Episode 185: Amanda Miller

On this episode of The Brad and Taylor Show, we sat down with Amanda Miller from Keller Williams Realty!

To watch the full episode, check it out on YouTube below. In the meantime, here’s a transcript of the conversation…

Here’s what you missed from Amanda Miller…

00:00:00:12 –> 00:00:03:18

Taylor: Welcome to The Brad and Taylor Show. Today, we have Amanda Miller.

00:00:04:07 –> 00:00:14:11

Brad: You’re listening to The Brad and Taylor Show, a podcast that inspires entrepreneurs to pursue their passions. We’re sitting down with some of the best to learn how they got started and some lessons they learned along the way.

00:00:17:09 –> 00:00:18:02

Taylor: Hello, how are you doing?

00:00:18:28 –> 00:00:20:26

Amanda: Good. Thanks for having me today.

00:00:21:00 –> 00:00:24:14

Brad: Oh yeah, for sure. Awesome. Well, let’s get the show started. Tell us a little bit about you. What do you do?

00:00:25:26 –> 00:01:25:10

Amanda: So I am a realtor with Keller Williams, really living out of Brighton, and I’m also the owner of Destination Home Real Estate. And basically, I help people buy, sell, and invest in real estate, but I also specialize in first-time home buyers. I love to help educate first-time homebuyers in the selling process. That’ll probably come up why I like to do that a little bit later. And then I also just started dabbling in vacation homes. I just realized that I kind of have a niche and I’m selling vacation homes up north, which is where I’m from, I’m originally from Traverse City. So I do a lot of vacationing up there and in surrounding areas. And so I’ve got listings from Gaylord all the way down.

00:01:26:01 –> 00:01:31:02

Brad: I like it. So when you were younger, was this what you had planned for your future? What’d you have planned?

00:01:32:07 –> 00:01:57:27

Amanda: That’s a hard one. I wanted to be a lot of things, but probably my dream job was being an exotic animal trainer. Really. I always wanted to own exotic animals and my parents just never would let me, and I don’t know why, but you know, I grew up on a farm and I always wanted to have a pet tiger and my dad just always said no.

00:01:58:18 –> 00:02:00:02

Taylor: And I can’t imagine why.

00:02:00:25 –> 00:02:15:14

Amanda: Yeah. I know. And I wanted it to live in the house and I just told him I can train it. And I said, fine, I’m just going to go to college to learn to train exotic animals. But I never did that. I think reality hit, you know?

00:02:17:14 –> 00:02:22:25

Taylor: When you graduated high school, what did you do right after that, that kind of led you down this path?

00:02:24:03 –> 00:03:29:04

Amanda: Well, that’s funny because I actually ended up going to college to be an elementary education teacher. So I taught fifth and sixth grade. And so I had nothing to do with the real estate business, anything like that. I started working a retail job in college to support myself and get myself through college and I ended up just absolutely loving retail and the whole business aspect of retail. So I ended up working in corporate retail for the next five-plus years. About nine years ago, I ended up thinking, well, I need kind of a side gig for my corporate retail job. I don’t know why. I was already working 50 hours, but my daughter had started a competitive dance team and I was like, wow, this is really expensive. And I don’t want to give up my lifestyle to pay for her dance. So I was like, oh people make lots of money in real estate.

00:03:31:22 –> 00:04:19:08

And so I decided to get my real estate license and start selling real estate. So nine years ago, I just thought people would run to me and just want me to sell their houses. And then I realized I had to work in people’s business. So I worked hard at it and I built up a clientele, I did it part-time for nine years. And then last November I ended up losing my job due to COVID in corporate retail. I went full time and I went all in and it’s been really good, obviously, the market’s been up, but I also have gotten a lot of referrals. I’ve got a good sphere built up after nine years and people have been super supportive of me going full time. 

00:04:19:11 –> 00:04:25:23

Taylor: That’s awesome. Take us back to your first transaction. How did you get it and how did it go? Did it go smoothly?

00:04:27:05 –> 00:05:22:02

Amanda: Oh no, it did not. No, no. It was my neighbor and he came over and was like, Hey, you’re in real estate. Why don’t you sell our house? And everything that could go wrong, went wrong. The house didn’t appraise, it was way undervalued. I was like, what do I do now? And then they ended up buying a much larger house. The lady selling the house had a traumatic brain injury and she was very hard to deal with. It was just one identity after another, the clothes kept getting pushed off. It was PA I learned so much in that first deal. It was insane. And I have found that no deal is an easy deal. I always look at other realtors and they’re like, oh, you know, and it looks like their closings are so easy. And I’m like, why me? Why?

00:05:24:01 –> 00:05:27:08

Taylor: I don’t think everyone says it as easy as they make it look.

00:05:27:27 –> 00:05:28:20

Amanda: Yeah.

