Making Moves with Rachel Kendall

Rachel Kendall’s journey did not begin with real estate. She spent the first decade of her working life as a teacher in California. Passionate about serving others, she made sure that all of her students had warm clothes for the winter and enough food to get through the day. Her efforts as an educator earned her the “Teaching Excellence Award.” When she moved on from teaching children, she opened her own fitness business where she continued to utilize her gift for teaching by educating women about health and wellness. Her passion for serving others also continued as she donated all of her profits to outfitting hundreds of children with cochlear implants. Rachel’s love for others now carries over into her real estate business. She coaches and mentors all of the team members, and she is a charismatic, thoughtful, and passionate team leader.

Get to know Rachel: https://rachelkendall.com/about/team/rachel-kendall/
Get to know Mahala: https://rachelkendall.com/about/team/mahala-landin/
Learn about our careers: https://rachelkendall.com/careers/

Get to know The Rachel Kendall Team:
Website: https://rachelkendall.com/about/team/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRachelKendallTeam/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therachelkendallteam/
Touring the Triangle Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/touringthetriangle/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rachel-kendall-team/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rkteam
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/rachelkendallteam
Phone: 919.782.4505

Transcript

0:01

Hey Triangle lovers! Welcome to Making Moves hosted by The Rachel Kendall Team, where we will explore together the top restaurants, community hotspots and events in our area. Let's make some moves. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Making Moves. We typically focus in on the Triangle and things to do in the Triangle, great businesses, and just education about all of the wonderful things that the Triangle has to offer. But we're gonna go in a different direction today, we have Rachel Kendall with The Rachel Kendall Team here to share a little bit about real estate, it's a topic that we sometimes ignore the fact that we're all real estate agents. And there's a lot to be said for the real estate market today in the Triangle. And we wanted to spend some time and focus in on real estate as a career, because you've certainly created a wonderful career for yourself and for so many real estate agents in the community. So welcome, Rachel. Well, thanks, Mahala. I've enjoyed every minute of it in different ways, I'm sure. And our market has just been, you know, very strong since you became a real estate agent. So tell me a little bit about when did you start your real estate career and why? Well, I started back in Oh,'08-'09. And as everybody knows, that was the economic crash of the market with the housing industry. And it was predominantly imposed on us due to the lending situation. And it was very interesting, because a lot of folks wanted to sell their homes, but unfortunately, they were upside down and had financial issues. So then we had a lot of short sales and a lot of distress sales in the market. And then we also had a lot of folks that wanted to buy a home. But we also had some lending issues, and it was money was hard to come by and homes were hard to sell. So it was a very interesting dynamic. Yeah, at least. And that was in a market as strong as ours in 2008, you know, not not compared to other parts of the nation that really saw huge, you know, economic downturn. Oh, that's so true. And you know, one of the things they say about the Triangle is we're the last to feel our recession or any kind of distress situation. And we are the first to recover. And it's because of our stimulation, and because of our diversification. So that's the good news regardless as to what's going on. And with so many objections, and so many challenges that your buyers and sellers faced, What kept you in this industry, What kept you motivated to stay and be faced with those challenges that we were that were everybody was dealing with in the real estate market? Well, I think that first of all, remember, I came from the teaching industry. And so I looked at challenges as an opportunity. And I really enjoyed having the classroom of students that needed to have a varied approach on how to learn and how to experience what they were learning so that they could retain knowledge. And that was a challenge, right? Did I enjoy having that accelerated classroom? Sure. Do I enjoy having people that have they pay cash for a house, or they have an amazing credit limit? So they can they have no problem achieving money? Sure. But it's the challenges that I feel that I know I grow from, and I really do believe that human nature does. And you know, when I would watch a student get it right and see that light bulb Come on, that's where the self appreciate. That's where the gratification comes, that's where the reward really is. And I just transferred it right into this industry. So when you had someone that was struggling to sell their home, knew they were upside down, didn't have the funds. And yet we found a way to solve the problem for them, right. Whether that was short selling their home, right, and still maintaining a way to help them with the equity dispute so that they would come out with their credit somewhat established. And now guess what, we're helping those people buy homes now. So or whether