Tara Hubbard: Hard Work Pays Off

Welcome to Real Estate excellence making lasting connections to the best of the best in today's industry, elite. We'll help you expand your circle of influence by introducing you to the leaders in the real estate industry, whether it's top agents who execute at a high level every day, or the many support services working behind the scenes, we'll share their stories, ideologies and the inner workings of how they run a truly successful business, and show you how to add their tools to your belt. Now please welcome the host with the most Tracy Hayes,

Tracy Hayes  1:03  
Hey, welcome back to The Real Estate excellence podcast with your host. Tracy Hayes, today, I have a guest who comes highly recommended from a very libel source here in Jacksonville. She has over a decade of experience in Northeast Florida as a real estate agent. Her drive motivation and problem solving skills have made her a Top Producing agent, and in 2019 she opened her own brokerage. So let's welcome the most radiant broker, owner of radiant Realty, Tara Hubbard, to the show. Hi. Thank you for having me. Thank you for coming on today. I'm glad you know Brittany referred me to you and put you on my radar screen, and then I start following people there. So there's a lot of great agents in Jacksonville. I don't know them all, so Brittany knows what I'm sort of looking for. And she said, Hey, Tara, would be a great guest for your show. So glad you guys came over today. So I always like to kick off the show to get everyone a little familiar about you. Where are you from?

Tara Hubbard  1:59  
I am from Jacksonville. I was born and wait raised on the west side, Jones and Old Plank, Marietta, White House area. Okay, a lot of people don't really know where that's at,

Tracy Hayes  2:08  
but that's why I've heard White House. I've heard that before, kind

Tara Hubbard  2:11  
of like, probably not so country anymore, but it used to be country back in the day. Where'd you go to high school? I am a graduate of Ed White High School Class of 99

Tracy Hayes  2:20  
oh, okay, okay. And then you went on FSU.

Tara Hubbard  2:23  
I did well. I started off at SCC, J and then I went to Florida State. And would you study there? Criminology. My intent was

Tracy Hayes  2:32  
law school. So attempt was be a lawyer. And how long did that intent? I will give you an example. I went to Citadel and I my intent was engineering, and that didn't even last the first semester. So how long did your did your law degree idea go?

Tara Hubbard  2:48  
Well, it lasted long enough for me to come back to well, straight out of college, I got a job selling water in North Carolina with a family that I nanny for. Okay, very lucky to have a whole nother family when I was at college, because it's their nanny. So after Charlotte briefly, my grandma got sick, I came back home, I started teaching in Duval County, reconnected with my husband and ex husband, okay, got married and had kids, so that's where law school went. So it was a

Tracy Hayes  3:17  
so you nanny, Nanny through college. I was a nanny while you were in Tallahassee, yes, three boys. So you, you know, one of the, you know, obviously things that the kids missed today, and I think it proves to you later on in life, for you, your work ethic, that you actually were working through college to put yourself or at least help. Or did you just totally, did you totally put yourself through college? Or do you have, oh, no, no, no. But you subsidize, you create a cash flow for the many other incidentals that you, a college student, has to offset. But you had a work ethic and you were looking to do things while you were going to school.

Tara Hubbard  3:52  
Yeah, absolutely. I've mostly always worked two jobs my entire life.

Tracy Hayes  3:56  
Yeah, so you mentioned teaching in there. I did not see that on your LinkedIn.

Tara Hubbard  4:01  
I was six years in Duval County. Is

Tracy Hayes  4:04  
that right? So you just kind of look, we're looking for a job. I'm like, Yeah, whatever. I'll go teach. Or what kind of led you into that?

Tara Hubbard  4:09  
I believe at the time, there was a huge teaching shortage, and my then husband's aunt was principal and desperately needed a kindergarten teacher. So I thought, why not? So I studied and I took the test, I visited the classroom and teaching kindergartens like being a little cheerleader,

Tracy Hayes  4:28  
I don't know how they do. So you end up spending six years there.

Tara Hubbard  4:34  
Though I did six years with Duval County after I had my second child, I did Job share, which basically went part time, okay? And that's also when I got my real estate license, because I needed to figure something else out.

Tracy Hayes  4:46  
So what started to give you the flavor for real estate? I started

Tara Hubbard  4:49  
investing in real estate. I bought a trailer in Georgia, rural Georgia, for $600 it was the land too. Piece of no trailer. I paid more to have. It moved to a trailer park, right? But I rented it out, and it cash flowed. And then I bought another one from a different investor within the same trailer park, right? And then, you know, they cash flowed. So that helped, you know, subsidize going part time and teaching, who opened your eyes to that. It was my husband,

Tracy Hayes  5:18  
just something new. And, you know, everyone thinks they have to do. That's bad term to use. So many people think they have to go buy, you know, I got to have the fancy house, or to rent out, or condo, whatever, something that maybe we would desire to live in. But there are people out there who are on a minimal income, Social Security, pension, whatever, or just, you know, whatever. And trailer parks serve their purpose. I mean, right now we really need to, in St John's County, being on the affordable housing Advisory Committee, we really need to open up some areas where people actually go in and put some trailers in there, and people can pay reasonable rent. Is there that is a huge part of our workforce right there. The fact that you noticed it, and there are obviously guys, if you listed the many podcasts, bigger pockets, is one. He's a big investor in the whole parks themselves because of the Affordable workforce housing. And you probably weren't thinking about that at the time. But today, in our world, right now, if you know, I had, you had some land and put, I could put 10 manufactured homes on them and rent them out. They would be great cash flow, absolutely, because there's huge demand for the for a reasonable rent, you probably couldn't even get them and put them in the ground and turn the power on before people were banging on the door wanting to rent it.

Tara Hubbard  6:36  
Right now, oh, we have the same tenant and one of them for the whole duration.

Tracy Hayes  6:41  
That's awesome. That's totally awesome. So are you, since you're on that subject of investment property, said, Did you? Did you take that here? You still have those. You still actively hunting, or always have the eye out for another rental property.

