Mandy Morrow: Top Ponte Vedra Luxury Agent

REE #276 Transcript

[00:00:00] Mandy Morrow: I'm investing my time upfront, and that's what a lot of people don't really get. I'm investing my time to really understand what it is you're looking for, help devise strategies and get the job done with all the resources that I have.

[00:00:39] Tracy Hayes: Hey, welcome back to the Real Estate Excellence Podcast, where we bring you the stories and insights from the top performing agents, industry leaders and business innovators shaping Northeast Florida real estate. Today's guest is a powerhouse in every sense of the word, with over 40 years of business experience in sales, leadership, and management. She's worked with Fortune 50 companies like...

[00:01:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d): ...IBM, co-owned a successful business in Greenwich, Connecticut, and built an impressive real estate career here in Ponte Vedra Beach since 2005. Her client-first mindset, tenacious spirit, unwavering professionalism, have earned her recognition in Jacksonville Business Journal's Top Realtors List and Jacksonville Magazine's Women Empowered List, and even an appointment by Governor Ron DeSantis as Commissioner for Volunteer Florida. A dedicated community leader, industry influencer, and broker associate with Compass, she exemplifies excellence in real estate and beyond. Let's welcome to the Real Estate Excellence Podcast, Mandy Morrow to the show.

[00:01:38] Mandy Morrow: Hey, thanks for having me today. Thank you.

[00:01:40] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, I mean, this podcast is only gonna last so long. We probably could go on for hours, 'cause in our pre-show talking, you're now diving into AI.

[00:01:49] Mandy Morrow: Yeah.

[00:01:50] Tracy Hayes: And I, you know, I think about IBM, and my mother back in the seventies was working with Texas...

[00:02:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d): ...Instruments. And at that time it was amazing when they brought the watch and it had a digital—you know, that little red lights.

[00:02:06] Mandy Morrow: Yeah, yeah.

[00:02:07] Tracy Hayes: And now here you're diving into AI.

[00:02:12] Mandy Morrow: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, everybody in this business, for the most part, brings some history with them in terms of what they've done before. And yeah, I actually worked for about 23 years in the tech business, first with IBM for about 16 years, and had some very unique experiences at IBM that really parlay into my appreciation, let's call it, for artificial intelligence today.

Because during my time with IBM, not only was I in sales and sales management—actually started in Dallas in that regard, so I was quite familiar with Texas—but then had a unique opportunity to join IBM's Watson Research Group, which is up in Hawthorne, New York, and totally not in sales, but actually working in a Skunk Works group, if you know what that means.

[00:03:00] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): And focusing on high-end supercomputing in the early nineties. It was absolutely eye-opening. My colleagues were these IBM fellows that were so smart that, you know, I couldn't even understand what they were saying many times. So it was a great experience that I had in understanding how technology can be applied in different areas.

In this particular case, we were doing high-end data visualization. People, you know, back then, that was a new thing. But when you take large, disparate data sets—financial information, oil and gas information—and you're trying to glean insights very, very quickly, there's ways to do that. And back then it would be color coding and things like that. So I got an appreciation for technology and what it can do—and can't do—very early on.

[00:03:53] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. We were in Pearl Harbor, went to Hawaii in March. And I didn't realize what had...

[00:04:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d): ...happened until I started reading some signs. We're inside the USS Missouri, and then it was decommissioned and recommissioned and decommissioned again in, I believe it was '92 if I'm not mistaken. All the computers and everything—almost as if the sailors just walked off the ship—because they're still there.

And my kids are, you know, 12 and 15 looking at these things. I mean, what we can do in our hand today versus what even those computers couldn’t do, with the power of the federal government behind them, is just mind-blowing. And now taking AI, it's like the Wild Wild West of technology.

[00:04:39] Mandy Morrow: No, it’s a good thing. And there’s pros and cons and ways to implement. But what I have found recently is—when you look at all the key functions of a realtor, right—I'll say right off the bat, one of the things that I think is very key is understanding your client.

You've got to understand your client's objectives and really ask a lot of questions. So your number one job always is to understand your client, what they need, when they need it, and advise and consult with them, right? And that’s kind of the way I approach that.

[00:05:00] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): But once you do that, you need to also put together information that they need. And so I have found that there’s really two camps right now in the AI area that can help me do that more efficiently and effectively. And that is getting market data research—which I used to do on spreadsheets, from the standpoint of, you know, just really trying to analyze a lot of data, especially local data.

You can always get national stuff, you know, Zillow stuff and things like that. But really having a personal understanding of the market and then getting the data and analyzing it—the way I was doing it was, you know, through spreadsheets. I downloaded it from our MLS data feeds, and then I would analyze it that way. I still do fundamentally some of that stuff, but now what I do is I upload it to ChatGPT or Claude or Prop Complexity or any of the models. Gemini's really coming on strong now.

[00:06:17] Mandy Morrow: ...and I ask it some key questions. That’s the key.

[00:06:19] Tracy Hayes: Getting the right prompts.

[00:06:20] Mandy Morrow: Right, the right prompts and all that stuff. And it gives me insights. And then once it gives me insights, I can say, does this look right? Or is this something I didn’t see? And it really helps me much more efficiently and effectively get the right data for that particular client situation. So it's an excellent, excellent tool.

[00:06:43] Tracy Hayes: It's almost like having—well—another one, another someone that, someone to talk to, that is, you know, maybe looking at the information. 'Cause it might actually bring up something that you didn’t even see.

[00:06:52] Mandy Morrow: Exactly.

[00:06:53] Tracy Hayes: I know you listened to Sharon Alter’s conversation.

[00:06:55] Mandy Morrow: Yeah, I did.

[00:06:56] Tracy Hayes: And the real tip I loved from her was how she has it...

[00:07:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d): ...write two or three different listing descriptions.

[00:07:02] Mandy Morrow: Right, right.

[00:07:03] Tracy Hayes: And even shares the listing descriptions with her client.

[00:07:05] Mandy Morrow: With the client. I heard that.

[00:07:06] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. I was like, oh, that is so brilliant—get your sellers’ buy-in, engaged, that you're doing...

[00:07:10] Mandy Morrow: Engaged, yeah.

[00:07:11] Tracy Hayes: ...the right thing and making sure you're putting out, you know, putting that ad together that makes their house look great.

[00:07:14] Mandy Morrow: Right.

[00:07:17] Mandy Morrow: I often said from the very beginning, I'm a consultant.

[00:07:20] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:07:20] Mandy Morrow: I don’t make the market. I just tell you what the market is. But given that I can tell you what the market is, where it's going, what I can see, then I can say, given what your objectives are, here's a couple strategies that we can look at to get—to meet your objectives.

[00:07:35] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:07:36] Mandy Morrow: And they're not all the same.

[00:07:39] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:07:39] Mandy Morrow: But...

[00:07:40] Tracy Hayes: Let's take this to—what your thought is on—let's take this to a newer agent.

[00:07:44] Mandy Morrow: Okay.

[00:07:45] Tracy Hayes: That doesn’t have 20 years’ experience...

[00:07:47] Mandy Morrow: Yep.

[00:07:47] Tracy Hayes: ...in real estate, let alone business. What I sense is confidence. How using the AI to run your numbers and get another opinion...

[00:07:55] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.

[00:07:56] Tracy Hayes: ...or maybe an opinion that just strengthens yours and so forth—to be able to go into a listing presentation...

[00:08:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d): ...or even a buyer’s consultation with just a little more confidence. Because you know what—we all like to say we role play or, or, you know, that’s... you know, we’re gonna talk about brokerages here and...

[00:08:10] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.

[00:08:10] Tracy Hayes: ...and role playing, when we really—no one likes to role play.

[00:08:13] Mandy Morrow: Right, right, right.

[00:08:14] Tracy Hayes: Okay? No one—no one really likes—but you can role play with ChatGPT, 'cause it’s...

[00:08:18] Mandy Morrow: Yeah, you can.

[00:08:19] Tracy Hayes: You know, and how by putting that information, getting that feedback, adjusting it, tweaking it a little bit—it just, when you walk in, you just have a little air of confidence, and a newer agent can really excel here. Would you agree?

[00:08:34] Mandy Morrow: Yeah.

[00:08:34] Tracy Hayes: Would you agree?

[00:08:35] Mandy Morrow: I would agree. And much to the chagrin of many of the brokerages I've been at over the years, they all had their standard pitch, right? And most of it was all their numbers for the brokerage and then just a little bit for your numbers. I usually always created my own. And I would tell any new agent coming on today—your number one objective is: ask...

[00:09:00] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): ...a lot of questions to your client or to your customer.

[00:09:03] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:09:03] Mandy Morrow: Understand everything they want to do—not just that they want to sell, but when, or how, or what are some of the issues they're dealing with—and really, really understand that. Then once you understand that, look at the market with a similar, you know, vision and say, what has happened with somebody trying to sell in this scenario?

And then treat that data as what you bring to the client and talk to them about it. Yeah, there’s little tricks of the trade to go in there—oh, I love the color, love this—and all that kind of stuff. But because you do want to be upbeat when you walk in, you don’t want to be critical.

But I think being authentic right out of the gate with a client, and if they ask you a question you don’t know—especially as a newbie—say, “You know what? That’s a good question and I hadn’t thought of that. Let me get you the answer.”

[00:09:56] Tracy Hayes: It really goes back to that old-time phrase: you know, take two hours sharpening the ax and 15 minutes cutting the tree down.

[00:10:04] Mandy Morrow: Yeah.

[00:10:05] Tracy Hayes: There’s some people that really have the gift of gab...

[00:10:07] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.

[00:10:08] Tracy Hayes: ...can get in front of people and make up a bunch of stuff. We know some people like that.

[00:10:11] Mandy Morrow: Yeah. They have scripts—all this. It's...

[00:10:13] Tracy Hayes: They just can roll off with this and carry on a conversation. Where most of us are not so nimble, right? Necessarily in front of people. But if you're prepared and you go in, you spend two hours sharpening the sword, getting the data, running it through ChatGPT, really fine-tuning it, and then going in and presenting that with confidence, it... You know, I'll give your 15 minutes of cutting it.

I'll give you a good example—

[00:10:35] Mandy Morrow: And this was in the tech business. I was meeting the CIO of GE, and I had this long presentation put together—all the presentation charts that everybody used to do all the time. It was a PowerPoint or whatever, that story.

