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Show Summary
In this conversation, Jim and Lori Hill discuss their journey in real estate, emphasizing their commitment to client relationships, personal development, and community support. They share insights on their morning routines, the importance of setting expectations in real estate transactions, and their aspirations to help others achieve homeownership. The couple reflects on their challenges and successes, highlighting the significance of inspiration and perseverance in their work and personal lives.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Jim And Lori Hill (00:00)
the thing is we work through them. You help you’re really truly there to help the people they you know, you you bring it to closure because that’s what they want.and I think a lot of it is because again, we, we really, we really focus on.
Peace, positivity. Right. And you attract what you put out, right?
Quentin Edmonds (01:51)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I have your host Q Edmonds and I am excited about today. As you see, we get two for the price of one. And that’s kind of part of their little tagline too. They get two for the price of one. And so they’re carrying that same energy here. And listen, they have incredible slogans. This is one of my favorite. Changing people lives one home at a time.I mean, got goosebumps really just saying it. I am really so excited to introduce you all to Mr. Jim and Ms. Lori Hill. How y’all doing today?
Jim And Lori Hill (02:30)
We’re excellent. Thanks for asking. ⁓Quentin Edmonds (02:33)
I’m great. I’m happy y’all are bringing the the guys right now. No, so glad you’re here. So listen, what I want to do, I want to dive right in. I want y’all to tell the people what your main focus is these days. I want y’all to give us a little bit of an origin story of how y’all got this ball rolling to where it is. Love origin stories. And then if y’all don’t mind, I know it’s on the screen, butJim And Lori Hill (02:37)
to heaven.Quentin Edmonds (02:58)
Tell us a little bit about the city and where you represent and where you’re from. So y’all have to.Jim And Lori Hill (03:04)
I want to say that it was at a bar at a wedding. It’s how we got all this rolling. Cause that’s the truth how we got rolling. We met at a wedding actually. And it was just, it was fate. We were meant to be together, but Joe was an engineer for 46 years. 46 years. started on a drafting board when I was 15 years old. Cause I loved to draw. It was a co-op lab for high school. Yep. And I had, I wore a lot of different hats.Quentin Edmonds (03:13)
⁓ I love that!Jim And Lori Hill (03:34)
after staying home with the kids. I’ve been in banking, paralegal, life coach. ⁓ And then I became a transaction coordinator. And that’s kind where it all started. That’s right. Lori, they said to Lori, you could make more money if you got your license. We agreed for her to get her license. She was doing it, taking the classes online. And I was like, well, I could do that at night. And so I went to get my license to support her.And that’s how this all got rolling. Again, fate.
Quentin Edmonds (04:08)
So I love it. So we got the ball rolling, but actually what is it that’s rolling now? Tell me a little bit about what it is that you got. ⁓Jim And Lori Hill (04:17)
lot. We just dive in and well, you know, honestly, we started out, we did really great our first year, right? And then we’ve improved every year. Last year was our best year. ⁓ And we’re, you know, our motto is really just to help people and to communicate with them, be there for them, be responsive. And, know, weYou gotta get a lot of five star reviews on Google, right? ⁓ Because- Very proud of that. Who we are and people find us that way. The transaction that we’re just working, couple moving here from Florida, we’re like, we looked who’s the best realtor in workforce. We found you, we did a bunch of research on you and like reached out to us and they didn’t, they’re not disappointed.
We just try and go above and beyond. ⁓
And again, communication is really important and responsive. mean, I may not be able to answer the call, but at least I’ll do, I use my swipe, I’ll call you back. And we explain all this at the beginning when we meet people, just so they know, you know, cause everybody, everybody should get their time, right? The main reason we’d like to be so responsive. went to buy a, before in real estate, we went to buy a piece of property.
And we called the realtors name numbers on the same. We didn’t get a call back for a long time. my gosh. It was a weekend and we didn’t hear until Monday. And so we were like, wow, okay. When we got in real estate, we were like, we’re going to do way better than that. We hate waiting ourselves. So we don’t like to make people wait. So it’s amazing. You hear how many realtors don’t answer the phone, right? Or don’t respond to a text. So we don’t want to be that guy. Yep.
