From Puerto Rico to Jacksonville's Best Realtor: 300 Families, a 16-Agent Team, and Why Full-Price Agents Always Win | Joselyn Reyes

REE #324 Transcript

[00:00:00] Jocelyn Reyes: A real estate transaction is a transaction that has to be personalized. We are not gonna be replaced by AI. We're not gonna be replaced by ChatGPT like people think of in the future. It's not gonna happen. People still want that one-on-one service. They need that. They wanna know that you got their back, that they can trust you, that you're gonna guide them through the process, whether they are buying or selling, that you have their best interest, that you're gonna fight for them, that you're gonna look out for their best interest.

Mm-hmm.

You gotta be authentic. You gotta be informative, and you gotta offer something of value to them because there's a lot of people trying to do the same.

[00:01:00] Tracy Hayes: Hey, welcome back to the Real Estate Excellence Podcast. Today's guest dreamed of being a real estate agent when she was a teenager growing up in Puerto Rico, and she turned that dream into 300 closed families, a 15-agent team, recognition as Jacksonville's 2025 Best Realtor by Folio Weekly. She's a seller's representative specialist, a military relocation expert, and the kind of agent that her clients call a pit bull in the absolute best way possible.

[00:01:46] Tracy Hayes: Please welcome Ms. Jocelyn Reyes to the show.

[00:01:49] Jocelyn Reyes: Thank you.

[00:01:50] Tracy Hayes: Excellent. Great to have you back.

[00:01:51] Jocelyn Reyes: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[00:01:53] Tracy Hayes: Was it episode 59? I think it was something like that originally.

[00:01:57] Jocelyn Reyes: Yes.

[00:01:58] Tracy Hayes: First one, yeah. So it's been over four years.

[00:02:00] Jocelyn Reyes: It's been over, and you know, behind the scenes, a lot of things have happened.

[00:02:03] Tracy Hayes: Oh.

[00:02:03] Jocelyn Reyes: Yes. Ups and downs, market changes, everything as the sun rises—

[00:02:08] Tracy Hayes: And sets. And we made four rotations around the sun during that time. So update us a little bit on what's going on. You have this new IMath team. This is something you guys—you've had for a little bit now, if I recall. Because when you first started, there was no team.

[00:02:25] Jocelyn Reyes: That is correct.

[00:02:26] Tracy Hayes: But things have changed, and opportunities came in front of you. Tell us about what's happened with you and then obviously what's happened in the creation of the IMath team.

[00:02:33] Jocelyn Reyes: Absolutely. IMath team is the newest thing. We've been trying to do this for close to a year now. It's been great, to be honest with you.

If you were to ask me four or five years ago—nine years ago—“Will you ever go into a team?” I would've said no because I always saw myself as a solo agent, and I did enjoy being a solo agent.

But then within the years, I started coaching through United Real Estate Gallery, back then Exit Real Estate Gallery. And I loved the coaching program—being able to help new agents become top producer agents. I got to the point where I was coaching about 18, 19 agents.

[00:03:00] Tracy Hayes: Oh wow.

[00:03:01] Jocelyn Reyes: Yes. Through Exit and then United. And I fell in love with that part.

I was doing so good on my own.

[00:03:10] Tracy Hayes: How much time a week was that?

[00:03:12] Jocelyn Reyes: It all depends because they don't come all at the same time. They come at different times. I think the most at the same time that I was coaching was like six of them.

But I loved it because they were all brand new. Sonny and Ray, they pair them with you based on language too. A lot of them were Spanish, some of them were non-Hispanic. They are pretty good at pairing you with people they think are gonna get along and are gonna be a great fit for you.

And these are all relationships that we ended up all getting close—super close to each other. And I was helping with showings, how to operate a lockbox, how to write your first contract, listing agreement, going to listing presentations with them.

And I found that part of me that I’m like, “You know what? I enjoy this a lot. I do wanna push others, and I do wanna help people.”

So I kind of had that experience for a couple of years. And this time I had a good friend of mine who presented me with the opportunity of taking over a team, and the team needed help and all of that stuff.

And I was like, “I gotta think about it for a little bit.”

[00:04:37] Tracy Hayes: Was your mentorship initially just more of a volunteer thing, or were you getting a little bit of their first few deals?

[00:04:44] Jocelyn Reyes: No, I was compensated.

[00:04:45] Tracy Hayes: You were getting compensated. Okay, good.

[00:04:47] Jocelyn Reyes: Yes. And hey, it was passive income, but it was really good passive income.

Mm-hmm. Because the commission split we had back then allowed me to—like, the agent gets their commission that they agree with the brokerage.

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

[00:05:01] Jocelyn Reyes: And then I had 10% of that. So at the end of the year, that 1099, it adds up, and it was really good too.

But I invested a lot of that money back on my agents. I call them “my agents.” I feel like they were my babies.

So I invested a lot in that. I used to all the time take them out to eat, to celebrate their closings. I wanted them to feel celebrated and all of that stuff.

I remember at one point I had a group of all ladies, 10 of them, and at Christmas I was doing like, “Let’s go out for pedicures, all of us. Let’s go out and eat. Let’s do these things.”

So a lot of that money, I just liked putting it back. And through that you form all these relationships and stuff.

Well, come back to this last year in IMath. I had the opportunity and I said yes. I’m like, “You know what? I’m just gonna dive in. I’m gonna—it’s something different. Why not just do it? I have the extra time, so let me put the extra time.”

And it’s been great.

[00:06:00] Tracy Hayes: Well, I think there's one thing when you're having to prepare for your coaching or maybe whatever knowledge you're pouring into that person—or group of people maybe at the same time—you’re having to dig deep into what you should be doing.

[00:06:17] Jocelyn Reyes: For sure.

[00:06:17] Tracy Hayes: Then you are reminding yourself, “I need to be doing what I'm teaching. This is the right way to do it.” And I might be slacking off or not doing all the steps like I should.

[00:06:27] Jocelyn Reyes: Yeah.

[00:06:28] Tracy Hayes: It forces you to think about those things on a regular basis, which probably poured into your success.

[00:06:33] Jocelyn Reyes: Yeah, for sure. And I will tell you, it is time consuming. It's very time consuming, especially when you have brand new agents or agents that do not dominate the language sometimes, because you gotta take more time with them.

[00:06:48] Tracy Hayes: Well, there’s no one more experienced than you.

[00:06:52] Jocelyn Reyes: That’s the thing. I wanna help because I was there a couple of years ago. I was there, and I know what it feels like.

And the difference is that a lot of the things that I had to do by myself and figure out all alone, I don’t want them to do it that way. I wanna be there for them. I wanna serve. I wanna help.

I think that I’m coming on 10 years doing this, and it’s been such a great ride. It’s been such a huge blessing that now—back then I was nonstop full force. I’m still a little nonstop full force.

I’m talking about working the business 15, 16 hours a day, seven days a week, to a point that at one time it came to this point where I felt like I had no life. I was burning myself.

And now my approach is completely different. Real estate is still my number one. It’s my passion. I breathe, live, dream real estate.

[00:07:54] Tracy Hayes: Well, just for the audience, you have three kids.

[00:07:56] Jocelyn Reyes: Three sons.

[00:07:57] Tracy Hayes: One’s a teenager, right?

[00:07:59] Jocelyn Reyes: Yes. I’ve got a 15-year-old, I have a 12-year-old, and I have a 10-year-old. So, and full-time mom at the same time too.

Not much family here, so my kids rely on me for everything. So finding balance in all of that plus running your own business now, having a real estate team, it can get really tricky.

But I’ve finally found balance. You have to have boundaries in this business, and that’s something that I did not have. I just did not have them.

[00:08:33] Tracy Hayes: I think many agents think about this when they get in, or even before they get in. They might admire someone who has a great team—which we know there are some great people here in Jacksonville that people look up to that run solid teams and have for a while—and dream of doing it.

But it’s not as easy as one would think.

And I’ve always said numerous times in years of doing the podcast, a lot of people wanna join up with their girlfriends or whatever, and I think they’re kind of palling around.

But ultimately, if you want to build something and you’re gonna be in real estate until you really can’t do it anymore—because that’s the one thing great about real estate—you can do it as much or as little as you want till the end of time.

But if you really wanna build something that’s valued, it takes a lot of work.

Under this, what are some of the challenges that you’ve had to overcome since you formally became a team? Because obviously you’re probably always adapting and changing because of the dynamics of the team.

[00:09:39] Jocelyn Reyes: So I’m really good at adapting and changing, and as soon as I spot something that could be better, I gotta step back, review, look at the outcome or where this is heading, and then, “Okay, let’s just write a plan. Let’s do this.”

And so far, again, I mean the team is fairly new, but we are doing fantastic.

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

[00:10:00] Jocelyn Reyes: We do our sales meeting every week at the same time every Tuesday, 10 o’clock in the morning. Everybody’s there.

We just had somebody that we let go of the team. The only reason why is because the person just wasn’t invested. And everybody is in a different journey, and that’s okay too.

She’s a stay-at-home mom with two babies, literally in a side hustle of doing nails. Well, she did not have time for real estate.

