Date the Rate, Marry the House: Florida Real Estate Tips from 31-Year Veteran Donna Sherian

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Show Summary

In this episode of the Investor Fuel podcast, host Michelle Kesil speaks with Donna Sherian, a seasoned real estate agent with over 31 years of experience. They discuss Donna’s focus on helping veterans and local heroes find homes, the challenges of navigating the real estate market, and the importance of networking and building relationships in the industry. Donna shares insights on investment strategies, the impact of changing interest rates, and the unique challenges posed by the insurance market in Florida. She emphasizes the importance of giving back to the community and supporting those who serve.

Resources and Links from this show:

• • • Investor Fuel Real Estate Mastermind
    • Investor Machine Real Estate Lead Generation
    • Mike on Facebook
    • Mike on Instagram
    • Mike on LinkedIn
    • Donna Sherian’s Website
    • Donna Sherian on Facebook
    • Donna Sherian on Instagram
    • Donna Sherian’s Phone Number: (321) 999-2211

  Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

  Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

  Donna Sherian (00:00)
  They say date the rate, marry the house.

  And they say that because once you, if you get into a house at a higher interest rate, let’s say by today and it’s 6.30%, right? And then let’s say you wait two months and the rate goes down to 5.99 or whatever it may be. 1 % is always where the hold mark is as far as refinancing to me. But if you, if you buy the house at a higher interest rate, I can refinance you into a lower interest rate. If you buy the house at a higher price, I can’t refinance you into a lower price point.

  It just can’t. It’s the way the market moves

  Michelle Kesil (02:07)
  Hey everybody, welcome to the Investor Fuel podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil. And today I’m joined by someone that I’m looking forward to chatting with, Donna Sherian, who’s been making serious moves as a real estate agent with 31 years of experience in Florida and Virginia. So excited to have you here, Donna.

  Donna Sherian (02:28)
  Thank you, I’m looking forward to it

  Michelle Kesil (02:31)
  Absolutely, I think our listeners are really going to take something away from how you’re helping finding really good deals for veterans and creating new opportunities for Airbnb and everything that you are offering in your area. So let’s dive in.

  Donna Sherian (02:48)
  Absolutely.

  Michelle Kesil (02:50)
  First off, just for those not familiar with you and your world yet, can you give the short version of what your main focus is?

  Donna Sherian (02:59)
  My main focus is in the Space Coast of Florida. I have been licensed like she said, Michelle, for 31 years. I work primarily with two different courses of clients. have a Space Coast Heroes brand that I work with and I work very closely to the Space Coast Heroes, local heroes in our area to help them find really great financing and home deals that will work really good to them and then to get them transitioned from the military into private life as well.

  And then I also have worked for many years inside the Airbnb VRBO world where we help find people homes that would make really great investment properties for them and what do they need in those homes, what services do they need because they’re not going to be full time here as well.

  Michelle Kesil (03:46)
  Amazing. What are some of the keys that have kept your business to run smoothly?

  Donna Sherian (03:56)
  I would say just the ability to bend, not break. The market is crazy. I’ve been in it 31 years. And I was telling Michelle the previous time we talked that when I got in real estate, it was a black and white book that came in. It was about this thick. And you had one key, no MLS, no emails. And so what changes over time is astounding. It hasn’t stopped yet. So even when technology is already in place,

  technology changes a lot. think it’s just consistently reading about the changes that are happening. What can you do to better assist your clients? What are they needing from you? Is it just social media presence or do they really need the knowledge base that comes with experience to help them ⁓ navigate the waters of real

  Michelle Kesil (04:45)
  Yeah, absolutely that makes a lot of sense. So, what has changed a lot?

  Donna Sherian (04:49)
  The contracts change a lot as well.

  The contracts change, the verbiage in contracts change a lot. know, it’s honor before or, you know, it could

  different types of verbiage in a contract that would make you go on or about, on or before. How things are worded is a really important thing in a contract as far as how are you going to fill in that to represent your client.

