Jamie McLaughlin: From Classroom to Closing - Top St Johns Cty Realtor

REE #293 Transcript

[00:00:00] Jamie McLaughlin:
I wanna form a relationship with a customer. So if you don't like me or my style or my beliefs or things like that, then I'm sure there's somebody else that's a perfect fit for you. But it's not me, and I'm not going to necessarily give you the best price because I see value in the things that I do in my time as well. Right. And what I can offer. So,

[00:00:19] Tracy Hayes:

[00:00:46] Tracy Hayes:
Hey, welcome back to the Real Estate Excellence Podcast, where we bring you conversations with the best agents, coaches, and leaders making the difference in Northeast Florida real estate. Today's guest is someone who knows the community inside and out. She's not just a real estate professional. She's a lifelong resident of St. John's County here in Florida, who has dedicated her life to guiding, teaching and serving others in every season of life.

Before stepping into the world of real estate, she spent years in the classroom as a middle school math teacher, blending structure, patience, and care in everything she did. Now, she brings that same clarity and compassion to every transaction, making the process feel less like a sale and more like a service.

She also is a passionate mentor, coaching young athletes on the volleyball court and leading students of faith through her church. Whether she's empowering buyers and sellers or shaping the next generation, her commitment to excellence never waivers—focused on faith, family, and your future.

Please welcome to the show, Jamie McLaughlin.

[00:01:45] Jamie McLaughlin:
Thank you. Thank you. Happy to be here.

[00:01:48] Tracy Hayes:
Yes. Welcome. Glad to get you on. We have scheduled for a month now.

[00:01:51] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes. The volleyball season I thought was actually gonna be over. And today we are. We've made it in the playoffs.

[00:01:57] Tracy Hayes:
Oh, good. Good. And now—

[00:01:58] Jamie McLaughlin:
—we have our regional quarterfinal game tonight. I'm like, oh, I told him, "What's pushing out?" And we got a game today, but we're good.

[00:02:05] Tracy Hayes:
Well, Murphy's Law.

[00:02:05] Jamie McLaughlin:
Murphy's Law, yes.

[00:02:07] Tracy Hayes:
My wife told me yesterday something, she goes, "I was hoping to have this a little off this week," and all of a sudden woke up Monday morning and the phone's blowing up.

[00:02:14] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

[00:02:15] Tracy Hayes:
Right. Another listing conversation—that's what always happens. Jamie, give us—yeah, I want everyone to know, you know, because Florida is a very transient state.

We have a lot of—we know down south, you know, if you wear a Yankees hat, you're like, you're in New York City, because we know a lot of our New Yorker friends live all over the state of Florida actually.

Yes. I'm from New York. I was born in New York.

[00:02:35] Jamie McLaughlin:
Mm.

[00:02:35] Tracy Hayes:
But, so I could say that. But, you moved here at a very young age.

[00:02:39] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yep.

[00:02:39] Tracy Hayes:
Moved into St. John's County. You’ve seen it grow. Tell us a little bit—

[00:02:39] Tracy Hayes:
About—I know we were talking pre-show with Tom a little bit—you know, when you first came here, what St. John's County was like, and blend that a little bit into your ability to express that to your buyers and sellers that are coming from out of state.

[00:03:02] Jamie McLaughlin:
Okay, so back in 1992, I lived in Miami, and Hurricane Andrew knocked us out of there.

[00:03:08] Tracy Hayes:
Oh yes.

[00:03:08] Jamie McLaughlin:
So my parents decided we like Florida, but like, we have to get out of the hurricane alley. So we moved up to Julington Creek. I was seven at the time and have been here ever since. I went away to college, where I met my husband at FSU, and I said, "Come on back to Jacksonville if you wanna marry me."

So I have been here my whole life, basically.

[00:03:30] Tracy Hayes:
Where's your husband from? I can't remember.

[00:03:32] Jamie McLaughlin:
He's moved all over. He was in Alabama, and then he was in Washington and Tennessee. And then—okay. His family actually lives here now, so all of the family is within like three to five miles of each other, which is awesome.

But it has been crazy how much growth there has been. When I started school, there was only Julington Creek Elementary School, and Switzerland Point and Nease High School were like the main ones.

[00:03:53] Tracy Hayes:
Right.

[00:03:53] Jamie McLaughlin:
And it's crazy how many schools are everywhere and how fast the growth has happened. That’s what Tom and I were talking about earlier.

You know, remember when it was a dirt road down here? And there was only, you know, one store—it was the Food Lion—and all of that. But it's been helpful to be raised here, to know the ins and outs of the area.

There are neighborhoods that have been built and I’m like, "Wasn’t that kind of a swamp?" You know? So I can kind of point people in the right direction as well, of what areas fit their specific needs.

[00:04:26] Tracy Hayes:
Well, I think—I don’t think people actually realize it because you’ve been here long enough.

[00:04:30] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yep.

[00:04:31] Tracy Hayes:
All of St. John’s County is really—you have to bring in fill.

[00:04:34] Jamie McLaughlin:
Oh yeah.

[00:04:35] Tracy Hayes:
There’s very few places that you don’t need fill if you’re gonna build a house or anything—a shopping center or whatever. You gotta bring in fill because it is a lot of wetland.

[00:04:46] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

[00:04:47] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.

[00:04:47] Jamie McLaughlin:
For sure.

[00:04:48] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah. And I—

[00:04:48] Jamie McLaughlin:
I mean, they're doing a great job doing that. And these neighborhoods are awesome. But the growth has been crazy. Especially like—COVID on—it has been insane how many new neighborhoods are popping up.

And it's almost like you have to go out and drive around every other week just to see, like, whoa, there's 10 new ones. What else is coming on? And they're opening different phases.

[00:05:09] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:05:09] Jamie McLaughlin:
There's a ton of options for new construction. I would—

[00:05:11] Tracy Hayes:
Imagine—

[00:05:11] Tracy Hayes:
Your degree was in education, so—

[00:05:14] Jamie McLaughlin:
I actually went to school to be a marketing major.

[00:05:17] Tracy Hayes:
Oh.

[00:05:17] Jamie McLaughlin:
Which is helpful in real estate. And I did an internship in—
They actually told me that I was gonna market for the Florida Suns, the baseball team.

[00:05:24] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah, it was the Suns back then.

[00:05:25] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah, yeah. And they sent me on the side of the road and said, "Go knock on doors and sell tickets." And I was like, this is not what I went to college for. I thought I was gonna market and design stuff and do all of that.

[00:05:41] Tracy Hayes:
You gotta pay your dues.

[00:05:44] Jamie McLaughlin:
I did not feel safe knocking on doors saying, "Hi, do you wanna buy a $30 Suns ticket?"
Mm-hmm. So, I told my husband, I've always loved helping kids and teaching, so I was like, I think I’m gonna go back and be a teacher.

So I got a job as a math teacher in St. John's County. Just growing up here, I knew a lot of the previous teachers. And the principal—I actually, was one of my teachers.

So when an opening came, I think it was like five days after school started—a teacher had to quit real quick 'cause of family reasons. And they’re like, “We need somebody desperately. Do you wanna come in?”

I’m like, sure. I’ve never taught. I don’t know, you know, anything about it.

[00:06:20] Tracy Hayes:
You just went to school for many years, so you've seen it done.

[00:06:24] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes, exactly. Yeah. So I had three years to get my professional teaching certificate. And during that time I learned the specific education classes and all that. But I love teaching. It's so much fun.

[00:06:36] Tracy Hayes:
Well, that’s not uncommon right now either, because unfortunately—and I’m sure you know, you're seeing it out there, you're feeling it—the cost of living.

Although teachers want to teach in our schools in St. John’s County—’cause obviously I live there too, right? And my kids are St. John’s County students—
You really need the spouse who is making an income to be able to afford to live in St. John’s County.

[00:07:00] Jamie McLaughlin:
A hundred percent.

[00:07:01] Tracy Hayes:
And we’re not—we’re not New York City. It’s just the median price point of a home, with obviously—you add taxes, and of course a lot of St. John’s County is in a planned urban development.

[00:07:11] Jamie McLaughlin:
Right.

[00:07:12] Tracy Hayes:
You got HOAs and CDD and all that kind of stuff.

[00:07:15] Jamie McLaughlin:
Right.

[00:07:16] Tracy Hayes:
Which does drive—but obviously, and well, since we’re on this particular topic—
Since you started in ’21 to today, have you had some situations where insurance has played a factor in, you know, either getting a deal closed or maybe disqualifying someone on a particular home because the insurance is gonna be too high? Have you seen that?

[00:07:33] Jamie McLaughlin:
Definitely. As well as, like, the fees.
A lot of the CDD fees—like, people will come in and say, “I cannot have $3,300 a month in CDD fees,” and then HOA on top of that, plus the insurance and flood.

And it’s like, I’m paying over $10,000 just in extra on top of, you know, my monthly mortgage. So there’s a lot.

[00:07:53] Tracy Hayes:
So that’s a great hole to go down right now, because I know personally, I know people who have come in and said, “Oh, we don’t wanna live in a CDD.”

[00:08:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d):
But then they end up buying in a CDD because of the amenities that are there. And that’s the lifestyle. Right?

Now obviously, affordability was in their affordable range to do that, but some of these communities—and obviously, you know, over the last three years too—the cost of everything has gone up.

So CDDs—just like a county maintaining the roads—the cost to do a road five years ago versus doing it today...

[00:08:00] Tracy Hayes:
...you know, that—that was all driven, all these different, you know, fees to different levels that have, you know, cut people off.

[00:08:34] Jamie McLaughlin:
Right.

[00:08:34] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.

[00:08:34] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah. I mean, I do feel like it's buyer-specific. You know, what are your priorities? Do you have kids? Are you gonna be at the pool all the time?

Let’s do the CDD fees where you don’t have to maintain your own pool, because that’s expensive too, you know?
Yeah—as far as your electricity, if it's heated, and your chemicals and all that.

So I think that there's quite a bit who see the value in all the things—if they’re going to use them.

[00:09:00] Jamie McLaughlin (cont’d):
And it hasn't been too—like Rivertown, for example. Families love it, and they're like, "I don't care what that costs. I can go to the gym there, I can go to three different pools. I feel like I'm at a resort sitting on the river."

So they can kind of cut out some other things like gym memberships and their own pool. So it kind of—it’s net neutral there.

[00:09:18] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah. No, I heard yesterday there's quite a few homes right now. Talk—talk about inventory a little bit.
Rivertown had like 140 homes—

[00:09:28] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

[00:09:28] Tracy Hayes:
—in there.

[00:09:29] Jamie McLaughlin:
And they're still building in there.

[00:09:30] Tracy Hayes:
Oh yeah.

[00:09:30] Jamie McLaughlin:
Well, that's the hardest part. The resale can’t compete with the new construction.

[00:09:36] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.

[00:09:36] Jamie McLaughlin:
Because they probably bought at a higher price point, and they're offering so many incentives—as far as like your rate buy-downs and $40,000 in closing costs and things like that—that like resale...

[00:09:49] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.

[00:09:49] Jamie McLaughlin:
...can’t compete there.

[00:09:51] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah. How do you handle a customer—because I think this is very important, and I've asked this before—not consistent on every episode, but I think it’s important for the agents who are listening.

If you missed it in the previous episode, you’ve gotta really, right now, knowing what we know based on, you know, these communities where they’re still building—

You nearly have to drill down with a person. Like, how long do you see yourself here?
Are you active duty and you might be here for a year or two, and you want to buy a new construction home in a community that’s probably going to be building for the next five or six years?