So it’s just like one of those things like, “Okay, let’s just look. Maybe you need to pause. Maybe you need to come back to it. Maybe—what is it that you see? What do you envision for yourself? How do you see your future?”

Well, I mean, she had different priorities.

So all of that stuff happened. We push the team, we keep moving forward, and we are providing everybody on the team all of the tools that they need for training, for them to be successful, for them to have leads, for them to be able to—

The team is about all of us. It’s not about the team lead. It’s not about one of them.

I always tell them, “Yeah, I can try to run the Jocelyn show, but this is not the Jocelyn show. This is the IMath show. It’s for all of us.”

I want everybody to be successful.

[00:11:13] Tracy Hayes: What does United Real Estate Gallery provide? I mean, are there great resources there for you to plug into? Because obviously just because you’re a team lead, you can’t create all this material for training and so forth. What kind of support are you getting there?

[00:11:33] Jocelyn Reyes: So we actually get a lot of support. That’s one of the things—I’ve been with United since day one.

[00:11:41] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:11:41] Jocelyn Reyes: I’ve never— that’s one of the things with me. I love long relationships.

[00:11:44] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, you got lucky with Sonny and Ray. They were good because you could have absolutely stepped into the wrong brokerage.

[00:11:50] Jocelyn Reyes: Absolutely. You know, at this point it’s family to me.

But again, the resources that they offer, their training—they’re so good. We have a calendar that is packed. We have five offices around town. Our agents have access to all of this 24/7.

We do in-office training. We do online training. We have broker support, you got your coach, you got your team lead.

So when it comes to support, there’s plenty of that.

[00:12:23] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Well, there’s definitely—you reach out beyond the brokerage, but within the brokerage there’s a lot of people. But one thing you've done in your nine years—and I know we talked about this, but again now we’re another four years, almost half your career here now—you’re connected with a lot of influential, experienced agents. You’ve put yourself in there.

Have you caught yourself recently—or maybe you may not have thought about this until I’m gonna ask this question—have you reached out to some of them when you're working this team? Because I think the culture, like you said, you got rid of someone because they didn’t wanna buy in or couldn’t buy into the culture of like, “Hey guys, we’re having a meeting on Tuesday and everyone needs to be there. I don’t care what you're doing. This is what we do, and if you want my value, I need your buy-in and this is how it’s gonna work.”

And in building a real estate team, because it is a bunch of independent people—chasing cats around sometimes. Real estate agents are equivalent to that and can be. You’re making this, so they gotta buy into that.

So these different challenges, I think a lot of people getting into the industry or dreaming about building a team don’t realize what it takes.

So have you reached out to some of these people beyond Sonny and Ray? We know you've reached out there beyond outside the brokerage because you know a lot of really great people in our area.

[00:13:47] Jocelyn Reyes: Yeah.

[00:13:48] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, for just some advice on, “Hey, how should I handle this?”

[00:13:51] Jocelyn Reyes: Yeah, no, for sure. So because I’ve been in the business for almost 10 years and because I know a lot of great top-producing agents and people who run teams and stuff like that, I have reached out to many of them.

One of my really good friends—he’s been here with you—Cole Slate.

[00:14:08] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:14:09] Jocelyn Reyes: And he had his team too. And honestly, he is a great leader. I admire him. I respect him so much. And anytime that I have something, he’s one of the ones that I’m like, “I need help. Advise me. Listen to me.”

And we’ll sit down over a coffee and talk, and he’ll bring me back to center and he’ll tell me, “Okay, this is how you manage it.”

Okay. I feel better now.

I have another friend, his name is R. Taha. He also has his own team. And I’m always seeking out—yes, I am a team leader, but I feel like sometimes even when you are seeking out to a coach outside of real estate and you have your own coach, your coach also has a coach. A doctor also has a doctor.

Mm-hmm.

So you reach out to others and all of that stuff. So yeah, I feel like you do have to practice a lot of that for you to stay centered, for you to be able to give the best of yourself.

This career specifically, it’s a constant learning. You have to keep learning, and you have to keep improving, and you have to keep evolving. It’s all about that.

[00:15:19] Tracy Hayes: A hundred percent. I think that there’s—if there’s anything I could consistently say about the leaders in the area that are successful and out in front, it’s because they’re doing all those things you just mentioned. Staying out in front of their people.

Unlike, say, corporate America where they have a salary or whatever and they go through the motions of corporate America, if you’re managing a real estate team, these people—you’re not paying their health insurance. So they can say, “Hey, you know what? You’re not giving me value. I’m going over here,” and do it within minutes.

[00:15:54] Jocelyn Reyes: Yeah.

[00:15:54] Tracy Hayes: Make that change. So if you want to build a team, obviously it’s about keeping great people over time.

[00:15:59] Jocelyn Reyes: Absolutely.

[00:15:59] Tracy Hayes: And you have to continually be adding value. And the only way you're doing that is obviously educating yourself and being around people like Cole Slate when you need that little bit of information on which direction you should take so you're always in front of the—

[00:16:10] Jocelyn Reyes: That is right. Yeah. Our team, we started at seven people. We are up to 16 people now on our team. I added another team lead.

[00:16:18] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:16:18] Jocelyn Reyes: And he’s fantastic too. And that’s another person that I’m able to sit down with. His name is Chris.

And Chris has his own side of the team he manages. I have my own side of the team that I manage. But at the end of the day, when it comes to sales meetings and all the things that we are doing, we do it together as a group.

[00:16:36] Tracy Hayes: Now, I know you focus a lot on the Hispanic market or Spanish-speaking clientele. Not all of your clientele, but you have that skill.

What is the makeup of the team? Do you have a mix, or have you attracted other Hispanic ladies?

[00:16:54] Jocelyn Reyes: So we have all—and this gentleman—

[00:16:56] Tracy Hayes: Obviously, yeah.

[00:16:58] Jocelyn Reyes: Well, Chris is Hispanic. He has two Hispanic agents under him. I think out of the 16, there might be like four of us that are bilingual.

And actually, we have a new team member, and he’s Indian.

[00:17:15] Tracy Hayes: Okay.

[00:17:16] Jocelyn Reyes: Very good.

[00:17:16] Tracy Hayes: So just like any brokerage or team around, you’re not dominating or one-sided in that area. You’re not just focused—

[00:17:22] Jocelyn Reyes: Yeah.

[00:17:22] Tracy Hayes: Okay. So listeners, you start a team—Jocelyn’s deep into it now for a year. I’ve sat down with them, and it’s constantly evolving. I can show you someone who’s been doing it for 20 years, and then obviously we got Jocelyn who’s been in the business a while, so she knows real estate.

And now building a team—it’s not for everyone.

[00:17:45] Jocelyn Reyes: No, it’s not.

[00:17:46] Tracy Hayes: You’ve definitely—like I said—you gotta get up earlier than they are and you've gotta be reading that extra book more than they are.

[00:17:52] Jocelyn Reyes: You gotta be willing to support, willing to be there. You gotta be willing to set the time because it’s very time consuming.

[00:18:00] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, a hundred percent.

Alright, let’s dig into some of these questions I’ve got set up here.

Right now in 2025 and into 2026, buyers are calling you from Puerto Rico, New York where you were born, or New Jersey saying they’ve decided to come to Jacksonville.

What neighborhoods are they seeming to trend toward? And I wanna say—you’re not driving them there. You’re obviously educating them and yes, they’re telling you what they want. So I don’t wanna make this sound like you are guiding them there.

But where do you start to see these Northeasterners coming out of New York and New Jersey? What are they wanting in a home here in Jacksonville?

[00:18:38] Jocelyn Reyes: Absolutely. So believe it or not, a lot of the people that are calling in, a lot of the people relocating prior to moving are doing a lot of homework.

They’re doing a lot of homework online, social media. They’re looking into trends, they’re looking into numbers. So most of them already have an idea of what areas they want.

And for some reason—and I mean I get it—everybody wants to be in St. Johns County. We have the number one schools in the entire state.

[00:19:05] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:19:05] Jocelyn Reyes: It’s a very attractive area. Anything out in Nocatee, in St. Johns, Rivertown, Beachwalk, all of these areas—a lot of them wanna be there.

There’s also a lot of people who wanna be in Atlantic Beach, Jacksonville Beach, Ponte Vedra Beach, or the beaches. So I have a lot of that.

[00:19:28] Tracy Hayes: Same makeup of family? Or are you finding maybe the younger family with younger kids wanting to go through an entire school system wanting to go to St. Johns, while maybe the older retired crowd wants Atlantic Beach?

[00:19:44] Jocelyn Reyes: That is correct. Yes.

Families, when it comes to being family-oriented and looking for schools and all this stuff—St. Johns County. That’s the number one request.

And they already know, and they are very specific on what they want. Rarely ever do I have somebody who’s like, “I don’t know the area, I need your help.”

Well, I mean, it happens. It happens more in the Hispanic community than not. But if they’re not from the Hispanic community, they’ve been doing a lot of very heavy homework on it. And they know where they wanna go.