  Michelle Kesil (06:03)
  Right? That makes a lot of sense. So what are some things that you’re focused on solving or scaling next in your business? ⁓

  Donna Sherian (06:15)
  think where I’m located here in the Space Coast, there are quite a few snowbirds, lot of condominiums on the Space Coast, Cocoa Beach, Cape Canaveral area, Satellite Beach, all the way down the coast. And what we’re finding is that a lot of people leave in April, May, and they don’t come back to October, November. Those homes sit vacant, and insurance companies are starting to come around and saying, hey, you know, I could have somebody meet

  monitor your property and make sure it’s good or let’s say you just Airbnb your property or VRBO your property and you need somebody to actually come in it’s not a property management system it’s more of a ⁓ concierge service of what do you need do you need somebody to check on it weekly do you need the mail to come out of it do you need a car to be shifted and moved or do you need us to check to make sure your pool isn’t overflowing ⁓

  So I’m really looking into kind of stepping up that idea of going into Concierge Service of Real Estate and seeing what I can do to assist people that already own or considering owning in this area.

  Michelle Kesil (07:25)
  Yeah, amazing. That’s important. Are you working particularly with investors that are owning or, yeah, what kind of does that look like?

  Donna Sherian (07:36)
  Well, I do have quite a few investors that own down here. It’s been a really good year for them actually in the BRBO, Airbnb world. We were just talking about that the other day and how their occupancy rates, even though the market’s kind of been fluctuating, have been well over the 200 nights a year. And that’s really, really good occupancy rates for here. And so what we are talking about is when you get into ⁓ condos,

  How does, are different animals? So in that type of realm, that’s more of a person that owns here because they love the area and they’re getting away from a snowbird season up north. And that’s a private owner, the investors really buy a lot of waterfront property down here and they tend to either hold it because the investment value of the properties are going up. So.

  well over the last few years, so they do it because they want to have a nice income to hold over that asset.

  Michelle Kesil (08:42)
  Yeah, absolutely, that makes sense. So let me ask you this. Every business owner has those moments where things get more real. Maybe a deal that goes sideways or you have to pivot fast. Would you mind sharing one of those moments that you’ve experienced and how you overcame it?

  Donna Sherian (09:04)
  I think that happens often. think the big one, the pivoting fast is interesting. I have a client right now that is a veteran that has experienced some ⁓ family crisis over the last few years and it’s also financial. They kind of go hand in hand. one happens, the other tends to occupy the family as well. And so the intention was,

  Michelle Kesil (09:06)
  Yeah, it does.

  Donna Sherian (09:33)
  just to sell their homes. And then as we dove into it, even over a six, eight month period, the market kind of fell to where in a veteran situation, you can borrow up to 100 % of the home’s value. And because the values aren’t bouncing like they were years ago, they found themselves kind of in a hardship. So it was pivoting really quickly to keep them from getting into financial trouble and to assist them to get their home sold so they could move on to where they needed to be best. And that was a

  really quick turn

  on dealing with the banks to make sure that they are financially stable enough to pull this off and getting a household when we were kind of a needle in the haystack.

  Michelle Kesil (10:51)
  Absolutely, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, those problems always come up, but the important thing is that you resolve them and know that you’re here for that longer term vision.

  Donna Sherian (11:05)
  Right, right, right. For sure, in real estate it’s definitely not something you bounce in and bounce out of, although that’d be nice. People say to me all the time, like, you know, what do you think the market’s gonna do, Donna? And I go, I don’t know. mean, honestly, if I knew what the real estate market would have done in 1994, I wouldn’t be sitting in front of you today. I would be retired on an island someplace. So there are many, many houses that I thought would never go anywhere, and they sell for

  Michelle Kesil (11:11)
  Yeah.

  Yeah.

  Donna Sherian (11:34)
  way more than you would have ever anticipated any given day back in the day. And now, you you have houses that sold for a lot a few years ago and they aren’t selling for the same amount today. Real estate is an ever-changing market and if we could predict it, we’d all be rich.

  Michelle Kesil (11:52)
  Yeah.

  Donna Sherian (11:53)
  But it is very solid investment, absolutely. mean, long-term real estate holds, in the length of time I’ve been in real estate, have always been a solid, solid investment.

  Michelle Kesil (11:56)
  Yeah.

  Absolutely. Yeah, a lot of the listeners on this podcast are investors. So what are your maybe like suggestions for them from what you have observed in this field, maybe some strategies or just advice that you have?

