WELCOME LISTENERS

[00:00:00] Paul Neal: Welcome listeners today’s podcast. I have the exciting opportunity to interview a great friend of mine, Carlyn Menser. She is a top 10 real estate agent on the peninsula here in Virginia she’s owner of the peninsula branch of anchor Realty group. Married and not only just a married wife, but a mom of two kids, Wyatt and Willow.

I don’t know how she finds all the time to do, to do what she does, but we’re gonna find out today, so welcome Carlyn. Hello, Paul. . We’re so glad you’re here today. And just a funny story. You’re telling me on the way over here, you’re just kind of popped in here at the last minute to catch a plane, to help out a friend, huh?

[00:00:39] Carlyn Menser: yeah, I, well, I have I had, I had a flight leaving outta Norfolk at three 30 today. And so I knew that there was this. Shared workspace that had a podcast room. And so I was like, that’s perfect. I’ll leave at one. I’ll me. I’ll leave at 12. I’ll get over there. I’ll do the podcast. I’ll go straight to the airport.

It’s great. It’s fine. And they don’t have any air conditioning. [00:01:00] 

[00:01:00] Paul Neal: well, you solved about 95% of the problems, you know, air conditioning. 

[00:01:03] Carlyn Menser: I mean, I’ll never see those people next to the plane. If I smell bad on the ride, never see it again.

[00:01:08] Paul Neal: Awesome. Awesome. Yes. All right. So that must have been what happened on my last flight. Anyway, so before we get into your, your stellar career in real estate, tell, tell us, tell us, how’d you get in real estate, how long you been in, what started? 

[00:01:22] Carlyn Menser: Give us a story. It’s a great story. So. All through like elementary, middle, and high school, I danced and I did theater.

And as you know, that’s a very lucrative career . And so I went to an out of state private college my freshman year and spent a lot of money and decided that you know, it wasn’t really what I wanted. And so I came home every weekend and my dad was like, Hey you’re spending all this money and you.

There . So long story short, I moved back home and I started working at a bank and I decided that I was gonna be my own adult and no one was gonna [00:02:00] tell me what to do. So I rented a house and quickly learned that it costs a lot of money to not live at your parents’ house. And so. I was trying to cash flow my degree.

I was going to a community college and I was doing like a two plus two agreement with the four year college ODU that’s here. And I got my associates in marketing and I was working on getting, I actually ended up getting a degree in business management and marketing before I did the two plus two, and I was looking for a marketing job and this big, bigger local real estate company, my cousin worked there and she said they were hiring someone in their marketing department.

I was like, well, perfect. I’ll go work there. And so I had to get my real estate license. So I had know all the rules and all the laws of real estate and advertising and fair housing and all that fun stuff. And I I don’t know what I did there. like, I didn’t really have a job title. I did like a big planning and forms.

I kept the agents document. I mean, I just had the most random job, [00:03:00] but I had a real estate license and I was exposed to. Everything. And, you know, at the time it was just a bunch of grunt work. And, you know, I was the low man on the totem pole and I just observed, and I developed relationships and I started asking questions and I’m like, I can do this.

Like, I can totally do this . And so it just evolved. And then I started helping the manager with corporate relocation and that was like a huge eye opening experience for me. And then, you know, we all lived through 2008 through 2011 and I quickly . I quickly was like, oh my gosh, like, this is some serious craziness going on here, but in the midst of all that like we my husband was on staff at a church and we were, we got married in 2009 and a big part.

Our beginning marriage was of course fighting about money. And so we went through Dave Ramsey’s program and It changed our life. And so [00:04:00] when all of that happened, I was like big on the agents in our office, you know, I’m a little brat, 23 year old telling these agents how to manage their money, you know?

And so that didn’t go over very well. 

[00:04:09] Paul Neal: imagine 

[00:04:10] Carlyn Menser: that. But as I started selling real estate and as we started, like really getting serious. Generating and building wealth. Like we wanted to share that with other people because we just totally found the freedom in that. And that’s just kind of where it’s all evolved from.

