WELCOME LISTENERS

Paul Neal: [00:00:00] Hey, welcome entrepreneurial agent listeners. Today I have the distinct privilege and honor to invite Vicky Coleman on our show. She’s a top 5% award-winning realtor out of the the Richmond New Kent County area of Virginia. She’s much more than that though. She’s totally engaged in community, family.
Married mom, two daughters, grandmother, and sits on the board of the Fatherhood Foundation of Virginia. Just a to does a ton of things in addition to real estate. So I’m excited to learn all about what she’s doing and how she’s putting it all together. Make it all work. So, Vicky, welcome to the show today.

Vickie Coleman: Thank you, Paul. Thank you for having me. That was a nice introduction. . I’ll, I’ll take it. I’ll take it. I love it, . I appreciate it. I appreciate you having me and I do appreciate that kind of, those kind words. Yep. They, and I am a full what did you say? A full-time realtor. Let me go back and see what you said.
full-time realtor. I do feel that it’s interesting because I do feel like I wear so many different hats when it comes to being a, a [00:01:00] realtor, a, a wife, a mother, a grandmother, and my children all live within five minutes of me, so Oh wow. So when my husband and I, we bought a little place on a rural place out in New Kent and they followed us.
So it’s kind of fun. I thought they would certainly stay in Richmond or wherever they are, but no, they, they moved and we, they bought houses really close by. So we, we we see each other almost daily . Wow. Well,

Paul Neal: you know, that’s, that’s great that they, they moved by, but they didn’t like move back into the house.
Right. So they, so they really wanna be near you, but they’re not sort of, you know, taken

Vickie Coleman: advantage . Well, you know, I had a little idea when I became a realtor sale. I tell my kids, real estate, owning real estate is really, really, I. Get your own house. . . Don’t have to

Paul Neal: worry about that . That’s right. You’re gonna start building wealth when you’re young, right?
That’s right, That’s right. Build your, homestead, your family and all that. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that’s awesome. Yeah. That’s great. Well, I hope, hopefully one day I’m as fortunate, I have a daughter who is out at in, in Blacksburg in school right now. And she’s actually gonna go in the Air Force, so when she [00:02:00] graduates, so I don’t know exactly where she’s gonna land, but hopefully eventually she’ll.
Back in our

Vickie Coleman: area. I’m so free. Cause it is wonderful to have ’em close by. That’s for

Paul Neal: sure. Yeah. Yeah. Well, tell us yes. How, how’d you get in real estate? What’s the story? You’ve got so many things going on here. Obviously you didn’t probably just come through school and say, Oh, I wanna be a real estate agent.
You know, it’s been your lifelong dream.

Vickie Coleman: That is correct. Yeah, I, I was a full time. You know, I worked up until I had our first daughter and mm-hmm. Then I wanted to be a full-time stay-at-home mom. Mm-hmm. , I knew early on that I wanted to homeschool both of our daughters. And so I, I was at home with them and never thought about real estate, to be honest with you.
And that was not something on my radar. But we homeschooled our daughters all the way through to college. When the last one was getting ready to go to college. She had gone to communities community college for a year and she said, Mom, I have no idea what I wanna do. So she had, she was friends with someone that was friends with a local realtor in the Richmond area, and he wanted, he said, Her [00:03:00] friend said, You should meet with him.
You should become a real estate agent. Telling my daughter this, my youngest daughter. And so she met with him and it, she came to me, she goes, I think I’m gonna take real, I’m gonna go to real estate school and get my real estate license. Why don’t you do it with me? It’ll be a mom daughter team. I’m like, Oh, well that could be fun.
You know, I’d always been the person that connected, like if in our community where we lived at the time, if someone was moving and there was. You know, house on the market or there’s an open house. I was always trying to help someone else find a house. I thought, Well, this could be fun. I love connecting and you know, I love real estate.
I love decorating. I was just thinking all those things. So anyway, to try to make a long story short, we went to real real estate school together. We passed the exam. I passed it the first time. She struggled a little bit. But anyway, I went ahead and got my license, excuse me, at a local brokerage in Richmond.
And after she saw what I was doing and how hard it was, you know, you got a cold call, you have to knock on doors, you gotta work that [00:04:00] sphere. All those things you have to do, she goes, I have no interest in what you’re doing whatsoever. Mm-hmm. , that does not interest me in the least. I said, Well, there goes my mother-daughter partnership , and I just, I took off Paul.
I loved it. I sold 21 houses my first year. Oh, that’s great. And yeah, just really leaned into my, you know, my sphere and my my friendships and you know, knocking on doors. I did a lot of cold calling, but yeah, just fell in love with the business and. That’s how I got started in it. So I tell my daughter all the time, You’re not in it, but you know, you still benefit cuz she helps me.
So she helps me a lot with social media and Oh, she, she’s, you know, she went on and got her communications degree. So anyway, yeah, that’s, that’s how that all

