Real Tea Podcast – Season 3: Episode 3

Welcome to the Real Tea Podcast, brought to you by Tennessee REALTORS® and sponsored by Rural 1st, “helping you live closer to what matters.” I’m your host, Angela Shields. This podcast is created for Tennessee REALTORS® to get the “tea” on all things real estate in Tennessee. We’ll bring you engaging conversations with esteemed guests and the real estate industry and cover a wide array of topics, including current events, governmental affairs, education, and legal updates.

–––

Angela Shields (AS): All right, welcome to the Real Tea. I am so excited today because we have Debra Beagle joining us today. Welcome, Debra.

Debra Beagle (DB): Thank you, Angela. I’m excited to be here.

AS: I am so excited to have you join us. Debra is the is the CEO, Managing Broker and co-owner of the Ashton Real Estate Group of Remax Advantage. And I know you are super busy just with that alone.

You are also so involved at your local association of REALTORS®, at the state association, and at the national association. Let alone what we’re here to talk about today, which is the, RRC and we’re going to get to that in just a minute. Okay. So, I know you’ve seen the Real Tea because we’ve talked about that but we have our anytime we have a new guest, we have our traditional question.

So you have to be expecting this.

DB: Okay, yeah.

AS: So we’re called the Real Tea and we always ask our first time guest, “What do you take in your tea cup?”

DB: What do I–

AS: Today I know you’re taking water.

DB: I’m taking water today. But in my tea–and I love camomile tea–I’ll put in just a little bit of honey. Actually, I’ll have little honey stir sticks that I’ll just let it melt and stir in the tea, so…

AS: And honey is so good for your throat time of the year.

DB: It’s sweet and warm.

AS: Yeah, love it. Absolutely, love it. Okay, so as I mentioned, you do so much and I just think that is fantastic for somebody who is as busy as you are to give back to your associations.

DB: Yeah.

AS: Before we start talking about RRC and what all of that is, I want to ask you the question: First of all, how do you do it, but second of all, why do you give back to the REALTOR® organizations?

DB: So, and as REALTORS®, we know–you know, when we get busy and we just get the job done. So, I’ve always come from a space of giving and serving and that kind of was instilled in me at a young age. My mom and my family came over from Cuba, you know, many years ago. Not by choice. It was–they had their homes taken away from them, their businesses. My grandmother feared for my mom’s life and put her on a plane to Miami out of Havana with just the dress she had on. She had to leave her dog behind. When my family came to the–to this country, it was those around them that gave and work ethic, never taking anything for granted and and helping others.

You know we–I am where I am today because of people that had given opportunities and time to me and that’s just been ingrained from a young age. And I remember as a young girl, you know, and our first–the REALTOR® that helped us buy our, you know, our first home and how impactful that was to live the American dream of homeownership and those that helped. And I’m here today because of that. And from when I first got my real estate license, I actually was a commercial. I did commercial transaction. Originally, no, my degree was in chemistry. I was an environmental consultant and I did the due diligence on in commercial transactions on the environmental with legal and financial and then eventually rolled into residential.

My mother kept saying, you would be so good at residential real estate. And  I wish I had started it at a younger age because it truly was the right fit for me and to be able to offer homeownership to others, so…

AS: I love your story and have had the opportunity to hear it several times when you’ve talked about advocacy in particular.

DB: Yeah.

AS: And it’s so obvious that you use that passion for real estate for where you came from, where your family came from, and you are genuine when you talk about it because you understand how important homeownership is.

And I know we’re not here to talk about advocacy today but I think it is so important.

DB: And this is Angela, and this is for everyone listening out there–you know, it’s the recipe and the ingredients of truly, what is the the very best real estate advisor in the business and it’s it’s now more important than ever. And I look back, the first committee that I sat on at the local level, was RPAC.

You know, it was an hour a month. And investing in our industry and homeownership and–and that path coupled with education, which I know we’re going to talk about, the Residential Real Estate Council but it is that ingredients. It’s the recipe. It is serving, being involved, advocating for homeownership at the highest level of education and service.

So when you mix that all up, you know, as a new agent out there, if you’re listening to this or even–and I’m seeing it more and more now to agents that have been in the business a long time, they’re finally coming back and leaning in and investing in RPAC and and completing their CRS. They have the transaction now and now they’re and they’re adding to their education to be at the front of where this industry is going right now.

AS: That is a great segue and so let’s jump in to that. So, we hear the acronyms all the time.