00:05:28:21 –> 00:05:34:00

Taylor: A lot of stuff that goes out. Yeah. From what we’ve heard anyway after talking to a lot of people.

00:05:36:01 –> 00:05:58:07

Amanda: But you know what, that makes the difference between a realtor that can freak out. I’m pretty laid back, easy-going. So you know, I tell people even, you don’t get to panic until I start panicking. So if things start going wrong if I’m not panicking yet. Sorry, you don’t get to panic. That’s what I tell my clients. 

00:05:58:26 –> 00:06:09:04

Taylor: It’s funny. I know you mentioned you specialize in first-time homebuyers, what kind of draws you to those particular clients rather than someone who’s been experienced in the home buying process?

00:06:09:29 –> 00:07:22:04

Amanda: It’s because I like to educate and that goes back to going to school. So I do like to teach it just wasn’t necessarily children. I do like to educate and teach and it just interests me. You know, now with the internet home buyers come with so much more, they’re educated so much more, they know more about the house than the real estate agent half the time. But they don’t know a lot about the process, right? So I love to educate them during and through the process. I love it when it’s an easy deal. And even if it’s a tougher deal that we have to work through, it’s all part of education. I just love to educate and keep them calm during the process. I don’t know, I just love that part of it. Not that I dislike working with, you know, second or third-time buyers, but maybe it’s the challenge of the first-time home buyers. I like a challenge too. So yeah.

00:07:22:29 –> 00:07:38:12

Taylor: Yeah. Do you think that HGTV has kind of maybe pushed people into not, I don’t know how to explain that really like their reality isn’t there for their budget, like what they want on their wishlist and then their budget for first-time home buyers. Do you see that a lot?

00:07:39:12 –> 00:08:12:22

Amanda: Yes. Yes. I’m dealing with about three of them right now and it’s kind of, you have to work through and say, okay, this is what, and sometimes you have to kind of do. I think there’s a show out there that shows, they take them to what’s on their wishlist, it shows them how much. And I do that. I’ll say this ox, you know, this house checks everything, but this is, you know, and then I’m like, and this is how much this house is compared to this. 

00:08:13:02 –> 00:08:34:03

Taylor: This massive game, home forever home type situation. I know I’ve got a girlfriend who she’s buying your first home soon and she was talking to me about her wishlist. And I’m just thinking, girl, you have no idea. You have no idea, but I will let you keep that wishlist. And I’ll let your agent break the news to you. 

00:08:34:14 –> 00:08:59:02

Amanda: Yes. And it’s that fine line of not discouraging them from wanting to buy it all, but it’s like, okay, so now that you’ve seen this, what are your needs and what are your wants because this is probably not your last home. You’re not going to, this is not your forever home. So this is just your first home. So what can you live without, until you can get to your next home?

00:08:59:19 –> 00:09:11:29

Taylor: Kind of going the opposite direction here. You also do vacation homes. So you’ve been dabbling and the vacation homes that are completely opposite from the first-time home buyers, how does that go compared to the first-time homebuyers?

00:09:13:01 –> 00:10:09:17

Amanda: It’s kind of interesting because if somebody is on vacation, home shopping, it’s kind of like their first time. If they haven’t ever bought a vacation home, they are kind of a first-time home buyer and super excited and just educating them on, well, you’ve got non-homestead taxes cause they’re like, why are the taxes so high? Well, you’re not living there and this person wasn’t living there either. So yeah, the taxes or, you know, cause there’s you know, and then you can educate them about renting it out and doing short-term rentals. Like there’s a whole other business or a whole nother world that you can open up to them as far as vacation rentals that they just, or vacation homes that they just never thought of. It’s kind of interesting and it’s kind of like working with first-time homebuyers if somebody hasn’t ever bought one before.

00:10:09:27 –> 00:10:15:08

Taylor: Yeah. That’s awesome. Do you do a lot of waterfront homes for those vacation homes? 

00:10:15:14 –> 00:10:36:29

Amanda: Yeah. I currently have. Yesterday, I was looking at waterfront homes for one of my clients. So I love that. I’m like, oh this is nice. This is nice. It’s kinda funny because eventually I’ll be, you know, doing short-term rentals and kind of gives me an idea where I want to buy and where I don’t want to buy. 

00:10:40:11 –> 00:10:43:03

Amanda: A lot of them up north, so yeah.

00:10:43:10 –> 00:10:52:28

Taylor: Yeah, for sure. Over the nine years that you’ve been in real estate, what do you think are the worst properties that you’ve been to or showing that one sticks out to you the most?