Is I just quickly learned that, Hey, if I could talk to these people and recognize like, maybe they’re not ready, like maybe they need to come back to me in a year or two years or whatever. You know, that I would have a much longer lasting impact on them and their financial growth. If we didn’t just rush into all of this.

And I mean, now looking back, I’m like what a blessing it was that I was like kind of exposed to the worst real estate market that ever happened, because yeah, it, it gives me a very cautious air, but also, you know, you’re able to tell people like, It’s not that bad. Like like, even through all of that stuff, like this is how our area survived.

And this is how our area, you know, was, [00:05:00] was hibernating almost from all of the madness that was going on nationally. Where I worked was with a lot of the top agents in our area. And I mean, we just had some machines and they were, you know, time block in and I mean, just rocking and rolling. And so I learned a lot about what to do from them.

I learned a lot about what not to do from them. But I just would sit around and absorb all this information and I’m like, I’m gonna do that, or I’m not gonna do that. You know? And I think it just created this, you know, desire in me to really, really want to learn how to do everything really well. And so then in 2000, Ooh.

I wanna say 11. I went over to anchor. So I’ve been doing this for 17, yeah. 17 years. O all. Wow. So I know, I know I looked so much younger than[00:06:00] 

[00:06:00] Paul Neal: we won’t do the math over 

[00:06:02] Carlyn Menser: here. It’s okay. It’s fine. It’s fine. It’s fine. I don’t get a R P magazines yet. So I think I’m still good for a little, well, that’s 

[00:06:09] Paul Neal: good. That’s good. Yeah, I have, I haven’t gotten there. Well, actually I started getting their mail not too long ago, but I don’t qualify yet. good. I D why they send it to me, but so, so that’s, that’s pretty cool story.

So you, so really your. I mean this whole experience of what do they call it today? Adulting adulting early, right? Yeah. Leaving school, getting a house. I mean, you must have been like what, 18, 19, when you did that. Mm-hmm yeah. And you’re like, oh my gosh, I’ve got, I’ve got electricity bills. and I’ve got rent.

And then, 

[00:06:42] Carlyn Menser: yeah, I mean, my, so one of my aunts, her husband. Was like an accountant or whatever. He was the family tax preparer. And I remember the first time he did my taxes calling and being so mad. I’m like they took social security. I don’t even get social security. They took all this outta my check and he’s [00:07:00] like, welcome to America.

This is, you know, and I was so mad, but yeah, it was, I mean, and I’m, you know, I’m super thankful that I had the opportunity as young as I did. Cause I worked at restaurants. I mean, I had all kinds of crazy jobs when I was in middle school and high school and. There was, there was one fun time where I wrecked both of my dad’s cars in one accident.

And yeah, that’s a story for another time. I let my unlicensed friend drive it. I had to go, I had to get my hair done pole. There was very important things happening and but anyways, to pay him back, I worked for a cleaning company and, and. Man, once you do stuff like that, you’re like, I will never leave anything, a mess again.

Like I will never, you know, but I joke all the time. I’m like, if I hadn’t worked for that cleaning company, I wouldn’t know how to vacuum theses into my carpet, you know, vacuuming now. And I know how to clean a bathroom correctly. The fact that I got all those, you know, hard jobs out of the way when I was younger, it, it is just [00:08:00] set me up to really appreciate the people around me that help with those.

[00:08:04] Paul Neal: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, there’s a lot today. We there’s so much, it seems like in, in culturally that today kids, and maybe it’s the social media and all that, but they, they wanna start at the top. Right. And they want mm-hmm , I’m sure you see this as a realtor, we see it on the loan side somewhere, you know, a first time home buyer wants to buy, you know, the $2 million house, you know, and you know, they, you know, they just started working or they haven’t even started working yet, you know, and we, my wife and I, Becky we’d always laugh cuz we, we, we used to like to really watch.

Those shows, you know, where they’d make over the home and then, oh God, you know, they’d flip it. Right. And, and we’re. We’re like, you know, they always had, like, the husband was a, was a you know, he was a stay at home astronaut and the wife paint painted, you know, art for a living and were like, oh, what’s your budget and sharpened crayons.

