Making the leap to real estate during a pandemic, and making real estate your own with MODUS broker associate Samantha Heyer

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It’s always exciting to learn how and why people choose to enter the real estate industry. For Samantha Heyer, a broker associate with MODUS Real Estate in Denver, Colorado, the decision came last year during one of the most transitional periods in history. Heyer entered real estate following a successful career in the communications and PR industry primarily focused in healthcare. This experience – managing brand exposure, media relations, public relations – gave Heyer the tools and network needed to hit the ground running in Denver’s hot real estate market.

On this episode of Brokerage Insider, Heyer talks about her decision to enter the real estate industry during the pandemic, and what it’s like to navigate one of the most coveted markets right now.

TRANSCRIPT:

📍 Welcome to brokerage insider the podcast where we interviewed the leaders in real estate and technology. I’m your host Britt Chester. And I’m the director of client success here at Travis. We’re one of the largest independent PropTech companies in real estate and providers of technology to real estate companies around the world.

Today, we’re joined by Samantha, hire a realtor with modus real estate here in Denver and actually right down the street from where I live. Samantha, how are you doing today? Great. How are you excited to be here? I’m doing great. Thanks so much for joining us on brokerage insider. You know, I think one of the first things we just kind of like to start with is why don’t you let our audience know you know, what you do at modus and give us a little bit of background, how you got into Realty.

Yep. So I’m a broker associate at modus real estate. We’re based in the Sunnyside neighborhood. So Northwest Denver I’ve been with modus about eight months. When I made a career change into real estate, I previously for 10 years worked for a PR agency based out of New York city, but we also had offices in other places.

And so when my husband and I moved to Denver about six years ago, Kept that job and was working out of Denver remotely and supporting clients and teams sort of all over the country. So I had a lot of project management experience communications navigating, you know, crisis and issues and things of that nature.

It was all based in the healthcare industry. So did a lot of more. Consumer health or science work. But the crux of it was really client service and I was ready for a change and I wanted to feel a part of. Our new home in Denver and Colorado, and really sort of, you know, in gross myself in the community here.

And my twin sister, Catherine happens to be a realtor in New York city. And she’s been doing that now about two years. And so we talk almost every day and you know, when the pandemic hit, I was, you know, spending a lot of time at home and it really got me thinking, okay, I’m ready for a change. And what could it be?

And I decided that real estate would be a really exciting change and would definitely throw me into the community and make me feel a part of Denver. So she sort of gave me the extra push I needed to do it. And then her and I also partnered on sort of a related, but separate business, helping other entrepreneurs who want to start a business, then we help them start a business specifically in real estate and travel.

Very cool. Well, that was definitely a lot. Let’s kind of talk about, you know, what was your first kind of thoughts when you were approaching, you know, real estate as a possible career change? You know, I think there’s a, there’s a lot to take in there because everyone has a different experience and exposure to real estate.

So. You know, when you, when you first started investigating it and researching it I imagine, you know, coming from a communications and PR background, your research process is probably pretty extensive. What were some of your, your first kind of impressions? And, and what were you kind of looking at first?

Yeah, I think I was, you know, even before I thought of it as a career, I always just enjoyed real estate or, or renovations or, you know, home improvement. And and when we started looking at homes two years ago in Denver was when it sort of piqued my interest. You know, Denver is such a popular place to move.

There’s a lot of people moving from the east coast and the west coast. And so it’s creating a lot of change which is really exciting. And so when we started looking at homes, I started even doing a little, you know, research then into the real estate market. And. Since then when I was actually, you know, diving into real estate school and starting to think about it as a career, I definitely, you know, was reading about the market in Denver, but just in general, sort of like how someone gets started.

And I feel like, you know, a lot of what you read is sort of a little daunting. And I talked to you know friends of mine who are realtors. Our friends, realtors, who they used. I spoke to the realtor we use when we bought her home and everyone just sort of says like, listen, like be prepared to make no money for six months.

Like you ready to get up every morning and, you know, pound your network and make sure you are putting yourself out there. And all of that hard work definitely pays off, but it’s, you know, people will also throw stats at you about, you know, the number of realtors there are in Denver. The number of them who are successful and what it takes to be successful, which none of that really deterred me or freaked me out.

