Lauryn Eadie - From Fine Dining to Real Estate Expertise
May 29, 2024
Alimond Studio
What if you could transform your attention to detail and commitment to high-end service into a thriving real estate career? Join us for an enlightening conversation with Lauryn Eadie, owner of Circadian Realty Group with Compass, as she shares her incredible journey from the world of fine dining to becoming a dedicated real estate agent. Discover the gaps Lauryn identified when buying her first house at just 23, which fueled her passion for educating clients and providing stress-free home-buying experiences. Gain insights into the surprisingly quick process of obtaining a real estate license and the importance of choosing an agent who truly loves their job.
In this episode, we also explore the current real estate market trends and the invaluable role of multiple mentors in the industry. Lauryn opens up about her personal relocating experience during the 2020 market frenzy and shares the rewarding aspects of guiding clients through their real estate journeys. Learn why building deep, genuine relationships with clients and living with integrity are at the heart of Lauryn's professional ethos. Tune in for memorable client stories that underscore Lauryn's dedication and commitment to ensuring her clients make informed, confident decisions in their real estate endeavors.
What if you could transform your attention to detail and commitment to high-end service into a thriving real estate career? Join us for an enlightening conversation with Lauryn Eadie, owner of Circadian Realty Group with Compass, as she shares her incredible journey from the world of fine dining to becoming a dedicated real estate agent. Discover the gaps Lauryn identified when buying her first house at just 23, which fueled her passion for educating clients and providing stress-free home-buying experiences. Gain insights into the surprisingly quick process of obtaining a real estate license and the importance of choosing an agent who truly loves their job.
In this episode, we also explore the current real estate market trends and the invaluable role of multiple mentors in the industry. Lauryn opens up about her personal relocating experience during the 2020 market frenzy and shares the rewarding aspects of guiding clients through their real estate journeys. Learn why building deep, genuine relationships with clients and living with integrity are at the heart of Lauryn's professional ethos. Tune in for memorable client stories that underscore Lauryn's dedication and commitment to ensuring her clients make informed, confident decisions in their real estate endeavors.
Speaker 1:
My name is Lauren Eadie. I own Circadian Realty Group with Compass and I'm a real estate agent, real estate team how I serve my clients. I come from a very high-end service background in fine dining so I really in the last 20 years have taken that notion of very small details make a very big impact, and so it's really important to me to kind of give that same level of like white glove, fine dining service into the real estate world.
Speaker 2:
How did you get into real estate? How did you make that transition in from?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so I bought my first house when I was 23. I didn't want to live with my parents but I didn't want to rent, and so I bought my first house at 23 and I kind of like really enjoyed the process. But I also found flaws in the service I got. My agent didn't do anything wrong. I just felt like there was gaps in things I wanted to know more about so that I felt more confident and understanding of what was going on. Considering it's a couple hundred grand, and what were some of those gaps?
Speaker 1:
Education, so like, really like filling in. Okay, these are the steps. This is what it means to you. Here's the next steps. This is what you should expect, like just setting the stage. My mom was an educator and so I just it's like, it's not that hard. You, it's your job when you know all of these steps, like translate it to that other person, translate it to your client, because it takes away so much of the, the stress and the overwhelming feeling of spending a couple hundred grand. You know, I always like kind of say, like probably repetitively, day to day, it's it's not my job to tell you what to do, but it's my job to give you the information so that you can figure out what you want to do, what feels comfortable, right.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so communicating that information.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so those were the gaps, like honestly. And then I bought another house with my first husband at 25. And then we bought another house at 26.
Speaker 2:
By the time we bought the second house, I decided to get my license. Yeah, you're like, I'm just going to do this, yeah exactly.
Speaker 1:
So yeah, and it just honestly kind of became seamless, um, cause I really like working with people, but I also really take a lot of pride in knowing, like everything from A to Z um just my personality. So, so, so, yeah, so it's just nice to be able to give that information to people, to your clients.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, what skills and training could you use from the food industry that translated into real estate?
