The Innovative Journey from Real Estate Tears to Multi-Million Dollar Triumphs with Mikki Ramey

Transcript

[Mattias]
Welcome to the REI Agent, a holistic approach to life through real estate. I’m Mattias, an agent and investor.

[Erica]
And I’m Erica, a licensed therapist.

[Mattias]
Join us as we interview guests that also strive to live bold and fulfilled lives through business and real estate investing.

[Erica]
Tune in every week for interviews with real estate agents and investors.

[Mattias]
Ready to level up?

[Erica]
Let’s do it.

[Mattias]
Welcome back to the REI Agent, Mattias here. We are coming back from Red Wing Roots Music Festival. It’s a local festival that we’ve been going to for many years, I think seven years.

My oldest daughter is eight and she was there at five months for the first time. We missed, well, we missed two years because one of them it was completely shut down because of COVID. And then another one, our son was born.

But otherwise we’ve been there every time. And I think it, what was it like 12 of them or something altogether? So we’ve almost been there from the beginning.

But it’s just a great, fun family time, a tradition. I think it’s important to have traditions like that that the kids can look forward to and just kind of have a good imprint on your life. At one point, I looked at Erica and I was just like, are we gonna remember?

Was it this hard other years or is it harder this year or do we just not remember how hard it is? And that’s just so true with parenting in general. Like it’s, you try to do special things, you break up the routine, it’s hot outside, there’s no naps, there’s overstimulation, all these things that come with the territory of doing these trips, these vacations.

I imagine like things like Disney would feel that way as well. I’ve actually never been. But it’s hard, but it’s so worth it.

And you do remember it with like kind of rosy glasses. But those are the things that they remember. And if you don’t ever do anything, because it’s hard, it’s just kind of sad that they’re not gonna have those kind of traditions.

And they’re gonna talk about this probably to their kids and wanna do something similar with their kids that every year we went to do this thing, we went camping, it was hot. Some years it’s raining all the whole time. But at the end of the day, we make it work, we have some fun.

This year we were packing up to go and there was this crazy storm burst or actually our neighbor’s tree fell over. And then it cleared up and it was sunny. And so we packed up, we kind of had everything with tarps because the truck bed was open and we were trying to make sure things didn’t get wet, but then it wasn’t raining.

So we’d like put that away. We get to the campsite, we’re starting to slowly set up. We’re spread the tent out and it gets gray.

We’re like, uh-oh, we might need to hurry up here. So we try to get the tent up as fast as possible, but it just starts downpouring. And so like all the water is going in the tent.

We don’t have the fly up yet. We’re just drenched trying to finish setting up the tent. Luckily, we bought cheap cots for the kids.

So they were off the ground. We have a really nice, expensive air mattress thing that feels like memory foam, honestly. And we were off the ground as well.

So it was fine, but yeah, I guess that’s just the point. It’s like you have to kind of do some hard thing or things that make memories are not always easy with kids. Usually they’re not, but that’s totally worth it.

In the long run, we look forward to going to the beach, going camping more this year, this summer. And I’m sure there’s gonna be hairy moments along the way, but I guess you gotta push through them and just enjoy, make memories. But without further ado, we have a great guest today.

Mickey Ramey. Mickey is coming out of Charleston, South Carolina. I loved her story.

I thought she is, you know, she talked about being a wife of a doctor and people are like, why do you need to even work? But she has built a successful business. She has a brokerage, she has a team.

And they do a lot of business and her process for hiring and her investing story, they’re all awesome. I mean, I think she just doesn’t necessarily need to fit a mold. She’ll kind of do her own thing and it makes sense.

And it’s keeping it simple and fulfilling the needs that she needs. And I think it’s a great story and inspiration to people that are maybe going through similar things. I won’t give it all away, but definitely listen to this one.

It’s great. But without further ado, here is Mickey Ramey. Welcome back to the REI Agent.

We are here with Mickey Ramey. Mickey, thanks so much for joining us out of Charleston, South Carolina.

[Mikki Ramey]
Yes, I’m so glad to be here. Thanks for the invitation.

[Mattias]
Yeah, no, excited to get into your story. What got you into real estate to start?

[Mikki Ramey]
I got into real estate mainly through my breakdown in a real estate office that I had when I bought my first home. So I was, one of the stories you hear, I was in tears in a real estate office. I mean, this was a long time ago.

It was my husband and I were engaged. We were looking to buy our first house and it was a big decision, a lot of pressure. I was just starting a job as a teacher.

And a realtor told me, showed me a few houses and told me that I had to make a decision that day. I had to decide this house was gonna be gone. And basically she told me that, my husband, and we said, well, we just, you know, we wanna sleep on it.

