Episode 16: Vanessa B Morales Helps Veterans in the Belton-Killeen Area

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Nate Carver
Hey, I'm Nate Carver and welcome to Between Two Doors.

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Nate Carver
Hey, I'm Nate Carver with between two doors. And if you're looking to buy or sell a home in the Belton Killeen area of Texas, I'd like to introduce you to Vanessa morales of Sova Realty. Vanessa. Hi. How are you doing?

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Vanessa B Morales
Good. How are you?

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Nate Carver
I'm doing good. It's a wonderful day. If you're tracking the market. Today is the 18th of September, and the feds just did a 50 basis point, drop in the fed rate. I think that's going to have some fantastic, ramifications in the real estate world for buyers and sellers to save money on interest rates. Okay. All right, enough about that.

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Nate Carver
So tell us about you, Vanessa. You've been a real estate agent for how long?

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Vanessa B Morales
I've been an agent for about six, working on my sixth year right now.

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Nate Carver
Six years. Nice. So that. So tell us, why did you. Why real estate? What were you doing before real estate? And maybe what made you think I'm going to do this?

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Vanessa B Morales
Yes, I know, I, I all of my life I've wanted to be an agent because I wanted other people to enjoy the benefits of being a homeowner. So in 2007, I started, going to school for it. And then, you know, life happens. And I kind of put a pause on it and I actually started back around 2017, 2018.

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Vanessa B Morales
And I'm kind of really glad that I did, you know, follow my path and, continue with my education. And I'm still continuing being educated. I, I am very I'm a big advocate for education.

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Nate Carver
Yeah. So you had a little gap there too, but, that your reasons for being a real estate agent changed when you came back to it?

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Vanessa B Morales
No. I've known I've always wanted to help people, one, be educated to know that they all everybody has the the chance to be a homeowner. And a lot of people don't think that they can. And I'm here to help them and guide them and be the source and the source.

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Nate Carver
Right. Yeah. A lot of a lot of misinformation out there. You know, if you're looking to buy or sell a home, definitely, definitely talk to real estate agent because they should have their pulse on the market.

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Vanessa B Morales
Yes.

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Nate Carver
The law, which is always changing.

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Vanessa B Morales
Always. Yeah.

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Nate Carver
So so what would in that train of thought, what would be something if you could make a recommendation to someone that's looking to buy a home, what would be your key advice to them?

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Vanessa B Morales
My key advice to them would just to be on track of where they want to be even because a lot of people think, well, I'm not ready to buy, I want to rent. And the key thing to think about is if you're renting, you're still throwing your money away. You know, constantly. But sometimes you have to work on it.

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Vanessa B Morales
You know, it's not going to be, you know, just come up, happen overnight. So it's something you want to definitely work on and you definitely want to, strive to do that so you don't throw your money away. You know, it's just always changing that mindset.

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Nate Carver
Well, when you did you, when you first got into real estate as a real estate agent, did you work on the listing side or the buy side. What was your first transaction.

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Vanessa B Morales
My very first transaction was a, it was actually a listing. I did the listing. And then my second transaction was a buyers transaction.

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Nate Carver
So you have an idea about now? Fast forward to now, but how many average like, I guess 50, 50. Buy. Side listing. Side or the box sellers. That about right?

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Vanessa B Morales
And, you know, the funny thing is, most, most times I'm more on the listing side. People just want help either selling and getting into something different, but majority of the time it's the listing side that I've I've known that is my calling, I guess. But I am a very dedicated and being for the buyers, right? You know, because those buyers are you know, what helps the market are market, you know.

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Nate Carver
Right. So being out of Belton, Killeen area, you do a lot of that. You work with a lot of veterans and active duty military. Next to formerly I know it is Fort Hood in my day now it's, it's for, the bosses. Cavasos. Yes. I wanted to say basis, but that's.

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Vanessa B Morales
I'm here to help you out. Nate.

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Nate Carver
Yeah. More beer? No. So.

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Vanessa B Morales
That's right. I'll take one.

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Nate Carver
I'm sure. I'm sure it's got a nickname somewhere along those lines. So. So with the base being right there or the fort being right there, you work with a lot of active duty, I'm sure, and a lot of veterans. And, you're. Tell me a little bit about your ties to the VA, the veteran and active duty community.

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Vanessa B Morales
Let's say that again.

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Nate Carver
Tell me a little bit about your ties to the veteran and active duty community.

