The Alimond Show
Welcome to The Alimond Show --join us as we share our entrepreneurial guests' stories, uncover their secrets to success, and explore the unique paths they've taken to build thriving businesses in our community.
In each episode, our host, Aliyah Dastour, sits down with a diverse group of local business owners, from the corner cafe to the boutique shop, from tech startups to family-run enterprises. We peel back the curtain to reveal the trials, triumphs, and transformational moments that have shaped their entrepreneurial journey.
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The Alimond Show
Andrew Robertson - From Special Education to Real Estate Innovator: Building Relationships and Embracing Technology in Winchester, Virginia
Ready to transform your real estate game? In this episode, we sit down with Andrew Robertson, a dynamic real estate agent from Winchester, Virginia, whose journey from special education to real estate success is nothing short of inspiring. Andrew opens up about his passion for helping people find their dream homes in the northern Shenandoah Valley, leveraging his competitive edge and innovative marketing strategies. Get ready to learn why now is the perfect time to get pre-approved for a mortgage and how staying ahead of the curve with social media can make all the difference in buying or selling property.
But that's not all! Andrew delves into the critical importance of building and maintaining strong relationships in the real estate industry. Discover how he grows his network and stays connected with clients to enhance business growth and referral rates. Learn about Next Home Realty Select’s advanced technology, including an exciting upcoming app that promises to revolutionize the buying and selling process. Whether you're a buyer, seller, or simply curious about real estate dynamics, Andrew offers valuable, actionable tips and expert advice that you won't want to miss. Tune in and elevate your real estate knowledge today!
Andrew Robertson. I am a real estate agent and I work out of Winchester, Virginia. I work for Next Home Realty Select. It's the brokerage that I work for.
Speaker 2:Okay, and do you guys have, like, a specialty in properties or anything specific?
Speaker 1:Focus is on residential. Okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:Nice. Typically when clients are coming to you, what are they looking for or what do you help them with?
Speaker 1:Generally, we're looking for single family homes detached in the northern Chindoa Valley, Clark County, Frederick County, Warren County area. Most of the time, our sellers are looking to upgrade in what they currently own.
Speaker 2:Okay, and can you give us a little bit of a background about yourself and how you got into the industry that you're in right now?
Speaker 1:Sure. So COVID is actually part of the reason why I got into real estate, because I worked in the school district for a long time and during COVID everything kind of slowed down and stopped. So I took the real estate online course during that time to keep myself busy and once I got that I went and took my license, got my license and then I started looking around for different brokerages and I ended up at Next Home.
Speaker 2:Okay, pretty cool. And then, what type of job did you do in education before that? Were you a principal, a teacher?
Speaker 1:I was a teacher, a teacher and a coach.
Speaker 2:What did you do in education before that? Were you a principal, a teacher. I was a teacher, a teacher and a coach.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what did? What did you teach and coach? I was in special education, okay, and then I coached football and track and field for 10 years.
Speaker 2:Okay, so a sport, something that you like I do, I, I love sports.
Speaker 1:I like coaching too. I I haven't I've coached my kids in some sports, but um, yeah, I do. I do love teaching coaching sports. I love football track um baseball, anything really I'm. I like the competitive side of things.
Speaker 2:Okay cool Are you? Do you find yourself being kind of like that in, uh, the real estate world, like a little bit competitive?
Speaker 1:I think so. I like to try to rub elbows with you know, the ones up top that. Up top that are doing things and working hard and making differences, and I look to them for examples and try to find what I can do to help people in real estate.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And tell me about marketing. How are you marketing branding yourself out there online, and what kind of resources are you using to get all that information that you have with potential buyers or clients?
Speaker 1:Sure, Using pretty much all social media aspects Instagram, Facebook, website, Google I use those most commonly. I have a YouTube channel oh cool. Yeah, it's just in the beginning stages so I really haven't got into it too much. Yes, but I'm putting content out there and listings and things like that that go out I'll put on my YouTube channel. My Instagram and Facebook page are one and the same. They kind of work hand in hand with each other. I use those primarily right now. Yes, as well as my website.
Speaker 2:Okay, cool. And what is your YouTube channel called?
Speaker 1:My YouTube is Homes with Robertson.
Speaker 2:Okay, and what kind of content are you putting there? Is it like you talking? Is it like video?
Speaker 1:It's a little bit of a combination of everything, so I'm putting out a lot of educational content, so information for people that are looking to buy or sell the community space, where, where I work, you know what are there, what is there to do in the area. You know those types of things. Um and then, yeah, like tips for for home home buyers and sellers.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Um, speaking of tips, can you give any buyers or sellers some tips right now? Maybe just give us two.
