Episode 58: Divorce & Real Estate: Sell or Stay? What You Need to Know with Kristine Edens

0:00 right. If you have considered moving to Gulf Shores, Alabama, southern Alabama, I've got a wonderful real estate agent to talk to with you all today. Hey, I'm Nate Carver and welcome to Between Two Doors. Welcome to. Between two doors, we're talking to Jenny Flurry out of southern Alabama. How are you doing, Jenny? I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me, Naveen.

0:40 You're welcome. Thanks for joining the podcast today. And, we're going to introduce the world to you. And, and here we go. So, so tell me, when did you get into real estate and your why. And my why? Okay, so I got into real estate October of 2024. So right after graduating college, to go a little deeper into my why from the age of 16, I always thought I was going to be a lawyer. That was the plan. All right. I got a speeding ticket when I was 16 years old, 13 days after turning 16, and I had to go to traffic court and the judge screamed at me and I decided I didn't want to ever have someone deal with that again.

1:25 So that set me on a legal track. And I went to the University of Southern Mississippi, where I chose a degree in public relations and advertising. And I had a bunch of great people, great lawyers around me at the time tell me that before I went to law school, I needed to work in the field for a little bit and see what it was like. So my senior year of college, I was a legal assistant at a personal injury firm in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and after that year was done, I remember sitting at graduation and I was absolutely miserable. I realized, this is not what I thought it was. I didn't have all the social time, I didn't have all the time, and I was just not in a good place.

2:11 And so I came home and I packed my car up, and literally the first conversation I got home with my parents and my dad just looked at me and he could tell. And I was like, I can't, I can't go to law school. Yeah, this will not it's not going to work. I'm miserable. And from a young age, he had always suggested real estate. And you know, you never want to listen to your parents ever. You want to ignore what they say. Right? But he was always right. And I realized I'd much rather sell something happy, like a house, rather than sell someone's worst nightmare in court every day. So that's kind of like my deeper. Why? There you go.

2:51 Yeah. No. What university did you go to? The University of Southern Mississippi. As for my mom graduated from. Some to the top. Yeah, she was the first in our family. I think she was the first in our history. So in the family, history goes on forever back, to get a degree. And. Yeah. And she would take she would take us there as kids. I remember she would take us there. She walked. So since out on the on the, the quad, I don't know what you call it. And point and say you can be anything you want to be when you grow up in, you know, mom would plant that seed a dream, you know, dream big. And and she was teacher.

3:32 She raised three kids. And so, so we did kids grew up with school. I had a proud. So, a lot of it was nice little, nice little connection there. Yeah. I one of my favorite memories of mom is building those dreams, playing those little seeds like that and going to school there. So there's nice connection there. I love that. All right, so tell me, so you think Alabama, did you grow up in Alabama in the southern part or. Okay. So, you know, the you know, the neighborhood. So to speak. Born and raised Gulf Coast native there and through. Nice.

4:12 Tell me, what do you when you get Myers or people looking to buy a home in your area. And maybe they're not from Alabama, maybe they're California, wherever they're coming from, what is it that you hope that they find or see that you see in the communities you serve? I think there's something so special about the Gulf Coast. I'm a big traveler. I'll travel wherever I can, and I haven't quite found anywhere else what I have here. People can slow down here. It just feels like you can kind of take a deep breath and I want people to feel at peace when they're here.

4:53 Yeah. This is the kind of area where people still know their neighbors. I mean, you know, you're best friends with your neighbors. If something's wrong, you're going to go next door and talk to them. And so dealing with people moving down here, I just hope they get that same sense of comfort and familiarity that it comes with time. And it does take time, because I've worked with out-of-state buyers who have come here and had a harder time adjusting. But it's this place will warm up to you as much as you warm up to it. Yeah. And you know, Gulf Shores, national seashores, there's there's nothing like it. I've traveled a lot too. And in they have done a remarkable job of kind of balancing out development.

5:39 Absolutely. And preserving the natural spaces, whether it's the beach, whitest, softest beaches in the world. Yes. Or the river systems and, you know, the forest and all of that. It's gorgeous. And those spaces are really protected in, you know, so you get a lot of opportunities there. And a Bucky's so, yeah. We were I think we were the first out of Texas to get a Bucky's. Yes. Yep. And that place, you've been there and you go look. And it's a bunch of Texas license plates. It sure is.