[00:20:16] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

I think they’re not just looking at Jacksonville. They are looking at all around Florida.

[00:20:22] Jocelyn Reyes: All around, yes. Jacksonville just seems very popular right now too.

[00:20:23] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. One area you did not mention in St. Johns County was SilverLeaf.

[00:20:28] Jocelyn Reyes: SilverLeaf, yes.

[00:20:28] Tracy Hayes: And when you didn’t mention that right off the top—maybe you meant to—but I’m wondering, is SilverLeaf getting the reputation—it’s still very new, still a lot of exposed dirt over there—

[00:20:41] Jocelyn Reyes: No, CDD fees. They have a lot of nice things that they’re offering out there.

I’ve actually sold many homes there. Listings, I’ve helped sellers and buyers too. And it’s an area that is very attractive for a lot of people who are looking for all of the amenities without the big fees.

[00:21:00] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:21:00] Jocelyn Reyes: It’s just a hit.

[00:21:01] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. It just means you're sharing them with more people. That’s all it means.

[00:21:05] Jocelyn Reyes: Yeah, for sure. Still nice. Still very nice.

[00:21:08] Tracy Hayes: Yes. Well, it gives a wide range of price points.

[00:21:13] Jocelyn Reyes: Yes.

[00:21:13] Tracy Hayes: Because SilverLeaf is actually a fairly—it’s not a small area, but you just put one name on it.

Nocatee is closer to the ocean and their amenities are above and beyond. SilverLeaf is a little more reasonable.

There are some townhouses in there that are still fairly reasonable for St. Johns County.

[00:21:40] Jocelyn Reyes: It’s not the scale of Nocatee. Nocatee is like four times bigger. It has two full-blown amenity water parks and all of that.

And they’re now bringing more dirt in, so there’s a lot more going on in Nocatee. Plus it’s more established than SilverLeaf, which is a lot newer and still being developed.

[00:22:00] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, a hundred percent.

When you hear Jacksonville is the number one market for first-time homebuyers in America—which is amazing—does that match what your first-time buyer clients are actually experiencing right now? Or is there a gap between the headline and what’s really going on?

[00:22:23] Jocelyn Reyes: So I’m gonna tell you right now, it feels good to be in Jacksonville right now with all the attention that we are getting and the growth.

I’ve been in Jacksonville for longer than 15 years, and it’s not the same as what I saw when I first came here. Very, very different.

So it feels good to be here.

I will say I do agree. It’s a fantastic market whether you are coming from a different state up north, if you're coming from the West Coast, or even relocating from another part of Florida.

When it comes to Jacksonville, our prices right now are so competitive when you compare them to Central Florida and South Florida—which a lot of people are coming from right now.

When you’re coming from up north, the West Coast, or even places like North Carolina, Texas, Colorado, and all these places, you get to buy a lot more home for less money.

And the opportunities here—you get a little bit of everything.

[00:23:32] Tracy Hayes: Why are people from Central Florida and South Florida coming to Jacksonville?

[00:23:36] Jocelyn Reyes: Job opportunities and affordability. Big time.

I mean right now, you go to Miami, you cannot buy anything for under a million dollars.

[00:23:48] Tracy Hayes: Well, you can, but investors are buying up the smaller properties and renting them out, making it more difficult.

[00:23:55] Jocelyn Reyes: Small families with limited budgets—it’s just not a reality for them right now. They are all running here.

[00:24:02] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

The areas that were—I guess when someone says “first-time homebuyers,” that could be a wide range of economics.

But true first-home buyers who really need a starter home—where are you finding some of the hotspots in greater Northeast Florida where you're seeing these people migrate because of the price point and size of the homes?

[00:24:48] Jocelyn Reyes: Absolutely.

So all of this comes through conversation and knowing your people. Sitting down, talking with them, seeing what the need is.

I always have a lot of questionnaires with me, and I like to know their story—what they're looking for, where they're coming from.

And even a wishlist. I always say, “Give me a wishlist and then let’s figure out what’s the budget, how much you wanna pay a month, and what do you need and what do you desire.”

Because sometimes what you desire is not what you need.

And obviously everybody wants stuff that’s outside of their budget.

But once we figure that out, I’m always able to come up with a really good list.

We still have a lot of stuff that is very affordable, from new construction on the Northside and Westside of Jacksonville to homes that are a lot more affordable in the Arlington area or the Westside.

Sometimes if you don’t want an HOA, that’s perfect. We don’t have to get into an HOA, but know that we are gonna get a little bit of an older home.

Doesn’t mean that you have to do too much to it sometimes. Yet are you willing to take the project? And if not, we can still find stuff that’s been flipped or remodeled that is still at a really good price.

So we do have a lot of stuff. At least with me, that’s never an issue. I’m always finding a home.

And I always say whether it takes us a week or two months or three months, we’re gonna make it happen. But normally it’s right away.

[00:26:18] Tracy Hayes: I think one of the most overlooked areas for true first-time homebuyers when it comes down to price point and affordability—especially for people just starting a family—is areas where, especially with the expressway eventually linking into 95 down there, there’s lots of land.

[00:26:58] Jocelyn Reyes: I said there’s lots of land.

[00:26:59] Tracy Hayes: There is. Or up in Callahan where you may even say, “Well, I can’t really afford that build-a-home.”

There are some great manufactured homes.

[00:27:11] Jocelyn Reyes: Actually.

[00:27:12] Tracy Hayes: You can go by the manufactured home sales center, go online and look at them just like any builder, see the different models.

And within 30 to 90 days, they can package the lot with the home as if they already existed together.

And those manufactured homes—they come in and they put in the sewer, all the electricity, all the infrastructure to do those lots.

And I really think for someone truly looking for a bargain, there are opportunities out there.

You can go out and spend $200,000 or $800,000, but the percentage of growth is gonna be greater in the $200,000 home than the $800,000 home.

[00:28:31] Jocelyn Reyes: I always, always say buy land because they’re not making those anymore.

[00:28:37] Tracy Hayes: That’s right.

[00:28:37] Jocelyn Reyes: So buy land. It’s priceless, to be honest with you.

If you are strategic and you know the places—I know people that have bought land and many years later somebody comes and says, “Hey, I need to do a road here. I’m gonna give you so many millions for it.”

And then out of nowhere, okay—you became a multimillionaire.

And if not, the possibilities with having land are endless.

[00:29:03] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:29:03] Jocelyn Reyes: It’s endless. So it’s really good. But that is actually a really good area, an area that not many people look into for whatever reason. And I feel like the Northside of Jacksonville and extended past that—it’s just like there’s a lot going on.

[00:29:21] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. You go out to Baker County, Callahan, up in that area, or—I know when that expressway goes in—I’m trying to think of Starke.

[00:29:30] Jocelyn Reyes: Yes.

[00:29:31] Tracy Hayes: In those areas, there’s opportunity. If you’re a first-time buyer, a young person, and it’s within driving distance to come in, that expressway will make it easier.

To go out there and spend $150,000 to $200,000—you’ll make money on that in five to 10 years.

[00:29:48] Jocelyn Reyes: Of course. And normally I like having talks with a lot of these first-time homebuyers because many of them can be young.

I’ve helped people who are 22, 24, 26 that are looking into that. That’s their goal. That’s their dream. They don’t want to be out there partying and drinking. They wanna be buying a home.

And I’m like, “I understand.”

I purchased my first home actually in Puerto Rico when I was 18. I used to work for a bank there. And yes, I was a homeowner at 18 years old.

Yeah. My first home—new construction—$64,000. I think my payments were back then around like the $700s because I had gotten a mortgage and it was like 8%.

[00:30:33] Tracy Hayes: Well maybe with taxes—or you probably did a short term actually.

[00:30:37] Jocelyn Reyes: Yes. Yeah. It wasn’t a 30-year, no it was not.

But I can see it, and I love when I see really young people that have the mentality and all that stuff.

And normally these are the people I’m like, “Okay, you’re not sure where you want to be, but you wanna invest and you wanna start this dream early. This is what we gotta do.”

And I lay out this plan for them and they go along.

I have people that I am closing today—my sellers—and this closing today is gonna be closing number six for them, which is impressive in nine years.

They started with me when she was like 22 and he was 23.

[00:31:24] Tracy Hayes: Investment? Or they literally went from primary to primary to primary?

[00:31:27] Jocelyn Reyes: No investment. But they kept everything.

[00:31:29] Tracy Hayes: They kept everything. Great for them.

[00:31:31] Jocelyn Reyes: Everything. This is the first home that they are selling. It was actually an auction home that they flipped. And this is the first one that they are not keeping.

So we are closing on that today.

And just looking at them—I was talking because she just found out that she’s expecting her first child.

[00:31:49] Tracy Hayes: Awesome.

[00:31:50] Jocelyn Reyes: And she had delayed her motherhood dream because they wanted to do the investment and they wanted to grind hard and they wanted to put the work in.

I’m like, “There ain’t nothing wrong with that.”

And she’s like, “I feel like I’m old now.”

I’m like, “How old are you?”

[00:32:06] Tracy Hayes: Not as old as I was when I had my first kid.