Are you digging deep with them to hopefully avoid a possible situation that they might have in a year or two?

[00:10:33] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes. Yeah, 100%.
When we do like our buyer's consultation, I usually ask, "What are your short-term goals? What are your long-term goals?"

And for example, I had one who is in the military, and he's like, “I'm getting out in three years.”
And in Rivertown, I was like, “I don’t know that you're gonna get your money’s worth if you sell in three years, because there's still so much growth happening here.”

[00:11:00] Jamie McLaughlin (cont’d):
And he ran the numbers, and we were able to get him such a great rate that he's like, “I'm gonna keep this forever, even if I don't live here, and rent—because this monthly mortgage is awesome.”

[00:11:04] Tracy Hayes:
Right.

[00:11:05] Jamie McLaughlin:
So I’m like, “Okay, great. As long as you know.”

[00:11:07] Tracy Hayes:
Well yeah, he planned it out, and he saw himself—
"Well, if I don’t live here, I’ll just make it an investment property."

[00:11:12] Jamie McLaughlin:
Exactly.

[00:11:13] Tracy Hayes:
’Cause I got a really low rate.

[00:11:13] Tracy Hayes:
...a little bit of cash on it.

[00:11:15] Jamie McLaughlin:
Right.

[00:11:16] Tracy Hayes:
Over time. So that's a winner. But I think sometimes agents who are not as—I don’t know if they're confident—mm-hmm—or it's a lack of control over their buyer, but to ask a few extra questions—

[00:11:30] Jamie McLaughlin:
Mm-hmm.

[00:11:31] Tracy Hayes:
Because when it goes to—hopefully they call you when they want to sell it, right? Hopefully it’s not, “Hey…”

And I think you and I could probably rattle off five or six neighborhoods right now where they're having a huge hard time, right, selling existing homes because of the—
Obviously, incentives and the price point of the builders.

They’re not rolling in it right now. You might see their number of sales, but it's because they are really running on thin margins.

[00:12:00] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes. Yeah, I agree with that.

I have just been blessed, to be honest, as far as buyers and sellers, to only work with people that I know or referrals or like word of mouth through friends.

So it's almost like I feel more invested, ’cause I have a relationship with them.

I’m like, I wanna make sure—like, I want to be your friend forever.
So I don't want to be in this situation where in a year you’re like, “Why didn’t you say this to me?”

[00:12:23] Tracy Hayes:
So you have a little more frank conversation.

[00:12:25] Jamie McLaughlin:
Exactly.
Yeah. I'm usually like, “Listen, I’m gonna say the hard things.”

Or like, when I’m selling your home, I’m going to give you the hard feedback that might hurt your feelings a little bit, but this is what buyers are gonna say.

[00:12:36] Tracy Hayes:
Kind of a—

[00:12:36] Jamie McLaughlin:
—thing. Right.
But I'm saying this lovingly ’cause I want what’s best for you, you know?

[00:12:41] Tracy Hayes:
Well, and it’s easy—
You’re getting a lot of at-bats right now. But talking to the agents who do—
Might take a Zillow lead or whatever...

[00:12:48] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah.

[00:12:49] Tracy Hayes:
Would you agree it’s important to be the professional, and sometimes you gotta tell them what they need to hear, not necessarily what they want to hear?

[00:12:59] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

[00:13:00] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes. 100%.

[00:13:01] Tracy Hayes:
Yes. And there's a tactful way of doing that.

[00:13:03] Jamie McLaughlin:
Right.

[00:13:04] Tracy Hayes:
But—obviously telling them some stories.
Like we get, “Hey, you know, in the last year we’re seeing homes sit.”

People have to take losses on homes because they got moved out of the country and now they gotta sell.

So they’re like, “Whatever. We put 20, 30% down, so we’re just gonna pay off the mortgage.”

And they’re eating that—$50, $60, $100,000.
Maybe not—hopefully not that much—but they’re eating some of that just to get rid—

[00:13:29] Tracy Hayes:
...of the house and get that off their—

[00:13:32] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah. Report.
We had one in my neighborhood, it just closed two days ago.
And they bought it in January for $750, and it just sold two days ago for $640.

And I was like, oh, my heart breaks for those people. Why’d they have to leave so soon? I have no idea the situation, but I’m like, gosh...

[00:13:48] Tracy Hayes:
That was—yeah, that’s not a good...

[00:13:50] Jamie McLaughlin:
...investment.

[00:13:51] Tracy Hayes:
Exactly.
But the point I think we want to get across is—
Agents, you're learning this.

You know, I think the average agent’s probably got less than five years in the business right now that’s out there actively.

[00:14:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d):
Right? Obviously, we've got some senior agents, but average time in—

And so you're seeing this right now. Take note so you can better educate your buyers and strategically, you know, put them in the right area if they have a short-term—or if they have a long-term goal.

[00:14:20] Jamie McLaughlin:
Right.

[00:14:20] Tracy Hayes:
Not really a big deal.

[00:14:21] Jamie McLaughlin:
Well, and I think it’s easier to have the hard conversations up front so they know, versus being halfway into it and then being like, “Wait, I didn’t even think about that.”

Especially with listings, I usually am like, “It’s gonna take a little bit of time,” versus saying, “We’re gonna sell this next week,” and then when it doesn’t, it’s a harder conversation to have and go back.
“Okay, well you said it was gonna be faster.”

If I set your expectations properly from the beginning, it’s a lot easier to—

[00:14:49] Tracy Hayes:
—navigate that, 100%.

And let’s drill down on it.
I almost—I always like to get everyone’s little ideology on it, because every transaction’s different.

[00:15:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d):
You’ve been in the business about a little over four years?

[00:15:03] Jamie McLaughlin:
Four, yeah.

[00:15:04] Tracy Hayes:
If I remember correctly from your LinkedIn.

[00:15:06] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah.

[00:15:07] Tracy Hayes:
And if you don’t have your LinkedIn up to speed—and if you want help, I will help you with that. Give me a call.

Agents that are listening, if you go into ChatGPT and say, “Hey, I need to create a LinkedIn account,” or “I have a LinkedIn account, I need to make it better,” it’ll walk you through it.

[00:15:20] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah.

[00:15:21] Tracy Hayes:
And give you a bio and everything.
Yours—yours is decent.

But you'd be amazed how many agents that are out there right now—it’s still talking about their old brokerage, and now they’re at a different brokerage and they haven’t updated it.

[00:15:36] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yep.

[00:15:36] Tracy Hayes:
And I believe LinkedIn is very simple.
You don’t—you wanna set it, don’t forget it, but you want to—
You can set it, and they don’t have to do much often to it.

But I think posting on LinkedIn is important.
We were talking about blogging earlier.

[00:15:50] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah.

[00:15:51] Tracy Hayes:
You wanna start blogging? You can.
You have—there’s a little section under your bio...

[00:16:00] Tracy Hayes:
...for a newsletter. I use mine all the time.
Yeah, you'll be on there, because we will talk about the show, and I’ll create a blog and stick on there about how great Jamie is in St. John’s County.

[00:16:11] Jamie McLaughlin:
Mm-hmm.

[00:16:12] Tracy Hayes:
But you can blog on there, and people—people are gonna see those articles.
And it does give you—but anyway, get off my LinkedIn tangent there.

I just think that’s one of the biggest, simplest things that every agent needs to do.

[00:16:25] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah.

[00:16:26] Tracy Hayes:
Because I—you know, where you’re getting referred, but you might be referred to someone who you actually don’t know.

[00:16:32] Jamie McLaughlin:
Right.

[00:16:33] Tracy Hayes:
Your friend refers you—it doesn’t mean they’re not going on to LinkedIn, YouTube, whatever, and searching “Who’s Jamie?”
Who did my friend just refer me to?

[00:16:37] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

[00:16:38] Tracy Hayes:
That’s—

[00:16:38] Jamie McLaughlin:
A hundred percent.

[00:16:39] Tracy Hayes:
The Google and—

[00:16:39] Jamie McLaughlin:
Having that backed up.

[00:16:41] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.
All right, where was I? I got off on a slight tangent.
Foreshadowing. Okay—setting expectations.

[00:16:46] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

[00:16:47] Tracy Hayes:
You’re going in this buyer consultation, and in this case, you said you're referred a lot, so a lot of times there’s already a common ground, right?
You know this particular person.

[00:16:56] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yep.

[00:16:57] Tracy Hayes:
And you tread over some of the same turf.

What is your ideology when you go in there—this call it a buyer’s consultation—what are some of the things that you really focus on making sure you foreshadow, you set the expectations on up front in that first 20–30 minutes that you might be talking to them?

[00:17:19] Jamie McLaughlin:
I would say I’m trying to get a good feel of exactly what they’re looking for, first of all.
Typically, if it’s a couple, they’re looking for different things, so trying to find the happy medium.

Setting the expectations that we have a dream list, and then we might need to come back to reality based off of what your price point is.

I think it’s super important for them to talk to a lender first.
Because if we are not even in the right ballpark price point when they do their monthly numbers, like—we’re wasting our time looking at these fancy houses when we can only afford, you know, something in this price point.

So always I’m like, “Have you spoken with a lender?”
And if you have not, you need to do that first to know exactly what budget we should be shopping in.

[00:18:01] Tracy Hayes:
I find a lot of agents are kind of shy from asking just some of the basic stuff that a lender’s always going to ask.

[00:18:08] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah.

[00:18:09] Tracy Hayes:
Obviously, I’ve done 20 years of—
You know, “How much money are you gonna put down?”
“Well, where’s that money coming from?”

Because obviously I might expose that they’re selling another house, right?

[00:18:17] Jamie McLaughlin:
Right, right, right.

[00:18:18] Tracy Hayes:
You know? But to know some of those—those basic parameters in conversation so you aren’t caught off guard when they’re done talking to the lender, and the lender calls you back and says, “Well, okay, we need to find a house where the seller’s gonna pay all the closing—"

[00:18:30] Tracy Hayes:
...costs ’cause they don’t have any money.

[00:18:33] Jamie McLaughlin:
Right?

[00:18:34] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.

[00:18:34] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes. Yeah. No, I feel like that's super important.
And I usually go in ahead of time—like, what's most important?
“Oh, it’s your monthly?” Okay.

Have you run something lately to see at 6% or 6.5% what you can afford with that down payment?
Because in your mind, you might think $500,000, and it’s really $350,000.

[00:18:52] Tracy Hayes:
Right. By the—yeah. By the time you—yeah.

That’s another thing I think to educate those that are out there—not that you haven’t been told—it’s really the payment that is in their mind.

[00:19:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d):
Especially right now.
Where, you know, for years there—
When I worked for one of the major builders in town, oh, you had, you know, $2,000 payment—taxes, insurance, no big deal.

Now we’re talking—we’re getting paid, you know—$3,000 payments.

[00:19:15] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah. That’s a totally different ball game.

[00:19:18] Tracy Hayes:
You know, and that’s—

[00:19:20] Jamie McLaughlin:
Being generous.
Yeah, I feel like we’re more in the three to four.

[00:19:23] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah. That’s basic. Yeah, we’re—
The $3,600 always is the—

[00:19:27] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah.

[00:19:27] Tracy Hayes:
—to—yeah.

And where does that play in in their grand scheme of things?
You know, they may actually be—because we can approve them, many people, for more than what actually is comfortable for them.

We don’t—’cause you and I don’t know how often they go out to dinner, correct?

