Building Strong Client Relationships in Real Estate with Lori Whatley

Lori Whatley (00:00)
to get a better deal as selling your home, but you’re probably going to spend a little more buying and that absolutely can flip when it’s, you know, when you’re buying. If it’s a buyer’s market, you may take a little more of a hit selling, but you can make it back on the buying end. So why wait?Kristen Knapp (01:47)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m Kristen Knapp and I’m here with Lori Whatley who’s a realtor in South Carolina among many other things. She also has her doctor in human behavior and is an author. So we’re gonna get into a lot of fun stuff. Thank you for being here Lori.Lori Whatley (02:00)
Thank you for having me. I came from a family of realtors. So my mother was a realtor and I have a daughter who’s a realtor, a nephew who’s a realtor. So

Kristen Knapp (02:02)
Yes, so let’s go to the beginning. How did you get into real estate?

Okay.

Lori Whatley (02:18)
⁓ It’s kind of been something that we’ve all had in our family.

Kristen Knapp (02:22)
that’s special to have it, you know, with, yeah. And then, so you also have a doctorate in human behavior. Just tell me about your background, how you’ve kind of done both, you know, laterally.

Lori Whatley (02:24)
It really is.

have. I and I never have decided which which one is my hobby and which one is my work because I love them both so much. But I’ve had both degrees for 25 years and I have enjoyed having a career in both of these realms. I think they really can go hand in hand and it’s interesting

Kristen Knapp (02:40)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Lori Whatley (03:02)
because at first when I got my real estate license it was for investment purposes only. And then people started saying, hey, will you help me sell my house? Or, you know, will you help me buy house? And so, you know, I did that and I’ve enjoyed it.

Kristen Knapp (03:21)
That’s amazing, I can totally see how it would go hand in hand, how you can really help your clients.

Lori Whatley (03:27)
Absolutely, know, buying and selling homes is stressful. So helping them find ways to manage that stress and anxiety just from that transaction is something I think is very helpful for me to be able to add to my services.

Kristen Knapp (03:45)
Definitely. And then as you build up your real estate business, are you still working with your family? Are you guys able to kind of build up your client base together?

Lori Whatley (03:54)
We are, my mom is 87, so she’s retired, but my daughter is in Atlanta and we definitely work together and send clients back and forth and I hope to do that with my nephew also.

Kristen Knapp (04:08)
that’s so special. And what advice would you give to someone maybe buying a home for the first time and they’re feeling that stress that you talked about? What are some pieces of advice you would?

Lori Whatley (04:09)
Mm-hmm.

Well,

I think helping them be prepared and, you know, making wise choices through preparation and really thinking through decisions, helping them really see all aspects of the decision that they’re making and really just be there with them and guide them and be available to them, answer their questions.

help them learn to ask good questions. I think all that’s essential for first time home buyers.

Kristen Knapp (04:50)
Absolutely, I think asking the right questions. I think a lot of people are scared because they don’t want to look silly, but it’s so important.

Lori Whatley (04:56)
Right.

Absolutely.

Kristen Knapp (05:47)
And probably, mean, partnering up with a realtor that you love is so crucial in the process.

Lori Whatley (05:54)
It really is. I’ve been, you know, not all realtors are created equal. And I think finding someone that is a good fit for your personality is essential.

Kristen Knapp (06:00)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, and also figuring out your questions and learning more about the market. Because I think right now is a time where there’s a lot of information being thrown about the real estate industry. And it’s kind of hard to tell, is it a good market? Is it a bad market? Is it fluctuating? So I think someone like you could really help people through that.

Lori Whatley (06:27)
Absolutely, I hope so.

Kristen Knapp (06:29)
And so if someone was a little bit cautious about the market, not really knowing what’s going on, what would be your advice to them?

Lori Whatley (06:38)
Well, I think it’s really important that we get facts about the market and that you have an agent that has really done a lot of transactions in the certain area that you are interested in buying or selling in. So they really know that market well because you know, one market can be very good and hot and 50 miles away can be a much different market. It just depends. So I think it’s important that your agent

have a good understanding of the market where you are.

