How AI, Reviews & Referrals Are Shaping Real Estate

Tracy Hayes  0:04  
Hey, welcome back to The Real Estate excellence podcast. Today's guest is one of the top 1% of Realtors in Northeast Florida with over 100 million in career sales. She's a multi year Jacksonville Real producer, a certified luxury home marketing specialist and a relentless advocate for her clients. Her no one likes to wait. Philosophy drives her rapid response and next level service now with Realty One, alvay continue to lead the precision in heart. Let's welcome Sarah Schwartz to the show a second time. Yes, we were just looking up episode 106, so we're not really going to go into the background of Sarah, where she was born, and everything today, because we did it in Episode 106, and you can look that up. What I really want to do is, you had a really great year. Thank you, and especially, mean, with a little bit of help from a transaction coordinator as a solo agent. I mean, I don't know how you could do anymore.

Sarah Schwartz  0:57  
We'll see. I mean, did you get to see your family at all this year you did? We actually, this time last year, my husband and I were in Canada. We went to Whistler for my 40th birthday, and then, which is three days from now, your birthday, January, 16. Yes,

Sarah Schwartz  1:14  
yeah. We did some traveling. We spent a lot of time together. He also helps me with my real estate. So he helps a lot on the back end, making some marketing stuff, doing my website. He's trying to make me have the biggest website in Northeast Florida. And yeah, I mean, we spent a lot of time. I have two young kids so well, this is a question I didn't have prepared, but it made me think of something for those that are listening right now, maybe thinking about getting into real estate, or maybe just haven't, you know, got to the stride that you've gotten to at this point. But I imagine, obviously, when you started, your husband wasn't part of your business. He's he's kind of come on to you definitely helped me grow, yeah, well, but now, because of the volume you've created, the the business you've created, he's able to come in and you're and then just tell us a little bit about you, how it's allowed you to, you know, go and go to Whistler and spend a whatever week or whatever, and not really worry about it. Yeah. I mean, so he definitely went when it was a little bit slower, but he helps me a lot with my back end. He's a licensed contractor as well as a licensed Realtor as well as a licensed drone pilot, and he just loves getting licenses. But he, you know, he really helps with listings. So if a seller gets an inspection report with all this crazy stuff and they're like, What do I do? Who do I call he helps facilitate everything, and then he takes the stress off of them, which then helps take the stress off of me. He gets everything scheduled, and then they just send the invoice to the seller. So he helps a lot to take some time off of me so that we can enjoy life. Well, let me ask you. Let me know this, because obviously my wife's in the business as well, and you know this, you know, doing something like you're alone. I don't know if I'd ever licensed myself as general contractor. Have thought of the drone thing, though? Yeah, that's fine, but

Tracy Hayes  3:09  
the the way you like it, yes, your women have, you guys have your own way of doing things and how you want it. Has he has he figured that out yet? Or do you still got to come in sometimes and polish it up a little.

Sarah Schwartz  3:23  
He sends everything to me for approval. So, like, we started, if I like something that somebody else is doing, and I want to kind of make it my own, I just send it to him, and he makes it different. So, like, I went to a showing with someone, and they had booklets there where it had, like, just a little bit about the house. So then I sent it to him, and he came through. And now we create listing booklets for all of my listings, where it has, like a walk through of the house, the floor plan, the seller's disclosure, CDD, Hoa, and that way, when your buyer is coming to the house, they have this nice piece of material to take with them, instead of a piece of paper. So it's a he helps me do things to stand out, right, right?

Tracy Hayes  4:09  
In literally having a true assistant that you know is going to show up. Yes, it's going to execute on the plan as the team has put together which you're coaching the team. And this is where you guys agree. This is way we're gonna do things, and it must relieve you of a lot of stress, yeah, and, you know, I'm sure you follow up on him, you know, make sure he's very thorough, yeah, well, imagine, after some time, he probably does make the beds the way you want him to make the bed, right?

Sarah Schwartz  4:39  
Though, I am looking for an assistant. All right.

Tracy Hayes  4:41  
Well, so let's talk a little bit about two. I mean, you've just short of 36 million, yes, and I was looking at your production. It's not like you. You did a handful of deals that were million and a half 2 million. You don't, you're not, you're not, you don't have, you know, although everyone would love to fill it up, you had an I didn't. Look at the actual number of transactions, and if I still have it up on my screen, 57 transactions. Yeah, 57 transactions. You someone out there doesn't know anything about real estate, so you know, 12 months of the year you're looking at at more than a four. That's basically a four and a half transactions a month and talk a little bit about how your husband, in having his assistance to do those things that to take off your mind, getting the house prepped. I'm sure you know, whether it's landscaping, what you know, all the things that you want to make the house look, you know, curb ready, right and ready for that open house. He's leverage. You're leveraging him. He's taking a lot of that thought off your so you could say, forward, focusing,

Sarah Schwartz  5:45  
yeah, yeah. We ever seen those, like the videos where the person is like, Oh, here's my husband who didn't realize what he'd be doing by being married to a real estate agent. That's him, right? So he, I mean, it's so helpful to have somebody even like, go put the signs in the yard. Go put the lock box on, or pick them up. You know, drop off booklets. Drop this off, pick this up. You know, we had one where he needed to go and sand the top of the door because it was too close to the top. So he does a lot of the little things that all add up. He has been doing so much research for my website just to continue to make back ends and pages. I don't speak technology or website, but we'll

Tracy Hayes  6:30  
make sure. We make sure we talk about my poster down here, about this gentleman here later on, and adding a little AI search to Well, I'll tell you. I'll tell you his story in a minute. But go ahead, because I have a commercial. Yeah, sponsor, perfect.

Sarah Schwartz  6:43  
It's almost like I just worked at it. Yes, you did. I mean, he just does so much to take stress off of me, or, like, you know, if you have multiple buyers coming in from out of town, he's able to go to an inspection for me if I need him to, or go to a walk through or do whatever, because he is licensed. So, I mean, he's just, yeah, he's what puts the Schwartz in? Sarah Schwartz,

Tracy Hayes  7:12  
well, for eight so we were talking about it earlier. And I always talk about on the show, it's a hot it's, I think it's one of the most important topics. We're going to go to re bar camp here in a couple weeks. And I believe there has to be a breakout session talking about, how do you, how do you move to the next level? And because there comes a point where your cup is full, and whether it's a transaction coordinator or wherever, in this case, someone you can rely on to go out and get that sign in the yard on time, go get the lock boxes. You're not having to call them every 15 minutes. Are worried about that. They're goofing off somewhere. He's going out, you know, in getting these things done, because he's he's part of it. Is it costing you an income? Well, you were going to feed him anyway, or he would have to have his go. He would have his own, his own full time job, but you've got to the point where you basically have to employ him, yeah.

Sarah Schwartz  8:05  
I mean, I think that the two of us, I mean, bless him, he listens to all of my crazy ideas, and he usually moves forward with them, and we just do a lot, not just with the business that we already have, but to try and grow it. So like, for example, we dropped off hot chocolate bombs. So he like he facilitates everything. So he has the person that he goes to to order them. He hired neighborhood kids to put all of our bags together. He does. He takes so much stress off of me. He plans my events. He He truly does

Tracy Hayes  8:38  
everything that that is well, that's an amazing partner, because I don't know if I could do that for my for my I would like to, but I don't know if I have the attention to detail that involves there. All right, what happened this year? I mean, you've been producing. Obviously, you're on the show 200 episodes ago, so this, you know, producing is not new for you, but we're this year. We, you know, the stat was 70% of the agents did zero to one deal. I think we probably could stretch somewhere in the 80% that did, you know, more than five deals, right? Or, you know, did less than five deals. There. You had a great year. 57 transactions, which I've seen. There are a couple agents in town that, I mean, really put out some numbers, but yet, there's others who have curved off in these last couple of years. Now, 2324 that we're doing okay in. 2122 what's the difference?

Sarah Schwartz  9:40  
I I feel like I've really mastered relationship building and just having consistent follow up and just like being myself. So I love people. So in my neighborhood, I started a neighborhood book club. Um, we hosted Friendsgiving. We do stuff for all of the previous buyers and all of the sellers. So we did two events this year. We did a jumbo shrimp game and then ice skating. At the end of the year, we dropped off hot chocolate bombs and champagne to everyone that's ever bought. I think that sometimes people lose sight of the people that bought from them five years ago or six years ago. But you can ask my first buyer ever, her name is Zoe, and she will tell you that for the last almost seven years, every year she gets something from me every year. We talk multiple times a year, and we just stay in contact. And I think that really helps when you're asking for a referral from people, if you're not talking to anyone ever, and then you're just like, hey, Tracy, if you know anyone looking to buy yourself, send them my way. And you're like, I haven't talked to you since you sold my house. It's like, why would I work with you? Or why would I refer you? I had someone the other day who told me that they would never work with their realtor again because they made them feel like a number. So I've always tried to make sure that people know how special they really are and how important it makes me feel that they include me in this major life transaction.

