From Teacher to Top Real Estate Agent: Jamie Parker's Journey

Jordan Mendoza (00:00.877)
Hello everyone and welcome to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. My name is Jordan Mendoza, I'm your host and I've got a very special guest today. His name is Jamie Parker and I'm gonna have him tell you a little bit about who he is and what he does today.

Jamie Parker (00:16.794)
Thank you for having me on Jordan. It's a pleasure to get to be a guest on something I've listened to, so that's amazing. So my background is actually pretty extensive. I was a school teacher in the metro Atlanta area, so I have three degrees in education from Georgia State and the University of Georgia. And I taught orchestra for about 17 years in music, and I was actually a technology coordinator, kind of like a pseudo -administrator.

for a little bit and then you basically we got into got into real estate you

Jamie Parker (01:00.026)
Okay, we back on.

Jamie Parker (01:04.478)
Okay, then I got into real estate part -time while I was still teaching so that my kid's mom could stay home, to be a stay -at -home mom. So that's what kind of launched me into real estate. I love teaching, I love working with the kids, I love the coaching, and all that kind of stuff that we got to do as a teacher, but ultimately as a future parent at that point. I didn't have children at that point, but as for our future, decided to make a shift and do real estate just part -time. I'd always done a little bit of a side hustle.

Growing up, I sold baseball cards in order to get my Nintendo. I taught private lessons after I graduated, even while I was in college. I would buy and sell instruments. I was always doing something to do a little bit of hustle on the side, so to speak. And basically what happened is my side hustle became my main hustle. So I did real estate for seven of my 17 and a half years of teaching. I got my first deal. I was playing a concert.

Jordan Mendoza (01:50.219)
That's great.

Jamie Parker (02:01.57)
with when Ben Verene was here in town. Actually, was Bobby Vinton, I'm sorry. Bobby Vinton was here in town and I got blessed and honored to get a chance to play on his show. And while I was there, I just talked to one of the musicians. I was like, hey man, guess what? I just got my real estate license. They said, great, you're gonna sell my house. And that's how it all started. Ended up, actually my first transaction was not selling his house. I got somebody that called off the sign for that house

Jordan Mendoza (02:22.602)
That's great.

Jamie Parker (02:30.712)
That was my first transaction. I would sell hit sales after that. But that's how it all started.

Jordan Mendoza (02:37.215)
Yeah, that's great. I appreciate you giving some context there and we're going to dive into some of these stories. You my favorite part of the show is really taking a rewind. So we want to get context into who you are as a human, right? Let's talk about little Jamie. And so if you can share with the audience, you know, where were you born and raised? And then you alluded to a little bit of the kind of kid that you were and the side hustle stuff and selling baseball cards. But what other stuff did you get into? Did you play any sports? I know that you got into, you

instruments and things like that, but just give the audience a little context into the formative years. you elementary, middle, and then into high school.

Jamie Parker (03:15.834)
Yeah, absolutely. So I grew up in Marietta, Georgia. My parents moved here when I was four years old. I was born in Washington, DC and grew up in the East Cobb, Marietta area, went to Pope High School. So all through elementary school, not honestly, really a great experience. You know, I was very short, like really short. I some issues with my feet. Had to wear these really awful looking orthopedic shoes

Of course, I got made fun of incessantly. was short and I had orthopedic shoes, know, double whammy there. There was a bully that lived across the street and he would bully me at the bus stop every morning. There was another bully. We had a couple bullies in the neighborhood. So not really the best elementary school experience. I did have great parents though. So I did have great parents, very supportive, loving parents. They were at every baseball game, which I was really terrible at baseball, like really

But they still came and I was their kid and they still supported the little bit of playing time. did get a chance to play because the coach had to play me because that was rules. But yeah, they were there always for everything. And my mom is, my dad's passed, my dad passed off COVID, but my mom is still here and she still tries to attend every, if I'm playing at a concert or I have an event or if my kids have something going on, she's still there.

Jordan Mendoza (04:24.64)
Ha ha ha.

