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June marks my tenth year in real estate. To switch things up this year, I’m going to report what I can remember from each year. I find each year in real estate has at least one significant or impactful lesson to teach us. So here we go!
Year 1 (2011):
Lessons: Relationships matter. Be good to those that are good to you. Walk away from those that just don’t appreciate you. The majority of my business this year came from ComFree listings (before they were a licensed brokerage – which means I wasn’t breaking any rules). I had many hang up on me, but those that agreed to list with me turned out to be wonderful clients that I still work with today.!
Sold 12 homes this year.
Fun story from this year: Sold my first acreage (72+ acres)
Year 2 (2012):
Lessons: Relationships matter (again). Started to learn about the importance not only of keeping in touch with clients throughout the process of their home buying/selling process, but long after as well. Many of the clients I worked with in 2012, I am still in touch with today.
Sold 38 homes this year.
Fun story from this year: One of the homes I sold had bullet holes in the side of it.
Year 3 (2013)
Lessons: Not all sales are happy sales. Sold homes for clients that had previously bought in a happy time, but were now selling for sad reasons (death, divorce, job loss). This career is full of ups and downs, and our job is to help people navigate our clients through the good times and bad.
Sold 47 homes this year.
Fun story from this year: I sold my own house this year. Still regret it today (would have kept it as a rental)
Year 4 (2014)
Lessons: The importance of pricing (and ownership of bad pricing). I had more listings expire this year than ever in my career. Sometimes it is scary to have conversations about pricing with sellers – you don’t want to offend them, particularly if you were wrong. Learning how to have those difficult discussions became paramount this year.
Sold 66 homes this year.
Fun Story: I had more homes expire this year than sold. This line was super embarrassing and cringe-worthy for me to write!
Year 5 (2015)
Lessons: Have a plan A, a plan B, and a plan C! From selling another personal residence, to having a slightly softer market, it became paramount to formulate multiple plans for selling.
Sold 93 homes this year.
Fun Story: Logan and I had purchased a former (remediated) grow-op before I was in the business and chose to sell it in 2015. We “sold” it three times before our third cash buyer came along and was able to close. We also welcomed our first child this year.
Year 6 (2016)
Lessons: Remember your “why”. After the birth of our daughter, Everly, work-life balance started to become more important. Parenthood also really emphasized the motivations for why families choose to move. I thought I “got it” before, but I don’t think I fully understood the brain of a parent until I was one.
Sold 62 homes this year (maternity leave for four months).
Fun Story: I negotiated a complete deal at a table with clients while nursing a poopy baby. Thank you to the lovely family that encouraged me to bring my baby along… your kindness and acceptance of my situation meant a lot to me.
Year 7 (2017)
Lessons: Be confident in your value proposition and the advice you give. Stand firm in it and don’t back down.
Sold 107 homes this year.
Fun Story: I was pregnant (again) this year. I also had to cancel an open house due to an incident of domestic violence as a bunch of walls and doors had been punched through. Sad all around.
Year 8 (2018)
Lessons: The best interest of your clients always come before your own. There were a couple of sales this year that involved careful consideration of a clients’ position. Whether it be helping with some home renovations, doing some pro-bono work, or just advising not to buy or sell, there were a multitude of situations and reasons this year that warranted a different kind of care.
Sold 75 homes this year.
Fun Story: We welcomed our second child, Blaine this year. He has a very piercing scream that would challenge the strongest eardrum. I made many calls from my sunroom even when it was -30 outside just so I could sound “professional”.
Year 9 (2019)
Lessons: The importance of a team. Amy was off for most of this year as she was taking maternity with her son, Gavin. So, we ended up hiring Ashton and Carrie both in late 2018. Learning to grow and work as a team was so paramount to our future success. We really missed Amy’s presence and were so happy to have her back toward the end of 2019.
Sold 154 homes this year.
Fun Story: Started listing my first luxury properties (or what I consider luxury property)… SOOO much fun to market!
Year 10 (2020)
Lessons: What we need, is really quite simple. The year of COVID… where what was highlighted was the importance of such basic necessities – health, family, shelter and love. We thought that real estate would be dead and that we would need to buckle down for a tough year. It turned out to be the exact opposite, with record sales.
Sold 168 homes this year.
