980: How to Find Fast Success in Real Estate – Realtor Stephanie Heiser

Aaron Amuchastegui  00:32

Hey, Real Estate Rockstars This is Aaron Amuchastegui. I’m super excited that I’ve been talking to Stephanie here for the last few minutes and the and we could have kept going, I should have hit the record sooner. But right now I’m interviewing Stephanie hyzer. She’s from Visalia, California. She’s been listening to the podcast for a long time, great story about how she got into real estate. And we started messaging back and forth like on Instagram, probably in the last several months, we’d be talking about ideas or things that came out on the on the podcast, and I kept encouraging her to sign up to get on here because I knew she was gonna have so much to share. So Stephanie, I’m glad you finally said yes to my ask and you apply to be on the podcast. How’s it going?

Stephanie Heiser  01:09

Oh, it’s great. Thank you so much for having me. I’m super stoked to be here. I absolutely love Real Estate. Rockstars definitely my favorite podcast, listen to it non stop. And I just can’t believe I’m here.

Aaron Amuchastegui  01:25

Yeah, you Well, you have earned it when I got to see the stuff that you’ve been doing. You definitely deserve to be here just like the people before you and I’m super excited you to learn. Why did you start listening to the podcast?

Stephanie Heiser  01:36

I started listening to the podcast at in 2019. I decided I should try to get my real estate license. See what it was about. I was commuting to work about like 45 minutes each way. So all I listened to was Real Estate Rockstars every single day. So I listen to the current episodes and then just have it set on like plane automatically every episode I haven’t heard. So. I’ve heard like a good majority of them for sure.

Aaron Amuchastegui  02:12

That like it gets me all teary eyed and excited when I get to hear that. So where were you working at the time when you had that 45 minute commute?

Stephanie Heiser  02:18

I was teaching in Palm Springs like a admin role at an elementary school.

Aaron Amuchastegui  02:25

So you were a teacher? You were now did you have your license yet or you were like you started listening to the podcast to decide if you should get your license.

Stephanie Heiser  02:34

I was flipping a cabin in Joshua Tree. I lived in Joshua Tree commuting to Palm Springs. I didn’t realize that my cabin was zoned ret cabin and not single family residents. And the agent that I bought the cabin from was the listing agent double ended the deal. And I felt like a lot of anger, even though I should have done my due diligence, but I had no clue was my first investment purchase my husband and I bought it with the cash we made on selling his home that he bought as a single man. And I just thought like, wow, I really wish this agent would have warned me that I would have to go through the whole new build permit process. Like I thought I would just paint some cabinets and put up some drywall and call it a day. But no, I had to do full new construction. So I learned all about drafting zoning, you had

Aaron Amuchastegui  03:41

to do that. Like no, if you’re going to do it, you have to it’s totally different code.

Stephanie Heiser  03:46

Well, it’s because the Homestead Act in the 50s you could build a 400 square foot spot and then get five acres. So the desert is just spotted with these old abandoned cabins. And it’s become a huge trend to flip them now. So I was like the cabin queen. People would call me and be like, I heard you went through this. And so basically that whole scary, terrifying, awful experience. Looking back, it’s an amazing experience. But at the time I cried. But I thought you know, I should get my license and I should help educate and advocate for my clients.

Aaron Amuchastegui  04:31

That’s so awesome. Like, it’s awesome. And it’s not just like you said like a horrible experience. It’s a great experience. I’ve had my share of ups and downs and I learned way more during my downtime than I’ve ever learned during my primetime but the you said something where you’re like I should have done my own due diligence. You were almost like taking self blame for that. But the reality is as as agents and all you guys listening out there as agents we know you guys know that you’re responsible to protect Your buyer, you are responsible to inform your buyer. And it really sounds like that first example. There. There’s plenty of bad agents out there too, is an example of an agent that was a bad agent that wasn’t fulfilling their fiduciary responsibility wasn’t doing the thing that they were supposed to be doing with that. And

Stephanie Heiser  05:16

yeah, for sure, and double ending the deal. Always even worse, a little sketched out,

Aaron Amuchastegui  05:22

that’s way worse when it’s like, are you really rep or who are you representing more the buyer or the seller? Do you think that you think the double ending should be allowed?

Stephanie Heiser  05:34

I personally feel like I could do it and have fair support on both sides. But I do not think it should be loud. I don’t I think it gets too hairy. I personally, I feel like my fiduciary duty is to integrity and into good good for all people. Like even if I’m representing the seller, I’m not trying to screw over a buyer. Like I definitely advocate for everyone being open and honest and transparent, and working together to just make it work for everybody involved. But of course, I mean, your job is to support your client. So double ending. Big gets hairy, I think.

