WELCOME LISTENERS

Effectively Work Together as a Married Team in Real Estate with Michael and Erika Amory

The same principles underlie both personal and professional success. You need a set of rules to make everything work—your marriage and your business—so that you may flourish and succeed together. The challenges of co-running a business with your spouse are increased.

Any entrepreneur feels the burden of business development. Some couples discover that a business collaboration causes more conflict. You both have a significant stake in the company, so you enjoy the successes together. You also learn that the difficulties might easily sour your relationship.

Effectively Work Together as a Married Team in Real Estate with Michael and Erika Amory

The same principles underlie both personal and professional success. You need a set of rules to make everything work—your marriage and your business—so that you may flourish and succeed together. The challenges of co-running a business with your spouse are increased.

Any entrepreneur feels the burden of business development. Some couples discover that a business collaboration causes more conflict. You both have a significant stake in the company, so you enjoy the successes together. You also learn that the difficulties might easily sour your relationship.

Intervention demands more work than prevention does. Your relationship strengthens as your firm expands if you can agree on certain fundamental ground rules for cooperation. Prior to a rift forming in your relationship or your business suffering because of stress between the two of you, it is ideal to come to an understanding on ground rules.

Establish rules to keep everything organized. Then adhere to them to avoid interpersonal strain as your firm expands:

  • Define your duties
  • Establish limits
  • Commit to the company
  • Hold team meetings with your spouse
  • Show each other respect and trust

Michael and Erika Amory join The Entrepreneurial Agent to talk about how to work together as a couple, the importance of complementarity between data-driven and creative personalities, what is the state and the expectation for the real estate market today and much more.

00:00 Introducing Michael and Erika Amory

1:06 How Michael and Erika got into real estate

5:12 Learning how to work together as a couple

9:11 The importance of complementarity between data-driven and creative personalities

12:08 Are people more logical or more emotional when buying or selling houses?

16:00 What is the state and the expectation for the real estate market today

20:17 How people are responding to high interest rates

Connect with Paul Neal

Website: https://vantagepointresidential.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-neal-47b8478/

Connect with Michael and Erika Amory

Website: https://www.michaelamoryrealtor.com/Michael-and-Erika

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmoryRealEstate/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amoryrealestate/

Full Transcript

Paul Neal: [00:00:00] Well, hello listeners. Today I have the privilege and honor of hosting on our show today, Michael and Erica Amory of Berkshire Hathaway, a Amory real estate team their parents, their soccer and gymnastics coaches, and they’re professionals, top producers in real estate world here in the Hampton Roads area.

I’d just like to welcome you guys to our show 

Michael Amory: today. Thank you very much. Thank you. Excited. 

Paul Neal: Awesome. Awesome. Well, hey, I like to start off and just kind of ask questions. Like, how did you get into real estate? How are you here? Where did, was it a goal that you know, you’re like, Hey, I’m gonna grow up and be a real estate agent, or, or, or what’s your 

Michael Amory: background?

Yeah. So you want, you want me to go first and then you can kind of talk when, once you know, to get it. So, started off owning my own business. Parents owned their own businesses. Got out of college. And I’d worked at Red Lobster in the process for probably two years, and I couldn’t, and not nothing against Red Lobster.

They had great business, but I just, I [00:01:00] couldn’t take it. I wanted to run like my own farm. So real estate, you know, you can be a one person show. It’s easier the more you know people you have helping you. I didn’t have to have employees. I’m a, I’m a 10 99 independent contractor. So I thought that was attractive in itself from my parents’ own businesses.

They had some, I had, I had received some stocks, so I was interested in investing with it. . One when I was working, I had a business cutting grass and my grandma was like, You need to work smart. So all that came together. Real estate seemed to make sense. And, and really I jumped in and bought a, a house, a a trash house, foreclosure.

Bought it, lived in it, fixed it up as I. Sold it a year after in the process. Met all the neighbors. So got into it for [00:02:00] investing and the sales business like took off probably cuz I waved everyone. I don’t know. But meeting the people wasn’t hard for me. And once I got, so I was getting like knowledge of real estate by fixing.