Speaker 1:
I think one just foreseeing people's needs in advance, really getting to know somebody and not just assuming that you know them. I think it's really important to discuss the person as a person, not just the house, because you could have five, 10 clients, even with very similar budgets, looking in a very similar area. Everyone's going to choose something different. They all have different lifestyle goals, future goals, financial and just like family. They all have different aesthetics, like some of us love farmhouse and some of us love glam and some of us love, you know, modern and so a big yard or like, yeah, and it's generally speaking, in my opinion, it's not about the house. It's actually about what they want and need out of it.
Speaker 1:
So like, do you like to cook or do you not care? Do you, you know, love to be outdoors or are you kind of like a movie and I want to sit in a dark room? Person, like everyone has different day-to-day lifestyles and so those things I feel like are really important, and so it's generally not actually about the three bedrooms and the walls. It's about what you can do in and outside the house. That actually affects, like, your lifestyle and your choices outside, like what vacation you go on or if you can buy a new car, like even just down to budget things, absolutely it dictates everything, everything, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:
So after your third house, you decided to get your real estate license. Tell me what that process was like Quicker than you'd think.
Speaker 1:
It's a little bit of a pet peeve of mine. I think it's way too easy to get a real estate license. Personally, it's like 60 hours and a test, okay. So I think a lot of people don't really know that and so it's a little scary that you know 60 hours and a test and somebody could be negotiating your future entire like life savings, but so yeah, and there's a little bit of continuing education here or there. But I think that's why, really, when you're choosing an agent like, it just comes down to the individual Like legitimately, how passionate are they about it? How invested are they in like in actually their career, like and giving you, as a consumer, like what you need?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and if your energy vibes too right.
Speaker 1:
That certainly helps. I mean, listen, there's thousands of agents out there, tens of thousands. There's hundreds of thousands of consumers Like not everyone is going to be the right fit for me. Like not everyone's going to be like she's the one I want to hire.
Speaker 2:
And vice versa. Like you know, you've got to have a lot of business. If that was the case.
Speaker 1:
I mean, you know, like I always say to my clients, I'm like you have to hire somebody, that you're willing to take a phone call at 1030 at night, right, you know like and be comfortable with that, right, because it can happen at any time, right, yeah, I mean whether you're a seller and or a buyer, especially in a market like this.
Speaker 2:
Right In the last couple of years I've been crazy yeah, do you have a favorite selling or buying story? Oh, something that kind of really stuck with you, that you're like I want to continue doing this.
Speaker 1:
I actually. I mean, I definitely have a few. One that comes to mind particularly is a client say, from 2010, 2011,. Maybe, yeah, 2011,. Let's say, when I first met them, they didn't want to hire an agent. They had had a bad past experience and didn't feel like they got any value out of it and felt like they could just do it themselves. So, you know, I said listen, I totally understand, I would love the opportunity to change your mind, but I don't want you to feel pressured, because obviously that didn't go well for you in the past.
Speaker 1:
So we sat and chatted, and then I I said you know what? Totally understand, I'm going to let you stir on it or whatever stew on it. And I left, and, like 20 minutes later, she called me and she's like we want to hire you. Even better, though, is they actually introduced me to my husband, which is really cool. So that's how I met my husband, and so it kind of like was this like just really cool? So um, so they, that's how I met my husband, and so it kind of like was this like just really cool? Transition of um. So then they were at our wedding.
Speaker 2:
They clearly saw something special in you. To introduce you to a friend or a coworker, or yeah, and actually, well, he was their contractor.
Speaker 1:
Oh, there you go, so yeah. So it's just kind of a cool story, and the husband was one of my husband's groomsmen, and so it's just kind of funny how life works.
Speaker 1:
It is, but most recently I had one of my mom's friends call me and they've lived in their house for 30 years and just due to some health changes and physical ability changes, they were moving up their timeline to downsize substantially more and they needed a very specific area condo, floor plan, accessibility, et cetera and much quicker like a year and a half before they were planning to do anything and just helping them in a situation where they were already, you know, kind of stressed and had a lot going on. And you know, you're older, you've got all of this going on health wise, and it's emotional, um, that that was a big, that was a big one for me, cause, like those are just the things that you can't, you can't put into words. They were in the house for 30 years.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, they were in the house for 30 years.
