Trust the Leap: How Austyn Galmarini Built a Referral-Based Real Estate Business

with Austyn Galmarini

Listen on: Spotify · Apple Podcasts · YouTube

Most new real estate agents wait for the “right time” to start — after the wedding, after the kids, after the finances feel bulletproof. Austyn Galmarini did the opposite. She took her licensing exam, boarded a plane to Spain to celebrate her 30th birthday, found out mid-trip that she’d passed, flew home, put in her two weeks’ notice, and started her first official day on July 1, 2022. In this episode of the REI Agent podcast, Austyn — a licensed salesperson on the Enos Latif team at Hunt Real Estate ERA in Williamsville, New York — walks through how a journalism degree, a radio career, and a year and a half selling RVs prepared her to build a relationship-driven business from scratch. Her story is a practical roadmap for any agent who’s tired of waiting for perfect conditions that never arrive.

Who is Austyn Galmarini, and how did a journalism major end up selling homes?

Austyn’s path into real estate was anything but linear. She left Buffalo for West Virginia University to study television journalism, chasing the energy of college game day and dreams of being on camera. After graduating, she landed at 97 Rock Cumulus Media, where she did everything from working the prize table at concerts to broadcasting on-air before Buffalo Bills games and shows by the Rolling Stones and Bob Seger. When she needed to increase her income, she pivoted into RV sales — a fast, high-turnover world of trade shows where she’d sometimes close two or three deals in a single day and travel the country for manufacturer training.

The RV grind eventually broke her. After working a 10-day show, spending her “day off” driving a 33-foot diesel pusher eight hours home, then working another 20 days straight, she was done. That exhaustion pushed her toward a more stable role in a college’s online division, where she spent four and a half years climbing the ranks. Then life intervened again: a long-term relationship ended, and at 29 she moved back home with her parents.

That move turned out to be the pivot point. Living at home meant daily conversations with her mom, Beth — a real estate agent who had been building her career since 2006. As Beth shared deals and team stories, Austyn’s curiosity grew into a decision. Every twist in her résumé, from communicating on-air to closing fast RV deals, had quietly been training her for a business built on connection.

Why did Austyn stop waiting for the “perfect timing” to start?

For years, Austyn had filed real estate under “someday.” She figured it might be a good career to pick up when she got married or had kids — a flexible fit for a future version of her life. But sitting at her parents’ house, rebuilding, she challenged that assumption directly. Why wait for a timeline that might never come? Why not go for it now?

So she did. She took the licensing test right after turning 30, flew to Spain to celebrate with her best friend, learned she’d passed while abroad, and came home ready to commit fully. There was no half-measure, no dabbling on the side. She resigned from her job and treated real estate as her career from day one.

That decisiveness matters because real estate rewards commitment far more than it rewards good timing. As host Mattias Clymer noted, plenty of people imagine real estate as a low-effort retirement gig or a casual side hustle — but it takes real time, energy, and effort before it starts rolling. Trying to build it as an afterthought, Austyn agreed, would make an already hard business nearly impossible. Her leap wasn’t reckless; it was the recognition that “perfect timing” is usually just a way to postpone the work.

How do you build a real estate business on relationships instead of bought leads?

When Austyn started in 2022, she didn’t buy leads. Her team’s approach centered on prospecting, self-promotion, and — most importantly — nurturing the relationships that produce referrals. It took a long time to build her pipeline, but the payoff has been durable. Today, she estimates that around 80% of her business comes through her circle of influence and referrals rather than cold, purchased contacts.

The philosophy behind that number is simple: people work with people they know, like, and trust. Austyn leads with her personality. Whether she meets someone at a restaurant or a networking event, she wants to come across as a human being first and an agent second. Only after that connection is established does the business relationship follow — and she tailors her approach to each person, reading whether a client wants a serious professional or someone a little more relaxed and goofy.

That patience runs counter to the “shiny object syndrome” that tempts many new agents toward quick-fix lead sources. Mattias framed the choice as a question worth sitting with: do you want to spend years playing receptionist, answering the phone a hundred times to find one decent client — or would you rather talk to the people you actually want to talk to, who already want to talk to you? Austyn’s business is proof that the slower, relationship-first path compounds. A pipeline built on trust doesn’t evaporate when a lead-gen budget dries up.

Why does knowing your contracts matter more than almost anything?