Tracy Hayes  11:17  
What would you say to someone who may be in the business six, seven years now, that has not been regularly reaching back to those people five years ago, maybe, maybe just in the last year, to like, Man, I need to do what Sarah's been doing, so that they're focused on the people they recently do, but not to be shy, to still reach out in a in some unique way, and not to go, Hey, do you know anybody? Just to say, hey, you know what? Don't ask for the referral. I've screwed up. And I really appreciate, you know, I really appreciate you being one of my first sales my first year. You know, I you know, how's things going? Yeah, yeah,

Sarah Schwartz  11:55  
just check in. How's your house looking? What have you done in the last few years? I'd love to come over for coffee, or I'd love to bring you breakfast or whatever. I also do Lolo gifts, so that's a way to keep in touch with people every single month. And I mean, some people love it. Some people don't ever redeem anything, but they're still getting it. They're still getting that email from you. Yeah, I just started my newsletter, so that's also going out to everyone. So I think just staying top of mind, and I'm also really big about not only posting about business stuff, as you can see on my social media, I post about my family, and I think that really resonates with people, because they feel like they know you in a different way, like I have people in my neighborhood where my daughter had surgery three months after she was born, and there were people I had never met before, but obviously, when you move into a new neighborhood, everybody friend requests, everyone and they were like, Oh my gosh, how's Sadie doing? If I saw them, and I'm like, Who are you? Yeah, she's doing great,

Tracy Hayes  12:57  
right? You don't realize she's following you.

Sarah Schwartz  13:01  
Because I think when people show you that they really care, and it goes the the opposite way as well. When I see someone that I saw where they posted something, I'm like, Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry to hear about XYZ or, Oh, that was such an amazing accomplishment, you know, ABC. And I think it just makes people feel like you're really there for them,

Tracy Hayes  13:21  
I was interesting. I had Dory Nugent on. She's only been in the business, I think, three years now, doing well, but she said the exact same thing, you can't post real estate, real estate, real estate, real estate, because I literally, anyone knows i What's I go through everyone's social media before they come on and and some people before they even, I even know their guest, or it was just be a good guest, and I'll go on and look. And when you go on their you know their Instagram page, and it's literally just a picture of a front of a house, and it would say sold, or list, whatever, just, and just, all you see is pictures of houses. It's kind of, I mean, that doesn't, just doesn't look good.

Sarah Schwartz  14:06  
Well, I mean, I get to know the person, yeah. So it's like, would you rather work with someone who you're like, oh my gosh, they have two adorable kids like mine. And they did this. They did this, how is your trip? And then it's like, sprinkle in some real estate in between, it just changes the whole feeling that I think people get for you,

Tracy Hayes  14:25  
yeah, no, 100% because there's no doubt people track like kind if you're a family, you're involved in whatever the community things are, and you're putting your you're putting those little things up. Now I wouldn't there's some people that do overwhelm from the family side, yeah, probably too many. They want to post every picture they took at Christmas time, and you're like, looking in there says, 57 pictures. Like a handful of the good ones, just three, four good yeah. But they, they, they're bonding with you through the social media. They're bought with. If it's video, great, they're bonding with you. And because they're saying, Oh, I'm like, That person. Oh, that's, that's like, that looks like our Christmas, you know, type of thing, whatever it may be in there. And they're, they're bonding with you. And then I think that's part of the attraction, part of the relationship building that everyone says is important, which I will tell you, Yes, I'm all the 304 episodes. Now that's the, you know, relationships, relationships, relationships, someone, actually, someone, the other day said it was very, very well, was your your network, is your net worth. That was, you know, and that's building those relationships. Yeah.

Sarah Schwartz  15:38  
I mean, I don't think, like I I know that I wouldn't have done as well as I did last year had I not built the relationships that I have. I mean, I still talk to someone that I went to elementary school with in Baltimore. I still talk to people that I went to Hebrew school with when I was 12 years old. I still talk to people that, you know, I had mentioned before my ex is in the Navy, so I talked to people from his first ship from 20 years ago. Yeah. You know, last year, I think I had three sales that were from our time together now.

Tracy Hayes  16:13  
Or is that those people from you before you got into real estate? Yeah? I mean, something that is just people that have come up on on Facebook now, and you just regularly, just met. You're met. You're talking to them through, you know, commenting on what they're posting, or sending them a message. Every so often.

Sarah Schwartz  16:30  
I've always been the type of person that cheers people on. I've always been the type that checks in with you if I see like, you know, if somebody used to post all the time when Facebook was like, the way that it was before, people would just post, like, the random statuses where it was like, Sarah is so I would check in with people and be like, Hey, is everything okay? You haven't, like, posted anything in a while, or Happy birthday, or if you know somebody's not doing well, like, How's your dad doing? Or just whatever. And I think just being that way is what

Tracy Hayes  17:04  
has let him know you thought about him. Yeah. I mean, I think there's, I had some weird things happen over not that it hasn't happened before, but my aunt passed away over the holidays and in Yes, I mean, my mom were talking. It's her sister. You know, my mom lives locally, so it's not like we don't go long without talking, but just some situations where I was thinking about, hey, I need to send a text to mom and see what's going on, because she hadn't passed away yet. The type of thing. And no sooner did it did, I was like, texting her. There was a she was texting me, right? And that when you're sometimes just this weird thing, sometimes when you're thinking about someone, you don't realize they're actually thinking about you, or did maybe an hour ago, or something. It's so crazy.

Sarah Schwartz  17:58  
I mean, I'll text people, even if I if I have a dream about somebody, I'm not the type that is just like, oh so weird. I had a dream about Tracy. Move on with my day. I'll text and be like, so weird. You were my dream last night made me want to reach out. I hope you're doing well, yeah, just like something.

Tracy Hayes  18:16  
Well, I often wonder if I have people in my dreams if something has happened, right? And that's for some reason they're being brought up that I haven't even thought of in a while. Yeah, there's no doubt childhood friends like, Man, I haven't talked to this person in 30 years, but they were in my dream last night, like, Yes or

Sarah Schwartz  18:34  
like, I had a dream about someone years ago, and I looked him up on Facebook. It was someone that I went to elementary school with in Baltimore. And I was like, That's so weird. Like, why is he in my head? Right? And then I looked him up on Facebook and friend requested him. And I was like, so weird. You were in my dream the other day, and he is now a realtor in Baltimore. Cool. Sounds like referral partner, yeah.

Tracy Hayes  18:56  
Well, yeah, all right. So let's imagine anyone listening right now is going okay, Sarah, I hear you're, you're contacting all these people. Tell us. Tell us the makeup of, you know, 57 trends where you said 57 Yeah, 57 transactions. What? What are you What is making up from, truly, like people who, maybe I don't know, got your website or whatever, non referral, just someone green versus those that have been referred by, whether it's the person of Baltimore or your neighbor down the street, yeah, what's your what's the makeup of that?

Sarah Schwartz  19:34  
I would say like 90% of my business was people finding me online, reading my reviews, referrals from neighbors, referrals from friends, repeat buyers, repeat sellers, sellers into buyers.

Tracy Hayes  19:47  
Well, take out the take out the people who found you online, because they're guys. I think that's that's organic. It's not a referral. But because

Sarah Schwartz  19:55  
in other states find me. Why do you think that is? I. Think when you look somebody up and I talk about my communication, they call, and when I answer, they say, Oh, my God, you actually answered your phone.

Tracy Hayes  20:09  
Yeah, that makes you like how many other people do you call that didn't answer the phone? Right?

Sarah Schwartz  20:14  
So I would say 80 to 8580 to 85 of my, percent of my business this year was from sphere,

Tracy Hayes  20:23  
human, human referral, yes, yeah, and repeat, yeah. Alright, so you are getting some out of town stuff. My wife gets a lot of that too. What do you think is some of the because I think some of these agents, they don't actually have kind of and so they're going online and looking, are you getting some of that was at rate? Was it rate, rate my agent or something? Or there's one site, and my wife gets a lot from that one rate, I think it's rate my agent or something.

Sarah Schwartz  20:53  
Remember when they had Rate My Professor college?

Tracy Hayes  20:57  
Yeah, I'm not, I'm not that old. So, I I mean, I am that old. I am that old and not remember, yeah, because we obviously didn't have cell phones, which is a very good app. I would imagine I would love to have that. If I was in college today. What do you think so these agents are searching? What? What are agents or you found? Or if you maybe, if you've had discussions, what are they searching for? If they're looking from out of state, looking at Northeast Florida, how are they coming up in finding you? What is it that that that you've done, that you've laid this groundwork? I know you have a great website, but which all right, I'm gonna get in the website thing next. But tell me about what do you how do you think they're finding you?

Sarah Schwartz  21:41  
I think because I have so many Google reviews, I think I come up higher. So when people are looking for a realtor, Naka T or a real turn St John's, I think I organically am closer to the top of the page, because I have so many reviews. And I think if a realtor is looking at another state, they're going to do the same thing I'm going to do is I'm going to actually read the reviews, like, Is this someone where they just had all their friends and family fill something out? Or is this somebody that they have true experiences in there? So I think it helps that, like, when another agent is looking, they can see, I help military, I help, first time home buyers. I help luxury, I help everyone. And everyone says the same thing is just how great my communication is, how they felt like they were the only person I was working with, and how I fought for them, and just everything that I did. And they're like, I'll give her

Tracy Hayes  22:35  
a shot. Are you so how do you encourage? Are you encouraging them to leave a review? Yeah. How do you how do you do you do that? Because that is key. Whether you're a loan officer or a real estate agent or in any sales, you have to have some way of, like, obviously encouraging them to take that step after you.

