How to Buy Equestrian Property in Florida’s Top Horse Regions

REE #300 Transcript

[00:00:00] Tracy Hayes: Truthfully, my piece of advice, and it's not anything groundbreaking by—
[00:00:04] Emma Horvatincic: Any means, be not to wait. You know, there's always someone saying, oh, rates are gonna come down. Oh, this is gonna happen. I say there's never gonna be one perfect time to get in the market and start investing, whether that's buying an investment property or taking that leap from renting to owning. I say when the time's right for you, you know, make a jump.

[00:01:00] Tracy Hayes: Hey, welcome back to the Real Estate Excellence Podcast. In today's episode, we're spotlighting a second-generation realtor with deep local roots and an unstoppable work ethic. She brings the kind of energy and professionalism this industry needs more of. She grew up in St. John's County, Florida, has a background in business and equestrian sports, and a sharp eye for detail. She delivers elite service under the Berkshire Hathaway brand. Let's welcome Emma Horvatincic.
[00:01:29] Emma Horvatincic: Close.
[00:01:33] Tracy Hayes: Horvatincic.
[00:01:33] Emma Horvatincic: Thank you.
[00:01:33] Tracy Hayes: Thank you. I should have said it 10 times before.
[00:01:38] Emma Horvatincic: You're good. That was better than most, so it's a great conversation starter, I'll give it that.
[00:01:42] Tracy Hayes: Oh yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I really appreciate you coming down here. You came up on my—you know, I'm always searching for who's doing what, and always like to find that agent who's out there dominating the social media and so forth. But someone who's kind of below the radar. But in your case, as young as you are, you're an up-and-coming star. I mean, you've really done well this past year. You've had your license now, if I saw correctly, about four years?

[00:02:07] Emma Horvatincic: Yes. So I've had my license about four years. I actually got it, if I remember correctly, my junior year of college, kind of transitioning into senior, and held onto it so that once I finished getting my bachelor's, I could transition straight into real estate. So, actually practicing two years—this 2025 marks my second year as a full-time agent. 2024 being my first, and I just don't picture myself doing anything else.

[00:02:34] Tracy Hayes: That's all you do.
[00:02:35] Emma Horvatincic: That's all I do.
[00:02:35] Tracy Hayes: You're second generation—mom, dad, what?
[00:02:37] Emma Horvatincic: Yes. So my mom is also a realtor. Berkshire Hathaway. We're actually out of the same office, St. John's. And I just—I love it. I love the support, I love the feel of the brokerage, and I'm very happy there.

[00:02:49] Tracy Hayes: Great. No, we'll definitely dig into that. Did—now, when you were at UNF, did you take some real estate classes? Because I know they have that as a major over there.
[00:02:57] Emma Horvatincic: Yes. So I did. My major was actually business management just because I wanted something versatile in case, you know, it didn't work out. Thankfully, it has been. But business management, minor in entrepreneurship. So I did take two real estate classes, but they were very, very broad, I'd say. The classes that helped me the most were, you know, definitely the accounting, the professional communications—all of that kind of gave me a formalized background that I bring with me, you know, to serve my clients.

[00:03:28] Tracy Hayes: Right. Yeah. Well, I think many people—"underestimate" is not really the word, but yeah, you are your own business.
[00:03:34] Emma Horvatincic: Oh, a hundred percent.
[00:03:35] Tracy Hayes: You're 1099, you're self-employed. So, you know, having some—you know, whatever business classes actually teach you. I was an education major, so I don't know what, you know, besides a couple—small business law, I think I took and something else. But you have to have an entrepreneurial business mindset.
[00:03:59] Emma Horvatincic: Yes, absolutely. And you know, that mindset—I think, I don't necessarily believe that a formalized education can give you that mindset. I think it comes a lot from who you are as a person. And I mean, going back the generations—my grandfather, a very successful entrepreneur, developer; my father, a very established siding company, owns his business; and then my mom being a realtor...

[00:04:18] Emma Horvatincic: Well, it—it's just kind of what I was surrounded with. So it felt very natural to, you know, be at the head of my own business as well.

[00:04:31] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, yeah. No, I do agree with you there. Mm-hmm. It is something you are—you kind of grow in. And some people, you know, take it to another level. You know, we know from an entrepreneur, but it's something that you have to kind of see—whether it's, it is a direct relative or, in the old school days—you know, I can't remember how old I was when I first started mowing lawns. I mean, yeah. That's what I did.

You have to want to do it.
Emma Horvatincic: Yeah.
Tracy Hayes: And get out there and—yeah. Earn it. I don't wanna say "earn it yourself," that's not really the correct way to say that. I'm lost for words here.
Emma Horvatincic: That's okay.
Tracy Hayes: Alright. But, St. John's County—what high school did you go to?

[00:05:06] Emma Horvatincic: So I actually went to Stanton College Prep.
[00:05:09] Tracy Hayes: Oh, that's right! I saw that on LinkedIn.
[00:05:10] Emma Horvatincic: I drove all the way up to Stanton. I loved Stanton. All AP, you know? So it did give me a bit of a start, and college felt like a breeze. And then, graduated 2020—COVID time. So UNF felt like the right transition, stay local, and the fact that I was able to do the majority online at the time let me progress a little quicker, and then graduated in '23—summer of '23, I believe.

[00:05:35] Tracy Hayes: You're going to Stanton, you're taking these higher level classes and so forth as the prep school—did you, at that time, when you decided to go there, have a higher op—goal of, say, “I want to go to Harvard or Yale” or something like that? Because I imagine a lot of the kids that go have that initial mindset.

[00:05:53] Emma Horvatincic: Yeah. So personally, not really. I kind of wanted to do what was necessary, and that was always gonna be business degree for me. But it was just really always gonna be real estate. And I knew I didn’t, you know, have to go to Harvard or Yale to accomplish that.

[00:06:10] Tracy Hayes: Right.
[00:06:11] Emma Horvatincic: I mean, don’t get me wrong—that’s amazing. That’s an accomplishment. Anyone who goes to Harvard and Yale—hats off.
[00:06:15] Tracy Hayes: Well, I think there's better colleges, but that's my opinion.
[00:06:18] Emma Horvatincic: Well, yeah, I just—I knew it wasn’t necessarily required for real estate. So it was just: get me to there.

[00:06:25] Tracy Hayes: So real estate was already the goal while you were a teenager?
[00:06:28] Emma Horvatincic: Mm-hmm.
[00:06:29] Tracy Hayes: Watching mom?
[00:06:31] Emma Horvatincic: Oh, for sure.
[00:06:32] Tracy Hayes: That was the goal?
[00:06:33] Emma Horvatincic: Yeah, for sure.
[00:06:34] Tracy Hayes: Interesting. Alright. Your mom’s been at—I assume—Berkshire Hathaway for years now. Is that—
[00:06:38] Emma Horvatincic: Not actually years. She started slightly before me, believe it or not. Just coincidental, but longer than I’ve been there.

[00:06:47] Tracy Hayes: Yes. The brokerage itself—you’ve been out there, you’ve seen—I imagine there’s probably a lot of friends you have, other young people asking you about real estate.
[00:06:55] Emma Horvatincic: Mm-hmm.
[00:06:56] Tracy Hayes: “Should they get into real estate?”
[00:06:57] Emma Horvatincic: Yeah.
[00:06:58] Tracy Hayes: How important have you noticed—you know, in looking—I imagine you've had other agents on the other end of the deals. You're like, “What brokerage are you working for?” That is your story, but what Berkshire Hathaway has done—from just seeing what your mom’s doing, to actually being your business now—you earning your own paycheck—
[00:07:18] Emma Horvatincic: Mm-hmm.
[00:07:19] Tracy Hayes: How have they helped you in being that starting spot and getting launched in the business?

[00:07:24] Emma Horvatincic: Okay, so there’s so much.
[00:07:27] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.
[00:07:27] Emma Horvatincic: That’s a lot. But I mean, from the get-go, the support is incredible. I mean, just incredible. You know, our brokers are there—president of the company—if I have a question or a sticky situation, she’s a phone call away.

But from the start, we go through about a week-long program, and it’s like a full eight to five. You sit there, you learn as much as you can, and then basically you just have to jump right in. Truthfully—and I think that goes for any brokerage—but what I think would set Berkshire apart is that the support is ongoing, it’s consistent. We have tons of trainings, weekly meetings, and then just our office culture is so inclusive and positive.

It doesn’t feel like there’s any real competition. I mean, we’re very, very big on collaboration. So, you know, I have great agents who’ve been in the business 50-plus years, and I can just call them and say, “Hey”—you know, they’re personable enough. And I think that’s a reflection of the company—that I feel like I can go to them if I have a question, which I love.