Jamie Parker (04:43.802)
So growing up elementary school wasn't really the best experience. Middle school, probably similar, similar experience in middle school. But that is when I decided to pick up an instrument. And so we got to, I remember they were like showing us all the different instruments and I was sitting next to, I had a friend and so I'm like really small and he was like really, really tall and a little overweight. So you had the shrimp and

overweight kid and we're sitting next to each other and I was like, hey bud, I bet you if we play the saxophone we'll be cool. I mean come on saxophone is a cool instrument it's in rock bands and it's in all this stuff and we'll just be cool if we pick saxophone we'll get into the cool crowd if that's what we pick. So long story short that's what we picked. I literally picked the saxophone because I thought it would make me

I wanted to get into that crowd because I'd always been picked on, always been harassed and everything. It turned out I was pretty good. I had a good, reasonably good experience in band there. And then I met one of my mentors, met one of my mentors right there, which was the band director at the high school, Gary Gribble. And he just...

would come to the middle school, he would talk to us, got us all excited about what was gonna happen over at Pope High School and what band was gonna be like and what marching band was gonna be like. So very, very exciting. And for those of that don't know, Pope High School is one of the best marching bands in the entire United States. I didn't know that at the time, but it is. And came over to Pope and my first year I won, think, improved rookie or some kind of most improved award got recognized.

Started competing, you know for made made district honor honor band tried out for all state never made all state but at least tried out and That was when I first got introduced to personal development was through Gary Gribble He had this guy dr Tim laudanizer and he would come in and either speak to us directly or he would bring us to them I remember we went down to Westminster on a field trip one day to go hear dr Tim teach and that was the first time I'd ever really heard about personal development and developing yourself

Jamie Parker (07:02.692)
how you need to be. Also, Mr. Gribble would do leadership camps. So we would have leadership. If you wanted to be an officer in the band, you had to go through a week -long camp to see if you were worthy to be an officer in the band. And of course, everybody wanted to be an officer in the band. those of us that were driven wanted to be an officer in the band. And we would go through these camps. And I did not get picked my sophomore year. I did not get picked my junior year. I finally got picked my senior year to be an officer.

And that really, that was one of my first leadership things. And in the meantime, I was practicing for my college scholarship. My sophomore year, my parents had sent me up to Yale for a saxophone workshop with Sigurd Rascher, who is known as basically he's a virtuoso. All the literature, classical saxophone literature, there is actually such thing as classical saxophone. There actually is, have, there are symphonies and concertos and things that use classical saxophone. It's not a lot, but it is a thing.

and all the repertoire was written for him. I went to Yale, went to this workshop, and then I met the professor, ex -primary professor down at University of Southern Mississippi. And we became friends through the years, and then I ended up trying out for a scholarship at University of Southern Mississippi. I got a music scholarship to go there, and that's how I ended up going to Mississippi. then, so fast forward to college.

My freshman year in Mississippi, I won the Mississippi Music Teachers Concerto Competition for my division level. I played the Glazunov Concerto. And then I met my kid's mom there. And then we moved to Georgia State. And we stayed there for a year and then got a scholarship to Georgia State, music scholarship, and finished up my bachelor's at Georgia State. So that's kind of my journey through college. I got a chance to do a lot

Jordan Mendoza (08:54.27)
Yeah, that's great.

Jamie Parker (08:56.632)
lot of good things, even in college, played in the Wind Ensemble, was first chair there. I got lot of great opportunities to play in jazz band, played at Realtor Theater downtown, because I went to Georgia State. So lots of great experiences. And then I got my first job after I graduated teaching for DeKalb County Schools, teaching at orchestra.

Jordan Mendoza (09:12.139)
Very cool. Well, I think a lot of people can relate to, you know, elementary and middle school, right? I mean, there's, you know, there's going to be bullies, there's going to be things going on. For me, you know, I was, I was short too, but I was also, we were really poor. like secondhand clothes and shoes falling apart. So I would get made up for stuff like that, you know, but, know, those things happen, unfortunately, but they kind of help shape and mold us and...

Jamie Parker (09:19.118)
Yeah.

Jordan Mendoza (09:38.859)
build up some character and they also show us what our values are. And I'm sure as those things were happening, you just kind of had to set yourself on some firm foundations and just keep plugging away. And you mentioned mentors and you mentioned your teacher that really invested in you and kind of showed you what personal development was. So how impactful would you say that that's been for

Jamie Parker (09:44.195)
Exactly.

