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Show Summary
In this episode of the Investor Fuel Podcast, host Michelle Kesil talks with Nashville broker Amanda Bell about building a diversified real estate business spanning residential, commercial, and foreclosure properties. Amanda shares how adaptability, collaboration, and continuous learning help her navigate challenges, strengthen client relationships, and grow in a changing market.”
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Amanda L Bell (00:00)
Yeah, so the hardest part for me is not losing the, it’s not the commission that you lose, it’s the disappointment. And we’ve all been there, we’ve all done everything that we feel like we can do. And I think number one, you have to not accept no. As your first answer or I can’t or it’s not going to work or something like that. And you have to exhaust all effort to make sure that you’ve done everything possible to try to hold a deal together. And it may not be that the deal, you know, as it sits still stays. ⁓ You know, it may take you a week or it may take you a couple of days to figure out a different way or a different angle to work it, to pull it together.Michelle Kesil (02:14)
everybody, welcome to the Investor Fuel Podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil. Today I’m joined by someone I’ve been looking forward to chatting with, Amanda Bell, who’s been making serious moves in the real estate space. So excited to have you here, Amanda.Amanda L Bell (02:32)
Thank you so much, I really appreciate the invite.Michelle Kesil (02:35)
Awesome. think our listeners are really going to take something away from how you’ve scaled and grown your brokerage and been successful through that. So let’s dive in just for those who are not familiar with you and your world. Can you give the short version of what your main focus is?Amanda L Bell (02:58)
Yes,I would say we focus on just about everything. With being a brokerage that is not located in the metro Nashville area, we’re outside of that area. We have a lot more flexibility and a lot more demand for us to have a diversified office. So a lot of the office in the city areas are very segmented as far as residential, land, commercial, ⁓ property management, etc. And we kind of have an all-in-one package. So our clients can
cover everything from purchase to sale to actually management within our office. that’s we’ve got our hands in just a little bit of everything.
Michelle Kesil (03:41)
Awesome, where are you located?Amanda L Bell (03:43)
We’re located in Ashland City, which is just about 20 minutes ⁓ outside of Nashville. We’re actually halfway between Nashville and Fort Campbell.Michelle Kesil (03:54)
Awesome. So what has been like your key to keeping this business running smoothly with all of those moving parts?Amanda L Bell (04:04)
⁓ I think that the main thing is that you have to be willing to not narrow your focus. There’s so many agents out there again that are strictly traditional or strictly sellers or strictly buyers. And I think that it allows you more flexibility to move with the market depending on what is happening. If you educate yourself in all areas, for example, we do a lot of foreclosures and the foreclosures were what pulledthrough the recession and then you have a client base of that but your traditional is always like your bread and butter. So when you have a traditional buyer but you have a knowledge of the foreclosure industry then it allows you to move your clients back and forth from one market to the other. So your investors are not only buying foreclosures but they’re buying the traditional market as well and then you have your traditional like owner-occupant buyers that can use your knowledge of foreclosures to possibly
go into that market as well. So I think that’s how we have survived by diversifying our portfolio for lack of better terms and providing a wide range of services but also having the knowledge to move our clients back and forth from one market to the other.
Michelle Kesil (05:20)
Yeah, that’s important. How did you get into this role and yeah, work your way up to this position?Amanda L Bell (05:28)
Um, by accident, kind of. So in 2003, the man that I was married to at the time, we decided he had, he was in the construction business, so we decided that we were going to build and sell spec homes. I was going to get my license, he was going to get his contractor’s license, and we were going to build and sell spec homes. Unfortunately, life happened between us and we had to go our separate ways. And so I already had my real estate license and soit became something of I’m only going to sell spec homes to I need this to support myself at that point. And so it just kind of started off that I would work part time in real estate and then the hours got cut at my full time job. So then I was doing real estate full time and it just became a point of needing to do both. And then one thing just snowballed into the other and now I my own office.
Michelle Kesil (07:15)
Amazing, I love that. Yeah, it’s beautiful how life can lead you down a new path in that way. So yeah, how has it been managing the brokerage, owning this office? Like what kind of has that process worked?Amanda L Bell (07:23)
Yes.⁓ Sometimes it’s more difficult because I’m very hands-on with my agents and stuff and I try to, ⁓ you know, I manage and I’m a working broker which is a lot different than a lot of the companies out there. A lot of times they just have a managing broker and that’s it but I’m a working broker ⁓ and so sometimes it’s difficult but I do believe that it also gives my agents, you know, firsthand knowledge that I’m gaining out there in the field. I’m able to transport that over to them and
them grow their business. So I think there’s plus and minuses to it. You know, I’m not sitting in the office every day waiting just for questions, but in the same breath, I’m able to give them a lot more information as to how the day-to-day things work and, you know, mistakes to prevent and, you know, changes in the market.
