Winning in New Construction Sales: Discipline, Builder Strategy & Buyer Wins with Jerry Strums

REE #308 Full Audio
[00:00:00] Jerry Strums: when I was in general real estate, you know, I'm working when I want to work.
I got my hands in 50 different baskets versus being able to focus on one thing. When I came to the builder, I was able to quit that serving job and just focus directly on real estate. 
 Hey, welcome back to the Real Estate Podcast, a show that highlights the top minds driving northeast Florida real estate forward. Today's guest brings the energy, the execution, and the mindset of a top [00:01:00] new home sales pro. He's helping buyers navigate builder incentives, make smart decisions in competitive markets, and take control of their home ownership journey.
[00:01:09] Tracy Hayes: I thrive in the dynamic real estate landscape. He says, I'm here to make buyers. Sure. Make sure buyers are informed, prepared and positioned. To succeed from personal branding to disciplined follow up. This episode is packed strategy, motivation, and straight up value for anyone eyeing new construction in Jacksonville, nte or St.
John's County. Let's dive in. Let's please, welcome to the show, Jerry Strums. 
[00:01:35] Jerry Strums: Good morning. 
[00:01:36] Tracy Hayes: Good morning. Glad you made it down. 
almost three years, right? Yes. When I, you and I did some content together,
[00:01:42] Jerry Strums: been three 
[00:01:42] Tracy Hayes: years. well, I just thinking you've been at Richmond now about almost two and a half.
You coming up at two and a half. So before that, so close to three years, two and a half, three years. Yeah. It was just before 
a long
[00:01:51] Jerry Strums: long time.
[00:01:51] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. I think Haley dissolved her team shortly after we had that meeting at the Compass office that day. So, but Jerry audience, I want, this is [00:02:00] what I want you to get outta this, show today.
Jerry has had, two years of great access at Richmond Homes here in northeast Florida, in, we'll talk about the different subdivisions he's been in, but I want this, he's the, you are the first site agent I've ever had on. I've never had a site agent on before. Now I've had agents on that sell a lot of new construction and we've talked about, you know, how to strategize, you know, bringing a buyer there.
But now I've got you. You're on the other side.
[00:02:25] Jerry Strums: the dark
side.
[00:02:26] Tracy Hayes: You're
on the the dark 
side. 
Well hopefully we'll bring light upon that dark side today. And so the agents who are listening can better prepare their customers for a better, satisfaction. 'cause you're only selling that home once and you're gone off to another subdivision.
They may have to, if they're a great agent, and those people might, who knows, life changes 2, 3, 5 years down the road. They might be trying to sell the house that they just bought, and hopefully they're gonna call that client, that agent back who led them to you. Mm-hmm. Now they're gonna call that agent back to sell that existing home.
Exactly. Right. So the [00:03:00] agents need to make sure they have a real positive, interaction. and, you know, buying from a builder isn't always so cut and dry, is it? Uh, 
[00:03:08] Jerry Strums: no, it is, it could be easy. It could be very easy, but sometimes it, it is not just, you know, it's a lot of rules that go with buying new construction.
Mm-hmm. And when you're coming in and, you know, making sure you're safe. You know what I'm saying? And covering your, your butt. 
[00:03:24] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 
[00:03:24] Jerry Strums: You know, for, for realtors out there, 
[00:03:26] Tracy Hayes: the head agent on I had the other day, we were talking about, you know, we like to think the builder's got all their warranties and we like to say, oh, they got a warranty. It's like buying a new car on the lot. Right. We go buy, buy whatever car. It's got a three year, 36,000 mile warranty.
Well,
yeah. The builder does have their one year warranty, but houses there a little different than cars. 
[00:03:43] Jerry Strums: So, so, you know, we got, it's more than a one year warranty. Like with Richmond, I know a lot of builders are different.
Mm-hmm. But Richmond, you know, we got a, a one year, we call it a one year bumper to bumper. So anything happens in that first year cover. And then we got like a, a seven year structural warranty on your whole house.
So
it's a little bit different. [00:04:00] So I say the warranties with the builder are really good versus, you know, buying a resale house and, you know, something could happen tomorrow.
[00:04:06] Tracy Hayes: Right. Well, there's sides to that. I would, I would slightly disagree with you. Okay. the existing home. Has been time tested. so there's not likely, you know, something unless the home, the current homeowner knows that, you know, hey, I went in and screwed with that. And now, you know, something may happen where the builder, if it wasn't put in right, you know, they don't know, right?
And then who knows if bursts in the 13th month or whatever happens, right? pipes are crushed by trucks. We don't, A lot of things have happened around the house that the owner didn't know, right? So there's two, two sides to that, I think. I think you, you can wave both sides, but. Right now when it comes to affordability, in, well in the nation, but especially here in northeast Florida, as one of the top markets, as we're seeing all this literature come out about us new construction, is there, especially for, the incentives, but for a first [00:05:00] time home buyer, it gives them that peace of mind that you're talking about.
[00:05:03] Jerry Strums: Yep. New construction is affordable. It's affordable. the rates are good. 
[00:05:07] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[00:05:07] Jerry Strums: Um, you can, I mean, I've had, I'm having VA buyers move
to houses with nothing down at all. Right. All closing costs covered and a low payment, know what I'm saying? 
[00:05:16] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 
[00:05:17] Jerry Strums: Um, the end of the year last year, I mean, we had 3.99 interest rates for the whole end of the year.
It was crazy. 
[00:05:23] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[00:05:23] Jerry Strums: And people were getting in houses that cost 350 to 400,000 for Yeah. Under 2,500 a month.
[00:05:31] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[00:05:31] Jerry Strums: Under
$2,600 a month, I wanna say. 
[00:05:33] Tracy Hayes: Well, I mean, just to give some perspective, you know, when I was working with. another large builder here from the lending side. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, we are commonly, you know, payments with taxes and insurance and everything we're in, we're in the two thousands, but obviously with interest rates higher, it's nothing.
Be talking about a three or $4,000 payment when you throw all that stuff in there because of the rates and obviously the cost of homes,
[00:05:54] Jerry Strums: It's
like a $500 difference in, in a payment versus if you go with a, if you have to go with OSL, right? 
[00:05:59] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. [00:06:00] 
[00:06:00] Jerry Strums: Normally.
But
I love my
OSLs.
'cause my osl. 
[00:06:02] Tracy Hayes: Well, what's
OSL define?
[00:06:04] Jerry Strums: Outside Lender. 
[00:06:05] Tracy Hayes: Outside
line. Lender.
Okay. I was like, os I 
figured 
that's 
what it was. 
[00:06:10] Jerry Strums: So It's it's, it's a outside lender. So I love my outside lenders 'cause it's a lot of deals that the builder can't get done. they're so strict. They're rule, they have a lot of rules. So like, they can't get some of the tougher buyers done.
[00:06:21] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[00:06:21] Jerry Strums: And I gotta have my osf 
[00:06:23] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 
[00:06:23] Jerry Strums: Outside lenders, I have to have 'em, 
[00:06:25] Tracy Hayes: you know? Well, we're certainly gonna talk to you about that, that today in, picking up some of those ones that, that Yeah, they aren't perfect. they're the round peg trying to get in the square hole type thing.
Mm-hmm. but still, let's still get 'em in home because you're, you, you're in a new subdivision on the north side of Jacksonville. Yeah. Where probably gonna have a lot of, well you're gonna have probably a lot of, active duty. 
[00:06:43] Jerry Strums: Mm-hmm.
[00:06:43] Tracy Hayes: Right. A lot 
[00:06:44] Jerry Strums: of military, 
[00:06:44] Tracy Hayes: but also some, first time home buyers.
[00:06:46] Jerry Strums: A lot of first time home buyers. 
[00:06:48] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 
[00:06:48] Jerry Strums: Yeah. 
[00:06:48] Tracy Hayes: now you, you also, you said you were, you are working with a community down in St. Augustine that has the RV garage. 
[00:06:55] Jerry Strums: Oh, yeah. Those are those, that's another new community at Richmond. Just, we opened a lot of new communities [00:07:00] that share. We have a lot of new communities coming, but yes, it's called Brookstone, RV garages.
They got houses 3000 square 50. So I would, I would just wanna read, tell y'all all the floor plans, but it's like guys like, what is a Daniel? What is a 
[00:07:13] Tracy Hayes: right, 
[00:07:14] Jerry Strums: you know, to ask me? So it's kind of hard to just say, yeah, I got Daniel Hansen. This, 
that, 
[00:07:18] Tracy Hayes: well, it just, well, it everyone a perspective of what you're dealing, you're dealing.
Where one subdivision is, is in an area where it's more first time home buyers. Some of our active duty coming from the naval base or air station. And then, you know, going down towards St. Augustine and St. John's County, you've got a, a totally different client there. Totally different price point. You've got RV Garage.
Now whether I had an RV or not, I'd like to have an RV garage. 'cause it's a great workshop, right? Yes. You know, tight space or if you got toys, you know, you get a, 
[00:07:47] Jerry Strums: if you got 
toys, that's biggest, that's the biggest sell there. You got boats, you got r you got a rv, you got motorcycles, you, you want have a workshop, like you said, you know, that's the biggest sale there.
I say Augustine, I say people, boats, people with [00:08:00] boats. They want that. 
[00:08:01] Tracy Hayes: I really, in, in my opinion, just to throw that out there, I wish we get more
Towards the,
the auxiliary, dwelling unit that we start zoning more properties to have. The over to garage apartment or, you know, that sort of thing. 'cause I, again, going back to affordability, people need that space not only for extended family, you know, maybe they have to bring the mother-in-law in, that's why it's called the mother-in-law suite, right?
Mm-hmm. Or they just have a space where they can rent out, offset their mortgage a little bit, but also give a reasonable price rental for someone who's just, you know, maybe a single person looking for a, a studio or something like that. I wish we would get more that way, hopefully in the near future. 
[00:08:42] Jerry Strums: I don't know.
Yeah. I, I like, I love the mother-in-law suite. I feel like everything is kind of just cookie cutter. 
[00:08:49] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Well you just, you see that more up north, the auxiliary dwelling unit where they have the
over
the garage.
[00:08:56] Jerry Strums: with That area with the, with the, 
[00:08:57] Tracy Hayes: well no, I mean like up like Michigan. 
[00:08:59] Jerry Strums: Oh, [00:09:00] 
[00:09:00] Tracy Hayes: new England. 
[00:09:01] Jerry Strums: Yep. 
Where all from, you get a lot of that.
[00:09:02] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Older neighborhoods. there. where it's common that, you know, you kinda have the, we call it the back alley, but because the street goes,
there's a
garage with an apartment over top, they're renting out, whether it's the family or just just the 
[00:09:15] Jerry Strums: basement. You 
don't get no basement 
[00:09:16] Tracy Hayes: just for some young people just trying to get started in their, their lies and just need a reasonable place to, to live.
Alright, let's dig into you a little bit. Where does Jerry, so you, you've been in real estate now for almost five years, right? Is that, I saw LinkedIn correctly, 
[00:09:31] Jerry Strums: that's, that's about right. 2021. Where are we now? 
[00:09:34] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, 
[00:09:34] Jerry Strums: 2020. So what led you to real estate? What was it about, what were you doing and then started, real estate and got involved?
So, honestly, I was actually serving, I was serving, I was a server. and I did a lot of, I had a lot of side hustles. Like I told you, remember, I worked in the past on a bunch of credit. I would help people with credit and, you know, one day. Somebody asked me like, why won't you get your real estate license?
You're always helping people with [00:10:00] their credit or you're, you know, you, you love helping people. You do a great job at Top Golf, right? You're getting involved in events. When I was back home, I was,
I
was working at an ax store in place, and I used to put a bunch of stuff together with all my people and, you know, put the community together, run events, all that kind of stuff.
And one day somebody just asked me like, you should get your real estate license. And I'm, and then as time went on, I thought about it. I thought about it, I'm like, all right, I'm, I might get my real estate license. I'm working with people. 
[00:10:26] Tracy Hayes: So who do you first, like, do you go and run? Was this something that was in real estate that was making this recommendation to you, or?
[00:10:33] Jerry Strums: Yeah, it was actually one of my best friends. He had his real estate license, but he wasn't putting it to use. 
[00:10:36] Tracy Hayes: Right, 
[00:10:37] Jerry Strums: right. So he was like, you know, you should get your real estate license. Like you could, you could probably really be good at it because you're outgoing and 
[00:10:43] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[00:10:43] Jerry Strums: You know, you'll probably do the crazy things.
And
so
I got my real estate license. It took me, it took me, it took me like a. A solid three months to get it. Mm-hmm. To get
past everything, take test and all that good stuff. 
[00:10:54] Tracy Hayes: Did you go investigate, did you go and, and maybe sit down and have coffee with a real estate agent? Did [00:11:00] you start, did you find someone that you could really pick your brand 'cause your friend wasn't really 
[00:11:03] Jerry Strums: active?
Yeah. Nobody really dropped gems for me, so I just came into it. 
[00:11:07] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[00:11:08] Jerry Strums: Just like if somebody out there thinking about getting in real estate right now, I came out here just like one of those people. 
[00:11:12] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[00:11:13] Jerry Strums: Just, I wanted to, I wanted to know what it was about and, you know, nobody really wanted to drop gems and tell you it was real juice and how much you really,
really make.
So, honestly, I got into it like cold, cold, like no help. 