DB: Yeah.

AS: The the real estate industry I think is full of acronyms. And so, you are with one of the institute society and councils. We are so excited because you are serving as President-Elect. You will be serving as President next year. But you just mentioned it as the Residential Real Estate Council–RRC–and they have designations, they have education, but.

DB: We have it all.

AS: Right. So tell us a little bit about this institute and, society council. What they are, what they’re made of, why they are there and what they can do for the members.

DB: And we are a REALTOR® organization.

AS: Yes.

DB: And you know, our the gold standard in real estate which is the CRS, the Certified Residential Specialist. And to achieve that, that’s through education and productivity. You know, 60 transactions. Now we have agents that are working towards their 60 transactions. They have joined the council and they are getting their classes done but again, this is that recipe that I talk about, the mix, the– It’s not just getting letters after your name and adding, it is truly showcasing the highest level of professional in the business that’s committed to providing the highest level of service and leading the industry where the top 2% of REALTORS® and a million and a half REALTORS® in education and productivity.

So, it’s it’s something to strive for. I think now more than ever with AI coming into play and the consumer having a lot of access to information, the advisor, the top level advisor with the most skills and experience is more valuable than ever. There’s a lot of stuff in–I just spoke to the Women’s Council of REALTORS® yesterday, as a matter of fact, on the [winter] storm.

And I want to touch on this because I was following you on Facebook and and this was at the end of January. My home was without power for 11 days.

AS: Oh, that’s more than I had.

DB: We had 80 some transactions that were closing that last week in January. We had 36 that we had to move into February. We had, you know–it wasn’t–the discussion wasn’t coming at us like, you know, interest rates or all the other stuff happening in the headlines, it was, “Where do we go? What do we do? We have movers. We have–can we close on houses without power?” These were conversation. We had some buyers that wanted to close without–it’s not like the power’s not on. It’s–the power is not connected. It’s been taken down.

So, you know, that is where the true professional steps in and solves problems and handholds. It’s not, you know–and what are they going to do about their rate locks? There were a lot, you know, the movers were scheduled, the hotels were full. There was no where to stay if they couldn’t close. So there were a lot of things that we helped manage that I can’t right. You know, and that’s where the professional that is resourceful and and has the skill set and the knowledge and the resources to maneuver through storms is truly valuable right now.

AS: Yeah. It’s–it really is about that human touch and it that proof of it right there that–I love that you said that that AI cannot do those things. Such a good point. So we were talking earlier–and I loved what you told me–you were talking about that Tennessee has one of the largest concentration of CRSes.

DB: We compete up there with the Floridas and the Californias and the Texases–we’re at the top in agents getting their CRS. We have a very active RRC state organization and that’s partnered with Tennessee REALTORS®, Greater Nashville, a lot of the boards across the state, so–which I think is important across the board. We just had one of the CRS instructors come into Greater Nashville in January and our state president, Chris Garrett came in and got his–the certification in for that class, so-but, you know, again, Tennessee, even I think, what, 38,000 REALTORS® we have?

AS: A little less.

DB: Some of these other states that have hundreds of thousands of REALTORS® and yet we always are at the top when it comes to education and leaning in to being the best.

AS: One of the things that I love seeing the CRS group, too, is they mentor and they really try to network with our YPN and it’s it’s just so nice to see them kind of reaching and helping the younger generation and showing them the way and I love seeing that.

DB: Yeah. And we started–the next gen, also next generation group with within the Residential Real Estate Council. And surprisingly, out of our almost 200 agents, I have 52 under the age of 30 and I have three that have earned their CRS, so–very, very proud of those agents that, you know, they already have the transactions, they got the education. They saw the value of being able to talk to their clients and say, “I’m at the highest level in the industry as a professional at an under 30 age.”

AS: That’s amazing.

DB: It is amazing.

AS: Right. So what are some of the benefits if you belong to RRC? What are some of the benefits, some of the networking teachings that you do?

DB: And that, you know, when we look at the Residential Real Estate Council and our pillars, you know, we are a global organization and truly a great networking organization. I think, you know, when you go to refer someone to another part of the country, I always–I mean, I go to see CRS.com and find a CRS because I want to work with someone in another city that believes in our industry at the level that I do.

So, and again, my business has grown by being a member of the organization and in Tennessee, we, you know, we don’t have a state income tax here. So a lot of people moving here. So making those connections outside the state and knowing, you know, and having the incoming referrals as well as the outgoing referrals, that’s a huge network.

