Episode 152 Transcript: Anne Dalton

On this episode of The Brad and Taylor Show, we have Anne Dalton from eXp Realty!

Anne told us about how she made the jump to real estate from teaching as well as her most memorable experiences. To watch the full episode, check it out on YouTube below. To listen, head over to Apple Podcasts. In the meantime, here’s a transcript of the conversation…

00:00:00:04 –> 00:00:15:05
Brad: Welcome to the Brad and Taylor show. Today we have Anne Dalton! 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’ve learned along the way. Hi, how are you doing?

00:00:16:03 –> 00:00:17:06
Anne: I’m good. How are you guys?

00:00:17:08 –> 00:00:22:13
Brad: We’re good. We’re doing good. We’re doing good. Well, uh, let’s get this started. Tell us a little bit about you. Like, what do you do?

00:00:23:28 –> 00:01:17:15
Anne: So, I am a newly-turned realtor. I used to be a teacher up until this last school year. I taught for four years, my first year I taught third grade. After that, I switched to fourth. So, it was kind of cool. My first year I taught third and then I moved up with my third graders to fourth grade that first year. Then I just continued to teach fourth grade for a couple more years. This last year I decided to go into real estate. So that’s where I have kind of landed.

When I decided last summer to go into real estate, I decided that this was going to be my last year of teaching. So, I taught up until the very end of June. I think it was like June 10th. Since then, I’ve basically just been doing real estate all summer long and it’s been a lot of fun.

00:01:17:17 –> 00:01:27:18
Brad: That’s awesome. So when you were younger, you probably wanted to be a teacher. So you went to school for teaching, I’m guessing. How did you go from teaching to real estate? Like what made that decision?

00:01:29:03 –> 00:02:17:03
Anne: So, I always did want to be a teacher when I was younger. I had three siblings that were all younger than me and I was the oldest. So, I just naturally kind of gravitated toward that. When I was in ninth grade, I decided for sure I wanted to be a teacher. So, I went into college for that. I attended Eastern Michigan University and a community college near where I’m from, I’m from Ludington, Michigan. I did the community college for a little while, and then I transferred to Eastern and finished out my teaching school there. From that point, I did my student teaching around this area. I became a teacher and the reason why I ended up switching over to real estate is because of a lot of reasons.

00:02:17:12 –> 00:03:02:18
One of the main things is teacher overload. If you talk to any teacher, they’ll tell you that they work too much and they don’t get paid enough. There’s so much that goes into it that you don’t think about. You know, I got into teaching for all of the utopian ideas of “I’m going to change the world and I’m going to make a big difference in all these kids’ lives.” While all of that was definitely true. It was just so much more than I had bargained for and for not enough pay. I was giving away all of my free time. I was giving up my family time and not having free time to do anything. I was spending my nights and weekends grading papers and lesson planning and then struggling to get the bills paid.

00:03:02:18 –> 00:03:53:08
It just was not what I had gotten into it for. So, last summer, I think in July, I had been following Dave Ramsey. I had been following one of the Dave Ramsey Facebook groups and somebody in there posted a thing that was like a “fill-in-the-blank” post. She said, “I used to be a teacher and now I’m a ‘fill in the blank,'” and everybody was commenting their things. So, I was reading through that. It caught my eye because of all the reasons I had just mentioned. I was looking through this post and somebody had said, I used to be a teacher and now I’m a realtor and I work half as much and I make twice as much.

00:03:53:09 –> 00:04:38:08
That caught my eye, of course. So, I started thinking about it because, you know, like anybody, I love HGTV and all of that stuff. So, you know, I was thinking I could do that. That could be a fun career. So, I started looking into it and doing some research and decided ultimately that I was going to take my shot and just go for it. So, I purchased online schooling last summer. It was August I purchased it. And then I knew it was going to be a crazy school year because of COVID. So, I gave myself a little grace period. I was like, I’m not going to start the schooling right away. I have to see what the school year is all about first, and then we’ll go from there. So, I started school, I gave myself a little time.

00:04:38:09 –> 00:05:18:25
I didn’t start schooling for the real estate until October. I think it was like October 5th. I finished by December just doing a little bit here and there at night. I finished my schooling in December. I took the test and passed on the first try. And then January 5th is when I was officially, officially licensed. And so ever since then, I’ve been licensed, but of course, I was still teaching until June. So, it was definitely a challenge. I had some like idea in my head of like, “I’m going to be this rock star, like teacher realtor, and just do both.” It was definitely not the case. So it’s a lot. Yeah.

