How to Educate & Empower Home Buyers in Texas

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Show Summary

In this conversation, John Harcar interviews Chalamaine Armstrong, a passionate real estate agent who shares her journey from being a makeup artist to becoming a successful real estate professional. Chalamaine discusses her commitment to educating homeowners, the importance of building relationships in the industry, and the common mistakes new buyers make. She emphasizes the connection between one’s weaknesses and strengths and highlights the significance of resilience in achieving success in real estate.

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
    • Chalamaine Armstrong’s Website
    • Chalamaine Armstrong on Instagram
    • Chalamaine Armstrong’s Phone Number: (214)1 738-4913

  Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

  Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

  Chalamaine Armstrong (00:00)
  your weakness and your strength are connected. They are an integral part of your journey. And when you realize that they are connected, you have to trust the process. So not knowing doesn’t mean that you won’t ever know. Not knowing means you can learn. And if you have the strength to make sure that you can learn, you’ll go the endurance. You’ll go the distance,

  John Harcar (02:03)
  All right. Hey, guys. Welcome back to our show. ⁓ Once again, I’m your host, John Harcar, and I’m excited today. We’re going to talk to to our guest, Chalamaine Armstrong. And ⁓ besides her journey in real estate, you know how she got into real estate, you know, what brought her up until today, what what I’m excited to talk about is just really how she’s passionate about helping homeowners, educating homeowners, right? Really getting into the game and feeling confident about the, you know, that purchase, which we all know is a big one. ⁓ So, Chalamaine, welcome to our show.

  Chalamaine Armstrong (02:32)
  Thank

  you, it’s an honor to be on the show with you. Thank you so much.

  John Harcar (02:35)
  Awesome.

  Well, you know, I’m excited to talk about our, you know, about your business and whatnot. So before we get started, tell our audience a little bit more about you, you know, kind of what got you into real estate, you know, what brought you up to today.

  Chalamaine Armstrong (02:47)
  Okay,

  so little short story. I was a makeup artist and had a single mom and happened to work weekends and I wanted my daughter to, you know, be able to do cheer and Girl Scouts and all the things. So I needed to find something a little bit more structured and something that I thought was going to be a nine to five. And we all know mortgages and really said there’s not a nine. I was sadly mistaken. Okay. But it did give me the freedom to be able to take her to the things I wanted to take her to. So a friend of me, a friend of mine’s

  John Harcar (03:06)
  Ugh.

  Right?

  Chalamaine Armstrong (03:16)
  called me since she was working in a mailroom of a mortgage company and the rest is history. just, you know, started, worked my, literally from the bottom up from the mailroom and just was reading and learning and really taking in everything and realizing that my passion was to definitely help people achieve home ownership. And I, in the mailroom, literally stuffing envelopes.

  John Harcar (03:35)
  Wow, you started in the mailroom.

  Okay, that’s, that’s pretty

  awesome. I like to ask this question to a lot of my, my guests, just to kind of see if there was some back, something back in the day that gave the bug. Like, was there anybody in your family as you grew up or any friends or anybody that was in real estate that kind of, know, maybe at one point planted the seed to where you thought in your mind, yeah, that’s pretty cool. No.

  Chalamaine Armstrong (03:59)
  You know what, sadly, no. I wish

  it was. So I’m the matriarch for my family. I’m the first person to buy a house, new car off the showroom floor, have a business, all those things. And so me being the trailblazer in my family, then I’ve helped my father, my mother, my brother, and host of cousins and so on achieve homeownership.

  John Harcar (04:04)
  Okay.

  Mm-hmm.

  That’s awesome. So when you started working in the mail room, ⁓ why was it important to maybe just kind of start on the bottom or was it just you were looking for a job and you found it and that kind of was what started the path.

  Chalamaine Armstrong (04:26)
  Uh-huh.

  So I remember how much they were paying me. It was $8.50 an hour. And they paid me $2 bonus every application that I was able to get sent out. And so I remember I got my first bonus check. It was $1,000. And me and my friend, looked at one and we’re like, oh my god. So yeah, it was something that I’ve always been the one that’s been very inquisitive.

  John Harcar (05:41)
  ⁓ Right?

