Kim Knapp: Do it Right - Keep it Real

Kim Knapp  0:59  
Hey, this is Kim Knapp of Coldwell, banker Vanguard. If you're looking to improve your real estate business, you need to be listening to the real estate excellence podcast with my good friend Tracy Hayes.

Podcast Intro/Outro  1:09  
Welcome to Real Estate excellence making lasting connections to the best of the best in today's industry, elite. We'll help you expand your circle of influence by introducing you to the leaders in the real estate industry, whether it's top agents who execute at a high level every day, or the many support services working behind the scenes, we'll share their stories, ideologies and the inner workings of how they run a truly successful business, and show you how to add their tools to your belt now. Please welcome the host with the most Tracy Hayes,

Tracy Hayes  1:42  
Hey, welcome back to The Real Estate excellence podcast with your host, Tracy Hayes. This top agent, top leader and founder of the real dynamic agents, has over 23 years experience in the real estate industry. She is a sought after keynote speaker. She's highly respected by her peers in the state of Florida and elsewhere, because I've heard her name being thrown around by others outside of the state. Organizes the annual rebar camp one coast event here in Northeast Florida, and this is what I cut out of her LinkedIn. She combines her extensive experience, tried and true business principles, real life stories in a comprehensive program designed to reach agents at all levels. She is more than just a successful realtor. She's a professional speaker. She's a gifted teacher who will challenge and inspire to expand your capacity, to grow your business and take it to the next level. Let's welcome the lady with the motto, do it right. Keep it real. Kim that to the show. No pressure. Wow. You put all that out there. Let's see what we can fulfill it. Kim, I'm so glad you could make it to the show. And I was actually on Lee Brown's and aired actually a few days ago. We spoke, like a month ago, and I was talking to Lee her, and she was rattling off names of all the leadership of people that she knows on a national level. And you're bringing in, bringing a speaker to rebar one camp this week from Chicago, and I've chatted with her as well. She we're going to try to get I wanted to try to get her on the show before there, so we might promote her a little bit so everyone kind of knows who she is when she comes in. So so what I actually the first thing, usually I start off with where you're from, but I feel let's jump right in, because I want those who actually are on and don't fall off during the show is tell us a little bit about rebar one camp, and how did it evolve?

Kim Knapp  3:27  
So I'd say about 12 years ago, Carrie and I were in Orlando, and they were having a bar camp there, and we were just really kind of impressed with the idea of agents coming together and collaborating and deciding the discussion topics, being able to actually talk and share ideas. Sometimes you go to a conference and you've got a title of a class, and you go into it and it wasn't really what you thought, and you didn't get what you were looking for out of it, where, here at bar camp, you're kind of responsible for getting what you want out of it. You know what the topic is. Now you're asking questions and you're sharing ideas. It was started about 15 years ago by a group of people, and really was in a bar. So they were, it was after a conference. They're hanging out together, and they're sharing ideas, different companies, different brands, whatever. And they said, you know, why don't we do this? And so I called on my education buddy, Kim Sandberg and sunny and Carrie and a few others, Mario, and said, Hey guys, you know, how do you feel about doing this? And we started at nefar. This will be our 10th year, though. It's 11 years because of covid, but actually our 10th event, and the first one we had at nefar, and we had about 200 people there, and we literally put chairs on top of tables and put brown paper over them to create division for spaces.

Tracy Hayes  4:43  
That's great. That's true. That's great. Always, always great. There's good sir. So I just, I want a couple clarifying questions so people have an expectation, because last year was the first one I went to, and my wife's an agent as well. And we went there and started in a bar git gave me. More context to why it's set up a certain way. You have the breakout rooms, but really you have facilitators to lead discussion. You're not going in there, into the breakout room, and someone's going to stand up and speak for 20 minutes or whatever. Is that how the is that how the all the events are run?

Kim Knapp  5:16  
Well, that's how they should be run. Sometimes they're not. Sometimes they will run it where they're teaching, but that's kind of a disappointment, because that's not agents really. They like to share. They really, really do. They like to talk. They're very collaborative. And so the idea is it's not a class. And now, in our smaller days, when we even up to when we had six or 700 people, we were still living in the land of sticky notes. So people would come in and they'd write on a sticky note what they wanted to learn, and we'd have this big board, and then we'd have people working the board trying to organize the thoughts of the sticky notes. Now what we do is we send it out to it electronically, suggest a session. So we look at what people suggest and then organize those thoughts and come up with what are the spaces that people are looking for. The facilitators, job is to pull out some questions and say, Why are you here? You came to this room for this session right now, for what right? And then right, write some of those key things down. Don't allow people to hijack the conversation, because everybody wants to collaborate and kind of moving the forward. And we try to put people in the room, though, that do have expertise, so they can share some goals, at

Tracy Hayes  6:22  
least keep it moving in a Forward, forward direction. Yeah, I would imagine. What are some of the like, say, top two or three topic that you are seeing almost year in and year out. With some of them you've been doing it 10 years. So are you seeing some similar topics? Are things changing with the times?

Kim Knapp  6:39  
So here's something that you point out this little bit different about our bar camp, and we didn't mean for it to be different. It's our market. But bar camp, for a lot of it was, was traditionally a lot about tech. And our very first bar camp there was not like, it was there like, but maybe like, in a 20% 25% mode, and it was a lot of meat and potatoes. And so the entire time, you know, people have been interested in, how do I run my business? How do I get, you know, more more listings. Has always been on the scene. How do I convert more leads? Ways to successfully prospect those things are consistent threads. You know, last year we were talking about, how do you win multiple offers? You know, this year we're going to be talking about, how do you service listing, inventory you're holding on to, right, right? Kind of a different conversation, price, the home property, right? You know, especially in the shipping market, yeah,

Tracy Hayes  7:27  
because, I mean, because you have, I mean, this year, I mean, obviously sold out within an hour. I heard there was 1200 tickets sold. Some of them are vendors. So really, literally, over 1100 agents.

Kim Knapp  7:38  
Actually, 12 141 sold tickets. Okay? So we haven't even put the vendors in. We haven't done that once. So every vendor gets four tickets. We have 70 vendors, right? So then to a

Tracy Hayes  7:51  
huge representation, the active agents in Northeast Florida, when you when it comes down to a huge group, and then then you have a different grade, you obviously get someone very experienced, like yourself in there, but you also got some people who just started three or four months ago, or guaranteed, there'll be people this will be, like, the first world or event they've ever been to.

Kim Knapp  8:10  
So it's funny, you say that because we're actually this year, going to be having stars, like on the classes, like, one star, okay? This is, like, you're newer in the business. This is like a great, you know, trying to guide people, or two stars, you know, five years or less, or, you know, three stars. So, so people can kind of really determine those spaces. And if it's at a much higher level, it gets to stay there. And if it's a more, you know, beginner level, I'll use the word beginner because that doesn't, I don't mean to that to sound derogatory in any way. But, you know, you know, you gotta learn to walk before you can run. Yeah, right, yeah. So that's definitely going to be a facet of it this year.

Tracy Hayes  8:45  
I like that. I like that idea. I was actually why you're saying that. I thought you were going a different way, but then you way you took it was excellent. When I went to, I went to a podcast convention. Actually, I didn't go this year. Was the year before. That was one of the things they put on there was everyone like, how many years they've been coming, right? This is my third, fourth.

Kim Knapp  9:03  
Did you read my playbook?

Tracy Hayes  9:05  
Well, you started say that I thought that's where you were gonna go with that statement. But Excellent.

Kim Knapp  9:10  
No, yeah, we've got ribbons for the badges. Like, really fun, crazy ribbons. But also, like, my first timer, or, you know, five years or only, we only got 50 for 10 years, because there's going to be a small group of people that that might apply to Right, right? But we have people that come from that this time I looked, we have six different states.

Tracy Hayes  9:29  
Oh, wow, maybe.

Tracy Hayes  9:31  
And a great vacation in st August. They're coming down for the weekend, but yeah, and warm up that that's excellent, and just the energy in that room when I was there last year. So let's move on here a little bit. But I wanted to get that out front for everyone, how rebar is the theme of it, why it's constructed in that facilitating type atmosphere versus an instruction type atmosphere. But Kim, let's Where are you from?

Kim Knapp  9:54  
So I was actually born in the Midwest, in Illinois, actually my actually born in the i. The town of normal.

