Episode 153 Transcript: Brittany Miles
On this episode of The Brad and Taylor Show, we sat down with Brittany Miles from ERA Reardon Realty! To watch the full episode, scroll down to see it on YouTube. To listen, head over to Apple Podcasts.
In the meantime, here’s a transcript of the conversation…
00:00:00:13 –> 00:00:03:17
Taylor: Welcome to the Brad and Taylor show. Today we have Brittany Miles.
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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. Hey Brittany.
00:00:15:23 –> 00:00:19:19
Brittany: Hi there. How are ya?
Taylor: We’re good. How are you doing?
Brittany: Good. Thank you for having me.
00:00:19:28 –> 00:00:23:06
Brad: Yeah, for sure. Awesome. Well, let’s get this started. Tell us a little bit about you.
00:00:24:14 –> 00:01:18:03
Brittany: My name is Brittany Miles. I have been a realtor for six years. It’s a family business for me. I actually tried to attempt to get out of it and it sucked me back in. So, I went to Central Michigan University and got a degree in family studies and I minored in psychology. I did social work for about a year and a half and some things happened. I moved away and I ended up coming back and like I said, I got sucked back into the real estate side of things. So, kind of cool. My mom’s a lender and my aunt and my grandma were (realtors). My grandma’s retired now. She was an agent for 30 years, so I assisted her when I was younger. Then, my aunt is an agent within my office right here in Jackson.
00:01:18:24 –> 00:01:25:03
Brad: That’s awesome. So is this what you wanted to be when you grew up?
00:01:26:08 –> 00:02:46:22
Brittany: I actually aspired to be a marriage and family therapist and I really wanted to be a therapist for, you know, a long time. I kind of took the social work route before I started my master’s and I ended up kind of reverting back over to this. I did not want to be a realtor when I grew up. My family kind of pushed for me to do other things too. I ended up meeting my husband and he was very supportive and he’s like, “you’d be great at this, why don’t you just try it, you know, just dive into it.” I was working as a waitress at a restaurant in Chelsea, Michigan. It was just a higher-end, fun place to work, fast pace. I really enjoyed it because I got to meet people and it kind of triggered my career like, “Oh, I’d love for you to help me.” And so that was nice. So, that’s kinda how I got my feet wet. Also, while still having my family as, you know, good cushions to bounce ideas off of to learn the business. I can call and ask, you know, what “dumb questions” or things that I’m writing. So, yeah, I ended up really enjoying it. So I fell into the right place, I guess I should say. Yeah.
00:02:46:29 –> 00:02:51:18
Taylor: And when you first started out, you started with your family on that team, right? So you’ve been with this team the whole time?
00:02:52:19 –> 00:03:53:11
Brittany: Yeah, so my grandma actually worked for Remax mid-Michigan. And then my aunt who is Tracy Connors assisted my grandma. They did big business. I mean, they were selling millions of dollars of real estate. So I would come into the office when I was like 15, 16. I can remember going on showings, listing appointments, you know, since I was little, little, and I would go into the office and I knew all the older agents, you know, like people who’ve been in it forever, like Steve Ordway, Chris Rankin. So it was kind of cool. So when I did go into the business, I ended up really knowing a lot of the agents and already having established that relationship. So I do think that had kind of helped my credibility as well. So, my grandma has since retired and my aunt is here within my office too.
00:03:53:14 –> 00:03:58:23
Taylor: Awesome. Yeah. It’s nice to keep it within the family. So that’s really cool that you guys are continuing that tradition.
00:03:59:08 –> 00:04:25:29
Brittany: Yeah, so we are our own agents. We do our own business, but we do bounce things off of each other. Like we just had a transaction. She had an investor, I had people who already had a home under contract and they needed to get their home sold fast. Her investors said, “well, I’ll just pay cash.” It just pays to have those relationships and make our client’s life easier as well.
00:04:26:02 –> 00:04:40:01
Taylor: Definitely. When you first started out in real estate, I know you grew up around it. So you kind of had maybe an idea of what to expect when you go into your first transaction. I don’t know if you’ve ever sat at a closing or anything before that, but how did that first one go for you?