Paul Neal: started . That is a funny story. Yeah. So, so she got you in and she really never got in herself, but it was really kind of cool that she recognized, I mean, I think to her credit, that she recognized that this was, What, what you were doing to make it work is what it takes.
Mm-hmm. , and it’s not, you know, you just hang a shingle and [00:05:00] all of a sudden you got more work than you can handle. Right, Right, right. It takes, it takes effort and energy and, and all in, and she saw that. She’s like, Hey, not for me.

Vickie Coleman: Yeah. And I think that’s what a lot of people, you know, young, old, it doesn’t matter.
You have to really want this business. You have to, well, any kind of sales, I mean, you have to, you know, it’s a daily thing. I, I hate to use the word grind, but in some ways it is a daily grind. I mean, there’s certain things you, you must do daily to you know, to get the sales. And you have to constantly be, and it’s not just about.
You constantly have to be learning, I guess learning, You know, I think the PA and we, I may be getting ahead of myself a little bit, but the past few years in real estate, it has been, I was just telling my husband this morning, it’s been a frenzy. Mm-hmm. , it’s been just, you know, I mean, I think if you could fog a mirror, like they said back, what was it, 2005, 2006, If you could fog a mirror, you could get a loan.
Mm-hmm. , I feel like if you could fog a mirror, you could sell a house, [00:06:00] you know? Yeah. So, so many people got into the business, but they’re not even learning how to do the business. Like now they’re having to go back and go, Oh my gosh. You know, if you got into it, the past two, And you didn’t learn how to create business and, you know, care about people.
And relationships, build those relationships. Now you’re standing there like a deer in the headlights going, Oh boy, you know? Cause now you gotta learn it or you’re gonna be, you’re not gonna be in it. Right.

Paul Neal: Yeah. Right, Exactly. Because it was a diff totally different environment. It was un right. It was unreal and unsustainable.
Yes. And those that are waking up to the fact that they have to do what your daughter saw might be making the decision, they’re gonna move on and change careers again,

Vickie Coleman: right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I believe there’s, that’s gonna happen. I heard someone say, well, a broker in the Richmond market who has a very large group of realtors in her brokerage, I had a meeting with them and she said, 90% of you in this room will not be here next year.
Mm. [00:07:00] And that’s pretty eye opening. And you hear that a lot. You know, you’re starting to hear, you know, you gotta work, you gotta work. And real estate is not easy. People think it’s easy. But it’s not, There’s some conflict. I mean, I’m, I’ve dealt with some interesting and dealing with one right now. So you just have to, you know, And even my own personal experience, I mean, I had one.
Had I not been the realtor and know what I know. Mm-hmm. , I mean, we were able to get our $10,000 deposit back. Mm-hmm. because of another realtor on the other side that basically there was a re for violation. He could have gotten in serious trouble. I don’t even, That’s a whole, that’s one of those crazy stories.
But if I didn’t know what I knew and I just was a new realtor and you don’t know these things and you didn’t learn these things, you could just leave your clients. You it, this wouldn’t turn out well. So, Right. Like I said, it’s not easy. You need to learn things, You need to be educated. You need to continually educate yourself and stay on top of, of the market and what’s going on.
So anyway, it didn’t mean to [00:08:00] get off on that. I just No, that’s, I’m going

Paul Neal: That’s perfect. That’s what, that’s what we wanna hear. I mean, you know, that’s, that’s why this podcast is called The Entrepreneurial Agent because when you. If you are a real estate agent, you are an entrepreneur, you’re a business owner, right?
You are converting, you know, modern day alchemy, right? Mm-hmm. , you know, led to gold. Mm-hmm. , that’s a process. It takes time, right? Right. And anyone who’s ever started a business of any type before will tell you that. You have to wear a lot of hats. Yeah. In the beginning. Yeah. And you have to put a lot of energy in to create momentum.
And you’ve got sales and marketing and systems and administration and just all kinds of follow up and follow through at all that, right? Yeah. Yep. That’s it. And then maybe eventually you build a team and you sort of work yourself outta some of those, those roles. But that’s not day one.