And then again, the courses that we’re offering through RRC are, you know, we’re always, bringing in new looking at where the market is right now and offering the education that’s relevant for the industry at that moment in time.

AS: Yeah. Okay. So Debra, you mentioned that by being a member of RRC that you have that huge referral network, are there other things that you see once somebody has the CRS that they benefit from obtaining that designation?

DB: Well, Angela, one of the biggest things with becoming and earning your CRS designation is your income increases. You know, our CRS is 4 to 5x in income of a regular REALTOR®.

AS: Oh, wow.

DB: Yeah, it’s considerable. It’s six figures. But again, we look at the agents that earn their CRS, they have 60 transactions, they have all of the continuing education. They’ve got the best referral network in the country. So, incoming and outgoing clients coming in, that increases your, your income level. So it is proven those with the CRS earn more than the average REALTOR®.

AS: So it’s a big investment.

DB: It’s a big investment in your business and your return on committing to being a CRS–your return income is substantial.

AS: And so, just so that somebody is not being unrealistic, when you set out to get your CRS on average, how long would it take?

DB: So I’m seeing and I mentioned we have three of our 52 agents that are under 30. You know, they’ve been in the business four years, five years. But again, you have to have 60 transactions and they earned them last year or the year before. So it was a–they were about three to four years, 20 plus transactions a year, which is, you know, what’s the NAR average is four. 

AS: Yeah, so they’re busy. And really taking it as a full-time job and getting up–

DB: They’re committed to it–

AS: –hitting the ground running.

DB: But it is a–I mean they’re six figures and highly successful agents. Making the commitment to earning the CRS does drive your financial success as well.

AS: That’s fantastic. Yeah. I know that you all have, conferences.

DB: We do.

AS: Right.

DB: We have celebration coming up in Dallas. We held it here in Nashville last year and it was a huge success. I loved having it in Nashville. Can we just do it in Nashville every year? It’s so fun. But yeah, this year we will be in Dallas, Texas, September 19th, 20th and 21st. So, at the Fairmont Hotel.

Yeah. Hopefully? Not that one– Yes. Fairmont Hotel in Dallas. And it’s a two day with the third day. Pre-conference is eight hours of continuing education. If somebody wanted to come and get the hours. And then, you know, it’s 1,000 of the top agents in the country to network and lean into education and community.

AS: That’s great. So let’s let’s switch gears and talk about your service as a leader. What are some of the things that you see coming up on the horizon for RRC?

DB: You know, we this is our 50th anniversary of the Council this year. 2026 is 50 years of the Residential Real Estate Council and I’m truly excited for the future because I feel we are at a moment in time where we have opportunity to really lead the industry. I was fortunate last week at at President Circle at RPAC to have a dinner with Nykia Wright and Sherri Kress and talk about ways to do some more in the future as far as how education plays into at the highest level of our REALTOR® organization. So I’m excited about that. But it definitely, I think, showing the value and being on this podcast with you–Thank you for having me and us here. It’s because it’s getting the word out that, if you truly want to be educated at the highest level and be around top professionals in a community organization that where everybody thinks that way, at a high level of productivity, the Residential Real Estate Council is a great place to be.

AS: Some of the topics that you might find as part of that education would be what type of topics?

DB: Well, we all know AI. If you know my business partner, Gary Ashton and I, Gary is a tech guru for 20 years and he brings in a lot of new tech into our company. So, we’re beta testing a lot of stuff and so, a lot of the tech companies right now that did one specific thing are now adding more and more like, “We can do more, we can we can, we can do it all.”

So when you have different platforms out there that are changing daily with what they can offer, making the decisions is it is there redundancy there in your tech stack is, you know, there there’s so much out there that the AI is giving you and the ability. Staging for example, you know, we use a company to stage–virtually stage some of our vacant properties. You can now do that for free in ChatGPT. I mean, you can tell it and it will do it, which is interesting. There’s there’s just so much available out there to–I think there’s a plethora of education, different types, and you can do small nuggets of education.

But again, I think, you know, the Residential Real Estate Council, it is a true REALTOR® organization that offers and covers a lot of the different topics. And your question, though, what are some of the topics, especially in the field that I’m seeing right now? Probate is huge, huge, huge, huge. And we brought an instructor in specifically for our company last fall to talk about probate, you know, death, divorce certification. That was January. That was another big one. Luxury is a huge one. I’m looking forward to bringing in our CRS instructor for luxury here hopefully this summer. I think those are obviously social media marketing ways to do things faster, easier, quicker. And–but there’s a lot of different options out there right now.

