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The official podcast of Shoemaker Films. Every week we share content related to digital marketing, video production, and brand building; and frequently meet with local creatives, entrepreneurs, and business owners for in-depth conversations. Get to know local heavy hitters and influencers in the Greater Philadelphia region while picking up some tactical advice and tips on starting and running a business, being productive, creating content, and everything in between.
Welcome to
Dane Shoemaker:the Shoemaker Films podcast. I'm joined here with Sarah Forti and Jackie McCormick with Forti Homes. Laddice, how are you doing today?
Sarah Forti:Good. Good. Thanks for having us.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Thanks. I'm really excited to, dive into real estate a little bit with you guys and learn about, you know, your, your agency and, you know, just maybe some tips for buyers, tips for sellers, learn a little bit more about what you guys do and I go from there. So yeah. Why don't you tell us about, you know, your yourselves, how long you've been in real estate, kinda go from there?
Jackie McCormick:I've known to culinary school and worked in and out of restaurants for a long time, and then, pandemic, I decided to shift into real estate. So I've been licensed since 2021.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Jackie McCormick:And it I think a lot of the skills, the you know, a lot of it's funny how much of it transferred from working
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Working in restaurants to real estate.
Jackie McCormick:To real estate.
Dane Shoemaker:Absolutely. Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:Just a lot of, because I bartended for many years and just, like, all the different types of people you meet. It's just it's interesting how much of it is very similar.
Dane Shoemaker:So Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, sales, it's hospitality, it's serving people. Yeah. Absolutely.
Jackie McCormick:Fixing mistakes. I know. Like, 1 is about food, one's about house, but it's the same
Dane Shoemaker:thing. So Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Sarah, how about you?
Sarah Forti:I have been in business for 18 years.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sarah Forti:I started when I was expecting my first child. So I like to say we both grew up in real estate. Yeah. And he is now, almost 18 Okay. And talking about getting
Dane Shoemaker:his real estate license.
Dane Shoemaker:Oh, that's exciting.
Dane Shoemaker:Oh, nice.
Sarah Forti:It is very exciting. Footsteps. Yeah. Yeah. Before that, I was in nonprofit, fundraising.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sarah Forti:I was also a teacher and a coach in both, I was a teacher in the parochial school system, and, I was a coach in the public and parochial schools. And, after a couple years of that and as we were starting a family, I decided that I wanted to go into real estate. I had always been so interested in it. Yeah. When we were looking at rentals as, you know, a young family or then ended up, looking at homes to buy and bought our first home before I I was a realtor.
Sarah Forti:Yeah. I just enjoy the process so much. And I actually felt like back then, I had this mindset of, oh, I'm I'm too young. Nobody will listen to what I have to say.
Dane Shoemaker:Right. Right.
Sarah Forti:And then eventually, I was like, I think I'm old enough now that people will listen to me.
Dane Shoemaker:Yep. Yep. I mean,
Sarah Forti:it was obviously my own mindset issue, but, I jumped into real estate and, I really never looked back. I mean, every year, it was like, let's, you know, see what what goal we can get to. And then Yeah. Before you knew it, I was, off and running, and the business just kinda built on itself. I started at Coldwell Banker Preferred in Wayne.
Sarah Forti:Okay.
Dane Shoemaker:And
Sarah Forti:that's where I lived at the time. Had a great experience there for over a decade. Then I moved to Keller Williams in Wayne, and that's where I started my team, 40 Homes. So we are 40 Homes with Keller Williams Realty out of the Wayne Devon office because it's right there on the border. Right.
Sarah Forti:And like I said, that's where we started that's where I started the team. And along the years throughout that experience, we ended up moving back to Newtown Square, which is where I'm from.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sarah Forti:And so that's how we ended up with, you know, a foothold in Wayne, foothold in Newtown Square. We're I'm raising my family and so. And Sarah
Jackie McCormick:and I met organically, because our kids are in school together, and we were working mhmm. Yeah. Lizzie and Alex are the same age, and Owen and Leo are the same age, and, Ava and Noah are in the same grade. So we were working on fundraising at Culverton together.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Jackie McCormick:So that's how
Dane Shoemaker:we met.
Jackie McCormick:Isn't that cute?
Dane Shoemaker:Nice. Nice.
Jackie McCormick:Yeah. Yep.
Sarah Forti:And at the, Christmas tree lighting
Jackie McCormick:Mhmm.
Sarah Forti:And then at Nell. So there was a lot of Newtown Square crossover. Yeah. And kid crossover.
Jackie McCormick:And now we spend all of our time together.
Dane Shoemaker:I'm sure. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:Did she convince you to come over to her team? Is that
Jackie McCormick:so I started with Compass and Right. Okay.
Dane Shoemaker:You
Jackie McCormick:know, had a good experience there. Compass is great. My office is in Center City, and I never really got to I mean, I could go in. It's just it was far, you know?
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. With the pandemic too, I guess. It was Right. People weren't going in. Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:And I did want to be able to go into the office more and to be more, you know, collaborative, because my team my previous team was spaced out and, yeah. I just I wanted to collaborate more.
Sarah Forti:So I met Jackie as a friend, mom friend, through Culbertson and Nell, etcetera. Yeah. And knew she was in real estate. Liked her personality immediately. Very positive.
Sarah Forti:Lots of energy. Easygoing. Easy to talk to. Yeah. And, we've been growing our team, you know, 1 person at a time.
Sarah Forti:And I like to say that, you know, we're we're a small and mighty team.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:We
Sarah Forti:keep it tight, but we keep the people on the team who we know are gonna be a great fit.
Dane Shoemaker:Yep.
Sarah Forti:And, I knew that she was at Compass, and that the office was far, and, I thought she would be just a fantastic addition personality wise, hustle, like, she's got hustle like nobody else, which I love.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sarah Forti:And just a lot of really positive energy and a very quick learner and just so it was immediately a good fit for me and so then I you know, it was a matter of, is this gonna work for
Dane Shoemaker:her? Okay.
Sarah Forti:Because on our team, we always like win wins. Exactly.
Dane Shoemaker:Win win. Yeah.
Sarah Forti:It's gotta work for both people.
Dane Shoemaker:Absolutely. Yeah.
Sarah Forti:Just like with clients, you know, it's gotta work for both the client, you know, buyer seller. Yeah. But that's really always what we strive for. And so it was. Here we are.
Dane Shoemaker:Awesome. Nice. And and when how long ago was that? How long have you been on that?
Jackie McCormick:I joined Keller Williams and the 40 homes on September 1st last year. So it's easy for me to remember my my workiversary.
Sarah Forti:Yeah. Yeah. And since then, our team's production has impressively increased from the year year prior.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay. Great.
Sarah Forti:Yeah. And I definitely attribute a lot of that to Jackie and the, I would say, the energy and just chemistry that we have on the team and being able to discuss clients and properties together on the side before we get in front of them and then collaborate, and she kind of takes off and runs with a lot of the work. Yeah. So we're able to get so much more done, and the clients are able to have a lot of success quickly Got it. Which is awesome.
Dane Shoemaker:Nice. Yeah. And how big is the team today? Like, how big is
Dane Shoemaker:the team?
Sarah Forti:Right now, it is 4 of us.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sarah Forti:So it's Jackie and I as the sales agents.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay. Then we
Sarah Forti:have a showing specialist. So if Jackie and I are with clients or with kids or anything else Right. Then our showing specialists can take clients out. And then that way, we're able to serve the client at a really high level without them being any negative negatively impacted by our schedule in any way
Dane Shoemaker:Sure.
Sarah Forti:We're able to make sure to accommodate the clients, at their convenience.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sarah Forti:And then we have a transaction coordinator who handles all of our paperwork pretty much. The entire process from the time you go under contract to buy or sell your house until you get to closing. The transaction coordinator handles everything for the most part for what we call contract to close.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah. Nice. And what kind of volume are you guys doing? Is that some is
Dane Shoemaker:it just a
Sarah Forti:share of you
Jackie McCormick:can ask.
Dane Shoemaker:I don't know. Is that I
Sarah Forti:don't even know what it is right now. I just count I counted that we're 20.
Dane Shoemaker:Guys are competitive.
Sarah Forti:You guys are
Dane Shoemaker:here. Yeah. So what has it been like moving from an individual to a team?
Sarah Forti:It's it's journey when you are moving from an individual to a team because you start off doing everything for everyone.
Dane Shoemaker:Right?
Sarah Forti:And you have so much control. So you have to learn to let go of control, which is a journey in and of itself.
Jackie McCormick:Mhmm.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Learning to delegate, that's tough Yeah. When
Sarah Forti:you're running your
Dane Shoemaker:business. Right?