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Vanessa B Morales
So I am, why I volunteer, I do, volunteer work for, bringing everyone to the zone, which is a, a, what's called a, veterans group. And we do it's basically coffee with vets on Friday mornings, 830, based on the Labor Day, 30 to 10:00 in the morning every Friday. And we kind of just help that kind of adapt to the civilian life, you know?

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Vanessa B Morales
That's one of my callings. I do love to attend that group and, you know, meet our vets and help them, you know, and, also, I have family members that are also veterans. I have a brother, two brothers that are veterans, and my father was actually also a veteran as well. And I grew up in Fort Cavazos as well.

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Vanessa B Morales
It was the that's the.

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Nate Carver
Name, I imagine I wouldn't recognize the place if I ever went back. And I lived there a bunch of years over, on and off, always. I would always come back to Fort Hood. Okay. Fantastic. So you're involved in the community, you do some volunteer work. Do you do some other volunteer things outside? You definitely get stuff there.

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Nate Carver
Yeah. Other things that you're you got your hands in two, right?

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Vanessa B Morales
Correct. Correct. I am a also a, women's council, board of directors. I'm I'm over the events. So, we do, and that's at Central Texas Women's Council. I'm also part of, different committees, Temple Bells and Board of Realtors. I also am a part of, Of our tree pack. And, it's another committee and also realtor.

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Vanessa B Morales
One committee is.

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Nate Carver
Nice, so let's say so obviously with, people moving in and out of that area, anybody moving to Belton? What is a local attraction, entertainment, restaurant, whatever that is a must go to in the area that maybe they don't know about. And, if they were moving there and you had to say you got to come to this area, here's why.

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Nate Carver
What's that?

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Vanessa B Morales
It would definitely be, a lot of the local restaurants, we have a miller's barbecue, a showcase barbecue, a, scores. The, they're all downtown. There's also this little blackbird, speakeasy, little. And that can in downtown Belton. And there's so much stuff to do. I think that we even have a, the I think it's called common the Commonwealth.

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Vanessa B Morales
And that just opened. And, there's so many little things that you can do in the temple and Belton and Temple so close that if you're if we're not doing anything in Belgium, it's just ten minutes away.

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Nate Carver
It really you're right in the middle of Texas. How far? How far are you from Waco?

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Vanessa B Morales
I, I always tell people that if you're moving to Belton, it's 30 minutes away from Waco. It is two hours from Dallas, two hours from San Antonio, an hour from Austin. So it's or it's the ideal place to be. I don't want to deal with traffic every day. So I couldn't live in Austin, but I go to Austin all the time because the the daily thing occurrence that I have to, you know, deal with.

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Nate Carver
Your new Bronzeville. If you float, the river is right there.

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Vanessa B Morales
Oh, yes. Definitely.

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Nate Carver
Okay. But it's it's beautiful hill country. Right. Is that that's a yes. Correct. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. That's a it's beautiful there. I always love to coming back to that area whenever, I'd get reassigned back to the parade. I'm diehard. It's always for it.

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Vanessa B Morales
Yes, I, I just it's really hard to. It's hard.

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Nate Carver
Then changes. Oh. They're brutal. Okay. It's okay. It'll be all right. So tell me, I, I'd love to hear if you've got a funny story in real estate in the last six years, is there anything that stands out that you just, like, shocking or. I can't believe this is happening, but we, you know, we managed to buy or sell a home or.

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Nate Carver
Yeah.

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Vanessa B Morales
There is so many things that happen in real estate and, let's see, I can name so many, but I cannot think of one at this moment. Like, let's see. Hold on. Okay. I do have a situation in real estate where, there was, an unwilling party sometimes, like, you know, the our buyers want certain things and our sellers want certain things, but we all want the same goal.

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Vanessa B Morales
And after everything was said and done, we weren't able to make the deal work, of course. And, you know, they end up becoming best friends. So it's just one of those things like that. I would have never seen that coming. The buyer did have them.

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Nate Carver
Well, what. That's pretty cool. I, I you never you never know. You know, you.

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Vanessa B Morales
Never know.

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Nate Carver
Sometimes they.

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Vanessa B Morales
Never it is very it's a small world, you know.

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Nate Carver
Yeah. Good. What do you love doing outside of the real estate world? You know, when you're not helping people buy or sell a home?

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Vanessa B Morales
Well, I love doing. I love having fun, I love laughing, I love spending time with my family. And, I especially love to, do karaoke. That is a passion of mine.

