Episode 179: Erin Fritz
On this episode of The Brad and Taylor Show, we sat down with Erin Fritz from Clients First, Realtors!
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 Erin Fritz…
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Taylor: Welcome to The Brad and Taylor Show. Today, we have Erin Fritz.
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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.
Taylor: Hey Erin.
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Erin: Good morning guys!
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Brad: How’s it going?
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Erin: I’m good. How are you?
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Brad: We’re awesome. Well, let’s get this show started. Tell us a little bit about you. What do you do?
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Erin: I am Erin Fritz with Clients First Realtors, and I am a real estate agent.
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Brad: I like it. I like it. So when you were younger, is this what you had planned for your future? How’d you get into it?
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Erin: It is not what I aimed for in my future. Actually like every little girl, I wanted to be like an actress or a singer. My parents have ruined those plans by moving back to Michigan from California.
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Taylor: Did you ever do anything with music or with acting? Were you in a choir as a child or anything like that?
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Erin: No, absolutely not. It’s only in my head, but that was my plan.
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Brad: So how’d you get into real estate then?
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Erin: I got into real estate. I actually left a job that I was at for 19 years. I jumped off the cliff and jumped into real estate. I got into it when I bought my house 17 years ago and the listing agent is now my broker. So she has encouraged me for years. She was my neighbor basically. So we were neighbors for years and she was like, you should do this. And I thought, absolutely not. I need my nine to five. I need to know what I’m bringing home. When I became miserable at my old job, I decided, okay, let’s try this out and see how it goes.
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Brad: That’s awesome. You said you just jumped right into it. How’d that do at first? How’d that first transaction go? How’d you get that since you kind of just jumped into it?
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Erin: It was like a lot of agents. It was somebody I knew and a family member.
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Brad: Perfect. That’s perfect. That probably made it a little easier for you.
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Erin: It did. It did. It did. So my first couple ones were actually people I knew, but I knew also too, that that would run out. You can’t keep doing transactions with people you know. So you kind of grow from there and I did do it part-time before I left that full-time job that I had.
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Taylor: That was my next question. I was going to ask you, how did that transition go for you? So you were doing it part-time?
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Erin: I did it part-time for three years before I felt comfortable enough financially. I knew I needed to build this end of things before I could just take that big leap.
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Brad: Yeah, for sure. So what is the first method you tried to get somebody you didn’t know, like lead source or whatever, how’d you get somebody you didn’t know?
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Erin: So the first method was through referral. It grew small. I think a lot of agents don’t realize that when they jump into it, it’s kind of a slow burn. You know, you have your first couple of transactions with people you know and then again, trying to get those people you don’t, and really it’s just about opening up your mouth and speaking to people and kind of authentically just mentioning, this is what you do. I picked up business from garage sales, from people paying their water bills at the city building. You just have to mention it. You have to talk about it and let people know what you do.
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Brad: That’s awesome.
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Taylor: Yeah. That’s really cool. I know you said the first day was kind of slow. When did you notice it picked up the referrals? Like out of nowhere?
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Erin: I was doing more and more transactions. So for me, it was like, okay, if I’m making a certain dollar amount it was kind of my plan of like, okay after I’m making X amount, I can then go and do it full time. And I’m so happy that I did.
00:03:42:08 –> 00:03:48:14
Taylor: Is there any advice that you got when you started out that has just stuck with you throughout a couple of years?
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Erin: No, not really. I gotta be honest. I don’t have any life-changing advice that I think that anybody’s given me. They’ve given me a lot of opinions, but not life-changing advice. However, I think it’s about trusting your gut and trusting your intuition, which I think is a really important thing that a lot of people overlook.
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Brad: Yeah. That’s awesome. So what do you have going on now? Do you have a team now? What do you have going on?
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Erin: I am selling, I am trying to start building that team. That is my actual goal for next year is to build the team, but without losing those relationships with clients. So I do not spend a lot of marketing dollars. Over the years I have spent probably less than 500 bucks every year. I don’t farm areas. I’m not sending postcards. But I want to start building that team. One, because I’m overwhelmed, right? So I want to start letting other people take on some leads and things like that. That’s the plan for next year, to mentor people, build my team so that everybody is making money and building their careers.
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Taylor: Are you doing everything on your own right now? Or do you have someone like an admin to help you out a little bit or you’re just solo?