[00:08:29] Tracy Hayes: It’s interesting to see—knowing what you know now, you’ve been active here for a couple years—and you see these other brokerages like, you know, Real or eXp, and so the—I call 'em the virtual cloud—

[00:08:45] Emma Horvatincic: Cloud brokerages.
[00:08:46] Tracy Hayes: Cloud brokerages, yes. Let alone not just cloud brokerages, but there’s other brokers out there too. To realize what you landed in—because I imagine you do run into agents, because they tell me all the time—
[00:09:00] Tracy Hayes: They run into other agents who aren’t very extremely active, or they’re just very new. They don’t have a lot of transactions under their belt yet, and they don’t know how to write the contract correctly. And that sort of thing—the importance of going to a brokerage where you have that support. In this case, you were kind of bragging about—

[00:09:20] Tracy Hayes: The office culture a little bit—you love how…
[00:09:21] Emma Horvatincic: You, where some people are like, “Oh, I don’t wanna—I don’t wanna have to go to the office.” Well, you don’t. You don’t have to go to the office.
[00:09:28] Tracy Hayes: Don’t have to, but you go to the office to get some energy.
[00:09:28] Emma Horvatincic: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I truthfully am there pretty much every day. Even if I’m the only one there—I don’t care. It puts me in a mindset and puts me in a setting to want to be productive. And, you know, once you start that habit…

I mean, granted, I do think it’s an agent-by-agent basis. I think those cloud brokerages—they definitely serve a purpose. But for me personally—and that’s why I think it’s so individualized—is I know I benefit from being somewhere physically, where I can, you know, just be productive.

But yes, foundation is everything. Foundation is absolutely everything. And I think if you're newer in the business, it would be doing yourself a disservice to not go somewhere—or, you know, maybe, I don’t know how I wanna word this—
[00:10:00] Emma Horvatincic (cont.): Well, you're getting some—it would be doing yourself a disservice to not go somewhere where you're gonna get more support off the bat.
Right. And then maybe once you're established, do your thing after that—what feels right.

[00:10:23] Tracy Hayes: Well, I mean, knowing what you know—and you’re right there, you’re living it, being 23 years old—the importance, I imagine your girlfriends are asking about real estate—to structure your day as if you are actually on the clock.
[00:10:39] Emma Horvatincic: Oh, absolutely.
[00:10:41] Tracy Hayes: Tell us a little about what’s your standard structure each day that you like to do? You know, if you don’t have something—go meet somebody to do a listing appointment at eight o’clock in the morning over coffee or something—but what is your day like? What’s your kind of average, your typical day?

[00:10:56] Emma Horvatincic: So, I mean, again, it starts getting up, getting dressed, putting myself in that mindset. And then kind of—the opportunities in a day, I feel like, find me in a way if I’m ready. And I go to the office, and I’m sitting down.

Usually I start my morning knocking off some tasks—“Do I have to get this done? Am I negotiating repairs here?” Get the little things out of the way, send documents out, things that have to go out—if I’ve got, you know, contracts.

[00:11:20] Tracy Hayes: Do you try to—do you kind of set your mindset though? Like you said, the first thing you said: get up and get dressed. Everyone’s like, “Of course you do!”
[00:11:27] Emma Horvatincic: Yeah.
[00:11:28] Tracy Hayes: But you’re setting your alarm for a certain time?
[00:11:30] Emma Horvatincic: For sure.
[00:11:31] Tracy Hayes: And you try to be in the office by a certain time?
[00:11:32] Emma Horvatincic: Yeah, I’d say usually like 9:00 is good. You know, that flexes though, depending on if I’ve got showings or appointments or whatnot. But get up, get in the office in the morning, get the little managerial tasks out of the way, and then get to work on finding the next opportunity.

Truthfully, if you’re not looking for your next opportunity now, you need to know a few months out—you’re gonna feel that.
[00:12:00] Tracy Hayes: Right.
[00:12:01] Emma Horvatincic: So, it’s constant. It’s a cycle. You have to always be going and looking.

[00:12:03] Tracy Hayes: Alright, I’m going to drill down on that a little bit. Your mom wasn’t in the business that much longer, so it’s not like she has a decade of experience that just could say, “Hey, this is what you need to do.”
[00:12:12] Emma Horvatincic: Mm-hmm.
[00:12:13] Tracy Hayes: It sounds like the two of you are kind of almost working at the same level almost from the standpoint of some mentorship. Or—you know, like you said, there’s people who’ve been doing the business for decades in the office that you do—where did you go to help structure your day, to structure what you’re doing for marketing right now? Is there someone you’re mirroring or mentoring—listening to?

[00:12:35] Emma Horvatincic: I wish I could say—I wish I could pinpoint that. But truthfully, I just kind of got in my own groove and found what worked for me personally. You know, our office does have certain trainings, and we have, like, weekly business meetings—but that’s just one day a week.

So, it was really just about me being self-motivated and getting up and going and just working, I guess. Right? Like, finding a routine for me and how I reach people, and then just doubling down on it.

[00:13:04] Tracy Hayes: How important was it to find the thing—and it’s under marketing—the marketing, the way you like to do it? Like, obviously there’s some people who actually like knocking on doors. There’s someone like Ricky Carruth who just loves to get on the phone and just talk to people.
[00:13:19] Emma Horvatincic: Yeah.
[00:13:20] Tracy Hayes: So he just calls, you know, random people. What is it that you’re doing that seems to be getting some results for you, at least right now in today’s market? How did you get to that—how did you find that?

[00:13:30] Emma Horvatincic: So for me, I feel like it’s just about finding people that need help that I can serve—whether that be a buyer, whether it be a seller.

I did start out early in my career going after expired listings, you know, offering a fresh approach to those sellers. And it’s worked out. I have been able to, you know, sell some listings that previously expired with other agents.

But I think the bigger answer to that question is heavily, heavily, heavily leaning into my niche, which would be my equestrian background—and just getting my name out there, creating relationships with people who own those types of properties. And, you know, offering help any way I can—if they wanna sell in the future, if they’re looking for land. And now it’s kind of starting to flow, which I’m happy about. It started from—

[00:14:22] Emma Horvatincic: …me taking that first step and that initiative, and introducing myself and going from there.

[00:14:24] Tracy Hayes: Well, you talked a little bit about your warm circle there.
[00:14:26] Emma Horvatincic: Mm-hmm.
[00:14:27] Tracy Hayes: How did you approach them? I think a lot of people—they’re doing the business—you know, you’re [young] years old, you’re not 43 and had a previous career where you could say, “Hey, I was successful here. I’m gonna be able to do this.”
Right? You’re the newbie—the “green pea,” as they used to call me when I first got outta college and sold cars. There was an older dude who used to call me “green pea.”
Because you're green, right? You haven’t sold anything yet.
How did you approach, you know—did you approach your equestrian associates and say,

[00:15:00] Tracy Hayes (cont.): “I'm in real estate”?
Emma Horvatincic: Mm-hmm.
Tracy Hayes: I know, you know—without actually saying it—they know you’re 22 years old, 21 years old.
Emma Horvatincic: Mm-hmm.
Tracy Hayes: And that you can actually handle this for them?

[00:15:08] Emma Horvatincic: Yeah. So, I mean, super tedious—I’m extremely detail-oriented. I would actually send out extremely, extremely personalized, individualized packets of information.
Here’s a little bit about me, here’s a little bit about your property from what I found, you know, just doing my research.

[00:15:28] Tracy Hayes: Email or an actual letter?
Emma Horvatincic: Old-fashioned mail.
[00:15:30] Tracy Hayes: Okay—old-fashioned mail!
Emma Horvatincic: Yeah—old-fashioned mail. And just persistent in my follow-up. You know, if I don’t get a reply, that’s okay. But I think I would send those out with the intent of just having a conversation.

And most times it’d be received very warmly—like, “Oh, thank you so much, we’ll keep you in mind,” or “Oh wow, I really appreciated what you put together.” And that’s kind of just the first step. And it’s been received positively.

So—physically sitting down, drafting the material, handwriting a note, sending it out—that’s been my first introduction to a lot of people. Which is—it takes a lot of digging and time, but it’s been worth it. I mean, you’re new—you have all the time on your hands, right? So… yeah.

[00:16:14] Tracy Hayes: Well, where did you come up with that plan? Did someone give you that idea? Did you listen to someone? Or someone in the office? Where did you kind of like—you know, of course you might have taken a couple different things and put it together to what you did—
Emma Horvatincic: Mm-hmm.
Tracy Hayes: —you know, mail it out where other people might have emailed it or whatever.
You thought it was the right thing to do. Where did you come up with that plan? Because I think people have to understand—and you understood here—you have to be consistent in this.
Emma Horvatincic: Of course.
Tracy Hayes: And you have to stick with it for a period of time so you can measure whether or not it’s working.
You can’t just do it for a week and then expect Monday morning the phone to start ringing.
Emma Horvatincic: Oh no.
Tracy Hayes: Oh no. You have to do it consistently—and all of a sudden, you know, the fish start biting.
[00:16:54] Emma Horvatincic: Yeah.
[00:16:55] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:16:55] Emma Horvatincic: So the plan, I guess, came from me kind of thinking—what would I like to receive?
You know, especially considering that I’m—people are hesitant to hire someone younger and newer. They don’t always perform.

But I’m just a very—like, I like a physical copy of something to look through.
And I think that stays with people longer if they get something tangible. We live in such a digitalized world, and I guess I’m more old-fashioned in that approach, but I like good old bound paper.
And I think it gives people something to look through.
So that’s kind of why I took that approach first.