This is the first time we’ve ever done this. And she stormed out of the real estate office. My parents that were gonna help us with a down payment were mad at my fiance, now husband.

It was like a hot mess, a hot mess in Charleston, South Carolina. That’s how it was.

[Mattias]
So that inspired you to do it better?

[Mikki Ramey]
It did, it did. I was like, I am never gonna make anybody cry in a real estate office. And like I actually, I have a home office and all my agents work remotely.

I kind of am slightly terrified of real estate offices now.

[Mattias]
Oh man, interesting. Yeah, so let’s get into that for a quick second. Have you found that that’s been an issue at all, not having a brick and mortar?

Or do you take people to your house ever?

[Mikki Ramey]
No, I don’t have clients come. I mean, I have clients come to my house for like fun and parties and stuff, but not for business. I do business at the houses I sell.

For those things, it’s easy, right? We’re always in a house. But for buyers, it’s a little more complicated now with new rules.

So we meet somewhere prior or we have Zoom meetings where I go over our buyer agency contract at that point. A lot of my clients are relocating to Charleston. So most of what I do is phone and Zoom.

And then we meet in person at the homes that we see.

[Mattias]
Now that makes sense. And honestly, I don’t have a ton of in-person things anyway. Sometimes if it’s a, maybe it’s an older couple or person going over a contract or something like that would be a time.

But I mean, there’s always like coffee shops and things like that as well. And I’ve heard of other people using lender’s offices or like title offices or even our association of realtors has an office with like a meeting room and all that stuff that we could totally use. So it’s not super needed to have that brick and mortar.

[Mikki Ramey]
It’s really not. And so in a little bit like of my story, so I started real estate, I’m a mother of four kids and I started real estate when my kids were five, two, and one, and then one of them wasn’t even born yet. And I just find it more efficient to have phone conferences and Zoom conferences and then get right at it and show people homes.

So I like efficiency. And I feel like having a real estate office and a meeting at that point kind of limits my efficiency.

[Mattias]
Yeah. Now you said you have other agents that also work from home. Is that, is it a team or a brokerage?

[Mikki Ramey]
Yes, I have a team. There are 14 of us on my team. And then I have three transaction coordinators and operations manager and an inside sales agent.

[Mattias]
Okay. And they all, like you said, operate from home. They all work from home.

So your team meetings would be virtual?

[Mikki Ramey]
We have, yep, Zoom meeting. I just had my Monday morning 9 a.m. Zoom meeting with my agents over Zoom. And then my ISA works in the office with me.

So she and I are together, you know, going through leads and passing out leads to agents, that sort of thing. But everybody else is virtual. I do have a thousand square feet of my home that’s dedicated to an office space.

My agents come in sometimes. I just have an agent leave. So it is available to the public and to agents, but they just, you know, they also find it more efficient to work from home.

You know, you get more done.

[Mattias]
Yeah. Well, a thousand square feet, that’s a good home office write-off.

[Mikki Ramey]
Yeah, yeah, we have plenty of space. I’ve got an office here that I’m in, one behind me, and like a little coffee bar. We literally have an office with a separate entrance.

So, yeah.

[Mattias]
Oh, that’s awesome. Okay, well, let’s go back to your story. So you’re in this office, you’re, I’ve read the whole, like, you know, those sales strategies.

I don’t remember exactly what books they came from, but like where they basically, you pull out the three best options, depending on what the person wants, and you show it to the client, and you’re like, are you prepared to make a decision on one of these today, and go show the house, and houses, and are expected, expecting them to make an offer right away, which I just always felt it was revolting to me to think about pushing somebody to do that. So clearly that’s not how you started your business, but you were motivated then to do a better job, or what kind of pushed you over the edge to get your license?

[Mikki Ramey]
Yes, yes, absolutely. I had that, and then my husband’s a physician. So with doctors, there’s a lot of training.

So we bought a home while he was in medical school. We bought a home while he was in residency. We bought a home while he was in fellowship, and then, you know, we bought another house.

So we moved a lot through medicine, and so I thought, I got to the point where he ended his residency and his fellowship. I thought, we’re, you know, buying and selling a lot of houses. Why don’t I get a real estate license, and we can, you know, save money on commissions?

A lot of people think, I’m going to get a license so I can save on commissions, but then with that, I really liked real estate. I got a license. I really liked it, and I thought, you know what?

I moved four times in less than 10 years. There are a lot of people like me that are medical marriages, and I know who they are. I know when they move.

What if I started a business helping people like me, helping people that were, you know, buying homes and medical school residency and all the things for medical training? So that’s how I started my business.