And then the sales took off. Facebook kind of took off at that time. So I was able to bring that, like social media that I grew up with in college to business, which I had kind of been doing cuz I grew up in it. Get to a certain point, got married, you know, found this to this beautiful woman here. And at this point I convinced her to quit her job.

we were living in probably the second or third house that we had. And what she, I convinced her to quit. Now, fast forwarding that time, she manages the operation, and you can say you talk about you, but from buying that first house to now, we’re a two [00:03:00] person gig and my mom sell real estate. But Erica, Yeah.

How’d you get into it? I mean, Well, just 

Erika Amory: that I’m, I’m an accountant by trade and by degree in college. So I moved here after school. And Michael and I, like you said, we, well, we flipped what two houses I think and kind of lived in ’em. And I was, I had an accounting job and it just kind of got to the point where I didn’t like the nine to five.

His schedule was all over the place, so I’m like, This, you know, really kind of sucks. And he was like, Well, I’m getting busy. I need to hire somebody. Like, let’s get your license. So I got my license while I was still working. And once I passed I kind of just quit and we took the leap and it worked. So

Paul Neal: That’s awesome. So you’re like, Yeah, this nine to five thing is sucking the life out of me. Yeah, 

Michael Amory: well, it’s nine to five, but you got an hour and a half commute to work and you got an hour and a half commute back from work. So it’s really. A 14 hour day. 

Paul Neal: Yeah. On hurt. Holy smokes. 

Michael Amory: So [00:04:00] it was, it was, I was like, Look, do whatever you want, but , you’re yelling at me a lot.

Not . No, no, that’s, I’m playing. But yeah, I mean, it’s crazy because if you just let it work, things work themselves out. So once I kind of got her with the program together, we’ve accomplished a lot. 

Paul Neal: Well, that’s awesome. And you know, Yeah, I mean it’s, it’s great that you put yourself in a position to do that, and I can totally relate to that.

I mean, I can’t relate to an hour and a half co commute though that I don’t, I don’t know what that would be like, but I think I would, I would pull my hair out for sure. But that’s why I went into business for myself so many years ago as well because I just, I, I felt like I wanted to kind of spread my wings and make my own decisions and my own choices and set my own hours.

But you guys know that. And I wanna get into how working together as a, as a married couple works. Cuz I was in, my wife was in business with me for a number of years and we, we, we did well, but [00:05:00] it was interesting and but You also realize what No, it was, Hey, we’re still married. Life’s good. It was great.

Very good. Yeah. So but the, the idea that, you know, the freedom and flexibility that you’ve got comes at, I mean, there’s, there’s work involved, right? I mean, it’s not just, you’re not just sitting around now and all of a sudden, you know, the, the, you know, the money’s coming in so fast. You need to hire somebody to count it.

You gotta do something right? You gotta be disciplined and focused and actually go. Yep. Oh, exactly. So how is it working together as a, was it, was it an easy transition or it take a little while to kinda learn to dance? 

Michael Amory: It was flawless, you know, we just went right into it. Butter and it’s just, every day is just incredible.

not, It’s not, that wasn’t, Yeah, you go. 

Erika Amory: No, I don’t know. I don’t really recall there being like a huge, I think because Michael was still learning too, when I started it was, it was better that way versus like [00:06:00] someone that was kind of already set in their ways, already had their systems in place and already established.

So I think it, it helped being able to kind of like, grow together instead of like jumping in and, you know, taking over or trying to tell him what to do or how to do things. We were. He was still trying to figure all that out too. Mm-hmm. , I don’t recall it being like a huge, Maybe you remember it differently.

Michael Amory: So the beauty about our, our, you know, let’s call it business relationship and home is they’re, they’re similar. She’s good at a lot of things. Management time at, at being on. And staying organized, keeping keeping us on track. It’s the same at work. I mean, I perform and she’s the manager. I mean, yeah, that’s how I say, you know, it’s like, Hey, go cut the grass.

All right, wait, do I have time to cut the grass? We gotta showing at three. She’s like, Well, we cut the grass at one and you need to get in the [00:07:00] shower. You know what I mean? , it’s huge match of, Yeah. A system that is, That’s it really runs. Is it easy? No, no. Yeah, we’re still married. We love each other. We got a kid, but it is, you know, there are times when, and I don’t, you know, we hadn’t been married or in business a long time considering, but at this point you definitely feel levels of like, Hey, we are resolving conflict way better than we were, or, I appreciate what you did there.