[00:32:09] Jocelyn Reyes: No, she’s only 29.

And she asked me yesterday, “So how old were you when you became a mom?”

I thought I was 27. I’m like, “You’re not behind. You’re not behind at all.”

[00:32:21] Tracy Hayes: Well, there’s a little difference. There’s two ways. You can have them young and not have any money, and that’s fine because there are great things about that because after they’re out of the house, you are still hopefully young.

Or you have them later in life like I did. Luckily my wife is younger, but by the time my daughter graduates from college, I’m eligible for Social Security.

But we have money and we wanna travel, we wanna do things. We’re not thinking about it.

And luckily she started much earlier than I did in her financial career there.

[00:33:02] Jocelyn Reyes: There’s a big difference. That’s why I’m like, it would’ve been the same if you had your first child at 21. I mean, people manage it. Fantastic for them.

But having your child at 29, 30-plus, I feel like mentally you’re a lot more stable, you’re mentally stronger and sharper, and you’re able to offer more things.

[00:33:24] Tracy Hayes: Well, I think there’s a reason why people have them at 20 and another reason why they have them at 37, 38—or 40 actually. My son was born when I was 40.

Alright, we talked about first-time homebuyers.

Tell us a story about something that happened recently—a deal, a client situation, a moment that you had and you were sharing with me earlier about this situation where you were under contract here in Mandarin. Tell us about that.

[00:33:59] Jocelyn Reyes: Yes. So I had this couple that were buying their second home with me now.

The second home they were buying was for their parents. Great. Let’s go out, let’s do it. They wanted to have their parents close to them because their parents are coming from out of the country.

No problem. I got you guys.

So I found them a home for their parents that was literally like seven minutes from their home. Perfect home. It needed some repairs, but because they’re in construction, they’re like, “We don’t care about the repairs. If we get a good deal on it, we really don’t care.”

All-block home, great mainstream neighborhood. Fantastic.

The home had been on the market for less than a week. We got it under contract right away. We negotiated a really good offer on it—closing costs being covered and all of that stuff. It was a really good deal.

Anyways, we go into contract. The contract is ours. Home inspection goes pretty well. We already know what we gotta do to the home.

We get the home appraised. The home actually appraised $20,000 over what we were paying.

So all looked really good until 11 days prior to closing when the nephew of the homeowner finds out that the house is for sale.

This nephew—he’s up in New York actually—and he’s pretty well off. He’s an investor, but he has no plans on moving to Jacksonville. He was born and raised in Jacksonville but had no interest in being here.

But he found out the house was for sale and under contract, about to close, and he was not okay with that.

He’s like, “No. That used to be my mom’s house.”

I guess his mom had given the house to her sister before passing. The sister had some needs, and now he found out many years later the sister is selling the home and it’s going to her children and whatever the case is.

And he just wasn’t okay with it. The house had sentimental value for him.

[00:35:59] Tracy Hayes: Actually technically, his cousins were the ones selling it, right?

[00:36:04] Jocelyn Reyes: Yes, that is correct.

They are doing everything and the whole process.

Well, he was like, “This home was formerly my mom’s house. This is where I was born and where I grew up, and I just don’t want the house going to just anybody.”

So at this point, the listing agent calls me.

And the listing agent’s like, “Hey Jocelyn, we got something going on.”

I’m like, “Okay, what’s going on?”

And he explains it to me. I’m like, “Well, we are in a binding contract, and we have a deposit. We are approved. We are almost heading to closing. What’s gonna happen here?”

And there was a two-day back-and-forth with what was gonna happen.

And my buyers obviously being on edge because they had already packed, they had already gotten their parents packed and on their way, and they had their sights on this home.

[00:36:57] Tracy Hayes: Yes, on their home.

[00:37:00] Jocelyn Reyes: Well, long story short, the nephew came and offered my buyers $55,000 to walk away from the deal.

I’ve never in my nine years of real estate seen anything like that.

$55,000 plus their $5,000 deposit. He reimbursed the home inspection money and he also reimbursed all the money for everything beyond that.

We covered all of it.

And after talking with my buyers, I’m like, “Hey, I’m not gonna pressure you. This is your decision. We can start looking at other homes right away so we don’t waste time. But it’s ultimately up to you guys.”

And they didn’t even think about it. They were like—

[00:37:42] Tracy Hayes: “Yeah, just give us the money.”

[00:37:43] Jocelyn Reyes: That’s more they’re putting toward the next house.

That’s how they saw it. It’s like a little lottery check.

[00:37:54] Tracy Hayes: So I would imagine when this call is made—who contacts you and tells you this gentleman doesn’t want this to happen?

[00:38:05] Jocelyn Reyes: The listing agent.

[00:38:06] Tracy Hayes: So your immediate thought is like, “Hold on a second. We’re under contract. We have an agreement.”

Do some calls get made to attorneys or did someone actually come with a proposal upfront? Because I’ve seen situations where people are under contract and then the sellers decide, “Oh, we don’t wanna sell now.”

And then the lawyers get involved.

Did you get to that point or was this gentleman like, “Hey, let me make this easy for everybody”?

[00:38:49] Jocelyn Reyes: So when it came to that, it was pretty easy. And the offer that he had made to my buyers was so attractive that they made the decision fairly quickly.

Now because this has been something that I have not dealt with before, I wanted to call my brokers and make sure, “Hey, is this okay? Is this something that—is this legal? Can we do this?”

And one thing that my brokers brought to my attention was like, “Jocelyn, you pretty much did all the work. You put your buyer under contract and stuff like that. What’s gonna happen with your commission?”

And then I was like, “Ooh, I hadn’t thought about that.”

So I went back to the listing agent and I was like, “Hey, actually you did your job. I did my job. I think that we should both get paid.”

And the listing agent went to the nephew. The nephew agreed. He got his 3%, I got my 3%.

[00:39:42] Tracy Hayes: So he wasn’t greedy. He actually was reasonable.

[00:39:46] Jocelyn Reyes: Not at all.

We called the title company and they arranged all the paperwork and got it done.

[00:39:53] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, because wholesaling—from what I understand—you can go get a property under contract and sell that contract before you technically close on it.

So doing it legally didn’t sound impossible. But it was great that this gentleman obviously felt he had done very well in life and that for $50,000 he was—

[00:40:19] Jocelyn Reyes: Yeah.

[00:40:19] Tracy Hayes: He was good at making the—

[00:40:20] Jocelyn Reyes: Actually it ended up costing him more than that.

[00:40:21] Tracy Hayes: Probably cost him more by the time he paid everybody.

[00:40:24] Jocelyn Reyes: For sure. Plus the price of the home.

But the best thing is I had buyers under contract less than 48 hours later. And because their file had already been through underwriting and they had already provided so much paperwork and stuff, the new contract was actually like a 14-day-to-close contract.

It was super easy. Change the address and move on.

So it was a great deal for them, and they ended up liking the second home way better.

[00:40:51] Tracy Hayes: It always works out that way.

[00:40:52] Jocelyn Reyes: Yeah.

[00:40:52] Tracy Hayes: It always does.

New construction builders are handing out rate buydowns, closing cost credits—

How do you help a buyer compare the incentives to what resale sellers might offer?

[00:41:26] Jocelyn Reyes: So honestly, if you know your client’s needs and what they’re looking for, it’s not hard to do.

I always like to show them what their budget is and ask, “What is it that you wanna pay monthly? What are you comfortable with? What kind of lifestyle do you want?”

The lifestyle has a lot to do with this.

There’s people who from minute one want new construction. They don’t wanna have to worry about a new roof, HVAC, windows. They want something they don’t have to repair and they want the amenities.

So we know we gotta look for new construction.

Other people just don’t want to pay the extra fees. They don’t want the cookie-cutter home, or they don’t wanna be 20 feet away from the next house.

[00:42:12] Tracy Hayes: Or they like a more mature neighborhood where the trees are actually grown.

[00:42:15] Jocelyn Reyes: Exactly. They want a little bit of backyard and all of that stuff.

So it’s not hard.

But to be honest with you, there are some people who need new construction. It’s the right fit for them and it’s what they’re looking for.

And with the incentives and interest rates and all of that stuff, I’m always gonna work in my client’s best interest. And that’s what we do.

[00:42:34] Tracy Hayes: How are you approaching some of them—because you do military relocation too—and we’re gonna talk about that in a moment.

Every agent doing any amount of business or that has listings either active right now or hopefully under contract has run into this:

People have moved into some of these new construction neighborhoods and for whatever reason—life changes—they’re turning around and trying to sell.

And they’re literally in the same neighborhood where builders are still constructing homes and offering all these incentives.

Are you having the discussion with your buyers saying, “Hey, they’re gonna be building here for the next five or six years. Are you gonna be here for five or six years? Because if you try to sell short-term, it’s gonna be tough.”

[00:43:19] Jocelyn Reyes: I have had to have that conversation many times. Yesterday I had that conversation in a neighborhood in St. Johns County because this is gonna be a new listing that I’m gonna take over.