[00:11:26] Tracy Hayes: So where do, where do you go first? Obviously you gotta hang your sign somewhere or hang your license somewhere. 
[00:11:31] Jerry Strums: So where I went first was, who did I meet when I went there? Was it Darcy? I don't remember who it was that I met when I went to Red Zone.
[00:11:39] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. But 
[00:11:40] Jerry Strums: I went to Red Zone and I forgot who I met, but. Red zone, you know, I played football and basketball and all of that good stuff. So that just sounded like good fit
for me. for me. Right. It felt like you could have structure. 
[00:11:49] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[00:11:50] Jerry Strums: it felt really good. I felt like I could really have structure if I went and worked for a place that, you know, everybody need to be in the office.
We need to do this, we need to do that. Right. So I went. And I started [00:12:00] at Red Zone. and then I worked on Jason
Bain's team.
I don't know if he's in real estate anymore. 
[00:12:05] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[00:12:05] Jerry Strums: he should be. But, I worked for his team with Rohan. I don't know if you ever met Rohan Rohan Joseph? 
[00:12:11] Tracy Hayes: No.
[00:12:11] Jerry Strums: I
worked with him for a while and then, that started to fall apart there at Red Zone.
And, while I was there, I met Haley Davis. Mm-hmm. So from there, after that fell apart, I went with Haley Davis and then we went over to Compass. 
[00:12:23] Tracy Hayes: Right, right. What were some of the,
so looking back now, obviously you seem to be in your groove here with the, the site agent 
[00:12:31] Jerry Strums: Yeah. 
[00:12:32] Tracy Hayes: Style. Do you feel that experience.
being on the retail side of things, you know, hitting the street every day versus the site agents, two different animals, but it's aided you in your, success working with the builder mm-hmm. Having that couple years of understanding what the, the agents that are bringing you clients are going through.
[00:12:53] Jerry Strums: Mm-hmm. So, as a site agent, you know, you're in that office [00:13:00] every single day. 
[00:13:00] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[00:13:01] Jerry Strums: When, well, I, well, me, I work Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. You have no days off. But what the builder really gave me was structure. It gave me real structure that I. 
[00:13:09] Tracy Hayes: Because 
[00:13:10] Jerry Strums: when I was in general real estate, you know, I'm working when I want to work.
I got my hands in 50 different baskets versus being able to focus on one thing. When I came to the builder, I was able to quit that serving job and just focus directly on real estate. Because when I was in general, I was, you know, I had a bounce house of business. I had, I was doing credit. Mm-hmm. I was working a serving job.
I was, sometimes I wouldn't do real estate, you know, and sometimes I do real estate. 
[00:13:35] Tracy Hayes: Well, you, you were surviving. 
[00:13:36] Jerry Strums: I was surviving. Yeah. I was doing everything I can. Yeah. You know, and when I came to a builder, it, it really gave me that, that structure that I really needed to just focus on one thing. 
[00:13:45] Tracy Hayes: so if it's for every people out there listening, I think this is important for someone, you know, think about getting in real estate, but I don't know what to do.
Now. There are some real estate teams that I could recommend to you that create a structure. Of, you know, Hey, everyone needs [00:14:00] to be in the office at nine o'clock 'cause we're gonna do this for the next couple of hours. There are a few brokerages, that I definitely could go that way. But the builder, what's nice about the builder is your W2.
Mm-hmm. You've got health benefits, you've got all the, you know, all the things that are that site that, that model is your office, that's your corporate office right there for you. and what's nice about it is you don't have a boss there every day, unless you're the boss is assigned to your site, to your site, but you may have a partner.
'cause obviously you, sometimes you need two or three people to cover a certain neighborhood. 
It 
[00:14:33] Jerry Strums: gets real sticky in the builder game too. Like, it's not easy in the builder industry. Like a lot of people think, oh, if I go work for a builder, like sales are just gonna come to me. 
[00:14:41] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[00:14:42] Jerry Strums: That's not true. 
[00:14:43] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.
[00:14:43] Jerry Strums: Um, you really gotta, you gotta work and you got, you want to know every realtor out there, but then you gotta know that it's 20 other site agents that work for maybe more than that, that works for the same builder as you.
You wanna make sure you're registering buyers because look, say you go to Aspen Trails [00:15:00] today and you know, I don't get to see you, 
[00:15:03] Tracy Hayes: right?
[00:15:03] Jerry Strums: and my partner registers you. Now you gotta work with that person. Or if a realtor brings a buyer that, you know, I know that they were supposed to be bringing that buyer to me and another, another person registers them then now,
[00:15:15] Tracy Hayes: alright, so here's the, here's the question and then I don't, I don't know the answer to this, but I, you're obviously your goal is try to build some relationship with these realtors who have clients that, you know, fit your neighborhood mm-hmm.
On a regular basis. Maybe they're close by or just that's the buyers they attract and your neighborhoods are for. So you try to create that relationship. Relationships. So do you want that agent to call you and say, Hey, I've got John and Sally. We're coming over on Saturday or maybe we're coming over on Monday and you're off, are you able to register them and, and it's still your deal?
[00:15:45] Jerry Strums: Well, if a realtor, if one of my realtor partners hit me up and say, Jerry, I need to come tomorrow. and I'm not, I know, I'm not working on, like, say I don't work on Monday, Tuesday. 
[00:15:53] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[00:15:53] Jerry Strums: If they need me on Monday, I'm gonna get up and go Monday and I'm gonna register them. I could work it.
Okay. You know, 'cause it's my lead,
you
know? Versus if they just, 
[00:15:59] Tracy Hayes: [00:16:00] so you'll just come in just, you know, for that appointment and take 
[00:16:03] Jerry Strums: care 
of that. I would come, I would come in for my appointment and take care of that and leave.
So,
it is a, it is a lot of little stuff that goes on. It's not easy to really gotta ground. That's real estate. 
Uhhuh, that's real estate. Yeah. If you're on the retail side, you're doing the same exact thing. At least on Monday and Tuesday. You, you know, can breathe a little bit 'cause you, you obviously chose Monday and Tuesday 'cause they're a little bit slower time.
[00:16:24] Tracy Hayes: You're now been there a couple YI imagine a. Less senior agent covers Monday and Tuesday. 
[00:16:30] Jerry Strums: No, it's not like that. 
[00:16:31] Tracy Hayes: No. 
[00:16:32] Jerry Strums: It's a good, you know,
I,
I feel like you could work. 'cause I, when I heard 
[00:16:35] Tracy Hayes: Who's covering the place today? Who's covering the place today? 
[00:16:37] Jerry Strums: My partner's there today. 
[00:16:38] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. They've been in the business as long as you have.
[00:16:40] Jerry Strums: They probably been in longer than me. 
[00:16:41] Tracy Hayes: Okay. So they, they chose other days to be up. 
[00:16:43] Jerry Strums: I mean, that's just my days. I prob I got this person that I'm working with now is newer, so I got seniority, so I didn't pick the days I could work, but 
[00:16:50] Tracy Hayes: that's what I'm saying. 
[00:16:51] Jerry Strums: No, I did work on Monday, Tuesday, and it was like last year I worked all Monday, Tuesday.
Right. 
[00:16:55] Tracy Hayes: well some people might want to have Wednesday and Thursday off. Yeah. 
[00:16:57] Jerry Strums: And it was good. I mean, I sold a lot of [00:17:00] houses last year too with working Monday, Tuesday. So, 
[00:17:02] Tracy Hayes: well, there's no doubt you kind of have the overflow. You know, maybe, maybe someone didn't greet them or they looked at other neighborhoods and all of sudden.
Monday
they come by and they go, we gotta make a decision and go, oh my God, this is our neighborhood. And yeah, you're there on a Monday. 
[00:17:15] Jerry Strums: Exactly. 
[00:17:16] Tracy Hayes: You just don't, it's sales. Right. 
[00:17:17] Jerry Strums: And when I was in general real estate, you know, I'm working when I want to work.
I got my hands in 50 different baskets versus being able to focus on one thing. When I came to the builder, I was able to quit that serving job and just focus directly on real estate. 
[00:17:32] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[00:17:32] Jerry Strums: You know? 
[00:17:32] Tracy Hayes: tell us a little bit about what you've learned in, you know, spreading the love basically
on
the, on the realtors that are regularly bringing you business.
Is that something that, you know, obviously they were training you up front or maybe obviously you probably mentored with somebody when you first started at Richmond, you know, to show you the ropes kind of thing? Or is this something that you kind of had to, you kind of figured out on your own? 
[00:17:53] Jerry Strums: So, I, I mean obviously they always teach and they preach, you know, building relationships, but the builder didn't, the [00:18:00] builder don't, you know, make you go get those relationships and 
[00:18:02] Tracy Hayes: mm-hmm.
[00:18:03] Jerry Strums: Make you an outgoing person. You actually gotta go out there and, really in your 
[00:18:07] Tracy Hayes: own creative way 
[00:18:08] Jerry Strums: and in a creative way.
Um.
It is not easy to build realtor relationships because they don't trust you. In the beginning, it's like, I feel like some of the realtors think that all of the site agents are out to get them because of builders rules, but if we just do it the right way and you know, we talk about this, we could really make it happen.
Right? I, I try to create value to my realtors by doing closing videos with them and making content. 'cause I want them to look good too. Just like you make, look, make people look good. 
[00:18:32] Tracy Hayes: I appreciate, 
[00:18:33] Jerry Strums: you know you know what I'm saying? You make people look, I try,
You make people look amazing.
you make people feel wonderful.
Like, you make me feel like ever since I stepped in here, you made me feel good. 
[00:18:40] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[00:18:40] Jerry Strums: You make me feel like this is my home. So when my realtors come, I wanna make them feel like, look, this is your home. Anything you need, I got you. You want to come do content. I got you. You want to come talk rates and promote a house.
I got the house and I got you and I'm gonna help you do it. Whatever you need to do. You know, I got you. And I do that for my realtors. It's very important. 'cause the realtors are my [00:19:00] network, I wanna say. 
[00:19:01] Tracy Hayes: Right. Well, I, I will quote someone that was on here recently, and I, and I'll will come to me, who it was, oh, I think it was Jonathan Stein.
Your network is your net worth.
[00:19:10] Jerry Strums: Yes, 
[00:19:10] Tracy Hayes: sir. That's right. That's a great, um.
quote there, how you said sometimes the agents are a little, you know, hostile. They think you're not, you're in it for the you and the builder. And you know, obviously they're, they think they're there for the buyer, which hopefully they're, how do you disarm them?
how do you get them to love Jerry? 
[00:19:28] Jerry Strums: You know, honestly, I gotta be myself. You know, I, I control what I can control that. That's it. Because I got realtors that come in sometimes that just never met me before. They never met me before. And they come in, they probably think I'm young. I don't know what I'm talking about.
it's hard to disarm some of these realtors. Some of 'em come in, you know, some of 'em like got this attitude where like, you know, we're gonna use my lender and, you know, I don't want you to talk about your. Your interest rates, I just want you to sell this house. And you know, sometimes I run into that, 
[00:19:55] Tracy Hayes: right?
[00:19:55] Jerry Strums: And it's like, I don't know if they know, I don't know if they think I'm against them. Like, look, [00:20:00] I'm on your side. I'm gonna ask for what you want. Right? It's not my money. I'm whatever you need, whatever the buyer needs. 
[00:20:05] Tracy Hayes: So you use like a little juujitsu, right? Use their own body weight against them. Mm-hmm.
in the thing goes, yeah, I can, I can see where they come in. Oh, we're gonna do it. And you're just like, okay, yeah, whatever. But you know, in reality, and they know in reality.
to
get the deal done. You're go, you're going on, you know, Richmond and Jerry's path 
[00:20:22] Jerry Strums: Exactly. 
[00:20:22] Tracy Hayes: To get it done. 
[00:20:23] Jerry Strums: Yeah. And obviously I work for Richmond, you know what I'm saying?
So I gotta follow their rules. 
[00:20:28] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[00:20:28] Jerry Strums: And we did just get bought by Saka Sui house, but I'll talk about that a little.
bit.
But I, I follow their rules you know, but the realtors sometimes come in and they really think that I'm, I'm not out to get the buyer. Like, this is your buyer. Look, you tell me if you, if this is your buyer, you know everything about them.
You tell me what you need and I'm gonna let you know if I can get it done right. So if I deal with a, a realtor, that just is just really standoffish. Look, let's look at the houses. Tell me what you need and I'll get it done. And by the end of that 30 days, when it's time to close, oh, you gonna love me?
Because if we go under contract, I'm going to make this the easiest [00:21:00] process in the world for you. When you call me like, Jerry, I need this. Why wasn't this? No, I'll get it to you right now. You know, it's like, you know. 
[00:21:05] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
well,
I think you bring up a good point is the mindset that agents should have you. if you're an agent and you're bringing someone to, site agents a, a new construction, model, you have to be in the subject. You're bringing 'em there that they may say, yeah, this is what we want to do. Maybe you showed 'em a bunch of existing homes,
it
wasn't there. Or maybe you got a first time home buyer and you need the incentives or obviously the lower interest rate to get the payment down, whatever those things are.
So you're, you're coming there. If you're coming there it without, with the expectation that you don't want them to buy there, then don't bring them there. 
[00:21:42] Jerry Strums: Exactly. 