Tara Hubbard  6:53  
Oh, my eye is always out for investment real estate. I no longer have the trailers in rural Georgia. We invested in Murray Hill got out, you know, in and out of Murray Hill over the last lot of flicks going on in Murray Hill, flips, we had rentals there that we hold on to. I'm a West Side girl. My heart's on the west side. I feel safe there, right? So, I have a house in North Carolina that I bought in 2017 I believe that is the Airbnb. I saw the Airbnb purpose before. It was like a real overflesh of things right now, right?

Tracy Hayes  7:28  
So you've dabbled in, you know, then this is stuff I'm learning here Tara and I did not meet. I mean, first time I shook her hand was she walked in here, you know, 20 minutes ago, and we sat down. So this is knowledge that I'm learning, but people out there watching right now, as I now as a lot of new agents or customers who are Airbnb is big right now, looking for people are always looking for those properties in investment property opportunities. This is your resource. You have hands on experience, whether it comes from a $600 manufactured home to a nice Airbnb in North Carolina and kind of every in between?

Tara Hubbard  8:00  
Yeah, I've always been whatever it takes. Yeah, well, it's

Tracy Hayes  8:03  
interesting that you will I guess you said your ex husband kind of, kind of led you is like, hey, getting into real estate and investing, and it's just you just slowly have built your portfolio over time.

Tara Hubbard  8:14  
Yes, I was literally, like, nine months pregnant and drug me to Robert Kawasaki, Rich Dad, Poor Dad and I left. There's a conference. It was at what? Yeah, it was I left. I didn't want to do the whole day the next day. So he actually took a realtor that we had purchased a rental and rental property from, and then he came home and he told me that he had put on our charge card, like, $13,000 for these classes. And I was like, what?

Tracy Hayes  8:40  
Oh, wow, he dove in. Brother,

Tara Hubbard  8:43  
thank God he did. But isn't it?

Tracy Hayes  8:47  
So one of the podcasts that I listened to, they call it loan officer freedom, but Carl white taking massive action and not procrastinating over it, because in this case, you have success story. You got you followed through with it, and you look back and you laugh at the $13,000 but at the time you probably

Tara Hubbard  9:05  
ready, oh, man, as a teacher and a military guy in the military wasn't even an officer,

Tracy Hayes  9:11  
yeah, 13,000 huge budget. Had you even bought the manufacturer home? Yet? Was this after Robert

Tara Hubbard  9:17  
Kiyosaki, honestly, I think that we may have already had the so

Tracy Hayes  9:21  
he already had his mind moving around

Tara Hubbard  9:24  
other directions and Murray Hill rental properties. So because of that jump, we then made several jumps in Murray Hill, and then Mike Barker, Tom, Brian ortiga, guys that we connected with an investor meeting, local investor group meeting, which I think are so important. There's lots of them that go on in Jacksonville, if that's your thing.

Tracy Hayes  9:45  
That's so interesting. It's amazing how surreal they so I had one of my loan officers this morning contact me, said he was invited to one of these investor meetings down in St Augustine. I guess it's a regular group here in Jacksonville, but they've branched out down in St Augustine and. He was invited in. In there was just let me know, and it's fact that you're just mentioning that right now. It's odd here.

Tara Hubbard  10:06  
Yeah, it's important, I mean, to connect with and

Tracy Hayes  10:09  
All right, so you're leading into, you know, one of the themes that I regularly have on that comes up in conversation with the top agents is who you hang out with. So you just mentioned that to you. So in your air, in your area, did you guys start going to these investment meetings, these groups that form and these guys,

Tara Hubbard  10:29  
honestly, when I got my real estate license, I just took off, I was very well. I thought, very lucky to work for Sean O'Neill, my broker, right local in town, and we it was when internet leads took off. So if you just pounded the phones, you were gonna

Tracy Hayes  10:44  
sell real estate. And it was Florida, so people were moving here, yeah,

Tara Hubbard  10:47  
and realtors didn't have their own websites with, you know, their own MLS, right? Synced then, so I had somebody create that, and that's how Ria, my old business partner, and I teamed up, because she was in property management, and I could not keep up raising children and selling real estate with all the leads that I had. So we partnered up, and she left property management and

Tracy Hayes  11:11  
interesting, interesting. So we'll, we'll, we'll get into that here. And let me show you. I think it was around 2011 right? Is when you got your license. Am I correct 2008 No, I had Why 2011 was in my mind. So 2008 you get your license, you join Sean O'Neill's group. What are you? You just mentioned you're on the phones. So on the phones is a wide, open or broad statement, what are you doing, and what, why do you think, or were you, I mean, did you feel you were more successful than some of the others? Because you weren't the only one on the phone. I feel like some techniques that you use to be successful.

Tara Hubbard  11:48  
I feel like, at the time, I was probably more successful than other realtors, because in 2008 the crash had happened, right live, realtors had gotten out of the market. A lot of realtors that were in the market were digging and had already experienced easy money, right? And I was willing to do whatever it took, if that meant that I was going to zip codes less desirable, and taking that chance locking my kids in the car.

Tracy Hayes  12:13  
Did you start to specialize in the in the foreclosure short sale situation? What did you take an angle on

Tara Hubbard  12:19  
that I did whatever it took

Tracy Hayes  12:25  
my audience wants to know, or

Tara Hubbard  12:27  
a $2 million house, like I was working that lead, until, you know, it was dead, like the like, I'm working the lead, it didn't matter what you wanted to buy,

Tracy Hayes  12:38  
because we've, I mean, there's A lot of top agents, and I'm sure, you know, several of them off top of your head, that really started in that 2000 678, period, and jumped in, you know, the Collins, Walter Collins, you know, he started in value with exit one stop I had on last week. And they started in that time period, and it was working the short sales and willing to work it through. Because it wasn't just, you know, sign the contract, okay, we're going to close in 30 days. You had to work with the banks and everybody else in between and and obviously appraisals coming in, you know, low or whatever was going on, and it took some extra work. And what I what I have found, there's a consistency of those who started during that period, like you said, you know, put their nose to the grindstone, if you wanna call it that, and work through it as just blossom for them, you know, as things just started to get better, and 1112, and so forth.

Tara Hubbard  13:29  
Yeah, I think we think maybe a little more creatively.