Vickie Coleman: Right. Right. You know, that is true, and I, I’ve never wanted a team, so I’m okay with it.
I have a self organized team, but I don’t wanna team with buyers, agents and all that. Mm-hmm. . But I’m happy to do what I’ve teamed up with a group, that brand under my [00:09:00] brand, and I love that. I love the, the camaraderie, the collaboration, the, you know, when one of us is out of town, you can look out for the other one.
But I’m not, I’m not one to have a team. I don’t, I say that now, you know, you never know. But I’m, I just don’t see that in my future. Yeah. .

Paul Neal: Well, yeah, it’s interesting cuz a lot of times we don’t know what’s around the corner, right? Mm-hmm. and sometimes those doors open. Yeah. Mention never say never,

Vickie Coleman: never

Paul Neal: say, Yeah.
I know you mentioned before we turn on the record button that you’re a person of faith and so you just never know what doors you know are gonna open there for you. Right? That’s right. That’s right. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, well talk about a little bit that, you know, what are the things that you know, to be successful in real estate today?
What are the things, sort of the daily disciplines or the things that you have to, you have to commit to for this thing to work out? Right. Regardless of the market, if it’s a buyer’s market, a seller’s market, or somewhere in between. Right.

Vickie Coleman: Well, I mean I think that, you know, relat, first of all, the relationships are very important.
One of the things I learned early [00:10:00] on in this business to be successful was to. Promote other people. I was in, I was in the business for about a year and a half and I said, You know, I, I got involved in a networking group in, in Richmond called Synapse. And it’s all about promoting non-profits and helping those non-profits grow.
It’s not about promoting your business. I mean, you do get the opportunity to share about your business. But it’s more about all those nonprofits, and that’s how I got involved in the Relationship Foundation of Virginia, which is now the Fatherhood Foundation of Virginia. But I knew, I, I knew early on, and I, I think that’s just part of a person of faith.
Like I, I wanna help other people. I wanna promote businesses, people of interest, nonprofits. And as I did that, Paul, my business just opened up more and more and more. Mm-hmm. . And not only, not only was I getting business, it just sort of, I mean it would, it happened, but [00:11:00] I felt good about what I was doing.
You know, I had, I felt like I was right where God wanted me to be. And when God called my husband and I to Richmond, we were in, he was in seminary and he caught, we really felt the strong calling to Richmond and we felt that he caught us here to make a difference in the community and. I mean, we did that through our church and we’ve done that through our church.
But it also, this being in real estate and him being a chaplain, it just kind of gave us another layer that we didn’t even know existed because, you know, I have found that you know, I found that I. Even in, during transactions, sometimes I have the opportunity to maybe minister to someone and just share my faith and, and I don’t, I don’t go in, I mean, I’m not saying like, you know, Bible come, you know?
Sure. Like, but you know what I’m saying? You just, Yeah. You open the door. God opens doors because you’re, you’re. You’re willing, you’re available. So anyway, so I’ve gotten business that way. I, I got, I get off a little bit. Excuse me. I’d like to [00:12:00] just kind of go, I told you I keep it real. I’ll just run down something.
But yeah, so, you know, relationships, and I’m not great with systems. However, I have leaned into them a little bit more because as I’ve learned the business, I’ve had people that have shown me things that work with systems and I actually have a database. Gosh, up until just a few years ago, I didn’t really didn’t have a database.
Mm. But so let’s see. So the question was, How do I stay, basically successful in the business? Is that what you Yeah. What, what? Discipline.

