
Doorify Real Estate Podcast
Welcome to the Doorify Real Estate podcast, brought to you by Doorify MLS. Join us every Wednesday to hear interviews with industry insiders, agents and brokers that are crushing their businesses, and updates from the Doorify MLS team.
Doorify Real Estate Podcast
How to Create Leverage in Real Estate Without Burning Out with Emily Terrell
When your calendar's packed and your phone won’t stop buzzing, it’s easy to believe burnout is just part of the job.
But what if the real key to growth is doing less but better?
In this episode, I sit down with Emily Terrell, real estate coach, investor, and business owner who figured out how to stop trading time for transactions. We talk about the systems she built that made her business scalable, how she trained her team using tools like Nekst, and how she made room for a lifestyle that includes six months by the beach. Emily opens up about the life shift that pushed her to start leveraging, what new agents get wrong about social media, and the parenting hacks that helped her stay present without putting her business on pause.
We also get into the step-by-step approach she used to document her workflows, create training processes, and teach her team to run without her. From transaction management checklists to investing strategies, she’s found ways to make consistency her superpower.
So listen in to hear how Emily built a business that supports her life, not the other way around.
Specifically, this episode highlights the following themes:
- Building repeatable systems for real estate success
- Shifting from solo hustle to strategic leverage
- Coaching insights that prioritize mindset and simplicity
Links from this episode:
- Follow Emily Terrell on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coachemilyterrell
- Know more about Andrea Siracuse: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-siracuse
- Learn more about Doorify: https://doorifymls.com
1ae5b43598204883b524f061d4880e6d10fca88c (for podfollow.com)
Emily Terrell [00:00:00]:
The most successful agents are the ones that do the basics just at a high level. Are they really the basics if not everybody's doing them? Or are those basics actually high level? Right, but in reality, if you're, if you're stuck or you're not seeing success, go back to what has worked in the past for you. Because, you know, the idea is if it's worked in the past, it's probably going to work again. So what work did you do? What campaign did you run? Where did you get those leads from? Go determine what that work was and continue to do it.
Andrea Siracuse [00:00:42]:
All right, everyone, let's get ready to unlock the secrets to a thriving real estate career that serves your life, not the other way around. Today we're chatting with Emily Terrell, a trailblazer in the industry with nearly a decade of experience as a top team leader and a Tom Ferry coach. Emily is a master at creating systems that boost your productivity and are going to maximize your results. So while she's living her best life in Texas, she is also six months out of the year living at the beach. Yes, you heard that right. That's incredible. I want tips on how I can do this too.
Andrea Siracuse [00:01:27]:
But Emily is here to share her expertise on everything from leveraging past clients to mastering social media. So let's dive into some actual insights and ready made solutions that are going to help you work smarter, not harder. Emily, welcome.
Emily Terrell [00:01:45]:
Yeah, thanks so much for having me. I'm super pumped to be here today.
Andrea Siracuse [00:01:49]:
Oh, I can't wait to like, dive into your journey and just your, you know, how you've been so successful in the real estate world and how now you're coaching others. So I kind of want to start with what was like the pivotal moment or experience that inspired you to transition into coaching from the very beginning.
Emily Terrell [00:02:10]:
I actually got a coach from the very beginning. I always, you know, I did do transactions really early on and I did quite a few. I always knew that it was very much throwing a lot of spaghetti at the wall. So I had had a coach for a really long time. And my coach had always told me, because I was fortunate enough to have the same person for several years, he had always told me, he said, emily, you'll be a coach one day. You're not ready, but you'll be a coach one day. And I said, okay. And I'd always kept in the back of my mind, and I was like, no, I'm having fun.
Emily Terrell [00:02:34]:
I'm making money. There's absolutely, you know, I'm good. Well, one day and actually, in 2020, I had an opportunity with some investments that I made to I hit some really massive financial goals, meaning I paid my life off. Like, I paid my house off, my cars, rv. I mean, everything, right? Credit cards, every piece of debt that you could have. And so the day that I went to go do that, I had a coach who call in the morning. And I told my coach, I said, hey, this is happening this afternoon. And, you know, of course, we kind of planned for it.
Emily Terrell [00:03:06]:
And I said, but I need you to do me a favor. And he's like, what? And I said, I need you to keep me motivated. And he's like, okay. And I said, because I know what's going to happen. Working will be just pure enjoyment at this point. So I need you to keep me motivated. I need to find the thing that keeps me going. So exactly as I predicted happened, I, you know, paid everything off.
Emily Terrell [00:03:24]:
It was very exciting. Which, by the way, the moment you step on your grass of your. At your house and it's yours and it's nobody else's, you know, the most freeing and amazing thing ever. But the thing happened, and I was right in that I kind of was like, man, I don't want to lead you in today. Man, I don't. I don't want to do anything. And I still did, but the joy of it was lost, right? Like, I didn't. I needed a different purpose.
