Gail DeMarco: Top St Johns County FL Agent

REE #289 Transcript

[00:00:00] Gail DeMarco:
At the end of the day, I'm not a realtor. I'm in the business of real estate, and I'm trying to make a great living.
I don't wanna make an ordinary living. Why would I do this? Why would I take this kind of abuse, right?
Why would I give up my weekends? Right? I wanna make a load of money, right?
And I want everyone on my team to make more money than me.
That is my goal.
And my goal in California worked.

[00:00:57] Tracy Hayes:
Hey, welcome back to the Real Estate Excellence Podcast, where we bring you the story, strategies, and successes of the
[00:01:00] industry's most elite professionals.
Today's guest is a force in luxury real estate.
She has over a decade of high-level experience,
more than 900 million in career sales.
She has led top-producing teams, consistently surpassed 80 million annual volume,
and built a reputation for precision, integrity, and excellence.
She's a negotiation-certified relocation expert,
real estate coach, and dynamic speaker known for delivering concierge-level experience to clients
in Northeast Florida's most exclusive markets —
think waterfront estates, golf course communities, and luxury urban homes.

Now back at eXp Realty, she brings a deep market knowledge,
elite client service, and a coach's mindset to every transaction.
Whether you're scaling your real estate business or refining your luxury approach,
her insights are the real deal.
Let's welcome Gail DeMarco to the show.

[00:01:54] Gail DeMarco:
I need a little more enthusiasm there. Okay?
So some of your numbers are off.
[00:02:00] Be ChatBT me, but—
So my team in California—mm-hmm—
There were eight of us, and in 2023 we did—

[00:02:07] Tracy Hayes:
I'm gonna have you pull that mic—yeah, pull that mic.
I should have set you up there. Lower. There you go. Okay, there you go. Good.

[00:02:12] Gail DeMarco:
So, in 2023, we did 389 million in sales,
and I personally did 80 million in sales.

[00:02:17] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:02:18] Gail DeMarco:
So, you know, we were lean and mean, you know?
I don't believe in big teams,
because people get lost.

[00:02:26] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.

[00:02:27] Gail DeMarco:
Yeah. So I'd rather take—you know,
if I am gonna bring somebody in,
they have to really, really be willing to
get some scar tissue, battle wounds, and cry at least once a week with me.

[00:02:39] Tracy Hayes:
Well, you know, as I said, ChatPT created that intro by reading your bios.

[00:02:44] Gail DeMarco:
Right.

[00:02:44] Tracy Hayes:
Coaching was used a couple times in there. Oh—

[00:02:46] Gail DeMarco:
Yeah. Absolutely is. Um—

[00:02:48] Tracy Hayes:
I—

[00:02:48] Gail DeMarco:
—think that the term—and you, you made me—

[00:02:50] Tracy Hayes:
—think, if you're gonna bring somebody on your team,
someone that you're gonna pour into, right—
coachability is key.
Is it just instinct for you to feel
[00:03:00] that someone's coachable?
Or do you have a couple little testers to see,
is this person really going to absorb what I'm gonna pour in and want more from me, right?
So—and want to improve?

[00:03:11] Gail DeMarco:
So I'm kind of a little bit like—
I would say the Navy SEALs, right?
So I'm looking for that person—kind of like a Hell's Angel, right?
They have a prospect or somebody who's gonna hang around and really want to,
you know, pay their dues.
Because a lot of people go—they want what you want,
but they're not willing to do what you did
and what I continue to do. Right?

Yeah, so they're like,
“Oh my gosh, I wanna drive the car you have,
I wanna live in the house you have,
I wanna make the money you make.” Right?
Well, it wasn't always like this.

[00:03:38] Tracy Hayes:
Right?

[00:03:38] Gail DeMarco:
I mean, I did a lot. I gave up a lot.
I mean, things I wish I didn't give up—
like, you know, running to my son's graduation at Berkeley,
missing him getting his diploma because I was working.
Oh—right? Stuff like that.

[00:03:52] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.

[00:03:52] Gail DeMarco:
Because I always put my clients first,
instead of putting God first, family, and then my clients.
So—so now,
I think I
[00:04:00] got it right, but I screwed up. I'm not perfect.

[00:04:02] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah. Well, I mean,
speak of God, I think He does send us—
He sends us down some paths, or He does some things for us to
reflect on, and obviously change.
Take another path differently the next time around.
Yep.
He makes us run into that wall of, you know,
“Hey, I made a bad decision.”
Yeah. Now I wanna make a better one in the future.
'Cause He's leading you to where He wants you to go, right?

[00:04:23] Gail DeMarco:
Yeah. And honestly, like, my prayer every day is
that God puts the right people in front of me
at the right time, for the right reason.

[00:04:30] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.

[00:04:30] Gail DeMarco:
So maybe there's an agent that is totally broke, right?
Or has really been trying.
You know, maybe they've had their license 20 years and they're like,
“I can't get past 5 million a year.”
That's crazy, right?

So—or maybe there's a new agent and they just, you know,
start watching Netflix:
“I wanna be like, you know, owning Manhattan or selling like Sunset.”

[00:04:49] Tracy Hayes:
You know—

[00:04:50] Gail DeMarco:
—and they're like, “That looks so great, you know? I get to, you know, sell these big, fabulous homes.” Well—

[00:04:55] Tracy Hayes:
Right.

[00:04:56] Gail DeMarco:
There's a lot behind the scenes, you know?
Yeah. There's a lot behind the
[00:05:00] scenes.
So when I'm looking for somebody, I'm looking for somebody that wants to grow,
who's willing to put in the work,
somebody who's gonna work weekends, you know?

I mean, I would do four—at least four open houses every weekend for five years.
Year five was the year I broke.
I thought I was gonna make a million dollars, but I only made 989,000.
Can you imagine?
I was disappointed.

[00:05:23] Tracy Hayes:
Right?

[00:05:23] Gail DeMarco:
And I was working at Sotheby’s, and I paid them $289,000 or something that year, right?
Because—and I never look at a split.
Any agent that goes, “What's my split?”—get outta my office. Right?
You gotta look at the big picture.

My first job—you know, my first year on a team, I was making 10% and I was grateful,
because she was supposedly the top producer making 20 million a year.
I thought that was a lot.
I was like, “20 million!”
Now I'm like, “Yeah, that's nothing.”
I've done that this year and I’ve only been here 14—right?

You know, I’m in a, in a much—

[00:05:59] Tracy Hayes:
Lower—

[00:06:00] Tracy Hayes:
—price point market than where you were at.

[00:06:02] Gail DeMarco:
Right. Right.
So, you know, at the end of the day, it's like—but I look to the big picture.
Like, I need to be around the Navy SEALs, right?
I don't wanna be around just people—average.

You know, in anything in your life, if you're one of those people that, you know, you just settle—it's like, “Oh, it's okay.”

[00:06:14] Tracy Hayes:
Speak to that. You mentioned something—
and we were talking about Katie Spank as well, who's with eXp and also has—I need to meet her.
Katie?

[00:06:21] Gail DeMarco:
Yes, Katie.

[00:06:22] Tracy Hayes:
We'll definitely put you guys together,
'cause you both have a very large YouTube following.
But she mentions—and it's in one of the reels that I cut from her show, right?—
is too many new agents are focused on that split.

Right.
What really should they be evaluating
when they're looking for a brokerage or a mentor?
You know, when they're looking to be around the right—those people that are gonna pour into 'em,
or they’re gonna be able to pull something out of—
what should they be looking for above the split
when they're early in their career?

[00:06:55] Gail DeMarco:
Well, let's face it.
I mean, if you are going—
if you wanna be like an Olympic track
[00:07:00] star,
do you think Bruce Jenner just went to the high schools?
No. He went to Stanford.
He went to go find—where are the people running at the highest level?

[00:07:06] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:07:07] Gail DeMarco:
Where are the agents performing at the highest level?
So when I came here 14 months ago, full-time—you know,
'cause I did—you know, I’m from California,
and I was working in California my first year commuting—
I did a SWOT analysis, right?

So I—you know, I do a SWOT analysis whether I'm doing a paddleboard race
or whatever I'm doing in life.
I wanna know: what are the strengths?
You know, what are the weaknesses?
You know, what is the opportunity and what are the threats?

And so when I came here to Florida, I was like,
“Oh my gosh, you know, I don't know anybody.” Right?

And, you know, I've been—this is my 13th year in real estate.
I started, you know, late in life in real estate—thank goodness.
'Cause this is a, you know, blood-sucking,
very, very all-in job.
So I’m really glad I didn’t do this as a young agent.

And I realized, you know, the strengths are:
gosh, I have experience,
'cause
[00:08:00] I’ve sold over—actually it’s 965 million in real estate.
And, you know, in California we don’t track new construction.
So, you know, on the MLS, you don’t track it.
And here, you know, they do. Right? Which is kind of cool.

So my strength is—
you know, like if you are a doctor, okay?
Like when I took my first Ponte Vedra Beach listing for 2.5—
I've got two more now—
she asked me, she goes,
“What have you sold here?”

And, you know, I could tell she looked me up.
And I go, “Absolutely nothing. Nothing. Nothing.”

[00:08:35] Tracy Hayes:
The last thing you wanna do is not tell—

[00:08:37] Gail DeMarco:
See, you did the accusation label, right?
Yeah. You know of Chris Voss — Never Split the Difference — my favorite guy.