00:05:19:05 –> 00:05:27:12
Taylor: It’s hard going into it almost like part-time when you have a full-time career that takes all of your energy as it is. So, I definitely understand that.

00:05:28:14 –> 00:06:40:08
Anne: Yeah. I mean, that’s one of the reasons that I wanted to get out of teaching anyways, it was all-consuming. You have no free time already, so to try to fit in another whole career on top of that was just nearly impossible. So, I try not to beat myself up about it too much. I spent that time wisely just taking in as much information as I could. I think it actually worked out for the best because I had this idea in my head, like I said, “I’m going to just do it all, and I’m going to sell my house before school is out.” That didn’t happen. What did happen was I spent all those months, you know, January to June listening to podcasts, taking classes through eXp. They offer, I think it’s like, over 50 hours a week of live training? Then they have tons of other things, too. I went to classes and listened to podcasts and all of that and just read books and took in as much information as I could because real estate school does not teach you how to be a realtor. They just teach you like the laws around it basically. And the logistics. So, that was helpful. It was almost like I was in my own little schooling while I was still finishing.

00:06:42:03 –> 00:06:55:27
Taylor: So, how long did it take you to get your first transaction then? You didn’t get it during the school year. That’s okay. You were already really busy at that point. So when did you get it? Was it a couple of months after school? Or, how did that process work for you that first transaction?

00:06:56:11 –> 00:07:43:06
Anne: Yeah, so I had a few renters that I was working with. Actually, my first client that I had, I started working with in February, almost as soon as I was licensed. So, my really good friend, her name is Tabitha, she’s from, the same school that I worked at. Well, once she learned that I was a realtor, you know, I was telling everybody at school that I’m a realtor now. So, once she learned that, she came to my classroom one day and said, “Hey, can you help me find a house?” We were already good friends. She worked in my classroom for a while, the previous couple of years. So I was like, of course, let’s do it! You know, I don’t know what I’m doing, but let’s go for it. So, we had started looking for her in February, but we didn’t find anything that she got accepted.

00:07:43:06 –> 00:08:27:26
Anyways, we put in lots of offers, but they all got rejected. The market is crazy right now, but we did finally get her an offer accepted, I think in June or July. Okay. And that just closed. It takes a while because the type of loan that she has is FHA. So, it took longer than a regular loan. So, she just closed on August 30th. So, that was very recent. That took a while. She wasn’t actually my first transaction, but she was the first person that I was working with. That was probably the one I was most excited about. Cause she was my good friend and my first client, but I had a couple of other transactions that came first in July. I had a couple of renters that I got into a lease. So, that was my first two transactions!

00:08:27:26 –> 00:09:45:26
I had two different renters that I got in. It was very random and crazy how this all worked out. I had run an open house for somebody, actually. I think you guys had her on your podcast, Amanda Richardson. Yeah, she’s on my team. She had a listing that she needed an open house for. So I did it for her. It was super awesome. A very successful open house. Lots of people came through and one of the people that came through was this guy who was a cash buyer and he had been wanting to purchase, but he didn’t have a real estate agent. He was just kind of putting in offers on his own, not knowing how everything works. He kept missing the deadline or kept missing a form or whatever it may be. So, he came through and asked me if I would write him an offer. So, of course, I did. Because he was a cash buyer, it went very quickly. So, I wrote the offer, it was accepted the next day, later we’re closing. It was insane. And it was, to this day, my biggest commission check so far. So, that was exciting and very strange. So I’m like doing as many open houses as I can because of that.

00:09:46:26 –> 00:09:49:13
Taylor: Yeah. You never know who you’re going to run into.

00:09:49:13 –> 00:09:53:21
Anne: Crazy how it works out. It really, you just never know. Yeah.

00:09:54:09 –> 00:09:59:15
Taylor: That’s awesome. So, over the last year, what do you think the worst property is that you’ve walked through?

00:10:00:24 –> 00:10:41:00
Anne: So, I haven’t seen anything quite as bad as some of my peers. I’ve heard some really awful terror stories. I don’t have anything like that but I have two that stick out in my mind. The very first showing I ever went on the house wasn’t bad at all! It was just like, a nice little ranch, with a couple of bedrooms, a bathroom. There was a fenced-in yard and a garage, but the lady was there, the seller was there and that’s not supposed to be the case, first of all. Then, she had all of her pets there and she had quite a few! It was like five cats and I think two little dogs. So they were just like roaming all around. And of course, you know, the seller was there.