[00:19:41] Jamie McLaughlin:
Right.

[00:19:41] Tracy Hayes:
Well, I eventually find out what their car payments are, the other things they like to do.
You know, we live in Florida.

They—how many times they go over to Disney World?
We know people—practically—they go over there every month, right?

[00:19:53] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes, for sure.
I’ve actually had two transactions in this past few months that were my students—which I love so much.

[00:20:00] Jamie McLaughlin (cont’d):
I taught them, and I’m like, “Wait—how are you old enough to be buying a house?”
Like, just got married, having a baby, ready to buy their first home.

And we were doing the numbers and stuff, and I’m like, oh my gosh, how do you kids afford these things?
This is insane how high it is now.

[00:20:15] Tracy Hayes:
It’s stretching. There’s no doubt.

And obviously, they say we’re at record credit card debt.

[00:20:20] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah.

[00:20:21] Tracy Hayes:
I always remember back in—in 2005 and ’06 and ’07—I was working at Quicken Loans at the time, so I was talking to people all over the country.

[00:20:30] Tracy Hayes (cont’d):
And we were refinancing them and taking $50,000–$60,000 cash out to consolidate debt. Now—

[00:20:30] Tracy Hayes:
It was saving hugely on a monthly basis, right?
But no faster than were they paying it off—they were right back out there, because they overbought.
They overstretched themselves.

They had to buy that Escalade versus just buying a RAV4 or something like that, you know?

[00:20:45] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

[00:20:46] Tracy Hayes:
Type of thing. And—the "beat the Joneses" scenario there.
To be outside—

[00:20:56] Jamie McLaughlin:
Their means. It's tough.

[00:20:58] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah, for sure. Yeah.
You know, so—

[00:21:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d):
Back to the—so we’re in that buyer’s consultation, setting the expectations.
So we kind of got off on a slight tangent.

We’re asking about—“Hey, how much are you looking to put down?”
’Cause this helps you strategize the offer too.

[00:21:14] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

[00:21:15] Tracy Hayes:
And yes—in today—
Well actually, I don’t even think it’s any different.

There’s no doubt over the years how often I’ve gotten calls and then had to call the agent and go back and say,
“Okay, they don’t have any money,” or “They only have $10,000 to their name.”

[00:21:30] Tracy Hayes (cont’d):
We need to get the seller to—if they can—pay all the costs, so they’re not going in there and writing a $10,000 check and they have nothing in their bank account when they move in that house.

[00:21:41] Jamie McLaughlin:
Right. Yep. Yeah.

So these types of conversations—but again, back to setting the expectations of, you know, what to expect as far as from you,
but what to expect in a real estate transaction.

[00:21:48] Jamie McLaughlin:
Oh, well that’s where I feel like the teaching comes in.
I have my whole booklet and I’m like, “Okay, here’s how the whole transaction process goes.”

First we do this, and then there’s these three contingency windows.

[00:22:00] Jamie McLaughlin (cont’d):
And so I like to spend a solid two hours in person, you know, going through exactly what all it’s going to entail.
And then as we start looking, I can also say, “Okay, I forgot to tell you this,” you know—because there’s so much.

And every transaction is different, based off of if you go the new construction route or if you do the resale.
And also how to structure offers.

Like I just had an FHA, and they only had the 3.5% down.
Well then, we need to find somebody who’s going to be willing to pay the closing costs, you know, and offer concession for that.

[00:22:34] Jamie McLaughlin (cont’d):
So there’s a lot of different stuff that really—I think it’s just the constant communication.
And as things arise, talking about them and just setting the expectations and teaching them, really, how it all goes.

[00:22:44] Tracy Hayes:
What have you found—because like you said, every transaction is different—so you’re learning the different curveballs of every possible transaction you have.

Can you think of a situation that you’ve had that really—I mean—rocked your transaction?

[00:23:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d):
Maybe not necessarily caused it to blow up, but maybe it did.
And obviously now you’re going back and you’re telling customers, “Hey, I had a customer two years ago and this is what happened, so I would suggest we do this.”

Have you had something like that?

[00:23:14] Jamie McLaughlin:
I have actually had two recently that were more of a concern of repairs.

[00:23:19] Jamie McLaughlin (cont’d):
And so I think in hindsight, I wish I would’ve been a little bit more aggressive as far as when I was doing my listing consultation to point out, “Hey, if this is an issue, how are we going to solve this?”

Because we ended up with an FHA offer...

[00:23:19] Jamie McLaughlin:
...and things had to be repaired—

[00:23:21] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:23:21] Jamie McLaughlin:
—in order to get loan approval. And so they didn’t have the money for that.
And we were like finding all types of quotes.
We ended up finding somebody who would do the work and then get paid out of the closing proceeds.

But that—that was one where I was like, I don’t think I set their expectations good enough.
Like, you need to know that you’re probably going to have to fix this.

[00:24:00] Jamie McLaughlin (cont’d):
So then when it did come back, they were a little shocked.

[00:24:03] Tracy Hayes:
Right. As far—

[00:24:03] Jamie McLaughlin:
—as far as that.
But then on the flip side, we were just in the buyer's line, and it was the same.
And I’m like, “You have to fix this.”
And now that you know that the floor is sinking, you have to disclose it legally.

So they had to pay $20,000 to Ram Jack to raise the house up—’cause it was communicated.

[00:24:20] Tracy Hayes:
So—so did you—did they do that before they put it on the market or...

[00:24:23] Jamie McLaughlin:
No.

[00:24:24] Tracy Hayes:
So they waited until an offer came in.

[00:24:26] Jamie McLaughlin:
So on the buy side—we were the buyers.

And we put an offer in, but we said, “I’m pretty sure that this is gonna need to be repaired.”
And once the inspector came out, he said, “Yes, it does.”

So they—I mean, the seller was awesome. He fixed it all.

[00:24:42] Tracy Hayes:
What was the price point of that home?

[00:24:43] Jamie McLaughlin:
$445,000.

[00:24:46] Tracy Hayes:
Alright, so kind of in the mid-range.
And here’s the lesson:
One—you gotta be working with your lender.

In this case...

[00:24:54] Jamie McLaughlin:
Mm-hmm.

[00:24:55] Tracy Hayes:
...you’ve gotta have a lender who’s on their toes, who can help you work through this.

[00:25:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d):
Because obviously it sounds like the sellers didn’t have cash on hand.
They might’ve had equity, but not cash on hand.

And your buyers were going minimal money down.
And it’s not necessarily that FHA is the reason why—

You gotta realize if someone’s typically doing FHA, they’re generally making a lower down payment.

[00:25:19] Jamie McLaughlin:
Right.

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

[00:25:20] Jamie McLaughlin:
Correct.

[00:25:21] Tracy Hayes:
So—yes.
Even on a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac one, where you’re putting 3% or 5% down, they’re going to be particular about that.

Back in the day, you know, someone was putting 30–40% down on a house, and there was some sort of cosmetic—
Or just, you know, something that was minor like the fogging of the windows or something like that—

[00:25:40] Jamie McLaughlin:
Right.

[00:25:41] Tracy Hayes:
They’re like, “Oh, whatever, they’re putting 30–40% down, drive on—we don’t need that fixed.”

Right now, they are more particular—

[00:25:50] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

[00:25:50] Tracy Hayes:
—even if they are putting 30–40% down.
They want—they want some of those things repaired.

But I’m a big supporter of the...

[00:26:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d):
...pre-listing inspection.

[00:26:01] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah.

[00:26:02] Tracy Hayes:
Have you—have you done any of those? What’s your thoughts on that?

[00:26:05] Jamie McLaughlin:
I haven’t.

[00:26:06] Tracy Hayes:
Okay.

[00:26:06] Jamie McLaughlin:
I haven’t—only because it was an added expense for the seller.

And I have offered it to them, as well as sometimes I’m like, “This is a rare property. We should potentially do an appraisal ahead of time just so you have a more accurate [number].”

And they’re like, “Ah, I feel like we’re good. Let’s just test it.”

[00:26:22] Jamie McLaughlin (cont’d):
And so that worked for the past three years.
I highly would suggest it this past year when the market has really shifted quite a bit.

[00:26:30] Tracy Hayes:
Because everyone’s telling me—it’s not what sold six, nine months ago.
It’s what sold six weeks ago.

[00:26:35] Jamie McLaughlin:
Correct. Yes.
Yeah. Yeah. I feel like they’re looking at only the past two months because it is changing so much that you can’t look at six months ago.

[00:26:44] Tracy Hayes:
Right.
But just having the—especially a house that’s older, obviously, you know—we’ll get into new construction in here in a second.

But a little bit older house—to me, if you do a pre-listing inspection...

[00:27:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d):
Now, I don’t even know what inspections go for—well, I’ll just say for about $500.
$500 on just an average, to go through and eliminate all those little things.

Because we don’t know what’s gonna throw the buyer off, right?
It could be, “Oh, the outlet needs to be fixed.”

Okay. Alright. That’s pretty simple. But that might be just a reason for them to go,
“Oh, they’re not taking care of this house. We should avoid it.”

You just don’t know what’s in their mind.

So by eliminating those things off that inspection report—and obviously, if there is a big thing,
’cause we know the big things then can cause a financial teeter-totter back and forth.

Right? Or what they’re gonna counteroffer, what they want you to pay—to have peace of mind.
That’s—I'm just a—

[00:27:43] Jamie McLaughlin:
Well, and I think that also goes back to just as far as like home maintenance stuff.
Don’t defer it all.

You know, as I walk through my house, I’m like, “Gosh, I need to fix that. I need to fix that.”
Like, if a buyer walked through, those would be things that bother them.

[00:28:00] Jamie McLaughlin (cont’d):
And I just am used to it, you know?
So like—don’t defer those things.

[00:28:00] Tracy Hayes:
We’ll let it go until it breaks.

[00:28:01] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes, exactly. Yeah.
And then when you try to sell, you’re like, “Dang, I have all these things and now I’ve made my house beautiful. Why didn’t I live in it like this?”

[00:28:11] Tracy Hayes:
Right.

[00:28:11] Jamie McLaughlin:
Right?

[00:28:12] Tracy Hayes:
Should’ve painted and redone these floors a long time ago.

[00:28:13] Tracy Hayes (cont’d):
What’s your attitude—what would you say your percentage of new construction that you’re selling right now, over the last few years anyway?

[00:28:20] Jamie McLaughlin:
I’m probably at 30–40% new construction.

[00:28:23] Tracy Hayes:
What’s your position on having an inspector?

[00:28:27] Jamie McLaughlin:
100%. I can’t stress it enough.

[00:28:29] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah—for new construction?

[00:28:30] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah.
If you are starting at the very beginning from the ground up, I usually get somebody who does the pre-slab,
then they do the pre-drywall, and then the pre-closing.

There’s like a package of three that you can do.
And then they also come back at the 11-month one.
Because it just gets rid of so many headaches early on.

[00:28:48] Jamie McLaughlin (cont’d):
Like, I had one where there was an extra pipe inside the plumbing.
And they moved in, and two weeks later, the toilets and the—

[00:29:00] Tracy Hayes:
Oh geez.

[00:29:00] Jamie McLaughlin:
—the plumbing was coming out.
And we’re like, “What is happening?”

We had an inspector though.
And I guess it was so far down that—until they used the camera and used the toilet enough—then it—
So, they had to drill into the slab, they had to go and cut this pipe.
I mean, it was crazy. And I’m like...

[00:29:16] Jamie McLaughlin:
Had we started a little bit earlier...