Tracy Hayes  13:31  
And that's a great that's a great analogy. Oh, statement there, yes, you gotta have to get out of the box, because no one experienced this before, right? I mean, how many, how often before that, were anybody in, like a foreclosure that was like a unicorn, you know? And now you're having to deal with them on a large basis, and then dealing with the banks, which I think you'd probably agree with, every bank seemed to handle differently.

Tara Hubbard  13:53  
Oh, you just made me like, think of that. You want the vomit on that one specific bank that had the equator system to put your short sell stuff in.

Tracy Hayes  14:03  
We were fortunate enough, my wife, we were here in it was Thanksgiving, oh, eight, and we came over and looked, looked at houses. We found one. It was a foreclosure. And we're we just wanted to get lucky that the agent that was representing had the, you know, I don't know whether you know, in that case, there was a buddy, but they had the direct phone number to the, you know, the bank person to make the decision. And we, literally, within 24 hours, had our offer accepted. So that was a miracle, because having been, you know, been the business since 2005 and when someone would call, typically say, Oh yeah, we're making an offer on a short sale, we're like, okay, just want to let you know, this could be tomorrow, or it could be six months. It could be a year. It may never happen, you know, and that's that, depending on who you were working with, you were

Tara Hubbard  14:48  
very lucky, and you definitely had somebody Yeah. That was totally

Tracy Hayes  14:51  
Yeah, definitely fortunate there. So for new agents out there struggling, inspire them a little bit here. What was the mindset that you had, besides your work ethic? Because, you know, the reason why I brought up working in college created the set that you are someone that's going to work through things. But what were some of the things that you had to get your mind around and coming in and knowing that you know, to put forth the effort to bear the fruit in that period of 2008 nine?

Tara Hubbard  15:20  
Yeah, I just knew that I never wanted to go back to teaching, even though I was still subbing a lot, and I wanted to be very present for my kids. They were young. I wanted to be the person that took them to school, that picked them up from school. So I just knew that whatever it took.

Tracy Hayes  15:33  
Were you a single mom at this point? No, no, he was in the military.

Tara Hubbard  15:37  
So and growing in the military, so going through lots can

Tracy Hayes  15:41  
be like being a single mom deployment, yeah, with the deployments,

Tara Hubbard  15:44  
yeah, like that, right? So sometimes yes, like a single mom, right?

Tracy Hayes  15:49  
So you so the taste of what I guess, what I'm leaning to is, were you motivated by what being in real estate and being successful in real estate was? Did you have a vision then of kind of like where you know where you're at now in your business, did you? Did you even fathom that in 2008

Tara Hubbard  16:08  
No, I just knew that teaching was not for me anymore, right? And I needed to be present for my kids, and all I had to make was a part time teacher salary, right? So you sold the house as good as where I sold the house a month. Yeah? Anything more like, we're winning, right?

Tracy Hayes  16:26  
Exactly. So when do you? When do you, I mean, when does it start to take off for you? I would say 13. Like you get the adrenaline rush. Now, imagine you got excited when you had a contract then, but you start going, Yeah, this guy could really do something with this?

Tara Hubbard  16:41  
Yeah, I flipped a couple of houses, and, you know, we spent money doing that, along with consistently selling real estate. But in 2013 shortly after, Rhea and I partnered up and really got some systems in place, and it seemed to flow. Instead of being more of like waves, how it sometimes is. We also bought a quad in Riverside Ria, and I

Tracy Hayes  17:04  
there's another unicorn.

Tara Hubbard  17:08  
Again, I talk about people angels have higher powers looking out for us. That was

Tracy Hayes  17:14  
that so you I went off on my unicorn. Because finding a finding a multi family home right now is a treasure, right? I mean, imagine right now, no matter what the condition of it's a multi family home. You got investors flying at it right now, and to be able to have a multi family unit, because when you do listen to real estate podcasts and the big investors and stuff, they are talking about the number of doors. And, yeah, you can have some single families, but you really want those multiple family units. And obviously, like Robert Kiyosaki, now he's just all into, like apartments and so forth, where they got 50, 100, couple 100 doors, or hundreds of doors. So it sounds like, when you first started and got your real estate license, did you go around and talk to someone you just, you just kind of walked into Sean O'Neill's office say, I want to sell real estate. What led you estate. What led

Tara Hubbard  18:03  
you to him? We had purchased two homes through agents at that brokerage. So I knew how it was set up, like I knew it was an all, all online system, so I, I was familiar with it, right? Sean's a people person. If you've ever met him, you love him.

Tracy Hayes  18:19  
So I only hear him on the Sean Hannity, commercial Sean Hayes, well, Sean Hayes, his commercial Sean Hannity, is talking

Tara Hubbard  18:27  
about his name if he wasn't good, yeah,

Tracy Hayes  18:30  
I've been told I need to have him on the show. So to touch back, when you first started, you were fortunate to fall into a broker who's had great success, or obviously you clicked with we mentioned pre show. I said, Are you know, you you recruiting, it really? And you said, Well, you know, when people basically kind of come to you because you know the your ideology, like the way you're doing things, you know, they see you as someone who might mentor them or something, a new agent today, how important is it for them to really sit down and not be interviewed, but actually interview the brokers that they are potentially might be under, yeah, I want to say work for be under

Tara Hubbard  19:09  
Yeah, or Yeah. I think when people get their license, they think, oh, like, I gotta go interview everywhere. They need to remember that you're the one interviewing a broker, because

Tracy Hayes  19:19  
your phone today. Sorry, I was talking to Marissa Scott. She was on, she said she had to call brokers to get on and actually, some of them turned her down. And then she became Rookie of the Year at exit, yeah, like that, in 2008 I think it was. And so it's funny today. I mean, soon as you sign up for the class, they're already calling you.

Tara Hubbard  19:37  
Your phone's blowing up. I don't even know how to get that list.

Tracy Hayes  19:43  
So you know, a friend of yours came to you today and just say, I'm thinking about getting into real estate when it comes to selecting who they work with, or who's broker, who, what broker they want to follow. What would you tell them?

