Episode 212: Loreen Banks Kendricks

On this episode of The Brad and Taylor Show, we sat down with Loreen Banks Kendricks from Key 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 Loreen Banks Kendricks… 

00:00:01:00 –> 00:00:04:16

Taylor: Welcome to The Brad and Taylor Show. Today, we have Loreen Banks Kendricks.

00:00:04:18 –> 00:00:17:04

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. 

Taylor: Hi, how are you?

00:00:18:12 –> 00:00:20:01

Loreen: Good. How are you guys today?

00:00:20:03 –> 00:00:25:23

Brad: We’re good. Doing good. Well, let’s get this show started. Tell us a little bit about you. What do you do?

00:00:27:07 –> 00:00:43:02

Loreen: I’m a realtor with Key Realty. I’ve been here in Toledo for the last five years. I’ve been in Toledo for four years. I’ve been a realtor. I’ve been with Key. I’ve done it with Dan Barry. Now I’m back at Key and I absolutely love it. 

00:00:44:21 –> 00:00:46:23

Brad: Refreshing. What did you do before real estate?

00:00:47:13 –> 00:01:40:20

Loreen: Before real estate? I lived another life. I had a dual life. Y’all this is my secret life. So this is like my second life. So my first life I lived in Detroit for all of ’em. I’m not going to say how many years. Oh, you graduated from Cass. Went to Wayne state, got a bachelor’s degree. Got married. I was an assistant vice president at Chase bank. Did some mortgages and a little bit of loan training. Did a little bit of management training, working in the branch. So I was in the trenches for like nine or 10 years. My husband and I adopted two beautiful children. And then, I lost like a succession of people in my family. So my sister passed away suddenly. Then I had another sister who passed away. Then my mom passed away and my husband was like, okay, stay home from work because child care is expensive.

00:01:41:02 –> 00:02:35:21

Right? So I was a stay-at-home mom for about four years. And then my husband got sick and passed away within six months. And I did the traditional little thing where you’re supposed to don’t spend anything. Don’t go anywhere. Don’t do anything, all that good stuff. And the more and more I thought about it, I didn’t like the atmosphere that I was in. So I started driving around and a friend said, why don’t you move to Toledo? And I said, Toledo, what the heck? Oh, I’m sorry, what have you been? Toledo is cornfields. And Toledo is a drive in the city. I said the zoo because you know, when you’re from Detroit, you get everything downtown. You have all different types of activities. And I was like Toledo. So we came down and I took the kids to Kalahari. That’s like the usual spot.

00:02:35:22 –> 00:03:06:13

And I took them over to mommy bay, state park. And then I started going to other places. I was like, oh, I didn’t know they got a lot of Metro parks here. And then went to the botanical gardens. And I started driving around. I was like, I feel really good. Everybody says hi here. You know, I don’t have to go like this. Oh fuck. I like this. I like it. I like it. And I made the decision spur of the moment, told my brothers and sisters, I’m moving to Toledo. They thought I’d lost my mind.

00:03:08:19 –> 00:04:16:23

And I’m like, delete all. That’s like, how are we? I say 45 minutes on 75 with no construction. And they said it’s always construction on 75. It’s an hour away. But I moved over. I drove all over the city. I felt comfortable almost everywhere. But I made the decision to move over by Beverly Elementary and I put my kids there. So we went to Beverly, I love it. The Facebook page, the neighbors, everything is fine. And then I got down here and I said, you know what? You’re a single parent and social security just ain’t going to cut it because of death benefits. And I said, what do you want to do? And I seriously thought about it. I had been a realtor before in Michigan. And I said, this is going to give me the opportunity to be with the kids and to make the additional income because I’ll just keep it real when you only get $1,200 a month per child and yourself, you don’t want to touch your other income because it’s for retirement or is because of kids’ education.

