Navigating Mentorship in Real Estate - Rashida Clarke's Journey from Community Organizer to Rock Star in the Industry

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Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening, Keith's family. We have a pretty special episode today. I consider this woman a friend of the family, and she is a rock star in the real estate space.

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She's a mom, she's a wife, she's a Hampton native for all of you from the seven five seven. And she's been a full time entrepreneur for many years. Right. And I find her to be an awesome coach. And I've told her that already, so she knows I will probably nudge her to start that formally and expand on that.

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But she has so much wisdom to share. So I'm excited to talk to Rashida Clarke. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Thank you.

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I'm excited to be here. I'm excited for this. All right, so I gave my version of an introduction. Tell us who you are. Tell us what you do.

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Okay. I always feel like I can't really answer this question, but I'm sure I probably do. And I'm not satisfied with the answer, but I am, like you said, a Hampton native. And I really started a career in community outreach and youth engagement in the city of Hampton. So I have a love for relationship building and educating people and helping people reach their potential.

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And it really probably started with my first career as a community organizer. So that was my job, my life before real estate, working in the communities. Our job was to try to connect communities and the city government. Right. So we wanted them to work together okay.

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On all different levels. So lots of things were going on in local government. Because I was there during the last recession. I decided I was tired of waiting on someone to give me a raise to promote me, to see my potential and possibly going to go through another reduction in force. So I said, I think I'm just going to try it on my own.

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And that's how I got into real estate. So been doing this for eight years now. It doesn't even seem that long. That's a long time. You've seen a lot.

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It's a long time in real estate because I think it's like, 90% of licensees. Don't really make it past, like, two years. So it is a long time. I want us to talk about the reasons for that, too, so don't let me forget. But I got a little notepad.

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Yes.

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For those who don't know, I think Rashida and I have talked about this already. I jumped into real estate. I tried it out, tested it back in. What was that, like 809 ish. Right.

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Okay. I'll tell you why it didn't work for me, but we'll dive into that, I guess. Back up for a second. What did you see yourself being when you grew up? Like, did you know you wanted to get into the community service space?

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What was the vision coming up through school for you? I don't know that I really had one. So I had lots of different I was never the person at a young age was like, I'm going to grow up and be a doctor. I never had this concrete idea of what I wanted to do, which is kind of me, like, I like to kind of float around and figure things out and see what feels right and what's going to work. So it's probably a personality flaw of some sort.

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No. What? Stop. Well, because some people are just very matter of fact, and I want to do this, but I just feel like, especially as a young person, I didn't know enough to know really what I wanted to do. When I went to college, I wanted to major in business, but I took a I think it was like a Sigma Six, some type of business class, and I was like, oh, my mind does not work like this.

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Let me readjust. And so my undergraduate degree is actually in sociology, psychology. So I love understanding people and how they work and why they do things that they do and how to get on people's level to help them. So eventually, once I figured that out, I was like, maybe I'll be a social worker, right? Do that part and do counseling.

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So I graduated with the bachelor's, and then I was going to go to Norfolk State to get a master's in sociology. I mean, social work, but do clinical social work. But I did an internship and I was like, you know, I just don't think I want to be in this.

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That is a hard field. I mean, I feel like almost every field is hard now, but it's a very hard field. And that's lots of burnout, right? You have lots of responsibility and your heart is so in it because you're helping people, but they just don't have the resources they need. I always feel like I just can't help enough, and I don't know that I could turn it off and it would just kind of bleed into my life.

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So it's like, I don't think that's me. So I kind of stumbled into the community organizing role. It fits a little, but it wasn't really social work per se, but I was a youth worker for the city of Hampton, so I did a lot of work as a young person there, so I kind of already knew how the city worked and had done some of that work before. And then when I saw that they were looking for community organizers, I was like, this may be it. This may be what I'm looking for.

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And I loved it. I mean, I did love it, I just didn't love the dynamics of the local government so much. But I loved what I did. So no concrete thing. At one time, I wanted to be a paramedic, and then I wanted to be a stylist, and then I just kind of like, just float around, multi passionate, I think.

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Yes, that's putting it. I like that. So my first major was social work, and I just knew I was going to be a social worker. And I kept hearing, the money isn't there, the money isn't there. But this is what I want to do.