[00:21:42] Tracy Hayes: because
it's new construction. It's like bringing someone, you know, trying to sell someone a used car and then bringing 'em over and let 'em smell the leather in a new car.
They're totally on the new car. Totally 
[00:21:51] Jerry Strums: different.
[00:21:52] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. You 
[00:21:52] Jerry Strums: get totally stuck. 
[00:21:53] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. So having the mindset that you are, that Jerry and the site agents [00:22:00] are collaborators, you have the same goal, you have the same buyer, it's just now you have a team
and
you just have two buyers agents working together to please the same customer.
[00:22:10] Jerry Strums: Yes. 
[00:22:11] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 
[00:22:11] Jerry Strums: I've had realtors. Steer some buyers like, like they'll, it's maybe new realtors, but they'll steer the buyer away. They'll scare 'em, you know, make it feel, I, they made me feel like a monster sometimes to new people. 
[00:22:22] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[00:22:23] Jerry Strums: But like I said, as I get, 
[00:22:24] Tracy Hayes: it's 
like, why did they bring him there? 
[00:22:25] Jerry Strums: Yeah.
[00:22:26] Tracy Hayes: You know what I'm saying? 
[00:22:27] Jerry Strums: You know, and then once I start talking, if I get in my spill when I'm showing you new construction, I'm telling you about the payment and about everything I could do for you, because I can do so much. 
[00:22:36] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[00:22:36] Jerry Strums: Working for this builder, I can get you 
[00:22:38] Tracy Hayes: what 
[00:22:38] Jerry Strums: you need. Right? 
[00:22:39] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 
[00:22:39] Jerry Strums: Like what do you need to buy a 
[00:22:40] Tracy Hayes: house?
You, you have more flexibility than the average just regular home seller selling your own 
home. 
[00:22:44] Jerry Strums: Any, any of my realtors, when they come in, I'm telling, well, what, what's going on? What, what does your buyer need? what do they want? And they say, oh, I need to get, you know, as close to 2300 as possible. I'm in my head, I'm like, I know I got 12 different floor plans in my head.
I automatically go down to the three floor plans that I know is [00:23:00] gonna keep you under 2300. Mm-hmm. So they come see those and I'm not gonna show them something better because. Do you, I wanna keep 'em on track. 
[00:23:07] Tracy Hayes: Do you like it,
like you said, you've built some relationships with people that bring you regular business.
[00:23:12] Jerry Strums: Oh, yeah. 
[00:23:13] Tracy Hayes: when they call you and tell you a little bit about their buyer before they get there, 
[00:23:17] Jerry Strums: I love that. 
[00:23:18] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, 
[00:23:18] Jerry Strums: I love that because they tell me, oh, they want a single level house. It cancels all the two stories out. If they tell me they want a house under, like I said, 2300, I could look at the house that's under 2300 and maybe one that's 24.
You
know, sometimes well
[00:23:33] Tracy Hayes: like, because I think.
You haven't been in sales most of my life. 
[00:23:37] Jerry Strums: Mm-hmm.
[00:23:38] Tracy Hayes: You, You,
know, You you, have to do, I call it a to turnover. And if I'm bringing, if I'm an agent and I'm bringing you a customer and I call it Jerry, Hey, I got this person. Here's her criteria. She really wants this.
He really wants this. I know you got some stuff over there when you, so when they come and they [00:24:00] show up and you greet them as if you've already met 'em because you've already got some information, hey. Oh, it's great to know you. So Sal, Tracy told me that you guys are really looking for like this.
They feel like, you guys are a team. 
[00:24:13] Jerry Strums: Exactly. 
[00:24:14] Tracy Hayes: And it's a, it's a soft handover and it's like, Hey, these guys are taking care of me. They're working behind the scenes to get me what I want. 
[00:24:22] Jerry Strums: Yep. And then it'll open them up a little bit and make them talk like, you know, oh yeah.
well I'm
really looking for like this.
three, two,
but I really need a four, you know? Right. I'm like, you know, and I'll take 'em through their options and let 'em know what they can get over there 
[00:24:35] Tracy Hayes: because they're, no doubt when they go from, they may have told me some things and I thought I had everything, but then when, you know, you greet 'em and you,
you know, have the information that I've already prepped you with, then they're like, well, we thought about that and now we want the four bedrooms.
Mm-hmm. 'cause we, whatever we, you know, they may not have told me that, 'cause they've already told me they wanted three baths and we've been three bedrooms, so we're showing three bedrooms all over place. And [00:25:00] they didn't wanna tell me four 'cause they think it would like tick me off 'cause I just wasted a bunch of time in the three bedrooms.
But they'll tell you that. 
[00:25:04] Jerry Strums: They'll tell me that. 
[00:25:05] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 
[00:25:06] Jerry Strums: And I might know something that they, that the realtor, and that happens very often. Yeah. When the buyer says something to the realtor. And they tell me, and that's another big thing, like I don't want my realtors coming back to me like, why
would you tell the buyer this or show them that?
And, you know, I'm immediately, look, this is what they said and this is what I showed them. 
[00:25:22] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[00:25:22] Jerry Strums: Oh, I didn't know they wanted a four. 
[00:25:24] Tracy Hayes: Do you, do you, um, if you do have that situation where you know you're working with them and they, they're, now they're, they're, you're, you're with them, but the agent isn't, maybe the agent's got an appointment and they're not with them at that point, Uhhuh, right.
Are, are you calling the agent and briefing them on what you're, what happened while they were with you? 
[00:25:44] Jerry Strums: Absolutely. After. And all my realtors know, and if I know they're probably gonna watch this, they all know, right? Mm-hmm. If you send me a buyer, I'm calling you probably five minutes after they leave with everything that happened, whether they liked it or not.
What they want. If they ready to [00:26:00] go under contract, like I'm not gonna make them go under contract right then and there. I'm gonna call the realtor first, and I want the realtor to be a part of this decision for 'em. Right. So they can call 'em. My realtors really make it really easy for me. Like the ones where I'm doing five or six deals a month with, they make it really, really easy for me.
They help me, you know? Mm-hmm. If it's something that I don't want to talk to the buyers about, I could call a realtor or. Vice versa, you know, so, 
[00:26:22] Tracy Hayes: right. 
[00:26:22] Jerry Strums: They make it very easy for me, so I brief them on the whole situation. 
[00:26:26] Tracy Hayes: So agents, you know,
I think what we're getting to here, it's very important. Maybe go out to lunch with your site agent that you like to eat, or maybe go sit in the mall, bring them some Starbucks or something.
Bring 'em lunch. Right. Sometimes it's, it might get lonely there on some days, or it is so cold right now. No one's probably looking at houses right now, right? Yeah. But you know, you'll go and sit down with them and, and if you're, if it's a neighborhood that's. In your wheelhouse and you know, you're gonna bring numerous clients a month to this per to this site agent to have that rapport.
How do we want to hand [00:27:00] off what information do I want from you through the process as a, a retail agent to the site agent? You know, so you build that relationship. So you do look like a, a team. 
[00:27:11] Jerry Strums: Mm-hmm. 
[00:27:11] Tracy Hayes: and just makes the customer experience, because I think you would agree if I'm a retail agent, I'm bringing you that customer.
[00:27:19] Jerry Strums: That word is very important. Customer experience. 
[00:27:20] Tracy Hayes: The cust give them a great customer experience that Jerry and Tracy did this great things for me, that when I go. Whether it's two years or I got friends who are looking to buy, oh, you need to come to the neighborhood, but you call Tracy, Tracy's gonna hook you up with Jerry.
Even though I have a relationship with Jerry, they know that Tracy did what he's supposed to do on hi his side, and we're gonna get into that, here in a moment. And then obviously Jerry and they work hand in hand and just made everything great. 
[00:27:50] Jerry Strums: Everything great. 
[00:27:51] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. that's really the result as a agent that you want out of that transaction with the builder.
They had a wonderful time. 
[00:27:59] Jerry Strums: [00:28:00] Exactly. 'cause I, I, like I said, I did a lot of deals in the last two years and, it was some deals that was rough. 
[00:28:06] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[00:28:06] Jerry Strums: Because it was like that communication wasn't there. Or we, you know, you couldn't talk. But that happens, like you're not gonna have. A bunch of good ones.
Obviously it's getting good now where my realtors just call me, I look, they tell me the buyer's name, I register 'em, show the house, and, you know, just, just go from 
[00:28:21] Tracy Hayes: there. 
Right, right. 
[00:28:22] Jerry Strums: Try to make everything great and easy. 
[00:28:24] Tracy Hayes: So, but it's, it's a little easier when the agent just has I I don't wanna say a positive attitude towards it or not be, what's the word?
Defensive. I don't, you know, whatever it is when they come in there, but 
[00:28:35] Jerry Strums: it's something they went through in the past. 
[00:28:36] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 
[00:28:37] Jerry Strums: I don't know what they went through in the past, but it's something that these realtors went through that makes them like that. 
[00:28:43] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 
[00:28:43] Jerry Strums: And 
[00:28:43] Tracy Hayes: that's, or it was talking in the office at the water cooler and they're like, oh, the, builders over there.
Well, you know, the builders are, you know, go in there and they're gonna try to screw you. So be prepared. 
[00:28:53] Jerry Strums: You I make, I make my realtors feel love and I'm not screwing no realtors. Mm-hmm. I literally love my realtors. like [00:29:00] anything Richmond's dropping as far as bonuses or. New houses or whatever you're letting em know right away.
I'm letting all my realtors know. So if they got some buyers, send me the name, I'm gonna register 'em for you. 
[00:29:09] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[00:29:09] Jerry Strums: and that's your buyer. Like, I love my realtors, so I gotta, you know, I, I take, I take care of 'em and they, they take care of me. I take care of them. So, 
[00:29:16] Tracy Hayes: well, there was a period of time there, um. Before you got in. 'cause there's,
when
I was with the lending side of the large builder, there was a period of time where there was builders who really wanted to, made the agents feel they were getting screwed outta their commission. Like if they were showing someone around and then someone just starting to be driving home and they stop by your neighborhood and they've already been out looking at homes with Sally over here, but then they drive by your neighborhood on the way home, go, oh, I didn't notice that neighbor. And they drive in, they're like, oh no, we're gonna screw you at, no, you weren't here when they came in. And it's like, no, that I'm your, I'm their representative. Now they get so they felt there was this mm-hmm. Thing, and I think prior to the rates really rising in, you know, spring of 22, the people were rolling in and buying the new construction.
They were really busy. Then [00:30:00] obviously as rates went up and things started to slow down, then they started going out and saying, oh, agents come, come. We love you. We love you,
and hopefully
it will continue no matter what that they've learned that love, love, love is better than, Hey, we don't want you involved to now.
Oh my God, we really need you. And
[00:30:15] Jerry Strums: let's 
[00:30:15] Tracy Hayes: balance 
[00:30:15] Jerry Strums: it. 
That That was, that was, a big thing when I got got to the builder, like, like the realtor has to be with the buyer to
register them. 
[00:30:22] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[00:30:22] Jerry Strums: You know, but if you call in now, like if you call me, I can register and set up an appointment with us and the buyer.
So you don't gotta deal with, deal with that. But it, that's going on sometimes where it's some builders out there where I hear it from my realtors, they'll tell me, oh, they don't, they don't pay us. Like if this house was had a 1% commission fee on it, nobody would come look at it. 
[00:30:42] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[00:30:43] Jerry Strums: And that's true.
Like we got, everybody's working hard. Like we want to take care of everybody and if everybody just takes care of everybody, we would never have these issues. It could be.
so
easy. Like it's so much things that I could even say, you know, maybe if Richmond did, we would be the best. But they're highly focused now on customer [00:31:00] experience.
[00:31:00] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[00:31:00] Jerry Strums: And that's very important to me is like, if you could focus on customer experience and realtor experience, we gonna be on the top of the top of the world. 
[00:31:07] Tracy Hayes: So if an agent called you, and if I called you, Hey Jerry, I'm working with John and Sally here. I can't make, they want to come by and see your subdivision tomorrow, but I've got a doctor's appointment.
Can I get them registered? 
[00:31:19] Jerry Strums: Absolutely. You can get now some builders, I don't know. But if you called me and said that, and as long as that buyer's not in the system or register to any other site agent, 
[00:31:28] Tracy Hayes: right? 
[00:31:29] Jerry Strums: I can register that buyer and show it, show the house, and put 
[00:31:31] Tracy Hayes: my 
name 
on 
[00:31:32] Jerry Strums: it, that I'm, put your name on it.
Mm-hmm. And then call you like, this is what happened. Like,
It's a, you've got life, life happens. Like you can't just take advantage of people because of life, you know? 
[00:31:40] Tracy Hayes: Walk me through, and I imagine you guys probably talk about this a little bit at your sales meetings or over the years. I, can only imagine
at
new construction, but when an agent walks in and let's say for they, they haven't called you and told you they were coming.
[00:31:55] Jerry Strums: Mm-hmm. 
[00:31:56] Tracy Hayes: They just walk in on a, whatever day [00:32:00] you greet them. The agent's there.
how should the agent hand the, buyers off to you? what should be, how should they prep? How should they set the expectation? do that handoff and then shut up. Okay. Right. I mean, would you agree? A lot of 'em just need just stand there and listen.
And let you do what you're supposed to be doing as Richmond's representative. Mm-hmm. And, and selling it and not
interfere with that. And if they have a disagreement to talk to you afterwards, and then obviously then you can approach the buyer together and say, oh, I misspoke, or I forgot to tell you about it and your agent reminded me this.