Right. And they what’s your budget. Oh, it’s 2.3 million. They were like, what? Okay. You lost 

[00:08:58] Carlyn Menser: me there. Like [00:09:00] I always tell our agents. I’m like, whenever you sit down with the first home buyer, the first rule is they should get pre-qualified. And the second rule is they’re never allowed to watch ACDB again, like it’s such a lie.

[00:09:11] Paul Neal: Say’s totally a lie. Totally lie. And it’s, it’s good. And you have to probably do a lot of setting people’s expectations straight don’t you? 

[00:09:17] Carlyn Menser: Oh, gosh. I mean, that is. Honestly, like being the emotional barometer and managing people’s expectations is 75% of the job. And I jokingly tell people all the time, cause they’re like, well, I can sell my house for sale by owner.

And like, I can take pictures. I’m like, absolutely. I’m like, that’s actually the easiest part of my job. I was like, you know, that’s no problem at all. Cause we hire people to do that, you know? Right. I was like, but getting this thing to close and you and your wife still being married at the end, that’s gonna be a whole nother thing.

we have to, we have to get you to that point. 

[00:09:46] Paul Neal: So, so you wear multiple hats, right? It’s not just signing the contract and yeah, I mean, what makes a great real estate agent, I mean, to be in the top 10 and have so much experience, I mean, you you’ve seen it all, you you’ve experienced a lot, not all maybe, but a lot.

But I [00:10:00] think, you know, what makes a great realtor? What, what do you see as the big characteristics? 

[00:10:04] Carlyn Menser: I mean, if I was gonna be interviewing someone, I would want to know that they had the ability to maintain relationships, not just with you know, me as the client, but I think a huge part of what I have thrived for is to maintain relationships with the other agents in our industry.

Mm-hmm it is incredibly difficult if there’s a difficult co-broke on the other side and you don’t already have a relationship and. In this market that we’re, you know, hopefully coming out of it feels like we might be coming outta. It was imperative that, you know, I had relationships with agents because you had, you had no chance.

I mean, the, the offers were already crazy. Everything in, it was beautiful as far as money was concerned. And so, you know, I would sit down with my sellers and I would say, You know, apples to apples, the financials on these are identical. The big difference is one of these agents I’ve worked with before and they’re great to work with, and they are great at communicating and they don’t miss deadlines.

And I know we’re not gonna have issues with [00:11:00] them, this other person. , you know and I think that. In our industry. It’s super weird, cuz they’re not our coworkers. You know, like we don’t have the same boss, but we still work with them all the time. And, and that’s a huge part of our job. The other part of our job is just paying attention and learning how to play offense instead of defense.

Because if you’re playing defense in a real estate transaction, you’re too late and something’s gonna go incredibly wrong. You know, I have an amazing transaction coordinator. She’s like amazing, which she, her, one of my funny stories involves her. So we’ll have to come back to her, but You know, one of the things that she is incredibly good at is ensuring that our timelines and everything are so proactive, that we leave intentional room for things to go wrong, because we know they’re gonna go wrong, you know?

And there’s so many things that you can prevent from happening during a regular real estate transaction. If you just effectively communicate and you do things in a, you know, efficient [00:12:00] time manner. And so that, I mean, that’s one of the biggest things that we. Really push on is ensuring that the transaction like I, I generally tell my clients, I’m like, my job is to make it look like you’re a duck going from one side of the pond to the other and just smiling at everybody.

And I’m defeat doing this the whole time. Just moving along 

[00:12:19] Paul Neal: fast possible. Right. So, because it’s because that’s, that’s a you know, from a client standpoint, if you know, buying or selling a house is yeah. I forget the rank order of the most stressful events in your life, right? Yeah. You know, giving birth, maybe dying is probably a stressful bit in your life, depending on your faith.