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I want to help people. And a lot of that stemmed from volunteering throughout my high school years, seeing so much. Right. So I wanted to help people who knew that fast forward so many years, I'd end up helping people, but in a different capacity. Right.

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Like, not as a social worker, but still using that passion to help others. So I get what you're saying. So you go through school, right? You're thinking sociology as the track. You go into community service.

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That internship clarified things, which is why I highly recommend those in school take advantage of internship opportunities because it is an opportunity to test and learn and not waste money. That's it. School costs money. I don't care what anybody says. School costs money.

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And it's time that you are investing. And if you have absolutely no desire to go on that path, you're like, man, I wish I had known this earlier. Right? Yeah. Especially now.

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As expensive as it is, it's just I tell my nieces, my cousins, I'm like, it's hard when you're that young, but you need to really think about this because school is so expensive, and if you go into doing something that you really don't know if you really want to do it, what are you going to do? You still got student loans to pay. You go back, start all over. Like, what's the plan here? Yeah.

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Agree completely. I talked to I have a mentor. I mean, a mentor, I have that too, but I have an intern. She's a high school senior, and she's getting this experience right in the lines of her desired major, which is psychology. And I'm like, this is so awesome that your school actually requires this in the senior year.

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Like, you are getting an internship, you're getting on the job experience so that you don't go into college and I want to do this or that. We're already testing it out before you start spending the extra money on school. So I mentioned mentor, and since I did, let me just jump into that because I understand the importance of having a mentor in that industry, in real estate. For me, I think that's why my career didn't go anywhere. Of course, the timing was rough as well.

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To jump into something and not have a clue. I lost my grandmother right when I took my my exam to that same day, technically. So not having the mentorship in an industry that's not familiar, I feel like I was destined to fail. So talk to us for a second about your thoughts on the importance of mentorship. If you had mentors coming up through the industry and then beyond that, how you're serving as a mentor to others now.

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Sure, it is very important. I think that's why the turnover rate is so high, because there isn't really. So. You do your principles of Real estate classes, right? And it's really just theory.

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It's like college. Everything is theory. It's books, it's land laws. Whatever state you're in, it doesn't actually tell you how to sell real estate. So people think they got their license and they're going to jump right in.

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There's a whole I mean, you're directed from the firehose. Jump into real estate just like any career. But it's because everybody is an independent contractor and every brokerage works a little bit differently and all that. A lot of them don't have very routine or outlined ways to bring in rookie agents. And some brokerages, to be honest with you, just are not set up for rookie agents.

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They don't even want to deal with it. It takes some nurturing. So when I started, I was coming from a nine to five into real estate. And so I knew it was going to be hard, but I wasn't completely like, oblivious to the fact that I was going to have to put somewhere work into this. So I looked for a brokerage that had a rookie program, and it was a university, so I won't name them, but they called it that brokerage the university.

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And they had rookie classes that lasted probably four to six weeks, something like that. So you had time where you were in the office, you would go through different classes, some that were led by the brokers and the owner, and then some that were led by experienced agents. And they would teach you all of those little things that you would have to figure out yourself. So, like, how to do an open house, how to do a market analysis, what is the contract, what parts are required in the contract, how do you fill it out? How do you schedule home inspection, how do you do a showing?

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All of those things in between that you think, I'm just going to because real estate seems super easy, right? HGTV suggests it's a piece of cake. Call the agent, sell this house, right, write contract, we're going to be in a bidding war. But what does that actually look like? What are the forms you use?

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How do you fill out the forms? Some of those forms are confusing. They're full of legal language, so you have to figure out all of that. So I chose a brokerage that would teach me that.

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Honestly, a lot of people don't, because you've got different kinds of brokerages. Some of them you have to pay. Most people don't know we have to pay our broker a fee before we actually see our money. So some people are very like, they want all their money. I want 100% brokerage, which is fine, but that means they're not going to train you.

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They're not going to give you some of those things that you need to succeed, especially as a rookie agent. So I'm not really a mentor. I don't want to say I'm a mentor because I don't have any kind of formalized anything. But whenever I run into people that say they want to get their license, or sometimes some agents will send people to me to talk to, I tell them right off the bat, you need to find a company that is going to train you when you get there. Some companies do offer, like a mentorship program.