Jackie McCormick:Yeah. And Yeah.
Sarah Forti:You know, it's definitely a skill set that you have to learn. Yep. Managing people and interviewing and bringing them on and then letting them go and, but in production wise, I for years, I for years I was the top salesperson, whether it was a Coldwell Banker or Keller Williams
Dane Shoemaker:Right.
Sarah Forti:And, I enjoyed that position. Yeah. So knowing that I was bringing agents on to the team, that was gonna go away. So I I couldn't say, oh, I'm number 1 anymore because
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sarah Forti:I was now a team. Right? Production going from an individual to a team, obviously, it increased, but it just over the past, I would say, 24 months, I can just see the steady trajectory of the team and how many people we're able to serve, how many more people we're able to serve at a really high level by being able to work together
Dane Shoemaker:Yep.
Sarah Forti:And collaborate. And then when I work with Jackie and our showing specialist, I just feel like watching them grow and learn these new skill sets is really exciting. Yeah. To see them in action and to hear what they're saying and going, I would've said the same thing. You know, it's like real I'm really proud of them and their accomplishments.
Jackie McCormick:Yeah. It's so nice, since I'm relatively new. Like, I feel confident in my work, but it's so nice to be able to just check-in with Sarah,
Dane Shoemaker:you know
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:And all of her experience. And then our office in general, a lot of the people we work with, I think, are really approachable and, open to sharing and, you know, troubleshooting things, like, just the people you know, our office is in the back corner, and there's a bunch of other teams around us and other agents around us, and I know that I can always pop in, you know, and ask them a question. So it's really, really nice to know that anything that comes up, like, we can figure it out. You know? Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:Yeah. And that's what we do
Sarah Forti:all day is problem solve. Right.
Jackie McCormick:Yeah. Constantly troubleshooting. And, you know, just to touch on, Melissa, our showing specialist, for instance, the past 2 buyers we got under contract, she showed them while they were at the house. I'm at my house writing the offer, you know, so it's it's almost like we can be in 2 places at once. You know?
Jackie McCormick:Yeah. So she got the offer over pretty much before they got home from their own showing. So Amazing. Yeah. So we really can And they both got the house.
Jackie McCormick:Yeah. They both got the house. So
Dane Shoemaker:Nice.
Sarah Forti:In this market, they you know, buyers don't always get the house. No. No.
Dane Shoemaker:Very competitive. Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:Right. But it it's great that, yeah, we can because we're such a cohesive unit, we can be in multiple places at once, and the client feels, yeah, very cared for. Yeah. They do. It's a
Sarah Forti:it is a great process. You shot over a text to me when that 1 agent had that question slash concern. I shot over my, you know, thoughts on it. Yeah. And it was just kind of like this, boom, boom, boom process.
Sarah Forti:And then she text me. They got the house. Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:That's amazing. Right. It's like, this is
Sarah Forti:what we're building and this is it just seeing it in action
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:That's New
Dane Shoemaker:York in play.
Sarah Forti:Short moment Yeah. Where sometimes it's dragged out a little bit and it's you you know it's there. You know the the chemistry is there and you know the teamwork is at play. But when it all happens in a short period of time, it just it's exciting.
Jackie McCormick:Because sometimes you just need the right words and in a certain moments, I'm like, what would you say in this circumstance? And it's it's just it's really helpful. Yeah.
Sarah Forti:So, Amazing. But as we've worked together and grown together this year, we've been recognized a couple times. So we should've brought the award. We could've brought the award. We should've brought that's a cute award.
Sarah Forti:I like that 1.
Dane Shoemaker:That's a
Sarah Forti:cute award. Yeah. But we've been recognized a few times. Some by, you know, older, I guess, awards that I've gotten in the past, and then the newest 1. Philadelphia Magazine does a Philly 5 star agent
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sarah Forti:Award every year.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sarah Forti:And they vet it by reaching out to past clients. So, we've continuously gotten the Philly 5 star award.
Dane Shoemaker:That's amazing. Nice. Congratulations. Thanks.
Sarah Forti:Mainline, you know, top agent mainline, things like that. But this year, 1 of the best I shouldn't say best. The most special award we've ever gotten was this year, and it is the mainline parent it's the mainline parent love award, and they call it the best for families award. And we won the best realtor for families with Main Line Parent Magazine.
Dane Shoemaker:It's amazing.
Sarah Forti:It was amazing. And normally, I don't even get excited about awards because it's like, whatever. It's just like another award. But this is it's a community that Jackie and I are both part of on Facebook.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sarah Forti:And we have been for years, even before I'm sure you were a realtor. But it's 10, 000 people, and we probably collectively know a 1, 000 of them. Yeah. And, the people in there, they go on and vote. They, you know, they nominate, and then they vote for best of whatever.
Sarah Forti:Everything from pet sitters to, like, private schools.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sarah Forti:And so to be honored and recognized best realtor, there were a couple realtors mentioned, and then we were the the winners of the realtor section. It really meant so much because those are our people.
Dane Shoemaker:Those are the those are peers,
Sarah Forti:our peers, our friends, our families. It was That so special.
Jackie McCormick:To vote, it wasn't just like a quick do like, you had to log in, you had to create a username, like, it wasn't what does it mean? Yeah. So people actually went out of their way. Took time
Sarah Forti:to do it. Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:They took the time to do it. That's great.
Sarah Forti:Yeah. Yeah. And we can really silly, but Like, we can never thank people enough. And when we do see people throw our names out on because I mean, you'll see on Facebook posts
Jackie McCormick:Mhmm.
Sarah Forti:Every 5 seconds, it's I need a realtor. I need a realtor who has somebody. And then they're like it's like you got, like, 300 comments.
Dane Shoemaker:Got a cousin or
Dane Shoemaker:Right.
Jackie McCormick:And and their go to.
Sarah Forti:And there are so many realtors that are great around here.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sarah Forti:There are. And so when we see our names, we try and thank everybody, but then to just be recognized by them. This year was so special. And Jackie and I were able to go to the party where they celebrated.
Dane Shoemaker:Nice.
Sarah Forti:Yeah. That was awesome.
Dane Shoemaker:It was.
Sarah Forti:We actually ran into my sister, Amy, who won an award herself.
Dane Shoemaker:Nice. Nice.
Dane Shoemaker:Yep. What
Dane Shoemaker:does your sister do?
Sarah Forti:She's a marriage and relationship counselor.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sarah Forti:Amy Wood. Amy Wood. She's fantastic.
Dane Shoemaker:Sounds good.
Jackie McCormick:Yes. I like it.
Dane Shoemaker:So that that's awesome. Congratulations. Thanks. So what else what's tell us about the local, you know, real estate market. You know?
Sarah Forti:What's going on?
Dane Shoemaker:What's going on right now? Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:I will say, I think the past 5, 6 weeks has been a little a little weird. Weird is right. Houses are sitting a little bit longer, but still still moving quickly, but I think it was, like, you know, 3, 4 days before, and now we're seeing 10 to 12 days. Mhmm.
Sarah Forti:Yeah. We're like, oh, it's so long. And it's like
Jackie McCormick:It's still
Sarah Forti:2 weeks
Jackie McCormick:or 2 weeks. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. 24 hours. Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:Which is funny because I remember as a kid, we moved a couple of times, and I think our house took 4 months or so. Right. You know? So it it is funny to say, like, oh, it's taking a long time. It's 2 weeks, but
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:It is a little different than it has been. Yeah.
Sarah Forti:Yeah. When I first got in the business in 2006, that was like short sale season, right, when the market was turning. And so that's all I ever knew is average time on market is, like, 3 to 4 months. That's what we'd have to calculate.
Dane Shoemaker:Mhmm. Yeah.
Sarah Forti:And then over the past couple years, it's, well, we're gonna put your house on the market, and then you're gonna get all these offers, and our value came in and still comes in when it's trying to evaluate all the offers and guide the sellers
Dane Shoemaker:Right. Right.
Sarah Forti:Say, alright. Well, here, this 1 might be higher, but the terms aren't that great. So that's how we guide them in that way. Mhmm. So, yeah, this here, like or to witness, oh, things are sitting on the market a little bit longer.
Sarah Forti:You might not be getting 20 offers. You might be getting 2 offers over that time frame, but it really depends on the area and the neighborhood and the house and how well it's presented. I mean Right.
Jackie McCormick:And it's hyperlocal. Yeah. Yeah. Hyperlocal. Super
Sarah Forti:hyper hyperlocal.
Jackie McCormick:Makes people, I think, like to think, like, oh, what's it like in the suburbs, but not I don't think you you really have to go smaller than that. Philly too?