Jordan Mendoza (10:07.265)
career to this day, having someone at an early age invest in you and show you that there's other possibilities out

Jamie Parker (10:18.33)
It's been invaluable. I mean, I was just doing a speech yesterday at our Toastmasters group and the topic of the speech was, who are you a protege of? And of course, I listed three people, Jesus, then him, and then there's another lady, April Consulo. When you just think about, I think about the lessons that I've learned, I think about the lessons that I've learned throughout.

throughout my high school career. So one of the things that Mr. Gribble that always stood out to me is if you're on time, you're

And during rehearsal, we'd be outside marching band to be hot as all get out. And for those who don't know marching band, you have like, each show is made up of sets and then you put all the sets together to create the show. So you would rehearse a set, then rehearse it, then go back to your original spot. would rehearse a set, go back to your original spot. And so we would have to run between sets and it was unacceptable to walk or rest between sets. And keep in mind, this is Georgia, it's hot out.

And I never, we were all just, of course we were all just mumbling and complaining and there, you know, no one was really happy about having to do that. One day he's like, okay, you don't like it? No problem. I'm going to give you guys some time off, but here's the deal. You get off, but you have to go to one of the surrounding schools and I want you to watch their rehearsal. And then I want you to take a watch and time how much time they waste by not running back and forth between sets.

And so sure, I went to the neighboring high school, competing high school, and they had a two hour rehearsal and 30 minutes was wasted because they walked and chatted and chit chatted and dilly dallyed going between sets. So they literally lost, they literally lost 30 minutes of rehearsal time just by doing that. And so it was a great lesson is I didn't understand why at the time we had to do this because it was a pain in the butt. You're tired, you're sweaty, you're thirsty. You really just want to talk to your friends.

Jamie Parker (12:22.756)
but it was a discipline to be excellent. In order to be excellent, we had to maximize, we had two hours to rehearse, and we had to get as much done during those two hours as we possibly could, because time is the only thing in life we can't get back. That's another thing. That showed me time, can't get that time back. So whatever we're doing, this time I'm spending with you, Jordan, this time I spend with my children, this time you're gonna spend with your children. know, when Kai, if he ever gets off of

If he ever gets off a fortnight today, maybe he'll actually acknowledge you. Now you're like, no, he's not going to. But that's, that's the things that we don't, we don't get back. So I learned, I learned discipline. You're just too stood still. Like when you, if you weren't on the set, he would, if they called you to attention, guess what? Attention was attention as like military. And I'm not a joke. Like you had to, you had to stay still, perfectly still. If you had an itch on your face, it didn't matter.

Jordan Mendoza (12:53.985)
Probably not.

Jordan Mendoza (12:59.361)
Yeah.

Jamie Parker (13:21.21)
You just had to keep going. You just had to keep rolling. so those are just some really, I don't want to say it was like military over there, wasn't anything close to military, but there were some military type things that create a discipline in us that I still use today. I'll be at the gym and they're like, okay, you're halfway through. And I was like, man, I can do anything for 15 seconds. I can do anything for 10 seconds. Yeah, it hurts. My abs hurt, my legs hurt, it hurts.

Jordan Mendoza (13:46.741)
Yep.

Jamie Parker (13:51.45)
I can do anything for 10 seconds or 15. can push through. Those are just, I really believe some of that discipline came back through there, through what happened in high school. And then the other thing too is to overcome. was a sopping 67 pounds when I got to high school. Like 67 pounds and not even anywhere close to five feet tall. And I looked like I was in elementary school when I got to high school. So.

Jordan Mendoza (13:55.339)
Yep. Yep.

Jamie Parker (14:18.4)
I had to overcome all of those things. I didn't grow until my junior year. So I was literally a shrimp. I'd always been a shrimp, but I was real shrimp, especially in high school. Had to hang around. Fortunately, I was able to hang around some athletes and some other things that were in band, and they kind of looked out for me if anybody was picking on me. I just had to go tap a shoulder. Hey, he's bothering me. well, we'll take care of

you know, that kind of thing. There was one guy that was like 6 '6", 6 '5", on the baseball team. All I had to do was like, Andy, go take care of this. And he would just, he would make sure he taken care of. was one of the biggest, tallest kids in the school. you know, you had to overcome just so many things along the way. But what I learned from Mr. Gribble is discipline and excellence, excellence. You had to do it excellently.

Jordan Mendoza (14:46.207)
Yeah.