6:19 It's like we just left Texas in there, you know? And, that's where they stop. It's really pretty funny. Home for them and another guy to go to. Bucky's in the summer with the beach traffic. I will say that again. Oh, nightmarish. During the summer. It's a tourist destination. It is. It's been, you load up there right before you take the the road south to the beach. Yeah. I mean, it's Florida. It's right there at Florida. I mean, they're gonna go anywhere down in Florida, so it's always busy. I mean, at 2 a.m., it's busy. Nice. Let's see, let's see. So that was so outside of folks coming in, you know, there's connection to the community is opportunity to really feel at home.

7:04 And they have the opportunity these to, you know, the beaches right there, whether they live on the beach or close to it, doesn't take much to get there year round. And, they're all they're all fine as a, as they come up, become a resident that they may like the, the non holiday season something. Like. It's they. Tend to like those more. Yeah. Well let's, tell me a little bit of your marketing in your, your strategy. Your approach, your background is very different. And your marketing strategy, what what are you seeing in changes when it comes to listing homes?

7:47 So my background is public relations and advertising. My main lead generation comes through social media. I saw in the beginning of my career a lot of realtors just kind of posting houses, and that was it. I mean, oh, adapt to it. No storytelling, nothing. And me as a consumer, if I was to look at that, I'd just scroll straight past it. So I got, another house. My, the way I like to position my marketing is I want you to feel like you're there. I want you to feel like you can see yourself in this house, and it makes sense. And sometimes that's done through videos, you know, carousel posts, whatever it may be.

8:30 But it's actually being able to visualize you in the home. That's what I want people to see. And, right now, I think marketing is one of the most important things Realtors can be doing. I mean, how are you going to get in front of 4000 people better than posting a TikTok? Yeah, you know what I mean. You're right. It's just the way it is and something that backs it up for me. That is my like big thing. My first deal came from TikTok. Really? Yes. It's how everyone, they're like, there's no way it did. It was these buyers found me in North Alabama looking to move down here.

9:11 It was a great deal, but putting yourself out on social media, you are the window into the market. Yeah, they want to see you as well. So also not just posting houses but posting yourself because yes, I'm selling multiple houses, but I want people to work with me, to see me in these houses as well. Does that make sense? That's that's awesome. I, I know I've been watching TikTok so everybody's got their preference on with their social media. Right. And I hear it that, you know from other lenders, oh, I don't use Instagram for example, or I don't use TikTok. I'm all Facebook. You know, there's customers, clients will be on Facebook, but there's going to be clients that grew up with TikTok.

9:58 That's where their preferred focus is going to be. And they're not going to go build a profile on another platform. Maybe they might, but they have the prefer. Even if they have all of them, they've got the one that they go to the most. And so you're the TikTok one is interesting to me because those the generation that started with TikTok never had, Facebook never had, you know, they didn't know Myspace was, they're going to stay on TikTok for their life. Yeah. So they're going to they're growing up, I don't know how old TikTok is now. I don't, I don't recall.

10:39 But I'd say like five years. Five years. So, you know, those, users are growing into that phase in life where they're going to be commerce. And they're not going to they're just not going to do it. They're not going to I'm home. I better get on Facebook. We're not going to do it or whatever platform. And there you are. And take that. You're, you're a trailblazer. You're a very few. And so good for you. That's going to be huge when the payoff on that long term. Yeah. Short term mid term whatever you're, you're in a space that whenever those individuals turn out to be buyers, looking for a home there you can they're going to find you.

11:28 Exactly. Yeah, I love it. What what something that you're seeing, that sellers are overlooking when it comes to positioning their home to sell. Let me think on that one. That's a good one. Pricing. I mean, pricing, pricing, pricing, yeah. Pricing, a strategic, you can have all of the great photography, marketing, everything. If it's not priced correctly. That's going to be your biggest downfall. Right? I've seen it happen time after time of agents. You know, having this back and forth with the sellers. And I think that that can be almost kind of halted at the beginning of, hey, here's actually what I'm looking at, here are the numbers.

12:14 And then you want to price strategically because it's going to cause more, losing words. It's going to cause more motion around your offer. Right? We want multiple offers. We want to get a multiple offer situation. But that cannot be done as well if you're not pricing strategically. Because the first thing you're going to look at his days on market as an agent, other things that set them apart, photography is the biggest one. Like for marketing. Yeah. It's me. I'm also a photographer as well. It keeps me alive when I don't see good photography or agents that aren't marketing.

