Tanesha Duckett - Investing in Customer Service - Elevate: A Podcast For Driven Real Estate Agents - Episode 4
Watch the Episode Here:
Tanesha has over a decade of experience as a Real Estate professional. Ranked in the 25% of Upstate real estate agents, Tanesha has earned her spot as a top agent in the Upstate with her experience in customer relations, management, and education. This allows her to offer a personalized service with expert guidance throughout any real estate transaction. Providing excellent communication, honesty, and integrity is an essential part of her service to clients. Tanesha takes great pride in being accessible to guide clients in every aspect of their real estate affairs, putting her clients at ease for a stress-free transaction.
In This Episode We Cover:
The importance of investing in real estate.
How quality customer service can propel your business forward.
Some tips for agents just starting out.
Listen Along!
Read the Episode Here!
Nathan Whitworth:
Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of Elevate, a podcast for driven real estate professionals today. Guys, I am excited to share with you our conversation that I'm about to have with Tanesha Duckett from the Property Bar. Tanesha, how you doing?
Tanesha Duckett:
I'm pretty good. How about yourself?
Nathan Whitworth:
I'm good, I'm good. So I first wanna say before we get started we've loved working with you and working with your team and working with your agents. You guys have a great culture.
Tanesha Duckett:
Thank you so much. Yeah, we love working with you guys too. Yeah, yeah. I have an amazing team, so thank you. Yeah,
Nathan Whitworth:
Thank you so much. So Tanesha, I'm excited to share your story with everybody. I've got lots of little things I wanna talk about in the conversation, but let's start out with who is Tanesha and how'd you get into real estate?
Tanesha Duckett:
Tanesha Duckett is a mom, wife, entrepreneur, and just someone that I think love adventure. Yes. <laugh> living on a wild side. Yes. I got into real estate really young. I think I was maybe 22. I guess we call it young. Yeah, I didn't know that. And I just had a passion for it just growing up. People probably have heard this, some may not, but I just felt like I wanted to help people achieve the American dream and real estate was my way of doing that. And so I pursued a career in real estate. So
Nathan Whitworth:
I you realize when you were that young so there are a lot of, now people who are in real estate understand this, but people who aren't often don't, real estate is basically the way to build generational wealth, right? Correct. I mean, even for just the average, just buying your own home, the simple act of buying your home, selling it at a higher price and you bought it equity in a home, that whole process, that's basically how most every American builds some kind of wealth. Did you realize that early on when you were in your twenties?
Tanesha Duckett:
I did not realize that. Oh, okay. So my biggest thing was
Nathan Whitworth:
Cause I didn't know that.
Tanesha Duckett:
No, I didn't know that. My biggest thing was seeing people grow up in the home and go to off the college and come back home and have that same room and just having that stability. I wanted to see people have stability. The people I was around and myself included, just moved around and that was my passion for getting into real estate to help people. That's amazing. Get into
Nathan Whitworth:
Real estate. That's very cool. Okay, so you're in it in your twenties, . You get started as a young agent yourself. Oh,
Tanesha Duckett:
You wanna tell you really well, let's come tell my age. But that was around the time of the market crash. Oh,
Nathan Whitworth:
No kidding. No kidding. So we're talking 0 8, 0 9 when you started in real estate. Yeah. No way. Yeah. Whoa. So that didn't scare you.
Tanesha Duckett:
I know at the time when I got into it, it was just like everything was kind of moving and then all of a sudden it was the crash, right? Yeah. So I was doing great as a new agent out the gate. I was getting for sale by owners getting expired listings. I had write ups being a listing agent of the month. So it was going good. And yeah, the crash happened.
Nathan Whitworth:
So I didn't intend to talk about this, but I actually think that this is an interesting point to make. People who are in real estate, who are good, know how to do business regardless of the market. Do you believe that? I do. And it sounds like you experienced that firsthand, right? Yeah. It's like you got in oh 8, 0 9, literally the wall, the world in real estate is falling apart and you're like, Let me go find some expired listings. Let me go let find some FBOs. Let me work with some.
Tanesha Duckett:
Well, at that point, I did it for a while and then I did go back to work and I kept my license and I did real estate on the side. But I knew that real estate was my passion and I couldn't let it go. And I wanted to do it. So I had to get back into it and do it right.
Nathan Whitworth:
That's cool. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. Okay. So you come back to it after working for a little while,, and you say, Hey, I wanna make this my full-time gig. About when was that? How long ago was that?
Tanesha Duckett:
That was in 2016.
Nathan Whitworth:
Okay. 2016.
