year later that I said—oh, I was talking to someone on social media live, and they were like, "How long have you been in real estate?" And I'm like, "Oh, a year. Just a [00:28:00] year," you know? And so by then I had did like 10 or 12 transactions or something like that, so…

[00:28:06] Tracy Hayes: Right. Have you found—just being around other agents that are a little more senior, a little more experienced—

[00:28:12] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[00:28:13] Tracy Hayes: So if you were explaining this to someone new coming in—like you said your brother's got his license—to really lean in to some of those people, finding—if you can find a mentor, someone who's willing to mentor you—

[00:28:23] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[00:28:24] Tracy Hayes: —could really accelerate your learning curve—

[00:28:26] Edwina Burch: Absolutely.

[00:28:27] Tracy Hayes: —and confidence curve, really.

[00:28:28] Edwina Burch: Absolutely.

[00:28:29] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:28:29] Edwina Burch: Absolutely. I think every new realtor needs a mentor because they are going to propel you. You can go to all the trainings and mindset sessions that you want, but a mentor is really going to propel you to the next level. My first real estate mentor was Melissa Ricks. And how I found her was her boys played for our football team—we owned a football team—and her boys played for it. And she was at the thing telling me she was a realtor, and I think I reached out to her, and I was like, "Hey, I'm in real estate," and she was like, "Let's go to lunch." And that woman poured everything into me. And ever since then until now—and now I have Melissa Ricks, I have Keanu Watson, she's based out of Atlanta—and ever since then, you know, I would call her for certain situations and scenarios because we don't know it all. And sometimes it may be harder to get in contact with a broker when you can just text your friend and say, "Hey, I wanna run this across you."

[00:29:24] Tracy Hayes: Well, I mean, "broker" is a wide-open word in real estate to begin with, 'cause there's some brokers who don't produce anymore.

[00:29:31] Edwina Burch: Yes. Correct.

[00:29:32] Tracy Hayes: And they're—in my opinion, I could probably look—and you start evaluating brokers, and, you know, brokers have people leaving them because they stopped producing and they stopped staying out in front. Now I do know some brokers that don't produce, but they work very hard—

[00:29:47] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

[00:29:48] Tracy Hayes: —to be pouring knowledge into their agents, to be there as a resource, because they're listening to these transactions that are going on with other agents. And as we were talking before, a lot of the deals right now have a lot of extra things and negotiating—from negotiating repairs and so forth. And since it is leaning more towards the buyer's market than sellers, you have a feel for that.

[00:30:10] Edwina Burch: Right.

[00:30:11] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Melissa's amazing. Her original episode was 30-something, I think. And then I had her team at the time on for episode 50. But I love—I really—to me, when agents talk about growing, I like her model. I'm not a big fan into the first, "Oh, bring another real estate agent on in the mix." To me, unless that other real estate agent's running as fast as you are, and you want to team up because you both can run together, great. But a lot of times you always hire the one that's new and is gonna drag you down.

[00:30:44] Edwina Burch: Absolutely.

[00:30:45] Tracy Hayes: It is a bad way 'cause it takes away your time. They wanna be trained. They wanna be there when they should really just sit and watch you work. But anyway, Melissa Ricks for sure—and I wanna get her back on. She says she wants to come back on, but she wasn't ready. That was like, I don't know, six months ago.

[00:31:00] Edwina Burch: She's ready now.

[00:32:16] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:32:16] Edwina Burch: And I realized at that time—and she says, "Listen, if you don't listen to anything else I say, get you a transaction coordinator." And so, I got my transaction coordinator, Jen—oh my gosh, game changer. I'm like, "What do you mean I don't have to upload this paperwork? What do you mean I don't have to send this email? What do you mean?" And so that was at the moment that not having to do all of that tedious stuff gave me more time to be boots on the ground, talking to more clients. So that was the best decision.

[00:32:45] Tracy Hayes: So was this—I call it "pay for play"—but you basically were paying her by transactions, correct? It's not like you hired her on a salary or anything like that?

[00:32:53] Edwina Burch: Correct, correct.

[00:32:54] Tracy Hayes: You know, if you didn't have a deal, she didn't make any money.

[00:32:56] Edwina Burch: Correct.

[00:32:57] Tracy Hayes: Obviously, those who are doing it are working with many other agents—

[00:33:00] Edwina Burch: Yes.

[00:33:01] Tracy Hayes: —so that they can earn a living.

[00:33:03] Edwina Burch: Yes.

[00:33:04] Tracy Hayes: Because really, when I've heard the few hundred dollars that it is, I'm like, "That's a no-brainer."

[00:33:07] Edwina Burch: Right.

[00:33:08] Tracy Hayes: You know?

[00:33:09] Edwina Burch: Right.

[00:33:09] Tracy Hayes: It makes so much—but making that leap is the biggest challenge for agents.

[00:33:14] Edwina Burch: Yes.

[00:33:15] Tracy Hayes: That leap of faith. Now I have someone else I may wanna recommend, have a conversation, if Melissa convinced you of that. Because I really just totally love her model. That's the way she works. She made the leap and is now—she's way out in front. She's got it pulled—

[00:33:30] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[00:33:31] Tracy Hayes: She's running fast.

[00:33:32] Edwina Burch: She delegated everything to everybody. She had an entire team—but wasn't considered a team—a support staff.

[00:33:39] Tracy Hayes: Yes.

[00:33:40] Edwina Burch: She created an entire support staff around her so that she could be boots on the ground and never touch the listing.

[00:33:46] Tracy Hayes: That's a higher-level thinking, higher-level aptitude. Because obviously, if you think about, you know, the great people, the CEOs of companies—they have to rely on other people to do—

[00:34:00] Edwina Burch: Absolutely.

[00:34:01] Tracy Hayes: They're thinking of a lot of it, but they are putting people in positions to handle things that they're hiring for. And whether they're communicating directly on exactly what to do—those people are executing on their behalf.

[00:34:14] Edwina Burch: Right.

[00:34:15] Tracy Hayes: Right. And that's, you know—I think one of the other challenges I've heard is finding the right transaction coordinator. Because people say, "Oh, I had this transaction coordinator and, you know, they were terrible or didn't work out." How important is it when you sit down with your transaction coordinator to—because you do business differently than Melissa does—

[00:34:31] Edwina Burch: Yes.

[00:34:32] Tracy Hayes: —and every other agent out there.

[00:34:33] Edwina Burch: Yes.

[00:34:34] Tracy Hayes: And I think that's one realization you have to come to—it's one realization I've come to—in interviewing all of you: all of you do business differently.

[00:34:41] Edwina Burch: Right.

[00:34:42] Tracy Hayes: So how you interact or how you use that transaction coordinator is a conversation that you need to get deep into with that coordinator.