Because I’ve been putting in a lot of challenging situations in my previous career whether there was a challenging client or, you know a crisis situation or something that we had to act on quickly, and I’ve been able to overcome challenges like that and problem solve. So. I was confident that, you know, I was ready for change and this was going to be something that I could really dig into, I could make my own.

And you can sort of work as hard as you want, or as little as you want. I, my personality is to sort of dig in and be a hard worker. So I just make sure that I start every day with a list of things I need to do or and sort of have goals for that month so that I can keep myself. Accountable.

Definitely. I mean, I think it’s always really important to understand too. And this is something that I really love talking about, but how real estate agents are. It, you know, you are an independent contractor and therefore you are the CEO of a small business. Right. Like, you’ve got to be marketing. You are, you know, client care, client support.

I mean, there’s just so much that goes into it. So I’m always curious to know, like, how are you bringing and you, and you did to just touch on this, but how are you bringing some of that past experience into real estate? How are you kind of adapting those tools and those skills that you build up in that communications industry to real estate and to your clients?

Yes. So I, you know, I was, I worked for the same PR agency for my entire career. So. A lot of their work styles sort of what’s ingrained in me. And I was surrounded by a lot of super smart and great people. And I had great mentors and I feel like, you know, organization and time management were key and knowing when like you need help.

Well then who are the people who can help? The only change now with real estate is I don’t have help. It’s just me. Which is fine. It’s been a refreshing change to not have to keep track of necessarily like other people’s to do lists or people I was managing. But now it’s, you know, figuring out what do I need to tackle today and what can wait for another day.

And I have become ingrained in using CRM. Those, which that was new to me. I did not use them in PR and PR everything was like based around my emails and just flagging emails and keeping a detailed to-do list. So now I just take a similar approach, but I’m keeping a database of clients and connections and setting reminders for myself so that I don’t lose track of something.

Six months out from buying a home while I’m focused on the people who are looking right now. But a big part of it for me is making sure that I’m responsive and I make every person feel like they’re the most important person. And in that moment because you know, you could be juggling multiple clients in the same weekend.

And so I just try to. Ahead of booking showings and giving people my availability and sort of working around schedules. I think the biggest thing for my PR career that I remember is you never wanna leave a client hanging and have, you know, a whole day go by and you’re not responding to a simple email.

So I really. Try to keep up with my emails, whether it’s, you know, responding to things first thing in the morning, and then checking again later in the day to catch anything from while I was out at showing so that people feel like they can count on me and get ahold of me. And, you know, so it’s just different, not being in front of a computer all day and sort of adding in the, on the go environment that real estate brings.

What were some of the biggest and I’ll say obstacles, but oh yeah. So, you know, replace that with challenges. So what were some of the challenges that you’ve encountered you know, entering this new career that you didn’t really expect? What were some of the things I don’t know, I don’t, and I don’t want to say curve balls.

I’m thinking you’re entering the industry to is an incredible time right now. You know, I I’ll, I’ll be excited. Maybe we can connect in a few years. And talk about how you came into real estate at the craziest time possible. What are some of the, you know, kind of the, the unknown challenges that you’ve experienced and how you worked through them and, and kind of grown and grow.

Yeah. So I think, you know, when I first started my mentor at modus who supports me in a sort of like my right hand as I get up to speed you know, he suggested that I start to put together a list of everyone. I know doesn’t necessarily just have to keep people I know in Denver, but people who I know who would be supportive of me in this change and would be able to think of me, refer people to me.

Et cetera. So when I started pulling that together, became a little daunting that like, yes, I do know a lot of people, but like, how am I going to reach out to these people appropriately? Some of them were people I haven’t spoken to in a long time. And you, and I don’t want to know come off too salesy and make them feel like I’m only reaching out to them because I want to, you know, work with them and eventually get a paycheck from.

And so navigating that was harder than I thought, but then, you know, twofold, you know, Also expect to a certain degree that your friends will give you a chance. And I don’t expect that, you know, all of my friends are going to work with me just because now I’m in real estate, but I expect that they would give me the chance to like, have the coffee meetings, sit me down, ask me how I would handle it, what I would do for them and give me a shot to compete against someone else who maybe they’re talking to, who has more years experience or they feel like is a better fit.