Tara Hubbard  19:55  
I mean, I would think that they'd need to know what was important for them is that the edge. Education? Is it hands on? Is it availability? You know, all of those things, what's, what's important to you? If you like a big high school or a little

Tracy Hayes  20:12  
that's, that's, that's a good analogy there. Because when you say that, and I think a lot of people may like skip over, think about everybody's at a different stage in their life. If you're 25 years old and grew up here, or you're 25 years old and you didn't grow up here, you're you have a different

Tara Hubbard  20:27  
need, yeah, what environment do you grow in? Right?

Tracy Hayes  20:30  
If you grew up here, you may already have a circle of influence to start working with. So you know that broker, you don't need that part from the broker. If you are very new here, you may need the lead flow initially to get your feet wet and learn what's going if you're 40 years old and transitioning out of corporate America and you've lived here, is a totally different mindset, as my wife did a couple of years ago. She has, you know, she has a totally different mindset, because having worked before, knowing what that work ethic is, as we talked about you having and then knowing how to tap into the people that know would like and trust you.

Tara Hubbard  21:08  
Yeah, and are you afraid? Is your personality? Are you the person that can go knock on doors? Can you hold open houses and talk to people you know that way? Like, what's it going to take?

Tracy Hayes  21:17  
I was talking to top broker here in the area, and he was talking about how he does this evaluation on each of the new agents that he allows to come into his brokerage. And one of the agents, John Brooks, I'm going to mention you, because Britney's on on Monday. So I mentioned you John Brooks at momentum, he does this test. And what the agent that he has in Gainesville found out she actually her strength is, is the online leads. She flourishes in that environment, and, you know, picking up the phone and because, you know, as those leads come across, you got you better call right now? Have to Yeah, otherwise, there's three other people got them 30 seconds later. Yeah, it's the first one, first one to grab. But she flourishes that market. They focused on that, and it's changed her, changed her business.

Tara Hubbard  22:00  
Yeah, I've always said that to new agents that getting leads, it's like fishing. If you want to catch a bunch of fish, you can't just go to this one pond. You've got to have several different ponds to figure out which ponds well.

Tracy Hayes  22:12  
So you grew up here in Jacksonville, and this, this is something I'm, you know, the young loan officers I'm trying to teach as well. What are some methods that you I mean, I'm sure you still use them, but definitely, you know, as you start to work through those leads started getting your business. What do you do to keep your circle of influence not not the the strangers out there, but the people you know, like, what do you do to regularly touch them, remind them that, hey, I'm a realtor.

Tara Hubbard  22:38  
Yeah, they will forget. Yeah, because there's 1000s and 1000s. Yeah, I don't know. I'm a big relationship person. I think that I'm a whole vibe. My brokerage is a whole vibe. And once you connect with us, we kind of don't let you go. Yeah.

Tracy Hayes  22:54  
So is it regular dials or you're

Tara Hubbard  22:58  
sending them handwritten a lot of handwritten letters. Of like I noticed something, handwritten letters.

Tracy Hayes  23:02  
That is something I'm going to add that to my theme. I've heard that so much, and I've tried to push that here. But thank you for mentioning that. Is handwriting the card just like that. I keep mentioning this guy never remember his name, but the car salesman wrote thank you card sauce customers. That's that kind of concept, because today, face to face obviously building, you said your relationship person, face to face is obviously the best way to build a relationship. Yeah, yeah. You can text, but snail mail is long of high above email. Email is the bottom of the barrel. And we've, I think a lot of people have relied on these, these CRMs, to send, yeah, they send out the hey, you know, auto email. Hey, it's Fourth of July. Hey, it's Valentine's Day. But those, those really are not doing anything, if anything, anyone's putting unsubscribe, and then they're totally out of your CRM, completely. Yeah, but the handwritten cards, how are you is it something that your whole team, you said, there's six other agents in your office? Is that something you guys all buy into? Or you've noticed that something you stayed with

Tara Hubbard  24:02  
consistently done over time. There's eight of us, but if there's some of us that do that, and that's part of our business, natural, and we encourage people, other people to do it. But that's the thing that rating it like be radiant on your own, however you want to be ready. There's no pressure from me, but I think that, but you highly encouraging, yeah. I mean, if you're thinking about somebody, stop and write it down, tell them. I mean, in my work bag, which I don't have with me, I keep, it's almost like a little mailbox with, like, stamps, postcards, postcard stamps, note cards. So if taking notes, you just get it out, right?

Tracy Hayes  24:37  
Yeah, you might, you might be sitting there waiting in line for whatever, or in the Starbucks drive through what says you can't pull out one of those cards and say, Hey, Sally, appreciate seeing you today. Wish you the best. You pop your business card in here, you seal that envelope, you throw in the mailbox next time you're around, you know when you get home, there's so it is, I'm. Finding this to be a very old school. It's all because that's and I have sent agents snail mail before, and they're like, oh, wow, this is so old school. But I'm hearing it consistently from top people that they are doing that and reaching out and touching someone with a personal thank you card or whatever.

Tara Hubbard  25:19  
Yes, I quit paying for leads years ago, and I fully rely on relationships for sales, and that's writing cards I do pop bys also to keep in contact with my customers, which means that

Tracy Hayes  25:32  
I go, what's your favorite pop by gift, because you generally like give some bring something with you, don't you?

Tara Hubbard  25:37  
Yes, I have kids, so they put them together for me, currently bath bombs are on their way that

Tracy Hayes  25:45  
bath bombs, my daughter, bath bombs, she makes them so, so what Tara, what do you keep top of, you know, not top of my debt to keep yourself because You have people that are you, are, you know, mentoring in your office, that that look up to you as the broker owner, what do you what are things that you're doing to stay sharp, to continue to add value to them?

