Guru Christie Snapp with @Properties

Transcript

Ian Arnold: 0:00

Hey, Rick, we had Christie snap on today. And this was her second time back. I mean, what was your big thing out of talking to her this time? You

Rick Ripma: 0:10

know, I just think she's such a phenomenal agent. But she also just is such a nice person. And I, you know, she knows what she's doing. You listen to her, she has a plan. She works her plan. She knows how to take care of customers. She knows exactly what to do. She even sends handwritten notes, which is a rarity in this world today. I just think she's one of those people. That's she's she's a guru for a reason. Because she's really good at what she does. And she goes above and beyond Yeah,

Ian Arnold: 0:37

I think it was phenomenal. Listen to her process, how she goes through with the buyer or even with the seller, all of her steps. And then look, if you're looking at buying or selling, you need to listen to this, because she will walk you through her process and how it can benefit you

Rick Ripma: 0:55

welcomed into India's real estate gurus, your ultimate guide to the dynamic world of real estate in Indiana, and I'm recruited by your hard working mortgage guy and I've been in real estate and mortgages for over 24 years.

Ian Arnold: 1:07

And I'm Ian Arnold, a loan officer on brakes hard work in mortgage game. We're both with advisors mortgage together will empower you with expert advice market trends is Bestival stories from Guru realtors and local experts. Whether you're a homeowner, investor or pro, join us as we navigate the thriving indie real estate market. Now get ready to unlock the doors of success. One episode at a time.

Rick Ripma: 1:33

Christie Snapp, you're back. I'm back. You're back. Thanks so much for joining us again. We appreciate it very much. You were a fabulous guest last time. So we're looking we're looking really forward to this. Now you I remember you grew up in Indiana.

Christie Snapp: 1:47

Yeah. I grew up in Bloomington, Indiana. Okay, where are you is. So then when I went to Purdue, a lot of people got mad. But went to Purdue. I just had to get out of my hometown. So I grew up in Bloomington, went to Purdue graduated and then moved to nd after that,

Rick Ripma: 2:02

well, there's different degrees to write. I mean, you go to Purdue for sure. Different things that you go to you for.

Christie Snapp: 2:08

Yeah, but I was a communications degree. So I could have gotten either.

Rick Ripma: 2:13

Don't tell people that. So then, so your communications degree. So if you did you did something in communication, which actually has helped you out in real estate too.

Christie Snapp: 2:23

Yes. So communications and PR degree. As soon as I graduated, I worked for a very short period of time for a small family run PR firm here in town. This was back in Oh, eight. So economy wasn't great. I got laid off pretty quickly. And then was introduced to a real estate investor here locally. And I did some lead generation office management, like just a little thing with him, and then got my real estate license while I was working for the investor and decided I need to go off and be my own boss.

Rick Ripma: 2:54

So So you've been a real estate agent for around 13 years. Yes,

Christie Snapp: 2:58

I got my license in 2011. Okay, so in 2008,

Rick Ripma: 3:02

you actually started in real estate just done a little bit different, right?

Christie Snapp: 3:05

Exactly. Yeah, just I am. To back up a little bit. My dad has always owned real estate, real estate, like rental properties and things. So I kind of grew up around it a little bit. But never thought I would really like dive full force into into the real estate industry. And then when I was introduced to the local real estate investor, got a little taste of it, and then decided to get my license. And

Rick Ripma: 3:31

then so you got your license 13 years ago. So you've done a long time. So what what do you like best about real estate? What's your favorite part of the job?

Christie Snapp: 3:40

Honestly, it sounds cheesy, but just helping people, every time I get kind of get a little burned out, I get a win for a client and it like re re ignites me, you know, and with the passion of being in real estate just to helping people getting their first home or just upsizing or downsizing or whatever it is. And also even just helping them through the process with like, hooking them up with other vendors and things like that. Just being kind of an advocate and a guide for all my clients. It's really fun. Yeah,

Rick Ripma: 4:12

that's awesome. So in that time, not only have you been in the business for 13 years. Now you also have a fairly big team, right? Yes.

Christie Snapp: 4:20

So my business partner and I have been together for about 12 years. So I've been with her for a long time. And we've had team members come and go Currently, we have four team members that work with us. So there's a total of six of us right now.

Rick Ripma: 4:35

And your team is

Christie Snapp: 4:36

called the Golden collective. Yes.

Rick Ripma: 4:39

Where'd that come from?

Christie Snapp: 4:40

So for the longest time, we our team name was the MDC team. And a couple years ago, we were kind of thinking about rebranding a little bit getting a new logo done, and I just randomly popped into my head if we're gonna rebrand why don't we just completely change the name. I felt like the old name was just a little stale. Y'all and I wanted like a refresh. So we just kind of brainstormed names for a while my business partner actually was watching TV and the Golden Girls was on and she wanted to like play off of that a little bit. And then I don't know, I didn't want to be team or group. I just wanted something a little bit classier feeling, I guess. So collective was what we went with. So golden collective was born. And now we get to play off that name. And we call ourselves the Golden Girls. And okay, that's fine. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 5:33

Your and your team is made up of all women.