Michelle Kesil (08:24)
Yeah, absolutely. And what is the market like where you’re located?Amanda L Bell (08:31)
Well, I actually cover an hour and a half outside of Middle Tennessee. ⁓ So from that standpoint, you know,I believe that has also helped me, you know, to stay where I feel like I want to be. ⁓ We’ve had some stuff happen at the office this year, not anything bad, but my assistant was out on maternity leave. And so honestly, I’ve kind of gotten behind on processing my closed files to see exactly where I am in my sales goal. I still think that I’m okay. I’m hearing from a lot of other agents that they’re struggling this year. ⁓ And I haven’t seen that. I could be wrong when I get done processing all my files that you
could be a lot less than what I think, but I think this year is going to be great.
Michelle Kesil (09:16)
Amazing. Where are you? Like seeing this business heading? Are there things that you’re focusing on scaling to next?Amanda L Bell (09:27)
No, I don’t really forecast anything like that. I think that’s one of the mistakes that some of the smaller companies make is trying to forecast three years out, five years out. You know, we really focus here on what we have at the moment and try to tailor our needs and our goals based on the current situation. And then through a lot of prayer and guidance, that’s just where we allow our company to go from there.Michelle Kesil (09:53)
awesome.Yeah, so what is maybe some advice you can share for, I know a lot of people like listening to this are investors. So do you work with investors? How is like your relationship and your business with in correlation to them?
Amanda L Bell (10:15)
Yeah, so I do work with a lot of investors just because I do have foreclosures and stuff like that that they are very interested in these days. ⁓ Honestly, know, investors, and this is no slam, investors are not very loyal. They have a lot of different agents in a lot of different areas and that’s totally understandable. So the one thing that I would just say to them is like number one, pick an agent in, one agent in.each area if you want to do it that way. Because even though we send out information, the agents or the investors that are most loyal to us are normally the ones that get the information first.
versus us feeling like we’re sending it to them. They’ve got five agents in the same area and we’re working hard to get you the information, but you may use a different agent to come back to the table. So I would just say, segment your agents based on market. But other than that, it’s just about… ⁓
knowing the foreclosure process. There’s a lot of agents out there that don’t understand it and they don’t want to do it. ⁓ I like foreclosures. Foreclosures are very defined. The rules are set and this is how you play the game and if you don’t play the game that way then you’re not going to get the house. ⁓ And so that is sometimes difficult especially for the newer agents to kind of grasp that there’s just not a lot of variation in it. But I really enjoy the foreclosure market.
Michelle Kesil (12:18)
Awesome. Yeah, so for the foreclosure market, like how does that kind of differ in like your world with what you do compared to just like buying homes?Amanda L Bell (12:31)
yeah, it’s not really that different. ⁓ you know, there’s no emotion to it. So it’s very different interacting with people because honestly, most foreclosures are just through portals. Like you never really talked to anyone versus the traditional market. You’re building relationships, which I do like. ⁓ not that you don’t build relationships with your asset managers. It’s just different.You know, you don’t have all of the day-to-day things that come along with the traditional market that you have with the investors. So it’s just different. There’s a lot more deadlines and timelines that you have to go by, but I like the structure of it.
Michelle Kesil (13:13)
Yeah, absolutely. So I know that every business owner has moments where things get more real. Maybe deals go sideways or you have to pivot fast. Would you mind sharing one of those moments for you and yeah, like what you learned from it?Amanda L Bell
Yeah, so the hardest part for me is not losing the, it’s not the commission that you lose, it’s the disappointment. And we’ve all been there, we’ve all done everything that we feel like we can do. And I think number one, you have to not accept no.as your first answer or I can’t or it’s not going to work or something like that. And you have to exhaust all effort to make sure that you’ve done everything possible to try to hold a deal together. And it may not be that the deal, you know, as it sits still stays. ⁓ You know, it may take you a week or it may take you a couple of days to
to figure out a different way or a different angle to work it, to pull it together. I think that you just have to make the best decision that you can to try to represent your client and get the best deal possible for everyone. mean, I’m currently in a situation right now where we canceled the contract and now we’ve gone back into another contract with the owner because there was some issues with the survey and we just kept working on it. But the biggest thing is
that you have to remember is a lot of times.
We want to separate the buyer and the seller and the listing agent and the buyer’s agent. And it’s really not. It’s a team effort. You know, it takes everyone to work together and put the parts together and sometimes just come to a collaboration that says, hey, this is an idea I have. I want to share it with you. Can you guys figure out a way to make it work on your end? So instead of it being one side against the other, you know, it just seems to work out a lot better if everybody’s working together to try to move towards the end goal.
