Episode 181: Carly Jones
On this episode of The Brad and Taylor Show, we sat down with Carly Jones from EV Real Estate!
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 Carly Jones…
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Taylor: Welcome to The Brad and Taylor Show. Today, we have Carly Jones.
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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 Carly.
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Carly: Hi. How are you guys?
Taylor: We’re good. How about you?
Carly: Good!
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Brad: Awesome. Well, let’s get this show started. Tell us a little bit about you. What do you do?
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Carly: So I am a real estate agent, but now I’m also an owner and a licensed partner of one of our franchises and a managing broker of our shop in Michigan. And then I also work in Illinois. So the back and forth is really fun.
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Brad: Yeah. It makes it fun. That’s awesome. How did you get into real estate?
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Carly: So I actually was an attorney for a really long time. I worked in litigation and did the whole big firm thing and had my kids and was like, eh, not really my thing anymore. I want to be a little more available, little did I know that real estate is not exactly, you know, there’s a lot of time in that too, but I like it a lot more. It kind of flows better. And so when I was looking for something to do that kind of fit.
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Taylor: It’s probably a little more flexible too with having kids.
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Carly: It is like, I can work my schedule as much as possible, so I can be there for soccer games or for skating or whatever it may be that my kids are into. But it’s nice. Because it still gives me that legal end of it too. Because I still keep my license. I get to play a little bit with contracts and stuff like that. I get to still have some legal end of my job, which is great.
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Brad: Yeah. Get your fix in and get to the next step. That’s awesome. So when you decided to switch over to real estate, tell us about that transition. Was it like, Hey, let’s just go all-in on this or a slow transition, or what’d you have? How’d that go?
00:01:57:29 –> 00:02:25:17
Carly: So it was about six years ago at this point. I had stayed home for a few years with my kids and I give it out to all the stay-at-home moms. I am not meant to be one of them, so I decided I wanted to go back. I kind of dipped my feet in at first and was like, okay, I’m going to try this part-time to see how that goes. And that’s just not my personality. So within like three months I had gotten a nanny and started working full time, so I kind of threw myself in.
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Brad: Nice. That’s pretty cool. So tell us about your, you said you’re a part-owner of the franchise, tell us about that. How’d you decide to do that?
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Carly: So when I joined my current brokerage, which was two years ago, I had said to them that I wanted to get my license in Michigan, but we did not have a brokerage there. And they said to me, if you want to do it, we’ll support you, and we’ll figure this out. As it evolved, it ended up that I love Michigan. I have huge ties to it. My husband’s from there, we both went to the University of Michigan. We still have season tickets to the football games. We have a house in Michigan like we’re crazy Michigan people. So I wanted to kind of have a base there too. So when the conversation kept going, they were like, do you have any interest in being a partner and owner, would you manage it? And the more we talked about it, the more it made sense. So we kind of scouted out locations to see where we would be a good fit. We’re now in Douglas, which is awesome. Our company is very diverse and loves culture and all of that good stuff. So Douglas fits perfectly because it has all the art galleries and there’s a lot of events and we have the Saugatuck Art Center right there. So it’s just a great place to be.
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Taylor: Nice. So when you first started and you got your license, you were not in Michigan originally then, right?
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Carly: No. So I was in Illinois for, I think, five years and then we just opened up in Michigan. I’ve had my license for a year, but we opened up in Michigan unofficially like April 1st, officially July 1st. So we’re still brand new.
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Brad: Is it just you? How many team members you’ve got right now?
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Carly: So there are three of us currently. I have two advisors and then we have one more joining us in a week. We also have our office admin who keeps me sane because he keeps the office running. So he’s amazing.
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Brad: That’s awesome. Back when you started, you get any advice to kind of help you along the way that stuck with you?
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Carly: Yes. One of my partners, who’s part of the Chicago branch as well. And then she’s also with me in Michigan, she essentially said to me, you know, if you believe you can do it, you can do it. Plan on having a lot of work and plan. I’m working hard and she was right. I mean, it’s a lot of work, but it’s really fulfilling. And it was something I wanted to do and they helped me make it happen. So that was, you know, just kind of having that positive attitude that it will happen. And it does.
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Taylor: Having that mindset is huge. If you don’t believe in yourself, you probably are not going to get very far.
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Carly: No, for sure. And I’ve noticed too, like, you know, when people are, this is never going to work, I’m never going to get the steel. They don’t. You have to believe that you’re doing the right thing and you’re not always going to win everything, but you’re going to get farther if you think positively.
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Taylor: Yeah. For sure. Kind of switching it to more of a negative note here. What’s the worst property or showing you’ve been to? Do any of them stick out and you’re like, oh, we’re not going back there. No way.
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Carly: There are so many, it’s interesting. It’s like, you’ll walk into some properties and they’re beautifully done and it’s like, so cleaned up, you don’t even think anybody lives there, but it’s gorgeous. There are two that really come to mind. One was actually last week, I walked into a property and it was just, there were like pizza boxes everywhere. There were pop bottles everywhere. There was just stuff everywhere. And it was all like happy to eat food. And when you walk into that, it’s really hard to see the house. And also I’m always expecting a mouse to come flying out at that point. So that one was interesting. And then I would say the other one was probably very similar to that where you could not really walk through the house because it was so cluttered and that was probably three or four years ago. There’s some that you walk into and it’s just, I have a house full of animals. So I get the animal thing, but you walk in and you can just smell animals. It’s really hard to get past that for a lot of clients. So that’s something I think, smells and looks need to be perfect to sell your house.