If Austyn has one non-negotiable piece of advice, it’s this: know your contracts inside and out. Her mother Beth, who reads the realtor magazine’s legal updates every month, drilled her on New York agency law and forms while she was still studying — quizzing her so she could confidently explain any document to a client on the spot. Beth’s warning stuck: other agents will be friendly and charming on the phone, but you never know what they might slip into a contract hoping you won’t notice before it’s signed and sent to the attorneys.

That lesson paid off almost immediately. On her very first sales-contingency deal, Austyn had verbally agreed with the buyer’s agent on a one-day window to lift the contingency. When the contract came back, it read three days. Because Beth had taught her to actually read the paperwork, Austyn caught it and called to correct it. Without that training, she’s convinced she would have missed it — the calls had been so pleasant that she was inclined to trust rather than verify.

Contract fluency isn’t just defensive, either. Austyn now onboards new team members and insists they understand every document, because opportunities arrive unpredictably — a guy at a bar mentioning he’s ready to sell, and the team is at his house the next morning. She walks every buyer through the contract paragraph by paragraph during consultations, treating it as a value-add rather than a formality. Her rule for delivering it: say it in your own words, not canned. As she put it:

“You are signing a legal document and you should know what you are signing.”

Should a new agent join a team or go solo?

Austyn never seriously considered going solo, and she’s refreshingly honest about why. She knew she wouldn’t have been able to do it alone — and rather than treat that as a weakness, she accepted it. With her mom Beth and team lead Anas Latif both offering their support, joining the team was, in her words, a no-brainer. She would have been a fool to insist on figuring it out by herself.

Crucially, joining a team didn’t cost Austyn her individual identity. People know and recognize her as herself — through the personal brand she’s built on social media (@HouseHuntinWithAustyn) and through the direct relationships she’s formed — not merely as an extension of her team lead. The decision came down to trust in a person: once she got to know Anas, she liked her and trusted her, and that made the partnership obvious.

Mattias offered a balanced take for agents weighing the same choice. There’s endless noise about brokerages, commission splits, and 100%-commission models — but a 100% split on zero sales is still zero. Whether solo or on a team, it’s a business decision only the individual can make. For a newer agent, though, the team structure offers something valuable: mentorship, coverage when you’re on vacation, and a culture that reinforces relationships. Austyn’s team leans into that with pickleball days, happy hours, and quarterly “Teamsgiving”-style gatherings — the kind of bonding that turns coworkers into a genuine support system.

What can new agents take away from Austyn’s story?

The throughline of Austyn’s journey is courage paired with preparation. She trusted the leap — refusing to wait for a perfect moment — but she backed that courage with real fundamentals: mastering her contracts, building relationships patiently, and surrounding herself with mentors she trusted. Her financial discipline reinforces the point. In her first meeting with Anas, she was told to keep six months of reserves at all times, because you never know what this business will throw at you.

She also models the boundary-setting that long-term agents learn the hard way. Real estate isn’t a nine-to-five; it’s a business where clients call on holidays and text at 10:45 at night. Austyn’s still working on saying no — she jokes that “The Art of Saying No” is a book she really should read — but she’s clear that protecting your energy and knowing what you’re responsible for is part of building a sustainable career, not a luxury.

For any agent early in the journey, the takeaways are concrete: don’t wait for perfect timing, lead with authentic relationships, know your documents cold, keep a financial cushion, and choose the structure — team or solo — that genuinely sets you up to succeed. The winding road that took Austyn from radio booths to RV lots to real estate wasn’t a detour. It was the training.

Keep building the life you want

Austyn Galmarini’s story is a reminder that the best time to start is usually now — and that courage works best when it’s backed by preparation. If her journey resonated with you, listen to the full episode of the REI Agent podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your shows, and leave a review to help more agents find the conversation. You can follow Austyn on Instagram at @HouseHuntinWithAustyn.

And if you’re an agent who wants to build the kind of relationship-first business Austyn describes, check out REI Agent Advisor at advisor.reiagent.com — a CRM built for relationship-focused agents, with relationship intelligence baked in to help you track the details that matter, from the Ford Method to clients’ kids’ names and birthdays. Until next time, keep building the life you want.