Tracy Hayes  10:03  
Okay, my

Kim Knapp  10:05  
mom always said normal. I was actually born there, but I was raised in Danville, Illinois, a small farming coal foundry, you know, town. And I left there when I was 18. I started helping to raise my siblings when I was 11, at my first job, when I was 11, delivering newspapers. I worked my whole life. I moved out when I was still in high school, oh, wow, because I could, and I was 18 and finished school, and my grandparents were like, We need to get you out of here. So they took me where my aunt lived, which seemed like to them, a good idea, but it was Key West, as I'm a little don't know anything, 18 year old girl going to Key West in the 80s, which they just should have written shark my forehead. It's like one woman to every 20 men back then. Is that right? Oh, wow.

Tracy Hayes  10:55  
Everyone's just five o'clock. Everyone's drinking. That's

Kim Knapp  10:57  
the only thing I could imagine. Well, until five the next day? Yeah, all starts over.

Tracy Hayes  11:01  
So really, I mean at that, where, when do you start thinking of a career? I mean, you're 18 years old. You just got to Key West. I imagine you're doing hospitality type work there.

Kim Knapp  11:11  
I got a fake idea, and I was a bartender at Dirty Harry's.

Tracy Hayes  11:15  
Wow, when do you start thinking of a career? When, when do things start moving, I guess, into an adult life,

Kim Knapp  11:22  
yeah, you know, so I'll skip part of the story. So I went from there and ended up in upstate New York, and that's where I met my husband, and we both worked at General Motors, okay? And, you know, I was never thinking about a career. I was just thinking about living a life. I you know, I love my husband. I like being a wife, like being a family, you know, doing that kind of stuff. And we both got kind of early retirement out of there. They were downsizing. And basically, my husband, he had been there longer than me. They said, look at if you'll leave now, we'll punch the clot for the next five years. Just don't come and reduced his pay a little. But, you know, so we said, you know, if we're ever going to leave. We should leave now, and where our kids, our oldest was 13, so that was like, I just felt like once she got into high school, it was going to be more of a battle. And so when we got to Fleming Island, I will say that, you know, I probably was my realtor's worst nightmare when we moved here, because I called all the schools. I called all the builders. I had them send me all their stuff. I had done so much research myself, you know, I didn't understand it like I thought I did, but I did a lot, and I actually enjoyed the relocation experience. But I got here, I was going to finish a degree in Christian counseling, and I told my husband. I said, I think I want to do real estate. And of course, I'm the like, you know person, and my husband's like, steady, stay, stay the course, right? So he said, Well, let's pray about it, and we'll see. And after about a month, I'm like, Well, what do you think? And he's like, Yeah, go for it. So that's kind of, you know, how that happens. This is

Tracy Hayes  12:54  
around 2000 you come down. So I mean, shortly thereafter, I mean, the market here is on fire. The values of homes are going going up. So you're you're riding a wave.

Kim Knapp  13:08  
Well, not day one, though. I mean, that didn't really start to happen till, like, two or three years later, when I first started, I interviewed a bunch of agents, fight and and general agents, and then interviewed brokerages before I even had tested for the state, because I wanted to know where I was going. Some brokers didn't want to talk to me because I didn't have my license yet. And when I went to work for Pete Dalton at that time, and I sold 6 million that first year, I sold one $300,000 house, and my hair was on fire, and I didn't really know what I was doing, you know? I mean, I worked hard and I wanted to do well, right? But, I mean, my hair was on fire. And then, you know. And I worked really, really hard for all that, and then as as you got into like 2003 it was like, pedal to the metal, right? It just started flying. And I'll be honest, I worked really hard. I always wanted to do a good job, but I I went from 6 million to 12 million to 18 to now. This is 20 years ago, you know, or 19 years ago, really, really fast. And there wasn't a lot of training back then on how to run a team and how to do any of that stuff. I mean, it was baptism by fire and learn everything by mistake.

Tracy Hayes  14:12  
Let's, let's dig into that a little bit, because one of the things I really like talking about in the course tis the season, we're seeing a lot of movement amongst agents, between brokerages and so forth. What What led you to your first brokerage? Did you actually even talk to other brokerages? Or did you just walk into Caldwell? You know?

Kim Knapp  14:31  
What happened there? No, I said I interviewed site agents, and then I interviewed regular, you know, general agents, and then I interviewed brokerages. And, I mean, I'm answer honestly. I talked to all these different brokers, and Carol paid at the time was was the broker of the office that I went to, and we're just having a really great conversation. And her sister came and kind of knocked at the door, peeked in, and she goes, Hey, are we still gonna meet for lunch? And she said, Yeah. And she's like, I love you. And she's like, I. You too. She laughed, and the sappy inside part of me was like, well, she loves her sister. I like her being honest. That's it was. There was, she was just so like, human in that moment. And then, you know, and she wasn't pitching me. She was answering my questions honestly, right? You know, it's just like in real estate, we say people want to buy, but they don't want to be sold, and someone starts selling me, like, I just get exhausted. I'm like, Please, just give me the information. I'll make a decision.

Tracy Hayes  15:28  
So, but you've been there now 23 years has her, you know, I was obviously thinking of this 23 years the same brokerage I know I've obviously, you know, we were just talking about Christina Welch pre show. She's been, you know, since she served about 16 years now, roughly, and so forth. I mean, has it was there times that you've I mean, I'm because I'm sure you're getting calls like all of us get calls trying to be recruited from different brokerages. But what was it at Caldwell that really has kept you there? And I imagine there was some thin moments, but then you look back and say, is the grass greener on the other side?

Kim Knapp  16:03  
So first, let me say, I, you know, I always was paying attention to what was going on, and I talked to people, right? So somebody called me, you know, I might say, I want to know what you're doing, in case I want to change what I'm doing. So I did, like knowing, you know, not just building those relationships, but knowing what else was out there. So I don't, I don't, I don't hold that against anybody. I think it's smart. I think it makes you more well rounded to know what's going on out there and understand the playing field. And there were times, you know, when the market crashed. Yeah, tell agent says I had 70 locks boxes. I had 65 listings when the market crashed. I mean, y'all just wrap your brain around like, you know, I mean, I have 100 agents, you know, in my office right now, and they wish they all. They had 30 or four, I mean, 65 and it was crickets. And then all of a sudden, I went around to all the, all of them that were, you know, really overpriced, and said, you know, either we have to make this kind of reduction, right, I need to give your listing back, because I just couldn't manage all that, right? Then, you know, all of a sudden, I'm like, This is not fun anymore. I got into real estate because I love helping people, and we do get to be a part of their lives in a way that is really intimate. You know, when someone's buying or selling real estate, they're getting married, they're getting divorced, they're having kids. The last one left the nest, maybe you lost a spouse, maybe you cut the best job of your life, right? Like, there's these highs and lows, but when that market turned, you know, the wives in the bedroom cry and the husband's at the table, you know, we shouldn't have moved here. You shouldn't have taken that job. I know, oh yeah. People weren't happy, right? Yeah.

Tracy Hayes  17:36  
I mean, how many of the, I mean, of those 65 that you have the market cups. And I kind of did a little reel the other day talking about how we are in the same rate range, mortgage rate range that we were in October of 2008 as things obviously took return, and then the rate started to drop. But a lot of these people were, yeah, caught holding the bag, so to speak, upside down in their homes, almost literally overnight. How your what's the word triage? You know, it's great. You're running around and you got all these listings now, it's like, you know, and then how far will the market drop, right? So you're trying to, I would imagine, I'm just thinking, you're trying to reprice the home and now, or couldn't. And were there a job there where these people were leaving, or did they have the job offer anymore that they had, and what was the whole reason why they were moving right and having to deal with all those situations?

Kim Knapp  18:28  
I think for me, that's when I really learned I need to know more. It's not enough to be to be good with people, and you know, know your contract, you need to really pay attention to the market, and that's your macro and micro, you know, what's going on your local market? What's going on nationally? How does one area affect, you know, another area, right? You know? And that's when I really entertained, like, how much maybe I need to lead, maybe I need to go to a different company, right? And, you know, my mother's words kind of rang in my head that, you know, if I went somewhere else, I would be with me when I got there. What would actually be different. And I realized I needed more education. Is I sold a crap ton of real estate by then, but I needed more education. I needed to do my business on purpose. I needed to run it like a business. I needed to take listings, sellable, listings on purpose. And that's when I started to get involved in CRS, other education and national masterminds, and I just got really, really better at what I was doing. But it was, it was learning that, you know, the whole CMA thing I'm gonna, I'm gonna take three houses and tick some numbers on them, and out comes the magic. You know what everybody realized when the market went down as soon if you priced a house based on the most recent solds, the pendings were already here below that. So, like, that's not a thing. So you have to really learn, how do you price? You need to look at how much competition is there. You know, what's under contract? You know, what did the market reject? Expired market rejected properties. You know, agents who have been doing real estate for the last three years, they don't even, you know, you. Expired listings. What are those? Right? Right? So, you know, it's just looking at it more holistically and now working with sellers to strategically position their homes on the market, you know, which is a little different?