And then of course, focusing on the more equestrian-heavy areas. And, you know, when you’re in that world, you kind of know where the farms are. So, going…

[00:17:39] Tracy Hayes: So, where did you—
[00:17:41] Emma Horvatincic: Mm-hmm.
[00:17:41] Tracy Hayes: Alright, so you specifically targeted—
Emma Horvatincic: Mm-hmm.
Tracy Hayes: —you targeted these equestrian—or just certain farms? Because a lot of the people you were…
Emma Horvatincic: Mm-hmm.
Tracy Hayes: …you’re doing your equestrian stuff, they all lived on places that typically might be set up to have a horse or whatever, right?
Emma Horvatincic: Yes.

[00:18:00] Tracy Hayes: So, what did you—how did you analyze and break it down to what information they would need to know? How did you know what to put in those letters?

[00:18:06] Emma Horvatincic: So, I mean, if you come from the world, you know.
It’s very, very specific. And I’ll give you an example: there was this one listing that had expired. It was a very cute little two-and-a-half-acre kind of hobby farm—which, you know, isn’t set up to have multiple horses or a business, but someone just owned their personal animals, maybe chickens—that kind of thing.

And I noticed in the listing description, the prior agent had called what would normally be a tack room—where you store like your saddles, your bridles, your gear—that sort of thing—she called it a “dressage room.”

[00:18:50] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.
[00:18:50] Emma Horvatincic: And that’s funny.
[00:18:51] Tracy Hayes: How do you say that again?
[00:18:52] Emma Horvatincic: Dressage room.
Tracy Hayes: A dressage.
Emma Horvatincic: Dressage is actually a discipline—you know, when the horses look like they’re dancing.
[00:18:55] Tracy Hayes: The prancing.
Emma Horvatincic: Yep—when they’re prancing and they look really nice.

[00:19:00] Emma Horvatincic: That’s dressage. And I—reading that, I was kind of like, “Oh, a room can’t be a dressage room. That makes absolutely zero sense.”
So I kind of reached out and I said, “Hey, well actually…”

This listing—it’s not far from me. So I went and introduced myself and had a very good, positive conversation with that seller. Established a relationship and let her know if she needs anything in the future.

You know, what they were looking for isn’t on the market—hasn’t been on the market for quite some time—but we just keep the lines of communication open.
So I think a lot of it has stemmed from looking at past listings and kind of sharing, “Hey, I’m someone who knows and can communicate the value of this specific type of property. And you need that on your side.”

[00:19:49] Tracy Hayes: Interesting. Yeah. Okay. Alright. So yeah—this is high-level stuff.
Because I’m gonna tell you that 99%—that’s why you’re having a 1% year—because 99% of the agents wouldn’t be able to pick up on this.

And the fact that you’ve gone after this at a young age instead of finding the generic listings in St. John’s County and selling new builds—right?

You’ve had several million-dollar sales this year.
[00:20:15] Emma Horvatincic: Yes.
[00:20:15] Tracy Hayes: You know—which, you know, pump those numbers up.
So it’s not like you did 40 transactions. You’re obviously doing what a lot of agents like to do—they’d like to do less, but do higher value, luxury—what would be considered luxury homes by price point, right?
[00:20:29] Emma Horvatincic: Yeah, yeah. Which I’m very grateful to be in this market and serving those clients and for those clients to see the—

[00:20:30] Emma Horvatincic: …value I bring to the table. You know, truthfully, I work at any price point, but it has flown in a particular direction, you know? And I don't want to downplay that—it is a direct result of the work I put in.

But I still am very humbled every time something like that comes my way—or a higher-ticket listing comes my way. I always have the mindset that I'm always interviewing for the next opportunity.

It's never assumed, you know? I walk into a home and I’m on a listing appointment—no, it's never assumed. I always act like I am there showing what I can do, and I bring my track record with me now.

[00:21:19] Tracy Hayes: Touch a little bit more on that, because I think obviously you found a niche here—right? That you went and then you went after.

Because that’s—I mean, not everyone’s out there doing equestrian.
You were brought up doing it, so you’re comfortable in that zone.
Someone else might be a soccer mom—you know, whatever it is. You go and master the soccer field out there. All the parents standing around watching soccer—you own it. Or the little league field, or whatever it is.

But there's a very unique market there, for sure. For sure. Obviously, you know, I think that—you’ve treaded over into same turf, so to speak. You speak the language. You have to.

It’s kind of like, you know, maybe there’s a Hispanic client and they want to deal with a Hispanic realtor.

[00:22:00] Tracy Hayes (cont.): They're dealing with you—you’ve done it. That’s their passion, and that’s your passion. You have a commonality there.

So when you go out and you—what are just some surface-level things that you break down when you’re looking at one of these equestrian-possible properties?
Now, you’ve sold some—are you also getting some buyers that are actually looking for them too?
Emma Horvatincic: Yes, I’ve helped buyers as well.

[00:22:21] Tracy Hayes: Have any buyers come to you because of your niche?
[00:22:24] Emma Horvatincic: Oh, absolutely. I actually have a client coming in town in January from Arizona that saw what I do with land specifically, and they want to have a farm. They’re like, “Where should we look?” And they want some serious acreage—so I’m excited about that.

But yes, so surface-level—I would say the biggest thing you need to communicate is the value that the land brings to the table.
You can have five acres over here with a house, five acres over there with a house—this acreage might have a ton of conservation or wetlands, which—fun fact—doesn't always mean it's wet or holding standing water, but you can’t clear it, you can’t touch it.

And that greatly diminishes the usable space that you can have for horses. And then over here, the land might be completely cleared, high and dry.

[00:23:08] Tracy Hayes: What stops the horse from going on land that—even though it’s…
[00:23:11] Emma Horvatincic: So, you actually—a lot of people, a lot of owners, don’t necessarily want their horses roaming in the woods. That’s just accidents waiting to happen.

You kind of need to bubble them. Especially if they’re nice, if they’re your show animals, and you're competing with them—you want to keep them safe.
They live outside, right? But you don’t want them getting hurt.

So, the acreage over here could be high and dry—usable. You can clear more if you want to, if there's trees.
Buyers need to understand the importance of what that specific property offers in terms of what they want to do.

Then, when a property has established facilities—when we're talking about the barn—how many stalls does it have? Is it air conditioned? Are there fly fans that are going to keep the bugs away in our lovely super-hot Florida summers?

[00:24:00] Emma Horvatincic (cont.): Or would a buyer have to add that?
When you have stalls, do they run out into their individual run-outs? Meaning, can the horses go in and out freely?
Are you going to be turning them out?

Where’s the barn in relation to the pastures?
How many pastures are there?
Are there automatic water systems?

Each of these things adds different value—and convenience. A lot of clients who own properties like this—they want a certain level of convenience established.

[00:24:30] Tracy Hayes: Well, I could just imagine, yeah—the convenience.
And generally, you're in the equestrian scene, you generally have money.

These are not first-time homebuyer-type transactions. They kind of know what they want—they have experience.
I was just thinking—I imagine when you're out looking at property, sometimes you do have 10, 15 acres with a manufactured home on it.
[00:24:57] Emma Horvatincic: Yeah.

[00:24:58] Tracy Hayes: Because some of them consider, “Oh, you know, we’ll just build a house, build a barn—because that’s the ideal 15 acres. It’s great.”

[00:25:02] Emma Horvatincic: Personally, I haven’t had a buyer consider that. I find that most of my buyers would rather wait for the right one to come up, than settle for something that has a manufactured home on it.

[00:25:16] Tracy Hayes: Or just plain acreage?
[00:25:18] Emma Horvatincic: Or just plain acreage and build themselves, yeah.
I do have a few that are looking at that right now, because—granted, our area—our inventory with that is pretty limited.

It’s not every day you find an updated home on acreage with a nice barn.
I think the biggest thing that our area doesn’t see much of is homes on acreage being larger and updated.

We do get larger homes on acreage—because it kind of comes with the territory—but definitely not as updated as I feel like buyers would want.
Then there are those few that are—and those tend to go for a premium.

[00:25:56] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. Where are these buyers coming from?

[00:25:58] Emma Horvatincic: So… let me think about that.

[00:26:00] Tracy Hayes: Are they just random areas or…?

[00:26:02] Emma Horvatincic: I find that it's all over our area. So they might just not have land right now.

[00:26:09] Tracy Hayes: They're in Florida already?
[00:26:10] Emma Horvatincic: Yeah—in Florida.

[00:26:12] Tracy Hayes: Except the one you said you’ve got coming in from Arizona.
[00:26:15] Emma Horvatincic: Yes.
They might not have land now, but they could’ve been boarding—have been riding for years—and want to finally have their horses with them instead of boarding.
I see that a lot.

I did have the privilege of helping a buyer recently relocate from Utah who wanted to be here—that was nice.
They bought eight acres with me—8.8 actually—acres with a brand new home. The land was bare—like ready for someone to come in and establish their vision.

Beautiful custom home. It was the right move for them—they wanted a little space.

[00:26:46] Tracy Hayes: Have you had anyone who wanted to actually be in the business of boarding?

[00:26:50] Emma Horvatincic: The business of boarding? So, looking for a…

[00:26:52] Tracy Hayes: …property big enough that already had maybe that business already established?