Kristen Knapp (07:13)
Definitely. And you’re saying right now is a good opportunity for buyers.

Lori Whatley (07:17)
Where I am is turning into a buyer’s market. It’s been a seller’s market for a long time, but it is shifting to a buyer’s market, absolutely.

Kristen Knapp (07:26)
Yeah, so it’s very optimistic for people who are maybe looking for a home.

Lori Whatley (07:31)
Yes, it is.

Kristen Knapp (07:33)
I think a lot of people, they wait and wait and wait and they’re like, I’ll wait until the market’s better. What would you say to those people?

Lori Whatley (07:41)
You know, the thing about that is, you know, I’ve seen where that doesn’t work real well for people because it’s hard to guess the market. It’s just like the stock market and it shifts and you know, you could be waiting for a very long time and and you know, one thing gets better, but then another gets worse. I tell people, okay, well, if you want to sell your home and it’s a seller’s market, you’re going to probably have to buy, spend a little more on the buying in, right?

Kristen Knapp (08:11)
Right.

Lori Whatley (08:11)
you’re

to get a better deal as selling your home, but you’re probably going to spend a little more buying and that absolutely can flip when it’s, you know, when you’re buying. If it’s a buyer’s market, you may take a little more of a hit selling, but you can make it back on the buying end. So why wait?

Kristen Knapp (08:28)
Yeah, absolutely. think that’s pretty good advice. It’s never going to be perfect on both sides. And so tell me about your market in South Carolina and what makes it so special.

Lori Whatley (08:33)
No.

Well, this market here where I am, I’m in the low country. And so I think anytime you can buy where there’s water, I have found through 30 years of investing. Anytime I buy it where there’s water, I do very, very well. People are attracted to water and we know from research, it’s very calming and people do look for water to find peace and they want it for retirement. And you can understand why, because we are drawn to water as humans.

Kristen Knapp (09:07)
Yeah,

definitely. Yeah, it sounds beautiful. So when did you start, you know, I know that you invest in, you’re also a realtor. When did that journey begin? When did you begin investing?

Lori Whatley (09:19)
⁓ probably the investing part started 30 years ago. So I enjoyed buying homes and I would fix them up and try to sell them. If that did not work ⁓ before flipping was the thing. If that did not work, then I turned them into rental properties and did very well with that.

Kristen Knapp (09:23)
Okay, so that came to a

Mm.

That’s amazing. Can you think of, you know, when you think back to those first deals, like the first time you’re like, wow, I can really make this a career of mine.

Lori Whatley (09:51)
absolutely. And it was really funny because I was doing it. I was a therapist, but I was doing that other because that was really my

right? So there’s a lot of different ways you can practice real estate. And that was how I was doing it. I was buying houses and fixing them up. And that really was therapy for me. And then I just started being very lucrative.

Kristen Knapp (10:47)
Yeah.

Yeah, of course. Yeah, and it definitely takes a lot of work over a lot of…

Lori Whatley (10:56)
a lot, a lot.

Kristen Knapp (10:58)
How did you go about building up your network so you could really build your business?

Lori Whatley (11:05)
You know, it was interesting how it just it just evolved as I said, then people started saying, well, will you sell my house for me? And I had a license. I ended up having a license in Georgia, Florida and now South Carolina. So I said, yeah. then and then I started people would would be buying somewhere else in the country and I would help them find an agent. So then I got a little referral market going. So, you know,

Kristen Knapp (11:29)
Mm-hmm.

Lori Whatley (11:32)
There’s a lot of different niches you can do in this industry and do very well.

Kristen Knapp (11:36)
Yeah.

Definitely, I think there’s a lot to love about real estate. mean, just as you said, even in terms of whether you flip or whether you hold, ⁓ I think people get a lot of validation in so many areas of it. Sorry. What would be a lesson that you learned early on that you think could help others?

