Speaker 1: 0:30

My name is Erin Mara. I own Bloom Find Properties LLC, which is linked to Real Broker LLC is our brokerage. I provide real estate services to homebuyers, home sellers, investors, occasionally landlords as well. Some of my clients own multiple properties and rent them out, so I run those listings as well.

Speaker 2: 0:55

Beautiful. I'd like to know a backstory on your journey with your business and how it all came to be and how it got started, sure, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:04

So I came to real estate in 2016. Starting a new chapter. I had, prior to that, owned a design store in Capitol Hill in DC Excuse me, we sold furniture, lighting, local artists, very design driven boutique, and also provided interior design services there, and so I had owned that store and then opened the second one between like 2005, 2015. Yeah, and brick and mortar retail is hard I don't know if you've ever been in it but, especially with online retail really coming on strong during that decade, especially so I just got to a point where I was ready to turn the page on that start something new, and so the transition into real estate seemed like an interesting one to me.

Speaker 1: 1:59

I was already working with clients in their homes, helping them redesign things, you know, which often leads to improving the value of the home when you're doing it, so it seemed like a natural transition into representing home sellers, home buyers Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 2:15

Yeah, do you feel like that gave you, I guess, experience or a little bit of experience or knowledge when transitioning into the real estate aspect of it having your brick and mortar? Um, I said again sorry. Do you feel that working at your brick and mortar shop helped or gave you any experience when you were transitioning into your real estate position, like with your LLC?

Speaker 1: 2:38

Oh sure, yeah, Well, I mean, you know real estate is. You know every agent is kind of running their own small business, right so which you know that you don't. When you're learning you know the trade of real estate. You don't often don't learn that aspect. So having already owned a business certainly helped me with that. Retail and interior design services are very client focused. You know this is service that you're providing, the same in real estate, yeah, so there are a lot of similarities. Definitely it was a kind of an easy transition for the most part, different marketing, that sort of thing, but you know so not all the same, gotcha, but in some aspects.

Speaker 2: 3:24

Okay, and then how many people do you currently have on your team?

Speaker 1: 3:28

So I have got three people on my team. Okay, I've got a transaction coordinator who's who's like mid, mid contract to close support. So she's Nicole, she, she's on the team. I've got Cynthia panels, who's an architect who's on the team, okay, who does not have a real estate license yet. But but she's planning to get that yeah, license yet, but she's planning to get that yeah. But she does a lot of work in DC proper doing upgrading, renovating homes often flipping or transitioning a property into multiple units for rentals, things like that Very nice.

Speaker 1: 4:12

And then Nicole Casalica is an agent. She's actually just recently gave birth.

Speaker 2: 4:16

She's on break right now but she's on the team too. To her. Yeah, I love that wait. So do you have two nicoles?

Speaker 1: 4:23

uh, the first one nicole atisi and nicole okay.

Speaker 2: 4:26

I was like okay, you've got. I thought I heard that the first time. I was like am I hearing stuff? Okay? Cool so nicole's on board.

Speaker 1: 4:30

We love that for you yeah, yeah, good name, popular name apparently yeah, apparently I have a cousin named Nicole, so there we go.

Speaker 2: 4:37

And then what have been some of the struggles for you as a business owner, whether it's maybe with hiring people to come on board with you, finding a location, maybe looking for clients or marketing. Talk to me about what some challenges have been for you, sure.

Speaker 1: 4:53

Yeah. So I think you know challenges in real estate as a business, apart from others, is always finding clients right Is you know, and how you're getting your clients, and there are a lot of ways to go about that. Some of them are quite expensive, you know. Paying for listing, you know, leads through Zillow things like that, I mean that can get expensive. So I think in real estate the number one challenge is finding clients, is having a robust pipeline of clients, yeah. But other challenges, you know building a team is is challenging and just in the sense of, I think you know, finding finding the right people that you're going to really thrive with, that are going to thrive with you, yeah, that's you know. That's certainly what I focus on. You know, and you can make maybe some bad choices and then you learn from them, right.

Speaker 1: 5:55

And you learn from them. Exactly right. But yeah, I've got good people so I've been lucky there. Other challenges, you know, in real estate it's the market Like right now. What we're talking about is I mean, I was just listening to to BAM, which is broke agent media I don't know if you're familiar with this I have not, but they do. They do a daily sort of roundup on the market which is very national based. It's not local and really you want to know your local information because, it's very different from, like you know, Leesburg to Arlington, to Arlington, Texas.