[00:08:43] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:08:44] Gail DeMarco:
He wrote the best book.
And I said,
“You must think I'm a terrible agent because I've sold nothing here.”
I said, “But you did tell me that your husband and you were moving to Texas
'cause he is a great heart doctor.
Now if that heart doctor had to come to Mayo Clinic,
could he perform the same surgery?”

[00:09:00]
Absolutely.
I said, “I'm that guy.”

[00:09:02] Tracy Hayes:
Great analogy.

[00:09:03] Gail DeMarco:
I said, “So I am, you know, that's my strength.
The weakness is, I don't know the neighborhoods.
I don't know the area.
But guess what, people? Math is the path.”
You just look at the numbers.

So I thought, oh, I have to be a buyer’s agent, you know?
I was like, oh no—
I haven't sold—
I haven’t worked with buyers probably in, like, nine years.

[00:09:19] Tracy Hayes:
Right.

[00:09:22] Gail DeMarco:
So—and I don’t buy Zillow leads,
'cause I think that is crap.
You know, I designed the business around my life.
I'm not gonna have my life, you know, run around my business.
Mm-hmm.

You pay Zillow leads and you've got to take a shower with a phone by the shower
because each phone call could be $400.

[00:09:43] Tracy Hayes:
Right, right.

[00:09:44] Gail DeMarco:
So, you know, the weakness—
I didn’t know the area and I didn’t know anybody.
And I had to brand,
because people buy Zillow leads and they should be spending that money on branding—
making a brand.

So I knew coming into this—
if I'm gonna—
I'm in the business of real estate.
I'm not a realtor.
Okay? I'm a broker.
I’m not—
I'm running a business.
And
[00:10:00] most agents don’t know how to run a business.
So, that was my only weakness, you know?

[00:10:05] Tracy Hayes:
All right, let’s—
’cause we’re kind of going over a couple really great topics here—
Okay.
Let’s start with the branding.
That's what I just wrote down 'cause you said that.

And I think a lot of agents—
as you know, you go to these trainings, you go to—
whether it's a little lunch and learn or you go to a big conference—

[00:10:21] Gail DeMarco:
Mm-hmm.

[00:10:22] Tracy Hayes:
—and you get these people up there and they're talking at a 30,000-foot level.
They're not really—
I call it “rubber meets the road”—
really giving you the ABCs of what they need to do.

So when you say branding—
and talking to the agents who may be listening to the show right now,
whether it's today or three years from now—
I don’t think it’s gonna change.

But from a real estate agent angle,
in your experience, when you talk about branding,
what are you talking about?
What should they be doing?
And what should they try to get established?

[00:10:53] Gail DeMarco:
Absolutely. Your name, right?
Like, top of mind:
“I’m going to sell a house — you gotta call Gail.”

[00:10:59] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:11:00] Gail DeMarco:
You gotta call Gail DeMarco.
So it's—
and branding starts from everything:
from your signs—
those crappy little signs these agents put out here
with the little wires and they stick 'em in the ground and you can’t even read.

[00:11:12] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:11:13] Gail DeMarco:
I mean, my signs cost 200 bucks a piece.
They’re big white signs.
They have my logo on it.
I put 'em out and people remember that kind of stuff.

So it’s everything.
Even my open houses when we walk in—
like I’m getting ready for four open houses this weekend—

[00:11:27] Tracy Hayes:
So I have not seen your sign.
So I’m just—when you say that,
I’m assuming “Gail DeMarco” is bigger than the eXp logo?

[00:11:33] Gail DeMarco:
No, we’re not allowed to do that.
I have to be compliant,
’cause I don’t wanna go to real estate jail.

[00:11:37] Tracy Hayes:
Right. Even your actual name?

[00:11:39] Gail DeMarco:
Well, you know—

[00:11:40] Tracy Hayes:
Because you're not actually ahead of—

[00:11:41] Gail DeMarco:
—and honestly, it’s kind of tricky now
because I’ve started a team.
I didn’t want to start a team,
’cause I’m like, ugh—
I don’t wanna start a team, because then there’s less—
you know, I’ve got a lot going on in my life right now,
people pulling on me.

[00:11:52] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.

[00:11:53] Gail DeMarco:
But when you have as many listings as I have right now,
you need people to be at the house—
you know, in their houses.
And I’ve found some
[00:12:00] really, really good agents that I’m working with right now that—

[00:12:00] Gail DeMarco:
...are doing my open houses. So I want everyone to have—like today—my Fiji water’s being delivered, right?
So all of my open houses have Fiji water.
All of my open houses have like these nice little booklets.
When you walk into one of my open houses, they’re all consistent.
Right now we’re doing all new signs for the front—

[00:12:20] Tracy Hayes:
Whether they’re a $400,000 home out there or a million-dollar-plus Avira,
you want—and here’s the thing—

[00:12:27] Gail DeMarco:
Get rid of your ego, right?
Yeah. Number one.
Because I will treat my two and a half million dollar home to my $450,000 exactly the same.

Now, we weren’t doing food—
we got out of the whole food thing during COVID and all that.

[00:12:43] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:12:43] Gail DeMarco:
But I’ll tell you, I get more listings—
I was just telling my team—through charcuterie boards. Right?

Even if you bring the whole thing home.
When people come in—because who really comes to your open house?
Sellers. Right?

[00:12:55] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:12:55] Gail DeMarco:
A lot of sellers come to your open houses.
Buyers are coming now more because we're the number one
[00:13:00] relocation.
So branding starts everywhere.

I also do mailers, right?
And I’ll tell you what—
I’m on my 30th transaction in a little tiny community,
and it’s 427 homes.
The average price is $512,000,
and that’s WaterSong in Rivertown.

[00:13:15] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm. Right?

[00:13:16] Gail DeMarco:
I’ve sold 64% of the resale.

[00:13:18] Tracy Hayes:
So what’s your strategy there with the mailer?
So you get a listing, right? Walk us through the steps—what you’re doing.

[00:13:25] Gail DeMarco:
So—no, here’s the thing.
So when—I remember when I went to my first listing in WaterSong, she said,
“What have you sold here?”
Same thing—Gail DeMarco.
And I just was honest. I go,
“You know what, here’s the deal.
I am going to get you top dollar
if you give me a break in this community.”

It’s funny 'cause she just got a license
and she’s gonna be working with me in that community.

[00:13:48] Tracy Hayes:
And—

[00:13:49] Gail DeMarco:
She—you know, I said—because I went against a couple other locals.

[00:13:53] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:13:54] Gail DeMarco:
And she picked me.
So, you know, it’s personality.

So when people come in, you think that you have
[00:14:00] to have all this great collateral.
Do you know, I don’t hardly ever bring anything in with me when I go to a listing presentation.

If you went in my office—’cause we just cleaned my office—

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

[00:14:09] Gail DeMarco:
And we’re like, “Look at these gorgeous presentation books.”
You know, 'cause—
you know, why do I need that?
Because it really comes from the confidence.

So back to branding.
So it’s basically—
I mail out data reports.
'Cause guess what, people?
People don’t care that you’re the top producer.
People don’t care that I sold almost a billion dollars in real estate.
People don’t care that I have a new listing.

You know what they care about?
I mean, let’s think about this—
for the last four or five years, people are like,
“When can I sell my house?”
“When are the interest rates gonna come down?”

People care about data, okay?
And if you tell 'em what the average days on the market is,
what is the average price—
and you keep putting that out there and you’re consistent—
none of you agents—
not none of you—

[00:14:50] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:14:51] Gail DeMarco:
—very few of you agents—’cause figure this out:
74% of the agents today didn’t sell one deal in 2025.
Not one deal.

[00:15:00]
So if you are consistent—
and that’s the one thing I am—
I’m very, very consistent about everything.

So every month—
when I go into a listing appointment—
I'm sold. I don’t even have to—
because they see.

And that mailer—
its cost to me—
you will die when you see it. It’s gorgeous.
Four-page.
I send it to 427 homes.
You know, as this community grows, it’ll be more.
It costs me less than $300 a month.

And I’ve sold—
I’m on my 30—

[00:15:29] Tracy Hayes:
—a four-page?

[00:15:29] Gail DeMarco:
A four-page.
A four-page.
So it’s like a little—almost like a little booklet.
I split it with my lender.

[00:15:34] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:15:34] Gail DeMarco:
So his, you know, name and picture and everything are on it.

[00:15:36] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:15:37] Gail DeMarco:
And I do give him a lot of business. So, you know—
and at the end of the day, if it makes business sense,
if it pencils out,
then any lender's gonna go in with you.

[00:15:45] Tracy Hayes:
Right. Yeah. I mean, everybody's asking that.
I'm gonna write that down because it's—
that’s another thing that we should talk about.
I’m going to call that...
I'll just call it lender relationship, and we'll put that down that way.

[00:15:58] Gail DeMarco:
Yeah, I would love to talk about that.

[00:15:59] Tracy Hayes:
But go on your
[00:16:00] process of—

[00:16:01] Gail DeMarco:
—so basically setting up the mailer.

[00:16:02] Tracy Hayes:
What are you putting in that mailer?
You got a listing in—
I guess really from the first houses you did it with,
and now it's grown to the 30 that you've sold in there.

[00:16:11] Gail DeMarco:
I have a couple different neighborhoods that I do,
but you know, some of them worked, some of them didn’t work.

Right?
And so, I mean, any agent that’s out there that wants more information about that—
'cause that could be a whole episode of how you figure out what works and what doesn’t work.
I have certain data points that I have to hit in certain time points, otherwise I pull it.
It’s like a stock.