And I think it just takes time to get to a point that you can see something and be like, Hey, you know, she did great. That was great. Work she put in and, and now be like, Hey, you know. Thank you. So I think 

Erika Amory: the hardest part too is just. And because of the nature of our job, it’s just turning it off like we go to bed talking about real estate, you know?

So it’s like sometimes I think that’s the biggest challenge is not in a bad way. Yeah. And it, [00:08:00] I guess it’s maybe not in a bad way. Some people may look at it as a bad thing, but it is 

Michael Amory: hard to, We talk dirty real estate, we talk dirty, . 

Erika Amory: It sometimes it, it is hard to. And shut it down, I 

Paul Neal: guess. But yeah. Yeah, I mean that was, that was our thing too because we, we and, and it went great for us too.

My, my wife exited once we had our daughter and then, and then we did some other things, but it wasn’t because we weren’t getting along. No, you couldn’t Well, that’s cuz she she’s running a smooth operation and she can keep you doing what you need to do. 

Michael Amory: Yeah, I look, I was like, Look, we can get a babysitter or we can hire someone to help us with real estate.

She was like, No, . I caught it. I was like, I, 

Paul Neal: Yeah. Well, yeah, it never ceases to amaze me the, the amount of capability and talent that particularly women have to multitask and do like eight things. Well, when we, we guys, at least speaking for myself and a lot of people that I know, we, we we’re hard. It’s hard for us to do one thing well and stay on task.

Honestly. You guys feel better. [00:09:00] Yeah. Oh, it’s, it’s totally true. Yes. That’s why God had women have the kids and not, not men. That makes sense. Yeah. Right. So, okay. So you guys have worked out the team because every, every great sales leader, business builder needs a back office. Somebody that can, can make things happen on the back end, Right.

To deliver. So it sounds like you guys have figured that piece out pretty. It also sounds like what you said Eric, about you came in at an early enough stage that you could help kind of design those systems and, and be a part of that. You’re not just taking over something that was already put in place.

Right, Right. Yeah. Yeah. Well that’s great and and I bet with your accounting background, you have it helps cuz it’s a numbers business, right? Yeah. A lot of money rolling around. 

Michael Amory: Yeah. And, and when we go, like on appointments, I, I love it because she’s a buy the data. Heard thought, right? So she’s facts figure.

So when I go to a listing appointment or when I’m talking to the buyers, I’ve, I’ve thought about it more than one way. And I think [00:10:00] that’s good because everything’s so scenario driven, like with real estate that when we see market trends, we can make adjustments. Mm-hmm. by the listing, which I think is incredible.

And what I mean by that is like, you know, we go on an appointment, We’ve been helping buyers. We’re pretty 50 50 on buyer sellers. So I go into the appointment, I know the data, I know the trends, I know, I mean the data and what the number trends are, right? Cause Erica has hit me with all that info and she’s given me her opinion.

Then I go in with the like, consumer demand experience listening to what the buyers are saying per like by the house and, and seeing what people are qualifying for. It’s, it’s helpful for us to say, Hey, you know, this is the numbers. Here’s your opportunity zone. We can do what you want to do. And this is a likely, you know, foreshadowing of events.

And I think that helps people get through the most [00:11:00] stressful time of their life other than getting married and having a baby easier. You know what I mean? Yeah. Well, 

Erika Amory: just two different minds. Two different brains, you know? Yeah. One’s more type A, one’s more not type A, whatever that is. . helps with, with buyers and sellers, like you were saying, just you’ve got one data driven, you’ve got one creative mind, and you know, when they come together, it’s normally a good thing and a good combination to have some.

It, 

Paul Neal: it is a great thing. In fact somebody said, hopefully I don’t hack this, that people make decisions like it’s an emotional decisions backed up by logic as kind of the best decision, right? Yeah. It’s not just emotionally driven, it’s not just logically driven. But the combination of the two kind of, kind of looks at the problem holistically and you’re like, Okay, I’ve addressed this thing, and so you guys are able to bring that to the table.