  Donna Sherian (12:25)
  As far as advice, what I would suggest is when these interest rates start changing, I don’t know, there’ll be a lot of cash investors too, so that doesn’t really affect them. But if it’s an interest rate issue and you’ve been holding back to see where those interest rates go, the house you’re looking at today is something somebody looked at yesterday. And those buyers will move very, very rapidly once these interest rates start to fluctuate. And then what it is is

  say date the rate, marry the house.

  And they say that because once you, if you get into a house at a higher interest rate, let’s say by today and it’s 6.30%, right? And then let’s say you wait two months and the rate goes down to 5.99 or whatever it may be. 1 % is always where the hold mark is as far as refinancing to me. But if you, if you buy the house at a higher interest rate, I can refinance you into a lower interest rate. If you buy the house at a higher price, I can’t refinance you into a lower price point.

  It just can’t. It’s the way the market

  And so I suggest that if you’re really into a market move right now and the market’s a little bit slower and softer than it’s been over the years, this is a good time to look. Date the rate, marry the house, and see what that’ll buy you. Because once the starts moving, I think it’s going to move fast and hard.

  Michelle Kesil (13:47)
  Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for sharing that. So what are some of the common obstacles that you have seen in the real estate industry that you can like share some wisdom from, from maybe people that are just looking to get involved with the real estate?

  Donna Sherian (14:12)
  I think the big challenge here in Florida right now is really the insurance market. It has kind of taken its own animal right now. It seems to be getting a little bit better, but in the years I’ve been in real estate, I’ve never seen where they came in and said, oh, your roof’s 10 years old, you can’t buy the house.

  or that one insurance company is moving out and you get a letter in the mail saying we are no longer insuring you. So you’ve got to either self insure or you’ve got to get a different provider. And that has been a huge challenge here for people coming in. The tax ratio changes to when you’re buying investment and you’re not homesteaded. It can be little bit more complicated as well, but they have a lot of options

  ⁓ And so if you’re dealing with a ⁓ seasoned agent, they’ll be able to go, here are some vendors that I work with that are very experienced with finding an insurance provider or how we’re going to do your tax changes over the years to make sense. And how much money do you need to clear to make that a strong investment? And that’s where I’ve found to be this biggest challenge right now for me is just to find the insurance policies.

  that’ll actually fit each and every property. Because here in Florida, could be a house that’s not on water, but it still has a higher insurance rate because it’s built by stick, block. you might be in an area that’s got flooding, but your neighbors got flooding, but you don’t. And so it’s really just an interesting market.

  Michelle Kesil (16:35)
  Yeah, definitely that makes sense. What are some of your favorite things about the market there or some things that you’re looking forward ⁓ in the shifts that are happening?

  Donna Sherian (16:47)
  I am looking forward to seeing the market shift again. It’s really neat to see the hustle and bustle on the space coast when the market’s doing really good. I do like seeing the ability for people to invest in our area. We have Blue Origin, SpaceX, and Boeing, and all these amazing tech companies that are in this area. And so the market’s strong economy-wise with these amazing companies that are coming in.

  And of course, being one of the world’s largest ports and having all the cruise ship liners coming in as well in our backyard is phenomenal as well. And every morning we get up and we can see a space launch. Today was ULA, yesterday was SpaceX. And so that’s a really exciting part. And I like to see the excitement of the people that are coming into our area and helping them find what really works for them. Because our area is so vast, whether you’re looking for coastal or looking for country, you need

  private or more quiet. I’m excited to see that market change. I’m excited to see how the economy is going to turn over the next couple years and watching it flourish again.

  Michelle Kesil (17:57)
  Yeah, definitely. So when it comes to growing your business, creating new relationships, networking, what are some things that have made the biggest difference for you?

  Donna Sherian (18:14)
  I think networking here is a lot of fun. We have a lot of real estate agents and all of them have their strengths and weaknesses. I have my own strengths and weaknesses as well. But getting together and talking about, this worked for me, that worked for you, what do you do here? Who do you use here? What worked for you to try to get that household? A neighbor could sell for 1.4 million and another neighbor could be at 1.2. It looks like

  competing property but why is one selling and the other one’s not? Is it the marketing only or is it way the house is staged? Who do you use for that? working together and always remembering that we are a small group of people that have to work together to get, we’re mediators in fact in a real estate market, so we are to get the buyer and the seller to a mutual meeting point where they’re both walking away thinking thank God I used them, I

  sold or I bought, you know, and how do you do that so that both parties are excited about the way the transaction turned out. And I think working together closely with people that you know and service with is a really good strong point.