So I think overcoming that or the expectation. You know, people I know who already know me would give me that shot. And I think now I just, you know, focus on what I can bring to the table and share the successes I have had as a way to sort of navigate those conversations. And then, you know, In addition to that, I think it’s just always constantly finding people to meet and talk to, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be because they’re looking for a home, but I’m trying to create a community here for myself and sort of join meetups or clubs or things for activities that I enjoy I’m involved in as a way to widen my network because previously I wasn’t working with anyone in Denver, so I haven’t been exposed to.

The community and in this way, yeah. Definitely. And, and I think that that networking part is incredibly important in real estate. And that’s why, you know, I kind of looked back getting your, or getting into the industry, you know, eight months ago or even last year, it’s like networking was primarily virtual last year.

So so I think, you know, again, you you’ve entered it in a strange way. What’s your, you know, kind of take, you know, within your first year of doing this, what’s your take on the Denver market? You know, I think we’ve seen in, like you, you mentioned so many people are moving here, so we’re seeing this massive influx of people we’re seeing home prices increase at it at alarming rates.

But what’s your kind of take on the market right now. And then what’s, you know, what kind of conversations are you having with your. Yeah. So when I started at the end of last year, things were definitely crazy, but I think when we hit 20, 21, it even got crazier and people who I had been talking to have worked in the industry, you know, eight, 15 years, 10 years, whatever it is, you know, have said that they’ve never been.

Seen it this crazy, and they’ve never been writing contracts and the way they have to write them in order to win and even the best, you know, written contract or the most competitive contracts they’ve written are not winning there’s someone who is stronger. And so it’s definitely been challenging. I think when I was writing contracts for people in January, February, March, At least for the price point.

And the areas that I was looking with people was more wild or there were more offers on the table then than there are when I’m writing offers now. And so I think since the Memorial day holiday, I’ve noticed a, like a little dip. And so I won’t say it’s drastic, but like a slight change, like definitely a drop in the number of showings, which will lead to less offers.

So. Is a little bit less competition for buyers, but it’s still is keeping the prices, you know, high or going above list in most cases for the seller side. But you know, the inventory is historically low at around 2000 homes, I think right now. And so it would need to at least triple to even right.

And, you know, there isn’t a sign yet that that’s happening. I think it’s like softening slightly, but we haven’t seen like such an uptick in listings that would lead you to believe that I could start telling clients that, you know, if you wait a month, there might be more inventory for you to look at and things will even out because I, I don’t think that that’s, it’s going to happen that quickly.

In terms of, you know, when people keep talking about the bubble and are we in a bubble, I just, I think the market’s going to stay pretty hot through the rest of this year. I don’t like to necessarily predict or talk longer term than that. And you know, with rates still being pretty low, I mean, they’ll probably go up, but in the grand scheme of things, they’re still low.

And so for people who. Hovering or thinking about it. Or they have a lease coming up in the next three or six months. Like I would encourage them to look and at least give it a try. Like you never know until you try or at least have a conversation with a mortgage lender and sort of understand at least where you would be at.

The education is definitely key because I think people are hearing on the news or through friends that, you know, the inventory’s low and the market’s crazy. And so it keeps people sort of out of the game. I’ve been successful with, you know, several first-time home buyers who sort of got their feet wet, understood what they had to do.

And they did it. And after a few tries, you know, we were able to go under contract. So I always sort of encouraged people to try to see the other side of thing or find the, find the positive. Like you could be spending, you know, a certain amount on rent every month. And you could spend that same amount on a home depending on what you’re looking for in a way.

And so sometimes when people look at it like that, they’re like, okay, well maybe we should. Actually make the investments that, of just spending rent. Yeah, definitely. I mean, there’s so much out there when, when, you know, if you’re a prospective home buyer if you just go Google the process, I loved what, what you said.

It just seems so daunting. One, because you’re bombarded with so much information and too, you know, the possibility, you know, You know, a year ago, if you were looking in the 400 to $500,000 range and I’m speaking, you know, to Denver, well, those houses are in the 600 to $700,000 range and getting more simple cash offers with escalation clauses.