Full Episode Transcript

Welcome back to the REI Agent. My guest today is Austin Gallimarini, a licensed real estate salesperson on the Enos Latif sales team at Hunt Real Estate ERA in Williamsville, New York, serving the Buffalo, Niagara region. Austin came to real estate by way of West WVU journalism degree, a career in radio and six years in sales, including RV and inside sales before making the leap. She also grew up watching her mom build a 20 year plus real estate career so that this business is both professional pivot and in some ways a family story. She brings a sales background, a communicator’s instincts and fresh perspective on what is actually like to be building a real estate career from scratch inside a top producing team. Austin, welcome to the REI Agent Podcast. Hi, thank you so much for having me. Yeah. So, okay. Walk us through your real estate story a little bit more. You went to West Virginia University? Mm-hmm. Yes, I did. I am a very proud Mountaineer. I actually went for television journalism. I wanted to be on TV at that time. It was kind of like, you know, game day was just kind of really coming about, Aaron Andrews in that aspect. So I wanted a big school. I wanted to see, you know, game day. I wanted to see March Madness, all of that stuff. So I left Buffalo and I settled at WVU for four years. Is that the university that they burn couches? You bet it is. I have seen more couches burned. And then of course, back here in Buffalo, we’re a part of the Bills Mafia where they’re going through tables. So there’s really just something about furniture and the need for it to be destroyed. I’m a big fan of both of those things. I’m not too far away from West Virginia. We’re in Harrisburg, Virginia. So we have had game day a couple of times, which is a lot of fun. Journalism sounds like it would have been a lot of fun as well. What took you then into, I guess, RV sales as well? Yeah, it’s again, it’s life. As I have discovered, it’s always going to be something changing. I graduated from WVU, ended up with a job at 97 Rock Cumulus Media. And I worked there doing everything that you could think of. So working concerts, everything from doing the check-in for tickets or the prize table. And then I did some on-air stuff as well. And it worked great. I loved it. I had incredible opportunities. I broadcasted before Buffalo Bills games, before Bob Seger, the Rolling Stones. So I’m really grateful for those opportunities. And it just kind of got to the point I needed something more financially increased. So I went and started selling RVs. It was a blast. I actually went all over the country. I went to Seattle, Alabama, Atlanta, very small part of West Virginia, Indiana, and also Hershey, Pennsylvania. Everything for training. So we were at the manufacturer. So getting to see everything, I mean, you’re talking these big diesel pushers, you’re looking at the Freightline chassis, everything for the Airstream facility. So how it started from scratch. And then we would work the shows as well. The shows were very fast, the high turnaround. Sometimes you have two, three deals in a day. So I liked all of that. And it just was an opportunity that fell into my lap. And I did that for a year and a half. And at that point, my breaking point, I had worked a 10-day long RV show. My day off was driving eight hours back, driving a 33-foot diesel pusher. If you’ve ever driven a large vehicle, it is the most mentally draining thing. I give truck drivers so much credit because the mental concentration you need to keep those things on the road is insane. So my day off was driving eight hours back. And then I worked another 20 days straight. And so I was like, that’s it, I’m done. And that was the end of my RV career. Yeah, I know. So I have a quick side tangent. I was showing a house for somebody, a former classmate of mine, a house. And she was stuck in traffic coming from DC, and she was like, hey, can my parents show for me? And I was like, sure. And at one point, they knew we both went to this music festival where there was campers and stuff. And they’re like, hey, do you want to buy a camper? I’m like, no. No, we don’t. Yeah. Fast forward like a month later, we bought that camper. And now we’ve been going all over the place with it. And we went really early, like spring break, we did a week. And we drove about three hours, so not eight, but three hours. And yeah, like after even three hours, I was like, oh my gosh, like if you go through your construction zones, it’s more narrow, or like there’s tractor trailers trying to pass you, it is stressful. And then on the way back from this three hour trip away, we went to another place that had to cross over a steep mountain. And I should have planned better, should have thought better about what route to take. But I swear, when I came down off that mountain, because it felt like the brakes are going to give out, it felt like I was on that mountain. And I was so stressed out. My son had my iPad, and he had already thrown it across the truck. It was not over. And then when I tried to park that thing, Erica looked at me like I need to like go hide or something because this guy, it’s like, it’s, it’s so it’s so intimidating. I mean, of course, you’re building like great family memories. And you’re going to talk about that forever. But in the time, you were probably genuinely wondering, am I going to make this out alive? I think I heard, you know, I’ve heard people talk about like, you know, driving down the interstate in general, it’s kind of like you’re in this constant fight or flight mode. Like you’re like, you know, your brain is firing, because there’s just there’s death, you know, whizzing by you all the time. You just take that times it by 10 when you’re pulling something. So yes, I’m sure you get more and more used to it. But kudos to the tractor trailer drivers, because it is stressful. 