[00:34:50] Edwina Burch: Yes, yeah, absolutely. And when I first hired her on, I was interviewing different agents—transaction coordinators, I'm sorry—and I wanted my business run a certain way. I wanted different touchpoints because—

[00:35:00] Edwina Burch: —in this business, I always believe in communication, and I needed her to be the intermediary touchpoint if I wasn't able to. So we sat down and I went over exactly what I was looking for. Outside of the paperwork, she does more than just the actual transaction, and we were a good fit, and she's been with me ever since.

[00:35:17] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:35:18] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[00:35:18] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. It works in the loan world as well. If you've got a good processor or assistant—

[00:35:22] Edwina Burch: Oh, yeah.

[00:35:23] Tracy Hayes: —it's the same thing. You have to empower them.

[00:35:25] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[00:35:26] Tracy Hayes: My rule on the mortgage side is when that loan goes over, the processor's really in charge.

[00:35:30] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[00:35:31] Tracy Hayes: They're the ones who's putting all the paperwork together, handing it over to the underwriter, and getting it approved. That's their job. It's like correcting your grammar: they're going there, cleaning everything up, and making it deal. So I empower them—like, "You are in charge. I'm now working for you. You call me when you need me, and I will go do what you need me to do. Otherwise, you're in charge. Call the client." Because they really can make you look good.

[00:35:54] Edwina Burch: Yes. Oh, she does.

[00:35:55] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:35:55] Edwina Burch: She does a great job at that.

[00:35:58] Tracy Hayes: What do you think are some of the—just for—

[00:36:00] Tracy Hayes: —someone out there who maybe had a challenge making the leap of faith, number one; number two, obviously they've heard horror stories, and maybe they did have a bad situation there—but some of the things where the transaction coordinator really makes you stand out as a professional?

[00:36:17] Edwina Burch: Yes. I think making sure that they're in alignment with what you want your business to be. Also, checking their references. What other agents are you currently working for? And then looking up those agents and seeing what type of agents they are. Or maybe even picking up the phone and calling one and saying, "Hey, I'm interviewing your transaction coordinator right now. Can you tell me a little bit about how it is?" You know, getting a referral—but most importantly, giving her guidelines to follow, because she really makes me look like a hero.

[00:36:45] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:36:46] Edwina Burch: And it's the after—you know, the closing, the small touches, the checking in on the client. And those expectations that are early-on set can help you really, really come together with your transaction coordinator and everyone else that, you know—the clients that you're dealing with. So it's really setting expectations for your transaction coordinator—not just taking every—you have—if you're running a business, and because real estate is a business, it is not a job—and if you're running a business, you're going to interview everyone involved in that business, and you're gonna get references, especially if that employee is going to directly impact you. So I would treat the transaction coordinator—

[00:37:23] Tracy Hayes: And there's enough senior transaction coordinators out there that may have more experience than you have in real estate.

[00:37:27] Edwina Burch: She does.

[00:37:28] Tracy Hayes: That's—I love her—and that can help you. So when you have some of these situations come up, whether it's negotiating repairs or whatever, this transaction coordinator's working with probably 10 other agents and probably has 20, 30 deals in their current bucket that they're working, and they're involved in every one of those negotiations—what's going on at other places—and bring that and help you look better in that area.

[00:37:54] Edwina Burch: Oh yeah. She saved a deal a couple of times, especially with VA—it was a well situation—

[00:38:00] Edwina Burch: —and she goes—we're nearing the inspection period—and she goes, "Hey, I'm gonna send an extension for this inspection period because I noticed we don't have a well test scheduled. We need to get a well test." I would've never—

[00:38:10] Tracy Hayes: Right. Yep. You needed—and you could've gotten in trouble for that.

[00:38:14] Edwina Burch: Absolutely. Yeah. And extended it, and it was just—she's come through a couple of times and has just saved the deal.

[00:38:20] Tracy Hayes: Well, I always told this: I turn it over—that's why I say I turn it over to processors because, having—when I first started—I've been 20 years in mortgages. My first eight and a half—actually, my first 12 years—was in a call-center environment. So we're doing a lot of volume. So I always like to brag I've seen a lot more credit reports than the average guy out on the street because you're—that's all you're doing, is you're on the phone all day. These leads are coming in, and they want you pulling any—you know, they'd love for you to pull three to five credit reports a day. A lot of guys are lucky right now to pull three to five credit reports a month when they're out there because of how thin things are right now. But when you're seeing all those types of situations—the same thing goes on with the mortgage processor that goes on with that transaction coordinator. They're working with all these other loan officers or other real estate agents.

[00:39:19] Tracy Hayes: Yep. And they're seeing these transactions go on, and you know how a VA loan is—I get questions all the time from the VA. VA's—for some reason there's still people out there that fear the VA. I'm like, "Dude, the VA—if you've got a VA client, you got a home run." Especially if they might be a little squirrely, that's likely to get approved versus someone who's not a veteran if they've got some credit challenges or whatever going. But yeah, there's little things that you need to know. Dealing with manufactured homes, oh—it's—I love it when I've got an agent on the other end that does them regularly—

[00:39:52] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[00:39:53] Tracy Hayes: —because they know it needs the engineer report and all this other stuff, and they're already taking care of it.

[00:39:58] Edwina Burch: Right.

[00:39:59] Tracy Hayes: And it's when you pull that—the transaction coordinator with experience—you just expand your abilities.

[00:40:03] Edwina Burch: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I agree. Yeah.

[00:40:06] Tracy Hayes: So alright, so the transaction coordinator opened you up for some little bit more time.

[00:40:11] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[00:40:12] Tracy Hayes: What did you do to effectively take advantage of that? 'Cause you took advantage somehow of it, 'cause your numbers show, right?

[00:40:18] Edwina Burch: Right.

[00:40:19] Tracy Hayes: Have you ever looked back and say, "Hey, you know what? She gave me this many more hours in a day now," or, "I'm not stressed by going back and getting that contract written up. I'll just review it later. I can spend more time over here." What were some of the things where you're spending more time over there that started to produce more?

[00:40:33] Edwina Burch: I just started focusing on more income-producing activities. I went batshit crazy. I mean, I went bat crazy. When she took on after our first month—because when my schedule was, I would wake up at 5:30 in the morning, I would go to the gym, I would get the kids ready for school, I would take them to school, and then I was working at the same school that they were at. On my lunch break I was showing homes, and then I think school ended at three. They played sports, so I had a little two-hour window in between then to get sports. Sometimes my husband would go get dinner so I could cook it when I got home. And then I would show homes in between then, and then in the evening I would upload all the documents, follow up on all the title work, emails that I couldn't get to throughout the day.

[00:40:58] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:40:59] Edwina Burch: Well, then instead of [00:41:00] working on all these documents, I just started doing more income-producing activities—reaching out to clients more, getting out to more places, putting myself out there. I'm never afraid to walk into any room that I've never been in and introduce myself.