[00:26:56] Emma Horvatincic: Oh, absolutely. Actually, last year I did help an established training, competing, breeding, and boarding facility upgrade from 9 acres to 43.

[00:27:07] Tracy Hayes: Oh wow.

[00:27:08] Emma Horvatincic: Yes. That was a lot of fun—a lot of moving parts.

[00:27:10] Tracy Hayes: Was it just a next-door was selling kind of thing or…?

[00:27:15] Emma Horvatincic: So, I represented the sale of the 9 acres and their home. They’d outgrown that parcel and wanted more land—downsized the house.

So it was one of those—you know, more space for their horses, less home.
We found 43 beautiful acres. They’re still in the process—as you can imagine, it's a lot, big undertaking.

But it’s just incredible. Some of the hardest-working people I know. And now they have all that space—they’re building out their new facility on that upgraded acreage.

[00:27:44] Tracy Hayes: To board—to make a business of doing that. Because I imagine there’s good money in it. Especially if you love horses and that’s what you want to do all day.

[00:27:51] Emma Horvatincic: Oh yeah. That’s their business. That’s what they do.

[00:27:54] Tracy Hayes: Because, you know, people spend a lot of money to store their RV—I can’t imagine what they pay to store their horse.

[00:28:00] Emma Horvatincic: You don’t wanna know. We’re gonna keep those numbers a secret.

[00:28:05] Tracy Hayes: But interesting that—it’s a unique niche. And no doubt, when I do the blog on this show…

[00:28:05] Tracy Hayes: …my blog on LinkedIn as well. We're gonna put that out so a customer finds it—'cause they're so unique, they're looking for an agent who specializes in this area. Alright, I'm gonna take 30 seconds to do a little read here, and then I'm gonna go into some really great questions that we're gonna talk about here for the second half of the show. So okay—we’ll be right back.

First, a quick thank you to one of the sponsors of the Real Estate Excellence Podcast: ReadTomato.com.

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[00:29:00] Tracy Hayes: Great segue from that commercial there from Read Tomato—you're on, I think, the cutting edge of a change in marketing. We've had social media—
Emma Horvatincic: Mm-hmm.
Tracy Hayes: I don’t think a lot of agents know how to use it, for the most part. There are some that use it a lot, and there are some that are spending a lot of money having people shoot their stuff—
Emma Horvatincic: Oh yeah.
Tracy Hayes: —and then put it on Instagram, which blows my mind, because it’s gone in 24 hours.

Now, occasionally I’ll get someone on an old reel from—I don’t know how far back, and I don’t even know how they get it. Somehow. I guess you can search on Instagram, right?
Emma Horvatincic: Right.
Tracy Hayes: I’ve only used Instagram search to search a person—not advice or something.

So occasionally, someone will comment on an old reel and I go, “Oh geez, that reel popped up somehow.” But they’re spending a lot of money on content—
Emma Horvatincic: On content, yeah.
Tracy Hayes: —but then they’re not even putting it into the content library, which to me is YouTube.

YouTube is the content library—when you're searching, and AI is searching, it's still searching YouTube for these things.
But—talking to Read Tomato—blogging is back.

And so now we’re in this transition, because now AI is coming into the thing. People are going on AI and having conversations and saying, “Hey, I’m looking for a horse farm,” or “I need to find a real estate agent that specializes in equestrian properties.”

There aren’t going to be many that pop up.

Someone who’s regularly posting about those types of subjects is going to be the person who shows up in those AI searches.

[00:31:00] Tracy Hayes: And I think—this is my opinion, I want your opinion too—I think agents have gotten away from having a really good website. There were websites. Then social media came out. Right?

So now it’s back to having a really solid website—with blogs—because AI is now looking for that. AI’s not looking at Instagram.
[00:31:22] Emma Horvatincic: Yeah.
[00:31:23] Tracy Hayes: It's looking for those who are grounded—who it can go to as a trusted site for trusted information. And that’s where a professional website comes back, in my opinion.

Are you guys talking about any of that in the things you’re reading—or at Berkshire—or anything like that?

[00:31:39] Emma Horvatincic: I think right now, like you mentioned, social media content is very much at the forefront. You know—hooks, getting people onto your page, and hopefully learning more about you and what you bring to the table.

But I do think that while that does serve its purpose, kind of like you mentioned—blogs and whatnot—substance will never go out of style.

And for me, if I was about to put the largest transaction of my life in someone’s hands to help guide me and support me through that—I would do a little more digging. And I would hope that people do, even though you can't guarantee it in this age, right?

More than just what I'm seeing on Facebook and Instagram.

And I know me personally—I would go and look for a website. I'd look if I can find a history of their transactions, testimonials, what people are saying about them.

Which—yes—people can show that on social media. But I do think, to your point, a website is maybe a little more tangible, or something that's carefully curated. Something that reflects the level of service you bring.

And I mean—granted, mine has room for improvement too—but I would hope that buyers out there are looking just past what they're seeing on someone's profile.

[00:32:53] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. My opinion is—if they spent the same amount of money they’re spending for a videographer on a professional site with professional content—like we were just reading—the Hot Take Engine is what Read Tomato calls their service.

If you’re in your niche—in your case, equestrian—and you’re talking about it… If you’re out at the beaches, you’re writing blogs on a weekly basis.

It actually does not take that much to write a blog.
[00:33:19] Emma Horvatincic: Right.
[00:33:19] Tracy Hayes: And they actually do it for you. You come on a podcast like this—I could probably write 10 different blogs, 10 different ways, just based on this hour-long conversation with you.

Because you can upload the transcript and AI will write it for you. You can go in there and touch it up a little bit—and it’ll even tell you how to structure it and what keywords you should have to make it happen.

But I really think that’s where the marketing is going.

And one of the key things I’ve learned recently was: Google Reviews, when it comes to AI, are huge.

Now there are other review sites—like Rate My Agent, I think is another.
Emma Horvatincic: Mm-hmm.
Tracy Hayes: So you definitely want to get those reviews. But then—are you linking those reviews back over to your website? Are you putting them on there? You want them in both areas. You want the Google review on Google—but you also want that review on your website. It’ll find it.

[00:34:11] Emma Horvatincic: Yeah.
[00:34:12] Tracy Hayes: And then how you kind of coach your customers how to write that review.

I don’t—yeah. She was a great agent.
Emma Horvatincic: Right.
Tracy Hayes: That’s not gonna get you anywhere.
Emma Horvatincic: You want them to be specific.
Tracy Hayes: She helped us find a six-acre—or 8.8-acre—equestrian property. “This is exactly what our horses are going to need…” You know—throw those keywords in there. That are in there for doing it.

But I really think that is where to work on. That is where it’s going.

Especially if you—well, I think every agent should have some sort of niche.
Emma Horvatincic: Oh, for sure.
Tracy Hayes: It could be a subdivision. And you want to have that subdivision—you want to write stuff about it. Once every couple of weeks, put a new blog updating it.

Because AI is looking for the most hyperlocal and trusted source it can get the information from. And—recent.

If it’s something from 3 years ago—that's gonna be low on the totem pole, as far as AI is concerned, unless there’s nothing in between.

[00:35:11] Tracy Hayes: So all right—we have our trending questions here. These are the ones I briefed you on a little bit. Tell the audience—she was a little shy, so I had to brief her a bit so she could put her mind in gear to answer these questions.
Emma Horvatincic: Mm-hmm.
Tracy Hayes: These are questions that many listeners and people online are searching for right now…

[00:35:42] Tracy Hayes: So, we're gonna turn these into reels. But they're great discussion questions as well. Yeah. So, number one, what do buyers need to know heading into the 2026 real estate market?

[00:35:42] Emma Horvatincic: Truthfully, my piece of advice, and it's not anything groundbreaking by any means, would be not to wait. You know, there's always someone saying, "Oh, rates are gonna come down," or "Oh, this is gonna happen." I say there's never gonna be one perfect time to get in the market and start investing, whether that's buying an investment property or taking that leap from renting to owning. I say when the time's right for you, make the jump.

[00:36:08] Tracy Hayes: And get out there.

[00:36:09] Emma Horvatincic: Get out there.

[00:36:10] Tracy Hayes: No, I agree with you a hundred percent because there was an article that came out—and I don't think it was Fannie Mae—but it was one of the trusted sources where people get their industry statistics or whatever. And it's like, "Hey, what are you predicting interest rates to do over the next five years?"

It's hard to say, but the 30-year fixed really correlates with that 10-year Treasury. And basically it says, yeah, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029, 2030—it basically told you what that 10-year Treasury was going to be. Let me tell you, it was between 4.28 and like 4.1.

Basically saying it’s not moving. So we are right where we were in October of 2008. I have said this before on the show—where the interest rates are right now, you're actually just a little lower than where they were in October 2008 before they started buying the mortgage-backed securities. And then you saw rates drop from there for the next 15+ years.

So you're right—the best time to buy a home was two years ago. So always—get in the game.

[00:37:15] Emma Horvatincic: Yep. Get in the game. That would be my advice. Get in the game. And for my market—my niche specifically—I think that it is slightly different. I think it depends on when an opportunity is out there that fits your needs and your lifestyle and what you are looking for in an equestrian property or land. It’s kind of—be ready for when that one pops up, because they're fewer and farther in between.