Quentin Edmonds (06:50)
So I think I heard I Laurie see the word deep right and so I love it So listen, I was writing things down as you just talking so met at a bar met at a wedding, right? Jim was an engineer loved to draw Lori Laurie life coach both of you got your license, you know, you got it to support her So you use the word feet? This is what I say a lot is that destiny has no wasted moments, right?Jim And Lori Hill (07:14)
No, that’s a great quote.Quentin Edmonds (07:17)
that destiny doesn’t waste anything. makes us who we are now, like all the trials, all the tribulations, it makes us who we are today. So I would love to know what has destiny revealed to you about you? Has it made you more consistent? I would love to know, during this journey, what has it revealed to you?Jim And Lori Hill (07:33)
here.Well, because it’s interesting that when I became a life coach, Jim and I were out to dinner for our anniversary and our server who had come up from, I don’t know, some southern island. Okay. And he was there to build a church or something. And I was like, wow, this is so interesting. I keep running into people that, you know, keep talking about faith and all these different things. And he says, you have a calling.
So that’s kind what I call it when I ended up with coaching because of everything that fell into place before that, just like what fell into place with real estate for us. ⁓ if you pay attention to signs. It’s there. ⁓ And that has brought it through our whole ⁓ journey. Actually, we’ve been big and big into self-development. Right. And
One of the things about self-development, we just started this Miracle Morning getting up at 5 a.m. We’ve been doing it for months now. 10, 10 and 10, 10 gratitudes, 10 affirmations. Actually, we 25 affirmations. And then 10 things we’re going to accomplish in the day. We do a reading, go for a walk, and we start our day to do our calls around 9 a.m. Yes, good work. But the thing is, the thing is all of that has put us into a path of who we want to be.
and what our life mission is, and that is really to help people, right? And in the end, mean, being realtors, mean, the money obviously is good, but at the same time, you gotta give back, right? And giving back is, ⁓ and having gratitude for where you’re at. And interesting, as you say that, because we did an exercise ⁓ from another book, and individually, on our own pads of papers, and all the questions asked and stuff and things.
And we both pretty much came up with the same, like a mission statement, like, you know, about wanting to help people to achieve their dreams and, you know, have them have courage and inspiration and confidence. To make it happen for themselves. Right.
Quentin Edmonds (09:53)
That’s great.Love it. Actually, have you heard of an author named Mark Batterson?
No. OK, you might have looked up some of his books. think he has one called The Circle Maker. One I’m reading now is called Gradually, Suddenly, Gradually, Then Suddenly. Right? says, yeah, yeah. So I know y’all would like that. I mean, y’all are my type of people, especially when about having a calling.
really feel like something is pulling you towards this particular thing. ⁓
Jim And Lori Hill (11:05)
Yeah, and the GoGivers. We love the GoGiver. We read a lot of books.Quentin Edmonds (11:09)
Yeah, same here. So yeah, I’m reading in the audio book. So no, definitely understand. So listen, one thing we don’t like to do here, we don’t want to show people just all the success without the journey. Right. And so when I say that, we know that there, sometimes things don’t go the way we wanted to. Sometimes we have it. So people, they’re on their journey.And you’ve been on your journey. Y’all been doing this thing together. mean, y’all side by side. A lot of people don’t have somebody side by side like y’all. That’s a beautiful thing. But how have you guys handled adversity and how has adversity looked as you guys was building to where you are now?
Jim And Lori Hill (11:51)
Well, adversity comes in all different forms. Yes, it does. I it can come in each transaction there can be. Right. It can come in just we had a gentleman and his wife who were interested in buying a home. They signed their buyer’s agency agreement. We met with them and showed them home and they just emailed us and said, we want to pursue other things. We want to cancel our our agreement with you. It’s like we’re really disappointed. We take it to heart, right? Yeah.So where are you planning on And they like literally haven’t responded. So we get that. And so the nice thing that we have each other is to say, you have to just take a deep breath and let it go and let it go and move on. There’s somebody else who needs their There’s somebody else that needs, yeah, that’s what I was going to say.
Quentin Edmonds (12:38)
I love it. Yes, I love it. No.Jim And Lori Hill (12:41)
And you know, we don’t have many transactions that have gone bad. ⁓ Here’s the thing is wethe thing is we work through them. You help you’re really truly there to help the people they you know, you you bring it to closure because that’s what they want.
