Episode 223: Kate Gingery
On this episode of The Brad and Taylor Show, we sat down with Kate Gingery from Century 21 Affiliated!
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 Kate Gingery…
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Taylor: Welcome to The Brad and Taylor Show. Today, we have Kate Gingery.
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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: Hey Kate.
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Kate: How’s it going?
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Taylor: We’re good. How are you doing?
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Kate: Doing great. Thank you.
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Brad: Awesome. Well, let’s get this show started and tell us a little bit about you. What do you do?
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Kate: Okay. So I am a realtor here in the greater Lansing area. I work with Century 21 affiliated and, my office is out of East Lansing. So yeah.
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Brad: So what’d you do, how did you get into real estate what’d you do before this?
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Kate: So I was a stay-at-home mom for eight years. And basically when I finished college, found out I was pregnant like a couple of weeks after and my husband and I had been married for a couple of years at that point. So, we had four kids back to back within three years. And so I just stayed home. And then, as my kids started getting older, I was like, you know what, I want to do something else. And it kind of was a natural fit because we both grew up flipping houses, somewhat like both of our parents did. And then as we started purchasing homes and renovating and, moving up in the house, it just seemed like it would be a great fit and it has been
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Taylor: Nice. I know you mentioned your parents both kind of flipped homes when you guys were growing up. Did you guys ever flip any, have you guys done that yet?
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Kate: Yes. Yeah, not flip, but like, run a beat live in for a couple of years, and then yeah, we’ve done it three times. Yeah. So we just bought our fourth house, last November and we have completely redone it and probably in a couple of years, we’ll sell.
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Taylor: Yeah. Nice. So I know you, we mentioned talking a little bit about what you want to be when you grow up before we started recording and you weren’t really sure, but what, what was the one main thing you wanted to be? I know you said there was a bunch of different things. What’s the one main thing you go to school for?
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Kate: Oh, okay. So I went, my degree is in Spanish with a minor in English and I think my intention was to be a teacher, but then I started, I did basically everything in college except student teaching. So I did like all of my, like classroom visiting and all of that. And then I got through that and I was like, this is not happening. I’m not doing this. This is not a good fit. , my mom’s a teacher. And so I think I just thought, oh, it’s a great career to, you know, have a family. And, and she enjoyed it. So I was like, well, that’s what naturally he’ll do. And, yeah, so I didn’t end up doing that, but, and I’m really glad. I didn’t, honestly, I don’t think it would have been a good fit. I love kids. I do not love teaching kids though. And I actually just went through that. I have, six-year-old twins and we, pulled them from school in September and I homeschooled them for two months this fall, and now they’re back in school and I was like, and this was not for me. This was not for me. So
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Taylor: Try that. You gave it your best.
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Kate: Yes I did. And I’m so thankful, for people who feel called to do that because it’s hard. It’s really hard. I think so.
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Taylor: Yeah. I know I tried it for a little bit when the pandemic first started with our older two and I had a newborn at the time and I was like, no, no, this is not going to work. So I know.
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Kate: Yes. It’s really hard. Yeah. That whole pandemic, zoom. Yeah. Cause we have four kids who are older too, work we’re on zoom. Like when everything started with COVID and I was like, oh my goodness, this is hard. And obviously, you feel for the teachers too, because there’s no ideal situation with online learning for five-year-olds, you know?
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Taylor: Right. Yeah. And then you, you had to balance your work schedule with that too. Yeah. How did that go? Yeah.
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Kate: It was tough. My husband’s like super supportive and helpful, so he was helpful with the kids. Like if I had to do a showing at night or whatever, or during the day we like juggled it or I got sitters, it just was a bunch of like spinning plates and fortunately, nothing dropped. So, yeah, I’m really thankful for all the flexibility though with my job, because it’s been, that’s been a huge blessing, I think, with being a parent and,
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Taylor: Yeah. Nice. So how long have you been in real estate now?
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Kate: I just finished my second year.
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Taylor: Okay, nice. When you first started, did you join a team, or are you kind of solo?
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Kate: No. I’ve been a single agent, for as long as I’ve been in real estate. Yeah. Okay.
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Brad: Nice. That’s awesome. So how’d your first year go?
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Kate: And went well. , I mean, considering, I think I had 13 transactions my first year, which was good. , I think there’s so many, it’s, it’s hard getting started is really hard getting started. I mean, as you know, the market’s saturated with agents, there are plenty of realtors. I would say there’s, just a lot of, it’s just a lot of grunt work getting started and like having the confidence to keep moving forward and okay. Like talking yourself, like, do I have what it takes to do this? Is this a good fit? Like whatever, just like pushing through and being like, no, I’m doing this, I’m doing this and I’m going to, push through it. And on the other side, you’re happy you did. , I think it’s been a really, really good fit for me with my personality and with my family and I just, I love my job, so I’m really glad I stuck with it, but yeah, it’s definitely hard. Like the first year is like a lot of mental trash talk with yourself. I think it is just like overcoming that and being like, okay, no, I’m doing this. I’m going to be fine. We’re going to do this. Yeah.
