From Local Experts to National Success: The Story of Two Nashville Realtors and the Home-Buying Class They Built
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Jessica Randolph and Amy Schols, from How To Buy A House Class, join Victoria in a conversation about real estate, entrepreneurship, and of course, branding! Jessica and Amy are a dynamic realtor duo from Nashville, Tennessee. They've noticed that many potential homeowners lack access to straightforward and accurate information about the home buying process. Listen in as they share their story behind the creation of their 'How to Buy a House' class - a free, in-person educational course aimed at simplifying the complex world of real estate for first-time buyers. We cover their individual backgrounds, how they teamed up, and why they chose to buy their own homes in their early twenties.
Finally, we debunk some of the common myths surrounding house buying, entrepreneurship, and motherhood. Jessica and Amy share some success stories from their clients and offer valuable insights into the real estate market. They discuss their brand's expansion and how they've managed to take their home-buying class to new heights through strategic branding and partnerships with realtors across the country. You won't want to miss this episode if you're thinking of stepping into the real estate world or even just looking for your first home!
The beginning story of how Jessica and Amy met [3:40]
Amy begins the episode with a story on how she and Jess first met. It was back in 2018 and one of Amy’s good friends attended Jessica’s “How To Buy A House” class and came back to Amy raving about Jess. Amy was in the music industry at the time, but had been wanting to get into the real estate world, and so her friend was encouraging Amy to meet with Jess for coffee. So, she did, and immediately the two hit it off! Jessica knew that she wanted to take Amy under her wing, mentor her, and rule the real estate world together.
Homeowners in their early 20’s [5:49]
Jessica had been a realtor for a couple years, working for a builder, and helping a lot of first time home buyers through their process. When it came to her buying a home for herself, she actually had a lot of fear. It wasn’t until she was engaged that they decided to seriously look into buying a house. Since she worked for a builder, they were able to build their first home and while it was stressful, it was also really amazing because they could design it to allow for a portion of the home to be used as an Airbnb. This is what Jessica refers to as a “house hack” - where you are able to save what you would have spent in rent or in a mortgage payment because Airbnb rentals would cover the mortgage costs for you. This is what initially birthed the idea of helping other people to do this too, and starting the idea for How To Buy A House Class.
Amy also bought her first house in her early 20’s which she also referred to as a “house hack”. When she purchased the three bedroom house, she never expected to live there alone and pay the whole mortgage herself. Amy recruited two of her really good friends to move in with her and they paid the mortgage payment for her every month, which allowed her to save what she would have been spending on rent. Then, a couple years later, she was able to use the money she saved to buy her first rental property, while a lot of her friends still haven’t bought their first home.
Knowing how to house hack [8:50]
Jessica says that since she was a realtor and started working with a home renovator right out of high school, she saw them buy properties, flip them, and then put them back on the market. But the house hacking idea for her really came out of necessity. Neither her nor her husband were really making a lot of money, so when it came to talking about buying a house, they agreed that the only way they would be able to do it was if they figured out a way for it to pay for itself. At the time, Airbnb was first taking off, and they only knew one person that used Airbnb for a guest room in their house. He’s the one that told Jess that that one guest room was paying for his entire rent. So Jess took that idea and ran with it. For them, house hacking came out of necessity and wanting to live frugally.
Amy grew up with her dad as a financial coach and her parents owning rental properties, so to her, she grew up in this mindset of living beneath your means, building your wealth, and not enjoying all of the luxuries that your friends might be enjoying, but knowing that down the road it’ll be so worth it. It was her dad that steered her into buying her first house even though she had no clue as to what she was getting herself into at the time, but knowing that she was going to have roommates gave her that cushion to know that it was all going to work out in the end.
Creating How To Buy A House Class [14:04]
The idea came out of working with first time home buyers, consistently seeing their fear, how naive they were to the process, and how intimidated they were to ask questions as early as they should be. The class started with being one-on-one, but then they decided to educate people in a group setting and really set up people on a larger scale to make this move and start building wealth for themselves. Jessica and Amy noticed that a class like this doesn’t really exist, and especially not in a fun way like theirs, so once they knew this was a proven need in Nashville, they decided to take it nationwide.
What do you learn from How To Buy A House Class? [18:05]
Obviously, you’ll learn how to buy a house, but it’s not just that! The specialty of this class is that it’s always taught by a local expert and someone who truly cares about the people coming to the class. Jessica and Amy are extremely picky when it comes to who teaches the class because any realtor can teach a first time home buyer class, but that’s not really what they’re looking for. Jessica, Amy, and their teachers want to establish good relationships with the class attendees, encourage them, and advise them to help them believe in themselves, no matter who comes through the doors. These classes are also fun and free! Jess and Amy believe that everybody deserves to own their own home, so they are passionate about offering this education for free.