12:55 If your agent is not marketing your home, there are people who have been in the industry for 30 years that can sell circles around me, but they won't be found because they don't have the marketing. Yeah, and there's an AI component of that that's changing, and it has to be. It's the real estate world. Completely flipped it over on its head. Absolutely. Yeah, I do you do you do you do your own photography. So I hire someone to do mine. I that's another, I guess. Hell, I'll die on. I am a photographer. I do not trust myself enough. I'm going to professional. Who does it every day. Yeah. There you go. And help it sell.

13:38 Do you do videos as well? Like tours? Okay. Good, good. Love it. Nice. Outside. Outside of real estate. Let's see, when you're not showing homes and negotiating contracts, what do you want to do? What do you do outside company? So I do want another business. And that's my photography business. Jennifer. That's a big one. Traveling is huge for me. Cooking. I'm always dragging my friends to new places around here trying to get the like, first of, what is this? And get people out there. But mostly just spending time with friends and family is my big thing outside.

14:21 Yeah, well, you live in Paradise, so when you travel, is it, like down the road, travel or you got you got a destination vacation coming that you're that's on your bucket list? See, I typically try to go pretty far because I do live where people vacation, so it's fair. I all my friends in college, all throughout college, they were like, let's go to Orange Beach for spring break. And I was like, that's that's home. Like, I don't want to go there. Like, yeah, no, but, I try to travel as far as I can. I just got back from Vegas for New Year's. Okay, fun. I have a couple trips coming up, Seattle, Nashville, and I think California.

15:02 Nice. Did you win in Vegas? I lost so bad. It was embarrassing. Did you, What? What game? Blackjack. Blackjack? Yeah. A thorn, and they'll get you. They'll get you. I just learned. I just learned. Do you watch the show, Lane? Man. Okay, so Anna Ali Lautner did her spiel on how to win, on the roulette table. Okay. And, shall we go into that. So. See the casinos. That's just. Well, that's a money pit. Yeah.

15:44 Well they didn't build Vegas on winners and, I've, And so anyway, real quick, we'll go off on a tangent. On the roulette table, you start off small. Whatever color landed last, when you walk up to the table, bet on the other color, okay, ten bucks you're going to lose odds. Are you going to lose? Then you repeat, just stay on the same color. Double your money. Put 20 down. And you're going to lose. But do it again. 1940. And you just keep doing that.

16:25 You win. And then you got to walk away. You got to know when to walk away. Anyway, I have not tested that yet, but I thought it was fantastic theory because, yeah, no show business. You walked away with like 10 or $20,000 or something. Hey, if it works, let me know. If I'll be the guinea pig, I'll make sure I test that out. Maybe I can borrow someone else's money. Not much of. Course I don't. I don't win either. Anyway, so I keep a kid in on that one, because that's the one I like to play. So, All right, back to back to Alabama. Favorite hot spot down there?

17:05 Oh. For what? I don't know, let's say, hey, I'm moving. I'm moving to Gulf Shores. What's the place? I definitely want to go to Perch Park. It's like Gulf State Park. Perch is one of the cutest little restaurant bars there. A real, is a speakeasy in the wharf. Yeah. So cool. I'm trying to think where else down there. There's just so many cute little place I've. I have to catch myself because there's places I won't recommend as well. Oh, up to. That match. Ice cream is the best ice cream.

17:47 It's homemade ice cream. I work there at 17 years old for the summer. Yeah. It's homemade. The best ice cream you ever have in your life. It's key lime pie, ice cream. And there's two whole key lime pie. They put in the ice cream white. And you can literally you scoop it out and you get slices of the lime pie and your ice cream like it's the best thing ever. It's better than sliced bread. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. A knife, you get key. Run for their money. Hey, we have to. Yeah. Well, tell me, looking back, what advice would you give? At the beginning of your career?

18:29 Oh, okay. Don't be afraid to ask questions, because questions provide clarity to everyone involved. If you don't clap for others, you'll never win. Other agents are not your competition, believe it or not. You know, those are probably the three big ones. I think a lot of agents get stuck in thinking that other agents are their competition, and you're out to get you, and the reality of that is, you'd much rather have someone sitting across the table that liked you. Yeah, got along with you rather than, like y'all said, some tense words back and forth. You know what I mean?

19:14 But the clapping for others to celebrate others wins. You are who you surround yourself with. I moved to a new brokerage six months ago, and within my first month of being there, I had two closings on the same day for you, and I wouldn't have been able to do that if I hadn't had those people around me. And that's something I think that gets lost in the beginning, beginning of people being like, I don't know where I should hang my license. And the best advice I can give you is go find someone whose career you want, who's perfect day to you. It's just a normal state of them.

