Show notes
Jessica Burton with Indyquest Properties talks about what brought her to real estate and how she built her business while having another full-time job. Jess discusses 3 lead gen sources she uses and how she utilizes social media and video. Jess also talks about the the importance of exercise and how it positively impacts her business. Jess discusses current market and describes how is she staying busy and motivated. Last, Jess talks about her processes that help her keep organized and in touch with her clients. Please follow Jess in Instagram. If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube! Jessica Burton can be reached at 281.704.2061 and jessica@indyquest.net. This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks. Transcript D.J. Paris 0:00Lead Generation is everything and we’re going to talk about your three main lead generation sources today. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show. Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Parris. I’m your guide and host through the show. And in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with top producer Jessica Burton. Before we get to Jessica, just a couple of quick reminders. Actually, I’m gonna use Jessica as an example. We are always looking for guests. And we’re very lucky that we get pitched by PR agencies every almost every day with guest ideas. But if you’re somebody that maybe doesn’t have a PR team and thinks you have a story to tell, well reach out to us, Jessica did this. And we are having her on her show today. And she is amazing. And we wouldn’t have found her unless she wrote into us. So please let us know if you think you would be a good guest or maybe you know somebody in your office, that would be a good guest, you could just go to our website, keeping it real pod.com. And there’s a little Contact Us form and let us know if we should talk to you or maybe somebody you know, so think of the hero in your area, your local market that you’d love to know how they did this and we’ll reach out and try to get the interview. Also, please tell a friend about the show. And also leave us a review wherever you’re listening to us there. All right, let’s get to the main event my conversation with Jessica burden. Today on the show, our guest is Jessica Burton from indie quest properties in Houston, Texas. Let me tell you more about Jessica. Jessica Burton is an award winning realtor and continuous top producer she was licensed in 2016. That’s when she got licensed and Jessica draws from years of experience as a communications and marketing specialist and has created a reputation for her friendly client care, negotiation prowess and relentless dedication. She continues to use these professional skills to help her real estate clients find and sell their homes. Jessica is equipped with a deep rooted knowledge of the Houston real estate market always prepared with a local market perspective. And if you ask her what her business is built on, she will proclaim communication and care and dedication to her clients needs and goals. I want everybody to follow Jess on her website which sorry on Instagram, which is at just Kay Burton just GSSKBR to end just like its sounds and that’s Instagram and you can also find her on her indie quest website we will have a link to that on the show notes and by the way before we get started before just comes on or before she starts talking. She is in the process of looking for some assistance so if you are a possibly in real estate in the Houston area or if you are somebody that is looking for maybe an additional source of work while you’re building your business, reach out to Jessica because she may be a good fit for you Jess, welcome to the show. Jessica Burton 4:24Hi, I’m so happy to be here. D.J. Paris 4:26Can I call you Jess? Is that okay? Jessica Burton 4:27That’s what my friends call me so awesome. Well D.J. Paris 4:31I am super excited to to have you Jess is one of our listener of ours that has now is on our show and we couldn’t be happier that’s nothing brings me more pleasure than having somebody who has been a listener on the show. It’s really the most fun types of interviews I do so thank you for being a listener number one and thank you for taking time out of your busy busy week and and your mom and your your wife and your got a million other things going on. So thank you yeah, let’s I want To learn about you so and I want our audience to know about you. So let’s start at the beginning. I know you got your license in 2016, what brought you to real estate? Jessica Burton 5:07Yes. So, about 10 years ago, I started working in the legal field. So I was working with litigation attorneys in a marketing position. And honestly, a lot happened that year. So I ended up starting with this position was really excited about it had pivoted over from a fortune 500 company so much larger to a much smaller company, I’ve always been more comfortable with smaller companies, and ended up basically, you know, having a good start to it. But realizing really quickly, you know, there was no really upward growth for me, you know, I, it was a family owned business. And, you know, where I was, was, was basically the best that I was going to, you know, to do with the company, so, and that year, I actually, my, my dad passed away unexpectedly, and we were really, really tight. And, you know, it really gave me a lot of, I had a lot of introspection, you know, just about life, and, you know, what I the path I was going down, and you know, just just wanted just had a lot of, you know, insight and time to think about them. So, I had always really liked real estate and found it really interesting. So my sister is actually a broker in Austin. Oh, wow. And, you know, if for years, she would tell me about it, and I was just so fascinated by the stories and the people. I mean, as all of the real estate agents out there know, like, working with people, you just come across all sorts of, you know, exciting and interesting, people and stories. So, so for years, I was like, well, that’s her thing, you know, I need to go find my thing. So I avoided real estate, but then, you know, she encouraged me, she said, Just get your license, you know, I thought more about it was like, Okay, what’s a little bit of extra income, you know, on the side. And just, I started with Keller Williams in their coaching program for about a year and got a lot out of it, while I was still working in my marketing position in the legal field. Wow, yes. And D.J. Paris 7:16a lot to manage, and to things like that at once. Jessica Burton 7:19Well, I realized how much I loved real estate. So I was working, honestly, two full time jobs, you know, taking really trying to build my business with real estate, doing open houses on the weekends, really, you know, leveraging my my relationships with the my client attorneys who then turned into real estate attorney, excuse me, real estate clients. And, you know, just really realizing how much I loved this business. I mean, I love everything from design architecture, you know, the financial side of it. And then I feel like, you know, on the other side of that, working in the legal field, I really understood the importance about understanding, you know, the contracts, and, you know, the liability that goes along with that. So I was really, I made sure that I was very educated and, you know, knew exactly what was in those