And it’s a tough conversation because in the same neighborhood that I’m about to list this home, two streets down there are two homes that are $100,000 overpriced.

And it was just like, “Oh, I see the data. I see the numbers. I’m looking at your CMA. You did a really good job, Jocelyn. But my neighbor is selling theirs for like $820,000.”

Ours came to $750,000.

And I’m like, “Have you seen how many days they’ve been on the market?”

Because one of them had been on the market for 208 days.

[00:44:13] Tracy Hayes: 208 days.

[00:44:15] Jocelyn Reyes: And he probably started at nine-something.

And the other one had been on the market for like 190 days.

And then one right across the street from him sold in 43 days and sold very close to what I had suggested. And it had closed April 15.

And I was like, “Either you wanna list to sit, or are we gonna list to sell?”

Because at the end of the day it’s your home. I’m not gonna take a listing for $60,000 to $70,000 over because I feel like it makes my business and my knowledge as a professional look bad, to be honest with you.

But it’s all about bringing them the data, educating them.

And they were like, “No, Jocelyn, we don’t wanna be sitting for 200 days. That’s ridiculous.”

At that point people are wondering what’s wrong with the home.

[00:45:25] Tracy Hayes: So what was the end conclusion with this particular couple?

[00:45:31] Jocelyn Reyes: We are gonna go—and right now there’s one more listing—we want to be very competitive.

So we are actually going 3% under market value because we hopefully get a couple offers and get right back up.

We wanna move it quick and we have a big marketing plan for it. And they are all in on it.

[00:45:50] Tracy Hayes: Alright, let’s dig into that because I think this might be a great cutout for your website or for someone wanting to sell.

This is a common story.

Nobody’s in everybody’s living room when agents are having this discussion. And it’s so important right now—that’s why you're hiring a professional—that the professional like you is gonna tell them what they need to know, not what they want to hear.

Because I guarantee two out of three, if not three out of four agents would’ve said, “Okay, we’ll list it for $850,000.”

Why is it important—and you might help another agent being professional like you are in this situation—why is pricing strategy so critical?

You strategized, which is a great strategy, to price it just under where you think the market is because now you're likely to create competition and get the home shown.

And maybe you actually get back up to the $750,000 you expected.

But if you go too high, you may not even get showings.

[00:47:37] Jocelyn Reyes: A lot of people are like that, actually.

[00:47:38] Tracy Hayes: They just — I mean, do they have time to sit around for 180 days, months? Or the other one was 200. You know, we're talking nine, ten months of sitting around, you know, doing nothing. Walk us through that as if you're talking to sellers right now and they’re watching your video on this particular topic — the importance of strategizing and having a professional yourself.

[00:48:00] Jocelyn Reyes: Yeah.

[00:48:01] Tracy Hayes: Do the homework.

[00:48:03] Jocelyn Reyes: So the thing with me particularly is that I’m not going to tell you what you want to hear. I’m going to tell you what’s going on with the market because, at the end of the day, I’m the professional. People don’t list a home every month or every year, and they don’t know what they don’t know.

A lot of people are still in that pre-COVID and COVID-days mentality — that split bubble where homes were selling for $30,000, $40,000… I had a home that sold for $70,000 over market value, and somebody came and paid cash for it. Back then, my biggest listing was actually in Orlando: 64 offers for a home.

[00:48:45] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, I remember you telling me that story.

[00:48:47] Jocelyn Reyes: It was insane. Yeah. It was insane, these things happening. And some people still have the mentality of, “Oh, but not long ago the rates were in the twos or in the threes, and highest and best, 30-plus offers on it.”

Well, that’s not what’s happening right now. We are not in those days. So again, it’s a lot of education, a lot of bringing them to reality, telling them the truth.

Some of these listing presentations that I’m doing, I’m actually having to leave the home without the sellers making a decision because now they want to talk about it. Now they need to think about it, sleep on it, and come back.

But they always come back and they say, “You know what? We talked with X, Y, and Z. We had so many agents, and we feel you are the fit. You’re going to help us out. You’re going to do what you told us you’re going to do.”

They trust you when you are sincere, when you’re honest, and when you offer value.

Whether you’re working with a buyer, a seller, or an investor, real estate is a very emotional transaction. People care about it a lot, especially when they have memories and emotions tied to these homes.

And a lot of times, everybody wants to think that they have gold — and sometimes it’s not gold.

[00:50:05] Tracy Hayes: With this particular one, you said something very important in the story. Those two other places had been on the market for a long time. Those are very obvious and easy, but the one real comp was across the street that just sold.

And how important — you really only can look back like 90 days right now. Going beyond that, you’re not getting accurate information.

[00:50:27] Jocelyn Reyes: You’re not. And you explain that.

Another thing that I explained to these people: they had purchased this home with me in 2021. It was a new construction home back then. And the price that they bought it for versus what they are getting for it right now — that’s another thing that I had to bring up to them because sometimes they don’t think about that.

And I’m like, “Hey, just look from the end of 2021 to now, beginning of 2026 — what other investment, I don’t care what it is, in five years is going to pay you over $260,000?”

This was the greatest savings account that they had.

And once they see that, and once you bring a little seller net sheet and you’re explaining — because I bring all of that to the listing presentation, I don’t wait. A lot of times people are concentrating on the listing price or the number, but they don’t see what they’re taking home.

And once they see all these numbers, they’re like, “You know what? This was a great deal. We did the right move here. We want to move forward with it.”

[00:51:31] Tracy Hayes: I think it’s so important that they understand what their goal is. Did they have another home? Had they been transferred? What was their reason for actually selling?

[00:51:41] Jocelyn Reyes: So their reason for selling — they do not have any children, they’re not planning on having children. He’s a doctor, she works for him, and they have their own consultation office and all of these things.

The community that they’re in is a fantastic community, but they do not use the amenities, and the fees that they are paying are insanely high for something that they’re not even using.

They’re like, “You know what? All these thousands and thousands of dollars that we are paying every month to have the community pool…” — they don’t use it.

They’re like, “We’d rather put that into our home and actually go to something that’s going to have a big piece of land with a beautiful home where we can have our own private space.”

[00:52:27] Tracy Hayes: So they actually had time.

[00:52:29] Jocelyn Reyes: For sure.

[00:52:30] Tracy Hayes: They didn’t have to sell in the next 30 days, but they also didn’t want people tracking through their house for the next six months hoping they might get that extra little bit of money.

[00:52:37] Jocelyn Reyes: Exactly.

[00:52:41] Tracy Hayes: Back in the old Quicken Loans slash Rocket days, people wanted to wait for the rate to go a little bit lower. And in this case, it’s, “Well, you know what? If I get someone who just comes in and offers me $850,000, I make an extra hundred grand.”

Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.

[00:52:59] Jocelyn Reyes: And time is money.

[00:53:00] Tracy Hayes: Time is money.

[00:53:03] Jocelyn Reyes: You’re stuck with a mortgage, with the big fees, insurance, taxes — all of the things. You’ve got to look at it like that.

[00:53:14] Tracy Hayes: Especially if they found that dream property. They’re like, “Oh my God, we’ve got to have that property.”

It’s like, “Okay, great. Let’s get rid of this in 30 days so I can move on with my life.”

When a service member or veteran calls you and says they’ve got orders to come to Jacksonville, or Mayport, or NAS Jacksonville — “I’ve never been to Jacksonville and I need to be in a house in 60 days” — where do you start with that conversation?

[00:53:41] Jocelyn Reyes: So, I love doing military relocations because my family…

[00:53:46] Tracy Hayes: They have dates. They have timelines.

[00:53:48] Jocelyn Reyes: Their paperwork is flawless, pretty much, and they listen. So I love that.

Anyways, first we figure out what base they’re going to be at — whether they’re going to be in Mayport, NAS Jacksonville, where they’re going to be, what side of town, their commute, how much commute they want to do, whether they want to be close to the base or not.

So that’s pretty much where we start.

A lot of them are coming with family and young kids. Some of them are not coming with family and still want to buy a home. So it’s mainly about that.

Based on whether they’re going to be in Camp Landing or wherever, that’s how we decide what areas of town we are going to look at.

Then it becomes: what is it that you need, what is it that you want in a home, what’s the budget, and let’s go ahead and look for it.

[00:54:36] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. How important is that right now? What are some of the questions they are asking?

They’ve never been to Jacksonville before. Maybe you’re dealing with one of the spouses because the other is deployed — because that often happens.

Sometimes you’re obviously guiding them site unseen. What are two or three of the most important things that you’re finding right now that these active-duty families being transferred in are asking you? What are their desires?

[00:55:04] Jocelyn Reyes: They want to be close to the base because sometimes the wife is expecting a child and wants to be close to the hospital.

They want to make sure they’re in a safe area because they think, “What if I go on deployment? I want to make sure that my family is safe.”

[00:55:19] Tracy Hayes: You just send them the safe areas?

[00:55:22] Jocelyn Reyes: Not really. I send them the websites.

They’ve got to go and look at that because we cannot steer and we cannot point and say things like that. I can’t tell you directly, “Hey, this area is bad,” or something like that.