Paul Neal: What Disciplines. Disciplines. Okay. Yeah. Sort of daily things

Vickie Coleman: you have to do. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, promoting community and building those relationships and you know, I’m not gonna say I’m a cold caller.
I used to be, I’m probably gonna be having to do that a little more. As we, as this market is, is changing a bit. Mm-hmm. I was, early on, I’d make calls every day. I I. Not gonna say I’m not gonna do it. I’m just not. Like I said, I’m not sure. I don’t do that every [00:13:00] day. I do call past clients. I do have a system where I am calling my past clients.
I do about five a day and check on them. Mm-hmm. . I know when someone has surgery like I was supposed to have lunch after this, this to after this call today with a client who just recently had a. So I’ll take lunch. I just do things like that. I’m about those relationships. It’s not just transactional for me if someone wants to, you know, have that relationship.
So yeah, so just, you know, knowing, I know, just being sure that I know what’s going on with my clients. And here’s the other thing about me. I have this mindset that I don’t say past clients. They’re always my clients. Always your clients. Always my clients. And if I, if I keep that mindset, it helps. Stay in contact with them and, you know, recognize their birthdays and you know, just little things that make a big difference so they know that, you know, you haven’t forgotten about ’em.
I, I have a mailer that goes out to them a quarterly mm-hmm. , things [00:14:00] like that. Just keeping up. I, it’s actually just a little magazine that I do. A lot of realtors probably do it, but it goes a long way. Just that little touch goes a long way. I work with the local vendors in the Richmond area in Williamsburg, where I do some real estate also in Williamsburg.
But, you know, just doing gifts at Christmas, just the, just a cookie jar with cookies in it from a local cookie company and they deliver them things that, you know, you just wanna stay in contact with your clients. And I do quarterly client events. Not anything on a grand scale, but I do it with my team.
We do coffee and donuts, we do pizza night, we do ice cream in the summer, you know, ice cream truck and everybody comes and they get a free ice cream and just stay in context. Nice. So just a quarterly, you know, I would like one day to do the big event. We’ve talked, we’ve talked about it, and I think, I think we’ll do that soon, but that, that is something on our radar.
Yep.

Paul Neal: That’s, Yeah. So, So it sounds like to [00:15:00] me, for you where you are today and the things you do today are sort of the same things you did when you got started. Maybe not as much cold calling, but really just building those relationships, letting them know you’re available and not being in their face, but being, you know, you talk about like, If the opportunity prevents itself or presents itself sometimes, like in a transaction, you know, it’s a, it’s a really stressful process for people, right?
Mm-hmm. , so you’re walking ’em through mm-hmm. the buying or selling of a house, and that’s an opportunity to really build a good bond. Right? People sense too, what I, my experience is they sense if you have their best interest at heart or you’re just trying to turn a transaction, right?

Vickie Coleman: I mean, that’s what a lot of people, my, my reviews I have noticed my reviews on Google or Zillow are always.
The word pops out often. Education. Mm-hmm. that I love to educate my clients. Mm-hmm. . And that’s why I think I’m really, I love first time home buyers. Co couple of reasons. One, because I have young chil, young kid, young children, and, you know, I, I’m [00:16:00] very I say motherly, but I am kind of motherly . But I like to, you know, make sure you understand the process because so many first time home buyers do not understand the process.
Right. And I got a message yesterday from a girl on on Facebook Messenger, and she just started asking me all these questions. She said, You came highly recommended, and I have all these questions and I don’t know what I’m gonna do at the beginning of the year, but I want, I wanna buy a house. Mm-hmm.
And so we. I just started sharing stuff with her and she, by the end of the conversation she goes, I have never had so much good information, and I promise you when I buy a house, I will be calling you. Yeah. And she said, Just the fact that you took the time to share so much with me, things to talk about, things to look out for, things to be pro doing, and the pro, you know, as I’m leading up to getting ready to do this, but.
So that, and then the empty nesters. And I think that’s just because of where I am in life, you know, my age and we’ve been through the process of our children growing up and, you know, moving out of the [00:17:00] home. So, you know, and I love that too because they also are, you know, have a lot of questions about.
You know, especially the past few years, do we sell our house? Do we go buy something now? And I’m, I’m glad that most of them did decide to buy while the interest rates are really good, so weren’t doing their favor, but Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, they first time home buyers empty nesters seem to be. But then the empty nesters like to refer me to their children sometimes.
So I do get, sometimes when I have the ice cream events, some kids do show up, , . I do have kids that I work with.

Paul Neal: Yeah. Yeah. So that’s good. They kinda work together. I can see that. That’s like,

Vickie Coleman: well, one of my team members, she’s all her age. It’s just like where she and her husband are in life with young kids.
All of her clients have young kids. So we always laugh when I have the coffee and donuts, My empty nesters show up more and when we have the ice cream events, you know, all the kids show

Paul Neal: up. Yeah. Kinda fun. Yeah. That is fun. That is funny. So shifting gears a little bit, now, you’ve, you’ve mentioned, you know, we, we’ve come out of a kind of a crazy time.
You reference interest rates and all [00:18:00] that. Yeah. In the housing. What, what do you see today personally with your experience and where we are? The biggest challenge in the market and how are you attacking or addressing it?