Tanesha Duckett:
Yeah, it was 2016. So I had my license all that time. We were doing some real estate on the side. My husband and I doing some investing and I'm still selling houses, but not at the rate that I'm currently doing it
Nathan Whitworth:
At. So what made you decide, hey, I wanna do this, I wanna build my team, I wanna build the property bar, I wanna hang my own sign on the door.
Tanesha Duckett:
Freedom. Freedom and helping people. That was the biggest thing. And I just knew for me personally, corporate wasn't for me. I just felt like I wasn't getting what I wanted out of it
Nathan Whitworth:
Didn't feel fulfilling
Tanesha Duckett:
It. It wasn't fulfilling. Yeah.
Nathan Whitworth:
And so you said, Hey I, I'm gonna go full fledged into this. Yeah.
Tanesha Duckett:
And the funny thing was, luckily I was with a local company and they let me go part-time cuz I was scared at this point because Oh that's amazing. I had a family. I'm like, yeah, it's really a hundred percent commission. So I wanna make sure that I can still take care of my family. So I got an office right up the street from where I was working. So on my lunch break, right out the work, I would go up there and work. And then it got to a point where I was hiding in closets at <laugh> at work and in the bathroom taking phone calls and sending emails and I'm like, Okay Tanesha, it's time to go
Nathan Whitworth:
<laugh>. Yeah, that's cool. I had to hang it up. That's very cool. So what was it like building your own team? That's something again, I'll go back cause you really do have a great culture in your place and with the agents that work with you, it really is something that I feel like is pretty unique. . It's a very supportive culture. It is. That I've noticed. And they all work very, very hard and they all feel like, I've seen a lot of brokerages where it feels very competitive really, where I'll walk in and it feels a little bit cutthroat. And I think some of that's kind of built in to the culture intentionally, but it doesn't really feel like that with the people who you've surrounded yourself with. So I'm just curious, was that difficult to build? Was that intentional on your part to build a cooperative team effort?
Tanesha Duckett:
I think it's almost like an attraction. Maybe it was something that they wanted. And that's definitely what I wanted in my brokerage is I wanted to have people feel like family. I wanted everyone to look out for each other, help each other, because that's how we all grow. We gotta be supportive. And so that was huge for me. So when they did come in, I just let 'em know, hey, this is the type of atmosphere, this is the culture that we have here. And would this be a good fit for you? I love that. So yeah,
Nathan Whitworth:
I love that. So what I'm pulling from that is you kind of have a very candid conversation up front, right? When agents come and they say, Hey, I'm kind of interested in joining this team, can we sit down and talk? You're very upfront with what it is you guys stand for. Absolutely. And what it is you guys believe in the values that you guys have and if it's a good fit, it's a good fit, but it may not be a good fit. It may not. And I think that's big. And every business that I've ever been a part of, what I've found is that communication like that generally solves most every problem, right?
Tanesha Duckett:
Oh god. Communication is so important. Clear
Nathan Whitworth:
And candid kind, but kind and candid communication up front that says, Hey, these are the expectations,, this is what we expect. This is how we work and this is how we think about things. And if this resonates with you, then this would be a great place for you. But if it doesn't resonate with you, that's okay, but this might not be the best fit.
Tanesha Duckett:
Exactly right.
Nathan Whitworth:
Yep.
Tanesha Duckett:
That's cool. And that's how it works. And so far it's been great. And everybody know a company and like I said, they, they're family oriented. That's great. Cool. We can do things together. We can have outings if you need anything. We have a group chat, Hey, I need somebody to show a property for me. Step up. Somebody will definitely step up. Or I need this. Or if they need me. It's like availability. We're all supporting each other to grow our businesses.
Nathan Whitworth:
Percent. Yeah, a hundred percent. So I want to ask you, in your experience, cuz you've been at this full-fledged 26 long time, a lot longer than most other agents, the typical timeframe for most agents is what? A three years? Three. One to three years. One to three years. So what have you discovered in your journey of building your business that has allowed you to stay in it but also grow that's allowed you to have a successful real estate business?
Tanesha Duckett:
I think knowing how to prospect for one, I think that's very important. That's a big part of the business is prospecting cultivating your clientele, standing communication. And I lost my train of
Nathan Whitworth:
Thought. Oh no, it's okay. It's fine.
Tanesha Duckett:
<laugh> funny. So prospecting, customer service and that's another big one too. So those have been tremendous in helping me grow my business and keeping my clientele coming.