I always send the city and county websites and all that information.

Then I ask, “When can I have you in town?” Normally, prior to them fully moving in, most people take a week or at least a weekend and come into town.

And I say, “Let me take you to a couple of different places and let’s see how you guys feel in the neighborhood.”

When people don’t know Jacksonville at all, they’ll send me homes that are really, really affordable and look really, really nice — but they might not be in the nicest area.

[00:56:20] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. You get what you pay for.

[00:56:23] Jocelyn Reyes: Exactly. But it only takes one drive through the area.

I’ll say, “Okay, I’ll show it to you.” But sometimes, as soon as we pull into the driveway, they’re like, “Hey, I think we want to skip this one and keep going to the next one. We don’t want to waste your time.”

People know.

[00:56:41] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

When a buyer comes to you with a max budget of $400,000, how do you walk them through that?

And I’m going to add a little bit to this question — basically, given the full financial picture.

I know you and Vince work closely with the mortgage side, but oftentimes we get people who say, “Yeah, imagine you ask what price range they’re in,” but really that’s not actually the question.

The question is: what can they afford on a monthly basis out of their budget?

Especially these military buyers whose BAH gives them a set amount of money. They want to stay within some sort of range of that.

How do you break that down?

[00:57:19] Jocelyn Reyes: It doesn’t bother me.

My smallest real estate deal was a piece of land for $20,000. I’ve sold to millionaires. I work with everything.

Me being in the Hispanic community, the military community, and with first-time homebuyers — I remember back in 2017 and 2018, a lot of my sales were homes for $100,000, $120,000, $150,000.

So I have a lot of expertise and knowledge in those ranges.

If your budget is under $400,000, I know all the places where we can get you a great home for under that budget.

I’ll make a list, explain each place, and ask:
Do you want to be close to your job?
Do you want to be close to a specific school?

[00:58:08] Tracy Hayes: But are you explaining the financial picture from the standpoint that most people don’t know what that payment actually looks like?

[00:58:18] Jocelyn Reyes: Absolutely.

[00:58:19] Tracy Hayes: I find many agents sometimes send people to me and they haven’t had that discussion.

Like:
Where’s their money coming from?
Are they selling another home?
Do they have savings?
Are they first-time homebuyers?
Do they even have 3.5% down?
Maybe we need down payment assistance.

How important is it for an agent — especially during the buyer consultation — to understand all of that?

You’re the professional. You need to know where the situation stands.

And because eventually you’ve got to think about how you’re going to structure the offer when you get there.

[00:59:10] Jocelyn Reyes: So number one question:
“Are you pre-approved to buy a home?”

“How much are you pre-approved for?”

A lot of people are already pre-approved. Others are not pre-approved at all and need help because they have no idea.

Sometimes they’re sending you homes for $500,000 or $600,000 and saying, “Yeah, this looks fantastic.”

And I ask:
“Are you pre-approved?”

“No.”

“Okay, so how do you know you can afford this home? What are you looking to pay monthly?”

“Well, I’m looking to pay like $1,500 a month.”

Yes — on a $670,000 home, that’s not going to work.

[00:59:43] Tracy Hayes: Even when rates were 2%, it still wasn’t going to work.

[00:59:47] Jocelyn Reyes: Exactly. So you’ve got to bring them back to reality a little bit.

Obviously, I’m not a loan officer, so the conversation is limited because I don’t want to give information outside my expertise.

My expertise is real estate. I’m a real estate agent. I’m the best negotiator there is, and I’m going to fight for you to get the best deal possible.

But I have a list of lenders. Let’s pair you up.

And the thing is, I don’t like giving just one option.

If you already have a lender, you’re pre-approved, comfortable with them, and trust them — fantastic. We don’t have to change anything.

But can I have their information?

Because I want to call your lender, have a conversation with them, see how solid the file is, and ask questions about it.

[01:00:43] Tracy Hayes: Alright, now I’m going to flip that statement over to you speaking to agents, because primarily the people listening to this show are real estate agents.

How important is it that you have go-to lenders?

Not every lender does every type of loan or knows how to structure some of the squirrely deals.

How important is it to have the right people in your Rolodex — people you know can handle the majority of your business and the difficult stuff?

[01:02:20] Jocelyn Reyes: It’s key, to be honest with you.

At the end of the day, you are running your own business.

Even though you don’t work for a lender or mortgage broker, it’s still a reflection of your business.

Same with the home inspector. Same with the title company.

Some people don’t see that.

I want to make sure my customer has a good experience with the title company, the lender or mortgage broker, and with me as the agent.

That means the whole deal from A to Z was successful.

Now, if they have a horrible experience with a lender — even if it’s a lender you as the agent didn’t really know — it still reflects back on you.

And now the blame is on you because:
“You brought me to them.”
“You recommended them.”

It happened to me in my first couple of years.

I had a few transactions that went sour — not because of me or the deal itself, but because something happened with the title company or the lender.

And then suddenly it becomes your fault because you recommended them.

If you don’t have strong relationships with the people you work with, it can come back on you — and it’s not fun.

[01:03:54] Tracy Hayes: I’ve had a couple of deals in the last six months where the relationship was actually with the listing agent because we had done deals together before.

But the deals went sour.

One was a condo. The lender got all the way to about a week before closing and then suddenly said:

“Oh yeah, we don’t like this condo complex. We’re not going to close there.”

Tip for agents:
Not every lender wants to do condos in Florida.

[01:04:17] Jocelyn Reyes: Yeah, for sure.

[01:04:19] Tracy Hayes: You’ve got to find a lender that has a condo team — someone whose department actually specializes in getting condos approved and knows what they’re doing, because a lot of them haven’t spent the money to have that designated person who knows how to line it all up for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac approval.

Luckily, the lender on that one cooperated and actually sent me all the paperwork, and we were able to transfer the appraisal over, which — I’ve been in this 20 years — most lenders want to order a brand-new appraisal and all this other stuff.

We actually transferred it and closed that one in a week.

Then I had one that actually closed a couple weeks ago where a well-known credit union here in town just couldn’t make it work.

This was someone who had a paid-off house and wanted to buy another house before selling the paid-off one, and income was tight. So you had to move some puzzle pieces around.

We had to throw a bridge loan in there and pay off a car, and we made it happen.

[01:05:16] Jocelyn Reyes: But you still made it happen.

[01:05:18] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, and we still made it happen and closed on time.

That was a very short timeline — less than three weeks, like 18 days, and that’s not even 18 business days because nobody’s doing anything in operations on Saturday and Sunday.

You’ve got to have lenders that are able to see the whole picture and pull some different things together.

I think some of the better lenders right now have the products. I’m not saying we’re the only ones, but having an internal bridge loan is so much easier than most of these guys who outsource bridge loans to another wholesale company.

Now you’re dealing with another approval process.

We’re doing it in-house because we want the purchase transaction.

And I would imagine you’d agree that right now, when you’re the listing agent and you get a contingency offer, everybody groans a little bit.

We’re finding ways around the contingency because we want the main loan, and we know that bridge loan is going to be paid off in a couple months.

[01:06:17] Jocelyn Reyes: I had a very similar situation happen to me too.

This was one of my listings in Jacksonville Beach. I had a beach home, and I had a buyer from out of state interested in it. It was the best-priced beach home we had — no HOA, beautifully remodeled, everything redone.

The buyer wanted to buy it as a short-term rental.

He was using his daughter as the agent. She was a brand-new real estate agent. It was her first deal.

You don’t know what you don’t know.

Unfortunately, she didn’t know a lot.

I told her, “Hey, I’ll coach you if you come to me.”

Anyway, we got them under contract, negotiated the deal, everything was moving forward.

But the lender she used — probably somebody she met during her brokerage training or at a luncheon — she decided to use that person because she didn’t know any better.

[01:07:13] Tracy Hayes: She didn’t know any better.

[01:07:14] Jocelyn Reyes: Exactly.

Well, this loan officer had never dealt with a DSCR loan.

[01:07:19] Tracy Hayes: Was he doing a DSCR loan on it?

[01:07:21] Jocelyn Reyes: Yes.

And I guess he had never dealt with rent schedules and all these things.

Because again, this was an investment property — they were buying it as a short-term rental.

After 21 or 29 days and multiple extension requests, the deal went completely sour.

The daughter said, “My dad is so mad at me because he’s going to lose the deposit and lose the house because the loan officer says there’s no way to do this.”

And I’m like, “How is that possible?”

I have loan officers I’ve worked with for almost a decade, and I know this is closable.

I didn’t even like the rent schedule they were using — it didn’t make sense — and I’m not even a loan officer.

I said, “Hey, can you give me two hours?”

And the deal got saved by my lender.

It was insane because these people felt completely defeated:
the dad,
the daughter who was the agent,
the buyer,
and even the loan officer, who was also new and had only closed two deals in the last 12 months.

They just didn’t know.

[01:08:35] Tracy Hayes: My tip after doing this for — let’s see, September will be 21 years — is that all lenders do different things for different reasons.

These DSCR loans are often outsourced.