[00:41:13] Tracy Hayes: Sometimes it's just peace of mind, isn't it? I mean, sometimes—I imagine some of those evenings, not to have to go home and, you know, send out the emails and all that stuff—it's already been done, and you were able to just take some time to yourself. Because I think when you read a lot of personal development books or biographies of some of these guys or, you know, even just watching 'em on social media, "Hey, what is it you do?" All these guys are into meditation, right? They're all into—I forget what the terms they use—you know, that they get up early in the morning and do that.

[00:41:44] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[00:41:45] Tracy Hayes: But that's when your mind can actually start to bring in, "Hey, what's—oh, you know what? I haven't spoken to so-and-so in so long. I need to reach out here. You know, I'm not spending enough time at this activity," or, "My kids are in sports, what can I do to let [00:42:00] all the moms and dads on the team know that I'm a real estate agent?" That's the time when those things come up. But if you're constantly running, running, running, running—

[00:42:08] Edwina Burch: You're right. And you're more present in the moment. So instead of being at a football game with my laptop working, I'm talking to the next parent about real estate or about our kids or just creating organic relationships. And I think that's where the success comes—is the organic relationships, and the people that believe in you, they trust you. So I was able to do more of that.

[00:42:29] Tracy Hayes: Well, you know, to say Melissa Ricks—I know she basically became the mayor of Yulee football up there.

[00:42:33] Edwina Burch: Yes, she did.

[00:42:34] Tracy Hayes: Not only having enough boys to do that—

[00:42:36] Edwina Burch: Right.

[00:42:37] Tracy Hayes: —but she really involved herself with the school, and I know she's told me different things she's done, and everyone knows who she is.

[00:42:43] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[00:42:44] Tracy Hayes: And she—because she obviously is probably, you know, with between the oldest and the youngest, I don't know, a dozen years that she has spent involved in Yulee football. One of her kids is running on there at one time or another—

[00:42:54] Edwina Burch: Yep.

[00:42:55] Tracy Hayes: —from that standpoint. But it gives you time, like you said. It gives you that peace of mind to be present—

[00:43:00] Tracy Hayes: —when you have that conversation with somebody that you're actually absorbing what they're saying, and who knows, maybe you walk away—but that downtime allows you to process that.

[00:43:09] Edwina Burch: Right, right.

[00:43:11] Tracy Hayes: Versus running to the next thing. Alright, I had ChatGPT create some good questions for me.

[00:43:15] Edwina Burch: Ooh.

[00:43:16] Tracy Hayes: Let's see, let's see. I like this one very—this—and this kinda might be a summarization of a lot of things you've said already, but you've been in the game since 2020 and already cracked the 1%. What do you think sets you apart from agents who've been in it much longer?

[00:43:33] Edwina Burch: My personality. I think that people are drawn to my personality, and I have a can-do attitude. And you can't tell me no. You know, people say, "I don't take no for an answer." No, I don't take no for an answer—you're gonna gimme a yes. It may not be right now, but you're gonna give me a yes. But I think people are drawn to me because of my energy, my social media presence. And when they actually meet me in person, they're like, "Oh, this is really you. You're just like you are on social media. What you see is what you get."

[00:44:03] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:44:04] Edwina Burch: So for me, that—and it's pivoting. You know, a lot of agents, I always—every once in a while I shouldn't say always—I've heard, "I've been in real estate for 30 years," and I'm like, "Okay, I understand you've been in real estate, but we pivot. And if you're still going by the Rolodex and the phone book, then you're not going to get ahead in business. You have to change with the times." You have to—in any industry that you're in. And so, because I am so open to pivoting, I think that's what sets me apart. And when I pivot, I execute it. I don't just write it down—I execute everything that I'm going to do to get me to where I wanna be.

[00:44:38] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Yeah. I like that analogy you gave there. So—and I think people do this at any time—but I think the thing is, they like to drive things to their—

[00:45:00] Tracy Hayes: common denominator.

[00:45:01] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[00:45:01] Tracy Hayes: 'Cause it makes it easy to us. Okay, all these things happen—well, this must be the reason. And you—if you do that too many times, you're gonna put yourself in a rut. I think it's really what you do. And someone's been in the business 30 years—

[00:45:13] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[00:45:13] Tracy Hayes: You've been through a lot of different markets. But if you're not in touch with the current market—because you're thinking the current—"Oh, this is like 2012."

[00:45:21] Edwina Burch: Yeah. Yeah. That's what I get.

[00:45:24] Tracy Hayes: No, it's not.

[00:45:25] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[00:45:26] Tracy Hayes: Excuse me.

[00:45:27] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[00:45:27] Tracy Hayes: You gotta be more in touch with what's going on.

[00:45:30] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[00:45:30] Tracy Hayes: And so a new agent who's very active and absorbing that in like you are, is really leading the charge—where the older agent, if they're thinking, "Oh, this is like 2012, so I'm gonna do this," and not really staying with their thumb on the—you know, or foot on the scale, whatever you wanna call it—

[00:45:44] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[00:45:45] Tracy Hayes: You know, being in touch—I think that they definitely can fall behind. You're persistent, consistent, authenticity—you brought those terms up. I wanna throw another word out there.

[00:45:54] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[00:45:55] Tracy Hayes: I like to talk about this one. When I write the book about the podcast, this is gonna be the theme. And if you haven't read Grit by Angela Duckworth or listened to it, I would recommend—if you're into listening to personal development books. But Angela goes in and studies: Why do some people have more grit than others? Why are some people more willing to stick with it-ness—

[00:46:12] Edwina Burch: Right.

[00:46:12] Tracy Hayes: —of anything they're doing?

[00:46:13] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[00:46:14] Tracy Hayes: So I call it the LLC.

[00:46:15] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[00:46:16] Tracy Hayes: To me, in my life, I attribute my grit to love, laughter, and consistency—my LLC. So the first part obviously is easy to understand, my analogy there: love. Why do you love real estate?

[00:46:28] Edwina Burch: Oh, I am in love with real estate. Oh my goodness. If I could—I love real estate more than Starbucks. And my listeners—you guys know about me and Starbucks. Being a part of someone's journey, being a part of a life-changing transaction, some of the biggest transaction of people's lives—and it's me. They chose me. You know, it's 12,000 realtors out there, and they chose me.

[00:46:53] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:46:53] Edwina Burch: Everyone knows a couple of realtors. And so just being able to hand someone keys or make a difference—and I know it sounds kind of cliché, "I wanna make a difference"—but no, I truly, truly fight for my clients and make a difference. And that's where my love for real estate comes. Because I feel like when you do make a true difference in someone's life, you fall in love with it. So I'm in love with real estate.

[00:47:21] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Well, I mean—and there's a common theme of many of the agents on—that is why. It's the impactfulness. Obviously, when—I think we all enjoy when someone thanks us for something.