And I had it all down. I knew exactly how long we had the meeting. And I'm sitting there, and he walks in, he goes, "Mandy, nice to meet you. I have five...

[00:11:00] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): ...minutes." About had a heart attack. But you can't—what are you gonna do?

But going through the presentation—and I didn’t have an assistant to do it—going through all the data, I was able to distill three of the top things that he needed to know in this case.

So the one advice I would give anybody making a pitch is, one: do your own stuff so you know all the words and all that kind of stuff. And if the words aren’t your words? Throw 'em out and put your words in there.

And always have—before you walk into any meeting—what are the three key points or objectives that I have for this meeting? And just have those, like, taped to your forehead.

[00:11:45] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:11:45] Mandy Morrow: Because if something like that happens, that's when you're gonna look them directly in the eye—you’re not reading from some PowerPoint—and you're gonna tell them, here's what the deal is.

And then, too, when they ask questions, you will...

[00:12:00] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): ...have known all the data, and you could hopefully answer the questions. But if you can’t, you know—you go back. But that’s the biggest advice I would have to anybody starting.

[00:12:08] Tracy Hayes: That just makes me think... I mean, 'cause you deal a lot in—you know, in the Ponte Vedra—some higher-priced homes, right?

And so for the luxury market, those types of consultations are a little different than someone who might be, you know, a $200,000 or $300,000 home—selling their first home and moving to their second home, whatever that might be. And you're going in there to have a consultation.

I—would you say a majority of those people are used to that boardroom-type situation? They're very busy.

[00:12:38] Mandy Morrow: Yep.

[00:12:39] Tracy Hayes: They only got five or ten minutes.

[00:12:40] Mandy Morrow: Yep.

[00:12:41] Tracy Hayes: Then hopefully they—you end up being in there 30 minutes because you're giving them information they really want.

[00:12:45] Mandy Morrow: Right, right, right.

[00:12:46] Tracy Hayes: You know, in preparing to tell—'cause obviously a lot of agents, they all want to be in the luxury, they want to be in the Ponte Vedra market—it’s a higher price point and so forth. But it takes a little bit more preparation, and you gotta have your stuff in a row when you go in there.

And I like what you said...

[00:13:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d): ...having at least the top—like, you’ve quickly analyzed, these are two or three things that he has to know. I've got 10, but these are the two or three that are the most important. And sometimes you're only able to get those out.

[00:13:10] Mandy Morrow: When you think about it, it's a judgment call that you're making.

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

[00:13:14] Mandy Morrow: So you better be right. If you're in front of that CEO that’s trying to sell their home, or the high-end luxury buyer or seller. Because you're right—they don't have time. They have all kinds of advisors telling them what the market is, telling them their financial situation.

So you—you know, you're the expert in this particular area. If they want to buy a home and they've given you the criteria...

I just had a wonderful sale in December—13 million. At the time, last year, it was the third highest sale, I think, in this whole area last year.

And, you know, so I had to know my stuff. But there’s one other point I want to make about this particular one. I didn’t know this buyer—she was a personal referral of mine from somebody that had asked me, “Hey, would...

[00:14:00] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): ...you put together some information on my home?”

[00:14:00] Mandy Morrow: My husband's just passed away. I'm not selling my home, but I just need this information for my attorneys and stuff like that. And I hopped to it, put together the information, gave it to her in a nice book, said if the attorneys had any questions, you know, to give me a call. And that was that. And literally two weeks later, I get this referral from this woman for this high-end luxury person.

[00:14:27] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:14:27] Mandy Morrow: And so, just as an aside, it's about relationships. But it's also about knowing your stuff. So, you know, however any type of buyer or seller comes into your purview—whether it’s a first-time or not—it’s really, I get back to this, it's really understanding that individual or family’s objectives. And if you don't ask the right questions from the get-go or before you go to your presentation, you're gonna be—you could be blindsided.

[00:14:56] Tracy Hayes: Right?

[00:14:56] Mandy Morrow: So...

[00:14:57] Tracy Hayes: Right. I think Sharon—I think it was Sharon, if I'm not...

[00:15:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d): ...well, I had two Sharons in a row. I had Sharon Mills...

[00:15:02] Mandy Morrow: Yeah, yeah.

[00:15:03] Tracy Hayes: ...and then Sharon Syde. I know 'em both. Both are great real estate agents. And both of them—I think Sharon was—we talked a little bit more about asking more, you know, drilling deeper basically with every one of our clients. 'Cause I do get real estate agents who call me from the lending side and they, “Hey, can you do this?”

[00:15:20] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.

[00:15:21] Tracy Hayes: And of course I have a question.

[00:15:22] Mandy Morrow: Yeah.

[00:15:23] Tracy Hayes: You know, well, okay, well maybe—but do you know this? And they don’t know it. And it’s—it’s some really—you know, I think of the relationship, or they're a little shy, not confident. That's the only reason I could say why they didn’t ask it.

But, you know, over the years I would imagine you’ve developed to a point where obviously you saw a tipping point where, hey, you know what? The more I know from them, the quicker I find them a home, and then I'm getting a referral because they appreciated the fact that I actually took time to ask a few more questions...

[00:16:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d): ...that might’ve, you know, not felt good. You know, whatever it is—a financial situation they don’t like, you know, necessarily. But you gotta get that stuff out so the transaction is that much smoother.

[00:16:04] Mandy Morrow: Yeah. And that’s another key point. Anybody I interact with—whether it's a first-time homebuyer or somebody that has a lot of money, like an investor that bought, you know, 19 homes from me from 2012 to about 2017—you really have to understand where they're coming from and understand their objectives.

And it’s not a transaction. It’s a long-term relationship. If I am dealing with somebody who calls me up out of the blue and it wasn’t a referral from anybody, and they’re snapping questions at me and asking for some unrealistic stuff...

[00:16:36] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:16:36] Mandy Morrow: ...or have unrealistic expectations of the market—I’m dealing with some people like that right now—but I have to ask myself—and this might sound crazy—but do I want to have a long-term relationship with this person? If the answer is no, for whatever reason, I’ll refer them to somebody else or suggest that maybe this isn’t a good partnership. Because it is a partnership.

I’m investing my time upfront, and that’s what a lot of people don’t really get. I’m investing my time to really understand what it is you're looking for, help devise strategies, and get the job done with all the resources that I have.

[00:17:20] Tracy Hayes: How do you—because I think what you just mentioned, that scenario is common. You get that question from—and I don’t know, maybe it’s a personality person...

[00:17:27] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.

[00:17:27] Tracy Hayes: ...they like to feel like they’re in control...

[00:17:29] Mandy Morrow: Oh, sure.

[00:17:30] Tracy Hayes: ...and they’re drilling down—well, not drilling down—they’re rattling off questions that they assume you immediately know, like these are definitive answers.

[00:17:38] Mandy Morrow: Right.

[00:17:39] Tracy Hayes: You know, like—boom. You know, it's like—it just doesn’t happen that way.

[00:17:42] Mandy Morrow: Right.

[00:17:43] Tracy Hayes: And what’s some things that you do to hopefully disarm some of these...

[00:17:48] Mandy Morrow: Well, that’s a good question.

[00:17:49] Tracy Hayes: Okay.

[00:17:50] Mandy Morrow: Yeah.

[00:17:51] Tracy Hayes: Okay.

[00:17:53] Mandy Morrow: No, seriously. Yeah. And I’m not trying to be coy, but if somebody—anybody—whether it’s a CEO or a first-time homebuyer, is asking me a question, rattling off a bunch of questions, I will seek to understand first. And that usually is with other questions. Because depending on the answer, we could go in a couple different ways.

[00:18:13] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): And I would probably come back with something like that and just say, “Let me make sure I understand what it is you're asking for, because we could go in a couple different directions.”

[00:18:23] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:18:24] Mandy Morrow: And typically, with the experience I've had over, you know, these years—and being in business a long time—I’ve studied lots of different industries, and some stuff is parallel. It's always, you know, kind of understanding all your objectives and your clients'. I can then discern, okay, this is where you're going, and then I'll do a check. So, if you're asking me this, then here’s some possibilities, and—are we in sync? Is that what you were talking about?

And you've got to—for somebody starting out—to get that kind of training, which may be more textbook, is key.

[00:19:00] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): Because you need to know. And there’s actually great books out there on how to ask questions, or a consultative approach.

[00:19:10] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:19:11] Mandy Morrow: Because that is most helpful.

[00:19:12] Tracy Hayes: Well, because a lot of times, because we are the experts in our relative field, you’ve got this person asking this question—but really they’re asking... they’re asking a question, and they may not know. That’s not really what they’re asking, but that’s the only thing they know to ask.

[00:19:27] Mandy Morrow: Exactly.

[00:19:27] Tracy Hayes: You know, obviously when it comes to mortgage, “What’s the rate?”—that’s the only question they know to ask.

[00:19:36] Mandy Morrow: Right.

[00:19:36] Tracy Hayes: Right? They don’t know all the other things that are gonna happen in the next 30–45 days or whatever.

[00:19:41] Mandy Morrow: Right.

[00:19:42] Tracy Hayes: And then when they’re asking it—you know, I imagine obviously you’re dealing with a lot of unique properties...

[00:19:46] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.

[00:19:47] Tracy Hayes: You know, these are not—you know, a lot of them are custom homes.

[00:19:50] Mandy Morrow: Yeah.

[00:19:50] Tracy Hayes: And they’re asking one question, but really expect you and your answer not to be yes, no, or black/white—to really open up and tell them all the more. But you’ve got to know why they’re asking the question to know how—where—you want to expand to.

[00:20:04] Mandy Morrow: Exactly, yeah. So—and that's the only way you get there, is by asking more questions.

[00:20:09] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:20:09] Mandy Morrow: And I’ve been success—I may have a lot of people that come to me that don’t live in the area.

[00:20:16] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:20:16] Mandy Morrow: So I have phone calls, or—let’s say I’ve connected with them, they’ve said this is what I want—they’re gonna come down at a certain time. I will call them back up or, you know, set up a conference call with them—typically a Zoom call...

[00:20:29] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:20:29] Mandy Morrow: ...’cause it helps to see both of us—and go through everything they’re looking for, why they’re looking, why they’re looking at this neighborhood. So the point is that when I do a Zoom call before they get here, I say, “Listen, to make your visit much more productive—it’s not just about showing properties, but it’s making sure I understand what your objectives are.”