I’ll brag a little about my lender without naming names: because we’re a large servicer, we can actually run DSCR loans and some bank-statement loans through wholesale guidelines internally.

Most lenders don’t want these loans because they’re portfolio loans. They don’t want to keep them on their books, so they sell them off.

But sometimes we look at a deal and say:
“This is a really clean deal. We’re going to keep it ourselves.”

Not every loan officer knows everything.

Even this gentleman — not taking anything away from him — if he didn’t have resources internally, he was stuck.

In my office, I’ve got people who’ve been doing this 30 years.

I go to them and say:
“Hey, this makes sense. How do we piece this together?”

You’ve got to have other people in the office.

Just like a real estate agent goes to their broker when a title issue goes sideways.

You need a lending team that can look at a deal and say:
“Yeah, that’s a little squirrely. Let’s sit down and map this out.”

[01:10:09] Jocelyn Reyes: Yeah.

[01:10:09] Tracy Hayes: And one thing about DSCR loans — if someone wants to do Airbnb investing and they’re only putting 20% down, they’re probably not going to like the terms.

They really need around 30% down.

[01:10:31] Jocelyn Reyes: For sure.

Another thing I’ve been seeing is people getting frustrated because they’re small business owners — maybe they own a barber shop, a food truck, or they’re 1099 workers.

These people want to buy homes. They’ve been waiting for years.

And they go to lenders they see online, but there are a lot of products that many newer loan officers aren’t offering.

[01:11:06] Tracy Hayes: The tip there is that call-center lenders are volume-based lenders.

They’re not trying to create products that make a real estate agent’s life easier.

They’re trying to deal with the masses and skim the easy loans off the top.

[01:11:28] Jocelyn Reyes: But consumers end up feeling like they don’t have any options because nobody talks to them about DSCR loans, bank-statement loans, or those types of products.

There’s a lot of misinformation out there.

And I feel like that’s one reason agents need strong lender relationships and need to understand what’s available.

[01:11:50] Tracy Hayes: You’ve got to regularly talk to lenders.

A lot of agents say, “I don’t want to bother you.”

Honestly? Call me with your problem.

I actually take pride in sometimes saying:
“I can’t do this loan, but go talk to this person.”

And then 30 days later they come back and say:
“Thanks for sending me there. They closed it.”

Those are the relationships you want.

Would you agree that compared to 2021, there’s way more bridge loans, contingencies, DSCR loans, and bank-statement deals now?

[01:12:55] Jocelyn Reyes: Yes.

[01:12:55] Tracy Hayes: Because in 2021, people were showing up with cash or huge down payments from selling homes in New York. Anybody could do those loans.

Now things are more complicated.

So create the relationship — that’s the key.

Because if there’s no money, you can’t sell the house.

Find the people who know how to make these loans work.

As someone leading a 15-agent team right now, what does the agent attrition wave mean for buyers and sellers trying to choose representation in 2026?

We know from NAR stats that more than 70% of agents didn’t even close a deal last year. Agents are falling out of the business.

Even some agents who were doing decent in 2021 are disappearing now.

Would you agree that good agents are actually making more money now because of stronger buyer consultations?

[01:13:56] Jocelyn Reyes: Yes, absolutely.

[01:14:00] Tracy Hayes: So talk to buyers and sellers about how to choose the right agent today.

[01:14:14] Jocelyn Reyes: Honestly, it’s about relationships.

It’s about what you offer as an agent.

You have to stay consistent in this business:
follow up,
write emails,
knock on doors,
pick up the phone,
invite people for coffee,
stay visible.

You cannot be a secret agent.

I literally get messages from people asking:
“Are you still an agent?”

Because they bought a home with an agent five years ago and never heard from them again.

Now they’re ready for the next move — whether it’s upgrading, downsizing, whatever their needs are.

A lot of people are loyal and want to use the same agent again.

[01:15:05] Tracy Hayes: There’s comfort there. They already know you.

[01:15:08] Jocelyn Reyes: Exactly. You already know their backstory and their situation.

So people wonder:
“Should we look for a new agent? Is our old agent even still in the business?”

Stay in contact with your people.

[01:15:24] Tracy Hayes: Flip it to the buyer or seller perspective.

If someone doesn’t know an agent and they’re trying to choose one, what are two or three things they should look for?

[01:15:40] Jocelyn Reyes: Education.

People want to feel comfortable. They want to feel taken care of.

A real estate transaction has to be personalized.

We are not going to be replaced by AI or ChatGPT like people think.

People still want one-on-one service.

They want to know:
you’ve got their back,
they can trust you,
you’ll guide them through the process,
you’ll fight for them,
you’ll protect their best interests.

You’ve got to be authentic, informative, and offer something of value because there are a lot of people trying to do the same thing.

[01:16:28] Tracy Hayes: And value doesn’t necessarily mean lowering your commission.

Because if you do that, eventually you put yourself out of business.

[01:16:34] Jocelyn Reyes: That is correct.

[01:16:37] Tracy Hayes: How do you handle the more aggressive people who immediately say:
“Well, so-and-so said they’d do it for 2%.”

[01:16:56] Jocelyn Reyes: Yes. People try. People try that. Mm-hmm. And they say, “Well, I just finished the consultation.” Especially when they don't know you and they haven't worked with you before. There's no—

[01:17:04] Tracy Hayes: Relationship to break. Yeah.

[01:17:06] Jocelyn Reyes: I will tell you something. The listing presentation I did yesterday for this home that I'm telling you about — because I bring in the seller’s net sheet and all of that stuff — one of the first things they told me before even looking at the numbers was, “Hey, are you getting paid what you deserve getting paid?”

[01:17:24] Tracy Hayes: I'm sorry, what'd they say again?

[01:17:26] Jocelyn Reyes: “Are you getting paid what you deserve getting paid?” But in a good way. Like, “Hey, are you making sure you're not discounting yourself for us because you worked with us before?” They know the value that I bring. They know my work style. They know what I can do for them.

And we've already talked about, “Hey, you're gonna be in TV, you're gonna be on radio, you're gonna be in Homes & Magazine.” I’ll have already explained the marketing, picture videography, photography, all of these things.

So when I pull up the seller’s net sheet with the numbers, the first thing he told me was, “Hey, you're getting paid full commission, right? This is not us about discounting your commission. We wanna make sure that you're not giving us a discount.” They already know my value.

Now, when the seller has just interviewed somebody a couple days earlier that’s charging literally nothing, they are gonna want that.

And I’ll say, “Okay, so X, Y, and Z — what did they offer you? Are they gonna do this for you? Are they gonna do this for you? Are they offering this?”

And they’ll say, “No. I didn’t know you guys can do that.”

And I say, “Well, that’s part of my package. This is what I offer, this is my price, and this is what I can do for you. This is what I guarantee I’m gonna be doing for you.”

[01:18:43] Tracy Hayes: Speaking to the agents out there right now, you go in obviously — and I mean, you're earning a living, and you've surrounded yourself by other top agents who are successful and have been doing this for a while. And the reason is because they get paid their value that they bring to the table. And they're not trying to just get the deal by discounting.

How often, when you are going in with someone who doesn't know you and they might be talking to a handful of agents, do you run into where they’ve actually been pitched by another pro like you?

Do you find a lot of times you go in and, if you're the third agent, the two others are just trying to discount it and get the deal, and they're not actually showing them the value of what you bring to the table?

[01:19:29] Jocelyn Reyes: Yeah. No, for sure. Normally it doesn’t happen often, but when it does happen, I’ll have a seller sitting down and they talked to another agent who went dirt cheap, who’s agreeing to everything the sellers say because literally they just want the listing.

[01:19:49] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. “Oh, I’ll list it for that,” even though it’s overpriced. “Yeah, I’ll take a discounted commission.” They agree to all of that.

[01:19:55] Jocelyn Reyes: And then they have another agent who’s a pro who says a lot of the same things that I say, who had a similar approach. Not the same, but a similar approach.

And it was very informative. They say, “No, this is what I charge. This is what I can do.”

And I always say, “Well, obviously time is money. You get what you pay for. This is what X, Y, and Z is offering you at a very low commission. This is what they can do for you. This is what I’m gonna do for you. This is what I’ve done. These are my reviews. This is what you can read from other people.”

If you are telling them all of the things that you can do and how you work, and on top of that you are being of value and providing knowledge, I haven’t had yet—

[01:20:45] Tracy Hayes: You win most of them.

[01:20:46] Jocelyn Reyes: Yes.

[01:20:48] Tracy Hayes: I don’t know if you bat one hundred percent, but you win most of them.

[01:20:49] Jocelyn Reyes: Yes. I’ll say 99% of them.

[01:20:52] Tracy Hayes: I think statistically, the reason why I asked that question is because if you go out there and are committed and consistent with your presentation that you are of value, the chances of you running into another Jocelyn who’s doing the same thing is very rare.

And I guarantee you, if they did, they would say, “Well, I was just talking to Jocelyn and she does a lot of the same things.” Then you already know, like, wow — this person actually spoke to someone legit.