Emily Terrell [00:03:49]:
I needed a different reason to actually do this. So he said. And he came to me and he said, hey, let's revisit the conversation. And I'm like, what conversation is that? And he goes, you being a coach. And I was like, oh, you know, it's a really good idea because I already naturally did it. I already naturally helped people. I was already leading webinars. I was already, like, involved with it, but now it would just be more formal.
Emily Terrell [00:04:10]:
So that was kind of the moment that I was like, yep, this is it. And then what I found is this is I'm great at real estate. I love coaching, and I love speaking, and I love helping people. Like, that is truly way more of a passion than actually selling real estate ever was for me.
Andrea Siracuse [00:04:26]:
You also talk about, like, one of your big things that I love about you is you're all about, like, creating systems that allow your business to serve your life and not dominate it.
Emily Terrell [00:04:37]:
Oh, yeah.
Andrea Siracuse [00:04:38]:
That really resonates with so many people. Can you share kind of, you know, some core principles of your approach to building a sustainable and balanced real estate career with that?
Emily Terrell [00:04:49]:
Yeah. I mean, so There's a couple of things, right? One of the things that I like to look at is I always build something the way I need for it to go. Meaning this. If, you know, when I was a single agent, when I was just by myself, I always knew that I wanted to have an assistant one day. So I built every system in which I did not have to do it. Because, you know, I recently went to a women's retreat, which if. If you know me talking about my feelings is not an easy thing for me to do. It's never where I'm going to naturally go.
Emily Terrell [00:05:20]:
And so I went to this women's retreat. It was really hard for me, but one. One of the women there said something and it stuck with me. She said, the gas needs to be pressed, but does it need to be your foot? Right? And that's kind of. I love that quote, Right, Right. Absolutely. Her name is Debbie Holloway. She's amazing.
Emily Terrell [00:05:36]:
But she said that, and I was like, debbie, that's brilliant, right? Because. And that's kind of how the way I'd already been building and had been building my business for years and years, but that's the thing that I focus on. So every time I look and build a business or a system, I'm so sorry, it's not me doing it. I'm building it so that if I needed to hire someone, I immediately can. And also, I always look at, okay, if I'm going to hire, you know, a VA or an assistant, where would I start, right? What system would I have them take over? And then from there, you know, I'll go through. Because the idea of building any system is having being able to communicate effectively with someone else that they can do it. And you really just, you know, being overhead, right? You just checking, having a system of checks and balances and then having other people that can do the work for you. And that's realistically, like, how I've always thought about it.
Emily Terrell [00:06:29]:
It's like, okay, I'm doing it now, but how can I leverage it for somebody else to do it? The greatest thing in the world has happened in the last year OR2 is AI has come about, though. Everybody that's listening has the absolute greatest advantage in the world in that they can have AI figure out these systems for them, right? It's. I mean, it's super simple. I built a prompt the other day because, you know, I do a lot of this with my coaching clients, and I built a prompt the other day, and it's, you know, it's a big, long prompt it's about four pages long. But the prompt, essentially you give it a task, whatever the task is, Right. The task could even be walking your dog. Doesn't matter. You give it the task and it looks at it and it looks at the task and it says, okay, how can we delegate this task? How can we leverage either technology or people? How can we use AI to build this task? Or and in some cases, how can we simplify this task? Right.
Emily Terrell [00:07:23]:
So, for example, one of my clients, you know, one thing that she does every single day that takes up a lot of time is she walks her dog. So the two options that this prompt gave her. Right, this prompt gave her two options. It was either to use the dog walking time to complete another task, such as listening to podcasts or lead generation calls, or the other option was to leverage a dog walking company so she could delegate that at least three times a week to the dog walking company so that she could do other stuff during that time. So the dogs still get walked, the task still gets done. But she's got two options of ways that she could solve the problem of it taking up her time.
Andrea Siracuse [00:08:02]:
I love that example. Can you kind of emphasize like leveraging people and technology for just like seamless transactions like, I know you just sample, but just something like you can share more specifics on, like, yes. Agents can, you know, effectively utilize both, like stream.
Emily Terrell [00:08:23]:
Yeah.
Andrea Siracuse [00:08:24]:
Like just streamlining their processes.
Emily Terrell [00:08:27]:
Yeah. So the, the best and easiest place to start with that is your transactions. Right. So every transaction that you do should have. Every client, doesn't matter who they are, should have the exact same experience. Right. It's what makes chain restaurants so successful because it's, it. Okay, listen, it doesn't matter that McDonald's is mid at best, Right? It's the same level of mid everywhere.
Emily Terrell [00:08:50]:
That mid level. I don't even know. I don't go to McDonald's Big Mac. There you go. Is going to be the same level. You're going to get the same level and quality of chicken nuggets no matter where you go. It may not be great quality, but it's the same. Right.