[00:12:35] Carlyn Menser: I don’t know, Paul, so 

[00:12:38] Paul Neal: yeah, I know. Right. But, but buying a house, selling a house, that’s, that’s a big deal and there’s, there’s, I mean, it’s a huge asset. It’s a, you know you know, and it, it’s not like you can hit the reboot button, you know, 30 days after you engage in this transaction. Right. Right. So you gotta make sure it’s done up front.

If you’re transitioning in and out of an area or job, you get [00:13:00] schools starting for kids, you got all kinds of things going on that you know, it helps to, you know, I, somebody asked me on a, on a show the other day that I was a guest on about, you know, what I, the best advice I’ve gotten in business before.

And, and I think it’s getting a mentor. You know, or a coach or somebody that’s a third party that kind of, you know, they can quarterback the situation. They’re not emotionally involved in the, in, in the business that you’re in, but they can give you guidance. And that’s kind of what you are, right? I mean, you’re a, on each of these transactions, you’re a, you’re a coach, you’re a mentor.

You see the field, you see all the players. You know, all the players. Yeah. Which makes incredibly cause. Cuz if I’m trying to do it myself, I don’t know who is, you know, what or whatever. Right. I don’t know the, I don’t know the mine fields. I don’t know the pitfalls. I don’t know that, you know, you know what questions to ask because you don’t hear the dogs that don’t park.

Right. So it’s like, well, I don’t know until I step into it. And so that’s, I mean, that’s, that’s valuable. And, and you said the only thing I heard was margin, I keep hearing, I keep hearing from you two, two things, relationships, and you talk [00:14:00] about play offense and it sounds like. It’s really it’s it’s, it’s sort of people and systems mm-hmm, kinda a combination of the two, right?

Mm-hmm because you kind of need both to make it to be a, a top producer or what I call the entrepreneurial agent. Right. You’re really building a business. 

[00:14:14] Carlyn Menser: Right. Yeah, and I mean, I recognize my weaknesses and I’m a terrible driver and I’m bad at, at details. . And so but I’m really good at hiring good people that are good at details.

So I feel like that’s one of my strengths. So we had a summer intern that started with us two or three summers ago. And we were at a team meeting and Heather, my transaction coordinator is so funny. I love her to death and she knows me. I mean, we work. We’re so close and so tight. She thinks what I, I mean, she knows me at this point, but she looked at him and he, you know, he was a freshman in college or I, I don’t know, you know, 18, 19 year old kid.

And he had all these questions, you know, and he would wait until. You know, I was done with the meeting or whatever, and he would try [00:15:00] to he’s like, I, I had all these questions for her and she’s like, you gotta learn. She’s like, Amtrack when she comes through here, if you don’t get on and ask your question, you’re gonna miss the whole train

And like, he’s like, you can’t wait for her to come back and have a dull moment in the office cuz that’s never gonna happen. You know? So, you know, I’ve taken. My speed is way different than everybody else’s speed, but we need those people that go 20 and 30 miles an hour, because there’s stuff that you miss when you’re driving down the interstate, you don’t pay attention to some stuff on the side of the road.

But if, if you have those people in place and like the people that are on my team, they’re not only good at it. Like that’s what they enjoy. And if I, you know, their team player, so if I say, Hey, you gotta do this today. You know, I know deep down, like they don’t wanna go talk to that person. Like they don’t wanna go meet this appraiser.

Like, like I would sit there and talk to ’em the whole time and it’d be a great old time for me. And it’s totally in my gifting, but they’ll do it, but it’s still like, not their best use, you know, like it’s just, it’s hard to But I’m like stick to what you’re good [00:16:00] at. Like let’s just stay in our lanes.

[00:16:02] Paul Neal: well, and that’s, I mean, that’s, that’s a lot of wisdom though. I mean, you know, and that’s, that is the difference between having a, you know, highly paid job where you, you have to do everything you’re trading time for dollars, you know, if you don’t show up the world crashes versus having, we talk about, you know, having the right people, but on the bus, but then on, in the right seats, right?

Yeah. So they’re, they’re in their gifted zone. You guys compliment each other. You look out for you don’t want a bunch of Carlins you only need one Carlin right in your team. Right. Be some tired. There’d be some tired 

[00:16:31] Carlyn Menser: people in our office. 

