Jeremy Felt's Dual Career: Insights and Inspirations

Meet Jeremy Felt, a dedicated teacher, realtor, father, and husband, whose journey reflects a unique blend of education and entrepreneurship. Jeremy's story begins with the profound impact his own teachers and coaches had on his life, igniting a passion for teaching. He candidly discusses the evolving challenges educators face today, from technology's double-edged sword in classrooms to the essential role of parental collaboration. His transition into real estate, while still nurturing his love for teaching, highlights a multifaceted career path where passion meets practicality.

Jeremy's narrative takes us deeper into the emotional journey of teaching and real estate. He shares an inspiring encounter with a former student, illustrating the long-lasting impact a teacher can have. As a father, his insights into seeing students as individuals resonate powerfully. His foray into real estate is filled with lessons on negotiation and the emotional dynamics of buying and selling homes. Whether dealing with unexpected hurdles like a seller's imprisonment or guiding first-time buyers, Jeremy's experiences offer valuable lessons in empathy and strategic thinking.

Listeners are also treated to practical tips, from preparing a home for sale to navigating the intricate world of real estate commissions. Jeremy shares his strategies for success, underscoring the importance of mentorship and continuous learning in the industry. Beyond the transactions, he sheds light on balancing professional and family life, with faith and spirituality providing a foundation for resilience. This episode of Light Up Your Business is a rich tapestry of personal anecdotes, professional advice, and heartfelt reflections that promise to inspire and inform.

To hire Jeremy Felt for your real estate needs go to:  https://harvestrealty.org/

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Chapters

• 0:01 Inspiring Stories From Small Business Owners
• 8:11 Impact and Perspective in Teaching
• 11:36 Creating and Marketing a New Product
• 16:35 Challenges of Real Estate Industry
• 28:06 Navigating Emotions in Real Estate Negotiations
• 37:35 Property Preparation Tips for Home Sales
• 40:59 Success Strategies for New Realtors
• 45:59 Current Real Estate Market Trends
• 55:01 Understanding Commercial Real Estate Sales
• 1:04:14 Real Estate Commission Negotiations
• 1:09:51 Concerns About for Sale by Owner
• 1:17:18 Real Estate Trends and Concerns
• 1:27:40 Balancing Work and Family Life
• 1:32:51 Family Faith and Real Estate Connection

Transcript

Tammy Hershberger: 0:01

Welcome to the Light Up your Business podcast, the show where we dive deep into the world of small businesses. I'm your host, tammy Hershberger, and each episode will bring you inspiring stories, expert insights and practical tips to help your small business thrive. Whether you're an entrepreneur just starting out or a seasoned business owner, this podcast is your go-to source for success in the small business world. Let's get started to source for success in the small business world. Let's get started. Hi everyone, I want to welcome you back to Light Up your Business podcast. I'm Tammy Hershberger and today I have a very special guest. His name is Jeremy Felt. How are you doing today, jeremy?

Jeremy Felt: 0:38

I'm doing good. Thank you for having me.

Tammy Hershberger: 0:39

Yeah, you are welcome. So, as you know, we talk about business, we talk about burnout, we talk about keeping your business going and not losing your mind. And so today I want to bring in Jeremy, because he, he's an entrepreneur, he has his own real estate business, he's a realtor actually realtor, I always say and he's a teacher, so if you've got kids in school, he might be teaching them, so help them. And he's a father and he's a husband. So, Jeremy, why don't we start right off the bat? Tell us about yourself more than what I just said.

Jeremy Felt: 1:09

So, yeah, I've been living in Western Colorado my entire life. I've been a teacher. I went to Mesa State College, got licensed in real estate in 2018, and I've been doing that since. So kind of got a lot of different things going on.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:25

So tell me you've been a teacher for how long.

Jeremy Felt: 1:28

I graduated college in 2009 and then did substitute teaching for a year and then got hired on at Fruita Monument High School after that and now I'm at a charter school that meets two days a week. So I've been teaching since basically 2009.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:43

And then I'm just going to dig in to get to know you. So what made you go into teaching? What interested you about that?

Jeremy Felt: 1:49

Well, I had a lot of coaches and teachers that I really looked up to in high school and middle school. That really had a positive impact on my life and I just, you know, really enjoyed it and wanted to kind of be on the other side of that and give back to kids and get to know them and be a positive influence in their life.

Tammy Hershberger: 2:08

What grade do you teach?

Jeremy Felt: 2:10

So I've done everything, from high school to middle school. I've taught social studies, language arts and math.

Tammy Hershberger: 2:20

What is your favorite out of all that?

Jeremy Felt: 2:22

I like social studies, like history and American government and stuff like that.

Tammy Hershberger: 2:25

I think it's interesting. The older I get, the more I enjoy that stuff. When I was young I was like who gives a crap? But now I'm like it's interesting to learn the history of the country of the world that we live in and just to kind of learn from our mistakes that we've made.

Jeremy Felt: 2:38

Absolutely.

Tammy Hershberger: 2:39

Is it hard teaching kids that age in this world today?

Jeremy Felt: 2:47

I hard teaching kids that age in this world today. I think the biggest thing is the challenge of technology and kids are just disconnected and you know, just society in a lot of ways. There's some things that have gotten better but some things have gotten worse. So, just like the respect and sometimes parent buy-in and stuff like that and follow through, it feels like sometimes you're, you know, fighting an uphill battle over and over and over and it sometimes feels like you're the only one that cares, even though that's not true. So that can be the biggest challenge.

Tammy Hershberger: 3:16

I'm going to ask you some more questions on teaching, because I haven't had a teacher on here yet and it interests me.

Jeremy Felt: 3:20

Oh yeah.

Tammy Hershberger: 3:20

So if you're a parent listening and you have brat kids, what would you tell them?

Jeremy Felt: 3:25

If I was what.

Tammy Hershberger: 3:25

If you have any teacher, like you're a teacher and you're having trouble with the kids, like what is it that parents can do to try to help teachers? Because I feel, like the ones I've seen, they just blame the teachers. It's their fault.

Jeremy Felt: 3:35

Yeah, that's kind of the struggle that I saw a political cartoon and it was saying parent-teacher conferences in the 1950s and his parents holding up a sheet that had an F on it and they were standing over the kid. And now they hold up that same sheet of paper and they're standing over the teacher pointing at them. So I think that is one of the challenges is you feel like it should be a team effort. Yet if a child's failing, they say, well, what is the teacher doing wrong? And you always want to see what you could do better or improve on or how you could, you know, try a different way to reach that kid. But sometimes it feels like, well, they're not doing what they're supposed to do, so it's all in the teacher. That can get really frustrating. So I would say just parental support from home, like checking their grades, communicating, you know, following through if they are getting in trouble at school or not being respectful, having some sort of consequences at home. So they're getting in on you know, on both ends it's kind of a unified front.

Tammy Hershberger: 4:34

Yeah, I would imagine it's still probably like it was. There's still kids that are very engaged and there's some that are so checked out. They don't want to be there.

Jeremy Felt: 4:41

Yeah, and I think that's the important thing to remember, because a lot of times it's the two or three kids that you have that are the biggest struggle, that you kind of focus on and that's all of your energy. But then you have to remember that 90%, 99% of your kids are really focused and are really engaged and work hard and want to do things the right way.

Tammy Hershberger: 5:05

so having those positive reminders, I think, is really important too, and focusing on the good, not just always the struggle yeah, do you feel like when there's the kids that are causing issues, do you get support from faculty or the board? I don't even know how schools work without the principal. Do they really support you to try to like, if you can't get those kids in line to move them along or something, so you don't distract every other kid that's in there?

Jeremy Felt: 5:28

So that's kind of become challenging over the last few years. And I think that's one of the biggest struggles teachers have is that there's not that parental support all the time. And then even administration. You know, you might send a kid to the office and they just might send him right back. It wasn't me, but there was a teacher that confronted a student in the hallway they were arguing or something. He said, hey, could you guys quiet down, we're trying to teach. And the kid cussed him out and threatened him and all these things, and the administration's response was well, we'll just move his locker so you don't have a run-in with him. There was no suspension, expulsion, there was no charges, so it was just like it never happened. So that's, I think a lot of times teachers kind of throw up their hands and say, well, if I'm the only one that cares or is doing anything, then what's the point?

Tammy Hershberger: 6:18

Yeah, I can't even imagine the frustration of that because we'll talk about entrepreneurship in a minute because you're you really are so much more free to do things your way. I guess is how I would say it. But I commend you for being a teacher. I used to want to be a teacher and then I realized kind of early on that, like, kids annoy me and I don't think I could.

Jeremy Felt: 6:36

You know me, I don't sure I'd be thrown out of that district and get rid of her yeah, it'd be a little too honest with the kids.

Tammy Hershberger: 6:42

Yeah, but so I commend what you're doing. Do you have any? I guess I want to ask one more question before I move you on. So, in that respect of like trying to meet kids because everybody learns different, they have different learning styles Do you feel like maybe the school district does it? I don't know how that all works, but like, do you feel like you can reach the kids that need something a little different, or what?

Jeremy Felt: 7:11

Or like you can reach the kids that need something a little different, or what you feel like your hands are tied in that kind of stuff, or yeah, I feel like your hands are really tied and you're only a part of their day, but I still think that doesn't mean you just like give up and like, all right, this kid isn't getting it, because I've had some kids that you know are homeless, or you know their parents aren't even involved and I think, think when you remember that that's someone's child and that's someone very important, I think that kind of rejuvenates you.

Jeremy Felt: 7:31

Even if I am the only one that cares, or I'm trying at least I'm going to be one positive person in this kid's life. So I think that's kind of the challenge. But also the inspiration is to treat every kid, because I have ran into kids that were knuckleheads and difficult and then I'll run into them years later and they're like oh man, I was such a pain in your class, I'm sorry, but thank you for still being kind and joking around with me and stuff like that. So I think it's you have to remember why you're doing it and even though there's a lot of bureaucracy and red tape as far as discipline and some of those things, I don't think you just give it all up, because when you just boil it down, you're you know you're helping people.

Tammy Hershberger: 8:11

Yeah Well, it sounds like you're impacting those kids and making a difference, even if it's small and minute. You maybe don't even see it.

Jeremy Felt: 8:18

Yeah, I ran into someone at the gym today and he came up and he was this big, burly guy a bunch of tattoos, and he's like are you, mr Felt? And I was like, uh, yeah, but he looked so much older. He's like, tell me, oh yeah, I had you in class, I was in your class and you know I loved it and this and that. So I think, yeah, when you remember that you're having a positive impact on people's lives and it may not- you know, bear fruit in the time you have them in class, but maybe 10-, 15 years down the road.

Jeremy Felt: 8:45

That little positive seed that you planted will hopefully, you know, work out well for them.

Tammy Hershberger: 8:50

Yeah, there's that saying that it's not what you do for people to tell you make them feel and that's good and bad. And I even remind myself that, as in this podcast and my coaching, all the things I do that, like even in the moment, sometimes things I do maybe don't seem fruitful, but I don't know what that'll. Even in the moment, sometimes things I do maybe don't seem fruitful but I don't know what that'll do in the future for that person. Something may stick in their mind and they eventually do something different. I mean, you just don't know. Do you feel like it changed when you had kids, like the whole thing?

Jeremy Felt: 9:15

I really do, because every like all kids will get on my nerves or you know, about not be paying attention again. You kind of have that like most of the kids are paying attention, working hard, but it's those few that you just feel like you're just beating your head against the wall and I have to remember, like that's someone's son or daughter and I think when I think about what if that was my child struggling for whatever reason? Maybe they're not understanding the material, maybe they have some trauma going on, maybe they, you know, have other life issues that are going on that are affecting their behavior in school. I would want someone to still give them a chance and continue to work with them, even if it was difficult. So I think it has given me that perspective that you know, it's not that I ever just treated them like you know numbers or faceless students, but even more so like that's someone's you know son or daughter and they don't want you to give up on them. I wouldn't want someone to give up on my kids.