[00:32:39] Jerry Strums: Yeah. So, 
[00:32:40] Tracy Hayes: yeah. How, how should that handoff, how do you guys, 
[00:32:41] Jerry Strums: so a lot of my top site agent or top, not site agents, but a lot of my, my realtors that I do a lot of business with, how I like it when they come in is they come into the door and they say, this is my buyer, so-and-so, this is what they're looking for.
Because while they're saying all of that stuff, I know every floor plan by Richmond, right? Like I've been studied these floor plans, 
[00:32:59] Tracy Hayes: right. 
[00:33:00] Maybe it's the neighborhood 
[00:33:00] Jerry Strums: back and forth, maybe it's another neighborhood. 
[00:33:02] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[00:33:02] Jerry Strums: But they tell me. they want this house. They need a four, three or a five, three or bigger or lower, and they're looking to stay around like 2300 a month and use your lender.
[00:33:12] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[00:33:12] Jerry Strums: You 
know? Then I'm like, okay, everything pops up. So now it's easy for me to talk to that buyer versus when a realtor, and this happens, a realtor, I didn't, I wouldn't even know this is the realtor. Sometimes it was one time I didn't even know it was a realtor. 
[00:33:24] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[00:33:25] Jerry Strums: But the realtor comes in with a buyer, just don't say nothing.
It's so awkward, you know? I'm like, hello. 
[00:33:30] Tracy Hayes: So the realtor, the first thing the realtors should do is come in and introduce themselves. Hey, I'm so and so with X, Y, z realty 
[00:33:38] Jerry Strums: we're looking for. 
Great. 
[00:33:40] Tracy Hayes: And then introduce their customers 
[00:33:41] Jerry Strums: and introduce, and they don't even gotta say payment. They could just be like, we're looking for this.
Mm-hmm. And if I got it, let me show you because I, and if they're trying to stay somewhere for a monthly payment, I'm gonna let you know Where
we going to be at if we did use my lender. But 
[00:33:54] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[00:33:55] Jerry Strums: I say, just tell me what you need. 'cause Oh, I was trying to tell you the story. So I had a [00:34:00] realtor come in and they didn't say nothing.
They just came in with the buyer. And I'm like, Hey. And I broke. I'll break the buyer down when we sit. Stand there. Hey, what you looking for? And mm-hmm. I'm very open and I want to talk. But then the realtor be like,
how
are you? What? What's your name? Oh, I'm their realtor. And I'm like, come on. Like you guys, you ain't gotta be like that man.
You shoulda told me that when you first came in. 
[00:34:17] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[00:34:18] Jerry Strums: If you a realtor, you supposed to have that.
How
you doing? You supposed take well, 
[00:34:21] Tracy Hayes: first of all, you should have your name tag on.
[00:34:24] Jerry Strums: Yes,
agreed. 
[00:34:25] Tracy Hayes: should, but they should But I agree with you. So realtors, if you're listening, and I know a lot of Sir Asheville, I can be the same way When I, I walk into a room initially, I like to evaluate what's going on, but.
You are in control of the situation. You come in, you come into Jerry's or any other site agent's model, first thing you should do is go directly to them, introduce them who you are, because I will tell you this, and uh, Jerry, I think you'd agree. 'cause you've, you've seen it. Mm-hmm. If you don't take control like that, come mely in.
Introduce yourself. I'm a realtor, I'm with whomever, and this is [00:35:00] my buyers here. If you don't do that. You are making your buyers feel very uncomfortable.
uncomfortable.
[00:35:07] Jerry Strums: yeah. And they like, are you here with me? Like, you're supposed to be representing me. 
[00:35:10] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[00:35:10] Jerry Strums: So you, I love when my realtors come in and take charge because then,
Then
you don't have the issue of the buyer just reaching directly out to me and trying to communicate.
Then they trying to reach you up to both of us because they know that you're a part of this as well. 
[00:35:22] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[00:35:23] Jerry Strums: You know, so when you come in and you take charge, I'm okay with that. I don't, you know, I'm not mad. 
[00:35:28] Tracy Hayes: Well, also, would you agree that, you know, as an agent representing a buyer coming into a new construction.
that
if the buyer doesn't feel that the, their agent has a open line of communication, is you know, has no problem calling Jerry and say, Hey, my clients are nervous about this. Can you see what's going on? if they don't, they're gonna skip you, the agent and go right to Jerry, the site agent.
Exactly. Because Jerry has the answers. But if you go in and you show them, [00:36:00] Hey, you're up front. Maybe you've never met Jerry before, or you know, I'm, I'm using Jerry, here as I think for any site agent, but go in and you take in control. They now know that you and Jerry, saw the two of 'em shake hands and they know who each other are.
[00:36:12] Jerry Strums: Exactly. And a lot of my realtors, they do that. I always say, I say my realtors 'cause it's like. I'm built, instead of having to go out there and get the buyers, I go out there and get the realtors. But, uh, 
[00:36:21] Tracy Hayes: yeah, 
[00:36:21] Jerry Strums: like, like general, but yeah, my, like, they come in and they be like, this is my partner Jerry, and you know, he's with Richmond and they have their different partners at other realtors too.
[00:36:28] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 
Yeah. 
[00:36:29] Jerry Strums: But when you come in like that, like, so my realtors do that and I love it because when they say I'm their partner, it makes me feel good. It makes me look good. It makes her look good because she got a good partner. 
[00:36:39] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[00:36:39] Jerry Strums: You know, it's just, it's just an easy transaction and everybody's at ease versus it, you know, you don't want it to be hot.
[00:36:45] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[00:36:46] Jerry Strums: You know? And weird. 
I 
like it. Weird. 
A 
[00:36:48] Tracy Hayes: hundred. Yeah. Well, the bottom line is your buyers will feel uncomfortable. Go in and break the ice. Find Jerry. Hopefully Jerry's looking you. But like you said, sometimes you don't like, is this your sister or is this your agent? Who is this person?[00:37:00] 
Yeah. 
[00:37:00] Jerry Strums: Yeah. 
Your auntie uncle. 
[00:37:02] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, exactly.
[00:37:03] Jerry Strums: This
is always something, and obviously when,
like,
when, when people say like, after I done show the whole house and I'm talking, I'm on my fetch. I'm, I'm doing my thing and they're quiet and they say, oh no, I'm the realtor. It just a big thing pops in my head. Like, you the realtor, you didn't say nothing this 
[00:37:18] Tracy Hayes: whole 
time.
How difficult is it for an agent to find out who the site agents are for a particular, so if they're at home and they know, okay, I'm going out and show you these houses and they wanna stop by this subdivision, how hard is it for them to pull up, like say on Richmond's site and see who the. 
[00:37:32] Jerry Strums: it's really hard to do that.
Like if you don't go, 
[00:37:34] Tracy Hayes: Richmond doesn't like to advertise that 
[00:37:36] Jerry Strums: particular, they don't advertise that. So like, I I advertise myself. so like, if you wanted to come get a house with Richmond and, you don't know Jerry, I mean, or if you go in and get a house with any builder and you're just, you know, you, you gotta call in.
If you don't have the connections, you gotta call in 
[00:37:49] Tracy Hayes: and 
mm-hmm.
[00:37:50] Jerry Strums: Is 
[00:37:50] Tracy Hayes: it, can 
they get the phone number to the subdivision, to your site office? 
[00:37:53] Jerry Strums: Nope. It's gonna go to our corporate office. Okay. It's gonna, 
[00:37:55] Tracy Hayes: and 
they're gonna route it 
[00:37:56] Jerry Strums: and they're gonna, if I'm working, say it's a Wednesday or Thursday, 
right. 
And I'm [00:38:00] working, it's gonna come to me.
but
if it's a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, it's me and my partner. So if my partner's up next for the next appointment, if you call them, you're gonna go work with my partners. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, 
[00:38:10] Tracy Hayes: right? 
[00:38:10] Jerry Strums: Because it's enough. 
[00:38:11] Tracy Hayes: Well, they're coming in blind. But I, I guess I was leading to, I think agents need to do their due diligence.
And that might be, you know, especially for new agents, you should be going around to these, these new subdivisions in meeting the site agents
and just say, Hey, I'm a new agent. I wanna learn what you got. 'cause I oftentimes get first time home buyers and you got a neighborhood that's great for them,
whatever
it is.
to go around and then obviously they, now they know your name. Mm-hmm. Now they've got your card. Now they've got your number in there so they, they know someone's coming that they can call you directly and say, Jerry, I got somebody today. We're gonna come over. We're gonna be there probably around 11 o'clock.
You're gonna be available. You boom. 
[00:38:47] Jerry Strums: Exactly. All my new agents too,
all any new agent that comes to me. I love 'em because they're so, they're new and they mm-hmm. They wanna work. So I'm like, you know, like, whatever you need, you want to come do content. Like I make the new agents feel good, [00:39:00] so they know, oh, if they got a buyer, they might not even need to come to my community yet. They just don't know yet. And
I got, I got a buyer that want a five bedroom and they can just come, I look, go show that house. 
[00:39:08] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[00:39:09] Jerry Strums: You know? 
[00:39:09] Tracy Hayes: So tip number one. Now, I think, you know, I'm wanna say tip number one, we, we've given out a lot of tips here. find out who's in the subdivision, if you can, absolute before you even go over there, because it just makes you one.
You already, maybe you, I I totally off guard. The customers come in and they wanna houses tomorrow, and I don't know anyone in that subdivision in the area. they're walking in. So if I call corporate, when you guys open in the morning on Saturday morning, for example, and let's say they got ahold of me late Friday night, I go, oh, okay.
I gotta bring 'em over there. I can get on, I can call the, the main number and say, I, I'm an agent and I need to go to this. What's your new subdivision on the north side? 
[00:39:48] Jerry Strums: Aspen Trails. 
[00:39:49] Tracy Hayes: Aspen Trails. I want to
be
connected with the Aspen Trail site, you know, model. 
[00:39:54] Jerry Strums: Mm-hmm. 
[00:39:55] Tracy Hayes: They're gonna log, connect me.
One of you or your partner are going to answer the phone. So [00:40:00] now you go, oh, I just spoke. So now when you bring your customer and you walk in. You're looking for Jerry. Hey, we're gonna go see Jerry at the Aspen models. 
Yep. 
Yeah, 
[00:40:10] Jerry Strums: exactly. 
[00:40:11] Tracy Hayes: It just gives you, gives you a level of credibility in that you've done your due due diligence.
[00:40:15] Jerry Strums: Yeah. And you're not just walking in, like you said, walking in blind is terrible. 
[00:40:19] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[00:40:19] Jerry Strums: When you walk in and you know what this builder has versus what this builder has, and knowing the differences, like, like I said, a lot of these real, a lot of the top realtors, they know, oh, Richmond has this, or Lennar has this, or DR Horton has this.
You know, it's like something that every builder has. 
[00:40:35] Tracy Hayes: Do you have.
have. A lot. you know, I mean they're, I know they do their tours and stuff, but I mean, really have agents, you know, on their downtime where, like you said, you've been a new agent, young agent, and you, you know, you had a lot of time. What do I do with that time?
Well go by and do you have a lot of agents just stop by and say, Hey, I just wanna know what kind of, you know, products, you know, what are you, what are you building here 
[00:40:55] Jerry Strums: That A lot of agents, I have a lot of agents. 
[00:40:57] Tracy Hayes: You do have some good traffic from agents.
[00:40:59] Jerry Strums: I do get traffic 
[00:40:59] Tracy Hayes: off 
[00:40:59] 308 VIDEO: time. 
[00:40:59] Jerry Strums: I do traffic from agents [00:41:00] and they come by.
[00:41:00] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[00:41:01] Jerry Strums: And, you know, they wanna know what we have. I'll show 'em the models, tell 'em all the floor plans that's coming, tell 'em that we're gonna have, I give them all the information they need. 
[00:41:08] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[00:41:08] Jerry Strums: So if they come across a buyer, 
[00:41:10] Tracy Hayes: they're bringing 'em over. They, alright. So talking to other site agents who may be listening here.
What is your method? I, I come walking in, I, I say I'm a new agent, you know, just got started. I wanna learn, you know, what your subdivision's all about. You gimme all the information I leave. What do you, what do you do? 
[00:41:29] Jerry Strums: Um, I'm gonna follow up with 
you. 
[00:41:31] Tracy Hayes: You're gonna follow up with, 
I'm 
[00:41:31] Jerry Strums: gonna, I'ma what? 
[00:41:32] Tracy Hayes: Imagine got a CRM, right? They got, 
[00:41:35] Jerry Strums: yeah. Oh yeah. We got CM 
[00:41:36] 308 VIDEO: you're 
[00:41:36] Tracy Hayes: loading everybody in. 
[00:41:37] Jerry Strums: Oh, I'm putting everybody in. If I got a new agent, I'm making sure I got your number. So next week I'm gonna hit you up and say, look, I got, I'm having a little event, or we're about to do headshot just to get your back out.
So you're building that relationship with me. 