00:10:41:00 –> 00:11:27:03
So, as soon as we walked into the property, she wanted to tell us everything about it. So, we got stuck talking to her about this and then, you know, the showing took way too long. Then, we went to look in one of the bedrooms and there was literal dog poop on the floor. Maybe she didn’t know the dog pooped right before we came in. I don’t know. Right. But that was interesting. And then this other one I saw, this one wasn’t a showing. It was just a preview. It was before I had anybody to go do showings with. So, I was just kind of viewing properties on my own to educate myself on the market. I saw this house and it wouldn’t have been so bad, but I think it was vacant for a long time. It was nasty.

00:11:27:14 –> 00:12:12:11
It looked like, I don’t know, it looked almost like it had been vandalized or something. Like somebody had tried to do some remodeling. The cabinets were new, but there was all this gunk all over the top of the stove. I don’t even know what it was, but the floor was gross. Then, there’s like a door that went down to the basement and I peeked in there and it was just me. The property was kind of creepy too. So like, I wasn’t really, I was like kind of sketched out. I opened doors, you know, as I got in there. I poked my head into the basement and it looked like a literal dungeon. I was too scared to go down there. So I didn’t, oh man, those are the two that stick out in my mind, but I’m sure I’m going to see it way worse. I’ve heard awful stories from other people.

00:12:13:10 –> 00:12:20:06
Taylor: Yeah, it will. At least no one was in that house. You got the creepy vibes from it, but you didn’t go in the basement. So yeah. That’s good.

00:12:20:27 –> 00:12:31:19
Anne: Right. I know. I feel like that was one of those houses where I had just had awful vibes from it. Like I feel like whatever happened there was bad. Like some bad stuff happened…

00:12:33:13 –> 00:12:34:17
Taylor: And you went by yourself!

00:12:35:15 –> 00:12:37:29
Anne: Yeah. Yeah. I know. I probably shouldn’t do that!

00:12:40:14 –> 00:12:50:16
Taylor: No, it’s going to happen though. Over the next couple of months, finishing out this year and then going into the next year, what kind of goals do you want to accomplish? I’m sure you have a lot on your plate that you want to get done.

00:12:51:08 –> 00:13:44:22
Anne: Yeah. It’s so many goals. So first of all, school just started. So that’s really weird that school’s starting and I’m not there. I’m just doing my own thing now and it’s kind of terrifying, not going to lie. I have a lot of goals. I do have a really good team on my side. So that’s helpful. I wrote down some of my goals because I have so many, but in the next year, so gearing up for 2022, I want to reach for 20 or more homes sold or 20 or more transactions. So, that’s one goal that I have. I have no idea how many transactions are going to be this year. We’ll see. But, next year I got big goals. And then I actually just brought my first new agent onto the team. She came through my lead generation program.

00:13:45:01 –> 00:14:30:10
So, that was really interesting because mostly we don’t get agents coming through there. We get people looking for homes. When she came through as an agent, I was like, “wait a second…” And then, so it turned out, she was responding to an ad that the leader of my team had posted. She came through on that and I got ahold of her and talked to her and she ended up going with our team, which was really exciting. So, she’s my first agent, even though like, I’m kind of a newer agent as well, so we’re kind of learning together, but that’s another way at eXp you can earn a lot of money by bringing new agents onto your team. If they become good, you know, per producing agents, then they give you revenue share from that. It’s kind of just like passive income if you have people on your team.

00:14:30:25 –> 00:15:21:00
Yeah. So my goal for next year is to bring 10 new people onto the team. I have a lot of debt from student loans that I would like to pay off as well as some other like vehicle loan debt, things like that. I would like to save and go on more vacations. We typically go on one vacation, one like “real” vacation a year. We went to the upper peninsula for a week. We usually do that, but I’d like to do more. There is a big event happening, a Brent Gove event for EFC that’s happening in Cabo in March that everybody on my team is talking about. Every time we have a meeting, they’re like, “Who’s going to Cabo?” It’s expensive, but I really want to go. So, I’m going to make it happen. So that’s a big goal that I have. So that’s basically it just for right now anyway

00:15:21:18 –> 00:15:26:05
Taylor: But yeah, that’s exciting though. You got a big year planned ahead of you and the Cabo trip. That would be fun!

00:15:26:26 –> 00:15:32:28
Anne: Yeah, yeah. And it’s for like a whole week. So I’m excited. I’ll find a way to make it happen. Yeah.

00:15:33:03 –> 00:15:38:21
Taylor: Yeah. Are there conferences there when you go, so you guys can like learn as you’re vacationing? Yeah.

