Episode 224: Kayla Porvaznick
On this episode of The Brad and Taylor Show, we sat down with Kayla Porvaznick from A Smart Move 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 Kayla Porvaznick…
00:00:00:14 –> 00:00:03:14
Taylor: Welcome to The Brad and Taylor Show. Today, we have Kayla Porvaznick.
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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.
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Taylor: Hey Kayla, how are you?
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Kayla: Good, good. Thanks for having me.
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Brad: Yeah, for sure. Well, let’s get the show started. Tell us a little bit about you. What do you do?
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Kayla: I am an associate broker with a smart move Realty here in McComb county, kind of a small, small business. Someone called us boutique a few weeks ago, which I had never heard that term before, but I think it fits pretty well. Yeah, I’ve been doing this for about 16 years.
00:00:45:10 –> 00:00:49:28
Brad: Nice, nice. How, how did, how did you get into real estate? Like how’d that happen? What’d you do before this?
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Kayla: Well, I actually got my license straight out of, high school back in 2006 and sorta was using it as a means to pay my way through college. And that was kind of like the only purpose at that point. I worked for a family business and, served its purpose, paid my way through college and got a media arts degree. And from there I sort of went into the film industry and sort of dped my license for a few years. And then the film incentives left Michigan and I sort of panicked and took my license back out of holding. , I didn’t know what was going to happen right at that time. You know, I’d only been in the industry a few years and I wasn’t really confident of, what was to come, and little did. I know that was actually kind of the start of my career and ended up for quite a few years, working both careers.
00:01:50:17 –> 00:02:31:12
I wouldn’t say part-time, I hate the word part-time it was more seasonal. So I’d go work on a movie for anywhere between three to nine months out of a year, come home, do real estate, the remainder of that time. And then, COVID hit. And just like, I think a lot of people sort of had a change of perspective with that downtime and I ultimately made the decision to just do real estate. That was in October 2020. And I said, I’m just going to do my turn down every job, or maybe a full year real estate and see how that goes. And I haven’t taken a film job since nine.
00:02:32:05 –> 00:02:39:24
Taylor: Yeah, I know you mentioned your degree in the arts and media. Do you think that has played a huge role in real estate when it comes to marketing?
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Kayla: Yes and no. So not so much the marketing standpoint, and even the degree, eh, I’ve been trying to do some creative things like during the shutdown I was doing, listing videos and things of that sort, just kind of bringing back the creative side and just trying to do something a little different. , but what my career in the film did with real estate was I was a locations person and I dealt with a lot of people all at once, a lot of different personalities. And I think that has really helped me in the real estate world when you’re dealing with so many different people in different personalities, whether it’s the listing agent or title company and the lender, you’re your buyer, your seller, and sort of being a guide for them and dealing with the different personalities.
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Taylor: Yeah, absolutely. There’s a whole range of different personalities you encounter and emotions throughout the whole real estate process.
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Kayla: So many emotions, so many emotions, you know, I always say, I don’t really consider myself a person who sells houses. I consider myself a guide to the biggest financial investment of someone’s life. And that brings about a lot of I people cry cause they’re happy. They cry because they’re sad. They cry because they’re stressed out and I’m sort of that person that I’m on their shoulder, on their hug. I’m the one telling them it’s okay. And, yeah, it’s just, it’s a really interesting working with the different personalities because everyone needs a little something different to make them feel good and you have to be able to respond appropriately to that person and kind of know what to do. And you’ve only known them for, you know, some of them, you only know them for a week.
00:04:29:00 –> 00:04:37:08
Taylor: Right? Absolutely. I know. Kind of backing up a little bit. How did you get your first transaction? You got your license right out of high school. How did you get that first listing?
00:04:38:01 –> 00:05:38:17
Kayla: So I started out as a Fannie Mae agent. So a lot of my transactions in my first six years, I would say 98% of them were being a listing agent for the bank. So kind of achieved right here you go. I listed the house. So you know, I really am only in the last few years, has my focus bet a hundred percent on real-life clients. I’m not saying that you know, I got a lot of experience from the bank stuff. Cause you’re dealing with a high, high value of houses and you learn a lot from that. But yeah. So my first real-life client wasn’t a listing, it was a buyer and it was actually, a teacher who worked with someone who worked for our company. And I showed her 95 houses.