[00:41:48] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[00:41:48] Jerry Strums: You know, I'm I'm doing this, or let's go grab coffee and talk about this. 'cause I, I see a, if I see potential in somebody, like, like a lot of, I see a lot of, it's a lot of good realtors out there. They just don't know they are yet some of the [00:42:00] younger ones.
and when they come to me and they ask me how do I do it and and ask me a bunch of questions, I'm, I'm inviting that same person that's asking me those questions that's coming and spending that time with me. Mm-hmm. I'm inviting 'em out for maybe coffee or inviting him back. To my community or saying come to this event just because I know I'm building that relationship and I know when you got a buyer, come see me.
[00:42:18] Tracy Hayes: One thing that I, you know, when I was working with a builder, it was a little more of the crazy, you know, a little bit before COVID, a little bit after COVID type, you know, period. And I say COVID 'cause I mean spring of 2020 when it started. So in of 21, you know, back into, I don't know, I think I started in, was it spring of 19? Maybe spring of 18, 19, something like that. and it was crazy. but agents were, and inventory was, I mean, it was flying off the shelves, right? Mm-hmm. But what I noticed was, at least the builder that I was working for at the time, but I would bet other builders fall in the same category at that time, was getting out the spec homes that they had available.
Because they, a lot of 'em were still obviously pre COVID. Were [00:43:00] still building homes. Based on the order, you know, what they were, where it got to a period where pricing was so crazy, they had to go to a lot of spec homes, basically have the home on its way to being built before they sold Sold it, right?
So, sometimes you do have that buyer, Hey, I can only afford. This much of payment and that sort of thing. they're hot to trot. They're looking at existing homes, but they're not, there's no existing homes in the area that fall into that category, but that new construction, and there might be a spec home sitting there, but nobody was telling anybody about it.
And what do I imagine you in, in, Richmond builds, you've got some specs or houses that are already designed, they're already starting construction on, and haven't even been sold yet. Mm-hmm. That they're starting. Are you reaching out to the agents and saying, Hey, these home, this home is gonna, should be ready in August.
This home should be ready in July. 
[00:43:53] Jerry Strums: So, yes. But right now, Richmond, I mean, we're building spec homes. So right now in my community, I probably have 10 [00:44:00] houses like that you can buy right now. And they're ready. They're done 
[00:44:04] Tracy Hayes: moving 
in the 
next 
[00:44:05] Jerry Strums: 30 days. Ready. So like
when
every week I'm sending out a new price sheet on what I got.
Look, this is what I have. And they're already to go now, so 
[00:44:13] Tracy Hayes: mm-hmm. 
[00:44:13] Jerry Strums: All my three twos, all my four threes, every single house I have, I'm sending to the realtors so they know what I have before they even come. And they can close this month,
they can
close in 30 days and I'm always gonna have spec. 
[00:44:25] Tracy Hayes: That's, yeah, that's, I mean, quick turnaround that you get crazy.
You get paid and they get paid. Mm-hmm. 
[00:44:29] Jerry Strums: So I'm 
[00:44:29] Tracy Hayes: always 
gonna 
[00:44:30] Jerry Strums: have specs. 
[00:44:30] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. what, and in, speaking about that, have you ever had, had one of the homes sit because there's, I dunno, just the way they designed it, built it just wasn't, nobody wanted it. 
[00:44:42] Jerry Strums: it's really not the house. That does itself. 'cause Richmond builds a pretty good house.
Mm-hmm. Like the houses by Richmond are, are really nice. So I wouldn't say it's, 
[00:44:50] Tracy Hayes: they try to stay in style what's what people are looking for right now. Yeah. Try to keep abreast of that 
[00:44:54] Jerry Strums: really. I see lots houses sit because of the lot more now. Mm-hmm. 
[00:44:59] Tracy Hayes: So 
[00:44:59] Jerry Strums: like when I'm in my [00:45:00] community and I, and I'm, and I'm like, okay, that house is gonna sit, it's gonna sit because it's on a terrible lot.
[00:45:04] Tracy Hayes: Ah. 
It's 
[00:45:05] Jerry Strums: not gonna sit because of the house. 
[00:45:06] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[00:45:06] Jerry Strums: It sits because of the lot size or where it's at. 
[00:45:09] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[00:45:09] Jerry Strums: But I've never really seen anything
[00:45:11] Tracy Hayes: for 
[00:45:11] Jerry Strums: a
long 
[00:45:11] Tracy Hayes: time. 
Yeah. I mean it's, it's gonna happen when you divide up this land is there's obviously more desirable than less desirable. 
[00:45:16] Jerry Strums: Yeah. 'cause if you right here and then it's a house behind you over here, over here, over here might be a house right there in front of you.
You know, that's, people don't want that lot. 
[00:45:24] Tracy Hayes: what are some tips to, and maybe there might be some investors, 'cause there are some people that like to go into these very new own very new subdivisions. buy at the, like first ground, buy the first couple houses, and they're buying it as an investment property. 'cause they're gonna, they're gonna it out and speculate that by time the house of the subdivision is done, it's gonna be worth more.
what are some ways to uh, I guess, you know, to get the best lots. Is there, is there, does Richmond have some.
With it. They're only only putting houses on these three, or they really just open up an entire phase and you can choose anything you want. 
[00:45:57] Jerry Strums: So it's different how Richmond does [00:46:00] it.
We open up a whole phase, but you can't pick any lots you want. You can only pick where we're building at right now. So like if I'm like, right now I'm on this half of my community, we can only pick a lot over here. 
[00:46:11] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[00:46:12] Jerry Strums: And most of because, 
[00:46:13] Tracy Hayes: well, the other phase is not even open 
[00:46:14] Jerry Strums: yet. They open other phases now 
[00:46:16] Tracy Hayes: if they wanna wait till grand opening day, then they can jump in.
[00:46:20] Jerry Strums: Yeah, it, yeah, it is, it is difficult. 
[00:46:23] Tracy Hayes: Well, I, I wanna clarify. So no one gets, I mean, obviously you have an active phase. You gotta build out that phase before you get, so not even, you're not even entertaining anyone. We're 
[00:46:31] Jerry Strums: not even entertaining. 
[00:46:31] Tracy Hayes: If they want something over there, then they're gonna have to wait till that phase opens.
[00:46:34] Jerry Strums: They're to wait till it opens. 
[00:46:35] Tracy Hayes: But if I come in right now. And I'm willing to wait a house to be built because I want that lot over there because on a cul-de-sac, whatever, preserve, whatever the desir abilities of that lot. Maybe it's a pie shaped and it's bigger or something like that.
Mm-hmm. Whatever it is, makes it desirable. can I do that if no one else has, 
[00:46:54] Jerry Strums: if it's in where I'm building at, 
[00:46:55] Tracy Hayes: right? 
[00:46:55] Jerry Strums: Yes. Active to face. So right now I got a back wall, and down here is a [00:47:00] cul-de-sac, and on the other side is a cul-de-sac. And you can,
you
can buy that lot right now.
[00:47:05] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[00:47:05] Jerry Strums: So like if it's a, a cul-de-sac lot in my first phase, you can reserve a lot. 
[00:47:08] Tracy Hayes: Now do the builders, obviously they go through and evaluate what are the more desirable lots? 
[00:47:15] Jerry Strums: Mm-hmm. 
[00:47:16] Tracy Hayes: They're gonna be a little bit more, 
[00:47:17] Jerry Strums: they are gonna be a little bit more, 
[00:47:18] Tracy Hayes: yeah. 
[00:47:19] Jerry Strums: The more,
[00:47:19] Tracy Hayes: what do you typically see a range?
Let's just talk about Aspen and, you know, in just general. 'cause obviously I'm sure more expensive subdivisions. The lots and the lots are bigger or whatever. But let's just take Aspen 'cause it's more of a, just a general generic, subdivision. there, what would you see typically. From the most desirable lot to the least desirable.
Lot of the price swing. 
[00:47:40] Jerry Strums: $20,000. 
[00:47:41] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 
[00:47:42] Jerry Strums: 20,000. 
[00:47:43] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 
[00:47:43] Jerry Strums: So I see, I see. Like I got a corner lot that I just recently sold and that lot was like 25 grand. 
[00:47:50] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[00:47:51] Jerry Strums: And then I sold a less desirable lot, and that lot premium was like 15 to 10 grand. 
[00:47:56] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[00:47:57] Jerry Strums: I mean, I saw seven grand before. It just depends all [00:48:00] where you at.
[00:48:00] Tracy Hayes: Right, right. 
[00:48:01] Jerry Strums: You know, it depends all where 
[00:48:02] Tracy Hayes: you're 
at. Well, it's all about location. I mean, 
it's 
[00:48:03] Jerry Strums: all about location. 
Right. 
[00:48:04] Tracy Hayes: It's a premium lot for different reasons. Obviously it's view. Uh, maybe lot across 
[00:48:08] Jerry Strums: the street from 
you. 
[00:48:09] Tracy Hayes: Maybe it's in a cul-de-sac. So it widens out a little bit. It's a little bit bigger lot than others.
[00:48:13] Jerry Strums: Longer driveway. 
[00:48:14] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Longer driveway, all 
[00:48:15] Jerry Strums: that stuff. And it's hard to get new construction with a good sized lot right now. 
[00:48:18] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 
[00:48:19] Jerry Strums: In Aspen, every single one of my lots are on a cul-de-sac or preserve. 
[00:48:24] Tracy Hayes: I think, many people also need to calculate when they, I've seen some of these subdivisions with like little to no driveway.
It's like, understand if you've got kids, they're gonna start driving. I mean, you, you've gotta calculate can I widen that driveway? These are the things that go on. You go buy a new construction, just giving you a tidbit. 'cause my kids are getting there. 
[00:48:42] Jerry Strums: Yeah. 
[00:48:43] Tracy Hayes: You know, and we're lucky that we can widen our driveway, but I've seen some subdivisions like.
you could barely get a car in that driveway. What if they've got a second driver, a third driver? Right. You know, type of thing. 'cause everyone, too many people are using their garage for storage and it's not parking a car in there, that type
thing. 
[00:48:59] Jerry Strums: [00:49:00] It's, it's tough. It's definitely tough.
tough. The 
[00:49:02] Tracy Hayes: space 
[00:49:02] Jerry Strums: tough.
[00:49:02] Tracy Hayes: let's go into our, uh, the questions here, I, I've got prepared these will bring up great topics for sure. what's the biggest mind mindset shift you had when going from retail to new construction sales? 
[00:49:16] Jerry Strums: The biggest change basically, 
[00:49:18] Tracy Hayes: well, just your, your, your mindset.
from what you had to know, what you know, what you were doing on Hailey's team and obviously. At, red Zone. Mm-hmm. You know, the things that you did on a daily basis, and I think you mentioned a little bit was structure and then going, and now you're now in a subdivision where you're in a model. what, what are the, your day-to-day routines, just a mindset to change that you had to take from making that jump?
Same license. 
Yeah. 
[00:49:43] Jerry Strums: Same license,
but 
[00:49:44] Tracy Hayes: different 
routines. 
[00:49:44] Jerry Strums: So definitely different routines. You know, like
when I
get to the office on a Wednesday, the first thing I'm doing is getting on that sales meeting. 'cause now I'm getting on. Now I gotta get on the sales meeting. Every single day I'm reporting, I have bosses that I have to really report to.
Mm-hmm. Because I gotta brand now I gotta, [00:50:00] I'm running there.
basically
they're, they're operations over here, so 
[00:50:03] Tracy Hayes: mm-hmm. 
[00:50:03] Jerry Strums: I need to report to them every, so the first thing that I'm doing when I'm getting in that office, I'm getting on that sales call. After the sales call on Wednesdays. I'm doing promo, I'm promoting a brand, I'm doing content, you know, I'm getting this brand out there because it's like I'm running my own business.
Thursday 
[00:50:19] Tracy Hayes: is Wednesday kind of setting, like, hey, we might have a price rate or we're do a raise, or we might do incentive. You're getting that kind of information on 
[00:50:26] Jerry Strums: Wednesday. So, so whatever we're offering, so Mondays I get that information. So when I get on, when I get in, when I get in on Wednesday,
I'm
making videos on, we got a 3.99, or we got a 4.99 and we're giving $15,000 in closing costs.
Or maybe we're doing screened in, or maybe we're like, for one of my buyers, we epoxy their garage 'cause they were the first buyer in Aspen. 
[00:50:46] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[00:50:46] Jerry Strums: We eped their garage, gave 'em a fence and screened in their porch. So when I'm promoting stuff like that. It, it drives people, yeah. To come and want to buy a house this way.
'cause oh, why am I gonna go buy a new construction there when I can go get all of this here? 
[00:50:59] Tracy Hayes: [00:51:00] Right? 
[00:51:00] Jerry Strums: So anyways, for my routine, that's what I'm doing. I'm promoting what I got going on on Wednesday, 
[00:51:04] Tracy Hayes: right? 
[00:51:04] Jerry Strums: Thursday. Now I'm sitting and I'm working CRM all day, CRM, all day.
And
then Friday, Saturday, Sunday. 
So 
[00:51:11] Tracy Hayes: contacting as many agents as possible, 
as 
[00:51:13] Jerry Strums: many agents 
[00:51:13] Tracy Hayes: as possible, following up with, buyers who may have come by.
[00:51:15] Jerry Strums: Exactly. 
[00:51:16] Tracy Hayes: And hopefully they haven't made a decision yet. 
[00:51:18] Jerry Strums: Exactly. And then Friday, Saturday, Sunday is when, hopefully Wednesday, Thursday or Wednesday got me some type of appointment. Mm. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it does, but you just gotta keep repeating the process. I repeat that process every week for like literally the last two years I do the same thing.