00:15:38:22 –> 00:16:41:23
Anne: Yeah. So my team, a lot of, well, a few people from my team, they just went to the Tony Robbins event in Dallas. So it’s kind of like that. It’s like a “pump it up” type of an event. It’s around mindset a lot and just kind of gearing you up to do big things with your business. So, I mean, I’ve never been to one personally. I’ve just seen the little clips that my people on my team had posted from when they’ve gone, but it seems super inspirational. Like we just had a team meeting last week on or not last week, the week before on Wednesday. And when we were at the office, everybody that went to the Dallas Tony Robbins event came back just pumped up, telling us everything about it and giving us these little snippets, little quotes that they had written down that were so inspirational. And, um, talking about how important it is to prioritize, going to Cabo in March, because it’s the same sort of like an event where it’ll be like that. So I’m excited. Yeah.

00:16:42:13 –> 00:16:45:11
Taylor: That’s really exciting. You’ll have to touch base with us and let us know how it went.

00:16:46:05 –> 00:16:48:00
Anne: Yeah, for sure!

00:16:48:00 –> 00:16:50:10
Taylor: You’re going to go, you set that goal and you’re going to go.

00:16:50:28 –> 00:17:05:23
Anne: I told my team, I was going, I was very on the fence until they all came back from Dallas and then started talking all this like craziness. And I was like, okay, I’m pumped. I’m going. So I said, I’m going to go, so you have my word that I said it now here too.

00:17:06:13 –> 00:17:07:12
Taylor: You’re already halfway there!

00:17:08:12 –> 00:17:08:23
Anne: Right.

00:17:09:20 –> 00:17:13:17
Brad: That’s awesome. What’s your favorite book you’ve read that has helped you along the way?

00:17:14:06 –> 00:18:01:17
Anne: Oh, that’s so hard. I love reading and I, at the same time, like, don’t prioritize enough for it. That’s a big goal I have as well, to prioritize more to read. I’ve read a few. I wrote a few down and I have a lot more on my list that I want to read. So the few I have written down that I read recently kind of over the summer are Giftology by John Ruhlin, The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. I just finished that one actually.

00:18:01:18 –> 00:18:44:25
It was really good. It’s all about the law of attraction and, you know, positive thinking and bringing what you want into your life. I actually read that on vacation. It was a really good, easy, quick motivational one. And then the other one I’d read over the summer, it was called Raving Fans by Ken Blanchard. Have you guys heard of that one? Yeah, that’s a really good one too. Um, just that, so Raving Fans and Giftology feel like go hand in hand and I forget which one, but one of them, (I think Giftology) mentions raving fans within it. I think it does. Yeah. And they’re both just really good.

00:18:45:13 –> 00:19:34:11
I think business mindset books get you geared to thinking about treating your customers right. And making sure that you’re providing the best service possible. And I really think about that when I’m working with like my renters, because a lot of people, you know, you don’t make as much money off of renters, for sure. So a lot of people will just kind of avoid that, but I’ve been getting a lot of renter referrals and being new, starting out. I like don’t want to say no to them because a lot of them are referred to me by people that I really care about. And so they refer them to me because they know that I’m just getting started and all of that. So I think about that too. When I’m working with them, I always make sure to get them a closing gift, you know, just like if they were a buyer, cause it’s a big deal and you know, they’re moving into a place just like anybody else.

00:19:34:21 –> 00:20:18:09
They’re probably going to be a buyer later on down the road, you know? And they’re going to remember me because I took good care of them. So yeah, I think those things are really important to remember. And then on my list, I have a really long list. You guys have probably heard a bunch of these, um, this isn’t all of them, but I just wrote down a few on my bookshelf that I want to read next, Never Split the Difference is one.

00:20:19:03 –> 00:20:21:12
Brad: Nice. Those are awesome.

00:20:21:12 –> 00:20:25:27
Anne: It’s hard to choose which one I’m going to go with next. I have to like sit there and think about it for at least 15 minutes.

00:20:26:27 –> 00:20:29:12
Brad: That’s awesome. That’s funny. How can people get ahold of you?

00:20:30:26 –> 00:20:48:22
Anne: I’m on Facebook, Instagram. So on Facebook, I’m Anne Dalton, Instagram: dalton.anne and my email is [email protected].

00:20:48:22 –> 00:20:53:11
Brad:Sweet. That’s awesome. Hey, thanks for coming on and sharing your story with us today.

00:20:53:13 –> 00:20:56:13
Anne: Absolutely. I enjoyed being with you guys today. Thank you for inviting me on.

00:21:00:16 –> 00:21:18:19
Hello. Hello. Are you there? Are you, 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. And 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 Anne Dalton:

eXp Realty

Annedalton.exprealty.com

Facebook: @AnneDaltonRealtor

Instagram: @dalton.anne

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