Emily Terrell [00:09:02]:
It's the reason people continue to go back there. Right, Right. Because they know that they're going to get, you know, it's whatever, it's. It's just a meal. Right. It's going to make my kids happy every time. So transactions should be run the same way. So one of the easiest ways, and I'll give very specific so people can look at it.
Emily Terrell [00:09:18]:
One of the programs that I like to Use now, any program will work. I'm just going to give you the examples of the one I use. I like to use a program called Next N E K S T. Right. And I've used it for years. And what Next does is it allows you to build checklists. Now you again, you can do this in other programs. This is just the one I use.
Emily Terrell [00:09:36]:
Next allows us to load those lists as template. So every single time I get an appointment scheduled for a listing appointment, that list immediately gets applied to it. And this way every listing appointment is handled the exact same way. I have the same information at the listing appointment. I show up prepared and I can, you know, knock the socks off of any seller. Same thing when I'm getting ready for listings. When the house is listed and we're closing, everything is ran in the exact same way this way. My clients are always getting my best.
Emily Terrell [00:10:06]:
Now the cool thing is, is what that allows me to do is it helps me organize as an agent. But remember I talked about always wanting to leverage, right. So when I hired my first ba, where do you think I had them start? Right. I set up a zoom meeting and I said, this is Next. Here's my transaction list. Here's how you start. And I just went over step by step of every single thing they needed to do and we recorded it. So they had all of the training there and can go back and rewatch it all.
Emily Terrell [00:10:38]:
But I didn't have to create a job or think about what they needed to do. I got it out of my head and it's there in a list. That's one of the first places that I, if I had to do it over again, it would still start there.
Andrea Siracuse [00:10:49]:
I love that. And you know, also I love that you live six months at the beach. Like the ability to do that while running such a successful company and team and coaching, it's intriguing. Like, what are the key systems and strategies that make that lifestyle possible for you?
Emily Terrell [00:11:09]:
Yeah, so a part of it is leverage. So I learned. And part of it was born because my mom got sick, right? She, she got sick several years ago and I couldn't do showings anymore because I was her full time caregiver. And so I wasn't able to really leave. I tried once and it was horrible. So I needed to start leveraging people. So at the time I was like, okay, I have these systems in place so transactions can be run smoothly, but I need to start leveraging for appointments. So I found two agents that ended up, you know, running all buyers for me.
Emily Terrell [00:11:42]:
And then eventually I started marketing only towards listings. And so from there I was like, well, why am I not going to just do the same thing? Why shouldn't I leverage somebody else? So essentially I got a. Basically a listing manager. So someone that goes to all the listing appointments, that goes and runs the transactions, you know, between VAS and then the people running them. So I have people that run handle buyers. We don't get as many anymore because we're not advertising, we're not marketing towards them. But we also, But I, you know, have somebody that goes on those listing appointments and runs them. So what I did is in order to have this, you know, to have the life I wanted, I basically put myself into a more of an operations role.
Emily Terrell [00:12:22]:
Meaning that I make the phone ring. So I create the systems. I make the phone ring to get calls in. Like I said, I just leverage other people so that the work is not done. Now, I will tell you there's a trade off for that. There's two trade offs. Number one, I don't put listings in my name. I don't want the phone calls.
Emily Terrell [00:12:42]:
Like, I don't want them. So listings don't go in my name, which is fine. Right. I don't need, I've had plenty of recognition. I've got a shelf full of, you know, awards up there. I don't need anymore. Right. So that's one.
Emily Terrell [00:12:55]:
Number two is I did leverage. I gave up money, so I have a lot more time, but I also gave up some money. So there is a bit of a trade off. But I will tell you, my dollar per hour that I work is a lot higher.
Andrea Siracuse [00:13:10]:
I love that. You know, being successful real estate professional while raising young children is a significant achievement. And I know there's a lot of parents this profession. Like, what are some of the biggest challenges you faced and what advice do you have for other parents in the industry? Because it's. While you can, you know, make your own schedule and create it, there's just a lot of like challenges. Not, you know.
Emily Terrell [00:13:37]:
Yeah.
Andrea Siracuse [00:13:37]:
In real estate with kids. But I'm just curious, like how you navigate that.
Emily Terrell [00:13:43]:
Sure. So, you know, this, this reminds me of when I had my second child. He's seven now. But when I had my second child, you know, I had him. I had like actually my. One of my absolute best years as far as number of transactions. And then I end up having him in December. I had an opportunity.
Emily Terrell [00:13:59]:
I got to keep him home with me for nine months. Right. I did fewer transactions that year, but I still. Which was fine. I mean, I still did like 56 transactions. So I still did a lot. Yeah. But I did get to keep him home with me during that time.