As much as the idea is, is for everybody to come together. There’s also adversity because you’re dealing with another agent that, you know, you don’t you don’t know. And many times we’ve had
There have been times where it’s been challenging and you just, again, you just got to say at that point, it’s like, this is for the client. This isn’t about us. This is about someone buying a home and it’s stressful. And our job is to keep everything smooth for them. we just, this couple now to there, they’re like, well, what if, what if I said, don’t you worry about it? I got your back. You know, so they,
They, cause they do, they worry and we’re like, we’re going to take care of them. We’ve been very fortunate though. mean, seriously, we have our health, we have each other. Uh, and we have great people that have great people that come to us. Right. mean, so, so that went, that went into good again. I mean, it’s like we,
and I think a lot of it is because again, we, we really, we really focus on.
Peace, positivity. Right. And you attract what you put out, right?
Quentin Edmonds (14:14)
loving this. Like I have my wife and now we have a sample we say, two are better than one, because if the one falls, they have the other help them up. And so this is what I see a personification between you have you two of that, right? The two is better because y’all can lean on each other. And not only that, like your slogan says, when people get you, they get the two of you. So they get people they get the two that know how to support each other.Therefore when you support them is gonna be so much more firm, sturdy, more trusting, like more peace, love and positivity. Like I’m loving it. Like I absolutely love it. Absolutely love
Jim And Lori Hill (14:53)
And that’s what we tell people when we first meet. We typically go meet people together for the first time. So they see us and the, but the thing is, is we’re not always like showing homes. We’re not always there for both of us to go. So we have to divide and conquer, but they’re always getting someone there when they need them.Right. Same thing with when somebody is buying a home, right? ⁓ Typically after we’ve met with someone, Lori is taking it from there and making sure that everything goes smooth. Pretty much. Cause I mean, I do all the papers and I find helping find the next person to
Quentin Edmonds (16:04)
Yeah, absolutely. And if even if both of you guys are not present, their presence is still present. You know what I mean? Like the ecosystem that y’all have developed together, they still get that ecosystem. Even both of are not there in person. Know what I mean?Jim And Lori Hill (16:20)
It’s funny because we meet people too that they’re like, ⁓ I can never work with my spouse, you know, and we do better together. Right. I mean, 100%. And, know, we used to, we used to like, cause our realtors follow up and make calls, right? ⁓ we have leads, we advertise and we have leads that come in. We recently, ⁓ just started making all the calls together because that dynamic between both of us comes across even over the phone. Right. And people realize that we’re just not some.real-term marketers where they’re the help them and we let them know it’s okay if you’re not ready to move right away we’re here to answer somewhere right you got to start somewhere
Quentin Edmonds (17:00)
I love you.Jim And Lori Hill (17:02)
We’ll help you figure that out. That’s right.Quentin Edmonds (17:04)
So listen, I have to ask you to what is the next real goal? Like what are you looking to solve a scale next?Jim And Lori Hill (17:11)
Well, our goal, we have a lofty goal, right? Like I said before, want a monetary goal. We want to get our, we want to build a beautiful house in the end. Right. So we’re, you may not realize it, but we’re in our sixties. really sixties, but we, we have a goal by before Lori turned 65, which is about two and a half years away. They have our dream house built and paid for. It’s not, it’s not this, a mansion or anything. Is this the house? Ranch home on some property, Lori can garden.Right? Yeah. So, but, and have that all set and, and, and bam. And you’ll have a workshop. And I’ll have a workshop. And an art space.
Quentin Edmonds (17:50)
So you are artists you in artJim And Lori Hill (17:53)
Yeah, I love art. Yeah. Like I said, I got into drafting engineering because I love to draw. was on the drafting board. That’s right. What other way to draw and get paid for instead of being a starving artist than just draw machinery.Quentin Edmonds (18:00)
Can I get beer?One of the greatest regrets that my wife had, she graduated from North Carolina A &T and originally she wanted to be an engineer. And heard about, know, some of the courses how hard it was going to be. And she decided not to. But to this day, she’s still like, I really wish I would have. Because she loves bridges. You know, I had her personal art made for her with all the special things that she liked built into the art.
because that’s just who she is. you do life coaching, she’s actually a counselor. So it’s like, y’all two together make up my wife. It’s a beautiful day. Yeah, it’s a beautiful day. Yeah, absolutely. So listen, I love your relationship. I know that at the foundation of what you do is helping people. So I had to ask about relationship building within business. Is it important to you? How do you go about
doing it, give me your perspective with relationship building within business.
