Maria Raymer: Top 1% Realtor JAX/St Augustine/Ponte Vedra

REE #291 Transcript

[00:00:00] Maria Raymer:
The investment of time and helping people and giving your honest opinion, that's what they're looking for. So if you treat people a certain way, the money and the success will follow. I think people can easily pick up on somebody who just wants to make a sale, and that's their focus.
You can sense that about people.

[00:00:45] Tracy Hayes:
Hey, welcome back to the Real Estate Excellence Podcast, a show that brings you inside the minds of the most elite professionals in the real estate industry. Every week we dive deep into top performers who are not just crushing it in their markets, but are also raising the bar
[00:01:00] for what it means to truly serve clients at the highest level.

Today's guest is the definition of long-term excellence — a seasoned pro with decades of success in one of Florida's most competitive markets. With a reputation built on trust, results, and repeat clients, this industry leader knows how to thrive through the market shifts, build lasting relationships, and deliver outcomes that consistently exceed expectations.

You're about to hear from someone who embodies what it means to be client-focused, community-rooted, and results-driven. A true example of real estate excellence. Let's welcome Maria Raymer to the show.

Hi.

Maria Raymer:
Hey, thank you.

Tracy Hayes:
Appreciate you coming down.

Maria Raymer:
Yeah, thank you.

Tracy Hayes:
Finally, I got you here.

Maria Raymer:
Yes, you did.

Tracy Hayes:
I closed the door so you can't escape — face off, they say.

Yeah. Obviously I've been watching your business for years, your numbers, and you're out there, you're doing things. It's an honor to have you on today, and I hope for our listeners, they're gonna get something out of this because I think you have a lot to share.

[00:01:59] Maria Raymer:
[00:02:00] Thank you. Yeah, I'd love to.

Tracy Hayes:
So I always kick off the easy one: What's young Maria — you know, 18, 19, 20 years old — what are you thinking about doing as a career? Was real estate something that was in the family, or tell us where you were at.

[00:02:15] Maria Raymer:
Yeah, so like most 18-year-olds, I think I was confused about what I wanted to do. Real estate initially wasn't something I was thinking of. Of course, I thought you have to, you know, get your four-year college degree to do or be anything. And I started college. I'm—

[00:02:30] Tracy Hayes:
I'm gonna have you just pull that mic actually over. I apologize for that. Pull it over like—I have mine about six or eight inches.

Maria Raymer:
Yeah.

Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.

Maria Raymer:
There?

Tracy Hayes:
Yeah, yeah. Good.

Maria Raymer:
Okay.

Tracy Hayes:
Yeah, that—go ahead. Yeah, you're fine. Good.

[00:02:41] Maria Raymer:
So like anybody at 18 years old, you are wondering what you're gonna do and, you know, thinking that college might've been a good path—get that four-year degree. And I started down that road and stopped short of getting that degree and decided to go into real estate. A couple
[00:03:00] people in the family had suggested it and thought I might be good at it.

And I guess my first question was, as a young person, “Okay, so I go into real estate — what is it they need me for? Like, what do I do?” Right? Like, as an agent, like how do I sell that? Like, why do they need me? And so once I understood that they need you and why they need you, I thought, “Okay, this is something I can get behind. This is something I think I can educate people on and be successful at in time.”

[00:03:29] Tracy Hayes:
From the standpoint of what the buyers and sellers need—your professionalism, from—

[00:03:32] Maria Raymer:
Correct.

[00:03:33] Tracy Hayes:
Yes. So, we have a lot of young, amazingly sub-30-year agents that are doing really well. I was just thinking of Willie with Compass. He actually started, but he didn't really start to blossom—it took him six or seven years to do it. At that time, you're how old? What leads you to your first brokerage?

[00:03:54] Maria Raymer:
So, like I said, a couple family members suggested it. I switched
[00:04:00] courses, got out of the college thing I was doing, and started taking real estate courses. Got my license and started with ERA out of Orange Park.

And I think I was living out there at the time, and that maybe was the reason why I went with that company. But, you know, I really loved it just like from the beginning, right? I was super excited about it and I felt that I didn't have to compromise my life. Like I could still have a family and I could still have a balance in my life with this type of career.

And I liked that there were no limits on how successful I could be. Like, the harder I worked, the more money I made, right? And that resonates, you know, with me because I think it's like that in life. If you get in a job where no matter how hard you work, you can really be kept down and not go to—like, hit the stars—I would lose interest in something like that.

[00:04:53] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah. The other people you're saying—you mentioned—were in your family that said, “Hey, maybe you should look into real estate.” Were they
[00:05:00] in real estate themselves?

Maria Raymer:
So my mom was one, and she was not in real estate. My sister-in-law was one, and she was in real estate.

Tracy Hayes:
Okay.

Maria Raymer:
And so she was the one who helped me understand like what the need is for a real estate agent—how do you explain that to people, that this is something they need, and what she did for them to help them—things that they wouldn't know or couldn't do by themselves as easily.

And so yes, it was one family member in the business. And I mean, initially my thought was I'd go to pharmacy school. And so that was one path I had considered, and really the only other path. And the next thing was real estate.

[00:05:35] Tracy Hayes:
Is she local—your sister-in-law?

Maria Raymer:
She was local at the time.

Tracy Hayes:
At the time. As many years ago.

Maria Raymer:
Right, right, right. Go back a long time ago.

[00:05:42] Tracy Hayes:
Well, because I want you to kind of—if you can express across—there are a lot of young people, but even someone who's in a transition from another career, getting started—because most, like I said, most people that question that you asked yourself: “What does a real estate agent actually do? Why do buyers and sellers need you?”
[00:06:00] Or need that professional. And you go and take the test, and I think there's a lot of agents who even take the test and still don't know the answer to your question that you had at the time.

[00:06:12] Maria Raymer:
Yeah, 100%. Because the course—the licensing process—does not teach you real-world application of real estate. At all. In fact, pretty much everything you learn in that, you would not use out there. Right?

So you learn it as you go. I guess starting in it so young, it was a bit of a challenge for me because, you know, most people—especially back then, almost 30 years ago—owned a house that were much older than I was. So were they going to take direction and advice from this 19-, 20-year-old person? Right? That was difficult.

But, you know, you had to convince them of what you could do for them. And, you know, there's very basic things—like, sales come together better when you have someone in the middle, a mediator pulling both sides
[00:07:00] together—because the seller and buyer are at opposite ends of the spectrum. They have opposite goals.

And your job as an agent is to bring them to the middle—help get them to the place where they can make an agreement that does work for everybody. And as an owner, how can you be that? You cannot be that unbiased person. You cannot be that person that can mediate that transaction, because you have a lot of, you know, emotional value tied into—

[00:07:27] Tracy Hayes:
Well, there's some agents that put some emotions in some of our deals.

Maria Raymer:
Well, of course. We do.

Tracy Hayes:
We do.

Maria Raymer:
We get pretty fired up, in fact. But heart value in the home is what I mean—memories, yeah, raising the family, you know. Sometimes it's difficult to put a price on a house that you have so much emotional history and value tied up in, right?

And it's not an investment to them—it's their home. And so when you're pricing it, just that one aspect alone is very difficult for an owner to separate. Like, “I sanded these floors by hand, and they’re beautiful floors,” and that's a wonderful
[00:08:00] thing, but it's very hard to translate that to a buyer—and why they should pay more.

Tracy Hayes:
Pay more, yeah.

Maria Raymer:
Yeah.

Tracy Hayes:
Than the house up the street, right? So you go to ERA. Are you able to latch on to someone, or was your sister-in-law working here at the time?

Maria Raymer:
No.

Tracy Hayes:
No?

Maria Raymer:
No.

Tracy Hayes:
Okay. What—how do you—you kind of threw out the age. You were 19, 20 years old, right?

How do you ramp up that maturity, which was what you were kind of leading to? You're dealing with buyers of homes that are older. They're looking at this 20-year-old young lady and saying, “Does she know what she’s doing?” Right? How do you attack that learning curve or that maturity curve to come across in a professional way?

[00:08:36] Maria Raymer:
So, for me—and this is different than today because so many people work at home, right? And I think it's a big miss on their part, right? Young people getting started in our industry—I mean, the synergy of working with other professionals is so important.