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I'm not a fan, but it could work where basically they have an experienced agent mentor the new agent, and then I guess they kind of get a cut of the contracts or whatever that they write up for a certain period of time. The only reason I'm not a fan is because it's not a program. There's no formality to what they're teaching, how they're teaching, what you're learning. It could be very haphazard. Are you showing them how to write the contract?

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Are you just having them come along with you on showings? Or what exactly are you teaching? And is it right? Because a lot of people honestly don't know how to do real estate. People have bad habits, and then you're carrying them on to you're passing them on to these new agents.

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So it's a whole thing. Let me ask you something. You've mentioned the word brokerage, and I know there are a couple of terms that I just want to clarify for someone who's thinking about selling houses. Right? It's happening, there's money in it.

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Talk to us about brokerage, like what that is. Talk to us about realtor real estate salesperson. Sometimes we're using these terms interchangeably, but there's a distinction, right? Yes, there is. So a brokerage simply is just the real estate company that you're working for.

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So in Virginia, if you are just a licensed agent, you just have a resale license. Your license has to be under a brokerage. So you've got to sell under a brokerage. You can't sell on your own. If you have a broker's license, you can open up your own brokerage and you can sell yourself.

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So I could do Rashida costly real estate and I can be on my own. So the difference between an agent, everybody comes in as an agent, a licensed agent, and the broker license is it's a step above. So it's like bachelor's versus masters. Okay. And typically you have to have been in the business long enough or sold how many.

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There's a criteria to whether when it's time or when you're eligible to get your broker's license. Now, some states, they only call themselves brokers, so it just kind of depends. So this is Virginia, but if you got people listening in other places, there may only be brokers in that state. And then the difference between realtor and real estate agent, anyone that's licensed is a real estate agent as a Realtor. The Realtor Association is basically like a union in a sense.

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So you have to pay to belong to the National Association of Realtors to be called a Realtor. So it's like a title that's added to your real estate license. So anyone is a real estate agent if they're licensed. But if you're a Realtor, you belong to you have a membership in the National Association of Realtors.

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Yeah, I'm thinking.

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So in terms of a brokerage, it sounds like. Right. And this is me remembering you can have agents under you, so you're still running your own business, you're still selling, probably individually, but then you're also bringing others up under you. Yeah. Sounds like a lot of work.

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And it can get really confusing because now the big thing is to have teams, right. So some agents have created these mega teams, but it's still underneath a brokerage. So let's say I'm at Remax. It could be Long and foster. It could be some smaller mom and pop brokerage, which that's not to say anything bad about them.

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So anybody can create a brokerage if they wanted to. Okay. And then you have agents. Most of us are independent contractors, so even though you're working under that umbrella, you run your own business. So you can have a team and pull in new agents and buyers, agents and people that do specialties and all kinds of things.

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So it can get a little from the outside looking in. It can be a little complicated. What do you mean? They have what does that mean? Right.

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So talk to us about the obstacles, because one might think it's all fun and games, right? It's all shiny and you close the deal. Six weeks later, your client moves in, everybody's happy. You show them three houses. Right.

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Certain shows are obviously coming to mind, I guess. I know as someone who has now bought three houses, that it is not easy, and I imagine it's significantly more complex as an agent who has multiple clients. Right. So biggest obstacle you've run into, or what is it that you find most the word is not going to be frustrating. The biggest challenge as a real estate agent and you're also a mom and you're also a black woman.

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Right. Like, there are a lot of pieces to this. Talk to us about the challenges so we don't think it's all roses. Sure. Look, let me lots pop into my mind, particularly just the last couple of months.

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It just seemed like so much is happening. One of the things that I love about real estate is that it's never the same. No house is the same. No client is the same. Even though loan, even FHA loan the banks.

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You've got different banks and they have different appraisers, and there's always something new to learn. Yeah. So one of the challenges, though, is as an agent, there's a lot that you don't control. There's a whole lot you don't control. You are like herding cats.

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So you are trying to kind of orchestrate a process and get everyone on the same page. But a lot of that you don't have control over. So you also kind of take the heat sometimes when things go sideways even though you can't fix it. I had to kind of get over that.

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I don't have any control over it. All I can do is give you the information and then it's just going to be what it is because especially for your clients, you want to try to deal with everything and some stuff you just can't. It's going to be we're closing late, I don't know what to tell you. The lender says XYZ, so that is definitely a challenge. The other big one is the fluctuation of income, right.