Tracy Hayes  20:13  
Well, I've just noticed, you know, in our neighborhood, I think I use this example. The other day, my wife had a listing. It's just had to be in our neighborhood, in St John's golf, which is a popular neighborhood in St John's County. Yeah, John's County. She went in and priced it, priced it right, had it decluttered, staged to a point she got actually, really the escalation clause were $30,000 more than asking. She had four offers, listing it on Friday, by Sunday, she had four different offers and back and forth. And this was recently. This is just right before Thanksgiving. We literally went on that we were boarding the cruise ship on Saturday. She had just listed it on Friday, the calls are coming in, so she's juggling trying to as we're failing out, right? You know, Murphy's Law, right? You gotta go out of town. The phone's gonna ring, yeah. But obviously she did the right things. There were other houses and they were still sitting there at 6090 because they're just priced right. What you meant? You mentioned you reached that point where you got that kind of, we want to say, an aha moment where you're like, you know what? I need to take myself to another level. What was it? What was it? You think that that

Kim Knapp  21:17  
triggered that? Actually, it was just attending. She became my Yoda Jackie Leavenworth as a CRS instructor at the time national speaker. And I went to see her. And there were so many things that she said that were so simply true that I didn't do and I was like, This is so simple. Why didn't I know this? And when I realized that there were these, these things that were just so simple to implement I didn't know it immediately. Was like, Well, what else Don't I know? Right? Clearly, there's a lot of in the sphere of all things you could know, like, I know this little dot right here. And it really changed, you know, investment property, you know, how do I how to buy investment property, really learning, like, really learning, right?

Tracy Hayes  21:58  
Buying, we're selling it to, knowing how, knowing the other side how to how to sell it to an investor.

Kim Knapp  22:04  
I mean, I own $2 million worth of the wrong property when the market turned right, because I did not invest myself in literally knowing how to figure out those return rates right and and my cash flow, like really understanding that, you know, you could get that information. So it was really kind of life changing to and that's why I think I get so passionate about education, because the more you know, the more valuable you are, the less mistakes you'll make, the more people that you can help, and it can change your life.

Tracy Hayes  22:35  
Well, from from a marketing standpoint, they talk about, you know, be that, be that person in your area, right whether it might be your neighborhood. I know in some of your bio stuff, I was reading about how you came very focused on your neighborhood. And I had Austin preck On the other day. He is very focused on his neighborhood, starting right there. But did you even have a vision of the collateral benefits of you be you have become a, I'm going to use the word icon in a way, if there's if someone was to rattle off several people who are go to, I want to say, know it all so knowledgeable people who you want to, you know, kind of have on your Rolodex and, you know, you run into something and want to run. I know a lot of agents have told me, you know, they've come to you for different things, running business ideas or whatever, by you, but that collateral benefit of you digging in at that time to Now, fast forward to 2022 almost 23 and you are, you know, in that leadership role, just naturally have become that go to person in the region.

Kim Knapp  23:38  
Well, I don't think I ever that was ever an idea in my head. But I'm a giver by nature. I've never been, you know, held things close to the best. I feel like there's enough, kind of an abundance mentality. There's enough for everybody, and maybe that, you know, maybe that's part of it, just just being willing to share. You know, there's no room for arrogance like, you know this, you know, tell my granddaughter telling me, you know, well, do you think I'm prettier than her? I go, Is this somebody who's prettier? Contest, can we all, can you all be pretty? Is that okay? And so I think in real estate, it, you know, success is measured different by different people. Some people, if I sell 3 million a year, this is perfect. If I sell five, if I sell 10, somebody who sells 10 a year shouldn't feel bad with the next to the person that sells 25 unless they want to sell 25 and don't feel bad, find out how to do it, right? But there's room for everybody in this industry, and so I think just being open is better for all of us, right? You know, right kind of

Tracy Hayes  24:33  
a thing, yeah, no. 100% and I, you know, like any, anything that any, whether it's athletics, it's business. There's only a certain percentage of people who are going to take it to a certain level, you know. We question, why? How does Melissa Ricks, you know, do $70 million just herself, you know? And you try to wrap around that, but the realization is, you have to, she's at a different. Stage in her progression of being a real estate agent. Some people get on a fast track. Maybe they hook up with the right person, or maybe they're just things just come naturally to them. There's some things you know in life, people are just attracted to them and not to not to measure yourself to someone else, but to reach out. Collaboration is in 100 and your 100 and 11th episode, it's been mentioned in probably 90 plus, is how the top agents will collaborate with you. You've got a question. I know they go to you all that I've heard of numerous times. They called Kim and told her, Hey, this is my idea, and you've sat down, or whether it's on the phone or had coffee with him, whatever.

Kim Knapp  25:39  
So you guys could do that with anybody. You could do that with anybody. There's somebody that's like, killing it in your in your market, call them up and say, can I take you to coffee? You'd be surprised. They're gonna say, okay, very rarely will you come across somebody that's like, No, I'm not doing that. So you look at the market and you're like, like, what somebody's doing? Reach out. I promise you. They're not looking to come find you. You know, especially when you're a mentor, a mentor is never looking for the mentee. Because when you're that kind of person, you pour, pour, pour, pour, and like, it just like, falls through a hole. That's not very satisfying, yeah? But when somebody's coming at you, and they're like, oh, what? And then you watch, and then they go do it, and that's satisfying, she's like, Oh, check them out. You know, they're doing it.

Tracy Hayes  26:20  
There's, I don't think there's nothing more flattering, if you respect someone, to actually call them up and say, You know what, I really respect what you're doing. Can we? Can we sit down now, there's a two sides of that, that person, if you're really into that, you know person, I'm sure you've had many of these people come and sit down with you, like Kim, what do I need to do? Kim, what I need to do? And you say, Well, I would suggest you do start with one, two and three, and then that conversation leaves. That's where your heart kind of drops, right? Because you're you're flattered, and just like you want to reach out and give, but you're like, Okay, I told you what to do, but you now didn't do it, you know? So those kind of, you kind of take some hits on those.

Kim Knapp  27:03  
Well, I think where you got to control it is you care about people is that you don't have the same conversation three more times, right? You know, I love I learned this from my pastor in New York. Matter of fact, my son and Carrie now my niece are there visiting. Just visit him now. So this is, you know, he married my husband and I 30 some odd years ago, but he said, you know, he would have a couple come in for marriage counseling, and they would say, whatever. And he Okay, here's what you got to do before next week. And they come in next week, and he go, how did you do and he go, well, we didn't do it. And he said, We don't have anything to talk about, so why don't you come back next week? Because he wasn't going just to talk, just to talk, right, right? No, it's not osmosis. Isn't happening. You have to actually do something. So I think, you know, I've probably, you know, wasted a lot of one conversations, but I don't want to waste a two. You know what I mean? I think that's where you kind of try to hold people accountable that they need to do something with it.

Tracy Hayes  27:56  
I'm gonna just change it, because I do actually have some questions here. So delete us on here. Well, this is we just kind of touched on this a little bit, so this will carry it on. I took this quote right from your one of you. I don't know if it was in LinkedIn or, I think was probably on LinkedIn, because that's where I got most of yourself early on in the game, I decided that I wanted to be successful. I should find out what successful people in the industry do. What were some of the things, you know, if you're, you're, if you're, you're talking training in class, or you have that agent in front of you that's obviously looking for people that are smarter than they are, or successful. I mean, what are some of the things that how they should approach them? I don't know if people are nervous to approach them. I guess it's kind of it kind of like that scenario where, you know, guys are in a room and there's a pretty girl and, you know, like, Ooh, you know that successful person? Oh, he's too successful. He won't talk to me. What's the best way to approach someone like that?