Christie Snapp: 5:36

Yes, we're all women team. But intentional. A little bit. Yeah, it kind of happened that way from the beginning. And we just kind of kept it going. And the energy's like, nice. And yeah, yeah. Women power. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 5:50

I mean, I think I think everybody has to whatever, you know, because you have to have that camaraderie. And you have to have that, that mesh, you have to get along with everything else. So who's on your team, you're probably fairly picky who you bring on your team?

Christie Snapp: 6:05

Yeah, we, you know, we were never ever seeking out people, we are always open to talking and seeing if it's a good fit, but we really want someone who's hungry, good work ethic. We are there to guide them and help them through anything they need. But it in real estate, you're you're still your own boss, even if you're on a team, and you got to have that hunger and drive. So that's what we're looking for usually. And also someone who's just a good time, and not no drama. And because we do, hey, as a team, as all women, we do hang out a lot outside of work and at work events. Oops, sorry. And so yeah, that's important.

Ian Arnold: 6:43

So Rick, your next job cannot be there. I'm sorry. Sorry.

Christie Snapp: 6:48

I don't know if we're breaking any laws.

Rick Ripma: 6:52

To say it, but I don't think I'd fit in. I just guess I wouldn't fit in.

Christie Snapp: 6:58

I'm sure you would. I will welcome you and probably

Rick Ripma: 7:02

be the tallest one in the group

Christie Snapp: 7:03

100%.

Rick Ripma: 7:07

So that wouldn't, that wouldn't be all good. So So you've been in the business a long time. You you love your job, which is it's very interesting to me how many agents get into the business kind of somewhat by mistake, maybe? Yeah, but then they fall in love with the business.

Christie Snapp: 7:24

It is it's an amazing business. I mean, what's better, first of all, than working for yourself, you do have to have, you know, some motivation and drive there. But every time I think about any alternative, you know, working a desk job or a nine to five I can't imagine so that also drives me because I have to succeed in this. I can't imagine doing anything else. So even if there's a little bit of a burnout, it's it's very easy to get back it get off the burnout and in back into,

Rick Ripma: 7:54

well, how about your family? You have a husband and I

Christie Snapp: 7:57

yep, I have a husband. I have one boy, he's eight and he is in second grade. And yeah, he's chill like me. And he likes video games. He wants to be a YouTuber. So

Rick Ripma: 8:08

yeah, so you can get him working for you. Right? I

Christie Snapp: 8:11

know. I said, Let's get your channel started. Do Yeah, well, he

Rick Ripma: 8:15

help you get your you know, get your I know running better.

Ian Arnold: 8:18

I think it's everybody. I have a nine year old. Okay, same way. I asked what do you wanna do for as you're thinking longer on? Probably play video games. I know. And I'm like, alright, well, we got to think a little a little more as a parent. You're thinking that but then you watch all these guys how much money they're making? Hey, hi. No, maybe you can? Job. It's crazy. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 8:39

My youngest son went to Carmel High School. He had a really good friend who went to college. At college. He met some guys they started a a tournament. They ended up video games. Yes. Yeah. And ended up selling that guy ended up with like, a 22 years old. $30 million. No. Yes.

Christie Snapp: 9:03

What do you want to know what video game? I do not. I'm so curious. And

Rick Ripma: 9:07

then he and now he just puts on tournaments all over the you know, just my gosh, yeah. Yeah, that's what you think as you tell your kids? No, no, no, but, you know,

Christie Snapp: 9:17

it could turn into a real lucrative thing. Yeah.

Ian Arnold: 9:19

I mean, my dad was computer programmer, but you got to think about when he was in college. Computers are not the biggest thing. Right. And some people even debated whether they would take off. Well, guess what? He never had an issue getting a job.

Christie Snapp: 9:32

Yeah, exactly. It's it's weird to think about what like in 1020 years what's going to be a job that's not a job now. It's so yeah, right. It's crazy to think about.

Rick Ripma: 9:43

Yeah, think AI is gonna change. Yes, AI is

Christie Snapp: 9:47

crazy. We've dabbled in chat GBT and stuff a little bit but I'm still have a lot to learn.

Rick Ripma: 9:53

Have you found it yet to be helpful for your business? Yeah,

Christie Snapp: 9:57

it's helpful. You know, we we I typically, in my at my team, I'm like the creative ones who I always write all of the property descriptions and hold within marketing. So using that, a little bit definitely helps. It's that it makes things faster. I do like to still have my hand in it and like edit whatever is popping out, you know, but it is helpful.

Rick Ripma: 10:20

It's makes things a home safe. Yeah,

Christie Snapp: 10:23

yeah. And I learned this the other day from somebody, you can tell chat GPT to sort of summarize an article or a, or a blog post or something in a way that like is concise that you can then repost on Facebook or whatever. So like consumers, instead of like just posting the link to the article, like it kind of gives a little synopsis. Yeah, so people can kind of digest it a little better. Yeah,

Rick Ripma: 10:49

it's all in your props. Yeah, it's all in how you write those prompts. I don't know if you've know this. There's something called prop perfect. If you if you get on. It's right now it's currently one of their plugins, but the plugins are going away. Okay, the middle of this month, so you can get there. And then you can I think I'm a member of that, you know, I pay him a little bit. It's not very much. But before your prompt, you put perfect and I put a period and then I write my prompt. And then it goes and fixes the prop.

Christie Snapp: 11:17

Oh, to be better for shut. Okay. Yeah. Is it a separate app? Or it's part of chess? It's

Rick Ripma: 11:24

a separate company, but it's through, you know, how GPT has the plugins.

