Episode 227: Kate Kelley
On this episode of The Brad and Taylor Show, we sat down with Kate Kelley from WK Real Estate!
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 Kelley…
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Taylor: Welcome to The Brad and Taylor Show. Today, we have Kate Kelly.
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Brad: You listening to the Brad and Taylor show podcast, inspires entrepreneurs, just pursue their passions. We’re sitting down with some of the best to learn how they got started and some lessons they’ve learned along the way.
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Taylor: Hey Kate.
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Kate: Thanks for having me.
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Brad: Oh yeah, for sure. Well, let’s get the show started. Tell us a little bit about you, where you’re located, and what you do?
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Kate: My name is Kate Kelly. I’m with WK real estate in Boulder, Colorado then by next month in January will be my sixth year. I specialize in residential sales.
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Brad: So wait, so how’d you get into real estate, what’d you do before that?
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Kate: I was in the restaurant industry for years, so I moved to Colorado from Massachusetts in my early twenties having no idea what I wanted to do with my life. Just wanted to have some fun. But my dad is in construction and my mom’s a financial advisor. So growing up, we always like stayed in the same home town, but we had like different houses every two to three years, it felt like. So I realized as I got older, that I was kind of obsessed with real estate and houses and contracts and all that stuff. And then after a not-so-fun experience when I bought my first house, I was like, all right, that was the last kick in the pants. I needed to go get my real estate license.
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Brad: Nice, nice.
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Taylor: So you kind of always had it in the back of your mind that maybe one day you’d get into real estate?
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Kate: Totally like growing up, I’m surprised I wanted to get into real estate, Massachusetts when I lived there, but I was just young and I was like, I don’t know what I want to do. I don’t even know if I want to live here. So kind of put it off a little bit, you know, like trying to pick your career path at 20 or 21 years old is a little bit of a challenge.
00:01:43:11 –> 00:02:13:08
Kate: I just was kind of on a whim. One of my best friends was living in Jackson, Wyoming, and I visited her a couple of times and just fell in love with like the mountains and the culture and just being outdoors all the time. And I love Jackson, but it felt just a little bit too isolated. So Denver, I mean, is just kind of an easy fit. But I had never visited. I just kind of packed up my stuff out of the apartment online and was like, yeah, let’s see what happens crazy. It’s been 10 years.
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Brad: Oh, I know. That’s crazy.
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Kate: Yeah. It’s, it’s welcomed me with open arms. I did not expect it to be a permanent move. And I think within probably six months to a year of moving out here, I was like, I am staying, I love this place.
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But growing up, I didn’t realize I was like, had this weird obsession with real estate. So it was like, I shared my dad’s, in construction. Like we couldn’t even drive to dinner or drive home from basketball practice. Like if you saw a framed house, just like the studs up, we’d pull over on the side of the road and like he’d walk through. And I was like running through like all the studs, you know? And he’s like, how many bedrooms does it have? How many bathrooms? Where’s the fireplace going? Where’s the kitchen sink gonna go? Yeah, it’s kind of crazy. In hindsight, thinking about my upbringing, we could not even drive by a framed house without him pulling over.
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Taylor: Oh, that’s pretty cool though. It gives you a lot of background in that I know recently you went to back in November, you went to a convention, right? A real estate convention in San Diego.
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Kate: Yep. How the national association of realtors. It was really good. Thank you. The National Association of Realtors does two big conferences every year. And may we meet for our legislative meetings in Washington, DC, and then the annual conferences every fall. So last year, unfortunately was completely virtual. This year was our first time getting together since fall of 2019. I think it’s like 7,500 to 10,000 agents from across the country all go.
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Taylor: Just nationwide. So everyone, everyone can go, right?
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Kate: Yeah. It’s a blast. So we have a lot of committee meetings, legislative meetings, like meeting with our elected officials, just talking about kind of important housing issues, fair housing opportunity for other folks to get into the housing market and home ownership. And then a lot of just educational sessions of things that we can bring back to our business in terms of technology or marketing, things of that sort.
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Taylor: Yeah. That’s awesome. I know a lot of people have talked about going to the conventions like that, but I haven’t actually talked to somebody recently. Who’s gone, I think because of COVID everything was kind of shut down for a little bit, so yeah.