Kim Knapp  28:51  
First of all, that's just your own, their own self talk. Yep, you know, that's the same thing you know, customer agents do when they haven't kept up with their database, and they're like, I can't call the person from five years ago. And I'm like, Well, what do you think is going to happen? You're going to call them and they're going to go, Joe, I can't believe you haven't called me in five years. You know. Yes, they're going to go, you know. I mean, they're not talking to dinner about you for not calling. So it's that same self talk that keeps you from doing that, that prevents you from just walking like, what's the worst thing that's going to happen to you? Like, what's the worst thing? If I can encourage anybody, get your mindset right. Just get your mindset right. If you want to be really good at this, get get over being butt hurt about stuff. Just you knock on the door, you call the person, and if it's not, if it's not your tribe, the next same thing with reaching out to people, and, you know, I wouldn't have never. I would have never started farming when I did. I wouldn't have understanding follow up after the sale when I did. Those are all things like I really understood early on. It was the business part of it that I did. I that I hadn't learned. But I'm very thankful I had a lot of mentors, and I'm very thankful for

Tracy Hayes  29:59  
that, right? So on the marketing, you know, because that's, that's really, obviously, you know, prospecting, marketing, whatever term you want to put with it. How important is it? And over the 23 years you've, you know, you've coached a lot of people and a lot of people following you. How important is it for them to find what they do best? And it might be cold calling. It might be knocking on doors. It might be just be involved in all the things at the church, to get themselves out there. But how important is it for for them to find what their personality, what they like doing, what they're good at, and obviously produce as quickly as possible, to really accelerate their career, as far as prospecting?

Kim Knapp  30:39  
Well, it's, it's necessary for survival. You know, it takes long enough when you're newer in this business to get this wagon train rolling, and so you have to have an open mind, you know, don't be that kid that you're like, Here, try this, you know, whatever. And they're like, Oh, I hate it. Have you ever tried it? No, I haven't, but you just said you didn't like it, right? But you don't know, but you just said that, right? But real estate agents do that, and it's like you. And not only do you need to try something, you can't try it once. You know, my my best friend, we've been friends since we were 11 years old. You know, she got into playing pickleball, and she has a sister in law that's extraordinary at it. Her husband both got involved. And, I mean, she, she never played me. I played a lot of sports. She didn't play sports. She was She played the viola, so she did climb mountains. Really counts for something. I wouldn't do that. But anyway, she lost like 90 games that she participated in before it turned right. Now, I'm not telling you guys to do 90 open houses, but what I'm saying is, she's an avid pickleball player now, and she's extraordinarily good and but she didn't quit. And I think agents will do two open houses and go open houses don't work. They'll call two expireds. They don't work. You know, I farmed for four months. It doesn't work. You got to give it a chance to figure out what works. But you do have to line up with what's your personality, style as well, you know, and figure out what, what resonates with you, and then do it with all your heart, just commit, right? But I think everybody should farm. That's just my opinion. I mean, you've got your sphere, your farm, and then pick another lane, but, but farming is like it takes a it takes a hot minute, right? For it to you, if you pick a field, you know, you got to clear it and till it and plant it and water it and fertilize it. And then the first year, it's kind of mean, you know, but each year it gets better. And I'll tell you, when the market turned I went from 48 million the year before to 15 million the next year. And you know, pursuant to say, well, you sold 15 million. No, when you, when you got people that work for you, and 15 million not going to cover, cover the expenses, but if I wouldn't had my farm, I wouldn't have made it

Tracy Hayes  32:41  
through that. Define that for us and for the audience to farm, meaning your your sphere, in your Yeah, I think you were talking about working your neighborhood. Was the first thing

Kim Knapp  32:49  
you did, yeah. So, yeah. I started out. We delivered. I did a newsletter. I did I my family delivered it in Fleming Island plantation for, you know, eight years ourselves,

Tracy Hayes  33:00  
every major newsletter went out and dropped it on everyone's joint. I had a

Kim Knapp  33:03  
little hanger, actually a little hanger, put it up on the on the doors. I had everybody helping. Actually, Carrie, and I'll just say this, because a lot of you and I know her. She the last time she delivered new newsletters, she was doing our roller blades. She rolls up to the door and she goes to stick it on the knob, and the door flies open. She wailed into the fire. This guy's walking by with his coffee, and she's like, I got your newsletter. So she took her rollerblades off. But yeah, so we did that, and then we did events, and father daughter date night, Mother Son date night, and door hangers that said, you know, we're accepting trick or treaters or, I mean, we just, I actually have a whole brochure that's like 40 pages long of just farm ideas, right? And what ends up happening is the people feel like they know you. I mean, Mona Gardella told me, when she moved to Fleming Island plantation, she goes, I thought you were like the real their realtor. They didn't have a realtor. There wasn't one. But that's when you do really good farming, you know. And people see you as you know, the expert in that area.

Tracy Hayes  33:59  
I mean, I was thinking of all the people. Patty Ketchum has that story about her mom with the card. Oh, true. Yeah, yeah. Her mom getting card. I was going through some of the past shows. Aliyah Maskey with, with Nicole Slate's group over here. She was talking about farming. She said it took about nine or 10 months before she got her first listing. But it's, it's, it's starting to snowball. From that standpoint, you become the, like I said, the person of the neighborhood. Now here's, I'm going to give you the, let you give the overcome this slight objection, because I can see this happening. I know in my neighborhood, my wife's an agent. I got Christina Welch. I mean, there's a lot of great agents that have actually lived in St John's golf at one time or another. There's probably at least a minimum of a dozen agents living in that neighborhood, anyone farming that neighborhood, not that I see. I'm not getting the postcard. I'm not getting a newsletter. I'm not, you know. Unless they're on a community page that I don't see. But obviously, most are. Well, there's a lot of other realtors in the neighborhood. My reasoning is, I know that neighborhood's turned over quite a bit just since I've been there, people who are transient area. People come in and out, they move to other neighborhoods, and type of thing that the same people aren't there from the beginning. They just because that other agents been there as long as you have doesn't mean everybody knows them, either.

Kim Knapp  35:23  
Well, no, I mean, you want to pull up, you want to get in the MLS, you want to create, learn how to use the MLS, learn how to use it. I mean, I know you know how to find stuff, but learn how to actually, like, really make it do what you want. But so I have a view created called agent view, and I use it for the listing agent, I pull up a community, sort it by agent, and now I can my listings, okay? 111, sold. 212, 12. Okay, new neighborhood. So first of all, it doesn't have to be your neighborhood, but if nobody's dominating your neighborhood, then why not it be you like you can't assume, you can't even assume that somebody's gonna use you again that was happy with you unless you've kept up with them in a meaningful way. So how can you assume people that may or not may have any idea who these people are? Right? You know, fight I used to, I You could still they're out there at home. I think it's called@home.net they do homeowners association websites, and I was willing to pay them, and I created one for Fleming Island plantation, not an HOA, but it wasn't trying to look like an HOA, but the functionality of it, collecting all their email addresses. I put all the floor plans on there. They had babysitter you know, and lawn people and all this kind of stuff that they can share. And get those email addresses now, you can put them in your drip pancakes. You can send them, you know, data reports on what's going on in the community. I'm telling you, you get in front of them, and you do it consistently, you'll be the person that called Yeah, yeah.

Tracy Hayes  36:44  
I don't, I don't. I do not see it happening enough, and you're not the only one. As I said, Austin preck, he like he's doing his video. He was, he was on here the other day. Why? If you go back and look at the last episode he he tells you he's doing his YouTube video once a month on, you know what sold, and everything in the community. And he's walking around the community, and there's people that know him, and he doesn't even know but because getting into social media, creating relationships, he's out there every month, and everybody thinks he's Mr. Beacon lakes,

Kim Knapp  37:11  
well, get, get into the neighborhood group, participate in the conversation. One of my agents is a world golf village, and he got two listings off of participating in the conversation, and took, took that conversation. Actually, there are two people, different time frames that were disgruntled. I can help you, if you want, you know, in a nice way, but I can help you if not being here is what's going to make you happy. But participate in those groups. Show up to neighborhood events. You know, be a real person. You know, know me, like me, trust me.

Tracy Hayes  37:41  
Hey, folks, this episode was produced by streamline media, the number one media company for helping brands generate content that converts I knew I wanted to start a podcast to reach more people and bring value to the world, but I did not have the time or the knowledge. Streamline media became my secret weapon to building my show. They handle all my back end work, production and strategies to keep my show going strong. If you're in the real estate business and looking to make content that generates more leads and brings in more revenue, check out the streamline media link in the show notes and discover how partnering up can supercharge your path to real estate excellence. How you know, 23 years you've seen the evolution of social media, how it's easier. You don't have to necessarily do the newsletter. You can do a video if you want to, in your own room with nobody around. But obviously putting the right search terms that everybody in your neighborhood is getting that YouTube video or Facebook video, whatever.