[Mattias]
Okay, that makes a lot of sense, and there’s certainly also a really good tax benefit to becoming a real estate professional, and I know that a lot of spouses of medical professionals do become agents for that reason as well, and then it also just kind of shocks me not to get too sidetracked, how often agents don’t really understand the benefits of that and take full advantage of it. I know we talked briefly about you having some rental property as well that you can depreciate, obviously. So, I mean, did you, when did you, did you keep any of those houses that you bought and moved from to start building a portfolio, or when did you start investing?

[Mikki Ramey]
So that, I think everybody needs motivation for investing, and so my kind of funny story is my parents owned a beach house, and so we would go stay with them, and it was very nice and enjoyable, but then I’d want my friends to come out, and you had to get a pass to get people into this, you know, resort location, and, like, I always felt awkward asking them to have passes for my friends, and I’m like, okay, I want to buy a beach house so I can have my friends over whenever I want.

I live in Charleston. We have gorgeous beaches here, and so that was my motivation, as funny as that sounds, but everybody needs a why, a why you want to buy investment property. For me, it started more just with I wanted to make memories for my family, and, oh, I could also short-term rent this when I’m not living there and make really good money, so that’s how I started.

I didn’t keep any of the homes that I had in the medical training, and it’s painful to talk about that I did not keep those.

[Mattias]
Hindsight’s 20-20, and it’s hard. It is hard. I mean, I think almost everybody, you know, not in the business, et cetera, that has plans on holding their home as a rental in the future, it’s just hard when it comes down to it to actually, like, afford the next house or get the house that you want, et cetera, and it just seems easier sometimes to sell it, but, no, I totally get that.

Yeah, man, we’re bouncing all around. Sorry.

[Mikki Ramey]
I know. I’m sorry.

[Mattias]
It’s me.

[Mikki Ramey]
Talking more about rental property, so my investment journey, I mean, I can talk about that if you’d like.

[Mattias]
Sure, go ahead.

[Mikki Ramey]
That was my first investment, and so I found out how beneficial it was and lucrative. You know, even though the goal was kind of a more emotional goal and not a financial goal, I realized that the financial component was very strong, so I thought, okay, well, I’m gonna do this again, so I bought another property. It was literally the same type of property.

I bought a two-bedroom beach condo, and then I bought another two-bedroom beach condo, and then when you have two, like, that’s a huge benefit in having both those properties, and I thought, okay, short-term rental, this is a good goal, but then also, I was a real estate agent. I understood the value of starting a rental income portfolio at that point, so the next property that I bought was actually, I learned the value of going on listing appointments and finding out from my clients, like, what would you sell this for is a good question, and so one, the next property I bought that was not a short-term rental was actually a listing that I was getting ready to take, and they said, oh, I would buy it for this amount, and I was holding a certain amount of money for my next investment, and I thought, well, what if we sold it for this amount minus the commissions, and I bought it for you, and you didn’t have to go to the headache of listing and all of those things, so I found investing, and I’ve bought three properties now like that, where I just talked to my clients. They were happy selling it.

I like the location. I like all the other elements, so instead of listing the house, I bought the house.

[Mattias]
Okay, yeah, that’s great. That’s a great strategy, and are those more single-family, just long-term rental then, or?

[Mikki Ramey]
Yes, single-family, long-term rentals with those.

[Mattias]
That’s nice to have that mix, and it sounds like Charleston’s really a good market for owning various types of property like that. I’m sure there’s a lot more than the beach vacation rentals. There’s a lot of people that live there, and I’m sure the appreciation has done well through the years.

[Mikki Ramey]
That’s true. I think the big thing I know about real estate investing now is you always try, or I at least try to go for as close to the 1% rule as I can get.

[Mattias]
Sure.

[Mikki Ramey]
The 1% rule being if I pay 300 for a house, I wanna get 3,000 a month in rental income, and in Charleston, honestly, you cannot do that now, but I suspect if you buy something now, in 10 years from now, you absolutely have a 1% rule, so that’s what I’ve learned.

[Mattias]
Yeah, and that rule is a lot harder, even in the Midwest, but I think whenever you get to the coasts, the appreciation typically is higher as well, and so it’s just difficult to find those kind of deals without it being like a flip. That’s the way I’ve been able to do it in our market, so we’re in Virginia, Harrisonburg, Virginia, so two hours south of D.C., and we’re not a large city by any means, but we definitely have higher prices than you could ever find the 1% rule just on the market, but yeah, I’ve gotten there close by doing some renovations to the place and keeping the overall expenses low, doing a cash-out refinance, getting all the capital back, and then renting it out for about 1%, which has worked out great. Now, at one point, so you told me off-air that you were able to, you’ve kind of accumulated about 11 properties, right, from investing, and you said a few of those were talking to clients who were the rest on the market, and what did you do for the rest of those properties?