Tara Hubbard  26:12  
I think that it is just a matter of staying positive and encouraging, and even though, you know, like the market's been tough to get buyers under contract. Continually remind them their purpose and what they're doing. Caleb, I'm talking to you. He's a teacher, also full time realtor, just killing it. And I mean, he inspires me, because he works so hard and life is hard, and, you know, just reminding each other to stay human. When's he

Tracy Hayes  26:43  
gonna when's he gonna jump in full time? When's he gonna know where he's at? Yeah, but there I've had several. I mean, if I go back and look at there's a lot of great real estate agents that were education, oh, yeah, you know, I'm gonna call it even, Kristen Lunsford, her, she has a doctorate degree. I believe in education, with the jack's real producers magazine, but there's a lot of great agents. Katie benzo, just thinking off top my head, with the Welch team. She was a teacher before jumping into Riley. Yeah. So I think there's a little bit of and you and, you know, although I was an education major, I only put one year, and I said, Now you go back to sales. So but the being empathetic, being, you know, being able to approach people, being, you know, to your presentation, and then then there's a work ethic involved in from the teaching standpoint, there's a lot of that back office or writing, the handwritten cards and stuff. That's what a kindergarten teacher would do, right? Well, yeah, and it works

Tara Hubbard  27:46  
with the parents, you know, right?

Tracy Hayes  27:48  
You're dealing with the parents and you because you're dealing with emotions the kids are I mean, you know, I think every middle school teacher will tell you, the emotions are flying everywhere, right? Seventh, eighth graders, and you are dealing with that. It's the same thing in a real estate transaction, and you're dealing with the emotions and how you carry yourself.

Tara Hubbard  28:07  
Yeah, absolutely, stay and steady. I think that's why radiant was kind of created. I saw what I wanted, a family of agents, right, that supported each other, that believed in hustling with heart, showing compassion grace through a transaction, because people go through some real stuff, you know, and the reasoning why they're buying or selling a house, divorce, I mean, right? Death, well, in

Tracy Hayes  28:30  
2008 I'm sure the heartaches that you were dealing with in the sellers a lot of times, you know, in the foreclosure situation was probably you jumped right into it right away

Tara Hubbard  28:39  
in that situation, yeah, I think currently, that's kind of what we're or if you're upside down

Tracy Hayes  28:44  
in your house, that will devastate you, as you know well as many that time period. What did you take? So you started off with Sean O'Neill Exit Realty. Now you did some time at Better Homes. What did you take from there to radiant? What did you learn from those brokerages?

Tara Hubbard  29:02  
The vibe that I wanted to create with radiance. People will be with you if they want to be with you. I want to, you know, freedom on things.

Tracy Hayes  29:10  
Give me. Give me. I know you're looking at your notes there. She brought notes. So that's good. I finally had a couple people bring notes to the show, but like, Give me. I mean not, not that they probably have changed it now, because I hopefully if it wasn't working there, you saw something not working there, I would imagine that some of those brokerages and some of them get so large, then when you know something's not working, what did you get? Let's dig in this. Like something that you like you said you wanted to change the vibe of your team. What was just you didn't see was happening, at least around you, that you said, hey, I want to go. I want to create my own thing, because I'm going to do it this way. I don't

Tara Hubbard  29:45  
even notice so exit, we started out at exit when it was small and it got really big, really fast. I love exit. I love Nancy. I love Ray. I love sunny like I love my exit. People, my Better Homes and Gardens, people I have good relationships with, all of them. Radiance, not. Getting too big, too fast. It's very referral based. Like, if one of my agents call and say, Hey, you should talk to this person, then I'm going to talk to this person. But I'm not calling off the list trying to recruit people, because the people that want to be with me will be with me. And, you know, like I said, like, it's a whole vibe.

Tracy Hayes  30:17  
Well, you mentioned family. You mentioned that term before. So you want to work with people you like working with. Yeah, and you met, and I think you mentioned you, I know you mentioned something a minute ago that when I asked you about adding value and you coming in with that positive attitude. Well, if you're working with people you want to work with, you have a different you get up at a bit differently. It's a

Tara Hubbard  30:39  
different piece. Our slogans, peace, love real estate, believe in, stay in human. Sometimes humaning is hard, so it's important to stay human. And, you know, stay human through the real estate transactions as well.

Tracy Hayes  30:51  
So creating that, so creating a different atmosphere. Like I said, you if you are bringing, if you're just bringing in people, which some of these brokerages do, that's their mom, their business model. You know, bless them for that. That's the way they want to run their run their business. But sometimes when you just have the door open, you don't know who's coming in. Yeah?

Tara Hubbard  31:08  
I want to know that my agents are working with their heart and not just pushing paper plug and play, doing it for the money, right?

Tracy Hayes  31:18  
Well, that's because that's short lived. Yeah, and I think people don't say discredit or don't give enough emphasis on the fact that when people are moving in and out of your life, it is stressful. So if you got, if you're, you're a family, relationship person that you are, that's and that's probably why brick because that's the way she is, you know, at Landmark Britney's, to me, that's the way she has that kumbaya attitude, she's always positive and so forth. So obviously she likes you. So you guys probably a similar personality standpoint. So when you bring people into your circle, and then when people leave, or someone comes in and they're not willing to put forth the effort, you're like, Oh man, this person has so much potential. It's pulls so much energy out of you, and then when they leave, you have that moment where you're like, oh, man, I feel, yeah, we just wish that person just stuck with it, did a little more. They could be really successful at this business. So I'm envisioning radiant the fact that you are so selective, or really you want people to come there because they want to be there. You don't have that influx of people coming in and out of your life. TAFE, can you you're like, taking your energy with you, right?

Tara Hubbard  32:24  
Yeah, I that, did I describe that well, that, you know, have more deposits than withdrawals?

Tracy Hayes  32:31  
Yes, there you go. I like that. Yeah, you are reading some personal development books or a lot of therapy. That's true too. So let's talk about some mentors you've had. You mentioned a few. Who do you think in your if you looked at your whole real estate career the last 14 years, right? Who do you think's been the number one influence, even if it's Robert Kiyosaki, I don't know whether it's someone you follow, or just another great agent, or was it Sean? Who do you think, if you were just put somebody at the top of that list? You think it was your most influential in your career?

Tara Hubbard  33:07  
His name is Robert Jackson. He's one of my best friends. He is a hard money lender for a few people. He owned a sister sales back in the day. I don't know if you remember those,

Tracy Hayes  33:18  
but he's a yes. I remember seeing the signs, yeah, yeah.

Tara Hubbard  33:21  
He is definitely a good guide for big decisions in real estate, right?