That sounds, that sounds really awesome. 

Michael Amory: And it, I, I don’t, and I don’t. And in my thought, you know, I constantly think about this. I think it just keeps risk low. Mm-hmm. , [00:12:00] does that make sense? 

Paul Neal: In what way? Gimme an example. 

Michael Amory: So you’re making adjustments, but you’re not like adjusting. You’re like tweaking it. And then so you can keep on a path and keep adjusting to where you wanna be, instead of like going hard left, then you’re utterly wrong.

Mm. 

Paul Neal: Like on a, just like a purely emotional play. You’re like, Oh, I’m gonna go this way or this way, kinda all over the map. You have some constraints in there. And, and I think, I mean, would you agree that like, I mean, buying a house, you mentioned it’s, it’s like one of the top most stressful times of your life, which I certainly agree on.

But you know, people, people, they’re not thinking totally, clearly in that moment, are they? Because they’re like in the middle of the, of the, of the event. I 

Michael Amory: like, so I like to say, you know, day one, I wanna listen to your goals and what your timeline is. And, and, and in my opinion, my job is to, let’s say we’re, we’re buying, my [00:13:00] job is to keep you on par with what you said your goals are.

If you wanna alter that, you know, you’re driving the. I’m just here to reiterate what you said initially, where you wanted to live, the things you wanted in the house and how much you wanted it to cost. And I think those three like criteria drivers are, it’s super simple, but just say, Hey, you know, Yeah, sure.

This house looks great. It’s not in the, it’s not where you say you wanted to be like, You sure you’re cool with that? Well, maybe. Or does that make sense? I just kinda like remind you of what you said you wanted. Well, I 

Erika Amory: think, I think your question was, are people, Do you find that people don’t, They do act out of emotion and maybe not with a lot of logic and I think, I think it’s so situational like yeah.

If it’s a good reason that they’re selling the house, then I think you tend to see people stay more levelheaded and, and remember their goals or remember what you’ve told them. Or maybe it’s, it’s not an ideal situation for whatever it may be that they’re having to sell or move. And then [00:14:00] sure, things can get emotional or, or maybe, you know, they’re just leaving their house so they, they raised their kids in.

And I think the, a lot of times you see it throughout the transaction, like people will start out being super level headed. Yes, we’re on this, we. And then it gets hard. You start moving your things, you start Oh yeah. Or you know, the inspection goes bad or whatever might happen. And then, so I think it’s kind of a rollercoaster, the entire transaction.

Like it’s, it’s a mix of, And I think that’s where it helps too, because I feel like I’m more of the calming, like, it’s gonna be good. This is what we talked about. Whereas, you 

Michael Amory: know, I’m crazy. No , 

Erika Amory: I think it’s a. It’s a good mix because people have mixed emotions throughout the transaction too. So I think that’s 

Michael Amory: why we can prepare you for what’s to 

Paul Neal: come at least.

Well I think that’s, I mean that’s really, that’s really beneficial because, you know, I know they’ve said for years that one day, you know, the world won’t need realtors anymore, won’t need local mortgage people anymore, and everything [00:15:00] will be done in some computer in California, right? Yeah. And but the reality is that’ll never be the case, right?

Because people are people. These are emotional decisions. They need somebody to be, to sort of quarterback it, keep ’em between those boundaries, right? Those guardrails that you said, this is what you wanted. Let’s go back to why you wanted to be there and here’s potentially what could happen. So let’s prepare in advance so in case it does we’re ready kind of thing.

Michael Amory: And, And I’ll be the first to tell you cuz I apparently love learning by mistakes. The mistakes in real estate, they start at a thousand dollars and work their way up . So it’s not, I mean, having, you know, I love doing things myself. You know, fix this, my, all right, let’s YouTube it. How do I do it? But there’s also certain points where I stay in my lane.

And for, for me, since I’m in real estate, I’m not gonna say, well, I use myself. Yeah. But like financial advising. Let the financial advisor do it, or I, I’m really big in those service industries. Just let those people do their thing [00:16:00] and you don’t have to think about it, worry about it. Well, 

Erika Amory: so much stuff has.