Fun Story: I gave birth to our third child in June of 2020… and was negotiating in between contractions. The poor agent on the other side of the transaction was so uncomfortable with this that he called my broker for the transaction. I may have sent out a DocuSign for signatures from the hospital bed…
Well, there you have it, 10 years of lessons, sales, teamwork, amazing clients, and so much joy from this profession. No two days are alike and I wouldn’t have it any other way! Thanks for reading this far!! I look forward to another 10 years
#AgentJen
Jennifer Queen
Phone: (204) 797-7945
Email: Jennifer@JenniferQueen.com
Where to go for a pre-approval? The best answer is to do a little research. Most places will do a pre-approval for free, but not all. You can get a pre-approval from almost any financial institution. Banks, credit unions and mortgage brokers will be more than happy to entertain taking you on as a client. If you need some names and places give us a call and we can direct you to someone who will help. Keep in mind this can get in depth. They are planning on giving you a significant amount of dough so they are going to ask for a lot of documentation and background info. Don’t worry about what is in your financial past, it is better to be honest than to get a mortgage you can’t afford.
My best advice in this is to be honest with whoever you talk to. Telling an agent you are working with someone when you are not doesn’t really help anyone. If you are looking on your own and are not yet represented then say so. You don’t need to be scared about telling the truth. At the end of the day we all want to make good working relationships and not everyone will mesh with every agent. There is someone out there who you are going to feel will best represent your interests. Tell the agent you are just starting your search and you are not ready to commit to anyone specifically. Ask for a business card and if you like how they interacted with you, maybe you will ask them to represent you.
5. WRITE AN OFFER!
#AgentLogan
Any soft surface in your home is likely holding a ton of the smell. Get your carpets steam cleaned by a professional. Let them know in advance that you are trying to eliminate a smoke smell, as they often have special mixes for circumstances such as these. Pull down those drapes, wash them if you can. If you can’t, air them outside for a few days. Hard surfaces still need to be washed too – wood banisters, metal décor or light fixtures, etc. can all be wiped down with a mixture of vinegar and water. 
You don’t have to be a great baker, to get some amazing scents. While buyers seem to find chemical or odour-covering sprays offensive, they do tend to respond positively to baking-scented candles (vanilla scents are usually very safe). Alternatively, a little bit of vanilla extract put in an oven-safe dish with a bit of water, and then baked for just half an hour will create some delicious (and believable) scents! Better yet, buy a roll of Pillsbury cookie dough and bake half a dozen cookies before each showing. Bonus points if you leave them on the table for your favourite agent!
This product can be purchased at Home Hardware and Giant Tiger in Canada. It can also be purchased online through Amazon. It is often used for fire restoration procedures, and works. It is sprinkled on to surfaces (soft and hard). Always do a test spot before putting it on any fabrics though!
I have had clients that had success with this product in the past, however be forewarned. You set off the fogger, and need to leave the house for a period of time. I believe in their case it was 2 days, which was fine as they were moving into the home from an apartment. When you return home, the smells are supposed to be gone. They said they could smell chlorine, but that was about it. For a 1700 square foot home, they set off six and had great success. They did think it was slight overkill and think they could have gotten away with setting only four off. Be careful not to leave them directly on carpet. In my clients’ case, there was a nasty bleach-looking stain left behind where they left one of the boxes directly on the carpet. Their advice was to place a plate under them. They can be purchased online. Biocide’s online description: Room Shocker exclusively uses the revolutionary ClO2-DMG Technology that delivers the super odor eliminating power of chlorine dioxide, also known as ClO2. ClO2 is a gas that can penetrate deeper and more effectively than non-gas products. The ClO2 molecules are attracted to the negatively charged odor molecules like a magnet is to iron. It seeks them out and destroys them like a smart bomb. Whether you are dealing with the foul odor of cigarettes, skunks, pets, paint, vomit, urine, rotten food, fish, mildew, mold or even chemicals, Room Shocker will eliminate it permanently.
These can be controversial as they are removing the smoke from the air, but leaving their own carcinogens behind. If all your hard labor didn’t remove the smoke odor as much as you would like, it’s time to bust out the big guns and follow the lead of restoration companies. You can call restoration companies and ask to rent one directly from them. You will usually need to rent it for a couple of days. Alternatively, you can purchase one – but they aren’t cheap! These machines emit ozone molecules that attach themselves to the surfaces in the room. These machines should only be run in empty rooms, away from humans and pets, and be sure to air your house out after running them.
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