[00:29:20] Tracy Hayes:
Was a pipe within a pipe?

[00:29:21] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

[00:29:22] Tracy Hayes:
So someone was transporting the pipes or whatever, and put one pipe into a bigger pipe—

[00:29:26] Jamie McLaughlin:
Correct.

[00:29:27] Tracy Hayes:
—and they never realized it was in there?

[00:29:28] Jamie McLaughlin:
They did not take it out when they did it. So I’m like, man, if we would’ve had that pre-slab, maybe he would’ve found that ahead of time.

[00:29:38] Tracy Hayes:
To those out there listening right now—and maybe we cut this as a reel, hopefully this comes out good—we cut this as a reel:
The cutting into the slab—that doesn’t make you feel good.

[00:29:50] Jamie McLaughlin:
Correct.

[00:29:51] Tracy Hayes:
That’s like taking a car that’s six months old and having to take the engine apart.
I mean, you don’t feel good about that, right?

The inconvenience of that bathroom being torn up—who knows, a bedroom.
Or even just a ditch in your front yard for a few days while they’re doing this repair.

[00:30:00] Jamie McLaughlin:
Right.

[00:30:01] Tracy Hayes:
And, you know, having people around your house when you gotta go to work and that sort of thing—those are all just feelings right there.
But right there—the value of that inspection.

Obviously if they caught it—now, if they caught it, you wouldn’t know that you were ever going to have pain.

[00:30:18] Jamie McLaughlin:
Right. Exactly. Yes.

[00:30:21] Tracy Hayes:
But you’ve seen the pain.

[00:30:23] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

[00:30:24] Tracy Hayes:
So you can express that to your buyers.

[00:30:30] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

[00:30:30] Tracy Hayes:
To have that is so valuable.

[00:30:32] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes, 100%.
I feel like if they could catch it ahead of time, it’s well worth the money to not have the headache down the road.

[00:30:39] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.
Because I think these track builders are just—they’re just, I mean...

[00:30:43] Jamie McLaughlin:
Right.
And I mean, the superintendent can only do so much when he has 15 houses.
So I don’t even blame them.

I’m like, they’re outsourcing so many different trades at the same time that they can’t physically be watching.

[00:31:00] Jamie McLaughlin (cont’d):
So you’re really just getting whoever shows up that day, and you need somebody who’s qualified to go and inspect to make sure—

[00:31:03] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah, they do their job properly.
It’s almost like—you think of the superintendent of the neighborhood, that’s for, obviously, for the builder.

[00:31:13] Jamie McLaughlin:
Mm-hmm.

[00:31:13] Tracy Hayes:
He’s the only one—besides the salespeople—that are employed by the builder.

[00:31:16] Jamie McLaughlin:
Correct.

[00:31:17] Tracy Hayes:
The others are all contractors that—hopefully they do regular work.
They’re working for the builder all the time.
That’s their goal—they would love to have that.

But to me—it’s...
I was just thinking, obviously with our government closing, they keep talking about air traffic controllers and all that stuff.
That superintendent’s like an air traffic controller.

[00:31:36] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yep.

[00:31:37] Tracy Hayes:
He’s got all these different contractors coming in all the time from all different directions...

[00:31:40] Jamie McLaughlin:
Mm-hmm.

[00:31:41] Tracy Hayes:
...and he cannot be out there to make sure.

I’ve heard one where the toilet—the plumbing for the toilet coming through the slab—was too close to the tub.

[00:31:47] Jamie McLaughlin:
Okay.

[00:31:47] Tracy Hayes:
So you could not—when they actually go and put everything down—you couldn’t...

[00:31:47] Tracy Hayes:
So you could not—when they actually go and put everything down—you couldn’t.

[00:31:50] Jamie McLaughlin:
Ah, wow.
So what did they have to do?
They had to go into the slab and move that pipe over?

[00:32:00] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah. And again, you're going into the slab—again. Another opportunity for problems and all types of future issues that might be—you might not see for four, five, ten years.

[00:32:08] Jamie McLaughlin:
Correct. Yeah.

[00:32:09] Tracy Hayes:
Type of thing.

[00:32:10] Jamie McLaughlin:
Well, and they don’t care except for their own trade.
So it’s like, the painter comes in and they did their job—and then they drip paint on your cabinets and now the cabinets are dirty.
And then I’m like, oh gosh...

[00:32:20] Tracy Hayes:
Only—

[00:32:21] Jamie McLaughlin:
—care about ourselves here.
Right. Which is why I would suggest having a realtor so much for new construction.

I think a lot of people are like, “Oh, it’s fine. What could go wrong?”
When in reality, I think you need it almost more for new construction than resale.

Because I am out there—and I have some clients who call me the DBG: the designated bad guy.
Because they’re like, “We want to stay in their good graces, but Jamie, this is not acceptable.”

And I’ll go there and I’m like, “No. We’re not—we’re not going to buy a $900,000 home where this is, you know, having this issue.”

[00:32:52] Tracy Hayes:
Well, I remember back in 2020 going into ’21 and about pretty much through ’21, the builders didn’t want to have anything to do with a real estate agent.

[00:33:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d):
Now they’re out there begging: “You bring people over, we’re going to give you bonus.”

[00:33:05] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

[00:33:05] Tracy Hayes:
It’s the correct attitude.
But you’re 100% right.
You know, we just talked about the inspector, but really the real estate agent comes in first there.

[00:33:14] Jamie McLaughlin:
Correct.

[00:33:15] Tracy Hayes:
And you—you need to be the designated bad guy.
You need to be the one that’s going to go to the builder and say, “No, you are going to repaint that wall.”

Because everyone knows you go to new construction—those painters went air, and you really start to look at it and you can actually see the drywall, ’cause there’s barely a coat of paint on that wall.

[00:33:32] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes, for sure.

[00:33:34] Tracy Hayes:
And you know—so there comes a quality control standard.
And, you know, if you’ve got a really good agent that goes around with their blue tape—

[00:33:42] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

[00:33:42] Tracy Hayes:
—I saw some agents the other day, I thought it was great.
They were blue-taping before their customer actually showed up to do the walkthrough.

[00:33:50] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah.

[00:33:51] Tracy Hayes:
So that—I think—is as important.
Because it takes a lot of pressure off the buyer themselves.

You’re going to go in there, and you’re going to see a bunch of stuff.
And then they can come in, and if they see something, we can add to it.

[00:34:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d):
But it’s not all on them.

[00:34:02] Jamie McLaughlin:
Right.
Yeah.
And usually we have a great relationship with the superintendent.
So if I pop by, I’m like, “Hey, this is wrong”—
And they don’t even let the buyers know sometimes.

You know, like—they fixed it.
And then I’ll tell them, “Hey, I saw this already. He already repaired it. Look at how good that is.”
You know, to take them out of that, because it is stressful for them to be like,
“Wait—we’re spending all this money, and this is breaking?”
Or “That wasn’t done right.”

[00:34:25] Tracy Hayes:
Well, like, everyone has this—has this limit, whether—you know, if you’re kind of...

[00:34:26] Tracy Hayes:
Whether you're kind of critiquing someone and they did 10 things bad, and you're like,
“Mm-hmm. There’s 10 things here... let me—I'll just tell them about three. That way I don’t upset them too much.”
If I tell them 10, they’ll blow out.

[00:34:36] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah.

[00:34:36] Tracy Hayes:
Right? Yeah. That type of thing.

[00:34:38] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah.

[00:34:39] Tracy Hayes:
So—but regularly stopping by.
Do you regularly stop by your new constructions? Just periodically go by—
“Hey, I’m gonna go in and see what’s going on.”

[00:34:47] Jamie McLaughlin:
I usually go by every week.
I mean, unless it’s super far away, then I would probably go every other.
But I had one that was five minutes away, and I would drive by it several times a week.
Made good friends with ’em—
“How are you? Make sure everything’s good.”

[00:35:01] Tracy Hayes:
Well, it goes to your attention to detail.
And then obviously, as soon as you leave there, you’re calling or messaging your customer saying,
“Hey, I stopped by the house. I noticed they were here. Looks like tomorrow they’re gonna do this,” or whatever.

[00:35:13] Tracy Hayes (cont’d):
And it lets them know you’re on top of it.
Because I think that’s the attitude—and I think you’d agree with it—
The attitude that they don’t need an agent is they don’t know that you would be doing that.

[00:35:23] Jamie McLaughlin:
Correct.

[00:35:24] Tracy Hayes:
And a lot of agents don’t do that.

[00:35:26] Jamie McLaughlin:
Right.

[00:35:26] Tracy Hayes:
Therefore, what I saw—when I was with the large builder—I felt a lot of times the agent was almost dropping them off there.
Like they were dropping them off at the daycare center.

They were dropping their customers off at the model and then just figured the site agent and everything, you know—
“It’s all handled by the builder. I’ll just step back over here and, you know—hey, we’ll close in six months when the house is done.”

[00:35:52] Jamie McLaughlin:
Interesting. Yeah. That’s not me.

[00:35:54] Tracy Hayes:
Well—

[00:35:56] Jamie McLaughlin:
We are in it together all the time.

[00:35:58] Tracy Hayes:
Well, that’s the importance of clients out there doing their due diligence on agents that are going—
You know, they should be asking, “We’re gonna look at new construction. What are you gonna do?”
They should ask you, “What are you gonna do for me?”

[00:36:10] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I agree with that.

[00:36:13] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.

[00:36:13] Jamie McLaughlin:
I think all buyers—and obviously sellers—should interview several agents.
Like, “What is your standard protocol? What do you do here?”
And see what is your best fit.
’Cause not everybody works well together, so...

[00:36:25] Tracy Hayes:
Right.
Well, it gives the opportunity—and the agents shouldn’t take it as a—
They should take it as a buying sign, actually.

[00:36:32] Jamie McLaughlin:
Mm-hmm.

[00:36:33] Tracy Hayes:
When they start asking you questions:
“Hey, we’re gonna buy a new construction home. What are you gonna do during the six-month build time?”
“Well, are you gonna be stopping by? Are you gonna be, obviously, reviewing the plans?”

I know an agent—dearly—that had a customer who was buying one of the last houses in the subdivision and wanted the house turned,
so it was facing the retention pond versus his neighbor.

[00:36:55] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah.

[00:36:56] Tracy Hayes:
And they built the house the wrong way.
So all the windows are facing the neighbor, the garage was on the side of the retention—

[00:37:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d):
—wall.

[00:37:01] Jamie McLaughlin:
Oh no.

[00:37:02] Tracy Hayes:
And they—they got out of the deal, but it took that agent fighting with the builder, saying:
“Dude, you guys screwed up.”

[00:37:08] Jamie McLaughlin:
Right.
You did.

[00:37:08] Tracy Hayes:
And because the guys in the office—they're not out there in the subdivision.
You're just looking at the plan for stamping.

[00:37:13] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yep.

[00:37:14] Tracy Hayes:
Yep.
So we had—

[00:37:15] Jamie McLaughlin:
We had one where the AC had to be on the back, and we were building a pool through the builder.
I’m like, “You’re not gonna have an AC right there on the patio, like overlooking the pool.”

[00:37:22] Jamie McLaughlin (cont’d):
Noise. And they’re like, “We don’t have room for it on the side.”
I’m like, “We are not buying this house unless you move it to the side—so figure it out.”

And it—it was like a month and a half of going to the county to get approval, and changing this and that.
And we got it to the side, though.
Yeah. They’re like, “I didn’t even think about that.”
I’m like, “Yeah, we would’ve been halfway in, everything would’ve been done,
and when they put in the pavers, we would’ve said, ‘Oh no, we have an AC sitting right here next to our hot tub.’”

