From Classroom to $36M: Military Relocation & St Johns County Top Real Estate Team Holly Taylor Ep 333

REE #333 Transcript

[00:00:00] Holly Taylor: I love real estate for the financial freedom that it has created. I love the relationships that I have been able to form. There were multiple buyers and sellers who stopped by my house when my babies were born. It’s those sorts of relationships. I don’t need a million followers on social media. It’s not me. I would rather have my couple hundred that I love and can hug and meet up with. It’s just created a great life for my family.

[00:01:00] Tracy Hayes: Hey, welcome back to the Real Estate Excellence Podcast. Before she sold homes, my next guest spent nine years teaching elementary and special education. Since 2019, she built the Taylor Team in St. Augustine, and in 2025 alone, closed 93 transactions worth $36 million.

[00:01:23] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:01:24] Tracy Hayes: She specializes in military relocation, first-time buyers, and families moving into their next chapter, bringing the same patience she gave her students to the closing table. Please welcome Holly Taylor to the show.

[00:01:36] Holly Taylor: Thank you so much.

[00:01:36] Tracy Hayes: Welcome.

[00:01:37] Holly Taylor: Thank you for having me.

[00:01:37] Tracy Hayes: Well, I appreciate you coming on, because I think you have an experience that we really need to—that I try to share on every show. But every agent has a slightly different side of the story. You’ve worked for some different brokerages, some of the bigger names in town and so forth, and there’s the importance of choosing the right brokerage. One of the words we were talking about pre-show was having a mentor.

But let’s start off a little bit. Tell us a little bit about Holly. What were your aspirations before getting into real estate, and what got you interested in learning about real estate and getting into it?

[00:02:11] Holly Taylor: Okay, of course. I’m originally from Syracuse, New York. I met my husband, gosh, 17 years ago, which brought me to Virginia, which then brought me down to Florida.

I’ve always loved kids and helping people, so it seemed very obvious that I should be a teacher in the beginning. Then it got to the point where I had to ask for days off for a field trip, and I wanted to spend time with my kids. I wanted to make my own schedule.

It was actually a date I was having with my husband, and he said, “You know, are you happy?” I said, “Yes.” He said, “Is there anything else you’ve ever considered doing?” I mentioned real estate. I’d always gone to open houses and loved, you know, the decoration, the numbers, and all of that. Literally, at dinner, we signed up for the real estate class, and we never looked back.

I did try to do both for a little while, about a year and a half. I tried to teach and then build my career, and we decided that we just had to go all in.

[00:03:04] Tracy Hayes: What do you think about that? Because I think that’s very common, especially for teachers. I’ve had a bunch on—or former teachers, I should say—who did that. Was that good for you, or, if you were to go back and do it again, would you just jump in?

[00:03:18] Holly Taylor: It’s really hard to say. Obviously, hindsight is 20/20. I would say just jump in, but I think a lot about things before I do them, and I want to make sure I’m making the right decision.

[00:03:28] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:03:28] Holly Taylor: I had Jackson at the time, so I didn’t want to not have, you know, a second income in the family. But it was my husband who really pushed me. He said, “You know, give yourself a summer. See if you can build a pipeline and if you can go into it. If you can’t, you’ve got to go back and teach.”

[00:03:42] Tracy Hayes: How long, at that point—well, I guess that whole—were you teaching in St. Johns County this whole time?

[00:03:48] Holly Taylor: I was teaching in Duval.

[00:03:48] Tracy Hayes: You were teaching in Duval?

[00:03:49] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:03:50] Tracy Hayes: So, you were down here for those nine years of teaching?

[00:03:53] Holly Taylor: Three of the years were in Virginia.

[00:03:55] Tracy Hayes: Okay.

[00:03:55] Holly Taylor: Then I did the other six here.

[00:03:57] Tracy Hayes: Six here. Okay. Mm-hmm. Because you don’t look that old, so I was calculating the math there, going, “Hold on a second. How long have you been in real estate?” Well, right. You’re okay.

[00:04:06] Holly Taylor: Almost 40, but we’re not going to talk about it.

[00:04:10] Tracy Hayes: Well, when you’re 56, as of a few weeks ago, you’re just getting going.

[00:04:16] Holly Taylor: That’s right.

[00:04:16] Tracy Hayes: You are. And you did have a child recently, I found out, in the last year.

[00:04:20] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:04:20] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:04:21] Holly Taylor: Well, I’ve had quite a few children.

[00:04:23] Tracy Hayes: Okay.

[00:04:23] Holly Taylor: I had my two-year-old in 2024.

[00:04:26] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:04:26] Holly Taylor: Then I had twin girls in 2025.

[00:04:29] Tracy Hayes: Wow. Twins.

[00:04:30] Holly Taylor: Nine months tomorrow.

[00:04:30] Tracy Hayes: All right. Because I think when we originally spoke to Travis, I was trying to get you on, and you were pregnant and had that kind of thing going on. So, I knew that was—

[00:04:36] Holly Taylor: It’s been two years.

[00:04:37] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Speak to that a little bit—the benefits of, obviously, being a real estate agent and saving, but obviously there are some pullbacks as well, like anything. But as far as being a real estate agent, to those who think real estate is HGTV, we get to go around and, you know, wear nice clothing and—I don’t know what people—there are people who have false images.

[00:04:58] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:04:58] Tracy Hayes: As you know, Christina Welch—I know when I had her on—she said, “This is not HGTV.”

[00:05:04] Holly Taylor: Right.

[00:05:04] Tracy Hayes: So, tell us what it’s like, because your first son was, I assume, born when you were a teacher.

[00:05:10] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:05:10] Tracy Hayes: So, you’ve had three since you’ve been a real estate agent, now raising four. You obviously—well, we’ve got three who are under five years old right now.

[00:05:17] Holly Taylor: Three who are under two.

[00:05:19] Tracy Hayes: Under two?

[00:05:19] Holly Taylor: Yeah.

[00:05:20] Tracy Hayes: Oh, two. Okay.

[00:05:22] Holly Taylor: Because I have a two-year-old and two nine-month-olds.

[00:05:24] Tracy Hayes: Okay. I was adding another year to the two-year-old, making you a three. But okay, so under three?

[00:05:28] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:05:28] Tracy Hayes: They’re two-somethings. Yes. Yeah. Two of the three are twins, on top of that.

[00:05:33] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:05:34] Tracy Hayes: What’s it like as a real estate agent?

[00:05:36] Holly Taylor: Strangely enough, 2024 was my first really big year, and that was the year that I had Maverick, my two-year-old.

[00:05:45] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:05:45] Holly Taylor: I think you can take it one way or the other.

[00:05:47] Tracy Hayes: Okay. Now everyone’s going to ask: where did “Maverick”—

[00:05:50] Holly Taylor: Definitely.

[00:05:51] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Top Gun.

[00:05:52] Holly Taylor: Top Gun. Yeah. Hands down.

[00:05:54] Tracy Hayes: Um—

[00:05:55] Holly Taylor: My husband’s retiring from the Navy this year.

[00:05:56] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, yeah. So, yes, definitely. Was he a pilot?

[00:05:58] Holly Taylor: No.

[00:05:59] Tracy Hayes: No, no, no.

[00:06:00] Holly Taylor: Yes, yes. And he embodies all of it. He’s awesome.

[00:06:05] Tracy Hayes: Cool.

[00:06:05] Holly Taylor: But yeah, so in 2024, I was having him in May, and I knew that I had just started a team the year before. I had to get my systems in place. I had to get the people in place because I didn’t want to take a step back.

[00:06:17] Tracy Hayes: You were building something.

[00:06:18] Holly Taylor: We were building something. We had people relying on us, and it was a point in my career where people were calling me.

[00:06:23] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:06:23] Holly Taylor: I was getting referrals, and I didn’t want to turn them down because then you’re going to be, what, six months out of the game. So, we really had to be very strategic and very disciplined during the whole pregnancy.

I wrote a contract during labor with Maverick. It’s just the type of person I am. I think I’m like a plate all the way down.

[00:06:42] Tracy Hayes: Well, it probably got your mind off it for a few seconds, anyway.

[00:06:44] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:06:44] Tracy Hayes: Yes, yes, yes.

[00:06:46] Holly Taylor: I’m a plate-very-full kind of person, and when it spills over, I want to help other people, too.

[00:06:51] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:06:52] Holly Taylor: So, really big years. Then, you know, we went back-to-back and had the twins. Same thing. It’s just leaning on people—the team, the admin. You know, we got an au pair. I mean, that was very important, just having the people in place.

It is hard for me to ask for help and hard for me to lean on people, but during the pregnancies, I really learned that that’s important, especially in real estate.

[00:07:11] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:07:11] Holly Taylor: A lot of people think that it’s an island business, and you need to lean on other people.

[00:07:15] Tracy Hayes: It’s very easy to put yourself on an island, though.

[00:07:17] Holly Taylor: It is.

[00:07:17] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:07:18] Holly Taylor: Yeah. You lock yourself in the room, and then you just go to the events. You know, I’ve found that when I’m able to talk with other agents and collaborate, my business skyrockets.

[00:07:28] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:07:29] Holly Taylor: Because you don’t know what you don’t know sometimes.

[00:07:30] Tracy Hayes: Your husband—he’s still in the Navy?

[00:07:33] Holly Taylor: Yes, he’s still in the Navy.

[00:07:34] Tracy Hayes: He’s still active?

[00:07:35] Holly Taylor: Active.

[00:07:36] Tracy Hayes: Still active. Okay. He’s going to retire this year. Okay. So, when you said, “We got our license. We took the course,” did you mean he went—

[00:07:44] Holly Taylor: I’m hoping.

[00:07:45] Tracy Hayes: Oh, you’re hoping—

[00:07:46] Holly Taylor: He’s going to do that next.

[00:07:46] Tracy Hayes: Get involved next year.

[00:07:47] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:07:47] Tracy Hayes: I really admire—and you probably know Sarah Schwartz because she does really well.

[00:07:52] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:07:52] Tracy Hayes: Her husband is not doing sales, per se. I guess he’s very good at being a handyman and that kind of stuff.

[00:07:59] Holly Taylor: Okay.

[00:07:59] Tracy Hayes: He is doing a lot of the other things that people don’t see real estate agents doing. He’s doing that, and her business has exploded. She’s doing great numbers, like you are.

[00:08:08] Holly Taylor: That’s exactly—yeah. So, I would say more like a CFO. Like, what are the things that we’re supposed to be doing? What are the next steps?

[00:08:14] 333 VIDEO: Mm-hmm.

[00:08:15] Holly Taylor: Being able to see things from behind the scenes, really, and being able to make those next moves. So, maybe not opening the doors or meeting the customers, but really everything else behind the scenes.

[00:08:23] Tracy Hayes: Well, you talked about—you mentioned the word “systems.” You had to create the systems because you knew you were going to go through this period of time where you were going to be down.

[00:08:31] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:08:32] Tracy Hayes: But yet, you didn’t want to just pass all your business to everyone else. You still wanted a piece of the action and still have some control over what was going on.

[00:08:40] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:08:41] Tracy Hayes: Tell us what some of the things were that came to you. Did you go to some other agents and find out, “Hey, what are some things that I need to put in place? What are these systems?”

Because it is a term that is widely used. The best team leaders will tell you that you need systems, but the person coming in, before realizing they need to start a team, doesn’t fully comprehend what systems are yet, I don’t think.

[00:09:03] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:09:04] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:09:04] Holly Taylor: You’re exactly right.

[00:09:04] Tracy Hayes: Explain. What are some of the things you discovered that you needed to put in place to go through that?

[00:09:10] Holly Taylor: Yeah, and this is really interesting because I was in leadership at a big brokerage here. They run a team very successfully, and they have a lot of systems in place.

[00:09:18] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:09:19] Holly Taylor: They’ve grown. I mean, they have W-2 employees. They have a huge team. So, when I left and started my own team, there were some things that I wanted to implement and other things I didn’t think I needed to implement.

I found out very soon why they implement certain things. Even being in it, you don’t know how important some of the things are and why you do things from the beginning, because it’s really hard to change the routine and what you’re asking of your team members halfway through.

[00:09:52] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:09:53] Holly Taylor: So, it’s really important to have those conversations upfront. What are you accepting, and what aren’t you?

[00:09:58] Tracy Hayes: You made me—well, two analogies, actually, to what you’re doing. It’s like some of the things your parents told you to do.

[00:10:04] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:10:04] Tracy Hayes: When you were young, you were like, “What? I don’t need that. I can just skip around that.” Then, when you become an adult and, obviously, have kids, you realize why they were doing it. It’s exactly why they tell you to do what they’re—

Or, with the sports analogy, coaches are making you do certain drills and stuff. You’re like, “Man, this is boring. We’re not even touching the ball. We’re doing these things.” Then you realize later, when you’re coaching or trying to—like, “Ah, yeah, that’s a skill that I don’t have right now. My team doesn’t have it, but my coach was teaching me that.”

Back then, we thought that drill was boring or, you know, wasn’t any good. It’s so important because—to go back to the term used before the show—mentor, obviously.

[00:10:53] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:10:53] Tracy Hayes: Give us some really nuts-and-bolts examples. A couple of things that you pulled from that brokerage you were referring to. There were a couple of these things in the systems that, at the time, when you started yours, you were like, “Oh, is that really important? Should I skip over that?” But you found out it is important.

[00:11:01] Holly Taylor: So, the biggest thing was that their agents come in every day to make phone calls and follow up. I was under the impression that I could just wake up in the morning and make my phone calls because I’m disciplined.

