Subscribe via:
Show Summary
In this conversation, Joyce Ambrose discusses the complexities of real estate transactions, focusing on the challenges that arise from contractual misunderstandings and the importance of clear communication among all parties involved. She shares a specific case where a simple error in contract details led to significant confusion and stress for the broker and escrow office, highlighting the need for diligence in the real estate process.
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
- Joyce Ambrose’s Email Address: [email protected]
- Joyce Ambrose’s Contact no.: 909 993 4395
- Joyce Ambrose on Instagram
Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode
Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Joyce Ambrose (00:00)
I think right now some of the biggest, most common would be the buyer broker agreement. And, you know, just understanding the implications and almost the power that it yields because I had one group that was offering 4%, for example, and the agents only had buyer broker agreements at 2. So they couldn’t get the 4%.And then, you know, I started educating agents before they wrote offers. You know, we’re offering 4%, so you better have a buyer broker agreement that’s at that or above. And it was just kind of, I think we just need to empower one another to realize, you know, just how much those little details can really affect our bottom line.
Erika (02:24)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host Erika. And today I’m excited to be chatting with Joyce Ambrose. She’s been making serious moves as a transactional coordinator. Joyce, I’m glad to have you on the show today.Joyce Ambrose (02:39)
Thank you, thank you, I’m excited to be here.Erika (02:41)
I think our listeners are gonna have a lot to learn. you I just wanna jump on in. For our listeners who may not be familiar with your role, Joyce, can you, you know, give us your story? Can you share how you got started in real estate and what led you down this path?Joyce Ambrose (02:59)
I think the biggest background for me when it comes to what I’m doing today would be I was in management and we were watching our high producing agents and even not necessarily our agents.finding themselves in positions where they weren’t getting paid because their files were incomplete, out of compliance, and just unorganized. So I found myself working with them individually and setting up processes and programs and ways to work together to get them paid on time and their files to be compliant and our brokers and everybody happy. So that led me down the path of transaction coordinating, compliance,
and I’ve just come to actually love the process.
Erika (03:48)
Yeah, that’s awesome. there a moment in your journey that you knew this was going to be the lane that you were sticking with in real estate?Joyce Ambrose (03:56)
I think for me it was kind of fun to, I guess, walk into a place of business where a bunch of real estate agents and investors were sitting and people knew me. They knew what I did. when they introduced me as the…you know, their backbone or, you know, what keeps them, you know, smiling so they don’t go home and cry every night. You know, it was just kind of fun to realize that, you know, I was making an impact. I am helping people.
you know, achieve that next level of business because I’m taking, you know, just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean, you know, you love it or you have the time to do it. So if you pass those objects off to someone like me, it allows you to be able to expand and grow and having a, you know, a team behind you gives you those opportunities. And I try to be that person that takes the, you know, the back office work off of you so that you can.
out there, you know, getting the next big deal.
Erika (05:51)
you were considered the backbone because what you are doing is an essential service for our listeners who are new to real estate. Can you kind of share with them more of the details about what you do and how critical it is to have a transaction coordinator?Joyce Ambrose (06:11)
Well, I think it depends on every aspect of where you are in your professional life. If we look at the new investor, the new agent, ⁓ maybe even the new broker, you…you have, I think, a greater opportunity to learn it right the first time because you don’t have all that, well, we didn’t do it like this yesterday, we didn’t do it like that last year, you don’t have that. ⁓
a history to a trip back on, which a lot of us find ourselves doing, you’re moving forward. So you’re seeing it as something fresh, something new the way it’s supposed to be. So helping somebody get that understanding, the knowledge of the contracts, the knowledge of why we take agency, what agency means, and what a fiduciary duty is, and our rights plus our responsibilities to our clients ultimately.
ourselves as investors, I think it’s just so important to have somebody that can, you know, help you just, just kind of stay on the straight and narrow if that’s what I’m looking for or to, you know, be that last set of eyes that looks at your offer and says, Whoa, wait a minute. You know, don’t give away the house. You know, you, you almost didn’t include your commission or you almost didn’t include that, that credit you wanted to ask for from the seller because our contracts here.
California are definitely ⁓ intensive. I’ll just say intense. you know just since I’m looking at them all day long every day you know those little things pop out to me. So just you know being able to help people catch those before they become mistakes.