Christie Snapp: 11:29

Okay. Yeah, but I don't I haven't played with those. Oh, my gosh, I have not explored the plugins. No, it's, it's

Rick Ripma: 11:38

fun. They have some phenomenal plugins, but But anyway, that's there are some things you can do with GPT. Like that. And and, and that one will help you write the accurate, you know, the best prop, I actually have taken a course on how to write prompts. Because, yeah, it's so valuable. You have to write them, right.

Christie Snapp: 11:58

I know what you want. There's a lot of people on Instagram that post tips for the best prompts for real estate, or there's a bunch of people on on there also kind of training, and

Rick Ripma: 12:10

everybody's selling the some art day, they're all selling us how to how to do how to use digital products. You know what else you can do? You can ask prop GPT exactly what you should write and say I want this is what the outcome I want. What's my best way to write a prop? It will tell you how to write it. Yeah,

Christie Snapp: 12:27

it's crazy. It's crazy. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 12:30

But you're right, you have to check everything.

Christie Snapp: 12:32

I know. Yeah, you need it. You don't want it to sound too. Overly AI. You know, you want it to sound human and like it came from

Rick Ripma: 12:39

you. Plus, it also changes. It gives you some information. That's not always 100% accurate. Yeah. And it's weird, because it's just a machine. You know, we kind of give it like it's intelligent. It isn't intelligent. It just goes in.

Christie Snapp: 12:53

Yeah. Yeah, you know? Yep. So I

Rick Ripma: 12:57

guess it is kind of human. Yeah. Well, there's that. Yeah, yeah. So. So you're using GPT. And I see you on social media all the time. So like, what do you what's your objective and social media? What do you what are you trying to accomplish?

Christie Snapp: 13:17

Well, I think of and use social media, it's a free advertising and marketing platform. So why would you not use it. More recently, I've been trying to really educate on it in a way that like, also captures the audience and makes them want to follow me and all that stuff. So that's I just sort of use it as like a way to brand myself to personal branding. And we have up Force team pages as well that we use it for. So just educating people and hopefully they see the value that we provide and want to reach out when they're ready to buy and sell.

Ian Arnold: 13:53

So what what social media sites do you use the most

Christie Snapp: 13:58

Instagram is my go to. We are on Facebook as well. But I sort of fell off with that a little bit and should probably spend some time over there too. But Instagram makes it easy. They just push everything that we're posting over there onto our Facebook pages. So that makes it easy. I'm starting to dabble with tic toc as well. So I'm starting to post more on there. But if if I would say if you could find like one or two to focus on and get really good at is because otherwise it's just too overwhelming. There's just too much too many to focus on. So yeah.

Ian Arnold: 14:36

And do you just post real estate stuff? Or do you post other things

Christie Snapp: 14:41

I try and mix it up. You know people want to see your personality and see you know what you're doing outside of work so they can kind of relate to you and see if they can actually look at your social media and see okay, I could vibe with that. I could like she knows what she's doing but she's also like fun I could hang out with her for you know You spend a lot of time with your clients up until closing. So it allows people to, you know, relate to you and see if it's a good fit potentially.

Rick Ripma: 15:09

Yeah, no, I hear you had a really you had one post that you had a he went viral? Yeah.

Christie Snapp: 15:16

So it's really funny because I posted and it had nothing to do with real estate of course, my son went to a birthday party. And it was at a gym like a jet with gymnast gym, and I was a gymnast in high school. So I did a little move on the bar and I the the caption was something like, you know, when your kid has a birthday party at a gym, and you were a gymnast 20 years ago, you have to give it a try again and remind yourself how old you are. So so many past gymnast that are out there that I had no idea related to that. And it has I think at this moment has 9.6 million views. Which is insane. So that yeah, that that real went a little

Rick Ripma: 16:02

crazy. I wonder if there's something to that maybe we shouldn't be posting all about work all the time. We Yeah, some of this other stuff. People

Christie Snapp: 16:07

want to like see like your personality a little bit. See who you are. That's how you connect with people. So

Ian Arnold: 16:13

I gotta ask, have you decided to get back out there and do one more video like that? I

Christie Snapp: 16:17

should. I can't think of anything else. Like I could do some more gymnastics, I guess. But yeah, I definitely need to mix it up.

Ian Arnold: 16:26

And just so you know, I see those the fail ones workout too. So if you fall just have your son post.

Christie Snapp: 16:32

Yeah, exactly. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Those are the most funny.

Rick Ripma: 16:36

Yeah, I don't think you have to tell her son to probably not everybody in that gym. But yes,

Christie Snapp: 16:42

yeah, I wouldn't. I probably wouldn't push myself too far, because I would really hurt myself. 20 years ago, was a long time when I was doing gymnastics.

Rick Ripma: 16:52

So it's amazing. How much you could do back then. And I know.

Christie Snapp: 16:56

Yeah, that's what's ever on the reel. All the comments are like, Oh my god, me too. I tried that when my kid was at the gym and like I like almost broke my head, you know? Yeah, that's funny.

Rick Ripma: 17:08

So if somebody wants to get a hold of you, because they want to see this this gym this video, what's the best way or they maybe they want some real estate help?