[00:16:32] Paul Neal: If there’s one, one of me, , I’m feeling it. I’m telling you. Wow. Tell you what?

No, that’s, that’s, that’s awesome. That’s awesome. Now, now you do residential, but you also do commercial, right? I mean, tell, tell I do what this is all about. 

[00:16:44] Carlyn Menser: So they’re both fun in their own. Right. And you know, one of the things that I really like, I love, you know, the excitement. No day being the same day.

You know, I love that everything is different and still people, but [00:17:00] everything is different. Mm-hmm in commercial. There’s like far less emotion in it, but there is still excitement because at the heart of it, it’s still a person it’s still somebody making their dream a reality. It’s still somebody.

Pushing a business and you get to see things like, you know, I’ve definitely met with people and they’re like, this is what I wanna do. You know, I wanna open up a coffee, roasting art studio or whatever, you know? OK. And you’re like, Ooh, this is gonna work. And then it happens and you’re like, huh, well, you fooled me there.

You know? But we have, you know, we have done so many fun commercial projects. We’ve represented a private school. We’ve done. Like one of ’em was this girl that I’ve known for a long time and she was renting booth space and doing hair, and then she opened up her own studio. And now she’s, you know, she’s getting booth rental from other people now.

And I. You know, this is, this is gonna change the trajectory of your financial future, and you’re not doing really anything different other than working smarter. You know, mm-hmm, , you’re already paying for the space that [00:18:00] you’re in. Why not get a little bit more and generate that residual income that. You know, doesn’t require you to go to work.

And so and, and with the commercial space, you, you would think that because it’s less emotional and it’s not, I mean, your house is your home. It’s your safe place. It’s your largest investment for most people, it’s more money than they’ve ever borrowed on anything else. And so even if they’re the most financially sound people in the world, you typically.

A mortgage of, you know and so I think that the emotional barometer of that, you know, changes because it’s their home in commercial, you know, you’re, you’re kind of, you’re there for the excitement part of it. You’re there for the part where they’re like, oh my gosh, this is so awesome. And I’m gonna make this thing a reality, you know, we’ve outgrown our space or we have totally, you know, busted our business at the scenes and we’re ready to open a second location or, you know, whatever it is.

Mm-hmm, But, you know, that part of it is just, and I do like numbers. Like I love seeing, you know, [00:19:00] especially money. It gets it’s exciting. so, and like, my brain just works. Like I, I showed a building You know, I don’t know, two days ago or whatever. And I knew that it was like 4,000 square feet, too big for my client.

And we walked around and she loved it. And she was just like, I don’t know. I mean, I’ll just have all this extra space. And I was like, you’re not gonna have extra space. I was like, we’re gonna put a firewall in. You’re gonna rent the other side. She’s like, That’s right. I’m like, yeah. Lemme tell you the numbers and even on a conservative basis, look at this.

And she’s like, Ooh, I like that. I’m like, yeah. Yes. And so just being creative and, you know, putting all the puzzle pieces together and, you know, I go in and I cause this big dream of a storm and think of all these crazy things. And then, you know, I’m like, all right, well, you gotta call this person to actually make that happen.

you 

[00:19:49] Paul Neal: know? Yeah. Well, you’re a VI. Yeah, that’s, you’re a visionary. I mean, I think that the cool thing is with commercial. Because we do that too, is the, you know, every project is different, right? Yeah. [00:20:00] And every person’s, I mean, the home we, we sort of have that, we know what that does, and we all have one and it’s critically important.

And that’s part of your dream too. But if you have a business, your business has to live. Right. And you know, and it’s like, wow, if I’m gonna own my own home and I’m gonna pay, why would I rent a home for 30 years? If I know I’m have to live somewhere. If my business has to live somewhere right. Then why don’t I own the building?

And then maybe, yeah, I can rent some of that out. Let somebody else pay the freight. I have this great asset that, that over time is just gonna appreciate and value. And then, you know, and, and it adds value to the business and I can do with it, what I wanna do with it. Right. Yeah. 