Emily Terrell [00:14:12]:
If you, if you do have to have your kids home with me, one thing that I did is I went to the website, care.com and I found a part time nanny essentially. And she was a little bit younger, which was completely fine. Right. Because all I needed for her to do was to be available. And I only had her for like three days a week, for like four hours at a time. Right. It wasn't a ton. It was very part time for her, which worked in her schedule really well.
Emily Terrell [00:14:38]:
But one thing that we did is she, she would essentially just be in the room so that if my son needed anything, she could, she could either, you know, get it for him or she could bring him to me to do. Right. She would change his diapers and stuff like that. So it wasn't me leaving him. I still got to spend this time with him, but it was easier for me because I didn't have to split my focus. Right. I got to focus on lead generation while he. And follow up and transactions and everything.
Emily Terrell [00:15:06]:
And he got to be there with me and spend that time. Right. So, so it was, it was kind of really the best of both worlds. And it wasn't every day, so it wasn't a huge burden financially, but it was, you know, it was, it was that time for me. So that was what I did when I had him home. Now the other thing that was a big change for me is when he was, I actually, you know, and that was the plan the whole time was the nine months. And then eventually he was going to go to a daycare where my, it was in home daycare where my oldest went to. So it was, you know, I trusted them completely.
Emily Terrell [00:15:34]:
But so we go to whenever that was about to happen. I started like getting some anxiety and less anxiety, more of mom guilt. Right. I felt guilty that I was now going to be putting him into daycare. And so because of that, because I felt that guilt, I actually, I went to a Thomas at a Tom Ferry conference and it was, it was, you know, right before I became a coach, a little bit before I became a coach and Tom did this, ask me anything and there was like, I think There was like 6,000 people in the room. And I stood up and they threw the, this box microphone thing and they threw it to me. And so I asked the question. They said, you know, I don't need to know how to lead generate.
Emily Terrell [00:16:09]:
I can do that. I was Like, Tom, can you help me? Like, help me get through the mom guilt? Which I. I know you're sitting there thinking it's very unusual to ask Tom Ferry how to help me with that. But I will tell you, his advant, his advice was great. And what he told me was, he said, bring your kids. He's like, if you want them to be a part of your life, be sure to include them. They can be. And honestly, it just changed the way I thought about it.
Emily Terrell [00:16:35]:
Right? Yes. Granted, I still worked very hard, right. I still did a lot of showings. I still did a lot of appointments. But when my. When I was with my kids, I made time for my kids. My kids were part of my goal planning. My kids started to enjoy going and working with me, Right.
Emily Terrell [00:16:54]:
Like, they enjoyed so spending that time with me. And then when I was with them, I made it a point to be with them. I tried not to split my focus.
Andrea Siracuse [00:17:03]:
Yeah, that's. That's honestly graded by something that I feel like even I can take, because you just want to separate the two so you can focus. But I feel like you're building a lot of values for them and also them seeing, like, oh, yeah, working. Or maybe they're going to be, you know, real estate coaches one day because of Mom.
Emily Terrell [00:17:22]:
Yep. Oh, yeah. Oh, my kids think it's awesome. Like, I travel a lot now. I mean, I travel a lot now. Their teachers, I don't even tell the teacher what they do. The teacher's like, so I heard you travel a lot. I'm like, oh, yeah.
Emily Terrell [00:17:32]:
Like, you know, your kids think you're, like, you're, you know, whichever one it is, thinks you're the coolest person in the world. And I'm like, I love that. I love it.
Andrea Siracuse [00:17:41]:
So switching a little bit, like, talking about coaching expertise, like, you know, as a Tom Ferry coach, what are some of, like, the core, core principles or methodology methodologies you incorporate into your coaching programs? Or not even necessarily being like a Tom Berry coach, just what you kind of have come up with. Like, what are your.
Emily Terrell [00:18:03]:
Like, so realistically, the. The thing that I do with, you know, I do two things with all of my coaching clients, Right. Number one is we always. We always keep what their goals are in mind. Right? We're always looking at, like, what are your goals? Or another way to say is, like, what problem do you need solved within your business? Right. But we're always looking at these three goals that they have, the three goals for the quarter. What three goals you have for the year? Because we're always moving towards that. Right.
Emily Terrell [00:18:31]:
So we always keep that in mind because we don't want to just like, we're not making calls just for the sake of making calls. We're not, you know, we're not doing, we're not just making reels because we need to make reels. No. What, what is the bigger purpose of doing that? Right. The other thing that I really like to focus on is it's not so much and this has to do with the goals too. It's. It's all about learning to prioritize. Right.
Emily Terrell [00:18:52]:
We only have so much time in the day and everybody always has this problem with like they always say time management. They don't. Nobody really has a time management problem. Right. They actually have a priority problem. What tasks are more important and need to get done and how do you figure that out? Right. So we are always looking at, okay, you're adding this new lead source or you're adding this new task. What, what do you need to give up? Right.
