Real Estate Straight Up Kickoff

Kasey Jorgenson 0:01

Welcome to Real Estate Straight Up, where we skip the script and talk about what's really going on in the Central Texas real estate market. I'm Kasey Jorgenson, founder of Jorgenson Real Estate in Round Rock, Texas. This is where we break down how deals are actually getting done, what top agents are doing differently, and what most people aren't saying out loud about this market right now. No fluff, no BS, just real estate straight up. All right, welcome to real estate straight up. I'm Kasey Jorgenson, founder of Jorgenson Real Estate. We are at Real Estate Brokerage that serves Central Texas, including the Austin, Round Rock, and Georgetown kind of 35 corridor. Today I am joined by Rubie Armstrong. She is one of our agents. Today, yesterday, yes was actually our one-year teammiversary here. So she's been with us for about a year. This segment that we do is called Closer Conversations. It's where we talk with some of our top producers in our brokerage, get to know them, hear their stories, find out what makes them superhuman because they're out kicking butt every single day. So hi.

Rubie Armstrong 1:10

Hi.

Kasey Jorgenson 1:11

How's it going?

Rubie Armstrong 1:12

Good. Thanks for having me. I'm excited.

Kasey Jorgenson 1:14

Yeah, this is this is good. So yeah, Rubie, we always like to start these off by having you just kind of share like what brought you to real estate. Where were you before? Everyone has like an origin story. So what what brought you to today? What brought you here?

Rubie Armstrong 1:31

I started off teaching way back in the day. And I remember when I lived in Katy, there was a lot of development going on. And I just saw, I just saw how much of an opportunity there was. And I said, one day I'm gonna do real estate. Yeah. And so fast forward, I was divorced, COVID hit, and I was like, this is the perfect time I can get my license. So I got my license in three months, and then I sat on it because COVID.

From Teaching To Real Estate

Kasey Jorgenson 1:54

We should come up with a name for agents that got their license in 2020 and 2021. Like uh nomenclature. So yeah, so you're in Katy, going through big life changes.

Rubie Armstrong 2:07

Yes, I moved back home and then that's and then COVID hit, so I was locked up. What is it? Almost two years basically, if you count.

Kasey Jorgenson 2:13

Where is home?

Rubie Armstrong 2:14

McAllen, South Texas. Yeah, deep, deep South Texas. Yeah. Yeah. And I sat on it for a few months because I was also teaching online. And that there was I tried and there was no way teaching online that year was horrible. It was traumatic. And so I was like, I can't do both. And then I moved to Austin the following year and I said, All right, this is it. This is my time.

Kasey Jorgenson 2:32

Yeah.

Rubie Armstrong 2:33

And here I am.

Kasey Jorgenson 2:34

That's awesome. Yeah. What so that was so you've been licensed for more than five years now. Yes. It's 2026. I had to think in mind.

Rubie Armstrong 2:43

Almost six years.

Kasey Jorgenson 2:44

Yeah. That's awesome. And so you were a teacher before. Yes. How has that been? This was a this is a conversation we've talked about with other people, but going from teaching to real estate, we've seen some of the best success come from that group of people because they are used to working long hours, stressful environment, dealing with crazy emotions that are unregulated in kids. Um kind of translates to people in a real estate transaction. So how was that? Did you guys did you see like a good did you do you think that you got kind of an unfair advantage from being a teacher going into real estate because of those skills?

Rubie Armstrong 3:20

I think so. I wouldn't call it unfair. I would just think it was a very helpful advantage because I was used to dealing with people. I was used to talking and explaining things in a million different ways. And so if people I tell people all the time, if you don't understand something, just tell me, Rubie, I don't get it, and I will explain it to you 20 times until you get it. That was definitely helpful. The paperwork also, every, every even your your favorite job is always gonna have paperwork. And so I was like, well, I can handle paperwork. And yeah, the definitely the emotions. I find that I'm pretty, I'm pretty calm and collected. I'm just like, well, this is what it is.

Kasey Jorgenson 3:53

I know that helps helps a ton. So where do you where do you kind of live now or what markets are you focusing on at this point in your career?