I was in that office every day. I treated it like a nine-to-five job. Nobody made me do that. But I did that because I wanted to talk to those
[00:09:00] older, seasoned agents who had been doing it and learn everything I could. And, you know, fortunately, they were great people. They were good mentors. They were people willing to share what they did.

So I wanted to learn, and I did learn. And I watched them. And I was there every day to listen—what’s happening in the office? How is a phone call handled? And I was just absorbing all that information.

And so, to me, I think it's a really important thing to be in an active office with other people—especially seasoned people. Like, I see a lot of young people—

[00:09:35] Maria Raymer:
They'll jump on a team, but they're in there with all these other young people. And so they don't have as much to contribute—

[00:09:38] Tracy Hayes:
Young in the business, we'll say.
Yeah. Not necessarily all of them are age-young, but—

[00:09:43] Maria Raymer:
Yeah. New in the business. Young and new in the business. Yeah. Less experienced.

[00:09:46] Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

[00:09:46] Maria Raymer:
And then they're surrounding themselves with other people who are in that same boat. So how much can you really learn? And then if the lead on that team has only been selling real estate five or ten years themselves, you know, there’s only so much wisdom they could really
[00:10:00] impart.
You know, so I think it's important to be in an office where it's active, and there are other seasoned agents where you can learn from those people.
That's how I did it.

[00:10:09] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah. Were you a "Rookie of the Year" type success early on?

[00:10:13] Maria Raymer:
Yeah. No—I mean, like out of the gate, like within the first year I was doing well.

The standards were different. Price points were different back then. The number of sales you would do in a year—like if you were a million-dollar producer, that was a big deal.

[00:10:30] But the prices of houses were so much less. People back then sold their houses every five and ten years, not every two to three years. You didn’t have those numbers of, you know, doing five or ten closings a month. That just was not a reality in that day and time.

But, you just kind of cut your teeth and get your experience. But yes, I would be "Rookie of the Year," I’d be that person that made it to that million-dollar club pretty early on, you know, working diligently.

[00:10:59] Tracy Hayes:
[00:11:00] So tell us how you got some of your first deals. And then, obviously, take it to today. Say someone’s starting today and might be listening to the show—who’s just getting started, maybe even pre-licensing—what would you recommend if they were, you know, you were tutoring them?

[00:11:18] Maria Raymer:
So, you know, again, there’s big differences. Like floor was very effective. Floor call floor agents were very effective in that time because we were working out of MLS books. We didn’t have the computer.

So those skills of getting started back then don’t really apply to today.

So floor—working floor, taking calls, you know, for a certain part of the day. For those of you out there who don’t know what "floor" is, it would be like—you would work that front desk. You don't get paid to do it, but you would be the one who'd answer the calls. And then the listings that they’re calling on, you could show and sell.

So that would be kind of how I started getting sales.

[00:12:00] You know, of course—and this is still true today—friends, family, just getting all the deals you can. Listening to people who were talking about selling a property. And then, you know, maybe they're in the grocery store, maybe they’re at the coffee shop, and you would just say, “Oh, I overheard your conversation. If you ever need an agent, here’s my card.”

Door knocking was a big thing. You don’t see that as much today, but that is also an effective tool, I think even today—especially in your own neighborhood. Because I think you get to go in there and say, “Hey, I’m your neighbor. I live down the street.” Who’s gonna be mean to their neighbor, right?

“I saw your sign go up. You may not be looking to find an agent now, but if you get to that place, here’s my card, please.”

[00:12:34] Tracy Hayes:
Well, we live in a fortunate area, especially with all these planned urban developments—

[00:12:37] Maria Raymer:
Yes.

[00:12:38] Tracy Hayes:
That when someone moves in, they generally are telling their friends and family, “Oh, you need to move into this neighborhood too.”

[00:12:43] Maria Raymer:
Yeah, it’s true. Yeah. I mean, word of mouth is really important. But, you know, also getting out there where you're in front of people.

And, you know, some people do it by clubs—we call it networking. You know, so different things that people can do. Sometimes
[00:13:00] it’s your gym, or places like that.

And wherever you have an audience per se—like there’s a lot of people—there is an opportunity to meet people and tell them what you do.

[00:13:11] Tracy Hayes:
What would you say to someone who's a little shy to that?
Because my thought is, you know, real estate is actually a topic that a lot of people like to talk about. It’s very neutral—it’s not like politics or religion or anything like that.

And, you know, to go and just say, “Hey, I’m a real estate agent,” or let alone—“What do you do for a living?”—is a common question when two people meet because they must do something, so they're gonna ask that question just to create a conversation.

So if you’re in the gym, to go work out next to somebody and say, “Hey, how you doing?”—a lot of times that's all it takes.

[00:13:44] Maria Raymer:
Sure. “How long have you lived over here?” Right? And, you know, a conversation develops.

But I was very, very shy.

[00:13:56] Tracy Hayes:
That’s why you didn’t come in for two years.

[00:13:58] Maria Raymer:
That’s
[00:14:00] right. So that was definitely a part of my personality.

But, you know, to win people over, I think—to go back to your earlier question—is, I think people have to know you care. You have to be honest and sincere. They have to know that you're just not in it for the sale and to make money.

Sure, that’s the end result, but the investment of time and helping people and giving your honest opinion—that’s what they’re looking for.

So if you treat people a certain way, the money and the success will follow.

I think people can easily pick up on somebody who just wants to make a sale, and that’s their focus. You can sense that about people.

So I think when I would talk to people, even though I was young, starting in the business at that time, I think I won them over with the fact that I would be honest and treat them well.

And I really did train myself up well—like I said, shadowing and looking at what other people were doing, those successful people, and emulating that behavior.

[00:15:00] And in addition to that, if you're with a decent-sized company, you can ride on the coattails of their successes as, “Hey, our group, our company—we're the biggest real estate company in the world,” whatever it is.

And you have a lot of that you can ride on when you don’t have your own personal experiences.

Like, I have a team, so I have agents that work under me. They ride off my experiences. And the truth is, they’re taught the same way that I do business.

And in addition to that, I’m involved in their sales.

[00:15:34] Tracy Hayes:
Even if they’re not face to face with you?

[00:15:35] Maria Raymer:
Correct. Yeah, even if they're working with someone on my team. Right?

But my people, of course, work directly with me. I don’t meet with people and then hand them off to someone on the team.

[00:15:44] Tracy Hayes:
You mentioned the branding part of it. Obviously, you've been with RE/MAX for many years now.

But really, you've created your own—the Maria Raymer Team, right? That’s you. You could go to another brokerage and I don’t think you would skip a step, you know, as far as your production and so forth.

[00:16:00] Tracy Hayes:
Would you agree—and, yeah—the name today versus, you know, you remember growing up, we all can remember the Century 21 guys wearing the yellow jackets.

Maria Raymer:
Yeah.

Tracy Hayes:
Yeah. Or RE/MAX with their balloon.

Maria Raymer:
Right, right.

Tracy Hayes:
That was the thing. But you don’t—I don’t believe that branding is out there anymore as far as the national brokerage. Would you agree?

[00:16:21] Maria Raymer:
I do agree in some aspects. Most of my clients are repeat and referral business, right?

Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

Maria Raymer:
Like, I track that every year, and I'm probably 70/30—that, you know, past customers, friends, family, whoever is referring me—that's the bulk of my business.

So to your point, if I could take and move anywhere, I would still take that client base with me because I've built that trust, and they’re looking to work with me wherever I am, whatever I'm doing.

[00:17:00] However, that 30% comes from outside of that. And some of that—for example, I'm with RE/MAX—so it might be through the RE/MAX network that I get a referral or a lead that way that I would not have otherwise.

It might be because people who have had experiences with RE/MAX in other areas and had a good experience—they tend to take that where they go. And they might seek a RE/MAX agent to help them, hoping to have that same experience in a different place.

And I know that because I ask people that question—“Why did you call me? How did you hear about me?”
And, “Oh, I sold my house in Virginia with a RE/MAX agent. They were great. So I knew when I sold this one, I'd want to work with RE/MAX.”

[00:17:37] Tracy Hayes:
Do you think it's because of your longevity in there?
Talking to someone who might be with a bigger brokerage—sort of getting started—the fact that probably, you know, you’ve been with RE/MAX for so long that your name is fairly large. You've been there so long, and, you know, with high numbers and reputation, I imagine they invite you to different events or whatever, and you get
[00:18:00] to meet other agents.

