Episode 171 Transcript: Heidi Jenkins
On this episode of The Brad and Taylor Show, we sat down with Heidi Jenkins from Serenity 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 Heidi Jenkins…
00:00:00:13 –> 00:00:03:17
Taylor: Welcome to The Brad and Taylor Show. Today, we have Heidi Jenkins.
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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.
00:00:14:05 –> 00:00:15:27
Taylor: Hey Heidi, how are you?
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Heidi: Good. How are you guys?
Taylor: We’re good.
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Brad: We’re doing good. We’re doing good.
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Heidi: Thank you guys for having me
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Brad: For sure. Let’s get the show started. Tell us a little bit about you. What are you doing?
00:00:27:23 –> 00:00:46:05
Heidi: My name is Heidi Jenkins and I’m a real estate agent and investor. I’m also the president of the Women’s Council for 2022. I’m very involved with my kids in their school, I help coach soccer and softball.
00:00:49:11 –> 00:00:54:14
Taylor: I have a question for you. So what came first? Real estate or investment? Which one did you do first?
00:00:54:24 –> 00:01:50:00
Heidi: The investment first. We were doing flips, built a couple of homes, and then sold them. We started flipping houses and properties. My actual broker who I’m with is the one that was like, you’d be great at real estate. You should do it. I used him to sell one of our houses and I met him at a home for sale by the owner of the first house we built. The second house I reached out to him and was, Hey, we’re going to sell this. If you want to sell it, bring me a buyer and I’ll pay you. He’s like, well, I’ll just list it for you. I’ll do this, this. And I’m like, okay, fine. Why not? I remembered how bad it was, the first time for sale by the owner. So that’s kind of how that got started. And then he gave me the little idea of going to be a real estate agent. I’ve been an agent for a little over two years now, licensed in Ohio and Michigan.
00:01:50:09 –> 00:01:56:16
Taylor: Nice. Did you jump on board right away or did it take some time for you to be like, okay, I’m going to do this. I’m going to get my license. I’m going to go for it.
00:01:57:03 –> 00:02:53:11
Heidi: It took me about a year because I joined right away in the middle of selling the house and for my classes. On top of that, after selling it, we bought a flip, we renovated the whole house and we lived there, which was crazy. I would never recommend doing that again. I’ll never do it. We cannot live in it, we can buy it and be in our house now and rent it that way. I was really stressed. I was working full time and trying to go to school to be a realtor, coaching. I was involved in a lot of things on top of renovating, so I was super stressed out. It did take me a little while. I kind of regret that it took me that long. Why did I wait so long to do it? I should have done it right away. If you’re going to do it, just finish it. Don’t take your time. It’s a lot easier to just go through it and take the test right away when you’re done.
00:02:54:09 –> 00:03:00:08
Taylor: Yeah. That’s awesome. When you were younger, is this what you planned for your future? Did you know you wanted to be in investment or real estate?
00:03:01:06 –> 00:03:13:06
Heidi: No, I wanted to be a teacher. I love kids and helping others. That was kind of where I was with that, never had it on my blueprint at all.
00:03:13:06 –> 00:03:15:23
Taylor: It still goes hand in hand though, because you’re still helping others.
00:03:17:01 –> 00:03:31:05
Heidi: Yep. I also do the mentorship at our brokerage with new agents that come onboard. I’m helping them, teaching them how to write contracts, how to negotiate, and building a team of my own. So I still am. That is true.
00:03:31:08 –> 00:03:33:11
Taylor: Yeah. Best of both worlds, right?
00:03:33:27 –> 00:03:36:01
Heidi: Yes. Except I don’t get my summers off.
00:03:36:09 –> 00:03:48:17
Taylor: Yeah. No. Nope. No summer vacations, but that’s okay. I’m sure you still squeeze in some time for yourself and your family.
00:03:48:19 –> 00:03:59:08
Heidi: Yeah. We still go on vacations. That’s not a problem. That’s the only thing I would say that’s different with teachers. They’re lucky they get the nice summer off and hang out with the kids.
00:03:59:18 –> 00:04:01:21
Taylor: Complete opposite of you right now, your schedule.
00:04:02:16 –> 00:04:09:22
Heidi: Correct. That’s why I’m in my car with us right now. The actual real life of a realtor.
00:04:09:28 –> 00:04:16:14
Taylor: Yes. For anybody new that’s watching. This is a reality check right now. This is what you’re going to be doing. You’re going to be in your car.
00:04:17:13 –> 00:04:21:08
Heidi: Make sure you pack snacks for your day and drinks. You’ll be good to go.
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Taylor: That’s awesome.
00:04:23:29 –> 00:04:29:26
Brad: That’s funny. So is there any piece of advice that you got back when you started either for the investment side or the real estate side that kind of stuck with you along the way?