Rubie Armstrong 4:00

I find myself going a lot to Cedar Park.

Kasey Jorgenson 4:03

Okay.

Rubie Armstrong 4:03

And Round Rock. You don't really get to pick where your clients you know are wanting to live, but I find that that's the trend, which is interesting.

Kasey Jorgenson 4:11

Yeah, that's they've seen some some great growth. What are what are some of your like f kind of favorite things about the area?

Where Clients Want To Live

Rubie Armstrong 4:17

I love how far removed Leander is from the city. When I first moved here, I was 20, oh gosh, 30. I thought it was super cool to be living there. But once I got here, I was like, no, this is not for me. I love being out in the country. I love being able to see the stars at night. I love the silence. And that's what my clients like too. They actually tell me, like, I don't like the downtown area. I want to be away. So it it just it just fits.

Kasey Jorgenson 4:40

Yeah. And they have actual trees and hills. It starts to be the hill country, right?

Rubie Armstrong 4:45

Yes, it's beautiful. And it's it's growing, obviously. I mean, Austin has nowhere else to grow, but out, but it's not growing um as fast. We still have a ton of trees. We still have deer. I still run into deer sometimes on my way out of the house, which I love.

Kasey Jorgenson 4:58

There's a Costco.

Rubie Armstrong 4:59

There is a Costco.

Kasey Jorgenson 5:00

Yeah.

Rubie Armstrong 5:01

Oh my gosh. I went last week. It was so nice. It was dead. I went at 11 o'clock on a Saturday. It was dead. And somebody said, Well, it just depends on what time you go. I said, No, no, I went on a Saturday at 11. And there were no people.

Kasey Jorgenson 5:12

There's this person on our team, Adriana. She goes and gets hot dogs there at Costco. Oh, those are good hot dogs. But that's why she has the membership.

Rubie Armstrong 5:21

That's the only reason she got the membership. Yeah. I'm not going to tell Alexander that.

Kasey Jorgenson 5:24

It's okay. So what about so you're kind of your client base right now? And I know we're going to talk about your uh the niche that you kind of are focusing on these days, but let's talk about buyers or sellers. Like which which are you kind of working those evenly or do you prefer working with one or the other?

Rubie Armstrong 5:40

I'm actually working more with sellers. And that was it being my first year in the sales area of real estate, it was it was unintentional. I just I just made my phone calls. I met my people, and they turned out to be mostly sellers. I've got I've had one set of buyers in the past and I enjoy them both. But if you let me pick, I'm going to pick sellers.

Kasey Jorgenson 5:57

Yeah.

Rubie Armstrong 5:58

I haven't had a nightmare just yet. So I really like sellers.

Sellers, Short Sales, Honest Numbers

Kasey Jorgenson 6:01

Aaron Powell Yeah. From what I've uh kind of observed from my side as the broker is yeah, your sellers have been really awesome. And I know some of them you've kind of I know you've met some sellers that are in kind of tough and sticky situations, things like life changes with divorce and and people in the in a short sale situation and things like that. How's that been going?

Rubie Armstrong 6:21

That has gone really, really well. And I know it can go south really quickly, but what I've done both times is I've gone in with the information, I've heard them out, and obviously they don't want to short sale. Really nobody wants to. But when I explain the numbers to them and we walk through them together and we look at the scenarios, we look at leasing, we look at staying put, we look at everything. And in the end, they've both said the same thing. Like you were honest with me, you didn't sugarcoat anything, and I appreciate that. And so they feel comfortable and confident moving forward with the short sale.

Kasey Jorgenson 6:49

That's awesome.

Rubie Armstrong 6:50

Yeah.

Kasey Jorgenson 6:50

So kind of to switch gears just a little bit here, people I don't think they can see on the camera, but you are a mom.

Rubie Armstrong 6:59

Yes.

Realtor Mom Mindset And Support

Kasey Jorgenson 7:00

And you have an awesome son that I've met, Alexander. Yeah. But below the table here, she's about a couple weeks out from adding another 26 days, I think. Yeah, 26 days. So how do you like how do you manage that kind of stuff? I know that there are a lot of people in real estate and a lot of women that have families and tons of expectations to be a wife and a mom and a housekeeper and a real estate and a business owner and all those things. How do you manage all of that?