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Kate: And it was, it was comforting that it was in California because you not, it kind of seems like they’ve been the strictest select the rules. Yep. Um, so I personally was a little hesitant to go, but once we got there, like completely at ease, they were very, very careful with making sure that we stayed safe. So yes.
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Taylor: Kind of backing it up a little bit here with this question. How did you get your first transaction?
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Kate: Ooh, that’s a good question. Actually. It was somebody in my office. Okay, nice. So yeah, somebody in my office, he had a client who was interested in a new build and he was like, new builds are like a totally different beast than the resell market. Like I want you to kind of co-broke her with me and learn the ropes of that. So I was super fortunate to have my first transaction ever be a new build transaction and get comfortable with working with builders.
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Taylor: That’s awesome. How did it go from transaction to buy? So to go pretty smoothly.
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Kate: You did nice. It tends to be a lot longer, like a typical resale transaction, at least in our market is anywhere from, I’d say 30 to 45 days, maybe 60 if it’s needed. But this particular new build and really a lot of them in our market is like, you buy it as a lot and then they start building. So from the time that you go under contract, until you actually close and get your keys can be anywhere from six to 12 months.
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Taylor: Yeah. Because they, yeah, the whole building process, I know lumber went up too. So that would probably have a factor in that.
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Kate: But fortunately, yeah, fortunately it was before the supply chain issues. Cause that was probably five or six years ago. But, um, we did, we did encounter that a little bit in 2020 and 2021 for sure.
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Taylor: Nice. And what is the worst property you think you’ve been to and even the stick out to you the most, maybe you don’t want to go back to?
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Kate: Oh God. I try to like black it out.
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Taylor: Or the most interesting, most interesting home?
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Kate: Most interesting. It’s all over the place. So it’s interesting to see how some people live. Cause I’m like super type a and like empty out my fridge and clean it regularly. And some people are like, no, I unlock my door and I go to bed with my shoes on. So is there some houses that are just like really unkept that are a little bit shocking? Um, I would say, I don’t even want to say the worst, just like funky one that the lady was running. I say, lady, ’cause I know the seller was a woman, sorry. The homeowner was running a dog-sitting business out of her basement, but it was like an unfinished basement. So it kind of just was like real eerie. Like she had these like kennels with chain link fence that she had put together in the basement. And then there was just like a tub in the middle of the room. And like you think like an unfinished basement, it’s just like really a concrete four concrete walls. So it was just like kindness.
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Brad: That’s a crazy open concept for the bathroom there. Right, right.
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Kate: Yeah. Totally. I was like, I don’t know if she’s like running a sitting business out of here, like a Dexter sort of basement.
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Taylor: Did you end up selling that one? No. No.
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Brad: Yeah. That’s funny. So, so speaking of that, we had, we, since we, um, like we’re reviewing some of the photos that were taken and literally like one of them, I think it was like within a week, like we haven’t seen this in like a thought like forever and all of a sudden in one week we saw two houses with two cages in the basement, like, like full-blown, like, like you would store something, just feel like you would start stuff, buddy. In there. I was like, oh wow, that was creepy.
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Kate: Yeah. And you know, when you visit some listings, how they have like the feature cards hung up, as you walk in, you look out the backslider and it’s like mountain views on a clear day. I just, I feel like if you see a cage in a basement, like that needs a feature.
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Kate: This is for the unruly dark.
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Brad: This is for doc link.
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Kate: Further explanation would be appreciated.
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Taylor: Just empty cages randomly in the basement. That look kind of creepy.
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Kate: Totally.
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Brad: That’s crazy.
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Taylor: If you could start over today, is there anything that you’d do differently?
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Kate: Starting over?
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Brad: Knowing all, you know now, what would you change?
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Kate: I would’ve gotten a mentor or coach way earlier. I had, I had some like more seasoned agents who were really good and kind of took me under their wing in terms of like, if I had contract questions, I could call them. Or if I was in like a tricky negotiation, just kind of running the scenario by them that they would help with. But in terms of like a professional partnership of like, I am paying you to be my mentor or my coach definitely went out on that earlier.