Speaker 1:Sure, yeah, um. Well, I would say for buyers right now don't wait. If you're thinking you're going to wait because something is, don't wait, get yourself. Find a mortgage lender now it's with your own bank. Or go out and shop for lenders. Get the best possible option for you If it's an FHA loan or conventional loan, whatever it might be but get that now, get pre-approved now.
Speaker 1:Conventional loan, whatever it might be, but get that now, get pre-approved now. Don't wait until you think it's time, because when you think it's time, hundreds of other people think it's time and now we're in a much different market. It's actually a really good time right now to be pre-approved looking for houses, because we're starting to see interest rates break a little bit. They're not going to drop dramatically, but they are starting to rates break a little bit. They're not going to drop dramatically, but they are starting to come down a little bit and home prices are staying steady. We're not seeing a huge incline because we're not seeing a rush of buyers. Interest rates are kind of keeping everybody at bay a little bit. So this is actually a really good time where inventory has actually grown over the last six months, so there is a lot more out there for buyers.
Speaker 1:So if you can get pre-approved, do that now. Find a lender and get that ball rolling, because that's kind of the first step. If you don't have that taken care of, you're really not looking to buy a house. Yeah, okay. For sellers, I would say it's still really much a seller's market. Home equity is still on the high end. You're going to get a top dollar for your house. It might not be what you expect, but it's still going to be top dollar. And this is not a bad time to sell. This is a transition time for a lot of people because the summer is coming to an end, school is starting, so it's kind of an interesting time. But if you're looking to sell or you feel like you might want to be looking to upgrade or even downgrade and look to buy a smaller house and use your equity from your home, this is actually a really good time to get yourself again. Look for a lender, look at the banks, get pre-approved for a purchase and then figure out what your best options are for your home.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And how do you handle clients who are coming from other states and that's like a big move or transition for them? How are you helping them settle into their new place or find a location for them?
Speaker 1:Well, I think the first thing is when it comes to purchasing and in your firm out of state, a lot of times getting pre-approved has to do with your job. So if you're working in your current location and you have to find a new job, when you move, generally there's a transition there. So sometimes it's not immediate. Now, if your job is moving you and that transition is because of work and you're not losing a job or gaining, it's not immediate. Now, if your job is moving you and that transition is because of work and you're not losing a job or gaining, it's a little bit easier. But sometimes people are moving because they want to move from where they are and they want to move here for whatever reason, and they're looking for a job. That's a little different. Sometimes you have to move here and maybe rent for a year, year and a half before you can have that job's been long enough and that income shows up. But if you're transitioning from you know one place to another because your job is telling you like, hey, you're going to move here, usually in that situation I try to educate them as much as possible in schools what the school districts are, where they're located, the areas that they want to move to If they're not familiar with the area.
Speaker 1:A lot of times it's trying to get them to understand where is everything? Do you want to be closer to amenities? Does that not matter to you? Because there's places like Berryville, where I live. Things are just a little bit farther away, but it's a small town community and someone might like that over Winchester or Percival which is, you know, amenities are much closer but it's a little bit more hustle, bustle and you know. So that's all kind of. So try and explain how you know every little area is different and where they might prefer to live.
Speaker 2:That's right, true. Why should people come to your brokerage? Why do you think they should work with you?
Speaker 1:I really love what we do at Next Home. We have a completely different perspective on real estate and we have a hashtag. Actually that's franchise-wide, so every next home is individually owned and operated by a broker, but it's a franchise and they all follow the same kind of culture and quality, and the hashtag is called humans over houses, and what that means is that we focus on the people and the relationships we build. Versus selling homes or helping someone buy a home, Our focus as real estate agents is to represent the people that we've gone under contract with. Our fiduciary responsibility is to represent them and make sure that they have the best quality representation. Yes. At the same time, we're also humans and everybody's situation is different. Everybody should be treated the same and helping those people who might not always have the best opportunities and provide them with the most services and resources yeah, so that's what I really love about what we do.
Speaker 1:It's not focused on the dollar, it's focused on the person. Yes, and that is cultural. That is throughout the entire franchise. Anywhere you go state to state, Going back to out-of-state referrals and people moving from out-of-state my referral base is so awesome. Talk to me about that. I can go to our Facebook page our Next Home Facebook page and I can message I am looking for an agent in South Carolina and I'll get 10 responses.
Speaker 2:Nice and.
Speaker 1:I'll be like Greenwood there's somebody there and they have the same mindset that I do, so I can give them a client, they can give me a client, and that mindset doesn't change because we're focused on the client, we're focused on the human that we're working with. Yeah, and that's above everything else.