Kim Knapp  38:40  
You know, I remember Eden Jordan, you know, slumping herself over my desk, going, Kim, you've got to get on Facebook. I'm like, I don't need any more emails and notifications. And then that, you know, I just laugh about and I go, thank you. Thank you, Eden, for bringing me around. But you know, there weren't influencers before that, right? And now you can have such a broader reach you don't want to get caught in. You know, I get so many people to look at my stuff. If nobody's responding right, you need to be on purpose with what you're doing. And certainly now, I mean, we can't talk, can't figure it out right this second. But I mean, when you learn how to cross reference your video from where you're doing in your reels or Instagram, or how you're using it on on Facebook, or how you're leveraging it on YouTube, and where, where you're sharing, you can do a lot with content. And so find out who you're determine who your tribe is, and then speak to that tribe. But it's it's a lot easier to get in front of people, and there's some people that like on your personal page. I still run into this personal Instagram, personal whatever like they like. I don't. I don't want to be friends with a customer on there. And I'm like, because what are you doing on there? Like, what's the reason? Like, on your personal I mean, I don't know a lot of people that are flocking to you know, of course, you know, no new people are joining Facebook right now, so we all need to get a hold of that concept right now. Like, nobody knew the young people left the building, but people. Aren't chasing down to follow a realtor's business page. Like, who's got 10,000 people, Brian Copeland has 5000 right? And Brian's off the chain. So it's your personal. People want to know you. And Gordon Rainey said a couple years ago now, I would always have like, I'll friend him after the closing. He goes as soon first contact. I friend him. He goes. I deal with a lot of military. I deal with people coming and going from all these places, and the second we connect, I friend them. They're getting to know me. I'm getting to know them. We're building a relationship and connecting. And I'm like, Duh, right? It's just so and the second thing I just want to say about that is it from, from a decade ago, I've told people on social media is a gift to us in our business, because we can go in and people tell us all the stuff they're excited about, all the stuff that makes them proud, all the things they want to celebrate or or if they're going through something difficult, and it gives us a way to meaningfully. You know, I'm so sorry. You lost your dog. It's genuine. You mean it, and I'm sorry, and you connected or sell it to send a card to their kid who just won nationals, and, you know, their sport, and they're like, the kids like, that's cool. I got, actually got mail. I didn't what that was, but the parents are like, they knew my kid was awesome, right? So connect in ways that are, that are authentic and meaningful, and social media gives us that.

Tracy Hayes  41:15  
And social media, you brought up the word that I was going to, you know, say next is the one that phrases, again, going back into a lot of my old videos and going through them in my in talking with many agents, the word authentic is coming up. I think if I searched it through all the videos, I'd probably find it. I didn't notice it was there as much as it is. But being authentic, you know, when I have a guest on the show, depending on where I can find their information. Some of them, some people don't have any LinkedIn. So I'm like, okay, because that usually gives me a nice little timeline. I can create questions off, you know that, and start a conversation. Sometimes I got to go on their Facebook, and I start going back, and I can look at their pictures, and you can look at it's become their photo album. For a lot of people, showing their kids 10 years ago and now pictures of you're seeing them today. And, you know, and people start to get an idea, like you said, you start people like to do business with people, obviously, who they like and who they trust. Well, they trust people who kind of have some lot of similarities that they have. You know, maybe they do have kids. Maybe you're a similar age, I don't know. Maybe there's a single mom, there's a huge single mom family in the in the real estate that there's a lot of women doing really well with that, but they're bonding through something in in that social media opens, that opens your your book, for the for those people, through your possible future customers, to relate to you, and well,

Kim Knapp  42:42  
that people are always looking for commonality, and that's where even on on first contact with somebody you know, in person or on the phone you know, you're asking a lot of questions, some may just spend will dive right into talking about themselves, and it's like you got to just restrain that and spend as much time as you can learning about the other person and They want to ask questions back, and that's fine, but it's really discovery and finding that, that that commonality, is really funny, you know, you meet somebody and they're like, you know, oh, I'm from, I'm from Illinois. Oh, me too. We must be distant cousins, you know, somehow it's just the only commonality is, like a whole state, you know? But somehow that resonates, right? So it's, it's really seeking that out,

Tracy Hayes  43:23  
that that is so funny. I've introduced some Minnesotans to themselves, and they're like, bonded. They're I invited us to Christmas parties and go boating and everything is like, I introduced, like, you know how that even, even then it's brought into the Midwest right now. You just, but yeah, people have treaded over the same turf. I think I had had someone on the other day, but we were talking about, you know, why the some of the military, not really all the military. You may not have served at the same time, but if you're a Marine, you're, you know, in you went to Parris Island like my dad did in 58 or you just went through there, you know, five years ago, yeah, yeah, there's McDonald's there, and it wasn't there in 1958 and things were done a little differently, but you have treaded the same turf and sweated on the same, you know, dirt. And there's a commonality there, and there's a bond and a conversation that because you have been there, you know, I do it a lot with my cita alumni. We've all bet we went through the whole thing different time periods. But, you know, this morning, actually, before he came, I was talking to a class of 66 guy. I mean, he, he was through the Civil before I was even born. But we're, we're talking in in conversation like, you know, hey, we're, we're, we've been hanging out for years because we have that commonality.

Kim Knapp  44:38  
I have an agent, Kim Cameron. She's going to be at bar camp. Bart Kim's awesome. She's also a CRS instructor, team leader in St Louis, and I don't know how many years ago, and it's one thing I love about CRS. We have a kind of a slogan of, like, rip off and duplicate, so we all just sort of share stuff. And she has this, like, great now, intake, electronic intake form. She also has a paper version. But just really, as she. She's, you know, learning about her people. It's like, if you were going to go to a party, would you have a glass of wine? Would you have a coke? Would you have, you know, whiskey or whatever. Just really drilling down into building your database on, you know, what, what sports team would do?

Tracy Hayes  45:15  
They like? She has her clients fill this out, or she fills it out. She does it.

Kim Knapp  45:19  
She has them fill it out. And it's just really fascinating for them, you know, because now they really, they really know how to connect with them, right? And it's, she's got an incredible database, and how she does that. I mean, she's like the queen, but something that we can all aspire to be better at, I'm sure,

Tracy Hayes  45:35  
whether it's their sports team or, you know, what bottle of wine to send them,

Kim Knapp  45:40  
what kind of music, what kind of concerts, yeah, you know. And it could even be like, you know, I'll see something actually, I chose Sean Carpenter, who's one of our speakers coming. I got him so that I don't buy Sean carpenter Christmas presents, okay, but he's really into breweries. And everywhere he travels. He always visits a brewery. Wants to look at their local IPAs all this stuff. And I was at World Market getting Christmas presents, and I saw a box that was like, beer Tracy, like, beer trivia. I'm like, I'm gonna send this to him. So that's what ends up happening. When you have a customer, there's a concert coming. You email it to them like they come top of mind, right? But you got to know it first.

Tracy Hayes  46:12  
And it's those little little touches. I've got another quote here. Being in real estate has nothing to do with selling houses or just opening boxes. She says, people are looking for a home, a place, a refuge, at at the end of a long day, or to celebrate the most important moments of their lives. That's a big decision. I'm here to help and make them that vision a reality. How have you taken that culture, and you're kind of describing a culture, and how do you how do you maintain that with your agent, you've got, you said, 100 agents a year. You're influencing them. It's got the it, it gets difficult when you start getting them to have them, you know, stay focused on the culture. What's something you do in the office to echo first?

Kim Knapp  46:56  
I just want to compliment them. I mean, I have the best, most compassionate, professional, giant group of grown ups ever. I mean, they're really phenomenal. And I mean that really is our, our culture. You have to get, you know, buyers buy houses, and sellers sell houses, and we navigate people through the process. We got to, we got to get not be attached to the outcome, right? And know that this is too big of a decision that you're in. You're not going to make somebody buy a house. You know, you're not going to do that, but you can give them that right information. I mean, this is the place they need to go. This. This is it. And sometimes this is it's completely irrational. I mean, you know what I learned, how to manage showings, which was, okay, here's what's going to happen. To make appointments. We want to try to keep them. Sellers, you know, really work hard to prepare their home. Let's not take any notes or anything on the property. Let's do one lap and decide if you would buy this house, and if you would, then let's spend some time. If not, let's move on. I had a FBI statistician who had a dossier on every house. He would prep the Google overview and the deed and the mortgage and everything in MLS and, and he had furniture taped together like a newspaper. They could unfold so he could see if his furniture would fit, you know, cardboard the size of his plates and, and this started, and then the toothpaste was out of the tube. And I'm like, I can't reel this back in. And so we did this for a year. They would come down, and then they walked into the house that they bought. She went in. First the house was vacant. She stood and looked through. Started crying, this is it. He didn't even really make it in no newspaper, furniture, no cardboard, plates, no dossier. So it's not always a rational decision, but you know, it's navigating that this is such an important decision for people. Do you see yourself here? How would you use this? Would you feel good coming home here at the end of the day?

