Saliba Homes: Jen Saliba's Hands-On Approach to Finding Your Dream Home

Discover the secret to a stress-free home buying experience with Jen Saliba from Saliba Homes at Keller Williams in Hoover. We promise you'll learn a fresh, hands-on approach to real estate, where Jen emphasizes the importance of walking through homes instead of just browsing online photos. Her strategy helps clients pinpoint their likes, dislikes, and must-haves in the tactile and spatial contexts of real properties, ensuring well-informed decisions without pressure. Jen's unique method not only enlightens clients about their potential new homes but also brings fun and insight into an often daunting process.

Get inspired by Jen's remarkable journey from a steady job to a thriving commission-based career, even during her pregnancy. Hear about her incredible hustle, including selling a house three days post-C-section and ranking at the top in her office and local MLS. Balancing work with family, Jen's positivity and resilience shine through, making her a relatable and authentic figure in real estate. Finally, learn how you can connect with Jen for personalized assistance through her website, www.salibahomes.com, or directly at 205-937-9968. Plus, don't forget to nominate your favorite local businesses for future episodes by visiting gnpbirmingham.com. #GNPBirmingham #SalibaHomes #KellerWilliamsHoover #BirminghamRealtor #BirminghamRealEstate #Homes #HomesForSale #Investor #Investment #EmptyNest #Foreclosure #GreatValue #Listing #HomeGoals #Homes

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Patricia Blondheim.

Speaker 2: 0:14

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm your host, Patricia Blondheim, and today we have good neighbor Jen Saliba, and Jen is a realtor with Saliba Homes at Keller Williams in Hoover. Jen, how are you today?

Speaker 3: 0:29

I'm doing great, Patricia. How are you?

Speaker 2: 0:32

Terrific, I'm doing great. It's a pleasure seeing you today, and I want to know all about Saliba Homes.

Speaker 3: 0:39

Well, there's a lot to know, but the best thing is that I live for helping people buy or sell their dream home. That's it in a nutshell. It's really, really fun. It should be fun, and I try and be a down to earth, relaxed, kind of normal person. We don't pressure people to buy or sell. That's your decision. It's a huge decision. Uh, so I'll take you and show you 100 homes. If you want to see 100 homes, well, I mean that would be exhausting, right?

Speaker 2: 1:13

how do you? How do you figure out? There's a whole process to trying to figure out what a person wants as opposed to what they need. How do you do that?

Speaker 3: 1:22

so my strategy is to get them inside a house. A lot of people will sit down and go do coffee and all of that kind of stuff beforehand. I love to be in a house. I want to walk around that house, I want to feel it. There's nothing like being inside a house versus looking at pictures online, right? So you've got to feel the space, and so we walk around every room and I talk, I'm like what do you love about this, what do you not like about this, what would you change? What would you add? That's how I find what people like and don't like, and we also kind of discover their hot buttons there. And then the reason I say I'll show you 100 houses is because you're developing that profile.

Speaker 3: 2:05

It's very rare that you walk into one house and you're like yep, jen, this is it. Let's write the offer. You have to develop number one a neighborhood that you like, an area of town, a price point. That's super, super important. There is nothing worse than falling in love with a house you can't afford, right? So we get in and we figure out what are the hot buttons, what are the must-haves, what are the? If you show me another house like this, jen, I will never call you again, right, so it's fun. That's how I really do it. It's inside the house, it's feeling, the product. That's the most important.

Speaker 2: 2:40

So, as opposed to sitting down and having a pleasant coffee and having the realtor write down a list of your wants and needs, and Because when you start to look at houses, you realize that what you're looking at is not exactly what you want in reality. So you're very flexible, agile. You want people to be able to communicate with you clearly and freely about what it is that they want and need.

Speaker 3: 3:22

Absolutely my biggest thing is and I tell people this from the moment I meet them, right, they have a particular house in mind that they want to go see and I'm like, absolutely, let's go see it. I don't look at the pictures, right, because I've discovered that the photography can either be really really fantastic or really really bad, right, and so to look at it and fall in love with pictures is not the same as feeling the space. I'm very hands on. You have to be in the environment. You need to see what's the size of this living room. Look, I can look at it in a picture, but until I'm in that living room and I see the ceiling height and I see the width of the walls and where the doors are, like, you have to feel the space, and I find that that is the most successful, and really quickly.