Sarah Schwartz  22:53  
So in my closing basket, I have a little postcard, and on the back of it, there's a QR code, and it's like, nice, you were one of the best I worked with. Now leave me a review. And then if they don't, then I send like, follow up text a few weeks after they move in, like, Hey, I hope you're settling in well, or after they sell, like, hope your next transition is going well. Would you mind leaving me some kind words on my Google or right?

Tracy Hayes  23:17  
Right now are you? Which is Google is a big part of what I'm talking about in a minute. About websites, educate everyone. Some people, for me, I haven't talked about it in a few a month or so, but are you? It's very important that they go on there, and AI is looking for these keywords. Yes, Google reviews very important. Like, if it's not number one, it's number two. If you're you're pumping out the Google reviews. AI is finding that so which may be in probably it accelerate you into the future, because you've already built this whole platform of Google reviews that someone, hey, I'm looking for top real estate agents, whatever, however, yeah, Sarah's popping up. You do have the website. You own the address top what is it? Best Realtors I have, I actually own the top Jacksonville Real Estate Agents, I think, yeah, so, because what my plan was, I have to go back. I've got a lot of blogs in there already, but I was focused on just getting my website caught up with every episode. I bought these landing pages, or these, you know, those, those, there's four of them, two for Jacksonville, two for St Augustine, and started putting all the blogs from everyone on the show because I envisioned, I wanted people to be searching, yeah, and I pop up and I got a blog on you and there, whatever, and then generate leads for you. All right. Where was I going with that? We're talking about the website. All right. Let me, well, probably lead me into the Google reviews, the Google reviews and AI, so my gentleman, which I'm actually going to read his commercial here, if I can take 30 seconds, and then we'll talk about it. I'm. Um, read tomato, actually, do I have it? Actually, did I put it actually loaded on here? Yes, I did. All right, we'll take 30 seconds. Here we go. If you're great at what you do, but your content keeps getting ignored online. Listen up. Read tomato, R, E, A, D, tomato built something called the hot take engine once a month. They'll spend an hour with you on a call, they'll put all your best stories, strongest opinions and the answers your buyers are already searching for. Then they turn it into a full month of published, ready content that sounds like you and shows up where it matters, Google and AI results. You don't need more posts, you need more signal. And that's read, tomato, R, E, A, D, tomato.com. You can go on there, and they could schedule review. Someone I grew up with. His name is Jim Cronin. Him and his partner, Craig, they were actually just doing websites and designing, but what they've obviously do is that, you know, transit had, I think we got away from websites. A lot of agents are just tagging on to their brokerage and that's in it. Just got this one little landing page and and then they don't even really do much to the landing page add to it, because I go on look for bios and all this other stuff, right? They don't even keep it updated and that sort of thing. So what he found, and what this he they call it hot take engine. He's transitioned recently from website design, he's allowing someone else to do the design, the colors and all that other stuff. They're they're focused on the content behind it because of the AI search. And if you go back to the episode I did with Jim Crow, and everyone's listening to it in a quality website like you have, he'll go on. So the example he gave me, which I quickly gave the analysis. It's like our subdivisions in southwest Michigan. He has a customer. They call lake the lake life com, if you go to the lake life com, it's a brokerage in southwest Michigan, all these lakes right there, every lake is different, right type of fish? Can you have a boat on it? Can you water ski? Can you whatever? And around those lakes, I'm sure there's different levels of homes as well, much like our subdivisions or planned or written developments here in Northeast Florida. So they've got about 30 different lakes on there, and what they do every month is they are feeding a market report around that lake, so you have very current numbers. They're posting. They're putting a blog behind those, each individually. So when someone is searching to buy a lake home in southwest Michigan, boom on AI, they're coming up as the source number one, yeah, because AI is looking for what is the most you know current and obviously, on the ground, don't. Don't think because some big corporation like Zillow owns it, they don't. They're too far away, and AI knows that. But if you're blogging, if you're blogging, and you're constantly, you're consistently putting information, you're going to start showing up on those AI searches. And for those who don't know, when you go on Google right now and you put in, I want to live in St John's County, Florida, they're gonna come up. And the first thing is, AI is gonna have some stuff. And then right after their thing is a little footnote of where they got that information. And if you look a lot of more bloggers, so that's what, that's actually what he's doing. So he could go behind your website. And, you know, after having he pretty we realized he's pretty much, much like doing a podcast, but more direct with the questions. He records it, but then we get the transcripts, and then you have aI create these blogs, and, you know, with all the links and everything you need. So when someone's searching AI, it's finding that blog, nice, yeah, that is, I think that's where, that's where we're going. I think that's where they're finding you and, well, it's one thing he told me, is, this is his business, is the Google review is, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sarah Schwartz  28:54  
I also, to your point, a lot of realtors are not doing websites, or they do, like, their basic landing page, or the one that their CRM provides them. But I had a custom website made. And I mean, I, I like that. It looks different, yeah.

Tracy Hayes  29:10  
Well, one you can you're going in. I know you have the best agents there. You also have named it, Sarah Schwartz, so you put multiple names on it so people, you can put that tag wherever you want, or turning on how people are searching as well. But I think, as we AI is now opened the door to the website can actually be a force out there that it was 20 years ago, right? Yeah, when people are searching for the if you're putting regular information and out there, Jim does that. Can you do that yourself? Of course, you could, you know, I mean, I could show you easily how to use AI to write really good blogs. I mean, it gets better and better every time that you do it. And then. And there's a certain way you should write them, and there's just you should have certain links in there and everything. And I've, like, I've got it set now, if you look at the most recent blogs I've done versus a blog I did six months ago, there's, you know, how it's structured and everything, yeah, yeah. Like, I was like, Who reads blogs? Right? Everybody, AI reads blogs then

Sarah Schwartz  30:21  
gives the general public little snippets.

Tracy Hayes  30:22  
Yes, exactly, exactly, more info. Click this link. Well, the stats out now. I mean, I think everyone, if they think about the last Google searches they've done, they've just read what Gemini said and never even clicked

Sarah Schwartz  30:35  
on a link, right? Why do you have to? Yeah, yeah, there.

Tracy Hayes  30:42  
Go get it. Bring us back in to because I really want to share with what, what you're doing. Let's talk about, let's talk pretty much since the last time you were on, you know, which is probably, it's probably been, it's almost not, not quite three years. So you develop, yeah, so you've at that time, I think you had just changed brokerages at that time. Yeah, from kW, was, I think, was your original? You originally kW, right. I was

Sarah Schwartz  31:11  
at Keller for about six months.

Tracy Hayes  31:12  
Yes, I think you just made the transition at that time. I think, I think that was the one. But anyway, yeah, the bottom line is this, you have, you have been with several of the brand names, yes, of the brokerages. So let's talk about some of the audience out there who, if they're getting started or maybe they're at a brokerage, and they're like, am I getting all that I can get out of out of a brokerage? Because I personally feel for majority of agents, the brokerage can make or break you if you're not getting the coaches. Now, some people that construct can be successful no matter where they go. We know that, but there's a good percentage also that can get with a good broker and really move their career faster. Yeah, I agree.

Sarah Schwartz  31:56  
I think for me, I've taken something from all of the brokerages that I've been at, and I would say there's two brokers that really stood out and helped me a lot. And I think I've learned so much over the last almost seven years to where I was at a cloud based brokerage, and I stayed for a while, a good amount of time, and then realized maybe that's not for me. Like I think people sometimes are scared to leave a brokerage because, oh, what are the other agents gonna think? Or what's my cousin's friend's nephew gonna think? And it's like every broker will tell you, nobody works with you because of what brokerage you're at. So it truly is what you're getting from it. And I like to tell people, would you stay in a relationship with somebody if it was just meh or like, if you didn't see it going to the next level, why would you stay? And it's the same thing, in my opinion, at a brokerage, if you don't feel like they're helping you or just making you go where you want to go, find what will and sure, it might not be the first stop, and you might love something at one and then not at the other, and you just have to do what's best for you. And at the end of the day, people shouldn't care where you're at or if you do switch, if anything, they're going to be like, tell me what you didn't love about this one, and what you think you'll love about this one, or what did you love about this and not this? Because something that I didn't love, somebody else might

Tracy Hayes  33:29  
exactly there's some people who need, kind of give a little bit of a sports analogy here. They need a little more discipline in their life. People who discipline? No, no. We're not talking about someone physically smacking you on the butt or what. That's not what we're talking you need some structure. That's discipline. You need someone who's going to say, Hey, why weren't you here at nine o'clock this morning? Right? Some people need that.

Sarah Schwartz  33:57  
Or what are you doing with this contract?

