Josh Ehmke's Real Estate Wisdom: Navigating the Market with an Experienced Professional
Jul 01, 2024
Patricia
Unlock the secrets to navigating the real estate market with confidence and ease! Join us as we sit down with real estate expert Josh Ehmke from ARC Realty, who brings over a decade of experience to the table. Josh's journey from a novice homebuyer to a seasoned professional is filled with lessons and insights that can save you time, money, and stress. Discover the key differences between a mere real estate agent and a true expert, and why having the latter can make all the difference in your home-buying or selling experience.
Learn from Josh’s own story about using an inexperienced agent and how it shaped his mission to provide genuine value to his clients. Understand the potential pitfalls in real estate transactions, from costly repairs to future marketability concerns, and how an expert can foresee and mitigate these issues. Whether you're buying your first home or looking to invest, Josh's practical tips and real-world wisdom will arm you with the knowledge you need for a smoother, more informed real estate journey. Don't miss this episode filled with actionable advice and the importance of having a knowledgeable professional by your side. #GNPBirmingham #JoshEhmke #VestaviaRealtor #BirminghamRealtor #HooverRealtor #HomewoodRealtor #Birmingham #Hoover #HomesForSale #Homes #RealEstate #Realtor #Moving #MovingtoBirmingham
Unlock the secrets to navigating the real estate market with confidence and ease! Join us as we sit down with real estate expert Josh Ehmke from ARC Realty, who brings over a decade of experience to the table. Josh's journey from a novice homebuyer to a seasoned professional is filled with lessons and insights that can save you time, money, and stress. Discover the key differences between a mere real estate agent and a true expert, and why having the latter can make all the difference in your home-buying or selling experience.
Learn from Josh’s own story about using an inexperienced agent and how it shaped his mission to provide genuine value to his clients. Understand the potential pitfalls in real estate transactions, from costly repairs to future marketability concerns, and how an expert can foresee and mitigate these issues. Whether you're buying your first home or looking to invest, Josh's practical tips and real-world wisdom will arm you with the knowledge you need for a smoother, more informed real estate journey. Don't miss this episode filled with actionable advice and the importance of having a knowledgeable professional by your side. #GNPBirmingham #JoshEhmke #VestaviaRealtor #BirminghamRealtor #HooverRealtor #HomewoodRealtor #Birmingham #Hoover #HomesForSale #Homes #RealEstate #Realtor #Moving #MovingtoBirmingham
Speaker 1:
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Patricia Blondheim.
Speaker 2:
Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm your host, patricia Blondheim, and today we have good neighbor Josh Emke, and Josh is a real estate expert at ARC Realty, hoover and Vestavia. Josh, how are you today?
Speaker 3:
I am better than I deserve. If you haven't heard that quote before, well.
Speaker 2:
I think that's wonderful and I hope it lasts, because Monday's coming, monday's a coming.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, lunch hasn't even hit on Monday, but here we are.
Speaker 2:
Hey, what makes a real estate or what makes a real estate expert as opposed to a real estate agent?
Speaker 3:
An expert, I guess would be somebody that is mature in their industry and knows what they're doing, and it's not just parlayed to opening doors and closing doors and hanging out at the closing table, but just guiding people through every step of it. There's 159 million steps that I didn't know after buying two houses and then being in the industry for over 10 years. It's crazy. The dilemmas and hangups were the good times that you can have or miss out on because people aren't professional at what they do.
Speaker 2:
Well, that's something that people don't expect when they engage a real estate agent and he or she has a really nice cover shot and it all looks real slick and they're backed by. They're backed by a well-known broker with a big fancy sign on the outside, known broker with a big fancy sign on the outside. What's the problem there?
Speaker 3:
I mean why wouldn't you just pick anyone? Well, I'll back up to when I first bought a house. My wife and I were 22, 24 years old, just got married, just finished up at Sanford university here in Birmingham, and my wife wanted us to buy a place. So we bought a condo and I used my uh, my good friend and roommate at the time's mom. That come to find out. Fast forward, four years after that, when we bought our second house, she had sold a total of 13 houses and I was two of them.
Speaker 3:
And sweet lady, amazing, I love her to death. Incredible human being. Just she did it on the side and just she was wanted what was best for us, but just didn't do it professionally, didn't know all the ins and outs and didn't really provide a ton of value, though the effort was there, she just didn't know what she was doing. So you know, fast forward, a couple of years after that, when I got into real estate, just like, hey, I want to be in this to help provide value and I don't want to do this just to make money, but I want to serve people, and so I think that's probably the biggest thing.
Speaker 2:
Well, what could go wrong, Josh? I mean you. You open the door, you close the door, you write the offer, you end up at the closing table. What could go wrong?
Speaker 3:
I mean in 40, 40 days. There's nothing that really can go wrong. You just snap your fingers and you're there, everybody's, and you know your, your equipment, your, uh, all of your stuff shows up magically at the new house too. It's just a smooth process every single time. I mean from the sewer or septic line, which can be $9,000 to $1,500 to fix, from foundation issues. The biggest thing is walking people through. Hey, do I want to buy this house? Yes, this house fits us, but what's the marketability of it in seven years when we want to move again? What are the positives and negatives? Because those negatives are going to pop up again and it might not hurt your family, but it can help the next one or whatnot there, but it really is.
Speaker 3:
I've been doing this long enough, been over 10 years full-time, and I've sold probably I don't know 150 houses twice. So I helped somebody buy it and then move and sell it again, so bringing up the bad things, which aren't necessarily bad, but again there's some pause on it. So, hey, yeah, we don't love this. Well, the next buyer is probably not going to love this, and so kind of fast forwarding in there. But there's so many different things, whether it's an appraisal issue that, um, just repairs that need to be done. People don't know the cost of most of the issues inside of a house or what's a big deal or what's not.