[00:47:34] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[00:47:34] Tracy Hayes: "Oh my God, I couldn't do it without you."

[00:47:36] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[00:47:36] Tracy Hayes: You know, that kind of thing. And most people are not—you know, if they buy three to five houses in their life, that's a lot.

[00:47:44] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[00:47:44] Tracy Hayes: I mean, I don't know what the actual true average is, but, you know, obviously someone in the military and they're moving around a lot, that's different—and corporate America, that's gonna throw the scales off. But those are one-offs.

[00:47:53] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[00:47:54] Tracy Hayes: The average person living their life—I forget what the percentage of people have never moved more than 50 miles away from where they grew up.

[00:48:00] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[00:48:01] Tracy Hayes: It's a huge percentage of Americans, you know?

[00:48:03] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[00:48:03] Tracy Hayes: So they're not buying a lot of houses because they didn’t move more than 50 miles from where they grew up—they don't go anywhere.

[00:48:08] Edwina Burch: Right.

[00:48:08] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. And the fact they chose you, and when they show their appreciation—especially ones who don’t think they can do it—

[00:48:14] Edwina Burch: Right.

[00:48:15] Tracy Hayes: —and you help 'em out. 'Cause I know on the loan side they say, "Oh my God, I couldn’t"—and I'm like, "Your loan was very easy. You make good money and you get good credit. You're a home run for me."

[00:48:25] Edwina Burch: Right. Right.

[00:48:25] Tracy Hayes: You know, when they show their appreciation—that's our high.

[00:48:28] Edwina Burch: Right. Right.

[00:48:29] Tracy Hayes: We get a high off that for sure.

[00:48:30] Edwina Burch: Right. Right. Or when they—I dealt with a lot of first-time homebuyers.

[00:48:35] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:48:35] Edwina Burch: And they are truly, truly—like, they're happy, they're grateful.

[00:48:38] Tracy Hayes: They're gonna cry.

[00:48:39] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[00:48:40] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. They've now have something that's theirs. Everyone uses that term "the American Dream" a lot of times—but they now have their property. They can say, "This is my home. I own this home. This is my—"

[00:48:50] Edwina Burch: Right. Right.

[00:48:51] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. That really means—for those who grew up and got—you know, however—maybe there's a lot of people out there, their parents—

[00:48:59] Edwina Burch: Never owned their home.

[00:49:00] Tracy Hayes: Ever.

[00:49:01] Edwina Burch: No. Yeah.

[00:49:01] Tracy Hayes: And so now they feel like they're moving up. And obviously, you know, your expansion in real estate—it’s a big part of wealth creation.

[00:49:09] Edwina Burch: Right.

[00:49:09] Tracy Hayes: Anyway, so we can underline that. Alright, so that’s the love. The laughter—I have to explain this one a little bit, 'cause not everyone fully understands my laughter part.

[00:49:17] Edwina Burch: Okay.

[00:49:17] Tracy Hayes: And my laughter part comes from my great-uncle, who retired as a major in the U.S. Army, but he was a private on D-Day.

[00:49:26] Edwina Burch: Okay.

[00:49:26] Tracy Hayes: And he—when I went to the Military College of South Carolina, he told me—he said, "When they're screaming at you and yelling at you, wiggle your toes 'cause they can’t see that." Right?

[00:49:33] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

[00:49:34] Tracy Hayes: And you just—it’s kind of a humor thing internally. I believe real estate agents sometime or another—you’ve fallen on their face or been punched in the gut, whatever you want to do—some curveball came at you—

[00:49:43] Edwina Burch: Yep.

[00:49:44] Tracy Hayes: You lost a deal, or maybe thought you were gonna lose the deal.

[00:49:47] Edwina Burch: Yep.

[00:49:47] Tracy Hayes: And you probably got on—whether you were—if you didn’t cry, you were on your knees praying, whatever.

[00:49:53] Edwina Burch: Right. Right.

[00:49:54] Tracy Hayes: Tell us about a situation where you had that, and today you now look back at that situation and you laugh about it.

[00:49:59] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[00:50:00] Tracy Hayes: 'Cause you're like, "Remember that day I was crying about that?"

[00:50:02] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[00:50:02] Tracy Hayes: "I've done that three times now since then." That’s what I mean from the laughter. Tell us a situation that kind of demonstrates your grit—that kind of sets you back and you're like, "Man, am I real—should I be a real estate agent?" And then you fought through it and you persisted.

[00:50:15] Edwina Burch: Okay. So I never second-guessed myself on being a real estate agent. Because once I started, I knew there was nothing that could stop me. But there's been—oh my—a few deals where I just sat on the phone. I remember calling my mom and—oh my goodness. Why are you gonna make me relive this moment? I'm gonna laugh about it now.

[00:50:37] Tracy Hayes: That's right. We can laugh about it now.

[00:50:38] Edwina Burch: I'm gonna laugh about it. And everything was perfect. She was relocating, had got all the movers, and we're getting to like the last—I think 10 days before we closed. And it found out she owed some money to the IRS—couldn’t close without paying that money. And she didn’t have the money. But—

[00:50:40] Tracy Hayes: Right. We can laugh about it now.

[00:50:41] Edwina Burch: And everything was perfect—she was relocating, had all the movers, and we were about 10 days out from closing when we found out she owed money to the IRS and couldn't close without paying it. She didn’t have the funds, and I thought, "How did this slip through? How didn't we know?"

It was heartbreaking—this was someone with a daughter who didn't have much time left, adding emotional weight. We couldn't close, but we pivoted: found a rental option, gave her space to settle her affairs, and closed later. She even called me four to five months later for lunch; though the memory still stings a bit, I can laugh about it now.

[00:52:00] Edwina Burch: I have another tough deal, but I’ll tell you about that off-camera.

[00:52:41] Edwina Burch: After you signed my agreement that says you would not do this, you would not do this, you would not do this. When I first started real estate, I went on Google and found all the things you shouldn't do when buying a house, right? And then I started asking my broker at the time, my boutique brokerage, and he was like, "Oh, well don't do this." So I added those to a document and made my clients sign it. Like, "Sign this—you’re not gonna do it. Let me explain what all this means." Crazy person.

[00:53:03] Tracy Hayes: You can find that now on ChatGPT. Just type in, "Gimme 10 of the biggest things people should not do while they're in the loan process." I’ve critiqued it since then, and it'll actually create a nice email for you to send out. It takes 30 seconds—just cut and paste. I like my version. Because you—and I’m sure you've seen it—there are many times in the evening where you're saving marriages. You're counseling people through it, giving them advice you wholeheartedly feel is right, so they can make a decision and it doesn’t come back on you. You're just exposing the obvious.