[00:11:13] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:11:13] Holly Taylor: Not everyone is. We didn’t have office hours, and we didn’t come together and do it. I found out really quickly that people will find anything else to do besides get on the phone.

[00:11:24] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:11:25] Holly Taylor: But when you’re doing it all together, we get so much done. We’re calling everybody. We’re doing all of our follow-ups because we’re all doing it together.

It is really easy at home to say, “I’m just going to throw in a load of laundry. I’m just going to—” Anything else besides picking up the phone.

[00:11:41] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:11:42] Holly Taylor: So, that was probably the biggest thing. It was one of the biggest rubs when I was there, but I understand exactly why they do that, because that’s how they get the results.

[00:11:50] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Yeah. That’s another sports analogy. One thing I always say is that some of the best coaches were very mediocre players.

[00:11:57] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:11:57] Tracy Hayes: If not end-of-the-bench-type players who didn’t really get in the game a whole hell of a lot. Just because you’re Michael Jordan doesn’t mean you’re going to be a great coach, because there are some things that are intrinsic to you that are not—but you have to win as a team.

[00:12:11] Holly Taylor: That’s right.

[00:12:11] Tracy Hayes: So, how do you raise those people at the end of the bench to work as hard as the people at the front of the bench?

[00:12:17] Holly Taylor: Right. Right.

[00:12:17] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:12:17] Holly Taylor: Right. I think it’s putting schedules in place and systems. What are the two hours that you’re going to call? Tell me. Let’s hold you accountable to that.

[00:12:26] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:12:27] Holly Taylor: You know, because it is important. They’re growing their own business. It’s not for me; it’s for them. Figuring out what their “why” is and why they’re doing what they’re doing—that will get them the results.

[00:12:36] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. I think many real estate agents get into the business and think about creating a team.

[00:12:43] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:12:44] Tracy Hayes: Obviously, I’m sure you could—it isn’t for everybody.

[00:12:47] Holly Taylor: No.

[00:12:47] Tracy Hayes: Not everyone can be a team leader. One, it does help that you’re a big producer because you lead by example.

[00:12:53] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

[00:12:55] Tracy Hayes: I think there’s—as we, you know—my many years in corporate America, just because you’re the greatest salesperson, you don’t necessarily want to make that person the manager, nor should the greatest salesperson necessarily be the manager.

[00:13:09] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:13:10] Tracy Hayes: Because now you’re taking them out of production, per se. Like I said, going back to the Michael Jordan analogy, just because you’re the greatest basketball player doesn’t mean you’re going to be the greatest coach.

[00:13:21] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:13:21] Tracy Hayes: I think that, in your case, you’ve kind of mixed both.

[00:13:25] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:13:25] Tracy Hayes: Probably your experiences at the other brokerages gave you the insight to relate to the agents you’re recruiting.

[00:13:30] Holly Taylor: I do think being in production—everybody always asks me, “When are you getting out of production? What is your goal to get out of production and just train the team?” I don’t know the answer to that yet because I love it so much.

I mean, I love meeting new people. I love being out in the field. I think that it helps my trainings be more relatable to the agents because I can tell them about offers that I wrote, how I had to negotiate, and what’s happening right now in the market that maybe wasn’t the same six months ago.

I really do enjoy that piece of it.

[00:14:02] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:14:03] Holly Taylor: I do think it is hard to find agents to trust with all of your business. That is huge.

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

[00:14:08] Holly Taylor: I mean, I have two people on my team right now who have been on the team for a year and a half. That is very different because I know how they work. I know who they work well with. So, it’s easy to give business to them because I know them, trust them, and they have a track record.

[00:14:22] Tracy Hayes: Well, I think one of the challenges—and agree or disagree with me, I think you’ll agree with me—is, as my good friend Tom Reber says, you’ve got to keep your hand on the electric fence.

If you are not engaged with the business that’s going on, you then have to be—which I bring up consistently—Howard Flaschen at Round Table Realty. I feel Howard works very hard to stay out in front of his agents. He knows what’s going on. He’s on the phone, which—I love their TikTok videos because they’ll be videotaping him either on a conference call or with an agent in the office, and they’re talking about a deal and how to negotiate and all this other kind of stuff.

He’s coaching. He’s very involved in what is going on, so he knows the heartbeat of what’s going on. I think too many people say, “Hey, I’m out of production,” like that should be some sort of bragging thing—which it is, if all your agents are producing and all cylinders are going off.

But to continue to have the credibility, to continue to be able to stand up in front of them every morning, speak, and give them value—because I think you would agree, you’ve been to Keller Williams and so forth, and you’ve been to some of these other brokerages where the leader’s value starts to drop.

[00:15:44] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:15:44] Tracy Hayes: That’s when agents leave because they’re going to go find someone who’s going to give them more value.

[00:15:48] Holly Taylor: Yeah.

[00:15:48] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:15:49] Holly Taylor: I think finding a mentor, whether it’s at Keller Williams or on a team, is the most important thing. When you get your real estate license, you have no idea what you’re doing.

[00:16:00] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:16:00] Holly Taylor: You know the laws, and you know the basics, but you don’t really know how to work with people. You don’t even know how to open the doors.

So, that’s the biggest thing. If I were to go back to 2019, when I got my license, I would say, “Get a mentor right away. Don’t try to figure it out on your own. You’ll waste time doing things that you don’t need to be doing. You just need to be meeting people, and somebody needs to help with the rest.”

[00:16:22] Tracy Hayes: I’m sure you have girlfriends ask you all the time about getting into real estate.

[00:16:26] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:16:27] Tracy Hayes: You probably had somebody at a Fourth of July gathering last weekend ask you that. What do you tell them about the business? What are some things that—how do you respond when someone says, “Hey, you know, I’ve thought about getting into real estate, Holly, and I know you’re really successful. What do you think?” What do you say to them?

[00:16:44] Holly Taylor: I ask a lot of questions first before I give any advice.

[00:16:49] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:16:50] Holly Taylor: Because everybody is in different stages in their lives.

[00:16:50] Tracy Hayes: Yes.

[00:16:50] Holly Taylor: I mean, my husband obviously had insurance with the military, so that wasn’t a concern of mine. But that’s a question I would ask people.

[00:16:57] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:16:58] Holly Taylor: Do you have three to six months of reserves? Even if I gave you a hot-and-ready lead today, they are not going to close for 30, 60, or 90 days. So, do you have money in reserves so that you can jump into this? What does that look like for you?

I just had somebody reach out the other day who wants to quit his full-time job and wants to get into real estate. I started asking these questions, and he was like, “Okay, maybe we can come up with a plan to transition.”

There has to be something. Are you joining a team that has leads? Do you have a big sphere? Do you know people who are buying and selling right now? There are a lot of questions before I would say, “Right, jump in.”

I would never get out of real estate. I mean, there was a point where my husband was going to be stationed somewhere else for 18 months, and we were like, “We’ll deal with that, and then we’ll come back here to Florida because we’ve built a business here.”

[00:17:48] Tracy Hayes: Right. Yeah.

[00:17:49] Holly Taylor: So, there are lots of questions about getting into real estate, but the biggest thing is: find a mentor, find a team, find somebody who is going to show you the ropes, because you don’t know. It takes a long time to figure it out.

I didn’t have my first sale for six months because I was teaching and trying everything a little bit.

[00:18:08] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:18:08] Holly Taylor: And not going all in on anything. That’s a big piece of advice, too.

[00:18:12] Tracy Hayes: Speak a little bit to—because I think some of these really new people are shortchanging themselves. They’re coming in, they see someone like you, and they’re like, “Oh, she’s successful.”

They obviously don’t know the seven years you’ve put into it, let alone your natural ability to build relationships—all those things, all those characteristics that, you know, no one knows, right?

It’s that whole scenario where they pay the mechanic thousands of dollars to come in, he takes the hammer and hits the one spot, and he says, “No, you’re paying for my knowledge to know where to strike the hammer.”

[00:18:45] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:18:46] Tracy Hayes: They look and see what you’re doing, but—where was I going with that analogy? I’ve lost my train of thought for a second. I do that all the time.

[00:18:53] Holly Taylor: What does it look like, maybe, on the back end?

[00:18:55] Tracy Hayes: Well, from the standpoint of—no, the splits are where I was going, with the money.

[00:18:59] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:18:59] Tracy Hayes: Part of it. Understanding, obviously, you’ve worked with teams that had—I would say the agent had a smaller split—whereas there are others advertising, “You get 100 percent of your commission.”

[00:19:09] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:19:10] Tracy Hayes: But, obviously, like anything in life, you get what you pay for.

[00:19:13] 333 VIDEO: Yes.

[00:19:14] Tracy Hayes: Some of these new agents coming in—would you advise them that it’s more important to find the mentor and so forth, and be willing to take less for a little while? Maybe—it depends on how long—maybe a year, maybe two, to ramp up your learning curve before you jump out and start looking at some of these no-split or 100-percent brokerages, where you just pay a flat fee or that kind of thing?

How do you advise someone in that conversation?

[00:19:42] Holly Taylor: If people are asking and nickel-and-diming, it’s not a good conversation to have.

[00:19:46] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:19:46] Holly Taylor: And I tell people this all the time: it’s about building your pipeline and how fast you can build your pipeline. I tell my team this when they join. Okay, does Zillow take a split off the top? Yes. Then we have a team split? Yes. But you’ve been on my team for five months, and you have how many referrals that are now personal business?

Those are your people forever. I think that is important, too. If a team is giving you a lead, do you get to nurture them forever? Once you sell, you know, and you do your team split, do you get to keep nurturing that lead forever? I do think that’s very important.

So, I tell my team that it’s about building your pipeline and how fast you can do it. You shouldn’t look at the splits.

[00:20:25] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:20:25] Holly Taylor: Because $500, $1,000, or $2,000 is better than waiting 10 months for $8,000.

[00:20:34] Tracy Hayes: You’ve been doing the Zillow stuff for how long now?

[00:20:37] Holly Taylor: So, I actually started at DJ & Lindsey.

[00:20:39] Tracy Hayes: Okay.

[00:20:39] Holly Taylor: I was in leadership, and I—

[00:20:40] Tracy Hayes: They do a tremendous amount of Zillow.

[00:20:42] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:20:43] Tracy Hayes: It’s been tremendous. I want to educate those who are out there who may not know. There are pluses and minuses to Zillow, among the other places you can get leads.

[00:20:52] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:20:52] Tracy Hayes: What is this? I don’t know if you’re doing it pretty much the way everybody else is doing it. Maybe you’re doing it a little bit differently. But, just in general, explain it.

Obviously, there’s a lot of money being spent for that lead.

[00:21:05] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:21:06] Tracy Hayes: You’re paying based on the quality of that lead. I know I used to work at Quicken Loans, now Rocket.

[00:21:13] Holly Taylor: Yep. Yep.

[00:21:14] Tracy Hayes: If someone actually put in their Social Security number, they were paying more for that lead. If you were paying more than that, then you were the first person to get that lead, and you had about 30 seconds before they gave it to somebody else.

[00:21:27] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:21:28] Tracy Hayes: So, you had to be on it. There is a requirement. But, from the financial and split standpoint, what is kind of a standard Zillow play? Just say the average Zillow team—as far as how that split breaks down from the commission and so forth.

[00:21:42] Holly Taylor: Okay, so there are two different ways to do Zillow. I started at DJ & Lindsey. They were a Flex team, which means that they pay a percentage at the end, not upfront.

[00:21:52] Tracy Hayes: Okay.

[00:21:53] Holly Taylor: As you do better, you get more leads. That’s how that works. Whenever I started my team in 2024, you don’t just get Flex. You have to show that you are worthy of it.

[00:22:02] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:22:03] Holly Taylor: Turning—

[00:22:03] Tracy Hayes: Flex.

[00:22:03] Holly Taylor: Yeah.

[00:22:04] Tracy Hayes: Turning. So, yeah.

[00:22:05] Holly Taylor: So, in 2024, I started doing Premier Agent, which is paying for the leads per ZIP code. Leads in one ZIP code are worth more than leads in a different ZIP code.

[00:22:14] Tracy Hayes: So, there’s an upfront financial commitment.

[00:22:16] Holly Taylor: There is.

[00:22:16] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:22:17] Holly Taylor: And it’s pretty hefty.

[00:22:19] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:22:20] Holly Taylor: You can work with lenders and that, but right now, in our marketplace, I don’t think there’s anything available to purchase on your own.

[00:22:28] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:22:28] Holly Taylor: We did that in 2024, 2025, and the beginning of 2026. Then we were offered the Zillow Flex program, which is now called Preferred, but it’s the same thing.

[00:22:36] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:22:36] Holly Taylor: What that is, is you start with the same amount of leads that you were paying for, and you can get more as you do better—or fewer if you are not performing.

They do have metrics that you have to follow, and you do pay the split at the end. So, the biggest difference with my team is they weren’t really feeling the financial burden before because I was paying upfront and then we were having our splits. But once we became a Zillow Preferred team, they saw that split coming off the top, and now we’re kind of sharing the financial burden that has to go to Zillow.

[00:23:08] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:23:09] Holly Taylor: Yes, sometimes it feels like a lot of money, but I have built a really good business, and a lot of these people feel like very good friends and family to me.

[00:23:17] Tracy Hayes: Well, talk about the metrics. Like I said, though, you’re not given this lead and then they wait days. They expect you to be calling that lead very quickly.

[00:23:26] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:23:26] Tracy Hayes: What are some of the metrics that Zillow measures? The reason why I bring this up for anyone listening is that it may not be for you. I assume you get the alert on the phone, and if you’re not the type who is going to pull over and make the phone call, you are probably not going to be very successful.

[00:23:47] Holly Taylor: Right.