100%. Yes. So digress. You had enough with your, with your RV sales. Is that when you catapulted into the real estate sales? Right in between that. So I was 20, I think 25 at the time. And I had several friends that were working at a local college in the online division. And there was an opportunity for me, I mean, on the phone with the head woman at that time. And I just straight up said to her, I said, I’m available to come in and meet with you tomorrow. What time do you have? And she stopped. And she goes, Okay, you can you can meet me at two. And I came in the next day for this interview. And I met with two other sales managers. And looking back at the time, it was a pretty intense kind of interview, because they were like, Who is this girl that thinking that she can just come in and close us? And me, I just really wanted to get out of the position I was in and have a little more stable life. I was kind of looking for kind of that nine to five in that aspect. Something where I was just at that point in my life where I was like, when I walk away, when I shut my computer, like it’s it’s done type of situation. And I got hired, I worked my way up, I kind of gone where I’d felt in the four and a half years. And then as life does, my whole life imploded, my long term relationship ended. So I had to move back home with my parents at 29, which was really great. And that’s when I was kind of stuck looking, trying to figure out where am I going to go from here? What am I going to take the next step? And since I was back at home, I was chatting, obviously, every single day with my mom, and she’s telling me all about, you know, different deals. She’s telling me about the team, we’re just chatting. So more of my interests got peaked. And then I just kind of decided I was like, I think I’m going to give it a shot. I said, I had kind of thought about it before I had said, Well, maybe it’s something, you know, when I get married, when I have kids, this could be a good, a really good time to do it. And I thought to myself, why am I going to one wait for that timeline? Why shouldn’t I just go for it now? So I took the test. Right before actually, I had just turned 30. I had taken a test and two days later got on a plane to go to Spain to celebrate my 30th birthday with my best friend, found out in Spain that I passed and got my license and came back from Spain, put my two weeks in immediately and started my first like official day. It was July 1 2022. Okay. So that’s it. Yeah, that’s awesome. It’s a, you know, I think a lot of times people do think of real, there are people that think of real estate as a career that you do, like maybe as a retirement gig or something to that extent. But it is, you know, it’s just, it’s hard to you put in a lot of time and energy and effort until you get rolling. And so it’s difficult and I could see, yeah, I mean, I’m sure you don’t hindsight now and stuff like that. Like, you know, it would be really hard to start it with like, if you’re like, I’m gonna be a stay at home mom, I’m just gonna do a little real stay on the side. It would be really hard. Never. Like I, I give so much credit to the agents that have been doing this for a long time. I mean, I give all of always a lot of credit there, especially those who then do have a child in the middle of it, because that’s a big transition in itself. You’re taking, I mean, just like a whole personal life transition into this and yeah, real estate, you know, it’s, it’s not a nine to five, it’s a 24, seven, three, six, five. You have clients that call you on holidays that want to see stuff on holidays. I mean, late nights. I was texting a client last night, 10, 45 PM and he goes, why are you working right now? I go, well, my bad, I’m always working. So it happens. No, totally. And I think one of the hard things too, is when you have, you know, a hard, if you have like a difficult situation that is a high stress, there’s a lot of maybe emotional oozing coming from your clients onto you. And that impacts like the home life as well. So like if you do have kids and that stuff, like it’s, it’s, it can be hard to be a present because this kid wants to show you whatever they like, just drew a picture or whatever. And you’re like, hold on, like, it’s almost like you’re back in that tractor trailer or you’re driving a camper down the road through a construction site, you’re like lizard brains running. Yes. Yes, exactly. But, but yeah, no. So what, what kind of, was your, so your mom’s on the same team? Is that, did I gather that right? Yes. She, she was on the team first and then I joined with her blessing, of course, at the conversation. It was like, what do you, what do you think? And yeah, of course she gave the blessing. So it was a very, yeah, it just went. And what, what, what, at what point in your life was, did she start her real estate career? Like did she, were you in college already or? No, I was in high school. She actually had started, so yeah, if it’s 20 years, so she started in 2006 and she was kind of getting slowly dabbled into it. And then of course, oh, eight happened, but she’s still, she’s still powered through it. My dad, he was in a very stable, solid job. So they always kind of growing up, looked at my mom’s income from that as like the fun money. So that was what we did vacations or anything of the sort came from there since, especially in that time, it’s very hard to get started. And then you have 2008 happened, you know, she still went and she survived and she made it through on her own. She was a solo agent until she ran into a NAS and she, I can’t remember when she joined, but she was able to go forward and still make it happen. So it was a lot of very real conversations with her in regards to what to expect. You know, it’s not, of course, what you see on TV, it’s not the