Nathan Whitworth:
Okay, that's amazing. Yeah. Cause you're the first person who's talked about customer service. Oh
Tanesha Duckett:
God, it's
Nathan Whitworth:
So important. Yeah. Well and I think it is. And of course I think everybody who has a successful business understands that customer service is important, . But how do you think about customer service? Curious, How do you try to infuse a high level of customer service into every transaction,
Tanesha Duckett:
Being available, being empathetic, being caring, and just being there for them. It makes a huge difference. I've, I've had so many clients tell me, and they know I have tons of clients going on at one time and they'd say, Tanesha, I feel like I'm your only client because I'm available. I'm talking to you, you're my friend, or you're my family. By the end of each transaction, I have a new family member. . That's how tight we've grown over the month, two months or however long we've been working together. We're like family. Right?
Nathan Whitworth:
And customer service is a very broad, kind of a very broad term, which basically means to help when they reach out and they need something that you're available there to help them. I'm kind of curious, is there, and again, you can take a minute to think about this cuz Jonathan can edit this however you need to, but okay, is there a story or something that you can think of in the last six months, something kind of concrete that says, Hey, this is how I was able to provide a great level of customer service and this is what came out of that?
Tanesha Duckett:
I have one going on actually right now. This young lady she went a contract a few months ago and when I say working so hard to get her house and I will do everything I can and I tell my clients, If you need me to call the lender, if you need me to send documents for you, whatever it takes, I'm gonna be that support system for you. And we're gonna work together. And that's my thing too. When I first meet them, we're a team, so we are gonna do what it takes to get to the finish line. And so they can call me, I usually stop about nine <laugh> cuz I have the kids. So I sure if I'm not doing anything, but they can call me. Tanesha, thank you so much for listening or thank you so much for your help because I'm gonna help you at the end of the day. I'm gonna provide that service to you. Now I'm gonna do what I
Nathan Whitworth:
Can. That's amazing. Well, and I think for the average person who's trying to buy or sell for the average person, the real estate transaction as a whole, it is fairly intimidating. Yeah. Do you kind of sense that when you say that, say, Hey, we're in this as a team, we're gonna get through this. If a bump comes up in the road, I'm gonna help you out with that bump. Do you have a sense that helps relax them a little bit?
Tanesha Duckett:
Absolutely. Yeah, I definitely feel like that. And I tell 'em too that every step of the way we're gonna work this thing out and mindset. And I tell 'em about mindset too, cuz some people, depending on the transaction can get frustrated. I'm like, it's all about your mindset. So we're not gonna think negatively. We gonna think this thing positive that it's gonna work out. Watch what you say and we gonna keep rolling until we get a know or we get to closing. And majority of the time we're closing. For
Nathan Whitworth:
Sure. Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. Well, and I think setting, again, it goes back to communication., I feel like there's themes that keep popping up in conversations and with top producers who are really doing great things. But when you're building a team, clearing consistent communication, on what to expect, what's coming up, what the next most important step is to get to the finish line. That's important with your team members, that's important with the crew that you're building, but it's also important with your clients, right? Absolutely. I mean it pretty much is the same thing that they don't know what the next step is. In most cases, they don't really know what to expect or how to get to the point B. So you kind of become that guide for them. And that's what it seems like you're doing so well.
Tanesha Duckett:
And I have systems in place that actually help with that. So we actually, depending on buy or seller, we have a consultation, they have all this information that I provide, I go through with them and then provide it to 'em and then also follow up with email. This is the next step, this is what you can expect. And they know what's going on the whole step of the way.
Nathan Whitworth:
That's very cool. Yeah. Can you talk to me a little bit about that system Was do you feel like you tweaked that system a lot?
Tanesha Duckett:
I do. I don't know how I came up with it. It just worked. <laugh> it, it's perfect. I love it. So even from the consultation standpoint, after meeting with somebody, you get an email from me, Thank you for meeting with me. I look forward to working with you. This is what you can expect. And when you go into contract, there's another email that goes out. Congratulations on your new home or getting your home under contract and before closing, you getting a closing email. So it's communica. And then that's between all the other communication that we're having throughout the process. Yeah.
Nathan Whitworth:
And obviously building good systems allows you to be able to handle more business. So there's the obvious advantage there. Absolutely. But one thing that I think a lot of people miss on when it comes to systems that you're doing so well is that a good system allows every customer or every client that you have to have a similar high quality.
Tanesha Duckett:
That's
Nathan Whitworth:
The biggest thing. That's experience,
Tanesha Duckett:
Right? That's is,
Nathan Whitworth:
Yep. Because it, it's just, I gotta say, it's funny because I experience this a lot as an entrepreneur myself,, I'm not an agent, I'm not a broker. But what's interesting is that really any small business, we're all in, has a lot of similarities in how the business operates and works. And I always think to myself that the mark of a great business is when you can provide the same high quality experience over and over. That's the goal. And over and over, regardless of the situation, regardless of the person, regardless of the place, regardless of the time. And really the only way that you can get there is by having a great system in place. You know what I mean? That you can fall back on.