And it just seems. That, you know, when you look at it and take it at face value, it seems like it’s just not really a possibility, but again, like, like what you said, and I, and I love emphasizing this. It’s like just meet with an agent, meet with a realtor and start that conversation. So you can begin to see that.

Even though things are a little bit daunting. It’s, it’s not out of the realm of possibility. It might not be what you want it, you know, one year ago or two years ago or what was available, but that doesn’t change the possibilities of it. And I think that’s a really important tool. Exactly. And I think, you know, a lot of what’s being put out right now from DMR and in the, all the stats is, you know, every month, the home that you could have afforded for $500,000 in the Denver Metro.

Becomes not attainable the next month because of the new comps and the appreciation and all of the new homes that are closing. And so sometimes I try to show people those stats or information to show them that, you know, if they really do have enough money saved to do it now, but they’re just sort of scared or unsure.

That, you know, whatever you whatever’s on your wishlist might not be affordable in six months if this keeps up. And so sometimes looking at it like that helps too, because, you know, no one expected a pandemic was going to come. And I think a lot of people who are in apartments and want to be in apartments anymore.

And so mom knows we’re not as popular. And people fled like the key downtown neighborhoods cause they wanted outdoor space. Now that’s starting to. Sort of turnaround and I think there’s more competition again on, you know, condos. So for people who are renting an apartment and, you know, really want to buy a house, cause they don’t want to, I spend $400,000 on the condo or whatever it is, you know, I try to tell them like, maybe it’s more worth buying the condo right now having the investment and worrying about the house later.

I think. First time home buyers are very hung up on a certain picture where we want our forever home or whatever it is, but really your first home is just an investment. It’s a starting point. And because the Denver market is so nuts right now in a good way. And the appreciation that you can have in just a couple of years, you could be out of the condo.

So just trying to help people. Weigh options. I think a lot of people who are in apartments right now, at least who I’m talking to, don’t want to buy a condo because they feel like they should be able to afford a house. But it’s just not, it’s not in the cards for everyone, depending on what they’re willing to compromise.

I want to jump back. You had mentioned that you had just recently started kind of using a CRM and bringing that sort of like technology and software into your every day routine. What CRM are you using? Yeah, so we, I used to because we have a system at modus that we use for leads that are generated from our website.

Sierra. So I’m in that constantly to help work the leads that come in through that system. And then for my own clientele base I have now the name of the CRM is totally. Escaping me, it will come to me. But it’s a free one that I was just sort of trying out and seeing if I liked it or not, because I’m so used to having like the to-do list and putting stuff in my calendar as reminders, but as the amount of people I’m working with is growing and everyone’s almost sort of like a different timeframe.

I wanted one place to sort of compile. They’re key information, including like birthdays and anniversaries and all those things so that I can remember to send them little cards or drop by and say hello, or send flowers or whatever it is. So it’s more so for that, I still like keep a to-do lists separately for myself of like the things I need to do this day or that week.

But if, if anything, it’s just sort of like a contact database. Yeah. I mean, we’ve seen some, you know, Travis offers our, our CRM is incredibly robust. We’ve got a whole email marketing system. And that to me has been like one of the biggest surges that I’ve seen in the past year. And especially through 2020.

And maybe you have some experience with this, but being able to stay in touch with that network So regularly and with, you know, and feeling confident about that messaging going out, I think is such an important tool in your CRM, right? Because you need, you need to be able to send those messages.

And like you said before, like not come across too salesy, not come across in personal. Is that something that you’ve. Either, I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t want to say struggle, but is that, has it been difficult kind of implementing that into your everyday routines and everyday systems and just keeping that, you know, keeping that CRM top of mind, because there’s so much value in there.

If it wouldn’t use properly. Yeah. So I think and HubSpot is the CRM that I’ve been testing out on my own and I haven’t done any like email campaigns through that. Yet. But through the Sierra system that we use for leads that get generated from the modus website we do, when I set people up through that system on searches, based on their criteria, and that generates an email, whether it’s daily, twice a week, weekly, monthly and it it’s all branded to me and to Moda.