And even on Mondays and Tuesdays today, Tuesday, look what I'm doing. Mm-hmm. I'm working. No matter what I'm working, I'm, I'm I've always, I've always got something going on because I, if you don't, it's a competitive floor. You ain't going to stick. You ain't gonna stand out. 
[00:51:46] Tracy Hayes: It sounds like to me, you've discovered that you need to have a lot of conversations.
[00:51:51] Jerry Strums: a
lot of, 
[00:51:52] Tracy Hayes: now some of that conversation is creating some content. You're actually conversed. 'cause you're, you're sending it out through social media, so you're hopefully broadcasting and multiple people will see it. [00:52:00] Other times it's just literally one-on-one phone calls or text messages or whatever.
Emails. Emails, yeah. 
And 
[00:52:04] Jerry Strums: you know how many people open up an email out of a thousand emails that you send? Probably. They probably one of them. They probably all get deleted. So. 
[00:52:13] Tracy Hayes: Well, I think you, you, I mean, I'm sure you've seen the numbers too.
too, We're 70% of the agents didn't even write a deal last year that when you send out an email to a thousand real estate agents, 7,700 of them.
Don't really, aren't really even 
in, probably don't even have a buyer right now. Yeah. And buyers are actually gold right 
[00:52:32] Jerry Strums: now. Well, we're not in real estate anymore because I've experienced that where people tell me, stop. 
[00:52:36] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 
[00:52:36] Jerry Strums: And I get a lot of that like, but look, it's not gonna stop me. I'm gonna come back next Wednesday and I'm gonna head home.
[00:52:40] Tracy Hayes: Well, you
wanna receiving Jerry's email. You, I might not always open it because maybe you don't have a, a buyer, particularly at that moment in time. But I think it's worthwhile though. 'cause you never know. As soon as you delete that email that the phone rings and someone says, and you're like, oh my God, I just saw this great deal.
We should go over here first. 
Exactly.
[00:52:56] Jerry Strums: I've done got buyers, I've done got realtors to come see me [00:53:00] like that. Where I've sent an email and they've ended up coming out and hey, I, I'm actually working with this buyer right now and we've been looking on the north side all over for this. 
[00:53:07] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 
[00:53:08] Jerry Strums: Where were you two weeks ago?
And then we get it now. I got you under contract. 
[00:53:11] Tracy Hayes: Or they get your, your spec home list. Right. They're getting your spec home list and they're saying, oh man, that, that would actually fit. 'cause these buyers need to be in that price point to be at this payment. 
[00:53:20] Jerry Strums: Exactly 
[00:53:21] Tracy Hayes: at that. Alright. Site agents have to show up every day with energy, even when traffic is slow or deals fall through.
What's your approach to staying disciplined and driven? 
[00:53:31] Jerry Strums: Ah. You know, I watch a lot of motivational quotes, right? 
[00:53:34] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[00:53:35] Jerry Strums: And one of my favorite ones is Dion Sanders said, you gotta master the three Ws. You gotta want it, win it and work it, 
want it, 
[00:53:44] Tracy Hayes: win it, 
[00:53:45] Jerry Strums: want it, work it, 
win 
[00:53:46] Tracy Hayes: it, want it, work it, win it, 
want 
[00:53:47] Jerry Strums: it, work it,
it, win it.
And 
[00:53:50] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[00:53:50] Jerry Strums: I've done had three deals fall through in one month. Four deals fall through. Mm-hmm. Like, deals are gonna fall through. You gotta keep, that's why you don't stop. If I [00:54:00] got, I sold two houses so far this month that we're in right now. I sold two houses so far this month. I don't know what could happen with them deals.
I'm still going hard right now. Right. And, and, and one, and everything else that needs to come. I'm wanting it. 
[00:54:11] Tracy Hayes: There's great excitement under every rock, but there's also something, you know, that, that deal falls through. And you don't know if maybe the next customer will walk in and they'll take that home.
Or if you did your due diligence, like you, sounds like you do. You've, you know, who's interested. They really like that lot in that house. 
[00:54:28] Jerry Strums: Mm-hmm. 
[00:54:28] Tracy Hayes: And then the h that one, but that somebody's already on it and that deal falls through and you immediately go, you know what? I remember talking to the Smiths, they really wanted that.
Let me see if they're still available. Exactly. Let me go bring that, call that agency, 
[00:54:39] Jerry Strums: sir. And there's so much houses that we had to sell. We have over 150 qis. There's no reason for you to, to stop after your second sale, like you can get more deals. 
[00:54:48] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[00:54:48] Jerry Strums: So you just gotta keep going because you never know what could happen.
And new home sales you're on, like, what goes through my head is I'm only as good as my last sale. 
Right.
So like it, you know, you don't want to get desperate. Like a lot of [00:55:00] site agents may get desperate if they don't sell a lot of sell, and the builder puts a lot of pressure on you. Sometimes you're like, oh, I gotta get a sale. You could push people away. You don't want to do that. It's gonna come, if you be patient and you master those three W's, you gonna be fine. Something's gonna come. And, you know, if you just stay consistent, it's about staying consistent. Consistent. And if something falls through, I'm not like, oh, 
[00:55:22] Tracy Hayes: because you're doing a consistent communication.
That communication different ways, whether it's content, calling people, text message, emails, whatever. You're consistently doing that every day. You're touching, you're touching, you're touching. Then when a deal falls through, 
[00:55:33] Jerry Strums: you got deals 
that's 
[00:55:34] Tracy Hayes: gonna make up for it. There, there there'll be a deal.
They'll make up for it. this is a great, I, this is like a great interview question here. Like, if I was interviewing you for a job or something, tell me about a moment in the past two years where you had a deal, almost fall apart, almost fell apart. What did you do to pull it back together? 
[00:55:48] Jerry Strums: Alright, let me think about that.
What was the deal? That I had almost fall apart? That I had to pull back together. 
[00:55:53] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 
[00:55:54] Jerry Strums: I had to pull it back together. 
[00:55:55] Tracy Hayes: Did you have a customer, not something, set 'em off or something and then you were able to [00:56:00] make something, a win 
[00:56:03] Jerry Strums: for them? I'm, I'm trying to, I'm trying to think. I've never really had, well, actually,
Actually,
you know, I, I, I'm kind of setting myself up now for that not to happen, like, when I'm with my buyers.
That's why I like when buyers are pre-approved, because then we can just go back to the lender mm-hmm. If they get denied. But, it was a deal, where, you know, my buyer got very discouraged and just didn't want to move, move forward with the process. 
[00:56:24] Tracy Hayes: just 
[00:56:24] Jerry Strums: got 
[00:56:24] Tracy Hayes: cold feet, little buyer's 
[00:56:25] Jerry Strums: remorse 
got, got cold feet.
the numbers was too high. They didn't like it. And they just like, I don't wanna do it no more. And I'm like, oh my God. Like you're about to lose all of this money. You just put 10 grand down and you're about to lose it. All right. so what what happened was I invited the buyer back out and we sat down and I talked with this buyer.
Like, we literally talked about life. We talked about everything. I talked about what I was going through. I talked about when I had a higher mortgage. When I had a lower mortgage. Mm-hmm. And I told the buyer, look, if you do decide to cancel now. Like, I'm gonna talk to the builder. I'm gonna draft a letter for you and I'm gonna let them know, like you are going to come back [00:57:00] in a few, maybe next year, maybe six months, but you'll get your, I'm gonna make sure they can figure out some way to use that money that you're, put that 'cause you're gonna lose your money.
[00:57:07] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[00:57:08] Jerry Strums: I'm gonna figure out a way to put that money to your next purchase later down the road
if
they can. But you just gotta buy with Richmond. So I'm gonna do everything I can,
but
what's discouraging you? Like, talk to me and they're like, you know, well, you know, I'm, my payment's gonna be like, it was like 2200.
My payment's gonna be like 2200 and I'm only making six KA month and I just don't know. Like, I want to be able to live my life still.
And
I'm like, so what are you paying now for rent? And she told me she was paying like $2,600 for rent. 
[00:57:40] Tracy Hayes: This is not 
[00:57:42] Jerry Strums: Yeah, like, 
[00:57:42] Tracy Hayes: shocking. Actually. I, I was, when you said that, I go watch her say 2,500 
[00:57:46] Jerry Strums: bucks.
yeah. yeah. I'm like, I'm like, I'm
like, so you rather, okay, so if you don't get this house right now, where are you gonna go live? 
[00:57:52] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[00:57:52] Jerry Strums: And she told me, well, I'm just gonna just rent, just 'cause I don't want to have all of the, the stress and all of the, you know, I just don't want all the extra stuff. And [00:58:00] I said, I said, so you're gonna go rent where?
And then we started talking about a couple different places and she was showing me this stuff and she was about to go rent a house. I'm like, you could literally own your house
for 2200.
I said, don't lose that 10 k. Buy this house. You could still buy your house and you're gonna love this house. And if you can't afford it, rent it out.
And then maybe go do what you're going to do. Maybe go rent them. You could. But if you own property in Florida, like Jacksonville is the next, it's like the next biggest place in Florida. It's the biggest place in Florida. Yeah. It's, 
[00:58:30] Tracy Hayes: we're, 
we're
[00:58:31] Jerry Strums: as hot 
[00:58:31] Tracy Hayes: as any 
[00:58:32] Jerry Strums: other place. It's so hot. Like you're doing so much here.
You're gonna have so much value in your house. Your appraisal came back at like. $30,000 higher, you already have equity in your house. 
[00:58:40] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[00:58:41] Jerry Strums: And, you know, and she ended up leaving and she went and thought about it, but I guess that 10 K stuck in her head and she didn't wanna lose that, so she ended up buying a house.
I never really had like a, a very, I can't think of a really, I can think of a, a, lot of bad deals, but I don't want to nobody 
[00:58:53] Tracy Hayes: else. Well, no. That shows a lot about you there and it compliment you. You took time. you know, she had made a [00:59:00] commitment and that that 10 k was on the line. I think a lot of people would be like, okay, well you're gonna lose 10 K.
You're, you don't but you took the time to chat with her and dig deep and made her really think about this actually was a good decision for her. 'cause if the closest rent was 25, 20 $600 and you're buying a house for 22, you know, rent out a room if you have to
rent out 
a room, 
you know, people, I think people, um, you know, obviously I grew up in age, you know, when I was younger, I mean, I, I shared bedrooms with my siblings, you know, for years until my, you know, my two other older brothers were gone.
Then me and my sister, you know, could have her own rooms. Right. I 
[00:59:36] Jerry Strums: rented out a room at my house. For the first, when I first, when I bought my first house, I rented out a room at my house for like, and I used Roomster. Yeah. And I, I, I was so nervous and scared. I got a roommate for like, the first year he paid me like 700 bucks a month.
That was half, that was like my mortgage on like 15, 1600. 
[00:59:54] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 
[00:59:55] Jerry Strums: Half my mortgage. I'm like. 
[00:59:56] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, 
[00:59:57] Jerry Strums: that's good. You know, you can do that stuff so 
[00:59:58] Tracy Hayes: well. That's, and that's how you get [01:00:00] started. And then, you know, you got equity and you, you probably maybe have sold that home and bought it bigger, whatever it is that you wanna do.
what do most buyers misunderstand about working with the builder, and how do you help them navigate that gap?
[01:00:12] Jerry Strums: So
the biggest thing is the lending, because they go get numbers somewhere else, or they're looking at Zillow and they're looking at what monthly payments is, and they don't really know the rail. They don't know how much it's actually gonna be, how much money they actually have to put down, what it is working with. Like, for example, you versus me,
you know, like with builders, you obviously can't get the hometown hero programs and all that good stuff. but what I do is I sit down with my buyers and I'll break down numbers.
I'll, I'll find out what their situation is. And I'll, I'll walk 'em through, you know, numbers and 
[01:00:46] Tracy Hayes: mm-hmm. 
[01:00:46] Jerry Strums: Figure like that. 
[01:00:47] Tracy Hayes: Well, you've got the incentives. You guys are doing the incentives from the, interest rates, which is a really a differentiator,
especially for
first time home buyers.
You don't, it, it is easy to go. You got a new home, everything's brand new, and, and then you got this, you [01:01:00] know, interest rate per percent lower than, you know, typically what anybody else is giving is out there. You need to go one, find a, an educated agent and then let that agent, you know, bring you to Jerry and, you know, walk it through.
But they'll find a way, or at least you get educated, let's put it 
[01:01:16] 308 VIDEO: that 
[01:01:16] Jerry Strums: way. Yeah. 
Just educate somebody on the numbers. Closing costs. Down payment. 'cause some, some, buyers come in and they don't understand, you know, they think it's a down payment assistance program with me sometimes. And it's like, no, that's not what it is.
[01:01:28] Tracy Hayes: Okay. 
You 
[01:01:28] Jerry Strums: know, 
[01:01:29] Tracy Hayes: from incentives to timelines, there's a lot going on behind the scenes of new construction. What's the hardest part of managing buyer expectations? And I opened that up. 'cause obviously you are also you and the, um, what do you call it? The, your, the Richmond guy who's building the houses.
Mm-hmm. Who's watching all the contractors come in. What do you call that guy? The superintendent. The super superintendent. The superintendent.
Imagine
there's a, a lot of communication between the two of you so you know what's going on, dude. Tell your buyers. 