[00:23:47] Tracy Hayes: Am I right?

[00:23:48] Holly Taylor: Yes. Yeah. I will say, there are a lot of people—and you can see it all over social media—who don’t like Zillow, or they say Zillow didn’t work. They paid a lot of money and didn’t get anything from it. It is because of those things.

[00:23:59] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:23:59] Holly Taylor: There have definitely been times when I have left the dinner table and gone out to show a house because they wanted to see it in an hour. If I’m not going to show them, they’re going to go back on Zillow, press the button again, and find somebody else.

[00:24:10] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:24:11] Holly Taylor: I was never willing to lose that. Always answer my phone. We’re in a round robin, and if we don’t answer—I think it’s within 60 seconds—it’s going to another team, and we’re not getting a replacement.

So, it is important that you’re on it and that you’re following up. If they ask for an appointment, you’re making it happen. They really don’t care that you have your son’s baseball game, a piano recital—

[00:24:36] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:24:36] Holly Taylor: —or anything.

[00:24:37] Tracy Hayes: That’s the nature of it. They don’t know you.

[00:24:39] Holly Taylor: Yeah.

[00:24:39] Tracy Hayes: There’s no relationship yet. Zillow is in between, and it’s a computer. Trust me, I know the world. I worked in a call-center environment for probably the first half of my career.

[00:24:53] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:24:54] Tracy Hayes: On the mortgage side, it’s, “What’s your rate? What’s your rate?” You get into arguments. Then, of course, you’ve got corporate telling you, “Hey, we want you to make sure you have their credit. Get their credit.” But they won’t give you the credit, and they want the interest rate and whatever.

[00:25:09] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:25:10] Tracy Hayes: It can burn you out, but you’re not sitting there with a headset on, like I was, for hours a day.

[00:25:16] Holly Taylor: Right. Right.

[00:25:17] Tracy Hayes: From a team standpoint, explain—again, I’m sure every Flex team does things a little differently—but how do you make sure someone on your team is available to make that phone call back? Or are they all coming to you?

How do you know, when that Zillow lead comes through, that someone on your team is making that call, if not you?

[00:25:32] Holly Taylor: If nobody answers it, I will answer it pretty much all the time. My phone comes with me everywhere, and my family—if my phone is ringing and it says Zillow—they are running.

[00:25:43] Holly Taylor: “It’s Zillow, Mom!”

[00:25:44] Tracy Hayes: “Mom’s on the phone.”

[00:25:45] Holly Taylor: They will run my phone to me so that I don’t miss it.

[00:25:48] Tracy Hayes: Right, right.

[00:25:48] Holly Taylor: So, we’re all trained that way. It was actually really nice when we went to Preferred because it’s round robin. My phone doesn’t ring for every lead, but we don’t lose leads.

[00:25:58] Tracy Hayes: But, I mean, there are certain times—like right now—

[00:26:00] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:26:00] Tracy Hayes: You’re here, so your team is getting those calls, those leads, if one comes through.

[00:26:04] Holly Taylor: Yes. But if nobody answered, we would do a little cut, and I’d probably take it because I don’t want to lose it.

[00:26:10] Tracy Hayes: Right. So—

[00:26:13] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:26:13] Tracy Hayes: Well, but I mean, from the technology standpoint, how is it being distributed? Are all three of you getting the call?

[00:26:19] Holly Taylor: No, it’s a round robin.

[00:26:20] Tracy Hayes: It is just bouncing—

[00:26:21] Holly Taylor: If you don’t answer it, then it comes to me. If I don’t answer, it goes to her.

[00:26:24] Tracy Hayes: Okay.

[00:26:25] Holly Taylor: Like that.

[00:26:25] Tracy Hayes: Just like giving it two or three rings? How does it work? What’s the time standpoint?

[00:26:29] Holly Taylor: Yeah, I think it’s 20 seconds.

[00:26:31] Tracy Hayes: Twenty seconds?

[00:26:32] Holly Taylor: Yeah.

[00:26:32] Tracy Hayes: Wow. How often do you guys miss one?

[00:26:35] Holly Taylor: Not often.

[00:26:36] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:26:36] Holly Taylor: No.

[00:26:37] Tracy Hayes: Do they tell you that you missed one?

[00:26:38] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:26:40] Tracy Hayes: Well, I guess you see the missed call.

[00:26:41] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:26:41] Tracy Hayes: You do. You do see that.

[00:26:43] Holly Taylor: Then I will see if a lead comes through.

[00:26:44] Tracy Hayes: You go on your dashboard and see—

[00:26:45] Holly Taylor: If the lead doesn’t come through, that means we missed it. It doesn’t happen very often.

[00:26:48] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:26:49] Holly Taylor: No.

[00:26:49] Tracy Hayes: So, financial commitment. Now you’re paying—I won’t say pay-for—I like to say pay-to-play when you’re doing transaction coordinators, but I don’t know how you pay when you succeed.

[00:27:00] Holly Taylor: Well, play in the beginning.

[00:27:00] Tracy Hayes: Well, play in the beginning. Pay to play to get in because you’ve shown success, you know what you’re doing, and your team is disciplined. Again, not everyone is good on the phone either.

[00:27:08] Holly Taylor: That’s right.

[00:27:09] Tracy Hayes: You’ve got a couple of ladies who have been with you for a year and a half. You want to grow your team. Let’s talk about that. How do you train someone on how to properly handle a Zillow call?

[00:27:18] Holly Taylor: We do script training. I do a lot of my interviews over the phone because, if I want to keep talking to you, I think other people will probably want to keep talking to you.

If there’s a lot of awkwardness or bringing in irrelevant information, that is a sign. I will have a second call—

[00:27:35] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:27:35] Holly Taylor: —because some people are nervous. But we do a lot of training and scripting. That first call is very easy.

[00:27:39] Tracy Hayes: Do you let them know you’re interviewing them that way?

[00:27:41] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:27:42] Tracy Hayes: You let them know upfront. Okay.

[00:27:43] Holly Taylor: Oh, always. Yeah. Yeah. I want to talk to you on the phone because a lot of what we do is a phone call, and they have to like you on the phone in order to meet you in person.

[00:27:51] Tracy Hayes: Right. What are some things that you think are important? Obviously, it has given you great success. So, that initial phone call coming in from Zillow—“Hey, I’m Holly. How can I help you?” or however you answer the phone—what are some important things that you need to accomplish in the first couple of minutes of that phone call?

[00:28:10] Holly Taylor: Getting an appointment. It’s always the goal: getting an appointment. If they’re not here, is it virtual? If they’re not ready yet, is it a buyer consultation? I need to set an appointment with you.

Now, if they’re like, “Nothing, nothing, nothing. I just want information,” then get it to them within an hour.

[00:28:28] Tracy Hayes: Because, again, they’re online. They’re online. They’ll go to someone else.

[00:28:33] Holly Taylor: They will.

[00:28:33] Tracy Hayes: Yes. That’s very important. So, the initial hello—“Hey, what are you looking for?” They’re going to tell you. I assume a lot of them are clicking on a certain property, possibly, which is where they’re coming from on Zillow.

Are you getting the information that they’re looking at 123 Main Street?

[00:28:46] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:28:46] Tracy Hayes: So, you’re getting that. You know that.

[00:28:48] Holly Taylor: You really know nothing else.

[00:28:50] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:28:50] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:28:50] Tracy Hayes: Like their timing. How soon are they looking to buy?

[00:28:53] Holly Taylor: Right.

[00:28:54] Tracy Hayes: Are they even in town? Where are they at?

[00:28:57] Holly Taylor: Right. Right.

[00:28:58] Tracy Hayes: What’s going on? So, you ask some of those basic questions. If they’re up north and they’re just looking at houses and want some information on this particular house, you’re fine.

If someone is out of town, you try to get them onto a Zoom so you can have more of a face-to-face and see each other.

[00:29:14] Holly Taylor: Yeah. I mean, because they do think that we’re a Zillow call center sometimes.

[00:29:17] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:29:17] Holly Taylor: They also sometimes think we’re the listing agent. So, I want you to see my face. I want to form a relationship.

[00:29:24] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:29:24] Holly Taylor: So that, if you’re not looking for six months, I’m not just sending you homes that I think you’ll like and hoping to follow up with you. I need to have a relationship right away in order to be able to find you a house.

[00:29:35] Tracy Hayes: How important is it, if there’s a couple, to have both of them there? To try to turn that into an appointment where both of them are there? It could be a Zoom call with both of them on there.

[00:29:45] Holly Taylor: Always.

[00:29:45] Tracy Hayes: How important is that?

[00:29:46] Holly Taylor: Always.

[00:29:46] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:29:46] Holly Taylor: If it’s one that comes in with a phone number, I always ask for the other one. Always a group text. I’m definitely never messaging a husband without a wife—

[00:29:56] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:29:56] Holly Taylor: —ever. So, I’m asking for the wife’s number and putting it in a group text. Normally, it’s her talking until we find a house, and then the financial part comes up, and the husband will start talking. But at least everybody can see what’s going on.

[00:30:09] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:30:10] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:30:10] Tracy Hayes: Because, I mean, you’ve done this enough times. You’ve taken enough of these phone calls—which I have taken thousands of these phone calls.

[00:30:16] Holly Taylor: Right.

[00:30:16] Tracy Hayes: From the financial standpoint, when you don’t have both of them—for those who are listening, why is it important to have both of them on there? Because you’ve got to take away the excuse, “I’ve got to go talk to my wife.”

[00:30:27] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:30:27] Tracy Hayes: If the wife is on the phone call, or vice versa, then they’re there. Maybe they’re just listening. They may not be saying anything, but they’re included.

Now, occasionally, you’ll have that spouse who will say, “I’m making all the decisions. He’s working. Maybe he’s deployed,” or something like that.

[00:30:43] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:30:44] Tracy Hayes: But the more often you can get both of them on the phone call, one, you get both of them to like you.

[00:30:50] Holly Taylor: Right.

[00:30:50] Tracy Hayes: Because the one who doesn’t see you is always the one who’s skeptical. “Oh, that real estate agent. You know, I don’t know, Holly.” But if they get on the phone call, you’re starting to build the relationship with them, too.

[00:31:01] Holly Taylor: Right.

[00:31:01] Tracy Hayes: So, that’s some advice: get both of them on, whether it’s a conference call or—I assume a Zoom is preferred if they’re out of town.

[00:31:10] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:31:10] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:31:11] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:31:11] Tracy Hayes: How—

[00:31:12] Holly Taylor: Have you ever talked to a husband and a wife, and they don’t want the same thing? Because that happens.

[00:31:17] Tracy Hayes: They’ll contradict each other.

[00:31:19] Holly Taylor: A lot. So, when we’re having that initial conversation and I’m trying to figure out, you know, “Is your budget a million, or are we at $500,000?” One thinks one thing, and one thinks the other. We’ve got to figure out where we’re at.

[00:31:29] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

[00:31:30] Holly Taylor: Do we have a monthly budget? We’ve got to figure out what that looks like so that I know what to find them.

[00:31:35] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. One hundred percent. Because a lot of times, one is making the income, and the other spouse actually really doesn’t know—especially if you’ve got one spouse who is the stay-at-home person.

[00:31:48] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:31:48] Tracy Hayes: Sometimes they have a mental thing about asking the other one, like, “How much money are we making?” They’re not totally a team on the money side. The one who’s making the money is ultimately making the decision, but the stay-at-home person is the one making the phone calls.

[00:32:02] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:32:02] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Yes. And asking all the questions. So, you’re not really talking to the ultimate “yes” person.

[00:32:10] Holly Taylor: Right. That’s right.

[00:32:11] Tracy Hayes: So, never take a “no” from the person who can’t give you the “yes.” Always remember that.

All right, so, on the topic of the team, you’re continuing—what are some characteristics that you’re looking for when recruiting teammates? Because I imagine you’ve been around long enough, you’ve been around some of the top agents in town who have gone through trial and error.

[00:32:27] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:32:27] Tracy Hayes: And realized, you know, you can’t just hire anyone.

[00:32:30] Holly Taylor: Right.

[00:32:30] Tracy Hayes: What are some of the things that Holly and the Taylor Team are looking for in a teammate?

[00:32:35] Holly Taylor: So, in my last round of interviews, I had them meet the team because I do think meeting together, team culture, and being able to be a part of that are important.

Like, “Hey, I’ll grab the lockbox. I’m on that side of town. Can you open that door here?” Working together is super important when we’re working with this volume of people and all over the place.

Availability, too. It seems easy to me, but can you take the phone call? If somebody texts you and they want to hop on a call, are you going to message them right away and say, “I’ll be able to call you in an hour,” or are you going to ignore them? What does that look like?

Sometimes, I am texting agent prospects to see what the response time is like because that is really important in this business, too.

[00:33:25] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:33:26] Holly Taylor: Phone calls—are you going to text back? If you left me unread for three days, what are you going to do to a buyer and seller who is directly impacting your income?

[00:33:36] Tracy Hayes: Yes.

[00:33:36] Holly Taylor: So, that is really important. Availability, grit—I think team culture is more important than I thought it was originally.

[00:33:43] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:33:44] Holly Taylor: I can teach real estate. I don’t need you to know too much about a contract or how to show a house. I’ll train all of that. Listing appointments—I’ll come with you. Real estate, I can teach.

Are you a good person? Are people going to like you? And do you want to work?

[00:33:53] Tracy Hayes: Well, you mentioned two things there that I really like and think are super important. You mentioned grit. We talked about the book.

Real estate agents have to have grit.