Rubie Armstrong 7:27

A huge part of it is my husband. He's amazing. He's been very supportive. And this pregnancy, I was exhausted. I mean, I would sit down and fall asleep in 30 seconds. So a lot of the housekeeping stuff has the cooking has gone to the wayside. But the rest of it, as far as balancing being a mom and a realtor, has been tough. And it's really easy to go into panic mode. And so what I have found is just perspective. It's instead of saying, How am I going to do this? How am I going to balance being my mom? It's more, I've changed it more to I get to. I'm a realtor, I have the flexibility, I get to take Alexander with me on a listing appointment. Yeah. Um, I get to stay home and work from home. I can make my phone calls while I'm in bed and my PJs. And that works. So it's I get to do this, seeing the opportunity and the positive in it. Yeah. That's helped a lot.

Kasey Jorgenson 8:12

And I know that I know our clients and real estate in general, they're kind of they're all scattered about, like with their schedules and the times and things like that. So yeah, that's awesome. And I think that's a good way to frame it is to say, like, hey, I get to do this and I get to do it. I somebody said to me, I won't say they were complaining, but they were talking about how busy they were and and and everything. And I was like, you get to be busy. At one point you wished for this, you know? Oh yeah. And so being able to frame it that way, that's that's that's awesome. It's really admirable. When it comes to so we we talked a little bit about the market and kind of what people are seeing right now. What are you feeling kind of on the front lines with the market right now?

Rubie Armstrong 8:56

I'm seeing definitely more inventory. So um more options for buyers. And also on the flip side for sellers, people have more options. So we want to be sure that we are negotiating fairly, obviously, but that we're we're responsive to what people are are asking for. We're not gonna play super hardball because that can get us in trouble.

Inventory Up, Pricing Games Down

Kasey Jorgenson 9:16

Aaron Powell What about those clients that you sit down and say your property is worth, you know, 425 right now, based off the data is kind of what what our advice is. What about those clients that are saying, like, let's start at 475 and things like that? Has that been working out for people?

Rubie Armstrong 9:34

No. And I've told them we definitely can. Like the numbers sometimes they do support listing higher, but if you look at the pricing history, we will see that they ended up reducing to what I am suggesting. So we can just know that after two weeks, if we don't have enough showings, that we need to talk about a price reduction. So I'll ask them, are you open to a price reduction?

Kasey Jorgenson 9:53

Yeah.

Rubie Armstrong 9:53

And a lot of times they say yes, but then once we get down to looking at the net sheet, they say no. No, we think we can get more. And I and I track them. I've gone back and seen how they did because they go with somebody else and they they ended up expiring or withdrawing. And they've reduced to more than what I suggested to start with.

Kasey Jorgenson 10:09

Yeah, that's what we were talking about also this week was last year only about 65% of sellers were successful in selling their property. The other ones took it off the market, leased it out, and then there was a smaller percentage that went to foreclosure. So yeah, that makes sense. And I know that we've worked with a few clients where coming in and saying uh helping them understand the data so they could make a really good informed decision for themselves with that. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Rubie Armstrong 10:35

Well, and I think what's happening too is what's sad is that a lot of realtors operate by, yes, I can sell your house for this much. And they'll tell the person what they want to hear just to get the listing. Yep. And thinking that, well, once they're signed with me, I'll just get them to reduce the price. And so they think that we're lying when in reality we're telling them the truth.

Kasey Jorgenson 10:51

Yeah. Yeah. There was an email that c that got sent out after it was an apology email to an agent friend of mine. The seller said, it happened exactly that way, where somebody convinced us that we could start higher, we trusted them, and we ended up taking way less than in than what you had initially recommended because the market changed. So okay, that's awesome. And so I want to talk a little bit about you have kind of a specialty in a in a group of clients that you love to work with that we that we were talking about before we started filming. Tell us about that. Tell us who's kind of filling your bucket of happiness on the on the client side.