Jamie Parker (15:12.772)
So many of the groups, schools around us, they were good, but they weren't excellent. They were good, good programs, but they weren't excellent. They weren't exceptional. And there was a different thing that you had to do in order to become exceptional. You had to take it to that next level. You had to run between the sets. You had to spend the extra time playing musically, learning how to play musically. It wasn't just about being loud. I mean, anybody can go out and blast and be loud.

but musically where you could actually hear the woodwinds, the flutes, the clarinets, the saxophones. It wasn't just didn't sound like trumpets and trombones playing the whole time and drums. just lots of things that we can take away because we don't sometimes pay attention to the little nuances in our lives. There's so many little things that we need to pay attention to that somebody's paying attention to and that's why they are where they

Jordan Mendoza (16:01.751)
Yeah.

Jordan Mendoza (16:09.773)
100%. Yeah, no, that's great. Great lessons and, you know, definitely things to, for other people to put into perspective that might listen to this and they might think back to experiences that they had and see, okay, how do I extract this? Because like you said, when it's hot and you're a teenager, like, of course you don't want to do it, you know? But when you have somebody and that he probably is somebody that, you know, inspects what he expected, right? So he was...

Jamie Parker (16:25.806)
Mm -hmm. No.

Jamie Parker (16:34.92)
Mm

Jordan Mendoza (16:36.055)
tell you something, but he was making sure it was actually done. And if it wasn't, you had to do it over again, right? And there's something about reps, right? When we put in reps, whether it's reps on the field for band or it's reps in the gym or it's reps at whatever it is that you want to excel at, those reps, each time you do one, you're getting better every single time and it's becoming ingrained as part of your process. And I can imagine that those reps

are what really helped you, especially going out and getting your first job. You had this foundation that you were taught of what excellence and what greatness look like. And so you want to try to live up to that. So I'd love for you to share what was that first job that you got after graduating at Georgia State.

Jamie Parker (17:23.684)
Yes, so my first job was teaching for DeKalb County Schools and I taught in multiple different schools. I was the roaming orchestra teacher, so to speak. And they had the between, I think, anywhere from five to six schools at any given time. Of course, I had a home school and then I had other schools I would report to. The interesting thing is, of course, this would never happen today. But the interesting thing is that orchestra was a pullout class, so they missed social studies or science.

in order to take orchestra with me. So you can imagine how thrilled the principals were to have me there, because, you know, of course they get test scores on, they get standardized test scores on social studies and science, not on orchestra. I had to teach in the cafeteria during lunch. I taught in janitor's closets. And I'm not really joking, I'm really serious. This is where I taught. I would have to teach in classrooms and reset the classrooms

Jordan Mendoza (18:10.21)
Yep.

Jamie Parker (18:24.858)
I was told by one of the principals, just do what the band director does it, because he had been there for like forever. So I did what the band director does. you know, my first year I was done at 1130 every day. Like, because nobody wanted me, like nobody really wanted me to be there to teach their kids. I was like, oh my gosh, this is just so not what I'm used to. It was the opposite of teaching and it's not excellent. It's not doing things.

Jordan Mendoza (18:46.557)
It's the opposite of teaching. You were basically seeing mediocrity. You were used to excellence. I'm sure that created a disconnect. So was below that.

Jamie Parker (18:54.904)
the way I was taught to do things.

like, yeah, it wasn't just mediocrity, dude. was, it was, yeah. I mean, I think the school, one of the schools I was at literally their Iowa test scores were in the 19th percentile. 19th. And it was just, I remember my first was by first week at one of the schools and this teacher pulls me in this little, she's like in her mid fifties and she's like, Hey, look at this letter.

I was like, okay. And it was a girl that wrote a letter to a boy and it was pretty much X rated. And I was like, my goodness. Like seventh grade kids are like writing stuff like this. And you know, I was like, my goodness. It was just a total. They didn't, I hate to say it, but Georgia state didn't prepare you for that. They didn't prepare you for a non -ideal situation. didn't prepare you

what teaching in a true Title I school was. They didn't teach you any of that. taught, I did my student teaching at Roswell High School, which is a great, very, very upper end, very high performing school. And I went to a high performing school growing up and went to Georgia State, which was a good music program. I didn't, you know, to go to a spot that didn't have that same kind of expectations. Yeah.

Jordan Mendoza (20:16.823)
culture shock, mean, literally culture shock in your own in your own city, which is crazy to think

Jamie Parker (20:22.572)
Yeah. Yeah. It was just basically survival is really what it was. They weren't teaching. They were surviving. They were just trying to survive the kids because the kids didn't have any home training. They didn't have the background knowledge. They knew we had kindergarten kids that didn't know how to even know their ABCs coming into kindergarten. But yet you have the expectation was that that's what they're supposed to know. They're supposed to know their ABCs are supposed to have certain, certain things. I mean, you think about your own kids, have young ones and you think about what they know. You know, they know by the time they, before they ever hit.