People are like—
well, you know, a lot of people that you buy shit from—
Can I say—

[00:16:35] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.

[00:16:36] Gail DeMarco:
Can I say it? It’s a podcast, can I say shit? Okay.
So a lot of people will sell us a lot of crap, right?

[00:16:42] Tracy Hayes:
Right.

[00:16:43] Gail DeMarco:
And they’re like,
“Oh, well, you haven’t done it long enough,” or
“You have to keep in.”
I mean, you don’t pull it after three months,
but I know when to pull out, right?

Because at the end of the day, it’s like having a bad stock—
are you gonna keep hanging onto—
like, I’d never sell my Nvidia stock, right?

[00:17:00]
I mean, that’s life changing, you know?
Would you sell your Bitcoin?

[00:17:01] Tracy Hayes:
I don't know.
I’m still holding.
I got Facebook on initial public offering, and I still have it.

[00:17:05] Gail DeMarco:
I have my eXp stock and it has, you know, been really, really good for me.
Right.
So at the end of the day, it’s like—
the branding, that’s a whole ‘nother class.

So it was really interesting,
because the people that do all of the Rivertown paraphernalia—
and coffee cups and, you know, towels and all that—
they hired me to sell their house.

And they go,
“Gail, we see you everywhere. How did you do this?
We know you’ve only been here like, you know, 14 months, right?
A year and a half.”
And they said, “We see you everywhere.”

And the things that I really commit to—
now keep in mind, there’s very little I can commit to
'cause I am also a full-time caretaker at nighttime
who wakes up every two hours with my mother.

[00:17:57] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:17:58] Gail DeMarco:
So, you know, if somebody says their kid—they're doing a fundraiser...
Like I just had my husband—
he’s a chef contractor. Like, you know—
worked in phenomenal culinary places.

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

[00:18:00] Gail DeMarco:
I just had him donate a dinner for six—gourmet dinner—
and he cooked for everybody.
And that cost me a thousand bucks, right?
And I donated $3,000, too.

You have to spend money to make money.

[00:18:08] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm. Right.

[00:18:09] Gail DeMarco:
You have to.
If you think you’re just gonna be a realtor and hand out your business card,
you’re so—well...

[00:18:15] Tracy Hayes:
Drill down on “you’re everywhere.”
Yeah, okay—what...
So you are focusing—you got a listing.
YouTube, you’re sending something out to everybody in that, right?
In that subdivision to let 'em know that, hey, this house is going up for sale,
or is for sale, whatever?

[00:18:30] Gail DeMarco:
No, not really.
So basically what happens is, you know—
your branding starts with, you know—
basically, I’m a prospector.

Okay?
So the reason that I’ve sold—
what month is this?

[00:18:43] Tracy Hayes:
We’re at the end of September.

[00:18:46] Gail DeMarco:
Okay.
So end of September—
I’ve already hit my $20 million mark here in production.
Which means I’ve made a half a million dollars, right?
In less than two years here.

And I’ve sold probably another
[00:19:00] 20, maybe 26 in California, right?

[00:19:02] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:19:03] Gail DeMarco:
So—because I still have that relationship there,
so I’m a referral agent there.

But at the end of the day, it’s like—
I can’t just come here.
Nobody knows you, right?
So I had to work on my YouTube.

And I—I stopped working on my YouTube in California
'cause I was too busy
and I didn’t want to add more than eight people to my team.

So all of a sudden I started working on my YouTube.
So when I walk into a listing appointment and I say,
“I have 67,000 followers on YouTube.”

[00:19:43] Gail DeMarco:
You know, they’re like, not many other agents can do that. Right?
But how did I get that?
I had 400 of ’em less than a year—
you know, 12 months ago, I had 400 followers.

Well, ’cause it’s consistency, right?
That’s all it is.
Consistency.
Putting out content that is different,
that people can relate to.

So, you know, people—as long as you're authentic and you're genuine
and you don't come off salesy—
then people are attracted to you, right?

[00:19:56] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:19:57] Gail DeMarco:
And I only want people who, you know, are
[00:20:00] like-minded.

[00:20:00] Tracy Hayes:
So on your YouTube—
yes, you’ve grown it pretty quickly.

[00:20:03] Gail DeMarco:
Yeah.

[00:20:04] Tracy Hayes:
And obviously you were doing it out there,
so you had a little experience—
you weren’t starting cold—
but you had experience that—you knew what you wanted to do with it.

What is your—is there a focus of your YouTube channel?
Are you focused on the Rivertown area?
What are you doing with YouTube that—

[00:20:20] Gail DeMarco:
—has gotten me that change?

So here’s the thing:
I think a lot of agents make the mistake
and they just, like, really aim-fire, right?

[00:20:28] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:20:29] Gail DeMarco:
You know, whether—’cause I’m also—I call expireds.
But I don’t call expireds in Queens Harbour.
I don’t call expireds in, you know, Anona Beach.

I’m very, very focused.
I only do PVB—you know, Ponte Vedra Beach—for anything over $2 million.
And then I will do—
’cause you know, it’s nice to have a couple of those. You get—

And I have an amazing partner there,
because that’s a whole ’nother story.
You cannot do a luxury listing without co-listing,
because you can’t be there all the
[00:21:00] time.

So I am very hyper-focused.
The way I’ve been able to build my brand is:
when people see my sign, you know, in a neighborhood of 427—

[00:21:10] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:21:11] Gail DeMarco:
—they’re like, “You sell everything.”
I’m like, “I do. Okay.”

Like, I just got my third listing in a little community called Oxford Estates.

[00:21:17] Tracy Hayes:
Right.

[00:21:18] Gail DeMarco:
The guy called me, goes,
“It seems like you sell everything here,”
’cause they see your sign, right?

So if you focus on—like when I first got here, I said,
I’m just gonna do Rivertown.
But Rivertown was 3,000 people.
It’s hard to—you know,
we got a lot of agents in Rivertown.
A lot of good agents in Rivertown.

Not great.
There’s one, maybe two.

But you know, at the end of the day, it’s like—
I’d rather be in a concentrated area and really know it.

[00:21:47] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:21:48] Gail DeMarco:
Right? Because guess what? Time is—
people don’t realize—your most valuable commodity is your time.
That is your most valuable commodity.

[00:21:56] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:21:57] Gail DeMarco:
Because if you put a price on it—
I make $1,200 an hour just when I prospect.
Why in the
[00:22:00] world would I want to go have lunch with you?

So—or, you know, if you want anything with me,
it’s gonna be early, early in the morning.

You know, I’ve had a couple agents reach out to me,
and they wanted to meet with me.
And I said, “Okay, what time?”
“Well, I have Pilates at 11.”

I’m like,
“We don’t want to meet.”

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

[00:22:17] Gail DeMarco:
You don’t have a calendar dialed in.
I’m not taking you from baby steps.

[00:22:20] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.

[00:22:20] Gail DeMarco:
So I want to work with adults.
You know, people that are focused.
Because the reality is—and you know this—people are struggling right now.

And if I’m coaching somebody—
and any agent that works with me on my team, I’m coaching them.
And if anybody—you know, I coach—
I have probably, maybe 12 right now. I have 12 coaching clients.

And the first thing I say is,
“How much do you have in your bank?”

[00:22:45] Tracy Hayes:
Well, why—

[00:22:45] Gail DeMarco:
“Why do you need to know that?”

I said,
“Because I need to know your pain.
I need to know where you're at.
How much do you have for your retirement?
If you don’t have, you know, at least six months saved,
you’re in deep shit right now.”

[00:23:00]
Right?
“If you don’t have money for your retirement,
you’re in deep shit.”

And I love that,
because then I can go deep and I can help you.
And I can say,
“This is what you have to do.”

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

[00:23:06] Gail DeMarco:
So branding has to do with coming in—

Like, our first team meeting was only like a month ago.
We have four girls and a guy,
and he came in and he’s kind of cute.
He was one of the husbands,
and he came in with shorts and kind of, you know,
his man bun and all that kind of stuff.

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

[00:23:24] Gail DeMarco:
I looked at him, I go,
“That cannot happen when you're going to any of my open houses.
Or if I’m going on a listing appointment—
’cause I do a lot of co-listing with my agents—
you’ve gotta fix that up.”

Because guess what?
For women, we cannot look too sexy.
We cannot have our boobs hanging out.
We cannot have our legs hanging out.

Because most of the people that are selling in this market
are going through a divorce. Okay?
And they won’t tell you at first.
I can sniff it out immediately,
’cause I have a lot of divorce attorneys that refer me.

[00:23:51] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.

[00:23:52] Gail DeMarco:
And I can—or they have debt.
Okay? And why do people sell in this market?
They have to.

[00:24:00] Gail DeMarco:
You know, even if my retirees are high-level people.
And when I say that, you know, I don’t deal with first-time homebuyers.
I’m sorry, it’s not my niche.

I like the over 55, ’cause they’re cash—most of ’em.
And then I like my luxury,
’cause they’re cash and they don’t care about interest rates.

So that’s when I was saying, with my SWOT analysis, right?
So it’s like: your strengths, your weaknesses, your opportunity—
opportunity is, we’re the number one school district—
well, maybe number three now—
and this is the best place to sell.

This is—
if you knew how hard it was to sell real estate in California—
I mean, you have to be on your game.
There is no time to play.

And here—
I mean, you know, I made consistently—
I’ve been in real estate, this is my 13th year—
consistently, I’ve made a million dollars a year. Right?
Since year five.