Emily Terrell [00:19:18]:
How can we really make sure that we're focusing on what they're doing? And in some cases it's okay. Do we need to leverage? Right. Is it time for you to start growing? Is it time for you to hire a buyer's agent or is it time for you to let go of maybe a lead source that hasn't been working in the past? Right. Is that something that we need to do? So it's always looking at how can your business be better by learning to prioritize your time. And if you really, if you, if you think about it, if you put the guise of everything is about prioritizing, all the rest of it kind of starts to make sense and you, you look at your business in a different way of like, what is going to be the most effective use of my time?
Andrea Siracuse [00:19:56]:
Right. You kind of talked about this a little bit in this answer, but what would you say your ideal coaching. Who is your ideal coaching client? And like what are the typical challenges they're facing when they do come to you?
Emily Terrell [00:20:11]:
Honestly, like, I don't, I don't really have a, for me personally, I don't have an ideal. It's more about a mindset. Right. I love that it has to be someone who, to be coachable. And it honestly. So, you know, compared we have like eight levels of, you know, where somebody is in their coaching journey. Right. And it's kind of a, you know, it's a, it's a pyramid.
Emily Terrell [00:20:28]:
You know, the most people are like brand new agents. And then it goes from There I don't really have like a specific, like, oh, you have to be this level. I don't. It's more of they need to be coachable and they also need to be like willing to make changes because being coachable and then willing to make changes right now, I'm not saying that they have to do every single thing that I say because, you know, I'm, I'm not their mom. Right. I raised two and a half people, which just means my two kids and my husband. Right. I'm already raising that.
Emily Terrell [00:20:57]:
I don't need to raise, you know, my other coaching clients. Right. But it's more about, okay, are you willing to just look at it from a different perspective? Yeah. You know, are you willing to let me challenge you in your way of thinking? And so for me it's just coming in with that because, you know, the way I run my coaching calls, they're more mastermind. Right. You tell me something that you're looking to do. So then we look at, okay, how can we make it better, how can we make it smarter? How can we leverage other people? How does this help you grow? How does this reach your goals? Right. Do we need to adjust your goals? Because this is a better fit for you.
Emily Terrell [00:21:28]:
Right. So it's more of a continued conversation. So because I run my calls that way, I'm always looking for people who have that, you know, that desire and that want to grow. And as long as they have that, then I, I'm pretty open to them because it's, you know, I want open minded to be in my roster. And that usually works out really well for both of us.
Andrea Siracuse [00:21:48]:
I love that. The mindset, like what are some of the most common, like mindset shifts that you work on with your coaching clients to help them achieve like greater success?
Emily Terrell [00:21:59]:
Yeah. The easiest one that comes to mind is the idea that they don't have to do it all themselves.
Andrea Siracuse [00:22:07]:
And what do you mean by that? Just because every. You're there every step of the way.
Emily Terrell [00:22:12]:
No, it's not that every. So here's a perfect example, right. Most people think that in order to control their brand, they have to do everything. Let's. Let's just say social media, Right. In order to make it to where it's their brand and it's exactly what they want it to be, they have to do it all and they don't now a lot of times. And the reason agents think that is because they do the opposite. They hire a company to run their social media and all that company does is go And I'm not knocking or hating on Canva templates, but they just go and get Canva templates.
Emily Terrell [00:22:48]:
And believe me, within, within a millisecond, I can tell if somebody has hired a company to do Canva templates. I mean, I can absolutely tell. And guess what? It shows in their engagement. Right? So that's an example of they either control it or they think they're leveraging and they're hiring a company that's not showing their brand. Right. That's not showing their voice, that's not demonstrating that. That's just using Canva templates. And so because this is the extreme that people do, they think for it to be successful, they can't let go of that control.
Emily Terrell [00:23:16]:
So a big mindset shift that I work with clients on is learning how to leverage people to give up some of that control to grow. And once people realize that, and a lot of it has to do with like hiring the right person, framing them properly, having checks and balances in place. Once you kind of have those things that it makes it easier.
Andrea Siracuse [00:23:40]:
I love that you're also a real estate investor, which I have so much passion for it because I was. Well, I sold my investment property not too long ago. But like, how does your experience on the investment side inform your coaching for agents who also might be interested in investing? Because I feel like everyone now wants to invest in real estate, but all the time, not even just like people that you're coaching. But yeah, I'm just curious like.
Emily Terrell [00:24:11]:
Yeah.
Andrea Siracuse [00:24:11]:
How that kind of ties in.
Emily Terrell [00:24:13]:
Yeah. So we do, you know, I do a lot. And you want to, you want to know what's really funny is the investing. It's just systems. I mean, that's all it is. Right.