Speaker 1: 6:31

You know, Virginia Arlington. You know it's it's really different everywhere, but but in general, you know it was kind of concerning news how you know, the uh, fannie, fannie Mae's just updated their their forecast for 2025. How's it looking? Well, it's looking worse.

Speaker 1: 6:49

Yeah, yeah A couple months ago that came out the NAR, fannie Mae, everybody came out with the rates being in the fives. They're going to get better. And then Fannie just updated it. No, they think the rates are going to stay in the sixes all of 2025. We're not going to get as much inventory on the market. We're not going to get as much activity. It's probably going to be a good market for buyers that are looking for new construction for builders. It'll be a decent market.

Speaker 2: 7:14

Thanks for sharing that are looking for new construction for builders it'll be a decent market, but yeah, thanks for sharing that insight, I think they're just kidding.

Speaker 1: 7:21

For the rest of us, yeah, no, it's good to be homes.

Speaker 2: 7:24

It's good to know Like you don't want to stay in the dark for that, which leads me to my next question. And so, besides podcasts, what else are you using as resources to stay up to date on the latest resources?

Speaker 1: 7:37

to stay up to date on the latest like trends, changes, all that good stuff in your industry, yeah. So yeah, listen to Broke Agent Media. They do one called Knowledge Broker, which is really good. Sometimes Keeping Current Matters is a good one. Yeah, I don't subscribe to them anymore. I did, but the only reason I don't anymore is just because they they tend to have just a national perspective as well.

Speaker 1: 8:00

And when you're you know, when I'm advising clients, I need to focus on the local and hyper local and so that's more just digging into my MLS data and pulling out the information I need. Smart charge can help with that.

Speaker 2: 8:15

Absolutely. And then, what do you think, in your opinion, are some character traits that buyers, sellers, clients should be looking out for when choosing a real estate agent, in your opinion? In my opinion.

Speaker 1: 8:27

Yes, tall, short hair, blonde.

Speaker 2: 8:29

I'm just kidding, okay, I see where we're getting with this Exactly. No, just kidding.

Speaker 1: 8:34

She's not, but it's okay. Yeah, I think it's hard for a lot of consumers to understand what agents do for them. So that's kind of where a lot of people are in the dark, so they don't really quite know what to look for, so sometimes they're just looking for, well, the easiest one to find, and so there are a lot of busy agents that aren't necessarily great agents, but they're really good at just kind of being in front of people and letting everybody know they're an agent, and it's kind of a low-hanging fruit type thing yes.

Speaker 1: 9:09

But if I were a consumer that was really going to do my homework, I would look at the experience of the agent. Do they work in my local market? That's not always you know a winning, you know a winning indicator. But because I work in multiple markets and you know, and if you know how to do your research I mean I've sold houses on the Chesapeake Bay. You know I don't sell a lot there, but you know you do the research, you understand the local market. It's not that hard to do. But yeah, you know honesty, integrity, these are really key because, I hate to say it, but you know there are a lot of people in every industry that are big talkers but you know they might not quite be able to perform on the back end of that.

Speaker 2: 9:58

And you should say it.

Speaker 1: 10:00

So yeah, I think referrals, I think referrals, references are good. You know I do a lot of work through referral and those are my best clients as well.

Speaker 1: 10:12

Like you, know it's like the ones that are coming to me from a trusted, you know customer or friend, and so I think finding an agent in the same way you know it's like you know, talk to people you know and what their experience, what agent have they used, that that they were really pleased with. You know, from beginning to end it's a stressful, you know it can be very stressful buying or selling a house. You kind of need need a trusted, you know support system.

Speaker 2: 10:36

Someone who's got your back yeah, exactly, help you, ease into the process and knows what they're doing, because I sure as heck don't. So thank you, right, yeah, and then where do you see?

Speaker 1: 10:50

yourself in the next five years as a person and with your business. Have you given that some thought, yeah, five years, hopefully close to more than five years. I'm hoping to retire 2032, but so five years isn't quite there, so, so I think probably five years. I'm, I'm, I'm looking at a larger team. Yeah, maybe, maybe kind of find it bringing in some people to pass more business off to. Okay, um, assuming you know things, things get better and not worse yes, have you.

Speaker 2: 11:27

I guess. Have you given thought to your exit strategy? I feel like when I talk to coaches or financial advisors, all that stuff, they're always like you've got a plan for your exit strategy, so have you yeah for sure.