00:04:17:04 –> 00:05:05:02

We had planned for that, but we hadn’t planned for him to die. So I said, I want to raise them in the way that he would have wanted me to raise them. So I said, let me get my license. And Michigan is easy. Ohio is hard. Now. I’ve been out of school for almost 20 years. See, I’m showing my age. I’m 55 years old. Anyway, I had to go back to school where I am with a five-year-old and a three-year-old. I had to go back to real estate school. And I’m thinking, I can’t do this. I can’t do this. I can’t do this. And I did it in three weeks and passed the test. So I did it and I didn’t know anybody. I didn’t make any money that the first year I was in real estate. I was broke.

00:05:07:16 –> 00:06:09:04

I was broke, but I got up there and I just started doing my thing. Like I did in Detroit, when I was a branch manager, I went to fair housing. I started going to the local lenders and I started calling people. And every time I went to school, I gave them things like pens and cards. And then if you guys don’t see me on the street, I got these big stickers on the side of my car. It got my face on it. People stopped me in the street. I don’t know if they are trying to rob me. You want a business card? I’m like, okay, I’m still from Detroit. I still got PTSD. Okay. Hey, little green. And I’m like, Hey, my kids are in the car. Mommy, are you famous? And I said, no, I’m not. So I started doing it and I absolutely love it. I absolutely love it here. I am here, four years later. I love it. I love it. I can take them on vacation. They’re going to a private school. I love it. 

00:06:09:06 –> 00:06:28:12

Taylor: It’s a job. Yeah. That’s a lot to accomplish in that four-year timeframe. Good job. Do you have any advice for anybody who may be in a similar situation where they moved and they have to restart their sphere of influence? So how do you go about that? What’s their best advice to start over with that?

00:06:28:26 –> 00:07:14:29

Loreen: Or talking to people? I always try to find people who are smarter than me, because I always say I’m not the smartest tool in the toolbox, but I make those connections. The biggest connection that I made was with my lenders. I started calling lenders, you know, what are your products? What are your services? Tell me what you can offer. So when I went to get my hair done, I would go and say, Hey, I sell real estate. Well, I need a loan. And I could tell them, you know, you can go to this lender. You can go to that lender. The biggest thing that I see is that people don’t know that they can afford a house. You really can’t afford a house. They were like, well, my credit is bad or I don’t have enough for a down payment.

00:07:15:11 –> 00:08:00:27

There are so many options out there for you now. 0% loans. They still exist, for the city of Toledo or the state of Ohio or things like that. But you have to find out which lender offers what? And then you’ve got to suggest the lender. You got to educate your client. You can go to this person and they’ll say it got some bumps in the road. There are programs out there that are absolutely free. They don’t have to pay for anything. So you have to gain your trust and you gotta keep talking to them. It’s going to be months. My first client, I will tell you, came off Craigslist. I was scared to death. I took a picture. I was like, okay. And I called another friend. And I was like, okay, here’s this guy. And I have my phone. And I took a picture.

00:08:00:27 –> 00:08:42:03

I said, if I don’t come back, you know where I am, but advertise for free everywhere. You can advertise, advertise for free everywhere. You can advertise because this is an expensive hobby. Okay. Don’t go into this lightly, there are a lot of upfront costs that people don’t know about. And aren’t aware of, and actually, research your broker, research a broker, find out what you need if you’re brand new. Do you need that extra hand-holding? Are you independent? Are you confident? Do you think you can do this? So research your broker and see what they have to offer you. Those are two of the best things that I could tell you.

00:08:42:24 –> 00:08:47:11

Taylor: When you moved to Ohio when you got your real estate license, did you join a team, or were you solo?

00:08:48:02 –> 00:09:59:11

Loreen: I have never joined a team. I have joined a team here. I have been offered. I did this all on my own. I sold checking accounts to people who didn’t need checking accounts. No, I did not work for Wells Fargo, but if I could sell a checking account, I was like, oh, I will sell a house too. What I would tell them is first to know yourself. You joined a team because you need leads. That’s why you join a team because you need leads. Eventually, you might love that team that you’re on. You might need that team that you’re on, but eventually, you need to get out there and promote yourself too. You really, really do so. No, I didn’t join a team. I got out there and it was word of mouth. It was constantly bugging people and sending stuff. And I’m sorry, that’s my computer. It’s constantly sending stuff to my neighborhood. I was always at the PTO or PTA conferences. I was at community events. I was going to local restaurants. I was doing all the leg work at that time. So I can be where I am now.