Serving Spanish-Speaking Clients Well

Rubie Armstrong 11:27

Oh my gosh, my Spanish speakers. I come from a background in education. I've always worked in bilingual education, so I've always had a soft spot. And then now that I'm working outside of real estate and I see I'm it's there might people, you know, whatever, wherever whatever part of Latin America we're from, and I see how hardworking they are and how they're just lacking so much information. Right. It's it's not it could be because of the language barrier, it could be because they're just so busy working, keeping two or three jobs that they don't realize that there are opportunities for them to own a home. And so I've I've spoken to people and I've asked them, have you ever thought about buying? And they'll just look at me and say, you know what, nobody's ever asked me that.

Kasey Jorgenson 12:03

Yeah, that's a good point. And I think that I think there's some misconceptions out there too. Like a lot of people don't know. Texas realtors, our state association, they've translated a lot of our a lot of our common contracts and addenda that that they we have those written in Spanish to help guide people and explain, hey, here's what the contract is, and here's a translation that that our association's provided for you. So um, there are some really cool tools out there because I know a lot of it sometimes comes down to understanding of the process.

Rubie Armstrong 12:37

Yeah, that's what it is. And I let them know I've got the Spanish version here, you still need to sign the English one, but I've got it here and I'll walk and I'll walk them through it. I'll walk through the application. It's just uh taking them from one to ten, the very basic understanding.

Kasey Jorgenson 12:51

Aaron Powell And shameless plug for our brokerage. So Rubie obviously speaks Spanish. We also have a support staff that also speaks Spanish. So we have kind of the full package here to to help through through a lot of that. And we have lender partners, like we've vetted. Oh yeah. There's a lot from what I've heard, correct me if I'm wrong, there can be some kind of predatory type of situations in the the kind of Spanish-speaking finance side of things, right?

Rubie Armstrong 13:21

Yes. A lot of times they'll they'll they'll go after the clients and then once they get them, they just disappear or they need help but they don't get the help that they need. And as far as other areas I've seen like tax returns, which you need when you're buying a home, they charge them ridiculous, three, four, five times the amount that they're supposed to. Yeah. And so that that affects their home buying power because that's money that they could put towards their house.

Kasey Jorgenson 13:43

Aaron Powell And I know that's been kind of one of your superpowers is being able to build those relationships and kind of vet a lot of those people.

Rubie Armstrong 13:49

I am very picky. I'm very protective over my Spanish speakers because I know the struggles and I don't like people being taken advantage of. So that's if there's anything that's going to piss me off more, it's seeing somebody being taken advantage of. So I talk to my lenders first, I I have to connect with them and I ask them, like, who are you working with? How do you work? What's your responsiveness rate? Because that's important to me. I hate somebody telling me, well, I called them and they're not answering.

Kasey Jorgenson 14:12

Yeah. Yeah, that's I I love to see that. I'm also like the bullying. I can't stand the bullying or when somebody's trying to take advantage of somebody. So anybody that knows me knows all of that.

Rubie Armstrong 14:22

Oh yeah, I've seen that, which is awesome.

Kasey Jorgenson 14:24

I'll go a little crazy sometimes, but that's okay.

Rubie Armstrong 14:26

Well, and it's great to know that that we have that support from you because that's important too. I didn't have that my first brokerage I was with. And so that's a huge difference in knowing that, oh, like I can, I can speak up about this. Like this is actually wrong. I can't, I don't have to just sit back and take it.

Kasey Jorgenson 14:40

Yeah, point out an injustice that's happening to one of our clients, and we'll it'll be it'll get a little bit crazy. Okay, so cool. Anything else you want to add on on that part about kind of working with Spanish speakers? Oh gosh.

Rubie Armstrong 14:52

There there's so much. I could go on for hours about that. But I actually I looked up some facts because I got curious about how our how we're driving the market, and actually we are driving the housing market. We we accounted for 139% of total US homeownership growth in 2025, according to NAREP.

Kasey Jorgenson 15:07

Wow.

Rubie Armstrong 15:08

And only 39% of those were Latinas, so females, which to me was fascinating.

Kasey Jorgenson 15:14

Interesting.