[01:21:18] Jocelyn Reyes: One of the things that used to blow my mind back in the day — not anymore because I know better now — was the fact that I’m going to a lot of these listing presentations, but also on the buyer side when I’m doing buyer consultations.

I sit down with the client and I have anywhere from a 30-minute to a 90-minute conversation with them. And it’s wild how many times we finish the consultation and the client is just looking at me saying, “Wow. I learned with you in one hour more than I’ve ever learned in months or years of working with other realtors.”

[01:22:02] Tracy Hayes: And at half a percent more in commission, they don’t even ask about it.

[01:22:08] Jocelyn Reyes: It’s like, “Whatever you charge, I wanna do it with you,” because they had no idea. Nobody took the time to sit down and explain. Nobody took the time to tell them how this worked. Nobody took the time to tell them all the things they could do for them.

[01:22:20] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. I think many of these neighborhoods — especially Nocatee, I like to call it the “Keeping Up with the Joneses” neighborhood — but there are a lot of neighborhoods like that.

When you really show you’re a pro, they’re proud that they hired you. They wanna tell their neighbors. It’s like, “Yeah, we bought the Mercedes. We know our payment’s higher, but we bought a Mercedes.” They’re not afraid to talk about the payment when they’re bragging about the Mercedes.

[01:22:52] Jocelyn Reyes: These are your best customers because at the end of the day, when it’s time for their cousin to buy, their mom to buy, their neighbor to buy, they’re saying, “You gotta call Jocelyn. She’s the best.”

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

Alright. Last formal question here. With the Jacksonville market genuinely more complex in 2026, what is the single most important quality a buyer or seller should look for in an agent right now? And how do you specifically deliver that?

[01:23:21] Jocelyn Reyes: The only thing I wanna add to that — make sure that you’re working with a full-time agent. You don’t wanna work with somebody who’s a part-time agent and whose priority is being a server at a restaurant.

You need somebody who’s fully invested in you. Somebody who’s training themselves daily, weekly, monthly, and somebody who can bring value to you.

[01:23:46] Tracy Hayes: Because I think you talk about everything pre-contract — “Hey, I’m gonna advertise it this way. I’m gonna market it this way. I’m gonna do these things for you.”

But really, I don’t even know if you can count that as 50% of the deal. The true pros take over post-contract because that’s when the negotiations start going on.

Maybe if you wanna share a successful one you had recently that got a little hostile, but because of your experience and professionalism, you took control of that negotiation.

Obviously we all want a win-win. You got a buyer, you got a seller. The whole goal is to make the transaction happen.

How important is the post-contract, prior-to-closing negotiation part of finding the right agent?

[01:24:42] Jocelyn Reyes: Absolutely. It’s very important.

It’s no different than this deal I just told you about — my listing in Jax Beach — where this buyer and the agent and everybody felt defeated and thought, “Okay, I’m not gonna be able to buy the home that I wanted to buy to make into an Airbnb.”

It takes the other agent — like me — being just as invested. I’m like, “No, I’m not taking that.” I’m talking with other loan officers. I’m calling my buddies that I trust and know can save this deal, and we’re gonna make it happen.

If I would’ve been a lazy agent, I would’ve been like, “Okay, let’s just sign the cancellation agreement. My seller gets to keep the deposit. I’ll go back on MLS and market it again. Who knows what the next offer’s gonna bring?”

But again, my seller was impressed. The buyer was really impressed.

[01:25:35] Tracy Hayes: What did you know about the buyer enough to say, “This deal should get approved”? Did you jump in and start getting information on the buyer when it started going sideways?

[01:25:53] Jocelyn Reyes: I started getting information right off the bat. Originally the offer came in as a VA offer.

Well, you’re buying a house as an Airbnb and trying to do a VA offer on it. That was a red flag. Okay — why are you trying to do this?

Then she kept saying, “My client, my client, my client.”

So I dug a little more. I did a little stalking. Same last name. Let me go on Facebook.

[01:26:24] Tracy Hayes: But they checked off that this was not gonna be a primary residence, and they’re trying to use a VA loan?

[01:26:29] Jocelyn Reyes: Mm-hmm. Yeah. There was a lot going on. Again, it was her first deal.

[01:26:34] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[01:26:36] Jocelyn Reyes: She’s up in New Jersey actually. And guess what? Her dad holds a real estate license up there, but he doesn’t practice because he has other businesses going on.

[01:26:42] Tracy Hayes: Oh my God.

[01:26:49] Tracy Hayes: We do see that a lot where they call themselves referral agents, but for some reason they have a real estate license even though they’re not actively practicing. That’s very messy.

[01:27:01] Jocelyn Reyes: Yeah, very messy.

My seller got really aggravated because it seemed like every other day there was a different excuse for something. It was a real mess.

And when you’re dealing with a loan officer who’s not experienced, who does it part-time, and isn’t educated — and is approving them for a VA loan on a home that’s not their primary residence — and a real estate agent whose first transaction this is and who’s still going through training and doesn’t know what she’s doing...

And then a dad in New Jersey who claims to have a real estate license but hasn’t sold anything in five years...

It was heavy. I’ll tell you that. It was heavy.

I felt like I ended up doing the work of five people here.

[01:27:49] Tracy Hayes: Well, a hundred percent. And then in the end, if you had thrown in the towel and given up on that deal to go find another one, who knows how much time would’ve gone by before you got another acceptable offer — and what problems that offer would’ve brought.

So you took it by the horns basically and figured it out. But I think that’s a pro move, and I think that’s a tip for anyone listening right now.

Ask some of those questions. Of course you’ve gotta ask some of those questions. They tell us as loan officers, “Call the listing agent and let them know how great your buyer is,” obviously because we want to build that relationship too.

There’s no reason why you should not be calling the lender or asking questions of the buyer’s agent. And the buyer’s agent should know the details.

When they made the offer originally on the VA loan, did they actually say they were gonna put any money down?

[01:28:40] Jocelyn Reyes: No.

[01:28:40] Tracy Hayes: So they were gonna do 100% financing on a home that’s not their primary residence?

[01:28:45] Jocelyn Reyes: Mm-hmm. Wow. Yeah. Again, there were so many red flags. There were so many.

And I think that’s why my seller was on edge too because she’s one of those sellers who wanted to be informed of everything. She’s the kind of seller who requires you to call her every other day and keep her updated on what’s next.

[01:29:05] Tracy Hayes: At what point did you tell your seller you had an offer? Because when you saw VA come in but not primary residence, did you even tell your seller that?

Because I would’ve stopped right there and said, “Hold on a second, this ain’t gonna work.”

[01:29:17] Jocelyn Reyes: Exactly. Yeah, exactly.

That’s when I called the agent back, and she was like, “Well, I don’t know. Let me call my broker really quick, but let me also call my client.”

Then she took like two days to call me back, and I’m like, “Hey, what’s going on here? Because do I have to put the house back on the market or not?”

It was very tricky, especially the first week.

Then they had like a 10-day period for due diligence. It was day nine and there was no inspection report, no appointment, no anything. I had to remind her of all of this.

[01:29:51] Tracy Hayes: This was a dad who wanted to give his daughter her first deal.

[01:29:58] Jocelyn Reyes: For sure. For sure.

[01:30:00] Tracy Hayes: He figured if he got away with the VA loan, then he didn’t have any money out of his pocket?

[01:30:04] Jocelyn Reyes: No, no. I mean, he ended up coming in with 15% down.

I was like, “Okay, you had no money at the beginning. Now you do have some sort of money.”

It was very tricky.

[01:30:15] Tracy Hayes: I can only imagine DSCR with 15% down and the interest rate they were charging on that. Oh my goodness.

Alright, let’s finish up with this. Tell us why you love real estate.

[01:30:25] Jocelyn Reyes: I love, love, love real estate.

I love the way we can impact people’s lives. I love the fact that back in the day, I moved here from Puerto Rico and I did not speak the language. For years I was living in an apartment complex.

I thought because everything here was so different that I had to do all these things. I thought I had to have all these savings, perfect credit, and so much that just wasn’t realistic for me in order to buy a home.

And one day I was like, “You know what? I’ve always had this dream. I wanna work on this. I’m gonna try to buy my first home.”

And I found out that it was so much easier than what it looked like.

Then I realized there are so many people stuck renting. At that point, I had been doing property management for years, and I was like, “I wanna help people achieve their big American dream like I did.”

That gave me the drive to pursue my earlier dream of becoming a real estate agent.

I had also been a stay-at-home mom for some time with my kids, and I had to make that jump.

Through real estate, I found so much joy. I think it was meant to be.

Again, me being a part of hundreds of people’s little chapters — whether it’s their first home, their investment property, their upgrade, or their dream home — getting to be a part of that chapter in life has meant so much.

And yeah, when it comes to income, it’s been great and life-changing, but it’s not about that.

I have sacrificed my commission for a lot of people because if I see a need, I just wanna be a part of it.

If I know this is changing your life for the better, I just wanna be there for it.

I love what I do.

[01:32:26] Tracy Hayes: Thanks for coming on.

[01:32:26] Jocelyn Reyes: Thank you.