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Because you're working for yourself, you got to work else is not going to work. So you've got to consistently be doing what we call income producing activity. So bringing in new clients, marketing yourself, branding yourself, prospecting, when you stop doing that, most of the time your money is going to stop. Wow. Right.

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So if you're not pulling in new clients on a consistent basis because when we're doing business, our business usually is 30 to 45 days out, maybe even 60, depending on if it's a buyer or seller. So we've always got to be forward thinking about what's happening or what's to come. What who do I have in the pipeline and building that pipeline? And I think for anyone transitioning from nine to five to true entrepreneurship, that's a huge mindset shift because nine to five, most time all this stuff is done for you. Right?

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Yeah. People come, people come in the door at the storefront, they call in on the phone, the marketing is already handled. But you're an entrepreneur, you got to make it happen for you. I was thinking because real estate was it looked easy anyway to some extent. People would just come, they would call, but that's not going to happen.

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And real estate is definitely a business where there sometimes can be a lot of agents. I mean, you're competing against a lot of people oversaturation, especially in some areas. And so how do you make yourself stand out against 1000 other agents in your area? Now, mind you, even that 1000 agents or whatever, half of them probably haven't even sold a deal, but they're still licensed. They still may be out there trying to do some things, but you've got to figure out how to stand out.

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And it's so much noise. Now, what does that look like for you? So you've really got to put your entrepreneurship hat on to figure it out. Definitely a challenge like you want me to keep. I mean, I'm actually sitting here writing because really a lot of this translates across the board into other areas of entrepreneurship.

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Right. It's not limited to real estate, but we know there are so many external factors that impact your ability to do business the way you do business, client flow, we're talking about interest rates, we're talking recession. Like, there's so much happening in this very moment that impacts your business. And so I think of someone who not someone specific, but I think of those who want to get into this space, and maybe they've been scrolling the gram and they're like, oh, someone's flipping houses. Let me do that.

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That looks good. It's not all fun and games, right? And let me stay here for a second because I see a lot of that on the gram. I see a lot of that on TikTok. So talk to us for a second because you've been doing this for a long time.

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Like, you've seen the ebbs and flows of the market for the student or the man woman who's out there looking at the glitz and glam of those who are flipping properties. Right. From your experience, and I mean, the shiny cars, the airplanes, I see it all.

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Thoughts and things to consider before diving head first into that space. Yes. First, because you mentioned social media. Do not believe everything you see on social media thing. I was talking one of my colleagues, we were talking about marketing on social media, right.

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And how we were some of the earliest adopters. So the first brokers we were at was older, very white. And I only say that because we were young, black and brown agents, like, three of us in the whole I got it.

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This was eight, nine years ago. So we're starting on social media. Like, what do you that's not how you get clients. That's not going to work. No, you call, you cold call, you pick up the phone.

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So social media now, though, is so glitzy, glammy, and I call it catfishing. Like, a lot of people are on social media, catfishing, showing that they're doing this and selling that, but in reality, they aren't. So just be very careful in any industry about what you're paying attention to on social media.

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You can make a little nothing look like a whole lot of something on social media. So with that being said, transitioning into it, I recommend that people have at least like six months of savings. That in itself is hard because especially as millennials and almost any generation, a lot of people don't have a lot of cash saved. They just don't. But if you're going full time into real estate, you've got to be able to sustain yourself.

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Yeah. And then as a mom or even a single person, like, what is your plan? How are you going to be able to pay your bills until you close that first deal? Because a lot of people don't close a deal for a couple of months to these agents. Do you have health insurance?

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You really got to sit down and think about your life and what it means for you if you're going to go full time as an agent. Now, I recommend and this is not what my first brokers would say, but it's okay to go part time and kind of transition into real estate because it is true entrepreneurship. It's true entrepreneurship. There's nothing to fall back on. That brokers may not send you leads.

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You may be on your own. You got to have some marketing money. You got to have some money to pay your bills. You got some money to put gas in your car. You've really got to kind of think it through before you kind of jump head first into something like this.

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If I were single, I don't even know if for some of those years if I would have been able to sustain myself. So as a married person, my husband is kind of the backbone for health insurance, life insurance, all those kinds of things, which is a huge help because the business, just like everything else, it does have cycles, ebbs and flows. So some people say we're in a recession. Some people say it's just a slowdown I don't know what that even means, but it's painful. When I look at a thing of eggs and $6 and some change, I'm like, I just feel like I need to raise my own chickens in the backyard at this point.