Lori Whatley (11:54)
It’s

Yeah.

Well, I think it’s just really important that you don’t try to get too big too fast. I mean, we’ve seen a lot of, you know, people overextend themselves and I never buy anything that I would not want to keep for myself. So when I was investing, if I bought, let’s say a condo on the water, I would say I need to be prepared to move into this if I have to, if I can’t sell it, if I can’t rent it, you know, and that always served me very well.

Kristen Knapp (12:18)
Mm.

Yeah, that’s a really good perspective on it. And I like the strategy of going deep rather than wide. Can you talk a little bit more about that?

Lori Whatley (12:46)
think it’s well, I just think it’s important that you make wise choices a little bit at a time when you say going deep that to me is as opposed to going wide going wide is just extending yourself so far out that you know, you can’t sleep at night because you have so many so many irons in the fire and I think when we grow too fast that can be really scary because then you have a market shift and then you’re kind of in a pickle. So

Kristen Knapp (13:00)
Mm-hmm.

Lori Whatley (13:15)
You just want to avoid things like that and you want to know the market where you’re investing.

Kristen Knapp (13:22)
Yeah, that’s definitely very important to like, because as you said, the markets are so different, even, you know, down the street could be a lot different.

Lori Whatley (13:30)
So true.

Kristen Knapp (13:31)
So, you you’re building up your own businesses. What are some mindset tips you have for, you know, someone starting their own business? Because, you know, you’re on your own and you’re building something. What would be some advice?

Lori Whatley (13:44)
I think have, you know, have goals for yourself and try to live within those goals, especially the first year, because things can be going really well and then you say, I’m going to do more and it can become overwhelming and then anxiety takes over. So really trying to stay balanced so you can stay like a Midwestern highway instead of a Rocky Mountain Road, right?

Kristen Knapp (14:05)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. And do you have any tips of building your team and how to kind of pick the right people to work with?

Lori Whatley (14:18)
I think that you can always train people to learn how to work in an industry, but you want to really choose people that have the same values you do, because values are not really trainable. They’re not teachable. People come with a set of values, and they need to match yours. So think really doing your homework to be sure that that’s the case is important.

Kristen Knapp (14:23)
Mm-hmm.

Definitely, definitely. ⁓ And then just talking about getting into real estate investing ⁓ with this changing market, what are some mistakes that you think people should avoid?

Lori Whatley (15:42)
Well, I think not understanding the market where you are and just looking and saying, globally it’s this. Well, it’s very focused to where you are and you need to really know the market where you are and not get in over your head.

Kristen Knapp (15:44)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Definitely. Yeah, well, I’m so interested in, you you have so many different things going on. You also have a book, like tell us about some of the other stuff you have going on.

Lori Whatley (16:10)
Well, I do believe in streams of income. there are streams of income within the real estate world, as in you can be working with buyers and sellers, you can have investment properties, you can buy fixture uppers, you can just have a referral business. There’s several things you can do within that, within the real estate industry. But I also, for me, I love to write and that is

Kristen Knapp (16:13)
Yeah.

Lori Whatley (16:38)
Again, that’s an outlet for me. So as a psychologist, I have written three books and I really enjoy that and they’re books that can fit right in with real estate because they talk about connection, how we need to be connected with other people. Obviously to do well in real estate, you have to have a network and you have to be connected.

Kristen Knapp (17:02)
Absolutely. So tell us a little bit about these books.

Lori Whatley (17:07)
So my first book was about what I did my doctoral project on, which was the effects of texting on our relationships, the effects of digital devices on our relationships. And that was a long time ago that I did that. But as a therapist, I was seeing that in my therapy room. A lot of people were affected negatively. And was a long time ago. And then I wrote Connected and Engage, which was a

Kristen Knapp (17:18)
Mm. Yeah.

Yeah.

Lori Whatley (17:36)
like a follow up of that. And then someone asked me to write my latest book and it was a follow up on that. you know, they’ve all been about building connection, learning to put our devices down and be where our feet are, which is really important, right?