Tracy Hayes  48:45  
So someone of the I'm gonna say it's not only males, I'm not sure females, but the male side of things were probably not or even the engineer, we can label that as the engineer is more analytical. Is this house going to, you know, appreciate and value, or, you know, they're, they're trying to figure out everything out. But what's really important is how they feel when they pull in the driveway every night and get up in the morning, and where that, where they're at and so forth. How do you, you know, that new, that agent that comes in? How do you, what are some initial steps that you put them through, that when they're they're interacting with that buyer or seller, you know, that initial interview. What are some things that you encourage them? What are some questions that that they should ask, that maybe not people say, Oh, that's not really important, but it is important when you're trying to build that relationship.

Kim Knapp  49:35  
I think you need to know people's why, and you need to sometimes go deeper, you know, say, they say something like, you know, well, I just really want privacy. Tell me more about that. Does privacy for them mean two acres? Does privacy mean there's trees behind the house or the size, you know, what? Like you they they want a four bedroom house. Tell me more about that. How would you use that space? Well, actually, I need three bed. Rooms in an office. I'm just saying like, when you, when you, you learning about their Why are you moving at this time? Well, you know, we really want to get back up by our family. We'd really like to go for the snow flies. Our grandkids are have a big winter production. We want to go see when you learn people's why you can take them back to it when they're being irrational, right? You gotta you got $1,000 worth of repairs. They're happy with the price. They're happy with the closing date. Now there's $1,000 in repairs, and this is now we get into the principle of the thing, right? And being able to say, look at let me ask you. So you guys, you're happy with the price, and you feel really good about the closing date, because it's going to get you to where you go and when you want to be there. If you get everything else you want, would that $1,000 in repairs be worth it? Don't answer me right now. I want you guys to think about it. Whatever you want to do. I'm for, I'm for. I just want you guys to think about it. Get back with me tomorrow. Let people you know think, I mean, agents are so quick to negotiate. I'll have you know, like they're negotiating like in like, in one second. I don't even know how you're doing that if you're actually talking to if you're actually talking to your buyer seller, right? But I've had, I've had sellers and buyers call me back five minutes, 10 minutes later and go wait. We changed our mind. Let's do this. It's like, slow down. But when you know their why, you say, No, the buyer, it's $1,000 worth of repairs. Well, if they're not doing it, you say, Well, okay, hold on. You really wanted to be in this school district. You This is the price range you want to be in. The house. Checks all the boxes and you're going to get in by the time frame. If it meant getting everything you want, but

Tracy Hayes  51:28  
you're getting 99 of the 100 things right. But you got to frame it, right.

Kim Knapp  51:31  
But if you don't know what's important to them and why, you can't bring them back to and then you know. So a lot of deals fall apart because the agent gets in the way. I might just tell you, it's not your house, not your money. Stop. Just stop. Don't answer for other grown up people. I've had agents say they'll never pay $20,000 over the list. This was like seven years ago, and I go, would you just ask them without your spin on it? You know, their agents act like they're all like, I can't let them do they're grown about to spend a half a million dollars, I think they can decide whether that's in their best interest, right? But agents get get in the way and then just help navigating people through. How do we get here in the first place? Because people get irrational when they feel under pressure, really learning negotiations on doing a win, win.

Tracy Hayes  52:19  
So I think of a situation I had, and I really felt, and I this way I felt. So I don't know if it's how the the agent who referred me, but then never referred me again after it, because it was a house that had the roof was basically gone. Air Conditioning is was on its last thing. So there was 30,000 plus dollars. Of these people really wanted the house. They had the seller, but it was back to that situation. Well, I mean, either this is the this is the deal, so you either take it or you go back to the seller and say, hey, you know this is the situation. They're not the roof has got less than two years. We've got to do something. And they went back and ended up, we ended up doing roof escrow, and they ate the air conditioning. Buyers going in, they accepted it. But I was like, you realize, if you don't go back to the seller and say, Hey, this is the only way we're going to make this deal work, that next person walks in that house, that air conditioning could go and be gone, and then they are replacing the air conditioning, because no one's going to buy the house, or unless they're going to take, you know, dollars off. So to take that next step, I think a lot of them get transactional or for that standpoint, and not like you said, take that next step. You know, we don't know what the buyer, you know, the person on the other side, what wall they're against, you know, we don't know where they're at. I know a lot of people like to say, Oh, well, they bought the house for this, and now they're selling it for that. Well, you don't know what happened. They could have actually used up all the equity paint for medical bills. You don't know. You know, that's not your they bought it at market value. You're buying it at market value, yeah, and you don't know, and you have to, yeah, like you said, to walk away from that. There was a term what made me think what you're talking here. It's not like buying a car where I can go buy the same Dodge pickup truck I have now at 1000 other dealerships all around the country. I can, I can do that. So, yeah, it is just a physical piece of metal that other people are selling, but that house on that lot, at that address, there's nothing is more unique than you personally as a human being,

Kim Knapp  54:34  
well, and I think that a lot of agents, this isn't a bad thing. A lot of agents when, when you learn how to identify it and control it, but a lot of agents are people pleasers, right? And in doing so, sometimes they do a disservice. They think that they're doing a good job. Is always winning something sometimes that's telling people the truth that they need to hear. Right? Right? So. Remember, Sharon alters is the one that taught me this years ago, and she said on a scale of one to 10, how honest would you like me to be with you, and really having that conversation? You know, early on, whether that's a seller or buyer, and you know so that can be whether you're negotiating repairs, difficult information, part of that is being knowledgeable, get educated, with a seller, you would have should have already had that conversation, right about the roof, all of that, what that potential is being uninsurable, all those kind of things understanding, you know, maybe if the AC is really old, get a pre inspection. I have something for the sellers I created years ago. It tells them all the benefits of a pre inspection, and then they have to check a box that they choose or decline and sign that makes them more responsible. See, we, you know, we don't treat grown ups like they're grown and then everything runs down this way, right? So making them responsible, and I've had agents go, Well, what if you well, then you have to disclose that stuff. And I'm like, yeah, it would be worse to just close it then, like, have the whole deal blow up, because the buyer is going to have it inspected and find it anyway. Like, right?

Tracy Hayes  56:07  
And so would you feel, even if they didn't find it, you actually knew there was something significantly wrong, because you knew, you know whatever it is, and they did and someone didn't. Could you hold your conscience with that?

Kim Knapp  56:19  
Well, you, well, you have to disclose, I'm just saying, like, they're, it's gonna get discovered. I mean, will their inspector find other stuff? Yeah, but they likely won't find any other big rocks, right? And so now the seller's not surprised. I tell the seller, like this puts you, it's entirely up to you, but by doing so this puts you in the driver's seat. You know what's what's ahead, and maybe you can pre plan on how you want to handle that. So, I mean, that's, that's just just an example.

Tracy Hayes  56:44  
You are pro free listing inspection. You Yeah,

Kim Knapp  56:48  
100% and I got to tell you, you know, I I spent way too much time organizing 500 $800 worth of repairs. Just ridiculous, copious amounts of time and and so I just didn't want to do that anymore. And, and then you'd have deals blow up over, probably things that weren't that big, but you have a buyer who's very fantastical about everything, who's like, it's, this is a sign from heaven, you know? And it's like, no, this is kind of normal. And, you know, we could, it's a house that's whatever, years old, you know. But, but just giving people the truth agents that won't tell a seller that, you know the house smells like smoke, or you know that the carpets in rock, whatever it is it's like, so that. So the plan is to let the market reject that's the plan, you know. Or do you tell people you know, look at is the goal to get the best price? Now maybe it's not. Sometimes it's not. Sometimes people have other, other urgency or but if they say, Yes, we absolutely want to get the best price, well, if that's the goal, would you be willing to x?

Tracy Hayes  57:46  
I am pro pre listing agreement, because I've seen it on my side, because we, you know, the thing comes like, well, hold off on the appraisal. Yet we're not okay with the inspection. And you, you work so hard you agree with me or disagree with you work so hard as an agent to get that buyer put them in there, and that's okay. This is our home. They sign the contract. You would love that you could close like within the hour, right? But you have, so you have, typically three weeks to 30 days or more before you're going to close. So now they're going to go home and have standard procedures. Did we do the right thing? Did we buy are we buying the right house? All this is going on. They go and do the inspection and then find the $1,000 in repairs that could be so minor and like done the next day, but that's the that is their ticket out of the deal. And if you leave that out on the table because you didn't do the pre listing inspection, you did all that work, matched them up, got them to sign a contract, gotten a contract accepted, and now you're giving them an opportunity to get out. And I never really thought about what you just said, the time spent to get the smallest stuff just done because you want to get it done right away. So, you know everything. You know the you know sometimes before the appraiser gets there, you know, if it's something that like that, that needs to be fixed, and you the stress and your time, so there's a ticket out in your time that you're saving by promoting the pre listing inspection. That's brilliant. Yeah.