it was that homebuyer that they just couldn't get the loan that couldn't get the lending. You know, what it was finding creative ways to help them still achieve their goals, even if that meant doing something temporarily while they were in repair or while they were working on getting additional monies. That's the challenge that's thinking outside the box. That's why we do what we do. That's why people hire us. That's the integrity of our industry. And that's the pride that we I hope everybody would want to put into what we're doing. Well, you've hit on so many points that I want to go back to. But let's start with Hey, you mentioned that you were in education, and that you that you are a teacher, and I can hear how you took that experience and you applied it to real estate. But really, why did you get into real estate? What was it that you were like, you know what, let me do this in 2008. Well, I had just moved here, and I strongly considered going back into academia. I also have a love for fitness. I had to own a fitness industry business prior to that. And I thought, well, maybe I'll go into that but either way, I was still teaching right. And I realized you know what, here's the thing. I've already been there done that How can I continue to challenge myself? And I realized that this truly was a horrible situation that we had to deal with. But I also also understood that I had a real estate agent that helped us buy a home. And you know what? He could do it? I can do it, right? And as long as there's one person out there that need to buy or sell a home, why would they want to use me? And why wouldn't want, they want to use less. So it's, it was an opportunity, I always saw the challenge as the opportunity. Just like I saw the challenge with classrooms of kids that, you know, they were struggling, that's an opportunity to make a difference. And I saw this exact same thing in this industry. Now, when we started getting into the roller coaster and started seeing some of the free up of the market free up of availability. Yeah, that was fun, right? Yeah. But I, the days of the struggle are priceless to me, and priceless to our team. Because it doesn't matter what the market is doing. We are prepared, both mentally and professionally and training to be able to handle it doesn't make any difference. And that's so important. Because everything is cyclical. So what are we going to do just stop or get out of the industry? Really not so much? Well, but unfortunately, in 2008, we did see a lot of real estate agents get out of the industry, What kept you in it? Yeah, it was a mass exodus, actually. It's just, you know, it's grit, right? It comes from inside. And that's the intrinsic element that you can't, you can't sell it. You can't force it on anybody, but you have to want it. And grit is, in my opinion, is the epitome of a true professional. And unfortunately, I feel that a lot of people get in this industry with a different mindset. And those are the people that usually leave. So it's about looking at the people that didn't didn't stay in and the retention that did happen, and the quality. So what have we done? I think we've really inched up our way in the industry in terms of qualitative rather than quantitative. No, there weren't as many agents in the market. That's true. But the quality of the agents that remain, that's what we speak to. There's the grid, right. And so here we are, again, we're in a tumultuous market. You know, we're seeing buyers that are having to put in 13 1425 offers before their offer is accepted, and they can get into a home, you know, and these are people that are well qualified. So it's a much different world than what we lived in before. But we're still seeing those same types of challenges that are our agents are facing both emotionally, and mentally, as they're trying to help families and trying to help people navigate this and be the consultants. So what advice would you give to an agent that is experiencing very similar challenges that you experienced in 2008, and just at the beginning of your career, don't quit. And because if you quit, then you're quitting on people, then you're forgetting why, hopefully, you got into this industry to begin with, don't quit on people. So you show them 15 houses, hopefully, if your training is where it needs to be, you'll be able to reflect on what it is that we as the consultants are missing, because someone is buying these homes, someone is winning these contracts. So don't quit instead, reflect and that takes energy. And that takes grit. And that takes determination. And that takes motivation. And that takes a true love for who we're helping. And if you don't have that, then that's fine. do go do something else, right? But but don't quit, don't quit on people. Don't quit on yourself. And furthermore, make sure you have the appropriate training because that's when you need to stop and say okay, wait a second, let me review this situation, we need to revisit our search, we need to revisit many things so that we it doesn't become too competitive in terms of ourselves. And I think that's the problem is a reflection. I think that we just keep like we're kind of like a hamster in a cage. Right? So we keep jumping on jumping on jumping on jumping on him, but stop the wheel stop. Right. And and let's stop and let's look at it in its exercise our training. And let's start thinking what are we not implementing? What am I leaving out? What do we what am I not researching? What am I not reviewing with my folks? After all, I'm the consultant. That's my