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But yeah.

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You feel that. So when I came in, so I bought my first house, and I was like in 2008, give or take, right before the drop in the market and the prices and all that stuff. And I also was still working, ended up getting laid off, and there was lots of things happening, but for agents that were in that market, they had to figure it out. Maybe I'm not selling 60 houses this year. Maybe I'm only selling 40.

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What does that look like? Is my lifestyle still up here, or have I had to readjust and bring it down? Do I have an extra assistant that I may have to let go of? And what does that look like for her? So you do have to constantly just kind of be aware of what's happening in the local economy, but also nationally, because sometimes that can reverberate into wherever you are.

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So it's constant moving and shaking. This is good. And when I say it's good, it's like the side of becoming a real estate agent that we don't talk about enough because we see the fun stuff and the heat stuff, and, oh, there's so much money to be made when you close on that first house. But there's also money to be spent on the front end. Right?

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Like, you started running down this list, and I was like, health insurance, life insurance, gas in the car to take the clients around and close, because you got to look a certain way when. You show the house, like belonging to the MLS, that is a cost I wasn't prepared for. It was like $1,500 or $2,000 or something when I first started out, because I had to if your broker so if your brokerage is a Realtor brokerage, you have to become a Realtor. So we had to pay for membership, a yearly membership for the Nar right off the bat. So it was that cost.

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It was the MLS cost. Any of your marketing stuff postcards. But all that stuff you got. Yeah. You got to definitely put it in there and figure it out.

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Yeah. So that's why you say six months. And I'm even thinking beyond that, especially when market conditions feel a little crazy and uncertain. You might need a real cushion. Let me say this, because you pointed something out.

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You don't have to jump head first into this space full time. Right. Tiptoe into it on a part time basis. Use your nine to five to fund all the things that are required to get on your feet. Yes, definitely.

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Because and it just depends on people's situation, too. Every time it's a little bit different. So you got to be realistic about me. You don't want your whole life to come crashing down because you haven't closed the deal in three months, you know? Yeah.

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Like your car being repossessed. Like what we need to yeah. So you definitely have to take some time. And because it's so glamorous, people think it's just a very easy thing. And honestly, during COVID it was easy, right?

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It was. So that's part of the app and flow. So during COVID you could put a shack online and it's selling for $20,000. Over wait, not a shack. I remember when we bought this house last year, and the madness that was the madness that was going on with homes being purchased site unseen and no inspection.

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There was so much that was mind blowing. Realtors were like, real estate agents were closing deals. Right now we're here. Right now we're here. Realtors were in times like that, tons of people get in to the market, right?

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Everybody goes, they're like, oh, it's so easy. And technically, you could it was, yeah. But if you're looking for longevity, you've got to get in and put in some work. So now we're back to traditional real estate. The market isn't crashing.

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It's normalizing, right? Because that was not sustainable. I mean, it just wasn't easy. Yeah, that wasn't sustainable. So it's normal.

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It's getting back to normal now. And people are having to readjust because now you may not be selling an extra four or five homes a month. Yeah. One, the interest rate is almost 8%. It might be 8% today.

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I haven't even checked, but don't say that.

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So people are pulling out of the market. People don't have as much cash because everything costs more. People aren't waving inspections. Some listings may have to have a price reduction. I've had agents go, I've never had to reduce a price on.

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A listing. I'm like, well, here we are. Yes, well, got in real fast and hasn't had the experience of this kind of market. So you're looking like, Whoa, what just happened? Exactly.

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We get here. Exactly. So when I said from the beginning that you are such a mentor and I know you clarified, you said, well, I don't have anything formal, but, like, the informal mentorship. Right. Just in this conversation we've had, you have a wealth of information and experience to share with individuals coming up in this space or even just interested with some questions.

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And you've shared a lot of that with us today, Rashida, and I'm so grateful, I think, about the fact that this podcast is called The Keys to the Office, and it's really about talking about career paths with our communities, with our black and Latinx communities, individuals who are out there. Like, I think I want to get into this space, but I'm really not sure what that looks like. And is it all fun and games, or is it really, like, a lot? And so you shared all that with us, but I think about putting a bow on it. If I'm listening today, and I'm intrigued and I want to know more, what's that one key to taking that next step to start this career, right?