So, at the end of the year—
[00:25:00] but not last year.
And this year, I will not make a million dollars.

[00:25:03] Tracy Hayes:
Right.

[00:25:04] Gail DeMarco:
But I’m okay,
’cause my expenses are low.
And guess what?
I have money in the bank,
and I don’t have a mortgage.

[00:25:08] Tracy Hayes:
You just made that gesture about selling—
especially 'cause the price point you're selling is considerably higher too.
The bigger sharks are coming into town.

[00:25:15] Gail DeMarco:
Sure.

[00:25:16] Tracy Hayes:
You know?
So the level—

[00:25:18] Gail DeMarco:
All the bigger sharks were on my team.

[00:25:20] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.
And you were mentioning earlier before the show,
you were in the Silicon Valley area—
and that's just some of your clients.
And you've got bigger ticket—

[00:25:29] Gail DeMarco:
Yep.

[00:25:30] Tracy Hayes:
Bigger sharks.
Here, you're kind of at that mid-level price point home.
I mean, you can go over to the West Side and get,
you know, $200,000 homes if you want.

Or, obviously—
you know, I think a big sale—
if you sold a $10 million house here,
you're like on some sort of record board somewhere, right?

So, you know, type of thing.

[00:25:51] Gail DeMarco:
Yeah.

[00:25:52] Tracy Hayes:
Where the agents here are—well—
Christmas at the Florida lifestyle has a tendency to be a little more relaxed and so forth.
But what you’re saying is, that's the problem.

But your motto, your
[00:26:00] ideology is:
you need to be that neutral.
If you're a very attractive woman, just, you know, dress professionally and so forth.
You don’t have to—
because you don’t know who you’re running into,
and you don’t know what’s in their mind.

Because the professional—right?
You were gesturing—
he doesn’t want to necessarily do business with the Barbie bimbo type, right?
Look—because he’s doing business, right? Not pleasure.

Now, he may go out with Barbie Bimbo after hours,
but during hours, he’s doing business.
And he doesn’t want to deal with someone who could cause a conflict in his life.

[00:26:30] Gail DeMarco:
Well, at the end of the day, it’s like—
your first impression’s the best.
The only impression that they remember.

So I remember going on this listing appointment—
we all wanted it so bad.
There was eight—
I was the eighth interview.
The eighth.

And they called me three days later.
And I was going against some of my best friends from KW or Coldwell Banker.
They had gone up for the interview too.
And they had a way bigger—
you know, this was a little bit earlier in my career—
way better track record than I did.

And once we
[00:27:00] got everything signed,
I said, “You know, I was just kind of curious—why did you decide to go with me?”

And they said,
“Well, you know, Gail, number one—
you came in, you were very confident.
You let us do the talking.
Everybody else did all the talking.
And we really felt like you heard us.”

But more importantly:
“I knew my husband wasn’t gonna hit on you.”

I go,
“That was the less attractive one.”
I go,
“I’ll go with that.”

[00:27:28] Tracy Hayes:
laughs Well, thanks.

[00:27:30] Gail DeMarco:
I go,
I can go with that all day long.
Because you know what?
At the end of the day, it’s all about just getting your clients a result—
and letting them move on their way—
and getting that big fat check.

[00:27:40] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.

[00:27:40] Gail DeMarco:
Right?
So it kills me when people go,
“Well, they’re a pain in the ass,”
or, “I don’t wanna work with that.”
I’m like, I get paid a lot of money to work with difficult people.

’Cause, you know, it’s a difficult time in their life.

[00:27:55] Tracy Hayes:
You bring up an interesting point there—
when going in, whether you’re on a listing
[00:28:00] appointment or buyer’s consultation—
and it’s not the first time I’ve heard this.
Obviously, other top agents I’ve had on the show have mentioned this,
but something I think everyone needs to do is—

You know the saying:
you have two ears and one mouth, right?
So you're supposed to listen twice as much as you talk. Right?

And someone who goes into one of those appointments—
who's not confident—
might have a tendency to actually try to—
we call it—I used to do that too—
verbal diarrhea.

Just keep talking,
trying to hopefully convince them that you know what you're talking about,
versus actually just being—
you know, put a question out there or a statement out there,
and then sit back and let’s see what happens. And listen.

[00:28:36] Gail DeMarco:
Because we get uncomfortable when there’s silence, right?

[00:28:39] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:28:40] Gail DeMarco:
A lot of people don’t—
some people don’t talk a lot.
Like my engineers and doctors—
you know, they just wanna know:
“What can we sell the house for?”

So number one—
if you’re not confident,
you need to either join a team
or work with somebody like me who is confident,
and go on the listing appointment with us.

Because anybody can get a listing appointment—
but actually, you know—

[00:29:00]
getting them to sign it,
and then selling it—
that’s a whole different ballgame. Right?

People are like,
“Oh, I just got these listings.”
Well guess what?
I built my business around these people in our community
that couldn’t sell these homes.

I’m the second wife. I—

[00:29:00] Gail DeMarco:
...got treated better.

[00:29:01] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:29:02] Gail DeMarco:
They listened to me.
So, you know, at the end of the day, it's like—
I remember working for my—
he’s actually one of my very best friends.
I got him to start to purchase not one, but three Sotheby’s.
And he was the luxury agent in Sacramento,
’cause I’m actually from the Sacramento area.

So all the buyers from Silicon Valley would come up to Sacramento,
and I was his very first agent.
I just caught him at a good time.

I begged him—
when you talk about how do you find an agent—
I can’t find another me.
And this is what I said to him.
Beautiful, you know, just a great, great guy.

I said:
"Hey, when was the last time you went on a vacation?"
He goes, "I haven’t been. My wife’s in Egypt right now."
I said,
"If you work with me, here’s what I’m gonna do:
I’m gonna take your car to the car wash. Your car will never be dirty.
I will
[00:30:00] take your clothes to the dry cleaners. I will take your dog to the vet."
He goes, "I don’t have a dog."
I bought him a Yorkie.

So then I said,
"I will, you know, I will pretty much be your bitch. Right?
I will do anything you need.
All I ask is that you mentor me. That’s it."

[00:30:16] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.

[00:30:17] Gail DeMarco:
And do you know—
he never said, "Hey Gail, let’s go on this $2 million listing.
The people are gonna be really nice and they’re gonna be really reasonable."

So at the end of the day,
I said to him,
"Michael, how come I bring you on all the listings, and you never bring me on any of yours?"

And he goes,
"Oh, it’s okay."

I go,
"I know you enough. You're not telling me—what am I doing wrong?
Just tell me why I don’t go on your listings."

And he said,
"Well, you talk too much."

I said,
"I can fix that. If you just tell me."

So now, I have a commitment to anybody who works with me:
I’m going to tell you the truth.
And if you don’t like it—
and I tell people—
"You know what, this is our first team meeting."
Last month, I said,
"If you’re offended, then I’m gonna pray,
’cause I love Jesus."

[00:31:00] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:31:00] Gail DeMarco:
"You need—there’s the door."

[00:31:01] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:31:02] Gail DeMarco:
"If you’re offended that I’m gonna tell you you’re not dressed professionally,
there’s the door.

And if you are offended when I give you constructive criticism after a listing appointment
or you’re working with a client, you need to go.
If you’re not willing to build some scar tissue
and get some battle wounds—
that’s the only way you can stand on your own two feet."

My goal—
it’s kind of like—
I don’t really want people on my team more than two years.
Because if I can’t teach you in two years, I’m failing you.

Right?
So at the end of the day—
unless you want to be, you know, a serial team member, that’s fine.

’Cause you know what is really disheartening here, that I found out—
I’m blown away.
The team leaders here—
they put everything under their name.
They don’t put their co-listing agent’s name on the MLS after they close.
Shame on you people.

[00:31:47] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:31:48] Gail DeMarco:
That is wrong.
Okay?

Because—like, I just had a very well-known agent I’m doing a deal with—
we’re closing at the end of this month from Ponte Vedra.
She sent me an email:
“Oh, please take off”—
I think her name is Amanda, I can say that.

[00:32:01] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:32:01] Gail DeMarco:
"Take off her name off the MLS and just put it under mine."

Like, why would we do that?

And then I just realized—
one of the girls that came over from Coldwell Banker,
she was on another girl’s team—
and I don’t care. It’s the truth.
Yeah. Some girl—Stacey’s team, right?
And she had sold over $7 million,
and as soon as she left,
they flipped them over to the team leader’s name.

That is B.S.
That is complete bullshit.

Because if you’re on a team,
you’re supposed to be building up your team members.
It is not a competition.

[00:32:35] Tracy Hayes:
You—
The thought that comes to my head when you’re explaining this—
you know, especially someone—
if you’ve taken someone on your team,
as you mentioned earlier—

[00:32:44] Gail DeMarco:
Yeah.

[00:32:45] Tracy Hayes:
—you’ve already gone through this pre-screening.
That they’re coachable.
And you’re willing—
you’re not bringing in someone who is—
that you have any inclination is gonna be an issue, right?
Of whatever that issue may be.

So now, when you are giving them—
and a lot of people would call it tough love, right?

Us old-school individuals would look at—
you know, a true friend is gonna tell you when you have pie on your face, right?

That’s Dan Gilbert—
from when I worked at Quicken Loans.
He—
whatever, billions of dollars he’s worth these days—
that’s what a true friend does.

And you say,
“Hey, you want to be on my team? Great.
I want you to be on my team. I like you.
I think you’re gonna do great. You’re coachable.”

But when I tell you you have pie on your face—
you need to take action. Right?
That kind of thing.