Tanesha Duckett:
And that's my goal is I want everybody that I come in contact with to have the same or similar experience. I want to have a great experience when they close on their house rather buying or selling. I want 'em to say, Okay, this was a great experience. Let me tell my family, friends, coworkers or whoever. A hundred percent go to Tanesha. She's gonna give you the best service. A hundred
Nathan Whitworth:
Percent. Yeah. Yeah. So smart. My goodness. So smart. Did it take a long time to build those systems?
Tanesha Duckett:
No, it just happened. Oh,
Nathan Whitworth:
Okay. <laugh>. Yeah,
Tanesha Duckett:
It happened when I got back into it, I knew it just kind of fell into place. I think I did go to school for business. So I feel like my degree helped me in a sense. And then working in customer service for many years, I feel like it all just kind of took its course over
Nathan Whitworth:
Time. That's amazing place. I do feel like that for a lot of agents, that's probably one of the biggest pieces that's always missing . They always feel like they're trying to keep their head above water. They always feel like they're struggling to keep everybody happy. They always feel like they can't get over just consistent problems that they have day in and day out. And one of the things I'll share with agents a lot is there's a book and I can't remember the name of the book, but they essentially talk about the concept of swimming upstream, . So if you have a problem, essentially just swim upstream or get upstream and then do what you need to do to solve that problem for happening again. And so for me and my business, that's something that I've tried to take to heart is that when something comes up, if it's a one off, one time thing, I don't pay much attention to it, but I do track it. And if it happens twice now this is a thing. So let's get upstream, let's figure out why that happened and let's see what kind of system we can put in place or kind of process that we can put in place to prevent that from happening again. And I get to live a lot less stressful life that way.
Tanesha Duckett:
I agree. I feel like for sure all I had was office admin and we'll just say just last year in general office admin and myself I probably did about 50 transactions and the only stressful thing for me was having multiple closings on the same day. Everything else just kind of fell in place. I didn't feel like I was working super hard. I felt like I wasn't doing enough. That was the crazy part. I felt like I could be doing more.
Nathan Whitworth:
And great systems allow you to feel that way.
Tanesha Duckett:
It allows me to feel that way. Yeah.
Nathan Whitworth:
Yeah. That's awesome. Amazing. Well so talk to me for a second about what's probably the biggest, You mentioned prospecting a little bit earlier,, so I wanna kind of dial in on prospecting for a second. I think that one of the other interesting things about real estate professionals, agents in general is that oftentimes it's a second career or a third career . It's not super often that somebody leaves college and goes straight into real estate. Now it kind of has happened last few years because things have been really popping. But for the most part it's second, third career . Typically people are coming from other jobs and other careers where they are a W two person, they kind of fill a role, they're kind of told what to do when they walk in. They're kind of doing that thing from eight 30 or nine o'clock in the morning until five .
And then you leave that and you go into real estate and you are responsible for putting your own food on the table. Absolutely. And so it's a very different place to live. And what most people don't understand is it really comes down to how good at prospecting you become. Right? That's top line spending time on it every single day. What are the revenue generating activities that you're spending time on day in and day out in that prospecting game? So talk to me a little bit about that cuz this is huge. I mean I would say that for most agents, this is the thing, this is what they wanna
Tanesha Duckett:
Do. This is definitely the thing. If you wanna stay in business and you wanna have business, you have to prospect. So you have to make those phone calls, you have to follow up. It's the biggest thing that you can do in your business because if you don't follow up, somebody else will.
Nathan Whitworth:
That's right. <laugh>.
Tanesha Duckett:
And you gonna lose somebody that you could have had That's right. And got to the closing table but you wasn't there to follow up. Right. But yeah, I mean your cold calling your email campaigns, like your door knocking, all of that should be a thing every single day. You should be time blocking your day. I don't care if it's 10 to 12, you should be prospecting for new clients and following up with old people that you've worked with before or have not gotten to the closing table.
Nathan Whitworth:
So let's get a little bit tactical with that. Cuz I agree with you. I think that's so important. Talk to me about cold calls for you. How does that work?
Tanesha Duckett:
So I have a customer service background. So what I feel works for me, I don't per se use a script. I know that maybe not somebody else's thing, but sure I want it to come off as a friendly situation because I know personally if somebody called me and they was like, Hey this is Tanesha with the property bar, I'm probably will not have a conversation with you. You know what I mean? For sure. But if I call you and say, Hey my speak with Jonathan or Nathan you are gonna apply. Oh who is this? And then we gonna pick up that conversation and I'm gonna tell you what I want and then we're gonna go, That's amazing. And I can get the appointment.