Tammy Hershberger: 10:07

Yeah, that's very good. So I'll transition to real estate now. But I wanted everybody to kind of see this is the heart of the man we're talking to here. He's a good guy, he's a good family man and I believe he's going to be well. I think you are a great entrepreneur, but you're doing real estate basically part-time at this moment because you're working full-time as a teacher. Is that correct?

Jeremy Felt: 10:25

Well, I mean it kind of depends on the week or the month. I mean sometimes it's 20, 30 weeks of real estate, sometimes it's more. It just kind of depends. I teach Tuesdays and Thursdays. So where I teach right now is kind of like built out of a homeschool model where parents were getting to a point where they couldn't teach the algebra or the science or whatever to their kids because it was beyond what they felt comfortable teaching. So this school was kind of born out of that, as kind of a supplement to homeschool families where kids could go to get additional instruction. So I'm only teaching Tuesdays and Thursdays. That's the only days I'm on campus. So I have the other days free to go pursue real estate or do showings or, you know, social media or whatever I need to do. So it's it's not like a specific this hour, this day. I mean it all ebbs and flows, but I just realized and forgot that you also.

Tammy Hershberger: 11:18

You're not teaching football or not teaching coaching football anymore, right?

Jeremy Felt: 11:21

I know I haven't coached in the last few years okay and which I won't talk about.

Tammy Hershberger: 11:26

I know it's not done, but you are an inventor you're working on it is done.

Jeremy Felt: 11:29

Yeah, we got our ribbon copy and everything. So yeah, I mean.

Tammy Hershberger: 11:34

I'll let you evidence way of what you can talk about on that. But I'm just curious a little bit like what the heck was that like John has all these ideas and I'm like it seems so overwhelming to me to try to get this stuff going.

Jeremy Felt: 11:44

Oh, I mean, it is a very like. It started as an idea probably like five or six years ago and then I finally got someone I coached with and taught with, who is way more mechanical minded than me, and I was like I kind of have this envision of this, this football apparatus basically that will help with blocking, but I couldn't really like put it to paper and like. So I just had the idea and he said, you know, he was like, well, what if we used, you know a universal join or some of these things? And he kind of helped draw up the design and then we got luckily we were both poor enough as teachers.

Jeremy Felt: 12:23

There was this program through the state of Colorado that we had a patent lawyer work for us pro bono to get us through the provisional stage and then after that we had to start paying. So it is very time consuming and very expensive, but it was definitely a learning process. But it was definitely a learning process and in some ways we got the patent awarded, which is a huge victory and very exciting. But in a lot of ways that's like the new starting point. Now we got to get you know it in front of people and get it marketing and figure out how are we going to? You know, license this or get it to companies, or, you know, produce it ourselves. So that's kind of where we are right now do you have any idea like?

Tammy Hershberger: 13:04

So you have a rough idea what the next steps are. You just got to find the right people.

Jeremy Felt: 13:08

Yeah, I mean, obviously you don't want to show too many of the cards, but we could produce them on or if we needed to, but it'd be nice to get with a company that already has the infrastructure to set that up and to build them and to distribute them and market them and those things. So I think that would be like the is that like a licensing deal?

Jeremy Felt: 13:28

yeah, get a licensing deal with one of these larger companies that already sells football equipment or things, because we wanted it to be a way that it could be a standalone product but also retrofitted to equipment that's already out there, because football equipment can get really expensive in some of these poor school districts. They might, you know, like a blocking sled they might get one every 10 years if they're lucky. So, expecting every school or every program in the country to be able to turn around and buy our product, we wanted to make it kind of have both options available well, if there's anyone out there listening that has any kind of area of expertise or has someone or connection, I mean, I'm you.

Tammy Hershberger: 14:06

This world is small. All you need is the right connection and the right people. So I'm putting it out there. You can email me. I'll get you in touch with Jeremy Felt. You never know who the Lord has for you, jeremy.

Jeremy Felt: 14:16

Absolutely.

Tammy Hershberger: 14:17

Okay, so tell me on real estate, why in the world did you pick real estate?

Jeremy Felt: 14:28

Well, I was just always kind of intrigued by it. I mean, it seemed like a fun line of work, it seemed challenging. My father-in-law was a builder. So I was always like, well, that would you know? He was a builder before the housing crash in 2008, and so I just knew several people that were in it and it seemed like an interesting industry. One semester I had a student teacher, so he would do basically my job for me and I would just sit there and make sure nothing bad happened. And so a lot of the you know you would observe them for a little bit and then go kind of walk around or find something to do. So I was just bored and I was like, well, let's start looking into real estate. And I thought it was going to take several years to get my license. But since I was able to do some of the classes while I was, you know, being a mentor teacher, I was able to knock it out pretty fast. So it just always intrigued me and seemed like an exciting line of work.

Tammy Hershberger: 15:22

Can you tell me, just for anyone that may be interested, that's listening like oh, I want to start my real estate career. What does it take to become a realtor?

Jeremy Felt: 15:30

So there was several different courses. I forget the names of all of them. I think it was like 160 credits worth that we had to take and then you have to do a national and state exam. Once you're through all that, and then you know, once you get your license, then you got to find a company you're going to work with, join a local MLS or multiple MLSs, and kind of just start your business and then get out and you know, kind of get the word out that you're in the business.

Tammy Hershberger: 15:58

Is there like an online. So when you start that, is it like an online course you purchase or something, or do you have to get through like a local? I don't know.

Jeremy Felt: 16:05

No, so I did uh, I forget the name. They've changed names a few different times but they sent me the materials like the different textbooks and things, and then I was able to do the tests kind of as you go. There was videos available if you needed like instructor help and those things, but it was kind of just self-paced and go as quickly as you want and take all the tests and then, once you pass their test, then you go to one of these testing centers and pass the or take the state and national test.

Tammy Hershberger: 16:35

Now, if I remember correctly, there's a math. Well, I call it math. It's like the math part of real estate, right? Because I only say that because I knew a friend of mine at the time in Wyoming. She kept failing the math. She passed the one part, but the math or whatever I don't know how to explain that like it was the math stuff, like she kept failing and failing and failing. I was like, is she ever gonna pass it? I don't know if she ever did. Oh, okay.

Jeremy Felt: 16:56

Well, there's a lot of different components to it. So they kind of, when you get licensed, they don't just focus on, like, the contracts and things. They kind of have a holistic approach. You're learning about meets and bounds, you're learning about title work, you're learning about history of land all the way back to land patent and things like that, so you kind of get a whole big approach. So I'm and that's what's kind of challenging is you may know the contract through and through, but you have to pass parts that talk about. You know title work and how that works, or appraisals, or you you know how loans are sold off into the secondary market, things that in reality you're not going to really deal with as a realtor, but those are things that you kind of have to know to pass the test.

Tammy Hershberger: 17:39

Do they teach anything about negotiation?

Jeremy Felt: 17:42

No, and that's the thing is a lot of the kind of nuts and bolts of what the job actually looks like. You don't really get that. It's kind of the same with teaching. You go through all these classes and learn about theory and you know best practices, but then when you actually get in front of kids, you're kind of like, oh okay, I'm learning everything as I go, and it's the same thing probably in most jobs, but you do a majority of your learning kind of once you get on the job.

Tammy Hershberger: 18:09

Um, what's your favorite part about it?

Jeremy Felt: 18:12

I really enjoy. I mean, it's kind of like teaching. I enjoy helping people. I've worked with some people that are in, you know, bad financial situations and they need to sell, or you know that excitement of first-time home buyers, and so I just really enjoy being able to help people and just kind of go above and beyond where I can if they need help, like moving.

Tammy Hershberger: 18:35

I've you know you are crazy yeah you.

Jeremy Felt: 18:38

You wear a lot of different hats. You gotta be careful about that, because you're not the expert. You know I'm not an appraiser or an inspector, an electrician or any of those things. But you definitely try and just help wherever you can and, again, see the people behind it. It's not just a transaction. This is people's futures that they're entrusting you to help them with.

Tammy Hershberger: 18:59

When I can see. I mean I've done quite a few real estate transactions in my day for as poor as I am and as young as I am, but I have noticed a massive difference between. I've had a few realtors You've been on quite a few of the last ones with me but and before you they were they were super good, like one had to help me get the people out of the house because we let them stay a couple of days. And then I show up with my key and they're still freaking getting their crap out. And I'm like get your stuff and get out. And they're like, oh, we need more time. And so she showed up, got them out, literally showed up with her trailer, her horse trailer, get their crap out of my yard, because I was like we're changing the locks, dude, so that's super nice. Um, I've also seen the other side, where they are the laziest realtors and they're like you're gonna get this price and I'm like that is too freaking low.

Tammy Hershberger: 19:40

I'm not putting my house on the market for that and they told me it'll never sell. I had one tell me I had a. The house on 20 road, was that? That wasn't septic, was it? What's that? Called A leach field. And the guy and this is a well-known realtor he was like you're never going to sell that. I was like are you crazy? And so I was like like that they're just lazy and they just want a quick sale and move on well, and that's where you got to make sure it's a good fit of who you're going to work with.

Jeremy Felt: 20:12

If you don't feel comfortable with something, it is your property at the end of the day, and I I do think there's some people, probably in every industry, but they want things to be quick and easy. So if they think they have a buyer for your particular property and they can get you to list it maybe cheaper than you should, and double end and move on and have something quick, I mean you hope that those people aren't out there, but there's definitely, you know, that possibility that someone's claiming to have your best interest in mind when in reality they don't.

Tammy Hershberger: 20:44

Yeah, I mean I do understand like a quick sale who wouldn't love a good sale? But I'm like I'm more like a you I want. I mean I'm not a realtor, but if I was, I want them to get the best price to continue moving on with what they're doing. Now if you're way overpriced, then you have to have that conversation. But I've also seen it where there I had a lady. This really annoyed me.

Tammy Hershberger: 21:02

In Rock Springs we bought our very first house. We didn't know what the hell we were doing. And they were like oh, you don't need a radon test, we don't, you don't have to worry about that. And so I'm like, okay, I didn't know anything about it, we're from Minnesota, I never heard of it, and so we didn't get it. And then I get moved in and I I long story short I ended up working for this realtor office for, and I started noticing, all these agents are like you need a radon test.

Tammy Hershberger: 21:30

Oh, my god, it's got radon, we gotta negotiate. And I'm thinking like what? So I got the tester guy. I think I paid like 80 bucks and he came and tested it and I had horrible radon and I had a finished basement, not a walkout. And so I was like what so I go? I had to pay like 1600 back then this is a long time ago to get the radon mitigated, and so it pissed me off. I was the jerk off I was working for told me, oh, don't worry about it. Well, I think she knew damn well there was radon in that whole damn neighborhood because there was mines underneath us. Anyway, I was like these people don't care. And then I've just had more and more experiences. So people like you I appreciate, because you've, I think, always looked out for us and you're not afraid to go negotiate because my husband's a negotiator. He will not pay full price for anything.

Jeremy Felt: 22:04

Oh yeah, that's good.

Tammy Hershberger: 22:05

And sometimes you looked at us like you are crazy. But you went with it and we got it.

Jeremy Felt: 22:09

Yeah, absolutely.

Tammy Hershberger: 22:11

Yeah, okay. So tell me what's the part of real estate for anyone listening, who's thinking about it that you don't like, like your least favorite thing, or maybe there's multiple.