Rubie Armstrong 15:14

Yeah, I thought that was really interesting because I've spoken to several Latinas and they they tell me, I want to invest, I want to buy a home, I'm ready, I've got the money. But then they still very much fall back on their husband and what which is very cultural. You know, what what does what does my husband say? And so they end up not buying. They know they can, they know it's a smart decision. So I really want to focus on educating them and letting them know like this is actually it's not that you're going against your husband or your family, it's you're creating wealth for your family. It's the best way to take care of your family.

Kasey Jorgenson 15:43

Sure. And I mean, there's there are so many studies out there about the stability of owning a home, too. Yeah. And kind of having having that as like your your homestead and your home base. There's benefits for for kids and everything else. So that's a that's an admirable cause to be going after. I thought it was cool kind of along those lines, last year, I think it was last year, single women surpassed single men in homeownership for the first time. And so I thought that that was that was awesome.

Rubie Armstrong 16:14

Yeah, I I saw that, I shared that on my Instagram. I was like, we rule the world.

Kasey Jorgenson 16:17

Yeah. What about so if if you had to, when we're talking to that that niche of your clientele, right? If you had to like tell them one thing on the buy side, if if they wanted to purchase, what's one thing that they should know uh before they before they kind of go down that path?

Rubie Armstrong 16:36

You don't need as much as you think to buy a home. They still very much believe that 20% down is the only way to go. Credit they think their credit has to be stellar, and that's not necessarily true.

Kasey Jorgenson 16:47

Yeah.

Rubie Armstrong 16:47

So those are my two top biggest ones.

Kasey Jorgenson 16:49

Good. It's good advice. All right. Wanna talk about the agent side of things?

Rubie Armstrong 16:54

Yeah.

Agent Lessons On Truth And Time

Kasey Jorgenson 16:55

All right. So real estate agents, this is a crazy wacky industry that we're in, right? Yeah. And you've been in it now longer. So most, I think it was eighty over eighty percent of realtors don't make it past their first two-year renewal. So you're already, you've made it and you've been in the industry for for way more than that. Oh yeah. Almost triple that. So what uh looking back, kind of like what are some mistakes maybe you've made or or a mistake that you kind of see newer agents making today?

Rubie Armstrong 17:28

I have to say, because I still think about it, is letting the client dictate the price and spending over just playing nice instead of just telling them the truth. Because the very first listing I ever had, um I I did that. I knew that she should have listed for less, and I knew that we should have reduced our price sooner. But because of her situation and I knew that she didn't want to reduce, I I let her write it out. And so it did not work out. Yeah.

Kasey Jorgenson 17:53

Yeah. Yeah. I think the I think the the salesmanship side where people are just trying to get the the potential client to sign their agreement, they they do. They just kind of say whatever whatever is gonna get the client to sign the agreement.

Rubie Armstrong 18:09

So well, and the comps did support the price that I presented her at the time, but I kept, I mean, I tracked the comps as as the listing goes on. And so I realized, okay, we're gonna have to price reduce. And we did do a couple of reductions, but they were very minor. And so by the time I was like, okay, we need to do this if you want to sell by this time. She had a timeline, she had goals, and she was not happy. And so now it's and that's who I am. I can't operate like that. I need to tell people this is what the numbers support. I can't lie to them. Good.

Kasey Jorgenson 18:35

And so I'd rather do that. Yeah. What about early on in your career? Like, what did you ever do anything that kind of wasted time or wasted money that that you could look back and it's like, I'm glad I did it and learned from it, but I wish I wouldn't have done it. You know what I mean?

Rubie Armstrong 18:49

Probably investing in the social media courses because they there's a lot of I mean, social media absolutely is a great tool, but there's a lot of advertisements about you need this, you know, take this three-day course so that you can become, you know, a major seller and get all of your leads from Instagram. And it doesn't work that way.

Kasey Jorgenson 19:06

Yeah.

Rubie Armstrong 19:06

And all the time wasted. Yeah. But now I know.

Kasey Jorgenson 19:10

It's not rocket science. It's not. You gotta just engage with your people.