house hunters, it’s none of that stuff. I’m selling sunset, of course. So she was able to give me a very real depiction as to what it’s like. So I was feeling a lot more prepared in regards. And then my first meeting with the NAS, she straight up said, you need to have six month reserves at all time. You need to be prepared because you just never, you never know what’s going to happen with this business. Yeah, a hundred percent. The, you know, in the, in the telling of your story, you never really kind of had that, I swore I would never do real estate moment. So that led me to believe wasn’t like maybe the sole breadwinner for, you know, a long period of time or, or like, you know, as a child, like seeing her go through all the stress and stuff. Because I think, I think that’s often what people that like get into the business and follow their parents say is they like, I swear I would never, I always swore I would never do real estate. And then at one point or another, like their life happens and they’re like, well, actually, you know what? There was some bad stuff, but like that, you know, that making your own schedule, like there’s good money to be made, can be, it sneaks up on you. Yeah. Plus one, I think I was at that age, so then I was in high school and into college. So once she really, I mean, once she made it through 08, at that point I was out on my own in that regard. So, you know, my brother, he was only two years younger than me. So she really was kind of able to be like, all right, I can go and do all this stuff and be working. And I don’t have to worry. Like my children are sufficient, like they, they can figure out how to make themselves a meal. They they’re not relying on me as much anymore. So I think that also was a really big factor. And then I think, of course, now that we’re in it together, I definitely, you know, really do understand it even more stressors. The whole joke of like, you know, your mom says like, can you make sure you take the chicken out of the freezer in time? Now I fully understand that stress and like that frustration of, oh, I never took the chicken out of the freezer. I totally understand why. Yeah. Absolutely. What, what strategies and things did you do starting off when you, when you started in 22? Did you do any, does your team, I remember talking to your lead there. I don’t think you guys, do you do any like buying of leads or, or is it all kind of prospecting? What kind of strategies did you do? Yeah, it’d be a prospect. I mean, Enos has such a solid career in that, in that regards. Thankfully, I also was kind of at an age where a lot of my friends or acquaintances were also looking for homes. I mean, normally that, that first time homebuyer age has really shifted. So there are people in that regards that I kind of was able to go and start in that way. But I mean, it was really a lot of, yeah, like that prospecting, the self-promoting and then, you know, once you have somebody and it’s successful, making sure you came up with them to get the referrals in that regards. I mean, it took a very long time to build up my pipeline, but now I think it’s more than 75% of my business. Probably 80 is all through my COI, my circle of influence or referrals. So that is, I mean, I think it’s actually probably like 80% I would have to truly look, but now right, right now for 2026, that’s really what it is for, for me, at least in my business. Yeah. And it took a long time to build up. It can. It can take a little bit longer that way. I mean, I think it depends on, you know, how big your sphere is, how much, if you, if you’ve been in a, some sort of capacity that, you know, transfers trust pretty easily to this new career that can help as well, if you’re making the switch, how active you are in various organizations and stuff throughout the community that can definitely move the needle as well for how quickly it can go. But it does take a little bit longer. And I think there’s always, you know, there’s always those, that, that shiny object syndrome where you’re looking at, you know, Oh, maybe I can increase my sales and do this or whatever. But when I talk to new agents and my team, you know, I always, you know, I kind of look, look at it in the frame of like, you know, what do you want your business to look like in 10 years when you’re, when you’re really successful, when you’re rolling, it doesn’t take 10 years, but you know what I mean? Like you want to be playing receptionist, you want to be answering the phone a hundred times before you get one, you know, a reasonable, good client that will actually close. Is that the way you want your business to look? And it sounds like how you all operate, how you operate is, is you’d rather be talking to the people you want to talk to that want to talk to you. And in return, they will want to do business with you. 100%. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, of course, you know, there’s always, I mean, it’s, you know, they say like you always got to have a card or be prepared or whatever on you in that regards. Because yeah, I guess I would rather, I would rather meet somebody and talk to them, whether I’m, you know, out at a restaurant or a network, whatever it may be anywhere, you know, who knows, I’d rather come off as me, myself, Austin Gail Marini first as the human. And then if they decide to work together with that way, because it is a business decision and it is a transaction, you know, all given real true things. So it’s important for me to establish that personal connection first to see is this going to be somebody that we really want together, work together, and then understanding how they are and kind of then how I have to mold myself if I have to be more than serious professional and strict based off of the personality, then so be it. But if it’s somebody that I know, and I can be, you know, a little more lax, a little more open in that sense, maybe silly, goofy, then that’s the way that I you know, do it’s all tailored to the person that’s in front of me. