Our Latest Podcast Episodes

“They wouldn't communicate or they would just ignore you. They would communicate late or they were rude. And I was just like, ‘There's gotta be a better way!’"

Managing his own real estate brokerage was never the plan for Kansas City-based Charles Gilbert. But, as a successful home-flipper, he saw that poor communication from buyer agents was slowing down his business. So, he decided to get a real estate license of his own.

“When I got my license and I started selling my own flips, I've not had one last longer than 30 days on the market, but again, you take more pride in your own listings and you go an extra mile to get things sold.”

Episode 48 of The Smart Agents Podcast features our conversation with Charles where he shares how his experience prior to getting his license has shaped the way he does business now.

“I only got my license to sell our own houses. I wasn't planning on selling anybody else's house. Then all of a sudden it turned into this six-figure side gig and I was like, ‘I guess I should start working this more.’”

“One of the pillars that we teach is who do you have a heart to serve?”

Based in the Washington DC area Reezy.net founders, Lynnea Garrett and Naima Akida have deep family ties to the real estate industry. They joined Episode 47 of The Smart Agents Podcast to talk all about The Reezy Method. 

“We have taken the two things that we do to create a process, a system for agents to help them lower the amount of transactions that they do per month, but increase the amount of income without chasing tire kickers”

With a slogan of Real Estate Real Easy, the pair aims to help agents better market themselves and develop processes for more efficient lead generation.

Where to find REEZY

Website: https://www.reezy.net/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thereezymethod

“I’ve never felt that change is bad. I always look to the positive side and think that change is good. You just have to be ready to turn on a dime.”

Episode 46 of The Smart Agents Podcast features our conversation with Oregon-based Marianne McNally.After owning a salon for several years, Marianne decided to jump into real estate in 2000.

“I was rookie of the year… and I won that award that first year solely because I worked my sphere from my nail business. Those gals are the ones that launched me into my real estate career.”

Now more than two decades later, Marianne shares how her community involvement and the relationships she’s built have led to a successful real estate career. We also talk about the effect that today's market is having on clients and how new agents should prepare for inevitable downturns.

“You have to be able to, as they say it, pivot.”

“I happened to talk to my former television agent and he said, ‘I don’t know why you aren’t doing videos about Boise.”

Episode 45 of The Smart Agents Podcast features our conversation with Boise-based Kerri O'Hara. After leaving a career in the television news industry, Kerri turned to real estate.   

“I started doing videos in my car, just like my studio and put them on Youtube. Within a couple of months, all of a sudden the phone started ringing and it was the strangest thing to think that spawned my real estate career here. That was the beginning of it.”

Drawing on her talents as a storyteller and comfort in front of the camera, she began creating more and more content highlighting her market.

“Boise makes all the top 10 lists of best places to live, retire, raise family, whatever it is. And so I hear the same questions over and over again.”

Answering these questions, Kerri has quickly become a top relocation expert in one of the fastest-growing markets in the country.

“Fear of rejection, I feel, hinders a lot of real estate agents because they don't want to put themselves out there. When in this business, that's  the number one thing you have to do — put yourself out there.”

With no sphere of influence to tap into, brand new agent William Patrick has had to rely on hitting the phone lines to prospect for leads.

“When I first started, I didn't have any business and I went full-time into it. I was making probably between 500 to 800 dials a day.”

Episode 44 of The Smart Agents Podcast features our conversation with the Raleigh, North Carolina-based agent. We talk all about his cold-calling strategy and why it isn’t as daunting as some make it out to be.

“The worst thing they can do is say they're not interested. That's the worst thing.”

Just now a year into his career, William is seeing the payoff from all of his time working the phone.

“When 2021 hit, all those leads I had created in June to December period, those six months, a lot of them started cultivating and then kinda exploded.”

“The only thing that makes somebody buy something is if they're emotionally connected to it, that's it. There's no other way to make somebody buy anything.”

Episode 43 of The Smart Agents Podcast features our conversation with Toronto-based Samrina Qureshy. Six years into her real estate career, Samrina specializes in selling homes other agents have failed to sell.

“Every house has a buyer. I think we all understand that, we all know that. We've seen homes that are completely run down, we've seen homes that are complete trash, people will still buy them. It's just how you strategize and sell it.”

So, what is her number one strategy for getting these homes sold?

“It is obviously staging it.”

“You have to create that emotional connection between the home and the buyer for them to be able to be like, "yes, this is the home I want to live in."

Throughout our time with Samrina, she shares stories of staging brought in the offers and tips for getting sellers on board with spending the extra money.

“It was actually a transaction that my dad went through that made me look at the real estate industry.”

Inspiration can come in many ways and for Maritza Williams seeing the care one agent gave her father put her on the path to where she is today.

“The agent that we had was very patient, diligent, and just wanted to make sure that we were well-educated on how the process goes.”

Episode 42 of The Smart Agents Podcast features our conversation with the California-based agent who left a career in massage therapy to make a name for herself in the real estate industry. With the mentorship of that same agent who worked with her dad, Maritza is now into her second year as a full-time realtor.

“The longer you wait to pursue your dreams or just reaching out to a mentor, you're prolonging your growth and your development.”

“I just have that "no-fail attitude." I still keep that attitude today, that no matter what, I'm not going to fail! If the market crashes, I'm going to figure out what I need to do in the market to still make money.”

Episode 41 of The Smart Agents Podcast features our conversation with Tennessee realtor, Jason Anderson. After more than 20 years in law enforcement, Jason made a complete career change and entered the real estate industry. 

“Was it scary? Absolutely!”

“I'll say that all day long. It's scary when you get into something like this and you've been a 22-year career veteran of police, firearms, EMS.”

To say his decision has paid off would be an understatement. In just his third year, he did over $13 million in business.

“I can go 120%, endlessly. There's no one to stop me. The only competition I have now is myself. I set a goal, I break it.”

“If you’re good, people will refer business to you all the time. By being ethical, by being honest, by being hard-working, by being the expert.”

Selling ultra-high-end properties in one of the most exclusive markets in the country, Myra Nourmand of Nourmand & Associates is now known as “The First Lady of Beverly Hills Real Estate”.

“I started before computers, before MLS, before Iphones, before fax machines, before emails. I started with basic hard work and then honed my skills because today the world is very different.”

Myra joins us for Episode 40 of The Smart Agents Podcast to share how her tireless work ethic and passion for giving her clients the best possible experience have led to her success.

“My model is what's old is new again. I know people like to text and email. I like to present my own offers in person.”

“A lot of the things you used to do to gain ranking on Google if you did that now you would be dead in the water.”

Chris Audette is a master of website optimization and Real Estate SEO, topping search results with his https://www.real-estate.ca/. The Calgary-based real estate professional joined us for Episode 39 of The Smart Agents Podcast to share his top tips for getting your real estate website ranked at the top of Google Search.

“Those top-three results are really where you want to be… First page results don’t really mean anything because that number 10 spot will get maybe 1 out 100 searches and the number one spot is going to get probably 95 out of 100.”

As Google’s algorithm has changed over time, Chris says gaining mentions or backlinks to useful content on your website is one of the most powerful tools for climbing the rankings.

“If you’ve got a link to your site with CNN saying this is a great website to search for Calgary real estate, you're going to do very well."

When it comes to optimizing the text within your website, Chris says you want to be a descriptive as possible and avoid one key mistake.

"A lot of people wonder why they don't even rank under their own name, but they never mention their name on their website. So how is Google supposed to know who you are?"

For more examples of Chris's top-ranking websites check out https://www.calgary-real-estate.com/altadore.php