[00:37:50] Tracy Hayes:
That's important.

[00:37:51] Jamie McLaughlin:
Correct.

[00:37:53] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah, that will—so plans are huge.
Whether they might not—that might not bother the buyer that bought it...

[00:38:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d):
Yeah. If they actually accepted that—I know my wife,
if we went out there and we were looking at that house as a resale—
and we were looking at the house and they go,
“Oh yeah, it’s a great pool, but the air conditioner’s right here...”
We’re out.

[00:38:07] Jamie McLaughlin:
Correct.

[00:38:07] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
A hundred percent.

[00:38:11] Tracy Hayes:
So—devalued. Devalued the home there.

[00:38:14] Tracy Hayes:
Buying buyers vs. sellers—where are you at approximately?
Are you about 50/50 or...?

[00:38:18] Jamie McLaughlin:
I’m probably more like 60/40.
A little bit heavier on listings.

[00:38:21] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah. Especially right now.

[00:38:23] Tracy Hayes:
Is inventory going—everyone seems to be, at least the top agents, leaning more obviously toward listings.
You’re getting regular listing appointments?

[00:38:30] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah.

[00:38:31] Tracy Hayes:
What’s your attitude right now going in and speaking to someone listing their home right now,
with inventory still—it seems like there were hints it was going down,
but then I’m hearing stories, “No, it’s not.”

[00:38:42] Tracy Hayes (cont’d):
I think really good homes, in the right location, in the right neighborhood sell quickly—
priced right, of course.

[00:38:51] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

[00:38:51] Tracy Hayes:
Everything’s gotta be priced right.
We know—we leave that as common... that is the common—

[00:38:55] Jamie McLaughlin:
Denominator. Are you listening to my suggestions as far as price goes?

[00:38:58] Tracy Hayes:
What’s that conversation like right now with today’s business—
in setting expectations for the seller?
How are you breaking that down with them?

[00:39:06] Jamie McLaughlin:
I think it’s always a balancing act of like, time versus money.
You know, if you need to sell it immediately ’cause your job’s being transferred,
then we obviously need to go more aggressive on the pricing to get it sold quickly—
versus if you’re okay to sit and wait, we can try it a little bit of a higher price point.

[00:39:22] Jamie McLaughlin (cont’d):
I do think it’s important to price properly, though.
If you shoot for the moon and then it just sits and sits and sits,
and you slowly but surely drop it,
I don’t think that people are even going to take a look at it once it’s sat on the market for too long.

[00:39:36] Jamie McLaughlin (cont’d):
So, as far as my listing consultation and appointments go,
I really focus more on the marketing.
Professional photography, videography—like those are the things that sell the property.

Because if they’re not gonna even look at it because the photos aren’t great or the videos aren’t great,
you’re missing out on so many people.

So I always make sure that we have—not me—
professionals who come in and do all of those things.
To stage your property.
I love staging.
If it’s vacant, I think it sells a home ten times faster.

[00:40:09] Tracy Hayes:
Do you agree with the statistic that they actually get—probably get a little bit more?

[00:40:13] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

[00:40:13] Tracy Hayes:
It offsets the cost of any staging.

[00:40:15] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.
I had one in February, and this lady wanted to go a little higher,
but she didn’t want to pay for the staging.
I’m like, “If we’re going at this price point, we have to stage it.
There’s no way somebody’s gonna walk in and pay this.”
And so I was like, “I will pay for the staging if we wanna go this high.”
And it sold in seven days. I’m like—

[00:40:45] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes. It was totally the staging.
The next week, three more in our neighborhood hit the market and they're still on the market.
I'm like, it's crazy how quickly this one sold versus the others.
And they're way less price per square footage.

[00:40:48] Tracy Hayes:
It's amazing how many people don't...
I think, you know, the top agents—obviously, I'm sitting here always with producers—
but for someone getting started in the business, and they're not looking at it...

[00:41:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d):
They may not be willing to come out of the pocket.
Or, you know...
How would you suggest they kind of... they know—you know you need staging—
but how would you strategize with a seller?
You know, maybe...
Do you raise the price up four or five thousand more to offset the cost of the staging?
I don't know, I'm just coming out with stuff.

How do you strategize?
Because you made it easy for the seller.
You said, “Hey, I'll pay for it,”
and then obviously it was great 'cause you were able to return the furniture in seven days.
Right?

Right now people are like, “Well, if I stage it and then it sits here for three months,
I gotta pay for staging for three months.”
Right?

How do you rationalize that?
How would you approach a seller in that negotiation?

[00:41:42] Jamie McLaughlin:
Well, I think it's important if they're going to listen to my suggestions as, like, the trusted professional.
So, if they wanted to come in way too high and I knew at this price it's never gonna sell anyway,
then I would probably be a little less likely to say,
“Let's stage it for four months,” you know?

So, I have always suggested that they do it if possible,
depending on their financial scenarios.
I always say: You sometimes have to spend money to make money.

[00:42:04] Jamie McLaughlin (cont’d):
And when I got into real estate, my husband was like, “You're my best investment.”
And so here is a large sum of money, and you just go do whatever you need to.
Just get a website, start all the things, and do it right—
versus doing it not fully and not getting great results.

So in that instance, I'm like,
“If you're not willing to do it, I feel like that's what's gonna sell—so I'm gonna spend that money
in order to make this successful.”
Right?

If you are pricing it appropriately and you think the home will appraise,
I think you could totally raise it up just a little bit,
just to cover those costs.

But I think the most important part of staging is for the photos and video—
in, like, that first month.
Hopefully it would sell within then, and you could remove the furniture.

[00:42:53] Tracy Hayes:
Do you fully—I imagine you have fully staged an entire house versus just maybe some key rooms?

[00:43:00] Jamie McLaughlin:
So the only ones that I sometimes do not would just be like additional bedrooms.
Because you can kind of get an idea.
Like this one was a five-bedroom house—so we did the master, we did a guest,
and then all the common areas, the patio...
but there were two rooms that we didn’t.

[00:43:11] Jamie McLaughlin (cont’d):
And that didn’t seem to bother anybody.

[00:43:16] Tracy Hayes:
But I think you make a good point from the standpoint of pictures.
And with technology, and obviously out there...

Because I imagine when you have a buyer—

[00:43:27] Tracy Hayes (cont’d):
—and you're going, “Hey, based on what you're telling me,
I would suggest we go look at these houses,”
you're sending them the link for them to look at 'em before you even go out there.

[00:43:36] Jamie McLaughlin:
Correct.

[00:43:37] Tracy Hayes:
Yes. And so that first impression when they go,
“Ooh! Wow, yeah—let’s go look at that.”
Or—

[00:43:49] Jamie McLaughlin:
A hundred percent. Yes.
Yeah, it's crazy—like, buyers don't have great vision to look beyond, like, older furniture or brown trim.
And I'm like, "You can paint that trim white and it would be beautiful."
It's not, you know—but it's like, "No, I don't like that."
I'm like, "There’s so many things you could do. Don’t say no!"
You know?
Because the bones are great.
But it really is—so many people, and with the inventory so high, they can be choosy.
So it’s like, "No, I don’t like that. I’m not even gonna look."

[00:44:16] Tracy Hayes:
Right, right.
You gotta dress it up.

[00:44:18] Jamie McLaughlin:
Correct.

[00:44:19] Tracy Hayes:
As I told you pre-show, I had—I really want—
I went and got these, really. These are: I asked ChatGPT to give me questions—
Okay?—that are trending questions,
whether it's buyer, seller, or realtor-to-realtor type questions that are out right now.
And we'll just kind of rattle 'em off here a little bit,
and create some good reels here.

With more housing inventory showing up and demand cooling in some areas,
how should sellers in Northeast Florida adjust their pricing and marketing strategy today?

[00:44:46] Jamie McLaughlin:
As far as the market goes,
it has definitely been a little bit more difficult to sell homes.
So I think looking at your comps from the past two months is very important.
I think looking at your competition—what's out there—is also very important.
If there are 20 homes for sale and they're all the exact same floor plan,
based off of your timeframe, you're going to have to do something different
to get your home sold before the other ones.

And so I think it’s appropriate for the agent to go walk through the other homes
to see how yours compares—based off of the upgrades and things like that—
to make sure that you're pricing it right.
But it really does come down to price,
and are there any key features that set yours apart from the other?

[00:45:29] Tracy Hayes:
The other account—I, from a lender side,
would you recommend—or when you're having that discussion with the seller—
to, you know, build in some concessions?

Obviously, you gotta figure out the real estate commissions and that sort of thing—that's obvious.
But the seller incentives, to build in,
to be prepared to pay maybe some seller costs.

Now, maybe they end up not asking for it.
Right?
So if they don’t ask for a lower price...
But generally, if they’re not asking for it, they ask for five or—

[00:46:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d):
—ten thousand dollars less than what you’re asking, just to ask you that.

[00:46:02] Jamie McLaughlin:
Correct. Correct. Yes.

[00:46:02] Tracy Hayes:
So you have that buffer in there.
But also—to, you know, put one out there for the loan officers out there—
the agents who get with the loan officers...
There’s ways they can structure in there too,
to put a little, you know, maybe a little lender incentive.

Pay for the appraisal.
Or, if it’s a larger purchase,
you know, or, you know, several thousands of dollars to help out in closing costs or whatever it may be.
To get those things—put those ducks in a row so you have them when you're actually...

Maybe you hold those cards,
or maybe you put those cards on the table and say,
“Hey, they're willing to pay 3% towards closing costs,
and the preferred lender is willing to give you $1,500,” or whatever.

[00:46:41] Jamie McLaughlin:
Right. Right.
So in order to build that in, I think it really depends on what you think the home will appraise for.

[00:46:41] Jamie McLaughlin:
Right.
So in order to build that in, I think it really depends on what you think the home will appraise for.
Because I don't want them to price it super high to cover those costs and then it not appraise.
So it really is a balancing act.

And what we have done before is—like on a separate document—
when people would go see it, I would share this document to say,
“Hey, we're going to give you $5,000 to $10,000 towards your rate buydown.
Let me show you why it’s better to take this for your rate buydown versus just closing costs.”

Because if you put this here, it’s going to change your monthly by $300 or $400,
versus $50 by taking $10,000 off the purchase price.
Right? You know?

And I think seeing that visual is like, “Oh, okay, yeah.”
And it also depends on where rates are, but when rates were higher,
that was one of my number one things I would suggest:
Buy the rate down, and it will save you so much versus $10,000 off the purchase.

[00:47:35] Tracy Hayes:
And anyone sitting out there at the house sitting right now—
you, call your lender.
We have a product here—
to throw a little bit about Planet, a little commercial—
but where we will actually take the contingency out of the picture.

We will make an offer on their home and then still give that agent—
even after they’ve moved into the new home—
’cause now this home was taken out of the debt ratios,
so now they can buy the new home.
We will still give the agent another 120 days to sell that home.

[00:48:04] Jamie McLaughlin:
Oh, that’s...

[00:48:04] Tracy Hayes:
We want the home.

[00:48:05] Jamie McLaughlin:
Nice.

[00:48:05] Tracy Hayes:
If they end up—120 days go by, 130 days,
and none of that—
that’s not...
Then we will buy it for that, you know, percentage of the dollar there.

Not the offer they want, but it'll still give...
If they think they can get rid of it in the next four months,
it could help ’em.