[00:34:04] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:34:04] Tracy Hayes: I think it was Jordan May, when I had her on, who said she was not going to recruit anyone to her team unless they had been through some sort of challenge in their life—

[00:34:14] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:34:14] Tracy Hayes: —as she had, as a single mom and so forth. There was something else recently that made me think of that, too. Someone—

[00:34:20] Holly Taylor: Yeah. Talking about—she does say, “Have you ever lived paycheck to paycheck?”

[00:34:23] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:34:24] Holly Taylor: That’s what Jordan says.

[00:34:25] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Yeah. It plays into the sense of urgency and so forth, I imagine.

[00:34:30] Holly Taylor: Yeah.

[00:34:30] Tracy Hayes: Unfortunately, we have some people who feel they’re entitled and so forth. It’s great—you can do real estate, but just not on my team.

[00:34:38] Holly Taylor: Right.

[00:34:38] Tracy Hayes: You know, go do it yourself. Maybe there is a team that lets you check out.

But also, to do the volume you guys are doing, like you said, I think it is very important. For people who are listening, what comes around goes around. There’s going to be that weekend you need to get away. You want to go on a cruise, so your phone’s off.

[00:34:56] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:34:56] Tracy Hayes: You need someone to cover or do an open house for you because you’ve got multiple open houses going on the same weekend and so forth.

As you mentioned, the more collaboration you’ve had with other agents, the more successful you’ve felt you’ve been. You’ve got to come in with that attitude, which is the attitude that, obviously, you’re creating on the team.

Sense of urgency and grit, I think, are two very important pillars. Now, the question is, how do you measure that? How do you bring that out of the person you’re talking to, to understand if they’ve got it? Because a sense of urgency is a little bit harder to see until you see it.

[00:35:28] Holly Taylor: Right.

[00:35:29] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:35:29] Holly Taylor: Right. I mean, there are a lot of questions that we go through in an interview now. The paycheck-to-paycheck question—what does that look like? You get a really good sense of somebody by asking some of the questions that we have.

I do ask about holidays, too, because holidays are really busy in real estate. Besides Father’s Day, I hardly ever show houses on Father’s Day. But Mother’s Day—

[00:35:52] Tracy Hayes: Oh, that’s true. Your husband loves that—except when he’s deployed.

[00:35:55] Holly Taylor: I work all the time.

[00:35:55] Tracy Hayes: When he is deployed, then you’re free.

[00:35:57] Holly Taylor: Yeah. I mean, we went through seven deployments, so—

[00:36:01] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:36:01] Holly Taylor: But he’s home now, and we’re almost retired.

[00:36:04] Tracy Hayes: That’s good.

[00:36:05] Holly Taylor: But yeah, holidays are a huge conversation for a team, too, because we do Zillow and the phone rings. We need to separate holidays so that I’m not always working every single holiday.

That’s probably been the hardest thing. I’m always showing on Mother’s Day. I’m always showing on Thanksgiving, because I’m willing to.

[00:36:23] Tracy Hayes: That’s why he needs to get his license, so he can take that day for you. But go ahead.

[00:36:26] Holly Taylor: Well, we all drive together on the holidays. My husband is very into real estate, and he’s like, “You do what it takes.”

[00:36:33] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:36:33] Holly Taylor: You know, “We’ll make you breakfast tomorrow morning.”

[00:36:35] Tracy Hayes: Well, it’s that kind of thing. You work hard, play hard.

[00:36:38] Holly Taylor: Yeah.

[00:36:38] Tracy Hayes: You can make good money in this business.

[00:36:40] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:36:41] Tracy Hayes: There are feasts and famines, though, and you’ve got to feast when it’s there. When the phone rings with Zillow, that’s feasting time. You’ve got to go eat.

[00:36:49] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:36:49] Tracy Hayes: So, you’ve got to take that call. You can’t say, “Well, you know, I need to—”

[00:36:53] Holly Taylor: No. No.

[00:36:53] Tracy Hayes: I think some people—the whole work-life balance type of thing—yeah, I mean, there is. The great thing is, when your son does have a ball game, you can schedule things around there.

[00:37:07] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:37:07] Tracy Hayes: Or when you have to pick him up from school, or whatever those things are. You have flexibility a lot of times—not always, because sometimes these Zillow people will lock you down, like, “Oh, you can’t show me? Let me call somebody else.”

[00:37:19] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:37:19] Tracy Hayes: But it does give you the flexibility to be places. Because you can make a great income, you can take some really great vacations and go to some really great places that a lot of other people wouldn’t be able to do financially because of it. So, that’s the trade-off.

[00:37:33] Holly Taylor: And you bring up a really good point, because one of the other things that I ask is, you know, “I want to meet your spouse. I want to meet your boyfriend or girlfriend.”

[00:37:40] Tracy Hayes: Is this—what interview are we at now when you go to the spouse?

[00:37:44] Holly Taylor: I mean, after we’ve done the phone. I want to meet them. I want to hear—

[00:37:47] Tracy Hayes: You’re actually like, “Oh, this person—I’m leaning toward this. We should go.” But you want to talk—you want to—

[00:37:52] Holly Taylor: Because I think the spouse can be make-or-break.

[00:37:54] Tracy Hayes: A hundred percent.

[00:37:54] Holly Taylor: For your career.

[00:37:55] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:37:55] Holly Taylor: In the beginning, when I was trying to do teaching and real estate, it was very, very hard on our marriage because I was teaching all day, trying to show houses at night and on the weekends. When was I home? I mean, it was very, very difficult.

But we both believed we were building something together.

[00:38:11] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:38:12] Holly Taylor: And this was going to be good in the long term—five years, 10 years.

[00:38:17] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:38:17] Holly Taylor: But is it good right now? No. I mean, you’re building a business, and you have to be willing to do what it takes to build a business.

So, that’s really important to me, too—talking to the spouse. Are they in? Do they believe in what you’re doing? Are they on board for the weekends, the nights, or whatever it takes?

Because if you do that and if you work hard, this will be a really good life for you.

[00:38:37] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:38:38] Holly Taylor: So—

[00:38:38] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. No, my wife’s a real estate agent, and there are a lot of times when I’m wrapping up here and I’m like, “Hey, I’m going to be headed home. What do we want to do for dinner?” “Well, I’ve got a showing.”

Obviously, I cook most nights anyway, but I know that she is likely to have something at five, six, or seven o’clock.

[00:38:57] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:38:57] Tracy Hayes: The other spouse has to get home and make dinner for the kids or whatever.

[00:39:00] Holly Taylor: Right.

[00:39:00] Tracy Hayes: You’ve got to be willing to do that and understand that you make these arrangements around those situations. Because, again, it goes back to feast or famine.

A lot of their time—when are they available? When they’re not working, which is—

[00:39:12] Holly Taylor: Right.

[00:39:12] Tracy Hayes: You know, six o’clock in the evening, and on Saturday and Sunday.

[00:39:16] Holly Taylor: That’s right.

[00:39:16] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:39:17] Holly Taylor: That’s right. And we date during the day.

[00:39:19] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:39:19] Holly Taylor: While we have a babysitter. We do our dates during the day.

[00:39:23] Tracy Hayes: Interesting.

[00:39:24] Holly Taylor: Because that’s the way that it happens.

[00:39:26] 333 VIDEO: Yeah.

[00:39:26] Holly Taylor: Yeah.

[00:39:27] Tracy Hayes: But I think a lot of that is who’s in your corner and who’s supporting you because you’re building your business.

Well, that kind of leads back to your grit thing.

[00:39:36] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:39:36] Tracy Hayes: Tell us a time when you may have thought of getting out of this business. It kind of kicked you down, put your face in the mud, kicked you in the teeth, and you’re like—or you just had that one client where it’s like, “Why am I doing this?”

That’s when that spouse has to come in and, you know, either—well, we know as men, right? We’re supposed to just listen.

[00:39:59] Holly Taylor: Oh, no, no. We talk a lot.

[00:40:02] Tracy Hayes: We can’t always give the solutions that we think, but you have to have that spouse who’s willing to be that person to consult with and turn it back to a positive. “It’ll be all right. You’ll get around it.” You know that deep down; they’ve just got to bring it out of you.

But to go back to the question: tell us a time where you really—whether it was a situation, or maybe there was a period of time where the business was slow or whatever—were you really asking, “Am I doing the right thing?” Because I think every agent goes through that at one time or another.

[00:40:32] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm. Well, I think it’s the newborn stage for me, because I’m not at the top of my game and I’m tired. So, when my kids are not sleeping through the night, it is very hard for me to wake up the next day and put in 100 percent.

[00:40:43] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:40:44] Holly Taylor: My husband is both, I guess—both ways, though. He knows when he can push a little harder and say, “Holly, you’ve got this. You’re building something really big. You know what this turns into. If you give up now, you’re going to see six months from now that it’s going to be slow, and I know that you don’t want that. So, this is what we’re going to do.”

But then there are definitely other times when he’s like, “Go get your nails done. You need to take a little break. Read your book. You need to turn off for a minute, and then let’s get back into it.”

So, I think he’s able to read me really well. We’ve been together 17 years, and he is a huge part of my success.

[00:41:19] Tracy Hayes: Well, you said that, and I’m going to make this point from the male point of view. If your wife is a real estate agent, she’s likely to make more money than you, and some men can’t handle that. That’s my personal opinion.

When you talk about having a really good spouse, most likely, if your wife is going to be successful in real estate, she will make more money than you. But you have to be a team.

[00:41:44] Holly Taylor: Yeah.

[00:41:44] Tracy Hayes: Like your husband supports you. You probably make more money than he does. I’m just guessing, being in the service and so forth, because of the business and how successful you are.

I would assume there are some guys who get hung up on it. I think it’s like, “Great, you’ve got your own money. Oh, you want to buy something? Well, you made the money. Hey, if you think you can handle it—because you’re going to go out and sell another house to counter that expense—that’s your power.”

Empower your wife if she’s a real estate agent, or vice versa. Empower them, because they can do great things.

[00:42:18] Holly Taylor: Yeah. And I think, in the beginning, he really funded the Zillow start. He was like, “You know how to do it. You’ve coached it for a whole year. I believe in you. Let’s do this.”

It was really him who funded it. I didn’t have anything in the pipeline when I left DJ & Lindsey because I was working with agents; I wasn’t working with buyers and sellers. So, it was dead there.

I think knowing that he funded it and believed in it, it was like, “Okay, I can do this.”

[00:42:43] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:42:43] Holly Taylor: “I’m going to get contracts.” I think it took three months, and then I closed five. But I was like, “I’m not going to let him down, too.”

He makes a lot of the decisions with the business, and he is very heavily involved. We make decisions together, I guess, about how to spend the money.

Even though we have four kids, we are still thinking about having more.

[00:43:03] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:43:03] Holly Taylor: I think it’s building the life that we both want.

[00:43:07] Tracy Hayes: Right. Well, you’re aligned in that way.

[00:43:11] Holly Taylor: Yeah.

[00:43:11] Tracy Hayes: I wouldn’t say extremely rare, but it’s powerful, actually.

[00:43:15] Holly Taylor: Yeah.

[00:43:15] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. It’s powerful that you’re aligned.

All right, let’s jump into some of these questions from my investigation on you and the questionnaire—some stuff.

Nine years teaching.

[00:43:26] Holly Taylor: Yeah.

[00:43:26] Tracy Hayes: Tell us what you took from teaching—some of the things you learned as a teacher over those years that are part of you now when you’re dealing with buyers and sellers.

[00:43:39] Holly Taylor: I think teachers make really good Realtors, first of all. One of the reasons, I think, is because we’re very organized. We prepare—overly prepare.

[00:43:47] Tracy Hayes: Good—

[00:43:48] Holly Taylor: Good teachers.

[00:43:48] Tracy Hayes: Good teachers.

[00:43:49] Holly Taylor: That’s right. That’s right. There’s no student who is the same. Everybody learns differently, and everybody is different.

I think that really translates into real estate. There are so many different types of buyers and sellers. How do you talk to them? What should you say first? Are they more logical, or do they need to see an image? Things like that.

So, I think that’s the biggest thing. And the patience. A lot of people will hear my phone calls and say, “Wow, you were really patient with them.”

I’m like, “Well, they don’t understand at all. This is the first house they’ve ever bought. I didn’t know anything when I bought my first house either, and I want them to be able to ask me questions.”

I worked in special education, too, so even more—

[00:44:31] Tracy Hayes: More and more patience.

[00:44:33] Holly Taylor: Yeah.

[00:44:33] Tracy Hayes: We would think—you’re 100 percent right. Think about it, especially because it was elementary education, if I’m not mistaken, right?

You were an elementary school teacher, and you have 20 years on them—plus 25 or 30 years on a student. Sometimes, as you know, we have knowledge in our head, and we don’t even know where it came from or can’t pinpoint it.

A kid doesn’t understand how this math problem works, or whatever it is, or this concept. You have 25 years of understanding why that concept is what it is. You have to go back to when you were seven or eight years old, or whatever.

How did you learn the concept? You have to slow down.

[00:45:16] Holly Taylor: Yeah.

[00:45:16] Tracy Hayes: I think sometimes, with these buyers and sellers—because, again, in 20 years of doing mortgages, and you’ve done so many real estate transactions—you kind of become numb to some things.

You have to stop for a minute and realize, “Hold on, this is a new person in front of me.”

[00:45:30] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:45:31] Tracy Hayes: They haven’t done 10 transactions and don’t know how I do things. Why I’m successful is because people understand why I do the things I do.

[00:45:39] Holly Taylor: Yeah. And be willing to ask questions, too.

[00:45:42] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:45:42] Holly Taylor: I am definitely the parent who, when my kid asks why, and then why again, and why again, I want to answer.

