Episode 183: Jim Blankenship
On this episode of The Brad and Taylor Show, we sat down with Jim Blankenship 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 Jim Blankenship…
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Taylor: Welcome to The Brad and Taylor Show. Today, we have Jim Blankenship.
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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, how are you?
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Jim: Wonderful guys. Thanks for having me.
Taylor: Of course.
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Brad: No problem. Well, let’s get this started. Tell us a little bit about you. What do you do?
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Jim: So I’m a real estate agent in the Ohio market.
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Brad: Nice. How long have you been in real estate?
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Jim: So I’ve been a licensed agent for three years. I’ve been in real estate for probably closer to 10 and 15.
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Brad: What’d you do before real estate?
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Jim: Before being an agent, I was a licensed builder.
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Brad: Oh, nice. So is that what you started with? How’d you get into that? Like, that’s kind of like both sides and how’d you enter that?
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Jim: I started it as a summer job. I know as soon as I graduated high school I had a summer job, went to work for a small contractor, doing things, picking up lumber and sticks, and kind of escalated from near actually went to work at lumber yards and eventually started doing side jobs and just got talking to different people in the industry. And well, how do you guys do this and how do you do that? And just tried to soak up the knowledge.
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Brad: Nice. That’s pretty cool.
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Taylor: What kind of transition you into getting your license then? So you’re doing that for a little while. So what made you decide?
Jim: With age.
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Brad: We’re changing it up.
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Taylor: Done with that manual labor.
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Jim: I mean, I’ve been fortunate enough to live in different parts of the country to build with different builders and work for different people. And it was time to come home and you know, I had a great friend that had just started in real estate and said, come work with me, let’s get this going. Let’s start a business and just kind of take off from there.
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Brad: Awesome. You’re like, time to slow down a little bit. We’ll do this. And all of a sudden you’re like, this is even faster now.
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Taylor: I know, I was going to say slow down. That’s not much of a, did you think that real estate was going to be slower?
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Jim: I absolutely thought real estate was going to be a whole lot slower. It’s definitely more fast-paced. I will tell you that.
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Brad: Yeah. That probably helped you out a ton, especially for doing real estate now. Cause you’re like, Hey, I don’t know how it’s built, blah, blah, blah. I know how to do everything. I know I should lookout for a lot of stuff in it. Do you do new builds or like a lot now or do you, what do you, what do you mainly do right now?
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Jim: I guess what you’re asking is selling and helping people buy homes. Is that it?
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Brad: Yeah. So what’s your main, cause I know you buy and sell right now. What’s your main client right now?
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Jim: Oh, geez. It’s a broad, broad client base, especially just starting out where I’m at. A lot of them are first-time home buyers. I am getting some repeat clients now being in the industry for a few years, which is nice. There are a lot of different avenues that people would meet and different people that we get to work with.
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Taylor: Before you guys started into real estate, you had that construction background, I’m sure that helped you get into the real estate and showing the homes. Now, are there any homes that stick out for you? Maybe you don’t want to go back in? Worst showing or worst property that you’ve been to?
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Jim: Well, I mean, there are definitely some places that you don’t feel comfortable going into. Mainly when you gotta bring a screw gun to enter the house, those usually aren’t my favorite, but you have to go where the client asks you to.
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Taylor: Did you have one recently where you had to unscrew the windows and doors?
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Jim: Yeah, absolutely. Just a few weeks ago. So luckily I carry some tools and not, and my car was
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Brad: Yeah, under the show the notes, it says bring drill.
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Jim: I’m usually in the entrance or the codes to get in the house. It’ll say bring a screwdriver.
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Brad: That’s funny. Are you on a team right now or do you run a team or what do you have going on or are you by yourself?
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Jim: So that may be in the future right now. I’m by myself, I was working with a friend when we got started in the industry and we’re both strong personalities, and they both kind of take our businesses in similar directions. It’s nice to have somebody to bounce things off and you know, people to help you out and so forth. But yeah, I’m a one-man show as of right now, but definitely getting to the point where I need to expand a little bit.
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Brad: Yeah. That’s awesome. When you decide, like when you do maybe expand, what do you think your first person that’ll join your team will be like a showing agent or admin, or what do you think?
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Jim: I do have an admin right now. That’s working with me. She just started recently. She’s absolutely wonderful, keeps me organized, but you know, I’m in a great brokerage right now and just extremely supportive. They got a lot of agents here that are looking, that is starting out in the industry. So I guess I’d probably bring along somebody that, maybe he’s not as experienced and wants a little help. I like to give back. Yeah, definitely. It’d be probably more of a buyer’s agent than a listing agent at that point.
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Brad: Yeah, for sure. That’s awesome.
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Taylor: Yeah. If you could start over today, I know you’ve been in it for the last three years with your license. What’s one thing that you would do differently as an agent?
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Jim: Oh, wow. Organization in a CRM system. I mean, I’ve always had one, never utilized it the way that I should. And it’s something that I brought an admin on to definitely help me organize that. It’s a lot of follow-ups, a lot of staying in touch. I mean, you grow what we call your sphere of influence and that’s staying in contact with past clients. They’re always the least expensive to acquire, a lead from a past client than it is to get a new client. So yeah, that’s absolutely the first place I would start.
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Taylor: What’s your favorite way to reach out to those past clients? Do you do postcards or do you do like an email reminder or how do you get in touch with people that you’ve worked with in the past?
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Jim: So there are multiple different ways. I mean, phone calls obviously are the number one best. They like to hear you reach out every now and then just to hear your voice and let them know that you’re still there to help if they ever need anything. But multiple email reminders, newsletters, continually sending them values of their home in case they decide they want to sell in the future and just keeping them updated to what’s happening in the industry.
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Brad: That’s awesome.
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Taylor: I know this industry is very crazy right now, too. So maybe those little sneak peeks of what their home is valued as of right now would pique some interest.
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Jim: Absolutely. It does.
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Brad: That’s awesome.
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Taylor: How many business books that you’ve read that you could recommend to anybody starting out, maybe someone who would be joining your team?
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Jim: Oh, man. I mean just probably some of the classics, you know, you could go with Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. I really enjoy Rich Dad, Poor Dad. That was a good book. Just, you know, business aspects. I wish I had read it years ago. I’d be in a different place.
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Brad: It’s a pretty good one. Yeah, that’s awesome. Well, before we go, how can people get a hold of you?
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Jim: They can go to my website, thejimblankenship.com. They can reach me directly through Serenity Realty. Call me on my phone. Four one nine six hundred three ninety seven hundred.
00:07:43:10 –> 00:07:51:16
Brad: I see, I see it right there behind you. I like it. I like it. Well, awesome. Hey, thanks for coming on and sharing your story with us today.
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Jim: Absolutely guys really appreciate the time and thanks for the invite.
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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 Jim Blankeship:
Facebook: @jim.blankenship.754570
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