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think it really just boils down that people will usually work with people they know, like and trust. That’s it. That’s it. One of the best there’s two really good pieces of sales advice that I received when I did sell RVs from my manager at that time. The first thing he would say, this isn’t brain surgery, nobody is going to die, you know, on the table in front of you. Which if you know me personally, it’s just like an absolutely insane like statement for all things in my life. But that was always the first thing I would have to remind myself like, you know, this person’s life is not in my hands, it’s a little bit in my hands, but the whole entire life is not in my hands. So that’s one thing I remind myself. And the second is that when you pick up that phone the first time they don’t know you like you or trust you. I mean, it’s the same thing you walk into a store, can I help you find anything? No, because you’re like, I don’t know, I don’t need your help. So it’s all breaking down that barrier first and finding a way so they do get to know you and then they determine if they like you and then they’ll trust you. That’s exactly it. Yeah. And obviously, a lot of people know a lot of people, or there’s a lot of agents out there and so like a lot of people know, you know, seven plus agents and so it’s important to, you know, try to stay top of mind and try to systematically reach out to people as well. I’m curious, though, when you were starting off, like, had you probably didn’t really with your mom being on the team, I considered going solo at all. What is how’s it felt being on a team starting out? And had you ever, did you ever think like, what would it have been like if I started off, you know, on my own? I’ve always been a team player. I’ve always, you know, not that I don’t do well alone, but I mean, I’m always on the phone with my friends. In that regards, I’m always social out doing something. I really never say no to anything. But for me, I also just knew I wouldn’t have been able to do it alone. I just knew that I wouldn’t have been able to I was able to fully accept that and I fully admit it. To have, I mean, the blessing of Beth, my mom and Anas together, it almost it was just a no brainer. I would have been a fool to say, No, I don’t need this. I’ll figure it out on my own. It didn’t make any it didn’t make any sense to me. So I don’t care in that regards, because I am thankfully my own entity. People do know me and recognize me for me, whether that’s based off of how I’ve literally branded myself on social media, or just because they know me, and that’s how they met me without having Anas’s name tied into it. So I just looked at everything. And to me, it just made more sense. And I really the biggest thing is, I liked the human being that was in front of me. That is Anas Lateef. That was again, once I got to know her, I liked her and I trusted her. So we got through it. There you go. That makes a ton of sense. Yeah, I think it’s oftentimes people, well, there’s YouTubers and there’s people trying to get people on to various brokerages, there’s commission split structures, all this kind of stuff that is thrown out there. And it’s definitely a consideration. But at the end of the day, like, if you go and if you’re making 100% commission, and you don’t sell anything, does it matter? No. If you have 100% commission, and you do four deals in the year, okay, that’s sure if that’s you know what, there’s something out there for everybody. And I respect it. I respect the people that are solo. I respect the people on the team, because it’s a business decision for you. At the end of the day, you have to do what’s best for you, because only you know what’s best for you. Yeah. And obviously, I’m not saying I have any idea what your commission split structure is that kind of thing. I’m not asking. It’s just, you know, I think thinking about what’s going to actually make you successful in the business, what’s going to give you the best chance of being successful is what’s important. And I think once you have a, you know, a really good business that stands on itself, then maybe you start thinking about those kind of things. But until that point, like, set yourself up for success, like do what is makes most sense and try to Yeah, fast forward through mentorship, through trainings, through education, through whatever it might be, that that, you know, that path to success. Yeah. And I’m on a team with people that I trust, most importantly. So if I go on vacation, I’m able to communicate with with somebody that I know, like knows what’s up, they they can handle it will be good with my clients, take care of them. In that aspect, we do a lot of things like an ass is really good about team bonding stuff. So we have team pickleball days, we’ll do team happy hours to celebrate birthdays. There’s normally always like a team’s giving. So there’s normally something every single quarter where an ass gets us together, and it’s not work, it is something outside of it that gives us also an opportunity for us as a team to come together to even solidify those relationships anymore. That was actually how I met an awesome team at the first time. It was a holiday party, and they did gingerbread houses, you know, contest, and I had to be the judge, which was also very intimidating. I got to see them all in a personal level. And for me, I said, Yeah, these are people that I can be around. These are people that I’m enjoying hanging out with. I literally don’t even remember all of their names. But I am I like the people that are in front of me. That’s awesome. That makes sense. That culture is important and hard