Sarah Forti:Yeah. Yeah. Whole another thing. Right. Right.
Sarah Forti:And we do some business in Philadelphia.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sarah Forti:It depends on the area. I know I always tell people I I handle certain neighborhoods in the city really well, and then others, I have no idea about. So I would refer them out. Jackie has more experience in the city.
Jackie McCormick:Yeah. I've done, Point Breeze, Port Richmond, like, East Kensington. That area is cool. Like, Fishtown area. But there it is.
Jackie McCormick:Like, I don't oh, I have it's 1 1 in South Philly earlier this year, but there are definitely parts of the city where I'm like, I need to have my map out, you know, where I, like, I really don't know where I am. So those I I would refer out.
Sarah Forti:But, you know, 1 minute suburbs are really hot, and then I'll reach out to an agent in the city, and she's like, man, we really slowed down. And the next minute is like vice versa.
Dane Shoemaker:Right.
Sarah Forti:So it really is it's minute to minute. That's what it feels like at least. Yeah. But out here in Newtown Square right now, obviously, we are very popular area. We've got a lot of new construction, ton of new construction.
Sarah Forti:Yeah. And, I used to call Newtown Square the best kept secret mainline adjacent. Well, we're not a secret anymore. That's the problem. Certainly
Dane Shoemaker:not. Yeah. That's
Sarah Forti:and with that comes good and bad. Right? I mean, there's a lot of development and growth that's been great for us and great for families, and you got, like, Whole Foods and the Scala, and you got so many great things.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sarah Forti:And then you've got traffic and overbuilt land and then, you know, the landscape is changing and you'll hear on, you know, Facebook pages, the older folks who've been around for a long time, like, not my Newtown Square.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. It's like
Sarah Forti:Right. We know, but also there's a new Pilates studio.
Jackie McCormick:You know, it's crazy.
Dane Shoemaker:Clowns coming in. Right?
Jackie McCormick:So bagels? I would say so my daughter's been a I've been at the Culbertson mom for a 1000000 years now. And when we first started, there was 12. There was right. There was, like, 300 kids there total.
Jackie McCormick:And it was before the renovation. My oldest was there. And now there's, like, over 600 kids.
Dane Shoemaker:So it's, like Oh, really?
Jackie McCormick:Just to Culberson alone. So just, like that's just a small snapshot of what's going on over the past, let's say, 10 years.
Dane Shoemaker:You
Sarah Forti:know? And Culberson itself is really amazing. It's I always say it's like a little private school.
Dane Shoemaker:It is.
Sarah Forti:Yeah. We're not allowed as realtors to steer, which means, say, you should go here because this school's good or they're here because this school's bad.
Dane Shoemaker:But I
Sarah Forti:always say, as a parent, I had this is me speaking as a parent. I have my own kids there
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sarah Forti:That they went through there, and, I feel comfortable saying we had a great experience at Culbertson
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sarah Forti:And it does feel like this little private school. So I think that a lot of the families in our area tend to go to private school. And then you'll see a lot of, like, in our whole area, it would be interesting to look at what the actual data is. I wouldn't be surprised if it was 50% going to private school and 50% going to public school.
Dane Shoemaker:Oh, is that right? Okay.
Dane Shoemaker:I
Sarah Forti:mean, I would probably say in the mainline. Great There's a lot of good a
Dane Shoemaker:lot of great private schools.
Sarah Forti:Right. Yeah. When I have people relocate in, that's 1 of the best things is you have all these phenomenal public school systems to choose from. And if they don't work, there's so many private schools and parochial schools to choose from. Right.
Sarah Forti:Right. But what my point of this whole long story is that, with all of the luxury new construction that is in Newtown Square
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sarah Forti:And I bet the new construction in Newtown Square, the average price is probably 1, 200, 000. Mhmm. And that's just average. Yeah. Of all those families, we're seeing more and more send their kids to Culberson and to public school.
Sarah Forti:So I just think that's, like, a really interesting shift, where a lot of them would have gone right into private school. Yeah. So it'll be interesting to see how that plays out because as these kids right? These new construction communities are only maybe 6 or 7 years old when maybe a listener is 8. Right?
Sarah Forti:So these kids are still in an elementary school.
Dane Shoemaker:Mhmm.
Sarah Forti:So it'll really be interesting to see them kind of go through the school system and see what happens with the public school, with the high school, and see how they expand and respond to this bigger group of kids.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. No. It's interesting to me.
Jackie McCormick:Mhmm.
Dane Shoemaker:My my son's starting at Culberson in in the fall, so we're excited to get get into it. Yeah.
Sarah Forti:You're gonna love it so much.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah. It's great.
Sarah Forti:You're saying McDowell. Things. Yeah. You're gonna love it now.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. We're getting into all that too. Yeah. So
Sarah Forti:but mainline, like, when people relocate to the area, the they're always looking at the top 1, 2, 3 school districts.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sarah Forti:And the the 3 spots are always Radnor, Lower Marion, and Treddyffern East Town. They usually, like, will go back and forth with who's second and third, and usually Treddyffern East Town is always first. Okay.
Dane Shoemaker:You
Sarah Forti:know, and I we always say to people, check out the statistics and everything because we are not the experts there. But there people are usually vying for 1 of those 3 schools when they come in. And then I like to say, and look at these other areas around it, because we have so you know, you have Great Valley, you have Phoenixville, Upper Marion, you've got Garnet Valley, Haverford, Marple Newtown, Grocery Media. I'm I'm, like, going around Westchester. I mean, all districts that have great real estate opportunities in them.
Sarah Forti:Because what happens is those first 3, the prices of those areas are so so much significantly higher
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sarah Forti:Than the outskirt towns because people just have nothing to else to go on but rate rankings when they're coming in from out of the area. Okay. So they drive the prices up and the competition up.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sarah Forti:And, also, the further out you get from Philadelphia, the less expensive the properties tend to get, so you get more bang for your buck.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sarah Forti:So when you're in Lower Marion, you're attracting everybody who's living in the city, and you're 1 of the top 3 school districts. So your pricing and your competition as a buyer is gonna be higher. Okay. Then Radnor, same thing. That's the next town out.
Sarah Forti:And then TE, Treddyff and East Town. So that's what we usually see in terms of market activity
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sarah Forti:Is that the mainline school districts, it is incredible to see the prices that they get
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sarah Forti:And how quickly they sell. And when things slow down, it tends to be the outskirts communities that'll slow down first, and the inside ones will will stay strong longer.
Dane Shoemaker:Interesting. Okay. Yeah. That's fascinating. What about what about, I guess, tips for first time do you
Dane Shoemaker:get a lot
Dane Shoemaker:of first time home buyers? Are you getting people buying their, like, their sec kinda their upgraded house?
Jackie McCormick:I've worked with a lot of first time home buyers, lately.
Dane Shoemaker:It's it's funny.
Jackie McCormick:I feel like I have 2 niches that I've fallen into, and it's been first time home buyers and then people selling, like, the family house that they grew up in. So it's like 2 work 2 different worlds, you know. So it's like we're going through, like, the old pictures and they're showing me, like, oh, my grandkids. We have the little line on the on the door frame with all the grandkids. So, I've yeah.
Jackie McCormick:So it's it's interesting to see. And then, really, the 1st time home buyers end up being the ones that are buying, you know, those houses. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:So I get to see it on the listing side, on the buy side. I really enjoy working with both. I think it's all there's honestly, I was telling my husband the other day, there's nothing better than calling a 1st time home buyer and saying, you got
Dane Shoemaker:the house.
Jackie McCormick:And I got to do that quite a few times this year, which has been That
Sarah Forti:really is the best part.
Jackie McCormick:It is. It is. Which has been, yeah, the best. And just to hear the their excitement, you know, it's like, it's the best. Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:We've had a how many this year? I've had at least 4 personal buyers this year, I think. Yeah. Maybe more. I don't know.
Dane Shoemaker:Nice.
Sarah Forti:Our transaction coordinator, Gina, she her background is social work. And so she has worked with a lot of, older people who are transitioning from their, you know, family home into either 55 and over care or nursing care or sometimes just downsizing. Yeah. And so over the past couple years, we fell into that niche, because she has such a great skill set
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sarah Forti:When it comes to communicating and understanding their needs. And so then we, as a team, ended up focusing on that and working with a couple downsizers and, you know, helping them with the process, which takes quite a while because you're unloading a house full of contents that
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sarah Forti:You know, it's it could be 30 years or more for some of these families. Right.
Dane Shoemaker:They end
Jackie McCormick:up being emotional. Very emotional. Very emotional.