00:04:40:19 –> 00:05:33:19
Brittany: My grandma always said I had gone to several closings with her. So kind of funny. I knew Ron Ellison for a long time who owns the title company here in Jackson. So it’s just kind of funny because in my first transaction, weirdly enough, I sold a tiny house. It had multiple offers on it and it was in Waterloo and it was on a beautiful setting out on the mill pond out there. I randomly got this guy that called me and I had just started out on my own. The realtor called me and said, okay, you need to give us your highest and best. And I thought, okay. So I called my client back and he said, that is my highest and best.
00:05:33:19 –> 00:06:20:16
He was actually paying cash at this time, which is kind of crazy for your first deal to have a cash buyer, you know, just right place, right time, I guess. So, we ended up winning the bid with the cash offer and we went out there and he was just in love with this home and it was so cool and it went really smooth, you know, I actually closed it at Liberty and Chelsea, so I didn’t know anybody, but I just, you know, fake it till you make it and went in there and studied my contract. I really just tried to prep myself as well as I could. So in my mind that went smoothly, but who knows what everybody else thought.
00:06:22:12 –> 00:06:25:06
Brad: Yeah. Is there any advice you got right at the beginning that kind of stuck with you along the way?
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Brittany: A realtor that’d been in the business for a really long time just said, “don’t do it for the money, do the right thing and the money will follow.” And I really believe in that because I don’t want to sell somebody a house that, you know, for instance, just recently, actually there was a house on a lake (they’re cash buyers). They, really loved this house. They thought it was a good deal. They got it under the list price and they did the home inspection. Basically, the inspector was like, “there’s like three feet of water under this house.” You could, if you were to lift the floor up under the bathroom, I mean, you could stick your hand into the water. So, oh man, these are clients that are repeat customers of mine. So in my mind, like I just didn’t want to do them wrong, you know?
00:07:22:06 –> 00:08:22:25
So I was thankful they did the home inspection and I advise them like, you know, I don’t know what a repair would look like on this. I don’t think this is a good investment for you. The foundation is bad. Like how good could that be? Right. I wanted to make sure that that’s the way that I do business and just honesty is the best policy. So I’m not just trying to make a paycheck. I want to make sure that down the line, these people don’t have trouble with the homes that they’re buying. You know, I mean, home ownership in itself is a task. I mean, there’s always something there’s maintenance and hot water heaters go out. So, those types of things, obviously I want to set them up for success, but there’s only so much I can do. Whereas I know that if it’s a problem that’s going to persist or be immensely costly in the long run, I like to do the right thing ahead of time and the rest falls into place.
00:08:23:18 –> 00:08:31:22
Taylor: Absolutely. I was gonna ask you for the next question here…What’s the worst property you’ve been to? But that one that might be on your list right there, the water underneath.
00:08:32:13 –> 00:09:43:11
Brittany: Actually, it wasn’t the worst. I would say when I was a social worker, right, I went into all these underprivileged homes and people who were really struggling and there were cockroaches, bedbugs, you name it. I saw it. So I kind of thought, “well, I’ve already dipped my toes into this. How bad could real estate be if I’m going into these condemned properties or for investors?” So I went into this house and we toured the main level of the home. It was beautiful. I like it was actually a foreclosed home, but I’m like, I cannot believe this hasn’t sold. There were no disclosures, anything like that. So basically, we get to the basement and there is black mold lining this house from the base from top to bottom. I mean, up the doors it was crazy and the basement flooded and it just sat there. You could just smell it as soon as you opened the basement door, I’m like, okay, we gotta get outta here.
00:09:44:05 –> 00:09:47:15
Taylor: Yeah. And it’s always there. I wonder where else it was that maybe you guys didn’t even see…
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Brittany: Exactly.
00:09:57:25 –> 00:10:01:14
Taylor: Did that one ever sell to one of your clients or anybody fixing it?
00:10:02:11 –> 00:10:10:25
Brittany: I never followed up. I just told the realtor. I said, “do you need to disclose how bad this basement is?” And With it being a foreclosure, I don’t know how it ended up.
