Secrets for Real Estate Success | Amanda Sweeney Jones

Amanda Sweeney Jones (00:00)
If the pictures aren’t great, or, you know, they don’t want to come see the house. They’re not wasting their time. It’s like online dating now, or, you know, where it’s just swipe, swipe, you know.

Dylan Silver (00:09)
Right.

Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest is a Nashville based realtor known for helping folks in a pinch or a bind, guiding them through transitions with care and expertise. Please welcome Amanda Sweeney Jones. Amanda, welcome to the show.

Amanda Sweeney Jones (01:58)
Thank you for having me, glad to be here.

Dylan Silver (02:01)
I always like to start off at the top by asking folks how they got into the real estate space.

Amanda Sweeney Jones (02:08)
Well, I got into the real estate space, ⁓ it’s been over five years ago now. It’s really flown by though, saying that five years, like, it just seems like yesterday. Yeah, for real. But I was an interior designer before that. And I just love homes, architecture, design, but number one, just people. I am a people person.

Dylan Silver (02:18)
yesterday,

And so going from the interior design space to ⁓ being a realtor and a listing agent, I think there’s a lot of overlap there. But how often and how common is that? I don’t know how common it is, right? I think a lot of people stay in interior design, right?

Amanda Sweeney Jones (02:49)
Right. It’s not very common. I guess it’s probably more common for a teacher or a nurse to become a realtor. But I use my interior design on every listing, you know, that I’ve done.

Dylan Silver (03:02)
Yeah.

Amanda Sweeney Jones (03:03)
Even if it’s empty, I’m gonna use it, because I do the virtual staging then. If the house is empty, where, because everybody buys a home online now. They’re looking at the pictures.

If the pictures aren’t great, or, you know, they don’t want to come see the house. They’re not wasting their time. It’s like online dating now, or, you know, where it’s just swipe, swipe, you know.

Dylan Silver (03:23)
Right.

Swipe on the house, right? I mean, the one of

the big strategies that I’ve seen with with distress properties, which is what the I’m involved in mainly is you’ll you’ll see a home that may be sitting on market and just the photos are not good, right? And you really don’t have to do much of anything. You might clean it, do a deep clean. You might stage it a little bit and just take some better photos. And what do know it sells? Right.

Amanda Sweeney Jones (03:51)
100%.

Yes. Yep.

Dylan Silver (03:55)
One of the interesting things about that is like, people sometimes try to save a buck in the front, but then in the long run, it ends up kind of hurting them, right? Because they could have probably done some of that in the beginning, wanting to go with, I forget what the exact term is, but basically, have a flat fee listing, right? So you kind of go with the minimal and it ends up not getting the right eyeballs. I wanted to get your perspective on that. As someone who came from the interior design space,

So now, ⁓ being a listing agent, you must feel like there’s a big leg up because you really know what’s gonna pop and what’s gonna get people’s attention ⁓ from the listing side and like when it’s on all the major websites that the MLS will populate to.

Amanda Sweeney Jones (04:41)
Right, yes, I feel like I do and the key is cooperation all the time. You know, like I have wonderful clients, they become my friends. I’d say 99 % of the time we become friends. But you know, there is that 1 % that you just, you just want to say, hey, if you’d listen to me, I can help you sell your house. We can make you a lot of money and you can get on to the next thing, you know, and that’s really what you

Dylan Silver (05:08)
I know.

I’ve heard this from other people that like, they say like, I’ve had to fire myself because I realize, you know, I am not doing anybody a service here because if we’re not getting anywhere with this, they’re going to be disappointed because they’re not heeding what I’m suggesting. And then I’m not going to get anything from this because the home’s not going to sell. But I think, you know, it’s going to be only more and more and more and more popular, the staging and the aesthetics.

and so much of this as we get more involved in tech. And I tell people this outside of being in the real estate world. I’m also a software engineering student and there’s way, it almost feels, and I know this sounds hard to believe, there feels like there’s way more tech involved in real estate than in anything else, in anything else. mean, and it’s really cutting edge what, what people are able to do. I mean, some of the 3d walkthroughs that you’re able to go through with the home.

I can only imagine if people have like the VR headsets and then they’re literally walking through the home from their home. It kind of changes everything when you’re looking at staging a home and when you’re looking at providing feedback to folks as far as like what their expectations should be and maybe to other realtors as well. Do you use a lot of the same staging for multiple different properties? I know that’s pretty common. People will have one set of staging or is it

very much dependent on that individual house.