Aaron Amuchastegui  06:24

Yeah, I mean, I don’t think it should be allowed, I think I mean, I think it should be illegal for it. There’s plenty of people do it fine. Right? And there’s probably because the advantage to somebody double ending is, instead of their 5%. commission, there’s a 3% Commission. Now the only right not all the time, right. So if they’re still getting paid the same amount, then at least if there’s a discounted commission, then somewhere in there, the buyers and sellers are getting an extra advantage. There’s a risk if it’s if it’s double ended, right, there’s a risk to the buyer and risk of seller if one agents doing both. So as a result, I think they should get that risk offset by cost, right. Like it should be something that made the deal work out like Oh, the seller needed to get a little bit more money, but because we could do it. But yeah, when it’s double ended full commission, I think that that is a problem. In real estate. I saw a news today that in one in one state, they just made it illegal for people to send the buyer love letters. Yeah. And Oregon. Yeah, said Oregon’s they came out and said, if you’re going to say that no longer will they let people say like, here’s the story about my buyer. Here’s why you could have Did you see why I didn’t see why I decided the headline. I was like, Oh, that’s

Stephanie Heiser  07:30

one of the big talking about how it’s just a violation of fair housing. And I hate buyer letters. And I was like, hey, California should totally institute that rule. But like, we need more laws in California. But I I just think so. Like, for example, my husband and I put in an offer on a super cute, gorgeous house. And the agent literally told me we were the highest offer. Like I know how to write a good offer. I really wanted this house. But of course now looking back and grateful I didn’t get it. And I absolutely love the house we did get. But this agent legit told me that the seller went with another offer because they had a family photo with their puppy dog.

Aaron Amuchastegui  08:21

Does crazy. Yeah. Fine. As a seller, I don’t read my buyer letters. But I tell you what the house that I live in. Now, when we were shooting, it was almost like reverse. We were looking at a few different houses. And the lady that was selling us the house, she showed us a picture. I have three girls and a boy I have three daughters and a son. And she goes oh my gosh, your family looks just like mine when we moved in and she sent me a picture of her family when they moved in. And it was like the same ages the three girls and a boy. And when she showed us the house she showed like the boy like here’s where your room is. So the girl here’s where your room is. So my thing is that picture like this is the house for us. It’s meant to be like our picture the total match. So that stuff works. We’re all sappy and it comes down to it. So yeah,

Stephanie Heiser  09:05

sorry. It’s super sweet. When it does work out really well like that. And I personally love when like we can help a family get into a home versus an investor by their 10th home. But then again, like I have super sweet, amazing investors too. Why should they be like shafted? It’s just it’s really hard. I there just should be no emotion in real estate. It should be business who’s going to get to the finish line who has proof of funds? Who can pay the appraisal gap. Like who is going to get through the finish line and keep it less stressful for everybody?

Aaron Amuchastegui  09:45

Real Estate Rockstars This is Aaron Amuchastegui for a quick commercial break. So during 2020 2021 the real estate market completely changed. There’s so much competition in the market. So many people trying to buy and sell houses But there’s hardly any supply hardly any product or lead anyone willing to list their homes, it’s time for every agent out there to become a hybrid agent investor, to be able to reach out directly to homeowners to try to get them to sell or list their house, you’ve got a new website, go to lead, propeller calm, and you can set up your own investor buyer website. In just minutes, you’ll set up at your own URL, set up phone numbers help go through the leads, help reach out to people that aren’t listing their their property currently, and have them fill out a form that says, hey, I want to sell my house. And then as an agent, you can go through and make them a hybrid offer, you can tell them hey, I think your house would sell for $220,000 on MLS, but I can either write you $180,000 cash offer right now, or I can help you fix it up. And you’ll listed for 220,000 on MLS, these are buyers that are looking for quick cash offers 10s of 1000s are submitting these forums every single day. And they’re skipping the listing process. It’s so many of you guys out there are such good agents, it’s a great opportunity to get that lead and help them maximize sales price for their home. They’re getting go to lead propeller calm and think about signing up for your own investor site. So buyers will start reaching out to you asking you to make an offer on their home. Yeah, it’s anything that offsets that it’s not the but it also affects appraisal, right? If somebody sells it for less because of something else like that’s, I don’t think that’s right. Either people get to do whatever they want to do. It’s kind of like the there’s the signs that say no shirt. No, we have the right to refuse service. Anybody, like a seller can accept whatever offer they want, kinda, but fair housing laws of impact. That’s it.

Stephanie Heiser  11:38

Yeah. And unless you’re accepting the very highest offer, I feel like if someone did take you to court, it would be super difficult to validate why you went with this lower offer, and it wasn’t based on something that would violate fair housing.

Aaron Amuchastegui  11:55

Yeah. How is she doing like 50 transactions a year now?