So every time they received that alert with the listings, You know, putting my face in front of them in my name which is similar to how you can do email campaigns and things of that nature. The people who I think are longer term, I also set up on email campaigns to share general information about the different steps I would take when you’re a first time home buyer or, you know, whatever is sort of specific to them.

Even if they’re not looking now but they. Are interested in sort of feeling it out then I’m that way I’m using those emails as a way to stay in front of them, but I’m not physically having to remember to type up the email and send it to them. It’s sort of all automated, which is just, it was unfamiliar to me when I started real estate, but it’s a huge help as I get busier because otherwise things would just fall through the cracks, which would be unfortunate because then they’re going to move on and buy a home with someone else, which is the opposite of what.

Right. How did you, how did you and your husband you know, talk about your home buying process, you, I think you had said you’d bought a couple of years ago about your home buying process of the agent that you worked with and, and how you kind of built that. Really? Yeah. So we worked with Bret Weinstein.

He now is the CEO and founder. BSW real estate. And he, he had started his farm. When we worked with him. It was a newer then. We got referred to him from a friend and we met with him first, like I think four years ago. So a year before we actually started. He was like, come on, like, you guys should do this.

He was never pressuring us, but he was definitely like encouraging us in a positive way. Like, if you can afford what you’re spending in rent, now you could easily put that towards a mortgage. And even if you spent a little bit more. It would be more worth your money than, you know, your nice apartment downtown.

And I was hesitant and Phil, my husband was hesitant and we were not married, but we were engaged at the time and we decided that we were going to wait until after the wedding and worry about the big life milestone of buying a home then. So we got married at the end of 2018 and we met with Brett again in early.

Of, yeah, I guess early 2019, and we decided to go for it. I was still a little hesitant. I always feel like we could save more. We need more, you know, I don’t want to spend more than we are in rent to buy a home. But now fast forward to right now and the amount of equity we built in our home, I was silly to be so soon to be so nervous.

And it was a really great experience. Brett connected us to lenders who he worked with. And so we felt totally taken care of and got walked through that whole process. And we started looking in February and we closed on a home in April. So it was very fast, very fast. I think we only spent. Three weekends, like hardcore looking.

The first house we went under contract on, fell through. We just like, couldn’t come to an agreement on silly things in an inspection, which in hindsight it was for the best. But also like now I realize in this market, when I’m navigating with clients, like I really try to avoid like long inspection objections over small things because the sellers will.

Like they’ll make it so difficult. You’ll want to leave or, you know, you’re not going to find yourself in an agreement. I mean, in most cases right now, people are writing into contracts like as is, which basically means that you, you can do an inspection because it’s your right per the contract. You’re only going to object major issues for health and safety.

So it just becomes sticky if a railing is loose and you’re trying to put that in inspection objection, when it can easily be fixed, you know, by yourself later. So, you know, things like that were definitely a learning experience. We were super bombed when we had to walk away from that home because we couldn’t come to an agreement, but in the end we bought brand new construction.

And it’s been awesome. We live right near Sloan’s lake. So there’s been a lot of other developments and new construction and new restaurants and things that have come to. The area. And, you know, we bought at the top of our budget, which everyone says, you know, I feel like once you give a budget range, you always end up like higher especially market.

Because if your budget is up to 600, now I would only set people’s searches for up to five 50. So they have wiggle room to offer 600, but that they leave enough, you know, room for appraisal gap coverage and things of that nature that are necessary to. When contracts right now. So it was exciting.

And I mean, I think when we, when we bought the market was like busy and home. Like there were homes that we definitely wanted to see and then they were gone before we could even get into them, which is happening now. But there was no, like, because we bought new construction, there was no competition on this house.

Like we moved quickly the day we saw it and no one. Put in an offer. So we didn’t have to go over ask, which I think is a similar trend. We’re still seeing now that new construction is a great way to go. If you’re willing to wait the timelines that You know are necessary. And you know, if you’re looking for a lot of the new construction projects in Denver are townhomes or duplexes.