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Brad: You’re like, this is a whole different world.
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Kayla: Yeah. And the 95th house, I stood outside with her and I said, if you don’t like this house, I can’t help you anymore. And she loved it. I told her.
00:05:54:13 –> 00:06:04:09
Taylor: Yes. Nice transaction complete. How did that, what transaction go? Was it smooth? I mean, besides the 95 homes that you had to show was yeah.
00:06:04:21 –> 00:06:08:24
Kayla: Yeah. Once you liked the house and we put on our contract, everything, everything wants to move from there.
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Taylor: 95 houses
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Kayla: Well, it was during the crash and a lot of buyers that you got, there were just so many houses and there was this mindset of, I can get a steal, I can get a steal. So they wanted to see everything. What they didn’t realize is, yeah, there’s steals out there, but they’re in bad shape and you have to put work into them, which a lot of people don’t want to do, but they couldn’t get it in their heads. So they still, wow. Look, it’s don’t you, we have to go see it. We have to go see it. I’m like, I can tell it’s like falling down. See if that makes you feel better. You know, it was just kind of like the same thing over and over where you have to let them kind of learn on their own, , with your slight little nudges of mine. It’s like, oh yeah, maybe, maybe we shouldn’t look at these types of houses anymore. It’s like, oh yeah, probably a good idea.
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Taylor: Speaking of those types of homes that maybe are just falling down that maybe you don’t want to walk back into, or you can tell from the photos like, eh, yeah. Let’s just not go in that one. You already know. Yeah.
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Kayla: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I’ve learned to study basement walls through listing photos.
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Taylor: What is the worst property you think you guys have been to or showing that you’ve been to? Any that sticks out to you that maybe you’re just like, yeah, that was interesting. Let’s not do that again.
00:07:30:00 –> 00:08:35:25
Kayla: That’s a hard question for me because you know, I had such vole at the beginning of these other foreclosures, and a lot of, either the, the former owner left them in bad shape on purpose, or sometimes we couldn’t get access right away. So they would sit and then we would go in and there’d be a disaster. So I’ve been in houses where the mold is so thick. It’s Waze covering every surface. I’ve been in houses where the black walls in the basement are. So, caved in so that you can stick your hand into the cracks. I’d been through han feces, animal feces, please just good, no worse. So I don’t really have any, in particular, that stands out in that sense, the ones that get me are the creepy houses. And a lot of the times it’s not even something specific about the house that could be in a good shape. You just get a weird feeling as soon as you walk in. And I’m not where I was showing a house and we all just kinda felt creepy and we’re all standing in the kitchen and we hear
00:08:55:03 –> 00:09:11:18
So we hear a knock and we can’t figure out where it came from. We’re looking out the window and we’re like, we just got to get out of here. Speaking of animals one time, I was showing the house to the client and they didn’t tell us that there was a cat house.
00:09:13:02 –> 00:09:31:09
Taylor: The important thing about telling people that there’s a cat in the house is a lot of times. Can you guys hear me? Okay. Yes. Sorry, a lot of times the cats want to get out. And so I open the lockbox, open the door, and the cat sitting right by that or waiting
00:09:32:25 –> 00:09:51:10
Kayla: Out the front door. And so, me and my client are like running down the street because I don’t want to be responsible for this cat that you know, getting out. I don’t know if it’s an indoor-outdoor cat. No, one’s told me. And, so that, that was pretty funny. We did get the cat and it got it back in. I didn’t get fed or anything. So that was good.
00:09:51:24 –> 00:10:02:27
Brad: That’s good. I think we had, there was somebody, I can’t remember who it was, but they had some, there was a cat that got out of the house and they went and chased after it. And then coming to find out there actually wasn’t a cat at the house, even though the cat was in the house.