Kim Knapp  59:18  
Well, it's worked out really. Worked out really good for us. And, like said, puts a seller in the the driver's seat. And also you you realize, like, you know, these 500 $800 your payers, agents, look at part of your role is like managing this whole thing. And when you're on the other side of it, you have a buyer. And it could be more than that. Could be a roof, everything. Agents who just say, tell their sellers. Here's the here's the inspection report. If you want to go get some estimates, like, don't do that, don't don't do that. Like, you need to have people that you know you work with that you can take control that situation and help guide them through, through that process. But when you realize it's all this little stuff, it just. And we don't understand sometimes as agents, as people, are looking for a reason not to buy, not to buy. And you can see that when you're when you're showing houses, what are they, they they're they walk in, and they're instantly pointing out, don't like that, don't like that, don't like that, don't, you know, whatever. And when they start having positive buying signals where they're going, Oh, that's beautiful. Okay, this is good, yeah, because they're really, you know, it's a big decision, so they're often trying to talk themselves out of it. And the average negotiation is 21 days and age was like, I only negotiate contracts for a day or two. It's like, oh, there's far more than that, right? You know, you've got the inspection then that you're waiting on the appraisal, which you're getting hung up on, and, you know, is that going to come back? And, you know, we're that's probably going to be a little wonky in the coming six months. Yep, yep. I'm going

Tracy Hayes  1:00:46  
to wind down, because we're a little over an hour here, because some of the standard things, and I know you're a promoter, but I want to hear your your pitch on this. How important is it for agents to continuing to educate, whether, whether it's going down the knee far or whatever. Local board there may be getting the structured classes, or there's a some lenders putting on a VA loan seminar, or the home home inspectors doing all the different things that they can go and get a free lunch at or breakfast or whatever. How important is it for them to schedule that regularly, whether it's, you know, weekly or monthly, that they're continuing to grab nuggets on on a regular, consistent basis?

Kim Knapp  1:01:31  
Well, I mean, it's necessary. It's mandatory. So you might do it different if you're a reader, then and or you're watching YouTube videos and you're and you're reading, and you attend, you know, one or two classes a year, and that's fine. If you're not, you need to get places. Because, first of all, there's solutions, there's there's lending solutions, right? You might not be able to do it this way, but I can do homes for heroes. I can do a USDA where this house is. You need to understand how all of that that works.

Tracy Hayes  1:01:56  
Promote John Adams, renovation renovation loans. A va renovation loans. Maybe the veteran can't buy the house, it is. But if we do a VA renovation loan,

Kim Knapp  1:02:04  
right, their lend. Lending has built within several, a variety of solutions, right? But it's the same with a lot of things, and the more, the more an agent knows, the bigger their arsenal is, the more they win. You know, it's your unique point of difference. So, you know, I was talking to my agents about portability, and how many agents don't understand that. You know, in this market, in the last year, I had friends that were in real estate who were selling their houses, who realized their just market value was really low, went to the Property Appraiser, got it raised 100,000 120,000 all of that in their just market value and their assessed value. That difference is the portability you take with you to the next house. And so now they do that, and they do that, and they take an additional 120,000 on the 70,000 they already had to the next house. Now, if that's that's information that you understand, does that give you a unique point of difference when you go to a listing appointment? One thing is, I make sure is that you're going to get your, you know, a maximum portability when you go to the next house. That's one little kernel I gave in like, 27 seconds, right? But there's 1000s of those kernels. You can't get caught up where that's all you're doing, but once you stop learning. I asked my agents, who would you ever work with, an agent who's been in the business 20 years, who tapped out 10 years ago, or a brand new agent with a chip on their shoulder? And you know what they say every time the brand new agent? Because it's so hard to take somebody who tapped out a long time ago and try to tell them they don't know what they think they know. It's just the new agent knows it, and they're just, they're just, they're just fronting, so you can work through that, right? Yeah? The one who tapped out, you can't,

Tracy Hayes  1:03:29  
yeah, the market, I love this statement. You know, you hear this all the time. You're working with buyers or calling on FSBOs, right? Or whatever, but buyers will say, Oh, well, I've sold many of homes. I know what I'm doing, and when you let them kind of take control, especially over pricing, I guarantee you, any agent that has any more than two or three listings right now, they have somebody in there that's not priced the way they suggested the price to home, that they're telling them they're smarter than the agent, when in reality, they're not because they haven't sold homes in the last six months or let alone the last three months. And what's changing, what was happening last year, you know to compare this year, and how you're listening and structuring the deals and so forth, and you staying abreast and staying and I think the bottom line word that you agree with is having that confidence to express that to them.

Kim Knapp  1:04:19  
Well, then you need to know how to know how to get the data, and you need to have, you need to know the data. So whether you're you're using, if you haven't in our in their MLS Domos Analytics, you can check that every day and say, Okay, we've got three and a half months worth of inventory. The days on market has gone to, you know, 39 days from, you know, up from, you know, whatever, days, what? Percent that's up when you know that specific data. And you can go by month. But I'll tell you, when you go to a specific house, the days on or the inventory that we have, it may not be three and a half months, and the four to 550 range in this community for three bedroom houses might be five months. So you need to be able to know how to do that research, do absorption rates, so you can explain that data. And you need to be doing it from the beginning, not trying to back. Clean up with it later, right, right, you know, and setting those expectations. But again, that's, that's, you know, being being honest with people. They're still going to make a decision, they're going to set the price. But I was helping one of my agents. We resolved a binder dispute with a FSBO, and the daughter was handling it, and I was talking to her a couple weeks ago, and she goes, and we knew each other from my farm. She knew me. She was, well, Kim, it's not like the market turned on a dime or anything. I said, Well, no disrespect, but it actually

Tracy Hayes  1:05:26  
kind of happened, right? And I sent

Kim Knapp  1:05:29  
her the data and said, I'm sending this to be helpful. I want you to understand what's going on, because you're going to be putting this house back on the market, right?

Tracy Hayes  1:05:37  
What would you say is one thing that you are doing now, or maybe have done for the last 23 years, but you do consistently that moves the needle in your personal business, I would

Kim Knapp  1:05:48  
say, keep talking about learning, but reading and expanding your mindset the more that you can understand other people, whether it's your family, your co workers, your customers, The people that you interact with and understand yourself, your relationships, your projects, your goals, your whatever that is, can be extraordinarily more successful, like I wish I knew 20 years ago what I understand now, and that just comes from invest. I mean that alone. Quick example, you know, Carrie. Anybody who knows Carrie, my niece, she's, I'm more the D, you know, she's more the i with a with a, you know, kind of the ass, kind of softer. She uses lots more words than I do. I use lots less words, you know. I type an email to somebody, right? And I'm like, But, and I'm like, oh, I should say hi first. Make sure you say, thanks. I gotta do that in the beginning. And but you know, for her, you know she's like, you're a D. And, of course, we she goes with those D personalities. Couple years ago, she was, I'm working on this, because they just, they feel like they're yelling at her. That's how she feels, but they're not right. But when she feels that way, then she responds that way, right? So that when she can learn the D person's not yelling at me, when I can learn that I want the eye to land the plane when they're telling me a story that I got to let them tell some of it, because I just want to go land the plane. I just want you to sit down. I'll interrogate you. That would be faster, right? But, you know, but, but, but it's important, so I need to let that happen. Well, that works with your customers, right where you've got the D and the I, when you put things in proper perspective, then you receive and respond differently. And I just think that can make a big difference in your whole life.