Tracy Hayes  33:59  
I think some people may disagree with me, but people listen to show regular I I'm a Bobby Knight. I like Tom Coughlin, Bobby Knight. Rub some people the wrong way. There's others that would die for Bobby Knight, right, you know? And how he was very, very structured. And he, he, I love his statement. Best motivation is, you know, butt on the bench, you know, type, you know. And he's, he's going to tell you what you need to hear. He's not where. And he's, hopefully you're going to like him because he helped, he actually helped you get better. Major, like, whatever it is in your whatever you're doing in life. And I think Tom Coughlin was the same way. Tom Coughlin felt in his world, very, a very structured environment. And after some players figured it out. Oh, you know what? If we have this structure, we win. Whoa, because everyone loves to take the low road, right? No foot loose and fancy free. But if you don't win, then you Oh. But I got to do that discipline thing versus, you know, so I think it's the same way with the brokers, not the not that a broker needs to be a Tom coffin or Bobby Knight. But there's some people that will can thrive in that atmosphere.

Sarah Schwartz  35:14  
Yeah, yeah. I think, for me, like another sports analogy, some people love Coach K. I'm not a coach. K fan, Roy Williams fan, so I think it just depends on, like, what works best for you? Like, some people are looking for different things. I'm at the point in my career where I don't want to have a high split. And sure I know brokerages can truly give you so much technology and all of the things, but then I could go somewhere else and maybe not pay as much. Still have really great broker support, still have great technology. Sure, it might not be a proprietary system and things that other brokerages offer, right? But will I use that? And that's what it really came down to. So I think that some people need certain things and some people don't, and I think there's a fit for everyone, and it's just about finding what works best for you.

Tracy Hayes  36:11  
All right, so I got two questions out of out of that. The first one, what, what did you feel was important to you?

Sarah Schwartz  36:20  
Say, why don't I like Coach K? Well, we

Tracy Hayes  36:22  
could get into that. Well, you know, Coach K and Bobby Knight coach together at Arden, you know, I think they're but I think Coach K has a different intimidation factor, where Bobby knights physically out there, but Coach K gets mad too. But Coach K, they would, no one would put Coach K and Bobby Knight and like as and call them similar coaches. But it worked for they, they just, they do their thing and got the same things accomplished. Yeah. Okay, so what was your question? All right, we so you're evaluating brokers, and you've done it numerous times, so there's been some good things that you've done, but you had to, I think you hit it on a point there. You have to realize what you need in your business, not what someone other agents are doing. What did you break down here in the recent move to Realty, one group elevate with Tanya. What was it that you broke down and you needed? You felt, obviously they were going to connect and do they're doing business the way you felt you need to do business.

Sarah Schwartz  37:27  
So honestly, I love Tanya. She and I did a deal together. Think it was five years ago. It was horrible, not because of her, her seller was very challenging, and it just made it a very interesting transaction, but we stayed in touch. And being at the cloud based brokerage that I was at, I will say the broker support was not great, and recently, so I think when you do 57 transactions in a year, you know, maybe you need help with 10% and it's things that you're like, who would come up with this? And I got to a point where I wasn't getting the support from my broker, and I would reach out to Tanya and another local broker, and I would be like, I'm so sorry to bother you. However, here we are. Here's my problem. What do I do? What? What do you recommend? Or like, this came up, is my seller in the wrong, or is my buyer in the wrong? And she would be like, No, or she would give me advice, and that was what I was really missing. So the broker support is there. I missed going into an office. So it's nice that the office is 15 minutes from my house. I like that they are an international brand, so that was important to me to stick with that. So it's like, at the last brokerage I was with, it was International. The one before that, it was international. And I like the idea of that to get referrals from other agents. Not to say, I get tons, but

Tracy Hayes  38:56  
the opportunity one or two a year is good. Yeah, that's great. Or if,

Sarah Schwartz  38:59  
like, if I'm sending out a referral. I want to make sure that you know it's someone reputable and that they're not just I don't know. It's a mindset so well.

Tracy Hayes  39:09  
So if I'm hearing you correctly, you felt you needed a broker who really knows you, knows the business knows well and well you have confidence that they know the business versus now, if I heard correctly, I know that the cloud brokerage you were working with, they have whatever, a handful of brokers that cover the state of Florida, and they're they all are on they got phone time. I mean, if they, if they answer right, how they actually got promoted to that level, to to and maybe they don't get paid that much, so maybe that's why they don't answer the phone all the time. But there's a level of accountability. And obviously, you know Tanya, you know Tony sees your number coming up. She's answering it because she knows you're calling. You got something important, you know it might it's. Might not be important to Tanya, but it's important to you, so she's going to answer it, just because that is Yeah, and, but also, I think there is a level again, everyone's in, you know, different. I would personally want that myself. You may want the call center broker, I don't know, right?

Sarah Schwartz  40:17  
And I also think the culture is what I was looking for. I think that if I had a big team, and, you know, five to 10 agents, and I had my own culture within the team, it would be different, but I don't have that. So I wanted an office with culture, with events, with camaraderie, and I don't feel like I had that before.

Tracy Hayes  40:39  
Right now, you said you picked up a couple things from some other brokers, yes, over seven years. What are those? What are those? What's a couple things that you picked up from? You know, whether you want to name the other broker or not give them credit, that's up to you. But obviously you've learned some things. What that resonated with you that you still implement in your business in one way, shape or form today. So what are a couple of those things?

Sarah Schwartz  41:03  
I mean, I put it on my 100 million dollar post. I think Josh and Corey were two of the greatest

Tracy Hayes  41:12  
Josh Cohen. Josh been on the show. Corey has been on the show a few times.

Sarah Schwartz  41:16  
Yeah, they both helped me so much, just like helping with mold me, helping with making me grow. I mean, I went to England, mulkers, when I was a baby agent, like, one year in the business, and, you know, he took me, he helped show me like luxury. He helped saying that, like, you know, everything is luxury, and just really helping me grow

Tracy Hayes  41:41  
so it's a service, not a price point. I disagree. I disagree with you guys, and

Sarah Schwartz  41:48  
this is an argument that specifically is an argument that I've had with a lot of people, not an argument, but a little debate. I've spoken with some realtors, or I've gone to events where there are realtors who will say, like, I don't work with any one that is under this price point. To me, that's disgusting. Yeah, that is so I completely agree

Tracy Hayes  42:11  
that may not market to that price point,

Sarah Schwartz  42:13  
right, but you should help everyone, right? And you don't know one. You don't know who people know. And why would you want to make someone feel less than So, that's why it's

Tracy Hayes  42:24  
not okay. Here's my psychology. My psychology part comes in. Why would you say something like that to anyone you may, you may have so much business at the million dollars that you're like, hey or over then when someone at 300,000 you Okay, no problem. And you just refer them to a, you know, an assistant agent, or, you know, something like that. But why would you say something in public to somebody? I don't handle anyone under a certain person like that. Just That's stupid.

Sarah Schwartz  42:52  
It's gross to me. Yeah, I love helping people. So yes, it's not a price point. It is a service. And then Josh, he's so great. I mean, he would do monthly coaching with you, and be like, look at your business. He would look at your business with you and be like, This is what we can do to get you to the next level. What are you doing with this? What are you doing with this? How are you doing this? And I can't say enough good things about him, right?

Tracy Hayes  43:20  
Let's talk about a broker like that. Corey is like that too, right? You know, they're looking in agents. Shouldn't fear that. I mean, assuming you want to make a living. I mean, I mean, obviously we know there's some agents that are good, doing half a dozen deals a year. Maybe their spouse does really well. So they're just kind of tinkering in the business. But if you're trying to grow do bigger, better, more you need sitting down in if they're willing to say, Hey, you're doing really great, but I think we could improve here. Let me help you. Why would Yeah, why would you not take advantage?

Sarah Schwartz  43:54  
And I mean, Josh and I would sit down once a month, and bless him, he would be like, sir, you should do this. And I'd be like, Man, I'm not doing that. And he's like, Great, how about this? I'm like, I think about it so and he would work with me. So it wasn't like, just a standard thing where it was like, every agent needs to do XYZ. It was like, this is for you. This is what you should do, and let's help you get to where you want

Tracy Hayes  44:18  
to be. Yeah. Yeah. You're making me think of a conversation my wife and I had because a broker that she's with told her to do something, and I'm going to follow up on her to see if she's doing it, or maybe I need to help her, because it had to do with marketing, basically farming a particular neighborhood, which I don't think enough agents do, farming A neighborhood. This is a great reel right here, consistently, regularly. Are you doing anything like that? Is that or you laugh? So I assume you're not your neighbor. Yeah, you own your neighbor. You want everyone in your neighborhood. Sarah is the queen of real estate in that neighborhood.

Sarah Schwartz  44:57  
Yeah, I think everybody so in my neighborhood, there's. 100 homes, and I would say at least 97 of them know who I am, and that's because we do so much so like, not only did I drop off hot chocolate bombs to all of my clients, we dropped off hot chocolate bombs to every house in our neighborhood, and it had a little card in it that was like, Happy New Year. And we also planned it so that it was on the day that was cold, since the weather here is all over the place,

Tracy Hayes  45:26  
on the beach on Saturday, today we had, today we had the seed heaters on, yeah,

Sarah Schwartz  45:32  
we waited until it was cold outside. I think it was like December 30, and we just went to the end of the block and dropped off hot chocolate bombs at every single house, and it had my picture on it. It had so as a postcard with my picture and saying, like, Happy New Year from your neighborhood realtor or something. And then on the back, it was like, referrals are a girl's best friend, because that's what I say to everyone, right? And so many people texted me just like, just say, thanks so much. Like, that was so nice of you. And then, you know, we hosted the neighborhood friends giving we would host. My husband hosts a men's poker night once a month. That's fun. I host, well, I don't host, but I not every month. So I started a neighborhood book club for the women, and we do that once a month. We were doing driveway things where we had all of the new because it was new construction. So we would do like a neighborhood get together so that everybody could meet each other. So we did that a few times a year, and it was a potluck, and people would come and get to know each other. So we've done a lot in the neighborhood just to make ourselves known, like whenever, if something is going on or somebody has an issue, maybe there's a food train. Like, not just we don't do things because we want business, though it does, it can turn out that way.