[00:21:00] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): So many times, buyers in this case will say, “Oh, we only want to be in this neighborhood. We only want this. We only want that.” And so I’ll go ahead and send them all that information. But then we’ll have a call and we’ll go through—and it gives me a chance to really tell them my knowledge about the area, things they could also consider.

And many times we leave that call with a list of additional things for me to do, to say, “Hey, let me show you”—I call it the Chamber of Commerce tour. So we may actually see some homes, but let me give you an overall of these communities here so you have a better appreciation for it. And you don’t get there unless you ask those kind of questions.

And by the way, for young agents starting out, that shows you’re really listening to them and wanting to make sure they understand the area and are getting a full complement. How many times has a buyer said, “Oh, my agent just showed me this one neighborhood, and I never got a chance to know that there were all these other ones.” That is because the agent didn’t do that.

[00:22:04] Tracy Hayes: Right. So now, I think the thought that went through my head while you were describing that—you know, one, the agent that just rushes to that one house and says, “Well, they said they wanted all those things...” Well, they may have said they wanted all those things—but didn’t want some of these things. And you have to listen to that client.

'Cause the common thing—I think every agent’s dealt with it—they’ve been told something by a friend, relative, or whatever, like, “Don’t live in a CDD,” for example.

[00:22:38] Mandy Morrow: Right.

[00:22:39] Tracy Hayes: But then when they start describing where they want to live—those are CDD communities, right? So you have to somehow warm them over to explain them, because obviously the information they had was not good. And you don’t want to insult the person they got it from, 'cause it might be someone they know and trust, but you’re the expert, and you’ve got to warm them over to say...

[00:23:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d): ...“Hey, you can’t just rush out,” 'cause if they’re saying A, but they’re really describing B—'cause you know B is what they’re actually wanting—you have to figure out. And the only way to win them over is through—like anyone, How to Win Friends and Influence People—by listening to them, repeating that you’re paying attention to their wants and needs.

[00:23:24] Tracy Hayes: And when it comes to the point of you suggesting like, “Hey, based on what you’ve...

[00:23:25] Mandy Morrow: ...told me.” Yep.

[00:23:25] Tracy Hayes: ...told me, I would recommend this because of A, B, and C,” they’re going to be more warm to your suggestion.

[00:23:34] Mandy Morrow: I can’t tell you how many times that’s happened in my career. One that sticks out is—these clients were coming up from Delray Beach, which I actually grew up in mostly...

[00:23:42] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:23:43] Mandy Morrow: ...after we moved from New York. And they said, “Oh, everybody said we want to live in St. Augustine, World Golf Village.” Right. And I said, “Okay, great.” And they had a couple neighborhoods. But I said, “What are your objectives?” Or I’ll ask a different way: “What do you like to do, Mr. Client?”

[00:24:00] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): And he tells me—golf, blah, blah, blah. And then I look to her and I say, “What do you like to do?” “Well, I love the beach, and this and this and this.” As it turns out, they both liked the beach more than he liked golf.

[00:24:15] Tracy Hayes: Oh.

[00:24:16] Mandy Morrow: And—

[00:24:17] Tracy Hayes: He just liked the fact that he could do whatever she likes to do. He knows better.

[00:24:18] Mandy Morrow: Yeah. Who sits in the backseat? There’s another whole story. So in this case, I showed them everything they wanted to see at World Golf Village, but I said, “Let me show you this little neighborhood in Avida Beach, which is up-and-coming and a walk to the beach.” And that’s where they bought.

[00:24:36] Tracy Hayes: Oh!

[00:24:37] Mandy Morrow: Yeah. And by the way, it was significantly over their price point. And I told them that, and I said, “Listen, this is maybe something you might want to aspire to—whatever.” Well, guess what? They bought it.

[00:24:48] Tracy Hayes: They figured out how to do it.

[00:24:49] Mandy Morrow: Yep.

[00:24:49] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, 100%. It’s just... You know, I know—we moved, we got lucky. We moved into St. Johns Golf and Country Club. I actually—I sent my wife out. She had this list of homes. I said, “I'm gonna work. You go, you narrow it down to three or four homes that you like.” ’Cause it didn’t really matter to me.

[00:25:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d): And it was 2009 and ended up being a foreclosure and ended up being obviously a great neighborhood, and all the kids—oh yeah—and we grew our kids up there. I was so down. But I didn’t even know what a CDD was, okay? And then, fortunately, I was in less than seven months there—I was now on the CDD board and I didn’t even know what a CDD was.

[00:25:19] Mandy Morrow: Oh yeah.

[00:25:20] Tracy Hayes: I just volunteered to be on Covenant Enforcement and they loved that—on the HOA—and they’re like, “Oh yeah, we’re gonna nominate you,” ’cause the one person—the chairperson of the board—liked what I was doing in Covenant Enforcement. And then all of a sudden, I’m on there. I spent 11 years. Now I know what a CDD is.

[00:25:36] Mandy Morrow: Good.

[00:25:37] Tracy Hayes: But what I realized when I stepped back was—you know, I got lucky. A lot of times we go in and we look at a house, but we don’t actually take time to step back and look at...

[00:25:48] Tracy Hayes (cont’d): ...you know, how far are we from the grocery store?

[00:25:50] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

[00:25:51] Tracy Hayes: Or how far are we—you know, maybe you’re shopping, and now of course they’re building a town center in the middle of SilverLeaf there...

[00:26:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d): ...but from a shopping standpoint, right? That’s important to you. You know, if a 15–20 minute drive—well, if you live in Northeast Florida and 20–30 minutes is a long drive for you, you probably go somewhere else. Everything’s 20–30 minutes away no matter what you’re doing.

But to really have that agent who’s gonna map that out and show you some of the—“Hey, here’s some of the back roads. Here’s where the school’s at. Here’s where the grocery store is,” and that sort of thing. Or, “Hey, here’s where the restaurants are,” 'cause on 210 we didn’t have a lot. You know, we’re starting to get some better restaurants. But, you know, if you wanted to go to a...

[00:26:35] Tracy Hayes (cont’d): ...you either drove the 20 minutes, 30 minutes down to St. Augustine, or you drove into Jacksonville.

[00:26:38] Mandy Morrow: Well, and it’s so important. I deal with a lot of clients, too, that are new construction—they want to go and get a new home. And I work with them quite literally on looking at everything from not only that house that they’re looking at and the style, but most importantly, the lot.

[00:27:00] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): And if—as an agent—I know how to look beyond the lots: What direction is it? Is it backing up to a preserve? Is it backing up to another development? Is it backing up to commercial space? I mean, all those things. And that’s an expertise that the average buyer wouldn’t have access to.

[00:27:16] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:27:17] Mandy Morrow: And it’s really key and important to be highly involved at that—especially at that point in the process with a new construction deal.

[00:27:24] Tracy Hayes: I sort of felt sorry for—because I know, you know...

[00:27:26] Tracy Hayes (cont’d): ...we got that new expressway coming...

[00:27:27] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.

00:27:30] Tracy Hayes: Over—and, um, you know, I knew some of the builders, site agents...

[00:27:34] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.

[00:27:35] Tracy Hayes: ...that were selling that neighborhood where literally that expressway is coming in.

[00:27:38] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.

[00:27:39] Tracy Hayes: And they’re not going to talk about it.

[00:27:41] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.

[00:27:42] Tracy Hayes: And yet now, if you have a good agent representing you when you go into that new neighborhood...

[00:27:45] Mandy Morrow: That’s right.

[00:27:46] Tracy Hayes: ...they would be telling you, “Hey, you gotta realize—in seven, eight years there’s going to be an expressway coming in your back door.”

[00:27:52] Mandy Morrow: Right.

[00:27:52] Tracy Hayes: Now you’ve lived in New York.

[00:27:54] Mandy Morrow: Yeah.

[00:27:55] Tracy Hayes: I was born in New York—I was born in Peekskill.

[00:27:57] Mandy Morrow: Ah!

[00:27:58] Tracy Hayes: You know, we have a lot of people here from the greater New York City area where reaching out and touching your neighbor—that’s standard procedure for them.

[00:28:04] Mandy Morrow: Right.

[00:28:05] Tracy Hayes: They don’t think much about that.

[00:28:06] Mandy Morrow: Right.

[00:28:07] Tracy Hayes: Where there’s others like, “Oh my God, I need a bigger yard,” or, “Oh my God, an expressway?!”

[00:28:11] Mandy Morrow: Yeah.

[00:28:12] Tracy Hayes: They’re like, “Get far away from that.”

[00:28:13] Mandy Morrow: Right.

[00:28:14] Tracy Hayes: You really need to dig down, because—would you agree—you may get that one sale...

[00:28:20] Mandy Morrow: Absolutely.

[00:28:21] Tracy Hayes: ...but when that expressway goes in, guess whose name they’re—

[00:28:26] Mandy Morrow: Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. And that’s why I say in the very beginning, I look to establish a long-term relationship. I don’t look at each deal as a transaction. I look at the fact that maybe seven years down the road they might need to sell, or their kids are going to want a little place, or their parents are going to want a little place.

[00:28:45] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): And I can’t tell you how many of my clients that’s been the case. I’ve sold them, I’ve sold their parents, and ongoing. And that’s how I approach my business. It’s not that I want to be buddy-buddy with all my clients—which, you know, that’s nice, but...

[00:29:00] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): ...sometimes, love you guys, okay? But I look at myself as a professional. I always have.

[00:29:06] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): But I do want a relationship with you so I can make sure I understand your objectives—and then you can also understand what you can expect from me. So it’s very key.

[00:29:15] Tracy Hayes: With that thought—let’s just say there’s a newer agent listening. Someone’s been—you know, whether they just got their license, or they’ve been in it two or three years—and they hear you say that and say, “Well, that’s easy for you to say, Mandy. You’ve been doing this 20 years, right? You’ve sold a $13 million home.”

You’re chasing the paycheck—where some of them are—because they’re, “Hey, I don’t have a deal next month. I gotta figure out something, you know, to eat, basically.”

[00:29:45] Tracy Hayes (cont’d): What do you say to them, in a way to get them to step back and evaluate what they’re doing?