[00:45:48] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:45:49] Holly Taylor: Even though, I mean, I have to test my patience a little bit. But I love that Jackson is so interested in something. I want to be able to answer as much as I can.

[00:46:00] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:46:00] Holly Taylor: Sometimes we look things up together, because I think being curious, asking questions, and really trying to understand something is a good quality.

[00:46:08] Tracy Hayes: Oh, 100 percent. A hundred percent. Especially in young people. They’ve got to be.

Today, where they can get the knowledge for the questions they have when we don’t always have it—

[00:46:20] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:46:20] Tracy Hayes: —I mean, it’s at their fingertips. When you went to college, you had computers. When I went to college, the only thing the computer did was word processing.

We went and typed our papers there. That’s about all you did. We didn’t even have email.

[00:46:34] Holly Taylor: Okay.

[00:46:35] Tracy Hayes: So, yeah. You know, with the technology that’s out there, you need to feed the “whys.” Like, “Hey—”

[00:46:41] Holly Taylor: Yeah.

[00:46:41] Tracy Hayes: “Keep asking me why. Let’s go deeper. Oh, you know what? You got me on that one. Let’s go figure it out. Who can figure it out first?”

[00:46:47] Holly Taylor: Oh, they love that. Yeah.

[00:46:48] Tracy Hayes: Well, and for an example—

[00:46:50] Holly Taylor: I mean, I ask everybody at the closing table, “You know about homestead exemption in Florida?”

[00:46:54] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:46:54] Holly Taylor: Almost everybody says yes.

[00:46:57] Tracy Hayes: Okay.

[00:46:57] Holly Taylor: But they don’t. A lot of them don’t, and I don’t want them to miss the opportunity.

So, I send mail. I send email. I call them and text them. I make sure—like, they show me—“Did you do it?”

[00:47:09] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:47:10] Holly Taylor: Because I don’t want them to miss out on something just because they were prideful—

[00:47:13] Tracy Hayes: Yes.

[00:47:14] Holly Taylor: —and wanted to say that they knew it when they didn’t.

Hopefully, by the closing table, they feel comfortable—if they don’t know—to tell me they don’t know so that I can guide them.

[00:47:22] Tracy Hayes: That is actually a great tip for those who are listening. Don’t—I mean, you know what happens when you assume, right? “Ask you, me.” That is exactly what happens.

Just explain homestead. Sometimes you don’t even have to say, “Hey, you know, make sure you file for your homestead because it’s going to discount your taxes. We need to do this by March 1. You know that, right?”

[00:47:46] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:47:46] Tracy Hayes: And, “I’m going to remind you if you don’t do it.”

What do you think right now—off topic a little bit—about DeSantis? You know, he’s after these counties because a lot of them have raised their budgets just because home values have gone up, but they don’t really have the expenditures, and they’re spending money on stupid stuff like government bureaucrats do.

But if we get some sort of reduction in the property taxes for primary residents, what do you think that’s going to do?

Are you using it to create some urgency for people to buy now? Because one thing I’ve been putting out there is that he is suggesting to the legislators that, if this goes into place on this day, anyone who moves in after that still has to pay the regular taxes for four or five years before they get the discounted homestead.

Versus, if someone buys right now and then that legislation goes into play, they’re already an owner and they immediately get the benefits.

[00:48:38] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:48:39] Tracy Hayes: So, that’s kind of the urgency I’ve been throwing at people. It’s like, “Now’s the time to buy because that’s going to happen in some way, shape, or form.”

[00:48:42] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:48:42] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:48:42] Holly Taylor: I’m never the type to say, “Do it now because—” But I am educating everybody that I’m working with and just letting them know, “If this does come in—”

[00:48:54] Tracy Hayes: Right. Right.

[00:48:54] Holly Taylor: “—this is what will happen for you. If you wait, this is what will happen.” Just so they have the information. I want them to be able to make the decision.

But I think I need to be the person to give them the education.

[00:49:05] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Yeah. Because—

[00:49:06] Holly Taylor: Some people—

[00:49:06] Tracy Hayes: Well, another concept you’ve learned over the years is that you are their concierge.

[00:49:11] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:49:12] Tracy Hayes: You want to be their concierge because you want them calling you back or referring other people to you. If you are continuing to put out even what you might think is trivial knowledge to them, they are seeing you as an expert.

[00:49:23] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:49:24] Tracy Hayes: Because you’re continuing to trickle things onto them.

[00:49:27] Holly Taylor: That’s right.

[00:49:27] Tracy Hayes: Which is why it’s great to do a newsletter or something like that. I don’t know if you do that or not.

[00:49:30] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:49:31] Tracy Hayes: You do.

[00:49:31] Holly Taylor: And I’m never the person—like, when somebody calls me and they’re like, “$40 off if you do it right now,” I’m like, “No, thank you. Please just let me think about it. Don’t do that.”

[00:49:40] Tracy Hayes: Ooh.

[00:49:40] Holly Taylor: “And we’ll talk later.” You know? So, I try not to be that type of person.

[00:49:43] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. If you can give me $40 off now, you can give me $40 off tomorrow.

[00:49:47] Holly Taylor: Yeah.

[00:49:47] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

The team.

[00:49:49] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

[00:49:50] Tracy Hayes: I pulled up—I guess the Jacksonville Business Journal ranked you guys number 12. Is that correct?

[00:49:57] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:49:58] Tracy Hayes: So, when you put “Taylor Team” out there, you’re the face of the team. You’re on the show. Someone sees the show, or whatever they see, and they call. Are they getting Taylor? Can they ask for Taylor?

[00:50:06] Holly Taylor: Yes. Yes. I mean, if they call my cell phone—my team’s—

[00:50:09] Tracy Hayes: Or Holly, I should say.

[00:50:10] Holly Taylor: Yeah, I should—yeah. But my team’s—

[00:50:11] Tracy Hayes: Numbers are out there.

[00:50:12] Holly Taylor: But my team’s numbers are out there.

[00:50:13] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:50:14] Holly Taylor: Also for their own marketing.

[00:50:15] Tracy Hayes: So, I’m sorry for making that—can they ask for Holly? That’s what I want to say.

[00:50:20] Holly Taylor: Yes, yes, yes. It’s funny because, when I was little, I said whether I had a boy or a girl first, I was going to name them Taylor. Like, I was one of those kids, and then I married a Taylor. That one calls me Taylor, so it’s great.

[00:50:29] Tracy Hayes: T.T.

[00:50:29] Holly Taylor: T.T. Yeah. Um, so yes, they would get the team members, but I do tell—like, if I go to a listing appointment or I do a buyer consultation, I’m not passing you off. And so that is a big thing, and people ask me that all the time. “You have a team, so if you’re meeting with me now, do I get you?”

[00:50:47] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:50:47] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:50:48] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:50:48] Holly Taylor: But if it’s one of my team members doing the listing appointment, you get them, if that makes sense.

[00:50:53] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:50:54] Holly Taylor: So, and a consumer should be able to choose, you know, who they want to work with.

[00:50:57] Tracy Hayes: Well, but even if they do get one of your teammates, I mean, how involved are you? I assume the agents that you have underneath you don’t have the experience that you have. How involved are you in their business?

[00:51:08] Holly Taylor: Very. I mean, we talk every day.

[00:51:10] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, yeah.

[00:51:10] Holly Taylor: But any listing appointment, I’m definitely running over comps. I think that’s very important.

[00:51:15] Tracy Hayes: You’re double-checking their work.

[00:51:16] Holly Taylor: And marketing, contracts—they send the contracts over to me to review, making sure that everything is correct. We’re pushing marketing out together. So, I mean, that’s good. I think that’s a benefit of a team. They have Zillow Showcase because of the team, and so that’s something that my agents can use as leverage in listing appointments also.

[00:51:35] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:51:36] Holly Taylor: But yes, they could call and they could get me, and they could call and get one of my team members.

[00:51:41] Tracy Hayes: You must have mentioned—here again, changing subjects a little bit. Well, actually, I like this question here, ma’am.

[00:51:47] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:51:48] Tracy Hayes: You’re working St. Johns County.

[00:51:50] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:51:50] Tracy Hayes: St. Augustine. We have a lot of CDDs and HOAs.

[00:51:54] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[00:51:54] Tracy Hayes: I would imagine—I personally know people will get some sort of misconception—

[00:51:59] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:52:00] Tracy Hayes: —of what one or the other is and tell you they don’t want to live in a community like that, but yet they want all the amenities that that CDD provides. We know it happens all the time.

How important do you feel it is that someone who’s buying in St. Johns County, buying in St. Augustine, fully understands the concept of, well, just a county road and they don’t pay any HOA—

[00:52:21] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:52:21] Tracy Hayes: —a community that just has an HOA, versus the community development districts?

[00:52:27] Holly Taylor: And I will tell you the biggest misconception, or what we see, is we do get a lot of Zillow, and we do get a lot of relocation.

[00:52:36] Tracy Hayes: Okay.

[00:52:36] Holly Taylor: On Zillow, you can’t see the CDD fee. It is not broken down as a line item. So, you’ll see HOAs, and you’ll see total taxes, which includes CDD.

[00:52:48] Tracy Hayes: Right. Okay.

[00:52:49] Holly Taylor: So, a lot of people that come here are like, “Wait, my taxes are this, plus I have a CDD?” No, they are all in your tax bill.

[00:52:53] Tracy Hayes: Very important to explain.

[00:52:55] Holly Taylor: Yes, that—

[00:52:55] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:52:56] Holly Taylor: So, that’s really important. And most people that are relocating here, if you look at the taxes that include the CDD, it’s still a lot less than what they’re used to paying.

[00:53:05] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:53:05] Holly Taylor: But I do think it’s important to point out that that is a fee. And so, you know, when we do estimates or, “Where do you want to be monthly?” that is something that we have to put in there if we’re looking at communities that have a CDD. And a lot of them do.

[00:53:16] Tracy Hayes: You just made me think—and I was on my CDD board for 11 years. I didn’t even know what a CDD was when I got on the board originally. I was, like, learning as I went, which most people moving into these communities, they don’t.

[00:53:27] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:53:28] Tracy Hayes: Like I said, they’re just looking at their tax bill.

[00:53:30] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:53:30] Tracy Hayes: But a tip, just thinking of it, for agents who are listening right now: you’re showing us—print off, go on the website, because the tax bill for that house is on there. Print it off and show the person right there, so they physically have it, or give it to them.

Say, “Yeah, this house is—these are the actual property taxes, but they’re going to collect their CDD fee every November as well.”

[00:53:49] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:53:49] Tracy Hayes: “And that’s why your total is this, because it’s also including that fee.” Then they physically are seeing it versus you just verbally—

[00:53:56] Holly Taylor: Yeah, explaining.

[00:53:56] Tracy Hayes: That’s—

[00:53:57] Holly Taylor: That’s a good tip, too.

[00:53:57] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, yeah. How do you approach that person who has no clue? Some of these people up north really don’t even know the concept of an HOA either—

[00:54:04] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:54:05] Tracy Hayes: —type of thing. How do you handle that? How do you present that conversation?

[00:54:09] Holly Taylor: I mean, we do talk—I’m numbers first, really. I do explain the community development district and what it does, and it’s paid for in the taxes. And so it is more enforceable to collect that also than an HOA.

[00:54:21] Tracy Hayes: Yes.

[00:54:22] Holly Taylor: And we do drive through neighborhoods. “Do you notice a difference when it’s an HOA neighborhood or not? Do you care? Like, is that something that you care about?” And we kind of talk about what’s included, what you get, and what the amenities are. But really, it’s the numbers—

[00:54:34] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:54:35] Holly Taylor: —for most people. It’s like, “What is it, and what do I get?”

[00:54:37] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, the value.

[00:54:38] Holly Taylor: Yeah.

[00:54:38] Tracy Hayes: What’s the value? What’s the value of that? Now, 100 percent, the tip on—they’re collected with your taxes, so you can’t just send in your taxes and not pay your CDD.

[00:54:47] Holly Taylor: Right.

[00:54:48] Tracy Hayes: Otherwise, your tax bill’s not—and the county’s going to go after you. Someone can buy the tax certificate. You’re going to incur penalties, the whole nine yards.

And what I also explain—there’s a lot of unscrupulous stuff. Now, the state is cracking down on some of these HOAs. I think, actually, nationally, they’re—

[00:55:04] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:55:05] Tracy Hayes: —cracking down. But there’s a lot of sidebar stuff that goes on. The CDD, one, they’re—to give everyone—they’re elected with the election in November. You’re also not only choosing president or senator or whatever; you’re choosing who’s your CDD—assuming they put their names in before June like they’re supposed to.

But they’re also—in Florida, we have the Sunshine Laws, so there can’t be sidebar conversations about issues and then coming in and saying, “Well, we’ve already made the decision on that. We don’t need to talk about it.” No, there’s no such thing. The conversation has to happen at the thing, and there are attorneys sitting right there to make sure the board members aren’t doing or suggesting stuff that’s unscrupulous.

I mean, I’ve been literally in a condo board meeting, in a place where we own some condos, where there was a repair. They went out, and this guy estimated it was $140,000—that one estimate on these repairs. And one of the board members was asking, basically, for their permission to spend the $140,000, give him total control over it.

I’m like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on a second. We need a second. You’ve got one bid. None of these people are in the room right now to tell you what they’re actually going to do, so the other board members fully understand what’s at stake here.”

[00:56:16] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:56:17] Tracy Hayes: I mean, that’s the type of stuff that happens at HOA boards.

[00:56:21] Holly Taylor: Right.

[00:56:21] Tracy Hayes: That could not happen at a CDD board. They would not let that happen.

