Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kelsey Schiefelbein. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Kelsey, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?
Back in September of 2022 I decided that it was time for me to go out on my own in business as a transaction coordinator. Up until that time, I had been working full time as a transaction coordinator with a team, under a team leader and that team leader’s own LLC. It was scary and risky stepping out on my own, but I felt it was time and needed to be done. My husband was working full time as a teacher, however, he was having some problems with his health and the stressful environment at his work was not helping the situation. After a lot of discussion, we felt it would be best if he came home and homeschooled our three kids. This would give him the chance to heal thoroughly and give our kids the opportunity to learn in a more flexible environment. We were used to a decent lifestyle with both myself and my husband working together (having two incomes is always easier than having one). I didn’t want our lifestyle to diminish with my husband leaving his job, so I felt that going out on my own in business and having total control of my business would give me the opportunity to increase my income. I needed it to increase to the point where it would replace the income we lost from my husband’s work. When I originally went out on my own in business, I only had two clients, not nearly enough people to make ends meet on my end. However, I hired a coach/mentor, followed his advice on how to build my business properly, how to organize my systems for expansion and scalability, and I’m happy to say that in 31 months I increased my number of clients greatly! Working in real estate is an incredible opportunity and working as a transaction coordinator not only gives you the option of working in the real estate industry but you also have the ability to work remotely, which has been a huge blessing for myself and my family. It felt both scary and risky to go out on my own, I wasn’t sure if I had it in me to make the business successful and to grow to the extent that I needed to, to be able to take care of my family. However, it worked out, and the risk was worth it! The joy and freedom you experience from being able to run your own business and truly take ownership of what you do is unmeasurable! I’ve always hated the saying ‘it’s nothing personal, it’s just business’. To me, business is nothing but personal. I wake up everyday and pour my own blood, sweat, and sometimes tears into what I do. It not only effects me but it effects my family, and every life that I touch in the real estate business. When people buy and sell a home it’s normally tied to a bigger, deeper reason in their life, such as deciding to expand their family or sometimes people are retiring so they feel they need to downsize. These are big milestones in people’s lives and it’s an honor and privilege to be apart of that. It doesn’t get more personal than that, holding someone’s hand through their season of growth!
Kelsey, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I always wanted to get my real estate license when I was younger. In my mind, it seemed like a good way to go to gain time and money freedom from your work. Back in 2016 I accomplished that goal of putting in my hours, taking my state and national exams, and I received my real estate license in Arizona, where my husband and I lived at the time. I did a few deals my first two years in real estate and I was sad to learn that I didn’t enjoy being an agent. After putting in so much time and work into getting my license and then also time and training with my brokerage, it was a big disappointment to have to admit to myself that I didn’t like it! During this time my husband and I had our first baby, we decided that we wanted to move to Idaho, because we loved the area and my husband grew up here. Moving to Idaho would put us closer to family and we felt Idaho offered more of the environment that we wanted to raise our kid in, lots of outdoor activities, forests, water, etc. After we moved to Idaho I had a season where I had to do a lot of soul searching, would I continue to be an agent or would I move onto something else? I did end up pursuing getting my real estate license in Idaho. Again, during this time, my husband and I were working to purchase a home in Boise. We worked with a real estate agent as I was still working to get licensed in Idaho at the time. This agent told me that his real estate team was looking to hire a transaction coordinator and that I should apply for the position. He thought it’d be a great way for me to get familiar with Idaho’s real estate laws and contracts while pursuing getting my license. I took his advice and applied, I ended up receiving the position and started work with a small real estate team as their TC. I was pleasantly surprised to realize that I highly enjoyed the work! It fit me! It was my niche! As a TC you work with real estate agents to help them with a lot of the behind the scenes work and details that go into a real estate transaction. I help assist in scheduling appointments, tracking all of our contract due dates, making sure that our contracts are compliant with state laws, and keeping everyone on track for our end goal, which is to close by our closing date! I like to think of transaction coordinators as the air traffic controllers of the real estate world! :) We organize and guide everything along so all of our planes land safely and hopefully on time! ;) As a transaction coordinator, you work very closely with your agents and you get to know many of them fairly well! I’ve grown close to many of the agents that I work with and it’s a joy to know that my help and assistance has helped them to grow as well. My help allows them to grow their businesses, increase their business volume, increase themselves professionally by pursuing more education or their brokers’ licenses, as well as give them more free time with their own families! Again, it’s an honor to be of service to people and help contribute to their lives!
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I’ve always been a big believer that if you stick to your principles and be true to yourself, this shows authenticity and people are attracted to authentic people. I believe and hope that I have a reputation in my line of work for transparency, I believe in being transparent in both my personal life and business. I think this shines through in my day to day work and communications with my agents, they want to work with me and they are happy to refer me to their fellow agents in the industry, knowing that I will do my best and give it my all to take care of people! Not just agents, but their clients as well!
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
I am not an expert at social media, so my strategy with social media has been to focus on quality, not quantity. My target audience for my business is easy, real estate agents. Real estate agents are my clients so my focus is to connect with full time agents on both facebook and instagram, as I feel these platforms are where agents focus the majority of their time. I want to connect with agents that are active in the real estate business, actively advertising listings for their seller clients, and most agents that work full time in this industry have a consistent social media presence!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kstransactions.net
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kstransactions/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100085193834405
Image Credits
Kelsey Schiefelbein.