Christie Snapp: 17:18

Yeah, so my instagram handle is at snap sells real estate. Snap is my last name with two Ps. Or my phone number 317-902-2989. It can always call or text me there. Or email christy.snap@gmail.com Okay, now

Rick Ripma: 17:36

it always says I'm getting old now. I can't remember that phone number. What was that?

Christie Snapp: 17:40

317-902-2989

Rick Ripma: 17:44

it's about surprised I can't remember. I have trouble remembering my own phone though. Yeah, I blanked

Christie Snapp: 17:49

the other day, someone needed my husband's phone number. And I started rambling it off. And then the last four digits. I was like, wait a minute, pull out my phone. Yeah, it's so bad.

Rick Ripma: 17:58

We don't call anybody we just hit a binary. So it's yeah,

Christie Snapp: 18:02

that's my memory saving. My brain is used for other things.

Rick Ripma: 18:05

I use my memory my phone not in my head. Yeah, we got too much other and to get a hold of you and I got a HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com Or you give us a call at 317-672-1938. That's 31767 to 1938. All right.

Ian Arnold: 18:21

So before we get into a lot more questions, let's have a fun question. So, Indiana, we have tons of restaurants. What's your favorite restaurant go yet?

Christie Snapp: 18:32

Okay, I have a very favorite lunch spot. It's in Broad Ripple Northside kitchenette, that's around the corner from my office, my team and I go there all the time. So that's my absolute favorite lunch spot. But I have another sort of hidden gem if you like. Vietnamese food at all, like bond me sandwiches and a bunch of other things. Chow. It's Vietnamese street food and it's on 96th Street in a strip mall. Like 96 in in Bedford or 69 across the street from the Meijer up there. There's a little place called Chow So shout out to them they have delicious food

Ian Arnold: 19:15

the food and Bravo what what is it?

Christie Snapp: 19:18

Oh the the kitchenette? Yeah, it's like soup sandwich salad. Breakfast burritos. It's like a traditional like lunch little lunch thought so and that breakfast all day as well. So

Ian Arnold: 19:32

so if you're not your office, you're there Yes.

Christie Snapp: 19:35

Yeah, you can find me there most of the time.

Rick Ripma: 19:38

Broad Ripple has it's just such a quaint little town there's there's a lot of Yeah, well place. Yeah, to go. Yep.

Christie Snapp: 19:43

There's a lot. There's some construction going on right now. So I know a lot of the businesses are hurting there with all this construction like blocking streets and stuff so you can make it too Broad Ripple. Go eat somewhere there.

Ian Arnold: 19:56

My dad went. So my parents live in Broad Ripple. They do So he was researching and he was like, and then he was telling me about the history of broad report is very interesting. How it used to be like a big carnival area. Yeah. And like if you go to Robert park you can see where the stone to hold the merry go round and all this other stuff. It's still there. Yeah, people just don't understand what it used to be. Yeah,

Christie Snapp: 20:22

the park there hosted. Yeah, the big carnival there. If you Google it, the pictures are crazy. Like old school carnival style. And

Rick Ripma: 20:31

it's still a carnival.

Ian Arnold: 20:33

Yes, yeah, it would traffic. Yes, it is. Alright, so let's get into how you actually do business. So let's say little Timmy comes to you. And he's looking to buy a home. What is your process after he's already been pre approved? The Rick and I, you know, their approval is gold. Yeah. So what's your process on showing houses and stuff.

Christie Snapp: 20:56

So I like to first of all, have just a consult with the buyer, whether that's we meet up or on the phone or a zoom, whatever the client wants, who's comfortable with and wants to do, I like to just have a conversation, get to know them, and really what their goals are getting to know what their situation is currently and where they're trying to go. And then of course, the details of what are you looking for in a home, your must have list or deal breaker list. And then once we have all that kind of nailed down, I help them search for that home. Of course, everything's online these days, we get our auto search, set up with the MLS, and then I'm on the MLS every single day, seeing what what new is coming up, that might be interesting to the client. And then in this day, you have to move fast. So it's really just a text me as soon as something pops up that you want to see or I will text them like, hey, we need to go see this. And then we try and get them in for a showing as soon as possible to get their foot in the door before all the other buyers out there are going to see it so and then we just go from there.

Rick Ripma: 22:02

So when somebody is interested, and especially in this market, because they're selling so fast, and you're always on the on this system looking at I never remember what it's called I MLS still it's

Christie Snapp: 22:16

well, it's MLS ours is the BLC Yeah,

Rick Ripma: 22:19

PLC. Yeah, that's our local Yeah. VLC. So, but, and you see something, you have an idea of what they want. So you send it to them, as they go look at houses, does what they want change many times? Or is it?

Christie Snapp: 22:34

Um, sometimes I would say the core of what they want is the same, but sometimes it'll be like, they'll be willing to give on something that they thought that they had to have. So that sometimes happens and and with the lower inventory that we see a lot of times that's necessary. So you know, and every situation is different. I asked the questions what how long are you staying here? What's your goal with this house? Is this like a starter home? Or is this your forever home? Because that can change your decisions, too, right? So if you can give a little on something, if it's just sort of a starter home, hey, you're not going to be here forever, like maybe compromise on some things. So sometimes that is needed. And

Ian Arnold: 23:20

so it's just like the TV show three houses and sell that one,

Christie Snapp: 23:24

right? Yes, exactly. The Cape Cod, the ranch, the mansion, which one do you want?