And so there’s just great opportunity for people who sort of don’t want the competition factor because some of the projects, you know, don’t have competition that, that drives up the price. Yeah. And when you’re, so when you’re like guiding clients right now, Like you said everything is moving so fast, right?

Like, I mean, we’re seeing, I mean, I think the, the days on market Denver’s down to like what 15, it’s like an average. And that seems like incredibly high to me. How, how are these conversations unfolding with your clients when, you know, when they, when they might be, how, how y’all were a few years ago, like, oh, you know, we want to push it out a year.

We want to wait until, you know, I mean, everyone has their reasons, right? Like the, the real estate transaction process used to be a year. You, you know, you started talking. Lender and an agent and you could plan it out, but now it just seems like so fast. So how are you equipping and empowering your clients to be like, kind of prepared for what they’re about to enter?

Because like you said, you have to move fast and you have to, you know, be confident in that decision. Yeah. So I’m super transparent and sort of like very blunt and upfront with people. So I’m like sort of a take it or leave it. So if someone’s on the fence, And asking for my advice, I will tell them point blank.

Like if you wait six months, what you can afford now may not be attainable and then you’ll be making more compromises then, then you might have to now. And just because. You know, yes, the market is moving really fast, but I still think it’s super important to have conversations with me, have conversations with lenders, find someone you’re comfortable with that you feel good about and start the process early.

It doesn’t mean that you have to be looking right now just because you start the conversations with the lender, but I think people. You start to feel it out, especially as first time home buyers, three to six months out from being ready is smart and understanding like, what is the cost to break your lease?

Can you break your lease? Can you afford to break your lease? Can you afford to do. The lease and a home. If you found a home in the first month, you’re looking instead of three months later so sort of walking everyone through those variables and then I encourage people to start earlier because if they’re not sure what neighborhood they want to be in, or they have no idea what it costs to live in Highlands versus Anglewood versus.

They, they give themselves a little time to feel it out. Like there’s no pressure just because you’re approved by a lender that you have to start doing showings and, you know, putting offers in. And I don’t pressure people to do that. And I would, I’m happy to spend time with people like going to a neighborhood and walking around and like pointing at homes that they like homes that they don’t why or streets that they like or treats that they don’t.

All of that stuff is, is helpful and better prepares you for when you’re like ready? I think what’s hard is when people start looking. I had this happen with a couple earlier this year, we went to a couple of showings and I didn’t think that they were going to be, you know, ready. So immediately I was really doing the showings.

It was more of like education. Like here’s what out there they didn’t their rent. Wasn’t up on their house in Highlands ranch until like June. So they had a lot of time. This was like February. And we ended up going under contract like two weekends later because they were just like, so in love with things they saw, but they were, they were ready to go because they had spoke to a lender and they understood.

You know, what it would take after a couple offers were missed. So I think sometimes too, it’s good to get out there, put an offer in on something you like and see, frankly, see how hard it is. Like in some cases it’s good that they didn’t go under contract on the first house. Cause the one they got was way better, but it also taught them like, if you really like it, you have to go highest and best as strong as you can, like leave nothing on the table.

And that’s the only way to really. Navigate the market right now. The other thing I tell people if they don’t want to be in crazy competition is the new construction stuff, which I mentioned before in modus does a lot of new development and new projects. So there’s a lot of opportunity with people I work with on those.

And then I also you know, to help people like on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, like sometimes I do a search in MLS for things that are still on the mark. And if there’s things that are popping up that are of interest to my clients, I’ll call those agents and see like, what’s going on? Like, did you have interest?

Are you going to go under contract? Are you not? And sometimes swooping in, in the middle of the week on a listing that isn’t brand new, you could get it with less competition or no competition depending. And that’s another approach that you can take to not deal with like the crazy rush. And the 20 plus offers that a home may be getting on.

On a Saturday or Sunday. Yeah. That’s I mean, that’s one thing I’ve got, I’ve got a lot of friends in real estate here, and I feel like, you know, one of the, one of the biggest shifts, real estate’s always been, you know, definitely a full-time job. And then the weekends are always big, but it seems now.