Nathan Whitworth:
Yeah. That's amazing. Per feeling, personalized,
Tanesha Duckett:
Right? That's important
Nathan Whitworth:
Is huge. It's huge. Nobody wants to work. This is definitely a thing. As we're moving into the new generation, most people want to work with people wanna do business with people. . That's what I'm trying to say. Most people do not wanna do business with a corporation or a faceless, a faceless a broker for instance, where they don't know who the person is that they're gonna be doing business with. . I think that that's huge. I'm, I'm trying to figure out, I'm beating the bush. I'm trying to figure out the best way to say that. Cause I think it's huge. When you are connecting with people, you have to connect.
Tanesha Duckett:
It's the connection
Nathan Whitworth:
With people, it's the connection. And I often feel like the agents who do this really the best or that they're able to build the teams that have the most transactions that are happening day in and day out. They tend to be able to be really, really good at making a personal connection with somebody and then trying to figure out how they can help them. Right? What's the thing that, what's your pain point? What's the thing that you're struggling with and how this can help you with that, right? How many cold calls are you trying to do a day?
Tanesha Duckett:
Well,
Nathan Whitworth:
And I know it's not always the same, it's
Tanesha Duckett:
Not always the same. Close the goal at least 50. Wow.
Nathan Whitworth:
50 a day a day. 50
Tanesha Duckett:
A day. Because if you're time blocking your day, you know can get that in
Nathan Whitworth:
A hundred percent.
Tanesha Duckett:
And you have to make shut everything else off. You can't like, oh, I'm answer text messages or if somebody call me and pick it up, you have to focus on your time blocking and doing your calls.
Nathan Whitworth:
A hundred percent. Yeah. That is so good.
Tanesha Duckett:
You gotta focus otherwise you're not gonna get it done.
Nathan Whitworth:
Yeah. Well and that's the other thing, I talk to a lot of agents and I feel like a lot of agents kind of go into the office and they're like, Well I did my work for today. It's like, no, you just walked into an office
Tanesha Duckett:
<laugh>. And that's the thing too. You have to do income producing activities. So you go in the office and you are like la la la, la, la, la. But what are you doing? Right? That's income producing. That's right. You know what I mean? That's right. You have to know the difference. And I think that's one thing coming into real estate for people that haven't had a nine to five is making that transition. A hundred percent did you have to have that business mindset. You have to understand that now you are a business, although you're working under a brokerage, this is your business. That's right. And what you put into it is what you get out out of it. So you come in here and you spend an hour doing, I don't know, surfing a way up, you're not gonna make any money. Or if you're not sending out Millers or whatever the case, you're not gonna make any money. So it's actually changing your mindset and understand that you are now business owner and you have to put your business out there in order to get business. A hundred percent. So
Nathan Whitworth:
Marketing percent. Yeah, a hundred percent. I love that. That's so good. Talk to me about follow up.
Tanesha Duckett:
Oh gosh, follow up is so important. <laugh>. <laugh>. So I try to do it every day. So for me, I have consultations with everybody. So I have a crm, I put 'em in a CRM or I have it my paper. So I do it both ways and I'm following up on making notes every day and hey, what is going on? So if it's not ready to sell right now or I have to get something off my credit, Okay, well let me know when you do that. Or if you need to get a credit card. We're having these conversations all the time so they're not getting sidetracked and falling off the bandwagons upset because it's gonna take them a little while to get into our house or whatever the case. I'm encouraging them, You're doing great, don't worry about it. You're gonna be in the house really soon. And it's just keeping that follow up going with every single person that I've met with to try to get them to the closing table.
Nathan Whitworth:
What do you say to an agent who's sitting there thinking to themselves, I hate following up because I hate feeling like I'm annoying somebody
Tanesha Duckett:
Until they tell you don't call them or don't email them alone. <laugh> preach out to those people. Yeah,
Nathan Whitworth:
I think that's a good point. We actually have this conversation here in the studio often I think where it's like, hey, people are just busy just because you don't hear back yet. Or just because you don't have until they say, Hey, I'm not interested. Or they say, Hey, I don't want this help or I don't want this service. Or obviously we don't wanna bug people or we don't be annoying. But until we have an answer, until we know what it is that they need or what they want, we're gonna keep following 'em. We gotta keep following that. We gotta keep you reaching out to them. Yes. And you gotta keep giving those calls. You gotta keep sending those emails. So what, talk to me about the system that you have behind that. Is there a certain period of time that you would recommend a new agent? So let's say that they do some cold calls,, let's say that they don't get them on the phone, it goes straight to voicemail. How often are you following up? Is the
Tanesha Duckett:
Next day, next week they have call person at all. Give them two to three days. Two
Nathan Whitworth:
To three days.