[00:29:49] Mandy Morrow: I’d say that the most important thing is: look at your database. So if you’re a new agent and were in a prior business—you know people doing other things—so...

[00:30:00] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): ...look at your database. Look at people you know and trust and talk to them. You know, if it’s your buddy, call him up and say, “Do you know of anybody that’s thinking of moving here or has friends that are thinking of moving here?”

So you’ve got to find people that you can start to work with that are looking. And that takes some time. And that’s tough. And I understand that. But it’s all about the number one...

And by the way, in my opinion—don’t buy leads. Oh my God, if I had the money that I spent with Zillow, I could’ve retired. I’m not kidding you.

[00:30:38] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): I’m not kidding you. That’s another whole story, but I probably shouldn’t...

[00:30:40] Tracy Hayes: Well, I think today—would you agree—and I mean, you’re over there operating—but from what I do hear from agents: one, they’ve gotten so expensive.

[00:30:45] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.

[00:30:46] Tracy Hayes: You know, maybe if you were first in the market or so forth, or really have the money—as we know, there’s a couple brokerages who really buy a lot, so I don’t know, they probably get some sort of discount per lead. But you have to have that mindset.

[00:31:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d): I mean, having grown up in the call center myself in the mortgage world—and Rocket, formerly Quicken—I mean, that’s the way they operate. You gotta be first to pick up that phone.

[00:31:09] Mandy Morrow: Yeah.

[00:31:09] Tracy Hayes: And you—because they know. They know. Especially when we were—obviously we were a refi shop up until 2009, and then they started doing more purchases. But if you're not the first one to pick up the phone, you're out.

So, you know, you're sitting there talking to one customer, and then all of a sudden a lead’s popping up and blowing—if you're not picking that phone up, someone else is. And you’ve just got that mindset all the time. You’ve gotta be operating that way. And then you only have that couple minutes to impress that person...

[00:31:36] Tracy Hayes (cont’d): ...or they're moving on to someone else, 'cause that’s the type of client you're chasing.

[00:31:39] Mandy Morrow: Yep. And I know that that’s gotten even tougher because, you know, people—there’s whole groups, brokerages, that hire people and that’s all they do is try to call leads and warm them up and stuff like that.

There’s even a term for it—I can’t remember it. But I would tell you, go back and look at the people you know—either from past businesses or not.

[00:32:00] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): Do a good job of telling them you’re in the business and ask for referrals for people that know and trust you already.

[00:32:06] Tracy Hayes: Okay.

[00:32:07] Mandy Morrow: The second thing would be: for the people in your office, do every open house you can do. I sit here and I smile at all the open houses I started with when I was with Watson, and I would sit there for hours and nobody would come in. It was like, “What am I doing?”

But you really get to sharpen your saw a little bit when people do come in. And most open houses—and most sellers, I don’t know if they know this or not—are really better for the agent than for the seller themself.

[00:32:38] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:32:39] Mandy Morrow: And so I would say those two things would be the things to focus on first. And then you’re authentic with the people that know you, and you're—because it's a numbers game. When you do this lead stuff, I have thousands and thousands of spreadsheets with leads I’ve gotten from lots of different groups over the years.

[00:33:00] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): And maybe a small percentage really yielded anything. Where am I getting most of my stuff from? The people that I’ve been working with and who know me over the years.

[00:33:10] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:33:10] Mandy Morrow: So yes, I have the advantage of being in the business for 20 years. But when I first started out, not only had I not been in the business—I had not lived in this area. I moved here from Greenwich in 2004, and then jumped into real estate in 2005, and then had a heart attack in 2007 during the recession.

[00:33:31] Tracy Hayes: Well, you brought up brokerages, and I know that’s one of the topics that I always like to bring up. And we were talking pre-show a little bit.

My question is always—you know, how important, and what’s a good way—especially someone who’s been in the business, has worked for three or four of the major brokerages in our area...

[00:33:48] Tracy Hayes (cont’d): First question is: how important is the brokerage for many agents in getting their business off the ground? Having a—you know, whether it’s a good broker or senior agents in there to mentor you or that you can rely on?

And then the second part of the question—and I just forgot it.

[00:34:04] Mandy Morrow: So, the first question—yeah, go ahead. Let me clarify. So what exactly is the first question?

[00:34:09] Tracy Hayes: So the importance of getting with the right brokerage...

[00:34:11] Mandy Morrow: Okay.

[00:34:12] Tracy Hayes: ...that could really—you know, you can’t do everything. I know Compass—because, like I said, my wife just joined it, and she’s all excited about the technology...

[00:34:18] Mandy Morrow: Right.

[00:34:19] Tracy Hayes: ...and so forth that’s there. How important is that as part of your business?

[00:34:25] Mandy Morrow: I think it’s very important for somebody new coming into the business to really analyze some of the top brokerages. I say “top brokerages” because they’ll have programs. You know—Watson—I love Watson. They were meaningful in the first part of my career because they had programs that could teach you how to do your business.

Then I gravitated to Keller Williams because they were focused on how do you build a business as a professional...

[00:34:51] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): ...as a CEO of your own business.

[00:34:58] Tracy Hayes: A next level in your career.

[00:35:00] Mandy Morrow: Yeah. And then, when I felt like I had that down, I was intrigued with Coldwell Banker. Having been with IBM for many years, you know—Coldwell Banker was the go-to for relocations and stuff like that. So I was really focused on more of a global mindset, and that’s one of the reasons I went there.

But I would say—I think the distinctions are becoming clearer today. But you want to look for two things: the kind of support that they have fundamentally in the brokerage, and then the leadership in the brokerage.

[00:35:26] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): Your managing broker is a key thing. It’s a relationship. And if you don’t get the right vibe from them—and maybe some of the agents in the office—it’s probably not a good cultural fit. And you’re gonna need that, 'cause one of the fastest ways to learn this business is to interact with your colleagues.

[00:35:51] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:35:51] Mandy Morrow: And that’s one of the things I love about Compass. Everybody is sharing. There’s no—everybody really just wants to help everybody do what they can.

[00:36:00] Tracy Hayes: No, I mean, when I’m analyzing and I’m going through and seeing numbers—and who to invite on as guests on the show, right? I mean, your office is probably heavily weighted. You’ve got—you don’t have just one or two—you’ve got six or eight. I mean, really heavy producers.

[00:36:10] Mandy Morrow: Heavy producers, yeah.

[00:36:11] Tracy Hayes: And then they go on. And...

[00:36:33] Tracy Hayes: I think a lot of agents have a challenge because there’s no special checklist that says, how do you analyze what’s a good brokerage for that individual? 'Cause we—you all do your business differently.

[00:36:36] Mandy Morrow: Right.

[00:36:37] Tracy Hayes: So what are some good ways to go in there and test—find out what’s this broker like? Are the other agents in the office friendly?

[00:36:42] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.

[00:36:43] Tracy Hayes: For collaboration? How does that work? What are some of the things they should be asking? Some of the people that they maybe should be talking to?

[00:36:53] Mandy Morrow: So, even with 20 years’ experience—and I just joined Compass a couple years ago, 2022—the number one reason was the tools. So let me just give you a little segue on that.

Even at Coldwell Banker, I had my own CRM—customer relationship management system.

[00:37:00] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): I had a bunch of tools and applications I was paying for and integrating into everything. And I did a spreadsheet of all the expenses that I had for all those tools. What I didn’t account for was my time—to buy them, upgrade them, integrate them to all my other little applications.

But—so when I came to—I wasn’t planning on going to Compass, but I knew that they were tech-heavy. And so when I sat down with some of the people there, I showed them a little spreadsheet. I said, “So what do you have for all these things?” Well, they had everything.

And here’s the key thing: I didn’t have to be the CIO of my own business. I could be focused on my clients.

[00:38:00] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): They were gonna handle the CRM that’s integrated to the marketing, that’s integrated to the video system, that’s integrated to the presentation and brochures and social media—at a push of a button. And so that is why I made that decision.

But maybe it’s instructive for a new agent—what are the things that are gonna get you up off the ground quickly? Well, if you can plug into a system—and there are other people that have great technology out there, don’t get me wrong. Compass is not the only one. I think it’s the best.

But then you don’t have to focus on that, and you can just go out there and do the lead generation and the relationship development that you need to do to get business.

[00:38:43] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): That’s—to me today—number one. And now coupled with AI—and the little plug on AI is that when I went to my first kind of national meeting, which was in San Diego with Compass, and you go to all these, you know, conference breakouts and stuff like that—I went to the one on AI.

[00:39:00] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): This was in, I think, 2023, in San Diego. And so I go to the guy doing the Compass AI program, and he happened to be an IBM fellow—or ex-IBM fellow, right? Which was really a hoot. But in any event, it was very interesting to me that Compass was embracing—at that time on a full-scale basis—how to integrate AI into taking these great tools and even making them more efficient and productive.

But those are the things that I would say to an agent—look at. You know, everybody’s got a different thing. You may or may not be a techie. You may or may not be a good analyst. But you do need to know your market, and you have to stay up with it.

[00:40:00] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): I mean, there’s a button I push every morning that I can see what’s going on in the market, and then I can see all my clients that are on all my feeds and what they’re looking at. It’s like—whoa, you know?

Before, I had to go to this and this and this...

[00:40:09] Tracy Hayes: Well, you—uh, so recently, you know, I know Tom talked about—we’ve, and I’ve been talking about it on the show because this is cutting-edge stuff.

This gentleman, Lyman Starr, who we’ve met, used Deli.com. Lyman is creating an actual natural language home search thing. And some of the—I think the younger people get AI like that.

[00:40:28] Tracy Hayes (cont’d): Your sub-30—from what I understand—they don’t go to Google. They’re going on AI and asking them whatever they recommend, “What should I do?” That kind of stuff.

[00:40:36] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.

[00:40:37] Tracy Hayes: And obviously, that’s gonna spill over into our industry—searching for homes and other.

One—to stay away from the general term when someone says, “Yeah, we’re using AI,” you have to return the question: How are you using it?

[00:41:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d): Yes. Are you using it?

[00:41:00] Tracy Hayes: Because too many people are lumping it into—so, I don't know if she'll get to listen to this or if she remembers saying this to me—but this, you know, very influential person...