[Mikki Ramey]
So, and one was the last house that I lived in that was my family house. I finally, and this was three years ago, I finally had enough money to keep the house that I live in and then buy the next one, so I’ve got that. I mean, the beautiful thing is there’s so many ways to invest in real estate, right?

I listened to a podcast that you did about a guy house-hacking. I was like, oh, I got married at 22. I could never house-hack, darn.

But with me interviewing my clients and taking the listing and buying it, that’s a great strategy. Living in a home and after you’re done living in it, keeping it and buying the next house, that’s a great strategy. My husband also is a doctor.

I told you that. So one of our strategies was also that we bought the real estate where his medical practice is. And then his business is our tenant.

So we have three commercial properties that way. So if you have a spouse or something that is running a business in commercial real estate, that’s a great investment to buy that real estate. And then I really trust my tenant.

My tenant and I have been together for almost, gosh, almost 30 years now.

[Mattias]
Wow, that’s great. You have a great mix in your portfolio. That’s really nice.

I mean, did you buy the short-term rentals before kind of the craze through like the pandemic, et cetera? Like, I mean, have you seen a shift in your numbers at all with the bookings, et cetera?

[Mikki Ramey]
Yes, I mean, I bought mine a while ago pre-COVID. So they have been great investments, great appreciation. But even now, I just, you have to look at the numbers very carefully.

I sold a house for a client of mine last year and we sold it for 2.5 million and it’s a short-term rental investment. And her gross income on it was about 225,000 a year. I mean, it was a really good investment property.

[Mattias]
Wow.

[Mikki Ramey]
And then I bought a home this year in January, or it’s not a home, I bought real estate, I bought a hotel.

[Mattias]
Oh, wow.

[Mikki Ramey]
This year, I was like, oh man, let’s take a big leap.

[Mattias]
You’re playing Monopoly over there.

[Mikki Ramey]
But it’s not in Charleston, it’s in a different area. You just have to look at the numbers. And that one, we were in it for about 2.3 million, but the rental income on that, it’s an eight-unit, we bought it as a hotel, but we transformed it into an eight-unit condo. And so, with that, the rental income is close to 400,000 gross a year. Like, there are deals to be had. You just have to keep looking.

[Mattias]
Yeah, so what’s the, are these long-term leases then? Or are you doing kind of like the workforce housing or anything like that with the motel?

[Mikki Ramey]
No, that one is a beach hotel. It was a hotel at the beach. And it was run as a hotel, but we bought it and were able to keep it as a commercial rental and do multiple short-term rental condos with it.

So we have, it’s an eight-unit. We’ve got five one-bedrooms, two two-bedrooms, and one three-bedroom in that unit. So it’s a multi.

[Mattias]
That’s awesome. And I think you’re right. I mean, I think a lot of people feel like it’s just impossible now, but I think it’s just, you kind of have to get a little bit more creative.

And that’s an awesome example of that. Doing a pad split is another thing that could be interesting, where you take a larger house, you know, at least 2,400 square feet or so, and pretty much take all the living areas out. It sounds like a very slumlord kind of thing, but it serves a need.

Take all the living areas out and make them into extra bedrooms. And so you take like a three-bedroom and turn it into like an eight-bedroom or something to that extent. And then, you know, you’re renting out each room.

The people just really want a place to crash after their long day of work and don’t really wanna have a community area. They just wanna maybe watch TV in their room or warm up some food in the kitchen. You do keep the kitchen.

[Mikki Ramey]
Yeah, you do keep the kitchen, you got it.

[Mattias]
But yeah, those are some of the ideas that people are coming up with to fulfill needs, you know, fill niches and stuff. But yeah, make the numbers still work in a higher interest climate with high prices. So that’s really cool.

[Mikki Ramey]
Yeah, but I mean, even, you know, honestly, real estate investing is so powerful. Even if the numbers don’t work now and you can afford it and you’re getting some sort of cashflow or some sort of tax benefit, in 10 years, you’re gonna be like, I’m so smart. I’m so good with my finances.

It’s a long game. I would love to come here and be like, oh yeah, I got rich quick. I did this and that.

No, it’s taken like 25 years.

[Mattias]
No, but it’s so true though, because if you have good appreciation historically in your area, et cetera, like it’s just, I mean, that’s where my net worth is all, pretty much, I mean, not all, but it’s mostly in real estate and that’s just sitting on stuff over time. I mean, we did some really good moves with some burrs, but not all of them were that. And, you know, just owning real estate over time is a great way to become a millionaire.