00:04:31:05 –> 00:05:21:00
Heidi: There are always deals. There are always ways to make a deal out there. Right now, everybody’s like, oh, it’s such a bad market. I’ve done three flips this year and bought two rental properties. If you look for it, there are deals and then just stick with it. When I first started my first six months, I sold two houses and I was pretty sad about that. It was the same person who buy and sell. When I got hooked up with Ivan, who is the broker and owner of Serenity Realty, he helped me out a lot with seeing the bigger picture because I didn’t have the goals that he was like, You shouldn’t have this, where do you see yourself with this? This is what you should be doing. He literally held my hand and opened up a whole variety of doors that I didn’t even know existed.
00:05:21:12 –> 00:06:15:27
I definitely recommend finding a mentor if you’re going to do real estate and getting connected with somebody who is a top producer. There’s a lot of people out there. There’s a lot of fantastic realtors who I have met and they’re not even in my brokerage. A lot are in my brokerage but many reached out and helped me when I was just starting on asking questions and things like that. That’s one thing I love about the industry is people do want to help each other out. So just don’t try to wing it on your own. Definitely look for somebody that’s been in it for a while to help you. I feel like that was a huge advantage for me and completely changed me. I went from for six months only selling two houses to selling 38, the rest of the year. I’ve done 48 this year. So getting with the right people and getting the help you need is huge. That’s one thing I would recommend for people, definitely try to find a mentor.
00:06:16:06 –> 00:06:29:05
Taylor: Yeah. I know you mentioned earlier the investment side and the flipping that you do with the homes. I’m sure you’ve seen your fair share of homes that you don’t want to walk into. What’s the worst one, do you think? Is there one that sticks out the most?
00:06:29:14 –> 00:07:14:11
Heidi: One that sticks out. I had an investor from New York and I was going all over town for this guy. One of the houses he really wanted to see, I want to say the hood. It was the bad side of town and it was boarded up. I had to bring my own drill. I got there and it was boarded up. The realtor who had the house listed didn’t say anything like, “In showing time, bring your own drill or screwdriver to open.” I had to come back with a drill to open it. Of course, it was a disaster. They should know better, but I was still kind of intrigued as to wanting to see how bad it was. You could get an idea, the bad side of town, pretty filthy.
00:07:14:22 –> 00:07:44:28
People were breaking the windows and stuff for a reason and that’s why they had it boarded up. They didn’t want people to keep going in and out of the house. I think the worst is the smell. There’s a lot of different houses I’ve been in that can be completely empty, but still hold the smell of like the people who have lived there. Animals smell and whatnot, which is kind of crazy even though there are firewalls and everything, it still kind of absorbs what was there from the past.
00:07:46:23 –> 00:07:50:22
Taylor: That’s funny. Did that one end up selling? Did he get that one or not?
00:07:51:11 –> 00:08:01:28
Heidi: No, no, no. I discouraged the neighborhood. He wanted a rental and I didn’t think that was going to be a good area. So we moved on, but it was still worth seeing.
00:08:03:10 –> 00:08:10:04
Taylor: You always have to be prepared though. Make sure you gotta bring your drill and your boots for the properties that have tall grass.
00:08:10:26 –> 00:08:55:15
Heidi: And a flashlight. I can tell you how many times I’ve forgotten because I drive different cars. Depending on if I’m going to be driving a lot, I’ll usually drive my Jeep because I’ll put more miles on it. I need to put it in a bag, I have a little tote. That’s one thing I don’t have yet, but having to use my cell phone and no electricity in some of these houses and you go in and flashlights are huge to have, especially if people want to see houses after their hours after they work. Today, I’m showing until 7:30. I have a flashlight, a tape measure, make sure you have a couple of tools, whether it be a screwdriver, and what was the first thing you had said?
00:08:57:21 –> 00:08:58:11
Taylor: The boots?
00:08:59:23 –> 00:10:01:26
Heidi: Yeah, because there’s tall grass or mud. I’ve had some people that have gotten their shoes ruined because of the areas of rain or snow. I’ve had the same thing walking to your knees because they didn’t. I actually shoveled somebody’s driveway for that. Not a driveway, but a path. My client was flying in. He was moving here for work and I shoveled the walkway for him because the listing agent didn’t have any of that done. I felt so bad. I’m thinking this guy’s coming in dress pants and shoes. Sure enough, he did. He didn’t bring boots. I was glad I went to the neighbors and asked them for a shovel. I felt like, why would you do this for people? There are some of them that are really weird, some things in the industry that you see. They’re an exciting thing though. I will say there are some weird things I’ve never thought I would see that I’ve seen them do like, use duct tape to hold up things. You’ve kind of wondered if they’d duck tape to fix everything I’ve seen trim and it’s exciting. There’s a lot of fun things with it. I will say that.