Andrea Siracuse [00:24:24]:
And is that same systems as you're.
Emily Terrell [00:24:26]:
Kinda, I mean, kind of. It's a little different. I mean, you do use some different tools, but it's the same process. Right. Anytime I buy a new rental, my husband actually doesn't know how many long term rental properties we own. He had no idea where he might know them, kind of maybe he has no idea where they are. He's actually not even been to all of them. Right.
Emily Terrell [00:24:47]:
And it's, and it's fine. I mean, it's how we have our assistance. But there's a lot. There's some properties that I buy, I'm like, yeah, it looks good. And then my contractors know exactly what to do. Right. They go in, they know exactly which, you know, which finishes we're going to do. They know the paint color, the paint type that needs to be bought, where to buy it at.
Emily Terrell [00:25:08]:
They know the flooring that we're going to use. They, they know like everything. And like it is really funny because it's. I have two main guys and one of them will call me and he'll be like, hey Emily. And, and they haven't called me in a while because they know, but they used to call me and they'd be like, Emily, you know, you know we've got this and this needs to be done and which option do you want to choose? And I'm like, why are you calling me? And he's like, I already know. And so then the other one's just like laughing his butt off in the background because he already knows that that's what I'm going to say. Right? Like they already, he already knows my answer. They still wanted to check.
Emily Terrell [00:25:40]:
Right. But I've just built up that trust with them that they know exactly what needs to be done and the only time they need to reach out to me is if there is a problem. Like for example, one of our investment, our long term rental properties, it's at a point now where we're going to sell it and there's like a bathtub in it that some reason was broken. Now I don't know, I don't know why, but it was broken. And so because it's something unusual that needs to be fixed, he went ahead and they went ahead and called me just to say, hey, by the way, this is something not of the dorm, we need to fix it. And so because of that, you know, we were able to actually find a bathtub on Amazon, believe it or not, that is going to go. I think it's getting installed on like Monday and then we'll be able to get the house listed by like Wednesday.
Andrea Siracuse [00:26:30]:
That's incredible. I mean to have all these properties, to have this system you've already built set up. I mean, what are some of the biggest mistakes then that you see people making that are starting to consider this because they're, I mean I can think of a like a ton. But I think what's overwhelming is to even start, especially in this market. Like, you know, every state is different. But I know speaking for North Carolina, I mean, there's a shortage, so. And it's like, how do you even find something that's worth investing in, that's affordable? Like affordability is also another topic. We can go down a rabbit hole, but yeah.
Emily Terrell [00:27:10]:
Oh yeah.
Andrea Siracuse [00:27:11]:
I'm curious your thought on that.
Emily Terrell [00:27:13]:
Yeah, so a couple of things Number one, people don't. If you don't buy correctly, as in the price, right. And people don't buy correctly because they get excited. I have a friend of mine, he was like, yeah, I just bought my first rental and I was like, oh, okay, cool. And he's like, I might have overpaid. And then he told me the address and I was like, mm, you overpaid, right. Because it still needed work. And he had paid way more than what he should have for the house in the condition that was in.
Emily Terrell [00:27:38]:
But. And it was because. And he was like, man, I just, this agent called me and said I might have one. And then he was, you know, and he bought it like literally, literally like three months before I met him. Right. So I hadn't actually met him. It's like the first conversation we ever had. And so.
Emily Terrell [00:27:51]:
Which also led to his second mistake. And this second mistake that most people make, right. They over improve. Especially for rentals. I have a very specific list, right. Typically we go in. The first thing that we do, you know, we do the demo is we paint. I always paint the ceilings and I paint the walls.
Emily Terrell [00:28:10]:
They're all done. The ceilings are white. The walls are done like a light gray, you know, durable paint. Right. That looks good. We then change out like light switch covers and things like that because believe it or not, those things get gross. And they're a really, really cheap way to, to make the house, elevate the house a little bit more. Right.
Emily Terrell [00:28:28]:
If, if I'm going to replace the countertops and it's a long term rental, I will literally go to Ikea and buy the butcher block looking countertops and replace it with those. Because most people, they're like, oh no, we'll do stone. And I'm not going to spend thousands of dollars on stone. I'm going to buy the $89 foot sheets from IKEA and replace them. Because even if I have to replace them more than one time, I'm still cheaper than replacing with a hard stone that by the way can still get damaged. So I'll replace it and something like that. Right. And then the flooring, depending on the, you know it again, it depends on the level of the rental, right.
Emily Terrell [00:29:07]:
But the typical ones that I buy, I'm going to use just a vinyl flooring, just the big final sheet flooring. That looks great. And then if there are any tears in there, they can actually be fixed really easily. My guys are skilled enough to be able to replace parts that are torn or damaged if need be.