And, you know, a lot of times I think sometimes our pride will get in the way as an agent that we don’t want to learn anything new when in actuality somebody else’s approach may actually be something that you need to consider doing in the long run or changing or implementing in your business in order to be more effective.
Michelle Kesil
Yeah, definitely agreed with that. That’s so important to be flexible and yeah, to always be learning. yeah, are there any like educational platforms or tools that you work with with your agents?Amanda L Bell
It just depends on when it is, to be honest with you. ⁓ You know, a lot of our agents are at different stages of their careers. Some are brand new, some are in the middle, some have had their license for a while. And as I’m introduced to new platforms or systems, you know, I try to share that information. But I also think that as yougrow as an agent, know, sometimes you can get overloaded with systems. Like I just went through and got rid of some of my systems because it’s not efficient to have three different systems that kind of do the same thing because you’re spending more time, you know, inputting that information. And so sometimes we will sign up for something because we think, hey, this is what’s going to work. And then in actuality, it doesn’t.
but then we’re reluctant to cancel that system. So I think you just really have to look at how your money is being spent and decide what’s gonna work for you, what’s bringing you in the business. There was one point in time, about three or four years ago, that I decided I wasn’t working with any lender that had not referred any business to me. I was like, if I’m referring business to you, you should refer business back. Well, I learned real quickly though.
I didn’t need them to refer business to me. I needed them to do a great job so that I could get to the closing table. And that’s really what it was more about. So just things that work for you ⁓ and people that are going to care as much about your business as the other. As far as the education goes, obviously we do continuing education. I like to use that opportunity to gain a…
to gain accreditations. Right now I’m working on some more commercial accreditations because I do a lot of commercial business as well. ⁓ Every September I go to the Five Star Conference in Dallas which is a conference
mostly geared towards ⁓ the foreclosure market. And I gain a lot of insight from industry leaders on what they think the market is doing, where they think it’s going, and the latest technology that is available to make that system a little easier as well.
Michelle Kesil
some, yeah, always learning and yeah, going to conferences is so important in this space. I love that. So when it comes to growing your business and your network, creating new relationships, what has like made the biggest difference for you?Amanda L Bell
I mean, I think that, ⁓Growing relationships is really important in real estate because that’s really what it is all about. And I’ve been doing this 22 years, it’ll be 23 years in April. And I feel like that I have gained a lot of respect from fellow colleagues ⁓ because I do listen to them and I do want to help them as well. You know, and it may be, especially in the foreclosure industry, that they have questions about how to do this or
how to work on this HUD property or VA property. And it may not even be one of my listings, but they’re calling me, asking me for advice on how to make this work or maybe a certain scenario that they’ve come across and how did I handle it. And so I think that I’ve just gained the respect of other people in my community as far as the other agents go, because I’m pretty direct about everything. Like there’s not a lot of fluff with me. Like what you get is what, you what you see is what you get.
They know that I’m going to be honest and upfront with them about anything in regards to
my transaction with them or maybe a transaction that they have outside. So I think that that has been most helpful. ⁓ I don’t do a lot of realtor meet and greets, you know, as far as ⁓ going to these after work parties and stuff like that, where it’s, you know, a social to get to meet other people. ⁓ Number one, I just don’t have time for that. I really do work probably a lot more than I should. But, you know, I want people to work with
me because I’m good at what I do, not because I go have drinks with them after work. And so that’s just really been important to me to have, you know, that relationship with people. And it’s so funny because a lot of the people that we work with, we may not even see each other face to face until the conference in Dallas. And you’re like, ⁓ okay, well, I’ve seen your picture, but I’ve never met you before. It’s so nice to finally meet you. ⁓ And so some of the conventions and stuff like that are the same. But all in all, I think there’s a bunch of great people.
I mean there are some tweaks that I would like to see the real estate industry do as far as licensing goes but apparently the real estate commission doesn’t think like I do on that one.
Michelle Kesil
Yeah. Amazing. Yeah, relationships are everything in this space, matter how you work on building those. So that’s so important. So yeah, before we wrap up, if people want to connect, collaborate, learn more from you, where is the best place that they can find you?Amanda L Bell
Well, I mean, obviously I have Instagram and TikTok and Facebook. ⁓ The easiest way, honestly, is just, you know, search Amanda Bell Sales. That’s pretty much what I have on everything. And, you know, you’ll find me one way or the other, YouTube, LinkedIn. ⁓ You know, in the age of social media, we spend a lot of time covering all the platforms. So.Michelle Kesil
Yeah, perfect. Well, I really appreciate your time, your story and perspective. So thank you for being here. Of course. And for those tuning in, if you got value from this, make sure you’ve subscribed. We have more conversations coming with operators just like Amanda, who are building real businesses. And we’ll see you all on our next episode.Amanda L Bell
Well, thank you for having me on here.