Speaker 3:
Um, I'm also a licensed home builder. I don't build houses but, um, I flip a house at a time. I have a couple of rentals, I have a plumber, a couple of electricians, tons of painters, foundation, structural engineer guys. So I've got all of those at my fingertips that can help walk people through the potential issues. Or even not potential, hey, we need to not buy this house.
Speaker 3:
So most of the time it is people want to buy the house or they wouldn't be making an offer on it. So it's you know, hey, hard, stop here. Or hey, yeah, these are things that we can address, or we need to jump through to get to the end and close. So I don't get to pick out the houses for people. People do, and that's what I love about it is I'm not selling a specific house to somebody, more or less helping them find the best house for their family and be in a good situation, and so everybody is unique. Real estate, residential real estate I don't think there's a more unique sales cycle than it's personal and it is very individualized, and no one lives life the same way.
Speaker 2:
Well, you can't beat that, Josh. You've got them from cradle to grave, so to speak. If you're talking about a sales process.
Speaker 3:
Absolutely no, true residual sales, like in insurance and some of the other industries that I've worked in professionally before this. But it's there because they call me again and I get to work for them and their kids. It's been a.
Speaker 2:
Well, tell our listeners about your journey, josh. How did you? Were you born with a real estate sign in your hand?
Speaker 3:
No, no, and not with this beautiful hair either. But no, I was in corporate sales. I worked for a Fortune 500 company and was pushing a product on people that at the time when I started I didn't know that wasn't really beneficial, and the contracts were written very selfishly by the company that I worked for Again, not a bad people, there is kind of necessary. But I just got to the point where, hey, I realized I wasn't really serving the people I was calling on and so Fast forward. I got introduced to a buddy, one of my best friends now, drew Taylor, which is with EXP here locally and he's one of the top realtors, and he said hey, man, join me, we can do real estate and you can really serve and love people and get into the industry that way. And so he mentored me the first couple of years. As I was saying earlier, my roommate's mother was amazing, amazing human, but she didn't have anybody mentoring her and helping her or she would have ended up selling a bunch more houses. But so first couple of years it took probably two, two years for me to really feel like, hey, I truly, josh Emke is providing value to people. I get it and get the process. I've sold 80 houses at this point, um, but drew backed me and I mean he babysat me for two years to the point where, um, I knew what I was doing. Um, so you've then uh, I guess I was 2012 when I got into real estate flipped my first house in 14. And then, um, I've had two rentals at that point and then kind of have just been in love.
Speaker 3:
I love people and I do like working with my hands Not that I personally do work on the flips, but it's fun getting pictures with people at closing with the sold sign and everybody's excited, other than the fact that they've got to move all their stuff with the moving companies and all that shortly thereafter. But it's really neat helping people pick out a house that needs some love and getting that to the finish line and seeing how excited they are. Really neat helping people pick out a house that needs some love and getting that to the finish line and seeing how excited they are Once it's been remodeled or, you know, god creates us to work with our hands and to be artistic at some capacity. And so buying a beat up house and fixing it up to where 10 people want to make an offer on it Cause it's so pretty. So it's it's been a blessing I I love what I do. Um, the hours are daunting on on the wife and kids sometimes, but um, real estate time is of the essence, so you've got to be around my phone.
Speaker 2:
Well, when you do get those hours occasionally to spend time and have fun, what do you do?
Speaker 3:
Um, so I've got 11 and nine-year-old sons and, uh, I played a little baseball growing up and so I am at ward george ward, sorry a walled park in vestavia, um, most of the springtime. So, uh, sometimes it feels like I'm a part-time realtor and full-time little league coach. But, um, I'm at either a little league field, my sons play basketball, and then my daughter plays, which is seven. She's a princess more than she is a softball player, but she plays softball. So, I, between getting to serve people and my kids, sports, I, I, I would love to go to the beach with my wife, but there's just not enough time in the day, so typically a local ballpark is where you're going to find me.
Speaker 2:
Well, you're in the thick of things right now. You'll have time for the beach later.
Speaker 3:
Yes, lord willing, lord willing.
Speaker 2:
So what's what would you like our listeners to take away about? About Josh Emke at Arc Realty about Josh Emke at ARC Realty.
Speaker 3:
First of all, you need to match with your realtor and connect at some level and I would say, if you're looking for somebody that knows what they're doing, truly cares about you more than a transaction, I'm your guy. I've been doing this. I've sold almost 600 homes and 95% of my business is referrals. So I do spend money marketing and reminding people hey, when your friend wants to buy a house, tell them to call me. But 90, 90, 95% of my business is referred from past clients at this point in my life. So they know that I care and, again, I'm not perfect, but I know what I'm doing in real estate and can guide you. And if we connect, you know, conversationally, I think, think that we can be a good fit. So you just want to make sure that you're working with somebody that you trust in general as a human and that you know. You trust that they know what they're doing. They've been, they've jumped through most of the hurdles that you can come across in real estate.
Speaker 2:
Or just call you Josh Emke.
Speaker 3:
I do have a number that's always on my hip.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, well, that's exactly what I want you to tell me. I want you to tell me how do we get ahold of you?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, so my my number, direct line is 205-999-4281. Is 205-999-4281. 999-4281. And then my website is mrvestaviacom.
Speaker 2:
Mrvestaviacom. Josh, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much you can sell my house anytime.
Speaker 3:
Well, you can only sell it once, so when it needs to happen, I'll be looking for that phone call.
Speaker 2:
Awesome. Thank you so much for stopping by the studio today. It's been a pleasure.
Speaker 3:
My pleasure. Have a blessed day.
Speaker 1:
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.