Andrea Siracuse [00:29:22]:
Oh, interesting. Okay. Some good hacks. How do you find properties? Like, do you have someone. I mean, obviously you're in the industry, but, like, for someone, you know, that is like looking to, you know, first steps on, like, building wealth.
Emily Terrell [00:29:37]:
Yeah.
Andrea Siracuse [00:29:37]:
Like, what would you say to them?
Emily Terrell [00:29:40]:
You know, how you real estate agents find listings? By talking to people. Same thing, same thing. It really is the same thing. Now, don't get me wrong, I bought some properties. I bought properties much of different ways. I bought them off the MLS before. You know, I bought them for wholesalers. I bought them different ways.
Emily Terrell [00:29:58]:
But the best ones, the best deals that I've ever gotten have been from creating relationships with people, right? Calling distressed properties, talking to neighbors of the distressed properties, creating relationships within my community so that when people post things on social media, I'm immediately tagged in them, Right. Building those types of relationships. And a lot of that stuff is met, you know, met me with like, just, you know, properties where somebody's like, hey, you know, I'm looking to sell my property. I need to sell it quickly. For example, the other day, somebody reached out to me and he's like, hey, you know, my brother needs to sell his house, but he needs to sell it really, really quickly. Then I'm like, okay, well, let me take a look. So it was that, right? Like, people know that, you know, I built the reputation and people know that I invest. I'm also very willing to look at properties because, you know, if I'm not going to buy it, I can always help them list it.
Andrea Siracuse [00:30:55]:
Exactly. It's kind of right. You're the jack of all trades.
Emily Terrell [00:30:59]:
I am, I am. Now, I will tell you, if you do that, right, if you go into a meeting and you want to wear two hats, okay, you need to be very, very upfront with people.
Andrea Siracuse [00:31:10]:
Well, transparency and trust are huge, especially 100%.
Emily Terrell [00:31:14]:
You go in and you say, hey, look, I am a real estate agent and we're going to have two conversations today. I'm not going to take offense to either one. If you'd like to sell this house in this many days, here's my offer. This is me purchasing the house as an investment property. But I'm also going to go ahead and show you at the same time, and I'm going to give you both offers. This one will probably take this much time. Like in San Antonio right now, we. We're almost at, like, I think we're somewhere around 90 days right now, right? This will take about 90 days.
Emily Terrell [00:31:44]:
But this is the estimate of what you could probably sell it at. And Those numbers are, you know, they're going to be different, right? They're going to be significantly different. But it is going to be that, that, you know, those two conversations that I can have with people because I don't want anybody to ever come back and say, well, you didn't tell us. Absolutely, I did. Here are your two options. And what I have found is that in most cases, when I really want to buy a property, right, we're having that conversation. They'll take. They'll take my offer a lot of times, knowing full well that this is what I could list it at.
Emily Terrell [00:32:13]:
And, you know, knowing what they'll net in both scenarios, they'll take my offer a lot of times, especially if they need to, you know, And I was.
Andrea Siracuse [00:32:20]:
Very upfront with that trust, that transparency with them. I mean, that's. That's a big, you know, thing when you're. You're negotiating or even, like, you know, talking to people. What are some of the biggest trends you're currently seeing in the real estate market? And how would you advise your clients to navigate them right now? Because there's a lot going on.
Emily Terrell [00:32:44]:
There's a lot going on. Right. And some of that depends on, like, where you're at. Yeah, right. Like, for example, in San Antonio, expired listings are massive right now. I mean, May. May 1st, we had 216 new expireds on May 1st. It's crazy, right? Yeah.
Emily Terrell [00:33:01]:
And not every market is doing that. It's kind of weird. People are either feast or famine right now. Right. And I mean, it could be argued of which way that is, but, yeah, they're, you know, markets are either really, really hot and selling quickly or it's the opposite in which they are, you know, you're having a ton of expireds. So what I do with one of, you know, all of my coaching clients is we take a look. We take a look at what's going on with expireds. Are there any.
Emily Terrell [00:33:27]:
Are there any available in your market, yes or no? How many of them are there per day that we can take a look at? And what that's done is that allows us to decide if that's a lead source that they want to pursue or not. So my team does work expired, and we're very successful with them. But that's because, you know, we have a ton. One of my other coaching clients, his name is Jeff, same thing he gets probably, I think he's like an average of 3 listings a month right now just from expireds, and he's been working them since January. Right. So he's getting a ton of listings just from expireds, and it's just because he's calling them. Right. So, like, that's an example of a trend of something that, you know, I work with all of my coaching clients on, and it's something we've been looking at for the past several months to see if something like expireds are going to be something that they can work.
Andrea Siracuse [00:34:16]:
What would you say, you know, agents that are feeling, you know, overwhelmed or stuck, like, what's some, you know, piece of advice that's actionable that you would give them to kind of regain momentum?
