Agent vs Lender
Agent vs Lender
Doing The Impossible
Adversity is unavoidable in life and in business, but how you deal with it makes all the difference.
How do you deal with adversity?
Realtor Raeanne Stranc went through some incredibly hard losses and trials in 2020. She shares with us how the ways in which she got through her struggles and overcame extreme adversity. 2020 was hard on many, the strategies Raeanne shares are essential to get you back to where you need to be!
You can listen to all episodes of Agent Vs Lender on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Google Play. If you love Agent Vs Lender follow us on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram for all bonus content.
Welcome to another episode of agent versus lender. And today we have Raeanne Stranc with us from Coldwell Banker. It's good to have you here, Raeanne.
Raeanne Stranc:Hi, Ron, how are you doing? I'm doing Yes.
Ron Pippin:I'm doing awesome. Yeah, I'm doing awesome. So, Brandon, why don't you tell us really quickly, just a little about yourself so our listeners can can just know who you are?
Raeanne Stranc:Sure. I've been an agent in Salt Lake for the last 14 years. Um, I got my license back when people were saying, Why are you getting your license it was back when the market was kind of falling apart. And I stuck with it and survived that part of the market and excelled. And I just love what I do every day love working with buyers and sellers. I'm a full service agent. So I have on the more personal side, I have four kids and a husband and I live in Draper,
Ron Pippin:Draper, Utah, just in case.
Raeanne Stranc:Yeah, we don't want to confuse everybody with all the other Drapers.
Ron Pippin:That's right. So ran I've known Ray on for I don't know how many years quite a few years now. Good friend. She's an awesome real estate agent comes with my high endorsement. So and she's done really, really well. But it's not without. It's not without some struggles, too. So let's talk today with Raeanne. About about this past year, about some wins some successes and some struggles that she's had. And maybe that can, and maybe some things that that she's done that that might be able to help you if you're an agent that that you can use in your business as well. So let's talk about let's first start off with so how did your year ago,
Raeanne Stranc:I have a lot of adversity as everyone else this last year and 2020. And looking in hindsight, I also had some successes, and that came through this last year. And I'll just share a couple of those with you if you wanted to.
Ron Pippin:Absolutely Sure. Sure. Well,
Raeanne Stranc:I had closed five deals in January in 2020, I was off to a great start. And I was so excited about it. And I had done the Salt Lake Home Show and had picked up a lot of leads from that. And this my year was just looking great have lots of people in my funnel, all set. Then my dad dies in March, march 13. And so I just put my house, my own house on the market at that time, had done an open house. And that was the week that we had started talking about closing everything down in Utah. And so things were kind of starting to shut down. But I had 20 people show up to my open house, I thought Ah, no big deal. You know, then my dad dies at the end of that week. So I go to Texas first funeral and and then I get a phone call from the agent on my my own listing. And he's like, my client just found out she may be losing her job. And I think we're going to pull out a contract. I don't know what's going to happen, but I'll let you know in a couple of days. And so. So after the funeral that following week, my family's coming back to tech to Utah, from Texas from the funeral. They're in the air, and we have an earthquake, which says they're playing back to Texas. And then they stay another night and then they end up going back out. And it wasn't as horrible as we all thought it was but then I actually had a house that I was selling that it did end up affecting the garage it and it kind of affected the sell a little bit. It's something we had to negotiate later on. But that was something that I had to deal with, that we didn't even know about. So yes, the earthquake did affect things that we didn't know how much at the time.
Ron Pippin:You're when you're talking about this. Sometimes it's I think it's really nice. For us, that's an industry, that side of the fence because you understand what the buyers and sellers are going through.
Raeanne Stranc:Yes, they have lives too. I mean, they're dealing with their kids, they're dealing with everything all while trying to get their house ready to sell. And so I so I get that phone call at the end of The week, yes, we're gonna cancel contracts. Here we are, we're full. We're full fledged in COVID. Everything's shut down in our, you know, our, in our state and our county anyway. And all restaurants are no one knows what's going on, you know, everything's questionable. And then my daughter says to me, why do we have our house on the market I have, she had an immune disorder, she still does. And so we were dealing with that. And I just thought maybe we should just pull it off the market. So we ended up pulling my house off the market, which I'm gonna get back to you because that actually has a big point in in my whole story. So. So then at the end of the week, I get back and I find out my sister has terminal cancer. And I'm like, I have just got to stay busy. I, you know, I'm going to deal with this, I'm going to go back and visit I actually went back to Texas seven times last year, I traveled like crazy during COVID. And I just kept up my vitamins, I took my zinc, my D, my C, I wore my masks, I wash my hands all the time. I've washed our hands when we came in the house, we did, we did everything. And just basically tried to stay busy during all that because I couldn't be thinking about her. It's different when it's a sibling. And you know, you have that going on a parent, you expect that and you know, you're prepared for that in a way, especially if they've had health issues. But when it comes to a sibling, it's totally different Ron. So um, it was kind of interesting, because Do you remember the song watermelon sugar high? Oh, it's by Harry Styles and it, it was kind of like my song I would go to that with like, maybe forget about everything it was it was just a happy, it's not such it's not very nice. If you go back and you listen to it, you're kind of like, my kids probably shouldn't be listening to this song. But I love that song. And it really carried me through because it just kept me up and just made me think of all these great times, you know, when I was a kid with my sister and everything, so it was kind of like my go to song. And then I'll circle around to that later. But also has an end in my story. Um, but anyway, so I dealing with all this adversity and I thinking I I just need to work. Now I came across this saying that is by Francis of Assisi. And it goes something like this, start doing what's necessary, then do what's possible. And then suddenly, you're doing the impossible. And I love that. And I stuck to it. And I ended up having a fantastic year. I'm even though I was dealing with all this.