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Where do I go to get more information? How do I get started? So aside from the classes, I would say reach out to an agent wherever you are and have coffee with them or go have lunch, especially if there's someone you know that will talk to you and have a real conversation with them about the market, about how they got started, to kind of see what their experience was and how they got in. And they may give you real advice, like, they may be honest with you and say, hey, if I could do it again, this is what I would do, and start from there. The other way that someone could kind of if you wanted to do a full transition, like a full time transition, you could go in under a team.

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Sometimes we discount that because I know I did, because I was like, I want to go on my own because that's why I'm transitioning into entrepreneurship. I know a boss and blah, blah, blah. But some of these mega teams, they are getting a lot of leads, and so they can feed you business, so you can very well get into a team that the team lead will train you on how they run things. They'll train you on contracts. They will feed you leads.

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They may have expectations about how often they want you to be working, how fast they want you to respond to leads. But there's a lot to be said for what they can provide for you. So that's a way to kind of get your foot in the door with less overhead and also with getting some training some much needed training that you may not be able to get as easily on your own. I mean, you would get it, but you'd have to piece it together. Yeah, pull it together.

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So that's an option. And then when you grow enough, you can always come off the team and go on your own. So those would be my two suggestions. I love this. I knew I would.

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So tell us, how can we find you? How can we support you? And for those looking to get into the space and maybe learn more, how can we get support from you? See, this mentor thing is like, I'm stuck. I want this.

[00:38:14]
I can just totally see you being a coach in this space as someone who doesn't even want to get back into real estate. And I say that out loud at the moment. I reserve the right to change it next week. Yes. But it flows so naturally for you that I think of the many people who would benefit from it.

[00:38:35]
So maybe it's following you on social. We'll have to talk. Yes, because my mind does not work like that. And you can find me on social media. Yes.

[00:38:49]
So I got kicked off. My last instagram is gone. We'll talk about that later. But I am SheetA the realtor. So sheeda the realtor on Facebook.

[00:39:03]
I'm settled in seven five seven. Okay. Yeah, that was my Instagram name at one point. But you're welcome to reach out to me. Follow me.

[00:39:13]
You can send a message. I'm happy to talk to you and just share what I know. At some point, I would love to be a mentor. I just have not actually worked that out yet. Yes, I'm excited about it, even though we haven't discussed it yet.

[00:39:33]
But I swear, just listening to you now and in our last conversation, I'm like, oh, my gosh, she has so much to share. Like, someone is going to pay her top dollar to get them across that hurdle and get them started in this business. I'm speaking that I would love it. So I did start writing. I call it like a rookie program, but it was basically a program or a class, I guess you could say, that would teach you beyond just the basics of the principal's class.

[00:40:13]
I'm just all over the place, so I never really finished it and marketed it well. I'll maybe get back there at some point, but just being in this business and then also I could call some agents for advice.

[00:40:31]
Some people have been selling longer than I have. Wow. Which is fine, but I'm just like, that's how I know you have a lot of agents that are poorly trained, and that's why I wanted to do that class, because people just kind of come in, they just start doing their own thing. So I'm happy to share my information and my knowledge because we are in here to make money, build legacies, all that stuff, and you got to know your stuff to really get where you want to go. Build Legacies.

[00:41:05]
Right. Talk about generational wealth and keeping it in the community, and we could go on and on and on, but I think it's weird. But yes, I think it starts with conversations like this one. Right. Not gatekeeping, because that is what I experienced.

[00:41:22]
I didn't have anyone who looked like me specifically. Everyone was other who looked like me to sort of talk to me about what they learned. Right. So I think it's important for us to continue to share that information with others coming up in the space. So I thank you for taking the time out to chat with me today.

[00:41:43]
I appreciate it more than you know. I've said it already, but I appreciate it, and I'll say it again. Thank you. You're welcome. Yeah, we'll talk about legacies and all that because it's definitely and depending on your location, I know for us, we don't have a lot of on the peninsula, a lot of black and brown people in real estate, and it was definitely a little bit of an uphill battle for me to figure out some things, so I had to learn it.

[00:42:10]
I had to go out there looking for information and figure it out. So happy to share what I know. Yeah. Right. Thank you.

[00:42:19]
I'll talk to you soon. All right, bye.

[00:42:29]
Where is my mouse? Okay.