to hard to create. You know, with with all the experience on the team between your mom and us, what what Is there any kind of piece of advice that one of them gave you or both of them throughout the year when you’re starting off? Like what what sticks out to you as far as like a really good piece of advice that meant a lot and helped you grow? Yeah, for Beth. So she knows all of like the contracts, the paperwork laws, she knows all of that stuff like front and back. She reads the realtor magazine every single month that it comes out and she’s reading the you know, update about the legal aspects. So Beth really made sure I mean, I remember this one morning when I was going through still taking my licenses and she was drilling me on agency in New York and she was asking me about all of the other forms, making sure that I understood it, because she wanted to make sure that I would be able to successfully communicate it in front of a client if I have to do it on the spot. So that was, I think one of the biggest, the biggest things is know all these documents and know the contracts because she Beth had kind of warned me she goes, you know, agents will call you and they will be your best friend on the phone, they will be so nice and everything and they sound like, you know, you can trust them, she goes, but you never know what they’re going to slip on that contract, hoping that you don’t notice and that you sign it. And then Oh, it’s signed legal contract went to the attorneys, they approved it can’t get out of it. She goes, that’s your responsibility as you know, a listing agent or a buyer’s agent to make sure that doesn’t happen. So she taught me how to read the contracts and understand what the parts meant and what to look for. Because sure enough, it happened to me, it was my very first sales contingency deal. And we had gone through it. And I had told the, I told the buyer’s agent, I said, Yeah, we’re not doing, you know, the five day, three days, and we’re doing one day, you have one day to lift that sales contingency if I get another offer. And she goes, Oh, my gosh, yes, of course, it’s totally fine. And what did she put on the contract three? And I had to call her and say, No, no, no, we agreed on one and it was Oh, my gosh, I’m so sorry. I just out of habit, you know, she’s trying to pull a fast one on me, I don’t, I don’t blame her. We’re all doing the best for our clients, right? We’re working for our clients. And so I truly think if Beth hadn’t given me that tip, I probably would have missed it. I really truly think I would have because I was trusting because Oh, my gosh, the calls were great. We’re having a great time is everything. So that’s, I think the biggest piece of advice, no, no, your contracts and not trust no one but trust but verify. Absolutely. I love that. Those are great. Yeah, you know, I think I heard, I can’t remember the details, but I remember talking to somebody here recently that had somebody he told me he basically had to just at the closing table just to move things along. He’s just like basically forfeited his commission. Because of something like that somebody had written something in really fine print into the contract. And it was so fine. It was so illegible that the title company didn’t see it either. And to some extent, I don’t know if it was like an extra commission bonus or something. I don’t know what it was. I don’t remember what exactly what it was. But just sitting at the closing table, the clients are like, I don’t want to spend this extra 3% or whatever it was. This is crazy because the other person made a big stink about it at the closing table. And basically he’s like, okay, fine. I’m just going to not get a commission on this whole deal at the closing table and let’s move forward. So you got to be careful. Well, another piece of advice that I was given was don’t answer your phone when you know a closing is happening because of a situation like that. Because at that point, it’s out of your hands. It’s between the attorneys. Really, there’s nothing I can do to change anything. And that should be an attorney thing that gets handled, not coming after me for my money. That was, I guess, maybe another piece of advice. But yet, I’m still like, oh. It’s crazy. Luckily, our market is… There’s definitely some cutthroat kind of behavior. But for the most part, it’s a tertiary market. It’s kind of a small town and people are generally fairly looking out for each other and working together and standing up for their clients, of course, but not trying to pull fast ones. But for me, reputation spreads pretty fast, too, in this smaller market, so we’re fortunate for that. Yeah. I mean, tell us about… Do you have any some golden nuggets for us, for our listeners in this? Yeah. I think really the biggest thing is knowing your contracts, knowing all of your documents. One of my roles for the team now is to… Any new agents or new members, we onboard, and I want to make sure that you understand the contract because you really, truly never know if you’re going to be out. I have been out at a bar and the guy was like, hey, I’m getting ready to sell my house. I called Anas, and I mean, the next morning, we were over there going through it. You have to be prepared at any time to, I mean, I don’t want to say pitch yourself, but you need to be able to know the contracts. That’s really, I think, the biggest thing. Explaining why… And you also don’t want to be in a listing presentation and you’re talking about it. I go through the contract with my buyers and every buyer consult that I do, because it is a legal document. You are signing a legal document and you should know what you are signing. It brings a lot of value, of course, to me. You’re not just saying blindly sign here. So know the contracts, know the forms, and if you don’t, recite it in a way that you would say