Ron Pippin:Good for you. You know, sometimes it's not how many times you get knocked down. But how many times you get back up?
Raeanne Stranc:Exactly. Exactly. And so things just kept falling down. But I just kept persevering. And, for instance, shortly after we found out my sister had cancer, we had a fire on our mountain. And it actually happened in Lehi, but it was a at the top. And on the other side of that mountain is where I live on South Mountain in Draper. So it was literally in our backyard. And as fires go, you never know, you know what direction they're the wind is going to take it, you know how out of control it's going to get how many miles it's going to destroy. And so I okay, you know, we got through that. And, and thank goodness, the houses in Lehi were untouched. It did destroy quite a bit of land, but I mean, thank goodness, you know, they were able to control that fire because there were houses like I mean, not even probably 100 yards away. I mean, it was really close to those homes. So um, so that was just another thing and, and I hate to count all the bad things, but you kind of have to look at that and say, I survive that we survive this, you know. And then after that my sister did pass away at the end of June. And um, you know it with funerals, springs, great times with your family, you get to go see them. You get to see people you haven't seen in a long time. And so even It was kind of interesting because my dad's funeral was the first was the last funeral that they held in Texas. And my sisters was it within that first week that they have funerals back up. So we were really blessed to be able to celebrate their lives and not have to put that on hold, because I know a lot of people had to go without last year. Um, but anyways, went through her funeral and celebrated her life and, and then just kind of moved on from there. So I had a lot of adversity.
Ron Pippin:Well, I was gonna say that that was, that was a lot in short in a short amount of time you had a ton. So how did you get through all this?
Raeanne Stranc:Yeah, so I just really dove down, got into my work, and, um, ate a lot.
Ron Pippin:Like all of us.
Raeanne Stranc:You know, I am an emotional eater. And I just I really did, I ate a lot. But, um, and it was interesting, because after the earthquake, it gave me an opportunity to go back and follow my client. And that's exactly what I did was when I came back from my dad's funeral, I just got on the phone, and I called every client I've ever done a transaction with and, and friends as well, and just said, Hey, you know, what was the earthquake, like, for you? And I had some people that were so fine with it, they're like, Oh, it was okay. And then I had people that, you know, really had some problem with it. So, um, it was just interesting to be able to go back and visit with them and get their take on it, see how they were doing? And and just catch up? So
Ron Pippin:it's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, having taking the opportunity to get hold of your past clients, those, it's a golden opportunity. Because sometimes when you're, when you call past clients, sometimes you don't know what to say to them. And so things like that are perfect opportunities to reach out to our past database, because most of us, don't talk to them. Very often. And I'm sure you've heard that most people would use the realtor again, but most don't. And it's not because they wouldn't, it's just that they forgot who they were,
Raeanne Stranc:I would have to say, there are a lot of realtors, especially new realtors that don't know how to proceed with that. And I mean, I'll be I'm guilty of that. I'm not anymore, I would say 90% of my clients come from referrals from my soI, from past clients, and from my past clients coming back to me, and doing repeat business. And I really owe that to keeping up with them. And I do client events. I give them Christmas gifts every year. Some people, some other agents like to give gifts at other times of the year, because everybody's been barded with Christmas gifts and cards at Christmas time. But I don't know, I'm just kind of traditional, maybe I'll change that up later. But that's just something that I really like to do. I do a magazine that I send out to my clients every month, just as a reminder, I try to call them once a quarter and and then I definitely do an event so that I can see them and usually have a really good response to my event. So
Ron Pippin:that's awesome. So were you able to do events?