Stephanie Heiser  11:59

Yeah. Last year, I Well, my first four months, I did 54 transactions this year, I am on pace to do about 50. But I moved to a new town five hours away from where I started my career. And I started a team. So in some ways, it’s taking a small step back to take a huge step forward, those 54 transactions. And those are the ones that close Think of all the buyers and transactions that I did that fell out of escrow or all the people that didn’t actually buy, like I worked 12 and 15 hour days for a year straight. And I never want to do that. Again,

Aaron Amuchastegui  12:47

that’s a great thing to think about, especially for the agents out there that are hitting the volume levels they want and the 50 houses, that’s a lot of houses, but But you’re the first person I’ve interviewed in a really long time that has brought up the fact that for you to get 50 houses closed, that means you’ve worked with hundreds of buyers and sellers, you have shown 1000s of houses, right? Like just the way the math works. If you got 50 to close, you had at least four or five times that you were working with. Yes. So the each one of them, they didn’t just look at one, right? Just one, especially in today’s mark, three years ago, if you had I mean, if you had 10 clients, you were gonna get nine deals done. And now if you have 10 clients, you’re gonna get like two or three deals done. Yeah. What so you were you decided to move, so you had to kind of start over? And then you took this as the time Is that why you decided to start a team to send me like a, it’s a fresh start, it’s a good time to to make that change.

Stephanie Heiser  13:39

Well, being a teacher and a vice principal, I feel like just that like desire to teach and share and motivate others is burning inside of me. And I can do that with my clients. But I love meeting new agents. I love talking with the people that just got their license and they’re hungry. I love talking to people that are just like, feeling stuck in their career or wanting to change. Like I’m such a firm believer and living the life that you want, like go creating go make it happen. And so long story kind of short. I wasn’t going to start a team until next year. But my husband and I are huge baseball fans, and he tried to surprise me with buying like a banner advertisement at the baseball stadium. And he was like, babe, I just this is too many decisions for me to make for you. Can you please go to the stadium and just pick a spot talk to the dude, and let’s get you in the stadium. I went and talked to the guy and we spent like a long time together towards the stadium talking about different opportunities. And he told me about a stadium buyout that they find Financial Group was doing and I was like, how much is that? I totally want to do that. And so I just did a stadium buyout, and I was like, Oh my god, I have to start a team literally right now, because I can’t buy out a stadium like sponsored by Stephanie heizer. That feels freaking terrifying. But, like, sports is my jam. So hiser home team was this vision in my brain. And I’m like, oh, home team, and it would work perfect at a baseball stadium. So I called up a phenomenal agent. That was my mentee. And my former brokerage, I was a mentor. And I like, convinced him to come to my new broker, join my team. And now we’re hiser home team.

Aaron Amuchastegui  15:53

Yeah. So when did you move to Newtown? In February? Okay, so you’re five months in? And so one of the ways that you’re going to end and where you’re buying out the stadium, this is in your new town? Yes. So how many people so by buying at a stadium you’re like, I’m buying all the tickets for a game? And I think you told me it was for like the the Dodgers kind of prep team like the

Stephanie Heiser  16:17

Yeah, the Visalia rawhide they are the Arizona Diamondbacks farm team were a low a minor league team. And this game that I bought out is the first home game against the Rancho Cucamonga quakes and that’s the Dodgers farm team. And I’m a huge Dodgers fan. I like totally root for the rawhide that night and I have season tickets to the rawhide game. Because I am just obsessed with baseball. I love the rawhide, Marcus, the guy at the stadium that’s been helping me with everything is phenomenal. But basically everyone gets to go to the game for free courtesy of the hiser home team. I have the tickets like right behind home plate that I’m giving out to people, we donated a bunch of tickets to the miracle league. I’ve invited different charities to come have a booth at the game. One lady is like launching her small business at the game. It’s her first time selling her product in public like just because we were talking about my game. And also at the game, I’m kind of doing a big launch of Visalia love. I literally love Visalia, I moved here. And because I’m self employed, and can live wherever I want. And so with versilia love, like I have these clay hearts that I hide around town. And if you find it, you get to keep it. Or you can give it to someone you love. And at the game, we’re going to hide hearts and have five different prizes from local businesses. And so this lady that’s making, so she is donating a beautiful gift basket and having a booth. So it’s just an opportunity. It just turned into an opportunity for entrepreneurs and small charities to get exposure. And to have my commercial on the big screen. That’s awesome. How

Aaron Amuchastegui  18:29

many people fitness at 2600? All right, so you bought tickets for 2600 people the stadium, you get to give them away, you get to tell the town they get to come for free, you sent them to some other organizations. So that gets to be the senate What a way to get your name kind of started to be heard and recognized in a new town as well. Like a way to make an announcement of Hey, now we’re the home team and new to a place like the cemetery of marketing and advertising is that name recognition. So we say you have to see people several times. So it’s like the people that are there. They’re gonna see your name here at several times. And then now when they see you later, with anything else that you’re doing, like it has to, it has to help.

Stephanie Heiser  19:08

Yeah, for sure. And, and that just makes me think of the importance of branding. Like my video on the screen is not just something I shot on my iPhone, I actually found this phenomenal marketing company. And they’ve been doing my photos, my website, the copy on my website, and the video. And it’s just unique. It’s different than every other real estate video and website I’ve seen. And like, I’m not just any other agent and my clients aren’t just another client. So I want all of my branding to convey that. I absolutely love Visalia. I love real estate I’m going to take you from like finding the lender till way out You’ve gotten your keys. And that, you know, we just are very thorough, and everything is different. I don’t want just the iD iD x feed right, when you log into my site, I want you to see the link to Visalia love. And I want you to see like tips about the neighborhoods in the town, I want you to see the pictures of my team and how much fun we have together. So I mean, all of it just wraps into one package that just says who you are like, your Instagram page is supposed to build your personality and provide content as well. I think I have, like 28 followers on the hyzer home team page. And social media is just not my thing. I’m working towards it, for sure. But I just think like branding, and being intentional, but also, like being open to not being perfect is just a great mix. being yourself and being authentic is just the only way to do it.