You know, I just helped out a great agent here—Wendy—
and actually what ended up happening, it allowed her to get the offer in.

[00:48:26] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yep.

[00:48:27] Tracy Hayes:
Got it accepted.
They had a scheduled closing date.
The agent—we talked to the agent down where they were, out in South Florida—
and he felt, “Oh yeah, for sure I can get this sold in 120 days. I'll get it done.”

About—not even, I think it was probably about 10 days—
well no, it was actually probably closer to about three weeks before the actual closing date on the home here—
yeah—in town,
they got a cash offer.

[00:48:49] Jamie McLaughlin:
Oh, nice!

[00:48:50] Tracy Hayes:
And so they ended up actually selling it.
Yeah.
And then two days later they closed on the home here.
But it allowed Wendy to get the sale—

[00:48:59] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

[00:49:00] Tracy Hayes:
Versus—they were going to go rent.

[00:49:00] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes, that's awesome to have.
As a buyer, if you have to sell...
Yeah, because a lot of sellers are like, “No, I don't want to wait around.”
It's taken me this long to sell my house,
I don’t want to wait two, three months for you to sell yours.

Before—and if it doesn’t—then I’m back to square one on the market in three months.
That's a lot of wasted time.

[00:49:18] Tracy Hayes:
And there are bridge loan products out there that are available,
that are a little friendlier,
that we can help make bridge the gap for those.

And you need the down payment for that other house too,
so we do have that.
The other house had some equity in it.

[00:49:40] Jamie McLaughlin:
The rate buydown is huge—because most people care about their monthly payment.

[00:49:44] Tracy Hayes:
At least putting it out from a seller standpoint—would you advertise that from a seller standpoint, that you're willing...?

[00:49:51] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

[00:49:51] Tracy Hayes:
To put that out there?
They might not take it.
They might choose to put it toward closing costs, right? That’s what their attitude is.
To me, if someone's got an FHA loan or a VA loan, they can streamline down if they think rates are going to be lower in six months.

But if the rate buydown gives them that extra time—until the rates drop—and then they want to lock in as low as they think they can get it...

[00:50:12] Jamie McLaughlin:
Right.
Well, and especially as a seller, that allows you to compete with new construction.
Because so many of these companies are offering lower rates—they bought money in bulk forever ago.

And a lot of buyers I’ve seen say,
“Well, I like that 4.99% rate, so I'm just gonna go here because I can get a lot more house for the same monthly mortgage compared to resale.”

And I'm like,
“Yeah, but you could still get this—you just need to ask the seller to help you out to get your rate to that.”

[00:50:39] Tracy Hayes:
Well, the advantage that builders have in that area is they are buying blocks of money now, and then buying down from that.

But now they’ve gotta move that.
It’s like a car dealership—
at the end of the month, they have to get rid of that inventory.
They have to get that money on the street in a period of time.

[00:50:58] Jamie McLaughlin:
Got it.

[00:50:58] Tracy Hayes:
So if you catch them when they're at the end of that $10 million block of money—
that they’ve got at a lower investor rate—and they need to get a house closed before the end of the month,
they're going to be highly incentivized to do that.

Which I’ve learned—on jumbo loans—it’s the same way.
There’s only a handful of companies that do jumbo loans.
Chase is one of them. There’s a few others that service jumbo loans.

Same thing—they have that block of money,
and as it gets toward the end of that time period where they need to fill that block,
they’ll incentivize by lowering the rate.

Lowering the price of something hopefully will help it sell, right?

[00:51:43] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah.

[00:51:43] Tracy Hayes:
Yep. Yep, for sure.

Let’s see...
What are you seeing as the most valuable home features or upgrades in 2025 that deliver the biggest return for sellers—especially here locally?

[00:51:56] Jamie McLaughlin:
I think pools are still it.
When you look at a neighborhood and there are 10 of the exact same floor plans,
and one has a pool—
it’s usually the one that goes the quickest.

I had a neighbor who was on the fence about doing a pool.
And he made it beautiful—extended the roof, added a whole outdoor kitchen, fireplace, everything.

And he's like,
“I don’t know...”
I’m like,
“I’m telling you—when you sell this, people are going to like the outdoor backyard space so much that you will probably—
not get all your money back—
but that is something that will sell this house over one without.”

[00:52:30] Tracy Hayes:
And would you agree—
well, we’re here in Florida, I think we sell lifestyle, too.

[00:52:36] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

[00:52:37] Tracy Hayes:
Yes. 100%.
And hopefully you’re going to enjoy that backyard.

[00:52:49] Jamie McLaughlin:
Correct.

[00:52:50] Tracy Hayes:
But now that it’s there, even if it has to be cleaned up—maybe a new grill put in before the new buyers buy it—
it’s still there.

[00:52:49] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

[00:52:50] Tracy Hayes:
And you enjoyed it for that period of time.
What was the value of that while you were here?

And then hopefully you’ll get most of your money back,
but to get the dollar-for-dollar return?

[00:53:00] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah.

[00:53:00] Tracy Hayes:
You know—not likely, but...

[00:53:02] Jamie McLaughlin:
Right.

[00:53:03] Tracy Hayes:
Like you said, it'll sell quicker.

[00:53:04] Jamie McLaughlin:
It's definitely the outdoor, the yard space.
I think a lot of people are wanting more.
Like, you can change anything in a home, but you can't change your location, you know?

[00:53:11] Jamie McLaughlin:
Exactly. So, if you have a bad lot—I'm like, you're backing up to somebody and it's like a fishbowl here—we're gonna have to come down on the price in order to sell this,
because this other one, where you want to be priced, has a beautiful preserve or lake view.
It’s not the same.

[00:53:29] Tracy Hayes:
Since you've lived in St. Johns County most of your life, and you remember when some of these four-lane roads were dirt roads?

[00:53:35] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

[00:53:36] Tracy Hayes:
Now we’ve got this expressway coming in.

[00:53:38] Jamie McLaughlin:
We do, right. We do.

[00:53:39] Tracy Hayes:
Some agents won’t—just again, 'cause they're not confident or don't have control—be upfront with their customers.
The customer doesn’t know.
Hey, just wanna let you know, there's going to be a freeway going through here.

Or researching who owns the lot.
Because I mean, how many stories have you heard where,
“This is a preserve,” they told us, “No one else would build,”
and all of a sudden, four years later they’re clearing the trees out for either another neighborhood or a Walmart, for crying out loud?

[00:54:08] Jamie McLaughlin:
Correct.

[00:54:09] Tracy Hayes:
A hundred percent.

[00:54:10] Jamie McLaughlin:
I tell every single person—if there's a tree behind you, it could be cut down.
Even if it's considered conservation, they could rezone it.
It could be cut down.

So, are you sure that this would be okay?
Like, is there any space?
Because even on Roberts Road, some of these two-acre single plots are now trying to be neighborhoods.
You're like, “Wait, you could fit five houses in there?”
So they're going to try and do it.
And you thought it was woods?

[00:54:38] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah. So yes.
I live on the St. Johns County property appraiser site.
I look behind every house—who owns that, what are the chances, is there any development?

Like, the Hilo surrounds my entire neighborhood.

[00:54:50] Tracy Hayes:
And for the agents that are listening, it’s important.
Even reach out to Jamie and ask her what she's doing if you don't know how to find this information.

But when you give the buyer that info, you're—
I think you're strengthening the relationship.
That, “Hold on, this person’s forward-looking.”

As you mentioned in your, what’s the phrase?
Faith, family, and your future.
Right?

You’re looking into the future going,
“Hey, when you go to resell—because hopefully you’re going to call me—I don’t want to have to resell it now and now there’s a Walmart back there.”

[00:55:17] Jamie McLaughlin:
Exactly.

[00:55:18] Tracy Hayes:
Yes.

[00:55:19] Jamie McLaughlin:
And say, “How come you didn’t tell me this?”
Right.
Like, I want to lay my head on the pillow knowing that I did everything to the best of my ability.
I disclosed everything as if it was my sister buying the house.
And I just want to make sure it’s perfect for you.

[00:55:33] Tracy Hayes:
Yep.

[00:55:33] Jamie McLaughlin:
So I highly suggest doing your due diligence on what could potentially be behind.

[00:55:38] Tracy Hayes:
Given uncertainty around home value trends—
How do you help clients decide whether to wait, buy now, or sell now,
especially when the local economic and regional factors differ?

[00:55:50] Jamie McLaughlin:
I think it’s all buyer-specific.
I’ve had some that have kind of put things on hold because their job uncertainty was a little iffy there for a little bit this...

[00:56:00] Jamie McLaughlin:
...summer.

[00:56:00] Jamie McLaughlin:
…but think if wanting to stay here and you feel comfortable and like you are not concerned about your job changing or anything financially,
I say go ahead and buy—if it’s the right home.
Yeah.
I don’t know that rates are going to change drastically in the next couple years.
So if you're renting already, that's just money you're giving away for nothing.

[00:56:25] Tracy Hayes:
And the rents aren’t getting—it's not like renting is that much cheaper.

[00:56:29] Jamie McLaughlin:
No, it's crazy.
Yeah. That's—my gosh—you’re paying $2,800 a month...

[00:56:34] Tracy Hayes:
Right. For—

[00:56:35] Jamie McLaughlin:
To just give away.
And that’s why I'm like, you're spending $30,000 a year.

[00:56:39] Tracy Hayes:
I always like that phrase.
They always say, when's the best time to buy a home?
Two years ago.
So get your “two years ago” now.

I mean, if you don't have—you just gotta get in, right?
Because like you said, the rent, you’re just paying that other person’s mortgage,
or that apartment complex’s note that they've got on theirs—and their employees.
You might as well just be putting that toward your equity of—

[00:57:00] Jamie McLaughlin:
Correct.

[00:57:00] Tracy Hayes:
Your house.
I don't think we foresee a devaluing of homes in any great way.
We may go stagnant—which I think is where we’re kind of in that period.
We can go, you know, into a stagnant situation.

But you're paying down the equity, paying down that note that, when—hey, if you sell 10–15 years from now,
if you're gonna start a family, you're likely in St. Johns County.

I mean, we've been in our house 16 years now.

[00:57:32] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yep.

[00:57:33] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah, because we had our kids there, and, you know—
I don’t know—my wife, I think I told her, as soon as the little one, you know, the last one’s out,
we’re ready to go. Like, downsize and, you know, cut loose.
Go enjoy ourselves.

[00:57:44] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

[00:57:44] Tracy Hayes:
We don’t need a 4,000-square-foot house, you know?

[00:57:47] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah, don’t really need one now.

[00:57:49] Tracy Hayes:
(laughing)

[00:57:50] Jamie McLaughlin:
That's why I think it's also important where you buy.
Like, is there always going to be a demand for St. Johns County?
Yes, there is.
Because the schools are still great.
So I don’t think it’s a bad decision to move there.

I think there are some other areas that you're like,
"I don’t know, that’s a great deal now…”
But it may not pay off long term.

[00:58:05] Tracy Hayes:
Well, there’s no doubt we don't see, as we did in the latter 2018, 2019—
definitely in 2021—the inter-county moves.

Or even just from Duval.
Obviously, there’s still a lot of people moving from Duval to St. Johns.
But you know, where people are like, “Oh, I live in Nocatee, I don't really like it here. We're gonna move out.” Or vice versa.

That kind of thing going on.
They're like, “Oh, let's...” you know—
Because they’re sitting on a 3% rate, 3.5%, whatever it may be.
And now it’s 6, 6.5...