And with everything around the buyer broker agreement and the NAR lawsuit—it really devalued real estate agents. In any industry, there are "used car salesmen"—same applies in real estate. The consumer just needs to spend a bit more time researching, listening to a podcast, or interviewing a few agents. But they don't always know what to ask.

[00:54:20] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[00:54:21] Tracy Hayes: Now, going back to AI—I guarantee you, if you asked ChatGPT, “Give me 10 questions to ask when interviewing real estate agents,” it'll give you 10. Maybe you take four. But if you don’t know—that’s the age we’re in. And, I think it was like 72–74% of agents didn’t even do a deal last year.

[00:54:47] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[00:54:48] Tracy Hayes: I think that number's going to shrink. You're going to have 25% of agents doing deals, and that 25% will soon represent 50% of the actual volume because the overall number of agents will shrink. People will research more, check reviews, and choose wisely. So newer agents—this shouldn’t discourage them—but it emphasizes the importance of finding a mentor.

[00:55:30] Edwina Burch: Right, right. And also, even outside of a mentor, the most powerful thing you can have is mindset. Because mindset is going to get you there—and keep you there.

[00:55:40] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:55:41] Edwina Burch: You can find a mentor—and I mentor a few agents—but that agent has to want to do the work. If someone wants me to mentor them just because they see me on social media with keys and ribbon-cuttings, that’s not the path. You need grit and determination to do the damn work.

[00:56:04] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:56:05] Edwina Burch: Darn work. I'm sorry.

[00:56:07] Tracy Hayes: It's a podcast. You can say almost anything.

[00:56:09] Edwina Burch: Perfect—almost. But yeah, if you don’t have mindset, you don’t have anything.

[00:56:15] Tracy Hayes: I think that’s brilliant, because we'd like to think the mentor will teach you about the water test on a VA loan. But no—you should already know that, or hire a smart transaction coordinator who will tell you. If a mentor has to teach you all the trivial stuff, that’s a red flag. Every transaction is different—client’s finances, title issues, property conditions. Those are just part of doing the business. The mentor should guide your mindset.

[00:57:06] Edwina Burch: Yeah. Mindset is the most powerful thing you can have.

[00:57:08] Tracy Hayes: And I’m sure Melissa—you’ve pulled stuff from her mindset too. Of all the agents in town, she's the most unicorn in how she’s structured things.

[00:57:24] Edwina Burch: Yes.

[00:57:25] Tracy Hayes: She knew she was the rainmaker. She needed people to pick up the money.

[00:57:27] Edwina Burch: Yep.

[00:57:32] Tracy Hayes: That’s my analogy. She’s amazing. Alright, so we got love, laughter—now let’s talk about consistency. What are you doing consistently now that moves the needle for your business?

[00:58:06] Edwina Burch: Again, consistency is about mindset. I wake up every morning in gratitude. I don’t say, “Oh my gosh, this deal might fall through,” or, “I only have one closing this month.” I focus on consistently pivoting. Right now, I'm loving on my database. Most of my deals come from referrals or social media—I don’t buy leads. So when I see the market shift, I shift too. The consistency lies in pivoting and adjusting strategy to fit the moment.

[00:58:45] Tracy Hayes: Conversations you're having, right? Right. You're loving on your database or you're calling on them, or contacting. Yeah. What you may be talking about may be different depending on whether it's a buyer or seller market. Right. Right, right. That would be the first thing you know. Hey. Absolutely. Or, you know, trying to uncover deals. 'Cause you got, you have [00:59:00] to kind of create, well, who might be thinking about selling right now? And who do I need to be talking to that's thinking about selling and what do I need to say to 'em to convince 'em that like, this is the time.

[00:59:11] Edwina Burch: Right. Right. To do it. And people, sometimes they don't think that they can buy. Right. That's, I've ran into a lot of that early on in my career. I can't buy, I, you know, I'm paying rent for $2,400, but I don't, I can't buy, I can't afford to buy. Well, why? Like, I don't have credit. I don't have the money. We're gonna fix that. Yeah. Okay. Let’s find a solution. Let's start that journey today. Right. We're gonna fix that. And you're gonna have a house, and I'm gonna give you the keys in one year from now. Do you trust me? Yeah. All right. Let's do it. Yeah. You know, when I get them and then one year from now or less, I'm handing them keys and then they're telling—when you see a good movie, what do you do? Tell all your friends about it. So if I provide that good service, I wanna be that movie that they tell everyone

[00:59:43] Tracy Hayes: About. You know, that just reminds me of a couple guests I've had on in, you know, this year.

[00:59:48] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[00:59:48] Tracy Hayes: Danielle Aone and Jessica Mendez.

[00:59:50] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[00:59:50] Tracy Hayes: And they're both, they're deep into the Hispanic market.

[00:59:53] Edwina Burch: Okay.

[00:59:54] Tracy Hayes: And a lot of them, you know, a lot of them [01:00:00] aren't. They handle their money a little differently.

[01:00:02] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[01:00:02] Tracy Hayes: You know, the culture of that and—yeah. Right now, today they're not. But those two ladies have built and become the gr—you know, and I think it was Daniella told me in the last how many months she's done like 82 transactions or something. You don't get to that level without nurturing those people that you're talking about. Yeah. Hey, oh no, you are eligible. Okay, well, alright, well you're not right at the moment, but this is what we need to do. And now they're, you're reaching out and pulling someone up.

[01:00:31] Edwina Burch: Right.

[01:00:31] Tracy Hayes: And now they're committed to you.

[01:00:34] Edwina Burch: Right. Absolutely. Um, because—

[01:00:35] Tracy Hayes: You're pouring into 'em.

[01:00:36] Edwina Burch: And I never look at—and one thing I've learned is everybody can buy a house, in my opinion, because I haven't ran across anybody that can't. And I know that in this world there are people who absolutely can't. But I think that with true grit and determination, they can. Mm-hmm. So no transaction for me is too small. And I'm gonna give you a small story. It was a lady of mine that was referred to me. She wanted to purchase a home. She could not. And so we, I put her in the [01:01:00] program to where, listen, you know, eight months from now, we're going to start home looking and I'm going to keep checking on you. And in the meantime, she referred her uncle to me, who then had me list his house that was like, I don't know, 300,000. But then he referred a $3.4 million listing to me.

[01:01:19] Edwina Burch (cont.): Wow. And from that $3.4 million listing, I got a $600,000 listing in Oak Leaf. I got a $1.1 million deal from that. And so it's like you never look at people and say, I can't help you. Everyone—for me, I'm like, everyone has the ability to, again, until I'm shown difference. Hey, you wanna buy a house? You don't have a job? Let's get you a job.

[01:01:35] Tracy Hayes: Well, you expose something that I often say, you don't know what's under every rock. Right. And that person who you're talking to who may not be able to purchase, but you're kind of pouring into 'em, you're encouraging, you're right. You're helping 'em, trying to find that path. You don't know if that person is the best friend—

[01:01:54] Edwina Burch: Yes.