Speaker 1: 11:38

Yeah, that's part of the reason I'm actually with real broker and not to, not to. You know, pitch my brokerage, but Pitch it, girl, pitch it. But Real Broker actually is creating exit strategies for agents. So, you know, via equity sharing, profit sharing, stock, you know, purchases and stock grants and things like that purchases and stock grants and things like that so you can actually, if you're with real broker, this brokerage, you can leave real estate and continue to have that passive income. So that's certainly part of my exit strategy is like leveraging everything that they're making available to me Love it.

Speaker 1: 12:19

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 12:20

Great, and then let's see how do you build and maintain relationships with clients and other professionals in the real estate industry?

Speaker 1: 12:28

Hmm, yeah, you know, I think it's, it's just about kind of talking to people. Really, you know, having that connection, yeah, you connect with people and then you keep the connection. You know, I think that I don't know I saw some statistic that was about sort of the frequency of connecting is more important than than how you doing. I'm thinking of you is it can be more effective than than a less frequent but deeper conversation.

Speaker 2: 13:05

I mean, I think you still need the deep conversations, but as opposed to long periods of like oh hey, by the way, nothing.

Speaker 1: 13:10

And now I can't figure out what to say to you because I haven't talked to you in six months. Right, or just like what do you need? Right, People are just like what do they need. They never talk to me.

Speaker 2: 13:20

Right? So you kind of don't want to get to that point, right I? Always try to do that. I'm always like let me message this person because I don't want them to think one day like because I don't text this much, I don't want them to think like what do you need, or something. So I'm always like sending, like hey hope you're well.

Speaker 1: 13:42

I just want to. You know we don't need to talk, but if if you need to want to talk to me or you need something, I'm here, you know Right. Yeah, exactly, so I think that's good. I the the the people that you know like with title agencies and lenders that I. I.

Speaker 1: 14:06

I am networked with. Like. That's kind of how we stay in touch, like in a, in a time like this where real estate slowed down quite a bit and you're not, you know, seeing your title company every couple of weeks for closing or you know something like that, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 14:12

Okay, love it. And then, what are the most common mistakes sellers make when trying to sell their homes, and how have you helped them avoid those mistakes?

Speaker 1: 14:23

or your team, yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, if we're talking about like a for sale by owner mistake, I mean that's just a mistake you know, I mean sellers and buyers do this too, where they really just focus too much on the bottom line number. It's like you've got a lot of points of negotiation that are going to affect that net number and so if you're not starting off right and then hitting every one of those milestones right, your bottom line number is not going to be very good.

Speaker 2: 14:57

Right, not going to be very good right.

Speaker 1: 14:58

So with home sellers, you know, for sale by owner is you know, just statistically?

Speaker 1: 15:09

there are statistics that show that you know they're leaving about 14% on the table, which is a lot of money. So you know. So you got to got to help them get past that. You know, yes, staging might cost you $4,000 or $5,000, but you're going to get more, way more, than that from it, right? So you know. So it's a little bit of an upfront there. There are a lot of companies now that will help home sellers, for example, do upfront stuff that can be a little bit costly and then and then they'll they'll take payment at the settlement table. So, like you can do that with staging, you can do that with home improvement repairs you need to do. But yeah, the big mistakes are thinking your house is worth more than it is and that it's going to sell itself because it just won't.

Speaker 1: 15:51

You know, yeah, I mean, I made that mistake. My first house that I sold, before I was a real estate agent, and I was like, oh, this is worth this much because look at it, it's beautiful and I love it. It's worth a lot to me. But you really got to, you know, take off the rosy glasses and you know, look at it objectively and like. Barbara Corcoran has a great quote, I don't remember exactly, but she says something like you know, the first eight seconds is when the buyer makes big, big idea. You know big impressions from the home. They get big impressions, and so you want to kind of, you know, put on your objective glasses and walk your house and like from the street in, like what does it look like from the curb? What does it feel like when you open the door? What does it smell like when you walk in? Like you know, these kind of you know almost subconscious, you know senses and feelings that people get are really important. So true.

Speaker 1: 16:49

Yeah, so you want to, you want to look at all that really objectively, and you know, and, and, and get it ready.

Speaker 2: 16:56

Yeah, absolutely yeah.

Speaker 1: 16:58

Little little things that aren't fixed are a big deal that home sellers are like oh it's just a shaky doorknob who cares?