[01:01:59] Jerry Strums: Yeah, [01:02:00] so we have walks. So, you know, I'm getting with my builder, I'm setting up the walks, I'm letting 'em know how my buyer is, their personality, what they're expecting.
[01:02:09] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[01:02:09] Jerry Strums: All that stuff. Uh, I don't really have a challenge. Once somebody's under contract, it's pretty much, with Richmond, it's really, really easy and smooth. 
[01:02:16] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[01:02:16] Jerry Strums: And it's a lot of customer experience. I mean, my warranty rep, the builder, me, the realtor, we're all involved, like throughout the whole 
[01:02:23] Tracy Hayes: in two years.
How many different supervisors, superintendents have you worked with now?
Two.
Just two. 
[01:02:28] Jerry Strums: I've been with my guy Mike for a while, so shout out to Mike. He's a very good builder. So I've been with him and Iron Gate, we sold out, we almo, we sold out Irony. Iron. Gate probably doesn't, it doesn't have a lot of houses.
And
now we're in Aspen with 447 houses and it's me and him again. They moved him, we moved together. 
[01:02:44] Tracy Hayes: So is that normal or does, does Richmond try to keep you together or just so happened to fall that way? 
[01:02:49] Jerry Strums: I mean, we was together and Iron Gate did,
like, iron Gate was almost sold out, so it was time for him to get a new community and obviously it's time for me to get a new community.
So
it
just, honestly, it probably just fell like that. But I'm happy because [01:03:00] he's like, 
[01:03:00] Tracy Hayes: because you guys are, are working together. You got a relationship going there and you know,
he
knows what he needs.
He
knows you're gonna tell him what he needs to know and, and therefore then you can deliver together.
Yeah. 
[01:03:10] Jerry Strums: Versus 
[01:03:10] Tracy Hayes: him 
[01:03:11] Jerry Strums: having to 
[01:03:11] Tracy Hayes: build a more unified experience. 
[01:03:13] Jerry Strums: Exactly. And it makes it easier for everybody. 
[01:03:15] Tracy Hayes: Good. let's see, lemme scroll up here. Here. You've probably seen buyers walk away from great opportunities. What's one mistake you wish? More buyers would avoid when they step into your model home.
[01:03:29] Jerry Strums: One thing that I wish buyers would avoid when they step into my office. 
[01:03:34] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[01:03:34] Jerry Strums: I mean, when you step into my office, you gonna be good if I got you?
So you,
[01:03:38] Tracy Hayes: Well, do they come in maybe with some preconceptions? Maybe they're
'cause maybe
the agent led them some way.
what is it that you would want, to know about, you know, coming in, in general, maybe it's old wives tales, whether it was, you know, misinformation that they have, or misconceptions 
[01:03:55] Jerry Strums: that they 
have.
It, it's really, it's really the, the miscommunication and, how we look that we're just trying to sell 'em and that, [01:04:00] you know, I wish they would not just come in and be like, well, Lennar's doing this, that, and the third. It's like, well, this is what we're doing. Mm-hmm. And this is what we're doing.
Right. There's nothing I can change about what we're doing. 
[01:04:09] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[01:04:09] Jerry Strums: So 
like, if you don't gotta tell me what these other builders are doing, because. Obviously I can try to, I'm giving, I'm, I'm offering you everything I have anyway. 
[01:04:17] Tracy Hayes: well, here's a, do you guys include, you include all the appliances, right?
Washer, dryer. 
[01:04:23] Jerry Strums: Yeah. You already 
get everything. 
[01:04:24] Tracy Hayes: I think most builders pretty much do that, right? I mean, we'll do, is there anything, well, you know, I mean, I I imagine you do say, well, what the competition is doing, is there the, is there other builders? Because I think people have to understand
there's
different clients for different builders or different subdivisions, right?
Aspen is a different client than
the
subdivision with the RV garages, two different clients, completely different price points, everything, you know, probably a mul, you know, someone who's on their third or fourth home buying the rv. 'cause one, if they buy an RV garage, most of 'em, some [01:05:00] of 'em actually have RVs.
Yeah. That's an expense. Not everyone could do that. So you got two different, two different clients there. No subdivisions are being built and they're being priced out. And these corporations like Richmond are studying, Hey, what do I need to put in that home to satisfy that level of, you know, first time home buyer, income level, whatever.
It's, what you were just saying is some builders that do offer a lot of. upgrades just like a standard in, or they seem to be upgrades as a standard where other builders, you gotta like go and choose those upgrades manually, that you're going going to do.
But each of 'em is really looking at different clients. 
Now, there may be a client that overlaps those two because they're not too far apart. So I imagine that's when they come into you and say, well, this builder over here is doing this. But I mean, 
[01:05:51] Jerry Strums: so 
[01:05:51] Tracy Hayes: how much of a leeway do you have to actually 
do that?
[01:05:54] Jerry Strums: So I get, I get a lot of leeway. So like
if
I have a buyer that comes in and say, well this builder's doing this, that getting pendant [01:06:00] lights, this, that, and the third. 
[01:06:01] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[01:06:01] Jerry Strums: I'm like, okay, well we can build your house because standard, you're not gonna get the pendant lights standard. We're gonna get the high ceilings, the high doors.
This is what we have. 
[01:06:09] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[01:06:09] Jerry Strums: As a QMI. You're going to get, you know, nine foot ceilings, eight foot doors, refrigerator, stove, microwave, dishwasher, all that good stuff. You get wood look tile floors. If you want all the extra stuff. Come on, let's build your house. Let's put this stuff in there. 
[01:06:22] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[01:06:22] Jerry Strums: Because you somebody gotta pay for it.
We can't pay for everything, but we'll throw the pendant lights in there and you can customize your house to it. That's 
[01:06:28] Tracy Hayes: right.
[01:06:29] Jerry Strums: When
I, 
[01:06:29] Tracy Hayes: And 
it may come out to the same price or closer better than the other doing. Exactly. It's just you, Richmond comes in with a model that has options. 
[01:06:37] Jerry Strums: Exactly. 
[01:06:38] Tracy Hayes: And telling you, you know, Now, I will tell as you, probably have seen, don't go in there and blow out your options because you may overbuild your house. 
[01:06:46] Jerry Strums: You may over build your house and end up having to come out of pocket more than. 
[01:06:50] Tracy Hayes: Right. 'cause it's not, it may not appraise. 
[01:06:52] Jerry Strums: Exactly. Um, it be a difference. You're responsible for it.
If you want to build you a mega house, you are gonna have to
pay
the mega price. Mega [01:07:00] price. 
[01:07:00] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. You may, you may not be able to get all the lending for it and come and more money outta pocket. Yep. how does your personal brand help you stand out from other site agents? And why does it matter in today's market?
[01:07:11] Jerry Strums: Alright. That's a big one. Mm-hmm. 
Um, 
because, with,
my things, with my videos and my content, I try to show, I try to show a customer experience and it's a customer and a realtor experience. Mm-hmm. So like every buyer they're seeing, oh, that buyer had a great experience with Jerry.
and
then every realtor is saying, oh my God, Jerry's doing a video with a realtor too.
So it's like a double experience like you giving both of you, giving, making everybody, I'm making a buyer look good and I'm making a realtor look good because when the buyer sees the video, they wanna show their family. And when a realtor shoot a video, I mean, other realtors are seeing it obviously too.
Right. So.
that drives me so much business. A loan off social media. I probably get, after I post a video, realtors will probably hit me up. I'll probably average about
20 more sales a year just off of [01:08:00] social media. It's very important. People want to know they're working with somebody that knows what they're doing, knows what they're talking about, and they're seeing all these great experiences.
So, 
[01:08:09] Tracy Hayes: well I liked it 'cause I'm gonna tag, kind of tag onto it, which I think is just 'cause you didn't describe it specific specifically, is you're showing a win, a satisfied client. you're showing it. I don't think the builders, show those winning situations often enough.
So you're actually, you know, this unicorn out here who's showing, Hey, I'm with a builder and I've got a satisfied client because they all wanna talk about the customers. Who were on ha you know, whatever, something went, sideways or they misunderstood or whatever, that it was a bad experience. you're actually showing there are good experiences with working a builder.
Come see me and you'll get the same. 
[01:08:52] Jerry Strums: Exactly. And I'm gonna give you the best experience, just like everybody else getting this experience, I'm gonna do this for everybody. 
[01:08:58] Tracy Hayes: For who send buyers to do [01:09:00] construction sites, what separates the professional from the amateurs? What do the best agents do?
Right. 
[01:09:06] Jerry Strums: The best agents, number one, they know how to give some good, accurate numbers. number two,
they got
their OSL lenders, they got the dog OSL lenders, so obviously they got the lenders that can do the tougher deals. Mm-hmm.
You know, having them, people in your back pocket. just great relationships, you know, 
[01:09:25] Tracy Hayes: they come in and actually look for you and shake your hand like we were talking about earlier.
[01:09:29] Jerry Strums: Yeah. Yeah. They, they like you getting up outta your seat and you're g greet buyers. 
[01:09:33] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[01:09:33] Jerry Strums: you're excited. You're not selling from desperation because honestly, this, it can get really tough and you can go
months
without sales, especially when they stop cross-selling
and
you can't cross sell nowhere.
You can go months without sales and you, your fingers can itching for selling. You're desperate. It's just, you know, staying calm. Staying 
calm. Well, 
[01:09:48] Tracy Hayes: we're we're talking about the actual agents bringing you clients. 
[01:09:51] Jerry Strums: Oh. 
[01:09:52] Tracy Hayes: What do the pros do versus the amateurs? What do you see versus, you know, that agent that does business like, [01:10:00] Daniela Tony, I know she's huge in this Hispanic area, does a lot of deals.
Mm-hmm. And, versus, that newer agent coming in, what advice can you say. Hey, this is what the pro does. If you want to be a pro, I would do more of what this person does. 
[01:10:13] Jerry Strums: I feel like I'm still working on myself. I still wanna be better. Mm-hmm. Even though I could basically be selling all these houses, I still wanna be better, but I say a pro, what could a pro do?
I, I go to every event. I support everybody. 
[01:10:26] Tracy Hayes: we're talking about the agent.
[01:10:27] Jerry Strums: The 
[01:10:28] Tracy Hayes: The agent 
you see? Yeah. So you're the site agent. You see different types, different levels of agents come in. 
[01:10:32] Jerry Strums: Yeah. 
[01:10:33] Tracy Hayes: You see some agents that are really good that like, have their customers eating outta their hand are so good. Okay.
Versus the amateurs where things are a little, you know, you can just tell when it comes in. Things are not bonding with, you know, everybody at, at that moment. 
[01:10:47] Jerry Strums: So what could I tell those 
agents? 
[01:10:48] Tracy Hayes: What can you tell other agents that, Hey, this is what the pro does and this is what I see as an amateur, is someone's the third party standing out there at seeing these two different people groups.
[01:10:57] Jerry Strums: Obviously what the pro do is you, you, you. You [01:11:00] reach, you know, you know your buyer. 
[01:11:01] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[01:11:01] Jerry Strums: Really, that's the biggest thing is know your buyer. Come in confident, and, 
[01:11:05] Tracy Hayes: well, I think, I think you, knowing your buyer, I think, definitely the difference between the pro and amateur is really grinding and having that, buyer consultation.
[01:11:12] Jerry Strums: The 
buyer consultation. 
[01:11:13] Tracy Hayes: They're having a really good buyer consultation. So when they walk in, they can tell you exactly what they want. These are their hot points. These are their wants. These are their needs. And these would be great if you Exactly. Yeah. Could have it. All right. if a new agent asked you how to succeed in this space, representing a builder, working the site, hitting targets, what advice would you give them to level up fast.
[01:11:35] Jerry Strums: To level up, fast 
[01:11:37] Tracy Hayes: getting, you know, when you come to, 
[01:11:39] Jerry Strums: if you come into a builder, you know, 
[01:11:41] Tracy Hayes: well, what's what the, let me rephrase, I'll rephrase the question. You have a friend of yours, maybe they're a realtor, maybe they're not, but they want to get in the business. should they expect when they, they sign up, say, you know, a builder hires them to be a site agent.
what are the expectations? 
[01:11:54] Jerry Strums: The expectations is to grind. You gotta be in that office every single day. You going, you gotta [01:12:00] do your own marketing. You, I mean, you don't gotta do marketing, but if you sit in the office all day and don't, don't get up and get out and go to events and do the extra stuff and go build relationships, then it's gonna be hard to be successful in this business.
So the, the biggest thing, if you gonna come work as a, a site agent, it's just having and building professional relationships. Mm-hmm. That's the biggest thing about, that's the biggest thing that you can do with coming to be a site 
agent. 
[01:12:23] Tracy Hayes: So you, are you guys trying to get in? Do you guys call on some of the brokerages and say, Hey, can we come by?
And, uh, do a lunch and learn and tell you 
what's 
[01:12:30] Jerry Strums: going on. Oh, I wanna come to every brokerage. I wanna support every brokerage. I, I every event with the, the realtors, the realtors, women council. Oh, I'm trying to support every single one of them. Right? They need a sponsor. They need somebody to come set up, shop and hand out donuts.
I'm going to do it 
[01:12:44] Tracy Hayes: right, 
[01:12:44] Jerry Strums: because I'm, I'm
talking,
I'm talking to realtors, you know, they're, they're the ones bringing me the buyers. 