Jordan Mendoza (20:48.481)
Yep.

Jamie Parker (20:52.346)
pre -k, they already knew quite a bit of stuff because you guys taught it to

Jordan Mendoza (20:55.117)
Well, we have five. So our kids, they get smart by like one, you know, around here because they see so many other examples of, yep, exactly. They pay attention. And so, our four year old is the smartest kid in the house, right? Because he just, learns from everybody, watches everybody, parrots everybody. So he just kind of knows it all and runs the place. Right. So, so yeah, I couldn't imagine if you're basically climbing an uphill battle essentially, right? Every day

Jamie Parker (20:59.864)
Yeah, yeah, they just have to pay attention to the more above

Jordan Mendoza (21:22.871)
you're going against the grain versus with the grain. And so when did the transition happen where you got out of that type of environment where you're basically a floater, when nobody wants you, right? Like you're just floating around and basically either getting put into tumultuous circumstances or less than ideal situations. When did you say, enough's enough. Like I need to go into a different environment here.

Jamie Parker (21:50.93)
I decided to, I was only there for a few months, and I decided to go back to school and did my masters because again, I was done at 1130 every day. What was I gonna do? And I want you to think about this. This was like 1998. That part of DeKalb County had no computers, no offices. Now, I had friends that were teaching at Gwinnett that had Lotus Notes, IBM computers, their own personal offices, their own, you know, they had.

money that was coming to them to fix instruments and stuff like that. We had nothing. I can you imagine, I hate to say it, but no email in 1998? There was no email. We had no way to communicate, no way to do anything. So literally, I was like, well, if they're not gonna give me any of that, I'm just gonna go back and get my degree. And so there was a cohort that was starting at University of Georgia that they were gonna come to Gwinnett. They were gonna, so I just signed up for the cohort.

and started doing my master's in educational leadership. I wanted to be a principal, that was my, or an assistant principal, that was my goal. And so one of those schools, you know, did have a principal that kind of invested in me and would let me do the, got to be on the paper for performance things that she did. She would give me some various administrative tasks, because I was bored out of my mind, just to be perfectly honest with you. was, know, if I wasn't doing my master's work, I literally had no place to go. Finally, she was nice enough to give me a trailer.

So at least I had a trailer. There's nothing in it, but at least I had a trailer. At least I had a trailer with some chairs and I could go sit there and do my work. I do my coursework. So while I was doing my master's degree, was in my school law program and I met an assistant principal at one of the Gwinnett schools. And I'd heard through the grapevine that there was a position open at that school. And I approached him about it in class. And he's like, we do have that position open? I was like, oops.

He didn't even know there was gonna be a position or he didn't know that the teacher was gonna leave But I had heard that she was so Back back at that time they were trying to get you to sign your contracts really early because they were trying to keep teachers from leaving to cab and So they hurried up and interviewed me and hired me be like literally I Don't think it was barely 24 hours or 36 hours before the contract. I had to have my contract turned in for the cab So I got I got hired on a guanette

Jamie Parker (24:14.65)
way different experience. had my own room. I had instruments. I had a budget. I like a $10 ,000 a year repair budget. had, it was like, oh my gosh, I felt like I died and gone to heaven. You know, we was like such a different, such a different experience. And it wasn't, and I wasn't at a high performing school in Gwinnett either. Like it was a higher performing school. was still a title one school, but it was, you know, there's, is that really low level title one. And this was kind of like a mid level. So it was definitely a, definitely a step

Jordan Mendoza (24:26.609)
Like this is what I thought it was going to be like when I was started.

Jamie Parker (24:44.918)
And I had some amazing kids over there. So I remember my first year I had this, I had this one girl and she, her, and there was another boy that was in the class. They ended up getting married. They met in my class, ended up getting married. Now he is the, he is the pharmacist at Sam's club that I go see. And then she's an optometrist and yeah, I brought my kids to see her. So it's kind of funny how things come, how things come full circle. But I had a good experience over there

Jordan Mendoza (25:11.543)
Absolutely.

Jamie Parker (25:14.67)
That was definitely much better, much higher expectations when it has a higher standard of what they expected from their staff and what they also expected from their students, even if it was a Title I school.