00:10:04:16 –> 00:10:06:18
Taylor: The cat got in the house, but it wasn’t the owner’s cat,
00:10:08:27 –> 00:10:10:14
Brad: But they got the cat back in the house.
00:10:10:28 –> 00:10:13:03
Taylor: So when they got home, there was a cat so…
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Kayla: Yeah.
00:10:16:16 –> 00:10:21:04
Taylor: I know you mentioned the creepy homes. Those are the ones you don’t go into the basement. If there’s one.
00:10:21:04 –> 00:10:39:22
Kayla: Yeah. Actually another instance of hor showing a house, my wife is also licensed. She was with me and they didn’t tell us there was a dog in the basement, in a crate. Oh yeah. Why? At the whole time. And she was the first one. She went down and it was super dark and she kind of ran into the crate and then the dog started barking and just
00:10:41:13 –> 00:10:42:06
Taylor: Terrified me.
00:10:43:08 –> 00:10:45:01
Kayla: Tell me there’s a dog in the house.
00:10:46:17 –> 00:10:48:28
Brad: If there’s something alive in the house that I’m going to see, at least it was
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Taylor: Created. I know. Yeah. It was
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Kayla: Created. And I can’t believe it was so quiet the whole time until she ran right up until she ran into the brain.
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Taylor: Yeah. Maybe just that the owners were upstairs walking around and didn’t think anything of it like, oh wait, that’s not my owner. You’re a stranger.
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Brad: So since you’ve been doing this for long enough, what is some advice you would give somebody starting out in this market since you’ve seen several different markets over the last 16 years, you said
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Kayla: Ignoring this market.
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We had a crazy, crazy spring and summer and there were a lot of things that we were doing to get offers accepted that were just not normal. I mean, these are things we had to do, to best represent our clients and inform them of the different things that other clients or other, buyers are doing. , but it’s not the normal course. I mean, nothing’s really normal, but it was just so extreme that, you know, they should take it as a learning experience, but learn to follow the market. Every market is different. And the way in which you approach a buyer or seller is determined by that market. So right now with the, you know, we’re sort of saying things level out and you can’t do what we were doing a few months ago now because you’re not, you’re not representing either client appropriately. If you say, oh, we had to do an appraisal guarantee and we have to waive our inspection and, and all those crazy things are not necessary right now. And we just shouldn’t be doing them. So you have to really learn, you know, you have to study what’s going on, you have to follow it and you have to act accordingly, with each situation to what is currently happening.
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Taylor: Yeah. I know this time of year, we’re coming into the heart of winter as well. Are there any myths that you think that kind of steer buyers and sellers away from purchasing or selling a home this time of year? During the winter months?
00:13:01:16 –> 00:13:55:09
Kayla: Yeah. I mean, I hear it all the time. No one everyone’s like, oh, I hear I shouldn’t list in the winter. Or maybe I should wait to start looking until the spring. And I think it’s, it’s a, it’s a huge myth. I think there’s something to be said about, like right now we’re in between Christmas and new years, as far as a seller, I would tell them to, to wait a little bit until we get into a weekend to January, at least because people are settling down with their family right now, they, they got Christmas presents. They got a deal with a, you know, certainly, people don’t want to look, you know, they’re spending time with their families. So I would wait on that. But as far as selling or buying in the winter, I still think it’s a great time. You know, as I said, I sorta work those two careers at the same time.
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And a lot of movies are shot in the spring and summer. So a lot of those years, I wasn’t doing any real estate in spring and summer. And then the majority of my work was in the fall and winter months. And I was very successful with that. And what I found with that is that you’re not if you list a house, you’re not getting as many buyers to come for that. That is true. Not only because it’s cold, no one wants to go out in the cold. No one wants to go out of snow. It’s getting dark early. That’s the big thing to me, not even the snow and the cold it’s it gets dark early and people don’t want to look at houses in the dark. I don’t like showing the house in the dark. You can’t see anything. So it really limits your time.