Speaker 2:Wow, it sounds like building relationships is really important to you guys. Why do you think that is For anybody who's maybe like, yeah, I'll keep a relationship, but I'm trying to be the top seller and sales matter to me and, yes, I do have to care. But for some mentalities that are like that, why do you think it's important to build those relationships? What are some positives that come from that?
Speaker 1:Well, I think the biggest thing is growing your network is how you get business. You know there is lead generation, there is. You know there's the Zillows and Realtorcom, and I think most agents feel like they have to use some of that at some certain level to kind of make sure you're continuing to grow. But what I've seen so far is that the agents that take a lot of time in reaching back out to a client and keeping them in their sphere and working with them, you know, sending them if it's a reminder about, you know, it's been a year, it's been two years, don't forget to do this, don't forget to do that, just those little things. You stay in contact with them and they become a referral source because they're like, oh my gosh, you're looking to buy, you need to use Andrew, he's great, he's been with us, I always can call him for questions, the reach out and just to be available. Um, so that to me, I think, is is why it's important. Um, you, I think you grow much quicker with with a referral base. That's that trusts. Trust you, likes you and knows you. Absolutely so, um, and I think at next home we do a really, really great job at putting not just our clients first, but the technology that's given to us through the franchise and the well, our CRM is top-notch, so our ability to make sure that our contacts are up-to-date and we can, we can flow and we can have automation that keeps us in contact. So we're, you know, still able to do our jobs, but we're making those connections with people. We also have a really cool new app that's going to be coming out and I think, maybe the next six months.
Speaker 1:The CEO of our company, james Dwegan's, has created this brand new app, which I'm really excited to get my hands on and basically what it is. It's kind of like uber eats, but for real estate. So if you're a buyer or a seller, if you think about what Uber Eats is, what do you do? You go in, you order something and then you can see the entire process, from the time the food leaves the restaurant in the car with the delivery to your front door. Wow, same thing with Amazon, right? Like you order something on Amazon, you know hey, it's been shipped, and then you get a picture of it. If you're not home, like hey, it's on your front doorstep. This app is pretty much the same concept, but for real estate. So I'm the Uber driver, I'm the one that is taking you through this process and at the end I'm going to deliver a new home or a sold home and through that process you're going to see everything that's going on.
Speaker 2:That's pretty cool, because it is very cool, whoa.
Speaker 1:And I think it's filling a gap that we've been missing, because I think a lot of people don't understand everything that goes on behind the scenes, the curtains behind the scenes and some of that's on us as realtors, because what are we doing?
Speaker 1:We're trying to protect our client from all the things that are going on. But this is a way of saying listen, my value is in all of these things that I'm doing for you. And there's a lot that's changing in real estate right now and there's going to be bigger changes come in August, where we're going to have to change kind of the way we do things, and because of that, this app that's coming out is going to be really cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it sounds like technology is getting so advanced and helping and making things better for everybody, not just in real estate but in other industries as well, which I think is great and I'm excited about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it started with Zillow, like when Zillow kind of came out on the internet and people were able to access that information that used to be held very tightly by brokerages. You used to have to go to the brokerage and find the information of the homes that were listed. Right Now you can just go online and all that information is already provided for you. So it cuts a little bit of that out for us. Yes, but there's still so much that we do once we're in contract with a client that they don't necessarily see but we're doing for them as part of our, our fiduciary commitment to them as their, as their uh, agent.
Speaker 2:Awesome. You sound so knowledgeable, which is great, obviously. Um, can you tell me? I'm just curious how that transition was from being in the education system to real estate. Like how did you I mean I'm sure you did some testing, got certified, but did you have, like maybe a mentor or a coach help you, because like to catch up with everything up to date.
Speaker 1:I feel like that's wild. There's definitely I mean it's two different types of jobs. I mean one is public service and it's, you know, you're focusing on students. The other one is a sales-based position. You're focusing on students, the other one is a sales-based position.
Speaker 1:I think what I liked about working with my broker, Curtis Seaver, is that he's very knowledgeable and he, at any time, will just, you know, he'll review everything that I have in front of me.
Speaker 1:If it's a contract, you know, any kind of paperwork, front office makes sure that, like, everything is in order, and if it's not, then I I learn like, hey, we got to do this instead of that, make sure this is always filled out, and those types of things.