That’s where most millionaires are made, right?

[Mikki Ramey]
I mean, it’s so not sexy, right? Like, oh, get rich over 20 years. People are like, no.

Did you say two months?

[Mattias]
Well, 20 years happens like that. You won’t ever regret it. Well, let’s go back to your sales career.

So you wanted to buy the houses that you were living in and then you wanted to fulfill the niche of other medical professionals moving like this. At what point did you start building a team? Like, what was your journey there with your sales career?

[Mikki Ramey]
So my first year in real estate was 2005 and I didn’t sell any houses that year.

[Mattias]
Okay.

[Mikki Ramey]
So I know, like, it’s not great. Fast forward to 2024, I have a team of about 15 agents and staff at that point and we sold 223 houses. So, you know, I mean, just because you fail doesn’t mean you should stop.

Like, always fail forward. You know, if you’ve got a dream, then live into it, work hard for it. It’ll eventually come if you’re, you know, if you continue work ethic and working hard.

So, you know, I had that vision and a lot of it was kind of building an idea. I wanted to work with medical professionals like me. So I had to figure out, well, how do I talk to these people?

How do I tell them my story? How do I do all this? So we moved to Charleston, finishing training and everything in 2005 and I started this plan.

I had little kids, but I started a plan of, I wanna go into the medical school and give lectures on real estate and talk about how to build wealth in real estate, even though I didn’t have any wealth in real estate at that point, just to talk about how it worked for us to buy a house in medical school and then to buy one in residency and doctors have great products and medical professionals have 100% financing where you don’t have to do a down payment and they don’t count your student loan debt against you, which these doctors nowadays have, you know, $200,000 in student loan debt. So that’s a big benefit to buy a home with no money down and have all the student loan debt, like they just don’t look at it.

So I went in with a loan officer who specialized in doctor loans and a financial planner who could talk about their student loan debt. So the three of us would go in to the medical school and give lectures. I’m actually, I didn’t tell you before I was in real estate, I was a teacher.

So I love teaching people about real estate now is kind of how I keep that school going. But the three of us would go in and I would do the real estate component. Hey, here’s what it looks like monthly payment if you rent, here’s what it looks like if you buy.

And then the guy with, you know, the loan guy would go in and say 100% financing. Everybody’s like, oh, yes. And then, you know, the financial planner would come in and talk about medical loan debt and how to manage your debt from student loans.

And so that’s kind of how we started. And it took a while until people actually worked with us.

[Mattias]
Sure, it takes a while to build that credibility and stuff for sure, but that’s a really smart way of doing it. A quick side question. I don’t know if, can you do that medical loan multiple times or is that a one time thing?

Like if you were to try to build up a portfolio by bouncing from house to house every couple of years, does it work that way?

[Mikki Ramey]
We can’t, you can do one. So you have to buy one and then sell one. And there at one point, I don’t think it’s still present, but there was, you could get it with one bank and then have it with a different one.

I think that’s gone away now. But yeah, it’s kind of a one and done thing. Or you can sell one property and then get it again.

[Mattias]
So you just have like, you don’t have like one of those mortgages at a time. It makes sense. Okay, yeah, that’s cool.

So you’re building up that clientele. I imagine now you’re not only working with medical professionals. You mentioned people moving into the area.

Is that still a big part of your business?

[Mikki Ramey]
Yes. So now, I mean, I’ve just, I’ve learned the value of having a database and following up with people. You know, when you’ve been, it’s funny, real estate and real estate investing are very similar.

Real estate investing, you build wealth over time. Real estate sales, you build clients over the years with a great database that you are committed to daily. Like I’m in my database every single day.

[Mattias]
Okay.

[Mikki Ramey]
So I just follow up with people until they tell me to stop. And that’s how I’m successful.

[Mattias]
Sure, sure. And I imagine you have a CRM for that. You mentioned you have an inside sales agent and all that as well.

So are you using, what CRM are you using right now?

[Mikki Ramey]
I use follow up boss.

[Mattias]
Sure.

[Mikki Ramey]
Yeah, follow up boss is great. We use, I’m very excited about YloPo. We use follow up boss and YloPo has some great AI components to it.

We’re, it used to not be so great, but in about the past two months, the AI has gotten very good and capturing our old leads through text follow up. And so that’s been really exciting to see how that has transformed. So if you’re a follow up boss user and you’re not using YloPo, they’ve got an AI component that is very powerful for re-engaging your old leads.