Dane Shoemaker:I'm sure it can be a
Sarah Forti:Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:Yeah. We're like therapists too.
Sarah Forti:Yeah. Like I was saying earlier, my sister's a therapist, and somebody said, well, does that crossover? And I'm like, very much so. Yeah. We feel like therapists a lot of the time.
Jackie McCormick:Constantly navigating very high emotions. Mhmm.
Sarah Forti:Yeah. And when people are buying or selling real estate, I always say I give everybody lots of grains of salt because it is so emotional. I know that if somebody says something out of character during the transaction, it's it's high stress. And all this stuff I've heard clients say, I'm like, that's interesting. I would never expect that to come out of their mouth, but Right.
Sarah Forti:I don't hold it against them because I know what it's like to feel stressed and to just be at that point where and so we come in and we try and kind of keep the stress level down.
Dane Shoemaker:Right. Right.
Sarah Forti:It's it's hard it's easy for us to say because we do this every day with helping people buy and sell, and we recognize that. That it's, you know, we can't just say, oh, it's gonna be fine. Yeah. Right? So by giving people, you know, the time and space to have that level of emotion and then be able to bring it down and help them get through the process at a little bit of a calmer level
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah.
Sarah Forti:I think is where a lot of our value comes in.
Dane Shoemaker:Sure.
Jackie McCormick:Yeah. Yes. Because there's yeah. It's a lot. And there's quite a few things that I think you know, people think it's easy.
Jackie McCormick:Like, oh, I'll just sell my house myself. But Right. Right. Right. With so much emotion involved, I just I think that yeah.
Jackie McCormick:It's totally where our value comes in. It's helping them navigate the process and make smart decisions for their families.
Sarah Forti:A couple people that we've worked with
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sarah Forti:This year, and we do this every year, is, you know, they're trying to either downsize, but not, you know, their forever home. They're just trying to downsize in space and for financial reasons
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sarah Forti:And or just because they don't wanna take care of that size house anymore.
Dane Shoemaker:Right. Right.
Dane Shoemaker:But
Sarah Forti:it's not like they're forever downsized. You know what I mean? Yeah. You know, people's in their for people in their forties and fifties, and they're like, I don't wanna cut the grass anymore.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sarah Forti:I don't wanna pay these taxes anymore. My kids are either out of school or they don't even use the school system. And so we'll work with them with that transition, going from the bigger house to the smaller house, and then vice versa, the move up buyers. So they're not first time buyers, but they're move up buyers where they're like, okay. We've outgrown this house now.
Sarah Forti:How do we navigate this house that we have to sell, this house that we have to buy? And we need the proceeds from this 1 to buy that 1, but we wanna know where we're going first before we sell this 1. So that's always a really fun dynamic, but it's something that we see and do all the time and just Yeah. Requires a lot of education and a lot of patience. And what I say to all my clients is it it requires a level of faith
Jackie McCormick:that you
Sarah Forti:have to have. Yeah. Faith and trust that things are gonna work out. Mhmm. Yeah.
Sarah Forti:And it's not really faith and trust in us or themselves. It's just that it is going to work out. It always does. We haven't left anybody homeless.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:Right? That's good. There's usually a way around in real estate. You know? Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:There's ways to fix things.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Have you ever had people kinda back out of buying or selling? I mean, I'm sure it happens all the time, but, like, anything really, like, anything that you can share that's kinda fun, funny, crazy, or or, you know
Jackie McCormick:I'm tempted to share I had a settlement this year where we, showed up at the final walkthrough and nobody had moved a single thing out of the house yet. Yeah. So I packed their things up and helped them move out. That took 6 hours. We had just bought the settlement back, and, I it it was insane.
Jackie McCormick:Yeah. Just walked in. The all of their stuff. None of it packed. None.
Jackie McCormick:And they said, can we come back after settlement and move out? And they said, no. You may not. It's not your house anymore.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:So yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:Oh, man.
Jackie McCormick:So we we we end up doing those sorts of things.
Dane Shoemaker:Sure.
Jackie McCormick:I packed the moving truck for them to get the deal done.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Whatever it takes.
Jackie McCormick:Whatever it takes.
Sarah Forti:Yeah. I, 1 time ended up hauling the the sellers. It was it was an estate sale, and the sellers were the daughters and they had done so much work to get the house ready and prepared and and just, like, they kinda just ran out of gas. And so the night before settlement, they said we thought we thought we were gonna be able to get the garage empty and we couldn't. So, our junk remover remover, who we love, Ike, Ike Bird, he's awesome.
Sarah Forti:I called him, he said, I'll be there with my guys and trucks, and I showed up too and physically hauled out their garage full of stuff with them.
Dane Shoemaker:Mhmm.
Sarah Forti:And, but you just, you know, you just do it.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sarah Forti:You just do it because it's gotta get done, and you're there and you can. And so so
Dane Shoemaker:that's You're banking on that commission too. I mean, that's
Jackie McCormick:Well, that too. But it's And really, like
Dane Shoemaker:And, like, the new person's gonna move in. You don't want them to have all this stuff in the garage.
Jackie McCormick:It's really for, like, for me when I'm moving, I wasn't honestly, I wasn't really thinking about my commission. I was thinking about my buyers.
Dane Shoemaker:Well, yeah. I was
Jackie McCormick:thinking about my buyers. Like I'm
Dane Shoemaker:not saying you're I mean,
Dane Shoemaker:that's part of it.
Jackie McCormick:Yeah. Yeah.
Sarah Forti:You have that hanging over your head. It's like,
Jackie McCormick:but Yeah. No. I'm like, my my buyers can't deal with this. Right. And I'm gonna let them deal with it.
Jackie McCormick:So
Dane Shoemaker:So I'm gonna move this. And they
Dane Shoemaker:shouldn't have to.
Dane Shoemaker:And they shouldn't have to.
Dane Shoemaker:They've worked hard, you know, they've
Sarah Forti:And on my in my case, I had the sellers. I was representing the sellers and I felt so bad, like Yeah. They I had watched them do so much work.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yep.
Sarah Forti:I wasn't about to call them and say, hey, you need to get back over here because I was there. The junk guys were there. We all just wanted to go home. It was, like, 8, 9 o'clock at night. It you know?
Sarah Forti:I'm just gonna I can just do it. Yep. Yep. To get it done. I I have a couple of buyers, sellers trying to get out of the sale stories.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sarah Forti:I don't really wanna call anybody out specifically. Sure. But 1 was so long ago and I doubt there's no way he would be watching this. It was a divorce situation.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sarah Forti:So back to the counseling component. And we were through the transact you know, through, like, the agreement of sale, through inspections, through mortgage, and we were just waiting around for settlement because that's how the process goes. Like a lot of the work is upfront and then you just wait for closing.
Dane Shoemaker:Sure.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sarah Forti:And he started saying I'm not doing it. I'm not moving. Mhmm. Not selling. Not gonna sign.
Sarah Forti:And could he have not signed? Yes. Would there have been legal repercussions? Yes. How far would they have gone?
Sarah Forti:Who knows? I mean, you just don't know until something like that actually happens.
Dane Shoemaker:Sure. Yeah.
Sarah Forti:But what was the best course of action for everybody is what we needed to kind of step back and take a bigger picture view. Right? And that ended up just requiring a lot of counseling, requiring a lot of education about what could happen if you refuse to sign.
Dane Shoemaker:Yep.
Sarah Forti:The good, the bad, like, best case for him, I would lay out what would happen. Worst case, I I laid out when it would happen. And he ended up signing and not because I wanted him to or the sellers wanted him to or his soon to be ex wife wanted him to, but just because he looked at the options I gave him, then he picked the 1 that Yeah. Had the least potential negative outcomes.
Dane Shoemaker:Makes sense.
Sarah Forti:Yeah. But there are a lot of stories
Dane Shoemaker:in there.
Dane Shoemaker:There's a lot
Dane Shoemaker:of yeah.
Sarah Forti:I mean, it's an original Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:Thing. You know?
Sarah Forti:I wouldn't wanna share a lot every story because, again, you know, people trust us with
Dane Shoemaker:Sure.
Sarah Forti:1 of the biggest transactions of their lives. And if they're trying to pull out of a deal last minute something happened. Yeah. Either either something happened or their emotions got so high usually
Dane Shoemaker:Mhmm.
Sarah Forti:That I have a lot of empathy for them in that moment. And even though we get through that moment and we get to the other side, you know, I don't love sharing those stories because they're such high highly emotional, highly charged moments in somebody's life Yeah. That you don't wanna just be like, oh, and this happened and this happened, but I'm grateful to be in the position where we can help them through that situation calmly. And if they end up wanting to terminate, they can terminate. And, again, we're gonna give them the the good, the bad, and the ugly of what we're looking at and help them make the best decision.