Jeremy Felt: 22:19

Well for me, I've always been kind of a more like work behind the scenes type of person. You know, just get the job done or get your head down and get to work. And a lot of real estate is, sadly, that self promotion of you can be doing a ton of different things, but if you're not putting it on your website or social media, people are like, oh, is he still doing business or is he, you know, even active anymore, and so I don't love that part just because I don't even consider myself a salesman or a promoter. But that is an element to it. I mean, you could know nothing about the contract and not be very good in the negotiations or not really even you know do your due diligence with tests and inspections and advocating for people. But if you're a slick salesman and can talk yourself up, you can get a lot of clients. So I think there's that element of you need to be able to still stay humble and honest but also talk about yourself. So I don't really love that part.

Jeremy Felt: 23:22

That's the challenge for me.

Tammy Hershberger: 23:24

I have to ask you because, in my mind, I don't know I like my weekends off cause I've been entrepreneurs for long, but you have to work a lot of weekends, don't you? Is this still night and weekends Some people want showings or has it changed?

Jeremy Felt: 23:35

I mean it's just kind of whenever it works for them. You are working around a lot of people's schedules, so nights and weekends are sometimes the better. But then also you'll get. I've had some sellers where I'm working with a buyer and they're really interested in this property and a seller almost works against you and letting people in, like, oh well, two Sundays from now, for this half hour window, they can come in, and you're thinking, well, don't you want to sell your home? I would be as available as possible.

Jeremy Felt: 24:01

So that is a challenge of trying to make all these different schedules work. Or last minute cancellations or I've had listings where you know agents show up a day earlier, a day late, and then your seller is, you know, kind of upset like well, what are they doing here? They said it was for tomorrow and so it's. Yeah, there's a lot of moving parts that you have to manage and be ready to work. Sometimes there's been times where you know that midnight deadline's coming. If this isn't solved by the end of this day, then we're no longer under contract. So I've had that where you're working at 10 11 o'clock at night trying to make sure signatures come through or things get delivered on time.

Tammy Hershberger: 24:42

So it can be challenging yeah, um, I always thought it'd be fun because so when I worked with remax in wyoming, uh, things have changed some and up there like they were brokers and they were literally like their own entity unit. I think it's a little different down here, but anyway. So I would go in and take pictures for them. I put the stuff in that molest and I always thought it was so cool. As the poor kid I grew up to see these beautiful homes and you get to like I mean not snoop in the bed but like you're like, oh, there's cool stuff and I get to look at their crap and take photos yeah.

Tammy Hershberger: 25:11

So I'm like that part to me, always interested in real estate, but then I don't like the salesman part. I don't want to work on weekends. I mean, I understand that's the job, but and then you have to be pretty detail oriented, don't you, to make sure everything is like. You didn't miss any contract dates, you didn't miss deadlines.

Jeremy Felt: 25:25

Oh yeah, I mean the contract is kind of the big beast of. You got to go through it line by line. I mean there's a lot of stuff in there and that's kind of again, the unfortunate part. There is some of those agents who don't even really understand it themselves. They just fill in things, send it over, have a client sign it in 10 seconds without really reading it through, and then it all could work out or you could end up getting you know where you're sued or you're out of contract or something like that. So understanding the contract or the different forms that come along with it is really important. In going through forms that come along with it is really important in going through and also being honest enough to be like you know I don't know what this means or you know what we may need to bring in a tax professional or you may need to bring in your own attorney or something like that, because this is a big deal. Here's what I think they're saying in this language, but we need to be 100% sure.

Tammy Hershberger: 26:23

So, in well, I want to come back to the other qualities that you need, but I want to ask you something really fast, so like the company you're with because you were keller williams at one time right, and then you moved to. What's the name?

Jeremy Felt: 26:33

harvest realty harvest.

Tammy Hershberger: 26:35

So if that happened and there was like something you don't understand and it's not simple as like get an accountant or attorney does mike is your the managing broker yeah. He. Do you go to him then for, like, I don't understand this, can you help me, or how does that work?

Jeremy Felt: 26:47

Yeah, so we can start there kind of bounce off with other agents, like, hey, have you ever ran into this? Or if it's something maybe with title work, you can get ahold of your title rep and see if they can. Uh, car, that's the colorado association of realtors hotline we can call, we can talk directly, and usually we actually get a call back from scott peterson, who's like the big state attorney, and we'll be like, hey, here's what's going on. Uh, you know, if it's something like that is beyond what he can offer legal advice for, then he'll tell you you need to go get your own attorney. But if it's something like contractually or, uh, some language in the contract, he can help you as well.

Tammy Hershberger: 27:25

So we have a lot of different resources that we can use if something comes up where we're like we want to make sure, before we sign any of this, what's going on yeah, and so that's all included in yeah it's part of the realtor association that we, you know, pay all of our dues and we have access to that yeah, okay, I'm gonna finish my other question, finish my other question, cause I I've got a million things in my mind right now. Uh, quality. So if someone else is thinking like I want to become a realtor, what else so detail? What else would you say are some qualities or characteristics that you would recommend, that you think would play well, cause that might tell them like well, I hate people, so that's not going to work.

Jeremy Felt: 28:06

I think the biggest thing is everyone thinks it's a pretty easy job and if you're good at what you do, you kind of make it look easy. You know you could go over here and watch John build a shed and be like man he made that look easy, but it's definitely not easy.

Jeremy Felt: 28:13

So I think a lot of people get in like, oh, you just go put a sign in the ground type in some things to the MLS, get some signatures and then just wait for closing, and it's so much more than that. I mean, there's some deals that, yeah, everything seems to go smooth and it's like why can't they all be like this? I've had some deals where I'm I have a seller who got thrown in prison and got their communication rights taken away. So I'm talking through their attorney or their mom and trying to get these things signed and figure out how power of attorney and how we're going to close, and all this so it can become where you're. You know they always look to you. They're not looking necessarily to the lender or the title rep or it kind of starts and ends with you. They want you to be the source of all the answers, which you can't be, but you can at least direct them in the direction that you need to or kind of be that middle person or that glue that holds the deal together.

Tammy Hershberger: 29:06

Hopefully, do you like negotiations? Like to me, that would be the fun part. Like I actually had a quote, I should have kept my phone on so I could read it to you, but I don't. Anyone that knows me. I don't take no for an answer.

Tammy Hershberger: 29:17

Very well sure and you know, and if I'm dead wrong, that's like a different thing, but like let's get something done, we can figure out a solution. There's got to be a way, and if you can't do it, I'm going to go around you and find someone else. So I found this quote that said it really nice and it said, um, the answer is not no, it just means I can't do it with you because I'm going to go around you to your boss or another realtor, like I had to do sometimes. Like you're not my realtor, I'm going to find someone else, sure, and so, like it's a reminder, like you just said, you have to problem solve, basically because you have to find a way around some of this stuff yeah, yeah, I think that's.

Jeremy Felt: 29:49

Yeah, you're constantly thinking on the fly, trying to get creative with different things, and yeah, I do like the negotiation part and the nice.

Tammy Hershberger: 29:58

Does it make you nervous at all?

Jeremy Felt: 30:00

like it doesn't really make me nervous because you remember like there are those times where you're like sending this over this inspection objection or this you know offer that's asking for a reduced price. You sometimes are like, well, how are they going to receive it? But then you are reminded that well, your fiduciaries to your clients, if this other agent gets mad at me, or which has happened, yeah, or the people on the other side.

Jeremy Felt: 30:25

It's like I'm not trying to make friends with them I'm not, you know, trying to make enemies but also my job is to do what's best for my client and if the other side of the transaction isn't happy with that, that's not really my concern. So I think when you you kind of keep in that perspective of my number one goal is to get the best deal for my people and that's the only thing that matters. I think it kind of takes that other stress away. Like, well, this is so low, or this, you're asking for so many things. Well, that's what my clients want. We talked about the potentials behind this. We could ask for too much and make them mad, and they just tell us to go walk. They could, you know, agree to all these things. They could agree to none of them. They could have all these different reactions. So you talk through all the possible scenarios and then your people are the ones that dictate the decision. Okay, we understand all these possible different outcomes, here's how we want to proceed forward, and then you just represent them.

Tammy Hershberger: 31:20

Yeah, I think you have to very much take emotions out of it, which you probably see that not do you ever give advice to people on that, like when they're selling. Like you gotta remove your emotions because I don't get attached to stuff which I think is the way john and I do so good on that because I'm like it's just a home, I'll make another home true but I've I know people that are like I grew up here, my kids grew up here, or this is my mom's home or whatever, and and I'm like it's a freaking home.

Tammy Hershberger: 31:43

She didn't live in the carpet. I mean like but so then I could imagine that probably could flare some stuff up.

Jeremy Felt: 31:48

if you're negotiating it off, oh, yeah, there's definitely the emotional attachment of, on the buying side people start to see themselves in there and I'll raise a family in there, or you know, that's where I'm going to retire or on the selling side, yeah, we raised two or three generations in this house, so there's definitely emotion and on your side you have to, you know, talk through those and be compassionate with people, but also try to get them to see the importance of what's moving forward.

Jeremy Felt: 32:19

So, yeah, you're definitely get kind of roped into that emotion. You, you can't just turn it off, but also you've got to kind of hear them and talk them through it, but then at the end of the day, try and guide them in the best way possible to what's best for them and help them see big picture. Like I know you're attached to this particular item. It's like if some fixture in the house that you have all these memories from, if that's gonna make or break the deal, are you okay that I understand this is important to you, but is this gonna be this deal falls through? Are you okay if this deal dies because of this possibly small thing? If so, then yeah, that's fine, and if not, well, let's you know, keep it moving forward, so kind of, I guess, talking with them through what's best for them or what this means long-term.

Tammy Hershberger: 33:08

Yeah, I mean, I don't know how much of that you've seen. I don't think I've ever once experienced it when we negotiated. But like to me, always come back with a counter To me. You're so emotionally crazy. If you're just like, I'm so mad I can't counter back. I mean, if you're that pissed, counter back with even higher or whatever, but his counter back with even higher or whatever. But it's like you never just walk away from the deal, man, like always keep negotiating and if you are firm on it, then come back and say this is firm and final, I'm not moving, or whatever. But have you ever seen much of that where they're just like I'm not going back, I'm not countering that?

Jeremy Felt: 33:34

uh? No, I don't think so. I think in reality everyone goes under contract buyer, seller, and then obviously the agents who are helping uh sides. The goal is to get to closing.

Jeremy Felt: 33:46

That's what everyone wants, how it ends up getting there, the time or the ins and outs obviously is, each deal is kind of its own adventure, but at the end of the day, everyone really wants to get to closing. So I think that's where I have had other sides get emotional and they get so upset and you're like, okay, well, I mean we want to keep this moving forward. So the ball is now in your court and you know you, you can let it die right now. You can accept the terms, we can renegotiate and just kind of putting it that, because there's always that initial emotion that comes with any, you know, sort of offer or complication or anything but kind of letting the dust settle and remembering that everyone's goal is to get to closing so it's a bit of a delicate dance for you to like not show emotion, like crap.

Tammy Hershberger: 34:36

I don't want this to fall apart, but also you're being insane, just like, do you know what I'm saying? Like trying to get them to stay in the deal and stop being so emotional because I'm. That's why I wouldn't be good at, because I'm too blunt. I'd be like you're just. This is a little crazy. Why are you acting so emotional? You have to really finesse that right to like yeah.

Jeremy Felt: 34:51

So it's kind of I always say it's kind of like playing poker. You're like, you know, do we, you know, go in hard? Do we kind of ease into it? What do we do? So I think, uh, what I do a lot of times and I I have to be careful, because you don't want to, let's say it's an inspection objection, you don't want to send it over, and then you don't even give a hint, like if your buyers are like we want the home, no matter what, but let's see if they'll at least fix these five items before we close. You don't send it over and say, oh, here's the five items. And then if the listing agent says, are you serious, how can you ask for that? You don't go like, well, I think they could live with a little bit less, because now you're already kind of hurting your people's side.