19:55 There you go. Yeah, and that's honestly the best advice I could give myself. And let the nose roll off your back. Good. Do you? If you think that maybe the first transaction you did, was it a listing or did you help pull and buy a home? I helped someone buy. You helped them buy. What was that like for you? Closing day? Hopefully it was a smooth and flawless closing. That was a very. My first transaction was a nightmare. I'm going to be. Yeah. I got food poisoning during negotiation. It was like, every off. Oh, goodness. Came in the way throughout the process.

20:37 Did closing, like, smoothly? You'll never truly know what it's like till you're in the process. Like, that's nothing, of course, can prepare you for or anything. It's just that closing day, though, when I left, was one of the most fulfilling days in my life. I felt like that was my this is that moment. Yeah, help these people. I actually I remember getting in my car and I was like, I actually just sold a house. Like, these people are about to walk into their new home. And it was the weirdest feeling, but I had this immediate gut reaction of, I want to do this again. I want to, yeah, as many times as I can to see how happy those people were when they got those keys.

21:22 Was that their first home? No. Okay. But they were recently married. Both had been divorced and came down here just looking for a fresh start. And, just getting to help people like that. That's my big thing in real estate is relationships over transactions. And then people, if I was in it for the money, I would have gone and been miserable and been a lawyer. That was easy way out. But this I just love helping people. And you do come into things like that where you'll have a divorce, clients come to you and their house is the largest asset they own, and you have to be that person to help divide that up and figure out what you're going to do. But just being the light for people is why I love being in real estate.

22:04 I like that. Do you? I guess you you still stay in touch with them? Yeah. Good good good. Who knows what their housing needs will be? But it is relational, for sure. So from their most recent closing that you feeling differently, you kind of reinforce that every time, every time you go to a closing, it's life changing. I mean, it really is people owning a home or getting out from under a home that they need to sell. Financially and emotionally. There's big guilt there. Yeah. My most recent closing, that one was a very special one.

22:48 I helped a friend who I grew up with buy two pieces of land to build a house on. Yeah. She had just found out that her and her boyfriend were pregnant, and it was a huge, big deal. I definitely felt way more confident walking into that one. And that was a reminder that my favorite people to work with our first time homebuyers. Yeah, people who are getting into it because there's so much conversation about young people, you're never going to be able to afford a house, you're always going to rent. And I'm like, that's not true. You've got to talk to people that got to talk to people like me. In my position to understand that homeownership is attainable.

23:28 And actually getting to really put that into practice this time of like educating someone and walking it through and having breakthrough moments of like, oh my goodness, this actually makes so much sense. Thank you. That yeah, that beat out every other closing I've had. Absolutely. Yeah. If you're, you know, if you're looking to buy a home, getting a great realtor like yourself, get you on your team and getting, a lender on your team to build out, your, your loan profile so that you have a, the ability to see what a clear mortgage plan is and what that actually entails and what you need to do.

24:19 I'm a homeowner. That's going to take that takes having a good team put together. And, because you own the may not know. I mean, they get an idea. They know the you know how much they make each month. But without without you and without me, without a realtor and a good lender that is a huge missing piece. It is, and whether it takes three month to month, a month to get a home or a year, year or two, how you don't have a long it takes least they have a nice roadmap built out between you and and the lender. I love.

24:59 It, and there's. It's never too early to reach out to a lender or realtor to understand what steps you need to take, and I think that's something that needs to be expressed because like someone just reaching out to you or me asking questions, that's literally the first step in owning your home. It is, if someone's if someone is listening to this and considering buying or selling a home in the in the Gulf Shores area, what do you want them to know about working with you? I am someone who overcommunicate. Yeah. I am going to keep you informed every step of the process, even on the gut in the back.

25:43 You deserve to be involved and actually understand what's going on. So one of my biggest pet peeves when people don't feel like they're involved and I've had friends who've bought houses, I've asked people, how did you feel like your realtor did? What do you what did you want them to do differently? And it was always involvement and not feeling as knowledgeable of the process as they could. And that's something I, clear with my clients about. If there's ever any questions, any time of day, do not hesitate to call me. And I always establish that open communication at the beginning, which is so essential for first time homebuyers because they're going to ask you every question under the sun, but, I'm sorry.