Jordan Mendoza (25:30.231)
God, that's great. So at what point in this career, so now you're in Gounette, you got better circumstances, a budget, better situations, at what point did you decide to start doing real estate? What was it that stuck out about it or was there someone in your influence that said, maybe this is something you should try? Because I'd love to kind of know how it all started.

Jamie Parker (25:54.714)
Sure, so we bought our third house in 2005. So I bought my first house when I was 22, and then four years later sold it and then sold that house. And I bought my house in 2005. So when I got that house, a couple things were going on at that time. I had seen how much money he made when he sold us that house.

man, I'm gonna work for three months and all you do is stick me in the back of your car and take me to go see Houses. And that doesn't seem very hard. And you made like, literally, made like $10 ,000 in one shot. And I'd never seen a $10 ,000 check before Jordan. Like I'm a school teacher, I $3 ,000. I wasn't even barely getting $3 ,000 a month, let alone $10 ,000 check at one time. So that was the first thing. And then the other thing is that I was in a church class.

It was it was a diet was called dynamic marriages and At the time I was so married to the kids mom and you know one of the things that They talked to us about is like husbands if you don't make enough money for your wives to stay home Then you may want to think about doing something else and some of you're like, huh? That's so old -school. That's so old -fashioned. Why would they say that and whatever? But it did get me I didn't like quit but I just added on I didn't add on so

since I had alluded earlier that I'd always done some side hustles. So I just started real estate as my side hustle. My daughter was born in 2006. She's our miracle child. We were not supposed to be able to have kids. And we ended up now, we have her in 2006 and 27 months later, we had another one that popped along. And so while she was still crawling on the floor and in diapers, I was studying online to get my real estate license, which can only imagine what

online learning was like in like 2006. It was so boring. However, I did. Yeah. You know, talking about it was this, it's like, like a PowerPoint slide is very basic. Got my real estate license in February, 2007. And at that point I was at a different school and one at, and yeah, just started. Like I said, I already kind of alluded to it with my first sale a little bit earlier. I was playing a gig and sold them one of the musicians

Jordan Mendoza (27:53.141)
Yeah, I remember what it was like.

Jamie Parker (28:17.838)
Then my next sale, it was one of the teachers at the school. And then he referred me to somebody else who referred me to somebody else who referred me to somebody else. In I just talked to one of the somebody else's two days ago. So we're still in contact, we're still in

Jordan Mendoza (28:32.109)
Yep. So you were getting closer to that first $10 ,000 check, it sounds like, with all those referrals, right?

Jamie Parker (28:37.85)
Oh yeah, yeah, we're getting closer. However, what happened is it was like 2008. That's what happened. 2008 happened. So I got my license in 07 and 08 and we were just so, so blessed. Just a couple of as an aside. So when we moved to our third house, we'd actually were renting out our other house. This is what caused a lot of this bubble. We were fine. We did it right, but a lot of people

Jordan Mendoza (28:46.194)
Yep. Yep. The market happened.

Jamie Parker (29:06.202)
So we rented out the previous house and that they did not count it against your debt to income ratio, which was super risky for the banks. Oh, I have a lease here it is. Okay, we're gonna go. Okay, it doesn't count. It doesn't count against you anymore. You got a lease. I mean, we have had no payments been made on that lease. They don't know if it's gonna be a good tenant or not, but they were like, oh yeah, you could just go and we'll give you 100 % financing on your next house.

That's exactly what we did. We used a hundred. It was an 80 10 10 loan. We said we would do those anymore. It was an 80 10 10 loan. We went ahead and got a hundred percent financing on our next house, rented out our first house. And of course, first month they were late on the rent. First month. So we just moved into a bigger house with a more expensive mortgage. And now I'm paying a mortgage there and a mortgage there.

Fast forward a couple years, we ended up selling that house one month before the market crashed. So that house closed in August of 2008. In September of 2008, Lehman Brothers crashed and that's what caused everything. Literally, if we'd sold that house in September, it would have been worth half of what it was worth back when they sold it. Those people were still in the house, but it's taken them, they didn't really catch their value back up to about, it was probably five years ago, it finally caught back up to where.

Jordan Mendoza (30:12.983)
Yeah.

Jordan Mendoza (30:23.981)
sure. And now it's probably going up a ton right now.