But because you're—if you get in the line, you eventually get to the front, right? And you’re way out in front of the line, because obviously we know the average agent doesn’t stay with their brokerage 20-some years.

Maria Raymer:
Yeah, that's true.
You know, now it's like if you stay in any job two or three years, it seems like—with the up-and-coming generation—it’s, you know, they just move on. And job hopping is—

[00:18:11] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.

Maria Raymer:
It just, you know—coming up from where I did, you didn’t do that. You stayed with the same company, the same job. It’s different now.

But, you know, for me, I always look at the numbers at the end of the year. And if the business that I get as a result directly of being with the company that I’m with outweighs the cost that I pay to be with that company, then it makes sense.

And every year, for the most part, the math adds up.
And when the math doesn’t add up, that’s when you start thinking about other options.

[00:18:56] Tracy Hayes:
One of the biggest topics agents deal with—you know, we're talking about the hopping and
[00:19:00] which brokerage they should go to—we know it comes down to the split.

And obviously, you could take your business to these virtual brokerages or whatever, where the split is a lot less, and so forth. But for someone really getting their business started—like you said, coming into the office, having that structure—a lot of people need that.

Most people, I would think—we would put on the majority—need that. There are some people that will be successful no matter what they do. They just figure it out.

But coming in the office, 'cause they don't really know the business or the answers to that question you had at the beginning: “What does the buyer and seller really need me for?”

Maria Raymer:
Right.

Tracy Hayes:
Right. I think that's brilliant, actually. But what advice would you give to an agent who maybe feels like they’re stale? Maybe they’re doing the business, but it’s not really growing for them, and maybe they’ve hit a lid when it comes to teaming up with a brokerage.

What should be some of the criteria they should be looking at first before actually getting to the dollar?

[00:19:58] Maria Raymer:
I think how closely
[00:20:00] you're gonna work with somebody that would be your mentor—a top producer.
Somebody with experience and, like I said, a high-volume producer. Somebody who can help you learn.

But I also think that every time you make a move, you lose momentum.
I mean, my name is probably synonymous with RE/MAX because I have been there so long. So it allows me to get that 70% of the work—you know, that personal referral—and that other 30% that they provide.

And I think if you continue to move or you don’t go with a company who can help grow your business in that way, you lose that extra. And that 30%—that’s a lot. It’s a big deal.

I just think longevity is important. And yeah, everybody’s looking for that best split, but you earn your wings. You earn your keep.
You don’t start out at the best and top splits. You work your way up, and you get higher splits, and you make more money.

But you could still do that where you are, without moving all over the place to try to figure things out.

[00:21:00] But I know some of these super teams—I’ve talked to some of the agents—and they kind of get lost in that shuffle.

They're running these low-end leads, you know, because they're paying a bunch of money to get these Zillow leads, and a lot of them aren’t great.
And these new agents are running crazy all over town, spending time and money on gas and whatever to chase leads that really aren’t very high-priced or viable.

And I think they get burned real quick. And I think that’s why we have such a high turnover in the industry.

I think if they had gone for quality instead of quantity, they might have built a better foundation, which would’ve allowed them to stay and see the fruit of their labor over time.

But it doesn’t happen overnight. For some people, you could get going pretty quick—but you gotta do the work.

Like, I worked six and seven days a week and many, many hours a day. I put in the time. It was not easy to get to where I am and placing, you know, multiple years in
[00:22:00] the top 1% of production in the country.

And I think people look at that and think, “Yeah, that's what I want.” But if they would look at the work I did to get there—delivering pumpkins around Halloween with my card on them at every door, and flag days, holidays, putting flags with my card, knocking on doors, calling on For Sale By Owners—there was a lot of work involved.

But as you get into the business, more people know you, and you don't have to do all the legwork.
Then it switches and it starts coming to you.

But in the beginning, you have to seed into your business—not just with money, but with time. Lots of time.
Not even a 40-hour-a-week job. A 50- or 60-hour-a-week job.

And people go into it thinking, “Oh, it’s so easy, and I can do it part-time.”
It’s not an accurate statement, and they usually will not make it if they do that.

And think about the seller here. They’re interviewing—making the most important decision they can make. Or a buyer—buying or selling property—it’s a big deal for them.

[00:23:00] And do you think they want to hire somebody who's just kind of half in, half out?
They want to know you're all in. Even if you don't have ten years’ experience, be all in.

And they pick up on that. And they will hire you because they think you’re going to fight for it.
They want to know you’re hungry.

[00:23:18] Tracy Hayes:
I would imagine over the years you have done different things. You’ve mentioned delivering pumpkins and all that kind of stuff.

Tell us two or three different campaigns, I guess if you want to call it—the pumpkins were a campaign—some different things you’ve done over the years, and which one was the most successful that you continue to do today?

[00:23:34] Maria Raymer:
Yeah. I don’t know that I continue to do any of the same things today because technology is evolving, and we’re on that boat now.

But in addition to that—again—what you need to do, what you should do when you're a new agent, is different than when you get to where I’m at.
You don’t have to cultivate the business the same way, because people now are coming to you.

So that time you used to spend cultivating the business, you actually spend in the business—doing the business.

[00:24:00] And so that part’s different.

Farming, I think, was really effective—and still can be effective.
I think you should do it in your neighborhood, though. I think that’s a highly effective thing.

And most people, to your point—we live in these subdivisions. It’s rare that someone lives on a one-acre tract in the middle of nowhere.

[00:24:24] Tracy Hayes:
They’re within range, but—

[00:24:27] Maria Raymer:
Yeah, typically they’re in a neighborhood. And if they are, that’s just a great thing because—start farming where people know you and where you can, like I said, say, “I’m your neighbor.”

When their For Sale By Owner sign goes up—get involved in the HOA so you hear about people wanting to buy and sell in the area.

There are different things you can do, but farming the area you live in, I think is a big deal.
And I think it’s helpful—especially for young, new agents getting started—to farm their neighborhood, where people know them.

[00:24:59] Tracy Hayes:
I agree with you there.
I don’t think enough agents are doing it. I mean, you know—you’re episode 291. I’ve had over 270 agents on, and no one—huh. Well, the only person that really has a...

[00:25:52] Tracy Hayes:
Really good story was Patty Ketchum. I call her "Miss Real Estate Florida"—Miss Florida Real Estate. But farming a neighborhood and doing it consistently, over and over and over again.

I think Leah—Mia Esk—did tell a story. She started farming, and that’s how she got going. She farmed, but it took obviously, you know, five or six months before it started to grab on and—

Maria Raymer:
Right. Takes time.

Tracy Hayes:
—type of thing. What are some of the—if again, you’re mentoring some new agents right now—obviously, you’d say, “Okay, what neighborhood do you live in? What do we need to do there?”

Maria Raymer:
Right.

Tracy Hayes:
We need to make you that neighborhood expert.

Maria Raymer:
Right.

Tracy Hayes:
What are some things—would you do some mailers, postcards, obviously knock on doors—what are some of the tactics that you use?

[00:25:55] Maria Raymer:
All of that. Mailers, postcards. Like I said, maybe be involved with the HOA.
Driving by and then dropping by when you see cars in the driveway or a time of day you think they might be home.

If they have a sign out that they’re selling their house and they’re not listed with a company—I mean, that’s like saying, “I need your help.”

To me, if I see a For Sale By Owner sign, it's “I need your help.” Right?
And even today, if I saw one, I would call on it.

But they need to understand why they need your help. That’s the thing. They think they can do it on their own. And I’m not saying they can’t—and they may have had some real estate experience even.

But the reality is, if you aren't doing this every single day, you're not in the know.
You don’t have the connections.
You don’t have the ability to market and advertise the same way we do and get that traction.

So I think that’s super important.

Another thing I’m always very surprised at is people that don’t spend money from day one with some kind of contact management system. It’s called CRM.

There’s a lot of different platforms out there. I use Lofty, but there are many others.
It has my entire client base—from decades of selling real estate—they're all in there.

I stay in touch. I send a newsletter every quarter.
You don’t want to inundate people with email, phone calls, text. People get aggravated. They’re all busy.

So pace yourself with follow-up, with things like that.
If it's a past customer, you don’t want to be calling them every week. Just every quarter, maybe send out a newsletter.