Sarah Forti:Because at the end of the day, no matter what is in front of us, it's always the client's decision at the end. Right. You know, we're never saying buy this house or sell this house. Yeah. We're laying out options and saying, okay.
Sarah Forti:What would you like to do now that you have all these options in front of you?
Dane Shoemaker:Mhmm. Yeah. You don't wanna steer them in 1 way or
Sarah Forti:the other. You don't wanna have anybody say, like, you can maybe sell this.
Dane Shoemaker:But yeah.
Jackie McCormick:Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes clients do want us, like, well, what would you do? And I'm like, it doesn't really doesn't really matter what I would do. Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:You know? People do want us to make decisions sometimes. Yeah. We can't yeah. We just lay out, yeah, the options, pros and cons.
Sarah Forti:Yep. Sometimes they'll say, well, if I was in your position, I might do this, but then I'll, you know, play devil's advocate. Yeah. Because It's
Dane Shoemaker:gonna play out each scenario and, you know, help them to make a decision.
Sarah Forti:We're looking at everybody's finances and saying, okay. And they're what would you do? Well, you have this much. And if I was in your position, I would be thinking about these things. Right?
Sarah Forti:And so taking all those factors in consideration and then, you know, kinda talk it out from there.
Dane Shoemaker:Right. Right.
Sarah Forti:Yeah. Kinda like pricing their house too. Right? We give them all the information and, you know, what could happen if we price it at this price, this price, or that price, and pros and cons of all that, and then let them make a decision. Mhmm.
Dane Shoemaker:At
Sarah Forti:the end of the day, they are the owner of their house, and, you know, they're the ones who are selling it. Not a I mean, we're marketing it and selling it, but they are the ones who are signing to sell their house.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. I'm sure you get people that they're like, no. I want it this price and
Dane Shoemaker:Mhmm.
Dane Shoemaker:Way too high. Right? I mean, has that ever come back and bit them or at all? Or
Sarah Forti:Oh, yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:Probably? Yeah. Okay.
Sarah Forti:Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. I'm sure.
Jackie McCormick:Yeah. Mhmm.
Sarah Forti:Yeah. If if sellers want to price high, higher than we recommend, because we'll give them ranges. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sarah Forti:We'll talk about the disadvantages to overpricing. Mhmm. And also balance that out with wherever the market is. If the market is really hot and really competitive, sometimes you have a little bit more leeway than you would in a market that's a little softer where properties are taking less
Dane Shoemaker:time Okay.
Sarah Forti:Or more time to sell.
Dane Shoemaker:That makes sense. Yeah. I mean, if you price it too low
Jackie McCormick:Leaving money on the table. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Leave money. Yeah.
Sarah Forti:I don't know. Sometimes I think you can never price it too low because the market will just bring it up to where it
Dane Shoemaker:They'll just start getting a bunch of offers. Right. You know? Yeah.
Sarah Forti:Like, if I if we listed this house for a dollar, we just sold this for what? 8 in the middle mid eights, we'll say. Yeah. Right? Mhmm.
Sarah Forti:Mid to high eights. Mid eights. Mid eights. If we listed this house for a dollar tomorrow, everybody would wonder what the heck was going on. They would all come out in droves.
Sarah Forti:There'd be, like, media attention.
Jackie McCormick:Supply demand.
Sarah Forti:There would literally be media attention.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:And and
Sarah Forti:then we would get bids for the house, and then we'd bid it all the way up. I have seen but you have to know what you're doing in that case, right, as the agent.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. You
Sarah Forti:have to have have the plan and the skill set to be able to execute that. I have seen situations where agents have underpriced a house and not played that correctly where they did undersell. They put it on the market for less than it was worth, and they took offers too early, and that is how you undersell. So don't happen often, I would say in this market, but it can.
Dane Shoemaker:What about just, like, general tips for, you know, home buyers? I mean, anything that
Jackie McCormick:So many. Yeah. My mind goes be patient.
Dane Shoemaker:Be patient. Yeah.
Sarah Forti:I Be patient and have faith
Jackie McCormick:in the process. And also Yeah. Try to have vision when you walk in a house. Mhmm. There's I that is something I think a lot of people, struggle with.
Jackie McCormick:They look at the paint color or the wallpaper or the countertops. Yeah. And, like, the none of that really from my you know, that cannot change. Yeah. You know?
Jackie McCormick:So I think have vision, be patient.
Sarah Forti:I would say trust in yourself
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sarah Forti:And your realtor and your lender.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sarah Forti:So work with people that you trust. And then once you have your team, believe in yourself as the buyer that you know what you're doing and that you have a good team around you.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sarah Forti:Try not to take into consideration what uncle Eddie did when he bought his house in 1985. Right. Try not to bring, you know, 17 family members to the showing to help decide if you like it because you don't need all 17 of them. Maybe 1, 2 at the most. Yeah.
Sarah Forti:But when I think homebuyers have way too many opinions coming at them, it really muddles the process and gets in the way of them being able to hear their own thoughts and their own opinions
Dane Shoemaker:Right.
Sarah Forti:And determining their own, decisions about, is this a good house for me? Is this a bad house for me? Especially when it comes to inspections, you know, your agent is gonna recommend inspectors who they've worked with over and over again, or you can go get an inspector from somebody else, like a referral from somebody who's had an inspection recently.
Dane Shoemaker:Right.
Sarah Forti:And then trust that inspector. Don't trust necessarily, you know, your neighbor who popped the neighbor who popped by and said, oh, I heard this, that, and the other thing happened at at this house. Right? So the fewer opinions I say that you get from outside influences, the better if you're trusting in yourself and you have a team of trusted professionals around you.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. That makes sense. Build a good team around you to yeah.
Sarah Forti:To help support you and make, good solid decisions.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah. Nice.
Jackie McCormick:Right. Because our job is to put them in a good position. Right? And we're if we see a safety issue, we're gonna call it out. You know?
Jackie McCormick:You don't it's when people bring too many people with them. Yeah. It's almost like saying they don't trust us in a way.
Sarah Forti:Yeah. I don't I see it as they don't trust themselves so much. Yep. Or they just want they want validation from other people when they don't really need it. They're there.
Sarah Forti:They like it enough to go see it.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Right? I mean, they're the 1 that has to has to live there. Right?
Sarah Forti:Right. Pay the bills too.
Dane Shoemaker:Bills. Yeah. Right? So Yeah.
Sarah Forti:Yeah. And, you know, an example that comes, an an example of trusting the team around you comes when let's talk about new construction. Right? Because there's so much new construction in Newtown Square. Mhmm.
Sarah Forti:I would venture to guess that 70% of the new construction is sold via the sales agent on-site. Okay. And when you're a buyer walking into a new construction sales office and you don't have a realtor representing you as a buyer's agent, and you don't state that you have a realtor, whether you have signed with 1 or not, you definitely have to if you want to work with your own designated buyer's agent, you have to go into that office and say, I have a buyer's agent representing me, and then name who they are.
Dane Shoemaker:K.
Sarah Forti:If you don't do that, you're now represented by the agent who is first and foremost hired by the builder to sell these houses.
Dane Shoemaker:Right. Right.
Sarah Forti:So you're being represented now by the builder's representative. You don't have your own representation. So that's 1st and foremost is make sure before you walk into a new construction site that you tell them you have a relationship with a realtor, even if it's, you know, someone's cousin for the moment. Yeah. Because you don't wanna go in and just be totally unrepepised
Dane Shoemaker:at it.
Dane Shoemaker:You need someone in your corner.
Jackie McCormick:You need
Sarah Forti:somebody in your corner to be able to help. Because you go in and all of the new fancy things in the in the show home, in the model home Yeah. Are overwhelmingly gorgeous. I mean, they've got professional decorators and, extra architecture, extra lighting. Everything looks so phenomenal, and that model home probably has I mean, it's probably 50% over the base price, if not more than that of the home.
Dane Shoemaker:Right.
Sarah Forti:And so you walk in not realizing that not all of it comes with the base price of the home. So now you're talking about upgrades. But the biggest thing I'm always looking at as the buyer's agent is actually down the road when it comes to resale. So when we take clients through new construction, I first look at the lot location.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sarah Forti:And I've had clients wanna buy certain lot locations for, you know, maybe it has a walkout basement or something. I'm like, you cannot buy that 1 because that backs up to the busy road. And when it comes time to sell this house and the whole community is done, people aren't gonna wanna buy your house. And now you're gonna have to sell that at a 5, 10% discount because you back up to the busy road.