[00:20:34] Carlyn Menser: And I have all these people over the years who have been like, I’m gonna sell my business.

And, you know, and, and I look at it and I’m like, well, what are you selling? Mm-hmm , I’m like, look, you rent your space. Most of us, especially small businesses, the value is in the, the person who’s generating all this stuff, you know? Right. If you’re a mechanic, unless you have a building, like you are the value you are in a business, you [00:21:00] know?

And, and so I’m like, but if you have a building. Like you can sell your business or your book of business or whatever for some amount and be great for a little bit. But then when you’re, you know, living it up in Florida or doing whatever you’re doing, you still own that building and somebody else will come in there and still pay you rent, you know, like that’s, that’s the beauty of it.

And then when you’re like, Hey, I’m done being a landlord, you sell it and cash out. that’s 

[00:21:23] Paul Neal: right. So that’s right. It’s no, you hit on so many points. I mean, it is the value. The business goes up significantly with that building. The retirement stream, potentially the, the, the capital, you know, gain when you sell, it’s just, it.

It’s just awesome. And, and, you know, it’s, I can see someone like you liking to work in these different situations because they are all unique, right? Yeah. The stories are interesting. I have one right now. We’re actually closing today. It’s a commercial, but as a restaurant owner, and he’d been in that location for eight years, his landlord comes to him and says, I’m gonna sell the building.

He’s like, oh my gosh, I have, I’ve built all my local [00:22:00] clientele here. My business is based here. If I have to move, I don’t know if I’ll lose, you know, 20, 30, 40% of my customers. I don’t know where I could go build out the kitchen anyway. So they’re closing today. They’re gonna, so for them it was defensive, right?

They get to, yeah. Now they control their, their future versus being at the whim of somebody else’s, you know, desire for a property or, or whatnot. 

[00:22:21] Carlyn Menser: Yeah. And, and. Seeing that side of everything makes me want to definitely for myself and encourage my clients. I’m like, if you’re a good landlord and you take care of people like that is gonna take you so much for, and I don’t know why those people are still in their building, it may not be something ill willed or unintended, you know?

Yeah. But like if you’re planning and you include your tenants in that plan, whatever that is, like you could maintain some sort. Relationship with that person that’s mutually beneficial and there’s financial gain for both of you, you know, and I mean, long term tenants are beautiful and. Always, and I tell people this all the [00:23:00] time, there’s always a place in time where it makes more sense to rent.

Sure. Like I am not gonna sit here and say to you on a residential or a commercial side, that buying is the only, you know, it, there’s tons of reasons why it makes more sense to rent if you’re trying on new business and you don’t know really what your square footage need, you know? Absolutely. You need to, you don’t need to buy something that’s right.

But, you know, maintaining the relationship with the tenants as a landlord is a huge. Easy thing to do to secure your financial asset. I mean, it’s just like, I feel like it’s common sense, but you would be surprised at, at how uncommon that sense is 

[00:23:37] Paul Neal: I get that. Yeah. I don’t know why they call it common, you know, it’s uncommon sense, right?

No, it’s definitely not anymore. That’s for sure. 

[00:23:44] Carlyn Menser: That’s not gotta be our book. We can write a book ball 

[00:23:45] Paul Neal: called uncommon uncommon sense. There you go. Well, speaking of that book, we’re gonna change gears here and we’re gonna get. We’re gonna get some stories for that book right now, so, okay. I want you to, I want you to tell me some of your fun or craziest real estate [00:24:00] transactions or experiences.

[00:24:02] Carlyn Menser: Oh, geez. There’s so many good ones, but the one that’s about Heather. So Heather, my transaction coordinator worked at a huge law firm and she was a paralegal and, you know, like, War, you know, very business attire. They had all these policies, you know, and then she comes to work for me. and I’m like, Hey, you wanna come to my living room and like, get in the car.