But those sales today are your future business tomorrow.
And people aren’t staying in touch with them—it’s just lost business. Because people can forget you.
It’s best to stay in touch.

[00:27:36] Tracy Hayes:
And with technology, as you mentioned earlier, getting better and better—with AI—it can start to predict who you might want to lean on a little bit more.

Maria Raymer:
Sure, yeah.

Tracy Hayes:
Who you might actually want to make a phone call to, instead of just send the newsletter.
Because how long they’ve been in the home—and if you have all that information, their family, their kids, how old they are—AI is able to pick that stuff up and say, “Hey, that person might be the one you should call today.”

[00:28:01] Maria Raymer:
Yeah, it’s true. And then some of these contact management platforms—once the email is in there—they have a way to monitor if they’re actually looking in real estate, you know, places online.

Tracy Hayes:
Oh—other platforms.

Maria Raymer:
Yeah. And they can alert you, like, “Oh, this person was actively looking.”
So, I mean, it’s all kind of tied together.

[00:28:19] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah. Would you agree—because I agree with 100% of what you're saying—I’m thinking of someone who wouldn’t disagree.

What they might say is, “Oh, they won’t open my newsletter every time.”

They don’t have to open your newsletter.
They just need to see your name.

All they have to do is see "Maria"—

Maria Raymer:
Yeah.

Tracy Hayes:
—and they go, “Okay, it’s Maria. I’m not really interested in real estate right now. I know Maria. I like her, so I’m not going to unsubscribe. But I’m just not going to read the email right now because I don’t have time.”

[00:28:45] Maria Raymer:
Yeah.
You know, it’s the same theory with mail-outs and postcards, right?
They may not even look or read it, but as it's on its way to the trash from the mailbox—they see your name.

Tracy Hayes:
Yes.

Maria Raymer:
And it’s printed on their mind.

And, you know, I wouldn’t get sensitive about people who unsubscribe.
It doesn’t mean they don’t like you and they wouldn’t use you again.
They just don’t like extra email.

Even if you’re not crazy about sending emails every other day—

Tracy Hayes:
Right, right.

Maria Raymer:
Like I told you, I specifically don’t stay in touch too often with past clients because it can be annoying.
Those emails and holiday emails—people have got to stop with that.

It’s gotten a little crazy.

At first, I did it too. You know—I had a Thanksgiving post, I had a Christmas...
People all know it’s the holiday.
They don’t necessarily need to hear from their real estate agent.

[00:29:36] Tracy Hayes:
You're better off actually sending them a physical card.

[00:29:38] Maria Raymer:
Yes! They’ll appreciate that. They like the card more than the email.
They absolutely like the card.

You’re just junking up their email.

I mean, I don’t know about you—but tell me, after a holiday, we come back and we’ve got 25 emails: “Happy Fourth of July,” “Happy Fourth of July...”
Do I need that?
No. I’ve got to go through and delete all those.

Tracy Hayes:
Right.

Maria Raymer:
So your customers—they feel the same way.
Put yourself in their shoes.
How often would you want to hear from them if it were the other way around?

So I think we have to be really careful with how much we stay in touch.

A personal phone call from time to time—like you said, a card in the mail—they do appreciate those kinds of things.

And useful information.
Quarterly emails—that’s useful information for people.

If you make it a good thing, like:
“Okay, there's this in there, and there’s that in there. There's real estate news in there.”
You might put the pending, active, and sold sales in their neighborhood from the last few months—people like that stuff.

[00:30:32] Tracy Hayes:
I'm just going to adjust this camera just a little bit.
There we go. Okay, good. Always gotta make room for reels.

Which made me lose a bit during of thought—my next question—because I had my next question right up there where you were talking about just—

[00:30:45] Maria Raymer:
Staying in touch with people?

Tracy Hayes:
Yeah, staying in—staying in touch with how often...

Actually, I’m gonna go to this question I’ve written down, 'cause that’ll bring that one back.

So what I did is—I use ChatGPT for everything.
And with this show, every transcript’s uploaded, everything’s created from—

So all your bio—I went through all your social media and took out your bio from your LinkedIn, the bio you sent me, and there was a bio I think on your website.
I throw all that in there and say, “Okay, let’s create the intro.”

Maria Raymer:
Oh, that’s cool.

Tracy Hayes:
Yeah. And then it comes up with your questions. It builds, and it gives me some—
a couple questions here.

But the one thing I’ve been doing recently too—I said, “Well, what’s three things that make Maria unique and exceptional?”

Based off your bios.
Now, I don’t know if it’s going online and looking at your LinkedIn too or whatever, but it’s got your bios, and this is what it said:

• #1: Unmatched longevity with consistent top performance.
  30 years in the industry, ranking top 1% nationally, regionally.
  Long-term success isn’t just experience—but sustained excellence.
• #2: Client-first philosophy rooted in community.
  Obviously, you know, being from the area for over 40 years—referral and repeat business.

I’m going to go back to that one and ask a question on that.

[00:32:10] Maria Raymer:
Yeah.

[00:32:11] Tracy Hayes:
And you do the local TV station to get across your professionalism—

Maria Raymer:
Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes:
—educate people on the industry, what's going on locally and so forth. Tell us about some things maybe you've done in the past, but maybe you're still doing—
but what should agents do to get themselves out there, which seems like what you're kind of leading to—
or to get into the community and get involved?

Maria Raymer:
Yeah. When you have school-age kids, for example, you could sponsor their team.
So you could be involved—meeting parents and doing things that way—to increase your business, but also help your community.

You know, if you're putting a banner up at your kid's football game—you contributed.
So you've helped them from a community level.

Certain charities—Salba is an excellent charity here locally.
They help battered women, homeless vets. It's a great organization.

RE/MAX is very tied into the Children’s Miracle Network.
So a portion of all my commissions—every single closing I have—goes to that, and it goes to local community resources.

So I think it's super important to give back to the community that you live in.

As far as networking and things like that, you could also do it through your church.
You could do it through charity work and helping there and getting to know people.
And then, of course, when they have a real estate need, they might think of you.

[00:33:33] Tracy Hayes:
I think a lot of people—they see the Miracle Network because they can see that logo, right?
And you were talking about it. But by being truly involved in it—over time—and not just throwing a check, but going to their events, or whether it’s a gala or whatever it might be—

You've got like-minded people in the room together.

Maria Raymer:
That’s true.

Tracy Hayes:
Right? You’re all focused on this particular charity, and because you’re like-minded, there’s a natural tendency to network.

[00:34:03] Maria Raymer:
Of course. Yeah, absolutely.
And RE/MAX is really good about saying, “Oh, we’re going to be serving lunches,” or “We’re doing this or that for Children’s Miracle Network,” and things like that.

But also—another aspect of community—and I don’t think people think about it—is, and it’s a huge thing with me: Support local. Support local.

I mean, it’s really a big deal.

Go to a local restaurant.
Stop going to the chain corporate restaurants.
Shop at your local boutique, flower shop, coffee shop—support local—because it’s where we live.
And those businesses thriving? They help all of us.

And if you’re a regular at your local restaurant or sandwich shop—they start to get to know you.
You start to get to know them. And then you connect on another level.
And again, maybe they think of real estate. They give you a call.

But that’s not the first thought I have when I do those things.
Like, I really believe in that philosophy of supporting local and community. That’s the first thought I have.
The other things are a benefit that come after that.

[00:35:09] Tracy Hayes:
Well, I think it goes back to the longevity part of it.
If it’s something you’re passionate about—you like going down there, whatever the place is—if you like it, and you enjoy going down there, you're going to be there for a long time.

It will eventually bear fruit—just like being in real estate long enough—eventually enough people are going to realize you're doing real estate now.

If you’re able to financially do it—depending on what speed you're moving at and how much work you're putting in each day—it’ll grow faster.
But you’ve gotta look at it as a long-term investment.

[00:35:41] Maria Raymer:
Sure.

[00:35:41] Tracy Hayes:
Which—this is a question I like to ask:
Do you feel most real estate agents—which I think we talked about at the beginning of the show—are definitely less than five years in the business?

I think if we took the average that's out there right now, it’s definitely less than ten.

Those first-year-to-fifth-year agents really aren't looking at it long term.
They're more chasing the 60- to 90-day window.

And you really don’t start turning your business until you start looking at this as a long-term investment—investing in following up on your clients.