Tracy Hayes  33:28  
Is he someone you can fight in or must

Tara Hubbard  33:32  
consider a coach. He inspires me. He pushes me, motivates me.

Tracy Hayes  33:36  
How important do you think you know in talking to some young brother? Because I know I will tell you anyone listening right now, and if you listen to my podcast, every one of them the top agents have had a coach or mentor or both. Some of them had multiple coaches. Some of them have had coaches. Some of them still have coaches, whether you pay them or not, because I mentioned this gentleman, Jackson is more of a friend coach, but how important it is to have someone that you have that bond and trust and, you know, kicks you in the butt sometimes,

Tara Hubbard  34:10  
Oh, absolutely, you got to have some sort of accountability partner, right?

Tracy Hayes  34:14  
Marketing, this is probably for whether it's a loan officer or realtor. This is really what we do. I mean, because we got to make the phone ring after the phone rings, and you get the contract, yes, you know, follow through with it, but most of our time is done to get the phone to ring, to get that person to call in 2008 you were doing, doing leads. How did that migration in the last 15 years to what you're doing now? You mentioned your relationship building, but what are some of the tools you're using today that you weren't using even just 10 years?

Tara Hubbard  34:44  
Oh, customer appreciation parties. We do them twice a year, which for the whole brokerage, everybody invites all their past customers out. We do customer appreciation

Tracy Hayes  34:53  
parties to just, we just like, do a cookout or what do you what kind of things you do?

Tara Hubbard  34:57  
Well during the pandemic, we had the high. See truck at the Riverside Memorial Park, so it was more like pop in, but then have like, corn hole going on outside events. We've done Cinco de Mayo parties at NACA TV at the park there.

Tracy Hayes  35:10  
What do you think is the key to getting those past clients to show up to that? Or you think it's just just just the fact that you announced that you're having it and you're sending that out to everybody? Is good, people show up, bonus. But I mean, to really get a crowd, there's something agents thinking about doing that or joining up with some other agents, because obviously it's, you know, that way you get more synergy around it, right? You get more people to show up. What are some key things you think they get those past clients show up to that.

Tara Hubbard  35:39  
I think having it at a cool place. We also did one at selfie photography when they opened in Avondale. It was a local new business my sisters. But hey, that works.

Tracy Hayes  35:50  
I'm sure she's referred to some people over time.

Tara Hubbard  35:52  
Yeah, absolutely awesome. But you know, people like their picture taken. So that was a good turnout.

Tracy Hayes  36:00  
One of the, one of the ones I saw that was back at Christmas time. Kelly bellow, does and I gotta steal it this year. Sorry. Kelly got to figure out how to steal it. She had a setup, and she had Santa Claus, and had them all come in and take and take their take their family photos. Yes, I guess everyone's always trying to get their Christmas cards ready, you know, obviously. So it's that's really like an October time frame thing to get there. Do the family shot. They get sent the Christmas cards out the next

Tara Hubbard  36:26  
Yeah, family photos, if you just didn't do it, what do

Tracy Hayes  36:30  
you find when you bring them in? Because these are people you're, hopefully, you're trying to touch throughout the year anyway. So when you have that, what as as the agents in your group are you going in with, you know, some sort of strategy, I would assume, to try to touch everybody that shows up. What do you do to prepare yourself to make that event successful? Well, we call

Tara Hubbard  36:50  
them, you know, personally, you got the mailer, right? But here's the phone call, see you there.

Tracy Hayes  36:56  
That was a tip that I got the other day. Well, actually, probably wouldn't say the other day, probably a couple months ago, was when you have an event. Have an event like that, yeah, you call them or send them some sort of message above and beyond your your, your actual mailer, oh, hey, look forward to seeing you at the event. Yeah, puts that psychological thing that, oh, my god, terrace is looking forward to see me. I better be there.

Tara Hubbard  37:19  
You can create a Facebook group, and then it sends the automatic touches.

Tracy Hayes  37:23  
Do you have a Facebook group for your past clients? I do? You do? So what

Tara Hubbard  37:27  
are some for Melissa? Right?

Tracy Hayes  37:29  
I do. What are some of the things that that you do wonder you are just, you know, like Melissa that has her kind of routine, that her team is consistently doing something here? What do you guys like? What do you do in your

Tara Hubbard  37:40  
private Facebook group? Just pop in with positive messages and things, whether it's real estate related or not. Most of the time, it's not

Tracy Hayes  37:48  
just to keep reminding them. And then you're popping up and they're seeing Tara remind Oh, yeah, that's right, she's the real estate agent.

Tara Hubbard  37:55  
Yeah, keep an eye out for your bath bombs. You know, right?

Tracy Hayes  38:00  
What was it ultimately, because, I mean, we all, I'm sure there's a lot of agents that, if they're listening to this, are at a brokerage, you know, they feel they got to be under the Keller Williams or the exits, or, you know, any, any of the Coldwell Banker you know, all the national franchises. But you decide to break away from the Better Homes and Gardens in the exits and just have your own I guess the terminology boutique brokerage is the terminology, right? What made you just decide that, hey, I don't need, I don't need that national logo. I can do this myself.

Tara Hubbard  38:34  
Yeah, I believe every agent out there, you are selling yourself. You're not selling the exit. The Better Homes. You're selling yourself. So if you're you, and you're genuinely you, and people see that, then that's what matters, and that's what's going to get you business. I don't think somebody's going to hire me based on what brokerage I work at. They're going to hire me because they believe I can get the job done.