Gone online. And I think that’s fine, but I think yeah, real estate, financial advising, lending, I mean, everything like that. There just comes a point where a line has to be drawn and you still need a person. You’re talking about large amounts of money 

Michael Amory: that’s expensive. 

Erika Amory: You’re not, you know, Right. 

Michael Amory: I I 

Erika Amory: don’t think it’s gonna become a 

Paul Neal: thing.

Yeah. No, no. I’m, I’m with you. I’m with you. Well, switching gears a little bit, what do you guys see with all your experience in the market and you, you represent buyers, sellers about equally, it sounds like. What do you see with the, the shift in the market over the last, you know, this year obviously, You were in and successful before the crazy Covid runup.

Now we sort of saw that. Now we’re sort of on the back end of that. What are you seeing and how are you advising your buyers and sellers? I mean, how are you setting expectations these 

Michael Amory: days? Okay, so what do we see and how do we advise?

First of all, [00:17:00] I love the changing environment. I find it like just so gratifying, figuring out solutions to it and like using that adversity that you have to figure out. Like I find that incredibly fun and scary at the same time. , right? So what do I see? I guess, I guess this is a play out response, but Hanton Rose 49 to 51% military activity.

We also have, in my opinion, a large first time buyer market because you have support and services with the port, the shipyard and medical mm-hmm. . Right. So, and now you got Amazon facility work coming in. So first time buyers that under 500. I mean, that’s a huge part on top of the military. I mean, I don’t like saying like changing markets are sustainable, but the military and [00:18:00] business coming into Hampton Roads makes our market very healthy.

And, and I think that’s the conclusions I’ve came to in, in the time I’ve spent. Whether you’re you wanna do short term investing, long term investing, you’re buying to live here for less than five years, you’re gonna find your forever home. I mean, I think the market is just healthy here and there’s really no downside to it.

I say that cuz I drank the real estate Kool-Aid , but I, It’s hard to. Downside in such a stable, healthy situation. 

Erika Amory: Yeah. Well, I, I think for like us as agents, yes, the market stays healthy. There’s always people buying, there’s always people selling. Yes. You gotta lose somewhere. Right? But as far as how is the market going for the buyer or the seller?

I think what you got, we talked about yesterday, Well, I think it’s, it’s headed back to normal. I think that. You know, the end of 2019 into [00:19:00] 2020 and through 2021 was. Unrealistic. I mean, really. Outlier? Outlier. Like it’s an out Yeah. Like you can’t even use it as real data, I don’t think to project, you know, to forecast your business or anything like that.

But I think we are headed back to normal personally, and I, I don’t think prices are gonna rise anymore. You know, just because the interest rates have gone up. But again, we had a luncheon yesterday with our CEO and she was just talking about. You know, those two and 3% interest rates were just so crazy that this six and seven is normal, you know?

Mm-hmm. , Yes. It’s a little bit of a shock to maybe all these buyers that started kind of looking last year and looking when the rates were low or know a friend that that got a two or 3% interest rate, and now they’re like, I’m not buying it 6%. This is crazy. Yeah. But when, in the scheme of things, it’s, it’s really not the, you know, they’re fine.

You know, the interest rates are, are good and normal. So I think we’re headed back to somewhat of a stable market. I think [00:20:00] days on market for listings has gone up. Mm-hmm. , you know, you’re talking two and three to five days and now I think we’re somewhere close to 30 is the average days on market. So 

Paul Neal: That’s a lot closer to normal, right?

I mean, normal, right? If we take out the last couple years normal, which is definitely an outlier 

Erika Amory: again, which I’m sure you know. Yeah. You know, that’s kind of coming back around a little bit and I think competition is still there. I mean, we still have buyers putting in offers and they’re competing or they’re losing or they’re winning against other offers, you know, So, but then we also have some buyers.

Are coming in under list price and asking for closing costs and getting the house. So I think it’s just, everything’s kind of adjusting. I think each little pocket of Hampton Roads is adjusting in a different time. You know, it’s not all happening at once, but that’s a good point. We’re headed back to somewhat of a normal whatever.