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Taylor: Yeah. Did you get any advice when you first started from anybody that has stuck with you? Or what advice would you give to maybe someone new starting out?
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Kate: I would say, well, no. Okay. I’m not going to give any advice because
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Call me if you need advice, call me, I’ll give you a pep talk. But, so I sat down with Joe Vitale and he is an agent in my office. He’s our former realtor. And when I started this whole process just to pick his brain. So I would say, just find someone who you think is good at their job and sit down with them and be like, how is this actually? How does this go? And he was like, real honest with me. It’s like, there are parts of this job that suck. And, are you willing to do that? There are a lot of great parts too, but like, just know that there’s going to be a lot of really hard days getting started. And I was like, just so shocked. I’m like, what do you mean? And he and I were talking a couple of weeks ago at our Christmas party for work. And he was like, remember when I sat you down and told you that and you still did it anyway, but I’m glad he did because it’s like, we all have this like rose-colored view or, you know, view of how things are going to be. And then they’re not that way. So
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Taylor: Yeah. It’s nice to have someone just to give you the hard truth of when you’re getting into it, because like you said, the rose-colored glasses, everyone has those eyes when they first get started, it seems like, and they don’t really realize what work goes into being an agent when you first start out behind the scenes. So yeah,
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Kate: A lot of like systems being put in place and just follow up. And you know, I think if you put your clients at the center of your business and your perspective is to serve them well and serve them with excellence, then you’re not going to go wrong. But just keeping that perspective and not burning out.
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Taylor: Yeah. Yeah. The burnout, I know this is huge in the first couple of years, you got to balance that.
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Kate: Yeah. And the first five, I think, 80% of agents, fail or quit or whatever. So
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Taylor: It goes back to that mental pep talk in your head.
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Kate: Yeah. You got to have a positive mental attitude. Yeah. You really do. I mean, in anything you do, you have to, but especially think in, you know, being entrepreneurial, like you have to just say, you know what, I’m going to give this however many years I’m going to do my best. And I think that’s when like success follows. If you can just like keep pushing forward, even if it’s hard, have grit, you know?
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Taylor: Absolutely. Yep. Over the last couple of years, what is the most interesting home you’ve been to or showing?
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Kate: over the last couple of years, honestly, I don’t go well, interesting,
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Taylor: Interesting, bad, good. Whatever you want to share.
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Kate: I think most houses have a lot of charm and potential. I don’t usually go into a house and go, oh my gosh, this is horrible. But again, that’s like our background is we always redo everything. So yeah. , that’s kind of the perspective. I did go into an investment property recently and I was pretty grossed out. It was, coded with like tar, like people have been in it for like 15 years and like the walls were like completely orange, the
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Taylor: Ceilings too. I’m sure.
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Kate: Yeah. Yeah. So I think that’s probably in, yeah. The bathrooms are in horrible shape. So that’s probably the worst recently, but I usually don’t go into our house and go, no, this is, you know,
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Taylor: You can see the potential with it.
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Kate: Yeah. Usually
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Taylor: I did that one with the tar all over. Did you end up selling that one?
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Kate: No, no, no. They were so I actually, I have, they’re really good friends of mine, but they’re, they’ve been buying like different properties, like rental homes and like duplexes and stuff and they would have been open to it, I think. But the sellers were really stuck on price. So we did. Yeah. Yeah.
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Taylor: Well maybe that’s a good thing. It would have taken a lot, a lot of cleaning, let off a lot of sweat equity,
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Kate: But my friend texted me and she’s like, I don’t think we’re moving forward. I was like, go with your gut. Like, it’s not Like, you know, yeah. All you can do is I’m like, it’s not worth it if you’re not like feeling it. So usually we all have like a sense of like, is this a good fit or not? Yeah. You know, besides fear, like fear can kind of cloud all that, but you usually know like, is this a good idea for me to move forward? So yeah,
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Taylor: For sure. What kind of goals do you want to finish up and, or start in 2022?
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Kate: I think I am going to increase my transactions and yeah, just keep growing my business. So I, more than doubled it,
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Taylor: I tripled it in 2021 from my first year. And so hopefully just keep going up and, yeah, putting my clients first. That’s the goal, so awesome. Well, before we go today, how can people get ahold of you and what areas are you located at? I know you mentioned Lansing did do all the surrounding areas as well.
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Kate: Yep. So I live in OCHA mess, like Meridian township. So that’s kinda where my family like hats around and we go to school and work and all of that. Our office is in East Lansing, but yeah, we’re all greater Lansing. To find me, I’m on Instagram, Kate Kingery realtor, it looks like gingery and, Facebook, same thing, Kate, Gary realtor. And then my phone n ber is (313) 410-0196. And yeah, just Google me, and pretty easy to find. So.
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Brad: Awesome. Thanks for coming on and sharing your story with us today.
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Kate: Yeah, no problem. Hope you guys have a good day. Thanks for having me.
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Check out Kate:
Century 21 Affiliated
Facebook: @kategingeryrealtor
Instagram: @kategingeryrealtor
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