  Chalamaine Armstrong (05:50)
  So I wanted to read what I was sending out. And when I was reading it, I had questions. And at the time, we didn’t have the internet or the intranet, right? So it required me to go to the library. As a matter of fact, I don’t have it with me. It required me to go get a mortgage calculator. It required me to sit in and be a self-study. Because I mentioned earlier, I was a single mom.

  John Harcar (05:59)
  Yeah, right.

  Hmm.

  Right.

  Chalamaine Armstrong (06:16)
  So I actually had my first child when I was 17. So I started college, did not finish. So me having to be self-taught and really having to work very hard to show how smart I was and how accomplished I could be in my process.

  John Harcar (06:33)
  Mm hmm.

  So how long and I love that. I love that you took that action. You’re reading these things. like, hey man, that sounds, how do I figure out more? And you took that action. ⁓ How long were you in the mailroom? ⁓ What was that next progression? you really start having a shadow anybody or have a mentor?

  Chalamaine Armstrong (06:50)
  Right.

  That’s a great question.

  So I was in the mail room probably I’ll say three, four months. And the ultimate, know, raise or position was to answer the phones because obviously to answer the phone, you have to know what’s going on. And so what I would do is, and I wasn’t supposed to, but when I would, I would see the owners and I would actually go up to them and I would talk to them. I’m like, Oh, I see that you’re doing this this week. And I see that you’re doing this this week. And the owner would like, yeah, we are.

  John Harcar (07:08)
  Mm-hmm.

  Mm-hmm.

  Chalamaine Armstrong (07:23)
  interesting. What do you think about it? So I use and seize those opportunities of one, using my shyness as power. I’m very shy. People always say, you’re not shy. I’m very shy. But I use my shyness. I’m very shy. But I use that. That’s my superpower. I say, you know what, go for it. And I did that. I ⁓ hit one owner up, hit the next owner up. And what is happening is that they end up talking about the girl in the mailroom.

  John Harcar (07:35)
  Don’t sound like you’re shy.

  Chalamaine Armstrong (07:52)
  in their meeting with management. And then I got promoted to answer on the phones. And then from there to be a junior processor, from there to a processor, from there to an underwriter. So I actually have my DE, which is my direct endorsement from HUD. Also have my lab certification from the VA. So at one while I was actually running a mortgage company that had $33 million coming through its doors monthly. And I was managing that. Yeah.

  John Harcar (08:17)
  Wow. Wow.

  And I think that’s an important point to just retouch on is that, you know, when you got out of that comfort zone, first and foremost to go and talk to them. But it’s like anybody, when we’re in our business, we always say, Hey, make yourself known, tell everybody, talk to everybody. And, and, and you did that. Right. And when they see like, know, who can I bring up or who can I raise up within the company? They know you, they talk to you. So that’s incredible. learning all these things, right. You know, you, took a lot of steps, a lot of quickly, what do you think were some of the things that really helped you

  Chalamaine Armstrong (08:27)
  Bye.

  Bye.

  Yeah.

  John Harcar (08:49)
  focus to be able to take these steps pretty fast.

  Chalamaine Armstrong (08:54)
  will

  tell everybody that

  your weakness and your strength are connected. They are an integral part of your journey. And when you realize that they are connected, you have to trust the process. So not knowing doesn’t mean that you won’t ever know. Not knowing means you can learn. And if you have the strength to make sure that you can learn, you’ll go the endurance. You’ll go the distance,

  I should say. And so ⁓ that’s probably the biggest thing for anyone that’s

  in this business, know, the market is not strong right now. You know, you hear many people talking about it. That’s a weakness, but are you strong enough to endure that, right? And if you are, you’re going to see the other side and see the, you know, and wait and be patient, you know, know, Rome wasn’t built overnight. So a career is not either, right?

  John Harcar (09:33)
  Mm-hmm.

  Right.

  Do you feel you found a lot of your or lend a lot of your success to the fact that you were around these people? You made yourself accessible. You got you dove into it ⁓ versus maybe some other folks that, you know, they’re just, you know, on the sidelines trying to learn as much as they can before they get into it.

  Chalamaine Armstrong (09:58)
  Right, yeah. So true.

  I believe that the big things that are so important with business relationships are the Rs. And so anything that’s, so I always said you have to be relatable. You have to be a resource. you have to be ⁓ someone that they feel that they can refer you to and get a referral from. I mean, all of those things, resourceful. mean, anything with an R is so important when.

  John Harcar (10:59)
  Mm-hmm.