Vickie Coleman: The biggest challenge in the market? I think it changes every day right now. Right now, for me personally, the biggest challenge is, is listing a house and pricing it.
Right? But I don’t know if that’s what you’re asking. Are you talking about me personally or in general? For the public. What’s the biggest challenge? I mean

Paul Neal: either because if it affects you personally, then it probably affects, you know, more like a larger body

Vickie Coleman: of people. . Okay. Well, so yeah, for the sellers, certainly, you know, price in a house has been a little bit of a challenge the past, just the past month.
I’ve got some investors that I work with that are trying to decide do they buy, and, you know, When you know a lot of ’em wanna wait it out and I’ve got two under contract right now and well one just closed and he said, Oh my gosh, you know, how soon do I have to have this house ready to flip?
And I said, Well actually you’re kind of in a good position and this will get me to [00:19:00] what I think sellers need to do right now. You’re in a good position because you’re about to completely remodel and renovate a house. And I think buyers are looking for that. I don’t think in our market just yet. I don’t, I I think prices are leveling out.
I do think we’re gonna have what about a maybe two to 3% appreciation next year if I, The things I read are correct. Yeah. So the housing prices are not gonna go down. But buyers are wanting. Everything tip top. So they want those new countertops, they want those new floors where, you know, a year ago that stuff might not have mattered as much.
It really didn’t matter as much. So I told my investor, I said, You’re actually in a good position. One is an investor that does rentals. One is an investor that does flips. I said, So you’re in a good position because you know you’re gonna completely renovate a house. Our house is. And then my other one, I said, you know, rental market’s [00:20:00] strong, so, you know, Yeah.
We’re finding him some deals and he’s, you know, you know, doing a little work to the house and making him look good. And so but. I think just, you know, for sellers we have to price it right? It has to be ready. I mean, it needs to look good. It needs to, it needs to shine. We really need to make ’em shine.
We staged them again. Course I always wanted to do, I’ve been doing that anyway and I, and professional photography and staging is really important and I never let my foot off the gas on that. I mean, I still did those things cuz that’s part of my business. And I, you know, I wanna represent my clients well and I want my stuff to look good.
When people look up my pictures on the internet, I mean, that. You know, truth there. Well, which is,

Paul Neal: which is one of your systems that you said you’re not a system person, but that is a system.

Vickie Coleman: Well that’s true. That is definitely a system.

Paul Neal: Cause whenever you do something consistently like that, which is a great thing, I mean, that is a systematic way to

Vickie Coleman: do it.
Right. Right. Mm-hmm. . And I always, you know, during the during the last few years, , I decided for every buyer they’re going to get either if they can’t get a home [00:21:00] inspection, because the, it was so, it was so competitive. Right. I always offered my buyers a home inspection that it was, I paid for it at closing.
Mm-hmm. . And then if they couldn’t get it because of the competition, you know, I, they just get a credit for me of $500 at closing. or they can get a home warranty, you know, from, from me. Either way, at closing they’ll get those. And then on the sell side, you know, what I tried to do during the last few years with my sellers was like, let’s just get, I want you to get the home inspection so you can give buyers a little piece of mind.
I don’t wanna know the results of it. And cuz if there’s something wrong, like fix what you can fix. But if it’s something we can offer to make you, you know, to make them want to not have the inspection. You know, and, and so I always try to offer those things. So I offer, you know, the photo, the professional photography and drone, if it’s a big property and we need drone shots and then staging and a home inspection if the sellers want it, you know.
And then on the buy side, like I said, I do the same thing or give them a, [00:22:00] offer them a credit of that or offer them a home inspection and closing. Gotcha. I always try to have a little skin in the game too, and let them, I really care, you know? Yeah. And I, That just shows how much to me. I care about my clients best interest.
Mm-hmm. I’m trying to help them sell their house. You know, I’m trying to help them, the buyer, get the best situation they can, so, Right. Yeah. Right.

