Episode 180: Brittany Lester
On this episode of The Brad and Taylor, we sat down with Brittany Lester from Production 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 Brittany Lester…
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Taylor: Welcome to The Brad and Taylor Show. Today, we have Brittany Lester.
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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.
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Taylor: Hey Brittany.
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Brittany: Hi.
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Taylor: How are you?
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Brittany: Good. How are you?
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Brad: We’re doing good. We’re doing good. Well, let’s get this started. Tell us a little bit about you. What do you do?
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Brittany: I’m a realtor with Production Realty in Jackson, Michigan. I’m in my third year of real estate, so it’s still kind of new, but getting some time under my belt.
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Brad: I like it. So how’d you get started in real estate? What’d you do before this?
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Brittany: I have a degree in psychology, so I worked in that field. When I had my kids, I decided to stay home for a little while. And then as they got older, I needed some adult direction. My husband works a lot, so I needed something that was pretty flexible because just to be able to drop them off and take them places and stuff and did a Google search for some jobs and wait and talked to some brokers and thought I would like real estate.
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Brad: I like it. Well, that’s turned out pretty good so far.
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Brittany: Yeah. Yeah. I’m really glad I got into it. Never thought this was the way things were going to go.
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Brad: I know it’s funny how that always goes. When you started out, did you start out on a team or did you go solo or how’d you how’d that work?
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Brittany: Solo. I started out just on my own, even a world figure worst thing happens as it doesn’t work out. I walk away.
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Brad: Yeah. That’s awesome. It’s nice. In this industry, you can kind of be flexible on that and just keep going.
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Taylor: You’re still using your psychology degree. It seems like with real estate too, even though it’s not full psychology, but it is, you can throw it in there sometimes you never know.
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Brad: So how did you get that first transaction? Was it someone you knew or is it something you didn’t know? How’d you get it?
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Brittany: On Craigslist!
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Brad: Hey, that works.
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Brittany: I saw a house for sale on Craigslist. And I emailed the woman and asked if she wanted help. And she said, no. And then a month later she reached out to me and that’s how I got my first listing. They needed to sell it because it was an investment property and they had to pay their investors.
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Taylor: Did it go pretty smooth for you?
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Brittany: There were a few bumps in the road. It was definitely a huge learning experience.
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Brad: For sure. Especially because of the listing right off the bat. You’re like, uh, okay, here we go. You’re like, oh, I got this. Now this will be easy.
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Brittany: You think they’re going to be easy and then every transaction throws something new at you.
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Brad: Yep.
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Taylor: Yep. When you first started out, did you get any advice from anybody that has just stuck with you throughout the last couple of years?
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Brittany: Basically just don’t be afraid to just go for it. The worst thing anyone is going to say is no, that’s like when I try to get listings or clients or anything is just the word. No wasn’t going to kill you. So just keep asking away.
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Brad: Yeah. That’s so true. Over the last couple of years, what is one of the worst properties you’ve been to or showings?
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Brittany: I was with a client one time and the house was listed as a three bathroom. We found one upstairs in the main level. And then there was a makeshift one in the basement. We could not find this third bathroom. How do you hide it? Afterwards we just kept searching and I opened up a cook closet and they plumbed the toilet in it.
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Brad: We’ve seen one like that before, we had one last year. I think we saw. I think we saw that they literally turned a master bedroom closet into the bathroom and it was just like one of the sliding door ones and just sliding in there.
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Taylor: And there’s the toilet!
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Brittany: Sorry, my internet cut out for a minute.
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Taylor: That’s okay. Can you hear us now? Okay, perfect. What kind of goals do you have going forward finishing out this year and into the next year?
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Brittany: I actually have a pretty long list of active transactions right now and I want them all closed by Christmas. For next year, my goal is to get involved in some kind of community project. I really want to start where I feel like I’ve grown my business over the past couple of years. I want to start getting involved more so that I can spread funds in such ways with my time and money into something that I’m passionate about within the community.
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Brad: Nice. Do you have any ideas yet? Are you still trying to come up with it?
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Brittany: I really still like the whole psychology. Like that’s still, my dream job was to be an FBI interrogator, like anything like that. So I’m looking to help out with a lot of homelessness and then mental health, anything in that field. I really like that I can mix the two things I like.
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Taylor: Yeah, definitely. If you could start over today with all the knowledge that you have over the last three years, what’s one thing that you would change?
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Brittany: I wish I would have known about real estate when I was 18. I spent a lot of money on college. It would’ve been nice to know about this, but even though I don’t regret college, it would’ve been nice to do this while in college. It can build up from there. So I kind of wish they would have taught you more about jobs like this in high school, instead of just saying you need to go to a university and get a bachelor’s degree.
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Brad: Yeah. That’s kind of how it was back then. Like the whole college thing.
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Brittany: I was in high school and college was just shoved down your throat. That’s what you saved here.
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Brad: Yeah. Same here.
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Taylor: And now everyone’s talking about trade jobs, right? Everyone’s saying you need to get into this.
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Brittany: Yeah. So I always tell my boys to be a plumber or electrician.
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Taylor: Right? Exactly. Do you have any business books that you could recommend to anybody starting out?
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Brittany: I don’t read a lot of business books. I read a lot more like self-help books. I read Untamed by Glennon Doyle and that’s a really good one. It’s just one about, don’t let any barriers hold you back and just go for it. Don’t take no for an answer and people will tell you you can’t do something or that you’re supposed to do things a certain way and just to keep going for it and do it your way.
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Taylor: Awesome. Well, before we go today, how can people get a hold of you?
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Brittany: You can reach me by phone, (517) 740-8968 or email [email protected]. And then I also have a website that’s brittanylesterhomes.com. And there’s a form you can fill out to subscribe and contact me that way.
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Brad: Awesome. I like it. Is there anything else you wanna share before we go?
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Brittany: I think you guys covered it all.
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Brad: Sweet. Hey thank you for coming on and sharing your story with us today.
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Brittany: Thank you so much for having me.
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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 Brittany Lester:
productionrealty.com/proagents/brittany-lester-realtor/
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