Tanesha Duckett:
Gotcha. I don't want you to bug me either, but follow me right back that next day. But give me two to three days. Hey, just follow up. I didn't reach you or whatever a hundred percent. And then find a different time to call. So if you didn't get 'em that time, try another time and see if they're available
Nathan Whitworth:
A hundred percent
Tanesha Duckett:
To see if you can get 'em on the phone.
Nathan Whitworth:
That's a great suggestion. You don't get in the second time, another two or three days, or you give 'em a week, two weeks,
Tanesha Duckett:
Another two or
Nathan Whitworth:
Three days. Another two or three days. Yeah. Gotcha. So you're just kind of spacing it out every two or three days. Do you typically send an email with the phone call? If you don't get them on the phone, you leave a voicemail and send an
Tanesha Duckett:
Email to. So I try to switch it up. Cuz a lot of people nowadays they like to text or they like to email. So if you're not getting 'em on the phone, text them an email and most of the time you'll get a
Nathan Whitworth:
Response. That's interesting. Do you typically get more responses you feel like through text message than you do through conventional email or anything else?
Tanesha Duckett:
Email and text.
Nathan Whitworth:
Email and text
Tanesha Duckett:
Is the biggest. Gotcha. People don't wanna talk on the phone anymore. So 'em where they are, Go where they are. Right.
Nathan Whitworth:
That's incredible. talk to me for just a second. So you've done, you've spent your time doing those revenue generat activities, doing your cold calls got your emails that went out,, so now you're setting up appointments, listing appointments, buyers, whatever. Talk to me a little bit about how do you establish a great, cuz you're very personable. Even now when we walk in, every time we see each other, you just bring a smile on my face cuz that's the kind of, you're just very kind. Right? Thank you. You're very open, you're very welcoming. I know some of it, you might not be able to answer this, but how do you work with a new person that you never met before? How do you work to establish that kind of relationship? Some kind of foundational relationship from the beginning.
Tanesha Duckett:
I treat 'em like people, they're friends when they come in. So if I've set up a consultation, I know nothing about this person. So they come into my office and I'm like, Hey, how you doing? How's your day? And it's not like a business, How's your day or how's things going? It's conversation. And so it's like loosening 'em up and then a lot of people like, Oh my God, I'm so glad I came. I was so nervous to come talk to you. But I feel better now. Yes, because I'm having this conversation and we're like old friends. Yes. It's not like business. Business. And I go through an answer question go through my spiel with them, Do you have questions? Make sure you have questions. And I ask questions to them, Do you have anything for me? And it's just keeping it personable and it helps.
Nathan Whitworth:
I think that's a very under underrated, way to build a relationship. Just ask questions. And it's so weird to me that there's a lot of people out there who just don't do that. They just don't ask questions. They just don't ask questions. They would much rather just sit across a table and just not talk
Tanesha Duckett:
<laugh> and make it conversational to them. It's like if it's conversational and it's just flowing, it doesn't seem like business. You know what I mean? But you're getting the answers that you need to help this person.
Nathan Whitworth:
A hundred percent. Yeah. I think fundamentally, and I've always believed this even when I was a teacher, fundamentally everybody, there are things that we have in common., you and I, we've got lots of common, we probably have more in common than we even know that we do. We just haven't asked each other enough questions to figure out what that is. And I always encourage agents, when you're sitting down with your prospects, when you're sitting down with clients, just ask questions. Just ask questions. Try to find that common ground . And sometimes it's harder with some people than others. Some people talk less and it's hard to kind of get there. But I promise you, you can get there. You can get
Tanesha Duckett:
There. You
Nathan Whitworth:
Can get there. Absolutely. Just keep asking questions. If you hit a little bit of a brick wall and you're like, well I don't that interest that they have, I don't know, know anything about football, right? Yeah. So I need to stop talking about, I can't relate to them on a level, so let's talk about something else. Right? Yeah, let's fine. Hey, did you see that thing that just opened up in Seville the other day? You can find a way to find some common ground with somebody. It just takes asking questions, question and just being persistent. That's it. Yeah. That's awesome. Tanesha, this has been really amazing. Thank you. This has been very helpful to see how you've done things and how you've been able to build such a great business with a property bar. The last question that I have for you, Curious, do you read? I do. Okay. Do
Tanesha Duckett:
You not much as I should <laugh>,
Nathan Whitworth:
But I do. Well even I don't read as much as I should, but I'm curious, what's been a super inspirational book? What's been your favorite business book?