Amanda Sweeney Jones (07:26)
I gear it towards the house because I’m not gonna go into a traditional home and then bring some modern furniture in there, because that’s not gonna do, ultimately what we want is to sell it quick and for top dollar. So I do for each house, whatever it needs, know. ⁓

think that’s really important to make it personalized for that space because it really does help sell it. And like I said, I do a lot of the virtual or digital staging too. That’s been going really well.

Dylan Silver (08:03)
The digital staging is an interesting one, right? I’m very new to this. I don’t know too much about it. For folks who may not be familiar with this, break this down for us. What’s digital staging?

Amanda Sweeney Jones (08:14)
Okay, well like you were talking about how the tech is in the real estate world. It is where our photographer will take the pictures. It’s an empty house. We have an empty house to sell. And if it’s not in the budget for ⁓ real staging, then we do ⁓ digital virtual staging, which it looks pretty good. know, back when it came out years ago, it was…

Dylan Silver (08:39)
I know.

Amanda Sweeney Jones (08:41)
kind of cartoony, I feel like, but it’s just like all of it. It’s come a long way in a short time and it can look very realistic. ⁓ just like with the real furniture, I would pick ⁓ modern furniture for the modern spaces. And it just makes it feel more homey when you’re looking at the pictures instead of just blank walls, blank floor, just a blank space, you know?

Dylan Silver (09:07)
It’s a huge thing.

I’ve seen, I don’t know if you’ve seen this, I’ve seen grass be made more green. So I’ve seen it where they’ll go in and they’ll make it look like the freshest blade of grass on the 50 yard line on a stadium and that’s the whole yard. And this got me thinking, I’m like, man, that’s a really nice yard. Do you think there might be any maybe down the line they might pass some…

Amanda Sweeney Jones (09:17)
Yes.

Right.

Dylan Silver (09:35)
legislation or do you see anything maybe that could potentially where they’re like, we need to increase some level of regulation so people can’t artificially, you know, do some of these things.

Amanda Sweeney Jones (10:22)
And yes, I do. I do. Because like you said with the grass, well also with the sky, you know, these pictures where it’s like purple and like these colors that, I mean, I’ve never seen that in the sky. I would love to, you know, but we are supposed to, you know, tag the photo if it’s been digitally or virtually enhanced. Because it’s like a catfish. It’s like catfish.

Dylan Silver (10:36)
He ⁓

Okay.

It’s like a catfish.

Amanda Sweeney Jones (10:53)
Hope you enjoyed!

Dylan Silver (10:53)
It really is. Okay, so I want to pivot a bit here and ask you about that. I think most I mean, I can speak for myself. There’s very little training specifically when it comes to like photography and this type of thing. And oftentimes people are like, hiring this out third party, but because you have the interior design experience, you probably have so much of this again, that’s an advantage over

other folks and as we move more towards that with people basically potentially I think even right now buying homes potentially without stepping foot in them except for maybe once the day you know if they’re relocating that type of thing do you think that there may be even more emphasis very soon here on the staging on people’s ability to convey something over an MLS listing in the internet versus kind of what we consider to be

maybe the more traditional realtor type of tasks like open houses in person and like, you know, being there to consult with people and show them homes and open doors and that type of thing.

Amanda Sweeney Jones (12:01)
Yes, I really do because like we were talking about, everybody shops online. And whether they live down the road or they live in California and they’re moving to Tennessee, they’re looking online first. And if the pictures don’t strike their fancy, they’re not picking up the phone. They’re not coming to check it out. And with the market the way it is everywhere, we’re having to get creative.

Dylan Silver (12:29)
That’s right. That’s right. I mean, I can speak for Dallas because I’m in I’m in Dallas, but I work with a lot of greater Dallas area. I work with a lot of flippers in DFW who’ve basically gone from fix and flipping to new build new constructions or money lending because the margins are just slimmer and slimmer, specifically on the fix and flip side. But I want to pivot a little bit and ask you about, you know, the greater Nashville area. There’s a lot of buzz, a lot of buzz, I think.

This is probably one of the metros that ⁓ kind of slides under the rug when people think about or goes under the radar when people think about the major metros, know, New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, thrown a couple other ones. But Nashville’s right up there and it could overtake a lot of a lot of them. I’ve been through Nashville once. It was beautiful. I’m curious to get your pitch maybe that everyone who’s looking at investing in an area of the country, why they should go to Nashville.

Amanda Sweeney Jones (13:30)
Well, Nashville’s growing every year still. Even with the market the way it is, the home prices are still going up. It’s a great investment. I mean, you can’t lose out on real estate. I don’t know. I don’t think it matters where you’re buying it at. know, land, houses, business, whatever you can obtain, you need to get it.