Speaker 1:
And, you know, due to physical disabilities, at this point they needed to be in a very accessible condo situation, but they've lived in the same area for 40 years and so we needed to find something and something up and we were able to like lock it down, down, let's do that?
Speaker 2:
Yeah. What's it like helping people in those situations? I've heard that from a couple of real estate agents that this time because the house prices have gone up so much that I think some people, when they're on the fence about making that move, downsizing, they're in a certain demographic. How do you guide them through that?
Speaker 1:
I think you have to listen to people honestly In any situation. You always have to listen to people. I think when you're dealing with people that are downsizing after being in a home for a really long time, grew up in a generation where they weren't living off of cell phones and working 15 hours a day, you have to give them more time to process everything, um, and think through it and sit down. You know, generally speaking, everything we do is electronic. I was at their house, like every day, helping them fill out the paperwork and scanning things for the loan officer, and you just you have to. You had just have to. Yeah, give people what they need, right? No, it should. It's not that. It's actually not that hard.
Speaker 2:
It's great people just need to help them yeah, guide them through that, yeah yeah, what are you doing for advertising and marketing these days?
Speaker 1:
so I do a lot of just localized geographical mailing to mainly my you know past database etc. But also within our market, so like in the rest of market. And then I actually against most people's popular opinion I actually advertise a lot through Zillow and it's been an amazing resource for us. So it's a matter of and it's great because I've met some of my best friends through online leads. I've been doing online leads since 2008. I mean Craigslist, julia.
Speaker 2:
The old school. Old school there used to be a company Level One. I feel like used to do and like Active Rain.
Speaker 1:
I don't know if you remember that I actually got my first listing ever in real estate through Active Rain, so I've done that for a really long time and it, just for me, you know, works.
Speaker 1:
It's not for everybody, but so this is on Zillow like you, I do like Zillow Premiere, like paid advertising through Zillow. So I've met some really amazing clients that way, amazing friends, and it's a hustle Like you've got to be. You've got to be ready to hustle if you're going to do like an online lead. You've got to be ready to jump on it.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and then for the most part, I'd say like 65% of our business comes from past clients and referrals from past clients which I'm really yeah, which is.
Speaker 1:
It's really nice, but we, we really value our clients, so we do a lot of um of engagement with them. Like, we make sure that everyone always gets an anniversary gift, everyone always gets a birthday gift. Um, we throw a bunch of client events every year, do mini sessions, like all of the things, because it's really important for us to know that, like for our clients to know that after the transaction, it's not, it's we're not transaction based people right, like we really want to be a part of a community with you.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and like be a resource, like long after whether or not you ever transact again. Like we want to be the first person you think of, like when you're like oh shoot, I need a, I need a plumber.
Speaker 2:
You know, let me call Lauren, she's going to know, and so it's constantly having that little bit of interaction with them each year, right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:
And I mean we really enjoy our clients, so it's like we don't want to just be okay, bye, bye. I always tell my clients I'm like you're emotionally attached, I know Like. I haven't heard from them in a while. I better check with them. Yeah, why doesn't Rebecca want to text me anymore?
Speaker 2:
What happened.
Speaker 1:
Did I just say something.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, with all the challenges in real estate these days, with interest rates kind of going up and down and prices skyrocketing, how are you overcoming some of those challenges?
Speaker 1:
I think the biggest thing is just education. I think it's truly having an open communication with our clients and saying you know, this is the reality. This is what you need to understand and set your expectation and you need to. You need to also develop, like your boundaries, and figure out what is comfortable, what is not. Generally, whether it's this market or 10 years ago or whatever the level, the evolution of the comfortability grows as you go through the process. I mean, the comfortability is really really low when you that first time right, but as you go through the process I think you get more comfortable with it. But this market isn't for everybody. You know, what I've told a lot of people is like this market is for people who really need or want to move. They need to upsize because of, you know, family changes, babies. They need to relocate because of jobs Like they're renting, so they've got to get into the market. This isn't a I mean I might want to move.
Speaker 2:
Like that house over there down the street has a pool, so maybe yeah, I mean, we moved in 2020.
Speaker 1:
For that reason, we have four kids and the neighborhood sent out an email saying they weren't opening up the community pool. And I looked at my husband and I was like, well, we can't build a pool in a month, so let's buy this house.