Tanesha Duckett:
Fanatical Prospecting. Okay. Is one I'm gonna screw this title up. It's How to Win Influence People,
Nathan Whitworth:
How to Win Friends and Influence People. That one Del Carnegie
Tanesha Duckett:
And golly, and it's another one, it's a thick red book, but I cannot think of what it's called. But it was a really good book. It's kind of dated, but the information is really good. So sorry.
Nathan Whitworth:
No, it's okay. It's all
Tanesha Duckett:
Right. Power something. I don't,
Nathan Whitworth:
Yeah, send me a text, let me know. I'll let when you see it at the house send a text and let me know. The last thing thing before we go is I just remembered this. I am really surprised at how often I come across agents who do not invest in real estate.
Tanesha Duckett:
<laugh>.
Nathan Whitworth:
Yes. I'm, I thought that was the reason you're doing this
Tanesha Duckett:
<laugh>.
Nathan Whitworth:
Like if I was to become an agent myself, that's a hundred percent. The only reason I would do it the best is to be able to have, for all the reasons. Excuse me. But talk to me a little about that. So your husband's a builder himself, which is interest. Interesting. Yep. You guys have a little portfolio going in Greenville of long term. Do you take me through your portfolio Cause I'm not entirely sure what you
Tanesha Duckett:
Have <laugh>. So we actually started out with fix and flips. Oh yeah. So we, we've done quite a bit of those. And then my husband moved over and got his builder's license. So cool. We're doing some new construction and some renovations as well. And for us we've built we've buying lots all over the place if we can. So we build as much as possible. And we do have a short term rental.
Nathan Whitworth:
So you guys just started that? Yeah, <laugh>, I walk. You had us come photograph it and it was interesting cause I walked up and I was like, Is this one of your long term rentals? And she's like, No, I'm starting as a short-term rental. I was like, Yes. Yeah, that's amazing. Oh
Tanesha Duckett:
My god. It was scary but exciting at the same time. So it's up and running now
Nathan Whitworth:
And it's doing well,
Tanesha Duckett:
It's doing well, doing very well. So that's great.
Nathan Whitworth:
So why do you invest in real estate?
Tanesha Duckett:
Because I know that investing in real estate is you create generation of wealth and it's where most millionaires become millionaires. A hundred hundred percent in real estate. So we have to be here, we have to be present.
Nathan Whitworth:
So the reason I started the real estate media business, is because I wanted to be closer to real estate. Oh wow. Is because I wanted to understand real estate. And when my wife and I, we were kind of in the process of building our portfolio, and I was like, so what's something I could do where I have first access to properties as they go on the market? And I'm like, Oh, what if I'm, I had already had experience in the media business already . And I was like, what if we do the photography? What if, And
Tanesha Duckett:
You do it the whale by the way.
Nathan Whitworth:
Thanks. Thanks. I love your thanks. But what if we were kind of the ones that got to see the properties before they actually hit the mls. And that was kind of the inspiration for starting Crossgate that is amazing. Was because we are kind of first and foremost for real estate investors and we thought, how could we get access to more properties before anybody else does ? And so that's kind of how we started this whole thing. And yeah, I think so. How's it been so far? Oh, it's amazing.
Tanesha Duckett:
<laugh>
Nathan Whitworth:
Amazing. It's amazing. But yeah, it's one of those things where you're so right about building wealth, It was really interesting when I left teaching, I googled what careers most millionaires have and the statistic, I can't remember it now, but the statistic is insane. It's like 70, it's five. 80% of millionaires in the country are all in real estate. Every single one of 'em. And then that's when I kind of went down the rabbit hole of going, Okay, so what a minute. Well, why? Yeah. And then once you start to understand that a lot of these people are really just small time investors like you and I, we're not some big institutionalized business that's going out there and scooping up hundreds of properties or building high rise hotels or what in my head, a real estate investor, that's who that is. That's what you're thinking. And it took me a long time to understand, oh no, we could get start. We could do this. So that's how we got it. We got involved in it, but that's really cool. The business of fix and flip, how long were you guys doing that for?
Tanesha Duckett:
We did that probably I think maybe five years.
Nathan Whitworth:
Interesting. Yeah. And was it fun?
Tanesha Duckett:
Yeah, it was fun. Well, the funny thing for me was some of the houses, this is the foreclosures and everything, I would never go into those houses. I felt horrible. But once they gut at it, I was okay a
Nathan Whitworth:
Hundred
Tanesha Duckett:
Percent. And I'm designing, I got to do the design portion, which I really love. Where's the kitchen? The layout, the furnishing. So that part was fun for me. I can do the hard work and the labor.
Nathan Whitworth:
Yeah, that's very cool.
Tanesha Duckett:
<laugh>.