And to go back to your conversation—
going into that listing appointment—
and he said that you talked too much.
Well, he should’ve pre-gamed you before you went in, anyway.

Say, “Hey, I’m gonna go in. I am the lead. This is my listing, right?
You are here. Don’t interrupt.
If I feel it’s an opportunity for you to strengthen the talk,
I’m gonna turn to you and say,
‘Hey Gail, what do you think?’”
Or whatever, you know, that type of thing.

You’ve just gotta have those
[00:34:00] conversations.
’Cause you wanted to be there.
You wanted to learn from him,
but he had this preconception that you were gonna interrupt him and make him look bad.

Well, he should have just come out and told you.

[00:34:07] Gail DeMarco:
Right.

[00:34:08] Tracy Hayes:
“This is my thing.
And this is how we’re gonna run that.”

[00:34:10] Gail DeMarco:
This is the thing—
the reason on Instagram my handle is Relentless Realtor—

[00:34:13] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:34:14] Gail DeMarco:
—is I’m a huge fan of Tim Grover.
He was Kobe Bryant’s coach, right?

[00:34:18] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:34:19] Gail DeMarco:
And if you could tell Kobe Bryant what he is doing wrong,
okay, and all these other athletes—
why can’t—
I mean, we are athletes, right?

At the end of the day, I’m not a realtor.
I’m in the business of real estate.
And I’m trying to make a great living.

I don’t want to make an ordinary living.
Why would I do this?
Why would I take this kind of abuse, right?
Why would I give up my weekends, right?

I wanna make a shitload of money, right?
And I want everyone on my team to make more money than me.
That is my goal.
And my goal in California worked.

[00:35:00] Gail DeMarco:
...all my team members.
And one of ’em is now selling in Newport Beach.
The other one—he made $80,000 a year when he came to me.
He was 27 years old.
He’s actually going on a mission trip with his wife to Uganda in March.

And year three, he was making $500,000 a year with me, right?

[00:35:11] Tracy Hayes:
Right.

[00:35:11] Gail DeMarco:
And now he’s making that, plus more. Because I—I showed him—
he was constantly cracking his knuckles and rocking.
I’m like,
“Stop it. Stop it.”

You know? And I have another guy touching his beard.
And I’m like,
“That is like weird shit, okay?”

[00:35:17] Tracy Hayes:
Just—

[00:35:18] Gail DeMarco:
Knock it off.

[00:35:20] Tracy Hayes:
There is a psychology to that, I think. That must be like a nervousness thing.
It’s like he’s stroking his beard—
it’s kind of like women playing with their hair ’cause they’re nervous or attracted to the—

[00:35:31] Gail DeMarco:
If I can tell, do you think the listing is gonna get the listing?
They’re gonna think that something’s up.

[00:35:36] Tracy Hayes:
Boom. They’re picking it up.

[00:35:37] Gail DeMarco:
Right. So they may not be actually—

[00:35:38] Tracy Hayes:
—focused on it, but yeah, you’re right.

[00:35:40] Gail DeMarco:
Right. So if—you know—and that really does bug me about the team leaders.
’Cause when I first came here, my advice as a coach is:
Join a team. See what they’re doing. See if you can add value.

I used to love being behind the scenes.
I still love being behind the scenes.
But at the end of the day, it’s like—
I couldn’t find a team that I could really say,
“Wow, they’re badass.”

[00:35:58] Tracy Hayes:
I evaluate the
[00:36:00] whole team thing.
And I think your attitude toward it—which I agree with—
you’re confident,
you’ve poured into these people, right?
You’ve built their numbers.
Now, you know, people come and go.

Some people have been on your team and they decide to go somewhere else, or, you know—whatever it is.
Just like people have come to your team that came from somewhere else.

[00:36:20] Gail DeMarco:
Leave the door open and bless them.
Don’t try to torture them.

[00:36:22] Tracy Hayes:
Exactly.
Because you are, you know, a woman of faith.
You’re giving to them.
You’re giving them value.
And hopefully, someday, it’ll come back to you in return in one way, shape, or form.
We don’t know—right?
It could be tomorrow.
It could be on your last day—your last breath.
We don’t know, right?

[00:36:39] Gail DeMarco:
A hundred percent.
Yeah.
Life’s too short. Get over yourself.
Get over your ego.

I mean, if you’re providing enough leads—
and mentoring with them—
they’re going to make you money.

You don’t need to take away—
like, so when they leave, it looks like they sold nothing?
That’s crazy.

[00:36:55] Tracy Hayes:
Alright. Have you ever read Grit by Angela Duckworth?

[00:36:58] Gail DeMarco:
Maybe.
I have to look at my Audible books.
I have over two—

[00:37:01] Tracy Hayes:
Books. Yeah.
If you haven’t—Grit’s grit.
But—so one of these days, when I do write a book of all these transcripts that I have from these shows—
obviously, I think real estate agents have a level of grit.

[00:37:13] Gail DeMarco:
Right.

[00:37:14] Tracy Hayes:
You know, to get where they’re—
and I’m working on a talk to go along with that.
I call it the LLC.
I think everyone should have an LLC.
Or they have to have an LLC to be successful.

And that is:
Love,
Laughter,
and Consistency.

That’s my LLC of a real estate agent’s grit, in my definition.

Tell us why you love real estate.

[00:37:33] Gail DeMarco:
Who said that?
Who said that?

I love what the life it can afford me.
Yeah.
You know what, that’s a really good question.

I love results.
And I love when I’m able—’cause let’s face it—right now, more than ever, people are in tough spots.
And when you’re dealing in over 55—
you know, and I never thought I was gonna be the queen of the over 55 niche—

And the reason I’m really focused on that is ’cause of the
[00:38:00] interest rates.
I’m like, these people have cash.
And so do luxury people.

And I really fell in love with these people.
And my mother, who’s in the hospital right now—
I’m gonna be leaving to go see her—
I’m around a lot of older people.
And I could really, you know, bring—
I’m kind of like, if you go to a funeral director, right?

I’m trying to help them, you know, because it’s a tough time in their life—
for their kids, for them.

And at the end of the day, it’s like—
we have to fill the gap.

Okay, this is what we’re doing with every transaction right now—
because more deals are going down the tubes.

[00:38:31] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:38:33] Gail DeMarco:
And it’s with empathy.
It’s not just with price or with terms.
It’s like trying to figure out:
how can we come together?

Because the reason my deals don’t fall apart is—
number one, we’re pricing them right.
Number two, we’re marketing right.
And number three, I don’t just go into contract.

Like, I had this one guy just wanting to write a deal on one of my houses—
and he was coming in $65,000 lower.
And I was trying to help him,
but he was kind of an asshole.
So I just said,
“I’m not—don’t waste my time.”

[00:39:00]
Right? Don’t waste my time.

So he actually called me later and said,
“I want to thank you—because my clients—”

You know, so I don’t like it just for my sellers and buyers.
But I like helping the other agents.
I love making a little bit of a difference.

’Cause this is a boring industry.
Very boring—if you don’t have fun,
if you don’t make money,
if you don’t make your clients happy.

You might as well be an oncologist. Right?

[00:39:27] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:39:28] Gail DeMarco:
So it’s like—
you know, I love real estate because it’s the marketing—
it has a whole bunch of stuff.

I got into it—
I didn’t ever want to get into real estate.
I mean, it sounded—
that was like the worst thing you could have.

I always said,
“You might as well go become a librarian.”

[00:39:40] Tracy Hayes:
No!

Well, so it sounds like you actually love the process—
the battle, the negotiations, obviously.

[00:39:47] Gail DeMarco:
Yes.

[00:39:48] Tracy Hayes:
’Cause you feel you’re representing someone who’s looking up to you—
because you’re the expert in your guidance.
You just love the whole circle of it.

[00:39:57] Gail DeMarco:
It’s kinda like being an attorney.
My father was an
[00:40:00] attorney for over 45 years.

[00:40:01] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:40:30] Gail DeMarco:
I do love the negotiation. That is like—you know—bring it.
I hate when my seller’s like, “I’m not gonna respond.”
I’m like, “Oh no.”

I can get people up a hundred thousand dollars.
I’m very good at that—right? In the higher price points.

[00:40:41] Tracy Hayes:
Right.

[00:40:41] Gail DeMarco:
Right. So, you know, obviously not for the smaller ones.
But you know, at the end of the day,
some people—it’s like a Match.com deal.
I want ’em out of my life in 30 days.
Out. Go. Go. Go.

Whereas, you know, some people I just want to like—
wish they weren’t moving.
So I’m like, what other business, with your clothes on,
can you make a million dollars a year?

[00:40:54] Tracy Hayes:
Right. Without being a doctor or anything like that, without having all the...

[00:40:58] Gail DeMarco:
OnlyFans!
And I’m too old for OnlyFans.

[00:41:00] Tracy Hayes:
Right.

[00:41:00] Gail DeMarco:
So it’s like—you know, let’s face it.
I mean, life happens and—

[00:41:00] Tracy Hayes:
Alright, so the laughter part—that was the love—
the laughter part is a little... I have to explain a little bit.

Because I believe in my life,
the points of time where if I needed grit or I’ve had setbacks that we’ve worked through—
right?

Now we laugh about them.
Right? Sure.
We’ve gotten older, we can look back and laugh—whatever—at stupid things we’ve done, bad decisions we’ve made, a bad deal that’s gone awry.