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Nate Carver
No karaoke. It haunts me.

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Vanessa B Morales
There's, some.

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Nate Carver
Horrible stories of karaoke.

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Vanessa B Morales
The funny thing is, I was just, in grapevine and we were at the, realtor Texas Realtor conference, and, that evening, the first evening, we went to, the bar down there, and they asked me to, run the karaoke. They said if you come back then tomorrow, could you do it again?

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Nate Carver
Oh, wow.

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Vanessa B Morales
Yeah, totally. Things like that could happen in my world.

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Nate Carver
Yeah. Way better than my horror story. I don't know, I'll come on your podcast sometime and tell you my horror stories of karaoke.

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Vanessa B Morales
I would love to hear them.

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Nate Carver
So, I'll make it real quick because it's about you, not me, so I did. I did karaoke the last time and I won't ever do it again. I've sworn it off. I gotta sing my song. I was so nervous. We had just eaten, dinner and of course, karaoke. We had a couple beers and I got so nervous singing in.

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Nate Carver
The girl at the time that I was interested was right there at the table, my party, and, I got, I got I was like, I finished the song, went straight to the restroom because I was getting sick and I knew I was getting sick, so and I did and, try to freshen up and I was like, no, as long as nobody gets in my personal space, we're going to be fine.

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Nate Carver
Well, she was ecstatic that I had sung karaoke because it was way outside of my comfort zone. Sat down next year, so it just plants a kiss on me. We may edit this out, so.

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Vanessa B Morales
I.

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Nate Carver
Mortified because I know I just, you know, sick breath and all that and,

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Vanessa B Morales
Yes.

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Nate Carver
Oh, dear God, I was I was mortified and I just bored. I just, I don't know how do you recover from that? So.

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Vanessa B Morales
Oh, yes. That would be, that would be a tough one.

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Nate Carver
Yeah. Now that even whether I was interested in her or not after that, I didn't pursue it. I just.

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Vanessa B Morales
You're just so embarrassed.

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Nate Carver
Really humiliated. Run away. So anyway. So, Okay. Quick story. So back to you. Tell us. Okay. So you got family? Six months and six months. Six years in real estate. Tell me, what, do you have a personal goal for your real estate business that you're working on or or focus, in the coming year that you'd like to achieve?

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Vanessa B Morales
I would like to, maybe in the upcoming year. I kind of I would like to achieve having, my, brokerage license.

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Nate Carver
Okay.

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Vanessa B Morales
That's really a personal goal of mine. I, like I said, I do stay educated. I, I am continuing education. As soon as I see a class come up, I do like to enroll in them. Yeah. Know if you're not educated, you're not, you're kind of leaving something behind, so I, I'm a very big, believer in education.

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Nate Carver
Yeah, well, what that translates to a home buyer or someone that's selling a home is is more money in their pocket because your your skill set translates to them saving a fortune on the housing cost of housing. And so absolutely good for you. Good for you. Thank you. Yeah. So if, if anybody's looking to get a hold of you to buy or sell a home in the Belton Killeen area was the best way for them to to do that.

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Vanessa B Morales
They can reach me, on my cell phone at, 25459899 4 or 5. Call or text is fine if you if I don't answered the call, definitely text me. There's so many scam callers out there. It's I've been bombarded with that. But definitely call or text is fine. They can look on my website at van be more at gmail.com, the in the MLR at gmail.com, and also email me at van B Miller dot realtor at gmail.com.

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Nate Carver
All right folks, if you're listening, we'll put the links down below, wherever you're listening at our watching. So we'll get this up on YouTube and Spotify pretty quickly. So awesome Vanessa, this is fantastic. I think I've covered everything. Yeah.

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Vanessa B Morales
Yeah. So I think I think it's been a great, great podcast.

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Nate Carver
Absolutely. It's good. Good talk to you. We'll do this again. When? Absolutely.

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Vanessa B Morales
Yes, I'd love to. I'd love to.

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Nate Carver
Come back and do a topic or whatever. And, there you go.

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Vanessa B Morales
Thanks so much I appreciate that.

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Nate Carver
Absolutely. Thank you, everyone for listening to Vanessa. And hi, Karen, on a little conversation on between Two Doors. Reach out to her if you're looking to buy or sell a home. If you need any help with the financing piece of that, I'm always available to answer any questions you have there as well. And, we'll see y'all next time.

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Vanessa B Morales
Thank you. Have a good day.

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