Nathan Whitworth:
And the, the other thing that I found to be really fulfilling was all the benefits of what you're doing for the community, right? Yes. When you're going in and you're flipping these homes,, the benefits to that particular neighborhood is,
Tanesha Duckett:
And I've seen it firsthand, just the ones we renovated one house and it actually worked out. So this one house had double lots. And so we realized that and we was like, Okay, we'll renovate this one, we'll split the lot and then we'll build next door. And just to see what happened after we did that, the neighborhood just kind of blossomed and it was amazing just to see that because it was not the best neighborhood.
Nathan Whitworth:
A hundred percent. Yeah. It's amazing what a few flips and in a rough neighborhood would do to the pride of the neighborhood. They really do like, Oh wow, this is what this could be. Right? What if more houses was like this on our street?
Tanesha Duckett:
And it happens.
Nathan Whitworth:
It happens. Yeah, a hundred percent every single day. What are you hoping for with your short-term rental? Are you guys gonna add to your portfolio there are planning on doing more?
Tanesha Duckett:
Yes. I definitely wanna do more now that the jitters are out and the scarcity, because I really thought, this is my thought. I actually did a YouTube video on this I have to put up, but I felt like I was hemorrhaging like money. I was like, when is this this gonna stop? I
Nathan Whitworth:
Was getting kinda
Tanesha Duckett:
Scared.
Nathan Whitworth:
The furnishing, the
Tanesha Duckett:
Furnishing, getting
Nathan Whitworth:
Your programs going,
Tanesha Duckett:
The court, everything. But after that it's like, it's perfect now.
Nathan Whitworth:
Yeah. That's great. That's great. And it should be, I mean our short-term rental, it's been life changing for our family for sure in a lot of ways. But right now
Tanesha Duckett:
How long have you had
Nathan Whitworth:
It? So we've had it we closed on it basically, was it November or December? And so not long, but it's doing super, super well. It'll pull in about 150,000 this year. That is
Tanesha Duckett:
Absolutely track.
Nathan Whitworth:
Amazing. And that's on the low end. It could be close to, Cuz we have it booked. We had a $9,000 booking for Thanksgiving or it was like $9,500 for Thanksgiving. We haven't booked Christmas yet. We haven't booked Meteor yet.
Tanesha Duckett:
Tell people what kind of house you have, cuz you're saying $9,000 for Thanksgiving
Nathan Whitworth:
Life. <laugh> not, What house is this? It's not that amazing. It it, honestly, it is just in the right place. I mean loca as with all real estate, location, location, location, it's
Tanesha Duckett:
Pretty amazing.
Nathan Whitworth:
Yeah. Well and it is, it's, it's a five five. Yeah, it's a five five. So it's pretty big. I wanna say it's 32 or 3,400 square feet. So it's definitely a place where families get together and have it. But yeah, and we could do a whole episode on short term rentals that that's not, I don't wanna get sidetracked, but yeah, no, I'm happy for you and I thank you. I just want to encourage more agents to get into investing. Guys
Tanesha Duckett:
Invest. I don't care if you're buying lots because you may buy a lot for five, $10,000 and you see now in Greenville, you cannot get a lot for less than what, maybe 60, $70,000. So think if you bought a lot for 10,000 held onto it and then down the road.
Nathan Whitworth:
I mean, hundred percent mean there you go. A hundred percent right, a hundred percent. I mean particularly with our market here at Greenville. Absolutely. Particularly with where we live.
Tanesha Duckett:
Infe skies.
Nathan Whitworth:
Yeah, it's a big your
Tanesha Duckett:
Find your
Nathan Whitworth:
Way. And if you have questions about that, ask Tenisha. <laugh>.
Tanesha Duckett:
Sweet
Nathan Whitworth:
Guys hopefully this was beneficial to you. Hopefully you learned a little bit from Tanesha's journey and how she's gotten to where she has Tanesha, I'm so proud of you and I'm proud of your team. Thank you so much. And it really is amazing to work with you guys. Thank you for coming on and being here. And again, I hope this was beneficial to at least a few people out there listening, huh? Yeah. So guys let me know if you have any questions about anything or if we can help you in any way, reach out to Tanesha, Tanesha, tell everybody where can they find out more information about you.
Tanesha Duckett:
You can go to our website the property bar llc.com or our social media, the property bar on Instagram and Facebook.
Nathan Whitworth:
That's amazing. Guys, Thank you so much. Until next time. Hey everyone, thanks for listening. Hopefully this was really helpful to you in your journey of building a business. If you like what you heard, please click subscribe and go to iTunes and give us a rating that helps us out tremendously when we are producing hopefully content of huge value to you. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it, and I hope that you have an amazing week. Go out there and crush it. I'll see you soon.
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