Jamie Parker (30:25.092)
to what they actually paid for the house. Yeah, now it's gone up a lot, but it's taken them a long time. So that's what got me into real estate is really those two things. And just really just being able to see that I could have a better life for my family and a better life for my kids and give us opportunities to do things that we wouldn't normally get a chance to do.

Jordan Mendoza (30:46.007)
Yeah. Yeah. And I think, you

Yeah, of course. And I love the journey and the determination and starting it as a side hustle and turning it into the main hustle, is awesome. It's kind of what I did with what I'm doing now. And I think that'll resonate with a lot of our listeners that might be in this spot. There might be someone that's a school teacher that's trying to start that side hustle or trying to maybe do real estate on the side. So I'd love for you to share just what would some

maybe three initial tips. Like someone has this seed, maybe it's they're listening to this episode right now, they're hearing the sound of my voice and they just heard the sound of yours and they're saying, I've just thought about getting this real estate license and just imagine that they put in the energy and effort to get the license. What would you say the first three things they should do to really start to build up some momentum for that new business?

Jamie Parker (31:46.33)
Thing number one is they need to talk to the people that are their sphere of influence. People are so afraid that they're not going to be used because they don't have any experience.

Jamie Parker (31:58.936)
when you get your license, you're part of a company. You pick a brokerage that you wanna go with. I'm with EXP. And I'll give your listeners a script. If you're a brand new agent, here it is. Or if you're not a brand new agent, and you're thinking about wanting to be an agent, here it is. Ring, ring, ring, ring. Go ahead and answer, Jordan.

Jordan Mendoza (32:21.25)
Hello.

Jamie Parker (32:22.808)
Hey Jordan, this is Jamie. How you doing, brother?

Jordan Mendoza (32:25.707)
I'm good man, how you been?

Jamie Parker (32:27.386)
I've been amazing. Listen, I've got some big news for you. I just joined one of the most successful real estate teams in the entire Metro Atlanta area and I'm so excited that we are accepting new clients. Do you know anybody who's thinking about buying a house in next 90 days that you could refer to us?

Jordan Mendoza (32:47.797)
Yeah, actually, we're looking at about a year, so I might not be the best fit now, but you can start helping us research, I think. And I actually might know a people. Yeah, you mind if I text you some numbers in the next few days?

Jamie Parker (32:51.214)
Yeah. Perfect.

Jamie Parker (33:01.206)
Absolutely. I'm looking forward to it unless I really appreciate all your help Jordan. You have a blessed day. Okay, it's really, so there's starting point number one. Starting point number two is don't be a secret agent. You've got to go on your social media and put it out on your, so even if you don't like Facebook, Instagram, whatever, you've got to put it out there, what you do, and you got to post meaningful contact. That's what's been, I'll give you a plug, that's what's been really great about.

Jordan Mendoza (33:06.05)
You too.

Jamie Parker (33:30.554)
your coaching is you've helped me really create some more meaningful content. You know, that really shows giving me some tools and things that I've been able to implement to create more meaningful content. Because I just closed the deal not too long ago. And literally, I mean, I've known this person for like 10 or 11 years, but they reached out to me just, I won't say randomly, but they said, oh yeah, we've been following you on social media. We see what you're

Jordan Mendoza (33:57.867)
Yeah, there we go.

Jamie Parker (33:58.33)
And that's how I closed an $820 ,000 house. That's really good commission, by the way.

Jordan Mendoza (34:03.603)
Yep, that's big, man. No, I bet. And here's the thing. I was just on a podcast as a guest right before this interview with you. And that was one of the things that we talked about is there are people that are lurkers. And lurkers are not bad. They're just people that maybe they're more introverted. Maybe they still want to put themselves out there with a comment or a like, but they are paying attention to your every move. And Jamie just

showed you that if you're consistent and you're showing up, even though it may have taken him 10 or 11 years, that is a major payoff. we're looking at almost a million dollar home. And you do the math, folks, if you don't know what commission is. Look up commission for real estate agents in your city, in your state, and attach it to that price point. And you'll see that that was a worthy investment of him showing

day in and day out opening his mouth and talking about what he does.