Tracy Hayes  1:07:30  
I love that angle and within, like you said it, that's a journey that's not like reading one or two books or going to one seminar that's going to them consistently over time, reading numerous books on on the subject, until finally, your brain reaches that tipping point. Or you actually come to a point where, yeah, you could walk in a room and start talking to them in 15 minutes and say, yeah, they're a high D, you know, this, you know, and analyze them so that you know how to come back and approach them. Or like, you know, I think it was, I always remember one of the years I was at Quicken Loans. I had Chris, my manager was from Michigan, and he would love to listen to me talk to other New Yorkers, because that's where I'm from, and how New Yorkers, you know, talk. And I try to explain to my wife, like Clint Eastwood in Grand Torino, and how that age at generation and how they talk. Clint Eastwood does that a lot in his movies. He gets really, you know, pinpoint to the generation of how those people talk to each other, and it's they weren't were. If they talk like that today, people get, you know, we know our millennial generation would get offended. That's the word I want offended, but that's the way people talk. And we laughed about it, and then went out, went out and, you know, had a beer or whatever, right? That's just the, you know, that's just the way talking about understanding people. And I think, you know, obviously, when you bring in the DISC assessment and understanding also, yeah, where people are from are actually huge. And we have a huge influx of people, you know, obviously Europeans in here. We are Spanish population that have come and settled in Jacksonville. So you have this whole different you have cultural

Kim Knapp  1:09:06  
level, another level. Yeah, I think it was Gonzalo Mejia. He's a Peruvian, and he was telling me, culturally, they're late, always late. Like, if you say the party's at six, they start coming at seven. And he did that when he got here, and he was like, at seven, it's like, you guys already eight? Yeah, no, six means six. He's like, Oh, I didn't know that. I thought it meant seven, you know. But, yeah. I mean, that's a that's a thing to know. I mean, you know, my husband always asked a million questions. And I was like, What is this the Spanish Inquisition? Like, why do you ask me so so many questions? As I learned about him, that's his, his way of not only understanding, but making sure that what I'm saying is what he thinks I'm saying and but when you learn that a customer's doing that, you realize they're not It's not that they don't trust you. They need to learn and understand and know they know. So those kind of things just go a long way. And the

Tracy Hayes  1:09:52  
fact they're asking you is great. I mean, when they don't ask you and they're asking other people, that's a problem. You you want them asking you, what would you say? 20 in 23 years, and you probably have a book on this. But what would you say was, I wrote, I write my notes, biggest mistake, but I mean just something that you did that you're like, you know, when you're in front of your agents like you don't, don't waste your time with that.

Kim Knapp  1:10:15  
This probably won't be the direction I think I might respond to this. I love you read one of those quotes in there when I first got in the game. I love the negotiation and, you know, doing all this and then making something work. And, you know, it's like, you know, swish, nothing but net. I like doing that. And when the market turned and, you know, we were like an eye of a storm, we weren't really sure. You know, it's like, it's a correction, it's this, you know, we just didn't know. And it was before it really went over, over the ledge. And I was, you know, working with these people and, and they're like, Well, you know, what should we do? Should we should we go counter again? And I'm all about, let's take another swing, you know? I mean, I'm encouraging them very immaturely, instead of saying, You know what, you guys. You know real estate's like going to Vegas. This would be my what I'd say now, not what I said then, real estate's like going to Vegas. You have $375,000 in front of you. You can cash out and walk away, or you can go all in and spin the wheel. You need to be okay with whatever those results are, right? Instead, I'm like, Yeah, swing again and we swung again, and they walked away, and there was no more buyers, like nobody else came. And I really care about the people. I mean, I really care like, you know, like most of my peers do, and that's devastating to feel like you are any part of doing something like that. So that was so bold to me that not my house. This is not my money, and I need to help other people get their goals met the way they want to do it.

Tracy Hayes  1:11:46  
Wow, that that's a great story, great learning. I mean, real me and my wife flipped the house when we first got married, and we luckily, we got it took us, like, six more months before we got someone to make the same offer as we did on that first one, and we passed on it, and it's that same we're telling that story made me think of that last formal question, what do you love about real estate so much?

Kim Knapp  1:12:12  
Oh, well, first of all, I actually love real estate people because, you know, they're fun, they're fun, they're friendly, they're collaborative, they they're just, I hate the rap that we get as as as a culture, because I just and my real estate friends like I love my real estate friends. So that's that's a bit and it could be anywhere, right? They're just wonderful. I mean, my son got in a bind, and Hilton Head and I went on the CRS website and found a CRS agent there to help him. Oh, cool, a stranger. Yeah. And I'm like, hey, I need your help. So, I mean, I feel like, you know, we can do that. But the other thing is, I sort of mentioned it earlier, is that, you know, people are making this big financial decision, and we get invited in. I mean, again, these are life moments, and we got to remember that when people act crazy because they're going to act crazy. I mean, real estate agents act crazy. They turn into buyers and sellers when they're buying and selling sometimes, right? That you get invited into, like they just got married, or, you know, got divorced, or having more kids, or there's this other life event going on, and, you know, not that you're celebrating anything negative, but when someone invites you into that, you have an opportunity to develop a friendship for life. You know? I mean, because you've really been a part of,

Tracy Hayes  1:13:24  
part of the journey, it's part of that, that stress and experience that, yeah, 100% are, these are my last two informal questions I ask everybody on the show, what is it that you and the NAPS love to do in Northeast Florida? Is our Florida lifestyle question when you're not selling real estate.

Kim Knapp  1:13:42  
Oh my gosh. Well, at this point in my life, Pixar lives are a little I raise my kids and now I have my granddaughter, so it's life's a little different. But I honestly, when it's quiet, I just like to be at home on my back porch with the fire and my husband and watch a movie. I love Amelia Island John. John knows that a matter of fact, I'm hoping to see him and his wife at the end of the month. We had a place up there for years. We go up there regularly to visit. I just, there's something about going up there that's like, you know, I don't know what it is. I just love it up there.

Tracy Hayes  1:14:18  
I mean, the opposite feeling, instead of going to Orlando, you feel this great opposite, yeah, you're like, Ah, yes,

Kim Knapp  1:14:28  
you've never gone and stayed there. You need to. You just go stay a weekend. It's just fabulous.

Tracy Hayes  1:14:34  
There is no doubt that whole and even going into South Georgia, there's a sector there that is a hidden gem, so to speak. Last question overall, is it more important who you know or what you know and why?

Kim Knapp  1:14:49  
So you said something right early on in the conversation, or talking about success and success, you know, you can work really hard, and we all should. And I mean, I'm a I'm a workhorse, but. You know, combined with opportunity is where the magic happens. You can have opportunity, but maybe you don't take advantage of it. Maybe you don't have the knowledge to take advantage of the opportunity. You can have lots of knowledge and no opportunity there is that. You know, when I when my opportunity was, you know, I wanted to work hard, I wanted to know things. And I happened to start farming plenum plantation, when 50 people lived there, not 2000 right? And I and that was an opportunity I took advantage of. I took advantage of buying the URL for the for the community, because the HOA didn't buy it. I mean, I was like a head all. I mean, just a lot of those things happen. So, so I I think you can have, I can't have one without the other. But opportunity, you need to be paying attention for opportunity. You may look for opportunity, and we have not because we ask, not right? So you can be knowledgeable, but if you don't seek out opportunity, you're going to miss it. Nobody's going to walk up to you and say, Hey, I I've got opportunity for you that never going to happen. You have to go, Wait a minute. I need to go check that out. I'm going to look into that. I'm going to go talk to that person. So, you know, I'm going to say it's kind of both you need to invest yourself in being knowledgeable and you need to be aware for opportunity.

Tracy Hayes  1:16:09  
Excellent, excellent answer. Kim, I appreciate you coming on. Thank you for having me forward to the rebar event. We're it's just another great synergy of Northeast Florida and then many others coming from other states. It's going to be, hopefully, another great event, which I expected. Expect it

Kim Knapp  1:16:23  
to be. I have to tell you one thing, because if I don't, my friends are going to let me All right, you got to go R E bar camp. You got to do that.

Tracy Hayes  1:16:31  
R E bar camp. Got to do that. All right. Why does everyone call it rebar then?

Speaker 1  1:16:35  
Because, and I told this great joke, and it went, I'm going to

Tracy Hayes  1:16:40  
do I'm gonna do a reel on that. Would you?

Kim Knapp  1:16:43  
Would you please? I would really appreciate it, because I did this little joke at the opening last year, and I said, you know what's, what's a pirate favorite letter

Tracy Hayes  1:16:51  
C. And

Kim Knapp  1:16:53  
I go, you, you know they, I'm sorry. They all go, R. And I go, you think it'd be the R, but it'd be the C. And I'm like, Okay, it's R, E, R, G, bar camp, okay,

Tracy Hayes  1:17:06  
re bar camp, re bar camp. That's, yeah, we will need, I'm gonna, I'm gonna cut a clip on that. We've got a clip just for the show right there. R, E, bar camp, but I'm looking forward to that, and I appreciate you coming on. Thanks. Hopefully our audience here got some good stuff from that. Thank you. I appreciate it.