Tell us about a situation or a transaction that really kind of challenged your grit in real estate—
to a point where maybe you were like ready to say,
“This is not for me,”
but you brought it back in,
you fought through that deal, got it done—whatever it was—
and now today, at cocktail parties, you joke about it.

[00:41:44] Gail DeMarco:
There’s so many of ’em.

[00:41:45] Tracy Hayes:
I know. Just pick one.
Tell us one that really brought you to your knees though.
I mean really—that just like,
“Am I really doing the right thing here? Should I be in real estate?”

[00:41:53] Gail DeMarco:
Well—alright.
And this one doesn’t have a happy ending.
Okay? They’re not all happy endings.

So, as a matter of fact, this deal just—you know—I just let it expire.

So it’s a divorce.

[00:42:07] Tracy Hayes:
Mmm.

[00:42:07] Gail DeMarco:
Okay. You’re gonna hear it.

[00:42:10] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:42:11] Gail DeMarco:
So my neighbor calls me and says that she has a referral for me.
I’m like, “Okay great. This is wonderful. I really appreciate it.”

And they—so I go over there.
But did she say—

[00:42:21] Tracy Hayes:
But...

[00:42:24] Gail DeMarco:
—who I...
I’m gonna just give you the Reader’s Digest.
So I go over there, list the house.

And I should’ve known better because it was on the market for six months with another agent.
God bless him.

[00:42:34] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:42:34] Gail DeMarco:
I get the listing.
I get them to come down a couple hundred thousand dollars
’cause it’s a production Toll Brothers home
and it’s a nasty divorce.

Well, she doesn’t tell me the reason they’re getting divorced
is because she’s having an affair—with his wife.

[00:42:53] Tracy Hayes:
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold a second.
So, is your neighbor a male or female? The referral?

[00:43:00] Gail DeMarco:
A female.

[00:43:01] Tracy Hayes:
So the female referred—
and the husband of the seller is having an affair with her?

[00:43:08] Gail DeMarco:
No—the wives are having an affair.
The wife is having an affair with the other wife.

[00:43:11] Tracy Hayes:
Oh my God. Okay.

[00:43:13] Gail DeMarco:
You know about that.
Okay—I have a gay daughter. You don’t know about that?
Come on. It’s like—

[00:43:17] Tracy Hayes:
Alright, go ahead. I’m just—sorry.

[00:43:21] Gail DeMarco:
Right. So I find this out in the middle of the transaction.
Meanwhile, they’re from a different culture
that is very, very—how do you say it?—conservative.

So there’s a lot of side fighting.
Like side texting.
I’m like, “I can’t side text.”
You know, just a lot of this crap.

So the day before we’re going on the market, I get a phone call.
And she says, “I have something to tell you.”
I’m like, “Okay, great. What?”

[00:44:00] Gail DeMarco:
“He stole all the staging.”
I said, “He stole all the staging?”
Right?

So he went in there—well he actually moved in again for like four months—
then left all the stuff in there. Maggots, everything.
Left all the food. Maggots—everything.
And stole all the staging.

Okay, this is in a million-dollar home.

So then—okay, great.
So they get it all cleaned up,
get ready to go back on the market—six months later.

And the day before—she calls me and says,
“Well, I have something to tell you.”

[00:44:17] Tracy Hayes:
Oh my God, what?

[00:44:19] Gail DeMarco:
And I’m like, “You’re getting back with your husband? That would be great.”
Yeah. Whatever.
“The staging is gone.”

I go, “What do you mean?”
She goes, “I called the staging company—
because you know, he owed them money—
and they came and took all the staging.”

So then now the staging company stole the staging!

[00:44:36] Tracy Hayes:
So it wasn’t stolen. It was just... returned.

[00:44:38] Gail DeMarco:
Returned.
Long story short, you know—
sometimes you just can’t please people.

And I was going to—I mean, if I tell you about the open houses—
we did get some opportunities.
You know, it’s never really a loss, right?
Because you’re gonna meet somebody somewhere.
Maybe you’re not selling that house,
but you meet another agent, you meet another buyer.

But that whole thing was—
I could not wait to get rid of them.
And I didn’t even care that I didn’t sell it
because the energy it takes out—

And this is what I want to tell you people:

[00:45:00]
When something isn’t—
this was just something that happened, you know—just happened last week.

I’ve had tons of others where, you know,
I accidentally let all the birds out, you know, in the aviary.

[00:45:19] Tracy Hayes:
Oh no.

[00:45:20] Gail DeMarco:
Like, 15 very high-end birds.
I didn’t know.
I opened it up and didn’t shut the door—
and they all came out.

[00:45:27] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.
It’s one thing to be worried about letting the cat out,
but letting 15 birds—that’s... oh God.

[00:45:33] Gail DeMarco:
Yeah. And, and you know, this is another almost $3 million home.
But yeah—crazy things have happened.
But we’ve all got ’em.
And I don’t have a cocktail—you didn’t give me a cocktail.
You gave me water.

[00:45:47] Tracy Hayes:
Well, it’s still before noon.

[00:45:50] Gail DeMarco:
It’s five o’clock...

[00:45:51] Tracy Hayes:
...somewhere. Alright.
Share something that you believe—and maybe something you evolved to—
but something maybe you’ve done from the very beginning,
that you learned from that gentleman you were talking about,
that you were catering to, mentoring with—
but something you believe you do consistently that moves the needle in your business.

[00:46:07] Gail DeMarco:
Oh, I’m very consistent about making the market rather than waiting for the market.
So if I don’t have at least—like right now, I think I have—
well, I have five listings,
but I always have six pending.

So my formula is:
seven listings,
seven pending,
seven sold.

I like seven, seven—like 21.
That’s my number.
And you know, I took 12 listings in one week.
I think it was April.

[00:46:35] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.

[00:46:35] Gail DeMarco:
Twelve in one week.
And I was putting all the signs out—me and my assistant.
I’ve had the same assistant for 11 years, full-time.
She’s been with me.

And here’s the other thing—I actually have three assistants.
Right?

People are like, “How can you afford that?”
Because at the end of the day, I look at my net.
Okay?

And I know what my numbers are.
Most people—if you don’t know your numbers...
I have spreadsheets on everything.
And not because of me, but because I’m paying somebody to make them.

[00:47:04] Tracy Hayes:
To track that for you. Yeah. If you don’t...

[00:47:05] Gail DeMarco:
If you don’t track it, it’s not measurable, and then you can’t move forward.
So at the end of the day, it’s like,
you have to delegate to elevate, right?

That would be my thing.

Right now, letting go of half—
putting people on my listings,
paying somebody $9,000 right out of a deal,
or $10,000 or $7,000—
you can’t look at it that way.

You have to look at:
that opens you up to create more.
If you don’t give, you can’t receive.

It’s like—you can’t just go to church and not tithe, right?
So it’s like,
you have to just trust God, right?
Trust God that He’s got a better plan and He knows what’s best for you.

Because if you even knew all the stuff that I have to deal with at night, right?
It’s like... it’s incredible.

I had my assistant in my office yesterday.
I just hired another one for boots on the ground.
She goes, “I don’t know how you do this all.”
And she’s only 22.

[00:47:56] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:47:57] Gail DeMarco:
And I said, “Get ready.”
Because this is all manageable,
and this is gonna be you—and I want this to become you.

So many people accept mediocrity or they’re like,
“Oh my God, if I could just do one deal.”

I just want you to think bigger.
Because you’ve gotta get in the right room.

If you are in a room where people are like,
“Yeah, the market sucks,” and—
you know, people are so worried about paying $500 per transaction—
you get nothing.

What are you getting?

I would rather give 75% away,
50% away—
give it away to get something.

If you are not in a room where they’re gonna move you forward...

If you are in real estate and you’ve been in it five years
and you’re not making $500,000 a year,
you need to call me.
Because you’re doing something wrong.

[00:48:43] Tracy Hayes:
Well, do you feel there’s a huge—
they don’t know what they don’t know?

So when you say, “You need to hang out with the right people,”
or, you know, the dedication you gave that person,
because you wanted to learn from that gentleman out in California—
and you were willing to take his, you know, dry cleaning or whatever...

[00:49:00] Gail DeMarco:
Yeah, a hundred percent.

[00:49:00] Tracy Hayes:
All this stuff.
You realized what he knew, and what you wanted to know from him, right?

But do you think a lot of agents—
I think it’s obvious—
a lot of agents, they don’t know what they don’t know.
So they don’t know what someone like you knows right now, and can actually—
are willing to give them.

They don’t know.
So they’re like, “Well, I don’t want to give you any more.
I’ll just go over here to my $500 split,” or
my—what do you call 'em—cloud brokerage or whatever.
You know, the minimum split, yet they haven’t even sold a house yet.

[00:49:33] Gail DeMarco:
Right.
They know nothing about the business.

That is the biggest mistake.

I’ve had probably over 30 people reach out to me this week and say,
“How did you have dinner with Ryan Serhant?”

I was invited to a private dinner with him last week.
There were 30 of us.
And he came up and hugged me and, you know, just like said some really nice things about me.

You develop those relationships.
I’m always telling people:
Get in the right room.

And believe me—I wasn’t gonna go.
I had to leave a day early.
Then I was invited to another party.
But my mom’s sick, right?

So it’s like—
you have to put yourself in the right room
because you are a product of the five people you surround yourself with.

And my number one is my accountant.

[00:50:15] Tracy Hayes:
Right.

[00:50:16] Gail DeMarco:
From day one.

You know how many agents I have—
agents I’m working with right now—
that have not paid their taxes in two years?