[00:41:10] Tracy Hayes (cont’d): ...when I mentioned it to her, “Hey, I want to introduce Lyman to you. This is what he's doing, blah blah...” “Oh, I was just at a conference, they were talking about AI,” and they're like, “No, no, no.” I’m like, “No, this is—yeah, this is a little different. Not to say different, but a little different part of it.”

[00:41:27] Tracy Hayes (cont’d): And what you're talking about—when they're integrating all these systems that you're talking about—and I heard your... well, I just listened to the end of your CEO—I guess the video you guys were sent out the other day.

[00:41:36] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.

[00:41:37] Tracy Hayes: It was forwarded to me. And where he was talking about, you know, literally—and I visualized an agent being in their car—saying, “Hey, add John Smith to my CRM, blah blah blah, just met him, whatever.” And you're literally just talking to it as if it was your assistant sitting right beside you taking notes.

[00:41:56] Mandy Morrow: Yeah.

[00:41:57] Tracy Hayes: And it's inserting it into your CRM and doing all...

[00:42:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d): ...those things that we all know we should be doing...

[00:42:02] Mandy Morrow: Yeah.

[00:42:02] Tracy Hayes: ...on a regular basis. Every person that we meet—adding them to our influence, whatever—we're sending out newsletters or whatever. And so, when the AI question comes up, what I want to... you have to go deeper. How are you using it? Show me how you're using AI to help my business.

[00:42:18] Mandy Morrow: Right. Well, and that’s a really good question. Because right now, the general opinion—let's say—or experience that agents have across the board, not maybe the brand-new ones, is: write better listing descriptions, a brochure, and make sure my grammar’s right and stuff like that.

[00:42:37] Tracy Hayes: It’s great for that.

[00:42:38] Mandy Morrow: It’s good.

[00:42:39] Tracy Hayes: It’s great for that. But...

[00:42:39] Mandy Morrow: Let me tell you—I just went through an intensive four-week deal with a guy who used to be with Compass, and now he’s kind of broken off in that. And the first day I got out of that session, I called some friends and I said, “The last time I felt like this—like oh, wow—was when I was with IBM and realizing what DARPA had created with the internet.”

[00:43:00] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): And it was like—it’s almost hard to explain to somebody all that it can do.

[00:43:14] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:43:14] Mandy Morrow: And so, let me just give you a couple examples. In this course, I fed in—I went back to our MLS, and I had a spreadsheet of all the deals I’ve ever done. I had my complete CRM—so my list of all my clients, which are some clients, some are leads, and some are just relationships.

[00:43:32] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): I put in past presentations—I’m noted for doing very detailed strategy emails to my clients.

[00:43:47] Tracy Hayes: Past presentations meaning...

[00:43:49] Mandy Morrow: Listing presentations. Buyer presentations. You know—anything that I...

[00:43:53] Tracy Hayes: All your files that you had created that you actually handed the customer.

[00:43:55] Mandy Morrow: Right.

[00:43:57] Tracy Hayes: Okay.

[00:43:57] Mandy Morrow: And uploaded this—in this case it was ChatGPT—but, you know, he was espousing ChatGPT or Claude or Gemini or whatever. So it could learn who Mandy Morrow was. Who’s Mandy’s clients. What’s her style. I mean, all this kind of stuff.

[00:44:14] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): And the whole purpose of this is to understand my business. And so I can now—and I’m starting to do a little bit more of this—I can not only analyze my clients and where they’re coming from, any trends to that, so that I can make a distinction when I have a new listing: I really should go after these people because they have these kinds of needs.

[00:44:38] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): Now, we’ve all had those questions in the past—but getting to those answers? It’s garbage in, garbage out on the data thing. It was always harder to discern that information.

[00:44:47] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): Like you said, you know—everybody tells you go ahead and feed your CRM. So if you just met this person, put in some key...

[00:44:53] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): ...you do that stuff.

[00:45:00] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm. But at the end of the day, I could also, you know, upload my P&L and say, where am I promise? Or where am I spending more money that—given this—why are you spending money over here? I mean, it can do that kind of stuff.

Now, for an agent, why do they care? It goes back to my theme that I talked to you about when I walked in: the number one thing for agents today is where do you spend your time? You want to spend your time with the clients and understanding their needs—not doing this stuff. But you need this data in order to be more efficient and effective with them.

[00:45:33] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:45:34] Mandy Morrow: And that’s where AI is gonna make a difference—if agents really learn how to apply it correctly, in my opinion.

[00:45:42] Tracy Hayes: Would you recommend—I mean, obviously you went and took this course. It took some time. I’m sure there was an investment made. But for those who can get some—well, I think there is a lot of people out there. I know there’s some people here locally trying to do some things, and I know they don’t know what they’re talking about.

[00:46:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d): They know how to do listing—they’re doing what you’re talking about: listing descriptions and captions for your...

[00:46:04] Mandy Morrow: Yeah.

[00:46:05] Tracy Hayes: ...for your social media. It’s like—you’re not even scratching stuff. You’re embarrassing. So if they’re not already doing that—they knew that. Anyone can go in there and do that.

[00:46:14] Mandy Morrow: Right.

[00:46:17] Tracy Hayes: And actually, I think the add-on a lot of people don’t know is—upload the pictures too.

[00:46:17] Mandy Morrow: Yeah.

[00:46:17] Tracy Hayes: Upload the pictures and say, “Analyze these pictures and give me a listing description,” and then go in there and tweak it a little bit, 'cause it might see some things that you don’t see.

[00:46:24] Mandy Morrow: Exactly.

[00:46:25] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. So if you’re doing that—but that’s—you know, it’s getting so much better every day from that. But really, if you see yourself in this business, you know, if you—maybe you’re retiring in a year or two, you could say no. But if you see yourself in this business another 5, 10, 15 years or more, you probably want to step back and go and take one of these courses because it’s gonna make your life so much easier.

[00:46:46] Mandy Morrow: Au contraire.

[00:46:47] Tracy Hayes: Yeah?

[00:46:48] Mandy Morrow: I won’t tell you how old I am—Tom better not either—and I don’t plan on retiring. But I am trying to really focus my business on that 20%...

[00:47:00] Mandy Morrow (cont’d): ...people that know me, respect me, and I can be of value to them. Because I know what I know, and I know how to negotiate, I know how to do strategies, and get the job done to their satisfaction.

I am using this to make myself much more productive so I can take that trip to Italy that I’ve wanted to take for a couple years.

[00:47:17] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:47:18] Mandy Morrow: So it’s across the board. I would say it’s not just somebody who’s gonna be in the business for another five or ten years, but, you know, even five or seven years too. And it’s making your business more efficient and effective.

[00:47:35] Tracy Hayes: I think you can use the analogy—big corporations like IBM spend lots of money to break down—and sometimes if they go over years and go, “Hey, where are we wasting money?”—and then they go in and close down a whole division...

[00:47:45] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.

[00:47:46] Tracy Hayes: ...because like, the return on invest is not there. You’re gone.

[00:47:52] Mandy Morrow: Yeah.

[00:47:53] Tracy Hayes: This—you could be doing this on a monthly, quarterly, yearly basis. Say, absolutely, “Where am I wasting my...

[00:48:00] Tracy Hayes (cont’d): ...advertising? Where am I...?” You know, that kind of thing. And really be tweaking yourself on a regular day. And companies pay lots of money to have departments—that’s all they do...

[00:48:08] Mandy Morrow: Yeah.

[00:48:09] Tracy Hayes: ...is analyze that stuff.

[00:48:10] Mandy Morrow: I mean, that—that’s it. Bingo.

[00:48:11] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know if you had some other talk—we talked about AI. You wanted to talk about the brokerages?

[00:48:19] Mandy Morrow: Yeah, well, I—

[00:48:19] Tracy Hayes: Was there—did we miss anything you wanted to add there?

[00:48:22] Mandy Morrow: Well, I hit on the theme about—for all agents, all experiences—you know, it’s really where you spend your time and where you spend your money. And then I said that in this business—tongue in cheek—in the real estate business, there’s two categories of business: there’s the brokerages and the agents, and then there’s the vendors that send them all this stuff.

[00:49:00] Tracy Hayes: Oh, sorry, that's not what you wanna talk about. Yeah. Um, 'cause honestly, and you know, I said Zillow, but I've also bought other leads and other services, and if I had a fraction of that money, I mean, it's just unbelievable. And especially as new agents come in, you know, they'll say, "Well, what do you—somebody called me about this application."
You know? And you're so worried about following the paycheck that you ignore the fact that these people just asked you for, you know, two or three times that paycheck, with the promise of giving you leads.
[00:49:22] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.
[00:49:23] Tracy Hayes: I get calls and texts every day, "Oh, you know, we've got this lead thing and you know, blah, blah, blah, blah."
[00:49:27] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.
[00:49:28] Tracy Hayes: If they're calling me, they're calling, you know, other agents. And so, it's an interesting phenomenon about this business. You know, the attrition rate in this business is significantly high.
And so I would say anybody coming into the business or in the business now—focus on your clients. You do them right, you'll stay in the business.

[00:49:38] Tracy Hayes: Would you—you know, a lot of 'em chase too. You know, “Hey, what's the cut?”
[00:49:41] Mandy Morrow: Right.
[00:49:42] Tracy Hayes: What's the commission spread? And a lot of 'em are going to Summit—and not to take anything away—I think Real Brokerage is really hot right now...
[00:49:49] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.
[00:49:50] Tracy Hayes: ...because they are highly—big in tech—and they're doing, I think, a lot of things that Compass is doing. But instead of spending a lot of that on those...
[00:49:56] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.
[00:49:57] Tracy Hayes: ...I don't—uh, those things that you're not talking about like buying leads and stuff that's out here—if they focused on finding the right brokerage...
[00:50:03] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.
[00:50:04] Tracy Hayes: ...maybe the brokerage is taking a little bit more cut, but what they're giving you—maybe it's a transaction coordinator, someone doing your marketing that's helping you leverage that—and spend more time, like you said, going out and building the relationships, handing out the business cards, shaking hands, spending more time with the actual client in front of you, asking more questions—that's gotten your business to where it's at today.