Jeremy Felt: 35:34

You just kind of say well, that's where we're at right now. I always think less is more when you're communicating with the other side. Communicating with your people, you talk as much as possible and explain every possible outcome, but with the other side sometimes it's send it over and like are you serious? How, how can they ask for all these things? That that's, that's what they wanted me to draft, so I did it and leave it at that. And then they usually come back around so kind of, yeah, taking that emotion out, not giving that, like well, send us another offer or let's renegotiate, like no, here's where we are right now.

Jeremy Felt: 36:03

Yeah, you don't want to like tell them anything that they can use down the road. Because I have had people and you kind of cringe they they just being nice or, you know, wanting to talk or whatever. They'll spill the beans about so many different things about their client, like, oh yeah, they got this great job out of state and they're really needing to move. And you're like, well, you shouldn't have told me that. Now I'm going to go back to my. I have to legally now go disclose that to my people.

Jeremy Felt: 36:27

Now, all of a sudden we have an upper hand come negotiation time. Like, oh, you don't want to fix these items for inspection? Well, I know your people have already moved because you told me so they need to close. So I know they're going to have to be willing to do more than if it's someone who's just on the market to kind of see what they can get. So always less is more. When you're talking to the other side because people want to, the first thing I get when it's a call on one of my listings is why are they selling Like I'm not going to tell you because I need a little listing, or I convinced them you can't give them any of that, and they try and get it right away, and so I think that's. Yeah, you got to be careful with that.

Tammy Hershberger: 37:09

So that might actually be a good tip when you're looking for a realtor. If you're talking to different ones and they blabber mouth about everything, they're going to do it to everyone else.

Jeremy Felt: 37:15

Oh sure.

Tammy Hershberger: 37:15

So that's a. You probably want more of a stern kind of like you just said, like that knows, they've been long enough to know to keep their mouth shut, say only what you have to say, you know and keep moving.

Tammy Hershberger: 37:26

Um. Before I move on to the next section, I want if, if there's anyone listening here that's trying to sell a house, what do you have? Any quick tips that would help them to sell? I always tell people clean the damn house. I always look at baseboards. That's me. I'm like your baseboards are nasty. I'm not buying your house because you don't clean sure uh take all your personal stuff out yeah, oh yeah, absolutely.

Jeremy Felt: 37:45

So I mean, they always say price and property, those are the two things you can affect. So obviously people want to get the highest price possible. So in that, uh, you want to make the property as appealing as possible, and it doesn't always have to be big money, things like, obviously, adding square footage or complete renovations. Not a lot of people have the means or even the want to to do all those things. But if you can, you know, clean it up, stage it, you know. Clean the windows, open the windows when it's showing coming, have the front yard in good order. Yeah, take everything personal down. You don't want them to see 50 years of family photos because now they're imagining that as your house, which it is, but you want them to start to envision themselves living there. Oh, here's where we could put, you know, the baby room, or the office or whatever, wherever they are, put your toothbrush away.

Jeremy Felt: 38:34

I don't want to see that, yeah just little things like that make it as you know. If you can't afford to stage it or it's not a vacant home, do your best to just make sure that it's picked up.

Tammy Hershberger: 38:45

Declutter as much as you can. Yeah, declutter, because it makes it look bigger without less crap everywhere.

Jeremy Felt: 38:48

Yeah, our first home was 1,100 square feet, so it was really small. So when we went to list it, we got rid of so many things. We had two couches in our living room. We got it down to like a love seat and just a bed, so it looked so much bigger. Our garage was full of a bunch of stuff. We got a storage shed from you guys and loaded that to the brim so we could, you know. So the garage would actually look like oh, you could actually fit a car in here. So, yeah, making it as open and as big as possible and, yeah, just basic things that would appeal to a buyer.

Tammy Hershberger: 39:27

What about like I've heard people say it both ways like painting is pretty cheap typically, but like, if you have crazy colors, is it better to leave it and let someone else change it, or is it better to refresh in it carpet? I mean, if you have the funds to do it, because everybody likes different things, yeah it kind of depends on.

Jeremy Felt: 39:42

that's kind of the guessing game. You don't want, oh, like this color scheme is in now or this two tone or tritone or whatever, and then spend a bunch of money on the house. And then people come in and they hate it and they're going to pay to redo the flooring or the painting right away. Or we're not really sure what is going to happen, cause it may be, as one of those homes where someone's going to come in and gut it anyways and start over, is, we'll maybe offer some sort of concessions, like understanding that, oh, we do need a new roof or we do need some painting or some flooring, and kind of offer concessions so that way they can come in and make it their own after closing, versus trying to guess what are buyers going to want? How should we do this?

Jeremy Felt: 40:31

You can kind of address it that way and offer up some of those things, and that kind of excites buyers sometimes too. Oh, I have $7,000 or $10,000 and we could do all these different things to the house. I think that's sometimes a good strategy to go with it, and then you're not out any money. If a deal falls apart and they didn't end up doing it, then you're not out all of that money. It's just you know it didn't close. You didn't have to pull any of the money out to make those fixes.

Tammy Hershberger: 40:55

Yeah, okay, I'm going to switch gears a little bit on you. So on the real estate side. So when you became a realtor, you were at Keller Williams. Do you recommend looking back now, like going from a smaller place to a bigger place, or where would you start? Because did you get some pretty good education from them, or does it not really matter?

Jeremy Felt: 41:11

I think it matters. I would say you get with someone. It doesn't have to be one of the bigger brokerages. It can be, you know, a brokerage of two or three people, but I would say you definitely need to get a mentor. Now, a managing broker is supposed to legally provide oversight for the first two years that you're licensed, but if they're a practicing broker that's not always a reality because they have a million of their own things going on.

Jeremy Felt: 41:34

So I would get on with a coach, even if you have to co-list your first few deals and maybe not make as much money. To have a seasoned veteran to kind of walk you through every step of the way, like when you're going to a listing appointment, what do you need? What do you bring? Do you bring the paperwork so they sign right there, or do you sign it afterwards, just kind of walking through and picking their brain about things. And then, obviously, when offers come in or you're taking listings, there's so many sections in there that you don't have any idea what they mean. To just kind of fake it, and hopefully I can convince my clients that I know what I'm talking about. You're setting both of you guys up for disaster if something does go wrong.

Tammy Hershberger: 42:17

What do you? How are you finding clients these days? What works for you?

Jeremy Felt: 42:22

So a lot of it is just repeat clients or referrals from people. I think if you do go above and beyond and do a good job, hopefully if their sister or brother or uncle or something down the road decides to buy or sell that they'll recommend you. So I think a lot of it just comes from oh yeah, I bought a house with you four or five years ago and we're actually moving out of state and you know, could you help us list our house? A lot of it's just coming around with repeat or referrals.

Tammy Hershberger: 42:53

I've been listening to a couple of shows on TV and they're talking about cold calling. Do you think that would work? They're bragging enough. Like it works. I mean, I'm sure eventually you're going to run into someone, but no, that I've heard of.

Jeremy Felt: 43:04

Yeah, cold calling I've even heard. There's some of these AI things that you can make like thousands of calls in a second. But I feel like there's so much potential to get sued in doing that because you're not even the one doing the talking, because we have so many like fair housing laws that we have to kind of abide by and fiduciary laws when we're representing people, and things we can and cannot discuss, depending on whether we have an agency agreement or don't have an agency agreement. So I and I'm not a big fan of AI anyway, so I'd probably never touch that. But the cold calling I I don't know. I think about how would I respond when people call me from a number I don't know. Can I have two seconds of your day? Or, you know, could you handle making more money? Or they just have their cheesy script. I shut down right away and just hang up.

Jeremy Felt: 43:48

So I don't like that method. When I'm on the receiving ends and I'm not really that's not really my skill set is just to pick up the phone and BS with someone and gab and talk about myself. So I don't see it working for me. I did try door knocking prior to COVID when all the shutdown happened for like open houses and stuff, and that was moderately successful. But I don't, you know you could go hit 100 doors in a day and get a bunch slammed in your face. I don't know if you're going to get any clients out of it. So you do whatever kind of works for you. Do whatever kind of works for you.

Tammy Hershberger: 44:24

Yeah, I've had some people call here recently. I've had like three that have wanted. They're these people that are like we're business consolidators. Do you want to sell your business? I'm like no, because you're not going to give me any money for it, because you're a consolidator, You're going to jam it with a bunch of others and then sell it off. Oh sure, I've also gotten things and I'm like well, I'm not selling.

Jeremy Felt: 44:42

Oh, sure, yeah.

Tammy Hershberger: 44:43

So I mean there's lots of techniques. I was just curious if you had anything interesting have you ever done any paid advertising?

Jeremy Felt: 44:49

I've done paid advertising for like listings and stuff. I'll do like social media campaigns and things for listings that I have in order to, you know, hit different markets If it's like a potential investment property kind of target the eastern slope and do some things there. But as far as just for myself, I haven't done any radio ads or commercials or anything like that so there's no ads in men's urinals anywhere.

Tammy Hershberger: 45:11

I thought, no, no, okay, how do you get stay up to date with the current market conditions? And then like continuing your education, because is there any requirements statewide or anything?

Jeremy Felt: 45:21

yeah, so we have to do 12 credit hours a year. So there's, the contracts are always updated every year, so I usually do a contracts class. They have the commission update that you take. You have to take a class on ethics every few years and then there's a bunch of different like water classes or title classes. There's a bunch of different things that you can take. So just trying to take those as often as you can and then meeting with people and really just talking with other agents of what's going on, kind of, in their world, I think that's kind of how you stay up to date. But yeah, we do have continuing education requirements that we have to fulfill.

Tammy Hershberger: 45:59

Okay In this area. So we're in Grand Junction, the West Slope right. What is the real estate market doing here? I mean, I've been watching that as closely as I used to, but like it seems like market. I don't know you can tell me this, but I'm reading stuff that like closings are falling through more often. I've read stuff that well, I've even seen prices are dropping 10, 15. It's not drastic, but like because I think stuff's kind of overpriced at this moment but, can you tell me what you know about it?

Jeremy Felt: 46:26

So right now, I think just there's a lot of hesitation I'd say 90% of the conversations I have cause people are always like oh, how's real estate going? Or you know how's business and you just kind of talk and most people I talk with that, you know, have bought or refinanced in the last few years. They might be sitting on a really low mortgage or have a really good interest rate. So they're thinking, well, I wasn't planning on living in this home for an extended 10, 20 years or maybe forever, but the mortgage and the rate that I have is so good. How could I ever get rid of that?

Jeremy Felt: 47:03

Even if I went to buy, I'd probably rent out my house instead of selling it, because getting borrowed money at under three percent is basically unheard of, and a lot of people refinance during 2020 when the rates were really low, or bought during then, so they don't really have. So, with that being said, there's not as much on the market because people are hesitant to buy because rates are high, but then also they're hesitant to sell because they might be sitting on a really good rate or really good mortgage that they don't want to get rid of. So it's kind of bottleneck things where obviously there's new builds. There's things like that.

Jeremy Felt: 47:39

But there's just not as typical movement that there is. I think the national average people moved homes every five to seven years, I think just that in the last year or two that's bumped up to like 10 to 12 years. So people are staying in their homes a lot longer for a variety of reasons. So there's just not as much out there for sale. So on a buyer, you're thinking, oh, this has been. That's one of the first things I look at when I'm working with a buyer. Is it days on market?