So it’s your accountant.

And I have a coach.
I have a very expensive coach.

And people say,
“Well, why are you coaching?
You’re a coach—why do you have a coach?
Why would you pay that money?”

Because how do you think I get better?

Athletes always have four or five coaches.

[00:50:39] Tracy Hayes:
Right. They always say that.
They always give the example—
Tom Brady had multiple coaches.
I’m sure Ryan has a coach.

[00:50:45] Gail DeMarco:
I’ve spent over half a million dollars on coaches.
Right?

Oh yeah. Ryan has a very incredible coach.
Ryan’s one of my coaches.

[00:50:54] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:50:54] Gail DeMarco:
I’ve learned a lot from him.

I’ve developed so many great relationships.
And I don’t have time for a lot of friends.
You will not see me at the River Club on a Friday night having a drink.

Like, my husband goes every Friday night.
But you know—that’s not really where I spend my time.

I like drinking in a dark room.

But—and just expand your mind.
When you sit in a room and you’re like—

I remember my first job in real estate,
and my broker said,
“Well, I can’t go with you on weekends
because I promised Elizabeth—his wife—
if I made $25,000 a month,
I wouldn’t work nights or weekends.”

I’m like...

[00:51:35] Tracy Hayes:
You make $25,000 a month and don’t...

[00:51:37] Gail DeMarco:
You make $25,000 a month?

[00:51:38] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.

[00:51:39] Gail DeMarco:
And you know, in July—I usually take July off.
I made $100,000 this July.

[00:51:57] Gail DeMarco:
And I never thought I could make $25,000,
and then I'm consistently making a lot more.

[00:51:59] Tracy Hayes:
Right, right, right.
So, you don’t know what you don’t know—put yourself in a bigger room.
You are more than capable,
you just have to be consistent and do the right things.

[00:52:00] Tracy Hayes:
I want to get into a little bit—
something I talk about a lot on the show,
but I think you've brought it up quite a few times,
and I think this is a hot point for you.
You truly believe in it,
and obviously probably worked through some trials and errors on it, right?
It's that agent—the $5 million agent—we were talking earlier,
these agents around here,
they hit five, six million and they’re like...

[00:52:20] Gail DeMarco:
They’re tapped out.
Tapped out, yeah. Tapped.

[00:52:22] Tracy Hayes:
I call it hitting the lid.
At what point did you realize, when you started hiring these assistants—
and let’s keep it on the level—
the agents that we're talking about in the $5–$10 million range,
where they’re really hitting the lid.
What do they need to do?
What do they need to evaluate?
What things do they need to start drawing the line on and start letting someone else do,
so they can really start to get to that next level?

[00:52:48] Gail DeMarco:
I love that you said that.
Because I just had another conversation with my assistant.
She's like, “I want you to look at the new listing presentation.”
I’m like, “Why?”
“I want you to give me the okay for this template, this flyer.”
Why?
If it’s not income-producing, you shouldn’t be doing it.

At the end of the day—
like I’ve always had a TC.
Always.

So when I first got here to Florida—
I said, because I wasn’t—you know, I’m a broker in California, not a broker here.
I knew every form, I could advise people.
I had 180 people in my office that would come to me.

So here I said, “How much do you charge?”
She said, “$350.”
I said, “I’ll pay you $1,000 a file.”

I said, “Keep me outta real estate jail.”
Because I don’t know what’s passive pro... passive contingencies, you don’t have demand to...

So you have to delegate to elevate.
Get rid of that.

If you’re sitting, spending a bunch of time learning all these modules online—
get the frick off the computer
and get your butt—find an open house.
Even if it’s vacant—do it on a Thursday or Wednesday night.

This is a contact sport.
You need to be out there.
You need to be talking.

It’s like—talk about real estate.

I’m in a role play group every morning,
and I don’t do it every single morning,
but it’s called The Breakfast Club.
And we’re role playing.

Some of the agents on my team are like,
“Oh, you know, they’re kind of hardcore.”
I go, “It’s objection handling!”

This business is objection handling.
Because all we have is objections.
Whether you're a buyer or seller,
you need to know how to navigate that conversation.

I think people are crazy not to buy now.
I think they’re absolutely nuts.

I actually called my lender to get me pre-qualified
'cause I’m waiting for, you know, a deal in a certain neighborhood.

But at the end of the day,
you’re not fighting,
you’re not paying $50,000 more—
you’re paying a little bit more in interest.
So what.

I think we’re going to get really busy in spring.
That’s why I’m amping up.

[00:54:42] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:54:42] Gail DeMarco:
When you say what agents shouldn’t be doing...

If you’re saying,
“I have no money, I can’t afford an assistant, I can’t afford this, I can’t afford...”
You should—absolutely.

I mean, if you can’t afford a TC at the—you pay when they close—
go get a job.
Just be real.

[00:54:57] Tracy Hayes:
Because it’s pay-for-play.
The $350 is an average, I’m sure it goes up and down—somewhere between there—
but it’s the cost of doing business.

[00:55:00] Tracy Hayes:
It means figure out your taxes. That’s what it’s like.
“Hey, I made this 1099. I gotta...”

[00:55:12] Gail DeMarco:
Can I tell you—?

[00:55:14] Tracy Hayes:
Gotta take my expenses out.

[00:55:14] Gail DeMarco:
The agents I’m talking to that can’t pay their taxes—
’cause I’ve had a lot of people reach out to me.
They see all my open houses, they see my production—
and they’re all on these Zillow Flex leads.
They’re making like 23%.

[00:55:28] Tracy Hayes:
Right?

[00:55:28] Gail DeMarco:
And they’re running around for months with these buyers.

How does that make sense?

I was offered the Zillow Flex account in California.
I was like, absolutely not.

Why would I want to pay my agents 23%,
give Zillow their 40%,
and have them not available for my own clients?

That’s why it’s important to create your own business.

You have to learn how to fish, right?

I am all about branding,
making the market,
not joining a team just to go after some crappy leads.

[00:55:57] Tracy Hayes:
I want to go over a couple points here,
because time-wise, I know you gotta go.

[00:56:01] Gail DeMarco:
I gotta go.

[00:56:01] Tracy Hayes:
Transaction coordinator—yes.
Right away.

And there’s plenty of pay-for-play.
I had one on recently—Core Ops Collective.
And there’s another one in town with Samantha Cox’s team as well.
They’re pay-for-play.

So if you’re not doing any business,
you’re not paying anything.

But I think people think they can do it better—
but really, my processors are the ones that make me,
because they do a lot of the communication, right?

They’re sending out the email saying,
“Hey guys, this is where we’re at,” you know?

So they’re missing out—
and really starting to get into assistants, right?

Like, are they taking a lot of your marketing-type stuff,
getting those postcards mailed out to the neighborhood,
that sort of stuff?

[00:56:40] Gail DeMarco:
100%. So basically—
and of course it was scary for me when I came out here.

I’m not slinging my big team in California,
’cause I actually had to just say,
“I’m gonna be a referral agent now,”
’cause I cannot give them the process to keep my assistant on.

You know—and it is not cheap.
She makes great money. Right?

So to keep her on when I had no business for the six months—
but I knew that if I just stopped my systems...

Because everything is a system.
And all my systems come from my failures.

Every time I get spanked or have to pay something,
I’m like—put it in the system.

Like right now I have a brand new disclosure:

“You are advised not to move until all contingencies are removed.
And even then, the deal can fall through.”

Because I just gave a guy—he didn’t ask, well he roundabout asked—
me for a $6,000 check
because he had to go to an Airbnb.

[00:57:39] Tracy Hayes:
He moved out of the house he was selling—

[00:57:44] Gail DeMarco:
Right. He moved into an Airbnb in Kentucky
and then the house fell through.

I did give him $6,000.
I gave him...
You know, I just said, I’m gonna do it,
because he was...

[00:57:44] Gail DeMarco:
...and I just said, I'm gonna do it,
because he was suicidal, frankly.
And I can always—
but anyway, you've got to delegate.

So, you know, the flyers—
my God, if you're like...
I mean, I can push a button and get a flyer at eXp.
Most brokerages can do that.

You're spending too much time trying to learn online.
You're spending too much time trying to make a flyer.
Too much time taking any open house.

Only take open houses where you claim a neighborhood,
claim an area, and don’t be everywhere.

Don’t be in Clay County,
don’t be in Duval County,
don’t be in St. John’s County,
because you're just gonna get tired fast.
You're gonna burn out, you're not gonna make any money,
and you're gonna get outta real estate.

[00:58:26] Tracy Hayes:
Well yeah, I’m sure you know Krista Maho?

[00:58:29] Gail DeMarco:
Yeah.

[00:58:30] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah, and she's a big fan.
I’ve actually sat in on her little two-day intro class
to kind of lead into her bigger thing, what she was doing—
’cause I had her on the show. Right?

So I wanted to learn a little bit about what is she actually doing there.
And she’s hyper-focused.
She’s got her 3, 4, 5 subdivisions.

I think her brother runs more of the real estate side,
because she's doing the thing.
But she’s super hyper-focused, in the way you were mentioning earlier.

That client was saying, “You’re everywhere.”
Well, I’m sure in Krista’s neighborhood,
they believe the same thing, right?
Because her sign’s up somewhere in that neighborhood at any given time,
multiple places.

And they're getting postcards and so forth on a regular basis saying,
I’m the expert for your neighborhood.

[00:59:16] Gail DeMarco:
Right.
Even when you don’t have a deal,
you can’t pull back on the marketing.