contracts. So I could explain that to my clients. And, you know, I was working with attorneys, so they, they have a certain way of thinking and, you know, a certain, I guess, you know, bar that they’re setting and their expectations of who they work with. So, you know, I was trying to keep up with that. And so I, I basically stayed with my, with the marketing position, until 2021. And I was doing around that time, I was doing probably, you know, closer to seven to 10 10 million. And this is all while working in D.J. Paris 8:52the two jobs. That’s amazing. And Jessica Burton 8:55I got pregnant with my daughter. And this was COVID, too. So I just realized I was like, I do not want to keep doing this. I was nervous about taking that next step. You know, as you know, there’s the security there with the health insurance, the salary, and you know, I just I wanted to, you know, make sure I was gonna be taking care of myself, but I also was ready to take that leap of faith. So I took that leap of faith to dove in 100% real estate in April 2021. ended up doing my best year ever that year, which a lot of people did. And I also was awarded one of the top 20 under 40 Real estate agents in Houston that year. So I think it was a little bit of a god wink like, hey, you know, you, you made the right decision. And yeah, and I was I was like working in the delivery room. I was out at showings three days after I delivered my daughter. So yeah, D.J. Paris 9:59Yeah, I Jessica Burton 10:00got a wild ride. D.J. Paris 10:02I really, it’s really an impressive story. And I think that, you know, as you were saying that I was thinking, we have probably a lot of listeners who have been in that similar situation where they were doing this maybe part time or in your case, you have two full time jobs. But even if you’re doing another job full time and real estate part time, at some point, making that that leap requires a tremendous amount of courage, and sort of willingness to cut that cord of like the salary and all of the benefits of the sort of more stable position that isn’t as risky, as far as you know, jumping off without a net, and you basically cut the net. And I wanted to just honor all of our listeners who have made that journey. And pretty much anyone who gets into real estate essentially goes on a similar journey, but especially if you’re coming from this secure and stable environment, where things are very predictable at least financially, and making that leap. So everybody who’s gone through that I we just built just Can I honor you, but I honor you as well for doing that. I think that again, it’s it’s something we don’t we don’t congratulate ourselves enough for making big steps. I think, you know, that’s sometimes the first step is the hardest, but it’s also the most important one. So congrats on that. Yeah, so I want to know how you grew your business. Because you know, you’re a we’ll call you a younger realtor, I don’t know if you feel young. But I consider you a younger realtor, you’re you’re still new ish in the business, even though you’ve been doing this for seven years now. But you also were 40 under 40. So I would love to know, like how you started marketing, you talked about, you know, hate my previous position, I had access to attorneys. So that, you know, led me I heard that correctly led me to some real estate attorneys and I sort of had some connections, there are just other attorneys maybe you worked with, but how did you build your business? Jessica Burton 11:52Sure. Well, I love being around people, I always have since I was a child, I am involved in a lot of different organizations. So always been drawn to just philanthropy and volunteerism. So if there’s an organization out there, I’ve probably been a part of it. And, you know, really, that was me, just I really liked to be a part of my Houston community. So you know, I’m part of the Junior League in Houston, part of the Houston rodeo, try to join my we have a civic association in my neighborhood. So try to get involved there. I’m not a gardener, but I’m in the garden club. And, you know, really what I what I’ve learned over the years, and I really think it takes so much grit in this business. I mean, you really, you have to reinvent yourself, and you have to pivot. And what I’ve determined that works, that has worked best for me is really having three lead generation sources at once. And of course, you know, we’re we’re in a industry that ebb and flows. So you know, just being able to evolve and adapt is is very important. So really, it’s I focus right now and have for a while on when I got started. I’m sorry. That’s what we’re talking about. When I got started. It was mostly open houses. I mean, that was really that was where I got so good with scripting, you know, so good with just talking to people about real estate. D.J. Paris 13:31And did you have at the time listings to do open houses for or were you asking other agents in your office? Jessica Burton 13:39Yes, so, so about a year into my real estate career, I moved over to a smaller brokerage. And this our brokerage, I’m still there, I’ve been there about six years is we are led by a wonderful broker and his wife, they’re, they’re just a dream team. And he, Creston is my broker, he is a wonderful, just influence and mentor. And, you know, he was willing to allow, you know, agents and myself to go and host these open houses. So, you know, when I first got started, I was really buyer heavy, as a lot of agents are so, you know, I didn’t have the opportunity to have many of my own listings at for sure. So of course, that’s changed through the years. But the open houses and then of course, you know, my CRM has been a really important tool so I actually use follow up boss and I love it. I love I’ve used a few others that one just seems to work best for me. There’s a lot of great tools in it. And you know, really just pivoting with advertising, figuring out you know, when it is tangible, you know how I can how I can use that but I’m also I use social media a little bit more in the big I mean, but I’m really utilizing it now. And so I’ll talk more about that as well. D.J. Paris 15:04So your three sources? I hear it, was his philanthropy one of one of your sources, or is that more? Anyway? What are your three? Your three marketing sources? Mine Jessica Burton 15:14are open houses, advertising, and then social media at this time? D.J. Paris 15:21What kind of advertising are you doing? Just out of curiosity? Jessica Burton 15:25So, you know, it really depends on I think there was a show recently, and someone was talking about, you know, understanding your demographics and how they get information. So, I usually I actually send postcards to, you know, the, the older demographic that really appreciates us and doesn’t throw away the mail. Because as we know, you know, the younger generation doesn’t really, you know, appreciate that as much. And, and then advertising in local newsletters, newspapers, some web uses me websites, and really, you know, it’s something that I track for about I try it for about a year. And if I don’t have any tangible return, I’ll usually pivot to something else. But what I’ve realized is that it’s important to be consistent. D.J. Paris 16:18Yeah, you’re right, it especially with some of the outgoing mailers, or phone c…
Full show notes at the publisher 
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
Stay Connected