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Taylor: Yes. Smells, I think, are the one thing that most people don’t think about? Maybe they can’t smell it because they’re used to it. I don’t know. Maybe they just are.
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Carly: No, it’s so true. It’s like, I think sometimes they’re surprised when you say something, but I always say like, I’m very honest with my sellers and I’m like, you want to figure out what that is and just get people that old joke used to be that you would bake cookies, chocolate chip cookies to have that smell. Some people actually do that. It’s not a bad idea. It makes it warm and cozy.
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Taylor: I’ve heard that. And then brewing some coffee.
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Carly: Yeah. There’s something about coffee that smells just very soothing to you. You have to be careful. You can’t have things you plug in, like just the deodorizers.
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Taylor: The candle warmers, those types of yeah.
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Carly: Like the air fresheners. Yeah. Yeah. That’s almost worse because then people think you’re masking something.
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Taylor: And they can be overpowering.
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Carly: Oh, for sure. It’s like, you know, a lot of perfume or a lot of cologne, that type of thing. No way.
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Taylor: Because then you can still smell the animal and that other scent.
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Carly: Too many things going on.
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Taylor: Do you have any advice and how to maybe let a client know that their house isn’t up to par and they need some work to be done? How do you go about that?
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Carly: So my thing is, and I always tell my advisors to do this too, is be honest, do it very nicely, but say, I’m here to help you. I’m here to make sure you get the most money for your house possible. And these are my suggestions. And you can say to them, you don’t have to do them, but just be aware, it’s going to be a little harder to sell your house if you don’t because it doesn’t appeal to as many people. I think honesty is always the best thing to do. But do it nicely because you don’t want to upset them because that’s a house that they’ve lived in and loved and had really good memories in. So you have to tread lightly, but you do have to be honest.
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Taylor: Yeah. What do you think is the number one thing that keeps people away from a home or maybe something that draws people in, do you think it’s like, I know everyone says the kitchen and the bathroom. Do you think that’s more important or the curb appeal outside to bring people up to the house?
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Carly: I think a kitchen is still huge, especially after the pandemic, because we’re all finding that we’re cooking more at home. I think that’s why we’re seeing so many people redo their house because they realized it didn’t work when they’re there more. I’m in that camp, like we’re about to redo our entire house. I got tired of it after a year and a half and realized it didn’t really work. I think too, like the bathrooms, not as much anymore, I mean, everybody wants a nice bathroom. But I’m noticing like in the primary bedroom and the bathroom, people don’t really need the tub as much anymore. There are definitely people who still want it, but if you’re spinning a newer construction it’s not there. So I think more so what I’m finding is people want a great kitchen that’s functional and then they want a really nice living space. And typically they want two living spaces. So they’re not on top of each other. Yeah. I think that the other thing the pandemics showed was if we don’t have places to separate, it’s really hard when you’re living with multiple people.
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Taylor: Yes. That and a home office, right.? Because everyone was working from home for so long.
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Carly: I have people now asking for two home offices. You know, ‘cause there are so many people who aren’t going back that they’re just remote now for good.
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Taylor: Yeah. I know the Michigan location is a newer cell, but what are your goals for the next year for the Michigan location? When do you guys want to accomplish?
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Carly: So our goals are one, we want to grow. We are always looking for people to come on. We don’t just take anybody. We have a culture that we really like to continue and the culture is collaboration, support, willingness to learn, willingness to work hard. So those are kind of our core values. Then the other thing I think too is just getting our name out there and being known more. My advisors are all locals who are very connected to the community. I have one, that’s a superintendent part-time. I have another, who’s been in the community for years and she’s raising her kids there and you know, she’s involved in all the projects and then our office admin has also been there for a ton of years and lives there and lives in Holland and has all those connections there. So I think too, just getting everybody to know who we are and what we do.
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Taylor: Yeah. And definitely having a step into that community is going to help a ton. Having everybody in the office who kind of already knows what’s going on is going to help you spread that word. Yeah. If you could start over today with all the knowledge that you have, what’s one thing that you would change?
00:11:48:23 –> 00:12:34:23
Carly: There’s so many. I think the main thing, and I try to tell my advisors to do this and I try to do it in my own business too, is you have to time block. I think the biggest problem is when you don’t time block, you end up, you know, I’ll be working on something and then something else comes up and I stop and that’s actually really destructive because you don’t finish your thought and finish what you’re doing. I think it’s really important to invest in yourself and to take the time and do what you think is important and what’s good for your business. But I also think it’s really important to step back at times and go for a run if you’re a runner. Go to the art museum, like go do things that make you happy. So don’t make it all about work all the time.
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Taylor: Yeah. And I know that’s very difficult for a lot of people to do, especially during this crazy market.
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Carly: Yeah. It is.
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Taylor: One day, right. One day but you got to time block. You gotta make time.
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Carly: Yeah. Except the problem is, as soon as it slows down, we’ll all start complaining that it’s slow. I’ll take it like this any day.
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Taylor: Awesome. Before we go today, how can people get a hold of you?
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Carly: We have a phone number so you can call us at (269) 331-3131. Our email, if you’re just emailing the office is [email protected]. If you’re walking up and down Douglas, we’re right there on the center street at 23 center street, unit two. So we’re two doors down from the everyday people cafe, which I know everybody knows. We’re right there and you can always walk in. We always have our door open.
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Brad: I like it. That’s perfect. Well, Hey, thanks for coming on and sharing your story with us today.
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Carly: Thank you. I really appreciate you guys 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 Carly Jones:
Facebook: @carlyjonesrealestate
Instagram: @carlyjonesengelvoelkers
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