“Oh… I’ll stick it out here for now.”

[00:58:37] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.
I have so many friends who are like,
“Well, I didn’t want this to be like my forever home, but I can’t get out of this.”
Right?
It’s so good.
Yeah. I would buy a smaller house for the same monthly mortgage.
I'm like, “We’ll be here forever.”

[00:58:47] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah, exactly.

I saw a good question here—oh, here it is.
We haven’t talked about this at all and I don’t know what you're doing in this area here,
but obviously this is a hot topic.

Any of the lunch and learns you guys are going to, or if you're going to,
you know, any sort of conventions...
I’m sure at United, you guys are talking about this:

How are you leveraging AI, automation, data-driven tools to generate leads, stay ahead of the market?
Are you using any of that—even staying in touch with your circle?
’Cause you grew up here, so you have a circle and you have a lot of referrals.

Are you using, you know—
how are you using your CRM?
What are you doing to stay top of mind with a lot of those people?

[00:59:24] Jamie McLaughlin:
I'm not as good as I should be.

[00:59:26] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:59:26] Jamie McLaughlin:
To be honest.

[00:59:27] Tracy Hayes:
I think a lot of agents consider that.

[00:59:28] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah.
I feel like AI is insane, and there are so many wonderful things for it that I have not implemented yet.
But I feel like I use it all the time now—even for like, "give me a volleyball drill" or "help me fix this thing at the house."

It is insane the amount of things that it can do.
So I would like to start implementing it more.
I know that there have been some good classes that I've gone to lately—I just have not put it into practice yet.
I feel like most of the time I stay in touch more...

[01:00:00] Jamie McLaughlin (cont’d):
...just through social media with people.
My Facebook and my Instagram—my Instagram is like myself, but also some real estate intermixed.

[01:00:10] Tracy Hayes:
I went on there. You do have a good balance—
it's not like my—

[01:00:12] Jamie McLaughlin:
—own separate, appropriately—

[01:00:13] Tracy Hayes:
—real estate and your kids, all that—

[01:00:15] Jamie McLaughlin:
Right.
So like, just friends and family and things like that who want to see what's happening in my regular life, also see—“Oh!”
And I have had so many transactions where it was like,
“I forgot that you were—and I just saw you posted something,
and we're going to sell soon, so can you help us?” kind of a thing.

So I think intermixing that has been really helpful.

[01:00:35] Tracy Hayes:
Well, it is definitely—
and it's actually, I wouldn't say it's probably simple,
but it can be an expense.

But if that’s how you’re keeping—if you’re using social media over, say, your CRM,
which can post on your social media too, right?

I mean, you want to put that on auto-drive.
There’s certainly—you know, you throw it some material and say,
“Post it out over the next month,”
and you go on for the next 30...

[01:01:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d):
...days before you need to fill it up with some new content to go out the next 30 days.
So AI can help—AI is doing that and automating it.

[01:01:06] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah.

[01:01:07] Tracy Hayes:
You—I have...

[01:01:07] Jamie McLaughlin:
...seen some stuff where it's like AI does the contacts with each of them,
and I don't want to lose the authenticity.
And that's where I think I struggle.

Like, I don't want it to be where you got a message from me that says something,
and then they respond, and I'm like, “I didn’t even send that.”
It’s kind of brought up after the fact when I run into them in Publix—kind of, right?

So I still like the good old days where it’s me reaching out,
you know, kind of connecting to make it more authentic
and more relationship-based than like—
I'm more of a “quality over quantity” person.

[01:01:43] Tracy Hayes:
I will say this—’cause I use it.
I use it for a lot of different things, like you were mentioning.

“How do you fix this?”
I got an error message in the car or it's making this noise—“What could it be?”
What—you know, you can ask it all sorts of stuff.

[01:02:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d):
Right.
I would highly recommend everyone goes and puts their vehicle in there—
tells it what year, how many miles and everything, and what issues you may have coming up,
because you'd be amazed...

[01:02:07] Jamie McLaughlin:
Ah—

[01:02:07] Tracy Hayes:
...how many of these vehicles have the same issue within 10,000 miles of each other.

[01:02:09] Jamie McLaughlin:
Wow.

[01:02:10] Tracy Hayes:
Right?
So I've used it for that.
I, um—passed a small kidney stone a month or so ago.

[01:02:14] Jamie McLaughlin:
Oh no.

[01:02:15] Tracy Hayes:
I didn’t know what it was.
I got this sharp pain in my back and I'm like, “What is—?”
I started talking to ChatGPT...

[01:02:15] Tracy Hayes:
...you should go to the ER.
Yeah.
So, long story short, went to the doctor—figured out what it was.
But you can talk to it like that, like you're talking to your friend, and it's compiling all this information from all over.

But from the standpoint—mm-hmm—to go back to making kind of personal messages for your people,
the more you use it, the more it becomes you.

[01:02:41] Jamie McLaughlin:
Okay.

[01:02:42] Tracy Hayes:
If you wanna write more of it and then say,
“Hey, revise this and make—change the tone,” or whatever.
Like if you're really pissed off at someone—

[01:02:50] Jamie McLaughlin:
I have used it for an email to a builder—
“Change the tone of this.”
I'm like, “Here are the 10 things that need to be fixed,”
and I was not being super kind.
Make it a little more polite and professional.

[01:03:13] Tracy Hayes:
It's beautiful at that.

[01:03:14] Jamie McLaughlin:
It was.

[01:03:16] Jamie McLaughlin:
And my buyer wrote back and they were like,
“That was a great email. Thank you so much.”

[01:03:20] Tracy Hayes:
You're welcome!

[01:03:22] Jamie McLaughlin:
And ChatGPT did a little for me.

[01:03:23] Tracy Hayes:
I’ve done it, I’ve done it.
I’ve told it on the show before—I needed an exception.
They knocked this camera—this, that—kicked the camera there.

I needed an exception from an underwriter on the deal.
Yeah.
And so I went to ChatGPT and I said,
“Hey, I need an email. It's going to go to an underwriter. Here's the situation. Here are the compensating factors.”

So I wrote the nice email—

[01:03:40] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah.

[01:03:41] Tracy Hayes:
—and they were like, “Oh wow, this is a great email!”

[01:03:44] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

[01:03:45] Tracy Hayes:
Yes.
So—

[01:03:46] Jamie McLaughlin:
That's really awesome.

[01:03:47] Tracy Hayes:
And I did have a letter not too long ago that I had to write.
And I toned it down enough on mine,
but it toned it down a little more.

[01:03:54] Jamie McLaughlin:
Right.

[01:03:55] Tracy Hayes:
And—’cause I told it, “Hey, I need this, you know, not to come across this way.”
And so it didn’t—it went in there and did its...

[01:04:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d):
...politically correct things and—mm-hmm—softened the tone.
So yes, it's there.

And again, anyone—anyone who wants to know about using AI—
the blogging and stuff we were talking about earlier?—
I feed different—
I take the transcript from the show,
and so it's hearing you talking, it's hearing me talking.
It’s going back and it's—it’s gonna pull the finer points out—

[01:04:15] Tracy Hayes (cont’d):
—and create a blog and talk just like someone wrote an article about it.

[01:05:00] Tracy Hayes:
...and I go in there and add my little two cents in—
and cool—and it creates a nice blog for everyone to read about.
And then obviously, you know, the call to action is they click on it and listen to the whole episode,
'cause now I’m intrigued by that blog. So, yeah.

[01:05:10] Jamie McLaughlin:
All right. I'm gonna look into it more.
Yeah, you convinced me.

[01:05:12] Tracy Hayes:
Blog more.
Got November 13th—we're gonna have a webinar on it—how to leverage.
And that was a tip that I got from my friend that's gonna do the webinar.
Yeah.

Was—when you're gonna create a GPT to write blogs—mm-hmm—
that, you know, you're putting in some basic information, and
it comes out and asks you some questions.

Like, one of the things now, because we're trying to get picked up by AI—
so now, one of the tips he gave us was:

What are the frequently asked questions that people are asking online?

Like the ones I’m reading here, right?

So what buyers in St. John's County—what are they asking online?
What are they Googling? What are they searching online?

[01:05:52] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

[01:05:52] Tracy Hayes:
And those questions—so I'm gonna put those at the bottom of the blog—
frequently asked questions—
and so hopefully AI—because AI is looking for a match to match.

[01:06:01] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

[01:06:01] Tracy Hayes:
They’re asking about Julington Creek—
living by the pool, or whatever—right?

Or “pool houses in Julington Creek”—yes.
You know, it’s gonna find those things there.

That’s cool.
All right, let's see.
We’ll go one more here.

Oh, this is a great one.
It’s actually the one right at number 10.
Here’s the last one:

Looking ahead to 2025 and beyond, what local market factor—insurance costs, climate risk, regulatory change—keeps you up at night, and how are you preparing your business to adapt?

[01:06:33] Jamie McLaughlin:
Hmm. Keeps me up at night…

[01:06:35] Tracy Hayes:
I was told at a network lunch outing last week that everyone—
if you have not shopped your auto and home insurance in the last number of—
pretty much in the last year—
you need to be doing that.

Because they’ve made some changes and the rates have come down.
So if your auto’s renewing soon, or your homeowner’s insurance—
make sure you shop it. Do not just accept what you get.

[01:07:00] Jamie McLaughlin:
Funny, 'cause mine went up.
It literally renewed on October 1st, and I got—I'm like, “What?”

[01:07:06] Tracy Hayes:
The...

[01:07:06] Jamie McLaughlin:
...world?!
So my broker, agent—yeah—he did go shop it and got it back,
but I’m like, what is happening here?

It’s almost like they give you a deal to get in at the very beginning,
and then after they have you for a year, it’s like,
“Oh, now we’re gonna jump it.”

[01:07:18] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.
Well, I think there’s some of that.
And I also think they’re like,
“Hmm... how can I get a little bit more…”

[01:07:27] Jamie McLaughlin:
Correct.

[01:07:28] Tracy Hayes:
Are they not going to call me out and shop it?

[01:07:30] Jamie McLaughlin:
Right.

[01:07:31] Tracy Hayes:
Right?
Which to me—where's the fine line?
If I'm an insurance agent and I'm trying to get started right now in Florida—
and I want to get credibility and respect—
I'm shopping everybody's policy.

[01:07:42] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

[01:07:43] Tracy Hayes:
Right now.
Because I do wanna lock them in, or at least let them know:
“Hey, I shopped everything. You still have the best deal.
Continue on.”

Then no one even questions it.
And you have great credibility that you’re caring.

[01:07:54] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah.
Yeah, I agree with that.

[01:07:55] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.

[01:07:56] Jamie McLaughlin:
Honestly, I don’t know if there’s something that keeps me up at night.
Really.

[01:08:00] Jamie McLaughlin:
I feel like... it'll just turn out how it's supposed to,
and we'll just work our way through it.

I mean—right—COVID was crazy and people figured it out,
and that was like the highlight of real estate.
Things were selling and it was so much fun.
And then it kind of slowed down a little.

And this summer was kind of weird.
Usually, I feel like that's the peak time,
but really it was like January to March was great,
and I think it started to pick back up again from September on.

Mm-hmm. So things are shifting,
and I just kind of go with the flow
and do my best to represent my clients through it.

[01:08:37] Tracy Hayes:
What was it... I think it was Jared James.
You know, he came down and talked at the RE Bar Camp in January.