Aaron Amuchastegui  21:07

Yeah, the one you and I met through social media, right? So social media works for some of that stuff. And before we hit record, you and I were kind of laughing about the idea that the cool thing about real estate is there’s so many options and ways to market ourselves. And you can be horrible at 90% of them. And if you crushed just one things, if there’s if you find a niche, like, yes, you should set up an Instagram page, and you should set up a website and you should set up a Facebook and you should run ads, you should buy out stadiums, and you should do everything, because you should be doing all the different things you can and but if you’re authentic when you do it, you can do a lot of them bad. And if you do a couple of them good, it’s going to work out. And I also think it’s great. Like Yes, you’re gonna have the 2200 people in the stadium, you know, right there, what like you’ve got a crowd that’s going to be there. So having the right video, and the right message to really be able to do that properly. Like Yes, that’s your opportunity to make a good impression. Real Estate Rockstars This is a commercial break from our podcast sponsor house folios. Were in real estate to find the next big deal, right, we want to find the deal, make money and then turn around and do it all over again. It can be frustrating having to search through 1000s of properties trying to find that Goldilocks property that is just right for your investment goals. That’s why we’re here to tell you about house folios house folios is a management software for single family home investors that makes it simple to find good deals, get financing, and manage your property portfolios, all from one platform. They’re an all in one app that lets you easily search for properties both listed and unlisted. Analyze numbers based on your specific assumptions and provide resources to get you through underwriting and closing. This is a feature we like most you can track your numbers at multiple levels want to see the returns on a specific property in seconds check how about an entire portfolio of properties you’re looking to buy, check, and then being able to present these properties to investors to become the go to real estate agent for their investment needs. How awesome is that? managing your investment properties has never been easier. The best part it’s affordable. Plans started just $29 a month 29 bucks to unlock the tools to manage your entire investing cycle all in one place. Check it out at house folios.com And if that’s not enough house folios is giving our listeners a special rate on an entire year of house folios just 99 bucks. So instead 29 bucks a month 99 bucks for the year head on over to house folios.com forward slash ar e rockstars. To sign up again head over to house folios comm forward slash ar e rockstars to get an entire year of house folios for only 99 bucks. Before we came on, you showed me that rock show me one of your Visalia kids non rock. It’s a claim tomorrow morning. I almost made her angry like the

Stephanie Heiser  23:50

no and I’m totally cool. Like those Visalia or rock Visalia with kindness is an amazing amazing awesome

Aaron Amuchastegui  24:00

rock is a thing but you’re a clay. Yeah. And ornament. Just a real family thing. It looks friggin awesome. Where did you does it say? Who made it on the back like is your name on the back?

Stephanie Heiser  24:12

Are you well, I had to order these because my kiln is not working but I’m actually making these hearts like I have clay and glaze. I love pottery. I love ceramics. I ordered these on Etsy because I wanted to launch Visalia love for my game. But of course, my god

Aaron Amuchastegui  24:36

like a website that’s for when people who go like what is Visalia love so I have a website. You hide him around town people find him and then like y’all you have a you have an Instagram page yet that’s like hashtag Visalia love when people find it.

Stephanie Heiser  24:49

Yeah, we hashtag may steal your love. But it’s at Visalia dot love because someone already had Visalia love for an account that isn’t used at all.

Aaron Amuchastegui  25:00

My gosh, yeah, reach out, like, Can I buy your accounts that happened I tried. I bought an Instagram handle years ago, and I never even used it. It was like it was a cool name, so I’m not gonna use it. But like I stuck with Aaron Amuchastegui and said, those are some cool ideas, buying out a stadium to get stuff out there. Yeah, starting the team and having a way to get that name recognition. You’re talking about doing social media, you’re talking about professional video, like getting these ornaments done, like what an inexpensive way to be nice, a inexpensive, I have no idea how expensive it is inexpensive. But what what a way that anybody could do in their town to say like, Hey, here’s a little fun thing that gives you a little bit of that extra name recognition. There’s the possibility of some kind of viral stuff or people going, Hey, I found this, this automate. What does it mean? And people are like, oh, like, once they recognize something? Oh, 20 people say, I don’t know. That’s pretty cool. And then somebody else says, Oh, it’s from, from this thing that Stephanie does. The super awesome, back to work, how it all started. Now. You’re driving in your commute. You’re listening to the podcast, you’re still a teacher, you were a teacher, you were a vice principal, what was the moment you said, I’m going to go all in into real estate? Well, I