Ian Arnold: 23:30

The reason I mentioned that, especially like first time homebuyers, they may not understand that you might look at 10 or 12 homes before you even find ones that you actually do. Like,

Christie Snapp: 23:40

yeah, yeah. It's funny because sometimes the opposite happens. And they fall in love with like the first one or two and they don't want to move on it because they feel like they need to see a bunch before they can make a decision. And sometimes that's the case like if they really are not 100% Sure, we'll go see a few more first to really make make sure it's what they want. But in this market, if you do that, that first show most likely is not going to be available in a week or two. So yeah, sometimes the opposite happens but it's there's no like right or wrong answer as to how many houses you have to see as a buyer, but that is a good that's a question a lot of buyers ask, like, what's the what's the average amount like how many houses should we be looking at? So I don't really know what the average is right now. With the inventory lower? Yeah, with the inventory. I bet it is lower. So I think

Rick Ripma: 24:36

I think you have to listen to your gut. You know, if you I would have trouble making an offer on the very first house I walked in Yeah. But you know, if you've done your it's different today than it used to be because I can do a ton of research and, and pretty much know what I want before I ever go out so I could walk into the first house and go yeah, this is exactly what I want. Hmm, yeah. My son just he's in Chicago, he just bought a house in Chicago and bought the first house. They looked at their second house. But, you know, they just they knew what they wanted. They knew where they wanted to be. And it was the perfect house for them.

Christie Snapp: 25:13

Yeah, yeah, you do have to listen to your gut. And just, it's a feeling sometimes. So just listen to that don't like get discouraged. If you think like, oh, I can't, I can't make an offer on this, we will only see one, you know,

Rick Ripma: 25:26

what, what's the market like? It is, you know, we keep hearing the the news media out there telling us, you know, the doom and gloom of everything, when we're all seeing something completely different. What are you seeing, and we know they're selling fast? What are you seeing in price? Are we seeing increases decreases? What are we seeing? Yeah,

Christie Snapp: 25:45

there's they're still steadily increasing through COVID, when interest rates were below 3%. The rate at which homes were like appreciating was crazy, you know, over 10%, year over year. And now I think it's like evened out a little bit. It's still high, though. And at the end of the day, the longer you hold on to a piece of property, it's going to it's going to grow in equity in value. So we're currently right now in our market, the prices are steady and still rising. And it's funny, I talked to people who moved here from out of town, and the prices here compared to other bigger cities are, like, way lower, so you can get way or your money goes way farther here in Indiana, I would say. So it's a perspective thing.

Ian Arnold: 26:34

You know, yeah, that was one thing we saw a lot of, especially during COVID. And when people could work remote, yeah. They're like, Oh, wait, I can work from home. Let me move closer to mom and dad. Exactly. Because we got kids now. I mean, you saw people move from California, or New York or anywhere. And they were like, wait, I can buy this. I know. Wait, hold on. What's the catch? Yeah, like there is no catch. Right. So

Christie Snapp: 26:58

while prices are on the higher side, and they're rising, you know, year over year, comparatively, the prices are still really good here in our local market. And my opinion, yeah.

Rick Ripma: 27:10

When you talk to anybody out of state, you you've kind of run into that rare? Does somebody come in and go, you guys are a lot more expensive than we are? Exactly. We're not. So what's your golden rule? When it comes to negotiating? Do you have a golden rule for that?

Christie Snapp: 27:26

I do. And it's really simple. And it's just to be a nice person. Honestly, you're you want to cooperate with the other agent, you're not trying to win. So being a nice person I have found and just being cooperative, gets me more. When I asked for something, you know what I mean? So that's my internal sort of golden rule. Just be helpful, be cooperative. And when when you have to give a little to get but if you're nice about it, they're going, they're going to give as well. So that's what I found. That

Rick Ripma: 28:01

goes for everything in life. Yeah, right, isn't it? Yes. If you, you know, you can get on the phone, and you can yell and scream and holler. And some people think that's what gets them everything they need. But I know for me, if somebody does that with me, it's just like, I shut down. Yeah, I'm done. I'm not I don't, I'm not going to worry about what you say. Because there's Yeah, I

Christie Snapp: 28:20

can do. Yeah, you just put a wall up. So you can be like, you can be a strong negotiator. Yes. Without being like, mean and aggressive. You know, so, and that's just my style. I'm, I'm laid back, but I'm going to get it done for my clients. Right. At the same time, you know,

Ian Arnold: 28:37

I mean, which is smart. Because, I mean, if you're, let's say bullish at the start, I mean, you're we dealing with the same people roughly for 30 days. Yeah. So I mean, you're gonna you're people are gonna get angry at each other then and, but if you're kind, nice and respectful, things move a lot smoother. Yeah, well, you were saying exactly.

Christie Snapp: 28:59

And that starts honestly before the negotiation even starts because if I have a client looking at a house and I need some information, I'm like reaching out to the listing agent. And I'm asking them for things like so my clients can make a decision so you gotta like start that from the beginning and on the flip side, if I have a listing and a buyer's agents asking me for information I'm like on top of it I'm like yes here because I want to make friends with this agent. I want to make a deal. So just being again helpful and cooperative and nice from the start. It's the deal is gonna go so much smoother for you and your clients.