00:10:02:02 –> 00:10:05:21
Taylor: Yeah. There are good and bad parts to all, all of it.
00:10:06:02 –> 00:10:12:02
Brad: Yeah. So tell us more about what you got going on now? We’ve talked about your past. What do you guys have going on now and into the future?
00:10:14:01 –> 00:10:18:02
Heidi: Are we talking about future goals or just the everyday?
00:10:18:09 –> 00:10:22:29
Brad: Just everyday kind of what you got going on. New plans. I mean, entrepreneurial that you’ve always got some new ideas coming in.
00:10:24:11 –> 00:11:15:20
Heidi: We’re working on building the rentals and the flip business. That’s kind of keeping up time on trying to get those finished. On top of that, soccer is finally finishing. So I’m pretty busy with a lot of things. I have my hands in a lot of areas. With the women’s council, we’re getting ready for our gala. That’s coming up on December 3rd. We have a lot of those planning meetings, that’s tomorrow. For the future, I guess the ultimate goal, I would love to retire my husband to where he could be like the property manager of our business. So that he would have more free time than what he has now and can actually help manage that because we’re already a team with what my business is, but I would like to grow that further.
00:11:16:10 –> 00:11:23:05
Taylor: Yeah. I know earlier you mentioned growing your team as well. What does that kind of look like for your future? How many people do you want to have on your team?
00:11:24:21 –> 00:11:52:00
Heidi: I don’t want a huge team. I already have a couple now, I have about three. I have some agents that are working on getting their license. Basically, that would be me helping them as buyers agents and training them and helping them grow to be top producers, but also so giving and freeing up my time to do other things and endeavors to help with my business’ growth.
00:11:52:15 –> 00:11:54:17
Taylor: I know you said you’re coaching them too, right?
00:11:54:17 –> 00:12:22:02
Heidi: Yeah. I do mentorship. Yep. I have three mentees who are on my team and then I have one that is not on my team yet. I haven’t really talked to her about that. I’ve met her a couple of times and have gone over training and working on building her up and getting her ready to go. She’s hungry for it and she’s ready to hit the ground running. Hopefully, she’ll want to, but that’s up to her.
00:12:22:23 –> 00:12:29:02
Taylor: How do you keep everything in line? Do you have so many things going on all the time? It seems like it. Are you really good at time-blocking?
00:12:30:19 –> 00:13:33:07
Heidi: I actually have my calendar scheduled out for like two years. I have stuff preset in my Google calendar. I get alarms for multiple things to remind me to do things throughout the day, which is kind of nice. I always have that in the back of my head. But yes, I have to time block because there are times where I’m like, oh no, who am I showing this house to? I forgot. I have to put it in my calendar so that I remember because I have the showing time but I also put it in. Now, I know who the person is at that time because sometimes you’re showing multiple people throughout the day. I have to do time blocking because of everything I have going on between the women’s council, coaching, school activities, mentorship, and doctor’s appointments. It can be overwhelming. I know a lot of people like, I don’t know how you do it. Well, not a lot of sleep, hard work, and determination. If you want something, you’ll make it happen. You’ll make time for it. There’s no doubt, but you have to have that drive for it.
00:13:33:17 –> 00:13:41:20
Taylor: Yeah, absolutely. If you could start over today with all the knowledge that you have, what’s one thing you’d do differently? I know you mentioned you wish that you started sooner. Is there anything else?
00:13:43:28 –> 00:13:58:10
Heidi: I wish I would’ve started sooner. I wish some of the books that I’ve read have led me to where I’m at as well. Changing my thinking. I wish I would’ve picked them up in my early twenties and started sooner for sure.
00:13:58:20 –> 00:13:58:27
Taylor: Yeah.
00:13:59:28 –> 00:14:03:01
Brad: Since you mentioned books, what’s your favorite book?
00:14:03:10 –> 00:14:17:20
Heidi: I would say The Four Agreements is really good for real estate agents. If you’re looking at being an investor, I would highly recommend Rich Dad, Poor Dad if you’ve never read it. It’s a phenomenal book.
00:14:18:08 –> 00:14:20:23
Brad: Yeah, that’s awesome. I like it. How can people get a hold of you?
00:14:21:26 –> 00:14:33:00
Heidi: They can reach me on my cell phone at (419) 810-1497 or my email, which is [email protected].
00:14:33:12 –> 00:14:36:27
Brad: Awesome. I like it. Hey, thanks for coming and sharing your story with us today.
00:14:36:27 –> 00:14:38:29
Heidi: You’re welcome. It was great. You guys have a great day.
00:14:44:10 –> 00:15:00:08
Hello. Hello. Are you 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 Heidi Jenkins:
Serenity Realty
http://heidi.northwestohiohomesearch.com/
Facebook: @heidijenkins.serenityrealty
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