Tracy Hayes  38:54  
I think the old days like, you know, I always remember seeing like, century 21 right? The century 21 ads, whether they were wearing the gold jacket, and that was the record they were century 21 I don't know if there was another real estate company that I could think of, at least I grew up in the northeast, that I can think of that as a young person growing up, saw the ads, you know, 30 years ago, 40 years ago, saw ads from a real Estate it was they were, they were wanting the brand, that national thing, and that you were going to get the same sort of service. But really today, it's like you said there, it's relationships, and they're doing it because you're a competent real estate agent, yeah, and yeah, someone knows, like and trust you and referred you to them, because that's where your bread and butter comes from. Today. Would you agree? I agree? Okay, the shaking the head doesn't get caught on the Facebook Live gets it, though, that's our so some of the commonalities that I've gotten on the show and I. I lead into this every every show, because I've noticed after the first like 50 some episodes, I was hearing similar things from top agents. How important whether you're a first year agent, maybe you don't do it now you're 15 years in as much of your day is taken up with it, but as a new agent, to get as much education about the industry and what you're doing. How important is education in your overall success? Now 15 years

Tara Hubbard  40:30  
I think that the majority of your education, and maybe my belief, differs from other people, but I think that you learn by doing. So like new agents, you can read all the books in the world, all the How to Guides, but unless you're out there doing it, you're not going to learn it. Every transaction is different. It always has been. There's different hurdles within each deal that you have to jump through, right? And you're not going to learn how to do that. Unless you're doing it,

Tracy Hayes  40:58  
you definitely have to call you have to cause the action in the experience. But would you agree, some of your, you know, the Sean O'Neill's and so forth, you know, they're what they their experience was poured a little bit into you, made things a little bit easier, because there were so many. I mean, you know, 2008 2009 you jump into a market. They're talking about force foreclosures and short sales. And I guarantee, you know, as you mentioned earlier, a lot of agents rolled out, yeah, experienced agents rolled out. Said, I'm done with real estate. And they are. They had already done transactions. You had never done a transaction, and you're diving into this unicorn time of this overflow, what was going on in the marketplace, but to have a Sean O'Neill, and I'm sure there was others to, you know, run your situation across with, because these situations were new. He had enough notches in his belt to be able to help you get through some of that crazy time that really neither of you experienced, but he had real estate experience you were coming in new, but to be around people like that and pull

Tara Hubbard  41:58  
their knowledge, yes, I think that goes into like, keeping your circle right, growing your circle,

Tracy Hayes  42:05  
hanging out with other successful real estate agents, interacting with them, or, in this case, Mr. Jackson, he's in the real estate industry, just a different part in the lending, investing side. So hanging out with with people like that. If you were to go back 15 years now, I'm sure you've tried some things and failed some things, but there's something you do today that you're, we would say you're consistent in and that you when you, you know, each week, each month, each day, you're like, I've got to do this. I've got to do this. What would you say, though, you know, one thing is that people would say Tara is consistent

Tara Hubbard  42:39  
at Well, I think that in the beginning of real estate, I learned to look at the hot sheet every day. That way. I was familiar with prices and zip codes, zip codes that were near each other, learning all of Jacksonville, places I've never been and I have consistently looked at the hot sheet every day. And I think that that has helped me in lots of conversations where you get caught up at the ballpark and what's going on and blah, blah. Did you see this so well? Then I've looked at the hot sheet so I can, well,

Tracy Hayes  43:10  
all right, so let's if I can trans, if I can translate this from my side or into maybe a new agent from what I what I heard you just say, is really knowing your area, knowing the different subdivisions, what's going on in them, and you know, what's the price point, the obviously, you know things like the amenities and so forth. So when you are talking to that potential client on there, you sound like, Oh, I'm thinking of some homes right now, or some neighborhoods that you would you know that that fit what you're looking for. Let me see what, what's hot. You know what's going on, if there's any homes for sale, right? Right? What you get, right? So educating yourself, and whether, obviously new construction, you know, a lot of our inventory is coming from the builders, so knowing what their subdivisions are doing, but obviously you came from the west side, knowing what the beach is doing, knowing what's going down. And St Johns County, and the next explosion, which I think has already started, Nassau County, yeah, and Amelia, because you you're going to have those different clients with different needs. Do they have kids? Not kids? How old are the kids? You know, may also help you guide and fit them into the right place, which keeps you on top of the market. So that's your educational piece. Is educating yourself on or saying consistent on knowing what's going in the Nowhere, yeah, being in the know. Okay, you get a new agent in front of you. Or, I mean, how many do you have any real like raw, green,

Tara Hubbard  44:39  
radiant, I have one.

Tracy Hayes  44:40  
One, what's three things of advice that you tell them that they need to do? She needs to do

Tara Hubbard  44:45  
open houses. She needs to consistently post on social media. She needs to make phone calls, nurse, dear,

Tracy Hayes  44:51  
those are the three things I like that. So we already know. The phone calls obviously going out, you know, to me, as you would being a listing agent or. Lot of listing. Agents are good at getting the listings, and they don't even like to sit their own open house. They let the new agents go sit them. And they're traps, because people are coming up traps, like, physically trap someone, but they're like setting out. You know, I when I grew up in Cape Cod, we had me my dad. We had lobster traps. I had I had my student permit. He had the family permit. We had like, 35 lobster traps. So you set out the you set out the lobster traps, and they got their little buoys, you know. And you go out every week and you go and check them the seagull, it's the same thing with, to me, a listing, is people are coming into that into that house, and hopefully she's going to find somebody, it's not represented, and can connect, and can connect and practice the conversations that you that they need to practice. So attending or finding the open houses on the weekends, you know, when you get I assume you probably take don't work as much on the weekends as you probably did 10 years ago, not

Tara Hubbard  45:53  
as much, maybe not as much, but I still am a weekend warrior, yeah,

Tracy Hayes  45:57  
because that is, well, it's real estate. Says that's really big part of our business. So all right, we're gonna finish up here because we're coming up on the hour. Well, let me ask you, because you took a lot of notes, you have a lot of notes. You didn't take a lot of you have a lot of notes. And I told Is there something on there you want to tell us that? What's something on your head, on your notes that you want to share with us?

Tara Hubbard  46:15  
I don't think that there's anything on

Tracy Hayes  46:16  
there that I want me to read your notes and see if there's anything.

Tara Hubbard  46:21  
No, I think that it's important for any realtor to know when to say no. Just because somebody wants you to list their house, they could be completely unrealistic. Don't waste your time and energy.