We’re going, you know, like it’s just total chaos. Yeah. And I don’t know, maybe three months in two months in whatever one of my investor clients was like, Hey, I got tenants going outta this property. You know, I wanna list it. I’m gonna, you know, get this outta my inventory. Can you go and see you know, what needs to be done to put the house on the market?

I’m like, sure. You know, whatever. And you know, I don’t watch scary movies because my whole day is going to places where people could be hiding or jumping . So I don’t need any of those mental images in my head. Right. But I don’t ever, I don’t ever put myself in weird situations or where I’m alone and you know sure.

So I, I was like I need you to come with me. I need you to get in the car and [00:25:00] you’re gonna come with me to this house. And she’s like, OK. So we go to this house and. It’s trashed and it’s a mess and it’s gonna be a mess and the yard’s ever grown and everything’s crazy. Well, I had like a very tight timeline per usual.

I fit a lot of things in the day and my calendar does not have a lot of wiggle room in it. And. I get in my car and realize that we are covered in, please like all over my leg. Oh, all over my arms. Like everything I know. I know. So I’m having to like brush these please off as best I can. And I, but I had. I had somebody come into our office to meet with me.

Like I could not be late. And so she had, I worked for me that long and we got to the office. I’m like, I’m not bringing these sleeves in the office. And she’s like, what are you gonna do? Cause she was gonna go and shower and change her clothes and be great. And I still had to be, be on, you know, I was like, here’s what we’re gonna do.

I like, I’m gonna take my pants.

And so she literally tells everybody she’s [00:26:00] like, yeah, we don’t really have an HR manual. She’s like the first months I worked with her handed me, her pants to shake out like, you know, wow. I know that’s a good story. 

[00:26:11] Paul Neal: Oh my gosh. Yeah. It’s like, welcome to welcome to the team. We’re a family. 

[00:26:16] Carlyn Menser: And anytime anybody gets hurt, I’m like, it’s only a matter of time before I have to.

You have to do something very 

[00:26:21] Paul Neal: weird. Well, you have to pull your pants off, you know, and shake ’em out. You know, we’re, we’re, we’re grated here, but you might have to shake off outside. Yeah. 

[00:26:30] Carlyn Menser: In 20. 15 or 2016 when the market was a little bit different. And I was working with a lot of investors flipping.

I recognized that we had a huge shortage on staging companies in our area. And I was so tired of dealing with their nonsense. Like they couldn’t do stuff on time. They had old inventory. So I was like, you know what? This is over. We’re starting a staging company. We’re staging 

[00:26:52] Paul Neal: from 1988 here. Right. 

[00:26:54] Carlyn Menser: So we started a staging company.

And I stage all my own listings and then I have we stage for other agents too, [00:27:00] but we were staging, oh gosh, we were staging this house. And we went down to check on it and there was a homeless man. Sleeping and living on our, on our staging furniture oh, no. In his vacant house. my sweet little Stager’s like there’s somebody sleeping.

[00:27:19] Paul Neal: I’m did he haves? Did he have flees? No, no nos, 

[00:27:23] Carlyn Menser: but I’m like. He probably needs this more than we do, but we’re gonna go ahead and give him all the sheets and stuff, cuz we’re never using them again. Yeah, yeah. You know, but, and I mean, oh my gosh, the stuff that like I joke all the time, my friend owns a very nice salon and she gets all the tea.

Like she gets all the gossip all the time. You know, she knows everything already. Yes. Yes. Well, I’m like you think, you know, a lot about people. I was like, I always know first , you know, who’s pregnant, who’s getting divorced. Like I know all of it because they call us and we, and we go over there. And so yeah, the things that we’ve [00:28:00] heard on appointments.

Oh my gosh. 

[00:28:02] Paul Neal: oh, my it’s amazing. You know, I, we hear it too. And it’s kind of funny because like, People are interesting. You know, my wife is, she works in physical therapy and she says she closes the door and the things that people just start talking to, you know, I mean, it’s just amazing when you get into their life, you get into their life situation and that’s what you guys are, right.

It’s part of their life. Right? You become that partner and. And you’re a trusted advisor. So, you know, they, they trust you and they, they know you’re not gonna go on a podcast somewhere and talk about them. 