[Mattias]
Okay. Yeah, that’s great. That’s a great tip.

Okay, so did you get to a point where you felt like you were too busy to do everything by yourself or what kind of motivated you to build the team?

[Mikki Ramey]
My story kind of speaks to parents and real estate because my husband is a physician. So everybody’s like, oh, you’re a doctor’s wife. You know, you have plenty of money.

But I guess I looked at it from my perspective that I wanted to build my own business and, you know, aside from that. So I thought, well, I don’t have enough money to hire to do childcare and a real estate assistant. So I started with what I call the real estate nanny.

[Mattias]
Okay.

[Mikki Ramey]
So keep in mind, my kids were five, two, and a newborn when all of this is taking place. So really little. So the five year old was in kindergarten and I needed help with the two year old and the baby.

And so I hired a nanny and the nanny had to get a real estate license. I paid for her to get a real estate license and for her to do everything, her MLS fees, I covered all of that. And so the idea was she was going to watch my kids while I was building business and doing all of that.

And then she kind of served as a showing assistant also. So if I had events where I wanted to be with the kids, she would show my clients and I mean, the real estate nanny is how I got started.

[Mattias]
I have never heard of that strategy before. That’s amazing. I love it.

[Mikki Ramey]
That’s true. I just thought that the investors have the house hacking that when they’re single, they can do. I had the real estate nanny, that was my life hack.

[Mattias]
Okay. So how did she get paid? I mean, so was this, did she also get commissioned?

Could she sell houses on her own or is it just strictly kind of an hourly position?

[Mikki Ramey]
Yes. So I hired her more as nanny and hourly, but she was licensed. And if she really did a lot of work with a closing, I would pay her a commission.

[Mattias]
Like a bonus.

[Mikki Ramey]
So she would get a portion of commission.

[Mattias]
That’s awesome. That’s one of my favorite first hire. That is my favorite first hire.

That’s awesome.

[Mikki Ramey]
The real estate nanny, it works. So working moms listening to this, go for the real estate nanny. And then the way I built a team though, was I honestly, I had four different real estate nannies.

Like it’s not an easy job to hire for, right? Like it’s a hard position to find. So once I found somebody that was better at being a real estate agent than a nanny or just as good, then I was able to have my first showing assistant.

And then I hired a transaction coordinator right after that.

[Mattias]
And I know they’re not, they are all living in the Charleston area then? Or do you have any like people that are remote?

[Mikki Ramey]
My TCs are remote. So I do have remote transaction coordinators.

[Mattias]
Yeah, well that makes sense. Okay, wow. And so was it, did you enjoy the kind of transition into, like you mentioned now that you have your like inside sales agent with you and then you’re kind of distributing leads and all that kind of stuff.

Did you enjoy that transition? Cause that becomes more of a managerial role. How, what do you feel like your strengths are and how did it feel better suited to move into this kind of position as opposed to just being a dedicated agent?

[Mikki Ramey]
So, I mean, I told you I’m a teacher by training. So I feel like my strengths are teaching agents to build a business like I have. It’s really easy for me, for agents to come work alongside me.

I don’t have a huge team, right? We have 14 agents and some have been with me for a while. So when I train new agents, it’s really shoulder to shoulder.

[Mattias]
Sure.

[Mikki Ramey]
And so I do that. I still do listing. So I do listings.

I don’t really work with buyers anymore. I do, you know, pass out buyers to our team, but I still, I want to be an active agent because I’ve seen too many team leads that aren’t in the business. Sometimes you’re just not as relevant.

You can’t relevantly answer agent questions if you’re not in the trenches with them, so to speak.

[Mattias]
Yeah.

[Mikki Ramey]
Especially in this market, you know, we’re transitioning a lot in our market. So, you know, I’m teaching our sellers all the time, like patience and setting seller expectations and all of those things. So when I’m in it, it’s easy to train my agents to do what I’m doing.

So was it an easy transition? No, I’ve had, like, it is heartbreaking and I never knew it was going to be so heartbreaking being a team lead, but I’ve had people come and go out of the business for, you know, reasons, all kinds of reasons, like there’s a better commission split somewhere or I’m moving out of town or, you know.

[Mattias]
And you’ve invested a ton of time, energy on this person or whatever.

[Mikki Ramey]
Yeah.

[Mattias]
Yeah. No, I could see that. And I totally agree with you.

I think, like, there’s such a pulse. I mean, being strategic and writing offers or being strategic and, you know, pricing, et cetera, there’s just a lot that goes into it. And if you’re not, like, in the game, you’re not, you know, going over offers, et cetera, like you’re just going to be kind of out of touch.