Ian Arnold: 29:36

So you mentioned being on the listing side so let's talk about that say little Timmy has his home now he's wanting to

Rick Ripma: 29:44

upgrade and he gets a right now

Christie Snapp: 29:46

he does Timmy.

Ian Arnold: 29:48

Hey, you want him as a client? I'm telling you this.

Rick Ripma: 29:52

It's about how he names his kids, I guess. Yeah. Tell me. No.

Christie Snapp: 29:58

Anyway, wants to say

Ian Arnold: 30:00

But everybody likes Little Timmy. Alright, so Timmy wants to sell his home. So what do you do? I mean, how do you go about listing it? And how do you go about? Do you stage out all that stuff. So go into how you do your process.

Christie Snapp: 30:14

So same as with buyers, I start with an initial consultation, and there's a little bit more prep that is needed for a listing consultation than a buyer. So I go in with so when I say go in, I schedule a time to go meet with the seller at their home, so I can get my eyes on their house and see what the current condition is. And then we have that whole conversation like what are your goals? What what, what is the current situation that is needing to happen, and then we prep with the comps we do a deep dive into the neighborhood, what what the sales are right now in the neighborhood. We go through our our seller Guide, which is very detailed what needs to happen from step one to closing. So we outline that for the client as far as prepping it for sale, which I think is very important. And some people kind of rush a lot. And it depends on what the current situation of the house is. Sometimes we walk in and it's ready for pictures already. Sometimes it needs a lot of decluttering. And they need help a little bit with staging. If it's vacant, we pay for Virtual Staging, which I think is has helped us a lot with because everything's online, marketing online and social media and all that stuff. So the pictures being virtually staged, is helpful.

Ian Arnold: 31:40

So let me ask that. So virtual just so somebody's listening, Virtual Staging is technically they're not putting anything in there, right?

Christie Snapp: 31:47

Correct. Correct. So you can either pay for a stager to physically move stuff into the home. And this, of course, is if the home is is vacant, or Virtual Staging you get we get professional photos done. And then we send it into a company that puts virtually puts furniture and stages at to look like a model home pretty much so and then they send those pictures back. So then we can use those pictures in our marketing without having to have physical stuff moved in and then moved back out. So it saves a lot of time, it is less expensive, and it's still and it looks just as good. Obviously, we disclose, Hey, these are virtually staged, so people aren't surprised when they walk into a vacant home. And we like to print the pictures and have the virtual staged pictures in the home makes sense. So as people are walking through, it's vacant, but they can still see the picture. They're like, Oh, this is what it might look like once we get furniture in here. So that's one thing that that we do is the Virtual Staging. We do open houses for every home if the client allows us to. And with that, we always invite all the neighbors, the closest by neighbors, we actually handle over a folder with an invitation. Information about the listing, hey, please come walk through it. If you know anyone who wants to be in this neighborhood, please share it with them. So just as as much exposure as we can get for the home. Right? So you always do an open house. Yeah, that's the gist of so

Ian Arnold: 33:24

let me ask this because we're used to, really, Rick and I came from the car industry. So everybody when they trade their car in, it thinks their car's worth $100,000. And it's worth 2k. Yeah, let's be honest. So do you have to combat that? Do people just think the same way for homes or

Christie Snapp: 33:43

sometimes it depends on the situation in the house and the buyer or the seller, but we do a deep dive into the sales in that neighborhood or nearby. Or if we can't find anything that's close by we will like go out a little bit farther that from the radius of the home. And we just see try and find similar homes as similar as possible homes and see what they sold for. And then we look at that price and compare, okay, they got this price, but they had an extra bedroom. So we need to adjust the price a little bit. So we really look at it like through an appraisers eyes a little bit. I don't know exactly how the appraisers value things per se, but I have a good general idea. So I look at it through appraisers eyes when I'm looking at comparable sales and I can really do a deep dive with the client and so they can see and I show them the pictures of that sale down the road. So they can see visually like what their home is compared to the other sales. So when when you do that you are justifying the price that you're suggesting. So a lot of times the seller understands and agrees with the prices we're giving them

Rick Ripma: 34:57

because pricing is in credibly important. Yeah, you can price it too low, or you can price it too high. Yeah, both those things are bad. Exactly.

Christie Snapp: 35:07

Yeah, we try and price it right on the nose as far as market value as best we can. I never want to price it too high. Sometimes if you price it slightly under the house down the street, then you can encourage, you know, multiple offers and a bidding war, which we are starting to see again, by the way. Yeah, good. Yeah, I just my

Rick Ripma: 35:32

for sellers, not good for sellers.

Christie Snapp: 35:34

I actually just got a house for a buyer this past weekend and multiple offer situations. So yeah, they the multiple offers were coming back. I'm haven't seen. It's not been as aggressive as, like a couple years ago. So I'm not yet seeing like crazy over asking. But you are going to probably have to pay over asking.

Ian Arnold: 35:57

And that's okay, to a point. But my whole thing was the waiving of inspections.

Christie Snapp: 36:03

I know. That's hard to compete with. But I never let my clients waive inspections.