Right? How important is that?
Well, you might not do another transaction with that person—and they might not even refer you—for five or six years.

[00:36:27] Maria Raymer:
That’s right. Yeah.

Tracy Hayes:
You don't know.

Maria Raymer:
Right.

Tracy Hayes:
But you’ve gotta keep building the blocks of the business.

Maria Raymer:
Absolutely. Yeah. That’s how you get sustained referrals over time.
That’s how you get to the point where you’re at 70% referred business.

And it's important, because they’re the most loyal people.
They’ve worked with you, they know of you—they’re going to be your best customers.
They trust you already.

Building trust is half the equation with real estate.
Because when you first meet someone, and they don’t know you, you don’t know them—
people typically assume the worst. “Things aren’t going to go so well...”

And you’re really trying to get them out of that.

But how do you do that?
Time and effort.
It doesn’t come the first day you sit down with them.

You build the trust over the transaction.
And then hopefully, things go very smoothly.

And the more deals you do, the more experience you have, the smoother the transaction.
The fewer mistakes you have. The fewer problems.

And if you’ve had the problem before—you know your way around it already.

So, speaking to a seller or buyer—for me, with my level of experience—that’s how I kind of assure them, even if they’ve never worked with me before:

“Look, I got here to this level by doing these things.”

And so that helps build in the trust.

And yes, as a long-time agent, you could say something like that.
But new in the business? It’s not as easy.
So you just have to show them—each step of the way—that you're accountable.

[00:37:49] Tracy Hayes:
Because number three there was—we’ll talk about negotiation and tactics there—but personalization.

Think of your last transaction you just completed—maybe in the last week—and closed.
What happened in the 30, 45 days? Or who knows how long you spent with them in that transaction?

Versus Maria, getting your first 10 transactions when you were 21 years old—
the personalization of it.

Because you said you were kind of shy.

[00:38:22] Maria Raymer:
Yeah.

Tracy Hayes:
So, typically, you aren’t asking those—I call them “corny questions.”
It’s just having rapport with somebody—talking about whatever.
“Hey, what do your kids do?” Whatever.

Those type of questions that aren’t really pertinent to the sale, necessarily.
Versus, “How much money do you have? What do you do for a living? Can you afford this house?”
Those are the vital questions.

But those other ones personalize the transaction.
Which obviously build—it’s part of the building blocks of the longevity—of them liking you.

How—tell us a little bit of how you evolved.
Because you were a young person, and 30 years in the business—how you’ve evolved in how you, obviously today, it's like riding a bike.
You probably don’t even think about it.

But I imagine if you sit back right now and look—how did you handle those first transactions, to how you’re handling transactions today?
From you and your personal rapport and personalization and building those relationships?

[00:39:20] Maria Raymer:
Well, I mean, the biggest change has been technology.

So everything is technology-driven now.
And when you're in the business a long time—if you don’t change with the times, whether you just started, five years in, ten—you have to evolve.
You have to evolve to the time that you’re in.

So the way I did those transactions is completely different.

Everything was written by hand. I had folders. I wrote everything down.
And now—it’s all logged into a computer.

[00:39:52] Tracy Hayes:
You might have had a pager.

[00:39:52] Maria Raymer:
Yeah, not a pager, but technology has been the biggest change.
And the sales are more seamless now.
It’s harder to forget a step, 'cause we have it all in the system.

[00:40:00]
But I think the biggest difference between then and now—and how I handle the sale—is that technology has made it easier to do a higher volume of business without losing personal service with the client.
You know, that communication.

And I think that’s really important, because you can lose that personal service.
You can stop calling them every week when you have their house listed and giving them updates, and just assume that sending an email is enough.
It’s not.

So you want to stay engaged with people.
But I’ve always been that person. I’ve always been the person that doesn’t let the day go by without a phone call back.

I mean, obviously if it comes in at 10 o’clock at night, I’ll call in the morning.
If it’s during, you know, a typical business day for me—
Yeah, I’m gonna text them, call them back. Always follow up.

And there are just things I think that make you successful as a person in life in general.
And that’s one of those things: communication skills.

And in our industry, it’s extremely important to be a good communicator.
And people have to really believe and understand that you’re on their side.

And it’s hard to do, because you're trying to navigate what is best for them to get to the closing table, right?

But sometimes that can be misconstrued as, “Oh, you’re more on their side.”
And really, you’re just trying to mediate the issues that can come up, right?

Because their end goal is—
Look, I could start fighting with the other agent and those buyers on every little thing you don’t like,
But is that gonna be a problem for you if you don’t get to the closing table?
If you’ve already bought your next house and you can’t move into it?

So again, I think: perspective.
Having someone else involved—handling it—and taming down the situation to make sure everybody gets to closing without too much compromise.

And never forgetting who your loyalty is with.
Who you’re working for.

If you are representing—in this case—as a single agent, as the owner’s agent,
That’s different than the transactional agent, which is where you represent the transaction.

So that’s different.
And there are different capacities that we work in.

I typically work as a single agent because I want to represent and work hard for the person I’m with.
I want all agents and everything to be with them and for them.

So for me personally, I work as a single agent always—unless I happen to be working with both sides.
Then you have to be a transaction agent.

[00:42:19] Tracy Hayes:
Some of the coffee shop talk—if you want to call it bar talk, whatever—
You’ve done enough transactions, you’ve seen what happens, how to handle it.
I’d imagine stuff—as we know—every transaction’s different. There’s another curveball.

Maria Raymer:
Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes:
You’re just reading another pitcher. You’ve done it enough times that you’ve hit enough curveballs.
We’ll get through it, right?

Maria Raymer:
Right.

Tracy Hayes:
But sometimes you have that agent on the other end who maybe is doing it part-time, maybe is not very experienced—

Maria Raymer:
Oh, yes.

Tracy Hayes:
Or—as we were talking about earlier—the emotions.
They start getting emotional instead of being that person who’s the mediator, as you’ve mentioned several times.

"I got someone who wants to sell, I got someone who wants to buy—how can we get them to the table?"

How do we work through this?
Because obviously we’re not talking about any individual person here right now.

What advice would you give to some of those agents who’ve gotten a curveball and they get all worked up?

What should they do before they make the next call? Send the next email?
To be the professional, level-headed person that’s done it a thousand times?
What are some thoughts they should be having?

[00:43:28] Maria Raymer:
Yeah. It’s interesting you bring that up because it is an issue out there—
especially when the business is booming.

Right now, it’s a slower year in real estate, so you don’t see it as often.
But you see a bunch of new people come in the business,
They really don’t know what they’re doing yet,
But they act like they do.

They’re not willing to take direction.
They know they’re working with a seasoned agent,
But they’re going to try to push back and tell you what to do and how to do it—
And just have a bad attitude, or a demanding attitude, or a nasty attitude.

And yeah—they don’t work for me, I don’t work for them—
But at the end of the day, we’re trying to do the best by the people we are working for.

And the best for them is to get them to the closing.
That is always the objective.

And if you’re going to create an adversarial situation with the agent you’re working with,
It’s not for the benefit of your customer.
It’s not for the benefit of getting them to closing.

So I think it’s really important to keep your cool.
Don’t get all worked up about it.
Think your way through it before you react.
Like you said—before you send the nasty email or text, or go off on people for no reason at all.

And you know—perception is reality.
So sometimes people have a different perception of how you treated them or what happened.

It’s better that they don’t assume—and just ask you about it.

Like, I recently had a sale where I had a very good rapport with the lead agent.
She had a team member that was helping her.
The team member came for the final walkthrough.

My thought, focus, and obligation is to the client—the buyer I was working with.
She was there, but she wasn’t foremost.
I said hello—

[00:45:00]
—and talked to my people. And then after that, it’s all about the people I’m working with.

She felt offended that I didn’t somehow communicate with her more, or include her in the conversation.
But technically, this is a confidential conversation between me and the buyer during the walkthrough.
She really shouldn’t have been there.
And she was very, very new.
And if she really had to be there at the owner’s request—and that happens—
You give space to the people so they have that private time and conversation. So you don’t feel like you’re left out.

But yeah—she made mention to the higher-up agent.
I said, “I absolutely don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’m happy to talk to her and work through it.”

And then, in talking with her a little more, found that I did nothing wrong—
She just personally misunderstood and got offended.