Because of this hyper competitive market, Saturdays and Sundays are 10 and 12 hour days, depending on the amount of clients that you’re currently carrying or amount of listings that you’re currently carrying. So I always wonder if you know, you know, agents who have who’ve been in it now, and you’ve been at you’re coming up on a year.

So your experience is a little bit different, but just how that schedule is changed. Over the years and really kind of adapting to that. And I think one of the, one of the cool experiences that you’re having is coming in at this time and seeing it at this, you know, relatively anomaly time period in real estate.

It’s going to be very valuable, I think, in the future. Yeah, no, it’s definitely been exciting and I think. You know, my previous career really set me up for like maxing out how busy you can feel, because I was always like at max capacity, if not over capacity. So starting a new career, I definitely have not yet been at max capacity.

And I think everyone has a different threshold for what that is. But I can definitely imagine what it would be like to have, you know, 10 plus buyers who are all active at once. Like there aren’t. Of me to go around to get them into showings and then trying to navigate the fact that this showing calendars fill up so fast.

Like you could tell them you’re available at XYZ times, and then those times could be, you know, what’s full, but you’re already booked to do a showing with someone else. So it’s also been a huge help that I work on a team. Modus. So we help each other. So if I’m out of town, people can cover, you know, showings for me.

But also if I was ever in a situation where I was going to be done booked, then normally there is someone who can help, which is huge. Because otherwise, you know, what does that buyer going to do? They can’t go to the house with him. That hopefully you just kind of jinxed yourself. So hopefully by this time, next week you’ll have 10 more bucks.

That would be great. Yes. Well, Samantha, we’re, we’re definitely coming up on time, but we always like to ask this one question at the end. And that question is, you know, there was one thing you could change. About the industry, what would it be? But I’m going to change it a little bit just because you’ve, you’ve been in a a little bit less time than some of our other, other guests.

Excuse me, going back and just kind of, you know, as you were entering this industry, is there anything that you would kind of change about your personal approach and what advice would you give to people interested in pursuing or even just researching a career in real estate? Yeah, I think one thing I Like notice or would change is just, I think I’ve come in contact with, you know, many agents to try to get information or questions.

Sometimes just being able to get information about the listing or understanding where the offers currently stand is sometimes such an uphill battle. And it blows my mind a little bit only because I feel like that that broker is working for their seller and their sellers should want them to get, you know, the highest and best offer.

And my approach is to be transparent. So I would share information and say, you know, the, the prices were at, or within this range and include XYZ. And the contracts so that other people are able to feed that or compete with that. And I, my approach is to be super forthcoming, not everyone’s is, but if I could change something, I would love if more people were were like that.

I think it makes it super helpful in all the transactions I’ve done that were smooth, happens that way from both sides which is refreshing. And then those are, you know, agents you want to work with again, or you hope you come across. Advice. I would give someone who’s entering the industry, which I have had a couple of friends do it since I have.

And I told them, you know, just get ready to really dig in, like think of all the people, you know, and how you can reconnect with them and how you can. Share your experience or your expertise with them without, you know, feeling like you’re just, you know, constantly selling yourself. And so I think a big part of it is relationships.

And how do you stay in front of people? You know, people are always going through something. I’ve had friends who started to look for homes and then decided not to because they changed their mind and you know, not letting that get you down or frustrate you. You know, being there for them, maybe they’re going through a tough time.

If you’re the one who’s there for them, they’ll probably end up working with you when they are ready. So I think you just have to really be ready to dig in and give it your a hundred percent, which can be scary because for a lot of people, they can’t leave their, you know, full-time job or whatever they were doing before to do it full time.

But you know, like you were saying before, the weekends can be really hectic. But it’s worth it when you. Put everything you have into it. That’s great. So of the, how can people get in touch with you, contact you or find you if they are, you know, looking at relocating to them? Yeah. So you can find me on Instagram, I’m pretty active with sharing information there.

My handle is at Sam S higher, and you can also email me samantha@modusrealestate.com. And that’s higher. H E Y E R. Correct. 📍 . Thanks so much. Thanks for listening to the brokerage insider. Our guest today was Samantha higher with modus real estate here in Denver, Colorado. Be sure to subscribe to broker gen or wherever you get your podcasts and tune in every single Monday for new episodes,