If you just stay consistent,
whether it’s one little neighborhood—
I say just pick 100 names.

Spend $300 a month.
If you don’t have $300 a month to spend,
you need to get a part-time job.

[00:59:32] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.

[00:59:33] Gail DeMarco:
You do.

[00:59:33] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah. So finish up with just a couple...

Well, I guess we’ll just make a statement:
you seem to be very—
when you were saying earlier “This is a good time to buy a home,”
because anytime someone asks you when’s a good time to buy a home,
the answer is always, “Two years ago.”

So you want to enter that two-year thing—
now is the time.

[00:59:50] Gail DeMarco:
100%.
I mean, the markets are going to shift.

Now, I think what our problem is—
we have a lot of people that want to buy homes
that are outside their means.

And so they’re like,
“Oh, I want to buy that million-dollar home,”
when really they’re a $600,000 home person.

Or they could have bought the million-dollar home four years ago,
when rates were 3%.
That’s the problem.

[01:00:10] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah. And it’s a challenge.

I think also, if you could make—
'cause you’re doing enough deals, you’re creating deals right now.
Because they’re not all cookie-cutter.

Not everyone—you know, where the down payments are coming from...

What do you do to help facilitate deals
that other agents are probably just passing on,
because they don’t know how to solve it?

Whether it’s coming up with financing, all those types of things.
What have you learned over the years?

[01:00:37] Gail DeMarco:
There’s two things that I’m doing.

One: I’m closing my first assumable one next week, in a few days.
When I’m talking to sellers, when I’m prospecting, I’m finding out:
“Do you have an assumable loan?”

They’re like, “Well no, I’m not a VA.”
Doesn’t matter.
You may have an assumable loan.

So I’m closing one right now with NewRez,
and it went so smooth.

I had one with Chase, and we decided—
the buyer kind of got antsy after three months
and decided just to go traditional.

So that is an option—to have that conversation.
They may not go that route,
but do you know that, I would say 50% of loans are assumable?
People just don’t read the fine print—’cause all you do is sign, sign, sign.

So, if you can advertise an assumable loan,
but you’re willing to take the risk of having a 6-month close on it,
then great.

It doesn’t always work,
but at least it opens up a conversation.

The other thing is—
I’m talking to my lender right now.

We’re doing where, you know,
if the seller gives a certain amount,
then the lender gives a certain amount,
and then I kick in a little bit,
they can get a 5.75% interest rate.

[01:01:48] Tracy Hayes:
Right.

[01:01:48] Gail DeMarco:
So, you know—
’cause we’re competing with the builders.

Everybody knows our biggest competitor are the builders.
Mattamy is giving $27,000–$36,000 for closing costs.
Golf carts.
If they don’t want the golf cart, you get $8,500.

So how do you compete?

Well, today I’m going on a listing appointment—
they call me now, right?
So I’m going to this listing appointment in Rivertown.

And my assistant just called me right before I got in here.
She goes, “Guess what? They have a pool.”

Yay. Builder can’t compete.

So, those kinds of things...

I am saying no.

Like, I went on a listing appointment yesterday,
and I told her this.

She wanted $500,000.
She goes, “$490k—I’m putting in an offer on a Lennar home.”
I said, “I’m not your girl.”

She said, “Why not?”
I said, “Because I could never, on a good day, get more than $450k for this.”

So say no to the bad deals,
because they just take up time and energy.

I don’t have time to sit at your ugly house.
I only like pretty things.

[01:02:44] Tracy Hayes:
You’ve mentioned your lender—
please be clean, this is going to be the last subject.

You’ve mentioned your lender several times,
and you just said something that is so vital that I think is important,
that obviously you see.

Too many agents are bouncing around—
“Oh, this lender took me out to lunch”—whatever.

But they’ve only been in the business...
If you're in retail, if you’ve been out schlepping the real estate agents—
and if you’ve only been in the business three years,
you haven’t done enough deals.

You know, I’ve personally been in the business 20 years.
The first 14 were in the call center.

So when it comes to doing paperwork and getting deals closed—FHA, VA, structuring, whatever—
it bores me to put the loan in there,
but I still do it 20 years later.

I’ve done it so many times,
and I can do it on rapid fire,
and talk to your clients on the phone,
because that’s how I started.

But you said—you reached out to your lender and said,
“How can we advertise this listing better?”

[01:03:39] Gail DeMarco:
I’ll show you the text.
I just texted it to him—
and he did the math.

[01:03:42] Tracy Hayes:
For you—
and said, “Okay, we need this much money to offer that interest rate.”

[01:03:45] Gail DeMarco:
Instead of doing a $25,000 reduction,
do a $25,000 credit.

[01:03:50] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[01:03:50] Gail DeMarco:
Right.
Then he does 1%, I give $5,000 or whatever the number is—
you’re still gonna get a $17,000 check at the end of the...

Would you rather have it now,
or maybe six months from now,
or maybe have it expire?

[01:04:10] Tracy Hayes:
Because if you think rate is the problem,
then focus on how...

[01:04:23] Tracy Hayes:
Can we—yeah.
How can we play with that?
'Cause you are competing against the builders,
and you mentioned earlier that Toll Brothers or so—
yeah, there's so many people trying to sell their house,
and they’re still building in the same neighborhood.

I mean, that’s like—

[01:04:29] Gail DeMarco:
Yep.

[01:04:29] Tracy Hayes:
—pull your hair out, under the bus, 100%.
If you’re not the lowest price house,
then you’re probably not gonna sell.

It’s hard to be a listing agent in this—

[01:04:35] Gail DeMarco:
Market if you're not completely truthful.
And how do you know what they're doing?
I sell new homes, too.

[01:04:42] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[01:04:42] Gail DeMarco:
So I have great relationships with the new home builders,
and I get a weekly report on what the new—

[01:04:50] Tracy Hayes:
Finish just with this statement:
Your relationship with your lender—
the one.

Build a relationship.
Stop bouncing around.
Sit down with them and strategize.

“What can we do?”
Go to their office.
Sit down and say,
“Hey, I’ve got these listings. What can we do?”

Because I don’t think enough agents are doing that kind of strategizing with them.
They’re too busy going out and having a lunch
with a loan officer that hasn’t done a half dozen deals in their life.

[01:05:04] Gail DeMarco:
So my five people:
my accountant,
my lender...

When I came here, I was like—that was like—
I was so freaked out.
Because I’m like, what lender can I...
’Cause they were kind of cocky, the ones I talked to, to be honest.

[01:05:16] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[01:05:17] Gail DeMarco:
So I made my California one get licensed.
But that almost didn’t work out because of the time difference.

The three-hour time difference.
Normally when he’s at the gym at six—
it’s nine o’clock, and I’m like,
“You ready? Get going. Don’t call me after six o’clock,” right?

Because I’m already—you know,
I just don’t answer my phone after 6 p.m.

[01:05:35] Tracy Hayes:
Right.

[01:05:35] Gail DeMarco:
Except for you.
I call you at night,
“What appointment? What podcast? Who are you? Who knows?”

But at the end of the day, that’s so important.
Because we had a process in California that I loved.

And for every listing, we’d say,
“Seller would like buyer to be cross—not pre—cross-qualified.”
’Cause you can get in trouble with the DRE board
if you say pre-qualified.

Because, you know, Lennar does it.
Toll Brothers does it.
Mattamy does it.

You have to go—you don’t have to use their lender,
but you have to get qualified.

Why do they do that?
Because they don’t want the deal to fall out.

[01:06:11] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.
They wanna know the inside workings. Right.
But here—

[01:06:13] Gail DeMarco:
Because it’s a buyer’s market,
we can’t do that.
So we really need to vet that lender.

And if I see Navy Federal, I’m like,
“Oh, shit.”
And I have two Navy boys, right?

Because they don’t answer the phone.

If I see Wells Fargo, I’m like,
“Oh, crap.”

And I always tell people—
or Bank of America—
“Oh, wait. Wait, is that even around anymore?”

[01:06:30] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah, exactly.
They avoid doing mortgages.

[01:06:32] Gail DeMarco:
I love brokers.
You know?
I love that.

Because that is the most important part:
Your home inspector and your lender—
for any deal.

[01:06:40] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah, 100%.

[01:06:41] Gail DeMarco:
So...

[01:06:42] Tracy Hayes:
Well, that’s good to know about you.

[01:06:42] Gail DeMarco:
Yeah.

[01:06:43] Tracy Hayes:
I appreciate it, Gail. Thanks for coming.

[01:06:44] Gail DeMarco:
Absolutely.

[01:06:45] Tracy Hayes:
I’d love to, you know, possibly roundabout with you
maybe within the year and get caught up.

I want to learn more about your YouTube channel.

[01:06:54] Gail DeMarco:
Sure.

[01:06:54] Tracy Hayes:
Because I think I’ve talked to people about YouTube.
So, you know, how you did it and all that.

[01:06:57] Gail DeMarco:
Actually, you know what—
I’m gonna introduce you to Katie.
The two of you come on together, talk about it.

[01:07:02] Gail DeMarco:
I really wanna meet her.
No—

[01:07:04] Tracy Hayes:
So I—

[01:07:05] Gail DeMarco:
I don’t have time for other friends.
I’m in the sell it mode.
Yeah, yeah. Absolutely.
I would love to meet Katie. That sounds great.

[01:07:12] Tracy Hayes:
Excellent. I appreciate you coming on today.

[01:07:14] Gail DeMarco:
Thank you for having me.