So I would say: don’t get offended.
Everybody’s just trying to do the best that they can.

Try to tamp down the noise.
Don’t get offended. Don’t overthink it. Don’t be too sensitive.

It’s just business at the end of the day.

And just be professional—always.
Because these relationships with agents—they’re important.

After that sale goes away, we’re all still in this business.
Building bridges between us—bridges of communication—respecting one another,
Looking forward to the next transaction with you.

If they have a horrible transaction with you, and you have a listing—
Maybe they’re going to tell their people:
“Hey, you may not want to work over there. That’s going to be a problem. Go over here instead.”

[00:46:58] Tracy Hayes:
100%. We do it to builders all the time.

Maria Raymer:
Right—because they’re, you know, “this one’s crazy,” or whatever.
So it is a networking business.
Your reputation precedes you in this business.

And I think it’s very important to have professionalism with the agents as well.
And again, you’re not representing the other agents. You’re not doing anything in their best interest.
But you should have a professional relationship with these agents you’re going to be working with—over and over again.

Tracy Hayes:
Right. Right.

[00:47:16] Tracy Hayes:
Well obviously, in 2021, when you had multiple offers going on—
An offer comes from an agent you know, you’ve worked with before. You’re like,
“Oh man, they were really great to work with.”

We even had a negotiation—but they were really cool about it, and we worked it out.
I’m going to put theirs on top. I’m going to recommend theirs.

[00:47:32] Maria Raymer:
You might. Yeah. Because that may be best for your seller.
Like, if you’re working with somebody who’s unhinged, that goes to every point of their business, you know?

So you might think you’re doing a better job for your seller—picking the best contract.
There is some consideration of:
“Oh, that agent—she’s great. I’ve worked with her. She doesn’t work with unqualified buyers. She knows her stuff.”

And you can give a higher level of assurance that that person is going to make the transaction happen.

And if all things are equal—both contracts are the same, basically—
And one person has a really bad reputation, isn’t honest, or is a hothead, or whatever—
And that deal has a higher risk of falling through—

You might share that with your owner and let them decide, based on your experience.

So I think, you know, building bridges, networking in this business,
And being respectful to people is super important.

[00:48:09] Tracy Hayes:
I’m asking this quick—'cause when I had Kim Knapp on, she said this really clearly,
Talking about—getting into negotiations—
How do you set up your... and setup’s not really the right word,
But foreshadow for your client, buyer or seller, that negotiations are going to happen?

[00:39:48] Tracy Hayes:
We didn’t have email, we didn’t have text messages.

Maria Raymer:
Yeah.

Tracy Hayes:
So—mm-hmm—and you know, sometimes, you know, not to react so quickly.
Even talking to the agents who might be listening—don’t be so quick to react.
Take a few minutes. Step back, right?

When you know, “Hey, we got a problem,” like,
“Hey, the insurance company’s saying the water heater needs to be replaced.”
All right—dude, that’s a couple-hour job. It’s done.
Yeah, there’s some money involved—but how do we get around it and not explode?

Or, if you’re properly prepping your seller:
“Hey, you know your water heater’s a little old. They may ask for that to be replaced.”

Tell us some of the things that you’ve learned over time to prepare your client, so knowing that a curveball may come—
you can tell them where to put the bat, so to speak—
so they’re not going to get emotional because you’ve already foreshadowed—

[00:49:19] Maria Raymer:
Right.

[00:49:20] Tracy Hayes:
—these type of things.

Maria Raymer:
I mean, if you sit down for a listing appointment—beautiful house, well-kept—
one of the comments I’ll make is:
“Your house is beautiful, it’s clearly well-kept,
but don’t be surprised or offended when an inspection is done and they find something.

Because you’re not all over your roof.
You’re not in your attic.
You’re not looking at the things they’re looking for.”

So when you think that nothing is going to come up—it probably will.
There’ll probably be something. So be prepared for that.

That’s something that would help a seller who takes a lot of pride in their home—
and they’ve gone out of their way to take care of it.

Even those “perfect” homes—you go through an inspection, and they’re going to feel like their house was picked apart.
And “this inspector’s terrible,” and all these things—because you didn’t prepare them that no matter how perfect your house is, they will find some things.

Try not to get offended.
We’ll work through it.
We’ll negotiate that process and see what makes sense at the time.

So it's just preparing them for the common things that will come.
There’s always things we don’t know are coming—but these are some common things that will come.

You can also prepare them when you notice something about the house and you know feedback is going to come right back to it.
Maybe they back up to a busy road—
Let them know:
“Hey, be prepared—so many out of 10 people…”

It is what it is. The road ain’t moving.
We priced it because we know you’re backing up to a road.
They couldn’t get this house without the road for this price.

So—you don’t want them to get offended.
It’s really important for sellers to get feedback.
But some of them get so upset and offended they don’t even want to hear it.

But talk to them about that up front:
“It’s important. It’s the map to the contract.”
Like, if people are giving you feedback,
you might be able to make slight corrections that will get you to the contract faster.

[00:51:02] Tracy Hayes:
Do you do pre-listing inspections?
I’m a pre-listing inspection fan. I think it’s a great—

[00:51:05] Maria Raymer:
Yes, and we do recommend it for all of our listings to do a pre-listing inspection.
Because you could knock out a lot of things—especially with older homes.

You could knock out a lot of things, because buyers—especially in this market—they’re nervous. They’re fickle.
And it would be better to take, you know—if you've got an inspection with 20 things on there—
maybe you could knock off those 20 or 10 or 15.

So when they do their inspection, they find nothing—or they find five things.
And that makes them feel better about the house.

But inspections can scare buyers away.
And the items that come up can be so basic.
It’s not about that—it’s about the number of items that freaks them out.

So if you can just get that number down to something—

[00:51:49] Tracy Hayes:
I think it’s like buying insurance.
Like, “Can I pay a few hundred dollars to ensure that this sale’s going to make it through the inspection period and the closing?”
You’re really hopefully getting 90% of what may come up.

[00:52:00]
And then if you’re honest, say,
“Yeah, we did an inspection and these are the things that came up—and we fixed them all.”

[00:52:06] Maria Raymer:
Mm-hmm.

[00:52:06] Tracy Hayes:
I mean—what are they going to say?

Maria Raymer:
Yeah. Yeah, you could do that.
Or you could just not have those things show up on the inspection—
which is what ultimately they’re hoping for.

They’re hoping that the house is in good shape and they’re not going to find something that’s just scary.

But like I said—it’s the number of items.
These items could be $50 repairs, $100 repairs—they could all add up to under $2,000.

But you have 35 items on there, and now they’re like,
“Oh my God, the house is falling apart!”

It’s not.
It’s not.
You just have to look at what the items are.

[00:52:36] Tracy Hayes:
Well I’m sure you had it—
There was a period of time there, because the inventory was so low,
People were making offers and settling for a home they didn’t really want.

But there was nothing else out there.
So they made an offer on it,
You get in process,
And all of a sudden a home they really wanted, in the neighborhood they really wanted to get into—now came up.

So now they find a reason to get out of this deal.
And the inspection is obviously the easiest one.

[00:52:59] Maria Raymer:
It is, yeah.
And you may not be able to stop that if that’s their thought process—
that they really wanted that other house, they’re just going to go on to it.

It may not be the inspection that killed the deal—
It might just be the reason they could wrap their head around getting out of it.

But yeah—to your point—less items, it’s going to be helpful.

[00:53:17] Tracy Hayes:
So one of the biggest challenges I think agents have—and I’m sure you’ve seen it, you’ve gone through it—you’ve built a team now.

And so I want to talk a little bit about the evolution of your team.

Did you get to a point where you had so much business, you realized you had to get the help?

[00:53:39] Maria Raymer:
2020.

Tracy Hayes:
2020—okay.

Maria Raymer:
So, you know—and the thing about teams is they rise and fall with how busy it is.
If you can’t give them enough business, or they can’t get enough business, obviously they don’t stay.

And if the market’s upswing, you can keep them busy and have several agents—
We call them buyer agents, but they can list and sell—
So they’re really just agents on a team.

[00:54:00]
So 2020 made me think, I cannot do all of it.

And then—you know—there’s leads in certain areas and price points that you may not want to do,
Or have the time to do in those moments where it's crazy—
And you don’t want to lose that business or refer it to someone else.