job. So and as far as Yes, it is great. I mean, when think of this scenario, people are qualified lots of money, right. But let's also look at the premise as to why things happen. And the premise is entirely different. This was based on something that no one saw coming, right. And no one quite honestly knew how to handle it, both physically and emotionally. But we're getting through that. And you know, one thing that we do know now in the event that something were to happen again, in terms of the viral situation, we know how to handle it. So confidence will start to come up and we're already seeing that Lots more houses are being listed, lots more houses are being sold. And a lot of people coming in a lot of stimulation in the Triangle, a lot of building. So as we've continued to realize, okay, this is unfortunate, but we know how to handle it. And we're going to continue to grow, and people are going to continue to get right back in the cycle of America and sell their homes. And that will start the flow. So all of these agents that were in the market that were helping people for the past two years, guess what, it's going to be so cool. Yeah, cuz now we really have our game on. So I'm now motivated to go sell house. Like truly. Okay. But who, who is gonna do that for these agents? You know, like when you're thinking about starting off in a new career where you don't know anything? And when you are having to give yourself these types of talks? I mean, that has to be incredibly challenging for a new agent who was there for you? How did you start to develop this infrastructure of support, and where you could really thrive as a real estate professional? Well, I actually did feel that I selected the best of the corporate model to start my career with of the choices that were given. And after the second year, and I was very fortunate to have achieved accolades for success. And I was very sweet and very flattering. However, I stopped, and I did some self reflection. And I realized the biggest thing is I really needed more collaboration, I really needed more support, I really needed more energy. Yeah, I just to me, it's all about a work family is all about having a fun place to go to. But it's also about knowing that there's so many people that have my back that want to have my back that really care. And it's a big take environment out there. And I didn't feel any relationship I didn't feel any reciprocity, of, of caring for one another. It was it was truly I'm treating our folks like commodities, and quite honestly treating each other like commodities. So I really had to step back and do some reflection also, and realize, yes, obviously, I can stay here I'm doing well, but, but it's more than that I wanted the intrinsic that we say we give to our folks, I wanted the intrinsic that we give to one another as professionals. And that is the only reason why we created the Rachael Kendall team, it was to take the best of everything that's out there Mahalla, and to put it into one entity, and so quite honestly, so that we didn't have to say, Okay, well, I have this, but I don't have that. But I understand that's just the way it is. No, it doesn't have to be that way. Right. And that is why we have the Rachael Kendall team, it is the best of everything. All in one work family. Yeah. And we've met a lot of agents in our years together. Yes, we have. And we've had a lot of success stories. Yes, we have. And I think when we think about what it takes to stay in real estate, you've mentioned grit, you've mentioned, you know, having a strong team, a strong work environment, or somewhere that you can really grow within a career. And that's something that I've noticed in the real estate industry is that there's no real true career path. You know, it's like you go, you get your license, you go sell some houses. And then what's next? That's true. It's got a ceiling, right? Yeah, absolutely. And so finding, being able to have the liberty First of all, that's the beauty of getting out of the corporate model, but being able to have the liberty to be able to set an arena that does have immense opportunities that we can pioneer, that we continue to say, oh, wow, that's a great idea. Let's try that. Let's try the by team. Let's try the team within the team. Let's try this, the assists for folks that are Top Producing, let's try to leveraging one another without having to give up the work family without having to give up the synergy without having to give up the collaboration but still gaining the same rewards. What a wonderful combination. So and we're just starting, I mean, we're always open. And that's what makes us so much fun, that we don't have a ceiling. So of course, the team doesn't have a ceiling. Yeah. And we're we're an independent firm. Now. We are The Rachel Kendall Team, we're an independent, firm. And and with that, there's a lot of liberties that we can take in terms of creating a team environment that allows us to balance the productivity, the success, and the culture that we have within here. You know, the pandemic changed so much. And one of the things that it changed was the availability of pre licensing, and how people that are thinking about making a shift in a career are able to take pre licensing not have to give up their full time jobs, no, and then transition into real estate. But one of the things that I'm seeing a lot of as we you know, meet new agents or pre licensing agents is that they're really scared about taking that leap of faith. And I think there's a lot of reasons for that. And what do you feel like