Tracy Hayes  46:54  
Well, is we've talked many times being a real estate agent is a 24/7, 365, situation, and so your business has to be, you know, one, if you, if you don't like being friends with people, okay, it's gonna be a little bit harder. You that's a, that's a fringe benefit, yeah, the collateral benefit is they know you're a real estate agent now, and hopefully, because you're friends,

Sarah Schwartz  47:19  
they call you and I don't bring it up. So that's one thing that because

Tracy Hayes  47:23  
it's normally going to come up because they don't know you, well, what do you do? Sarah, I'm a

Sarah Schwartz  47:27  
realtor, yeah, or if they're friends with me on Facebook, they see stuff, but I'm not the person that I don't wear, like, my swag to anything neighborhood related. I don't bring stuff with me to be like, I'm a realtor. If you know anyone, here's my card, here's this. I just go as myself, and I go with my crazy kids and my husband, and you know, if it comes up, it comes up. If it doesn't, it doesn't. And that's the way I like it.

Tracy Hayes  47:53  
How long you've been in the hood now to a little over two years, I'm gonna make sure I got your right address, because I can't remember if you're one of the card you've been getting my cards recently. Yes. Okay, so they're okay. They're going the right address. 100 houses, very easy to manage, right? The fact that you could do a drop by for 100 that's most people say, okay, that's that's attainable in in now you've only been there two and a half years. I mean, ballpark, how many deals you think you've got out of in that neighborhood.

Sarah Schwartz  48:22  
Last year, I've done, I did over $10 million from just that name in the referrals from people in my neighborhood.

Tracy Hayes  48:29  
Wow, that's awesome. Out of 100 homes. So that had to be, I would imagine you're not. I don't, I don't know what the price point of your homes, but that's more than 10 deals. That's more than 10 more than 10 deals.

Sarah Schwartz  48:44  
So in my neighborhood, I sold two or three houses, and then they bought, and then somebody else referred, I think, three people, to me, and then two people, they were listed. Their previous homes were listed. They couldn't buy in my neighborhood until they sold, they were listed with another agent for like eight or nine months.

Tracy Hayes  49:06  
So it wouldn't one be really mathematical about it. You have 100 families. Yeah, you've you probably it sounds like about five or six gave you deals because some people had multiple deals, they were buying and selling, or referred you someone out. So out of 100 families, five or six of them referred you business, and some of it multiple business, so that that's a, I mean, that's a huge percentage, and that's owning it. I mean, from what you say, so what I see is a lot of people live in larger neighborhoods, like, Oh, I couldn't do that my neighborhood, because it's 800 on one street. Focus on one street. There's data out there that will tell you, you know, who's moved into the neighborhood recently. I don't whatever you you know, I think you. Which obviously happened. It sounds like, in your neighborhood, someone moved in and they really love their neighbor, and they sold their neighborhood to their friends or family to move into the neighborhood as well. And obviously you helped with the transaction.

Sarah Schwartz  50:11  
Or, like, in our neighborhood, it was new. It is newer, but so it's new construction. They're not building anymore. But like, so two people, their brother wanted to live near them. So it's like, a mom and then two sisters on one street, yes. And they're like, we want our brother to live here. So it's like, okay, great, let's get him down the other street in another neighborhood. And then he just referred people to me that just closed last week.

Tracy Hayes  50:34  
Yeah, they so they're Tracy, so you, there's, you know, you could take a different angle, say, Well, I can't service, I don't want to service 800 people, but I can handle 100 or 200 Well, there's AI, and the data that you guys have now that's out there, can narrow down. Maybe you just want to, hey, I want to just focus on the veterans, because I'm a veteran and I want other I want to work with other veterans in the neighborhood. You can go on, find everyone who has a VA loan in that neighborhood, exactly, and drop cocoa bombs off to them. You know, there's, there's so much data out there, but I think, I mean, you're, you're the perfect case, your poster child for farming the neighborhood. I mean, you did 36 just short of 36 million in sounds like almost a 30% of your business came from people that live within a mile of your house. Yeah.

Sarah Schwartz  51:27  
I mean, I would say out of the 100 homes, at least 40 are from New York and New Jersey, so they have people that are moving here. Only that it's probably a 50% Yeah, I mean, I would say 70% they're all transplants, so it's people that are like, Oh, we just moved here. I'm gonna get my mom to move here next. I'm gonna get my cousin to move here. I'm gonna get my sister to move here. Can you help them? I had one person reach out to me this so last year, and she said, Hey, we were in this one Facebook group together, and then our kids actually go to daycare together. And I was like, Oh, that's amazing. And she was like, my friends want to move here. Would you mind if I gave them your number? And I was like, I would love that. And then they're like, Oh, we're gonna try and get our parents to move here next. So it's like just, I mean, having this like relationship,

Tracy Hayes  52:25  
all right? So let's so someone listening right now. Here's some basics. I'm gonna try to draw it out of you. And you can talk to everyone. We'll talk to everyone. So you drop off, which I imagine some of the people you didn't know of the 100 houses, right? You drop off, but you have your QR code. Many people texted you, so now you have their number. Make sure. Obviously, you're, you know, hopefully, if you didn't have the number in there, you said, Oh, but I'm sorry. Who is this? Oh, this, so and so, at 123, whatever. Oh, great, yeah. Let me get you my make sure you're in my phone. Because, I mean, the neighbors won't, aren't going to be bashful about saying, Oh yeah, I'm so, so, yeah, make sure I'm in your phone. They want to be in, yeah. So you so. But in the QR, the QR code, did it just go to text, or did it actually send them to send them to a landing page?

Sarah Schwartz  53:12  
It went to my Google business page so they could see my reviews. Okay, so it's like, if you want to send someone, so it was like, referrals are a girl's best friend with my QR code. So it's like, if you want to be comfortable sending someone to me, look at all of my reviews.

Tracy Hayes  53:27  
So now you're leading them and introducing the people who the people who knew you probably didn't do the QR code. They probably just texted you, but the people didn't know, I wonder how many people actually hit that QR code. If we had 10 people do it, that's a win, right? Right? So now they're because they didn't know you. People know you. They don't have to look at your reviews. They're already either like you or don't like you, right? Hopefully they all like you, but, but what a plan now on a Do you? Are you do? Do you do something? You're having these certain events, or do you, I imagine you're trying to get them on your new newsletter. It's coming out.

Sarah Schwartz  54:02  
Um, I will like post on my story. Like you want to be added to my newsletter, drop your email address here. Um, so if they do, I don't just put I should probably put people on it, right? Maybe I'll post that in the Facebook group today. Like you want to be on my newsletter.

Tracy Hayes  54:18  
Well, I think the true test of the newsletter is, if someone really is not interested in you and do any, any any business with you, they are going to unsubscribe, which is great there now you know who not to even talk to, or, you know, spend any time with, there's others who others will receive your newsletter and go. I know who Sarah is, but I don't know anyone looking to buy or sell, and I'm not really interested in knowing what's selling in the neighborhood, and they just delete your email that month, right?

Sarah Schwartz  54:43  
Or they look at the events, right? They're like, especially because somebody don't, aren't from here, so they're like, Oh, I didn't know about that.

Tracy Hayes  54:51  
There's so many neighborhoods that are so fresh right now. You bring up a good point. If you go out and create you. Come the community newsletter, you go and post what's going on, because I guarantee you these Hoa is that some of these cdds are so young, they're not doing any of that. Or they actually, some of these cdds, they actually there's money budget, and there's people actually supposed to be putting that information out, but they're really bad at it, right? And you become the person who knows where the information is. And now you become the resource. Now they're opening your email because there might be something in there they're interested in, right?

Sarah Schwartz  55:28  
Or, like, this morning, I posted in like, four different groups of so, like, I'm in Palm crest in nakati, which is part of Seabrook and nakati. So in Seabrook, there's multiple neighborhoods, but then they have, like, a few big pages for all of the neighborhoods. So I was like, morning everyone, just a reminder, make sure you file for homestead if you bought last year. And it's like, nobody else has posted that. And then you have so many people that are like, I didn't know I was supposed to file for homestead. So it's like, just a little reminder.

Tracy Hayes  55:57  
Well, yeah, because not you know, there are some agents obviously are going back and looking through their book and going, hey, you know they were looking in those last make sure you Well, yeah, if you bought as long as you bought in 25 you got till March right to do it. So that are putting that information. There are so many agents, as in sales people in general, that are that are lazy or not, they're not sharing that information to make sure you're going to apply. So you might as well be the one, even if it wasn't your customer right now, they

Sarah Schwartz  56:24  
don't want to anyone, yeah, be in a position where they're like, Oh my God, my taxes skyrocketed. I didn't know this was going to happen.