Stephanie Heiser  26:10

met with an agent that sold a cabin near mine, I saw this tiny like 300 square foot cabin sold for 192. So I hit up the listing agent. And he was so super sweet and told me to just come chat with him at his open house. So I met him and we ended up talking for hours. And he was so sweet. And I was like, dude, how did you sell this tiny little cabin? For 192 grand course now, it would sell for way more than that. But, you know, he was just talking to me about knowing how to present the cabins value knowing all the ins and outs of Airbnb and short term rental potential. And then he said, Why don’t you just get your license and sell it yourself? And well, I thought about that. But that’s like, terrifying. And I already got a ton of student loan debt to be in the education field. Like, why would I take on something else? But just somehow, some way I started studying taking my courses. I passed the test on the first time, got my license, and within two months, I had eight open escrows. And thank God figured out about a transaction coordinator quickly hired one still have her till this day. She’s phenomenal.

Aaron Amuchastegui  27:44

Eight escrows right away.

Stephanie Heiser  27:45

Yeah, one time. What year was it? That was 2020. That’s crazy. Okay. So I got my license. I’m like February 4 in 2020. And I met a different agent at an open house. He was also so sweet. And the agents in the desert are incredible. In Visalia, we have amazing super professional, awesome agents to like, I’ve been so blessed with just meeting the right people and taking that advice to launch me to the next phase. So this agent told me Look, I know everyone says bad things about Zillow. But Twentynine Palms. It’s a military base, tons of people are looking from out of town. You just have to do Zillow, it will totally launch your career. So I did Zillow, my husband was like, yeah, there’s no way we’re paying $600 a month for something that may not work. And I’m like, yeah, screw you. I know it’s going to work. And I signed up in $600. That’s absolutely nothing. And my I had it showed like over 500 Zillow connections, and I converted 10 of them. So like a 10% conversion rate is pretty huge. With internet leads. It worked out phenomenally. It’s not so good, and Visalia and we have kind of a different community here. So I’m super excited that I’m not just working internet memes. But yeah, all these things just kind of piled up and just propelled me further.

Aaron Amuchastegui  29:34

Yeah. So another lesson in there is just advertising, right like being willing to pay for advertising. Now you have to be also be ready to use it. I’ve heard of people doing advertising, the leads come in and they’re not willing to call. So like you were a great closer so you also have to be willing to go close it. And in some cities, Zillow leads might be the best and in other cities, it might be a different way. And in other cities, it might be radio. It depends on your city for if Google ads or Zillow Facebook marketing, you have to try a lot everything’s, it’s awesome that the first thing that you tried worked out really well. But for people out there listening, like advertising is a part of real estate, it is a part of business, every business out there does marketing and the and I still talk to a lot of people that don’t want to spend any money on marketing, or they have their business card. And that’s it. And they’re trying to figure out how to how to do the rest. And it really is like an all in type experience where you got to be ready to go. So then you were like, so you went in I one of the other things you said that I think is a good lesson. There’s it is never too late. Like there’s somebody listening today that is driving in their car thinking about getting their real estate license. I remember talking to Elliot white on the podcast. He’s one of the 30 under 30. And he was an Uber driver listening to the podcast training, if he was going to get licensed or not. And now he’s crushing it. So for any of you guys out there listening, it’s not too late to go get your license no matter what. Right. And don’t let something you like one of your thoughts was, well, I went to college to become a teacher, I have these student loans like, I can’t change now. Like it’s almost like you have to be willing to abandoned expenses or lost causes, right? Like being able to walk. Same thing with flipping house now you got to be able to walk away from something like Okay, that was a loss. That was a mistake. I’m just going to eat it. But right now, so you you have the mic, right? Like everybody’s listening to you. What would you say to those people that are driving in their car right now that have been thinking for the last six months? Should I become licensed or not? Well, what would you tell

Stephanie Heiser  31:28

him tell him try, but you have to be willing to work your ass off. You have to be willing to spend the money. You know, it takes money to make money. That same is absolutely true. And you know what really resonated with me the podcast were like john kennedy, Peter Lorre, and more Lorimer, sorry, Pete, and Sam, like anyone talking about being authentic and being yourself and like enough with the homogenized bullshit, as Pete says, like, you just have to be yourself. Like there’s a niche somewhere for you. If you love sports and baseball, go advertise it every sport event or anything in your community pertaining to sports, if you have a great church community, go run with that just find your niche, or just try a whole bunch of different things and see what works a part of this process has also been like discovering myself and finding out what resonates with me. And like the podcast episodes, and then just little pieces that have been happening in my life lately. I’m just like, either you’re like on my team, or you’re not like, it’s totally cool if I’m not your vibe, but I’m not going to try to appeal to every single person, like, I’m just going to be me do my very, very best work my butt off. And I feel like just the universe provides like, doors open up and you end up having what you’re meant to have if you let that happen. And I definitely will not tolerate like really rude or mean clients. I don’t have to work with anyone I don’t want to. And I can work when I want work in my pajamas, work 24 seven if I want to. And just you know being authentic is the best thing you could do.