Speaker 3: 4:13

I've had so many people come into houses that they wanted to see and they were like this is it, this is the house. I've got it, I got to be in it. And we walk in and they're like, whoa, this is not what I saw online. Minute. And we walk in and they're like, whoa, this is not what I saw online.

Speaker 1: 4:28

And.

Speaker 2: 4:28

I'm like yeah because photography it does a lot of trickery sometimes, right, it's the magic of fisheye lenses, right?

Speaker 3: 4:36

Yes, good stretch photography makes something look like you know, the size of a bathroom is 700 square feet big, it's not?

Speaker 2: 4:44

It's not. And you get in there and you realize this. I've gone into many houses and said this is not the same house I saw online and you've got all of your hopes and dreams. You found that house. You know this is the one you want. You just need to walk into it and then make an offer and it is not the same house.

Speaker 3: 5:03

No, and you know what's one of my favorite things is like getting out in the backyard, because a lot of photography doesn't, uh, really encompass the backyard right. So you get into the backyard and all of a sudden, like you're in your window, mr joe is doing over there in his house like so again, so again. You've got to feel it. You can't. You're getting a one single shot of a room versus the 360 and the experience. And then you can also see the flaws. You know we all have them.

Speaker 3: 5:34

Houses are not short on flaws either. So it's really really good to get in there and see the good and the bad, and that's one of the things that I think I'm really, really successful at. I'm not afraid to point out what might not work in the house as far as a resale goes or some work that you might need to put into it. If you're not afraid of that, awesome. But I want to be the person that's showing you some of these things instead of just kind of like oh, look over there, a shiny cat in the corner as I'm standing, you know, in front of a giant crack on the wall. Yeah Right, we want to point that out.

Speaker 2: 6:13

Well, I mean, let's talk about, because what you just referred to is being a buyer's agent. Yes, so in a lot of people, I think they don't understand the difference between a selling agent and a buying agent. You represent the people that you are walking in with. Tell me how that looks.

Speaker 3: 6:35

So I do both. I am both a buyer's agent and a seller's agent, right? So seller's agents are the people who list your house. Those are the ones who are selling your home. A buyer's agent is somebody who brings a buyer to the seller's house. So this is a great question. I love this question, by the way, because a lot of people will call and think that they need to speak strictly to the listing agent of that home.

Speaker 3: 7:03

I think this is a great myth in real estate that, uh, if I contact the listing agent, I'm gonna get a better deal. Right, the truth of the matter is each party should have their own representation. Uh, just because you call the listing agent and try and work with the listing agent, that doesn't mean you're going to get a better deal. It means the seller is probably going to get a better deal. Uh, they're going. Seller is probably going to get a better deal. They're going to keep some money in their pocket, or that list agent is going to, you know, reap some different rewards for having both sides of the deal.

Speaker 3: 7:34

You really, really need a buyer's agent to represent you because they are on your side, they are your partner. So I always tell my people that call in that I haven't met first so I do a lot of cold calls that the list agent has already gotten a relationship with that seller. That is their number one relationship. My role as your buyer's agent is your number one partner in this deal. So I think that's why it's super, super critical that I am negotiating on your behalf with the list agent. It's a cooperative situation, for sure, but you have to or it would be more beneficial to you to have your own person representing you and fighting for your needs right, because every transaction this is my philosophy, patricia needs to be mutually beneficial. Every party needs to walk away feeling like a winner. If somebody walks away feeling like they have been taken advantage of or they didn't get the best end of the deal, then I've not done my job properly end of the deal, then I've not done my job properly.

Speaker 2: 8:56

Yeah, and so a listing agent. Their primary responsibility is the person who owns the home that they're selling. Correct, that's primary. If you come in and you engage with them as a buyer, they don't represent you.