Speaker 2:
But a lot of people did that just got underneath like just right before it got crazy. Was it like the end of 2020?
Speaker 1:
No, it started to get crazy honestly, probably by like July and August. I think July 2020 was one of our craziest busiest like transactional months in like my whole career History.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so that's when it sunk in. You feel like for everybody and everyone's like okay, we're gonna.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and thank god, we wrote a contract in june, so you got like just under the radar. We wrote a contract in june and like three days later they received two more, but we were already under contract. Oh, wow, I was like and are you guys still in the house? We are, yeah, yeah, and I will die in that house. Yeah you're like this is it, we're golden, yeah, unless all of my children move to like different states, and then I'll sell it and buy like small condos.
Speaker 2:
Yes, One by each of them. Yeah, yes, we talked about that too. Yes, Definitely. But aside from that, I'm staying in this house, staying there. Yeah, I'll put an elevator in. I want to back up for a minute, for when you got, when you were saying that you got into real estate after selling those three homes, did you have someone that kind of took you under your wing? Did you have a mentor or somebody that helped like guide you in that process? I mean, I think I had a lot.
Speaker 1:
I think that when it comes to mentors, you kind of have to associate with the person that is establishing or living in that one thing that you want to do or you want to emulate, and so I think it's really difficult to really scale upwards only looking at one person One, because you're your own person, you're never going to do it the same way and you need to kind of look at an array of things and, like you know, and also when you're getting started, you don't know exactly what is going to fit for you. So I mean, I believe that certainly you should be looking at people and you don't want to try a billion things like real estate. You know, agents and marketers to real estate agents love the bright and shiny, but I definitely think that the you know old adage of the five people you surround yourself with yeah, so don't pick one, pick like three or four and like figure out what you love that they're doing really, really well.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and then do that and learn something from each of them.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, a little bit.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah. What do you find most rewarding about what you do?
Speaker 1:
Um one. I love a challenge I get. I would get bored in a nine to five. So one of the things I love is that, although everything is, in theory, always the same, you're dealing with people. Everything is always different. Every transaction has different buyers, different sellers, different agents, different loan officers, different personalities oh my gosh Different budget. Everything, um, you can never replicate and there's always something new. So it's keeping you on your toes.
Speaker 1:
I've done this for 20 years and even now I'm like that's new, know how to handle it, but that's new, um, I love that and, honestly, I really take pride in my clients understanding what they're getting into, um, and that means a lot to me because I really feel like when they get through to the end, they're really happy with their decisions and they feel like they were their decisions Right, um, and you didn't push them into any direction. I've no, and I've never, I've never felt like I had a client buy a house that I didn't agree with. I mean, it's not up to me to agree, it's for them, but it feels good when you feel aligned with it.
Speaker 2:
Right, you weren't sitting there in the background being like what they shouldn't be doing. That I can't afford it.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, exactly Like you want to feel aligned, that you're like helping, you know, and it's like symbiotic and I just I really love that. I have relationships with hundreds of my clients who are now friends. I mean, right, legitimately, people have come legitimately in your wedding in my wedding multiple of them. Actually, there was like multiple people that I've been, that I've had clients and that are just now really good friends. Yeah, so that's awesome.
Speaker 2:
That is awesome. Yeah, Are there any last parting words you'd like to leave us with? Some, maybe business advice, a mantra that you live your life by?
Speaker 1:
Um just be good. I mean, I think honestly if I, if I have to talk about living a mantra of what like what I do every day, is like it's really important for me to go to bed at night knowing I lived within my integrity always, so like no one else's behavior should be able to impact my behavior and my decisions, and I think that's just really important for anybody in life. Right, like you can't control that, you can control you. Yep, you can't control what you can control you?
Speaker 2:
Yep, you can't control what they say, but you can control how you react.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and you can't really control your emotions, but you control how you distribute them. You can control how you react and like your behavior around them. You know, like I can't control if I feel upset, but I can control how that, how I perceive it, like how I put that out there, right, yeah?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and how, yeah, how you transpire to your clients and your family and everything, yeah, everything, yeah. I love that. Well, thank you for being here today. It was a pleasure to meet you, thank you for sharing your story with us today.