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Erin: I do everything on my own. I don’t know if it’s my control issues, but the broker that I’m at, has quite a few people that are in the office and they really do help out a lot, whether it’s inputting listings that I turn into them. They help a lot. They help a lot with marketing ideas. So there is already a built-in team at my brokers that helps with that.
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Brad: That’s awesome. So I know it’s not till next year, but what do you think your first hire will be? Will it be a showing agent or like an admin, or what do you think?
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Erin: I think it’s the showing agent. It’s those times where I’m out till 10:00 PM and then have three offers to write. I just don’t want to turn people over and like, okay, here, here you go, go show them stuff. But there are times where you’re driving home in the car and you’re crying cause you’re tired, but you know, you’ve got them through and get those offers written. So I think a showing agent will be first, but I kind of have a pseudo team right now. I’ve got a couple of agents that we help each other out whether we’re out of town or we just simply can’t get to a property that somebody has to get in to see.
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Taylor: Speaking of the property and going into seeing them. What is the worst one that you have been to? What’s the worst showing or property?
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Erin: Oh, okay. I had you guys. I had one with animal feces all over. It had been invaded and it wasn’t mice. It was better than mice. I had an actual listing that was an actual hoarding house. They had to remove like six dumpsters worth of stuff and it still was an episode of hoarders.
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Brad: Wow. Oh, wow. I remember actually. It was a couple of years ago. We did one where we went and took photos of, but the agents like, yeah, six months ago I had this, I told them, they’re going to clean out the house. And then like six months later, the agent shows up and we go to the house and the agent hadn’t been there yet in six months and it didn’t get clean. Like it didn’t get cleaned up very much at all. And it was like, holy smoke. Cause it was like a really, really nice house too. But the outside is perfect, inside ooh.
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Erin: You never know what you’re walking into in this business. You never know.
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Brad: It might look perfect from the outside. I mean, this house was, the lawn was so perfectly done. And then you walk in the door and you’re like, what happened? So that’s awesome.
00:07:36:17 –> 00:07:44:14
Taylor: Do you have any advice for dealing with those situations? I know they’re not easy at all mentoring sellers.
00:07:45:07 –> 00:08:18:23
Erin: They’re not easy. One of the skills we have to have is delivering harsh news, but you can always deliver it in a way that doesn’t hurt feelings. I do always ask clients, do you want me to be completely honest with you? I really actually say that in regards to the quality of the home or what they think. Because a lot of people love their stuff and I also kind of have a thing where I go in prior to photos, clean lines, no clutter, no seat on anything. So I try and preface it before it even really comes up to be honest with you.
00:08:19:17 –> 00:08:29:11
Brad: Yeah. That’s awesome. So let’s say you had to start over today. You have all the knowledge you have now, maybe you went to a new market or something. What would be one thing you would do differently than you did at the beginning?
00:08:30:17 –> 00:08:56:17
Erin: I think I would have gotten into this business sooner. I like how I started. I liked that I didn’t just jump in and do it full time simply because knowing what I know now is that it takes a while to build it up. It takes a while to build up your referral network. It’s like I said, it’s a slow burn. So I would’ve gotten into it sooner because I didn’t realize then that I would love it so much, even when it’s hard. I still love it.
00:08:56:17 –> 00:08:58:08
Brad: That’s awesome.
00:08:58:19 –> 00:09:07:05
Taylor: Would you recommend people who are maybe in your same situation when you first started going in part-time or just full force going all-in?
00:09:07:29 –> 00:09:46:09
Erin: I do recommend doing it part-time. I think it would be great to have a showing agent, that’s doing things in the evening after work, you know, and then that way they can just get the feel of it, how to talk to clients, how to do a showing properly. I liked that I did it part-time, I think I didn’t have the feelings that a lot of agents have or where they get really scared because not a lot of business comes in there. I think people get into it and they just think the phone’s ringing off the hook and you know, the phone’s ringing at the office where everybody needs an agent and that’s not it. The fact is everybody knows an agent.
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Brad: Yep. That’s awesome. So before we go, how can people get a hold of you?
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Erin: So they can get a hold of me? on my cell phone, (734) 855-9343, and at [email protected].
00:10:02:17 –> 00:10:04:16
Brad: Awesome. Hey, thanks for coming on and sharing your story with us today.
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Erin: Thank you guys for having me. I truly appreciate it. And by the way, I love the photos. I just got told over the weekend, my last listing that my photos popped and that’s all thanks to you guys. That’s another tip. Always have professional photos done.
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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 Erin Fritz:
Facebook: @erin.fritz.37
Instagram: @erin.fritz_realtor
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