Speaker 2: 17:07

I'm like because the shaky doorknob brings up all kinds of bigger questions like what else is, what else is wrong that I can't see right yeah, if they don't even care about the shaky doorknob, that's so true? Oh my gosh. Yeah, first impressions are everything, totally often, uh, forgotten but I should not. I love that that point that you made. And then, what do you like to do in your free time like when you're not thinking of like real estate being a girl boss at your brokerage? Uh, what do you like to do to unwind?

Speaker 1: 17:35

oh lordy, okay. So I um have a farm in Southern Maryland now. I actually lived in Leesburg for a while and I've got family in Lovettsville, so you know right where we are. Right here in the studio is also local to me. But yeah, like my happy moments of the day are like in the morning, I've got two little mini pigs and 13 chickens.

Speaker 2: 17:58

In my head. Why did I say pigs? You said mini pigs. I was like she's got pigs.

Speaker 1: 18:02

Yeah, they live in the barn when I go out to feed them in the morning and when I put them to bed.

Speaker 2: 18:07

At night. You put them to bed. I just picture them in like a little bed with a blanket, like, okay, my darlings go to sleep. Well, it's a big pile of hay.

Speaker 1: 18:14

They have like a hay igloo. Yeah, Especially as it that's my thing. I mean I'm a city girl, but this is my thing. Yeah, I love my animals, yeah.

Speaker 2: 18:27

What else you got?

Speaker 1: 18:27

besides the piggies and a dog. A dog, Okay nice Chickens pigs and a dog.

Speaker 2: 18:33

Love it, so yeah.

Speaker 1: 18:34

So that I play a lot of tennis Okay.

Speaker 2: 18:36

Yeah, good, I like to travel.

Speaker 1: 18:38

My wife is Venezuelan. I can't go there right now.

Speaker 2: 18:42

Oh, is this like turmoil going on there?

Speaker 1: 18:44

Yeah, it's not. She went back and it was pretty tricky, even for her as a Venezuelan. But yeah, I mean American, I might get kidnapped or something. Yeah, let's not do that for now, you don't want to stand out.

Speaker 2: 18:59

Tall, blue eyes blonde hair Got it.

Speaker 1: 19:04

Yeah, but yeah know we like to travel, go to spain very nice.

Speaker 2: 19:09

That's wonderful. I love that. You guys love to travel like see the world. Get out there, leave the two piglets behind for a little bit, then come back right it gets a little tricky right.

Speaker 1: 19:17

Yeah, we have tenants on the farm, so usually we get them to feed the animals, and I love that?

Speaker 2: 19:23

yeah, that's awesome, all right, is there anything maybe that I have not touched on that you want to share? Maybe about life yourself? The real estate industry piggies anything at all.

Speaker 1: 19:37

Okay, I'm going to share something about pigs which I learned because, well, it's a cute story. I have these pigs because we went to the Amish farm animal auction, which is, in itself, like a total hoot, because you've got an auction going on with all sorts of animals and then you've got like an Amish guy in a big hat like doing the auction voice, I mean it is kind of hysterical Anyway, but there are these two little baby pigs, and so baby pigs when they're mini pigs are I mean they were like three pounds Maybe.

Speaker 1: 20:11

They're really really tiny and cute, and there were two of them in one of these have a heart traps where you catch it's like a skinny trap that you catch a groundhog in.

Speaker 2: 20:19

It's not very big right.

Speaker 1: 20:21

There were two of them in that and that was sort of their traveling crate from the the farmer, broad and anyway. So uh, gabby, who in venezuela she's an agricultural engineer and she worked for basically the venezuelan department of agriculture there, so she had a lot of experience with farms and auctions and various things. She's like pretty sure that some of the people buying these animals are going to eat them. I was like, oh my God, that's awful, so I had to have these pigs.

Speaker 2: 20:54

Not one, two, Two y'all.

Speaker 1: 20:56

Brother and sister. They were so tiny.

Speaker 2: 20:58

Are they so big now and so different? They're like 100 pounds each now, so they're not big.

Speaker 1: 21:03

No, you know because a real big pig like a hog could be 800 pounds or so. Yeah, like a small car, that's so cute.

Speaker 2: 21:11

You saved them, you gave them a second chance on the farm.

Speaker 1: 21:13

I did yeah, and then I found out that they might live for like 22 years.

Speaker 2: 21:17

I was like holy cow you ready for that? I'm just kidding, well.

Speaker 1: 21:21

I don't know. I'm like if we retire to Spain, we're going to have to bring the pigs.

Speaker 2: 21:25

Yes, you can't leave them behind. No, they went through all that. You've got to take them with you.