Tracy Hayes  56:30  
Then they start bitching about the neighborhood, and that's neighborhood you live in, and yeah, it's not me. Yeah, yeah. Great way to to to kind of someone who may have used another agent didn't know you before, but now they're in the neighborhood. Now you give them information. Say, Hi, live in the neighborhood, and I just want to let everyone on my neighbors know homestead, because I'm in real estate right now. You now, they're like, oh, we should use Sarah, because she's our

Sarah Schwartz  56:54  
neighbor, and she's helping, and she's helping, and she doesn't owe us anything. Exactly what?

Tracy Hayes  56:59  
How important you think, I mean, talk about if you were asked to do a training on this, because I think there's not enough agents, and especially young. I think Leah miesque, I have to get her back on and get an update from her too. I remember when I had her on, she had, I don't think it had been a year yet that she was really farming her neighborhood. I remember talking to her about it, and she said took about six months before she started to get some traction on there. And I wonder where that, where that's developed, but you the importance of of getting started in that as soon as possible, because it does. It might take six, eight months or so before someone eventually refers you.

Sarah Schwartz  57:35  
So, right? And then you also, I think there's two or three other realtors that live in my neighborhood, but they're not doing what I'm doing, right? So it's like, if you're not putting the effort, somebody else might or nobody will.

Tracy Hayes  57:48  
Well take five minutes and look around you probably realize no one else is doing anything, so you might as well be that person. Exactly. Yeah, I wouldn't be shy. And in some of these older neighborhoods as well, you know, you know, we've been in our neighborhood for 16 years now. There's been so much turnover, right? This is a transient area. People moved in and out and, you know, job for whatever jobs are. Obviously, we know when rates are really low, people were moving from neighborhood to neighborhood. So all the original people that were in there, you know, 15 years ago, there's, there's really only a handful left.

Sarah Schwartz  58:23  
I know we joke about a NACA tea shuffle, because there's like, so many neighborhoods in Naka t so so many people. You're like, Oh, where did you move from? And they're like, oh, just down the street in freedom landing or, Oh, I was in Coastal Oaks. And you're like, oh,

Tracy Hayes  58:39  
okay, well, I, I'm and then there's people that weren't living in nakati, yeah, that their friends moved in there. Like, oh, I want to move the nakati. Then there's people that moved into nakati Like, I don't like this. And they moved out of Nakata to somewhere else in St Johns County, yeah, yeah. That's all, alright, let's go to our let's go to our trending questions here. This is a classic, but everyone has their opinion on it. What's the Sarah Schwartz opinion on Is now a good time to buy or sell in Northeast Florida?

Sarah Schwartz  59:14  
Absolutely, I think that the market, I would say, in the last few weeks, I'm sure you've seen it, it has just picked up. So you have people that, you know the rates are starting to go down. I think I got an email this morning that they're in the fives. And why not? So you have people that want to move here. You have people that want to move away. You can always date the rate, marry the house. So yes, I do think it's always a good time. I think that there are still people buying, and there's still people selling, and there are deals that are there to be made. Yeah, no, 100% Yeah.

Tracy Hayes  59:49  
We are starting to see, just starting to edge into that, into that five for the right client, right? You know, obviously credit and how much you have down, all that, all that's factors in there. So the wind could blow a different direction. You're back to six, you know, without paying any points, right? We always, I always want to preference. I was, I can get you a 5% rate depending on how many points you want to buy any day of the week, but without having to pay extra, which I don't recommend, because I just really think, you know, people are, they're joking online or not joking, online news thinks it's serious because they don't understand our President, our president's playing games with their head, and he's gonna He's there, they're going after the Fed chair, because I do think there's been some misappropriation of funds in their rehab. So he's taking that as an advantage of saying he's putting pressure on the Fed. Now, fed fund rate doesn't directly correlate the mortgage rates and so forth, but he's doing everything he can to play the psychological game that's going on the 10% on the credit cards. Does he expect the credit card companies to cap their stuff at 10% No, but he's now having them call him and he's having conversations going, do we need to we need to ease the pressure off everybody, because credit card debts gone up crazy as well, which is leads in the reason why some people sell because they do have a lot of equity in their home, like, well, we could sell. We could pay off the credit card debt and just kind of start over again, you know, relieve that pressure. No, you know that. That's a whole nother thing. But buyers market, seller market,

Sarah Schwartz  1:01:21  
I would say it's a balance, and it just depends. You think it's it depends on where you are, yeah. I mean, I had a listing in joint and Creek Plantation that within the first weekend, we had multiple offers I had. Then I have a listing in my neighborhood that it's been on for 80 Days, and it's like, well, that sucks. But then we're also competing against new construction, yeah? And then a new construction you can get quite the deal right now, yeah. So it's like, in a sense, it's a buyer's market for that. But then you have some neighborhoods or parts of town where there's no inventory, and it goes

Tracy Hayes  1:01:53  
like that, yeah, well, the the address, right? It's, you know, that location, you know, that whole thing. How will interest rates in 2026 affect my buying power in home affordability.

Sarah Schwartz  1:02:05  
I mean, if the rates keep going down, it's going to be great, but at the same time, when the rates go down, the prices go up

Tracy Hayes  1:02:11  
so they could that's that's what people don't realize. That's why I think it's very important to get out there, you see, and I know you probably have had customers like this, well, I want to wait a little bit, because I want to get a little because I want to get a little bit more from my house. It's like, Well, okay, well, you're going to get a little bit more, but so is the guy that you want to

Sarah Schwartz  1:02:28  
buy from. People get that, yeah, they don't like, oh, I don't want to buy at the top of the market, but I want to sell at the top of the market. I don't want to buy at the top of the market. And you're just kind of like, when does that? If you want to sell for the most amount, but you don't want to buy for the most amount, then you're not going to be buying and selling

Tracy Hayes  1:02:46  
it, yeah, unless you're moving to a totally different region, who maybe their markets completely different, right?

Sarah Schwartz  1:02:51  
Yeah, I have two buyers that are going to be moving here from New York, and both of them are like, we have to find a house there first, because we're going to have multiple offers. And I'm like, Okay. And they're like, You don't understand, we're gonna have multiple offers on our house, and I'll probably go for 100 grand over asking. And I'm like, Okay, guys. And then one of them listed, and he's like, we got eight offers. You know, we're at 90,000 over asking. I'm like, well, it's not 100 like you said.

Tracy Hayes  1:03:19  
Well, good for them. They must have a really great location, because, as we know, the population of New York is dropping while Hayes is increasing, Yeah, same as California. Yeah. I have seen some horror stories on fuel prices out there and what they've done to the refineries. And I really think over it's even going to increase everyone from the actually, the two other states that are really hurting as far because California has put such restrictions that one company closer refinery, another one, I know I'm probably, I think, closer refinery, and moved out to Texas, and they're looking at, they're predicting eight to $10 a gallon, but Arizona, in Nevada, that's where they get their fuel from, is those refineries in California, and now they've closed. So, you know, it's, it's those two states are going to be hurting as well as far as fuel prices and the cost of living. Well, no

Sarah Schwartz  1:04:18  
one likes to hear it, but we're open. Yes, right? Florida's open.

Tracy Hayes  1:04:24  
Should sellers price their home above or below market value to sell fastest in today's market? Yes, easy answer, big yes. He's here. That's AI created that question, but I think it creates a great topic. What is your strategy right now, when you're going out on that listing appointment, and, you know, I think sometimes you feel whether you got, like, the house in joining Creek, you got this unique house, unique address, there's, you know, it's at the right price point that there's enough people can make multiples, but there's others in that new construction neighborhood, right? Or that near New Construction subdivision, you're like, Well, you this is what you're competing. Meeting against what's some of the conversations you're having?

Sarah Schwartz  1:05:02  
I think just having, I like to do research before going in. So just showing like, this is where you live. This is how many houses are currently on the market. This is what is different about your house. But to a buyer, you're all the same, like, sure, you have a pool and they don't, but you don't have a hot tub, and they have a separate hot tub, or they have this,

Tracy Hayes  1:05:24  
or what they're closer to the grocery store or the school, and you're not Craziest thing.

Sarah Schwartz  1:05:29  
I mean, I think in this market, buyers are pickier, which is great, because, I mean, this is a big investment, so sellers just have to realize, like, putting their head in the buyer's shoes. So like, what am I going to be looking for when I'm buying and kind of, like, switching your mindset? So I just remind people, like, Would you buy your house for this amount? Like I get that this is what you want, but would you buy it knowing that these are the rates? Would you still move forward? So I like to get, like, an estimate, put

Tracy Hayes  1:06:01  
them in the buyer's shoes. It sounds like you're putting in the buyer's shoes, which is brilliant, right? You know, evaluate the other homes in the area, in your home versus that would which one would you go for? Right?