AS: And I think just hearing you, it’s almost mind boggling how much there is to learn that you almost have to continue to stay up on things because just to your point about technology, it changes so much.

DB: And it’s in the last ten years, I haven’t seen the rate of change with technology other than the last eight months, like eight months, ten years worth of advanced service. So, there’s another company that we just, partnered with last year that we’re using internally that’s just every time I log in, I see more and more and new stuff in–It is Shiloh, which is 24/7 coaching that’s integrated into our CRM. So the agent immediately can–they– everything gets reviewed for them to see, to help coach them to be better. So that and the data that’s coming, I mean, it’s just it is mind boggling it at how much is out there now to help make us better, more efficient and to leverage our time. But having said all of that, what’s interesting too, though, is I see the importance even more glaring of being the best advisor in the transaction and nothing was more apparent than during the storm.

Like I mentioned earlier, it’s just, every storm think back and just go six years ago and think back to when COVID started. And then we had the tornado five, six days before COVID.

AS: Yes.

DB: And Hagan was president and he was scrambling, was meeting with the he’s gonna– Give a shout out to Hagan because, you know.

He got us as “essential services” so we were having to pivot and adapt and the REALTORS® that were a part of that are still here are who they are today because of all the storms that we’ve gone through. And then you–2021, the agents were miserable because they had to write 15 offers for one buyer to win a house. And I kept telling him, I said, you write 15 offers, you’re going to get pretty good at writing offers. You’re going to get pretty good at winning if you start winning in writing offers. So with every storm there is, there is positive things that come out of it that make you better and make you who you are right now.

AS: They make you sharper.

DB: they make you sharper, they make you sharper. And, I think it’s perspective and how you look at everything that you face, you know, because the interest rates and there’s so much noise out there in the media, and they’re out there and the buyers are waiting for interest rates to come down and– But if you just focus on what you do, the education part and then truly being the best that you can be, you know, you’re going to be able to weather anything.

AS: When you think about–I know we didn’t necessarily think about storms, we didn’t necessarily think about COVID, all of those type things that popped up on us but when you think about challenges today that we might face, your agents might face, what do you see on the horizon?

DB: So, you know and sure with–and we keep talking about ChatGPT because a lot of people are using it a lot more daily and they’re just uploading and plugging things in and we kind of talked about this beforehand but, you know, if you’re just a normal person out there using ChatGPT, be aware that that is Open AI. So anything that you’re uploading into it, it is going out into the space, the open space. So as another person using chatbot, if you know the right answer or the right questions to ask, it’s going to pull anything that’s been uploaded out there. And if you’re asking specific questions– And one example that I had heard, you know, a couple of weeks ago was– Not in our state–this is something out in California–

AS: Usually is.

DB: –where the agent had multiple offers that uploaded five contracts and the multiple offers up into ChatGPT and asked it to help summarize and compare the five and which would be the best and all of this. But what agents don’t realize–and when you do that, you and they were just uploading PDFs for ChatGPT because it’ll scan the document. So it– They’ve just uploaded five contracts on a specific property out into the open.

Now, if somebody else were out there and said, “Have there been any offers on this property in the last ten days?”, it could very well pull those five offers. So again, it only does it by the right prompt but agents need to be aware you cannot be putting stuff out on ChatGPT. And E&O may not cover you on some of these things. But again, just being at the highest level of professional, you know, not doing that. But everybody’s using Chat– They’re using it for translation. So you may have a client that doesn’t speak English and they’re putting stuff up there, you know, and that might be to where we start educating our clients. Be careful what you put in Open AI because then that’s out in the space that anybody could grab it and pull it.

AS: Yeah, it’s becoming a trusted source of information, almost like the new Google or something.

DB: But the data can be old too, right? In the answers that are getting, you know, a lot of companies now–and one that Gary and I’ve been talking about is doing our own closed tier two model, large language model, which is a holding tank for our information so our agents could use it to search for answers within the company because we have, like, an agent portal and those are just different things. Again, to make the to make the the realtor experience for the agents a little better.

AS: I would imagine, just the one example you just gave that that is challenging for a broker, an office. But also for instructors trying to keep up when you think about RRC, like the instructors trying to keep up on what are the top topics we need to be making sure we’re training on.

DB: Yeah.

AS: So I can’t even where do you start?