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Taylor: How long were you in real estate before you got your coach?
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Kate: Five years. Okay. Too, too long. I just brought on a coach this year.
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Brad: Nice. So when you started out, were you on a team or was it just solo where you’re trying to figure it all on your own or did you have somebody at least a team. Nice. So you were going all out?
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Kate: Yeah. That’s an excellent question actually. I’d probably put that under the umbrella of mentor or coach. Yeah. So either one, if you want to do the independent route, find a mentor or coach or join a team because the mentorship and the comradery you get on a team is phenomenal as well. Yeah. Yeah.
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Taylor: I know you didn’t start out with the team. You were so low, but did you get any advice from maybe someone fellow coworker at some point that has stuck with you?
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Kate: Um, yes. Stick with it. It’s hard. It’s going to take twice as long as you think. Especially moving from a different state and like being young when I started there, like when you get your real estate license, so like make a list of everyone, you know, like that’s your database. I’m like, everyone I know is like waiting tables, trying to pay off student loans. And then we make cash every night and we go have way too much fun with it. Like these are the demographic of people who are going to be buying a house in the next six to 12 months. So that was a little bit of a challenge, like how to creatively and organically like build a database
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Taylor: And you move states too. So you basically had to start over.
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Kate: Totally. And you have to keep it authentic because I think people can see through that. Like I’m not good with kids, so I’m not going to go volunteer at a preschool, but that’s somebody else’s niche and they might be able to go like really do something that is personally fulfilling for them while organically growing your business. So I’m just, I’m like, do whatever you’re passionate about and what ever is authentic for you and the business kind of naturally come. Yeah.
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Taylor: What is one thing that you did to help you grow your clientele and that database in your new location? Because you were in Massachusetts and then you moved up, so you moved without knowing anybody really in the area.
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Kate: I got with our local association pretty quickly. Okay. So the Boulder area, realtor association, they do a lot of classes and evolve a lot of volunteer days throughout the year. And I personally always grew up volunteering. So it just was a natural fit for me to be like, yeah, we’re going to go clean some senior citizens’ yards. Like I can, I can get down on that. And one of the other gals who I met there, who I like in hindsight, I didn’t even realize she was like the past president and like a pretty big deal within our realtor community here. She tapped me on the shoulder and she’s like, if you want your career to surviving and you want to make it in this business, you have to get involved. So you showing up today is like step one. All right. And kind of took that to heart.
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So have just gotten very involved with our YPN group at a local level, getting involved with the women’s council of realtors at a local level, and now a national level, which is a natural confidence boost too, because you’re starting to get to know the other people in your market and the other people across the country. So now you’re growing your referral database, you’re growing your reputation here locally. And ultimately just raising the bar for the industry. I think that there’s a lot of tunnel vision around the real estate that it has to be hyper-competitive. And I think that if we can see it through this lens of more like colleague and comradery, we’re really better serving all of our clients instead of looking at it through the lens of competition. Absolutely.
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Taylor: Do you have any business books or maybe business podcasts that you’ve listened to, that you could recommend to anybody new starting out in real estate?
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Kate: Yeah. Atomic Habits is a really good book. Somebody just recommended that to me last year. I really liked it. Um, ninja selling with Larry Kendall is a book that somebody actually gifted to me my first year in the business. And then I just went through the training the past year. Those two are really, really good in terms of business and helping with your mindset. I’d say the color of law is another really good book for anybody in the real estate industry. That’s the history of redlining and racial segregation and how the real estate community was on the wrong side of history for a little bit too long. So that’s very insightful as well.
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Taylor: Awesome. Well, before we go today, how can people get ahold of you?
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Kate: Oh, thanks. My name’s Kate Kelley. Again, I’m a Colorado realtor. So my Instagram handle is @coloradokatetherealtor, or you can find me on Facebook at Kaitlin Kelley.
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Brad: Awesome. Hey, thanks for coming today.
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Kate: Yeah. Thank you for having me.
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Check out Kate Kelley:
WK Real Estate
https://www.wkre.com/real-estate-agent/253/kate-kelley
coloradohomesbykate.com
Facebook: @coloradohomesbykate
Instagram: @coloradokatetherealtor
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