We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Aubrey Shaw. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Aubrey below.
Aubrey, appreciate you joining us today. Have you ever experienced an industry-wide U-Turn? Tell us about it?
I’ve experienced several U-Turns in my 15 year career as a Realtor/Broker. We are currently gong through a major shift in my local Austin market. We have experienced record appreciation over the past 2 years. We’re talking 25%-40% appreciation each year! You could barely get a home listed, before you had 5+ offers on the property. Holding offering agents off long enough to have the house on the market for even 5 days, was our struggle. Pre-marketing well, and being completely ready for a slew of offers, before we listed was our focus for sellers. For buyers – we would have an hour-long meeting with them, just to review what this market was going to be like for them (Brutal) and to make sure they were ready for it, with stellar preapproval letter in hand and a plan for the appraisal waiver we knew we’d have to offer to win. For the past 3 months, that type of activity has halted. And so – we U-Turn. Now, our focus with sellers is to set reasonable expectations. We discuss the term of the listing agreement, and how it will likely take longer to sell their property, and multiple offers are no longer promised. With buyers – we’ve shifted to them having choices again with our increased inventory, but interest rates are going up quickly, so we’ve partnered with builders offering no-cost refi’s for 18 months post closing. We’ve partnered with lenders that offer loan products with lower rate options. We are educating our buyers with advice like – “Marry the house; date the rate”. “Buyers can finally get a deal again!” We just stay on top of what’s happening, and shift as the market shifts, in order to provide the best service to our clients.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I first got into real estate in early 2008, after teaching 3rd grade for several years. It was smack-dab at the start of The Great Recession and lending crisis that would not fully recover until 2012. Good thing I was too green at that point to even know I should have worried about any of that. Let me tell you though, it was one heck of a learning experience! That was back when you had to work for months or even a year to sell a $150,000 house. This meant regular communication with your seller, open houses every weekend, knocking on neighbors doors, managing showings and worrying about busted pipes in cold weather, etc. There were For Sale By Owners everywhere – I know because I got good at converting them to list with me. Foreclosures were plentiful – I know, because I got good at finding and selling them to buyers/investors. The investors came out – so I figured out what ROI meant and how to find cap rate info on properties, and I sold a lot of homes to investors.
But selling ANY house was the big leagues for little ole me in the very beginning. I wouldn’t sell my first house for nearly a year. I started out in my brokerages call room 24/7, because that’s where they told me the leads were. Potential clients would call in off of signs they drove by and I’d answer. It took me months just to get the right list of questions together to ask callers, but once I did – I was on a roll. They were 99% lease calls. So I did alot of leasing in my first year….enough to make more than I did teaching. I called that a win and continued. None of the agents in my office liked to come into the call room on weekends, myself included – but knowing this, I would swing by the call room on Sunday evenings and pick up all the voicemail messages that were left over the weekend. LOL. I always had a busy Monday of calling prospective clients back! Eventually, I pulled a few buyers and sellers out of that call room too.
After a year of mostly leasing properties, my friends started thinking that just maybe I might be a real Realtor and started asking me to help them buy or sell their properties. Thank you Friends!
With all these balls in motion – I was well on my way!
My brand is this – I care deeply about my clients and want to understand their vision as completely as possible, with all the details included. With that clear picture I can reach out to my brilliant network and find solutions for them. Communication is everything. A lot of people think I must be awesome at following real estate data and interpreting which way the market will swing. No, not really. I’m just good with people and finding sometimes creative solutions that get them where they want to go. I am very good at that.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
Time. LOL. But it’s true. It took time to build my reputation within my market. I started out by joining my dying HOA board as president and making homemade newsletters for my neighborhood. My mom and I would then drive around and tape them to peoples mailboxes – because we couldn’t afford the postage. We got a call from the post office and told to stop after a few months. LOL. But by then, I could afford the postage and I was on my way! I still farm that neighborhood all these years later, and it’s one of my biggest producers for listings. I’ve expanded my farm areas over the years to include more neighborhoods, and have incorporated sponsoring an event or two each year in those neighborhoods. Volunteering in my kids schools has been an other avenue I’ve used to build my reputation in my target markets. I’m room-parent for all 3 of my kids each year, for 2 reasons – 1. I used to be a teacher and I just get a kick out of anything school!! 2. Every email I send out, has my face and work details on it. Every year I volunteer to do presentations for Career Day in the schools as well. I love real estate and love sharing it with the kids! And when they come into my Open Houses with their parents, it’s an instant connection! My face is all over my local area with For Sale directionals. Before I had listings – my face was up every weekend with Open House directionals. I send Just Sold postcards out on every listing. I make sure the people around my listing, know exactly how it went down – Awesomely! It gets easier, as you are able to focus in on an area or niche and then become the expert in that area- but it takes time.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
Who knew that being a Realtor would one day lead to managing a team! That’s how I felt. But as the business increases – this is where you are headed. Years ago I picked up using coordination for transactions. This is where an expert in their field – all but takes over getting my listings up and then taking our contract and making sure that important dates are hit, and no detail goes missed. It was AWESOME! This took so much off my plate and gave me a lot more time to focus on getting more clients. But when that business got to be too much, I needed to hire an assistant. Ever try to train someone on real estate? It’s not easy! I used my local social media pages to advertise for the position. I wanted someone local. My brokerage guided me on best hiring practices, gave me a contractor agreement for us to sign, and showed me how to structure our meetings. I also sought out experience/advice from other agents that had hired assistants. I’m now on my 4th assistant, and she’s the best yet! I think that’s because I’m better at managing a team now, after lots of mistakes . I’m always reading a book on management/business, “How to be a great boss” is my current read. I teach my team how to seek out training on systems as needed. There are so many great resources. Like everything – managing a team is a work in progress. I try to show regular appreciation for my team members by taking them to lunch often, bringing in food for meetings, sending them gifts and cards of encouragement or congratulations and having weekly 1-on-1’s to check in and discuss how they are doing personally and professionally. We make it a habit on my team to look for the Wins, and talk about how we can improve next time on our loses. I always say, “There’s nothing we can’t fix! Just get out there and make things happen!” I plan to next hire a licensed Realtor to my team, to help with showings and appointments. I will seek someone out that is experienced, but looking to grow with additional training and mentorship. Wish me luck!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.512digs.com
- Instagram: @512digs
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AubreyShawRealtor
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/aubrey-shaw-realtor-austin
Image Credits
Rising Oaks Photography by Claire Mulkey