Aaron Amuchastegui  33:40

Real Estate rockstars. This is a commercial break from our biggest podcast sponsor we have right now rent ready, it can be fun getting a new real estate deal. But it can be tough managing your properties after the fact, especially if you’re long distance investing or trying to manage multiple properties by yourself. That’s why we’re here to tell you about rent ready, raise a property management software that not only makes it easier to manage all your real estate deals from one platform, but they also have the best customer service support in the biz. They’re an all in one app that lets you easily manage properties, collect rent, lists, units, screen tenants, signed leases, all from your phone or computer. Imagine all of your real estate doors right in your pocket. How awesome is that? The best part is it’s so affordable one flat price for everything, unlimited properties, tenants and support with a real life human and I have to add in there. That’s a new business model that not a lot of people are doing. There’s like this freemium model where people say, hey, you can try this, but as soon as you grow, it’s gonna cost you a lot of money, or they kind of punish you, when you get too many emails on your list or too many companies, they aren’t gonna punish you and you grow. They’re not going to charge you more. When you get 10 2030 rentals. They’re charged the same when you have two or three as they will when you have 50 or 60. Do you have a nice fixed costs, all software all in one place? Check it out rent ready? arienne t r e vi.com. And if that’s not enough rent, right? giving our listeners a special code you can use to get a whole year rent ready for just $54. Use code RO ck sta r 50 that’s Rockstar 50 instead of for rent raise annual plan at rent ready.com. Again, r e n t r e bi comm with code Rockstar 50 to get rent ready for only $54.

Aaron Amuchastegui  35:29

Eric, one of the things you talked about too, is like knowing that you’re like realizing that as an agent, you’re self employed now. So you don’t have to say yes to the people, if you don’t want to, you could choose to you can choose to work with somebody you don’t want to because you need the money, or because it’s like you can choose to. But you could also choose not to like you get to be the boss. And like you get to be the boss now as you figure out what you want to do, as being self employed. And so I think that that’s such a great part of it as you’re figuring out how you want to do your business when you want to do your business, and kind of that attitude. And then the being yourself No matter what, over the last two years, right? Like since since COVID craziness, like you can’t please everyone no matter what like good if the world is such a wild place, like the and so people are afraid to share any opinion online for risk. Yeah, ruining their career forever. And so if you just be yourself, my wife even had some of the similar stuff. So she’s she runs an Instagram page called the five hour school we’d write big following, been growing like crazy. But one of the problems with that growth at different times is whenever she would share, like, especially over the last year, then she’d share an opinion about something and people would get like, really mad at her, like, Oh, I didn’t know that you actually felt this way politically or something else. So then she’d get really nervous about being herself. And so like, I don’t want to lose followers. I don’t want to lose. So then she just stopped posting anything. She felt like she was afraid to do anything. She took like a month off. And then she came back and started doing it again. And she said you know what, I’m just gonna be myself. Now. She’s grown to 40,000 followers. So she’s grown. She’s sold 10s of 1000s of books like yeah, right now she’s, she’s, she’s crushing it with everything that she does. And her only intention is to help people, right? She doesn’t care if the book sell like she could care less like people are like, sign doing another mastermind, do a book, do something that I can paint up? No, she doesn’t wanna make any money. She wants to provide value. And so then she finally said, You know what, I’m just gonna, I’m not gonna be afraid to share my political opinions anymore. My health opinions anymore. I’m just gonna be who I am. And she did. When it first happened. There was a huge bump where she lost, she probably lost 10% of her people when she said like, Hey, I’m gonna be honest with who I am. I can’t please everybody. And then quickly after she started growing again, we’re like, made up for it. And now everybody that’s there, like, knows her and his her people. And so that being authentic thing can be scary in today’s world. It can be really scary. Because people are ready to take you down. If you voted a different way than them if you disagree with them, if you if you shop at the wrong store. But being authentic wins, wins in the long run

Stephanie Heiser  38:02

every time and I hear. Yeah, I’ve I guess I’ve really never been one to care what people think I’ve always gone against the grain. I’ve always just done my own thing. Obviously, I still have like imposter syndrome. And I’m still always like, I know I think anxiety feels me, it gives me the energy to keep going. But just like being yourself is the easiest thing to do. And it is awesome when

Aaron Amuchastegui  38:35

the hardest and the easiest.

Stephanie Heiser  38:36

Yeah. And then by being yourself. It’s like you have your tribe, then you’re just surrounded by people who resonate with you. And like I’m telling you since I was just like full force. I’m not putting up with crap anymore. I have to protect my mental health and my energy. I need to be mindful about what I’m doing in my life. Like just so many amazing people have come into my life. And just doing this baseball game and looking for charities and that has totally nourished my soul, and given me so much energy and motivation to just keep pushing forward. And there’s absolutely nights where I’m like crying at 3am and wondering what on earth I got myself into, and oh my gosh, people are gonna like see me at my game. And what if like my hair is really frizzy because it’s hot and humid. And then I think like no, an entrepreneur just like found the motivation she needed to launch her new business. Because I have a baseball game like just Visalia love gets to partner with the rock Visalia with kindness rocks, because of this game, like just things can be so much better when you’re just yourself. And then your life is exactly like what you want it to be. Well, the parts you can control,

Aaron Amuchastegui  40:11

being yourself going big during the mix, and you’re changing lives with that it is even cooler when you get to talk about somebody else now being brave enough to start our business at a time because you were cool enough to share the idea as you did it. There a couple other things you want to share. So the Tell me about the land glide land glide app, you said that was one of the text things that you use that you want to tell people about?