Speaker 3: 9:15

So they can represent you right. They can do a dual agency right, or they can be a transaction broker. So it is possible to have a list agent represent both parties, have a list agent represent both parties. Again, in my personal opinion, I think it is smarter not to have that if you have a buyer's agent that you trust, because, again, that first and primary relationship was established by the person who listed the house right. They didn't know you prior to knowing the seller, so that is the number one relationship in their life.

Speaker 3: 9:59

Now, again, we're all ethical, right. We take code of ethics class, we know how to do a dual agency properly. So I'm not going to say that it's an unethical situation, because it's not. We have to be unbiased, I guess. But I also again think that you know the world is real. So, at the end of the day, if that relationship was established first, that is most likely your primary relationship. So that's why I think the buyer's agency, the buyer agent, is so critical for our buyers out there, especially our first time buyers right, going through this process of really learning what it means to buy a house. You have your seasoned buyer. I'm sure, patricia, you're a seasoned buyer, I'm a seasoned buyer. You know I think I'm on my fourth or fifth house at this point, but as a first time buyer it's very overwhelming, so you need somebody that's on your side an entrepreneur that just sort of fell into their own business.

Speaker 2: 11:13

If they did, that would be a very rare duck. What was your journey? How did you get into this business?

Speaker 3: 11:19

So I was an apartment manager for several, several, several years and I got to the point where I think I no longer wanted to be a rent collector for a toilet unclogger. I found myself, at the end of the day, really feeling unfulfilled. I mean, I worked for amazing companies, don't get me wrong. I loved the people that mentored me and nurtured me and gave me opportunities, but at the end of the day, I was lacking the relationship. I was managing people and I'm very good at managing myself, but I'm really difficult, or I struggle, with having those critical conversations when people aren't performing what they need to be doing right. So I just wanted to be in charge of myself, uh, and I took the aspect of what I've been doing for 15 plus years and what I loved about it was the people. So I just prayed a lot and discussed a lot and begged and pleaded with my husband that, hey, I can do 100% commission job, trust me, I will do it, I can work really hard. And he's like fine, go get your license, go do it, go see if you're successful.

Speaker 3: 12:26

And I think as soon as I had quit my job and become a full time realtor, I found out I was pregnant. So I was like, what am I doing? I was like, hold on, I'm quitting a steady, paying job and I'm going to go on this 100 percent commission job. And I'm pregnant now. Ok, what are we doing? Universe, and I just I took that as a challenge and I'm a hustler.

Speaker 3: 12:47

So I went out and I hustled and I built my business and in fact, I sold a house three days after having a C-section. I hobbled in to that house three days after giving birth to my third child. It was like here, please buy this house. I'm going to bust it down now, but tell me what you love about it. And that's how I just stumbled into it. It just a lot of prayer and a lot of support from my husband, who is phenomenal, and then a lot of drive and grind, and last year I was in the top 5% of the Keller Williams Hoover office and a top 1% of all the Birmingham MLS, and it's strictly through a lot of grinding, hard work.

Speaker 2: 13:34

And it's strictly through a lot of grinding, hard work. So well, I mean, there is a lot of work, but I see a smile on your face. There's something also that fills your cup. Right. What do you do for fun?

Speaker 3: 13:44

So I am a relationship person. I will tell you this One of my favorite things is meeting new people. So I love to take these new people that I've met in my business and we go eat and we eat a lot and we eat at really, really, really good restaurants in Birmingham. In fact, I actually have a dinner date tonight with the girls. I'm super excited and we're going to try a new restaurant, but yeah, I love to eat, to try a new restaurant, but yeah, I love to eat. So and then the other thing is I have four kids, so I love being a mom. You know there's that nice work life balance with what I do and I have little, four mini little realtors that come along with me and they point out houses and it's a family event. It's super fun. So yeah, we just I don't know we laugh a lot and we dance in the kitchen to old 80s music and it's great. That's what we do for fun around here.

Speaker 2: 14:43

Well, I would like to take exception to 80s being old, but I can't Because I'm an 80s baby, it's okay.

Speaker 3: 14:50

I didn't mean to I aunt because I'm an 80s baby, it's okay, I didn't. I put on aha on the car yesterday, like and was. My kids were like what are we listening to?