And you can teach fundamentals, but for specific kind of how to interact with this market now, yeah, you really do need to be involved.

[Mikki Ramey]
Right, right. And I mean, and it’s legion too, right? I’ve been in the business for a long time, so I have a good reputation here.

So I get a lot of business that I can’t handle because I’m still in the business. So I’m able to, you know, create business for my team by being in the real estate market and being in production.

[Mattias]
Sure. Oh, that makes sense. So that was pretty early on that you had the real estate nanny then, right?

I mean, if I’m remembering your story right.

[Mikki Ramey]
So, yes. And it took, like, I had a real estate nanny for a couple of years. And then when I had baby number four was finally when I had a real estate nanny that was good enough to just do real estate.

So that was good. I moved into really a full-time just working with buyers and listings role at that point. And I was working, you know, nine to five and was able to hire actual, or well, at that point, my kids were old enough to be school age children.

And then my youngest, I had my first showing agent assistant, and then a TC. And then I had enough money at that point to have full-time childcare. So for the number four, so that was good.

You have to do what works and what you can afford to do, right? Like I knew that I couldn’t afford to hire somebody full-time. So once you build your business over a couple of years, you can do that.

And then once I had one buyer agent, then it just starts to build. Like she gets really busy and then you add another. And so I had multiple buyer agents.

I had a team of five really within, once I started my first one, within two years, I had a team of five agents. And then it’s transitioned back and forth between five and 2020, everybody quit. I was alone.

I built up my team again. Like there’s a lot of transition that happens in real estate.

[Mattias]
Yeah, yeah, definitely. I guess, do you have any advice to people that are wanting to start that process, to hire, to all that, build a team to kind of keep expectations where they should be, or just, yeah, how to select the right people?

[Mikki Ramey]
Yeah, I mean, don’t be scared to get so focused on hiring the right people that you miss hiring people. I’ve missed hiring people recently that have turned out to be good agents. So take a risk on people.

They’ll teach you themselves. If I own a brokerage, so for me, I can have people on my team that I set certain standards for. And then if they don’t meet those standards, they can become an independent agent with my brokerage where they don’t receive leads.

So I have that benefit.

[Mattias]
Got it.

[Mikki Ramey]
But if you’re hiring, just hire. People are gonna work out or they’re not gonna work out. Don’t stress out about it.

I have a real estate coach, and he tells me people are gonna come and go, and that’s okay. So don’t get too upset if people come and go. That’s part of our business.

That’s just how it is. But do hire a buyer agent first. Showing houses is the biggest pull on our time.

So someone who is willing to show houses and be a buyer agent, and then a transaction coordinator. Those are the two absolute first must-haves.

[Mattias]
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. If you could choose one or the other, which one?

[Mikki Ramey]
Oh, I’d take my transaction coordinator.

[Mattias]
Yeah, okay.

[Mikki Ramey]
Yeah.

[Mattias]
Okay, cool. Definitely. Well, I’m curious if you have any other golden nuggets you’d like to share with the listeners here.

It could be first-time agents. It could be just any great advice for people in general.

[Mikki Ramey]
Well, I’ll go to, we were talking about a book that has kind of inspired you. I’m gonna bring that in because it’s got some really good nuggets in it. This is, I don’t know if you’ve read, it’s backwards on here, obviously.

Dream Big by Bob Goff.

[Mattias]
I haven’t.

[Mikki Ramey]
I am a woman of faith, so it’s a faith-based book, but it really is so cool. It talks about three big questions to think about with life. And so it’s like, who are you, where are you, and what do you want?

Those are the big questions. And I was really talking to my team about that. And we were kind of landing on the where are you question today.

And where are you, it’s not like I’m in Charleston, South Carolina. Where are you in the timeline of your life, right? Like, where are you?

And I was sharing with them this morning that at the beginning of my real estate career, I did what it took. I shared with them that I screwed up on a deal and I had to buy somebody a washer and a dryer early on. And so there went a big part of my commission.

I forgot to check a box on a contract and I had to pay somebody’s welcome to the neighborhood fee. These are the mistakes you make when you have a newborn baby and you’re not sleeping. And so, but I always want my clients to have a great experience.

So I pay for stuff and that’s what I do. Not everybody does that. But anyway, I was at the point and I said, once I cleaned cat hair and I’m allergic to cats to get a listing to close, my seller said that she couldn’t afford a cleaning lady.

And so, and the closing was happening, buyer walked through that. They’re like, this is disgusting. We’re not buying this house until somebody cleans it.

So I’m cleaning up cat hair. Like you do what it takes in the beginning of your business. You absolutely do what it takes.