Jim And Lori Hill (19:09)
It’s actually, that’s absolutely important. ⁓ It’s just being yourself. mean, if you’re, mean, I mean, we’re, we communicate, we’re responsive, like we’ve said, we just, it just comes naturally, right? Relationship building ⁓ is just there. you, even if you haven’t seen somebody in a while and you pick up where you left off typically, ⁓ and we haven’t had anybody really dissatisfied with us, right? So it’s, ⁓And then, but there’s also like agents who have to build relationships when you’re in a transaction. Again, like I said, sometimes you don’t know who that person is. And so I, I try to, you you try to be open, you know, and, we’re trying to have some upfront communication about what we expect it meeting X by expectations. So the thing, the most things go bad because expect few people feel their expectations aren’t met.
Right? We found that as our relationship, we found whenever we were going out somewhere back years ago, that we would always have a little quarrel before we were going. And we found out later on that it had to do with expectations. Either maybe I wanted to be there on time and Laurie didn’t realize my expectation was that or whatever it be. So we actually learned that from a book. We did. ⁓
But it’s true. If you’re going on a trip even, if you say, so we’re going to Italy, what are your expectations? And then you have a better way of ⁓ making that happen for the other person and yourself. An example, we’re meeting some buyers tonight, right? That we’re meeting. ⁓ And we’re meeting, actually, for dinner, right? And they have an expectation for a home that, in all honesty, probably isn’t going to be met.
But how do you explain that to them? They’ve been looking for a home for a long time. So basically, I ran all the homes that have sold in the area for the last two years. And then I ran, so here’s 2000 homes they sold for the last two years. Here’s the number of homes that meet your criteria that sold in the last two years. And that number is six. Okay. So basically that’s telling them that that- Either you’re, going to give something up, right?
change some of the expectations or they’re going to be patient and persistent. Right. Home comes along. And you know what? Setting expectations at the beginning also, even for like, if you’re going to sell your home, we go through everything and explaining, you know, cause some people think their home is valued more than what it is. And we just, we have to be honest and say, listen, it’s going to sit and you’re going to get less. So, know, and
So there’s a couple of ways we solve that. If you’re like somebody wants to sell their home for $100,000 more than it was worth. And they said, would you list it at that? I said, I will list it as long as you agree to reimburse me my expenses when it doesn’t sell in six months. Right? I said, I’m happy to list it. Right? And then another one was, we want to list our house for this. I said, your house will sell for this amount. And say, so I’ll happy to list it for that. Although your first two or three weeks is the most important weeks.
but we want guaranteed price reductions to the point until it sells, right?
Quentin Edmonds (22:35)
Yeah, yeah, I love it. I love the way you guys think. Expectations. It’s just amazing how you will bring that word up because I have for the last week been really sitting with that word and making sure that I’m not giving all false expectations, making sure I’m not expecting things and not being very clear about what I’m saying and what I want. ⁓ Grenade Brown. Have you heard of Grenade Brown? I love Grenade Brown.She has a saying that me and my wife live by, clear is kind, unclear is unkind. The kindest thing that I can be is be clear about my expectations. That’s the kindest thing that I can be towards you. And so when y’all said that, I’m like, yeah, these are my type of people. want to do this.
Jim And Lori Hill (23:24)
to move down to North Carolina. We know some great realtor stuff.Quentin Edmonds (23:29)
My wife is always in North Carolina, always in South Carolina. So you guys said nothing but a word. We may have to link up. Y’all may have to show us some moments in North Carolina for sure. I promise you, if you’re thinking about coming to North Carolina, y’all are the people that will come see you for sure.Jim And Lori Hill (23:45)
Come on down, we’ll go have dinner together. That’s right.Quentin Edmonds (23:48)
I’m telling you guys, I said nothing but a word. I’m marking this in my book right now. So yes, absolutely. So listen, when I talk to people like you two, I like to open up the floor just a little bit. Is there anything on your mind that maybe you want the listeners, the viewers to know? Maybe something you’ve been thinking about. Maybe it’s a word of motivation, education, inspiration. Like when I talk to people like you,who I know I’m getting the value from and the people getting the value from. I wanna open it up. Is there anything that you wanna say to people that maybe has been on your heart?