[01:01:55] Tracy Hayes: —and grew up with the CEO of Gate Gasoline.

[01:02:00] Edwina Burch: Yes.

[01:02:00] Tracy Hayes: You just don't know.

[01:02:01] Edwina Burch: Right. Right.

[01:02:02] Tracy Hayes: And that person goes and says, Hey, Edwina helped me get here, purchase this home. We worked on it for a year. She helped me get my credit squared away, made my income—whatever it was. Right. And then that person just has that feeling like, wow, she sounds like a great person.

[01:02:18] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[01:02:19] Tracy Hayes: I want her to sell my house 'cause I'm gonna reward her for being great, for helping out my friend.

[01:02:23] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

[01:02:24] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. You just don't know what's under the next rock.

[01:02:27] Edwina Burch: Absolutely. Yeah. And so I, I just, I have that same mentality with whether you're a million-dollar buyer or you're buying a house for $50,000. My processes do not change.

[01:02:38] Tracy Hayes: So how has it changed your life a little bit? You know, I think you mentioned you're a single mom, right? You got—

[01:02:42] Edwina Burch: Yep.

[01:02:43] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. But obviously making the wage you were making at the school—

[01:02:46] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[01:02:46] Tracy Hayes: —and all of a sudden you make that in one month.

[01:02:48] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[01:02:49] Tracy Hayes: So we know you're well beyond that. So how has that changed you and your kids—you know, I guess lifestyle?

[01:02:58] Edwina Burch: Uh, we've always had a pretty good lifestyle, [01:03:00] family trips out the country, things like that. Now we've always kind—

[01:03:03] Tracy Hayes: Well, I would imagine on a school salary, you're balancing your checkbook.

[01:03:06] Edwina Burch: Well, I was married, I just recently got a divorce.

[01:03:08] Tracy Hayes: Okay. All right.

[01:03:09] Edwina Burch: I was balancing my checkbook on a school salary. My husband at the time had over six figures.

[01:03:14] Tracy Hayes: All right. So you all right?

[01:03:15] Edwina Burch: Yeah. We were okay. And we always lived not beyond—we always lived below our means. Mm-hmm. We always lived below our means, and so we took family trips out the country. We would fly different places. But, you know, I wasn't—I was looking, you know, I'm like, okay, we were budgeting. There we go.

[01:03:28] Edwina Burch (cont.): Mm-hmm. I was budgeting more back then, and here I just, I budget—

[01:03:32] Tracy Hayes: You don't stress about it.

[01:03:33] Edwina Burch: Yeah. I don't look at it too much and say, oh, well, we can't, you know, do this or do that. And mm-hmm. You know, I bought my son a car—F-150—cash. Back then I probably would've gotten him something smaller and mm-hmm, you know, probably financed it. So it has changed a little bit. It can change a lot more, but I just haven't, you know, allowed it to change me in that way.

[01:03:53] Tracy Hayes: We'll come back for the update show on that. Yeah.

[01:03:55] Edwina Burch: Yeah. Actually in two more years and I buy a mansion.

[01:03:57] Tracy Hayes: Well, here's one [01:04:00] I think is—throw out there to be on the subject of the kids a little bit.

[01:04:03] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[01:04:03] Tracy Hayes: 'Cause how many kids do you have now?

[01:04:05] Edwina Burch: Three.

[01:04:05] Tracy Hayes: You have three kids?

[01:04:06] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[01:04:06] Tracy Hayes: One's old enough to drive?

[01:04:07] Edwina Burch: Yeah. He's actually going to college in two months. I'm so excited. I can't wait till my grocery bill goes down.

[01:04:12] Tracy Hayes: And I know there is a lot of—there's a lot of single mom agents out there.

[01:04:15] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[01:04:15] Tracy Hayes: And just, I've met a lot of 'em and a lot of 'em are just awesome.

[01:04:18] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[01:04:18] Tracy Hayes: I mean, real estate agents—being a full-time mom and top producing agent isn’t easy. What systems or routines have helped you balance both?

[01:04:29] Edwina Burch: Nothing's balanced.

[01:04:31] Tracy Hayes: Good answer.

[01:04:31] Edwina Burch: My life’s a shit show. So all of my kids are active. I have—my oldest son was, he's track ranked number 15 in the state. Mm-hmm. And he has a football scholarship to play at St. Thomas University in Miami. Mm-hmm. My youngest son—he’s my middle child—that’s Satan’s Tater Tot. I don’t know where he came from. He plays football and he runs track, and my daughter does track and she does gymnastics. So I try to be at everything when I can.

[01:05:00] Edwina Burch (cont.): You know, I've missed birthdays, I've missed events, I've missed recitals, I've missed award ceremonies, I've missed a lot. But the things that I can be at, I am present and I try to be fully focused. What I love about social media is that my clients know that my kids play football, right?

[01:05:16] Edwina Burch (cont.): Mm-hmm. So on Friday I'll get text messages, "Hey, can you look into this before you walk in the game? I know the kids are about to start." And I just love that because it's like they're aware of me. You know, a lot of—they follow me on social media and they're like, I hear a lot of agents say, I love that you pour so much time in with your kids.

[01:05:34] Edwina Burch (cont.): But what people don't see is the times that I miss—the birthdays that I miss, you know, not being able to go to a birthday party because I'm out showing houses. And so, yeah. But I love my babies. My oldest son goes—he leaves in two months. I'm so excited. Mm-hmm. You don't know. Do you have kids?

[01:05:44] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[01:05:45] Edwina Burch: How?

[01:05:45] Tracy Hayes: 15 and 12.

[01:05:47] Edwina Burch: Oh, your grocery—are they boys?

[01:05:48] Tracy Hayes: No. One. My son's 15 and my daughter's 12.

[01:05:51] Edwina Burch: Okay. See, your grocery bill's kind of there. My son eats like four grown men and I'm like, oh my gosh, I just bought milk two hours ago. Why is it gone? Yeah. And so I'm excited to not be at the grocery store every other day.

[01:06:00] Edwina Burch (cont.): He's gotta go.

[01:06:02] Tracy Hayes: Get his own now.

[01:06:03] Edwina Burch: Yeah. Yeah.

[01:06:03] Tracy Hayes: They're gonna feed you now.

[01:06:04] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[01:06:04] Tracy Hayes: They're gonna feed you down, right?

[01:06:06] Edwina Burch: Yeah. Right, right.

[01:06:07] Tracy Hayes: I want to just touch on and close up with—go back to kind of the mindset...

[01:06:20] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. For the agents that might be listening—yeah. You've mentioned that you're good at building the relationships. You know, people resonate with you. They bond with you. You know, whatever the energy is, it's going there.