is the main reason that agents are afraid of taking that step into a full time real estate career? I completely understand. I think that i think that's intelligent. I think that don't know what you don't know, right? If you're if you're smart, right, right. Um, I, but it goes back to what I was saying about being able to be in an environment that covers all of those different needs, right? supporting you keeping your license safe, helping you succeed, helping you get the goal, you say you want to get helping you achieve the financial means you want to achieve. And also knowing that you know what, okay, that's cool. I love it here. I love the systems. I love the processes. I love the support. I love everybody that cares about me, I love the fact that no one is resentful, or feeling competitive of the fact that I'm here. Hence, the other models, right. But, but I still want to continue to grow like I would have if I were in the corporate world. Well guess what you can hear also. So I think the biggest thing is people getting out of licensing school or going to licensing school, really respecting the responsibility that goes behind that. Yeah. And because of that, of course, you're going to be apprehensive. But you don't need to be right. And that's the beauty of being able to be on our team, right as being all of those needs, all those concerns. They're all taken care of because we care. And it's really that simple. Culture will always always win. Yeah, yes, we care. And there's a statement out there that 87% of first year agents are going to fail. Oh, it doesn't surprise me in the least. I think the biggest reason for that is because training is a box that gets checked off. Right, right. And excuse me, when are we ever too good. But let's go back to the professional organization. Right? And these are the folks that are considering a career change. Well, were they are they're continuing to professionally grow, right? Why wouldn't we in this industry. So that was something I couldn't find it was a box that was checked off. But wait a second, I'm only beginning to understand only beginning to learn, I want to learn more, I want to know more. But the resource simply wasn't there. Not with us, right? We professionally grow. We are workout we constantly learn from one another. But we also constantly train our 50 plus producers that are making over $200,000 a year they are plugged in to continuing to professionally grow. They wouldn't miss it. Yeah, that's the beauty. It's a continuum. It doesn't stop. Yeah. I mean, you know, the last thing that comes to mind in terms of making that leap of faith, leap of faith, right, right, of where you're going to land, is who you're going to land with, you know, and so how would you recommend for a real estate agent newly licensed to vet out the right fit for them? What kind of advice would you give them in terms of making a great decision about where they're going to land out of real estate school? I think it's deciding what they want. Right? I think that there is a reason why we have the different entities in real estate, this reason why we have the big box, or we call the corporate models, there's a reason why we have the boutique, real estate companies. And then there's the reason why we have the Rachael camel team. And notice I didn't use a plural, there's only one of us. But But that doesn't mean that that's forever, some people truly do want to just sell one or two pieces of real estate a year in between loads of laundry and walking the dog, that's not gonna fly. And then there's others that they they want to be around a lot of people and they want to, you know, just kind of hang out, right. But they don't care if they if they sell or buy or how people buy, or they certainly don't care about having leads or having opportunities to be able to convert people at home buyers and home sellers. That's just not that's just not a need for them. So it's really more of a part time mentality. But if you're looking for something that's 100%, all in amazing gains, wonderful relationships, the best past client relationship in the state of North Carolina, I'm caring more about how the closing happens than the amount of money you're making, even though you make more on this team, obviously. But if that's what you want, if you want to do extremely well, professionally, but really, really amazingly well, intrinsically, this is that this is the match. Right? Not everybody wants that. Yeah. One of the things I looked for most because I was transitioning from a full time, you know, salaried position, right? Was that I was hearing I would have to, I would have to have six months to a year's worth of my salary saved in order to go into real estate because I wouldn't be productive for six months. That's true. I wouldn't sell a house for six months, probably not. And the main thing that I looked at, because I'm a numbers person, and I'm a spreadsheet person was, you know what, I know, I can do more if I specialize. And I looked for a team that also specialized as well, you know, so talk to me a little bit about the importance of specialization in the real estate industry. Well, there's a couple of reasons why we specialize in anything, right? Your tech engineers, right? You have your software engineers, you have your security engineers, you have all kinds of different engineers, physicians, right. You have different From physicians with different disciplines, teaching, right, we have departmentalization. Self containment went away a long time ago. And so did scores go way up after that, right? We