Dane Shoemaker:Right.
Sarah Forti:Versus being over here where these back up to the open space, for example.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sarah Forti:So people get into the into the model homes and they get so excited and they're like, it's like Christmas, like, I'll take that and that and
Jackie McCormick:that and they're designed that way, you know? Yeah. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:That's For sure.
Sarah Forti:Yeah. Exactly. It's like the grocery store how they design it to make you walk through a certain way and spend more money. That's the same thing as when you're walking through a model home. So we come in with, again, that that, like, calmer level, rational thought process of our you know, if we choose this neighborhood or this Yeah.
Sarah Forti:Community, where do you wanna be? What are the most important options for you when it comes to, like, the design and the layout of the home. And what the 1 of the biggest things is when you're making decisions on your upgrades, what upgrades can you only get during the time of build that you can't add later? An example of what you could not get later is 9 foot ceilings in your basement. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:Right. You
Sarah Forti:can't add those in later. Although, nope. I didn't know. Somebody else who added them to their family room. That was very expensive to get the Sure.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sarah Forti:Higher ceilings in the family room. So you wanna make the structural changes that you can't make later at the time of purchase. So maybe you can afford to get the 9 foot ceilings in your basement, but you can't afford to finish it, but that's okay because you can finish it later. Yeah. You just can't make the ceilings higher later.
Sarah Forti:So True. Yeah. Those are some tips for new construction.
Dane Shoemaker:Yes. Those are tips.
Sarah Forti:Yeah. Yeah. What
Dane Shoemaker:about on the sales side, sell side? I mean, is there
Sarah Forti:Tips for sellers?
Dane Shoemaker:I mean, that's probably a whole other
Sarah Forti:It is. So when we work with sellers, I always say it's never too early to start planning.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sarah Forti:Never too early. Like like I just said, when we're looking at new construction, I'm like, well, when you go and sell your home, like, that's what's
Dane Shoemaker:to sell it before they even buy it.
Jackie McCormick:Honestly? Yeah.
Sarah Forti:That's good. I am. Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:Like, this home
Sarah Forti:that we just sold, I'm like, okay. Well, we're gonna put a fence around it and then there's gonna be a shed because that's gonna solve the storage solution and window treatments are gonna go up. So and these are all things we're talking about during the showing saying, okay. Well, this is the price of the home. It needs this, this, and this.
Sarah Forti:Can you afford to do that if you buy this home? Yeah? Okay. Good. Because when you go and sell it, it's gonna be the same challenge for the next buyer.
Dane Shoemaker:Right. Right.
Sarah Forti:Right. There's no garage. There's no full basement. Like, okay. Are you gonna be able to put the shed in?
Sarah Forti:Yes. Great. So we do kinda start at the purchase Yeah. The sales process, but kind of a joke. But a house I just went into yesterday, the agent said, well, when I was here 3 years ago starting this process and I believe it.
Sarah Forti:Like, you know? Yeah. You have the they had the sellers will have the agent out thinking, okay. Now's the time we're gonna sell, you know, maybe in a couple months. And then life changes.
Sarah Forti:Right? Somebody gets a job. Some kid, you know, says, I can't leave my best friend in school. And then they're like, alright. We'll wait another year.
Sarah Forti:And then another year becomes another year. Or sometimes they're just looking for their forever home
Dane Shoemaker:Right.
Sarah Forti:And, they just haven't found it. But the good thing is when you meet with your agent early in the process, they can start giving you ideas of when you're making improvements to the home, what's gonna bring a return and what's not.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sarah Forti:So I've had people come in and say, hey. Can you can you come check out my house? Because I am gonna make some kitchen improvements, but I don't really wanna go overboard, and I don't wanna put money in the wrong spot. So if we're gonna sell in the next couple years, what do you think? And so that's starting the sales process.
Sarah Forti:We don't have a signed listing contract and we're not putting the house on the market the next week with a sign in the yard, but it's all part of the process, just naturally getting things ready.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sarah Forti:So it's never too early to start. And then, constant decluttering is always good for everybody. That's honestly
Jackie McCormick:the first thing that came to mind. Yeah. Just decluttering, decluttering.
Sarah Forti:Like, just live like living in a mindset of constant decluttering is always good because everybody always has to declutter at some point. Yeah. And then, I always say we include the cost of a stager consultation when people are selling their home. That's how much we value stagers coming in and giving the seller advice on how to prepare their home.
Dane Shoemaker:Right.
Sarah Forti:It we used to give it we used to give it as an option to our sellers. What was happening was and, you know, it would cost, I don't know, $300 depend give or take, depending on the stager. And some sellers were saying, well, we don't really wanna spend it. We don't need it. No matter how beautiful their home was, what I was finding was that the ones that were staged versus the ones that weren't were naturally doing so much better.
Sarah Forti:They were getting more money and there was less time on market. Didn't matter the price point.
Dane Shoemaker:Wow.
Sarah Forti:And so and it made our job harder when it was more time on market and less money than
Jackie McCormick:And they're getting anxious. Yeah. Right.
Sarah Forti:And the the sellers start going like, what's wrong? Why isn't it selling? So I just decided at that point, it was worth it for us to include the staging consultation at our cost to make our job and their experience better.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:I will say I had an adorable listing, in Ridley a few months ago. We had our stager go in, and you can do it 2 ways. You know, you can have, you know, rented furniture and, you know, stuff like that, or she can come in and tell you, you know, take this down, move this over here, really just change the flow of the room and that the way that some you know, she walks through and says, like, you know, the light is good over here. Put this away. You know?
Jackie McCormick:So she really made this house this adorable little house that was clean and well cared for, And, she just made it really shine.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. You
Jackie McCormick:know? When people could walk in, the whole point is to be able to envision yourself there. So if there's too much around, you you can't do that. So she you we walked you walk in and it it was it was night and day. And it was their own furniture.
Jackie McCormick:She just, you know, tweak little things, but her little
Dane Shoemaker:bringing new furniture.
Sarah Forti:Yeah. Rarely. Yeah. I would say half the time.
Dane Shoemaker:It's not yeah.
Sarah Forti:Unless your house is vacant, you really don't need to bring furniture in because most of us have more than we need.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Right.
Jackie McCormick:Yeah. She just you know, she'll move this chair from this room over there or, you know so it's and it's it it makes the world of difference.
Sarah Forti:Do you think they spent any more money besides the consult? Like, a paint or anything?
Jackie McCormick:Well, they did paint. They painted, and then a lot of it was just decluttering, and just making
Sarah Forti:Were they gonna paint anyway?
Jackie McCormick:Were gonna paint anyway. Yeah. And just, you know, rearranging. They they followed everything on so I had 2 listings. 1 1 of them followed everything on the checklist.
Jackie McCormick:1 of them followed half, I would say. And the 1 that followed everything came out so good, sold quickly, you know. And the other 1 had some negative feedback. Yeah. Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:In the showing comments. Yeah. And there was it's little things. Little things you don't think matter, you know? Yeah.
Sarah Forti:Yeah. And look, sometimes sellers don't have the time or the ability to get the whole list done. So we tell them, here's the and that's why we do this use the stagers and give them the list because it helps prioritize. So we'll say, alright. Here's a list of 50 things that the stager wants you to get done.
Sarah Forti:Feels overwhelming. Give a list. Yeah. But it's it's little tiny things. Like, sometimes it's teeny tiny that it takes you 2 seconds.
Sarah Forti:Like, remove that mat on the floor. Done. Right now No.
Jackie McCormick:That was on the left
Sarah Forti:1. Right.
Jackie McCormick:That's the left 1.
Sarah Forti:The front of the stove. Check. But it helps prioritize where I'm gonna spend my time and my money because sometimes sellers will say, oh, I'm gonna put up new window treatments to get the household. I'm like, no. No.
Sarah Forti:No. Window treatments are so expensive. Oh, yeah. Right? Let's not spend our money there.
Sarah Forti:The stager will come in and will give us better ideas on how we can show off the space. So it but again, sometimes people just don't have the time, money, or in just interest Yeah. In doing anything and to the house. And if that's the case, then we'll just price it accordingly, mark it accordingly, and be able to get a good result even so. You've
Dane Shoemaker:got a
Jackie McCormick:good result. Yeah. It just still it
Sarah Forti:just still won't be as as impactful as having, you know, your house staged, obviously.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Sarah Forti:Yeah. But there's 2 different ways to market those properties. Properties that are staged and looking for top dollar versus properties that are, you know, maybe an estate sale empty as is, not touching a thing. You mark it 1 1 way and 1 the other way. And that's Right.