[00:50:29] Mandy Morrow: Yeah. So in my situation, I can tell you this—that when I left, in, you know, my former brokerage in '22—and I did it based on the fact that I had this toolset—my commission went down slightly.
[00:50:44] Tracy Hayes: Okay.
[00:50:44] Mandy Morrow: The split, I'll call it.
[00:50:45] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
[00:50:46] Mandy Morrow: But in all the years since then, I have more than doubled my business and earnings—and have a life as well—because I wasn’t paying for trying to integrate or keep up with technology.
Because that is not the business of an agent. The technology should come from your brokerage.
And the one thing that I feel strongly about—otherwise I wouldn’t be here—is the technology that Compass has is focused on the agent, not on the brokerage.
I won’t name that brokerage...
[00:51:20] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.
[00:51:21] Mandy Morrow: ...but one brokerage that I worked for was so focused on the agents inputting all the CRM stuff—it was all designed for them to report up to headquarters what was going on.
[00:51:30] Tracy Hayes: All of a sudden there would be nothing to report.
[00:51:31] Mandy Morrow: Yeah. It was ridiculous. Yeah. So understanding those nuances I think is important.

[00:51:35] Tracy Hayes: Well, I’ve always used the analogy in sales—and I’ve seen it, it’s probably upset me—I know, you know, we know Tom, I think he feels the same way—we have a lot in common. If they’re not supplying, if they’re not supporting the soldier on the front line...
[00:51:47] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.
[00:51:48] Tracy Hayes: ...with the right equipment, with the ammunition, making sure they’re fed and they’re getting sleep—you are going to lose the war.
[00:51:57] Mandy Morrow: Yeah, we will.
[00:51:57] Tracy Hayes: And if those supply lines are not there—you know, they’re not always... All the great management books—John Maxwell—if the management’s not serving you and you’re on the front line, you’re the one greeting the people, you’re the one bringing in the business, you're the one closing the deals—that’s what makes everything else happen.
[00:52:16] Mandy Morrow: Oh yeah.
[00:52:17] Tracy Hayes: And I think you—like you said—yeah, some of these companies get caught up with their own mid-level management minutiae that they're trying to satisfy some stockholders. It’s like, well, you’re gonna lose that game eventually.

[00:52:27] Mandy Morrow: Well, it was such a breath of fresh air—you know, it is not a commercial for Compass, but...
[00:52:32] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.
[00:52:33] Mandy Morrow: ...you know, we’re talking about this—to join Compass. Because all the executives I was meeting—and I was meeting them—the CEO Robert Reffkin called me at 9:30 at night to welcome me to Compass. I never even met the CEOs of any of the other companies.
[00:52:52] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.
[00:52:53] Mandy Morrow: And I was so impressed on that. And all the layers underneath that are the same thing—they know me. We talk on, you know, conferences on the week. They share their perspectives from a high level and then down on a regional level.
I mean, I’ve never seen this kind of—and it’s good because I know my local territory and my local client stuff—but there are times I really need to know what’s going on regionally, what’s going on in Florida, what’s going on in the Southeast, and of course nationally as well.
[00:53:25] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.
[00:53:26] Mandy Morrow: So, look for a brokerage that you feel will give you that kind of thing.
[00:53:30] Tracy Hayes: Spins us off in—slight change, but tangent to what we’re talking about—is you’ve been involved in different committees...
[00:53:34] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.
[00:53:35] Tracy Hayes: ...and so forth, outside of just—you know, I think a lot of agents just get caught up—

[00:53:57] Tracy Hayes: There's a lot of agents who are probably more involved in some of these committees, whether it's locally or statewide, that they get away from their business.
[00:53:57] Mandy Morrow: Yes.
[00:53:58] Tracy Hayes: But it's tough to kind of do both. But you've been—how important has that been in really your—you, I always say you really gotta sometimes step back and get a 30,000-foot vision of what's going on.
'Cause sometimes you can get stuck right in the weeds of PAR or FAR and not realize all this other stuff is going on. And then some of the affluent clients that you're working with—they are reading the Wall Street Journal, they're reading these other things on a national, global basis and real estate and they come in and talk.
If you're not...
[00:54:28] Mandy Morrow: That's right.
[00:54:29] Tracy Hayes: ...someone in touch with what's going on.

[00:54:30] Tracy Hayes: Tell us what those things did for you. Yeah, two aspects of that.
[00:54:32] Mandy Morrow: First of all, I'll do the Wall Street Journal kind of thing.
[00:54:34] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.
[00:54:35] Mandy Morrow: I would tell any agent today—you are the CEO of your business, alright? You've got to act like that.
So yes, you've got your business at hand—selling widgets, whatever the deal is—but you have to have an appreciation for the market and what's going on nationally, as it pertains to your business and/or your clients.
So that's very key. And I do—I read quite a lot of national news and international news, because if you're dealing with especially high-end clients...
[00:55:00] Mandy Morrow: ...they understand international news and forces that are affecting their business.
[00:55:10] Tracy Hayes: Which may be a question they're asking now—you know why they're asking.
[00:55:13] Mandy Morrow: Right. And by the way—I didn't say earlier, rings.
[00:55:15] Mandy Morrow: But if you've got a client, I always ask what is their business? If they're retired, I ask what was their business? And ask specific questions, 'cause that will tell you a lot.
So yes, that's just aside.
Now, I don't know if you were referring to—when I first got into the business, I was heavily involved on the local MLS.
I was on their data committee, looking at the fields that they would have in MLS—I forget the name of that.
I was on their international committee to espouse global, international relationships with other MLSs. I was on a couple FAR committees—Florida Association of Realtors—down in Orlando.
[00:56:00] Mandy Morrow: And then of course, community outreach and various things—Volunteer Florida with Governor DeSantis, and our GTM, the research and reserve group, is a key thing in Ponte Vedra.
So I think it's important because it gives you access to broader views. You get to meet other people too, and you're involved in things that are good. So, you know, whatever that is that resonates with an agent, it's important in my opinion to be involved in that.

[00:56:29] Tracy Hayes: A lot of people, you know, the common thing is—I hear a lot—"Oh, you know, education."
[00:56:31] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.
[00:56:32] Tracy Hayes: How important—you know, you're talking to some of these new agents that, you know, they're starting today. They just got their license last week and they're ready to get going with their brokerage to fill their day.
You know, because if they're not shadowing somebody and physically being with somebody and they're like, “Okay, what do I do?”
Right?
I think it was Sharon Mills who took her corporate experience at General Motors and was talking about, you know, put a full day—put that nine-to-five in. Put that full day in. Don't think, “Hey, oh, I don't have anything to do this afternoon.”
That they should be searching out lunch-and-learns or whatever's going on at NEFAR as far as training, and take it in.
And sometimes take these classes—especially contract classes—two or three times.
That really they have to come into real estate and operate just like they were if they were working for somebody on an hourly basis.

[00:57:23] Mandy Morrow: Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely.
And that is really critical. There's so much education—you know, all Realtors around here join NAR.
There's—NAR has a whole bunch of education you can get education from. So I would say go that route.
I ended up advancing my education by getting my broker's license—not that I was gonna go off and, you know, create my own shingle or anything—but it gives you a...

[00:57:47] Mandy Morrow: ...a much higher level of understanding of things. This is a tough business, as you know. It turned on a dime with all these lawsuits in the last year or two. Our entire MLS database changed last year.
[00:57:57] Mandy Morrow: Our entire contracts that we deal with our clients changed. We all had to go back to school to really understand the nuances from attorneys on what's in these new contracts. That takes a lot of time—I mean, I spent a lot of time last year, and I have 20 years in the business. But that's critical, 'cause you're having your client sign a contract with you—on a listing or on a buy—you better know what's in that contract and what the ramifications are.
So, I would say seek out everything. And yes, I would love to realize that this is a nine-to-five business. Ha ha ha.
[00:58:48] Tracy Hayes: For those agents out there who have maybe done a deal with you—maybe hopefully will do a deal with you—in one way, shape, or form or another...
I imagine you've run across some agents that you just want to reach through the phone, you know? Because especially when you're dealing with the—not that the $300,000 or $400,000 deals don't have negotiations. They got negotiations too.
[00:59:00] Tracy Hayes: But sometimes you can get some unique buyers and sellers there.
If you've read Ryan Serhant's book, he talks about some of these unique...
But when speaking to—if you had advice for some of those agents you've had on the other end of the phone that you're like, you just want to bring 'em in and teach 'em—they're not handling it the way you would handle it. And with your experience, what are some of the advice? I mean, you could share a story maybe that you recently—don’t have to mention names, obviously—where there's just a better way to do it so that everyone wins.
'Cause the bottom line is, you have someone that wants to sell a house and someone wants to buy a house.

[00:59:51] Mandy Morrow: Right.
[00:59:51] Tracy Hayes: How do you get 'em there?
[00:59:52] Mandy Morrow: Yeah.
[00:59:52] Tracy Hayes: You know?
[00:59:53] Mandy Morrow: Yeah. Two points on that—and that's a really good question, okay, because I've had a lot of experience with that.
The number one thing is: you're representing a client—whether a seller or a buyer—your number one loyalty is to them. And so you've gotta obviously keep that in mind.
But to that end, let me give you just a rough example. If you are a seller and an agent comes and presents a crazy lowball offer, try to be—not educational—but consultative with the other agent.
[01:00:30] Mandy Morrow: “How did you come up with that?” or “How did your buyer come up with that number?”
And then, I've got a pretty standard format of how I would ascertain a comparative market analysis on just a statistical level. And it's a one-sheeter, and it's very easy to get out of our MLS.
And I will do that for the buyer's agent. And I'll say, “This is how—let’s make sure we're dealing with the same data, okay?” Send that to them and then have a talk with 'em and say, “What do you think?”
And they go, “Oh, but I don't know if they're...” I say, “Why don't you share this with them? Because this is really where the market is.”
And then you could do a plus or minus a couple percent, so they feel like they get a deal. And there's lots of ways.

[01:01:00] Mandy Morrow: So the way I approach those kinds of situations is to discuss it with them and not be adversarial.
[01:01:19] Tracy Hayes: You mean you don't say, “You're crazy”?
[01:01:22] Mandy Morrow: No. That's after the deal's done. It's like, “Oh my God. I'm—where’s that person? Not next time.”
I mean, it's a joke. It's not a joke. But when I'm doing a deal and I'm bringing a deal to another agent and/or they're bringing one to me, and it's somebody I've dealt with in the past, I go, “Oh God, this'll be great.”
[01:01:42] Mandy Morrow: This'll be a good thing because we both understand the business. We're both fair and square. That's all you really want at the end of the day.
It's just like, “Oh great.”
When it's somebody that's an unknown, I give them the benefit of the doubt.
And if it's somebody that I've had an issue with, but the property's just a little bit higher, you know, awareness of—that I may have to deal a little bit more differently with them.
But not an—I really try to teach, but I don't want them to think I'm teaching, 'cause I could insult them.
[01:02:00] Mandy Morrow: But try to, you know, make it work that way.