Jeremy Felt: 48:07

If it's 300, I'm thinking, oh, this has been sitting for a really long time. They should be way more willing to negotiate than if it just hit the market today. You're going to have a lot more leverage saying, well, you know, if you don't sell it, you're still paying a mortgage. Obviously, the longer it's on the market the value is going to continue to not the value, but the price is going to continue to go down. To get people interested in buying it You're going to have to do price drop after price drop. So I think when people see that something's been sitting on the market for a long time, they kind of go in thinking they have more negotiation and then, yeah, that obviously leads into inspections and possibly appraisals and things where buyers maybe are pushing a little bit harder and causing some of those deals to fall through and things like that.

Tammy Hershberger: 48:51

So do you know what the average is right now if the house is on a market?

Jeremy Felt: 48:54

As far as days on market.

Tammy Hershberger: 48:55

Yeah, days on market.

Jeremy Felt: 48:56

I think we're still under the six month mark. They always say that.

Tammy Hershberger: 48:59

Wow, that's changed. I remember when it was insane like multiple offers hitting. That's all over, right.

Jeremy Felt: 49:05

Yeah, yeah. So I think we're still tech, they I think they deem it a buyer's market of things. The average is more than six months and if it's less than six months, so I think we're still in a seller's market technically, but compared to, yeah, recent history of what we were used to and, yeah, multiple offers, I remember meeting buyers on their lunch break because I'm like, hey, this just hit the market, but I don't even think we have till 5 pm to see it. I think we need to see it right now and make an offer. If you like it. I would actually pre-draft offers, like have all the kind of all the legal descriptions and property address and all the different dates and stuff filled in and talk quickly through terms with buyers and then fill that in and get signed and sent over, just because there was things that were hitting the market and they were under contract before that day was even over. So that was crazy. We've kind of come the other way, but things are still moving, just not nearly as quickly as that.

Tammy Hershberger: 50:02

I mean, there's this housing shortage for affordable housing. And I look at it. You know I'm in a different market than most people, but I honestly, and I want your opinion because you're a dad, you're well, you're 30s, 30, what 38. Oh see, you're getting older, like me. But I look at these young people starting families at 25, 30, and I don't honestly know how they afford a home.

Jeremy Felt: 50:21

Oh, I feel really bad for us talking to someone about this the other day. Let's say you get out of college and you're making $60,000, $70,000. Like that's really good money, especially at a young age, but what can you afford with that? I mean, I look at, we bought in 2020, and what we bought our house for is now what you know. Some single-wide manufactured homes are going for. And you're thinking well without the land.

Jeremy Felt: 50:47

Yeah, with no land, and sometimes you don't even own the land, or even if you do, it's a really small lot. So I feel for people, because a lot of them are. I know some young people that just got married and they're two married couples living in the same house, you know just so they can pay bills and make it work and they have good, high paying jobs for their age, but they just can't make it work. So I think that is one of the biggest challenges right now is just feeling like you can start a good life at a young age. It seems more difficult than even just 10 years ago.

Tammy Hershberger: 51:21

And then you mix in children, which I don't even have children. You know the expense of children. I mean, I can only imagine I'm like I don't know how you afford it. Yeah, I was.

Jeremy Felt: 51:29

I didn't read the full article, but I saw a headline that a lot of people are making family decisions on whether or not they want to have children or how many children they want to have, based on economics. And that's kind of a sad state to be in, where you're like, well, we'd love to start a family and we're ready, but we just can't afford it.

Tammy Hershberger: 51:47

When I read the statistic reason, I was saying that we actually uh, population is declining yeah because people are waiting longer, having less kids or no kids I was having a conversation, I told I think I told you and your wife about this one time I was at your house but, like my banker, she was like you guys are dinks and I was like a what and she's like you're a dual income no kids oh, I have heard and she was saying like that's, that's quite large these days a lot of people are, and I mean me and john didn't have kids for other reasons besides that, but to me, because I grew up so far, that is one of the factors.

Tammy Hershberger: 52:13

I always saw my mom struggle with five kids and I was like in my mind I associated children with struggle because I'm like you're gonna be financially broke your whole life and I didn't want to struggle. I mean that's one of many reasons. But so I think it's interesting because, with housing costs being so inflated, the interest they were bragging up this interest rate drop which was like, was it even a quarter of a point?

Jeremy Felt: 52:33

I think it was like 0.5. Yeah, I was like whoop-dee-frickin-doo.

Tammy Hershberger: 52:36

That doesn't help my mortgage payment very much you know like let's get real here sure and so then you look at that and then I think even rentals I mean they're freaking expensive.

Jeremy Felt: 52:44

Oh, yeah, I don't know. Yeah, you can see some of these places that are going for several thousand dollars and you get hardly anything out of it.

Tammy Hershberger: 52:53

Yeah, I don't know. Do you think the value of houses are going to stay inflated or you think it's going to start? I mean, I've listened to I forget his name the 10X guy, grant Cardone, and a couple other guys I forget his name, the 10X guy, grant Cardone, and a couple other guys and they're saying the market's going to crash and all these loans are coming due that were adjustable rates and all these things that, like it's going to hit the fans supposedly in the next couple of years. I don't know if I put a little stock in what they're saying, so I think they know, but I also try not to fear monger. So what do you think is going to happen? Is it a good time to buy?

Jeremy Felt: 53:27

Should. Is it a good time to buy? Should you wait, in your opinion? Well, so I. If you can afford to buy is the first question. But I would, just because I've listened to Dave Ramsey before and he says you know, this is as cheap as homes are going to be in the next five years. And he always says that. And I just think kind of from a supply and demand aspect, let's say, rates do drop significantly in the next six months.

Jeremy Felt: 53:46

Let's say they drop into the fours or fives or back to when they were in the threes or something crazy like that, which I don't think they're going to. But even a decent rate drop, you have so many buyers that are on the sideline. That would just flood the market all at once. That's going to drive up prices even more and that could eventually lead to prices driving up, more people selling and then flooding the market, lowering the prices. But I think that would happen over years and years. That wouldn't happen all at once. So in the short term I definitely think prices are just going to continue to go up Because even if they build new cities across the country, they can't do it fast enough to keep up with the demand.

Tammy Hershberger: 54:27

Yeah, yeah, okay. I want to ask you this so, in this area, because you did some commercial deals, sure, well, I think we did two technically, because the one was commercial. But I want to ask you do you enjoy commercial more than residential? You've mostly done residential, right.

Jeremy Felt: 54:46

Yeah.

Tammy Hershberger: 54:46

Would you ever? And maybe this area just doesn't support commercial enough. I don't know what's your. Do you want to stay more residential focused? So if you're, if someone's listening, thinking like, oh, I want to do this, can you explain the difference to them?

Jeremy Felt: 54:59

Obviously you like doing both. I think commercial is a little bit more specialized. I like working with people that are, you know, going to live in the home, I think residential. You're working with people that you can relate to like, oh, I remember buying, that's when we're negotiating, that's one of the first things I say is, well, when I bought my home, here's what I did. Or, you know, if it was my family, here's what we would do. So I think having kind of that relationship, commercials obviously you know you're helping people out too.

Jeremy Felt: 55:27

It's just kind of a different animal with how long things sit on the market or, as you guys ran into, the codes that you have to have and the way the city and the county can kind of, you know, just make life miserable of getting everything up to code. It's a lot. I mean, everything's got its own unique challenges. But commercial is enjoyable but it's also very specialized. So I think it's kind of a niche thing where there's a few people that they can get by with. That's all they do. But most people kind of have to do both.

Tammy Hershberger: 55:58

Yeah, especially in a city this size, I would imagine. Yeah Is commercial still lagging behind price wise and it takes longer to sell right Than a residential home does.

Jeremy Felt: 56:07

Oh yeah, I mean like homes sitting on the market for a few months. But you look at some commercial that some of them have been on for years on the market, so you have things that are sitting for extended period of time and maybe the people own those free and clear. Or I know some people have empty buildings and there's still leases on it from companies that have moved out, so it could be something like that. But yeah, commercial definitely is a slower process as far as getting buyers finding them what they want or, if you're listing it, getting a buyer in there and getting the right fit. It's just fewer and further between, so it does take longer.

Tammy Hershberger: 56:46

And I would imagine, unless you have investors buying stuff, maybe they've got cash, but it's harder to get loans for commercial and it's more.

Jeremy Felt: 56:52

Yeah, because you need a much higher percentage down in order to get a loan for commercial. And yeah, if you're doing like a small business loan or something like that, a lot of times you have to do all these presentations and portfolios of how the money is going to be used and this and that. So, yeah, it's a lot more challenging.

Tammy Hershberger: 57:10

Yeah, can we? One of my questions in here is talking about regulations and changes, and can we just address because I had a conversation recently with someone and I know to you it's not that big of a change but so that new law with the commission change? I don't know how you would explain it, but oh, the National Association of Realtors settlement yeah.

Tammy Hershberger: 57:29

I want you to explain it. And then I want to ask you a question, because the one part's like I always thought everybody knew everything was negotiable. I mean, I never had one person that says, well, I can't move on, my commission, sure. But the part I'm not a fan of is the new, where you almost have to like sign with the realtor to go start looking at stuff.

Jeremy Felt: 57:44

Oh sure.

Tammy Hershberger: 57:44

So can we explain it, and then I'll ask you my question.

Jeremy Felt: 57:46

So yeah, there was a national lawsuit and I think it was born out of other states because the Colorado listing contract it says right in there here's the percent that's going to be paid and here's the different places that it's going to go. So it was always right there in writing and it's always been negotiable. If there's people that claims it wasn't, they were obviously lying, because you can say well, I'm not willing to pay more than 2%. You might not get a lot of people willing to work with you. But yeah, there was never a set commission. It was always negotiable and it was right there in the contract.

Jeremy Felt: 58:18

But in some other states it's my understanding that people were just being told like here's a percentage that you're going to pay to sell your house and they didn't know where it was going. They didn't know that the buyer's agent was getting X percent off of it. A lot of times it was up to the listing agent. Let's say it was at 7%. The listing agent could. They were the ones that could determine oh, I'm going to give the buyer's agent 1% out of this 7%, just for example. So the sellers were claiming they didn't know that they were paying the other side's commissions. They didn't know where the commission was going, necessarily in those things which in Colorado is always right there in writing of what the percentage was and if it was going to a broker or an agent on the other side or if it was the same way you could tell where it was.

Tammy Hershberger: 59:11

Yeah, I call bull crap because I'm like you. Idiots are signing legal documents.

Jeremy Felt: 59:14

You better know what you're signing sure but anyway keep going well, and so it went all to core and, you know, everyone thought that it was going to take down the National Association of Realtors and I think there's still some things being held up.

Jeremy Felt: 59:25

But as with a lot of massive, fine, yeah, as with a lot of these lawsuits, I think 60 or 70 percent just go to the team of attorneys that brought it. So these people that maybe were legitimately wronged at some point by a real estate agent, thinking that they're going to be millionaires off of it, they'll be lucky to see any money from the settlement. So it was just one of those kind of like two big industries colliding with each other and they kind of pay each other and no one really sees a benefit of it.

Tammy Hershberger: 59:56

So for me now, as Tammy the buyer, what does that mean for me? I mean, I understand, but I don't know if my people that are listening understand it.

Jeremy Felt: 1:00:03

So so yeah there, and it was always best practice to obviously explain the working relationship and that you were going to work as a buyer's agent and getting the exclusive right to buy, which was your agreement, your agency agreement, before you started showing any homes or anything like that. But we know people a lot of times are like I don't, I wouldn't want to sign a bunch of stuff before I've even met someone. Like, well, I'm coming to work with you for the next three or six or however many months that it says in the agreement. I don't want to sign that because I have never even met you.

Jeremy Felt: 1:00:38

Just going to see one home and I have to sign this 12 page document.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:00:47

Because you're like locked in with them and tell you because you can get out by saying I'm not doing this with you as long as you have no deals in place. Sure you haven't put any offers in, because if you do, you still have to go back to them, right?