Erika (07:59)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. What would you say are some of the common issues or struggles that you see when you’re working with agents or investors?Joyce Ambrose (08:11)
I think right now some of the biggest, most common would be the buyer broker agreement. And, you know, just understanding the implications and almost the power that it yields because I had one group that was offering 4%, for example, and the agents only had buyer broker agreements at 2. So they couldn’t get the 4%.And then, you know, I started educating agents before they wrote offers. You know, we’re offering 4%, so you better have a buyer broker agreement that’s at that or above. And it was just kind of, I think we just need to empower one another to realize, you know, just how much those little details can really affect our bottom line.
Erika (09:38)
Yeah, absolutely. going over these details, I’m sure there’s been a moment where things got real. Maybe you saw that a deal had to get changed. Maybe you had to recommend a client totally pivot. Can you share one of those moments on your journey and what you learned through that experience?Joyce Ambrose (09:59)
Well, I had one investor who had a beautiful opportunity with ⁓ someone from his current or previous business background. So he took on the property not only as the listing agent, but as the buyer. And…Everybody was gonna, it was gonna be a win-win across the board, but the contracts were originally done incorrect. And then by the time it came across my desk, hey, can you help me support me through this? ⁓
The broker was already in a tizzy. The escrow office, you know, didn’t know which direction to go. And everything was just a simple mistake, a simple misunderstanding. One document said 3%. The other one said 2%. This one set a $5,000, you know, flat fee. I mean, it was again, it was all in good intention. But ironing out those wrinkles
became almost a contractual nightmare because we had all this modification of terms. I’m sure we all know that form. We had to do amendments to agreements. We had to do escrow amendments. And it just, I think for the client who was the seller,
you start to question the intention of the people sending you all these modifications. And so…
Again, there was no malice intended. so the realtor investor and I have since talked and he said, I’m going to bring you on sooner next time. He goes, I don’t want to do this again. He goes, I don’t want somebody looking into my bylaws and looking into why my corporation is set up this way versus, because all that started crisscrossing. ⁓
was nice to have the meeting of the minds to understand that he’s a very, very savvy, savvy investor. But those contracts are tricky and sticky. it takes very little to raise a red flag. And in today’s dynamic, crazy, litigious world that we’re in, those red flags could be very costly.
Erika (12:28)
Yeah, absolutely. Do you feel like there’s a good portion ⁓ of your time that is also spent educating the people that you work with?Joyce Ambrose (12:38)
Yeah, I don’t call it educating. ⁓ I actually, you know, you we call it brainstorming or ⁓ collaborating and and I do a lot of that and I love it and you know, but then also.Erika (12:43)
Hahaha!Joyce Ambrose (12:59)
I’m invited to opportunities like this where a broker will say, I have a lot of new agents right now and we’re having a lot of mistakes on the buyer broker agreement. Can you come to our next meeting and just present it in a kind, fun, interactive way so that people are hearing you and making the changes and updating their zip forms or their ⁓ claw forms that they can be more compliant.I it. I do a lot of lunch and learns where I’m invited to present for 15 minutes or so and just throw my little piece out there. So it’s fun. I enjoy it. But yeah, I try not to call it educating.
Erika (13:42)
Hahahacould see where that might be sticky if you’re working with someone who’s been around for a while. They might say, why do I need more education?
Joyce Ambrose (13:53)
Well, and know, it’s funny you should say that because I did have one gentleman, been a broker, real estate agent for a very long time. I’ll just leave it at that. And his broker was frustrated with him, but I always was that intermediate, you know, going in between, taking care of things. And he finally said to me, why do they want to talk to me so bad? And I said, well, they want to educate you. And he goes, ⁓And I said, yeah, the collaboration has stopped. Now they want to feel like you’ve heard them and not that I’ve heard them. So just bring your coffee, smile and nod, and just let them feel empowered, I guess, for 10, 15 minutes. And then know that we’ve already covered it. You’re good. And go from there. So that’s just kind of it. Yeah, that word is…
It’s touchy. It’s touchy.
Erika (14:50)
Yeah.With all all your experience as a transaction coordinator, having been brought in at different stages in that, if you were in the driver’s seat as an agent or a brokerage.
you bring in a transaction coordinator?
Joyce Ambrose (15:49)
Well, that’s kind of tough to answer because of how I feel. often, I work with the agents months before we even open a transaction. And yeah, I’m not being paid. I don’t get paid until you get paid. And so I don’t want to not be that person. But then at the same time, at a broker level, you want your…your agents and your investors to be empowered and to have the knowledge to be able to protect themselves, to be able to make the right moves, write the good offers so that it doesn’t get thrown into the circular file because it’s so poorly written. And sorry to say there’s a lot of that out there. ⁓
You know, I think it’s important and they don’t necessarily have to be working with me as much as just, you know, feeling comfortable enough to pick up the phone and, can I talk through this? Can I brainstorm this with you? And just know that, you know, that’s what I’m here for.