[01:02:16] Tracy Hayes: When you're dealing with—you are in that multimillion-dollar price point—you know, the fluctuation of a price of a home, you know, easily $50,000, $100,000 I would imagine, sometimes overnight.
[01:02:30] Mandy Morrow: Right.
[01:02:30] Tracy Hayes: You know, what was the last whole house sold? 'Cause those houses don't sell every day, right?
[01:02:35] Mandy Morrow: Right.
[01:02:35] Tracy Hayes: It's not like, you know, some cookie-cutter, planned urban development. These are custom homes, and how you arrive at some price. So I would imagine, you know, sometimes the buyer will just throw it out there just to see what you say.
[01:02:48] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.
[01:02:48] Tracy Hayes: What's the response?
[01:02:50] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm. Well, I had a situation one time when I had a listing in Sawgrass Country Club—that's where I live—and my seller was focused on this number, and this buyer's agent came in with a ridiculously low number.
[01:03:05] Tracy Hayes: You had some number in between, I would imagine.
[01:03:07] Mandy Morrow: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And—yeah—and my seller said, “Nope, I'm not gonna even reply.”
So I was going, “Ugh, he's not gonna even... you know, just tell them that he's nuts. We just listed it.”
Nope. Didn't want to reply. So I had to say something to the agent. I said, “Listen, we just listed it. I have comps that support this, but he's officially not going to even counter.”
[01:03:35] Mandy Morrow: The agent went, “Oh, what do you mean he's not gonna counter?” I said, “That’s what my seller has chosen to do.”
So we pushed back from the table.
A couple of days went by.
Another offer comes in—a little higher.
[01:03:46] Tracy Hayes: Same person.
[01:03:47] Mandy Morrow: Same. Same one. Same.
[01:03:48] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.
[01:03:49] Mandy Morrow: And so we did this four to five times, and we got very close to his listing number.
[01:03:56] Tracy Hayes: You just had to wait it out.
[01:03:57] Mandy Morrow: Yeah.
[01:03:57] Tracy Hayes: A week or so.
[01:03:59] Mandy Morrow: Yeah, two weeks maybe. And it doesn’t always happen that way. There’s all kinds of things.
You know, I’ve had—recently—I’ve had people say, “Well, we’ll just split the difference.”
[01:04:10] Mandy Morrow: Well, we're not in a real estate market that supports “split the difference.” It really is based more on market data. We have more and more of that, so it’s tough negotiating right now. I’ll tell you.
[01:04:20] Tracy Hayes: Well, obviously, a majority of the—you know, we do have a lot. I mean, there’s a tremendous amount of cash in the market right now.
[01:04:25] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.
[01:04:26] Tracy Hayes: You know, from the lending side, we look at—I think it’s somewhere between 50% and 60% in Northeast Florida is cash-type.
But where the interest rates are at right now—of course, we’ve been, you know, we were told over two years ago by some of the mortgage experts—I don’t even listen to 'em, Tom listens to 'em—I don’t.
[01:04:45] Tracy Hayes: I refuse to listen to 'em anymore because they told us in the summer of ‘23 that we would see high 4% interest rates.
It was May of ‘22 when the rates shot up.
[01:04:54] Mandy Morrow: Right.
[01:04:55] Tracy Hayes: But with the market right now—and if you were advising a group of agents that are out there selling, you know, really from zero to $600,000–$700,000 homes—it is a buyer’s market.
[01:05:07] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.
[01:05:07] Tracy Hayes: The rates are high.
[01:05:09] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.
[01:05:09] Tracy Hayes: But now’s the time to get the deal that those buyers are looking for. Because I believe if the rates—we start to see 5.875 on a 30-year fixed—it’s going to be a frenzy.
Because there’s so much pent-up... sellers, people haven't sold their home that want to move, but they’re waiting because they know what they move to—they don’t want to pay 6.875.
But 5.875, they might eat it. And then obviously we have a bunch of buyers sitting on the sidelines waiting for the same thing.
So this is going to be this frenzy.
So if you were coaching agents right now, on how to express to their buyers—like, it’s a buyer’s market.
Here’s some options we can do.
[01:05:55] Tracy Hayes: Now’s the time to buy. You might refinance in two years—so you make 20 payments.
What kind of conversation should they be having with their buyers?
[01:06:00] Mandy Morrow: Yeah. I mean, I’ve got some very low-price listings right now that fit that category and that are getting no showings. I just did an Instagram...

[01:06:36] Mandy Morrow: ...thing on Sunday. I was at the office and I said that to buyers. I said, “Buyers, the inventory has shot up. You’ve never had so much choice—ever.”
So, it's a challenge because there's still a little bit of deer in the headlights going on.
[01:06:45] Mandy Morrow: And it takes a while for people to do that, and it might take a little, you know, bump down in the interest rates to get people to say, “Oh goodness, I should be out there.”
The other strategy is that if you can’t get a direct buyer, shift to investors. So look at your CRM and say, “Do I have anybody that would want to buy and hold and do rentals?” Because this is at a really good price.
[01:06:56] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.
[01:06:57] Mandy Morrow: So that would be another strategy to think of.
[01:06:58] Tracy Hayes: So every agent, really, on a lot of their listings—especially a home that could be rented out—they should be analyzing quickly, what kind of rent can this house get?
[01:07:04] Mandy Morrow: Yep. Mm-hmm.
[01:07:05] Tracy Hayes: I know Tom’s educated—I’m gonna ask you—kind of give us a story on how a great lender helps you close deals.
[01:07:09] Mandy Morrow: Oh, yeah.
[01:07:09] Tracy Hayes: We’ll finish with that.
[01:07:10] Mandy Morrow: Okay. Good.
[01:07:11] Tracy Hayes: But, you know, these DSCR loans—if you’re in an area where you can get a nice rent—and with 20% or 30% down, these DSCR loans that really are just looking at: what’s the payment, the cost of the home, versus what’s the rent?
And if you’re in a neighborhood where that matches, you’ve got yourself an investment property right now, which I think you would agree—if the rates drop...
[01:07:31] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.
[01:07:32] Tracy Hayes: ...we will see an increase in price point.
[01:07:34] Mandy Morrow: Yeah.
[01:07:34] Tracy Hayes: Depending on the area that we're in.
[01:07:35] Mandy Morrow: Yeah. No, you’re right.
[01:07:36] Tracy Hayes: Tell us a story—how a great lender can make a deal for you.
[01:07:37] Mandy Morrow: Okay. Okay.
Well, Tom has saved my bacon many, many times, but there’s one in particular—a really good client in Sawgrass TPC.
And we found the right home for them, and—I can’t remember the year—oh gosh...
[01:07:53] Tracy Hayes: I can’t remember. They were selling a home and moving in? Or just...?
[01:07:55] Mandy Morrow: They were buying a home.
[01:07:56] Tracy Hayes: They were coming into the area?
[01:07:57] Mandy Morrow: They were coming into the area. Yeah. He was coming over from Panama City. And this guy—his business was finance and investing, so he knew numbers.
[01:08:04] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.
[01:08:04] Mandy Morrow: Which is really fun, because, you know, Tom can go toe-to-toe—that kind of thing.
And so everything was working great until the loan appraisal came.
The appraisal came back, and... we were far apart.
[01:08:17] Tracy Hayes: It was a big number.
[01:08:18] Mandy Morrow: On the price of the home.
[01:08:19] Tracy Hayes: But the—
[01:08:20] Mandy Morrow: It’s—
[01:08:21] Tracy Hayes: A low appraisal.
[01:08:22] Mandy Morrow: Yeah. And it was, you know, big, big numbers.
[01:08:24] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.
[01:08:25] Mandy Morrow: So it was nothing to sneeze at. And I said, “Oh my God, what do we do?”
So we worked out a strategy where we actually got another appraiser. And then we had to negotiate with the seller and try to whittle that down.
[01:08:35] Mandy Morrow: And—I’m trying to think who he was working for at the time—but the bottom line is, Tom has—he’s got the contacts, no matter which group...