What do you attribute the success of How To Buy A House Class to? [20:01]
The branding of How To Buy A House Class has set them apart but also built credibility from the very beginning. Jessica and Amy were really intentional when working with BrandWell, to cater their brand to their target audience and bring those people in. Another factor leading to their success would be their focus and defining their why. Every time they are together they focus but because they have a strong why it helps them keep that focus, no matter the distraction. The last factor mentioned that led them to the success of How To Buy A House Class is, the fact that they are super picky with who they bring on as teachers. They partner with realtors across the country, and make sure they have the same values. The reason they partner with other realtors across the country is because Jessica and Amy know that they are not experts in every single market. They wanted this to be expert level, for this class to be number one, and in order for that to happen, it has to be taught by someone who is an expert in that market. This helps the buyers for an area to not only learn how to buy a house that meets their needs, but it also connects them to an expert realtor in their area. On the other hand, this benefits the relators because they are getting to be branded as a local expert.
With rates so high, is now the right time to buy a house? [27:11]
Absolutely. Fun fact, over the last 30 years the average interest rate is around 7%, so we’re actually pretty close to average right now. A lot of people who have been paying attention to the market in recent years feel like 3% was the normal, but that was actually crazy low. On top of that, it’s better to come in when people might be thinking, “oh, rates are high, I’m going to wait until they come down.” and then there’s a little less competition so you can negotiate a lower price. You can’t negotiate your interest rate later on, but you can always refinance. So if rates were to come down again in the next couple of years or even 10 years down the road, you can still take advantage of that lower interest rate and lock that in.
How do to know if you’re ready to buy a home [29:14]
On average, when you’ve got three to six months of living expenses saved, you’re ready to start investing. It’s never too early to talk to a realtor or a lender. Talking with a lender can be like a free financial counseling session to figure out what your goals are and see how soon you will be able to buy, so that way you can buy as soon as possible. It’s free to get pre-approved and you can have horrible credit, great credit, or no credit to do so.
Biggest misconception about buying a home [33:46]
The first one that came to mind was that you have to be at a certain point in your life. You don’t have to be engaged, have your dream job, be married, or be able to afford your dream home for the first one. Both Jess and Amy experienced their first home as a stepping stone to the next.
Another misconception is that you have to live in a city for a really long time. Jessica and Amy would argue that even if you’re going to live here for a year, you should consider buying a house. It doesn’t take long to sell, especially if you’re in a good market. Someone came to their class once, thinking that maybe he was ready to buy but he knew that he was going to get relocated soon. He ended up buying the house in July 2021 and by March 2022 it was time to be relocated. He lived in the house for nine months, but over that time, the house had appreciated $100,000. He was able to take that money and use it as a down payment for the next house in the city he was relocated to.
How How To Buy A House Class has changed Jessica’s life as a working mom [36:03]
Jessica says that she is the best version of herself right now and she actually came back to work early from her maternity leave. She’s not even eight weeks postpartum but she couldn’t wait to get back to work. How To Buy A House Class has changed her life. She’s obsessed with what she’s doing, she has flexibility to actually wake up and read books to her kids, and she’s able to turn it off to spend time with her family.
The How To Buy A House Class differentiator [37:25]
They are the only free in-person home-buying class taught across the country by local experts. They are also expanding into spaces that a lot of first time home buying classes aren’t. They started a Podcast, the How To Buy A House Podcast, and they are in the process of launching a mobile app.
Leavering the power of branding [38:31]
They knew exactly what they wanted their brand to look like, sound like, and feel like, and BrandWell nailed it! Jessica shares that their branding definitely helped bring validity to everything they’re doing and allowed them to expand quickly because they looked like a massive brand from the start.
Final thoughts [40:53]
If you’re thinking about taking this class, check out their website and sign up for your city. If you cannot find a class in your city, it’s probably because they are working on launching one, but you can still reach out and they will connect you with a local expert and give you education along the way! If you’re a local realtor and want to apply to be a teacher for this class, go to their website and click on “Become a Teacher” and you can read all about what that looks like, apply, and start the interview process there!
Key Quotes
“Real estate is the number one thing to invest in, because it's something you get to control, something you can enjoy, and something you are able to manipulate a lot easier than if you invest in stocks or bonds where you have no access to that company or that CEO's decisions.”
Jessica Randolph
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