Raeanne Stranc:we you know, what, we had it all lined up and paid for to do Milan. And we were I think we were scheduled like March 23. It was like the week after it came out. And we had to cancel that of course, because, you know, that was another reason I had to call them you know, we were canceling our, our event and you know, people were disappointed, but they totally got it. And at that time, everything was so new to the to the closing their postings that they were kind of like, well, we kind of figured we everything was so uncertain at that time. They just didn't know what to expect. So, but that to calling clients actually had two clients that were from New York, and it was interesting to call them and talk to them about, you know, their family and what they were dealing with in New York. And so that that was good feedback to kind of hear and, and I really expected like them to, like have these horror stories, but they were like, no, everything's fine. Everything's good. And all of our family's doing great New York, they're staying safe. And so it was interesting to get that, that take on it.
Ron Pippin:So all this you still made you sounds like you still able to find success and throughout all of this stuff. And so part of that was reaching out to your clients.
Raeanne Stranc:Did and then I listed quite a few properties last year, and I was really careful, I probably was one of the first people to have open houses, you know, back when we found out, you know, that we were considered, you know, people that could continue doing our business. And so I would like put a COVID sign outside on the door, I would have hand sanitizer wet wipes my hand sanitizer would gp missing. And, you know,really start, you really start to appreciate those little things, you know, the toilet paper, the hand sanitizer, the whites and everything, when, when you're going through something like that. And, and so I would have all that outside the door. And and then I would have like foot covers, and I would only let if it was like a Rambler, and it was small, I would only let one group, you know, group like family downstairs, well, another person's upstairs, and then I would rotate them out. And so that first open house, which was at the end of March, I actually had about 24 groups come in. And yeah, and I received 11 offers on that as well. So, you know, you just learned how to deal with it and not to be afraid, and, and just continue on following all the procedures that were expected by the state. And, and that's what I did.
Ron Pippin:So what, what other tools did you use? Mainly, I sounds like a lot of your it's your soI, you're calling people. You had the normal database of follow up stuff. When I say normal, it's actually abnormal, because most people don't follow up with their database. But which is why a lot of people, including myself, in the past, have lost a lot of people. But so you, you saw the things that sounds like you were doing keeping a touch of database by calling them and you're giving, keeping in touch with them through events and keeping in touch with them through holidays, Christmas. And so is there are there any other tools that you use that that that maybe sets you apart?
Raeanne Stranc:I do, I don't know if it sets me apart, because I know a lot of agents do this, but I I also call expireds and for sale by owners, and especially the for sale by owners at that time, because the last thing they wanted to do was invite someone into their home. You know, that was scary to them. So for me to be able to say, let me do this for you. I'm not afraid I'll set boundaries, we'll we'll do this in a safe manner. And this is how we'll do it. And I outlined that. And they were able to understand it and comply. And we had successful, you know, transactions because of
Ron Pippin:Oh, so I'm gonna circle back to something else earlier that you were talking about. So you had through the loss of family. How did you find how did you find the How did you find enough strength to get up and just start going again? I mean, when you lose a parent and then a sister and then you have all these other weird things that are happening? I mean, that's enough to just put somebody down so how did Where did you? Where did you dig? I'm assuming you just dug deep Oh, where did you find that from?
Raeanne Stranc:I did dig deep I'm I just really reached out to my clients. And you know, it's it's funny because your clients really become your family and they become your close friends when you are a person that um is from out of state and all my family's in Texas and so it's not like I can run over to them and talk to them. You when you are from out of state and you Although I've been here 20 years, your your roots aren't here. And so your friends and your clients do become your your family and friends and so I think that I just really relied on them. And and then I just drove into my dove into my business and and then on the tail end of that. Looking back I had done um 9.6 million and in transactions last year about 28 transactions. I mean, you know, and and I had some personal goals. When I got halfway through the year I'm like, wow, I might be able to make the top 500 realtors do not like well that would be kind of cool and I missed it last year by probably. I think 800,000 is what I missed it by Last year or the year before, for 2019. So it was kind of my goal. And then this year, this last year in 2020, I missed it by 40,000, you had to have done 10 million. And I was like thinking if I just sold my own house that would have been one more,
Ron Pippin:though to circle back.
Raeanne Stranc:Back, I
Ron Pippin:circled back to your house, because I think you were gonna say something about Yes,
Raeanne Stranc:that is exactly what I was gonna say. So, but I'm not letting that fail me this this year, I have decided that my goals are more personal, like, you know, paying off my house and not necessarily setting goals to be top 500 if I make it that's just icing on the cake. But now my goals are more you know, money oriented, like this is how much I want to earn you know that and, and not worry so much about the growth and numbers and being taught blah, blah. And I missed are like this one thing that Coble banker has I missed that by 30,000. You know, so I think that was just God's way of telling me it's not always, it's not always about what I want. It's about what I need. And I certainly am thankful for everything that I received last year. So
Ron Pippin:so there was one other thing that you had mentioned, it was a song.