00:10:54:08 –> 00:11:58:28

Amanda: Whew, I had one that’s probably the worst property I’ve been to over the nine years, I did go through a little bit of the foreclosure process, but you know, you kind of expect foreclosures to be bad. I went into a house to do a showing and the homeowner was still there and I have a pretty strong stomach, but this house was pretty bad. It was pretty bad, like dirty water in the sink with dishes like black water. Um, yeah, it was just filth. And I was like trying to show the house and you know, when you’re supposed to have something positive to say luck, it was so bad. And I was like, oh my gosh, I don’t even know what to say about this. Yeah. So there are times you walk into a house and you’re just like, oh my, I don’t even know what to say.

00:12:00:08 –> 00:12:01:18

Taylor: Did you end up selling that one?

00:12:02:13 –> 00:12:11:07

Amanda: No, I did not. No, I did not. And it wasn’t even, because of all that, the guy was pretty positive about it. He was like, oh, I could just get this whole house. And I was just trying not to.

00:12:13:25 –> 00:12:19:25

Taylor: Was the yard at least good on that one to at least have a nice outside? No? No. Okay.

00:12:21:01 –> 00:12:30:01

Amanda: The deal breaker was the laundry room roof falling in. Oh yeah. This house has structural issues. I was like, oh, is that the problem on top of everything else?

00:12:32:04 –> 00:12:42:14

Taylor: Yeah. It’s just one thing after another. Oh, man. If you could start over today with all the knowledge that you’ve learned over the last nine years, what is one thing that you would do differently?

00:12:44:24 –> 00:13:37:10

Amanda: I don’t want to use the word aggressive, but I wouldn’t nine years ago. I wouldn’t have been so passive about my business, I think. I would have been a little bit pickier about the company that I work for. I didn’t realize there was such a difference in real estate companies that you could work for as far as training. So the company that I started with had no training, I had to train myself on how to generate leads, and so I feel like I lost about three years almost until I came to Keller Williams and got some really good training. 

00:13:38:04 –> 00:13:39:23

Taylor: Are you still with Keller Williams now?

00:13:40:18 –> 00:14:09:25

Amanda: I am. I did three years with another company and then I switched over to Keller Williams and my business has totally taken off and I’m doing way better, you know, obviously with Keller Williams because I have systems and models in place that I need to have and you know, a system with lead generation and all of that, even, you know, when I was working full time, I had a system with lead generation around my work schedule. So

00:14:10:10 –> 00:14:28:01

Taylor: Yeah, I know. It’s interesting to see when people go into real estate initially like that first year, they don’t really understand sometimes that you have options, you have so many different options, different brokerages you can go to and they don’t realize that you can interview those people instead of it being the other way around. So yeah.

00:14:28:02 –> 00:14:46:00

Amanda: Yeah. I had no clue and it really did make the difference in me, my career taking off and just kind of rolling, you know, just kind of coasting and it, I really feel like I lost almost three years of business yeah in that three years.

00:14:46:26 –> 00:14:51:04

Taylor: Do you read business books at all? Do you have one that you could recommend to anybody?

00:14:52:17 –> 00:16:16:17

Amanda: I read business books all the time and I have a few that I like, but I’m currently just finishing up Fierce Conversations. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of that one. I don’t think I’ve heard that one. It’s by Susan Scott and it is amazing. It was recommended to me by somebody else. And I was like, oh, okay. I don’t really need to have, you know, and fierce means bold, you know, having bold conversations and being upfront with your clients and upfront with your coworkers and not being upfront as in, um, nasty or, you know, just coming out from behind yourself and, and saying things, in a nice way, but really being able to say what you mean to say without, you know? Yeah. And, and just getting work done faster. Um, and I really feel like if I had read this book even going into my corporate life at 21, it would have made my corporate life completely different and probably would have changed how I dealt and communicated with people. It would’ve made it a lot better and easier. So I really wish I would have read this book back when I was 21.

00:16:17:09 –> 00:16:20:09

Taylor: Awesome. Well, before we go today, Amanda, how can people get ahold of you?

00:16:21:10 –> 00:16:58:24

Amanda: I do have a Facebook page, Destination Home Real Estate. I can be contacted there. And then also I do have a website, www.destinationhomerealestate.kw.com. Sorry, it’s a long one. Ten obviously through email [email protected] and then I can be reached through call or text, my phone number is (517) 672-9273. 

00:16:58:25 –> 00:17:01:18

Taylor:  Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on today and sharing your story with us.

00:17:02:09 –> 00:17:04:25

Amanda: Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

00:17:07:24 –> 00:17:25:25

Hello. Hello. Are you there? Are there, are there, Hey guys, we just wanted to thank you for listening on either a podcast or on the YouTube video here. If you guys wanted to subscribe, that would be awesome. That would mean a lot to us. If you guys could give us a five-star review as well, that would be amazing. And we’ll see you on the next one.

Check out Amanda Miller:

www.destinationhomerealestate.kw.com

Facebook: @millenialsandbeyond

If you loved this episode subscribe so you never miss one! Want more Brad and Taylor content? Head over to our blog.