And where I am now, I’m not gonna work with people that are rude with me. I’m not gonna do that. I am gonna work with people that I love, that I wanna build a relationship with, that I see that their goal is to move and to get to the next chapter of their life.

And I think I’m the best person to help them get there. So that’s kind of where I am in real estate right now. I’m not at the early phase.

I’m not cleaning up cat hair anymore. I’m not gonna do that. I’m at the phase where I get to choose who I work with and who I wanna build relationships with in my life.

So I think this is a great book.

[Mattias]
I love it. And it’s all about living intentionally, which I think is so important. And like you can, even if there is the grind phase at the beginning where you do have to clean up the cat hair, but you can have that in your sights that you wanna get to the point where you’re not doing that.

And yeah, exactly. Working with people, learning to fire people, your clients, that’s a hard lesson. That’s a tough one.

And I can’t say that I’m great at it yet, but I haven’t had anybody that I’ve needed to in a while, which has been good, but.

[Mikki Ramey]
That’s good. I’m in a situation right as we speak that my husband is like, you should fire that person. Like, oh, but I really, it’s a debate for me.

Speaking to your point, you’re not sure if you’re good at it. If I really love a property, I’m willing to stick with it. And the person is difficult, but I love that property.

I was like, oh, I love, I wanna sell that property because it’s so unique and beautiful. That’s kind of where I’ll deal with the person I don’t like if I really like their real estate.

[Mattias]
That’s funny. And then there’s also the times where you think about all the sunken hours you’ve put into the person already and this is the transaction. But yeah, sometimes it’s just not worth it.

[Mikki Ramey]
Yeah, sometimes it is not worth it for sure. You can always make up the money if you stop and take up something else. I don’t worry about that.

[Mattias]
The energy that it takes out of you is, yeah, just not worth it. And I have a D category in my contacts for the couple few that I would not wanna work with again. I don’t wanna delete their contact cause I wanna know if they call me.

So I don’t answer.

[Mikki Ramey]
No, we have a stage for that. Boss, we say never contact. It’s not D, it’s never contact.

[Mattias]
Sure, yeah. With all this, it’s important to keep in mind where you wanna be, what you want your life to look like. And if what you’re doing is dragging your life in the pits and you’re just stressed out and you’re not enjoying it, it’s worth considering creating it the way you want it to be.

[Mikki Ramey]
Yeah, I mean, and you know too, like giving advice to younger agents like on the other side of it. I’m like, if you work hard and you really love and serve people, you want, my dad taught me, if you serve people well, you’ll have all the money you ever need.

[Mattias]
Yeah, yeah, it’s true. I love it. Mickey, where could people look you up if they are a medical professional moving to South Carolina?

How do they find you?

[Mikki Ramey]
Yeah, now actually we have a website called, this is something that I created with my husband a couple of years ago, drmoves.com.

[Mattias]
Oh, nice.

[Mikki Ramey]
So it’s drmoves.com. We relocate medical professionals throughout the country. So drmoves.com is a great place to connect. If you have medical people or you are a medical person looking to move or to find a loan officer. And then for me, the best way to get me, you can find me on Instagram. @movingwithmikki is my handle on Instagram.

So it’s M-O-V-I-N-G with Mickey, M-I-K-K-I.

[Mattias]
Okay, great. Yeah, we’ll put those in the show notes. Yeah, I mean, this has been a fun conversation again.

I think it’s my favorite first story, first hire story, so.

[Mikki Ramey]
Good, good. And I mean, a lot of, I’ve given this talk for other people about how to hire a real estate nanny. So it’s valuable if you have young kids and you wanna do business.

Like it’s just, it’s hard to figure it out.

[Mattias]
Well, and I think it just also goes to show that you don’t have to like follow, like, you know, not trying to hate on it, but like the Keller Williams like guidebook. You can hire people that fill your needs. And that for many people is a huge need.

I mean, raising kids is hard.

[Mikki Ramey]
It is, it’s so hard. It’s so hard, but it’s, you know, all the best things in life are hard.

[Mattias]
Yeah.

[Mikki Ramey]
So you gotta figure out how to deal with the hard.

[Mattias]
Yeah, yeah. No, thanks so much for being on the show. It was a really fun conversation.

[Mikki Ramey]
Yeah, thank you for having me.

[Erica]
Thanks for listening to the REI Agent.

[Mattias]
If you enjoyed this episode, hit subscribe to catch new shows every week.

[Erica]
Visit REIAgent.com for more content.

[Mattias]
Until next time, keep building the life you want.

[Erica]
All content in the show is not investment advice or mental health therapy. It is intended for entertainment purposes only.