26:28 Go back to your original question. I'm not trying to thought. Oh, that's okay. I just got, you know, identifying things that stand out to you and what your what you bring to the, the to your customer that needs to sell a home or buy a home. I've kind of positioned myself as the real estate best friend. And that does go hand in hand with the over communication. I'm going to break it down in a way that's going to make it make sense. That was my one of my first goals. In my first year of real estate was being able to explain the real estate process to a seven year old and make it make sense. And that's what I pride myself on, is clarity.

27:10 And I'm always on my phone. I'm always going to answer my phone and I'm going to call people when it's hard and things are falling apart. And that has saved me more times. And I can count and say deals noticed. I've seen other agents that just won't pick up the phone. I will take effect. I'm going to call and we're going to figure this out. Or drawing nights will tell me if, someone needs sell home or buy a home and they are online with you and what we've talked about that how how would they best be able to reach you? So I'm always on social media. Any DMs on social media are great email on all of my social media.

27:52 It has all of my contact information from our email website. And that's where I am pretty much social media. If you type in Ginny Florida, you're going to find me. Yeah, I'll put, I'll put the links down below wherever you're watching this or listening to this podcast, we'll make sure they are that you're easily connectable. And, tell me, what's, do you know anything? I mean, everywhere there's developments. Do you know of anything significant coming to the area or that has recently been added that might be of interest? So we have a lot of new development in Baldwin and Mobile. We have two big companies moving to Baldwin County.

28:35 Not sure the exact names. The buildings are currently being built out in Bay Monat and Robert Steel. It's bringing I don't remember the last time I checked what the exact numbers were, but like I want to say, it was like 600 plus jobs to the area now. And they are also redoing downtown will be all the, eight night amphitheater. But the Coliseum and stuff down there is being redone and restructured to make it more efficient for Mardi Gras as well. And trying to revitalize downtown mobile, which has been let go. And I am seeing so many great efforts to try to revitalize that. And I mean, it's almost Mardi Gras. Yeah. We have the whole.

29:15 Deal is the whole Mardi Gras. Try to think what else anything else we have coming. Those are the big ones as of right this moment. Okay. Do you, you've been over to, I guess, lot to the. Oh, not a all. Yes. All right. Yeah. That's, that one snuck up on me. It's great. Oh, it's so fun. Yeah, that one is. I mean, when you grow up here, they build stuff and you don't notice. Yeah. You know, what's that? So I remember driving down the beach restaurant, and I was like, is that a roller coaster? Like, there's no way. But it's a great break from the beach to night.

29:56 I have a rumor that you're in the area. I want to see if you've heard this too or know anything about it. Here we go. Rumor mill. Do you, is there a plan, or are they building a essentially an indoor massive wave pool? Have you heard that? I feel, I don't. Know, I feel like I've heard whisperings. Whisperings out of it. And that would not shock me. Yeah, because it does get cold. You know. And they do have. Yeah. I mean, we have water right down the road, but yeah. Hey, I guess the more the merrier.

30:36 I know I big as a local. I think we wish it to happen because then you can go surfing year round. Yeah. Maybe when there's a hurricane, you just go over to just go inside. Go inside or. I don't know, I hear stuff about that from time to time. And they have they have stuff like that over in Japan. So anyway. But, I don't know if that's true or not. So maybe we just added to the rumors. We'll find out. I will definitely let you know. All right. It'd be a major selling point, and you're just five, five minutes away from the indoor surfing. I don't know, what. Did I not ask you that I should have asked you.

31:22 I don't know. I guess what's ahead? What's ahead for you, Danny? We are just continuing to grow. Like I said, I do value relationships over transactions. I want to help as many people as I can. I want to make sure I want to get in front of as many people as I can and let them know that homeownership is attainable. And we. Yeah, this open and growing the area as well, just to show that we're we are not just a vacation town. We have, a lot going for us. Not just a beach, not just condos, which a lot of people like to just lump us in that.

32:02 That's all we have going on. But yeah, just to keep helping people and making the world better. Well, you serve a beautiful area of the country, and you are charismatic, and you are. You got a great spirit about you. And so I just wish you continued success and growth. And, folks, if, you're looking to move to the Gulf Beach area of Alabama, please reach out to Ginny. I'll put her links down below. I think that's going to wrap up our conversation today. All right. And, it's always the $20.

32:44 I'm also a mortgage lender. If you need financing advice and, a clear mortgage plan. And, please reach out to me and I'll, happily do that to introduce you to Ginny as well. All right. I bye.