Dylan Silver (13:50)
Yeah.

My-

Amanda Sweeney Jones (13:58)
but

it is a great investment.

Dylan Silver (14:01)
My vantage point on Nashville, I was there in like 2018 now, so 2019, 2018, so it was a little bit ago, was that people right now are looking for where can they have kind of the, not just where can they work, but where can they have a great life experience and where can they build a home base out of? And I’m from Northern New Jersey, I’m from Northern New Jersey. I like the food, I like the people, but overall, I mean, how many people from,

all across the country are like, I want to move to northern New Jersey. Like, let’s go to, unfortunately, no one’s like stoked.

Amanda Sweeney Jones (14:36)
You ⁓

Dylan Silver (15:19)
And I hate to say it because I’m from there. No one’s stoked to move to like Newark, New Jersey. No one’s like, yeah, I’m moving, which is sad, right? But Nashville, it’s just a vibe. I can’t explain it. Maybe it’s the music. Maybe it’s the country. I don’t know. But it’s a vibe. And I loved being there. I was there for

⁓ Two days, I believe and I said I have to come back here I haven’t been back since and so as I’ve even thought about areas of the country, which I would consider relocating to I I love Florida. I love both coasts of Florida West Coast Tampa. I love southern part Miami area, but I’ve also thought about you know, the Carolinas I’ve thought about Nashville I thought about areas outside of the country and I think as we start to see more like hybridization of of work and people

Amanda Sweeney Jones (16:02)
them. ⁓

Dylan Silver (16:08)
maybe having the opportunity to really pick where they want to live. Cities like Nashville that cultivate a culture are only gonna become more more popular,

Amanda Sweeney Jones (16:21)
Right and a lot of people like you said work from home or it’s a hybrid scenario so ⁓ even if they work in California or they’re moving here for the lifestyle, for the cost and the cost of living, the people, the food, yeah it’s I love all the outdoor activities. I’m an outdoors

Dylan Silver (16:37)
Brother Lifestyle.

Amanda Sweeney Jones (16:48)
kind of gal. So I love to kayak and water go to waterfalls and high.

Dylan Silver (16:53)
my gosh, I speak in my language.

⁓ So what’s your favorite

water activity? Do you have a favorite water activity?

Amanda Sweeney Jones (17:02)
Ooh, that’s a tough one. Man, I really love the kayak and I’ve been getting into that the last few years.

Dylan Silver (17:09)
That’s it. You know what’s

funny? I just went kayaking with my buddies in Fort Worth. And ⁓ some of the, I’m not a pro kayaker. So I really was an amateur when it came to it. But I didn’t know that if you hopped out of the kayak in the middle of the river, it was going to be very difficult to kind of get back into the kayak. So like I’m trying to get back into the kayak and it’s like taking on water and everyone’s laughing. And I’m like, man, I should not have hopped out. I thought this was going to be easy because it was easy to hop out, not easy to hop in.

And so I’ve since said, you know what, let me stick, do you know about paddle boarding? Have you seen this, the paddle boarding?

Amanda Sweeney Jones (17:39)
Right.

yeah, I haven’t tried that yet.

Dylan Silver (17:46)
Basically

you can kneel or you can stand. They have some really long stable big ones. It’s more stable than a kayak but you can’t go very fast. And I said let me stick to that. So in Austin, I’m a big fan of, ⁓ it’s called Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas. I don’t know if it’s a man-made river or if it’s just a very still lake. It’s gotta be lake because it’s called Lady Bird Lake, right? But it’s such a good time and I tell people try, just try.

Amanda Sweeney Jones (17:49)
Thank

You

Dylan Silver (18:16)
to go out on the water in some type of watercraft, get some exercise and be in a bad mood. Like you can’t do it. Like you physically can’t do it. You can’t be in a kayak and just be upset with life. It’s very hard to do.

Amanda Sweeney Jones (18:16)
Mm-hmm.

No.

Yes, for sure.

Dylan Silver (18:36)
But Amanda, we are coming up on time here. Where can folks go if maybe they’d ⁓ like to reach out to you or if maybe they have questions about purchasing a home in the greater Nashville area?

Amanda Sweeney Jones (18:49)
They can go to my website. It’s amandasweeneyjones.com. Or they can call me. I actually answer my phone. 615-606-8450.

Dylan Silver (18:55)
Alright.

Amanda, thank you so much for coming on the show here today.

Amanda Sweeney Jones (19:06)
Yeah, thank you so much for having me.