  Chalamaine Armstrong (11:01)
  growing business and growing yourself personally. Your family needs to be able to say, this person here is someone that I can get behind. We’re reliable.

  John Harcar (11:09)
  I love that. Yeah,

  once again, there’s another R. Respectable. How long till you got your first real estate deal?

  Chalamaine Armstrong (11:13)
  Yeah, there you go. Respect is huge.

  So I am a newbie. ⁓ I ⁓ am a newer agent. I’ve been licensed ⁓ in January will be three years. But last year I was top 500 out of 15,000 agents. ⁓ And so I teach and say I’m a special agent because since I do have my loan officer’s license, my first deal, my family and my friends are kind of waiting on me like, girl, why are you not doing this?

  John Harcar (11:23)
  Okay.

  Okay.

  Mm-hmm.

  Chalamaine Armstrong (11:49)
  And so my first deal, I don’t want to say it came easily, but it came because of, you know, me being very vocal and letting people know, hey, I do have my real estate license now. So, you know, let me know if I can help.

  John Harcar (12:03)
  Yeah,

  yeah. Let people know what you do, you know, and people will come to you. What did do with the first? What did do with the first check?

  Chalamaine Armstrong (12:05)
  Yeah.

  Ooh, the first check.

  John Harcar (12:13)
  You had to go get,

  you you had to spend something on yourself.

  Chalamaine Armstrong (12:16)
  Yeah, and I did, I did. And so it was a trip. I think that is important to me. I’ve been blessed. I’ve been able to go to Jerusalem, been able to go to Paris, London. So my checks are definitely for travel. My why is to be able to see and experience the world. Yeah.

  John Harcar (12:33)
  Awesome.

  Awesome. I love that. And

  I love that too, if you share that with your kids as well. ⁓ So let’s talk about what your business is now. You’re in the Dallas area. Do you focus in primarily Dallas? Do you branch out in other areas?

  Chalamaine Armstrong (12:44)
  Yes.

  So yes, so I like that you asked that. obviously, licenses allow you to go vast and wide and the internet allows you to be seen vast and wide. So I do focus on the DFW area. From where I live, Waco is actually down the street. So I find myself in that market as well. It’s like about an hour away from my house. And to be honest, with traffic, most things in a major area is going to be an hour anyways, right?

  John Harcar (12:59)
  Mm-hmm.

  Yeah, no

  joke.

  Chalamaine Armstrong (13:23)
  So yeah, do the greater, you know, and also I find myself doing business in Houston. Houston is a greater distance, but I have family down that way that I help out a lot.

  John Harcar (13:34)
  Okay, are you part of a brokerage? Do you have your own brokerage?

  Chalamaine Armstrong (13:38)
  I am not, I’m part of a brokerage and I do have a team at the brokerage. Yes.

  John Harcar (13:40)
  okay awesome

  awesome what do you think your how many total you know total deals are you gonna do this year how many total sales do you have

  Chalamaine Armstrong (13:50)
  So,

  so far this year, I’ve already done, what was it, 24 deals, 24, 27, I think. Yeah, so prayerfully, in a perfect world, maybe I’ll finish the year strong and have 50.

  John Harcar (13:59)
  Awesome.

  Hey, let’s go. A couple months left, man. Let’s do it. Yeah, there you go. All right. Let’s talk about kind of what our comments, our topic might be. And that’s your passion, right? To really educate. So tell me a couple things that you do to really help that a homeowner, new homeowner, home buyer. How do you educate them? How do you make them feel more confident in their decisions?

  Chalamaine Armstrong (14:10)
  Yeah, no sleep. No, I’m teething.

  Well, I think the biggest thing is explaining that one credit, that’s the biggest concern for most people. Is my credit good enough? Is it strong enough? Is it going to get me the best deal? And I explain to people that credit is like school. You have to be in attendance. So you’re going to have to have a credit card. that’s what we call attendance. You have a credit card, you’re in attendance. ⁓ You get good grades when you make your payments. So if you’re in attendance, you have a card, but you have a zero balance.

  you’re not being graded.

  So I really try to keep things simple. That’s why my brand is Kiss Wealth Now. The kiss can be keep it simple savvy, keep it simple stupid, whatever. Whatever you need it to be. Keep it simple sexy. ⁓ But I really try to keep it simple. therefore, I work a lot with first time home buyers.