[00:28:31] Carlyn Menser: yeah. I mean, what is sometimes it’s genuinely helpful for us to know? Cause I always say, why are you moving?

Like I always ask the question. I’m like, what’s your why I need to know your why? If they’re starting a business, I’m like, I need to know why you’re doing this business. I need to know why you’re passionate about this or whatever. And then it naturally. Come down yeah. Yeah. Whatever. And, and a lot of times it is for happy and great reasons.

And a lot of times, like we walk with people through horrific situations and, you know, it’s, it [00:29:00] is sometimes a very emotionally weight carrying position because, you know, people don’t always sell for the happiest of reasons. Right. So, right. It, you know, when you’re, there’s, there’s pros and cons to being at that, you know, relational equity level with people.

[00:29:15] Paul Neal: Yeah. Yeah. You’re invest. You’re totally invested with them. And I mean, I think you, you, to be, I think that’s a reason why you’re so successful is that you’ll, you’re willing to go there and be that person and, and, and try. Cause again, we started off with, it’s such a, it’s such an emotional, stressful experience for whatever reason, like you said, whatever the motivation is, even if it’s super positive, it can.

It’s stressful. And if it’s negative, that just, I can only imagine the compounding, you know, issues that you deal with. So Carl we’re we’re about out of time. I can’t believe it. I have like a list of other things I wanna talk to you about and we’ll have to do this again because I wanna, I wanna talk more about all your community involvement and things you do, cuz I know you’re super involved there.

You got a few other businesses that I’ve seen the pictures with the welding [00:30:00] mask and things like that. But that’s 2.0 versus yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But tell, tell everyone, how can they get in contact with you or your team? You know, if they wanna, they wanna buy house, sell the house they’re in, or maybe they know somebody that’s looking to do that.

Yeah, 

[00:30:14] Carlyn Menser: well I give my cell phone number out to everybody, but we have we’re anchor Realty, group peninsula. If you wanna follow us on Facebook, I’m Carlin 7 57 on Instagram. I’m Carlin 7 57. Facebook is kind of our inventory and a little bit more of our business page Instagram. I love it to be our.

Scenes and you get to know all the personalities in our office and all the shenanigans that we’re up to on a regular basis. So if you’re in for some real estate comedy, I would go to the Instagram page. 

[00:30:46] Paul Neal: do you have TikTok yet? Or you set up there or 

[00:30:49] Carlyn Menser: no. I mean, you have to, you have to limit yourself to how cool you are.

Paul. I just, I just, I’m very aware of my cool factor and I just can’t do 

[00:30:58] Paul Neal: it, you know? No, you’ve got a cool [00:31:00] factor. It’s higher than my cool factor. I’ll tell you that for sure. 

[00:31:03] Carlyn Menser: I’m like. I I’ve tried to like, pretend that I’m like, we we’re, we make reels and I feel like that’s for my age, that’s the most appropriate place for me to stay.

[00:31:13] Paul Neal: All right. Well, we’ll go with that. So Instagram, Facebook, and your phone number. Can we have your phone number? 

Yes, 

[00:31:20] Carlyn Menser: it’s (757) 879-9759. 

[00:31:25] Paul Neal: Awesome. And we’ll get all this in the show notes as well. So it’ll be there. Be clickable, click up car. So love it. Well, Carl, this has been. Yeah, 

[00:31:33] Carlyn Menser: we’ll have to do it again.

I can bring some friends along next time. 

[00:31:36] Paul Neal: Yeah. May, maybe Heather, we want to hear about, have some, maybe some more stories that Heather will tell us that you won’t 

[00:31:42] Carlyn Menser: tell us. Oh, I wouldn’t tell. She would tell you stories about me and I’m not gonna volunteer that. 

[00:31:48] Paul Neal: precisely while we’ll have her on have a safe trip today, your flight to Indianapolis, I think you said.

And and we’ll catch up soon. Okay. Thanks, Paul. Bye.[00:32:00]