[00:56:28] Holly Taylor: That’s right.

[00:56:28] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Now, maybe the other four board members could vote and say, “Hey, you know, we’ve talked to these—” Ultimately, you know, the chairman could designate one of the board members to go out and oversee what goes on, be the point person.

[00:56:43] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[00:56:43] Tracy Hayes: But yeah, so the CDD, to me, is safer than—I like the collection part.

[00:56:50] Holly Taylor: Yes, that’s right.

[00:56:51] Tracy Hayes: The importance of collection. People don’t realize there are people that they foreclose on. HOAs will foreclose on you because they’re not—you’re complaining because the lawn’s up here because someone’s not paying their fee. They moved out.

And obviously, back when I first bought—we bought our home in 2009. It was a foreclosure, and the lawn was dead and so forth. And obviously, they had been fined and everything else like that.

But, you know, that stuff goes on all the time, and the importance of collecting the fees. Because the HOA, they can only go back 24 months.

[00:57:14] Holly Taylor: Oh, okay.

[00:57:15] Tracy Hayes: That’s one other thing. CDD fee—well, it’s paid with your taxes. You don’t pay your taxes for five years, when they sell that house, they’re going to collect all the back—

[00:57:25] Holly Taylor: Yes, yes.

[00:57:26] Tracy Hayes: Let’s talk about sellers right now. It’s out there. A lot of agents are talking about it, working with some of these sellers with improper expectations.

[00:57:36] Holly Taylor: Okay.

[00:57:37] Tracy Hayes: Tell us—I’m sure you’ve been on some listing appointments recently, probably in the last year. How do you talk about that with a person who is not necessarily going with what Holly recommends? Because you’ve done your homework before going in there.

How do you work with them? And what are you seeing are some of these expectations that some of these sellers are having?

[00:57:51] Holly Taylor: So, one of the biggest things is—I mean, I walk the house. Obviously, I did my comps. I’m seeing if anything is different than what I thought it was going to be when I was there.

Then we sit down. My first question is always, “What do you think your house is worth?” Because I need to know where my conversation needs to go.

[00:58:07] Tracy Hayes: You don’t want to insult them.

[00:58:08] Holly Taylor: Right. Right. And I need to know, are they $100,000 off of what I think? Okay, we have to have a different conversation.

[00:58:15] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:58:16] Holly Taylor: And if they are very much higher than what I think is okay, I’d love to sell your house for $10 million. That’d be great for both of us. However, there is an appraisal process, and I need to make sure that we’re at least close to that because we’re going to be getting offers.

We want to get as many eyes on this as possible, so we need market value. That’s where we need to be.

There are a lot of sellers who think that we should test the market: “Let’s put it high. That will leave room for negotiations.” But what that does is you get rid of a whole pool of buyers. And so what we’re seeing in the market—

[00:58:53] Tracy Hayes: If any buyers at all.

[00:58:54] Holly Taylor: Right.

[00:58:54] Tracy Hayes: Some of those houses sit. They don’t even get a showing.

[00:58:56] Holly Taylor: Right. Right. And so, I mean, that’s a conversation you have to have weekly once it’s on the market. How many showings? How many views? How many phone calls? What’s the feedback that I’m getting?

I’m giving that to them, and we need to make decisions fast. We’re not letting this house sit on the market for weeks without doing anything. And so value is one of the things.

Another one of the conversations I was having—I mean, probably two years ago; it’s getting better now—was whenever we had to do showing agreements and buyer-broker agreements, and the commission was not going to be on the MLS anymore.

Sellers thought, “Okay, perfect. I don’t have to pay the buyer.” Okay, well, do you want buyers’ agents to show your house?

[00:59:34] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:59:34] Holly Taylor: And so we had to have that conversation. There were some that left it off of a listing agreement and said, “Let them bring an offer,” and we’re back to business as usual.

[00:59:43] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. I mean, you know.

[00:59:44] Holly Taylor: Yeah.

[00:59:44] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:59:44] Holly Taylor: But there was a period of time of that, too, where it’s like, “Okay, I don’t have to pay anymore.” Everyone’s trying to get a deal. Sellers are trying to get the most money. Buyers obviously want a deal.

[00:59:53] Tracy Hayes: Did you have to feel that out a little bit, or were you right away like—I mean, as everyone’s now experienced, you need to budget for that. You need to incentivize. If the buyer’s agent calls you and says, “We want to come over and see the house. What is your compensation offer?” you need to be prepared.

Did you have that right away? You knew that was going to happen at the beginning? Or did you have to feel that out, you know, back when that transition happened in ’24?

[01:00:16] Holly Taylor: Yeah. So, it wasn’t as difficult with the listings because we’re like, “We’re kind of all figuring this out.” I’ve talked to my sellers. They do know that this is going to come with the offer, so submit your offer, you know, that sort of thing.

I think the more difficult piece was getting buyers to sign a piece of paper before seeing a house.

[01:00:34] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Yeah.

[01:00:34] Holly Taylor: And so, I mean, in the beginning, we were like, “It’s got to be a buyer-broker agreement. We’ve got to get them bound in.” But that’s kind of scary for somebody that has only taken a phone call with us.

[01:00:46] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[01:00:46] Holly Taylor: And I don’t want to bind somebody to something if they don’t like me, want to trust—you know, trust me—anything.

And so what we moved into was, “We’re just going to do a showing agreement for this house,” or maybe we’re seeing two houses, then go from there. When we get done, I want to have a conversation with you. “Would you like me to work for you? This is what I do as an agent for you.”

Then—

[01:01:07] Tracy Hayes: So—

[01:01:08] Holly Taylor: Then move into—

[01:01:08] Tracy Hayes: This is basically the routine that you’ve created with Zillow. You found it’s just great effect. “Hey, I just need you to sign this so I can show you this house.”

[01:01:15] Holly Taylor: That’s right.

[01:01:16] Tracy Hayes: “Or to represent you today in the houses we’re going to see today.”

[01:01:19] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[01:01:20] Tracy Hayes: Type of thing.

[01:01:20] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[01:01:21] Tracy Hayes: Do you prep? Are you having the conversation that the next document is going to come after that, or do you just take the path of least resistance?

But because of your experience, you know, everyone is positive. You don’t have to put anybody in any sort of defense. Just be, “Hey, for me to show you these houses today, you just sign this.”

[01:01:41] Holly Taylor: Yeah.

[01:01:42] Tracy Hayes: And then just start with that.

[01:01:43] Holly Taylor: If they’re going to work with you, they’re going to work with you.

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

[01:01:44] Holly Taylor: Okay? If they’re not, they’re not. They’re going to find a way not to.

So, we just found this is the easiest way. Let’s have a positive—let’s get in. I don’t want it to be like this resistance at the door, or resistance—you got this thing in your email that you don’t know what it is.

[01:01:57] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Yeah.

[01:01:57] Holly Taylor: So, we just want to get in the house. I just want to get to know you. What are you looking for? Are we a good fit?

[01:02:02] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. I always like David—when I had him on during the time, he called it, like, “Let’s go out on a date.”

[01:02:07] Holly Taylor: That’s right.

[01:02:08] Tracy Hayes: You know, “Let’s date today.” And when you think about it, you’re on that first date and you haven’t really built a relationship. Obviously, there are things your husband does today that—

[01:02:19] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[01:02:19] Tracy Hayes: —if you knew he did when you met him for the first few hours, you probably wouldn’t have continued dating.

[01:02:24] Holly Taylor: No.

[01:02:25] Tracy Hayes: We all have that.

[01:02:26] Holly Taylor: Really?

[01:02:26] Tracy Hayes: But we tolerate it today because we love them for all the other things.

[01:02:30] Holly Taylor: Right.

[01:02:30] Tracy Hayes: The other 99 things that they do do.

[01:02:33] Holly Taylor: Right, right.

[01:02:33] Tracy Hayes: We say, “Oh, that’s not so big.” But on the first date, that moment of trying to attack them and say, “Hey, let’s do a long-term relationship,” I’m like, “Dude, I haven’t even looked at the first house.”

It just really kind of makes people step back a little bit and start thinking, you know, “What?” You know, and again, this assumption word comes up.

[01:02:52] Holly Taylor: Right.

[01:02:53] Tracy Hayes: Great advice there. Just make it easy. “Hey, we’re going to date today. I need you just to sign this to show the house. This is what it’s about,” and go through it.

Now, to transition to the longer-term document is then easier because, obviously, there’s a lot of overlap. It’s just, “Now I’m going to be representing you until we find you a house.”

[01:03:09] Holly Taylor: Right. Yeah. And I’m going to be researching for you and available to you, and here are my hours, and this is how you can get me. Like, we’re going to have all of those sorts of conversations.

[01:03:17] Tracy Hayes: Right, right.

[01:03:18] Holly Taylor: And at that point, they’re like, “Yeah, let’s do this.”

[01:03:19] Tracy Hayes: Do you feel it’s because—I think a lot of agents feel they’re making more money now than actually before, when it was supposed to, you know, help people negotiate commissions now.

[01:03:29] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[01:03:29] Tracy Hayes: Because you’re taking a moment of actually explaining your value.

[01:03:31] Holly Taylor: Yeah.

[01:03:31] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[01:03:32] Holly Taylor: Yeah. I think it’s pretty similar for us. I feel pretty similar. I was very nervous when it came out. We started doing the agreements in probably May to get used to it because, if they said no, okay, what are we going to do? What does the objection look like?

We did a lot of prepping before it was actually put into place in August. But I feel like everything is pretty similar to how it always was.

[01:03:54] Tracy Hayes: Next question. And, I mean, 20 years I’ve been—well, we didn’t start doing VA loans until really about 2009. I mean, they were available, but VA and FHA, before the housing collapse in, you know, ’07, ’08—VA and FHA loans were a very small percentage, like 3%, I think, of all the loans that were out there.

Now they’re obviously 40%, 50% of the loans. But we still have people out there who have these old wives’ tales or misconceptions. Here now, it’s been, you know, 15-plus years where FHA and VA loans have been around.

About the VA loan—

[01:04:36] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[01:04:37] Tracy Hayes: Do you still run into some of those—

[01:04:39] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[01:04:39] Tracy Hayes: —with some of the other listing agents? What are some of the things you’re still hearing today?

[01:04:39] Holly Taylor: Oh, with the—okay, when I’m—

[01:04:40] Tracy Hayes: Putting—

[01:04:41] Holly Taylor: —putting in an offer using—

[01:04:41] Tracy Hayes: Whether it’s putting an offer with a VA loan, or, you know, yeah. Basically. Because I think a lot of them, like, they don’t even want to put a VA loan as eligible on a house because they think the house needs repairs.

Well, everyone’s having the home inspected.

[01:04:52] Holly Taylor: Right.

[01:04:53] Tracy Hayes: So, VA loan or otherwise.

[01:04:54] Holly Taylor: Well, like, what is it that you think is wrong with the house? Because I can tell you if it’s going to pass VA or not.

[01:04:58] Tracy Hayes: If it’s not going to pass VA, it’s probably not going to pass the other things either.

[01:05:01] Holly Taylor: Right. Right. So, I mean, it has to be something pretty major for that.

[01:05:04] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Yeah.

[01:05:05] Holly Taylor: So, conversations, yes, sometimes. I have a lot more conversations with buyers who have a misconception about what the VA loan is, and that they obviously don’t have a down payment, but they don’t think they have closing costs either.

And so we do have to talk about that and what that looks like. And yes, I can negotiate for you, and we can see what we can get. But a lot of them do think that they don’t have closing costs because they don’t have a down payment.

And I do have, if they—

[01:05:31] Tracy Hayes: Forgot that—

[01:05:31] Holly Taylor: Part, difference—

[01:05:32] Tracy Hayes: I often thought it was because the agent who dealt with them before, or the person they’d been talking to, obviously just did the deal, got the concessions paid for most of the costs, if not all the costs.

[01:05:46] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[01:05:47] Tracy Hayes: And, you know, they did walk into it with little to no money out of their pocket.

[01:05:52] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[01:05:53] Tracy Hayes: But they were never explained—I often thought that was the part. But I’m thinking, no, they just forgot the conversation, that 32-minute conversation where the agent explained to them, “What we’re going to do is, we’re going to offer here, they’re going to pay the closing costs, and keep your cash in your pocket.”

And they’re like, “Okay,” and then everyone just forgot about that conversation.

[01:06:05] Holly Taylor: That’s right.

[01:06:05] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[01:06:06] Holly Taylor: And a lot of them end up going with new construction so they don’t have to pay a lot of the closing costs.

[01:06:09] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[01:06:10] Holly Taylor: Yeah.

[01:06:11] Tracy Hayes: Which brings up a very important point, which I think is a challenge. I’m sure you’ve had these listings where you are listing a property in a community that’s still building.

[01:06:20] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[01:06:20] Tracy Hayes: And again, you’re fighting the builders, who are having the same buying and selling challenges as the real estate agents, trying to get more and more buyers in as they’re trying to continue to build houses and sell them. So, they’re putting all these incentives on the table.

[01:06:38] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[01:06:39] Tracy Hayes: But the seller now, who’s only been there a year—when you’re working with some of these military, active-duty people, who might be there a year, might be two years, and then they’re out—having that discussion with them about buying in a new-construction community that might still be building for four or five years.

[01:06:54] Holly Taylor: We do. Yeah. Yeah. And actually, last year, two of my military families had to leave sooner than they thought, and they rented their houses.

It was like, “Just wait.” And I don’t make any money on that. Okay, let’s get that clear. But I advised them that that would be the best thing for them. You can definitely pay your mortgage plus some and get a renter in there. I know that you can get a renter in there. I’ve talked to the rental company, and I suggested that because, until you can get equity or until this community is built out, you’re going to have to give away too much to sell your property.