  Michelle Kesil (19:26)
  Yeah, definitely relationships are everything in this space and yeah can really propel you forward. Yeah.

  Donna Sherian (19:32)
  Absolutely. Absolutely.

  Michelle Kesil (19:38)
  Yeah, I know that you work a lot with veterans. Can you expand on what that looks like for you?

  Donna Sherian (19:46)
  Well, what I like to do is give back to our veterans. We do assistance with their closing cost. It has to be aligned properly with the lender, so we work really closely with the lenders that we work with to make sure that we can give back to our heroes. It’s not just veterans that seems to be the majority of my business, but we do give back to all of our local heroes.

  They have something in Florida called Hometown Heroes and they’re giving up to $35,000 in closing costs and down payment assistance to these heroes. They have to work locally and I work really closely with lenders that do that program and so it’s really nice to give back. I do find that a lot of the builders that are local as well are kind of buying larger packets of lower interest rate properties and they’re giving back to heroes as well.

  And so finding those niches where you’re working with builders so that the veterans are actually getting a really good bite of that market. They’re getting a new house, they’re getting an interest rate they can afford, their insurance policies are low because it is new construction. And finding those niches for heroes, the people that service us on a daily basis, whether it’s nursing or police or firemen.

  teachers or veterans, they’re not making a lot of money. We don’t give back that much to them. They just don’t have the income levels that other people do. And so the joke years ago, and it really wasn’t a joke, it was kind of the sadness of it, is how many police officers or firemen does it take to buy one single family house? I mean, how many people need to be roommates in order to do that? And so that’s unfair. They deserve fantastic housing, just like anybody else does. And so that was where

  I decided I thought it was an interesting place to go and to service these amazing people to find how can I negotiate a closing cost for them? Can I tack it on somewhere else where it comes back to them here? Can I negotiate with somebody that really wants to get their house sold but doesn’t know how to structure the deal so they can give back to the veteran or the local hero so they can afford to buy that house? It’s really, really nice.

  do. I love to give back to our local heroes. It’s just something I feel it’s embedded in me. My son served in Afghanistan. He is a disabled vet now. He has actually got his wealth management degree out of UCF and is now getting his master’s at Georgia Tech. So that has been an amazing growth to watch out. I hoping he’d be a realtor next to me. But here we are. He does finance. So think it’s the same thing. He always

  goes in with our veterans because he was a veteran and sits down with them and helps me talk to them about what we can do to make them a really strong, solid future for these investments they’re getting ready to make. think the solidity of owning a house and the comfort of knowing you don’t have to go anywhere and nobody’s going to take that from you is fantastic. And our disability percentages in Florida and the property tax deductions are phenomenal as well.

  they really do give back to our vets here.

  Michelle Kesil (23:10)
  Amazing. That’s so beautiful to share and give back to your community and to those people. Yeah, that’s beautiful of you. Amazing. Yeah. So before we close up here, if people want to reach out, connect, collaborate with you, where can people find you?

  Donna Sherian (23:14)
  Yeah, it’s really good. Yeah.

  Thank you.

  I am at Reef Realty in Merritt Island, Florida. You can reach me at any time at DonnaDonnaDonna.com. My phone number is 321-999-2211. Super easy to remember as well. But if you can remember Marsha Marsha Marsha from the Brady Bunch, then Donna Donna Donna is how I came up with that. that is how people know me in the area. They find me that way. It’s always a joke everywhere I go.

  Michelle Kesil (23:46)
  He

  Donna Sherian (23:58)
  If you can remember that, it’s an easy way to find me. Just type it into the web and away you go.

  Michelle Kesil (24:03)
  Amazing. Well, I appreciate your time, your story, and your perspective. So thank you for being here.

  Donna Sherian (24:10)
  Appreciate it

  Michelle Kesil (24:12)
  Yeah, of course. And for the listeners tuning in, if you got value from this, make sure you’ve subscribed. We’ve got more conversations coming with operators just like Donna, who are building real businesses. And we’ll see you on our next episode.