became competitive in the United States with the other countries. We didn't have to import. Our physicians didn't have to import our engineers. We had them right here. So why should this industry be different? Right? We're helping people with the second most important decision of their life. The first one is their children that that gets to be the teachers. The second one is their money. So why would this be any different? So I think that it's about refocusing. And I think it's about understanding why we're doing what we're doing. So specialize, be the best you can possibly be an expert. We you can't be an expert. If you're teaching calculus one minute and biology the next teach one or the especially if you're thrown in language arts. It's so So what makes it different with us specialize with helping people buy homes, right, specialize with people that are selling their homes, understand the market, understand the inventory, if you're a buyer specialist, you know what's going on out there, you can truly, truly be of service to your folks. If you're helping someone list their home, you're devoting 100% attention to their home, not then jumping in the car and taking people all over the neighborhoods and showing them houses. No, no, no, no, no people deserve better than that specialize. And yes, you make more money, right? Because you sell more, of course, well, you're just you're staying in your lane. And it's, it's something that is repetitive and you mentioned fitness. And that's something I'm passionate about too. And it's the same thing it is you have to train. And you have to train in a modality in order to improve and to be successful on the field. So I totally get that. And one of the last things that you mentioned that I think is incredibly important for new agents to hear. And I hear it so much. It's noisy. It's it's this word coaching and mentorship. And what that looks like in the real estate industry. Because you've got all these people on social media, and they're yelling at you, and they're telling you to do this. And, you know, it's it's incredibly intense. And really what does coaching and mentorship look like? And how does that help an agent succeed? I think that if you have the right culture, coaching and mentorship is going to take on an entirely different feel. It always does go back to culture, it just does. If you have a caring culture, you have top producers in real estate, let's go with our subject, right? That want to help their teammates that want to share how they were right where they were getting right out of school, didn't know anything about the industry except the textbook stuff, right? But they want to share how to do what to do so that their teammates can be just as successful as they are. That's the true mentorship that comes from the heart comes from the gut. That's what we have coaching, same thing. It's the one and the desire to see people succeed, not to be competitive with them. But to want this and also to want to take a minute out of their business to be able to contribute to helping somebody else increase their right. So I think our phones are blowing up because our team chat was going on. So somebody must have done something worth recognizing, Oh, I'm so sorry for all you listeners that heard our phones buzzing on the table. But clearly we are in an environment where it's all about a lot of productivity, a lot of success and a lot of just recognition for a job well done. because like you said, if we're faced with these challenges, whether they're put on us from the industry, whether they're put on us from our economy or the economy. I mean, we're in a very important industry. And I think we learned that in the pandemic of how much of an impact the real estate community has on the economy, and what really makes our Triangle market so strong. And it's teams like this, I really believe that is what makes it impactful and what what helps keep us moving. I do I think, you know, if we have the energy, we're going to extend the energy, right? If we feel good about what we're doing, our folks, our clients are going to feel good about what they're doing. And it but it all starts right here. Obviously, everyone on the rage team is making good money because everyone's selling at least 24 houses a year. And they're doing it with ease because they're being trained and being guided. And they have the systems in the process to show them how to do it. Okay, so that's a given. What difference does any of that make if it's not a fun, pleasant environment to be in? So welcome to having it all. That's right. So tell me is The Rachel Kendall Team? Is that a place for anybody to reach out to if they have questions about Alice lately? What's the best way you know to reach out to The Rachel Kendall Team? Absolutely. Um, we are in a wonderful situation right now, where we have room to invite more and very excited to do so. So absolutely reach out. Mahalo. What do you think? I think they should just visit our careers page. So check it out at Rachel Kendall realestate.com backslash careers or you can email me directly at Mahala - m-a-h-a-l-a at R chel Kendall.com. We'll take goo care of you. And yes, we wi l. So excited. Thank you for st pping by. Thanks for having me. Thank you for joining us o this episode of making moves. W want to deliver the highlights f the Triangle that you want to hear. Let us know your fee back, comment on our social medi like and of course subscr be to continue and discover hy we love where we live unti next time with making moves hos ed by The Rachel Kendall