Rubie Armstrong 19:14

That's all it is. Yeah. Yeah.

Kasey Jorgenson 19:16

I see a lot of agents. Yeah. I mean, there's even agents now. There's a huge kind of microeconomy in our industry of agents that found some success in sales, and now that's all they do is sell social media stuff. Yeah. They're not even really selling houses anymore. So pretty interesting. Okay. So let's talk. Why do you why do your clients choose you? Like what's your superpower? What's what's when you're interviewing, I know you're honest with them. I know that that's that can be a superpower, but what else?

Rubie Armstrong 19:44

I think it's how I make them feel comfortable. And that comes from my background in teaching. I very much I ask them questions, I listen to them. I'm a good conversation, conversationalist and connecting with them. And most of my some of my clients have become friends. I mean, one was that my baby shower this weekend. They become really good friends. So I I think part of it is the intentions that I put out put out there. I don't work with people that if I see that we're just not going to vibe, if I see that we're just, you know, personally and that I see that they're just don't, they just don't work business-wise the same way that I do. Um, it's okay to let them go. You don't have to say yes to every opportunity.

Kasey Jorgenson 20:18

Ain't that the truth?

Rubie Armstrong 20:19

Yeah.

Kasey Jorgenson 20:19

Yeah.

Rubie Armstrong 20:20

And so I find just the way that we get along, the trust, the way that I explain things is is a huge help because you're your people have to feel comfortable with you.

Kasey Jorgenson 20:28

Yeah. And I think that's the going back when I said unfair advantage. It's not a negative thing. Being a teacher, yeah. Like you've learned how to explain it five different ways to five different kids, and that translates to this business for sure. That's yeah, awesome. So kind of do we can do some some kind of more rapid fire type of questions, okay? So I'm gonna put you on the spot. Okay. You ready? Yeah.

Rubie Armstrong 20:51

Yes.

Kasey Jorgenson 20:51

Okay. So what do you think is one mistake that buyers make during their home purchase process?

Rapid Fire Mistakes And Funny Finds

Rubie Armstrong 21:04

Thinking that they can lowball ridiculously, like go in 30% under asking. And I tell them that's not always gonna work. Yes, you do you do want to make an offer, but you want also them to respond. And so if you send them something ridiculous, they might not even respond to your offer.

Kasey Jorgenson 21:21

It's an emotional thing selling your house. It's really easy to have your feelings hurt. So that's what you're experiencing. So people make those mistakes.

Rubie Armstrong 21:28

Oh my gosh. Yeah, they want to do that. And I tell them we can position your offer in a way to where they will respond. Absolutely, we want to grid a great deal. But we don't want to offer them such a low price that they get offended and they don't respond at all. We want to keep that communication going.

Kasey Jorgenson 21:41

And I think leaning into the data, like like showing, hey, here's here's the comparable things, here's kind of uh I and and you can correct me. I think I've we've trained on this, but here's kind of where I think a good price is. Oh yeah. Here's a great deal, here's a good deal, here's market value, and kind of anything in that realm is

Rubie Armstrong 22:00

Oh yeah, which is what I've started. I mean, I've always done, but I put more emphasis on it now since I've experienced it. I tell them I'm going to go home and do my research and be sure that we're presenting a fair offer. We're not we don't want to overpay, but we don't want to under underpay either, because then we won't get anything.

Kasey Jorgenson 22:16

Yeah. Good point. Yeah. So next rapid fire. What's the funniest thing that's happened to you that comes to mind and as you're uh in your time as an agent?

Rubie Armstrong 22:28

Funniest thing? I would yeah. I would have to say awkward too. We found a whip in in the primary bedroom.

Kasey Jorgenson 22:35

Well, just hanging on the wall or like it was on the top shelf.

Rubie Armstrong 22:38

We were just in there looking around, and then the I think the client saw it before I did.

Kasey Jorgenson 22:42

And they said, Hey Rubie, there's a whip. Yeah.

Rubie Armstrong 22:45

Yeah. And sure enough. Yeah.