[00:37:41] Tracy Hayes: Yep.

[00:37:42] Emma Horvatincic: Especially in our area.

[00:37:43] Tracy Hayes: Oh yeah. I imagine in your market with that, if you like that property, you better grab it. Yeah. 'Cause they're unique. Unique properties.
Is 2026 expected to be a better time to buy than 2025?

[00:37:56] Emma Horvatincic: I think how I wanna answer that—that's such an open-ended question.

[00:38:00] Tracy Hayes: Well, I’ll lead you to think about the answer. I’ll tell you what my opinion is. Personally, right now it's a buyer’s market.

[00:38:05] Emma Horvatincic: Correct.

[00:38:06] Tracy Hayes: For your standard home—

[00:38:07] Emma Horvatincic: A little bit more, I would say higher-end luxury—sellers are still in a pretty decent position. Properties are still holding their value. But overall—more of a buyer's market now.

[00:38:20] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, you can negotiate a bit of price or have closing costs picked up.

[00:38:23] Emma Horvatincic: Get credit, for sure.

[00:38:25] Tracy Hayes: All that. Absolutely. And I believe as we go into 2026, people are gonna see some of the things that the new administration has done—tax-wise and so forth—they're gonna feel better. The stock market’s already high, so a lot of people who like million-plus homes—a lot of times they're looking at what the market’s doing.

[00:38:47] Emma Horvatincic: Oh, for sure.

[00:38:48] Tracy Hayes: And if the manufacturing comes online, and there's a tremendous amount of investment—when some of these things even start to turn the engines—there's gonna be a different attitude. So then all of a sudden, now you’re gonna have more buyers on the market.

[00:39:00] Tracy Hayes: So right now, transitioning into 2026—buy. If you're buying, now's the time to buy.

[00:39:05] Emma Horvatincic: I mean, I’ve felt it this December. This December will be my second highest month of the whole year. And strangely enough, this happened in 2024 December—it’s that kind of rush to get in before the year ends. This December will be my second-highest overall production month, whether you want to attribute a dollar amount to that or number of closed units—that goes hand in hand.

[00:39:27] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:39:28] Emma Horvatincic: And people are buying. People are out buying. And I’ve been able to get some deals. You know, I’ve got lovely first-time home buyers closing on their first investment this month. Then I have clients who are downsizing from over 5,000 square feet—moving to an area on an acre of land. It’s beautiful. And they were still able to secure a lower price than what was offered, plus a new roof, which is nice.

[00:39:53] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:39:54] Emma Horvatincic: Whole new roof.

[00:39:55] Tracy Hayes: All right, here’s another question. What’s the current mindset of luxury home buyers in Northeast Florida?

[00:40:02] Emma Horvatincic: They want to feel taken care of. They want someone available. You have to be extremely white glove, full service in your approach. Almost anticipate what they need before they even know that they need it. Honestly, it goes back to—the absolute minimum, I feel like, of any luxury agent is your communication.

I communicate with anyone I'm helping buy or sell—daily, almost. Whether that's a “Hello, good morning, I'll check in on this for you today,” or “Hello, good morning, we're waiting on that report back,” or—I even tell them, I go so far as to say, “Hey, I plan to follow up with so-and-so this afternoon or evening,” because I heard that the person was out of town the day before. Maybe it’s a little much, but I have yet to have someone tell me that it’s too much.

I find that high-end buyers are appreciative of knowing that they’re being completely taken care of. Someone’s watching at all times.

[00:41:01] Tracy Hayes: Well, you said something there—almost anticipating what they… my eyes lit up—probably anticipating—

[00:41:08] Emma Horvatincic: Anticipating—

[00:41:10] Tracy Hayes: —what they’re not even asking for. That’s what they get when they go into a luxury car dealership or something. They go in for service, they’re spending that much more money—but then when they come out, there’s little chocolates on the seat, or they clean the car for them. You go to the General Motors dealer and get service—they just give you your car back and leave the card in the window and all that jazz.

Where you go into Lexus or Porsche or something like that—it’s a different experience. That’s what wows them and gets them all excited.

They realize the expense is the expense. They're buying luxury. They understand the cost. It's not the money—it’s the service that you’re giving them. You’re looking out for them, saying, “Hey, I do know this is an older kitchen. I had some estimates done,” or “Here’s some virtual visions of what this could look like if you guys really wanted to renovate it.”

[00:42:06] Emma Horvatincic: Yes.

[00:42:07] Tracy Hayes: You’re doing that little extra concierge service.

[00:42:10] Emma Horvatincic: I think—yeah. Chocolates on the pillow.

[00:42:12] Tracy Hayes: Yep. Chocolates on the pillow.

[00:42:12] Emma Horvatincic: Fold the towels, make a little swan. A few of my buyers recently have been from out of state. I had buyers from Carolina, the new one from Arizona who’s very in the loop about what’s happening. Also Utah clients. And then I have clients from down south in Florida—and all bought. So I have to be their boots on the ground through every step of the process.

I don’t go to inspections just for the summary at the end. I want to be there the whole time. That’s my office—I’m working there. I let them know that, hey, I’ll be there the whole way. Most sellers are fine with that, truthfully.

I’m just there for anything they need. Anytime they ask, “Hey, can you go out and measure this?” I’ll go do it. Or “Hey, can you meet so-and-so at the property? We want to get a design idea, consult”—like you kind of mentioned. I’m the one there meeting those people on their behalf, especially if they aren’t local.

But even if they are—you know, people have their jobs, their lives, their families. So it is my job to do those things. So I do ’em.

[00:43:19] Tracy Hayes: Proactively.

[00:43:21] Emma Horvatincic: Proactively. Right. Yes. That is where I assume that role.

[00:43:25] Tracy Hayes: Well, you know, you just touched on something…

[00:43:37] Tracy Hayes: And it's been a couple hundred of them. Trying to do something that the client's not expecting.

[00:43:37] Emma Horvatincic: Yeah.

[00:43:37] Tracy Hayes: Wow them with something. And it could be responsiveness. You don’t know what that’s going to be in the process. But try to find that thing during the process that gives them that little "Wow."
"Wow, I didn't expect that."
"Wow, oh my God, that was great. Thanks for doing that."
That type of thing.

What strategies actually worked for sellers in 2025 and which ones failed?

[00:43:59] Emma Horvatincic: Worked: not overpricing your home.
Failed: overpricing your home. Or, um… that’s a good answer. Leaving that wiggle room, but also—failed—I’d say having too much of an emotional attachment to the home.

This is a product. People are coming in to visualize themselves and their lives.
But truthfully, let’s go back to what’s worked. I’ve had amazing sellers. I mean, honestly, I am so grateful to get to work with such awesome people.
But they do—they take suggestions. “Hey, fix this up, neutralize this, let’s declutter, let’s stage.”
And then I’m also there for every step of the way. “Let’s follow this timeline because I think if we go live on X date, let’s push to have things ready for this day. Give us time to market before the weekend.”

And I think them responding to maybe some guidance or suggestions—awesome.
But truthfully, my sellers have been amazing and kind of… right, have it together.

[00:45:02] Tracy Hayes: Well, I mean, have you had one really that stood out? I mean, you really had to have that serious talk like, “Hey, you’re 20, $30,000 higher than what... What’s gonna go on? You’re gonna sit. No one’s even gonna come see it.”
Because that’s typically what I’m hearing from a lot of agents is—they overpriced and they don’t even get a showing.

[00:45:17] Emma Horvatincic: So the way I kind of like to approach that is—I have had listings that maybe liked to overprice.

They feel like—you know, there is an emotional tie to your property.
That’s… we as agents have to respect that and take that into consideration with how we approach what’s a delicate situation.

And again, it goes back to that white glove—you need to steer them and be there for them.

But I like to, on listing appointments, set a reasonable expectation.

Okay, if we do it at XYZ number—and I’m kind of suggesting maybe this range based on comps, what I’m seeing buyers are truly looking for, you know, based on that specific home—

Is someone gonna have to come in here and update the whole kitchen?

If we don’t have consistent showings or an offer by, let’s say, the two-and-a-half to three-week mark at most, we need to consider a reduction.

And kind of setting reasonable expectations from the start kind of mitigates and gets ahead

of them maybe saying, “Oh, my home’s sitting, why?” — when in reality, the overpricing thing is in play, right?

And then, let’s reduce. And truthfully, reducing gets the job done. It does.

If there are things about your home that you can’t control, or that don’t make sense for ROI to change — what are you in control of as a seller? And that is price. That’s what I’d say.

[00:46:41] Tracy Hayes: Are luxury listings still moving? Or is inventory just sitting?
And I would say — I don’t know — I’m gonna say luxury for my question is north of a million dollars.

[00:46:48] Emma Horvatincic: They’re moving. They’re selling.

[00:46:50] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:46:51] Emma Horvatincic: Yeah. Absolutely.

[00:46:52] Tracy Hayes: Because those — it goes back to my “they’re selling” statement I made earlier.

[00:46:56] Emma Horvatincic: I’m selling them.

[00:46:57] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, exactly. Goes back to my statement — those people are looking at their investments in the marketplace.

[00:47:00] Emma Horvatincic: Yeah.