Paul Neal: Yeah, absolutely. Cuz you want to know, and you know, what you’re walking into mm-hmm. Or what you’re gonna be selling and putting on the market. What the, what’s you know, behind the door, The hidden door, the hidden wall, and Right.
And I know the last couple of years it’s been sort of for, for informational purposes only, right? Mm-hmm. , But at least you sort of know what you’re walking into. Right. But we’re not there anymore. Right? Yeah. I mean we’re, we’re at The sense that I get from people is a lot of the top realtors and just from people I’m talking to is, you know, it’s really become more of shifting to a buyer’s market, right?
Mm-hmm. , they’re now have a little. Control where before they were, you know, had no control. Right. Right. Which, [00:23:00] which is kind of nice. Right. So you can negotiate

Vickie Coleman: a little bit. It is, it is .

Paul Neal: Yeah. Yeah. Particularly for your first time home buyers that couldn’t get in homes in a lot of cases, cuz they did, they weren’t strong enough compared to someone who had some resources.
Yeah.

Vickie Coleman: But I’ll tell you what’s been a challenge lately for me, the past couple of months, and it’s happened twice now, where, you know, you have a listing, you get a listing. Once again, just going through that shift. Mm-hmm. , and they heard from their friends or their family members that they don’t have to do all these things, they can just sell the house.
And you’re like, you know, I mean, I just had one that I think, and they know it. They know it. It wasn’t quite where I wanted it to be. Mm-hmm. and. It’s, it’s, it didn’t sell for what they wanted it to sell, but they got, they’re okay and they’re happy. And that’s all I told ’em. I said, Are you happy? In the end, I want you to be, because they would’ve, you know, But had they had it a little more [00:24:00] polished mm-hmm.
like we talked about, it could have turned out a maybe a little bit different. But I, I mean, I know we’re, we’re literally, we’re in the middle of that shift, right? I mean, I really feel like we’re right in the middle of, of that shift.

Paul Neal: So, and they have to adjust, both buyers and sellers have to adjust their expectations, right?
Yeah, absolutely. And that’s part of your job. And sometimes you’re beating your head against the wall. Cause like you said, they got friends and neighbors who know it all. Right. And, and . Yeah. And well, there are no shortage of opinions out there, particularly when it comes to real estate. So True. So

Vickie Coleman: true.
Yes.

Paul Neal: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. All right. Well, we’re gonna adjust and we’ll make it on the other side. And I mean, I think looking at the, like the interest rate market with, with what’s going on in inflation, we’re gonna start seeing inflation numbers on the reports coming down in the November report, and we’re gonna start coming down based upon year over year numbers.
So we’re gonna see that we’ll probably see a slowing of the economy in the first quarter. Mm-hmm. . So these things are gonna take take some of the heat out of the interest rates. Right, right. And I think you’re gonna see. Hopefully by the end of the first quarter, or at least the second [00:25:00] quarter, we’ll probably be back down in the five low fives.
Mm-hmm. around 5%, so that’ll help as well. But we still don’t have a lot of inventory. Right. I mean

Vickie Coleman: True, true. Not, we’re still not, Not at all. I mean, I just don’t, I don’t feel like the rich, I don’t know what it’s like in your area. Mm-hmm. , but I don’t think in the Richmond market we’ve had the full impact.
Of what a lot of the country, or a good portion of the country, from what I read that they’re experiencing, our market is still pretty strong. Mm-hmm. , especially like in Chesterfield, Midlothian parts of Hanover and Henrico. There’s still, it’s still pretty It’s still pretty good and I’m seeing some price adjustments.
Mm-hmm. . But like I said, I go back to if the house sparkles and you haven’t moved ready and you’ve done all those things that you need to do as a seller to get your house ready for the market. You’re gonna be in a much better position.

Paul Neal: Yeah. I mean, we’re seeing the same thing too. I mean, I think if you look at the numbers, the, I call ’em the doom and gloo numbers that they mm-hmm.
they like to, you know, if it bleeds, it leads, Right? Yeah. In the [00:26:00] media. Yeah. If you take out the cities like you know, the San Franciscos, the Phoenixes, the San Diegos, you know, some of those, those very cyclical markets are always way up and way down. Right. You take those numbers out then? Actually the number that came out today from the F H F A said that the, the annual appreciation, appreciation rate’s, like right around 12% from last year.
And even the National Association of realtors, Chief economist thinks we’re gonna be three 4% over the course of the year. Okay. Appreciation. So, you know, again, there’s some crazy areas. Real estate’s local. Yeah. And we’re, see, we’re seeing the same thing, but you. Thank goodness we’re not seeing, you know, 15 and 20% appreciation here every year.
Right. That is just not sustainable, .