Kristen Knapp (17:49)
Mm-hmm.

Definitely. And I think it’s also interesting, you know, when you’re talking about technology and its effects on relationships, that also plays into real estate. I’m sure the market is, you know, ever changing with AI and, you know, everything that’s coming out. How can, like, can you speak on that a little bit?

Lori Whatley (18:18)
It is, it’s changing so much and I’m really, that’s the goal I have for myself is to focus on learning and I’m starting to learn a lot about AI and how it works and how we can use that as a tool to enhance our business but we want to be careful not to use it so much that we’re not hands on, right? So that we,

Kristen Knapp (18:26)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Right. ⁓

Lori Whatley (18:47)
You know, it can’t be everything. It needs to be in balance.

Kristen Knapp (18:52)
It definitely, I do see that as well, because I do think a lot of people rely on it now and can’t write an email by themselves and that is a little scary.

Lori Whatley (19:01)
It really is. I have just learned about, you know, using AI for things like that. my concern is like, how do you know when you’re out there and you’re reading someone’s blog? Do they write that blog or is that a better AI? Like, who are we interacting with here?

Kristen Knapp (19:17)
I know.

Yeah, your business is a good business because both businesses are very, you know, face to face personal.

Lori Whatley (19:28)
And that I love.

Kristen Knapp (19:30)
Yeah, you get to interact with lot of great people.

Lori Whatley (19:33)
Yes, I’m a people person and I know the value for us as humans in having connection in person with people.

Kristen Knapp (19:41)
Yeah. Can you talk about maybe some of your clients that you got a great win for that you’re really proud of?

Lori Whatley (19:50)
In real estate, some of my clients, well, goodness, I’ve helped. ⁓ I love it when we price a house well and sometimes they end up, someone comes in and pays them even more than what we priced it for. And they’ve had it for a while and they walk away and they’re really happy with the deal we got them. Especially in a market that is shifting, I can think of one deal.

Kristen Knapp (19:59)
Okay.

Yeah.

Lori Whatley (20:18)
around Christmas time I did and ended up helping this person get the most in the neighborhood that anything had sold for in a long time by far. And that was really exciting for her. And especially, you know, in a slow season, because it was during the holidays and like people aren’t really out buying investments then. ⁓ So not really buying real estate then. So that’s been a win. ⁓

Kristen Knapp (20:30)
Over here.

Mm-hmm.

Lori Whatley (20:48)
⁓ just recently that I really enjoyed.

Kristen Knapp (20:52)
that’s awesome. Yeah, I can tell you really benefit from the personal connection of your clients. It’s an industry where you’re really helping people.

Lori Whatley (21:02)
Absolutely you are if you help them make wise choices. I can think of another one I had friends who really wanted a particular house and It wasn’t on the market and I helped them get it. That was a good, you know, I like to do a lot of off-market deals

Kristen Knapp (21:18)
Yeah, well yeah, and that’s that network you’ve built as well. It’s amazing. Well then, how can people find you?

Lori Whatley (21:22)
Mm-hmm.

Well, I’m on social media. So my team is encouraging me to really grow on social media. So I’m on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, several different platforms. And I actually have a new website that I’m in the process of building and it will be out in maybe two weeks, hopefully. So I’m Dr. Lori Whatley on

Kristen Knapp (21:51)
Thanks.

Lori Whatley (21:56)
my social media handles and loriwotley.com will be my new website.

Kristen Knapp (22:04)
Amazing. Well, thank you so much for being here. I hope that everybody got a lot out of this and I think, you know, hopefully you’ll get some really interested clients from this because it seems like you’d be such a pleasure to work with.

Lori Whatley (22:16)
Thank you so much. This was a pleasure for me to come and talk about the things that I enjoy talking about so much.

Kristen Knapp (22:22)
Wonderful. Okay, well, thank you for being here and thank you everybody for listening and we will see you next time. Thank you.