  John Harcar (15:42)
  Right?

  Whatever you want to be.

  You

  Chalamaine Armstrong (16:06)
  Now I’m actually having their parents and grandparents and things like that, really making sure that they understand it and let them know that there’s no question that’s stupid when it comes to home ownership. You can own a home 20 years and still have questions because you didn’t understand when you bought the home the first time.

  John Harcar (16:15)
  Mm-hmm.

  Yeah. Right, right.

  ⁓ What do you see as some of the biggest mistakes homeowners, like new homeowners are making or home buyers are making?

  Chalamaine Armstrong (16:30)
  I

  the probably the biggest mistake is going in thinking that this payment is locked in and It’s never gonna change so I am big on letting people know your interest rate will be fixed because I definitely am big promotion of you know Fixed mortgage whether it’s 30 20 15 I’ve not yet done a 10-year mortgage. So that person wanted to more 10-year mortgage reach out to me now but and so but

  John Harcar (16:37)
  What do mean?

  Right.

  Chalamaine Armstrong (16:59)
  that the homeowners insurance and taxes are your variable points. So you can’t go into your home believing that, my mortgage is $2,200 a month and that’s it for every man. You’ve got to make sure. But also know that you’re going to be a good steward of your money and work hard and take care of what you purchase. So hopefully life will bring raises.

  John Harcar (17:03)
  Mm-hmm.

  Chalamaine Armstrong (17:27)
  total compensation increases. So therefore, as those things go up, that you will be able to afford doing those things. So definitely don’t get into a home and go buy a new car, you know, go buy all new furniture, go buy all new clothes, go buy all these things, because now you have a new lifestyle. Keep your lifestyle the same and adjust, you know.

  John Harcar (17:46)
  Right,

  right, right, right. I love it. You’ve been through a lot of stuff, right? You’ve grown, you’ve made leaps and bounds in a lot of things. What do you contribute a couple things of your keys to success?

  Chalamaine Armstrong (18:00)
  key to success is knowing that it can and will happen. And so, ⁓ not to say that I expect bad things, but I had loans cleared to close and people went to go pick up the person to close and they were dead. I’m being honest, know, bank accounts that people don’t know about, you know, just I tease and say, your relationship needs to be strong when you’re trying to purchase a home.

  John Harcar (18:16)
  Wow.

  Yeah, for sure.

  Chalamaine Armstrong (18:30)
  Because

  things come up, you know, I’ve had girlfriends come up, husbands, wives, you know, you name it, it happens, you know, we’re people, right? You kind of go back to the biblical days, the book of Hosea, know, all the drama that happened in the, it’s still the drama happening now, you know what I mean? So it can and will happen. So, and so you have to be resilient, you know, and you have to find solutions.

  John Harcar (18:38)
  Eek. Yeah, that, right? Of course.

  Yeah, right, right.

  Yeah, I love it. If there’s folks that are in the DFW area that are listening to this and they want to maybe, you know, whatever you said might’ve resonated with them. They’re They’re kind of talking to you more about some of this stuff, or maybe they know people that could use your services. How do they get in touch with you? What’s the best way to reach out?

  Chalamaine Armstrong (19:12)
  Mm-hmm.

  Great

  question. My phone number, 2147384913. My company, Kiss Wealth Now. We’ve helped thousands of Actually, my numbers at the top of the year, I was in a 10-year span. I helped over a thousand families get into homes. And this year, I am number six in the state of Texas for lending, getting families into homes with down payment assistance. And then I’m top 500.

  out of 15,000 agents. So I work hard. ⁓ I study and I read. I’m not really a big TV watcher. So if you want to call me and talk about TV shows, I’d be like, what is that? But you want to call me and talk about economic development. And know, why DFW is top 10 for places to live. ⁓ Companies moving here. I’m your girl. ⁓

  John Harcar (19:57)
  Right.

  Love it. No,

  I love it. And guys, reach out. That’s an incredible resource. It’s always good to have a really knowledgeable person in every market you’re in or where you’re doing your business. Chalamaine, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story, sharing about yourself and your business. Guys, I hope you got a lot of good ⁓ information out of it. ⁓ I took a lot of good things as well. Thank you again, Chalamaine. And guys, we’ll see you on the next one. Cheers.

  Chalamaine Armstrong (20:35)
  Thank you.

  Bye y’all.