Vickie Coleman: Not at all. It’s crazy. No, no. None of us would be in this business if that, if that continued or that happened.

Paul Neal: No. And, and then, and then sellers, you know, that, that are complaining that maybe they’re, they, they can’t extrapolate this appreciation. [00:27:00] Right. You just made 30% on their house in the last two years.
It’s like, okay. That’s right. That’s right. When you sell it, you’re still gonna do pretty good here. Right, ?

Vickie Coleman: Yep, that’s right. Yeah, that’s definitely it’s definitely been good for some sellers, that’s for sure. That is for sure. Yeah. Yeah. And no doubt about that.

Paul Neal: So alright, well, te tell me, tell us something interesting, maybe funny one of your, you’ve been in the business long enough to have some interesting or funny experiences in real estate.
Mm-hmm. , You’ve gotta have a story or two that makes you laugh.

Vickie Coleman: Oh yeah. Well make you laugh or make you cry . It depends on, depends on how you look at it. Cause I’ve had some I’ve had a couple of, you know, ones that stand out. One, one I was alluding to a little earlier, it actually happened to me, and I don’t know if you called this funny.
I, I’m trying to think of a maybe funny, I’ll tell you something I’m actually in right now that is maybe could be a little comical, but so I got a, I have a client under contract on a house, and the house basically is, is abandoned. Okay. So [00:28:00] it’s a, it’s a, it’s the va, Let me just say it’s the vacant property.
Mm-hmm. . And there were some, we had put some things in the offer that was accepted by the seller that this person could go and do to the property prior to settlement. Well, when he, when his contractor went over there, his contractor Doesn’t speak English. Okay. And so he thought that when he was over there to do these things that were in the contract that he could do, he said, Well, while I’m here, I’ll just go ahead and do,
okay, well, you didn’t have permission to do those. But he thought that his buyer, or he thought his, he thought the buyer already owned the house. Oh, otherwise he wouldn’t be there doing those things. Right? So he, he ripped off the, He took up the carpet. He took off the gutters and and yeah, so, and we didn’t own the property.
So I get a call from the agent blasting me saying, You gave them access to inside the house. And I was like, No, I didn’t. [00:29:00] Well, they went in because the back door was unlocked. Why? To the vacant house. And I had no idea any of this was going on, Paul. It was, you know, like I said, I don’t know if it was really funny.
It’s kind of funny now, but I look back it, but we, but it, it, you know, it. Yeah. Not, I don’t, you know, I, I don’t even know if you call that funny. It could have turned out to be catastrophe actually, but it’s, it’s working out. But yeah, that’s like you don’t do that, you know? Do not do

Paul Neal: that. No. That is funny.
That is, it’s a com. Sort of a comedy of errors. Yes, definitely. Wow. Yeah. Lots, lots of interesting stories. I’ve heard, I’ve heard many of them over the years. Well, Vicky, it’s hard to believe, but we’re really pretty much running out of time. All right. Okay. Minutes, . Yeah. Tell, tell everyone how they can get in contact with you if they they want some help in the, in the Williamsburg new cant

Vickie Coleman: Richmond area.
Yeah, So I’m in, I live in. New Kent Eastern Handover. But yeah, I’d love to help anyone that’s looking to buy seller invest in [00:30:00] real estate. My name is Vicky Coleman. I am the team lead and owner of Front Porch Partners, and we are brokered by Ex P Realty, and my number is 8 0 4 2 2 1 91 23 and I’d love to help.
Ah, it’s

Paul Neal: awesome. Yeah, it’s great. And we’re gonna, we’ll have that in the show notes too, so people can, Sounds good. Pick

Vickie Coleman: up the number. Well, thank you so much. You’ve been so kind. And I’m not a podcast person, so this is, you know, I just, I mean, I told you that earlier. This is not my thing, but I do love it.
And I mean, I did enjoy talking with you and. I always enjoy talking about your relationships in real estate, so

Paul Neal: thanks so much. Yeah, you did great. I’m glad you came on. You’re a natural for this, Vicky. Absolutely.

Vickie Coleman: Thank you. Thank you. If I start a podcast, I’ll have you on online. How about ?

Paul Neal: Here we go. Well, that’d be great.
I look forward to

Vickie Coleman: that call. Yeah. Thank you so much for your time today. God bless you. All right, you too. Bye now. Thanks. Bye-bye.