Sarah Forti:Right.
Dane Shoemaker:All
Sarah Forti:what we cover in our listing consultation.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sarah Forti:Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:Got it. Cool. Yeah. Any other tips for sellers?
Sarah Forti:So it is pretty common to have a buyer submit a letter to the sellers with their offer. Some agents aren't for it. Some agents are for it. I say go for it. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Sarah Forti:Why not?
Dane Shoemaker:Can't hurt.
Sarah Forti:And it's definitely got our buyers some some sale the the house. On the seller side, I do like to ask if I ask them to consider writing a letter to the potential buyer or to the future buyer.
Dane Shoemaker:Come on.
Sarah Forti:And then we'll have them write it, and then we'll frame it and leave it at the property. So it's the and I say include things that I wouldn't know about just reading your listing, right, from just reading your listing. Like, oh, so and so lives next door and and has always has extra tomatoes from her garden and brings them over. Or Yeah. The kids across the street, there's 3 kids this age and that age.
Sarah Forti:Or right through that neighbor's backyard is where you get to the meadow and a lot of kids go over there and there's a stream and you fish. Like, things that you just wouldn't know if you didn't live there. So that's a fun thing to do.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sarah Forti:And I've found that it's it's had good success. And it's definitely different. Not you don't see that in many listings.
Dane Shoemaker:No. Right.
Sarah Forti:Yeah. That's gotta be the right property too. Right? Sure.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. So I have this that reminds me of, like, a weird thing. This is kinda funny, but also creepy a little bit. So we sold we sold we
Jackie McCormick:hear it. We bought
Dane Shoemaker:a house in South Philly. We lived there for 3 years, like Italian market area. Mhmm. And so we moved in. We're like, you know, so it was so much fun.
Dane Shoemaker:Like, so 1 of our neighbors is like this old Italian family. They're like, oh, did you find the shoes yet? We're like, the shoes.
Jackie McCormick:I'm already creeped out.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. I'm talking
Dane Shoemaker:about yeah. There's go downstairs and and look for the shoes. I'm like, this sounds weird. But anyways, when they ended up showing us where it was. There's there's these old cabinets and these, like, old South Philly homes.
Dane Shoemaker:I guess they used to, like, they used to have, like, kitchens down there.
Jackie McCormick:Kitchen in the basement. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:So there
Dane Shoemaker:were some old cabinets in there. We found, like To
Jackie McCormick:get all your tomatoes
Dane Shoemaker:and stuff
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Right? There was actually
Jackie McCormick:a lot of stuff down
Dane Shoemaker:there too.
Jackie McCormick:It's pretty cool house. Tomatoes. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. But, anyway, we found a little, like, children's, like, shoes from, like, the twenties or something like that in a cabinet. And it's pretty weird. And then we found a couple other pairs of shoes too. And apparently, everyone that's lived in that house has, like, left their children's, like, shoes
Jackie McCormick:in there.
Dane Shoemaker:And we had no idea about this, that there was no, like, story. Like, it was just this weird story on the block or whatever. So It's
Jackie McCormick:not even cute. It's not even a little bit cute. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:So when we when we left, we wrote a letter. We were like, here you know,
Sarah Forti:like, we I
Jackie McCormick:wouldn't touch them. Yeah. We were like,
Dane Shoemaker:you know, listen. Like, we left to so our son had just been born. This is, like, back in 2019. He was, like, 3 or 4 months when we we moved. We're, like, we left his pairs of shoes, and we wrote a letter.
Dane Shoemaker:I was like, hey. Look. You gotta you gotta do it.
Jackie McCormick:Stuff with shoes. The ghosts will be upset. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:You know what I mean? The ghost.
Sarah Forti:Is there a shoe collection? Do you take the old pair and leave the new pair?
Dane Shoemaker:No. There was a there was a couple pairs of shoes on there.
Jackie McCormick:So weird.
Dane Shoemaker:Those are all kids' shoes, so it was even creepier. Yeah.
Sarah Forti:Did it feel like there were ghosts in the house?
Dane Shoemaker:A little bit. You know?
Jackie McCormick:You did have to pay your respect to
Dane Shoemaker:the ghosts.
Dane Shoemaker:It was good spirits. Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:They just like shoes. Got it.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. That is so weird. So that's yeah. That was weird.
Sarah Forti:Have you do you have any ghost stories in houses? I don't.
Jackie McCormick:I don't think so. No. That'd be good. Now I'm scared of your house. Your old house.
Dane Shoemaker:Right? We don't live there anymore.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah.
Sarah Forti:Your old house. Wow.
Dane Shoemaker:But
Sarah Forti:How was your home buying experience?
Dane Shoemaker:It was, it was awesome, actually. It was, like, yeah. We, we sold our home in South Philly. Actually, we put in an offer in Newtown Square. It's like our, you know, awesome dream home.
Dane Shoemaker:You know? And we put in an offer. They accepted it before we even put our South Philly house on the market. But we kinda knew the market was, like, red high. It was, like, 2019.
Dane Shoemaker:We knew it was gonna sell quick. So we then we had once we've got that locked, then we're like, alright. Now we gotta get this on the market. It's sold within, you know, less than 24 hours.
Jackie McCormick:Yeah. Well, in 5 minutes.
Dane Shoemaker:Yep. Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:So and Shoes and all.
Dane Shoemaker:It was awesome. Yeah. And we actually, you know, we had we it wasn't a flip, but it was we put a lot of work into it. We redid the kitchen. We redid a couple bathrooms and painted and all kinds of stuff.
Dane Shoemaker:So we got, you know, good investment from it. And Nice. Yeah. It was awesome experience.
Dane Shoemaker:So Good. Yeah. And
Sarah Forti:then the purchase was smooth?
Dane Shoemaker:Purchase was smooth. Yeah. Yeah. And we worked with, Diane Reddington.
Dane Shoemaker:Do you
Dane Shoemaker:know her? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Sarah Forti:I used to work with her, Coldwell Banker.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Sarah Forti:Did she work with you on the sale too or just to buy?
Dane Shoemaker:Just to buy. Yeah. The sale, we worked with, Charice. She works in the same. I don't think she's there anymore.
Dane Shoemaker:But yeah. Okay. So I forgot her last name right now.
Jackie McCormick:I hope all of our clients say that about us. How was yours? Awesome. Awesome.
Sarah Forti:Just awesome. They were so awesome.
Jackie McCormick:I did get a a handwritten note recently that made my day. It was, that some it was somebody I worked with, like, a year ago. I was like, IIII meant to I wrote this last year. I meant to send this to you. Thanks for all of your patience and expertise.
Jackie McCormick:I'm I'm really loving my new house. Yeah. I also my 1 of my favorite things is seeing, because a lot of the people we spend a lot of time with our clients, you know, and we get to know them Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:Really well. And we, you know, things on an intimate level almost, you know. So, we end up becoming social media friends. And 1 of my another 1 of my favorite things is seeing a house that they bought through me, improvements they've done on the house, making it their own. So I've my, my very first sale was someone I actually worked with at a restaurant, 1 of my good friends, and I love seeing she's done so much work to this house, all, like, DIY stuff.
Jackie McCormick:I don't know when she sleeps. But, she's painted the whole house multiple times. She did her retiled the kitchen, did a whole new garden in the and I just love seeing and she'll post before and afters.
Dane Shoemaker:Oh, my bad.
Jackie McCormick:Yes. And I love it. I'm like, that I helped. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:That's good. Yeah.
Sarah Forti:I always tell people, just so you know, when you post pictures of your kids in your house, I'm looking around your children to see, like, how do you decorated it.
Dane Shoemaker:Right. Right. Right.
Sarah Forti:I I
Jackie McCormick:love the before and afters. I love seeing pictures of people just happy in their houses. Yeah. Or, I had a couple the 1 that followed all the stagers' instructions, they moved, to Lancaster in a 55 and up community and she sent me a picture of, of chickens. She's like, she they lived by,
Dane Shoemaker:Oh, cool.
Jackie McCormick:They lived by 50 fifties, on 420. So she's like, yeah, my my neighbors used to be, you know, all this traffic. Now my neighbor is the chicken, and they're just so I'm just so happy where we are. You know? Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:So and I actually rode up with them to their new community. Didn't help them with the buy, but just went up and made sure, like, you know, helped Yeah.
Sarah Forti:Reprogram the paper. Community that wasn't working with agents. It was not your typical real estate transaction.
