Agents Unfiltered Update - Life & Business | Episode 32

Fires, office renovations, and more. We are back from our 9 month hiatus!!

Agents Unfiltered is back!

In this episode Cassie, Ali, and Danielle share business and life updates. From having a new office, to now working with rental properties, and Ali buying a house, there has been so much that has happened since the last episode. 

The agents will be back next week with real estate episodes!

Do you have a particular topic you want us to discuss? Reach out on Instagram @agentsunfiltered

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•Post a screenshot to your IG Story and tag us @agentsunfiltered

Do you have a particular topic you want us to discuss? Reach out on Instagram @agentsunfiltered

If you enjoyed today's episode:

• Leave a positive review or rating

• Post a screenshot to your IG Story and tag us @agentsunfiltered

Transcript

D: Hey, you guys, it has been a while. It's been a hot minute. We are excited to finally be back at it. Yeah. Haven't seen you guys in so long. We never see each other anymore. It has been forever! Allie may or may not be living with one of us.

A: We have a lot to get you guys up on. It has been the craziest year. So much has happened.So we need to go around and catch up. 

C: Where did we leave off? Like what? I mean, have we finished the office yet?

D: I don't think we finished.

C: No, we had not. I think we kind of took a break from sabbatical when we started working on finishing our office, and we were here like every day working on it and I think that's when we just kind of peaced out.

D: We bought this beautiful office that used to be a bank and how it used to be beautiful. We had to demo, I can't even tell you how many hours were spent down here, demoing, painting, laying flooring, doing touch up, like so many blood, sweat and tears were put into this new space, and it is gorgeous.

A: The kind of vision you have to have to walk into what this was and think you could make it into

D: What it is now, like that is some optimism, but you get it optimistic. You are anything about me. You pulled it off. Well, we all knew we're like, it's going to work. It's fun. It was, but it was a long haul. 

C: it just was a time sucker. I mean, that was like such a busy season where real estate had to kind of take a pause so that we could. Finish it and get ready in time for a grand opening. The building is just like the perfect mixture of elegant and homey and warm and comfortable.

D: Someone walked in the other day, and I always, now that it's months past finishing the renovation, I'm like, but I'm always like, so touched. Like I, in my office, when I hear someone come in and they said to, I think Becca was up and running or whatever. Oh my gosh, this is so welcoming. And I was like, Oh, yes. It always makes me happy, but also glad we're past that. Yeah, we just have outside work to do now. So we're getting there. 

A: I have someone come in and say your office is bougie. Like it is the bougiest office I've been in. I'm like, you obviously haven't traveled far outside Spokane, but thank you. I mean, it is, it's gorgeous. I like it. 

A: Yeah, but that was fun. That was, that was, took up a lot of our spring. It was a huge portion.

D: And then I'm like, what happened? Summer's like a blink and it's gone. I don't even know. Fires. Oh, fire.

A: Oh, we almost got evacuated out here. We're next to Medical Lake. That was, that was so stressful. I got bit in the neck by my cat trying to gather. Cause I had five cats total in my house. One was my kid's cat at their dad's house, and I had an extra dog and my daughter's most favorite cat in the world. I was trying to get her, and she literally bit me in the neck and scratched me on the boob with her back claws. and I don't want to save you. I was bursting into tears. It was great. 

D: Yes, she walks out of her garage as we're like all scrambling around, and she looks like she'd been crying. Or were crying, maybe. Yeah. Gracie's crying, and I look up to her.

A: Like what?

C: That is so stressful, terrible. I remember I went to pack up my cats and I got Milo, and then he did, like, was hiding under my mattress.

Like a thing box spring and I couldn't get her, and I was like almost in tears because it's such a stressful situation trying to like pack out and then I'm like, I'm trying to save your life. Like, please let me save your life. And I just said, fuck it. And I left her. I was like, if you die, you die. Like I tried.

D: If you don't type about one of our cats. I could not catch her. Yeah. I, I don't know what I'm, I can tell you, like, what do I do? Stay stuck here because I can be like, why did she pass away? Like, wasn't there warnings when she couldn't get her cat?

D: So she stayed like, no, it's not going to happen. The cat will hopefully save them. So we didn't know that night if we were going to be evacuated in the middle of the night. We didn't know if the wind would change because for a minute the fires were coming right for us. And then the wind shifted. So I put all four of the cats in a bathroom in my house so that if we were evacuated, I could then quickly access them.

I just was hearing the most insane noises and there was a rug in the litter box. They had pulled everything out from under the cupboard. They were climbing up the shower curtain and jumping across the bathroom. It was like a freaking freak show. And so I was like,  whatever, I'm letting you out. I can't sleep. If we get a fire, we'll just, it'll be fine. Yeah.

C: Oh my gosh. We didn't have to.