[01:06:27] Tracy Hayes (cont.): Yeah. They like you basically, is what it comes down to. In conclusion, what's your mindset when you're—especially when you're going to, and you're meeting with a buyer you don't know—

[01:06:30] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[01:06:30] Tracy Hayes: —or a seller you don't know, but what are some of the things that you go through or maybe you've built into a routine that you make sure you cover? You know, at least to get started, kind of like the podcast here. I have a couple questions always to get the show started, and then it will take off from wherever it's gonna go.

[01:06:51] Tracy Hayes (cont.): But what is your mindset when you go into a buyer's consultation or a listing consultation? Because I assume you don't know this person. Your first goal is: I want them to like me.

[01:06:59] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[01:07:00] Tracy Hayes: What do you do?

[01:07:00] Edwina Burch: I have a mentality that everybody likes me.

[01:07:03] Tracy Hayes: So you already—forwarding that already. That, uh, I'm projecting—

[01:07:08] Edwina Burch: That.

[01:07:08] Tracy Hayes: Projecting that. You've—who’s that? What's his name?

[01:07:10] Edwina Burch: Ryan Serhant?

[01:07:11] Tracy Hayes: No, not Ryan—Tom. Tom. When Tom came in, you know, his expression was like, "Oh my gosh." You know?

[01:07:15] Edwina Burch: I know. I go in with confidence that they're gonna have a problem and I'm gonna solve it. Mm-hmm. Whether that's, "Hey, I need to find a house." That's a problem I need to solve. "I need to sell a house." That's a problem I need to solve. And then I dive into the smaller things to get that done.

[01:07:29] Edwina Burch (cont.): So my mind frame is every meeting that I'm going into, they're gonna have a problem that I need to solve. And as long as I project my true self on them—and my mentality is always—they're gonna love me. Yeah. They're gonna love me. I'm so bad at it. When I go to my listing appointments, I leave my lockbox and I say, "Hey, I know you're interviewing other agents. I'm gonna leave this here. Let me show you how it works."

[01:07:52] Edwina Burch (cont.): And I talk to them about the security of it. But if I don't get it, let me know and I'll just drive 45 minutes back to pick it up.

[01:07:55] Tracy Hayes: I love it.

[01:07:56] Edwina Burch: Yeah. And then they have to make that god-awful call. Nobody has ever called me to [01:08:00] pick up my lockbox. So that's a good thing.

[01:08:03] Tracy Hayes: That's a good thing. Boy, if they do that—well, when you were explaining that, the thing that started to go into my head was: assume the sale.

[01:08:08] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[01:08:08] Tracy Hayes: Assume.

[01:08:09] Edwina Burch: Oh, for sure.

[01:08:10] Tracy Hayes: You know, assume they're gonna like you. Assume you're—you know, because you are going in there, you're confident in your knowledge of what's going on. You're prepared. You're going in there, which a lot of agents—you spend a lot of time preparing.

[01:08:22] Tracy Hayes (cont.): If you're listening and you're not preparing yourself to go to a listing agreement, then yeah. You don't expect to win it. Right? But if you're prepared, you actually are. It's kind of like that thing where people say, "Oh yeah, I mean the first thing is just pick up your phone." It's like, "Oh, that's all I need to do is pick up my phone?" Well, you're like, "Hey, you're already 90% in the door just 'cause you picked up your phone."

[01:08:43] Edwina Burch: Right.

[01:08:43] Tracy Hayes: I mean—well, that's easy.

[01:08:45] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[01:08:45] Tracy Hayes: Being prepared for a listing appointment—

[01:08:47] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[01:08:47] Tracy Hayes: —that should be easy. Right?

[01:08:48] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[01:08:48] Tracy Hayes: Because you have all—you have, as Tom likes to use—the answers to the quiz.

[01:08:53] Edwina Burch: There you go.

[01:08:54] Tracy Hayes: You have the answers to the quiz. So why are you afraid to take the quiz?

[01:08:57] Edwina Burch: Right.

[01:08:58] Tracy Hayes: Right, right. But I like that it goes back to the mindset term, and the agents that are listening—going in and projecting that you're their agent.

[01:09:08] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[01:09:08] Tracy Hayes: Because you know you're good at it. You know you're gonna deliver for them. And the reality is—I think people get nervous 'cause they don't know what's behind the curtain. But that's every deal.

[01:09:18] Edwina Burch: That's every deal. That's life itself. And I go in there, and when I'm talking to them, I'm like, "And when we list this, it's what it's gonna look like. And let me show you our team that we're gonna be working with."

[01:09:18] Edwina Burch: That's every deal. That's life itself. And I go in there and when I'm talking to them, I'm like, "And when we list this, this is what it's gonna look like. Let me show you our team that we're gonna be working with."

[01:09:28] Edwina Burch (cont.): It's not, "Oh, I know you're interviewing six agents, but if you choose me, this is what we will do, this is what I can do." No—this is what's going to happen. Mm-hmm. And I'm gonna list your house and I'm gonna sell it, because if I list it, it's gonna sell. Here's my lockbox. Let me show you how it works. Let me show you why I use it.

[01:09:42] Tracy Hayes: How do you handle the situations where you do go over to somebody's house, you're meeting 'em for the first time—

[01:09:45] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[01:09:45] Tracy Hayes: —you need, like, a listing agreement, and you need to have some hard conversations with them. Like—

[01:09:50] Edwina Burch: —to clean this up? Oh, oh my gosh, those are the worst. Or the smell. And I'm saying, "Listen, I need all of this stuff gone because when [01:10:00] somebody comes to your house, they wanna see it as their own. I have a cleaning company that I can recommend. I can have them over here in 24 hours, but these are all the things that I need up." Oh my gosh. I love all your playpens and all your toys, but we don't want anybody to think that—that don’t have kids—maybe they can't have kids. You know, it may be an emotional trigger for them. Not saying that it is, but it’s clutter. I mean, it's cluttered.

[01:10:25] Edwina Burch (cont.): I have a—well, I had a playroom, you know?

[01:10:27] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[01:10:28] Edwina Burch: But it wasn't clutter. And when you gotta kick the stuff over and move it over—mm-hmm—I just, I always tell them, "I need your house empty." If it’s really bad, I need your house empty because I need people to walk in and view themselves as living here. We can't do that with every wall covered and all the, you know—yeah.

[01:10:45] Edwina Burch (cont.): And then I don't think I've ever told a customer their house stinks. I just brought over air fresheners and carpet deodorizers and things like that.

[01:10:45] Tracy Hayes: But I mean, in today's market—

[01:10:48] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[01:10:48] Tracy Hayes: —you know, and from what I understand from a lot of agents, more buyers—they want turnkey.

[01:10:53] Edwina Burch: Yes, they do.

[01:10:54] Tracy Hayes: You might get lucky, you find a buyer who sees an opportunity to fix up a house or something—

[01:10:58] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[01:10:59] Tracy Hayes: —but those are [01:11:00] far few. Most of these—

[01:11:01] Edwina Burch: —they want turnkey.