Emily Terrell [00:34:32]:
So I, I heard someone say this once, and I, I don't really remember where it was, but I did hear somebody say this once, and they said, you know, that the most successful agents are the ones that do the basics just at a high level. I'm going to kind of argue with that that are they really the basics if not everybody's doing them? Or like, are those basics actually high level? Right. But in reality, if you're, if you're stuck or you're not seeing success, go back to what has worked in the past for you, because, you know, the, the idea is if it's worked in the past, it's probably going to work again. Right. So what work did you do? What campaign did you run? Where did you get those leads from? Go determine what that work was and continue to do it. Because that's how you build the scalable business, right, Is you just continue to do the same things over and over again.
Andrea Siracuse [00:35:26]:
Right.
Emily Terrell [00:35:27]:
So if you. Now, if you've never had any deals, then start with the basics. Figure out what's working in your market, such as expired, or maybe it's open houses, or maybe it's circle prospecting around, you know, listings in your area. Right. Figure out what that play is and do it over and over and over again.
Andrea Siracuse [00:35:48]:
I love that very. It's the simplicity of it, all.
Emily Terrell [00:35:52]:
Right. I mean, it really is.
Andrea Siracuse [00:35:55]:
People like to overcomplicate everything, and it's simple sometimes. Yep. Emily, you are incredible. I'm so glad I feel like this. Gosh, we've, I, I could talk to you for hours. I ask everyone that comes on Doorify MLS's podcast this one question. If you could change anything in the real estate industry with a magic wand, what would it be and why?
Emily Terrell [00:36:24]:
I'd honestly make the barrier to entry a little bit harder. Mainly because we have an 86% rate of a non renewal, which means that it's, in my opinion, it's A little bit too easy for people to become real estate agents. So I think if it was, if it was and it's, and it's not because I'm like, oh, I want less competition. There's enough deals for everybody, right. I have an abundance mindset. There's enough for everybody. I'm not worried about that. But it's expensive.
Emily Terrell [00:36:52]:
It's expensive to become a real estate agent. It's expensive to handle the, do the dues. And so imagine like, you know, I, I would have probably been very upset with myself if I spent all that money and I spent all that time and what if I quit a job to become this real estate agent, right. Or I gave up job opportunities to become a real estate agent and it didn't work out. Right. So if it's, if it was harder, if it was something that was harder to get into, you know, the, the hope or the goal for me would be that we would have less people. We wouldn't have 86% not renew that first time. You know, we would have less people that failed in this industry.
Emily Terrell [00:37:30]:
So that would be the one thing I would change.
Andrea Siracuse [00:37:32]:
Do you think with all the new like rules and regulations and just things that are happening right now that you know, these part time agents or you know, people that aren't, you know, doing a lot of transactions will kind of get woven out of the industry or do you think they'll kind of. Because it is, it's so expensive, know part time agents. I've always wondered like, gosh, if you only do this part time, like you're paying a lot, right? Like one transaction or two, like that pays for like maybe it doesn't even cover, you know, everything to be.
Emily Terrell [00:38:06]:
Well, depending on where you are, it may or may not, right?
Andrea Siracuse [00:38:09]:
Exactly.
Emily Terrell [00:38:09]:
I'm gonna tell you something. San Antonio, TX 181deal barely, barely covers. Right? Right. I think our average sales price here is 348,000. And that's only more recent. When I first started it was like 1 99-9000 was our average sales price here in San Antonio. Right. But anyway, but I mean, I don't know.
Emily Terrell [00:38:29]:
I mean, because there are still going to be people that with, with all the new, you know, settlements and lawsuits and everything like that, there's still going to be people because it's not very difficult to get your license. There are still going to be people that do things like watching selling Sunset. It's idealizing it. You know, it's so easy by real estate. So easy. Look, I got my license. It's so easy. They're still, we're still going to have that attitude because they maybe don't understand and see they hear the lawsuits but they don't understand what they mean.
Emily Terrell [00:38:59]:
Right? Well we'll see.
Andrea Siracuse [00:39:02]:
We'll see. Our industry, everything's changing. I feel like hey, especially right now. But I very much appreciate you coming on this podcast. If our listeners want to learn more about you or hire you to be their coach, where can they find Instagram.
Emily Terrell [00:39:19]:
Is the best place. Just go look at Coach Emily Terrell. There we go. Just Coach Emily Terrell. It's going to be the absolute best place to reach out to me. I check there regularly. I check my messages and stuff so that's the easiest place. If you guys have any questions just feel free to reach out there.
Andrea Siracuse [00:39:34]:
Well, thank you so much again, Emily and we'll have to have you on the podcast soon.
Emily Terrell [00:39:39]:
Yeah. All right.
Andrea Siracuse [00:39:40]:
Take care.