Episode 209: Jessie Keener
On this episode of The Brad and Taylor Show, we sat down with Jessie Keener from Century 21 Asa Cox Homes!
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 Jessie Keener…
00:00:00:08 –> 00:00:03:14
Taylor: Welcome to The Brad and Taylor Show. Today, we have Jessie Keener.
00:00:03:29 –> 00:00:14:03
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.
00:00:14:22 –> 00:00:15:24
Taylor: Hey Jessie, how are you?
00:00:17:17 –> 00:00:18:05
Jessie: We’re good. How about you?
00:00:18:06 –> 00:00:23:11
Brad: Doing good. Doing good. Well, let’s get this show started. Tell us a little bit about you, what do you do?
00:00:24:16 –> 00:00:29:09
Jessie: Well, my name again is Jessie Keener. I am a real estate agent with Century 21.
00:00:29:09 –> 00:00:31:18
Brad: Nice. So how’d you got into real estate?
00:00:32:29 –> 00:00:45:22
Jessie: Well, it was kind of a long road but my sister-in-law worked for Issa Cox and she kinda got me into it, it definitely was a long road getting here.
00:00:47:00 –> 00:00:48:17
Taylor: How long have you been in real estate?
00:00:49:22 –> 00:00:53:15
Jessie: In February, I’ll have had my license for two years.
00:00:53:16 –> 00:01:01:04
Taylor: Nice. That’s exciting. Before that two-year mark, what did you do before this? What kind of led you down?
00:01:01:06 –> 00:01:24:00
Jessie: I was into animal rescue. So I was in Texas for a few years and my last two years in Texas, I worked for a nonprofit, no-kill animal shelter called Sappa, I shop adopt don’t shop. And then I moved back home to Ohio and started working at an animal hospital for three years before I got into real estate.
00:01:24:15 –> 00:01:28:11
Brad: Nice. So what was that one? What was the one thing you’re like, oh, maybe I’ll go try real estate?
00:01:29:17 –> 00:01:45:13
Jessie: Well, a lot of what I did in Texas found homes for animals. So when I got up here, I’m like, you know what, why can’t I find homes for the entire family? So that’s how I kind of got into real estate.
00:01:45:13 –> 00:01:48:02
Brad: That’s awesome. I like it. Tell us about your first transaction. How’d that go?
00:01:49:04 –> 00:02:28:15
Jessie: Well, my first transaction was with my mother-in-law. She was selling her house and she was moving down to Kentucky to be with her daughter. And yeah, that was an eye-opener. It was a lot more work than I thought it was. I thought it was just a, Hey, here’s a house. Cool. Let’s do this. There was a lot more work than I thought. It really was an eye-opener, but it was challenging and it was wonderful and I got to meet people and it was great. It made me think that, all right, this is what I want to do. I helped my mother-in-law sell her house and I helped a family get into a house.
00:02:28:17 –> 00:02:33:26
Brad: That’s awesome. So how did it go after that? Did it get a little better, a little easier, a little you’re like, oh, I kind of know what’s going on now.
00:02:34:11 –> 00:03:19:28
Jessie: Okay. It definitely got me into it. I got my foot wet, so I know a little bit about what’s going on, but that was my first transaction. And it was within a few months of getting my license. Then it took a little bit longer to start getting any more transactions. Most of mine started about March of the next year and partnered up with a tenured agent and she kinda showed me the ropes a little bit more and helped me immensely. So we’ve got plenty of transactions under my belt this year and I plan on having, well, my goal is twice as many.
00:03:21:04 –> 00:03:34:05
Taylor: That’s awesome. Yeah, you definitely do. Did you get any advice when you first joined the team that you’re on currently or did they kind of just help you maybe get new clients and just help transactions go smoothly throughout?
00:03:35:12 –> 00:04:08:21
Jessie: Open communication is probably key. Make sure everybody is on the same page and just be open, honest with people, and be personable. You don’t want to be a robot. You want to have a connection with people and it helps things go smoothly on all parts, whether it be the communication with agents or the lenders or the appraisers or title everybody, as long as you’re open and honest, it pretty much goes smoothly.