So it’s nice to have agents on the team. Then it starts making sense.

But, you know, my team aspect is not just about adding agents.
I don’t want to have 5, 10, 15, 20 agents just to have agents. It doesn’t make sense.

It takes a lot of time and energy to bring them up and to train them.

[00:54:32] Tracy Hayes:
You want longevity with those people, because they’ve got to represent you.
It’s your name—the Raymer Team—that’s on there.

[00:54:36] Maria Raymer:
Yes.
And plus, if you’re going to invest that kind of time and energy,
You want to make sure it’s somebody you think is going to stick around and be there for the rewards that come later—just from working with you longer.

But my team is a lot of admins too.

So I have a transaction coordinator who handles everything from contract to closing.
I have people who specialize in media posts and marketing.
I have people who specialize in contracts and office work.

And when I say “contracts,” I mean just making sure everything gets emailed, set up for e-sign.
I do the contracts, but they’re facilitating the process by setting up the e-sign and things like that.

So, you know, I have an office manager—
She helps new agents if they need something in the technology realm.

So—a couple admins: an admin manager, a closing coordinator, agents that work in the field.
But it’s not all about just agents.
It’s about having a quality team of people—admins—to make sure the ball doesn’t get dropped.

More eyes on the situation, to make sure things run perfectly until closing.

And then after closing, you want to stay in touch with those people.
Service after the sale—that also helps create the longevity.

[00:55:51] Tracy Hayes:
What is—I'm sure things go on—but if there was, of all the things that, you know, an agent does, and obviously your assistants do,
If there is one thing that you could do all day in real estate and that was all you had to do to be successful—don’t even worry about what’s going on—
What would that be?

[00:56:07] Maria Raymer:
I guess, you know, listings has always been the name of the game in our business.

Tracy Hayes:
Mm-hmm.

Maria Raymer:
As far as—you need to have inventory. Inventory brings buyers. Inventory brings sales.

But—I would never just be an agent who’s a listing agent.

[00:56:21] Tracy Hayes:
Right.

[00:56:21] Maria Raymer:
And sellers are savvy about that.

[00:56:23] Tracy Hayes:
But that’s what you love.
Do you like the listing appointment? You like—

[00:56:27] Maria Raymer:
I love that.

Tracy Hayes:
Presenting their home?

Maria Raymer:
I love being in a competition with other agents and then winning.
There’s just something about getting that deal.
It just feels good.

But owners will ask you, “Are you a listing agent or a selling agent?”
And my business kind of comes straight down the line.
Every year—50/50.
Half of my sales, I’m the listing agent. The other half, I’m the buyer’s agent. So about 50/50.

But I do—I love sitting down at the table with the owners, getting to know them and talk with them and meet their kids and their dog—

[00:57:00]
I just love it. I love that social, one-on-one aspect.

Like, I’m shy—like, if you put me up in front of a TV, in front of people, behind a podium—
Yeah, I’m shy in that.

But I’m great at the table.
I love talking with them. I could take an hour-long appointment.

[00:57:11] Tracy Hayes:
The science of strategizing how to sell it—is that a high for you?

Maria Raymer:
Sure, yeah.

Tracy Hayes:
Trying to figure it out—obviously when you’re successful, you’re like, “Ooh, I want to do this again.”

Maria Raymer:
Well, you’re excited about it, too. Because you feel like you got the best of what’s out there and you just want to share it with them so they see and understand—and then they’re excited about it.

But you know, like I was saying, it’s about that conversation and communication, getting to know what they need.
And how do you know that?
You listen to them. Let them talk more.

[00:57:37] Tracy Hayes:
So—not that I didn’t want to ask that question, but I’m leading into this part for our listeners.

That’s what you love to do—and you’re obviously, you’re very good at it.
You could run with the best of them going out on those listing appointments because you’re passionate about it.

When you get up in the morning and have a listing appointment—you’re excited and you get prepped.

The other part, not that you don’t like it—like the transaction coordinating, or doing your, making sure your CRM’s up to date and doing those marketing and follow-ups and staying on those schedules—

Obviously you probably got to a point where,
“Hey, I’m going to too many appointments. I don’t have time in the day to do these other things that I know I need to do to make sure the appointments keep coming.”

So, to those agents out there right now who—
and I think there’s a lid, I talk about this often—
Somewhere between, I think in this area, 6 and 9 million—

Someone’s pretty much going to get maxed out if they’re doing everything themselves.

[00:58:55]
They’re going to start giving up on the follow-ups because they’re too busy going out to the listing appointments.

But there’s just going to come a point where all of a sudden,
“Well man, I haven’t done enough follow-ups and now my appointments are going down.”

Unless something changes the market and it gets hot again or something.

So what is your advice?
What would you do, knowing what you know in the business—
If someone’s at that point, and they’re really starting to slough off or not pay attention to those other things—
What would be the first hire?
A transaction coordinator? An assistant?
What would you do if you were in that spot?

[00:59:06] Maria Raymer:
I think a transaction coordinator, because you pay them when you make money.
They’re not a salary position.

They’re a per-transaction position.
So you pay them when you make money—and they work to help you make money.

And it can take a ton of admin work off your plate just having a TC.

And, you know, a lot of top agents have them.
So like, if I add an agent, they have the access and benefit of that too.

Some offices have a TC for the whole office—and you’ll still pay for them.
But yeah—adding a TC is instrumental.

And then when your business warrants it, pick up a salaried person to help you with all the admin stuff that really doesn’t make you money—
You know, because it’s not so unique that you’re the only one who can do it.

That’s not unique.
That’s the repetition part of our business.
You can hire someone—and then you’re out there doing the things that make the money that you can’t reproduce—like you being on the appointment.

[01:00:00]

[01:00:07] Tracy Hayes:
And spending the time and not being rushed—
“Oh, I gotta get back and do that.”
And you cut off and don’t spend—

I’ve heard some—well actually, I brought up Kim Knapp earlier—
I think she, if I recall correctly, said an assistant.

But you know, when you think about it, the transaction coordinator is delivering your service.
It’s at the moment in time when everything is very important—you’re in the middle.

You want everything to go smooth in a transaction—because that is your reputation—
That hopefully, when the transaction’s over, they go like,
“Man, that was great. Call Maria and whoever—her transaction coordinator—they need to do your deal for you because they’re just great.”

Where the follow-up person—if they send the email today or tomorrow—it’s not really going to make or break your reputation right now.
They need to send it eventually—right?
To get the follow-up.

But that transaction coordinator is an extension of you—and obviously the high level of service.

[01:00:55] Maria Raymer:
Right, right.

And follow-up now can be done on your CRM.
Like, you put everybody on campaigns—it’s all automatic.
Text messages, emails, whatever—communication for just staying in touch with your past clients.

[01:01:00]

So if you have the right technology, you don’t have to hire an admin—
You just have to use your contact management system.
It’s going to cover all that for you—until you need an admin.

But I wouldn’t add a salaried position to a team unless you had the business and the money to support that.

[01:01:26] Tracy Hayes:
One of the challenges out there—I imagine you’ve probably had multiple TCs over the years.

Have you—or unless—have you had the same one?

[01:01:30] Maria Raymer:
A few.

Tracy Hayes:
You’ve had a few.

[01:01:34] Maria Raymer:
Yeah. I've had a few. Only people stick with me—I stick with them.

[01:01:37] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah. Oh. So, the complaint I guess I’ve heard—or the challenge that some people have, they always wanna find the half-glass-empty—is:
“Oh, so-and-so had a transaction coordinator and they were really poor.”

What are some of the important things, when you’re interviewing or considering bringing on a transaction coordinator,
What are some important ground rules that you need to set to make sure the interaction—how they service your clients—is to your satisfaction?

[01:02:07] Maria Raymer:
I think you need to make sure they don’t replace you completely in the transaction by doing things that would be more of an agent responsibility.

I think it’s really important to be very engaged in the communication—
Follow up still with your customers, even though you have a transaction coordinator.

And then, from the transaction coordinator side—you have to constantly make sure they’re not doing too much.
Getting out of bounds of what’s their role, and somehow accidentally getting you out of that circle of communication—

Or building some expectation or conversation with the client that you didn’t sanction or know about.

So it’s really important—you want to delegate,
but you don’t want to just say,
“Here. Take it all.”

You should always be monitoring all steps of what’s happening there.