[00:47:01] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. You know, I think your sub $600–700,000 buyers — they’re looking at their W-2 job and asking, “Do I feel comfortable that I’m going to keep it?”

[00:47:15] Emma Horvatincic: That’s a different mentality.

[00:47:16] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:47:16] Emma Horvatincic: Of those sellers and buyers. And I think it comes down to — they time their moves.
Most of them may have the luxury of doing so.

Where they really want to be, what they’re really looking at — does this fit their family? Are they empty nesters? Do they want an upgrade, a location change?

I think that’s kind of how they time their moves. But then also yes, timing it right — looking at what’s out there, what’s on the market, what’s happening with similar listings of that caliber that may have been sitting for a long time prior.

Because I do — luxury can take a little bit longer, and I think that’s okay.

[00:47:53] Tracy Hayes: Well, when you come to a price point, there’s only a limited amount of…

[00:47:56] Emma Horvatincic: Right. When you’re lessening your pool. Yeah. It does take that — it always takes that one.

But when you’re making your pool a little smaller, it also comes down to — are the people in the pool really looking for this?

And then positioning yourself accordingly.

[00:48:11] Tracy Hayes: Have you seen — have you been stuck with a listing in a community that’s still in construction?
Basically trying to sell an existing home in a new construction neighborhood?

[00:48:23] Emma Horvatincic: I personally have not, but I do know that when you’re in that situation and you’re still competing with the builder, you really, really need to lean into — yeah, this is ready here and now.

Hopefully someone really needs to be in there, here and now.

But majority of the time, those builder incentives — you gotta compete.

[00:48:44] Tracy Hayes: The builders are sitting on spec homes too right now. I mean, they’re — obviously — the incentives are to get the agents to come in.
The incentives they’re giving the buyers — I don’t know how they’re making any money.

Their margins are very thin right now. Just probably trying to keep their crews busy.

[00:48:59] Emma Horvatincic: I have sold a few new construction this year. But two were 2025 custom-built homes in established communities.

[00:49:06] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:49:07] Emma Horvatincic: And so again — total niche. There were only three 2025 homes built in this particular community.
I represented the sellers on one of them, brought the buyers on another.

So, you know, kind of having an understanding of — yes, the rest of the community is doing this… but this is brand new. And kind of elevated.

[00:49:28] Tracy Hayes: I don’t think enough agents — I’ll say “enough agents,” that’s probably fair — a lot of the agents that I’ve had on, obviously the top agents, they’re explaining to their customers — if you're building or buying a new construction home in one of these tract builds over in SilverLeaf or whatever…

[00:49:49] Emma Horvatincic: Mm-hmm.

[00:49:50] Tracy Hayes: And I think what we're seeing is—agents pulling their hair out. They're getting calls. TrailMark, for example, has some 60-some listings in there.
And it’s very difficult to move a house in there when the builders are still building, giving all these incentives, and the interest rates and all.

I believe—and I know sometimes stuff happens, people get divorced, right?
They didn’t plan on it anyway… maybe they were thinking about it when they bought the house, who knows. But they do, and they have to sell or whatever.

But I think there’s others where the agent could have done some due diligence up front and said:
“Hey, you’re in the Navy. How long do you see yourself here?”
“Two years.”

You do not want to buy that investment, God.

[00:50:34] Emma Horvatincic: And that is what buyers appreciate—I feel like—someone being honest with them.
And then even if they still go and make that decision, ultimately it’s their decision.

[00:50:44] Tracy Hayes: Hopefully they call you to sell it, even though now you’re gonna be stuck with it. It'll be a little hard, yeah.
But because you were honest with them up front and you told them, hopefully they value that.

[00:50:52] Emma Horvatincic: Yeah. I feel like people value honesty.

[00:50:54] Tracy Hayes: I don't think enough agents explain that.
Like, we know going through SilverLeaf, for example… I guarantee with many of the new construction homes, they never even mentioned it to their buyers.
Then they buy it, and all of a sudden they realize it’s gonna be an expressway practically in their backyard.

[00:51:18] Emma Horvatincic: Yes.

[00:51:18] Tracy Hayes: But your reputation’s on the line.
And like you said, you're—what did you say earlier in the conversation?

[00:51:22] Emma Horvatincic: You’re always interviewing.

[00:51:24] Tracy Hayes: You’re always interviewing for the next one.
And that next one may not be that particular couple—it may be them referring somebody.
And if you didn’t tell 'em about the expressway in their backyard, or that construction is gonna go on here for a while, you're gonna lose credibility.

Even if you were super great.

[00:51:56] Emma Horvatincic: Yeah. I haven’t, you know—

[00:51:58] Tracy Hayes: You haven’t been in it yet.
You're working on it though. You're doing great. I like the way you're doing your—

Alright. What are buyers overlooking in high-end home searches right now?

[00:52:09] Emma Horvatincic: Overlooking? I can tell you what they’re looking for.

They’re looking for updates. People want things to feel nice if they’re paying a certain amount of money for a property.
Buyers are looking for realistic sellers, I’d say.

It isn't a few years ago where you could attach a crazy-high number to something and it would fly off the shelf.
I feel like they have a little bit more awareness of, “Oh, this is going to cost this for me to do,” and they factor that in.

On the lines of mitigating expectations—and I have to do this a lot as a listing agent—mind you, I’m present for all my showings.

I don’t crowd, but a lot of my sellers like me to be there to sell their property—especially if it is within my niche.
And I need to communicate value to an agent or buyer who may not understand that.

So when it comes to mitigating expectations: a buyer’s preferences for updates or finishes don’t always devalue the home by that dollar amount.

Just because they want to come in and paint, or change the kitchen—yes, that factors into your offer—but you have to look at what the market is saying.

If XYZ property sold for a certain price per square foot two months ago, and it’s nearly an exact match with similar attributes,
you can attribute that to the subject property.

You can’t devalue a property—especially when there aren’t many of them—just based on what your plans are for it.

[00:53:49] Tracy Hayes: I think you're talking more about the superficial, cosmetic stuff—like painting.

[00:53:53] Emma Horvatincic: Yeah.

[00:53:54] Tracy Hayes: Everyone wants a different color, everyone has their thing.
Now if you go in there and the carpet’s trashed, and it’s a 5,000-square-foot house and the entire floor needs to be ripped out—that's a different story.

[00:54:08] Emma Horvatincic: But I would’ve had my sellers clean that prior.

[00:54:10] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:54:11] Emma Horvatincic: Rip it out and be honest with them so we don’t run into that.

[00:54:21] Tracy Hayes: Are they overlooking opportunity at the moment?

[00:54:24] Emma Horvatincic: Maybe…

[00:54:25] Tracy Hayes: I do know there are some houses—just things that come to mind.
There are some houses along the St. Johns River, for example.

[00:54:33] Emma Horvatincic: Mm-hmm.

[00:54:34] Tracy Hayes: Riverfront properties—so unique. There are only so many of them.

[00:54:38] Emma Horvatincic: They definitely have their quirks.

[00:54:40] Tracy Hayes: Like, does it have a dock or not, or whatever. The house may have been built in the 70s or 80s.
People bought it as their forever home. Now they’ve passed, and the house is being sold.

So, obviously it’s a unique property. The structure is nice, but it has old wallpaper.
Hopefully it’s got nice hardwood floors and not too much else to change.

[00:55:08] Emma Horvatincic: Surface-level finishes.

[00:55:08] Tracy Hayes: But you know, maybe the bathrooms aren’t updated.
Are there some buyers out there looking at those properties thinking, “Oh man, this is a treasure I can love for a long time”?

Because you’re not typically buying waterfront for a two-year stay. That’s a long-term lifestyle.

[00:55:27] Emma Horvatincic: Yeah. I do think with those respective, specific-style properties—yes.
Buyers will have to overlook something if that’s the location and lifestyle they want.

I think it goes back to lifestyle. How badly do you want to be on the water?
Or how badly do you want to have your farm?

There are always going to be tweaks you have to make to a property.
No one property is ever going to be perfect unless you’re finding the land in the exact spot you want and building from the ground up.

[00:55:53] Tracy Hayes: Yep. I always say there’s only one address.
You might have the same model home, but there’s only one version of that address anywhere in the world.

And if you like it, are you going to pay $10,000 more for it? Probably.

[00:56:15] Tracy Hayes: Alright — what is the real ROI on pre-listing renovations going into 2026?

[00:56:18] Emma Horvatincic: Tricky question. Depends.
I think your highest ROI will be your bigger improvements.

Buyers comment a lot—believe it or not—on bathrooms, closets, things feeling modern and accessible in those spaces.
So bigger stuff where you spend most of your time—like a kitchen—if you’re going to redo that, awesome.

But I would probably have a seller do more neutral adjustments, because you’re not going to get every penny back that you’re putting into the property before you list.
Especially not in a bit more of a buyer’s market at the moment.

Make it more accessible, more of a blank slate. Maybe focus on going a little nicer with your finishes—
where you know the buyer is going to really be living…

[00:56:58] Emma Horvatincic: …probably gonna be coming in and updating it themselves anyway. But you do still need to make updates. You still need to paint, adjust—you know, fixtures really help. But you're not gonna get out every dollar that you put in.