Raeanne Stranc:Oh, okay, Harry Styles, song. Whatever. Hi. So now when I hear it, I get sad. So funny how a song can like make you so happy. And then now it like it. I'm tearing up now. It kind of makes it makes me sad. When I go back to it, you know that? It's okay. It was a it was medicine for me then and, and now it's just a reminder of last year, and at the end of the year, I decided to go on a diet, and it's just a lifestyle, you know, diet and stuff. And I hope I can keep up throughout my life. And I've lost 37 lost more than that. But by the end of the year, I've lost 37 pounds. And so, and that again was like another success. So even though you know, not all of our successes are monetary, you know, I'm I'm so I'm blessed. I'm successful that my kids and my family are healthy. And I'm and I lost that way. But that just brings me back to the very end of last year. You want to hear what happened?
Ron Pippin:I do. I'm sure everybody is gonna want to
Raeanne Stranc:put it that way. So we took a four day trip back to Texas for Christmas. And it was it was only four days. And I had planned it because my kids and my husband work and have young adults as children. And so you know, wanted to get them back to work on Monday. And my son was actually exposed to COVID. But we can before we left. And then over the weekend, he and his girlfriend kept saying, oh, we're not feeling great. You know, we're kind of feeling weird. And, you know, they're 18. You know, they're, they're young, so they don't they didn't feel the symptoms like someone else would at our age Ron. So, so I had him tested on Monday, he tested negative, and I hadn't tested on Wednesday when we flew out and he was negative. Okay, then Christmas Eve was Thursday, and he started showing symptoms, he started reading fever. Then on Christmas day Friday, it full of fever. But it wasn't super high. It was like 101. And so my husband took him in, turn off, he had COVID already had my 82 year old mother, he already had my entire family. And we'd already flown on a plane which we followed all the rules where the mask, start hands that kind of thing on and then he spent like all day Christmas upstairs over a balcony, opening up his gift. He's still with us, but he was like far far away, and you know, a level on their juice story. And, um, you know, we had a great Christmas. And we were like, okay, we're gonna drive home. So we took the car that we'd rented while we were in Texas and we just drove it straight back. And we all rode the car with him. He wore a double mask, because he insisted on it. No one else wore masks, and no one else got COVID so we are we were blessed that you know, he was the only one that got it and his symptoms were you know pretty minimal and Yeah, so that was the last tragedy of our year. Thank goodness. But um, yeah, we did survive COVID.
Ron Pippin:So 2019 or 2020 2020 was a year that you are glad to have behind you. So how's 2021 looking?
Raeanne Stranc:2020 one's looking great. I have I just close to here in April, and I have two more pending to close in April. So I'm excited. And I hope everybody has a successful year this year. There's there's no reason why we can't I mean, we just need to just get in there and see opportunity be fluid.
Ron Pippin:Yeah. Amen. Amen to that. That's you. I hope we all have great years. And that's a that's really inspiring story. It's just like somebody that has just been kicked a lot. And through it all, you continue to get up and you continue to fight. And, and you made it through it. So So congratulations to that. That's a an inspiring story for all of us.
Raeanne Stranc:Yes, I'm glad 2020 hindsight for sure.
Ron Pippin:Well, is there anything else that you any words of wisdom you want to leave with us before we before we wrap this up?
Raeanne Stranc:I just want to say everybody get out there, do your best. And you can do it. Don't let things hold you back. And, again, be fluid. I think in this industry agents have to be I know it's a tough industry right now with with the buyers. I mean, I definitely from the from probably march on, I was dealing with a lot of multiple offer situations with my buyers and I lost two buyers last year because they were they had written so many offers with me that they were just like, we need to take a break. And they've come back this year. But you know, we're still in that same market. So I'm doing things to kind of work around that and not have to deal so much with multiple offers. And so yeah, cool.
Ron Pippin:Awesome. So if somebody wanted to get hold of Howard, what's a good way for them to reach you?
Raeanne Stranc:Well, they can certainly call me on my numbers. 801-888-4525 It looks like a toll free number. But I think I have our time when I'm like cold calling people because I think they're scared to pick up the phone because they see the ad get a little fearful, but it's not funny number. Um, and you can certainly reach out to me on my website, got Utah houses.com I emails on there as well. So
Ron Pippin:cool. Thanks so much Raeanne. I appreciate talking to you. And I appreciate you. Being willing to just give back to your community and to you know, our real estate community and just just inspiring people to do their best. I appreciate that. Yeah, you're
Raeanne Stranc:certainly welcome. Thanks for having me on
Ron Pippin:You're welcome. And if you want to get hold of me or Ron. my team, you can call us at 801-628-7667 and if you would be so kind to leave us a review on on Apple or on Stitcher, five stars. We love those. Feel free to do that as well. And we'll talk to you next time on agent versus lender.