[01:07:27] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[01:07:27] Holly Taylor: And so, we do that. Also, it is tough to sell a house in a new-construction neighborhood, and the buyers that we normally find are relocating and cash, and they have to move quickly. So, the other homes are not ready. Mine is ready. It probably has some upgrades, maybe they added a fence, things like that.

[01:07:45] Tracy Hayes: Right. And so—

[01:07:47] Holly Taylor: That’s sellable.

[01:07:47] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Lucky you. Really, you’re really blessed when you—

[01:07:50] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[01:07:50] Tracy Hayes: —get that situation, because a lot of times—and I’m sure there are agents who are listening—every agent who’s actively got a number of listings probably has one in some of these communities or has had one recently.

[01:08:00] Holly Taylor: That’s right.

[01:08:01] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Yeah. And you’re blessed that someone can come in. There are situations right now where the sellers are actually bringing a check to the table to get out of these situations by the time they pay their costs, by the time they pay the agent, and so forth.

A lot of agents are doing the best they can to bend and, you know, just hoping for a lot, or are taking a lot less commission sometimes to make some of these deals work, so at least they break even or don’t have to bring so much to the table.

[01:08:31] Holly Taylor: Yeah, I’m sure.

[01:08:32] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. You’re working St. Augustine, St. Johns County—a lot of new construction, as you mentioned. What would you say the percentage of your team is in new construction versus existing homes right now? Just ballpark.

[01:08:36] Holly Taylor: Maybe, like, 20 percent of our buyers are probably in new construction.

[01:08:39] Tracy Hayes: Oh, I thought that—I would have said you were going to be more like 40 or 50 percent.

[01:08:43] Holly Taylor: Yeah.

[01:08:44] Tracy Hayes: But that’s actually fairly good.

Explain to us—look right into this camera, because this is going to be a good clip you could put on your social—why is it important to have a real estate agent, one who knows the builders and regularly sells new construction, represent you when going out and talking to these different builders?

Because everyone is different. They all have their different incentives and what they do and don’t do.

[01:09:08] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[01:09:09] Tracy Hayes: Why is it important to have that experienced agent represent you?

[01:09:12] Holly Taylor: And let me tell you this: I bought my first house without an agent, and it was new construction because I thought I didn’t need one.

[01:09:19] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[01:09:20] Holly Taylor: And things were not finished. I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know what I was signing. We were 60, 90 days in the house before everything was finished the way that it was supposed to.

So, number one, you need somebody who can have your back and know what’s supposed to be happening when, so that when you move in, your house is perfect.

Number two is, the new construction is not all on the MLS and Zillow. So, you need an agent who has relationships with all of the builders in the area. I can call them all. If your budget is X, Y, Z, you want three bedrooms, two baths—this is what you’re looking for—I can message them all, get all the new-construction updates, and send them to you. It doesn’t take me long. It would take you forever.

And number three, and probably the most important, is that we can negotiate for you. You don’t even know what to ask for. I have one that I just negotiated yesterday and got, like, $74,000 in savings, and we got all the appliances and a screened lanai, and they never do that. On one house, we got an epoxy garage floor.

So, you don’t even know how far you can push. And if you push too far, they’re like, “Okay, we’re not anywhere close.” So, it needs to be somebody who knows how far to push to get you where you need to be.

Yes, can you walk into a model home and go unrepresented? Yes. And you can work with the person who is representing the builder, or you can get your own agent and your own representation so that somebody has your best interest throughout the whole process.

[01:10:43] Tracy Hayes: Exactly that. I think the biggest tip there at the end—you concluded with it—every builder has different areas where they can negotiate.

[01:10:51] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[01:10:51] Tracy Hayes: The average person may have gone into X builder, and X builder says, “We have no room to negotiate in that area that you’re asking for.” And you’re like, “Oh, okay, I’m up against a rock wall.”

You go to the next one, and in that same situation, they’ll negotiate—I don’t know, maybe it’s fixtures, you know, the things that they can give and take a little bit on. That other builder will flex on that.

[01:11:16] Holly Taylor: Right.

[01:11:17] Tracy Hayes: And all the builders run their models a little bit differently because they’re marketing a product—whether they include all the fixtures.

[01:11:23] Holly Taylor: Right.

[01:11:23] Tracy Hayes: There is one of the builders that just basically—that’s the way the house comes. Here are all the fixtures. That’s it.

[01:11:26] Holly Taylor: Right.

[01:11:26] Tracy Hayes: You know, all included. Others, you have to go and pick out every little thing.

[01:11:29] Holly Taylor: Right.

[01:11:30] Tracy Hayes: You know.

[01:11:30] Holly Taylor: And, you know, that’s a good point with the design center and having an agent with you if you’re building from the ground up. Because I just did one, and, okay, for instance, the design center, I think, had eight-foot ceilings, and we were talking about, “How high do you want your cabinets?”

And they said, “Well, those look good,” and I think they were—I mean, they were short cabinets. And I’m like, “Hang on a minute, though. Your ceiling height is two feet taller than this ceiling that we’re looking at right now.”

[01:11:55] Tracy Hayes: Where you set the normal counter or bottom of the—

[01:11:55] 333 VIDEO: Normal—

[01:11:56] Holly Taylor: Cabinet. A picture. And they were like, “I am so glad you’re here.”

[01:12:00] Tracy Hayes: Yes.

[01:12:00] Holly Taylor: Because you don’t think about all of the things. Or, in the model home, they have all of the lighting and all of the—all upgrades. And you need to know, that’s not how it comes. This is what it costs if you want it to look like that.

And so, I think having someone at the design center is really important, too.

[01:12:16] Tracy Hayes: A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Yeah. Because, I mean, again, you’ve seen it, and it’s not like they’re sitting there—of course, with AI now, they should be able to say, “Yeah, that’s what that kitchen should look like.” Eventually, it’ll be like that. I’m sure some of them are like that, where they can go and put—

[01:12:33] Holly Taylor: Yeah.

[01:12:34] Tracy Hayes: —put that cabinet in there. What’s that going to look like? And you see a rendition in AI. Haven’t seen it yet, but it should be. It should be.

[01:12:40] Holly Taylor: Yeah. It’s coming.

[01:12:41] Tracy Hayes: Your husband’s active-duty Navy?

[01:12:40] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[01:12:42] Tracy Hayes: All right. You’ve got a military family. They’ve got six weeks to move here. What are you doing? They’re not here. They’re not here locally right now to see houses, but they’ve got orders.

What is your timeline? There’s a sense of urgency.

[01:12:56] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[01:12:57] Tracy Hayes: Because if it takes you two weeks to find a house, then you’ve got less—you’ve got to get the sellers out within 30 days. You’ve got to get them moving here so they’re not having to live somewhere temporarily.

Tell us how you break that down. How do you attack that?

[01:13:10] Holly Taylor: So, I mean, number one, buyer consultation with everybody. What are you looking for? Normally, they can’t come here for tours, and so a lot of it is virtual.

So, I narrow down areas. I share it with them. I share with them the schools that would be in that area so they can do their own research. A lot of them are coming with kids, and that’s really important to them.

And so, we do a lot of that, but that only takes a day or two. Okay. And then that whole next week, I’m sending them everything that I have. We need to narrow it down. I need to go out and see houses because, if it’s six weeks, we really need to be under contract in two weeks.

[01:13:52] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[01:13:53] Holly Taylor: From the time that I talk to them. And working with military, I will even tell you, at listing appointments, they’re like, “Okay, yep, that seems fair. How do you do this? Here are my questions, and here’s the key.”

Like, they’re very systematic with everything that they do. They’re just trained that way. And so, even the buying process, it’s like, “Okay, you meet me, then we’re going to go get your preapproval, and then we’re going to look at this and this. And this is what it looks like.”

[01:14:07] Tracy Hayes: There’s a level—they are used to trusting the person next to them.

[01:14:11] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[01:14:12] Tracy Hayes: And you’re in front of them, and they are entrusting you. They’re pretty blatantly like, “Here’s the key.” They have to—

[01:14:18] Holly Taylor: Yeah.

[01:14:18] Tracy Hayes: They have to give that trust. And then, now, if you fail them—

[01:14:23] Holly Taylor: Right.

[01:14:23] Tracy Hayes: —that’s something else. But they are going—you know, I think everyone has to understand, if they’re dealing with them, they are entrusting you with a lot.

[01:14:30] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[01:14:30] Tracy Hayes: Which you already know. You are.

[01:14:32] Holly Taylor: Right.

[01:14:33] Tracy Hayes: But the military—they’re just going to be flat-out, “I’m hiring you.” They’re in.

[01:14:36] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[01:14:37] Tracy Hayes: And you’ve got to then understand the trust that they’ve put into you and what you need to deliver.

[01:14:43] Holly Taylor: Because I don’t know any military family that I’ve worked with who didn’t come from a referral. And so, I think that’s the part of the trust, too.

[01:14:52] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[01:14:53] Holly Taylor: So, either from my husband or a military family that I’ve helped before. And so, they’re like, “Holly, just tell us what to do, and we’re ready.”

Because also, they know that it’s not their job. They know that it is my job, and I do this every day, and they don’t want to waste time. Most of them are like, “This is what we’re doing, and now I’m moving it over to you. Let me know what you need from me. This is what I need.”

[01:15:11] Tracy Hayes: And they’re used to—obviously, they’ve probably moved before. As you’ve experienced, being—you know, your husband active duty—they’re not—

[01:15:20] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[01:15:20] Tracy Hayes: Do they want to make sure their kids are going to the right schools and so forth? Yes, they do. Do they expect the perfect home? Not necessarily, because they’re on such a short timeline.

It’s actually more—would you agree—it’s more important for them to be moving into a home, you know, in six weeks when they’re supposed to be here, versus coming and living in some hotel for whatever. They want to just move from one house to the other, and, you know—

[01:15:43] Holly Taylor: Yeah. Like, eight out of 10. If it’s an eight out of 10, they’re good.

[01:15:45] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Yeah. Which I actually think should be for most people. If you get eight out of 10.

All right, let’s talk about SilverLeaf real quick as we start to round out. There are some new schools going in. Obviously, Tocoi High School is only a few years old, but some of the SilverLeaf people, I think, are actually going to Beachside.

[01:16:01] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[01:16:02] Tracy Hayes: But some are probably still going to Bartram, too, which—and I don’t know how they’re spreading all—how the high schools have broken.

[01:16:09] Holly Taylor: Magnolia Oaks is opening this fall. It’s K-8.

[01:16:13] Tracy Hayes: Right in SilverLeaf.

[01:16:13] Holly Taylor: Right in SilverLeaf.

[01:16:15] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Okay.

[01:16:15] Holly Taylor: And so, a lot of people are moving—and I should make a video about this.

[01:16:19] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[01:16:20] Holly Taylor: I keep saying I’m going to. But a lot of families feel comfortable making the transition into SilverLeaf to go to Magnolia Oaks because all the kids are going to a new school this fall.

And so, their kid is not going to be the new kid.

[01:16:33] Tracy Hayes: New kid. Everybody is the new kid.

[01:16:35] Holly Taylor: Everybody is the new kid.

[01:16:36] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[01:16:36] Holly Taylor: And so, that is a big pull of the new school also being right in SilverLeaf, too.

[01:16:37] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Nice. New Publix—it just opened up a few months ago.

[01:16:42] Holly Taylor: Yeah.

[01:16:42] Tracy Hayes: Or six months ago. It hasn’t been six months. Has it been that long?

[01:16:45] Holly Taylor: That’s huge.

[01:16:46] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Now, I hope people don’t forget, that’s actually supposed to be a town center built in behind us. There are going to be other things.

[01:16:54] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[01:16:55] Tracy Hayes: Now, Travis Hudson, our former state senator and son of the developer—you know, he used to live in St. Johns Golf and Country Club. That’s where I met him. He lived there prior to, you know, he ended up moving to one of the properties within SilverLeaf.

And their big thing was no CDD fees. So, now they have HOAs with a lot of power because there are some amenities in SilverLeaf—

[01:17:14] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[01:17:15] Tracy Hayes: —that, in most areas, only CDDs provide. But they kept them as HOAs. I’m not so confident in that.

Tell someone who’s looking in SilverLeaf right now about how the different neighborhoods, as far as the fees are concerned, and how you’re handling that conversation.

[01:17:25] Holly Taylor: Okay.

[01:17:26] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[01:17:26] Holly Taylor: I mean, one of the biggest things is we don’t have a fitness center, but I heard the reason why is because there are so many people that it would always be packed.

[01:17:32] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[01:17:33] Holly Taylor: So, save money. We pay a little bit less and pay out in town for the fitness center. They did just open the second amenity center.

They are very strict, though, with, like, you get eight members or guests a year, and so that’s very different.

[01:17:46] Tracy Hayes: So, they’re using Disney-style restrictions.

[01:17:49] Holly Taylor: Yeah. And you have an app restriction to get in, and you have to have a headshot and everything.

But each neighborhood is a little bit different. So, you have the master community, which everyone pays, and then each different subdivision has its own additional fee. So, it really depends on which part of SilverLeaf.

[01:18:06] Tracy Hayes: So, the smaller subdivisions have just a pool or anything, or—

[01:18:08] Holly Taylor: Yes, there are a couple that do.

[01:18:10] Tracy Hayes: That have their own little pool just for that particular little—

[01:18:13] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[01:18:13] Tracy Hayes: Thing there. Okay.