And also, how long you've been in the property is going to impact your ROI. If you did a full, floor-to-ceiling, down-to-the-studs renovation in the past two years of being there—great. But you've still only been there two years. It's a little tricky to attribute X-thousand dollars more when someone can see that you just bought it for a certain number.

So I'd say it depends on how long you plan on staying in the property.

[00:57:49] Tracy Hayes: But—

[00:57:49] Emma Horvatincic: Make it livable for you, of course.

[00:57:51] Tracy Hayes: Well, the battle I think—and clarify this for me—that I see, from being on the lending side and at least living with a real estate agent… the battle out there is: we have inventory. Obviously certain addresses, the perfect home, can sell the first weekend.

[00:58:06] Emma Horvatincic: Oh, for sure. Homes are still going under contract with multiple offers.

[00:58:08] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Then there are other homes that are sitting.

[00:58:09] Emma Horvatincic: Mm-hmm.

[00:58:10] Tracy Hayes: And the battle is, “Okay, do I do a renovation?” Say, spend $10,000 on doing whatever—just to move up the timescale.
This house may sit for 90 days, but if I redo the master bedroom, take out that garden tub, make it into a big walk-in shower—or whatever an agent like yourself might recommend—it might be the thing that moves it from taking 90–120 days to only taking 30.

[00:58:45] Emma Horvatincic: Mm-hmm.

[00:58:45] Tracy Hayes: Because I think people also neglect, like—okay, I want to move now. I’ve got my job, they’re gonna put me up for so many days, but my house sits here for 60, 90, 120 days before it sells.
You’re still paying the taxes…

[00:58:59] Emma Horvatincic: Right. Time is money.

[00:59:00] Tracy Hayes: And time is money. You’re still paying taxes, the fees, and so forth during that time.
So if you sold it 90 days sooner because you spent $10,000 on renovations—that’s worth it. Your net loss on the renovation may not be much, if anything.
You might actually get a couple offers and make that money back.

[00:59:24] Emma Horvatincic: Yeah, and I think that also comes down to: what is a seller's desired level of upfront sweat equity, you know? And time, like you mentioned.

Also depends on if this is a primary residence or not. Are they willing to be in the home, living in a little bit of a construction zone, fixing X, Y, Z just to get it ready to sell? Or would they rather price it with that in mind and hope it still moves?

If it doesn't, then reevaluate after a reasonable amount of time. Kind of depends on what their personal timeline is, or where they’re going.

[01:00:01] Tracy Hayes: So for the agents out there, it’s very important to drill down on what are their goals.
Start calculating their expenses, so you can sell or at least advise with facts.

[01:00:15] Emma Horvatincic: Mm-hmm.

[01:00:16] Tracy Hayes: That way, well… there’s always that unknown.
Yeah, you could do that renovation, and it still doesn’t sell. You just don’t know.

[01:00:20] Emma Horvatincic: So then again, it goes back to: how are we positioned against what’s sold?
But also—more importantly in a buyer’s market—how are you positioned against active inventory?
And how long is that active inventory sitting? That’s important to look at. Almost equally as important as what’s sold.

[01:00:39] Tracy Hayes: When you're on a listing appointment right now, or preparing for one—how far back are you looking for comps?
Because with it being such a buyer’s market, people are making concessions, dropping price, and so forth.
So how far back are you really going to say, “Hey, this is what’s selling right now”?

[01:00:58] Emma Horvatincic: Most of the properties I’ve sold this year have truly been my niche—or higher-end luxury.
So with those, you naturally have to go back a little further—maybe six-ish months. Some I’ve had to look back even slightly more. But those are very, very rare and unique properties.

But for your normal property in a community where a lot is selling—three months.

[01:01:24] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. I mean, six months is sometimes a little too long.

[01:01:27] Emma Horvatincic: A little too long because six months ago was summertime. It’s a different market—people wanting to be here before school starts, whatnot.

[01:01:36] Tracy Hayes: Alright. So last year—was it August of ’24?

[01:01:40] Emma Horvatincic: Yeah, August.

[01:01:41] Tracy Hayes: August 2024. We had the NAR commission guidelines come down.
I don’t want to call them rules or laws, 'cause they’re not. They’re guidelines—about real estate commissions.

What makes a Northeast Florida agent worth their commission right now?

[01:01:55] Emma Horvatincic: Truthfully, it’s what they’re doing—for either the seller or the buyer—and how much of themselves they’re really putting into that transaction.

Are they going to bat for you? Are they representing your best interests?
Are they, like I mentioned before, anticipating what you need before you even know you need it?

When I go under contract—and again, I feel like this is pretty bare minimum—but people still appreciate it or say: “Wow, we didn’t have this last time.”

You’d think there’d be more of it out there.

Everyone gets a cumulative email: dates, timelines, recommendations—everything they could need. One-stop shop, ready to go out right away.

And then, throughout the transaction—just being extremely on top of it as much as I can. Knowing when deadlines are coming.
Keeping my buyers and sellers informed.

If I’m on the sell side:
“Hey, appraisal is scheduled for X date.”
Then following up:
“When do we expect to have that in?”

I’m always taking the initiative and the first step. Doesn’t matter which side I’m on.
I’m always the first to move us toward the end goal—which is either selling the property or helping my buyer get it.

[01:03:00] Tracy Hayes: You’re being proactive. Just proactive. And that’s why you’ve had success. That’s why you’re doing well.

I was thinking about that question, because we had talked about it earlier—what kind of good response we'd have.
Right now, there’s insurance… it could be HOA guidelines…

Obviously you’re searching for equestrian properties for some buyers. So you've got all the zoning, the different things you gotta look up.

[01:03:39] Emma Horvatincic: Accessing conservation. How many animals can you have there?

[01:03:42] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. All the above.

So you need an expert—and obviously, in your niche, you do. What I know about that business is—it’s unique.
Kind of like a luxury $5 million buyer. They're very unique, and very few people do it.

You're in a niche. And they need an expert to help them find a property that’s going to be able to do what they need.

Just like an investor might say, “Hey, I'm looking for acreage I can subdivide.”
Well, you need an agent who knows how to go in, dig up stuff on the property, make sure zoning and all that is correct.

And that’s where your expertise comes in.

But I think also, in general, in Northeast Florida—you need to be looking at the list of agents who have been on this show.
They're top-notch. They're gonna guide you through the insurance.

One of the top-producing short reels I had was with Holly Griggs—now with Christie's.

[01:04:35] Emma Horvatincic: Yeah.

[01:04:35] Tracy Hayes: She was talking about portability. You know, for local people moving—especially if you're dealing with older homeowners in some of these luxury properties.
Sometimes they’re moving from a large luxury property to maybe a luxury condo.

What’s the portability?

[01:04:48] Emma Horvatincic: Yeah, there's actually a great company that does that. Yep. Locally, father-son. They do a wonderful job.
They calculate—

[01:04:55] Tracy Hayes: Your portability and everything?

[01:04:56] Emma Horvatincic: They calculate it. They'll go to the county on your behalf and—

[01:05:00] Tracy Hayes: Throw the—

[01:05:00] Emma Horvatincic: Throw the My Exemption check.

[01:05:02] Tracy Hayes: MyExemptionCheck.com?

[01:05:03] Emma Horvatincic: Mm-hmm. MyExemptionCheck.com.

[01:05:06] Tracy Hayes: That’s the name of the—

[01:05:06] Emma Horvatincic: I think it’s .com—I’d have to clear...

[01:05:09] Tracy Hayes: Double. Alright, well you have to get it. I'll put it in the show notes. Okay. My Exemption Check will go and do that. But that's important. If you've got people moving locally to know that—especially if they've been in their property for a number of years, right?

[01:05:22] Emma Horvatincic: Mm-hmm.

[01:05:23] Tracy Hayes: Because property taxes become very sensitive all of a sudden. St. John's County’s getting out of control, for example. But insurance too. The agent's gonna go in there and look at that—“Hey, I know you like that property, but…” Yeah, the roof, as you mentioned—you had a recent buyer who had to negotiate the roof.

[01:05:40] Emma Horvatincic: Mm-hmm.

[01:05:41] Tracy Hayes: Hot water…

[01:05:42] Emma Horvatincic: Mm-hmm.

[01:05:43] Tracy Hayes: I had a client—an agent actually—talking in front of me the other day because the hot water heater was a solar hot water heater. And it's unique and it’s worth about $3,000. It’s actually 19 years old, but the guy serviced it all the time. It's in good condition and it’s in the garage. Can we still get insurance for that?

And obviously, we were talking together and I referred them to insurance agents. And they're like, “Yeah, there's a couple companies that will still do that.” So we don't need that replaced before closing.

[01:06:12] Emma Horvatincic: Mm-hmm. Honestly, if I don't know, I will find the answer. It's part of my job. You know, having been in this business two years, there are so many things I'm still learning and not knowing, but I'm like a sponge. Every transaction teaches me something new. And I think one thing that holds consistent across all of them is it's really just a matter of finding out what's most important to each side and then hopefully everyone being reasonable and meeting in the middle.

[01:06:40] Tracy Hayes: What you've learned in the million-plus dollar homes that you've sold—and it’s not just for the million-dollar homes, I think this goes for any property—but to have the Rolodex of… a lot of people probably don't even know what a Rolodex is.