DB: Where do you start? And we have our company meeting each month and this is where I just look back over the past month of the transactions and what are the things that the agents were facing. And that’s what prompted like probate, where we or the different classes that we’ve talked about is, “What are we seeing?” You know, now we’re seeing a few more short sales actually happening. We ended up doing a HUD class, a HUD foreclosure class. We brought that out of the the attics so to speak because that hadn’t really been, you know– We hadn’t had any for over a decade, more than a decade, I think in 2011, 2012, so– But those are the few and they were very specific where somebody either died, that’s why probate I think is very important, and whoever was living in the home wasn’t the owner. Or, you know, somebody just recently bought and had, for whatever reason, had to sell quickly and the–you know, so negotiating a short sale was, something that came up so.

AS: Always something.

DB: Yeah.

AS: So if you had to say, one thing to our listeners about RRC and why consider RRC, what would it be?

DB: The one thing? Well, it’s a key ingredient. It’s a key ingredient of being the very best of the best and providing the highest level of service. And, you know, at CRS.com we have just a ton of education certifications that all go towards earning the CRS, which is the gold standard. And that is so important right now to the consumer, you know, when again, I mean, it just seems that it does happen because we have floods, we have tornadoes and ice storms.

Being the best professional that you can be and being in a network surrounded by those that believe the same and want to take the industry to the future. So, it is truly a global, highest level organization–REALTOR® organization that is an important ingredient to a successful career.

AS: And if someone is listening, it’s their first time hearing about RRC. How would they get more information?

DB: CRS.com. Just go to CRS.com and there are links there on pathways to becoming a CRS. And if you have been an agent for a while and you have the transactions or you’ve been in the business over ten years, we do have pathways for those that are more experienced to earn their CRS as well. So, but yeah, it’s been a key part of my life and my success being a part of this organization.

And it’s we’re here to lead the industry at the highest level.

AS: And then kind of to wrap up, I’m going to ask you this, putting you on the spot a little bit. I think you can handle it. So, again, knowing you are so involved, you just talked about it. You had dinner with Sherri and Nykia.

DB: Yeah.

AS: Knowing you were so involved–and I’m going to go out on a limb and say you can’t possibly agree with every single thing that you’ve read, seen over the last few years. But why? What has compelled you? Why have you stayed involved? Why do you engage as much as you do? And what would you say to others that maybe don’t?

DB: You know, to leave a legacy in this world, it’s so much about building things. It’s about building people, I think and giving opportunity to others. And, you know, and having a voice at the table, I think and opening up spots at the table for others. And, I go back to what I said at the beginning, you know, my mom coming over here, my family coming over here with nothing and those that gave opportunity and helped us with the way to live the American dream, that’s why I’m here right now, doing what I do. So, you know, big picture, I’ll do it till I die. I always will strive to give opportunity to others. I think that’s a life goal that won’t end. So– And I teach that to my age. And I said, you know, we all have goals throughout our lives, the things that we want to accomplish and do and when you do that then there’s that feeling of success. But always have one goal in there that you will do until you die because that will keep you going.

But I do think, you know, to leave the world a better place than we were born into it if we can and offering opportunity to others.

AS: That’s awesome. It is so clear that you really do care about the industry and I, for one, appreciate that and so many others do as well. We appreciate that you’re at the table.

DB: Thank you. And I appreciate the opportunity. Oh, you’ve opened up many doors for so many too.

AS: So I appreciate you saying that but I can tell you we’re going to invite you back.

DB: Okay.

AS: I will extend that.

DB: I love this.

AS: So because I think there’s many other topics that we can talk about advocacy and all kinds of other things. So– but believe it or not, our time is already come to 30 minutes, so.

DB: Great.

AS: We don’t want to keep you. I know you’re busy but thank you for being here.

DB: Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

AS: Until next time.

DB: Right, and so check out CRS.com and make a commitment to being the very best that you can be and earn your CRS.

AS: And those are great words. So we will make sure that we put the the website in the notes. And then I will say one more thing that CRS is always at our conferences. Like you mentioned, there are chapters at the local associations. So there are so many ways to find out about CRS.

DB: Everybody supports us here, so we appreciate it.

AS: Absolutely.

DB: Thank you.

AS: Thank you.

–––

Thank you all for joining us today on the Real Tea Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with your friends and colleagues then visit tnrealtors.com to submit your questions and topics for future episodes of the Real Tea podcast. Thanks for listening.