Jamie Parker (35:06.18)
Yes, absolutely. And you should be posting the third thing or get kind of caught to be or to a is, you know, make sure you're posting something every day and it doesn't have to be real estate. I mean, real estate should be a good part of what you post, but it could be it could be a motivational quote. People also want to get to know who you are as a person. So when people talk to me, they see the kind of dad I am and I'm a single dad. They see the kind of dad I am. They see the kind of parent I

I post pictures with me my kids. I post things of things that we're doing and how I'm supporting them. And guess people want to know that there's more to me than just being a successful real estate agent. I mean, there are a lot of people that can sell stuff, right? But it's that who you are as a person and integrity of who you are. And that's what the social media allows people to see. So that's very important. If you don't have a lot of real estate stuff to post, post stuff about your life, about your family.

Because guess what? If you really want to sell houses, people work with who they know like love and trust. And if they don't know you, they're not going to use

Jordan Mendoza (36:15.167)
Yep. Yeah, I love it. Yeah, great advice. you know, the biggest thing, biggest takeaway that I heard was don't be afraid to ask, right? Don't be afraid to ask people that you know, because people get excited. Everyone that listens to this episode has had a new something in their life. And whenever you have that new something, a new job, a new degree, a new certification, a new something, people are going to support you. Why? Because

when they have that new thing that come up in their life, they're gonna hope that you would support them too, right? And so don't be afraid to ask people. The second thing was put yourself out there. Don't be afraid to post content. And I love that you said that it doesn't have to be about real estate, right? This could be personal stories. This could be motivational stuff because again, people are going to see you and how you show up in every interaction that you do.

And if it's consistent and it aligns with their values and the way that they want to operate in their world, then guess what? He's going to be the one that they call. You're going to be the one that they call. Okay. So really, really great advice. And, and, know, there's going to be people that listen to this and, know, maybe they're in in a season in life where they've built up some equity. they're in Gwinnett County and they listen to this, we know Gwinnett County is, there's been some major equity increases over the last seven years. mean,

most properties have doubled or more. And so if there are folks out there, whether they have a home that maybe they're thinking about selling, or maybe they're wanting to buy that first home for them, we're the best ways for people to reach out to

Jamie Parker (37:55.972)
Yeah, well, lots of different mediums to reach out to me, but first and foremost is my cell phone number. So I would give my cell phone number. That would be secret number three is pick up your phone. Like actually answer your phone or answer texts. If you call me, you're probably gonna get a text back. If I can't talk right now, you're gonna get a text almost immediately that says, I'll call you back. That way I'm acknowledging your call.

I'm acknowledging, I've heard you, I see you, you're on my radar, I'm talking to somebody else right now, and I can't get to you, but you're on my radar. So pick up your phone. So my cell phone is 404 -483 -7816. So that is the easiest way to get in touch with me, either call or text. I will actually pick up the phone or respond, actually, even if you leave a voicemail, yes, a voicemail, will actually call.

I actually do check my voicemails and I actually do call people back if they leave a voicemail. I know a lot of people don't, but I do check through my voicemails. I cannot tell you how much business has been left in my voicemails and most agents, most people in general, they'll check their voicemails and especially real estate agents. Real estate agents are notorious for not answering their phones or answering texts. And you know, guys, we all have enough time to do

We all have enough time to answer the phone, answer the texts. Think of how much time you spend doing certain things throughout the day where you actually have dead time, where you're stuck in one spot. You hit a red light. Guess what? You can send a text. You can respond to a text. You can voice text. Hey, hey Jordan. You know, I just wanted to check to see how your wife's doing. know she's, you you know what mean? I just, you're thinking about them. You're sending it, you're sending it message. So that would

The easiest way to get in touch with me, 444 -837816. If you want to see me on my socials, you can look at Facebook slash rockinagent or Instagram, Jamie Parker Realtor. And that's literally spelled out Jamie J M I E Parker P A R K E R Realtor R E A L T R T O R. You can find me there, of course, on TikTok, on clapper. Yeah, I'm pretty much out there. If you pretty much just look my name, Jamie Parker Realtor, you should be able

Jamie Parker (40:17.092)
You should be able to stalk me, so to speak.

Jordan Mendoza (40:20.421)
Perfect. Well, hey, Jamie, I know that the content in this episode is going to add value to a ton of people. There's going to be people that either see themselves, see themselves in your story or maybe resonate with some of the things that you said. So I just appreciate you taking the time out of your schedule to come on the show. Folks, I don't know if you knew this, but we are literally speaking with an HDTV star who's been on a couple of different episodes. And he

one of the top producers at EXP Realty Real Estate, Jamie Parker. Thanks so much for coming on the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast, my friend, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day.

Jamie Parker (41:00.686)
All right, thank you, Jordan. I appreciate