[01:09:00] Mandy Morrow: He's with—to make the deal happen. And between Tom, you know, working his end on the finance—
[01:09:05] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.—and me working my end between the buyer's agent and the seller—or the buyer and the seller, in this case the seller's agent—we were able to make the deal done.
But again, it gets back to, Tom and I are totally in sync. He understands that, I understand. You know, you were talking about asking questions—
[01:09:20] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.
[01:09:21] Mandy Morrow: To the agents you’re dealing with. You know, he'll ask me these questions of—I don't know the answers. I'm gonna go back and find 'em before, you know, we move further along.
Because, you know, at the end of the day, what that's saying is—if you don't understand the playing field, you can't negotiate. So that’s a critical thing.
[01:09:35] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. That's a great point, because a lot of times we just assume they're just going in and buying a shirt—and if they don’t like the color of the shirt, they’re just gonna go somewhere else.
It’s not like that in real estate. There’s only one address. There’s only one house. That’s how the backyard’s laid out. They walk into that house, and they see themselves driving into that driveway every evening—
[01:09:55] Mandy Morrow: Right. Right. Exactly.
[01:09:56] Tracy Hayes: —living, raising their kids, whatever it may be. And we really need to know—you know, the phrase is, how bad do they really want it?
[01:10:03] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.
[01:10:04] Tracy Hayes: Is this like, are they willing to spend a little extra to get it? You know, what—or is the seller—you know, what is their situation? Are they—do they need to get out of this place?
And, you know, I know Tom brings up a lot of stories when it comes to lending, especially when you're dealing with the higher-end homes.
I think when people start going over a million, their attitude is all based on their—the market. What their investments are doing.
[01:10:30] Mandy Morrow: Oh yeah. If the investments are doing well, “Oh, I have no problem buying that $1.5 million house.”
[01:10:35] Tracy Hayes: Well...
[01:10:35] Mandy Morrow: It depends on that. Yeah.
There’s times my phone rings off the hook when the market tanks.
[01:10:41] Tracy Hayes: Because?
[01:10:42] Mandy Morrow: Where are they gonna put their money?
[01:10:43] Tracy Hayes: Where are they gonna move it to?
[01:10:44] Mandy Morrow: “Well, we might as well move it to real estate in Ponte Vedra, because look at the appreciation rate.” Right? So—and that again gets back to: read Wall Street Journal, read Financial Times, really understand on a broader basis and on a local basis.
I remember, when I was at Watson and Mr. Watson was still there, I made the mistake—I called him Bill one time in a meeting. And I think half the women almost had a heart attack, because I called him Bill.
[01:11:00] Mandy Morrow: No disrespect, sir—but I called John Akers “John” at IBM!
But he was really good because he would look at the local factors that really affect the economy—employment rate, job growth, and things like that. And he always had that, you know, right at his fingertips. And that's key—to have that stuff too.
[01:11:29] Tracy Hayes: Well, to have—I call it verbal ammunition.
[01:11:31] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.
[01:11:31] Tracy Hayes: You've gotta—knowing why—again, back to why they're asking that question. Maybe the market has gone up or gone down, and that's what's causing them to make that decision.
So you gotta go back to that reason of why they’re actually having this conversation with you and relate that to them.
Tom was telling the story that—you know, the client that you had was moving locally—
[01:11:48] Mandy Morrow: Uh-huh.
[01:11:49] Tracy Hayes: But if he took his money out of his investments, he would have been taxed tremendously.
[01:11:52] Mandy Morrow: Right.
[01:11:53] Tracy Hayes: And it was cheaper for him to take this little short-term loan—
[01:11:57] Mandy Morrow: Oh yes.
[01:11:58] Tracy Hayes: To get to where he wanted to go.
[01:12:00] Mandy Morrow: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. With the...
[01:12:02] Tracy Hayes: Dark Horse.
[01:12:04] Mandy Morrow: Yeah.
[01:12:06] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, yeah. To get to where he wanted to go.
[01:12:07] Mandy Morrow: Yeah.
[01:12:08] Tracy Hayes: And then—Dark Horse, you know, we've had on the show—
But for those listening, Dark Horse does basically—they’re an equity lender, hard money, however you want to describe it.
They’re short-term lenders. They’re not doing a 30-year fixed, but they’re looking at the collateral.
[01:12:20] Mandy Morrow: Right.
[01:12:21] Tracy Hayes: They made the loan. The guy didn’t even actually make a payment.
You—you sold his current home, and he was able to pay that loan off.
[01:12:28] Mandy Morrow: Less than 30 days.
[01:12:30] Tracy Hayes: Less than 30 days.
[01:12:31] Mandy Morrow: Yeah. Less than 30.
[01:12:32] Tracy Hayes: But that was the reasoning for him wanting to move.
[01:12:34] Mandy Morrow: That was the important thing.
[01:12:35] Tracy Hayes: Or—and then having a partner like Tom—
[01:12:36] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.
[01:12:36] Tracy Hayes: Because once I understood, “This is what he wanted to do,” I called Tom and we strategized on it.
[01:12:39] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.

[01:13:00] Mandy Morrow: And he said, "I think I have a way to do this." And so I said, "Okay." And we went to the next step and we covered it off with my client. He liked the idea.
And then I was under—oh my God, I had all this—this other place. But you know, we were able to price that right. And the story goes on. I don’t know how much more time we have, but we put his place on the market, which was a luxury condo within the gates of Sawgrass Country Club.
And the day we put it on the market—that day—we get two very interested buyers because we priced it right. And it's a lovely place.

[01:13:27] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.
[01:13:28] Mandy Morrow: And totally redone.
[01:13:29] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.
[01:13:30] Mandy Morrow: Another theme of today, right? Right now.

And then—we got an offer coming in the next morning. And I got a call from my client. He was on the top floor of this condo and it rained the night before.
And they were changing the roofs, and they didn’t put a tarp on it.
[01:13:38] Tracy Hayes: Oh no.
[01:13:39] Mandy Morrow: And water came down through it. And my seller calls me—I mean, he’s got a lot on the line, right? He’s just bought this other home.
He’s got this money out there. We just put this on the market. We have—you know, this is going to... it's gonna get out.
Right? So he calls me up at 6:30 in the morning. He says, "Mandy, stop. What are we gonna do? There’s water that came through the condo and everything."

So I said, "Is the contractor there? Is the management company there?" He goes, "Yeah." I said, "I’ll be right over."
I go to the contractor guy—who’s the head of the company—and I looked at him and I looked at the management guy, and I said,
"You’ve got four hours to give me a letter that says you are going to fix this right now. All the damage in his unit.
And you’re going to give me a six-month protection for anything that a buyer, once they bought it, might reveal that wasn’t discovered or fixed.
And you're gonna have that to me by 3:00 PM.
Otherwise I’m going to lose the deal. And I don’t know what my seller is going to do, but he’s not going to be very happy.
He might have to call his lawyers."

[01:14:32] Tracy Hayes: Well, that’s a little hair to that deal that I didn’t hear about.
[01:14:35] Mandy Morrow: Oh yeah.

And guess what? I got the letter. I gave it to the person who was actually writing the offer. I said, "Here’s the deal. We’ll be totally transparent."
And believe it or not, that was like a Thursday.

[01:15:00] Mandy Morrow: By Monday, the place was all fixed, painted, everything spotless.
[01:15:06] Tracy Hayes: Well, that goes—I think a lot of agents would’ve just stepped to the side and been like, telling their seller, "Oh, you deal with this."
But you stepped in—
[01:15:14] Mandy Morrow: Leaned in.
[01:15:15] Tracy Hayes: Leaned in. Took control.
[01:15:16] Mandy Morrow: Yeah. You gotta lean in in this business.
And I called, you know, the president of the association. I got him involved.
[01:15:22] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.
[01:15:23] Mandy Morrow: It’s getting the deal done. I mean, this is where my New York comes out. And I’m nice about it—I wasn’t mean to them.
But I helped them understand what was at stake here for the seller and for all the other people in that building.

[01:15:36] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Was there anything else on there that we didn’t hit?
[01:15:38] Mandy Morrow: Uh, I think—let’s see.
[01:15:40] Tracy Hayes: No, I think that’s it. We got everything.
[01:15:42] Mandy Morrow: Well, other than the fact that I—this whole time I didn’t tell you, which I’m sure you know—but for four years in a row, I have to say this: Compass has been the number one brokerage in the United States.
[01:15:53] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.
[01:15:54] Mandy Morrow: By volume. Nobody seems to know that. Every time I bring that up to a client, they go, "Really?"
[01:16:00] Mandy Morrow: You know? But it’s true.

[01:16:00] Tracy Hayes: Well, I don't—I personally, you know, even though I'm involved in the business—but it goes back to what I said earlier. When I go and I'm looking at the different brokerages and stuff, there are shops I pull up and there's no one even on that list that I would invite to come on the show as a top producer.
You guys have got this list of people, and I would think any agent out there, if you've been in the business a little bit and you want to be surrounded—there’s a couple other brokerages that I would recommend that are doing that. But if you're trying to get in this luxury space, you want to hang out—you know, you want to be in the,
in the,
the five people you hang out with type of thing—
[01:16:34] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.
[01:16:35] Tracy Hayes: And be the fifth person. Compass, here in Jacksonville, is a place to be. You know? For sure.

[01:16:40] Mandy Morrow: We've only been here a couple years.
[01:16:42] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.
[01:16:43] Mandy Morrow: And so we're still, you know, trying to explain to people who we are. We're not the bank.
[01:16:47] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.
[01:16:47] Mandy Morrow: We're, you know, a real estate—
[01:16:48] Tracy Hayes: Firm.
[01:16:49] Mandy Morrow: But we're in an old bank building.
[01:16:52] Tracy Hayes: That's right, that's right.
[01:16:53] Mandy Morrow: So, you know. And there are some firms that do a little bit better than we do just because of sheer volume of agents.
But Compass, being—and it’s one firm. There’s no franchises.
[01:17:00] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.
[01:17:01] Mandy Morrow: That was the other reason why I went to Compass. We're all one company.
[01:17:04] Tracy Hayes: Big diff.
[01:17:05] Mandy Morrow: Big diff. And we've got a good long-term strategy, having bought, you know, Christie's International and things like that.

[01:17:14] Tracy Hayes: You’ve been through a couple—you know, Watson’s great for new agents.
[01:17:17] Mandy Morrow: Sure. Well that—
[01:17:18] Tracy Hayes: Keller Williams is great for new agents.
[01:17:19] Mandy Morrow: Yeah. Yeah.
[01:17:20] Tracy Hayes: And there’s some agents that have grown, and there are some powerful teams.
[01:17:23] Mandy Morrow: Oh, absolutely. I know a lot of folks at Keller Williams. They’re super people.

[01:17:29] Tracy Hayes: But when you think about it, you know, if I’m out there an agent and I’m producing—as my wife was. She’s been looking for over a year, and she decided to join Compass—and the energy and money that can be spent when you are really focused on this whole spectrum from zero to whatever your top producer is...
There’s a lot of—you know, we know 70-something percent of the agents didn’t even do a deal.
[01:17:53] Mandy Morrow: Mm-hmm.
[01:17:54] Tracy Hayes: I would say less than 5% did more than a dozen deals—or more.
[01:17:58] Mandy Morrow: Right.
[01:17:59] Tracy Hayes: So, I would say Compass is in that—they’re focused on those people doing the 12, 15, 20 deals. And so they can really focus their energy—and like you said, the technology—on: what are top-producing agents, that have customers all the time, what do they need?
And that’s, you know, the supply lines—taking those other things off your plate so you can focus on the clients in front of you.
[01:18:22] Mandy Morrow: Right, right.
[01:18:23] Tracy Hayes: So I appreciate you coming on today.
[01:18:26] Mandy Morrow: Hey, this was a lot of fun.
[01:18:27] Tracy Hayes: It was.
[01:18:27] Mandy Morrow: I was a little nervous coming on, but I had fun.
[01:18:30] Tracy Hayes: Great.
[01:18:30] Mandy Morrow: Thanks.
[01:18:31] Tracy Hayes: Thanks, Mandy.
[01:18:31] Mandy Morrow: Alrighty.