Speaker 1:So there was a kind of trial by fire where I kind of like, was here and the first six months I was just kind of like learning, watching, you know, watching the other agents in my brokerage and what they were doing. Learning all of the back office stuff, the CRM, how to build my sphere, how to get all my contacts in creating an email, having an email ready to go, having my Facebook page, my business Facebook page, google, building the Instagram like, and starting to just put those things together and then slowly over time. You know, it's just, I've learned a lot in a very short period of time. I feel like I'm also, though I'm in a. I'm in a space where everybody is learning because everything is changing. The way things used to be is not the way it is moving forward, so we're all on the same page.
Speaker 1:We're all moving into a brand new kind of world Real estate era, yeah, real estate era and it's new to everybody and we're all learning what's the best way to go about doing things. So in that sense, I'm like we're all learning now, but I definitely had, yeah, there was definitely a transition time where I was like, okay, and learning what it meant to be an agent. Like I had my own experience when we purchased our first house. Yeah, and that was part of my motivation for becoming a real estate agent, because I saw that transaction that we went through and I was like, huh, I could do that, like that didn't seem too hard and that was. I mean, that was eight, nine years ago from when I was like I'm going to work on getting my real estate license.
Speaker 1:But that was always like, but if he did it, but it did it this way and it was just a transaction and all I've got to do is this and that, and you know that's great, and then I can make a couple thousand dollars off of selling someone else's house. And then, when I went to Next Home and like they kind of laid out everything, yeah, and they were like this is how we do it, this is what matters to us, this is our culture, and I was like, well, this is different and I like this because it met my needs as a person, and so that was something that, when I jumped on with them once I got my license, watching that in person, watching the agents and my broker put that into play, it wasn't just talk, it was. This is what we do on a daily basis.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's great. I love that you have those resources and other, I guess, co-workers or team members, partners.
Speaker 1:It's kind of odd because a lot of times we're all independent contractors, all of us. We work under a brokerage, our license is under a brokerage, but we're all independent, not necessarily working together, but the environment in our office is that we all are working together in some capacity.
Speaker 2:That's great.
Speaker 1:And when we do events or doing things, we're doing things together and you know we all try to. You know you're all individually advertising yourselves or you know, pushing yourself out in the community in some fashion, or we're doing it all under the next home umbrella, and that cultural identity is what we define ourselves with.
Speaker 2:Okay, and where do you see yourself in the next five years as a person and just with your career?
Speaker 1:Well, I see myself doing what I'm doing now. I just hope I'm doing more of it. Yeah, doing what I'm doing now, I just hope I'm doing more of it. Um, so, continuing to build on my referral base and continuing just to help people as as they they need it, um, and providing my services and doing it the way that I think, um is the best way to go about it, which is putting the human first, building that relationship, really figuring out what it is that they need, and then attacking it and going and finding it for them.
Speaker 2:Okay, and since I have you here, is there maybe something that you want to get out there while you have this platform that maybe I didn't touch on for our audience?
Speaker 1:That's a good question. That's probably the first one I have to stop and like, think about, think through yeah, yeah, yeah, take your time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just want to make sure I hit all those key points and that you're able to get.
Speaker 1:Well, this is more, I think, of a personal plug. Okay, yeah, and not necessarily real estate.
Speaker 2:This is why I asked, because otherwise maybe I won't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I live in Berryville, in a small town. I've actually been the vice president of the Main Street organization. It's a nonprofit the vice president of the Main Street organization's nonprofit and that's been really cool to do. That's kind of gotten me really connected in our community and connected with the downtown businesses and working on all the events. And we have a really cool event coming up in August the Saturday the 24th we have a cruise in which is a car show and they fill up the entire downtown Main Street with old classic cars and modified cars and they all just line up and it's just a really cool time. So that's a plug for that. As the vice president of the organization, I want to put that out there.
Speaker 2:Thank you for sharing that. Is there like a website or somewhere where people can like find more details? More upcoming events?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, barryvillemainstreetcom. You just type it in in Google. Just type in Barryville Main Street. Usually it's the first link, but yeah you can go there and go to our events. If no, it's not, if it's um, do you have?
Speaker 2:a mantra that you like to live your life. By that you could leave with our listeners or any sayings that inspire you.
Speaker 1:Take your time, yeah there's, there's one and I and I don't you brought that, I'm and I'm like, oh, there's this one I really like and I can't remember it right now.
Speaker 2:I hate when that happens. I really do.
Speaker 1:If something in your life needs changed, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.
Speaker 2:Oh, I like that.
Speaker 1:So if you have a problem and you can't change the problem, maybe it's your attitude towards the problem that needs to be changed. I think that can resonate with anybody really, yeah, no, that's a good one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that it's all about, like your outlook and mindset. Yeah Right, that's a really good one. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. Thank you for sharing some insights and tips and your stories. We really appreciate your time.
Speaker 1:Thank you for having me Absolutely.