[01:06:51] Emma Horvatincic: I do. It's just a phrase now, like an old-school thing.

[01:06:54] Tracy Hayes: I'm really aging myself here. You used to take someone’s business card and staple it into the Rolodex or put it in there, and you could flip through it. But now it’s your speed dial on your phone—people who you know, whether they're contractors, or guys who can come in and price a kitchen or say, “Hey, what's it gonna cost to replace the pool equipment?” You need to have those on your speed dial.

[01:07:24] Emma Horvatincic: Oh, absolutely.

[01:07:25] Tracy Hayes: Especially if you're selling some of these luxury homes, so you can have the answer for these people right at that moment. “Oh, it's only gonna cost $2,000 to replace that equipment.”
“Oh, okay, great.” You need someone who's gonna answer those questions—because people will move on. If you get them in love with a property and they just wonder what it’s going to cost—especially when the inspection report comes through—are you going through that and calculating for them?
“Hey, this is really only a couple thousand dollars.”

[01:07:48] Emma Horvatincic: Yeah. Like, “Hey, this looks like a lot, but it really will take so-and-so…”

[01:07:51] Tracy Hayes: 15 minutes. Maybe even a—

[01:07:53] Emma Horvatincic: Handyman. Super quick, easy to knock out. You know?

[01:07:57] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, exactly. You need to have those people on the road. That makes the difference.

[01:08:00] Emma Horvatincic: Multiple people. Yeah, multiple for every category. Because I do feel like buyers—at that higher caliber or any caliber, truthfully—they want some options. I do get people who say, “I want the best, tell me who you would use.” And in that case, I’ll give maybe the person I’ve worked with the most or heard the most about, that I have the most trust in—if I haven’t encountered that particular situation before. But a lot of times they like to shop around, kind of make that decision on their own. And they just look to you for guidance and suggestions. So I always try to provide multiple.

[01:08:32] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[01:08:32] Emma Horvatincic: And it even comes from doing my own research too.

[01:08:35] Tracy Hayes: Doing your own research—and even being surrounded by successful people, as you are at Berkshire Hathaway.

[01:08:39] Emma Horvatincic: Oh, 100%.

[01:08:40] Tracy Hayes: Not so much our network—you know what? I had someone, I asked my coworker...

[01:08:43] Emma Horvatincic: Mm-hmm.

[01:08:44] Tracy Hayes: She’s got 20 years in the business. She just had someone replace their flooring, and they were bragging about it…

[01:08:49] Emma Horvatincic: Mm-hmm.

[01:08:50] Tracy Hayes: And got more for their home. Let me see who she used.

[01:08:53] Emma Horvatincic: Mm-hmm.

[01:08:54] Tracy Hayes: You know, that type of thing.

[01:08:55] Emma Horvatincic: Yeah, exactly. I always ask for suggestions if I don’t have a personal contact. We have a great network and people reply.

[01:09:01] Tracy Hayes: Alright, last one of the trending questions. Kind of blends into the discussion we just had:
What are red flags buyers and sellers should watch for in agent selection right now?

[01:09:15] Emma Horvatincic: I would say—this is arguably people’s largest investment, largest decision. It can set you up for years to come.
So trust that with the right person. We live in such a fleeting world where people make quick judgments based on what they see on social media. So I would encourage everyone to do a little more digging, a little more research.

What is your agent’s track record? What are their clients saying about them? What have they sold? If you're in a certain market—how did they sell it? Get specific success stories.

I bring a resume pretty much everywhere I go. And it's just a good conversation starter. And I think it legitimizes you and gives you a certain degree of credibility.

[01:10:11] Tracy Hayes: I heard being on podcasts gives you legitimacy too.

[01:10:14] Emma Horvatincic: Well, here I am! Talking and listening to your agent—kind of test them. Are they a true expert?

And you don’t have to know everything about everything, but I feel like it goes back to: those buyers and sellers are working with you.
How responsive are you?
They're working with your personality, how you're interacting with them.

[01:10:39] Tracy Hayes: I think this goes beyond just—we’ve been talking a lot about your niche, but I think it goes beyond that.

[01:10:44] Emma Horvatincic: Yeah, 'cause I work with—

[01:10:46] Tracy Hayes: New construction buyers. This is the biggest—talk about red flags—you’re going into new construction.
You need to have an experienced real estate agent in that area who knows the different builders.

[01:11:00] Emma Horvatincic: Mm-hmm.

[01:11:13] Tracy Hayes: Certain subdivisions—you might be with the same builder but in two different subdivisions with two different supers. One knows how to do it, does the final walkthrough, checks everything, is proactive and present. And in another subdivision, you’ve got Joe Schmo who's just, you know, whatever.

[01:11:23] Emma Horvatincic: I do think we honed in on my niche a lot, which is wonderful. Truthfully, it is my passion—coming from riding, competing, that sort of thing. But those qualities I get from that world I attribute to every transaction. The same detail-oriented, the same white-glove service, the same anticipating what someone needs before they need it—I give that to every buyer and seller I have the privilege of working with, and at all price points.

Yes, my niche and my history riding and training have helped me serve those sellers and buyers even better. But it also helps me serve those who may not be in that niche even better as well.

[01:12:09] Tracy Hayes: No, I totally agree with you. Emma, I'm honored to have sat down with you today—to get to know you. I'm excited about what you're gonna be doing. Long time after I’m gone, yeah. You’re not going anywhere. You’ve got your plan A.

Anyone listening right now—she’s got a niche because it’s what she grew up doing. You love it. You love the horses. You love the equestrian life. So you found this unique thing. And the great thing is, a lot of times, they’re higher price points, right? That’s exciting as a real estate agent.

But if you’re a real estate agent out there, you have to find your niche. Like you said—it might be soccer. You might be at the little league field. I don’t care what your sphere is.

[01:12:48] Emma Horvatincic: It applies. It really applies. I do think, for me, my age bracket—my immediate sphere when I started—was not people I knew. I had to go and forge those relationships and take that first step, kind of like we spoke about at the beginning.

And for me, that started with quite literally studying. I would sit in the office and study the property appraiser for hours, and that information is still with me. Just knowing the areas, knowing where people are, what they're looking for, and starting open-ended conversations.

And then always staying in touch. You have to follow up. You have to be persistent. One time I was called “relentless,” but very nicely—so I’ll take that as a compliment. But it ended up well. I sat down and was able to attribute $8 million of my production this year to what I was doing in September of 2024.

[01:13:51] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[01:13:51] Emma Horvatincic: And it’s mind-boggling for me to sit down and look at that—because when I was doing those actions, I wasn’t necessarily thinking, “Oh, this is going to result in X amount in the future.” It was just—“These few people, I know I can help them get where they want to be.”

So I’m going to consistently make myself available and make that happen. And the results come. Period. If you're working—and be honest with yourself—if you're working, working, working, the results will follow.

I have to write that down as well to remember it anytime I have lulls. Because granted, I’m still new. I do have months where there are lulls. But if you're still working—and if I look back and say, “Oh my gosh, over a year ago I can attribute things to what I did back then that are happening now in December”—that’s pretty incredible. And that’s what I love about this business.

[01:14:46] Tracy Hayes: You have a—I'm gonna call it a trait or a skill—that many of the great agents have. I’ve had a lot of single moms on here, and they’ve totally owned the single mom thing.

[01:14:58] Emma Horvatincic: There’s nothing wrong with owning what you’re good at.

[01:15:01] Tracy Hayes: You're there every day. You've got your kids. You're at the ball field or whatever it is—you’re there. Don’t be staring off into space—have a conversation with somebody. Let them know you’re in real estate.

Last September’s conversation could suddenly become, “Oh, you know what? I just got a job transfer. I need you to list my house.”

[01:15:20] Emma Horvatincic: And it truthfully comes from also not being transactional-based, but relationship-based. And just wanting to help. That’s the core of the business. And when you reflect that—when you’re coming from that angle—people pick up on it. They know that you’re really there for them.

And that’s what will never go out of style. I’ve always believed—

[01:15:41] Tracy Hayes: You make people…

[01:15:44] Emma Horvatincic: How you make people feel.

[01:15:45] Tracy Hayes: Yes. John Maxwell says in “25 Ways to Influence People”—one of them is introducing people to other people. When you're talking to someone, man, you're really making them feel important. You're having a conversation with them. They feel important.

And they may refer you even if they never actually become your customer—because they just moved in and they’re going to stay there for 20 years. But they know people. And they’re talking to people. Everyone’s talking about real estate.

Things are moving. This is a very transient area—people are moving in and out. Whether it's the Navy, or corporations that are here in town. If the rates drop, we’ll see more internal moves like we were seeing in 2020—people moving from Nocatee or out of Nocatee, or whatever that kind of thing.

[01:16:45] Tracy Hayes: I really appreciate you coming on today. It was great to get to know you.

[01:16:49] Emma Horvatincic: Thank you.

[01:16:50] Tracy Hayes: This was a fun discussion.

[01:16:53] Emma Horvatincic: I hope I get to just keep doing what I’m doing—because I love it.

[01:16:58] Tracy Hayes: Appreciate you coming on.

[01:17:00] Emma Horvatincic: Thank you.