D: No, it was so devastating. It was so devastating. But we were all a little on edge for the next couple weeks. Yeah. Like any time the smoke picked up again. Well, and I remember after the fire was like done and gone and put out, um, which is so nice, but I had to take my daughter back to my husband's house.

I remember walking up to the front porch and it still smelled so smoky. And my daughter was just, like, so excited to be home and back at her dad's house. But then also, like, she could tell that something wasn't right. Like she was. My daughter was having a really hard time, and I'm like, Oh, it's a smoky smell.

She's like, it just smells bad out here. And I'm like, no, it's just a smoky smell, but the fact that she knew. Like, oh, that's why it smells bad. I hate it.

D: I know, we would get like two sunny days and the fire would be, like, 10% contained. And then we'd get one windy day, and it would flare up to, like, 30%. And you're like, are you kidding me? And I can't breathe outside. Yeah, it was so hard. I remember, yeah.

A: My daughter had a really hard time with it too, because we just built this beautiful outdoor space, and she could see it from the back of our house, and we were just getting ready to use it. Then all of a sudden it was all smoky, and she was like, are we ever going to be able to use it? Is it always going to be like this? Like, what's happening?

It's really hard to explain to a four-year-old, like, why everything's ruined, essentially.

D: Yeah. I don't know. There's still people that are coming in looking for, like, vacation homes. They've just decided that, like, the Seattle or Portland market, like Spokane's pretty cool. Maybe we'll just get a second home.

A: Yeah. Oh yeah. And there are people that are getting out of big cities for sure. I mean, there was, I don't know if it was one of our agents or someone in our office had a really good first-person experience with a buyer that literally was living in California, and I think he was from the LA area. And they bought a house in Colville or something like that, and they had no, like, they weren't really like rural buyers.

I guess they were just, like, shocked at how like when the electricity went out, that, like, it was just going to be out for a couple days. And it was just, like, the reality of, like, what they had bought and not understood what they had bought. And I think there's a lot of that going on right now.

D: Yeah. I mean, I'm not going to pretend that Spokane's like that. We were definitely not in LA. 

A: I think that was a big wake-up call for a lot of people who, in the beginning of the pandemic, had a lot of, like, fear about going back to the office and going back to the big city and started looking at different options, like, can I live in a different place?

Can I do my job from a different place? And now they're realizing, like, okay, I don't want to live in a small rural town where I have no access to anything. I want to have a good balance.

D: Yeah. We have this space, like, you don't have to give up all your creature comforts.

A: Yeah. I think Spokane is a great balance for that, because you do have access to a lot of the amenities, but you're also close to nature. You have outdoor activities. You have, like, a lot of that balance that people are looking for. It's been interesting to see that shift in the market and in people's priorities and what they're looking for in a home.

C: It is kind of cool because I think we have seen, like, a resurgence in Spokane's popularity. I mean, obviously, we're biased because we live here and we love it, but it is kind of neat to see more people discovering it and realizing, like, oh, this is actually a really cool place to live.

A: Yeah. It's getting its moment in the spotlight.

C: It really is. And I think that's cool.

D: Yeah. I think Spokane's going to be a lot like Colorado Springs. Like, it's not quite Denver, but it's not, like, super rural. So I think we're going to end up seeing, like, that little bit of an influx of population. I think the city will grow, but it won't, like, triple or quadruple in size. But I do think we're going to have a few more, like, national companies here. So I think there will be some more job opportunities. I think it's good for Spokane.

A: Absolutely. And I think, like, with the tech industry growing, you know, with people realizing they can work from anywhere, that opens up a lot of opportunities for Spokane as well.

C: Yeah. It's going to be interesting to see how it all plays out.

D: Yeah, well, I'm going to sell it like it is. Like, our market's not slowing down. Like, I don't care what people are saying about the market slowing down.

A: Yeah. I don't see it.

C: I think we'll see, like, maybe a little bit more of a balanced market, but I don't see, like, a major slowdown happening.

D: No. And we have low inventory. People are still buying houses. I think we're going to be in this for a while. So I'm not worried about it at all.

A: Yeah. So in the midst of all that chaos, we've still been working hard, selling homes, helping our clients, you know, navigate this crazy market.

D: And building our teams. We have a lot more people.

A: Yes. We've added a lot of talented agents to our teams.

C: We are actually fully staffed now. I feel like I can finally catch my breath and take a step back. I mean, obviously, I'm still working a lot, but we are finally fully staffed, which is amazing.

A: Yeah. That's a huge milestone. And we've also been working on a lot of exciting projects, you know, behind the scenes, some things that we're really excited to share with you guys in the future.

D: Yeah. We have some big plans for the next year, and we're really excited about it.

A: So stay tuned. Make sure you're subscribed to our podcast, because we're going to be updating you guys on all of that.

C: Yeah. It's been a wild ride, but we're excited for what's to come.

D: Thanks for hanging out with us today.

A: Yeah. It's good to be back.

C: Yeah. We'll see you next time.