Ian Arnold: 36:09

All right. So Rick, and I say this all the time. But let's get your point. Why would you never let somebody waive it? Well,

Christie Snapp: 36:16

because you can, you can offer certain things that make the seller feel better, while still protecting your client. A lot of times we'll do either an as is offer, which that scares some buyers. But when you really look at the as is addendum how it's written, it really protects the buyer. So they can still get all the inspections done, they want and do their due diligence. But the as is addendum basically just says, Hey, we're not going to ask the seller for any repairs, we just want to get inspections done to make sure there's no major issues. And just for our own knowledge, we want to know the condition of the house before we buy it. And you can walk, the buyer can walk away within that due diligence timeframe, for any reason. So the way there as his addendum is written, they can walk away, because they changed their mind or for a leaky faucet or whatever. If you don't have that addendum, you have to give the seller a chance to make repairs. So if something major comes up, and your client is like, Hold on, I don't want this house and get cold feet. Well, too bad, you still have to give the seller a chance to repair the items that come up on the inspection. So there's different there's different ways to do it without waiving your inspection that can still win you the offer with the sellers.

Rick Ripma: 37:41

Yeah, because you never know. I've had people who have told me Hey, Rick is going to be fine. We're gonna have an inspection. But this house is so beautiful. There's no way there's anything wrong. Exactly. And then the inspection comes back. And they're like, We gotta get out of this. This is there's major issues with the house that were hidden. So you always had my opinion. That's why you have to make sure you do that. Yeah,

Christie Snapp: 38:01

you want to get them no matter what. Yeah. And you want, yeah, they're not if they if someone doesn't want to do an as is like, let's say a buyer, they do want the chance to negotiate inspection items with the seller. They we can write stuff in like, I call them inspection limitations. So hey, we're gonna get an inspection done. But we're not going to nitpick you on all the little, like, Bs items, we just want to see if there's anything major, and be able to negotiate on those major issues. So I'll put a cap on the dollar amount for the inspection items that my clients will negotiate. So then the seller reads that and thinks, Okay, like, I'm most likely not going to have to deal with inspection items unless something major comes up. So there's, like I said, multiple ways to kind of negotiate

Rick Ripma: 38:51

that. And when you said cap, you mean low cap, so we aren't going to anything under whatever dollar amount we're not going to ask for. But over that.

Ian Arnold: 39:00

Yes, exactly. And which I think it's, it's smart, because we do a lot of first time homebuyers. And I was one of them as everybody else was. And you know, if you don't know the market or know what to do, you just don't understand it. So I got one for my home inspection. And I'm like, looking at them. Like, there's quite a bit on here. And it was a lot of it was like little stuff. And then my realtor then sat down with me and we walked through it. And then one big thing is we already knew prior was we didn't do windows. We already knew that. My realtor luckily pointed it out to us. But yeah, I mean, I looked at it and I was like, Oh my gosh, this house needs a lot of work. And

Christie Snapp: 39:35

it's scary because those reports are very detailed for a reason. So just for your knowledge, though, you know, you don't want to, again, you don't want to nitpick and ask the seller to fix every tiny little thing that comes up on the inspection. So I tell my clients just focus on the important big ticket items that really need attention now. And we can work it out with the seller most of the time.

Ian Arnold: 40:00

All right. So Little Timmy bought a house from you. And he's been phenomenal. So let's do that. What do you do you try to keep in touch with Timmy after the sell. I know, I know, during the 30 days or 90 days, whatever timeframe, you guys are like best friends. But what happens after that?

Christie Snapp: 40:17

Yeah, of course, I have my business plan consists of like our touches. So we, we have five touches that we do every month to our sphere, clients, friends and family, which includes, you know, a monthly e newsletter, I send out a magazine that has recipes and fun things in it. And other things like that invites to client events. And then we do two or three bigger clients events that we invite all of our past clients to. So those are really fun, we get to like touch base again. And then every day, I send out two handwritten note cards to people, a lot of times they're like birthday anniversary cards, or just, hey, we're just thinking about you kind of thing. So I'm constantly just reaching out to past clients in my sphere in general, just touch base, see how people are doing so. That is, I think, for the long haul, how you're gonna get business. So always being in touch and in top of mind, so then, and it's not like I'm reaching out, Hey, how's your house? Or hey, do you need to buy? It's like, Hey, how was your weekend? You know, it's like, more personal thing. So just maintaining a relationship over the years, and then, you know, down the road when they need to spy yourself. Hopefully they think of me.

Rick Ripma: 41:40

They know who you are. You don't have to tell them.

Christie Snapp: 41:42

Exactly. Yeah,

Rick Ripma: 41:43

I always get irritated. I think some of that's okay. But everything, somebody sends you a happy birthday. And then they've got all their sales information in there. They were wishing you a happy birthday, right?

Christie Snapp: 41:55

They were wanting a sale. They were wanting to sell. Right, right? Yeah, no, no, no, yeah, I never put my business card and those things. No, yeah. And then there are real estate things, too, that are valuable that I reach out about, I try and do some like real estate reviews. So a year after a client buys a house, send a little like, Hey, here's what happened in your neighborhood in the past year, just so you know. And it's not to like, Hey, if you're gonna sell reach out to me is purely information about the market that they might find valuable. And then I include like a little like, here's how to use this information. Like make sure you have enough coverage, you know, for your house, reach out to your insurance agent. So just being a resource. And again, back to the just being helpful. It's really pretty simple. When you when you think about Yeah,

Ian Arnold: 42:45

that's a smart email, especially or text message or call to say, hey, you might want to check make sure you're covered from outage because what's happened over the last four or five years with your home? Yeah, yeah, everything's shot up. Yeah. So guess what? Everything else so if you had to get a repair that's that's a brilliant way to at least touch base right now especially

Christie Snapp: 43:05

Yeah, yep.