I guess normal is. That’s the date 

Michael Amory: market. Yeah, I know. That’s the data. So consumer demand, on my end, what I see is everybody’s scared. Mm-hmm. . Is the computer screening good? Yeah, it’s fine. I think. I [00:21:00] think everybody’s scared, right? So what does that mean? On the seller side, they’re scared to be on the market over 10 days.

What’s going on is, is their buyers still, Let’s drop the price, you know? So let’s balance that emotion. Yeah, And that’s where I, you know, scared buying in rates are going up, We gotta wait, we gotta get rates coming back down. We gotta. , you’re they’re scared again cuz costs have gone up 

Erika Amory: so well. Change is scary.

I mean, everything is just, you 

Michael Amory: know, back to it. I love it because we all know you have to live somewhere. Yeah. So, I mean, you can keep paying. Let’s say it rents 2000 a month. All right, well you just dropped $24,000 on someone else’s real estate. So if you don’t like the rate, great. Buy. Buy a cheaper house,

Yeah. But to continue. Paying someone else’s is a choice that I’m on the other side of. 

Paul Neal: Well, and you couple that concept with you, go, [00:22:00] We’re returning to normal, we’re adjusting expectations. I mean, yeah, if you’re a first time home buyer in the last two years, it’s gonna take a while for your brain to reset, but.

At the end of the day, you’re not married to an interest rate, right? So if rates are at, you know, in the mid sixties right now, they will adjust down a little bit. Maybe it looks like first quarter next year we’re gonna be in the fives again, just based on the inflation data and the, and the, and the GDP and all that.

But it’s not gonna go to the threes. I mean, you know, it’s, it’s, fives are great in the long term scheme of things if it’s an awesome rate. So if somebody buys today at a six and a half and a year from now, the rates are down at, in the fives, they can always refinance the rate. I mean, it’s not that big.

You’re not married to it forever. Yeah. 

Erika Amory: So, and I think that’s, I think I listened to Dave Ramsey say something similar to that, like prices, like buy right now, the prices are not, you know, you risk the prices going up. Sure the interest rates may go up and down, but again, you can refinance, like buy the, if you want the house, you buy the house.

Now worry about the interest. You know, when that [00:23:00] time comes, if 

Paul Neal: you have to, you know? That’s right. And, and prices, you know, like unlike, you know, the oh 7, 0 8, 0 9 crash, we’re not anywhere near that from a, from a real estate, housing pricing perspective. We’re not in Phoenix or San Diego or anything like that.

Right. As you, as you’ve mentioned, Michael, about how stable this area is with the military and, and the Amazon coming in and all that. So you’ve got you’ve got all the people that did refinance down into the 3% and below range. There’s about 35% of homeowners. They’re not gonna sell their house unless they absolutely have to.

Right? Well, 

Michael Amory: I think so. You know, on the service side of that, why should we sell our house? Well, You’re gonna make substantially more money than you were than two years ago. So 

Erika Amory: if they refinance, so the people that have refinance, they’re not gonna sell right now cause they, they’ve taken out their equity 

Michael Amory: well, Right.

So [00:24:00] to agreed. But. You’re not gonna get that low of a payment on the money. Agreed, a hundred percent. But you can, if you put more money down, which you should have appreciated if you own the monopoly piece prior, right? Mm-hmm. . Yeah, absolutely. I mean, if you’re selling, yeah, you gotta put your money back into the house, right?

Yeah. Otherwise you got a higher payment, but you got money in your pocket. So, I don’t know. I mean it, you know, and on top of everybody’s getting paid more from what I can. . 

Paul Neal: Yeah, well that’s true. I mean, you talk about, I think the affordability issue, cuz I know everyone talks about that. But yeah, I mean, average pay, average pay increases of last year have been around 11%.

Mm-hmm. . So when you factor that, and if you made, you know, $80,000, you got an $8,800 a year pay raise, which offsets an interest rate increase pretty significantly. 

Michael Amory: And I’m not a lender, so I don’t take credit for this as like [00:25:00] great knowledge for on lending, but coupling two things together. I mean, I personally don’t care about the rate as long as the payment’s where I want the payment to be.