[01:18:15] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[01:18:16] Tracy Hayes: Only 9% of St. Augustine homes sell over asking. What does the winning offer actually look like right now? How are you strategizing with your buyers coming in?

Because, to go back to our seller question we had a few moments ago, some sellers are asking over. But if you come in and say, “No, it needs this. It needs to go for this price. This is where it’s going to comp out at”—

[01:18:42] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[01:18:42] Tracy Hayes: —they may, obviously, if they thought the house was worth $20,000 more than that, not negotiate much off that price that you recommend.

[01:18:46] Holly Taylor: Right.

[01:18:47] Tracy Hayes: So, how are you best strategizing when you know that house is priced correctly? How are you strategizing the offer for everyone to win?

[01:18:54] Holly Taylor: Well, and there are still multiple offers in this market. People don’t think that. Everybody is hearing, “You can get your closing costs paid for. You can get this. You can get that.” That’s not the case for every house.

I have—I mean, just in the last week, every one of my team members has been in a multiple-offer situation because the house was priced right.

[01:19:12] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[01:19:12] Holly Taylor: So, it is up to us, when we’re buyers’ agents, to be able to structure an offer that wins. You need to know what it comps out at. You need to know, if you have multiple offers, are you competing? Do you use an escalation clause? You need to know what all the things are that you can put in place so that your buyer is not putting too much money on the table, but writing an offer that will win.

[01:19:33] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[01:19:33] Holly Taylor: And we use escalation clauses a lot for that.

[01:19:35] Tracy Hayes: Well, there’s that sweet spot—

[01:19:38] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[01:19:38] Tracy Hayes: —where the seller feels good, the buyer feels good. Obviously, we’re in agreement. You want to maximize—the seller feels like they’re getting the best for theirs, but the buyer is saying they’re not paying beyond what they should pay.

What are you doing as a real estate agent, though, and how are you coaching your team? Because you want to do some due diligence.

[01:19:57] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[01:19:58] Tracy Hayes: Maybe call the listing agent, for example. What are some discovery things that you like to do when you know you’ve got one of those houses that might get two or three offers right now? What are you doing to strategize for that?

[01:20:09] Holly Taylor: I do coach all of my agents to call the listing agent before you ever show a house, because you need to know the situation.

[01:20:15] Tracy Hayes: You mean you don’t just throw an offer at them in an email—

[01:20:18] Holly Taylor: Oh, gosh.

[01:20:18] Tracy Hayes: —and hope they get it?

[01:20:20] Holly Taylor: And you should talk to them before, like, “Thank you for allowing me to see the house. What’s the seller’s situation? Do they have a house picked out?” All of those questions are really to find out how much I can negotiate.

[01:20:33] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[01:20:34] Holly Taylor: And timeline. So, when I’m putting in an offer, it might not be beneficial to the seller to close in 14 days if they don’t have a place to go.

[01:20:38] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[01:20:39] Holly Taylor: And so, you need to figure out what would be strong to that seller because everyone is different.

So, trying to figure out their situation. Obviously, I’m trying to figure out anything about the home that I can’t find out online, so asking those questions. But just building a relationship, too, because if you are at a point where you’re in multiple offers, you might have the cleanest offer. You might be the best one to work with.

They might know that you’re not going to ask for all the ridiculous repairs. You’re going to keep it loan-specific, that sort of thing. All of those different things can win an offer, not just the price. So, figuring out what the seller wants so that we can write a winning offer.

[01:21:15] Tracy Hayes: How important has it been that, you know, over your years now—and you’re doing a high level of volume, so you have a lot of at-bats, so you are dealing with a lot of different agents—

[01:21:27] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[01:21:27] Tracy Hayes: —because you’re just in that many more transactions?

How important is it to get to know some of these agents that are on the other side, to go to events, or even just go to lunch or go to coffee, but interact with them? And then, when you are in the transaction, to actually converse with them so they have confidence in you?

Because I would imagine there have been some of these situations where you have multiple offers—

[01:21:51] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[01:21:51] Tracy Hayes: —and because someone’s dealing with you, they’re like, “Well, Holly puts her stuff in a pile.”

[01:21:55] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[01:21:55] Tracy Hayes: “Her stuff is tight. I know if Holly says she’s got a great customer, they’re both putting 20% down,” or whatever the situation is. Everything else is equal.

[01:22:07] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[01:22:07] Tracy Hayes: “But we’re doing this because Holly’s representing them.”

[01:22:10] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[01:22:10] Tracy Hayes: “And I know Holly’s stuff is better. I suggest you take this offer.” How important is it to build a reputation like that?

[01:22:13] Holly Taylor: I think that it’s very important, and I teach my team that, too, is that you need to be clean. You need to have relationships. You need to have relationships with every—I mean, keep it cordial with everybody. You don’t have to be best friends, but you need to be professional.

I mean, there are a lot of times where I get into conversations with other agents and I’m like, “That’s not exactly what we’re talking about. You know, let’s keep it to the transaction.”

[01:22:36] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[01:22:36] Holly Taylor: And we just—Sally just won an offer—

[01:22:39] Tracy Hayes: Last week. That just means they’re starting to trust you a little bit. Then they start talking about that.

[01:22:44] Holly Taylor: Yeah, that’s right.

[01:22:45] Tracy Hayes: You’re building that relationship, and then they start talking about other things that are not, you know, relevant to the—

[01:22:49] Holly Taylor: Yeah, no. Yeah, no.

[01:22:49] Tracy Hayes: —transaction.

[01:22:50] Holly Taylor: And I think that it is important because you’re not just agreeing on price and terms that one day. You’re going to be dealing with them for two weeks, 30 days, and you’re going to have repair requests, and there are going to be things that come up, because nothing is ever black and white in real estate.

You need to be able to have conversations with them so that everybody is mutually agreeing and moving toward the closing table, because that’s what everybody wants.

[01:23:10] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[01:23:11] Holly Taylor: And so, I think that it’s very important.

[01:23:12] Tracy Hayes: How have you found that—you said you had an agent you’d never worked with before. Maybe they’re, you know, whatever level they’re at, but because of how you handled the initial call, like calling them before you sent over the offer—

[01:23:25] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[01:23:25] Tracy Hayes: —it gives them confidence. They can call: “Hey, I’ve got another offer coming in. Let’s wait and see,” you know, whatever.

Sending over the offer, she said, “I’ll have it by the end of the day,” or whatever. Because you’ve built this reputation of putting the other agent in a good light.

[01:23:43] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[01:23:43] Tracy Hayes: You could say that when something goes off the tracks later on, like the inspection is done, the other agent is—like I said, now you’ve got that relationship and confidence. You made them feel good about themselves and made them look good in front of their sellers.

Because of that, you have a better negotiating situation.

[01:24:02] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

[01:24:03] Tracy Hayes: And they’re more apt to give you more information to hopefully find that win in the situation. Because that same agent, as you—and I’m sure you’ve experienced this—

[01:24:12] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[01:24:12] Tracy Hayes: Some of them are Jekyll and Hyde, and they’re battling you because you haven’t done the, “Hey, how are you doing today?” conversations from the beginning.

[01:24:21] 333 VIDEO: Right.

[01:24:21] Tracy Hayes: You know, type of thing. And they want to battle you when it comes to negotiations as if it’s their house.

[01:24:27] Holly Taylor: Right.

[01:24:27] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[01:24:28] Holly Taylor: I don’t think anyone should ever feel on guard, really, agent to agent, because really, we’re both trying to help our customers, and we’re both trying to close the house.

[01:24:37] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[01:24:37] Holly Taylor: And I do feel like anyone who’s worked with me knows that I’m reasonable. I’m not asking for a shaky doorknob to be tightened, things like that. And people know that. So, I think that helps a transaction run smoothly.

Now, if we find something on the inspection, you probably didn’t know about it. Your seller probably didn’t know about it. We’ve got to get it fixed.

[01:24:54] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[01:24:54] Holly Taylor: You know, and so everybody just being on that same page as if they were moving into the house. If you were moving into the house, you’d want that fixed. We’ll just be all on the same page, and let’s just move forward.

[01:25:04] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[01:25:04] Holly Taylor: And I don’t think anything should ever be rushed. The people who are frantic and, like, stressing out—

[01:25:10] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[01:25:10] Holly Taylor: It’s like, we can figure this out. There is an answer for everything. Sometimes you have to let it simmer, one side or the other. But I think everything can find a solution.

[01:25:18] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Well, I think one of the best tips someone had on the show in the last couple of months was, when you get that tense situation where sometimes people get a little heated over the phone, actually walk away for a few minutes.

[01:25:32] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[01:25:33] Tracy Hayes: Or maybe go, “Hey, you know what? Let’s carry this on tomorrow morning.”

[01:25:36] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[01:25:36] Tracy Hayes: You know, if it’s in the evening, say, “You know what? Nothing’s going to happen. Everyone—lenders closed their doors. They’re home for the night. Nothing is going to happen until tomorrow morning. Let’s continue this tomorrow morning.”

And, what do they call it? Smarter heads, or whatever.

[01:25:51] Holly Taylor: Yes. Yeah.

[01:25:52] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Yes, exactly. Yeah, type of thing.

But now, having a sense of urgency—that if you call them, you’re returning the call.

[01:25:58] Holly Taylor: Right.

[01:25:58] Tracy Hayes: Because if they’re calling you, there’s a reason, and they want to get that thing off their list. You need to have a sense of urgency in responding to them in a reasonable period of time.

And, yes, you know, to move things along. It’s not necessarily that, but I always tell people, when it comes to financing, every day you delay on the front end could cost you multiple days on the back end—

[01:26:20] Holly Taylor: Right.

[01:26:20] Tracy Hayes: —as you come to closing. So, have a sense of urgency getting the loan in process, getting it to the underwriter right away.

[01:26:28] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[01:26:28] Tracy Hayes: Maybe something comes up that no one else saw.

[01:26:28] Holly Taylor: Right.

[01:26:29] Tracy Hayes: And now you’re like, “Oh, we’ve got to overcome that. How are we going to overcome it?” Well, you know what? We’ve got an extra week because I had a sense of urgency on the front.

[01:26:35] Holly Taylor: Right.

[01:26:35] Tracy Hayes: You know?

[01:26:35] Holly Taylor: That’s right.

[01:26:36] Tracy Hayes: Versus waiting, you know, weeks on.

I’ve got one last question.

[01:26:41] Holly Taylor: Okay.

[01:26:42] Tracy Hayes: Which will be the last question for you today.

[01:26:44] Holly Taylor: Okay.

[01:26:44] Tracy Hayes: From me, anyway, at least right at the moment, is: did we cover every—did you want to say anything about—did we not cover something about the team that maybe you wanted to say?

You are looking—

[01:26:51] Holly Taylor: I am looking.

[01:26:51] Tracy Hayes: If someone’s interested, give you a call, go have coffee, or whatever, right? I imagine.

[01:26:56] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[01:26:57] Tracy Hayes: Maybe a phone call. Maybe a phone test. A phone call test, right? You’ve got to pass the phone call test.

[01:27:00] Holly Taylor: Mm-hmm.

[01:27:00] Tracy Hayes: Which may be just having the initial call and saying, “I heard you on the podcast. I’m really interested in your team.”

[01:27:08] Holly Taylor: Yes.

[01:27:09] Tracy Hayes: “Tell me more about it.” Those people don’t realize—you’ve got two ears and one mouth because you’re supposed to listen. Ask the question, and then listen.

[01:27:17] Holly Taylor: Right. That’s right. That’s right.

And I’ll say, we were going to do a lot of recruiting in the beginning of the year, but we just got the Zillow Preferred program in January.

[01:27:25] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[01:27:26] Holly Taylor: And so, we actually scaled back, and there are three of us working leads right now because we needed to make sure we knew the metrics. What does it look like?

But we are anticipating doubling next month in lead flow, and so I am definitely looking. It is the time now. I didn’t want to take people with a promise of leads when I didn’t feel like I could deliver.

[01:27:44] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[01:27:45] Holly Taylor: And that’s why there was a pause. But we are definitely looking, in the next couple of weeks, to take on probably a couple of agents—

[01:27:54] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[01:27:54] Holly Taylor: —who are ready to start getting trained and on leads.

[01:27:55] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. So important. We didn’t pinpoint the detail, but I’ll just discuss it.

So important to choose the right mentor, get with the right team that has the ability to spend time with you, to shadow you—shadow Holly, see what she does. How does she handle a call with Zillow? It is a different animal. It’s not for everybody. Everyone does real estate differently.

[01:28:17] Holly Taylor: Right.

[01:28:17] Tracy Hayes: You know, this is how Holly does it, and she’s very successful at it. She’s definitely someone to follow, for sure, and collaborate with.

All right, last question.

[01:28:24] Holly Taylor: Okay.

[01:28:24] Tracy Hayes: Why do you love real estate?

[01:28:26] Holly Taylor: Oh, gosh. I—yeah. I love real estate for the financial freedom that it has created. I love the relationships that I have been able to form. There were multiple buyers and sellers who stopped by my house when my babies were born. It’s those sorts of relationships.

I don’t need a million followers on social media. It’s not me. I would rather have my couple hundred who I love and can hug and meet up with. It’s just created a great life for my family.

I’ve been able to meet some really amazing people in the business, buyers, sellers, and I’ve been able to keep a lot of good relationships with my old teacher friends and help military families.

I do feel like I’m still teaching every day, and I still feel like I get that fulfillment from helping people. But it just looks a little bit different in real estate.

So, I can’t think of anything I don’t like about real estate.

[01:29:23] Tracy Hayes: I appreciate you coming on today. Thank you. Great show.

[01:29:25] Holly Taylor: Thank you.