Speaker 1: 21:29

Oh, I know, I know they know how to sit, though. They're super smart. Yeah, that's what I can tell. Yeah, irwin, ever since we got him fixed, is like Mr Mellow. I love Mr. Mellow Just so easygoing, so cute. But I taught them to sit. Georgina, like that, picked it up so quick and she still sits. Whenever there's food anywhere nearby, she's like I'm going to sit and increase my chances of getting a treat.

Speaker 2: 22:05

And she does. What a smarty.

Speaker 1: 22:07

I know, I know. So she sits and she's looking at me like she's like come on, I'm sitting. I'm sitting.

Speaker 2: 22:12

I can't sit here any longer. Give me my treat. That is so awesome yeah.

Speaker 1: 22:17

It's pretty funny.

Speaker 2: 22:18

No, sharing that. This is what I. When I ask people really, when I ask people this, this is really what I want to hear, but they always go back into, like the nitty gritty business stuff, yeah, and I'm just like, oh, tell me something crazy or fun about you. So I'm thank you for taking us there with the piggies.

Speaker 1: 22:32

I really enjoyed that story.

Speaker 2: 22:34

It's great, all right. So for my final question, if you could leave us with a quote or a saying that maybe has inspired you, or maybe something that someone told you that has stuck with you, and just yeah, oh, my goodness, okay.

Speaker 1: 22:56

So here we go. So Real Broker, now I'm going to get, I'm going to go further than this, but Real Broker just recently published something Like we have a motto that's like work hard, be kind. And then another one that's we is bigger than me, right, yeah, and then I just I don't know if you've seen, when we Were Kings the documentary on the Ali-Fraser fight in Africa in the 70s.

Speaker 2: 23:23

I'm so uncultured, I'm sorry.

Speaker 1: 23:24

A huge. It's like you know, civil rights, a whole lot of things in this athletic event, this boxing match, right, and Ali won. Of course nobody expected him to win, but in the end of the documentary they're talking about sort of where Ali went from there and his journey through life. And he was doing the commencement speech at Harvard and they asked him to and you know he's such an incredible like talker Character yeah.

Speaker 1: 23:53

Yeah, I mean the man can elocute, right. So the kid, the graduates asked him for a poem, apparently at the end of the speech, and he stopped and he waited and then he said we, me. And that was his poem. It was two words.

Speaker 2: 24:10

We me. I love that I would have been if you had not told me that I would have been like. What the hell does that mean?

Speaker 1: 24:16

So it's just kind of brilliant, but all this just in the last two weeks. This we me stuff everywhere around me.

Speaker 2: 24:24

I'm like this is really interesting. It goes back to his speech that he gave.

Speaker 1: 24:26

His small poem.

Speaker 2: 24:27

Me he just randomly go up to people and be like we, me, and they're just like ma'am.

Speaker 1: 24:33

You're weird.

Speaker 2: 24:34

You're weird but we like you. So, yeah, we'd like to work with you, we me. I love it, but yeah that we me.

Speaker 1: 24:40

I love it, but yeah, that's, I don't know. Ali was brilliant and that's possibly the shortest poem on record right. Choose two words yeah.

Speaker 2: 24:51

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 24:52

I think if you go to Guinness books, the shortest poem might be four words.

Speaker 2: 24:58

But they haven't added Ali's poem yet. We'll have to file a complaint to them and be like excuse me.

Speaker 1: 25:01

I'm just kidding, exactly.

Speaker 2: 25:03

And then I have one more question that just popped up why did you end up going to the Amish farm or auction, like? What brought you there?

Speaker 1: 25:09

Oh, that's good fun. In the country you know, there's not a lot to do, yeah.

Speaker 2: 25:13

It's like just go there, let's see what we find.

Speaker 1: 25:16

Yeah, Well, it was more kind of thinking baby goats, you know, but. But we weren't necessarily going to to come home with animals, Right, but um but yeah, it was just kind of like. You know, there were a couple times a month and, hey, we're not doing anything this afternoon, let's go go to the auction and see what's. Needless to say, we haven't been back since because it's just too dangerous.

Speaker 2: 25:44

It is. Who knows what we're going to come home with. Two horses, a llama, oh gosh. No, let's keep you out of there for now, but we do appreciate the work that you did by taking those two piggies. Well, thank you so much for being on the podcast. We really appreciate you.

Speaker 1: 25:57

My pleasure, yeah it was a pleasure and we should do this again.