00:04:09:15 –> 00:04:18:03
Taylor: Nice. I know you mentioned your goal kind of for next year is to double what this year was. Do you have any other goals in place for you personally that you want to achieve in the next year?
00:04:18:25 –> 00:05:03:13
Jessie: In the next year I have a couple of other goals. I want to start giving back more than I have in the past to the community. I want to focus more on the animals’ cause that’s kind of where my heart lies, you know, outside of real estate. So my plan is to after the first of the year, start building up some money and donate back, donate time, even do charity functions to put money and awareness for some of the shelters like the humane societies or some of the smaller ones.
00:05:04:05 –> 00:05:12:13
Taylor: Perfect. That sounds great. If you could start over today with all the knowledge that you’ve learned in the year and a half that you’ve been in real estate, what’s one thing that you’d do differently?
00:05:15:13 –> 00:05:24:17
Jessie: I think that I would probably just, oh goodness.
00:05:26:17 –> 00:05:29:15
Brad: Maybe starting on a team sooner. Would you like, would that be it?
00:05:29:29 –> 00:05:59:12
Jessie: Probably, yeah, I would probably start with the team sooner than I was. I was very ambitious, very anxious to get things rolling and I wanted to show, I could do it, but a lot of times in this market, you need help. You need help to get your foot going, get things going. And I wish I would have started that team sooner. But everything happened the way it was supposed to. And that’s where I’m at now.
00:05:59:25 –> 00:06:24:23
Taylor: Yeah. Did you find anything surprising when you switched to real estate? I know you said that like the first transaction, maybe didn’t go as smoothly as you wanted it to for being the first one, but at the same time, you had the patience because there was a family member behind that to kind of work with you on that. But is there anything that surprised you when you first got into it? Was it like the paperwork behind the scenes or the amount of time that it takes to find a home, to line up a buyer?
00:06:26:29 –> 00:07:11:28
Jessie: With the first transaction I got, not necessarily blindsided, but it was a surprise that one had to have it a complete septic replacement. And that it, we were able to work with the septic company to be able to cause the client, my mother-in-law didn’t have the money to pay for it upfront, but we were able to work with the client to, or the septic company to do the installation and get it done prior to closing and pay him out of the closing profits. That was really nice and that, but it was a real surprise because it was working, it was just an older system.
00:07:13:12 –> 00:07:15:15
Taylor: Did you guys catch it during the inspection?
00:07:16:13 –> 00:07:34:18
Jessie: For Geogra county, you have to have a septic inspection done specifically. And that’s where it was caught. The septic system was working perfectly, there were no issues with it, but because it was an older system that didn’t pass. Yeah.
00:07:34:28 –> 00:07:37:07
Brad: That’s awesome. We just gotta figure it out.
00:07:37:15 –> 00:07:43:26
Jessie: Yeah. It was really nice. The company was just very accommodating. It was very nice.
00:07:44:11 –> 00:07:47:02
Taylor: Before we go today, Jessie, how can people get ahold of you?
00:07:48:06 –> 00:08:11:08
Jessie: I believe you have my links. You can call or text me seven two five five six two zero four four area code. You can even email me at [email protected]. It’s J E S S I E. You can find me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, many ways to get a hold of me.
00:08:11:14 –> 00:08:13:28
Brad: That’s awesome. Hey, thanks for coming on and sharing your story with us today.
00:08:14:18 –> 00:08:15:28
Jessie: I appreciate it. Thanks for having me.
00:08:20:16 –> 00:08:21:26
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 Jessie Keener:
Century21 Asa Cox Homes
www.asacoxhomes.com/
Facebook: @JessieKeenerCentury21AsaCoxHomes
Instagram: @jess.k1108
Twitter: @jess.k1108
If you loved this episode subscribe so you never miss one! Want more Brad and Taylor content? Head over to our blog.