it, not canned. You’re reading it. You have to say it in a way that’s going to make sense. Yeah, 100%. That’s a really good tip, and I think it’s something that people should definitely practice if they haven’t done it. Oftentimes in a pinch when we’re not able to sign a person, I’m often sending a loom video going over the contract and just ironing out paragraph by paragraph what you’re going to say, making it funny at times too, because it’s a long contract that’s kind of boring. So giving funny examples of something that might make it a little bit more interesting to pay attention to. But I think that is a craft to hone. And if you don’t feel confident in doing that, it might be worth asking an experienced agent to see what they do or how they do it, see if they’d spend some time with you doing it, because I think it does make a huge difference if they’d be willing to do a loom video for you. So you could kind of practice off of that, that’d be another way to get that, but that’s a really good tip. Yeah. I mean, one of the lines in the contract here, it’s talking about modifications to the property, and the verbiage says erection of fences, garages, anything of that sort. And I’m also, I always bring that up every single time, because one, I’m like, I’m seeing if you’re paying attention to the fact that I’m actually saying erection of fences. And then I’m trying to also feel that vibe, like where are we also at? So, but it’s crazy. They’re like, why is this in here? And I’m like, well, there was obviously some deal that blew up over a fence. And so they had to add this in here. So it’s the vibe check, really, for that point. And the fact that you literally can use that statement in a professional setting is just also crazy. Yeah, no, there’s, in our contract, there’s, you know, you can’t take, remove like bushes and shrubs. You know, there was a lawsuit at some point, so they said, okay, well, then we’re just going to change the whole contract, because you’re shrub. What about a favorite book, one that you think is fundamental that everybody should read or just one you’re currently enjoying? I should be completely honest with you. I am a, I’m a millennial, and I read all the, of course, like the fantasy things, because for me, when I like to read, I do it to disconnect from my world. I do it to shut my brain off. My Kindle has a sticker on the back that says reading do not disturb, because when I get this opportunity to read, that’s really what I’m going through there. So I know there are, I have a bunch of the books. I thought I had one around here. I mean, but one of them is The Art of Saying No, I believe. That’s one I really do feel like I need to start, because I always will say yes. I’ll always jump through it. I try to remind myself, if I’m not responsible for it, I’m not going to take accountability for it. And that’s a big thing that I think about, but I probably should be better. I mean, I even said it, that I say yes to everything and never say no. So it’s probably a book I really should read. So what book do you actually like? I think it’s going to hit a very, very small audience. But of course, it’s the ACOTAR series, A Court of Thorns and Roses. That’s what I read. And I’ve gone all throughout there. I am currently reading Silver Elite by Danny Francis. You know, it’s just one of those things, again, it just disconnects, turn my brain off. I like reading about the fantasy stuff, because I know if a dragon actually comes down like from the sky, it’s just like everything’s over. And I really don’t have to worry about a fire-breathing dragon, you know, blowing up my town. So it’s quite all right. I thought that you were prepping in preparation for it. No, I’m absolutely screwed if that’s the case. Like I’m not going to be a dragon rider, I’m not going to be able to train them or anything of the sort. Like I’ll just accept my fate. Now what if people wanted to follow you or reach out to you in some way? What platforms are you on? Yeah, so Instagram, it’s simply HouseHuntinWithAustin, Huntin with no G and Austin with a Y. It’s the same thing across on YouTube, TikTok, in that regards there. Instagram is definitely where you can find me the most active in that place. I mean, it’s just, I don’t know, it’s Instagram, it’s social media in that regards. But yeah, so HouseHuntinWithAustin, that’s where you can find me. Awesome. That should be linked in the show notes. Thank you so much for being on the show today. Awesome. It’s been an incredible conversation. I know our audience is going to get a ton of value out of it. Thanks to everyone who’s listening. If you got something out of today’s episode, please take a moment to subscribe to the REI Agent podcast wherever you listen to it. Leave us a review if you can. It truly helps us reach more agents and investors who are on this journey with us. You can find us on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all other major platforms. Check out REIAgent.com for some free tools and a CRM that is now being launched. It is a CRM for relationship-focused agents. We have relationship intelligence actually built into it. So if you like to track things like the Ford Method, people’s family, their kids’ birthdays, their kids’ names, that kind of thing, it will give you suggestions based off of that data. So definitely check it out, REIAgent.com. Again, Austin, thank you so much for joining us. It’s been an absolute pleasure. Thank you. This was super fun. Appreciate it. Thanks for listening to the REI Agent. If you enjoyed this episode, hit subscribe to catch new shows every week. Visit REIAgent.com for more content. Until next time, keep building the life you want. All content in this show is not investment advice or mental health therapy. It is intended for entertainment purposes only.

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