Jeremy Felt: 1:00:52

yeah. So if you want to like walk away from, if you're under contract for a home, you could terminate the deal and then fire your agent. You. You can basically fire your agent at any time unless yeah, you're under contract. You can't say I want to get rid of this agent but still continue with this under contract home. At that point you'd be tied in with that person. So it makes a lot of people uncomfortable because they feel like they're having to make a big commitment before they've even started the process.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:01:22

I don't want to date you. I mean, I don't want to sign paperwork to date you until I've, like, seen who you are.

Jeremy Felt: 1:01:26

It's like yeah, getting married and then going on your first date. It kind of feels like, uh, the opposite of what you should be doing so for me it's like this.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:01:34

So I mean you, I would use, I know you, but it's still annoying because sometimes I'm like there's a problem, not actively like looking, but if something popped up that interests me, I might be like Jeremy.

Jeremy Felt: 1:01:43

I want to see it and you want to see it a couple hours from now. You don't want to go through the process of meeting. Yeah, now I have to put a freaking contract or whatever, which?

Tammy Hershberger: 1:01:48

I understand you're going to get my work anyway, but I'm like it's more paperwork, it's a waste of my time. I may not even like it, and then it might be we would meet with someone and the guy was a jerk weasel or I was like I don't want to work with this guy Now. I've got to sign a fricking thing and I got to get out of that. It's just a waste of time, in my opinion. I don't understand why they have to do that.

Jeremy Felt: 1:02:07

I can see, like you know, signing the stuff and you you understand that, like the seller is going to get 2%, get that side. But like, what the hell did they put that in there? For that I have to sign. I don't get it. Yeah, there's a lot of things that have come out of this lawsuit where things are, the practice is changing and I don't even think it's necessarily for the better, like because you still have to sign with you to put a deal.

Jeremy Felt: 1:02:37

Yeah you still have to sign, there's still compensation involved. They're saying, oh, we don't do commissions anymore, we're doing compensation. It's like, well, you change the name, but it's still the same thing and it's still the same process. So it's again just kind of a top-down thing where now there's a lot more hoops that everyone has to jump through just to kind of get to the same place that we were.

Jeremy Felt: 1:02:57

But I do think it is important to understand agency agreements, because I've I've heard of people you know they'll let's say it's the Denver agent and they call over here like, hey, I don't want to drive over the mountain, but I have people want to go see a home, home, you have list and you're like, okay, I'll do your job for you. And then you get to the property and these people just start telling you their life story. And you know people want to be nice and talk. And all of a sudden they're telling you things where you're like, oh, your agent didn't tell you. You shouldn't tell us what your financial limitations are or what your motivations are for buying all those things you should keep confidential.

Jeremy Felt: 1:03:34

So I think having some of that in writing helps as well, because really you shouldn't be showing properties or asking like oh so what are you qualified for? Have you talked to a lender? Those are just kind of conversation things, but those are things that really are confidential, that should be between you and your agent. So I understand kind of getting the information out first as far as the working relationships and what it looks like and what you should and should not share with this person who we're probably going to go with, but we haven't signed anything yet. Well, don't you know? Don't disclose everything until you have in writing that this person is going to represent you yeah, because even now, I mean, there's nothing currently.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:04:14

I've seen that I'm like, oh I gotta look at that. But like, because the rates suck so bad I'm not doing anything. But that's gonna slow me down, because I'm like I don't want to waste your time signing paper when I I'm half interested in this place. I need to. I am very visual. If I see it and I like it, I know I'm going to move. But sometimes I got to get in there.

Jeremy Felt: 1:04:29

And.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:04:29

I feel like I just maybe don't want to, you know, unless I'm actively selling and moving somewhere.

Jeremy Felt: 1:04:33

Yeah.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:04:38

You know and I'm just tempting myself I'm now probably going to be less, lean, more. I would think it would affect it, because I'm going to be less chance of like hey, jeremy, show me this house and tempt me to buy this thing, you know.

Jeremy Felt: 1:04:47

Yeah, because it used to just be like, hey, like can we go see this? And you're like, yeah, I'll set up a showing and just kind of meet there and thinking like there's going to be hours of work, never mind which. Maybe, maybe it'll push away some of the looky loser just looking for fun, I guess.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:05:03

Maybe that I mean I could see in some ways it's good, but it's gonna also push people like me who are maybe serious.

Jeremy Felt: 1:05:09

I mean I'm a buyer if I like it, but yeah I don't want to fucking deal with that, so and I'm sure you don't want to sign something that's we're going to sign an exclusive right to buy what I mean, what?

Tammy Hershberger: 1:05:18

are you going to feel comfortable putting the beginning and end date on that, like a week, a month, a year, and I feel like I'm wasting your time because, like, again, the ball rolls when I find this magical house that I'm really not looking for and I'm like, oh crap, now I do have to sell my house. Sure, you know, that's the whole thing, but I'm like I might be wasting your time by looking at it. You know, I've never ran you around but sometimes it's just like I don't.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:05:40

I don't like it as much or it didn't pan out or you get in there.

Jeremy Felt: 1:05:42

There's only two photos and you get in there like, oh, it's way better than I thought, or that I don't want to put into it or whatever.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:05:50

So I think it's unfortunate they stuck that in there. But yeah is there any other regulations that have come out? They've changed.

Jeremy Felt: 1:05:54

That's what I've caught, but so the I mean again a lot of the public. I was misinformed, either just from experience or not really understanding. A lot of people are like, oh, we don't have to pay 6%. It's like, well, you never had to pay 6%. Or a lot of sellers are saying, oh, I don't have to pay the buyer's agent. It's like, well, you never had to pay the buyer's agent. It was just kind of standard practice that you were on the selling side.

Jeremy Felt: 1:06:20

Buyers, you know, a lot of times struggle to even come up with their. You know their three and a half percent down. Or even, you know, if it's a hundred percent loan, just coming up with the closing costs and things like that can be difficult for a lot of buyers. So it was always kind of to the benefit of the seller to pay the buyer's agent, because if a buyer can't pay their own agent then they're not going to be able to buy your property. So you're really limiting yourself.

Jeremy Felt: 1:06:44

So a lot of sellers I know now are kind of like pushing well, I don't have to pay that buyer's agent, right? Well, no, you never did. But again that's where you kind of counsel and say you don't have to pay any commission, you can do it for sale by owner if you want, and try and do it yourself. But try and do it yourself. But you know on the national average they sell for 17 percent less than homes that are listed. So I think sometimes people penny pinch on those percentages and we don't want to pay that. But then you know they have a 10 price drop down the road and don't think about that.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:07:13

So I well, do you think it's going to affect? Well, again, I'm a negotiator and stuff annoys me, but I'm like. I'm, I feel like this is how I see it you're selling your home or you're selling your car. I'm freaking paying you to buy your home. I mean, I'm paying for the home, but like, I feel, like I have to pay extra to buy your house, because why should I have to cover for your agent? You want to sell it?

Tammy Hershberger: 1:07:30

sure it's like if I go to the dealership I don't expect this, like I'm gonna pay the salesman to sell me this car. I don't freaking think now I want less price on your house to now cover that. So you're like it's a game which then gets you emotional because you're not getting what you're asking. But, don't you? Do you feel like it's going to hurt, or you think it won't matter?

Jeremy Felt: 1:07:48

Oh, I think if a seller pushes to not pay the buyer's agent with it which they have the right to do is they're going to limit the potential buyers, which is, yeah, going to bring down the price of their home. Or people are going to negotiate Like if I'm a first time home buyer and I have to pay my agent a success fee of eight to ten thousand dollars that's probably money I don't have, so I'm going to definitely get it out of the contract and make sure we negotiate down way more than that to compensate for the money the extra money I'm having to bring to the table.

Jeremy Felt: 1:08:19

So I think it could hurt both. But there's also buyers like VA buyers. They're not allowed to, you know, bring extra to closing. It's a hundred percent loan. They they can't pay their buyer's agent. So if you're eliminating a lot of your potential buyers before you even hit the market, that's not really good for anyone.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:08:37

Oh, so if you ask for them to buy or pay, the seller side, or is that the right? The buyer side, buyer side right.

Jeremy Felt: 1:08:44

Yeah, so if they're refusing to pay a buyer's agent commission, there are some loan types where you're not going to be able to.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:08:51

So, right off the bat, you can't do the A. Yeah, you've eliminated a whole chunk of buyers, so you are really screwing yourself, yeah.

Jeremy Felt: 1:08:59

So I understand they're like shrink the buyer pool to basically nothing and end up losing more money in the long run yeah, so you'd be better off as long as you could sell.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:09:07

It is to raise your price to make up the difference.

Jeremy Felt: 1:09:09

Yeah, and then just offer to pay, yeah, if I was, if I was listing my own home, I would definitely offer a buyer's agent commission. Just because they are out working. They're, you know, bringing the buyers. They're working on that end, getting the loan in order, doing all of those things and, you know, hopefully leading to buyers they're working on that end getting the loan in order, doing all of those things and, you know, hopefully leading to a successful closing.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:09:26

Yeah, can I want to talk to you really quick about for sale by owner. So when we were talking earlier about negotiation, I've looked at a couple of I've never actually bought one, but it was I went into one that was for sale by owner it's. So I mean, obviously it works people do it. But I felt so uncomfortable because I'm like I can't make a fate. I have to keep my poker face like, oh, I love this or I hate that, and you don't want it like they're staring at you the owner of this home.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:09:49

So first off, you have to like not show them. I think this piece is a this is a crap pile or like I can't point things out to john like oh, that's cracked because it feels weird, I don't want to go into your home be like, oh, there's a big old pile of what there, you know.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:10:00

And then I thought about God, if we even get into negotiations now. I got to fight with the buyer and that's very emotional because I don't have you taking like Callum's, my dictionary. She takes what I say the way it sounds and she makes it all pretty and then she puts it out there for me, right?

Jeremy Felt: 1:10:14

Sure.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:10:14

And that's what you do. So I would be there with my way of talking and like hammering in the sky and I'm like I'm now fighting with the buyer. Yeah, great way to let it fall apart, because I don't have a mediator. Yeah, right. And so do you have any other things that you would say, like why it's not a great idea?

Jeremy Felt: 1:10:31

well, well, you said 17.

Jeremy Felt: 1:10:32

That's a drop yeah, yeah, on average they sell for 17 less than homes that are listed with a, you know, licensed agent. Uh, I think at least in this area, only three to 5% actually end up selling. So even a lot of these for sale by owners, they, you know, beat their head against the wall for a year or whatever trying to sell their home and end up hiring someone to do it anyway. So it's a very low success rate. But, yeah, when you get into a home, I mean you want to be able to kind of walk through at your own pace, like go back check rooms, like kind of picture yourself there.

Jeremy Felt: 1:11:05

When you have a seller there with their arms folded, even if they're like I'll stay out of your way and they're in the other room, you just feel so uncomfortable. It's hard. And I've had some clients that work from home and I'm telling I'm like I know you work from home, go on a 10 minute drive, go to the gas station, do something. But they refused to leave and the feedback always came back like well, the seller stayed in the home. We felt very uncomfortable, so we just left.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:11:31

Well, there's usually a room you can't really see. Yeah, and you are uncomfortable because I feel like I'm burdening them. Yeah, and now I picture them living in a home, not me, yeah not me yeah. And I'm like now I know why it smells like old people.

Jeremy Felt: 1:11:41

Yeah, it's very, it's just very uncomfortable and awkward and people usually just pull the rip cord.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:11:47

And then you're whispering because you don't want them to hear what you're saying.