Speaker 2: 15:00

I'm like these are classics just just listen, you're gonna love it did some prints.

Speaker 3: 15:06

We did the whole genre. We went to pat minotaur, we did it oh my gosh, the best dancing music ever.

Speaker 2: 15:13

I would love to spend some time in your kitchen. That would be a lot of fun.

Speaker 3: 15:17

Listen, come on. We're burning the calories from all the eating. It's fine.

Speaker 2: 15:24

But you know, zooming out, you know you are on this journey, you're a happy person, you a lot of fun, you're you, everything is going well for you. But there's always something that a hurdle, something that sort of, is a defining moment in your life. Um, that you know, when you look back, got you where you're at right now. Do you have anything like?

Speaker 3: 15:50

that you know, I think it's just. I didn't. My mother is a wonderful person. Let me let me preface this in case she hears this but I didn't have an easy growing up right. We struggled, we struggled financially. I had a single mom and a lot of brothers and sisters.

Speaker 3: 16:08

So I think the hardship of my life is overcoming some of those childhood traumas right Of of, uh, financial insecurity and those hardships that I experienced as a kid. I really take seriously not to have my children go through it and I think that that ultimately comes back to why I do what I do. Because my daddy told me very early on in my life if you do what you love, you will be successful. And I took a leap of faith in my 30s my late 30s pregnant twice in COVID years, by the way, 2020 was pregnant twice and mauled by a German shepherd while showing houses All these things. I get up every day and I go and I fight for my home and my family and my kids by working hard and hopefully that all translates to more productive member society outside of all this, but it allows me to pursue my passion every day, that drive kind of never to be back in that place of growing up. That's the hardship that I have to overcome mentally.

Speaker 2: 17:23

Yeah, I agree, it makes an impression on you, doesn't it? But it has not turned you into a sour human being. In fact. I love that you've taken that hardship and you've allowed it to. You've allowed the light to shine through those cracks.

Speaker 3: 17:41

Thank you. Listen, life is so much better when you smile and you're just happy. I said this very recently to a friend of mine that was struggling. Life is never 100-100, right. It's never 100% bad and it's never 100% good. There's bad and good in every situation. Which direction are you going to look at it? So I try and smile, I try and be jovial and have a great attitude because, no matter what comes my way, I'm going to find the light in it. I'm going to find the positive in it, even if it's a tough situation Got to get back up and keep rolling.

Speaker 2: 18:17

That's a wonderful takeaway. Is there anything else that you want our listeners to take away about Saliba Homes?

Speaker 3: 18:23

Listen, if you need a down-to-earth realtor, right, you can wear blue jeans, you can wear shorts. Please don't show up in a ball gown. I love you. I'm going to be a disappointment to you. I am a jeans and a t-shirt kind of gal. I do not believe in the pressure sale. I believe in building the relationship. That's what I can tell you. So if you are looking for somebody who is going to advocate for you and be on your side, but also, at the end of the day, you could call me and say, jen, I need this and I'm going to drop everything and I'm going to come to what you. I'm going to come, bring you what you need, or I'm going to show up where you need me, and that's what it is with Saliba Homes. That's who I am as an entrepreneur. What do you need? Where do you need it? I'll be there in five minutes.

Speaker 2: 19:14

How can listeners learn more? Tell us how to contact you, Jen, at Saliba Homes.

Speaker 3: 19:27

Okay, well, I have got an amazing website. It's called wwwsalibahomescom so you can go and do house searches there. You can register for house alerts to be sent to you in your price point in your bedroom bathroom count in your area. So wwwsoliva homes is a great way to kind of explore. If you want to talk to me directly, just call your girl jen it's very easy 205-937-9968, and I will help you find a house jen it terrific.

Speaker 2: 19:53

Thank you so much for coming by and talking with us today.

Speaker 3: 19:57

Thank you, Patricia, for the opportunity. You are lovely.

Speaker 1: 20:02

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpbirminghamcom. That's GNPBirminghamcom, or call 205-952-0148.