Stephanie Heiser  40:32

Yeah, so especially in the desert, and in countries, or in the country properties, it’s super useful to use gland glide, it’s $99. For a year, you type in the parcel number, or the address, and it shows you the owner’s name, their contact information. And it takes the information I’m pretty sure from the tax roll. So it has their mailing address, it has property boundaries, it shows you in real time, like if you want to pull it up while you’re walking a property with your clients that will show you where you are in relation to the property boundaries. And a lot of times, especially for land, I screenshot the aerial view and the boundaries. And a lot of my clients that have purchased property with vacant lots next door, I give them the screenshot of the contact info so they can mail a letter or make a phone call or Facebook stock someone and try to get the lot next door if they want to. It worked for my parents, they got the property next door to them for a lot less than market value.

Aaron Amuchastegui  41:47

Yeah, I can’t imagine that too. Especially you said in that area where people like put a cabin and got five acres like figuring out a lot lines and stuff. Super, super important. I said what are your favorite episodes on your your application and you listed off a gazillion of them. So you already talked about couple you talked about john kennedy. I love john great dude. I met him several times. He’s got a giant family full of girls like I do boys too. But just giant family. Peter Lorimer, that was one of our highest downloaded episodes a 58. You know, the What about Rachel Richards was 929 What did you like about she said,

Stephanie Heiser  42:20

I love money, honey, and Rachel Richards. I just I love following her on Instagram and her community that she has built around financial literacy. And she just puts it in terms that anyone can understand and relate to. And through money, honey, I just felt empowered and learned about how to invest like I got Term Life Insurance, parent life insurance, started investing in stocks have a huge savings for emergencies

Aaron Amuchastegui  42:54

where you got your license or right after you got your license.

Stephanie Heiser  42:56

It was after? Okay. Yeah, and I have Yeah, she was. I was definitely like knee deep in real estate. And oh, his was amazing. But I just wanted to say like, I bought money, honey for lots of my clients. I’ve had 21 year olds, 23 year olds buying their first houses. And I give them the book for their closing gift.

Aaron Amuchastegui  43:23

Oh, cool. Yeah, I had so much fun interviewing her. She had some really great tips too. At the very beginning of like, people are trying to save money. She’s like, Well, no, you just have to earn more like yeah, like you can do so you can it’s so much easier to earn a few $100 extra a week than it is to shave $300 off what your your expenses are. You also had Sam, Debbie onkey and triq l Moosa, both two different two different episodes. He liked anything that came to mind from those.

Stephanie Heiser  43:50

I really loved Sam because she was all about providing value. And I love the thought of providing value. Granted, I have all my ideas and my notebook haven’t actually recorded those videos yet. But like for example, a lot of clients get like kind of freaked out when you suggest that they use a local lender, like they think it’s shady or that you’re getting a kickback be like no, I see how lenders work every single day of my life and those big name lenders charge you so much more in closing costs and will totally leave you with nowhere to go while they extend your escrow another 30 days. I

Aaron Amuchastegui  44:37

learned that early on in real estate how long it took for you know normal stuff like that, like you’ve got like you get a bank of america like well it gives me a better rate and I really want to get this better rate because betters like Yeah, but they will never close. And now that was back in my flipping day. So I don’t talk bad about any lenders but the I’ve definitely had examples where the where there were specific ones. So I was I did a Folks, I just got by accidentally saying a name of one. But anyway, that’s a little funny. Now I could keep talking to you for like an hour, we only have a couple minutes left and the I just love how much value you got to bring to our listeners, especially for how long you and I have been talking. You said your your utility item that you’re that you’re putting in if somebody goes to heibon Digital, if they download the toolbox, you’re putting your escrow board to attract current open escrows for solo agents or team in there. So that’s going to be some fun stuff. The Was there anything else we were supposed to catch? Like? The what was one of my favorite questions is get to, I would say, how did you survive? COVID. But you crushed it through code, like you just got your license right before COVID. And you crushed it. And you just kept going you had more as you had more houses in escrow within a month than you should have had like that’s unfair for I’m sure there’s so many agents right now that are like, come on. They’re like crap, like sad to themselves, because they’ve been in it for six months, I guess you would say do the ads and go for it. But it’s funny to my next question is What advice would you give yourself as a new agent? The hilarious thing is, you’re a new agent, still your 18 months? But what would you have told yourself at month one, or maybe even two weeks? In? What advice would you give yourself that you know, now?