Jim And Lori Hill (24:23)
Well, when you’re saying about like inspiration or to let people know, here’s something really important, I think. So many people are looking to buy a home and don’t know how to do that. everybody has goals for everything. Well, they’re dreams until they’re a goal and you make it, to begin to make it happen. So if you’re someone who doesn’t know where to start,call the realtor. And the realtor will, well, and if they can’t help you, then call another realtor. But just ask. That’s what you’re saying. If you don’t ask, you don’t get it. That’s right. So, and then the next thing that I love is you don’t know what you don’t know until you know what you don’t know. Yeah. And that’s really what it’s about. People just don’t know. Right.
And so what they do know what they do know inside, they know inside that there’s something they want. And maybe it isn’t a home. Maybe it’s even a car, you know, whatever. ⁓ Just you have to focus on it because what you focus on appears. That’s right. That’s right. Consistency on everything, including what you focus on and how you work consistency in your work. ⁓ You know, the harder I work, the luckier I get.
Quentin Edmonds (25:51)
Yeah.Jim And Lori Hill (25:52)
I mean, we read these stories. I mentioned Unstoppable, Cynthia Kersey. She has, it’s a book of stories of people. Short stories. Short stories. Who have overcome odds and become really wildly successful. Yep. Yep. Right. So from the owner of Kinko’s to, I don’t know, who was it? Well, who was the shoe? What’s the woman’s I don’t remember them. Was it not Reebok? It wasn’t Reebok. I don’t remember. Right, Rika?Rikers shoes. The founding person was a woman who was like, know what? All the shoes are made for men, athletic shoes. And everybody told her this is not a good idea. is never going to work. They’re still around. Yeah, they did really well. Yeah, I think they got bought out for. But there’s a lot of stories of people like the one of the boy from Africa that walked through, walked across Africa to get
And people funded, I funded him. came to… He wanted to go to university. Somewhere here, I forget where. But literally somebody heard his story, there’s somebody wrote a story and then funded his education. Help is out there. Money is out there. Don’t let that be an obstacle for you getting what you want in your life.
Quentin Edmonds (27:13)
so eloquently said, no, I mentioned the book gradually then suddenly. it talks about how success happens two ways, gradually then suddenly. You’ve been hard work in and that’s the gradual part. And then all of a sudden things click. He said in that book, and this is what I saw, so it just eloquently said, things go from impossible to hard to done. It starts off impossible. You like how in the world, but you get started.And then the impossible comes hard, like, this is hard. And then once the hard part is finished, you look back and be like, I’m done. And so I love the message that you’re sending. You got to get started. Don’t be scared to start. Don’t be scared to ask questions. I love the messaging that you two have brought today. Listen, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with
Jim And Lori Hill (28:09)
My number, my personal number is 919-584-9256. You want to them your number? Sure. That’s your business. Yeah, it’s our business. 919-877-6093. And we have a website called hillnhills.com. So it’s H I L L the letter N, the H I L L the letter S dot com hillnhills.com.You can find all our contact information there. You can follow us on Facebook. We’re on Facebook. We’re on Instagram. We’re on TikTok. We’re on LinkedIn. And he’s really funny. The looks aren’t everything.
Quentin Edmonds (28:53)
⁓ so I want to say three things to you both. One, I want to thank you for your time because time is our most precious commodity. We talked about time before getting our time back. Listen, time is precious. So I appreciate your time. Secondly, thank you for your story. Thank you for what I call your gift of transparency, your gift of vulnerability. ⁓ Stories have a way of sowing seeds in people.that continue to just grow and grow and grow. That’s true. And so you sharing your story was so impactful here. So thank you for your story. Lastly, thank you for your perspective. Thank you for your mindset and bringing that mindset to this platform. I greatly appreciate y’all being here today.
Jim And Lori Hill (29:39)
My head is growing so big now. ⁓ Appreciate you. This is you for having us. It was a lot of fun. We’ll come back again if you want.We can do book club.
Quentin Edmonds (29:56)
Don’t get me started. Don’t break me with a good time. Everyone, y’all, listen, y’all can’t tell me y’all did not get the value from Jim and Laurie. You can’t tell me you didn’t. I want you to look in the show notes, get connected with them, especially if you’re in the Raleigh-Nipkelana area, get in contact with them, but definitely make sure you are subscribed here, because I promise you, we’re gonna continue to bring up amazing people, just like DCP with that second part of the show. So listen.Thank you all again. And everyone else, y’all have a fantastic day.