Sarah Schwartz  1:06:11  
Yeah. And it's like, you know, in Naka T specifically, you have so many unique areas. So it's like, do you want to live in Seabrook, Coastal Oaks, or 20 Mile? And those are, like, the three, I think, biggest ones where people are like, Oh, well, I want to go to the new school, or, oh, I want this gated neighborhood, or, Oh, I just love 20 miles. So it's like figuring out and then kind of saying, like, this is your competition. Sure, it's not right here, but somebody might want this. So just doing that, and then go as far as pricing, you know, it's some I've gotten appraisers to come out and do an appraisal before listing. And I'm like, it just if we can't come to terms. And even with that, some sellers are like, I don't care. I want to list higher. And it's like, All right, well, I guess your house will just sit, and then in six months, you'll be like, Why is it my house? Are they

Tracy Hayes  1:07:03  
you have a mixed bag out and, well, you have mixed bag everywhere. But you the a lot of those buyers out in nakati, would you say more than 50% that that was actually their first home? No, minimum second maybe. Yeah, and they bought during one of, you know, the post covid, covid period, hot markets. They think they don't understand that, that covid doesn't exist anymore, right? The covid market doesn't, and things have settled down, and the interest rates are twice as high, right? You know, so people buying power as I think there's a disconnect in a generation of money, yes, and that everyone doesn't make the money that you know, a lot of buyers out in Occo t make, they don't realize they're actually in the top 5% if not 1% of income that there's 90 something other percent of people that don't make as much money as they and and that. So you're only you have a limited thing now, when the interest rates double, you just now just eliminate it. Yeah, yeah, right over that time period, and I there was always a saying, I've said it on the show before, because I think there's a lot of buyers out there in this category, not sellers out there. I'm gonna say there's a number of sellers. I won't say a lot, a number of sellers. Pigs get fat. Hogs get slaughtered. They think they need, they have this in their mind, what they need to make out of their home. You're coming in with reality. They're trying to be a hog, and you're trying to say, no, just, you know, just get be a pig and get your bubble, get your get this is what your house is really worth, yeah? And of course, I'm sure the biggest question is, how fast do you want to sell, right? Yeah.

Sarah Schwartz  1:08:53  
And that's the other part. It's like, do you want to sell fast? Do you want to test? Some people are like, I just want to test the market. And it's like, what are you testing it for? Do you want to sell or do you not want

Tracy Hayes  1:09:03  
to sell? Yeah, what do you need to get to actually get your butt out of the house?

Sarah Schwartz  1:09:09  
I mean, I definitely like you. It's it can be so tricky sometimes as a listing agent, because you have to be, at least, I try to be, like, sensitive about people's feelings, because it's like, if you've lived in a house for 10 years, or however long it's it's an emotional decision, and sometimes people don't, you don't see your house the way that other people see your house. So like, I went to a listing appointment yesterday, and I pointed out a bunch of stuff that needed to be changed. And he's like, I didn't even notice that. I'm like, of course you didn't. You live here, this is like this. And I'm like, I didn't just do it like, this is what I'm seeing. And I think some people, they don't notice smells in their houses. They don't notice, like, I don't know, chipped paint, or the vents that have, like, the black on it, or their fans that have.

Sarah Schwartz  1:10:00  
A layer dust on the cake dust.

Sarah Schwartz  1:10:04  
And it's like, I'm sorry. It's annoying that I'm telling you to do all these things. But if you were to walk into a house and see the layer of dust, or, you know,

Tracy Hayes  1:10:15  
you might question how they took care of the house. You smell, yeah,

Sarah Schwartz  1:10:19  
just like, have they ever cleaned Have they ever done this? Have they ever done this? I'm not interested. What else is going to come up in the inspection.

Tracy Hayes  1:10:26  
Yeah, yeah. Well, I think that leads into this next question. How do you prepare a home? Well, I'll read it out. How do I prepare my home for sale to attract top dollar and 26 let's narrow that down to nakati. Let's talk about because he's you do have some like, 20 miles, you know, that's very desirable neighborhood there. You still got new construction going on. You have an internal competition because there's a there's a good amount of inventory. I don't know what the number is today. You probably know how many houses are for sale going on out there. But if you want to sell your house in nakati. What's some of the like ABC, 123, that has to be done.

Sarah Schwartz  1:11:06  
If I see a boob light in your house, I'm going to lose my what a boob light? What's a boob light? What like the house? You can it's a it's a term. If you Google it, it'll come out

Tracy Hayes  1:11:18  
boob light the house. I'm going to cut this out as a real what is a boob light?

Sarah Schwartz  1:11:23  
It's a light. And then it has, like the thing right there. So, you know, it's like the dome, and then it has the piece.

Tracy Hayes  1:11:30  
Mean, like a hanging light you might have over your kitchen too. It's just

Sarah Schwartz  1:11:33  
like attached to the ceiling. A lot. Some bars do it

Tracy Hayes  1:11:37  
where, oh, for then the screw thing is on the bottom to hold the whole glass bulb up there. Yes, that's a boob light. It's a boob light, okay, all right. I see the I see the analog, you know the Yeah, all right, professional term.

Sarah Schwartz  1:11:50  
I think that when a buyer is walking into a house, if they see a boob light, or just like a chandelier, that you would see in a an apartment, right? Then they're like, why am I spending, you know, X amount for this

Tracy Hayes  1:12:11  
now, am I from what I and then correct me if I'm wrong, I and I don't study it all the time, but there's a lot of people who bought their home for some well below a million. You now think their home is worth a million something, and when you cross that, go to that, that seventh digit, yeah, there's a different, different expectation, yeah.

Sarah Schwartz  1:12:31  
I mean, if you, if you're not doing anything to your house to make it stand out and show like, not that you have to prove anything. But if you're showing like, I added this wallpaper, I changed out this light fixture, I added this woodwork. I mean, it makes such a difference. Where? Why would I choose your house versus going to new construction? When you did the work? That's what people want. They don't want to do the work. They don't want to change the light fixture. You know, I did a showing last week, and the buyer was like, Oh, my God, I love this house. He's like, this light fixture makes the room. And I was like, oh, unfortunately, there's a blue light marks. It says that that doesn't stay with the house, and they're taking it. And he was just like, why can't they just buy a new one? I was like, Well,

Tracy Hayes  1:13:24  
yeah, put that in there. I remember in Ryan sir Hance, Ryan sir Hannah, a multi million dollar deal, and it was all hung up over a throw blanket on the on that some of the guy won't the buyer wanted it. It was just some fetish thing. But obviously you could ask, and who knows, you with AI today, take a picture of it and say, hey, where can I buy this lamp?

Sarah Schwartz  1:13:45  
Yeah, you're not doing those things to make it stand out a little bit more. They're just going to move on to the next house. You know, a lot of people will do turf now in their backyard. So if you're looking at a house with turf and then one with St Augustine grass, you're going to be like, well, that's amazing. This is work I don't have to do, or if they did their outdoor kitchen, or even pre plumbed it for an outdoor kitchen. I mean, there's so many little things that make your house more desirable than the next, right?

Tracy Hayes  1:14:13  
So, but in the Naka T area, it's, it's, it a lot of these, these little things become because it's not a budget thing, if they are looking at a million dollar price point now it's like, Okay, do I pay 1.1 or I pay nine? I can flex all over which house is going to be, put me on the best street and so forth. There's a lot, a lot of options there, because all those, lot of those homes have been built in the last half a dozen years or more. Yeah. Well, northeast, Florida market remain the seller's market, or is it shift? Well, actually, that I don't know why. Why? For some reason the AI thinks that we're in a low inventory thing. They don't think that, although, what do you feel about the inventory? Yeah, what do you feel about the inventory right now? I think that.

Sarah Schwartz  1:15:00  
It certain homes that are desirable for people. It is low inventory. I had a doctor that I was working with for years, and they had such a specific want that. And it wasn't just to one neighborhood. It was like they wanted a specific thing in either queens, Harbor,

Tracy Hayes  1:15:20  
jacks, golf, if they wanted to be on the water or something. No, no deer.

Sarah Schwartz  1:15:23  
Would Deer Creek. And it was just updated, four bedrooms with an office, good size backyard, and it was impossible to find, find that combination. Yeah. So it's like,

Tracy Hayes  1:15:35  
you know, for sale, not necessarily that they're not out there, but that's for sale.

Sarah Schwartz  1:15:39  
And then when one does come up. It just goes like that. So it's like finding the specific thing that people want, or if somebody wants a historic house and it has to have XYZ, like, I had a newer construction house in Avondale. And so many people are like, oh, you know, I wish it was 100 years old. And I'm like, but it's new. Well, I mean, newer, yeah, yeah, depending on what the person wants, there could be tons of inventory, like innocity, or it could be cherry picking, right?

Tracy Hayes  1:16:11  
This is an interesting question, because I think we get this we run in this situation, often, especially with first time homebuyers. It says, How can agents add real add real value in a market where many buyers consider going without, one which I mean, I assume the question is, going without, you know, continue renting. You know, what do you say to someone like that?