Tracy Hayes  46:32  
I will tell a story about that, because I literally had a neutral agent of mine call me yesterday, and he had literally had he fired his buyer, 25 offers, yeah. And he literally had twice where he put in the offer, the offer was accepted, and the guy turned around and said, Nah, I don't want to buy it. Yeah. And that's a lot of emotional energy, as long as a lot of physical energy. Are you sitting there? You got to go in there, you know, put all present that contract and everything, and then submit it over and then you're waiting for approval, your your work and efforts put in there to some emotion that's draining. It is. And literally, at 25 he said, and this has been going on for a couple months now, and he said, I'm done. You gotta find someone else.

Tara Hubbard  47:13  
Yeah, so good for him. Learn to say no, and that is so important. Yes, anything else, maybe just being present and aware of good one. Just life rules in general,

Tracy Hayes  47:23  
showing up is what is the term I like to use. You have to show up, whether, if, in the newer you are, the more you have to show up and get out there and let people know what you're doing, whether it's at your kids ball game or whatever, everyone on that team should know what you do, right? Show up. What else

Tara Hubbard  47:40  
being in the moment, being aware that you're in the moment.

Tracy Hayes  47:43  
Example, on that one, I've heard that before. But what does it mean to you? I guess.

Tara Hubbard  47:47  
I mean not just like in general, just in general real estate, too, but when sometimes, when people, like, find the house, like, you know, like, Oh, this is it? Like, this is the moment where they've realized, like, this is where we're gonna live. This is where we're gonna have kids and raise our family like I get to be part of that moment. How exciting is

Tracy Hayes  48:06  
excited with your Yeah, because you can do this enough times where it just becomes a thing for you, and you have to realize that each and every one of those buyers your that's their story. Yeah, you're part of you know, they only, may only do this once or twice or a handful of times in their entire life. You're hopefully doing that a month, and you've got to be as excited for them as they are. Yeah, to again, to build that relationship, and which takes a little bit, you know? And I imagine, over the years, some of your customers have become good friends, Oh, absolutely, like family. Yeah, you've gone out to dinner, whatever, the kids hang out or vacation. I mean, how? I guess, if you were looking, you know, look at yourself and look at some other agents, because I could think of some off top of my head. How being that type of person, I mean, has had to accelerate your career

Tara Hubbard  48:56  
as well. I'm just me, yeah, which is natural for you?

Tracy Hayes  48:59  
Yeah, it's natural for you to do that, yeah, but, you know, invite somebody out to dinner occasionally. Maybe you're not the most social. I guess it's kind of one of the areas where I may be I could get my wife so I don't know, they don't know what you're going to say. I'm like, I generally don't say anything. I talk more on my podcast, and a lot of I generally don't say anything, because I find they'll just listen how to win friends and influence people, and listen to them. They want to they want to talk and they want to ask questions. Sometimes I'm probably a little shorter than I than I should be. I probably I found myself now, after doing the podcast for a year, that I have to go into podcast mode sometimes to bring it out in the conversation. But yeah, all right. Anything else, I'm good, you're good. That was really good stuff, because I didn't know you personally before, but those things that you just mentioned, there are important steps in thinking about your real estate career. And if you're you're you maybe hit a lid. Not. John Maxwell, you hit a lid. Not. Why am I not growing well, maybe you, you. Know, you need to have the past client parties maybe, you know, have you ever actually had relationships with your you know, I know some agents that are so cheap they won't even take their customers out to lunch. Oh, no, like, dude, they just bought a $600,000 home. You're making 1000s of dollars. You can't buy lunch for them or something. I mean, I don't understand that, but, but some people think that way. I don't know. So these are my two minute warning questions. Is more important who you know or what you know?

Tara Hubbard  50:28  
I think it's who you know. I'm a who you know. That's what hits you around in the world.

Tracy Hayes  50:33  
You're, you're a relationship person. Yeah, we talked about your mentor, or mentors you've had you know, right from Sean O'Neill to Mr. Jackson and so forth over time, and those relationships have helped you grow.

Tara Hubbard  50:46  
You know, then you grow. Oh, I like that. What's on your travel bucket list? Oh, gosh, so many

Tracy Hayes  50:53  
taking your daughter over here you're taking some parks this summer. Disney World is that on the travel we

Tara Hubbard  50:59  
stay in North Carolina for a good chunk of the summer, winter. From our homestead there we're about, where about some Franklin, North Carolina, western North Carolina, over towards Highlands,

Tracy Hayes  51:12  
because we go to chin to rock area, West, even further west,

Tara Hubbard  51:16  
okay, literally, like the pocket of Tennessee, Georgia, North

Tracy Hayes  51:21  
Carolina, states at the

Tara Hubbard  51:23  
same time. But that's not bucket list. Bucket list, I would probably say right now, is like before the end of the year, Arizona. Arizona never been

Tracy Hayes  51:32  
I've never been there. No, I've been in New Mexico. I've been in New Mexico. Was there when they had the balloon fest going on. That's all in the story. All right, I'm a loan officer, your real estate agent. What is the number one thing that you require of your referral partners, whether it's a loan officer or your home inspectors, anyone else that's that's in your portfolio when you're working on closing a home

Tara Hubbard  51:54  
communication, if I call you from my cell phone to your cell phone at nine o'clock at night, there's a reason answer the phone.

Tracy Hayes  52:03  
I You sound. I have said that so many times, and people say, Well, no more than they don't answer phone. It's like, trust me, if they're calling you at nine o'clock, it's not to shoot the ball. They have a situation, and we're talking about 1000s and 1000s of dollars for everyone involved in it, saying whatever they're doing, take that call or shoot the text back. Say that, you know, obviously I'm putting the kid to sleep, which, I think some people exaggerate that sometimes, but, like, but you have to respond, respond, you know, in one way, like, hey, or hey, I'll call you back in 10, you know, something, something, yeah, because yeah, you're not, you're not calling to to Yes. Shoot the bull. Pass the time, do that tomorrow morning at coffee. So Tara, I appreciate you coming on today. Yes, thank you so much for having I'm glad to get to know you and radiant Realty, and hopefully our audience here and we're so this podcast will go out. Let's see, today is Wednesday. This will go out next Tuesday on Apple. Obviously Facebook Live is out there already, and I'll obviously share the video with you as well, so you have it in your archives and can do things with it.