Stephanie Heiser  46:11

Well, I absolutely would have said open and escort I know that, like, not relevant for most people in their first year. But if you think there’s any possibility that you might make three figures in your first year or your second whenever, just get an escort when I went to filing my taxes, you know, I saved my 25% I was prepared, I thought, and like the first CPA told me I owed like literally 50% of my income. And I cried and California. Yeah, like I had a meltdown. I’m like, Why on earth would anyone work this hard just to give all this money away. But saying God, like I talked to lots of super smart agents, I always want to be surrounded with people that are way smarter than me, so I can learn from them. But they’re like, there’s no chance on Earth. That is right, you need a new CPA. So I got a new CPA. And she went through everything with me, and I owed less than the 25% I had saved. So that was awesome. And then she told me you need an S Corp. Because next year when you do even more than this, like you’re going to want to have your business. So now like I’m the president of a corporation, which sounds like way cooler than it actually is. saves me money. Money’s

Aaron Amuchastegui  47:43

definitely hyzers present. If you’re going to make more than 60 grand a year, you should have an escort, that’s a great like, that’s great advice. No one’s given that advice. But the early on, if you’re going to make more than 60,000 a year and escort you will save money on. Because the self employment tax, especially if you’re in one of those states, if you’re in Hawaii, if you’re in California, if you’re in New York, if you’re in one of those states that charges heavy income tax to the individual, also like so in Texas, there’s no personal income tax part of why I’m here instead of California. But the but I remember starting my business in California, it’s great advice, get get an S corp right away, if you’re going to be in real estate one that’s betting on yourself, like every one of you guys should bet you’re going to make more than $65,000 a year as an agent. So they do it commit, say I’m gonna make more than 65,000 a year, because if you’re gonna make more than 65,000 a year, then you’d have an escort, you need to pay yourself payroll, you could hire ADP, or paychecks or any of those like services out there to cut you a check now for, you know, three or $4,000 a month on salaries that President you’re going to save tax money and especially when you get up into 100 grand a year, 200 grand a year, you save an incredible amount of money. I don’t remember what the percentage is, but it’s like an extra 19% on top or an extra 20 of self employment tax. So the so as automatically if you make $65,000 a year and you are not doing an S Corp. They’re gonna charge you 19% off that 65 before they do anything else, just yourself. And if not, don’t sue me for my tax advice. I’m not an attorney. Yeah, sure. Great, great advice. And it cost

Stephanie Heiser  49:16

like 1000 bucks to get an S corp like, Don’t be afraid. I was like, How the heck would I ever do that? But my CPA did it all for me. Well, I had named it hiser home team, because I knew in the future I would have a team. I didn’t know it’d be like a month in the future. But

Aaron Amuchastegui  49:36

yeah, Netflix, ourselves Netflix before the internet really existed. They were like, but someday the internet AOL existed and they’re like, we’re gonna name ourselves Netflix because someday we’re gonna deliver this on the internet and not a DVD 70 I got to I have to close our interview because I’ve got I’ve got a couple interviews today. But I have to be honest, this is the one I was most excited about. We’ve been talking for a while. The I can’t believe how many times I had to encourage Come on to be the be like to come on and share your story. I know you were nervous about wanting to come on because you talked about earlier like this imposter syndrome that we have, but you have absolutely earned your spot at the table. I cannot believe that you’ve had your license less than 18 months. And I get so freaking excited when you say I was not a licensed agent, but I was listening to the podcast to try to see if I should do real estate you were trying to learn before, like so. I don’t know if there’s a better testimonial for why people should be listening. Or if you have heard this and why somebody else should be Stephanie started crushing real estate within her just first few weeks of getting your license, right? Why is that abnormal? It is an abnormal story. But she was studying to be an agent. Long time before she got her license. She was listening to tons of podcasts before she got her license. And so as soon as you got licensed that was like a formality you were already had the mindset you were already off to the races. So it’s like how did you succeed so quickly? Because you’ve already been doing this stuff for six months you’ve been thinking about it you’ve been learning you’ve been strategizing Yeah,

Stephanie Heiser  51:02

it was there and and just you have to do what resonates with you all of these episodes are phenomenal content and some of them I think that’s amazing. Oh never in my life do that I will never cold call I promise you that. But just hearing the people talking about being authentic or leave leaving their six figure job that resonated with me so much and all these ideas about being involved in the community and lifting others up in the abundance mindset. It was just validating it just gave me that confidence I needed to just go dominate. So thank you, thank you.

Aaron Amuchastegui  51:40

How do people get to come find you people are going to be like reaching out I know you call almost everybody I interview on the podcast the How are people going to find you like what’s what’s the way you want people to reach out to you?

Stephanie Heiser  51:48

Well, you can find me on Instagram at hyzer home team, HIS e our home team you could email me at Steph as t p h at hyzer. Home team.com You can call me 55931 for 663 however it works for you I promise I will be ready and willing to help you out and take your referrals and do whatever you need.

Aaron Amuchastegui  52:19

Stephanie, you absolutely crushed it today. Thank you for coming on the show Real Estate Rockstars Thanks for listening.