00:10:11:16 –> 00:10:17:02
Taylor: So I know, unfortunately with maybe like investment side of things, you might see more of that.
00:10:17:26 –> 00:10:34:05
Brittany: I’ve been into them where there are, you know, cockroaches, there are dogs, and animals that are aggressive, so you never know what you’re going to encounter.
00:10:35:15 –> 00:10:36:03
Taylor: For the rest of the year, what are your goals?
00:10:37:15 –> 00:11:53:01
Brittany: So I actually just had a baby in February. That has been kind of a learning curve, trying to balance my home life and still maintaining my business and keeping my clients happy and balancing everything basically. So that’s a goal of mine is to find a good workflow that is even-keeled with home life, mom, life, and so on. So that’s kind of my goal. I think so far I’ve maneuvered through it pretty well. My husband laughs I was getting an epidural and I was on the phone for a closing that was happening. My anesthesiologists said, “you’re working right now?” I said, well, yeah, okay. You know, I’ll feel better after this. And she’s like, “I can’t even get my realtor to call me back.” It’s hard to turn it off when you need to. But if there are people that need something right away, I always try to be there. So I’m trying to find a balance there.
00:11:53:26 –> 00:11:56:15
Taylor: Have to ask you, did the anesthesiologist ever call you?
00:11:57:19 –> 00:12:02:27
Brittany: No, I guess I have to have another kid and go!
00:12:03:09 –> 00:12:14:18
Taylor: That’s funny. If you could start over today with all the knowledge that you have, would you do anything differently?
00:12:16:05 –> 00:13:30:04
Brittany: I would say no actually, because every transaction that I’ve dealt with was really a learning curve and something that you take into the next one that, you know, and it’s something different every single time. You learned something throughout it, no matter what, whether you get to know another realtor through it, or you figure something out that an inspector tells you that you’ve never knew. Like I had an FHA appraisal come back and it was, uh, it was a shock. It was like a little shed in the backyard and it had a beehive in it. I didn’t look for the beehive in the shed. I would have never known, but it came back flagged on an appraisal as a repair. And I thought, “well, now I’m going to look for beehives and bird’s nest, whenever I go into a new house!” I wouldn’t change anything. I think every experience is a good one, whether it’s good or bad, you’re going to learn from it.
00:13:31:05 –> 00:13:41:15
Taylor: Yeah, for sure. I know we mentioned before we started recording, uh, maybe not so much of a book that you could recommend to anybody, but you listen to podcasts. Tell us a little bit about that.
00:13:42:05 –> 00:14:44:19
Brittany: I don’t have one specifically. I kinda flick on my podcasts on Spotify and just kind of see what comes up. So I don’t really have anybody specific as far as the book goes. The zero to one, it’s more of like a start-up for software kind of thing, like technology, which I’m horrible at. Okay. Like getting on a zoom meeting. Well, no, I’m just kidding. So basically that I took that as it’s like improving upon products that are already in use, I guess. So I kind of thought that with homes, like how can I market this more efficiently? How to get it in front of as many people as I can. What does this home need for people to want it basically? It wasn’t exactly geared toward real estate per se, but I understood it and kind of applied it into my everyday business.
00:14:44:28 –> 00:14:46:06
Taylor: I like it. How can people get ahold of you?
00:14:47:15 –> 00:15:14:05
Brittany: My cell phone is out there on my Facebook page. You can Facebook message me, most effectively would be call or text. I do have a real estate website, brittanymiles.com. My Facebook page is connected to my personal page as well. So I feel like I’m pretty easily accessible.
00:15:15:23 –> 00:15:19:22
Brad: I like it. Hey, thanks for coming on and sharing your story with us today.
00:15:19:22 –> 00:15:21:07
Brittany: Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
00:15:25:04 –> 00:15:43:05
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 Brittany Miles:
ERA Reardon Realty
https://www.era.com/ERA-Reardon-Realty-607c/Brittany-Miles-295821a?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=internal&utm_campaign=agent&[email protected]&[email protected]
Facebook: @https://www.facebook.com/brittanymilesERA/
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