Kasey Jorgenson 22:46

That's good. Yeah, we found a we found all kinds of creative things. We had one of our agents a couple years ago walk in and it was the primary bathroom, and there was a pair of jeans shorts in front of the toilet, and it looked like somebody had just disappeared. They were sitting right on the floor in front of the toilet and left them there right there. And so that's yeah, we see some funny stuff.

Rubie Armstrong 23:10

You see crazy stuff, but that's what makes the that's what gets the conversation going. Yeah.

Kasey Jorgenson 23:15

That's good. So next rapid fire question. When we come to and we're looking at like kind of books or trainings, what's what's a book or something out there that is like really resonated for you and made a difference in the way that you approach I would have to say it's right now it's the millionaire real estate agent. Aaron Ross Powell The classic.

Rubie Armstrong 23:34

Yes. It would the information is it's very easy to absorb. It's easy to follow. I can open the book and read anything, doesn't matter where, and get something from it, versus some books you've got to read from beginning to end in order to learn from it.

Kasey Jorgenson 23:47

Yeah, the the the systems and models that they talk about in there is unmatched. There hasn't been anything else relatively close to that book that's come out over time. So yeah. That's a solid foundation for anybody that's that's listening. What is one thing that you wish you knew before you got into real estate that you didn't already know?

Rubie Armstrong 24:09

One thing I wish I knew. People will not call you back. You have to keep calling and calling and calling and keep calling because they will not call. They'll call you back if and when they're ready. Right. And I've seen that time and again. I've done some emails where I just I'm just, you know what, they're not responding, but I'm still gonna email them. And then six months later I'll get an email, hey Rubie, I'm ready to list. When can you come?

Kasey Jorgenson 24:35

I'm that consumer. Like I I'll reach out and have a real like a need for something, and I'll reach out to somebody, you know, online or whatever. And I get busy. And so I don't I don't respond. But yeah, sometimes it takes them 10 tries, you know, whether it's like a piece of software or something. But the 10th try, I'm like, hey, I'm really sorry, I haven't gotten back to it. You know, it just wasn't a priority and and whatever. So yeah, I think our our our customers before their clients, it's the same thing, right?

Rubie Armstrong 25:02

And they see that. Yeah, I think they need to see that consistency. Yeah, that's how I mean that's how you stay top of mind. I've learned. I'll get text messages sometimes, and I have no idea who it is because it's been so long. So I have to go back in my notes and be like, look, how did I reach out to this person? Are they a seller? Are they your buyer? Because it's just been so long.

Kasey Jorgenson 25:18

Yeah. They come back around.

Rubie Armstrong 25:20

Yeah, they come back around. Which is always exciting.

Kasey Jorgenson 25:22

Yeah, that's that's good information. I I think a lot of agents too, they get their feelings hurt. So they'll have like a conversation with somebody and they'll the the term ghosted is always thrown around like though that that lead ghosted me, or those customers that I was interviewing with, they've ghosted me. Sometimes they're not ghosting, they just life happens, you know, and and and and they they reach out when they're when they're good and ready.

Rubie Armstrong 25:44

Aaron Powell When they're ready.

Kasey Jorgenson 25:45

Yeah.

Rubie Armstrong 25:45

Yeah. We don't know what's happening in between.

Kasey Jorgenson 25:48

Yeah. What about when it comes to what are you looking forward to this year besides the new addition to the family?

Rubie Armstrong 25:56

I'm looking forward to creating a new plan for how I'm going to make this work moving forward. Um a lot of change happened in the last year, very, very close together, which was exciting and good. But I I tend to enjoy my peace, so I don't do well with too many changes. So it's creating a plan now. And then again, it's I get to create a plan. I get to create a new plan for how to incorporate my new life with real estate and how it's going to grow from there.

Kasey Jorgenson 26:19

Yeah.

New Plans, Focus, And Closing

Rubie Armstrong 26:19

So there's a lot of a lot of things that I'm chewing on right now and figuring out how I'm going to make it work, especially with now that I've decided that I'm going to focus more on the Spanish-speaking community. It's bringing that vision to life.

Kasey Jorgenson 26:31

Yeah, that is that is exciting. And I will tell you, I watch agents constantly that that they will have a full day to complete a task and all this extra time, and they take the full day to complete the task. But when you're busy and you've got to get something done in that time frame, I was most productive when my son was born.