[01:11:02] Tracy Hayes: They want turnkey. They want everything to work. They want—they don’t want to worry about appliances—

[01:11:06] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[01:11:06] Tracy Hayes: —the warranty. You know, that’s why new construction is hot.

[01:11:09] Edwina Burch: Yep.

[01:11:09] Tracy Hayes: Especially for first-time homebuyers.

[01:11:11] Edwina Burch: Yep.

[01:11:12] Tracy Hayes: 'Cause a lot of these kids don’t even know what a hot water heater is.

[01:11:14] Edwina Burch: Right.

[01:11:15] Tracy Hayes: Right. They don’t realize where the water comes from.

[01:11:17] Edwina Burch: Right. They don’t. They don’t. No.

[01:11:18] Tracy Hayes: That that works. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. We covered the listing—oh, I like—oh, alright, uh—

[01:11:24] Edwina Burch: Oh.

[01:11:24] Tracy Hayes: Where do you see—this is my last question.

[01:11:27] Edwina Burch: You said that last, last question.

[01:11:28] Tracy Hayes: Might be a two-parter, but it’s okay. Where do you see the greatest opportunities for agents in Jacksonville today?

[01:11:34] Edwina Burch: Where do—okay, that’s a broad question.

[01:11:36] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[01:11:38] Edwina Burch: Narrow it down for me. What do you—

[01:11:39] Tracy Hayes: Are there niches or underserved markets that you're tapping into?

[01:11:43] Edwina Burch: Okay. No, I don’t have a niche. I have—I think that in Jacksonville, because it’s Jacksonville—I mean, new construction is a hotspot right now. But for me, and I can only kind of speak for me—I don't have a niche.

[01:11:58] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[01:11:59] Edwina Burch: I closed a [01:12:00] deal in Orlando two weeks ago. I’ll go to Yulee. I’ll go wherever my buyer is going, as long as I have the capacity to do so.

[01:12:05] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[01:12:06] Edwina Burch: So I don’t focus on first-time homebuyers.

[01:12:10] Tracy Hayes: It’s kinda like that question, "What’s your why?" I hate when people ask that question 'cause it’s like—

[01:12:14] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[01:12:14] Tracy Hayes: My why is to survive. What do you—why—people think you have to drill down, like you have to—you do have to have a niche. Although, you know, situations are—you know, if you wanted to focus on a certain neighborhood—

[01:12:28] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[01:12:29] Tracy Hayes: —you know, "Hey, I want to farm this area of town 'cause I want to be the expert." You can’t put me in a box. There’s some people—that works really well, they do that.

[01:12:35] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[01:12:35] Tracy Hayes: But for me—I—yeah. Right now your business—you’re getting enough business. You’re occupied.

[01:12:40] Tracy Hayes: Slow down or hire more people so you had more time—maybe you could start to think of, "Alright, hey, I wanna really focus on this area of town."

[01:12:46] Edwina Burch: Right. Right. And, and these—because you have agents that only focus on Nocatee, and you have agents that only focus on these two zip codes. Right. When I started thinking of that—because that's the first thing they teach you—focus on your niche or your niche, focus on it. And I'm like, no. I don't wanna be put in a box and say, I can only do this.

[01:12:59] Tracy Hayes: I think [01:13:00] that works if you don't have business already.

[01:13:02] Edwina Burch: Okay.

[01:13:03] Tracy Hayes: You’re—you know, if you're like, "Hey..." That makes sense. I don't—you know, like, you walked in the office and you—like, the only people you knew were other teachers, right?

[01:13:08] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[01:13:08] Tracy Hayes: So you kind of—that was your focus initially.

[01:13:10] Edwina Burch: Sub—I see what you're saying, yeah. Subtly. Yeah. That makes sense.

[01:13:15] Tracy Hayes: If you're an agent out there and like, "Hey, I'm getting my business started. Well, how do I want to—okay, I wanna focus on these three neighborhoods and I'm going to own those three neighborhoods."

[01:13:24] Edwina Burch: Mm-hmm.

[01:13:24] Tracy Hayes: You'll eventually get business out of those—you’ll—'cause you'll be seen as the expert.

[01:13:28] Edwina Burch: Yes. In that—in that area. Yes.

[01:13:31] Tracy Hayes: And I see what you mean. Anything you'd like to add here to our—

[01:13:33] Edwina Burch: For any agents that are listening, be persistent and consistent. You will have to pivot, and that is where you will see the success in your business. Sellers—you hire us because we are the experts. Same with buyers. So, let us do our job.

[01:13:51] Tracy Hayes: I—it really—it really does mind boggle me again, but I think this has been going on for—you know, why people try to sell their house themselves, or—or go out or [01:14:00] go out just randomly and think that the person who's listing that house is really—

[01:14:04] Edwina Burch: Yeah.

[01:14:04] Tracy Hayes: —you know, looking out for them. Especially in new construction, right?

[01:14:09] Edwina Burch: I got a text message—this is, this is—okay, I gotta share this. Okay. So I started working with—it’s a gentleman, and he is, I think he's 20. He has a girlfriend. She's pregnant. They're expecting their baby in November, and he was looking to rent a home, right?

[01:14:21] Edwina Burch (cont.): Mm-hmm. And so my phone was on "Do Not Disturb," and then I'm reading over the messages—he just sent me this. He said, "Good morning. I submitted everything to the lender last night. I'm supposed to talk to the loan officer later today. I wanted to say thank you. I'm beyond grateful to start this journey with you, and I can't wait to close. Thank you for believing in me."

[01:14:44] Edwina Burch (cont.): Yeah. This is why I love what I do. Like, you can pay $2,500 for rent—no, you can get a house. Don't do that.

[01:14:47] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. So—yeah. Yeah. I appreciate you coming on today.

[01:14:50] Edwina Burch: Absolutely. Thank you for having me.

[01:14:51] Tracy Hayes: It was a good show. And obviously, I take every show as almost like a personal development—learning from different people. And hopefully some agents here—whether they [01:15:00] got a tip or got inspired—but, you know, I think the—well, I'm writing down what the title—"Persistent and Consistent" might be the title.

[01:15:06] Tracy Hayes (cont.): "Mindset" is another word.

[01:15:08] Edwina Burch: Mindset.

[01:15:08] Tracy Hayes: I like "Mindset." I—I really think we drove—drove "mindset" 'cause I think that was—is a lot of—uh, a lot of what you've narrowed your business down, and having that mindset, walking in and talking to people, that sort of thing. So, just a great show.

[01:15:21] Edwina Burch: Absolutely.

[01:15:22] Tracy Hayes: Appreciate you.

[01:15:23] Edwina Burch: Thank you for having me. Thank you. Thank you.