And I think people—the minute they think they’re paying somebody for something, it’s like,
“Okay, do everything. I don’t want to be bothered.”
But you can’t do that—because then I think mistakes will happen.

And you know what? You’re the one they’re going to blame.
They’re not going to blame your TC.

[01:03:00]
No. Somehow, that transaction in their mind didn’t go well. It doesn’t matter if your TC made a mistake—they’re looking at you.
You let it happen.

So—try to be involved in everything in your business.
Whether it’s your admins, your TC—you should be involved.
You can’t check out.

[01:03:31] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah.

[01:03:31] Maria Raymer:
You gotta be there. You gotta be involved.

[01:03:33] Tracy Hayes:
I think it was Carrie Carpenter who said it well.
It really gave me an insight on the transaction coordinator.

I’ve had some transaction coordinator companies on—ladies that run a team of TCs—that’s what they do.
And every agent sees the TC a little differently, you know?
What they want them to do. Whether not communicate, or communicate fully.

Carrie, for example—I always remember this when I had her on—
She liked getting long text messages in the morning, updating her on all her files.

Maria Raymer:
Mm-hmm.

Tracy Hayes:
I’m like—I wouldn’t like that.

But you have to set those standards—because that TC is not only working with you, they’re working with other agents.

And as you know, they can handle a lot more deals, 'cause they’re sitting in a chair, in a cube or whatever—on a computer.

So even setting, like:
How are we going to communicate?

What you see their role as, versus another agent they may be working with—who may have a totally different expectation.

[01:04:32] Maria Raymer:
Absolutely. Yeah.

And I mean, that’s your job—to train them how you want your business to go.

And for me, I like emails.
Email correspondence. Everyone in the loop.
They’re easy to go back to and track if there’s a he-said-she-said situation.

You’re in the loop on everything if you’re being copied.

If they start floating off with text messages directly to your client,
You’re not involved in those messages—you don’t know what’s happening.

And to be copied in on every single text message—especially when it’s busy—can just constantly…

[01:05:00]
Tracy Hayes:
They get lost.

Maria Raymer:
Yeah. Yeah—it blows up your phone.
You can’t keep track. You do. You get lost. I don’t like that.
I like everything on email—all communications with the client.

[01:05:09] Tracy Hayes:
I agree.

What was it—I was going to ask you another transaction question.
But anyway, let’s talk—when we came in, before we turned the cameras on—

For those who may be listening—if they’re listening this month—it’s October 3rd, 2025.

We talked a little bit about the market.
You talk about the market a lot when you’re down on your TV set—

[01:05:30]
Giving updates—what’s going on.

My personal feeling is, you know—the best time to buy real estate was like two years ago.
So if you don’t have real estate now, you need to get in the game.

Maria Raymer:
Sure.

Tracy Hayes:
Because two years from now, you’re going to be looking back:
“Oh man, I should’ve bought back in ‘25.”

[01:05:54] Tracy Hayes:
What are some of the things that you’re sharing regularly down there, from your standpoint,
about market conditions here in Northeast Florida?
And what are you excited about in 2026?

[01:05:54] Maria Raymer:
I mean, I think right now—it’s a great time to be a buyer.

It’s a buyer’s market.
There’s inventory, there’s negotiating room.

The owners have gotten better about price reductions.
We’re seeing more of the motivated sellers on the market—

Versus the people who were just like,
“Let me see what I can get for my house.”

[01:06:13] Tracy Hayes:
They come to the 11th hour and they’re like,
“Hey—we gotta go.”

Maria Raymer:
Yeah.

So to be a buyer right now I think is a great thing.

And you know, I always say,
“You date the rate, you marry the house.”

Don’t get freaked out about a higher interest rate than you're comfortable with.

If you can afford it—and the bank knows if you can, or you won’t qualify—
And if it’s a payment you’re comfortable with—buy the house.

And then when the rate comes back down—refinance it.

That is not the permanent situation. The house is.

Even in a slower market, there’s still modest appreciation.
So whether it’s 1%, 3%, 5%—that’s all in the modest realm of appreciation.

[01:07:00]
A year from now, you’re going to be paying 1–5% more.
So what did you do by waiting? Nothing, really.

The waiting is just going to cost you more money down the road.

And like I said, when the rate does come down—you’ll be able to refinance and get in a better position with your house.

What I’m excited about in 2026 is—I believe we’re going to see inflation continue to come down from its highs of 2 and 3 years ago.

And along with that—the rate comes down.
There’s a direct correlation with mortgage rates and inflation, as you know.

So I believe that’ll happen.
And I think that’s the thing we’re all looking forward to.

But—don’t wait to buy the house.
Buy the house when you have more negotiating room.

[01:08:00]
And then later on—if and when that rate comes down,
Which it’s looking like it will based on some of the economic indicators—I think we’re all agreed on that anyway—
Then just do the refinance.

But I think 2026 could be pretty competitive,
Because if those rates do go down—and say we see low 5s—
Our inventory is not at 6 months anymore.

It was at the beginning of the year. It was building up to over 6 months, which—
You know, 4 to 6 months is a normal, healthy market. That’s not unusual.

Well now it’s getting down to three and a half, four months.

So the inventory is dwindling.

[01:08:07] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah, I think you and I agree—jumping back in—
And there’s a lot of people sitting on the sidelines.
There are sellers sitting on the sidelines...

[01:08:13] Tracy Hayes:
'Cause they're like, "Oh, I got a low rate now."

Maria Raymer:
Right.

Tracy Hayes:
"But I wanna move over there."
And then there's gonna be a point where they're gonna be like, "Okay, it’s close. We—we wanna go. Let’s go."

[01:08:18] Maria Raymer:
Yeah. And not only are they a new seller in the market—that’s great—but they’re also a new buyer in the market.
That’s competition.

So, you know, will we see another 2020? Probably not to that degree,
Because there were other external factors that made that happen, right?

Like—it was the shutdowns, people moving out of cities, work-at-home environment—
“Oh, I could live in Florida!”

So there was a lot of stuff that won’t exist again.
But if just great rates come into the market, and inventory’s low,
That is going to be enough to fuel competitive offers again.

[01:08:49] Tracy Hayes:
And you stay in touch with the heartbeat of Northeast Florida, too.

We kind of have—I think it’s a unique bubble here.
They are bringing in high-quality jobs.
I mean, Jacksonville’s becoming a financial hub from that standpoint.

And obviously, you need people to service that.
The blue collar’s gotta service the white collar, right? That kind of thing going on.

And I think they just signed a big deal over at Cecil Field to build these new—I forget how many there were—there were a lot.
But the airplane manufacturer is coming in to build these private jets over there.

Which obviously means there are going to be high-end jobs.
Just like having Northrop Grumman down in St. Augustine—right?—is a thing.

We just have this unique area, let alone the lifestyle.

[01:09:34] Maria Raymer:
Right. We have great lifestyle here.
Yeah—I love Northeast Florida.
There’s so much to offer.

St. Augustine’s right down the road—Oldest City in America.

And, you know, just all the little pocket areas—that’s what I love about it.

I love places like Riverside and San Marco, and, you know, all these different places that you can go and it feels like you’ve gone away for the weekend—because they’re so different.

And we have all that right here.

We have those walkable areas, like at the beach—by Neptune Beach,
Where you park your car and there’s all the shops and the coffee and the restaurants—and the beach is there.

And we have multiple pocket areas like that.
It’s just a great place to live.
Yeah—I love Northeast Florida.

I travel a ton—and when I say “a ton,” I don’t mean all in the same year,
I mean in my life—right?
I’ve been all over the US, I’ve been to other places…

I always love coming back home.
I think Northeast Florida is a really fabulous place to live and raise a family.
I just am sold on it, you know?
I have been—that’s why I’ve been here so long.

[01:10:28] Tracy Hayes:
Maria, I appreciate you coming on.

[01:10:30] Maria Raymer:
Yeah—it’s been a pleasure.

Tracy Hayes:
It’s been a great conversation.
Hopefully your fans will see this—we’ll get this out on YouTube,
It’ll go out on the podcast world on Monday—

Maria Raymer:
Great.

Tracy Hayes:
The 6th, there.
But I really appreciate finally getting you in the studio.

[01:10:44] Maria Raymer:
It’s been great—thanks. Thank you so much.