Jamie McLaughlin:
Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes:
And he has—if you go follow Jared James on LinkedIn, he's on Instagram—
he does have his own podcast.
But he comes out with some really good stuff.
He finds articles that he’ll talk about.

He made a statement—I don’t know, I probably saw it this past weekend in his reel—
just talking about how we’ve actually come through one of the worst real estate times.
Obviously, he’s talking from a national basis.

Jamie McLaughlin:
Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes:
He's not local here.
But the number of home sales being way down.
And obviously someone like yourself who's delivering great service,
you’re staying in touch, your sphere trusts you, likes you—
and therefore you’re getting referrals and business through it.

If you're another agent who might just be getting leads right now,
and you're treading water...
Basically, what Jared’s saying is: it can only get better.

But continue to do the things that you need to do.
Obviously, you know, on a daily basis—following up with your past clients.

Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

Tracy Hayes:
Whether it’s using social media—
I personally would recommend, right now is the time for you to get, like your—what you have—
jamiemclaughlin.org.

Jamie McLaughlin:
Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes:
If you don’t have MarySmith.com or MarySmithRealtor.com,
you need to be going on GoDaddy or wherever you want to search and see if that domain's available.

Jamie McLaughlin:
Right.

Tracy Hayes:
Because search in the future is going to be natural language.
Google’s doing that—we talked about that at the beginning.

Jamie McLaughlin:
Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes:
80% of searches—they’re not clicking on a link.
They’re actually just reading the AI answer—

Jamie McLaughlin:
Right.

Tracy Hayes:
—and going with it.

And there was some stat, too—
you’re four times more likely that if AI recommends you, they’re going to do business with you—

Jamie McLaughlin:
Oh, interesting.

Tracy Hayes:
—than just clicking on a link.

And one of the articles that were out recently—
and actually, I think it was Jared James that mentioned this—
no, it was my friend Jim actually who sent me the article—
a lot of news sources are mad at Google
because their clicks are way down.

Jamie McLaughlin:
Mm.

Tracy Hayes:
It’s because people are Googling—
or going to ChatGPT—and putting in their question about whatever the news situation is,
and they’re reading the AI answer and stopping right there.

Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah.

Tracy Hayes:
They’re not clicking on Fox News or CNN or the newspaper or whatever to read the article.

Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah, that's true.

Tracy Hayes:
So that’s where it's coming.

So how do you get in there as a real estate agent?
Get your website up, start blogging,
and start filling it with the most hyperlocal, most current information—

Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah.

Tracy Hayes:
—narrowed down to that neighborhood that you can.

Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah. And I think if you're a new agent, consistency is key.

[01:11:24] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[01:11:25] Jamie McLaughlin:
Like, I do a lot for my neighborhood.
I sponsor the Easter egg hunt.
At Christmas, we have a horse-drawn carriage that comes out and Santa comes.
I get a professional photographer...

[01:11:36] Tracy Hayes:
That’s a good one right there.
I like that.

[01:11:38] Jamie McLaughlin:
...and so they come, and they know me.
When somebody's like,
"Oh, we moved here two years ago from New Jersey and we don't actually love it,
but we don’t know anybody here. We just came 'cause of COVID."
I’m like, "Call me."

And the ROI has been insane from it.
Just doing things for the community.
Or I do a little mailer for our neighborhood—
highlighting people who own their own companies.

Last month, I did one for an engraver, and I said,
“Here’s a coupon—I’ll pay for it.”
I marketed to the whole neighborhood just to support our neighbor.

[01:12:10] Tracy Hayes:
Because—when you—years ago, I think Kelly still does it...
Hopefully she does—Kelly Bella.
She’s the one who led me to the idea of the Christmas photo shoot.

[01:12:20] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

[01:12:21] Tracy Hayes:
She rented out a space and invited all her past clients
to come in with their kids and do professional photos.
So you just say to the photographer,
“Hey, I need you for five hours on Saturday.”
They’ll give you an hourly rate, take all the pictures,
and they send them out to the people.

Of course, if they want upgrades or reprints or anything,
they can make more money off of that.

[01:12:46] Jamie McLaughlin:
And she’s actually a neighbor.
So since you loved her, used her—
she has a bunch of neighbors who now use her for all their photos.

[01:12:53] Tracy Hayes:
That is such an easy one.
Everyone’s—I mean—it’s that time of year
where everyone’s trying to get their family photos for the Christmas card.

[01:13:00] Jamie McLaughlin:
Mm-hmm.

[01:13:01] Tracy Hayes:
So when do you usually schedule it? Like November?
When do you like to do your Christmas?

[01:13:07] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah, it’s already scheduled for December 12th.
And I market it through our Facebook neighborhood page.
I say, "You’re invited."
I get a couple people to help sponsor just to offset some of the costs,
but I pretty much cover it.

That goes back to—you know—you have to spend money to make money.
And that has worked wonderfully.
Just supporting the community and giving that to them.

[01:13:29] Tracy Hayes:
Easy.
You probably love to decorate.

[01:13:31] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

[01:13:32] Tracy Hayes:
Make the setting...

[01:13:34] Jamie McLaughlin:
Put the chair...

[01:13:34] Tracy Hayes:
...there.
Hire someone to be Santa.

[01:13:37] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.
Santa Ken.
He’s the best.

[01:13:42] Jamie McLaughlin:
Santa Ken. He's hysterical.
He's so funny.

[01:13:43] Tracy Hayes:
Very simple. Very simple.
Someone was asking about an ice cream truck the other day online—
I think it was just yesterday, actually.
"Who knows an ice cream... ice cream truck?"
I like the Santa thing. It's a lot easier.

And then if you want to serve ice cream on the side, someone can sponsor that.

[01:13:58] Jamie McLaughlin:
We have so many kids in our neighborhood,
and nobody wants to go stand in line at the mall.
So I'm like, save it—come here, and Santa will be here.

[01:14:04] Tracy Hayes:
You made me think—in our neighborhood,
we have the community Winter Fest, or whatever they call it,
and they'll have Santa in there,
but it's not done with the care I'm sure you do.
And truly professional photos,
where they’re probably given some moment of time
to actually get several shots, get the kids by themselves—
that kind of thing going on there.

So they truly have a... memoir—is that the right word?
You know, they’re sending out that picture to their friends and family at Christmas.

[01:14:37] Jamie McLaughlin:
A hundred percent. Yeah.

[01:14:38] Tracy Hayes:
Anything you'd like to add?

[01:14:40] Jamie McLaughlin:
I don’t think so. Thanks for having me.

[01:14:43] Tracy Hayes:
I appreciate you.
I'm gonna ask you—this is the toughest question here, right here. Finish this—ready?

[01:14:47] Jamie McLaughlin:
Ready.

[01:14:48] Tracy Hayes:
Why should someone use Jamie McLaughlin
for being their real estate agent, whether they’re buying or selling?

[01:14:55] Jamie McLaughlin:
Because with me, you'll have communication,
you’ll have trust, you’ll have care,
and I really do look at it as a relationship and not a transaction.
I want to treat you as if you're my family.
I want to make sure that I go over every hill and through every swamp
just to make sure that the transaction is smooth and that you're happy.

I mean, this is a huge milestone when people are buying or selling,
and I just feel blessed that I get to be a part of it
and that so many friends and family and referrals
just trust me to guide them and coach them through it all.

[01:15:32] Tracy Hayes:
Excellent.
I'm gonna throw this sub-question to you.

[01:15:37] Jamie McLaughlin:
Okay.

[01:15:37] Tracy Hayes:
We know—we have these buyers and sellers that are like this,
that obviously will resonate with a lot of people, what you just said.

[01:15:44] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah.

[01:15:45] Tracy Hayes:
But then there's always that person that wants what they think is a deal.
Personally, I call it stepping over a quarter to pick up a nickel.

Because in the end, they’ll want that person you just described yourself.
That doesn’t mean you’re not a tough negotiator.
That doesn’t mean you're not looking out.
You are looking at the whole transaction—
the follow-up, the attention to detail,
all the things that you mentioned right there
could save them thousands of dollars.

[01:16:00] Jamie McLaughlin:
Right.

[01:16:00] Tracy Hayes:
That doesn’t mean you’re a tough negotiator. That doesn’t mean you're not looking.
You are looking at the whole transaction—
the follow-up, the attention to detail,
all the things you mentioned right there could save them thousands of dollars.

[01:16:38] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yes.

[01:16:38] Tracy Hayes:
And so forth.

[01:16:40] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah. No, I for sure have seen that and experienced that.
And ultimately, I feel like if I'm not the right fit and my style and the things that I provide
you don't feel like are valuable,
then we're just not meant to be, right?
You know, I'm not here to take every lead and everything under the sun.
I also want to pour into my family and into my community and other things.
So I am able to kind of pick and choose.

[01:17:08] Tracy Hayes:
Have you fired a client yet?

[01:17:09] Jamie McLaughlin:
No, but one time we had to go actually move them out
because they decided they didn't want to sell anymore and said,
"We're not leaving."
So my husband and I got the contract and—
we were closing that day, and they're like, "We don't want to."
And I'm like, "Well, you actually have to leave. Sorry."

[01:17:39] Tracy Hayes:
Was that an older couple, or—

[01:17:46] Jamie McLaughlin:
No, they had a family and were gonna move to Texas,
and then decided after they were under contract,
maybe they don’t want to move anymore.

[01:17:53] Tracy Hayes:
Oh yeah. I’ve heard the stories.

[01:17:57] Jamie McLaughlin:
Yeah.

[01:17:58] Tracy Hayes:
Did you get lawyers involved in that one?

[01:18:00] Jamie McLaughlin:
They ended up leaving.
I'm like, “If not, they can sue you if you don’t get out.”
Everybody had signed. It was a treat.

But you know, overall, I want to form a relationship with a customer.
So if you don’t like me or my style or my beliefs or things like that,
then I’m sure there’s somebody else who’s a perfect fit for you. But it’s not me.
And I’m not going to necessarily give you the best price because I see value in the things I do and my time as well.
And what I can offer.

[01:18:29] Tracy Hayes:
No, I—don’t step over a quarter to pick up a nickel.
Don’t think the grass is always greener on the other side.

[01:18:36] Jamie McLaughlin:
Interesting. And those are kind of fun too,
to see where they interviewed and went with someone else
who was, you know, a lower compensation or whatever,
and then it sat for like six months—
and they sold it for less than I would've told them.

I had one where they’re like, “What would you price it for?”
And I said, $625,000.
They started at $700,000 and sold it for $600,000.

[01:19:00] Tracy Hayes:
I told you! If you would've started at $625k,
you probably would've gotten $635k.

[01:19:02] Jamie McLaughlin:
I know.
So you know, there’s a little bit of like—hmm...

[01:19:05] Tracy Hayes:
Oh yeah. “Should’ve listened.”
We’ve all dealt with that one.

Jamie, I appreciate you coming on the show today.

[01:19:08] Jamie McLaughlin:
Absolutely. Thank you for having me.
Great show.

[01:19:30] Tracy Hayes:
Everyone—her information is in the show notes.
Reach out to her! I’m sure she’ll answer questions,
tell you about United Real Estate Gallery,
and if you’re looking to get into the business,
she can give you some tips on that.

And like I said, your business is around referrals.
It’s very important to follow up with them.
What are you doing?
And I imagine you’re tweaking that all the time—
your events and such.

So anyone who wants advice on that—reach out to Jamie through her social media.

[01:19:35] Jamie McLaughlin:
Thank you.

[01:19:36] Tracy Hayes:
Thank you!

[01:19:36] Jamie McLaughlin:
Have a great day