Sarah Schwartz  1:16:37  
I try to have a very honest conversation with my customers at the very beginning, can you afford to buy a house like, what does that look like for you? What's more important to you? Price of the house, or your monthly payment. And then just basically figuring out, do you have money for closing costs? Do you have money to do any upgrades that you want? And if they don't, now might not be the time to buy. And I think just having that honest and open line of communication and figuring out what is truly important to them not only makes them trust you more, but it also helps them understand the full picture like they might not be thinking taxes, Hoa and everything else they they're like, Oh, well, I looked on Zillow and it says that my payment would only be $900 or only $1,500 and it's like, but did you put in the taxes? Because that adds up quite a bit

Tracy Hayes  1:17:33  
in insurance, right? And you have 20% down, right?

Sarah Schwartz  1:17:36  
Changes everything like, Oh, I didn't realize that. Or what about your closing costs?

Tracy Hayes  1:17:42  
Well, I think people out there that are, I think there is a group out there that is making the income. They may not have the savings, but there are so many programs, and I think one of the underutilized programs out there is renovation. But again, you know, there's there's some people just don't see that vision. Or, obviously, you know, have a fear of because they've never done that before and gone through that situation. Of, you know, obviously, you buy a house and, you know, renovate it to what you want, whether it's adding a room or, you know, just, you know, sprucing it up, bringing it up the level, or whatever. As a what neighborhood in Jackson, I'm going to actually just narrow it down to Naka t because as we're kind of focused on that, what neighborhoods in Ponte, vedra, nakati, have the best growth potential in 26 you think, ooh,

Sarah Schwartz  1:18:34  
I think Marsh Landing is a great one. I think in nakati, the Seabrook area is great Coastal Oaks 20 Mile, I think that they're going to continue to see people moving here that want those areas, I think, in 20 Mile specific. So I think Naka t as a whole, a lot of people decide where they want to live based on when the houses were built and the age of their kids. So like, if you have a 15 year old, most likely you're not going to want to move to a neighborhood that was just built a year ago, because you're going to think, Oh, they're mainly young families. You're going to want to go to a more established neighborhood, like 20 Mile or Coastal Oaks, because they're going to think that's where the older kids are. So I think those are going to continue to grow. And then Seabrook and all of there will continue to grow with maybe first time home buyers, because the builders are offering so much. And then also people that are moving here that, you know, as crazy as it sounds, it's like, Oh, I'm just gonna go here first, live here for a little bit, and then decide what I want to do next,

Tracy Hayes  1:19:39  
what tech marketing or pricing innovations are selling homes faster in 26 I don't know that is an interesting question topic. We kind of, I personally think we are going to see in a movement in. With a, I because the platform that Zillow and realtor.com and so forth is on that, you know, obviously referment Agent agents going to pay them type, type of thing now, A, now you're going to, there's going to be another platform, which I know there's, there are others developing out there right now that are actually going to integrate a true AI search, where you can have a conversation like you're talking to a virtual realtor, and have, hey, I want that big backyard. I need four bedrooms and then an office, so really kind of a fifth bedroom or, you know, and you know, all the things that you know with that real unique and it's going to narrow it down. And I really, I feel talking to some of these AI people, and I had one on Lyman Starmer, it's been almost a year now where he is working on something in he would like it to get to the point where someone can actually go in and say, I need to be within 20 minutes of work. Here's my work address, I want to be able to pass by a Starbucks or Kookaburra or whatever coffee shop or whatever the type of thing has to be, you know, grocery store on the way home, whatever. And AI is going to narrow that down and tell you all the things that that all the houses that are listed. Here's all the house that are listed that would fit that criteria? Yeah, I know it can. I actually, you know, I officiate high school football, and when we go in the playoffs, we have mixed crews. So guys are from all over the, you know, Jacksonville, St John's County, whatever. And we're going, we're having to drive a couple hours to the west, so we're all good carpool, right? So I go in there, and I actually inputted everybody's address and said, where would be the best place for us to meet up to go to a game that's that's here at this address. And it came out and said, Oh yeah, you guys should meet at the pilot truck stop because there's plenty of barking, it's well lit, and it's the most convenient spot for everybody. Perfect. Yeah, I really think it's going that the AI home search, yeah, it's probably almost if you inputted all the houses that were for sale and said, Hey, which one of these would be best? Because I work over here, it was going to give you that answer and what you're desiring a short drive or definitely save time on research. Yeah, I think it's going to be more friendly like that. I think it's going to, as the year goes on, it's, it's someone's going to launch a bigger, better platform. And obviously, I, you know, I haven't looked recently, but I obviously Zillow and those places are having some of their issues and and pains of growing. I think it's the the analogy be, would be the BlackBerry and cell phone thing they didn't want to change. I think Zillow wants to change just trying to figure out how to do. Out how to do it, right?

Sarah Schwartz  1:22:43  
Yeah. It'll be interesting to see what happens. Yeah. Website, the only thing that I use with AI is I have a AI assistant named Alex, so when someone registers, he messages them and, you know, he'll talk to them about a house and what they're looking for and everything. And then once they get kind of to a stopping point, he's like, I'll have someone from Sarah Schwartz team reach out to you or Yeah, and then it sends me an email. It's like, this person's ready for follow up? Yeah?

Tracy Hayes  1:23:11  
Everyone should have that. Yes. And I think everyone should have their I think everyone needs to go to their own websites. I really you know the website business should pick up, because now you're powered by AI, you're just as strong as Zillow when it comes to searching, if you do

Sarah Schwartz  1:23:27  
it correctly. And then if you have people searching on your website versus Zillow, you don't have

Tracy Hayes  1:23:33  
to pay well, well, it's all part of it's, I think it's part of that thing, you know. I'm sure you get calls where, if they come from, one of these, you know, I know, you know, my wife gets it from real or.com and they're, they're shopping agents, okay, why? Why should I, you know, use you. I hear her on the phone. Dog, these people, and if you're not really good at that, because they might have just, literally just clicked real or calm, which didn't really tell them a whole bunch other than, hey, this is a very, you know, she has a lot of good reviews, you know, okay, okay, got some good reviews. But if you go on your website where you're they're seeing your face, maybe get your kids on there, you know, it's friendly. They're seeing pictures of the neighborhoods that they may want it and the fact that you are, you know, advertising that neighborhood, you know, on your site and so forth. And then by the time they call you, it's easy. They've already made pretty much 90% of their decision, right?

Sarah Schwartz  1:24:26  
I mean, I think that's part of like in the on Facebook, when somebody is like, Oh, I'm looking for a realtor. Does anyone have a recommendation? I love it when they're anonymous, because I want to be like, smart, or you would get bombarded. So I mean, even I

Tracy Hayes  1:24:43  
look at the date, if it's been more than a day, I don't answer

Sarah Schwartz  1:24:49  
like, this poor soul. But I mean, I will respond with my website, and it's like, Look at me. Like, check me out. If you want to work with me. Great. If not, you have a plethora of. Options. And I think, like, So, being Jewish, we have a website or, like, a Facebook group. And the other day, someone was like, looking for a realtor recommendation. And instead of, well, I commented, but then I messaged her, and I was like, you are going to get so many recommendations for great Realtors here. I would love the opportunity for you to interview me. And then we spoke last night. She's like, Oh, I've spoken with a few others who knew there were so many Jewish realtors. Tell me about it. I mean, it's like just trying to do something to make yourself stand out a little, right? And having the website with the AI really helps.

Tracy Hayes  1:25:37  
Well, I think also, for those who are not big social media, I do a bunch of Instagram. You can make a website look really great, and you can have the best pictures of yourself on there, and that sort of thing where, you know, I think you know, people fear doing the social media because they might say the wrong thing or have the wrong smile on, or whatever. You can make the website make you look like a million Yeah, and, and, but you, like said, direct people there and make it that one stop shop and and add the ai ai search on there, which I could tell you how to do that too. All right, we've been going once an hour and a half actually, yeah, so you're going right along. I appreciate you coming back. This is really great stuff. There's really a lot of good information. If you want to reach Sarah, it's in the show notes. But I think you actually just the Sarah Schwartz group.com right? Sarah Schwartz group.com you reach out to Sarah. I'm sure she'd have coffee with you. You know, you'd wanted some advice or some insight, more on what we talked about today, but we talked about so many topics, but I think they're constant trending topics and questions here locally that we talked about, but every real estate agent, really nationally is thinking about in their own little markets,

Sarah Schwartz  1:26:55  
yes, yeah, and yes, I am happy to meet with anyone. I think when I first started, one thing that was hard for me was I reached out to someone and was like, hey, love to pick your brain. And they were kind of like, why just find a mentor at your own brokerage. And so I've always been the opposite, and I'm an open book and happy to talk to anyone.

Tracy Hayes  1:27:15  
Well, I will. I will preface this having talking to several 100 of the top agents in there. And occasionally this, that topic comes up where people are asking to go get coffee or whatever. If you were going to ask one of these top people for advice, you have to implement some form of what they've talked about, or just plain say, You know what, I totally disagree, and can't see myself doing that. At least they know, you know, buy them a couple of coffees, but don't go there with a pretense and they spill, which a lot of them are willing to do, but lot of them have gotten now are more protective because they they've talked to so many and nobody's done what they've anything what they've told them to do. So you have to go with an open mind and hey, im hopefully implement something they tell me. And then, and then obviously follow back up and appreciate them and say, hey, you know what? I took this from our conversation, I just implemented this one thing, and I got a deal from it, and that makes all the difference. Yeah, yeah. So appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you. Sarah, you.