[01:12:49] Tracy Hayes: How, I think one of the, probably the first thing that anyone says when we come in working with a builder as a site agent is obviously you need to expect to work Saturday and Sunday.
[01:12:58] Jerry Strums: Oh yeah. 
[01:12:59] Tracy Hayes: Do you, I [01:13:00] mean, especially getting started. You, you know, imagine they, what do they give you one weekend a month that they 
[01:13:06] Jerry Strums: No, 
[01:13:06] Tracy Hayes: no. Don't even give you that. So 
[01:13:08] Jerry Strums: you work every, you work your days. I work Wednesday, Thursday, 
Friday, 
Saturday, Sunday. 
[01:13:12] Tracy Hayes: So the builder, builder expects you to be there every Saturday and Sunday.
They're gonna give you two other days. Off between Monday and Thursday. Right. I imagine, I don't know if Friday's a hot day or not, but, they're gonna let you schedule. 
Mm-hmm. 
Two days off there. But if you're new, you'd really want to come in and work six, seven days a week. 
[01:13:31] Jerry Strums: I mean, you could take, you've gotta take your days off of mental health 'cause you don't want, be,
you gotta have a work, life. you gotta have a work life balance, but.
You want to come in and, and you, 
[01:13:39] Tracy Hayes: but you 
can grind like that if you want 
to. 
[01:13:41] Jerry Strums: I love grinding like that. Yeah. I don't know if anybody else like grinding like that, but I like to grind every day. I'm up. 
[01:13:45] Tracy Hayes: Well, I imagine sometimes, you know, you get that individual who's maybe who's behind, has been dry for whatever period of time and they want to get started.
They're hungry, they're excited about what's the potential. 
[01:13:54] Jerry Strums: Yep. 
[01:13:55] Tracy Hayes: And you know that you can get in there just like a car lot. You can go show up every day of the week if you [01:14:00] want. Exactly. And sell every car just like the house. You can show up every day and, uh, make those contacts. Call on the real estate agents and, that, uh, we've been talking about.
[01:14:09] Jerry Strums: Exactly. So if you just grind and thank, thank yourself next month for what you did all last month, that's how I think. I say I'm gonna go do everything I need to do this month and I'm gonna thank myself for what I did today and all last month. Every day I'm gonna thank myself in two months from now.
I'm be like, 
[01:14:25] Tracy Hayes: you've obviously seen this from experience. That's how you got us. you got to, to reap what you sow you. you have to be really on a 60, 90 day, routine. I mean, exactly what you did 60, 90 days ago is what's gonna come to fruit today. 
[01:14:38] Jerry Strums: People, people say, well, me and I say it all the time, I wanna make a lot of money.
I wanna, I wanna make so much money. So how I'm gonna do that? I gotta get up every single day and I gotta go after it. Mm-hmm. I mean, I don't, you know, if I work hard now I'm gonna thank myself. I'm gonna thank myself in 30 years when I'm 
[01:14:53] Tracy Hayes: does Richmond. You mentioned cross sell a few minutes ago. are you allowed to.
if you build a relationship with an agent just wants to work with [01:15:00] you, can you actually take them to another subdivision? 
[01:15:02] Jerry Strums: So right now, yes. 
[01:15:04] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[01:15:04] Jerry Strums: But sometimes they turn off cross-selling and I'm only able to sell in my community. But sometimes, you know, if an agent hits me up and they really wanna work with me and they want to go buy in Marada in St.
Augustine, or they wanna go buy in Elm Ridge or any different community, right? Say they wanna go even buy my town home communities, I can't sell you there. If they have cross selling off, sometimes they turn it off, sometimes they keep it on. It's just, 
[01:15:27] Tracy Hayes: well, what's interesting is I say if I got a customer on a Saturday and you, you, Aspen is your subdivision and you're.
You know, you're locked in there, you're, you know, people are coming in. You gotta be working. And I got, I want to, I wanna work with you, but I got a customer who wants, I don't know, down in trail. Mark. I dunno if you've got any guys got any left in there, if you had anything in there. Oh, we 
[01:15:45] Jerry Strums: got a new trail, mark 
[01:15:46] Tracy Hayes: got new, new phase in the trail.
Mark. 
[01:15:48] Jerry Strums: Bunch of new houses in the 
back. 
[01:15:49] Tracy Hayes: So all the way down the trail Mark. Obviously it's hard for you to, to go all the way down there and get, you know, back. I mean, it would take a couple hours just to do all that. Mm-hmm.
do you still get credit or you split a sale? How [01:16:00] does that work?
[01:16:00] Jerry Strums: If I give the sale somebody else, 
[01:16:02] Tracy Hayes: right. 
[01:16:02] Jerry Strums: If I give the sale to somebody else, we get a referral from Richmond. They'll pay us something. 
[01:16:06] Tracy Hayes: Right. Okay. So you're, you're getting something. So is is valuable that if you are a relationship builder, if you are willing to grind as you are and you want to, you want to go outside your subdivision, so to speak, because you've got all the realtor relationships that they want to deal with Jerry at Richmond Homes, you can still do that.
[01:16:24] Jerry Strums: I can still do that, right? 
[01:16:25] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.
Yeah, 
[01:16:25] Jerry Strums: but tomorrow they can turn it off and I can't.
[01:16:28] Tracy Hayes: Well, yeah, 
[01:16:28] Jerry Strums: but yes, but right now I can do that. I can work with any, anybody you need help going from Palm Coast, St. John's County, north side, west side, wherever you need it. I can be. 
[01:16:38] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. well, Jerry, you've really given us an insight on, on new construction as site agent want to con conclude, and, and I think you would agree with me, the bottom, some of the bottom line things that we came to today, agents, you need to collaborate with a site agent like they're your partner agent, 
[01:16:56] Jerry Strums: like they're on your team.
[01:16:57] Tracy Hayes: The reality is Richmond's already put [01:17:00] aside your commission as a retail agent and obviously they've put aside Jerry's commission it. So whatever confrontation you want to have with Jerry, you're still getting paid the same. That's not gonna change and the incentives and everything like that. would you agree to that?
The agents should call in if they don't already know who the site agent is. Call and find out who the site agent is over there. So you walk in, Hey, I'm looking for Jerry. makes your buyers look like you know people 
[01:17:26] Jerry Strums: Exactly 
[01:17:26] Tracy Hayes: right. 
[01:17:27] Jerry Strums: Makes you look good. 
[01:17:27] Tracy Hayes: And then you're introducing people to people like, Hey
Jerry, this is my, now you're introducing people.
One of the ways to influence people by John Maxwell is introducing people to other people. Well, you may not really know Jerry, everything about Jerry, but you knew Jerry's name when you walked in there, so it looked like you did.
Exactly.
You know what I'm saying? So. Prepping. Jerry, would you agree? prep a site agent, have your buyer's consultation so you can give him the highlights.
These are the things we're looking for. This is why we're here today in your neighborhood. 
[01:17:55] Jerry Strums: Exactly. 
[01:17:55] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Would you add anything to that?
Some,
of the things we talked about? 
[01:17:59] Jerry Strums: [01:18:00] Absolutely. Buyer consultations are very important. 
[01:18:02] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. 
[01:18:03] Jerry Strums: Get your buyer pre-approved. Make sure that work history is long enough so you're not wasting your time.
I'm okay if you come. I love the show houses. Mm-hmm. If the buyer's not approved, I know we could make a plan for them from, you know, two years down the road, but, you know, just prepping your buyer, knowing what, where they want to be, monthly knowing, knowing their situation. 
[01:18:20] Tracy Hayes: This brings up a great topic. You just said it, and this is, we'll, we'll finish with this topic here
because
you're in aspen's more of a first time home buyer type thing, so I imagine you, and then just your experience over the last two and a half years.
You got agents bringing clients who have not talked to a lender yet. 
[01:18:39] Jerry Strums: Mm-hmm.
[01:18:39] Tracy Hayes: They're not pre-approved.
Just give us your general experience there and then imagine Richmond's gonna back you on this because they like clients to be pre-approved. Even if it's that outside lender that you are actually going to be talking to somebody, especially like on a Saturday where time's valuable, multiple people may be coming in, that you're actually talking to someone who [01:19:00] can buy and, how important that is.
[01:19:03] Jerry Strums: So for me, when buyers come in, I think it's, I love when buyers come in pre-approved because number one, they don't know about the programs that you guys and out the OSL. Mm-hmm. I keep saying that, but the OSL, like it might be programs that they need down payment assistance that Richmond doesn't offer.
[01:19:20] Tracy Hayes: Right. 
[01:19:20] Jerry Strums: You know, like if you don't, it's like for the most part, if you're working with my lender, you really gotta be like that, that buyer that got all your stuff, 
[01:19:26] Tracy Hayes: they 
want eight paper, they want eight paper. You gotta have Yeah. That, that's typ a typical builder does. And just so to educate the audience out there, having been on that side myself, from the lending side down payment assistance programs don't pay a lot.
The working with Florida housing and so forth, it is really a loser deal from the lender side. When doing it, by the time everyone gets paid, who touches that loan? Underwriters, everybody involved. It's just a service they provide just to continue things going on. So the builder, too bad credit, people clog up their pipelines.
[01:20:00] they're good lenders with everybody who's mostly clean.
Can touch the button and they can get approve. The underwriter's gonna do it, but they don't wanna clog their loan pipelines with people with bad credit. They want a paper so they, that house they know they can 
[01:20:13] Jerry Strums: Exactly 
[01:20:13] Tracy Hayes: assign it to that house and be done with it.
[01:20:15] Jerry Strums: And the biggest thing is just like, if you're getting pre-approved, you're knowing that like, like obviously you can come show them with me, but once they're pre-approved, we have a backup plan just in case they can't get approved of my lender. Like, what if they can't get approved of my lender? We'll still give money to the outside lender and we can probably still make something work.
Versus if they come straight to me and they get denied, now they're just discouraged. 
[01:20:35] Tracy Hayes: Yes. 
[01:20:35] Jerry Strums: Instead we got a backup offer. Like we know we're pre-approved with our outside lender, we just know we get approved with Jerry's lender. It could be a little bit better. 
[01:20:41] Tracy Hayes: That is a very good point. because you're gonna find, you know, maybe your client's an a paper per person, great.
They're gonna get approved of me. They're gonna get approved of Jerry, no problem at all. If they're marginal. I have more if I'm approving 'em and Jerry's under says no, you Yeah, they're not discouraged. They've already
been approved preapproved.
So
talking to a lender before [01:21:00] even bringing 'em to the builder, you would suggest that?
[01:21:03] Jerry Strums: Absolutely. 
Yeah. '
cause then, you know, even most of my, out, most of the outside lenders, like if I send, or buyers are going with outside lenders, these lenders are calling me too and prepping them. Like they're prepping the buyer. Like, okay, who are you going to see? Oh, you're gonna see Jared. We know they got this right now.
So obviously we know they have, but you might get denied because of this. If you do, you know, just prep them. So if you do, we're 
[01:21:23] Tracy Hayes: there, 
[01:21:23] Jerry Strums: you know, so when they come in and they get denied by, oh, I have my, I still got my approval
with my outside lender, so we can still go with them. Right, 
[01:21:28] Tracy Hayes: right. 
[01:21:29] Jerry Strums: And I'm like, yeah, and I can get you some because, you know, builder, they,
[01:21:31] Tracy Hayes: this, this, happens.
my teammate, Tom, just last month at a VA lend I don't know what builder it was. Well, particularly, but they were, he had a 5 89 credit score va.
The
builder said no. 
[01:21:43] Jerry Strums: Yeah. 
[01:21:44] Tracy Hayes: Tom got 'em approved. He's now in that house, in that new construction house.
That
particular builder doesn't typically go outside, but they did 'cause Tom, you know, made a phone call and he's been doing the business 30 years.
And, uh, they took our loan and, and made it work for that veteran and got [01:22:00] in there. The builder said no because it wasn't, they probably have a minimum six or six 20 on a VA 
loan. 
[01:22:05] Jerry Strums: It's a bunch of, it's a bunch of standards and Yep. And guidelines that they have to follow. And 
[01:22:10] Tracy Hayes: because that's the paper and investors they have in their lending 
department 
[01:22:12] Jerry Strums: pre-approved.
If you come pre-approved, it's gonna make you happy and it's not gonna keep you discouraged. 'cause we're gonna know can 
[01:22:17] Tracy Hayes: only get 
better at 
that point. 
[01:22:18] Jerry Strums: They can only get better from there. 
[01:22:19] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Yeah. 
[01:22:20] Jerry Strums: Worst case scenario, we just gonna go with what you're preapproval with, so. 
[01:22:22] Tracy Hayes: Right, right. 
[01:22:23] Jerry Strums: Very important to get a pre-approval done.
[01:22:25] Tracy Hayes: All right, Jerry, why should the agents call you? 
[01:22:27] Jerry Strums: Why should the agents call me? Well, every agent that worked with me, you know, I give it my all. I go hard and I'm always available. 
[01:22:34] Tracy Hayes: Appreciate you. 
Thank 
[01:22:35] Jerry Strums: you Trevor. 
[01:22:35] Tracy Hayes: Appreciate you coming on today. 
[01:22:37] Jerry Strums: Appreciate 
it. 
[01:22:37] Tracy Hayes: Thank.
you man. [01:23:00]