00:14:45:04 –> 00:15:34:06
, yeah. Well, I might have five jobs by the time they get off work, it’s dark. But what it does do is it brings out those really serious buyers. People who are looking this time of year are more solid buyers. I don’t need, I always tell people I don’t need 30 people tromping through your house in a day. You just need one good buyer and you need that buyer. Who’s going to submit the offer and they’re not going to back out. They’re looking cause they need a home and they want a home. Now the inspection isn’t going to scare them as much. So they’re not going to ask for as many things after the inspection. So it makes for a smoother deal and we’re still getting activity. We’re still seeing things go into multiple offers. I don’t need 30 offers on a house, any one or two.
00:15:35:10 –> 00:16:55:14
And so that’s what I tell my sellers for the buyer side of it. You’re not having as many listings on the market, but you have a lot less competition. Yeah. So we’re not having to like we did in the spring and summer, the house gets listed. We got to go see it. Now, today I miss out. We have more time. We can get there on the weekend. We can take our time actually thinking about the house before we put an offer in. And we’re not be may be competing against a couple of buyers, but it’s not a frenzy where you’re going to freak out because I’m gonna tell you there are 16 offers on the house. So there’s a lot less competition. Even I mentioned I don’t recommend a listing, you know, between probably like mid-December and mid-January. I’m showing houses though. I showed a house on Thanksgiving. I showed a house on Christmas Eve because we may be the only one out there. And it provides an opportunity. Everything’s about timing and real estate. And even back in the summer, I had clients who we were looking and looking and looking. I stayed home Memorial day weekend, and I sold them a house on Memorial Day weekend because there weren’t as many people out and a house came up. That was great for them. And we were able to slide right in there.
00:16:55:25 –> 00:16:59:13
Taylor: Yeah. I know you mentioned the timing of that, that timing is everything
00:17:00:11 –> 00:17:01:10
Kayla: Is everything.
00:17:01:29 –> 00:17:07:01
Taylor: Especially in the summer market that we’ve had, you’ve gotta be there quick.
00:17:07:09 –> 00:17:27:06
Kayla: It was a crazy, crazy, it was, it was a perfect time for me to do my first full-time year, But it, it, it was insane. It was insane. And I said I think things are, we’re not crashing. We’re not dropping. We’re just, we’re stabilizing, which is good.
00:17:27:15 –> 00:17:43:29
Taylor: Absolutely. Going into this new year. What do you, what do you, what goals do you have in mind that you want to accomplish this next year? I know you said you wanted to get through your first full year of real estate. You’ve done that. You’re here, we’re at the end of it. How do you feel about going into another full year of real estate?
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Kayla: Well, I think I had a really great year. , and I think I, I want to just continue to sort of zero in, on my sphere of clients. Cause I do, I do primarily referral base. I don’t do any lead generation or cold calling, anything like that. It’s all referral-based. So my important thing is to really focus more on that even more than I did last year, I needed to do more social media. I just need to do more to just remind people, Hey, I’m a real estate agent, to just build, build more client base. You know, I did 26 units this year and my goal is to, you know, surpass 30 for 2022. And it’s just all about keeping your name out there, just being in people’s spaces, basically.
00:18:40:02 –> 00:18:41:04
Brad: How can people get ahold of you?
00:18:42:14 –> 00:19:17:21
Kayla: The best way is by phone or email. My email is [email protected]. My phone number is (586) 713-9828. You can also find me on Facebook. I’m not going to spell my last name for you. , it’s probably somewhere down there. Yep. The messages are on there. I don’t, I don’t get alerts with messages, but whenever I log in, I will see them and respond to you. So if you prefer Facebook messenger or Instagram messenger, I’m on there as well.
00:19:18:05 –> 00:19:21:20
Brad: Awesome. Perfect. Awesome. Hey, thanks for coming and sharing your story with us today.
00:19:22:02 –> 00:19:23:13
Kayla: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me.
00:19:27:20 –> 00:19:45:22
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Check out Kayla:
A Smart Move Realty
Facebook: @KaylaPRealtor
Twitter: @KaylaPRealtor
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