Jackie McCormick:Wrote up Lancaster with them, just like, you know, took a tour of their new property, communicated with, you know, the manager of that. Like like I said, that part, I wasn't getting paid on, but it just I think it's just a good point of, like, we go above and beyond. Like, we we really do care deeply about all the people we work with. And it just it helped me guide them on the sale if I was also sort of looped in with where they were going. Because, like, I could do my job better even though, you know, I wasn't getting paid on that.
Jackie McCormick:It's still, I I just felt like that was the right thing to do, and it was really satisfying to get them get their household at the deadline to get them to their new place in life, you know? So Yep. That I just find our job really, really satisfying, you know, when we when things like that happen. Like, they gave me a deadline. I got it done 2 days before.
Dane Shoemaker:That's a lot.
Jackie McCormick:The whole time. Right? It was tight. Yeah. Deadline and
Sarah Forti:there were some roadblocks that you
Jackie McCormick:There were. But we got it done. We only
Dane Shoemaker:got it done.
Sarah Forti:Nice. 1 of my favorite stories is the couple who got married on their front porch. So I sold, well, I sold my friend, Joy, her house. I I think it was 2019. I probably sold her her house in Springfield.
Sarah Forti:And, it was her and her 3 girls moving into the house. K. And super cute stone twin in Springfield, like, walkable, the little downtown area there. And then COVID happened, and she was dating someone as we were entering COVID. And then before you knew it, she was, like so she was supposed to get married during the COVID at, like, the beginning, middle, like, the first couple months.
Dane Shoemaker:Right. Right. Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:And everything was shut down.
Sarah Forti:We're like, well, we're gonna get married on our front porch. So the media ended up covering it, and it was her and her new husband and the 33 girls, and that was it. And they, like, decorated their porch and had music and everything. And it was so
Dane Shoemaker:so adorable.
Dane Shoemaker:Scary memories. Yeah.
Sarah Forti:And I have, like, a whole bunch of pictures of me, like, because it was streamed on Facebook, like, Facebook live.
Dane Shoemaker:Got it.
Jackie McCormick:Yeah. And
Sarah Forti:so I'm, like, taking pictures of the Facebook live, like, I'm at the wedding. So those, I guess, are their photos. I'm sure everybody else did the same thing, but That's just so nice. Plus the Enquire, they have the their photos.
Dane Shoemaker:Nice.
Sarah Forti:But I'll never forget it. I just I think it was, like, last week. Yeah. Because what month are we in? June?
Sarah Forti:Mhmm. Yeah. So it was, like, June of 2020.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sarah Forti:And I sent them a picture that was in it popped up in my memories, like, in my OneDrive.
Dane Shoemaker:Right. Right.
Dane Shoemaker:I was
Sarah Forti:like, oh, happy anniversary.
Dane Shoemaker:That's awesome. Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:No. It's so nice. Or I I recently saw, somebody bringing a new baby home to a house to help them buy. Like, I just it's just so nice, you know? Like, the connections we make with people and a lot of our business is referrals.
Jackie McCormick:You know, we help 1 person and then, like, oh, my cousin needs somebody or, you know, my grandma wants to sell her house and that's how a lot of our business happens.
Dane Shoemaker:Sure. Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:That's the
Sarah Forti:best kind of business. Right. I would say nice people refer nice people.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah. I mean Mhmm. There's no better advertising than your your happy customers. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:So
Jackie McCormick:Mhmm. And I'm I'm really proud of, you know, of that being the bulk of our business, I think, is is just word-of-mouth. I really I think it's a testament to our team, you know.
Dane Shoemaker:Good stuff. I feel like we could talk for for a while. I mean, we, anything else you wanna share?
Dane Shoemaker:Talk about
Sarah Forti:real estate.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah. Maybe why should people come to 40 Homes versus mothers?
Dane Shoemaker:I
Sarah Forti:mean, why wouldn't they?
Dane Shoemaker:Why wouldn't they? Yeah. I mean
Sarah Forti:do we have to say it?
Jackie McCormick:I will say, I think Sarah and I, between all the 8 of our collective children, we know pretty much all I I think. I feel confident in saying this. All there is to know about our area, really. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:Like, our kids have been in all the different sports clubs, whatever, you know, and then in all the different schools, different preschools, private school, like, we really have we really if if we don't know the answer, we know the person who does in our area. Yeah. You know, I feel really confident
Sarah Forti:That's true.
Jackie McCormick:That if people are looking in Newtown Square or Marble, Newtown, that they really I don't think they could do better than us.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:I really don't. I agree.
Dane Shoemaker:I agree.
Sarah Forti:I agree. Yeah. I will say, there are a lot of nice agents out there.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sarah Forti:And that's part of what I love about being in the business is networking with them. But we do have a really strong foothold in terms of the, community, what's available
Dane Shoemaker:Mhmm. You
Sarah Forti:know, what's trending and Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:And I that. I appreciate, through, you know, our work at the Business Association that, you know, we meet a a ton of people. Like I said, like, it's it's really we always know where someone should go. And right now, we're sitting we're let's maybe say we're we're sitting in a house that we we sold. Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:With to a family that our boys have interacted with at Nel. Yep. You know?
Sarah Forti:Newtown Edgemont Little League. Whoop whoop. For those who don't know.
Jackie McCormick:And they're currently getting work done from another
Sarah Forti:Nel dad.
Jackie McCormick:Nel dad.
Sarah Forti:So I I just think it's cool. Yeah. It's a great community. Yeah. It really is.
Sarah Forti:Newtown Square overall. I've really enjoyed raising my family here. Yeah. And, yeah.
Jackie McCormick:I think there's a lot of really cool stuff going on, in our community, in Marple Nee town, and
Sarah Forti:Yeah. I've lived in other areas. We moved here from Radnor, and I liked that a lot. We were in Wayne in Radnor. And, it just felt like when we moved to Newtown Square and I always say, like, on the sidelines.
Sarah Forti:Right? Because I've got 4 boys and we're always in every sport.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sarah Forti:So my vibe is like that's where I feel out the vibe. Right? Like, on the sidelines. And when I got to the sidelines here, I just felt like everybody is pretty chill.
Dane Shoemaker:You know?
Sarah Forti:Down there.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah.
Sarah Forti:Very community oriented and just kind of level headed.
Jackie McCormick:I mean,
Sarah Forti:of course, you're always gonna have, like, outliers. Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:But yeah. It's a great community. I think everybody really wants the same things for their families and for the community as a whole. You know? A lot of, like, small business support, a lot of people volunteering, you know, whether it's to coach or
Sarah Forti:And a lot of pride Yeah. In the community itself. Yeah. I'm really proud of Jackie's work with the Newtown Square Business Association.
Jackie McCormick:To be honest. And Dane's work as well. Yes.
Sarah Forti:Thank you both. But it's really important, I think, to highlight local businesses because they really are the heart of the community. And, when people can support them and then you can highlight them on social media and you can highlight them with podcasts and then it's all crossover work. It just really brings up the energy
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sarah Forti:And just raises the community overall. And then the you know, those businesses are then able to give back even more.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Sarah Forti:And so that's what it's all about. It is. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:Well, that's great. Yeah. It was really wonderful talking to both of you today and Thanks.
Jackie McCormick:Thanks for having us again.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Absolutely. So if you're looking to buy a home or sell a home, call up 4 T Homes. How can I get in touch with you? What's the best way?
Sarah Forti:Our website is 4 T Homes. 4 t with an I, homes with an s.
Dane Shoemaker:Got it. K.
Sarah Forti:We're also on Facebook and on the sidelines at Newtown Edgewood Little League and Hey. Marvel Newtown Soccer Association.
Jackie McCormick:Sounds good. You can find me at Nell, NSPO, Culverton, Paxton, the highest yeah. I'm everywhere.
Sarah Forti:We are everywhere.
Jackie McCormick:But yeah. Say hi if you see us out and about. Yeah?
Sarah Forti:Yes. But, yeah, 14homes.com is is where we have all the listings you can search. You can get your home value, and then you can just say contact us. That's there.
Dane Shoemaker:Perfect.
Sarah Forti:But we're active on Facebook and Instagram too.
Dane Shoemaker:Sounds good.
Jackie McCormick:Just to
Dane Shoemaker:be honest. Thanks, Sarah. Thanks, Jackie.
Jackie McCormick:Thanks, Dean.
Sarah Forti:Appreciate you.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Absolutely. This was fun. Yeah.
Jackie McCormick:Yeah. Thank you.
Dane Shoemaker:Thanks for listening today. Is an original production by Shoemaker Films LLC. If you enjoyed today's content, please consider subscribing on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your content. Follow us on Instagram at shoemaker.films. And if you're a business that's either interested in our video production services or would like to be a guest on the show, get in touch by using the contact form on our website, shoemakerfilms.com.