Jeremy Felt: 1:11:50

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And then you feel like they're watching you, Like do they think I'm going to steal something? Or like they're looking over my shoulder. So it's very uncomfortable.

Jeremy Felt: 1:12:02

Also, a thing like we have heirs and emission insurance up to like $3 million, so if anything were ever to happen, like, we're covered with that, whereas if you're for sale by owner, you're you're on the hook. If anything came back on the deal that didn't go right, all of a sudden you as a you as a seller, you're personally responsible for that. So you don't have the kind of protection of an agent that's insured. So that's a huge issue. But also even getting access to the property. So like around here we list something, we give some sort of device, either a master lock box or a supra box, where other agents can get in and get keys and get to the home. So setting up showings is very time efficient and very easy to do. Setting up showings is very time efficient and very easy to do. You know you get a text of they want to see the property from this time to this time and the seller can OK it, they can say no, they can propose another time or communicate directly with the people that want to see it and it's just really smooth, whereas if you're for sale by owner, I mean, how are people getting in there? Where are they getting keys? Are you unlocking it for them? Are you having someone else go over there?

Jeremy Felt: 1:13:06

I had one person, uh, I was working with buyers and they saw when they liked and I was like I'm not seeing it on the MLS. And they're like, oh, it's a for sale by owner. So I was like, oh, that's no problem. And I called the phone number that was listed on a website and the guy was so angry. He's like yeah, you're not getting in there, I'm not letting your people in there. I refuse. I was like, sir, I have people that are, you know, pre-approved buyers that potentially like your home. Don't you want to sell it? And he's like absolutely not. You're not coming anywhere near my home and hung up on me and I'm going you're never going to sell your home, you're. So I I don't know. I understand the wanting to do it yourself and if you can, by all means do it, if you're a plumber and something goes wrong and you can fix it, you're gonna do it yourself because you know what you're doing. But if you're doing a first sale by owner just to save money and you don't really understand what you're doing.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:13:56

It could work out very badly for you well and I think, like you said, you're limited on the uh being found because you're not in. Mls is large, I mean you're a realtor, you're on those big sites. Yes, you can put yourself on homes for sale, whatever the hell is but and then it's like you usually have shitty picture.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:14:13

I've never really seen you know, maybe a builder or something, so I don't know. His wife's a realtor and they're doing it that way. But sure, at the end of the day you have usually your access is limited, and then I think, like you have to I don't even know how that works. If I was to buy from for sale by owner, do I, as the other buyer, myself have to go deal with the title company because I don't even know how the hell that works?

Jeremy Felt: 1:14:33

if you don't have any, so if it's just two unrepresented buyer and seller no agents involved whatsoever.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:14:38

Yeah, then you're drafting the forms, you're submitting the forms, you're getting into the title company which, yeah, it's and then, as the seller doing this, you have no guarantee these people can get the loan because, like you, as you get usually, once you work with them, at least once you start to get them serious about like let's get you pre-approved yes because you don't want to waste your time either yeah so like you don't even have that guarantee yeah, and and who knows, it could be someone casing your house, for you know, I mean because you don't do, you know what I mean.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:15:07

And then you're like the feet, because I met with a female one time and I was like, well, thankfully it's me and john, but we're not going to kill anyone. But I'm like you don't know what kind of psycho is coming in there to like look at your house and nothing's pre-approved and I don't know. It just seems scary to me yeah, or I mean there's.

Jeremy Felt: 1:15:23

If you got someone on either side that really knew what they were doing, you could put in, you could slip a lot of things into the contract that are very one-sided.

Jeremy Felt: 1:15:32

That you know. If you just read through it, if you just look at the terms like oh, the price is what I want, the closing date looks good, and just sign it and don't really read through it or have someone advising you on it, there could be a lot of potential things in there that could go very wrong yeah, and that's another reason for people listening.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:15:49

If you're thinking of selling, even like it's a, there's a reason you use a professional realtor because they know what they're doing, they have the contracts, they protect you you know it's safe. They're looking out for you. It just makes so much sense for the money that you're spending yeah.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:16:01

Yeah, I mean it is negotiable. I have always negotiated it down. The first house I didn't cause I didn't whatever. I was like whatever it is what it is, sure, but like usually they'll work with you Cause especially people I use, I use them enough that it's like I don't pay. It's not like. If you still have time, what do you think is going to happen in the real estate market in the next five to 10 years? In this area, do you think we're going to keep growing? I mean, it seems like we're growing, we're expanding. All these people are moving in.

Jeremy Felt: 1:16:29

Yeah, so it's so interesting. I feel like there's such a trickle down If we see places like LA County or places over in Denver, if we see those start to shrivel up or have some economic hard times. I think it's definitely on the way here. But as expensive as homes feel around here, we're still relatively low compared to some other markets. So you get a lot of people who maybe sell over in California or some of these other states where things are just incredibly high, and then they can come here and buy twice the home with way more property and still have cash in the bank. So I think we see a lot of that. So until those markets start taking a hit and kind of coming down, I think we'll still see things continue to. A lot of new builds continue to go up and a lot of people continue to move into the area, which I think will keep the market pretty healthy and strong yeah, um, do you think?

Tammy Hershberger: 1:17:28

just it's just a general question, but, like I tend to see in your real estate, so you probably see it more than me. But we we deal with a lot of people moving in here because the barnyard right, so they're buying a shed, or because they're downsizing yeah they tend to be a lot of older folks do.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:17:41

Do you think that demographic is going to continue? Like the retirees are coming here Weather's good, very affordable, their grandkids live here or whatever and they're moving to the world Like, do you think that'll continue or do you think it'll stay?

Jeremy Felt: 1:17:50

I? I would think so. I don't see why. I mean, we are a good area. There's a lot of stuff to do, recreational it's still. I know it feels bigger than it ever has, but it's still small compared to a lot of peace places. And you just see what's going on in some of these big cities with overcrowding and just some of the you know, homelessness issues and things like that. I think a lot of people just want breathing room and elbow room and if they can get over here and make money in the process, I think it's kind of a no-brainer for a lot of people in those situations yeah, I do think affordability is gonna help bring in.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:18:24

Well, I had this. So one of those guys that called me, I have to tell you. So he was looking to buy a business right, like he wants to consolidate the business, sure, and I told him I'm not interested. So he said, well, can you tell me about your area? And I said, well, I tell him how lovely it is, it's amazing, it's growing. You know all this stuff.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:18:37

And he's like, well, he didn't like the, the conservative side, because I believe we are a little more conservative here. He's like, oh well, I'm a liberal so I don't really like that. And then I was like, wait a second. I said let me re-say that this place is a crap hole. You don't want to move here, like we do not need you here. Because I was like this is so stupid Because I just talked to a builder today. He came for a own house and but he builds homes and he was saying the hoas are so out of control here right now because, like this one, he's trying to get a shed proved it's on land it's just like a couple acres or whatever and they're just being so insane he's got to make sure it's going to pass.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:19:12

And he was saying every couple of days they're getting pages of documents because they just put the hoa together.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:19:16

And he said the problem is there's two guys from snowmass and another one from aspen or something so they have these liberal freaking ideas and they're bringing them here and we keep seeing that the more we talk to people, they're like oh, I just moved here from california and I'm democrat and I'm like please go home, we don't want you here. But that's what kind of worries me a little bit is we're going to keep getting the influx of that and their politics oh, yeah, I mean yeah.

Jeremy Felt: 1:19:40

On the hoa side you have a lot of these people that come in and they're leaving for a reason, but then they come to their new place and don't and want to reestablish what they just left. And most of the HOAs around here at least the ones that are already established, the newer ones, I'm sure are much more regulated, relatively cheap like ours is $200 a year and it's basically just for irrigation water. But there are some, like over in Denver, where they, they basically own your property. They can put liens against it, which any HOA can, but they they can come by at any point in time and do whatever they want, and they're really unregulated. So they're taking in thousands and thousands of dollars without any oversight. You don't know what your money's being used for. It's yeah, it's chaos.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:20:23

Well, and I think of that, I don't remember the subdivision, but the one we had bought a lot and I was going to build on and then they're like you. I mean we had a like retail $250,000 RV. I mean we paid like 190 for it, but it was a nice RV and we were going to set it outside after. Can't do that, can't send your two acres, it's got to be in a pole barn or whatever which.

Jeremy Felt: 1:20:43

How expensive is that you?

Tammy Hershberger: 1:20:44

gotta be freaking, kidding me. I just spent seven, eight hundred thousand dollars on a house.

Jeremy Felt: 1:20:47

It's not like it's a crappy.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:20:48

Forty thousand rv, and which I mean new ones, are still nice but, it just blew my mind that, like I have two acres and I can't put my nice rv on my concrete pad like what, is the problem I'm not living in it yeah so that's concerning to me a little bit with real estate. You got to watch that when you're buying.

Jeremy Felt: 1:21:02

Yeah, I'm definitely of the thought like private property should be private property. The fact that you know the city can just come in and do whatever they want, whenever they want, or the county or your HOA can come in At the end of the day it's still your property and it should be private. The fact that these HOAs can dictate what you do when you can do it. You have to get all this approval. Now I understand there's no HOA. There's that one neighbor who's very loud at night or has trash all over their property which drive down other people's property value. So I understand the reason behind some of these regulations, but yeah, you get people come in from other places and just make it to where it's so unlivable that you feel like you don't even have permission to use your own house how you want to.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:21:49

Yeah, and I feel like in those like that area was a very nice. I don't feel like you're spending eight, whatever eight hundred thousand dollars. You're going to trash it like you understand the two hundred thousand.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:21:59

You get lower and I mean I don't know what you buy for that these days. But yeah, I just feel like you know, maybe put a few rules in to keep the basics, but like they're just going so extreme. So I mean that's, if you're buying a home, make sure you look at the hoa rules, because I end up selling that lot off or not not selling, uh backing out of it, because I was like this is not going to work for me.

Jeremy Felt: 1:22:15

I don't want to live in a place like that so yeah, absolutely yeah. The get into those covenants as soon as you can. That's one thing. That's a date in the contract where you have a chance to review and terminate if the terms of those aren't very good. And some of them get so kind of linguistic and so difficult that sometimes you even need to pull in an attorney to say what does this exactly mean? With this, am I going to be able to use my property how I want it to?

Tammy Hershberger: 1:22:44

Yeah, what about technology? What do you? Am I going to be able to use my property how I wanted to? Yeah, what about technology? What do you think is gonna do you think there's gonna be much change in the real estate world with technology coming in? As far as I don't know I was picturing like I don't think a real toy will ever just go away I mean sure but like, do you think there's going to be less? I don't know, like, will they start doing more paperwork? I don't.

Jeremy Felt: 1:23:01

I was just curious if you have heard anything so I've heard of, uh like artificial intelligence, like for marketing. Some people are trying to use it. My fear is with that, maybe I'm just too much of a control person where I wouldn't let something kind of just type itself for me and then my my name be stamped to it. But I know people have used that for, like you know, chat, gpt or whatever it's called like, and they'll put in a description of a home and like write me a nice narrative of what this home is. And I think you got to be careful with that Because, like I said, we have so many fair housing laws, even if you say something like this would be a great place to raise your kids or have, you know this well you're talking about. You're targeting towards people with kids and families. Now, all of a sudden, that means you're discriminating against people who don't have families, kids.

Jeremy Felt: 1:23:47

so, yeah, even something when you think you're being just, you know a nice little narrative about this property and the potential that it has, you can quickly get in trouble. So I I'm sure people will use things like that to kind of, I guess, save time, like typing up a few paragraphs on the benefits or the great qualities of a listing that you're taking. Seems like that wouldn't be that much work, since you're getting paid money to do it, but some people want to cut every corner possible, so I could see that becoming an issue.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:24:21

I mean, the insanity with all this stuff is like you can't call it a master bedroom anyway, it's primary. I'm like it's so freaking stupid.