Erika (16:54)
Yeah, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. there’s a lot of new agents too that are coming into the field every day.Joyce Ambrose (17:01)
⁓ 100%. I mean, surprising because we’ve lost so many, so many agents ⁓ over the course of the last two years. They’ve just…decided real estate wasn’t for them anymore because of how sticky everything got with the lawsuits. And it’s always tough to watch a community fall apart, I guess, for lack of better words, as somebody who’s always been an agent advocate and worked with the boards and worked with different brokerages to try to find a… ⁓
I guess a better way for us all to communicate and play and get along and so that everybody understands that field need versus you know that.
pedestal need, know, the leadership up here that, you know, brings down everything they want from us, but have you introduced it to the field? Have you field tested it? You know, those kinds of things. So, ⁓ yeah, but the new agents still keep coming. And I think that they have a great opportunity to learn and launch because they haven’t had the experience that we’ve had in the past to be frustrated with the changes, I guess would be the best word.
There’s a lot of frustration with the extra 25 pages before we even open escrow that we’re signing, you know? Truth be known.
Erika (18:27)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, Joyce, with all that you’ve done so far, what would you say is next on the horizon for you?Joyce Ambrose (18:35)
I really want to…Again, put together some kind of a full package, where you’re working with somebody and you’re getting training. And then there’s a team that helps you with open houses and there’s a team that helps you with putting out your signs. I mean, let’s be honest, we want to be able to offer a full service. And if there’s a brokerage out there that looks for that full service person who works with you from the…
meeting your client all the way to, you know, signing those commission instructions and, you know, and all this sticky stuff in the middle so that we’re all, you know, doing things the right way and learning along the way and then, you know, boosting each other up. So that’s just kind of, I’m trying to put something together like that and, and I have big, huge goals and aspirations. And then at the same time, I just want to keep it simple and keep it personal. And then from there, be able to build a team to, ⁓
Mimic it and you know just make it bigger and better
Erika (19:40)
Yeah, yeah, you want to scale smartly.Joyce Ambrose (19:42)
Because I’ve taken on too much in the past before. And those 17, 18 hour days, sometimes 32 overnight, it affected me. I mean, it really did. And I couldn’t even.bring up a team fast enough or virtual assistants fast enough to help me maintain the maelstrom of emails. I mean, I would answer 10 and I would look at my inbox because I had three inboxes at the time and I’d have 150 new. ⁓
Yeah, I mean, I would be hyperventilating at one o’clock in the morning wondering, why are you guys working and not letting me get caught up? Come on. But ⁓ yeah, no, so definitely scaling it. I like that word. You can’t just put a dumpster over one person, expect them to assemble everything by themselves. It just doesn’t work. We’re drinking from a fire hose. I’ve heard that one, drinking from a fire hose.
Erika (20:38)
Yep. Yep. One, one.yeah.
Yep, ⁓ that’s perfect analogy. Well, Joyce, has been great. If someone listening today wants to connect, reach out, learn more about your services, what’s the best way for them to reach you?
Joyce Ambrose (20:45)
I was like, no.Well, you know, just text or email, you know, or phone call. Definitely leave a message if you get my voicemail. I’m probably, you know, on the phone with somebody or doing something like this and I’m, you know, take great care in returning calls and messages. So yeah, just phone number or email and I can go ahead and leave that information with you, Erika, and anybody can ask you for it.
Erika (21:25)
Yeah,yeah, you can just say it right here so we have it as part of the audio too.
Joyce Ambrose (21:30)
Okay, well my cell phone and text is 909-993-4395 and my email is joyrrose.So there’s two R’s. Joy R Rose at gmail.com. So yeah, if you ever want to reach out to me, you know, I would love an opportunity to brainstorm and see what we can do to take your business to the next level.
Erika (22:01)
That’s awesome.Well, thanks Joyce again for being here sharing your time, your story and your attention to detail that’s really making a difference in the real estate world.
Joyce Ambrose (22:12)
Thank you, Erika I appreciate that. Those very kind words.Erika (22:15)
And for our listeners, if you got value from this episode, make sure that you’re subscribed to the real estate pros podcast. We’ve got more conversations lined up with experts like Joyce who are out there building fantastic real estate businesses. We’ll see you on the next episode. -
