We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Emily Young a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Emily, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start big picture – what are some of biggest trends you are seeing in your industry?

One of the biggest trends we’re seeing in the apartment rental market in Austin is the rising cost of housing. With any city that experiences rapid growth and increased popularity, rent increases are to be expected. However, what we’ve seen in Austin over the past couple of years, especially since Covid, is quite a dramatic shift.

When I first moved to Austin myself about 5 years ago, I got a small 550 square foot 1 bedroom apartment about 15 minutes south of the city at a property built in 2012. So at the time it was only 5 years old. Even though it was small, it was a relatively modern apartment with stainless steel appliances, washer and dryer included, granite countertops, and walk-in closets. I was happy there, and even more happy about the price I was paying: $950 per month. Today, units that are the same exact layout that I had at the same property are now starting between $1300-$1400. This is just my personal experience and one example, but increases like this have been happening across the board all over the city, and it’s made finding decent affordable housing in Austin challenging for a lot of people. It has also forced a lot of people to continually have to go through moving year-over-year to try to find better deals when their current residences increase their renewal rates.

The good news about all this is that housing supply is slowly starting to catch up with demand, as new construction projects break ground daily. The hope is that as we get more supply the market will level out and we’ll be less likely to see such drastic rate increases going forward. With Austin now the home to multiple major tech companies, it’s unlikely that we’ll ever see prices go back to what they once were pre-Covid era. But realistically I think we can expect to see more manageable year-over-year increases (averaging between 1-5%), rather than what we saw in 2021-2022, which was closer to a 30% average increase. I’m not a psychic and can’t predict the future, but based on current market trends so far in 2023, I’m hopeful! While higher prices can generate higher commissions for me as a real estate agent, the competitive nature of the market also makes it much more difficult to find clients great deals and people are understandably more hesitant to sign expensive leases, which can therefore affect closing rates.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Emily Young and I’ve been living in Austin for about 5 years now. I’m originally from a small town in New Hampshire, and I got my start here in Austin working in the service industry. Eventually I transitioned into a corporate job in operations, but ultimately decided my greater skill sets are in customer service and sales. In 2021 I got my real estate license and joined an apartment locating brokerage, which is where I’m still at today and going strong! I’ve become one of the top agents at my company, and consistently help between 15-40 people find their new homes every single month!

What a lot of people don’t realize is that apartment locating services are totally FREE to them! I earn a living entirely through commissions from the properties that I refer my clients to, so it’s a win/win for everybody because my clients get expert help with navigating this crazy market, and I get paid by someone else. When I start working with a new client, I’ll talk over all their criteria with them, explain what options they have, and will send them a personalized list of places that will match what they’re looking for. I can also handle contacting properties to confirm information, answer questions, and schedule tour appointments. And all they have to do is list me as their referral source on their application to whatever property they choose to apply for! It’s super easy, and saves my clients so much time and stress from searching on their own and dealing with tons of misleading information on the Internet.

I think a few things that set me apart from others in my industry are my work ethic and social media presence. I have so much passion for what I do and will work day and night, and weekends to be the best resource for my clients that I can possibly be. Real estate is an amazing industry to get into if you want work-life balance and a lot of freedom, but top earners here still have to hustle! Social media has been hugely beneficial to my business as well, since that’s where I’ve been able to really cultivate a brand and provide an additional resource for my clients to aid with their apartment searches by posting video walk-throughs of properties and helpful tips and tricks. Overall, I’m most proud of how far I’ve come since starting this new career journey and successfully making a name for myself as one of the best agents in this city. That might sound a little self-indulgent, but it’s true and I worked hard for it! It’s also just so rewarding to know that I get to actually help people while I’m doing it, and I love being a part of peoples’ exciting fresh starts.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Referrals are EVERYTHING! Aside from social media, the biggest source of growth for my business has been referrals from existing or past clients. I ask every client I’ve ever worked with to save my contact and recommend me to their friends. You’d be amazed by how far that can get you!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

To always be the most buttoned up professional in the room. Being professional is important, of course. But something I didn’t realize until several months into real estate was that sometimes you can be TOO professional, and that can turn people off. Nobody reaches out to a real estate agent if they want a robot. There’s enough of that online already. When I was a brand new agent, I think I took myself way too seriously and was obsessed with being perfect all the time, and didn’t understand why that wasn’t translating to higher closing rates. Finally I took some advice from a colleague and decided to try being more myself with people and focus on establishing better relationships to build trust. I relaxed. I started sharing my personal Instagram page with clients as a way of letting people learn more about who I am. I joked more often. Sent memes (when appropriate). And eventually a lot of my clients became my actual friends! My sales started getting a lot better and I was consistently breezing past company minimums – all while actually having more fun. Too much of what we do nowadays is so impersonal, so taking the time to get to know people and being relatable can be just as valuable as professionalism.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @austinapartmentpro – https://www.instagram.com/austinapartmentpro/?next=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%2Fdirect%2Finbox%2F%3F__coig_login%3D1