Rubie Armstrong 26:51

Yeah.

Kasey Jorgenson 26:52

And I had nap times to complete like an entire day's worth of work. Yep. And I was so efficient. And it's because the time available, I you know, you use the time that's available to complete what you need to complete. So and on one hand, could be a blessing because you will be very efficient with your time so you can protect your mom time, right?

Rubie Armstrong 27:11

Yes, exactly. And that's what it's become more about. It's I want this time with my son. I want this right now, it's Alexander, right? Because he's here, Earthside. It's I want this time. And so I've learned communicate, let my clients know. I block out two hours in the evening and I let them know I'll get back to you after that or before that. And that time for me has become really sacred. And Alexander knows, like, there's no phone for mom at that time. I tell him, unless it's an emergency. And it's it's so great seeing him understand that and grow with that. And he gets to see also that example.

Kasey Jorgenson 27:41

That's awesome.

Rubie Armstrong 27:42

Yeah. So it's seeing more of that and how that's going to evolve.

Kasey Jorgenson 27:46

It's exciting. Yeah. You know? Definitely. I mean, life is interesting. So keeping up with all of it and accomplishing everything and doing it well, gotta be disciplined, but it's definitely it's possible and it's fun.

Rubie Armstrong 27:58

Oh, yeah. And I found I've have found that I'm more productive when I do things in chunks instead of taking two or three days. I love the idea of taking two or three days. I'm just not water that way. I've realized I think I don't know if it's me becoming a mom or getting older that I just can't focus for that long. So doing things in chunks are is something I've had to learn, but I do better and I focus better.

Kasey Jorgenson 28:19

Yeah, I think that comes with experience, like knowing yourself, right?

Rubie Armstrong 28:22

Yeah.

Kasey Jorgenson 28:23

Knowing what helps get things completed. Yeah. So I yeah, that's awesome. So we'll see.

Rubie Armstrong 28:29

I'll report back. Yeah.

Kasey Jorgenson 28:31

Is there is there anything else that you want to share you want to talk about?

Rubie Armstrong 28:34

No, I don't think so. I mean, those were the most important things for me, like life as a real-term mom, and then my Spanish speakers.

Kasey Jorgenson 28:41

Well, we appreciate it.

Rubie Armstrong 28:43

Yeah, thank you. Thank you for asking and listening. I'm excited. This is the first time I get to talk about this out loud.

Kasey Jorgenson 28:48

Yeah, you know, nobody loves to sit and get on and talk about themselves. So we're we're we're doing these conversations because I mean your customers and your clients want to know who you are. They want to know who you're who they're working with. So we appreciate you taking the time. It's not scary to get in this studio with the spotlights and the and the cameras.

Rubie Armstrong 29:04

No, once you get started, it is at first. Yeah, no, it's fun. I yeah, I did like this. This is we should do it more often.

Kasey Jorgenson 29:10

All right. Well, if if you're looking to buy in Central Texas, especially in the Cedar Park kind of Leander area, Rubie is an amazing, amazing agent to talk to. If you're a Spanish speaker, I I should have learned how to say this in Spanish or written it down, but I guess this I can't. I I don't I don't know it well enough. I need to I need you to teach me.

Rubie Armstrong 29:29

That's okay. Yes.

Kasey Jorgenson 29:30

But if you are a Spanish speaker that are that's thinking about purchasing a property, Rubie should be uh one of the first people that you go and talk to. She will let you know straight up, no pressure, how to make that happen. I've seen her do it. So so thank you. And this has been Real Estate Straight Up.

Rubie Armstrong 29:47

Yeah.

Kasey Jorgenson 29:48

We'll see you later. Thank you.

Rubie Armstrong 29:49

We'll see you later. Okay. Fun stuff.

Kasey Jorgenson 29:52

And that's a wrap. If you got value out of this, don't keep it to yourself. Send it to someone who needs to hear it. And if you're in Central Texas thinking about making a move, we're here at Jorgenson Real Estate. We'll see you next time.