Mm-hmm. . Now that means you can’t afford some things you could before, but 

Erika Amory: I think that right’s, the biggest deal right now is. Yeah, you can talk interest rates, but when you go to set someone up on a home search or to go show them homes, what they could buy last year of course is so different now. I mean, price have gone up a number one, and then the interest rates have risen.

So yes, their payment can be what they can afford. Sure. But what that was last year and what that is now are two totally different houses, you know, so. Right, right. I think, I think it’s just gonna take time. It’ll be fine. People are still buying and people are still selling. Of course, rip the bandaid off.

But I think it just takes time for people to settle into the new norm and to just kind of, you know, get rid of the shock of like, Wow, now I can’t buy [00:26:00] what I wanted. You know, It just, it just takes a little bit of 

Michael Amory: time. Yeah. But, but so we not, but, and, and the reason I say this is we have a donut store in Norfolk.

If we were paying $16 an hour, we couldn’t get that many people, like employees. I mean, you’re, you’re competing now with a $20 wage and I, you’re gonna be able to afford it. Just rip off the bandaid, cut back costs in other areas is, 

Paul Neal: Yeah, cuz I mean, anyway, the, the, it’s, you gotta live somewhere and. I agree.

I mean, I think people are adjusting expectations. I really think when we turn the corner on the new year, cuz so much, so much negative has been thrown at people from the media and it’s, it’s fear driven and the pendulum seems to go both, you know, one way and then it goes the other way. And I think we’re all the way up here now, and I think you got an election coming and whatnot.

I think people will see that. There’s some positive things, inflation [00:27:00] numbers are gonna start coming down a little bit and be like, Okay, we survived this. The world didn’t end. Now we’re heading into the New Year Spring’s coming. We wanna move our kids into the right school district, kind of thing. Right.

And I think we’re gonna see. You know, personally that’s, that’s, that’s what I’m thinking. 

Erika Amory: I think people’s mindsets will kind of start to change a little bit with 

Michael Amory: and with Covid. I think people act, honestly think more about where they live more. Cuz what if you’re stuck there for X amount of time? So I think all, like I said, I think all things work out.

As long as you guys somewhat of a positive mindset, whether you’re the agent, the buyer, the broker, or the seller. I mean, you just have to turn that adversity. 

Paul Neal: Yeah. Yeah. It’s about, it’s about just making it happen, right? That’s what entrepreneurs do. That’s what I mean, how you just make it happen. . Well tell me this cuz we’re actually almost at, at our 30 minutes here, hard to believe we’ve, this has gone fast.

Tell anyone and everyone listening how they can connect up with [00:28:00] you guys if they wanna buy a house, sell a house, or I think you’re also into investment properties, that sort of thing. 

Michael Amory: Yeah. So 8 1 0 2 4 55. That’s a jingle I haven’t perfected, but is getting there. Oh my God. Okay. 

Paul Neal: So can you do that again?

Do that again for us, Michael? Yeah. 

Michael Amory: 8 1 0 2 4 5 . Oh, wow. So that’s a jingle you won’t forget. Hopefully, and maybe someone will say, Here’s a jingle that’s better. But just call me. I mean, and that’s what I love about our business, just. Yeah, so 

Erika Amory: I mean, yeah, Michael just saying his phone number , our phone number we’re on social media Amory Real Estate on Facebook, Instagram.

We are checking those daily. And then we have a website, I think it’s michael amory realtor.com. Google, you know, we’re on Google. Umhmm . 

Michael Amory: Text 

Erika Amory: us and then through the Berkshire Hathaway website, you know, we’re on there as well. So, 

Paul Neal: Well, we’ll get all that into the show notes, so it’ll be in there.

Except for the singing part. I mean, [00:29:00] we’ll, we’ll, , I don’t know how we, We’ll do a clip. I think that’ll be a good clip for you, Michael. We’ll put that out on social media. Right. I love it. Thank you, . Well, look, I, I’ve really enjoyed talking with you guys. It’s great to see a, another husband, a wife, team together, successful.

I like how you balance each other really. And add and, and add really tremendous value because of that, you’re really bringing the whole package to to your clients and to what you do. So so thank thanks for being with us today. Thanks for being on the show. 

Michael Amory: Yeah, we enjoyed it. Definitely something we were excited about.

So yeah, thank you. You bet.