Jeremy Felt: 1:24:27

Yeah.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:24:27

It's a freaking what it is Like. Let it be, It'll be all right. I don't know, I don't know how you do it, jeremy. Okay, I want a few more questions, then I'll wrap this up.

Jeremy Felt: 1:24:47

So, talking all in the same time, do you think long-term is real estate going to be for you or you think it's just kind of for right now? Yeah, I think the good thing about real estate is it can like ebb and flow and be up and down. So I really enjoy teaching and being in front of kids and that's something that I've always done. And it is nice, kind of from the practical side, to have a consistent income. Even if it's not great, it's still something and it's every single month, whereas I know some agents that do incredibly well. But then if that's the entire, you know income source of your entire family and the market comes to a grinding halt, which we've seen it speed up and slow down even in the past few years, all of a sudden you know you don't have a few deals going or you needed that home to close and it falls apart at the midnight hour and you don't get a paycheck for that month.

Jeremy Felt: 1:25:22

I think that can be very stressful. So I I like being able to do both. I feel like I've had a good balance with it and also I like the fact that I don't have to put pressure on people Not that you ever do, but if you know like I need this deal to close or my family's in trouble, it would be hard not to put that pressure on people. Whereas knowing that, like you know, our bills will be paid no matter what from our teaching incomes and kind of seeing real estate as just an addition to that, I feel like I don't ever have that temptation to put pressure on people like you really need to buy now or you really need to sell. I think I can come at it like whatever is best for you, it's your decision and I'll support it either way. Whether I make a paycheck or not, you got to do what's best for you. I think I can be a little bit more honest with that and not have that pressure behind it.

Jeremy Felt: 1:26:10

Yeah, now I want to ask you just the last few questions here, balance, because you're a father, you're doing all these different things that's a lot, I mean and take care of yourself so I mean, as you know, I think faith is incredibly important and keeping that kind of at the forefront like faith, family, and then everything else comes after that, I think that's really helpful. And perspective of like, okay, if it was a tough day in the classroom or if a deal fell apart, it's like I have a happy, healthy family, like that's obviously more important than anything. So it keeps that good perspective. And then balance. I mean it keeps that perspective and it kind of keeps you in balance of what's really important.

Jeremy Felt: 1:26:55

But then just taking care of yourself, I think for me, things like going to the gym, even if you have to wake up an hour or two earlier than you want to, I think once you're up and you do it and you kind of make that time for yourself and it kind of just gives me a boost of energy for the day. I think that that's really important to kind of just take care of yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, because you can get so burnt out and once I hit this goal that I have in business, then I'll relax you. You won't you'll just find a new goal and just continue to burn yourself out. Think that that's the way to do it, whereas if you are able to step back and kind of take care of yourself and, you know, align your priorities, you'll actually be more successful in business yeah.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:27:40

do you feel that when you had kids, did that change your perspective? As far as young man, jeremy, graduating, I mean, I don't know, were you a super driven kid or like a guy that was like I've got a million things, I'm going to get done, or did you seem pretty chill? So I don't.

Jeremy Felt: 1:27:51

Yeah, I felt like I was in the middle, Like I was never that kid, Like I'm going to be a doctor when I grow up or something. You know, I like work has always been enjoyable and I'll work hard while I'm there, but I've never had this like I have to have this job when I'm older. I have to hit this mark by the time I'm 35 or 40. So I just kind of work hard where I'm at. So I think that's kind of helped me with perspective.

Jeremy Felt: 1:28:16

And then you asked about having kids. So I think, yeah, having kids has just been, I mean, it's the best thing in the world and it's been really enjoyable. And I think it just at the end of the day, when you come home and just see them smiling and them happy, I think that's really what it's all about. So for me it kind of gives that perspective. Even if it was the quote unquote worst day in the world, or some deal fell apart or something didn't go your way, you kind of take that deep breath and like, okay, that is not good, but it's not the end of the world and how do you separate that?

Tammy Hershberger: 1:28:52

and maybe that's just easy because, again, I don't have the parent perspective to keep me kind of like oh, I gotta chill out. This is not the end of the world, but because I've talked to people and they're like I get out of work and it's so hectic and I have. You know, if you have a longer drive it's a little better because you have a little more time to kind of be whatever the word is like process and get it out of your head.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:29:09

But how do you then switch to like oh, I'm dad and husband now like does it happen that easy for you? Because I, even just with no kids, I get home and I'm like I'm still, I gotta still work, work, work.

Jeremy Felt: 1:29:18

You know it gets oh yeah, I mean it can be hard to turn off at times. If you've had a stressful day, it's you're, you're not just going to pretend that it didn't happen or just forget about it. I mean there's that reality all the time of you know something stressful. Or if you know something stressful is coming or you're in the middle of negotiations or one of these stressful real estate deals, it can be tough to kind of let your brain turn it off, like it'll be there tomorrow. So it can be difficult to kind of transition or cut that off like okay, focus on the here and now, whatever happens tomorrow or down the road, it'll be fine. So yeah, it can be sometimes difficult. Like you feel yourself like maybe am I being grumpier than I normally am? Am I being loud? Am I being distant? So you, you do have to be kind of conscious of it and make sure that you're not, you know, bringing it home or letting it affect your relationships because, I would imagine, with the kids okay.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:30:14

So you know Mac's business partner, so he had like a lot of kids. So in my mind I'm like, but this dude, I can call him really fast, I'll get an answer and we'll keep moving. And he's like I can't talk to you. The kid's just busted his head open, or I got to get dinner for these kids, or they're freaking, going crazy and I'm like I would imagine being a parent, it distracts you because you don't have a choice.

Jeremy Felt: 1:30:31

Like they're right there, they're hungry, they need a bath, yeah, come nine to five, there's, yeah, yeah, there's, there's times where it is like nighttime and you're trying to, yeah, help with dinner or help with the kids, but also you're checking emails or typing things up, so that can be a challenge I've. You know Ashley will be like what are you working on? Do you have to do it right now? And sometimes you are like I'm so sorry, I do have to work on it right now. I try and be really good about if we're at soccer games or we're going to church or it's family time to turn off my phone. But there are those times where you know like something very critical is going to happen, you know soon, and I have to be ready for it.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:31:13

So there are those challenges of knowing when to kind of be available and when to turn it off and just make it go to the next day so I would imagine communicating really well with your spouse of, like this has to happen, or you know, I mean, and I even think just being intentional, so like if you know you have to work tonight, like I'm gonna give 30 minutes or whatever it is. Like I'm gonna set that 30 minutes, I'm gonna get that thing done, I have to send off and then I promise you I will put the phone down, I will not look at it again and then be really good with I'm not just gonna sit on the couch and watch the kids play, I'm gonna go spend time with them because I think I would get in conversations with my old business partner about that.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:31:49

I'm like you're home for six hours, like what, and you're not getting time with them, but you're distracted because you're on the phone, you're on Facebook. To me, I think six hours of just hanging around them is not as valuable as two hours. That's all you get, but you're consistently playing and talking to them and eating dinner with them.

Jeremy Felt: 1:32:04

Yeah, and your focus time and intentional.

Jeremy Felt: 1:32:08

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there are times I have to be like, oh, like I have to do this right now, like if you need me to go to the office or go shut myself in the closet or whatever, but I have to focus on this until it's done. Or, you know, make sure I get this document drafted and sent out before the day is done. So I'll just be very clear about that, like, okay, this is a very important thing that I need to take care of. It has to be done today.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:32:31

I'm sorry, but I'm not going to be able to help for the next two hours, or whatever, yeah, and then just making sure they understand that, so they know, and then when you're done with that, you get back to the family.

Jeremy Felt: 1:32:39

Yeah, I'm not ignoring you. I'm not surfing the web. I'm not on Facebook or something. I'm doing business. Once it's done, close the computer, turn off the phone and I'll help whatever you need.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:32:49

Yeah, Okay, Last question, Then we'll wrap this up. So I want to ask you about faith. So how do you, how do you feel about it? What do you do to bring God, to get you know into your home as a husband and a family member or whatever? Like what is? What does spirituality look to you? What does that look like?

Jeremy Felt: 1:33:04

Well, I think faith is obviously the most important thing, faith in God, and I think, um, you know, just spending time in the word, going to church being that it's one thing to tell kids about it, but it's another thing to show them. So, just leading by example and walking in love, being kind, forgiving, like helping others, I think, just being that nice person and seeing that for your kids, and we're starting to see them kind of pick up on that, If they're struggling, the first thing they want to do is pray about it.

Jeremy Felt: 1:33:34

Or if someone's sick or oh, we can't go to grandma's today because she's not feeling good, well, let's pray for her. So we see a lot of that with them already at a young age. So I think that's really important in modeling not just talking about god or taking them to church and then oh they'll, they'll figure it out because we take them to church, but showing them kind of every day of what it means to walk in love and to walk by faith and to pray and spend time with god and things like that so really live, not just go see it?

Tammy Hershberger: 1:34:04

Yeah, exactly, and if you think about that, the seeds you have planted are starting to produce. I mean the fact that they're three and six.

Jeremy Felt: 1:34:11

Three and six yeah.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:34:12

They're like already getting that, like, oh, we're going to pray about it. There's so much power Because you think about as they continue to grow and you keep that in them they're not going to just be these kids that are confused on who they are and what gender I am, and am I a dog? Or they actually have power and they're going to stand up for the stuff that's happened to them and not accept it and not just be like I'm just a victim you know Exactly.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:34:31

So I think that makes you a great parent, jeremy. I love that that you and. Ashley do that. So, okay for anyone listening. If you're in Grand Junction, I don't know how far away. Do you sell real estate, do you?

Jeremy Felt: 1:34:42

I mean technically licensed, in all of Colorado. I've I mean, I haven't done any deals on the Eastern slope primarily stick in Mesa County, but I've done some in like Montrose and Uray counties but Mesa County is kind of like the area of expertise.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:34:56

Okay, so if someone wants to get ahold of you and use you, which I highly and when listening in this area, please call Jeremy Felt. He's amazing Harvest Realty. Give him all your details, jeremy.

Jeremy Felt: 1:35:05

So, yeah, phone number is 970-261-2249. And then email is jeremyfeltre, as in real estate, at gmailcom. So you can call or email at any time and, yeah, we're available around the clock to help you out.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:35:20

And you do mostly residential, but you still can do commercial if they have something. Yeah, we can do commercial residential.

Jeremy Felt: 1:35:25

My managing broker even does some property management, so if people want to rent, we can help you out. I've helped people find places to rent. Obviously, I don't get paid on that, but again, I feel like paying it forward and helping people, even if it's something that I'm not necessarily going to get a payday on. Even if it's something that I'm not necessarily going to get a payday on, I still like to. Even if it's just pointing people in the right direction, helping them in any way that I can.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:35:47

Okay, Well, thank you very much, Jeremy for coming on. We thank all of you for listening. I ask you to like, subscribe, share. I'm on iHeart, Apple YouTube, everywhere pretty much, and I offer coaching for business, life, coaching, whatever. So get a hold of me If you have any questions for Jeremy. You want to use him. You have something to help him with his invention. I don't know Whatever God's got for you. You just email me. It's lightuphyourbusinessllc at gmailcom and we just thank you all. We'll see you guys next time. Thanks, Jeremy.

Jeremy Felt: 1:36:16

Thank you.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:36:26

And remember in the world of business, every success story begins with a passionate dream and ends with a strategic billion dollar handshake. Stay ambitious, stay innovative and keep making those deals that reshape tomorrow. Thank you all for tuning in and until next time, remember proverbs 3 3 says let love and faithfulness never leave you. Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. That way you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. And remember if you like what you heard today, click the follow button so you never miss an episode.