00:10:00:01 –> 00:10:12:23

Taylor: Nice. Kinda switching the topics here a little bit. What is the worst property or showing you have been to? Which one sticks out the most? And it could be in Detroit. If you want to mention Detroit one, or it could be in Ohio, whatever one you want to talk about.

00:10:13:14 –> 00:10:20:02

Loreen: Oh, okay. So the worst, the absolute worst. Oh, okay.

00:10:25:11 –> 00:11:21:19

I don’t know if you want to know about the floor falling in or about the raccoon in the house. I walked into an investment property because I saw everything go cause of county land bank, investment properties. When you start, you sell all the down in the dirt. And I still do that at where my Timberlands and my jeans and carry my big old flashlight. But yeah. And I tell the client, you go in first, I’m going in second, but we went up, it was a house over here on the south end that we went into. And the porch was a little suspect when we walked on the porch and I was like, this foundation doesn’t feel right. And so I opened the door, walked in, and I stepped two steps onto the living room floor.

00:11:21:26 –> 00:12:03:07

And I felt that like I was on a Cedar point ride. I still know. And I see it. I wouldn’t buy it, but if you got enough money to fix it, go ahead. You have some foundation issues. Because my weight doesn’t support this and I ain’t got health insurance, let me backup. So that’s one. And then another one was over Darren Reynolds, walked in the house, opened up the door, looked down and a raccoon ran across the front of the living room and I backed out, I screamed, I backed out and went down the steps. So floors sway and raccoons. 

00:12:03:21 –> 00:12:08:18

Taylor: Did either of those homes sell? Did you end up selling those to either of the buyers? No?

00:12:10:26 –> 00:12:39:02

Loreen: Nope. Because they were like, aren’t you coming in? And I said, no, no, no, you gotta realize that there I’m a single parent, not only parent, a single parent. I’m not going to put my life in danger for a floor or a raccoon or a mouse or a roach. Okay. But yes, that would be it. That would be it. I haven’t had any dowels in the basement or anything like that.

00:12:40:28 –> 00:12:48:17

Taylor: I know you’ve accomplished a lot in the last four years. Do you have any goals in mind for 2022? Anything you want to accomplish this next year?

00:12:49:21 –> 00:13:42:24

Loreen: I recently started my own team. I have an assistant now because I’m doing so much business. There are some specific goals right now. I’m studying to get my broker’s license. So hopefully I will pass that exam within the next month. I just gotta have a little time to finish studying for it. Other goals, I have to take my kids on some vacations. I’m hoping that COVID will let up and you can go somewhere. Cause I mean, it’s nice to be in the states, but it’s so beautiful outside of the country, you know, Mexico, Bahamas, the British islands, the Virgin islands, somewhere out to get them out in the world. So that’s my personal goal is to get out there and travel. Like we used to.

00:13:43:07 –> 00:13:47:03

Taylor: Nice. Well, before we go today, how can people get a hold of you?

00:13:47:29 –> 00:14:33:26

Loreen: Well, you can go to my website and [email protected]. And where did I come up with a boss bank on Superior service bank, Lorraine Banks? Kendrick’s get it. Boss group at Kieta or you can call me eight four one nine four one nine eight three seven seven four one nine. 4 1 9 4 1 9 8 2 7. You’ll reach the top group at key. And that’s me, me, and Drew Styles, nominal teams. So I tried to make it easy or you can just look for a little white car with stickers with this crazy black lady with the Afro on it. And you know, you’ll see me all over town.

00:14:34:20 –> 00:14:35:26

Taylor: In your town. Right?

00:14:36:02 –> 00:14:40:19

Brad: I like it. So well, thanks for coming on and sharing your story with us.

00:14:41:15 –> 00:14:47:03

Loreen: Well, no problem. You guys have a wonderful day and thank you for inviting me.

00:14:54:12 –> 00:15:39:18

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 Loreen Banks Kendricks:

loreenbankskendricks.ikeyrealty.com/

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