Rick Ripma: 43:06

Well, insurance has also shot up that to really hire some not our area fortunately, isn't this bad. But I talked to some people like Florida, an agent in Florida. They're like these condos can't even get insurance.

Christie Snapp: 43:22

I know there's I've heard that there's condos are not getting like insurance companies are just not offering insurance down there. Right now in some in some areas. It's crazy.

Rick Ripma: 43:32

It's a real struggle for them. We don't have that problem. Fortunately, right. Insurance has just been I guess hammered with claims. So they're very, very, very picky. It just makes me mad. Yeah, just makes it hard. So what's your secret sauce for standing out in a crowd and the crowd?

Christie Snapp: 43:50

Secret Sauce. Honestly, being authentically yourself, I think is the best thing you can do and crew and really pay attention to your personal brand. You have your brokerage and they have a brand and you can piggyback off of that a little bit. But people at the end of the day don't care about that necessarily. They like again back to the Instagram and the showing your personality and who you are and how you can help people and just providing value for them, I think is the best thing you can do. Especially when there's I think 10,000 Realtors on our board right now there's a lot of realtors. Now, I think 20% of those Realtors do 80% of the transactions but yeah, I think just being authentic being yourself and showing your personality is what will help you stand out because not everybody is going to be a good fit for me, but I'm going to be a good fit or a better fit for a lot of people that maybe another realtor wouldn't jive with. So I think just showing who you are is

Ian Arnold: 44:56

so let me ask you this because you have a young kid like I do. Have you have an eight year old? And you've been in business for 13 years? So how do you actually keep a work life balance with?

Christie Snapp: 45:07

Oh my gosh, that's the question right? Well, so I try my best for my business and from my personal life to time block. So I try and make a conscious effort to put the phone down and spend a period of time with my son after school, or whatever it is. So just being conscious of it. Because otherwise, you know, we come home, and he likes to chill after school and like, watch some videos and play some video games and just relax for a bit. So he can do his own thing. And I get caught up, like getting on my computer or posting on Instagram, like so I can get caught back into the work stuff, even when I'm at home. So I have to be conscious of like, okay, I need to set a time put this down for a second, go spend some time with him. So yeah, you just have to be aware of really how you're spending your time when you're at home. Because as a real estate agent, and especially since I have a nice home office, like I can get like rolled into the work, even when I'm at home. So it is it is hard, but just being aware of how you're spending your time. I think

Rick Ripma: 46:12

it's very easy to get start working and an hours go by video game, it's easy to get out of video gaming years go by. Yeah, get up video games anymore.

Christie Snapp: 46:24

Well, I'm kind of getting into video games, because that's how my son likes to spend his time. So we'll like that. I'll offer to play video games with him. So that's it's it's funny. The whole video game world. It's even for eight year old for like the little kids. They like know how to do all this stuff. I'm like, Oh, I'll try and keep up.

Ian Arnold: 46:42

Yeah, I mean, it's, they're bred in new technology. Yeah, they're growing up with it. My son in second grade already had a laptop for school. We were not even thinking my parents were like, they were over for the weekend. They're like, have they learned cursive writing? Like they don't teach cursive. We keep typing. I go that's what it's about. You're not gonna write cursive anymore.

Christie Snapp: 47:04

Exactly. Yeah. Isn't that bizarre? And, sidenote, the way they teach math? Oh, it's crazy is so different from how I learned math. Like I can't. He's in second grade. And I can barely like, do what he's doing. Like, I don't know how they're teaching it. I just pull out the calculator.

Ian Arnold: 47:25

All right. So one, we'd like to thank you for being on again.

Christie Snapp: 47:29

Thank you for having me. Always fun. But there is one thing we need to do here for oh gosh, what

Ian Arnold: 47:36

a nice way to get in touch with you. How can we get a hold of you?

Christie Snapp: 47:41

So you can reach out to me on Instagram at snap sells real estate snap with two Ps. Just shoot me a DM that's I actually have been getting clients from there a little bit more recently. Or you can call or text me 317-902-2989 Is my cell phone or email christy.snap@gmail.com.

Rick Ripma: 48:05

And to get a hold of the winner, I go to HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com Or you can give us a call at 317-672-1938 31767 to 1938. And please follow us for more in these real estate gurus

Ian Arnold: 48:19

and reminder if you have any friends or coworkers looking to buy sell refinance, let us know we're more than happy to help you. Christy again, thank you for being on the show. And of course we want you back on but this time yet do another gymnastics saying okay, and

Christie Snapp: 48:34

hopefully it goes viral again. Which machine do you use? Maybe we'll just bring one in the uneven bars to set that up. set that up right here. Yeah, lots of matte black

Ian Arnold: 48:43

we can we can do it in the parking lot. There you go. Oh my god.

Rick Ripma: 48:49

But market that Yes.

Christie Snapp: 48:51

Don't invite people to watch. Oh, no, no, no, there will be

Ian Arnold: 48:56

downtown Carmel. There will be people live

Rick Ripma: 48:59

this time next.

Christie Snapp: 49:00

Oh gosh. Thank you, Chris. Thank you guys.